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On Nov. 1, Linn Benton Food Shares warehouse in Tangent received two truckloads of food and household supplies arranged by the local branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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China has closed off a swath of ocean off its east coast for military activities, but has said little about what the exercises entail.

A notice from the government of the eastern port city of Lianyungang says a roughly 40,000-square- kilometer section of the Yellow Sea was off-limits to commercial shipping from Thursday through Saturday.

The notice sourced to the Peoples Liberation Army says only that large-

scale military activities are being held between Lianyungang in Jiangsu province and the Shandong province port of Qingdao that is home to the navys North Sea Fleet.

The exercises come days ahead of commemorations of the PLAs 90th anniversary, specifics of which have not yet been announced.

China has lately stepped- up navy exercises conducted further from home ports, including those involving its sole operating aircraft carrier and its battle group. On Thursday, the Chinese and Russian navies were wrapping up an initial set of drills in the Baltic Sea near St. Petersburg.

The eight-day Joint Sea 2017 exercises include the Chinese missile destroyer Hefei and missile frigate Yuncheng and were focused on joint rescue missions and ensuring maritime economic activities, Chinas official Xinhua News Agency reported. AP
A total of 78 enterprises have been recognized yesterday for their efforts in hiring people with disabilities during the seventh edition of the Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL)s program to recognize outstanding employers who are dedicated to hiring people with disabilities.

Compared to the programs previous edition, which occurred in 2015, nine more employers were honored last week. In total, the 78 awarded enterprises in Macau recruited 325 disabled staff, representing a 13 percent increase in the number noted in the sixth edition (amounting to 36 additional employees).

Not only can the efforts of local employers be inferred from the number of honored companies and the number of disabled staff, but they can also be inferred from the number of sectors in which employees with disabilities are represented, the bureau said.

In the previous edition, employees with disabilities were employed across 17 industries, but this number expanded to 22 over the last two years.

DSAL Director Wong Chi Hong noted that among all of the 325 disabled staff, 35 percent, 13 percent and 12 percent work in gaming and hospitality industries, governmental organizations, and the cleaning industry respectively.

As the disableds education degrees and techniques improve continuously, they are already able to undertake jobs in more sectors and undertake more types of jobs, said Wong. In the past, they mainly did basic-level tasks, but in recent years they have been sitting in more professional and multi-cultural positions.

The director of the Social Welfare Bureau, Vong Yim Mui, said that nowadays, regardless of the size of the enterprises, they are all very willing to accept disabled employees, [] the employment situation for the disabled is not bad currently.

Hopefully, they can be given more opportunities to be promoted, noted Vong.

According to Vong, the general public and employers within Macau are giving more opportunities to people with disabilities. Even though only some are currently being employed, there are more individuals with disabilities who would like employment. Vong also informed that IAS is providing significant and varied assistance to help people with disabilities to obtain employment.

Vong disclosed that the government has already established subsidies for employers to encourage them to hire people with disabilities.

The awards program was established in 2005 and is held every two years. The first edition awarded 35 enterprises which came from 17 industries. JZ
The 2017 Macao Franchise Expo (MFE), an annual event for the franchising industry, ended yesterday after attracting more than 140 international exhibitors.

During last years edition, the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) attracted 17,000 visitors and hosted 1,314 business negotiation sessions. This year, according to IPIM, it attracted about 24,000 visitors, including nearly 5,600 professional visitors. A total of 101 business matching sessions took place during the event.

However, the Times talked with some booth exhibitors who were not pleased with the attendance to the three-day event at The Venetian Macao. Some booths were already vacant yesterday afternoon, with some exhibitors preparing to pack their things.

Hong Kong-based Studio Fitness was among those that left the hall earlier. Its operations director, Jim Stephenson, said the platform was a good way to market the company in Macau and in the mainland market.

However, compared to other expos in which they have participated over the last two months, Stephenson described the MFE as a more quiet show.

Despite the slow foot traffic of the event, Stephenson believed that the expos visitors were keener on franchising the brand.

Compared to a few shows, its been a bit quieter. Theres not as much foot traffic but of the foot traffic, theyve been more qualified, he told the Times.

Theyre a bit more serious and not just here to grab flyers and run away. Its [this show] more of quality, but not much quantity, Stephenson added.

He said a similar expo in Manila had been much busier, as they had engaged clients throughout the day. In the Macau exhibition, they saw one almost every hour.

Its quite a big difference, so well probably focus our efforts more on other shows, he said. We would expect more people next time. If there arent more people in the next show, not sure if [well] come again.

The MFE promotes franchises and retail business collaborations through exhibitions, forums, business-matching sessions and promotional seminars.

International companies like Subway view the platform as a gateway to the Macau market.

Subways Field and Development Operations for Hong Kong and Macau, Michael Kyprianou, said the fast-food firm aims to open at least 10 stores in Macau, and that the expo is a regional platform to find new investors and franchising partners.

Questioned by the Times if the expo met their expectations in terms of foot traffic, Kyprianou said there were a lot of leads which they can follow up on.

He also revealed that there were businessmen from local casinos that are interested in the franchise.

Kyprianou stated that Subway had received several enquiries from the mainland market and had referred these to their mainland agency.

Well be back. Macaus an important market for Subway, he said, when asked whether he would participate in the 2018 MFE.

For the final day of the MFE, a Start-up Launchpad event was held for successful businesspeople to share their experiences with the audience, providing a learning opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs or those looking to expand their business.

In a session titled Road to Michelin Brand  Sharing by Leis Cuisine, the managing director of Leis cuisine, Lei Kai Tsao shared the story behind the success of his Michelin-starred restaurant.

According to him, a number of restaurants in Macau started as family businesses and have struggled to keep up with todays culinary trends.

Lei told the press that Macaus food and beverage industry is continuously improving its quality and developing new offerings for its customers.

When asked how local restaurants are helping the government achieve its aim of becoming a UNESCO city for gastronomy, Lei noted that a number of operators are supporting the governments goal by sending chefs overseas for training.

Were having training centers [] so well try to have more trained chefs and will send chefs overseas [to gain] experience to contribute to Macau, he said.

Another highlight was the Gourmet Avenue, which promoted local food and beverage products to help manufacturers expand their businesses abroad.

2017 GMBPF adds new exhibition and sales area

The Guangdong & Macau Brand Products Fair (GMBPF) was also held alongside the 2017 MFE, assembling products from Guangdong, Indonesia, Macau, and Myanmar. This year, the new Myanmar Products Exhibition & Sales Area has infused the event with more diverse elements, according to the organizers.

Some 135 enterprises from Guangdong province exhibited foodstuff, daily goods, household appliances, souvenirs and other products across 194 booths.

IPIM said some featured products from last years edition listed in categories such as China Top Brand Products, China Well-known Trademark and Guangdong Top Brand Products.

IPIM stated that some exhibitors said both sales and visitor numbers at the GMBPF surpassed expectations, and they expected final sales to soar yesterday.

A series of programs and games were held in Station Avenue, such as the Sweet Carousel, Macaron Ferris Wheel and the Mystic Egg.
An attack in the northern city of Hamburg thrust Chancellor Angela Merkels refugee policy into the spotlight less than two months before Germany goes to the polls.

Police were aware that the man suspected of a stabbing spree on Friday had shown of signs Islamic radicalization, Hamburgs interior minister, Andy Grote, said in a press conference on Saturday. The attack in a supermarket in the Barmbek district left one man dead and six injured before bystanders overpowered the attacker.

The 26-year-old suspect is a Palestinian citizen whose request for refugee status had been declined. He had been ordered out of the country but lacked the necessary documents to travel, Grote said, adding that a few hours before the attack the man had inquired whether his documents were ready. The suspect, who had shown signs of mental instability, is now in police custody.

I grieve for the victim of the cruel attack in Hamburg, and I am deeply sympathetic to his relatives. I wish the wounded to recover from their physical and mental wounds, Merkel said in a statement on Saturday afternoon. The act of violence must and will be clarified.

While authorities said they are still unsure of the motives of the attacker, the episode could damage Merkels September re-election bid, which is based in part on ensuring public safety. The anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party was quick to react.

After Barmbek, Merkels Christian Democratic Union party has lost any credibility on internal security and should stop campaigning on the issue, AfDs deputy speaker, Beatrix Von Storch, said on Twitter.

Before the attack, support for Merkel, who is seeking a fourth term in the Sept. 24 federal election, was at the highest level since the peak of the refugee crisis nearly two years ago. An Infratest dimap poll for ARD television showed Friday that her CDU-led bloc had 40 percent support, widening the lead over her Social Democrat challengers to 17 percentage points. AfD polled third at 9 percent, after rising to as much as 15 percent when immigrant arrivals to Germany dominated headlines.

Merkels main challenger in the election, Social Democrat leader Martin Schulz, expressed his shock at the attack and offered his deepest sympathy for the victims and their families in a tweet on Saturday morning. Schulz has also made immigration a theme of his campaign, traveling to Italy this past week to witness first-hand the situation in a country where many asylum seekers first arrive in Europe.

We must take into account that the jihadist ideology is used as reason or justification for acts that are perhaps committed for quite different motives, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, a member of the CDU party, said in a statement. The real motives can then also lie in the personality of the attacker.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, Hamburgs Social Democrat mayor called for swifter deportations for failed refugees.

What makes me especially angry is that the offender is apparently someone who claimed protection by us here in Germany and then directed his hate against us, Hamburg Mayor Olaf Scholz said in a Facebook post. This shows all the more urgently that these legal and practical obstacles must be cleared away during the deportation process. These perpetrators are anxious to poison our society. They will fail.

Hamburgs incident is reminiscent of an attack in December at a Berlin Christmas market where the perpetrator, from Tunisia, killed 12 people. In that case, the mans asylum application had been rejected but he hadnt been deported because he lacked a passport. The Berlin incident was the last  and most deadly  in a series of assaults involving refugees that shook Germany last year in the wake of an influx of 1 million asylum seekers into the country in 2015.

The incidents soured the German public and led Merkel last summer to vow tougher action on deporting people who shouldnt be in the country after her party suffered setbacks in two state elections. With no deadly attacks involving asylum seekers this year until Fridays Hamburg knifing, Merkels Christian Democratic Union has rebounded in the polls and won three straight state votes.

A witness to Fridays assault told Deutsche Presse Agentur that the man shouted as he held up the knife, Allahu Akbar, Arabic for God is greatest. Police searched a refugee shelter where the attacker lived, the news agency reported on Saturday. Alessandro Speciale, Chad Thomas, Bloomberg
A Macau billionaire who wanted to build a United Nations center in Macau was convicted on Friday [Macau time] of paying more than USD1.7 million in bribes to U.N. ambassadors to get it done.

The verdict was returned after a day of deliberations in Manhattan federal court against Ng Lap Seng, one of Chinas richest men. Ng was convicted of bribery, conspiracy and money laundering charges.

Prosecutors presented evidence that Ng from 2010 to 2015 bribed two U.N. ambassadors, including a U.N. General Assembly president, paying one $50,000 monthly at the schemes peak to create a center to serve struggling Southern Hemisphere nations.

Defense lawyers contended the payments were ordinary. But the center was never built. Ng looked at jurors as the verdict was announced but otherwise did not display emotion.

U.S. District Judge Vernon S. Broderick tightened Ngs bail conditions, saying he was now literally under house arrest, confined under $50 million bail to a luxury Manhattan apartment where he has remained for most months under 24-hour guard since his September 2015 arrest.

He cannot leave that apartment. No ifs, ands or buts about that, the judge said.

No sentencing date was set. Ng, 69, could face up to 65 years in prison.

Ngs lawyer, Tai Park, did not immediately comment. After the verdict, he told the judge there were multiple avenues for appeal.

Nothing has changed other than the presumption of innocence is no longer there, Park said. Weve been preparing him for this eventuality.

In a statement, Acting U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim said Ng corrupted the highest levels of the United Nations.

Through bribes and no-show jobs, Ng turned leaders of the league of nations into his private band of profiteers, Kim said.

The United Nations said it cooperated extensively to facilitate the proper administration of justice in this case, by disclosing thousands of documents and waiving the immunity of officials to allow them to testify at trial.

The organization is considering next steps as a victim of these crimes, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

The verdict was a triumph for prosecutors who navigated thorny legal issues surrounding immunity given to U.N. diplomats before winning the cooperation of suspended Dominican Republic Ambassador Francis Lorenzo, who pleaded guilty to charges and testified against Ng.

Lorenzo said Ng initially paid him $20,000 a month as president of a media organization before boosting that by $30,000 a month with instructions to get Ngs construction company named on official U.N. documents as the company that would build the Macau center.

In closing arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Janis Echenberg said Ng paid more than $1.7 million in bribes to build a U.N. facility as big as New Yorks, to create the Geneva of Asia. She said Ng corrupted the United Nations.

Brick by brick, bribe by bribe, the defendant built the path that he thought would build his legacy, she said.

In closing, Park derided the prosecution as frankly outrageous.

It falls by its own weight, he said. Its a big zero.

He blamed the ambassadors  former U.N. General Assembly President John Ashe and Lorenzo  for manipulating Ng.

Mr. Ng literally threw his money in every direction he was asked, Park said.

Ashe, who was arrested in the case but was not charged with bribery, died last year in an accident at his home. AP
Police in the southern Philippines said they fatally shot 15 people yesterday, including a city mayor who was among the politicians President Rodrigo Duterte publicly linked to illegal drugs, in the bloodiest assault so far in Dutertes anti-drug crackdown.

Officers were to serve warrants to Ozamiz Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr. to search his houses for the suspected presence of unlicensed firearms when gunmen opened fire on the police, sparking clashes that killed the mayor and at least 14 other people, Ozamiz police chief Jovie Espenido said.

Hes a high-value target on illegal drugs, Espenido, who oversaw the simultaneous, post-midnight raids on the mayors residence and three other houses, said at a news conference.

We enforce the law to protect the people who want peace in this country, he said. How can we enforce the law if [] were scared of the drug lords? That cannot be, they should be afraid of people who do good for all.

At least five people, including Parojinogs daughter, who serves as vice mayor of Ozamiz, a port city, were arrested during the raids. Policemen were approaching the mayors house when his bodyguards opened fire and hit a police car and wounded a police officer, sparking a firefight amid a power outage, Espenido said.

A grenade held by one of Parojinogs bodyguards exploded during the clash inside his house and it remains unclear if he and his wife were killed by the blast or police gunfire or both, Espenido said, adding that assault rifles, grenades, suspected methamphetamine and cash were seized in the raids.

The administration vowed to intensify the drug campaign, presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said in connection with yesterdays raids in Ozamiz. The Parojinogs, if you would recall, are included in [Dutertes] list of personalities involved in the illegal drug trade.

Parojinog, who also faced corruption charges, had denied any links to illegal drugs. He was the third mayor to be killed under Dutertes bloody crackdown on drugs, which has left more than 3,000 dead in reported gunfights with police and thousands of other unexplained deaths of suspects.

Parojinogs daughter, Vice Mayor Nova Echaves, was arrested and was to be flown to Manila for security reasons, regional police Chief Superintendent Timoteo Pacleb said. AP
The Philippine national police chief warned yesterday that law enforcers will be going after more drug lords following a raid that left 15 people dead, including a city mayor who was among politicians President Rodrigo Duterte had publicly linked to illegal drugs.

Police Director General Ronald dela Rosa said authorities are building up cases against more illegal drug operators included on Dutertes list, warning that the police will enforce the law without fear or favor.

Officers were about to serve warrants early Sunday to Ozamiz Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr. to search his houses for the suspected presence of unlicensed firearms when gunmen opened fire on the police, sparking clashes that killed the mayor and at least 14 other people, said Ozamiz police chief Jovie Espenido.

Espenido, who oversaw the simultaneous, post-midnight raids on Parojinogs residence and three other houses, described the mayor as a high-value target on illegal drugs. Policemen were approaching the mayors house when his bodyguards opened fire and hit a police car and wounded an officer, sparking a firefight amid a power outage, he said.

Eight people were arrested, including two of Parojinogs children  Ozamiz Vice Mayor Nova Princess Parojinog-Echavez and her brother Reynaldo Parojinog Jr., officials said. The siblings were flown to the national police headquarters in Manila.

Dela Rosa denied allegations of a rubout, saying the operation in Ozamiz resulted in deaths because the police were met with armed resistance.

Asked by reporters who the next drug lords to be targets of police operations will be, dela Rosa said, There are many of them because there are many in the presidents list.

If they are not doing anything bad, they should have no fear, but if it is validated that they continue to be involved in drugs then they have to prepare themselves, dela Rosa said. The [police] will implement the law without fear or favor.

Also yesterday, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II ordered the immigration bureau to be on the lookout for seven suspected illegal drug operators, including at least two publicly linked by Duterte to the narcotics trade. Anyone who is the subject of an immigration lookout bulletin needs to get permission from the justice secretary to leave the country. AP
Taiwans economy expanded less than economists estimated in the second quarter, as companies cut capital investment and exports eased.

Highlights of GDP report Gross domestic product rose 2.1 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, according to preliminary data released by the statistics bureau in Taipei on Friday Economists predicted growth of 2.2 percent First-quarter growth was 2.6 percent, according to previously reported data. The government will release the final estimate for second-quarter GDP data in August

Lower capital spending by Taiwans major semiconductor manufacturers and airlines and easing exports contributed to the slower-than-expected growth. The government maintained its forecast of 2.05 percent growth for 2017.

Taiwans economy, which is dependent on hardware technology firms that produce components for Apple Inc. and other companies, is benefiting from the upcoming release of products like the iPhone series. Exports account for about two-thirds of Taiwans economy, and machinery and electronics make up the bulk of those exports.

But there are risks as a diplomatic standoff with China since President Tsai Ing-wen took office a year ago persists. China, the islands largest-trading partner, has refused all official contact with Tsais administration after she declined to endorse Beijings One-China policy.

GDP will likely rebound in the second half of 2017 and in 2018, Chang Liu, a London-based economist with Capital Economics, said in a note after the data. Government spending should accelerate if the governments infrastructure spending bill is approved next month. Loose monetary policy will also help. In addition, export demand is likely to strengthen. Consumer spending was a little disappointing, said Claire Huang, an economist at Societe Generale SA in Hong Kong. Although government spending rebounded, it was from a low base. Samson Ellis, Chinmei Sung, Bloomberg
Taiwans first typhoon of the year left 111 people injured and coastal towns flooded as the island braced for a second tropical storm yesterday.

Howling winds toppled motor scooters and hit people with flying glass, the Central Emergency Operations Center said. In Yilan county on the northeast coast, one person was blown down, another was struck by a wind-driven object and a third was injured when a utility truck flipped.

Typhoon Nesat made landfall on the northeast coast of Taiwan Saturday evening with maximum sustained winds of 137 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 173 kph, according to the national weather bureau.

All but two of the injuries were minor, an operations center staff person said.

The typhoon also left shops and streets in agricultural Pingtung county knee deep in muddy water after dumping about 600 millimeters of rain.

More than 10,000 people, largely from Taiwans south, were evacuated before the typhoon and 1,612 were still in shelters yesterday morning.

Nesat caused the cancellation of 145 international flights and cut power to nearly half a million households.

The typhoon passed through Taiwan and reached Fujian province in southeastern China by 7 a.m. yesterday as a less severe tropical storm, officials said.

Close to 70,000 people have been evacuated so far and dozens of trains and flights suspended in Fuzhou, the provincial capital, Fujians water resources department said.

Taiwan, meanwhile, is on alert again as a second tropical storm was due to make landfall soon.

Taiwan, China, Japan and the Philippines regularly see typhoons from June through November. The deadliest in Taiwan since 2000 was Typhoon Morakot, which set off landslides that left about 680 people dead in 2009. Ralph Jennings, Taipei, AP
For decades, Singapore and Hong Kong have reigned supreme: as key transit points connecting travelers in Asia to and from the rest of the world. But now, a USD1 trillion global airport spree is threatening the status quo.

About half that money is due to be spent on upgrading or building new airports in Asia, the Sydney-based CAPA Centre for Aviation estimates. In Beijing, a new USD12.9 billion airport due to open in 2019 will turn Chinas capital into one of the worlds biggest aviation hubs. Bangkoks Suvarnabhumi Airport is set for 117 billion baht ($3.5 billion) of upgrades through 2021 including a third runway. South Koreas Incheon International Airport is spending 5 trillion won ($4.5 billion) on a second terminal as it aims to become the worlds leading mega-hub airport.

As part of efforts to keep up, Singapores Changi Airport this month unveiled a SGD1.3 billion ($950 million) fourth terminal. Hong Kong, meanwhile, plans to fill in part of the South China Sea to make room for a third runway  at a cost of HKD141.5 billion ($18 billion).

Its a race between global hubs, said Torbjorn Karlsson, partner in the civil aviation practice at Korn Ferry International in Singapore. The question is who are going to be the big winners.

According to CAPA research published July 20, about $255 billion is currently earmarked to build new airports worldwide, with another $845 billion to be spent on upgrades such as extra runways and terminals. All told, the construction work stretches out to 2069, CAPA said.

New airports in Asia will soak up more than $125 billion, compared with just $3.6 billion on brand new sites in the U.S. and Canada, CAPA said.

The new developments are an identity crisis in-waiting for Hong Kong and Singapore. Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. and Singapore Airlines Ltd. have made their names in the jet era ferrying visitors in and out of the cities and onward.

Twenty years ago, airports were just sitting there waiting for airlines to come and fly there, said Joanna Lu, who specializes in airports and route networks as the Hong Kong-based head of Asian advisory at Flight Ascend Consultancy. Things change very quickly. Its hard to say the transfer market is going to be always yours.

In China, mainland carriers such as China Southern Airlines are carrying so many first-time flyers each year that aviation authorities plan to create a mega-airport cluster almost within sight of Hong Kong. China Southern, Hainan Airlines Holding and Chengdu Airlines have opened new routes from second- and third-tier Chinese cities that go straight to the U.S. and Europe, bypassing Hong Kong.

They have the potential to redraw the travel flows, Korn Ferrys Karlsson said.

China Southern, one of the nations three largest state-run carriers, wants to turn its home base at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport  less than 150 kilometers from Hong Kong  into Chinas primary transfer hub to Australia and Southeast Asia, it said in May.

Even closer to Hong Kong, the Civil Aviation Administration of China aims to build a cluster of airports around Shenzhen, the Chinese city on Hong Kongs northern fringes, and do the same around Beijing and Shanghai.

By 2036, Chinas domestic air-travel traffic will quadruple to 1.6 billion passengers, or 1.3 flights for each person per year, according to Airbus SE.

Hong Kongs answer? Fill with cement a stretch of coastal water larger than New Yorks Central Park. Next, lay down a 3.8 kilometer runway and build a passenger building bigger than the White House compound. Then roll out a 2.6 kilometer transport link to connect an estimated 30 million new travelers with the existing terminals.

Hong Kong International Airport last year almost maxed out as it handled 71 million passengers. Its development project is so vast that authorities are demanding between HKD70 and HKD180 from each passenger flying out of Hong Kong to help fund the construction. Thats on top of increasing parking and landing fees for airlines by as much as 27 percent.

Infrastructure and capacity on their own dont guarantee success. Already, not all airlines want to use Hong Kongs customized check-in kiosks, self-service immigration gates dont work if there arent enough staff to monitor them, and security queues are long because the system cant process bags fast enough, said Will Horton, a Hong Kong-based analyst at CAPA.

Not all infrastructure is created equally, said Horton. Airports need to think big but also significantly consider the unglamorous task of making better use of floor space and checkpoints.

The Hong Kong Airport Authority didnt respond to requests for comment.

At Changi Airport, the new fourth terminal is due to open by the end of this year. It will feature dozens of automated check-in kiosks and bag-drop counters, according to a media briefing on Tuesday. Changi will be the first airport in the world to use tomography scanners, which means passengers dont need to take laptops out of their bags for screening.

The new terminal will increase total capacity from 66 million to 82 million. Last year it handled a record 58.7 million passengers. Singapore is already working on a third runway and a fifth terminal due to be completed in the late 2020s.

A spokesman for Changi said advance planning will help the airport, with passenger traffic forecast to rise to 60 million this year, meet its needs.

To be sure, airport hubs can thrive even if their marquee airlines are partially displaced by regional rivals. Singapore is still a launch pad for Southeast Asian destinations such as Penang in Malaysia and Thailands Phuket, islands that might be commercially unviable as stand-alone routes. Some 30 percent of all passengers at Changi Airport are in transit.

And fuel-efficient, long-range airliners such as Boeing Co.s 787 Dreamliner arent about to destroy hubs, even as Qantas Airways Ltd. plans to fly the jet non-stop from Australia to the U.K. for the first time next year.

Ultra-long haul flights are not necessarily cheaper to operate, said Mathieu De Marchi, a Bangkok-based aviation consultant at Landrum & Brown Inc. Hub bypass only works if there is significant demand for that point-to- point route.

On the website for Hong Kongs proposed third runway, the project is described as urgent in order to preserve the airports hub status. It points to growing competition from Singapore, Seoul and Shenzhen, as well as Guangzhou and Shanghai, which both plan to operate five runways.

When it comes to adding capacity and adding destinations, timing is everything.

The challenge is building them early enough not to constrain growth but not so early that the growth cant pay for the cost of running them, said Korn Ferrys Karlsson. Angus Whitley, Kyunghee Park, Bloomberg
A court in southwest China said Friday it has sentenced to death a man who killed 19 people, including his parents and several other relatives, in a bloody rampage with a pickaxe.

The Qujing City Intermediate Peoples Court in Yunnan province said Yang Qingpei, a 27-year-old laborer from Yema village, pleaded guilty and would not appeal the sentence.

The court found that Yang killed his parents with a pickaxe last September after they scolded him for racking up gambling debts in the provincial capital. It said he knifed 17 other people to death, including relatives and neighbors, in an attempt to cover his tracks.

Chinese media have widely covered the case, one of the bloodiest mass killings in recent years in a country where access to guns is extremely limited.

In announcing the death sentence, the court said Yang had confessed and showed a good attitude during the criminal proceedings, but that did not outweigh the vile circumstances and particularly cruel method of killing.

Yang offered an apology to the relatives of the dead during his trial on July 19. The youngest victim was 3 and the oldest 72.

Aside from the gruesome nature of the killings, Yangs case attracted national attention in part because villagers who discovered the crime scene initially suspected a terrorist attack, and videos that circulated on social media at the time showed armed police patrolling the village before they were censored.

Police quickly refuted any terror link and apprehended Yang within a day. AP
Nowadays, it seems that bacon is everywhere: on sandwiches, on sticks, and even at festivals devoted to the fatty delight. Americans love for bacon has hit a new extreme and is now cutting into supplies and shooting prices higher.

Bacon is made from a cut of meat known as pork belly, and increasing appetites for bacon have drained supplies of frozen bellies by 65 percent over the last year, dropping them near record low levels. Meanwhile, pork belly prices have nearly doubled in the past two months, sizzling over $2.10 per pound and nearing the all-time high of $2.35 set during the hog shortage in 2014.

This time around, the shortage is limited to bacon alone; total pork supplies are above average levels and the national hog herd is at a record large size. This disparity should give creative chefs extra incentive to cook up cheap chops, tenderloins, ribs, and sausage instead of bacon.

Pork belly futures used to be one of the wildest commodity markets, but the Chicago Mercantile Exchange ceased trading the market in 2011 due to lack of traders, a move that many have cited in making prices even more volatile. Without an open marketplace for buyers and sellers to set transparent prices, transactions are now more opaque and prone to exaggerated swings.

Copper fires higher

Copper rattled to a two-year high this week, nearing $2.90 per pound. Prices are rising as strong demand and mining shortfalls strain global supplies.

Major mines in Chile and Indonesia are hamstrung by striking workers, and Canadian mines in British Columbia are still shut down due to widespread wildfires in that province.

Meanwhile, investors are flocking toward the red metal on expectations that strong U.S. economic growth could increase demand for housing, automobiles, and electronics, all sectors that are major copper consumers. An expected resumption of growth in China and Japan could stimulate even more buying as a weakening U.S. dollar could add fuel to the red-hot copper fire.

As of midday Friday, September copper futures traded for $2.88 per pound, up 16 percent over the last 10 weeks. The copper futures contract contains 25,000 pounds of refined copper, and each one-cent move equates to $250 in an investors account.
TWIN FALLS  Though cover crops are becoming more common in the Magic Valley, the practice still requires planning.

You cant just throw some seed out there and expect miracles to happen, said Steve Schuyler, district conservationist with the U.S. Department of Agricultures Natural Resources Conservation Service in Twin Falls County. It wont just happen. Youve got to make it happen.

With dry peas coming off and grain harvest just beginning, now is the time to plant a cover crop.

After working with cover crops in southern Idaho for nearly five years, Schuyler has come up with three principles to successfully establish a cover crop  but these may not be the silver bullet many would like: a foolproof seed blend that delivers a guaranteed mixture of plants. While the search for the perfect seed mix goes on (see the Idaho NRCS Soil Health website for more information about cover crop species), here are those three principles:

Know your objective

Do your homework

Be committed

Growers thinking about planting a cover crop need to start by determining what their objective is. A cover crop that will be grazed may include different species or planting rates than one designed to boost soil organic matter and nitrogen for the following crop.

Pat Purdys situation in Picabo is an example of how determining your objective first can lead to success. After seeing his malt barley contract reduced this year, he decided to make cows his cash crop on a 148-acre pivot.

Purdy planted a cover crop mix consisting of forage barley, forage oats, forage peas, vetch and purple-top turnip in mid-May. About five weeks later, he turned 150 head of 600-lb. heifers onto the field to begin grazing. Crude protein tested at 26.7 percent on the forage before grazing with an average yield of 1,519 lbs. per acre.

Thanks to nearly ideal forage conditions and an ample water supply, the biomass produced quickly exceeded the cattles capacity to graze and 63 more head were merged into the herd a week later.

In early July, two different warm season cover crop mixes (forage wheat, sorghum sudan, millet and forage radish) were seeded on nearly 60 acres. He plans to continue planting the warm season blend in increments around the pivot as the cattle graze off the initial seeding.

Purdy calculated a breakeven rate of 2.5 pounds of gain per head per day to recoup his investment in the cover crop. As of late July, the herd was averaging 3 lbs. per head per day.

Todd Ballard has done his homework both by attending workshops and experimenting on his Kimberly area farm. While his cover crop mix has not changed much over the last couple of years, how he manages the cover crop has. He plants his cover crop following barley  and before beans  to allow the cover crop to grow longer into the spring.

After renting a high-speed disk to incorporate the biomass in the spring, Ballard has purchased his own unit. He also planted his beans this spring using a no-till drill. Even before the rows hadnt closed yet, the soil in his fields still had plenty of moisture  even after not being irrigated for a week  because the residue was helping to retain moisture.

Finally, growers have to be committed. Increases in water holding capacity, organic matter or nitrogen often arent seen the first or even second year. Growers often hear stories about cattle that gain 5 pounds a day on a cover crop mix or soil tests that indicate a cover crop added 150 units of nitrogen to a field, but those successes come with time.

Dont get discouraged when things dont turn out that way the first year, Schuyler said.

And dont get hung up on the term crop which has connotations of yield, said David Mabey, district conservationist in Cassia and Miniodoka counties. He spoke during a forage conference earlier this spring. Instead think about whats happening under the ground.

Plants expend 5 to 30 percent of their energy to feed soil microbes and they do it intentionally. With cover crops we are trying to take periods of time when the soil is dead and hungry and thirsty, and we are trying to keep a livable environment for microbes so they dont die or move away, Mabey said.

He foresees a time when growers will be able to manage for plant interactions just like they do for tillage, nutrients and irrigation today. But until that day comes, starting with a clearly defined objective and doing your homework will make cover crops a worthwhile investment.
MALTA  A fire burning five miles northwest of Malta is expected to be contained by 6 p.m. Tuesday.

The Coe Fire started over the weekend and was estimated to be at 1,500 acres Monday morning, according to the Bureau of Land Management, burning in grass, brush and juniper. Crews from the Albion Rural Fire Department, the Twin Falls District BLM and the Sawtooth National Forest are fighting it, with the fire's behavior described as "smoldering and creeping with interior torching."

Crews conducted a burnout operation on the southern flank of the fire Sunday night, slowing its progress, according to the BLM. This secured the most active flank of the fire and let crews create containment lines with hand tools and dozers. Monday, crews plan to continue to work with dozers and aircraft to create fire lines and mop up hot spots. Interior torching is expected to last through the burn period due to the thick juniper tress and brush.

The fire is expected to be controlled by Thursday, meaning crews expect to have extinguished all hot spots near the fire's perimeter. Its cause has not yet been determined. No structures are threatened.
Parenting, coping support

Voices Against Violence is offering support groups at 212 Second Ave. W., No. 200, Twin Falls.

Parenting Group, 6 to 7:30 p.m. Mondays, to help improve parenting skills as well as learn rewards and consequences.

Mas alla de mi, Empoderando a las Mujeres domestic violence group in Spanish, 6 to 7:30 p.m. Mondays, for those who have been involved in an abusive or traumatic relationship, and also helps women develop a support system.

The Power to Change Group, 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesdays, provides information and support to women 18 and older, who have experienced difficulties in coping with past experiences.

Domestic Violence Support Group, 6 to 8 p.m. Thursdays, provides information and community to individuals 18 and older, who have experienced domestic abuse or gender violence.

Information: 208-733-2558.

Blood drives

The American Red Cross will hold blood drives this week in Twin Falls and Hailey.

Blood donation opportunities are available from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday at Amazing Grace Fellowship, 1061 Eastland Drive, Twin Falls; and 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Thursday at Wood River High School, 1250 Fox Acres Road, Hailey.

Eligible donors of all blood types are needed. To schedule an appointment to donate, use the free blood donor app, visit redcrossblood.org or call 800-733-2767. Completion of a RapidPass online health history questionnaire is encouraged.

Victims support

Support group for victims of domestic violence, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. every Tuesday at the Mini-Cassia Shelter Haven of Hope, 323 First St., Rupert.

Information: Rachel, 208-312-7021.

C-sections

Caesarean childbirth class, 6:30 to 9 p.m. Tuesday in the Oak Rooms 2-4 on the lower level of St. Lukes Magic Valley Medical Center, 801 Pole Line Road W., Twin Falls.

Topics: Caesarean delivery procedures, pain management, and non-conforming labors.

Free; pre-registration is required, 208-814-0402.

Seniors wellness

The Twin Falls Senior Center will hold a presentation for senior citizens at 12:15 p.m. Wednesday at 530 Shoshone St. W.

Idaho Home Health and Hospice representatives will discuss proper nutrition for diabetics.

Free; 208-734-5084.

Childbirth

St. Lukes Magic Valley Medical Centers prepared childbirth classes, 6:30 to 9 p.m. Wednesdays, Aug. 2 through Aug. 30, in Oak Rooms 2-4 on the lower level of St. Lukes, 801 Pole Line Road W., Twin Falls.

Topics: Wellness during pregnancy; labor and delivery process with relaxation and breathing techniques; caesarean birth; postpartum care for mother and newborn; infant CPR; car seat and home safety; and a tour of the maternal and child units. Bring a labor-support person if possible.

Cost is $25 for a five-week session. Pre-registration is required: 208-814-0402.

Grief support

Visions of Hope meetings, 5 p.m. Thursdays at Hospice Visions, 1770 Park View Drive, Twin Falls.

This grief support group is open to everyone in the community.

Information: 208-735-0121.

Mental health support

Mental Health Support Group will meet at 5:30 p.m. Thursdays at 826 Eastland Drive in Twin Falls. The free support group is open to Magic Valley residents.

Information: 208-539-7492.

Grief support

Griefshare meeting, 6:30 p.m. Thursdays at Lighthouse Church, 960 Eastland Drive, Twin Falls.

Anyone who has lost a loved one or friend is welcome to attend. A separate class for pre-teen and teens will meet at the same time. Participants can attend any session. Enter through the east doors at the rear of the building.

Information: 208-737-4667.

Childbirth

St. Lukes Magic Valley prepared childbirth bootcamp, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday in the Oak Room at St. Lukes, 801 Pole Line Road W., Twin Falls. This session is for those unable to attend the five-week prepared childbirth classes.

Topics: wellness during pregnancy; labor process with relaxation and breathing techniques; videos of deliveries and labor positions; and care of the postpartum mother and newborn. Bring a labor support person if possible.

Cost is $25 and pre-registration is required, 208-814-0402.

CPR

St. Lukes Magic Valley Education Department is offering a Heartsaver CPR and AED class, 6 to 10 p.m. Aug. 10 at the Learning Center, 840 Meadows Suite 2, Twin Falls.

The course provides training for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and using an automated external defibrillator.

Cost is $50. Pre-registration is required: 208-814-9050.

CPR, first aid

St. Lukes Magic Valley Education Department is offering a Heartsaver CPR, First Aid and AED class, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 12 at the Learning Center, 840 Meadows Suite 2, Twin Falls.

The course provides training for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and first aid and using an automated external defibrillator.

Cost is $60 and pre-registration is required: 208-814-9050.
ROGERSON  By this date three years ago, the Salmon River Canal Co. had already closed its gates at Salmon Falls Creek Reservoir due to lack of water.

An inadequate water supply has, from the beginning of the Salmon Tract, plagued farmers who depend on water in the reservoir to irrigate their crops.

But in March, water spilled over the Salmon Dam for only the third time in its 106-year history.

And the reservoir is still nearly full.

Ample water this year created a new problem, said canal Manager John Shetler. Moss from nearby Deep Creek choked off the Main Canal, forcing water over its banks. The canal company had to restrict water delivery to its stockholders so it could drag the canal with chains to remove the moss and rebuild its banks with new gravel.

Moss isnt normally a problem in the canal, said Karl Joslin, Salmon River Canal Co. board president.

We had such a generous runoff, Joslin said. Deep Creek filled early and flowed into our canals.

To date, the Salmon Tract has received more than 13 inches of precipitation since the beginning of the water year, Oct. 1. The reservoir is 73 percent full.

Having too much water is something we dont deal with, said Joslin, whose grandfather worked on the dam during its construction in 1910. The Salmon Dam was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.

We (Joslins) have been here through thick and thin, he said.

The company uses 300 miles of canals and laterals to deliver irrigation water to 25,000 acres owned by 187 shareholders.

The stockholders recognized the need, he said, and voluntarily reduced their water demand.

The canal company lowered its water delivery from 280 cubic feet per second to 240 cfs, according to its website. Water delivery is expected to return to normal by Monday, Shetler said.

The Salmon Falls Creek Reservoir is a popular destination for fishing and boating, and recreation sites have been developed by Twin Falls County Parks and Waterways and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. When full, the reservoir is 17 miles long and covers 3,400 acres above the dam.

Having too much water is something we dont deal with. Karl Joslin, Salmon River Canal Co. board president
WASHINGTON  The Russia scandal has entered a new phase and theres no going back.

For six months, the White House claimed that this scandal was nothing more than innuendo about Trump campaign collusion with Russia in meddling in the 2016 election. Innuendo for which no concrete evidence had been produced.

Yes, there were several meetings with Russian officials, some only belatedly disclosed. But that is circumstantial evidence at best. Meetings tell you nothing unless you know what happened in them. We didnt. Some of these were casual encounters in large groups like the famous July 2016 Kislyak-Sessions exchange of pleasantries at the Republican National Convention. Big deal.

I was puzzled. Lots of cover-up, but where was the crime? Not even a third-rate burglary. For six months, smoke without fire. Yes, President Trump himself was acting very defensively, as if he were hiding something. But no one ever produced the something.

My view was: Collusion? I just dont see it. But Im open to empirical evidence. Show me.

The evidence is now shown. This is not hearsay, not fake news, not unsourced leaks. This is an email chain released by Donald Trump Jr. himself. A British go-between writes that theres a Russian government effort to help Trump Sr. win the election, and as part of that effort he proposes a meeting with a Russian government attorney possessing damaging information on Hillary Clinton. Moreover, the Kremlin is willing to share troves of incriminating documents from the Crown Prosecutor. (Error: Britain has a Crown Prosecutor. Russia has a State Prosecutor.)

Donald Jr. emails back. I love it. Fatal words.

Once youve said Im in, it makes no difference that the meeting was a bust, that the intermediary brought no such goods. What matters is what Donald Jr. thought going into the meeting, as well as Jared Kushner and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort, who were copied on the correspondence, invited to the meeting, and attended.

It was literally just a wasted 20 minutes, which was a shame, Donald Jr. told Sean Hannity. A shame? On the contrary, a stroke of luck. Had the lawyer real stuff to deliver, Donald Jr. and the others would be in far deeper legal trouble. It turned out to be incompetent collusion, amateur collusion, comically failed collusion. That does not erase the fact that three top Trump campaign officials were ready to play.

It may turn out that they did later collaborate more fruitfully. We dont know. But even if nothing else is found, the evidence is damning.

Its rather pathetic to hear Trump apologists protesting that its no big deal because we Americans are always intervening in other peoples elections, and they in ours. You dont have to go back to the 40s and 50s when the CIA intervened in France and Italy to keep the communists from coming to power. What about the Obama administrations blatant interference to try to defeat Benjamin Netanyahu in the latest Israeli election? One might even add the work of groups supported by the U.S. during Russian parliamentary elections  the very origin of Vladimir Putins deep animus toward Hillary Clinton, then secretary of state, whom he accuses of having orchestrated the opposition.

This defense is pathetic for two reasons. First, have the Trumpites not been telling us for six months that no collusion ever happened? And now they say: Sure it happened. So what? Everyone does it.

Whats left of your credibility when you make such a casual about-face?

Second, no, not everyone does it. Its one thing to be open to opposition research dug up in Indiana. But not dirt from Russia, a hostile foreign power that has repeatedly invaded its neighbors (Georgia, Crimea, Eastern Ukraine), that buzzes our planes and ships in international waters, that opposes our every move and objective around the globe. Just last week the Kremlin killed additional U.N. sanctions we were looking to impose on North Korea for its ICBM test.

There is no statute against helping a foreign hostile power meddle in an American election. What Donald Jr.  and Kushner and Manafort  did may not be criminal. But it is not merely stupid. It is also deeply wrong, a fundamental violation of any code of civic honor.

I leave it to the lawyers to adjudicate the legalities of unconsummated collusion. But you dont need a lawyer to see that the Trump defense  collusion as a desperate Democratic fiction designed to explain away a lost election  is now officially dead.
Republicans failed to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act early Friday because of divisions within their own ranks, and because they tried not only to repeal and replace the ACA but also to cut and cap the Medicaid program, generating opposition from many red-state governors and their senators.

But most of all, they failed because they built their various plans on the false claimbusted by the Congressional Budget Officethat they could maintain the same coverage levels as the ACA and lower premiums and deductibles, while at the same time slashing about a trillion dollars from Medicaid and ACA subsidies and softening the ACAs consumer protection regulations. Had they succeeded, they would have won a big short-term victory with their base, which strongly supports repeal, but suffered the consequences in subsequent elections as the same voters lost coverage or were hit with higher premiums and deductibles.

The challenge now is to stabilize the ACAs insurance marketplaces. They are not in free fall or imploding, as President Trump suggests, and in most markets insurer profits have been improving. But these are fragile markets, especially in rural areas, and there are 38 bare counties where no insurer currently intends to participate in 2018. About 20 percent of marketplace enrollees have access to only one insurer, with the biggest problems in rural areas.

Insurers have submitted their initial rates to state regulators for 2018, and in some areas, the increases are steep. These companies are hedging their bets in the face of uncertainty emanating from Washington, and who can blame them? Now, with ambiguity over legislative action to repeal and replace the law lifted, the remaining uncertainty is whether Congress and the administration will take steps to stabilize markets or instead undermine them.

The immediate question is whether the administration will implement the law as intended or, in a sense, enact skinny repeal through administrative action. To stabilize the marketplaces, the administration would need to enforce the individual mandate as intended, commit to providing payments to insurers that compensate for reducing cost-sharing for low-income enrollees, and continue to provide outreach funds to support enrollment and consumer education activities.

Insurers need to finalize their 2018 rates soon and sign contracts with the federal marketplace by the end of September, so clarity on the $7 billion in cost-sharing payments to insurers is key. If theyre not made, insurers will need to raise premiums by about 19 percent, or they might just decide to exit the market entirely. These payments are subject to a lawsuit filed the House, so Congress might need to step in and assure that the payments will continue.

It is unclear whether Republicans and Democrats can work together on narrow legislation to stabilize the marketplaces without once again opening up a broader debate about the ACA. Republican bills included significant federal funds to help insurers cover the cost of high-risk patients, an idea that was also part of the ACA for its first three years of implementation. These reinsurance or risk-sharing pools would bring premiums down, especially for middle-class consumers not eligible for tax credits in the marketplaces, a primary goal for both parties.

Conservatives may be resistant to such spending, so Congress might also consider ideas they advocated in the recent debate, such as allowing premiums to be paid from health savings accounts. This, too, would provide premium relief to middle-class people buying their own insurance.

Still, only 7 percent of the American people get their insurance through the individual market. Finding consensus on the narrow issue of stabilizing this slice of the health insurance system should be possible if the larger, partisan debate about Obamacare is truly over.

It is also possible as the smoke clears on the health-care battlefield that more states will want to move forward with Medicaid expansions, now that federal funding for those expansions appears secure. Red states will likely seek a conservative stamp on their expansions, adding elements such as work requirements, drug testing, premium payments, time limits or testing private insurance models. Some of these policies will be controversial, and others may stretch whats allowed under federal law too far. But some wrinkles will no doubt be necessary if Medicaid is to be expanded to the millions of people in the 19 holdout states.

But one thing is clear: 59 percent of the public says President Trump and the Republicans are now in control of government and are responsible for making the ACA work, and 74 percent says they should do what they can to make the law work.

Its apparent what needs to be done to stabilize the marketplaces and who owns the ACA going forward. Its no longer Obamacare; its now just the nations health insurance system.
As of July 22, the Senate has confirmed only 50 of President Donald Trumps 229 executive nominations. Put another way, less than a month from the August recess, the Senate has confirmed only 22 percent of those nominated to serve in the Trump administration. By the same point in President Barack Obamas first term, the Senate had confirmed 53 percent of Obama nominations.

This situation is clearly the result of a breakdown in the Senate. The rules for nomination allow any senator to use hourssometimes daysof precious Senate floor time to debate the confirmation of that nominee. But that rule is being abused, as evidenced by the first six months of the Obama and Trump administrations.

By the first August recess of the Obama administration, only four nominees needed cloture votesthat is, a vote to end the debate on a nominee so that senators can move on to a confirmation vote. Democrats, on the other hand, have required more than 30 Trump nominees to go through this burdensome and time-consuming process. Any president, Republican or Democrat, deserves better.

I have a simple proposal: Change the rules of the Senate to limit debate on sub-Cabinet and lower-court nominees to two hours on the Senate floor. Use Senate committees to vet nominees and report on them to the full Senate, where leadership can assign appropriate members to make the case for or against a nominee in the allotted two hours. Then vote.

For my Republican colleagues who might resist such a change in the Senate rules, let me remind everyone that the nuclear optionchanging Senate rules with a bare majority of voteshas already been deployed by former Senate majority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. In early 2013, he and his fellow Democrats were frustrated that Senate Republicans were not allowing them to pack the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Reid, unable to bring about an agreement on future confirmations, eventually decided to employ the nuclear option on Nov. 21, 2013despite bipartisan reluctance to altering Senate rules.

To gain public support for this unprecedented action, Democrats accused Republicans of obstructing the confirmation of Obamas nominees. These accusations ignored the fact that five years into Obamas presidency, 1,560 of his nominees already had been confirmed and only four had been formally blocked. But Reid never let truth get in the way of a good political attack.

Of course, Republicans are not innocent, either. There are many ways to hold up nominees, and both Republicans and Democrats have employed those tactics over the years. In fact, Republicans grew so frustrated with Democrats in 2005 for blocking President George W. Bushs judicial nominations that they also proposed changing the rules. It was only because of a bipartisan Gang of 14 opposing the nuclear option that their proposal was never enacted.

But it was Reid who then in 2013 acted and changed the Senate permanently: Now, whenever one party has a bare majority, it can follow the Reid precedent and change the rules with 51 votes. Republicans did so earlier this year to confirm Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch. The Senates rules will inevitably be changed again in the future using Reids 51-vote precedent.

Regardless of ones opinion on Reids action, the precedent has been set. It cannot be repealed or undone. The post-nuclear Senate is now our reality. It would make sense to at least try to use this precedent and make Washington somewhat less dysfunctional.

The Senate committee process works well with nominations. Candidates are thoroughly vetted by committee members and staff who are well versed on the issues that nominees will be empowered to address. Once a nominee is processed and voted out of committee, it would be sufficient and entirely appropriate to hold an expeditious vote on the Senate floor.

But when it comes to nominations, the number of executive agency positions that must be confirmedbetween 1,200 to 1,400is absurd. Current Senate rules that allow for one delay after another in the confirmation process are equally so.

Our country is facing enormous challenges. An administration that is denied its nominees will be unfairly and unnecessarily crippled. We should not sit idly by in the post-nuclear world imposed by Reid and accept the dysfunctional confirmation process or allow these significant problems to remain unaddressed.
Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada on Monday directed the concerned City Hall offices to craft rules that would ensure the protection of the citys senior citizens from all types of abuse.

Estrada is seeking the strict implementation of Ordinance No. 8488 approved by the city council last year that protects the physical, mental, and social well-being of 132,000 registered senior citizens in Manila.

Respect for our elders has been an integral part of our Filipino culture but unfortunately we still hear of incidents of abuse, exploitation, and neglect of senior citizens. These must be stopped, Estrada said.

Citing a study conducted by the University of the Philippines-National College of Public Administration and Governance (UP-NCPAG), Estrada noted that children and elders rank highest in number in terms of perpetrating the abuse, followed by spouses and grandchildren.

While there have been no documented cases of elder maltreatment in the city in recent years, the mayor said this does not mean the city government will not do anything to protect the senior citizens from physical abuse, violence, neglect and exploitation.

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They are very frail and vulnerable to any ill treatment, and making them suffer, for me, is such a horrible act, Estrada stressed.

Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada

On April 18, 2016, Estrada signed Ordinance No. 8488 or the City of Manila Ordinance Against Elderly Abuse, Exploitation and Neglect authored by Councilor Ernesto Dionisio, Jr., said to be the first legislation in the country that protects senior citizens specifically.

The ordinance defines elder abuse as the physical, mental, or material maltreatment of an elderly person, including but not limited to beating and isolation, and deprivation of food and medication.

It imposes a fine of P5,000 and a one-year imprisonment, or both, to any person who willfully subjects an elderly person to ill-treatment, whether physical or verbal, in such manner as to degrade the inherent value of his person or willfully subjects an elderly person to prolonged mental or emotional harassment.

The citys Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA) said it is currently working with the barangay officials in creating a rescue assistance program for senior citizens.

One measure we are considering is putting up a hotline or a senior citizens desk where concerned citizens could report any maltreatment of senior citizens or any activity or situation that causes intended, unintentional, or unnecessary harm to the elderly, OSCA officer-in-charge Jeff Manansala said.

He said barangay officials will play a key part in this program since they know the neighborhood.

With his motto Batat matanda, alaga sa Maynila (Young and old, cared for in Manila), Estrada said that senior citizens occupy a special place in his heart because his mother, Dona Mary Ejercito, died on January 13, 2009 at the age of 103.

In March last year, he started a cash gift program where those who reach the age of 100 are being given P100,000.

Aside from this cash gift, every centenarian also receives P10,000 each during the yearly celebration of Araw ng Maynila on June 24.

Senior citizens in Manila are also entitled to free medical checkups, hospitalization, medicines and other healthcare services from the six city-run public hospitals and 59 community health centers. They also receive P500 cash gift on their birthdays.

Manilas elderly can also watch movies for free on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays in any movie house in the city.

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Jihadists in the eastern town of Derna Sunday killed five soldiers of Libyan National Army (LNA) led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, reports.

Three LNA-controlled sites in South of Derna were attacked by jihadists forces, AFP reports citing a news agency aligned with the LNA. The attacks also wounded four other.

The latest attacks occurred following the downing of a fighter jet belonging to the LNA last week. Pilot Colonel Adel Jehani and co-pilot Waeel Waqwaq were shelling the jihadists positions in the town.

They were missing after ejecting safely out of the jet after it was reportedly hit.

Accounts from jihadists noted that Colonel Jehani has been charged and therefore executed over raids on women and children. The fate of Waqwaq is still unknown, Libya Herald reports.

Haftar forces have been trying to dislodge jihadist groups in Derna. The campaign has also targeted Revolutionary Shura Council of Derna, a coalition of militias close to Al-Qaeda.

Haftar has been opposed to UN-backed Government National Accord (GNA) which sits in Tripoli. The army commander has harbouring intention to overrun Tripoli in his so-called fight against terrorism.
Clashes between al Shabaab fighters and Somali government troops backed by African Union peacekeepers killed 24 people on Sunday, Reuters reports.

The al Shabaab ambushed, near Golweyn village, 120 kilometres south of Mogadishu, targeted a supply convoy of 24 vehicles near the town of Bulo Marer.

We have carried 23 bodies of AMISOM soldiers and a body of a Somali soldier from the scene where al Shabaab ambushed AMISOM convoy today, Ali Nur, the deputy governor of Lower Shabelle region told Reuters.

Al-Shababs military operations spokesman, Abdiasis Abu Musab claimed killing 39 African Union soldiers in the attack.

We have in hand 39 dead bodies of AU soldiers including their commander, Musab said.

The African Union has a 22,000 strong force in Somalia to fight al-Shabab and support the internationally backed government in Mogadishu.

The Sunday attack comes a day after AU and Somali government officials concluded a five-day conference where they discussed transitioning security responsibilities from the AU peacekeepers to the Somali national security forces.

Currently, there are 10,900 specially trained Somalia National Army troops who are supposed to work closely with the AMISOM troops to liberate the remaining areas dominated fully or partially by al Shabaab fighters.

As a reminder, AMISOM has struggled to pay its peacekeepers after a financial crisis when the European Union, cut its funding by 20 per cent last year.
@amysherman1

A conservative watchdog group has filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics against U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz for her continued employment of IT aide Imran Awan after he was barred from the House computer system and under criminal investigation.

The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust filed a complaint Monday.

There is something quite amiss as to why Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz continued to use taxpayer funds to employ former technology staff member, Imran Awan, even months after he was barred from accessing the Houses computer systems and a number of her colleagues severed ties with Awan, said Matthew Whitaker, Executive Director of FACT. Since Awans arrest last week, Wasserman Schultz has been evasive and unable to answer even basic questions about the nature of Awans employment with her office. This only further confirms the urgency of an investigation into her unethical and illegal actions.

While other Democratic members of Congress who had employed Awan quickly severed ties after the investigation came to light, Wasserman Schultz didn't fire Awan until he was arrested July 25th for bank fraud.

Wasserman Schultz's spokesman David Damron said in response to the complaint:

Our office worked with the House Chief Administrative Officer to outline a position that allowed us to obtain, and our employee to provide, valuable services without access to the House network. Those services included consulting on a variety of office needs, such as on our website and printers, trouble-shooting, and other issues. In other words, the complaint that this right-wing group says its filing is entirely baseless. Its no surprise that they would nonetheless file it, against one of Donald Trumps fiercest critics, at a time when the Administration is trying to distract from its internal turmoil and destructive health care efforts.

In a statement, the Weston Democrat said after Awan was fired: After details of the investigation were reviewed with us, my office was provided no evidence to indicate that laws had been broken, which over time, raised troubling concerns about due process, fair treatment and potential ethnic and religious profiling. Upon learning of his arrest, he was terminated.

FACT, which organized in 2014, has primarily filed complaints against Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

This post has been updated to include a response from Wasserman Schultz's spokesman about the complaint.
@amysherman1

Gov. Rick Scott's promise to fight for repeal of the Affordable Care Act has hit a roadblock after the Senate failed to pass any legislation to repeal the law or replace it.

In the early morning of July 28, Republicans failed to muster enough votes to repeal former President Barack Obama's signature legislation. Three Republicans sided with the Democrats, leading to the defeat of repeal: John McCain of Arizona, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

Scott, a Republican and former health care company president, vowed during his first campaign in 2010 to fight to repeal the federal law. We have been tracking his progress on our Scott-O-Meter, which tracks dozens of Scott's campaign promises.

Keep reading from PolitiFact Florida.
@alextdaugherty @patriciamazzei

Matt Haggman looks more like a congressional candidate with each passing day.

When Ileana Ros-Lehtinen announced that she would not run for reelection in 2018, Haggman told the Miami Herald in April a run for her seat is "something I've been actively thinking about for a while now."

Two weeks ago, Haggman quit his post as the Knight Foundation's program director in Miami, telling a reporter to "stay tuned" about his future plans.

And now Haggman is hosting an event on Tuesday evening dubbed "Building a Better Miami" where he promises a "special announcement," according to an invitation obtained by the Miami Herald.

Haggman, a Democrat and former Miami Herald reporter, declined to comment.

If Haggman jumps in the race for Ros-Lehtinen's seat he will become the sixth Democrat aiming for the Miami-based seat that Democrats argue is likely to flip after Ros-Lehtinen announced her retirement in April.

State Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez of Miami, state Rep. David Richardson of Miami Beach, Miami Beach Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, attorney Mary Barzee Flores, University of Miami academic adviser Michael Hepburn and Mark Anthony Person are all running in the Democratic primary. Miami Commissioner Ken Russell formed an exploratory committee as he considers a run.

Three Republicans are also in the race, former Miami-Dade mayoral candidate and school board member Raquel Regalado, County Commissioner Bruno Barreiro and Maria Peiro.

Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump by nearly 20 percentage points in Ros-Lehtinen's district, the highest margin of victory in the country for Clinton in a district currently held by a Republican.
Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam is talking a lot about a "pathway" to an open carry gun law in Florida as he chases the Republican nomination for governor, and he proudly calls himself an "NRA sellout" on social media in response to media criticism of pushing a pro-gun agenda.

But his vocal support for an open carry law surprises people who have actually pushed for it in Tallahassee.

Two leading open carry supporters, Sen. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, and former Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, can't recall Putnam ever helping them get the bill passed.

"Zero," Gaetz said of Putnam. "He didn't help and he didn't hurt. He played no role in moving the bill. He never called me or approached me about the bill or offered to help."

Gaetz's Senate Bill 300 in the 2016 session would have allowed nearly 2 million people with concealed wepaons licenses to openly carry firearms. At an October 2015 Senate hearing, the witnesses included the NRA, Florida Chamber of Commerce, League of Women Voters, Fraternal Order of Police and Bradford County Sheriff Gordon Smith. Putnam was silent. Around the same time, Gaetz and his son Matt, then a House member and now a congressman, held a press conference with Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey. Putnam wasn't there. "He issued no statement, not even a press release," Gaetz said. "He was not involved."

Putnam's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services processes concealed weapons license applications. He has been very aggressive about promoting that, including partnerships with county tax collectors who process the paperwork. Putnam's support for the Second Amendment has never been an issue, and he got A-plus ratings from the NRA when he was in Congress. The question is his support for an open carry law.

Steube filed open carry (SB 140) in the 2017 session, and the bill was seven words long. Steube has no recollection of Putnam trying to help pass the bill.

"This is the first I'm hearing of him taking a position on it," Steube told the Times/Herald. Citing Putnam's "pathway" comments, Steube said: "Prior to that, I didn't know what his position was."

Neither Steube not Gaetz is supporting a candidate for governor.

After a speech to the Argus Foundation in Sarasota in January, Putnam was asked by the Herald-Tribune's Zac Anderson about Steube's bill. He said: "I haven't had an opportunity to review Sen. Steube's bill." Three weeks later, Capitol reporters pressed Putnam on the issue at AP's annual session for journalists. His response: "I think it is important for us to have that debate but I think, generally speaking, there are places where you can expand where people carry guns in a safe and effective way."

In a Times/Herald interview, Putnam said: "I've always been a strong supporter of the Second Amendment ... There's no inconsistency at all." He said he recalled meeting with Gaetz a number of times in the 2016 session, "but they were typically on matters related to my legislative agenda and my budget. So I certainly made the best use of time on the issues that were on the top of my list."

Photo credit: Doug Clifford, Tampa Bay Times


@PatriciaMazzei @FrancoOrdonez

The Trump administration will freeze assets, ban travel and forbid business transactions Monday for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, accusing him of undermining democracy after he carried out an election Sunday for an all-powerful new legislative assembly in defiance of warnings from the U.S. and international community.

As part of what are expected to be a series of escalating sanctions, the Treasury Department will add Maduro to its growing list of sanctioned current and former members of the Venezuelan government and military. Administration officials began informing members of Congress of their plan early Monday afternoon.

The U.S. has yet to settle on steeper economic sanctions President Donald Trump threatened ahead of Sundays Venezuelan election for a new constituent assembly with the power to dissolve the opposition-held parliament, effectively wiping out the remnants of Venezuelas democracy. On Sunday, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley called the vote a sham election.

The Trump administration has threatened to sanction all 545 constituent assembly members once they are seated. That would include Maduros wife, Cilia Flores, and powerful congressman Diosdado Cabello, as well lowly socialist party members with no foreign assets to speak of. The new assembly is supposed to take over in the next two days. Its unclear what U.S. assets, if any, Maduro might hold.

The administration had been debating whether to make a big sanctions splash Monday or roll out the measures in sequence over the next couple of weeks.

The U.S. plans to refrain from deploying its harshest sanction  a ban on Venezuelan oil imports  though it had raised that possibility ahead of Sundays election. Instead, the Trump administration is considering Russian-type financial sanctions to limit U.S. companies from trading in sovereign debt on primary or secondary markets. The sanctions could even be retroactive, affecting Goldman Sachs widely criticized May purchase of $2.8 billion worth of bonds issued by Venezuelas state-owned oil company, PDVSA, according to a former U.S. official who is familiar with the discussions.

More here.

Photo credit: Miraflores press office via AP
Who will be the next director of the South Florida Water Management District?

The board convenes today in a conference call to announce a replacement to outgoing director Pete Antonacci, who was named by Gov. Rick Scott last week to head the embattled Enterprise Florida economic development agency, a lateral move for the governor's former general counsel and loyal supporter.

The replacement director may be an interim appointment or permanent -- potentially, only an 18-month job -- and the candidates include:

Ernie Marks , director of Everglades Policy and Coordination. He is considered the favorite of Antonacci, having moved to the district as recently as March 2016 from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission where he was South Florida regional director. He previously worked for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection as Director of the Office of Ecosystem Projects and as a regulatory manager.

, director of Everglades Policy and Coordination. He is considered the favorite of Antonacci, having moved to the district as recently as March 2016 from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission where he was South Florida regional director. He previously worked for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection as Director of the Office of Ecosystem Projects and as a regulatory manager. Terrie Bates, water resources director for the district, is a three-decade veteran of the agency. She manages the WMD's scientific focus on ecosystem and technology research.

Bates, water resources director for the district, is a three-decade veteran of the agency. She manages the WMD's scientific focus on ecosystem and technology research. Jeff Kivett, former director of the districts's operations, engineering and construction, who left in 2016 and is now vice president of the Northern California area at Brown & Caldwell, a California engineering firm.

former director of the districts's operations, engineering and construction, who left in 2016 and is now vice president of the Northern California area at Brown & Caldwell, a California engineering firm. Drew Bartlett, deputy secretary at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, has been with the state since 2007 and before that spent 16 years with the EPA.

Once the new, or interim ED is in place, one question ahead is whether the new director will pivot the agency to reversing the decision by Antonacci to sever ties with the National Academies of Science. Antonacci apparently took the governor's office, and his political staff, by surprise when he announced to the governing board that he no longer wanted his staff to continue the relationship with the top scientists charged with reviewing the Everglades project.

The organization has a $358,000 annual contract with the SFWMD and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to review Everglades restoration progress and to produce a report every other year.

In a July 5 letter to Stephanie Johnson of the NAS, Antonacci referred to an agenda for the August 2017 Committee on Independent Scientific Review of Everglades Restoration Progress (CISRERP), criticizing it. "It is plain on the face of the proposed agenda that your panel of distinguished scientists are being lead (sic) down a path of unscientific meddling into the art of budgeting, management and operation by entities designated for such purpose," he wrote.

He complained that "top down Washington nitpicking" was adding "little to the goals of Everglades Restoration" and suggested, for example, that the "development of a Combined Operation Plan" in South Miami-Dade was not helpful to Everglades restoration.

He added that if the group continued to "put science on the back burner," the SFWMD "will have no choice but to legally withdraw from any financial commitments" and he suggested the agency could instead rely on the University of Florida Water Institute, which was hired by the Florida Senate to author a 2015 a report on Everglades restoration.

Among the issues on the draft agenda was an update on Senate Bill 10 which asked the question:

"Does the Senate Bill in essence direct the Corps and District to choose the more expensive but slightly more effective '2nd best option' presented in the CEPP...i.e. the 12' deep 21,000 ac reservoir with 7000 ac STA on the A1-A2 footpront (sic) (estimated to cost $2B more but provide 2-% greater benefits?)

Antonacci was harshly critical of the Senate proposal to build a water-storage reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee to offset the need for damaging water releases into nearby estuaries, arguing that buying land would postpone other needed improvements.

"It is well-recognized that more storage is needed system-wide, however, the myopic focus on land acquisition south of Lake Okeechobee does little to contribute to restoration success,'' he wrote in a letter to Miami-Dade commissioners.

In its latest report, the NAS noted that less than 18 percent of the $16 billion effort needed to complete the restoration project has been funded.

In his July letter, Antonacci suggested replacing the National Academies group with scientists from the University of Florida's Water Institute.

When Johnson responded in a letter, saying that "some information on budget and management is necessary for the Committee to understand the broader context for restoration progress and the relative impact of scientific issues," Antonacci was blunt.

He accused the group of "highly objectionable mission-creep" and suggested that the WMD staff "will not participate in your August meeting."

More from Craig Pittman here: Everglades restoration project leader tells top scientists: Stay in your lane
At this year's Colony playwright's gathering, guest writers and workshop students will address questions about the role writers can play in tumultuous political and social times.

One of the visiting artists, John Biguenet, has worked in both fiction, nonfiction and theater, never shying away from addressing the present. The New Orleans native wrote dispatches from his home city for the New York Times in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Only a year and a half after the levees failed, Biguenet staged the first installment of his "Rising Waters" trilogy, which directly addressed the disaster.

Biguenet has won an O. Henry Award for short fiction, and his plays have been produced around the country. Here in Missoula, the Colony's host organization the Montana Repertory Theatre, produced his play, "Broomstick," a one-person play about a witch written entirely in rhyme, in 2014.

While Biguenet is in Missoula, he'll participate in a public forum, What and why do we write now? What are the priorities? and deliver a keynote, "Questions, Not Answers." (See breakout box for the schedule.) He'll also present a staged reading of a new play, "The Trouble with White People." Biguenet, who was in Paris, participated in an email Q&A.

Question: Regarding the theme of this years Colony forum (What and why do we write now? What are the priorities?), do you have the sense that some parts of the theater or literature world drifted away from pointed political or social messages during the Obama administration and were shocked into action after the 2016 election?

Answer: Its rare for writers to address contemporary history. Both Defoes "A Journal of the Plague Year," about the Great Plague of 1665, and Tolstoys "War and Peace," set during Napoleons invasion of Russia in 1812, were published about 60 years after the events they depict. Theres a practical reason why literature that examines massive disasters isnt the first response to those disruptions of a writers culture: the challenges of daily life  food, shelter, banking, health, mail, transportation  following such catastrophes make it nearly impossible to compose a sustained work of literature.

But another reason is closer to whats happening today. One must create not only the content but also a form appropriate to the subject to illuminate a new reality. Comedians were ready to respond to the consequences of the election with multiple forms of satire at their disposal; the reinvigoration of SNL and late-night talk-show monologues suggests that the forms of comedy were simply waiting for such content as politics has provided the last six months. But to create a potentially lasting narrative, one cant depend upon ready-made structures. So the literature of resistance is only just beginning to appear.

Q: I dont want to ask you to give away your entire keynote address, but what role do you think playwrights or writers of fiction should play in the present political moment?

A: When our political leaders use language not as a torch to illuminate our challenges but as a prod to stoke our fears and hatreds, writers have a duty as citizens to combat such debasement of civil discourse by exposing the contradictions between those leaders promises and the effects of their actions. But more importantly, writers can strip away the rhetoric that shrouds in palatable justifications the underlying prejudices to which such leaders appeal and reveal what citizens are actually embracing when they support such politicians. The writers job is to hold up a mirror in which audiences can see their own faces and judge themselves in the stark light literature casts upon our lives.

Q: There must be a natural desire to express opinions on social and political issues in your work. How did you balance that urge with the advice hinted at in your keynote (Questions, Not Answers), particularly in your columns and plays after Hurricane Katrina?

A: Two black characters in my 2009 play, "Shotgun" (the second play in my "Rising Water" trilogy), discuss the statue of Robert E. Lee, one of four major Confederate monuments in New Orleans at that time:

DEX

Down on St. Charles Avenue, who they got on top that big white column all the streetcars have to go around?

WILLIE

Robert E. Lee, you mean?

DEX

Think they ever gonna pull down that statue of Robert E. Lee? General fought a war to keep us slaves.

WILLIE

Tear down Lee Circle?

DEX

But what you think they saying with a statue like that?

For some white New Orleanians, that scene may have been the first time in their lives they considered what an affront a Confederate statue could be to their fellow citizens. Asking them to ponder what the city was saying by placing it on a pedestal is precisely what I believe to be the task (but also the limits) of playwriting. Writers must pose questions their community needs to address but refrain from answering those questions. In the case of New Orleans, the city answered the question my characters had posed by dismantling the Confederate monuments this past May, including the statue of the General fought a war to keep us slaves.

Q: In a prior interview, you said a book isnt a monologue; its a conversation. What does a conversational or inquisitive work offer audiences that a polemic does not?

A: A polemic seeks to bludgeon its reader into submission. But a writer who engages us in a mutual consideration of a subject, a writer who invites the reader to test the books assertions against lived experience, demonstrates a confidence in his or her argument that the polemicist lacks. A polemic, I think, is an expression of insecurity. But an author  as the word suggests, one with authority in terms of both the subject of the work and the craft of writing itself  asks the reader to consider a question from a new angle but stops short of insisting upon what conclusions must be drawn. A polemic may elicit battered assent but seldom belief. A work of literature, though, in allowing its reader to experience a new way of approaching a subject, offers the possibility of permanent transformation by leaving the decision of whether to change up to the reader rather than by demanding it.

Q: Did living through a catastrophe like Katrina change the kinds of books you want to read or plays that you want to see?

A: The experience certainly changed my understanding of literature, both on the page and on the stage. To learn, firsthand, that a whole city can be destroyed on a single summer morning, that hundreds of thousands of people can drive away from their homes one Sunday and never return, that all those leaders one trusted will prove feckless in a moment of crisis, that our confidence in societys institutions is self-delusion  those lessons allowed me to read the works of world literature, from "The Iliad" to "Othello" to "War and Peace" to "Waiting for Godot," with a weary recognition that nearly everyone in the past knew what I had just learned. But Im also now aware how few Americans, including writers, fully grasp the fragility of the world they inhabit and the lives they lead. So I find myself drawn since the flood to foreign authors and older texts.

Q: And did it change your thoughts on the role that art can have in the lives of contemporary audiences?

A: The effect of my three plays about the flooding of New Orleans and its aftermath transformed my understanding of theater. Opening just 18 months after the events it depicted, "Rising Water," a play about a couple trapped in their attic and then on their rooftop by rising floodwaters, played to full houses from its first preview to the night it closed. Heres how I describe the impact in my introduction to the published trilogy:

And what happened at the end of the first preview happened after every performance. ... Instead of leaving, nearly all of the audience would sink back into their chairs again. The night of that first preview, though no talkback had been planned, [the director] hesitantly stepped onto the stage and asked if anyone would like to talk about what had just been seen. Some commented on the play, but most talked about what had happened to them, to their families, to their neighbors. Nearly an hour later, we brought the discussion to a close. A few people were still crying. It went on like that for the entire run  talkbacks and tears at nearly every performance.

I learned that a play is unlike other forms of narrative in that it is inextricably tied to the city in which it is performed. A theater, I came to realize, is a forum where a community gathers to consider its most pressing concerns. Euripides, for example, was writing for his fellow Athenians, and Shakespeare wrote his plays for his neighbors in London. So in the many productions around the country of the plays in my trilogy, Ive always discouraged directors from urging actors to imitate a New Orleans accent; an audience should hear its own English on the stage. A production of a play, even if its set somewhere else, should strive to engage an audience as their own story, not somebody elses.

Q: What can you tell us about your new play, The Trouble with White People, regarding its genesis, themes, background and title?

A: "The Trouble with White People," as its title suggests, uses race to examine the moral decisions that will likely shape the rest of our lives when we are unexpectedly tested by events. Such decisions, we may discover to our surprise, are sometimes dictated by loyalties of which we are unaware or unwilling to acknowledge. Because the play seeks to explore feelings usually submerged by conflicting emotions, it takes the audience down a very unpredictable path.
TARKIO  Fighting wildfires in the Montana wilderness is a complex and difficult job that requires hundreds of firefighters, support staff and other experts to keep homes and lives safe. All those groups converge on the same location  the fire camp.

Phil Sneed, a public information officer for the Burdette and Sunrise Fires, explained that for a large camp like the one just outside of Tarkio, land use agreements between land owners and fire crews are made so that camps can be pitched on fields, adding the dozen-odd trailers, semis, and bunches of trucks and fire engines that crowd around the field.

Close to the central cluster of trailers that house the communications, medical, safety and mapping crews are several easels that hold the lists of fire crews and a large brightly colored map of the Sunrise fire. The pink, orange and dark-red coloring are from an infrared image taken during the night. Sunday, because the weather is dry and the wind will be blowing until 5 p.m., the crews will be focusing on the south and southeast portions of the fire to avoid it burning toward structures.

Because the Sunset fire is so large, crews from more than a dozen states are on site trying to contain it. Coming from as far east as West Virginia and north as Alaska, their bright-colored tents spread over the field like mushrooms.

Because each shift is 16 hours long, firefighters rarely get eight hours of sleep, according to Sneed. They have to eat an incredible amount of calories needed to do the hard physical labor of fighting fires (6,600 calories per day, according to the Forest Service website), shower, get medical attention and then fall asleep.

But when theyre awake and at camp, they can visit the medical trailer and get attention for the scrapes and bruises that come with digging fire lines and working with the forest. Blisters are always an issue, according to Connie Weeks, one of the medical crew managers, so Gold Bond foot powder is always supplied. If its wet, dry it; if its dry, wet it is the motto Weeks says.

Its been brutally hot recently so the main medical complaint has been heat exhaustion. And with crews coming from lower elevations, the jump can be difficult. Morning and evening briefings the message is hydrate, hydrate, hydrate Weeks says.

The firefighters long hours and shifts (14 days on, two off) are brutal. So safety is paramount for everyone on site in order to keep them and the communities they serve safe. Derek Williams and Andy Haner are the two National Weather Service meteorologists in charge of forecasting the dangerous times for the fire so the fire crews can be more vigilant.

Theres specialized training so we can give verbal weather briefings Haner explained. We dont do a lot of those in the office.

Weather affects everything, Haner continues. A quarter inch of rain does more to put out a fire than a fleet of helicopters.

That reminder that even the best laid plans can be no match for Mother Nature is the one that keeps every person in the camp wary and on the lookout for any danger. But until the weather changes, the fire camp will continue to operate under the smoke-covered sky.
The weather is the most important weapon in fighting fires. And according to the National Weather Service, firefighters in western Montana might have it on their side this week as temperatures cool and a high-pressure system stays over Seattle.

Its going to be a little cooler, near normal at 88 or 89 degrees, Jeff Kitsmiller, an NWS meteorologist said Sunday.

Kitsmiller said easterly winds are forecast on Wednesday, something that all firefighters would know about as it may help or hurt, depending on the fire. Earlier forecasts had called for near-record temperatures later this week.

Liberty fire: The column of smoke visible to the north of Missoula was coming from the South Fork Jocko Primitive Area where the Liberty fire tripled in size Sunday afternoon.

The fire had been listed at 600 acres Sunday morning, but is now more than 2,000 acres, according to Confederated Salish and Kootenai Division of Fire public information officer Devlin LaFrombois.

A briefing  not a public meeting  has been set for Monday at 10 a.m. at the Arlee Community Center.

"Around 1 o'clock (Sunday) the wind blew it over one of the roads we were using for control line," LaFrombois said. "It blew up and went up the other side of a draw."

All crews battling the blaze had to be pulled off the lines, he said.

The fire has moved beyond the Flathead Reservation onto Lolo National Forest land. Public Information Officer Rob McDonald said the state has been notified.

LaFrombois said a Type I team currently on stand-by in Missoula will join the effort on Monday.

"It had the potential all along (to grow), it was just a matter of time," LaFrombois said. "It's rough and steep country to put people on the ground."

The Missoula County Sheriff's office has notified 170 residences in the Placid Lake area of an evacuation warning.

"This is for North & South Placid Lake Roads, Shining Shirt Road and Beaver Creek Road. This is the first step in which MCSO deputies attempt to make in-person contact with affected population," the Sheriff's office Facebook page reported. "Should there be an order, deputies will make every effort to recontact residents in the evacuation area."

Lolo Peak fire: A weather inversion will likely cause smoke to settle in Florence and Lolo from Sunday evening through Monday morning according to the Incident Information System. The smoke will be categorized as unhealthy, especially for the elderly, the very young, and those with breathing ailments.

Road closures are still in effect, and fire traffic has shifted to Elk Meadow Road.

Currently, the fire team is focusing on a ridge west of Lolo Creeks south fork, dropping fire retardant and doing other work in an attempt to slow its progress.

According to Leigh Golden, the fire is still in the backcountry three or four air miles from any structure.

Sunrise and Burdette fires: While visibility is hampering any air operations, the Sunrise and Burdette Fires are burning in the Tarkio area and fire fighters are fighting back.

Winds were expected to increase Sunday afternoon and cause the fires to spread to the southeast. The Incident Information System warns the public should be aware that fire activity is expected to increase with these winds as well as advising motorists not to stop along I-90 as smoke could be very heavy.

Evacuations are still in effect in the area, and the fires continued path through sub-alpine firs is causing embers to be blown nearly a half-mile in front of the fire, according to public information officer Phil Sneed, who advises everyone in western Montana to take extreme caution when dealing with any fire in the outdoors.

Sapphire Complex: The Sapphire Complex continues to burn. At over 10,000 acres, the fires are growing, but not in an unexpected fashion, according to public information officer Erin OConnor.

A new team has taken over the Complex as the 14-day cycle for the previous Team ran out. And other than some unburned fuel lighting up in the Goat Creek and Sliderock fires, crews are still fighting and cutting lines.

Rice Ridge fire: The Rice Ridge fire near Seeley Lake is up to nearly 100 firefighters as the fire begins to creep out of the retardant lines placed around it.

Crews are currently placing containment lines where possible, but the fire is currently not threatening any communities or homes. Fire crews are trying to keep the fire from moving to the south and west which is populated, and heavy equipment has been moved to the area to help with the effort.
John Horner hopes the next year will continue a trend of more business development in Missoula, and he's ready to do his part to help make it happen.

At the start of July, Horner began a year-long term as the chairman of the Missoula Area Chamber of Commerce.

Its a role for which he's been preparing over the past year. The chamber operates by having a board member spend a year as incoming chair, then a year in the top role followed by a third as past chair.

Horner said the setup means a smoother handoff from one leader to the next, with each person getting a year to learn the leadership role, implement a plan, then stay around as an adviser.

Last year when he was selected to be incoming chairman, Horner  who works for First Interstate Bank  worked closely with chamber chairwoman Jan Schweitzer from accounting firm Anderson ZurMuehlen on improving collaboration between the chamber and other agencies around town that promote Missoula.

The best thing the organization does is collaboration and communication. We were able to do things like working with Destination Missoula to combine the visitor guides into one. Much easier and much more efficient, Horner said.

The focus on collaboration is one he intends to keep over his year in the top role at the Chamber of Commerce.

We want to go to all of these organizations and say, Hey, how can the chamber help you? he said.

In addition to strengthening ties with groups like Destination Missoula and the Missoula Downtown Association  where Horner spent two years as board president  he wants to develop a better connection between the Chamber of Commerce, the University of Montana and the city and county government.

If we all kind of coordinate and not feel like were stepping on each others toes its a much better Missoula, Horner said.

That doesnt mean each group wont have its own goals and ideas to advocate, and thats OK, Horner said.

Missoula is becoming a much bigger destination place. It doesnt happen by chance. It takes a lot of people being out there and telling the Missoula story, he said.

***

Born in Missoula, Horner grew up with 10 siblings. A member of the first graduating class of St. Joseph following the merger between St. Anthony and St. Francis Xavier grade schools, Horner attended Loyola Sacred Heart High School before heading to Carroll College, where he graduated with degrees in business administration and economics.

After stints in Seattle and around Idaho, Horner and his wife Judy  along with their two kids  returned to Missoula in 2006 when he began working in commercial lending at First Interstate Bank.

Its a great job to be able to understand the business perspective. From small operations where a person is working on a lifelong dream to a big company that employs more than a hundred people, they all want the same thing, which is a good place to live, Horner said.

***

Pointing to projects like the expansion at Southgate Mall, the Marriott hotel being built on the site of the now-deconstructed Missoula Mercantile and the plan for major development at the Riverfront Triangle property on the other side of downtown, Horner said Missoula is seeing businesses setting up shop in town at a rate not seen in years.

He acknowledges that some of the projects  and the public money being used to assist developers  have been contentious, but Horner said people should make their views known but understand that doesnt mean they will always get their way.

If you sit on the sidelines and critique, youre not doing anyone any favors, he said. I dont think theres an investor or developer who doesnt want to do right by the community.

Even as more new businesses crop up around town, Horner said that doesnt mean the chamber isnt listening to the concerns of many of its current members.
Two fires north of Missoula ballooned in size Sunday, after a hot, dry, windy afternoon, though calmer conditions Monday gave most fire crews a chance to build their fire lines back up and prepare defenses against the many threatened residential areas.

This in advance of a red-flag warning from the National Weather Service warning of gusting winds in the Flathead and Lolo overnight Tuesday through early Wednesday morning.

Early afternoon Monday, Missoula County lowered air quality to unhealthy for sensitive groups, from the moderate designation in place most of last week.

"We woke up to hazy, smoky skies this morning, and some of that smoke has mixed down in the last hour, causing local conditions to degrade," Sarah Coefield, Missoula City-County air quality specialist wrote in an email shortly after noon on Monday.

The designation means children, the elderly and those with lung or heart disease should limit outdoor exercise or exertion.

***

Liberty fire: The intensifying fire near Arlee is spreading east toward Placid Lake and Seeley Lake, which were put on pre-evacuation notice as of Sunday evening.

A new arm of the fire reached down the Boles Creek drainage toward Placid Lake, though its still about 10 miles from any structures, according to Kristen Allison, public information officer for the type I incident management team.

The 600-acre fire kicked up early afternoon Sunday and quickly grew to around 2,000 acres, sending battalions of smoke above the Jocko Valley the rest of the day.

We didnt get very much relief last night, tribal information officer Devlin LaFrombois said Monday morning. They did a recon flight this morning and its pretty active this morning.

The California-based type I incident management team came in Monday to start shadowing the tribal firefighters in order to take operational control by the end of the day.

Crews planned to put four to five bulldozers and skidgens on the Flathead Reservation boundary to build a fire line. The fire is at zero percent containment.

Rice Ridge fire: The 60-acre fire east of Seeley Lake finally broke through a border of retardant Sunday afternoon and burned like gangbusters to the southeast toward the Bob Marshall Wilderness, according to fire information officer Gabrielle Kenton.

It is now at 1,100 acres and zero percent containment.

Once it got past that retardant and got into some good vegetation  it really had an opportunity to make some runs, Kenton said.

Fire crews are focused on laying down containment lines along the south side of the elongated fire, to protect the residences in that direction.

A public meeting was scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday at the Seeley Lake Elementary School to update residents on the two fires near the unincorporated lakeside community.

Sunrise and Burdette fires: The 8,200-acre Sunrise fire near Tarkio sparked evacuations Sunday, but shifting winds gave fire crews a break Monday.

Hasnt put up any really good columns or anything, just keeps plunking along, public information officer Ted Pettis said. Good day for firefighters today. Good day for fires all the other days.

Fire crews worked on clearing defensible space around residential areas, especially Quartz Flat near Interstate 90.

Firefighters patrolled along both sides of the interstate and frontage road as a precaution, looking for spot fires from embers jumping a mile from the main fire.

Pettis said chunks of ember are falling onto the fire camp on the east side of I-90 a mile and a half from the fire.

Theyre not expecting a big push toward the interstate, Pettis said, but added, It can happen so fast.

Residents in the Verde Creek community to the west of Quartz Flat were ordered to evacuate Sunday.

The Burdette fire is also estimated for slow growth due to favorable wind conditions, according to a fire update Monday.

Fire crews will continue to improve handline and rely on helicopter drops to suppress hot spots in the 615-acre fire.

Lolo Peak fire: Some 900 homeowners in the Lolo and Florence areas have been contacted by fire officials to clean their properties of fire fuels as crews prepare for the 4,800-acre fire to reach residences along highways 12 and 93.

Based on historical knowledge of fire behavior in this immediate area, and where this fire has the potential to move, 21 miles of control line between homes and the fire has been completed along the Highway 12 and Hwy 93 corridor, the Monday morning fire update on Inciweb said.

Crews planned to continue removing slash along the 100-foot-wide control line on highway 12 as well as install sprinklers, hose and water tanks near homes.

Sapphire Complex: Road Closures remain in effect near the 12,000 acres of burning forest in the Rock Creek drainage.

There will be a public meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Rock Creek Fishermans Mercantile to update residents on the Goat Creek, Sliderock and Little Hogback fires.

Saddle Fire: A feller buncher tipped over up Saddle Mountain west of Arlee Monday, sparking a small wildfire, according to CSKT Fire Manager C.T. Camel. Seven firefighters and two engines had the one-acre fire contained by the evening.
Heritage Auctions(DALLAS) -- The only known Italian poster of the Oscar-winning 1942 film "Casablanca" has sold at auction in Dallas for $478,000.

The 1946 poster, made after the downfall of fascism in Italy and when American films could be shown in the country, was originally expected to fetch $180,000 in the movie poster auction, according to Heritage Auctions.

"This is the only known poster of its kind - no other Italian Casablanca poster exists," Eric Bradley, Heritage Auctions' public relations director, said. "Also, this poster set a record for the most valuable Casablanca poster in any language."

The rare work of art measures 55.5 inches by 78.25 inches with an Italian translation printed above the title, "They had an appointment with destiny in Casablanca..."

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Last Wednesday was a bad day for civil rights in Montana and America.

It was a day that saw the president of the United States express an intention to bar transgender individuals from military service, and a day that a group of well-funded bullies got the go-ahead to pursue the persecution of a small number of Montana residents who happen to be transgender.

Yes, on the same day that President Trump tweeted that the nations armed forces would no longer welcome transgender service members, Montanas secretary of state cleared a proposed ballot initiative that would make it illegal for Montanans to use the taxpayer-funded facilities of their choice, and allow people to sue for emotional or mental distress if they encounter a transgender person in a public bathroom or locker room.

It appears the presidents tweets were premature and there are no immediate plans to reinstate the ban that was lifted just last year. However, his message was clear: its war on transgender people.

And Montana, unfortunately, is now on the front lines thanks to the ballot initiative submitted by Jeff Laszloffy of the Montana Family Foundation, the same group that tried to push Montanas Legislature into passing a similar law earlier this year. That effort failed, thankfully, but now the foundation is working to put its discriminatory agenda before voters in 2018.

Initiative 183 would require a person using a locker room or protected facility in a government building or public school to use the facility that is designated for that person's sex. In order to appear on the 2018 ballot, the initiative must earn at least 25,800 signatures representing at least 5 percent of voters from at least 34 House districts in the state.

Theres no telling how many people in Montana have never (knowingly) met a transgender individual and may harbor some misunderstandings about them, but its highly likely that supporters of this initiative will try to leverage those misunderstandings into fear and loathing.

The truth is, Montana doesnt have and doesnt need any law barring anyone, of any gender or race or religious background, from using certain public facilities. There simply isnt a problem  but this ballot initiative could create some.

As the supporters of I-183 attempt to justify the need for such a law, we suggest that they explain to Montanans why the mother of an 18-year-old boy with severe autism should not be allowed to help her son use a public restroom  not even after checking to ensure the room is empty, not even in a private stall.

And while they are at it, tell the adult son of an 80-year-old woman with Alzheimers that he may not enter the womens restroom to help guide his distressed mother out of a confusing and unfamiliar place.

Tell Montanas law enforcement officers, attorneys and judges why they should spend any portion of their valuable time enforcing this requirement when there are so many other urgent matters demanding their attention.

The tragically misguided folks proposing this law harbor the delusion that they can tell, at a glance, whether someone was born male or female. The reality is that they are much more likely to mistake feminine-looking men and masculine-looking women for transgender people, and subject them to the humiliation of having to produce a birth certificate to prove it  humiliation they intend only for those who are transgender.

And it would backfire. The law would require transgender men to use the womens bathroom and the womens shower  and transgender women to use mens facilities - because of a single letter on their birth certificate.

As a practical matter, do we really want to require Montanans to carry birth certificates to prove sex in order to use public facilities? And are we really prepared to pay out public dollars to individuals who sue for emotional distress over this issue?

Remember, North Carolina passed a similar law  and its economy has yet to recover. At last count, the state had lost out on an estimated $3.76 billion over the next 12 years.

We think Montanans have too much common sense and regard for our neighbors to enact laws that would do absolutely no good  and plenty of harm.

Perhaps, though, theres a way to make everyone happy and put this matter to rest once and for all. In that spirit, and tongue firmly in cheek, heres our own modest bathroom proposal: Lets hold a statewide vote on whether those who keep trying to pass bathroom bills should be required to do their business in outhouses from now on.

Sure, it might be inconvenient, giving up the comforts and convenience of indoor plumbing, but surely its a small price to pay for the iron-clad assurance of complete privacy.

The rest of us will leave our birth certificates at home and continue to make free use of Montanas public restrooms.
A blog by Jay Livingston -- what I've been thinking, reading, seeing, or doing. Although I am a member of the Montclair State University department of sociology, this blog has no official connection to Montclair State University. Montclair State University does not endorse the views or opinions expressed therein. The content provided is that of the author and does not express the view of Montclair State University.
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I love learning. I wanted to write about how I learn, so I can analyze if there is a method to this madness. I will first talk about what my learning process looks like in abstract terms, and then I'll give an analogy to make things more concrete and visual. Learning is a messy process for me I know some very clear thinkers. They are very organized and methodical. I am not like that. These tidy thinkers seem to learn a new subject quickly (and effortlessly) by studying the rules of the subject and then deriving everything about that subject from that set of rules. They speak in precise statements and have clear and hard-set opinions about the subject. They seem to thrive most in theoretical subjects. In my observation those tidy learners are in the minority. Maybe the tidy thinkers are able to pull this feat off because they come from a neighboring domain/subject and map the context there to this subject quickly. But, again from my experience, it doesn't feel like that. It s
MUSCATINE  Councilman Michael Rehwaldt said the results of the state's audit into the city's travel expenses, "could not be better."

City Administrator Gregg Mandsager has yet to comment on the re-audit report, which evaluated more than $4,000 in city expenses incurred during a trip to China in 2014. State Auditor Mary Mosiman found insufficient documentation to prove the public purpose of the trip and a lack of transparency in how some expenses were reported.

The auditor also questioned 14 expenditures recorded as "Advertising and Publications" and found travel authorization forms were not completed, as required by city policy. The report said the methods used were "misleading to the citizens" and recommended having the council preapprove all travel to China and document its public purpose, and to implement procedures that allowed for transparency.

In a press release, the city said there were "no major issues" found in the audit, and that it disagrees with all of the auditor's findings and recommendations, finding them "outside the scope of the state auditor's authority." The release also said the city does not plan to implement policy changes as a result, and that the trip was related to economic development, including a "significant amount of Chinese investment in developments in the city" that are ongoing. It also said it had recorded spending as it had in order to be able to more easily track those costs.

Rehwaldt, the first city official to comment publicly, seconded that response.

"First, the state auditor confirmed that not one penny was missing and not one penny was spent without proper documentation," Rehwaldt said, in an email. "I salute our fine award-winning city treasurer for her exemplary work."

Rehwaldt also took aim at Mayor Diana Broderson, who called for the state auditor to review the city's books.

She has said residents questioned the trip, and in response, she contacted city officials, the state ombudsman and then the state auditor. It was one of her first actions in office, and was among the issues council members cited when they removed her from office in May, saying she had a pattern of making baseless or false accusations against city officials. In an interview last week, Broderson argued the re-audit would not have been necessary if expenditures were initially recorded with transparency.

"The audit provided a perfect example of Ms. Broderson's behaviormaking repeated accusations with no basis in fact. And costing the taxpayers of Iowa and Muscatine money needlessly," Rehwaldt said in an email. "Once again [Broderson] has willfully ignored city code and state law in pursuit of her desire to cause needless trouble and harm. Broderson has done this time and time again. She cannot say she didn't know what she was doing. To say she didn't know the gun was loaded might work once, but not 15 times.

"The troublesome behavior in violation of city code and law is what the controversy is all about," Rehwaldt said. "It is time this stopped."

About a month after being removed from office, a Muscatine County District Court judge reinstated her, pending final ruling on her appeal.

Saturday morning, Broderson announced she will run for re-election and plans to continue hearing and investigating residents concerns.

"In her announcement Saturday that she is running for re-election, [Broderson] strongly hinted that she plans to continue this behavior," Rehwaldt said. "Enough is enough."

Other city officials and city council members did not respond to a request for comment.
A Muscatine man is in custody after a shooting and standoff at a Muscatine residence.

Mario Perales, of 2015 Schiller St., was arrested late Sunday after an incident at his residence, according to Muscatine County Attorney Alan R. Ostergren.

Muscatine police responded to a 911 call at 6:04 p.m. that reported a male subject had been shot at the residence. Officers immediately approached the residence and pulled the victim to safety.

Police established a perimeter and attempted to make contact with Perales, whom they suspected was inside the residence. After attempts to contact him were unsuccessful, officers introduced chemical irritants into the residence.

Perales then surrendered. A Muscatine police officer suffered a minor injury while breaching the residence. The Special Response Teams of both the Muscatine Police Department and the Muscatine County Sheriff's Department were at the scene. The Muscatine Fire Department also responded.

The victim, who had multiple gunshot wounds, was transported to Trinity Muscatine, then transferred to University Hospitals, Iowa City. Neither the victim's name nor his condition was available late Sunday.

Perales has been charged with attempt to commit murder, a class B felony punishable by imprisonment for a term not to exceed 25 years, and interference with official acts while armed with a dangerous weapon, a class D felony punishable by imprisonment for a term not to exceed five years.

He will be held without bond in Muscatine County Jail pending an initial appearance at 9 a.m. Monday.
Important stuff you won't get from the liberal media! We do the surfing so you can be informed AND have a life!
Les emplois a Rennes sont abondants et varies. Il y a quelque chose pour tout le monde. Que vous soyez a la recherche dun emploi []
Les blattes ou cafards (Blatta orientalis) sont des insectes qui appartiennent a la famille des Blattoptera. Ils se caracterisent par leur forme allongee, leurs ailes []
A multistate salmonella outbreak tied to Maradol papayas from Mexico is just the latest example of fresh produceand not the usual suspects, eggs and poultrycontaminated with a potentially lethal strain of the bacteria.

According to a review of the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions list of selected salmonella-outbreak investigations, the majority of cases since 2006 have been tied to produce or products made from raw produce. During that period, investigators have looked into approximately 30 cases of salmonella outbreaks traced to fruits, vegetables, nuts and the like. Over the same time, there have been approximately 20 cases linked to meats, poultry, eggs and similar products.

Whats more, according to a Food and Drug Administration review of CDC data from 1996 to 2010, approximately 131 produce-related reported outbreaks occurred, resulting in 14,350 outbreak-related illnesses, 1,382 hospitalizations and 34 deaths. These outbreaks were associated with approximately 20 different fresh-produce commodities.

Some of these outbreaks have had lethal results, including a 2015 outbreak linked to Mexican cucumbers that killed six people. An outbreak traced to peanut butter in 2008 and 2009 led to the deaths of nine people. It also led to a 28-year sentence for the owner of the Georgia peanut plant.

The papaya-related outbreak has, to date, killed one person, in New York City. But it has infected 47 people in 12 states, leading to a dozen hospitalizations, according to the CDC. (The agency is recommending that consumers not eat, restaurants not serve and retailers not sell Maradol papayas from Mexico until the CDC learns more.)

Food safety experts say the apparent uptick in salmonella outbreaks tied to produce reflects two opposing forces in American society: consumers desire to eat more healthful foods and the agricultural communitys distaste for costly regulations.

For years, Americans have been told that they need to eat more fruits and vegetables, and there is some evidence that they are heeding that advice. Those who are consuming more fruits and vegetables frequently eat the produce raw to take full advantage of the foods nutritional qualities.

But when fruits or vegetables are contaminated with salmonella, eaters can become infected when chomping down on fresh produce, said Francisco Diez-Gonzalez, professor and director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia. Washing the produce wont help, either. Only cooking it will destroy the salmonella: The bacteria are killed within seconds at temperatures above 160 degrees Fahrenheit.

How does produce get contaminated with salmonella? It can happen in any number of ways, says Diez-Gonzalez. Farmers may be using contaminated water on their crops, or they may be using manure infected with bacteria. But the produce could also be poorly handled further down the supply chain. Vegetables, for example, could get contaminated if theyre chopped on a cutting board previously used to, say, debone a chicken.

Then there are the rogue farmers and producers, such as the owner of the Georgia peanut plant who gave the green light to ship peanut butter containers covered in dust and rat crap, according to court documents. Some of these rogue farmers may be located in other countries, too.

You cannot generalize, Diez-Gonzalez said, because some of the farms in Mexico have very high standards, and some of them dont.

But food safety experts say they hope the FDAs new produce safety rulepart of the Food Safety Modernization Act, which President Barack Obama signed in 2011will help cut down on the salmonella cases connected to fruits, vegetables and the like. Starting in January, Americas largest farms will have to comply with certain parts of the rule. Smaller growers will have additional time before they must comply.

The produce safety rule, says Jim OHara, director of health promotion policy for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, will set standards for water quality, place microbial limits on compost and manure, and require worker training for hygiene, among other regulations. Foreign farms that want to export produce to America will have to prove their agricultural standards match the new U.S. rules.

All the steps that it takes to move a product to the field, to the processing plant, to the table, there are any number of points along the way that bacteria can contaminate the produce, OHara said. Its really important that there be this prevention mind-set literally before you plant the seed.

Despite the public safety concerns, there has been resistance among producers to swallow the costs necessary to adopt the new regulations, both OHara and Diez-Gonzalez note. Hence the reason it has taken years to implement the regulations.

But once the regulations start to take effect next year, theres no guarantee the salmonella cases linked to produce will drop. The FDA will need resources to enforce the laws, and President Donald Trumps administration has already indicated it wants to cut the agencys budget significantly.

Diez-Gonzalez remains optimistic.

Its going to help us, he said. I think its a step in the right direction.
The most respected businesswoman in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, Peg Hays is almost always right. Hays, daughter of the town's first Republican mayor, was right when she said her party would one day outnumber Democrats in Kentucky. She was right when she said that building the town's Trail of Tears Commemorative Park would make Hopkinsville a hub for Native American tourism. And she was right when she said this, too:

"The young people are coming back," Hays told me. "Your generation didn't come back."

I grew up outside Hopkinsville and in high school had three very close friends. Only one lives there today. Another friend and I live in New York; the fourth is in Louisville.

Hopkinsville is the seat of Christian County, a farm community hit hard by President Bill Clinton's restrictions on raising its cash crop: tobacco. Somehow the billions of dollars awarded in the federal tobacco settlement, intended to help farmers find alternative crops, missed us. Tobacco demand went down. Stores began to close. Then the local blue-jean factory moved production to Mexico. In an 18-month span, unemployment tripled. So my generation, Generation X, got out of Dodge.

But now Hopkinsville's mayor, Carter Hendricks, tells me things are looking up. From 2005 to 2015, Hopkinsville's per-capita income increased by 50 percent to $20,834, poverty has dropped, and there's a robust new transit system.

Why the turnaround?

Hendricks credits much of it to the moment a decade ago when the town discovered it was about to play host to a once-in-a-lifetime natural event. This much is certainly true: On Aug. 21, for a full two minutes and 40 seconds - about the longest eclipse duration in the country - Hopkinsville will be the center of the world.

The total solar eclipse will be the first solely visible in the United States. Eighty percent of Americans live within 600 miles of its path spanning Oregon to South Carolina. The point of greatest eclipse: A tobacco farm near Hopkinsville.

Eclipses are known to draw a crowd. In Mexico, a 1991 eclipse brought so many tourists, the Mexican government closed the border. At dead center, Hopkinsville expects 250,000. At least, that's the number Christian County Judge/Executive Steve Tribble has heard.

Hopkinsville's solar eclipse marketing and event coordinator, Brooke Jung, has a more conservative figure: 100,000. "We're asking restaurants to order extra food," she said, explaining why her projections are lower. "We want to be realistic. We don't want them buying too much in case fewer people come." The city has invited out-of-town food trucks; McDonald's got a refrigeration truck for storing patties out back.

Considering eclipse-chasers once overwhelmed an international border, the residents of Hopkinsville are taking everything in stride. One local said the biggest change he'll have to make is remembering to lock his house door: "I usually keep it undone."

Another man sees my family in Cracker Barrel while I'm home visiting my parents for Christmas and - knowing our farm is at the epicenter - yells "Y'all ready for that eclipse?" across four tables.

Ask Jung who's most excited, and she points to the digital countdown on her wall showing time left between now and totality. "I can't wait." The fact that her job was even created shows everyone knows this is Hopkinsville's chance to shine.

Ten years ago, Cheryl Cook, executive director of the Hopkinsville Convention and Visitors Bureau, received an email from an eclipse-chaser asking about area hotels. She thought it was a prank. But NASA has mapped eclipse paths through the year 3000, so Aug. 21 was easy to confirm. With that confirmation came something Hopkinsville had been missing since tobacco crashed: Hope.

Hendricks said: "There began to become a real attitudinal shift in the leadership of the community that just said, look, enough's enough. . . . We're going to deal with it, and we started dealing with it. And then that same attitude shifted into, well, wait a second: We've been talking about this abandoned rail spur. We tried to convert it into a greenway; we've been defeated. Why don't we try again?" So a former L&N line was converted into green space. Then a water park was built. "There's been those improvements over the last 10 to 12 years that have actually been occurring to allow this current batch of recent college graduates to feel more pride and the desire to want to come back," he said.

Sarah Whitaker is one of "the young people" who decided to return to Hopkinsville. "The last two or three years, there's this momentum," said Whitaker, who chairs Hopkinsville Young Professionals Engage, an under-45 networking group. "It's just really taken off just with the things that are opening. All the chains and sort of big box stores have announced that they're coming. . . . Hopkinsville is booming like crazy. . . . I think when one positive thing happens, it's kind of a domino effect."

Ask Hays how the dominoes help long-term economic growth, and she said, "Depends on whether you believe in trickle-down economics." She and her husband own Casey Jones Distillery. She's honest that economic impact isn't the town's main eclipse goal.

"When it's over, what will have made you think the eclipse was successful?" I asked.

"That we have had visitors who will have had incredible experiences . . . here in our community [because they] get to participate in this unbelievable celestial event that's going to occur right here." Whitaker added: "I think everybody wants to make money. I mean, that's the big deal, is out of all of that let's follow the money. But I do think if you can offer that great experience that you'll capture the economic side of it."

The mayor agreed: "It's going to be hard to measure long-term economic impact. . . . In essence, what we hope will happen is that as people come here . . . they will have the type of experience where they want to come back at some point in their future. In that regard, we hope that it has a ripple effect on long-term economic impact."

It's not just them. The sense of community pride, not just a hope for profits, is echoed all over town. As a native, I've never seen local leadership this aligned.

"Everybody's working together now," Tribble said. "They really are . . . better than they ever have, in my opinion. It's funny, because we've got a Republican mayor, Carter Hendricks, and, of course, I'm a Democrat. But I don't care what somebody is."

Indeed, if Republicans and Democrats can come together for the good of constituents in today's political climate, perhaps the eclipse has turned Hopkinsville into some small utopia - an astronomical alignment of celestial bodies foretelling world peace.

"I wouldn't go that far," my mother tells me.

If Mom's right, though, and the eclipse isn't a chance for peace, then maybe it's a chance for Hays to finally be wrong. Both my high school friend and I love New York, but as members of Hopkinsville's lost generation, we long for home. August 21, while eclipse-chasers hope for clear weather, I'll be hoping for Hopkinsville. Every day that life continues to improve there is one day closer to creating a place Gen Xers can return to one that we would be proud to call home.
The political deal that led to reauthorization of Californias cap-and-trade program to reduce carbon emissions has many pieces, but one of the strangest is Assembly Constitutional Amendment 1 (ACA1).

To win support from Assembly Republican leader Chad Mayes and presumably several other Republicans, Gov. Jerry Brown and his fellow Democrats agreed to place the measure, authored by Mayes, on next years statewide ballot.

ACA 1 would, if approved by voters, place in the constitution a requirement that money from the quarterly auctions of cap-and-trade emission allowances be diverted into a special reserve fund beginning in 2024 and an appropriation from the reserve would require a two-thirds legislative vote.

Mayes, et al, contend that the two-thirds vote requirement would give Republican legislators a meaningful role in deciding how the cap-and-trade funds are spent, with a subliminal corollary that it would give them a potential veto on Browns controversial bullet train project.

However, as political cover for Republican cap-and-trade votes this month  seven in the Assembly and one in the Senate  ACA 1 is thin gruel.

First of all, it would have to obtain voter approval next year, by no means a certainty. Voters tend to reject ballot measures they dont understand.

Secondly, it doesnt apply until 2024, so until then Democrats will be free to spend billions of dollars in cap-and-trade auction funds however they wish, including a mandatory 25 percent to keep the bullet train project alive.

Next, its highly unlikely that Republicans will have enough legislative members in 2024 to block an appropriation. Democrats have two-thirds supermajorities in both legislative houses now and the next round of redistricting, after the 2020 census, will likely generate even more Democratic seats and make those supermajorities permanent.

Finally, the wording of ACA 1 contains a potential escape route for Democrats. It frees up the cap-and-trade money to be spent by simple majority votes after an appropriation from the reserve fund. Thus, appropriating even one nickel removes Mayes restriction.

The real impact of ACA 1, if any, might be to make it slightly more difficult for the High-Speed Rail Authority to pledge cap-and-trade funds as repayment for a bond issue to build the second phase of the bullet train, linking the San Joaquin Valley to San Jose.

The first stretch of track running down the San Joaquin Valley from Merced to an orchard north of Bakersfield is now under construction. But to have a system that would actually be useful, it would have to be electrified, locomotives and passenger cars would have to be purchased and, most importantly, it would have to link something with something.

Bullet train promoters believe that linking Fresno with San Jose (and to faster Caltrain service from San Jose to San Francisco) would generate enough ridership to prove viability and attract outside capital, but there are no current prospects for financing the $20 billion second phase.

Pledging cap-and-trade money for a construction bond, which officials have suggested, might generate enough to make it happen. But bond buyers would have to believe that emission auctions would generate a sufficient and permanent source of revenue, and that belief could be undercut by the requirement for a two-thirds vote after 2024. Brown appears to be betting that it wont hurt his pet project.

Its one of those tangled financial and political webs that Capitol insiders savor and ordinary people despise.

The post Could complex cap-and-trade deal derail Jerry Browns bullet train? appeared first on CALmatters.
In the early morning of July 5, NYPD Officer Miosotis Familia was killed by a gunman in an ambush attack while patrolling a Bronx neighborhood. Just weeks earlier, on the other side of the country, a UPS employee entered his San Francisco workplace armed with two guns and opened fire, killing three of his co-workers and injuring two others before turning the gun on himself. While seemingly unrelated, these examples of gun violence share one common feature: Both were committed with stolen firearms.

Its a well-known fact of modern American life that we collectively own a massive number of guns _ the best guess places the number at about 300 million. One of the risks inherent in this level of gun ownership is theft. Indeed, a new analysis by the Center for American Progress of data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found that a gun is stolen in the U.S. every two minutes.

The ATF, which is responsible for oversight of the gun industry, has been particularly concerned about burglaries and robberies of gun stores, finding that the former have increased 48 percent and the latter 175 percent between 2012 and 2016. During this period, nearly 31,500 guns were stolen from gun stores.

But its not just gun stores that are targets for thieves. In 2015 alone, gun owners reported $164 million worth of guns stolen nationwide. Local police agencies have sounded the alarm about a rise in thefts from vehicles, urging gun owners to leave their weapons at home or lock them securely if they are left in a car.

These thefts represent more than financial losses to gun owners and dealers. Guns are both dangerous weapons and durable goods. Once stolen, they dont simply disappear from the nations gun stock _ they are transferred and traded in underground illegal markets and often end up used in violent crimes, like the slayings of Officer Familia and UPS employees Wayne Chan, Benson Louie and Michael Lefiti.

Like most aspects of gun violence in the U.S., there is much more that could be done to address this problem.

Amazingly, under current law, the ATF cannot require gun dealers to even lock their doors. Certainly most gun store owners, like any other business owner who wants to make a profit, have implemented security measures to protect against theft. However, gun theft numbers make clear that we cannot solely rely on the industry to police itself.

Congress needs to give the ATF the authority to require gun dealers to take certain basic steps to secure their inventory. A good starting place is the bill Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., introduced this week, which would require gun dealers to store guns securely after business hours and would direct the attorney general to consider regulations regarding additional security requirements.

Congress also needs to ease other restrictions that impede the ATFs ability to effectively oversee gun dealers, such as the appropriations rider that prevents the ATF from requiring dealers to conduct an annual inventory reconciliation, and adequately fund the agency so that it can conduct regular compliance inspections with dealers to help identify security risks.

Theres also more that policymakers could do to help prevent thefts from individual gun owners. Gun owners should be required, or at the very least incentivized, to lock up their guns when they are not in use. Not only would this measure help prevent theft, but it would also greatly reduce the risk of accidental shootings by curious children who find guns in their homes.

Policymakers can also improve data collection on how often guns are stolen and the circumstances of those thefts. In most states, gun owners are not required by law to report thefts to law enforcement. That makes the numbers available to the FBI a likely undercount and renders it difficult to accurately gauge the true scope of this problem or develop smart, targeted policy approaches to address it.

Everyone loses when guns are stolen: the gun dealer or owner who suffers a financial loss, law enforcement working to investigate crimes perpetrated with stolen guns, and communities victimized by shootings committed with these guns. A handful of states have stepped in to fill some of these gaps. Maybe this could be one place where Congress could set aside the usual maddening dynamics of the gun debate and actually get something done.
This letter is to thank Congressman Mike Thompson for his constant support and advocacy for our schools. Despite representing a district that includes five counties and contains approximately 733,000 people, Congressman Thompson takes the time to become familiar with what is happening in Napa County schools, talks to students about government and the law, and observes, firsthand, the benefits of many state- and federally funded programs.

This year, the congressman visited the Napa County Office of Education's Cool School after-school and accompanying AmeriCorps program, which provides students with academic tutoring and mentoring to support social-emotional learning. When funding for these programs is at risk, Congressman Thompson can always be counted on to support their continuance, knowing personally what a difference they make for kids.

We are fortunate to have a home-grown congressman representing Napa County in Washington. This has always been true, and is especially important right now, when school funding appears to be at-risk. Next time you see Mike, please thank him for his steadfast advocacy for our kids and our county.

Barbara Nemko

Napa
Austal Chief Executive Officer David Singleton said the ceremonial keel laying was a significant milestone in the A$306 million PPB-R Project, which is the first major element of the Australian Governments $89 billion Naval Shipbuilding Plan.



Austal is delivering on every aspect of the Pacific Patrol Boat Replacement project; from the design and build here in Henderson, to the sustainment of the vessels in Cairns, Mr Singleton said.



This project is anticipated to employ more than 200 people directly at Austal and hundreds more through our growing Australian supply chain, providing outstanding career opportunities for both qualified workers and apprentices across the country.



Weve already employed more than 30 new apprentices so far this year and we anticipate having 100 on board by the end of 2017, he added.



The Pacific Patrol Boat Replacement contract further highlights Austals inherent capability to deliver the Royal Australian Navys new Offshore Patrol Vessels, with joint venture partner Fassmer of Germany and our established supply chain of over 1,000 companies Australia-wide. Mr Singleton concluded.



Austal is Australias pre-eminent patrol boat builder, having delivered the Bay, Armidale and Cape class fleets, a total of 32 vessels, to the Australian Border Force and Royal Australian Navy over the past 19 years.



The Pacific Patrol Boat Replacement (PPB-R) contract was awarded to Austal following a competitive tender in May 2016 and comprises the design, build and sustainment of nineteen 39.5 metre steel-hulled patrol boats, for 12 Pacific Island nations. The vessels are being gifted by the Australian Government to enhance practical maritime security cooperation across the South Pacific region.



The first vessel, one of four to be delivered to Papua New Guinea, is due for completion in the last quarter of 2018.
The $12.5 million redevelopment will improve productivity and reliability through a maintenance support tower, sky bridge and new amenities and office areas, significantly cutting the time workers spend accessing a submarine under maintenance.



Finance Minister Mathias Cormann and Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne jointly opened the redevelopment at ASC West, in Henderson, at a ceremony attended by ASC management and personnel, senior Defence Department, Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and defence industry leaders.



This major redevelopment at ASCs Western Australian facility lays a solid foundation for ASCs future as a key sovereign asset delivering Australias submarine capability, said ASC Interim Chief Executive Officer Stuart Whiley.



It is an exciting development that comes at a time of significant investment and commitment to growing Australias future submarine capability by the Federal Government. ASC looks forward to being a key part of delivering that capability growth.



The redevelopment comes after ASC and the Defence Department agreed a further five year performance period for the sustainment of the Collins Class submarine fleet, which commenced on 1 July this year.



The awarding of the next performance period of the In Service Support Contract (ISSC) came after the Submarine Enterprise achieved international benchmark submarine maintenance performance this year.



ASC has committed to go beyond benchmark with its partners in the Submarine Enterprise, made up of the Defence Department, RAN, ASC and Raytheon Australia (combat system).



The Federal Government reviewed Collins Class submarine maintenance last year and found it to be an exemplar program.



Mr Whiley said ASCs experience and know-how, from 30 years building and sustaining Collins Class submarines in Australia, made it a critical capability partner in Australia in coming years to meet increased submarine capability requirements, including the maintenance, upgrade and life-of-type extension of the Collins Class fleet as well as assisting in the delivery of the Future Submarine (FSM) program.



ASC West was opened in 2008 and carries out in-service maintenance of Collins Class submarines. Its workforce has grown significantly in the past two years, up from approximately 250 employees to today employing more than 380 permanent personnel and more than 120 contractors. (see further background information on back page)



ASCs facility in South Australia carries out submarine deep maintenance and employs more than 900 personnel.



The upgrade of ASCs submarine facility at Henderson builds on the facility upgrade at ASCs South Australian facility in 2014, which delivered approximately 30 percent productivity improvements in submarine deep maintenance.



ASCs successful innovation and transformation of deep maintenance in South Australia led to the adoption of similar reforms at ASC West, which will lead to further productivity improvements in our submarine operations, said Mr Whiley.



The more time workers can spend working on submarines means more efficient, cost-effective and productive submarine maintenance, and ultimately greater submarine availability and reliability for the Royal Australian Navy."



This project is demonstration of our commitment to Australias naval defence capabilities, now and into the future.
Rachel Scher tends to make up her mind early. In eighth grade, she told her mother that she wanted to work with children who have cancer. In high school, she applied to Emory College through its early-decision program. During her freshman year, she decided to go to Emory's Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing to become a pediatric oncology nurse. Then in her sophomore year, she received a Dean's Scholarship Award, which is supported by gifts to the Nursing Scholarship Fund.She attributes her career choice to parental wisdom, an interest in medicine, and her volunteer experiences. Scher 17N, her twin brother, and older sister grew up in New Jersey, where their father is an adult oncologist and their mother a radiologist."Our parents didn't push us into medicine," she says. "They told us about the difficult things they had to deal with and the rewards of it. The three of us volunteered as counselors at camp for children with cancer or whose parents had cancer. We saw cancer from both sides and how resilient children could be. Ever since then, there's no other population I've wanted to work with."Once in college, Scher thought about which work setting fit best with her interest. "I saw myself in the hospital at the bedside, spending time with patients, assessing them, seeing how they change from morning to night or night from morning," she says. "Being there for their best moments and their worst moments and being able to support them. That is what nursing allows me to do."Scher has prepared for those moments guided by Emory faculty members like Jeannie Weston EdD MSN RN. She was paired with Weston for Saturday pediatric clinicals at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston. The 14-hour days were well worth it."Professor Weston taught us assessment skills and how important it is to listen to your patients," says Scher. "If we weren't doing something for one minute, she'd find another patient for us to learn about. She taught us about patient-centered and family-centered care and how to put your patient first, which translates into any nursing specialty."This past year, Scher helped establish Atlanta Pediatric Cancer Outreach, a student organization that serves pediatric cancer patients and families. Scher served as vice president of the organization, which prepares meals for families at the Ronald McDonald House and raises money to provide wigs for children with hair loss and other projects. The No. 1 goal of the group: "We want to help make children happy," says Scher.She is now set to begin her career as a new BSN graduate. In July, she will enter the nurse residency program on the bone marrow transplant unit at Emory University Hospital, where she will rely on the skills and values learned at the School of Nursing and during her externship at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston last summer."Every patient experience is different," Scher reflects. "Some are in and out of the hospital multiple times, and many are cured of their disease. It's important to think long term about how that will affect them. Listening to them makes a huge difference in their care. That's the most important lesson I've learned."




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Hong Kongs democratic struggle and the rise of Chinese authoritarianism

A new wave of pro-democratic protests led by advocates once again ready to act is fomenting as Hong Kongs autonomy and democratic political system are under threat.

Four pro-democracy Hong Kong lawmakers of the Legislative Council have been ousted. AP Photo/Kin Cheun

Kelly Chernin, University of Florida

In July, a Hong Kong court purged four pro-democracy politicians from its Legislative Council.

This move comes after two other Hong Kong lawmakers were expelled from the Legislative Council earlier this year and at the same time as the recent death of Chinese political activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo. Add to this the growing unpopularity of Hong Kongs new leader, Carrie Lam.

A new wave of pro-democratic protests has begun in what was once seen as a model metropolitan city.

In a classic David and Goliath scenario, pro-democracy advocates in Hong Kong are struggling to stand up to the Chinese mainlands increasing control over the territory. Unfortunately for Hong Kongs democratic movement, it looks like Goliath may have the upper hand.

My dissertation research on the 2014 Umbrella Movement shows that despite recent attempts to gain more political momentum, many recent pro-democracy calls to action have struggled in the face of Chinese power and Hong Kongs pro-Beijing dominated Legislature. In fact, more radical localist movements that favor complete separation from China are becoming more common.

The rise of localism

The localist movement, made up of different and diverse groups, gained popularity in the wake of the 2014 Umbrella Movement in which 100,000 people took to the streets for 79 days to demand universal suffrage. Following the Umbrella Movement, I interviewed the people of Hong Kong on their views on the territorys political future. A year after the movement, these individuals felt optimistic about the territorys democratic future. Two years later, people began to lose faith in Hong Kongs political system.

Many of the people I interviewed on my trips in 2015 and 2016 believed the Umbrella Movement remained peaceful because neither the Chinese government nor the people of Hong Kong wanted a repeat of June 4, 1989 in Tiananmen Square, when the student movement that had lasted for months ended with the deaths of hundreds at the hands of Chinese forces clearing the city square.

And at first, localists seemed willing to work within the political system, so long as their elected officials were able to enact policies under one country, two systems. But in 2016, violent skirmishes between Hong Kong police and localist activists took place in what was dubbed the Fishball Riots. Although violence has not been the primary goal of recent protests, activists have expressed willingness to use more forceful action if Beijing continues to increase its control.

I believe this new wave of protests may potentially lead to more violence. As opposed the Umbrella Movements call for universal suffrage, localist groups will likely unite under the rallying cry for independence from the unseen influence of Beijing.

One party politics

With the expulsion of the six lawmakers this year, the pro-democracy faction of Hong Kongs Legislative Council no longer has veto power against pro-Beijing politicians. Some of the ousted politicians have announced that they will run for office again, but it is unlikely that pro-democratic politicians will ever outnumber their pro-Beijing counterparts. Increasingly, Hong Kongs government seems to be an extension of Beijings one-party rule: a political system in which only the Chinese Communist Party makes decisions.

Its no surprise that China is so eager to reassert its control over the territory. Hong Kong was once considered Chinas Gateway to the World and Asias World City. Yet Hong Kong was also one of the few places that kept the memory of democratic ideas alive in the region. That democratic tradition may be nearing its end.

Hong Kongs democratic traditions, remnants of British colonialism, are being challenged. Under Chinese sovereignty, Hong Kongs political system is being pushed in the opposite direction favoring more authoritarian policies.

The yearly June Fourth candlelight vigils, established to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, were once well-attended events. In recent years, interest has dwindled. Younger generations have become more interested in their own causes. A growing number of factions seems to plague Hong Kongs democratic movement.

Hong Kongs relative autonomy following its 1997 transition out of British rule seemed to signal that the mainland could also experience democratic reform. As both economies flourished, more political freedom seemed possible.

Unfortunately, Chinas authoritarian system has continued to exert control, thwarting democratic reform in both territories. If the global community does not pay attention, the prospect of a democratic China will continue to slip away. The more attention that is placed on Hong Kongs current political crisis, the harder it will be for China to overtake the territorys weakening democratic movement. Hong Kongs pro-democracy camp cannot stand up to China alone.

Kelly Chernin, Lecturer in International Communications, University of Florida

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
The dynamics of disease and poverty

Growing up in rural Cameroon, Africa, Calistus Ngonghala watched helplessly as malaria and HIV-stricken neighbors traveled on foot for hours or days to reach clinics with antibiotics and antiretrovirals. Others made the journey by piling six to eight into compact cars designed for four.

These haunting memories fuel the mathematician's ambitions. In a field known for working equations, Ngonghala puts equations to work for the world's sick and poor.

The University of Florida assistant professor of mathematical biology uses math to understand the complex biological and socio-economic processes that characterize vicious cycles of poverty and disease in developing countries, and make predictions and policy recommendations for ending the cycles. Ngonghala argues that math should work to solve real world problems, and that governments can utilize mathematical models to help the worlds most impoverished people climb out of poverty traps.

Mathematics is not just the equations done in elementary and high schools around the world, Ngonghala said. Theres this idea that math is just solving equations and its not all that useful in everyday life. Actually, math is a special language, a fundamental tool, for critical thinking in almost every walk of life. My ambition is to put equations into practical use. And Im trying to do it in a way that relates directly to me, to my home country, and to the problems I experienced growing up.

As a visiting professor in the masters of public health program at the French School of Public Health in Paris, a postdoctoral associate at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis, a research fellow at Harvard Medical School, and now an assistant professor in UFs mathematics department and an affiliate of UFs Emerging Pathogens Institute, for years, Ngonghala has developed models to investigate the connections between poverty and disease in the world's most impoverished places.

In Cameroon, Ngonghala noticed a cycle of poverty, disease and pests, which kept his friends and family members from reaching their fullest potential. When people were too sick to work, they became too poor to afford health care. If they were too poor to afford health care, they certainly were not able to afford pest control to rid their homes of insects like malaria-carrying mosquitoes.

If youre poor, youre more likely to get sick. And if youre poor, youre more likely to stay sick longer, Ngonghala said. As you can imagine, thats lost income if the sick person is the breadwinner of the family.

Of course, things are only made worse when local clinics cannot adequately treat common diseases, are understaffed, and when people have to walk long distances to reach a doctor.

Infectious disease is just one of the drivers of poverty. There are other things, too, like loss of renewable resources, population growth, land use changes, agricultural pests, and the list goes on, Ngonghala said, pointing out that people in extremely poor parts of the world rely mostly on their immediate surrounding for subsistence. So Im developing mathematical models that explain reinforcing feedbacks between poverty and these drivers, and using the models to inform policy on ways to disintegrate such feedbacks.

He recently led a team of scientists that developed a combination of economic, ecological and epidemiological models used to understand how relationships between biological and economic systems can lead to poverty traps. The teams findings appear this month in Nature Ecology and Evolution.

For the study, Ngonghala used economic and disease data from 83 countries, ranging from the poorest to the wealthiest nations. His team looked at factors like annual income, disease and death rates, and financial losses resulting from disease. They found high rates of disease and instances of unaffordable, or unavailable, health care were significantly higher in extremely poor countries.

Ngonghalas models show what he calls two different worlds. In the first world, poor people live in a place with low rate of disease among people, crops and animals, and are often able to escape poverty with economic aid. But in the second world, places like Madagascar, where the average income is less than $2 a day and disease is widespread, poverty traps are common and the poor are unable to dig themselves out.

In these cases, the numbers are against the poor and sick. Ngonghalas team found that unsustained economic aid and health care might not be enough for the poor to permanently break free of these poverty traps.

But Ngonghalas models show that theres a way to turn these numbers around. His analysis found that with sustained efforts to address the root causes of severe poverty, poverty traps can dissolve. His models also show that affordable, robust health care is a key determinant of sustainable economic growth for the poor.

Ngonghala created the models with an end result in mind of influencing policy in the developing world. He hopes the models will eventually encourage developing countries to adopt similar action as Rwanda did in 2015, when the Sub-Saharan country achieved all of its Millennium Development Goals, a series of international development goals. Rwanda did this through universal health coverage with social insurance systems and providing broad access to health care for the poor. Since then, economic growth in Rwanda has been among the highest in Africa.

Ngonghalas models still need to be tested using more detailed data from surveys done on the ground in developing countries. So, he is partnering with Pivot, a nonprofit that provides health care in Madagascar, to collect data, test the models and validate their efficiency. Once data is collected and the models validated, Ngonghala will be able to make predictions and recommendations, which governments and nonprofits can use to combat poverty traps.

The problems in Madagascar are in many ways like the problems in Cameroon and other developing countries, Ngonghala said. When we finish testing in Madagascar, then from there well go to other of the most impoverished countries and continue implementing the models.

By the end of his career, Ngonghala hopes to have contributed substantially to ending poverty and disease in some of the most impoverished areas of the world  including at home, in Cameroon.

There were just so many times when it couldve been different, Ngonghala said, recalling the past. And it all goes back to poverty and disease.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 03:04:58|Editor: Yurou Liang

People wait to vote during the election of the National Constituent Assembly (ANC) at a polling station in Caracas, Venezuela, on July 30, 2017. All the polling stations for electing members to the National Constituent Assembly in Venezuela opened at 6:00 a.m. local time (1030 GMT) on Sunday, despite opposition-led protests against the move. (Xinhua/Boris Vergara)

CARACAS, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Venezuelans turned out in large numbers to vote for a constituent assembly to amend the constitution, Vice President Tareck El Aissami said on Sunday.

"The people have turned out en masse to exercise this fundamental human right, this right that shows Venezuelans' civic spirit (and) commitment to building a country in a peaceful and democratic way," El Aissami told reporters, after casting his vote in central Aragua state.

Polls opened at 6 a.m. for elections to choose the members of a National Constituent Assembly (ANC) to debate and amend the Constitution, an initiative proposed by the government of President Nicolas Maduro to resolve the political crisis and rejected by the opposition as an attempt to consolidate his power.

Caracas-based news network Telesur posted photos on its website that showed large crowds or long lines at polling stations in different parts of the country.

The coalition of conservative opposition parties, known by its Spanish acronym MUD, contested reports that turnout was robust, posting images of abandoned streets outside what it alleged were polling stations on Sunday.

According to El Aissami, voting was proceeding smoothly, except for an "isolated incident" in Tachira state that authorities brought under control. He gave no further details.

He also called Sunday's vote "a turning point towards a Venezuela with equality (and) social justice."

Despite the opposition calling on its supporters to defy a ban against anti-government demonstrations, there were no reports of major disturbances, according to electoral officials.

However, pockets of violent protest continued to break out in certain areas.

Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said, "I can say that the entire country is completely calm at this time, except for certain outbreaks of violence against strengthening democracy through elections."

At least one person was reportedly killed as part of protests on Sunday.

Ricardo Campos, 30, died in the northeast state of Sucre, the General Prosecutor's Office said on Twitter.

An opposition legislator, Deputy Henry Ramos Allup, identified Campos as a youth opposition leader for the conservative Democratic Action (AD) party, and said he died of a gunshot near his home.

The ban on protests was in place from July 28 to August 1.
Penny Veck, visitors experience manager, drives a battery power train carrying members of the press inside the Mail Rail tunnels during a media preview of the new Postal Museum and the Mail Rail attraction in London on July 26, 2017.

Snaking through special underground tunnels that have lain abandoned for years, London's Mail Rail is opening to the public for the first time for a ride on tiny trains that not even the Blitz could stop. The attraction is part of the new Postal Museum opening on July 28 that retraces the vital role Britain's Royal Mail played over its 500 year history. (AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS)

LONDON, July 31 (Xinhua) -- A miniature railway that once whisked more than 4 million letters and parcels a day deep beneath London is to be brought back into use, as a heritage tourist attraction.

From the 1920s the network of rail tunnels was operational day and night along the little known "Post Office" railway, linking major postal sorting offices in the capital.

Tickets have now gone on sale for the first journeys along the route when it officially opens to visitors on Sept. 4.

The rail journey, in a specially built miniature rail carriages, is expected to become the star attraction at London's new Postal Museum which opened Friday to tell the story of Britain's Royal Mail.

The museum, opened by the Postal Heritage Trust, brings five centuries of British communications history to life, with displays and objects, such as a hand pistol issued to postmen in the past to protect them from robbers known as highwaymen.

The trust is now responsible for the massive collection of memorabilia, much of it on public display at the museum in Phoenix Place, Farringdon in central London.

Tickets are already selling fast for the railway experience, travelling on the 11-kilometer long "secret" rail network, that criss-crossed London's more famous Underground Rail network. The subterranean train network stretched from Whitechapel to Paddington, employing a staff of more than 200 postal workers. It enabled mail to be moved around London away from the crowded and busy streets above,.

The Postal Railway finally closed in 2003, but has remained mothballed until now.

One of the first people to be given a sneak preview of the new railway trains was Queen Elizabeth's daughter, the Princess Royal.

Because of the narrow width and height of the tunnels, two new trains have been adapted from the original design to enable them to carry passengers in miniature wagons.

A spokesman at the museum said: "For more than 75 years, the postal rail was a vital artery in Britain's communication network, hidden from view. Now our visitors will be able to experience it from Sept. 4.
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy Admiral Vladimir Korolev as they attend the Navy Day parade in St. Petersburg, Russia, July 30, 2017. (REUTERS PHOTO)

MOSCOW, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday paid tribute to the Russian Navy, speaking highly of its development and renovation as well as contribution to fighting terrorism and piracy, the Kremlin said.

"Russia's history is inseparable from the victories of its courageous and fearless Navy... Throughout the centuries, the fortitude and tenacity of Russian sailors was tempered in battles," Putin said in a speech at the main naval parade held in St. Petersburg, Russia's second largest city, in celebration of the Naval Day.

More than 5,000 sailors from the Baltic, Black Sea, Northern, Pacific fleets and the Caspian Flotilla participated in the parade, along with some 50 ships and submarines as well as more than 40 planes and helicopters of the naval aviation.

"Today the Navy is not only solving its traditional tasks but also nobly responding to new challenges, making a significant contribution to the fight against terrorism and piracy," Putin said.

The country will offer its full support to the reinforcement of the high moral and professional qualities of the Navy, he said.

"Much is being done today for the development and renovation of the Navy. New ships are being commissioned, the fleet's combat training and readiness are being perfected," Putin said.

According to the president, the Russian Navy will be replenished with 30 new ships and vessels this year.

The present Russian Navy was formed in January 1992, succeeding the Navy of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Established in 1939, the Russian Naval Day was originally celebrated on July 24 and was changed to the last Sunday in July in 1980.

This year, the Naval Day is celebrated in each Russian region and with special solemnity, according to the Kremlin.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 07:43:27|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

A contestant performs in the Stone Lock Kungfu category during a martial arts competition held in Shaolin Temple, central China's Henan province, July 30, 2017. The competition features four traditional events of Iron Palm Kungfu, Stone Lock Kungfu, Two-Finger Zen and Flying Knife Kungfu. (Xinhua/Li An)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 08:16:40|Editor: Yurou Liang

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LAS VEGAS, July 30 (Xinhua) -- The UnicornTeam researchers from 360 Technology, China's leading security company, demoed an "evil attack" at the on-going hacker summit in Las Vegas, Nevada. The attack, "Ghost Telephonist", can let hackers get the content of a user's call and SMS.

In the team's presentation at the on-going hacker summit Black Hat USA 2017 and DEF CON in Las Vegas, Nevada, security researchers introduced one vulnerability in CSFB (Circuit Switched Fallback) in 4G LTE network. In the CSFB procedure, researchers found the authentication step is missing.

"Several exploitations can be made based on this vulnerability," Unicorn Team wireless security researcher Huang Lin, told Xinhua. "We have reported this vulnerability to the Global System for Mobile Communications Alliance(GSMA)".

The security research team presented a scenario where one could reset a Google account password using a stolen mobile number.

After hijacking a user's communication, researcher signed in the user's Google Email and clicked "forget the password". Since Google sends verification code to the victim's mobile, attackers can intercept the SMS text, thereby reseting the account's password. The victim keeps online in 4G network and is not aware of the attack.

A lot of Internet application accounts use verification SMS to reset the login password, which means attacker can use a cellphone number to start password reset procedure then hijack the verification SMS.

According researchers, the attacker can also initiate a call/SMS by impersonating the victim. Furthermore, Telephonist Attack can obtain the victim's phone number and then use the phone number to make advanced attack. The victim will not sense being attacked since no 4G or 2G fake base station is used and no cell re-selection. These attacks can randomly choose victims or target a given victim.

The research team proposed many countermeasures to operators and Internet service provider as well. Researchers say now they are collaborating with operators and terminal manufactures to fix this vulnerability.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 11:58:16|Editor: Yurou Liang

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TOKYO, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo stocks edged lower Monday morning as the yen's appreciation against the U.S. dollar weighed on exporter issues, although losses were capped by solid domestic corporate earnings for the April-June period.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average shed 13.52 points, or 0.07 percent, from Friday to 19,946.32.

The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange lost 0.49 point, or 0.03 percent, to 1,620.73.

Rubber product, food, and electric power and gas-linked issues comprised those that declined the most by the morning break.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 13:03:31|Editor: ZD

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CARACAS, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Polling stations closed across Venezuela at 7 p.m. (2300 GMT) on Sunday after millions turned out to elect a National Constituent Assembly (ANC), which is tasked to rewrite the constitution for the South American country.

Voting time was extended for an hour before Sandra Oblitas, vice president of the National Electoral Council, ordered the move, saying that the turnout meant not everyone would have time to vote.

The AFP quoted polling firm Datanalisis as saying that more than 70 percent of Venezuelans opposed the idea of the new assembly.

Tensions bubbled over into violence on Sunday as police cracked down on violent protesters against the election, causing at least 10 deaths across the country, according to Venezuela's chief prosecutor's office.

Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Moncada, however, commented that the strong participation of Venezuelans on Sunday in the election of the ANC is a "vote for peace."

The Venezuelan minister highlighted the importance of seeing the people out voting and rejected the country's critics.

"Opponents, some governments and even the CIA do not recognize this power ... because they have a plan to control Venezuela. We do not need them or the vote of opponents," said Moncada, calling the election a "declaration of sovereignty."

Other officials were similarly triumphant, including the mayor of Caracas and leader of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela, Jorge Rodriguez.

"The world must respect the result today. It is a song of peace, of love for the country," said Rodriguez at a press conference, adding that the day, which saw 13 hours of voting, had allowed Venezuelans to show they could deal with their internal affairs.

He praised the "massive" turnout for the election, despite "provocations" by the opposition.

Opposition-led protests have lasted some four months to demand President Nicolas Maduro step down, causing at least 120 deaths.

In the newest wave of bloodshed on Sunday, two teenagers, aged 17 and 13, were among the dead. One was killed in the municipality of Cardenas in the western state of Tachira, when armed groups allegedly fired at the protesters.

Ricardo Campos, 30, a youth opposition leader for the conservative Democratic Action party, died in the northeast state of Sucre. He reportedly died of a gunshot near his home.

Hundreds of Venezuelans also turned out to protest in neighboring Colombia on Sunday, many in Bogota, outside the residence of the Venezuelan ambassador.

"We are here to demand our ambassador stop being a coward ... he must quit as at least 80 percent of our country, according to serious polls, is against the election that seeks to ... pass the ANC which is a fraud and a way to repress our country even more," said Oscar Aponte, one of the protesters.

Similar demonstrations were seen in the cities of Medellin, Cali, Bucaramanga and Cucuta, all with large Venezuelan communities.

The governments of Argentina, Britain, Colombia, Mexico, Panama and the United States, among others, have said they would not recognize the results of the election.

The U.S. government warned of "strong and swift actions" against Venezuelan officials, including the 545 participants in the constitutional assembly.

Despite wide criticism, Venezuelan authorities were defiant.

The President of Venezuela's Constituent Commission, Elias Jaua, said that the ANC did not need the recognition of "any government."

Jaua told the press Sunday that "the ANC is a constitutional instrument, no government of the world has the right to recognize or not the will of the Venezuelan people."

He took particular aim at the United States and Colombia, saying that "Juan Manuel Santos, president of Colombia, and Donald Trump, the North American leader, must respect it, as this people has its own soul and conscience."

"Tomorrow (Monday), we will start the ANC and, through it, the path to recovering the guarantees of peace and dialogue among all Venezuelans ...hopefully the opposition understands this," he added.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 13:18:35|Editor: Mengjie

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WASHINGTON, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Police departments in the United States criticized President Donald Trump after he urged police forces on Friday not to be "too nice" during arrests, as officers risk undermining efforts to alleviate tensions between the police and communities.

CONTROVERSIAL REMARKS

The criticism came after Trump on Friday gave a speech to police in Brentwood on Long Island in the state of New York, which was intended to support police in their fight against the violent street gang La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, which has been accused of a string of bloody murders.

"When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon, you just see them thrown in, rough, I said, 'please don't be too nice,'" Trump said during the speech amid laughter and cheers from a crowd of uniformed officers.

When calling the gangsters "animals," Trump said there was no need for police to use their hands to protect the heads of those handcuffed suspects when putting them into police vehicles.

"Like when you guys put somebody in the car and you're protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over?" he said.

"Like, don't hit their head and they've just killed somebody. Don't hit their head? I said, 'You can take the hand away, OK?'" Trump continued.

A WRONG MESSAGE

Trump's remarks have quickly drawn condemnation from police organizations, domestic law enforcement agencies and police officers, as many believed the U.S. president delivered a "wrong message."

The Police Foundation said though it appreciates Trump's support for law enforcement, it cannot support any commentary that undermines the trust which communities have placed in the police to protect and serve, while another nonprofit group, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, said officers are trained to treat everyone with "dignity and respect."

The police department of Suffolk County where Trump delivered the controversial speech said in a statement that it has strict rules and procedures relating to the handling of prisoners, warning "violations of those rules and procedures are treated extremely seriously."

In a statement released on Saturday, James P. O'Neill, the New York police commissioner, said suggestions for police officers to use alternative standards for use of force other than what is reasonable and necessary are "irresponsible, unprofessional" and "send a wrong message to law enforcement as well as the public."

Steve Soboroff, one of civilian commissioners who oversees the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), said Trump's recommendations would not be in line with LAPD policy, stressing that "it's not what policing is about today."

Gainesville police spokesman Ben Tobias rebuffed Trump's position by tweeting that he, as a cop, disagreed with the president's remarks and that those who "cheered should be ashamed." Until Sunday afternoon, his tweet has been liked more than 320,000 times.

SETBACK TO SOOTHING POLICE-COMMUNITY TENSIONS

Trump's speech in Suffolk came months after former Suffolk County Police Department (SCPD) Chief James Burke was sentenced to 46 months in prison for furiously beating and yelling at a shackled suspect who allegedly stole a bag from Burke's car.

Before the revelation of Burke's scandal, the SCPD was put under federal oversight by the Justice Department, following a federal probe that exposed discrimination against Latinos and immigrants, another indication of the deep-rooted tensions between the police and communities in Suffolk.

The president's comments also resurrected memories of the death of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old Baltimorean whose death sparked protests and riots in the city, and triggered a nationwide debate over excessive use of force by police dealing with cases involving African Americans.

Gray was arrested, shackled and put in the back of a police van by six officers before dying of a spine injury.

"Are you kidding me? This is disgusting," Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz tweeted about Trump's remarks on handling suspects, as rough policing remains a sensitive topic in the city.

Maya Wiley, chairwoman of New York City's Civilian Complaint Review Board, said Trump's words would stoke fear of interacting with officers, which would damage the progress made toward improving police-community relations.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 13:23:37|Editor: Mengjie

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WASHINGTON, July 30 (Xinhua) -- The United States on Sunday condemned the elections for the National Constituent Assembly (ANC) in Venezuela, claiming the voting "undermines the Venezuelan people's right to self-determination."

The voting in Venezuela was a "flawed" one "designed to replace the legitimately elected National Assembly," the U.S. State Department said in a statement released Sunday night.

The United States will "continue to take strong and swift actions against the architects of authoritarianism in Venezuela" including those who participate in the ANC, said State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert.

Polls opened early Sunday morning in Venezuela to elect 537 of the total 545 members of the ANC with the remaining eight seats belonging to the indigenous people.

The ANC was proposed by President Nicolas Maduro in May to rewrite the 1999 Constitution to break the ongoing political deadlock that has paralyzed the South American country. But the opposition says it is an excuse for Maduro to consolidate power.

The United States has joined Mexico, Colombia and Panama in saying that they would not recognize the voting results.

Elias Jaua, president of Venezuela's Constituent Commission, said that the ANC did not need the recognition of "any government."

A total of 41.53 percent of Venezuelan voters cast their ballots in Sunday's elections, the National Electoral Council told the press.

At least five people were reportedly killed during the voting.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 15:29:19|Editor: ying

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CARACAS, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Venezuela's National Electoral Council said more than 8 million people voted to elect a new National Constituent Assembly (ANC) tasked to rewrite the constitution, with a 41.53-percent turnout rate.

The turnout is far beyond the estimates by both the government's political opponents and independent experts. The opposition said they believed some 2 million people voted.

President of the electoral body Tibisay Lucena announced at a press conference just before midnight that 8,089,320 people cast their ballots in the election.

Tensions bubbled over into violence on Sunday as police cracked down on violent protesters of the election, causing at least 10 deaths across the country, according to Venezuela's chief prosecutor's office.

Foreign Minister Samuel Moncada, however, said the strong participation of Venezuelans in Sunday's ANC election is a "vote for peace."

"Opponents, some governments and even the CIA do not recognize this power ... because they have a plan to control Venezuela. We do not need them or the vote of opponents," said Moncada, calling the election a "declaration of sovereignty."

The governments of Argentina, Britain, Colombia, Mexico, Panama and the United States, among others, have said they would not recognize the results of the election.

The voting in Venezuela was a "flawed" one "designed to replace the legitimately elected National Assembly," the U.S. State Department said in a statement released Sunday night, claiming the voting "undermines the Venezuelan people's right to self-determination."

The United States will "continue to take strong and swift actions against the architects of authoritarianism in Venezuela," including those who participate in the ANC, said State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert.

Polls opened early Sunday morning in Venezuela to elect 537 of the total 545 members of the ANC with the remaining eight seats belonging to the indigenous people.

The ANC was proposed by President Nicolas Maduro in May to rewrite the 1999 Constitution to break the ongoing political deadlock that has paralyzed the South American country. But the opposition says it is an excuse for Maduro to consolidate power.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 15:39:25|Editor: ying

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KHARTOUM, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby on Sunday urged for protection of Christians and peaceful co-existence between the Christians and Muslims in Sudan.

The archbishop made the remarks when Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir received him in Khartoum Sunday.

"We talked about the protection of Christians and listened carefully to his excellency as he explained the good relations, the co-habitation, even within families between Christians and Muslims," Welby told reporters following his meeting with President al-Bashir.

"We spoke about sanctions, and of the British policy which encourages the end of sanctions, and about the burden of debts and the need for development," he noted, adding that "at the center of everything that we said was our deep concern, our mighty concern for the poor, the weak, the refugees and the helpless; and to encourage every government and every president where they seek the common good and benefit of the weakest in our societies."

Sudan's Minister of Guidance and Endowments, Abu Bakr Osman, for his part, told reporters that the meeting reiterated the political leadership's concern with religious co-existence in Sudan.

"The meeting stressed the religious co-existence in Sudan and that all the Sudanese citizens are equal in rights and duties and in assuming public posts, regardless of their religious or ethnic affiliations," he noted.

Welby arrived in Sudan on Sunday, leading a high-level delegation of bishops around the world, to officially inaugurate the Anglican Church in Sudan to be the 39th Anglican church in the world.

The Anglican church in Sudan officially declared its separation from its South Sudanese counterpart in May 2017, where after the cessation of South Sudan, Khartoum's Anglican church remained affiliating to the church in the South.

At a ceremony held at Khartoum's All Saints Cathedral Sunday in July, 2017 and attended by American, European and African diplomats, Welby declared Sudan as the 39th province of the worldwide Anglican Communion and installed Ezekiel Kondo Kumir Kuku as the country's first archbishop.

Most of the Christians in Sudan are present at the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan State which has been witnessing an armed conflict between the Sudanese army and fighters of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM)/northern sector.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 15:39:33|Editor: ying

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LONDON, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The abduction of children from India's extensive railway network has been a chronic sensitive issue, showing little sign of receding in recent years, the Guardian reported on Sunday.

The number of children abducted from the Kolkata's Sealdah railway station in eastern India, one of the busiest railway stations in India, was the highest nationwide, which was rising from 15,284 in 2011 to 41,893 in 2015, according to the latest police statistics, said the Guardian.

Thousands of Indian children went to the Sealdah railway station and considered it as a shelter due to poverty or family violence. However, after living here for months, some of them vanished for uncertain reasons.

It was estimated by Save the Children India, a child-welfare center in Kolkata, that about one-fourth of the homeless children were actually abducted and trafficked into the sex trade or child labor, according to the Guardian.

India also leads the tally for international child abductions. In spite of massive protests and anti-abduction laws in India, the cases of children abduction continue to be reported across India.

Between June 2016 and last May, a total of 1,628 missing children has been retrieved from the Sealdah railway station. Of these, 134 were girls and the youngest one was four years old, the Guardian reported.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 15:54:36|Editor: Yang Yi

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BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) -- China's top economic planner announced Monday that two domestic medicine firms had been fined for monopoly pricing practices.

Zhejiang Second Pharma and Tianjin Handewei Pharmaceutical were fined a total of 443,900 yuan (65,975 U.S. dollars) for fixing prices for an active pharmaceutical ingredient, said a National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) statement.

The two companies charged an unfairly high price for Isoniazid, an antibiotic used to treat tuberculosis, and declined sales with no justified cause, the statement said.

The two companies have since restored regular pricing and revived market competition.

Monopoly practices in the pharmaceutical sector have been a focus of China's anti-monopoly supervision for some time. The case will help regulate active pharmaceutical ingredient pricing and ensure a fair environment for medicine purchases and sales, according to the NDRC.

The NDRC has vowed to increase anti-monopoly supervision to protect market order, consumers and businesses.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 16:04:40|Editor: ying

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SEOUL, July 31 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's defense chief said Monday that the decision to "temporarily" deploy four more mobile launchers of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system can be re-considered if people feel anxious about it.

Defense Minister Song Young-moo told lawmakers that the "temporary THAAD deployment" had the meaning of reviewing it under the conditions that additional THAAD elements are temporarily installed, while the environmental assessment is underway, as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) crossed the red line too fast.

Song noted that the temporary deployment also had the meaning of reconsidering it if people feel anxious about it.

The DPRK announced its successful test-launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which flew about 1,000 km and was lofted as high as over 3,700 km late Friday night. It was an advanced version of what the country called Hwasong-14, which traveled 933 km at a maximum altitude of 2,802 km at the July 4 launch.

About an hour after the missile test-firing, South Korean President Moon Jae-in convened a national security council (NSC) meeting in which major security and foreign affairs officials, including the defense minister, participated.

During the meeting, Minister Song asked the president to fully deploy the THAAD battery in South Korean territory and the temporary deployment was decided upon at the NSC meeting, the defense chief said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 16:09:44|Editor: Yang Yi

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BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Clearly, China-U.S. relations are the world's most important bilateral relations and U.S. President Donald Trump certainly knows this. Yet he still chooses to unfairly blame China for two unrelated issues.

In his latest tweets, Trump linked the U.S. trade deficit with China to the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

"I am very disappointed in China. Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk," Trump wrote. "We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!"

The U.S. leader erred in at least three aspects in his most recent tweets blasting China.

First, regarding the trade imbalance between China and the United States: It is the result of multiple factors, mostly attributed to the fact that China is the final assembly plant for most of the manufactured goods destined for the United States. That means China is taking the blame simply because it is the last stop of the production line.

China has made it clear that it does not intend to maintain a trade surplus with the United States and has been actively working with the U.S. side to explore ways to restore the trade balance.

Also, it is worth noting that both countries have benefited from bilateral trade and the United States is by no means being exploited in the process.

Second, on the Korean nuclear issue, the crux of the matter is the decades-long animosity between the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

As a neighbor of the DPRK, China knows well it has a lot to lose if the Korean Peninsula slides further away from denuclearization, so it has been making strenuous efforts, including organizing the Six Party Talks, to maintain the fragile calm on the peninsula and work toward an early solution to the problem.

Third, it is absurd to suggest that China could repay the so-called U.S. generosity of allowing a huge trade deficit by "easily resolving" the Korea nuclear issue, as the two issues are in completely different domains and can not be considered tradeoffs for each other.

China wants balanced trade with the United States, and it also hopes for lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula. However, to realize these goals, Beijing needs a more cooperative partner in the White House, not one who piles blame on China for the United States' failures.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 16:55:09|Editor: Lu Hui

Photo taken on July 30, 2017 shows a formation of special operation equipment during a military parade at Zhurihe training base in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. China on Sunday held a grand military parade to mark the 90th founding anniversary of the People's Liberation Army. (Xinhua/Ju Zhenhua)

BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) -- China's Army Day parade on Sunday demonstrated the strength of the Chinese military, which contributes to safeguarding national security and world peace, international experts have said.

The past decades have witnessed China's rapid growth in a variety of areas. Today, China is closer to the goal of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation than any other time in history, said Jean-Marie Bossy of the Society of Chinese-Swiss Culture Exchange, adding that he strongly believes China's progress is "peaceful" and is "beneficial to the world."

China's growing economy and stronger national defense facilitate global peace and stability rather than pose any kind of so-called "threat" to the world, said Zhao Yuan, honorary chairman of the Swiss Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification of China.

Living in a complicated and changing world, "we need to build a strong people's military more than any other time in history," he added.

"We must deeply recognize the traditional and non-traditional security threats, and consolidate national defense, strengthen military power so as to achieve the China Dream and safeguard world peace," said Li Su, vice chairman of the Swiss Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification of China.

Italian Secretary General of Defense and National Armament Director Lt. Gen. Carlo Magrassi has expressed his congratulation for the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA).

Magrassi said he admires the rapid progress of China's military equipment and the modernization of military forces during the past years, he added.

Defense Attache of the Chinese Embassy in Italy Senior Colonel Wang Jianliang recalled the significant contributions the Chinese military has made to global peace-keeping, escort missions in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia and international humanitarian aid as he attended the reception held at the embassy to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the founding of the PLA on July 25.

Attendees including Italian officials highlighted the achievements made by the PLA and affirmed the key functions it has made in upholding world peace and stability.

During the past 90 years since its founding, the PLA has proved to be a strong force to uphold national and global peace with real actions, said Ronnie Lins, director of the China-Brazil Center for Research and Business.

China has gained tremendous scientific and technological progress in recent years, and the positive effects of advanced technology used by the Chinese military are revealing themselves, he said.

China attaches great importance to technological development and military human resources development to forge a stronger army. This shows that the Chinese army has adapted to the conditions of modern warfare and a step further to the goal of military modernization, Lins added.

In Africa, some countries have been haunted by terrorism in recent years, and some suffer from civil wars, leaving their people in extremely dangerous conditions, said Ethiopian expert Costantinos Bt. Costantinos, who serves as an economic advisor to the African Union and the U.N.-Economic Commission for Africa.

In these countries, people could always find Chinese peacekeepers, elites of the PLA, helping African countries combat extremism, safeguard regional peace and stability and protect local people at the risk of their own lives, he said.

Every time a disaster strikes China, the PLA is always the first to reach the scene to help people out without being afraid of sacrifice. The close relationship between the PLA and the Chinese people is a crucial guarantee for the happiness of its people, Costantinos added.

China on Sunday held a grand military parade to mark the 90th birthday of the PLA in the Zhurihe military training base in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Chinese President Xi Jinping watched the military parade and delivered a keynote speech urging further improvement of the PLA's combat effectiveness and modernization of China's national defense.

Related:

Commentary: Military parade demonstrates CPC's determination of building a strong army

BEIJING, July 30 (Xinhua) -- The grand parade on Sunday demonstrated the military's resolute loyalty to the Communist Party of China (CPC), who is determined to build a strong army. Full story

China's Army Day parade shows resolution to safeguard peace
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 17:10:16|Editor: Yang Yi

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BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) -- China's dollar-denominated Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) program rose to 93.27 billion U.S. dollars at the end of July, the country's forex regulator said Monday.

A total of 284 overseas institutions have received quotas under the QFII program to move money into the country's capital account, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange said.

As of June 29, the quota had stood at 92.72 billion U.S. dollars.

As of July 31, the quota in the RMB Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (RQFII) program stood at 548.2 billion yuan (81.5 billion U.S. dollars), higher than the 543.1 billion yuan recorded by June 29.

China's currency, the yuan, is convertible for trade purposes under the current account, while the capital account, which covers portfolio investment and borrowing, is still largely controlled by the state due to concerns over abrupt capital flows in and out of the country.

To gradually open the capital account, the government introduced the QFII and RQFII programs in 2003 and 2011 respectively.

The QFII scheme represents China's effort to allow licensed foreign investors to invest in China's capital market. The RQFII program allows institutional investors with offshore renminbi deposits to invest in China's onshore market.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 17:15:18|Editor: ying

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TOKYO, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The former head of a scandal-plagued nationalist school operator central to a contentious cut-price land deal and his wife have been requested by prosecutors to answer further questions over fraud allegations, local media said Monday.

Yasunori Kagoike, the former head of Moritomo Gakuen, and his wife Junko who also worked at the schools run by the operator, were summoned for questioning on Thursday.

The prosecutors quizzed the pair over allegations they defrauded the government and received public subsidies to construct an elementary school.

Japan's public broadcaster NHK on Monday stated that Yasunori Kagoike is expected to be arrested.

Moritomo Gakuen and its former head first came under the spotlight for purchasing state-owned land to build the school for just a fraction of its appraisal price.

The unfolding scandal has implicated Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife, Akie, who was supposed to become honorary principal of the planned school.

Since a complaint was filed in March, the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office's special investigation squad has been investigating the Kagoikes in relation to allegations it received government subsidies to the tune of 56 million yen (505,000 U.S. dollars) for construction costs of the school built in Toyonaka city in Osaka.

Investigators believe that Moritomo Gakuen submitted inflated building estimates for the school.

Kagoike is also alleged to have earlier defrauded Osaka Prefecture of 62 million yen between 2011 and 2016 in relation to a kindergarten also built in the prefecture.

Abe has consistently denied that he or his wife Akie have in any way been involved in the scandal, despite Kagoike claiming the prime minister gave him a financial donation of 1 million yen, handed to him by Akie, in September 2015 following a speech she gave at the kindergarten.

Moritomo Gakuen had also been under the spotlight and received widespread condemnation for its imperialistic-style of edification and for one of its kindergartens disseminating hate speech about non-Japanese citizens residing in Japan.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 18:05:58|Editor: ying

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LOS ANGELES, July 30 (Xinhua) -- A two-car collision sent a van dashing into diners at a popular restaurant in the mid-Wilshire neighborhood of Los Angeles on Sunday, injuring nine people, authorities said.

"The vehicle went up onto the sidewalk," Los Angeles police spokeswoman Officer Rosario Herrera was quoted as saying by City News Service.

"The driver remained at the scene," She added.

When people were enjoying their Sunday afternoon in the outside dining area of The Fish Spot restaurant, a van ran a red light and hit another car before hurtling into the diners on the sidewalk.

Nine people aged from 18 to 51 sustained various injures, a 44-year-old man was in critical condition, another man and two women were in serious condition, and the other people injured were in fair condition and were still hospitalized, the L.A. Times reported.

Hearing screams and cries, people from the neighborhood rushed out of their houses, and some even burst into tears when they saw the tragic scene.

Neither driver was injured. Police believe that the driver responsible was not under the influence of drug or alcohol, and there is no apparent link to terrorism. The other driver was not cited and drove his car away two hours later.
A staff talks with a Chinese girl during the Magical Kenya Expo 2012 at the Kenyatta International Conference Center in Nairobi, Kenya, Sept. 30, 2012. The Expo kicked off on Friday and lasted until Sunday. It was organized by the Kenya Tourist Board and attracted over 170 tour and travel agencies across the globe.(Xinhua/Ding Haitao)

NAIROBI, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's tourism marketers on Sunday promised to bring more Chinese tourists to the East African nation after a visit by Chinese business magnate Jack Ma.

Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) said travel agents have termed the visit by the billionaire a major boost and endorsement to their campaigns - that seek to woo Chinese travelers into Kenya.

KTB Chief Executive Officer Betty Radier said in a statement issued in Nairobi that China now listed among the top 10 tourist source market the country has potential for further growth.

Radier noted that KTB will invest more resources in strategic marketing initiatives aimed at attracting the high-end consumer segments.

"By end of April this year, we received 14,029 visitors from the country compared to 10,407 recorded in the same period last year, an increase of 34.8 percent," said Radier.

Last year, the market posted 47,860 arrivals up from 29,790 recorded in 2015, indicating a growth of 60.7 percent, she said.

Radier said family travel, resulting from the government's visa waiver for children under the age of 16, is among the factors contributing to the growth of the market.

Chinese billionaire Jack's visit coincided with the launch of mobile online training for travel agents in China rolled out by KTB to create top of mind destination awareness and spur interest for travel among the Chinese.

"As a result of his visit, I can assure you that our work of marketing Kenya has been made easier, interest to travel to Kenya has suddenly gone up and this is positive feedback," said Travel Service Bigeyes International co-founder Vivien Zhang.

A top 10 wholesaler of Africa and Middle East General Manager Johnson Chen disclosed that his company has received several inquires about Kenya that has been in the limelight in connection to Jack's visit and other China's development projects in Kenya, including Standard Gauge Railways.

"We anticipate to register an increase of travelers to Kenya in the month of September through to October, Kenya is now among the top sale destination owing to positives associations between the two countries," said Chen.

The tour operators were speaking over the weekend during promotional marketing campaigns by KTB in China's cities of Beijing, Shangai and Guangzhou.

KTB launched online mobile training for travel agents selling Kenya's products to enhance their knowledge on tourism packages the country is offering.

The marketing body has also planned to produce a destination video specifically for the Chinese market to sustain top of mind destination awareness among the Chinese.

Jack Ma, founder of the world's largest e-commerce trading platform Alibaba, takes a selfie with local entrepreneurs in Nairobi, Kenya, July 20, 2017. Ma is visiting Kenya in a tour arranged by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), to promote global entrepreneurship and to mentor young and upcoming entrepreneurs. (Xinhua/Chen Cheng)

The General Manager for Joy Way, an international travel company Eric Zhu said Kenya will host more family travelers from next year through a kid's safari package that the company has developed.

"Family travel segment to Kenya is increasingly becoming popular. In partnership with Kenya Airways, we are packaging this product around wildlife and the train services that cater for large groups and corporate clients," he said.

During his visit to Kenya, the Chinese business mogul known and respected globally for his innovative business solutions, said he saw a great future in Africa and urged both political and business leaders in the continent to embrace innovation.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 18:51:16|Editor: Song Lifang

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TEHRAN, July 31 (Xinhua) -- An Iranian court has rejected the appeal of ten people sentenced to jail for attacking the Saudi Arabian embassy in Tehran last year, Press TV reported on Monday.

Earlier, the preliminary court had examined the accusations against 19 people and convicted ten of them.

Five of those people were sentenced to six months in prison, while five others were handed down three-month sentences, their lawyer Mostafa Shabani said.

Shabani also said that four other suspects were clergymen, whose case has been examined by the country's Special Clerical Court.

Tehran's Prosecutor General, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, said earlier that the police arrested 40 suspects for disturbing public order and causing destruction to Saudi Arabian diplomatic property.

On Jan 4, 2016, Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties with Iran a day after angry Iranian protesters against the execution of a Shiite leader by Saudi Arabia raided and set fire to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 18:51:19|Editor: Yang Yi

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RIYADH, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Arabia has signed a deal with the United Nations to provide 33 million U.S. dollars in aid to combat cholera in the war-torn Yemen, local media reported Monday.

The deal was signed Sunday by King Salman Center for Relief (KSCR) and Humanitarian Aid with with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the Al Arabiya website reported.

The agreement was inked by KSCR General Supervisor Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Rabiah, who is also advisor at the Saudi Royal Court, with UNICEF's Representative to Gulf States, Shaheeda Azfar.

It is part of the 66.7-million-dollar financial commitment promised by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud to support the efforts to combat cholera in Yemen, the report said.

Saudi took the step in response to the call by the World Health Organization (WHO), and the money would be spent on supporting water and environmental sanitation programs in Yemen.

The conflict in Yemen has continued for more than two years, causing a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the country, which is worsened by the cholera outbreak in March.

The death toll from the cholera epidemic in Yemen has increased to 1,992 since late April, the WHO said in a statement on Saturday.

It added that 419,804 suspected cases of cholera have been reported since April 27 as the epidemic has spread across Yemen's 22 provinces.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 18:51:20|Editor: Yang Yi

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BEIRUT, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The second phase of a ceasefire deal reached between Hezbollah and the jihadist al-Nusra Front group militants kicked off Monday, Hezbollah's news agency said.

The deal would see around 9,000 jihadists and their families return to Syria's northwestern province of Idlib. These militants and their relatives have been in eastern Lebanon since the beginning of the Syria war, the media unit said.

In exchange, an undetermined number of Hezbollah prisoners would be freed.

On Sunday, Hezbollah and the jihadist militants exchanged bodies of fighters as the first phase of a ceasefire deal announced by Hezbollah and confirmed by Lebanon's General Security agency on Thursday.

Hezbollah's "War Media" outlet reported that the first part of the deal included "exchanging the bodies of nine al-Nusra fighters for the remains of five Hezbollah fighters who died in the battles."

The ceasefire deal came after Hezbollah declared on Wednesday a "major victory" in the offensive against Nusra in the mountainous border region of Arsal's outskirts.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 18:56:26|Editor: Liangyu

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BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) -- President Xi Jinping's speech at a high-level workshop has inspired confidence for the nation to create a moderately prosperous society and achieve the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation.

The workshop for provincial and ministerial-level officials last Wednesday and Thursday was held in preparation for the 19th Communist Party of China (CPC) National Congress to be held later this year. The congress will elect the leadership for the next five-year term.

Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, outlined a blueprint for the Party and the state, pointing the direction for future development.

"Building a moderately prosperous society by 2020 is a promise the CPC has made to the people and to history," Xi said.

He said that for China to reach its goals it had to make all-out efforts, especially in preventing and defusing major risks, relieving poverty, and preventing and controlling pollution.

The speech resonated with grassroots officials, who agreed with Xi that the five years since the 18th CPC National Congress had seen extraordinary development.

Yang Longwen, party chief of Dahua Yao Autonomous County in southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said that though the county suffered desertification it had witnessed remarkable changes due to the government drive to eliminate rural poverty.

Highways have been built and residents have moved from old thatched and mud-brick cottages into new buildings, Yang said.

He pointed out that the fight against poverty had brought a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to develop the impoverished minority area.

"We'll implement General Secretary Xi's requirements and decisions by the CPC Central Committee with solid determination and untiring energy," Yang said.

In the past five years, the central government has shown that it understands the general development trend of China and the world, and made a series of major strategic moves according to the will of the people.

Poverty relief is one such strategy. The government has said it will improve the lives of 70 million Chinese living in poverty as part of a drive to create a moderately prosperous society.

Progress has also been seen in a small village in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

"The per capita income doubled in the past five years and villagers feel much happier," said Fu Huating, party chief of the Xingshisi village, Gannan county. "We will roll up our sleeves and work harder, staunchly following the Party."

Xi said that once China had a moderately prosperous society, by 2020, the Party and people of various ethnic groups across the country would be motivated to build a modernized socialist country by 2049, the centenary of the People's Republic of China.

The remarks have inspired the nation to be confident in realizing the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation.

"After studying the speech, we're all fully confident that a good life lies ahead," said Chen Yifan, deputy head of Dutang township, Heze city, in eastern China's Shandong Province.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 18:56:28|Editor: Yang Yi

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BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Huang Hong, one of China's most wanted fugitives, has returned to China and turned herself in to the police, the anti-corruption authority said Monday.

Huang, 50, a former accountant at the Beijing office of the Haomen Group from north China's Hebei Province, fled to the United States in May 1998 after being accused of misappropriation of public funds, according to a statement released by the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

In April 2015, Interpol issued a "red notice" of 100 corruption fugitives wanted by China. Many of the fugitives were former government staff or employees of state-owned enterprises.

Huang is the 43rd on the list to have returned.

On Saturday, Ren Biao, former "actual controlling shareholder" of Daluo energy supplies company in east China's Jiangsu Province, turned himself in after fleeing to the Caribbean nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis in January 2014.

Ren has been accused of fraudulently obtaining loans and fabricating financial bills.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 18:56:29|Editor: Song Lifang

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BAGHDAD, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units on Monday killed at least 20 Islamic States (IS) militants in a conflict in the desert area near the Syrian border in western Iraq, the units said in a statement.

The Hashd Shaabi units, backed by helicopter gunships, fought heavy clashes with IS militants, when dozens of the extremists attacked the military base at the border post of Tal Sufoug near neighboring Syria, the statement said.

Iraqi forces have killed at least 20 IS militants and destroyed eight IS vehicles, the statement added.

The paramilitary units are deployed in the desert near the Syrian border to prevent the cross-border IS movement between Iraq and Syria.

On May 29, the units made their first arrival at the border after they freed the town of al-Qahtaniyah, some 18 km east of the Syrian border.

On July 10, Abadi officially declared Mosul's liberation from IS after nearly nine months of fierce fighting to dislodge the extremist militants from their last major stronghold in Iraq.

Two days ago, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared a new plan to be implemented soon to liberate the IS-held town of Tal Afar from the extremist militants, which will include the participation of the predominantly Shiite paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units and Sunni tribal fighters.

The Iraqi forces still have to wage more offensives to drive out IS militants from their redoubts in Hawijah in southwestern Kirkuk, the adjacent sprawling rugged areas in eastern Salahudin province, in addition to the remaining IS strongholds in the border towns with Syria, including Aana, Rawa, and al-Qaim.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 18:56:31|Editor: Song Lifang

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KUALA LUMPUR, July 31 (Xinhua) -- With the recent publication of the Malay version of "A Dream of Red Mansions," all four major Chinese classics have been translated into Malay and published.

Goh Hin San, president of Malaysia Han Culture Center who has been involved in the translation, told Xinhua on Monday that the publication of "A Dream of Red Mansions" capped efforts by local translators to bring the four major classics to Malaysian readers, a work they started more than 30 years ago.

The other three classics, namely Water Margin, Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Journey to the West, have been translated and published in Malaysia earlier.

"The four classics are treasure of Chinese traditional culture," said Goh, "The translation and publication of these classics is beneficial for the mutual understanding between people in Malaysia and China."

Upon receiving the books recently, Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia Huang Huikang said the Malay version of the four Chinese classics would help Malaysian people to better understand Chinese literature and history, which is of great significance for the cultural exchanges between the two countries.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 19:01:36|Editor: Song Lifang

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DAMASCUS, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The Turkish army has made a "small incursion" near two Kurdish-controlled towns in Syria's northern city of Ayn al-Arab, also known as Kobane, a well-informed source close to the Kurds told Xinhua on Monday.

The incursion was near the towns of Saftak and Bobani, northwest of Ayn al-Arab, the source said on condition of anonymity.

He added that the incursion was "calm without battles" with the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), noting that the Turkish forces cannot enter Ayn al-Arab, as U.S. military bases are stationed in the city.

The incursion comes as the Turkish forces are amassing fighters near the Syrian borders, as part of Ankara's preparation to unleash an offensive to capture the city of Afreen from the hands of the Kurdish groups in northern Syria.

The aim of the battle is to prevent the Kurdish fighters from linking areas under their control in eastern Syria with western Syria in the northern part of the country near Turkey.

Still, the United States is heavily backing the Kurdish forces, which could prompt Ankara to put the wide-scale offensive on hold.

Ayn al-Arab is a city in the Aleppo Governorate in northern Syria, lying immediately south of the border with Turkey. As a consequence of the Syrian war, the city has been under control of the Kurdish YPG militia since 2012.

From September 2014 to January 2015, the city was under siege by the Islamic State (IS). Most of the city was destroyed and most of the population fled to Turkey. In 2015, many returned and reconstruction began.

Prior to the Syrian war, Ayn al-Arab reportedly had a population of close to 45,000, with the majority of inhabitants Kurds.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 19:11:41|Editor: Yang Yi

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Doha, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdelrahman Al-Thani dismissed the statement issued on Sunday by the anti-Qatar quartet and said the sanctions "violate international laws," Al-Jazeera TV has reported.

He said that the meeting in Manama attended by the Saudi-led bloc failed to present a clear version, accusing the four Arab countries of sticking to a "stubborn policy" and refusing to admit that the sanctions against Qatar are "illegal."

Foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt met in Manama of Bahrain on Sunday to discuss the Qatari crisis that has raised tensions in the Gulf region.

The foreign ministers said at a joint press conference that they were ready for dialogue with Qatar to tackle the dispute, on the conditions that Doha was willing to cooperate with their 13 demands including stopping funding terrorism and stopping interfering in other countries' foreign affairs.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE and Bahrain severed relations with Qatar on June 5, accusing the gas exporting gulf state of financing terrorism and cozying up to their arch-rival Iran.

Qatar denies the accusation and insists the blockade is a violation of international law, and it does not fund extremism.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 19:47:00|Editor: Yang Yi

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CHENGDU, July 31 (Xinhua) -- More than 30,000 residents in southwest China's Sichuan Province were relocated following a month-long check of geological disaster threats, according to local authorities.

The check was conducted by over 2,000 investigators in 176 counties, after a landslide left 83 dead or missing in Maoxian county in late June, according to a leading group for the work.

The investigators examined about 38,000 existing sites with geological disaster threats and found over 4,000 new sites. The relocated residents came from 671 sites identified as having imminent dangers.

Suffering a Magnitude 8 earthquake in 2008 and a Magnitude 7 quake in 2013, Sichuan is vulnerable to geological disasters.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 19:52:03|Editor: ying

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KAMPALA, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Somali militant group, Al Shabaab, killed 12 Ugandan peacekeepers and injured seven others in an ambush in the horn of African country, Uganda's military said in a statement on Monday.

Brig. Richard Karemire, the spokesperson of Uganda People's Defense Force (UPDF), said the militants ambushed the Somalia National Army and UPDF troops on Sunday at Goryowein along Bulu-maler and Beladamin, in Lower Shabelle region, about 140 km southwest of the capital Mogadishu.

"The dead and those injured have been evacuated to Mogadishu Level II Hospital for further management and treatment," Karemire said.

He said the military is contacting the next of kin of the soliders killed or injured to inform them of the developments, while arrangements are being made to transport the deceased back home for burial.

A board of inquiry is being constituted to establish circumstances leading to the fateful incident, Karemire said.

"The same board of inquiry will help in expediting the compensation process by the African Union in respect of the deceased who gave their lives in defense of mother Africa," he said.

He expressed his deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the soliders killed. "The struggle for peace and stability in Africa continues," he added.

Uganda contributes 6,500 soldiers to the 22,000 African Union peacekeeping troops deployed in Somalia.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 19:52:04|Editor: ying

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RAMALLAH, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian government official said Monday that Israel has started erecting a new settlement outpost near Nablus, north of the West Bank.

Settlers have set up 10 houses in Jaloud village, south of Nablus city, and leveled surrounding lands, Ghassan Daghlas, representative of the governmental Wall and Colonization Resistance Commission told Xinhua.

Daghlas stressed that the lands on which the settlers put up the new houses belong to Palestinians but they were bulldozed by Israeli authorities a few days ago.

He warned that the new outpost would connect eight other settlements surrounding Nablus, further isolating the north of the West Bank from its southern parts.

According to the Palestinian official, over 700,000 settlers live in 182 outposts and 176 settlements built in the West Bank.

Legal experts say that outposts are usually built in random places without official permits by the Israeli government, unlike settlements that are usually built based on plans approved by the Israeli government.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas decided on July 21 to suspend all contacts with Israel, including the security coordination in the wake of the recent tensions at the Islamic holy shrine in East Jerusalem.

Abbas' Fateh party Central Committee Member Mohammad Ishtaye told Xinhua that the Palestinian position to freeze contact with Israel is not only bound to the events in Al-Aqsa Mosque, but also comes to protest the recent Israeli settlement expansion steps.

The last round of peace talks between Palestine and Israel stopped in 2014, after nine months of U.S.-sponsored talks that achieved no major breakthrough, with differences mainly focused on Israeli settlement activity.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said Sunday that the Palestinian leadership will present to International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Fatou Bensouda a new file about Israeli settlement activity very soon.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 19:57:08|Editor: ying

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TIRANA, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The Bank of Albania (BoA), central bank, said on Monday that it had prepared new draft regulations aimed at strengthening the governance of banks and the independence of the control structures.

"The regulation on the internal control system proposes that the chairman of the Audit Committee within the bank is also a member of the Steering Council," the central bank said in a press release.

BoA noted that in order to prevent conflicts of interest, this official should not have a private interest relationship with the bank's shareholders or executives.

Meanwhile, the bank said that the members of the Audit Committee might be members of the Steering Committee at the same time, but this would not be mandatory, as in the case of the chairman.

The Bank of Albania also informed that it had proposed several amendments to the regulation on the basic principles of bank management and the appointment of their administrators.

"Changes in the regulation focus mainly on strengthening the independence and importance of the risk management unit within the bank," the bank explained.

"Meanwhile, among the criteria for the appointment of bank administrators, apart from those of ethical and professional nature, a special provision is added: banks must prove that the proposed administrator has no problems with loans," the proposed draft cited.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 19:57:10|Editor: ying

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ISTANBUL, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Turkey's foreign trade deficit fell by 9.1 percent in June over the same period last year, the Turkish Statistics Institute reported on Monday.

The Turkish deficit in June stood at 6.01 billion U.S. dollars, down from 6.61 billion dollars a year earlier, according to the data released by the agency.

The data show that Turkey's exports in June grew by 2.3 percent to 13.17 billion dollars, while the imports dropped by 1.5 percent to 19.18 billion dollars.

The European Union became Turkey's largest exporter with a volume of 6.25 billion dollars, accounting for 47.5 percent of Ankara's total exports, with Germany taking the largest share at 1.3 billion dollars.

The United Arab Emirates and the United States were the second and third largest exporters of Turkish goods, accounting for 896 million dollars and 886 million dollars respectively.

Manufactured goods made up 94.6 percent of Turkey's exports in June, followed by agriculture and forestry-related items.

China was Turkey's largest importer (1.9 billion dollars), followed by Germany (1.6 billion dollars) and Russia (1.4 billion dollars).

Intermediary goods constituted the largest share of Turkish imports, making up 74 percent of the total.
KABUL, July 31, 2017 (Xinhua) -- Afghan security force members inspect the blast site in Kabul, Afghanistan, July 31, 2017. Two explosions and ensuing gunfire rocked central part of the Afghan capital of Kabul on Monday, witnesses and sources said. (Xinhua/Jawid Omid)

BAGHDAD, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi Foreign Ministry on Monday said that two of its embassy employees were killed in a suicide attack outside the Iraqi embassy in the Afghan capital Kabul.

The ministry also said efforts are underway to evacuate two other employees from the embassy.

"The charge d'affaires of the Iraqi embassy in Kabul was evacuated to the Egyptian embassy, and attempts continued to evacuate two other embassy staff," the ministry spokesman, Ahmed Jamal, said in a brief statement.

"The attack has so far killed two of its Afghan guards," Jamal said.

In a separate statement, Jamal said "two of the diplomats of the Iraqi embassy in Kabul were trading fire with the terrorists who broke into the embassy compound."

Jamal did not clarify whether the two embassy staff stuck in the compound are the same ones who were fighting the terrorists inside the embassy.

Earlier on the day, gunmen and suicide bombers attacked the Iraqi embassy in Kabul after a car bomb blast, which caused a plume of grey smoke to rise above the scene.

According to local media, the Islamic State (IS) group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 20:17:21|Editor: ying

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BEIRUT, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The Lebanese Internal Security Forces (ISF) have busted and arrested members of a terror group linked to the Islamic State group (IS), the ISF said in a communique on Monday.

"As a result of field follow-up and preventive security measures, the information division of the ISF has succeeded in identifying members of a seriously dangerous cell working for the IS inside Lebanon," said the communique.

A number of weapons have been seized during the raids conducted by the security forces on July 24 and 25, which had led to a complete destruction of the entire network, the communique added.

Meanwhile, the detainees have been referred to the military court.

The IS members are active mostly in areas between the port city of Tripoli and Denniyeh in northern Lebanon, according to the communique.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 21:02:51|Editor: Yang Yi

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BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) -- China should use emerging information technology including cloud computing and Internet of Things to propel the development of the digital economy, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said.

"The digital economy has enormous potential," Li said at a seminar on Monday, citing rapid growth in information consumption and e-commerce.

When talking about "Internet Plus," the premier said traditional industries should also pick up speed in becoming more digitized, intelligent and green.

In a visit to the country's three telecom operators before the meeting, Li highlighted technological and industrial revolution and encouraged them to develop more core technology and improve global competitiveness.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 21:07:54|Editor: Yang Yi

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COLOMBO, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's deal with China to develop the Hambantota Port in southern Sri Lanka will boost Sri Lanka's foreign-exchange reserves and help bolster investors confidence, rating agency Moody's said Monday.

Moody's said in its latest report that earnings from the Hambantota Port stake sale will feed into the Sri Lankan central bank's foreign-exchange reserves, which will help bolster investors confidence and encourage future portfolio inflows.

"Importantly, the sale will allow the government to set aside earnings to repay its upcoming debt maturities and reduce its external debt, a key constraint on Sri Lanka's credit quality," it added.

The rating agency noted that the development of the broader Hambantota Port area will help bring in foreign direct investment into Sri Lanka, especially from China.

The buildup of associated infrastructure surrounding the port also can help attract greater private-sector investments, and this, together with other ongoing development projects, will provide a stable source of financing for Sri Lanka and support its economic growth, according to Moody's.

China Merchants Port Holdings and the Sri Lanka Ports Authority signed an agreement here Saturday to develop the Hambantota Port. Under the deal, the Chinese side will hold a 70 percent stake in two joint ventures to be launched to take charge of the commercial and administrative management operations of the port respectively.

After 10 years, the Sri Lankan side will gradually purchase an additional 20 percent stake, resulting in the two sides owning an equal share of 50 percent each, according to the agreement.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 21:07:56|Editor: Yang Yi

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Chinese State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Guo Shengkun (R) meets with Lao Defense Minister Chansamone Chanyalath in Beijing, capital of China, July 31, 2017. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling)

BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) -- China and Laos pledged to boost cooperation on law enforcement along the Mekong river, as Public Security Minister Guo Shengkun met with Lao Defense Minister Chansamone Chanyalath on Monday in Beijing.

Guo called on both sides to implement the consensus reached by their leaders, deepen law enforcement cooperation along the Mekong river, make joint efforts to combat transnational crime, protect the safety and legitimate rights of each other's institutions and personnel, and maintain regional security and stability.

Chansamone said Laos was willing to work with China to boost law enforcement cooperation and maintain regional security and stability.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 21:07:59|Editor: ying

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MANAMA, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The Saudi Arabia-led Arab alliance which severed diplomatic relations with Qatar insisted on Sunday that Doha must meet a list of 13 demands before talks to resolve the Gulf region crisis could start.

"We reiterate the importance of Qatar's compliance with the 13 demands outlined by the four states," said a joint statement released by the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt after a meeting in Manama, capital city of Bahrain.

"We are ready to have a dialogue provided the 13 conditions are met by Qatar," said Bahrain's Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa.

On Sunday, Qatar denied that the Arab quartet would allow Qatari planes to use air corridors in emergencies, the state-run Qatar News Agency quoted Qatar's transport and communications ministry and its aviation authority as saying.

Saudi media reports were spreading "false information," it said.

The joint statement issued by the four foreign ministers also condemned Qatar's authorities for obstructing its citizens from performing Hajj while Qatar accused Saudi Arabia of refusing to guarantee the safety of Qatari pilgrims.

The four countries cut off diplomatic and transport links with Qatar on June 5, accusing the Qatari government of supporting extremist groups, interfering in their internal affairs and seeking closer ties with Iran.

Qatar has repeatedly denies the charges, citing it would not negotiate on issues related to its sovereignty.

On June 23, the four countries issued a list of 13 demands to end the rift with Doha, including stopping terrorism financing and closing Al-Jazeera television.

Other demands include cutting off Qatar-Iran diplomatic ties, shutting down a Turkish military base and handing over "terrorist figures" and "wanted individuals" to the four Arab countries.

The anti-Qatar alliance used to shortlist the 13 demands to "six principles" which they wanted Qatar to adopt, amid easing signs of the Gulf standoff following U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's visit earlier this month.

During Tillerson's visit, Qatar and the United States signed a deal on combating terrorism financing, one of the core demands of the Saudi-led alliance.

On July 21, in his first public speech since the crisis started, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani called for holding talks to resolve the Gulf standoff, though emphasizing that any talks should be in respect of its national sovereignty.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 21:08:01|Editor: ying

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CAIRO, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian Foreign Ministry on Monday condemned a terrorist attack in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, which killed six people and wounded 20 others.

In a press statement, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry renewed calls for the international community to counter terrorism and dry up terror funds.

Egypt also expressed full support for the Somali government's efforts to achieve stability in the country and to rebuild its institutions.

On Sunday, a car loaded with explosives went off in a busy street in Mogadishu, leaving six civilians dead and 20 others injured.

No group has claimed responsible for the blast, but Al-Shabaab insurgents have carried out a string of car bomb attacks in recent months.

Meanwhile, Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit condemned the terror attack in Mogadishu, reiterating the need to support the Somali's security apparatuses in their fight against terrorism.

He also urged the international community to double their backing for the Somali government in order to reconstruct its foundations.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 21:18:09|Editor: ying

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CAIRO, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Egypt has strongly condemned on Monday the terrorist attack that took place in Qatif in Saudi Arabia, leaving a Saudi security man dead and six others wounded.

"Egypt asserts its solidarity with Saudi Arabia in combating terrorism and extremism that target its security and stability," the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

It added that Egypt supports all the measures taken by Saudi Arabia to foil the plans of the terrorist cells and organizations.

The statement further underlined the need of intensifying international efforts to confront terrorism, and finding a comprehensive vision to stop the spread of terrorism.

A Saudi policeman was killed and six others wounded in a projectile attack that targeted their patrol in the Shiite-majority eastern province of Qatif on Sunday.

Such attacks are common in the region that has seen death of a policeman and an officer in recent months.

Violence in Qatif has escalated after the demolition of hideouts of fugitives who are behind rioting and vandalism in the region.

Most of those rioters are youth, who are part of the minority Shiite community in Saudi Arabia, demanding more rights in the Sunni conservative kingdom.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 21:23:11|Editor: ying

KATHMANDU, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Health ministers of South Asian countries have called for enhanced cooperation on various health issues, including safeguarding the health of migrants.

The ministers, who gathered at a meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in Sri Lanka from Thursday to Saturday, adopted "Colombo Declaration -- Calling for accelerated progress on key Regional Health Issues," according to a statement received here Monday.

The declaration made recommendations on cooperation on important areas related to public health such as Vector-Borne Diseases, Non-Communicable Diseases, Nutrition, Sanitation, traditional systems of medicines and Human Resources for Health, the statement said.

The Declaration also agreed to collaborate at a regional level to safeguard the health of migrants.

SAARC is a regional body established in 1985 which comprises Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

SAARC's Secretary General Amjad Hussain B. Sial, has also proposed to establish a South Asian Medical University with the SAARC member states which could enable South Asian students to study medicine within the region at affordable cost, according to the statement.

The Secretary General urged every attempt be made to reach out to the poor with basic health facilities at affordable prices saying this should be a priority for SAARC.

Sri Lankan Health Minister Dr. Sandamali Senaratne pointed out that non-communicable diseases, malnutrition and tuberculosis are identified as major health issues facing the people of South Asia.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 21:23:13|Editor: ying

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WINDHOEK, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Namibian President Hage Geingob denied Monday that the beleaguered SME Bank was his project but a result of a Cabinet resolution.

The SME Bank is currently under liquidation following the failure to recover about 200 million Namibian dollars (15.3 million U.S dollars) invested in South Africa in 2016.

The Bank of Namibia sought an order of the court to declare the SME Bank insolvent and that order was granted on July 11 this year.

Geingob was the trade minister when the idea to start the SME Bank was made in 2010.

The Government of Namibia has 65 percent; a Zimbabwean bank, Metbank owns 30 percent while a Zimbabwean businessman Enock Kamushinda has 5 percent.

Addressing a press conference at State House in Windhoek, Geingob said he chose not to intervene in the SME Bank issue because it was sub judice.

The press conference was called to address several issues, among them the liquidation of the SME Bank and unresolved corruption cases involving high ranking officials.

"Let me make use of this opportunity to clarify that the SME Bank was never a "Hage" project as portrayed by some.

"The formation of the SME Bank came about as a result of a Cabinet resolution to convert the former credit guarantee scheme into an SME Bank.

"Since the matter resorted under the then Ministry of Trade and Industry and I was the Minister, I swiftly attended to the execution of the resolution," he said.

He, however, said that the government had asked the Bank of Namibia for more time to allow him to take up the SME Bank matter with his political counterparts in South Africa and Zimbabwe.

"It is regrettable that since then, the bank has been put under provisional liquidation and that ordinary Namibians have lost their employment," he said, adding that he regrets the loss of jobs.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 21:33:18|Editor: ying

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SKOPJE, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev Monday said he would continue to seek the support from U.S. and other NATO members on its way to be a full-fledged NATO membership.

The prime minister made the remarks while attending the joint drills of Macedonian army troops and U.S. Army members under "Dragoon Guardian" exercise held at army field Krivolak, in east central Macedonia.

"The participation of Macedonian troops in international drills or mission confirms Macedonian government's commitment to country's NATO integration process," Zaev told reporters.

He noted that Krivolak infrastructure could be developed in the future, used for training of Macedonian troops taking part in international missions.

Head of Macedonian executive also stated that the Macedonian government and parliament were contemplating the enhancement of the army budget, which he said was important for its preparedness when taking part in peacekeeping missions.

The exercise involving about 90 members of the ARM engineering battalion and 300 members of the U.S. Army cavalry regiment began on July 28 and will run through Aug. 10, a government press release informed.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 21:48:27|Editor: Yang Yi

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BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The Ministry of Public Security (MPS) on Monday issued a class-A arrest warrant for 10 major fugitives involved in cultural relics crime.

The MPS encouraged the public to provide information about the suspects: Shi Junjie, Meng Chao, Liu Jiantao, Yan Wangen, Deng Haifeng, Li Yejun, Wang Jianfeng, Zhang Shigang, Fan Binbin and Liu Sanxun.

It published information about the suspects, including their date and place of birth, ID numbers and photos, on its official website.

The MPS also called for the public to expose criminal activities, such as excavating and robbing of ancient cultural sites and ancient tombs, as well as stealing, selling and smuggling cultural relics.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 22:03:33|Editor: ying

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BERLIN, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Germany's major metalworkers' union, IG Metall, and the workers' councils of German carmakers called on Monday for immediate measures to improve existing diesel vehicles.

A joint statement released in Frankfurt ahead of the "diesel summit" between the German government and automotive industry representatives on Wednesday, described diesel as an indispensable technology.

The priority of policymakers should thus be to improve as many existing vehicles as possible. It was a crucial task of the summit to set measurable standards, target figures, and time frames in this context.

According to IG Metall and the workers' councils, retrofitting measures should center on newer diesel vehicles. Cars that fall into the older and more polluting categories should be rapidly removed from traffic with the incentive of a new "purchase premium."

The proposed measures are directed at taxis, communal vehicles, and commercial traffic, rather than privately used cars.

The statement also calls for better digital traffic control and the expansion of public transportation, as well as natural gas infrastructure in the short-term.

IG Metall and the other signatories once again emphasized the importance of diesel technology for German employment. The production of diesel vehicles was a higher value-added activity than the production of gasoline combustion engines as it will create more jobs, they said.

Wednesday's "diesel summit" was organized on short notice in July to provide a forum for German policymakers to hold discussions with domestic carmakers over the ongoing "dieselgate" and more recent "auto cartel" scandals.

As a consequence, many automotive industry employees are now worried about their job security.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 22:03:34|Editor: ying

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ANKARA, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Turkish soldiers who were seen in video footage mistreating Syrian refugees at the border have been detained, local media reported on Monday.

The report said, citing Turkish Armed Forces statement, that "all necessary administrative and legal procedures" have been launched into the suspected soldiers.

Footage of soldiers mistreating four Syrian refugees trying to cross into Turkey illegally drew widespread criticism, especially in social media.

The army stated that the personnel have been detained with necessary legal action.

According to the delegation's examinations, the incident took place on Friday in one of the Turkish border units.

The video was recorded by another soldier, who sent it to his contact in Germany through WhatsApp, eventually leading to its spreading in social media.

The investigation delegation described the incident as "an act carried out deliberately to weaken and harm Turkey and the Turkish Armed Forces," according to report.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 22:13:39|Editor: ying

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TALLINN, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The presidents of three Baltic states met here Monday with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on transatlantic relations, cyber issues and innovation.

Strengthening transatlantic relations is one of the priorities of Estonia's current presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU), Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid was quoted as saying in a press release.

She also mentioned NATO's enhanced presence in the Baltic states, cyber security, and Estonia's digital solutions in the public sector.

At a joint press conference with Kaljulaid and Latvian and Lithuanian Presidents Raimonds Vejonis and Dalia Grybauskaite, Pence reiterated his country's commitment to the security of the Baltic states and any of the treaty allies of the United States.

Later, Estonia Commander of the Defence Forces, General Riho Terras, introduced Pence to the NATO combat group in Estonia, which consists of soldiers from the United Kingdom, France, and Estonia.

Ending his two-day visit to Estonia, Pence was due to arrive in Georgia, the second stop of his tour, late Monday, which will be followed by a trip to Montenegro, the newest NATO member.

NATO has deployed four combat-ready battalions of 4,000 troops each in Poland and the Baltic countries. Deployment started from early this year, while Russia called on NATO to stop confrontation and seek better relations with Moscow. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 22:18:44|Editor: ying

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ANKARA, July 31 (Xinhua) -- A 22-year-old Dutch tourist has disappeared for three weeks during his holiday in Turkey's southern Mersin province, local media reported on Monday.

The disappeared man identified as Joey Hoffman had come in Turkey for vacation in early July with two friends, travelling around Mediterranean provinces with a rented car.

After Hoffman's missing on July 8, his brother instantly flew to Turkey from Netherland and reported to local police office, wishing for any news or clue about his whereabouts.

Hoffman's brother also printed missing person posters and distributed them to public, however, he has not heard from his brother since the accident happened.

"It is not certain whether he is here by now but the issue is thoroughly being investigated. If he is here, he will be found as soon as possible," said the governor of Mersin's Silifke district, where Hoffman planed to visit.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 22:18:46|Editor: ying

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BAGHDAD, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units on Monday repelled an attack of Islamic States (IS) militants on military posts and killed 10 of the extremist militants in the desert area near the Syrian border in northwestern Iraq, the units said in a statement.

Dozens of IS militants attacked a base of Hashd Shaabi units in the border village of al-Hamdaniyah, but the troops, covered by the army's helicopter gunships, repelled the attackers and forced them to withdraw from the scene, the statement said.

The clashes resulted in the killing of at least 10 IS militants and the destruction of six vehicles, the source added.

In an earlier statement, the Hashd Shaabi reportedly said that its units, backed by helicopter gunships, repelled another attack by IS militants in the desert area near the border with Syria in western Iraq, killing at least 20 militants and destroying eight IS vehicles.

The paramilitary units are deployed in the desert near the Syrian border to prevent the cross-border IS movement between Iraq and Syria.

On May 29, the units made their first arrival at the border after they freed the town of al-Qahtaniyah, some 18 km east of the Syrian border.

On July 10, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi officially declared Mosul's liberation from IS after nearly nine months of fierce fighting to dislodge the extremist militants from their last major stronghold in Iraq.

Two days ago, Abadi declared a new plan to be implemented soon to liberate the IS-held town of Tal Afar from the extremist militants, which will include the participation of the predominantly Shiite paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units and Sunni tribal fighters.

The Iraqi forces still have to wage more offensives to drive out IS militants from their redoubts in Hawijah in southwestern Kirkuk, the adjacent sprawling rugged areas in eastern Salahudin province, in addition to the remaining IS strongholds in the border towns with Syria, including Aana, Rawa, and al-Qaim.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 22:28:49|Editor: ying

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PYONGYANG, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Monday slammed South Korea for seeking to dismantle nuclear weapons of the DPRK in its newly presented five-year plan.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in last week displayed his government's five-year plan of state administration, which included the "strategy on the north," saying Seoul would produce a plan for dismantlement of the north's nuclear weapons.

The DPRK official newspaper Rodong Sinmun said in a commentary that the strategy is "a heinous confrontation scenario for intensifying anti-DPRK campaign over the 'nuclear and human rights issues.'"

"It is an unpardonable deed to remove the DPRK's nuclear deterrent for self-defense, pursuant to the U.S. scheme," said the commentary.

The official Korean Central News Agency also denounced the strategy, saying north-south relations "will never improve with the DPRK nuclear issue as a preconditon."

"This is absolutely unpardonable as it blocks the road for improved north-south relations, disregarding the principled stand of the DPRK on the 'nuclear issue,'" it said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 22:33:54|Editor: ying

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MOGADISHU, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Somalia military court in Somalia on Monday sentenced a soldier to death for killing the country's minister of public works and reconstruction in May.

The military appeals court upheld an earlier ruling in June which found guilty constable Ahmed Abdullahi Aidid for killing Abbas Sheikh Siraji, the country's youngest minister by a bullet.

"Having heard from the appellant and the state prosecutor, I hereby agree with the lower court that Constable Ahmed Abdullahi Abdi Aidid is guilty of killing the minister in May," a military judge said in his ruling.

A lower court found the military officer attached to then auditor general Nur Farah guilty in June 19 but the defendant appealed the ruling.

The court sitting in Mogadishu Monday said the officer killed the minister using an AK-47 gun firing two bullet at him.

The minister, a former refugee in Kenya, was driving himself to the presidential palace in Mogadishu when the military officer who was at the back of a vehicle driving the auditor general to the same direction fired at the minister, killing him instantly.

Siraji was the youngest member of the Somali Federal Parliament and became minister in the Somalia's cabinet in March. The minister becomes the minister to be assassinated in Mogadishu.

Somali president Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo who was forced to cut short his visit to Ethiopia ordered a probe into the killing and immediately dismissed the auditor general.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 22:44:05|Editor: yan

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NAIROBI, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Kenya Airways said Monday its operations are normalizing with minimum delays on some flights due to flight crew constraints.

The national carrier said in a statement issued in Nairobi that it has cancelled and combined some flights to manage the situation and to ensure that affected guests are taken care of.

"We apologize to them for any inconvenience caused and thank them again for their patience during the weekend disruption. We will endeavour to ensure all affected guests are rebooked on other flights as soon as possible," the airline said.

Kenya Airways, which is partly-owned by the Kenyan government and AirFrance KLM, sank into financial woes four years ago after tourism slumped following a spate of terror attacks that saw visitors shun the country over insecurity.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 22:44:08|Editor: yan

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TEHRAN, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Iranian citizens will be able to take a visa free trip to Russia in the next two or three months, Russian ambassador to Iran told Tasnim news agency on Monday.

Levan Jagarian said that based on the agreement that has been reached with Iran's Foreign Ministry officials, the Iranian individuals will be able to visit Russia visa free, according to the report.

Under an earlier agreement, Iranian tourists, in groups of five to 50 people, could travel to Russia without an entry visa for up to 15 days.

In November 2015, Iran and Russia clinched an agreement on the ease of visa requirement. The accord took effect in February 2016.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 22:54:13|Editor: yan

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ADDIS ABABA, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia and the world's newest nation South Sudan plan to join forces to fight insecurity at their common border.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua on Monday James Morgan, South Sudan Ambassador to Ethiopia says the two countries have been suffering from raiders that have killed and abducted civilians.

Although South Sudan gained independence in July 2011 from Sudan less than three years later it plunged into a civil war pitting forces broadly loyal to South Sudan President Salva Kiir against those of his Ex-Deputy Riek Machar.

The insecurity has affected bordering communities in Ethiopia with raiders from South Sudan crossing the border, killing dozens and abducting dozens more in 2016 and early 2017.

"For now our joint work is restricted to apprehending criminals that are creating havoc on our common border but in the future there are plans for a more formalized military pact," says Morgan.

"Both countries have partnered in construction, capacity building and medical sectors, and when law and order is restored in our common border we plan joint road and oil pipeline Projects," he added.

With road links interrupted by fighting in South Sudan, Ethiopian Airlines twice weekly flights to South Sudan capital Juba is the main remaining infrastructure link between the two nations.
U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks about his proposed U.S. government effort against the street gang Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, to a gathering of federal, state and local law enforcement officials in Brentwood, New York, U.S. July 28, 2017. (Xinhua/REUTERS)

WASHINGTON, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Police departments in the United States criticized President Donald Trump after he urged police forces on Friday not to be "too nice" during arrests, as officers risk undermining efforts to alleviate tensions between the police and communities.

CONTROVERSIAL REMARKS

The criticism came after Trump on Friday gave a speech to police in Brentwood on Long Island in the state of New York, which was intended to support police in their fight against the violent street gang La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, which has been accused of a string of bloody murders.

"When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon, you just see them thrown in, rough, I said, 'please don't be too nice,'" Trump said during the speech amid laughter and cheers from a crowd of uniformed officers.

When calling the gangsters "animals," Trump said there was no need for police to use their hands to protect the heads of those handcuffed suspects when putting them into police vehicles.

"Like when you guys put somebody in the car and you're protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over?" he said.

"Like, don't hit their head and they've just killed somebody. Don't hit their head? I said, 'You can take the hand away, OK?'" Trump continued.

A WRONG MESSAGE

Trump's remarks have quickly drawn condemnation from police organizations, domestic law enforcement agencies and police officers, as many believed the U.S. president delivered a "wrong message."

The Police Foundation said though it appreciates Trump's support for law enforcement, it cannot support any commentary that undermines the trust which communities have placed in the police to protect and serve, while another nonprofit group, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, said officers are trained to treat everyone with "dignity and respect."

The police department of Suffolk County where Trump delivered the controversial speech said in a statement that it has strict rules and procedures relating to the handling of prisoners, warning "violations of those rules and procedures are treated extremely seriously."

In a statement released on Saturday, James P. O'Neill, the New York police commissioner, said suggestions for police officers to use alternative standards for use of force other than what is reasonable and necessary are "irresponsible, unprofessional" and "send a wrong message to law enforcement as well as the public."

Steve Soboroff, one of civilian commissioners who oversees the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), said Trump's recommendations would not be in line with LAPD policy, stressing that "it's not what policing is about today."

Gainesville police spokesman Ben Tobias rebuffed Trump's position by tweeting that he, as a cop, disagreed with the president's remarks and that those who "cheered should be ashamed." Until Sunday afternoon, his tweet has been liked more than 320,000 times.

SETBACK TO SOOTHING POLICE-COMMUNITY TENSIONS

Trump's speech in Suffolk came months after former Suffolk County Police Department (SCPD) Chief James Burke was sentenced to 46 months in prison for furiously beating and yelling at a shackled suspect who allegedly stole a bag from Burke's car.

Before the revelation of Burke's scandal, the SCPD was put under federal oversight by the Justice Department, following a federal probe that exposed discrimination against Latinos and immigrants, another indication of the deep-rooted tensions between the police and communities in Suffolk.

The president's comments also resurrected memories of the death of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old Baltimorean whose death sparked protests and riots in the city, and triggered a nationwide debate over excessive use of force by police dealing with cases involving African Americans.

Gray was arrested, shackled and put in the back of a police van by six officers before dying of a spine injury.

"Are you kidding me? This is disgusting," Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz tweeted about Trump's remarks on handling suspects, as rough policing remains a sensitive topic in the city.

Maya Wiley, chairwoman of New York City's Civilian Complaint Review Board, said Trump's words would stoke fear of interacting with officers, which would damage the progress made toward improving police-community relations.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 22:59:18|Editor: yan

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CAPE TOWN, July 31 (Xinhua) -- South African Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies said on Monday that the Industrial Action Plan, adopted by BRICS countries, can be used as a springboard to foster growth, development as well as employment creation.

The Action Plan is aimed at facilitating the implementation of the consensus reached at the 1st Meeting of BRICS Industry Ministers held two years ago in Moscow on expanding industrial cooperation in key areas and joint actions, and deepen the mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation in industrial fields, particularly manufacturing areas, Davies said in remarks distribute by the Department of Trade and Industry.

The seven-point Action Plan was adopted at the two-day second meeting of BRICS Industry Ministers, which was held in Hangzhou, China, at the weekend.

The plan identifies the following fields for deepening industrial cooperation among BRICS countries: strengthen industrial capacity cooperation and the coordination and matchmaking in the field of industrial policies; promote the cooperation in the development of new industrial infrastructure; expand cooperation in technological development and innovation and deepen cooperation in the field of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), among others.

The plan also acknowledges that in recent years, the new industrial revolution -- which includes digitization, networking and intellectualization -- is emerging, changing traditional production flows and business models, and giving rise to new industrial forms, Davies said.

The plan "presents an opportunity to aggressively acquire, transfer and diffuse new technologies through securing key investments from global players in key strategic value chains in order to build global competitive capabilities," said Davies.

Davies was speaking as he was heading to Shanghai for the upcoming 7th Meeting of the BRICS Trade Ministers.

The meetings will discuss areas in which BRICS countries can enhance cooperation on issues related to trade and investment.

The key areas of focus will be trade and investment facilitation, trade in services, intellectual property rights, economic and technical cooperation and the multilateral trading system.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 23:24:29|Editor: yan

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MOSCOW, July 31 (Xinhua) -- It is important for Washington to show political will and discard attempts of sanctions diktat for the sake of improving relations between Russia and the United States, the Kremlin said Monday.

"The way out of this situation is through displaying political will to normalize relations, recovering from an aggravation of political schizophrenia, manifesting the desire to normalize these relations, and abandoning attempts of sanction diktat," Sputnik quoted Russian Presidential Secretary Dmitry Peskov as saying.

The U.S. Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a bill by a vote of 98-2, slapping tougher sanctions on Russia for its alleged intervention in Ukraine and meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, which Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly denied in public.

The bill put U.S. President Donald Trump in a dilemma, but he has indicated he will sign the sanctions bill into law, which represents a sharp downturn in U.S.-Russia relations after signs that Trump wanted to develop a new partnership with Moscow.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday hit back at the sanctions by demanding the United States cut its embassy and consulate staff in Russia by 755 people, regarded as Moscow's most aggressive move against Washington since the final years of the Cold War.

Peskov said Washington will be left to decide on the name list of employees of its diplomatic missions in Russia to dismiss, which could be both U.S. and Russian nationals.

"This is up to the United States... This is both diplomats and people without the diplomatic status and those who were employed on site -- Russian nationals who work there," he said.

The Kremlin spokesman added that Russia reserves the right to take additional countermeasures against the United States, although it still hopes to continue cooperation with the latter in certain areas.

"On the whole, Russia is interested in continuing cooperation (with the U.S.) where this is in our interests... The president considers it appropriate to continue cooperation in these areas," he said.

According to Putin, crucial areas of cooperation for the two countries include the joint actions against terrorism, and obligations in nuclear arms control and space projects.

"We waited a long time for things to perhaps change for the better," state media quoted Putin as saying, "We had such hopes that the situation would change, but judging by the situation that will not be soon."

Indeed, there are many sources of tension between the two nations, such as Russia's alleged meddling issue, the Syrian war, the role of Iran, and tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

The diplomatic tit-for-tat between the two nations started under former U.S. President Barack Obama, who ordered the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats and shut down two Russian recreational retreats in the U.S. in response to reports of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

It was revealed that Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of President Trump, met a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign after being promised "damaging" information about Hilary Clinton, the then Democratic presidential candidate running against his father.

To be what he called "totally transparent," Trump Jr. later made public a chain of emails with an intermediary about the meeting that took place on June 9, 2016 at Trump Tower in New York, but was accused of violating the Federal Election Campaign Act by conspiring to solicit a contribution from a foreign national during the campaign.

Moreover, during the Group of 20 (G20) major economies summit held on July 7-8 in Hamburg, Germany, the White House confirmed that Trump had a second, previously undisclosed conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which Trump said was of a length of 15 minutes.

However, multiple U.S. media, including the New York Times and the CNN, cited a senior White House official as saying that the conversation lasted nearly an hour, making the Russia scandal appear to be far from being over.

The ongoing scandal has brought down support for Trump, even from his own party.

The last week has seen the implosion of the president's plan to repeal and replace the current U.S. healthcare system -- known as Obamacare, former President Barack Obama's signature legislation -- when Senators from his own party refused to support the bill.

The failure marks a big blow for Trump six months after he took office. Trump has yet to pass any meaningful legislation on a host of issues to deliver his promises made during the election campaign.

Darrel West, with the well-known Washington-based U.S. think tank Brookings Institution, said Republicans will distance themselves from Trump "in order to avoid fallout in the 2018 elections" for Congress.
The Valory Music Co. The countdown is on to the birth of Thomas Rhett and Lauren Akins little one. Akins, by the way, is TR's actual surname.

So ready to meet you baby girl, Lauren tweeted on Monday, along with a picture from her pregnancy photo shoot, showing a sizable baby bump. Daddy is finally home, and your big sister and puppies are in need of a little sister, so come on out.

While the official due date isnt until next Tuesday, August 8, it sounds like Lauren may be hoping for an early delivery. Back in May, TR and Lauren welcomed nearly two-year-old Willa Gray, whom they adopted from a Ugandan orphanage, to their family.

Nevada tonight then back home to welcome our new daughter, then put out a record, Thomas shared Friday night, along with a photo of him looking surprised. This is the face I will be making for the next two months.

TRs next concert isnt until August 17 in Brownsville, Oregon. His new album, Life Changes, will be out September 8.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.

so ready to meet you baby girl  daddy is finally home, & your big sister and puppies are in need of a little sister, so come on out pic.twitter.com/Gvi4uIadjX  Lauren Akins (@laur_akins) July 31, 2017
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 23:29:35|Editor: yan

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KIEV, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed a law to reform the Constitutional Court, one of the country's two top courts along with the Supreme Court, the presidential press service said Monday.

The re-organization of the Constitutional Court, which is a part of a comprehensive judicial reform, is aimed at enhancing the protection of the rights and freedoms of Ukrainians, said the statement released on the presidential website.

The reform of the Constitutional Court envisages that the court's judges will be selected through a transparent competition and the personal information about each judge will be made available to the public, the statement said.

In addition, the reform provides an opportunity for any privately owned Ukrainian legal entity or natural individual to directly apply to the Constitutional Court if their constitutional rights are violated.

Previously, only the president and the parliament members had the right to appeal to the Constitutional Court.

The implementation of the judicial reform in Ukraine is one of the key demands of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to continue their aid for Kiev.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 23:29:37|Editor: yan

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VIENTIANE, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Six workers have been killed and another two injured in an explosion of a pressurised oxygen cylinder at a dam construction site in central Laos.

Police are investigating the incident that claimed the lives of six Vietnamese nationals working on the Nam Ngiep 1 Hydropower Project in Borikhan district of central Borikhamxay province, Lao state-run media Vientiane Times reported on Monday.

The accident happened Friday night at the remote construction site in the mountains, according to the Nam Ngiep 1 Power Company.

The cylinder burst during transportation by two workers, killing three instantly and injuring an additional five of whom three died at a hospital in Paksan, capital of the Borikhamxay province.

Of the injured, one has since returned to the camp site while the other remains in the Paksan hospital in a stable condition, said the report.

All six workers are Vietnamese nationals and worked for Song Da 5, one of the subcontractors on the project.

Managing Director of Nam Ngiep 1 Power Company (NNP1PC) Yoshihiro Yamabayashi said the cause of the accident is under investigation by the provincial police, and civil construction works in the area have been suspended until the situation returns to normal.

NNP1 is a hydropower project with an installed capacity of 290 megawatts which is under construction in Borikhamxay and Xaysomboun provinces in central Laos.

The Project consists of the construction of two dams and two powerhouses with generators set on the Ngiep River, a branch of Mekong River.

The project is expected to complete construction by August 2018 and begin to generate electricity in late 2018 or early 2019.

Approximately 95 percent of power generated will be exported to Thailand, with the remainder slated for domestic consumption.

NNP1PC was formed by Kansai Electric Power of Japan, EGAT International of Thailand, and Lao Holding State Enterprise in April 2013 to develop, finance, construct, own and operate the Nam Ngiep 1 Hydropower Project.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 23:34:37|Editor: yan

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VIENTIANE, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Some 23 people have been injured or killed as a result of exploding unexploded ordnance (UXO) in Laos so far in 2017, government officials said here Monday while calling for enhanced international efforts.

In 2016 the number was 59, the Lao government said ahead of the seventh anniversary of the Entry into Force of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which falls on Tuesday.

Up to 30 percent of the total 270 million cluster munitions dropped on Laos during the Vietnam War did not detonate, according to a report by Lao state-run media Vientiane Times.

Around 80 million bomblets remained scattered and buried over much of the country's landmass, and it is not clear how many of these remain a live threat, the report said.

The hazards of UXO correlate to poverty levels, with the most contaminated districts in the country often also being among the poorest, Minister of Labor and Social Welfare Khampheng Saysompheng said at a ceremony marking the Convention.

"Laos has reviewed the national implementation of the convention, and we hope to share some lessons learnt with other parties of the convention in the next annual meeting being held in Geneva, Switzerland this September," Khampheng said.

"We fully support the convention's implementation, especially UXO surveys ... Based on evidence gained from the surveys we will be able to confirm that an area is no longer contaminated with UXO, and allow people to utilize those lands again."

Since September 2016, United Nations Development Program (UNDP) had worked with the Lao government to develop a long-term aspiration for the UXO sector, called the national Sustainable Development Goal 18 on removing the UXO obstacle to development, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative to Laos Kaarina Immonen said at the ceremony.

In total, during the past 20 years of its existence, UXO Lao has cleared more than 61,000 hectares of land for safe use, destroying more than 1.8 million pieces of different types of UXO, according to a UN report.

With Laos being the second signatory to after Norway, the Convention on Cluster Munitions has made a vast contribution to supporting the country and UXO Lao, the national UXO clearance operator, in the efforts to address this violent chapter in the history of Laos, Vientiane Times said in its report.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 23:39:47|Editor: yan

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HANOI, July 31 (Xinhua) -- A Vietnamese former official named Trinh Xuan Thanh gave himself up to the Investigation Security Agency under the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security after nearly one year of evading international arrest warrant, the ministry announced on Monday.

Thanh, born 1966, former Chairman of the PetroVietnam Construction Corporation (PVC), and former official of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and southern Hau Giang province, had fled abroad after the ministry issued an arrest warrant domestically and internationally for him, Vietnam News Agency reported.

Thanh has been alleged to have violated state regulations on economic management, resulting in losses of nearly 3.3 trillion Vietnamese dong (146 million U.S. dollars) for the PVC during his leadership.

After being transferred to Hau Giang, while serving as a member of the provincial Party Committee and Vice Chairman of the provincial People's Committee, Thanh used an official plate on his private-owned luxury Lexus car, which was illegal.

Thanh has been expelled from the Communist Party of Vietnam, the report said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-31 23:44:49|Editor: yan

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VIENTIANE, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Thirty-nine people sustained injuries when a bus overturned in central Laos' Borikhamxay province, Lao state-run media Vientiane Times reported on Monday.

Local rescue team initially provided first-aid and help to the 18 people who sustained moderate injuries and sent them to the hospital in capital Vientiane.

Meanwhile, people who sustained minor injuries received first-aid before being sent to a hospital in Thaphabath district of the province, some 130 km southeast of Vientiane.

The accident happened at about 9:30 p.m. local time on Sunday in Nakhaen village, when the bus was travelling from Vientiane to Attapue province in southern Laos, Head of Security Office of Thaphabath District, First Lieutenant Arlick Phommachanh told Vientiane Times on Monday.

According to the initial investigation by police, they believe that the bus was proceeding at excess speed inappropriate for the road conditions.

However, police are still investigating the precise cause of the incident, said the report.

The Traffic Police Department under Lao Ministry of Public Security reported that in July there were 408 accidents recorded nationwide, including 68 fatalities, 635 people injured and 760 vehicles damaged.

About 90 percent of accidents involve drunken driving, speeding and other violations of the traffic rules. Most accidents occur on weekends and special occasions when people get together to drink.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-01 00:00:00|Editor: yan

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CHANGCHUN, July 31 (Xinhua) -- In a small, enclosed booth, with lights, speakers and microphones, anyone can be a singing superstar!

In China, mini karaoke (KTV) booths are taking the country by storm. The sound-proofed KTV booth is typically equipped with an air-conditioner, a couple of chairs and headsets. You pay a fee, put on the headset, close the curtain and sing your lungs out.

Mini KTVs are everywhere: shopping malls, cinemas, subway stations. They have a similar function to traditional karaoke, but in a more intimate environment.

"No matter how good or bad I sing, nobody can judge me, and I can just have my moment," said Li Rui from Changchun City, capital of northeast China's Jilin Province.

Li said that in traditional KTVs, you have to reserve rooms in advance and there are always "extra charges" such as beverages and fruit.

According to research company iiMedia, the value of the mini KTV market in China will hit 3.18 billion yuan (473 million U.S. dollars) this year, almost twice as much as last year. And market is expected to double again in 2018.

For many urbanites singing is just a way of relieving stress.

"In the past, hosting a party in a KTV meant you had to invite a lot of people, set up a date when everybody was free and book a room, which was not so easy," said Ma Yan, a music fan. "But with mini KTV booths, everything is easy."

Another reason behind the mini KTV fervor is the joy of sharing.

"Most mini KTVs allow you to record yourself and upload, so I can share the recording on WeChat and get a lot of 'likes' from friends," said Guo Hanyu of Shenyang, Liaoning Province.

Liu Wei, a professor with Jilin University, said that the mini KTVs put the user in control, which makes the process "a lot more fun and personal."

The interest has drawn a lot of investors. Prices of mini KTV booths range from about 10,000 yuan to 30,000 yuan.

If a machine runs 12 hours per day at 60 yuan an hour, cost is recouped in about a month. However, the reality is more complicated.

Besides cost, operators also have to pay fees to owners of the venues such as shopping malls and cinemas, but so far, at least 20,000 mini KTVs are in operation.

"In rush hour, customers have to wait in line," said a member of staff with Changchun Ouya New Life shopping mall in Changchun. "The machines are mostly used by young people and they are cleaned every day."

The government has caught wind of the machines. In a circular issued by the Ministry of Culture, authorities asked local departments of cultural management to strengthen supervision on the mini KTVs to avoid juvenile addiction.

"Demand drives development," said Liu Wei. "We should give new things enough space to develop, and allow it to evolve with the market."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-01 00:10:11|Editor: yan

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MOGADISHU, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. military said Monday it carried out a drone strike in southern Somalia on Saturday evening, killing Al-Shabaab fighter.

The U.S. Africa Command (Africom) said the successful kinetic strike operation against the militants occurred near Tortoroow in southern Somalia. But no civilian was harmed.

"The U.S. conducted this operation in coordination with its regional partners as a direct response to Al-Shabaab actions, including recent attacks on Somali forces," it said in a statement.

Washington said Al-Shabaab which has pledged allegiance to Al-Qaida is dedicated to providing safe haven for terrorist attacks throughout the world.

"Al-Shabaab has publicly committed to planning and conducting attacks against the US and our allies. We continue to work in coordination with our Somali partners and allies to systematically dismantle Al-Shabaab, and help achieve stability and security throughout the region," Africom said.

Local media reports have identified the targeted Al-Shabab leader as Ali Mohamed Hussein, who has served as the militant's group's shadow governor for Mogadishu.

"We will continue to assess the results of the operation, and will provide additional information as appropriate. Specific details about the units involved and assets used will not be released in order to ensure operational security," Africom said.

The military said the Saturday's strike was conducted within the parameters of the proposal approved by the President in March, which allows the U.S. Department of Defense to conduct lethal action against Al-Shabaab within a geographically-defined area of active hostilities in support of partner force in Somalia.

The U.S. maintains a small force unit of about 50 troops in Somalia mainly to advise and assist Somalia and AMISOM troops battling Al-Shabaab militants.

Though they are not in Somalia to conduct combat operations, when called in, their helicopters, drones and manned aircraft are available for quick reaction air strikes.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-01 00:20:18|Editor: yan

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GUANGZHOU, July 31 (Xinhua) -- WeChat and Alipay, two major online payment platforms in China, will call for consumers to go cashless and cardless in their daily life through promotions in August.

Cashlessness is a new Chinese characteristic. In a Monday report by Tencent, the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, and French market research firm Ipsos, 84 percent of Chinese were "comfortable" going out with only mobile phones, no cash.

Gao Jingwen, in her 20s, can hardly recall when she last paid in cash.

"I do not need cash in a restaurant, seeing a doctor, paying electricity and water bills. I cannot think of any place I cannot pay with my smart phone," she said.

Zhang Shucui, 67, always used to take a large amount of change when going to the wet market near her home in Beijing's Haidian District, but that time has gone.

"The QR code replaced the change basket in front of the stalls," she said. "Gone are the days when I had to search all my pockets for a coin."

Monday's report also showed more than 70 percent of the 6,500-plus respondents saying they could live more than a week with only 100 yuan (15 U.S. dollars) in cash, and 52 percent only use cash for 20 percent of their total monthly consumption.

Mei Houdui, an electronic products dealer in Shenzhen, shared a recent "awkward" experience - he wanted to borrow some cash as pocket money for his child at a party, and failed as no one had any cash in their pockets.

A BIG CAKE

The new payment pattern has won over Chinese consumers with its convenience and flexibility, squeezing the market share of card and cash payments.

"Alipay or WeChat?" This is the most often question posed up when a purchase is made in China. Cards and cash, the once dominant purchasing methods, have become a second option in less than half a decade.

"Mobile payment companies were worried about their future just four years ago, but the spread of technology has exceeded the imagination of almost everyone," said Li Gang, a professor at the Tencent Research Institute.

Data from the People's Bank of China showed a total of 157 trillion yuan of payments were made on mobile devices in China last year, more than 200 times that in the United States in the same period. The figure is expected to continue expanding by 50 percent each year, it said.

NO BIG SURPRISE

It is no accident that mobile payment have expanded so fast in China. According to a report by eMarketer, China's lack of "credit card culture" has somewhat fueled the popularization of mobile payments, especially in small cities and underdeveloped areas.

In a remote mountain village of central China's Hunan Province, one can easily buy a hen or groceries by scanning a QR code.

Payment and Clearing Association of China said in a report that mobile payment users in small towns and the countryside account for half of the total in China. The percentage of mobile payment users in the countryside is even higher than in provincial capitals.

"Mobile payment has become the norm and companies and brands cannot afford to ignore that fact," said Li.

WeChat Pay has recruited several million offline vendors. Alipay announced 10 million brick-and-mortar shops have signed for their cashless life promotion.

Mobile payment has also helped improve the outdated, time-consuming services at government offices and public sectors.

In Xi'an, nearly 70 percent of the northwestern city's drivers pay their traffic fines via WeChat instead of wasting time queuing in long lines in police departments.

Patients in Guangzhou are used to making an appointment with a doctor and paying by smart phone.

Statistics from WeChat showed that over 300 cities have public service platforms that accept WeChat payments.

Both the Internet giants have actively expanded their services overseas since last year. Alipay can be used in several hundreds of thousands of shops in over 70 countries, while Wechat has landed in 19 countries and regions, including Japan, Thailand and Republic of Korea - most popular destinations among Chinese tourists.

"The door to a new world has opened, and an infinite future awaits," Jia said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-01 00:35:29|Editor: yan

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MOGADISHU, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) confirmed Monday that 12 troops were killed and seven others injured during an ambush on its convoy in southern Somalia on Sunday.

The insurgents ambushed the AMISOM convoy between Golweyn and Buulo in Lower Shabelle, sparking heavy fighting.

The AU mission later denied the killing on Sunday evening but confirmed the attack after their convoy hit an improvised explosive device. Amisom spokesman Joe Kibe had said only two soldiers were injured while the rest were safe.

"The troops were ambushed during a regular patrol to secure the Mogadishu-Barawe Main Supply Route. As a result, 12 gallant AMISOM soldiers lost their lives while seven others sustained injuries and are currently receiving treatment," AU mission said in a statement on Monday.

The Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (SRCC) for Somalia, Francisco Madeira however commended the courage and bravery of AMISOM troops, who were targeted in an IED attack.

"The African Union Mission appreciates and honours the heroes whose lives have been lost while pursuing peace and stability in Somalia. I extend my deepest condolences to the families of our fallen soldiers, the people and government of Uganda," said Madeira.

"Your sacrifice and commitment to the cause for peace in Somalia is recognized and most appreciated by our continental Organization and by every member state of the African Union and will never be in vain," he added.

AMISOM condemned in the strongest terms acts of terrorism, upon which the perpetrators' sole aim is to spread anarchy and inflict suffering on the people of Somalia.

Madeira reiterated AMISOM's continued commitment to the cause for peace in Somalia, noting that such attacks will not derail efforts to rid Somalia of the blood thirsty terrorists.

The militants have recently increased their attacks against AMISOM and Somali forces in the country, which resulted in the loss of some towns although the militants mainly held those towns briefly.

The AMISOM and Somali forces have also increased airstrikes in southern Somalia in the recent past, resulting in the killing of several militants in March.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-01 00:35:30|Editor: yan

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by Ronald Njoroge

NAIROBI, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan youth on Monday called for peace a week to the general elections.

Over 4,000 youth representatives attending the International Youth Fellowship (IYF) Youth Peace Camp vowed to spread the message of peace before, during and after the Aug. 8 elections.

"With a week left before we cast our votes, we are gathered here in this youth peace camp to demonstrate our determination for cohesion and passion for our country Kenya," the National Chairman IYF Youth League Wycliffe Ayoki said.

The five-day event brought peace representatives from all the 47 counties.

Ayoki noted that as the country approaches the general election, Kenyan youth have come together in solidarity to amplify their voices to pray for peacefully elections.

The peace conference aims to educate the youth to help prevent the situation witnessed during the 2007 general election where post election violence reportedly led to the death of over 1,000 people while another 600,000 were internally displaced.

The objective of the gathering is to equip participants of the event with a positive mindset and to be trained as agents of peace.

Ayoki said that youth are the most vulnerable segment of the population and so, are likely to be used to perpetrate violence.

The chairman said that what the youth of Kenya need most is a change of attitude and way of thinking. Government data indicates that over 80 percent of the population is below the age of 35 years.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-01 00:50:36|Editor: yan

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LONDON, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The High Court in London blocked an attempt on Monday by a former Iraqi army general to have former British prime minister Tony Blair prosecuted for a war crime, local media reported.

Abdul Wahed Shannan Al Rabbat, who served as chief of staff of the Iraqi army, alleged that Blair and two of his ministers had committed the crime of aggression by invading Iraq in 2003 to overthrow President Saddam Hussein.

Al Rabbat had also wanted to prosecute against Jack Straw, who served as foreign secretary in Blair's Labour government, and the former Attorney General Lord Goldsmith.

His lawyers, led by British barrister Michael Mansfield, asked the High Court for permission to seek a judicial review in an attempt to get the British Supreme Court to overturn a ruling by the House of Lords in 2006 that there is no such crime as the crime of aggression under English and Welsh law.

The judges, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, the Lord Chief Justice, and Justice Ouseley, dismissed the general's application, on the grounds there was no chance of the case succeeding.

The British attorney general Jeremy Wright had earlier intervened in the case on behalf of the British government, calling on the High Court to block the challenge on the grounds that it was "hopeless."

After the ruling, a spokesman at the Attorney General's Office in London said: "It should be for Parliament, and not the courts, to create new criminal offences. This principle was upheld when the House of Lords ruled in 2006 that the crime of aggression does not exist in English law. In this legal challenge, we argued that this remains the case today and the courts agreed."

The court centered on the invasion in 2003 when British forces joined the U.S.-led coalition to overthrow Hussein, after then U.S. president George W Bush and Blair accused Iraq of possessing weapons of mass destruction.

The invasion led to a lengthy inquiry in Britain led by John Chilcot, who ruled the invasion had not been the "last resort" presented to members of parliament as well as the public. Chilcot's report ruled Blair had overstated the threat posed by Hussein.

Later, the Guardian newspaper in London published a response to the ruling by Al Rabbat's lawyer, Imran Khan, the solicitor who represented the general.

According to the Guardian newspaper, Khan said: "(He) is extremely disappointed with the judgment of the high court in London which brings to an end the hope of prosecuting Tony Blair, Jack Straw, and Peter Goldsmith for the crime of aggression in invading Iraq in 2003.

"The invasion and subsequent occupation resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of individuals as well as the displacement of over four million others including General al-Rabbat who has had to seek sanctuary and refuge in another country.

"Iraq has been left decimated and in a state of chronic instability. Despite all of this, and the clear findings of the Chilcot inquiry which laid bare the conduct of those that should be held to account, the high court has confirmed that there is to be no accountability. Those responsible are to remain unpunished. This is not justice."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-01 00:55:41|Editor: yan

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LONDON, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Riot-trained prison staff were sent to a British prison on Monday for a serious "disturbance" in one of the cells.

BBC quoted sources as saying that inmates took over one wing of the Mount Prison, located in Hertfordshire, as well as half of another wing.

But a ministry of justice spokeswoman was later reported as saying that the prison was completely secure and there was no risk to the public.

Britian is not a stranger to prison riots. The latest reported riot was last week, when specially-trained prison security teams were brought in to deal with an incident at a jail in Worcestershire.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-01 00:55:43|Editor: yan

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BERLIN, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The German federal prosecutor has taken charge of the investigation into the Hamburg knife attacker Ahmad A "because of the special importance of the case," the Karlsruhe-based government agency declared Monday.

A police investigation into the matter is already underway. A speaker told press that there were many witnesses who remained to be questioned and confirmed that the attacker had asked to be treated like a terrorist upon his arrest.

The 26-year-old appeared to have radicalized himself rather than belonging to organizations such as the Islamic State, according to German federal prosecutor.

There was no indication that other individuals were involved. Ahmad A. reportedly decided to carry out the attack "on the day of the deed."

On Friday, he suddenly took a 20-centimeter long knife out of its packaging at a Hamburg grocery store and began randomly stabbing shoppers. Ahmad A. killed a 50-year-old man and injured seven people in the process before being overwhelmed by a crowd of civilians. According to reports, the attacker had already left the supermarket before deciding to return and carry out the attack.

He is currently in police custody on charges of murder. The Palestinian citizen's was due to be deported after his application for asylum in Germany had been rejected.

Ahmad A. was born in the United Arab Emirates and arrived in Germany as a refugee in 2015. He was known to state authorities but not considered to be potentially violent. There are indications that he suffered from poor mental health.

The German Federal Prosecutor investigates and presses charges against offenders whose actions threaten German security. Combating terrorism is one of its key tasks.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-01 01:36:07|Editor: Liangyu

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Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, and other senior leaders Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli attend a reception hosted by the Ministry of National Defense to celebrate the 90th founding anniversary of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), in Beijing, capital of China, July 31, 2017. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday attended a reception to celebrate the 90th founding anniversary of the People's Liberation Army, which falls on Aug. 1.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, gave his regards to representatives of army heroes and veterans during the reception, attended by more than 1,800 guests from home and abroad.

Other senior leaders of the party and the state, including Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli, also attended the reception hosted by the Ministry of National Defense.

Defense Minister Chang Wanquan made a speech, calling on the armed forces to resolutely fulfill missions entrusted by the party and the nation.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-01 01:56:15|Editor: yan

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BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Most motorcycles made in China are expected to be preloaded with BeiDou navigation system by 2018, according to a meeting on the promotion of BeiDou on Monday.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), more than 20 million motorcycles equipped with BeiDou are expected to be put on the market, over half of which will be aimed at overseas markets.

At the meeting, China's 15 major motorcycle producers reached consensus on reaching these targets.

Promoting BeiDou for car networking usage will help improve traffic management, relieve congestion, cut down robbery and motivate energy saving and environmental protection, said Bo Yumin, chief engineer of the Certification and Accreditation Administration of the People's Republic of China.

"BeiDou is ready for civic use. It will help to improve the efficiency of accident rescue, and reduce loss of life," said Qiao Yueshan, deputy director of information technology department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

China launched the 23rd satellite last year for BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) to improve the stability of this self-developed navigation system, and prepare it for global coverage.
Qi Huajun (1st L), defense adviser for the Chinese Mission to the EU, and Prince Laurent (2nd R) of Belgium pose for a photo at a reception celebrating the 90th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army of China in Brussels, Belgium, on July 19, 2017. General Mikhail Kostarakos, Chairman of the European Union Military Committee, congratulated the 90th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army of China at a reception co-hosted by the Chinese Mission to the EU and Chinese embassy in Belgium. (Xinhua/Han Chong)

BRUSSELS, July 31 (Xinhua) -- As part of a global celebration for the 90th birthday of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), Chinese embassies in European countries recently held rounds of receptions to mark PLA's tremendous contribution to world peace in the last 90 years.

With an attendance of thousands, the receptions across the continent offer a rare chance to the West for a better understanding of PLA's role as world peace maintainer, public safety player and a bridge linking China with other countries.

"During its 90 years of history, the PLA has achieved very much for the Chinese people ... It is (also) an instrument that's often used to make world a better place," said General Mikhail Kostarakos, chairman of the European Union Military Committee, at a reception co-hosted by the Chinese Mission to the EU and the Chinese Embassy in Belgium on July 20.

As China's comprehensive national strength continues to emerge, the Chinese military has been effectively implementing its international obligations, making its own contribution to world peace.

Data released by the Chinese military authority shows that the PLA has participated in over 30 annual joint exercises in recent years, including the United Shield-2017 joint anti-terrorism drill in Belarus and the Rim of the Pacific Exercise led by the United States.

Covering non- and traditional security areas, these exercises, together with some bilateral and multilateral dialogue mechanisms, tested and improved PLA's ability as a staunch force in maintaining world peace.

"Building a defensive military in line with the need of China's national security and development is not only in accordance with China's fundamental interests, but also conducive to world peace and prosperity," Chinese Ambassador to France Zhai Jun told a reception on July 11.

Meanwhile, the Chinese army is committed to shouldering more responsibilities within its capacity to provide more public safety products for the international community.

According to a report published on the official website of the PLA, since 1990, the Chinese military has participated in 24 UN peacekeeping missions and dispatched more than 30,000 officers and soldiers to UN peacekeeping operations.

Since 2008, the Chinese military has dispatched 26 escort taskforces, involving 83 vessels and 22,000 soldiers, to carry out escort missions at the Gulf of Aden and in waters off the Somali coast.

Since 2013, the Chinese military has assigned 28 rescue teams to 14 international humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations.

"China is a very active global actor in security building. As the number one troop contributor to United Nations missions among the five permanent Security Council members, China tangibly demonstrates its support to the international rule-based system. At the same time, it demonstrates China's commitment to contributing to global stability," said Kostarakos.

"The initiative announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping in September 2015 to create a standby force of 8,000 peacekeepers only underlines this noble and responsible position," Kostarakos added.

The important role of the Chinese military in promoting bilateral relations was also hailed during these receptions.

Bilateral relations between China and Estonia have enjoyed a smooth development since Estonia's independence in 1991, not only in business and cultural areas but also in military sector, said Helmen Kutt, chairman of the Social Affairs Committee and chairman of Estonia-China parliamentary group at the Estonian parliament.

His remarks were echoed in London. Chinese Ambassador to Britain Liu Xiaoming on Thursday told a reception that military relations are an important part of the "golden era" of China-Britain ties.

Citing the upcoming visit of the Chinese naval fleet, which is currently in an escorting mission in the Gulf of Aden, as an example, Liu said the friendly visit to Britain's Portsmouth would enhance understanding and friendship between Chinese and British militaries, thus injecting a fresh impetus into the development of their relations.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-01 02:16:25|Editor: yan

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RAMADI, Iraq, July 31 (Xinhua) -- At least seven Islamic State (IS) militants were killed in the U.S.-led coalition airstrike in the IS-held areas in the western part of Iraq's Anbar province, an Iraqi army commander said on Monday.

The airstrike attacked IS post in north of the IS-held town of Rawa, some 320 km west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, destroying the IS post and killing seven militants, along with destroying two IS vehicles, Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Muhammadi, commander of al-Jazira Operations Command, told reporters.

Separately, the Iraqi army defused and detonated a total of 97 roadside bombs in different areas near the provincial capital city of Ramadi, some 110 km west of Baghdad, a provincial security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Earlier, the Iraqi security forces dislodged IS militants from the key cities of Anbar province, including Ramadi and the nearby Fallujah, but the areas near the border with neighboring Syria, including Aana, Rawa and al-Qaim as well as the vast rural areas across the province are still under the control of the extremist IS militants.

On July 10, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi officially declared Mosul's liberation from IS after nearly nine months of fierce fighting to dislodge the extremist militants from their last major stronghold in Iraq.

Abadi has declared a new plan to liberate the IS-held town of Tal Afar from the extremist militants, which will include the participation of the predominantly Shiite paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units and Sunni tribal fighters.

The Iraqi forces still have to wage more offensives to drive out IS militants from their redoubts in Hawijah in southwestern Kirkuk, the adjacent sprawling rugged areas in eastern Salahudin province, in addition to the remaining IS strongholds in the border towns with Syria in western Anbar province.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-01 02:21:30|Editor: yan

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DAR ES SALAAM, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The government of Tanzania and Barrick Gold Corporation, the largest shareholder of Acacia Mining Plc, on Monday began talks seeking to end a long standing dispute over royalties Acacia allegedly owes the east African nation's gold exports.

A statement issued by the Directorate of Presidential Communications in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam said the talks were between President John Magufuli's special committee led by the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Palamagamba Kabudi and Barrick Gold Corporation Chief Executive Officer Richard Williams.

"Our committee is well prepared and we are looking forward to having fruitful talks," said Kabudi shortly before the talks started.

For his part, Williams said Barrick Gold Corporation was looking forward to reaching an amicable conclusion at the end of the talks.

In June this year, President Magufuli met with Prof John Thornton, Chairman of Barrick Gold Canada, to discuss the mineral sand saga after Magufuli received two reports on the exports of copper concentrates.

President Magufuli had said the meeting was successful and Barrick had "repented" for what had happened and they were now ready to compensate Tanzania for the loss that the country had incurred over the years.

However, after the proposed talks were seemingly delayed, President Magufuli on July 21 threatened to shut down foreign gold mining companies if the proposed talks continued to be delayed.

The disputes between the government and the mining firms center on royalties, which President Magufuli said Tanzania has been denied its due payments for a very long time.

The talks were initiated after two presidential committees revealed that Tanzania had lost over 45 billion U.S. dollars in royalties since Acacia Plc started to operate in the country in the 1990s.

Last week, Tanzania slapped Acacia Mining with 190-billion U.S. dollars fines and unpaid taxes from two of its Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi mines.

Acacia said in a statement the government of Tanzania sent a 40 billion dollars tax bill along with an additional 150 billion dollars in penalties and interest owned.

The fine allegedly included under-declared export revenues from Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi mines between 2000 and 2017.

In response, Acacia said that it has been declaring all revenues fully.

President Magufuli said Tanzania has been losing billions of dollars in exports of copper concentrates which mining companies were taking abroad for smelting.

In March this year, President Magufuli formed two committees which probed the technical aspects of the gold concentrates and the economic and legal frameworks around the exports.

Early this month, the National Assembly approved laws aimed at forcing mining companies to renegotiate their contracts. President Magufuli has already assented the laws.

Acacia Mining said recently that it was seeking an adjudicator to resolve its dispute with the government.

Acacia, Tanzania's largest miner, said in a statement that notices of arbitration were served on behalf of companies that own Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi mines which were hit by an export ban.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-01 02:26:32|Editor: Liangyu

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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (2nd L) learns about new technology research and development at China Mobile in Beijing, capital of China, July 31, 2017. Li visited the country's three telecom operators and chaired a seminar on Monday. (Xinhua/Zhang Duo)

BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) -- China should use emerging information technology including cloud computing and Internet of Things to shore up the digital economy, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said.

"The digital economy has enormous potential," Li said at a seminar on Monday, citing rapid growth in information consumption, mobile payments and e-commerce.

"Traditional industries should pick up speed in becoming more digitized, intelligent and green."

The premier expects information technology to create new sectors and new business models for the economy.

China should bolster emerging tertiary sectors including intelligent transportation and remote education to improve public services, Li said, adding that the "Internet Plus" can help make government affairs more transparent.

Li stressed further opening up in the telecom sector, support for research and development of new technology, and cyberspace security.

Having become a major growth driver, the digital economy rose 18.9 percent from a year ago to 22.6 trillion yuan (3.4 trillion U.S. dollars) last year.

Li called for more efforts on integrated development of small firms and industrial giants.

Enterprises should establish open Internet platforms to better allocate resources, match supply and demand, promote coordinated research and development, and build a new industrial ecosystem, according to Li.

As a result, innovation will be more efficient, manufacturing will improve, and economic and industrial upgrades will be pushed forward, Li said.

During the meeting, Li also urged continued efforts to offer faster and more affordable Internet services, which will help improve business competitiveness and reduce social costs.

Charges can be further lowered for individual consumers and small businesses, Li said.

In a visit to the country's three telecom operators ahead of the meeting, Li encouraged companies to develop more core technology and improve global competitiveness.

When listening to a report on how new technology could address difficulties in parking shared bicycles, Li said there are always problems in new things, which should be solved through new technology and in new ways.

The government will adopt cautious, inclusive supervision over new business models to ensure their robust and orderly development, Li said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-01 02:26:33|Editor: yan

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DUBLIN, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar on Monday pledged to spread prosperity across the entire country, saying that every part of the country has an equal chance to share in the country's prosperity.

"This government is determined to show over the next few months and years that we can not only continue to stimulate growth, but that we are able to spread the benefit across the entire country," Varadkar said.

Varadkar said Waterford, where he attended the opening of a new office, was a great city with historic, resilient and proud nature, but said it seemed to have fallen behind in health, industry, education and infrastructure.

"This must change. So long as I am taoiseach (prime minister), Waterford will not be neglected or forgotten," he said.

According to Varadkar, later this year the Irish government will publish a new national development plan, which will plan for the Ireland of 2040 with an estimated population of 5.5 million.

Currently, Ireland has a population of 4.7 million.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-01 02:51:47|Editor: yan

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DOHA, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Qatar filed a wide-ranging legal complaint at the World Trade Organization on Monday to challenge a trade boycott by the Saudi-led bloc, local media reported.

Saudi Arabia, together with Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt, have cut ties with Qatar, accusing the latter of supporting terrorists and interfering in the internal affairs of other countries.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt issued a list of 13 demands to Qatar later last month, including closing Al-Jazeera TV station, stopping financing and supporting terrorism, and downgrading its ties with Iran, as major preconditions for ending their boycott.

The four countries vowed to take further political, economic and legal steps to tighten the screws on Doha after the latter refused to accept demands.

By formally "requesting consultations" with the three countries, the first step in a trade dispute, Qatar triggered a 60 day deadline for them to settle the complaint or face litigation at the WTO and potential retaliatory trade sanctions.

Qatar is also raising the boycott at a meeting of the UN International Civil Aviation Organization on Monday.
Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheik Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa (L) walks in to a press conference as Saudi Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir, Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri and United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister, Sheikh Abdulla bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan follow him for a joint press conference after the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt meeting to discuss their dispute with Qatar, in Manama, Bahrain July 30, 2017. (Reuters Photo)

DOHA, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Qatar filed a wide-ranging legal complaint at the World Trade Organization on Monday to challenge a trade boycott by the Saudi-led bloc, local media reported.

Saudi Arabia, together with Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt, have cut ties with Qatar, accusing the latter of supporting terrorists and interfering in the internal affairs of other countries.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt issued a list of 13 demands to Qatar later last month, including closing Al-Jazeera TV station, stopping financing and supporting terrorism, and downgrading its ties with Iran, as major preconditions for ending their boycott.

The four countries vowed to take further political, economic and legal steps to tighten the screws on Doha after the latter refused to accept demands.

By formally "requesting consultations" with the three countries, the first step in a trade dispute, Qatar triggered a 60 day deadline for them to settle the complaint or face litigation at the WTO and potential retaliatory trade sanctions.

Qatar is also raising the boycott at a meeting of the UN International Civil Aviation Organization on Monday.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-01 03:37:04|Editor: yan

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WARSAW, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Memorial ceremonies began in the Polish capital on Monday morning as the country marked the 73rd anniversary of the outbreak of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising against the Germans during the World War II.

Polish President Andrzej Duda, Warsaw Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz and a large group of veterans were among those taking part in the ceremonies near the Warsaw Uprising Museum, according to Polish Press Agency.

Although the 1944 Warsaw Uprising against the Germans did not end in a military victory for Poland, the heroism of the insurgents made it possible for the country to eventually regain full sovereignty, President Andrzej Duda said during Monday's ceremonies at Freedom Park near the Warsaw Uprising Museum.

The Polish president emphasised it was an important moment in the education of youth and, therefore, for the future of Poland.

"It's also important for me as the president of Poland, but first and foremost, as a citizen, a former boy scout, someone who was raised on the history and myth of the Warsaw Uprising, on the heroism of the insurgents", Duda added.

"I can say my willingness to serve the motherland was forged to a significant degree by those events and the way the young Polish people conducted themselves", the president said.

At the ceremony, Andrzej Duda presented state decorations to Warsaw insurgents and persons actively preserving the memory of the Warsaw Uprising

The 1944 Warsaw Uprising against the Germans was one last attempt to save Poland's independence during World War II, the director of the Warsaw Uprising Museum, Jan Oldakowski said during ceremonies.

"Raised in a free Poland, you knew that freedom was the most precious value and you served it with the utmost dedication", Oldakowski said while addressing those who fought in the uprising 73 years ago.

The Warsaw Uprising broke out on Aug. 1, 1944 and was the biggest resistance operation in German-occupied Europe. Initially intended to last several days, it continued for over two months before it was brutally suppressed by the Germans. The uprising claimed the lives of 18,000 insurgents and around 200,000 civilians.

After the insurgents surrendered and the remaining 500,000 residents were expelled from the city, the Germans methodically burned down and blew up Warsaw house by house. By January 1945, about 90 percent of the buildings and city infrastructure were destroyed.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-01 03:57:10|Editor: yan

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PRAGUE, July 31 (Xinhua) -- A total of 55 Czech police officers left for foreign missions in Macedonia and Serbia on Monday, and they will help protect the borders of the two countries, said Czech deputy police president Petr Petrik.

Petrik said that 40 of the Czech police officers will be deployed in Macedonia, where they will help protect Macedonian border with Greece. The other 15 police officers will be deployed in Serbia to protect the Serbian-Bulgarian border.

This is the 12th time for Czech police left for the foreign missions in Macedonia, and the fourth time in Serbia. The police officers will return in mid-September. Petrik said the foreign missions will continue, and other police officers will replace the current team on Sept. 11.

According to Petrik, the foreign missions are beneficial to Czech police, for it brings experience from abroad, which is "very valuable." Foreign missions of Czech police started in 2015, when the migration crisis began to emerge.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-01 04:07:21|Editor: yan

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CAIRO, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Arab Parliament Speaker Mashaal al-Salami on Monday strongly condemned the attack against the Iraqi Embassy in Kabul, which was carried out by Islamic State (IS) terror group.

Al-Salmi affirmed in a press statement Parliament's full support for the Iraqi government, adding that such attack came after the victories achieved by the Iraqi army against IS group in Iraq.

The terrorist attack will not discourage Iraq in its fight against terrorism, urging the international community to intensify efforts to fight terrorism.

Earlier in the day, Iraqi Foreign Ministry said that two of its embassy employees were killed in a suicide attack outside the Iraqi embassy in Kabul.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-01 04:07:23|Editor: yan

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DOHA, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Qatar on Monday rebutted Saudi Arabian's accusations that it is internationalizing the Hajj pilgrimage amid a continued Gulf standoff.

In an interview with the TV channel Al Jazeera, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said there has been no suggestion by any Qatari official about internationalizing the pilgrimage issue.

"It was Saudi Arabia trying to politicize the Hajj pilgrimage amid the Gulf crisis," he said.

He was responding to the remarks by Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, who warned Sunday in Manama, Bahrain that Qatar's attempt to politicize the Hajj pilgrimage is a "declaration of war" against the kingdom.

"We reserve the right to respond to anyone who is working on the internationalization of the holy sites," al-Jubeir said after meeting with three counterparts from the Saudi-led quartet that are boycotting Qatar.

He reiterated that Qatari pilgrims were welcome to visit Saudi to perform Hajj pilgrimage.

Hajj is an annual pilgrimage to the holiest Islamic city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia by hundreds of thousands of Muslims from around the world. This year's Hajj will start from later August and last till early September.

Though Qatari pilgrims are allowed to go to Saudi to perform Hajj pilgrimage, they do face some restrictions imposed by Saudi government as part of its blockade on Qatar.

Qatari pilgrims can only enter the kingdom via two designated airports: King Abdulaziz Airport in Jeddah and Prince Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Airport in Medina. And they can travel to Saudi on any flights except the ones operated by Qatar Airways.

Qatar's Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs has accused Riyadh of politicizing Hajj by imposing those restrictions, saying these measures are designed to set obstacles for the pilgrims from Qatar to Mecca.

The Saudi-led Arab quartet, which also includes the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt, cut their diplomatic ties with Qatar on June 5 and imposed a blockade on the rich tiny Gulf nation, citing its support for terrorism and extremism, interference in their internal affairs and seeking closer ties with Iran, a rival for most Gulf nations.

The quartet's foreign ministers said Sunday after meeting in Manama that they were ready for talks with Doha on condition that it meets their demands, including stoping funding of terrorism and ending interference in their domestic affairs.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-01 04:07:25|Editor: yan

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LONDON, July 31 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Theresa May's office on Monday said free movement of people would end when Britain leaves the European Union (EU).

Number 10 was forced to make clarify future immigration plans after various senior ministers indicated that free movement would continue after Brexit.

Conflicting media statements by senior government ministers created uncertainty about what would happen during any transitional period after March 2019, the date of Britain's exit as an EU member.

Some commentators described the situation as a civil war between rival "remainers" and Brexit supporters.

Media reports said British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson had been forced to deny a claim by the Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable that he had threatened to resign from government over the Brexit issue.

Uncertainty started Friday when Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond commented that Britain would seek a Brexit transitional deal with the EU for up to three years after Brexit. Hammond is acting head of the government during May's vacation on a walking trip in the Alps.

Hammond said the cabinet was united behind the need for a transitional period of up to three years after Brexit, saying many arrangements would "remain very similar to how they were the day before Britain exited the EU."

Meanwhile, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox warned that allowing unregulated EU immigration to continue would be a betrayal of last year's referendum which resulted in a 52-48 percent vote in favor of Britain leaving.

Hammond's comments generated a response from Keir Starmer, the Labour Party's opposition Brexit spokesman.

Starmer welcomed Hammond's statement, but added: "In light of the clear divisions this week within (May's) Cabinet, I hope the chancellor was not merely speaking in a personal capacity."

The government's interior minister, Home Secretary Amber Rudd, also said in a weekend statement that migrants from EU member states will still be able to come to Britain provided they register.

In a briefing on Monday, a spokesman at No 10 said details of post-Brexit immigration arrangements would become clearer at a future date, with legislation scheduled to be presented to the British parliament later this year.

The spokesman added: "Free movement will end in March 2019. It would be wrong to speculate on what these might look like or to suggest that freedom of movement will continue as it is now."

"We've published proposals on citizen's rights. Last week the Home Secretary set out a registration system for EU nationals arriving post March 2019," he added.

The spokesman said at the media briefing Monday that the prime minister still believed "no deal is better than a bad deal," adding: "What we are fully committed to doing is securing a good deal for Britain and for the European Union and we are making good progress towards it."

Downing Street's clarification was backed up by the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who in a series of media interviews played down reports of a split among ministers in the cabinet, saying it was "absolutely united" behind a "gradual, business-friendly Brexit."
Cars drive past the U.S. embassy building in Moscow, Russia, July 28, 2017. (REUTERS PHOTO)

MOSCOW, July 31(Xinhua) -- The U.S. diplomats in Russia have been denied access to a diplomatic recreational compound in Moscow for two days, the U.S. Embassy Moscow said Monday.

"We have not been given access to the facility neither yesterday, nor today. We spoke about this to Russian officials and will do it tomorrow," U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Maria Olson told RIA Novosti news agency.

Olson said that the U.S. diplomatic personnel were supposed to have access to the compound until noon on Tuesday in accordance with previous notification.

Earlier on Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Moscow would suspend the use of a warehouse and a dacha in Moscow's prestigious district of Serebryany Bor by the U.S. Embassy from Aug. 1, which was part of retaliation to a new sanctions bill passed in the U.S. Congress.

According to a source in the ministry, the accusation by the U.S. Embassy was a "deliberate provocation," as the diplomats were actually barred due to vehicle management.

"The Americans simply did not bother to inform the Moscow department of environmental protection in advance...that they were going to send three large trucks there," the source told RIA Novosti, adding that cargo vehicles are not allowed in Serebryanny Bor, which is considered a nature reserve.

Tensions between Moscow and Washington have flared of late since both chambers of the U.S. Congress approved a bill slapping tougher sanctions on Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday announced Moscow's decision to reduce diplomatic staff of the U.S. in Russia by 755 people.

Earlier on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Washington will be left to decide on the name list of employees of its diplomatic missions in Russia to dismiss, which could be both U.S. and Russian nationals.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-01 05:08:07|Editor: yan

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KUWAIT, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Kuwait said Monday it has started contacting the World Bank and other countries to prepare for hosting a donors' conference next year on rebuilding Iraq.

The donors' conference is expected to be held in first quarter of 2018, Kuwaiti Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Al-Jarallah said at a reception held by the Iraqi Embassy to celebrate the liberation of Mosul from the terror group Islamic State (IS).

"Kuwait has always stood by Iraq via the international coalition (fighting IS) and bilaterally," Al-Jarallah was quoted by the official news agency KUNA as saying.

Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah told Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi during a phone call on July 11 that Kuwait was ready to host an international conference on rebuilding the liberated areas in Iraq.

The World Bank had also said it would support the long-term reconstruction of the liberated areas in Iraq.

World Bank Regional Director Saroj Kumar said the bank would support Iraq's economic reform plans, and the reconstruction and development of Iraqi cities, the KUNA report said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-01 05:33:17|Editor: yan

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BUCHAREST, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The Romanian government has filed a bid for the relocation of the European Medicines Agency to Bucharest in the context of Britain's withdrawal from the European Union, Prime Minister Mihai Tudose said on Monday.

"I believe in Romania's chance to qualify for this selection because we have substantial expertise in the medical sector," stressed the prime minister in a press statement.

According to the statement, the agency would be housed in a new building of some 27,000 square metres, complete with a conference center that can accommodate 720 participants and an excellent IT & C infrastructure, on the northern part of Bucharest.

The European Medicines Agency, one of the largest and most important European agencies, is currently based in London and is a decentralised body of the European Union with primary responsibility of protecting and promoting public health through its assessment and supervision of medicinal products for human use.

In supporting its bid, the Romanian government pointed out that the country "has a consistent medical expertise, being in the top percentile of medical school graduates," and "there are also numerous institutions in Bucharest, including laboratories and pharmaceutical companies."

The final decision is expected to be made on the sidelines of the General Affairs Council meeting of November 2017, on the basis of successive rounds of voting, with each member state having an equal number of votes.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-01 05:38:19|Editor: yan

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ANKARA, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Turkey is tuning down its row with Germany following the latter's warning about risks of investing in the country and an "overhaul" of their relationship amid a political row.

Turkey immediately stepped up to reassure German investors that its investment environment for foreign investors is reliable and this policy will continue in the future.

Investments by German firms in Turkey are safe and their businesses would not be affected by political tension between Ankara and Berlin, German weekly magazine Der Spiegel quoted Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek as saying on July 29.

"I can assure the business community that Turkey remains an open, liberal and investment-friendly country," Simsek said.

The minister's statement was the latest of attempts made by the Turkish government to stem the economic fall-out after Berlin threatened to slow down investment in Turkey, whose economy is dependent on foreign capital.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim last week also met with German business executives, underlining that Ankara would not allow tension between the two governments to harm the companies' interests in Turkey.

"It is very important to us that you are not a part of this tension and do not suffer any damage from the events," Yildirim said on Thursday.

Turkey's Economy minster Nihat Zeybekci also joined the chorus to try to calm down the storm with Germany.

"The Turkey-Germany crisis is temporary. One must refrain from words that would cause lasting harm to the economies. Germany must reassess comments that are inappropriate." Zeybekci said on Friday, adding that the German-Turkish relations will pass this stress test.

Amid a growing diplomatic row with Turkey, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel threatened to slap sanctions on Turkey, after the arrest of human rights activists on July 5 including a German citizen, Peter Steudtner, who is a representative of Amnesty International.

The incident further added to the tensions caused by the detention in February of Deniz Yucel, a German-Turkish dual-nationality reporter for the newspaper Die Welt, and by the Turkey's refusal to allow a group of German lawmakers to visit a NATO base in Turkey.

Gabriel cautioned its citizens against traveling to Turkey while threatening to take measures that could hinder German investment in the country.

Last week, German media reported that Turkish authorities handed Berlin a list of almost 700 German companies, including Daimler and BASF, that were accused of having links to the U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused by the Turkish government of masterminding last July's failed coup.

Ankara immediately withdrew its requests from Germany via the Interpol, adding that German companies based in Turkey were not under investigation.

Prominent German companies such as Daimler AG, Deutsche Bank, Siemens, Volkswagen and Axel Springer SE have remarkable investments in Turkey.

Kemal Sahin, board chairman of the Sahinler Holding, who also attended the Turkish prime minister's meeting with German business executives, said the political dispute should be resolved between two countries since it will have adverse affect on future German investments here.

At the meeting, Turkish minister of economy told the participants that they plan to hold meetings with CEOs of firms investing in Turkey in fall at the headquarters in Germany in order to remove their concerns.

In 2016, the trade volume between the two countries reached 35 billion U.S. dollars.

Germany is the biggest exporter of tourists to Turkey. A total of 5.5 million German tourists visited Turkey in 2015, though the number dropped to only 3.8 million in 2016.

Ahmet Insel, an economist and daily Cumhuriyet columnist, emphasized that although German companies have not withdrawn their current investments in Turkey, it would be difficult for Turkey to attract new investment from now on.

Other investors from western countries could also be deterred from making investments in Turkey by the treatment of German companies.

Turkish economy could slow down in the upcoming period, Insel warns, citing the decline in direct foreign investment in recent years, partly because of Turkish government's strained ties with some foreign countries.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-01 06:08:38|Editor: yan

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TRIPOLI, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Libya's constitution drafting committee on Monday called on the parliament to issue a law for referendum on the new constitution.

"We call on you to enable the Libyan people to practice their constitutional right and decide on the constitution draft," the committee called on the parliament.

The committee on Saturday drafted a constitution amid protests claiming that the draft "ignores eastern Libyans."

The high commission of election also called for "a law that organizes the referendum on the new constitution."

"We are ready to meet our responsibility. However, we need the parliament to issue a law to organize the referendum process," the commission said in a statement on Monday.

Libya has been struggling to make a democratic transition since the 2011 uprising that toppled former leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime. The country is still politically divided amid insecurity and chaos.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-01 06:54:02|Editor: yan

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OTTAWA, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Canada and Isreal have signed a mutual recognition arrangement on trader programs, according to the Canada Border Services Agency Monday.

The agreement named Mutual Recognition Agreement on Respective Trusted Trader Programs was signed by the Canada Border Services Agency and the Israel Tax Authority Monday.

The arrangement is Canada's first one with a country in the Middle East region. Canada has signed mutual recognition agreements with Australia, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea and the United States.

The trusted trader programs are designed to enhance the security and integrity of global supply chain through the establishment of customs to business partnerships and by providing streamlined border processes to pre-approved, low-risk traders. Expanding the international network of accredited low-risk companies allows customs administrations to focus on targeting shipments of higher or unknown risk.

Since the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement entered into force in 1997, the bilateral trade volume has increased from 507 million Canadian dollars (one Canadian dollar is about 0.80 U.S.dollars) in 1996 to 1.7 billion Canadian dollars in 2016.
Money offerings stolen

The four, two men and their wives were arrested last week at their homes following intense investigations by San Fernando CID officers. They are all set to appear before a San Fernando magistrate today charged with sacrilege.

According to the Larceny Act of Trinidad and Tobago, Chapter 11 : 12, Any person who (a) breaks and enters any place of divine worship and commits any arrestable offence therein; or (b) breaks out of any place of divine worship, having committed any arrestable offence therein, is guilty of sacrilege and liable to imprisonment of up to ten years.

According to police reports the four - a 23-year-old mechanic and his 20-year- wife and a 27-yearold man and his 23-year-old wife broke into the Divine Life Society Shiv Temple located at 107 Picton Settlement, Diamond Village sometime between June 15 and June 21 and stole five speaker boxes, five tripods, two fans and over 3,000 in cash. The doors to the temple were also damaged by the intruders.

President of the Temple Frank Deonarine, 70, said he assisted police in recovering the five speaker boxes along with the tripods and fans.

He said three of the speaker boxes, each valued $5, 000, were sold for $1500 to someone in Caparo.

Deonarine said he led police to another a house in Quinam in Siparia where another speaker box was recovered. He said cash from the donation boxes was not recovered.

Deonarine, a father of eight said he tries his best to uplift his community and was saddened that people would even consider going into a place of worship to steal.

Charges were laid by PC Andre of the San Fernando CID. Detective Cpl Khan and PC Rampersad of the San Fernando CID assisted in investigations.
Your son was just murdered

Archer expressed her sorrow via a live video feed on her Facebook account in which she called on youths to lay down their weapons.

I will pray and ask God to forgive the person who pulled the trigger and killed my child.

My son was going through a lot. He was searching for God.

Last year I had to bury another of my sons and here I have to come once again and bury another. I was in church sitting down when I got a text message saying they kill my child, Archer said.

Archer also directed her emotions at her sons murderer and urged the perpetrator to seek forgiveness from God.

I wish this video could go viral all over so that Mr Gunman can see it.

Go to God and ask God for peace because you all dont understand. According to reports, Harrichand of Carenage was last seen sitting at the corner of St Paul Street and Block 8 in East Port of Spain sometime before 1 am yesterday.

Residents reported hearing loud explosions and later notified the police.

Officers of the Inter Agency Task Force (IATF) and the Homicide Investigations Bureau (Region I), responded and discovered Harrichands bullet-riddled body face down on the ground.

He was rushed to Port of Spain General Hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival. Investigators have yet to establish a motive for the killing.

Newsday spoke to relatives who said that in the days leading up to his death, Harrichand said he kept feeling as if his days were numbered. No relative could say why anyone would want Harrichand dead.

However, sources within the community claim that Harrichand ran afoul of the Rasta City gang and was executed. Up to press time, no arrest was made.

In an unrelated incident, a Diego Martin man was shot and wounded in Farm Road, Diego Martin.

According to sources, Wallace Quashie, 26, was liming with friends at about 11 pm when they where approached by a gunman who shot Quashie. Residents notified the West End police and officers responded.

Quashie was first taken to the St James Hospital but was later transferred to the General Hospital where he remains warded in critical condition.
Tobago a hideaway for Trini criminals

The warning came from Snr Supt Joanne Archie who applauded a suggestion from a resident speaking at a police town meeting at the Glen Road Community Centre last week, that landlords should seek information from police.

There are a lot of people coming from Trinidad to Tobago to hideaway and are on outstanding warrants, people who are committing robberies and as soon as they come to rent your place and they settle they start to do criminal activities.

You need to ask for an ID and ask a police officer to do a background check. We are willing to do that check for you before you rent anybody your place, Archie told residents.

The suggestion that persons renting apartments should visit the police station to get a background check on prospective tenants came from Annette Broucher, who said that landlords needs such information so they would know whether that person has a criminal record or was suspected of any felony.

Residents also spoke about larceny, delinquency, parking restrictions and towing of vehicles as well as lack of street lighting as issues affecting them.

Michael Collins of Rockly Vale complained about young persons who he said were a nuisance to the community, that they were walking around the community with cutlasses on their hips making threats.

Collins claimed some of these men were from Trinidad and warned that residents could take the law into their own hands if the police do nothing. In response, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Tobago Division, Garfield Moore, gave the assurance that officers would address with the issues, urging residents to not take the law into their own hands.

Another villager, April Huey, said she would like to see more activities available for young people, especially during the vacation periods while another person, Miss Eastman, said she hopes the police would deal with family conflicts in a more serious way.

Eastman said she lodged a complaint with the police about her son who was causing trouble at home.

For the year, eight murders have been committed in Tobago with the most recent being a murder/suicide in which Romelda Joseph-King was chopped to death in bushes at Congo Hill in Moriah last Wednesday by her husband Hilton Gordon King shortly after she gave him divorce letters.

King then killed himself by ingesting a toxic substance.
Hurricane of humanity

Its going to be like a hurricane coming to Trinidad. We need to be prepared, Gonzalez said. She saw yesterdays exercise to craft a Constituent Assembly as a sham perpetrated by the Venezuelan Government led by President Nicolas Maduro which she added, violates established norms and that countrys Constitution.

Gonzalez lamented that ten people had died yesterday in the latest round of violence linked to Venezuelas political standoff between Maduro supporters and Opposition supporters.

They are trying to hide it and say all is well...but that is not so, Gonzalez said. She said reports reaching her were of a very low voter turnout for the Constituent Assembly yesterday, with those participating being people afraid of losing their jobs and going hungry as a punishment for not voting.

She said many Venezuelans are so fed up with being unemployed and hungry that they are no longer afraid to die in a confrontation with the countrys pro-Maduro security forces.

Im very sad and distressed.

Venezuela is a beautiful country but now it is heading to civil war. She claimed the Venezuelan administration contains some corrupt and evil people. While saying there could be an influx of Venezuelans into this country, Gonzalez noted that many of her countrymen who fled to Trinidad are not faring any better although there is political stability in this country. She is calling on the Immigration Division and TT public to be compassionate towards Venezuelans who have fled their homeland.

She said TT has many Venezuelans who are hungry and for whom she is collecting food.

Anyone keen to donate can call 638-8841 or 678-0734. People are hiding everywhere in Trinidad.

We collect food and medicine for them. Gonzalez said Venezuelan women are languishing in detention centres without access to basic personal hygienic items such as sanitary pads. Others fall victim to exploitation by unscrupulous people, she lamented.

Women detained here are sleeping on the ground. Im getting lots of complaints, Gonzalez said. She said the Living Waters Community is fully stretched. Trinidadians by and large are very kind and helpful people. But some are exploiting Venezuelans through human trafficking and forcing them into sex labour. I dont like to see women being abused. Gonzalez said yesterdays attempt by the Maduro Government to change the Constitution would bring a bad outcome.

Maduro has to go. All the voting stations are empty.

They are not allowing the media in. The Guardia Nacional is crowding around the stations. She did not trust yesterdays voting process, saying it was being controlled by the Venezuela Government. We say no to the Constituent Assembly. It is a fraud, a fail. Maduro must go! (See page 43A)
I need to speak with PM

The Golden Grove/Buccoo Company Ltd was formed to negotiate with Sandals.

The Board of the company met last week but, Wilson told Newsday, not much was discussed as further developments were dependent on the completion of the court matter involving shareholders and the winding up of CL Financial by Government. He reiterated this position when asked to comment on the Prime Ministers announcement last Thursday that Government had purchased the Buccoo/Golden Grove Estate for $174M, to make it available to Sandals for its Tobago resort.

I still need to speak with the Prime Ministerhe would know more than I would because he would have an idea as to what the plans are in respect of the lands. I need to speak with him to find out where we are because I dont have a good grasp at this point, Wilson said. He reiterated that the court matter with Clicos land assets was hindering discussions in that it had a bearing on location for the Sandals resort.

Rowley, speaking at the weekly post Cabinet news conference at the Diplomatic Centre in St Anns last Thursday, announced that Government had purchased the land at market value and it will be offered to Sandals chairman Gordon Butch Stewart for the construction of two hotel resorts comprising 750 rooms. He said the resort will not be built on No Mans Land but on Buccoo Estate.

He said the land on which the hotel is to be built was owned by two companies and the Government, quite properly, through the relevant authority in all of this, set off the monies owed for the value of those lands. Rowley said people opposed to the Sandals project had been alleging that Government took land from this very wealthy company below value and probably broke the law.

He said this was not true. The Prime Minister said the law required the disposal of any assets held under the Central Bank to be done at fair market value and, that is exactly what the Government did. Asked about reports that the long dormant Buccoo Reef Trust is to be revived to help with negotiations in the setting up of the Sandals resort, Director of the Trust Gerry MacFarlane said he had, no information on that.
Church must create culture of vocation

We have to create a church culture in which everybody who is Christian believes that every moment of my life I am called by God and that every moment of my life the Spirit of God is stirring me up to do his work, he said. Unless we do that, we going to get a whole set of people wanting to be priests and nuns as part of a hierarchy. The days of that type of hierarchy I suspect are dying. Harvey who on the weekend took up an appointment in Grenada as Bishop of the Diocese of St Georges, responded to appeals, over the years, for young men and women to become priests and nuns to supplement the dwindling stock of clergymen.

Archbishop Joseph Harris renewed the call during the ordination of Fr Simon Peter Ango at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Port of Spain, on July 15, saying the church was blessed to welcome a new labourer in the vineyard.

Ango said in a subsequent interview that while he believed the church was doing enough to encourage vocations to the priesthood, parents and relatives also had to do their part to encourage the process. Harvey said previous Popes, including Benedict and John Paul 11, have called repeatedly for a hierarchy of service as opposed to one of office.

Therefore, what we have to do is from Baptism, the child must learn how to listen to the voice of the Lord.

Is not how much money I could make from this. It is what is God calling me to do. Harvey said the culture of both the church and society is one of the best jobs. It is a question of allowing God to recreate a people who will be listening to his voice every step of the way, he said.

If we do that some of our young people and some of our older people will want to lead in that church as a call to service. And then we will get the priests and nuns we need. But if we are simply calling young people is to lead a church that is not being true to the gospel in many ways, we are going to run into trouble.
Defence Force launches audit

The investigation comes as part of more stringent auditing regulations to clamp down on financial mismanagement with the Force.

The release stated that the police have been notified.

The TTDF commends its internal auditors on the work undertaken in this matter to date and reconfirms its commitment to driving the continued improvement of the organisation whilst being ever mindful of the need for care and caution in due process, the release stated.

On Saturday, former Minister of National Security Gary Griffith issued a statement in which he accused law enforcement agencies of carrying out borderline extortion against the promoters of certain sporting events by requesting unnecessary manpower (which must be paid for) for these events.

Shortly after the issuance of the release yesterday, military sources revealed that a low-ranking officer within the Regiment had confessed to stealing approximately $2M. The officer who along with another and a civilian employee were implicated in the theft.

The missing funds were brought to the attention of the Defence Force after a replacement for the civilian employee, who is believed to be on sickleave, discovered discreprencies in invoices at the accounting department.

According to military sources, the officer reportedly said that he stole the money after he allegedly saw others stealing and thought that he could get away with it as well.
Minister to investigate corruption

The reason why I said it is because I was just on the phone coming in and they told me about a certain official in a corporation who is using the corporation vehicle from Sunday to Sunday and even taking it home, said Minister Hosein. So far it is an allegation, but I am going to deal with it on Monday morning and I am going to find out. Hosein gave a surprise address to those gathered at the Chaguanas Borough Corporations hall on Saturday for the launch of the corporations Volunteer Network. Hosein, not carded to speak, dropped in unannounced nearing the end of the event and was given a chance to address the gathering.

I do not stand for any corruption, he said. There will be no corruption under me in the Ministry and I know there is a lot in the corporations. I get text messages every day, letters are written and it is not right for people who are working in the corporations including supervisors to abuse tax payers money and assets belonging to the state. It is not right. Hosein praised the launch of the corporations Volunteer Network, which has a list of over 300 volunteers from the respective districts of the corporation.

Similar networks are expected to be launched in all 14 corporations and each network will have a database storing volunteers and their skillsets who can be called on in times of need.

Later this week, the Ministry will launch a toll free disaster emergency hotline number that would give people a direct line of communication to disaster management units within respective corporations instead of going through the corporations administrative offices.
Fukuoka Prefectural Police on Saturday arrested one of their own on suspicion of possession of marijuana.

The charges stemmed from a small bag, which was found unattended on a JR Kagoshima train. It was turned in to Kurume station staff who found a "cannabis looking substance" inside. So they contacted the Kurume police department which held onto the bag.

That same evening police officer Akiyoshi Sato, 42, called the station in search of the bag and --- after hearing that they had it and were eagerly awaiting him to claim it --- went over to pick it up. What happened afterward was not reported, but it must have been awkward.

Sato currently stands accused of possession of about 4.4 grams f marijuana which is valued at 26,000 yen, meaning that either it was some luxury stuff or Japan really is a sellers' market when it comes to weed.

However, Sato is partially denying the charges saying that he "did not know it was marijuana."

It should also be noted that prior to his arrest, Sato was working in the evidence department, handling various pieces of evidence which would likely include the occasional bag of confiscated drugs.

Jul 31 () - caceaeeeaaeaaaYcaaeaaaaaYa aeaeaacaaaaaaaaeaaaSaaaYa aeac eaacaaeaaaYaaacaceaeaYcacaeaaaaaeeeaaecaceaaa
Japan will nominate a group of ancient burial mounds in Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, for inscription on UNESCO's World Cultural Heritage List.

A council for the Cultural Affairs Agency made the decision on Monday.

The Mozu-Furuichi tumulus clusters consist of 49 mounds built between the late 4th century and the late 5th century.

Experts say they represent how royal authority developed in the Japanese archipelago.

Among them, a keyhole-shaped mound believed to be for an Emperor, is one of the world's largest tombs, measuring 486 meters in length.

Around it are circular and square mounds of various sizes and forms, depending on the rank of the buried person.

Jul 31 (ANNnewsCH) - acecaaZeaaeaaaceeaaaaacaaeaaaaaYa
A Chinese woman who has gone missing while travelling alone in Japan left a note in her luggage saying she wanted to make a fresh start in life, according to a news website report.

Wei Qiujie, 27, a primary school teacher from Nanping in Fujian province, was due to return home last Tuesday after her week-long trip in Japan, but did not arrive.

She was last in contact with her family on July 22, but her hotel in Sapporo in northern Japan grew concerned after her room was empty but she failed to check out.

The hotel notified the police and her family in Fujian has also contacted the authorities and asked the Chinese consulate general for help. The family also circulated her personal details online appealing for help from internet users.

Chinese woman missing after travelling alone in Japan

Wei's father arrived in Japan last Friday and confirmed a letter police found in her luggage left at the hotel was written by Wei, according to the Shanghai news website Thepaper.cn.

The report said Wei thanked her family for raising her in the letter and said farewell to them. She said she was not satisfied with her life and wanted a fresh start.

Wei's family, however, denied it was a farewell letter, saying it was just a travel note, according to the article.

The report cited an unidentified friend as saying Wei had never shown any intention of leaving China and starting life elsewhere.

Police have discovered that Wei checked into a hotel at Akan Lake, about 300 km from Sapporo, on the night of July 22, a website operated by the West China City Daily reported.

She left the next morning and a member of staff on a tour boat at the lake said she came on board at 8am, but was not sure where she went afterwards.

Jul 31 (ANNnewsCH) - aeaaaaeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaca aa2eaaecSaaaa aaaaYaaaaaaSaaaYaaeaZaaaaaaaaaaa aaacaai26iaa22aaaaaaaacaaYaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaYa
BBR Music Group Fresh off playing to capacity crowds in Sweden on Brad Paisleys Weekend Warrior World Tour, Chase Bryant is back with a new single.

The infectious, uptempo Hell If I Know is the first new music weve heard from the Texas native since he put out a viral video cover of Little Big Towns smash Better Man earlier this year with his label mates Runaway June.

Hell If I Know is likely the lead single from Chases next project. His self-titled 2014 EP yielded the hits Take It on Back and Little Bit of You.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
On the occasion of the celebration of Throne Day, King Mohammed VI delivered a speech that blamed public officials for their low performance and for the delay witnessed in the implementation of a set of social projects in Moroccos different regions.

The speech was in line with the aspirations of the Moroccan citizen to an administration that serves the interests of the homeland first and foremost. The demands of protesters for a dignified life and an administration that fulfills its duties within reasonable time limits were echoed in the speech as the King himself expressed disappointment at the civil servants who consider office with a rentier mentality.

The Royal rant did not spare political parties that abdicated their role in acting as a mediator between the citizen and institutions and contented rather with opportunist attitudes leading youth to shun political life.

On the same occasion, the Monarch granted Royal Pardon to a total of 1,178 people, including a number of individuals who were arrested in cases linked to demonstrations in the northern port city of Al-Hoceima and surrounding areas. The Royal Pardon is conducive to defusing tension in the restive region.

According to the latest official figures, 176 persons were being held, including the movements leader, Nasser Zefzafi, in the wake of the protests that rocked the northern city of Al Hoceima.

The Justice ministrys statement announcing the Royal pardon noted that the release of some individuals involved in the popular protests is a decision taken in consideration of their family and human situation.

The pardon was limited to those who did not commit crimes or serious acts during the protests that started in the northern Rif region and then spread to other parts of the country.

The protests began in Al Hoceima in October 2016, as a reaction to the death of a young fish vendor, Mouhcine Fikri, who was crushed to death in a garbage compactor while attempting to retrieve his fish that the police had confiscated and thrown away.

The protests, initially staged to call for rendering justice for Fikri, have increasingly become focused on the various economic, social, and administrative challenges the Rif region faces.

At a Ministers Council held in June, King Mohammed VI criticized several ministers for the delay in the delivery of a set of development and social projects he had launched in Al Hoceima in October 2015, a year before the wave of popular protests outbroke in the region.

The Al Hoceima Lighthouse of the Mediterranean program, worth $665-million, is meant to promote the regions development through implementing a host of projects slated for completion in 2019. Unfortunately, many of the projects scheduled in the program never saw the light of the day due to the lack of follow-up by relevant ministries.

During the June Ministers Council, the King had expressed his disappointment, discontent and concern, over the slow pace of the development projects in the Rif and ordered a probe to determine those responsible for stalling some projects.

And in the Throne Day speech he delivered Saturday, he pressed that point again, urging officials, civil servants, local and elected officials to work hard, and to show a sense of responsibility and stressing the rights and obligations of officials in their relations with citizens, keeping in mind that their priority should always be serving citizens interests.

In his speech, King Mohammed VI also showed empathy and sympathy with citizens demanding social justice and an end to regional disparities.

The Royal speech was imbued with hope while drawing up the main obstacles to Moroccos human and social development model and the factors hindering the full achievement of social justice and the rule of law in the country.

It also included a call by the Monarch for a new march to achieve human and social development; a march for equality and social justice for all Moroccans, because such a major endeavor cannot be carried out in one region and not in the others.
Putin and Trump. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Last week, while health care grabbed the headlines and much of President Trumps national-security cabinet was conveniently on vacation, both Iran and North Korea tested new missiles. Over the weekend, a source explained to reporter Laura Rozen that the administration wants to do North Korea and Iran in year one, to go into 2018 with national security capital.

While foreign-policy pros snorted into their weekend coffee, Moscow made other plans. On Sunday the Kremlin told the U.S. that it would have to reduce embassy staff by a very substantial amount: Over 1,000 employees  diplomats and technical workers  worked and continue to work today in Russia; 755 will have to stop this activity, Vladimir Putin said.

Putin is angry about the just-passed round of additional U.S. sanctions on Moscow, launched as a bipartisan project in the Senate out of frustration that the Trump administration not only refuses to acknowledge Moscows mischief in U.S. elections, but refuses to take any action in response.

To everyones surprise, the outcome is the first major legislative achievement of this Congress  a broadly supported bill that puts unprecedented limits on the White Houses freedom of action toward Russia. Many of the bills most enthusiastic backers saw it as a weapon in the U.S. domestic struggle. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Putin found opportunity in it to build some capital in his home politics, stoking Russian nationalist and anti-U.S. sentiment with moves straight out of the Cold War playbook.

Now President Trump is going to have to spend the coming days and weeks deciding how much of a new Cold War he wants to have with his old friend Vladimir Putin and what hell have to give up, at home and abroad, to stave off the chillier scenarios.

From Moscows perspective, Putin has been more than patient. Seven months ago, then-president Barack Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats from the U.S. and took away access to a couple of vacation homes/spy compounds used by Russian diplomats here in response to election-hacking allegations. Reassured by Trump adviser Michael Flynn that relief was coming soon (and clearly engaged in back-channel meetings with Trump officials and family members), Russia didnt retaliate.

Moscow clearly has found the reality unappealing: Endless bad-mouthing from the U.S. press and defense officials; mounting U.S. activism in Syria, bumping up against Russias own troops and its allies; no return of its compounds; no sanctions relief. On top of all that, Trump cant stop his own Republican Party from partnering with Democrats to pass more sanctions  and worse, he has announced hell sign them.

The Russian policy establishment responded with disgust, disdain and contempt, in the words of one foreign policy think-tanker. And behind that, a certain amount of fear and frustration, that Russias natural-resource-dependent economy cannot get the investment it needs to grow sustainably under sanctions, while Russias military adventure in Syria cannot be brought to an end as long as the U.S. is building up its forces there.

Putins call this weekend for all those hundreds of embassy employees to pack up certainly sounds spectacular  but expelling each others diplomats, and making life miserable for embassy staffers, is one of the oldest tricks in the U.S.-Russian, and before that, the U.S.-Soviet, playbook. Although the Russians hadnt made a major expulsion since 2001, before that it was as routine as shirtless photos of Putin have become in the years since.

This writer recalls a time in 1991 when Embassy Moscow was so understaffed that it had no one to load the luggage of visiting members of Congress onto their airplane  so the members, most notably Congressman Ben Jones, best known for playing Cooter on The Dukes of Hazzard, jumped out to help. (But I digress.)

These cuts and changes will mean fewer staff do more work, and fewer support staff doing everything from maintaining the embassy grounds to greeting visa applicants. As former ambassador Michael McFaul has pointed out, the first people to suffer will be Russians who want visas to visit the U.S.  and Russians who are currently employed by the embassy, who will likely make up a large proportion of the positions cut.

Commentators in Washington and Moscow stressed that the expulsions were symmetrical with Obamas moves against Russian officials. Which means that a cycle of retaliation could end right there.

Or not. The sanctions bill passed by Congress gives the president considerably less discretion in applying its measures than is normal. For example, the president may not lift sanctions related to cyberattacks or Ukraine without providing Congress evidence that Russia has changed its policies  no generic national interest waiver, as is the norm. So in this key arena he doesnt have much to warm things up.

Moscow may be content with symbolism for now, or it may be weighing other options of its own. Russians are chattering about the possibility of cutting uranium or titanium exports to the U.S., expelling major U.S. firms, or going into high diplomatic gear to block U.S. initiatives on North Korea and other priorities.

And there you have irony worthy of a Russian novel. Donald Trump, who seems to have needed Russia to float his familys businesses and give his campaign various nudges in what proved to be a razor-tight outcome, now needs a much-disappointed Russia to help keep Syria at a simmer instead of at a boil, put unified pressure on North Korea, and not to stir up trouble in Iran or Afghanistan.

That would be a challenging line for a deft president, with an experienced and empowered cabinet, to walk. Instead this president has a missing-in-action secretary of State, a secretary of Defense he just blindsided with personnel micromanaging, a secretary of Homeland Security he just demoted to be his chief of staff, and a national security adviser whose job seems to be hanging by a thread. Moscows greatest win yet from Donald Trump is that Putin now seems to be the only leader who knows what hes doing.
ICBM TV in Pyongyang. Photo: Kim Won-Jin/AFP/Getty Images

The intercontinental ballistic missile that North Korea tested on Friday, according to arms-control experts, was the first one the country has ever fired that was capable of reaching the continental United States. It was also the regimes second successful ICBM test in less than a month and came just days after the Defense Intelligence Agency warned the Trump administration that North Korea will likely have the capability of striking the U.S. mainland with a nuclear weapon within the next year. Put another way: Kim Jong-un is succeeding; the North Korea crisis continues to get a hell of a lot worse; and looking at the White Houses responses over the weekend, its still far from clear that the Trump administration has any clue what to do about it  just like the last time North Korea launched a scary missile.

In addition to a boilerplate official statement condemning the launch on Friday, President Trump took to Twitter on Saturday to go after China. A few months ago, it seemed that Trump had happily outsourced deescalation of the crisis to Beijing, even praising them for at least trying to help with North Korea.

I am very disappointed in China. Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017

...they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017

Of course, as with most of the foreign-policy ideas the president tries to cram into a few tweets, there are some problems with this line of thinking  including some that Trump himself once acknowledged. Trump said that after briefly discussing North Korea with Chinese president Xi Jinping in April, he realized its not so easy.

As North Koreas most important ally and largest trade partner, China holds more sway over the rogue regime than anybody. But Chinas concerns about North Korea are different than those of the U.S. and its allies. Beijing does regularly condemn Pyongyangs missile tests and other acts of aggression, but the Chinese government is much less concerned about sanctions or North Koreas ability to strike the U.S. than they are about the destabilization of a neighboring country. Should the North Korean regime fall  or worse, some kind of nuclear civil war take hold  the consequences for China would be disastrous, as would any kind of large-scale refugee crisis.

And its not likely that China would even be able to convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons when Kim Jong-uns regime clearly sees them as the best deterrent in the world against invasion. Furthermore, as many have convincingly argued, the opportunity to denuclearize North Korea has long passed, even though its still the stated goal of the U.S. and its allies.

In April, Trump thought he had made a deal with President Xi Jinping to apply more pressure to North Korea but China has not seemed that interested, at least in the economic ways which would give it the most leverage. As for Trumps claim that the U.S. will no longer allow North Koreas aggression or Chinas nonaction, so far its unclear how he intends to accomplish that. On Sunday, two administration officials told Politico that a punishment for Beijing, like trade restrictions or economic sanctions, could come as soon as this week  but Trump hasnt made up his mind yet.

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley tweeted on Sunday that she was done talking about North Korea. She then released a statement in which she rejected the idea that the U.N. Security Council has any influence over North Korea and insisted that China must decide whether it is finally willing to take the vital step to significantly increase the international pressure on Pyongyang. The time for talk is over, Haley reiterated. (This is not the first time the White House has talked about being done talking in regards to the conflict.)

While Trump has bragged about the U.S. taking a unilateral approach to North Korea, Haley also tweeted that China, South Korea, and Japan must all step up their involvement because its not just a U.S. problem. On Friday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson added Russia to the list as well, explaining that As the principal economic enablers of North Koreas nuclear weapon and ballistic missile development program, China and Russia bear unique and special responsibility for this growing threat to regional and global stability. Tillerson has also previously called for the U.N. Security Council to pressure North Korea, but Haley now says the U.S. isnt going to waste its time with that.

Talking aside, the administration also tried to show some force over the weekend. The U.S. and South Korea conducted a joint missile drill on Saturday, and two B-1B bombers flew over the Korean peninsula on Sunday, linking up with fighter planes from Japan and South Korea to test their combined capabilities, according to the U.S. military. The commander of the U.S. Pacific Air Forces added that If called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal, and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing.

And on Saturday night, the U.S. shot down a test-fired ballistic missile over the Pacific Ocean using its THAAD antimissile-defense system, which it has already deployed  and wants to deploy a lot more  in South Korea. The THAAD test was also deemed to be a response to the ICBM test, even though the THAAD system is only designed to intercept shorter-range ballistic missiles, not ICBMs.

According to Axioss Mike Allen, the White House is now planning a big push to deal with North Korea over the next week. The threat has significantly worsened, a senior administration official told him, which is a level of insight that anyone in Los Angeles whos read about the range of Fridays ICBM could offer. Trumps tweet on Saturday was apparently White Housecalculated as part of an upcoming tougher posture. This week, [L]ook for a combination of military, financial and diplomatic steps to show resolve and increase pressure on the regime, Allen reports.

Unfortunately, military, financial and diplomatic steps are the basic foreign-policy tools that every world power has available to address a problematic country like North Korea, and they are not tools this White House has shown any affinity for using. Even if they did, economic sanctions on North Korea havent appeared to make much of an impact in recent years, though new ones are now looming in a piece of legislation that the White House says Trump is ready to sign. The threat of a military strike on North Korea is borderline insane since the regime is perpetually prepared to inflict massive retaliatory damage on South Korea in that event.

Meanwhile, Laura Rozen reported on Sunday that a military analyst whose mentors are in Trumps orbit recently told her that the Trump administration wants to do North Korea and Iran in its first year so it could have more national-security capital for 2018.

I dont like to talk about what I have planned, but I have some pretty severe things that were thinking about, that doesnt mean were going to do them, Trump explained on July 6 after the last ICBM test. Instead, whats severe is that the White House has apparently done nothing  and that might be the best we can expect.
Mike Pence and Donald Trump. Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty Images

If Trumps poll numbers were above 50 percent, Republican consultant Alex Conant complains to the New York Times, health-care reform would have passed. Instead, hes spent more time responding to cable-TV chatter than rallying support for his agenda. That is an odd way to look at the Republican Partys problems. While President Trump may be unpopular, he is much less unpopular than the Republican health-care plan, which a large segment of his base despises. There is nothing of appeal in the plan to sell: Since it would scale back features that people approve of, such as Medicaid expansion and protections for people with preexisting conditions, drawing more attention to its features would do more harm than good. Indeed, the complaint might have it backward  if Trump had not attached himself to a morbidly unpopular proposal, he might have higher approval ratings. But the backwardness is indicative of the desire of nervous Republican Party regulars to shift the blame for their partys emerging failure away from those who formulated it and onto the president.

There are now clear signs that Republican regulars, who reluctantly accepted Trump and hoped to make the best of it, have cast their eyes on the exit signs already. It can be seen in Congress, where both houses passed a Russia sanctions bill against the presidents will and apparently without his knowledge, and where one member of Congress in a meeting of House Republicans recently shocked the room by calling the president unhelpful. (The shock is that he said in a large group setting something Republicans had previously whispered in confidence.)

And it can be seen in the conservative elite, which is seizing upon disarray within the administration as a sign that the president has betrayed the conservative agenda, or perhaps soon will. By firing [Reince Priebus], Trump has severed a critical connection to his own party, writes Tim Alberta. The fear now, among Republicans in his administration and on Capitol Hill, is that Trump will turn against the party, waging rhetorical warfare against a straw-man GOP whom he blames for the legislative failures and swamp-stained inertia that has bedeviled his young presidency. Commentary editor John Podhoretz calls the health-care debacle the necessary end result of seven months in which the president of the United States ate up all the oxygen in Washington with his ugly, petty, seething, resentful rages and foolishnesses as expressed in 140 illiterate characters.

For all the scandal and dysfunction surrounding Trump, it played little role in the failure to repeal Obamacare. The effort foundered on its own contradictions. Republicans had promised both to repeal the hated law and to replace it with something that gave everybody better coverage for less cost, and without raising taxes. Republicans never have and never could devise a plan fulfilling these conditions. Yes, a normal Republican president might have sold the plan more effectively. On the other hand, a normal Republican president might also have had some policy objectives, which would have constrained the menu of options available to Congress. Trump was and is willing to sign anything. Congress simply cannot pass anything.

The broader notion that Trump has broken away from party dogma likewise suffers from a total absence of supporting facts. It is true that many of the presidents confidantes have little roots in Republican politics. Of Trumps closest advisers, only Mike Pence has any association with the Republican Party, writes Alberta. But that exception is an important one, because Mike Pence has enjoyed almost total control of the agenda. Policy issues will largely fall under Vice-President Pences portfolio, reports the Washington Post.

Policy is a pretty big portfolio. And so while unconservative figures like Ivanka Trump may be in charge of leaking self-flattering details, and Anthony Scaramucci may be tasked with rooting out all the non-Ivanka leakers, and Jared Kushner may have the Middle Eastpeace/government-makeover/try-to-stay-out-of-prison portfolio, Trumps positions fall into the hands of a die-hard conservative.

On every question where Trump has had to make a choice, he has bent not only toward party orthodoxy, but toward the most militant faction within the party. Steve Bannon has for months floated the possibility of a small tax hike on the rich, which would indeed be a political masterstroke. But Bannons idea has gone nowhere. Other Trump staffers have shot it down. Even Trump himself denied reports he might raise the top income-tax rate. That was not right. That was not a correct statement, he told the Wall Street Journal.

Rather than concede defeat on Obamacare, as many Republicans quietly prefer, he has intensified his wild vindictive sabotage campaign. Trump did not remain in the Paris climate accords, but instead has outsourced environmental policy to an oil-industry cutout who picks fights with climate scientists. He has sided with the House Freedom Caucus on transgender soldiers, and even, astonishingly, on the threats of a shutdown or a debt default. Trump may not have a coherent ideology, but this is because hes a simpleton, and his instinctive need for dominance is routinely manipulated toward the end of maximal partisan confrontation.

Trump has stuck to his campaign promises to give law enforcement a free hand. He has abandoned the promise to build a trillion dollars in new infrastructure. It is hard to think of a single substantive choice he has made that would have differed from one made by a President Ted Cruz. The Republican Party may be preparing to abandon Trump. Curiously, Trump has shown no sign of abandoning them.
Maduro celebrates the election results on July 31, 2017. Photo: RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP/Getty Images

The Venezuelan government claimed that nearly 8.1 million people, or 41.5 percent of the electorate, turned out on Sunday to elect an assembly tasked with writing a new constitution.

The people have delivered the constitutional assembly, President Nicolas Maduro said in a televised address. Its when imperialism challenges us that we prove ourselves worthy of the blood of the liberators that runs through the veins of men, women, children, and young people.

However, those numbers are very much in dispute, with members of the opposition saying only 2 million or 3 million people voted, and one respected independent analysis saying the number was 3.6 million. The opposition called for a boycott of the vote, and it appeared many people stayed away from the polls (plus, some who did vote may have been government employees, or people afraid of losing their government benefits).

Venezuela has screamed with its silence, said Julio Borges, head of the National Assembly.

Venezuela has been hurdling toward a political crisis for some time, and Sundays vote was a potential turning point. Maduros order that the 18-year-old constitution be rewritten was widely seen as an effort to consolidate power. Venezuelans did not get an opportunity to decide whether they wanted a new constitution, they could only vote for who would write it  and all of the candidates on the ballot were government supporters, including Maduros wife and son. The new body will have authority over every branch of government; it could dissolve the opposition-controlled National Assembly and theoretically even remove Maduro.

The day was marred further by violence, with Venezuelas chief prosecutors office reporting ten deaths in clashes between protesters and police. Seven police officers were wounded in an explosion when they drove past piles of trash used to block the street in eastern Caracas. One candidate for the assembly, lawyer Jose Felix Pineda, was killed by an armed group who broke into his home on the eve of the vote.

Several countries rejected the results of the election, including Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Spain, the U.K., and the U.S. Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, tweeted: Maduros sham election is another step toward dictatorship. We wont accept an illegit govt. The Venezuelan ppl & democracy will prevail.

A State Department spokesperson promised strong and swift actions against government officials, but its unclear if the Trump administration will place sanctions on Venezuela, which could worsen the humanitarian crisis in the country.
For many, losing a job could mean the end of the world or another routine of trotting the streets endlessly in search of another.



But with the scarcity of jobs that is almost everywhere, the search may be rather frustrating. This was the reason Rachael Kembabazi chose to start her own business after losing her job with a visa facilitation office in Kampala, where she worked as operations officer till end of last year.



I could have looked for another job, but I decided to take a different path. I thought it was time to become self-employed, says the Makerere University graduate of Business Administration.





She recently completed her postgraduate diploma in Human Resource Management at the Uganda Management Institute (UMI). Born to Edson Twesigye and Evas Kiconco, Kembabazi attended Rukungiri Universal primary school. Later, she joined Bweranyangi Girls School and Immaculate Heart Girls School for her secondary education.



SELF-EMPLOYMENT



Looking at losing a job as a blessing in disguise, Kembabazi decided to venture into her passion  makeup artistry.



I love makeup because I love to look good. I know many women out there love to look good as well, she says.



With many people making a kill out of the relatively new beauty business in Uganda, Kembabazi, who experimented on her friends, started her own freelance company  LitFaces  using her savings early this year. She believes when one does something out of passion, they propel themselves to unimaginable heights to ensure it works.



No one has to tell me what to do.I know what I have to do because I love what I do, she says.



While many are complaining about the tough economic times, Kembabazi has been smiling her way to the bank thanks to her self-motivated attitude. In the few months she has been in business, her clientele has grown.



Makeup complements ones beauty which boosts their confidence, says Kembabazi, whose clientele majorly comprises brides, bridesmaids and other women who just want to look good for a party or a date.





Kembabazi was one of the artists who made-up the models for the recent Abryanz style and fashion awards. For the basic look, she charges Shs 40,000 per face, and Shs 60,000 for a more sophisticated look.



QUALITY MATTERS



Knowing how sensitive makeup is and the dangers it poses to the user in case of counterfeit products, Kembabazi does not compromise on the quality of the products she uses.



I use products such as Yardley, Black Opal and Mac, among others, she says. I value my clients and I give them the very best.



Although makeup is for both men and women, she says it is women who mostly demand for her services.



Her major challenge, however, is the fact that she does not have a permanent location yet, although she has plans to address that in future. She also hopes to venture into skin care and selling makeup products to fully meet her clients needs.



Like any other entrepreneur, Kembabazi harbours dreams of growing her brand and employing other people. She is also considering furthering her studies.



As an entrepreneur, a masters degree in Management Science will enable me manage my business and human resources a lot better, she says.



She advises the youths to pursue their passions with emphasis on education, hard work and discipline.



pbaike@yahoo.com
Time check: 10:15. I alight at Luzira; destination: Covenant Nations Church about 500 metres away, as one heads to Uganda Breweries Limited.

I am petrified; I dont know what to expect. Will I return to the newsroom and tell the story or will my colleagues instead tell my story as I am checked into Luzira Maximum-Security prison after being charged with criminal trespass?

This is my third attempt to attend this church pastored by President Musevenis 39-year-old second daughter, Patience Rwabwogo. The first two times I failed, thanks to an influential Christian friend who had promised to accompany me  I am Muslim  only for him to develop chicken feet at the eleventh hour.

My friend, you want me to get arrested from there?! he told me.

A signpost placed in the middle of the road jolts me out of my thoughts: Police notice; reduce speed 30km/h.

Patience Rwabwogo preaches during another service

I determine to make it in this time. If they allow me in, I will write a story; if they refuse me, still I will write a story. Outside, I count 20 men in Special Forces Command police uniform, some wielding very big guns, others pacing up and down with AK47s.

Across the road a red firefighter truck is parked with its driver deeply engaged in a conversation with another uniformed man. Other uniformed men are seated along the perimeter wall, their fingers not far from their guns triggers. I approach one of them.

Morning, Officer! Im told there is church around here. Can you direct me where it is?

He looks at me from bottom up and finally says: Do you see where those soldiers are standing? Thats where you should enter from.

At the said entrance, two soldiers man a security checkpoint. As is the norm elsewhere, I empty my pockets before walking through the metal detector, after which the male security guy further thoroughly frisks me. When he signals me to go, a lot of my anxiety disappears. I had feared he would ask questions and probably for my ID.

Inside the fence, the church house is sandwiched among several warehouses and offices. The compound appears to be a workplace housing a number of companies, including TERP Consults, Odrek Rwabwogos company.

The church entrance is at the back, where a female usher welcomes everybody with a hug and then hands them an envelope in which tithes, the offertory and pastors love gift are placed.

Youre welcome, brother, the usher tells me with a grin. Is this your first time here?

I answer in the affirmative. She hands me the envelope and leads me to my seat. I am the fifth to arrive. It is now 10:22am and my seat in the fifth row allows me calculated gazes in the interior.

I count about 450 metallic-frame chairs with yellow cushions. A raft of lights line the white and blue ceiling. To my right are nine windows and two at the front near the podium. To the left are several doors, each with a name, including Jesus, Alpha, Omega and Faith, among others.

Some worshippers come in through these doors and take their seats as I wonder what is beyond those doors, but I dare not investigate. A man with a camera stations near me and occasionally turns his lens on me.



PATIENCE THE TEACHER

I keep my eyes on the pulpit, covered with a blue carpet (the rest of the church floor has grey tiles), with a sideboard holding books and other regalia standing against the wall. With the sideboard stands a white screen where the praise songs and verses are projected. To the right side of the pulpit stand a guitar, piano and two speakers. Curiously, there is also flip chart.

In the middle stands Pastor Rwabwogos modest altar, a size like for those used in hotels. After several minutes of no activity thanks to the few congregants, a young, light-skinned gentleman I later learn is James, steps to the altar.

Hallelujah! Praise the Lord, he says, but we ignore him. Nevertheless, he carries on preaching until a considerable number has come.

Pastor Patience (C) is joined by her mother Janet Museveni and sister Natasha at a recent function at the church

James gives way to the choir of three; a man and two young women in yellow dresses falling to the knees. I check my watch again and it is 11:15am now. English, Luganda and Runyakore praise and worship continue up to 12:10pm, and now about 80 people have taken their seats.

Of these I only recognize the Uganda National Roads Authority (Unra) executive director, Allen Kagina, who is in the company of her husband  or so I guess  seated two rows in front of me.

Some congregants look familiar, but I cannot place them; maybe I have seen them on TV. I cannot help but notice that majority of the men are light-skinned, lanky and averaging at 6ft height. The older ones spot moustaches popularised by celebrated military generals such as Ivan Koreta.

From their sharp facial features and pointed noses, it is clear westerners love this church. Even the female congregants are tall with similar features. Where the men spot moustaches, the ladies seem in agreement about the Janet cut hairstyle. And from their shapely backsides and distinct legs, there are no prizes for guessing where they hail from.

Surely I must be forgiven for thinking they look like life has given them everything they ever craved. At the pulpit, the choir makes way for a Pastor Steven who engages us in hilarious banter before inviting the senior pastor to give the days sermon.

Pastor Patience, as her congregants fondly call her, is dressed in a white and black striped sweater that falls to the middle of her thighs over black trousers and medium-heeled black shoes. Her hair, unlike majority of her female flock, is braided with white beads at the end of the braids. She speaks softly but with authority.

There is a country that has the ministry of happiness and if we ever got that ministry in Uganda, I would really recommend that Steven be the minister of happiness, Patience begins her sermon. She asks James to fetch her flip chart, because today this is more like a discussion and I want you to write.

The sermon, with Patience handling it pretty much like a classroom lecture  something that makes me think she is like her father in that regard  goes on for slightly longer than an hour. She takes us through the stages of spiritual development and discovering ones calling.

This, I was later told, has been the continuing topic for the past five weeks. As Patience winds up, two ushers step to the front with baskets then praise songs are sung as worshippers drop their envelopes. At 1:23pm, the service ends.

COME HERE YE FIRST- TIMERS

After the service, James welcomes those visiting the church for the first time. We are 13 in total, looking quite out of place compared to the affluent-looking majority of congregants. James hands us to the chief usher, Festus Emmanuel Rwabuhihi.

Thank you for coming to Covenant Nations Church, Rwabuhihi begins. As you can see, Pastor Patience is down to earth, not like she is portrayed out there.

They say mbu this presidents daughter is looking for money, mbu if you dont have Shs 1m for the tithe, you cant be a member of the church; you have seen that all those were lies by our enemies who are being used by the devil, but ignore them.

Rwabuhihi invites us to become permanent members of the church if we want. I take a taxi back to town, proud for pulling off a story I feared might be explosive. But where Patience Rwabwogo is understood by her flock, she and her church are still an enigma to the outsiders looking in.

Abasabira awo basaba bagumu; sikwezo emmundu! [People who pray from there are very secure; not with all those guns!] the taxi driver tells his conductor. Naye bava wa? Kuba siraba bantu ba kuno nga bagendayo, [but where do the members come from? I dont see local villagers praying from there]

The conductor offered: Kirabika bava Luzira mu kkomera, kyebava babakuuma bwebatyo. [They must be Luzira prison inmates; thats why they are heavily guarded.]

SECOND SUNDAY

Two weeks later on May 14 I return to the Luzira church, but this time security is not as tight as the first time. I go through a metal detector but I am not frisked.

Outside, I count 14 soldiers. I soon learn that Pastor Patience is not in the house. The days sermon is delivered by Pastor Molly Asiimwe in pretty much the same fashion like Pastor Patience. Asiimwe is assisted by an Indian pastor, whose name I did not establish.

Unlike my first visit, newcomers this Sunday are not invited for a briefing. Of the 13 who joined with me previously, I only recognise one in attendance. As the congregation departs, I leave for the door where I catch up with Unras Kagina immaculate in a black top and white trousers.

Her Land Cruiser pulls up to the church door and a guard steps out to open the back door for her. Kagina and her husband step in and they are driven away; outside, a double-cabin truck with six armed men completes her motorcade.

About 80 per cent of the flock heads for the car parking lot after the service; I and another young man flag down a taxi. When the young man I boarded with takes his sweet time alighting when the taxi stops at a stage, the church, not him, takes a beating.

Naye abasabira ku church ya Natasha beeyita ki? (who do these people that pray at Natashas church think they are?) the driver rants.

Natasha Kainembabazi Karugire is Patiences older sister, but even after 30 years in the first family, some people cannot tell who is who.



bakerbatte@observer.ug
Early checkup and intervention were all that stood firmly between Dr Sheila Ndyanabangi, 61, and death, when endometrial (uterus) cancer knocked at her door.

Like many uterus cancer victims, Ndyanabangi, also the national tobacco control focal person in the health ministry, did not have any symptoms such as virginal bleeding, lower abdominal pain or unusual discharge.

It all started last year in October, when I woke up one morning and felt as if something heavy pushed inside my stomach. It is something a person can ignore and think it is due to too much gas in the stomach due to food, Ndyanabangi said.

She, however, had a strong conviction, which she believes was from the Holy Spirit, to see a doctor and do a general examination.

Dr Sheila Ndyanabangi shares her experience as a cancer survivor

Dr Ndyanabangi was speaking at Protea hotel on July 5 during the launch of East Africa Gynaecologic-Oncology fellowship training, where two doctors from Mulago national referral hospital were awarded scholarships to manage the rising burden of womens cancers in Uganda.

They told me everything looked normal including the uterus. But the doctor recommended me to do a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan which shows more details of cancerous cells in any part of the body, she said.

After the MRI scan that cost her Shs 700,000, it showed that the layer covering the body of the uterus had a thick lining [considering] my age.

The doctors told me this layer in the uterus is supposed to be thin for people in their menopause like me, compared to people still having their monthly periods, Ndyanabangi said.

The doctors at Nsambya hospital told her there was a problem in her uterus and if the layer continued to grow thicker, it could develop into cancer. They advised her to do the dilatation and curettage (D&C) surgery, during which the cervix was opened and a special instrument was used to scrape the uterine thick lining, which was tested and was found to have cancer.

If they had not removed this thick lining, I would be dead within a short time because it had aggressive cancer. We also decided to remove the uterus to know how far this cancer had spread. But after removing it, they found it had not reached other organs of the body; they were normal, Ndyanabangi said.

However, before starting treatment, doctors suggested she does another test called Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan, which is not available in Uganda, but can easily be done in India or South Africa.

We did it in India at $500 (Shs 1.6m), although most costs went on air transport and my attendant, Ndyanabangi said. I did the PET scan, which [detects] the earliest signs of cancer. During this scan, they injected a radioactive substance into my blood; if the cells have cancer, they show a red light on the scan to know the new areas in the body where the cancer has reached.

But thank God, the PET scan did not show anything. I was normal and returned home. Although people told me to go for chemotherapy, I refused and decided not to get so scared of cancer when the PET scan showed nothing, she said.

The doctors advised Ndyanabangi to undergo radiation therapy since they had removed her uterus; in case something had remained behind, the treatment would destroy it. After that, she was to do checkups every three months and carry out blood tests.

Another cancer survivor, Prof Florence Mirembe, the renowned former head of the department gynaecology at Mulago hospital, said she had pancreatic cancer but also survived it due to catching it early and seeking treatment.



Uterus Cancer symptoms

The most common symptoms of uterus cancers include abnormal discharge, pain when urinating, abnormal vaginal bleeding especially after menopause, pain during sexual intercourse, pain in the lower abdomen, pelvic pain and unexplained weight loss.

Dr Anthony Mbonye, Director of Health Services congratulates Dr Mariam Nabwire as one of the two doctors awarded scholarships for EA gynaecologic Oncology fellowship training

Ndyanabangi has started attending different gatherings in churches, conferences, funeralsanywhere to advise people to at least do one general checkup annually for non-communicable diseases such as cancer and diabetes that are killing many Ugandans.

I advise government to invest in a PET scan, which shows the first signs of cancer in the body since it is so expensive abroad, she said.

Cancers that torment women include cervical, ovarian, endometrial, virginal and pelvic cancer. Dr Mariam Nabwire and Dr Jerome Katumba, both obstetricians and gynaecologists, won the scholarships.

Nabwire said cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths of women in Uganda, yet it can be prevented.

However, the most dangerous part is that most people in Uganda dont know they have cervical or uterus cancer, because they dont do checkups, she said.

Others dont want to expose this cancer, because they fear people to look into their private parts. They come for treatment when the cancer is in advanced stages, yet in early stages, it is curable.

Dr Katumba said cervical cancer is so dangerous in women and about 87 per cent of gynaecological cancer is of the cervix. He said the burden is still high due to poor funding and very few women can access centres for cancer screening.

The training, which will take place at Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI), ends in 2019. It is funded by African Development Bank at $34m (Shs 122bn) and will also include building of some infrastructure.

Jackson Orem, director of Uganda Cancer Institute

Dr Jackson Orem, the director of Uganda Cancer Institute, said cancers are on the increase in Uganda, with 300 out of 100,000 people suffering from the deadly disease.

For every 100 people diagnosed with cancer every year, 80 die. So, our death rate for cancer is 80 per cent, which is bad and we want to reduce it to at least 40 per cent, he said.

The director of Health Services at the health ministry, Dr Anthony Mbonye, said government is improving the capacity of the cancer institute to deal with the rising cancer cases.

The Cobalt 60 machine for radiotherapy is already [in freight] and we hope to restore the services at Uganda Cancer Institute within the next two months, he said.

zurah@observer.ug
"I know some of you will probably argue that he doesn't deserve views and should be ignored"



and they'd be right. nothing against you OP but i really believe ppl shouldn't give that channel views (hence $$$) or legitimacy.

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mte I'm not clicking



(but thanks for laying out the main points OP)

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Well, I highlighted the main points so you don't have to click it if you don't want. But you also can't just sweep these people under the rug and pretend they don't exist because their actions have real consequences (it's people like him and his followers that are a big part of the reason Trump is the President of America right now...). Ignoring him won't make him or his followers go away. It's like saying you should ignore Scientology because it doesn't personally affect you and you don't want to legitimize it - but the fact is that people are already paying attention to them and you can't put a stop to something by just closing your eyes and pretending it isn't there.

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yeah i agree that people shouldn't pretend they don't exist, and IA that learning about their ways of organizing, their discourse, etc., is important. the 'cover your eyes and pretend it's not there' thing never works.

but in terms of making infowars ONTD posts or embedding the alex jones YT channel... idk. that makes me queasy.

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i will never understand the popularity of the hills

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The thing is...it's honestly really hard to tell if they're putting it on for attention or if they actually believe some of it - at times I get the sense that he's trolling and at other times it feels a bit genuine - but maybe he's paying attention to this stuff because they follow the same formula that Spencer follows. Spencer has always been doing and saying insane things for attention. I honestly don't even know. He's been very likeable lately and then this pops up.

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Same. I think Spencer is a real life troll, and Heidi just goes along with his antics because she's too lazy to do anything else about it

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But then with the crystals thing - they were definitely dropping some serious amounts of money, which they did not have, to buy endless stupid crystals.



So yeah - I do think insanity is in them.

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when was their ban from here lifted???

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Everyone keeps asking this in every Speidi post, no they're obviously not banned anymore. This isn't 2007.

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There was ~never a ban, just like there was never Berenstein Bears

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lmao

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lol wtf

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oh damn mandela effect in action

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It's 2017 lol

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i love every last thing about this post

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<3



I was worried it wouldn't get accepted - but it's just...pop culture insanity at it's purest. This is Tom Cruise jumping on Oprah's couch and calling Matt Lauer "glib" for arguing with him about anti-depressants. It was too fascinating to ignore, despite how awful a person Alex Jones is.

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i totally agree, this is like a meeting of the minds. there's a duty to report on something as momentous as this. three near unanimously reviled weirdos combining their powers to wreak havoc on the internet. thank you for posting it and giving some useful bullet points 



Jones claims Bruce Willis has been listening to his show "for over a decade."



this alone warrants a post lmao

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I read it thinking that's their way of getting more clicks/views from people going "Huh?? So which is it?", lol. Like "Maybe, maybe not, watch to find out!" kind of thing.



Edited at 2017-07-31 02:45 am (UTC)

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*every time* speidi has ever done anything like this they always try and spin it as 'but we've been ~in on it~ all along!'

they're just attention addicts who will take any interview they can get, and they're ALSO swimming in the same pond of drug/paranoia induced crazy as alex jones.

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-Spencer blames the new world order for the Speidi downfall, "We were chanting 'death to the new world order' about ten years ago after watching all your documentaries, and then about a week later, we were no longer on television and haven't had a consistent tv gig since then so if the new world order is watching, you know, we still will not accept chips but, you know, we will take a gig in the established media because we have a baby and we have some bills to pay so, you know, new world order, we're available..." (1:58)

omg idek what the fuck to make about any of this, whether its troll or real, etc...

ty for your transcription efforts OP !!

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I don't know either lol. I'm fascinated and slightly horrified. They were on his show back in 2009 as well though (which I feel like they probably did solely for the attention, but who knows?).



They seem so chill on twitter - Spencer is all about feeding hummingbirds and selling crystals. But then they also appear in the media saying they're conservative Christians - but then they tweet anti-trump stuff - but then they go on infowars and say the new world order was trying to kill them so they tried to flee to Costa Rica. Idek.

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i think Spencer is actually pretty liberal/anti-Trump but does this shit for attention. he's pretty clear on how he's a fame whore. i enjoy how self aware he is actually

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little late to this post but op you are a gem thank you for this post i am dying

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I think they're batshit AND attention whores, tbh.

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omg I hope Heidi becomes the next Tomi Lahren

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I don't think I have the strength to deal with all the crazy in this post.

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Spencer was a guest on a podcast I listen to and holy shit I couldn't finish it. He was so egotistical and batshit crazy - I just couldn't listen to him.

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No, Juicy Scoop w/ Heather McDonald. He just seems like such an awful person.

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How did heidi manage to look somewhat human again? How does she have enough money for plastic surgery and reserve plastic surgery ?

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They didn't have money for a while, but they've been making money from going on reality shows still and apparently Heidi handles the money now so they aren't going crazy spending money like they were when Spencer was blowing it in crystals and stuff. They made like $800,000 from going on CBB earlier this year before they got pregnant and I think they did another show right before that.

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I think her face just had to heal on it's own really. she stopped getting all those fillers and whatnot.

and she had her breasts decreased, they were way too big for her body.

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I was rooting for Heidi. Damn.

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Alex jones having the nerve to call anyone crazy...

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I had nightmares about the episode where they stole the clown nose for WEEKS.



Edited at 2017-07-31 06:06 am (UTC)

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that was the first ep i ever saw and the part where you could see the barest suggestion of zeebo standing outside the kid's door was on par w something straight out of saw or hostel for preschool me

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Omg the bit where you can sort of see his feet under the door. Noooooooooo

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omg me too!! idk why THAT one of all episodes resonated with me lmao. i don't hate clowns or anything..

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I couldn't even watch that episode as a kid. Just the thought of a murderous clown was enough to terrify me

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Me too. I still can't watch reruns of this for that reason.

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That episode is why I'm afraid of clowns.

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Lol @ "bespectacled 30-year-old virgin Gary".



I remember Ryan Gosling being on the show, but I wouldn't have remembered Jay Baruchel! They used Jewel Staite twice so I know they filmed in Canada just from that short list of names.

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Jewel's first episode, The Tale of Watcher's Woods, is one of my favorites.



Between AYAOTD, Space Cases, and Flash Forward she was such a queen of my childhood TV.

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watcher's woods was so twisted and great

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Flash Forward was one of my favorite shows to watch after school. It was on Youtube a little while back so I was happy to rewatch it. The episode where they have to take care of a babydoll and the doll's arm burns in the toaster, LMAOOOOOO.



My school started a "slam book" a couple years later and all I could think of was the "Cool Book".

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God, I loved this show. I wish someone would reboot it, but for adults.

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YEEESSS! I'm all for this. Someone suggested in the other post that it should be called "Are You Still Afraid of the Dark?" which would be perfect.

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someone cc netflix on this post, thanks.

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Is that a Carnivale icon? Man, I miss that show!

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It would be about taxes and making house or car payments maybe even student loans.



Shuddering at the thought of all those things.



Edited at 2017-07-31 02:40 pm (UTC)

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prisoner's past! kid me didn't love herself and had a thing for the guy who played his asshole stepbrother lmao

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I still remember the fear soup episode. Any time im scared it pops into my head 'how tasty would this be'. and some episode where the kids stepdad would use dental floss to clean his keyboard. thats literally all i remember.

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That soup looked like asparagus soup and for the longest time as a child I would pretend I was eating fear soup whenever my mom prepared asparagus soup.

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That was the one with Neve Campbell right?

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my mom was adament that i be a 'girl' and read baby sitter club. this show was banned becuase she was convinced this and goosebumps and fear street books were ruining me. Legit went to my frinds house every weekend becuase her mom would record this on tapes for me to watch.

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lol my mother got on my case for not being ~traditionally feminine, too, but was the one buying me r.l. stine novels and ayaotd vhs tapes. her fault tbh



i also loved the bsc, but primarily the mysteries or ones about ghosts (which never ended up being real, but it was the thought that counted, i guess)

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any other LJers apart of the midnight society chat years ago where we would watch episodes together from youtube? those were the days...

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i didn't know about this. can that be brought back? that sounds fun

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I didn't either. I want to do this!

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jesse moss! he played such a creep in ginger snaps. he was also the milquetoast boyfriend from final destination 3

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He's the voice of Enzo from ReBoot!



Ugh, Canadiana ...it's just not the same



Hexadecimal was an evil QUEEN







Edited at 2017-07-31 06:49 am (UTC)

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ikr? I would totally do a rewatch.

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It is in Canada.

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only the first season :(

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All the seasons are on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP0AsEE4luYjzk4NLtNxjpw

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they changed the tale of the prom queen's end music from 'in the still of the night' to some generic ass version for the dvds and i'm nhf it they changed the tale of the prom queen's end music from 'in the still of the night' to some generic ass version for the dvds and i'm nhf it

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I HATE that with DVDs. Like, fork over the money bc this generic music is ruining the scene.

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nickelodeon has become notoriously cheap and i'm bitter that it's costing me season 3 of pete & pete on dvd smh

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For real!

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it ruined Daria

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Eww yeah EVERY season of BH 90210 on DVD has like the same five un-copyrighted(?) songs always playing. It's so distracting that it's hard for me to watch sometimes, and it really ruins the moment where the original song actually mattered.

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I'm glad I'm not the only one who's STILL angry about this.

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I love that episode.

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That and the episode in your icon are my two favorites.



Edited at 2017-07-31 04:37 pm (UTC)

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i fell in love with that song because of this episode!

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That Bigfoot ridge one didn't sound familiar at all so I looked it up. I'm just now realizing that I never watched when it came back for those last 2 seasons lol



My favorites are the doll house, the prom date, the one in the gif plus many more. I'm way past due for a rewatch





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the reboot episodes were mostly horrible, so you missed nothing tbh

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I watched that one online years ago but yea, I never saw those seasons while they were airing, I must have been too old for NIck by that time lol

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I love this show so much! I loved waking up and finding an ep on my dvr when they aired them last year. Looked to see if the eps were on prime a few days ago because I really wanted to watch. I always think of tale of dead man's float when i get into the pool. That ep with Hayden was terrible! Even back then it was one I hated when there was a rerun.



Whenever it get cold I always say "I'm cold" like the kid from the frozen ghost ep.



Edited at 2017-07-31 06:36 am (UTC)

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in which Ross Hull played emo kid David instead of bespectacled 30-year-old virgin Gary



lmfao dead!! Ross Hull is a great weatherman now and I love seeing him on TV. Student Bodies was also iconic. <3 Bless this country tbh.





Hayden Christensen's (The Tale of Bigfoot Ridge) acting was so bad that the footage was nearly unusable and required heavy editing to salvage anything. Ron Oliver refused to cast him in Goosebumps because of this.



Fuck off! Did they actually say this or is OP trolling? The Jay Baruchel episode is fantastic and one of the scariest ones I remember as a kid.



Does anyone remember which episode it was where they were at some creepy cabin down by a lake ...on a dock...in some wooden boat and there was like a deranged dead fisherman or something? Ugh. I can't remember but I want to re-watch that episode.





Edited at 2017-07-31 06:40 am (UTC)

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hahaha they actually did!!



machale tried to be more coy about it and not name names, but ron oliver was straight up like, "nope. he sucked. the casting director and i side-eyed after his audition." lmao i was dying

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His career really fell off, eh? Like he's a fucking nobody now lol. Shame, he was good looking at least.

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oh and re: a lake house ep, do you mean the tale of the water demons? where the sea captain who dived for deep sea artifacts is haunted by the ghosts of the people he graverobbed?

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Where is he doing the weather now?

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When I first read your comment, I was like, "But he's Scottish" then I realized that you were not talking about Craig Ferguson.

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I loved this show so much! Some of the episodes really stayed with you. I think my fave episode was "The Tale of The Dream Girl"- that one about the brother and sister who work in a bowling alley and everyone is weird around the brother and then plot twisttttt! Yeah, they need to bring this show back!

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Yep, Dream Girl and Prom Queen are my forever favorite episodes.

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I LOVE that episode so much

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HORROR

YA

MYSTERY

GENERAL FICTION

SCI-FI & FANTASY

SOURCES:

The August reading task in the ONTD Reading Challenge is to read any fiction you'd like! If you've yet to decide on a book,andbring you a selection of books, organized by genre, that were published in 2017.by Nick CutterA trio of mismatched mercenaries is hired by a young woman for a deceptively simple task: check in on her nephew, who may have been taken against his will to a remote New Mexico backwoods settlement called Little Heaven. Shortly after they arrive, things begin to turn ominous. Stirrings in the woods and over the treetopsthe brooding shape of a monolith known as the Black Rock casts its terrible pall. Paranoia and distrust grips the settlement. The escape routes are gradually cut off as events spiral towards madness. Hellor the closest thing to itinvades Little Heaven. The remaining occupants are forced to take a stand and fight back, but whatever has cast its dark eye on Little Heaven is now marshaling its powers...and it wants them all.by Ellen Datlow (editor)Is it any wonder that with so many interpretations of the avian, that the contributors herein are eager to be transformed or influenced by them? Included in Black Feathers are those obsessed by birds of one type or another. In each of these fictions, you will encounter the dark resonance between the human and avian. You see in yourself the savagery of a predator, the shrewd stalking of a hunter, and you are lured by birds that speak human language, that make beautiful music, that cypher numbers, and seem to have a moral center. You wade into this feathered nightmare, and brave the horror of death, trading your safety and sanity for that which we all seekthe promise of flight. Authors include Paul Tremblay, Joyce Carol Oates, Jeffrey Ford, Usman T. Malik, and Priya Sharma.by Ania AhlbornA small-town boy, Stevie Clark, investigates the mysterious disappearance of his cousin, Jude and uncovers a terrifying secret kept hidden for years. That, and there was that boy, Max Larsen...the one from years ago, found dead after also disappearing under mysterious circumstances. And then there were the animals: pets gone missing out of yards. For years, the residents of Deer Valley have murmured about these unsolved crimesand that a killer may still be lurking around their quiet town. Now, fear is rebornand for Stevie, who is determined to find out what really happened to Jude, the awful truth may be too horrifying to imagine.by Ezekiel BooneMysterious flesh-eating spiders are marching through Los Angeles, Oslo, Delhi, Rio de Janeiro, and countless other cities. According to scientist Melanie Guyer, however, the spider situation seems to be looking up. Yet in Japan, a giant, truck-sized, glowing egg sack gives a shocking preview of what is to come, even as survivors in Los Angeles panic and break the quarantine zone. Out in the desert, survivalists Gordo and Shotgun are trying to invent a spider super weapon, but its not clear if its too late, because President Stephanie Pilgrim has been forced to enact the plan of last resort: The Spanish Protocol. America, you are on your own.by Rin ChupecoTea is different from the other witches in her family. Her gift for necromancy makes her a bone witch, who are feared and ostracized in the kingdom. Great power comes at a price, forcing Tea to leave her homeland to train under the guidance of an older, wiser bone witch. There, Tea puts all of her energy into becoming an asha, learning to control her elemental magic and those beasts who will submit by no other force. And Tea must be strongstronger than she even believes possible. Because war is brewing in the eight kingdoms, war that will threaten the sovereignty of her homelandand threaten the very survival of those she loves.by Mackenzi LeeHenry Monty Montague was born and bred to be a gentleman, but he was never one to be tamed. But as Monty embarks on his Grand Tour of Europe, his quest for a life filled with pleasure and vice is in danger of coming to an end. Not only does his father expect him to take over the familys estate upon his return, but Monty is also nursing an impossible crush on his best friend and traveling companion, Percy. Still it isnt in Montys nature to give up. Even with his younger sister, Felicity, in tow, he vows to make this yearlong escapade one last hedonistic hurrah and flirt with Percy from Paris to Rome. But when one of Montys reckless decisions turns their trip abroad into a harrowing manhunt that spans across Europe, it calls into question everything he knows, including his relationship with the boy he adores.by Sandhya MenonDimple Shah has it all figured out. With graduation behind her, shes more than ready for a break from her family, from Mammas inexplicable obsession with her finding the Ideal Indian Husband. Ugh. Rishi Patel is a hopeless romantic. So when his parents tell him that his future wife will be attending the same summer program as himwherein hell have to woo herhes totally on board. Because as silly as it sounds to most people in his life, Rishi wants to be arranged, believes in the power of tradition, stability, and being a part of something much bigger than himself. Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways.by Sarah N. HarveyEight teens are dropped off on a remote west-coast island for a week-long treatment program called INTRO (Into Nature to Renew Ourselves). The story is told by two of them: Alice, whose police-officer mother believes Alice might have a substance-abuse problem, and Caleb, who assaulted his abusive stepfather. They are joined by six other miscreants and three staff: a psychologist, a social worker and an ex-cop. On the first night, one of the girls disappears from her cabin. There is a panicked search of the island, but she is nowhere to be found. The adults seem oddly ineffectual in dealing with the crisisand then the ex-cop gets sick and dies. The radio has been sabotaged, and there is no way to call for help. When the social worker also becomes ill, the kids decide to take matters into their own hands and track down the killer. by Elizabeth KostovaA young American woman, Alexandra Boyd, has traveled to Sofia, Bulgaria, hoping that life abroad will salve the wounds left by the loss of her beloved brother. Soon after arriving in this elegant East European city, however, she helps an elderly couple into a taxi and realizes too late that she has accidentally kept one of their bags. Inside she finds an ornately carved wooden box engraved with a name: Stoyan Lazarov. Raising the hinged lid, she discovers that she is holding an urn filled with human ashes. As Alexandra sets out to locate the family and return this precious item, she will first have to uncover the secrets of a talented musician who was shattered by oppression and she will find out all too quickly that this knowledge is fraught with its own danger.by Jennifer McMahonEva grew up watching her father, Miles, invent strange and wonderful things in the small workshop behind their house on the river that runs through their old mill town. But the most important invention of all was the one that Miles claimed came from the mind of Thomas Edison himself--a machine that allowed one to speak with loved ones long passed. Then, one night when a storm is raging and the river is threatening to flood, the machine whirrs to life on its own. Danger, it says. You're in terrible danger. The next thing Eva knows is waking up on the side of the river and seeing her mother's grim face. Eva's father and brother are dead, their house has been washed away and an evil man is searching for them both. Eva changes her name to Necco--a candy she always loved--and tries to put everything in her past behind her as she adapts to her new life off the grid. But when her boyfriend is murdered and her mother disappears, she knows that the past is starting to catch up to her.by Anthony HorowitzWhen editor Susan Ryeland is given the manuscript of Alan Conways latest novel, she has no reason to think it will be much different from any of his others. After working with the bestselling crime writer for years, shes intimately familiar with his detective, Atticus Pund, who solves mysteries disturbing sleepy English villages. An homage to queens of classic British crime such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, Alans traditional formula has proved hugely successful. So successful that Susan must continue to put up with his troubling behavior if she wants to keep her job.Conways latest tale has Atticus Pund investigating a murder at Pye Hall, a local manor house. Yes, there are dead bodies and a host of intriguing suspects, but the more Susan reads, the more shes convinced that there is another story hidden in the pages of the manuscript: one of real-life jealousy, greed, ruthless ambition, and murder.by Theordora GossMary Jekyll, alone and penniless following her parents death, is curious about the secrets of her fathers mysterious past. One clue in particular hints that Edward Hyde, her fathers former friend and a murderer, may be nearby, and there is a reward for information leading to his capturea reward that would solve all of her immediate financial woes. But her hunt leads her to Hydes daughter, Diana, a feral child left to be raised by nuns. With the assistance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Mary continues her search for the elusive Hyde, and soon befriends more women, all of whom have been created through terrifying experimentation: Beatrice Rappaccini, Catherine Moreau, and Justine Frankenstein. When their investigations lead them to the discovery of a secret society of immoral and power-crazed scientists, the horrors of their past return. Now it is up to the monsters to finally triumph over the monstrous. by Han KangIn the midst of a violent student uprising in South Korea, a young boy named Dong-ho is shockingly killed. The story of this tragic episode unfolds in a sequence of interconnected chapters as the victims and the bereaved encounter suppression, denial, and the echoing agony of the massacre. From Dong-ho's best friend who meets his own fateful end; to an editor struggling against censorship; to a prisoner and a factory worker, each suffering from traumatic memories; and to Dong-ho's own grief-stricken mother; and through their collective heartbreak and acts of hope is the tale of a brutalized people in search of a voice.by Jun'ichiro TanizakiOne morning, Takahashi, a writer who has just stayed up all night working, is interrupted by a phone call from his old friend Sonomura: barely able to contain his excitement, Sonomura claims that he has cracked a secret cryptographic code based on Edgar Allan Poes The Gold-Bug and now knows exactly when and where a murder will take placeand they must hurry if they want to witness the murder, because its later that very night! Sonomura has a history of lunacy and playing the amateur detective, so Takahashi is of course reluctant to believe him. Nevertheless, they stake out the secret location, and through tiny peepholes in the knotted wood, become voyeurs at the scene of a shocking crimeby Gail HoneymanMeet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what shes thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy. Then everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living--and it is Raymonds big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.by BandiSet during the period of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-ils leadership, the seven stories that make up The Accusation give voice to people living under this most bizarre and horrifying of dictatorships. The characters of these compelling stories come from a wide variety of backgrounds, from a young mother living among the elite in Pyongyang whose son misbehaves during a political rally, to a former Communist war hero who is deeply disillusioned with the intrusion of the Party into everything he holds dear, to a husband and father who is denied a travel permit and sneaks onto a train in order to visit his critically ill mother. Written with deep emotion and writing talent, The Accusation is a vivid depiction of life in a closed-off one-party state, and also a hopeful testament to the humanity and rich internal life that persists even in such inhumane conditions. by Katherine ArdenAt the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesnt mindshe spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurses fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. After Vasilisas mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisas new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows. And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. As danger circles, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealedthis, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurses most frightening tales.by Jacqueline CareyMiranda is a lonely child. For as long as she can remember, she and her father have lived in isolation in the abandoned Moorish palace. There are chickens and goats, and a terrible wailing spirit trapped in a pine tree, but the elusive wild boy who spies on her from the crumbling walls and leaves gifts on their doorstep is the isles only other human inhabitant. There are questions that Miranda dare not ask her stern and controlling father, who guards his secrets with zealous care: Who am I? Where did I come from? The wild boy Caliban is a lonely child, too; an orphan left to fend for himself at an early age, all language lost to him. When Caliban is summoned and bound into captivity by Mirandas father as part of a grand experiment, he rages against his confinement; and yet he hungers for kindness and love.by Jeff VandermeerIn Borne, a young woman named Rachel survives as a scavenger in a ruined city half destroyed by drought and conflict. The city is dangerous, littered with discarded experiments from the Companya biotech firm now derelictand punished by the unpredictable predations of a giant bear. Rachel ekes out an existence in the shelter of a run-down sanctuary she shares with her partner, Wick, who deals his own homegrown psychoactive biotech. One day, Rachel finds Borne during a scavenging mission and takes him home. Borne as salvage is little more than a green lumpplant or animal?but exudes a strange charisma. There is an attachment she resents: in this world any weakness can kill you. Yet, against her instinctsand definitely against Wicks wishesRachel keeps Borne. But as Borne grows, he begins to threaten the balance of power in the city and to put the security of her sanctuary with Wick at risk. For the Company, it seems, may not be truly dead, and new enemies are creeping in. What Borne will lay bare to Rachel as he changes is how precarious her existence has been, and how dependent on subterfuge and secrets. In the aftermath, nothing may ever be the same.by John ScalziOur universe is ruled by physics and faster than light travel is not possible -- until the discovery of The Flow, an extra-dimensional field we can access at certain points in space-time that transport us to other worlds, around other stars. Humanity flows away from Earth, into space, and in time forgets our home world and creates a new empire, the Interdependency, whose ethos requires that no one human outpost can survive without the others. Its a hedge against interstellar war -- and a system of control for the rulers of the empire. The Flow is eternal -- but it is not static. Just as a river changes course, The Flow changes as well, cutting off worlds from the rest of humanity. When its discovered that The Flow is moving, possibly cutting off all human worlds from faster than light travel forever, three individuals -- a scientist, a starship captain and the Empress of the Interdependency -- are in a race against time to discover what, if anything, can be salvaged from an interstellar empire on the brink of collapse. BOOK POST! What will you be reading for the challenge, ONTD? It's never too late to join in! And if you're on Goodreads, join the discussions in our ONTD Reading Challenge Group
Whhhhhaaaat Delle Seyah is back! Omg. I really need to start on season 3.

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There wasn't a post last week, right?



I'm all about Delleela and these two evil bitches trying to take over and rule the Quad. I love their dynamic, Aneela is so insane and psychotic, trying to 'manage' her and direct her is a challenge, but I'm sure Delle Seyah thinks she can do it.



I loved last episode giving us Pree's backstory (and full name, well one of them), I loved him and his ex together, loved his maybe current guy who got stabbed when he tried taking his bar. I loved Dutch and Johnny working through some issues, while D'avin spent some quality time with Zeph and figured shit out.



This episode we finally got Fancy back and I just wanted to hug the dude. I didn't like how they wrote the captains, it was a bit clunky and really Turin, you're gonna let those guys who know nothing get into your head and make you doubt Fancy? Screw you.



Oops at Dutch killing Banyon, mistakes cost, that character had potential, I'm sorry to see her go.



So how exactly did they get bombs on all those ships? And they still had D'avin's secret ships, right?



Can someone remind me about D'avin's 'making Hullen heads explode' powers? I kinda vaguely remember something but not quite.



Edited at 2017-07-31 03:08 pm (UTC)

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No worries, just wanted to discuss how much I loved that episode too.



I love how Hannah plays Aneela, something very childlike and chilling in her delivery, her eyes are completely psycho.



LOL, well current guy wasn't quite sure where he stood with Pree and Pree didn't quite confirm their status, which is why I put it down as a maybe or 'it's complicated'. But I'm rooting for him, it's quite the meet cute.



THAT DUTCH-JOHNNY HAND KISS KILLED ME.



Fancy deserves better, I hope the trio treat him better than Turin did or they might drive him into becoming Hullen again and I'm NHF it.



Banyon had potential, so I'm kinda bummed she died, but I'm definitely interested in seeing how Dutch deals with killing an innocent person.



I remember the 'bleeding goo after sex' and repelling the goo, it's the 'making people's eyeballs explode' part I only vaguely remembered and didn't remember which episode we found that nifty trick out. Oh well.

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Aneela's whole vibe is intense and creepy and so different from Dutch, definitely a perpetual spoiled genocidal child who can also be very very calculated.



I'm rooting for them too! Pree deserves to get some and that dude seemed sweet, he's worked on his anger issues and I think he'd be good for Pree. Out of the three, he's definitely stepped up presence wise, compared to Fancy who was MIA till now and Alvis who is... Somewhere, I guess.



DUTCH AND JOHNNY ARE SO PERFECT AND PURE THEY MAKE ME GO ALL CAPSLOCK EVERY TIME I TALK ABOUT THEIR RELATIONSHIP.



I wish they'd showcase/develop Fancy more, but yeah, he's so much better than anyone gives him credit and he'll be the 'designated asshole' to make the hard choices and spare others from having to do them and he doesn't get appreciated enough. Turin is an idiot for not seeing that and for letting some random noisy captains let him even for a moment doubt Fancy, who never gave him a reason to doubt him.





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I always save this show for last when I watch the Syfy Friday line-up because I love it so much! It just wreaks havoc on my live viewing plans because it means I end up going through my DVR recordings backwards on Saturday morning :P



but godddd it's so good and this Delle Seyah/Aneela team-up is going to be scary and so fun lol

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that's really true! I really need to rewatch the whole show, though. I'm generally pretty good at retaining plot info for my summer shows, but the long hiatuses still kill -- I actually had forgotten about the kiss that Dutch didn't hate, haaaa.



PUT THIS ON U.S. NETFLIX, YOU BASTARDS

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i had no idea about this chemistry or this ship or nothing but guess whose gay ass is gonna tune in now (its me)

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ty for these informative gifs lmao, im looking forward to watching it

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YAS! I love Mayko so much. I'm so glad she's getting so much work because I've loved her ever since I saw her do Kate Hewlett's Humans Anonymous a while back.

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It is really good though.

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Totally reasonable. (I'm a naughty downloader anyway)

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You should shell out sis, it's worth it. Also the book is one of my favourites.

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OP, i c u trying to attract ppl to your at-risk show by making a post about the incipient f/f bc you know how thirsty we lesbians are!



it's working



Edited at 2017-07-31 03:55 pm (UTC)

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I screamed at Delle Seyah and Aneela. Is it weird if I miss Alvis? I liked him and Fancy and him and Dutch. I'm getting worried they got rid of him and Clara to make Dutch/Johnny a thing. And while I'd be fine with it, I prefer them as besties.

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i've been pretty high-key hoping that delle seyah would somehow become super-good and that she and dutch would wind up together, so i wasn't really on board with her being full-on evil or hooking up with aneela...until they kissed



i'm so shallow :(

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I'm travelling so can't read this post properly until tonight but just came by you check I'd been properly credited with originating their shipname, OP!!!



I STARTED DELLEELA.



I was so so so proud when someone asked Lovretta herself what they're called, and she said "ask tehclarissa" <3333333



MY MOMENT IN THE SUN. THANK YOU, MICHELLE ILU.



edit YASSSSSS ty bb op kiss kiss love you in space <333



Edited at 2017-08-01 08:59 pm (UTC)

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ughhh, i love this show & its characters so much!



that kiss surprised me ngl, but i'm totally hfi

this episode was the first time i was feeling/feeling sorry for fancy

overall i think that this show has really great representation

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ok but the delle seyah actress is pregnant, right? they shoot her weird and she's wearing empire waist gowns and she has pregnancy face (and is adorable)



d'avin remains my fave, and he "fits" with every single character (from dutch to johnny to zeph to pree's boyfriend)



however, turin is no longer my second fave because OMG WHY DIDN'T HE OPEN THE DOOR FOR FANCY. srsly he deserves to sit in the asshole corner.



i need more fancy. i'm happy we're getting more pree. i still don't like or miss alvis. i also won't miss the nerd boys. zeph is more than enough (and i missed her this week).



aneela intrigues me, and i like a more capricious villain, but i still want to see how this all plays out.

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Someone else who loves D'av! Yay! Also, the missing Zeph thing this week seemed weird, especially after what she discovered (?) in the prior ep.

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lol i love d'av! he's hilarious and he has chemistry with every single character :')



and mte, whis was a whole episode with the neds and zeph was nowhere to be seen? weird, but i guess they wanted to focus on the two nerd guys (so they could kill them lol).

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Just jumping in to this post saying that I've loved Mayko Nguyen since ReGenesis and I've been meaning to watch Killjoys because she's in it, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet.



Her character on ReGenesis made me interested in Bioinformatics and there was a point in time when I considered it as a career option...

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finally watched this ep and screamed



i could totally see delle seyah going for aneela this entire time especially since she looks like dutch and we all know she was crushing on her lol

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honey you know imgur doesn't work here and hasn't for like ever, right?

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the gif is showing up for me???

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so boob-tastic tbh, but she looks good

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I just did a google image search and her boobs don't look ANYTHING like that. why is this ridiculousness still happening in advertising?

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I'm seeing several pictures where she's showing her cleavage that way. Gorgeous boobs, btw.

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umm, the boobs in the deadpool image are like a DD/F cup. She looks like she's a solid C. I'm not criticizing her, I'm referencing false advertising contributing to body mismorphia. I work with teens and see this shit all the time

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post an candid/red carpet picture where they look like they do in the deadpool image

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Right? This isn't the first one where we see her boobs like this.



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Yeah they are kinda fantastic and I dunno this doesn't seem as bad as it could have been. Just the right amount I suppose.

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Thank god they didn't make her white. I was afraid they would cast her and then make her albino or whatever. Anyways she looks great!!

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She reminds me of Angel Coulby in that pic.

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mte

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Wherever did she go

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I thought Janelle landed this role.

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It ws rumored she was a strong contender. I was sad but I think Zazie will do a good job.

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She is so gorgeous

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I'm feeling it!

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LMAO YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAS



SO EXCITED

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Her hair is amazing. I may watch this movie for her, even though I haven't seen the original yet.



I wonder why Kerry and others turned this role down, though?

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I'm happy with the casting but not gonna lie, would have been curious to see what Sofia Boutella did with the role.

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sofia for all the roles tbh. she's so great

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ugh i saw that list of actresses and was like, "wow that's a lot of female characters, HEARTEYES MOTHERFUCKER"



then i learnt to read *sigh*

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lol if the movie was full of female main characters i would actually watch this franchise

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I wonder why the eyepatch is white

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THIS WAS THE FASTEST MY POST HAS BEEN FUCKING APPROVED. 2 MINUTES! GOOD JOB MODS!



Edited at 2017-07-31 06:03 pm (UTC)

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HEY sometimes we have lives ok







sometimes.

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I know you have lives. It's just ridiculous it got approved so quickly. Most of the time, my wait is normally 30 minutes to an hour. So yeah.

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not quite MLA format there OP

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I know. I just felt like I wrote too much just for a description of this damn episode. But better lengthy than short bullet points.

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maybe i'm tired but what do you mean by "Mooch wants the public out of his private affair."?



do you mean he doesnt what the public to know his business? thats stupid bc his job is going to put his life out there.

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Politico: Ivanka "desperately wants to lower expectations of what she can achieve." https://t.co/LykZWNWWT4  Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 31, 2017

HAHA

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Did you see how they were quick to say they didn't know Trump was going to tweet about transgender soldiers like you can't distance yourself from every single shitty thing your father does just because it doesn't fit the calculating narrative that you're not like him~

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HA jesus christ I fucking hate this family

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ROFL IVANKA! YOU CAN'T ESCAPE YOU ARE TRAPPED IN THIS NIGHTMARE!

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lol didn't she say HERSELF that she has sway over her dad?

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Honestly expectations couldn't be lower and she still can't live up to basement-level expectations. All people ask is for you to be a decent human and call your dad out when he's crazy. I'm sure she thinks she's doing that but bitch, come the fuck on.

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Damn, I love these sketches lol

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lol i loved these

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lol I loved this sketch

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That theme gains more relevance with every passing year

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FUCK LOL

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I'm guessing Ivanka Joy is not so popular this summer with her usual crowds and is feeling sad and left out?

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I love that her blatant PR attempts have now backfired so bigly in her face.

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HAHAHA what a fucking flop

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omg Democrats what are you doing??

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Wtf? How can they go backwards?

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I read this on the train this morning. My head was hurting from this.

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ugh, seems like the Dems are so desperate to get Trump voters. leave them alone, they'll never change their damn minds.

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for real, they're lost causes

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yeah ppl need to stop pandering to these ppl. there's no saving them.

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seriously. so tired of the 'we have to win them over' argument. no, we fucking DONT. fuck these people

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They need to try and get the undecideds and those who didn't vote, not the Trump voters. My GOD.

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wtf are they thinking??? even if that approach catches a few republican voters, it will allienate so many democrats.

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I hate this current party. They are so bad at politics, how.

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how do we put pressure on them?

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Will people NOW stop with the idealization of Democrats? (Pleaaaase get involved in local elections everyone!)

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lol smh

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the fuck



who the fuck is this guy. get rid of him!

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Aww, the party decided it wasn't enough to alienate POC voters, so they're gonna go ahead and make sure they shun all women to for good measure.

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can the left stop pandering to republicans. did they not learn from bernie sanders endorsed candidate heath mello losing to a republican that being anti-choice doesnt mean conservatives will give you their vote automatically.

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oh yeah, its fuck dems 5eva now.

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god, they really think the solution is going more right, don't they? its so frustrating,

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And yet people think this party deserves our undying loyalty lol

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"The truth is that in some conservative states there will be candidates that are popular candidates who may not agree with me on every issue. I understand it. That's what politics is about," Bernie Sanders told NPR.



"And we have got to appreciate where people come from, and do our best to fight for the pro-choice agenda. But I think you just can't exclude people who disagree with us on one issue."



Edited at 2017-07-31 07:07 pm (UTC) "The truth is that in some conservative states there will be candidates that are popular candidates who may not agree with me on every issue. I understand it. That's what politics is about," Bernie Sanders told NPR."And we have got to appreciate where people come from, and do our best to fight for the pro-choice agenda. But I think you just can't exclude people who disagree with us on one issue."

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Is this new? I'm pretty sure at least one of the Democrats in one of the big special elections earlier this year where people were sending a ton of money was anti-choice. There are a lot of places where any pro-choice candidate has zero chance.

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The DNC has always funded pro-life candidates on their initial run, they then use that to leverage said candidates into shutting the fuck up once in office.



Anywhere there's a strong Catholic vote, there are going to be a fuckload of people who will vote Democrat provided they don't have to support pro-choice candidates. There are also a lot of people of color who are also devoutly religious who lean this way politically.



Once elected, those candidates immediately toe the party line, because the DNC is pro-choice and the candidates are reliant on their PAC money. Until very recently, this was a standard political norm, and we all have a collective agreement that we just don't talk about it. But suddenly everyone seems to have forgotten how politics actually fucking work. This is about capturing swing states, not about any real compromise of our ideals.



See: Pennsylvania. Longtime swing state with a disturbingly large contingent of moderates who lean left on everything except abortion.



Governor Tom Wolf: Has a looooong history of pro-life donations. Abortion still legal here in PA? Yep. Did he veto legislation that threatened abortion? Yep.



Senator Bob Casey: Devout fucking Catholic, history of involvement with pro-life organizations. Frequently referred to as "The Most Prominent Pro-Life Democrat"

Sponsor or vote for any anti-choice legislation since in office? Nope, if you go on "Life News", a pro-life watchdog organization, you'll see that Senator Casey's currently clocking a 0% voting record with them. He's publicly declared support for Planned Parenthood because he supports their educational efforts and preventative care.



Neither of these men represents an ~exceptional pro-life Democrat, this is pretty common behavior from them for the past couple of decades.

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We are truly alone.

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why, why, why do they still think moving to the right is the answer? If people want a republican they'll vote for a republican. Not republican light.

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Mooch is just a younger, better looking (low bar I know) version of himself. Dump wouldn't see anything wrong with his behavior because they aren't any different.

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This was true until minutes ago. Oh my god.

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Sean Spicer has to be feeling like a king today.

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OH SHIT, this has got to be a record. Even in this administration. LOL!

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I literally laughed out loud when I saw that. This "administration" has actually surpassed my expectations for how much of a mess it would be. They work at it.

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Apparently from your mouth (or keyboard) to God's ears.



The Pod Save America people just said the Reince had a big issue with Trump's pussy grabbing, and said something to Trump about it, which is why they never got along. He was so offended by it, he decided to take a job as the head person on Trump's White House.





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I just saw on The Hill that Scaramucci is out

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LMAO! I am SCREAAAMING!

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who exactly from the white hosue is going to the washington post and new york times? trump himself? his aids? if it's his aids why are they throwing him under the bus? does everyone just hate trump but pretrend to like him so they don't get fired?

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I think it's like interns and just people working in the white house that are the ones leaking. Granted I don't know too much but that's how it's done on House of Cards lol Journalist have connections and a lot of the people working in the white house are afraid of what's going on or unhappy hence all the leakage. They're whistleblowers.

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Do you really think Trump could be the leaker when you already question why his aides would throw him under the bus? Because... why would he do that to himself?  Nothing that comes out of this WH shines any positive light on him and he's a narcissist of the highest order.



As for who leaks, I bet it's a bunch of people from varying parts of the hierarchy - for varying reasons. Where there's a lot of in-fighting, there are many reasons to talk and few to be loyal. People like Steve Bannon have surely leaked something to the press if it damaged Jared Kushner, for example.

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i saw a journalist hint that his sources were the ppl outside the WH who trump calls on his cell phone to rant about his day lol.

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Jared does a great deal of it himself. He loves giving background that will paint him in a positive light even if it hurts Trump. Reince is another one who loved talking with the press. Beyond them, Trump has a pretty big circle of famewhores he is still in touch with, so you can bet some of them run to the papers as soon as their phone calls are done. Then you've got regular staffers who will leak things to show that they are in the know or because they disagree with policy and want to try to block it.

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This is the best thing I've seen and heard today.





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so where is the petition to change your national anthem to this masterpiece? all 6 of him deserve their own grammy tbh

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well done



I love this meme







Edited at 2017-07-31 07:40 pm (UTC)

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YES!! I freaking love this. I listened to it like 10 times last night

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It's not 5pm yet which is when shit really starts picking up lol

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i miss obama and everything about the obamas



i really do what he's thinking now with trump basically undoing he did? like the hell trunp?

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Hey OP, I just want to echo what a lot of people have already said and thank you for doing these politics posts. I know you're going to take a well-deserved break soon from making them, so I just want to say thanks!

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Your welcome!

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*When is the person outside of the zygote a "human"?



Limiting the right to choose means treating women as breeding machines. https://t.co/1yCifnT9Qo  Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) July 31, 2017



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I'm reading Hillbilly Elegy and fuck this book. It's basically a Fox conservative bashing the poor as being lazy.



Also, he says payday loans are good so fuck him. Now he's talking about how awesome Yale Law is and being besties with the Tiger Mom.

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He totally discounts the fact that a big huge chunk of his success is because he had grandparents who shielded him and pushed him. How many others in his hometown didn't have that but could have gone to Yale if they had his grandparents?



Also, he is not a Hillbilly. Your grandparents being from Kentucky but having left as teens doesn't mean shit. My grandparents were shoeless subsistence tobacco farmers but I don't lay claim to that as my end all heritage.

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not familiar with it, but i know a lot of appalachian leftists haaaate that book

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Shells Pernis refinery in Rotterdam, the biggest in Europe, has been partially shut down after a short circuit caused a major fire on Sunday. Deutsche Welle quoted a Shell spokesman as saying there were no casualties. The company is currently assessing the damage to establish when the refinery will be brought back online.

Reuters quoted a company statement to traders from Sunday as saying all loadings of fuels from the 404,000-bpd Pernis facility have been suspended immediately and they were likely to remain suspended today as well. The shutdown of the refinery should push up the prices of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel in northwestern Europe.

The Shell spokesperson told AFP the company was now shutting down all units of the refinery, as they are all interconnected and several are out of operation because of the power outage caused by the fire. He suggested the shutdown could continue for days, saying that it usually takes hours, or even several days to bring things back to normal after a shutdown.

This is the latest in a string of refinery problems that have boosted refining margins in Europe to their highest since November 2015. Totals 240,000-bpd refinery in Leuna, Germany, was shut down for longer than initially planned earlier this year and this pushed up demand for diesel in the country. In Greece, last week Hellenic Petroleum declared force majeure on its 100,000-bpd Elefsina refinery, suspending diesel exports.

Last week, Shell announced a triple increase in net earnings attributable to shareholders for the second quarter of the year, to US$3.6 billion. The results were attributed to higher oil prices that pushed up oil product prices up as well, and to cost efficiency improvements. Downstream earnings improved by 39 percent to US$2.5 billion, but the bulk of this improvement came from chemicals production rather than fuels.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Its been the main headwind for OPECs oil output cut deal. Rising shale oil production in the U.S. has been making headlines for almost a year now. While initially the trend was met with understandable enthusiasm by lenders exposed to the industry, now both banks and analysts are beginning to worry about a repeat of what happened in 2014 and 2015 to shale oil, when unsustainable debt levels sank a lot of companies in the field.

CNBCs Tom DiChristopher reports that the average debt level of 38 U.S. drillers has fallen from more than 8 times EBITDA in the second quarter of last year to about 3 times EBITDA in Q2 2017, which is no doubt great news - but it doesnt appear to have convinced analysts that the danger of more bankruptcies is behind us.

DiChristopher quotes Stifel analysts as cautioning in a note from last week that U.S. onshore growth is unsustainable in the $40-$45/bbl price environment and that activity would need to be reduced to better balance corporate cash flows and" capital expenditures. This doesnt really fit the sub-US$30-per barrel production-cost picture that drillers have been painting in the last months after the OPEC agreement boosted prices for a while and everyone rushed to drill more.

Another analyst, Timothy Rezvan from Mizuho, said that some shale drillers may prefer to continue playing chicken with OPEC, as they insist they need to spend more to boost future earnings. But that may not be the wisest game, as they would need a consistent price rally to justify this spending. There is no guarantee of such a rally in the medium term, which is what makes this game so very risky.

Related: Europes Biggest Oil Refinery Shut Down After Fire

These warnings are not new. In May this year, S&P Platts analyst Nicole Leonard warned that shale drillers with heavy debt loads wont be able to survive another price crash. Leonard forecast that prices will rebound to US$60 a barrel as OPEC extends its cut agreement and driving season prompts hefty inventory draws. Both these things did happen, but prices have just now ticked above US$50 a barrel after OPEC announced yet another meeting to try to improve compliance rates, and after Washington indicated further sanctions against Venezuela are becoming increasingly certain.

Bloomberg earlier this year warned that oil drillers face US$70 billion in debt payments in 2017 on their sub-investment grade bonds. This load will only become heavier in the coming years, rising to US$110 billion in 2018 and almost US$160 billion in 2019.

Oilfield service providers are in the same hole. This year, they are facing some US$7 billion in debt repayments, which by 2018 is set to rise to over US$21 billion, according to a Moodys report from last August. Junk bonds account for 65 percent of this total, the ratings agency added in that report.

Amid all these pending repayments, drillers are drilling and service providers are providing services. The latter, at least, are raising their prices, but the former dont have much space for maneuvering. The success of attempts to lock in earnings from future price rallies is questionable as futures prices remain weak. According to Timothy Rezvan, drillers claims that they are pulling forward the value of their wells may prove to be unsubstantiated if they are forced to seek additional funding to maintain the rate of production and find out lenders are not as willing to give as they were before.

It seems shale drillers have been exaggerating to varying degrees how low their production costs actually are. Prices are rising now, thanks to higher refinery runs, crisis in Venezuela, and OPEC demonstrations that theyll rein in non-compliant members. But the most important factor for ensuring a sustainable rally seems to be absent: growth in demand.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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Last week, crude oil rallied the most so far this year, gaining more than 8 percent, or $4 per barrel. Oil traders are much more optimistic than they were just a month ago, and the market is on the upswing. However, the rally could run out of steam in the not-so-distant future, a familiar result for those paying attention to the oil market in the last few years.

There are several significant reasons why oil prices have regained most of the lost ground since the end of May. First, the OPEC cuts continue to have an effect. We can quibble over the degree to which OPEC members are complying with their promised cuts, but the cartel is taking more than 1 million barrels per day off the market, with a small group of non-OPEC countries contributing about half as much in reductions. As time goes on, that will help narrow the imbalances.

Second, U.S. shale is showing some signs of slowing down. There are a variety of reasons for this, including fear of another price downturn, more caution from oil companies themselves and even a bottleneck in drilling services. But the bottom line is that we cant simply look at the shale rebound that we saw in the first half of the year, and extrapolate that into the future. There is a good chance that things start to slow down from here, and the market is starting to wake up to that fact.

Another reason oil prices bounced last week was because several OPEC members promised deeper cuts. Saudi Arabia said that it would cut exports by another 600,000 barrels per day. The de facto OPEC leader will also be specifically curtailing exports to the U.S., which will help drain inventories. In the ensuing days, the UAE and Kuwait have also pledged to cut their output further.

Related: Aggressive U.S. Oil Sanctions Could Bankrupt Venezuela

Fundamentals continue to suggest a more-balanced crude-oil market, said ANZ. The bank, along with other investment banks, are eyeing the shift in the futures market towards backwardation  a situation in which front-month crude futures trade at a premium to oil futures further out. Backwardation tends to signal near-term market tightness, a measure of bullishness that the oil market has not seen in quite a while. Backwardation suggests demand is strong and it also signals greater inventory drawdowns are coming down the pike.

The final and arguably most important reason for the latest price gains is the sizable drawdowns in U.S. crude oil inventories recently, a tangible signal that the market is finally rebalancing. Last week saw the biggest draw yet, with more than 7.2 million barrels taken out of storage.

But even as the oil market is suddenly looking a lot tighter than it did in June, there are also reasons to believe that the rally is running out of room.

Inventories are still high, and not just in the U.S. Also, while shale is slowing down, the U.S. is expected to add more output. Then there are other producers outside of the U.S. adding new supply. "We believe the latest price rise is on a fragile footing," analysts at Commerzbank wrote in a note, pointing to higher forthcoming production from Libya and Nigeria. "I don't see the physical market getting all that much better. There's still a lot of crude that's unsold, still a lot of Nigerian barrels floating out there," John Kilduff, founder of Again Capital, told CNBC.

There are also reasons less to do with the fundamentals and more related to the financial market that point to limited upside potential. The surge in oil prices over the past month has corresponded with a shift towards bullish positioning among hedge funds and other money managers. But the net-long positioning, as Reuters notes, has more to do with a liquidation of shorts rather than a major accumulation of long bets. That may seem like a trivial distinction, but if hedge funds are not scrambling to buy up long bets, that suggests that they are not all that confident about further price increases in the near-term.

Meanwhile, the oil market probably needs a breather after the gains since June. Matt Smith of ClipperData cites the fact that oil prices have surpassed their 200-day moving averages, which will make it more difficult for crude benchmarks to move even higher. "From a technical perspective, it seems as though this rally should be done," Smith told CNBC. Related: Is Big Oil Betting On The Wrong Horse?

The one variable that could upend all market forecasts is Venezuela, which has been in economic turmoil for quite some time but is entering a new phase of crisis. The involvement of the U.S. government, which is retaliating against Venezuela for what it argues is a step towards dictatorship, threatens to accelerate the oil production declines in the South American nation.

If Venezuela sees its exports disrupted in a sudden way, the ceiling for oil prices in 2017 could be quite a bit higher than everyone expects at the moment. Otherwise, there is not a lot of room on the upside for oil prices in the short-term.

By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com

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Iraq and Iran have reached an agreement to commission a feasibility study of a crude oil pipeline that would export oil from Iraqs northern fields in Kirkuk via Iran, the oil minister of Iran, Bijan Zanganeh, said on Sunday after a meeting with his Iraqi counterpart Jabar al-Luaibi.

The two ministries reached an agreement about an international company that will carry out the feasibility study of the pipeline plan, Zanganeh was quoted as saying by the oil ministrys new service.

In February, the two neighboring countries had signed a memorandum of understanding to study the possibility to build such a pipeline.

According to the oil ministrys news service Shana, Iran and Iraqs oil ministers discussed bilateral energy agreements and the latest developments in the oil markets.

After the meeting, Irans Zanganeh voiced optimism that by fully implementing OPEC decisions in the future months, the increasing crude inventories that put pressure on the prices reach a favorable level and we see the trend we envisage for a fair price be stabilized.

Last month, Iran finally started exporting natural gas to its neighbor Iraq, after a four-year delay due to the challenging security situation in war-torn Iraq. The exports have started at a daily rate of 7 million cu m, according to a deputy oil minister who spoke to IRNA, as quoted by Reuters, but should reach 35 million cu m at an unspecified point in the future. The gas will be supplied under two contractsone for exports to Baghdad power plants, and the other to Basra. Iran already supplies electricity to its energy-hungry neighbor.



Related: Aggressive U.S. Oil Sanctions Could Bankrupt Venezuela

According to Zanganeh, Iran would start exporting gas to Basra in coming months.

Iran has faced some problems in receiving payments via banks from Iraq for the gas deliveries, and it is receiving cash payments, Zanganeh was quoted as saying.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Peace talks between community leaders in the Niger Delta and Abuja are now in jeopardy, according to a new report by Reuters.

Local officials told a press conference in the Nigerian capital that the government had until November 1st to meet development demands, otherwise militant attacks on federal and foreign oil assets could resume.

The Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) and similar groups have instituted a ceasefire to allow peace talks between community leaders and senior federal officials to proceed. Over the course of 2016, the attacks had caused between one-third and one-half of national production to go offline.

The reduced output led the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to exempt Nigeria from its historic agreement to cut output by 1.2 million barrels per day last November. Since the new year, President Muhammadu Buharis administration has led an organized effort to negotiate an agreement with local leaders that will ensure the equitable distribution of oil wealth across the country.

OPEC announced last week that Nigerian output would be capped at 1.8 million barrels per day once it reaches that level later this year.

A new policy document approved by the Nigerian federal executive council paves the way for the country to end its oil dependence, while lowering extraction costs in the short to medium terms.

The most realistic line of action for any nation with oil as the backbone of its economy is to diversify, because indices strongly point to the possibility that the era of oil booms may be over for good, the policy reads.

Related: Aggressive U.S. Oil Sanctions Could Bankrupt Venezuela

The petroleum policy also calls for an oil industry regulator and revival of Nigerias refineries, which have been unable to operate for a sustained period at a capacity above 50 percent.

Oil demand growth will markedly soften, except for the petrochemicals sector which is likely to be the main market for oil. Nigeria has to move downstream into the value-added sectors of refining and petrochemicals, the policy states.

By Zainab Calcuttawala for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Saudi Arabia is considering changing the way it taxes Aramco, the state oil giant, in a bid to boost oil revenues in case oil prices rise. Bloomberg quotes sources close to the government who say that Aramco proposed the change, which will see taxes start at 20 percent and rise gradually to reflect significant increases in oil prices.

It is possible that Riyadh will choose to leave things as they are, however, as higher royalty taxes could put off potential investors in Aramco: the company is preparing to list 5 percent of its shares next year and Saudi estimates peg the value of the shares at as much as US$100 billion, with the entire company worth US$2 trillion.

External analysts, however, caution that US$1 trillion for the whole of Aramco is a much more realistic estimate. Besides, analysts note, previous IPOs of national oil companies have resulted in lower valuations than what was expected based on their reserve base.

The listing of Aramcos shares will most likely take place on the London Stock Exchange, according to source who last week spoke to Reuters. New York was also an option, but the companys advisors are worried that a law passed after the 9/11 attacks exposes Saudi nationals to prosecution in the United States.

As part of efforts to make the IPO more attractive, Riyadh earlier cut the income tax for Aramco from 85 percent to 50 percent. Aramco supplies about 70 percent of Saudi Arabias government revenue, as per 2017 estimates. Thanks to a price improvement following the December agreement of OPEC with Russia and 11 other producers to cut oil production, the budget deficit of the Kingdom will this year shrink to 9.3 percent from late years 17.2 percent of GDP, but sustainable measures are necessary to protect the budget from the effects of a repeat of the 2014 price crash.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
The University of Maiduguri will continue to do research activities for potential oil exploration in the Chad Basin despite last weeks attack by Boko Haram terrorists who kidnapped an oil research team consisting of university geologists and workers contracted by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

During a meeting with NNPC officials and officials from the oil ministry, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Maiduguri, Prof. Ibrahim Njodi, said that the university could not chicken out from its duties when the NNPC returns to explore for oil in the Chad Basin, Nigerian media report.

Last Wednesday, an NNPC official said that gunmen believed to be members of the Boko Haram terrorist group had abducted on Tuesday at least 10 people who were on an oil exploration mission in the Islamist groups stronghold state of Borno. The Nigerian oil firm had hired the team to carry out research on the oil exploration activities in the Lake Chad basin in which Nigeria resumed exploration earlier this year.

Nigerias government announced last Thursday that it was suspending crude oil exploration activities in the Chad Basin in Borno state following the kidnappings, according to Nigerias Oil Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu.

The Nigerian Army said in a press statement on Wednesday that all the NNPC staff had been rescued, but the corpses of 9 soldiers and a civilian were recovered during the rescue mission.



Related: Was Trump Right About Coal?

But on Sunday, the Army released another update in which it apologized for stating previously that all staff had been rescued. So far the search and rescue team has recovered additional bodies of 5 soldiers, 11 Civilian JTF and 5 members of the exploration team. Contrary to reports in some media, 6 members of exploration team out of 12 that went out are still missing, while one of the NNPC staff returned to base alive, the Army said.

According to hospital and military officials who spoke to Bloomberg, the ambush had killed at least 48 people, including 18 soldiers, 15 local vigilantes, five geologists from the University of Maiduguri, four drivers working for NNPC, and six other people.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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The U.S. government is discussing sanctions against Venezuelas oil industry after yesterdays Constituent Assembly election that Washingtons UN ambassador Nikki Haley called a sham. According to sources who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, punitive measures are unlikely to include a ban on Venezuelan oil exports, but could involve suspending U.S. light crude exports to the South American country.

The Trump administration already announced a fresh round of sanctions against 13 senior Venezuelan government officials last week. When the new round will be made public remains unclear. There is an option of delaying the sanctions in case the situation in Venezuela escalates further. Also, the sources said, the timing and severity of the measures will seek to avoid causing further suffering to the Venezuelan people and protecting U.S. economic interests.

If the U.S. stops importing Venezuelan oil, the Gulf Coast refineries will have a serious shortage of heavy rude on their hands and will need to find alternative sources urgently, which would sharply push up gasoline prices.

Suspending U.S. light crude exports to Venezuela is a more viable option: PDVSA imports crude from the U.S. to mix it with its heavy blends to make oil products. During the first four months of this year, PDVSA imported about 18,750 bpd of U.S. crude oil through Curacao. This is not a huge amount, but cutting it off would make life harder for the state oil company until it finds an alternative.

The Constituent Assembly vote, called by President Nicolas Maduro to amend the constitution, which many see as an attempt to cement himself in power, saw a turnout rate of 41.53 percent or 8 million votes, according to Xinhua. Besides the U.S., Venezuelas neighbors, including Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil have also called on Maduro to not go ahead with the election but rather focus on dialogue with the opposition.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Join Lydia White:

When: Wednesday, August 16, 6:00  7:30 p.m.

Where: Portland Brewing Company Taproom,

2730 Northwest 31st Avenue, Portland

Cost: Free!

Do you love freedom? Do you want to spread liberty in your community? Join the brand-new Americas Freedom Foundation Portland chapter for the launch event on Wednesday, August 16.

AFF and Cascade Policy Institute will host Portland local Jacob Grier for a special event at Portland Brewing Company. Jacob will talk about cronyism in the craft beer industry, and well tour Portland Brewing Companys taproom.

Jacob authored Cocktails on Tap, which brings together craft cocktails and craft beer with more than 50 recipes for mixed drinks that feature beer. On his blog www.jacobgrier.com, he discusses cocktails, coffee, libertarianism, economics, regulation, magic, useful internet tools, and weird sea creatures.

The first 30 Millennials to register will receive a ticket for a free flight of Portland Brewing Companys beer samples during the event! Anyone who brings 5 friends will receive a copy of Jacobs book, Cocktails on Tap.

Portland is the 27th city to launch a chapter of AFF. Join a dynamic nationwide network of liberty-minded young professionals who believe in free enterprise, limited government, and personal responsibility. Attend this exciting launch to learn more about AFF and opportunities to get involved and grow professionally, make friends and grow your network, and learn about the issues facing Oregon and the nation.

Join us to meet other liberty-loving young professionals in Portland, enjoy some food and drinks, and leave inspired to spread the values of freedom and liberty.

RSVP here

Lydia White is the leader of the newly forming Portland AFF chapter. She is also a Research Associate at Cascade Policy Institute, Oregons free market public policy research organization.
By Steve Buckstein

One of the greatest minds of our era passed away in November 2006. Today would have marked his 105th birthday. Milton Friedman won the Nobel Prize for Economics; but it was his ability to relate complex economic ideas in simple terms the average person could understand, and his devotion to liberty, that made him truly great.

Milton and his economist wife Rose spent literally decades researching, writing, speaking, and popularizing free-market economics and its connection to liberty and freedom. Rose actually grew up here in Portland, and it was my privilege to call her and Milton my friends.

Last year the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice celebrated the 10th and final Friedman Legacy Day, which began after Dr. Friedman passed away. Rather than continue those annual celebrations, the foundation, created by and named after Milton and Rose Friedman, moved forward with its new name, EdChoice, and a new strategic plan.

Please join all of us at Cascade Policy Institute as we celebrate the lives and contributions of a great couple, and renew our commitment to promote their ideas and ideals, which include the goal of every child being able to attend the public, private, religious, or home school of their choice, with funding following the student.

Steve Buckstein is Founder and Senior Policy Analyst at Cascade Policy Institute, Oregons free market public policy research organization.
Mixed reactions on Panama verdict 31 July, 2017 By Asif Haroon Raja

Related News Govt finalises draft of national security policy: Nisar Govt okays targeted action in Karachi Related Articles Horde of Enemies surrounding Pakistan

By By Asif Haroon Raja Dirty role of International NGOs in Pakistan

By By Asif Haroon Raja Related Speakout More on this View All Govt determined to transform Pakistan into truly democratic society: Rasheed

Govt finalises draft of national security policy: Nisar

Govt okays targeted action in Karachi

Karachi violence: 10 more killed

Int'l aid can help Pakistan be anchor of stability: FoDP

Pakistan's existence not jeopardised at all: FM Qureshi

Pakistani state is not going to collapse, says Zardari Related News Poll Are you in support of amending the law to raise the strength of the Supreme Court to 27 from 17? Panama case which emerged in April 2016 was fully exploited by Imran Khan (IK) led PTI. Once IK refused to accept the offer of PM Nawaz Sharif (NS) to hold a commission of retired judges to probe the case, the Parliamentary Committee couldnt make any headway since PML-N, PTI and PPP failed to frame consensus Terms of References (TORs). IK, Sheikh Rashid and Sirajul Haq submitted their petitions in the apex court to disqualify NS, since in their view he was no more Sadiq (honest) and Ameen (truthful).



The judicial process of Panama case was taken up by the Supreme Court Bench (SCB) under former chief justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and heard from October 19, 2016 till December 9, 2016. After Jamalis retirement, the case was then taken up by a 5-member SCB under Justice Asif Saeed Khosa. Other judges were Justices Ejaz Afzal, Gulzar Ahmed, Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Ijazul Ahsan. This bench held 26 hearings from January 4 to February 20, 2017, after which it reserved its judgement for next 58 days. Counsels of respondents were Makhdoom Ali, Khawaja Haris and Raja Salman respectively while that of petitioners were Hamid Khan followed by Naeem Bokhari.



The case of Mossack Fonseca offshore company in Panama of which the two sons of NS were account holders took a turn towards Mayfair flats in London to Iqama controversies. The petitioners alleged that while Maryam Nawaz was a beneficiary and not a trustee of the London flats and an account holder of offshore company, the actual owner was NS and that the amount for their purchase was money laundered from Pakistan (proceeds of Chaudhry Sugar Mills and Hudaibya Paper Mills).



The respondents tried to prove that the money trail originated from Gulf Steel Mills purchased by NS father Mian M. Sharif in 1972 and brought in Crown Prince of Qatar Hamad bin Jasim as the provider of amount for the purchase of flats who had shared business with Muhammad Sharif, father of NS. Qatari Prince refused to appear before the SCB or the JIT, asserting he was not bounded by Pakistani law. He asked the JIT to record his statement in Doha, which was not recorded.



Since both sides failed to prove the money trail and ownership of the four flats, the 5-member SCB announced its 541 pages verdict on April 20, 2017, which was a split decision. While two judges opined that NS stood disqualified on account of his conflicting statements, the other three judges pended their decisions saying that more information was required. Logically the two judges should have also pended their decision till the submission of JIT report, or should not have sat in judgement on July 28 since earlier on they had ruled without the inputs of JIT.



The 5-member SCB formed an Implementation Bench comprising three judges under Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan that had not agreed with the verdict of two judges. In addition, it formed a JIT comprising six members under an FIA officer Wajid Zia on April 25, 2017. Other members were Amer Aziz (SBP), Bilal Rasool (SECP), Brig Nauman Saeed (ISI) and Brig Kamran Khurshid (MI Dte).



The JIT was to work under the direct supervision of the new SCB. It was mandated to find out answers to 13 questions within 60 days that would help the Implementation Bench in arriving at final judgement.



During the extensive probe by the JIT, in which the PM, his three children, his son-in-law Capt Safdar, Shahbaz Sharif, Ishaq Dar, Tariq Shafi and Rahman Malik were interrogated, media trial of NS and his family intensified. PML-N leaders launched counter offensive by pointing prejudices and defects of the JIT members and a stage came when the respondents blamed the JIT for being prejudiced and predisposed.



The petitioners who initially saw the JIT disapprovingly, started eulogizing it. As a quid pro quo, PML-N leaders initiated cases of similar nature against IK and PTI leader Jahangir Tareen and adopted an aggressive posture.



When the JIT submitted its 14000 paged 10-volume report on July 10, the PML-N leaders asked the SCB to reject the report which in their view was mala fide in intent and biased. In their view, JIT had gone beyond the given mandate by opening up closed cases in its bid to trace the money trail and had made them part of the report.



The 3-member SCB reopened the proceedings on July 17 on daily basis and after hearing the arguments of both sides in the light of new aspects brought out by the JIT, it closed the case on July 20 to write down the final verdict.



During the intervening period, both sides kept the political temperature on the boil. While the delay was to the liking of the respondents, PTI in particular became impatient and reminded the SCB to hurry it up since delay was not good for the country. The petitioners maintained that the JIT had gathered sufficient incriminating material to disqualify NS and were confident that his goose is cooked.



While the PTI and Sheikh Rashid were sure that the PM will be disqualified and sent to jail, PML-N was confident that he will come out clean. As a worst case scenario, they hoped that the case will be handed over to a larger Bench or sent to Accountability Court which will help in buying time till next elections. Their optimism rested on laudable achievements made by PML-N regime in its 4-year tenure and the overall dangerous geo-political environment faced by Pakistan which demanded political stability and unity to confront external challenges. They felt that political instability was least desirable at a time when Pakistan was at an economic take-off stage.



Amidst the nerve racking mounting tension, two important developments took place on July 27. Firstly, the Interior Minister Ch Nisar Ali, nursing grievances against the senior party leadership particularly because of his tiff with Defence Minister Khawaja Asif. He lost his cool when he was ignored by the PM in the meetings of the core team and when he learnt that Khawaja Asif was tipped as an interim PM in case of disqualification of NS.



In his press conference, Nisar announced that soon after the verdict of the apex court, he will resign from his post and his MNA seat and will say goodbye to politics but will not ditch his mother



party with whom he has remained associated since 1985. His press conference was ill-timed and in bad taste since as one of the pioneers of the PML-N, and claiming to be standing with NS through thick and thin, he could have avoided adding to the woes of beleaguered PM at a time when unity within the party was crucial.



The other breaking news a little after Nisars media briefing was that the 5-member SCB, and not 3-member SCB, will announce the Panama case final verdict at 1130 hours on July 28. It gave plentiful grist to the ever hungry media to keep churning out assessments and conjectures throughout the evening and till late night.



PML-N and PTI leaders and workers as well as fraternity members and others thronged the Supreme Court premises on the D-Day and waited for the verdict with bated breath.



All five members of the SCB gave a unanimous verdict disqualifying the PM which was received with great joy by the petitioners and with sorrows by the defendants.



Invoking Article 183/4, the court declared NS disqualified to hold PM office or Member of Parliament for life under Article 62-63 of the Constitution and sent several references to the NAB to start criminal proceedings within 45 days and to complete it in six months time. Ishaq Dar whose wealth has swollen from Rs. 9 million to Rs. 837 million in 7 years from 2010 to 2017, and Safdar were also disqualified. References were sent against them as well as against Maryam, Hussain Nawaz and Hassan Nawaz.



The main reason given for this extreme step is that NS had been dishonest to the Parliament and courts in not disclosing his employment in Dubai based FZE Company owned by his son Hassan Nawaz in his 2013 nomination papers. He was disqualified for not declaring a monthly salary of 10,000 dirhams as Chairman of the Company, which he never received. No charge of corruption of even a penny was pinned on NS in his entire history of 35 years politics. The Election Commission also issued disqualification notification of NS and he has vacated the PM House.



The ones that felt jubilant on account of varying reasons were:-



a. PTI which rightly feels that it was owing to consistent efforts of IK that the legal battle has been won. Their chief foe NS has been ousted from politics for life. They are confident that sooner than later the PML-N will crack up and large numbers of its leaders will switch to PTI and thus brighten up chances of sweeping the polls in next elections. IK has announced to celebrate the victory on next Sunday at 5 pm in parade ground Islamabad. He hopes that many new birds will join his show. If the PML-N splinters, IK may demand early elections.



b. The Jamaat-e-Islami whose hands are relatively cleaner feels that the historic decision has opened the doors for across the board accountability of all corrupt and criminal elements in all political parties under Articles 62-63.



c. The PPP is happy that ouster of PM Gilani by the apex court in 2012 in which NS was one of the petitioners seeking his disqualification has been avenged. Although Bilawal has hinted at across the board accountability, inwardly each PPP member is hoping that axe of Supreme Court will next fall upon IK, Jahangir Tareen and Aleem Khan, all charged with similar cases. That will leave the political arena open for the PPP to re-emerge as the leading national party. Sindh based PPP legislators have protected themselves from accountability by abolishing NAB laws and introducing own accountability bill.



d. The Choudhry Brothers led PML-Q, formed from within PML-N in 2002 is mighty pleased seeing its chief foe downed and is hopeful that defectors from PML-N will join it.



e. The MQM is also thrilled since it holds NS wholly responsible for disintegrating its militant wing in Sindh, in discrediting and isolating Altaf, and in fracturing the party into three factions.



f. Spirits of Gen Musharraf in exile have revived and he is looking forward to return home and possibly be among the contestants in next elections.



g. The Baloch separatists and their foreign based leaders are jubilant that NS has been punished for going out of the way to break the back of separatist movement in Baluchistan.



h. Hopes of the TTP and 60 other affiliated militant groups aspiring to make FATA and KP an Islamic Emirate must have revived after seeing their tormentor pushed into the dustbin of history.



i. Religious forces, particularly the Barelvis and Qadris say that God has NS punished for his crime of sentencing Mumtaz Qadri to death.



j. Anti-NS media is over the moon for playing a key role in painting NS as a Corruption Monster.



k. Foreign powers that had made comprehensive plans to derail and fragment Pakistan through covert war and hybrid war must be delighted to see the disgraceful ouster of NS who had dared to make Pakistan nuclear, had initiated CPEC, was tilting towards Russia, had refused to hand over Kulbushan and to stop espousing the cause of Kashmiris. For them, the coming political anarchy leading to deadlock and paralysis will make their task of triggering civil war easier.



l. Saudi Arabia and particularly UAE and Dubai are glad that NS has been taught a lesson of life for refusing to dispatch Pak troops to take part in the Yemen war last year merely to please Iran.



m. Iran must be drawing satisfaction in NS ouster for he had sent retired Gen Raheel Sharif to Riyadh to head the 41-Member Sunni Muslim Alliance and had refused to call him back despite strong reservations expressed by Tehran and its lobby in Pakistan.



n. Afghanistan having a long list of complaints against Pakistan and holding it responsible for its instability must also be pleased to see Pakistan in political turmoil.



PML-N, JUI-F, NP and fans of NS were dejected and heart-broken. In their view, the defendants were awarded extreme punishment. They feel that something terribly has gone



wrong and smell conspiracy behind this exceptionally harsh decision taken in indecent haste which may roll back whatever progress made by Pakistan. In their view, the judgement was in no way historic but was questionable. They say that Supreme Court will be ultimately judged by history most harshly for disqualifying a democratically elected popular leader who had inherited enormous problems of compound nature but had delivered. They question as to how come a salary which was never received by NS was made into his asset. Asma Jahangir censured the decision and stated that 4 out of 5 judges were PCO judges.



The government has grudgingly accepted the decision of the court keeping into consideration the overall perilous geo-political situation but has not agreed with the decision. The accused have the right to appeal to the Supreme Court to reconsider the SCB decision.



While NS and Maryam (possible successor) have apparently become history in the politics of Pakistani politics, the PML-N as a national party is still vibrant and till now the strongest party with all the potential to win the next elections.



PML-N voters have not reconciled with the courts decision since they are in love with NS and are in ugly mood. They are likely to vote for the party with greater fervor in next elections.



NS has suggested the name of Shahbaz Sharif as next PM and reportedly it has been approved by the party. Shahbaz will first have to go through the ritual of winning a national assembly seat in a bye-election in next 45 days. For the interim PM for 45 days or so, another senior leader will be nominated. Hamza Sharif has been tipped as next CM Punjab. It implies that leadership will remain in the hands of Sharifs family.



Well-wishers of the ruling party are of the view that it will be better for the party to keep the vital fort of Punjab in the strong hands of Shahbaz and appoint someone else as next PM. Had Maryam not been indicted, she was probably the first choice of NS as his replacement. But for Nisars grouses, Khawaja Asif was the next choice of NS. The party has however resolved to keep the unity of the party intact at all cost.



As feared, a political vacuum has occurred since the country is without an executive head, advisers and Special Assistants, while the cabinet is rudderless. Until and unless this vacuum is quickly filled up to allow the wheels of the government machinery to roll forward, anything can happen. An outsider has just to light a match stick to explode the powder keg.



If todays judgement sets into motion the process of accountability of all, vertically and horizontally, it will be remembered in history as a historic decision. If the buck stops at NS and his family, it will be termed as selective and NS Specific under a preplanned plot. It will jeopardize the credibility of the apex court, which otherwise has a dubious past of legalizing Ghulam Muhammads act in 1954, validating all military takeovers and subversion of the constitution. There will then be a call for accountability of holy cows since there is no in-house system of accountability.



Only the deaf and dumb can ignore the spectacular achievements made by Pakistan in 4 years. Those who are convinced that once IK seizes power, terrorists of all hues acting as proxies of foreign agencies will lay down their arms and bid farewell to terrorism, MQM will become law abiding, Baloch separatists will stop espousing the dream of making Baluchistan independent, 5th columnists and snakes in the grass will become patriotic, relationship among all political parties will become harmonious, religious extremism will get diluted, sectarian and ethnic tensions would evaporate, investors will rush to Pakistan for investment, circular debt and foreign debts would be paid back in a jiffy, big crocodiles will be netted and cancer of corruption will go away without passage of effective accountability bill, $200 billion stashed in Swiss banks will flow back into national kitty, deep rooted flaws in education system will be cured without meaningful educational reforms, the elections will be fair and free without carrying out electoral reforms, cheap and equitable justice will be delivered without judicial reforms, bureaucracy will change its bossy attitude and corrupt practices without bureaucratic reforms, police will start delivering without radical reforms, moral turpitude and human values of the society will improve without moral reformation, its like living in a fools paradise.



If they think that India and Afghanistan will become friendly, the US will discard its agenda of denuclearizing Pakistan, Iran will change its attitude, I reckon it will be akin to chasing rainbows. All this is humanly possible if IK has the Aladdin lamp and not otherwise. What if he also gets disqualified by the apex court, or PTI loses the electoral race again? What if a tyrant takes over and under the garb of accountability starts a merciless witch hunt as in Bangladesh, or turns Pakistan into Syria and Libya? Let us pray for the safety and wellbeing of Pakistan.



The writer is a retired Brig, war veteran, defence analyst, columnist, author of five books, Vice Chairman Thinkers Forum Pakistan, Director Measac Research Centre. Takes part in TV talk shows, seminars and delivers talks. asifharoonraja@gmail.com
PTI celebrated thanksgiving day

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf's (PTI) thanksgiving day celebrations were held on Sunday at Islamabad's Parade Ground, attended by a jubilant Imran Khan and the party's senior leadership.



The PTI chairman had announced to observe a "thanksgiving day to celebrate Pakistan's victory against corruption" after the Supreme Court (SC) disqualified Nawaz Sharif on Friday.



Speaking to the thousands of supporters gathered at the rally, Khan thanked his party workers, especially the women. "I am glad that women are playing an active role in making a new Pakistan," he said, remembering his late mother and crediting her for teaching him to "stand firm for the truth and justice".



We knocked on judiciarys doors instead of taking to the roads because the SC judges asked us to come to the court, said Khan. We are thankful to the judiciary because with the judgment, they brought us a new hope.



Paying tribute to the five judges of the apex court and the joint investigation team (JIT), he said, "I salute the JIT members; I know how much pressure you have handled."



Asking the crowd to imagine a "naya Pakistan," Khan promised that under PTIs leadership, the National Accountability Bureau would not wait for the governments orders to take action against criminals. I will make an autonomous Federal Board of Revenue and empower all institutions.



Promising to implement merit-based employment on all levels, he said there would be "meritocracy" in naya Pakistan. He also discussed the case against him in the court, saying, I will resign from the party if a single sentence of my statement before the judiciary is proven false.



Lashing out at Nawaz Sharif for his alleged money laundering, Khan warned Pakistan Peoples Partys Asif Ali Zardari, Shahbaz Sharif who is set to be the next prime minister, and Nawaz Sharif's ally Maulana Fazlur Rehman that it was their turn next [for accountability].



It was hurtful when they [PML-N] levelled allegations against the Shaukat Khanam hospital, added Khan. Why didnt they take action if they had spotted discrepancies in the affairs of the hospital?



Criticising nepotism within the PML-N, Khan alleged that Shahbaz Sharif had been selected to replace Nawaz Sharif as the prime minister because "the party was being run like a kingdom". He said that Dr Yasmin Rashid would defeat Shahbaz Sharif in the upcoming elections.



PTI leaders, including Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Jahangir Tareen, and Asad Umar, along with Awami Muslim League's chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, also addressed the huge crowd.



Finally, Nawaz Sharif has been disqualified after the four-year long movement of PTI, said PTI General Secretary Jahangir Tareen.



"Now, Nawaz Sharif has put forward Shahbaz Sharif for the premiership. The younger brother will also be held accountable for the model town tragedy," said Tareen. "Nawaz Sharif will have to go to jail."



Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak in his address congratulated the apex court, the JIT, and the nation.



He said that the credit for the ouster of Nawaz Sharif goes to Imran Khan. "Khan often surprised us with his tremendous achievements," he said, adding that Imran Khan has become a nightmare for corrupt rulers.



"If you want to make a new Pakistan, then you will have to bring the Panama issue to its logical conclusion," he said.



Addressing the people of Punjab, he asked them to gear up to bring Shahbaz down. "The PML-N leaders faced a defeat in the court of law and now they will also face a humiliating defeat in the people's court," he remarked.



While addressing the gathering, Asad Umar said that the struggle which started against four flats ended on four iqamas, adding that it was as easy as making a hotel reservation and booking a plane ticket to get a UAE visa.



He blamed Nawaz Sharif for amassing the burden of loans on the people of Pakistan. "The debt is a national security risk for the country," he said. "During Nawaz Sharif's four years in government, the income of Pakistan has reduced and losses have increased."



This is not the first time PTI is celebrating a 'thanksgiving day'. On November 1, when the SC ordered PML-N and PTI to present their Terms of Reference for the Panama case hearing, the latter announced it will celebrate a thanksgiving day instead of holding a protest that called for a lockdown of the capital. PTI had chosen Parade Ground as its venue for the celebration held on November 2.
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Hundreds of followers of the late spiritual leader Pramukh Swami Maharaj gathered Sunday at Credit Island, Davenport, in memory of the Hindu spiritual leader who died about a year ago.

Flowers, which have been sanctified and were part of the leaders memorial service in August 2016, were thrown into the Mississippi River.

Similar tributes are being held throughout the world, according to Anand Soni, of Hoffman Estates, Illinois, who came for the ceremony. Before hundreds of participants walked the length of the island in a procession to end the observance at Credit Island Bridge, families enjoyed a picnic, Soni said.

Curious passersby stopped some participants to ask questions, while others stopped to watch. The procession was accompanied and guided by security guards.

Most of the group of Hindus attending the tribute are affiliated with the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS,) an international socio-spiritual Hindu organization in Chicago, he said. All the observances generally were held at a large body of water (one, for example, was held last week at Niagara Falls.)

Participants threw grain, rice and sanctified flowers that had been part of the 2016 memorial service for their guru, casting the items from a bowl into the river.

Binal Amin, from West Chicago, called Pramukh Swami Maharaj a great leader and a wonderful man. He died Aug. 13, 2016.
Charlie Gard's parents were working on the last major decision they will make for him: how he will die. Chris Gard and Connie Yates had given up their fight to secure an effective therapy for their severely brain-damaged 11-month-old baby. They've just agreed to have him spend his last days at a hospice.

Most parents in this situation would suffer unrelenting anguish. But the glare of publicity beating down this case has magnified the trauma. Charlie has been turned into an international cause verging on circus.

The staff at Great Ormond Street Hospital, which held that it could not help Charlie, is now receiving death threats. These are people who struggle day in and day out with the stresses of caring for sick and dying children.

Charlie's parents condemned the attacks, noting, "We too get abuse and have to endure nasty and hurtful remarks on a daily basis." The former antagonists now find themselves victims of warped minds.

Charlie has a rare genetic disorder called encephalomyopathic mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome. He cannot open his eyes or move his arms or legs. He can't breathe without a ventilator. His heart, liver and kidneys are damaged.

Child deaths used to be common. In early-19th-century London, 57 percent of children in working-class families died by the age of 5. Even royal families were not spared. An elaborate set of mourning rituals had been invented to ease families through their grief.

Medical advances have made child deaths far rarer. That's a wonderful development, of course, but it leaves parents whose children can't be saved feeling lonelier. And the seemingly daily parade of medical miracles makes them desperate to believe that somewhere, there's one for them.

Charlie's doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital had decided that nothing could be done for him. The parents, however, wanted Charlie to undergo an experimental treatment called nucleoside therapy in the United States. They asked London's High Court to approve that treatment.

But the judges held that it would be in Charlie's best interests to die with dignity. They said that the doctors could withdraw life-support.

Charlie's parents challenged the decision, but the Court of Appeal upheld it. The same happened at the Supreme Court. The parents then went to the European Court of Human Rights, which refused to get involved.

In early photos, Charlie gives all the appearance of being an adorable healthy boy. The millions who saw those images  and perhaps Charlie's parents, as well  did not appreciate the extent of Charlie's illness.

The pope offered to help, and so did President Trump in a tweet. They should have stayed out of this. The president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health called these very public interventions "unhelpful."

In a last-ditch effort, Charlie's parents went back to the High Court to argue for the new therapy. The judge said he would consider any evidence that it would work for Charlie. A few days later, an American specialist traveled to London to see whether Charlie would be a candidate for the therapy. An MRI scan revealed that he would not be.

The hospital now believes that Charlie would obtain better care in a hospice than at his home. For one thing, the ventilation equipment could not fit through the house's front door. That, too, became a point of contention ending in a courtroom.

A last point of contention was where Charlie would stay until he dies. The parents wanted him home. The hospital thought he'd get better care in a hospice. That, too, ended up in court. The parents came around to the hospital's view.

The parents, the world, are now on a death watch. As for Charlie, doctors don't know whether he is feeling pain. To the extent that he is aware of anything, Charlie should know this: He is loved.
During the lead-up to the recent special legislative session over the state budget and a tax hike, Gov. Bruce Rauners staff studied whether their boss had the power to force legislators to attend the sessions.

A court ruled during the Rod Blagojevich era that the General Assembly must convene at the date and time ordered by the governor, but Rauner's staff found nothing in state statutes that gives the governor the power to, for instance, deploy the Illinois State Police to haul legislators to Springfield. You may recall 2011, when several Wisconsin and Indiana Democratic legislators attempted to deny their General Assemblies a quorum by fleeing to Illinois, outside the jurisdiction of their respective state police forces. But, as we've seen time and time again, for better or for worse, we aren't Wisconsin or Indiana.

The battle plan to kill the Democrats education funding reform bill (Senate Bill 1) that was plotted before Gov. Rauner's infamous staff purge in early July, and which still appears to be mostly operative, actually anticipated low special session turnout since there likely wouldn't be much of anything to vote on. They figured that the Democrats would wait a while before lifting the parliamentary brick off the education funding reform bill - the better to foment a crisis atmosphere as the clock ticks down to schools reopening after summer break.

So, legislators not showing up for session will likely only amplify the governor's contention that the majority party isn't interested in preventing a crisis and funding schools. The cops arent needed.

Overall, the plan devised a while back is pretty good, even though it relies heavily on stoking the flames of regionalism with an unspoken but still clear racial element. Rauners "Chicago bailout" card is about the easiest one to throw in this state, and it has been played longer than anyone reading this has been alive.

Despite the fact that Downstate pays far less in state taxes than it receives in state benefits, people who live there think Chicago is the place that gets all the taxpayer goodies. It's actually suburbanites who pay the bills on net, and with their high local property taxes and a recent income tax hike, those folks are probably (and understandably) not thrilled with the idea of bailing out the city's notorious school system.

The bill's supporters have lined up an impressive list of Downstate and suburban school superintendents in strong support of SB 1. Education groups like Stand for Children (which was, ironically enough, brought to Illinois by then-private citizen Bruce Rauner) have been advertising locally to back the plan.

But school superintendents are often resented by local taxpayers for their high salaries. And at least one has already been singled out by conservative political activist Dan Proft's newspaper empire. Proft's outfit published a snarky article last week about Harrisburg Superintendent Mike Gauch, a prominent SB 1 supporter who is often cited by proponents. The piece noted that Gauch and his wife, a Carbondale public school teacher, make a combined $220,000 per year, plus benefits.

"The Gauches represent a new reality in Southern Illinois," the article claimed, "a public employee power couple whose income ranks them among the wealthiest families in Saline County.

Aside from the class warfare angle, the superintendents don't have a vote in the General Assembly. So, while they can credibly claim all they want that SB 1 isn't a Chicago bailout, the governor simply counters with his own numbers (which he won't verify) that Downstate and suburban schools would do much better with his plan (which he refused to disclose for weeks).

The idea of using the superintendents was not just to encourage Republican legislators to support SB 1, but to give them ample political cover if they decided to cross the governor and override his veto. But since the governor has concocted his own proposal with his own numbers (which show that schools outside the city will get lots more money than they would under SB 1), that encouragement now means little and the cover is blown.

Downstate and suburban Democrats who vote to override his veto are also put in a bind because the governor can claim that those Democrats voted against their districts and for Chicago.

Preventing a veto override is the governor's main effort here, but passing a bill into law that reforms school funding is a whole different matter. Without such a law on the books, billions of dollars of state education formula money can't be distributed. And as I write this, that solution doesn't seem to be on anyone's horizon.
Just how many bikers might be coming to the 77th Sturgis motorcycle rally?

That's anybody's guess, but the answer will start rumbling en masse into the Black Hills in just a few days.

Nobody expects this years rally throng to come anywhere close to that of the milestone 75th rally in 2015, when an estimated 739,000 visitors jammed Sturgis and the Black Hills region.

Instead, estimates vary from numbers comparable to last years 76th rally estimate of 463,000, to approaching the average attendance of 500,000 to 600,000.

Tom Horan, Rapid City region operations engineer with the South Dakota Department of Transportation, said estimates based on informal surveys of businesses who take reservations from rally visitors indicated a smaller rally this year.

The lowest numbers Ive heard is that it will be even less than last year, Horan said. The highest numbers Ive heard is that it will be less than an average year.

He added: We are not expecting a large crowd this year.

But Ross Lamphere, a native of Sturgis and owner of Lamphere Campground on the outskirts of Sturgis, said his year-over-year numbers show reservations for the 77th rally are up about 4 to 5 percent over the 76th.

"We're looking for a good year," he said.

Meanwhile, South Dakota Highway Patrol Capt. Jason Ketterling said the patrol is gearing up with the expectation of rallygoers turning the Black Hills into the equivalent of a major metropolitan area for nearly two weeks, just as they do every year.

We really dont compare numbers, but we would expect it to be at least as big as last year, Ketterling said.

And as far as Sturgis Police Chief Geody VanDewater is concerned, numbers dont really matter.

With Sturgis having about 7,000 people, when you add 100,000 people or 700,000, were stretched to the seams, VanDewater said.

No matter what, its going to be a big rally, he said.

Readying the roads

However many bikers will converge on western South Dakota, eastern Wyoming and northwest Nebraska for the 10-day extended rally period that kicks off Friday, residents and visitors alike need to be ready for traffic congestion and aware of an enhanced danger for wildfires due to lingering drought conditions.

Many highway construction projects in the region have reached a completion point or will be put on hiatus during the rally.

The first phase of rebuilding of the westbound lane of Interstate 90 between Exit 44 and halfway between Little Elk Creek and Elk Creek is nearly complete, with traffic on both directions of the interstate expected to resume no later than Tuesday, Horan said.

The second phase of rebuilding of the westbound lanes at the Tilford Exit 40 will begin once the rally is over, Horan said.

Near Spearfish, the continuing redesign and construction of the interchange at I-90, Exit 14, will see traffic restricted to single lanes on the overpass, with both lanes of the interstate open.

Horan said the interchange will be monitored to ensure traffic continues to move smoothly.

If things get backed up too much well have flaggers to make sure were not backing up traffic to the interstate, Horan said.

A shoulder-widening project on state Highway 34 east of Sturgis will see the temporary placement of gravel shoulders on both sides of the roadway throughout the rally.

Other projects, including the reconstruction of the Silver Street interchange on I-190 at Exit 57 and the rebuilding of Mount Rushmore Road in Rapid City, will continue during the rally, with traffic restrictions expected.

Temporary traffic signals will again control traffic flow at key intersections in and around Sturgis and throughout the Black Hills.

Temporary signals will be in place at Three Forks, the intersection of U.S. 385 and Rimrock Highway west of Rapid City; at the intersection of highways U.S. 14A and U.S. 85 in Deadwood; at the eastbound off-ramp on I-90 Exit 55; and in several locations along Highway 34 east of Sturgis.

Interstate 90 speed limits will be lowered from 75 mph to 65 mph from Exit 55 through Exit 30 on the west side of Sturgis.

The speed limit on Highway 34 from Sturgis east to Fort Meade Way at the Buffalo Chip Campground will drop to 35 mph, with temporary signals also regulating traffic flow.

North of Highway 34 on Highway 79, the speed limit drops to 45 mph for about 1-1/2 miles north of the intersection.

Our plan is much the same as it has been in the past, Horan said.

The DOT will use an automated Stop Traffic Advisory System, which automatically senses a slowdown in traffic, on U.S. Highway 16A going into Keystone.

Traffic slowdowns will automatically trigger electronic signboards to warn motorists of congested traffic ahead.

Its great technology, Horan said. We dont have to wait for a report or witness it. Itll just change automatically.

Law enforcement gets ready

Ketterling said planning for law enforcement during the rally typically begins months before the event.

Local, county and state law enforcement staffs will be augmented with undisclosed numbers of officers brought in to help during the rally.

Obviously were increasing our staffing, as we do every rally, he said

Last year, the Highway Patrol issued more than 1,400 citations, an increase over the 75th rally in 2015. Officials attributed the lower number of citations during the record-setting 75th to near-gridlock conditions that forced slower driving speeds.

Felony drug arrests (50) and DUIs (187) were down in 2016 compared to 2015. Traffic deaths were down significantly from the 15 in 2015, to just three last year.

Injury accidents dropped from 124 in 2015 to 50 last year, and non-injury accidents dropped from 58 in 2015 to 44 last year.

Ketterling said troopers will continue to encourage motorists to adhere to speed limits and to not drink and drive.

Ketterling said bikers should especially be aware of the higher possibility of collisions with deer, particularly at dusk, and of the hazards of too much speed on winding roads in and around the Black Hills.

The Black Hills are popular for deer and theres a lot of them that cross the roadway at night, he said.

VanDewater subscribes to the hope for the best, prepare for the worst readiness strategy.

Were hoping for a quiet rally, but unfortunately we prepare for mass craziness. We want to be proactive, not reactive when it comes to the rally, said VanDewater.

Fire risk remains high

Walter Haley has been a volunteer firefighter in eastern Meade County for more years than he cares to admit, but along with that longevity comes a keen sense of impending danger concerning wildfire during this years rally.

You get one little grass fire in the ditch and were off to the races, Haley said.

Many Sturgis rallygoers coming from the east on I-90 often use New Underwood Road to head north into Meade County to skirt rally traffic through Sturgis on their way to the Buffalo Chip campground. When they choose that route, they travel through ranch country, where conditions are very dry and response times can be long.

Haley said rallygoers need to understand that land adjacent both New Underwood Road and Highway 34 to the north is dangerously dry.

The weekly U.S. Drought Monitor issued Thursday showed recent rainfall did little to improve drought conditions. Northern Meade County has now been added to the extreme drought areas in the state.

Were now in the D3 area and it gets worse as you go north. North Dakota is pretty much toast at this point, he said.

Sturgis Volunteer Fire Department chief Tom Trigg said the scenario for fire at this years rally is very scary.

Sturgis is considered to be in the moderate to severe drought area. But Triggs worry also comes in that federal resources he normally can call upon to assist should a big fire break out are up in Montana fighting the Lodgepole Complex fire that has consumed nearly 300,000 acres.

Meade County has enacted a burn ban and most campgrounds dont allow campfires, but Trigg worries that an unauthorized campfire could spark a wildfire.

I just ask people to use extreme caution and be aware of how dry it is around here, he said.

Dry lightning from passing thunderstorms also is a big concern for Trigg.

On a windy day we would have a tough time stopping those fires, he said.

Sturgis Regional Hospitals $10 million remodel and addition isnt expected to be completed until the fall of 2018.

But workers on the project have focused their efforts on a small section of the new facility which Sturgis Regional officials say will open Wednesday, just in time for the 77th rally.

Mark Schulte, president at Sturgis Regional Hospital and Sturgis Market, says they will open the Junction Avenue entrance for both walk-in patients and for ambulances Wednesday morning.

We will have it open for 10 days during the rally and then turn it back to the contractors, Schulte said of the new entrance.

After the rally, the hospital will go back to its alternate entrance on the north end of the building.

Schulte said the staff at Sturgis Regional is well prepared for this years rally and looks forward to using the new entrances.

Although we are only getting a small piece of our new facility, it will be great to have it for the rally, he said.

Massa Berry Regional Medical Clinic and Urgent Care Services will be closed during the Sturgis motorcycle rally, beginning at noon on Friday, Aug. 4, through Sunday, Aug. 13.

We encourage patients to take care of any non-emergency medical needs prior to the rally, said Kim Jackson, clinic administrator.

Regional Health Urgent Care services in Spearfish and two clinic locations in Rapid City will continue to be open daily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. during the rally; in Lead-Deadwood, urgent care service hours are available 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday.
Donald Joseph Gregorich, (deceased): Unknown Heirs; Devisees; Legatees; Administrators; Executors; Creditors of Type Name; and Other Unknown Persons Who Might Have a Right of Redemption from the Mortgage; Any Person in Possession; )

You are hereby summoned and required to serve upon Plaintiffs attorney, Mackoff Kellogg Law Firm, 38 2nd Ave E, Dickinson, ND 58601, an answer to the complaint which is herewith served upon you within 30 days after service of this summons upon you, exclusive of the day of service. If you fail to do so, judgment by default will be taken against you for the relief demanded in the complaint.
U.S. House candidate Dusty Johnson made a visit to West River South Dakota last week to meet with potential voters and also spend time at a Republican youth summer camp he helps organize in the Black Hills.

Johnson is seeking the Republican nomination for South Dakota's lone seat in the House of Representatives; he and others in the 2018 race are vying to replace U.S. Rep. Kristi Noem, who is running for governor of South Dakota.

Before his travels to Belle Fourche and Hot Springs last week, and before he whacked a rattlesnake to death at the youth camp, he stopped into the Rapid City Journal offices to meet with the newspaper's editorial board.

Afterward, Johnson, 40, was asked to sit down for a recorded interview. His answers, published here, form the latest installment of the Journal's ongoing Newsmaker 5Q segment, with a sixth bonus question thrown in.

Q: What are you hearing most from potential voters on the trail?

A: Oh, I guess probably two issues. I mean, people really are talking about the drought. Almost every conversation addresses that. Now, I would say they understand that it's pretty limited what the federal government can do for that. I mean, President Trump can't make it rain, and I think our delegation has done a pretty good job of  a very good job  of turning the levers in the relatively modest ways in which our government can help. But ranchers and row-crop folks don't, they don't need a lot. They understand that government's not going to make them whole, that these sort of weather tragedies are going to extract a toll from them. And so they're not coming to me saying, "I need a bailout," but they really do appreciate the fact that CRPs have been opened up and that there's a forager's program. It is evident that our delegation cares and I think that matters to people.

Now, the issue that people are bringing up that our government does have a lot more impact on is the general dysfunction. I mean, I'm an optimist, so while I acknowledge that D.C. can work a lot better, I do understand ... we can't give up, right? We gotta be willing to run in and we gotta be willing to be part of the solution, and I think health care's a pretty good example. Things are really, really messy, but the Republicans keep moving the issue along and maybe that means that at the end of the day we'll have a policy that we can get behind.

Q: So, where do you see this race going and what kind of campaign do you want to run?

A: Oh, competition's good, right. Choices are good for voters. I was a high school track athlete. I wasn't particularly good, and I really like running, but I liked the competition. And knowing that Matt Althoff, a great quarter-miler was going to be kicking my butt at track meets meant that I was gonna work that much harder to really get out and push myself a little bit. So I love a competition, and again, I think it's good for voters. A worse thing for a voter is walking into the ballot booth and not having a choice, not being able to have their say. The bosses should be in control of our government and voting's a pretty powerful way to exercise that authority. We're gonna run hard. I mean, I have a day job that does not allow me to campaign full-time. I work in the private sector, I work hard. I got a business unit that I run. Things are going really well there. But you do have to be willing to interview with the bosses. You are not gonna be able to interview for a job over TV commercials.

And everybody always wants to focus, focus on fundraising, and fundraising's going really well for us. We're ahead in the money game, but I am not gonna win this race on television. I'm not gonna win it even in newspaper ads, as horrifying as that might be for you to hear. This race is going to be won in the trenches, talking to real people, and having them put a finger in my chest when I've earned it and having them give me an atta-boy when I've earned it.

Q: In your initial visit to Rapid as a candidate, you talked about doing away with the cynicism in elections and government. Can that approach really work?

A: It does seem like in the last few years, voters have been interested, nationally, in people who are angry. Candidates who are angry, and who yell and who call names. And that's not who I am. I mean, I am a fighter and I know that South Dakota's gotta have a great representative. I know that we need our values in Washington D.C. I will do a great job of that, but I am not going to hurl insults at people in the media or people on my side of the aisle or people on the other side of the aisle. I really do believe that constructive governance is about building bridges. Politics is about addition and multiplication. It is not about subtraction and division. And I think that that over the long haul is going to make me a lot more effective.

Q: What's your position on health care reform?

A: Yeah, I think there is too much federal government intervention in health care and I would like to see a lot more flexibility given to the states so they can design a system that works for them. I think that's a way to get more of the citizens engaged. If the people of Tennessee can be, or the people of Ohio or the people of South Dakota can be a part of designing a system that works for them, then I think that's a good thing. And Tennessee will design a little different system than South Dakota. But we will learn from both of those different approaches.

Now, that is what the founders envisioned. I mean, they like the idea of these states being laboratories of democracy. Where different values from across the country would be able to be put into place and policies that were a little different. And if we really are a country as polarized as we think we are, if California really has nothing in common with South Dakota, why would we try to force a one-size-fits-all answer from the federal government? To the extent that either South Dakota or California would be living under a system that is not in alignment with their values. So, I'm not a big fan of the Republican plan. I'm certainly not a big fan of Obamacare. I'd like to have a plan that does even more to empower states, explore the space and try to find solutions.

Q: What's your take on our president? I mean, how do you feel about the way he behaves, and where he's taking the country?

A: Yeah, I still have some optimism that the president is gonna be able to get some big things done. He's not beholden to traditional political interests, which may allow us to get some things done that we couldn't get done with any other president.

I can't defend his personal behavior. There are times when I think he is too easily distracted, there are times when I think he is too thin-skinned. There are times when he is meaner than he needs to be. But, he's our president, and if we are going to get big things done in this country, it's going to have to be with him and it's probably going to be because of his leadership. And so I'm optimistic that he could still be a part of the solution.

Q: Here's a chance to make your election pitch to voters. What do you want to say to the people of South Dakota?

A: Yeah, there might be a thousand people across this country running for the House of Representatives this year, I don't really know. But I don't think most of them have an opportunity to be relevant. Most members of the House, it is explained to me, sort of go in and hit the green button when they're told to hit the green button and hit the red button when they're told to hit the red button. And I'm not gonna be anybody's foot soldier in Washington D.C.

I think I've got the know-how and the work ethic to be someone who can be a part of the conversation. Who can fight for South Dakota values. We will have someone from California who will articulate the liberal view. We don't need somebody from South Dakota to articulate that view. California will bring that to the table. And I like the fact that we've got a diversity of opinions in D.C., but what South Dakota needs is someone who is articulate, hardworking, has know-how and shares our values so that that South Dakota vision can be at the table, and so that we can send more power back to families and to business and communities and states. Because I think that's where the real value comes from.
TABOR | If you travel about three miles northeast of Tabor, there is a hillside that is home to the Pechous Dairy. It might not look different from the average dairy operation on the outside, but inside it's a different story.

Housed inside the walls of the Pechous Dairy's newly built free-stall barn is a high-tech system of four robots working 24/7 to milk 230 cows an average of 2.8 times per day. The new barn and advanced machinery are investments in the family's legacy as dairy farmers for future generations. Tabor is in Bon Homme County, northwest of Yankton.

Having grown up and lived on dairy farms only two miles apart, Bob and Nancy Pechous took over Bob's parents' operation in 1980 before getting married in 1981. The couple started with 30 cows in a stanchion barn and had to physically haul their own buckets of milk to the cooler. In 1986, the couple expanded their operation and built a 12-station milking parlor with a pipeline for hauling milk. The upgrade allowed them to gradually begin increasing their herd size to around 125 cows.

"The addition of the milking parlor was great because everything became centralized," Nancy Pechous told the Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan. "We could have six cows on each side. Once we finished milking on one side, we could switch to the other side and rotate in six new cows."

The Pechous Dairy operated out of its 12-station milking parlor for the next 30 years with help from two hired hands and family support before changing to their current operation.

Out of their three children, only the Pechous' youngest son, Kyle, decided to join the dairy as a partner. Their oldest son, Justin, operates Pechous Repair in Tabor and their daughter, Jennifer, teaches in Brandon.

"Kyle was adjoined at the hip with Bob since he could walk," Nancy said. "We knew he was going to be our farmer. He was always helping out at the dairy as soon as he was old enough."

Kyle obtained a degree in diesel mechanics from Northeast Community College before returning home as a full-time partner in 2005. It was his idea to upgrade to the new robotic milking system in 2016.

"We got to the point where the old barn was falling apart," Nancy said. "We either needed to repair it or start new. Bob and I were actually thinking about getting out of the dairy business at the time, but Kyle came up with the idea to implement the new robotic system. We decided that we were all in this together and went full speed ahead."

Construction on the new barn and the installation of the robotic milking system began in January 2016 and finished late last September.

"We are now nine months into the new system," Nancy said. "For the first three months, we practically lived up in the barn after it was built. That's how long it took before the cows adjusted to the new system."

Built with the potential for expansion in mind, the new barn is divided into two main sections capable of housing 120 cows on each side. Both sections are outfitted with access to a feeding trough, back scratchers and bedded stalls. The barn is also outfitted with fans that create a constant five-mile-per-hour breeze that keeps the cows comfortable and the bugs out. Adding to the overall automation of the Pechous Dairy, manure is also automatically scrapped from the floors by a robotic system and pressed into dry bedding to be put on top of the rubber mats that cover the stall floors.

"We built this for future generations," Bob Pechous said. "We want to keep this dairy going and pass it down to our grandchildren."

Installed in each section are two fully-automatic milking machines, each with the capability of milking 60 cows. All the cows at the dairy have been trained to come to one of the four milking machines through the use of special protein pellets that are delivered by the robots. When a cow walks into the stall next to a machine, it reads the chip inside of a collar placed around the cow's neck. The cow is then weighed and fed according to how much milk it produces.

While the cow is feeding, the machine washes each teat and hooks up to them automatically, guided by lasers. The system records how much time each cow has been attached to the machine; it even measures down to the exact time that each teat is attached and how much milk each one produced. All the milk is then automatically transported from the machine to the cooler where it waits to be hauled out by truck every other day.

If something were to go wrong with the machine, like a computer glitch or a milking cup getting knocked out of position, the system automatically calls for assistance until someone responds. As an added safety net in case of power outages, the whole dairy is also backed up by a diesel generator to ensure that the system never goes offline and the cows are always milked.

The automated system also offers total monitoring of the herd from an office computer. It notifies the dairy of which cows are in need of artificial insemination and which cows need to be dried up. It also records the weight and body temperature of each animal, as well as notifies the dairy of abnormal milk, mastitis and other potential illnesses.

"The new system allows us to get to the cows before they get sick," Nancy said. "It helps us to head off a lot of things before they become a real problem."

Under the new milking robotic milking system, the Pechous Dairy has seen an increase of approximately 10 pounds of milk per cow. The daily average at the dairy is currently about 80 pounds of milk per cow. Overall, the dairy produces approximately 20,000 pounds of milk per day.

"My goal per cow was 86 pounds per day," Bob said. "We are not far from that right now. We actually have 33 cows producing over 100 pounds of milk per day, and our top producer is at about 145 pounds per day."

Currently, two-thirds of the Pechous Dairy's herd is first-time heifers who don't produce as much milk until their second lactation.

"Next lactation, we are going to probably get another 10 pounds of milk per cow from the majority of our herd," Nancy said. "After our first-time heifers have their second calf, they will produce more milk."

Already the largest of three dairies in Yankton County, the Pechous family said it wants to continue to lead local dairy production well into the future with the technological investments they have made at their facility.

"We want to help educate people on where their dairy products come from," Bob said. "A lot of people might not know what goes into the process of getting their milk from the cow to the table."
Andrew Huot vividly remembers the first time he sat at a piano.

It was just after Christmas 2009, and Huot was only 8. The digital synthesizer had 63 keys, and a definite electronic twang.

The sound was pretty bad, recalled Huot, now 16.

But the magic was there.

The next year, following a move to Colorado and much begging on Huots part, his mother agreed to pay for piano lessons.

Like most youngsters, Huots interest waned when piano practice went from fun to work.

Unlike many others, however, Huot persevered.

Now, after just eight years of instruction, Rapid City resident and patrons of the arts Deanna Lien, calls Huot a piano prodigy  an emerging artist with the potential for a big musical future.

Huot is exactly the kind of child Lien had in mind when she created and funded the Emerging Artist Program with the Dahl Arts Center about five years ago.

Today, the program is fully endowed and funded through the Rapid City Arts Council.

Among its many aspects is a mentorship program that pairs accomplished artists with emerging artists. "Connecting those with more experience to those will less experience" is the idea, said program coordinator Stephen Branch.

The program is what brought Huot and his mother to hear a performance in December by 2006 Stevens High School graduate and professional New Orleans jazz trumpeter Alex Massa. Following the show  and with some motherly nudging  Huot approached Massa to ask about music career advice.

Lets hear you play, was Massa's challenged to Huot.

Massa's direct nature caught Huot off guard. He didnt really have a jazz repertoire. Pop music was his forte.

Take a pop song and make it jazzy, Massa told the teen.

Andrew played Some Day My Prince Will Come.

The music led to a connection between the two artists, and three months later, Huot and Massa played their first gig together at Blind Lion Speakeasy in Rapid City.

From there, a mentoring friendship was forged.

Now, whenever Massa returns to the Black Hills, he and Huot get together and jam  both onstage and off.

Recently, Massa and Huot gathered in Deanna Liens living room to practice. But Lien confides it was her concert hall grand piano that drew them to her acoustically balanced home.

Sitting at the piano, Huot poised his fingers just above the keys. Massa flipped his long hair over his shoulders, picked up his trumpet and let loose. What followed was a tremendous musical interplay of notes, crescendos and RITS.

Afterward, Massa spills a secret: The performance was entirely impromptu.

It takes incredible skill to listen to what someone else is playing and compose your musical response on the spot, Massa said.

But that is what make jazz playing so magical.

Its easy to learn how to play notes on a page, Massa said.

But to experience it; to feel something outside of yourself and push the limits beyond  that is undefinable form of magic.

Massa didnt know such an experience was possible until he met trumpet professor Grant Manhart at Northern State University in Aberdeen.

He had this unique approach to playing music and learning how to be a better person through learning the trumpet, Massa said. He really planted the seeds  and it was important to my growth."

I am stubborn. I was a rebel child, Massa said. In school I didnt do things the way people told me to do them.

But Manhart sparked a fire deep within Massas soul.

I didnt just learn music. I learned to create and visualize, Massa said.

His stubborn streak pushed him beyond just learning the music to really living the music.

That, Massa now knows, is exactly what Manhart wanted to teach his students.

And what Massa hopes to pass on to Huot, his pianist protege.

Musical outreach, Massa said. Thats my goal in life. Thats what I enjoy doing.

And thats exactly what Lien wanted when she started the Emerging Artists program more than a decade ago.

It isnt what I expected to accomplish, Lien admitted. But its gone much further than I ever imagined.
RAPID CITY | George Alvin Bennett III, 88, passed away on Thursday, July 27, 2017.

George was born Nov. 4, 1928, in Bristol, SD, to Sophie and George A. Bennett II. His father passed away when he was two years old and the depression was in its beginnings. Those were hard years but they instilled in him a good work ethic. One story he enjoyed sharing of his youth was how he would carry his shotgun to school and check it in with the principal. At the end of the school day, he would retrieve his shotgun and walk the train track home...hunting as he went.

He married Yvonne Esche, (the childhood sweetheart who would chant Georgie Porgie, Pudding and Pie) on Christmas day 1947 in Bristol. They had four children. He worked as a lumberman in Waubay and Belle Fourche before starting Bennett Lumber Co. in Webster in 1962. The business was consumed by fire in 1972. In 1974, George and Yvonne moved to Rapid City. He managed and worked at various lumber yards in Rapid City.

George was an avid hunter and his game of choice was pheasant. He hunted deer in the Black Hills and fished in the lakes around Waubay and the shores of Black Hills lakes. He also brought down MANY clay pigeons at trap shooting ranges.

He was involved with Boy Scouts with his sons, and was so proud when two of his grandsons attained the rank of Eagle Scout.

George and Yvonne loved to travel in their motorhomes. They wintered in Yuma, AZ, for many years. They enjoyed trips to Alaska, Canada, the Eastern United States, and frequent trips through the Rocky Mountain Range.

He is survived by his wife of 69 years, Yvonne; his children, Jane Bratager, Coon Rapids, MN, daughter-in-law, Cindy Bennett, Brooklyn Park, MN, Carol (James) McNulty, Rapid City, and George Bennett VI, Rapid City; seven grandchildren, Jennifer Cahill, Matthew Bratager, Shawn Bennett, Brandon Bennett, John McNulty, Anna McNulty Taylor, and Michael Bennett McNulty; and 11 great-grandchildren.

Preceding him in death was his beloved son, Thomas Bennett; and son-in-law, Peter Bratager.

Celebration of Life services will be at 10 a.m. Monday, July 31, at Kirk Funeral Home, with visitation one hour prior. Burial will be at Pine Lawn Cemetery.

Friends may sign his online guestbook at Kirk Funeral Homes website.
Karelias Supreme Court upholds sentence in lake tragedy case

MOSCOW, July 31 (RAPSI)  The Supreme Court of Russias Republic of Karelia upheld a three-year sentence given to ambulance paramedic Irina Shcherbakova, who had refused to notify rescue services about children drowning in the local lake Syamozero, the court's press-service told RAPSI on Monday.

The court dismissed appeals seeking harsher punishment for the convict filed by 14 victims. The sentence therefore became effective.

Shcherbakovas sentence, issued in April, is suspended until her child reaches the age of 14. Victims lawsuits seeking moral damages were granted in part.

On June 18, 2016, children and the camps instructors were sailing on a raft and two canoes over the lake Syamozero in Karelia. 47 children were accompanied by 4 adults, who did not take gathering storm into account. Storm made sailing extremely dangerous: a raft with children and two adults washed up near one of the islands while both canoes were capsized, leaving passengers in the open waters.

Only some managed to swim across to the shore. According to the Investigative Committee, 14 children drowned. Other children survived and were evacuated. The camp has been closed.

Investigators allege that Shcherbakova received a phone call from a child on the day of tragedy. A child told Shcherbakova that he and others are drowning, yet the paramedic did not react to this call and did not notify the rescue services causing critical delay of rescue operation by 18 hours. One of the rescue teams was on standby only in 100 kilometers away from the site.

Shcherbakova who was responsible for reception and transfer of phone calls to local hospital was has been charged with negligence that lead to death of more than two people. She pleaded guilty in part and considered these events to be a mistake.

On May 5, 2017, investigators announced that they completed investigation into the criminal case over the accident. Defendants in the case are former head of Karelias Rospotrebnadzor Anatoly Kovalenko, his deputy Lyudmila Kotovich, director of Syamozero Park Hotel camp Elena Reshetova, the camps coordinator Vadim Vinogradov and the camps instructors Valery Krupodershikov and Pavel Ilyin.

Reshetova, Vinogradov Krupodershikov and Ilyin were charged with rendering of services in violation of safety protocol which accidentally lead two or more people to death. Kovalenko and Kotovich were charged with negligence.

Investigators allege that Reshetova, Vinogradov and Krupodershikov deliberately refused to notify local emergency services about the accident to prevent negative reaction of society from ruining camps reputation and inflicting losses. Defendants in the case are believed to abandon children in water during the storm.

Investigators also believe that former officials of Karelias Rospotrebnadzor, Kovalenko and Kotovich, were aware about unsavory conditions at the camp and did not take appropriate measures eventually leading to the tragedy.

On February 7, the Moscow Commercial Court collected 2.3 million rubles (about $39,000) from Syamozero camp on a claim filed by the Department of labor and social protection.
Russian citizen deported from U.S. gets 14 years for business partners murder

MOSCOW, July 31 (RAPSI)  Russian national Gennady Gavrilets, who had been deported from the U.S after being on the run for 17 years, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for killing his business partner, press service of the Moscow prosecutors office announced on Monday.

The Moscow City Court delivered the sentence basing on the guilty verdict earlier issued by jurors.

Gavrilets was put on the Interpol international wanted list in December 1998, the Interior Ministry official representative Irina Volk said earlier. He was arrested in the U.S. in December 2014. In June 2016, the man was deported to Russia.

According to investigators, the defendant has masterminded the murder of his business partner for the purposes of profit. He paid $20,000 to his accomplices, who killed the man in April 1997.

Four accomplices of Gavrilets were sentenced to long prison terms in June 2000.
Russian lawyers suit against Labor Ministry over MPs pensions dismissed

MOSCOW, July 31 (RAPSI, Oleg Sivozhelezov) - Moscows Meshchansky District Court on Monday dismissed a lawsuit lodged by lawyer Yury Kachan demanding explanations from the Russian Labor Ministry concerning huge retirement pensions of lawmakers, RAPSI reports from the courtroom.

Retirement benefits of lawmakers differ markedly from pensions of ordinary citizens, the lawsuit reads. The applicant asked the Ministry to clarify the reasons for the occurrence of private legislation governing MPs pension provision that extends special privilege to them.

Additionally, the attorney demanded to collect 2 rubles ($0,033) in damages from the defendants, Labor Minister Maxim Topilin and Deputy Head of the Ministrys pension provision department Elena Moskaleva.

Kachan also sought to turn over the control of retirement contributions payment from the Pension Fund of Russia to the Federal Tax Service.

The claimant said that he had repeatedly turned to the relevant bodies with regard to these matters but received replies with no real answer.

The Ministrys lawyer argued in court that Kachan had got answers to his applications within the legal period.




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sacw.net - 31 July 2017

The RSS brigade is fond of surgical strikes. Though there rages a dispute whether surgical strikes against Pakistan secured any favourable results but so far as its surgical strikes against minorities, specially Muslims and Christians and Dalits are concerned, are paying rich dividends to it. The lynching, maiming and robbing in the name of ghar wapsi (forcible conversion to Hinduism), Holy Cow and Vande Matram as part of this strategy aimed at attacking the human wealth of India. But it is also working overtime to destroy the soul of democratic-secular India by attacking all that has been positive in the Indian education.

It is true that apparently it is busy in waging war against universities like Hyderabad Central University, JNU and Jadavpur University as these Universities heroically resisted the Hindutva take-over by the ABVP and pracharak vice-chancellors. The latest in this deplorable saga is that JNU VC has demanded display of army tank at the Central Universities specially the JNU campus. This demand for symbolic display of this army hardware is a precursor of a scenario when active army columns with tanks will rule such universities as happened in Bangladesh under Pakistani military rule and Indonesia under General Suharto. In fact, this warning was given in clear terms by a perennial hate-monger against right to dissent, G D Bakshi at JNU in the presence of many Central ministers that after "victory over JNU" there "are many forts like Jadavpur and Hyderabad University which our army will capture".

Apart from physical attacks and threats of elimination to these centres of learning, a more insidious game-plan of RSS is unfolding through RSS pracharak, Dina Nath Batra. He, as a father-figure of the RSS demolition squad against the largely liberal-democratic-secular system of school education which aimed at producing inquisitive young scholars who would question the status quo. Batra has come out with a new HIT LIST to be cleansed from educational content.

According to press reports RSS-affiliated Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas headed by Batra sent to the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) five pages of recommendations for removal of certain contents from school text-books. This Nyas had earlier succeeded in getting removed renowned historian, A K Ramanujanas book Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation from the syllabus of University of Delhi. This work chronicled the hundreds of versions of Ramayana which existed in the Indian past in different regions of India thus challenging the singularity of the text of this Epic which Hindutva brigade wants to declare as a Holy Scripture. The Nyas also forced Penguin India Publishers to withdraw an original amazing work Hinduism titled aThe Hindus: An Alternative Historya by renowned American Indologist and Sanskrit scholar, Wendy Doniger. The Penguin under immense pressure from the Hindutva organizations did not even bother to inform the author about withdrawal of her book.

It is to be noted that before targetting NCERT text books via Batra, RSS/BJP governments in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana and MP have removed/curtailed references even to Gandhi and Nehru and added glorification of personalities like Savarkar. Emboldened by such successes school text books at the national level are the target now.

REMOVE REFERENCES WICH CHALLENGE MALE CHAUVANISM

Some of the items in the Batra HIT LIST are hilarious and exhibit brazen gender discrimination of the RSS. For instance from a grade IX Hindi book explanatory-note of a poem by renowned Hindi poet, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar has to be removed as such contents amisguide children and cause the loss of their charactera . Another content whose SHUDDHI has been demanded is a chapter on the great Kannada Bhakti poet Akka Mahadevi which describes of an incident in which she took off her clothes in protest. According to Batra such adescription of naked womena is an aattack on Hindu culture in the name of women freedoma .

Batra also demands that an extract from the 19th century activist Tarabai Shindeas milestone book A Comparison Between Women and Men, which attacks patriarchy and is considered the first feminist text in modern India should be removed from class VIII text book. All references to Varna system need to be dropped too.

REMOVE REFERENCES OF VIOLENCE AGAINST MINORITIES

Over-all, the removal/rectifications demanded in the NCERT text-books by Nyas follow a pattern determined by the Hindutva discourse of polarization. Any reference to violence against minorities in the text-books needs to be removed. The references to the apology tendered by former PM Manmohan Singh over 1984 riots (which was in fact, genocide of Sikhs) must be deleted. The objection is to the following text in the class XII political science book. aDuring his parliament speech in 2005, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed regret over the bloodshed and sought an apology from the country for anti-Sikh violence.a

Another sentence that anearly 2,000 Muslims were killed in Gujarat in 2002a must be deleted. Demanding no discussion on riots the HIT LIST decrees: aSeveral things (in these books) are baseless, biased. There is an attempt to insult members of a community. There is also an appeasementa how can you inspire children by teaching them about riots?" Thus, recurring violence against minorities is to be kept out of memories of students.

REMOVE REFERENCES TO AMAR KHUSROW

The Nyas also demands that medieval Sufi mystic AmAr Khusrow (1253-1325) should be identified as a person who aincreased the rift between Hindus and Muslimsa . There cannot be a lie worse than this one. AmAr Khusrow was the person who laid the foundation of modern Hindi which Hindutva gang identifies with Hinduism and demands it imposition on whole of India as Hindavi. He wrote in Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic and Punjabi. He is credited with the development of qawwali as a singing genre, dastangoi, an art of story-telling and musical instrument like tabla and harmonium. Due to his Sufiism and liberal outlook about Islam he remained an eyesore of Muslim clergy and Delhi rulers throughout his life.

REMOVE TAGORE WRITINGS

The Nyas also demands deletion from school text-books writings and thoughts of one of the greatest literary-cultural icons of modern India, Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore a great poet, dramatist, author, musician, calligrapher, sculptor, orator and painter and recipient of Nobel prize for literature needs to be censured because aan attempt has been made to show a rift between nationality and humanity by citing thoughts of Rabindranath Tagorea .

It is true that Tagore with many great contemporary philosophers of the world like CHJ Hayes, Renan, EJ Hobsbawm and BR Ambedkar condemned the concept of nationalism as it fostered the growth of sectarianism, separation and violence against others who were different from us. According to Tagore: "The idea of the nation is one of the most powerful anaesthetics that man has invented. Under the influence of its fumes the whole people can carry out its systematic programme of the most virulent self-seeking without being in the least aware of its moral perversion, in fact, feeling dangerously resentful if it is pointed out"

Tagore was the person who not only penned National Anthem of India but also of Bangladesh. Tagore despite being opposed to poisonous nationalism was a great patriotic Indian. He returned all awards as protest to the barbarous massacre of Indians at Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, by the British army in 1919. While renouncing the awards he wrote to the then Viceroy, Lord Chelmsford: "The time has come when badges of honour make our shame glaring in the incongruous context of humiliation, and I for my part, wish to stand, shorn, of all special distinctions, by the side of those of my countrymen who, for their so called insignificance, are liable to suffer degradation not fit for human beings." We need to compare these actions of Tagore with the contemporary RSS leaders who kept mum on this massacre, not only opposed the freedom struggle but joined hands with the Muslim League in dividing the joint freedom struggle on the basis of religion.

REMOVE POEM OF AVTAR SINGH PASH

Batra led RSS outfit also wants removal of renowned Punjabi poet, Avtar Singh Pashs poetry. The semi-illiterate (a status worst then being illiterate) Hindutva zealots of the Nyas want Pashs poetry removed who was incidentally, one of the greatest Punjabi poets who wrote heart-touching poetry against those who were trying to divide Hindus and Sikhs in Punjab. He organized a literary-cum-political organization, ANTI-47 FRONT thus inviting the ire of some pro-Bhindranwale elements. He with his close friend, Hans Raj was shot dead on March 23, 1988 in Punjab.

REMOVE GAHLIBS VERSE & MF HUSAINS BIOGRAPHY

The list of Hindutva demands for cuts is longish and described as preliminary only. Remove couplets of Ghalib (Hum ko malum hai jannat ki haqiqat lekin/dil ko khush rakhne ko Ghalib ye khyal achchha hai) who defied Islamic clergy throughout his life. Discard the biography of MF Husain whose sketches of Hindu gods/goddesses were once most popular and sought after in the calendar publishing industry of India because the acentral government considered his activities a threat to the countryas unity and sovereigntya . Blackout references to some Mughal emperors as benevolent and reference to BJP as Hindutvadi party need to be removed.

ENGLISH WORDS LIKE VICE-CHANCELLOR AND URDU WORDS LIKE MEHMAN NAWAZI TO BE DISCARDED

Nyas also wants language cleansing. English words like vice-chancellor, worker, margin, business, backbone, stanza, royal academy must be dropped. Some of the Urdu/Persian/Arabic words to be removed are, poshaak (attire), taakat (power), ilaaka (territory), aksar (often), imaan (belief), mehman-navaazi (hospitality), sare-aam (openly). Interestingly, if it is the beginning of cleansing of the words from Urdu/Persian/Arabic languages then word Hindu also will have to be dropped. According to Swami Vivekananda, word Hindu was coined by the Persians. The RSS pracharaks seem to be beginning an era of language McCarthyism.

So if we find the Hindutva rulers facilitating the cleansing of minorities on the one hand, we find its professors working overtime to turn school education into Daronacharyas gurukul where only interests and ideas of high Castes would be served, Eklavyas having no place except when the latter cut-off their thumbs.

Shamsul Islam

For some of S. Islams writings in English, Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, Punjabi, Urdu & Gujarati see the following link: http://du-in.academia.edu/ShamsulIslam

Facebook: shams shamsul

Twitter: @shamsforjustice

Email: notoinjustice[at]gmail.com
New York 1814, late into the War of 1812, and a Mohawk woman, Oak, and two men, Joshua and Calvin, are hunted down by a squad of American soldiers hell-bent on revenge for an attack on their camp. The Americans chase the trio deep into Mohawk territory and further away from safety.

Mohawk starts with Joshua Pinsmail, a British soldier and one of Oaks lovers, making an impassioned plea to the leader of the Mohawk nation to drop their neutrality, take up arms and rise against the American army. Feeling the burden of the invading American forces and shame that the Mohawk would not take a side in the war, and spurred on by Pinsmails words Calvin Two Rivers, Oaks other lover, goes on his own and raids a nearby American camp thus encurring the vengeful wrath of Colonel Hezekiah Holt and his small troop of survivors.

There is a prevailing mysticism about the film, as first instigated by the aura and glow from shooting the film in natural light. That mysticism seeps into the story through three strong and unsettling visions that Oak has which are relevant to revelations she has about herself and the physical changes she is experiencing. Oaks journey concludes with her embracing more of that spiritual power which in turn enhances her physical power. Mohawk is largely about Oaks personal journey through this horrible day. The closing of Mohawk suggests that she has risen from the ashes and torment of the day's events to become more powerful and ready to lead her people.

Member of the Mohawk nation, Canadian actress Kaniehtiio Horn soars as Oak. Her performance is at times nuanced and subtle, turning into emotional and fierce. Her work is complemented by those of her two lovers, Eamon Farren as British agent Joshua Pinsmail, and member of the Plains Cree nation and Canadian actor Justin Rain as Calvin Two Rivers. Both of them react to their circumstances differently. We already know that Calvin Two Rivers is impulsive and his acts endanger the lives of everyone around him. Pinsmail is, well, British. A gentleman thrust into an ungentlemanlike situation. But Mohawk is all about Oak and her journey.

The collection of the Americans crosses the spectrum. Jon Huber, the lumbering Lachlan Allsopp, who should be a formidable foe due to his size, like the rest is concerned that this deep into the woods they are far out of their element. Robert Longstreet, the experienced tracker Sherwood Beal. His character is the bridge between sensibility and lunacy, but sides with lunacy. Noah Segan, the snivelling translator Yancy, has played variations of this character before. There is the sense that every one of them knows better than to chase the trio into their territory.

Of the Americans though surely it is the Holts, father and son, Ezra Buzzington as Hezekiah Holt and Ian Colletti as his son Myles Holt, who radiate a dark and menacing hue. The first American Pinsmail meets in the forest is the younger Holt and you feel the malevolence in the exchange. Then Hezekiah comes along and you see the how twisted and contorted the tree from which the apple fell truly is. As the day wears on and the numbers begin to thin out the elder Holt has an awakening of sorts. Deep into the woods with Oak circling around them, out of reach, Holt, in an attempt to bolster the remaining men talks of eliminating every threat they have faced to that day, be it man or beast. He proclaims that having eliminated everything else, We are the only monsters left here. Listening to this with our 21st century ears? Truer words have never been spoken.

The look and feel of Mohawk places the film into a different era. With the tilts, pans and zooms in the wide angle shots, to the diffused glow of sunlight off of the lighter colors, Mohawk bears the visual soul of cinema from the 1970s. When asked about the artistic style and choices of Mohawk Geoghegan cited Sergio Corbucci (Django and other spaghetti westerns) as an influence. There is a rawness to the films execution, from the acting to the filming. It is an absence of modern Hollywood gloss that sets its own texture and feel.

It would be easy for the production to make the environment as foreboding as possible in a pic that is one long chase scene, make it close in on our heroes and villains, make it play a part in their disorientation and fears. Instead, Geoghegan took the very rare turn of choosing to shoot in the natural light and drape it in green as often as he could, citing John Boorman's The Emerald Forest as inspiration for the colors. The forest is not the enemy here. Quite the opposite, as it bright and open. Yet somehow it still grants a sense of mystery as characters pop up out of nowhere, somehow hidden in the wide, bright expanse until everyone is almost on top of each other. There is a sadness in seeing the beauty of the forest tainted by the blood of savage humanity.

The violence is succinct and brutal. The monstrosity of man is on full display at times. Hardly any of it is exploitive, yearning to sway your opinion - who is the most savage to the next - though you will have gone into a screening of Mohawk all ready to side with Oak and her lovers out of a sense of social and moral obligation. No one dare cheer for the Americans. You wish for it to be as cut and dry as First Nations People = Good, Imperialistic Americans/Britons = Bad, but you are reminded that the acts of Calvin Two Rivers are what brought the Americans down on them in the first place. As the story progresses of course you take a side, it would be hard not too. But Mohawk starts from a grey place, the acts of individuals from both sides endangering everyone close to them.

There is much to digest and reflect on about after watching Mohawk. As stated earlier, it starts somewhere in the moral middle. Yet, with hundreds of years of abject mistreatment of the FIrst Nations peoples you are ready from the beginning to side with Oak, Joshua and Calvin. All it takes is a little push in that direction and the actions of despicable characters do the rest for us.

As an action drama it sets a heart racing pace, slowing down at moments to give time to focus or reflect on our inhumanity to each other. I felt that the violence could have pushed a little further. Must be a sadist in me somewhere. Still, there are some harrowing moments in Mohawk that will make you shudder.

As social commentary it reinforces what we know and what we have a hard time admitting. While acts and gestures of reconciliation have been made by different world leaders now and again there is still much to be done. Mohawk ends with a dedication to the brave water protectors of Standing Rock who used solidarity and peace to fight for the future of North America. Mohawk is not about to solve those issues, but it reminds us that they are there, remaining to be dealt with.
Probably the coolest moment of the Guanajuato International Film Festival closing ceremony was when a bunch of Indian guys appeared on screen, visibly delighted as their film, Sexy Durga - "a chilling and bold accomplishment in the evolution of the Indian thriller in words of our own J Hurtado - had won the top prize of the 20th edition of the Mexican fest. Director Sanal Kumar Sasidharan couldnt attend the event but he, together with his crew, shared a video from the set of his new project to thank the GIFF.

Other films that got awards were Los anos azules, the latest effort from the team behind 2013s Somos Mari Pepa; and Etiqueta no rigurosa, a documentary about the first gay marriage in Baja California, Mexico. In the galley below you can check out the full list of awarded features and shorts.
Great news for fans of classic Hollywood as British distributor Eureka! Entertainment has announced a bevvy of new titles joining their Masters of Cinema series and Eureka Classics label.

A trio of classic feature films from silent cinema legend Buster Keaton will be released as part of the Masters of Cinema on 16 October, in a limited edition 3-disc hardbound boxset. Sherlock Jr. (1924), The General (1926) and Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928) will arrive in new 4K restorations available on Bluray for the very first time. As well as a bounty of supplemental material, the boxset also comes with a 60-page book featuring new and archival writing about Keaton's work, together with rarely seen photographs and lots more. Buster Keaton: 3 Films is limited to 3,000 copies, so be sure to get your pre-orders in early.

Special Features:

1080p presentations of all three films from stunning new 4K restorations

 Audio commentary on Sherlock Jr. by film historian David Kalat

 Three new video interviews with film scholar Peter Kramer discussing Sherlock Jr., The General and Steamboat Bill, Jr

 Buster Keaton: The Genius Destroyed by Hollywood (52 mins) - A new documentary on Keaton and his struggles working within the Hollywood studio system

 Buster Keaton on Wagon Train (58 mins)  an audio recording of a then 63 year old Buster Keaton in conversation with television writer Bill Cox

 Sherlock Jr.  Original music by Timothy Brock

 Sherlock Jr.  Tour of Filming Locations featurette

 Sherlock Jr.  Movie Magic & Mysteries featurette

 The General - Original score composed and conducted by Carl Davis

 The General  Tour of Filming Locations featurette

 The General  Video Tour featurette

 The General  Home Movie Footage

 The General  Introduction by Orson Welles

 The General  Introduction by Gloria Swanson

 Steamboat Bill, Jr. - Original score composed and conducted by Carl Davis

 Steamboat Bill, Jr.  A video essay on the making of the film

Also arriving on 16 October are Blake Edwards' comedy classic The Party starring Peter Sellers on top improvatioal form as struggling actor Hrundi V. Bakshi, accidentally invited to a Hollywood big shot's house party, where he proceeds to get drunk and wreck the place.

Special Features:

Gorgeous 1080p presentation | Original stereo PCM soundtrack | The Party Revolution (16 mins)  a featurette on the groundbreaking filming methods utilised in the films production | Inside The Party (24 mins)  A behind the scenes featurette on the making of the film | Blake Edwards Profile | Walter Mirisch Profile | Ken Wales Profile | Original theatrical trailer

Also released is Richard Fleischer's swashbuckling epic The Vikings starring Kurt Douglas and Tony Curtis in an action-packed adventure from Hollywood's Golden Era. The cast includes Janet Leigh, Ernest Borgnine, narration by Orson Welles and sumptuous Technicolor cinematography from the incomparable Jack Cardiff.

Special Features:

Reversible Sleeve | Gorgeous 1080p presentation | Original stereo PCM soundtrack | Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing | Exclusive new video interview with film historian Sheldon Hall | A Tale of Norway (28 mins)  A featurette about the making of the film, presented by director Richard Fleischer | Original theatrical trailer | PLUS: A booklet featuring the words of Richard Fleischer; a poster gallery and rare archival imagery
Santiago International Film Festival - or SANFIC - braces for the 13th edition introducing more than hundred international and domestic productions at the Chilean gathering. Set to be opened by The Summit by the Argentine director Santiago Mitre, the festival hosts two competition sections, international and national. Autumn, Autumn by Jang Woo-jin; The Family by Gustavo Rondon Cordova; The Desert Bride by Valeria Pivato and Cecilia Atan; The Territories by Ivan Granovsky; Makala by Emmanuel Gras; In The Intense Now by Joao Moreira Salles; Porto by Gabe Klinger (read our review), Resurrecting Hassan by Carlo Guillermo Proto; Summer 1993 by Carla Simon will compete in the international competition whilst eight titles, including four world premieres and four national world premieres, will compete in the national section: the documentaries In Transit (directed by Constanza Gallardo Vasquez), Jaar, The Lament for Images (directed by Paula Rodriguez Sickert), Stealing Rodin (directed by Cristobal Valenzuela) and the fiction films Frog (directed by Juan Pablo Ternicier), The Color of the Chameleon (directed by Andres Lubbert), The Mother, the Son and the Grandmother (directed by Benjamin Brunet), My Fathers Memory (directed by Rodrigo Bacigalupe Lazo) and Kingdoms (directed by Pelayo Lira).

The festival prepared a retrospective of German DoP, Rainer Klausmann, who is credited under Werner Herzog and Fatih Akin oeuvres. Besides his latest work on Akins project In The Fade awarded at Cannes Film Festival, Klausmann will introduce also Fitzcarraldo, The Dark Glow of the Mountains, Lessons of Darkness, Head-On, Downfall, The Edge of Heaven and Soul Kitchen. The second guest of honor arriving at the festival is the leading actor in the upcoming film by Lars von Trier, The House that Jack Built, Matt Dillon. Besides presenting his well-known films in a retrospective, Dillon will hold a masterclass about his career.

The Masters of Cinema sidebar will contain titles from the major film festivals including Aki Kaurismakis latest The Other Side of Hope, Sofia Coppolas The Beguiled (read our review), Asghar Farhadis The Salesman (read our review), Cristian Mungius Graduation (read our review), Amat Escalantes The Untamed (read our review), Andrei Konchalovsky's Paradise, Oliver Assayas Personal Shopper (read our review), Abbas Kiarostamis Take Me Home or this years Palme dOr winner, The Square by Ruben Ostlund.

Another thematic showcase will be Spanish Focus featuring latest Hispanic films such as Pedro Aguilera's Sister Of Mine (read our review), The Olive Tree by Iciar Bollain, In the Same Boat by Rudy Gnutti, The Next Skin by Isaki Lacuesta and Isa Campo and The Open Door by Marina Seresesky and the gem of the world cinema, Luis Bunuels surreal masterpiece The Exterminating Angel (read our review).The special sidebar Shoot The Shooter will be dedicated to Yoko Ono and her audiovisual works.

13th edition of Santiago International Film Festival runs from August 20-27.

Chilean Cinema on the display in Santiago:

The Color of the Chameleon (Andres Lubbert)

During Pinochets dictatorship, 21-year-old Jorge became an instrument for the Chilean secret service, which forced him to work with them in an extremely violent fashion. Finally, after he managed to escape to Europe from Chile, he became a war cameraman, a job that has taken him to all of the worlds conflict zones. Today, his son Andres paints a psychological portrait of his father, and together they look into the depths of Jorges unfinished past. This new feature-length film by Andres Lubbert, a Chilean filmmaker born in Belgium, had its world premiere at the Guadalajara Festivals Iberian-American Documentary Feature Film Competition.

In Transit (Constanza Gallardo Vasquez)

Four transsexual persons walk around as if they were carrying a heavy disguise. Mara is a poet, a teaching student and an activist; Gis is trying to get her GED while attempting to cohabitate with her two mothers who dont understand her transition; Patricia is an empowered working woman who nevertheless is afraid to speak her truth to the rest of the world; and Matias has a beautiful family, but lives in a small town that has a hostile opinion toward transgendered people. Through their lives, this documentary shows us how hard it is to live in a country that doesnt understand them; a country that has no place for them.

Jaar, the Lament for Images (Paula Rodriguez Sickert)

The most recent documentary by filmmaker Paula Rodriguez observes the creative process of Alfredo Jaar, one of the most relevant Chilean contemporary artists, whom we received as a guest in SANFIC 6 showing his works Le ceneri di Pasolini and We wish to inform you that We didnt now, as a part of our Shoot the Shooter section. His works show a wide range of situations including migration across the Mexican-American frontier, the Rwandan genocide or the coup detat in Chile. Jaar believes that art is the last place for freedom within our society, and from this trench he unfolds his work as an act of resistance. This feature-length film goes over his works shown in Finland, Venice, Buenos Aires, Santiago and New York.

The Mother, the Son and the Grandmother (Benjamin Brunet)

The first feature-length film by filmmaker Benjamin Brunet was premiered at the Patagonia Film Festival and takes us to Chaiten after the eruption of its volcano, when Cristobal, a young amateur photographer, arrives in his hometown. Through a photographic project he tries to rescue some unknown parts of his own roots. This is when he meets Ana, a strong woman who lives with Maria, her elderly mother. Despite being very sick and ignoring Anas insistence, Maria refuses to abandon her destroyed but beloved city. Cristobal, Ana and Maria form an impromptu family, facing sickness and solitude while experiencing intense moments of change.

My Fathers Memory (Rodrigo Bacigalupe Lazo)

At age 50 and prompted by the death of his mother; Alfonso, a frustrated adapter of American TV comedies, is forced to deal with his father whom he cant stand, as he is a reflection of all of his own affective shortcomings and stubbornness. Now, the senile father is losing his memory, becoming a child that hardly resembles the strong man he once was, and obsessing over the made-up fact that his wife is still alive, lost in a coastal hospital. Premiered at the Malaga Film Festival, Rodrigo Bacigalupes first work takes us on the adventure of finding a mother absent among the living, but still present in a fathers heart.

Kingdoms (Pelayo Lira)

The first feature-length film by Pelayo Lira who participated in SANFIC 5s Chilean Talent Short Film Competition with El asombro and won the same competition during SANFIC 8 with La visita del cangrejo, had its world premiere in BAFICIs International Competition, where Daniela Castillo received the award for Best Individual Performance, and was also screened at the Karlovy Vary Festival. Alejandro, a university freshman, and Sofia, a senior who is working on her thesis, meet in campus and build a relationship that leads him to fall in love while she only seeks to satisfy her own sexual desires. In time, Alejandros teenage-like behavior will prompt Sofias rejection, while she figures out how to solve her future.

Stealing Rodin (Cristobal Valenzuela)

A June morning in 2005 the guards at the Chilean Museum of Fine Arts noticed that a sculpture by Auguste Rodin a work worth hundreds of thousands of dollars had been stolen. 24 hours after the fact, a shy art student returns the piece arguing that he had stolen it as part of an art project seeking to prove that a piece of art was more present when it wasnt there. A decade after these events, artists, lawyers, theorists and the perpetrator of the theft himself relive the artistic-criminal episode through this documentary that is articulated as an absurd detective story, allowing us to look at the state of contemporary art from an ironic point of view where the contradictions of the artists work become evident.

Frog (Juan Pablo Ternicier)

Juan Pablo Terniciers second feature film takes place in Valparaiso in 1985, when journalist Jeremias Gallardo finishes his reports on a long history of crimes perpetrated by two former policemen, and which profoundly shook the public. Jeremias is the only journalist that manages to interview both policemen Sagredo and Topp Collins, and also records the moment their sentence is executed; the last death sentence dictated by a Chilean court. That night, Jeremias will have to attend the birth of his first daughter. On his way back to Chiles capital, the road will force him to relive moments of his own hidden past, when he was entangled with the dictatorships intelligence services.
 Should an uptick in federal gun prosecutions garner bipartisan praise? | Main | "The Republican Party, Conservatives, and the Future of Capital Punishment" 

July 31, 2017

AP series looks deeply at a "patchwork of justice" for juve lifers after Graham and Miller

The AP has some new in-depth reporting on juvenile LWOP sentences and resentencings in this series labeled "Locked Up For Life." This lead article published today is headlined "AP Investigation: A patchwork of justice for juvenile lifers," and here are some excerpts from the extended piece:

Five years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court banned mandatory life without parole for juveniles in murder cases. Last year, the court went further, saying the more than 2,000 already serving such sentences must get a chance to show their crimes did not reflect irreparable corruption and, if not, have some hope for freedom. But prison gates dont just swing open. Instead, uncertainty and opposition stirred by the new mandate have resulted in an uneven patchwork of policies as courts and lawmakers wrestle with these complicated, painful cases. The odds of release or continued imprisonment vary from state to state, even county to county, in a pattern that can make justice seem arbitrary. The Associated Press surveyed all 50 states to see how judges and prosecutors, lawmakers and parole boards are re-examining juvenile lifer cases. Some have resentenced and released dozens of those deemed to have rehabilitated themselves and served sufficient time. Others have delayed review of cases, skirted the ruling on seeming technicalities or fought to keep the vast majority of their affected inmates locked up for life. Many victims relatives are also battling to keep these offenders in prison. They already had their chance, their days in court, their due process, says Candy Cheatham. Her father, Cole Cannon, was killed in 2003 in Alabama by Evan Miller, the 14-year-old whose no-parole sentence was the basis for the 2012 sentencing ban.... The APs review found very different brands of justice from place to place. For years, officials in states with the most juvenile life cases were united in arguing that the Supreme Courts ban on life without parole did not apply retroactively to inmates already serving such sentences. Now, states are heading in decidedly different directions.... The AP also found that while many states have taken steps to make former teen criminals eligible for parole, in practice, officials regularly deny release. In Missouri, the parole board has turned down 20 of 23 juvenile lifers, according to the MacArthur Justice Center, which filed a federal lawsuit this year claiming the board is denying the states juvenile life-without-parole inmates a meaningful chance for release as required by the Supreme Court.... Maryland, meantime, has 271 juvenile lifers whose sentences have always given them a chance for release. But no such prisoner has won parole in more than 20 years, prompting a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union.... The impact of last years Supreme Court ruling goes far beyond the 2,000-plus offenders who faced mandatory no-parole sentences as teens. In many states, legal challenges are being mounted on behalf of juveniles sentenced to life without parole at the discretion of a judge or jury, or those who are legally entitled to parole but serving such lengthy terms they are unlikely to ever get out. The latter group encompasses some 7,300 inmates, according to The Sentencing Project. The Supreme Court didnt specifically address these cases, however, and thats led to different outcomes.

July 31, 2017 at 09:48 AM | Permalink

Comments

Parole is a matter of grace---the "meaningful chance of release" doesn't upend that.

This is why, in states where the governor has right to commute sentence, the Supreme Court constitutionalized the identity of the decisionmaker. That's snort-worthy.

Posted by: federalist | Jul 31, 2017 9:54:14 AM

Meaningful chance means a hearing at which the parole board considers the pros and cons of granting parole -- including the circumstances of the original case and what steps the defendant has taken to rehabilitate themselves while incarcerated. In the overwhelming majority of cases, those factors are not currently good for inmates.

First, while perhaps not as small a group as the Supreme Court thinks is appropriate, those who received life without parole (at least from the cases that I know in my state) tended to have committed an offense with significant aggravating factors that would suggest that parole board's should be cautious in granting parole. (And the Supreme Court has not clearly addressed how long it is acceptable to hold these inmates before giving them release.) Second, since -- until Miller and Montgomery -- these offenders had no hope of release, they had little reason to avoid minor disciplinary issues or to pursue the type of programs that might demonstrate a desire to reform.

In most states, the denial of parole results in the scheduling of a review/reconsideration hearing in several years, not the permanent denial of parole. Given the lack of incentive to build the type of record that demonstrates that an inmate is a good parole risk up until recently, it should not surprise anybody that the first batch of inmates are getting poor results from their parole hearings. Some of the folks who are being turned down now should get parole when they come up for a second time (and have put in several years of effort to show that they are parole worthy). Similarly, those with newer cases (who have not yet come up for a parole hearing) should get better results than this first batch as they will have the time to build a "resume" before their hearings.

Posted by: tmm | Jul 31, 2017 10:58:41 AM

The cases say that certain teen offenders should have the chance of parole and this means life in prison is not a lock (minus some special dispensation from the governor or whatever). This doesn't mean they should get parole after ten years in prison or something.

OTOH, when we are talking about sixteen year old offenders in prison for thirty or so years, the case for parole is stronger. At some point, the theoretical sixty-five year old long term inmate shouldn't have to deal with THAT "cautious" of a process.

Posted by: Joe | Jul 31, 2017 12:03:20 PM

ACLU scum, home addresses or STFU. We are moving all released juvenile murderers to the houses surrounding yours.

Posted by: David Behar | Jul 31, 2017 8:21:18 PM

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 Reviewing the unique (and uniquely important?) Texas experience with criminal justice reform | Main | AP series looks deeply at a "patchwork of justice" for juve lifers after Graham and Miller 

July 30, 2017

Should an uptick in federal gun prosecutions garner bipartisan praise?

The question in the title of this post was my first thought upon seeing this press release from the Justice Department released Friday under the heading "Federal Gun Prosecutions Up 23 Percent After Sessions Memo." Here is the full text of the press release:

Today, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that, following the memorandum from Attorney General Sessions to prioritize firearm prosecutions, the number of defendants charged with unlawful possession of a firearm increased nearly 23 percent in the second quarter of 2017 (2,637) from the same time period in 2016 (2,149). Violent crime is on the rise in many parts of this country, with 27 of our biggest 35 cities in the country coping with rising homicide rates, said Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Law abiding people in some of these communities are living in fear, as they see families torn apart and young lives cut short by gangs and drug traffickers. Following President Trumps Executive Order to focus on reducing crime, I directed federal prosecutors to prioritize taking illegal guns off of our streets, and as a result, we are now prosecuting hundreds more firearms defendants. In the first three months since the memo went into effect, charges of unlawful possession of a gun -- mostly by previously convicted felons -- are up by 23 percent. That sends a clear message to criminals all over this country that if you carry a gun illegally, you will be held accountable. I am grateful to the many federal prosecutors and agents who are working hard every day to make America safe again. In February, immediately after the swearing-in of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, President Trump signed an Executive Order that directs the Attorney General to seek to reduce crime and to set up the Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety. The Task Force has provided Sessions with recommendations on a rolling basis. In March, based on these recommendations, Attorney General Sessions sent a memorandum to Department of Justice prosecutors, ordering them to prioritize firearms offenses. In the three months immediately following the Attorney Generals memo -- April, May and June -- the number of defendants charged with unlawful possession of a firearm (18 U.S.C. 922) increased by nearly 23 percent compared to those charged over the same time period in 2016. The number of defendants charged with the crime of using a firearm in a crime of violence or drug trafficking (18 U.S.C. 924), increased by 10 percent. Based on data from the Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA), in Fiscal Year 2016 (starting October 1), 11,656 defendants were charged with firearms offenses under 18 U.S.C. 922 or 924. EOUSA projects that in Fiscal Year 2017, the Department is on pace to charge 12,626 defendants with these firearms crimes. That would be the most federal firearms cases since 2005. It would also be an increase of eight percent from Fiscal Year 2016, 20 percent from 2015, and an increase of 23 percent from 2014.

Of course, as regular readers on this blog know well, many on the political left have been critical of various efforts by AG Sessions to ramp up federal prosecutions. But much of the criticism is based on concerns about escalating the federal drug war, especially as it applies to lower-lever and nonviolent offenders. As the title of this post is meant to suggest, perhaps this latest data showing a ramp up of gun prosecutions could be met with some applause from political left given the tendency of the left to support tougher restrictions on gun possession. (Of course, some parts of the libertarian-faction of the political right has also expressed concerns about recent work by AG Sessions, and they might be more troubled by these data.)

Critically, without having more information about the "who and how" of increased federal gun prosecutions, I do not feel sufficiently informed to robustly praise or criticize these developments. But I do think it interesting and notably that the first new data being stressed by the Sessions DOJ involves a type of prosecution that could garner support from both sides of the political aisle.

July 30, 2017 at 04:31 PM | Permalink

Comments

Well, I think part of the problem is the left that likes gun control seems to have little interest in existing laws making it difficult for convicts and other allegedly dangerous folks to own firearms: they are unsatisfied by anything short of a ban.

Also, kind of interesting that "gun prosecutions, in this case meaning indictments/complaints, are 'up'" is a meaningful stat, really. Convictions perhaps. Maybe it is meaningful in the context of federal prosecution of the poors, where indictment and conviction run a 1:1 ratio.

Posted by: Fat Bastard | Jul 30, 2017 4:39:42 PM

Members of the left regularly focus on limited goals and do not try merely to obtain a ban. In fact, other than certain types of weapons, the left to me are not focusing on "a ban" ["assault weapons" are on the list at times] much at all as such these days as compared to background checks, concern for victims of domestic violence and so forth.

This is what the "political left" has sought on a national and state level, from what I can tell.



Posted by: Joe | Jul 30, 2017 5:25:02 PM

Never, never, ever trust a government press release!

Posted by: albeed | Jul 30, 2017 6:13:26 PM

Question behind the statistics, do the increased numbers reflect more federal involvement in gun investigations or more federal prosecutors filing federal charges on state investigations. (Likely some of both, but more of federal prosecutors filing on state cases.) I can think of reasons why state and federal law enforcement might opt for federal prosecutions (longer sentences, no parole), but if the increase is mostly shuffling cases from one court to another, then it is unlikely to have much impact on the level of violence in the short-term.

Posted by: tmm | Jul 30, 2017 7:53:32 PM

Questions.

1) Were any of the gun prosecutions of crime victims shooting back at the lawyer client? Police, prosecutor, and state court found a victim who shot an ultra-violent, super-predator, black thug innocent. The crime victim was prosecuted by a hate filled female lawyer. This Arab female should have been forced to pay all legal cost from her personal assets.

2) Does the DOJ plan to prosecute states like New Jersey, for violating the Full Faith and Credit Clause by prosecuting black mothers from Pennsylvania carrying a gun in their ca? This pro-criminal, lawyer controlled state should be fined a $billion by the DOJ, to deter the pro-criminal government.

3) Does it plan to end the unconscionable, self dealt immunity of prosecutors, judges, and legislators who by their carelessness in false prosecution, and in wrongful discretion injure individual crime victims?

4) If the stupid Supreme Court has said, the police has no duty to the individual, but it does to the entire city, can a city file an aggregate claim against the DOJ and against the local police, for a surge in murders caused by the Draconian and invalid consent decree obtained by uber asshole, Harvard Law grad Rod Rosenstein, for what he did to Baltimore?

Posted by: David Behar | Jul 30, 2017 8:42:41 PM

Supremacy, Im getting bored. You used to entertain me with such descriptive words like, rent seeking, reptile lawyers, coffee sluping, hanging around the bubbler, looking down secretaries blouses ( Messed a few up and forgot some)

So what gives, lloosing your zest for life or at least entertainment for an old cowboy?

Posted by: MidWestGuy | Jul 30, 2017 8:52:53 PM

Mid. The feminist lawyers complained. I was asked to tone it down. Thank the feminist lawyer (formerly known as, the vile feminist lawyer).

Posted by: David Behar | Jul 31, 2017 8:25:34 AM

The history of federal gun prosecutions is putting black people in prison. I wish the academic community would investigate the blatantly racist charging practices of the federal government.

Posted by: dontask@gmail.com | Aug 1, 2017 7:18:36 AM

Doug, the political left hates guns in the hands of the law-abiding, but thinks that punishment of criminals with guns is too harsh.

This is why the Obama Admin significantly dropped gun prosecutions.

Posted by: federalist | Aug 2, 2017 10:33:17 AM

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Republican-leaning UC Berkeley undergrad Kiara Robles has reportedly dropped a $23 million lawsuit that was filed against the university on her behalf by attorneys Larry Klayman of Freedom Watch and Michael Kolodz, in connection with an attack caught on video during the protests over a canceled Milo Yiannopoulos event in February. As the Daily Californian reports, Robles filed a notice of "voluntary dismissal without prejudice" last week, and neither she nor her attorneys could be reached for comment.

The suit alleged that Robles was "attacked with extremely painful pepper spray and bear mace by masked assailants" during the February 1 protest that spilled off of the campus and into the city of Berkeley. She accused university officials of "willfully withholding police manpower" because they disagreed with conservative views.

Defendants named in the suit included UC President Janet Napolitano, the University of California Regents, UCPD, Berkeley Police Department, Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and billionaire investor George Soros, among others.

The dismissal seems to be prompted by some legal action by Soros.

Per the Daily Cal:

Soros filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit earlier this month, characterizing it as based on an allegation of a conspiracy funded by Soros, but containing no factual basis. In addition, Soros motion described the lawsuit as the latest chapter in Plaintiffs counsels long-running attempt to use the federal courts to prosecute frivolous, unsubstantiated claims against Mr. Soros. It also states that this is the fourth such lawsuit in the past year, with the other three already having been dismissed.

The Berkeley city attorney, Farimah Brown, told the paper that the case was meritless and that they were pleased with its dismissal.

Robles had a semi-active presence on YouTube speaking out about her conservative views and other topics up until several months ago. Her last video was posted March 30, and she talks about gaining over 300 subscribers and not knowing what she should be talking about on YouTube.

Previously: Berkeley Student And Trump Supporter Sues University For $23M Over Attacks By Liberal Protesters
People who closely follow the the cannabis industry have had a good laugh lately at headlines like Marijuana Shortage Prompts Emergency In Nevada. But youll be none too surprised to hear that California finds itself having exactly the opposite problem. California is growing far more marijuana than it actually consumes, the head of the California Growers Association says. To put numbers on it, the growers warn that the Acapulco Gold-en State is growing 14 to 16 million tons of marijuana annually, but consuming only one and a half or two million tons of the sticky-icky.

If you would be amused by the sight of CBS 5 policy wonk Melissa Caen surrounded by big-ass marijuana plants, then the above video is for you. Caen spoke with California Growers Association executive director Hezekiah Allen, who said the 800 percent marijuana surplus is going to require legal growers to run far tighter ships with regards to their inventory and documentation.

In the past, when a product left the farm theres a really good chance the grower had no idea where it was going, Allen said. But in the future, every single license holder is going to need to know exactly where every gram of product is ending up and so conditions are going to change very quickly.

Yeah, but will every basement and backyard grower really want to be a legitimate license-holding cultivator? Nobody wants to operate under the radar, Oaksterdam University professor Dr. Aseem Sappal told CBS 5. They want to do this legally. They want to say, Hey, look, what Im doing is okay.'

With all due respect to both of these gentlemens informed perspectives, these guys are full of fertilizer. Or rather, these guys are marijuana industry lobbyists and advocates pushing a party line promoting the notion that every marijuana grower will be a squeaky-clean operator eager to meet state regulatory requirements. People, that will not be the case. Plenty of that excess marijuana will be grown by unlicensed operators, discreetly shipped or driven out of state, and sold on other states' black markets. California recreational use laws are not likely going to change something that's been going on for decades.

But on the positive side, people in California will probably be buying and consuming vastly larger quantities of marijuana once adult recreational use becomes legal on January 1, 2018. Tourists will flock to California just to buy their pot, and scores of Californians will ditch their weed dealers with the ease of over-the-counter sales. Some industry analysts worried about price deflation may warn of a pot surplus, but the state of California may simply chortle, pull out their gravity bongs, and huff up that so-called surplus in no time.

Related: Supes May Impose Moratorium On New Pot Dispensaries
Avoid the area of 15th St. & Beaver due to #SFPD activity. A shelter-in-place is in effect. @sfmta_muni & traffic will be effected. #sf pic.twitter.com/DMTguHZhWd  San Francisco Police (@SFPD) July 31, 2017

Update: The standoff has ended and the shelter-in-place order was lifted around 2:45 p.m. Monday. See story here, and see the original story below.

San Francisco police have ordered residents of a San Francisco neighborhood to stay indoors, after a man suspected of shooting a woman has barricaded himself inside a home in the area.

According to the San Francisco Police Department, at around 11:45 Sunday evening, police were called to the area of 15th and Beaver Streets, an intersection a block off Castro Street, near Corona Heights Park, on reports of shots fired.

Breaking-San Francisco police negotiators at 15th and Castro area. Shots fired 1145pm. Shelter in place @kron4news pic.twitter.com/g60eXnWapI  Will Tran (@KRON4WTran) July 31, 2017

Bay City News reports that responding officers found a woman suffering from gunshot wounds. She was transported to an area hospital for treatment, and as of publication time her condition is unknown.

The suspect in the shooting, described only as a man, retreated into his home, police say. This prompted police to issue a shelter in place order for residents of the area, which as sent by Alert SF at 1 a.m. read "Avoid the area of 15th and Beaver Streets due to police activity. Residents on 15th Street from Buena Vista Terrace to Beaver St are asked to shelter in place in the rear of your homes."

Negotiations with the man continued throughout the night and into Monday morning, police say, as officers with the SFPD "have been trying to negotiate with the man in hopes of ending the standoff safely," NBC Bay Area reports.

Just arrived at scene of standoff in SF. @SFPD say One woman shot, hospitalized. Armed suspect refusing to surrender. pic.twitter.com/FHpzBkiPFp  Tiffany Wilson (@TWilsonTV) July 31, 2017

As of 5:26 a.m., "Residents on 15th St. from Buena Vista to Beaver" were again reminded to shelter in place by Alert SF. Speaking with the SF Chronicle at around 7 a.m., SFPD spokesperson Officer Robert Rueca says We have a team of negotiators trying to get the suspect to surrender as soon as possible, and then well be able to get on with our investigation. As of publication time, however,the standoff continues.
My wife doesnt know anything, yet. Doesnt even suspect. Surprising, given my willingness, urgency even, to drive our yard debris to the city dump, to give up house AC comforts and Saturday freedom to head toward West Milwaukees tow lots and salvage yards and bafflingly named Self-Help Centers. Its especially strange given my well-known allergy to doing work outside that isnt sitting in a wicker chair with a cold one. Yet of late the clippings and branches have pitched perfect cover for a burgeoning summertime love affair, the fatty and satisfying kind for which Westside weekend errands act as perfect shade.

At first glimpse El Tsunami (2001 W. Lincoln Ave.) is another of a piece in the unknowable strip of the greasy calorie corridor that is Lincoln Avenue. Its an area so loaded and bursting that it can be daunting to find your way. In more ways than onea recent trek saw the Citgo at 13th Street police-taped off after a midday shooting. And even when you get inside, and hoist the hefty laminate menu, you may not know if theres any reason to be here, as opposed to say, La Canoa or Fiesta Garibaldiboth down the street, both brothers in food lists. In fact it is either the same owner at all these establishments, or somebody is approaching serious intellectual property infringement. Yet, here, unlike its Lincoln Ave. siblings, if you get just one glimpse of the plate of super-stuffed corn tortillas in front of the guy in the cowboy hat next you, its plain to see why Taqueria comes first in their titular list of offerings.

But everything comes in its proper order. First you have to get there, get inside the intensely aromatic corner joint with a cozy bar and just three tables, ideally at a counter spot where you can watch a guy you instinctively think should have more room, charring chicken on the grill while throwing tortillas on the flat top, turning to grab some shrimp to drop in the fryer. All simultaneously. Its the sort of moves Bourdain waxes about, performed in an equally cramped and public space, forcing the vents to work double time, filling nostrils and the aura with sizzle and expectation.

Its a nice backdrop for the table salsa, which comes fast, which comes bursting like Guanajuatos with fresh tomato at the front, but an underlying spicy smokiness. And then theres a surprising avocado chunk, liberal amounts of cilantro, and more than a satisfying pinch of salt. It would make for a best salsa in town runner, if it didnt struggle just to compete with one of its ownone that would come later. Theres also a pre-order of fish ceviche gratis with the house chips. Its chunky, citrus-y, bursting with fresh lime juice, and kicked up by big hunks of jalapeno. Its a smart tag team to jump-start an appetite.

It may be hard to go wrong with your order. Even an uninspired looking slab of cecinaa little pale, punchless and hammy-looking, uncut and peering out of its double corn sleeping bagproves salty, smartly juicy, and a perfect canvas for the first of two squirt-tube salsas that appear when your order does: a pungent chipotle number rife with seeds.

But its the second of these two ketchup bottle options where things get serious. Perhaps somebody, someday will be able to document why so many Southside taquerias offer some variation on this salsa verde: jalapenos or serranos, avocado, possibly cream, probably olive oil, and a velvety emulsification end product that always leaves me asking for a to-go styrofoam container. Mas grande, por favor. For now, its simply a ubiquitous sauce about town. Find a strain at the Buenavista taco truck, or either of the Taqueria Arandas locations, or an inspired gentrified take at Laughing Taco. But here its spicier, a touch creamier, somehow better. Its as good as a meat topping gets.

Put it on the chorizo and you have bliss. The spiced sausage is crumbled, subtly charred, and reeking of porkiness, with more of a bacon-y essence than standard taqueria fare, and pleasantly, not too much grease. But, yes, there is grease - it is chorizo after all, the king of comfort meats, and here it still knows how to do its tongue-rewarding work.

Or you can spurt and let it sink within the already-saucy, shredded strips of desebrada, a stewed, deep-flavor beef that feels like Sunday at Abuelas house, the kind of on-the-stove-all-day affair where you know whats for dinner as soon as you hit the door, where you can smell beef as much as taste it. Or you can just let the sauce swim atop the crisped, light-by-comparison whitefish.

The only mistake one might make is not saving room, or, regardless of room, not ordering the tacos al carbonthe house version of steak, a name meaning cooked over charcoal. Especially since by now weve come to the point that carne asada has basically become the is what it is of taquerias, like asking for meat tacos, so hard is it to distinguish between one or another. Its a shoulder shrug approach to a taco filling order. Which is maybe why the carbon are so lovable. Or maybe they are perfect. The little morsels smack of the grill, with an almost suspicious smokiness, finger-soaking juiciness, and a certain intangible satisfaction that acts as a reminder why we would always pick Mexican over a steakhouse. The difference is most enjoyable when you get that green sauce dribbling toward your wrist, and it runs in rivulets with meat grease, and a cilantro chunk, and you give an unabashed lick.

While its hard to imagine more flavor bang for your buck-seventy-five, other trips and other appetites might be rightly given over to the entrees. The chalices bursting with cocktail sauce-swimming shrimp seem popular. And if you know what you're doing, fork-work can be rewarded by any of the whole fish options swimming in a pungent, potent garlic sauce. (Fillets are available for those less inclined to Hemingway-esque battle with a fish body, and an eye that always seems to be looking into ones very soul). There is also anything a la diabla. Sinaloa meets Buffalo in this saucebright red, tangy, buttery, smooth, its incredible on crisped shrimp and next to the spicy potato salad, but it seems not far away from a serious chicken wing contest.

Either way, its important to remember youll be hungry laterafter you get home and kick back in the yard and pretend that a well-maintained lawn has been the ticket of satisfaction for this Saturday. For takeaway, for rewarming when you can be alone and midnight debaucherous, a torta is the order. Any of their lovingly prepared meats folded tightly into an oil-slicked bolillo roll make for a well-maintained package: easily handled, not overly done in lettuce or filling, the right amount of carb-y, meaty satisfaction with jalapeno wedge, perfect for dousing in the citys best sauce, for stealing a few bites before bedtime, easy to conceal from prying eyes on a low, back fridge shelf.

Its always good to know its in there, and to have a living, giving reminder of a memorable lunch. And its good to know of another, and the best, reason, to drive west on Lincoln.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has worked to advance civil liberties and civil rights since its foundation in 1920. Free speech, freedom of religion and freedom from discriminations are some key issues the ACLU defends in courts, in Congress, state legislatures and local government. The ACLU has an affiliate in every state and the Milwaukee-based ACLU of Wisconsin is particularly active.

The ACLU of Wisconsin's work includes an ongoing challenge to Wisconsin's voter ID law, which has kept tens of thousands of otherwise eligible voters from the polls, executive director Christopher Ott explains. We have sued Milwaukee police, demanding an end to racially discriminatory police practices, such as stop-and-frisk searches against people of color with no reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing. We have sued the State of Wisconsin to end the terrible treatment of children in detention at state facilities in Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake, and we have sued the state for its denial of health care coverage to transgender state employees.

In nearly 90 years of existence, the ACLU of Wisconsin has obtained several resounding victories, such as the 2014 victory over Wisconsins constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

The organization has known failure as well, for lack of support or resources. A lawsuit we brought during the 1990s against voucher schools did not succeed, Ott says. Unfortunately, the years since then have borne out our concern that voucher schools take public money from public schools and direct it to religious institutions instead.

Due to the nature of the fights the ACLU leads, the organizations membership in Wisconsin has quadrupled since last Novembers election, from 6,000 last October to more than 24,000 members today. We can't discuss details about upcoming lawsuits and other measures, Ott says. But we have increased our budget by 25 percent this year and are expanding our staff to do even more of the kinds of work that we've always done.

Under the Trump administration, the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin focuses particularly on the rights of immigrants, endangered by initiatives such as the Muslim ban. Wisconsinites are encouraged to join the ACLU for as little as $20 a year, or giving a tax-deductible gift to support their actions.

For more information, call the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin at (414) 272-4032 or visit www.aclu-wi.org.
SIOUX CITY | The demonstrators wore all-white costumes with their groin areas stained red, and waved signs reading "End Genital Mutilation" and "Vote No On Circumcision." Cars honked as they drove by.

The California-based group, Bloodstained Men & their Friends, stationed themselves at the intersection of Sergeant Road and South Lakeport Street on Monday, and they had one goal for their visit: bring greater foreskin awareness to Siouxland.

The founder of Bloodstained Men, who legally changed his name to Brother K, and his fellow "intactivists" have a lot to say about the American custom of circumcision. None of it positive.

"No one else in the world circumcises their baby boys, only American doctors -- the European medical community has condemned American doctors for circumcising baby boys," Brother K said.

Brother K said he wants to convey the message to parents that "circumcision is worthless, harmful, destructive and cruel." He pointed out that, statistically, most circumcised men in the world are Americans and Muslims.

"Parents don't know that. Many parents think that circumcision is, like a world norm -- it's not," he said.

Bloodstained Men demonstrates in 60 cities per year, he said. The group has felt a shift in how people feel about circumcisions, based on their reactions.

"Every year that we do that this, we're getting more public support, and less jeers from the public," Brother K said.

There are still some jeers, including Monday in Sioux City.

"A pickup truck went by, and a man behind the driver's seat, he didn't shout anything, he just silently gave us the finger," Brother K said. "It could be New York City, it could be San Francisco, it can be Sioux City, Iowa. People are the same everywhere, and the way that men react to circumcision is the same everywhere. We call it 'circum-rage.'"

The sign carried by Brother K read "Vote No On Circumcision." Circumcision, of course, is not something normally encountered on the ballot.

"People say, 'When's the vote?' and I say, 'You vote when your son is born, or when your grandson is born, you say no,'" Brother K said.

Circumcision statistics

While there are no recent figures on male circumcision rates in the U.S., the group feels it is making headway. As recently as 2000, at least 61 percent of American newborns were circumcised, according to the World Health Organization.

The rate of male babies being circumcised has seen its ups and downs since then, but the general trend has been slowly downward, according to a CDC report.

"The anecdoctal evidence that we're getting from doctors and nurses, people who work in hospitals, is that the circumcision rate in the United States is collapsing dramatically," Brother K said.

According to the CDC, the region with the highest rate of circumcision is by far the Midwest, where about 71 percent of babies were circumcised in 2010. On the West Coast, the rate was only 40 percent.

Brother K also gave a very brief history of circumcision in the United States, which according to the WHO, became popular among physicians in the English-speaking world late in the 19th century, because it was believed to prevent venereal disease and discourage masturbation.

"Our founding fathers were not circumcised," Brother K said. "There was no history of circumcision in the English-speaking nations, ever, or in Christianity for that matter."

Fellow intactivist David Atkinson, who plans the locations for the trips, says he decided the group would stop here during their tour of the region, largely because of the size of Sioux City. During their 17-city Northern Heartland protests, the group has been to Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Lincoln and Omaha. The group is next heading to North and South Dakota.

Bloodstained Men, Atkinson said, has been to most states and large cities in the U.S., except New Hampshire, New Mexico and Wyoming.
DOON, Iowa | A 22-year-old Boyden, Iowa, man was flown to a Sioux Falls hospital following a single-vehicle rollover crash early Sunday in rural Lyon County.

The incident occurred around 1:45 a.m. Sunday in the 3200 block of 260th Street, according to a Lyon County Sheriff's Office news release.

Brandon Driesen, of Boyden, was driving a 2000 Pontiac Bonneville east on 260th Street when the vehicle entered the south ditch and, rolled and became disabled, the release said.

Driesen was taken by Lyon County Ambulance to Sanford Rock Rapids Medical Center in Rock Rapids, Iowa, and then flown by Avera Careflight to Sioux Falls for further treatment, the release said. Authorities are continuing to investigate the incident.

The Sioux County Sheriff's Office, Doon Fire & Rescue, Doon EMS and K&J Body Shop also assisted at the scene.
ALTON, Iowa | An 18-year-old Sioux City man was transported to Orange City Hospital after crews mechanically extricated him from his vehicle following a rollover crash Monday.

The incident occurred shortly after 1 a.m. on Highway 60 about a mile south of Alton, according to a news release from the Sioux County Sheriff's Office.

Phillip Fleming, of Sioux City, was driving a 1991 Ford Ranger south on the highway when he lost control, and the vehicle entered the north ditch and rolled, the release said. Fleming became entrapped in the vehicle and was freed with mechanical extrication by Alton Fire Department.

Fleming was taken by Alton Ambulance to Orange City Hospital for treatment of his injuries, the release said. Authorities are continuing to investigate the incident.

Also assisting at the scene were Orange City Ambulance and Orange City Police Department.
SOUTH SIOUX CITY | Wayne State College physics and astrology professor Todd Young will host a special talk on the proper way to view an eclipse during a public Lunch and Learn program at noon Aug. 15 at the College Center, 1001 College Way, in South Sioux City.

Young, who is also the director of Wayne State's Fred G. Dale Planetarium, will give a presentation titled "Where Will You Be When the Dragon Eats the Sun?"

A total solar eclipse will be passing through the middle of Nebraska on Aug. 21. Young will be discussing various mythologies associated with solar eclipses, including the Chinese mythology of a dragon dining on the sun. He also will talk about the astronomy behind solar and lunar eclipses as well as how to view them safely from home.

Audience members are encouraged to bring their lunches during this event, sponsored by the South Sioux City Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism and Wayne State College.
RANDOLPH, Neb. | Randolph Mayor Dwayne Schutt is out on bond after being arrested last week on charges that he had sexually assaulted a teenage girl.

Schutt, 61, was arrested Thursday on four counts of third-degree sexual assault of a child and one count of child abuse. He posted 10 percent of a $125,000 bond Friday and was released from custody. He is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in Cedar County Court.

According to a complaint filed in Cedar County Court, Schutt had sexual contact with the girl, who was 14 years old or younger from about Aug. 18, 2011, to May 17, 2013.

According to an affidavit filed in support of an arrest warrant for Schutt, the alleged victim reported to the Cedar County Sheriff's Office on Dec. 13 that she had been sexually assaulted on more than one occasion by Schutt at a residence in Randolph. She provided law enforcement officers with a recording of a phone call between herself and Schutt in which Schutt negotiated with the girl about what he would tell her mother about the incidents.

The girl provided sheriff's deputies with a written statement that gave an account of an incident in which she said Schutt laid on top of her, tried to take her clothes off and touched her. She also described other incidents in which Schutt had touched her.

The girl, now 18, told investigators in June that Schutt began assaulting her in 2011, when she was in the seventh grade, and ended in late 2015 after she told her mother about it, the affidavit said.

The girl told authorities she had not come forward earlier because of Schutt's reputation in the community, court documents said.

Schutt is serving his second term as mayor in Randolph after he was re-elected in November 2014. His attorney, Ronald Temple, of Norfolk, Nebraska, declined to comment on the case.
SIOUX CITY | Amid concern from business owners about congested traffic in the city's Bridgeport area, the City Council will meet for a rare fifth Monday session to advance the next phase of road work in the area.

The one-vote agenda will include approval of a bid for the second of four phases in a multi-million-dollar road improvement project, an effort to move up the anticipated completion date for a series of road fixes expected to help alleviate traffic issues.

The fixes are meant to help the already congested area prepare for the influx of traffic that will come with several expansions in the area and the startup of Seaboard Triumph Foods later this summer.

"It should help a lot of the larger trucks in the area make most of the turns in the area a lot more efficiently so they are not tracking off the roads," civil engineer Brett Langley said. "In a couple spots, we're adding lanes."

Phase two includes the following work:

--Lane widening at the intersection of Bridgeport Drive and Patton Street.

--Lane widening and new traffic signals at the intersection of Murray and Patton streets.

--Realignment of the roadway at the intersection of Boulevard of Champions and Patton Street.

--A new traffic signal at the intersection of Harbor Drive and Singing Hills Boulevard.

--An additional right turning lane added to the southbound Interstate 29 off-ramp at Singing Hills Boulevard, which Langley said staff hope will help stop backed-up traffic along the interstate.

The city received two bids for the project. Steve Harris Construction Inc., of Homer, Nebraska, was the low bid at $2,161,737.78. A bid by South Sioux City-based Mark Albenesius Inc. came in approximately $14,000 higher. Both bids were below the engineer's $2,177,000 estimate.

If all is approved Monday, the project is expected to begin in the next one to two weeks and conclude in December 2017. Phases three and four are expected to begin in early 2018.

The project is 80 percent funded through an Iowa Department of Transportation Revitalize Iowa's Sound Economy (RISE) program grant. The city and Seaboard Triumph Foods are splitting the remaining 20 percent.

Some businesses in Sioux City's Bridgeport area fear already congested traffic could become much worse in the coming months, when the new 1,100-employee pork plant fires up operations.

Business officials have been meeting with leadership of the pork plant and with representatives of the city to strategize moving forward.

Langley said engineering firm HR Green is also exploring the possibility of converting some Bridgeport roads to one-way streets to form a counterclockwise loop. The one-way street would begin in the Bridgeport area by going southbound on South Patton Street, eastbound on Boulevard of Champions and north on Harbor Drive.

"It would kind of be a counterclockwise loop through the area," Langley said. "There's less conflicting turning movement and, obviously, more lanes going the same direction to help facilitate the traffic going in and heading south toward Seaboard Triumph, for example."

Langley said he didn't know how long the traffic study would take but that it would be discussed at future input meetings.
SIOUX CITY  For the first time in its 30-year history, Sioux City will host the Iowa Downtown Conference.

More than 200 delegates from across the Hawkeye State  and a few out-of-staters as well  are expected to descend on western Iowas largest city for the conference, which runs Tuesday through Friday.

The annual event, organized by the Iowa Economic Development Authority, dates back to 1987.

Sioux City landed this years conference thanks to campaigning from the city and Downtown Partners, a local nonprofit dedicated to improving the citys central hub.

Ragen Cote, executive director of Downtown Partners, said attendees can expect to learn about downtown planning, historic preservation, and other aspects beneficial to downtown development and revitalization.

We were fortunate enough to be selected so we are excited, she said. Theres over 200 attendees that are going to be downtown eating, drinking, shopping so were looking forward to it.

The conference will include two full days of classroom sessions, plus a bonus day targeted to potential developers of residential spaces in commercial districts. The Sioux City Convention Center will be the site of most sessions. The opening ceremonies will be held in the historic Orpheum Theatre.

Keynote speakers include Ed McMahon, chair of the National Main Street Center Board and senior fellow at the Urban Land Institute; Max Musicant, principal and founder of the Musicant Group; and Brad Segal, president of Progressive Urban Management Associates.

Walking tours of the Historic Fourth Street District, the Pearl Street District, the Woodbury County Courthouse and three other notable downtown landmarks will be provided.

Theyll be out and about just experiencing downtown, Cote said.

To ensure visitors truly get a feel for downtown, registered attendees are provided a $10 voucher toward purchases at local merchants and tickets to a Wednesday night event at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.

While Cote thinks the out-of-town guests will enjoy the shopping and dining options downtown has to offer, she looks forward to meeting them and picking their brains for ways to continue improving Sioux City.

There are so many stories and so many downtowns in Iowa that are in such different kinds of stages of development that its always kind of good to thought share or provide feedback, she said.
ABCNews.com(CHICHAGO) -- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was seen on video confronting a Chicago Cubs fan during Sunday's game against the Milwaukee Brewers.



Laughter is heard in the beginning of the video, which opens with a shot of Christie in close proximity to the fan's face.



"You're a big shot," Christie tells the fan as he walks away with a container of nachos.



"Appreciate that," the fan replies.



The fan, who was identified by ABC Milwaukee affiliate WISN as Brad Joseph, said the confrontation started when he yelled Christie's name as he was walking up the steps at Miller Park in Milwaukee.



"He was already quite a bit past me, and 30 feet away -- I yelled his name and told him that he sucked," Joseph told WISN.



When Christie came back, Joseph said something to him again, according to WISN.



"I called him a hypocrite because I thought it needed to be said. He then turned around and walked all the way back toward me and got up in my face for what seemed like a long time, but was probably only about 30 seconds," Joseph said.



Christie then yelled at Joseph, asking him, "Why don't you have another beer," Joseph said.



"Which I thought was a decent come back, and I thought that was was kind of funny," he said. "Then, he started calling me a tough guy."



Joseph said he felt the right to express his opinion since Christie is a public official.



"This is America and I think we have the right to say what you believe as long as its not crude or profane," Joseph said.



According to WISN, Joseph is a friend of WISN reporter Ben Hutchinson, who began recording the video at the end of the interaction and posted it to his Twitter account.



This is Christie's second negative run-in with fans at an MLB game. On July 18, he was booed at Citi Field in New York after he caught a foul ball, The Associated Press reported.



Christie's son, Andrew Christie, has worked for the Milwaukee Brewers since March, according to his LinkedIn account.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
LUSBY, Md. (July 31, 2017)Maryland State Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of an infant whose body was found unresponsive after receiving an emergency call from the infant's parent.



The eight month old baby was found unresponsive early Sunday morning. He was lying on the couch in the living room of his home in the 12,000 block of Rousby Hall Road in Lusby, Maryland. The infant's body was transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore for an autopsy to determine the cause and manner of death.



Shortly before 7:00 a.m. yesterday morning, the Prince Frederick Barrack received an emergency phone call reporting an unresponsive infant. The 9-1-1 caller identified himself as the baby's father and informed police the baby was not breathing.



A trooper and emergency medical service personnel were immediately dispatched to the home where the eight month old baby, dressed in his diapers and a tee shirt, was found lying, unresponsive, on the couch in the living room. Lifesaving procedures were immediately administered by emergency medical technicians. The baby was pronounced deceased on the scene.



There were no apparent indicators of violence or foul play in the area surrounding the location where the baby was found. Both parents and four additional children between the ages of two and eleven, were at the home during the incident.



Troopers from the Prince Frederick Barrack responded to the scene. Investigators from the Maryland State Police Criminal Enforcement Division Central-South responded to take the lead in the investigation. A forensic investigator from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner's office also responded to assist. Further assistance was provided by sheriff deputies from the Calvert County Sheriff's Office and personnel from the Solomons Volunteer Rescue Squad and Fire Department.



The investigation is continuing.
(AP) President's Trump decision to ban transgender people from serving in the military sparked a wave of condemnation from Democrats and Republicans alike.

But the political arena where it resonated perhaps most personally was a local state House race in Virginia, where Democrat Danica Roem is looking to make history as the state's first transgender lawmaker. She is vying to unseating Del. Robert G. Marshall (R-Prince William), a social conservative who has sponsored a "bathroom bill" and a ban on gays and lesbians from serving in the state's National Guard. Both pieces of legislation failed.

"For our president, who opted out of serving in the military, to attack transgender people for being unfit to serve .?.?. is the height of hypocrisy," said Roem, 32, a former newspaper reporter. "Transgender military members .?.?. have done more to serve and protect their country than Donald Trump ever will."

Marshall, a 25-year incumbent in the Prince William County district, which is close to the Marine Corps base in Quantico, said in an interview that he thought it was prudent to expel and bar transgender people from the military.

"The money that would have been spent on costly and risky elective surgeries and decades of synthetic hormones that can cause cancer, in an effort to change sexual appearance, will be much better spent on treating our combat wounded servicemen and our veterans, and on buying equipment to keep our servicemen safe," Marshall said in an email.

The latest flash point in the nation's culture wars illustrates a bind for Roem.

She has said she doesn't want to be defined as the transgender candidate, even as that status has brought her attention from the media and prospective donors. As her advisers have urged, she has diligently focused her campaign local issues, such as Route 28 traffic, jobs and education.

But Roem says she can't stay silent in the face of discrimination that she says sends a message to young transgender people that they are "less than," or don't belong. And she says the time Marshall spends trying to pass conservative, social-issues legislation is time he should spend addressing local concerns.

"As a transgender person, I find it reprehensible that Delegate Marshall has denigrated the service of transgender Americans who have sacrificed their lives so he can have the freedom to say what he says," said Roem, who included a fundraising appeal in one of her tweets about Trump's ban on Wednesday. "It's about time the people of 13th District had a delegate who will represent them instead of singling them out, stigmatizing them and trying to make them feel awful about who they are."

Roem said she received a $50,000 donation from Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele, who chairs the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, after Trump announced the transgender military ban. That is on top of the $150,000 she raised for her bid, including an earlier $35,000 from Abele.

Abele, who is a major donor to LGBT causes, said he coincidentally was at the White House on Wednesday for an economic development event with Trump, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) and others, when he heard about the president's announcement.

Instead of condemning Trump to his face, he said, he made the donation to Roem from his smart phone while in the East Room. Then he texted her to say his donation would speak louder than any words could.

"This is one election, but it's a first, and so is the first woman elected, so is the first African American, the first Hispanic," Abele said in an interview. "Transgender candidates being as much of a norm as any other citizen is the best way to prevent policies like a ban on anyone, transgender or otherwise, who want to serve defending this country."

In the past, when asked about Roem's criticisms, Marshall has said Democrats have long tried and failed to defeat him by painting him as out of touch with his constituents. The district has gone for both Democratic and Republican candidates in other races in recent years, and voted for Hillary Clinton in November.

On Wednesday, Marshal said he is far from alone in thinking the military is no place for transgender people.

"The decision to end transgenders from military service was made in consultation with generals who know more than I do about what is best for our military," said Marshall, referring to Trump's tweet that he made his decision after consulting generals and military experts.

It is unclear, however, who in the military Trump had consulted.

His defense secretary, Jim Mattis, ordered a review of a plan to accept transgender troops that was due in December. Brad Carson, a former congressman who worked on transgender policy deliberations during the Obama administration, said no member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff favored a full ban.
(EDGE) There was a massive arrest of gay men in Nigeria over the weekend. According to a report in Nigerian newspaper Punch, no fewer than 42 men were rounded up by police in a hotel in Lagos State on Saturday on suspicion that they were involved in "homosexual acts."

According to an eyewitness who spoke to Punch, police sealed off the Vincent Hotel around 3:30 p.m. on Saturday.

"There have been reports that the hotel harbors homosexuals," the source told Punch. "They were there this afternoon when policemen struck. About 40 of them were caught in the act."

BBC notes that since passing a law criminalizing same-sex marriage and gay groups in 2013, Nigerian police have cracked down on people suspected of homosexuality.

In April, AP reported that Nigerian police arrested 53 young men who celebrated a gay wedding and charged them with "belonging to a gang of unlawful society."

Homosexual acts have been illegal in Nigeria since 1901. In the southern states where evangelical christians have political influence., people convicted on same-sex offenses can be sentenced to up to 14 years in jail. In the heavily muslim northern states under sharia law, the sentence can be worse.

Fox News notes that according to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, same-sex relations are explicitly banned in 72 countries -- although the number of nations that criminalize such relations has been decreasing each year.
The Expedition 52 crew expanded to six today. In the front row from left are the newest crew members Paolo Nespoli, Sergey Ryazanskiy and Randy Bresnik. In the back row are Peggy Whitson, Fyodor Yurchikhin and Jack Fischer. Credit: NASA. NASA

Three new crew members have arrived to the International Space Station. The hatches on the space station and Soyuz MS-05 opened at 7:57 p.m. EDT, marking the arrival to the orbiting laboratory for NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, Sergey Ryazanskiy of Roscosmos and Paolo Nespoli of ESA (European Space Agency).

Expedition 52 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of Roscosmos and Flight Engineers Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer of NASA welcomed the new crew members aboard their orbital home.

Momentarily, the crew will speak to their family and friends from Baikonur in a welcoming ceremony that will air live on NASA TV.

The crew will support more than 250 experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science  research that impacts life on Earth.

The Expedition 52/53 crew will spend more than four months together aboard the orbital complex before returning to Earth in December.

You can follow the crews activities and experiences in space on social media:

NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik is posting to Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Follow the experiences of NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson via Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.

Connect with NASA astronaut Jack Fischer via Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Follow space station activities via Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram and research via @ISS_Research.

Follow Paolo Nespoli of ESA on Twitter, and Sergey Ryazanskiy of Roscosmos is on Twitter and Facebook.

On-Orbit Status Report

51 Soyuz (51S) Launch and Dock: 51S launched today at 10:41 am CDT carrying Sergey Ryazanskiy, Paolo Nespoli and Randolph Bresnik to the ISS. Docking occurred at 4:54 pm CDT with hatch opening at 6:58 pm CDT. There will be 4 USOS crew members on the ISS until 50S undocks on September 2.

Electrostatic Levitation Furnace (ELF): The crew exchanged sample holders in the ELF and removed a lost sample in the ELF chamber. The ELF is an experimental facility designed to levitate, melt and solidify materials by containerless processing techniques using electrostatic levitation. With this facility, thermophysical properties of high temperature melts can be measured and solidification from deeply undercooled melts can be achieved.

Rodent Research-5 (RR-5) Systemic Therapy of NELL-1 for Osteoporosis: The crew set up hardware, reviewed materials and completed preparations for 4 days of operations scheduled to begin Sunday. Because spaceflight has significant and rapid effects on the musculoskeletal system, it is important to investigate targeted therapies that could ameliorate some of the detrimental effects of spaceflight. The NELL-1 drug being studied in the RR-5 investigation has the potential to slow or reverse bone loss during spaceflight.

Microbial Tracking-2 (MT-2): The crew collected saliva samples for the Microbial Tracking-2 investigation and placed them inside a Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI). After the samples are returned to Earth, a molecular analysis of the RNA and DNA will be conducted to identify the specific microbes that are present on ISS. MT-2 monitors the different types of microbes that are present on ISS over a 1-year period and how they change over time.

Cycle Ergometer with Vibration Isolation and Stabilization (CEVIS) Ratcheting Noise: This morning the crew reported a ratcheting noise coming from CEVIS and provided audio/video of the noise for ground review. While recording the audio/video, the noise stopped. The crew performed a checkout using both programming and manual modes and reported nominal performance. Teams discussed the noise and additional crew actions were requested to secure the CEVIS belt from potential slippage and to gain additional data. CEVIS remains GO for exercise at this time.

Mobile Servicing System (MSS) Operations: Yesterday afternoon Robotic Ground Controllers powered up the MSS and maneuvered the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) and the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM) Body to perform a video and imagery survey of the SPDM Latching End Effector (LEE) snare cables using the P1 Lower Outboard (LOOB) External High Definition Camera (EHDC). They then maneuvered the SSRMS to a translate position in preparation for the Mobile Transporter (MT) translation to Worksite 8 on July 31.

Todays Planned Activities

All activities have either been completed or on schedule unless otherwise noted.

CSA Generic Frozen Blood Collection Setup

ISS Handover Ops Videos

Test video recording for Russia Today TV channel

Preparation of Reports for Roscosmos Web Site and Social Media

Microbial Tracking-2 Body Sample Collection

Microbial Tracking-2 Sample MELFI Retrieval Insert

iPad Air 2 Install Part 4 of 4

Combustion Integrated Rack Alignment Guide Install

XF305 Camcorder Setup

ISS HAM Radio and Video Power Down

Mouse Habitat Unit Interface Unit Installation

Review TV Coverage procedure Hatch Opening from MRM1 and Arrival of Expedition 52

USOS Window Shutter Close

Cell Biology Experiment Facility (CBEF) Backup Power Setup

HRF1 PC 1 USB Load Installation Preparation

Preparing For Upcoming MagVector Science Run

Long Duration Sorbent Testbed Status Check.

Rodent Research Gather 5

Utility Outlet Panel (UOP) Activation

Rodent Research 5 Review

Operation using T?K onbord datafiles. Soyuz Space Suit- 1,2 dry  start

Rodent Research Crew Conference

Monitoring shutter closure on windows 6,8,9,12,13,14

MPEG2 Multicast Test via Ku-band (Activation/Deactivation of TV data and MPEG2 Multicast controls)

HRF1 PC 1 USB Load Installation Conclude

Rodent Research 5 Setup

Gas Analyzer Activation in Soyuz

XF305 Camcorder Setup

Electrostatic Levitation Furnace(ELF) sample Cartridge Retrieval

???? configuration for Soyuz 736 docking to MRM1. Comm check with Soyuz 736 via RSA-S/G2

Electrostatic Levitation Furnace(ELF) Sample Removal

Preparation for Soyuz 736 Docking

Monitoring Soyuz 736 Rendezvous with ISS (MRM1)

Electrostatic Levitation Furnace(ELF) Sample Holder Exchange

Activation of TV Data and MPEG2 Multicast Monitoring Equipment

Monitoring Soyuz 736 Rendezvous with ISS (MRM1)

On MCC Go Activation of mpeg2 multicast video recording mode

Monitoring Soyuz 736 Rendezvous with ISS (MRM1)

Electrostatic Levitation Furnace(ELF) sample Cartridge Installation

Dose Tracker Data Entry Subject

On MCC Go MRM1-SOYUZ PEV moding to ELECTR CONTR position

Closing Applications and Downlink MPEG2 Multicast Video via OCA

On MCC Go Soyuz 736  MRM1 Interface Leak Check. Start drying two space suits

Comm reconfig after Soyuz 736 docking

Hardware Setup and Checkout in SM for Expedition 52 Arrival TV PAO Coverage from SM

Disconnecting ??-153? TV Camera from MRM1 TV System

Hardware Setup and Test Checkoui in MRM1 for Hatch Opening TV PAO Coverage from MRM1

Soyuz 736-MRM1 Hatch Opening. Expedition 52 Arrival TV Coverage

Handover of the 3rd space suit and gloves for drying in Soyuz 735

Drying out of the 3rd spacesuit in Soyuz 735, start

ISS Safety Briefing

CSA Generic Frozen Blood Collection Setup

MELFI Overview OBT

Closing Applications, Deactivation of camcorders and TV data monitoring. Connecting TV Camera ??-153? to MRM1 TV System. Restoring Nominal Comm Configuration

Terminate Drying Suits 1,2

Set up the 1st pair of gloves for drying (Soyuz 736)

Reminder 2 Fine Motor Skills

Soyuz 736 Deactivation (w/o Gas Analyzer deactivation)

Transfer of Atmosphere Purification Filter Assembly ????-2? from Soyuz 735 ?? to Soyuz 736 ??

ISS HAM Radio Power Up

Space Headaches  Daily Questionnaire

Marrow Breath And Ambient Air Sample Setup  Subject

Fine Motor Skills Experiment Test First Time  Subject

Finish drying the 1st pair of gloves and start drying the 2nd pair

Soyuz 736 Deactivation (w/o Gas Analyzer deactivation)

Fine Motor Skills Historical Documentation Photography

Terminate drying the 3rd suit, start drying the 3rd pair of gloves in Soyuz 735

USOS Window Shutter Close

Completed Task List Items

None

Ground Activities

All activities were completed unless otherwise noted.

SSRMS powerdown

Prep for 51S docking

Rodent Research ops preparations

Three-Day Look Ahead:

Saturday, 07/29: Crew off duty

Sunday, 07/30: Rodent Research ops, crew adaptation

Monday, 07/31: MARES deploy/ankle mechanism assembly, Rodent Research operations, Emergency Roles & Responsibilities review

QUICK ISS Status  Environmental Control Group:

Component  Status

Elektron  Off

Vozdukh  Manual

[???] 1  SM Air Conditioner System (SKV1)  Off

[???] 2  SM Air Conditioner System (SKV2)  On

Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Lab  Standby

Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Node 3  Operate

Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Lab  Idle

Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Node 3  Operate

Oxygen Generation Assembly (OGA)  Standby

Urine Processing Assembly (UPA)  Standby

Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Lab  Full up

Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Node 3  Off
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Light Up Coffee has set some lofty goals for the future: though their current objective is spreading specialty coffee across Japan, their overall aim is to raise the standard of Asian coffee across the world. Along with running seminars and regular cupping events, Light Up Coffee has opened a second shop in Kyoto, and a dedicated roastery in Shimokitazawa.

But for all their work in Japan, it was the news that theyve been traveling to Asia to collaborate with coffee plantations that had me most intrigued. Co-founder Yuma Kawano says he started seriously thinking about travel in 2015 and sees an untapped potential in Asian coffees.

I always wanted to go to Costa Rica, or Ethiopia, or Kenya; all famous places for coffee. But places like Blue Bottle and Stumptown are already going there, so I decided to stay in Asia, and when I thought more about it, I realized people werent really going there.

Kawano wondered what Asian coffee would taste like if the process was given more careful attention, and whether it would lead to flavors unique to the region.

At the moment, people see Asian coffee as kind of earthy, bitter, and strong-bodied. Its not really clean. I felt like that was a waste. I thought we could produce better coffee. So with some help, we started collecting samples from across Asia.

Light Up Coffee ended up roasting and cupping some thirty different samples. In the haphazard mix of flavors were a few sparks of potential, and Kawano reached out to these coffee farms with the goal of paying up front for coffee on one condition; that the farms would work with them to improve each step of production.

This, eventually, brought them to a plantation called Ulian, located in the north of Bali, three hours by car, Kawano visited Ulian for the first time in 2015. He says it was a shock.

The [farmers] just didnt know [the process]. They tried the best they could, but they only knew how to make coffee the way theyd always made it. They were drying the coffee on the ground, and selling it before it had dried properly. They washed the coffee in dirty water; everything needed to be worked on.

This appears to be a common theme in Kawanos travels, which often involve helping farms to improve the production chain. He teaches each step as thoroughly as he can, and often on limited time. At Ulian, too, he says it was like a crash course seminar in picking, pulping, washing, and drying.

After a time, the coffee improved, and Kawano received a small batch of coffee that opened his eyes to the potential.

The batch we received was like a Costa Rican coffee. It was sweet, clean, and I really thought it was the best coffee Id tasted in Indonesia. I was so surprised!

Kawano was hopeful they could serve Ulians coffee this summer, but progress over the last year was one of minor gains among multiple setbacks, including stormy weather and mistakes in the production chain. Plans with Ulian eventually fell through, but the experience galvanized Kawano and pushed him to further exploration.

The biggest takeaway [from this experience] is that we know you can grow good coffee in Asia now. Its tough, but Ive tasted really excellent coffee. If we can make that again, the farmers can sell their coffee at a much higher rate, and it will be a positive for both of us. Theres real potential there.

And when I asked him what was next, he excitedly spoke of the Belantih plantation in Bali and the Pak Hendra plantation in the northern part of Sumatra; both are locations hes been working closely with over the last year, with the intention of serving their coffee before the years end.

At the moment, were making contacts, networking, and finding plantations that want to work together to produce better coffee. Its going to require a lot of experimentation, and consistently great coffee might be two, three years away. But I want to develop a Cup of Excellence level coffee in Asia; I think thats a really worthwhile goal.

Kawano talks about his adventures with a great enthusiasm for the future, and its clear hes dedicated to this new goal, however rocky the road ahead might be. And though the exact coffees theyll serve in the near future, and when well get them are still a mystery, its sure to be an ever more intriguing journey for the young roasters.

Hengtee Lim is a Sprudge staff writer based in Tokyo. Read more Hengtee Lim on Sprudge.

Photos courtesy of Light Up Coffee.
After having waltzed through last weeks mile-and-a-quarter at Yonkers Raceway in 2:24.3, the favoured Homicide Hunter (Brian Sears, $5.50) needed a full fifth of a second more this time around (Sunday, July 30). Other than that, not much changed for the wagering publics choice, as Homicide Hunter captured the tracks $68,000 Open Handicap Trot.

From the assigned Post 8 in the field of 11 (Springbank Sam N was scratched lame), Homicide Hunters job was a bit easier at the outset, as Luminosity (driven by George Brennan) and Centurion ATM (Dan Dube) both found themselves out of contention early.

Lone lass Celebrity Eventsy (Shristian Lind) made the first lead and then yielded to Rubber Duck (Joe Bongiorno). Homicide Hunter then made the lead after the :28.4 opening quarter-mile. As was the case a week ago, no ensuing issues would follow for the eventual winner, who also clicked off the half (:58) three-quarters (1:27.4) and mile (1:56.1) timers before hitting the wire first in 2:24.3.

Homicide Hunter owned a length-and-a-half lead into the lane before whipping Rubber Duck by two and three-quarter lengths. Fashion Creditor (Eric Goodell), Taco Tuesday (Jordan Stratton) and Smalltownthrowdown (Jason Bartlett) fininshed third through fifth, respectively.

For Homicide Hunter, a five-year-old Mr Cantab gelding owned by Crawford Farms Racing and trained by Chris Oakes, it was his fifth win from eight seasonal starts. The exacta (two wagering choices) paid $22, with the triple returning $175.50.

Sundays installment of the New York, New York Double offered a winning combination of 4-Dunk a Din (Saratogas 3rd race) and 2-Take My Picture (Yonkers 10th race) paid $10.20 for every correct $1 wager. Total pool was $3,725.

Please note that Yonkers post time next Sunday (August 6) is 12:30 p.m.

(With files from Yonkers Raceway)
Full Moon Dodger fought off challenger Outlaw Falcon to win the $3,000 Preferred Handicap at Miami Fair on Sunday (July 30) with Don Howlett in the sulky.

The six-year-old Brandons Cowboy-Domestic Bliss gelding led the field of five through fractions of :28.1, :59 and 1:29.1 with Outlaw Falcon applying pressure first-up. However, Full Moon Dodger rebuffed that rival down the stretch to score the one-length victory in 1:59.1. Procrastinatinpeat followed two and a half lengths behind in third.

The win was Full Moon Dodger's second of the year and first on the Manitoba fair circuit. He is campaigned by the father-son, owner-trainer team of Trevor and Michael Williams.

Also on Sunday, Hes Got Swagger equalled the 2:02.4 track record for two-year-old pacing colts set by Alberta stakes champion Flak Jacket in 2009. Driven by Tyler Grundy, the homebred Vintage Master-Bubbles Promise colt rallied home off cover and finished two and a half lengths ahead of stablemate Goldinthebadlands for owners Donald and Sheila Anness. He is just a nose short of a perfect record in four starts so far.

To view Sunday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Sunday Results - Miami.
BY OLIVIA ROSE

PRIMARY healthcare experts visited the TCI this week to offer support and guidance to the Government in making improvements to the sector.





The Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) hosted a three-day seminar at Opus restaurant in Providenciales.





Local healthcare stakeholders attended the informative event, which was hosted from Tuesday to Thursday (July 25 to 27).





Dr Gustavo Mery, PAHOs advisor of health systems and services, said that the organisation is working in partnership with the Government to focus on strengthening the delivery and accessibility of healthcare services.





He said: "Were supporting and collaborating with Government to discuss with different sectors and stakeholders in the country on the model of care they want to have implemented here in the Islands and whether it might be a better model of care to serve the needs of the population.





"Essentially the focus of our work is to try to have a strong first level of care and focusing on prevention and health promotion is the first line of work with the community.





Dr Mery noted that significant emphasis must be placed on community healthcare if the vision of a healthier and empowered nation is to be realised.





He said: "We would like to be able to address these issues before people get sick, before they acquire diseases especially non-communicable diseases related with obesity, nutrition and sedentary lifestyle, alcohol and tobacco and other risk factors that we know that are hurting people.





"Also trying to be close to people who already have a disease and any type of condition and to develop a solution that is holistic, that underlines that physical, mental and social aspect of people in communities.





He said that the seminar provides the opportunity for healthcare providers in the TCI to be brought up to par with primary healthcare modules across the Caribbean and internationally.





"We dont have a lot of experience and studies here to say what is going to work here, so it has to be an open discussion so we need to think and advance the implementation.





The PAHO advisor noted that while significant strides have been made in primary healthcare locally, there is room for improvement.





"The first day was a very important engagement. We had a lot people giving opinions and brainstorming ideas about how can we find new ways of advancing.





"The second day were going to try to put all that information together and try to start modelling what is the approach that we want to work with, and the third day were talking concretely about how were going to implement that model and bring forth changes in the system that people can see.





Chief Nursing Officer Jacqueline Sutton told press that the workshop was fruitful.





"The take away from this, is that we have agreed on in principle a model of care for the Turks and Caicos Islands in the primary healthcare system.




By Daisy Handfield

AN UNKNOWN number of illegal immigrants managed to escape local authorities and enter the Turks and Caicos Islands on Monday (July 24).





According to a police report, a sloop was detected 3.3 miles from North West Point, Providenciales, at about 11.30pm.





A Coastal Radar Station operator reported the incident and police and immigration officials were dispatched to the area.





When they arrived, the passengers were no long on the wooden boat and it had partially sunk.





At time of press, officers continue to make checks between Malcolms Beach and North West Point where several people have been seen escaping into the bush.





One woman was caught during the search, has been detained and is being processed by immigration.





Police are encouraging the public to contact law enforcement with any information concerning the whereabouts of illegal migrants or pending sloop arrivals.





During a House of Assembly meeting in Grand Turk on Wednesday (July 26), Sean Astwood, Minister of Border Control and Immigration, said that one of the key focuses of the Department of Immigration is to strengthen law enforcement in relation to illegal migration, human smuggling and illegal employment.





He said: "Around the world, this 616 nautical square miles at high tide and 948 at low tide of pristine white sandy beaches with its breath-taking sunsets and warm friendly people is known as paradise, but to us here it is known as home, our home.





"For too long we have allowed persons to enter this country and threaten our health, our livelihood and I daresay, our very existence, but today, I say enough is truly enough and this, we will tolerate no more.




By Delana Isles

DEPUTY Premier Sean Astwood is encouraging Islanders to apply for jobs they see advertised in the local newspapers as work permit applications hit a new high.





Astwood, who was speaking in the House of Assembly on Wednesday (July 26), reported that the Labour Department continues to see "record numbers of people applying for work permits.





As such he called on local people to apply to for jobs and to be forefront during the many job fairs that are held throughout the country.





He encouraged: "Do not be deterred by the advertisement that is a requirement for a work permit renewal, a renewal is only possible if no Turks and Caicos Islanders apply.





He stated that gone are the days when they should sit idly by and watch others prosper while Islanders suffer in their own country.





"It has long been time for a change and I dare say change is here, so change we must.





"Again I say, please, apply for the jobs being advertised, be prompt and present on the days of interviews, land those jobs, then show up and show them what Turks and Caicos Islanders can do.





"No longer shall we be oppressed in our own home, he said.





The minister further assured out-of-work Islanders that the Labour Department will support and promote them, stating that they do not have to do it all on their own.





"When you apply for jobs, make sure that every application is copied to Employment Services, and if you are unemployed or underemployed, ensure that you come in and register with the Job Placement Unit within the department.





"Together we can turn the employment statistics around.





From the side of the ministry, Astwood added that the department will also be going into communities to register those who require assistance with job placement.





"We will be holding our first national career expo, which will include a job fair later on in the year and we are also in the process of formalising programmes to assist our young professionals and our students, especially those that have recently graduated.





Getting youth into work

Astwood also encouraged recent high school graduates to go immediately to the employment services department and register.





While programmes such as apprenticeships, internships and mentorships are necessary, they are currently missing areas that will steer young people into qualifying for employment in the local services industry, he said.





Also needed, he added, are programmes that help support youths academically while also providing the critical role models and support to the family structure and communities.





They also need to provide corporate funding for tertiary education and a secure place of employment on their return from study, the minister said.





"These are the critical programmes that, together with the advancement of our educational programs and the development of vocational study, will be the roots of change for the minds of our youth, and the very foundation for a future where we can see little to no delinquency.





He therefore called on every corporation operating in the TCI to stop paying lip service to helping to grow the country.





"We cannot succeed if we do not grow our people. I am grateful to those that have helped throughout the years and I am calling on others to rise with this Government and make a change for our future.





However, he did acknowledge that while employment of and for Islanders is paramount on the Governments agenda, there is no TCI without a migrant population particularly in such a thriving economy and a regeneration of the construction industry.





"Therefore, to my corporate citizens I say, know that we do understand that your businesses are critical to the success of our country, and our improved due-diligence is not intended to cripple your businesses but rather to ensure that at all times, you have the right people, in the right

positions, for the benefit of all.





He added that his ministry will be seeking additional resources to facilitate compliance inspections and will further seek to institute an annual certification and points system for all corporations in the TCI, based on their employment practices.





This, he said, will hopefully see a reduced number of cases reaching conciliation and trials.





These officers will also share tips at annual general meetings on ways to avoid industrial disputes and essential tips on enjoying employment, just to name a few of the Governments initiatives, Astwood stated.




By Olivia Rose

GOVERNMENTs proposed policies to collect revenue from operators in the vacation villa rental sector will level the playing field for all accommodation providers in the Turks and Caicos Islands.





This sentiment was expressed by Tourism Minister Ralph Higgs in the House of Assembly on Wednesday (July 26).





He said that the Governments plan to sign a memorandum of understanding with Airbnb will secure entry opportunities for local businesses which may seek to enter into this segment of the hospitality sector.





Last week Cabinet granted approval for the Ministry of Finance, Investment and Trade to begin discussions with Airbnb on a memorandum of understanding to stop tax evasion.





Higgs told the House that these negotiations will enable the Government to collect revenue from operators and support the regulation of vacation villa rental accommodation in TCI.





During his ministerial statement in the House, Higgs said: "My ministry has advanced the Vacation Rentals by Owner (VRBO) and Airbnb policy. Significant progress has been made in this area through a number of productive fact finding meetings with key stakeholders including Airbnb as an organisation and through the findings of a consultation carried out in the TCI by a VROB specialist from Europe, who has helped with the implementation of VRBO policies in a number of Caribbean jurisdictions.





"As you are probably aware, there is an urgent need to regulate VRBO, Airbnb, Flip Cay and similar organisations conducting business across our Islands.





Minister Higgs emphasised that the policy and regulation are also designed to protect Government revenue and establish enforceable quality assurance standards across all spectrums of available accommodations in the Islands.





He said: "Mr Speaker, the ministry is pursuing these new policies and making the necessary legislative and regulatory amendments in concert with the Ministry of Finance and the Tourist Board.





The issue was brought to light by owners of the Regent Grand who recently voiced their concern about the long running tax evasion practice of some villas, condos and private homes in the TCI.





A call for greater regulatory practices was also made by the Chamber of Commerce and the Hotel and Tourism Association when they met for the first time with the new Government.





Premier Sharlene Cartwright Robinson at a press conference in March said the Government had already sent legislation aimed at regulating the businesses to the Attorney Generals Chambers for implementation over the next four years.





"We want to do that from two standpoints and that is to make sure that we are not losing revenue and to make sure that the industry is regulated, but also in the issue of national security.





"We want to know who is renting where and given the recent unsettling environment as it relates to crime, we want to know where people are in this country.





"It is important to know where tourists are in these stand-alone villas and heavily bushed not well lit areas.





"We want to be able to protect our product and protect tourists who continue to rent under the RBOs.





"I dont want to give the impression that all of them are illegal or unregulated but it is an industry that has to be managed and managed better.





In a recent press statement, both the TCHTA and the chamber, stated that private home owners are using platforms like Airbnb, VRBO and other online sites to secure bookings.





This, they said is an emerging business which needs regulating as it can be a revenue source for the administration in the collection of taxes.




By Daisy Handfield

THE LIFELESS body of Andrew Jamal Parker, better known as Bookie, was found in his Providenciales home on Tuesday (July 25).





Sources close to the deceased told press that a missing person report was made when the 36-year-old man was not seen for two days.





At about 7.56am on Tuesday, police visited the property in Musgrove Close, Kew Town.





His body was found and he was pronounced dead at 8.45am.





At the time, no foul play was suspected and detectives have said that they were awaiting an autopsy report to determine the exact cause of death.





Trevor Botting, Deputy Commissioner of the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force (RTCIPF), offered condolences to Parkers family.





He said: "Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of Andrew. The RTCIPF are seeking to establish the circumstances of Andrews passing and at this time his death is considered unexplained.





Family members and friends took to social media to express their grief and astonishment on the loss.





One said: "Deepest condolences. [He was] one of my favourite students. [He was] always shouting out to me no matter where he was, even on the mic. RIP [rest in peace] Andrew.





One family member said: "Ill never forget the times we talked; Ill never forget the secrets. I keep them in my heart, theyre locked.





"All the times we shared so happily. Ill always remember the way you laughed, your smile and your songs.





"All the times we shared together and all the times that we spent. Holiday get togethers will never be the same without you here to share the joy.





"Now that you are gone all we can do is cry because if love alone could have saved you, you never would have died.




Venezuela`s Maduro claims poll victory as opposition cries foul

Government officials celebrated the results but the opposition has cried foul.

BBC Online :

Electoral officials in Venezuela say turnout in the controversial election for a constituent assembly was 41.5%, a figure disputed by the opposition.

The opposition coalition said 88% of voters abstained and it refused to recognise the election. It also called for more protests on Monday.

Sunday's election was marred by violence, with widespread protests and at least 10 people killed.

President Nicolas Maduro hailed the poll as a "vote for the revolution".

Image caption President Maduro hailed the vote as a victory

Vote highlights polarisation - Katy Watson, BBC South America correspondent in Caracas:

President Maduro spoke at length on television after the results came out.

It was a victory speech for him and his followers but after a day of violence on the streets it's a pretty hollow victory - if you can even call it that.

For all the talk of the vote being an example of democracy, critics accuse him of voter fraud and intimidation and many don't believe the official numbers of voter turnout.

This vote highlights just how polarised the country is with a president who ploughs on regardless of the millions of people who object to it.

The anger was palpable on the streets of Caracas on Sunday with crowds of people defying a protest ban and building barricades, awaiting confrontations with police.

It's a scene we've seen for several months now and one that, given the way this vote has gone, we will no doubt see more of.

Venezuelans were asked to choose the more than 500 representatives who will make up a constituent assembly.

The constituent assembly was convened by President Maduro to rewrite the existing constitution, which was drafted and passed in 1999 when his mentor, President Hugo Chavez, was in office.

The head of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Tibisay Lucena, on Monday announced that there had been an "extraordinary turnout" of more than eight million voters.

She also announced that the wife of President Maduro, Cilia Flores, was among those elected as representatives, as well as the president's close allies Diosdado Cabello, Iris Varela and Delcy Rodriguez.

The announcement was met with outrage and derision by the opposition, who boycotted the vote.

Opposition politician Henry Ramos Allup said their figures suggested fewer than 2.5 million Venezuelans had turned out to vote.

With the opposition boycotting the election from the start and not fielding any candidates, it was always less about who would be elected and more about how many Venezuelans would take part in the voting.

The opposition held an unofficial referendum two weeks before the election asking Venezuelans whether they wanted a constituent assembly at all. According to opposition figures, more than seven million Venezuelans rejected the constituent assembly in that vote.

The opposition urged Venezuelans to stay at home and even some Chavistas (supporters of the socialist movement created by President Hugo Chavez and of which Mr Maduro is a part) said they objected to the constituent assembly and would not vote.

There were widespread reports of public sector workers being told by their bosses to go and vote or face being sacked.
Australian plane plot may have involved bomb or gas

Police prepare to search for evidence at a block of flats in the Sydney suburb of Lakemba on Monday, after counter-terrorism raids across the city at the weekend.

AFP, Sydney :

Four men accused of plotting to bring down a plane planned to use poisonous gas or a crude bomb disguised as a meat mincer, reports said Monday, with Australian officials calling preparations "advanced".

The men-reportedly two Lebanese-Australian fathers and their sons- were arrested in raids across Sydney on Saturday evening.

The Sydney Daily Telegraph said they allegedly planned to carry the device on board a commercial flight from Sydney to a Middle East destination as hand luggage.

It said the idea was to use wood scrapings and explosive material inside a piece of kitchen equipment such as a mincing machine.

The Sydney Morning Herald also reported that a mincer was being examined,while The Australian newspaper cited multiple sources as saying it was a "non-traditional" device that could have emitted a toxic sulphur-based gas.

This, it said, would have killed or immobilised everyone on the aircraft.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the plans were "advanced" but refused to comment on the conflicting claims over the method of attack.

"I have to respect the integrity of the investigations," he said.

"But I can say that certainly the police will allege they had the intent and were developing the capability.

"There will obviously be more to say over coming days. It will be alleged that this was an Islamist, extremist terrorist motivation."

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin on Sunday said the aviation industry was potentially a target and that an improvised explosive device was involved.

Justice Minister Michael Keenan on Monday called the plans "quite sophisticated".

"It was a plot to bring down an aircraft with the idea of smuggling a device on to it to enable them to do that," he said.

A magistrate late Sunday gave police an additional seven days to detain the men, who have not been officially named, without charge.

Police continued to gather evidence Monday at the five homes raided, warning the investigation would be "very long and protracted".

TV footage on Saturday showed riot police moving on a terraced house in the inner-city suburb of Surry Hills, with a man with a bandage on his head being led away by authorities, draped in a blanket.

A woman at the address denied they had any link to terrorism.

Security has been strengthened at major domestic and international airports across Australia since the raids, with passengers asked to arrive early and to limit their baggage.

Australia's national terror alert level was raised on September 2014 amid concerns over attacks by individuals inspired by organisations such as Islamic State.

A total of 12 attacks, before the latest one, have been prevented in the past few years, while 70 people have been charged.

Several terror attacks have taken place in Australia in recent years,including a Sydney cafe siege in 2014 that saw two hostages killed.




CUB inks MoU with LankaBangla Finance

Prof William H Derrenger, Vice Chancellor, Canadian University of Bangladesh and Md. Shariful Islam Mridha, Head of Human Resources, LankaBangla Finance Ltd exchanging the MoU documents after signing it at the University Auditorium on Saturday.

Campus Report :

Canadian University of Bangladesh (CUB) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with LankaBangla Finance Ltd Saturday. Prof William H Derrenger, Vice Chancellor, CUB and Md. Shariful Islam Mridha, Head of Human Resources, LankaBangla Finance signed the MoU on behalf of their respective institutions at the Auditorium of CUB.

Dr Chowdhury Nafeez Sarafat, Founder and Chairman, CUB was the Chief Guest in the MoU signing ceremony. Md. Shariful Islam Mridha also gave a valuable speech on 'Career in Finance' after the MoU signing ceremony.

The aims of the MoU are to provide educational training and promote internship opportunities to the students of Canadian University of Bangladesh.

Hanif Mahtab, Associate Professor, School of Business and Proctor and Head of Career Service Wing conducted the program. Among others, Brig Gen Md. Asaduzzaman Subhani (Retd.), Registrar, Canadian University of Bangladesh, SM Arifuzzaman, Associate Professor and Head, School of Business and Md. Latiful Khabir, Assistant Professor, School of Business and Head of Student Service Wing & Students' Directorate of Canadian University of Bangladesh were also present in the occasion.


Japan Airlines logs quarterly profit gain, upgrades outlook

AFP, Tokyo :

Japan Airlines (JAL) on Monday reported a jump in quarterly net profit thanks to brisk sales at home and overseas, and revised its full-year forecast upward.

JAL, once a symbol of Japan's rise from the ashes of defeat in World War II as it ferried the country's newly rich tourists around the world, received a government bailout after a high-profile bankruptcy restructuring in 2010.

After slashing routes and cutting costs, the carrier relisted on the Tokyo bourse two years later and has continued a steady ascent.

JAL said its net profit rose 32.9 percent to 19.6 billion yen ($177 million) for the three months to June.

Revenue for the April-June period increased 5.9 percent to 314.8 billion yen.

"In international passenger operations, inbound demand from overseas remained robust and outbound demand has been buoyant, resulting in higher load factors than the year before," JAL said in a statement.

The company upgraded its full-year forecast, projecting 108 billion yen in net profit for the fiscal year to March 2018, up from 100 billion yen forecast earlier.

Annual sales are now seen at 1.348 trillion yen compared with 1.339 trillion yen forecast before.

"Full-year consolidated revenues are expected to increase ... as international

passenger unit revenue, domestic passenger demand, and cargo demand outperformed

their respective forecasts for the first quarter," it said.

The upward revision was also due to "lower-than-expected fuel prices during the reporting period and continuous efforts to increase cost-effectiveness throughout the year", JAL added.

Rival carrier All Nippon Airways is scheduled to announce its quarterly earnings on Wednesday.

"International operations in the industry are expected to remain strong for now due to an increase in landing slots... ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics," said Hiroshi Hasegawa, an analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities in Tokyo.

"But the industry is always subject to geopolitical factors such as terrorism and the North Korea issue," Hasegawa told AFP ahead of the JAL release.




Parambrata, Sharlin Farzana in Feluda`s Eid fiction

Sheikh Arif Bulbon :

Prodosh Chandra Mitra alias Feluda is one of the popular imaginary character of Bengali literature by Oscar winner noted filmmaker Satyajit Ray.

In December 1965, first story of Feluda series Feludar Goyendagiri was published in Sandesh magazine. From 1965 to 1997 a total of 35 full and four incomplete stories and novels of this series were published. Satyajit Roy made two films from his novels - Sonar Kella and Joybaba Felunath. Legendary actor Soumitra Chatterjee played the role of Feluda in these movies.

Later son of Satyajit Roy Sandip Ray also made TV serials and movies based on his fathers stories and novels. Till now 11 stories of Satyajit Ray have been used to make movies.

Under Satyajits direction two films and under Sandip Rays direction other films Baksho Rahashya (1996), Bombaiyer Bombete (2003), Kailashey Kelenkari (2007), Goronsthaney Sabdhan (2010), Royal Bengal Rahashya (2011), Badshahi Angti (2014) and Double Feluda (2016) were made till now. From Bombaiyer Bombete to next ones Sabyasachi Chakraborty played the role of Feluda.

On December 19, 2014, movie Badsahahi Angti was released where Abir Chatterjee was seen to act in role of Feluda. Feluda series last film Double Feluda was released on December 18 in 2016. Sabyasachi again came back in role of Feluda by this movie.

This time for Bangladeshi viewers on the occasion of coming Eid a fiction play is being made based on the story of Feluda titled Sheyal Debotar Rahashya. Parambrata of Kolkata is playing the role of Feluda where against him Bangladeshs Sharlin Farzana will act in role of Munmun in the fiction play. Aniruddho is making the play to telecast in four to five channels in Eid. While talking about to play the role of Feluda Parambrata told this correspondent, It is really a joyful matter to work in a fiction series of Feluda. We are trying to make it a good work. Therefore, now web series has become a popular to all. It is its first step. I hope everybody will enjoy this in Eid.

Sharlin shared her feelings by this way, For the first time in Bangladesh, any fiction of Feluda is being made. I am working in this play which makes me glad. I am trying my level best to portray my role properly. I hope it will be a new experience in Eid.

Among Bangladeshi actors Tariq Anam Khan, Shahed Ali, among others, are also acting in other roles in the play.

Its shooting is being held in different locations in Dhaka now.


China hits back at Trump criticism

Reuters, Beijing :

China hit back on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted he was "very disappointed" in China following Pyongyang's latest missile test, saying the problem did not arise in China and that all sides need to work for a solution. China has become increasingly frustrated with American and Japanese criticism that it should do more to

rein in Pyongyang. China is North Korea's closest ally, but Beijing is angry with its continued nuclear and missile tests.

North Korea said on Saturday it had conducted another successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile that proved its ability to strike the U.S. mainland, drawing a sharp warning from Trump and a rebuke from China.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spoke with Trump on Monday and agreed on the need for more action on North Korea just hours after the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations said Washington is "done talking about North Korea".

A White House statement after the phone call said the two leaders "agreed that North Korea poses a grave and growing direct threat to the United States, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and other countries near and far".

It said Trump "reaffirmed our ironclad commitment" to defend Japan and South Korea from any attack, "using the full range of United States capabilities".

Trump wrote on Twitter on Saturday after the missile test that he was "very disappointed" in China and that Beijing profits from U.S. trade but had done "nothing" for the United States with regards to North Korea, something he would not allow to continue. China's Foreign Ministry, in a statement sent to Reuters responding to Trump's tweets, said the North Korean nuclear issue did not arise because of China and that everyone needed to work together to seek a resolution.

"All parties should have a correct understanding of this," it said, adding the international community widely recognized China's efforts to seek a resolution.

The essence of Sino-U.S. trade is mutual benefit and win-win, with a vast amount of facts proving the healthy development of business and trade ties is good for both countries, the ministry added.

Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Qian Keming, weighed in too, telling a news conference there was no link between the North Korea issue and China-U.S. trade.

"We think the North Korea nuclear issue and China-US trade are issues that are in two completely different domains. They aren't related. They should not be discussed together," Qian said.
Putin orders ouster of 755 US diplomatic staff

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that 755 staff must leave US diplomatic missions, in retaliation for new US sanctions against Moscow.

The decision to cut staff was made on Friday, but Mr Putin has now confirmed the number who must go by 1 September.

It brings staff levels to 455, the same as Russia's complement in Washington.

This is thought to be the largest action against diplomatic staff from any country in modern history, says the BBC's Laura Bicker in Washington.

The number includes Russian employees of the US diplomatic missions across Russia, the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Moscow adds.Staff in the embassy in Moscow as well as the consulates in Ekaterinburg, Vladivostok and St Petersburg are affected, she says. The US said the move was a "regrettable and uncalled for act".

"We are assessing the impact of such a limitation and how we will respond to it," a state department official said. It is not known exactly how many US citizens are employed in the diplomatic missions currently. However, a State Department Inspector General's report in 2013 said more than 900 staff members were "local hires", with only 301 "direct-hire" staff, meaning it seems likely a far lower number than 755 will be actually forced to leave Russia. Mr Putin did strike a conciliatory note, saying he did not want to impose more measures, but also said he could not see ties changing "anytime soon".

Mr Putin told Russian television: "More than 1,000 people were working and are still working" at the US embassy and consulates, and that "755 people must stop their activities in Russia".

Russia has also said it is seizing holiday properties and a warehouse used by US diplomats.

Mr Putin suggested he could consider more measures, but said: "I am against it as of today."
Time for talk on N.Korea 'is over': US

AFP :

The time for talk on North Korea is "over", the United States said, spurning a UN response to Pyongyang's latest ICBM launch in favour of bomber flights and missile defence system tests.

Nikki Haley, the US envoy to the United Nations, said there was "no point" in holding a fruitless emergency Security Council session, warning that another weak council resolution would be "worse than nothing" in light of the North's repeated violations.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un boasted of his country's ability to strike any target in the US after an intercontinental ballistic missile test Friday which weapons experts said could even bring New York into range-a major challenge to President Donald Trump.

US strategic bombers on Saturday flew over the Korean peninsula in a direct response to the launch, and on Sunday American forces successfully tested a missile interception system which the US hopes will be installed on the Korean peninsula. Under Kim's leadership, North Korea has accelerated its drive towards a credible nuclear strike capability, in defiance of international condemnation and multiple sets of UN sanctions. The US Senate passed new bipartisan sanctions on Pyongyang on Friday.

Haley urged China, Japan and South Korea to tighten the screws on Pyongyang.

"An additional Security Council resolution that does not significantly increase the international pressure on North Korea is of no value," she said in a statement late Sunday.

"It sends the message to the North Korean dictator that the international community is unwilling to seriously challenge him.

"China must decide whether it is finally willing to take this vital step. The time for talk is over."

Analysts said the comments indicated Washington had run out of patience with the diplomatic approach, and could consider military intervention.
Beastly

4-year-old girl raped & killed:Rapist a jail bird

Staff Reporter :

It's another incident of brutality. It's another story of a beast where a four-year-old girl was killed after violation by a jailbird in the city's Badda on Sunday.



The city people came to know about the incident after the police recovered the body of Tanha, 4, daughter of Mehedi, from inside a toilet of a tin-shed house adjacent to Abul Hotel in Adarshanagar area.



And obviously it was another big shock to the countrymen after the Bogra incident.



The members of Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) arrested the suspected rapist-cum-killer, identified as M. Shipon, 35, in connection with the recovery of girl's body on Sunday night.



Police said the baby at first was taken to the room of the rapist in the name of giving food and then she was strangulated to death.



Officer-in-Charge of Badda Police Station MA Jalil said that the body bore strangulation mark on its neck and injury marks on both legs. "The arrested suspect Shipon confessed in police custody that he raped Tanha and killed her when she was screaming," the OC said.



The girl was found unconscious next to a toilet at Badda on Sunday night and was declared dead after she was taken to the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, said Kawser Ahmed, Assistant Sub-Inspector of the police station.

"The child lived with her parents near the scene of the crime," he said. "An initial investigation suggests she was allured by saying that she would be given food. Then she was raped," the ASI said.



Police have seized Tanhas blood-shine dress, rapist's lungi, genji, a bed sheet as crime evidence. A case was filed with the police station in this connection. The body was sent toe DMCH morgue for an autopsy.



Meanwhile, briefing Joint Commissioner (DB) Abdul Baten said the perpetrator reportedly raped the minor girl after alluring her with food. "The detectives started shadow investigation alongside local police station soon after the incident came to light," he said.



Tanha had been residing at a rented house of Adarshanagar with her parents. Arrested Shipon was one of their neighbours, living in a rented room with his wife.



Shipon had been working as a day labourer, since recently being released from jail after five years. When Tanha was returning home on Thursday crossing Shipon's room, he pulled Tanha inside his room alluring her with food, and then he allegedly raped her, according to police.



As Tanha cried out for help, Shipon strangled her, and after the girl died, fled the scene throwing the body of Tanha into a toilet of the house.



Mehedi, the father of the ill-fated girl filed a case with Badda police station accusing the arrested Shipon, said Abdul Jalil, the OC of the police station.
Moosa sued for tax evasion

UNB, Dhaka :

A case was filed on Monday against business tycoon Moosa Bin Shamsher for dodging around Tk 2.17 crore tax in having luxury car.

Zakir Hossain, an assistant revenue officer of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID), filed the case with Gulshan Police Station under the Money Laundering Prevention Act.

According to the case statement, Moosa registered the luxury car, Range Rover, showing a fake bill of entry after paying Tk 17 lakh as tax. The vehicle was imported under the carnet facility.

According to the sources at Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, the vehicle was registered against the name of one Farukuzzaman, a resident of Pabna district.

The CIID officials found that the car with the registration plate, Bhola Gha-11-00-35, was registered against the fake name with false description to avoid taxes.

It was also found during the investigation that a total of Tk 2.17 crore was supposed to be paid as tax.

On March 21 last, the customs officials seized the vehicle.

Earlier, Moosa in a written statement said he had deposited Tk 90,000 crore to Swiss banks but he did not provide any legal documents.

On May 7, the CIID decided to file separate cases against the controversial business tycoon on charges of laundering money and dodging tax as it found the proof of money laundering and tax evasion after interrogating Moosa.
People want their UP to be model one

UNB, Dhaka :

As they are set to celebrate the second anniversary of their enclave swap, the residents of ex-enclave Dashiarchara in Phulbari upazila under Kurigram district are demanding that their union be elevated to a model one. Among the 111 ex-enclaves, the biggest one is Dashiarchara, which has now got a different look due to massive development works everywhere since its swap two years back.

While talking to this correspondent, Altaf Hossain, president of Dashiarchara unit of the now-defunct Enclave Exchange Coordination Committee, said, "There has been development in every sector. The lifestyle of people has changed. It is now our heart-felt demand to the government to upgrade the area into a model union."

Phulbari Upazila Nirbahi Officer Debendra Nath Urao said the dwellers of Dashiarchara merged with the mainstream people of Bangladesh forgetting their miseries of 68 years. The inhabitants of the abolished enclave came under different social safety net and development programmes, he said adding, "We're committed to reaching any government service to the doorsteps of inhabitants."

"We're now easily getting all kinds of agricultural services, including kerosene, diesel, seed and fertilizer due to the merge of the area with Bangladesh," said a farmer of Dashiarchara.

While visiting the area, a woman of the resident said they are now availing of all medical services from the community clinics built by the government which was once out of reach.

Another woman said she is very happy with the government's successful initiative as she is enjoying power facilities for her children's education and other household activities. "We're availing ourselves of all kinds of modern amenities following the merge of this enclave. It's a real dream what our forefathers did not see," said another resident of Dashiarchara. A festive mood is prevailing in the area as the residents of Dashiarchara are going to celebrate the day amid the boundless ecstasy.
Siddiqur won`t get back eye sight, says Indian doctor

Doctors have found no hope of getting back sight of Siddiqur Rahman, whose eyes were damaged in "police action" during a demonstration at Shahbagh on July 20.

"Even a surgery would not help get back his sight," Lingom Gopal, an ophthalmist at the Sankar Sankara Nethralaya Hospital in Chennai told this to his family members after examining Siddiqur's eyes on Monday.

Siddiqur's classmate Sheikh Farid informed this to The New Nation in the evening quoting his elder brother Nayeb Ali.

Siddiqur, a third-year political science student at Titumir College in capital, was taken to India for better treatment on Thursday.

Nayeb Ali and Zahidul Ahsan Menon, an Assistant Professor and retina surgeon at the National Institute of Ophthalmology (NIO), accompanied him to Sankara Nethralaya Hospital in Chennai.

"The doctor in the morning examined eyes of Siddiqur and said he would not get back his sight even after a surgery is performed. Loss of sight is obvious due to fatal injury on his eyes.

We earlier hoped my brother would see again. But the hope comes to an end following the statement of doctors," said Sheikh Farid quoting Nayeb Ali.

The government is bearing the cost his treatment.

Siddiqur's eyes were damaged after a policeman, as seen in a video clip available on social media, shot a teargas canister directly at the agitating college students. Siddiqur collapsed on the street instantly.

The physicians had earlier said Siddiqur suffered a "blunt" injury in his eyes caused by some thick and heavy objects.
Men, women and children are crying for help but no help assured

The most shocking rape of a three and half year-old child and then killing her by strangulation in the capital city is repulsive and intolerable in a civilised society. It is not just one incident. Such brutal crimes now have become a regular affair. Most of them do not come to public attention unless disclosed by the media.



The other recent brutal and law defying rape incident took place last Friday in Bogra. A ruling party leader was so carelessly bold that not only he but his party men also joined him to shave the head of the college girl and that of her mother to establish their authority to be feared. Not only in Bogra, in most places ruling party men along with the local Member of the Parliament have organised their autocratic rule defying the central government. There are allegations that such brutal acts and violent crimes are being committed with the willing or unwilling cooperation of the local police. Thus we are living in a situation where criminals are busy committing crimes and police are busy arresting. But no help to the people.



It is not only the deteriorating of overall law and order situation of the country - ranging from the rise in the violence against women and children, mismanagement in returning our illegal immigrants from Europe, unwarranted conflict between the Law Ministry and Supreme Court, unrepaired roads and highways, rampant vandalism witnessed in our public university campuses to unbridled corruption at every level of the government - it seems that the chain of a state's system is somehow falling apart.



There is no political thinking for dealing with the chaos, crimes and violences. The police enjoy unlimited power to handle crime and violence. There is no understanding that political governments are considered best for politically securing public cooperation of all concerned for peace and order in a country. But the government depends wholly on police.



The repercussions of visible mismanagement of the government in public life including its shameful incompetence to ensure safety of life are enormous and no civilised country can live with it. But the government appears busy to survive in a world of falsehood of economy development. Most such stories of development are manufactured by the few corrupt bureaucrats.



Additionally, barely four months ago The United Nations Working Group on Involuntary and Enforced Disappearances stated that some 40 people have been disappeared without a clue, and the UN body said the government to stop increased number of disappearances. In most cases the abducted persons have been missing for more than six months. This is a dangerous threat to public safety and security. The public and the international humanitarian bodies are frequently concerned about their well-being.



Under the dominance of bureaucrats the Ministers are busy talking tall of so-called developments achieved by the government but not seen or appreciated by the people.



The people do not feel the existence of a government to make their lives and those of their children safe. They know big developments are nothing but big corruption units. Security of life is the least assurance a government should be able to ensure.



They claim credit for fighting terrorism, but unable to make life safe from their own party criminals.



Until and unless the big crimes come to light through media, the people are afraid to complain about the wrongs they suffer locally.



After the crimes, arrests are made quickly because the police who indulge in crimes. Then in some quarters doubts remain if right persons are arrested or they are punished in the end. To put it more straightly, the people have no faith about the government's truthfulness and competence to give protection to their lives. The government should think hard about their responsibility, accountability to the people.




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CAIRO  Maren Kasper, HUD Secretary Ben Carsons senior adviser on Cairo and the Alexander County Housing Authority, and other senior federal housing officials, recently traveled to Cairo to meet with the Cairo Public Utility Co. to seek rate relief for the ACHA.

Abnormally high utility costs are among the primary reasons that the local housing authority is insolvent, according to an April 2017 financial review of the Alexander County Housing Authority conducted by Housing and Urban Development.

The report had not been made public yet, and Cairo Public Utility Co. General Manager Larry Klein said that Kasper and the other federal officials traveling with her shared a copy with CPUC officials that day. They also informed the utility that they could only pay so much, and it wasn't their full bill, or they were going to fold.

They dropped a bomb on us in that meeting, Klein said.

They drove the bus and backed it up over us, added Glen Klett, the utilitys assistant manager.

But you know, weve spent a lot of time under that bus, Klein said. It aint the first time  Ive been tied to that whipping pole many times.

The report indicated that the housing authoritys total utility expenses equated to a monthly average cost of $197.04 per unit, more than double the $86.78 per-unit monthly rate of its peer group. The report indicated that this was due to a number of factors, including excessive consumption due to deferred maintenance needs, obsolesces of the units and ACHAs isolated rural location.

During the past five reporting periods, the ACHA has paid in excess of $1 million in total utility costs annually, according to the report. Most of that was paid to Cairo Public Utility. The housing authority also manages a housing complex in Thebes that is serviced by Ameren Illinois.

CPUC: We're trying to work with HUD

Klein and Klett said that although they were not happy about the report, they were willing to listen to the concerns of HUD officials and offered to help where they could. Klein said if the utility offers the ACHA a price break  morally and legally  it must do the same for all commercial customers in the same rate class.

Klein said thats not something the utility has the means to do at this time  but Klett said they have found other ways to work together with the ACHA and the HUD officials managing it in receivership.

Jereon Brown, HUDs general deputy assistant secretary for public affairs, said that from HUDs perspective, CPUs managers have been cooperative and interested in the parties working together to keep the ACHAs lights on  both literally and figuratively.

Thats good because it actually will help the housing authority get back on  well, close to  financial footing," Brown said.

Brown also said he could not discuss the terms of the agreement. I can just tell you that they are being very, very community-oriented and they are interested in keep the housing authority as part of the community affordable housing and we consider that to be a very, very good thing.

Durbin: Rates are oppressive

Though neither the utility nor HUD would disclose what had been worked out, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said he was told by federal housing officials this past week that the two parties had reached an agreement for more reasonable costs moving forward. Durbin said that while that's a positive step, it doesn't address the underlying issue.

That still leaves a major problem for the rest of the city that signed up for what is oppressive electric utility rates, he said at the conclusion of a meeting in his Washington office on July 13 with Carson and Kasper, the ACHA adviser, Sen. Tammy Duckworth and others.

Klett noted that the HUD report listed as one of several options for getting the ACHA back on financial footing that it review its options for bankruptcy. Brown said that is a worst-case scenario, one that federal housing officials are trying to avoid. Klein and Klett said CPUC also wants to avoid a total shutdown of public housing in Cairo.

Their (potential) bankruptcy is a concern, Klett said. If youre in our shoes, what do you do?

Klein said he doesnt understand why the federal government cannot do more to right the situation. He said he wants to say to them, You know, are you just going to walk off and screw these little ole people down here thatre struggling?

In April, HUD officials announced that officials plan to demolish two large complexes  Elmwood and McBride  after moving the nearly 400 people living in them because the units are no longer safe. Because there is a shortage of affordable housing in Cairo, HUD officials told residents that most people will likely have to relocate to communities outside of Cairo.

The news was received by many as a devastating blow, and residents have pushed for answers about what happened to the millions of federal dollars allocated to the ACHA to maintain the complexes. In light of these questions, the newspaper launched its Nearly Bankrupt series in May  borrowing from the words Secretary Carson used to describe the extreme financial condition of the ACHA in a letter to the school superintendent. Utility payments have for years represented an outsized cost for the ACHA, according to HUD.

HUD has been operating the ACHA in administrative receivership since February 2016. Seeking relief from high utility costs has been a prime component of HUD's attempts to salvage and upgrade the remaining complexes and scattered site locations managed by the housing authority in Cairo and nearby Thebes, Brown said.

During the newspapers interview with Klein and Klett in mid-June, the two indicated they may have more information to share in the future about their electricity rates, but said they were not ready to discuss it at the time of the initial interview.

CPU about-face: HUD's assessment 'accurate'

Several weeks later, Todd Ely, a Springfield-based consultant, working with the utility company, reached out to provide additional information.

While Klein and Klett expressed disappointment in HUDs report discussing abnormally high rates, Ely called the federal governments assessment an accurate statement. He said the questions HUD officials have asked about the utility rates have prompted a thorough internal review and that the results have been surprising for Cairo Public Utility Co.

Ely said the results of the internal study revealed that Cairo Public Utility is paying 100 to 125 percent above market for wholesale electricity. We shouldnt be paying anywhere near that amount of money, he said.

Under the terms of a contract that originated in 1990 and was extended in 2005, Cairo Public Utility is required to purchase all of its electricity from the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency through 2035. Ely said IMEAs rates are uncompetitive because the agency has invested too heavily in coal-fired generating units. CPU has no choice but to accept the rates set by IMEA, he said.

In an emailed statement, Staci Wilson, IMEAs director of government affairs, said IMEA is aware of the housing and economic crisis facing Cairo and doing all it can to help. Because of the difficulties facing the city, IMEA recently extended a 3.3 percent rate reduction to Cairo, she said. But she noted that whatever breaks are extended to Cairo must be borne by the association's other 32 members. Wilson said that means there are limits to what the IMEA can do for Cairo. She also defended the organization's energy portfolio, saying it is diverse and intended to keep rates steady over the long haul.

Dave Lundy, who is working with Ely to provide consultancy services to CPU through this situation, said the discount doesnt go far enough. It amounts to about a $160,000 cost reduction from a roughly $5 million annual contract, he said.

Though an agreement has been reached with HUD, Lundy and Ely said CPUC managers understand that others are still burdened by the rates and that they are committed to fighting for IMEA to lower their rates or release Cairo from its contract.

For HUDs part, Brown, the agency spokesman, said the ACHA is pleased with the deal thats been brokered.

He said that HUD compared ACHAs costs to other housing authorities, and also looked at the age and efficiently of the 1940s-era units, and determined the charges were on the high side which is why we sat down with the utility company. According to HUD records reviewed by the newspaper, the federal agency did not specifically compare the ACHAs utility costs to other local housing authorities in Illinois operating in cities that purchase their electricity from the IMEA. Rather, HUD looked collectively at similar sized housing authorities in the Midwest region.
With Eclipse 2017 fast approaching, Ive invited the chair of SIUs Department of Anthropology, Professor John McCall, to share some reflections on the history and significance of eclipses to early peoples with pre-scientific understandings of such natural phenomena. I hope you will enjoy deepening your appreciation for the spectacle we are about to experience together right here in Southern Illinois.

In medieval times, the forecasting of eclipses and other heavenly phenomena was regarded as a sacred science, and the esoteric knowledge was kept secret. The work became more public in 1478 when a master astrologer, Abraham ben Samuel Zacuto, published tables of his calculations for the period 14751506. La Compilacion Magna, or as it came to be known by navigators, Almanach Perpetuum  a permanent almanac  proved to be a highly reliable celestial road map, and would become the definitive navigators manual for trans-oceanic exploration.

Zacutos Almanac played a prominent role in one of historys best known eclipse stories. When Christopher Columbus made his second trip to the New World, a native of the island we now know as Cuba told him of a place they called the Land of Blessed Gold, directing him south toward Jamaica. In June of that year, Columbus and two surviving ships of his depleted fleet ran aground in Jamaica.

Columbus eventually realized he had been duped about the gold, but the Taino natives who inhabited the island were kind to the stranded sailors. Columbus wrote that the Taino generously shared food with his crew, and were a peaceful people without weapons  coldly noting that they could therefore easily be forced into servitude. The Taino tolerated Columbus and his crew, at first. But eventually they became provoked by the sailors proclivity for unwelcome behavior, and began to refuse to share food.

Columbus knew that Zacutos Almanac forecasted a lunar eclipse for March 1, 1504. With his crew close to starvation, Columbus performed his now legendary bamboozle. He told the Taino natives that their gods had told him of their displeasure with the treatment of his crew. Knowing the precise moment of the eclipse, he was able to time his ruse so the sky would appear to darken on his cue, seeming to confirm his communication with the gods.

By Columbus account, the deception was effective, and the Spanish subjugation of the Taino of Jamaica was thus accomplished. While such stories must be regarded skeptically, the path of the 1504 eclipse is known, and Columbus account appears to be consistent with the darker side of his reputation.

Today, we have access to sophisticated guides and safe viewing recommendations provided by NASA and other researchers. But it wasnt always so, as the above story illustrates. Eclipses have signaled many things to human beings over millennia, inspiring awe, and sometimes fear, as celestial bodies seemed to bring myth to life, emphasizing in a powerfully visible way earths reliance upon the sun and the moon.

On Aug. 21, 2017, please join us as at the center of eclipse activity as the university hosts NASA, a guided experience at the stadium and many other activities marking the event. Were counting down! Visit eclipse.siu.edu and find out everything you need to know to enjoy totality to the fullest.
CARBONDALE  For the first time ever, people in the Southern Illinois region will be able to complete a bachelors degree from Southern Illinois University Carbondale at John A. Logan College in Carterville.

This fall, SIU Carbondale is introducing an off-campus bachelors degree completion program in workforce education and development at John A. Logan College.

The program, with specialization in organizational training and development, is geared toward adult learners who typically have completed some college classes or an associates degree and who have professional work experience and occupational training.

Through a combination of online and accelerated weekend classroom courses, participants can complete their baccalaureate degree in as little as one year, depending on their previous education and work experience.

Our students enter the program with life experience, professional work experience and occupational or military training, says Deborah Barnett, director of off-campus degree programs for the Department of Workforce Education and Development at SIU Carbondales College of Education and Human Services. We value this experience by evaluating it for college credit, and by incorporating it in the classroom through assignments, projects and real-world application.

The accelerated format incorporates 36 credit hours of major degree requirements, including six 16-week-long online classes. In addition, students will participate in a series of six consecutive, seated eight-week classes. Each seated class meets at JALC for eight hours every other Saturday as well as on Sunday during the first and last weekend of the session for a total of six attendance days per course. Students can also enroll on a part-time basis.

Heather Rose, of Marion, is one of the first to enroll in SIUs new WED program at John A. Logan. She graduated from Logan in fall 2016 but was unsure of what baccalaureate degree to pursue, so she took a little time off from school. Already established in her career and working full-time, she said the programs flexible schedule appealed to her.

I heard about the WED program through an academic adviser at John A. Logan and was instantly interested, Rose said. The program is based around catering to work schedules like mine, which is exactly what I was looking for. This program will help me to achieve my ultimate goal of obtaining my bachelors degree."

SIUs off-campus programs originated nearly a half-century ago at Scott Air Force Base, and the university currently has programs at a dozen sites, primarily military-affiliated. The John A. Logan College program is the newest off-campus program, and the closest geographically to SIU Carbondale. The university also offers an on-campus WED degree completion program that utilizes online and evening classes.

Nicole Mathis of Carterville is a spring 2017 graduate of the on-campus WED degree completion program at SIU, and said SIUs commitment to offering such flexible degree programs is very important to students. After being out of school for nearly 30 years, she discovered the WED program, enrolled and completed her degree.

This is a very versatile program with many opportunities for employment after graduation, Mathis said. The WED program is very flexible, which allowed me to still work full-time, be a mom and a grandmother.

Mathis plans to continue her education this fall as shell begin working on her WED masters degree at SIU.

Barnett said the on-campus program has been quite successful, but SIU officials became aware of the need for additional schedule and location flexibility, and the result is the partnership with JALC for the off-campus degree program.

President Ron House and JALC administrators have been wonderful to work with and have welcomed SIU and our WED program with open arms, Barnett said. We all embraced this opportunity not only as a collaborative partnership, but as a great benefit for JALC students and others in the Southern Illinois region who are considering pursuing a bachelors degree.

Barnett, who serves as the contact person for SIUs WED program at JALC, encourages anyone interested in the program to reach out to her soon since classes begin Aug. 26. As an adult learner who returned to college as a student herself, Barnett said she understands the excitement and anxiety of going back to school.

Just making the decision to apply and enroll in classes is probably the hardest part, she said. I always tell students that the time will pass anyway, so why not go ahead and begin taking steps toward the dream of earning their degrees?

Those interested can learn more about the Workforce Education and Development off-campus degree completion program at ehs.siu.edu/wed. Or, contact Barnett at 618-453-3321 or dbarnett@siu.edu.

In addition, SIU Extended Campus is offering two $500 scholarships to qualifying students enrolling in the WED program at JALC this fall. Learn more at extendedcampus.siu.edu/scholarships.
BENTON  Franklin County Coroner Marty Leffler confirmed that a Wayne County man's body was recovered from Rend Lake on Sunday after a weekend search; the man went underwater Friday after he dove in attempting to help two juveniles.

According to a news release from the coroner, Jeremy R. Jelley, 37, of Geff, Illinois, died after diving into Rend Lake around 8 p.m. Friday to save two "young females."

Franklin County Sheriff Don Jones said dispatch received a call at approximately 7:46 p.m. Friday from Jelley's girlfriend, Heather D. Bond, who is also identified as Heather Mitchell in other news reports. She told dispatchers that her boyfriend had gone underwater and had not resurfaced while they were boating with her daughter and her daughters step-sister on Rend Lake. Bond said she believed she was near North Marcum Branch access area, but was not completely sure.

Jones said Bond told police in an interview that the four of them got to the lake around 4 p.m. and that the boat belonged to Jelley.

Bond said it was starting to get dark, but the girls, who were wearing life jackets, wanted to jump in one more time before they left.

Jones said the wind had kicked up, making the water rough. Jones said that Bond told officials one girl swallowed some water and had trouble getting back to the boat, when the other went to help. Bond told police that after one girl screamed, Jelley jumped in.

In the meantime, the boat drifted. Jelley, who had reached the girls, tried telling Bond how to start the boat. After getting it started, Bond noticed the outboard motor was still up. After Bond was able to lower the motor, she said she was able to get close to one girl, but Jelley and one girl were still farther out.

Jones said Bond told officials she got one girl out, but again had trouble getting the boat started. She started to panic. Bond told police she could see the second girl, but could not see Jelley; meanwhile, the girl who remained in the water was screaming that she could not find Jelley. After she got to the location of the second girl, Bond said she could not find Jelley and then decided to called 911.

Jones said the two girls are OK.

Jones said a witness at the scene who was having picnic told authorities he or she saw someone jump into the water and not resurface.

Illinois Department of Natural Resources Conservation Officers as well as Army Corps of Engineer Rangers searched the lake Friday, Saturday and Sunday, until Jelley's body was found just after 10 a.m. Sunday by conservation officers near the North Marcum Branch access area of Rend Lake.

According to the release from Leflers office, Jelley's body was transported to the Williamson County Morgue, where an autopsy has been scheduled.

Jelley was a father of three. According to the coroners release, funeral arrangements are pending at the Johnson and Vaughn Funeral Home in Fairfield.
Laurel Police Department (LAUREL, Md.) -- One Maryland police officer is being applauded after he compassionately responded to a young mother he found shoplifting for her son.



The Laurel Police Department told ABC News that rookie officer Bennett Johns responded to a call at a local grocery store July 22.



There he learned a 20-year-old mother, who was with her young son, "was caught by security attempting to steal two packs of diapers," a statement from the department added.



"After she purchased some groceries she did not have enough money left over to buy the diapers," the statement continued. "Officer Johns considered the situation and then made the decision to purchase the diapers out of his own pocket so that the young child would not suffer."



The police department told ABC News that the officer "did cite this young woman for shoplifting, but we referred her to social services because we wanted to make sure she and her toddler were taken care of."



The department added that the young woman, who did they did not identify, is now receiving support from social services.



In a statement, the department thanked Officer Johns, who was sworn in last May "for not just fairly enforcing the law, but also showing empathy to an innocent child put in a difficult situation."



Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
The Benevolent Protective Order of Elks of Orangeburg presented checks to two organizations at the civic group's meeting on Tuesday.

Exalted Leader John Reid presented checks for $1,000 each to the Council on Aging and Harvest Hope Food Bank.

Thank you on behalf of the senior citizens of Orangeburg County, said Sheryl Jeffcoat, site director of the Council on Aging. This will help feed the home-bound citizens of Orangeburg.

Denise Holland of Harvest Hope said the Elks' donation will be a great help to the organization, which distributes shelf-stable food, fresh produce, dairy products and meat products to those in need in Orangeburg.

In the last 12 months, we have provided food equal to over 1 million meals here, Holland said. Your gift for us provides about 5,000 meals.

The donations were arranged by Elks Henry Rutland and Esteemed Leading Knight G.O. Smoak.
Early September 2016. Hurricane Hermine churns toward South Carolina. Near Cameron heavy rains pummel a cotton field, creating a hard-to-see washout that will destroy a big pickers heads.

Had you been at that field after the weather cleared, you might have spotted a drone taking photographs. When the photos were downloaded, the farmer could see the washout as plain as day. No heads ruined. The drone saved him time, trouble and money.

In 1996, Drake Perrow formed Crop Companions for his work with cotton, soybeans, corn, wheat and peanuts. Drakes son, John, who graduated from Clemson in 2014, had seen drones in action and appreciated their ability to gather field intelligence.

The Perrows expanded Crop Companions Inc. to a drone consultancy.

Out of sight; out of mind, they realized, doesnt apply to drones aerial view of fields.

Their photo of a wheat field with issues dramatically confirmed the drones ability to spot problems. Come harvest time, the combines yield monitor created a graphic closely matching the drones photograph.

Problem areas predictably produced less grain than other areas.

Aerial views prove strategic. Down Cameron-way, some fields run around 100 acres. Its impossible for a farmer to see the interior, and farmers cant walk every row. A drone? It covers a field like a blanket. It can detect a clogged pivot nozzle. Hog damage inside a field? A clogged drainage ditch? See it and deal with it.

Farmings new toy is no toy; its a high-tech recon tool that gives you a birds-eye view of your croplands.

The Perrows operate three businesses: Perrow Farms, Cameron Cotton and Seed, and Crop Companions Inc.

Their drone consultancy motto is On the Ground and in the Air.

Johns PowerPoint show demonstrates drones capabilities.

When farmers see what it brings to the table, it grabs their attention, Drake said.

Drones can be used to check fence lines, monitor irrigation systems, and assess crop damage from deer, wild hogs and insects. Flying a cornfield, Drake observed about four acres that never got fertilized. Drones make it easier to see how long to dig drainage ditches. John has a photo of a ditch ending just yards short of a low spot where rain collected, drowning crops.

Too wet for a truck? notes John. Send a drone over it.

One mission gave Drake a jolt. Photographs revealed a section where his peanuts were dying. Soil tests determined zinc levels were so high they had killed the peanuts. It was too late to take corrective steps, but he was armed with information for the future. And thats key. Drones aerial perspective, cameras and software give farmers a great detection technology.

One drone photographed a square patch where crops struggled. Thats where a homesteads old tin roof had long sat, said Drake. Zinc from the tins primer had leached into the soil, adversely affecting crops.

Two missions,

two problems detected

Like many technologies, drone prices cover a range.

You can buy a good drone with a good camera for $2,000 or you can spend $30,000, Drake said.

Drones prove very useful. Drake goes to an old church that had some roofing problems but was too steep to climb. No problem. Drake sent his drone up to check it.

The Perrows fly DJI Phantom units and Precision Drones Pacemakers, which look so sci-fi its as if theyre from Terminator.

The night before a scouting mission, Drake programs his drone to fly 10 mph at an altitude of 400 feet, taking photos every two seconds. GPS coordinates guide the flight over a field with 60 to 65 percent overlap, assuring an accurate montage.

The next day he heads out, provided the winds are calm and its clear. Wind interferes with flights, and when the sun slips in and out of clouds, it hinders the cameras exposure levels.

Altitude can vary depending on the time of year and crop imaged.

FAA regulations dictate a maximum altitude of 400 feet. The drone flies itself but cannot fly beyond the line of sight, another FAA regulation. Dutifully programmed, the drone rises to altitude and captures images that reveal the status of the field and its crop. Once images are downloaded, software stitches them together to create a complete mosaic of the field. Drake then sits down with the farmer and goes over the issues.

One missions scouting of a cornfield with two varieties revealed that one type was flourishing while the one next to it was lying over. That variety, a tall thin-stalked corn, couldnt support the weight of the large ears. This situation wasnt visible from the perimeter, but thanks to the drone, the farmer took preventive action and saved a quantity of his corn.

In another situation, a farmer suspected wild hogs were raiding his field. Flyovers confirmed the hogs path into the field and wallows.

The future of drones

The Midwests expansive crop fields see heavy drone use. South Carolinas fields may be small, but they have big problems. For instance, some fields may have several soil types. Drone field intelligence can help farmers get the most from these varied soils.

The future looks good thanks to research. As the drone flies, its 34.94 miles from Cameron to Blackville. Thats where Dr. Joe M. Maja works at Clemson Universitys Edisto Research and Education Center.

Maja, an engineer, designs and manufactures circuit boards in his lab and writes programs for them. He then uses them in customized drones.

One circuit board works with GPS (accurate within centimeters), one board handles navigation and the third controls cameras.

Drones make it easier for farmers to scout their farms for stress-related issues, said Maja, who sees a huge paradigm shift where future farmers will not work on the farm but use technology to do the work.

As drone capabilities expand, expect more advantages. Like X-rays, which can reveal unseen factors bearing on a crops health.

While at Clemson, John Perrow had a professor who was working with Normalized Difference Vegetation Index imaging, an excellent indicator of crop health. While its technical, simply put, NDVI reveals the health status of a crop down each row, across the field, based on how crops reflect and absorb light.

Farmers spend valuable hours scouting perimeters and sometimes walking fields. The farmer who lets a drone become his eyes, however, sees the future, today. The field intelligence gathered by drones will greatly improve his efficiency when it comes to planting, cultivating and harvesting crops.

A battery-powered drone can fly for 12 minutes. Just 12 minutes is all it takes to head off trouble and make the long, hard farming season more efficient and much more productive. Its the proverbial ounce of prevention thats worth a pound of cure.
Integrity is the essence of everything successful.

That quote by American author and architect Buckminster Fuller fits right in with the philosophy of life of an Orangeburg woman who has tried to display sound moral character as a pastor, mother and educator.

Mozella Isaac has spent more than 20 years molding young minds as an early childhood teacher and ministering to the needs of her community as pastor of a local church. The loving wife and mother makes her family a priority as she works to be a good example for her husband and their two sons.

Isaac's propensity for delivering an encouraging word and helping hand in a spirit of honesty and truth within the classroom, her church and her home has led to her designation as the exemplification of integrity for the month of July as part of the Orangeburg County Community of Character initiative.

She said she is grateful for the recognition.

"I was at a loss for words actually. I was excited and surprised only in the fact that someone even considered nominating me for that. It's an honor, she said.

Isaac started her career as an early childhood educator in Calhoun County, where she taught for 21 years before coming to Orangeburg. She taught for seven years at Mellichamp Elementary School and one year at Brookdale Elementary School before retiring.

I retired from Brookdale, where they assigned me as the gifted and talented teacher for kindergarteners, which was a new program they started, Isaac said.

She describes what having integrity actually means to her.

"When I think of the word integrity, I think of honesty, fairness, being transparent and being able to balance with fairness. I say that because from an early age, my mom always practiced the same thing. She was firm yet fair. She tried to exemplify the good things that she taught, too, Isaac said.

I felt that was very important. It was important so much for my students because they needed to see that in me, she said, noting that as a teacher, she prided herself in being able to be fair with all of her students regardless of their background, color, or socioeconomic status.

I just thought that it was important because so much damage can be done to children when you treat them differently or unfairly, said Isaac, who is pastor of Bethany Full Gospel Church in Orangeburg, where her mother also served as pastor.

She said it is also important to demonstrate integrity within the church.

You have various people from various backgrounds, and its important that people see this in you. As a pastor and as a Christian, of course, people are always looking at your life to see that you're going to be consistent in the way that you treat everyone else, Isaac said. She said it is important not to give preferential treatment to anyone in the church, classroom, or anywhere else.

Isaac is the daughter of the late James Moses Boyd, who died when she was just 2 years old, and the late Leila Miller Boyd Mims. She said her mother was an excellent role model for her and her six siblings.

Her motto to us growing up was, 'I'm not gonna let my children cause me to go to hell.' We had to be careful. She was like, 'I'm gonna tell you the truth because I don't want you to be the cause of you not doing what you're supposed to do.' And in the church, she would always tell us, 'I'm not gonna allow you to do things that I won't allow other people to do, Isaac said.

She and her husband, Herbert, are the parents of two sons, Joshua, 23, and Jonathan, 19. She said she tries to instill the same good character in her sons that her mother instilled in her.

"I say to them the same kind of things my mom would say. I try to teach them how to live outside of their parents because I know that they need to survive in this world. So, it is important for them to garner the character of honesty, fairness and just being open to correction," Isaac said.

I show my sons that the Bible says in the book of Proverbs -- that a wise man will hear and increase learning. So, I share those kinds of things with them. No matter how much you know, it's important for you to hear so that you will increase your learning."

She added, When my son went away to college, my oldest one especially, he said, 'Mom, I want you to know that the things that you and Dad are teaching me I haven't forgotten.' It just blessed me to hear that because you do want to know that your children are living examples of what you say and what you do."

Isaac said she is equally proud of the Community of Character initiatives efforts to foster good character.

"I think it's awesome, it's amazing. And I say that because when one of my sons was in fifth grade at Sheridan Elementary School, he was selected as the Character Student of the Month. It was through the character program," she said.

So, it was amazing to see that what you do as a parent is being seen in your children. It brought joy to my heart."
WASHINGTON -- The Court of Mad King Donald is not a presidency. It is an affliction, one that saps the life out of our democratic institutions, and it must be fiercely resisted if the nation as we know it is to survive.

I wish that were hyperbole. The problem is not just that President Trump is selfish, insecure, egotistical, ignorant and unserious. It is that he neither fully grasps nor minimally respects the concept of honor, without which our governing system falls apart. He believes "honorable" means "obsequious in the service of Trump." He believes everyone else's motives are as base as his.

The Trump administration is, indeed, like the court of some accidental monarch who is tragically unsuited for the duties of his throne. However long it persists, we must never allow ourselves to think of the Trump White House as anything but aberrant. We must fight for the norms of American governance lest we forget them in their absence.

It gets worse and worse. The past week has marked a succession of new lows.

Trump has started a sustained campaign to goad or humiliate Attorney General Jeff Sessions into resigning. Trump has blasted Sessions on Twitter, at a news conference, in newspaper interviews and at a campaign-style rally. He has called Sessions "beleaguered" and said repeatedly how "disappointed" he is in the attorney general.

Forget, for the moment, that Sessions was the first sitting U.S. senator to support Trump's campaign, giving him new credibility among conservatives. Forget also that Sessions is arguably having more success than any other Cabinet member in getting Trump's agenda implemented. Those things aside, what kind of leader treats a lieutenant with such passive-aggressive obnoxiousness? Trump is too namby-pamby to look Sessions in the eye and say, "You're fired."

That's what the president clearly is trying to summon the courage to do, however. The Washington Post reported that Trump has been "musing" with his courtiers about the possibility of firing Sessions and naming a replacement during the August congressional recess.

Trump has no respect for the rule of law. He is enraged that Sessions recused himself from the investigation of Russia's meddling in the election, and thus is not in a position to protect the House of Trump from special counsel Robert Mueller. According to The New York Times, "Sharing the president's frustration have been people in his family, some of whom have come under scrutiny in the Russia investigation." I'm guessing that means the president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Who elected THEM, by the way?

Trump seeks to govern by whim and fiat. On Wednesday morning, he used Twitter to announce a ban on transgender people serving in the military, surprising his own top military leaders. Pentagon spokesmen told reporters to ask the White House for details; White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters to ask the Pentagon. Was Trump trying to reignite the culture wars? Would the thousands of transgender individuals now serving in the military be purged? Was this actual policy or just a fit of indigestion?

Inside the mad king's court, the internecine battles are becoming ever more brutal. Members of Trump's inner circle seek his favor by leaking negative information about their rivals. This administration is more hostile to the media than any in recent memory, but also more eager to whisper juicy dirt about the ambitious courtier down the hall.

Trump's new favorite, Anthony Scaramucci, struts around more like a chief of staff than a communications director, which is his nominal role. Late Wednesday night -- after dining with Trump and his head cheerleader, Sean Hannity -- Scaramucci took a metaphorical rapier to the actual chief of staff, Reince Priebus, by strongly hinting on Twitter that Priebus leaks to reporters. The next morning, Scaramucci told CNN that "if Reince wants to explain that he's not a leaker, let him do that."

On Friday, Priebus was out as chief of staff.

Why bring in Scaramucci? Because, I fear, the mad king is girding for war. Trump is reckless enough to fire Mueller if he digs too deeply into the business dealings of the Trump organization and the Kushner companies.

What then? Will Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell draft and push through a new special prosecutor statute so that Mueller can quickly be reappointed? Will House Speaker Paul Ryan immediately open debate on articles of impeachment? Will we, the people, defend our democracy?

Do not become numb to the mad king's outrages. The worst is yet to come.
Arizona Sen. John McCain was the Republican nominee for president in 2008, but that does not mean he is or will be revered by his party. McCain has always been a maverick, a politician unafraid to cross the aisle seeking solutions and to dress down the GOP when he sees it as necessary.

His best friend in the Senate, South Carolinas Lindsey Graham, is much the same, standing with McCain as voices willing to call President Donald Trumps hand and speak pragmatism and moderation.

As the nation watched this past Tuesday, McCain again showed the toughness that helped him survive as a tortured prisoner of war in Vietnam  and the resolve that has him on his feet and back in Washington just days after surgery to remove a cancerous brain tumor.

His stature is unquestioned and his words to the Senate regarding health care legislation were quintessential McCain: "Stop listening to the bombastic loudmouths on the radio, television and the internet. To hell with them! They don't want anything done for the public good. Our incapacity is their livelihood."

As reported by The Associated Press, McCain said he would vote for debate on health care, but he made clear he opposed the legislation being pushed by the Senate GOP leadership.

"I voted for the motion to proceed to allow debate to continue," he said. "I will not vote for this bill as it is today. It's a shell of a bill right now."

He bemoaned the lack of legislative accomplishments in the current Congress and the GOP's secretive process in working on repealing Obamacare. He issued a plea for Democrats and Republicans to work together.

Obama and the Democrats shouldn't have pushed the Affordable Care Act through on party-line votes when they controlled Washington back in 2010, McCain said, "and we shouldn't do the same with ours. Why don't we try the old way of legislating in the Senate?"

That would involve committee hearings and testimony from experts and interested parties, which could take months.

He blasted the path taken by Republican leaders "coming up with a proposal behind closed doors in consultation with the administration, then springing it on skeptical members, trying to convince them that it was better than nothing.

"I don't think that's going to work in the end, and it probably shouldn't," he said.

With McCain's vote early Friday that doomed the GOP repeal of Obamacare, he has now virtually assured that Republican leadership's strategy is not going to work.

The senator said he had to do what he believed is right -- a vote that put him at odds with Graham and all but two other GOP senators.

Some were surprised at McCains words and his vote -- even at his appearance in Washington.

Not Graham. "Is it surprising that he would get out of a hospital bed and go to work? No. It's surprising he's been in the hospital this long."

McCain may be called a maverick, but he is in fact a senator cut from the cloth of legislators of the past. He and Graham understand that one-party government is not a way to achieve results that are best for America as a whole. Cooperation and compromise are essential.

McCain alone cannot make it happen, but with his vote on health care, he has done more than talk. The senator from Arizona will again be blasted by his own party. But the maverick has made it more necessary than ever that the two parties find a way to work together on an issue of primary importance to all.
EVEN WITH WHAT SOME MIGHT deem a few unfortunate instances, the camaraderie, love, pride and unity were fully on display on Saturday 15th July, 2017, as thousands of Vincentians  and their Caribbean and North American friends and supporters  converged on the extensive Browns Bay Provincial Park in Western Ontario, Canada, for the annual Vincy Unity Picnic.

The picnic, which can be described as an extravaganza, is considered among the largest gathering  if not the largest  of Vincentians in North America.

Organized by the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Associations of Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto, the Picnic has, over the years, attracted Vincentians from all walks of life along the shores of the majestic St. Lawrence River in the 1,000 Is. Area.

A cornucopia of colors, a potpourri of Vincentian delicacies, and the gyrating hips of nationals were exhibited during the day-long convulsion, which drew nationals from home, the Caribbean, as well as from major cities in North America, among other places.

"This is beautiful! exclaimed Anthonette Jacobs, an Ottawa resident, originally from Biabou, as she busied herself renting tables to picnic-goers at the eastern section of the grounds.

"Ive seen it [picnic] grown from a little group to almost 20, 000 people, added Jacobs, who has relatives in Sion Hill.

Jacobs cousin, Amelia Jacobs, of Sion Hill, who has been residing in Ottawa for the past 30 years, said she has been coming to the picnic for 20 of those years.

"Its great, she said. "Its a great place to spend the day. Its a great place for business, and its always peaceful.

A few yards away, Claudia Solomon, a Brooklyn, New York resident, who hails from Bequia, assisted her son, Sean Solomon, in selling chicken and chips, among other mouth-watering delicacies.

"I just came to support my son, said Ms. Solomon, whose son owns the Nu Caribbean Restaurant in Ottawa. "I like it [picnic]. I like the association. Youve got to support [the event].

Loving the unity

Chester Clarke, a former Kingstown Park native, now residing in Rose Cottage, Villa, said he attends the picnic annually, when he visits friends and relatives in Toronto.

"Its beautiful, very good, he said. "Thats why I come.

Nelson Wall, who hails from Rose Bank, but now resides in Brighton, and was vacationing in Toronto, said, "I like it I get to meet other Vincentian people.

Kingstown native Jack Dear, President of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Association of Montreal, said his group brought three bus-loads of nationals to the picnic.

"Its good, he said about the event. "The enthusiasm is still there.

As he roasted breadfruit on coal inside the rim of an auto tire, Desmond Hills, of Gomea, said, "Ive been here before, but its the first time Im getting involved [in meal preparation].

Hill had come from Brooklyn on one of three buses organized by the Brooklyn-based Council of St. Vincent and the Grenadines Organizations, U.S.A., Inc. (COSAGO), the umbrella Vincentian group in the US.

Otis DeFreitas, of Colonaire, who lives in Delran, New Jersey, attended the Unity Picnic, for the second time, remarked, "I love it, I love the unity. I love that when we move out of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, were still unified, even though were in different parts of the world.

As she chops chicken legs for the BBQ grill, Brooklyn resident Rosita Providence, originally from Troumaca, said it was "a pleasure doing this to keep our community together.

Park Hill-born Patsy Diva Pat Phillips, was part of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Organization of Pennsylvania, Inc. (SVGOP) bus trip. He assured, "I always enjoy myself.

Treasured memory

Calliaqua-born Dr. Clifford Young, a physician, and his wife took the COSAGO bus from Brooklyn, for the very first time.

"This is very entertaining, said Dr. Young, adding, "As it stands, this is unity.

He continued, "This is a new experience for me, he added. "You learn about the St. Lawrence River in the text books, and youre now partying along the St. Lawrence River. Its really an exhilarating experience. It reminds of me of when I was growing up  the firewood and all that. Its really a good experience.

"I will cherish this forever  for the rest of my life, Hilda chimed in.

Anesta Delpesche, originally from Petit Bordel, who works as a nurse in the Dutch Caribbean island of St. Eustatius, was a first time attendee.

"Im seeing lots of Vincentians Ive not seen in a very long time, said Delpesche, who is vacating in Montreal.

Entertainment and a little ruffle

Even as picnic-goers gyrated to soca vibes, emanating from boom boxes at several tents, most party lovers "went wild before the main stage.

There, leading Vincentian soca artistes, fresh from Vincy Mas 2017  such as Vincy 2017 Soca Monarch Delroy Fireman Hooper, Gamal Skinny Fabulous Doyle, Rondy Luta McIntosh and Shaunelle McKenzie  kept the huge crowd in paroxysms.

Rodney Vincy Freshie Small also mesmerized on tenor pan.

But, despite the gaiety and penchant for unity, there was some concern, primarily in political circles, that Opposition Leader Dr. Godwin Friday was not allowed to address the massive crowd from the central stage.

Friday, President of the main opposition New Democratic Party, and the Northern Grenadines representative in Parliament, was not listed as a speaker on the Unity Picnic Committees official programme, but Minister of Health, Luke Browne, was allowed to do so.

Browne was on hand to add to the honouring of lawyer Alwyn Child, whose contribution to the development of the Vincy Unity Picnic and Vincentian community in Canada, as a whole, is described as exemplary.

Dr. Friday, who had studied and worked in Canada before returning home to practice law and get involved in politics, moved around freely in the huge park, meeting and greeting his compatriots.

In what appeared to be a seeming truce, Friday also posed for THE VINCENTIAN with die-hard, incumbent Unity Labour Party supporter and ex-Chateaubelair-born school teacher, Almond Rabbi Prezzie Thompson, nephew of former North Leeward Parliamentarian John Thompson and first cousin of Johns son, Dr. Jerrol Thompson.

However, despite the hiccup over Friday and other issues, most picnic-goers said it was a day well-spent and worth having.

"It was nice, said Francis Dotsie Lewis, of Kingstown, as she got ready to board the bus for an hours trek back to her hotel room in nearby, scenic Gananoque. "Although we had a few mishaps, everything went fine.
By Azernews





By Amina Nazarli

Diplomatic relations between Baku and Prague has had more than twenty years long tradition. The two countries are both export-oriented countries of roughly the same size and population and the both export revenues are coming mainly from oil and gas.

The two countries have concluded the Memorandum on Strategic partnership, and the Czech Republic covers one-third of its oil consumption from Azerbaijani sources.

Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Jiri Havlicek said that the Czech Republic is undoubtedly interesting for Azerbaijan in terms of investment, such as in the petrochemical industry, energy and natural resources.

He added, however, that in this area, only few concrete projects have been implemented, and Azerbaijani investors have so far been interested especially in the field of real estate and hotels.

"The amount of Azerbaijani investments in the Czech economy is relatively small, reaching a rate of two percent [out of all investments made in this country]," he said in an exclusive interview with Trend. "The largest investments are directed to the real estate and hotels. I think, however, that right now it is a very good time for investment in the Czech Republic."

Havlicek said that Czech banks have lent more than 1.8 billion euros to Czech companies that have implemented major projects in Azerbaijan over the last ten years.

"These projects were funded by our banks directly," the minister said. "Therefore, we consider these financial contributions as investments in the Azerbaijani economy. This implies that the Czech Republic is one of the most important investors in the Azerbaijani economy and evidences the confidence of Czech entrepreneurs in cooperation with Azerbaijan."

As for cooperation with Azerbaijan, Havlicek also spoke about the areas of mutual interest having great potential for development.

"I would like to remind here the January visit of my predecessor, Jan Mladek [Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic until February 28, 2017] in Baku," Havlicek said. "During this visit, the 4th meeting of the Joint Czech-Azerbaijani Commission was held to address these issues in detail. I agree with what was said at the meeting."

The most promising areas for cooperation between the Czech Republic and Azerbaijan are traditional and renewable energy, modernization of transport infrastructure, green technologies, agriculture and manufacturing, chemical and pharmaceutical industry, supplies of medical equipment, engineering and construction, according to the minister, who added that tourism is another significant potential for the relations.

The minister added that the aforementioned fields are also most interesting for setting up joint ventures that are of interest to the Czech Republic.

"We can recommend this way [establishment of joint ventures with Azerbaijani companies] to Czech companies, however, they have to decide and choose a partner by themselves," Havlicek added. "In this regard, I would like to invite our Azerbaijani business partners to not to be afraid to enter into business relations with Czech companies; they are reliable players which have a lot to offer."

The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic amounted to $201 million in January-June of 2017, with $168.26 million of that amount accounting for the export of Azerbaijani products to that country, according to the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee.

Havlicek said that the Czech companies may use international routes passing through the territory of Azerbaijan to supply goods from the European Union to the east.

"These discussions are ongoing, and we are closely following the development of the Baku- Tbilisi-Kars railway, Silk Road Project, the North-South Transport Corridor," he added.

"At present, Czech companies are most involved in the construction of these transport corridors, nevertheless, I am convinced that if these routes are beneficial in terms of costs and time, they will also use them for transport of their goods from the European Union to the east," the minister said.

The BTK railway is being constructed on the basis of the Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement. The peak capacity of the railway will be 17 million tons

of cargo per year.

The North-South Transport Corridor, with initial annual transport capacity of 5 million tons of cargo, is meant to connect Northern Europe with Southeast Asia. It will serve as a link connecting the railways of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia.








By Azernews





By Ali Mustafayev

Turkmenistan plans to build several new installations in the petroleum refinery complex of Turkmenistan.

The country, in a bid to develop the sector, plans to construct installation for hydro refinement of diesel fuel, the unit for hydro refinement of secondary gasoline, unit for hydrogen production, installation for catalytic IDW, installation for catalytic cracking of the heating oil, according to Trend.

These projects will allow to diversify the line of products and enhance their quality.

Besides, the country eyes possibilities of benzene production in the oil refineries in Turkmenbashi and Seydi. It will be used as a raw material for production of valuable products, which see high demand in the world market.

The installations for benzene production will allow to produce gasoline meeting the Euro 5 standards, and will provide opportunities for the further developments petrochemical and gas chemical productions.

Turkmenistan plans to raise the productivity of oil refinery industry to 20 million tonnes by 2020, 22 million tonnes by 2025 and 30 million tonnes by 2030.

Today, the country produces 10 million tonnes a year and the most part of the produced oil is being refined at local companies.

Turkmenbashi Complex of Oil Refineries is the flagship of oil refineries industry of Turkmenistan. Today, the share of the complex accounts is a quarter of the volume of industrial products manufactured in the Central Asian country.

Turkmenistan, which is rich with oil and gas resources, opened about two hundred oil and gas fields so far. Potential hydrocarbon resources of the country amount to 71.2 billion tons of oil equivalent, of which 53 billion falls on the land, and 18.2 billion tons - on marine areas.
By Trend





Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is scheduled to arrive in Turkeys Istanbul on August 1 to attend an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

Bahram Qasemi, the spokesperson of Iranian Foreign Ministry, has said that Zarif is expected to discuss the latest developments regarding Palestine during the meeting, Mehr news agency reported.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will hold an emergency meeting of the Executive Committee at the level of Foreign Ministers of the OIC Member States in Istanbul. According to the OIC website, the meeting will send a unified message to the international community by the Muslim World, demanding it to commit Israel to respect the resolutions of the international legitimacy, the Geneva Conventions and all resolutions on the Palestinian issue, especially Al-Quds.

A recent round of standoff between the Israeli authorities and Palestinian worshipers occurred after Muslim gunmen killed two Israeli police officers near al-Aqsa mosque on 14 July.
Investcorp, a global provider and manager of alternative investment products, today announced that Dr Mohamed A El-Erian, chief economic advisor at Allianz and chair of its International Advisory Board, has been appointed to Investcorps Advisory Board.



El-Erian, one of the most high-profile figures in global business and investment, has a distinguished career that includes senior roles in academia, international institutions and the private sector. He joins Investcorps Advisory Board at a time when the firm is achieving significant growth driven by an ambitious strategy.



Prior to assuming his current responsibilities at Allianz in 2014, Dr El-Erian was CEO and co-chief investment officer of PIMCO (2007-14), the international investment management firm he first joined back in 1999 to lead its emerging market business.



He has served as chairman of the US Governments Global Development Council under President Obama and has held roles including deputy director of the International Monetary Fund and CEO and president of the Harvard Management Company. He is currently a contributing editor at the Financial Times, a Bloomberg columnist and co-chairs the capital campaign for Cambridge University and its colleges.



He serves on a number of non-profit boards, including the National Bureau for Economic Research, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and KAUST. The author of two New York Times bestsellers, he has been named one of Foreign Policys Top 100 Global Thinkers for four years in a row.



Dr El-Erian said: Investcorp has a strong track record of over 35 years of being a bridge for Gulf capital investing in assets in the West. While maintaining its Gulf roots, it has been transforming itself into a truly global alternative asset manager with an international client base, a broad range of products and some of the most talented people in the industry. It is a privilege to have been invited to join its Advisory Board and I am excited about being part of the next stage of the firms growth.



Mohammed Alardhi, executive chairman of Investcorp, said: It is an honour to welcome Mohamed onto our Advisory Board. As one of the most respected voices on the international financial and economic stage, Mohamed brings with him unique insights that will benefit Investcorp as we deliver on our strategy to become one of the worlds leading global alternative investment firms.



The combination of his unrivalled experience in leading financial institutions such as PIMCO and Allianz, his in-depth understanding of global markets, and his connectivity around the world will provide the Firm with additional guidance as it continues on its transformation journey.



Investcorps Advisory Board is chaired by Mohammed Alardhi. It meets annually and provides advice and guidance to the firm. It consists of Kofi Annan, president of the Global Humanitarian Forum and former Secretary-General of the United Nations; Dr Wolfgang Schussel, president of the Foreign Policy and United Nations Association of Austria, and former Federal Chancellor and Minister for Economic Affairs of Austria; Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger, former German Deputy Foreign Minister and chairman, Munich Security Conference; Global head of government relations and public policy for Allianz; Pierre Keller, former managing partner of Lombard Odier & Cie; Ana Palacio, former Foreign Minister of Spain and senior vice president of international affairs and marketing, Areva; Deepak Parekh, chairman of Indias premier housing finance company HDFC; and Dr Otto Schily, former German Interior Minister and a member of the German Bundestag where he serves on the Committee on Foreign Affairs. -TradeArabia News Service


Real estate transactions in Dubai, UAE, during the first half (H1) of the year reached a value of Dh132 billion ($36 billion), achieved through 35,571 sales, mortgages and other transactions, according to figures released by Dubai Land Department (DLD).



DLDs H1 2017 transactions report reveals that the market has achieved a high percentage of growth compared to the same period last year, with the total value increasing by 16.8 per cent.

The report also confirms that the Dubai real estate market generated a total of 25,864 sales transactions worth over Dh63 billion and 7,893 mortgage transactions worth Dh60 billion, while 1,814 other types of transaction brought in Dh9 billion.



Providing an analysis of the value generated by different types of property, the report shows that the land category represented Dh91 billion from approximately 8,000 transactions, while building sales accomplished 3,887 transactions with a total value of Dh10 billion and unit sales crossed the Dh31 billion mark from 24 transactions.



Sultan Butti bin Mejren, director general of DLD, said: Our report for the first half of this year bears promising results for professionals in the real estate sector, as despite global economic pressures, Dubai has once again reaffirmed its leadership of regional markets and driven renewed growth in the region.



Bin Mejren confirmed that the 26 per cent increase in transactions and the 17 per cent increase in value is an unrivalled success for the sector. The success demonstrates the wisdom of the economic policies set by the government  particularly those that have contributed to the protection of all parties and the preservation of real estate rights, as these have encouraged real estate investment and safeguarded the growth of a transparent, sustainable and secure real estate sector.



Bin Mejren added: Establishing strong foundations for the sustainable growth of our real estate sector has been largely focused on preserving the rights of all investors and providing a secure environment where their transactions can take place in a transparent matter. This has allowed the sector to grow by increasing investor confidence and heightening the appeal of Dubais property market.



The report provides further details about the total number of investments made in Dubais real estate market during the first half of 2017. 27,381 transactions were completed by 21,574 investors, generating a total investment value of Dh58 billion. The report also highlighted that 6,253 female investors completed 7,341 transactions worth Dh15 billion.



Emirati investors take the lead



Emirati investors ranked first for both number and value of transactions, completing 4,510 transactions worth Dh15 billion, followed by Saudi nationals in second place with a total of 1,936 transactions worth Dh4 billion. The total value generated by GCC investors increased by 16 per cent compared to the same period last year, with 7,665 transactions worth Dh21.7 billion.



Arab and foreign investors



When looking at the Arab investors, Egyptians and Jordanians took first and second places respectively. The total value of Arab investments reached Dh8 billion, representing a 25.5 per cent increase compared to the same period last year, generated by 4,654 Arab investors, a 40 per cent increase compared to the same period.



Among foreign investors, Indian, Pakistani, British, Chinese and Canadian nationals took the first five places, with 15,062 investors generating a total value of Dh28.6 billion. These figures represent a 35 per cent increase in investor numbers and a 34 per cent increase in value compared to the first six months of 2016.



Areas in high demand



The report also sheds light on the top 10 areas in Dubai for both number and value of transactions. Dubai Marina took first place with 2,529 transactions, followed by Business Bay with 2,146 transactions, Al Barsha South 4 with 2,001 transactions, Jebel Ali 1 with 1,931 transactions, and in fifth place Al Thaniya 5 with 1,501 transactions.



In terms of value, Palm Jumeirah topped the chart with transactions worth Dh9.5 billion, followed by Dh6.5 billion for Business Bay, Dh5.8 billion for both the Burj Khalifa and Dubai Marina areas, and Dh5.6 billion for Al Wasl area.  TradeArabia News Service
TVM Capital Healthcare, a specialist private equity investor in the healthcare sector, has announced that Laila Al Jassmi, founder and CEO of Health Beyond Borders, will join the board of Bourn Hall International.



TVM Capital Healthcare co-developed the concept for Bourn Hall International with Bourn Hall Clinic, Cambridge, UK, responsible for the worlds first IVF baby.



The founders of the clinic pioneered the IVF technology and received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2010. Today, BHI operates two reference clinics in Dubai, UAE, and Gurgaon/Delhi, NCR, India.



Bourn Hall Fertility Centre, Dubai, received accreditation from Joint Commission International (JCI), the world's largest and most recognised healthcare accreditor. The centre remains the only standalone JCI-accredited fertility center in the Mena region, the statement said.



Owing to her various strong leadership roles in driving the local healthcare sector, where she oversaw the implementation of the DHA Health strategy, led the process of the Dubai Health Reform in 2007 and managed the Dubai Medical Tourism initiative, to name a few, Laila will prove to be an excellent addition to BHIs diverse board. Her experience will serve the Bourn Hall Fertility Centres greatly, on both an operational and strategic level, said Hoda Abou-Jamra, interim CEO of BHI, founding partner of TVM Capital Healthcare and member of the Dubai Business Womens Council and Founding Chair of the GCC Chapter of the 30% Club.



Al Jassmi was awarded the Feigenbaum Excellence Leadership Award for "Women's Leaders" in 2011, and was more recently recognised as one of the 50 GCC Woman Leaders by World CSR Day & World Sustainability for the year of 2016. She has also been acknowledged as one of the 50 Women in Health Care & Wellness by CSR for 2016-2017 in Mumbai and one of the World's Greatest Women Achievers for 2016-2017 by URS Asia One.



Abou-Jamra added: TVM Capital Healthcare believes in gender parity leading to better business decisions. As a company which has played a significant role in healthcare since 2012 in the region, we take pride in actively increasing the representation of women at board level in the company and at portfolio level as it simply makes good business sense. - TradeArabia News Service
The Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry recently participated in Innoprom 2017, Russias largest international industrial trade fair, as part of its efforts to showcase Dubais potential as a global hub for emerging industries.



The conference and exhibition, held in Ekaterinburg, featured a Dubai Chamber stand which provided visitors with an overview of the Dubai Industrial Strategy 2030, the emirates economy and business environment, and Dubai Chamber services and support, said a statement.



Representatives of Dubai Chambers Azerbaijan international office participated in the event and held more than 100 meetings with public and private sector stakeholders, including B2B meetings which focused on synergies between Dubai-based companies and their Russian counterparts, it said.



The event was held under the theme of Smart Manufacturing, and was attended by 48,000 visitors and 600 companies from 20 countries. A total of 95 governments sent their trade and industry delegations to the international event, it added.



Omar Khan, director of international offices, Dubai Chamber, described the exhibition as an ideal platform to showcase the competitiveness of Dubais business community and reinforce the Chambers presence and activities in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region.



He explained that the meetings held on the sidelines of the industrial fair provided an opportunity to engage with business leaders and government representatives and explore the prospects for Dubai-based companies that want to expand their footprint in emerging markets.



Since its opening in 2012, Dubai Chambers Baku office has actively participated in regional business exhibitions and hosted its own events, meetings, and roundtable discussions with them aim of exploring areas of mutual cooperation between Dubai-based businesses and their CIS counterparts, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
Preparations for the Dubai Investment Forum', a consolidated platform whose aim is to entice investors and commensurate regions development with the trends of globalisation, is set to begin soon in Dubai, UAE.



This follows an instruction from HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and chairman of the Executive Council.



The Dubai Investment Week will be held under the patronage of HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum from October 15 to 19, at the Godolphin Ballroom, Emirates Towers Hotel, Dubai.



The preparations for the Dubai Investment Forum' and its main topics within the framework of the Dubai Investment Week programme, will be set in motion.



The event aims to provide the investor community with a comprehensive view of the growth opportunities, partnerships, innovation and the future of investment in all vital sectors that support the objectives of the UAE National Agenda 2021 and the Dubai 2021 Plan, said a statement.



HH Sheikh Hamdan praised the role of Dubai Investment Forum, which is organised by Dubai Investment Development Agency (Dubai FDI), an agency of Dubai Economy, and its contribution to enhancing the understanding of investors about the main pillars of growth in Dubai and the region, and the new growth cycle in the emirate by identifying investment opportunities, and highlighting the prospects for expansion and growth to regional and global markets.



HH Sheikh Hamdan added that the work on the third cycle and the launch of the Dubai Investment Week programme follow a careful review of the current and future investment issues and trends to strengthen partnership with the UAE and global investors.



The Crown Prince directed the launch of the "Dubai Investment Week" as an annual programme to consolidate partnership with the local and international investment community and spread awareness of growth and innovation opportunities in Dubai.



Sheikh Hamdan confirmed that the UAE under the leadership of HH Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, and directives of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and follow-up of HH Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, has taken a clear approach in supporting investment and establishing a diversified and resilient economy to drive growth.



This is the approach that the Founding Fathers have taken and its success is evident the economic diversification model that has paved the way for further economic growth and enhancing investor confidence.



Sheikh Hamdan directed to continue working on enhancing the business readiness of Dubai, its attractiveness to receive sustainable foreign investments and the public-private partnerships in all fields. He said that the sustainability of FDI flows in recent years, despite global economic volatilities, is a clear demonstration of the confidence of the investor community in the plans and initiatives of the Government of Dubai and the vital role played by the emirate as a major hub in the global economy.



Dubai attracted Dh25.5 billion ($6.9 billion) in foreign direct investment in 2016 and succeeded in maintaining its position among the top 10 global cities in attracting foreign investment, ranking seventh worldwide.



Dubai also attracted 247 new investment projects, which contributed to reaffirming its position as a preferred international investment destination, and stood third in new investment initiatives in 2016, led by its efficient infrastructure in various economic sectors.



The programme includes several discussion forums that highlight important topics and global and economic trends that concern policy makers and investors.



The programme provides participants the opportunity to learn about the advantages of Dubai as a preferred global destination for investment, mechanisms and opportunities for partnership between the public and private sectors, as well as the latest developments in investment opportunities in the strategic and emerging economic sectors in the region and the world.



The programme also includes a forum dedicated to sustainable investment to promote regional and international integration initiatives to facilitate FDI flows in sustainable development projects, as well as a "future policies dialogue" to identify investors' perceptions of the future and to develop proactive policies and actions in many areas.



Leaders in the government sector, international and regional companies and representatives of banks and investment funds, as well as official delegations, experts and specialists from international institutions and expert houses will participate in the Dubai Investment Week.



The event programme will host a group of prominent speakers in direct dialogue sessions, specialised workshops, closed meetings and field visits. The event is open to invitees only to strengthen the cooperation of participants from the investor community, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
Oman is exploring the possibility of interconnecting its electricity network between Nizwa and Duqm, Petroleum Development Omans (PDO) concession areas, and the Dhofar Power System, said a report.



The expected benefits from the proposed interconnection include fuel savings due to improved dispatch coordination among the power systems, access to areas with renewable energy potential, sharing of spinning reserves (reducing operating costs), and improved grid security, according to a seven year-outlook report released by Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP), added the Times of Oman report.



Presently, the sultanate has two main interconnected systems  the main interconnected system (MIS) and the Dhofar Power System.



PDO also has its own power network, while governorates like Musandam have their own separate electricity networks.



The main interconnected system region extends throughout the governorates of Muscat and Buraimi, and most of the governorates of Al Batinah North, Al Batinah South, Al Dakhiliya, Al Sharqiyah North, Al Sharqiya South and Al Dhahirah, serving more than 864,500 electricity customers.



OPWP, the sole procurer of electricity in the sultanate, is exploring a prospective 400 kV interconnection between Nizwa, Duqm, Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) and the Dhofar Power System, added the report.
Aramex, a leading global provider of comprehensive logistics and transportation solutions, has reported a 4 per cent increase in second quarter revenues to Dh1.148 billion ($312.5 million), compared to Dh1.105 billion ($300.8 million) in Q2 2016.



The companys net profits in Q2 2017 decreased by 23 per cent to Dh97 million ($26.4 million), compared to Dh125.7 million ($34.2 million) in the corresponding period of the previous year, said a statement from Aramex.



The 2017 half year revenues increased, year-on-year, to Dh2.254 billion ($613.6 million), up by 6 per cent, compared to Dh2.134 billion ($580.9 million) in the first half of 2016.



Net profits in the same period of 2017 decreased to Dh188.7 million ($51.3 million), down from Dh222.5 million ($60.5 million) in the first half of 2016, a year-on-year decrease of 15 per cent.



Net profit growth in Q2 2017 was negatively impacted by the one-time fair value adjustment related to Aramexs investment in AMC Logistics joint venture in Egypt in Q2 2016.



Excluding this adjustment, Q2 2017 net profits would have grown by 15 per cent. Furthermore, the companys revenue growth in Q2 and the first half 2017 was also affected by currency fluctuations, especially the Egyptian Pound, which otherwise would have grown by 8 per cent and 10 per cent respectively.



Hussein Hachem, Aramexs CEO, said: Despite the ongoing global and regional economic uncertainty, we delivered strong results in Q2 2017.



Our asset-light business model and use of innovative technologies to upgrade our operations enable us to successfully manage capacity through a variable cost model, both regionally and globally and maintain our position as the disruptive logistics player, he said.



Looking towards the second half of 2017, we are excited about our future prospects for growth, and will be actively identifying acquisitions and strategic partnerships to expand our global reach, he added.



While the performance in GCC in Q2 2017 was relatively slow due to the holiday season and reduced number of working days, as well as the ongoing economic uncertainty, Aramex revenues grew at a healthy rate across Asia and the Asia-Pacific, the US and Africa.



Aramexs Express services recorded double-digit growth in Q2 2017 and continue to be the main contributor to the companys financial performance. Cross-border e-commerce in particular was the key driver for revenue growth especially in Asia-Pacific where customer demand for package delivery services across the region continues to rise.



Leveraging innovative technologies to support Aramexs efforts towards becoming a technology-based enterprise will continue to be a key focus for the business in the remainder of 2017.



The company remains committed to upgrading business operations and optimising last-mile delivery solutions to further enhance overall customer experience, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
BFG International, a Bahrain-based global leader in composites technology, has partnered with the Economic Development Board and labour fund Tamkeen to roll out a groundbreaking Industry 4.0 project at its facility in Mina Salman.



The project involves automating BFG Internationals factories and integrating all its business areas through core software supplied by partner firm QiO Technologies. This will offer the manufacturer complete transparency along its entire supply chain from customers through to suppliers, and optimise its production process.



Industry 4.0 is the growing trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies. It uses cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things, cloud computing and cognitive computing to create smart factories which can respond to changes in real time and become more efficient.



The agreement was signed by Tamkeen chief executive Dr Ebrahim Mohammed Janahi, and BFG International Group president, Dr Samer Al Jishi.



Tamkeen will support BFG International throughout the four-year project with a BD624,204 ($1.64 million) grant for ICT and Business Consulting. The hiring and training of Bahraini staff and personnel will also be supported with a grant of BD612,000.



Tamkeen is always working to support institutions and Bahraini individuals through all stages of their development, with the ultimate objective of making the private sector the main driver for economic growth in the Kingdom, said Dr Janahi.



Specialist manufacturers like BFG International have an important role to play in enabling the growth and diversification of the regions economy, as well as directly creating jobs, he added.



Dr Al Jishi said: BFG Internationals ambitious Industry 4.0 project is the first of its kind in the region. It will not only give BFG International a competitive edge over other industry players, it will also put Bahrain firmly on the international map as a business destination at the cutting edge of technology.



We are training local talents to become proficient in the use of the software and to develop indigenous versions for the local market. The expertise we acquire through this project will positively influence dozens of sectors and industries across the region, enabling them to harness the power of the automation and smart things revolution.



The project is being piloted in Bahrain before being rolled out at BFG Internationals facilities across the world. BFG International holds 40 years of experience in supplying sophisticated composites solutions to industries ranging from rail transportation to architecture, infrastructure, and wind energy.  TradeArabia News Service
Huawei, a leading global ICT solutions provider, has opened one of its largest Customer Solution Innovation & Integration Experience Centres (CSIC) for Huawei in Middle East region in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.



The centre was inaugurated by Dr Majid Alkassabi, Minister of Commerce and Investment, and Advisor to Minister of Commerce and Investment, Governor of Small & Medium Enterprises General Authority Dr Ghassan Alsulaiman.



Dr Abdulaziz Bin Salem Al Ruwais, Governor of the Communications IT Commission (CITC), and Li Huanxin, China Ambassador to Saudi Arabia were also present.



With more than 1200 sq m of floor space in Riyadh, CSIC will accelerate the digital transformation of the Saudi economy by providing an open ecosystem for innovation. The Centre will allow industry partners to experience, architect, validate and build solutions, verify new business models, customize applications and services to sectors such as utility, energy, transportation, education, government amongst others that support the transformation to a digital economy, bringing tremendous knowledge-based economy benefits.



Dr. Alsulaiman said: The launch of Huaweis CSIC in Riyadh is a step forward to support the Saudi 2030 vision and the digitization plan, which play a big role in diversifying the Kingdoms economy.



Huawei is not only one of China's outstanding home-grown companies, but also the world's leading ICT Company. Huawei is a forerunner in enhancing the economic and trade cooperation between China and Saudi Arabia, said Li Huaxin.

Huaweis advanced technology solutions have been widely used in various sectors and industries, making positive contributions not only to the development of the Saudi ICT sector but also to the development of the national economy.



Today, we see that Huawei is actively pursuing social responsibility in order to support the vision of Saudi national innovation. The company is also training more ICT talent to further the transformation of the national economy. It is truly a very commendable step. The integration of Saudi 2030 vision and Chinas belt and road initiative will bring unlimited opportunities for business and cooperation between the two countries. I believe and hope that Huawei will continue to play a leading role in the kingdom, he added.



This launch confirms our commitment to the Saudi people and supports the Kingdoms 2030 vision, which places great emphasis on innovation in the ICT sector, said Li Xiangyu, vice president of Public Affairs and Communications, Huawei Middle East.



The centre will provide both government entities and enterprises in Saudi Arabia with access to a world class facility and labs that enable them to experience the latest technologies and Huawei innovation first-hand. Huawei prides itself in successfully implementing experience gained from 170 markets around



In addition to catering to government and enterprise customers, the CSIC will also play an active role in promoting innovation amongst youth as the centre opens its doors to school and university students. Huawei and universities in Saudi Arabia will be organizing the ICT Skills and Innovation Competition, which aims to provide a stage for aspiring youth to showcase their ideas and concepts, with the winners enrolled in internship programs at Huawei.  TradeArabia News Service
The Executive Council of Dubai and China's Huawei Consumer Business Group have signed a partnership that will see Dubai Font as a standard pre-loaded font in the mobile operating system from the Chinese ICT giant, said Xinhua.



The signing was attended by Ahmad bin Amer Al Mahri, assistant secretary general of Dubai's Executive Council, and Jiao Jian, president of Huawei Consumer Business Group for Middle East and Africa.



The Dubai Font will be available in the upcoming Huawei flagship smartphone launched first in the Middle East and Africa later this year, and then in the rest of the world by next year, said Jiao.



As a reflection of the modernity and innovation of Dubai, the signing is the latest in a series of steps seeing the city cement its position as a global cultural hub, according to the executive council.



Abdullah Al Shaibani, secretary general of the Executive Council of Dubai, spoke highly of the partnership. "Dubai Font is a new tool for self-expression and communication in the region and around the world, and we are confident that this agreement will leave its mark on the world. Huawei has a good reputation and this seems a natural fit for us moving forward," he said.



The Dubai government and US software giant Microsoft (MS) launched the Dubai Font on April 30 this year.



It reflects "the style of Dubai as an open city and is available in 23 languages on MS word applications and social media channels like twitter and instagram, among German, English, French, Arabic, Urdu, but not yet in Mandarin," Al Mahri told Xinhua.



"We are working on Mandarin and we hope to announce its inclusion very soon to the Dubai Font family," he added.


Turkey is truly a backpackers paradise, with delicious food, budget friendly accommodation, internal and public transportation, and access historical and natural sites.



Traveling in Turkey is definitely a relief, especially for younger people after travelling through Europe this summer.



Turkey is a vast country covering an area 783,356 square kilometers to the southeast of Europe. It is a country where a couple could get by on $100 per day, which includes food, stay and sightseeing.



On a budget, backpackers are advised to use a guidebook rather than a guide and to craft a relaxed itinerary flexible to take on last minute changes. And planning to visit ancient, historical sites in Turkeys beautiful countryside will surely leave a lasting impression.



Visit the ancient city of Aspendos, the modern town of Belkis, and its magnificent Roman theatre, built during the reign of the legendary Marcus Aurelius between 161 AD and 180 AD. Having not lost any of its original splendor, it is one of the worlds best examples of a well-preserved Roman theatre. On Turkey's southern Mediterranean coast, the site is 47 kilometers away from Antalya.



Then move onto Cappadocia, an area in Central Anatolia best known for its moon-like landscape, underground cities, caves and houses carved in the rocks. The valley, canyon, hills and unusual rock formation were created by the erosion from rain and winds over millions of years.



Travellers can literally live in a cave while exploring this amazing destination. There is nowhere on Earth quite like Cappadocia. Visitors usually arrive at sunrise (from an overnight bus) and are met with unique views of this mystical landscape. The whole area can be explored on foot with the use of a map.



In keeping to a budget, one of the best places to spend time and have a world of things to do and see, is Istanbul. It is probably the most exciting city in Turkey and is jam-packed with ancient sites and wonderful experiences for backpackers.



The city has great street food and an old authentic charm mixed with modern architecture. Travellers can get their hands on outstanding food usually served in heaping portions for as little as $4 per person. Mouth-watering kababs and donair kababs can be eaten from hundreds of street-stands across the city.



Balk-ekmek, which literally means fish-bread, is a sandwich composed of grilled mackerel, onions, tomato, and lettuce. The best Balik-ekmek are typically served from mobile grills along the Bosphorus, beside Galata Bridge.



While in Taksim Square, the dilli kasarl tost sandwich is legendary. Essentially a grilled cheese sandwich enhanced with slices of beef tongue, mass consumption of the sandwich usually happens around the Beyoglu area.



And anywhere in Istanbul, boza, which is made from crushed millet, boiled and strained then fermented and ultimately garnished with cinnamon and roasted chickpeas, is very traditional and filling. Popularised during the Ottoman period, boza is sold by mobile vendors and from small shops or cafes.



Turkish baths, or Hamams, can come in very handy at the end of a long day roaming the labyrinth-like narrow streets of Istanbul. To relax and unwind a little, venture into one of the many hamams around the city and get a scrub down, bathe in scalding hot water and chat to the locals enjoying their daily hamam trip. Hamams span back over 1,500 years and have become cultural centers for people to meet and interact.



And staying in hostels or guesthouses in Istanbul is the backpackers best bet. With rooms going for $40 to $50 per night, many travellers choose to share a room to keep to their daily budget. - TradeArabia News Service
Plans are underway to strengthen Dubais position in the health care sector, on the basis of sophisticated infrastructure and adoption of the latest equipment.



A team from Dubai Medical Tourism Council and Dubai Health Authority (DHA) met with the International patient team and other doctors from the Canadian Specialist Hospital - one of the DXH (Dubai Health Experience) Group members since the inception of the initiative - to discuss strategies to attract more patients into the city.



Dubai witnessed an influx of 326,649 international patients from various parts of the world in 2016, up 9.5 per cent from the previous year.



It is a matter of pride that Dubai has come to be considered as a benchmark in healthcare, by many of our neighbors, in such a short time. Statistically, we have a strong influx from our neighbouring nations and the Asian region. Our strategies are being channeled into making Dubai a preferred healthcare destination in the other African nations, China and Russia among other countries," said Dr. Layla Al Marzouqi, director of the Dubai Medical Tourism Project, DHA.



Close to 80 per cent of the hospitals in Dubai are accredited, marking it as the city with the highest number of accredited hospitals. This is further augmented with a team of 35,000 healthcare professionals from 110 nationalities greeting patients in their own language.



Dr. Yashar Ali, CEO, Canadian Specialist Hospital said: Canadian Specialist Hospital has a fully functional department dedicated to international patients. We have been promoting Health Tourism since 2006 and are recognised as one of the leading health tourism centers in Dubai. We offer a variety of packages for people with different needs and resources including orthopedics, ophthalmology, dental, dermatology, wellness and preventive health check-up and assisted reproductive techniques.



Dubai is currently placed 75th globally and first in Mena for providing quality of life to its residents. Medical care and health considerations are among the deciding factors taken into account in achieving this distinction.



Addressing the future of Dubai as a global Health Tourism hub, Hussain Anani, COO, Canadian Specialist Hospital said: Support from the tourism, hospitality and aviation industry would be a boon in achieving the industrys goals. Initiatives to set up dedicated channels with international and local travel agents, hotels and passenger carriers would be instrumental in providing a comprehensive package for those in need of medical attention.



Canadian Specialist hospital has a full-fledged team that manages the necessary arrangements for international patients, starting from visa and accommodation till consultation and transportation, based on the requirements of the individual. - TradeArabia News Service


Resorts around the world have reported a spike in Mice arrivals from the lucrative outbound Indian travel market, according to exhibitors at the fifth Annual Mice India and Luxury Travel Congress (Milt).



The Bleisure market segment combines business and pleasure in a single trip  a common tactic with Indias time-pressed, outbound Mice travellers. In response, tourism authorities around the world have ramped up promotional campaigns across India, to attract a greater share of the growing market.



Supporting travel and tourism businesses as they capitalise on the growth potential, Dubai-based B2B event specialist QnA Global is the organiser of the Milt Congress, which is all set to take the Indian Mice and luxury travel industry by storm yet again on July 27 and 28 at the Hyatt Regency in Mumbai and on August 1 and 2 August at Andaz Delhi in Aerocity, Delhi NCR.



Indias outbound tourism market has experienced strong growth over recent years with the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) predicting outbound travel from India will see 50 million people travel internationally on an annual basis by 2020.



Mohamed Zakraf Shafee, director, Exotic Global Holidays, which has hosted Mice groups as large as 500 in the past, said: Sri Lanka offers a wide range of programmes for Mice groups and the journey to reach the island is short and easy for Indian travellers, meaning the travel costs are attractive and the cultural differences minimal.



Tshepo Rox Sikwan, director - Trianon Convention Centre, Mauritius said, Mice organisers have hundreds of destinations to choose from, but the discerning Mice organiser is looking for a location and venue where they can be confident the delegates have a world class experience.



Middle East continues to remain as one of the top destinations selected by Indian travellers. TCA Abu Dhabis strategy is to extend Indias growing importance as a lead source market for international tourism guests and destination attributes which appeal to the Indian market, said Mubarak Al Shamisi, director, Abu Dhabi Convention Bureau, the dedicated division of Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi) which champions the emirate as a dynamic global business events leader.



The Convention Bureau has been very successful in helping the Mice organisers with various value propositions, helping Indian buyers attract groups from India of over 1,200 passengers. Our location and ease of access makes Abu Dhabi a superb meetings and conventions choice where delegates can arrive fresh and ready to get down to business., Mubarak added.



France has also implemented a stategy to enhance the countrys positioning as a luxury and incentive destination. In support of this statement, Sheetal Munshaw, director, Atout France in India, said: We have been very active in our interactions with Indian buyers. India's biggest incentive movement to France took place in December 2015 which saw an approximate of 2,200 delegates from a reputed multinational visit the city of Paris. This has has set a healthy precedent for a slew of other incentive movements that have taken place in France over the last year.



Shedding light on why tourism authorities are partnering with the Milt Congress, Sunil Mathapati, country manager, Bahrain Tourism & Exhibitions Authority said that the one to one meeting format of the Milt Congress is very encouraging as they can personally address what Bahrain has to offer and also look into requirements of any buyers who meet them.



Ackash Jain, director, QnA Global added: Indian corporates and luxury travellers are looking at experiencing unique and unexplored destinations around the world. Its just about being able to meet the right profiles from the country. Thats where we come in, at the Milt Congress we provide an interactive networking platform for global travel and tourism suppliers to meet new clients and business partners who are currently finalizing their travel initiatives for the year 2017-2018 and are looking to source Mice suppliers to facilitate these projects. - TradeArabia News Service
Emirates Aviation University will be hosting two Open Days to provide prospective students and their parents insight into the wide variety of courses on offer at the university, along with the opportunity to speak to academic staff from each subject area.



The first Open Day will take place on August 3 at the Sheraton Abu Dhabi from 10 am to 4 pm. This is the first time that the university hosts an Open Day event in Abu Dhabi, catering the increasing demand from students across the UAE. The second Open Day will take place on the 12th of August at the university campus in Dubai Academic City from 9am to 1pm.



"Open days are an ideal opportunity for prospective students and their parents to find out more about the University, programmes, facilities and accommodation, which will be available starting September. We're looking forward to welcoming interested students, said Dr. Ahmed Al Ali, chancellor of Emirates Aviation University. - TradeArabia News Service
Mansour Memarian has been appointed executive chef at Palazzo Versace Dubai, a magnificent waterfront hotel nestled in the heart of the UAE emirate.



Memarian, an Iranian chef with German origins who has 21 years industry experience, has had stints at some of the worlds best restaurants and held executive positions at many luxury brands including the Shangri-La Hotel, Qaryat Al Beri, Abu Dhabi, as well as the award-winning Chedi Andermatt in Switzerland. Before this, he was the chef de cuisine at the Burj Al Arabs signature restaurant, Al Mahara.



Before arriving in the UAE in 2010, Memarian, the first Iranian Michelin starred chef, rose steadily up the ranks working in some of the most prestigious hotels and dining establishments in Europe. He earned his first Michelin star in 2006, at Jagdhof Glashutte in Germany, in just eight months as head chef. After this successful story, Memarian moved to Innsbruck, Austria, to open Pavillon restaurant and shortly he added the second Michelin star to his culinary career.



In 2008 he was named the Best International Chef in Austria and his cookbook Gourmet Raffinessen was voted Best Cookbook in the same country.



Chef Memarian brings extensive experience and a wealth of talent to Palazzo Versace Dubai, where he will oversee the five-star hotels culinary operations including its six restaurants and two bars, as well as the catering services. In his new role, Memarian will head all dining operations, leading the culinary team in enhancing Palazzo Versace Dubais reputation for world-class, curated dining.



Commenting on the appointment, Sandra Tikal, general manager of Palazzo Versace Dubai, said: We are delighted to welcome Mansour Memarian as executive chef. Not only does he bring extensive knowledge, but he also brings his signature creativity which will serve to further improve our culinary offerings. Known for his ability to bring out the best in his teams, Chef Mansour is highly regarded and will be an invaluable addition to Palazzo Versace Dubai. - TradeArabia News Service
Bahrain and Malaysia are looking to strengthen their bilateral relations and enhance areas of cooperation to achieve their joint tourism related goals.



Shaikh Khalid bin Humood Al Khalifa, chief executive officer of the Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA), received today Agus Salim bin Haji, the Ambassador of Malaysia to Bahrain.



During the meeting, H.E Shaikh Khalid bin Humood Al Khalifa stressed on the importance of strengthening bilateral relations between the Kingdom and Malaysia, as well as enhancing areas of cooperation between the authority and the Malaysian Embassy.



The Malaysian Ambassador, Mr. Agus Salim bin Haji, expressed his gratitude to Shaikh Khalid for his warm welcome, and affirmed his commitment to further enhance the bilateral relations between both countries and strengthen ties across all fields. - TradeArabia News Service


Meet award-winning artisans and buy their products at Kerala Arts and Crafts Village
Tuesday support meetings

Alcoholics Anonymous: 6:30 a.m., 917 N. Beech; 8:30 a.m., 500 S. Wolcott; 10 a.m., 328 E. A; noon, 500 S. Wolcott; 2 p.m., 917 N. Beech; 5:30 p.m., 1124 Elma, Imitate the Image Church; 5:30 p.m., 328 E. A; 7 p.m., 500 S. Wolcott, closed; 7 p.m., 520 CY; 8 p.m., 328-1/2 E. A; 8 p.m., 328 E. A; 8 p.m., 917 N. Beech. Douglas: 7:30 p.m., 628 E. Richards (upstairs in back). Unless otherwise noted, all meetings are open. Casper info: 266-9578; Douglas info: (307) 351-1688.

Narcotics Anonymous: Noon, 500 S. Wolcott, 12-24 Club; 7 p.m., 15th and Melrose, at the church. Web site: http://www.urmrna.org.

Open ceramics at Art 321

Art 321 hosts an open ceramics studio every Tuesday morning from 10 a.m. to noon. The cost is $10 per session and an instructor is present during studio hours to assist you. Clay is available for purchase or you are welcome to bring your own. All other supplies are provided. This is a great opportunity to learn (or re-learn) basic and intermediate construction and wheel techniques and to produce fully finished pottery.

Restorative justice meeting set

An informational meeting regarding restorative justice and NCRJs upcoming pilot program will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. There is no cost to attend and it is open to the public. Lunch will be provided. Please RSVP to 307-233-6603. This is sponsored by the Wyoming Community Foundation and the Casper Police Department. Feel free to call with questions or visit NCRJ on Facebook.

Learn about cloud storage

The Natrona County Library will offer a Cloud Storage class from 2 to 4 p.m. Learn how to securely back up data on computers and mobile devices using a variety of programs that help with local backups as well as online services such as iCloud, OneDrive, Google Drive, and Dropbox. Call 577-READ x2 or email reference@natronacountylibrary.org for more information.

NCPL Players in Mills

The Natrona County Librarys NCPL players will perform for elementary-age students at the Mills Branch at 3 p.m. Seating is limited, so plan to arrive early. Tickets will be handed out one hour prior to each performance. Call 577-READ x5 for more information.

Yoga on the circle

Weekly yoga classes have returned to the Bart Rea Learning Circle in Amoco Park. All except the SolAbration on Aug. 21 are free, although nonperishable food items for Wyoming Food for Thought and donations to cover program costs are always welcome. Tuesday, 5:30 p.m., Yoga on the Labyrinth; 6:30 p.m., Drum Circle.

Corvette Cruise and Dine every Tuesday

Cruise and Dines sponsored by the Central Wyoming Corvettes (a nonprofit organization) are every Tuesday night through Nov. 7. Bring your Corvette and meet at Whites Chevrolet at 6 p.m. and take a short cruise with several other Vettes to a local restaurant for dinner. Guests or new members are always welcome. See us on Facebook or visit our website.
The current mess we are in with greater sage grouse is just history repeating itself.

We have been here before, and we have made these mistakes  mistakes that have cost sportsmen and sportswomen of this country billions to try to repair the damage. Damage that could have been avoided in the first place.

We know this. It is why hunters, energy companies, state and federal wildlife agencies, ranchers and many others worked so hard on the sage grouse conservation plans across the West. Plans with strong bipartisan support to conserve a bird that is considered warranted to be listed as threatened on the Endangered Species list. These plans are the thing that has avoided a need for a listing while still accommodating multiple uses of our public lands and providing for the Wests economy.

Not everyone agrees with the plan. Lawsuits have been filed. Lobbying of the current administration has led to new rhetoric and new problems. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke wants to review this effort, based on not everyone being at the table. Many involved with this process are wondering, Who was not at the table? Maybe Zinke should have said that certain people at the table did not get everything they wanted. What they did get was a new administration to lobby.

Now there is talk of captive breeding of greater sage grouse to make up for the loss of habitat. Wyoming even went so far as to pass a bill allowing this idea to move forward. This has forced the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to write rules for gathering eggs from public wildlife to then raise chicks in captivity and release them for mitigation or to use them in private pay-to-play hunting.

Wildlife is a public resource in Wyoming. We do not raise elk, bighorn sheep or sage grouse. We surely do not allow private companies to take public wildlife and raise them in captivity for a profit. This is what the proposal for captive rearing of sage grouse would do.

We are not a high-fence hunting state. There is no difference between taking sage grouse eggs off public land and using them for captive farm hunts, then taking elk and mule deer fawns off public lands and raising them for pay-to-play hunts. Wyoming Wildlife Federation has fought this idea for decades. Just like ideas to take our access to public lands, we will fight tooth and nail over our public wildlife.

Over 100 years ago we began constructing fish hatcheries across the Pacific Northwest to mitigate for the loss of habitat. At that time sportsmen and biologist warned of the cost of hatcheries and the dangers they could pose to native fish populations. As the Northwest economy grew, so did the effects on Pacific salmon and steelhead. In response, to keep intact the commercial, sport and tribal harvest needs, more and more hatcheries were built, in an attempt to make up for habitat loss due to development. The result is a billion-dollar mess with salmon populations still on the decline, state wildlife agencies over budget and a denigrated wild population due to cross breeding with hatchery plants. Despite captive rearing as a means for mitigation, salmon and steelhead continue to be listed, fisheries are closed and sportsmen lose out.

The Wyoming Wildlife Federation fought the captive-breeding of sage-grouse last year in Cheyenne and lost. We have submitted our comments to Game and Fish. We have concerns such as the cost to the department to manage sage grouse farming, taking wild eggs from nests on public lands and the spread of disease from captive birds to wild birds, potentially leading to a listing.

The biggest issue we have is the precedent it sets. Wildlife is a public resource for all to enjoy, it feeds our families and it is a massive economic driver to the state. Allowing private companies to use public wildlife to sell hunts or to sell to companies to make up for the impacts of development, whether it is elk or sage grouse, is not a Wyoming value. In the end, this is an effort to privatize wildlife for the financial gain of a few with the cost falling in the lap of Wyoming hunters and the agency they support.
Authorities suspect Casper businessman Tony Cercy raped an unconscious 20-year-old woman who had been sleeping on a couch during a lake house gathering last month, new court documents show.

The woman was attending a party the night of June 24 at a home on Cedar Drive North near Alcova Lake when she fell asleep on the couch. She told investigators that she woke to Cercy performing oral sex on her. She said that she immediately pushed him away, but Cercy said he had been trying to "get some action" from her for the past hour, according to her statements to investigators.

She told investigators that she fell asleep fully clothed but woke up with only a bra on. She said Cercy was naked from the waist down.

The woman told authorities that Cercy threatened to kill her and another unnamed person if she told anybody about the incident, according to the documents.

Prosecutors formally charged Cercy on Monday with three sex crimes related to the alleged assault. Cercy, 55, faces separate charges of first-, second- and third-degree sexual assault. The charges state the alleged victim was physically helpless at the time of the incident, which is defined in Wyoming statute as "unconscious, asleep or otherwise physically unable to communicate unwillingness to act."

He appeared in Natrona County Circuit Court on Monday afternoon, three days after his arrest in downtown Casper. He was free after posting a $100,000 cash bond.

Investigators interviewed at least 10 people who were at the home that night. Multiple people said they saw the woman asleep on the couch and that she was not responding to loud noises or attempts to wake her. Others said that she had permission to sleep on the couch for the night. One witness showed investigators a video that portrayed the woman passed out on the couch and covered in a blanket. The woman told investigators she had been drinking that day.

Friends told investigators that the woman contacted them in the early hours of June 25 to report what had happened and to ask for help. One friend said they received a text message from the woman at about 3:21 a.m. asking for help. Another said that the woman called them the next morning and said that Cercy had raped her. That friend had 19 missed calls from the woman between 3:17 and 4:05 a.m.

Cercy willingly went to the Natrona County Sheriff's Office on June 28 so that investigators could collect a sample of his DNA. During that process, he made a comment that the incident "didn't happen the way you think it happened," according to the court documents.

Cercy did not speak in court Monday, and his family filled the back row of the courtroom. He was represented by Casper attorney Ian Sandefer.

Sandefer did not immediately respond to a message left late Monday afternoon at his office.

Judge Steven Brown ordered Cercy to surrender his passport but allowed him to travel within the United States for business. Often, defendants are not allowed to leave Natrona County.

Cercy's next court appearance will come during a preliminary hearing, likely within a month. At that hearing, a judge will decide whether enough evidence exists for the case to proceed to district court.

Law enforcement officers arrested Cercy on Friday and booked him into jail. A merchant on the 800 block of Old Yellowstone Highway told the Star-Tribune that he saw roughly 20 officers arrest the businessman at about 2:30 p.m.

Cercy has invested widely in Casper since selling his manufacturing company, Power Service Inc., in April 2016. He helped his son, Cole, buy the Wonder Bar and Poor Boys Steakhouse and donated $1 million to the David Street Station downtown plaza and $500,000 to Natrona County High School for a new digital scoreboard.

Gov. Matt Mead toured the Wonder Bar with Cole Cercy on Friday, according to a photo posted at noon to the family business Instagram account.
Wyoming Sens. Mike Enzi and John Barrasso said they remained committed to fixing what theyve described as a failing health care system. But in the wake of Thursdays failed vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the path forward is unclear.

Senate Republicans narrowly lost the vote last week on a measure that became known as skinny repeal  a bill that would have eliminated the ACAs mandate that Americans buy insurance or face a penalty. It also would have allowed states to waive a part of the ACA that required insurers cover essential health benefits, like prescription drugs and maternity care.

But in a dramatic moment late Thursday night, Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican who had returned to Washington days after receiving a cancer diagnosis, joined with two fellow Republican colleagues to vote against the bill. That, along with the uniform opposition of 48 Democrats, killed the skinny repeal effort as Vice President Mike Pence  who had arrived at the Capitol to cast the deciding vote in the event of a tie  looked on.

In a statement Friday, Enzi said he was disappointed that the measure failed but stressed this is not the end of the line.

He added, We all know health care is complicated, but that doesnt change the need for us to find a way forward in order to provide relief for our constituents.

In a two-sentence statement sent to the Star-Tribune in response to a list of questions, Barrasso said Friday that he voted to repeal the ACA  commonly called Obamacare  and that he continues to want to provide affordable and quality health care to Americans.

But how exactly that care and relief will be provided is unclear. Enzis spokesman, Max DOnofrio, told the Star-Tribune on Friday that those plans have yet to be laid but will be part of the discussion in the days and weeks ahead. Beyond his brief statement, Barrasso did not answer questions.

Enzi and Barrasso have been heavily involved in the Senates attempt to repeal Obamacare for weeks.

That process  which involved Enzi, Barrasso and 11 other senators drafting a first repeal-and-replace bill  has drawn criticism from Democrats and some members of the Republican Party.

Asked on Friday about Democrats working with Republicans going forward, DOnofrio said you would have to ask them. He dismissed Democrats opposition as no surprise.

The minority leader (Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York) announced early on that no one from his side would join in an effort to change the system, DOnofrio wrote. The GOP gathered ideas from the whole conference and released a discussion draft publicly that was debated for weeks. ... Theres always going to be someone complaining because everyone is not going to get exactly what they want when they want it.

DOnofrio said that while Enzi believes ... it is important to learn from your experiences, it is also important to focus on what the next step moving forward is going to be rather than fret over what you could have done differently in the past.

McCain said he opposed the skinny repeal because it did not include a comprehensive replacement to Obamacare. On Thursday afternoon, he and Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said they worried that the repeal bill would be accepted by the House and passed as law.

Essentially, they expressed concern that if they voted for the bill and it passed the Senate, it would eventually become law as written. They instead wanted a conference committee to negotiate the measure further with the House.

Graham and Johnson would eventually vote yes anyway, while McCain  with a wave of his hand  scuttled a last-ditch GOP repeal effort after seven years of the party promising to eliminate former President Barack Obamas sweeping health care reform law.

DOnofrio said that had the skinny repeal measure passed, more work wouldve been required to fix health care in America.

Sometimes the best way to work on legislation isnt to pass a comprehensive bill, but pass what you can and keep working to get a better product, he wrote.
Hello Casper! As former city reporter Arno Rosenfeld has moved on to the state beat, I will now be penning the weekly Casper Notebook. Ill introduce myself before we get started.

I was born and raised in Virginia, and graduated from my beloved alma mater James Madison University with a degree in history and political science.

After college, I did some traveling and worked a string of odd jobs: I was a live-in pet sitter, did some grunt work on the film set of Captain Philips and worked at the front desk of a hotel.

Fortunately, I eventually found my way into journalism.

My first reporting job was for a newspaper in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and I most recently spent two years as a crime reporter for a weekly publication in the British Virgin Islands before moving to Wyoming last week.

What can I say? I love living in places that look like screen savers.

Although I havent been here long, Ive already found most people to be friendly and helpful, which I greatly appreciate, as international moves are not the easiest.

Im excited to be reporting on local government, and I encourage everyone to contact me with questions, concerns, comments or ideas.

Thanks for reading!

***

Now for city news 

Brides-to-be take note!

The city-owned Hogadon Ski Area has a new lodge and its rental rates for special events will likely be set at the next Casper City Council meeting.

The council agreed to consider the matter next week after hearing a brief presentation by Chris Smith, the superintendent of Hogadon, during the councils work session on Tuesday night.

Smith said officials involved with Hogadon have studied the rates of other local event venues, and concluded that the fee for a one-day rental should be set at $2,000 and should increase by $500 each day after.

This is a brand new facility, a brand new state of the art facility in a unique setting, Smith said Friday. We have two weddings tentatively booked this year, four for next year and one for 2019.

Smith went on to say the lodge was designed to be open all year. So we had this in mind from the get-go.

***

I was pleased to hear that the annual Purple Heart Truck Run made a stop in Casper on July 21.

Sponsored by Wounded Warriors Family Support and the Military Order of the Purple Heart, the run features a mobility-equipped 2017 Ford Raptor F-150 truck, adapted with over $20,000 of modifications to suit combat-wounded veterans who are paralyzed or missing limbs.

The truck is driven around the country each summer by veterans, who frequently stop and hold events to boost support for soldiers.

During the City Councils work session on Tuesday night, Councilwoman Amanda Huckabay said she attended the trucks local stop, which was held at Greiner Ford of Casper.

The city received two Combat Wounded Parking signs from Wounded Warriors Family Support at the event, according to Huckabay.

The councilwoman added that she hopes the city makes use of the signs soon.

Ill be keeping my eye out for them.
CHEYENNE  A man who was 15 when he killed an 84-year-old man in a home burglary and who originally got life in prison without parole is on track for release later this summer in a Wyoming case affected by recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

The Wyoming Board of Parole on July 19 granted Jonathan Rodericks request for release. Under his parole agreement, Roderick, 41, will be freed if he completes a welding training program and doesnt break prison rules.

Rodericks second chance comes after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012 struck down mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juvenile homicide offenders. Last year, the court said the ban applied to those already serving such terms  triggering new sentencing hearings and, in some cases, the release of dozens of former teen offenders across the nation. The justices said the sentence is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual and that all but the rare irredeemable juvenile offender should have a chance at release one day.

In 2013, the Wyoming Legislature changed state law to allow teen offenders sentenced to life parole eligibility after 25 years, provided they havent committed serious crimes in prison.

Roderick, imprisoned at the minimum-security Wyoming Honor Camp in Newcastle, passed that mark last year.

After all the time Ive done, Im a little nervous about, you know, what its going to be like to get out and all that. But Im more excited about the idea of it than anything, Roderick, who plans to get a job as a welder, said in a phone interview.

He shot 84-year-old Calvin Dillon in his kitchen while burglarizing Dillons home a few miles north of Glenrock in 1991. Roderick stole Dillons pickup truck and dumped his body, which was found by searchers eight days later.

Roderick said he wanted to steal Dillons truck so he could hang out with his sister and her friends in Casper.

Sometimes I sit there and I try to imagine what was going through my head at that time when I did that, he said. As an adult now, I couldnt imagine ever putting myself in a situation like that.

Not long after Roderick began his life sentence, guards pulled him down from a prison fence hed scaled. But the parole board determined it was not intended as an escape but rather a suicide attempt; Roderick had hoped the guards would kill him, parole board Director Dan Fetsco said.

Fetsco said Roderick appears to show genuine remorse.

I have a strong hunch, if you will, that Mr. Roderick, when gets out, is going to do very well, he said. The science shows his brain wasnt developed yet. Even his crime, if you look at it, wasnt particularly depraved or even sophisticated.

Relatives of Dillon did not return phone messages seeking comment.

The Associated Press surveyed all 50 states to see how judges and prosecutors, lawmakers and parole boards are responding to the Supreme Court rulings. While some states have resentenced and released dozens of those deemed to have rehabilitated themselves, others have delayed review of cases, skirted the ruling on seeming technicalities or fought to keep the vast majority of their affected inmates locked up for life.

The 2013 state law affected 13 Wyoming inmates, including Robin Sanders, who was 51 when he was freed on parole in 2015. Sanders was sentenced at 17 to life in prison with no chance for parole for being an accessory to a roadside double murder.

Four others sentenced to life in prison for crimes committed as juveniles are unlikely to be released soon because of crimes committed in prison. They include James Harlow, who got another life sentence for stabbing a corrections officer to death in 1997. Harlow originally got three life sentences for raping and murdering a Rock Springs girl in 1985.

The board can deny them every year for the rest of their lives, Fetsco said. Just because they become eligible after 25 years doesnt mean theyre going to get paroled.
Welcome to the United States of Anarchy.

Health care legislation languishes without presidential leadership. The Senate fails to pass a measure crafted by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, fails to pass an outright repeal and even fails to pass a proposal to go back to the drawing board.

Huge majorities in Congress, declining to bless President Trumps love affair with Vladimir Putins regime, vote for new sanctions against Russian officials; legislation passes the Senate, 98 to 2, and the House, 419 to 3. The veto-proof rebuke to the president seizes a foreign policy function from an unreliable commander in chief.

As the deadline looms to avoid a default on U.S. debt, Susan Collins of Maine, a Senate committee chair, is heard on a hot mic saying shes worried about the presidents stability and calling his administrations handling of spending matters just incredibly irresponsible. She says she doubts Trump even knows how the budget process works.

Trump, baffling and alarming allies, goes on the attack against his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who was an outspoken supporter of Trumps candidacy. Trump clearly wants Sessions to resign, but Sessions is ignoring him. Sessions former colleagues in the Senate back him over his boss  and they hope Trump isnt crazy enough to start a crisis by firing Sessions and then special counsel Robert Mueller.

Meanwhile, the president continues to sow chaos with perpetual distractions. He fires off a tweet Wednesday announcing he is banning transgender people from serving in the military. The tweet apparently catches even the Pentagon by surprise and draws rebukes from pro-military Republicans who argue that all able-bodied, patriotic Americans should be allowed to serve.

And the ship of state sails on, rudderless. This is what it might look like if there were no president at all: Stuff happens, but nothing gets done. Actually, the majority in Congress has great difficulty even doing nothing.

McConnell and his team scheduled a vote on repealing Obamacare for 11:30 a.m. Wednesday  a proposal that was, by all accounts, destined for failure. But when the appointed hour came, Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., sponsor of the repeal measure, requested a quorum call  a Senate procedure to stall for time.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., rose. Mr. President, I think there was some confusion   he began.

But Enzi objected, Wyden was forbidden to speak and the quorum call resumed  for 43 silent minutes.

Senators arrived for the scheduled pre-lunch vote. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., went to the clerks table to give a thumbs up and Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., went to give a thumbs down, and both were told the same thing: Were not voting. Senators milled about the chamber and huddled in clusters while aides and Senate leaders came and went to resolve the impasse, an arcane dispute about points of order and procedures for amendments.

Finally, Enzi spoke: The vote would be postponed for four more hours.

The Sisyphean act, all for a proposal that was going nowhere, encapsulated the whole Dada enterprise of health care legislation. McConnell, thwarted in his quest to round up votes for the House-passed version of Trumpcare, or for his own Trumpcare alternative, or even for a repeal of Obamacare without a replacement, decided instead to risk everything on a motion to proceed  a parliamentary maneuver that allows debate to begin.

McConnell won that vote Tuesday by the thinnest possible margin, a 50-50 tie, broken by Vice President Mike Pence. But then McConnell was the proverbial dog that caught the car. Hours later, he brought up his health care legislation, and it went down, 43 to 57, losing nine of his fellow Republicans and falling 17 votes short of what he needed.

On Wednesday came Enzis repeal proposal, which wouldnt have taken effect for two years to buy lawmakers more time to draft an Obamacare replacement. After the four-hour delay, it went down, 45 to 55, with seven Republicans defecting. Senators then voted down, on party lines, a Democratic proposal to send the whole thing back to committee.

Republicans, after complaining for years that they had been jammed by Democrats on the passage of Obamacare, brought their alternative forward in a secretive, rushed, Republican-only process without hearings. Far from giving lawmakers time to read the bill, GOP Senate leaders had them vote to begin debate without knowing which legislation they would be debating.

So it goes when a president doesnt act like one: all fury, no function.
Wyoming is brimming with off-the-beaten-path opportunities and adventures, from its cities and towns to its wild, open spaces. Here are a few places to explore.

Newcastle

Do: Hike or ride the Serenity Trail a few miles from town. There are 2-mile and 4-mile loops that join together. They are well-marked, feature nature signs and picnic baskets and give hikers and mountain bikers a taste of the Black Hills close to town.

See: Visit Jewell Cave, about 24 miles east of Newcastle. The national monument is home to one of the world's longest caves.

Eat: Isabellas is known for its pizza and other Italian dishes. The eatery features an outdoor patio for summer dining. Across the street, Donnas Diner offers classic breakfasts.

Get there: 11 miles from the South Dakota border, north of Lusk on Highway 85 and northeast of Wright on Highway 450.

Whos it for: Everyone, particularly families. The Black Hills are family-friendly, with attractions like Jewell Cave, Devils Tower, Mount Rushmore and hiking trails.

Pinedale

Do: Rent paddle boards in town and cruise Half Moon or Fremont lakes. Head over to the banks of the Green River for some trout fishing.

See: Go to Elkhart Park trailhead and hike to Photographers Point for a stunning view of the Wind River Range.

Eat: Rock Rabbit is a hippie oasis in western Wyoming. The atmosphere is groovy, and the food is great, too. If you luck into the right night, youll also get a front-row seat for live music.

Get there: Pinedale sits along Highway 191, halfway between Jackson and Rock Springs.

Whos it for: Outdoor lovers will find plenty to do. There are enough activities in the area to keep any family happy.

Kemmerer

Do: The hills above this southwest Wyoming town are one of the world's richest troves of fish fossils. Quarries allow visitors to dig for fossils and keep what they find.

See: Learn about the areas ancient lake while visiting Fossil Butte National Monument, about 15 miles west of town. The monument hosts an impressive collection of aquatic fossils.

Eat: Kemmerer is home to a great Mexican restaurant. Dine at El Jaliscience and try the fajitas.

Get there: Kemmerer is at the intersection of Wyoming highways 189 and 30.

Whos it for: Adults who love fossils or adventure; kids preschool age and up.

Saratoga

Do: Start with a relaxing soak in the Hobo Pool, Saratogas free, always-open hot springs. If youre feeling brave, try the Lobster Pot. Then, take a float trip down the North Platte or fish just about anywhere on the river.

See: The nearby Snowy Range will captivate every time. Check out Lake Marie, at the base of Medicine Bow Peak.

Eat: Locals love Bellas Bistro, an Italian restaurant known for its -- well, everything is great. Plus, the owner is a wine guru, and shell steer you right.

Get there: Youll find it between Rawlins and Laramie, 20 miles south of Wolcott Junction on State Highway 130.

Who it's for: Couples love Saratoga as a romantic weekend retreat. Fishermen and outdoor enthusiasts will also find plenty to enjoy.

Buffalo

Do: Buffalo offers plenty of small-town charm. Browse the businesses on Main Street, check out the historic Occidental Hotel and grab a locally made beer from the Clear Creek Brewing Company.

See: Check out rock formations and a mountain stream on a drive through Crazy Woman Canyon, not far from town.

Eat: Buffalo has a variety of options for a small town. Try Up In Smoke, a barbecue joint that uses organic foods whenever possible.

Get there: The town is found at the intersection of U.S. highways 90 and 25. If you've got the time, or want to make an entire weekend of it, spend one day in Buffalo and continue on to Sheridan, 30 minutes to the north, the next.

Whos it for: There's something for anyone in Buffalo, and it's particularly suited for a couples weekend retreat.
On a recent Saturday in July, business was booming at Teresas Mosaic Cafe.

What executive chef David Matias didnt know was that the west-side business had been targeted by a cash mob.

Like flash mobs, cash mobs also involve organized groups converging on predetermined locations, but for the purpose of infusing local businesses with money and support. This national trend is said to have begun in about 2011 and has since spread to dozens of U.S. cities, including Tucson.

Tucson resident Kirsten Cummins gathers people interested in cash mobbing through her Cash Mob  Tucson, AZ Facebook group, made up of more than 140 members. The group votes each month on which local business to patronize and when.

Cummins was inspired to start the Tucson movement after hearing about cash mobbing in another city.

In 2013 I heard about the movement going on in Portland, Oregon, she said, I thought, What happens if we gather people together to support local businesses here?

When the Tucson group began in 2013, the cash mobs targeted local farmers markets. They have since expanded to businesses ranging from hobby shops to restaurants.

In addition to boosting the local economy, cash mobbing introduces Tucsonans to local businesses they may not otherwise know about, Cummins said.

A Civic Economics Survey for Independent Businesses found that local retailers return an average of 52 percent of their revenue to the local economy, compared with just 14 percent for the chain retailers.

The study also suggests that four times more dollars stay in the community when spent at local businesses as opposed to spending at a chain or big box store.

Local First Arizona, a group that aims to strengthen and promote local businesses to the community, recalls the cash-mobbing trend being popular in Phoenix five to six years ago.

I havent heard of one in a long time, said Kimber Lanning, founder and director of Local First Arizona. Often restaurants dont like them because they get caught off guard for staffing purposes and customers get frustrated.

Still, the cash-mobbing movement can be a helpful tool to boost the local economy, said Southern Arizona Director of Local First Arizona Michael Peel.

Those extra dollars circulating can help with local jobs and make sure we have more diverse and prosperous communities, he said

Coralie Sattas restaurant, Ghinis French Caffe, was cash-mobbed by the group on Sunday, June 11. But Satta did not notice much of a difference at the business, at 1803 E. Prince Road.

The concept of cash mobs could be helpful depending on the day the group chooses to support the business, Satta said.

If they were to come on a normally slow day, it could help possibly, she said. On weekends, I can imagine it wont really help; restaurants are already busy.

At Teresas Mosaic Cafe, 2456 N. Silver Mosaic Drive, Matias said the increase was noticeable.

We were busier that day, but we didnt know why we were busy said Matias. The family-owned business took in about $400 more than average, according to Matias.

At the end of cash mobs, all that is left behind is a note reading youve just been cash-mobbed.

I had one person think it was a coupon and I had to clarify it was just a message saying, Im here on purpose to give you monetary love, Cummins said.

Going forward, Cummins hopes the group continues to grow and foster a sense of camaraderie.

I hope to see a larger movement, I dont own any rights or anything to this, this is just an idea I believe in, she said. I hope other people decide to get together and say, we should have dinner at this restaurant weve never been to.
We've collected a few front pages from newspapers.com to give you a look at some July 31 papers in history. With a subscription to newspapers.com you can search the Arizona Daily Star and many other newspapers using keywords or dates, and download articles or pages.
PHOENIX  Former Sheriff Joe Arpaio was convicted of a criminal charge Monday for refusing to stop traffic patrols that targeted immigrants, marking a final rebuke for a politician who once drew strong popularity from such crackdowns but was ultimately booted from office as voters became frustrated over his headline-grabbing tactics and deepening legal troubles.

The verdict from U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton represents a victory for critics who voiced anger over Arpaio's unusual efforts to get tough on crime, including jailing inmates in tents during triple-digit heat, forcing them to wear pink underwear and making hundreds of arrests in crackdowns that divided immigrant families.

Arpaio, who spent 24 years as the sheriff of metro Phoenix, skirted two earlier criminal investigations of his office. But he wasn't able to avoid legal problems when he prolonged his signature immigration patrols for nearly a year and a half after a different judge ordered him to stop. That judge later ruled they racially profiled Latinos.

The lawman who made defiance a hallmark of his tenure was found guilty of misdemeanor contempt-of-court for ignoring the 2011 court order to stop the patrols. The 85-year-old faces up to six years in jail, though attorneys who have followed the case doubt that someone his age would be incarcerated.

Critics hoped Arpaio's eight-day trial in federal court in Phoenix would bring a long-awaited comeuppance for lawman who had managed to escape accountability through much of his six terms.

Prosecutors say Arpaio violated the order so he could promote his immigration enforcement efforts in an effort to boost his 2012 re-election campaign and even bragged about his continued crackdowns.

He had acknowledged prolonging his patrols but insisted it was not intentional.

He blamed one of his former attorneys in the profiling case for not properly explaining the importance of the court order. His defense also focused on what his attorneys said were weaknesses in the court order that failed to acknowledge times when deputies would detain immigrants and later hand them over to federal authorities.

Unlike other local police leaders who left immigration enforcement to U.S. authorities, Arpaio made hundreds of arrests in traffic patrols that sought out immigrants and business raids in which his officers targeted immigrants who used fraudulent IDs to get jobs.

The efforts are similar to local immigration enforcement that President Donald Trump has advocated. To build his highly touted deportation force, Trump is reviving a long-standing program that deputizes local officers to enforce federal immigration law.

Arpaio's immigration powers were eventually stripped away by the courts and federal government.

The contempt-of-court case marked the first time federal authorities had prosecuted Arpaio on a criminal charge, though his office had been the subject of past investigations.

Federal authorities had looked into Arpaio's misspending of $100 million in jail funds and his criminal investigations of political enemies. Neither investigation led to prosecution of the sheriff or his employees.

Arpaio's criminal charges are believed to have contributed heavily to his crushing defeat in November to little-known retired Phoenix police Sgt. Paul Penzone.
At least 26 people were stranded by flash floods Sunday on the far side of the bridge leading from Seven Falls/Bear Canyon and were being shuttled to safety, according a Pima County Sheriff's Department's Facebook post.

The Sheriffs Department Search and Rescue Unit, along with Department of Public Safety Ranger helicopter and the Southern Arizona Rescue Association, worked the rescue in the Seven Falls area of the Sabino Canyon Recreation Park.

No one was reported in immediate danger and the DPS Ranger helicopter was used to shuttle those who were stranded.The rescue operation started about 7 p.m. and was expected to continue for some time because of the limited seating on the helicopter, Deputy Cody Gress, a Pima County sheriffs spokesman, said Sunday night. All of the people had been led to safety by 11 p.m.

Earlier Sunday, the Sheriff's Department closed Redington Road after heavy rains fell over the Catalina Mountains.
The sheriff's department on Tuesday identified the man who died when bees attacked him Monday morning on Tucson's southwest side.

Danny Martinez, 48, died at the scene of the bee attack in the 6600 block of South Camino de la Tierra, near West Valencia Road, Drexel Heights Fire District said in a news release.

Another landscaper and a resident also were attacked. The resident was taken to a hospital but was expected to be released today.

The second landscaper refused treatment.

He told officials he was spraying for weeds and bugs when Martinez came up to him under attack by the bees, according to Drexel Heights.

The bees also stung two firefighters, but they are fine, according to the news release.

Camino de la Tierra was closed from Valencia to Calle Faisan due to swarms of bees in the area, according to a news release from the Pima County Sheriff's Department. Residents were asked to use caution and remain inside.

The road re-opened around 11 a.m.
DETROIT  Courtroom 801 is nearly empty when guards bring in Bobby Hines in handcuffs.

More than 27 years ago, Hines stood before a judge to answer for his role in killing a man over a friends drug debt. He was 15 then, just out of eighth grade. Another teen fired the shot that killed 21-year-old James Warren. But Hines had said something like, Let him have it, sealing his punishment: life in prison with no chance for parole.

The judgment came during an era when many states, fearing teen superpredators, enacted laws to punish juvenile criminals like adults, making the U.S. an international outlier.

But five years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court banned mandatory life without parole for juveniles in murder cases. Last year it made clear that applies equally to more than 2,000 who already were serving the sentence.

Prison gates, though, dont just swing open.

The Associated Press surveyed all 50 states and found that uncertainty and opposition stirred by the courts rulings have resulted in an uneven patchwork, with the odds of release or continued imprisonment varying widely.

Many victims families are battling to keep offenders in prison. They already had their chance, their days in court, their due process, says Candy Cheatham, whose father was killed by 14-year-old Evan Miller, the Alabama inmate at the center of the 2012 ruling. To bring this up and make the victims families relive this, thats being cruel and unusual.

Hines, though, is in a county whose prosecutor has shown openness to paroling some juvenile lifers. Now 43, he bows his head when the murdered mans sister, Valencia Warren Gibbs, stands to address the judge.

I want him to be out, she says. I want him to give himself a chance that he didnt give himself ... that day.

The Supreme Courts decision last year was the fourth to find the harshest punishments are unconstitutionally cruel and unusual when imposed on teens. Justices cited research showing adolescents brains are still developing, making them susceptible to peer pressure and likelier to act recklessly without considering consequences.

Officials in states with the most juvenile life cases long argued the ban on mandatory life without parole did not apply retroactively. Now, the AP found, states are heading in decidedly different directions. Some have resentenced and released these inmates. Others are pushing back, denying any real opportunity for a reduced term or possible parole.

Its taking far too long to get ... judges and prosecutors to understand that the mandates of the Supreme Court are not optional, says John OHair, who saw more than 90 juveniles sentenced to life when he was prosecutor in Wayne County, Michigan, but has since criticized how some in his state are responding.

Pennsylvania has resentenced more than 100 of its 517 juvenile lifers and released 58. Attorneys there talk about working through all the cases in three years. Just two Pennsylvania inmates have been resentenced to life without parole, which the nations highest court said should be reserved for the rare offender who exhibits such irretrievable depravity that rehabilitation is impossible.

In Michigan, prosecutors want new no-parole terms for some 236 of 363 juvenile lifers, prompting lawsuits. And most of the cases are on hold until Michigans Supreme Court decides whether judges or juries should hear them.

These are young Hannibal Lecters, says Sheriff Michael Bouchard of Oakland County, where officials want no-parole sentences in 44 of 49 juvenile-lifer cases.

Elizabeth Calvin of Human Rights Watch says: I dont think anybody who is being honest about what is happening in American courtrooms can walk away and say, Yes, the system has carefully culled out the worst of the worst.

Louisiana lawmakers spent two sessions debating what to do with 303 juvenile lifers, with district attorneys lobbying against eliminating no-parole terms. In June, the Legislature made juvenile homicide offenders eligible for release after 25 years, but prosecutors can still petition a judge for no-parole sentences.

Thirteen other states have passed legislation prohibiting life without parole for juveniles since 2012.

While many states have taken steps to make juvenile offenders eligible for parole, officials regularly deny release. In Missouri, the parole board turned down 20 of 23 juvenile lifers for release, says the MacArthur Justice Center, which sued.
Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are in a battle against a dengue fever epidemic that has already affected tens of thousands of people across the country.

Despite a large number of patients, experts have warned that the mosquito-borne disease has yet toenter its peak season.

Over 5,000 cases have been recorded in Hanoi, two of which have been fatal.

Several districts in the capital have seen a ten-fold increase of patients compared to the same period of last year.

According to Nguyen Van Kinh, director of the Hanoi-based National Hospital of Tropical Diseases, over 250 people are admitted to the infirmary for dengue fever on a daily basis.

We have added 1,000 beds and 280 doctors and nurses to provide treatment for patients suffering the disease, Kinh said.

The Hanoi Center for Preventive Medicine under the municipal Department of Health has sent employees to spray mosquito repellent at locations at high risk.

In Ho Chi Minh City, major clinics including Childrens Hospitals 1 and 2, and the Hospital for Tropical Diseases are close to being overloaded by the large number of patients from the metropolis as well as other southern provinces.

About 11,195 cases have been recorded in the southern hub as of July 29, up by 24 percent, the municipal Department of Health reported, adding that four people have been killed by the disease this year.

Families have taken all types of measures to prevent mosquitoes from reproducing as a way of protecting themselves against the illness.

Huynh Quyen Anh, a resident in Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City, sets up a mosquito net for her children during an afternoon nap. Photo: Tuoi Tre

A young boy has his blood tested for dengue fever at Childrens Hospital 1 in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tuoi Tre

A residential environment at risk of dengue fever along the Tam Xuyen Canal in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien (R) examines preventive measures in District 12. Photo: Tuoi Tre

A Hanoi health official checks a water tank for mosquito larvae. Photo: Tuoi Tre

A resident empties her fish tank to prevent mosquitoes from reproducing. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Patients are treated for dengue fever at the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases in Hanoi. Photo: Tuoi Tre

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A local man who began a groundless rumor about an upcoming 'festival' where men pay to squeeze womens breasts for charity in Da Nang has been identified and given a civil fine.

Thirty-year-old Nguyen Kim Anh was fined VND5 million (US$220) for violating the law on telecommunication, Ho Thanh Hung, deputy head of the police unit of Thanh Khe District, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Monday.

On Saturday, Anh, who runs a mobile phone repair store in Da Nang, used vulgar language on his Facebook to announce that a boob grabbing festival would take place from August 15 to 30 at the 29/3 Park in Thanh Khe District.

According to the post, male visitors would pay VND50,000 ($2.2) each to be able to grab the sensitive parts of women aged from 16 to 22 with the money raised given to people with disabilities.

In the same post, Anh said attending the event would be beautiful girls wearing T-shirts with no bras.

As inappropriate as it sounds, the Facebook post shared by a few thousand local users, even though some expressed their skepticism in the comments.

Anh admitted to having found the rumor online and edited its time and place before posting to his own Facebook page, hoping to attract more followers and potential customers to his repair shop.

Hung, the districts deputy police chief, said that spreading such information is against the cultural values of the Vietnamese people and affects the image of Da Nang and its people.

A similar rumor was circulated late last year, with the bosom grabbing event said to be taking place in Hanoi.

No one has been identified or punished since.

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Help India!

By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net

Delhi: In what appears to be a case of religious intolerance and discrimination, a Muslim youth from Delhi was denied a job in a company due to his religion.

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Abu Noman Khan, 23, an electrical engineer who finished his studies from Jamia Millia Islamia in 2016 was called by a Delhi-based consultancy for an interview on Wednesday, July 26.

The JDVL group, a consultancy firm had emailed me about a vacancy in MBL Thermal and Hydro Power plant and had called me for an interview on July 26, Noman told TwoCircles.net.

Noman reached the office of JDVL group in Noida, Sector 3 early morning and submitted his resume.

I was sitting with 4-5 people who had also come for the interview. I was called in by the interviewer, a lady. She asked my name and when I said Abu Noman Khan, her reply literally shocked and surprise me, he said.

According to Noman , he was told that he was not eligible as he was a Muslim.

I directly asked her that apart from being a Muslim am I not an Indian? he recalls.

Noman was then told by the interviewer that the job location is somewhere in Gujarat.

The interviewer told me that the job location is in MBL companys Gujarat plant and it is for my safety and security purpose that company has asked us not to hire any Muslim candidate, he says.

After being rejected for the Job, Noman has not been able to come to terms that he was rejected on the basis of religion.

I am shocked and surprised. Are we Muslims not Indians? Why discriminate on the basis of religion? Eligibility, qualification, skills should have been the basis for selection or rejection, not the religion, he said.

When asked what are the reason for such kind of incidents happening again and again, Noman said, These incidents have seen a multiple rise after BJP rose to power after 2014 elections. A particular community is being targeted. It was my first time that I came across such kind of discrimination but another Muslim boy who was there with me that day told me after hearing my story that he too was denied more than three times as he was a Muslim, he explains.

Meanwhile, the JDVL group has denied the incident and said that they dont discriminate candidates on the basis of the religion.

Our company has never discriminated people on the basis of the religion, Priti Sahu, the operational head of JDVL group told TCN.

We dont know why the candidate is defaming us, she added.
Help India!

TCN News

Indian citizen, from at least 50 cities took out bike rallies on Sunday to protest against mob lynching incidents and hate crimes. The organizers have claimed that they are not part of any political party.

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In a press statement, they said, We are common citizens who are genuinely concerned about the breakdown of law and order, the constant murderous attacks on the marginalized sections, especially the religious minorities and oppressed castes.

The biggest bike rally was taken out from New Delhi to Mewat, Haryana in which hundreds of protestors took part with their bikes.

Statement further said, We are also appalled by the consistent impunity that the murders are given by the ruling regime and the pathetic inaction of law enforcing agencies to bring the culprits to book. Pehlu Khan, Akhlaque, Minhaj, Ayub, Ganesh, Uttam, Alimuddin or Junaid are not just a handful of names. These are innocent fellow citizens who have lost their lives to grotesque mob lynching in recent past.

Organizers attacked on government bodies for being silent and said, We have seen horrific videos uploaded and circulated by none other than the murderers on social media, but we are yet to witness decisive steps being taken by the powers that be to punish these goons. Scores of incidents of violence, lynching, rape and loot particularly targeting the muslims have already happened throughout the country. We believe this is a major setback to our constitutionally enshrined secular values. And therefore we are out on the streets, asserting our democratic ethos and culture of harmony and love.

They called the regime as fascist and said, We the citizens of this country, irrespective of our faith, are resolved to challenge this growing communal fascist regime. The bike rally is a step in that direction though it will not be an end in itself. Its rather the beginning of organized peoples resistance against the oppressive regime and its calculated politics of hate.

Bike rallys Delhi chapter was flagged off from Mandi House, in the presence of MD Thomas, Paramjit Singh, Swami Agnivesh, Harsh Mandar, Nivedita Menon, Ali Anwar, Manoj Jha, Umar Khalid, Gauhar Raza, Aditya Nigam, Anil Chamadia, Apoorvanand, Yogendra Yadav, Mohit K Pandey, Shehla Rashid, Nahas Mala, Nadeem Khan, Naved Choudhry, Shariq Ansar, Khalid Saifi, Meeran and others. It ended at Mewat where the families of Junaid and Pehlu Khan, the two victims of mob lynching in the recent past, have joined the rally.
Help India!

By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter

In an attempt to counter growing incidents of communal intolerance, the Samastha Kerala Sunni Students Federation (SKSSF) has decided to launch a campaign called Together We Live, Protect Harmony across Kerala. The campaign features an array of programmes ranging from social campaign to household visits.

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Its high time we strengthen the ties between different communities. Our plan is to visit leaders and institutions of various communities, said SKSSF state general secretary Sathar Panthalloor.

As part of the programme, campaigns that highlight the historical amity between prominent figures belonging to Muslim, Hindu and Christian communities. The plan is to revive the legacy of community leaders who kept the tradition of togetherness intact. We own the famous legacy of Kunjayin Musliyar and his associate Mangattachan and Sufi leader Mamburam Thangal and his aide Konthu Nair, Sathar said.

Marking the formal launching of the campaign, a team of SKSSF activists have started visiting various places across the state. Led by its state level functionary Basheer Faizy Deshamangalam, a team visited Yogini Matha Mattha at Thriprayar in Thrissur district.

The delegation also visited the orphanage run by the Mattha, where Faizy held an interaction with the institution functionaries and inmates. In his speech, Faizy exhorted for efforts to retain harmony and togetherness.

According to Sathar, in the upcoming days, various delegations of the Federation will visit temples and mosques, which stand as the symbols of coexistence. Functionaries seek blessings from local Muslim clerics and leaders before the festival at Bhagavathi temple at Kaliyattamukku while representatives of a prominent Hindu family attend the annual Uroos celebration at Puthanpalli mosque near Ponnani. The Federations representatives will hold a friendly visit to these places and bring the customs here to the light, Sathar said.

In addition to these, harmony meetings will be held across the state. The meetings will be attended by local leaders from different communities. Ahead of the campaign, various competitions will be organised focusing on togetherness.

SKSSF has also chalked out a plan to tackle the threat of hate speeches. As per the plan, a group of leaders and speakers of SKSSF will meet people who indulge in hate speeches from all communities across the state. A trained team, during the visit, will explain the speakers the aftermath of their deeds. Sathar said SKSSF has started collecting details of such people and sought assistance from experts to identify the consequences of hate speeches.
Help India!

By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter

A few days ago, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta quit as the editor of Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) without giving any reason. Hours after his resignation, it was noticed that EPW had removed the much-controversial article on how Gautam Adani escaped taxes and earned hundreds of croresunaccountedwith the help of Modi government in the centre. Later on, Thakurta revealed to The Wire that he was asked to not to leave the newsroom until the Adani article, which was penned by Thakurta himself, was not deleted from the website.

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This incident shocked many subscribers of the EPW because they always believed it to be one of the journals where politics does not get in the way; where the board of Trustees does not intervene in the editorial decisions. Several subscribers have openly announced to end their EPW subscription after this incident. But what happened a week later was even weirder and shocking.

Several news organisations first published, and then deleted, a story that mentioned how BJP national president Amit Shah saw his assets grow 300% in just five years. Actually, Amit Shah filled the affidavit in his Rajya Sabha candidature declaring his assets. First of all the news became visible in print version of Times of India followed by publishing the same on TOI website. Major outlets which followed the same news were Economic Times, Dainik Bhaskar, Outlook and Zee News.

But soon after the publication of the story media outlets started to take it down from the Websites, without providing explanations. When people started searching for the stories, they were surprised to see that the same story was missing from at least a dozen of outlets. It was missing from all the digital publishing platforms of Bennett & Colman, Outlook group and Zee Media.

The story, based on the affidavits, showed that Amit Shah had increased his movable assets to 19.01 crore in 2017 from the 1.91 crore as in 2012. His immovable assets grew to 15.30 crore from 6.63 crore as in 2012.

The story was also published in print by Zee Media-owned DNA on July 29 and was carried out on the DNAs website as well. But later on, it was pulled down. When contacted for the comments on this editorial behaviour, employees refused to answer. Some employees told TwoCircles.net that there was pressure to take down the article, but an internal source from Zee Media revealed that the instruction to take down the article was given in writing.

TwoCircles.net has managed to get the copy of an email from the Zee Media group where Social Media team has instructed two persons asking if the online version has covered the story or not? Later part of the email shows that alleged Social Media team has asked that if the story has come online, it should be taken down.

The email is dated July 29 and is timed for 1:34 PM. It also includes the screenshot of the story published in the print version of DNA. To protect the personal information of sender and recipients, we have censored their email IDs. What makes the process more confusing that sender of the email is registered on Gmails server, but the recipients have institutional and dedicated IDs.

When we contacted Bennet Colmans Times of India, where the story first appeared, no one bothered to reply to the queries correctly. Navbharat Times online team had put an explanation on the Facebook page that they published the story via TOI, and when TOI deleted the story from their website, they had to do the same. One employee of Navbharat Times talked with TwoCircles.net on the condition of anonymity. He said, We were just told to remove the story. I think it came straight from the top, as we were just not discussed. It was said like an orderly manner.

There are rumours that TOI also received the same kind of email to take down the story, a charge which no employee could admit or reject. However, one employee told us, It does not feel practical why someone would give a written order to take down a published story. This is a verbal practice as it leaves no paper trail behind.

The Times employee is partly true in saying that this is one verbal practice, but as one senior journalist from Delhi told us, This happens in cases where something is fishy, or something which some authority did not like. When something ethically goes wrong, the newspapers (should) pull down the article or story and issue a public apology.

However, the instances of pulling down the article are not new with TOI. In the recent past TOI and ET, both took down the story in which India was ranking low in World Press Freedom index.

The Times group, however, did the something more strange in the recent past when it opposed the Union Governments draft bill against the paid news practices. The Union government drafted a bill in 2013 after consideration of Press Council of India in 2010, and Election Commission of India in 2013, where the bill allows the cancellation of any publication for up to 45 days if it is found guilty of carrying paid news. Bennett and Coleman group just dropped an old email dated back to 2013, in June this year, saying, is erroneously trying to regulate content like the so-called paid news which is not in its ambit and was never intended to be, as the same 2013 bill is being presented in 2017 with some amendments.

If seen in the recent context, Times group is fighting the law against the paid news, and at the same times it goes on to withdraw the news stories, that too based on information from the public domain, allegedly under the government pressure.

The stand taken by Outlook, which is famous for publishing courageous investigative stories, was even more surprising. Last year, the Outlook had published the story of RSS trafficking girls from North-Eastern states by investigative reporter Neha Dixit. The story had caused unethical targeting of the journalist and the magazine as well.

When TwoCircles.net tried to contact Outlook team, the team acted surprised at the article being removed, but gave no explanation.

It is important to point out that Amit Shah declaring his assets is not something unethical. He is declaring on a public form which will be made online soon by the Chief Electoral Office of Gujarat state. But what makes the issue bizarre that outlets are being submissive to the right wing propaganda, which may be easy to note the slow death of journalism in India, and also the fact which is how BJP national president Amit Shah grew his funds by 300 percent? However, it is clear that instead of questioning Shahs income source, mainstream media have meekly submitted to the orders of their masters.
Our world is a very diverse place, one constant, no matter which part of the world you are in is the occurrence of sickness and diseases. To tackle these health issues, a lot of nations have devised health care systems which aim to deliver health services to those in need. The quality and affordability of these services, however, depend on various circumstances and these are varied for different countries. This depends on many factors such as education, economy, and infrastructure. The few countries which boast advanced and functional health setups are mostly developed western countries.

All is not so well tuned however as many of these countries struggle to move around their budgets and establish this care as 'affordable for all', and since these programmes are usually controlled by the government they need to be of a consistently high quality irrespective of price.

France

France has integrated a system of health care since 1998 where smart-cards known as 'Carte Vitale' are designed to reimburse people for medical expenses and the insurance usually cover from 70% to 100% of medical expenses. The French system is funded by taxpayer money, but with the growing unemployment rates, this has gone awry and seems to indicate a troubling time with low budgeting for reforms.

United Kingdom

The National Health Service of the United Kingdom is seen as one of the best health care systems in the world. The problem in the UK is that cost cuts have reached a point where the spending has gone below the international average of the top health service providing nations including France, US and Germany among others.

The waiting lines are growing and the issue of NHS is debated across the country as one of the top political talking points. Proposals for new employment contracts last year saw doctors across the UK going on strike protesting rigorous and unsafe working hours.

United States

The United States and its struggle with the various versions of health care measures are in the news worldwide, even though the country spends the most amount of its GDP on it than any other country in the world.

President Barack Obama tried to establish a countrywide system, known as the Affordable Care Act or ACA - more commonly known as Obamacare - and his efforts brought down health insurance coverage to about 10%. However, in comparison to other countries, the high prices of insurance and consultation have always set the United States apart. The Republican party has debated Obamacare for years and are now trying to repeal and replace it with their own version. The problems faced in the American system are those of high prices and coverage obligations, and with the unstable political landscape of the country, it does not seem like they will go away anytime soon.

Spain

Spain is one of the few countries in the world which offers a free universal health system to its residents and visitors, the price of which is covered partially through social security payments.

The system is decentralised meaning specific regions are in charge of monitoring their policies, this results in quite a difference in quality across the country with Madrid and Barcelona being the leading medical destinations as these regions are the primary economic zones of Spain.

Canada

Canada is often considered by many as an example of a successful government-run health care system in North America. And much like Spain, the system in Canada is regulated regionally. Even though it is considered affordable, the problem in the Canadian health care system is that of waiting time, especially for surgeries requiring specialists, the situation is considered worse than that in the United Kingdom.
When Jeremy Corbyn became the leader of the Labour Party in 2015, many members who elected him celebrated that 'they had finally got their party back.' They thought this man would restore their party's position as a truly left-wing party. Those who voted for him cannot remember the disastrous 1983 election under Michael Foot when the party moved so far to the left that they suffered an embarrassing defeat.

Considering he has consistently failed to unite the Parliamentary Labour Party behind him, it 's unbelievable that he has come this far within less than two years.

However, Mr Corbyn has had two fortunate factors behind him: a loyal party membership and this year's general election.

The former was proven last year when bumbling Owen Smith attempted to overthrow him as Labour leader due to his failure to convince the majority of British electors to vote to remain within the European Union. What happened instead was that he was restored to power with a margin similar to his 2015 victory. And he was surprisingly lucky during the latter, as he won more seats than expected.

He was going to restore honesty back to politics

But what has happened under Mr Corbyn's leadership has made the Miliband years, and Gordon Brown's premiership seems like the 'golden years.' Many view the Labour leader as a decent, authentic chap who was going to restore honesty back to politics.

Many people have confirmed he is a decent chap, but authentic and honest he may well not be.

Last year, he was caught out lying that a Virgin train he used was full and that he had to sit on the floor. But Sir Richard Branson leaked footage proving that there were plenty of seats. But that is not the only time he has been exposed.

Many students believed Mr Corbyn would eradicate student debt from September should he become prime minister after this year's general election. In recent weeks, he was caught on The Andrew Marr Show saying that was not what he wanted to do.

He is neither authentic nor honest

The same dishonesty applies to his views on Brexit.

Mr Corbyn has spent his entire political career criticising the EU. When he threw his support behind the Remain campaign last year, it was incredibly difficult for him to passionately argue that Britain should retain its membership of the trading bloc. This footage, which was revealed by Latin American broadcaster Telesur, shows that his position has not changed since the 1970s. It is strangely ironic that he has support from so many millennials when he is so Eurosceptic. It is evident he is neither authentic nor honest.

Jeremy Corbyn is no different to the man he has opposed the most: Tony Blair. Like the latter, he is willing to sell the British people lies just to win power.
If you make a fool of yourself or your company in any other job, you would be sacked immediately. But that principle does not apply to Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party. During the General Election, shadow home secretary Diane Abbott embarrassed her leader, and former lover, when she stumbled on LBC Radio live over how much it would cost taxpayers to fund the police. The presenter at the time, Nick Ferrari, reminded her that, according to her figures, police officers would be earning a pittance under a Labour government. But she quickly tried to correct herself.

She should have been fired

She used gaffes like this to temporarily retire from her position of shadow home secretary during the election. In an age where sterling television performance is an essential characteristic to survive in politics, Ms Abbott fails to meet this criterion. Frankly, she should have been fired and placed back on the Labour backbenches. Any political leader with any substance to them would have done the same. Jeremy Corbyn is no ordinary leader during these extraordinary circumstances.

Considering he has minimal support from his colleagues in the Parliamentary Labour Party, it is easy for his opponents to claim Ms Abbott should be fired and never return to frontbench politics again.

Who would he replace her with though? And with a history of deep personal affiliation, it would damage his credibility further if he alienated such a loyal ally.

Mr Corbyn is stuck with his current shadow home secretary

In other words, Mr Corbyn is stuck with his current shadow home secretary. Since her disastrous LBC interview, Ms Abbott's errors have stacked up further.

Like many of her colleagues, she cannot adequately explain what her party's position on Brexit is, and has contradicted her leader's position on the issue. She now claims all options are on the table.

But she has participated in a series of notable actions that have hindered her office further. Though many Corbynistas would welcome her intervention on the Dalston riots, others view it as a support for violence.

This is not a position a likely home secretary should place themselves in when they could be making decisions on the nation's security in the future.

Considering social media has the potential to murder anyone else's career, this misfortune does not apply to Ms Abbott. For reasons mentioned earlier, her position is safe. For her, that is an adequate excuse to misbehave on Twitter. She deleted a tweet she wrote that attempted to link the Prime Minister to a comment made about lesbians in the past. Gay Star News and Buzzfeed, much to their credit, disproved Theresa May ever said she supports the curbing of lesbianism in Merton's schools during her time as a Wimbledon councillor.

Diane Abbott does not deserve the position of shadow home secretary. She disparages her profession on a regular basis. But she claims it's journalists presenting a poor image of her. No, she is doing that herself.
Jeremy Corbyn has suffered another leadership blow after claims that Labour rebels want him to fall flat on his face over Brexit have surfaced.

Clare Coogan Cole, daughter of comedian Steve Coogan, who works for deputy Labour leader Tom Watson, revealed to The Daily Express that his team wanted Mr Corbyn to fail at this year's general election.

In a further embarrassment to the Labour leader, key Corbynista Diane Abbott contradicted her party's position on leaving the EU for the fifth time, saying she was open to any means whereby Britain could retain the benefits of Single Market and Customs Union membership.

However, unearthed footage leaked to The Daily Express shows recorded footage of the Labour leader criticising the EU's treatment of Greece during the 2015 bailout crisis, which is likely to damage his credibility on the issue increasingly.

They hoped he would fail

Mr Coogan told the New European Journal that while his daughter was campaigning for Tom Watson in the East Midlands during the general election, she phoned her father to complain about the way other activists were behaving. According to the comedian, many campaigners dreaded one of his TV appearances and hoped that he would fail. An ally of Mr Watson has refuted the allegations.

The news comes as established figures in the Labour Party demand their leader soften his Brexit position, particularly in regards to Single Market membership.

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell contradicted Mr Corbyn's position of quitting the Single Market, saying that all options are on the table.

Peers like former leader Lord Neil Kinnock and former shadow Justice Secretary Charlie Falconer have both urged their leader to call for the UK to remain in the Single Market, alongside the party's former chairman, Dave Watts.

Lord Kinnock told The Observer that his party should support Chancellor Philip Hammond's proposal for a transitional deal that lasts until 2022.

This would result in Britain remaining a member of the European Economic Area (EEA), which Norway and Iceland are both members of. A group of Labour MPs have called on their Conservative colleagues to join them in blocking a hard Brexit.

A 'jobs first' Brexit

But in another disastrous interview for Ms Abbott, the shadow Home Secretary attempted to clarify her party's position on the issue by saying Labour campaigned for a 'jobs first' Brexit. She added that Mr Corbyn wants to achieve the best EU exit by looking at ends and not structures.

This is despite shadow International Trade Secretary Barry Gardiner saying remaining in the Single Market and the Customs Union would be a disaster. He added that the Norway option would leave the UK as a vassal state and that a Turkish-style agreement, whereby they are members of the Customs Union, would give Britain the same asymmetrical relationship with the EU third world countries have.

Throughout Labour's campaign promoting the UK's membership of the EU, Mr.

Corbyn said he wants to build a Europe that champions human rights and environmentalism. Yet prior to taking his current position as Labour leader, he was filmed speaking to Telesur, a pan-Latin American broadcaster sponsored by numerous governments, that many trade unions affiliated to his party were worried about the trading bloc's treatment of Greece.

TTIP would hinder working conditions

He said that criticism of the EU does not lie solely with nationalists and xenophobes, but with the left too. He added that the trading bloc's proposed trade deal with the United States, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), would hinder working conditions across both sides of the Atlantic.

In other stored footage, Mr Corbyn told a BBC reporter during the 1990s that European bureaucracy made the EU altogether unaccountable, adding that it is a serious issue. He said powers had been transferred from national parliaments to the EU Commission and the Council of Ministers.
Aliya Shagieva, 20, the youngest daughter of the president of Kyrgyzstan firmly criticized for posting a photo on Instagram breastfeeding her one month baby dressed in her underwear has finally spoken out. 'This body I've been given is not vulgar. It is functional, its purpose is to fulfil the physiological needs of my baby, not to be sexualised ' she claimed on BBC Kyrgyz from her flat in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital.

'It doesn't really matter what people say about me'

'When I'm breastfeeding my child, I feel like I'm giving him the best I can give.

Taking care of my baby and attending to his needs is more important to me than what people say about me'.

Ms. Shagieva interview comes three months later she took the photo down after she was attacked on social media and accused of ' immoral behavior'.

Last April Ms. Shagieva posted the image of her son Tagir taken of above her while she appeared naked. The caption added: 'I will feed my child whenever and wherever he needs to be fed'.

Breastfeeding in public is treated as taboo

Breastfeeding in public is still considered as taboo in a lot of societies around the world. Often women are reprimanded or called out for feeding their child in public thus creating an uncomfortable and exposed situation for themselves.

This bias force many of them to have a restricted life until their child if off breast milk.

Kyrgyzstan is a former Soviet republic of values and the community based on a majority conservative Muslim society. Aliya Shagieva is known for her Progressive mentality.

Her parents, President Almazbek Sharshenovich Atambayev and his wife Raisa Atambayeva, hinted disapprobation of her behavior, Ms.

Shagieva said.

'They really didn't like it'. she admitted. 'And it is understandable because the younger generation is less conservative than their parents', she claimed.

Breastfeeding in public is a matter of debate across the world

Last May former Australian senator Larissa Waters was lauded when she breastfed her baby.

'It's frankly ridiculous, really, that feeding one's baby is international news', Ms.

Waters said.'Women have done it for as long as time immemorial.

'I [...] would send a message to young women that they belong in the Parliament'.

In the United Kingdom is legally forbidden to ask a breastfeeding woman to leave a public place, such as a park, a tea room or in public transport. However, breastfeeding rates in the UK are among lowest in the world.

Is necessary to support breastfeeding, don't blame it

Reminding the importance of breastfeeding Sue Ashmore, Director of Unicef UK Baby Friendly Initiative, underlined recent data widespread by Public Health England (PHE). 'In some areas of England you will find only 22% of women breastfeeding their baby at 6 weeks, but if you travel to another you can find 77% of babies being breastfed,' she wrote on HuffPost UK.

With a view to raising graduation rates, Unicef organized the 'World Breastfeeding Week' (1-7 August) this year in order to 'Sustaining Breastfeeding Together'. 'For breastfeeding to work, you need someone to turn to who believes its important and believes you can do it,' Sue Ashmore added.

Breastfeeding reduces babies' obesity, improves mothers mental health and helps them to form close and loving relationships with their baby. For these, and other reasons it is also important to never blame a breastfeeding woman in any way.
The US has sent deadly B1 bombers to South Korea to answer any threat from the regime of Kim Jong-un. The launch of what is reckoned to be an ICBM was supervised by Kim himself late at night July 28. Kim said this launch is a "stern warning" to the US and it is now reckoned the North has the capability to hit the continental United States.

Kim's regime will have made note of the US bombers and will obviously see their deployment as a ramping up of the already tense situation. Some say Kim is wanting the US to recognise his regime as a nuclear power as in the past he has conducted nuclear tests being recorded high on the Richter scale.

China North Korea's sponsor has said the actions of its Communist neighbour are of serious concern and will no doubt be communicating its displeasure to Kim.

THAAD missile system

The US has deployed the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense THAAD anti-missile system to Seoul to protect South Korea from incoming Northern missile attacks. But it has been said the system may not be able to cope with any incoming missile like the one just launched. A US battle group is still out at sea off the Korean coast and this was deployed in answer to nuclear and missile tests launched by the North earlier.

Both Trump and Kim are gamblers and this makes for a dangerous game of brinksmanship between the two of them.

Trump must be under a lot of pressure at home and now to add to his worries another missile launch from North Korea.

The South Koreans and the US are not the only nations to be worried about the antics of Pyongyang, Japan is too. Shinzo Abe current Japanese Prime Minister is keen to see Japan take care of itself militarily and it may have to with the North firing missiles that splash down not far from the Japanese mainland as happened last Friday.

Japan has powerful armed forces but is still restricted by the WWII Constitution. Nonetheless, Japan could perhaps take some offensive action along with the Americans and South Koreans if the need arose.

Boris Johnson the UK Foreign Minister meanwhile has indicated Britain stands ready to help the US should conflict come. Whether this support would be through direct military assistance or through other means such as moral support is unclear.

Destructive war

Kim knows what happened to Iraq and Libya who did not have nuclear weapons of their own. He's maybe saying to the world and the US in particular "Don't attack me because I have the means to hit back hard". Some say Kim is a mad man but the north korean leader may be a lot shrewder than we think.

He knows any conflict would most likely be the end of his regime so he might not want war either. With ICBMs and nuclear warheads, he feels the US may think twice before initiating hostilities. The first Korean war was destructive and could have led to WWIII and if conflict breaks out again this could lead to similar horrifying danger.
Over the last two days, the headlines have been dominated by Donald Trump and the tweets he sent out attacking the hosts of MSNBC's "Morning Joe." After co-host Mika Brzezinski opened up with her thoughts about Melania Trump, the first lady decided to fire back.

Mika on Melania

While most of the on-air talent at MSNBC was against Donald Trump from the day he announced his candidacy for president back in June 2015, Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough were more welcoming. As the months rolled on during the 2016 presidential election, Trump was invited on as a guest on "Morning Joe" on more than one occasion, as he appeared friendly with the two hosts.

However, that relationship eventually turned sour, leading to Brzezinski and Scarborough becoming two of the most vocal critics of the president. On Thursday, the rift between both sides reached an all-time low when Trump sent out a pair of tweets attacking the duo. The former host of "The Apprentice" referred to Scarborough as a "psycho," while accusing Brzezinski, who he labeled "low I.Q.," of having a facelift. As expected, the president received harsh backlash over the next 24 hours, with the hosts answering back themselves during Friday's edition of their show. As reported by Mediate on June 30, Brzezinski's recent comments were not welcomed by the first lady.

While speaking to InStyle magazine this week, Mika Brzezinski elaborated on her thoughts on Donald Trump's recent tweets, and then gave her opinion on how Melania Trump might be handling it.

"I know Melania. I havent talked to her in months, but if my gut is right, I dont think shes going to put up with it much longer," Brzezinski said. "Melanias got the worst job in the country and I dont think she wants do it a lot longer," she added.

Melania answers

In response to Mika Brzezinski's remarks, Melania Trump responded in a brief statement first obtained by the Daily Mail.

"It is sad when people try to further their own agenda by commenting on me and my family, especially when they dont know me," Melania said of the "Morning Joe" co-host. Though Melania was supposed to highlight an end to cyber bullying on the internet, a statement was also released on Thursday which supported her husband's actions.

Melania Trump Responds to Mika Brzezinskis Comment About Her Having The Worst Job in the Country https://t.co/AbhynWzJ92 pic.twitter.com/Y2UkbsYGVl  Mediaite (@Mediaite) July 1, 2017

Next up

As Donald Trump continues to spar with the mainstream media, he has many other issues on his plate as commander in chief. As the Russian scandal continues, the president is also facing a tough battle over health care, in addition to global issues involving China and North Korea.
Over the last 48 hours, the one headline that has gotten the most attention has been in response to Donald Trump's recent Twitter tirade against the hosts of "Morning Joe." Despite receiving heavy backlash, the president decided to go on the attack once again.

Trump on Twitter

It's well-document that Donald Trump doesn't see eye to eye with the mainstream media. From the day he announced his campaign for president, the former host of "The Apprentice" has been at odds with the press. During the 2016 presidential election, Trump would often spare with the media, going as far as labeling journalists as "terrible" and the "worst people" he's ever met.

Though Trump has found a political safe space in the right-wing media, the majority in the press have been critical of the new president, including the hosts of MSNBC's "Morning Joe." Last Thursday, Trump decided to increase his war of words against the hosts of the show, labeling Joe Scarborough as a "psycho," while accusing Mika Brzezinski of having a bloody "facelift." Trump has since been hit hard with criticism, but decided to go further in a tweet on July 1.

Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika are not bad people, but their low rated show is dominated by their NBC bosses. Too bad!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 1, 2017

Taking to Twitter on Saturday morning was Donald Trump as the president kicked his attack on the "Morning Joe" hosts into high gear.

"Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika are not bad people, but their low rated show is dominated by their NBC bosses," Trump tweeted out, before adding, "Too bad!"

I am extremely pleased to see that @CNN has finally been exposed as #FakeNews and garbage journalism. It's about time!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 1, 2017

In a tweet from earlier in the morning, Donald Trump also amped up his feud with CNN.

"I am extremely pleased to see that @CNN has finally been exposed as #FakeNews and garbage journalism," Trump posted on Twitter, while stating, "It's about time!" Trump's tweet was in reference to a recent story that CNN was forced to retract after it falsely linked a Russian bank back to the billionaire real estate mogul. In addition, an audio tape was leaked to the public this week which captured Trump speaking at a recent fundraiser about his plan to potentially sue CNN in the near future.

Trump could be heard on the tape asking if there were any lawyers willing to take on the case.

Moving forward

As Donald Trump's rift with the media continue, it appears that even some Republicans have had enough. House Speaker Paul Ryan was critical of Trump's recent social media posts, as was Sen. Lindsey Graham. While Trump is spending time on his hatred for the media, his approval rating has dropped to below 40 percent and is showing no signs of increasing.
Joel Colindres, an immigrant of Guatemala fled his country in 2004 in order to escape drug trafficking and death of his home after one of his family member was murdered. He entered the US through the border in Texas and decided to turn himself in to the officials and was released in the US on a provisional waiver.

How has life been for Joel in the U.S.?

He found himself a job as a skilled worker and has been with the same company for the past twelve years. In 2010 he met his wife Samantha who is a U.S. citizen and decided to start a new life with her.

They are now bringing up two beautiful children, a 6-year-old son and a 2-year-old daughter at their home in New Fairfield.

Joel says that US has been the ideal refuge, which helped him build up a life for himself with his family away from the violence of his own country. He pays his taxes and abides by the law of the land like a good citizen. But, this doesnt seem to be enough for President Donald Trump as many immigrants, like Joel, face the threat of deportation from US because of the tough immigration policies that Trump has put into action.

Stopping illegal immigration and deporting those who have found a place in the U.S. illegally was one of the main themes of Donald Trumps 2016 Presidential campaign.

Ever since he took control of the office he has passed laws which pose a threat to a number of illegal immigrants for deportation.

Harsh criticism of Donald Trumps laws against illegal immigrants

These harsh policies by Donald Trump have been majorly criticized by the members and spokespersons of the Democratic Party. They believe that such strict policies should only be used against illegal immigrants who disharmonize the flow of lifestyle for the country through their criminal acts.

There are so many other immigrants who have a clear criminal record, who pay taxes, have built up a home and are bringing up their children in the country. These people have families and have people who depend on them for their set of skills at work.

Colindres is being largely supported by the people who are pleading at the courthouse to let him stay in Connecticut while he continues to apply for his U.S.

citizenship. His most recent plea to delay the deportation was rejected by the courthouse and he is expected to leave the country before August 17th 2017. He was asked to present the purchased plane ticket back to Guatemala before July 27th 2017.

Another immigrant like Joel, Nury Chavarria who is a single mother has taken sanctuary in a church in Connecticut along with her four children to avoid deportation. Her eldest son who is 21-years-old suffers from cerebral palsy. There are thousands like Nury and Joel who are facing the same problem even after doing what they were asked to do. Democratic Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal thinks that the immigration policies should be enforced, but with discretion.
St. Joseph County Prosecutor Ken Cotter said at a news conference on Thursday that Mishawaka resident, Michael Jarvis had shot Dr. Todd Graham, 56, to death after he refused to prescribe opioids for his wife.

Man asks for opioid prescription for his wife and is refused

It happened in Mishawaka, northern Indiana on Wednesday when Jarvis visited South Bend Orthopedics for an appointment to ask Dr. Graham for a prescription for highly-addictive opioid painkillers for his wife. Cotter said at a media conference that the doctor turned him down, adding that Dr.

Graham had done what they are asking doctors to do  not over-prescribe opioid drugs.

Prosecutor: Man shot, killed doctor for refusing to prescribe wife opioids https://t.co/NQ4oN1cerK pic.twitter.com/8wfd8U63cs  WCVB-TV Boston (@WCVB) July 28, 2017

Jarvis returns to the medical complex and shoots Dr. Graham to death

According to the prosecutor, it was around two hours later that Jarvis returned to the medical campus, fatally shooting Dr. Graham in the parking lot of the St. Joseph Rehabilitation Institute next door to the orthopedic center. As reported by the South Bend Tribune, there was first an argument between Jarvis and the doctor in the parking lot which led Jarvis to tell two witnesses at the scene to leave, prior to shooting the doctor twice in the head.

Cotter said Jarvis then left the scene, driving to a friends house around three miles away, where he told his friends he wasnt going to be around for a while. That friend then alerted the police about the incident, who then headed to Jarvis home, only to find the shooter had turned the gun on himself and had died from two self-inflicted gunshot wounds.

Incident could have been worse if Jarvis entered the facility

According to Metro Homicide Commander Tim Corbett, the shooting could have turned into a far more serious situation if Jarvis had entered the medical facility. Corbett said even though Jarvis had a specific target in mind, it would have been similar to trapping an animal into a corner, saying they would come out fighting. He said he truly believed the situation might have escalated into a mass shooting.

According to Cotter, the shooter's wife, Petra Jarvis, reportedly had no idea about the incident and that her husband had shot and killed the doctor.

Shocked and saddened to learn of the death of Dr. Todd Graham, a friend & supporter who did much good in South Bend. https://t.co/iwHyUD5Yq2  Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) July 27, 2017

Doctor was highly respected in the community

As reported by the New York Daily News, Dr. Graham leaves a wife, Julie, and three children. He had been running his medical business for 22 years and was highly respected in the community. Partners valued him both as a physician and businessman and for his friendship.
President Trump has cited that he is pleased with his senior counsel for being straightforward regarding his communication with Russia. However, DNC deputy Adrienne Watson refuted the claims by saying that Kushner's clearance should be denied, and he ought to lose his employment. The spokeswoman of DNC Adrienne Watson told media that the Trump team is once again disclosing selective information. A White House official said that the senior counsel is ready to lay out facts to uncover the present probe.

President Trump is happy with Kushner's approach

By the same token, President Trump cited that he was exceptionally pleased with Kushner that he voluntarily suggested talking to the board. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told journalists that Kushner is trying to be extremely straightforward with his collaborations. This information was reported hours after Kushner met the senate intelligence committee staff at the Capitol Hill. Kushner met the agents of the Senate Select Committee to request their cooperation with foreign governments, especially the Russians.

Sarah Sanders told reporters that she thinks Kushner demonstrated to the board of trustees what a scam he's been dealing with lately.

Likewise, President Trump is also of the opinion that Kushner made an incredible showing and was extremely happy that he could experience the procedure and lay everything out.

Kushner is testifying before the Senate Select Committee in the wake of presenting an 11-page explanation to the advisory group's staff. In the statement, Kushner has straight denied conspiring with Russia amid the 2016 election.

Additionally, the President's son-in-law cited that he had no ill-advised contacts with the Russian authorities. These statements were released by Kushner during a press meeting at the White House, after the official meeting with the senate.

Kushner called on media to hear him out

The White House counselor said that Kushner voluntarily expressed interest in sharing requisite information and documents with the investigating bodies.

After that, the 37-year-old Kushner appealed to media to give him a chance to clarify that he didn't conspire with Russia, nor he is aware of any other individual who did. He added that he was not dependent on Russian assets for his organizations. Nonetheless, the DNC has named jared kushner's case of being straightforward as ludicrous. DNC chief director has consistently requested authorities to revoke Kushner's employment with the White House.
North Korea has tested an intercontinental ICBM missiles on Friday that has the trajectory range of striking the east coast and mainland United States. The ICBM missile stayed in the air for 47 minutes and can reach an estimated 6,200 miles (10, 400 kilometers) away. In response, Gen. Terrence J. O'Shaughnessy, U.S. Pacific Air Forces Commander Gen. Terrence J' O'Shaughnessy, U.S. Pacific Air Forces Commander, stated," the U.S and our allies are ready to use lethal, rapid and overwhelming force if needed against North Korea."

On Saturday The U.S.

began flying B- 1B supersonic bombers over North Korea accompanied by South Korean fighter jets in a show of force along the Korean Peninsula. The Army Tactical Missile System has also fired, surface to surface, long- range, precision strike missiles into the Sea of Japan, according to the U.S. 8th Army. Also in the area are U.S Navy ships, the USS Momsen which is an Arleigh Burke- class destroyer and the USNS Howard O. Lorenzen, a missile range instrumentation ship.

White House

President Donald Trump took to Twitter and stated," I am very disappointed in China, all they do is talk and have done nothing about North Korea. We will not allow this to continue."

...they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017

Nikki Haley, American Ambassador to The United Nations, stated," China is aware it must act, Japan and South Korea must increase pressure.

This is an international problem not only a U.S problem," Haley said.

Our full statement on the North Korean ICBM launch: pic.twitter.com/8tIaaTVkSF  Nikki Haley (@nikkihaley) July 30, 2017

Kim Jong- un

North Korea's leader Kim Jong- un came into power in 2011 at the time of his father's Kim Jong-il death. He has followed in his father's footsteps in developing nuclear warfare.

North Korea first demonstrated its nuclear abilities on October 9, 2006, when they conducted their first underground nuclear test. The United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1874 in response to the nuclear testing and added more sanctions against North Korea.

Under Kim Jong- un, North Korea has increased their economic construction and has been improving their nuclear capabilities.

In the latest round tests Kim Jong- un believes this is a firm warning to the United States. He has stated," the U.S is destructible and will not be safe. if they attack North Korea."

Not a lot is known about Kim Jong- un and his childhood. It is believed he ordered the execution of his uncle Jang Song- thaek on December 12, 2013, and possibly had his entire family murder. Recently, he has also been accused of the murder of his half brother Kim Jong- Nam on February 13, 2017. Kim Jong- Nam was poisoned by VX nerve agent when he approached by two women at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia. He died within minutes after telling airport security that a substance was thrown into his face.

It is also believed that he is also responsible for the death of American student Otto Warmbier, who had been sentenced to 15 years hard labor for trying to steal a political poster from a hotel that he was staying at in Pyongyang.
In a new addition to Trumps failed efforts to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), he has now demanded that the Senate to pass his new bill, or he will implement provisions against senators, Associated Press reports.

Trump is prepared to soon cease required payments to insurers under the ACA, also known as ObamaCare, aides told The Associated Press. Additionally, he has threatened to cancel senators entire summer break until it is repealed.

Republicans have promised to overturn ObamaCare since its inception eight years ago, but it was not until March of this year that they proposed any kind of replacement.

Their proposal is called the amended American Health Care Act (AHCA), which confusingly sounds a lot like ACA. It would take millions of Americans off of insurance, end cost cap restrictions, and eliminate funding for Medicaid expansion.

What the new health care bill means

Right now, Obamacare requires that insurance companies cover maternity, prescription drugs, mental health and substance abuse, according to CNN Money. Under the new Republican proposal, states can opt out of having insurance companies cover these essential benefits for our communities. The new proposal would also drastically change Medicaid, which Americans have been able to benefit from since it was enacted along with Medicare in 1965.

The Medicaid program now covers more than 70 million people or one out of every five Americans. The Congressional Budget office expects that under the AHCA, federal support for Medicaid would be cut 25 percent by 2026.

All of these provisions could take us back to life before ObamaCare when having a pre-existing condition meant you could be denied coverage or be dropped from your insurance carrier.

If you had a life-threatening condition, or your child or spouse developed one, your premiums would immediately rise or you would be dropped. Often, those who received essential care had to foot the entire bill themselves. If someone underwent a $300,000, life-sustaining open-heart surgery, they would be left with daily calls from debt collectors.

Currently, under ObamaCare, there are solid protections in place for those with pre-existing conditions. Americans cannot be dropped or billed more for getting pregnant or developing cancer. Trumps proposal would allow states to opt out of some of those provisions, according to CNN Money. So, insurers could have the option charge people more based on their health history.

The new act, which would take effect in 2020, is based on income and the cost of premiums in the area. It would offer tax cuts based on a persons age. That would cap tax credits at $2,000 for 20-somethings, and $4,000 for those in their early 60s.

Basically, if you are 21 years old and you suddenly find out you have Leukemia, you may not receive coverage for your treatments.

No one from the medical community was present during the write-up of the new act. In April, The American Medical Association openly urged Congress to vote against the bill.

Republicans say health care is not needed

Many Republicans have said that if you take care of yourself, you shouldnt need health care. In May, Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) said at a town hall at Lewis-Clark State College, nobody dies because they dont have access to health care, The Hill reports.

In the most recent Senate vote on the new AHCA, three out of 54 Republicans and all of the 48 Democrats voted against it. Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), who actually voted in favor of an open debate on repealing and replacing ObamaCare last week, voted no on the new proposal when it hit the floor, just before he left for Arizona to be treated for brain cancer.

John McCain helped give the GOP health care repeal bill new life, then he killed it: https://t.co/PoTiLkvM38  AP Politics (@AP_Politics) July 29, 2017

Although nothing has been passed yet, the administration is trying to hinder ObamaCare in other little ways. They have scrapped ACA contracts for libraries, businesses and urban neighborhoods in 18 cities. This means that shoppers on the insurance exchanges will have fewer places where they can sign up for coverage, Associated Press reports.

In addition, the administration has cut paid advertisements for HealthCare.gov where Americans can sign up for coverage.

Earlier this month, Trump said in a press conference that aired on CBS that we should, let ObamaCare fail, and then everybody is going to have to come together and fix it.
Director, actor, and playwright Sam Shepard has died according to US Weekly. Illinois-born Shepard reportedly died on Thursday, July 27, at his family home in Kentucky. He was 73-years-old and had been suffering from complications due to medical condition ALS. ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is a degenerative disease which affects the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. According to the publication, Shepard's family was by his side when he passed away. The star married O-Lan Jones in 1969 and the couple had one son together, Jesse Mojo.They divorced in 1984.

Shepard went on to meet Jessica Lange in 1982. The couple never married but they had two children, Hannah Jane and Samuel Walker. Shepard split from Lange in 2009. His sisters Roxanne and Sandy Rogers were reportedly also with him at the time of his death.

Actor, director, and playwright's work will not be forgotten

Shepard made his first appearance as an actor in the 1978 film "Days of Heaven". He starred alongside Richard Gere and Brooke Adams, playing the part of a farmer. Later in his career, the star held roles in "Steel Magnolias", "Baby Boom" and "The Notebook". The actor was perhaps best known for his role as Chuck Yeager in the 1982 film "The Right Stuff". The movie was a historical drama based on author Tom Wolfe's book of the same title and told the story of Navy, Marine and Air Force test pilots and the U.S.

Space program "Mercury 7". Shepard was nominated for an Academy Award (Best Supporting Actor) for his depiction of Chuck Yeager, a World War 2 pilot. The actor also wrote and directed many plays. In total, he wrote 44 plays including "A Lie of the Mind", "True West" and "Fool for Love". In 1979, Shepard was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play "Buried Child".

Interview with ex-partner Lange published hours before death

Shepard's ex-partner Jessica Lange did an interview with Aarp The Magazine which was published just hours before the actor's death according to US Weekly. In the interview, Lange spoke about her relationship with the star, saying he had a great sense of humor but also a dark side.

Lange and Shepard met while working on the film "Frances" in 1982 and subsequently dated for over 30 years. The couple had two children together and Lange told AARP The Magazine that raising children was fun and something that she really cherishes. The two went their separate ways in 2009. Shepard previously told The Guardian in 2010 that himself and Lange were an "incredible match" and describing the actress as "astounding".
Kansas makeup contestant Gypsy Freeman said she should have won Kat Von D competition if not because of her Instagram post supporting President Donald Trump's presidential candidacy. Freeman who lives currently in Florida was declared the winner of a contest sponsored by Von D, in which the participants had to post the picture of the model in the Instagram as a promotion for a new line of the company with "Saint plus Sinner" theme.

The prize has gone for good

According to CTV News, a screen shot of the conversation between Freeman and Kat Von D was posted, wherein Von D is telling Freeman that she is disqualified for voting Trump on the last presidential election.

"I have drawn a personal barrier between myself and anyone who supports Donald Trump," Von D said.

Freeman and her photographer Jenn Bischoff were supposed to receive their prize package worth at least $2,000 at Kat Von D launch party. With Freeman's complaint, Von D responded saying that her launch party is celebrating many things that Donald Trump is against with: "Personally, I cannot let anyone who would support an anti-immigrant, anti-feminist, anti-climate change and anti-feminist fascist as Trump."

Freeman recently wrote back to the statement released by Von D. She said she totally understand if Von D won't allow her to come to the party. "We would really want to be there, absolutely, but I sincerely accept your decision to replace us with someone who supports your candidate," she said.

The contest was taken down by Von D

Von D said in an interview that supporting her failed candidate Hillary Clinton was not the main problem. She emphasized that she cannot let herself be associated with people who have the same thinking with Trump. "It is impossible for me to become friends with anyone who support a man who is against with everything I fight for," she explained.

"I would feel the same feeling towards people whose side is with Hitler or any other fascist," Von D added.

After everything that has happened, Freeman said that she totally understood Von D's decision. She said that she respected her right on how she will handle her contest. "Part of being in this country is having freedom of speech," However, Freeman still expressed her disappointments in Tampa Bay Times, saying that it still not right though to be removed from being the winner just because of who she voted for. "It is definitely called bigotry what they have done to me, a huge case of hypocrisy," she said.
Xi inspects troops as China's military might on show

Updated: 2017-07-30 13:42

By Zhao Lei in Zhurihe, Inner Mongolia(chinadaily.com.cn)

The flag raising ceremony during the military parade at Zhurihe training base in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region Sunday, July 30, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

President Xi Jinping urged the People's Liberation Army to spare no efforts to become a world-class military after inspecting troops in the Chinese military's first field parade in several decades.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said the country was close to realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and, therefore, a mighty military was much needed to safeguard the process.

He told PLA's top commanders and officers and soldiers who just staged a parade in front of him on Sunday morning to stick to the Party's leadership, to continue serving the people, to further improve their combat capability and to deepen the reform and boost innovation.

"I am convinced that our heroic armed forces are confident and capable of defeating enemies daring to provoke us, of safeguarding our sovereignty, security and development interests  and of making new contributions to the China Dream and world peace," he said.

The PLA carried out a field parade on Sunday morning at the Zhurihe Training Base in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region to mark its 90th anniversary that falls on Tuesday.

Hundreds of large weapons and equipment, many of them never shown to the public before, and 12,000 troops took part in the grand parade.

It's the first time the PLA have held a parade at an exercise field in nearly four decades.

In 1981, a parade was performed at a training base in North China and witnessed by the late Party leader Deng Xiaoping. Three parades have been staged at Tian'anmen Square in Beijing since then in 1999, 2009 and 2015.

Sunday's event was also the first parade specifically organized to celebrate a founding anniversary of the PLA.

It represents the PLA's determination to become a top military in the world.
LHASA -- The 11th Panchen Lama Bainqen Erdini Qoigyijabu performed a series of Buddhist services in Lhasa, capital of Tibet autonomous region, over the past few days.

The Panchen Lama visited Jokhang Temple Thursday, leading a prayer service and blessing lamas in the most revered monastery in Lhasa.

He arrived at Jokhang Temple at around 5:30 am, greeted by lamas lining up at the temple gates holding Tibetan incense and Buddhist prayer flags.

The Panchen Lama visited the major halls of the temple, paid homage and presented a hada, a long, scarf-like white silk used by the Tibetans for blessings, to a life-sized statue of Buddha Sakyamuni as a 12-year-old. Jokhang's house treasure was brought to the temple by Princess Wencheng of the Tang Dynasty in the seventh century.

The Panchen Lama then led sutra chanting at the temple, praying for peace, prosperity and stability, before performing a head-touching ritual to bless the lamas.

On Sunday morning, the Panchen Lama held a head-touching ritual for long lines of Buddhists, including young moms with sleeping babies in their arms, at his Lhasa residence.

"I attended the ritual last year. This year I was lucky to be the first to receive the head-touching blessings," said Degyi, an 84-year-old woman. "I wish the Panchen Lama health and longevity!"

The Panchen Lama is scheduled to hold more Buddhist and social activities across Tibet in the coming days.

Gyaincain Norbu, born Feb. 13, 1990. in Lhari county, Nagqu prefecture in northern Tibet, was enthroned as the 11th Panchen Lama on Dec. 8, 1995 after a traditional lot drawing ceremony in Jokhang Temple in Lhasa.

The Panchen Lama serves as vice president of the Buddhist Association of China and is a member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the country's top political advisory body.
A flag guard formation consisting of officers and soldiers from the army, air force, navy and rocket force of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) attends a military parade to mark the 90th anniversary of the founding of the PLA at Zhurihe training base in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, July 30, 2017.[Photo/Xinhua]

The parade held this morning to mark the 90th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army attracted hundreds of thousands of viewers and incited lively discussions online.

The live-streaming of the parade at Zhurihe Training Base in Inner Mongolia autonomous region by China Central Television (CCTV) has been viewed 28 million times on Sina Weibo, a Chinese micro blog. The topic hosted by the broadcaster now ranks first on the website in terms of popularity during the past 24 hours. It has garnered 250 million page views and some 230,000 netizens left comments.

Weibo user bengdadenainiu wrote, "Thanks to such a mighty army, we can enjoy this life without fear or concern."

"I have tears in my eyes watching this parade. The establishment that Chinese people have achieved is built on the blood and sacrifice of past generations. I can feel the country is growing stronger," stated weibo user Moushan.

Data from Baidu, China's leading search engine, shows that the parade is currently the most searched term on the website with more than one million related results.

The complete video of the 70-minute parade has been played 130 million times on Tencent's video service platform, v.qq.com. Entries related to the parade take up the top four places among the most viewed six videos.

"I feel so proud to see the parade. In 90 years, the Chinese army started from nothing and achieved such impressive progress. I feel so proud to be a Chinese," a viewer commented on the website.

The field parade kicked off in northern China at 9 am Sunday. The PLA's 90th anniversary falls on Tuesday.

This was the first time in nearly four decades that the PLA held a parade at an exercise field. Hundreds of large weapons and equipment, many of them never shown to the public before, and 12,000 troops took part in the grand event.
BEIJING - More and more Chinese students are putting overseas study tours on their agenda this summer.

Consisting of language courses, sightseeing and international communication, study tours meet the demands of Chinese parents and students for a long and fruitful holiday, despite high costs of around $4,000 to $6,000.

This year saw the number of students going abroad for study tours increase by nearly 40 percent, with reservations for tours starting almost a year ago, according to English First, a Swedish-English education company in China.

YOUNGER PARTICIPANTS

A recent report published by a Chinese tourism booking website showed most study tour participants were teenagers in middle school.

According to the report released by Tuniu.com in June, 73 percent of their participants in 2016 were middle school students, 11 percent primary school students and only 3 percent college students.

Students of a younger age seem to be the upward trend.

"The biggest growth of our clients in the past few years is among primary school students, over 50 percent," said Joe Chiu, Country Manager of China's EF International Language Center.

Unlike study tour participants in other countries who are at least 13 or14 years old, Chinese parents seem to be more willing to let their children go on tours at a very young age, Chiu said, noting that the youngest Chinese participant on his program was only five years old.

PURPOSES VARIES

According to a blue book on global study tours released by New Oriental Education & Technology Group, expanding children's horizons was the major goal for parents, while improving language skills, experiencing independence and exploring cultural diversities were also popular.

Zhan Fuman, a 14-year-old from Guangzhou, currently on a 15-day study tour in Australia with a price tag of 32,800 yuan (about 4,870 U.S. dollars), went to the United States for her first overseas study tour last winter.

"She has been much more confident and independent since her first tour in the U.S. and learnt to use knowledge from books and real life communications," said Zhu Wanxia, Zhan's mother.

Going on a study tour does not lead to going to a foreign university in the future, Zhu said, adding that they preferred their child to go to a top Chinese university instead.

According to Chiu, only half of students in their study tour programs went abroad for higher education.

"Some parents consider staying in China as a better choice for their children, and such overseas study tours are more about qualities beyond learning by the books," said Chen Jingjing, Joe's co-worker from English First.

According to China's Ministry of Education (MOE), over 80 percent of Chinese students who studied abroad returned to China in 2016.
When people in the United States talk about blue jeans, they are most likely to mention Levi Strauss, the German-American businessman whose company made the first pair of blue jeans in San Francisco in 1873.

Levi's, the top brand for Levi Strauss & Co, is not only in all US cities, but also popular in more than 100 countries around the world, including China.

While distressed jeans become ever more fashionable, a recent article titled Every Pair of Blue Jeans You Wear Is Paid With Lives is burning up social media in China.

The author describes the onerous working conditions and environmental damage caused by the blue jeans industry in Xintang, a town in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong province.

The author claims that "every pair of blue jeans, pricey or cheap, carries sin".

Known as "Blue Jeans Capital of the World", Xintang has some 3,000 businesses related to the jeans industry. It also fills 40 percent of market demand in the US.

Careful readers would note that most of the article, especially the pictures, is not new, but the same as in some articles published a few years ago following a Greenpeace study and a German documentary.

In a survey published in November 2010, Greenpeace found that at three sampling sites in Xintang, the amounts of lead, copper and cadmium in the riverbed exceeded national "soil environmental quality standards". One sample of river mud contained cadmium levels 128 times over the safe limit, and in another, the water's pH level was 11.95.

It has been estimated that one pair of blue jeans in Xintag requires 3,625 liters of waters and 3 kg of chemicals to make. Most of the water is used to grow the cotton needed, and less than 10 percent is used in dyeing and washing.

A 2012 German documentary, Der Preis der Blue-Jeans (The Price of Blue-Jeans) by Michael Hoft and Christian Jentzsch also depicted the poor working conditions, health hazards and severe pollution in Xintang caused by the making of blue jeans, linking it to those cheap jeans priced at around $10 in stores such as H&M and Kik.

What the survey and 45-minute documentary revealed is that blue jeans are much dirtier than most people might believe.

Distressed denim is the result of several chemical-intensive washes, while fabric printing and dyeing contains heavy metals such as cadmium, lead and mercury, which often end up in local waterways without treatment.

Despite a lack of current information about Xintang, the article nevertheless went viral in Chinese social media the past two months.

Many people left their comments. One said, "Sad."

Another said that "I have bought mostly blue jeans, now I know, and I won't buy anymore."

Some blamed factory owners for not providing adequate protection for workers. One sighed at the fate of many textile towns in China, including his hometown near Suzhou, Jiangsu province.

Various news reports, including one from the Xinhua News Agency, confirmed the local government's efforts to address the problem, including cleaning up waterways, relocating factories into several industrial zones where wastewater is treated, and setting up a monitoring system.

Xintang has the capacity to produce 2.5 million pairs of blue jeans a day. The town produces 50 percent of China's blue jeans and 30 percent of blue jeans exported, according to the Xintang website.

For decades, relatively lax environmental laws were often not observed by local governments eager to achieve rapid economic growth.

But that changed in the last few years when the country, faced with severe environmental challenges, has put sustainable development atop its agenda.

Though the pollution in Xintang has been greatly reduced, the environmental challenge posed by the blue jeans industry is still enormous.

Interestingly, some of the blue jeans production in Xintang used to be in El Paso, Texas, in the 1970s and 1980s, when thousands of workers were producing for Levi's, Lee, Guess and Gap, according to a story on Atlas Obscura.

US President Donald Trump has talked about punitive tariffs on Chinese exports.

It seems that the Chinese government should impose an environmental tariff on all exports to compensate the people in China who bear the heavy environmental burdens.

Contact the writer at chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com
People walk on the Rockland Breakwater, a man-made granite jetty that stretches into Penobscot Bay from Rockland, Maine, a summer vacation destination in the United States. [Photo/Agencies]

For me, summer vacation means spending time in a Maine pond where the sound of loons calling is about the most exciting thing that happens all day.

But I do venture occasionally from my little paradise to experience other things the northernmost state in the northeastern United States has to offer, whether it's the coast, a mountain hike, a whitewater adventure or a museum. Here are a few options.

The shore

Maine's scenic coast has so many wonderful towns that you almost can't go wrong, but every spot has its own personality. Old Orchard Beach just outside Portland has a sandy beach, busy pier with food, drink and souvenirs, and an old-fashioned amusement park. You could also make a day of visiting Popham Beach State Park in Phippsburg in the morning and nearby Reid State Park in Georgetown in the afternoon. In Rockland, the manmade Breakwater jetty lets you walk nearly a mile from the shore into Penobscot Bay, and a ferry runs across to Vinalhaven island, where it's worth spending the night. Pemaquid Point Lighthouse Park is another popular spot.

Hiking

Acadia National Park and the gateway town of Bar Harbor are beautiful but very busy in summer. About 1.5 million people visited the park in July and August of 2016, so be prepared for traffic and crowded trails. For a lovely, doable alternative, consider a day in Camden, with a hike up Mount Battie. A poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Renascence, engraved on a plaque at the top, describes the stunning view, with references to "three long mountains and a wood" and "three islands in a bay".

For serious hikers, the Appalachian Trail runs through Maine, terminating atop Mount Katahdin in Baxter State Park. Depending on your route and fitness level, a hike up and down Katahdin's steep, rocky trails could take 10 to 12 hours, which means you'll run out of daylight if you don't start early. Parking for Katahdin hikes is also limited and often gone by 8 am, so consider driving up the night before.

The new (and controversial) Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument doesn't offer many visitor services yet, but the National Park Service offers tips online for enjoying the area.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro show his ballot as casts his vote at a polling station during the Constituent Assembly election in Caracas, Venezuela July 30, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

CARACAS, Venezuela  Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro asked for global acceptance on Sunday as he cast an unusual pre-dawn vote for an all-powerful constitutional assembly that his opponents fear he'll use to replace his country's democracy with a single-party authoritarian system.

Accompanied by close advisers and state media, Maduro voted at 6:05 am local time, far earlier and less publicly than in previous elections. The run-up to Sunday's vote has been marked by months of clashes between protesters and the government, including the fatal shooting of a 61-year-old nurse by men accused of being pro-government paramilitaries during a protest at a church a few hundred feet from the school where Maduro voted.

Maduro and his administration deny links to violent paramilitaries and say the political opposition is responsible for the violence that has left at least 113 dead and nearly 2000 wounded in four months of protests.

"We've stoically withstood the terrorist, criminal violence," Maduro said. "Hopefully the world will respectfully extend its arms toward our country."The Trump administration has imposed successive rounds of sanctions on high-ranking members of Maduro's administration, with the support of countries including Mexico, Colombia and Panama. Vice President Mike Pence promised on Friday that the US would take "strong and swift economic actions" if the vote went ahead. He didn't say whether the US would sanction Venezuelan oil imports, a measure with the potential to undermine Maduro but cause an even deeper humanitarian crisis here.

The special assembly being selected Sunday will have powers to rewrite the country's 1999 constitution but will also have powers above and beyond other state institutions, including the opposition-controlled congress.

While opinion polls say a vast majority oppose him, Maduro made clear in a televised address Saturday evening that he intends to use the assembly to govern without limitation, describing the vote as "the election of a power that's above and beyond every other. It's the super power!"He said he wants the assembly to strip opposition legislators of their constitutional immunity from prosecution and jail at least one  Freddy Guevara, a hard-line opposition leader and one the highest-profile organizers of four months of protests against the government.

"This little Hitler has his cell guaranteed!" Maduro shouted, using his frequent nickname for Guevara.

The opposition is boycotting Sunday's vote, contending the election has been structured to ensure Maduro's socialist party continues to dominate. So all 5,500 candidates for the 545 seats in the constituent assembly are his supporters.

The vote's success will be measured by turnout, with the opposition urging Venezuelans to stay and the government encouraging participation with tactics that include threats to state workers' jobs and social benefits like subsidized food for the poor.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro show his ballot as casts his vote at a polling station during the Constituent Assembly election in Caracas, Venezuela July 30, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

WASHINGTON - The Trump administration is considering imposing some US sanctions on Venezuela's vital oil sector in response to Sunday's election of a constitutional super-body that Washington has already denounced as a "sham" vote, US officials said.

The measures, which could be announced as early as Monday, are not expected to include a ban on Venezuelan oil shipments to the United States -- one of the harshest options -- but could block sale of lighter US crude that Venezuela mixes with its heavy crude and then exports, the officials told Reuters.

While no final decisions have been made, the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the United States could also sanction further senior Venezuelan officials. But the timing of such an announcement remained uncertain, the sources said.

Reuters
Russia is suspending the use of all warehouses in Moscow by the US embassy starting from August 1, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

"The Russian side is suspending as of August 1 the use by the US embassy in Russia of all warehouses on the Dorozhnaya Street in Moscow and the dacha compound in Serebryanyy Bor," the ministry said in a statement.

The move comes following the US Senate's approval of a new set of sanctions against Russia, Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, which is yet to be signed by President Donald Trump. The bill limits Trump's ability to lift the restrictions on Moscow.

Moscow also offered to Washington to cut the number of its diplomatic staff by September 1 commensurate to the number of Russian diplomats.

The Russian Foreign Ministry offered to the United States to limit the number of its diplomats in Russia to 455 people.

"We are offering to the US side to bring the numbers of US diplomatic and technical staff working in the US embassy in Moscow, in general consulates in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok to reflect the exact number of Russian diplomats and technical staff who are in the United States. This means that the total number of employees in US diplomatic and consular agencies in Russia will be cut to 455," the ministry said in a statement.

Russia will give a "mirror response" should the United States introduce new unilateral measures to cut the numbers of Russian diplomats in the country.

Russia reserves the reciprocal right to respond to the latest sanctions bill passed in the US Senate by hitting US interests, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

"We reserve the right in a manner of reciprocity to other measures that may affect the interests of the United States," the ministry said in a statement.

In late 2016, the Obama administration slapped a new batch of sanctions on Russia and expelled 35 Russian diplomats on the pretext of Moscow's alleged meddling in the US presidential election.

Trump now has 10 days, excluding Sundays, to decide whether to sign the bill into law or veto the legislation, at which point the Congress could override his veto by a two-thirds majority.

The bill passed the House of Representatives on Tuesday by a vote of 419 to three.

"The new bill seeks to create unfair competitive advantages for the US in the global economy via political tools," the ministry said.

The bill has already prompted criticism within the European Union. France and Germany have so far spoken out against the bill that the US House passed overwhelmingly on Tuesday as one that adversely affects European industries while advancing US commercial interests.

Despite that, Moscow is doing everything in its power to normalize bilateral ties with the United States.

"It is well known that Russia did and continues doing everything possible to normalize bilateral relations, to develop ties and cooperation with the United States on crucial issues of the international agenda, including before all the fight against terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, illegal drug trafficking, illegal migration, cybercrime, etc. We believed and we continue to believe that global issues could only be resolved jointly. We are sure that most people on the planet share this approach," the statement read.

The statement noted that the idea of Russophobia and confrontation has taken root within "certain circles" in the United States.

"Despite Washingtons constant attacks, we acted and continue acting responsibly and reservedly and have not responded to certain provocations until now. However, the latest events evidence that Russophobia and policy of open confrontation with our country have established themselves in certain circles in the United States," the statement read.

Sputnik
The body of an 18-year-old high school student from China was found in Lake Whatcom at Camp Firwood near Bellingham, Washington, authorities said.

Authorities located the body of Bin Wangon on Wednesday using an underwater camera. He was visiting the camp as part of a tour group. The body was turned over to the Whatcom County Medical Examiner's Office.

The tour company and Wang's family in China were notified. The Consulate General of China in San Francisco is helping to arrange for Wang's parents to come to the United States as soon as possible.

Tom Beaumont, executive director at The Firs, which operates Camp Firwood, said Wang was the first death at the youth camp, which opened in 1955.

"I'm deeply saddened to report that the search ended this afternoon, and our high school camper was found to be the victim of an accidental drowning," Beaumont said via text message Wednesday night. "Our focus now is on caring for our campers, staff and parents."

Wang was last seen on Tuesday around 4:30 pm during a sailboat tipping drill with other campers, the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office said. Wang didn't participate in the drill but was seen at a beach near the water, authorities said. He had removed his shirt, shoes and socks and had asked another camper to hold his glasses.

The Sheriff's Office says that Wang didn't know how to swim and that no one could recall seeing him enter the water. A lifeguard on duty at the time also noted no unusual activity.

Whatcom County Sheriff Bill Elfo said that the water goes quickly from being shallow to a steep 30-foot drop in the area where Wang was last seen.

Rob Lee, director of Camp Firwood, told parents of campers that on Tuesday the campgrounds and adjacent shore areas were thoroughly searched. The search was suspended at dusk and resumed on Wednesday.

Camp Firwood is an American Camp Association approved Christian summer camp on Lake Whatcom, southeast of Bellingham and a half hour drive to the Canada-United States border.

The camp runs for 10 weeks for youth ages 7-18, and houses up to 260 campers a week.

lindadeng@chinadailyusa.com
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iStock/Thinkstock(JASPER, Ala.) -- Six Alabama prison inmates -- including two in jail for attempted murder -- were on the loose Sunday night after a jailbreak at Walker County Jail, officials said.



Twelve inmates originally escaped from the jail, but six of the inmates were captured, according to the Walker County Sheriff's Office.



Still at large Sunday night were: Steven Blake Lamb, 28, of Quinton, in jail for attempted murder and other charges; Christopher Micheal Smith, 19, of Jasper, in jail for attempted murder and other charges; Michael Adam McGuff, 30, of Jasper, in jail for escape 3rd and obstructing government operations; Brady Andrew Kilpatrick, 24, of Cordova, in jail for various drug-related charges; Larry Inman Jr., 29, of Parrish, in jail for two counts of receiving stolen property, attempting to elude and failure to appear; and Ethan Howard Pearl, 24, of Jasper, in jail for resisting arrest and other charges.



The sheriff's office is offering a $500 reward for infromation that leads to an arrest of the escapees.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
HA NOI  Viet Nam has a solid foundation for information technology but must constantly strive to be globally competitive, Hajime Hotta, co-founder of Innovatube and president of Cinnamon AI Labs, said at the Ha Noi technology event on Sunday.

"Innovatube Frontier Summit" (IFS) is the first event in Viet Nam that covers four sectors of smart technology -- Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Blockchain and Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality (VR/AR).

With the motto "Stay in front," IFS is expected to become a playground for startups and individuals who are working in the technology business to share their knowledge and experience in frontier technologies and learn how to implement them in real projects.

The summit connected a network of the best Viet Nam and Southeast Asia speakers in the four hottest technology fields with over 500 Vietnamese and international entrepreneurs, engineers, researchers and top tech companies exchanging ideas to have more opportunities for investment cooperation.

Hajime also affirmed the significance of combining technological talent with entrepreneurship spirit. "I think any country (except China and the United States) cannot lead the global economy alone. Therefore, there should be cooperation among countries in Asia to work together to build achievements, Hajime told Viet Nam News.

As regards the technology potential of Viet Nam, Hajime said the country had a solid foundation for information technology but must constantly strive to be globally competitive. Although the startup aspirations of entrepreneurs were developing positively, technology enterprises were still not ready to take on the risk of innovation.

The event was organised by local startup incubator Innovatube, in collaboration with Koreas hardware accelerator N15 and Japanese information technology company Framgia Viet Nam.  VNS
The Ministry of Finance has refused to reduce tax rates for the coal industry, citing the fact that tax reduction is beyond the Governments authority.  Photo nangluongvietnam.vn

HA NOI  The Ministry of Finance has refused to reduce tax rates for the coal industry, citing the fact that tax reduction is beyond the Governments authority.

In a report sent to the Prime Minister, the finance ministry said that the Prime Minister had approved a development plan for the coal sector to ensure reduction of coal exports and export for kinds of coal for which the domestic market does not have a demand. He approved a plan on exporting two million tonnes of coal per year for the period of 2017-20.

Coal has had many kinds of tax rates, ranging from 10 per cent to 45 per cent. The coal export tariff stands at 10-15 per cent. Anthracite coal, with an export tax rate at 10 per cent, is the lowest under the National Assemblys tax rate frame.

Therefore, the coal industrys proposal on cutting the rate under 10 per cent is beyond the authority of the Government as well as the Prime Minister, the ministry said.

Under the Law on environmental protection, environmental protection tax rate for coal is between VN10,000-30,000 per tonne.

According to Resolution 1269 issued by the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, the environment protection tax rate is VN10,000 per tonne of brown coal and coking coal and VN20,000 per tonne of anthracite coal. These rates are the lowest level allowed by National Assemblys regulations, reported vietnamnet.vn.

The National Assembly had not proposed to adjust those tax rates as part of the amended Law on environmental protection that is scheduled to be proposed at the National Assemblys October session this year, the ministry said.

The cut of those taxes is also beyond the Governments authority, according to the ministry, which cited Chinas environmental protection tax rate of VN25,600-118,400 per tonne of coal.

The highest natural resource tax for coal is 20 per cent under the Law on Natural Resource Tax but in fact, the tax stands at between 10-12 per cent. Those rates are reasonable to ensure enough supply of coal for domestic power production, according to the ministry.

According to the Viet Nam National Coal, Mineral Industries Holding Corporation Limited (TKV), the corporation reported an inventory of 9.5 million tonnes of coal in the first five months of this year. It was estimated to reduce to 8.45 million tonnes in the first half of the year.

Therefore, the ministry has proposed that the Government increase import tax rate for coal from zero to 3 per cent or to 5 per cent to cut further the inventory to acceptable level, helping solve existing difficulties in production and business of the coal industry.

The TKV said 2016 was the most difficult year since it was established, especially when the domestic market had strong growth of coal imports to 12.6 million tonnes. However, the imports reduced since early 2017, due to rising global coal prices.

The finance ministry reported that coal import demand for large coal consumers on the local market, especially electric producers, is expected to be higher in the future. The demand on coal imports is likely to reach 11.7 million tonnes in 2017, 40.2 million tonnes in 2020, 70.3 million tonnes in 2025 and 102 million tonnes in 2030.  VNS
Viet Nam has become one of the largest importers of Australian cattle. In 2016, Viet Nam ranked fourth among 32 countries importing Australian cattle.  Photo doanhnghiepvn.vn

HA NOI  As the demand for imported beef soars, Australian exporters are strengthening their market share in Viet Nam, but the situation is fraught with risk, experts say.

A au tu (Investment Review) newspaper report says Viet Nam has become one of the largest importers of Australian cattle. In 2016, Viet Nam ranked fourth among 32 countries importing Australian cattle.

The report quoted Tong Xuan Chinh, deputy head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Developments Animal Husbandry Department, as saying Viet Nam began importing Australian cattle in 2010.

In 2012, Viet Nam had just four enterprises importing Australian cows but by 2015, the number had risen to several dozen with a total of 360,000 heads of cattle imported.

Vietnamese businesses are now rushing to import Australian cows and fattening them for sale to slaughterhouses. As a result, inventories of live cattle have swelled significantly.

The inventory of Australian live cattle in 2015 was estimated at 100,000 heads due to oversupply, Chinh told au tu, adding that in 2016, imports of cattle from Australia to Viet Nam slowed dramatically as feedlot operators moved to lower their inventories.

Before 2010, Australian cattle exporters were not aware of the attractive Vietnamese market. Their main partner at the time was Indonesia, importing nearly 1 million cows from Australia per year, said Luong Minh Tung, Chairman of Yen Phu Beef and Dairy Cattle Breeding JSC. in Ninh Binh Province.

In 2011, the Australian government issued a ban on cow exports to Indonesia after reports surfaced about inhumane slaughter in some of its abattoirs, Tung said, adding that Australia also lost their strategic partner after the decision.

This was the context in which stressed Australian businesses, urgently looking for new partners, found Vietnamese businesses, Tung said.

Potential risks

The import of Australian cattle for fattening had been expected to open up a new direction for the fed-cattle industry. However, Tung said, there were always latent risks in imports.

He said there were too many businesses involved in importing Australian cattle, which could lead to supply exceeding demand.

Instead of importing culled beef of large weights, Vietnamese firms preferred to import calves in order to fatten and sell to slaughterhouses, which offers greater profits, Tung said.

However, as Viet Nam didnt have favorable conditions like Australia to breed cows, local importers have to invest a lot in infrastructure to support the influx of Australian cattle, meeting strict importing-related requirements.

According to Hoang Dung, Director of the Hai Phong Investment and Animal Poultry Products Import Export JSC., or Animex Haiphong, Australia requires all slaughterhouses in importing countries to have modern equipment and comply with ECAS (exporter supply chain assurance system) needs.

Businesses whose abattoirs are not in line with ECAS will be banned from purchasing Australian cows.

Such bans could cause huge losses to many Vietnamese slaughterhouses, Dung said, adding that although there were thousands of standard slaughterhouses, only 100 units or so had been approved by the Australian side.

Fierce competition

Dung also said many small and medium-scale cattle breeders were facing severe competition from large rivals, like the Hoang Anh Gia Lai Agriculture International JSC (HNG), which has poured trillions of ong into importing Australian cattle to Viet Nam for fattening and selling.

"Small businesses usually import several thousand heads of cattle each time and will purchase more only after they have already sold them out. Meanwhile, HNG buys 30,000 to 40,000 heads of cattle each time," Dung said.

The au tu report said that at the end of 2016, the Viet Eco Farm JSC. launched a beef store chain called Healthy beef in Can Tho City, providing fresh, high quality Australian beef products in large quantities.

In the short term, the company aims to supply beef for the Mekong Delta region, but plans to expand its market in other parts of the country, establishing new distribution channels.

Viet Eco Farm also imports Australian calves to fatten and sells mature cows to abattoirs at thousands of heads per time. The company has invested a lot in breeding facilities and modern slaughter lines, and set up 450ha of pasture land to raise cattle.

Chairman of the Viet Nam Livestock Association, Nguyen ang Quang, said the amount of imported Australian cattle was increasing rapidly, being sold at reasonable prices, enjoying preferential tariffs and becoming more popular with Vietnamese consumers.

Australian beef was "dominating the Vietnamese market, Quang said, adding that the more fierce the rivalry between Vietnamese firms, the more benefits Australia exporters could enjoy.

Quang said it was imperative the country imposes technical barriers on Australian beef so as to protect the domestic cattle industry.  VNS
Demand for Vietnamese rice is expected to be stable in the third quarter of the year.  VNA/VNS Photo

HCM CITY  Demand for Vietnamese rice is expected to be stable in the third quarter of the year, Vietnam Food Association (VFA) Chairman Huynh The Nang has said.

Thus, rice traders will not have to worry about finding consumption markets, he added.

The chairman made the statement after Vietnamese rice enterprises won contracts to supply 175,000 tonnes (MT) of rice to the Philippines through an open tender held by the countrys National Food Authority (NFA) on July 25.

According to the association, in the bidding for 2-per cent broken rice export to the Philippines, four Vietnamese traders totalled 175,000 tonnes in the tender at different winning prices.

Specifically, Southern Food Corporation 2 (Vinafood 2) won a bid for 50,000 tonnes of rice at a Free on Board (FOB) price of US$369.45 per tonne; International Joint Stock Company won 50,000 tonnes for $357 to $367 per tonne; Tan Long Group Joint Stock Company won 50,000 tonnes of rice for $354 to $359 per tonne; and Hiep Loi Joint Stock Company hit 25,000 tonnes with the best price of $370.9 per tonne.

This is the first time that private Vietnamese rice exporters were allowed to participate in such a bidding, and they proved they could meet the strict requirements put forward by the Philippines.

Four enterprises among the total eight businesses winning the bid is a clear demonstration of the capacity of the Vietnamese rice traders, Nang said.

The chairman said that the winning contracts would partly help stabilise domestic rice prices soon.

In addition to the rice export contracts to the Philippines, domestic rice exporters are also preparing to deliver goods under the previously signed contracts to Cuba, Bangladesh and Malaysia.

Therefore, from now until the end of the third quarter of 2017, Vietnamese rice sector will not struggle with the settlement of output for farmers.

According to VFA, demand for rice in Asia recently had positive impact on the rice exports of Viet Nam this year.

There are several new emerging needs that motivate the market. For example, Bangladesh, after three rounds of bidding for 150,000 tonnes of rice and having bought 250,000 tonnes from Viet Nam, is also negotiating 200,000 tonnes with Thailand and may continue to buy more from Viet Nam.

Sri Lanka is also urgently importing 55,000 tonnes of rice from Pakistan and Myanmar, and seeking supplies from other countries, including Viet Nam. Even the Philippines, in addition to the 250,000 tonnes bidding last week, may import more to shore up its stockpiles to ensure its food security. In addition to this, the consumption demand of China and India is expected to have an impact on the Vietnamese rice exports in the future.

However, whether the Vietnamese enterprises have access to these needs depends on their price competitiveness compared with the other export competitors, as well as the summer-autumn crop harvest in August and September.

Nguyen Thanh Long, managing director of Viet Rice Co Ltd, said that if domestic rice prices "turn up" too high, Vietnamese rice exporters would find it hard to compete with foreign rivals while negotiating commercial contracts.

Currently, Viet Nams rice export prices are equal or a little bit higher than those of Thailand. For example, Thailands 5-per-cent broken rice is being offered at $395 per tonne, while that of Viet Nam is $407 per tonne, which will be profitable. If Vietnamese rice prices are not adjusted according to the Thai rice prices, it is difficult to attract demand and sign new contracts in the future.

According to the statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, rice exports of the country in the first seven months of the year is estimated at 3.3 million tonnes, earning a revenue of $1.5 billion, up 15.7 per cent in volume and 13.7 per cent in value over the same period last year.

The rice export price in the first half of the year averaged $444.6 per tonne, down 1.4 per cent year-on-year. - VNS
Viet Nam can no longer rely on the increasing investment by the public sector and exploitation of natural resources to drive its economic growth in the future, the Prime Ministers newly established economic council warned in its very first meeting.  VNA/VNS Photo Doan Tan

HA NOI  Viet Nam can no longer rely on the increasing investment by the public sector and exploitation of natural resources to drive its economic growth in the future, the Prime Ministers newly established economic council warned in its very first meeting.

The team leader, Dr Vu Viet Ngoan, told PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc during the Saturday meeting that the country should focus on strengthening investment efficiency and labour productivity in order to bring Viet Nam back to the path of economic growth of over seven per cent.

The restructuring process of the economy is in a race with time, Ngoan said. Unless we have practical measures to realise the Governments orders and set the whole administrative system in motion, we wont be able to achieve key economic goals set by the 12th Party Congress.

Dr Vu Thanh Tu Anh, director of research at the Fulbright Economics Teaching Program in Vietnam, agreed that economic restructuring is a must for development, especially when the balance of payments, the State budget and the currency are stretched thin.

According to the council members, short-term and medium-term policies should take into account two fundamental issues: eliminating difficulties and reducing business costs while improving the performance of the State-owned business sector.

Prof Dr Tran Ngoc Anh of Indiana University in the US suggested the PM develop a table tool tracking the work of the ministries and local authorities to monitor how the PMs and Governments policy orders are carried out.

Also attending the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong inh Hue said several measures suggested by the consultants were similar to those the Government was implementing, proving that the Government was on the right track so far.

Hue, however, asked the team to work on particular issues, such as the reasonable growth level that can be expected, or the roles of the State and the private sector in a socialist-oriented free market economy like Viet Nams.

PM Phuc welcomed all the suggestions, agreeing with the experts on the need for administrative reform to create a better investment environment.

He said that he believed the team would become a key channel in developing new economic policies and measures.  VNS
BEIJING  Chinese tourist arrivals in Viet Nam reached 2.2 million during January to July, up 51 per cent year on year, with the figure expected to rise thanks to the launch of a direct air route between Viet Nams a Nang City and Chinas Zunyi City.

The flight, which will start on August 5 and be served by an Airbus A321, will take off at 12:10pm from a Nang International Airport in central Viet Nam and arrive at Zunyi Xinzhou Airport in the southwestern part of China at 3:55pm local time.

Departure from Zunyi is on the same day at 4:55pm, arriving in a Nang at 7:00 pm.

Flights will operate every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

The route is the first international flight Zunyi has opened this year and is expected to help boost tourism, business and investment between the two cities.

According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, Viet Nam welcomed more than 7.2 million international tourists in the first seven months of 2017.  VNS
On the occasion of the National Day of the Kingdom of Morocco on July 30, Viet Nam News presents an article written by Azzeddine Farhane, Ambassador of His Majesty The King of Morocco to Viet Nam.

Moroccos national day is marked on the enthronement date of His Majesty King Mohammed VI on July 30, 1999. It is a celebration steeped in history, which constitutes a unique occasion to renew the profound links of solid loyalty and faithful unity between the Moroccan people and the Throne. This pact has been well preserved in the shared history of the Moroccan people and the Royal Alaouite dynasty for over four centuries.

This year, Morocco celebrates the Sovereigns 18th year of reign, marked by a process of peaceful and evolutionary reforms. His Majesty King Mohammed VI has consolidated and accelerated political, economic and social reforms, launched by his late father, King Hassan II. In this regard, His Majesty continues to be firmly committed to the continuous path of democratization in the Kingdom, noting that Moroccos strength lies in the democratic system we have opted for as an irreversible choice which, coupled with a proactive, committed diplomacy involving parliament, political parties, trade unions and civil society, will help us in the defense of our just cause. (October 2003).

Political and social reforms: Participative approach and positive interaction

His Majesty has developed dedicated initiatives to promote citizens participation in politics through human rights, gender equality and equitable human development. Hence, Morocco has held a series of free and fair parliamentary and local elections. The Kingdom is currently implementing a new regionalization process, bringing decision-making closer to local communities.

In the field of human rights promotion and social reforms, the Kingdoms family code has been improved to give women equal standing with men. The National Human Development Initiative and The Equity and Reconciliation Commission are other milestone achievements in building a sustainable future for Moroccos most disadvantaged communities and including them in the economic and social growth of the Kingdom.

All these far-reaching reforms have been enshrined in the 2011 Constitution, which consecrated the Kingdoms reformist path by establishing a constitutional monarchy with separation of powers, enhanced responsibilities for local and regional governments, and clear support for the multicultural, multi-religious character of Moroccan society.

Economic Development: collaborative approach and inclusive economic strategies

Morocco continues to undergo major economic reforms to reinforce its infrastructure, streamline productivity, foster rural development, provide adequate services and create an investment friendly environment. Morocco, with its strategic geographical location and more than 3,500 km of coastline, has 15 international airports and a network of more than 1,800 kilometers of highly engineered highways, as well as a high-speed train system linking its major cities.

Morocco has emerged as a global green leader setting an example for other developing countries. By the year 2030, 52 per cent of Moroccos energy will come from non-carbon-based sources. In addition, the large success of COP22, organized last year in Marrakech, honored the Kingdom and fostered the trust and credibility it enjoys internationally, and on the regional level, through the organization of The African Summit for Action, on the sideline of COP22.

Moroccan Diplomacy: African dimension and win-win partnership

Moroccos commitment to democratic progress and peaceful change has extended beyond its borders. At the diplomatic level, His Majesty King Mohammed VI has sought to strengthen Moroccos historic roots and ties in Africa through a win-win partnership. His Majesty has undertaken more than 51 official visits to 26 African states, during which more than 3,200 bilateral agreements were signed within the framework of promoting African South-South Cooperation.

Moroccos reintegration into the AU will undoubtedly provide a solid impetus to the work of the organization itself and strong momentum for the already established projects and partnerships launched by the Kingdom and many brotherly African countries. These include the Morocco-Nigeria gas pipeline, the mega-fertilizer plant in Ethiopia and the construction of a new capital city in South Sudan. In addition, Morocco provides academic scholarship schemes and technical and religious training programmes to more than 28 African countries.

The Kingdoms openness toward new partnerships is also reflected in its commitment to working jointly with ASEAN countries, mainly with Viet Nam, reflected through the accession of Morocco to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation with ASEAN, and the recent signing of a MoU with the Mekong River Commission.

Morocco, under the wise leadership and clear vision of His Majesty the King, looks to build a brighter and more prosperous future, honoring the vibrant legacy of the Kingdoms history and its constant openness to the outside world, which makes Morocco a model and a melting pot of modernity and authenticity.---VNS
Assistant Professor inh Trong Thinh of the Ha Noi-based Finance Academy tells Nong thon Ngay nay (Countryside Today) that removing the need for adequate collateral for agricultural loans is not practical as it runs counter to a basic principle of lending.

Farmers, even those considered excellent, struggle to get loans from banks. Can you comment on this?

Yes, it is true that farmers face many difficulties in getting loans from banks. One problem is that farmers assets (house, farm or produce) are usually of low value and cannot be used as collateral for large business loans.

In fact, there have been many farmers whove borrowed money from banks with no ability to repay the loans, increasing the latters bad debts and operation of bank branches. This makes the banks hesitant to lend to farmers.

So how can farmers get the loans they need?

The problem is that households and co-operatives must have legal personality to be able to borrow and have collateral for loans. It is difficult to require banks to provide unsecured loans as this goes against the main principle of their operation. They are in the "money business" that has its own safety principles.

In my opinion, farmers wanting to borrow must have a reliable guarantor. It could be a farmers association or a livestock breeding association specialising in raising pigs, chicken or fish in a particular province or locality. But how to gain trust is a problem. The prestige and property of these associations are limited, so a higher level guarantee is needed.

So is it necessary for farmers to have certificates of land use rights for farmland and certificates of ownership of other assets in order to get bank loans?

It is very necessary to have certified ownership and land use rights, whether it is for households, co-operatives or other institutions.

However, regulations regarding this are still being completed by concerned agencies, so farmers have to wait and such certificates cannot be issued immediately.

Relevant agencies need to speed up establishment of legal frameworks and ensure early issuance of certification, of land use rights to farmland, and ownership of other assets for farmers and co-operatives so that they have legal collateral to get loans from banks.

What do you think about a proposal to remove the requirement for such certificates, and for loans should be based on feasible business plans?

The problem is that mortgaged loans are an immutable principle of lending activity. If there is no collateral that enables recovery of funds, no lender will be comfortable lending.

Should the loan limit of VN500 million (around US$22,000) be removed for farmers, because it is too small compared with the investment farmers need in general?

Yes. I think the provisions of Decree 55/N-CP regarding credit policy for agricultural and rural development have shown limitations that need to be revised as soon as possible. Currently, there are many farmers and co-operatives investing tens of billions of ong, so the demand for capital for their business is also growing.

Therefore, in my opinion, if you offer loans for a business project, you should not limit the amount. The loan must be based on the capital needs of the project and the value of collateral assets.

What are your solutions and suggestions to help farmers access bank loans?

It is necessary to enhance the role of the Farmers Association as well as the professional associations in the concerned localities so that they have the prestige of the organisation and the financial capacity to be able to guarantee loans for members.

It is also important to improve the legality and validity of economic contracts between farmer households and agencies and organisations so that they can become legal bases for lending money to production projects. We should also step up the development of different forms of insurance in animal husbandry and crop cultivation so as to cover risks in investing and implementing agricultural projects.

Households and co-operatives themselves must improve transparency in their business and seriously repay their debts to increase their credibility with banks.

On the other hand, it is necessary for authorities to develop feasible plans for industries and developing areas for all kinds of seedlings, ensuring business efficiency, so that farmers do not to have to struggle with uncertainty regarding production, production inputs, output consumption and so on. These problems have to be dealt with in a comprehensive manner.

At the same time, there is a need to increase the application of scientific and technological advances in agricultural production so as to reduce risks and increase investment efficiency in the sector. Here, we should focus on improving preservation and processing technology to increase the value of agricultural products. All these will help reduce risks for investment and lending. -- VNS
Six Vietnamese workers were killed when an oxygen tank exploded at the construction site of a hydropower plant in Laos Bolikhamsai Province, a Vietnamese border army chief confirmed on Saturday.  Photo vnexpress.net

BOLIKHAMSAI  Six Vietnamese workers were killed when an oxygen tank exploded at the construction site of a hydropower plant in Laos Bolikhamsai Province, a Vietnamese border army chief confirmed on Saturday.

Vo Trong Hai, border force chief of Ha Tinh Province that shares a border with Bolikhamsai Province, told the media that the explosion occurred at about 10pm on Friday night, killing six workers at the scene and leaving two additional Vietnamese seriously injured.

All of the victims were working for the Vietnamese corporation Song a 5, a contractor of the construction site of the Nam Nghiep 1 hydropower plant in Bolikhan District.

Thanh Chuong District Peoples Committee Chairman Nguyen Van Que in Nghe An Province confirmed that three of the victims were from the district. They were Tran Van Sang, 29, Ha Cao Ky, 24 and 26-year-old Nguyen Van Phuong. Another two Nghe An men also lost their lives in the explosion: Gia Ba Lau, 32, from Tuong Duong District and 34-year-old Va Xai Co from Ky Son District. The last victim was 25-year-old Ha Huu Hai from Phu Tho Provinces oan Hung District.

The two injured, both from Nghe An Province, are being treated at hospital. They are Tho Ba Chenh and Ly Giong Xia, 33 and 46 respectively.

The bodies of the workers were brought back to their hometown on Saturday night for burial.

Song a 5 Chairman of the Board Tran Anh uc told Tuoi tre (Youth) on Saturday that he was leaving for the Nam Nghiep 1 power plant site to inspect the scene and investigate the cause of the accident.  VNS
Police in the southern province of Binh Duong have asked the provincial Peoples Procuracy to prosecute Tran Thi Le Thu for faking land use right certificates in order to obtain fraudulent loans.  Photo tuoitre.vn

BINH DUONG  Police in the southern province of Binh Duong have asked the provincial Peoples Procuracy to prosecute Tran Thi Le Thu for faking land use right certificates in order to obtain fraudulent loans.

According to the investigation, Thu, 51, of Phu Giao District, asked relatives and neighbors to use their names to obtain 32 land use certificates, known as red books. She paid each of them VN50 million (US$2,170) and then went to various banks to take out loans based on the fake red books.

In this fashion Thu appropriated VN9.5 billion ($413,050) from the So Sao branch of the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank) and VN63.5 billion ($2.7 million) from the Binh Duong branch of An Binh Bank.

Thu also appropriated VN6 billion ($260,900) from Nguyen Thi Kim Thanh and VN1.4 billion ($60,900) from Tran Ngoc Xuan. Thanh, Xuan and other people who helped Thu borrow will also be prosecuted, according to police.

The bank officers will also be prosecuted, including Le Thi Hoang Oanh, former director of Agribanks So Sao branch, Nguyen Vinh Linh, former head of the Credit Department of So Sao branch, Nguyen Van Phuong, former credit officer of So Sao branch, for causing serious consequences through lack of responsibility.  VNS
HA NOI  Cao Thi Ngan lost a son, but gained six other children to call her mother.

She had to deal with her intense grief and the Vietnamese tradition of burying the dead intact when took the decision to donate her brain-dead sons organs to people needing organs to survive.

Since the decision was taken, Ngan has longed to the people who received her sons organs, to make sure that they are healthy and feeling that her son is still alive.

Her dream was realised last Thursday, the first anniversary of her sons death, at her home in Ha Nois Quoc Oai District.

There was a lot of crying, hugging and holding hands as the organ recipients and their families had lunch together, reminiscing about the circumstances that brought them together.

They all called Ngan mother, saying they considered her as the one whod given birth to them.

"My son died but his death was not meaningless. He has saved the lives of many people. It was on this day last year that his funeral was held. The Military Hospital 103 gave him the honour of a martyrs funeral, she told the Suc khoe va oi song (Health and Life) newspaper.

Ngan said she would never forget the fateful morning of July 27, when Ha Noi was hit by a tropical storm and she received a call from a relative telling her that her son, Trinh inh Vang, had broken his arms after falling from a second floor balcony.

At that time, she was working as a domestic help for a family in Ha Noi. She tried to call another son, Vangs elder brother. Afraid that she would not endure the shock, he told her: "Vang is OK. He has just had his arms broken. He asked her to go home, telling her it was not necessary for her to visit Vang at Military Hospital 103.

Her heart burning with the feeling that her sons life was in danger, Ngan caught a bus to the hospital immediately. Seeing her son lying motionless on the bed with a crack on his head, she found it difficult to breathe as doctors told her that he was brain dead.

A doctor had then invited Ngan and her other two sons to his room. After expressing his sympathy for the familys loss, he told her that many people suffering from liver and kidney failure needed transplants. Ngan and her sons refused.

Ngan was in misery, waiting for a miracle to bring her son back to her, for him to tell her that he loved her, as he often did. But it did not happen, and she had to face the reality that he would never wake up again. She remembered what the doctor had told her: If Vangs organs were donated, parts of his body would still live on in others.

She also saw many people standing silently in the corridor, near her sons room, with anxious looks on their faces. No one talked to her, but their eyes seemed to be pleading for something. Then she knew that they were relatives of persons suffering organ failure, facing the prospect of losing the patients without transplant..

As a mother, her heart was in pain and she felt that those people would have the same feeling. Later that night, Ngan signed a letter agreeing to donate her sons heart, liver, kidney and cornea.

It was a very brave decision. Many people in Viet Nam refuse to give consent for donating their relatives organs, since there is a strong belief that people must be intact when they are buried.

It was a hard choice. No mother wants organs to be removed from their childrens bodies. However, I accepted, as I knew that my decision would help save the lives of six other people and bring happiness to their relatives, she said.

Thanks to Ngans decision, four transplant surgeries were carried out that night. All the organ recipients have recovered very well and their health is getting better.

The person who received her sons heart was Nguyen Nam Tien, 38, of Quang Binh Province. He was diagnosed with non-compaction cardiomyopathy, a rare disease which causes breath difficulty and he constantly need emergency treatment. Doctors had predicted that he had just months to live without a heart transplant.

After the transplant, Tien has returned to his work as a soldier with Viet Nam Coast Guard Region II.

The two kidney recipients are Tran Thi Hau ,48, from Lang Son Province and Vu Xuan Cuong, 51, from Son La Province. Both of them suffered from chronic kidney failure and had to have dialysis for a long time before they underwent the transplant surgery.

Having suffered the disease since 2008, my life seemed attached to the dialysis machine, Hau said.

"Now, I feel the freedom. I no longer have to stay at home all day and carry a few liters of fluid [for dialysis filter] around me. To have a stable health like today, I am grateful to mother Ngan, she said.

Inspired by Ngans action, Hau has also registered to donate her organs after her death. -- VNS
QUANG NAM  To reduce travelling time as well as accidents while crossing two local rivers, Quang Nam Province will build a road connecting National Highway No 1A with Tam Tien Commune in Nui Thanh District.

ang Ba Du, head of the central provinces Project Management Board, said the 5.3km road, including three bridges spanning the Tam Ky and Truong Giang rivers, will cost VN330 billion (US$14.6 million).

He said the project, which has just got approval from local authorities, has already allocated VN77 billion, a third of the total investment, to build the 360m Mang Bridge, a crucial link between Tam Tien and Tam Xuan communes.

Du said many people have fallen into the river and more than 20 local residents have drowned while crossing the narrow 0.8m wide, 200m aqueduct on the Tam Ky River.

The new road, set to open in 2020, will also help boost tourism links between a Nang, Hoi An, the coastal Tam Thanh Commune and Tam Hai Island in Nui Thanh District.

Last year, the province opened the four-lane Giao Thuy Bridge linking the mountainous districts of Nong Son and Que Son, as well as Duy Xuyen District in Quang Nam and a Nang City.

The province also plans to build a railway flyover at its busiest crossroad on National Highway No 1A in Nui Thanh District later this year.

Quang Nam has of late approved several key traffic routes connecting strategic economic zones, sea and air ports in the province, as well as the provinces of Quang Ngai and Kon Tum.  VNS
HA NOI  The Supreme Peoples Procuracy announced it has indicted Chau Thi Thu Nga, former National Assembly deputy, and nine accomplices for their role in a VN377 billion (US$16.8 million) property scam.

Nga, chairwoman of the Land and Housing Construction and Investment JSC (Housing Group), and nine others will be prosecuted on charges of fraudulent appropriation of assets under Article 139 of the Penal Code.

According to the indictment, the B5 Cau Dien project (North Tu Liem District, Ha Noi City) was within the land assigned by the state to the Ha Noi Import-Export Investment Construction and Development Single-Member Co., Ltd. (HAIC) for production and business activities.

It was a resettlement housing project meant to serve urban traffic development of the capital city, and not for commercial housing.

However, Nga signed a partnership contract with Nguyen Van Tuan, HAIC chairman, to co-invest in the B5 project.

The two intended to use the B5 land to construct apartment buildings and villas.

The investigation found that the new plans for the project had not been granted a construction licence by the Ha Noi Peoples Committee, but the group lured unsuspecting buyers for commercial housing through false advertisements.

Between 2009 and 2013, by showing unapproved drawings of the apartments, Nga and other accomplices signed some 752 capital contribution contracts, collecting VN377 billion from home buyers, with a promise to transfer usage rights for 752 apartments from the second to the 33rd floor in a residential complex.

Nga returned some VN29 billion ($1.3 million) to buyers who withdrew from the project, but was unable to repay the remaining VN348 billion ($15.5 million) because it had already been spent.

Following many complaints from buyers who had not seen any construction progress for the apartments theyd purchased, Nga was arrested and her house raided in January 2015 by police from the Ministry of Public Security.

Nga is the mastermind who instructed the other accused to commit crimes and also possess all the appropriated money.  VNS
QUANG NINH  Police from Quang Yen District in the northern province of Quang Ninh said a barge carrying over 1,000 tonnes of coal sank on Sunday afternoon.

The incident occurred at 2m on Sunday while two barges were on their way from Ha Long City to Hai Duong Province. The rope connecting the two barges suddenly snapped after an encounter with a ship travelling in the opposite direction, causing one barge to overturn and hit the Chanh Rivers abutment before sinking.

Fortunately, captain Tong Van Hoan, 48, from Nam inh Province, and eight sailors onboard reached the shore safely. However, the entire cargo on the barge sank in about 30 minutes.

Nguyen Quoc Luu, a witness, said as soon as he heard a scream coming from the barges, he stopped his motorbike and saw the two vessels separated.

One badge had overturned and hit the Chanh River abutment before sinking, he said, adding that he informed relevant agencies immediately.

It is reported that each barge was carrying more than 1,000 tonnes of coal.

Local authorities have set up warning signs at the scene and preparations for the salvage of the sunken coal carrier are underway.

An investigation into the incident is ongoing.  VNS
HA NOI  The Ministry of Health on Monday asked hospitals in the city to work all weekends for timely discovery and treatment of dengue fever patients.

Central hospitals, including Bach Mai Hospital, E Hospital and the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases, have been overcrowded with dengue fever patients for the past few days.

Tran Thi Nhi Ha, deputy director of the Ha Noi Department of Health, said the number of dengue fever patients in Hoang Mai, ong a and other districts of the capital city continued to increase.

Since the beginning of this year, as many as 8,000 people in Ha Noi have been infected by the disease and three fatalities have been reported.

Districts with a high number of patients include ong a with more than 1,400 cases, Hoang Mai with over 1,300 cases, Hai Ba Trung with more than 500 cases and Thanh Tri with over 400 cases.

The Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases is the hospital with the highest number of dengue fever patients in the northern area.

Director of the hospital Nguyen Van Kinh said the hospital was screening patients carefully. From the more than 5,000 people visiting the hospital for dengue fever examination, only 800 in serious condition were hospitalised.

On an average, the patients are treated in hospital for three or four days. When their condition is better, they are moved to lower-level hospitals.

Deputy director of the Ha Noi Department of Health Hoang uc Hanh said the reason for the high number of patients, not only in Viet Nam but also worldwide, was that there was no vaccine or specific remedy for the disease.

Beside this, he said, Ha Noi had several residential zones where no one lived, as well as some areas where residents had the custom of storing water, creating favourable conditions for mosquitoes to reproduce.

To reduce pressure on hospitals that were getting overcrowded with patients, Ha Noi will hold a conference on Wednesday with the participation of private hospitals to select hospitals that can provide treatment to dengue fever patients.

Private hospital and clinics, together with district clinics, will give first aid to patients. If a patients condition deteriorates, he/she will be moved to upper-level hospitals.

Director of the Ha Noi Department of Health Nguyen Khac Hien said the work of prevention and control in the near future was not only to focus on the hot spots, but also concentrate on areas where the disease had not spread.

Organisations, enterprises or individuals that did not join hands with the health sector in the prevention of the disease must be penalised strictly, he said.

Providing guidance, Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said provinces and cities must impart education to residents on killing mosquito larvae and keeping the environment clean.

Minister Tien asked localities to provide more training on dengue fever treatment to medical workers and also pay attention to other weather-related diseases such as pink eyes and encephalitis.  VNS
HA TINH  Locals living near the Formosa plant in central Ha Tinh Province stated that the Taiwanese company is encroaching upon the sea to build a solid waste storage dock.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, however, said the construction is under an approved master plan.

Local online newswires last week carried stories quoting locals saying that the Hung Nghiep Formosa Steel Company, responsible for the Formosa toxic spill in the ocean last year, was constructing a waste storage dock that encroached upon 300ha of the local ocean.

The ministrys online outlet said construction had been approved under the master plan of the plant and the docks actual area was 146ha.

Formosa is fulfilling requested documents to shift the function of the waste storage dock to a zone for storing manufacture materials, it said.

The ministry also noticed that the encroachment of the ocean for solid waste storage is "normal" for steel plants built near the ocean around the world.

On Sunday, the Ha Tinh Peoples Committee delivered a press release saying encroachment by Formosa is legal and has been approved.

According to Duong Tat Thang, the committees deputy chairman, local authorities and the ministry officials visited the construction site and pledged to closely monitor the situation before allowing the waste storage dock to be put into use.

Nguoi Lao ong (Labourers) newspaper quoted an official in the ministrys General Department of Sea and Islands as saying that encroachment of the ocean should be prohibited at all cost and this helps to ensure coherence in licensing of coastal projects.

He emphasised that storage of solid waste on the sea is vulnerable and the encroachment would change the natural topography of the coastal zone.  VNS
HA NOI  Nearly 4,200 units of blood were collected from the youth and other volunteers in the final collection drive of the annual blood-donation campaign Hanh trinh o (Red Journey) 2017.

The donation drive was organised by the National Institute of Haematology and Blood Transfusion (NIHBT) in Ha Noi on Saturday.

With this, the total amount collected from 28 blood-donation events in the past month, held across 28 provinces and cities nationwide, have reached over 38,000 units.

The Red Journey is an initiative of NIHBT to handle blood shortage situation in localities across the nation during the summer. Over the five years of its implementation, the journey has achieved outstanding results in making available blood sources during emergencies and for treatment in hospitals during the summer, said Deputy Minister of Health Truong Quoc Cuong at the event.

Cuong said the campaign had successfully achieved its goals of helping provinces and cities organise blood donation festivals and communication drives, as well as to handle the huge amount of blood collected.

In 2017, more than 16,000 blood units collected from Can Tho City, Lam ong, ak Lak, Tuyen Quang provinces were sent to the NIHBT in Ha Noi to ease the blood shortage situation in 170 hospitals in the 27 northern provinces, said Cuong.

It means that patients in the mountainous provinces of ong Van or Ha Giang also received similar qualified blood units as patients in Ha Noi, said Cuong.

Cuong also praised the contributions of thousands of health workers and volunteers nationwide, especially the 140 outstanding volunteers who travelled across the country to collect blood and encourage people to donate them.

I can say that the journey has given us the expected results. It has changed the peoples mindset and the communitys awareness about voluntary blood donation, added Cuong.

Permanent member of the National Assemblys Social Affairs Committee Luu Binh Nhuong also attended the event to donate his blood.

This is my fourth time. Donating blood is not only the responsibility of each resident, but also of the whole community for the sake of peoples healthcare and protection, said Nhuong.

I think that everybody, including policy makers or managers, should get involved in the voluntary blood donation movement, said Nhuong.

Nguyen Thi Nguyet, a mother from Thach That District, Ha Noi, was present along with her two-year-old son at the event to donate her blood. VNS Photo Thanh Hai

Nguyen Thi Nguyet, a mother from Thach That District, Ha Noi, was present along with her two-year-old son at the event to donate her blood. Nguyet said she had donated blood six times, while her husband had donated blood 14 times.

Both Nguyet and her husband, have the same sense of purpose, which is to save lives.

I am happy to donate to save the lives of needy patients. I will continue to donate my blood in the future, said Nguyet.

During the one-month campaign, 140 outstanding volunteers, divided into two groups, travelled through 28 provinces and cities nationwide to collect blood and spread the message about the importance of donating blood.

They also called upon the public to donate blood in a bid to ease the current blood shortage at hospitals and raise community awareness about thalassemia  a genetic blood disorder that can lead to heart failure and liver problems.

A couple donate blood at the final collection drive of the annual blood-donation campaign Hanh trinh o (Red Journey) 2017. VNS Photo Thanh Hai

Since the first Red Journey in 2013, thousands of patients lives have been saved thanks to the nearly 120,000 blood units collected in the past five years. The campaign has contributed to easing blood shortage during the summer when voluntary donors, mainly students, go home for the summer vacation, according to NIHBT.

NIHBT director Nguyen Anh Tri said that Red Journey was seen as a most unique, outstanding and effective model of voluntary blood donation mobilisation movement in Viet Nam over the past years.

In 2016, the health sector collected 1.4 million units of blood, 90 per cent of which came from voluntary donors, while only 10 per cent was collected from people who sold their blood for money

The health sector has set a goal to collect at least 1.7 million units of blood in 2017.  VNS
BEIRUT  Lebanons Hezbollah movement and jihadist militants on Sunday exchanged the bodies of fighters as part of a ceasefire deal for the restive Syria-Lebanon border.

The truce, announced by the Shiite movement and confirmed by Lebanons General Security agency last Thursday, ended six days of a Hezbollah-led assault on Al-Qaedas former Syrian branch in the mountainous Jurud Arsal border region.

Hezbollahs "War Media" outlet reported that the "first phase of the deal" took place on Sunday.

"The bodies of nine Al-Nusra fighters were exchanged for the remains of five Hezbollah fighters who died in the Jurud battles," it said.

The second phase was due on Monday with the return to Syria of 9,000 jihadists and their families who have been in eastern Lebanon since the beginning of the Syria war, Hezbollahs news agency said.

In exchange, an undetermined number of Hezbollah prisoners would be freed.

The "War Media" outlet said the bodies of the Syrian militants were handed over to the Lebanons General Security and their remains were to be transported to Syrias northwestern province of Idlib.

Al-Nusra Front was Al-Qaedas affiliate in Syria until mid-2016 when it broke off ties, before going on to found a new jihadist-led alliance called

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which now controls large swathes of Idlib.

Hezbollah launched its offensive on Jurud Arsal -- a barren border area used by militants as a hideout for several years -- on July 21.

The group took media outlets on several guided tours of the territory it had secured, including an underground base allegedly used by militants.

Military-style vests were piled in one corner near stacked sandbags. Papers were strewn all over the carpeted floor in one room, and crates of ammunition were stored in another.

Hezbollah had cornered rival fighters in a small pocket of territory when it announced the truce.

Head of Lebanons General Security agency Major General Ibrahim Abbas confirmed the deal, saying it would also see the transfer "within days" of Syrian fighters and refugees to Idlib province with the help of Lebanons Red Cross.

Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees live in the town of Arsal, adjacent to the border region, and an unknown number are also thought to have taken shelter in the surrounding mountains.

More than one million Syrians are registered with the United Nations as refugees in Lebanon, a country of just four million people.  AFP
Reprinted from BTrue Magazine

CEDAR FALLS  Each morning before Trish Johnson turns the sign from closed to open on the front door, she sets the mood for her alternative healing shop and her day.

With the soft, orange glow of Himalayan salt lamps throughout the halls and bowls of rocks, crystals and gems lining the walls, an essential oil diffuser slowly fills the room with a calming flowery essence.

The sun reflects off colorful stained glass pieces and various crystals sitting near the windows, spreading vibrant hues across the walls.

Trish then goes into her healing room, adorned with amethysts, angel figurines and soft music, where she spends at least 30 minutes with her eyes closed and her mind still.

Meditation is her way to ground herself before she begins her day performing reiki, reflexology and spiritual readings to her clients.

Meditation isnt as hard as people like to think that it is; its just a matter of slowing everything down inside of you. Its an art, but its not something you have to work hard to get, you just start slow, she said.

The stores self-proclaimed, four-legged furry greeter meets every customer at the door. The Morkie, named Chesa, takes advantage of the soothing ambience, lying on her velvet pillow in the healing room between customers.

Trishs first step on her spiritual journey was in 2003 while working as a nail tech at a salon in Cedar Falls. Suffering from frequent headaches, a co-worker one day asked Trish if she wanted help with the pain.

I said, Sure, and I just put my hand out and thought she had some magic pill I could take, Trish said.

After the co-worker explained to Trish she was going to perform reiki on her, she agreed.

Its like the headache went from a 9 to about a 2 in five minutes. I was blown away.

Trish began to teach herself about reiki, which involves an ancient Japanese technique of using personal touch to heal and cleanse the body. And when the chemicals from the salon began irritating Trishs skin, she gave up her job, feeling a need to share her discovery of reiki.

That same year she became a certified reiki master and teacher and later received certification in reflexology from the Davenport Iowa School of Massage in 2006.

After becoming more experienced in her practice and seeing the positive effects her clients were experiencing, she opened her first store, Angel Blessings, at 602 State St. in Cedar Falls in 2007.

The body has the ability to heal itself, and the mind gets in the way, she said. Theyre actually even teaching it (reiki) and using it at Mayo Clinic because theyre seeing how much it alleviates the side effects to cancer treatment.

Customers also can get a reflexology treatment, which involves applying pressure to nerve endings in the hands and feet that correspond to internal organs and encourages the body to naturally release toxins while promoting relaxation to allow the body to self-heal, according to Trish.

She relocated to her current location behind Thunder Ridge Mall in 2012 and brought on board her husband and photographer, Gary Johnson, who now does theta healing, helps with animal totem workshops and intricately wire-wraps jewelry. Gary recently began doing aura imaging, which is available every few months.

Together, the couple makes and sells a variety of arts and crafts, including stained glass, jewelry, lawn ornaments, candles, essential oils, Garys framed scenic photos, greeting cards, gemstones and more, all which adorn handmade wooden tables and benches in the front room of the shop.

Every gemstone has a different vibrational frequency that will correspond to what you need emotionally at that time, so its not always about just going in and grabbing a pretty stone, sometimes youre going to be drawn to something you wouldve never chose, Trish said.

Each customer also gets their choice of herbal tea before their treatment.

If someone has a lot of stress we have a chamomile tea, upset stomach we have peppermint tea, or just needing a boost of vitamin C we have teas for that too. People do love that with the pretty little tea cups ... while they soak their feet before the reflexology, reiki.

For Rita Sommers, who has been getting regular treatments at Angel Blessings for the past six years, reiki is another method for stress relief, it has opened my sense of intuitiveness and spirituality.

Ive had a lot of stress in my life and havent known how to deal with it, so its been another form of learning to deal with stress.

Sommers also has achieved reiki master status at Angel Blessings.

Most reiki masters have businesses, but for me its a method to help family members deal with their stress and myself, she said. I cannot imagine my life without reiki at this point.
105th Black Hawk County Farm Bureau annual meeting

WATERLOO  The annual meeting of Black Hawk County Farm Bureau took place July 10 at the Pavilion on the National Cattle Congress grounds, 135 members in attendance.

Scholarship winners Maria Geisler, Annika Wall, Charles Magee, Elizabeth Schaefer, Jackie Barz, Mallory Sage, Will Isley and Ardis White were honored.

There was a short welcome from President Ben Bader, and a Farm Bureau update from Regional Manager Rob Pangburn.

The evening concluded with an Iowa Ag Quiz and Popcorn Kernel guessing game.
DES MOINES  Two top state officials said Monday theyre hoping escalating tensions over North Koreas nuclear program and missile tests wont undo the progress a trade delegation made during a just-completed mission to foster more markets for Iowa agricultural commodities.

Its an unstable situation, said Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey, who joined Gov. Kim Reynolds as part of a 35-member all-Iowa agriculture trade mission that spent 10 days traveling to Shanghai, Xian and Beijing.

Theres no way to know how all this will play out, Northey added. Were hoping the North Korean tensions can get worked out and trade continues to improve.

The traveling Iowans were returning to the state last week when Pentagon officials confirmed North Korea had launched another long-range intercontinental ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan on Friday  the second major test of the Asian nations nuclear capacity this year.

In response, U.S. officials flew two B-1B bombers over the Korean Peninsula in a joint maneuver with Japanese and South Korean jets, and President Donald Trump threatened trade action against China, saying he was very disappointed it had failed to pressure North Korea to halt the launches.

Reynolds said the North Korean tensions came up during a meeting with U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad, Iowas former governor who stepped down in May to take the post in the Trump administration. She said he is working to find a U.S.-Chinese balance as the situation unfolds.

Its something that we constantly have to be aware of, Reynolds said. They are walking a fine line in China. They are sending troops to the border. They dont want North Korea to have nuclear capability, either, so theyre monitoring that, as well as balancing democracy with a unified Korea in the event the North Korean regime topples.

Reynolds called the trade mission an excellent trip and a good start in expanding shipments of Iowa agricultural products to China, including the resumption of U.S. beef imports and a Chinese decision to allow four new varieties of genetically modified corn and soybeans into the country, with prospects for more.

Im very optimistic about the opportunity moving forward, she said.

Northey said an advantage for Iowa is the positive U.S. ag trade balance within an overall trade imbalance with China. The corn, soybean, pork, beef, egg, poultry, dairy and turkey industries sent representatives to China for high-level conversations with government officials and industry partners, facilitated in part by Branstad.

I think everybody values the trade. The Chineses value their trade with the U.S. and recognize they need to improve that imbalance. So Im hopeful that we can continue to improve our agricultural trade, with the same token there definitely are some issues with North Korea that need to be addressed, said Northey.

Im sure there are lots of conversations going about  both open and quiet  and its hard to know exactly how its all going to play out. The challenge is getting everyones attention and Im sure thats what the president is trying to do, he added.
DECORAH  Two bridges closed near Bluffton are causing hefty detours for residents in that area, according to Winneshiek County Engineer Lee Bjerke.

And he cant say when the bridges will be replaced or repaired.

Daley Bridge, a bow string bridge over the Upper Iowa River on Cattle Creek Road, collapsed in May when a semi with a load exceeding the posted limit attempted to cross it.

Ideally wed be building it next year, but we have to see how it goes, Bjerke said.

A Pratt thru high truss over the Upper Iowa River on Chimney Rock Road was taken out of commission after flooding last August. Because of the type of repairs needed, a consultant will be needed for the project.

I highly doubt it will be open this year, Bjerke said.

Daley Bridge

The Daley Bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and will cost at least $1 million to replace, according to Bjerke. It was located north and west of Bluffton.

The semi drivers insurance company has offered the county $59,000 toward its replacement and Monday the Winneshiek County Board of Supervisors decided to have the county attorneys office review and counter the offer, Bjerke said. The engineer said the insurance company was basing its offer on the value of the bridge at the time of its collapse. The insurance company is covering the cost of cleaning up the collapsed bridge, he said.

It had historic value and its gone. What is that value? Were in the negotiation stage, Bjerke said.

Plans for replacing the structure are going forward despite the negotiations with the insurance company, he said.

Replacement of the bridge had been in the countys road program for years, but had been delayed for various reasons. Because it was on the National Register, the county would have been required to attempt to relocate it. The replacement structure will be larger than the old bridge and the road will need to be built up to meet the new structure, Bjerke said.

He said the required archeological studies for the new bridge have been completed, but the Army Corps of Engineers and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources need to review the plans because the projects scope has changed slightly due to the bridge collapse, Bjerke said.

He said the new bridge would be eligible for federal bridge replacement funds that cover 80 percent of the cost.

Chimney Rock

The truss bridge on Chimney Rock Road, north of Bluffton, is about 100 years old and was moved there from an unknown location to its current spot in the 1940s, Bjerke said.

Flooding last August bent a vertical bridge member that could pop out under a load and cause the bridge to collapse, Bjerke said.

Because the bridge is eligible for the Historic Register, the State Historic Preservation Office may want to consult on the project, Bjerke said. Federal Emergency Management Agency funds will be used for the repairs.

Were moving forward the best we can. Its a little slow going, but its not something we had anticipated for either of them (the two bridges). That throws a wrench into everything were trying to do, he said.
WATERLOO  Its time, once again for people whose roots are here to come back to reconnect with family and friends in the place they call home.

The biannual Waterloo Homecoming is scheduled for Thursday through Sunday at various locations throughout the city.

It starts with a Thursday meet and greet as the Isle Casino Hotel Waterloo and concludes Sunday with activities at Sullivan Brothers Memorial Park, including a health fair.

In between, theres Friday morning financial workshops, black and white dress ball at Electric Park Ballroom, a breakfast at Payne Memorial AME Church and Saturday night dinner at the Waterloo Elks Club where four $500 scholarships will be presented to high school seniors.

Past scholarship winners also will return and relay their experiences and accomplishments in intervening years.

Our main objective is to provide scholarships for high school seniors, and a way for people to reconnect and reunite, said Alvin Wright, a member of the organizing committee for the event. Its for people whove moved from Waterloo to come home and get reacquainted with the community.

Scholarship money is raised from dinner and ball proceeds, Wright said.

Attendees come from a wide area. People come from California, Texas, Chicago, it just varies, Wright said. We probably had about 300 people in 2015.

All current and former Waterloo residents, family and friends are welcome to attend the events throughout the Cedar Valley. Organizers are anticipating attendance to exceed 2015, the record attendance year.

Its predominantly African-American but its open to everyone, Wright said.
Q: When Mayor Quentin Hart said the Sullivan family was in agreement with losing the Sullivan name on the convention center, who gave him that information?

A: We have no record of Waterloo Mayor Quentin Hart saying such a thing. Representatives of Leslie Hospitality indicated they had reached out to the family about the name change through the Waterloo Convention and Visitors Bureau. CVB director Aaron Buzza indicated during a June 26 work session he had spoken to the family last summer about the possibility. He did not say they supported the idea but indicated they understood name changes do sometimes follow money. You can watch the entire exchange on the Waterloo City Councils Youtube channel.

Q: What fines or citations were issued by animal control to the man who callously dumped off the mother cat and her box of kittens in Liberty Park on June 29?

A: Waterloo Animal Control issued a citation for cruelty to animals. The defendant pleaded not guilty and a trial date was set. Any fine would be determined by the judge upon a conviction.

Q: Why are there so few garbage cans placed around George Wyth Lake? There is garbage everywhere out there.

A: There are 10 Dumpsters located throughout the park for public use, and state policy is to carry your trash out. A $1.2 million budget cut led to a reduction in state park staff while park attendance continues to grow. George Wyth State Park manager Lori Eberhard said it is unfortunate some individuals choose to disrespect the beauty of the park. Staff would encourage all patrons to respect the park and use the Dumpsters provided.

Q: Has the DOT ever looked at expanding Highway 63 to four lanes from Waterloo to Toledo?

A: Ever is a very long time, so we cant be sure whether people years ago and not longer working for the state may have had such a discussion. The Iowa Department of Transportation currently has no plans to make U.S. 63 a four-lane road from Waterloo to Toledo.

Q: How much does it cost to have the city mow your yard?

A: The city of Waterloo hires a private contractor to mow properties when the owner allows the grass to grow in violation of the citys weed ordinance. The property owner is then charged $65 per hour along with a $20 administrative fee.

Q: What has happened to Lori on Say Yes to the Dress on TLC?

A: She recently posted on her Facebook page they are filming a new season set to air in January.

Q: Christine Jorgensen was the first transgender woman. Is she still alive?

A: She died of cancer in 1989.
Advertisement

By The Associated Press

Jul. 31, 2017 | PADUCAH, KY

By The Associated Press Jul. 31, 2017 | 10:19 AM | PADUCAH, KY

A Paducah parade committee will hear an appeal from the Sons of Confederate Veterans after the city commission voted to limit participation in its Veterans Day parade to those representing the United States.



The Paducah Sun reports that the Veterans Day Parade Committee will hear the appeal for reinstatement on August 8. The Paducah City Commission had approved a resolution on May 16 affirming and accepting the committee's position that participation be limited to those representing the flag of the United States and veterans of the United States Armed Forces.



The Sons of Confederate Veterans has participated in the parade in years past.



Commissioner Sarah Stewart Holland, who supported efforts to limit the Confederate emblems' parade presence, said she plans on attending the meeting, as does local NAACP branch president J.W. Cleary.









Here is the Veterans Day Parade Purpose Resolution from May 16, 2017 City Commission meeting:



The Paducah Board of Commissioners approved a resolution supporting the Veterans Day Committee. The text of the resolution is as follows:



A Resolution affirming and accepting the position of the Paducah Veterans Day Committee that participants in the Veterans Day Parade be limited to those that represent the flag of the United States and the Veterans of the United States Armed Forces.



WHEREAS, in 1996 then Mayor Albert Jones formed the Paducah Veterans Day Committee for the purpose of recognizing Veterans of the United States Armed Forces; AND



WHEREAS, the Veterans Day Parade has run continuously since then under the direction of the City of Paducah Parks Services Department; AND



WHEREAS, the Veterans Day Committee has on April 20th of 2017 reaffirmed its statement of purpose for the parade to limit participation to only those groups who represent Veterans of the United States Armed Forces under the Flag of the United States.



NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the Board of Commissioners of the City of Paducah to accept and abide by the Resolution of the Veterans Day Committee to limit participation in the Veterans Day Parade to groups or individuals who represent, support and honor Veterans of the United States Armed Forces.



This Resolution shall be in full force and effect from and after its adoption.


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He is fiercely nationalist (which is actually an antithesis to the liberal-democratic party name) and has been described as a showman of Russian politics, blending populist and nationalist rhetoric, anti-Western invective and a brash, confrontational style. However, Zhirinovsky states that the new sanctions against Russia are not Donald Trumps doing, but that of the financial elite. He draws comparisons to previous examples throughout history where US bankers behaved in exactly the same manner

Quote; They (The US) destroys US democracy itself!

Very hard to find much fault with what he says

* * * * *

Then Putin speaks

Weve been waiting for quite a long time that maybe something would change for the better, we had hopes that the situation would change. But it looks like, its not going to change in the near future I decided that it is time for us to show that we will not leave anything unanswered.

What with family and all, thousands will leave Russia, because?

Of the USA and her many actions of hate and lies in the last few years. How does it feel to be on the wrong side of history? It could all be so smooth and win win for all

Why cant we be friends? I am friends with many many Russians, you could be also

WtR
Staying out of debt is easier said than done, I know. However, its something you can do, and its something you should be practicing everyday. As Christians, we are in this world, but we are
A startup needs to test an idea quickly. For this, an MVP is created. MVP, Minimal Viable Product  a test version of a product or service with a minimum set of functions (up to one or two), which allows you to see the product's value for consumers and the market. MVP is created to test hypotheses and check the viability of the intended product: is it worth developing the project further, what changes should be made? The sooner a startup brings its MVP to market and tests the idea, the better. This article will look at how no-code technology can help founders achieve their business goals.

This article will try to cover everything that a founder needs to know about no-code at the initial stage of creating a startup.

What is no-code?

No-code, zero-code platform is a tool for creating websites, applications, chatbots, and other programs without the need for direct code writing by programmers. No-code is a valuable alternative to traditional development.

No-code is confused with low-code, but there is a difference in these terms. Low-code includes no-code and the ability to "finish code", add parts of code and the functionality.

A user of a no-code platform usually does not need to know layout, programming languages, or hire a team of programmers. The user of the no-code tool creates an application using a visual block constructor, which he fills with the necessary content and functions, and the no-code platform itself does the processing of requests, compiling the application and other "magic." It generates code using AI and/or contains blocks of code pre-written by programmers.

No-code allows the startup founder to create an MVP himself, entrust it to his employee with basic technical literacy and understanding of the project, or hire a no-code developer. Even in the case of hiring a no-code developer, the cost of creating an MVP will be significantly lower than with classical development with programmers. For example, you can read the interview of a startup and no-code developer on our website, who initially worked as a Product Manager and was able to master no-code for his project himself.

Benefits of no-code for a startup founder

There are the following key advantages for a startup founder in using no-code technology:

a large selection of no-code tools, platforms, and their integrations at the moment  already in 2022, there are many tools and platforms for creating an MVP, a larger project, or even a finished product on no-code, but few people still know about them, and others are far from all startups and founders use their potential;

cost  no-code development saves the money by speeding up the development process, not hiring professional programmers or no need to maintain a developer department, monitoring functions and quick bug fixes, avoiding or reducing the growth of technical debt;

speed is the main advantage over classical development  no-code allows you to build a simple application in a weekend, and a more complex one can be built in a month. In this way, you can test an MVP and even several versions of an MVP very quickly;

low entry threshold  to master a no-code platform, you often do not need technical education at all, but only an understanding of a company's business processes or product from the inside. In the case of pro-level no-code platforms, technical education is required, but you can get used to it hundreds of times faster than with any programming language. This makes no-code available to almost everyone who wants to work with technology;

ease of use  no need to write hundreds of code lines  just move the blocks and assign links between them. Work on a project can be entrusted to your employee without communicating with a team of third-party developers. You can speak "in your language" without the need to understand the "inner kitchen" of developers;

flexibility  with the help of no-code, it is easy for a startup founder to add new functionality and new features right during a project or a MVP testing without a significant increase in development costs.

Possible disadvantages of no-code for a startup founder

As often, any property can be, under certain conditions, both a disadvantage and an advantage. In no-code, many of the benefits with the wrong choice of tool can turn into disadvantages:

no-code is not always a budget solution for a project. Sometimes in a no-code development package, you get unnecessary functions and additions (on AppMaster.io you can separately connect the frontend and pay only for the backend or only for those functions that you are using); if you do not understand the needs of your project, then you can make a mistake with the choice of a no-code tool and not be able to implement the necessary functions on it, or it will be too difficult to implement them; often, no-code tools fail to ensure proper data security and contribute to data leakage (but AppMaster.io allows you to host a finished application on any server); no-code tools often do not provide the ability to upload source code or provide uploading in an inconvenient format, which makes it difficult to move to another tool or to your development. You have to choose a no-code tool "once and forever immediately" (AppMaster. io gives you the ability to download the source code. Also, we generate human-readable code and you will not have any difficulties with its transportation); most no-code tools on the market are not suitable for creating a finished product, and there are significant difficulties with scaling the project if the MVP is successful (AppMaster.io is a professional no-code platform and our capabilities allow us to implement and support the finished product and scale it in the future).

Forewarned is forearmed. Choose your no-code tool wisely and take full advantage of your choice.

Types of no-code platforms

Conventionally, all no-code tools can be divided into several types: no-code devices with a low entry threshold (you can create frontend and not very powerful backend on them), integrators that help connect applications and services, and professional no-code platforms (they strive to replace the code completely, provide the ability to create a robust backend and high bandwidth).

The basic principle of operation of your MVP and the choice of a no-code platform depend on such a conditional division into types. For example, if you make a simple application like a diary, you can limit yourself to a no-code tool with a low entry threshold and a beautiful design.

If your application has powerful potential, high bandwidth, multi-user interface, and works with large amounts of data or real-time data, it is better to choose a professional no-code platform like AppMaster.io or Direcual.

If you use several services at once, link them on integrators like Integromat and Zapier.

Adalo

An easy-to-learn designer with a relatively user-friendly interface. The free version is helpful for learning. The free version contains Adalo watermarks and does not allow you to upload your applications to GooglePlayMarket and AppStore. Beginners often choose this no-code platform to create their first applications with simple logic.

Bubble

It will take more time to learn Bubble , but the platform allows you to work with the backend, databases, business processes, and layout. There are many plugins. The free plan allows you to master the tool, and you can start developing at the middle rate. The price increase is due to the rise in the number of users.

Integromat

It is an integrator. Experts talk about it as a simple and affordable platform for linking applications and services. Scenarios can be created personally, or you can use templates. If you need to connect an application with a service not from the Integromat database, fill out the form and connect to its API via HTTP.

Zapier

This is an integrator for linking applications with each other or with other external services. You can transfer data between thousands of applications. There is a script constructor (one event starts a chain of necessary actions).

Directual

The no-code platform positions itself for creating MVP applications (Minimal Viable Product, minimum viable product) and full-fledged applications of finished products. Scenarios are the backbone of the platform. Using scripts, you can automate the backend logic of the application, create and combine workflows. The Directual catalog includes out-of-the-box connectors, HTTP requests, webhooks, database listeners, and integration with popular services.

AppMaster.io

No-code next-generation platform for creating native and web applications on a real backend. Visual drag-and-drop designer, user-friendly business process designer, one-click app publishing to AppMaster Cloud, or integration with any cloud platform. Push notifications, authorization using social networks. Networks, email, and more. Connect applications to hundreds of services or programmatically access them using APIs. The ability to upload source code and documentation in a human-readable format and transfer it to your servers. Documentation auto-generation. Modern and fast language GoLang at the core.

No-code perspectives for startups

No-code development is gradually gaining popularity around the world. There are already more than 500 no-code tools for creating websites and various types of applications.

According to the forecasts of IT world experts, no-code will develop more and more actively and capture parts of the market responsible for medicine, small online business, small business, and all niches where it is possibly necessary to optimize and automate development processes.

The mass shift of businesses and their customers online and to gadgets has increased the demand for the fast and inexpensive creation of mobile applications that would work according to a single quality standard and have a simple, understandable, user-friendly interface.

Conclusion

No-code is visual programming in the form of a constructor without directly writing code. Usually, basic knowledge in development is enough to build applications on no-code.

The logic of no-code constructors is intuitive: the application interface is assembled from blocks, icons, buttons, and text which are connected to the database. Usually, you can choose a suitable template or do everything from scratch. Speed and economy are the main advantages of no-code tools.

No-code is suitable for creating an MVP, testing an idea or new features in a product, saving time for solving standard tasks. PRO level no-code platforms can provide you with a finished product, an application.

If you don't have an account on AppMaster.io yet, join us. After registration, you will be given a free trial period for 14 days, in which all the basic functionality of the platform is available. It will allow you to learn the intricacies of working with a professional-level no-code platform and understand its potential.
Jul 31, 2017 | By Benedict

Mechanical and aerospace engineering students at Syracuse University have developed a DMLM powder deposition system for multi-material 3D printing. GEs Joseph Vinciquerra, who worked with the students on the project, explained to 3Ders what the metal 3D printing system is all about.

Syracuse University students have designed an innovative DMLM 3D printer component

Over the last few years, GE has made no secret of its desire to enter the 3D printing industry. Its development of 3D printed aerospace components and acquisition of high-profile additive manufacturing companies like Concept Laser and Arcam testifies to that, and it seems like the American corporation is perpetually on the brink of another major 3D printing announcement.

Given GEs willingness to acquire established 3D printing names like Concept Laser, you probably wouldnt expect high-ups from the American company to be working with students on new 3D printing ideas. But thats exactly what Joseph Vinciquerra, principal engineer and technology platform leader for additive materials at GE Global Research, has been doing.

An alumnus of New York States Syracuse University, Vinciquerra recently returned to his former stomping ground to help a group of final-year mechanical and aerospace engineering students with their senior design capstone project.

Mechanical and aerospace engineering students Advin Zhushma (left) and Colin Hofer present their work

Under the GE experts guidance, the students set about designing a new 3D printer component that could have exciting implications for metal additive manufacturing.

For this project, we asked the students to design a sub-component of a 3D printer, Vinciquerra told 3Ders. Specifically, we asked them to look at the powder deposition system of a typical Direct Metal Laser Melting (DMLM) machine.

Less common than other metal 3D printing methods like Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) and Selective Laser Melting (SLM), DMLM is similar to DMLS, but is capable of fully melting metal powder instead of sintering it. The 3D printing technique can be used to produce metal components with highly desirable mechanical properties, often similar to those of wrought metal parts.

DMLM has emerged as GEs additive method of choice in recent years, being used in the companys aerospace 3D printing endeavors and elsewhere.

GE's Joseph Vinciquerra wanted the students to understand the demands of professional engineering

While lasers areunsurprisinglyone of the most important components of a DMLM 3D printer, Vinciquerra encouraged the Syracuse students to focus on developing a powder deposition system for such a printer. His motive? To see if the young engineers could create a system capable of multi-material 3D printing.

Typically, when we talk about additive manufacturing in powder bed systems, were focused on printing parts from one powder material, Vinciquerra explained. That material will obviously change part to part, but the current standard is that printers utilize one material at a time.

Amazingly, the young Syracuse engineers achieved this ambitious goal, successfully putting together a system that allows a metal 3D printer to print with multiple materials within a single print. Of course, a small handful of metal 3D printer manufacturers already offer this ability, but the Syracuse students say their system can also deposit multiple kinds of metal powder within a single layer.

It allows you to use materials of one property where you need it and materials with other properties elsewhere, said Advin Zhushma, one of the students involved in the project. Parts can have the same performance but be a lot lighter.

What this means is that, if the prototype of the powder deposition system can be turned into a commercial product, researchers and businesses would have the power to create a whole new generation of metal 3D printed components. These components could contain multiple materials, but be made without any joins and weak spots.

The DMLM powder deposition system allows for multi-material metal 3D printing



GEs Vinciquerra sees researchers getting first dibs on the technology, but believes that such a powder deposition system could eventually be used by businesses right across the industrial spectrum. That, however, was not why the engineer got on board with the challenge.

Although this was clearly an exciting technical project for Vinciquerra, the GE Global Research engineer said his main reason for getting involved was to help the fledgling engineers learn about professional life.

Ive seen many students struggle with the transition from being an engineering student to being an engineer in a professional workplace, Vinciquerra said. The pace is different, the teaming is more complicated, and the projects are often times more fluid and nebulous than what they are exposed to at the undergraduate level.

My interest in supporting the Senior Design class stemmed from this perspective, and my intention on behalf of GE is to help better prepare the students for their transition into the workplace so that they can make immediate impact as a professional.

At present, theres no word on what will become of the students impressive-sounding powder deposition system, though we can imagine that many metal 3D printing specialists would be extremely interested in technology of this sort. (In other words, dont be surprised if Concept Laser and Arcam come out with a multi-material metal 3D printers in the coming years!)

Multi-material 3D printing could someday improve GE's 3D printed parts, including this jet engine fuel nozzle

There is a lot of research to be done on materials and metal alloys in particular, said Colin Hofer, another Syracuse senior involved with the project. Were happy that GE has given SU students the opportunity to contribute to this exciting technology field.

Back in April, GE invested around $109 million into a newly acquired 3D printing production site in Lichtenfels, Germany, but the companys additive efforts can be found all over the globe.

Last month, the corporation claimed to have secured $31 billion of new business after showcasing 3D printed aerospace components and related technologies at the Paris Air Show. Its latest 3D printed aviation efforts can be seen in a 3D printed turboprop engine complete with 13 3D printed parts. The engine will power Textron Aviations forthcoming 10-person Cessna Denali aircraft.

The complete roster of Syracuse University mechanical and aerospace engineering students who worked on the 3D printing project is as follows: Advin Zhushma 17, Colin Hofer 17, Jeffrey Clark 17, Alejandro Valencia 17, Geoffrey Vaartstra 17, Ruiquing Yin 17, Bryan Morris 17, Carter Kupchella 17, and Joshua Beckerman 17.

Posted in 3D Printing Technology

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Argentinian woman can talk, eat and breathe normally again thanks to 3D printed trachea implant

Jul.24, 2017 - An Argentinian woman has been given a new lease on life thanks to a 3D printed trachea implant. The woman, who could not speak or eat comfortably due to complications from peritonitis, says that she is now able to do these normal everyday activities with ease again. More


by Emrys Westacott

The industrial revolution transformed the world entirely. Its most profound legacy, though, is not anything specific like electricity, motorized transport, or the computer, but the state of permanent technological revolution in which we now live, move, and have our being. There are some, it is true, like economist Robert Gordon, author of The Rise and Fall of American Growth, who argue that we should not expect future innovations to match what we have experienced in the past. But like the fabled salt machine at the bottom of sea, the tech industries continue to churn out innovationssmart phones, driverless cars, Wikipedia, delivery drones, solar panels, camera-based surgerythat quickly and significantly affect the lives and expectations of us all.

For more than two centuries, this ongoing technological revolution has consistently done two things.

It has eliminated jobs by replacing humans with machines

It has created new jobs

Agriculture offers a paradigmatic example of the first trend. In 1830, 83% of the workforce in the US was employed in agriculture. By 2014, the percentage working in agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting was down to 1.4%. Most of this reduction is due to the introduction of machines that in a few hours could plough, sow, gather, winnow, stack or store what used to take teams of workers days to accomplish.

From the start, the displacement of people by machines has caused problems. The original Luddites were English textile workers in the early nineteenth century who sought to protect their jobs by smashing the new weaving machines introduced by factory owners looking to save labour costs. Since then the same pattern of technology replacing or displacing workers has been repeated countless times. When the sort of work involved is boring, repetitive, and requires little skill or training, the loss is less likely to be lamented. But very often workers who identify with a specific trade, and pride themselves on skills acquired over many years, find themselves the victims of innovation. And this can happen very quickly.

Yet the continual invention of new labour-saving technology has not led to mass unemployment because the innovations, along with rising incomes, have created new needs and desires, and new jobs to meet them. Cars put blacksmiths out of business since the demand for horseshoes plummeted; but simultaneously, the demand for auto mechanics surged. This has been the pattern for two hundred years.

But a question has appeared on the horizon. What if the rate at which technology eliminates jobs persistently outpaces the rate at which it creates new jobs? If this happens, we will clearly have a serious, long-term socio-economic problem.

Futurology, in my opinion, is a mug's game. The famous horse manure crisis of the late nineteenth century should keep any budding futurologist humble. In 1898 there were 100,000 horses in New York producing 2.5 million tons of manure each day. Experts predicted that in a few years the city would be several feet deep in horse manure, and no-one could foresee a solution. But twenty years later the problem had gone away as cars took over from horses as the main form of transport in the city. As physicist Niels Bohr allegedly said, "prediction is very difficult, especially about the future."

So I would not confidently predict that a technology-induced employment crisis is at hand. At the same time, it is a fairly plausible scenario, one that is easy to imagine. Take just one innovation that has been in the news quite a lot recently: driverless vehicles. At present in the US there are over 1.5 million truck drivers, round 800,000 delivery service drivers, and about one million bus and cab drivers. So the advent of driverless vehicles threatens millions of jobs. In fact, it may not just be drivers whose jobs are threatened. If driverless vehicles are less likely to be in accidents, there will also be less need for auto repair workers. For that matter, there may even be a reduced need for EMT professionals to help road accident victims.

As this last example makes clear, many technological innovations offer clear benefits. That, after all, is usually why they are adopted. But it would be foolhardy for us to ignore their possible drawbacks, particular regarding the long-term impact on employment and forms of life closely linked to specific kinds of work.

A first step in preparing ourselves to deal with problems of this sort is to think hard about how we conceive of work and leisure. In many modernized societies, hard work is constantly praised as a cardinal virtue. It is touted as the key to wealth, success, achievement. People take pride in how busy they are. Iconic individuals, the type who are profiled in The New Yorker, are typically the kind of people who happily multitask on four hours of sleep a night.

There are good reasons underlying this view of work. One is that hard work very often is essential to achievement: people don't become good enough to perform at Carnegie Hall unless they practice, practice, practice. Another is that in a fiercely competitive culture, anyone unwilling to work hard is likely to sink rather than swim. Throw in a hefty dose of puritan heritage, and it's easy to see why the work ethic is alive and well.

Yet possibly, we might be better able to cope with a future in which there are fewer jobs available if we can find ways to embrace a better balance between work and leisure. For one obvious solution to the problem would be a redistribution of work, with more people employed, and everyone working fewer hours.

This will strike many as naive and utopian. Perhaps it is. But one reason it can seem utopian is that a certain ideology has become a default way of thinking for many over the past few decades. This ideology, associated with Reagan, Thatcher, and libertarian conservatives, puts great faith in untrammeled market forces, believing that they will inevitably produce the best possible economic outcomes. There is no particular reason to believe that this is always true. Yet for those who embrace the market-always-knows-best position, there is, as Margaret Thatcher used to say, no alternative.

But there are always alternatives. For instance, if we think that our society is heading toward a technology-induced employment crisis, we could try to put in place policies that reward employers for spreading the work available over more employees, and that reduce the pressure on people to work so harde.g. by ensuring that they don't have to worry about unaffordable health care, housing, or education. We might also accord more value to managing a healthy balance between work and leisure, as opposed to achieving something special in one particular sphere. For a rational society does not sacrifice the well-being of individuals and communities on some ideological altar, whether it be the free market, the work ethic, or faith in technology itself. Rather, it tries to anticipate problems, and it is pragmatic rather than ideological in its attempt to solve them.
Though he starred in such acclaimed films as 1983s The Right Stuff, which earned him a best supporting actor Oscar nomination for his portrayal of pilot Chuck Yeager, and 1982s Frances, where he met Lange, he was at heart a playwright and best known for that. In an AARP The Magazine cover story for August-September, Lange says of Shepard, who was her partner for nearly 30 years until they split in 2009, I wouldnt call Sammy easygoing and funny, but everybody has their dark side, and he always does it with a sense of humor.



Shepard wrote 44 plays over a 50-year career. While a playwright-in-residence at San Franciscos Magic Theatre, he wrote his family trilogy, including Buried Child, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979, and arguably his most famous play, True West, in 1980. His plays won the Obie award, for Off Broadway productions, 11 times. Shepard also wrote for the screen, most notably cowriting the Palme DOr-winning Paris, Texas in 1984.



But when Shepard was cast in 1978 as the rich, introverted farmer in Terence Malicks Days of Heaven, his screen acting career was launched. More recently, with the leading-man looks of youth softened into handsome older age, Shepard played husbands, to Meryl Streep in 2013s August: Osage County and to Sissy Spacek in Netflixs drama series Bloodline.


School board, county commission and zoning meetings are this week

Here's a look at who's meeting this week and what's on the agenda.


Investor Presentation

Melbourne, July 31, 2017 AEST (ABN Newswire) - iSignthis Ltd ( ASX:ISX ) provides the Company's Investor Presentation of June 2017 4C Quarterly Commentary.



4C June 2017 Quarterly Commentary



- Cash Receipts Up 190% quarter on quarter ($0.155m)



- Unaudited operating revenues of $0.295m for the quarter ended 30 June 2017



- Transaction growth continuing (see the link below)



- Full range of transactional banking services nearing completion



- KYC service operational for EU's June 26th, 2017 4th AML Directive



- Cash at bank $3.85m (including longer term security deposits)



- Net Operating Cashflow in line with expectations ($1.5m)



Transactional processing (including the key element of KYC) is showing steady growth on a month on month basis. This is expected to continue to build as we deploy the services to a wider range of contracted customers, contract new customers and open fully the service to the global operations of the existing integrated merchants.



As mentioned in previous communications to the market, the business operates on a transactional basis with the various transactions (identity verification/KYC, payment processing & monitoring, and funds clearance and settlement) being billed at varying rates depending on volume, size and complexity.



Transaction growth therefore has a direct correlation with revenue on a per merchant basis, but not on a consolidated basis.



Transaction volume also demonstrates testing, integration and 'soak in' phase, that may be unbilled.



What we have achieved?



The building blocks have been established and transaction volumes are growing.



- Patented Paydentity(TM) process, providing barriers to entry



- Listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX)



- Built and delivered Paydentity(TM) from a concept to a working model, including back end connectivity to numerous banks and financial institutions.



- Paydentity(TM) certified PCI DSS Level 1 in the cloud.



- National Australia Bank ( ASX:NAB ) Payment Facilitation agreement



- Contracted multiple AML sector businesses across various sectors and jurisdictions, proving Paydentity(TM) business and compliance case.



- EEA Authorised Monetary Financial Institution (MFI)



- ISO27001 Certified and EC GDPR ready



- Recurring Paydentity(TM) transactions commenced on commercial scale



- Transactional revenues growing steadily as more customers go live



To view the full presentation, please visit:

http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/97037C3I





About iSignthis Ltd





iSignthis Ltd (ASX:ISX) (FRA:TA8) is a hybrid monetary financial institution and also a RegTech leader in remote identity verification, payment authentication with deposit taking, transactional banking and payment processing capability. iSignthis provides an end-to-end on-boarding service for merchants, with a unified payment, electronic money and identity service via our Paydentity(TM) and ISXPay(R) solutions.

By converging payments and identity, iSignthis delivers regulatory compliance to an enhanced customer due diligence standard, offering global reach to any of the world's 4.2Bn 'bank verified' card or account holders, that can be remotely on-boarded to meet the Customer Due Diligence requirements of AML regulated merchants in as little as 3 to 5 minutes. Paydentity(TM) has now onboarded and verified more than 1.5m persons to an AML KYC standard.

iSignthis Paydentity(TM) service is the trusted back office solution for regulated entities, allowing merchants to stay ahead of the regulatory curve, and focus on growing their core business. iSignthis' subsidiary, iSignthis eMoney Ltd, trades as ISXPay(R), and is an EEA authorised eMoney Monetary Financial Institution, offering card acquiring in the EEA, and Australia.

ISXPay(R) is a principal member of Mastercard Inc, Diners, Discover, (China) Union Pay International and JCB International, an American Express aggregator, and provides merchants with access to payments via alternative methods including SEPA, Poli Payments, Sofort, PRZ24 and others.

Probanx Solutions Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of iSignthis Ltd, provides API based access to CORE Banking solutions, SEPA Core, SEPA Instant and SEPA business scheme, for neobanks, banks, credit unions and emoney institutions, and provides a bridge to the Eurosystem's Central Bank of Lithuania's CENTROLink service.


Quarterly Activities Report

Canberra, July 31, 2017 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Alt Resources Ltd ( ASX:ARS ) provides the Company's Quarterly Activities Report for the period ending 30th June, 2017.



Key Points:



- Profound mineralogical and geochemical alteration halo recognised in new drilling at Windy Hill



- Outer polymetallic zone of Zn+Ag+Cu+/-Pb, transitioning to Au+Cu+Ag+/-Zn+/-Pb, with internal core copper-bearing core; confirmed in soil sampling and drilling results



- Large, sulphide-rich intrusion-related breccia pipe identified;



o PDD018 intersected a 235m width of = 10% pyrite-mineralised breccia and diorite interpreted as late pyrite-rich hydrothermal venting of major intrusionrelated system



- EL8266 at the Paupong Project (Windy Hill) has been relinquished, and the same ground approved by the NSW Department of Resources and Energy for a new exploration licence



- The Programme of Works for the 200 RC hole resource and exploration drilling program at Mt Roberts has been approved by the Department of Mines and Petroleum, WA



OVERVIEW



New diamond drilling at Windy Hill has revealed a profound mineralogical and geochemical alteration halo associated with magnetic and IP targets (see Note below). These zones are interpreted as halos above a cluster of buried intrusions and represent the influx of substantial sulphide-bearing, albeit low-gold fluids into the country rock. A pyrite-mineralised diatreme breccia, interpreted as a venting structure associated with cooling and de-gassing of the intrusion, was intersected in recent drilling. This hole (PDD018) revealed a 235m downhole width of pyrite-rich breccia with pyrite-rich diorite matrix. This signifies that the overall system is sulphur-rich, and therefore has high potential to contain concentrations of precious metals such as gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc.



During the coming months, Alt plans to focus on resource and exploration drilling at the Mt Roberts project in WA. Ahead of planned drilling, a Programme of Works (POW) has been approved by the West Australian Department of Mines and Petroleum for a 200 RC hole drilling campaign.



Note:



See ARS Announcement, 24th May 2016: http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/6U77E4OI



To view the full report, please visit:

http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/NHJ5X0NB





About Aurenne Alt Resources Pty Ltd





Aurenne Alt Resources Pty Ltd is an Australian based mineral exploration company that aims to become a gold producer by exploiting historical and new gold prospects across quality assets and to build value for shareholders.


Quarterly Activities Report

Sydney, July 31, 2017 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Hastings Technology Metals Ltd ( ASX:HAS ) provides the Company's Quarterly Activities Report for the period ending 30th June, 2017.



- 2017 drilling programme commenced with immediate success



- Extension to west of Bald Hill existing resources established



- High grade intersections in depth extensions at Yangibana North and Yangibana West deposits



- Good results from infill drilling at Auer and Auer North deposits



- New JORC Resource Estimation completed incorporating recent drilling results



- Total diluted resources now 17.02 million tonnes at 1.27% total rare earths oxide (TREO) including 0.41% neodymium plus praseodymium oxides (Nd2O3+Pr6O11)



- A 37% increase in contained TREO and a 32% increase in contained Nd2O3+Pr6O11 from the December 2016 resource estimate



- Pilot plant testing of the hydrometallurgy (Hydromet) circuits successfully validated the simple and effective flowsheet of the Yangibana Hydromet processes



- The pilot plant achieved or exceeded the operational process parameters set by the initial hydrometallurgy process flowsheet, with rare earths recoveries at or above 94% for water leach, 95% for impurity removal and 98.5% for carbonate precipitation



- 50 kilograms of Mixed Rare Earths Carbonate (MREC) generated from the pilot plant



- Further optimisation, post-pilot Beneficiation test work at the laboratory of ALS Metallurgy in Perth, gives us more than 25% TREO grade at 85% recovery for our flotation process



- Hastings' Yangibana Rare Earths Project ("the Project") has been assigned as a Lead Agency Project (LAP) under the Western Australian Government Lead Agency Framework, by the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DMIRS; formally DMP)



- Positive policy changes from governments and automotive companies around the world auger well for demand growth of rare earths in the years ahead.



To view the report, please visit:

http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/F44KEP60





About Hastings Technology Metals Ltd





Hastings Technology Metals Ltd (ASX:HAS) (FRA:5AM) is advancing its Yangibana Rare Earths Project in the Upper Gascoyne Region of Western Australia towards production. The proposed beneficiation and hydro metallurgy processing plant will treat rare earths deposits, predominantly monazite, hosting high neodymium and praseodymium contents to produce a mixed rare earths carbonate that will be further refined into individual rare earth oxides at processing plants overseas.

Neodymium and praseodymium are vital components in the manufacture of permanent magnets which is used in a wide and expanding range of advanced and high-tech products including electric vehicles, wind turbines, robotics, medical applications and others. Hastings aims to become the next significant producer of neodymium and praseodymium outside of China.

Hastings holds 100% interest in the most significant deposits within the overall project, and 70% interest in additional deposits that will be developed at a later date, all held under Mining Leases. Numerous prospects have been identified warranting detailed exploration to further extend the life of the project.

Brockman Project

The Brockman deposit, near Halls Creek in Western Australia, contains JORC Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources, estimated using the guidelines of JORC Code (2012 Edition).

The Company is also progressing a Mining Lease application over the Brockman Rare Earths and Rare Metals Project.

Hastings aims to capitalise on the strong demand for critical rare earths created by the expanding demand for new technology products.


Quarterly Activities Report - June 2017

Sydney, July 31, 2017 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Global Geoscience Limited ( ASX:GSC ) provides the Company's Quarterly Activities Report for the period ending 30 June, 2017.



Highlights



- Three new Directors provide key expertise to develop 100%-owned Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project.



- Metallurgical results confirm potential for Rhyolite Ridge to become a significant near-term producer of lithium and boron through low-cost acid-leach flowsheet using established technologies and processes:



o Recoveries of 98% for lithium and 99% for boron from acid-leach testwork.



o Acid consumption well below the pre-test target range.



o Work has commenced to optimise the processing flowsheet.



- Drill program has commenced to upgrade and extend Rhyolite Ridge Mineral Resource.



- Pre-Feasibility study underway.



- 100% ownership interest of the Rhyolite Ridge Project attained.



Global's Managing Director, Bernard Rowe commented: "The metallurgical results exceed our expectations and demonstrate that Rhyolite Ridge mineralisation is amenable to low-cost acid-leaching to extract lithium and boron. The combination of high recoveries and low acid consumption from the testwork indicates the likelihood of favourable economics."



Company Chairman, James D. Calaway added "We welcome Alan Davies and John Hofmeister to the Board of our exciting lithium-boron growth company. It is critical for emerging companies to have strong, experienced and demanding boards to help them navigate the challenging waters associated with taking a development stage company with a great resource, and efficiently converting it into a profitable producer. The addition of these two extraordinary directors to our young company provides immense value to management and shareholders. Both men have led major companies and have experience and judgement that will greatly assist me as the new company Chairman."



To view the full report, please visit:

http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/J4C0F98A





About Global Geoscience Limited





Global Geoscience Limited (ASX:GSC) is a Sydney-based mineral exploration company specialising in greenfield exploration and mineral discovery. The Company's main focus is for copper, gold and silver on its mostly 100%-owned projects in Nevada and Arizona in the United States, and Peru in South America.
Renowned zoologist reveals the life of mammals

Monday, 31 July 2017



Internationally renowned zoologist, Professor Kris Helgen, will talk about his experiences discovering unknown animals in some of the most remote regions of the world at a free public talk at the University of Adelaide this Wednesday.



Professor Helgen, who completed his PhD at the University of Adelaide in 2006, returned to the University this year after 10 years as Curator-in-Charge of the Division of Mammals at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC.



He has worked as a zoologist in more than 50 countries and, in 2013, made international headlines when he discovered a new member of the raccoon family  the olinguito  found living in the cloud forests, high in the Andes Mountains of Colombia and Ecuador. He has discovered about 100 new species of living mammals.



Professor Helgens searches have taken him to the wildest regions of almost every continent.



Conventional wisdom would have it that we know all the mammals of the world, he says. In fact, we know so little, says Professor Helgen. There is so much more thats profoundly different from anything ever discovered out there waiting to be found.



While still a PhD student at the University of Adelaide in 2006, Professor Helgen discovered a lost world in the Foja Mountains of New Guinea with exotic new species of frogs, mammals and birds.



Professor Helgen is also an explorer with the National Geographic Society, was named one of Business Insiders Most Inspiring Innovators and Entrepreneurs Under 40, and has featured in numerous documentaries including BBCs Wild Burma.



Members of the community are invited to attend Professor Helgens inaugural lecture at the Universitys The Braggs lecture theatre, 5pm, Wednesday 2 August.







WHAT: Inaugural public lecture: The Life of Mammals in a Fast-Changing World

WHERE: The Braggs lecture theatre

WHEN: 56 pm, Wednesday 2 August 2017

COST: Free and open to all  please register

Contact Details







Media Release
iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- After North Koreas second ICBM test, here is what we know about the countrys nuclear weapons program.



Who is in charge of North Koreas military?

Kim Jong Un is the 33-year-old "Supreme Leader" of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, more commonly known as North Korea. He is also the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. He inherited his position as North Korea's leader following the death of his father Kim Jong Il in December 2011. North Korea is the world's only hereditary communist dictatorship: Kim Jong Un's grandfather was the founder of North Korea.



How large is North Korea's military?

The Pentagon estimates that North Korea's army has more than 1 million soldiers, making it the fourth largest army in the world. Some 4 to 5 percent of North Korea's 24 million people serve on active military duty and another 25 to 30 percent of the population serve in some reserve military capacity.



What is the DMZ?

DMZ stands for the Demilitarized Zone that divides North Korea and South Korea. The 2.5-mile-wide DMZ stretches for 160 miles along the Korean Peninsula and is a buffer zone created by the 1953 Armistice that halted the Korean War. While the zone itself is demilitarized, the areas beyond it on both sides of the border are some of the most militarized in the world. Panmunjom is the Joint Security Area where occasional meetings are held by representatives of North Korea and the United Nations Command.



Is the North Korean military a threat?

Most of North Korea's military equipment dates to the Cold War-era and was obtained from the Soviet Union and China. But the large size of its military poses a continual standing threat to South Korea, since 70 percent of its ground forces half its air and navy forces are stationed within 60 miles of the DMZ. And North Korea has been working for the last decade to develop a nuclear weapons program and long-range ballistic missile program.



What is a ballistic missile?

A ballistic missile uses propulsion to launch it into an upward trajectory and then it falls to the earth on its own toward a target using gravity. The use of ballistic to describe these missiles comes from the physics term "ballistic trajectory" that describes the boosted launch and fall to earth by gravity.



What does ICBM stand for?

ICBM stands for intercontinental ballistic missile, a guided missile capable of traveling more than 3,418 miles to deliver a nuclear warhead. ICBMs are usually multi-stage rockets used to boost a payload into a sub-orbital trajectory. At that point, the nuclear warhead inside the payload would re-enter the atmosphere using a guidance system to strike its intended target.



Does North Korea have an ICBM?

Yes. On July 4, North Korea conducted its first ICBM test, using a new two-stage missile similar to the KN-17 that had achieved a high altitude when tested in mid-May. Before that point, there had been little indication that nation was close to testing this type of missile. The country conducted a second ICBM test on July 28. That missile, which traveled, 621 miles laterally and was airborne for 45 minutes, was the longest flight of a ballistic missile in North Korea's history, according to the Pentagon.



How many missiles does North Korea possess?

The Pentagon estimates that North Korea has about 200 launchers that can be used to fire short- and medium-range ballistic missiles. It estimates North Korea has fewer than 100 launchers for various versions of the SCUD missile that can travel from 200 to 600 miles. And fewer than 50 launchers for its medium-range No Dong missile that can travel 800 miles. The Pentagon estimates North Korea also has fewer than 50 launchers for intermediate range missiles like the Musudan and KN-11 that can travel up to 2,000 miles.



Can North Korean missiles reach the United States?

Yes. According to the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, North Korea's recently tested ICBM can traveled 2,300 miles into space. Experts fear that if they angled the trajectory of that missile, it could potentially travel as far as Washington, D.C., or New York.



Why are North Korea's missile launches a provocation?

Over the past decade North Korea has continued to conduct missile tests and launches in defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions barring it from conducting a ballistic missile program.



Does North Korea have nuclear weapons?

Yes. North Korea has a small arsenal of small nuclear weapons as proven by its five nuclear tests. According to the Congressional Research Service, it is generally believed that North Korea has between 44 and 66 pounds of separated plutonium, enough for at least half a dozen nuclear weapons. But other estimates range higher, the Institute for Science and International Security estimated in 2014 that North Korea could build 10 to 16 nuclear weapons.



Does North Korea have miniaturized nuclear warheads?

No, but it is working toward its stated goal of placing a nuclear warhead small enough to be placed atop an ICBM that could target the United States. Last year, North Korea conducted two nuclear tests it claimed were miniaturized hydrogen bombs. U.S. officials discounted the claim that the first test in January had been successful; however, the second test in September produced the largest of the five nuclear tests it has conducted since 2006.



Where are the closest American troops?

There are 28,500 American troops permanently stationed in South Korea as part of the U.S. security commitment to South Korea after the Korean War. There are there also 54,000 American troops in Japan, the largest number of American forces in Japan are stationed on the island of Okinawa.



What other countries in the region have nuclear weapons?

North Korea is bordered by Russia and China, both which have nuclear weapons arsenals. Russia currently has 1,796 nuclear warheads, a legacy from the Soviet Union's Cold War arsenal. China does not make available information about its nuclear weapons program, but various think tanks estimate it has 260 nuclear warheads. The Pentagon believes China has between 75 and 100 nuclear-capable ICBMs.



Can the United States defend against a North Korean missile attack?

The United States has a layered missile defense system designed to track and intercept a missile launch from North Korea. It includes missile interceptors aboard Navy ships in the Pacific and large ground-based interceptors located in Alaska and California. However, the viability of the large interceptors has been routinely questioned since they became operational nearly a decade ago. In late May, the Missile Defense Agency successfully tested an interceptor that targeted an ICBM test missile fired from Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific.



What is THAAD?

The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system is a missile defense shield designed to intercept short and medium range missiles. In April, the United States deployed THAAD to South Korea for the first time, a long-planned move agreed to last summer after a series of North Korean missile tests. The United States has also placed the THAAD system in Guam, which could be the maximum reach for some of North Korea's long-range missiles.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Get AfricaFocus Bulletin by e-mail! Format for print or mobile Africa: Visa Openness on the Agenda? AfricaFocus Bulletin

July 31, 2017 (170731)

(Reposted from sources cited below) Editor's Note "For now, however, crossing borders remains a painful experience for most Africans. ... On average, Africans need a visa to travel to 54% of the continent's countries; it's easier for Americans to travel around Africa than it is for Africans themselves. So far, the AU has issued its single African passport only to heads of state and senior AU officials." - The Economist The African Union's "Agenda 2063" laid out the far-reaching goal of free movement of persons in a continent "with seamless borders," and set the more immediate target of 2018 for "the abolishment of visa requirements for all African citizens in all African countries." Even the more limited goal is far from being achieved by next year. But the second of a new series of reports from the African Development Bank and the African Union measuring progress on the goal is now out, and finding that there is some initial progress in easing national restrictions, with Ghana and Senegal taking the lead in opening up their borders to visitors from more African countries. And momentum is growing for other countries to recognize the economic advantages of such policy changes, and extend the range of more open policies now being pursued within regional organizations in West Africa and East Africa. A new High Level Panel on Migration in Africa (HLPM) began work with its inaugural meeting in June, a protocol for free movement of persons is to be drafted for approval next year by the African Union, and civil society organizations in West Africa have launched a campaign (http://tinyurl.com/yatj3seo). A new website (http://www.visaopenness.org) presents the reports with country scores allowing African citizens to check the ranking of countries, and details for each country. This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains excerpts from the Visa Openness Report, including a graph of ratings of visa openness by country. For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on migration and related issues, visit http://www.africafocus.org/migrexp.php ++++++++++++++++++++++end editor's note+++++++++++++++++ Visa-free travel in Africa remains far off 14 June 2017 http://www.visaopenness.org - Direct URL: http://tinyurl.com/yb5eukjs Note: This article first appeared in the Economist By 2063, according to the African Union's (AU) rather long-range prediction, Africa will be "a continent of seamless borders". People, capital, goods and services will flow freely from South Africa to Tunisia and from Senegal to Somalia. Europe's frontier-free Schengen area may be creaking under the strain of migration and terror, but another will arise, this one encompassing a continent of more than 1.2bn people. Last year, with that goal in mind, the AU boldly introduced a single African passport. The first recipients were two of the continent's most powerful strongmen: Rwanda's president, Paul Kagame, and Chad's president, Idriss Deby. For now, however, crossing borders remains a painful experience for most Africans. The World Bank estimates that intra-African trade is more expensive, all things considered, than trade in any other region. According to Anabel Gonzalez, senior director of a World Bank group on trade and competitiveness, one African supermarket chain reports that it spends $20,000 every week to get import permits for meat, milk and other goods in one country alone; every day one of its lorries is held up at a border costs it $500. On average, Africans need a visa to travel to 54% of the continent's countries; it's easier for Americans to travel around Africa than it is for Africans themselves. So far, the AU has issued its single African passport only to heads of state and senior AU officials. But in the past year things have improved a little, according to a new report from the African Development Bank. Africans now need visas to travel to slightly fewer countries than they did in 2015, and 13 African countries now offer electronic visas, up from 9 the previous year. Ghana made the most progress: in 2016 the government announced that it would provide visas on arrival for citizens of every AU member state, while offering entirely visa-free travel to 17 African countries, including the 14 other members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The Seychelles is still the only country on the continent to offer visa-free access to all Africans. (An archipelago in the middle of the Indian Ocean, it is a haven for well-heeled tourists but hard to get to if you are poor.) Elsewhere, progress has been patchy. Less than a quarter of African countries provide "liberal access"meaning visa-free travel or at least visas on arrivalto all African citizens, and most of the continent's richest countries tend to be more restrictive. War-torn central Africa remains the most closed region; east and west Africa have opened up the most. Africa Visa Openness Report 2017 African Development Bank [Excerpts only: full report available at https://www.visaopenness.org/] "We are trying to drive a continental visa policy reform programme for all of Africa. We want to remove many of the challenges and procedures facing many people when they travel. We want to make sure there is reciprocity on visa issuance across countries and we want to promote talent mobility all across Africa." - Akinwumi Adesina, President, African Development Bank Group African Union's Agenda 2063 Aspiration 2 - An Integrated Continent, Politically United Based on the Ideals of Pan Africanism and the Vision of Africa's Renaissance 21. We aspire that by 2063, Africa will: * Be a United Africa * Have world class, integrative infrastructure that criss-crosses the continent; * Have dynamic and mutually beneficial links with her Diaspora; and * Be a continent with seamless borders, and management of cross border resources through dialogue. 24. Africa shall be a continent where the free movement of people, capital, goods and services will result in significant increases in trade and investments amongst African countries rising to unprecedented levels, and strengthen Africa's place in global trade. A Call to Action 72. We hereby adopt Agenda 2063, as a collective vision and roadmap for the next fifty years and therefore commit to speed-up actions to: k. Introduce an African Passport, issued by Member states, capitalising on the global migration towards e-passports, and with the abolishment of visa requirements for all African citizens in all African countries by 2018. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Foreword, African Union Commission By the end of 2016, Africa had advanced moderately towards greater freedom of movement for its people. The goal of an integrated Africa as envisaged in Agenda 2063 is slowly getting into sharper focus. The collective African Union decision for Member States to grant a 30-day visa-on-arrival to all African passport holders is being implemented by leading reformers such as Ghana, who this year have joined Rwanda, Mauritius and Seychelles to implement this system. Meanwhile, other African countries have also announced their intention to do so. Their experience follows in the footsteps of some Regional Economic Communities who have already established a system for free movement of people across their borders, such as ECOWAS and EAC. Countries who have demonstrated such leadership need to be acknowledged. Findings of this second Africa Visa Openness Index highlight the positive momentum for promoting African travel across the Continent. The process of facilitating visa issuance has improved tangibly since 2015. Besides, the majority of African countries have either opened up further or stayed the same during that period. The top 20 most visa-open countries have higher scores compared to the previous year, and only very few countries remain which do not yet grant visas on arrival. In July 2016, another milestone was realized with the successful launch of the African Union Passport. This was issued to Heads of State and Government as well as high-level representatives. We are proud to report the tremendous interest in the initiative from governments, businesses and Africans across the Continent. The African Union has future plans to support Member States in rolling out the African Union passport to all citizens, granting them visa-free access to explore the Continent for business, pleasure, leisure and tourism. Challenges to freedom of movement across Africa undoubtedly still exist. Policy makers, business leaders, civil society and engaged citizens need to highlight where gaps still exist to enable appropriate reforms to be undertaken. African governments are revising their immigration regulations with a view to facilitate movement across the Continent in line with the relevant decision of the Assembly of Heads of State, so as to afford greater opportunities within Africa for our youth and to strengthen the culture of a united, integrated Africa, at peace with itself and with the world. Thomas Kwesi Quartey

Deputy Chairperson, African Union Commission ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Visa openness in Africa in 2016 ... Important progress was made on visa openness in 2016, with African countries on average becoming more open to each other. During the year, milestones for greater freedom of movement across the continent included the launch of the African passport in July, and greater reciprocity within Regional Economic Communities, promoting regional integration. The findings from the first edition of the Africa Visa Openness Index, launched in March 2016, energized the debate, highlighting the continent's top performing countries and the priority visa openness solutions that countries could adopt as policy reforms. Over the year, four countries moved up into the top 20 most open countries in the Index, and over a third of countries put in place efforts to offer more liberal visa policies. At the same time, more countries announced specific measures to improve their visa regimes going forward. +++++++++++++++++ 2016 Findings: Countries moving up Ghana While a number of countries still have a distance to travel to make greater progress on visa openness, countries from across West Africa, North Africa and Southern Africa moved up the Index rankings in 2016. In the top 20 most visa-open countries in Africa in 2016, there are four new countries. "With effect from July this year, we will be allowing citizens of AU Member States to enter our country and obtain visas on arrival with the option to stay for up to thirty days and experience what our country has to offer. This measure, with time, should stimulate air travel, trade, investment and tourism." President John Dramani Mahama of Ghana, State of the Nation address, 25 February 2016 Continent-wide, Ghana has made the most progress in 2016 in opening up its borders for other African travellers, moving into sixth place in the Index, up sixteen places from 2015. The country offers 96% liberal access to all Africans. This is the case either through offering visa-free access to almost a third of all countries (including for the other 14 ECOWAS member states) or visas on arrival to almost two thirds of countries in Africa (from less than 10% in 2015). Ghana's policy decision follows a resolution adopted in early 2016 at the AU's Executive Council on issuing visas on arrival for member states, with the possibility of a 30-day stay. This ties in with Ghana's pledge to support the continent's wider integration efforts and Agenda 2063, including through forging stronger links with its Francophone neighbours. Economic drivers play an important part in Ghana's new open visa policy in encouraging African visitors to the country, particularly in promoting the country's travel, tourism, trade and investment sectors. Total travel and tourism contributed 7.8% to Ghana's GDP in 2015 and is forecast to rise by 2.4% in 2016, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council. Ghana's visa policy: African Union citizens are to be issued with visas on arrival, valid for 30 days, at Kotoka International Airport, with other ports of entry to follow. Visitors must have return air ticket/evidence of onward travel, evidence of sufficient funds, and proof of accommodation. Senegal Senegal has moved into the top 20 most visa open countries in Africa, up 9 places from 2015 by offering visa-free access to 42 African countries alongside other ECOWAS member states. The country offers 78% liberal access to all Africans, more than double the figure from 2015. In order to match the ranking of Seychelles - the most visa-open country in the Index - Senegal would need to offer visa-free access to 12 more African countries. Senegal's visa policy decision to promote freedom of movement for Africans builds on the country's efforts since 2015 to re-energize the tourism sector. This has included a set of measures to cut payments for visas to the country, and to lower prices by reducing informal taxes on air tickets by 50%, particularly passenger fees, insurance tax and stamp duty. In line with these initiatives, total travel and tourism contributed 12.4% to GDP in 2015 and was forecast to rise by 4.4% in 2016, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ A Forward Look Africans were able to travel more freely across the continent in 2016, as visa openness levels improved from 2015. The priority is to continue this positive trend and deliver on the AU's decision for countries to issue visas on arrival for all Africans in line with Agenda 2063. "This Index is going to expand the discussion about regional integration. It is time to check what leaders and governments are doing in terms of human mobility. You can see how much integration we need to make progress, taking into account the opportunities offered by a growing market that is going to grow to 2 billion by 2050." - Carlos Lopez, Former Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa At the same time, African countries can make progress by facilitating visa procedures, cutting the time, documents and costs involved, as well as by making air travel cheaper and more accessible. Countries can also take advantage of technology developments and put in place electronic systems, which also promote regional security and cooperation. And, in a period of slow economic growth due to falling commodity prices, alongside a decline in international tourist arrivals in Africa, more open visa policies can help to re-energize the tourism industry, promote more African tourists and build the AU's vision of Brand Africa. Migration could break or make the future of the continent, according to a recent study by SEF, which includes a call to action for governments, business and civil society to promote freer movement of people that integrates economies and builds strong cultural and social ties. Going forward, greater visa openness in Africa can help to tackle global migration challenges, such as the Mediterranean crisis, while building a people-centered African integration that offers new travel, trade, leisure, study and job opportunities for all Africans. High level panel on migration launched with Liberia's Sirleaf as chair Economic Commission on Africa http://www.uneca.org - Direct URL: http://tinyurl.com/y6w54lrx Monrovia, Liberia, 6 June 2017 (ECA) - "Just last week, some forty young men and women died of thirst in the Sahara Desert, while trying to reach Europe. More than a thousand have perished in the Mediterranean Sea since the beginning of this year." Those were the words of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in her remarks during the launch of a High Level Panel on Migration (HLPM) in Africa, which took place on Tuesday in Monrovia. Ms. Sirleaf noted that in many places in Europe today, "a mixture of migrants from diverse backgrounds have been living in the streets, under conditions that can best be described as inhumane." Established in April 2016 by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) under the direction of the joint African Union(AU) and ECA Conference of Ministers in Addis Ababa, HLPM is made up of 14 members with Ms. Sirleaf as chair. The panel aims to push migration issues to the top of policy agenda by engaging major stakeholders and partners. Speaking during the launch, ECA's Acting Executive Secretary, Abdalla Hamdok, stated that Africa is still missing out on the many benefits of migration because of tight border policies. He deplored the fact that Africans need visas to travel to 55% of other African countries. "Travel in Africa by Africans is curtailed by stringent visa requirements, excessive border controls and immigration restrictions", said Hamdok, adding that the phenomenon "increases the costs and risks of migration and often comes into conflict between individual motivation to migrate and state restrictions on mobility." Mr. Hamdok also stated that although international media outlets tend to present images of large numbers of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea into Europe as being mostly from Africa, intra-Africa migration still dominates migration flows on the continent. "Data shows that less than three per cent of Africa's population have migrated internationally and less than 12 per cent of the total migrant stock in Europe are from Africa." This view was also highlighted by Ms. Maureen Achieng, Representative of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to the AU, ECA and IGAD. "Migration from Africa towards other regions is taking place in a much lower level than one might think," said Ms. Achieng. "There are an estimated 7.5 million West African migrants in West Africa compared to 1.2 million in North America and Europe combined." The issue of excessive border controls was also deplored by Ms. Alma Negash, founder of Africa Diaspora Network and member of the HPLM. Ms. Negash cited Uganda's acceptance of migrants as good example of what African countries should be doing. "I salute the exemplary conduct of Uganda on migration. In the past few years, Uganda alone took 800 thousand South Sudanese migrations and refugees. Africa needs to accept and take care of its children." For his part, Knut Vollebaek - an HLPM member and former minister of foreign affairs of the kingdom of Norway - said the government of Norway "is very pleased" with the HLPM initiative. Mr. Vollebaek expressed hopes about the panel's ability to achieve its goals. "It is my hope that we the panelists under the wise leadership of President Sirleaf will mobilize political will among governments in Africa and abroad, regional and international organizations, civil society, business and other stakeholders in support of adopting the necessary policies to facilitate the orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people." Mr. Vollebaek added that, "I hope our work can champion the new development paradigm enshrined in agenda 2030 and Agenda 2063 for Africa." Over the next few months, the HLPM will consult with relevant constituencies at national, regional and global levels to come up with recommendations on how to build and sustain broad political consensus on an implementable international migration development agenda, taking into account the particular challenges of countries in conflict and post-conflict situations. The report will be submitted to the African Union Heads of State summit in July 2018. AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with a particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus Bulletin is edited by William Minter. AfricaFocus Bulletin can be reached at africafocus@igc.org. Please write to this address to suggest material for inclusion. For more information about reposted material, please contact directly the original source mentioned. For a full archive and other resources, see http://www.africafocus.org








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Russia has ordered the United States to reduce its diplomatic and technical staff at its embassy in Moscow and diplomatic missions in other Russian cities obviously in response to a US Senate vote to impose tougher sanctions on Russia. The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday: We kindly ask the USA to adjust the headcount of its diplomatic and technical staff by September to exact parity with the number of Russian diplomats and employees in the USA.

Russian ministry wrote in its statement: This means the overall number of personnel employed in American diplomatic and consular institutions in the Russian Federation will be reduced to 455. Currently, according to one estimate, the US missions in Russia has over 1000 member staff. Russian foreign ministry announced in its statement it was also ousting US embassy personnel from warehouses and cottages in Moscow starting in August. We reserve the right to respond with other measures we might find appropriate, the Ministry added.

Moscow said the move came in response to a US Senate vote on July 27 that would impose harsher sanctions on Russia if it is signed into law by U.S. President Donald Trump. The passage of the new law on sanctions shows with all obviousness that relations with Russia have become hostage to the domestic political battle within the USA, the Foreign Ministry said. The latest events show that in well-known circles in the USA, Russophobia and a course toward open confrontation with our country have taken hold.

Moscow also warned that if Washington takes new unilateral steps to cut the number of Russian diplomats in the United States, its retaliatory moves would be reciprocal. According to Deputy Chairman of the State Duma, Sergei Zheleznyak, the US currently has 1200 diplomatic employees in Russia.

A US Embassy spokesperson told The Moscow Times in an emailed comment: "We have received the Russian government notification. Ambassador Tefft expressed his strong disappointment and protest. We have passed the notification back to Washington for review."

Sanction imposes a reduction on holding short-term debt by sanctioned Russian financial institutions from 30 to just 14 days. For other sanctioned sectors, oil and defense, that term is reduced from 90 to 30 days. It specifically targets Russian energy pipelines by prohibiting sales and investments in excess of 5 million dollars a year. It raises the specter of restrictions on the sale of Russian sovereign debt and its derivatives by calling on the US Department of Treasury to issue a report studying the matter. It severely limits U.S. investments into Russian privatization deals if they benefit sanctioned entities or individuals, including Russian government officials and their relatives.

Secretary Tillerson refused to endorse the Senate bill, calling for flexibility to adjust sanctions to meet the needs of what is always an evolving diplomatic situation." But for key senators, Tillersons progress in establishing a constructive relationship with Russia was too little too late. Secretary of Defense James Mattis waded into the debate yesterday saying he sees little prospect of a positive relationship with Russia, so long as Moscow acts as a strategic competitor.

Neocon strategists argue that lifting Russia sanctions may prove to be too politically costly, giving them a life of their own. The bill lumps Ukraine-related sanctions with hacking sanctions, Syria sanctions and human rights sanctions into one single package  all with different relief procedures. It closes the door on Moscows hopes for decoupling the Donbass sanctions from the full implementation of the Minsk agreements, that Russia claims are purposefully stalled by Kiev.

It calls for US government reports on Russian oligarchs and Russian illicit financing in the USA and Europe. More ominously, it allows the US. Treasury to implement Anti-Terror measures against Russia, which may lead to the US to designate Russia as a "terror-supporting" country.

Though US sanctions have not crippled Russia or its economy, they did affect its further growth. Since Russian trade in oil, gas and terror goods keeps the nation in good stead Russia has not been destabilized like Pakistan, Afghanistan or Iraq or Libya that the US led NATO attacked to destabilize them.

American strategic community has not yet realized a crucial fact in international affairs that every nation wont follow the same policy towards Washington. USA should know that Russia is a strong economic and military power almost at par with USA, if not better than USA and it does not behave like a weak and destabilized Pakistan which USA can bully at will and an sanction if slapped on Islamabad would weaken that nation further.

Although both cannot fight a real, direct war the USA and Russia settle their scores by fighting proxy in other nations.

America enjoys slapping sanctions (economic terrorism) on its foes or on those it considers as potential enemies. The US Senate went all in against Russia on 2terrorism) The US Senate went all in against Russia on 26 by advancing a robust package of Russia sanctions, attached to another Iran sanctions bill. The Senate vote was 97-2, a veto-proof majority. The final vote may come as early as possible.

US President can, if he wants, however, use his veto. The House passed its own version of the bill before President Trump met Russias President Vladimir Putin, their first, at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. Any change in sanctions would be subject to congressional review. This risks setting up new political fights and complicating the governments legislative agenda.

The Trump government is now trying to derail the bill, or at least postpone its consideration by the House, but it looks like a losing battle.

It appears President Trump, who has strong business links with Russia, has soft corner towards Russia and its president Vladimir Putin, though he tries to hide that from public view.

However, most Americans do not want any reconciliation with either Russia or China and are eager to sustain the tensions between the super powers so that US terror goods could be sold to weak nations at a premium. The last time Trump first spoke with Russian officials, he faced accusations of leaking confidential information about the Islamic State in Syria provided to the US government by Israeli intelligence.

White House had no positive feeling about any credible change in tensed bilateral relations following the meeting. The Trump-Putin meeting  the first between the two leaders  was announced by US National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster. It wont be different from our discussions with any other country, really, McMaster told Reuters. There is no specific agenda. Its really going to be whatever the president wants to talk about.

An informal meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump at the G20 summit did not clarify the issue of cooperation between their two countries, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said US-Russia relations are of "special importance" because the solution to many issues, from maintaining strategic stability to settling regional crises," depends upon them, Lavrov said. The annual G20 summit, which brings together world leaders and central bank governors from 20 major economies, was held in Hamburg, Germany on July 7 and 8. There isnt any real move from them to stabilize their ties, for the sake of world peace.

Russian foreign minister Lavrov characterized the current situation as abnormal due to political in-fighting in Washington. However, the two presidents' meeting in Hamburg did not only did not add clarity on the prospects of Russo-American cooperation, it confused the real status of US-Russia relations.

Observation

The bill may be a little over the top. It codifies and institutionalizes the existing sanctions regime by restricting the presidents ability to lift or alleviate sanctions. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations that he would prefer to avoid new measures against Russia that would compromise the few channels still open between the countries.

The retaliatory measures mirror the White Houses decision in December last year to confiscate two Russian diplomatic compounds in New York and Maryland and expel 35 Russian diplomats from the country. The decision came in response to Russia's alleged hacking of institutions related to the US presidential election.

President Trump will be presented with a wrenching decision. Does he veto a bipartisan sanctions bill and see his veto overridden? This would be a humiliating defeat for someone who prides himself on winning. Or, does Trump sign a bill which will infuriate Vladimir Putin and probably end a rare opportunity to mend the US relationship with Russia?

It is hard to say now how disruptive the sanctions may prove to be on the Russian economy. There are estimates that the financial sector may already be largely immune to new limits on short-term debt.

President Putin has a decision of his own to make. Should he retaliate in kind and forfeit any hopes for a change in tone with Washington? Or risk being exposed as weak in defense of Russias interests at the time he is about to launch his re-election campaign. Putin quickly retaliated by asking USA to reduce the staff members in US diplomatic missions in Russia.

It also isn't clear whether new sanctions would cause a shift in Moscows posture. The Kremlin would almost certainly not suffer the offense lightly were the bill to become law, and avenues of dialogue closed  particularly on Syria where the US and Russia have been engaged in a delicate dance to establish a de-escalation zone.

With the special counsel investigation into the Russian interference, the Trump government is hamstrung in its ability to oppose new anti-Russia sanctions. But it would be unsubtle and ironic were Russia to find itself under heavier sanctions under him than under President Obama, who Moscow blames for driving the relationship into the ground.

So, the question of new phase of Russo-US relations does not arise at least for now but it is difficult to predict the mutual; attitudes between the former Cold War foes who kept entire world under fear of nuclear terror threat.








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More than the crucial issues like freedom and UN full membership, the issue concerning succession of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has become more important as Palestinians seek continuity in PLO (PA) leadership for pursuing the sovereignty issue. Since the historic day of obtaining infacto membership of UN, Palestinian (Fatah) officials had made a number of changes, including the creation of a constitutional court in April 2016, to ensure that Erekat would be interim president if Abbas is unable to continue his presidential duties. It is expected that the constitutional court would rule in favor of the PLOs secretary-general, rather than others, including the speaker of the parliament, to act as interim president in the 60 days leading up to new elections.

Palestinian sources and Israeli media have confirmed that the PLO's secretary-general and the head of the Palestinian negotiating team will have a lung transplant later this month. While Erekat has been taking drugs for his lung ailment for nearly 10 years, the situation has recently deteriorated to the point that a transplant is required. His ability to work well has been affected and his lungs are now operating at 35% capacity, according to sources. Erekat is likely to travel to the United States for surgery, and if the right donor is found he might undergo surgery in the region.

Public opinion polls show Marwan Barghouti  currently serving multiple life sentences in Israeli prison  as the most popular Palestinian to replace Abbas. According to a poll published July 5 by the Ramallah-based Palestine Center for Policy and Survey Research, if elections were held at this time, Barghouti would receive 41% of the vote and Abbas 22%.

Former Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan  pushed for by the Arab quartet (Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates)  was rejected by the ruling Fatah movement during its seventh congress held in Ramallah in November 2016.

In the absence of any clear replacement candidate, most of the current attention has now shifted to the mechanism of the transition.

Palestinian movement is not strong as the Fatah-Hamas fight each other as their worst enemy  even worse than Israel or Egypt that terrorize them through terror blockades and terror attacks or USA that supports Israeli crimes against Palestinians. One of negative outcomes of this foolishness is that the elected Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) or parliament has not been in session for seven years. The Palestinian Basic Law states in Article 37 that the speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) will assume the role of president for 60 days if the presidential office is vacant. And, currently, there is no speaker of the PLC who would have assumed as interim President until new President takes office.

The last speaker after the Hamas 2007 victory in the parliamentary elections was Abdel Aziz Dweik. While he served for about a year, the PLC has been dormant ever since the split between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. With the PLC not in session and with the speaker having to be elected anew every session, the position of PLC speaker has been vacant.

Therefore, several Palestinian officials close to the president have argue that a new mechanism must be introduced since the PLC is defunct. They also suggested that one way to overcome this problem would be to create the position of vice president.

Some supporters of Abbas call for reverting to the PLO, which had signed the Oslo Accord in 1993 and had approved the setting up of the Palestinian National Authority. In this case, the secretary-general of the PLO could become the interim president. To boost this argument, Abbas set up a constitutional court in April 2016 in the hope that it would agree to this argument if and when such a constitutional decision is needed. The ailment of Erekat complicates this situation.

In addition to his position within the PLO, Erekat holds the important portfolio as the head of the Palestinian negotiating team. The PLOs negotiating department has been working for years under Erekats leadership to prepare for peace talks. Senior Palestinian officials agreed that the only person who currently could step in the shoes of Erekat in terms of the negotiations is Maj. Gen. Majid Faraj, the head of the Palestinian intelligence. The Palestinian officials contacted by Al-Monitor argued that since Faraj has been present at all meetings taking place in Palestine and Washington, he carries with him the institutional memory that is needed for successful negotiations and in order not to loose on issues that might have been agreed to in past talks.

Faraj is also Abbas handpicked leader to succeed him. Faraj was born in the Palestinian refugee camp of Dheisheh near Bethlehem and spent years in Israeli prisons. He is generally well-liked by Palestinians but lacks the needed experience to become the next president.

Members of the Executive Committee are elected by the Palestine National Council or the Palestine Central Council. The different PLO factions that have a quota in the Executive Committee are allowed to replace their representatives in the PLOs Executive Committee if the seat becomes vacant, according to PLO bylaws. For Fatah, it has been customary that their representative in the PLOs Executive Committee should come from the Fatah Central Committee. Faraj is not a member of that prestigious committee either.

Abbas is allowed to appoint members at large and, according to Abbas Zaki, a senior member of Fatahs Central Committee, this could happen  although it will need two-thirds support of the current members. Zaki recalled that Ahmed Qurei (Abu Ala), a former Palestinian prime minister and head of the Oslo negotiating team, was appointed to the PLOs Executive Committee in 2006, even though he had failed to be elected to the Fatah Central Committee.

Erekats ailment has again refocused attention on the difficult Palestinian political landscape. Although he appears to be in good shape, Abbas is in his early 80s and will need to pass the baton to a younger, more energetic leader. It is still unclear whether he will maneuver things so that the head of his intelligence service, Faraj, will be in line for his position or whether it will be a free fall.

The legal and political succession issues could be solved if there is a Fatah-Hamas agreement that would usher in legislative and presidential elections. Abbas and his team expected Hamas to surrender to this issue after the Ramallah government stopped subsidizing the electricity costs to the Gaza Strip. But a recent Hamas-Egyptian agreement and the rapprochement between Hamas and their archrival renegade Fatah leader Dahlan have dashed the hopes many had of reconciliation and elections.

Fragile reconciliation

As intra-Palestinian rift keeps widening with no end in sight, the Hamas is not showing any credible interest in a unity government or a joint fight against Israeli fascism in order to regain sovereignty and freedom from Israel. Palestinians are not going to anything from Israel so long as they remain disunited and fight each other. Meanwhile, President Mahmoud Abbas has been sending local and international mediators to Gaza to discuss a range of issues that would achieve reconciliation, Abbas efforts come following the rapprochement that began taking shape between Hamas and Egypt, and seem to be aimed at undermining the understandings the movement reached with dismissed Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan.

The international parties, including UNs Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov, who visited Gaza at the end of June and early July, and Fatah leaders in Gaza offered their mediation and transferred messages between Hamas and Abbas to settle their differences and revive the Palestinian reconciliation. The Fatah delegation discussed during its June visit to Gaza ways to end the growing rift between Hamas and the PA, but their efforts have failed so far because each party is insisting on its demands- just like Israel and PLO.

Fatah functions as a US-Israeli tool

The internal crisis between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Fatah on the one hand and Hamas on the other has worsened since Hamas formed the administrative committee to manage the Gaza Strip instead of the national consensus government, amid bleak reconciliation prospects. Consequently, the PA took a series of measures against Gaza, including cutting off the Gaza employees salaries and forcing them to retire early. The PA also stopped covering the bills for electricity supplied by Israel to the Gaza Strip. This pushed Hamas in June to conclude deals with Dahlan, under Egyptian sponsorship, to alleviate Gazas crises.

The mediators communicated Abbas conditions for reconciliation, which include Hamas disbanding the administrative committee, empowering the consensus government to work in Gaza without any restrictions and holding presidential and legislative elections within six months. Hamas told the mediators it would not discuss any conditions or details before the PA lifts all its measures against the Gaza Strip.

UN envoy Mladenov visited the Gaza Strip twice in less than a week: on June 29, when he carried suggestions and messages to Hamas from Palestinian officials, and on July 3, to get answers about the suggestions related to the reconciliation and the PAs measures in Gaza. A possibility that Abbas mediation aiming at disrupting the openness between Hamas and Egypt and blocking the road to understandings with the Dahlan-led reformist current in Fatah - cannot not be ruled out.

Abbas is worried about the rapprochement and wants to foil it. Several Fatah leaders showed resentment and criticized Egypt after loosening its blockade and allowing entry of industrial diesel to the Gaza Strip. The understandings between Hamas and Dahlans current are putting off Abbas and Fatah, and he is doing his best to stand in the way. Abbas thought that such understandings would never happen and he was shocked to see otherwise, and started taking action to foil them.

In a July 13 press statement, member of Hamas political bureau Mahmoud al-Zahar said that Abbas wants to impede Hamas understandings with Cairo through maneuvering. The understandings between Hamas and Dahlan focus on three issues, namely activating the Palestinian Legislative Council, settling the social reconciliation issue by giving compensations to families of those killed in the 2007 clashes and activating the National Islamic Committee for Social Solidarity and the projects for the poor. The committee, established by Dahlans reformist current in 2014, aims at proposing small projects to poor families to provide them with a constant source of income that they can live off through sums of money donated from several Arab countries.

Yet Azzam al-Ahmad, a member of Fatahs Central Committee who is in charge of the reconciliation file with Hamas, disputed this, saying It's not true that mediators have been sent to Hamas. During his visit to Tunisia on July 6, Abbas denied this and said that there is no mediation with Hamas and that he would never accept it

Hamas asked Mladenov to step in. Abbas and Maldenov met on June 22, a week before he went to Gaza, and Abbas talked about his vision for the Palestinian reconciliation. In April, the PA sent a written document to Hamas with clear demands to end the rift. The demands included disbanding the administrative committee, allowing the national consensus government to operate in Gaza and holding elections.

The Hamas-Dahlan understandings have raised the ire of Fatah. In a July 1 press statement, official Fatah spokesman Osama al-Qawasmi said, The understandings are illegitimate and are paving the way for separating the Gaza Strip, which is in line with Israels goals. Still, the PA and Fatah are steering clear of criticizing Egypt, which brokered the understandings. In a July 12 press statement, Qawasmi said that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi told Abbas during their meeting July 9 in Cairo that Egypt prioritizes the legitimate Palestinian government, that its loose grip in Gaza is motivated by humanitarian reasons only and that it will not allow the Gaza Strip to separate from the rest of the Palestinian territories.

Abbas adviser Mahmoud al-Habbash said that the PA did not and will not shut the door in the face of any party willing to mediate to end the rift. But Hamas must abide by the pillars of ending the rift. Our demands are clear, and Abbas initiative represents them. Habbash commented on the recent Hamas-Egypt rapprochement, saying, The only legitimate representative of the Palestinian people is the PLO. We trust the Egyptian stance, and we are not worried about Egypts policies toward Gaza. Our relations with Egypt are tight. Habbash noted that the Palestinian leadership is not interested in the Hamas-Dahlan understandings. We do not care about that, and this point is not even on the PAs agenda of discussions.

Amid the PAs insistence on its demands to end the rift as per Abbas initiative and Hamas calls for the PA to lift all sanctions on the Gaza Strip as a prelude to discussing the reconciliation conditions and measures, it seems all mediations will have been in vain. The rift seems to be widening between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with each passing day.

Observation

One is not sure where all such falsehood and silly mentality would lead the besieged Palestinians to. There is no sincerity in their talks just like the Israel-PLO negotiations.

Both factions -Fatah and Hamas- do not seem to be keen to become free once for all. They just want to control each other and they want money from Arab world and USA and other powers. If they really are concerned about Zionist murdering of Palestinian children to draw sadistic pleasure for their own holocaust, they would not have done this kind of cruelty to Palestinians.

Israelis are not believers and they are just atheists in Jewish format.

One thing becomes clear now. Had US-Israeli terror twins decide they would have killed every single Palestinian from Middle East. However, they havent kill entire Palestine population does not show their greatness or good heart- they have no such things- but they dont want to make Arabs and Iranians come together to openly forge a united front against Israel. Capitalists and imperialists do not have any humanist ideas or sympathy for the people. They just want to kill humans under some pretexts or other.
Aiken, SC (29801)

Today

Cloudy with a few showers. High 76F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Cloudy early with some clearing expected late. Low 42F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph.
The New Zealand Defence Force has signed a multi-year contract with forwarder Kuehne + Nagel.

Under the agreement, the forwarder will be the global supplier of domestic and international freight forwarding and customs services to the Defence Force, which consists of the Royal New Zealand Navy, the New Zealand Army and the Royal New Zealand Air Force.

The scope includes specialised services such as aircraft support incorporating aircraft-on-ground and engine movements.

Kuehne + Nagel has set-up a control tower with a dedicated team of experts in key locations to ensure continuity of supply and real-time visibility and online tracking tools to monitor cargo movements.

The Defence Forces joint support component commander, Colonel Ruth Putze, said: "The movement of freight in support of domestic and international operations is critical to our business. We are therefore very happy to be working with Kuehne + Nagel as a highly qualified and professional service provider."

The forwarders New Zealand managing director, Michael Aldwell, added: "We are delighted to partner with the New Zealand Defence Force as their exclusive supplier for freight forwarding services and look forward to delivering customer excellence by drawing on our global expertise in government and defence logistics as well as aid & relief operations."

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July 31, 2017

RAMALLAH, West Bank  It appears the long-besieged Gaza Strip might finally benefit as alliances continue to shift in the Middle East. Gaza, ruled by Hamas, is actually being wooed by both sides in the Qatar crisis.

Hamas concluded a set of meetings earlier this month with dismissed Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan and the Egypt-backed United Arab Emirates (UAE). Those meetings give the Gaza Strip hope for a breakthrough in its decadelong blockade by Israel and Egypt.

This breakthrough opens up several possibilities: a $100 million power plant that would take 18 months to build; the opening of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt at the end of August; and the activation of the community reconciliation committee that was established under the 2011 reconciliation agreement concluded in Cairo. The committee, backed by Hamas and its one-time foe Dahlan, will settle the cases of those killed in the 2007 inter-Palestinian conflict by financially compensating their families. All of these projects are to be funded by the UAE, where Dahlan lives.

These understandings benefit all parties concerned. Hamas will strengthen its rule in Gaza, the electricity crisis will be solved, and the Rafah crossing will be opened, thus facilitating the travel of individuals and the movement of goods to and from the Gaza Strip. The arrangement could also restore social calm once the families of those who fell prey to the Palestinian division are financially compensated, thus preventing any retaliatory operations to avenge the deaths of their relatives. Meanwhile, Egyptian security will benefit, as Hamas' Ministry of Interior announced June 28 that it started setting up a buffer zone on its border. Whats more, the understandings will allow Dahlan to return to Palestinian politics and deal a blow to his rival, Fatah leader and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, who dismissed Dahlan from Fatah.

The UAE will not only seek to strengthen the status of its allies (Egypt and Dahlan) in Gaza but will also work to expel Qatar from Gaza  despite Qatar's long-time financial generosity toward Hamas and the strip. This comes as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt have cut ties with Qatar due to its support of the Muslim Brotherhood and its hostility toward the UAE-backed Egyptian regime.

Hamas does not want to lose any side," political author and analyst Talal Awkal told Al-Monitor. "It wants to retain the Qatari support and gain the Egyptian and Emirati support, but this is no longer possible in light of the regional crises, which will prompt it to pick a side.

Qatar has been one of the most prominent supporters of Hamas since Egypt and Israel imposed a siege on Gaza in 2007; Qatar has financed social, health and economic projects. These projects include paying about $12 million to address the electricity problem in the Gaza Strip earlier this year, the construction of large residential projects such as the Hamad residential city and other humanitarian donations.

However, Hamas considers Egypt, including its allies, to be its best option [at the moment]. It would be in [Hamas'] interest to implement understandings with Egypt at a time when Qatar cannot open the Rafah crossing or solve the electricity crisis let alone maintain Hamas control over Gaza, Awkal added.

If Egypt and its allies want to expel Qatar from Gaza, they will have to rely on the UAEs financial role. Cairo made the decision of easing the siege on Gaza for political and security calculations. Consequently, Hamas execution of the understandings will prompt the UAE to provide support for Gaza, Awkal said.

Qatar seems to have realized the Egyptian-Emirati desire to expel it from Gaza. Qatari Ambassador Mohammed al-Emadi on July 7 visited the Gaza Strip to meet with Hamas leaders and announced July 10 that his country would continue to support the Palestinian people, especially the besieged Gaza Strip, despite the crisis his country is contending with.

While Qatar made no comment about Egypt's rapprochement with Hamas, it confirmed its continued support for the Gaza Strip and continues to host Hamas leaders.

As understandings between Hamas, Egypt and Dahlan advanced, Qatari and Turkish media outlets kept issuing related reports. On July 26, Qatari newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed published an article by Jordanian journalist Issa al-Shuaibi accusing Hamas of being the de facto authority and pointing out that Hamas is willing to change its political alliances, most importantly with Qatar, in return for the food it is being offered by the UAE and Egypt. Dahlan's offers to Gaza are mere attempts by Egypt and the UAE to pull the Gaza Strip out of the Qatari influence.

Turkey's Yeni Safak newspaper said July 26 that Dahlan and UAE Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed are setting up a military training camp in Gaza for hundreds of people in Sinai who then will be sent to Qatar and Turkey to carry out attacks.

While Hamas so far has sought to distance itself from the regional crisis, Ahmed Yousef, who was a political adviser to former Palestinian National Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, denied in an interview with Al-Monitor that Egypt had asked Hamas to cut off its relations with Qatar to proceed with the rapprochement.

As for Hamas' decision to choose between its relations with Qatar and its understandings with Egypt and its allies, Yousef said, We have no intention of siding with one Arab country against another because our goal is to garner all the Arab support possible for the Palestinian cause. So any alliance with Egypt and the UAE at the expense of Qatar or Turkey will lead the Palestinian cause to lose great momentum, and our relations with Egypt do not infer a rift with Qatar and Turkey.

He added, Hamas will not side with an Arab party against another, and this is an issue we ought to clarify to all countries."

He pointed out that Qatar confirmed that its projects are ongoing in Gaza and that all its commitments will be completed according to plan.

Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas leader, told Al-Monitor, Hamas does not accept that someone asks it to reject Qatari aid and does not allow anyone to interfere in its policies. The movement is keen on keeping good relations with Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, without being part of the regional axes or the Arab differences.

Israeli journalist Yoni Ben Menachem, in his July 19 article on the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs blog, wrote that the Gaza Strip is about to become the center of a tug of war between Egypt and Qatar, as Egypt will not agree to Qatar maintaining a foothold in Gaza. Menachem added that Egypt and Dahlans mission will be to prevent Qatari Ambassador Emadi from resuming Qatars projects in Gaza, while the Hamas leadership will have to decide on a specific direction as far as the continued presence of Qatar in Gaza is concerned.

A leader in the Dahlan following, Naima Sheikh, told Al-Monitor, The understandings reached by Hamas and Dahlan did not tackle the relationship between Hamas and Qatar and did not include any demands to cut off relations with Qatar, because this involves Hamas alone.

However, if Hamas' understandings with Egypt and Dahlan are to proceed, then the Gaza Strip will turn into a competition between those two on one side and Qatar on the other, so one side can isolate the other. This scenario will eventually unfold unless Hamas is forced to choose between the Egypt-UAE side and the Qatari side.
July 31, 2017

By now it is obvious that the "ultimate deal" between Israelis and Palestinians, which President Donald Trump promised in his first days in office, was little more than an optical illusion. A series of conversations with Israeli, Palestinian and diplomatic sources depicts a very different picture. The diplomatic process is bogged down. President Trump is not involved in any way, nor does he have any interest in getting involved. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is severely disappointed with the United States, and the US "peace team" has lost what limited credibility it had on the Palestinian side. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government is rubbing its hands eagerly beneath the table and dismissing all the serious concerns that sullied the mood of the past few months. Nothing will happen, because there is nothing there, ministers from the Likud and HaBayit HaYehudi whisper with smug satisfaction. We can all calm down.

The story that best illustrates this situation occurred last week when the Temple Mount crisis threatened to ignite the entire Middle East in a global conflagration originating in the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Throughout that entire crisis, the US administration was effectively AWOL. Although they attempted to take credit for some deep involvement in efforts to reach a solution, the truth is that the Americans were not a significant factor during the harshest days of the crisis, when it looked like the entire Middle East would spiral downward into a new round of violence.

President Trump himself was not involved in events as they unfolded. His special envoy, Jason Greenblatt, lost his standing as an "impartial mediator" in the very first days of the crisis. One senior Palestinian source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that "Greenblatt picked a side and represented Netanyahu throughout the crisis." According to a senior Palestinian source who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Americans adopted the Israeli government's positions at every stage. "When the metal detectors were installed, they supported that. Then they supported the installation of smart cameras, and then, when there was talk of manual checks, they supported that too."

The Americans' behavior throughout the crisis only furthered the feeling prevalent in Ramallah over the past few weeks that Greenblatt and Jared Kushner are irrelevant. "It's not a nice thing to say," another Palestinian source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, "but they are both ardent supporters of the settlements. They are completely unfamiliar with the other side, they don't understand the region and they don't understand the material. You cant learn about what is happening here in a seminar lasting just a few weeks."

At one point, matters reached a head. In response, Abbas decided to send Greenblatt for an intimate conversation with his close adviser, Saeb Erekat, and the head of Palestinian intelligence service, Majid Faraj, considered to be the most powerful person in the West Bank. A senior Palestinian diplomatic source speaking on condition of anonymity described the talk as a "reprimand." He said, "Greenblatt received a very firm explanation about the way things stand. He was told to go back to Netanyahu and tell him to remove everything that was installed on Temple Mount. 'There is no other solution, nor will there be one,'" Erekat and Faraj told him.

A top Palestinian source claimed that Greenblatt displayed utter ignorance throughout the entire incident, failing even to understand the various sensitivities pertaining to the Temple Mount. Once the Palestinians explained their positions, he began to look pensive. At times he expressed surprise and amazement. At some point he even admitted to them that he wasn't aware of some of the information that was relayed to him.

Conversations with the Israeli side offer a similar account, though this came from a completely different perspective and worldview. A senior Israeli political figure admitted to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that, "As of now, Trump's peace initiative looks like it is completely bogged down." He added, "The Palestinians have lost trust in the peace negotiations teams. Greenblatt is rapidly approaching the status of persona non grata, just like Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley. The president is not involved, and it looks like he has distanced himself considerably from Middle East affairs, particularly given the serious problems he has inside the White House."

Israeli sources involved in the issue say that Greenblatt continues to apply heavy pressure on Israel to make gestures and take steps to improve the daily lives of Palestinians. Then they say that nothing will come of this.

At one time, the predominant feeling in Ramallah and Jerusalem was that President Trump himself was committed to reaching a historic agreement. He was thought to be willing to step outside the box and do things never before done in the region. That feeling has since faded into oblivion. "As of now, Trump has lost any credit that he had managed to amass in the Middle East," said one senior Israeli source on the condition of anonymity. A top Palestinian source also speaking on condition of anonymity added, "Even the automatic sense of awe that people once had of him is not what it used to be. The more time passes, the more it becomes clear that he is a paper tiger focused on internal affairs and incapable of mustering up the inner strength necessary to reconcile Israelis and Palestinians."

A senior Israeli minister speaking on condition of anonymity added, "The Americans aren't really a presence here. They let us do whatever we want. They don't set the tone, and they don't dictate the agenda."

Ostensibly, this near freedom of action should be the dream of the Israeli right. But even among them, people are beginning to express their concern about how things are unfolding. "This was as clear as can be during the Temple Mount crisis. There was no responsible adult in the mix. There was no sheriff on the ground. The Americans gaped in amazement at what was happening there. Every so often they'd pick up the phone, but they had no real influence on the course of events that happened, and they saw that. The situation is dangerous, perhaps even unprecedented," a source on the right told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity.

Two other disconcerting facts should be added to this mix. The first is news making its way across Israel about the declining health of Abbas. The second is the fact that during his talks with the American team working on the peace process, Netanyahu brought up an old plan suggested long ago by Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman for a territorial and population swap. In it, Israel would hand over land populated by Israeli Arabs  mainly in the Wadi Ara northern region  in exchange for the annexation of the settlement blocs. Liberman's idea is considered a clear "nonstarter," even if there is a certain healthy logic behind it. Anyone who brings it up knows that the Palestinians will immediately reject it out of hand, while Israeli Arabs will be outraged by it. It is now thought that the main reason Netanyahu brought up the idea in the first place was to intensify the sense of embarrassment felt by the Americans and to provoke maximum opposition from the other side.

As of now, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has been left to its own fate. Abbas is at the end of his rule, the Americans are focused on other hotspots around the globe and Israel's right-wing government has no meaningful checks and balances in place. Taken together, this is a recipe for serious problems down the road.
July 31, 2017

Turkish fury over the United States ongoing partnership with the Syrian Kurds showed no signs of abating as Ankara made a formal complaint against the top US official it views as one of the main architects of the alliance. The Turkish Foreign Ministry announced over the weekend that it had protested remarks by Brett McGurk, the US special envoy for the global coalition against the Islamic State (IS), calling them provocative.

The Foreign Ministry was referring to McGurks apparent allusions to Turkeys role in the emergence of the growing threat of the al-Qaeda-linked militant army Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, formerly Jabhat al-Nusra and recently rebranded), which is expanding its grip over Syrias Idlib province, on the Turkish border. Speaking at a panel at the Middle East Institute (MEI) in Washington July 27, McGurk said, The approach by some of our partners to send tens of thousands of tons of weapons and looking the other way as these foreign fighters came into Syria may not have been the best approach. And al-Qaeda has taken full advantage of it.

It is generally believed McGurk was referring to Turkey, which has long been accused of turning a blind eye, at the very least, if not arming and training jihadi fighters, including IS and Jabhat al-Nusra, in their campaign to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and to attack the US-allied Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG).

Stating the obvious, McGurk said, Idlib now is a huge problem. It is an al-Qaeda safe haven right on the border of Turkey. That is obviously something that we will be in very close discussion with the Turks on. US officials believe that Idlib could become the new center for planning terror attacks against the West and that sealing the border between Turkey and Idlib may help mitigate this risk.

From the start of the Syrian conflict, Turkey was the main conduit for weapons and fighters flowing into Syria. In May 2013, US President Barack Obama warned then-Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during talks in Washington about the risks posed by Jabhat al-Nusra when relations between the two countries were at an all-time peak.

Turkey clearly took umbrage at McGurks oblique reminder of the alarm bells that were sounded early on. According to Foreign Ministry spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu, McGurk was reminded in turn of the United States' support for the terrorist YPG and that this needs to end.

Just two months ago, another top State Department official, Jonathan Cohen, told another MEI panel, that the United States relationship with the YPG was temporary, transactional and tactical. Cohen explained, We have the YPG because they were the only force on the ground ready to act in the short term. That is where it stops.

Turkey wants it to stop at Raqqa, the so-called capital of IS. The YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said it has liberated nearly half of the predominantly Arab city since launching operations June 6. Once the campaign is completed, Turkey wants the US-YPG alliance scotched and hopes that McGurk will move on. The latter is highly unlikely unless McGurk decides to leave of his own accord. Senior administration officials routinely praise McGurk in private conversations. As one said, Who else could do that job? There is nobody to replace him.

As the top echelons of the administration weigh their next move, there is growing acknowledgement of the indisputably close links between the YPG and the Kurdistan Workers Party, which is waging an armed campaign inside Turkey for Kurdish self-rule.

US Secretary of Defense James Mattis is expected to address Turkish concerns when he visits in the coming weeks as part of a regional tour. There is speculation that Turkey's repeated threats to acquire Russia's S-400 missile system, dismissed until recently as as pressure tactic, may finally be having an effect.

Still, sources familiar with the administrations plans insist that the decision has been made, and the anti-IS campaign will continue with the SDF moving into the middle Euphrates Valley where IS militants are entrenched, and all the way to Abu Kamal, on the Syrian-Iraqi border. Regime and Iranian-backed forces advancing in the same direction will not be permitted to get there first.

Abu Kamal is critical, according to Nicholas A. Heras, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security. Control over Abu Kamal means controlling the Syrian-Iraqi border and having leverage over the future of both Syria and Iraqs national security, he explained to Al-Monitor. Neither Damascus nor Tehran wants US-backed forces to capture Abu Kamal and give the United States that leverage. The US-led coalition is loath to give Tehran the same.

The coalition is reportedly reviewing several options to get to Abu Kamal. Heras outlined them. Route 1 is the Khabur route. That would be to follow the Khabur River from southern Hasakah province into Deir ez-Zor province. Where the Khabur meets the Euphrates, at al-Busayrah in Deir ez-Zor province, the coalition forces would turn south, along the east bank of the Euphrates, toward Mayadin. From Mayadin, the forces would move on to Abu Kamal on the Syrian-Iraqi border. This route would allow the coalition to avoid Assad forces in and around the city of Deir ez-Zor.

Route 2 is the Raqqa route south. This would follow the east and north bank of the Euphrates south of Raqqa down to Deir ez-Zor city and then on to Mayadin and then on to Abu Kamal. This route requires the coalition to actively deconflict with Assad forces in and around Deir ez-Zor city.

Route 3 is the Syrian desert route. This would involve staging an offensive from al-Tanf, near the Jordanian-Syrian border in the desert, all the way to the lower Euphrates River around Abu Kamal. This route is difficult because Assad forces and their allies in the Syrian Desert region are positioned in between the coalition at al-Tanf and Abu Kamal. This route is also more challenging logistically because the SDF, which would be following route 1 or route 2, is far larger than any rebel force the coalition has assembled at al-Tanf.

Turkey is every bit as worried as the United States about growing Iranian influence in the region and the likely risks of Iranian proxies controlling the Syrian-Iraqi border. Thus, in principle, Ankara would prefer that the United States control Abu Kamal, but not in coordination with the SDF. It has failed, however, to come up with an alternative to the SDF to do the job. Thats always been our problem, a Turkish official told Al-Monitor.
You can usually tell what kind of week someone's having when they walk into Old Havana Cigar Co., manager Kyle Allen said.

Some people just want a good smoke, and maybe a drink. Some people just want to unwind. And some people want to talk.

Beth Tidwell said something similar - when someone picks out a long cigar, they mean to stay awhile.

"And we usually know the people when they come in," Allen said. "About 80 percent have been here before."

The atmosphere at the cigar bar on Gadsden's Chestnut Street is made for a long afternoon or evening in the smoky light. There's the daytime sunshine flooding in from the large windows out front, or the dimmer light in the back made for an intimate smoke on the leather couches.

And there's room at the bar with large ashtrays and an array of fine wines, craft beers and liquor to choose from.

Old Havana has two locations in Georgia but opened the Gadsden bar almost four years ago. Steven McDowell, the owner, said he thought Gadsden would make a great location because of its array of historic downtown buildings, the ability to serve cocktails and liquor, and the variety of specialized boutique businesses already there.

McDowell began Old Havana in Rome, Ga., back in 2003 after working at a cigar store while attending school at Berry College and then buying out the owner. He repackaged the business into a bar offering fine cigars and alcohol with good service.

"We wanted a neat vibe that feels comfortable," he said.

Allen has worked at the Gadsden store for two years. He admits he knew nothing about cigars when he walked through the door, but now he offers tips on pairing a beverage with a cigar.

"It's all about steering them to a good stick," he said.

Tidwell, however, was a customer before she began working there, having smoked cigars for more than 10 years. She started sampling stogies with her brother, and now enjoys darker, bolder brands. She's not alone - Gadsden has one of the higher percentages of female smoking customers among Old Havana's three locations.

"We have non-smokers who come in to drink, and people who drink who don't smoke," she said. "We even have craft soda for people who don't do either but still like to come in."

Obviously, there are cigars at Old Havana, arrayed in the humidor which is kept at a constant 73 degrees. But there are also pipe tobacco and pipes for sale and designer lighters.

Old Havana doesn't really advertise, relying mostly on word of mouth among customers. And while a group of devoted customers do show up regularly, there are also business travelers and those who seek out a good place to smoke in a time when sampling tobacco is sharply restricted. Gadsden, for example, passed a no smoking ordinance three years ago but allowed an exemption for the bar.

"At first, you think it's going to be threatening to you," McDowell said. "But smoking regulations actually mean that you're one of the few places where adults are allowed to come in and be adults and smoke. So it's really helped us."

That means in addition to travelers looking for a unique road experience, there's also truck drivers, lawyers, doctors, teachers, business owners and real estate agents who come in to light up.

"It's about ambience, about people who enjoy the product," Allen said. "It's about people who like to come together with other people."
UPDATE: ALEA reports Avery Williams has been found safe.

EARLIER STORY: Authorities have issued a missing child alert for an 8-year-old boy in Prattville.

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency and Prattville police identified the boy as Avery Niles Williams. He was last seen about 4:30 p.m. in the area of Candlestick Park in Prattville.

Avery was wearing green camouflage pants, and orange shirt and black shoes. He is a black male, 4-feet, 8-inches tall and weighs 65 pounds.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Prattville Police Department at (334) 595-0208 or call 911.
A woman was shot to death late Sunday night at an east Birmingham apartment complex.

The woman, the mother of a daughter, was found dead before 10 p.m. at Sunrise Pointe apartments off of Oporto-Madrid Boulevard. Officers responded to the complex on a report of someone possibly shot multiple times.

Officers and detectives are on the scene, as well as dozens of onlookers. The victim's grandmother and other relatives arrived at the scene about 11:30 p.m.

Police said they are in the early stages of investigation and they don't yet know what happened.

Witnesses said the victim and another man were at their cars talking when another man approached them and said, "There you are. I got you. "

There was an exchange of words and at least two shots rang out.

The victim, a resident of the complex, collapsed on the sidewalk where she was pronounced dead. The man to whom she was talking was also wounded but was gone by the time police arrived.

Police said he is at UAB Hospital. The extent of his injury wasn't known.

No suspects are in custody.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
The filibuster - a target of President Trump's weekend tweets - has emerged as an issue between two leading candidates in Alabama's GOP Senate primary.

U.S. Sen. Luther Strange wants to keep it. U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks wants to eliminate it.

It's the rare issue that's emerged through the campaign so far that's put candidates on starkly different sides of the fence.

The filibuster is a stalling tactic in the Senate that, if invoked, requires 60 votes to stop. While Republicans currently have the majority in the Senate, that majority is only 52 of the 100 seats - not enough to overcome a Democratic filibuster.

Trump fired off a series of four tweets Saturday blasting the filibuster as well as a fifth tweet Sunday, calling on the Senate to remove it. The president described the filibuster as "outdated."

"Republicans in the Senate will NEVER win if they don't go to a 51-vote majority NOW," Trump tweeted Saturday. "They look like fools and are just wasting time."

Republicans in the Senate will NEVER win if they don't go to a 51 vote majority NOW. They look like fools and are just wasting time......  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017

Strange joined 60 other senators - 31 Democrats, 28 Republicans and one independent - in signing an April 7 letter voicing support for the filibuster. Alabama's senior senator, Richard Shelby, did not sign the letter. The letter was addressed to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Brooks said his top priority, if elected to the Senate, would be to remove the filibuster.

The Senate letter argued that the filibuster allows "extended debate" on legislation. When the Senate confirmed Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch in April, it invoked the "nuclear option" - which allowed 51 votes to stop the Democrat filibuster rather than the traditional 60. Gorsuch was confirmed to the court in a 54-45 vote largely along party lines.

The day Gorsuch was confirmed was also the day the senators dispatched the letter in support of maintaining the filibuster for legislation.

"Senators have expressed a variety of opinions about the appropriateness of limiting debate when we are considering judicial and executive branch nominations," the letter said. "Regardless of our past disagreements on that issue, we are united in our determination to preserve the ability of members to engage in extended debate when bills are on the Senate floor."

Strange's campaign declined to comment on the filibuster issue beyond the letter.

At a Senate forum in Huntsville on July 6, candidates were asked by an audience member what would be their top priority if elected.

"If we don't change the rules in the United States Senate, the agenda of the conservatives is dead over the next 3 1/2 years," Brooks answered. "That is the No. 1 goal. People who have sent conservatives to Washington D.C., our agenda is dead if we don't change the rules."

The filibuster allows the minority Democrats to "thwart the will" of both houses of Congress as well as Trump's agenda," Brooks said, and that Republicans have not had a filibuster-proof Senate in 90 years.

Brooks also highlighted his stance opposing that of Strange.

"A clear contrast, the incumbent signed a letter saying he wants to keep those rules in place that make us grovel at the heels of Chuck Schumer," Brooks said.

In a speech on the House floor on July 19, Brooks again pointed at the top Democrat in the Senate.

"While today's 52 senator Republican majority can abolish the filibuster rule any time it wants, so long as the filibuster rule is in place, Republicans can pass nothing - nothing -- without the consent of Chuck Schumer and the Democrats," Brooks said in the speech.

Later in the speech, Brooks alluded to Strange signing the letter in saying, "Remarkably, even an Alabama senator supports killing President Trump's agenda."

U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Chris Coons, D-Delaware, led the effort to send the letter supporting the filibuster to leadership.

"This letter demonstrates that a majority of the Senate, both Republicans and Democrats, can come together to protect an important tradition of the Senate that recognizes the rights of the minority and makes bipartisan legislation more likely," Collins said in a statement when the letter was sent.

U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, took a different stance. Smith has endorsed Brooks in the GOP Senate primary.

"If you support a filibuster, you're supporting the ability of the Democrats to block conservative legislation and to stop the president's agendas," Smith said. "Mo Brooks is the only serious candidate who has come out publicly to repeal the filibuster."

In his first campaign ad, however, Brooks talked of reading the King James Bible in a filibuster to ensure funding for the wall Trump wants to build on the Mexican border.

"For anyone who understands the nuances of the Senate rules, they know that what I have said has no inconsistency," Brooks said. "There are two options. There will either be a filibuster rule or there will not be a filibuster rule.

"If I am successful of getting rid of the filibuster rule, then our senator majority can fund the border wall and there's no need for a filibuster on our side. On the other hand, if the filibuster is not eliminated and stays in place, then we have to have 60 votes in order to fund the border wall."

Senate filibuster letter by pgattis7719 on Scribd
President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions had their first face-to-face encounter today since tension between the two erupted on the national stage.

Trump held his second full Cabinet meeting of his administration this morning. Photos from the meeting show Sessions sitting across and one seat to the right from Trump. It's not clear if the two spoke and the president did not mention Sessions during his three-minute introduction.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions was sitting front and center in Trump's 2nd full cabinet meeting of his administration. pic.twitter.com/b1bBDNal29  Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) July 31, 2017

Trump and Sessions have reportedly not spoken since the president said he was "very disappointed" in the former Alabama Senator for recusing himself from the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections. Trump went on to publicly criticize his Attorney General, calling him "beleaguered" and "weak," comments that prompted a wave of criticism from Sessions' supporters.

Sessions maintains he will not resign but said he serve at the pleasure of the president.

Today's cabinet meeting served as an introduction of retired General John Kelly as the new White House chief of staff. Trump tapped Kelly, who had been leading the Department of Homeland Security, after the exit of former chief of staff Reince Preibus.

"I predict that General Kelly will go down, in terms of the position of Chief of Staff, one of the great ever. And we're going to have a good time, but, much more importantly, we're going to work hard and we're going to make America great again," Trump said.
Violations by the PA and Hamas against journalists have intensified in recent months, media rights groups say.

Earlier this month, Jihad Barakat, a journalist with Palestine Today TV, was on his way from the northern West Bank city of Nablus to a village in the Tulkarem area to visit family, when he noticed something unusual at an Israeli military checkpoint.

In contravention of protocol, Israeli soldiers were searching the convoy of Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah. Barakat took out his phone and documented the incident; hours later, he was detained by Palestinian security forces.

Media rights activists and journalists quickly took to social media to voice frustration and demand that Barakat be released. A hashtag Where is Jihad was assigned to social media posts condemning his detention, and a protest was held by journalists in front of the prime ministers office. The local journalists union was contacted to act on his behalf.

Barakat was eventually released on bail, charged with a litany of unusual offences, including panhandling. He faces trial in September and colleagues fear that his detention, as well as other arrests in recent weeks, are an attempt to stifle their work and silence legitimate criticism of the PA.

The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedom (MADA) noted that the number of violations against journalists, by both the PA in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza, was significantly higher in June than in the previous month.

In addition to a curtailing of media freedoms by the PA, Palestinian journalists in the West Bank often face obstacles to their work from Israeli authorities, including detention, harassment and movement restrictions; many have been killed or injured in the line of work. In Gaza, journalists complain of intimidation by Hamas, which controls the besieged territory.

READ MORE: PA crackdown narrows space for online criticism

This year, weve seen an escalation of attacks against journalists from various parties, said Sherif Mansour, the Middle East and North Africa programme coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists. This includes prosecution and arrests by both the PA and Hamas to silence or to punish independent political journalists who support the other party.

On June 8, authorities in Gaza detained Fouad Jaradeh, a reporter with the PA-run Palestine TV, prompting a denouncement by the International Federation of Journalists: Hamas security forces must stop preying on Gaza journalists and systematically violating their fundamental rights, the federation president, Philippe Leruth, said.

Authorities are still holding Jaradeh, whose arrest came two months after another Palestine TV journalist, Taghreed Abu Tir, was taken into custody and held for 10 days. He was arrested on suspicion of working in complicity with Ramallah, a reference to the PA, and misusing technology. The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said Jaradeh was coerced into giving false testimony.





In 2016, MADA documented 134 violations against journalists by the PA and Hamas-run authorities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. While the number of violations against media personnel decreased from the previous year, the group noted an escalation in the degrading treatment of journalists during interrogation and arrest, which it said could be tantamount to torture.

The group also noted that journalists were being persecuted for personal posts written on social media. Since Barakats release, at least five West Bank-based journalists said they had been ordered in for questioning by the internal Palestinian security apparatus.

Concerns over the shrinking space in which journalists can operate were heightened in June, when the PA blocked 29 websites with affiliations either to Hamas or to Mohammad Dahlan, the former Gaza strongman, an ally-turned-foe of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The PA move to ban websites and to exert control on content on the web is very alarming, Mansour said. Among the blocked websites is the Hamas-affiliated Palestinian Information Center and the pro-Dahlan Amad website.

A new Electronic Crimes law passed by the PA has also left journalists worried about restrictions on their work. According to Ramallah-based journalist and media expert Nour Odeh, the law fills several necessary gaps in relation to fraud, online blackmail, child pornography, identity theft and other major crimes that are absent from the existing legal body.

But the law also uses very vague terms to define offences that could be used to pursue political opposition or journalists. Terms like public good, national security, civil peace, she said. Some articles in the law would [also] force journalists to reveal their sources, and naturally, we all have a problem with that.

MADAs director general, Mousa Rimawi, noted that civil society was not consulted in drafting [the law] and it was issued under strict secrecy, adding that some of its articles affect the right to freedom of expression and privacy rights.

READ MORE: Palestinian Authority blocks 11 news websites

Media rights groups believe authorities in both Gaza and the West Bank are using journalists as pawns in a political game. Fatah and Hamas have been at loggerheads for more than a decade, and all attempts to reconcile the two parties so far have failed. The split has torpedoed efforts to hold national elections, leaving Abbas almost 12 years into what should have been a four-year presidential term.

Abbas popularity has plummeted in recent years, with as many as 65 percent wanting to see him resign, according to one poll. With his dwindling popularity, the crackdown on dissident voices grew, especially journalists who have documented public disgruntlement over the PAs security coordination with Israel.

One such incident occurred in January 2016, when Palestinian security forces detained Salim Sweidan for a report published on his website that accused the PA of aiding Israeli authorities in detaining locals from the village of Beit Furiq after the killing of an Israeli settler and his wife. Sweidan was charged with slander, falsifying information, and inciting hate and violence.

That shows you how  journalists are either suffering the consequences of doing their jobs and telling the news or being used as pawns used by the PA and Hamas to settle their political differences, Mansour said.








The young democracy and regional economic powerhouse plays a key role in regional security and political order.

Kenyans will be heading to the polls on August 8 for elections that have been closely followed not just in the Horn of Africa country but across the world.

Election posters have replaced consumer goods ads on street billboards as politicians step up their campaigns to win over the 19 million registered voters.

It is the sixth presidential election since the country of more than 45 million people embraced a multiparty democratic system in 1992.

So why do the elections in Kenya matter not just to Kenyans but to the rest of the African continent and the world?

Economic hub

Nairobi is East Africas economic hub, and the country is the second-largest economy in the region, according to figures from the World Bank and the International Monitory Fund (IMF).

Until late 2014, when its larger neighbour, Ethiopia, overtook it, Kenya had the biggest economy  at more than $60bn  of the East Africa region.

Kenya was quick to welcome foreign investors, more than its neighbours. Kenya, for a long time, had the fastest developing economy in the region, Samuel Nyademo, an economist at Nairobi University, told Al Jazeera.

Foreign investors put a lot of money, for example, in the aviation, banking, tourism and the telecommunications sectors. These sectors generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues for the government and employ thousands of Kenyans. Anything other than smooth elections will be a disaster, Nyademo explained.

Nairobi is also home to the regions most developed stock market and, according to Nyademo, the rhetoric on the campaign trails can affect share prices.

The port in Kenyas coastal city of Mombasa serves neighbouring landlocked countries like South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

If elections disrupt this transport corridor, as happened after the 2007 election, when there was widespread violence, the price of everyday goods, such as rice and cooking oil, could rise significantly.

South Sudan is at the mercy of the elections in Kenya. It will pay the heaviest price in terms of imports and its banking sector if the elections are not trouble-free, Nyademo said.

Read more about what went wrong in the 2007 election in Kenya

The ICC





The election is also being closely watched in The Hague, the city in the Netherlands where the International Criminal Court (ICC) is based, and in capitals across the European continent.

Both Uhuru Kenyatta, the Kenyan president, and his deputy William Ruto spent time in The Hague defending themselves against allegations they incited ethnic violence following the 2007 election. The ICC has since dropped the charges.

The two men have previously campaigned for the country to withdraw from the court. But their rival, Raila Odinga, opposed this. The issue divided the country and was a major theme in the last election.

Professor Karuti Kanyinga, a political scientist based in Nairobi, told Al Jazeera that both camps are staying away from the issue of the ICC in public for now. It polarised the country and had [a] negative effect abroad as well.

Kanyinga added: No one saw it coming what happened in 2007. Everyone thought Kenya was a very stable country and did not expect the country to burn like it did.

Humanitarian agencies

Kenya is home to several UN and humanitarian agencies that oversee relief efforts in the region. Most of the aid agencies operating in South Sudan, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo are based out of the Kenyan capital.

The 2007 post-election violence hampered relief efforts in neighbouring warzones.

The country is also home to the worlds largest refugee camp.

The vast Dadaab refugee camp in the countrys northeastern part is home to more than half a million refugees, mostly from neighbouring Somalia.

Kakuma, another refugee camp in the northwestern part of the country, houses more than 160,000 refugees, mostly from war-torn South Sudan, according to the UN.

Humanitarian assistance, such as food and medicine, for the refugees is coordinated from Nairobi and any post-election violence will affect the refugees who have escaped violence in their home countries.

Read more about the people who have found refuge in Kenyas camps: Portrait of a civil war refugee

Troops abroad





Since 2011, Kenya has sent more than 3,600 soldiers into Somalia to fight the armed group al-Shabab as part of an African Union peacekeeping mission in the country.

It has suffered military losses in the neighbouring country, and the opposition has vowed to pull the troops out if they win the elections. This could have regional repercussions and leave the already stretched and underfunded African Union mission hamstrung.

A win for the opposition means, potentially, the Kenyan troops will be withdrawn from Somalia, thats what theyve promised. If the current administration wins, the troops will stay in Somalia, thats their promise, Abdullahi Boru, a security expert based Nairobi, told Al Jazeera.

But withdrawal wont be that straight forward because the troops are serving under AMISOM, Boru added.

President Kenyatta has said the troops will remain in Somalia until peace and stability are restored there.

As campaigning draws to a close and voters get ready to cast their vote, observers say all eyes will be on the outcome.

The election result matters greatly to Kenyans, said Ndemo, the economist. But also for the region and the wider world. What happens here will be felt in other places.
Hani al-Moliya first learned photography as a refugee living in a camp in Lebanons Bekaa Valley. He had graduated from high school not long before he arrived there and craved further education. But there were no opportunities for that in the small tent settlement he shared with his relatives and former neighbours from Homs in Syria.

Hani had fled his war-torn hometown in 2012, shortly after he was arrested for trying to bring food into his neighbourhood.

That was a turning point, he says, when I felt it wasnt safe anymore.

Hanis parents and six siblings joined him in the Bekaa Valley, where they stayed for nearly three years.

I really wanted to do something, so photography became a life raft, the now 23-year-old explains. Through a UNHCR workshop, Hani was given a camera and the skills to start documenting his life. He soon became known locally as the photographer of the camps.

But what Hanis photos dont reveal is that he is legally blind.

He struggles to recognise people standing more than 10 feet away from him and doesnt see all colours. Photographing moving objects is difficult, so he mostly focuses on still subjects and has memorised more than 10 exposure settings.

Hani and his family were given asylum in Canada and, in 2015, he moved to Regina, Saskatchewan, with his parents and five of his siblings. There, his photos have been exhibited at a gala of the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression and he was selected to be part of Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus National Youth Council. He is now studying computer engineering.

One day, he would like to return to Syria, but he thinks thats a long way off. I have an ideal Syria in mind and I believe many members of my generation do too. But the Syria that I want, it will take a long time before we can get it, he reflects. We couldnt really protect Syria, or be there for Syria now, but I look forward to building it when I get the chance.

In Canada, Hani kept taking photos of his family as they adjusted to their new home country. His pictures tell the story of a family that lost everything, except each other. Here, Hani narrates their long journey and their new beginnings.
Defining appropriate dress for its citizens is yet another form of repression of Tajikistans authoritarian regime.

Tajikistans President Emomali Rahmon has ordered a special commission to oversee an appropriate dress code for both men and women. This decision followed his Mothers Day speech in March in which criticised women for wearing foreign black clothing.

The president was referring to the black Islamic dress that has become increasingly popular in Tajikistan despite his previous condemnations of it. His first criticism was voiced in 2015 after which a campaign against the hijab began with heads of institutions demanding that their employees not appear at work wearing one.

Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic with a population of about 8 million, is a predominantly Muslim nation. Rahmon, himself a Muslim by upbringing, is secular and has tried to curtail religious freedoms by linking religiosity to extremism.

OPINION: Tajikistan: The success story that failed

The measure should, therefore, be seen in the context of the presidents attempts at tightening the noose on the opposition Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), which he has almost completely dismantled over the past five years. President Rahmon, who has been in power since 1992, has grown increasingly authoritarian over the years, limiting private life and political expression in the Central Asian republic.

Wearing the hijab and blindly copying a culture that is foreign to us is not the sign of having high moral and ethical standards for women, the president said back in 2015. The hijab is a headscarf worn by many Muslim women who feel it is part of their religion.

The new commission is tasked with combating this alien culture. It will design clothes taking into consideration Tajik traditions and modern life, the Culture Minister Shamsuddin Omurbekzoda has said. The ministry is preparing samples of national womens clothing, in order to avoid wearing foreign clothes, he said.

No one knows the people who hide behind these covers, said the minister, calling women in black religious dress imitators of alien fashion.

The Tajik presidents nervous disposition toward clothing is the result of increasing religiosity among the general population after the breakup of the Soviet Union. New mosques have been built attracting more people for prayer, more Islamic study groups have appeared and more women and men have donned Islamic-style dress. At the same time, Islamist armed groups have been active in the border areas of Tajikistan and Afghanistan.

In 2015, Russia even suggesting sending Russian border guards to take control of Tajikistans border with Afghanistan to fend off militants and terrorists.

The political message of a dress code is quite clear. It is to control an important element of people's private lives and impose a set of centrally designed uniforms on the masses. by

But research by the British think-tank, Chatham House, into Central Asian Muslim radicalisation has shown that there is little or no evidence of significant levels of Islamic extremism and political violence in Central Asia. If there is, it is isolated, localised and inhibited by secularisation. The paper argues that claims about general Muslim radicalisation in the region constitute a myth not supported by evidence.

The myth acts as a legitimating device for the militant secularism of weak regimes, the paper says. And indeed the repressive measures taken by Tajikistans president demonstrate that his secularism could be more dangerous than violent extremism.

The terms used in official speeches by the president and the culture minister are, moreover, contradictory, controversial and at times outright insulting.

To start with, it is unclear how the clothes could at once be in line with Tajik traditions and yet modern. In the Soviet era, tradition referred mainly to Islam. It was held by most political scientists that tradition diminished as modernisation and secularisation gradually spread.

It is also not clear what is meant by traditional clothes. With over 90 percent of the population being Muslim, traditions have always been predominantly influenced by Islamic culture in any case. Even the mighty Soviet machinery of control and secularisation did not deter the people from carrying on their Islamic traditions.

READ MORE: Tajikistan  Indefinite autocracy takes hold

In his speech, the culture minister clarifies that what he means by alien is Arab. That doesnt help either, since it is not clear how he makes a distinction between Islamic culture and Arab culture. Then he uses another ironic excuse saying the Islamic hijab is not suited to the hot climate of Tajikistan and it is, therefore, unhygienic.

The political message of a dress code, however, is quite clear. It is to control an important element of peoples private lives and impose a set of centrally designed uniforms on the masses. Weve seen it in many other states, new and old, Islamic and non-Islamic, but always authoritarian.

While the dress code in Iran, for example, specified by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance orders women to wear full Islamic cover including scarves of pre-defined length and colour, the dress code in Tajikistan wants to remove all that and replace it with a traditional uniform. In Iran and Saudi Arabia, the morality police would ensure that women followed the dress code, in Tajikistan, the new commission will enforce modern Tajik fashion. The dress code in Tajikistan is the last in a long line of measures to impose secular appearances.

The Almighty is known by the mind and worshipped in his heart, not by the garment, satr, hijab, turban and beard, the Tajik president has said.

That may be plausible to some, but then it could be regarded as insulting to those who choose the Islamic style. And the insults are at times fabricated to justify the forced secularisation. Eurasianet reported that Tajik official TV aired a programme in which women wearing the hijab were portrayed as sex workers, saying they earned more money by wearing the full Islamic cover.

In authoritarian states, individual freedoms are subordinate to the centralised power, which is maintained by political repression and the exclusion of potential challengers.

READ MORE: Trouble in Tajikistan

The aim in Tajikistan is clearly the exclusion of IRPT, whose activity has been banned and whose members are all in prison or in exile. The 1997 peace deal between President Rahmon and IRPT promised the opposition 30 percent of ministerial posts. This year, for the first time, the party has no representation in parliament.

It could be argued that IRPT has posed no security threat. True that its members have gone against some clauses of the peace agreement by making political statements in mosques and encouraging people to guard their Islamic traditions, but thats a far cry from actually posing a threat or having a connection to militant groups.

And on the other end of the scale, President Rahmon has used all state institutions to turn his tenure from five years to life and turn his presidency into a hereditary monarchy in which his son is the next in line.

His wish to secularise Tajikistan will, however, have little or no impact unless the political process connects with the public. After 25 years in power, he has failed to create any real change in the hearts and minds of the people or in the fabric of the society.

Massoumeh Torfeh is the former director of strategic communication at the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and is currently a research associate at the London School of Economics and Political Science, specialising in Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Suicide bomb explosion was followed by four hours of gunfight that ended after Afghan forces killed all attackers.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing and a gun attack on the Iraqi embassy in Afghanistans capital, Kabul.

A suicide bomber blew himself up outside the gates of the embassy on Monday before three gunmen stormed into the building, setting off a four-hour firefight that ended after Afghan security forces killed all attackers.

Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish told reporters that two Afghan employees of the Iraq embassy died in the attack. Three police were injured.

Initial reports suggested that the suicide bomber was in a car, but later on it became clear that the attacker was on foot.

ISIL, also known ISIS, claimed its fighters killed seven guards, but Afghanistans interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said only one police officer was injured in the assault.

Danish told the AP news agency over the phone that all the embassy staffers were safe, but that the building had suffered extensive damage with windows broken and several rooms badly burned.

We heard two explosions near the Iraqi embassy and part of the building has been damaged, Mohsen Negaresh, a witness, told Al Jazeera.

At least one other eyewitness, a store owner who goes by the name of Hafizullah  many Afghans use only one name  said he saw the bodies of two policemen on the ground before armoured personnel carriers and police arrived to cordon off the area.

READ MORE: UN condemns jump in Afghan civilian deaths

The Iraqi embassy is located in a part of the city known as Shahr-e-Naw, which lies outside the so-called Green Zone where most foreign embassies and diplomatic missions are located and which is heavily fortified with a phalanx of guards and giant cement blast walls.

Instead, the embassy is located in a residential area with homes, schools, shops and restaurants.

It is usually very busy in this area. It was shut down today as that gunfire went on, Al Jazeeras Jennifer Glasse, reporting from Kabul, said.

I think Iraqis were caught very much by surprise. Their embassy is not in the Green Zone. It was on the main street with people and traffic going by.

She said Afghans were very upset with the government, especially in Kabul, asking why it is not able to protect them even in the capital.

Security was beefed up in Kabul in the last couple of weeks in the wake of the May 31 truck bombing that killed 150 people, but ISIL still managed to get in with a suicide vest and a lot of ammunition that let them hold fire for several hours, Glasse said.

The attack comes a week after at least 35 people were killed in a Taliban-claimed suicide attack on government workers in Kabul and underlines the precarious security in Afghanistan as the US administration considers an overhaul of its policy in the region.

We will hunt them down until they are no longer a threat to the Afghan people and the region, he said.

ISIL is believed to be on the back foot in the Middle East, where analysts have said it has lost more than 60 percent of its territory and 80 percent of its revenue, three years after declaring its self-styled caliphate across swaths of Iraq and Syria.

NATO forces ended their combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of 2014. Since then, Afghan troops and police, beset by soaring casualties, have struggled to beat back the fighters.

The US is considering whether to send thousands more troops to help Afghan forces as the country is gripped by increasing insecurity.
Beijings efforts to reduce North Korea tensions will not yield practical results, says Chinas UN envoy.

Chinas UN envoy has said it is primarily up to the United States and North Korea, not Beijing, to reduce tensions and work towards resuming talks to end Pyongyangs nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programmes.

Liu Jieyis remark came on Monday after US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he was very disappointed China had done nothing for Washington with regards to North Korea who a day earlier conducted its second test this month of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).





Jieyi said [the US and North Korea] hold the primary responsibility to keep things moving, to start moving in the right direction, not China.

No matter how capable China is, Chinas efforts will not yield practical results because it depends on the two principal parties, Liu said, speaking at a news conference marking the end of Beijings presidency of the UN Security Council in July.

Without naming anyone, he also accused relevant countries of violating Security Council resolutions by heightening tensions and failing to resume negotiations.

Al Jazeeras Gabriel Elizondo, reporting from the UN headquarters in New York, said Jieyi was responding to a question about North Koreas missile test and he spoke for nearly 13 minutes.

It gives an idea of how much China wanted to respond to Trumps comment. And it was a very strong response, pointing a finger directly at North Korea and the US, our correspondent said.

He said that his country clearly believes in peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula and China is willing to work with all parties.

Done talking

Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, said on Sunday Washington was done talking about North Korea and China must decide if it was willing to back imposing stronger UN sanctions on Pyongyang.

Were constantly in touch. Communication has never stopped on what the council should do, Liu told reporters. The new resolution is under discussion in the Security Council.

For nearly a month, the US has been in talks with North Korean ally China on a draft UN Security Council resolution to impose stronger sanctions on North Korea.

Haley gave China a draft text after North Koreas July 4 ICBM test.

READ MORE: North Korea  Second ICBM test proves US in strike range

Traditionally, the US and China have negotiated sanctions on North Korea before formally involving other council members.

Liu said China was looking at the best way Security Council action could achieve de-nuclearisation, maintenance of peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and a resumption of talks.

And also what measures should be put in place to prevent further [missile] testing and at least to make sure that the non-proliferation regime works better to stop the nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, he said.

He reiterated Chinas opposition to the deployment of a US anti-missile defence system, known as THAAD, in South Korea.

That is not the way to counter the purported testing by [North Korea], he said. It has a big negative impact on the strategic stability of the region.
US oversight body on Afghanistan says Taliban holds large swaths of country as it notes a rise in opium production.

A new quarterly report published by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) shows the US has failed to account for hundreds of millions of dollars it spent on propping up the Afghan government, while the value of opium production in the country has doubled in a year.

The US has spent more than $714bn in the past 15 years supporting Afghanistans governments, bolstering its armed forces and building infrastructure in the country, but owing to a rampant culture of corruption and lack of US monitoring on the ground, the results are less than satisfactory.

According to SIGAR, despite the massive US spending, the balance between the US-backed Afghan government and armed groups fighting against it has remained at a standstill since 2016. Sixty percent of the total districts in the country are under government control and the remaining 40 percent remain under the Taliban or under the control of other armed groups.

OPINION: What should the US next move be in Afghanistan?

The number of bombings and clashes between fighters and government forces also increased during the reporting period.

From March 1 through May 31, 2017, the UN recorded 6,252 security incidents, a 21 percent increase from last quarter, stated the report.

January 1, 2017, through May 8, 2017, there were 2,531 [Afghan forces] service members killed in action and an additional 4,238 wounded in action.

Also, the estimated value of opium and its by-products produced in Afghanistan increased to $3.02bn in 2016 from $1.56bn in 2015.

Although the  programs provided some assistance to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces, it is almost impossible to assess whether this assistance was worth the $457.7 million spent on these programs, the report said.

On June 13, 2017, Secretary of Defense James Mattis told the Senate Armed Services Committee the US was not winning in Afghanistan right now, and we will correct this as soon as possible.

New US strategy for Afghanistan

Mattis is expected to deliver the Trump administrations new strategy for Afghanistan, Pakistan and India in the coming days. The new US strategy is expected, according to some reports, to send more US troops to Afghanistan as advisers and trainers to its armed forces.

But a Department of Defense (DoD) official, who declined to speak publicly because he is not authorised to do so, told Al Jazeera that the thinking among top DoD brass is that the new strategy on Afghanistan could go either way.

The administration has yet to decide whether to increase the level of troops in Afghanistan or even decrease it, said the official.

The new regional strategy will also see a different approach to Pakistan, the DOD official said.





Pakistan might see a tougher approach by the Trump administration that requires it to end its practice of providing sanctuary for insurgent elements inside its territories, he said.

A report by The Wall Street Journal on Sunday, however, quoted a senior administration official saying the Trump White House might scale back the US troops presence in Afghanistan.

If the Trump administration has decided to scale back US troops presence, the current situation in the country might become worse than it is today.

SIGAR recommended in its report that the US must not shy away from taking risks and should venture beyond the heavily fortified US-government compounds to monitor the US investments and spending in the country.

But if the administration decides to scale back the US footprints in the country, it will be less clear how the US will account for the billions of dollars already earmarked to be spent in Afghanistan during the 2018 fiscal year.

SIGAR is concerned that US officials, whether at State, USAID, Justice, Treasury, Commerce, or elsewhere, cannot oversee the billions of dollars the United States is dedicating to Afghan reconstruction if, for the most part, they cannot leave the US embassy compound, said John Sopko, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.

Hunkering down behind blast walls damages not only the US civilian mission but also handicaps the US military mission, he said.

Follow Ali Younes on Twitter @ali_reports
In open letter to PM Modi, 114 condemn attacks on Muslims and low-caste Dalits by Hindu cow-protection vigilante groups.

More than 100 Indian military veterans have condemned the targeting of Muslims and low-caste Dalits over suspicions of beef consumption and cattle slaughter in an open letter to Narendra Modi, Indias prime minister.

The letter sent to Modi and state chief ministers over the weekend and released on Monday spoke of a climate of fear and intimidation perpetuated by Hindu cow-protection vigilante groups in the country.

What is happening in our country today strikes at all that the armed forces, and indeed what our constitution, stands for, the letter signed by 114 veterans and sent by email said.

We are witness to unprecedented attacks on society at large by the relentless vigilantism of self-appointed protectors of Hinduism.

OPINION: What is behind Indias epidemic of mob lynching?

The veterans condemned the targeting of Muslims and Dalits as well as what they called the clampdowns on free speech through a campaign of anti-national branding.

We can no longer look away. We would be doing a disservice to our country if we do not stand up and speak for the liberal and secular values that our constitution espouses, the letter added, demanding action against such groups.

Indias Hindu majority regard the cow as holy, and their slaughter is banned in several Indian states.

Since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014, there have been increasing incidents of mob violence and lynchings targeting Muslims and Dalits, for whom beef and buffalo meat are a staple food.

Cow vigilantes

In May 2017, two Muslim men suspected of stealing cows died of injuries sustained after being assaulted by villagers in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, according to local police.

In June, about 20 men attacked four Muslims on a train in the outskirts of New Delhi, fatally stabbing a teenager and seriously injuring two others.





The Indian government had placed a nationwide ban on the sale and purchase of cattle for slaughter at animal markets in May, which was later suspended by the Supreme Court.

Critics accuse far-right Hindu groups, some linked to the BJP, of fomenting or not doing enough to stop violence against Muslims and lower-caste Hindus who eat beef or work in the meat and leather industries.

Modi denies the accusation and has publicly criticised so-called cow vigilantes.

In another development on Monday, the Indian parliament witnessed a debate on the violence, with Mallikarjun Kharge, an opposition leader, accusing the Modi government of indirectly supporting the Hindu far right.

Violence in the name of protecting cows is not stopping, he said. The entire country is living in fear and there is an atmosphere of terror.

READ MORE: Indias battle over buffalo meat

It is shameful that the government is incapable of taking any action.

The Not In My Name campaign was launched across India in June to protest against the wave of attacks on Muslims by mobs.

According to data analytic website India Spend, 97 percent of attacks related to cow vigilantism since 2010 were reported after the BJP came to power in 2014.
Discussions of common interest held in Jeddah during influential Shia leaders first visit to the kindgom since 2006.

Iraqs influential Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr has made a rare visit to Saudi Arabia, where he met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other officials.

Sadrs office released a statement on Sunday, saying he had been invited to the kingdom.

He was greeted by Thamer al-Sabhan, Saudi Arabias former ambassador to Iraq, on his arrival in the kingdom on Sunday.

Sadr, who last visited Saudi Arabia in 2006, attended discussions of common interest during his trip to the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, Saudi state news agency SPA reported.

OPINION: Iraq  The reinvention of Muqtada al-Sadr

We have been very pleased with what we found to be a positive breakthrough in the Saudi-Iraqi relations, and we hope it is the beginning of the retreat of sectarian strife in the Arab-Islamic region, a statement from Sadrs office said.

Iraq and Saudi Arabia agreed last month to set up a coordination council to upgrade strategic ties as part of an attempt to heal troubled relations between the Arab neighbours.

The Iran factor

Saudi Arabia reopened its embassy in Baghdad in 2015 following a 25-year break.

In February this year, Adel al-Jubeir made a rare visit to Baghdad, marking the first official visit by a Saudi foreign minister to Iraq since 1990.

Iraq lies on the faultline between Shia Iran and Sunni-ruled Arab Gulf monarchies.

READ MORE: Muqtada al-Sadr threatens to boycott Iraq elections

Saudi Arabia is concerned about the influence of its rival Iran in Iraq, which backs Shia fighters battling the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group there.

Sadr is among those who have called for the Shia fighters to be disbanded.

Sadr, an anti-American Shia leader, commands a large following among the urban poor of Baghdad and the southern cities, including Saraya al-Islam, or Peace Brigades militia.

He had lost some of his political influence in recent years but has brought himself back into relevance by calling for demonstrations to push for reforms.
Chris Msandos body was found in a forest outside Nairobi just over a week before election he was supposed to oversee.

An official charged with overseeing Kenyas electronic voting system has been found dead just days before the August 8 presidential election, according to the commissions chairman.

The body of Chris Msando, a top information technology manager at the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), has been identified at the city morgue, Wafula Chebukati, IEBC chairperson, said on Monday.

There was no doubt he was tortured and murdered. The only question in our mind is who [killed him] and why he was killed a few days to elections, Chebukati told reporters.

Msando was declared missing over the weekend.

In an earlier statement, Chebukati said Msando was last seen on Friday night and sent a text message to a colleague early on Saturday morning suggesting that he was conscious and fully aware of his itinerary for that day.

A mortuary employee said Msandos body was brought in by police on Saturday alongside that of a woman.

Both were naked and appeared to have been tortured before their bodies were dumped in a forest in Kiambu, outside Nairobi.

It was unclear why it took 48 hours for the body to be identified.

READ MORE: Why Kenyas presidential election on August 8 matters

Msando was in charge of a system of electronic voter identification and vote counting seen as crucial to avoid rigging, and was the second in command in the commissions IT department.

A source close to the IEBC told AFP news agency that Msando had helped seal loopholes that could be used to manipulate vote tallies.

Msandos death should be urgently investigated, Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

Msandos killing comes as the electoral management body was due to audit its systems, a week away from the election day, said the groups Africa researcher Otsieno Namwaya.

Chebukati announced the cancellation of that audit after Msandos killing.

Al Jazeeras Catherine Soi, reporting from Nairobi, said the death adds to the doubt cast on the forthcoming election.

This is just adding more doubt and more tension to the situation in the country ahead of the election. People want to know why he was killed, who would benefit most from his death, and they want a very speedy investigation, she said.

And whatever happens, they want a credible and fair election.

Mysterious attack

Msandos death follows a mysterious attack at the home of deputy president William Ruto on Saturday in Eldoret, northwest of Nairobi.

Police say a lone assailant killed one police officer, wounded another, then held off security forces for nearly 24 hours before being killed.

The race for the presidential polls between President Uhuru Kenyatta and longtime opposition leader Raila Odinga has been bad-tempered and tight.

Both sides have accused the other of underhand tactics in the run-up to the polls, with the president saying Odinga was trying to divide the nation and provoke violence, and the opposition leader claiming Kenyatta planned to rig the poll.

Odingas opposition alliance NASA condemned the heinous murder of Msando, saying in a statement they were gravely concerned about its implications.

That no effort was made to camouflage this killing as an accident shows the determination of the killers to send a chilling message that they will stop at nothing to ensure the outcome they desire, read the statement.
Under a deal between Hezbollah and Syrian opposition groups, 9,000 fighters and their relatives will return to Syria.

The transfer of thousands of Syrian fighters and refugees from Lebanons border region into rebel territory in Syria in exchange for Hezbollah prisoners has been delayed to Tuesday.

A Hezbollah military media unit said that the delay was to allow for logistical measures, including the arrival to the area of all buses being used for transportation under a local ceasefire deal.

Under the deal between the opposition fighters and Hezbollah, about 9,000 rebels and their relatives were to leave to rebel-head areas in Syria in exchange for eight Hezbollah fighters held by the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly known as the al-Nusra Front.

The first step of the ceasefire, brokered by Lebanons internal security agency, unfolded on Sunday as the two sides exchanged the bodies of dead fighters.

The deal includes the departure of all Jabhat Fateh al-Sham fighters from Lebanons border region around the town of Arsal, along with any civilians in nearby refugee camps who wish to go.

READ MORE: Hezbollah makes gains in Syria-Lebanon border assault

The truce echoes deals struck within Syria in which Damascus has shuttled rebels and civilians to Idlib province and other opposition areas. Such evacuations have helped President Bashar al-Assad recapture several rebel bastions over the past year.

Speaking from Labweh, a Lebanese town near the border, Al Jazeeras Imtiaz Tyab called the latest deal unprecedented.

This is the first time that were seeing a deal which would see such a large number of Syrian refugees and fighters who are opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and have been in open conflict with Hezbollah and Lebanese forces, exit the area and go to another area in Syria, he said.

Lebanons Hezbollah has played a major role in fighting rebels along the frontier during Syrias six-year war, sending thousands of combatants to support Assads government.

Last week, Hezbollah took most of the mountainous zone of Juroud Arsal in a joint offensive with the Syrian army to drive Jabhat Fateh al-Sham fighters from their last border foothold.





The Lebanese army, which receives considerable US and British military support, did not take an active part in the operation, setting up defensive positions around Arsal.

The next phase is expected to target a nearby enclave currently in the hands of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

The UN refugee agency, not involved in the deal, was trying to reach refugees in the Arsal region to evaluate whether returns were voluntary, spokeswoman Lisa Abou Khaled said.

UNHCR believes that conditions for refugees to return in safety and dignity are not yet in place in Syria, she said, with war continuing across large swaths of the country.

The multi-sided Syrian conflict has killed hundreds of thousands of people and driven at least 11 million from their homes  about half of Syrias pre-war population.

Nearly 1.5 million refugees have poured into Lebanon and they now make up around a quarter of the countrys population. Most languish in severe poverty and several thousand live in makeshift camps east of Arsal.
Foreign minister says there has been no suggestion by any Qatari official about internationalising the pilgrimage issue.

Qatars foreign minister has rebutted accusations by his Saudi counterpart that Qatar is trying to politicise the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca.

Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabias foreign minister, appeared to accuse Qatar on Sunday of politicising the issue and declaring a war against the kingdom by demanding the internationalisation of the Hajj.

The claim was rejected by Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in an interview with Al Jazeera.

Qatar never politicised the issue of Hajj, he said.

It was Saudi Arabia trying to politicise the Hajj pilgrimage amid the Gulf crisis.

There has been no suggestion by any Qatari official about internationalising the issue.

The Hajj is an annual pilgrimage to Mecca attended by hundreds of thousands of Muslims from around the world.

Jubeir was quoted by Al Arabiyas website as saying: Qatars demands to internationalise the holy sites is aggressive and a declaration of war against the kingdom  We reserve the right to respond to anyone who is working on the internationalisation of the holy sites.

Jubeirs statement

In a separate statement in the Bahraini capital of Manama on the same day, Jubeir denied what he called claims that Saudi Arabia was trying to politicise the Hajj.

We reject attempts by Qatar to politicise the issue and consider it disrespect to the Hajj and pilgrims, he said.

Qatar accused the Saudis of politicising the Hajj and addressed the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion on Saturday, expressing concern about obstacles facing Qataris who want to attend Hajj this year.

Qataris are allowed to go to Hajj by Saudi authorities, but they can access the country via only two designated airports: King Abdulaziz Airport in Jeddah and Prince Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Airport in Medina.

READ MORE: Qatar accuses Saudi Arabia of politicising Hajj

The citizens of Qatar who are abroad will have to return to the country, during the Hajj period at the end of August and beginning of September, to be able to enter Saudi Arabia by way of one of the designated airports.

Furthermore, Saudi Arabias General Authority of Civil Aviation has said Qatar Airways flights are banned even for pilgrims during the Hajj period.

The land border with Saudi Arabia has been closed since June 5, preventing pilgrims from reaching Saudi Arabia via land.

The fact that Qatari diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia are also closed means there is no authority to appeal to for Qataris in case issues come up during Hajj.

The moves are designed to set obstacles for the pilgrims from Qatar to Mecca, according to Qatars Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs (Awqaf).

Registrations reach 20,000

Ali Sultan al-Misifry, director of Hajj and Umrah department at Awqaf, said the number of registrations by national and resident pilgrims had reached 20,000.

Many of these registrants have joined Hajj campaign to begin their holy ritual. However, then the Saudi ministrys refusal to communicate and to provide safety guarantees led to the apprehension of the pilgrims, Misifry said, according to Qatari news media.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain previously issued a list of 13 demands for Qatar, which included curtailing its support for the Muslim Brotherhood, shutting down the Doha-based Al Jazeera channel, closing a Turkish military base and downgrading its relations with Gulf enemy Iran.

On Sunday, foreign ministers of the four countries said they were ready for dialogue with Qatar if it showed willingness to tackle their demands and fights terrorism.
US envoy to the UN Nikki Haley says China must decide on further action against North Korea over its missile programmes.

The United States is done talking about North Korea and China must decide if it is willing to back imposing stronger United Nations sanctions on North Korea over its two long-range missile tests this month, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Sunday.

Haley said in a statement that any new UN Security Council resolution that does not significantly increase the international pressure on North Korea is of no value.

The US flew two supersonic B-1B bombers as a show of force after Pyongyang fired a second intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Friday.

China must decide whether it is finally willing to take this vital step. The time for talk is over, she said.

The Chinese mission to the UN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The US has been in talks with China, North Koreas ally, on a draft UN Security Council resolution to impose stronger sanctions on North Korea. Haley gave China a draft text after North Koreas July 4 ICBM test.

Haley said last Tuesday that the US had been making progress with China.

Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Monday he spoke with US President Donald Trump by phone and that they agreed on the need to take further action on North Korea.

Abe told reporters that he praised Trumps commitment on North Korea and that he would make the utmost efforts to protect the Japanese public.

Missile programme

Some diplomats had expected the US, Japan and South Korea to ask for the 15-member UN Security Council to meet on Monday over the test. Haley said that the US saw no point in having an emergency session if it produces nothing of consequence.

Such a meeting would have set the stage for a likely showdown between the US and Russia over whether Fridays launch was a long-range rocket test. It was unclear if any other Security Council members, such as Japan, planned to request a meeting.

Diplomats say China and Russia only view a long-range missile test or nuclear weapon test as a trigger for further possible UN Security Council sanctions.

The Pentagon and South Korean military believe Fridays test was an ICBM. However, a Russian Defence Ministry official said Moscows data indicated it was only a medium-range missile.

The US and Russia have waged rival campaigns at the Security Council over the type of ballistic missile fired by North Korea on July 4. Western powers said it was an ICBM, while Russia said it was medium-range.

North Korea has been under UN sanctions since 2006 over its ballistic missile and nuclear programmes and the Security Council has ratcheted up the measures in response to five nuclear weapons tests and two long-range missile launches.

Haley has said some options to strengthen UN sanctions were to restrict the flow of oil to North Koreas military and weapons programmes, increasing air and maritime restrictions and imposing sanctions on senior officials.
Britains High Court rules that a crime under aggression charge against the former PM does not exist in domestic law.

Britains High Court has blocked an attempt by an Iraqi ex-general to prosecute former Prime Minister Tony Blair for invading Iraq in 2003.

General Abdulwaheed Shannan Al Rabbats case centred on the concept that a crime of aggression would be recognised under English law. But the High Court said that while the concept exists under international law, it does not exist in domestic law at present.

Having formed the view that there is no prospect of the Supreme Court overturning the decision [by the lower court], it is our duty to refuse permission to bring the proceedings for judicial review, it said.

The former army generals lawyers said in a statement on Monday that the judgment sets a dangerous precedent in times of global insecurity and called on parliament to enact a law making accountability clear in the future.

The United States and Britain were part of a coalition that invaded Iraq in 2003, following accusations that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein held weapons of mass destruction.

Lawyers for Al Rabbat had argued that last years publication of the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war had given new grounds to prosecute Blair.

The inquiry concluded that Blairs government had decided to invade Iraq before exhausting peaceful options, used intelligence presented with a certainty that was not justified, and undermined the authority of the United Nations.

Following its publication, Blair admitted mistakes in planning and process but said he would take the same decision again.
Mexico, Colombia and Peru join US rejecting Venezuelas election results as Washington imposes sanctions on Maduro.

The United States, Mexico, Colombia and Peru among other countries have said they do not recognise the results of Venezuelas election of an all-powerful new legislative body while the European Union has expressed doubt it could accept the outcome.

Nikki Haley, the US envoy to the UN, on Monday, called the vote a sham, and the US treasury department added President Nicolas Maduro to a list of individuals subject to financial sanctions for undermining democracy in Venezuela.

Yesterdays illegitimate elections confirm that Maduro is a dictator who disregards the will of the Venezuelan people, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.





By sanctioning Maduro, the United States makes clear our opposition to the policies of his regime and our support for the people of Venezuela who seek to return their country to a full and prosperous democracy.

The EU condemned the excessive and disproportionate use of force by Venezuelan police and troops against the people protesting against Maduro and the new Constituent Assembly, which will supersede Venezuelas opposition-controlled National Assembly and reform the constitution giving Maduros Socialist Party almost total power to rule.

The European Commission said in a statement: A Constituent Assembly, elected under doubtful and often violent circumstances, cannot be part of the solution.

However, Russia, Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia have stood by Maduro, who shrugged off mass protests and US sanctions on some officials to see through the election.

Russias foreign ministry said in a statement that it hopes countries who apparently want to increase economic pressure on Caracas will display restraint and abandon their destructive plans.

Bolivia echoed that, urging the world to respect the democratic process that took place in Venezuela.

Maduro claims victory

We have a Constituent Assembly, Maduro said in a speech to hundreds of supporters in central Caracas after the electoral authority put Sundays voter turnout at 41.5 percent.

According to the opposition, voter turnout was closer to 12 percent, a figure more aligned with the lack of lines that were seen at many polling stations.

The new Assembly is made up solely of members of Maduros ruling Socialist Party as the opposition boycotted the vote.

It is due to be installed on Wednesday. Its members include Maduros wife, Cilia Flores.

READ MORE: What is a National Constituent Assembly?

We do not recognise this fraudulent process, said an opposition leader, Henrique Capriles.

The opposition coalition, the Democratic Unity Roundtable, said the new body was a rubber-stamp mechanism for Maduro to rule as a dictator.

Al Jazeeras John Holman, reporting from Caracas, said the members of the National Assembly, which lost most of its powers, are mystified about the changes.

They are saying We have been democratically elected by 40 million Venezuelans. How can we bend [to the new assembly]?, he said. But there is little that they can actually do apart from getting people out to the streets and try to persuade people to come over to their side.

People have already been in the streets protesting against the government for four months. More than 120 people have been killed in clashes with the police.

More protests were planned for Monday despite a ban on demonstrations imposed by Maduro that threatened up to 10 years in prison for violators.
Allies, rivals, partners: How two tech visionaries inspired the digital revolution and changed the lives of billions.

Editors note: This film will be removed on February 22, 2020.

On May 30, 2007, two of Americas most brilliant minds, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, sat down for a joint interview at the All Things Digital Conference. The two pioneers of the computer world spoke fondly of the others contribution to technology.

But what preceded this historic exchange was more than three decades of rocky collaborations and rivalry. Gates and Jobs had battled to dominate a new age and, in the process, revolutionised billions of lives.

Though they never worked in the same company, they created an industry together, and we have a hippie and a nerd  With Bill, it was always about the money. With Steve  money was nice, but it was never about the money. And so that made them black and white. Up and down. Hot and cold. They were very, very different people, says journalist Robert Cringely, who worked with Gates and Jobs in the late-1970s.

So what was the rivalry between Jobs and Gates all about?

Allies: Microsoft and Apple

Steve Jobs was a much better marketer than Bill Gates was. But he was not really that technical. He was not a technical code writer. Bill Gates could write code and write good code. by Nolan Bushnell, electrical engineer and businessman, founder of Atari

In the 1970s, the computer world consisted of enormous machines, super computers that only the largest companies could afford. It was a market dominated by the US multinational IBM.

A native of Seattle and son of a well-off family, Bill Gates created computer programmes and software during his high school and university days with his friend, Paul Allen. They dropped out of Harvard and founded Microsoft in 1975.

In Palo Alto, California, another duo emerged: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, two high school students who were obsessed with new technology, established the Apple computer company in April 1976.

While Microsoft created BASIC, software that sold to all major computer companies, Jobs and Wozniak invented the first personal computer. In the spring of 1977, they unveiled the Apple II, the first PC designed for the general public.

Sales were phenomenal, but the Apple II had a serious handicap, and Gates had the solution: BASIC.

The complex relationship between Gates and Jobs began, and in the late-1970s, Microsoft made most of its money writing software for Apple.

Hand in hand: Building the Mac

In 1980, Apple went public. Meanwhile, Gates signed a lucrative contract with IBM: His new computer operating system, MS-DOS, would run all IBM computers.

Maybe the smartest thing he ever did in computer business was that he got IBM to sign a deal that gave him a one-time payment, but allowed him to license it to other people who might clone IBMs PC. IBM did not really think anybody else was going to successfully clone their PC, so they didnt care, says journalist Walt Mossberg.

At the beginning of the 1980s, Jobs and Gates were still under 30, but they were the two key players in a rapidly expanding industry.

Microsoft and Apple worked hand in hand for the first few years of the Mac, with Jobs in the spotlight.

We were not competitors at all at that point. They were our allies at helping making the Macintosh happen. So we got along very well with them, they were similar to us in many ways, says Andy Hertzfeld, a former Apple employee.

However, knowing that the Macs renowned graphical user interface represented the future of personal computers, Gates worked on cloning the Mac.

Rivals: Windows, Toy Story and two billionaires

The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste ... I have no problem with their success ... I have a problem with the fact that they just make really third-rate products. Their products have no spirit to them. by Steve Jobs about Microsoft, 1996

When Microsoft launched the first version of its new operating system Windows, it was the end of their collaboration.

There was a pretty strong disagreement when Windows came out  Of all of the things that have happened between the two companies, that was the thing that upset Apple the most  says former Microsoft president, Jon Shirley.

Within 10 years, Windows 95 was installed on almost all computers on the market. With Windows 95, Gates and the PC dethroned the Mac, and the geek from Seattle became the richest man in the world.

Microsofts success and mediocre Mac sales brought out an authoritarian side in Jobs, causing rifts within his own company.

It came down to eventually  a war between [CEO] John Sculley and Steve Jobs. And in the end, because Steve Jobs had actually burnt out so many people and created so much animosity and fear about himself, when the board came to vote, it was almost like the entire company voted that they would rather not have Steve Jobs around anymore, says Bruce Damer, the curator of the DigiBarn Computer Museum.

Soon after his eviction from Apple in 1985, Jobs created a new company: NeXT. But it wasnt successful.

Jobs got back on his feet by investing in Pixar, a computer-animated film company. In 1995, Toy Story was the first fully computer-animated film to be released. It became a blockbuster and paved the way for Pixars global success.

Steve  grabbed the moment and took the company public. Based on nothing. We had basically no cash. We just had this movie and the New York critics said it was going to be good  He took that idea and sold it. He took Pixar public and became a billionaire overnight, says Pixar cofounder Alvy Ray Smith.

Partners: Creating the i-world

I by Jon

was somewhat jealous of the great success of the iPod and then iTunes  That was a  very brilliant thing to do because it just started changing the way people viewed electronic devices.]

More than 10 years after Jobs departure, Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy.

In 1996, Jobs returned to Apple.

Something happened at NeXT that did change Steve  For the first time, he began to care about profit and loss. He began to care about success, business success. He turned into a businessman, which he had never been before. He became a little more like Bill Gates, says Cringely.

A year after his return, Jobs announced a partnership with Microsoft, which included an $150m investment in Apple.

Jobs climbed to new heights, developing the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad.

It was no longer this sort of, Im in the shadow of Bill Gates  Apples become this enormously successful company  Apple does more business in iPhones than Microsoft does in total business. And theyre the most valuable company in the world now, says Shirley.

Peaceful rivalry

Gates decided to leave Microsoft and work full time at the foundation that he heads with his wife, Melinda, instead.

Steve Jobs didnt change the world. Steve Jobs capitalised on a lot of things. Bill changed the world. Bill made software what it is today. If Bill hadnt created the standards, MS-DOS, Windows, and was very dogmatic at making sure those standards took hold, we wouldnt have the technology we have today  Globally, he impacted the world in terms of what he did with software. He decided to do the same thing in philanthropy, says former Microsoft marketing executive Rowland Hanson.

In May 2011, Gates visited a dying Steve Jobs  a final farewell between the two men who shaped the computer world, transformed technology, and changed the way we live.

He and I  in a sense  grew up together. We were within a year of the same age and we were kind of naively optimistic and built big companies, and most of it as rivals, but we always retained a certain respect .., says Gates.
By unanimous vote, the Seattle City Council has now enacted an Income Tax ordinance imposing a tax on "high income residents, i.e, those whose annual incomes exceed $250,000 ($500,000 for joint filers).

The new legislation is largely the work of Councilwoman Kshama Sawant, an unabashed leftist and redistributionist who was elected on the Socialist Alternative party ticket, and who was a moving force behind Seattle's ill-advised $15 per hour minimum wage.

[Kshama immigrated from India to the United States, ostensibly to improve her economic situation. She went on to further her education, submitting her PhD dissertation in 2009. It is certainly fair to ask how this venture was underwritten.]

Kshama is only accepting $40,000 of her $117,000 annual salary, declaring that figure as "roughly the full-time take-home pay of a Seattleite."

After paying taxes, the remainder of my salary will go to a Solidarity Fund to help build social justice movements. Throughout the year I will be making donations from this Solidarity Fund to causes such as workers' strike funds, and environmental, civil rights, and women's rights campaigns.

Some flashing red lights here:

Firstly, just what is this "Solidarity Fund" and who administers it? Is it commingled with Kshama's regular bank accounts, and if so (and even if the excess funds are placed into a separate account over which she herself has signatory authority), are we to depend upon her self-control for assurances that she does in fact live on $40,000 per year? Where is the transparency in the Fund's administration?

Secondly, if indeed Kshama's personal annual budget is indeed $40,000 from a gross salary of $117,000, she has much more wiggle room in her budget than the burgerflippers who continue to suffer wage cutbacks and/or joblessness on account of the Seattle minimum wage law she pushed so assiduously to enact.

Thirdly, inasmuch the ObamaCare individual requirement to purchase healthcare insurance is part of the Internal Revenue Code, are Kshama's healthcare expenses part of the taxes in her "after paying taxes" qualification? And speaking of healthcare, does the $40,000 "take home" figure include the job perquisites and benefits she, as a Council member, receives but which are largely unavailable to the average Seattleite (think meals, transportation, parking, cell phone, home office, laptop computers, et cetera)?

Fourthly, when purchasing her $345,000 home, was Kshama's mortgage qualification based upon her gross monthly income, or on her purported $40,000 budget?

Kshama wrote an article posted on the leftist Jacobin website, in which she stated:

[W]e need to think deeply about where our strength lies and how to create disruption on an even greater scale. Working people have enormous potential power to shut down the profits of big business by taking action in their workplaces like slowdowns, sickouts, and strikes. (snip) Lets use the coming weeks to begin planning for workplace actions as well a mass peaceful civil disobedience that shuts down highways, airports, and other key infrastructure. Students can organize walkouts in their schools to send a powerful message that youth reject Trumps racism and misogyny.

Though she later insisted that her purported calls in the article civil disobedience in connection with May Day demonstrations would be peaceful, they proved to be violent and disruptive.

The Washington State Republican Party (WSRP) has rationally enumerated why Seattle's new tax is bound to fail to achieve its purported objectives, and bring some supposedly unintended economic and bureaucratic negative consequences.

But the WSRP's opposition does not end there; in its vehement opposition, WSRP calls:

for the overtaxed citizens of Seattle, on behalf of all citizens of the state, to forcefully resist a new income tax passed by the Seattle City Council. This law is unconstitutional, illegal, and against the voters will expressed nine times at the ballot box and it deserves nothing less than civil disobedience -- that is refusal to comply, file or pay. Dont be fooled! This is not a tax on the rich. This is a thinly veiled attempt to test the state constitutional limits of an income tax for all.

This pronunciamento from an official Republican organization, validly founded as it may be, sounds awfully like leftist Democratic rhetoric.

As noted by Emerson, "Of all debts men are least willing to pay the taxes."

Mass taxation protests have proven to be sources of potential upheaval and violence; the British Raj in India, the French Revolution, the Boston Tea Party, and the Whiskey Rebellion come immediately to mind.

The consequences of the WSRP's extreme stance are unpredictable. If things do get out of hand, will the Washington State Republican Party be held accountable in ways that Kshama Sawant was not?

WSRP does not stand alone in its opposition to the Seattle income tax; the Freedom Foundation and the Washington Policy Center have also come out against the tax. Given the uberleftist entrenchment in Seattle, and the possible synergies of the tax's opposition, how well this one plays out is anybody's guess.

Kenneth H. Ryesky, now a senior advisor in the U.S. Desk of Ernst & Young's International Tax Services in Tel Aviv, is a lawyer who has taught business law and taxation at Queens College CUNY. He formerly served as an attorney for the IRS.
When it became apparent that our feckless, er, ah, representatives in Congress werent going to have the cojones to do what they promised to do, the best that was going to come out of the Washington sausage factory was something well short of Repeal and Replace. Between bogus CBO pronouncements, proclamations of dead people lying in the streets, and turncoat Republicans (yeah, Im talking to you John Kasich) using Liberal talking points to sell the idea of expanded entitlements, the outcome was nothing less than optimal.

As senators crafted a skinny (read; anorexic) reform bill, the very best outcome was for the vast bulk of ObamaCare to live on in infamy, with Republicans now having a hand in its all-too certain collapsed future.

Republicans erred from the jump. We made the mistake of arguing against ObamaCare. ObamaCare, for all intents and purpose, is dead. We are at the proverbial healthcare fork in the road. The path ahead isnt ObamaCare versus some semblance of a Free Market system. The choices are; Single Payer (Socialism) versus the Free Market.

Bernie Sanders announced last week that hes; absolutely introducing a Single Payer Healthcare Bill.

Good. Lets have that debate.

Heres where it gets tricky though, for Republicans (as we always seem to get sucked into the wrong side of an emotional debate). Democrats, led by Bernie will appeal to the virtuousness of Single Payer (as a right), while asserting that there is no cost, or better yet, a shifted cost for its provision. The evil rich will pay for it. As other Democrat-led initiatives, there is never a shortage of other peoples money to advance their Progressive agenda. Republicans have tried to walk this tightrope, only to find themselves out-Santa-Claused (see: California).

We should engage this debate (Socialism vs Free Market), but on our terms.

You want Single Payer, Mr./Mrs. Citizen? Fine. How does 10% of your (across-the-board) Income sound?

Do you smoke/drink? Add 5%.

Are you fat? Add another 5%.

Are you confused about your gender? Add 5%.

Do you want to have multiple kids, out of wedlock? Add 5%

The Progressive Tax system in America has done a fantastic job (for progressives) of enabling the gradual expansion of state services to the masses, paid for by other people. This makes it real easy to appeal to the masses (for votes), in exchange for the redistribution of government largesse.

We (Republicans) will be at a major disadvantage in the next healthcare battle, unless we redefine the terms of the fight. Bernie, the Democrats, and the Media (but, I repeat myself) will make emotional appeals to the people that healthcare is a right. They will suggest that they (government) can provide better care at lower cost. A lie of course, but thats never seemed to stop liberals before (see; If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor).

We have an opportunity to articulate the virtues of a market-based system versus relinquishing the peoples health to the benevolence of government bureaucrats. I dont hold out hope that our, ahem, representatives are up to the task, but I for one am going to beat the free market drum as loud as I can. Hopefully, we can influence an honest discussion of the options. If you want the government to provide healthcare, you need to pay for it.

John McCain may have done the wrong thing, for the wrong reasons, but hes allowed the debate to progress to what it should have been all along  the Free Market versus Socialized Medicine. Thank you, John McCain.
Thanks to the orders of New York mayor Bill de Blasio, a privileged class of people has been created in that city's busy tourist Mecca, Times Square. Real estate in that crossroads has always been pricey, but with high-end hotels and other redevelopment, assured access to space, even on the sidewalk, is a prize for those who seek access to tourists and their money. None does this more avidly than desnudas, who are nude panhandlers who cover their bodies in paint (often with patriotic stars and colors).

The New York Post reports that not only are the desnudas getting out of hand, but the police are unable to apprehend them because they are protected under Mayor de Blasio's orders:

Costumed characters in Times Square are giving the finger to attempts to rein them in, refusing to stay in designated areas and continuing to curse in front of kiddies and threaten passers-by for dough. Foul-mouthed desnudas, grabby Hulks and tourist-terrorizing gangs of Minnie Mice are still brazenly holding the Crossroads of the World hostage even amid a heavy presence of NYPD cops, who act oblivious to their disturbing antics. At any given moment on two recent afternoons, only half of the two-dozen tip-mooching characters stayed behind the blue lines of Times Square's "Designated Activity Zones," or DAZs, the city-mandated areas created last year as their boundary for posing for photos and asking for tips. Yet none of those who illegally strayed outside the zones were issued summonses by the half-dozen police patrolling the pedestrian plaza. A law-enforcement source shrugged that the officers' hands were tied since most of the costumed panhandlers are illegal  and under the de Blasio administration, it's a no-no to go after them.

The social and civic capital built up by Rudy Giuliani is being squandered.
Last week, AT contributor Steve Feinstein wrote about the British Supermarine Spitfire at Dunkirk. He postulates that Air Marshal Lord Hugh Dowding made the decision to withhold deployment of Spitfires to the continent, feeling they would be needed for the defense of British Isles and would be wasted in a futile effort in the Battle for France. (This point is debatable, considering that the vast majority of aircraft in Fighter Command was the sturdy and reliable Hawker Hurricane.) However, evidence shows that this attitude was mirrored in the use  or not  of British ground forces during the battle, where they were perhaps withdrawn based upon a similar notion for saving these forces for a later fight.

First, I'll clear up some misconceptions.

The Campaign in Poland

The Germans' campaign to defeat Poland was completed not in a matter of a "few short weeks." It was about five weeks of extremely tough fighting. The Germans had already gained a positional advantage by having forces attack from the west and from the north out of East Prussia. In addition, Slovak allies attacked from the south. Then, on 17 September 1939, the USSR attacked from the east. Yet, despite the maneuver advantage and outnumbering the Poles in tanks and planes, the fight against the Poles lasted only about one and a half weeks less than the campaign in France and the Low Countries. Also, the Germans lost over 16,000 men and 900 tanks. The Luftwaffe lost 285 aircraft with 279 more damaged, while the Poles lost 333 aircraft.

So the Blitzkrieg theory was still that: a theory. The Germans realized that Blitzkrieg tactics as developed by JFC Fuller on the plains of Salisbury were not always applicable to all-terrain types against a determined foe. It also didn't help that some German units were ill disciplined, with a few units even refusing to fight the tough Poles. In retrospect, we see now why there was a Phoney War, or Sitzkrieg. This was not the time to rush precipitously into France, since it was the time needed by the Germans to retrain, refit, and replace incompetent commanders in preparation for the Battle of France. There were three things the Germans did to fix the Blitzkrieg theory that would translate into a war-winning doctrine: emphasize mobile combined arms rather than armor breakthrough theory, develop robust communications, and hone air-ground integration. Nevertheless, the campaign in the Low Countries and France was a lot closer than many think.

The French and BEF in the Low Countries

When Germany invaded the Netherlands and Belgium on the 10th of May, the French and British Expeditionary Force (BEF) dutifully reacted according to the Dyle Plan and moved their best formations to counter what they thought was the main threat. In spite of their period of fixing lessons learned, the German Army found tough going in the Low Countries for several reasons. The Dutch, for example, had correctly assumed that the way to secure the country's bridges over the numerous water obstacles was by airborne assault. So they wisely developed mobile anti-aircraft units, which wreaked havoc among the German transport aircraft and escorting fighters. The German victories in securing airfields and bridges were some of the costliest in the campaign for the Luftwaffe and the Wehrmacht. Despite having a largely intact army, the Dutch government surrendered on 15 May, fearing German terror bombing of its cities more than any German ground attacks.

In Belgium, German air superiority was guaranteed by destroying the Belgian Air Force on the ground thanks to Luftwaffe aerial photo reconnaissance flights. On 12 and 13 May, the French and Germans fought the largest tank battle in history, at the time, at the Battle of Hannut, which disabled about 160 German tanks to a loss of about 120 for the French. Even though the Germans retained control of the battlefield, the fight was considered a French strategic victory in that it gained time for Allied troops in Belgium to move into good defensive positions. The next day, the Germans attempted the only frontal attack of their armor against well fortified Allied positions and were beaten back by the 1st Moroccan Infantry division, resulting in a further loss of 42 Panzers.

The Coup de Grace

The Germans' efforts in the Low Countries were having mixed results, yet they achieved their purpose by luring the French First Army and the BEF into a trap. However, the breakthrough at Sedan in the South by Heinz Guderian's Panzer forces was another close thing. The French in this sector overmatched Guderian's troops in artillery and held the high ground. Understanding the problem of getting artillery moved to the front through the Ardennes, maneuvering around units already experiencing massive traffic jams, Guderian relied on the Luftwaffe to blast his way through. Over 4,000 level bomber and dive bomber sorties were flown to blow a hole in the French positions. Even then, some German Panzer formations were repulsed by a stubborn defense, but enough French units broke under the sustained bombardment to create the needed gap in the lines. After a series of furious attacks and counter-attacks in the Sedan area that subsided on 17 May, Guderian was free to turn his Panzers loose toward the coast.

The French defeat at Sedan was more of a failure of leadership at the top rather than lack of fighting spirit in the units, but the German victories at Sedan and the Low Countries were dependent upon gaining and maintaining air superiority for airborne drops and for massive bombing raids on troop positions and civilians. If Air Marshall Dowding had committed the Spitfires to blunt the Luftwaffe's operations, the BEF and the best of the French units in the Low Countries perhaps wouldn't have had to conduct an evacuation. At the minimum, enough of a delay in the Germans' complex timetable would have allowed the Allied leadership to recover its senses and maneuver units to establish a coherent defensive scheme.

The question of a planned withholding of the Spitfires has also been raised by some historians in relation to the ground forces of the BEF. On the 16th of May, Winston Churchill flew to Paris to personally assess the situation and found the French High Command in total disarray. He attempted to bolster their spirits but was unable to do so. To the north in Belgium, the BEF and the French had seen little fighting after the initial assaults in the Low Countries.

Critics charge that it took until 20 May for German light armored reconnaissance units to close off supply routes to Allied units in the north and that no movement was made to counter-attack to the south by the best units the allies had. Lord Gort, the BEF commander, had not heard from his French commander for eight days but apparently was satisfied to sit and wait for a much delayed counterattack order. After the failed counterattack at Arras, on 23 May, Gort ordered the evacuation to Dunkirk. The lack of proactive decision-making was a disease that infected the commander of the BEF as much as the French high command in Paris. That was a fait accompli that forced the BEF withdrawal to "save" the BEF for later battles, much as the Spitfires were withheld for fighting over the Britain.

We will perhaps never know the true nature of the leaders' perception of the battle or their decision-making, but the popular conception of French softness vis-a-vis the British courage in the evacuation at Dunkirk needs to be re-thought. Let's not forget that the best units of the French Army were in the North with the BEF and covered the British withdrawal to the coast and were evacuated along with them. Four years later, the French came ashore on D-Day to help liberate their country. In the end, we must ask, who shortchanged whom?

John Smith is the pen name of a former U.S. intelligence officer.
Obamacare is on "pause" for the moment. We will probably not hear about it again until the 2018 premiums start hitting the front pages or more areas get left without an insurance carrier. And this is just around the corner!

This is why I believe that some red-state Democrats will regret the day that they followed Minority Leader Charles Schumer rather than look out for their voters.

What if a red-state Democrat had stepped forward and voted with the GOP to begin finding a solution to the problem? My guess is that the particular senator would have sealed his re-election in 2018.

We learned this week that Senator Manchin will be in for a fight in 2018. The GOP in West Virginia is not assuming that the popular Mr. Manchin will be re-elected. I wonder how Manchin will answer the question in a future debate: "Mr. Senator, why did you choose to stick with your party rather than West Virginia, hard hit by premium increases?"

By next spring, Obamacare will be in even bigger trouble than it is now.

This is a preview of premium increases for 2018:

Preliminary analysis suggests some of the most popular plans could see double-digit premium increases. Health care consulting firm Avalere analyzed initial rate estimates from eight states and found that premiums for "silver" plans (the most popular plans) are rising 18% next year, after a 12% increase this year. On top of that, 41% of counties in the U.S. will have just one insurer option on the marketplace.

I wonder how many of those counties are in West Virginia, Montana, Missouri, and the so-called red states.

Obamacare, the next chapter, will be back, but not in the context Democrats were looking forward to. The next fight will be about premium increases, and the program is still called "The Affordable Care Act."

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
A week has passed since the arrest of former House staffer Imran Awan, and the establishment media have given the event only superficial coverage. Awan, a Pakistani immigrant, was formerly employed by more than 30 House Democrats as an I.T. technician. Most members fired him following the announcement in February of an FBI probe into his potentially criminal behavior during his tenure as a Hill staffer. However, he remained an employee of Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz's D.C. office until he was arrested last Monday while attempting to flee to Pakistan.

News of Awan's arrest first broke on Fox News the morning after he was apprehended, while CNN, NBC, and ABC took more than a day to cover the story.

Thus far, CNN's only on-air acknowledgement of the controversy surrounding Awan has been an early-morning segment, running just under four minutes, in which Jake Tapper and Tom Foreman emphasized that Awan had been arrested only for bank fraud, and Foreman dismissed all other allegations against Awan as conspiracy theories.

Neither NBC nor ABC gave the story any network airtime.

The New York Times waited until Friday. Times writer Nicholas Fandos briefly discussed a smattering of allegations that prominent conservative media figures have leveled against Awan. Their concerns are presented devoid of any context and are clearly intended to be read as unhinged conspiracy theories. Indeed, Fandos uses the term "conspiracy theory" more than once and concludes that it is "hard to say" whether the whole narrative is "an overblown Washington story, typical of midsummer."

The media establishment's refusal to discuss the details of Awan's past evidences their continued dedication to shielding the Democratic party from scandal. In discussing only the accusations leveled by conservative media and President Trump, while making no mention of the very real ongoing criminal investigation into Awan, CNN and the Times are attempting to shepherd their audience away from the story.

Unmentioned key facts about Awan and his family include:

Awan was banned from accessing the House network in early 2017. He is under investigation for stealing House equipment and "committing serious, potentially illegal, violations on the House IT network."

A House I.T. staffer has alleged that Awan used congressional computers to transfer data to an off-site server.

Awan could view every email sent and received by the members who employed him and had complete access to staff computers.

Rather than firing Awan, Wasserman Schultz promoted him to an "advisory role." Spokesman David Damron explained that Awan would be "providing advice on technology issues," though it is unclear how he was expected to do so without being able to access the House network. Damron's statement contradicts the claim by the Times that Awan's duties were "mostly run of the mill: setting up new phones and computers, fixing printers, helping aides and members reset passwords."

Awan's salary was unusually high for a House I.T. staffer. According to public records, Awan has collected $1.5 million since 2010 and $2 million since he began on the Hill.

When the criminal probe was made public, Awan vacated his home in Virginia and began renting it to military families. A Marine renting the house found a stash of smashed hard drives. After the Marine turned the material over to federal officials, Awan attempted to enter the house several times and eventually threatened to sue the Marine for stealing his property.

In an interview with the Daily Caller, Pat Sowers, a House I.T. staffer, speculated that the Awans were extorting the members employing them. "I don't know what they have," he said, "but they have something on someone."

Sowers isn't the only person to accuse Awan and his brothers of blackmail. Imran's stepmother has filed court documents in which she accuses him of surveilling and extorting her.

The above facts suggest that Awan's criminal behavior goes far beyond financial scams. CNN's Jake Tapper disingenuously points to the absence of other charges as proof of Awan's innocence, but one should expect no charges to be brought until the criminal investigation is concluded. The establishment media will remain silent on this matter as long as they possibly can, but if charges are announced in the future, expect them to shift their defense from Awan to the Democrats who employed him.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has ordered the U.S. to reduce its diplomatic presence in Russia by 755 employees in retaliation for sanctions legislation passed by Congress.

ABC News:

"The personnel of the U.S. diplomatic missions in Russia will be cut by 755 people and will now equal the number of the Russian diplomatic personnel in the United States, 455 people on each side," Putin said in an interview on the Rossiya 1 network.

"Because over a thousand employees, diplomats and technical personnel have been working and are still working in Russia, and 755 of them will have to cease their work in the Russian Federation. Its considerable," Putin said.

A State Department official called the move a "regrettable and uncalled for act."

"We are assessing the impact of such a limitation and how we will respond to it." the official said. "We have no further comment at this time.

Putin's comments come on the same day that the Kremlin's deputy foreign minister said on ABC News' "This Week" that Russian retaliation over U.S. sanctions is "long, long overdue."

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov talked to "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz about the Kremlin's action Friday demanding a cut in the number of American diplomats in Russia and seizing two U.S. facilities.

"I think this retaliation is long, long overdue," Ryabkov said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry announced Friday that the size of the U.S. diplomatic corps was being reduced to 455 but did not specify the size of the cut in U.S. staff.

Ryabkov said Sunday that the Kremlin decided to act after Congress approved a new sanctions bill targeted at Russia as well as North Korea and Iran.

When the U.S. Senate on Thursday "voted so overwhelmingly on a completely weird and unacceptable piece of legislation, it was the last drop," he said.

The new sanctions bill cleared Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support, by a 98-2 vote in the Senate and 419-3 in the House. The legislation now awaits President Trump's signature, and in a statement Friday night the White House said Trump "approves the bill and intends to sign it."
Venezuela has been sliding toward a totalitarian Cuba-style dictatorship for years. Today, the final stretch of that Rubicon has probably been crossed with Sunday's rigged referendum to scrap the opposition assembly, replace it with a constitutional assembly, and give the existing Chavista socialist government unlimited power - over the internet, over whom to arrest, over what laws to write, over who gets food rations, and many other things. It's full Cubanization now, and it's grotesque.

In a great moral statement, Venezuela's people simply rejected the horror by refusing to participate in the farce, staying home instead. The streets were bleak and empty of voters. Few of Venezuela's 30 million or so people participated. Protests were banned. Chavista thugs shot at least ten people. Danger aside, it was primarily a statement of principle: no one votes himself into becoming a slave willingly.

What can be said about this mockery of democracy? That faking it can go on for only so long. Everyone knows that this referendum is a sham. Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Mexico, Panama, Switzerland, the European Commission, and the U.S. among others have already condemned it as garbage and vowed not to recognize it.

It stands in stark contrast to the oozing praise the left has dished onto this hellhole semblance of democracy, including praise for its election process  such as what came from Jimmy Carter here:

"As a matter of fact, of the 92 elections that we've monitored, I would say the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world," Mr. Carter said, noting the center's extensive work monitoring elections around the globe.

That may be the real inflection point of this sorry exercise: that the fake democracy fig leaf can go on only so long in the name of forcing a nation into a Cuba-style totalitarian tyranny. Chavista Venezuela has been riding this horse for years, justifying its totalitarian socialist moves toward total control as just democracy in action. Well, it's not. And it never was.

Socialism chokes to death its host just as a parasite on a plant does. It does so because it favors situational ethics, the by-any-means-necessary philosophy to win so obvious from Bill Clinton to Nicolas Maduro. In socialism, the ends always justify the means. Venezuela demonstrated this so well only because it had been at it for so long, but make no mistake: this is the endgame of all socialism. And it's insanely tragic for Venezuela, whose people are starving, whose hospitals have no medicine, whose people are fleeing for their lives.

Here are the last tattered remnants of Venezuela's farce of democracy in photos:



Some celebration of democracy.



Venezuelans are starving.



Chavista government forces enforce "democracy."



More enforcement of democracy at an apartment house.



Chavista thugs, known as colectivos, randomly shoot into crowds with impunity.



Chavista thugs shot 10 people in the Sunday referendum. One hundred thirty have been killed in this wave of protests.



Ballot box inferno, via Panama Post.



Venezuelans flee over the Colombian border. Colombia has authorized 150,000 temporary residence cards. Via Panama Post.
The wave of Jew-hatred spreading throughout the world surfaced in the pages of yesterday's Sunday Times in the UK. The BBC reports:

A Sunday Times columnist "will not write again" for the newspaper after one of his articles was branded "anti-Semitic" and "disgraceful". In the piece, Kevin Myers suggested BBC presenters Claudia Winkleman and Vanessa Feltz earned high salaries because they were Jewish.

Specifically:

The column, titled "Sorry, ladies  equal pay has to be earned", follows criticism of the BBC, after it was revealed two-thirds of its stars earning more than 150,000 are male. Commenting that two of the best-paid presenters, Winkleman and Feltz, were Jewish, Mr Myers wrote: "Good for them. "Jews are not generally noted for their insistence on selling their talent for the lowest possible price, which is the most useful measure there is of inveterate, lost-with-all-hands stupidity."

That is quite a tangent: from women being underpaid to Jewish women being overpaid. It suggest a bit of an obsession.

Readers quickly responded:

Times readers  who must pay a subscription to access online content  commented on the original article to express their disgust, and called for both the writer and editor to resign. "The proud anti-Semitism in this column is nothing short of disgraceful. Myers must go and so must the editor who approved this piece," Alan Simpson wrote. There was an organized response: It was taken down following anger on social media and a formal complaint from the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism to press regulator Ipso. The campaign said the removal of the article and apology from editors within hours was "proof that the decision to include the column was irrefutably wrong".

The newspaper will publish a formal apology next Sunday.

Ms. Feltz responded on-air:

Vanessa Feltz has said she felt "extremely upset" by a Sunday Times column which suggested she and Claudia Winkleman earned high salaries because they were Jewish. The BBC presenter described the piece by Kevin Myers as "so obviously racist it's surprisingly hurtful". She also questioned how no-one at the paper appeared to spot the article. Editor Martin Ivens said the piece, which was in the Irish edition and online, should not have been published. Speaking on BBC Radio London where she presents the breakfast show, Feltz said: "I would have thought after all these years I'd be immune or used to it, but that's not at all how I felt. I felt extremely upset.

The educated classes in Britain, including journalists, are being schooled anew in the tropes of Jew-hatred, with "illegitimate occupiers of Palestine" replacing "Christ-killers" in the demonology. This firing and apology are wonderful, but they don't solve the problem, which is that the world's oldest hate will not die and is resurgent on the backs of a human tide fleeing Islamic countries but wanting to impose Islam on their hosts.
There is a subtle repositioning in process by the mainstream media to influence the way people think  or don't think  about the Temple Mount. In short, we are to think of it primarily as a sacred Islamic Jerusalem shrine that the Jews falsely lay claim to. In order to accomplish this, the term "Temple Mount" must be stealthily eradicated.

Drudge Report first caught my attention with the July 14 headline: "2 Israeli policemen killed in shooting near Jerusalem shrine." I wondered, "What Jerusalem shrine?" Surely, if it were the Temple Mount, it would say so. The headline linked to an AP story that told me in the first paragraph that it was a "major Jerusalem shrine" (at this point I wondered why they were hedging about the location). The second paragraph told me it was a "sacred site"...which in American lingo is starting to sound like an Indian burial ground somewhere in the Old West. The next thing I read is that it is known to Muslims as the "Noble Sanctuary." Huh. I guess that would be...yep...now the article tells me it's known to Jews as the "Temple Mount." There you have it! It took three paragraphs, but the Associated Press finally connected this vague sacred site to the Jewish people  after first telling us it is revered by Muslims.

The same day, British daily The Guardian told us by its second paragraph that the attack occurred "in the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif complex." Before the paragraph is over, Muslims again get first dibs, as it's described as being "revered as a holy site by both Muslims and Jews."

Two days later, CNN took a more serious tone as it reported that the Israeli policemen were killed "just outside one of the world's most important religious sites." In keeping with framing the Temple Mount as firstly a Muslim site and secondly a Jewish site, CNN fell in step, saying the attack was "next to what Muslims call the Noble Sanctuary and Jews the Temple Mount."

July 21, Reuters followed suit. In its article titled "Jerusalem on alert as religious tensions rise over holy site," the first paragraph dipped its toe in the water, referencing only a "sensitive holy site." By the second paragraph, we've waded into the pool, as we're told the "shrine" is the Muslims' "Noble Sanctuary," followed by a mention of the Jews' "Temple Mount"  as if they were second in line with squatter's rights. Now officially drowning in chaos, the London-based news service decided to go with "Noble Sanctuary-Temple Mount compound."

Also July 21, Fox News joined the club with a headline about the "holy shrine tension." Almost laughably, it tells its apparently not too world-wise readers about a "long-contested shrine near the Lion's Gate in Jerusalem." Once again, Muslims are named first when discussing the "volatile Jerusalem shrine, revered by Muslims and Jews alike."

The same day, Britain's Telegraph chased its tail as it reported, "Palestinian gunmen ambushed and killed two Israeli police officers at the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem on Friday, bringing bloodshed and chaos to a religious site that is sacred to both Jews and Muslims."

VOA (Voice of America) News got the memo as well.

It seems obvious that the site formerly called the "Temple Mount" by Western media is not the preferred name of the "holy site," "sacred site," "holy place," "holy shrine," "Jerusalem shrine" that is known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.

A search on an American-Canadian newspaper archive  holding nearly 40 million newspapers dating back to the 1800s  returned 1,933 "Temple Mount" results and only 86 "Noble Sanctuary" results. The phrase "Temple Mount" spanned the years. However, while a few of the "Noble Sanctuary" results were from the late 19 century, the rest were mostly from the year 2000 onward.

(And it wasn't just websites and newspapers. I heard numerous radio news reports referencing it as the Muslims' Noble Sanctuary before mentioning that it was "also a Jewish holy site.")

While the United Nations has been pushing the narrative that the Jerusalem holy site is "Muslim, not Jewish" for years, it should be troubling to those who support Jewish claims to the site that even the most conservative Western media are now falling in lockstep with U.N. talking points.

Of course, Israel is often its own worst enemy. Its left-leaning Haaretz newspaper declared, just days ago, that "The 'Temple Mount' belongs to the Muslims." In his multiple charges outlining how the Israeli government has damaged and continues "to do harm to the mosque," writer Abed L. Azab gets to the crux of the "Temple Mount" nomenclature:

The third and most serious aspect, which is indeed putting Al-Aqsa in danger, are the efforts by the Israeli rights to portray it as the "Temple Mount"  with all that entails.

"With all that entails"  and therein lies the crux of why we are being told again and again and again that it is a Muslim holy site first and foremost. Erase "Temple Mount," and you've erased the history of the Jewish people...with all that entails.

Susan D. Harris can be reached at www.susandharris.com.
A worker monitors container operation at Zhoushan port in Ningbo, Zhejiang province. [Photo/China Daily]

BEIJING - Doomsayers on China's economy have been wrong in the past, and they are wrong again today.

China reported 6.9 percent GDP growth for the first half of 2017, exceeded the 6.7 percent rise in 2016 as well as beating the consensus of forecasters.

Forecasters find it difficult to resist superimposing outcomes in major crisis-battered developed economies on China, but they overlook deeper issues shaping the China growth debate, said Stephen Roach, faculty member at Yale University.

The latest bout of pessimism over the Chinese economy has focused on the twin headwinds of deleveraging and a tightening of the property market.

As Roach has argued, China, with its far larger saving cushion and much smaller sovereign debt burden (49 percent of GDP), is in much better shape to avoid a sovereign debt crisis.

There is always good reason to worry about the Chinese property market, but unlike those of other fully urbanized major economies, China's housing market enjoys ample support from the demand side, he noted.

To stay tuned with the latest development of the Chinese economy, international financial heavyweights raised their prospects on the Chinese economy.

The IMF saw China's 2017 growth at 6.7 percent, 0.1 percentage points higher than its last estimate.

It shows IMF confidence in China's economic growth, considering solid first quarter underpinned by previous policy easing and supply-side reform, including efforts to reduce excess capacity in the industrial sector.

JPMorgan and Nomura Securities raised their annual growth forecast to 6.8 percent from 6.7 percent, while Citigroup and Standard Chartered Bank revised their 2017 projection for China upward by 0.2 percentage points to 6.8 percent.

The expanding consumption and services industries as well as increasing private investment in China will boost growth despite slowing investment in infrastructure and real estate in the second half of the year, on top of a financial deleveraging, said JPMorgan.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) revised China's growth up to 6.7 percent this year and 6.4 percent next year, from 6.5 percent and 6.2 percent, respectively, in its latest Outlook supplement.

The ADB said increases in both domestic consumption and foreign trade helped promote China's economic outlook, which came as a result of a steady rise in both personal income and public spending.

Acknowledging China's slower economic growth with reformed structure under the new normal, these institutions showed less concern about the country's economic hard landing and financial risks compared to last year, and China is expected to continue stabilizing.

"What happens in China doesn't stay in China," said Maurice Obstfeld, IMF chief economist. "Strong Chinese growth drives growth particularly in Asia but also throughout the world."
BEIRUT - Thousands of Syrian refugees living in Lebanon can return home, Lebanese media cite the local authorities as saying. Foreign Minister Gibran Bassil has reportedly referred to approximately 9,000 Syrian 'guests' who have been living for years on the high plateau of Arsal near the Lebanon-Syria border. The area has recently been the theatre of a battle between Hezbollah militants and their Al Qaeda rivals. The refugees will be able to make their return to Qalamun on the Syrian side of the border under an agreement between the warring sides contemplating the prior surrender of the defeated Al Qaeda rebels and their evacuation to Syria's Idlib province and the exchange of bodies of their respective fallen fighters.
1.000s of refugees can return to Syria from Lebanon  medi Return possible after recent battle at Arsal

(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, JULY 31 - Thousands of Syrian refugees living in Lebanon can return home, Lebanese media cite the local authorities as saying. Foreign Minister Gibran Bassil has reportedly referred to approximately 9,000 Syrian 'guests' who have been living for years on the high plateau of Arsal near the Lebanon-Syria border. The area has recently been the theatre of a battle between Hezbollah militants and their Al Qaeda rivals. The refugees will be able to make their return to Qalamun on the Syrian side of the border under an agreement between the warring sides contemplating the prior surrender of the defeated Al Qaeda rebels and their evacuation to Syria's Idlib province and the exchange of bodies of their respective fallen fighters.



(ANSAmed).




Calais to create water points for migrants Council of State deplores 'failure by public authorities'

(ANSAmed) - PARIS, JULY 31 - Migrants in the northern French city of Calais have the right to access water for drinking and washing, the Council of State has ruled.



France's highest administrative court overturned an appeal lodged by the interior ministry and Calais municipal government at the beginning of July against an order from an administrative tribunal to install showers and toilets. The living conditions of migrants sheltering in the area of the former 'Jungle' reveal "a failure by the public authorities" that exposes people "to inhuman or degrading treatment".



(ANSAmed).




ROME - ''After Mosul, the attention of these days must turn to the city of Raqqa, where between 30,000 and 50,000 civilians are trapped an victims of deadly fighting,'' the spokesman for the Italian branch of UNICEF, Andrea Iacomini, said Monday.



He added that half of these people are children ''who live in prohibitive humanitarian conditions, under constant attack and bombings. A true hell.'' ''The children and families that have managed to flee to nearby camps without eating or drinking for days are exhausted, upset and dehydrated due to the heat,'' Iacomini said. ''They tell of streets full of mines and scenes of rare cruelty and violence. There are no longer any basic health services either, the public hospital is unusable and there are only a few private facilities that are operating only partially. This is a devastating situation that is getting worse.'' For the past month, he added, ''there hasn't been running water or electricity, the population is collecting dirty water from the Euphrates, subjecting them to the risk of sicknesses and attacks and constant crossfire. There is a lack of food.



Even before the escalation of the fighting, since 2015 the UN could not manage to reach the civilians in the city of Raqqa in a regular manner. The children have not been receiving life-saving vaccines for two years, there is the risk of a serious outbreak of polio, which has so far hit one out of every five children in the city of Raqqa. Since April 1, the fighting has displaced over 200,000 people across the entire Raqqa governorate, half of whom are children.'' Meanwhile, Syrian government forces backed by Iran and Russia have been advancing east into the heart of the region under the Islamic State (ISIS) and are now 50 kilometers ''as the bird flies'' from Deir Al-Zor, in the region along the Iraqi border rich in fossil fuels, reports Syrian state-run television.

Sources on the ground confirmed the information.



Government sources have in recent days reached an agreement with the YPG - the Syrian branch of the Kurdish PKK, officially recognized as a terrorist group by the US and the EU - to continue south of Raqqa along the southern banks of the Euphrates in the direction of Deir Al-Zor.
Italian ships shameful attempt to circumvent duty, Amnesty Instead of rescuing refugees and migrants at sea off Libya

(ANSAmed) - ROME, JULY 31 - On the eve of a parliamentary discussion on Tuesday, Amnesty International on Monday said that the Italian government plan to send warships to patrol Libyan territorial waters is a ''shameful attempt by the Italian authorities to circumvent their duty to rescue refugees and migrants at sea and to offer protection to those who need it''. ''Under the plan up to six vessels would be deployed to support the Libyan coastguard in the interception and return of refugees and migrants to Libya, where they would face horrific abuses and human rights violations. Italian military personnel are likely to be authorized to use force against smugglers and traffickers, and the plan could also result in refugees and migrants being caught in the crossfire,'' Amnesty reported.



''Rather than sending ships to help save lives and offer protection to desperate refugees and migrants, Italy is planning to deploy warships to push them back to Libya," said Amnesty International's Europe Director John Dalhuisen.



''This shameful strategy is not designed to end the spiralling death toll in the central Mediterranean but rather to keep refugees and migrants from Italian shores. Claims that the rights of those returned will be respected will ring hollow in the ears of those that have fled horrific abuse in Libyan detention centres." (ANSAmed).




Libya: Italian FM urges French counterpart to support UN 'Balance and depth on the issue of hotspots'

(ANSAmed) - ROME, JULY 31 - As agreed in the Paris meeting with Libyan leaders, the maximum level of support must be given to new UN Special Representative for Libya Ghassan Salame', Italian foreign minister Angelino Alfano on Monday told his French counterpart.



He added that it was important to ''deal with the issue of hot spots with balance and depth''. During a telephone call between Alfano and the French minister, according to a statement released by the Italian foreign ministry, Libya was discussed.



Alfano said that ''on the meeting held in Rome between (Libyan PM) Sarraj and (Italian PM) Gentiloni, I illustrated the Italian decision to respond positively to the Libyan request to receive further support from Italy for Libyan naval units involved in the fight against migrant trafficking.'' Alfano added that ''I reiterated the importance of dealing with the issue of hot spots with balance and depth, an issue to be dealt with using a great deal of caution especially in reference to the role of the UNHCR and the IOM, which we intend to continue to support.'' (ANSAmed) .




Montenegro: US Vice-President Pence to visit Podgorica

(ANSAmed) - PODGORICA, JULY 31 - US Vice President, Mike Pence, is expected to visit Montenegro this week upon an invitation by Prime Minister Dusko Markovic. The Montenegrin Premier will play host to a special meeting of representatives of the countries included in the US-Adriatic Charter (A5), set for August 2, according to a press release issued by the government. Pence is expected to attend the meeting together with officials of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Croatia and Montenegro. Serbia, Kosovo and Slovenia will be represented as observers. (ANSAmed)
MSF and Jugent Rettet do not sign NGO code of conduct Save the Children and MOAS do, 'we will continue to save lives'

(ANSAmed) - ROME, JULY 31 - Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and the German Jugend Rettet did not sign a ''code of conduct'' on Monday proposed by Italian officials for all NGOs involved in migrant rescue operations in the Mediterranean. Save the Children and the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) instead signed it. ''Our mission has always been that of saving the most lives possible at sea and this document enables us to continue doing so,'' MOAS founder Christopher Catrambone said on the sidelines of the meeting at the Italian interior ministry.



Save the Children's Valerio Neri said that most of the points in the code ''indicate things we already do and clarifications have been provided on a couple of points that we were concerned about, and so we don't have any qualms about signing it.'' ''We are convinced,'' he added, ''that we did the right thing and I am sorry that other NGOs did not follow us.'' The Italian chief of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Gabriele Eminente, ''all the non-problematic points of the code will be complied with as we have always done. We appreciated the constructive approach of the ministry, but the document does not underscore that our aim is to save lives, and there are two points that we cannot agree to sign on to: police onboard and the possible ban on transboarding onto other ships of the people rescued.'' (ANSAmed).




ROME - Doctors Without Borders (MSF) did not on Monday sign an NGO 'code of conduct' in the latest meeting called by the Italian interior ministry. The announcement was made by general director of MSF Italy Gabriele Eminente, who cited "problematic points" within it.



Save the Children signed it but the German NGO Jugend Rettet did not. They were the only organizations in attendance. The code lays down 12 commitments that NGOs would have to adhere to in their search and rescue missions. These include promising not to cross into Libyan territorial waters, cooperating with investigations looking into migrant trafficking, and being transparent with their funding. In late April, an Italian attorney from the port city of Catania accused some NGO members of working with human smugglers, a charge that the charities have strenuously denied.
ROME - NGOs performing migrant search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean are due to sign a controversial new code of conduct at the interior ministry on Monday afternoon amid ongoing disagreement over some of the key points. The Interior ministry had already announced possible 'measures' against organisations that refuse to sign.

The main sticking points include the requirement for NGOs to carry representatives of the judiciary police and to avoid transferring rescued migrants to other vessels. Following a second tense meeting on Friday, it was agreed that the judiciary police should be present "if possible, and only as long as is strictly necessary".

However, the request that they be unarmed was rejected. Under the new rules migrant transfers will now be banned "except on the request of the competent maritime rescue coordination centre and under its coordination, based also on information provided by the ship's captain".

Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms has already announced that it does not intend to sign the code.

German Sea Watch has said it will soon put a second rescue boat in operation, and claims the code is "largely illegal". "Rather than saving human lives it will have the opposite effect," the organisation said.

"In light of the more than 2,000 deaths at sea this year, what is needed is not more rules, but greater rescue capacity," it added. However, Interior Minister Marco Minniti wants the code to take immediate effect, claiming it is "essential for the security of the country". "Over 40% of rescued migrants arrive in Italy on ships operated by NGOs," he said. The aim now is to shift responsibility for search and rescue operations onto the Libyan coast guard authority with Italian support. In this respect, Libyan Premier Fayez al Serraj has confirmed asking Italy for logistical support and training programmes for coast guard and border officials, as well as modern equipment and weapons.
Serbian FM urges demarcation for Kosovo 'Special status for Serb community and religious property'

(ANSAmed) - BELGRADE, JULY 31 - Serbia's Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic has written in an article for the Belgrade-based newspaper Blic that dialogue on Kosovo may lead to an agreement on permanent demarcation and the establishment of special status for Serb heritage in Kosovo. Dacic also suggested a possible demarcation as a lasting compromise solution, with a special status for Serb Orthodox churches and monasteries and for the community of Serb-populated municipalities in Kosovo, after Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic called for internal dialogue on Kosovo. Vucic said he wanted ''to take a new path regarding Kosovo and adds that he will not back down although the Serbs are still not ready for it. It is easy to say 'go fight for Kosovo'.



However, that has always led us to war. I want to take a new path - for Serbia. I want us to have open and fair discussions about a solution for the Kosovo conflict", he told the Swiss daily Blick in an interview, according to Belgrade news agency Tanjug. (ANSAmed)
ROME - ''Talks on Yemen have gone back to point zero,'' Italy's Special Envoy for Yemen, Gianfranco Petruzzella told ANSAmed in an interview on Monday.



However, ''Italy cannot do anything alone'', he added. ''As a government, our priority is to facilitate an international negotiations process to stop the fighting and achieve a political solution''. Petruzzella was appointed by Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni in September 2016. UNICEF, WFP and the WHO all show devastating figures for Yemen, with UN officials saying that the country is experiencing the worst epidemic of cholera in the world in the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, which in the last three months alone has led to 400,000 cases of suspected cholera and 1,900 deaths associated with the disease.



In the war that began in march 2015 between the government under President Abd Rabbo Mansur Hadi, supported by the military coalition of Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia and Houthi rebels (allied with units that remained loyal to former president Ali Abdhalla Saleh and accused of having links to Iran), the fighting has led to over 8,000 deaths, mostly of civilians, and 44,500 injured. Stopping the violence and serious violations of humanitarian law by Saudi Arabia - denounced many times by NGOs - and blocking the sale of weapons (including Italian ones) to Riyadh seems impossible. ''The assessment on arms sales is conducted by the Italian government in collaboration with the Parliament,'' Petruzzella said, noting that ''Riyadh's security needs should be assessed within the regional framework.'' For now, the talks are stalled. After the failure of those in Kuwait City (April 2016), also the dialogue that began in May has been interrupted. A proposal by UN Special Envoy for Yemen, the Mauritanian Ould Cheikh Ahmed, has also fallen through, which - as Petruzzelli noted - ''the management of the Hodeida port (in the hands of the Houthi rebels) by a committee made up of Houthi-Saleh, a Saudi-led coalition of international experts of the UN Verification and Inspection Mechanism (UNVIM), able to monitor the entrance of merchandise and the financial management of the port, of crucial importance for the Yemeni economy.'' The re-opening of the port, he noted, would lead to the reopening of the Sanaa airport.



The proposal ''has been left hanging. As soon as he arrived in Sanaa to explain the content to the Houthis, the envoy added, ''they shot at him''.



Diplomatic efforts continue despite all is these dire problems. ''The UN and representatives of the parties of Aden and Sanaa, the General People's Congress (GPC) and Al-Islah (the largest opposition party of the Houthis, Ed.), continue meeting to discuss the future constitutional framework of the country,'' he said. ''A session of this dialogue was held in June in Italy as well and others will surely be held,'' he added, but the main problem ''is still the federal nature and the powers of the federated regions.'' To the question of whether it is possible to go back to a Yemen divided into two parts as it was before 1990, he said that ''Italy and the UN are against this and it isn't a good idea for Saudi Arabia, while it would not be a problem for the UAE, which has a great deal of trade with the south.'' In the latest donors conference for Yemen, for 2017-2018, Italy decided to set aside 10 million euros, 4 million of which have already been allocated..




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A recent $276 million Army contract will fund those helicopters, which will validate technology advancements that will increase the iconic helicopters lifting power.

"The Army's only heavy-lift helicopter exists to deliver decisive combat power for our ground commanders," said Col. Greg Fortier, U.S. Army project manager for Cargo Helicopters. "The Cargo family is anxious to build upon Col. Rob Barrie's efforts to establish this critical program and deliver an adaptive air vehicle. Increasing payload capacity today enhances battlefield agility and prepares the Chinook for even greater performance gains in the future."

An improved drivetrain will transfer greater power from the engines to the all-new, swept-tip Advanced Chinook Rotor Blades, which have been engineered to lift 1,500 additional pounds on their own. The current configuration of six fuel tanks  three on each side  will become two, allowing the aircraft to carry more fuel and shed weight. Additionally, the fuselages structure will be strengthened in critical areas to allow the aircraft to carry additional payload.

This latest upgrade for the Chinook fleet is a tribute to the robustness of its original design and exemplifies its 55-year legacy of technological advancements, said Chuck Dabundo, vice president, Cargo Helicopters and program manager, H-47. The fact that the U.S. Army continues to use and value this platform and they are intending to continue to upgrade it to keep it flying for decades to come is a testament of the capabilities the Chinook team continues to bring.
The first Open Day will take place on August 3 at the Sheraton Abu Dhabi from 10 am to 4 pm. This is the first time that the university hosts an Open Day event in Abu Dhabi, catering the increasing demand from students across the UAE. The second Open Day will take place on the 12th of August at the university campus in Dubai Academic City from 9am to 1pm.

"Open days are an ideal opportunity for prospective students and their parents to find out more about the University, programmes, facilities and accommodation, which will be available starting September. We're looking forward to welcoming interested students, said Dr. Ahmed Al Ali, Chancellor of Emirates Aviation University.
Through this new partnership with Gulf Air, Mobily customers can now redeem their points for Gulf Air FalconFlyer miles when the combined points reach 5,000 points or more. Customers can access their Neqaty account and select from multiple points redemption options with Neqaty partners.

Gulf Air senior manager customer experience, Kavita S. Al Jassim said: We are delighted to partner with Mobily, broadening their distinctive offering and privileges available to Gulf Airs FalconFlyer Loyalty Programme members and giving their customers the chance to increase their FalconFlyer miles for greater travel benefits. We look forward to working closely with Mobily and building a mutually rewarding partnership.
The new corporate identity signifies an important milestone as the company reaches its 13th year of successful operations in the Middle East. The new identity comes as the award-winning airline redoubles its commitment to its customers by accommodating a holistic experience with smart and convenient offerings in the coming years. As the regions first private airline, Jazeera Airways will continue to accomplish its long term corporate strategies through the new and upcoming ventures while staying true to its brand essence, originality and rich regional heritage.

The new vision that reiterates placing customers at the very heart of Jazeera Airways will continue its overarching approach of turning seamless travel into a reality as they enjoy the new special features, offers and discounts in store.

The New Logo

The new logo visually represents an evolution to an energetic color palette that demonstrates the brands spirit of adventure and boldness as it forges into the future. It represents the carrier name in bold colorful and is further embellished by regional geometric patterns, with reference to the diamond-shape that expresses the carriers long standing legacy as top carrier from the Arabian peninsula. Jazeera Airways logo pays homage to the original brand mark, whilst integrating a contemporary.

manner that now speaks volumes about how East meets West with its expanded connections into the middle East and Eurasia and many more destinations to come.

Jazeera Airways has travelled a long way since its inception in 2004 and has become an integral part in the local and regional airline industry. During its remarkable journey, Jazeera Airways has overcome incredible challenges, weathered many economic cycles, and has come out stronger. As we solidify our position regionally and venture into more international markets with new routes, we reiterate our commitment to our customers. To this end, we are launching a new website to act as a gateway to providing ease and comfort from the very first click. We are geared with renewed efficiency and vitality to embark on a new journey with our customers as many exciting launches lay ahead of us, said Rohit Ramachandran, Jazeera Airways Chief Executive Officer.

The New Website

The new-generation website is seasoned to present a fresh new look with top e-commerce features that will accommodate a personalized online experience backed by enhanced browsing and online check-in services, live chat assistance and updated fares, smart travel tips and an efficient 4-step booking process. Additionally, apart from a personal travel timeline that stores user profile history, the website also provides new travel extras such as Jazeera lounge and Park & Fly as well as updates on exciting travel packages.

Given Jazeeras evolution in the past decade, the new launches are a natural transition to rejuvenate the brand as it entered its 13 year mark of successful growth in Kuwait and the region. With the new logo and website comes an enhanced focus on our customers base. The travel landscape is constantly changing, and with the onset of new changes in our company we hope to match those needs and empower our customers with improved services. Our revised key values  to be Passionate, Connected, Insightful and Inventive embody the spirit of Jazeera and everyone involved as each played a significant duty to elevating the brand to where it is today. added Mr. Ramachandran.

Jazeera Airways currently stands at over 17 destinations and strengthened its footprint by entering a popular touristic market, which are the recent flights to Baku setting course to new lands beyond the Middle East. The new additions will encapsulate the Jazeera brand personality and are only the beginning of a magnitude of upcoming launches that will complete the rebranding phase and deliver on its promise to ensure seamless experiences from start to finish.
The car was presented to Ms. Mouza by Oman Airs Deputy CEO and Chief Commercial Officer, Abdulrahman Al Busaidy at a special event held at the premises of Oman Airs premium class check in area, at the Muscat International Airport on July 30th.

The scheme for Oman travel agents was set up to recognise individuals who have shown loyalty to Oman Air and have generated maximum sales for the award winning airline. The scheme rewards the best-selling travel agent for each quarter with the grand prize of a Mini Cooper, which comes in addition to the support that Oman Air already offers agencies for training and joint marketing. The first winner  Sumith K.P. of Travel City travel agency  was announced earlier in the year.

Abdulrahman Al Busaidy, Oman Airs Deputy CEO and Chief Commercial Officer, said: I am very happy to announce the name of the winner for the second quarter, Ms. Mouza, who has won herself a Mini Cooper. We are delighted to witness our incentive scheme having a fantastic response from the travel agent community. Travel agents play a vital role in promoting Oman Air and in supporting our efforts to bring more tourists and business to the country and this incentive scheme is our way of showing our appreciation for all of their hard work.
The airline also achieved a net profit of JD1.5 million during the month of June, compared to a JD2.1 million net loss in the same month of 2016.

Junes net profit was logged despite the 27 per cent increase in the fuel bill paid by the company for this month, from JD8.3 million in June 2016 to JD10.5 million in June this year.

The seat load factor increased by 3.9 points to 64.1 per cent in June 2017, against 60.2 per cent for June 2016. RJ transported 253,000 passengers onboard its planes during this month compared to 224,000 passengers in June last year, a 13 per cent increase.

Commenting on the results, RJs President/CEO Stefan Pichler expressed satisfaction with the net profit recorded in June, which the company sees as a start into the turnaround.

We have a lot of homework to do to transform RJ into a sustainable profitable company for our shareholders, a consumer champion for all our guests and an employer of choice for all people in Jordan. While we are working on our strategic turnaround plan, we now focus on early wins in the commercial area, like load factor and yield improvement he said.

Pichler added: June worked out pretty well and I am confident that we will make up for the severe losses suffered in the first 5 months of operations in 2017. The current big global sale so far is an overwhelming success and will help us with a good start into the low season of this year. 

Pichler added that the first half results were affected by the significant drop in ticket fares due to tough competition in the Gulf region; the revenues went down by 1 per cent although the number of passengers increased in this period by 6 per cent and the seat load factor by 6 points, going up from 62 per cent in the first half of last year to 68 per cent this year.

The total operating costs increased by 3 per cent, due to the 15 per cent increase in the fuel bill paid by the company during that period. Despite the increase in the fuel cost, the ticket prices did not go up as there was overcapacity in the whole airline industry.




Sheikh Ahmed, accompanied by Adnan Kazim, DSVP Strategic Planning, RO and Aeropolitical Affairs, Emirates and Orhan Abbas, Emirates SVP, Commercial (Africa), were pleased to meet with Ghanaian Minister Hon. Cecilia Abena Dapaah, Minister for Aviation, together with a number of high-ranking officials.



The meeting took place at the Emirates Group Headquarters in Dubai. Emirates commitment to Ghana and the African market were re-affirmed and opportunities for further co-operation in the future discussed.


I wrote the Masterpiece column in Saturdays Wall Street Journal. The subject is Louis Armstrongs 1955 record of Kurt Weills Mack the Knife. Heres an excerpt.

* * *

For all the enduring success of their other collaborations, Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill are both best remembered for Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera), their caustically witty 1928 adaptation of John Gays 1728 Beggars Opera, which portrayed low life in 18th-century London. But it was not until 1955 that the American public at large first heard any part of The Threepenny Operaand it was Louis Armstrong, the most important figure in the history of jazz, who introduced them to it.

In September of that year, Armstrong and His All Stars recorded Mack the Knife, Marc Blitzsteins English-language version of Die Moritat von Mackie Messer, a murder ballad about the vicious exploits of the shows principal character that was the most popular number in The Threepenny Opera. Armstrongs deliciously swinging cover version became a hit single, one of a handful of small-group jazz recordings ever to do so, and he would perform it the world over until he died in 1971.

Armstrong was introduced to Mack the Knife by George Avakian, his producer at Columbia Records. Mr. Avakian, who was determined to put his beloved Satchmo back on the pop charts, had recently seen the 1954 off-Broadway revival of The Threepenny Opera. While the original 1933 Broadway production had closed after just 12 performances, this small-scale staging, newly translated by Blitzstein, the author of The Cradle Will Rock, became a sleeper hit, ultimately running for six years. Mr. Avakian came home certain that Mack the Knife had the makings of a hit single

Armstrong found the song richly evocative of his New Orleans childhood, laughing out loud as he listened to the demo. Oh, Im going to love doing this! he told Mr. Avakian. I knew cats like this in New Orleans. Every one of them, theyd stick a knife into you without blinking an eye!

* * *

Read the whole thing here.

Louis Armstrong and the All Stars perform Mack the Knife on ABCs Hollywood Palace in 1965:
Why, said the Dodo, the best way to explain it is to do it.

 Lewis Carroll, from Alices Adventures in Wonderland

* * *

Lewis Carroll was nicknamed the Dodo

Because of his inveterate stutter.

Asked his name, hed reply Do-Do-Dodgson.

He found Carroll easier to utter.

So Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, the clergyman,

Became Lewis Carroll, author of distinction,

Whod revive the Dodo in his Alice in Wonderland 

The real Dodo having suffered from extinction.

For Lewis Carroll had been very intrigued

By something hed seen in a Museum:

A large-cropped bulbous bird that was stuffed

And could be seen in the old Ashmolean.

Two hundred years before, a Dodo had been captured

By sailors stopping off in Mauritius.

Theyd thought it part goose, part vulture and were fearful 

Sailors being naturally superstitious.

But the bird was fearless and easily lured aboard

By an offer of unlimited ships biscuits.

By a miracle the bird survived the crews curiosity

And their wondering if it tasted delicious.

After it had lived out its life in England

A taxidermist was called when it died.

He stuffed it and, to retain its luxuriant plumage,

Cunning preservatives were applied.

Its first owner in its afterlife was John Tradescant,

Who passed it onto Elias Ashmole,

Since then this comical but salutary creature

Has become a curator of the earths soul.

For through it mans begun to learn that extinction

Can last for the rest of time

And thus cherish an inhabitant of paradise whose life

Was ended by a carnivorous crime.

A Dutch sailor, Volkert Evertsz, described the bird

As showing concern for its fellow creature:

When I held one, he cried and others ran forward

To help the bird that was held prisoner.

In Wonderland the Dodos portrayed as benign

Given its invention of a caucus race

In which everyone entering ends up winning

And is accordingly then given a prize.

People say that somethings as dead as a Dodo

As if relishing the Dodos demise,

Yet it lives on as an innocent victim of that progress

That prefers sunset to a hopeful sunrise.

The Dodo may have died out from being too nice;

Large and flightless with an excess of trust.

Those who last saw it alive in the seventeenth century

Said the Dodo was friendly. And now its dust.

When it was alive it was briefly displayed in London

As part of an urban freak show;

In death its become a testament to the folly of mankind,

A less loveable laughing-stock than the Dodo.

 Heathcote Williams
New Delhi: Boeing on Monday said India will take deliveries of 2,100 new planes worth USD 290 billion in the next 20 years, calling it the "highest forecast" for the country.

India's share will account for more than 5.1 per cent of the total global demand of 41,030 aircraft, the American aeronautic giant said.

According to Boeing's Current Market Outlook released on Monday, almost 85 per cent of these new planes in India are likely to be single-aisle with low-cost carriers operating more than 60 per cent of all flights.

"The increasing number of passengers combined with a strong exchange rate, low fuel prices and high load factors bode well for India's aviation market, especially the low-cost carriers," said Dinesh Keskar, senior vice-president, Asia Pacific and India Sales, Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

Keskar, however, warned that infrastructure could be a challenge for the country with airports in Mumbai being 'choked'.

This could be one of the factors why bigger planes could grow from current 15 per cent to 25 per cent of the total aircraft, he said.

Boeing said it will revise its projection next year depending on how the government's regional connectivity scheme (RCS) takes off.

The multinational aviation giant expects to benefit from RCS in years to come, when smaller 70-seat aircraft will be replaced by bigger ones such as Boeing's 737s, following an increase in traffic on these routes.

"RCS will allow opening of new routes, thus providing more connectivity. Over the next 4-5 years, the growth on those routes will make a Boeing 737 viable. We are very bullish that if it (RCS) works out, we will be one of the beneficiaries," Keskar said.

The passenger traffic in South Asia is expected to grow at a rate of 8 per cent, followed by China at 6.2 per cent.

The growth rate in the region is likely to be more than double that of Europe (3.7 per cent) and North America (3 per cent).

Boeing has already started the delivery of its 737 MAX 8 aircraft and will be delivering its first 737 MAX 9 next year.

It had also launched its 737 MAX 10 at Paris Air Show earlier this year.

In 2019, Boeing plans to launch 737 MAX 7, the smallest member of the MAX family, as well as 737 MAX 8-200 with 200 economy seats.

Boeing is also planning to replace its Boeing 757 by 2025 with a plane which will have 225-275 seats and will be able to fly approximately 5,000 nautical miles. It also promises to offer "twin aisle comfort for single aisle cost".
Max India was supposed to amalgamate Max Life Insurance with Max Financial Services.

Max India has withdrawn the proposed merger agreement between Max Life and Max Financial Services with HDFC Standard Life Insurance.

New Delhi: Max India has withdrawn the proposed merger agreement between Max Life and Max Financial Services with HDFC Standard Life Insurance.

"The confidentiality, exclusivity and standstill agreement dated June 17, 2016, entered among the parties is not being extended further. The proposed scheme and the applications filed in this regard with stock exchanges should be kindly treated as withdrawn," Max India said in a BSE filing on Monday.

Earlier this month, HDFC Standard Life Insurance had decided to come out with an IPO, but put on hold its proposed merger with Max Life in absence of regulatory approval.

Last month, Max India was confident of the proposed merger, saying both the parties were committed and "evaluating various options" post Irdai's denial last November to the scheme because of the complex nature of merging an insurance business with a financial entity.

At present, it said, no structure prior to an IPO of HDFC Life has been identified that satisfies shareholders' requirement.

As per the original plan, Max India was supposed to amalgamate Max Life Insurance with Max Financial Services. Subsequently, the insurance business of the merged entity was to be demerged so that it could be transferred to HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company.

However, the whole scheme did not go down well with the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) as it was in contravention of the Section 35 of the Insurance Act, 1938, that does not allow merger of an insurance business with a non-insurance firm.

The Section 35 of the Insurance Act, 1938, does not allow merger of an insurance firm with a non-life insurance one.

HDFC Standard Life Insurance (HDFC Life) is a joint venture in the ratio of 61.5:35 between India's biggest mortgage lender HDFC Ltd and UK's Standard Life.

Max Financial Services, promoted by the USD 2 billion Max Group, is the holding company for Max Life, which is a joint venture with Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company. Max Financial owns 68 per cent stake in Max Life and Mitsui Sumitomo 26 per cent.
Central bank said it had examined the documents concerned and notices were issued to the bank.

While in one case a penalty of Rs 2 crore has been imposed, Rs 1 crore has been slapped in another case.

Mumbai: RBI on Monday said it has imposed Rs 3 crore penalty on state-owned Union Bank of India for "non- compliance" with the directions on Know Your Customer (KYC) norms in two separate cases.

While in one case a penalty of Rs 2 crore has been imposed, Rs 1 crore has been slapped in another case. Reserve Bank of India said that based on media reports related to a fraud in a bank, it conducted an examination of certain accounts in Union Bank of India, which had substantial transactions.

"Upon examination of the documents obtained in this regard, a notice was issued to the bank advising it to show cause as to why penalty should not be imposed for non- compliance with directions issued by RBI," the central bank said in a statement.

The second case related to a complaint regarding "huge cash withdrawals in certain accounts". Both the penalties were imposed on July 26.

RBI added however that the penalties were imposed due to deficiencies in regulatory compliance and "not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the bank with its customers".

The central bank said it had examined the documents concerned and notices were issued to the bank.
She said that before starting talks for such pacts, studies are carried out to look at the feasibility of such pacts.

The commerce ministry is negotiating as many as 21 trade agreements, said Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

New Delhi: The commerce ministry is negotiating as many as 21 trade agreements, including with Israel and Mauritius, Parliament was informed on Monday.

Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also said the negotiations for a free trade agreement are a continuous process and it is difficult to set a timeline for their conclusion.

She said that before starting talks for such pacts, studies are carried out internally as well as through joint study groups to look at the feasibility of such pacts. "The Department of Commerce is negotiating 21 trade agreements including with Israel and Mauritius," she said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

India is negotiating FTAs with countries including European Union, Sri Lanka, Thailand, New Zealand and Canada.

Replying to a separate question, she said India has exported 53,490 livestock in April this fiscal and 12,02,841 in the last fiscal.

In a separate reply, she said out of the country's total imports of drugs of USD 4.45 billion in 2016-17, imports from

China stood at USD 1.96 billion, which is 44.1 per cent. "One of the reasons for imports from China is the price competitiveness of these products," Sitharaman added.
Progress of the APA scheme strengthens the Govt's commitment to foster a non-adversarial tax regime.

New Delhi: The Central Board of Direct Taxes has signed nine unilateral advance pricing agreements (APAs) in July with Indian taxpayers as it looks to reduce litigation by providing certainty in transfer pricing.

The finance ministry in a release said that the APAs signed pertain to diverse sectors like oil and gas exploration, education, banking, pharmaceutical, manufacturing and information technology.

The international transactions covered in these nine APAs include provision of software development services, provision of IT enabled services, provision of engineering design services, distribution, contract manufacturing, etc, the finance ministry said.

With this signing, the number of unilateral APAs signed in the current financial year is 18 and the number of bilateral APAs is one. The total number of APAs signed till date stands at 171. The CBDT expects more APAs to be signed in the near future, the statement added.

The APA scheme was introduced in the Income-Tax Act in 2012 and the 'Rollback' provisions were introduced in 2014. The scheme endeavours to provide certainty to taxpayers in the domain of transfer pricing by specifying the methods of pricing and setting the prices of international transactions in advance.

"The progress of the APA scheme strengthens the Government's commitment to foster a non-adversarial tax regime," the ministry said.
The gOVERNMENT is planning to facilitate the rollout of bike taxis on a bigger scale, says Nitin Gadkari .

Mumbai: The Union road transport ministry is ready to offer viability gap funding to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore to its state counterparts to set up large world-class bus terminals in as many as 2,000 cities and towns.

We have a Rs 1,000-crore funding plan to assist states in setting up of world class busports (large bus terminals). What I have in mind is around 2,000 such terminals over the next few years in the BOT model or can be in private-public partnerships where there will more need for viability gap funding. The Central fund can be used for this, Union road transport minister Nitin Gadkari has said.

Addressing the maiden summit of bus and tour operators under the banner of Prawaas, being organised by the Bus Operators Confederation at Navi Mumbai, the minister said such busports should be fully integrated facilities serving every stakeholder well.

If any interested state sends us a proposal, we are even ready to give funds for consultancy study. In future, if the PPP model does not work out, we may consider viability gap funding as well, he said.

Why can't we have all types of operators--be it the state-run buses or private or stage/contract carriages be all under the same roof? Why we should segregate them when they serve the same purpose, Gadkari wondered and said such integration of the system can increase its efficiency and usefulness to people.
As the scheme is being implemented as per the Centre's guidelines, the state can't take any decision itself.

Due to the system of online submission of forms, a large number of farmers are standing in queues.

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government has sought extension of the deadline for subscribing to the crop insurance scheme, and will approach Prime Minister Narendra Modi if it is not extended by on Monday evening, the Legislative Council was told here.

Leader of Opposition Dhananjay Munde (NCP) tabled an adjournment motion on the issue, saying if the deadline ended today, over one crore farmers will be deprived of crop insurance.

"There has been less rainfall in the Vidarbha and Marathwada regions this year. Farmers are in dire need of crop insurance. The government should extend the deadline by at least 15 days," Munde said.

Due to the system of online submission of forms, a large number of farmers are standing in queues (at the centres offering this service) to apply for the scheme, Munde said.

"Not more than a few hundred forms are being filled every day at a single centre. How will needy farmers avail of the insurance scheme at this rate," he asked.

Some other legislators made the same demand. Agriculture minister Pandurang Fundkar told the House that he had spoken to his counterpart in the Centre, Radha Mohan Singh, and requested extension of the deadline by a fortnight.

"He said he will take a positive decision soon," Fundkar said.

"If a decision is not taken by evening, the chief minister and I will meet the PM and request him to intervene," he added.

As the scheme is being implemented as per the Centre's guidelines, the state can't take any decision itself, he said.

Some nationalised banks were not cooperating in the implementation of the crop insurance scheme and inquiry will be initiated in this regard, the minister said.
Two things happened even as Saleem and the rest of the Kalam kin, along with DRDOs Col.

Copies of the Bible and Quran placed along side a wooden piece engraved with the words Bhagavad Gita near the wooden statue of former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam at his memorial. (Photo: PTI)

Rameswaram: A wood-engraved Bhagavad Gita kept close to the statue of late President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in his memorial here has provided fodder for alert politicos demanding to know why there werent holy books of other religions placed there as well. MDMK chief Vaiko saw a Hindutva agenda in Gita getting prime place at the Kalam statue. It was a BJP conspiracy to besmirch Kalams fame, concluded state Congress president S. Thirunavukarasu.

Distressed by the unseemly controversy, Kalams grandnephew Sheik Saleem sought the help of the chief of the Kalam memorial project, Col. Bishwajeet Choubey of DRDO, which built the memorial and is in-charge of its maintenance. Col. Choubey, who had enjoyed close rapport with Dr Kalam for several years, promptly pointed out to Saleem that the Quran and Bible used by the great man were also there displayed in glass boxes close by. Upon this, Saleem sought to douse the controversy by showing to the media persons the two holy books before putting them back in their glass boxes.





Two things happened even as Saleem and the rest of the Kalam kin, along with DRDOs Col. Choubey, were trying their best to halt the unseemly controversy before it flared further. First, some Hindutva group lodged a complaint in nearby Thangachimadam police station saying that some Muslim called Saleem had smuggled in a Quran and a Bible to place them next to the Gita. Next, some others raised an alarm that the two holy books went missing afterwards, perhaps taken away by Hindutva people.

Col. Choubey had to explain on phone to the Ramanathapuram SP that Quran and Bible were already in the memorial and Saleem had only taken them out of their glass boxes to show them to the media. He had subsequently put them back. The SP was satisfied.

This is an unnecessary controversy and this is very unfortunate... He loved all people. The world knows that, said Saleem, sounding very bitter.

The DRDO officials and workers worked round-the-clock to bring up this wonderful monument for Kalam. Should we be putting them under stress now for such a fissiparous reason? he wondered.

Green Man Abdul Ghani, closely associated with the Kalam Foundation, told DC that the statue was kept as a surprise by the DRDO until Prime Minister Modi unveiled it on July 27. It was kept covered by a cloth and thats why the media, which knew the other exhibits in the memorial, did not know about the statue. And the sculptor could have included the Gita as he had drawn inspiration for his work from a picture of Kalam playing on his Veena with a Gita nearby, said Ghani, adding, I have always found on Kalams table the Gita, Quran, Bible and Thirukkural.

He said Kalams favourite Thirukkural too was very much in the Museum along with the other things frequently used by the great man. Let the people see all these things, besides the inspiring pictures and sculptures that include the missiles he made. That would be the fitting tribute to Kalam, not these kind of controversies, he said.
Earlier, on July 25, in a fresh case of transgression, the People's Liberation Army from China crossed into Uttarakhand's Barahoti.

The Chinese army came upto 200 metres on the other side of the border. (Photo: Representational/PTI)

Uttarakhand: After reports emerged that the Chinese troops had entered Uttarakhand on July 25th, the Uttarakhand government has said that it has not received any official information as yet.

Madan Kaushik, a spokesperson for the Uttarakhand government said that they had watched the report on TV but they had not received any official information on the issue.

Read: Chinese soldiers entered Uttarakhand's Barahoti on July 25

"We haven't received any official information as yet. The stationed security forces have not given us any information nor has the district magistrate" he said.

Kaushik also said that they've ordered further probe into the matter.

Earlier, on July 25, in a fresh case of transgression, the People's Liberation Army from China crossed into Uttarakhand's Barahoti in Chamoli district and came upto 200 metres on the other side of the border.

Sources say that, the soldiers came up to 800m to 1 km into Indian territory.

This incident comes amid severe tensions between India and China resulting from the Doklam standoff.

In the past, Chinese troops have been known to cross over and write 'China' on rocks in the Chamoli district.

This area has also seen aerial transgressions and infiltration by foot patrols in 2013 and 2014.

The present standoff between India and China emerged after New Delhi expressed its apprehension over Beijing's road construction in the Sikkim sector of the border.

Consequently, China suspended the annual Kailash Manasarovar yatra and conceded that the decision to suspend the pilgrimage was due to the border scuffle.
Separatist leaders younger son Naseem summoned for questioning.

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agencys (NIA) probe into a case of terror funding in the Kashmir Valley gained momentum on Sunday with raids being conducted on the office and residence of a Jammu-based lawyer linked to hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and the agency summoning Mr Geelanis younger son Naseem for questioning.

The NIA is probing if lawyer Devinder Singh Behal, who is the chairman of the Jammu & Kashmir Social Peace Forum (JKSPF) that is part of the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat headed by Mr Geelani, has any role in diversion of funds to separatists in the Valley.

Mr Behal is also a member of the legal cell of the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat and has been seen attending funeral processions of militants. During the raids on Mr Behals properties in Jammu, the NIA recovered documents, mobile phones and a tablet. These will be sent for forensic examination to collecting more evidence, officials said.

This is the second raid in Jammu in connection with the case of terror funding. Earlier, the agency had raided a businessman. Meanwhile, Mr Geelani tried to call a press conference at his Hyderpora residence in Srinagar on Sunday but the police denied media persons permission to enter the premises where he has been under house arrest for the past many months. Separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was also not allowed to hold a press conference on Saturday.

NIA officials claimed that they were now probing the role of couriers who helped separatists in routing funds from across the border. The probe agency has summoned Naseem, younger son of Mr Geelani, for questioning on Wednesday.

Mr Geelanis elder son, Nayeem, was summoned by the NIA for questioning in the capital on Monday but he has been admitted to hospital in Srinagar following a complaint of chest pain. Nayeem, a surgeon who is tipped as the natural successor to Mr Geelani, had returned from Pakistan in 2010 after spending 11 years.

The NIA has arrested seven separatists, including Mr Geelanis son-in-law Altaf Ahmed Shah alias Altaf Fantoosh, in the terror funding case. Besides him, Mr Geelanis close aides Ayaz Akbar, spokesman of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, Nayeem Khan and Peer Saifullah were arrested last week.

Shahid-ul-Islam, spokesman of the moderate Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, Merajuddin Kalwal, and Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate were also arrested. All of them have been remanded to 10 days NIA custody.

In the May 30 FIR, the NIA named Hafiz Saeed, leader of Jamaat-ud-Dawa and terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, as an accused along with members of Hizbul Mujahideen and Dukhtaran-e-Millat. Both factions of the Hurriyat Conference have also been named.

They accused have been charged with raising, receiving and collecting funds through illegal means, including hawala, for funding separatist and terrorist activities in the Valley and causing disruptions by way of pelting security forces with stones, burning schools, damaging public property and waging war against India.
In July, 11 people, including nine soldiers, were killed and 18 injured in ceasefire violation by the Pakistan.

Pakistani Army violated ceasefire by using light weapons and medium machine guns along the LoC in the Baba Khori belt of Naushera sector of Rajouri district at 10:30 pm on Sunday. (Photo: File/Representational Image)

Jammu: The Pakistani army violated ceasefire on Sunday night by resorting to firing on Indian posts along the Line of Control (LoC) in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir.

"The Pakistani Army violated ceasefire by using light weapons and MMGs (medium machine guns) along the LoC in the Baba Khori belt of Naushera sector of Rajouri district at 2230 hours tonight," Deputy Commissioner Rajouri Shahid Iqban Choudhary said.

There have been 23 incidents of ceasefire violation, one BAT attack and two infiltration bids by Pakistan in June, in which four people, including three jawans, were killed and 12 injured.

In July, 11 people, including nine soldiers, were killed and 18 injured in ceasefire violation by the Pakistani army along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.
Lalu Yadav urges JD-U leader to join hands in fight against BJP.

Patna: Senior JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, who is reportedly upset over Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumars sudden decision to quit Grand Secular Alliance and form the government in Bihar with the BJP, has been getting regular invitations from Lalu Yadav.

RJD chief Lalu Yadav said that he wants to join hands with Sharad Yadav to fight against communal forces in Bihar as well as at the national level.

We share the same ideology and I have asked Sharadji to help us wage a war against BJP and communal forces in Bihar and at the national level. We have been talking to each other about the issue, said RJD chief Lalu Yadav.

Besides Sharad Yadav, two more senior JD(U) leaders  Ali Anwar and Virendra Kumar  have voiced strongly against Nitish Kumars decision to return to NDA fold.

Last week, Mr Anwar said, Nitish Kumar took a decision by listening to his inner voice, but my conscience doesnt allow me to support his decision to join hands with BJP.

Mr Sharad has so far maintained silence on the issue. Sources on Sunday stated that Sharad Yadav is regularly in touch with Lalu Yadav.

On Sunday, after Lalu Yadav urged him to take part in fight against the BJP, Sharad Yadav tweeted about the ineffectiveness of the Modi government in bringing back bla-ck money stashed abro-ad.

Neither black money stashed abroad returned, one of the main slogans of the ruling party, nor did anyone named in Panama papers get caught, tweeted Mr Sharad.

Earlier, Mr Lalu had said that he wanted Sharad Yadav to join hands with him before BJP Hatao Desh Bachao rally on August 27.

Reports coming from rural areas suggest that the rally may turn out be Lalu Yadavs biggest show of strength.

Lalu Yadav has asked party workers to project Tejashwi Yadav as a victim, said sources.

The RJD has also planned to move court against Bihar governors invitation to Nitish Kumar led NDA coalition to form a government in the state. Quoting the SR Bomai judgment, RJD spokesperson Manoj Jha said, It is mandatory to call the single largest party first to explore the possibility to form the government.

The RJD leader said that the party is planning to move court within a week.
Modi and Shah have entrusted the job of wooing the AIADMK, which has 50 MPs, to a senior BJP functionary.

Hyderabad: The timing of the much-discussed Union Cabinet reshuffle is said to be linked to the AIADMK joining the NDA camp, something which is likely to happen in the first week of August. According to sources, both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah have entrusted the job of wooing Tamil Nadus ruling party to a senior BJP functionary who holds a constitutional post.

The BJP wants to rope in the AIADMK so that the NDA is stronger by the time the Lok Sabha elections come around in 2019. The AIADMK has 50 members in both Houses of Parliament; it is the third largest party in the Lok Sabha after the BJP and the Congress.

With the JD(U) deciding to fall in line last week, a few of its MPs have to be accommodated in the Union Cabinet. Sources said reshuffling the Cabinet now, without the picture being clear on the AIADMK front, would not serve the purpose.

Sources said the thinking at the highest levels of the party is that the three key issues of appointment of governors, Cabinet reshuffle and reconstitution of BJP office-bearers are inter-linked.

Sources indicated that a major announcement over the AIADMK joining the NDA could be expected in the first week of August. The Modi-Shah view is that it would be unfair to leave the largest state in the south, and a party with 50 MPs, unrepresented in the Union Cabinet. The AIADMK had joined the Vajpayee Cabinet before severing ties in 1999.

Tamil Nadu parties, whether with the UPA or in the NDA, used to get representation in the Union Cabinet. At one time the state had nearly 10 ministers at the Centre. Presently, Kanyakumari Lok Sabha member Pon Radhakrishnan is the only minister of state representing Tamil Nadu at the Centre.

Sources indicated there would be a major reshuffle of BJP central office-bearers and parliamentary board which would eventually be linked with the Cabinet reshuffle.

The proposed changes in both Union Cabinet and the party committees will be the last one before the 2019 elections. It will be an election team, the source revealed.

The current office-bearers were appointed during the tenure of Rajnath Singh as BJP president, though Mr Shah has appointed a few persons since he became the party chief.
In one of the biggest drugs haul, an Indian Coast Guard (ICG) ship seized 1,500 kgs of heroin valued at about Rs 3,500 crore.

An ICG Ship apprehended Merchant Vessel carrying approximately 1500 kgs of heroine valued at about 3500 Cr off the coast of Gujarat. (Photo: ANI)

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) on Monday detained three persons in connection with the seizure of 1,500 kgs of heroin valued at about Rs 3,500 crore from a merchant vessel off the Gujarat coast on Sunday.

Though the vessel, identified as 'Hennry', claimed to have set sail from Iran and headed to Gujarat, the ATS is not ruling out the possibility that the contraband was loaded at a port in Pakistan before starting its journey towards Gujarat coast.

"Based on the (satellite) call details of the crew, we have detained three persons for questioning. They were picked up from different locations," said a senior ATS official.

"Though the boat claimed to have set sail from Iran, there is a possibility that the heroin was loaded at a port in Pakistan," he added.

In one of the biggest drugs haul, an Indian Coast Guard (ICG) ship seized 1,500 kgs of heroin valued at about Rs 3,500 crore from a Panama-registered merchant vessel off the Gujarat coast on Sunday, said a release by the Defence PRO.

After the seizure of the boat and heroin, various agencies such as the ATS and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) swung into action and started their investigation.

The ATS official said that all the eight crew members on board the vessel are from either Bihar or Uttar Pradesh.

While talking to mediapersons at Porbandar on Sunday, Commodore Rakesh Pal of the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) said two satellite phones were also recovered from the eight crew members, who are now undergoing joint interrogation at Porbandar.

"We have extracted call data from one of the seized satellite phones and given that data to various agencies such as ATS and NCB for further action," he said.

During primary investigation by the ICG, it was revealed that though the vessel was registered in Panama as "Hennry", the crew was transmitting its identity as Prince II, the release said.

The vessel was intercepted at around midnight on July 29 and taken to Porbandar port on Sunday for further investigation, it said.

Security agencies are trying to find out who in India was to take the delivery of the contraband.
A bench of the SC, headed by the Justice Dipak Misra was hearing the case involving Khan, who had made objectionable comments in the case.

New Delhi: Attorney General KK Venugopal on Monday asked the Supreme Court to take necessary action against Samjawadi Party leader Azam Khan for allegedly obstructing justice in the Bulandshahr rape case.

A bench of the apex court, headed by the Justice Dipak Misra was hearing the case involving Khan, who had made objectionable comments in the case.

The Samjawadi Party leader, in May, had said that situation in Uttar Pradesh is such that men should try and keep their women indoors.

His statement comes on the heels of Rampur incident where a group of men molested two women in broad day light.

"There is nothing astonishing in the fact that incidents of murders, loot. Rapes are being reported under this government. After the Bulandshahr incident men should try and keep their women and ladies of the house indoor as much as possible. And women should also avoid going to suspicious or lone places," said Khan.

Raising questions over the law and order in the state, a video of two girls being molested openly by a group of young men in Uttar Pradesh's Rampur district had set social media on fire.

Around 12 to 14 boys were seen in the video, molesting the women, even while they pleaded to let them go.
The gang also kidnapped railway gateman Balwant before abducting Vijay, son of Samajwadi leader Santosh Singh.

The kidnapping incident is said to be an act of revenge after their gang member Gopa Yadav was arrested by the UP police of Saturday.

Lucknow: The dreaded Babuli Kol dacoit gang has kidnapped a family member of a Samajwadi Party leader in Markundi area in Chitrakoot district.

The gang also kidnapped railway gateman Balwant before abducting Vijay, son of SP leader Santosh Singh, on Saturday night.

SP Chitrakoot Gopendra Singh said that the family members of Santosh Singh were returning from Satna to Manikpur in their car when the dacoits stopped them at Tikriya railway crossing.

The gang first kidnapped Vijay and then the railway gateman when the politicians family was crossing the railway gate after midnight.

Though the SP leader and their family were about 15 to 20 in numbers, the dacoits got hold of them, beat them up and abducted Vijay along with the gateman.

Several trains were delayed as there was no one to close the railway crossing after the abduction of the gateman.

The kidnapping incident is said to be an act of revenge after their gang member Gopa Yadav was arrested by the UP police of Saturday.

The UP government has announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh on dacoit Kol and Gopa Yadav carried a reward of Rs 1 lakh on his head.

The police has set up six teams to find the kidnapped persons.
On July 24, the NIA arrested seven separatists over money laundering charges, for funding terror in the Kashmir Valley.

Both sons of Geelani, Naeem Geelani and Zahoor Geelani have been summoned by the investigative agency. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has summoned Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani's second son to Delhi in the terror funding case.

The information is based on the NIA sources.

Both sons of Geelani, Naeem Geelani and Zahoor Geelani have been summoned by the investigative agency.

On July 24, the NIA arrested seven separatists over money laundering charges, for funding terror in the Kashmir Valley.

All seven separatist leaders - Altaf Shah, Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Mehraj Kalwal, Shahid-ul-Islam, Naeem Khan and Bitta Karate - were later sent to 10-day NIA custody.

The accused have been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The NIA visited Srinagar in May to probe the alleged funding by Pakistan for illegal activities in Kashmir, and questioned several separatist leaders on the issue of raising, collecting and transferring funds via the Hawala route and other channels to fund terror activities in Kashmir.

The NIA sleuths specifically questioned separatist leaders Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate and Gazi Javed Baba at that time.

The NIA is said to be probing all aspects of funding to separatist leaders and how they reportedly used these funds to fuel unrest in the Kashmir Valley.
There have been speculative reports in the media that the Samajwadi Partys Shivpal Yadav is likely to join the BJP soon.

Lucknow: BJP president Amit Shah on Monday denied reports that he would leave his party position to join the Modi government after being elected to Rajya Sabha.

There is no question of doing so. I have the responsibility of being the party president. I am happy, and I am working wholeheartedly. The media should not push the issue, he said.

Three MLCs  two from the SP and one from BSP  who had resigned from their respective parties and from the membership of the UP legislative council on Saturday, joined the BJP on Monday.

Talking to reporters, Mr Shah made it clear that the party had not promised any return gift to these leaders. Such a word does not exist in my partys dictionary, he said.

Reports of Mr Shivpal Yadav joining the BJP are also misplaced. There was never any such proposal and nor was it under consideration, he said.

There have been speculative reports in the media that the Samajwadi Partys Shivpal Yadav is likely to join the BJP soon.

Mr Shah, while wrapping up his three-day visit to Lucknow, emphatically denied that the BJP had played any role in the break-up of the Grand Alliance in Bihar.

Should I have pointed a gun at them to keep them together? Nitish Kumar resigned because he did not wish to stay with corrupt elements, Mr Shah said. Mr Shah attacked the Congress for not trusting its own MLAs and making them prisoners in a hotel room in Bengaluru.

It can be understood if they speak about Gujarat. But why are they (Congress MLAs) being kept in locked rooms in Bengaluru... you must understand that, he said.

The three MLCs who have joined the BJP are Yeshwant Singh, Bhukkal Nawab (both SP) and Jaiveer Singh (BSP).

Replying to a question, the BJP president said that there was no politics in his lunch meeting at a party workers house.

Please do not search for any politics in it. Earlier, too, I have eaten at the house of a booth-level worker who is a dalit and, on Sunday, I had lunch at the home of another worker who happens to belong to the Yadav community. They are party workers for me first, he stated.

Talking about the Ram temple, Mr Shah said that the temple issue was very much on the agenda of his party, but the construction would begin either on court orders or through negotiations with all stakeholders.

Terming Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the undisputedly most popular PM, Mr Shah said the government had succeeded in ending the politics of family, caste and appeasement in the country. He asserted that in three years of the Modi government, there has not been a single allegation of corruption.

Mr Shah said that the BJP would emerge with greater majority on the basis of development and good governance alone in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Replying to questions, Mr Shah ruled out the possibility of UPs deputy chief minister Keshav Maurya being shifted to the Centre.
Minister of state for home affairs Kiren Rijiju said it is the responsibility of state governments to deal with such crimes.

Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge speaks during the ongoing monsoon session in the Lok Sabha in New Delhi. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The Lok Sabha on Monday saw fiery exchanges between the ruling BJP and the Opposition, which staged a walkout during a four-hour discussion on mob lynchings.

With the Opposition demanding a governmental condemnation and framing of a strong law to tackle vigilantism, the government said that mob lynching or anything related to it was unacceptable and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself had condemned it.

Claiming that the NDA government was against minorities, dalits and women, Mallikarjun Kharge of the Congress started the discussion by saying, This is Hindustan, dont make it lynchistan.

Accusing Sangh Parivar organisations like the VHP and the Bajrang Dal of being involved in such violence, the Congress leader said: It is also being done so that your ideology and philosophy could be established in the country. The BJP countered the Oppositions allegation by shouting slogans.

Sougata Roy of Trinamul Congress quoted the findings of a magazine and claimed that between 2010-2017 there have been 63 incidents of mob violence in the name of cow protection. He demanded a separate law  Manav Suraksha Kanoon (human protection law)  to deal with lynchings.

Minister of state for home affairs Kiren Rijiju said it is the responsibility of state governments to deal with such crimes.

How is it possible for the Centre (to intervene in a state subject)? Does the Opposition want the Prime Minister to break the federal structure and the Centre to take over? he asked.

Unhappy with the ministers reply, the Congress, the Left and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen staged a walkout.

Accusing the opposition of selective amnesia, the minister earlier said an environment has been created in the country that there is intolerance and no freedom of expression. There is freedom of expression, but we will not spare anyone who will insult the country, he said.

He said the highest number of incidents of communal violence in 2015 took place in Uttar Pradesh, followed by Telangana and Karnataka. In 2016, Uttar Pradesh again reported the highest number of cases of communal violence, followed by West Bengal and Kerala, he added.

Jayadev Galla of theTDP said that mob violence represents the breakdown of law and order.

Mohammed Salim of the CPI(M)) said nothing will happen by merely criticising the incidents and urged for efforts to establish peace.
Gohil said even when the MLAs were threatened by the BJP, they chose to stand by the party.

Bengaluru/New Delhi: Launching a blistering attack on the BJP while parading Gujarat Congress MLAs before the media at a resort in Bengaluru, Gujarat Congress leader and AICC spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil on Sunday said that BJP leaders had offered Rs 15 crore each to 22 MLAs to cross vote in the Rajya Sabha polls scheduled for August 8.

Our legislators have not come here to enjoy. We brought them here to save democracy as they were being poached by BJP, using money and muscle power, Mr Gohil told reporters at the resort as the MLAs sat behind him.

Democracy is passing through testing times. I request the media to save democracy. We have all of them here, you can ask them anything you want, Mr Gohil asserted.

There have been reports that the Congress MLAs were brought to the resort in Bidadi against their wishes. The parade was a show of strength and an attempt to scotch reports of disunity in their ranks.

The AICC spokesperson, who has been at the resort since Saturday night, said, We are living like a family. Where are the internal problems and bickering the BJP is talking about? Just see how we respect each other.

Mr Gohil said even when the MLAs were threatened by the BJP, they chose to stand by the party. Had our party MLAs not been threatened, what was the need for us to stay here (in Bengaluru) even for a minute? he asked.

Union minister Prakash Javadekar rejected the charge of the BJP poaching and bribing Congress MLAs.

Gujarat Congress leaders are levelling allegations at the BJP in Bengaluru. It is like a thief criticising a cop. If their leaders are leaving them, it has nothing to do with us, Mr Javadekar told PTI in New Delhi.

He said those who quit the Congress included leaders like Shankarsinh Vaghela, a former chief minister and the leader of Opposition, its chief whip Balwantsinh Rajput and its spokesperson Tejashreeben Patel.

They are all strong leaders. Nobody can purchase them. The Congress should look inwards and think why such senior leaders are leaving it. The truth is that its only goal is to save Rahul Gandhi in the country and Ahmed Patel in Gujarat, he said.

Reacting sharply to Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupanis charge that internal problems in the Congress were responsible for six MLAs quitting the party, Mr Gohil said that the Congress has the numbers to ensure the victory of senior party leader Ahmed Patel in the Rajya Sabha polls. The BJP does not have the numbers, they cannot even dream of winning the third seat, he said.

Mr Patel is political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

The resignation by six Congress MLAs, including Mr Rajput, followed the exit of Mr Vaghela, brought down the Congress strength in the Assembly from 57 to 51. Three of the six later joined the BJP.

Mr Rajput, a relative of Mr Vaghela, has now been fielded by BJP to take on Mr Patel, who is seeking a fifth Rajya Sabha term.

With 51 MLAs on his side, the Congress candidate would easily sail through the vote, but more desertions could put his chances in jeopardy.

The presidential election had seen cross-voting by Congress legislators with the joint Opposition candidate Meira Kumar garnering votes of only 49 MLAs against the Congress then strength of 57 in the state Assembly.

Reacting to reports of Congress leaders switching off their cell phones and being unavailable to their constituents who are facing flood fury in Gujarat, Mr Gohil wondered aloud where the Gujarat CM was during floods in Banaskantha, his constituency. Our MLA were there with the people, but not a single BJP minister was present there, he said.
However, the BJP questioned the Oppn Congress for flying 44 MLAs to Bengaluru at a time when the state of Gujarat is reeling from floods.

Congress chief whip Jyotiraditya Scindia wanted a discussion in the House on the issue of BJP offering money to Cong MLAs in return of their support. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Opposition Congress on Monday claimed in Lok Sabha that its MLAs in Gujarat were being offered Rs 15 crore in return of support to the BJP and being forced by the ruling party in the state.

As soon as the House assembled, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge raised the issue of political situation in Gujarat, from where Congress shifted its MLAs to Karnataka fearing poaching allegedly by the BJP ahead of the August 8 Rajya Sabha elections.

Ruling BJP has fielded three members including party president Amit Shah, union minister Smriti Irani and a rebel Congress MLA for the election.

Ahmed Patel, Congress president Sonia Gandhi's political advisor, is seeking re-election.

"The Congress MLAs are being put under pressure," Kharge alleged amidst the protests and counter-protests by Congress and BJP members respectively.

Congress chief whip Jyotiraditya Scindia alleged that each of the Congress MLAs in Gujarat were offered Rs 15 crore in return of supporting the BJP. Both Kharge and Scindia wanted a discussion on the issue in the House.

However, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan rejected the demand saying it was a subject relating to a state and cannot be discussed in the House.

In contrast, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday questioned the Opposition Congress for flying 44 of its MLAs to Bengaluru at a time when the state of Gujarat is reeling from floods.

Read: Congress may distribute money to their MLAs to ensure their loyalty: Swamy

Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said, "Gujarat continues to reel from floods, but Congress representatives are busy parading their MLAs. The time when Gujarat needed the Congress, its public representatives were not present."

Naqvi further said that if the Congress MLAs are discontented with the party's functioning, then it is not the BJP's fault.

"If the Congress MLAs are unhappy with the functioning of the party, then it is not our fault. The situation in the Congress is disruptive. The public is rejecting the Congress. Their own MLAs are refusing to be a part of the party", he said.
The BJP president was scheduled to visit Meghalaya on July 12, but had to postpone it due to other engagements.

Guwahati: In a significant political development, more than seven legislators from the ruling alliance and Opposition in Meghalaya have sought an audience with the BJPs national president, Amit Shah, during his visit to the state next month.

Though the BJP is trying to downplay the development by describing it as a courtesy call, the appointment request has sparked speculation in political circles of the frontier state schedule to go for Assembly elections in 2018.

Observers say that there may be a repeat of what happened in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday. Hours before Mr Shah landed in Lucknow, two Samajwadi Party MLCs quit the party to join the BJP.

Meghalaya BJP president Shibun Lyngdoh told this newspaper, At least seven legislators from the Congress, United Democratic Party and National Peoples Party have approached me for an audience with our national president This is a request for a courtesy call. They just want to meet our party president.

While admitting that several MLAs are inclined to join the BJP in the Christian-dominated state, Mr Lyngdoh said that it would be too early to say whether these seven legislators want to join BJP.

The BJP doesnt have any representative in the 60-member Meghalaya Assembly, although the party had succeeded in opening its account in previous Assembly elections.

The growth of the saffron party in northeastern states has resulted in constant chatter in Meghalaya about a large number of Congress leaders deserting the party. Fearing an anti-incumbency setback in the forthcoming Assembly elections, many Congress leaders are also said to be looking for tickets from regional political parties.

Political observers say that Meghalaya has been a strong Congress bastion, but chief minister Mukul Sangma has failed to keep the morale of party workers high.

There has also been speculation in local newspapers about Mr Sangma, who has been winning elections from Ampati in Garo Hills, searching for another constituency. This has contributed to the general nervousness in the ruling party.

Meanwhile, the BJP is downplaying Mr Shahs visit to Meghalaya, saying he is visiting all the states in the country to understand the ground situation.

The BJP president was scheduled to visit Meghalaya on July 12, but had to postpone it due to other engagements. His visit has been rescheduled for August, though the exact date is yet to be fixed.

The Congress is the strongest party in the current Assembly with 30 MLAs. The United Democratic Party (UDP) has eight MLAs, Hill State Peoples Democratic Party (HSDP) has four, National Peoples Party (NPP) and Nationalist Congress Party have two MLAs each.

The North East Social Democratic Party is led by lone MLA Lamboklang Mylliem, and Independents have 13 seats. The UDP, HSPDP and NPP are in Opposition.
Veteran JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav was also not present during the oath taking ceremony of Nitish Kumar last week.

Sharad Yadav expressed his dissatisfaction with the split in JD(U) and RJD alliance on social media. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Breaking his silence for the first time after the grand alliance faced rupture, JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav on Monday called the decision in Bihar unfortunate.

"I don't agree with the decision in Bihar, its unfortunate. The mandate by the people was not for this," Yadav said.

Nitish Kumar, on last Wednesday, ended his two-year grand alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress, citing a call of conscience over corruption charges slapped against his former deputy and Lalu Prasad Yadavs son Tejaswi Yadav.

Lalu, his wife Rabri Devi and Tejaswi are central to a CBI inquiry into the land-for-hotels deal when Lalu was the Union railways minister.

Veteran JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav was also not present during the oath taking ceremony of Nitish Kumar last week.

Read: Centre must come up with unemployment compensation, similar to GST: JD(U)

The leader, however, expressed his dissatisfaction with the split in JD(U) and RJD alliance on social media. He for the first time spoke on the issue with media on Monday.

Sharad Yadav has been indirectly hitting out at BJP. The recent attack came on Sunday when Yadav told that BJP has failed to keep the promise of bringing back black money stashed abroad.

"Neither black money stashed abroad returned, one of the main slogans of the ruling party, nor anyone caught out of those named in Panama papers," Yadav took to Twitter.

Neither black money slashed abroad returned, one of d main slogans of d ruling party nor anyone caught out of those named in Panama papers.  SHARAD YADAV (@SharadYadavMP) July 30, 2017

He also said hitted out at the Centre for lack of development in the country. He said, Although Govt collects number of cesses in d name of different services from public, yet don't see any improvement in any area in d country.

Read: Have faith in Modi, he will bring back black money: BJP to Sharad Yadav

Sharad Yadav also termed the Union governments Crop Insurance Scheme unsuccessful and said, Amongst others Fasal Bima Yojana is another unsuccessful scheme of d Govt through which only private insurance companies being benefitted.

In his Twitter account Sharad Yadav also asked for an explanation from the government over slow growth in infrastructure sector.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumars reaction on the prime ministerial issue came after he was asked about his national ambition in 2019 election.

Patna: Bihar Chief Nitish Kumar who broke ties with the grand secular alliance last week said that no person or political party in the country has the ability to compete with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

There is no political party or a leader who has the ability to compete with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said during a press conference in Patna on Monday.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumars reaction on the prime ministerial issue came after he was asked about his national ambition in 2019 general election.

Ruling himself out of the race Kumar said, Mine is a regional party and is confined to Bihar only and as far as my national ambition is concerned I have already held several key portfolios when Atal Behari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister.

Interestingly Nitish Kumar had snapped ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after Narendra Modi was nominated as NDAs prime ministerial candidate in 2013. During the formation of Grand Secular Alliance in 2015, Kumar had said he had joined hands with secular parties like Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress to weaken the communal forces.

Kumar was speaking for the first time after he dumped the grand secular alliance over corruption charges against RJD Chief Lalu Yadav and his son Tejaswi Yadav who was also deputy chief minister in the state government.

Hours after he had snapped ties with the grand secular alliance last week Prime Minister Narendra Modi had congratulated him for joining the fight against corruption.

Nitish Kumar also reacted sharply on former Janata Dal (United) (JD (U)) President Sharad Yadavs Opposition to his decision to form an alliance with NDA.

He said everyone has different opinion in democracy, and that the JD (U) was recognized by election commission only for Bihar, the decision to form an alliance with NDA was taken by the state unit of the party in the interest of Bihar

He further said that the party will discuss the issue during the national executive meeting on August 19 in Patna. Sharad Yadav is reportedly upset over Nitish Kumars alignment with the NDA.

Nitish Kumar said that he had no option but to walk out of the grand secular alliance as remaining in it would have meant compromising with corruption.

On the issue of secularism, Kumar said that he doesnt need a certificate from any political party or leaders on the issue.

He said that some political parties have been using secularism to cover their black money and benami properties.

The Chief Minister further clarified that he tried to save the alliance but Lalu Yadav and his son repeatedly refused to come clean on the corruption charges levelled against them.

People had started raising questions on the zero tolerance policy of the state government after Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a corruption case against the family including Tejaswi Yadav. I just asked them to give a public clarification but the whole family kept dodging the issue, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said.
Assam FM said that focus of the Prime Ministers visit would be on working out strategy for measures to mitigate the flood problem.

Guwahati: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be arriving in Guwahati on Tuesday and discuss the mechanism for the permanent solution of the perennial flood problem in Assam.

Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that focus of the Prime Ministers visit would be on working out strategy for long-term measures to mitigate the flood problem of the state.

Pointing out that extensive relief has been given to the flood-hit people of the state, Sarma said, We have surplus fund to provide relief and rehabilitate the flood victims so it is not at all a issue for the state. The Centre has released sufficient fund to the state to handle the relief and rehabilitation of the flood victims.

Prime Minister who is schedule to address the legislature party meeting of ruling alliance will be meeting senior bureaucrats of the state to work out a long-term plan to reduce the devastation of the floods, which is affecting the economy of the state adversely.

Prime Minister is also scheduled to discuss all the aspects related to the floods with Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and his council of ministers in a separate meeting on Tuesday at Administrative Staff College, sources in the state government said.

As the water-level has come down and most of those affected in floods have started returning back to their homes, Prime Minister has decide not go for aerial survey of the flood hit areas, sources said.

During his daylong stay in Guwahati, Prime Minister will also meet the chief ministers of Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, the states ravaged in flood 2017.
The two leaders also discussed recent incidents of violence in the state involving political activists.

New Delhi: Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday spoke to Kerala chief minister P. Vijayan regarding the murder of an RSS worker on Saturday and said that political violence was unacceptable in a democracy. Seven accused in the murder have been arrested so far.

The two leaders also discussed recent incidents of violence in the state involving political activists. The home minister later tweeted, I have expressed my concern over the law and order situation in the state of Kerala. Political violence is unacceptable in a democracy.

Mr Singh said he hoped that political violence in Kerala would be contained and those responsible for the heinous crime would be brought to justice.

RSS activist Rajesh, 34, was hacked to death on Saturday by a six-member gang led by a history-sheeter near Thiruvananthapuram. Five accused were arrested on Sunday from rural Kattakkada while one more person is absconding, police said.

According to police, the assailants cut off the victims left hand and he bled to death. BJP Kerala chief Kummanam Rajasekharan alleged that suspected CPI(M) workers were behind the incident.

Meanwhile, the shutdown called by the BJP on Sunday in protest against the murder was almost total with state-run and private buses keeping away from roads and shops and business establishments remaining closed. Sporadic incidents of stone pelting on vehicles were reported in some parts of the state.
When the police reached the spot, they tried to hide in a nearby church, but were held by devotees and the police.

Thiruvananthapuram: Twelve persons were held on Sunday in connection with the murder of RSS basti karyavahak S.L. Rajesh (34) at Sreekariyam, Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday. Most of the accused were detained early in the morning from an abandoned house in a rubber plantation on the outskirts of Kattakada.

The accused, identified as Manikuttan, Pramod, Vijith, Vipin and Aby, had reportedly hacked the RSS leader, cut off his left hand and threw it away. The others named Arun, Mony, Bayee and Shaiju had offered support to the suspects.

Read: Kerala: RSS worker's hands, feet chopped off, dies; police detain 8

All the arrests will be recorded on Monday. As per the police sources, the accused, soon after the hacking, escaped to the outskirts. The police first arrested Pramod and later Shaiju when it identified the location of accused. When the police reached the spot, they tried to hide in a nearby church, but were held by devotees and the police.

They were being questioned by a team under IG Manoj Abraham when reports last came in. Poli-ce officials and CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan claimed that the attacks were not polticially motivated.

All the suspects had different political inclinations, he said. Minor violence where reported in the city at around the time of funeral procession, despite prohibitory or-ders being enforced in city until August 2. Rajesh was survived by his parents, wife and two children.
The High Court has also directed the crime branch to give all documents and necessary videos of the post-mortem.

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Monday rapped the Byculla jail authorities for not sending requisite material for mandatory magisterial inquiry into the death of inmate Manjula Shetye, and directed that the magisterial inquiry be completed in the matter at the earliest.

Meanwhile, the petitioner's lawyer informed the court that the doctor who has been said to be suspended was a temporary doctor, therefore he cannot be suspended.

Wherein for ordering inquiry as per mandatory provisions under section 176(1) A, it needs to be done in 24 hours.

The High Court has also directed the crime branch to give all documents and necessary videos of the post-mortem and asked the magistrate to do inquiry as soon as possible.

The hearing has been adjourned till 21st August.

Earlier, six Byculla women's prison officials, accused of murder of inmate, Shetye filed their bail pleas at a sessions court in Mumbai.

In the bail pleas, they blamed Sheena Bora murder accused Indrani Mukerjea of hatching a conspiracy against them for framing them in the murder case.

Their bail plea mentioned, "Indrani Mukerjea, a murder case under trial prisoner along with others have masterminded the false case to gain advantage and personal grudge against public servants."

The plea also says that Shetye's death was a result of her illness.

Earlier on June 30, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in the Bombay High Court seeking Criminal Investigation Department (CID) inquiry in the murder case of Shette.

Mukerjea's lawyer had filed an application in the special CBI court, claiming that she was assaulted by the jail authorities after the death of Shette sparked a protest in the prison.

Reportedly, over 200 women inmates, including Mukerjea, were booked for rioting and criminal conspiracy inside the Mumbai's Byculla jail.

The Nagpada Police also filed an FIR against six women prison staffers, including the jailor for the murder of Shette.

Shetye died at the JJ Hospital on June 23 after being allegedly beaten up by the Byculla jail officials and staff.
The second time Prime Minister Sharif was ousted, he was handed a life sentence by an anti-terrorism court for hijacking an airplane.

Soon after he was sacked the first time in 1993, Mian Nawaz Sharif asked his interviewer, What does the President have against me, except that he does not like my face? The judiciary more or less agreed, declared the Presidents action illegal, and restored Prime Minister Sharif (a grace never extended to Benazir).

The second time Prime Minister Sharif was ousted, he was handed a life sentence by an anti-terrorism court for hijacking an airplane. He said of his wilderness years, I thought to myself, Allah, you know better. For what mistake am I getting this punishment?

Again the Supreme Court came to his rescue. Looking at the case from any angle, the court held nine years later, the charge of hijacking, attempt to hijack or terrorism does not stand established against the petitioner. It was unanimous and, irony of ironies, decided by five judges to zero.

Twin threads run through the above: the apex court coming to the gentlemans rescue, and the gentlemans lack of reflection as to what necessitated a rescue in the first place.

Granted, reflection was always a tough ask: the Prime Minister was dismissed by the icy Ghulam Ishaq the first time; he was overthrown by a usurper in a borrowed flak jacket the second. He was in the right in both instances.

Only this time, he was in the wrong. And this time, the apex court held he was in the wrong. As lawyer Faisal Siddiqi wrote in these pages, () in comparison with other political elites, the Sharif family has not been subjected to any serious legal accountability by the courts. That changed Friday.

The lack of reflection, however, remained constant, and not just by the now ex-Prime Minister. The commentariat forgot the last quarter-century ever happened: the same judicial system that had absolved him, again and again, was now maligned as part of a shadowy plan.

Yet in all this talk of conspiracy, no one denied ownership of Capital FZE. No one denied the existence of the London flats. And no objective observer could stomach the story: Qatari princes flying in on magic carpets; lawyers-cum-font-geeks typing up beta Calibri. After a while, we were in O.J. Simpson territory: excellent legal talent, wall-to-wall coverage, popular support  and everyone knowing he did it.

Those rightly citing Article 10-A and the right to a fair trial may breathe easy: they will get their trial. As to arguing that disqualification may only ensue from the said trial, the court has directly disqualified MNAs in the past, and will do so in the future  any due process concerns left were taken care of by the joint investigation team. While the usual suspects try to tar the JIT with the same Masonic conspiracy brush, the fact is Pakistans state institutions have long been slammed as weak and venal (see Hijazi, Zafar). Yet the JIT has set a standard for both the thoroughness of its investigation as well as its independence. Which at last brings us to Fridays verdict: Imran Ahmed Khan vs Mian Nawaz Sharif, the most consequential case in memory. And the tragedy is, it never had to end this way.

The Panama Papers were leaked on April 3, 2016. Between then and now, Nawaz Sharif could have disclosed all his assets; he did not. He could have asked a former judge to form a commission, long as he empowered it; he did not. He could have sat down with the PPP and resolved this in Parliament; he did not. He could have emancipated state institutions to the point they would not fear investigating him; he did not. He could have resigned in the wake of the JIT report; he did not. He could have built in parameters for Articles 62 and 63; he did not. To call this a conspiracy, then, may well be accurate: Mian Nawaz Sharifs against himself.

To turn to other burning issues, now that Article 62(1)(f) has been deployed, it is prayed the Supreme Court exercises it with judiciousness, and that our legislature rethink Articles 62 and 63 altogether.

Finally, if this is indeed a brave new world, what of the crime that started the Sharif era? In Asghar Khan vs Mirza Aslam Beg, the court ruled that generals Beg and Durrani rigged the 1990 polls, and that the state take necessary steps under the Constitution and law against them.

Justice Khosas decision in the Panama case held, with great courage, that a Prime Minister immune from touchability or accountability () would be nothing short of a disaster. His words are as applicable to those in uniform  be it the gents that illegally got Nawaz Sharif elected Prime Minister in 1990, or the gents that unlawfully removed him in 1999. Let justice be done.

The writer is a barrister and co-host of a current affairs show

By arrangement with Dawn
India has a special relationship with Bhutan that is detailed in the Friendship Treaty of 2007.

The uneasy military standoff between China and India in the Doklam plateau area of Bhutan, near the tri-junction between the three countries, will enter its third month by mid-August. A modus vivendi appears elusive as of now because the much hoped for breakthrough in the just concluded visit of national security adviser Ajit Doval to Beijing for a Brics-related meeting, did not materialise. But the silver lining to a dark bilateral cloud is that there has been no breakdown between Delhi and Beijing over Doklam.

The standoff over Doklam has a complex genealogy and involves a large chunk of colonial history that includes the 1890 Anglo-Chinese convention and a subsequent iteration of 1906. However, Bhutan was not party to this convention at the time. After both India and China became independent in the late 1940s, they engaged in the 1962 border war over an opaque territorial dispute that is still unresolved.

A status quo was arrived at over a 4,000 km Line of Actual Control that also acknowledged Bhutans claim over the disputed areas in the tri-junction near the Chumbi Valley. Over various meetings, the special representatives of India and China came to an agreement in 2012, that the status quo at the tri-junction would not be disturbed pending final settlement in consultation with the third country  in this case, Bhutan.

The Indian narrative on the sequence of events notes that China was engaged in road-building activity in the disputed Doklam plateau  which, if completed, would have altered the tactical military situation in Chinas favour. Delhi deemed this to be a serious security concern that would render vulnerable the critical Siliguri Corridor that connects the Indian mainland to the Northeast.

India has a special relationship with Bhutan that is detailed in the Friendship Treaty of 2007. As per this, both nations are mandated to cooperate closely with each other on issues relating to their national interests and, furthermore, neither government shall allow the use of its territory for activities harmful to the national security and interest of the other.

When Thimphu registered its protest at this Chinese incursion into Bhutanese territory  albeit disputed  and urged Beijing to restore the status quo, India stepped in to prevent the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) troops from continuing their construction activity. Since then the issue has festered, with Beijing claiming that the Doklam area, where they were constructing the road, was indeed Chinese territory; and that, in the event that there was a dispute, it was between China and Bhutan where India had no locus.

The legal claims by all three parties  Bhutan, China and India  lend themselves to detailed interpretation. Depending on where ones empathy lies on this issue, persuasive arguments have been advanced on both sides to buttress the Chinese claim or, well, that of India. Beijing has often invoked history in a selective manner to strengthen its position (three warfare tenets?) and disparaged other historical claims and international jurisprudence, as was seen in the South China Sea case and the tribunal award that did not go in its favour.

However, Doklam cannot be viewed in isolation and it is instructive to review Beijings response since mid-June and seek to illuminate what may have fuelled Chinas current anxiety and deep insecurity over contested territoriality in relation to India and, by extension, Bhutan. The Doklam incident is distinctive, for it involves a third country and is hence not quite comparable to more recent bilateral events such as Depsang (2013) and Chumar (2014).

The other strand about Doklam that goes beyond past precedent is the very angry and disparaging/offensive anti-India turn of phrase used by some media outlets in China. The flip side is that part of the Indian television spectrum which is equally shrill in denouncing China for its muscular assertiveness  and exhorts the Narendra Modi government to stay firm and give the PLA a bloody nose  if push comes to shove over Doklam.

Both China and India have been differently convulsed by the vicissitudes of history  both colonial and Cold War  and in the last 25 years they have acquired a self-image about their locus in Asia and, by extension, the world stage. Ironically, this self-image is not shared outside of their own constituencies, much less by each other. China under President Xi Jinping seeks to return to the imagined grandeur of the Middle Kingdom and an equally confident Prime Minister Narendra Modi is determined to steer India towards its destiny as a leading power.

Mutual and empathetic accommodation of each others aspirations and anxieties has remained elusive since the early 1990s. Beijings decision to enter into a strategic relationship that included transfer of nuclear weapons and missile technology to Pakistans military to assuage its own deeply embedded post-Tiananmen insecurities lies at the core of the current Doklam tension in a non-linear manner.

My assessment is that when India was accorded an exceptional nuclear status in the fall of 2008 by a US-led initiative, the seeds of Doklam were sown. Beijings Asia policy, it appears, is to constrain both India and Japan till they accept Chinese primacy. A former PM of India had once wryly observed that after the end of this nuclear ostracism, Beijings unstated objective has been to keep India in a state of extended disequilibrium.

In the last three years since Mr Modi assumed office, both nations have had a contradictory relationship, wherein cooperation in certain issues and fora  for instance climate change, Brics and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation  has been leavened with discord over the Nuclear Suppliers Group membership, support to certain terror leaders at the United Nations Security Council and, most recently, the One Belt, One Road summit in Beijing. The resolve that Delhi now exudes is new, and Doklam is a case in point. How prudent will it be in the long run to advance Indias comprehensive national interests remains moot.

A.G. Noorani, one of Indias most rigorous China-watcher, has cautioned: At stake is something far more than the immediate crisis over the land in Doklam. What is at stake is the future of Indias relations with China.

Doklam may well turn out to be the bellwether about the texture of the Asian century.
Ugandas defence ministry said its soldiers were part of the AMISOM convoy and an unspecified number of its soldiers had been killed.

Al Shabaab wants to force out the peacekeepers, oust the Western-backed government and impose its strict interpretation of Islam in Somalia. Photo: Representational/AP)

Mogadishu: Fighting between al Shabaab fighters and Somali government troops and African Union peacekeepers killed 24 people on Sunday, a regional official said, with the Islamist militants putting the death toll higher.

Al Shabaab ambushed a convoy carrying troops from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) early on Sunday in the Bulamareer district of the Lower Shabelle region, about 140 km (85 miles) southwest of Mogadishu, Colonel Hassan Mohamed said.

Ali Nur, the deputy governor of Lower Shabelle region, said: We have carried 23 dead AMISOM soldiers and a dead Somali soldier from the scene where al Shabaab ambushed AMISOM today,.

Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaabs military operations spokesman, said: We have in hand 39 dead bodies of AU soldiers including their commander.

The casualty figure could not be independently verified. The numbers al Shabaab and officials give usually differ.

Ugandas defence ministry said its soldiers were part of the AMISOM convoy and an unspecified number of its soldiers had been killed.

Al Shabaab wants to force out the peacekeepers, oust the Western-backed government and impose its strict interpretation of Islam in Somalia.
Republicans hold 52-48 majority in the Senate, where no Democrats voted for the GOP bill and three Republicans defected in the final vote.

Washington: The White House stepped up demands Sunday for revived congressional efforts on health care and suggested senators cancel their entire summer break, if needed, to pass legislation after failed votes last week.

Aides said President Donald Trump is prepared in the coming days to end required payments to insurers under the Affordable Care Act as part of a bid to let "Obamacare implode" and force the Senate to act.

It was all part of a weekend flurry of Trump tweets and other statements insisting the seven-year GOP quest to repeal former President Barack Obama's signature legislative achievement was not over.

"The president will not accept those who said it's, quote, 'Time to move on,'" White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said. Those were the words used by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., after the early Friday morning defeat of the GOP proposal.

Conway said Trump was deciding whether to act on his threat to end cost-sharing reduction payments, which are aimed at trimming out-of-pocket costs for lower-income people. "He's going to make that decision this week, and that's a decision that only he can make," Conway said.

For seven years, Republicans have promised that once they took power, they would scrap Obama's overhaul and pass a replacement. But that effort crashed most recently in the Senate Friday, and that's when McConnell said it was time to focus on other policy matters.

Republicans hold a 52-48 majority in the Senate, where no Democrats voted for the GOP bill and three Republicans defected in the final vote Friday. One of the GOP defectors, Sen. John McCain, has since returned to Arizona for treatment for brain cancer,

"Don't give up Republican senators, the World is watching: Repeal & Replace," Trump said in a tweet.

White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, when asked Sunday if no other legislative business should be taken up until the Senate acts again on health care, responded "yes."

While the House has begun a five-week recess, the Senate is scheduled to work two more weeks before a summer break. McConnell has said the unfinished business includes addressing a backlog of executive and judicial nominations, coming ahead of a busy agenda in September that involves passing a defense spending bill and raising the government's borrowing limit.

"In the White House's view, they can't move on in the Senate," Mulvaney said, referring to health legislation. "They need to stay, they need to work, they need to pass something."

Trump warned over the weekend that he would end federal subsidies for health care insurance for Congress and the rest of the country if the Senate didn't act soon. He was referring in part to a federal contribution for lawmakers and their staffs, who were moved onto Obamacare insurance exchanges as part of the 2010 law.

"If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!" Trump tweeted.

The subsidies, totaling about $7 billion a year, help reduce deductibles and copayments for consumers with modest incomes. The Obama administration used its rule-making authority to set direct payments to insurers to help offset these costs. Trump inherited the payment structure, but he also has the power to end them.

The payments are the subject of a lawsuit brought by House Republicans over whether the health law specifically included a congressional appropriation for the money, as required under the Constitution. Trump has only guaranteed the payments through July, which ends Monday.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, one of the three Republican senators who voted against the GOP health bill on Friday, said she's troubled by Trump's claims that the insurance payments are a "bailout." She said Trump's threat to cut off payments would not change her opposition to the GOP health bill and stressed the cost-sharing reduction payments were critical to make insurance more affordable for low-income people.

"The uncertainty about whether that subsidy is going to continue from month to month is clearly contributing to the destabilization of the insurance markets, and that's one thing that Congress needs to end," said Collins, who wants lawmakers to appropriate money for the payments.

"I certainly hope the administration does not do anything in the meantime to hasten that collapse," she added.

Trump previously said the law that he and others call "Obamacare" would collapse immediately whenever those payments stop. He has indicated a desire to halt the subsidies but so far has allowed them to continue on a month-to-month basis.

Conway spoke on "Fox News Sunday," Mulvaney appeared on CNN's "State of the Union" and Collins was on CNN as well as NBC's "Meet the Press."
The apex court on Friday disqualified the 67-year-old for dishonesty, forcing him to resign as Prime Minister.

Islamabad: Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, still smarting from his disqualification by the Supreme Court for dishonesty, wants to know if everyone else in Pakistan is Sadiq and Ameen (honest and righteous).

The apex court on Friday disqualified the 67-year-old for dishonesty, forcing him to resign as Prime Minister.

The courts ruling stated that Mr Sharif had been dishonest in not disclosing his earnings from a Dubai-based company in his nomination papers during the 2013 general election.

Addressing leaders of his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Saturday, Mr Sharif said, You should be proud that your leader doesnt have a stain of corruption on him.

I am proud that I have not been declared ineligible over charges of corruption, he said at the PML-Ns parliamentary meeting that approved his brother and Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif as his successor.

Is it only my family that should be held accountable? Is everyone else in this country Sadiq (honest) and Ameen (righteous)? he asked.

Pakistans National Assembly will elect Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as interim PM on Tuesday. He will later make way for Shehbaz Sharif after the latter gets elected to Parliament.
The Opposition could also field a candidate but the nominee has little chance of getting sufficient votes.

Islamabad: Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain on Sunday summoned a session of National Assembly on August 1 to elect a fresh leader of the House after the Supreme Court on Friday disqualified Mr Sharif for dishonesty and ruled that corruption cases be filed against him and his children over the Panama Papers scandal.

Pakistans ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Sunday vacated the official residence and shifted to the hill resort of Murree along with his family.

Mr Sharif left PM House with his wife, Kulsum Nawaz, daughter Maryam Nawaz, and his son-in-law, Captain (Retired) Safdar, and shifted to his private residence in the hill resort of Murree near Islamabad. He met the staff before leaving. The luggage of the former first family was already shifted, reports said.

Ousted finance minister and Mr Sharifs confidante Ishaq Dar also left for Murree with the Sharif family.

The PM House, nestled in the foothills of Margalla Hills overlooking Islamabad, would be renovated for the new occupant, officials said.

It is not known for how long Mr Sharif would stay in Murree, a place he likes a lot and has been visiting frequently since he was the chief minister of Punjab.

Earlier, PML(N) announced petroleum minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as the interim PM before Punjab CM Shehbaz Sharif is elected the full-time PM. The younger Sharif who holds only a provincial seat must be elected to National Assembly before becoming the new Premier.

The Opposition could also field a candidate but the nominee has little chance of getting sufficient votes.
Any new UNSC resolution 'that does not significantly increase the international pressure on North Korea is of no value,' Haley said.

Tokyo: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spoke with US President Donald Trump on Monday and agreed on the need for further action on North Korea just hours after the US Ambassador to the United Nations said the United States is "done talking about North Korea".

Nikki Haley, US Ambassador to the United Nations, said in a statement that China must decide if it is willing to back imposing stronger UN sanctions on North Korea over Friday night's long-range missile test, the second this month.

Any new UN Security Council resolution "that does not significantly increase the international pressure on North Korea is of no value," Haley said, adding that Japan and South Korea also needed to do more.

Abe told reporters following his conversation with Trump that repeated efforts by the international community to find a peaceful solution to the North Korean issue had yet to bear fruit in the face of Pyongyang's unilateral "escalation" of the situation.

"International society, including Russia and China, need to take this seriously and increase pressure," Abe said, adding that the two nations would take steps towards concrete action but did not give details.

Abe and Trump did not discuss military action against North Korea, nor what would constitute the crossing of a "red line" by Pyongyang, Deputy Chief Cabinet spokesman Koichi Hagiuda told reporters.

North Korea said on Saturday it had conducted another successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile that proved its ability to strike the U.S. mainland, drawing a sharp warning from Trump and a rebuke from China.(For a Graphic on nuclear North Korea click tmsnrt.rs/2lE5yjF )

Trump later wrote on Twitter that he was "very disappointed" in China and that Beijing had done "nothing" for the United States in regards to North Korea, something he would not allow to continue.

China has yet to officially respond to Trump's tweet, but State-run Chinese tabloid the Global Times said in a Monday editorial that Trump's "wrong tweet" was of no help to resolving the situation, and that he did not understand the issues.

"Pyongyang is determined to develop its nuclear and missile program and does not care about military threats from the U.S. and South Korea. How could Chinese sanctions change the situation?" the paper, published by the ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily, added.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who is on vacation, planned to have a phone call with Trump soon, a senior official at the Presidential Blue House said.

"If the two heads of state talk, they will likely discuss their respective stances on North Korea, the U.S.-(South Korea's) alliance's standpoint on North Korea and other things including how to impose heavy sanctions."

The United States flew two supersonic B-1B bombers over the Korean peninsula in a show of force on Sunday in response to the missile test and the July 3 launch of the "Hwasong-14" rocket, the Pentagon said. The bombers took off from a U.S. air base in Guam, and were joined by Japanese and South Korean fighter jets during the exercise.

"North Korea remains the most urgent threat to regional stability," Pacific Air Forces commander General Terrence J. O'Shaughnessy said in a statement.

"If called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal, and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing."
US Vice President Mike Pence made the comment in Estonia after meeting with the leaders of the 3 Baltic states.

Estonia, where Pence had on Sunday raised the possibility of deploying the Patriot anti-missile defence system, is the first stop of his European tour which will also take him to Georgia and Montenegro. (Photo: AP)

Tallinn (Estonia): US Vice President Mike Pence on Monday said Moscow's demand that Washington cut 755 American diplomatic staff in Russia will not lessen the US commitment to its allies.

"We hope for better days, for better relations with Russia but recent diplomatic action taken by Moscow will not deter the commitment of the United States of America to our security, the security of our allies and the security of freedom loving nations around the world," Pence said in Estonia after meeting with the leaders of the three Baltic states.

At a news conference, Pence said he had passed on a "simple message" from President Donald Trump to the three countries: "We are with you."

Read: New US sanctions on Russia will hit interests of both sides: Kremlin

President Vladimir Putin on Sunday said the United States would have to cut 755 diplomatic staff in Russia and warned of a prolonged gridlock in its ties after the US Congress backed new sanctions against the Kremlin.

Putin added bluntly that Russia was able to raise the stakes with America even further, although he hoped this would be unnecessary.

Estonia, where Pence had on Sunday raised the possibility of deploying the Patriot anti-missile defence system, is the first stop of his European tour which will also take him to Georgia and Montenegro.

The aim of the trip is to reassure America's allies who say they are worried by Russian expansionism.

Read: EU raises 'concerns' over US sanctions vote against Russia

"We stand with the people and nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and we always will," Pence said. A "strong and united NATO" was important, as Russia continued "trying to redraw borders", he said.

"The US will check any attempt to use force," Pence said. The US government hoped for a better relationship with Russia, but stood by the NATO treaty's article 5 on collective defence. "An attack on one of us is an attack on us all," he said.

Pence also said that exports of US liquid natural gas to the Baltic states, which have already started, "will contribute to prosperity and security" in the three countries which are still heavily dependent on Russian gas.

Pence is scheduled to address NATO troops deployed in Estonia before travelling on to Tbilisi.
The blast occurred in Shahjoy district of the province after a civilian vehicle hit an Improvised Explosive Device (IED).

No group, including the Taliban, has so far claimed responsibility for the blast. (Photo: Representational/AFP)

Kabul: At least two persons were killed and three others injured in a roadside mine blast in Afghanistan's southern Zabul province on Sunday night, local officials said on Monday.

Tolo News quoted officials as saying that the blast occurred in Shahjoy district of the province after a civilian vehicle hit an Improvised Explosive Device (IED).

"The wounded people are in critical condition," an official added. No group, including the Taliban, has so far claimed responsibility for the blast.
Iran boycotted the Hajj in 2016 after hundreds of people, mainly Iranians, died in a crush at the pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia in 2015.

Around 800 pilgrims were due to leave Iran on three flights to nearby Medina on Sunday, the director of the hajj at Irans Haj and Pilgrimage Organisation, Nasrollah Farahmand told state media. (Photo: AFP/Representational)

Beirut: Nearly 90,000 Iranians are expected to attend the Hajj in Mecca this year, and were due to start arriving on Sunday, after Tehran boycotted the pilgrimage last year amid tensions with Saudi Arabia.

Around 800 pilgrims were due to leave Iran on three flights to nearby Medina on Sunday, the director of the hajj at Irans Haj and Pilgrimage Organisation, Nasrollah Farahmand told state media.

Approximately 86,500 Iranians are expected to attend the hajj in total this year and 800 coordinators have travelled to Saudi Arabia to help Iranians during the pilgrimage, he said.

Iran boycotted the Hajj last year after hundreds of people, many of them Iranians, died in a crush at the pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia in 2015, and following a diplomatic rift between the two countries who are vying for power and influence in the region.

Read: Nearly 1.5 million people begin annual Hajj despite 2015 stampede

In a speech to haj organizers on Sunday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that Iranians would never forget the catastrophic events of 2015 and called on Saudi Arabia to ensure the security of all pilgrims.

The serious and constant issue for the Islamic Republic is the preservation of the security, dignity, welfare and comfort of all pilgrims, particularly Iranian pilgrims, Khamenei said, according to his official site. The security of the haj is the responsibility of the country where the two noble shrines exist.

Read: Iranians to resume hajj in Saudi Arabia after 2016 boycott

Riyadh severed diplomatic relations last year after Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran following the execution of a Shiite cleric in Saudi Arabia in January 2016.

In February this year Iran, which is predominantly Shiite Muslim, sent a delegation to Saudi Arabia, which is mostly Sunni, which initiated the process of Iranian pilgrims returning for the haj. However, tensions between the two countries remain at an all-time high.

Last month Iranian officials pointed a finger at Saudi Arabia after Islamic State carried out attacks on the Iranian parliament in Tehran and the shrine of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that left at least 18 dead. Saudi Arabia denied any involvement.

Khamenei in his speech on Sunday also called on all pilgrims to show their reaction to the recent unrest at the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and Americas wicked presence in the region at the haj, according to his official website. He did not specify what kind of reaction he expected pilgrims to show.
Arab nations will allow Qatari planes to use air corridors in emergencies, the Saudi state news agency SPA said on Sunday.

Qatar said it had received the demands on June 22 with just 10 days to meet them, which would mean they would have until Sunday to comply. (Photo: AFP)

Dubai: Four Arab countries boycotting Qatar are ready for dialogue to ease the dispute if Doha agrees to certain demands, Bahrain's foreign minister said on Sunday after a meeting with his counterparts.

"The four countries are ready for dialogue with Qatar with the condition that it announces its sincere willingness to stop funding terrorism and extremism and its commitment to not interfere in other countries' foreign affairs and respond to the 13 demands," Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa said.

He was speaking at a televised news conference in Manama after meeting with his Saudi, Emirati and Egyptian counterparts to discuss the dispute. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain have previously issued a list of demands for Qatar.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain will allow Qatari planes to use air corridors in emergencies, the Saudi state news agency SPA said on Sunday.

Nine corridors have been identified including one in international air space over the Mediterranean sea that will be monitored by the Egyptian authorities, SPA reported, citing a statement from the Saudi aviation authority.
'We are tired of responding to false information and stories invented from nothing,' Sheikh Mohammed told Al Jazeera TV.

Qatar's demands to internationalize the holy sites is aggressive, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television said.

Dubai: Saudi Arabia's foreign minister called what he said was Qatar's demand for an internationalisation of the Muslim hajj pilgrimage a declaration of war against the kingdom, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television said on Sunday, but Qatar said it never made such a call.

"Qatar's demands to internationalise the holy sites is aggressive and a declaration of war against the kingdom," Adel al-Jubeir was quoted saying on Al Arabiya's website.

"We reserve the right to respond to anyone who is working on the internationalisation of the holy sites," he said.

Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said no official from his country had made such a call.

"We are tired of responding to false information and stories invented from nothing," Sheikh Mohammed told Al Jazeera TV.

Qatar did accuse the Saudis of politicizing hajj and addressed the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion on Saturday, expressing concern about obstacles facing Qataris who want to attend hajj this year.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain previously issued a list of 13 demands for Qatar, which included curtailing its support for the Muslim Brotherhood, shutting down the Doha-based Al Jazeera channel, closing a Turkish military base and downgrading its relations with Gulf enemy Iran.

On Sunday, foreign ministers of the four countries said they were ready for dialogue with Qatar if it showed willingness to tackle their demands.
A security source said that a suicide bomber had blown himself up outside the Iraqi embassy.

Kabul: The Islamic State group claimed it had attacked the Iraqi embassy in Kabul Monday, as a series of explosions and the sound of gunfire shook the Afghan capital in a continuing assault.

A security source said that a suicide bomber had blown himself up outside the Iraqi embassy. "Civilians are being evacuated" from the area as the attack is ongoing, said the official, who declined to be named. There was no immediate information about casualties.

Two members of "the Islamic State attack the Iraqi embassy building in the Afghan city of Kabul", said the jihadist group's propaganda agency Amaq without providing further details.

At least four explosions, along with the sounds of gunfire and grenades, were heard near the city's diplomatic quarter shortly after 11:00 am (0630 GMT).

Security forces rapidly descended on the area and the sirens of ambulances rushing to the scene could also be heard. A column of smoke rose from the blast site.

Police confirmed at least one blast but said they did not immediately have further information.

The Iraqi embassy is located in northwestern Kabul, in a neighbourhood that is home to several hotels and banks as well as large supermarkets and several police compounds.

"I heard a big blast followed by several explosions and small gunfire," said Ahmad Ali, a nearby shopkeeper.

"People were worried and closed their shops to run for safety. The roads are still blocked by security forces."

The attack is the latest to rock Kabul, and comes as the resurgent Taliban intensify their offensive across the country.

A week ago, a car bomb struck the city during morning rush hour, killing at least 26 people in an attack claimed by the Taliban.

But the Islamic State group, recently ousted from the Iraqi city of Mosul, have been expanding their footprint in eastern Afghanistan and claimed responsibility for several devastating attacks in Kabul.

A recent UN report showed that nearly 20 percent of all civilian deaths in Afghanistan in the first half of 2017 took place in Kabul.

Many of those deaths occurred in a single attack in late May when a truck bomb exploded during the morning rush hour, killing more than 150 people and injuring hundreds.

No group has officially claimed responsibility for that attack, the deadliest in the capital since the US invasion in 2001.

NATO forces ended their combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of 2014. Since then Afghan troops and police, beset by soaring casualties, have struggled to beat back the insurgents.

The US is considering whether to send thousands more troops to help the beleaguered Afghan forces as the war-weary country is gripped by increasing insecurity.
Xi also said China needs a strong army more than ever, urging the building of PLA into a world-class military force.

Chinese President Xi Jinping stands on a military jeep as he inspects troops of the People's Liberation Army during a military parade to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the founding of the PLA at Zhurihe training base in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (Photo: PTI)

Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday said the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has the confidence and capability to defeat all invading enemies as he inspected a massive military parade at the country's largest military base to mark the 90th founding anniversary of the 2.3-million strong army.

Xi also said the PLA should strictly follow the absolute leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and "march to wherever the Party points to."

"I firmly believe that our gallant military has both confidence and ability to defeat all invading enemies," said Xi, who heads the Central Military Commission, which holds the overall command of the PLA - the world's largest army.

While there was no reference in his speech to over a month-long India-China military standoff at Doklam in Sikkim section, his remarks came in the midst of shrill official media campaign and assertions by the Foreign and Defence Ministries here accusing Indian troops of trespassing into Chinese territory at Doklam.

Clad in camouflage military suit, 64-year-old Xi said the Chinese military has the confidence and ability to safeguard, national sovereignty, security and development interests.

"Our military has the confidence and ability to write a new chapter in building of strong military and make new contributions to towards realisation of the China dream of great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and safeguarding world peace," Xi said in his about 10-minute address - an event carried live on state television and radio.

Earlier, Xi inspected the military parade at China's largest military base in Zhurihe in Inner Mongolia - the biggest parade since 2015 in which army and air force displayed some of the most modern weapons including a new tank which reportedly held exercises in the high-altitude along the Indian border.

The other weapons included long range nuclear and conventional missiles, the new J-15 - the new aircraft based carrier.

In his address, Xi asked the military to further improve its combativeness and modernise the national defence and armed forces. The Chinese military has the world s second largest defence budget of USD 152 billion next to the US military.

The PLA was founded on August 1, 1927 when the ruling CPC under the leadership of Mao Zedong carried on with his national liberation movement.

It is one of the rare national armies which still continues to function under the leadership of the CPC and not the Chinese government.

"Officers and soldiers, you must unswervingly stick to the fundamental principle and system of the Party's absolute leadership over the army, always listen to and follow the Party's orders, and march to wherever the Party points to," said Xi, the general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.

PLA officers and soldiers should firmly adhere to the fundamental goal of serving the people wholeheartedly, and always stand together with the people, Xi said.

He also said China needs a strong army more than ever, urging the building of PLA into a world-class military force.

Enjoying peace is a bliss for the people while protecting peace is the responsibility of the people's army, he said.

"The world is not all at peace, and peace must be safeguarded," said Xi, who is expected to get a second five year term at the key meeting of the CPC later this year.

"Today, we are closer to the goal of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation than any other time in history, and we need to build a strong people's military more than any other time in history," he said.

He urged the PLA to fully implement the CPC's thoughts on building a strong military, follow the path of strengthening the army with Chinese characteristics, strive for the CPC's target on strengthening the PLA under the new circumstances, and build the heroic PLA into a world-class military.

About 12,000 troops took part in the parade in which 129 aircraft and 571 pieces of equipment were on display.

Dongfeng missiles which include short, long and medium rage of rockets, variety of armoury including light tanks, drones were also deployed.

Helicopter borne troops demonstrated in quick landing and taking combat positions. The parade was held in the backdrop of over month long standoff between Indian and Chinese troops at Doklam in Sikkim section.

Besides Doklam, China is also concerned by the situation in North Korea and the deployment of Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) missile by US in South Korea much to the opposition of the Beijing.
Damascus (AsiaNews) - A village east of Damascus, besieged by the Syrian regime for five years, received UN aid for the first time yesterday. Al-Nachabiye is located in eastern Goutha, a rebel held region, which has now become a "de-escalation zone" under an agreement signed in May between Damascus and the rebels, as a preparation for a sustainable cease fire in Syria.

A UN source told AFP that "this is the first time a humanitarian convoy has entered Al-Nachabiye for five years", distributing food aid and essential aid to 7,200 people.

Following the cease-fire declaration last July 22, 25, Russia distributed 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid to Ghouta. But the source close to the UN states that they are "inadequate". The region has suffered partial seiges since 2013 and total since 2016.

The Syrian war has lasted from 2011 and has caused at least 330,000 deaths so far. What originally broke out as an internal conflict, as part of the Arab spring and demanding democracy in the country, has become an international war where regional powers like Saudi Arabia and Iran and great powers like the USA and Russia are on opposing sides.
The decree will come into effect at the beginning of the new school year. Schools will have to use Mandarin, according to the principle of bilingual education. The government announces severe punishment for anyone who "plays politics, pretends to implement, or acts one way and does another. Uyghurs slam the plan to wipe out their mother tongue and increase their assimilation into Han Chinese culture.

Hotan (AsiaNews/RFA)  Authorities in northwest Chinas Xinjiang region, home to ethnic Uyghur Muslims, have issued a directive completely banning the use of the Uyghur language at all education levels up to and including secondary school, this according to official sources. Those found in violation of the order will face severe punishment.

The new decree marks one of the harshest measures yet from Beijing aimed at assimilating ethnic Uyghurs, who complain of pervasive ethnic discrimination, religious repression, and cultural suppression by Chinas ruling Communist Party in Xinjiang.

In late June, the Education Department in Xinjiangs Hotan prefecture issued a directive outlawing the use of Uyghur at schools in favour of Mandarin Chinese in order to strengthen elementary and middle/high school bilingual education.

Under the directive, schools must insist on fully popularizing the national common language and writing system according to law, and add the education of ethnic language under the bilingual education basic principle.

Beginning in the fall semester this year, Mandarin Chinese must be resolutely and fully implemented for the three years of preschool, and promoted from the first years of elementary and middle school in order to realize the full coverage of the common language and writing system education.

The directive instructs schools to resolutely correct the flawed method of providing Uyghur language training to Chinese language teachers and prohibit the use of Uyghur language, writing, signs and pictures in the educational system and on campuses.

Additionally, the order bans the use of Uyghur language in collective activities, public activities and management work of the education system.

Any school or individual that fails to enforce the new policy, that plays politics, pretends to implement, or acts one way and does another, will be designated two-faced and severely punished, it said, using a term regularly applied by the government to Uyghurs who do not willingly follow such directives.

While Beijing has attempted to implement a bilingual system in Xinjiangs schools over the past decade, Uyghurs say the system is monolingual and reject it as part of a bid to eliminate their mother tongue and increase their assimilation into Han Chinese culture.

Xinjiang is home to about 9 million Muslim Uyghurs, a Turkic ethnic group, who chafe at Communist rule and the invasion of ethnic Han Chinese encouraged to move to the region by the government to turn them into a minority.

Despite rejecting allegations of religious oppression, Beijing has imposed many limits on religious practice in the region, justifying them as part of its fight against Islamic terrorism.

The region's authorities have prevented Muslims from fasting and praying during the sacred month of Ramadan, sending officials into their homes to check.

Since 15 July, Uyghurs must install an application on their mobile phones that allows the authorities to monitor their communication activities.

Activists also report that the regions government has launched a mass DNA collection from residents not involved in any crime. The collection of biometric information is part of Beijing's policy of "maintaining stability" in China.

Reports from Uyghurs indicate that DNA collection began last September as part of a region-wide "health check-up". And since November 2016, police in Xinjiang have required that anyone applying for a passport must give a sample.
by Santosh Digal

The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines has launched a new forum to combat trafficking in human beings in the country. In each diocese there will be an office to denounce individual cases. Various religious associations collaborate on the initiative. Pope Francis denounces: "An aberrant plague"

Manila (AsiaNews) - The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (Cbcp) has launched a new forum to combat trafficking in human beings in the country. Bishop Ruperto Cruz Santos of the Diocese of Balanga and president of the Episcopal Commission for Pastoral Care for Migrants and Travelers (Ecmi) inaugurated on 27 July the new network "Catholic Church Against Trafficking in Human Beings" (Cnaht).

About 100 people participated in the program. "Cnaht is committed to working for human dignity for and with those who have become victims of trafficking in human beings," said Msgr. Cruz Santos. Cnaht is a kind of joint venture between Ecmi, the Youth Commission, the Office for Women, the Commission for Social Action, Justice and Peace, the Association of Religious Superiors of the Philippines, Talitha Kum, an organization of Catholic women Established by the International Union of Superiors General in 2009, in collaboration with other civil society groups that help to reduce the rapid spread of human trafficking.

"Cnaht will be the bishop-led national body, which will have a representation in every diocese and, if possible, in every parish to curb the threat of trafficking in human beings," explained Marial Lea P. Dasigan to AsiaNews, from the Youth office of the episcopal conference among the promoters of the initiative.

From June 2016 to February 2017, 341 cases of trafficking in people and forced labor were reported, according to government sources. But in reality there are many more. Yesterday, to mark the day dedicated to the fight against the trafficking of men and women, Pope Francis intervened describing it as "an aberrant plague" and "a form of modern slavery."
by Nirmala Carvalho

Some 83 young people represent India at the 7th Asian Youth Day (AYD7), which opened yesterday until 6 August in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The Indian delegation shows a multicultural, multi-religious and pluralistic face and is an example of peaceful coexistence between religions and cultures.

New Delhi (AsiaNews)  India is represented by 83 young people at the 7th Asian Youth Day (AYD7), which opened yesterday until 6 August in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Speaking to AsiaNews, Father Deepak K. J. Thomas, OCD, executive secretary of the Episcopal Commission for Young People and director of the Indian Catholic Youth Movement (ICYM), said that three bishops and a dozen sisters have gone along with the young people. However, Fr Deepak himself was forced to stay home for health reasons.

His kids, he said, are happy to go. Many have attended World Youth Day before, but this time, AYD7 set limits on the number of participants from each country. All participants are paying their way, he explained.

The ICYM met with all participants on 29 July in New Delhi before they left for AYD7. Young people keep in touch via e-mail, Whatsapp, and the ICYM app (for Apple and Android) with a special link to the AYD7.

The 83 participants come from across the country, from the northeast to Kerala. Given their various traditions and cultural backgrounds, they are a showcase of diversity in unity, with a strong faith in a multicultural context.

During the AYD7 main event in Yogyakarta, they are set to take part in the cultural show with elements drawn from western India and Goa, namely a 10-minute dance and music performance.

The contribution of the Indian delegation is huge since it comes with a multicultural, multireligious and pluralistic content, Fr Deepak said. It is an example of peaceful coexistence between various religions and cultures.

Secondly, it is important that our delegation acknowledge the support given to the AYD7 by the Government of Indonesia. Despite different ideologies, it is supporting and cooperating for the Good. Humanity counts."

However, There is also great sadness among our youth, said Fr Satish Kadam. Speaking to AsiaNews, the director of the Youth Commission of Nashik Diocese, Maharashtra, explained that one of our youths killed himself and a young woman,21, has been bed-ridden for 18 months by transverse myelitis and her parents are so poor that they cannot afford the treatment she needs.

"No one from our diocese went," he said. Our people are very poor, and their daily life is a struggle. The sufferings of our youth are great. Even going to youth meetings is difficult, but they have faith, strengthened by suffering. This is our youth, our Youth Day: a poor suffering Church, strong in faith."
by Melani Manel Perera

Students at the Holy Family Convent school expressed their closeness to flood victims in the Southern Province and war victims in the Northern Province, visiting them and bringing them food and clothing.

Colombo (Asia News)  Students at the Holy Family Convent school have expressed their closeness to flood victims in the Southern Province and war victims in the Northern Province, by visiting them and bringing them food and clothing. The flood victims in the south still live in temporary shelters or by the roads as do war victims in the north.

"To offer support to flood victims, we chose a village called Gorakawela, school director Sister Deepa Fernando told AsiaNews. With love we brought food, water and clothing. Normally, affected people remain isolated even weeks after [the incident] and we wanted to go to them when no one else does it."

"We wanted to give a hand to all the victims of our country, said a student from the convents Outreach Association in Bambalapitiya, Colombo. With the help of the AsiaNews correspondent, we chose victims from the south and the north."

According to human rights activist Sahan Gonalagoda, the village of Gorakawela, which is located in the provincial secretariat of Pitabaddara (Matara district), was totally destroyed by 20-foot waves from the Nilwala River in Matara (pictured). The village was home to 360 families and 75 were severely affected. Fifteen houses were destroyed.

"We wanted to share our love with these 75 families who were severely affected. We heard their sad stories and helped them feel better a bit," the Outreach Association students said.

Sister Deepa said that they visited other 20 families affected by a landslide in the village of Morawakakanda. "All these families had nothing, only what they had when they fled."

"The very moving thing is that most people in both villages still live in temporary shelters. Some people are not allowed to rebuild their homes on the old site because of the risk it poses. But they have no other place to go."

"After going south, we turned north to share our love with women who have been demanding respect for their rights to life. We went to the village of Keppapilavu, Mullathivu district. When we arrived, the kids had gone to school. Some older people welcomed us warmly, thanking us.

Aunty Sarasadevi, one of the activist women, and Hindu priest Arumugam Velayudhapillai of Keppapilavu village told us that they were living in a very peaceful way and engaged in fishing and farming, and had no problem. Today, 182 families live far away and are fighting to return to their village, which the military seized and turned into the headquarters of the Mullathivu District Security Force. "

"We ask ourselves how the soldiers could do it. In Keppapilavu, which is now under the military, there were three kovils (Hindu temples), a Catholic church, a school, a communal hall, a library, a cooperative, a pre-school, two Christian cemeteries, two Hindu cemeteries and five common wells. Now the villagers live like squatters in temporary shelters in front of the main entrance to their village."

"After listening to them we shared our love by bringing goods, collected on Mother Marys day on the last day of May, the Outreach students said.

Finally, the students said they cannot forget the last words of these people. "This is another war. During the war, we had to suffer a lot to protect our lives. Now we have to fight to return to our village, for our right to live."
by Wang Zhicheng

The parade for the 90th anniversary of PLA. All weapons on display "made in China". In five years Xi cleansed the army from corrupt generals and his enemies. Budget for domestic security greater than those for external security.

Beijing (AsiaNews) - In an unprecedented show of military power, Chinese President Xi Jinping has addressed his troops to say that China has "the confidence and the ability to defeat all the armies who dare to offend." And following in the footsteps of Maoist tradition, he also reiterated that the military should be unswervingly loyal to the ruling Communist Party and extend the battleground to wherever the party points towards.

According to Xinhua, Xi spoke in front of a deployment of 12,000 ready-to-battle assault soldiers during the 90th anniversary of the establishment of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). The anniversary falls tomorrow, August 1, but the great parade was held yesterday in Zhurihe military base (Inner Mongolia), unlike other parades held almost always in Tiananmen Square.

Observers point out that the armaments exhibited - from combat jets to missiles - are all "made in China". 40% of weapons were an absolute novelty, shown for the first time.

President Xi is also the director of the Central Military Commission, the highest authority governing the world's largest army. In these five years of his government, he has pushed for the modernization of the army, reducing the number of soldiers, but raising their professional level. "Be ready," he said, "to rally on command and be able to fight and win every battle."

Over the past five years, thanks to an anti-corruption campaign, Xi has deposed hundreds of military leaders belonging to other Politburo, and promoting his friends to leadership.

Yesterday's chief instructor of the parade was rising star Han Weiguo, commander of the Central Theatre Command. Han, who is seen as an ally to Xi, was promoted to the rank of general just two days before the event.

China has several fronts of tension outside its borders: from frontier tensions with India to disputes over the sovereignty of islands in the South China Sea and the East. But for some years now, the internal security budget for population control has far exceeded that of external security.
by Mathias Hariyadi (*)

Participants come from India, Myanmar, Vietnam, Singapore, Mongolia, Philippines, Hong Kong, and Cambodia. Indonesians have come from some of the remotest regencies to attend the event. For Bishop Pius Riana Prapdi, the young are the heart of the Church.

Yogyakarta (AsiaNews)  Indonesians are famous around the world for their hospitality. This is what they are showing at present as they welcome local and foreign delegations attending the 7th Asian Youth Day (AYD7). As part of this, participants will spend a few Days in Diocese (DID) before the main event in Yogyakarta.

Last night, a large crowd of local Catholics in Pontianak (West Kalimantan) took part in a Mass at St Joseph's Cathedral to welcome 160 participants from India, Myanmar and four dioceses  Pontianak, Sanggau, Ketapang, Sintang  in West Kalimantan.

Mgr Pius Riana Prapdi, bishop of Ketapang and president of the Indonesian Bishops' Youth Commission, led the Eucharistic service together with the host bishop, Mgr Augustinus Agus. Dozens of Indian, Burmese and Indonesian priests concelebrated.

Mgr Riana Prapdi emphasized the role of youth as "the heart of the Church", saying that the future of the Catholic Church is in their hands.

"The attention and care of young people is becoming the most important thing for the Church, he said. Everyone is spiritually called to spread the culture of faith and life, [which are] good values in society. "

"Now it is time to act, he added; first of all, by looking at yourself. You now will be staying with Indonesian families whose lifestyle is totally different from yours. You will see joy and concern, and many social problems, including ecological damage. You must look at this from a perspective of faith."

"Secondly, you have to talk to them. Share your inspired hopes and dreams with them so that you can spread good values in them. "

"The third step begins with awareness of your presence in Borneo. You have come to a different atmosphere and yet you will feel that they are 'your family'. You will experience the love of your Indonesian hosts and you will love them. This is the experience of the joy spoken of in the Bible and you will share it with others, sowing good values in society."

Delegations from Vietnam, Singapore, Mongolia and the Indonesian Catholic dioceses of Atambua, Kupang and Malang arrived in the diocese of Malang (East Java). At least a thousand people met in the cathedral for Mass led by Mgr Henricus Pidyarto Gunawan, a Carmelite.

Afterwards, the first thing young people did was to walk from the cathedral (only a mile) to St Albertus' Dempo High School run by the Carmelites, the best school in the city. During the walk, they sang and danced, attracting curious glances from onlookers.

Fr Frans, another Carmelite, spoke about the diocese, whilst Fr Adi Pr symbolically "delivered" the kids to the "adoptive" families where they will stay for a few days.

In Bogor (West Java), young people from Hong Kong and the Philippines were welcomed by the local bishop, Mgr Paskhalis Bruno Syukur, along with his predecessor, Mgr Michael Cosmas Angkor. Both prelates are Franciscans.

In the Archdiocese of Palembang (South Sumatera), foreign delegates from India and Malaysia arrived along with young people from the archdiocese itself and six local dioceses: Medan and Sibolga in North Sumatera province, Tanjung and Karang in Lampung province, Padang in West Sumatera province, Pangkalpinang from Riau province.

Mgr Antonio Alwin Fernandes Barreto, bishop of Maharashtra, was with 46 young people from 20 dioceses in India for the first time in Indonesia.

At the opening ceremony, Mgr Barreto, expressed the true identity of young Catholics, which is to be close to Jesus. "Jesus, he said, is the centre of our life and He lives in our midst."

* Kristiana Rinawati and Maria Sylvista (Palembang), Laurentius Suryono (Malang), Sr Maria Seba (Pontianac), and Rickoloes Pricorianto (Bogor) contributed to this article.
AFGC CHEP Retail Index predicts modest retail growth





The latest Australian Food and Grocery Council CHEP Retail Index is reporting signs of a modest recovery in retail turnover growth in Australia as 2017 progresses.

This follows a sustained period of softening growth over 18-months, reflecting uncertainty in Australian and global economies.

The Index predicts year-on-year growth in Australian retail turnover of 4.6 per cent for the month of June 2017, 3.6 per cent year-on-year for the June quarter. This is an increase from a year-on-year rise of 2.6 per cent to March 2017.

Despite a persistent degree of consumer caution and a competitive retail environment, Australias economic outlook over the coming 12 months will experience modest improvements due to lift in global trade, Chinas demand for commodities, tourism and growth in Australian household wealth.

Australian Food and Grocery Council Chief Executive Officer, Tanya Barden, said after a period of relatively subdued retail trade, it is encouraging to see signs of some positive momentum.

We have seen food retail spending, in particular, pick up and fill some gaps from weaker non-food retailing, with catered food driving most recent improvements, Barden said.

Household goods have been the best performer for non-food retailing.

President of CHEP Asia Pacific, Phillip Austin, said the reliability and efficiency of the supply chain continues to be a major factor in the success of Australias retail sector.

Retail supply chains are already evolving to be more effective and sustainable in the face of increasing competition, emerging technologies and ever changing consumer needs, Austin said.

This may accelerate as firms look to capitalise on the stronger momentum forecast by the Index.
July 28, 2017

TEHRAN, Iran  It has become customary for Irans Reformists to unite in the face of defeat and to attack one another in times of success. With their rivals vanquished in consecutive victories in presidential, parliamentary and city council elections, differences within the Reformist camp are being highlighted, as occurred under Reformist President Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005).

Ahead of the 2016 parliamentary elections, the Reform movement decided to organize not merely under the Reformist Front Coordination Council, which coordinates among the various groups and factions, but under a new Supreme Council for Policymaking, which oversees the latter and consists of the heads of Reformist organizations and Khatami advisers.

The Reformists employed the same approach in the presidential as well as concurrent city and village council elections last May, although the Supreme Council was initially envisioned to sit only for the parliamentary elections. Instead, it continued, with a few adjustments, including increasing the number of council members and allocating seats to new Reformists. The council is where the Reformists internal differences began.

Critics said the council's activities meant that the parties played a less prominent role and certain influential figures were allowed to make decisions for the entire Reform movement. Among the critics who believed individuals should not act in place of parties were prominent Reformist clerics Hadi Khamenei, secretary-general of the Assembly of the Forces of the Imam's Line; Rasoul Montakhab-nia, deputy head of the Etemad-e Melli Party; and Mohsen Rahami, secretary-general of the Islamic Association of University Teachers. These three clerics saw the councils mission as accomplished after the parliamentary elections and therefore stopped attending its meetings.

The situation devolved after the Reformists released their List of Hope, the ticket of candidates for the city and village council elections. The ticket sparked a wave of criticism on social media and among some Reformist organizations, especially since many prominent Reformists were not included on it. There was also talk of behind-the-scenes rents being paid as well as lobbying to add certain names to the list and eliminate others. That different versions of the ticket were being released also led some Reformists to think that Khatami, the spiritual head of the Reform movement, would not approve it.

On May 15, however, Khatami issued an official statement asking his supporters to vote for everyone on the list. Unlike for the 2016 parliamentary elections, he did not release a message on video. This led to speculation among Reformists that Khatamis statement may have been made under pressure and that deep down, he did not want to support a controversial list from the Supreme Council for Policymaking, led by parliamentarian Mohammad Reza Aref.

Despite the controversy, the Reformists won all the seats on the Tehran City Council. The victory did not, however, end rumors about alleged behind-the-scenes payments and the composition of the list. Aref in particular became the target of a wave of criticism, given his leadership of the Supreme Council.

Accusations persisted that individuals had been added to the Reformist ticket through the back door and that the Supreme Council had received hefty sums totaling some 20 billion rials ($615,384) to include names on the list. In a May 28 interview later refuted, Fatemeh Daneshvar, a former Reformist member of the Tehran City Council, said she had been asked for 20 billion rials and was removed from the ticket after refusing to pay it. Meanwhile, on June 6, the daily Aftab-e Yazd wrote on its Telegram channel that some prominent secretaries-general of Reformist parties had requested the amount from various individuals.

Aref dismissed all such claims on June 25, but the calls continued for transparency in regard to the List of Hope. In a June 25 interview with Khabaronline, Rasoul Montakhab-nia, former parliamentarian and deputy head of Etemad-e Melli, said, The Reformists Supreme Council for Policymaking is a symbol of dictatorship and this council must be dissolved.

A member of Khatamis advisory council speaking on condition of anonymity told Al-Monitor, The reality is that parties have divided the council seats among themselves. The Executives of Construction Party and figures close to Mohammad Reza Aref were decisive in this regard. This resulted in the more established Reform parties remaining on the sidelines. The main reason for this problem is Mohammad Reza Arefs ineffectiveness and also totalitarianism, which the Executives of Construction Party, led by Gholamhossein Karbaschi, had also been challenged with.

Aref  whose actions are under the radar more than any other Reformist politician  managed to cause even more controversy. At a July 14 press conference, he criticized Rouhani, saying, After victory, some people forget who worked hard for them. Rouhani owes his victory to the Reformists and should consult with them on introducing a Cabinet line-up [for his second term].

Aref's remarks elicited varied reactions from Reformists. Those who were not pleased with his performance in parliament or his introducing the ticket for the Tehran City Council elections openly attacked him. Abdollah Nasseri, a prominent Reformist, said in a July 14 interview that no one, Reformist or Principlist, had the right to ask for a share from Rouhani.

Tehran University professor Sadegh Zibakalam told Al-Monitor, Asking Rouhani for a share and saying that his victory is owed to this or that is not a correct approach. This is not to mention that it will ignite differences within the Reform movement, which is not good at all, as we have experienced these bitter differences in previous decades.

Regardless of the fears and hopes expressed by Reformists about their internal differences, it seems that their consecutive victories in the parliamentary, presidential, and city and village council elections have given them an immense level of confidence, but now that there are no Principlists on the stage, they have turned to competing among themselves. Such a development could lead to a repeat of Khatamis final years in office and thus herald the beginning of successive electoral defeats.
Changes for CSIRO Healthy Grain Company



The Healthy Grain Company's BARLEYmax is used in the new Freedom Foods range, Barley+

Part CSIRO owned business, The Healthy Grain Company, has appointed a former Chief Executive Officer of George Weston Foods as the Chair of its board.

Andrew Reeves will join The Healthy Grain Company as its new Chairman, bringing with him his George Weston CEO experience, along with leadership and marketing experience at Smiths Snackfoods, Coca-Cola Amatil and Lion.

The Healthy Grain Company owns the rights to two CSIRO developed grains; BARLEYmax and Kebari. BARLEYmax is a high-fibre barley, whilst Kerbari is a barley that is very low in gluten.

The CSIRO owns one-third of The Healthy Grain Company, whilst approximately one other third was sold to Japanese Company, the Teijin Group, in early 2017.

Critical appointment for future of business

Chief Executive Officer of The Healthy Grain Company, Robert Burbury, said Reeves appointment was a critical next step in the growth of the business.

He brings a wealth of industry knowledge and experience, which will be invaluable as we continue to grow the THG business globally with our exclusive ingredient range, Burbury said.

The Healthy Grain Company recently acquired rights to the Kerbari grain through an exclusive global licence with the CSIRO. The grain is recognised as gluten-free in the United States and Europe. It has already been used by the CSIRO to make gluten-free beer for outside Australia.

As Kerbari still contains a very small amount of gluten, it cannot be promoted as gluten-free under Australian law.

Related articles
By Jacek Jasieniak, Associate Professor of Materials Science & Engineering and Director of the Monash Energy Materials & Systems In

Arthur Mustafa/Shutterstock

As mobile phone users, all we want is enough battery life to last the day. Frustratingly, the older the device, the less power it seems to have.

In fact, the amount of battery life our mobiles have on any given day depends on two key factors: how we use them on that particular day, and how we used them in the past.

Mobile phones use lithium-ion batteries for energy storage. In this type of battery, lithium metal and lithium ions move in and out of individual electrodes, causing them to physically expand and contract.

Read more: Do you know where your batteries come from?

Unfortunately, these processes are not completely reversible and the batteries lose their charge capacity and voltage as the number of charge and discharge cycles grows.

To make matters worse, the electrolyte (electrically conductive liquid) that connects the electrodes also degrades throughout these cycles.

The ability of lithium-ion batteries to store charge depends on the extent of their degradation. This means there is a link between how we handle our devices today and the charge capacity available in the future.

Through a few simple steps, users can minimise this degradation and extend their devices life.









Andy Melton/Flickr, CC BY-SA





Strategies for extending battery capacity

Control battery discharge

Typical lithium-ion batteries for mobile phones are supposed to retain 80% of their charge capacity after 300-500 charge/discharge cycles. However, batteries rarely produce this level of performance, with charge storage capacity sometimes reduced to 80% levels within only 100 cycles.

Fortunately, we can extend our future battery capacity by limiting how much we discharge our mobile phone batteries. With most battery degradation occurring during deep discharge/charge cycles, it is actually better to limit the battery discharge during any one cycle before charging it again.

As it happens, our devices do have battery-management systems, which reduce damage from overcharging and shut down automatically if the battery gets too low.

Nonetheless, to maximise the battery capacity in the future we should avoid that 0% battery mark altogether, while also keeping those batteries at least partially charged if storing them for a prolonged period of time to avoid deep discharge.

Extend charging times

Many of todays mobile devices have a fast charge option that enables users to supercharge them in minutes rather than hours. This is convenient when were in a rush, but should be avoided otherwise.

Why? Because charging a battery too quickly reduces its storage capacity.

Physically, the shuttling of lithium metal and lithium ions between the electrodes in lithium-ion batteries is a slow process. Therefore, charging at lower rates allows more complete shuttling to occur, which enhances the batterys charge capacity.

For example, charging a phone in five minutes compared with the standard two hours can reduce the battery capacity for that charge cycle by more than 20%.

Read more: How to make batteries that last (almost) forever

Keep the temperature just right

Fortunately, for most parts of the country, temperatures in Australia sit between 0 and 45 throughout the year. This is the exact range in which lithium-ion batteries can be stored to maintain optimal long-term charge capacity.

Below 0, the amount of power available within the battery system is reduced because of a restriction in the movement of lithium metal and lithium ions within the electrodes and through the electrolyte.

Above 45, the amount of power available is actually enhanced compared with lower temperatures, so you can get a little more juice from your battery under hotter conditions. However, at these temperatures the degradation of the battery is also greatly accelerated, so over an extended period of time its ability to store charge will be reduced.

As a result, phones should be kept out of direct sunlight for prolonged periods, especially in summer when surface temperatures can increase to above 70.









www.shutterstock.com





Use battery-saving modes

Aaron Carroll and Gernot Heiser from Data61 analysed the power consumption of different smartphone components under a range of typical scenarios.

They concluded there are a handful of simple software and hardware strategies that can be used to preserve battery life.

Reduce screen brightness. The easiest way to conserve battery life while maintaining full function is to reduce the brightness of the screen. For devices such as mobile phones that have an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display, you can also use the light on dark option for viewing.

Turn off the cellular network or limit talk time. The connection to the cellular network uses the global system for mobile communication (GSM) module. The GSM is the most dominant energy-consuming component in a mobile phone, so it is beneficial to turn it off altogether or at least limit call time.

Use Wi-Fi, not 4G. With Wi-Fi being up to 40% less power-hungry than 4G for internet browsing, turning off cellular data and using Wi-Fi instead will help your battery life.

Limit video content. Video processing is one of the most power-consuming operations on a mobile device.

Turn on smart battery modes. All modern mobile devices have a smart battery saving mode (for instance, Android has Power Saving Mode and iOS has Low Power Mode). These software features modify central processing unit (CPU) usage for different apps, screen brightness, notifications and various hardware options to reduce energy consumption.

Use Airplane mode. This mode typically disables GSM, Wi-Fi, bluetooth and GPS functions on your devices. When turning off all such auxiliary functions, the device will use only up to 5% of its usual energy consumption with the screen off. For comparison, simply having your device in idle can still use more than 15%.

Enhancing your phones battery usability requires a combination of limiting the use of power-hungry hardware and software, as well as handling mobile devices so as to maximise the charge capacity and minimise battery degradation.

By adopting these simple strategies, users can extend their battery life by more than 40% in any given day while maintaining a more consistent battery capacity throughout the lifetime of the device.

Jacek Jasieniak receives funding from the Australian Research Council and Sustainability Victoria.

Originally published in The Conversation.
Hi .. I am PR on visa 187 and main applicant for visa. My husband took benefit of my studies and sponsorship while getting PR tag on his name being my dependent on application.



He continuously harrassing me every other day and then 1 month before he created horror drama at home and hit me and ran away from home and now living saperately.



He not giving my regular expenses as need for me and my kid. On top of it every other day harassing me with his activities. He used me to get PR and ran away.



M really in difficult situation as not getting enough money and to give best care to my kid .. I have to be at home on time and have to run for my kid schooling , shopping, eatables and everything but he just earning full time and ran from his responsibilities...I want to cancel him as a dependent on me and from my visa and want to send him back.



Need advice asap.
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Johnson Line is where India accepts demarcation. It marks Aksai Chin as an Indian territory. McDonald Line is where China marks Aksai Chin as Chinese territory. There have been several instances of Chinese troops entering the Indian side and Indian troops entering the Chinese side. The offensive stand of China on Doko La (Doklam) and Indias strong warning in return, is the latest addition to the worries that spoil Indo-China relations.

The recent standoff between India and China at the Doklam plateau which lies at a tri-junction between the India, China, and Bhutan has gained much attention.There are many who even fear a war. The two nations have held on to their own stands even on theandwhich demarcates the territories of the two.

But here the point worth mentioning isThis proves that India is not ready to get cowed down by a powerful & dominating neighbour. In the recent years, we have seen India has changed her years old way of facing these challenges in a defensive manner. If we relate this approach to our day-to-day lives then we will get to know that when we let our weaknesses take over the control of our life, we become weak at the lifes front.

If you get bogged down by the tough situations in life then you will always remain on the back-foot. You need to take a tough stand against the adversities thrown at you by the life. If you face them with valour they dont seem so painful & long lasting. Adversities tend to diminish as soon as you take the charge in your hands & decide to crush them with your mettle. These exams are like tough problems like China & you need to stand tall against them like Indias stand against China in the recent Doklam issue. It was back in 1962 when we were subjected to the worst defeat of our history in the hands of our neighbour.

Back then we were very weak & couldnt offer a tough resistance to the Dragon. But the equation has changed now. And the reason lies behind labour of all these years. India has earned this respect & credibility. So, folks, you all also need to work like this if you want to achieve anything big in life. Yes, thats true that you need to burn the midnight oil for achieving this position but that is necessary if you want to reach at the zenith. No failure in any exam should deter your confidence to make it big in life. Stand again like your nation did & this time stand tough & stand to win.
Cruz Velazquez Acevedo began convulsing shortly after he drank the liquid methamphetamine he'd brought with him from Tijuana, Mexico.

The 16-year-old had just crossed the U.S.-Mexico border to San Diego and was going through the San Ysidro Port of Entry. He was carrying two bottles of liquid that he claimed was apple juice. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers told him to drink it to prove he wasn't lying, court records say.

A surveillance video published by ABC Friday, about 3 1/2 years after Acevedo's death, shows the teen taking a sip of the liquid after one of the two officers, Valerie Baird, motioned for him to drink. He took another sip after the other officer, Adrian Perallon, made a gesture with his hand, appearing to tell him to drink more.

The teen took four sips.

Then, he began sweating profusely. He screamed and clenched his fists.

In a matter of minutes, his temperature soared to 105 degrees, his family's attorney said. His pulse reached an alarming rate of 220 beats per minute - more than twice the normal rate for adults.

"Mi corazon! Mi corazon!" Acevedo screamed, according to court records - "My heart! My heart!"

He was dead about two hours later.

The United States has since agreed to pay Acevedo's family $1 million in a wrongful-death lawsuit brought against two border officers and the U.S. government.

The family's attorney, Eugene Iredale, acknowledged that the teen did something wrong when he tried to bring drugs into the United States on Nov. 18, 2013.

"But he's a 16-year-old boy with all the immaturity and bad judgment that might be characteristic of any 16-year-old kid," Iredale told The Washington Post. "He was basically a good boy, he had no record, but he did something stupid. In any event, the worst that would've happened to him is that he would've been arrested and put in a juvenile facility for some period of time. . . .

"It wasn't a death penalty case. To cause him to die in a horrible way that he did is something that is execrable."

Iredale said he does not know where or how Acevedo got the drugs, or why he brought them into the United States.

"It's typical for people who are drug smugglers to approach kids and offer them $150 to smuggle drugs across the border," he said. "We're never going to know in this case because Cruz died. He knows it's something he shouldn't be bringing."

Acevedo crossed the border through the pedestrian entrance at the San Ysidro Port of Entry at about 6:40 p.m. on that November night. Iredale said the teen was carrying his passport and his border crossing card, which allows Mexican citizens to enter the United States and travel within a certain distance for tourism purposes. In California and Texas, the distance is up to 25 miles from the border; New Mexico and Arizona allow noncitizens to travel for up to 55 miles and 75 miles, respectively.

The two Border Protection officers believed the teen was carrying a deadly controlled substance, but they "coerced and intimidated" him into drinking the liquid, according to a complaint. The boy was taken to a hospital almost an hour after he had sipped the methamphetamine.

He was pronounced dead just before 9 p.m.

Iredale called the officers' treatment of Acevedo "the most inhuman kind of cruelty."

"I'm not prepared to say they knew for certain that it was going to kill him. . . . It's obvious that they suspected from the beginning that it's meth," Iredale said. "Playing a cruel joke on a child is not something that's justifiable in any way. They have test kits available that would've given results in two to three minutes."

Iredale said the officers did test the liquid for drugs, but only after the teen started overdosing.

He also cited testimony by another border officer who said Baird confessed minutes after the incident.

"I asked him what it was, he said it was juice," Baird told the other border officer, according to Iredale. "I said to him then, 'prove it.' "

Perallon and Baird are still employed by the Customs and Border Protection in San Diego, the agency said in a statement.

"Although we are not able to speak about this specific case, training and the evaluation of CBP policies and procedures are consistently reviewed as needed," the statement said.

Iredale said Acevedo's death prompted an internal affairs investigation, but neither officer was disciplined. When asked about the internal affairs investigation, a Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman said the agency had no further comment.

Richard Tolles, an attorney for Baird, said his client and Perallon had sought a summary judgment on the case and were waiting for a hearing on their requests when the government decided to settle.

Perallon's attorney did not return a call from The Washington Post.

The U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of California declined to comment.

The complaint alleged violations of constitutional rights, including the right to not be subjected to punishment without due process. It also accused government officials of not adequately training border officers. Tolles said there was no misconduct on his client's part "that would've risen to the level of denial of due process."

"There is no violation of any clearly established constitutional right," he said.

In a motion to dismiss filed on behalf of Baird in 2015, her attorneys said Acevedo wasn't a U.S. citizen and had no connections with the United States that entitled him to any constitutional rights.

"Nonresident aliens are entitled to constitutional protections only if they have substantial voluntary connections with the United States," the attorneys argued.

Iredale said the settlement was the result of several conversations between the parties. The money has been paid to Acevedo's parents, Iredale said.
As Americans continue to debate healthcare, many issues come into play, such as potential changes to the ACA and proposed cuts to Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital allotments under the current health law.

In recent months, federal Republican lawmakers have made continued healthcare reform efforts. The House passed the American Health Care Act to repeal and replace the ACA in May. Then the Senate took up repeal and replace legislation, called the Better Care Reconciliation Act. However, those efforts failed earlier this month. Senate attempts at a straight repeal of major portions of the ACA without a replacement also failed, as did efforts for a "skinny" repeal bill. Moving forward, the future of healthcare reform is uncertain.

In addition to healthcare reform efforts, CMS issued a proposed rule last week that includes a methodology for implementing Medicaid DSH payment cuts. The payments, which help compensate hospitals that provide care to a large number of poor and uninsured patients, would be cut by $43 billion by fiscal year 2025.

America's Essential Hospitals President and CEO Bruce Siegel, MD, recently spoke to Becker's Hospital Review about these issues and other issues facing safety-net hospitals.

Question: How will healthcare reform affect safety-net hospitals, regardless of what Congress does?

Dr. Bruce Siegel: Nothing good is going to come with everything we've seen so far. Every bill has been an assault on the safety net. We have seen proposed policies that included per capita caps that gut Medicaid, rolling back expansion, undermining the exchanges. All of that is going to rip apart the safety net, and lawmakers have done little to address other issues like the looming Medicaid DSH cuts. One of the problems is lawmakers have gone far beyond simply going to roll back the ACA. Per capita caps have nothing to do with the ACA. Per capita caps are simply a long-term objective of some folks in Congress, and they're using this opportunity to try to jam it through.

Additionally, looking at what happened last week, for instance, we're watching 100 senators throw spaghetti at the wall and trying to see what sticks. We're talking about revamping one-sixth of the U.S. economy and possibly taking away health insurance for 16 million to 32 million people, and it was done in utter chaos. We literally did not know from hour to hour what is going to be voted on in Congress. I've been in health policy for 30 years and I have never seen anything like this.

Q: How would Medicaid DSH cuts affect safety-net hospitals?

BS: Medicaid DSH cuts would have implications for most Americans. It's not simply about the safety net. So when we look at Medicaid DSH, it's supporting hospitals that do things no one else does  that's what we mean by essential hospitals. So the payments support hospitals that provide the only Level I trauma center, they support hospitals that provide the only burn unit in the community, they support hospitals that are the first line of response to emergencies like Ebola or Zika virus or a mass-casualty event. We need to realize that entire communities depend on the special services that Medicaid DSH helps support. Those services are not covered in regular insurance payments or Medicaid. DSH allows that higher level. It's about more than just poor people. It's about the health and well-being of hundreds of millions of Americans.

Q: What are the equity and disparity issues affecting safety-net hospitals?

BS: The ACA has been the biggest tool we've had to close disparities. The ACA had a big impact on equity by covering millions of Americans who are poor, Latino, black or other minorities. The ACA had a huge impact on economic equity and on equity between races and ethnic groups. It really tries to level the playing field, and rolling that back will reopen disparities in this country. So they're linked issues. We saw for people who make less than $25,000 a year a huge increase in coverage.

The good news is hospitals and health systems are really confronting disparities in their communities. They are asking hard questions about the care they provide. Hospitals are trying to make sure they're part of the solution to the disparities and not part of the problem. That's really good news. I think the challenge we've had is: How do we go beyond the four walls of the hospital? What is the hospital's role more broadly in the community? We know most of what drives disparities and health outcomes is rooted in where people live, their housing, the availability of healthy food. Those are some of the demographic drivers of disparities. We're now at the very early stages of defining the hospital's role in painting the picture. Around the country I see health leaders grappling with this conundrum, and nobody has the magic formula. One of the things I hear a lot of leaders talking about is the anchor hospital in their community. These institutions are the biggest caregivers, but they're also the biggest economic engines. They're the major employer. They're the major purchaser. They have the biggest footprint. They affect the fabric of the community profoundly.

One of the reasons I'm so worried about repeal and replace and the Medicaid DSH cuts is those things will make it impossible for hospitals to fulfill these things. We'll be fighting fires rather than promoting health. We're at the early stages. We don't really know what works yet. We have a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that is helping us create a learning community of essential hospitals to address social determinants of health and address population health. So this is a top priority for us as an association. Our hospitals are often the anchor in the community. They have a mission of service, so we are taking this on as a top priority, but with that said, I think many hospitals are thinking about this, and I think every hospital in the country has a role to play here.
Atlanta-based Northside Hospital said it has resolved billing issues for a woman who receives coverage through Christian healthcare-sharing ministry Medi-Share.

The woman, 39-year-old Laura Alley, was receiving treatment at Georgia Cancer Specialists, which is affiliated with Northside, when she learned she is considered a self-pay patient and would need to pay $41,000 before leaving the facility, reports WSB-TV. She was under the impression she was covered.

"I sat in front of them, in front of their computers, and handed them my [insurance] card three or four times, and no problems whatsoever," Ms. Alley told WSB-TV.

Ms. Alley uses a Christian healthcare-sharing ministry, Medi-Share, where members pay a monthly cost and share each other's eligible medical bills. The healthcare-sharing ministry contracts with Private Healthcare Systems, a health insurance provider, for rate negotiation, according to the report.

Northside provided a statement to WSB-TV last week explaining the situation.

"We have a contract with PHCS. We have never had a contract with Medi-Share. Because we thought Mrs. Alley was part of the PHCS plan (PHCS did not tell us otherwise), we billed PHCS for her care. PHCS gave her bills to Medi-Share, who underpaid on our contracted rates with PHCS.

"When we contacted PHCS about the underpayment, they alerted us that the patient did not have insurance with PHCS, but rather was a Medi-Share member."

The hospital added, "We have never said that we accept Medi-Share. Our contract was with PHCS. Once we realized this confusion, we corrected Mrs. Alley's account. Because she does not have insurance, she is considered a self-pay patient. We have provided her with multiple options to reduce and satisfy the remaining balance on her account. We did not tell the patient that she was 'pre-certified.' When our staff called PHCS to ask if pre-authorization was needed, they told us that it was not."

Medi-Share told WSB-TV that it also was working to resolve the billing issues.

In a follow-up statement emailed to Becker's Hospital Review, Northside says Ms. Alley's care "has been our top priority from the beginning of her treatment," and that "in the time since WSB-TV first contacted Northside for this story, the patient has continued her medical treatments with no delays, interruptions or cancellations."

The hospital added, "We consistently worked with the patient on her billing status, and all billing issues have been resolved."

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HCA sees Q2 earnings lag, stays ready for more acquisitions
South Charleston, W.Va.-based Thomas Memorial Hospital hopes to reduce visits to its emergency room by charging upfront copays to patients who visit the ER for nonemergency care. The hospital will begin charging copays in August.

Dan Lauffer, president and CEO of Thomas Health, recently answered questions from Becker's Hospital Review about the initiative and how people have responded.

Note: Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Question: How does the initiative work?

Dan Lauffer: We're in the beginning stages of educating our patients who present with a nonemergency issue in our ER that a copay will be collected. They can choose to be seen in our care clinic, which is 15 feet away from the waiting area of the ER  at a reduced cost and shorter wait time. We're trying to change the thought process of our culture to learn how to properly access the system. If we don't do this, the system will never change.

Q: Why did the hospital choose to implement this initiative?

DL: The reason we chose to do this is because we wanted to change the culture and teach our community how to get the care they need in the proper setting. About 30 percent to 40 percent of our ER visits are nonemergency visits, and I think that's partly why we need to emphasize the usage of our care clinics; to give them the access to care that they need in the setting that's best suited for their issue.

Q: How many patients will this affect?

DL: We have a total of 35,000 visits in the ER annually, both for emergency and nonemergency care. About 30 percent of those patients present with nonemergency issues.

Q: What is the ultimate goal of the initiative?

DL: The ultimate goal is to educate the community about the care they have access to and how to use it properly, and that is what we as a healthcare organization should do. Think about it  fee-for-service was predicated on volume, and now we're shifting toward fee-for-value, so it is to our advantage to try to educate our patients the best way possible.

Q: How are people reacting to this initiative?

DL: By in large I think people are appreciative of the fact that we are making a strong effort to educate our patients about the system. Naturally there's one or two people who have complained but overall it's been well-received.

Q: Do you think other hospitals will follow suit by implementing a similar policy?

DL: I think so. As far as we know, we are the only health system in the state who is working on this effort.

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HCA sees Q2 earnings lag, stays ready for more acquisitions
The Indian Health Service will close the emergency and inpatient departments at IHS Sioux San Hospital in Rapid City, S.D., and open a new outpatient health center.

The 80-year-old Sioux San Hospital will be replaced with a 200,000 square-foot health center. Although IHS will close the hospital's ED in July 2018, it will continue providing other services at the hospital until the outpatient center is built. IHS expects construction of the health center to be completed in fiscal year 2022.

"Sioux San Hospital has a strong commitment to urgent care and we will continue to focus on improving patient care to meet the needs of our patients and to enhance their quality of care," said Jim Driving Hawk, acting director of the IHS Great Plains Area. "By providing the services the vast majority of our patients require, we will be able to serve those patient populations more efficiently and effectively."

More articles on patient flow:

CHI to close Chattanooga clinic

Idaho hospital to cease inpatient services

Bankrupt Florida hospital closes ER
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The Federation of Master Builders has uncovered a range of material price increases following the depreciation of sterling since the EU referendum.

A third of small building firms have said soaring material prices are squeezing their margins, and almost a quarter have passed these price increases on to consumers, it's been claimed.

The Federation of Master Builders (FMB) said their research into construction SMEs from around the UK uncovered a range of material price increases following the depreciation of sterling since the EU referendum.

Among the materials bearing the biggest price hikes are timber, insulation, bricks and blocks - which some builders believe could push consumers to use rogue traders.

Brian Berry, chief executive of the FMB, said: "Around 85% of builders believe that home owners will be tempted to hire rogue traders who are quoting a lower price. If that's the case, material price rises could lead to a flurry of botched jobs and distressed consumers."
Hiscox said pre-tax profits rose to 133.5 million in the six months to the end of June

Insurer Hiscox said profits rose 12.5% in the first half of the year, helped by a solid performance in its retail business.

The firm said pre-tax profits, stripping out the impact of foreign exchange, rose to 133.5 million in the six months to June 30, from 118.7 million a year earlier.

However, it was a much gloomier picture when taking foreign exchange movements into account, with profits halving to 103 million over the period.

The company, which announced in May that it will be setting up a new EU subsidiary in Luxembourg to help it weather the Brexit storm, said the London business remains "challenging".

"Conditions in the London market continue to test our mettle," said chairman Robert Childs.

"We have trimmed back in some of the most affected areas, making difficult but necessary decisions to reduce our involvement or withdraw completely from some lines of business."

Hiscox said gross written premiums in its London market business decreased by 8.2% to 314.6 million, which was in line with expectations.

The underwriter, which earns most of its revenues overseas, said the currency had "moved against us", with the fall in the value of the pound since the Brexit vote causing a loss of 30.9 million.

But the group cheered the strong performance of its retail operations, which it said helped offset "ongoing volatility in bigger ticket items".

"It is pleasing to see that Hiscox Retail has made the biggest contribution to the bottom line in the first half for the second consecutive year. We now have more than 750,000 retail customers," Mr Childs said.

The US business was the standout performer, generating 31% premium growth in local currency.

The group also increased its dividend by 12% to 9.5p per share.

Mr Childs said plans for its new Luxembourg hub are progressing well, with the group working on licence approval and also pushing ahead with local recruitment and sourcing office space.

"Our plan means we will be well-placed to continue to serve our sizeable European customer base after 1 April 2019," he confirmed.

It is understood that the new operation will staff 10 people initially, with no jobs transferred from London to the duchy. Hiscox has 1,200 staff across the UK.

Chief executive Bronek Masojada also sounded a positive note, saying that the group was finding "opportunities" despite "tough market conditions".

He added: "We are managing the cycle and driving retail growth, as our long-held strategy of balancing the portfolio between volatile big-ticket business and steady retail business continues to deliver."

Shares fell 1.7% to 1,330p in morning trading.
(HMRC) has formally signed an agreement to lease Erskine House in Belfast for 25 years

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has formally signed an agreement to lease Erskine House in Belfast for 25 years. The new site will accommodate 1,600 full-time employees from across the department by 2021.

The departments include fraud investigation, business compliance, debt management and tax credits.

Jon Thompson, HMRC chief executive, said: "Our Belfast regional centre is another step in HMRC's transformation into a modern, digitally-advanced tax authority.

"We will bring teams together, promoting closer working relationships, increasing our effectiveness in collecting taxes and targeting the minority who don't pay.

"This is the start of a process that will see staff come together in state-of-the-art facilities, and make HMRC an important contributor to the economy and to communities in Belfast."
A Co Down woman who counts Primark as one of her former employers has been listed in a chart of the UK's most powerful female managers. Ria Kearney (34), from Holywood, said the acknowledgement in the 35 Women Under 35 league marked a milestone in her career.

She is featured in the list by London-based publication Management Today for her work in the sustainability sector.

Ria studied at Sullivan Upper School before completing an MA in international business and languages at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.

Today, she splits her time between London and Dusseldorf, working as a senior consultant for fashion sustainability firm Made-By. She also works on the European Clothing Action Plan, a partly EU-funded campaign that cuts clothing chains' impact on the environment.

"For me, working in fashion is about being inside and helping," said Ria. "I'm not outside criticising these businesses, but helping to make change."

Among her clients at the not-for-profit Made-By are high-street giants H&M, New Look and ASOS, as well as top designer brands.

"The clients I work with have an interest in sustainability," said Ria. "Some maybe haven't done anything and need help to build a strategy, then there are clients who have done quite a bit.

"Many of them do consider their reputation and the expectations of their stakeholders, while for many it's about understanding the risks to the business and finding opportunity.

"It's good business practice and good business sense to reduce environmental impact."

Ria was honoured to feature in Management Today's ranking. "When I first arrived in London at 25, I heard about the 35 Under 35," she explained. "I remember thinking how incredible it would be to reach a point in your career to get on that list.

"Last year, my boss at the time said I should go for it and gave me a supporting statement.

"I feel that I'm still in the early stages of my career with a huge amount of work to do, so this is a big milestone.

Ria is the only woman on the list working in sustainable fashion. Her interest in the area stems back to her university days.

"Back then, I didn't know what sustainability was called and they weren't really talking about it, but I wanted to combine business with something that was more than a traditional role," she said.

Her professional career began at Dublin-based charity Townships Trust. She then moved to London to work for BT in a corporate social responsibility role, which was followed by a job at Tata Global Beverages. After that, she joined fashion chain Primark, where she managed a three-year sustainable cotton pilot scheme, targeted at helping female smallholders in Gujarat, India.

"There is a preconception, based on media reports, that Primark, because it is so successful, doesn't prioritise sustainability, but that's not the case. In fact, behind the scenes there is a huge amount of resources put towards sustainability," said Ria, who hinted that she may well bring her sustainable principles home for work in the future.

"I come home a lot. I love where I'm from and eventually, I hope I will relocate there."
The Dirty Onion hosted its first Pooch Social on Sunday 30th July in aid of local charity, Lucys Trust. (Pete Laverty)

The Dirty Onion hosted its first Pooch Social on Sunday 30th July in aid of local charity, Lucys Trust. (Pete Laverty)

The Dirty Onion hosted its first Pooch Social on Sunday 30th July in aid of local charity, Lucys Trust. (Pete Laverty)

The Dirty Onion hosted its first Pooch Social on Sunday 30th July in aid of local charity, Lucys Trust. (Pete Laverty)

The Dirty Onion hosted its first Pooch Social on Sunday 30th July in aid of local charity, Lucys Trust. (Pete Laverty)

The Dirty Onion hosted its first Pooch Social on Sunday 30th July in aid of local charity, Lucys Trust. (Pete Laverty)

The Dirty Onion hosted its first Pooch Social on Sunday 30th July in aid of local charity, Lucys Trust. (Pete Laverty)

The Dirty Onion hosted its first Pooch Social on Sunday 30th July in aid of local charity, Lucys Trust. (Pete Laverty)

The Dirty Onion hosted its first Pooch Social on Sunday 30th July in aid of local charity, Lucys Trust. (Pete Laverty)

The Dirty Onion hosted its first Pooch Social on Sunday 30th July in aid of local charity, Lucys Trust. (Pete Laverty)

The Dirty Onion hosted its first Pooch Social on Sunday 30th July in aid of local charity, Lucys Trust. (Pete Laverty)

The Dirty Onion hosted its first Pooch Social on Sunday 30th July in aid of local charity, Lucys Trust. (Pete Laverty)

The Dirty Onion hosted its first Pooch Social on Sunday 30th July in aid of local charity, Lucys Trust. (Pete Laverty)

The Dirty Onion hosted its first Pooch Social on Sunday 30th July in aid of local charity, Lucys Trust. (Pete Laverty)

The Dirty Onion hosted its first Pooch Social on Sunday 30th July in aid of local charity, Lucys Trust. (Pete Laverty)

Pooch Social at The Dirty Onion, Belfast - Sunday, July 20 2017 [Photos] Close

Over 200 dogs enjoyed a day out at the The Dirty Onion in Belfast on Sunday as the bar celebrated its first Pooch Social.

The quirky event took place in aid of local dogs charity, Lucys Trust, and featured a range of stalls offering doggy treats and canine crafts.

Dogs and their owners enjoyed live music from The Russian Dolls, plus a BBQ serving up hot dogs alongside their four-legged friends.

Expand Close The Dirty Onion hosted its first Pooch Social on Sunday 30th July in aid of local charity, Lucys Trust. (Pete Laverty) / Facebook

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Whatsapp The Dirty Onion hosted its first Pooch Social on Sunday 30th July in aid of local charity, Lucys Trust. (Pete Laverty)

Lucy's Trust is a dedicated Northern Ireland charity that helps dogs in need.

This includes providing interim care and rehoming for ex-working dogs, Staffies, behavioural cases and dogs that require long-term vet treatment.
The number of dedicated traffic police officers in Northern Ireland has fallen by almost 40% in the last decade

The number of dedicated traffic police officers in Northern Ireland has fallen by almost 40% in the last decade.

Currently there are around 150 such officers here - down from 250 in 2007.

Across the UK the number of dedicated traffic officers dropped by nearly a third, an investigation found.

It led experts to question how newer laws, such as the ban on using mobile phones while driving, can be enforced with 30% fewer officers dedicated to policing roads.

The figures emerged after Freedom of Information requests were sent to every UK police force asking how many dedicated traffic officers they have compared with five and 10 years ago.

The results reveal cuts have accelerated in the past five years, with numbers falling 24% since 2012, while overall the number is down 30% since 2007.

In 2007 there were 3,766 traffic officers in the forces which responded. In 2012, that figure stood at 3,472. By 2017 it had dropped to 2,643.

Some forces increased the number of traffic officers between 2007 and 2012, but as budget cuts hit these numbers were reduced between 2012 and 2017.

In Northern Ireland there was a 39% drop from the 249 dedicated traffic officers in 2007. By 2012 this number had fallen to 190, and has now slumped to 151.

Motoring organisation the AA said the decline could see more drivers getting away with crimes. A spokesman said: "We need more cops in cars, not fewer.

"The UK has among the safest roads in Europe, although the number of people killed and seriously injured on our roads has started to rise after many years of steady decline. Maybe there is a link."

He added: "Even senior officers have publicly expressed concern at the falling number of their colleagues."

Commenting on the Northern Ireland figures, Assistant Chief Constable Barbara Gray from the PSNI's Road Policing Unit said officers were determined to keep people safe.

"It has been well documented that policing numbers in general have reduced considerably over the past number of years, and the PSNI's Road Policing Unit has felt the impact of this reduction too," she added.

"However, with the advancement of digital technology, fixed and mobile speed cameras and greater partnership working, the public should feel reassured that policing our roads remains a high priority for the PSNI. Officers in other policing teams are also trained in specialist road policing equipment and detect traffic offences daily.

"We have also recently completed a recruitment exercise to appoint additional road policing officers to the unit.

"We all have a responsibility to keep people safe on our roads."

In total, 30 police forces across the UK released figures.

Of the rest, 11 did not hold data for the full 10 years and three had merged traffic into tri-force operations.

Labour's shadow minister for policing and crime, Louise Haigh, a former special constable, said: "These savage cuts will deeply alarm the public as reckless drivers will feel able to offend with impunity."

Jason Wakeford, from road safety charity Brake, said: "On average, five people die every single day on our roads. This is unacceptable.

"The Government and police forces have to start treating road policing as a national priority and reverse the savage cuts to officer numbers."

However, West Mercia Chief Constable Anthony Bangham, who speaks on roads policing for the National Police Chiefs Council, said: "Individual police forces decide how best to allocate resources and keep their communities safe.

"Some may choose to reduce the numbers of specialist traffic officers, but this does not mean that their roads are not adequately policed.

"They can deploy a range of resources, including ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) technology, targeted patrols using unmarked vans, high vantage points and helmet cams to catch offenders.

"All police officers are available to help those who are traffic policing specialists."
Fans have described her as the best thing on Twitter - and Christine Frampton rarely disappoints.

She's the no-nonsense, feisty and funny wife of boxer Carl, a woman who will always come out fighting for her man.

An online entertainer with an acerbic wit, she has long been a star on social media, and even more so over the past few days since her husband failed to make the required weight for his subsequently cancelled fight with Andres Gutierrez.

Not afraid to spice it up with the odd expletive, she's been keeping her 14,000 followers entertained with her one-liners, bemoaning the fact that husband Carl was just a pound overweight and wishing she had the same complaint. Or words to that effect.

Instead of sitting around feeling sorry for herself in the wake of recent events, she said she was heading out for a cider, but Carl's grounded for being overweight.

While Carl keeps his battles in the ring, Christine is ready to take on all-comers on social media and haters will often get short, sharp responses from the Belfast woman who has a criminology with criminal justice degree from Queen's University.

The devoted mum of daughter Carla and son Rossa paints an idyllic picture of family life in the Frampton house, and her heart of gold shines out of the thousands of tweets she's made, many appealing for help on behalf of others.

But she's also quick to let rip, often with tweets which leave the recipient in no doubt about to her feelings.

One thing's for sure, she's a woman you'd definitely want in your corner. Follow Christine @XtineDorrian
A former Northern Ireland State Pathologist has called for prescription medicine tramadol to be made a class A drug alongside heroin and cocaine.

Professor Jack Crane made the comments after an inquest found that English mum-of-six Emma May (34) died last June as result of becoming hooked on the opiate-based painkiller taken by thousands of people every day.

The leading expert in forensic medicine said her death served as "yet another reminder" of the dangers of tramadol.

"People seem to assume that tramadol is safe because it is prescribed by doctors, but in my mind it is just as dangerous as heroin and should be reclassified as a class A drug," he said.

"Doctors seem to prescribe it fairly readily. In the case of Mrs May, it proved too easy to get hold of. There's a sense that patients can just go to their GP, say Panadol is not working and that they need something stronger, and suddenly they are taking an opioid.

"But, like morphine and heroin, tramadol is highly addictive. If you are taking it regularly you then develop a tolerance to it, which means you need to take even more for it to be effective.

"We have seen an increasing number of fatalities in Northern Ireland, and there is a similar trend in England and Wales too."

Mrs May started taking the medication - which became a controlled drug in 2014 - following a drink-drive crash in January 2016 that left a Royal Marine volunteer badly injured.

Last week Coroner Andrew Cox found that she had not intended to take her own life but had become dependent on the prescribed pills, even lying to her GP to feed her addiction. Her lifeless body was discovered next to two empty tramadol packets by her 20-year-old daughter.

The number of deaths in Northern Ireland related to misuse of the opiate-based drug has been on the rise and earlier this year it was revealed that more people lost their lives taking narcotics than the number of people killed on our roads.

The medicine is safe when used correctly but can prove deadly when mixed with other drugs, including alcohol.

Coroner Joe McCrisken also appealed for greater control of the drug during the inquest into an 18-year-old west Belfast man in April 2016.

As well as tramadol, Aaron Strong had phenazepam and diazepam in his system when he was taken to hospital.

Tramadol, which was reclassified in 2014, making it a class C drug without a prescription, has been linked to hundreds of deaths in the UK.

Concluding the inquest into the death of Londonderry man Stephen Booth at the beginning of this year, coroner Paddy McGurgan described tramadol as a "scourge on society".

He said the amount of tramadol found in Mr Booth's body - combined with two other drugs - was above therapeutic levels.

Last month TV star Ant McPartlin checked into rehab after he revealed details of his struggle with prescription drugs and alcohol.

The presenter is thought to have become addicted to tramadol after suffering from chronic pain as a result of a knee injury.
The PSNI came under attack on Saturday night when the cornerstone of a grave was thrown at their vehicle.

Officers were on patrol in the Falls Park and City Cemetery area in a bid to tackle anti-social behaviour in the community.

Police said that this was used as an opportunity to "desecrate a grave and throw a large corner stone at our vehicle".

In addition during their patrol officers also saw that sections of people's graves were taken and used to set a circle for a fire.

Posting on west Belfast PSNI Facebook page officers said: "Imagine how distressing this is for the family who's loved one isn't being allowed to rest in peace.

"These are sickening acts that show absolutely no respect for the local community."

It comes just one week after around 200 children went on a rampage in the Belfast park.

Police said a large crowd of kids ripped up a playground in the Falls Park, before pelting officers with bits of the rubber floor and throwing bricks, stones and other missiles.

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According to police a smaller crowd of around 50-100 youths gathered in the park on Saturday night.

Officers said "on the large part the kids were all very well behaved and chatted to Police and council officers with no problems" but around five youths were involved in the behaviour which resulted in the damage to the police vehicle.

Expand Close The damage caused by the grave cornerstone. / Facebook

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Whatsapp The damage caused by the grave cornerstone.

They said: "The images attached show the damage caused to a police armoured windscreen. They also show the cornerstone of a grave thrown at our police vehicle in City Cemetery. I should stress that it was only a very small group of about five youths involved in this behaviour.

"We are talking about the grave of someone's loved one being damaged here. Why do you even feel the need to be in the cemetery in the first place. Cemeteries should be places of quietness, peace and respect.

"If anybody has any information about this or any other incident in Falls Park please call Police on 101 or confidentially via Crimestoppers on 0800555111."
Former DUP Spad Richard Bullick has advised new Taoiseach Leo Varadkar not to say what he thinks out loud.

It comes after Mr Varadkar - following reports Dublin had toughed its stance in the Brexit negotiations - told "Brexiteers" he would not help draw up a solution to the question over the border between the Republic and the UK after Brexit.

Quoting the Irish Times which described the remarks as an "extraordinary outburst", Mr Bullick told RTE, "I think they said it best."

"Traditionally past taoisigh have dealt with such issues with a element of moderation and responsibility and have tended to keep their private views private," he added.

"I think it may be an issue of someone relatively new in office saying what he thinks out loud which is never the most advisable stance in politics."

Responding Fine Gael Senator Neale Richmond rejected the criticism saying Mr Varadkar was an experiences politician having served in the Irish cabinet for the past six years.

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He said any hard border in Ireland would be a "step backward" in progress made since 1998.

He told the DUP to "stop whinging" about the Irish Government's post-Brexit border stance and instead focus on re-establishing the Northern Ireland Executive and Brexit discussions.

Mr Bullick was intensively involved in a number of crucial negotiations during the past 15 years before quitting the DUP earlier this year.

He was said to have helped manage the transition of the DUP over recent years and the expansion of its support base before taking up his new position as head of public affairs with MCE Public Relations.

Mr Varadkar is set for Belfast later this week for a two-day visit.
They say first impressions last - but let's hope that's not the case for those on board the Azamara Journey which berthed at Stormont Wharf last Tuesday.

On a damp, dull day, the dreary working dock was far from a welcoming sight with its industrial landscape comprising grey outbuildings, defunct sites and rubbish tips.

Not exactly the first thing you want 694 visitors - many of whom had forked out over 8,000 per person for a British Isles cruise that included this 14-hour stop-off - to see.

But if that was bad, the vista from the gangway wasn't much better for those disembarking towards a lone white tent located opposite a line of portable toilets in an uninviting car park.

Some guests will have booked excursions with the cruise liner - and they don't come cheap; according to the Azamara brochure, a Titanic Dining Experience will set you back 306, while it's 76.60 for the Giant's Causeway package.

Others will have pre-booked independent tours, and there's also a shuttle service for travellers from the pier every 30 minutes from 8am, with the last return trip leaving the city centre at 8.30pm.

The only other option is to jump into one of the waiting black cabs, as they're the only ones allowed to pick up in that area.

A handful of people - although rather few on the Tuesday we were there - chose to stay on the luxury vessel rather than brave what Northern Ireland has to offer. It wasn't hard to see why. There are several on-board restaurants and bars to choose from - and with all the food on offer, it's no surprise that the average person puts on half-a-stone during a cruise holiday.

The heated swimming pool is another tempting distraction or, if a spot of pampering is more your scene, why not pop upstairs to the cruise ship's spa for some rest and relaxation?

Then there's the fitness centre, and a steam room for soothing tender muscles after a workout. Alternatively, if you're feeling lucky you can nip into the on-board casino.

The Azamara Journey - which is "absolutely for the couples market" as we were told - certainly looks the part. Hopefully, with a new terminal on the way, so too will Belfast.
Luxury liners are now worth 15 million a year to the Northern Ireland economy, with industry experts confidently predicting the figure will rise to 22m by 2020.

The buoyant forecast - which also indicates that Belfast could see cruise visitors hit the 230,000 mark in just two years - comes amid claims of a 100% growth in the sector since 2010, with more than 100 ships expected to dock in the province this year.

Almost 7,300 people sailed into Belfast on five different ships last week alone, and next month the huge vessels will arrive at a rate of one every day.

Last week's figure - described as "average" in terms of cruise visitors - is a fraction of the 157,000 expected this year.

Gerry Lennon, chief executive of Visit Belfast, said cruise tourists "provide important business for our attractions, retailers, hospitality sector and tour operators".

"Cruise Belfast, the partnership between Visit Belfast and Belfast Harbour, has a robust sales and marketing strategy aimed at increasing the number of both ships and passengers coming to the city," he said.

"This strategy has yielded excellent results. Since 2010 cruise tourism has seen a growth of 100%, with more than 90 ships expected to dock in the city this year alone."

Read More

Mr Lennon added: "Based on a number of industry indicators that show potential growth such as an increase in the global cruise fleet and therefore the overall market size and the historic growth of cruise tourism over recent years - both in Belfast and across Great Britain and Ireland as a whole - estimates show that by 2020, Belfast could be welcoming up to 230,000 cruise visitors, resulting in an economic impact of up to 22m."

Official figures show that in 2010, 35 ships called on Belfast with 54,790 visitors. By 2016 that had risen to 84 ships bringing 143,491 visitors - growth of 140% and 160% respectively.

Around nine out of every 10 dock in Belfast, with the rest in Londonderry. Overall, 101 will reach these shores in 2017, which is a new record.

Read More

In addition to the Azamara Journey and its 694 passengers, Stormont Wharf welcomed the Silhouette (with 2,886 passengers), the Hamburg (423), the Caribbean Princess (3,175) and the Corinthian (98) last week.

Belfast Harbour commercial director Joe O'Neill said the busiest part of Northern Ireland's cruise season was yet to come.

"Cruise ships are currently worth 15m per annum to the local economy, and they're only here for around six months of the year," he said.

Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close The Caribbean Princess on one of her many visits to Belfast Gerry Lennon Passenger comforts on the Azamara Journey Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Passenger comforts on the Azamara Journey Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph / Facebook

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"We've just had what I would call an average week across the summer and we're now getting into our busiest period where, effectively, we have one cruise ship a day throughout August."

Mr O'Neill said that much progress had been made to entice visitors off the money-spinning luxury liners and into Belfast and beyond when they arrived in Northern Ireland.

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Last year tourism chiefs told a Stormont committee that a third of the passengers don't bother disembarking during the Belfast leg of their cruise, but Mr O'Neill disputed that figure.

"Our assessment is that between 80% and 85% will get off the ship and the numbers getting off the Azamara vessel on Tuesday, for instance, accord with those figures," he said.

"From the feedback we get from the liners, a greater number of people get off in Belfast than in other cities on the itinerary because there's a certain uniqueness in terms of appeal."

As the luxury liner market continues to grow, cruises are becoming more popular with holidaymakers - but they certainly don't come cheap, even when discounted.

A nine-night Mediterranean Mosaic Voyage on the Azamara Journey, stopping off at various locations in France and Italy, costs 2,547 (now down to 1,981) per person going club interior (a cabin with no window).

Meanwhile, although Club Ocean Suite customers normally pay 6,167 each, that has also been reduced and costs 4,797 per person.
The most personal and probing interviews: Kellie Armstrong, Strangford Alliance MLA on coping with deafness... and the heartbreak of her 13 failed pregnancies.

Q. You're 46 and married to civil servant Barry (47) with whom you have one daughter, Sophia, who's 14. Was it love at first sight?

A. It was 1990 and I was 20. Even though he's older he was the year below me at Queen's University, Belfast. We were both at a conference in Birmingham. I didn't have a screw and was looking for someone to open a bottle of wine. He showed me a magic trick with a piece of string and we've been together ever since. We got married on October 21, 1995. We're a mixed marriage; we had a morning service at St Patrick's, Ballygelagh, and then went to Cregagh Congregational in Belfast for a blessing with Barry's minister.

Q. You live on a wildlife reserve on the Ards Peninsula. What's that like?

A. When we were building our house we bought a couple of acres of cheap land, took advice from the Woodland Trust and planted 300 native Northern Irish trees. Almost 20 years later they're huge. We've got a badger set, pheasants, a lot of insects and far too many frogs. It's very peaceful.

Q. What was a happy childhood growing up in Ballygelagh?

A. It was a row of housing executive houses in the middle of nowhere. At one end of the street there was a playground and at the other a BT telephone box. My summers comprised of raking across the fields, playing in streams. It was a mucky childhood; if you came home with something not dirty or torn it was a miracle. I remember it as a very happy childhood.

Q. Tell us about your parents.

A. My dad Eamonn (71) was a flat roof felter. My mum, Geraldine, a primary school secretary, passed away on August 1, 1992 - the day before her 43rd birthday. She had thyroid cancer; the type that you don't get a chance with. She was diagnosed on the Tuesday and died on the Saturday.

My dad was informed of the seriousness of her illness and advised to prepare for her funeral. Mummy was never told. She slipped into a coma on the Friday and passed away the following day. I was away in Turkey. I'd left when she was just going into hospital for tests, so didn't think anything of it.

I phoned home a week-and-a-half later to wish her a happy birthday - only to be told she had died the day before.

Q. That must have been really tough.

A. I was 21, and it was the worst day of my life. I remember sitting in an Istanbul hotel room talking to daddy on the phone. He could hardly hear me and was telling people at the wake to keep quiet.

Then my grandfather came on speaking in Irish, telling me his heart was broken because his daughter was dead. I got a flight home from Istanbul via London as quickly as possible. It was horrendous.

Q. That was your worst day; tell us about the best day of your life so far.

A. My daughter being born. We were a long time getting her. When she came along it was amazing. I went through a lot of miscarriages. I have had 13 losses in total. I'd been through IVF (11 implants) and had another two miscarriages, the last of those when I was 42.

My daughter was my little natural miracle; she survived the whole way through.

Q. How did you cope with that?

A. I worked for the Miscarriage Association because I didn't want anyone else sitting alone suffering the way I had suffered. I was only 25 when I lost my first child.

We got pregnant after six months of marriage and I miscarried within eight to 10 weeks. None of my family even knew I was pregnant. I felt very isolated. It was devastating.

I went into a terrible depression for months.

Nothing was working and they decided IVF was the only option. I was really bad to the extent that I didn't want to be on this earth any more. I was living on valium. I felt suicidal. I went to an amazing doctor and it all came out. He came to see me every single day for a week. If it hadn't been for him, who knows where I'd be.

Q. You wear a hearing aid in each ear. How's that working out?

A. I've been struggling with my hearing for a long time. I've been quite dependent on lip-reading and hadn't realised just how much until recently. I'd have the TV turned up full blast and my husband was always giving off. I'd even miss what some of the hecklers in the Assembly chamber were saying. I finally took the bull by the horns and since the end of May I've had hearing aids. The change is like night and day. When I take them out it's as if someone has put cotton wool in my ears.

Q. What's your relationship with your siblings like?

A. Claire (Mageean) is 43 and a classroom assistant in a special needs secondary school. Michael (McGrattan) is 45. He has severe learning disabilities. He needs help washing and dressing. He's like the Peter Pan of our family - the boy who never grew up.

He's like a three or four-year-old so he needs watched. My dad looks after him at the family home. Mum and dad were forward-thinking parents and raised money in the 1970s to take Michael to an institute in Philadelphia, and his quality of life improved.

We're a close family and if anything happens to my dad, my sister and I will look after my brother. From no age we were used to dealing with seizures.

We know what he's trying to tell us because we've grown up with him.

Q. What made you go into politics?

A. I never had any intention of becoming a full-time politician. However, when Kieran McCarthy stepped aside I was co-opted onto Ards Borough Council to replace him, and then elected in 2014 to Ards and North Down Borough Council. I chose Alliance because of Kieran. The council was threatening to close the playground near our house and he was the only one who listened to me and stopped them from doing that.

He then talked me into going to an association meeting and within three months I was on the committee.

Q. What's the most important piece of advice someone has ever given you?

A. To always be honest.

Q. Do you believe in God?

A. I have a strong faith in God. I was brought up Catholic but don't go to Mass. I'm liberal. I believe in fairness and equality and on that basis I struggle with the church's position. My husband goes to church every Sunday.

Q. Does death frighten you?

A. No, because as a Christian I believe there's an after-life. What terrifies me more is suffering from pain. My mum was terrified of death but, fortunately, didn't suffer excessively.

My father-in-law Cecil, however, suffered a long period of illness before he passed away in his mid-80s, just over a year ago. He had a stroke and his health progressively got worse. He lost the ability to walk and his vision and hearing went. We miss him terribly.

Q. What's it like being a woman in politics? Do you ever feel intimidated on the Hill?

A. People tend to think that it's a very male-dominated place but when women put themselves up the public do elect us. I just wish more women would have the courage to do that. Some of the best politicians are women.

Q. Are Arlene Foster and Michelle O'Neill good politicians?

A. They're leaders of their respective parties, capable and able. If you meet them individually they're very warm, welcoming people but in the leadership role they represent their parties. There is a difference between Arlene and Michelle the leaders and Arlene and Michelle the ordinary, everyday politicians.

Q. You're a former camogie player who supports local GAA clubs. Is that how you relax outside politics?

A. I don't get the opportunity to go to matches very often. I like spending time with family.

Q. If you were in trouble, who is the one person you would you turn to?

A. My other half - he knows me best and I can always depend on him.

Q. You're passionate about integrated education; you sent Sophia to Kircubbin Integrated Primary School and she's now at Strangford College. Will Northern Ireland have a fully integrated education system in your lifetime?

A. Not while there is parental choice. I believe that parents should be able to pick the school that their children go to, but I do think we need to be more serious about integrated education.

I don't think we'll have 100% integrated because there will always be parents who want their children to go to a certain type of school - but we can't afford to keep doing education the way we are at the moment. The integrated sector is currently the poor relative.

Q. Who is your best Protestant friend?

A. Barry - but I genuinely don't know what religion a lot of my friends are.

Q. What bad habits do you have?

A. I've none now. I used to bite my nails, I used to smoke and I don't drink very often.

Q. Have you ever been trolled?

A. Mostly, I get trolled by vicious, nasty men. They've said that I'm a moron, that I know nothing, and coming from a Catholic background I'm criticised for being outspoken about LGBT rights.

Q. You went to St Patrick's Primary School in Ballygelagh, Assumption Grammar in Ballynahinch and then Queen's to do a degree in Byzantine Studies. Give us a brief resume of your career to date.

A. I did a post-graduate programme in 1993-1994 in sales and marketing. I then worked in fundraising for Northern Ireland Chest, Heart and Stroke for six months before going to GCAS Advertising as a media buyer for two years.

I got a great job at Downtown Radio/Cool FM from 1996 to 1999, first in telesales, then in area sales. I was headhunted by Anderson Spratt and worked as a project manager in their client services team. I left in 2001 for a job at home as the manager of Peninsula Community Transport.

I was there just shy of five years before becoming support and development officer for the Community Transport Association.

Eighteen months later I became director, delivering transport solutions for older people and people with disabilities through community-led initiatives. I was with them for 16 years in total and gave that up to become an MLA last year. It was a big risk but I finished in April and got elected in May.

Q. If the Assembly isn't restored, what's next for you?

A. I've always wanted to run my own business, something completely different like edible cutlery and plates.
The man escaped from the house and ran as the gang started to break the windows with that is believed to be metal bars.

Police are appealing for information after a man was chased from his house by four masked men and assaulted in a paramilitary-style attack in Belfast.

It happened on Sunday night at around 10.20pm when police said four males, who were wearing balaclavas, tried to gain entry to a house in the Loughview Terrace area.

When they couldn't gain entry they started to break the windows with what is believed to be metal bars.

The male occupant of the house escaped and made his way to the Shore Road area where the gang caught up with him and assaulted him.

The victim attended hospital for treatment for his injuries which are not believed to be life threatening.

Detective Sergeant Sam McCallum said: "Whilst these injuries are not life threatening, this was a brutal and horrific attack. It is yet another example of how criminal groups seek to control communities through fear and violence.

"I would appeal to anyone who may have witnessed this incident or anyone who has information which may assist police enquiries, to contact Detectives at Musgrave Criminal Investigation Branch on the non-emergency number 101, quoting reference 1396 30/07/17.

"Alternatively, if someone would prefer to provide information without giving their details they can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers and speak to them anonymously on 0800 555 111."
The DUP accused Taoiseach Leo Varadkar of politicking for domestic purposes when he said Ireland would not help Britain design an economic border for Brexiteers

The Irish Prime Minister has reiterated his hope that Britain will U-Turn on Brexit and remain within the European Union.

Leo Varadkar insisted that the best outcome for Ireland, Northern Ireland and Britain would be to stay in the customs union and the single EU market.

During a jobs announcement in Waterford, when asked by reporters if he thought there was any possibility of Brexit not going ahead, he said: "Well, I still hope that it won't happen."

The Taoiseach added that Brexit "is a British policy, not an Irish one".

"When it comes to my work in Brussels, working with other European prime ministers and presidents, it's part of my remit to keep the door open, not just to the European Union, but also to the single market and also to the customs union, should they decide to go down that route.

"That, I think, would be the best outcome for Ireland and Northern Ireland and Britain," Mr Varadkar was quoted in the Irish Times as saying.

Relations between Dublin and Arlene Foster's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) have soured over the issue of a post-Brexit border.

The DUP was told on Monday to stop "whinging" about the Irish Government's post-Brexit border stance and instead focus on re-establishing the Northern Ireland Executive and Brexit discussions.

Fine Gael Senator Neale Richmond said: " The DUP's whinging doesn't hide their political impotence. They would be far better off seeking to influence their Government partners in Westminster and working to get the Executive back up and running to give Northern Ireland a strong voice."

Mr Richmond was responding to DUP accusations that the Taoiseach was politicking for domestic purposes when he said Ireland would not help Britain design an economic border for Brexiteers.

Mr Richmond said the Irish Government and the EU "cannot be expected to provide all the solutions (in relation to Brexit), especially on areas like a proposed border which run contrary to the aims of the Irish Government or indeed the Good Friday Agreement".

He added: "Being a good friend requires one to be honest. In the Brexit debate, Ireland is the best friend the UK has and it is only right that the Taoiseach and Minister Coveney should point out when the UK negotiating side is lacking."

The DUP was left angry after Mr Varadkar said last week that the Irish Government does not want any sort of economic border on the island of Ireland after Brexit.

He said if Britain wants to put forward technological solutions, that is up to them, but the Government would not do that work for them.

DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds hit out at the comments and said Dublin was positioning for a general election.

He said: "What's going on is pure politicking for their own domestic market. Let no one pretend otherwise.

"It's simply taking things backwards at a time when common sense co-operation between our two countries and between the Republic and Northern Ireland is what's needed."
A man charged with dozens of fraud offences claimed to be collecting money for deaf children, a court heard on Monday.

Ryan Best, of Fernagh Court, has been accused of carrying out a one-day charity scam in the Glengormley area of County Antrim.

The 22-year old appeared before Belfast Magistrates' Court to face a total of 28 charges.

The charges include seven counts of fraud by false representation and a further 18 attempted frauds. Best is also accused of theft, and possessing a letter from the National Deaf Children's Society for use in a fraud.

The alleged offences were all carried out out on June 14 this year, a number involving businesses in Glengormley.

According to the charges he dishonestly claimed to be collecting charity money on behalf of deaf children.

The Newtownabbey man spoke only in court, to confirm he understood the allegations against him.

No efforts were made to challenge a police officer who stated she could connect Best to the case. No bail application was made following the disclosure that the 22-year old is currently a sentenced prisoner.

Best will remain in custody and will appear again via video-link in eight weeks, District Judge Fiona Bagnall said: "This is going to take a bit of time to pull together."
The founder of successful Irish betting group Boylesports has revealed how both republican and loyalist terrorists targeted his family's south Armagh pub during the Troubles.

Betting magnate John Boyle (61) - who built the business up from a single bookie's shop in Drogheda in 1982 to its current total of 220 outlets - revealed the story while speaking to Dublin newspaper the Sunday Business Post about the effect Brexit might have on the border area where he grew up in 1970s.

"We lived in a wee village in south Armagh. We had a pub that we lived above," he said.

"In the early 1970s that was blown up - the pub and the house.

"We were in it. But they gave us 20 minutes to get out."

That attack was carried out by a republican group, Mr Boyle told the paper.

But there was a second attack when loyalist terrorists bombed the Boyle pub.

"There was the other time, we had the loyalists, not many years later, they came back and blew it up but, thank God, the second time we weren't living in it."

Mr Boyle, a former bread delivery man, said that in his youth terrorism was a fact of life along the border.

"I remember one day in Newry myself and another bread man were out on a day's work and we were stopped, and they threw a petrol bomb into the front seat, and it was burned on the street," he said.

Although the border has not held back the construction of the Boylesports betting empire, the businessman said he was no fan of Brexit.

"That's just what we wouldn't want," he told the Dublin newspaper.

"It would affect everything in a negative way.

"People have no interest in division - and that's what a border brings, especially in Northern Ireland with the troubles they had.

"Going by the vote in Northern Ireland, they didn't want a Brexit.

"We're in a country where there's going to be a hard border, and there's nobody looking for it."

Mr Boyle said he grew up with a hard border, and for him, the implications are psychological as much as physical.

There was a certain fear factor "even if you didn't know what you were afraid of", he commented.

"If there's a border, there's got to be division.

"Leave us alone - let us get on with doing the best we can," he pleaded.

The Armagh man, who now lives in Rostrevor, Co Down, stepped down from the role of chief executive of the betting business last week, passing executive control of the multi-million gambling empire to son-in-law Conor. It's understood he plans to roll out the Boylesports brand in Britain.
Pictured at the launch of the Policing with Pride vehicles are (L to R) Superintendent Emma Bond, PSNI Hate Crime Lead, Deputy Chief Constable Drew Harris and Anne Connolly, Chair of Northern Ireland Policing Board.

The PSNI has invited Gardai to join them in marching in Belfast's Gay Pride parade.

Uniformed police officers will take part in Belfast's Gay Pride parade for the first time next Saturday.

The annual Pride festival got underway on Friday July 28, and will run through until August 6.

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The march on August 5 is the main event and police have said they hope their presence will send a message about hate crime.

Deputy Chief Constable Drew Harris said it was an "opportunity not only to show support for these members of our communities, but also to highlight that hate crime, in whatever form, is wrong and the importance of reporting it.

"Hate crime should not be tolerated and victims should be encouraged and feel confident that when they contact police that their concerns will be taken seriously and responded to appropriately."

A Garda spokesman said officers can take part in uniform but it would be voluntary and unpaid.

The spokesman said: "An Garda Siochana has been invited by the PSNI to take part in this years Pride Parade in Belfast on the August 5 2017.

"Members of An Garda Siochana, their families and friends are all invited to take part and join members from the PSNI and their colleagues from Great Britain. Garda members may, with permission, take part in uniform. Attendance at the event is at the Garda members own expense."

Northern Ireland's continued ban on same-sex marriage is one of the issues halting the restoration of a power-sharing government in Belfast.

An estimated 20,000 people marched through Belfast earlier this month calling for the introduction of gay marriage.
The Anti Internment parade makes its way through Belfast City amid a heavy police presence to the stopping point at Divis Street in 2016. ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

Restrictions have been placed on three events in Belfast city centre this weekend by the Parades Commission.

An anti Internment League parade, which was to start in the north of the city and proceed to the west through the city and with around 5,000 supporters will not pass North Queen Street, the commission ruled.

This parade, which resulted in public disorder in 2013 and 2015, was also restricted last year.

A demonstration by the Loyal Peoples Protest, which said 10,000 were to take part is not allowed to proceed beyond Donegall Square West. The Loyal Peoples Protest has a history of protesting against republican parades, the Parades Commission said.

While a third event, the Northern Ireland Against Terrorism parade, which is to feature prominent members of the far Right Britain First Group, has been barred from assembling at the front of City Hall.

It shall instead assemble at, and proceed along, Donegall Square East.

The Parades Commission said that while the events may not attract the numbers the organisers had hoped for, the publicity they had received had "heightened tensions".

"Each of the three parades, as judged on its own merits, is controversial and presents high risks of public disorder, adverse impacts on community relations, and a disproportionate interference with the rights of others," the Parades Commission said in issuing its determinations.

"The risks of the events seeking to access the same space around the same time are significant.

"These restrictions are primarily required to mitigate the high risks of public disorder, and to avoid the potential closure of the city centre for a prolonged period of time.

"The parades may not attract the numbers of participants promoted by the organisers. The Commission considered, however, that the publicity by the organisers about large scale events has contributed to heightened tensions."

The spokesman added: "The commission gave due weight to the rights of freedoms of expression and assembly in the city centre as balanced against the competing rights of others. It relied in its deliberations on its statutory guidelines that the right of peaceful assembly, underpinned by the European Convention on Human Rights and the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, while important, is not absolute.

"The commission reflected upon the volatile and fluid situation which may present on the day of these parades, and concluded that the risks surrounding them may only be managed by the imposition of route restrictions. The commission has considered that these restrictions are necessary, proportionate and fair."
Tributes have been paid to a former leading local businessman who has died after just three years in retirement.

Bryan Gray had been an important figure in three different sectors, and was chief executive of Manufacturing NI before his retirement in 2013.

Mr Gray, who was 65, had been living in the Philippines with his second wife Angelica, and three children, but passed away on Saturday from lung cancer.

He had played a leading role in the push for a formal retail planning policy here and led lobbying efforts in the campaign to reduce the use of plastic bags.

Born in Ballymena, he was educated at Ballymena Academy and the University of Ulster, where he took a degree in business studies.

For almost 13 years from 1987 he was chief executive of the Federation of the Retail Licensed Trade in Northern Ireland.

In 2000 he became chief executive of the NI Independent Retail Trade Association, where he remained until 2008. For six years after that he was chief executive of Manufacturing NI (MNI), and in 2009 he set up his own firm, Bryan Gray Consulting.

He was asked to step in as chief executive officer of Manufacturing NI when its then CEO Basil McCrea entered politics.

"Bryan was asked to come in and fill the role for six months and ended up staying for six-and-a-half years, which was greatly to our benefit," current CEO Stephen Kelly said.

"But when he retired and went to the Philippines, as far as I know he never came back to Northern Ireland.

"We were all very deeply shocked to hear of Bryan's passing on Saturday night. Bryan's contribution to MNI was immense."

Glyn Roberts, who took over from Mr Gray as NIIRTA chief, added: "I am very sad to hear he has passed on. The best way I would describe him is as a hell of an operator. He was very old-school; a man who called a spade a spade, but very well respected."

Mr Gray is survived by his first wife Cathy, his second wife, children Catherine, Christopher and Isabella, sister Margaret and grandchildren Liam and Charlotte.
The graffiti was daubed on a wall in the New Lodge area.

A Belfast councillor has condemned those who made threats against contractors who removed bonfire wood.

Threats were painted against the workers in the New Lodge area after they helped remove bonfire wood. They warned the workers that wood was taken "at your own risk" and "our wood goes... your van goes."

"These workers were acting on behalf of residents who do not want to see properties damaged or someone injured as a result of an illegal bonfire," said Councillor JJ Magee.

The bonfire material was dumped close to homes and a nursery unit. It was removed by council workers and Id like to thank them for that.

The anti-social elements involved in trying to build a bonfire need to desist from their the intimidation against workers and their attempt to ride roughshod over the wishes of local residents.

This community has already sent a very clear message and are doing so again  these are not anti-internment bonfires, they are not welcome and those trying to make our community a better place should not be the subject of intimidation," the Sinn Fein politician said.

Anger flared over the construction of the bonfire close to high-rise flats and a children's nursery in the north of the city.

Sinn Fein has criticised the builders of the anti-internment pyre branding it "anti-social" and a "misery" for residents.

The council is to meet this week to discuss the issue of bonfires. Members are to vote on allowing the council to remove bonfire material.

Belfast City Council was asked for a comment and referred us to the Housing Executive saying it was its workers which removed the material.

A Housing Executive spokeswoman said: "We have been made aware that graffiti has appeared on a wall in the New Lodge.

"The Housing Executive takes all threats very seriously but we have no grounds to believe a direct threat has been made against our contractors.

"Removal of material from the New lodge area has been with full community support."
The High Court has blocked a bid by a former chief of staff of the Iraqi army to bring a private prosecution against Tony Blair over the Iraq War.

General Abdul Wahed Shannan Al Rabbat has accused Mr Blair, while UK prime minister, of committing a crime of aggression by invading Iraq in 2003 to overthrow President Saddam Hussein.

The general wanted to prosecute Mr Blair and two other key ministers at the time  foreign secretary Jack Straw and attorney general Lord Goldsmith.

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His lawyers asked Londons High Court for permission to seek judicial review in an attempt to get the Supreme Court, now the highest court in the land, to overturn a ruling by the House of Lords in 2006 that there is no such crime as the crime of aggression under the law of England and Wales.

Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, the Lord Chief Justice, and Mr Justice Ouseley dismissed the generals application, saying there was no prospect of the case succeeding.

The case was brought after Westminster Magistrates Court refused to issue summonses in November last year on the grounds that the ex-ministers had immunity from legal action, and in any event the current Attorney General, Jeremy Wright QC, would have to give consent.

The general lives in Muscat, Oman, does not possess a passport and cannot travel to the UK.

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The UK was part of the coalition led by the US which invaded Iraq after American president George W Bush and Mr Blair accused Saddam of possessing weapons of mass destruction and having links to terrorists.

Michael Mansfield QC, appearing for General Al Rabbat, said at a recent one-day hearing that the inquiry into the invasion conducted by Sir John Chilcot, which concluded with a report published in July last year, justified the prosecution of Mr Blair.

Mr Mansfield said the main findings were contained in a paragraph early in the 12-volume report and could be summarised as concluding that Saddam did not pose an urgent threat to the interests of the UK, and the intelligence regarding weapons of mass destruction had been presented with unwarranted certainty.

It also concluded that peaceful alternatives to war had not been exhausted and that the war in Iraq was not necessary.

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Mr Mansfield argued that the international crime of a war of aggression had been accepted by then UK attorney general Sir Hartley Shawcross QC in the 1940s, at the time of the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war crimes.

The QC contended that, as the international community had held those responsible for the Second World War to account by prosecuting those thought responsible for aggression at Nuremberg, it was the duty of the UK courts to follow that example in relation to the Iraq War.

The House of Lords decided in the 2006 case of R v Jones, which also concerned the Iraq War, that although there was a crime of aggression under customary international law, there was no such crime under English law.

Mr Mansfield argued that the Jones case was wrongly decided and permission should be given to allow General Al Rabbat to re-argue the issue before the Supreme Court.

But the High Court ruled: In our opinion there is no prospect of the Supreme Court holding that the decision in Jones was wrong or the reasoning no longer applicable.
The US military has said it carried out a drone strike in Somalia that killed a member of the al-Shabab extremist group, while Somalia's government said it believes the strike killed a high-level al-Shabab commander responsible for several deadly bombings in the capital.

A US Africa Command statement said the air strike occurred on Saturday near Tortoroow, an al-Shabab stronghold in the Lower Shabelle region in southern Somalia.

President Donald Trump earlier this year approved expanded military operations against al-Shabab, including more aggressive air strikes and considering parts of southern Somalia areas of active hostilities.

Al Qaida-linked al-Shabab is the deadliest Islamic extremist group in Africa.

The US statement said the air strike was carried out in co-ordination with regional partners "as a direct response to al-Shabab actions, including recent attacks on Somali forces".

The statement said no civilians were killed.

A statement by Somalia's information ministry said the government believes that Ali Mohamed Hussein died in the operation co-ordinated with "international partners".

Ali had served as the extremist group's shadow governor for the capital, Mogadishu, and had been one of the group's most outspoken officials.

"This individual was part of an al-Shabab network responsible for planning and executing several bombings and assassinations that resulted in the deplorable death of numerous innocent civilians in Mogadishu," the ministry statement said.

A Somali intelligence official said at least one missile struck a car in which the al-Shabab leader was travelling.

The US military in early July said it carried out an air strike against al-Shabab in Somalia and was assessing the results.

The air strike followed one in June that the US said killed eight extremists at a rebel command and logistics camp in the south.

Somalia-based al-Shabab earlier this month mocked Mr Trump for the first time in a video that called him a "brainless billionaire".

The extremist group has also vowed to step up attacks in Somalia after the president elected in February declared a new offensive against al-Shabab, which continues to carry out deadly attacks in Mogadishu.

The extremist group has also carried out deadly attacks in neighbouring countries, notably Kenya, calling it retribution for sending troops to Somalia to fight al-Shabab.

AP
Municipality workers clean up at the site of a car bomb attack in Kabul on July 24 (AP Photos/Massoud Hossaini)

Islamic State has targeted the Iraqi embassy in Kabul, with a suicide bomber blowing himself up outside the gates, followed by three gunmen who stormed into the building.

The assault set off a four-hour firefight that ended only after Afghan security forces said they had killed all the attackers.

Interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish told reporters that two Afghan employees of the Iraq embassy died in the attack.

Three police were injured, he added.

As the attack unfolded there were conflicting reports of casualties, with a witness saying he saw the bodies of at least two policemen lying on the road outside the embassy soon after the attack began.

In its claim of responsibility, IS said its fighters had killed seven guards but the militant group often exaggerates its claims on the number of casualties inflicted.

The IS attack was probably meant to distract attention from the militants' massive losses in Iraq and Syria in recent weeks.

IS said only two of its followers were involved in the attack, not four as Kabul officials said, adding to the conflicting reports.

Earlier, Mr Danish said only one policeman was wounded and that there were no fatalities among the security forces or civilians.

He said that all the embassy staffers were safe but that the building had suffered extensive damage, with windows broken and several rooms badly burned.

It was not until the attack ended that both the embassy and the interior ministry realised two of their Afghan staff had died in the assault.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani condemned the attack and said it was the government's responsibility to provide protection to international missions.

In Baghdad, foreign ministry spokesman Ahmad Jamal condemned the assault as a "terrorist attack".

The attack began with a big explosion that rocked central Kabul shortly before noon, followed by gunfire that lasted for several hours, and two or three more subsequent large explosions.

Police quickly cordoned off the area, barring reporters from coming too close to the scene.

The Afghan interior ministry said a suicide bomber first started the attack, blowing himself up at the embassy gate, after which three attackers stormed inside.

Earlier, Afghan officials had said a car bomb started the assault. Later on, it became clear the suicide bomber was on foot and not driving a car.

The ministry statement said Afghan security forces quickly deployed to the scene, rescuing all the embassy diplomats and employees and taking them to safety.

While the attack was still under way, the IS affiliate in Afghanistan claimed responsibility in a statement carried by the IS-linked Aamaq news agency.

A police officer in the area, who identified himself only as Abdullah, said the gunfire was initially intense but later became more sporadic.

The area was surrounded by armoured vehicles and a large contingent of police and Afghan soldiers.

A shop owner who goes by the name of Hafizullah - many Afghans use only one name - said he saw the bodies of two policemen on the ground before armoured personnel carriers and police arrived to cordon off the area.

More than an hour into the attack, witnesses reported hearing another powerful explosion and said they saw black smoke billowing skyward.

It was not immediately clear what had caused the later explosion.

"The explosion was so strong. I was so afraid," said Maryam, a woman crying near the site of the attack said.

She said she works at the nearby office of Afghanistan's national airline Ariana.

The Iraqi embassy is located in a part of the city known as Shahr-e-Now, which lies outside the so-called "green zone" where most foreign embassies and diplomatic missions are located and which is heavily fortified with a phalanx of guards and giant cement blast walls.

By comparison, the Iraqi embassy is located on a small street in a neighbourhood dominated by markets and businesses.

After Iraqi forces, backed by a US-led coalition, recaptured the city of Mosul from IS earlier in July, the Iraqi embassy had called reporters to its offices in Kabul to express concerns that the local IS affiliate might stage large-scale attacks elsewhere to draw away attention from the militant group's losses in Iraq.

AP
Boris Johnson said missions to the South China Sea would be near the top of deployment plans for the new carriers

China's foreign ministry has criticised plans by Britain to send its new aircraft carriers on freedom of navigation missions in the South China Sea to challenge Beijing's expansive territorial claims in the strategic waterway.

Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters in response to a question on statements by British officials that "some countries" from outside the region "insist on stirring up trouble while the situation is trending towards calm in the South China Sea".

"Regardless of what banner these countries or individuals fly under, or what excuses they may peddle, their record of the same kind of sanctimonious interference in the affairs of other regions, leaving behind chaos and humanitarian disaster, prompts countries in this region to maintain a high degree of vigilance," he said.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson confirmed following a high-level meeting in Sydney with his Australian counterpart Julie Bishop that missions to the South China Sea would be near the top of deployment plans for the new carriers, the HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales.

"One of the first things we will do with the two new colossal aircraft carriers that we have just built is send them on a freedom of navigation operation to this area to vindicate our belief in the rules-based international system and in the freedom of navigation through those waterways which are absolutely vital for world trade," Mr Johnson said.

Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon later said exact plans for the deployments had not yet been finalised.

"But, yes, you would expect to see these carriers in the India Pacific Ocean, this part of the world because it is in this part of the world we see increasing tension, increasing challenges," he said.

China has strongly objected to repeated freedom of navigation missions carried by the US Navy along with the presence of the navies of Japan, Australia and others in the waterway, through which an estimated five trillion US dollars (3.8 trillion) in annual trade passes each year.

AP
Vladimir Putin and his defence minister Sergei Shoigu, right, at a Navy Day celebration in St Petersburg on the day he made the announcement to expel 755 US diplomats (Pool Photo/AP)

Russia has urged the United States to show "political will" to mend ties even as it ordered sweeping cuts of US embassy personnel unseen since Cold War times.

President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said it will take time for the US to recover from what he called "political schizophrenia", but added that Russia remains interested in constructive co-operation with the US.

"We are interested in a steady development of our ties and are sorry to note that we are still far from that," he said.

Mr Peskov's statement followed Sunday's televised comments by Mr Putin, who said the US would have to cut 755 of its embassy and consulate staff in Russia, a massive reduction he described as a response to new US sanctions.

The Russian foreign ministry had previously said that the US should cut its embassy and consular employees to 455, the number that Russia has in the United States.

Along with the caps on embassy personnel announced on Friday, it also declared the closure of a US recreational retreat on the outskirts of Moscow and warehouse facilities.

Moscow's action is the long-expected tit-for-tat response to former US president Barack Obama's move to expel 35 Russian diplomats and shut down two Russian recreational retreats in the US over reports of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Mr Putin had refrained from an immediate quid pro quo until now in the hope that President Donald Trump would follow up on his campaign promises to improve ties with Moscow and roll back the steps taken by Mr Obama.

The Russian leader hailed his first meeting with Mr Trump at the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Germany earlier this month, saying that the talks offered a model for rebuilding Russia-US ties.

But the Congressional and FBI investigations into links between Mr Trump's campaign and Russia have weighed heavily over the White House, derailing Moscow's hopes for an improvement in ties.

The overwhelming endorsement of a new package of stiff financial sanctions that passed Congress with veto-proof numbers last week dealt a new blow to Moscow's aspirations.

The White House said that Mr Trump will sign the package, and Mr Putin decided to fire back without waiting for that to happen.

"We had hoped that the situation will somehow change, but apparently if it changes, it won't be soon," Mr Putin said in remarks broadcast by state television late on Sunday.

"I thought it was the time to show that we're not going to leave it without an answer."

The diplomatic personnel reductions are the harshest such move since 1986, when Moscow and Washington expelled dozens of diplomats.

The US State Department called Mr Putin's move "a regrettable and uncalled-for act".

Mr Putin described the cuts in the US embassy and consulate personnel as "painful" and said that Russia has other levers to hurt the US.

He added, however, that he currently sees no need for further action.

The State Department declined to give an exact number of American diplomats or other US officials in Russia, but the figure is believed to be about 400, some of whom have families accompanying them on diplomatic passports.

The vast majority of the more than 1,000 employees at the various US diplomatic missions in Russia, including the embassy in Moscow and consulates in St Petersburg, Vladivostok and Yekaterinburg, are local employees.

AP
There is an expression in Mallorqui that refers to someone who acts as though he or she is above his or her station; has airs and graces. It...
Exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin speaks during an interview at her home in New Delhi, Nov. 1, 2016.

Indian human rights activists on Monday blamed a conservative Muslim group for starting a protest that stopped exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin from visiting Maharashtra states Aurangabad town, where the controversial writer had planned a short vacation.

She was forced to turn away from the Aurangabad airport on Saturday as protests led by the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) erupted in the city, which is home to the Ajanta and Ellora Caves, police said.

Nasrin was asked to board a flight to Mumbai as a crowd of demonstrators had gathered outside the citys Chikalthana Airport and the hotel where she was to stay, shouting slogans such as Taslima go back, deputy commissioner of police Rahil Shrirame told reporters.

Her visit could have triggered a law-and-order situation, so we requested her not to venture outside the airport and to take the next flight out to Mumbai. She readily agreed, Shrirame said.

Nasrin fled Bangladesh in 1994 after receiving death threats following the release of her book titled Lajja, an indictment of religious extremism and banned by her countrys government.

Nasrin, 54, who holds a Swedish passport and has been living in India since 2004, took to Twitter on Monday to criticize the protests.

I had a dream to visit Ajanta and Ellora Caves. Cant believe it was not possible in the largest democracy in the world.

Can any of them tell what I wrote about the prophet? They cant because they havent read my books. They only use me for their political interests, she said.

Nasrin, who has on many occasions expressed a desire to settle down in West Bengal state, was forced to leave Kolkata in 2007 following violent street protests by a section of Muslims against her works. She has since been living in New Delhi.

A symbol of protest

The bestselling Lajja tells the story of a Hindu family living in Bangladesh whose world begins to fall apart after the demolition of the Babri Mosque in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in 1992.

Many believe that I have criticized Islam in Lajja and the Muslim fundamentalists in Bangladesh have issued a fatwa against me  both untrue. I have not criticized Islam in Lajja and the fatwa is not because of Lajja. The fatwa is because I have criticized Islam in many of my other books, Nasrin wrote in the preface of a new English translation of the book.

Lajja can be seen as a symbol of protest. It is a protest against the violence, hatred and killings that are going on all over the world in the name of religion, Nasrin wrote.

My book is primarily a testament to the savagery of religions in the Indian subcontinent, Religion drives people to madness, at which point they do not hesitate to abandon even basic humanity, she said.

Rightwing Muslim fundamentalism

Hasina Khan, a leading Muslim human rights activist, said the protests by AIMIM against the award-winning author smacked of rightwing Muslim fundamentalism.

It is open knowledge that rightwing Muslims harbor abhorrence towards her. But this kind of move will only help other rightwing organizations to justify and rationalize violent actions, Khan told BenarNews.

Disagreeing with a writer does not give any outfit the right to indulge in uncouth behavior or violence or vandalism, Irfan Engineer of the Mumbai-based Center for Study of Society and Secularism told BenarNews.

The police should have taken proper steps to ease tensions, he added.

Deliberately stokes controversy

Others criticized Nasrin.

One needs to understand that Nasrins books have hurt the religious sentiments of the Muslim community. She deliberately stokes controversy and that too is in bad taste. That is why it is easy to mobilize people against her, Mohammad Jamshed, a noted Islamic calligraphist, told BenarNews.

Saeed Ahmad Khan, a senior Urdu journalist, agreed.

Deliberately insulting and berating someones faith and beliefs is bound to evoke strong emotive reactions, Khan told Benar.

AIMIM legislator Imitiyaz Jaleel, who led the protests, told reporters people in Aurangabad were already on a short fuse because of the ongoing demolition of illegal structures.

That is one of the reasons we asked the police to deny entry to Nasrin, Jaleel said.

We had informed the police that the protesters had planned to throw eggs and tomatoes at Nasrin if she ventured outside the airport, he said.
A member of a Philippine Army bomb squad disarms a homemade explosive left by Islamic State-linked militants in the southern city of Marawi, July 30, 2017.

Philippine police said Monday that they found the decomposing bodies of seven Filipinos who were kidnapped and beheaded by Abu Sayyaf gunmen on the southern island of Basilan.

Two of the seven executed men were abducted two weeks ago by gunmen under Abu Sayyaf sub-commander Furuji Indama, who has been blamed for kidnappings and beheadings in the past, according to Chief Inspector Tara Leah Cuyco, the regional police spokeswoman.

Cuyco said the militants seized the two on suspicion that they had strayed inside a rubber plantation owned by Indama.

The motive may be personal for Furuji, Cuyco said.

Police reports indicated that Indama had ordered his men to kidnap the two on suspicion that they were chainsaw operators who caused damage to his rubber plantation, she said.

Cuyco said the victims relatives identified them through their clothes.

Five other headless bodies were found in another area and turned over to forensic investigators.

An investigation was also underway, but police said Indama was likely also involved in those killings.

Abu Sayyaf militants are known for beheading their hostages unless ransom payments are made. They beheaded two Canadian hostages last year and a German captive in February.

Marawi offensive goes on

Military officials said the beheadings could be a move to distract the armed forces from Marawi city, where another faction of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) led by Isnilon Hapilon  the acknowledged leader of Islamic State (IS) in the Philippines  has engaged government troops in fierce fighting since May.

Philippine security forces are still trying to retake Marawi, about 309 km (193 miles) northeast of Basilan, from Abu Sayyaf fighters, who were backed by the local Maute gunmen and an undetermined number of fighters from Southeast Asia and other regions.

Military officials said the fighting that began on May 23 had killed 114 government forces, 45 civilians and 491 militants, including nine suspected extremists who were slain on Monday.

Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said troops were pressing forward slowly to an area in central Marawi where the gunmen have been contained. But the extremists rigged the place with improvised explosive device (IEDs) to slow the troop advance, he said.

The gunmen are believed to be holding some 300 hostages. President Rodrigo Duterte ordered troops last week to be careful not to hurt the civilians.

The fighting, Dutertes toughest security challenge, has forced him to accept intelligence help from longtime ally the United States, as well as from Australia and Southeast Asian neighbors Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

He has placed the entire southern region under martial law, and recently won an extension from Congress to maintain military rule until the end of the year.

The current operation inside Marawi is ongoing and the focus is particularly in an area where quite a number of unexploded ordnance and IEDs are still present, Padilla said.

He said this had forced a slowdown of the clearing of buildings as troops continued to approach the main battle area. He described it as similar to Cambodia and Vietnam, which in the past were war-ravaged and peppered with mine fields.

You know, after the war ended in those areas, the fields were littered literally with unexploded ordnance, Padilla said. And this is what is happening in Marawi right now.

Mark Navales in Cotabato City contributed to this story.
Thai officials on Monday publicly refuted reports that agents had abducted a hardcore activist linked to the pro-democracy Red Shirts who has lived in self-imposed exile in neighboring Laos for the past three years.

Wutthipong Kachathamkhun (alias Ko Tee) apparently was abducted while he, his wife and a friend were getting out of a car at a residence in Laos, according to Chupong Teetuan, a supporter of the Red Shirts and an anti-monarchist who lives in the United States.

He was abducted Saturday night. His friend, Padet, and his wife were tied and left in a house, Chupong said in a YouTube video posted on Sunday. My Laotian source said the kidnappers were definitely not Laotian officials, he said, adding that Ko Tees wife and friend were able to free themselves.

Thai Army Commander-in-Chief Gen. Chalermchai Sitthisart rebuked the claims and denied knowledge of any abduction.

As far as I talked to the Supreme Commander and the secretary-general of the National Security Council (NSC), we do not have any knowledge on the issue. It is not our responsibility to trace how the claim happened, he told reporters in Bangkok.

NSC Secretary-General Taweep Netniyom had been assigned to deal with Laotian authorities and to shut down an underground online radio run by Ko Tee. He also sought to reach an agreement with Laos officials to have Ko Tee extradited to face trial in Thailand.

Jom Petchpradab, a former Thai journalist who lives in exile in the U.S., said friends of Ko Tee had filed a missing persons report at a local police station.

Nobody knows where Ko Tee is now, or if he is still alive. But according to the informants, he is more likely alive and could have been transferred to Thailand, he said.

Jom posted pictures of clothes and straps allegedly used by the perpetrators to tie up Ko Tees companions.

In Vientiane, a Laotian foreign ministry official and a police officer told BenarNews via telephone they had no information about Ko Tee or his whereabouts.

Links to Shinawatras

Ko Tee was linked to hardcore efforts tied to the Red Shirt movement, whose official name is the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship. He aligned with Red Shirt leaders prime ministers Thaksin and Yingluck Shinawatra, who were toppled in military coups in 2006 and 2014, respectively.

He allegedly plotted online to assassinate Thai leaders and authorities seized a cache of weapons at his home in Pathum Thani province, on the outskirts of Bangkok.

Ko Tee has lived in self-imposed exile in neighboring Laos since June 2014 after he refused a summons from the Thai junta for so-called attitude adjustment. Since taking power following the 2014 coup, the regime of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha has summoned politicians and reporters for attitude adjustment sessions while in detention, after they spoke out against the junta.

The abduction claim broke out over the weekend as Red Shirt members warned the government of possible rioting on Aug. 25, the day Yingluck is to hear the verdict in her trial on negligence charges stemming from a rice-subsidy scheme implemented by her government. She is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday to make her final statement in the case against her.

Yingluck could face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty of failing to stop corruption related to the rice scheme, as well as pay a fine of $1 billion. Thai authorities have frozen some of her 12 bank accounts along with other assets of the nations first female prime minister, whose net worth is valued at U.S. $17 million (566 million baht).
After an 18-year run in Goose Creek and unforeseen challenges presented by COVID-19, Dreamalot Books has gradually  but decidedly  gained a steady foothold in the Moncks Corner community as a welcoming haven of second-hand books for both area bibliophiles and those traveling in from Myrtle Read moreThe 'happy place' for used books: Dreamalot Books emerging as a go-to hot spot in Moncks Corner
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By Bob Cunningham

When Andrea Danziger chose to attend Bowling Green State University, she was just discovering the field of political science. Now, as she graduates as a member of the Class of 2017, she is leaving the University with aspirations of working for the U.S. Department of State as a foreign service officer.

A member of the Honors College, Danziger double-majored in political science and German and minored in Philosophy, Politics, Economics and Law (PPEL) while earning a 3.9 grade point average.

BGSU was an all-around good fit for me, said Danziger, who is from Mason, Ohio, north of Cincinnati. It wasnt too far from home and I received really generous scholarships from BGSU.

Before Danziger arrived at the University, she had an inkling she wanted to study political science because she had so enjoyed argumentative writing and learning about politics in high school. The more she discovered about BGSUs political science program, the more she became interested in international affairs.

As she entered her third year of college, she realized she had enough credits to graduate the following spring because she had earned several credits while taking AP courses in high school.

I decided to use my final year of my scholarship to pursue something completely different, said Danziger, who studied at the BGSU Salzburg Program in Austria. Knowing Id always wanted to study abroad if I had the chance, I looked into a German major because I lived in Germany with my family when I was a kid. It turned out I could complete the whole German major in a year of studying abroad if I took a couple of classes the semester leading up to my departure. At the end of my junior year, I basically had the political science major and PPEL minor done so I spent my senior year just studying German while abroad.

Danziger, who said her dream job is to work for the Department of State in international affairs with a focus in political affairs, spent the summer of 2016 as an intern working at the U.S. Consulate in Munich, Germany.

I want to be a foreign service officer  thats the end goal  but the average age for entering foreign service is 28 to 30, so its important to gain valuable experience in the meantime, she said. Ive applied and interviewed with the Peace Corps, and I am waiting to hear back from them to see if Ill be serving in Mongolia next year. Ill know that by December.

Danziger believes she is well-prepared for her chosen career field because of BGSU.
By Bob Cunningham

When Joel Hamilton majored in music education at Morehead State University, he envisioned being a music teacher as a way to put food on the table; he didnt want to be a starving artist.

Now, 14 years later, he has a different point of view  and a passion for teaching.



Little did I know thats what I should have been doing in the first place, said Hamilton, choral director at Perrysburg Junior High School. I love teaching and I love working with the kids, and to see them grow as individuals and as musicians is priceless. I love what I do because I dont consider it work. I get to sing, I get to dance, and I get to play the piano every day of my life. I dont know many people who go to work every day and listen to music for six to seven hours and watch kids have a good time.

Not that its not work, but the rehearsal process and all of that stuff is fun to me; its exciting. Every day provides something different because every song provides something different.

Hamilton is graduating with a Master of Music with a Teaching Artistry Specialization from Bowling Green State Universitys College of Musical Arts with the intention of taking what he has learned in the program and incorporating it into the classroom.

I had been out of college for almost 14 years and was looking for something to refresh some ideas and make my classroom a better place for my students, he said. You work for so long you get in your own little bubble and you get comfortable. If you push yourself to the limits and exceed those boundaries, why not try to see what else is happening out there? Maybe theres something that can make your life a little easier in the classroom as far as rehearsals go?

Coming back and seeing whats out there was a huge push for me. Technology has changed a lot of things for the better, especially in music. Plus, Its good to have that feedback from the rest of the cohort as well.

The Teaching Artistry Specialization program is an online degree at BGSU designed to meet the growing demand of practitioners currently employed in the teaching profession who desire a path to continue development of their current skills, gain new skills and insight into the profession and deepen their knowledge of pedagogy. Through the use of mentor teachers, faculty committees, individualized and group instruction and faculty-driven curricular benchmarks, students gain important pedagogical skills that can be implemented immediately in their own careers.

Hamilton said the main focus was his masters project, a toolbox for the changing male adolescent voice.

We had to do a full-length project throughout the entire program, and we started that in the fall of last year, he said. I gleaned a lot of information from that project, working with boys changing voices. Its going to have a huge impact on the fifth- through eighth-graders I teach. In a sense, I can see them completely transition from their treble voice all the way through to their man voice, baritone, tenor, whatever it may be. That study alone was huge for me, and I chose it because I knew it would have a huge impact on my students. The information I learned from that research alone was immeasurable.

Hamilton said the online format of the program with its flexibility proved to be vital.

Whats nice about that is Ive been in contact with a band director from Virginia during this whole process, he said. Its so nice to a get different perspectives from different parts of the country.

One member of the cohort happened to live closer than Hamilton ever could have imagined.

Theres also a guy in my cohort from Maumee High School, so hes local and actually lives around the corner from me, he said. We didnt even realize how close we lived to each other until about six months into it. So, Im getting access to people who not only have a different perspective on education but music education as well.

Hamilton grew up in Rossford, just a 20-minute drive to Bowling Green, but he wanted to go away to college after high school. When he graduated from Morehead State, he taught in Newport, Tennessee, for five years. Then he got married and he and his wife moved to Perrysburg after having a baby to be close to family. He taught at Perrysburg and Bowling Green high schools before taking his current position.

Im in a great district, he said. Were growing by leaps and bounds and the new facilities we have at Hull Prairie Intermediate School are just phenomenal. The music wing dominates that school. Our choir room can seat up to 115 students and the band room can seat up to 165 kids. Its pretty sweet. Its great to be in a community that supports the performing arts.
Opinion | 04 November 2022 | Interviews

India needs to connect OPD with the cashless insurance network to bring them into the digital economy

After having raised $1.2 million from Entrepreneur First and GrowX Ventures in 2021, how do you see the perfor...Read more
Public health officials in the state said they decided to go public with the detection as soon as they detected the disease to create awareness about the disease.

Zika virus has reappeared once again in India, this time in the state of Tamil Nadu. This is the second case in India after the first cases of Zika were confirmed in Ahmedabad, Gujarat earlier in May 2017.

The government of Tamil Nadu has confirmed the case of case within 11 days of detection. On June 26, the 28-year old patient developed symptoms such as fever, redness of eyes, headache, photophobia, pain behind the eyes, myalgia and weakness.

According to the news posted by the Times of India, senior officials including health secretary J Radhakrishnan visited the patient at his home over the weekend. Vector control measures were carried out in the area. Public health officials in the state said they decided to go public with the detection as soon as they detected the disease to create awareness about the disease. "The disease is here. There is no point in keeping it a secret. We want doctors to keep their eyes open to this disease and we want patients to meet a doctor as soon as they see the symptom," said state health secretary Radhakrishnan to Times of India.

As per the WHO statement, immediately after the cases were reported, the Health ministry had shared the national guidelines and action plan on Zika virus disease which have been shared with the states to prevent an outbreak of the disease and facilitate containment of spread in case of any outbreak. It also constituted an inter-ministerial task force

Meanwhile, a technical group tasked to monitor emerging and re-emerging diseases regularly reviewed the global situation on Zika virus

All the international airports and ports have displayed information for travellers on Zika virus disease while the airport health officers along with airport organisations, the National Centre for Disease Control and the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme are monitoring appropriate vector control measures in airport premises.
The Bayer Hemophilia Awards Program (BHAP) supports innovative research and educational initiatives to benefit individuals with Hemophilia

16 winners from 8 countries were awarded research grants of more than $ 2 million under the global Bayer Hemophilia Awards Program (BHAP). The grants will support research into a broad range of projects, including anxiety among female carriers of Hemophilia, Factor VIII splicing-switching molecules for tailored Hemophilia A therapies, and the assessment of therapeutic relationships in Hemophilia care.

Two Indian researchers were among the BHAP award winners, announced at the ISTH (International Society on Thrombosis and Hemostasis) Congress held recently in Berlin, Germany.

B.Sulochana from the Manipal College of Nursing was awarded for her research focusing on anxiety, stress and coping strategies and lived experiences among women carriers of Hemophilia. The second awardee from India, Cilla Joseph from the Hemophilia Treatment Centre, Kochi was awarded for her research which focused on Effectiveness of Hydrotherapy along with Ai Chi techniques for arthritic knee joint in Hemophilia patients.

Since its inception in 2002, the Bayer Hemophilia Awards Program (BHAP) aims to support research that has the potential to have a significant impact on our understanding of hemophilia and bleeding disorders, said Manoj Saxena, Managing Director  Bayer Zydus Pharma, India. BHAP continues to be a tangible reflection of Bayers ongoing commitment to research and advancing scientific knowledge that improves patient care. We are proud to recognize and award these individuals for their talent, expertise and commitment in their fields.

The largest program of its kind in Hemophilia, BHAP provides valuable funds to support basic, clinical and outcome research, encourage recently qualified physicians to undertake further training in hemostasis and support projects undertaken by allied healthcare professionals such as nurses and physical therapists. Till date, BHAP has awarded more than 280 grants, totaling more than USD 33 million, to researchers and caregivers from 32 countries around the world.

Winning the Bayer Hemophilia Caregiver Award 2017 from applicants across the world is a huge motivation for me and my organization. I am honored that the Grants Review and Awards Committee of BHAP considered the project as important and relevant. This project gives an in-depth information and understanding of physical symptoms, psycho-social aspects of life and lived experience among mothers who are carriers of hemophilia and will guide us in designing targeted interventions said B. Sulochana.

Speaking about her win, Cilla Joseph, said, I am privileged and honored to be selected for the BHAP award from multiple entrants across the world. This award reflects the research interest in my chosen area. The focus of my study would be the effectiveness of aquatic therapy with AI CHI techniques for arthritic knee joint in Hemophilia A patients. If I am successful in proving the effectiveness of this therapy, this will greatly impact the rehabilitation of Hemophilia as most patients suffer from arthritic pain in the early decades of their life.

This year, awards were presented in five categories:

Special Projects : provides support for a wide range of scientific research in the field of hemophilia

: provides support for a wide range of scientific research in the field of hemophilia Early Career Investigator : provides salary support and research funds for junior faculty members to undertake mentored and/or basic research projects

: provides salary support and research funds for junior faculty members to undertake mentored and/or basic research projects Fellowship Project : facilitates the development of specific clinical expertise for applicants who have completed medical training

: facilitates the development of specific clinical expertise for applicants who have completed medical training Caregiver : recognizes the essential role of caregivers and allied health professionals

: recognizes the essential role of caregivers and allied health professionals Outcomes Research: encourages the development of relevant tools for outcome assessment, or their validation and applications in different health care situations

Both the winners from India, B. Sulochana and Cilla Joseph were recognized in the Caregiver category.

The BHAP award recipients are selected by a global panel of distinguished hemophilia clinicians, researchers and caregivers. Till date, BHAP support has contributed to more than 400 publications, poster presentations and other scientific communications by awardees.
The new programme which is being designed will create highly skilled professionals for the industry.

Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation has come up with a new programme to impart skills and knowledge to students of Biotechnology and Pharma wings across the State.

The programme has been designed by senior advisors of Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) and Biotechnology department, Government of India, along with Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT).

M Shankar Prasad, Convener of Task force committee on Biotechnology and Pharma Industry stated that AP has to become a destination hub for biotechnology and pharma industries in the coming three years. After a thorough research with senior advisors across the country, a decision has been made to form pharma and biotechnology clusters in the State to turn AP into a hot destination for those fields.

For that, the focus will be on improving skills of the students to build highly qualified manpower. Similarly, academics and industry experts would also be focused upon. He further said that the industry requires 80,000 highly skilled professionals and 3 lakh semi-skilled labour in the next 3-5 years.

The new programme which is being designed will create highly skilled professionals for the industry. In the first phase, around 400 selected people would be trained at IICT for six months. Industry experts will take 150 hrs theory classes and 120 hrs practical classes at IICT campus itself. Though the course costs over 1.25 lakh in the market, this programme is being offered at 40,000.
"The value of assisting and empowering citizens is one that is entrenched in the company's corporate culture as well as its employees," she says.

In support of this, it runs a Valuing Each Other (VEO) Community Fund, an employee-led charitable initiative, funded by the staff themselves. They make personal contributions to the fund from their monthly salaries, and Diageo SA matches these contributions rand-for-rand.

The money is used to support community-based projects and schemes nominated by the employees that they are involved in, and that assist in enriching those communities where we live and work, to improve their living standards. All the projects are focused on three strategic pillars: women and child abuse, eradicating poverty and inequality, and promoting quality of education.

As part of its Mandela Day activities this year, Diageo SA staff members assisted Habitat for Humanity with building houses for the Orange Farm community, located south of Johannesburg, while other employees joined the Meals on Wheels sandwich drive in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town, which included preparing and distributing 1,000 food hampers to the Thabo Mbeki settlement near Randburg.

But the social responsibilities of an alcoholic drinks company extend beyond charitable contributions and isolated Mandela Day initiatives. Diageo acknowledges its role and responsibility in combating the social ill of alcohol misuse and promoting responsible drinking. As part of our #CSIMonth focus, Njapha chats to us about Diageo SA's efforts in reducing harmful drinking, and how its CSR interests fit into the business's overall corporate strategy.

In your opinion, where should social responsibility fit within a businesss overall corporate strategy?

Zanele Njapha Mike Turner Photography

We have a responsibility to ensure that our people, our suppliers, the communities around our operations, our customers and consumers, and society at large all thrive as a result of our business. We create value for millions of people as a buyer of goods and services, as an employer, as corporate citizens, and as producers of some of the world's best-loved brands.

But creating shared value in a lasting way extends beyond this. We want to empower our own people and the communities in which we work by:

 Increasing access to opportunities, addressing development challenges such as capability gaps or access to clean water

 Advocating high standards of governance

 Supporting farmers and other suppliers as they help us build a sustainable value chain

As an alcoholic beverage manufacturer, what steps has Diageo taken to ensure its a sustainably run business environmentally and otherwise?

Alcohol has long been associated in many parts of the world with enjoyment and celebration. As South Africa's leading premium drinks company, Diageo is committed to promoting responsible drinking and combating alcohol misuse. Our premium portfolio lends itself to responsible drinking and appreciating quality; hence we are proud of the role our brands play in the lives of so many people. We also acknowledge that excessive or inappropriate patterns of alcohol consumption may result in health or social problems.

We are committed to working with industry players to drive positive changes in attitudes and behaviours towards alcohol and seek to be at the forefront of industry efforts to promote responsible drinking and combat misuse.

Diageo has partnered with leading global alcohol producers to help the World Health Organization (WHO) reduce harmful drinking in the following areas:

 Reducing underage drinking

 Strengthening and expanding marketing codes of practice

 Providing consumer information and responsible product innovation

 Reducing drinking and driving

 Enlisting the support of retailers to reduce harmful drinking

How important is it to align ones CSR strategy with ones brand and what are the benefits of doing so?

It is very important to align our CSR strategy with brand Diageo and all our sub-brands under it. Our communications strategy speaks to the below pillars:

 Creating a conducive and fertile environment that will positively support Diageo corporate strategy and performance goals

 Building and maintaining strong partnerships with all our important stakeholders

 Improving our reputation through our communication efforts internally and externally

 Promoting Diageo as a caring, motivated and responsive employer of choice

Tell us about a Diageo CSR campaign that has stood out for you over the years as a truly impactful initiative.

We put our resources and skills into programmes to prevent and reduce alcohol misuse by working with others to raise awareness and change people's attitudes and behaviour. To address this challenge, Diageo conducted extensive consumer research to gauge consumers attitudes towards drinking and driving. The insight gained was that many 18-25-year-old consumers (18-25-year-olds who either have their own car or have access to a car, and who drink alcohol socially) believed that being involved in an accident or being arrested and getting a criminal record as a result of driving drunk wont happen to me".

Our research also indicated that even if people drive when they are over the limit, they dont believe that anything bad will happen to them. In response to this, Diageo launched its Drive Dry campaign, adopting the tagline It wont happen to me to provoke thought around the issue and to discourage consumers in a hard hitting way that it can, in fact, happen to them and they shouldnt drink and drive. The overall message also speaks to all other South Africans, outside the primary target market.

Research showed that gory accident scenes have little effect, so this campaign confronted consumers with the kind of scary and dangerous people (such as hardened gangsters and dodgy tow truck drivers) that may be out on South Africas roads at night, just waiting for them to drive drunk.

The aim was for consumers to realise that meeting these very real people could potentially be much worse than having an accident. This was an innovative and in some cases controversial angle on a personal issue, which was developed specifically to shift peoples perception of the risks involved in driving drunk, and to target both male and female consumers.

Our strategy is not simply to raise awareness but to change consumer behaviour: to never drink and drive again. The research (News24.com online survey) we did showed that 88% of South Africans say the fear of being arrested and sent to jail for drunk driving encourages them not to drink and drive. It supported the rationale behind the campaign, which is premised on the fear factor and the belief that the prospect of arrest and incarceration is a powerful deterrent to drunk driving. Our mission is to stop drunk-driving, protect families from the trauma of losing loved ones and in doing so, to make a tangible difference to South Africans lives.
How much longer will this insane government keep putting MY money (and yours) into lost causes?

Forget, for a moment, all the hideous greed and corruption, the golden handshakes, the 'bonuses' for doing a lousy job. Forget the Guptas and the Zumas, Eskom and, oh, so many other things.

Just think about two major places of idiotic management and totally lunatic decisions made at South African Airways (SAA) and the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).

Both those institutions used to be run well  not very efficiently I grant you, but I was always proud to fly SAA (and my British friends agreed with me that we had one of the best airlines in the world). I also rather liked a lot of stuff put out by the SABC too  again, rather bureaucratic, but it worked.

But those were the 'good old days' and I have to tread very warily here because the slightest typo or innuendo or vague suggestion will end up with me being branded a racist I have no doubt  which I am most definitely not.

But these days, year after year, the idiots in Parliament (or the Treasury) keep bailing these two organisations out. When will they realise they're both lost causes?

To quote Nic Andersen from The South African:

The SABC held a press conference [where] SABC Board chairperson Khanyisile Kweyama addressed the media and provided an update on all things Hlaudi and the quest to become profitable again. After an internal investigation, former COO Hlaudi Motsoeneneg has been found guilty of bringing the SABC into disrepute and causing irreparable damage to the broadcaster, as a result of the finding, he has now been fired by the acting SABC board.

Well, it certainly took them long enough. I mean, the damage that man did with his 'local content' rule was the act of someone requiring serious psychiatric help.

The amount of money withdrawn from the advertising pie was absolutely massive. Advertisers pulled out because listenership and viewership fell. It's quite simple to understand. Really  it's basic common sense, that's all, and the people in charge don't seem to have much of it.

Now he's gone, the first thing the SABC asks for is more money. Quite a lot really  around R3bn and rising.

A decision on the proposed funding for the SABC will only be known after the Treasury's internal committee make a decision - according to the Communications Department.

The SABC is reported to have asked for a three billion Rand bailout. Unions were told this week that salary increases for the year were on hold as the loan had not yet been granted.

The Communications Ministry says Treasury's internal committee is only sitting on 4 August. And it will only be after that meeting when the Communications Department will be told about Treasury's decision on the SABC funding proposal. Two months ago the SABC's interim board finally admitted that significant losses had been made. Well, tell us something we didn't already know!

Some of the losses included five billion rands of irregular expenditure in the previous financial year. What's all that about then?

Early in July this year Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba defended Treasury's granting of South African Airways (SAA) a R2bn loan/bailout (call it what you will) saying Standard Chartered Bank has requested the immediate payment of the money the airline owes it  so South African taxpayers were again forced (i.e. no choice) to pay it. It's not Gigaba's money, it's ours! And he just casually hands it over with a smile.

Apparently the airline faced around R9bn of debt which matured at the end of June.

Gigaba says the remaining lenders have indicated that they are open to deferring the debt. Well bully for them, but why is Gigaba so involved? He doesn't run SAA (the last I heard anyway). Mind you, he probably has more influence (and friends) with access to more departments than we can only imagine.

Drawing on the National Revenue Fund (NRF) was a tough decision versus the worse one of defaulting. It was taken to reassure lenders that state firms and more importantly government won't default, Treasury spokesperson Mayihlome Tshwete said. Well, they're not going to accept your reassurances for much longer, mate.

SAA already relies on government guarantees of about R20bn to keep it solvent.

It has been cited by all three major rating agencies repeatedly as a threat to South Africa's economy. Why is nobody in government listening?

Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has said that the only way to ensure the profitability of state-owned enterprises is to privatise them. In other words, stop them being state-owned enterprises. Is that so difficult to understand?

Later in July Gigaba, responding in writing to a parliamentary question, revealed that SAA asked the Treasury for R10bn get-out-of-jail card in March.

Listen you lot. South Africans are sick to death of this entire fiasco.

Dump SAA and the SABC. As private companies they'll thrive. Audiences and passengers will increase. Advertising revenue will increase. Employment will increase. The economy will then begin this mysterious turn around you keep babbling on about.
Debonairs Pizza, South Africa's most satisfying fast-service restaurant according to the recently released South African Customer Satisfaction Index (SAcsi), has taken it' to a new level with another television commercial that taps into the social fabric of its core target market.

Encouraging South Africans to try the brand-new On the Triple offering, Levels is a 30-second television commercial from Debonairs Pizzas marketing partner, FCB Joburg.

The On the Triple promotion lets customers order three large pizzas from a choice of six flavours for just R179.90. You can view the ad here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkNofPJI_3s

Created by Creative Director Greg Cameron, Art Director Mpumi Ngwenya and Copywriter Vusi Khoza under the director of FCB Joburg Joint Chief Creative Officer, Ahmed Tilly, Levels was directed by Thabang Moleya and Ian Difford of Bouffant and Hungry Films respectively. Post production was handled by Tessa Ford Post Production and Fuel Content.

Levels is a figure of speech currently used to express something or someone impressive, an acknowledgement of success. Weve tapped into this well-used term and utilised it in the ad by depicting it through a hand gesture and hashtag. said Cameron.

The TV ad follows two friends who visit another friend whos hosting a house party at his new digs.

From the moment they arrive, the two friends are impressed by the life he is living; his house, the car, the girls and obviously the pizza. Every time they see these things, they pull the levels hand gesture in awe and celebration of their friends success, he said.

The ad is flighting until mid-August on SABC, eTV, DSTV channels, MNET and Comedy Central in the 30-second format as well as a 20-second cut down.

Given the challenging economic environment, were finding that Debonairs Pizza customers are rewarding themselves more often with a delicious meal that they can share with family and friends as opposed to more expensive purchases, said Marketing Executive Toni Joubert.

Or, theyre turning to us to provide the convenience of a fun and satisfying meal at the end of a hard day when theyre working late to make ends meet. Whatever the reason, Debonairs is committed to providing a satisfying experience for South Africans on all levels  food, customer service and value for money.

On the Triple is just one of the many ways were ensuring the commitment delivers in store. The ad is working exceptionally well and resonating with Debonairs Pizzas core market. People are talking about it on social media, and weve noticed an upsurge in the use of the hand gesture when it comes to talking about Debonairs Pizza, she said.

One of the chains in the Famous Brands stable, Debonairs Pizza topped the index compiled by Consulta just a few weeks after it took pole position on Kantar Millward Browns Most-Liked television commercials list for the third quarter of 2016 with Gogo Crammed Crust, a television commercial shot at a popular picnic spot for Joburgers, Rhodes Park.

Credits:

Client: Famous Brands

Brand: Debonairs Pizza

Marketing Executive: Toni Joubert

Creative agency: FCB Joburg

Executive Business Director: Mogani Naidoo

Group Account Director: Sarah Rae

Account Executive: Kaylyn Naicker

Executive Creative Director: Ahmed Tilly

Creative Director: Greg Cameron

Copywriter: Vusi Khoza

Art Director: Mpumi Ngwenya

Strategic Planner: Stuart Sims

TV production: Vanessa Borthwick

Media Planners: Jedd Cokayne - The Media Shop

Production companies: Hungry Films and Bouffant

Directors: Thabang Moleya; Ian Difford

Editor: Tessa Ford

Post-production: Tessa Ford Post Production and Fuel Content




Emalahleni gynaecologist Danie van der Walt was yesterday sentenced to five years in jail for culpable homicide after one of his patients died after giving birth.

He had earlier been found guilty of gross negligence.

Witbank magistrate Merlene Greyvenstein said Van der Walt had failed to do everything a specialist of his calibre should have done to save the life of Pamela Daweti, who bled profusely after giving birth to a baby girl, Lisakhanya, on August 11 2005.

She died a day later.

"I find that the death of the deceased could have been prevented," Greyvenstein said.

She granted Van der Walt leave to appeal both his conviction and sentence.

Van der Walt waited in the holding cells while his family paid his R10,000 bail.

Outside court Daweti's uncle, Lungi Daweti, expressed mixed feelings at the outcome.

"The court has done everything in its power to ensure justice was done. We appreciate that. This has taken a strain on all of us. We will now start the healing process," he said.

It took Buyiselwa Maditjane, Daweti's mother, almost 12 years to get justice for her daughter.
Ramen noodles in Sweden, wheat bread in Tanzania and Chilean wines in China. The cross-Atlantic transit of the potato and the tomato from the Andes to Europe, and back again as French fries and pasta sauce. We think of the world as globalised and sophisticated in its food tastes and our palettes as curious and ever-expanding. Food spreads cultural acceptance and understanding.

TEMISTOCLE LUCARELLI via 123RF

But the spread of food also exposes a darker underlying history of globalisation and industrialisation. Patterns in the way that food is distributed around the world follow colonial-industrial trends from the past. And while global trade has helped lift many out of poverty, it has not done so evenly. It has kept a colonialist imprint on the planet in a different way: with differentiated access to nutritious food and the rise of obesity and other food-related health problems.

Beyond adding unusual grains or fancy foods to their palettes, wealthy shoppers might have their pick of green beans imported from Kenya to the UK, or beef and grains grown in Uruguay by US farmers.

Meanwhile, eaters in developing countries are more likely to eat exotic foods like white bread, maize or rice. These are less nutritious because of the way in which they are processed. In addition, exotic food crops tend to require unsustainable farming practices, like using more water in places where its already a scarce resource.

To escape these patterns, a new way of engaging with the complexity of food systems is needed. We need to adopt an approach that recognises that challenges are systemic and that they cant be solved with silver bullet solutions.

A more systemic approach could help shift the global food system because it recognises that food production must become more environmentally sustainable and must be designed in a way that meets the needs of the worlds people in an equitable and just manner.

Understanding the food system as a complex system with interlinking social and ecological aspects is an important step that resilience thinking brings to the table of food system governance.

Colonial roots

Like many problems in the global South, the global food system issues can be traced back to a colonial history. Back in 1989 two sociologists, Harriet Friedmann and Philip McMichael developed a useful concept in their work on agrarian studies: global food regimes. They described two key periods where the structure of the global food system enabled the uptake of Western-style capitalism and consumerism. The diasporic-colonial food regime of 18701914 and the mercantile-industrial food regime of 19471973. Friedmann went on to describe a potential third regime that we might find ourselves in now: the corporate-environmental regime.

The first food regime is defined by food imports to Europe from the colonies. That would include basic grains and livestock from the settler colonies, most notably to Australia, Canada, and the US, and tropical imports from the rest of the occupied colonies.

The second food regime rerouted food from the US to its informal empire of postcolonial states on strategic perimeters of the Cold War. It was framed as a development project that had a suite of interventions like food aid, green revolution technologies, and chemical fertilisers and pesticides, and the extension of international markets into the countryside.

At the same time, a division of agricultural labour evolved at the international scale: cheap labour in the former colonies facilitated the flow of commodities across national borders, from poorer to richer countries.







Shutterstock





The third regime, corporate-environmental, follows globally powerful food retailers and agro-food companies. They have selectively adopted the language and goals of environmental and social movements. Food chains promote their organic food aisles, separate from their regular and usually more affordable foodstuffs. This new regime is arguably a response to the environmental critique of industrial agriculture. But its often removed from the context in which these products are produced.

Food flows

In the last decades of the previous century, the green revolution and industrial agriculture simplified agricultural methods to increase the yields of staple crops. This was often done in the name of famine prevention. At the same time, it marginalised rural communities and eroded agricultural biodiversity, soil fertility and indigenous knowledge.

Recent social movement responses to these processes have been wide ranging as well. The nearly 30-year-old Slow Food movement set out to prevent the disappearance of local food cultures and traditions and to combat peoples dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, and how food choices affect the world around us. La Via Campesina is an international movement that brings together many poor people with farm workers to defend small scale sustainable agriculture to promote social justice and dignity.

But Friedman observes that the shift to a different kind of green revolution has been preempted by companies that reorganise supply chains to meet the needs of rich and poor consumers differently. The result is, if you can afford healthy, sustainable food, then you will go to an upscale organic grocery store, but if price is your main consideration, then you are heading to a budget grocery chain stocked with prepared packaged foods.

The moral of this story is that developing countries continue to be used to further the economic, environmental, and physical well-being of developed nations.

Weighing the future

This is not to say that trade or even globalisation are bad: they have significantly contributed to reducing poverty and increasing overall human well-being. But the way in which trade regulations and globalisation currently play out is detrimental. Its bad for the people in the global South, who often get a raw deal for their produce, but also bad for the planet. The world simply cant sustain nine billion American-style consumers or the continued expansion of modern industrialised agriculture.

Formal recognition of how much developing countries contribute to developed economies is needed. This assessment will be an important component in working to meet the Sustainable Development Goals, relating specifically to goal 12: sustainable consumption and production.

Once again, the colonised might have to provide for the former colonisers, but this time, I hope their products will be solutions and not raw materials.

Somewhere in between must be a marriage of genetic diversity, old and new practices, and yes, the ability to eat teff or any other once local food anywhere. But at the same time, not taking for granted the diversity available on the local grocery stores shelves.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
NEW YORK - Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on Thursday became the world's richest person, as a jump in the share price of the US tech giant enabled him to overtake Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Forbes magazine estimated.

Steve Jurvetson via Wikimedia

The magazine said its real-time tracking of personal fortunes showed Bezos with a net worth of $90.5 billion, ahead of the $90 billion for Gates.

Bezos owns around 17% of the equity of Amazon, which has been expanding from its original mission as an online retailer to a diversified tech firm in cloud computing, online video, computing hardware and artificial intelligence.

The company also recently announced plans to acquire US grocer Whole Foods, which could help Amazon expand in that sector.

Amazon shares were up 1.7% at $1,070.72 and have risen some 24% over the past four months, adding some $17 billion to the net worth of the 53-year-old Bezos.

According to Forbes, Gates has been the richest person in the magazine's annual rankings in March for the past four years and 18 of the past 22 years. Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim overtook Gates from 2010 to 2013.

Among the billionaires gaining ground is Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who has an estimated worth of some $72.9 billion.

While most of Bezos's wealth is in Amazon, he also owns the private space firm Blue Origin and the Washington Post newspaper.

Source: AFP
An investment by Absa Bank aims to transform spaza shops into sustainable businesses, able to compete with mainstream retailers.

The bank has contributed a total of R10,5m in two tranches to eSpaza Sum Holdings. The first amount of R3,5m facility will help the company uplift and modernise 22 spaza shops in Mamelodi and Pretoria West. A further R7m will be extended to help uplift Mpumalanga and Limpopo spaza shops as the financial year progresses.

Oscar Siziba, Absa managing executive in Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Pretoria; Tshepo Seeta, eSpaza Sum managing director and founder; Anastasia Mathabathe, spaza owner and Tony Ferreira, operations director, Big Save.

Absas support will not only see the sustainable establishment of spaza shops but it is envisaged to create jobs and help these spaza shops net triple times more profit as they have in the past. The project has already seen transformed spazas record a 300% increase in airtime sales, says Tshepo Seeta, eSpaza Sum managing director and founder.

Partnerships and skills training

The company secures greater access to markets, procurement, distribution channels and a variety of stock and merchandise at competitive pricing in partnership with Big Save, one of South Africas largest wholesalers. It also holds monthly store promotions on behalf of spaza shops and restores their images into well-structured, recognisable, brand backed and established businesses.

Absa aims to provide spaza shops identified through this project with the required banking solutions to run a formal business and fast track skills development with financial literacy training for spaza shop owners so that they can get better at reading a balance sheet, understand income statements and sharpen their knowledge on how to grow a business through social media.

Our investment in eSpaza Sum is how Absa is contributing to the growth and formalisation of township businesses and economies in line with our Shared Growth commitment to improve the employability or self-employability prospects of young people and entrepreneurs across the country. This also forms part of our Mandela month celebrations, says Oscar Siziba, Absa managing executive in Pretoria, Limpopo, Mpumalanga.
Ever since his election in 2015, Tanzania's president John Magufuli has been a subject of public fascination. At first, his war on graft promised to cleanse the state of corruption, while his patriotic thrift inspired the hashtag #WhatWouldMagufuliDo?

Tanzanian president, John Magufuli

But as this campaign of tumbua majipu(lance the boils) was becoming old news, Magufuli became associated with another d-word. To development was added dictatorship. Public rallies were banned, radio stations shut down, and newspapers publicly threatened. It became apparent that Tanzania was taking a sharp authoritarian turn.

Now, Magufuli's image is shape-shifting once again. Over a matter of days earlier this month, the president turned Tanzania's mining policy on its head. A regime of low taxes, free enterprise and light-touch regulation ended at the stroke of a pen. Magufuli assumed a new identity: the president that took on the multinationals.

Confronting the miners

The changes began in earnest on 3 March, when Magufuli imposed a ban on exporting unprocessed mineral ores. Containers holding copper-gold concentrates began to gather in the port of Dar es Salaam. On 29 March, Magufuli appointed a committee to chemically examine the contents of the containers, which belonged to Acacia Mining, a subsidiary of Barrick Gold.

That committee claimed that the containers held more than 14 times the quantity of gold Acacia had reported. They concluded that the company had been trying to swindle the government, and had probably been doing so for years. A series of estimates were circulated about how much Tanzania might have lost over the years.

Acacia Mining flatly denies the allegations and insists the Tanzanian government routinely samples containers at the mine site. Others suggest that customs checks are lax and trust the Office of the President more than a foreign company. Either way, the government's alleged proof of Acacia's underreporting has been used as a pretext for action.

Earlier this month, the National Assembly passed three bills which effectively overhaul Tanzania's mining policy regime. The royalty rate on gold is raised from 4% to 6%. The government is entitled to a 16% share of mining companies stock without compensation, and empowered to purchase a further 34%. The regulation banning the exportation of concentrates and unprocessed minerals now has the permanence of an act of law, and 1% clearing fee is to be levied on mineral exports.

A break with the past

Magufuli's austerity and intolerance for corruption were popularly interpreted as a departure from the clientelism and expanding government spending popularly associated with Jakaya Kikwete, his immediate predecessor. But if the first act of Magufuli's presidency represented a break from Kikwete, the next signifies a break with former presidents Ali Hassan Mwinyi and Benjamin Mkapa.

It was Mwinyi who presided over the liberalisation of the economy and privatisations of the early 1990s. And it was Mkapa and the World Bank that drew up the 1998 Mining Act, which established the policy framework that governed Tanzania until two weeks ago.

That law not only introduced a gold royalty rate of 3% and a smooth license application process. It also created the most controversial aspect of Tanzania's mining policy: development agreements. These contracts, negotiated between mining companies and the government, were almost never made public. They typically included reduced royalty rates, tax exemptions, and legal assurances that mines would be safe from government interference and seizure.

Magafuli's new legislation explicitly write development agreements out of Tanzanian law. This move not only tears up contracts with mining companies, but also tears up the consensus on mining policy within the ruling party. Speaking at a public rally two week ago, Magufuli complained: "We privatised even strategic institutions like the railways corporation. It's like we decided to leave each and everything to investors, which was wrong."

The passage of these recent acts will not close the issue. Tanzania wants foreign investment just as mining companies want the favour of government. Magufuli compromises when he needs to. He settled a dispute with Dangote in 2016, and it is likely that he will amend recent changes to mining if he needs to. But until recently, mining companies seemed determined to slow down reforms at every turn. The president's legislative spree makes clear that the government is not to be trifled with. His actions are as much pre-negotiation tactics as they are about unilaterally creating a new mining regime.

Party politics

Below the surface, Magufuli's changes are also about party politics. The president's approval ratings stood at 71% this June, down from 96% a year ago, though part of the difference may be down to survey question wording and methodology. These ratings might still seem sky high, but a combination of social desirability bias and civic duty make Tanzanians almost always answer in the affirmative to questions about presidential approval. By Tanzanian standards, 71% is poor. In fact, it is the worst rate any Tanzanian president has ever received.

The public trusts the ruling CCM over the opposition on almost every area of government. But for a decade, natural resource governance has been a rare issue on which the opposition is strong and on the right side of opinion. In 2007, opposition party Chadema launched a public opinion and party-building exercise called Operation Sangara. Sangara (meaning Nile perch) was used as symbol both for CCM's "big fish" preying on ordinary Tanzanians, and for the nation's natural wealth that CCM was colluding with foreign business to plunder. Chadema took this message to the regions that encircle Lake Victoria, which are also home to Tanzanian's largest gold mines. In the 2010 elections, they made gains across the Lake Zone.

Typically, the more that CCM has tried to play catch-up on mining policy, the happier the opposition has been. For example, when Kikwete established the Bomani Commission to recommend changes to mining policy and extracted concessions from the mining companies, the opposition jeered. They denounced the compromises, cheap talk and close relationships between CCM and business. They are still pressing the issue particularly hard against Kikwete, who presided over several of the first licenses for Tanzania's largest mines while Minister for Water and Energy from 1990 to 1994.

Magufuli's foray into mining policy differs from those of his predecessors. While Mkapa and Kikwete favoured incentives and negotiation, Magufuli favours action and theatrics. It was no accident that Magufuli declared that "the world is currently fighting an economic war". He is putting clear water between himself and the mining companies, and stealing the opposition's clothes in the process. If anyone still doubted that parties compete over issue ownership in Tanzania, they should think again.

By picking a fight with multinational companies, Magufuli is intentionally stirring popular memories of Tanzania's first president, Julius Nyerere. In Tanzania, political morality is understood in terms of finding one's way back to Nyerere. By espousing the language of sovereignty and economic war, Magufuli is tapping into political memories of liberation struggle and revolution. While Magufuli is marking a break from his predecessors, he is still invoking a romanticised idea of the past.

The events of two weeks ago amount to a radical overhaul of Tanzanian mining policy, but also a masterclass in political manoeuvring. This is not to cast aspersions about the sincerity of Magufuli's intentions to reform the mining sector, but to illustrate that those reforms serves several purposes at once.

Magufuli's critics often accuse him of impulsiveness. In May this year, The Economist wrote that "he has a worrying tendency not to think things through". But whatever one thinks of the merits of pressing the mining companies hard, all signs suggest that Magufuli is in fact thinking hard, and not only about the economic but the political too.
Fears of a possible split in the bitcoin community, which might create two varieties of the crypto-currency, are overblown and do not detract from its long-term potential, say experts.

"It's very much like Y2K. Everyone is terrified, but I think bitcoin is going to prove itself through this problem and come out on top," says Lorien Gamaroff, CEO of blockchain solutions provider Bankymoon and bitcoin wallet Centbee.

The popularity of bitcoin has increased the cost but decreased the speed of transactions, creating disagreement among stakeholders over how to scale the network, Gamaroff says.

This uncertainty is reflected in large price swings. From a record high of $2,975 on June 12, the price of one bitcoin slipped to $1,910 on July 17 and was trading back above $2,500 on Thursday.

Bitcoin functions on a blockchain, a distributed ledger that lives on the internet, with each block representing transactions that cannot be duplicated or erased.

Because no single authority controls bitcoin, broad agreement is needed among all stakeholders before any changes to the currency can be implemented, says Werner van Rooyen, head of business development and marketing at bitcoin platform Luno.

"There is mostly an agreement in the bitcoin community that an increase in transaction capacity should be implemented. However, there is a debate about how this should be implemented," says Van Rooyen.

"Despite different stakeholders wanting different things, the democratic model of consensus is one of the core reasons why people trust digital currencies like bitcoin." Bitcoin developers can make proposals on software changes, which are voted on by miners - individuals who verify transactions on the blockchain.

"If a proposal is significant enough, it may require changes to the software that will make it incompatible with the original version," says Van Rooyen. "This results in a fork, where the software branches off from the original rules and is operated by the newly implemented rules."

Bitcoin had such a fork in 2013. However, if there is considerable support for the original and the new versions of the software, a "hard fork" could occur, creating two distinct currencies.

A small group of developers proposed forking bitcoin to create Bitcoin cash, but this is unlikely to enjoy widespread support, Van Rooyen believes.

"If bitcoin does split, it will create a lot of confusion and affect the value of the currency considerably," says Gamaroff.

A proposal known as Segregated Witness, or "SegWit", had gained the most traction among miners.

This would involve removing some information from a block of bitcoin blockchain transactions, enabling more transactions to be placed into a single block.

During this period of uncertainty, it is advisable for bitcoin holders to retain access to their private keys and not entrust them to online exchanges, says Gamaroff.

"Hardware wallets are recommended," he says.

Gareth Grobler, founder of local bitcoin exchange ICEX, supports this view, saying a hardware wallet is the safest way to store bitcoin.

"Technological obstacles have happened before and will happen again, naturally affecting market prices," says Grobler. "The value of bitcoin is volatile, as with any other currency or commodity.

"Most people buying it are speculators and are not using it to transact."

Van Rooyen says it is unnecessary to withdraw bitcoin from Luno, unless users want their funds available on a "forked blockchain", such as Bitcoin cash.

Luno might temporarily halt bitcoin deposits and withdrawals to help protect funds, he says.

While a split is unlikely at this stage, price volatility could be expected in the coming weeks. The latest developments signal that a faster and more affordable means of bitcoin exchange is imminent.
The initial free trade agreement between 26 Africans countries was recently signed in Uganda. Transport infrastructure - road, rail, shipping, and air cargo - will be a vital ingredient in this agreement.

Photo by Seb Creativo via Unsplash

The state of roads in Africa are a priority. The global roads body, PIARC, is presently focusing on African highway networks as well as updating design standards for rural roads. These will be vital arteries in boosting intra-regional trade among the member countries, which have a combined population of 625 million and a total GDP of $1.6 trillion.

Sanral plays an important role in the World Road Association, a non-profit organisation established in 1909 as the Permanent International Association of Road Congresses (PIARC). It brings together governments, regional authorities, collective members and individual representatives from 122-member countries; with the aim of promoting international cooperation on issues related to roads and road transport.

Sanral, a PIARC member for the past 18 years, has a strong presence in the various working structures of the association. At the helm of the South African delegation is Sanral chief executive officer Skhumbuzo Macozoma. He is also a member of the PIARC Council which is responsible for governance matters. Sanral manager for planning, toll and transport, Alex van Niekerk, is also a member and was elected to PIARCs executive committee earlier this year.

Van Niekerk explains that the executive committee is responsible for the administration of the association in accordance with policies approved by the council. It is supported by three commissions (strategic planning, finance and communication) and the general secretariat, and it also actions recommendations by an advisory group on emerging issues.

Sanrals participation on PIARC conferences and technical forums also enhances the development of the road sector in South Africa.

For instance, we are exposed to global industry best practices which, in turn, inform our adjustments to South African Design Standards related to the road sector. In specialised areas like bridges and tunnels, our PIARC experience does not only enhance the existing knowledge in South Africa but also contributes to the growth of the private sector through improved design standards, design principles, and construction processes, he explains.

Van Niekerk adds: The work of the association is guided by a four-year strategic plan which is aligned to the needs of member countries.

Five strategic themes

For the 2016-2019 cycle, PIARC has packaged its activities and research under five strategic themes: management and finance, access and mobility, safety, infrastructure, as well as climate change, environment and disasters.

One of the task forces focusses on finance, under the management and finance theme and is currently at work on identifying, reviewing, and evaluating alternative, available road funding and financing models which include tolling, public-private-partnerships, use of credit assistance tools and bonds.

This work is particularly significant considering funding sources have not always kept pace with road investment needs, Van Niekerk says.

In terms of PIARCs focus on finding solutions for Africa, the African Regional Task Force is addressing two topics in this current four-year cycle: design standards for the African Highway Network and updating design standards for rural roads.

"Road Tunnels in Low and Medium Income Countries

This year, Sanral welcomes delegates attending the seminar in October entitled: Road Tunnels in Low and Medium Income Countries as part of its road tunnel operations.

Contributing scarce skills necessary to grow South Africas knowledge economy, the seminar welcomes speakers covering a wide range of road tunnel operation subjects from safety design and operations of tunnels, sustainable funding for safe tunnels and tunnel construction choices.

The task forces technical visit and case studies will cover The Huguenot Tunnel Project which constitutes a major transportation link between the coastal plains of the Western Cape and the interior and is one of the most strategic infrastructure assets of the National Road Network in South Africa.

The Preferential Trade agreement is essentially a compact between the Southern African Development Community, the East African Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa. Its aim is to boost intra-African trade, which is presently very low compared to other world regions.
International law firm BonelliErede has signed an exclusive partnership with leading Ethiopian law firm Tameru Wondm Agegnehu to encourage inward investment by Italian and international business looking for commercial opportunities in Ethiopia.

Stefano Simontacchi, co-managing partner of BonelliErede and a member of the Africa Committee

The combined offering of international expertise and excellence in local law will support cross-border matters including international arbitration, project finance, international taxation, M&A and anti-corruption. The objective of the new partnership is to build a platform where international enterprises and local government can come together and facilitate new projects across every sector.

In recent weeks, BonelliErede has hosted seminars in Milan, Rome, Brussels and London organised in cooperation with the Italian Embassy in Ethiopia, UNIDO, the Italian Trade Agency and the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, to offer international investors an insight into the current investment opportunities within Ethiopian industrial parks and the agro-industrial sector. To mark the events, Tameru Wondm Agegnehu Law Office jointly authored a white paper entitled Industrial Parks in Ethiopia.

The new partnership has also organised events in Ethiopia including a recent series of seminars hosted by the College of law at the University of Addis Ababa addressing the subject of international arbitration. The seminars form part of a wider framework focused on the identification of potential legislative reforms that could improve international industrial and financial relations to maximise foreign direct investment (FDI).

Tameru Wondm Agegnehu law office commented, Ethiopia is undergoing an exciting period of economic development, which brings along the need for first-class legal advice. We are proud to offer investors - together with BonelliErede - our domestic and international experience: our partnership is designed specifically to meet that need and we look forward the impact we can make to the commercial and economic landscape of Ethiopia.

Stefano Simontacchi, co-managing partner of BonelliErede and a member of the Africa Committee, added, BonelliErede is passionate about international development and the partnership is an important milestone in a programme of international development. Its excellence is beyond dispute and the local insights and talent it brings, coupled with our domestic and international footprint, delivers a platform that offers significant opportunities both to the international investment community and the Ethiopian economy.

The increase of the foreign multinationals setting up operations in Ethiopia highlights the importance of this international partnership in the legal sector. Ethiopia has been named one of the top performing African countries for FDI. The last few years has seen a number of cross-sector firms investing in Ethiopia including Enel Green Energy, Energy Resources, Savio, China Engineering Corporation, CGC Overseas Construction, China Communications Construction Company, China Exim Bank, China Railway Group, Kilitch Drugs, Kia Motors, Bank Hapoalim, OCP Group and Maersk Oil.
The Embury Institute for Higher Education is open for applications for its 2018 bursaries for teacher education, worth R3.5m. The bursaries are awarded through two initiatives, a full four-year tuition bursary scheme for high-performing but financially challenged students and the Triple 3 Campus Tuition bursary scheme.

Under the former, 12 students will receive full bursaries worth R250,000 each, applicable to the institutions three campuses, Montana (Pretoria), Waterfall (Midrand) and Durban. This bursary, which covers all tuition and textbook fees for four years, plus the cost of a tablet or notebook in the first year, will only be available to learners whose parents or guardians earn a combined monthly income of less than R20,000. The bursaries apply to students wanting to study full-time towards a Bachelor of Education in Foundation Phase Teaching or a Bachelor of Education in Intermediate Phase Teaching from 2018 to 2021.

Under the Triple 3 Campus Tuition Fee bursary scheme, full-time first year students at all its campuses can win one of the three types of bursaries. The first of these, granted to three students, is a full bursary for the cost of each students first year tuition fee, while the second bursary awards three students with a R20,000 discount on their tuition fee. Finally, the third bursary under this scheme grants 33 students (11 per campus) a R10,000 discount off their tuition fee, following payment of their deposit. This bursary scheme is only being made available to first-year applicants, who have never studied with Embury and who have been accepted to study full-time on one of its formal qualifications (higher certificate, diploma, degree or advanced diploma).

Open days are planned for the three campuses: Waterfall on Saturday 29 July 2017; Montana on Saturday, 5 August 2017; and Durban on Saturday, 12 August 2017. For more information, go to www.emburybursaries.co.za.
While many South Africans fly to Johannesburg for business - which sees visitors travel to and from the City of Gold in one day - Joburg residents know that the city has some unusual attractions travellers would enjoy if they had a bit of time on their hands. According to Shaun Pozyn, head of marketing for British Airways says the city has a lot more going for it than massive malls and teeming highways. He suggests the following attractions:



This photo of Maboneng Precinct is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Cuisine with a twist at Maboneng Precinct

The Maboneng Precinct has in a few years come to be regarded as a beacon of urban regeneration, providing space for accommodation, retail, art and live performances. Weekends see braais on the rooftops and jazz sessions. The food and drink on offer are eclectic and rewards the adventurous, but Pozyn suggests Firebird Coffee and Ekse fast food, billed as township cuisine with a twist. Carnivores have hailed the steaks at the Che Argentine Grill, which also has surprisingly good vegetarian options.

Nicolas De Corte via 123RF

Adrenalin rush at Orlando Towers

If you like to have your pulse quickened by more than caffeine, try a 100-metre bungee-jump or swing from the Orlando Towers, the iconic cooling-towers which offer commanding views of Soweto. The towers have become an epicentre of adventure sports, offering base-jumping, climbing, paintball games, abseiling and the worlds highest SCAD (Suspended Catch Air Device) free-fall. The latter entails free-falling into a net suspended above the ground.

Plenty of beer and history at the Radium

Joburg has no shortage of fine eateries, but for some nostalgia and excellent Portuguese food, try the Radium Beer Hall in Orange Grove. A bit of history: the Radium as its known to its many longtime patrons, was a tea-room that led a double life as a shebeen, before securing a liquor licence and an enduring, down-at-heel appeal. The lovingly preserved bar-counter was rescued from the Ferreirastown Hotel, where it had once played a supporting role in a revolt. Pozyn explains: during the 1922 Miners Rebellion, a firebrand nicknamed Pick Handle Mary, would stand on the counter and deliver rousing speeches to the miners. She was Irish-born Mary Fitzgerald, considered South Africas first female trade unionist, and after whom Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown is named. These days theres less rabble-rousing and more espetada, trinchado and peri-peri chicken, and plenty of beer.

Whisky tastings at Whisky Brother

If youre a little more discerning about your tipple, visit Whisky Brother at Hyde Park Corner. Calling it a liquor-store is a bit like calling Michelangelo a Florentine doodler, as its a shrine to whisky and whiskey, with a vast selection of Scotch, as well as Irish, American, South African, Japanese and Taiwanese brands, and collectables. If youre feeling flush, you can take home the Jameson 1994 Vintage for R22,000, but there are plenty of fine, more affordable bottles.

Walking tours rich with history and diversity

Explore the rich history and diversity of the city with one of the walking-tours offered by outfits like Past Experiences. Examples include the Spicy Fordsburg tour, which takes in the culinary heritage of the suburb, and the Creative Jozi Public Art Tour of the inner city.

Interact with our ancestors at the Cradle of Humankind

The Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site at Maropeng allows fascinating insights into the evolution of humankind. Our ancestors first inhabited the area more than three million years ago and the facilitys highly interactive multimedia exhibitions trace that journey in ways that continue to draw international acclaim, including a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence. The Sterkfontein Caves are nearby and the area also offers horse-trails and adventure sports.
SEOUL, South Korea: Sprawling South Korean conglomerate Samsung Electronics has recovered from a humiliating recall fiasco and the arrest of its de facto leader with remarkable speed, analysts said, after the tech giant stunned investors with record-breaking profits.

But the world's top smartphone maker, one of the huge family-run chaebols which dominate the South Korean economy, will be confronted by tougher challenges in the future as Chinese rivals take aim at its semiconductor business and questions emerge over the firm's leadership.

Samsung took observers by surprise this week when it posted a forecast-beating 14.1 trillion won ($12.6 billion) in operating profits in the second quarter - a 73% jump from the previous year - putting it on course to better rival Apple for the first time.

Consensus forecasts of Apple's operating profits, due to report this week, are estimated at around $10.6 billion.

Jump in April-June

Samsung said huge sales of its new Galaxy S8 smartphone and demand for its memory chips were behind the jump in the April-June period and predicted another blockbuster report for the current quarter to September.

The firm has been battling to overcome an embarrassing recall last year of its flagship Galaxy Note 7 smartphone over exploding batteries, which cost it billions of dollars and dealt a severe blow to its reputation.

"I would argue Samsung turned that corner pretty quickly, at least from a financial point of view," said Jan Dawson, chief analyst at Jackdaw Research.

Dawson noted the 28% increase in sales in Samsung's mobile division, contrasting it to the 15% drop the firm saw during the third quarter of last year when the recall crisis was at its peak.

The biggest driver of the rapid recovery was Samsung's semiconductor business, which raked in 8.03 trillion won in operating profit in the second quarter, up 204% from the previous year. Samsung provides chips to other companies including Apple.

Geoffrey Cain, author of an upcoming book on the Samsung empire, said the firm was simply riding the wave of "huge investments in strategic industries like chipsets and OLED panels" it made years ago.

"Samsung has plantations of fruit ready to be picked, even if a few like its Note 7 went rotten," Cain told AFP.

Rising global demand for semiconductors has pushed prices high to Samsung's benefit, said Chung Sun-Sup, an expert who runs the website Chaebol.com that tracks the corporate assets and practices of South Korean conglomerates.

"The company will enjoy the global semiconductor boom over the next few years," Chung said.

But the bigger challenge for Samsung is what happens after the harvest, as the firm faces questions over its "untested" leader and the growing threat from Chinese rivals.

The firm's de facto leader Lee Jae-Yong is in custody after a February indictment over a nationwide bribery scandal that toppled then-president Park Geun-Hye.

The leadership vacuum will not affect day-to-day operations of the Samsung empire, Chung said, largely due to the company's dispersed management structure.

But with a handful of its key executives battling allegations of bribery, Samsung's ability to take major decisions on long-term business investment will be compromised.

Lee is accused of bribing Park and her secret confidante with millions of dollars to seek government favours to smooth his succession to the Samsung empire. He has denied any wrongdoing.

A court ruling on Lee's case is expected before 27 August 2017, when his arrest warrant expires. But even if Lee returns to work, Cain says the Samsung heir "remains untested on the market".

"Few people outside Samsung truly know what he's capable of because his succession has always been guaranteed," he said.

Lee has effectively been at the helm of the group since his father suffered a heart attack in 2014.

But Samsung's success riding on its semiconductor business will face increasing headwinds, analysts warn, as it faces rapidly emerging Chinese rivals spending billions of dollars to dominate the global chip market.

"The Chinese chipset makers are studying, mimicking and playing catch-up in the realm of semiconductors," Cain said, comparing the practice to what South Korea had done to Japan previously, and how Japan caught up with the United States in the 1950s and 1960s.

To become the next Samsung is the ultimate dream of these Chinese chipset makers, Cain told AFP, adding: "It's entirely feasible, and Samsung should be terrified."

Source: AFP
Late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs introduced the devices some 12 years ago with his legendary showmanship flare, and the small, easy to operate players helped the company revolutionize how music was sold.

Apple confirmed to AFP that it is no longer selling nano and shuffle, and the MP3 players vanished from the Apple website.

"Today, we are simplifying our iPod lineup with two models of iPod touch now with double the capacity starting at just $199 and we are discontinuing the iPod shuffle and iPod nano," the company said in an email.

Industry trackers and California-based Apple itself have long acknowledged that the do-it-all iPhone would eat away at sales of one-trick devices such as iPod MP3 players, so the farewell was met more with nostalgia than surprise.

The trend toward streaming music services, including the launch of one by Apple, has made devices designed just for carrying digital tunes around less enticing for consumers.

Shuffle devices about the size of matchbooks and featuring click-wheels for control but no screens debuted in early 2005, with Jobs touting that they let people carry broad libraries of music right in their pockets.

The small gadgets became popular with runners and others involved in physically active endeavours due to the ease with which they could be toted.

The iPod nano also hit the market in 2005, featuring click wheels and screens that improved the ability to select songs. Nano devices evolved with subsequent models, leading to one with a multi-touch screen and the look of an iPhone.

Neither the shuffle nor the nano linked to the internet, instead relying on downloading music from Apple online shop iTunes through computers.

Three years ago Apple discontinued the last version of the original iPod Classic, introduced in October of 2001.

The remaining products in the line are iPod touch models boasting much larger storage capacity and the ability to link wirelessly to internet hotspots for online content such as music streamed from services such as Apple Music.

Source: AFP
Recently investors and airline operators met in Lagos to brainstorm on factors inhibiting growth in the aviation industry and the poor yield on investment.

Photo by Andrey Larin via Unsplash

One of the reasons why there is poor infrastructure in the aviation sector is because the private sector is not investing in the industry. The reason why 150 airlines had gone under within a relatively short space of time was because of unfavourable government policies.

Those were the views of industry stakeholders and government representatives at the Aviation Round Table forum held in Lagos recently.

Poor airport infrastructure

The stakeholders noted that government policies do not encourage private sector investment in the industry. They observed that in other parts of the world, most airport facilities are provided by the private sector and it is done in a way that there is a return on investment whereas, in Nigeria, government officials and government policies are a disincentive to investment in the sector.

Specifically, chairman of the Resort Group and the operator of the Murtala Muhammed Airport domestic terminal (MMA2), Wale Babalakin (SAN), said that over the years, government and its officials have always been hostile to private sector investment in Nigeria.

He traced efforts made by entrepreneurs in various sectors of the economy that were discouraged, sometimes to huge losses by the investors. Babalakin noted that government in Nigeria may not yet be disposed to providing the necessary incentives to encourage private sector investment and because it cannot provide the necessary essential infrastructure to drive the nation's economy, that explains why Nigerians suffer so much due to poor infrastructure - from road and airport facilities to inadequate electricity.

Babalakin said that aviation could be a catalyst for economic growth, "but I am not convinced on this happening; even if we are, I am not convinced that we have the skills to achieve that. I have seen so many airlines come and go and I have researched thoroughly the reason for their collapse."

He recalled that in the past, the military was accused of being responsible for the poor performance of the aviation industry and other sectors of the economy but noted that the military always had their civilian collaborators, including aviators who had put so many years in the industry.

"I used to hear the blanket response that it was the military that collapsed everything; that is, the military government. But the engine of the military is the civilians, including aviators who did not come to grow the industry. So the military, civilians, and aviators destroyed the industry," Babalakin said.

He expressed regret that the education system in Nigeria is deficient in the sense that it does not prepare the young to acquire the skills that could be used to effectively manage the economy. He also recalled that Volkswagen established a plant in Nigeria at the same time it did in Brazil but while the Nigerian plant had gone into extinction, the one in Brazil had grown and expanded.

According to him, Nigeria is 50 years behind Brazil in development, but the latter was contemporaneous with the most populous country in Africa about 50 years ago.

"The carcass of what was promised"

"In the airline industry government promised to build maintenance hangar and other infrastructure but what we have is the carcass of what was promised. There is nothing in the aircraft that is manufactured locally; even the fuel we have in abundance is imported! This is the melancholic decadence of great intellect. This is the product of mediocre that does not have the intellect to know whether you are wrong or right. We have to start again. I look forward to the great aviation industry but I have not seen the template," Babalakin said.

He remarked that since he came into the aviation industry he had witnessed 11 Ministers of Aviation with their policies swinging from left to right and expecting industry investors to swing along with them.

"We have run MMA2 for 10 years without a blackout. But we have less than 5% of the revenues generated by the international terminal. I was told when that airport was built that it would be replicated around Nigeria. Big projects come from 75 percent thinking and 25 percent implementation. Before we built MMA2 we went round the whole world to get a suitable design.

"But we have a government that does not honour its own agreement. Such government cannot be taken seriously by outsiders. We have to find a way at the negotiating stage the best mind in government to preside over such agreements," Babalakin stressed.

Stunted airlines

In his opening remark, the president of ART, Gbenga Olowo noted that development is a serious issue but without sustained growth, there cannot be development.

"We have about eight commercial airlines in Nigeria. We have a total number of 44 operating aircraft. This could be managed by one airline. Can the airlines come together as one airline to operate the aircraft without losing their identities? The answer is yes. This will kill local competition and the airline could operate a monopoly but then they could compete effectively with international airlines. This will make them profitable as they will review their tariff to reflect the actual operating cost, as competition drives down the fares," Olowo said.

On his part, chairman of Air Peace, chief Allen Onyema, raised the alarm over the negative impact of various charges being levied on airlines by aviation agencies and urged the National Assembly to quickly intervene to save the sub-sector from total collapse.

Onyema said the charges were killing their operations, expressing sadness that the exorbitant charges were responsible for the killing of about 150 airlines in the past and also responsible for the short life span of airlines in the country.

He said due to the harsh operating condition in the country, airlines are not making a profit as the little gains go to agencies in the form of taxes.

Double taxation

"The major challenge Nigerian airlines have is double taxation. We pay VAT, passenger service charge, parking charges, en-route charges and others, 37 in all. Government and aviation agencies policies are inimical to airline operations. Government was magnanimous enough to give us waivers on imported aircraft spares and even the equipment itself, but Nigerian Customs Service always finds a way to make us pay some charges.

"For the waivers to be effective it has to be passed into law by the National Assembly so that it would not be subjected to government tenures; that when the government that introduced it goes, customs will go back to collecting the tariffs. And government should urgently review these charges and taxes in order to ensure the sustainability of the airlines," Onyema said.

He stressed that there is something fundamentally wrong with the system for 150 airlines to go under within a period of 30 years and attributed the collapse to harsh government policies.

Onyema lamented that Nigerian airlines fly only between 6am to 7pm instead of 18 to 22 hours a day due to poor airport infrastructure, noting that in most airports there is no airfield lighting coupled with lack of manpower, adding that airline business is unfortunately made to fail from the beginning as government does not provide any incentive to ensure the sustainability of airlines in Nigeria.

FAAN reaffirms commitment

But the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) said it was poised to providing essential amenities like airfield lighting and other facilities at the airports to prepare them for certification by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). The agency said it would certify the first five airports by November this year and these include the Port Harcourt International, the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano and the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.

The minister of information, Lai Mohammed said that there was the need for a legal framework in private public partnership (PPP) policy and urged that government officials need to change their approach to agreements validly entered into with any private investor, irrespective of his or her ethnic background or religion, in order to attract the required private investments for the economy.

While describing MMA2 as a proof of what the private investors can do, the minister said, "If MMA2 is an error, it is a good error and I want that kind of error replicated all over Nigeria."

He lamented that the greatest challenge Nigeria has is institutional consistency, which he noted has retarded Nigeria's developmental growth over the years.

"If you don't obey your own agreements you will be sending the wrong signal not only to your local community but also to the international community. People come here to invest with the hope of recouping their investment. So the first thing is to obey agreements," Mohammed said.

Need for favourable policies

The chairman of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), captain Nogie Meggison called for clear policy to grow the nation's aviation industry with the aim of making it a hub in West and Central Africa. He lamented how Nigeria is sitting by and Ghana with less than 50% of the Nigerian population is striving to be the hub of the sub region.

Meggison said that government could help the industry grow by reviewing downwards the charges levelled on airlines and observed that in Ghana, government assisted the industry by removing VAT and reducing the price of aviation fuel by 20%. He also noted that whereas Nigeria is still contemplating, South Africa Airways is setting maintenance, overhaul and repair (MRO) facility in Ghana; even as 60% of the international passengers that pass through Ghana come from Nigeria.

"Aviation can create 200,000 direct and indirect jobs and government can do this if it is committed to it because I remember when we were having series of accidents in Nigeria and government came up with deliberate policy to stop future accidents and shortly after, Nigeria secured the Category 1 safety status from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and now almost all the Nigeria airlines have IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA). When Nigeria also secured the Cape Town Convention, South Africa in which city the convention was signed was yet to obtain it. So government has the will to make things happen," he said.

He also noted that "safety is not a standalone; other things have to be in place for high safety standard to be achieved, but in a situation where the airlines do not have operational funds, over time the safety standard might be compromised, so it is the responsibility of government to ensure that airlines have access to funding and government could make this possible through favourable policies."
LOS ANGELES, US: Known for its bouts of heavy smog, the city of Los Angeles has announced plans to have a fleet of fully electric, zero-emissions buses by 2030.

Photo by Osman Rana via Unsplash

Authorities in the US metropolis said the project, which involves the purchase of 2,200 vehicles, would cost some $1billion over the next ten years.

"Today's vote represents an enormous investment in the future of a healthy and prosperous Los Angeles," said Hilda Solis, a Metro Board Member.

The current fleet operates on compressed natural gas (CNG), seen as the most environmentally-friendly option when the buses were purchased in the 1990s.

A CNG coalition had previously protested the transition, arguing that, while the goals were worthy, electric buses were not yet a reliable technology.

The state of California has positioned itself at the forefront in the fight against carbon emissions despite President Donald Trump's decision to roll back legislation enacted by his predecessor Barack Obama and to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord in June.

Source: AFP
The Legends of R&B, in association with Big Concerts, returns to South Africa in December 2017 and will feature performances by Brian McKnight and Brandy.

McKnight has earned himself a spot in contemporary music history, releasing 17 albums to date, with several going two and three x-platinum, having sold over 30m albums worldwide. McKnight previously hosted Soul Session Countdown with Brian McKnight on BETJ and The Brian McKnight Morning Show on KTWV - the Wave Smooth Jazz radio station.

To mark his 25th anniversary as a recording artist, McKnight will debut his 18th album, Genesis, on August, 25 2017, which will be released worldwide through SRG | SONOS Recording Group and will feature the hit single Forever.

Brandy has sold more than 40m albums worldwide including the five x-platinum selling Never Say Never, and is ranked one of the best-selling female artists in American music history by the RIAA, having sold over 11m albums in the United States.

Over her career, Brandy has recorded five albums, which include Never Say Never (1998), Full Moon (2002), Afrodisiac (2004), Human (2008), and Two Eleven (2012). In 2016, Brandy released Beggin & Pleadin, a bluesy trap-soul melody that was greeted with much admiration. There is more to come as Brandy works towards recording her seventh studio album.

Tour Information:

Pretoria

Saturday, 9 December 2017

Sun Arena, Time Square

Ticket Price: R480  R945

Tickets go on sale Wednesday, 2 August at 9am

Johannesburg

Sunday, 10 December 2017

Ticketpro Dome

Ticket Price: R480  R1,000

Cape Town

Tuesday, 12 December 2017

Grand Arena, GrandWest

Ticket Price: R480  R945

Durban

Thursday, 14 December 2017

Durban ICC

Ticket Price: R425  R845

Tickets go on sale Wednesday, August at 9am from Big Concerts and Computicket.
Last week saw the 100th anniversary of Ford Motor Company's Model TT, a small truck based on the Model T car and launched on 27 July 1917.

Over the years, Ford bakkies have been used by farmers, families, soldiers, construction workers, and adventure seekers. It is this versatility, capability and reliability that has propelled the company to so many decades of sales leadership, as shared in this look back through history.

It was the best of times

The year was 1917, and nine years on from the release of the Model T, customer demand was for a vehicle that was tougher and more capable than anything that had gone before. Up stepped the Model TT.

Able to haul a payload of one ton, the TT helped change the way the world worked. Originally sold as a chassis only, with buyers supplying their own body, Ford went on to sell almost 1.3 million TTs until it was replaced in 1928 by the Model A and AA, the latter one of the earliest members of the Ford dynasty of bakkies.

With vehicles such as these early pickups, Ford began changing the perception of trucks, says Robert Kreipke, Fords Corporate Historian. Whereas at one time trucks were considered purely work tools, Ford began to evolve them into a much more balanced vehicle for both work and recreational use.

These trucks provided inspiration for the later development of vehicles such as the F-Series and Ranger, said Kreipke.

The tough that Ford built

In 1976, a copywriter for a Ford truck magazine advertisement wrote three simple words: Built Ford Tough, the phrase that would come to epitomise Fords commitment to creating strong, capable, safe, and powerful bakkies.

One of the first mass-produced Built Ford Tough vehicles was the Ford Ranger, the companys first compact bakkie introduced in North America in 1982.

Originally designed and built in the US, Rangers reputation as a tough, smart, and capable vehicle quickly caught on, leading it to thrive in a number of diverse markets around the world. In South Africa, Ford first manufactured Ranger in 2001 at the Silverton Assembly Plant in Pretoria.

So while the styling, power, and capability of the Ford bakkie have all changed since the first Model TT rolled off the assembly line a hundred years ago, the companys core mission to provide vehicles that address and surpass customer demands has remained the same.

Ford facts:

1. The Model A, and subsequently the Model AA, were the first vehicles to sport an early version of the Ford script in an oval badge

2. In 1941, Ford temporarily put a stop to all civilian vehicle production and began producing the first general purpose vehicles  GPs, or jeeps  to assist the Allied effort in WWII

3. The Ranger, which is produced at Fords Silverton Assembly Plant in Pretoria, is exported to over 148 markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The plant underwent a $9.5m upgrade to its production line earlier this year.

4. The Ford Ranger is the best-selling vehicle in South Africa for 2017. Ford sold 17,014 units in the first half of the year, while a further 25,399 were exported.
On the heels of the successful mega merger between Marriott International and Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Marriott International has announced the expansion and strengthening of its sales and marketing leadership team for Middle East and Africa. The new Brand, Marketing, Sales and Consumer Services (BMSC) Leadership Team, will bring highly experienced professionals, exceptional talent and expertise from both companies together in order to support its enhanced footprint and aggressive growth plans in the region.

Marriott International's new dynamic sales and marketing leadership team

Led by seasoned Marriott International veteran, Neal Jones, chief sales and marketing officer, Middle East and Africa, Marriott International, the team will provide dedicated support to the companys thriving regional portfolio and will be responsible for driving top line revenue for Marriott International brands, ensuring the regional sales and marketing strategy is aligned with the companys vision and priorities.

With a current portfolio of over 240 hotels with 54,000 rooms in 30 countries, Marriott International is working towards targeting a projected growth of 150,000 rooms operational and pipeline in 38 countries by 2022 across Middle East and Africa.

Jones said: I am confident that with this, we have the right structure and talent in place to accelerate our lead in the market, drive further innovation and strengthen the positioning of our brands while keeping our loyal and new guests at the centre of everything we do, steering us into the next phase of our growth and success, he added.

The team

Marriotts BMSC leadership team for Middle East and Africa has been formed with the following seasoned hospitality professionals currently on board and a vice president luxury brands soon to be announced.

Paul Dalgleish, vice president of sales and distribution will be responsible for property, market and area sales organisations as well as the global sales organisation, whilst leading the Middle East and Africa distribution strategy. Previously vice president of sales for Marriott International, Dalgleish has played a key role in the rapid expansion of the Middle East and Africa region, deploying new and innovative sales strategies, whilst ensuring talent development lives as a discipline priority.

Sarah Allen, vice president of revenue strategy and analysis will be responsible for property, market and area revenue management, remote revenue management solutions and revenue management analysis. Formerly vice president of revenue management, Marriott International Middle East and Africa, Allen is a Marriott International veteran and has played a key role in moving hotels onto Marriotts Revenue Management platforms implementing processes as well as setting up shared services across the markets to drive synergies. She was also the business leader for the integration of Protea Hotels which was acquired by Marriott International in 2014.

Jitendra Jain, vice president of digital, loyalty and portfolio marketing will be responsible for the companys award-winning loyalty programmes, partnerships, cross-brand marketing of Marriott Internationals regional portfolio and will lead all digital marketing, platforms and products. A Starwood veteran, Jain previously led the marketing function for the former Starwood portfolio in the Middle East, where he spearheaded the transformation of marketing processes, talent and culture, cultivating a data-driven and forward-looking mindset leveraging digital, brands and loyalty.

Sandra Schulze-Potgieter, vice president of premium and select brands will be responsible for brand marketing and management for Marriott Internationals compelling portfolio of premium and select brands and will oversee restaurants and bars marketing as well as area field marketing. Schulze-Potgieter was previously senior director, brand marketing and e-commerce for Marriott International Middle East and Africa, managing field marketing, brand marketing, public relations, partnerships, social media, digital as well as loyalty. She was instrumental in positioning Marriott Internationals lead in brand marketing in the region.

Sarah Walker Kerr, vice president of communications Middle East and Africa will be responsible for devising and implementing the overall communications strategy for Marriott International in the region, driving visibility, enhancing the perception of the company and its brands and increasing its share of voice in the media. She will provide strategic counsel to the senior executive leadership team, managing internal and external communications, crisis communications and reputation management as well as brand communications. A seasoned communications specialist, Kerr was previously regional director of public relations Middle East, Africa, India and Japan for The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company.

Raheel Baggia, senior director, BMSC planning and services will be responsible for integration and change management, programme execution and training. Prior to this, Baggia served as director, BMSC Consulting-Middle East and Africa. Since joining Marriott in 2013, Baggia has been working on strategic continent projects both in his previous role supporting BMSC-Middle East and Africa as well as in Europe where he was part of the global operations team.
Cities in sub-Saharan Africa are growing fast. Nigeria alone is projected to add 212 million urban dwellers by 2050 , equivalent to the current population of Germany, France and the UK.

But focusing on population growth leads many to overlook the other unusual features of African cities. Urban economies across the region are markedly different from those of other cities around the world: they are more expensive to live in, more informal and less industrial.

In a recently published paper, we explore how these distinctive traits are increasing vulnerability.

Environmental risks range from everyday hazards such as waterborne diseases (cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery) to larger, less frequent disasters (tropical storms, flooding, fires). Their impact is much greater where people and governments cant afford to invest in basic infrastructure.

In our research we demonstrate that African cities are too often developing in ways that perpetuate poverty and marginalisation. The amount of money that people have to spend on basic necessities, the precarious nature of their employment and their exclusion from the formal economy mean that they have limited resources to cope with environmental risk.

There are ways around these problems, but they need governments to work much more collaboratively with people living in informal settlements and working in the informal economy.

African cities are expensive

For many, African cities are inextricably linked with poverty. It therefore seems counter-intuitive that the cost of living is higher in urban Africa than in other cities in the global South.

One estimate suggests that food and drink cost 35% more in real terms in sub-Saharan African cities than in other countries, while housing is 55% more expensive.

This means that urban dwellers have to spend more of their income to enjoy the same quality of life. The average urban household in sub-Saharan Africa spends 39% to 59% of its budget on food alone.

Of course, there is considerable variation across the continent. Cities in The Gambia, Mauritania, Madagascar and Tanzania remain relatively affordable. Those in Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi and Mozambique are the most expensive.

The high price of basic goods and services means that people living in African cities have little money to spend on reducing risk, such as upgrading their homes, preventative health care or buying insurance.

African cities are not industrialising

Urbanisation has historically been closely linked to industrialisation. From Detroit to Manchester to Shenzhen, the rise of a vibrant manufacturing sector fuelled rapid population and economic growth in cities.

In sub-Saharan Africa, urbanisation is taking place without industrialisation.

One explanation for this unusual trend is that higher living costs mean that the labour force requires higher wages than competing cities in Asia. This makes it difficult for African cities to attract international capital.

In other cases, the export of commodities such as oil and diamonds have generated high income for a small share of people in countries such as Angola, Nigeria and Libya. The wealthy beneficiaries then create urban employment through demand for non-tradeable services such as retail, transport and construction.

Whatever the driver, urbanisation without industrialisation means that jobs and livelihoods too often remain low-skilled and poorly paid. Without the opportunity to develop skills and organise collectively, workers exert little influence over working conditions.

Instead, urban residents continue to depend on precarious livelihoods in the agricultural and services sectors. This means that they are susceptible to environmental shocks, such as extreme weather that can make it impossible for street vendors, waste pickers and other informal workers to ply their trade.

By comparison, manufacturing jobs have a number of spin offs. They offer income security and skill development. Local employers in the public and private sector benefit from new knowledge and skills, while workers can accumulate capital. This offers a path out of poverty. Few African cities are enjoying these positive spillovers.

The lack of industrialisation also means that theres little political incentive for governments to invest in risk reducing infrastructure like sewers, drains and all weather roads.

African cities have a large informal economy

In many cities in sub-Saharan Africa, the informal economy is larger and more dynamic than the formal economy. The informal economy responds to demand when commercial banks are not willing to offer loans or when there isnt enough housing. When formal jobs in industry or services are scarce, the informal economy absorbs much of the labour force. In Cotonou (Benin), Lome (Togo) and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), for example, the informal sector accounts for over 80% of non-agricultural employment.

Yet, in many African cities, government policies discriminate against these workers. For example, street vendors and waste collectors are often banned from using public spaces. They may even suffer harassment from government officials.

Yet they play a central role in increasing the resilience of the city.

Waste pickers recycle large amount of material, reducing pollution and maintain city cleanliness. This helps prevent diseases, particularly those spread by bacteria, insects and vermin that might otherwise feed or breed on garbage.

Street vendors play a critical role in providing and producing food, particularly to poor people living in urban areas.

The informal economy is not perfect. Informality creates risks for consumers and workers. A lack of state oversight makes it difficult to enforce regulation, such as water treatment standards or minimum wages. Waste pickers in particular face severe health risks due to their work. Informal housing is often in hazard prone parts of the city.

But there can be little doubt that informal service provision or informal livelihoods are better than none at all.

Successful strategies to reduce risk therefore need to be developed in collaboration with informal workers in sectors such as food, water, housing and solid waste management. Similarly, partnerships with communities living in informal settlements can ensure that the voices of vulnerable urban residents are heard, and their needs are addressed.

Only through a more flexible and inclusive approach will African cities be able to manage the risks associated with their unique economic development path.
ACCRA, Ghana - The 2017 Innovation Prize for Africa awards welcomed hundreds of entries from outstanding innovators. For the first time, IPA nominees include innovators from Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and Zimbabwe, and featured a stronger presence of women that in any of the years past.

Three outstanding African innovators walk away with Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA) 2017.

In this, the sixth edition of the coveted Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA), it in the African Innovation Foundation (AIF) awarding three more African innovators for their incredible innovations. Out of the total of over 2500 applications, 10 nominees were selected, and from these Aly El-Shafei of Egypt emerged as the grand prize winner; with Philippa Ngaju Makobore of Uganda landing the second prize; and Dougbeh-Chris Nyan of Liberia, winning the special prize for social impact.

Each one of the seven remaining nominees also went home with US$ 5 000 voucher to be used to further develop their innovations. Moreover, all nominees and winners will benefit from IPA post prize activities aiming at moving their innovations to the next level.

The main obstacle in increasing electricity generation capacity in Africa continues to be the high cost of producing electricity, which is forcing governments to subsidise consumption. Dr El-Shafeis innovation, Smart Electro-Mechanical Actuator Journal Integrated Bearing (SEMAJIB), is a world class solution that supports energy generating turbines and can be used to improve efficiency and reduce costs of generating energy in Africa.

Meanwhile, inadequate medical solutions to efficiently administer drugs or to diagnose diseases continue to affect the quality of healthcare delivery in many parts of the continent. Makobores invention, known as Electronically Controlled Gravity Feed Infusion Set (ECGF) and Dr Nyans multiple disease rapid detection test, both offer ingenious solutions aimed at raising the quality of healthcare provision in Africa.

AIF collaborated with the Government of Ghana, represented by the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), Ghana Investment Promotion Center (GIPC) and Ghana@60 Planning Committee to host IPA 2017, which was themed African Innovation: Investing in Prosperity. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the President of Ghana, presided over the prestigious awards ceremony, held at Movenpick Ambassador Hotel, Accra in Ghana.

Jean-Claude Bastos de Morais, founder, African Innovation Foundation, commented: This edition of IPA has been all about galvanising support for African innovators in order to mobilise increased investments to help them commercialise and scale their innovations at a greater rate. AIF has rewarded IPA 2017 for developing solutions that can truly add value to the lives of Africans, and I believe that these innovations have incredible commercial potential and will succeed in attracting the right investments to go to the next stage.

IPA 2017 Chairman of the Jury, Prof Nyasse Barthelemy, said that the deliberation was tough as the quality of innovations were high. Each of the innovations, in their own respective ways, were winners as they represented local solutions to local challenges. It came down to the wire but we believe we have awarded the most compelling innovations this year. We look forward to seeing what comes next for the incredible innovations from IPA2017 innovators and wish them the very best.

The patented innovation, SEMAJIB, by Dr El-Shafei who walked away with the Grand Prize of US$ 100 000, is a smart bearing that significantly improves turbine performance in single line combined cycle plants as well as conventional generator technology. Patented in the US since 2010 with another patent pending, the device is designed to be used to support energy generating turbines more efficiently and cost effectively in Africa.

SEMAJIB is an innovation that does not currently exist in the West, and already Siemens' has indicated interest in the device. A world class innovation originating from Africa, SEMAJIB reverse Africa's image as a technology consumer to technology producer. Production of these bearings in Africa will also generate jobs and increased revenue for Africa.

IPA has seen tremendous growth in applications and increasing interest from both innovators and innovation enablers over the years. To date, IPA has attracted more than 7 500 innovators from 52 African countries, making it a truly Pan African initiative. IPA 2017 edition witnessed a record number of entries from over 2 500 innovators across 48 African countries. The Foundation has supported past winners and nominees with approximately US$ 1 million to move their innovations forward. Due to exposure generated by IPA, past winners have gone on to secure over US$30 million in investments to grow and scale their businesses.
Maggie Taylor constructs photomontages to create a dreamlike world inhabited by everyday objects. Runs through 9/9.

Opening & Artist Reception

Friday July 7, 57pm

On View: July 7  September 9, 2017

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

photo-eye Gallery is thrilled to announce Maggie Taylor: A tale begun in other days an exhibition of color photomontages from our newest represented artist Maggie Taylor opening Friday July 7th and continuing through September 2nd, 2017. An Opening and Artist Reception will take place on Friday, July 7th from 5  7 PM.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Maggie Taylor constructs what she terms dreamlike worlds inhabited by everyday objects. An early adopter, Maggie Taylor has been utilizing digital technology to build her evocative and elaborate photomontages for more than 20 years. These whimsical narratives often begin as pastel background drawings with additional components such as 19th Century photographs, drawings, vintage toys, seashells, feathers, and taxidermy scanned and meticulously arranged over time to complete the scene. Working instinctively, Taylor crafts a surreal alternate reality rife with curious peculiarities and rich in symbolism.

"I work very spontaneously and intuitively, trying to come up with images that have a resonance and a somewhat mysterious narrative content. There is no one meaning for any of the images, rather they exist as a kind of visual riddle or open-ended poem, meant to be both playful and provocative. "  Maggie Taylor

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Maggie Taylor is an artist who lives amid the Spanish moss and live oaks at the edge of a small swamp on the outskirts of Gainesville, Florida. Taylors photomontages have been widely exhibited and have been collected by many museums including the following: The Center for Creative Photography, Tucson; The George Eastman House, Rochester; Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans; The Art Museum, Princeton University; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland; and The Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University among others. Maggie Taylor's work is also featured in the following publications: Adobe Photoshop Master Class: Maggie Taylor's Landscape of Dreams, Peachpit Press; Solutions Beginning with A, Modernbook Editions; Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Modernbook Editions; Album, Edizioni Si; and No Ordinary Days, University Press of Florida.

For more information please contact Anne Kelly - anne@photoeye.com | 505-988-5152 x202
The Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) leader, Duma Boko will need the wisdom of King Solomon to try and solve the two-warring factions at Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD).

It is an open secret that the troubled Orange Movement is facing a leadership crisis and needs help. In the book of 1st Kings Chapter 3 verses 16 - 28, King Solomon presided over a difficult dispute between two women each claiming she was the mother of the child; Since the two factions have written to UDC claiming the ownership of the party, Boko should apply his mind like King Solomon and take a decision that will save the life of the once peaceful and vibrant movement.

Speaking this week, the calm Boko assured party members that as the leadership they will make sure that the child lives and calm the storm of division.





When speaking about internal wars at BMD, Boko who was once engaged in the same battles at BNF seven years ago, projected an air confidence that they will overcome the BMD impasse. As they say experience is the best teacher, Boko has traversed the road that BMD is currently on and it will be easy for him to steer the sinking ship of the Orange Movement to the shore.

As leader of BNF, I have acted before. I have been in court myself, playing the role of attorney, accused and defendant defending BNF. We were fighting over the constitution of the party. What it allows me as the President to do and not to do? Who is better placed to understand the constitution, he said. From this explanation, it was clear that Boko does not see the wars at BMD as a huge task for him as a leader because of the experience he has had with BNF when it was embroiled in the same internal wrangles.

But political analyst, Anthony Morima says it will be a huge challenge for Boko to solve the impasse at BMD. According to Morima, Boko took a long time to resolve the wars at BMD. I do not think Sydney Pilane faction will easily compromise because Gaolathe faction has ignored them for a long time. They called them for a hearing they never bothered to attend. Yet they went to Bobonong even though they claimed not to recognise the decision taken by the National Executive Committee, he said adding that only the court can solve the impasse at BMD or a split.

Another political analyst, Leonard Sesa differs with Morima saying it would be suicidal if any faction would try to form a new party. He said only the special congress conducted by UDC could resolve the BMD impasse.

Morima does not see Pilane handing the Presidency to Gaolathe faction because he was elected according to the constitution. The BMD situation is different from BNF because at that time Boko was fighting with people who did not have numbers. Gaolathe made a legal blunder and Pilane was elected according to the constitution. I dont see Boko solving this issue because of egos among the two factions, he said.

In his address Boko spoke about the importance of obeying the constitution, something that the Gaolathe faction is said to have failed to do. The constitution of any organisation is a contract and one must conduct himself according to it, he said. Morima argues that if Gaolathe and his faction go to court they will lose because they did not take the BMD constitution seriously.The fracas at BMD will continue without an end. Remember this is a battle for state power. Those factions are positioning themselves for regime change in 2019. So I dont see them easily compromising, he said. He agrees with Boko that if he could have earlier taken sides in the wars it could have been suicidal for him even though it could have avoided the impasse at the party.

But Sesa believes UDC should have intervened and warned BMD about the possible effects of the congress. Sesa says the challenge with UDC is that it does not have proper structures to solve the conflict. They are still in a new marriage and nursing internal conflict in some UDC affiliates. Lack of proper structures is common in parties in SADC region. UDC needs to have a committee which works on conflict or veterans onboard, he said.

The verse reads, One day two women came to King Solomon, and one of them said, Your Majesty, this woman and I live in the same house. Not long ago my baby was born at home, and three days later her baby was born. Nobody else was there with us. One night while we were all asleep, she rolled over on her baby, and he died. Then while I was still asleep, she got up and took my son out of my bed. She put him in her bed, then she put her dead baby next to me. In the morning when I got up to feed my son, I saw that he was dead. But when I looked at him in the light, I knew he wasnt my son. No! the other woman shouted. He was your son. My baby is alive. The dead baby is yours, the first woman yelled. Mine is alive. They argued back and forth in front of Solomon, until finally he said, Both of you say this live baby is yours. Someone bring me a sword. A sword was brought, and Solomon ordered, cut the baby in half. That way each of you can have part of him. Please dont kill my son, the babys mother screamed. Your Majesty, I love him very much, but give him to her. Just dont kill him.

The other woman shouted, Go ahead and cut him in half. Then neither of us will have the baby. Solomon said, dont kill the baby. Then he pointed to the first woman, She is his real mother. Give the baby to her. Everyone in Israel was amazed when they heard how Solomon had made his decision. They realised that God had given him wisdom to judge fairly.

The nation is patiently waiting to see whether Boko will apply the same wisdom that King Solomon did. This is to give hope to members of UDC who are losing trust everyday in the party leadership about lack of intervention in the BMD wars. In his conclusion Boko said, I will differ with Solomon on this one. I am not dividing anybody. I am not dismembering any organisation. That is not going to be my solution. My solution is that the child must live un-touched not dismembered. All the parties that are fighting for the child, your job is to make sure this child is not dismembered. Thats my thinking. My vision is to unite the opposition not to break them up. Thats what Botswana National Front exists for. A ngwana a tshele.
Newly established Kitso International College (KIC) has vowed to change the mindset of Batswana regarding vocational education.

KIC Marketing Executive Ishmael Opelokgale has explained that the college is engaging in a campaign aimed at sensetising members of the public especially prospective students about vocational education. The purpose of the campaign according to Opelokgale is to change perception about vocational education.

KIC opened its doors for students in March this year. It is the only private institution that offers technical and vocational training. Opelokgale stated that currently the institution is offering Certificate courses but would be offering Diploma and Degree courses towards the end of this year. He said the college decided to offer technical and vocational courses with the aim of bridging the gap between theory and practical.





We offer courses like Automotive Mechanic and Automotive Collision Estimation. We have partnered with Webbs Motors where we would be taking our students for practicals. Webbs Motors would also be offering us technical support, he said, adding that technology is ever changing hence the need to move the times when dealing mechanical works.

These are advanced courses when compared to those offered at government brigades. People prefer white color jobs as opposed to blue color jobs. But it is up to us offering these courses to change the mindset of the public about blue color jobs. There is always a market for graduates as opposed to white color jobs. One can be an employee or an employer, he said when addressing the media this week.

Opelokgale said Batswana are not taking up vocational training seriously while it is the best education that could assist with reducing unemployment. He stated that young people should be ambitious to be entrepreneurs. As KIC we want to be the synergy of theory and practice, he said. He revealed that the institution want to tap into governments Target 20 000 programme. The programme has since been suspended. Assistant Minister of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology Fidelis Molao in April this year told Parliament that the mess experienced at Target 20 000 initiative has resulted in the suspension of the programme. The minister revealed that one of the major flaws that occurred in the implementation of the programme relates to the fact that students were enrolled in long-term programmes instead of short-term programmes. Some students, according to Molao ended up taking four-year programmes against the original plan. The minister stated that officials dealing with the programme did not follow the stipulated guidelines hence the suspension. Opelokgale is hopeful that the programme would return soon. He stated that KIC is best placed to absorb Target 20 000 students. We know that most of those who have graduated under this programme are not employed. It is because they chose business courses and not vocational courses. Even though in our college we have a faculty of business, our core is the technical and vocational which most private institutions are not offering. Now this is our chance to put to good use this noble programme and produce industry ready students who could also be employers, said Opelokgale.
Ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) will not publicly state its stance on the controversial Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), Botswana Guardian has learnt.

What has been communicated by the newly-elected BDP Secretary General Mpho Balopi after the congress is that the party will allow Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to execute its mandate in so far as elections are concerned.

This has attracted conclusion that the BDP approves of the EVMs, which came as a result of amendment to the Electoral Act. The introduction of the EVM has resulted in Botswana Congress Party (BCP) lodging a legal suit against the use of the machine in the coming 2019 general election.





BCP and Botswana National Front (BNF) who are contracting members of Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) in the Conferences held in Francistown and Kang respectively have rejected the EVM. BNF resolved to reject the EVM in its entirety no matter what form it comes in.

Its President Advocate Duma Boko said whether with paper trail or not they would not accept the EVM. BDP Secretary General Mpho Balopi stated that the partys elective congress has decided to allow the IEC to do its job.

It is up to the IEC to decide whether to use the EVM or the ballot paper or even both. Let us allow the IEC to deal with the matter, as they are the ones seized with the matter. The EVM is not our doing, it is the IECs, said Balopi when addressing the media for the first time since assuming office early this month. BDP has been accused of not making a pronouncement on the EVM.

The party first discussed the EVM during its National Council held in Gaborone in March this year where IEC made a presentation. It was agreed at the council that the IEC should make another appearance at the Tonota elective congress early this month. At the congress democrats called for improvements to be made in the use of the EVMs so as to have fair and credible elections.

Some people in areas which the IEC team has visited, to consult on the introduction of the machine were skeptical about the machine. The argument has been that no consultation was done with the electorate who are directly affected by the introduction of the EVM.

EVM has sparked controversy, as there are claims that the machine could be manipulated during elections. There have been calls for a voter verifiable paper trail (VVPT), which is basically a record of how votes were cast. EVM Unit Coordinator Gabriel Seeletso is currently compiling a report on his consultative meetings with Batswana.
SADC Secretariat is rotting from the head, an Audit report has confirmed citing instances of tenders that are improperly awarded to foreign companies or the flouting of sovereign laws by executives hiding under diplomatic immunity.

In other instances interviews for short listed individuals who showed interest for positions advertised are cancelled willy-nilly to enable preferred acting personnel to continue holding the fort. This has led to the law enforcement agencies joining the fray to ascertain the veracity of the claims and, or allegations. Thankfully, the job of such agencies has been made much simpler by the findings of the Board of the Auditors report which confirms that corruption is rampant at the headquarters of the regional economic bloc.

The board of auditors noted that there is something fishy going on and ordered the Secretariat to investigate the whole contract for possible connivance. The board of auditors recently completed its assignment and passed its report to the Audit Committee who met this week up to Wednesday at SADC headquarters to consider and make its final recommendations to the Council of Ministers billed for next month (August). After studying the audit recommendations of the Board, the Audit Committee will hand over its report to the Council of Ministers who will pass its recommendations to the Summit of Heads of State and Government for final action.





Commenting under the procurement and contract management, the board of auditors confirmed that a Tanzanian company -World Link Travel Tours Ltd - was favoured as the terms prescribed in the prequalification criteria ITA 5.3 (d) were flouted. The audit states that the bidder - World Link Travel Tours Ltd- who was awarded a tender to the value of USD 20 million did not meet the required criteria stipulated in the bidding of documents as the bidder did not meet the financial requirement and did not submit the tax clearance certificate before the bid was closed.

The audit further indicates that winner World Link Travel Tours Ltd has not fulfilled obligations related to the payments of the social security contributions or the payment taxes in accordance with the legal provisions of Tanzania- the country in which they are established- or with those countries where the contract is to be performed.

The criteria included that the bidder submit confirmation in terms of tax clearance certificate and, or a letter of good standing from the relevant tax authority in their country of origin. The auditors found that at the time of inspection of submitted documents, World Link Travel Tours Ltd had only a tax registration certificate dated 1999 with no other document to confirm their tax payments and returns are in order.

The auditors state that World Link Travel Tours Ltd should have been disqualified for failure to meet the basic requirement by submitting the mandatory document. The auditors say non-compliance with the pre- qualification criteria constitutes non-compliance with the procurement policies and guidelines and this might lead to SADC dealing business with suppliers that are not law abiding. This clearly was the case as World Link Travel Tours Ltd operated illegally in Botswana.

As for internal control, the auditors found that the Secretariat did not exercise its duties to ensure that the information required as per the set criteria in the bid documents is adequately evaluated against the submission before proceeding with appointing World Link Travel Tours Ltd.

The auditors have recommended that the Secretariat should establish how the company was not disqualified for failure to meet the set requirement. Further, the Secretariat should establish how the bid evaluation committee failed to notice such a basic thing that the winning bidder did not submit the mandatory document.

In his attempt to clarify the matter, Gift Mike Gwaza, the Acting Head of Procurement told the auditors that World Link Travel Tours Ltd provided a tax clearance certificate ILA/UP 16/07/20/2413 issued by the Tanzanian Revenue Authority dated 20 July 2016. The Auditors state that whilst they note the management comments, the fact is World Link Travel Tours Ltd tax clearance was not submitted on time as it was issued on 20 July, 2016 five days after the set closing date of 15th July, 2016. They ordered for the Secretariat to investigate why both adjudication and evaluation committees did not disqualify the World Link Travel Tours Ltd even though they did not have a tax clearance.Ironically, Gwaza who has been identified as a player and a judge by participating in the due diligence process of confirming that World Link Travel Tours Ltd is the right bidder, is the one who assures that management will undertake an independent investigation and that identified internal weaknesses will be addressed.

Perhaps the most embarrassing matter raised by the audit is that none of the committees even the 5-man due diligence committee that travelled to Tanzania and Gwaza were part of, ignored the fact that World Link Travel Tours Ltd did not meet the financial resource requirement.

The audit findings state that a successful bidder for bid No. (SADC/Travel and Event/01/2016- was required to have a minimum average turnover related to the contract of USD 9 million calculated as a total certified payments received for contracts in progress and, or completed within the last three years, way above World Link Travel Tours Ltds USD 7.730 170.37.Actually, the company had reported in its bid document that its average revenue for the past three years is USD 9053 000. The Secretariat management defends itself by saying that the tender was carried in line with SADC procurement policy guidelines and the tender was serviced by the external tender committee comprising members from Botswana, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. They argue that the bidding documents did not specify the conversion rates. However, the auditors said that the management comments are misleading as they are not addressing the findings reported and neither disputing the fact that the average revenues of World Link Travel Tours Ltd are not equal or above USD 9 m.

The above criterion is believed to have contributed in eliminating all local companies who provide such a service and have served SADC diligently in the past years. Efforts to contact both Dr Tax and Gwaza were not successful. They failed to return the calls from this publication.


Mi-17 military transport helicopter. Photo: Indian Air Force

ZHUKOVSKY, RUSSIA (PTI): Russia and India are holding negotiations for the supply of 48 Russian Mi-17 military transport helicopters, with Moscow hoping to seal the deal by the end of this year, a top Russian official has said.



Russian arms supplier Rosoboronexport's CEO Alexander Mikheev said India has more than 300 helicopters belonging to the Mi-8 and Mi-17 family, which are deployed in troop and arms transport, fire support, convoy escort, patrol, and search-and-rescue (SAR) missions. He said India knows their specifications well.



Mikheev said Russia and India are holding talks with a view to sign a contract for 48 (Mi-17V-5) helicopters and the techno-commercial negotiations are set to commence in August.



"We hope that we will reach an agreement before the end of this year," he told a select group of journalists here on the sidelines of Russia's premier air show MAKS 2017.



Last year, Russia had handed over to India the final batch of three Mi-17V-5 military transport helicopters under a previously signed contract with Rosoboronexport, a company of the Rostec State Corporation, that entailed a total of 151 units of the Mi-17V-5 helicopter, produced by the Kazan Helicopter Plant.



Designed to transport cargo inside the cabin and on an external sling, the Mi-17V-5 is considered to be one of the world's most advanced military transport helicopters.



Mi-17V-5, supplied to India, ranks among the most technically advanced helicopters of the Mi-8/17 type, incorporating the best engineering solutions of previous generations.



In 2008, Rosoboronexport signed a contract for the delivery of 80 Mi-17V-5 to India, which was completed in 2011 -2013. In 2012-2013, three additional contracts were signed to supply a total of 71 Mi-17V-5 helicopters to meet the needs of the Indian Air Force.



Talking about the S-400 Triumf anti-aircraft missile systems, Mikheev said Russia and India are holding "technical consultations" for their supply and Moscow aims to sign a contract "as soon as possible".



India and Russia have been in talks for over a year for the purchase of at least five systems of S-400 that could be a game changer for India's anti-aircraft defence capability.



India had announced on October 15 last year a deal on the Triumf air defence systems from Russia, worth over USD five billion.



"As of today, we are carrying out technical consultations with India. We have already shown our equipment - both in the field, testing, range-practice conditions and in conditions of production plant and design bureaus," Mikheev said.



"Rosoboronexport is performing all the works aimed at signing of the contract as soon as possible, based on the feedback from India," he said.



Talking about other projects that are under discussion between Russia and India, Mikheev said, "We are discussing a programme for modernisation of SU-30 with our Indian partners. The aircraft park is quite large."



"During a period of 15 years, we have fulfilled all our obligations to the Indian party, the HAL Corporation -- supplied quite a large aircraft park, over 200, under the license agreement -- and we are offering new developments of our design bureaus.



"Moreover, the Indian Air Force has some requirements for improvement of performance and operational characteristics, mainly with regard to avionics, electronic warfare systems, as well as updates of weapon systems by both Indian and Russian companies," he said.



Mikheev said Russia was already considering the capabilities of the Indian industry within the framework of the "Make in India" programme and noted that under it a well- known project was the joint venture for Kamov 226T helicopters.



Asked about the first Russian-Indian military-industrial conference in March where reports said some questions concerning the problem with spare parts was raised by India, Mikheev said the industrial conference was jointly held by Russia's Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Valentinovich Manturov and Defence Minister Arun Jaitley during which both sides reached an agreement on the issue.



"I think that it's actually a big plus in our relations. We have agreed that the programme of after-sales services will be participated by Russian dedicated holding companies, in order to ensure the operation of previously supplied equipment throughout its life-cycle. It's 20, 30, 40 years -- whether it be a submarine, a helicopter, a tank, etc.," Mikheev said.



"We have specified six companies that will carry out direct cooperation with both operators of Russian equipment and Indian companies that will be charged with operating this equipment and manufacturing its spare parts," he said.



Mikheev named the six companies that will carry out direct cooperation as -- the United Shipbuilding Corporation, the United Aircraft Corporation, Russian Helicopters, the United Engine Corporation, Almaz-Antey and Tactical Missile Corporation.



Mikheev also highlighted Rosoboronexport's growing business, saying in 2016 it executed the plan of supplies for USD 13.08 billion.



"This year, the plan of supplies under Rosoboronexport contracts is USD 12.9 billion. About 50 per cent are the equipment for air forces. And about 50 per cent fall on the Middle East and North Africa, as well as India and China are major customers," he said.



Rosoboronexport has cooperation with more than 100 countries and its contractual obligations are being fulfilled by 92 countries, he noted.



Rosoboronexport is the only state-owned arms trade company in the Russian federation authorised to export the full range of military and dual purpose products, technologies and services.




US B-1B Lancer. Photo: Boeing

WASHINGTON (AFP): US strategic bombers flew over the Korean Peninsula in a pointed show of force in response to Pyongyang's latest intercontinental ballistic missile, American officials said on Sunday.



US B-1B bombers along with fighter jets from the South Korean and Japanese air forces participated in the 10-hour bilateral mission, practicing intercept and formation drills.



The maneuver followed Pyongyang's second ICBM test this month late Friday, with Kim Jong-Un saying the move demonstrated the country's ability to strike any target in the United States.



"North Korea remains the most urgent threat to regional stability," said General Terrence O'Shaughnessy, Pacific Air Forces commander, in a statement.



"If called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal, and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing."



In a standard response to the test, Beijing urged restraint by all sides, after the US and South Korea conducted a live-fire exercise using surface-to-surface missiles.



Weapons experts said the altitude and flight time of Friday's missile suggested it was significantly more powerful than the earlier July 4 test, with a theoretical range of around 10,000 kilometers meaning it might be able to reach east coast US cities like New York, depending on the payload size.



South Korea said the test prompted it to speed up deployment of a US missile defense system, despite consistent protests from China that the program would destabilize the region.




THAAD missile interceptor. Photo: MDA

WASHINGTON (AFP): American forces successfully tried out on Sunday a missile interception system the US hopes to set up on the Korean peninsula, military officials said following a trial just days after North Korea's second test of an ICBM.



In the American test of the so-called THAAD system, a medium-range missile was launched from a US Air Force C-17 aircraft flying over the Pacific and a THAAD unit in Alaska "detected, tracked and intercepted the target," the US Missile Defense Agency said.



It said this was the 15th successful intercept in 15 tests for the weapons system known as THAAD, which stands for Terminal High Altitude Area Defense.



South Korea said yesterday it will speed up deployment of a THAAD battery on its territory because of the latest North Korean test of an intercontinental ballistic missile.



Parts of the THAAD defense system were brought into South Korea under the government of ousted president Park Geun-Hye.



But new leader Moon Jae-In suspended deployment of the programme last month, citing the need for a new environmental impact assessment.



However, South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-Moo said on Saturday that Seoul will now begin consultations on the "tentative deployment" parts of the THAAD battery in response to the latest North Korean test.



The THAAD deployment has infuriated China, which has long argued it will destabilise the region.


Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council has moved to reassure homeowners in a southside development.

The Council have said it will not buy ten homes in Carrickmines Green for social housing until a timeline for any fire safety works is confirmed.

Residents had been trying to block the sale until the receiver fixes structural defects in some of the apartments.

The local authority has confirmed it will not sign on the purchase until an agreement is put in place.

Carrickminesfire_large.jpg[#embed1]
A former Catholic priest has launched a High Court action aimed at stopping his trial on a charge he indecently assaulted a young boy more than thirty years ago, writes Ann O'Loughlin.

The man who has been sent forward to face trial before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court claims he is at risk of not getting a fair trial.

It is the man's case the DPP has allowed an unexplainable delay to occur in the prosecution of the case. The case, he also claims, has not been dealt with in an expeditious manner.

He claims he was charged with the offence more than three years after a complaint was made to the Gardai.

It is also claimed that the man cannot get a fair trial because certain documents and records which the man had sought were destroyed.

He also claims that he has been denied fair procedures.

In proceedings against the DPP the man seeks an order prohibiting further prosecution and a declaration his rights to a fair trial and fair procedures have been breached.

The application came before Mr Justice Seamus Noonan today. The Judge granted the man permission, on an ex-parte basis, to bring his challenge and adjourned the case to October.
A fund-appointed liquidator's case for orders under the Companies Acts against Independent TD Mick Wallace and his son, Sasha, has been fixed for hearing next October.

Michael Leydon, liquidator of the Independent TD's construction and property firm M J Wallace Ltd, has brought proceedings against Mr Wallace and his co-director son over their stewardship of the company.

Mr Leydon was appointed by Promontoria Aran, a subsidiary of US fund Cerberus, arising out of a 2m judgment obtained against the company in relation to the Italian Quarter development in Dublin.

The TD had previously raised questions over the Cerberus 1.6bn purchase from NAMA of a group of Northern Ireland-linked loans, called Project Eagle.

The liquidator is pursuing an application for orders under the Companies Acts to have the respondents disqualified from acting as company directors, or alternatively restricted in that role.

The case has been fixed for hearing on October 23 but, before that, an application for discovery of documents will be heard on October 9.

The Wallaces want discovery of correspondence between the liquidator and the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement in relation to the decision to bring the proceedings against them, Mr Justice Robert Haughton was told on Monday.

Stephen Brady BL, for the liquidator, said his client considers that application is misconceived as a request for discovery but the sides had agreed, subject to the court, the discovery matter should be heard on October 9.

Mr Justice Robert Haughton fixed that date for hearing of the discovery application and noted October 23 is the hearing date.
The High Court has heard that Ian Bailey is expected to apply in August for legal costs following the court's refusal last week to order his extradition to France in relation to the death of Sophie Tuscan du Plantier.

Mr Bailey (60) of The Prairie, Liscaha, Schull, west Cork, denies any involvement in the death of Ms du Plantier, who was found dead outside her holiday home in Schull in December 1996.
Update 9.11pm: The Taoiseach has defended the planned small increase to the minimum wage.

It is to go up 30 cent to 9.55 but one of his own Ministers has criticised this.

John Halligan thinks it is not enough, given the high cost of living in Ireland.

But Leo Varadkar said it is in line with recommendations from the Low Pay Commission.

"The minimum wage has increased by 25% in the last four or five years, much faster than the rate of inflation and much faster than the wage growth in general," said Varadkar.

"Provided the economy can sustain it, I think it will continue to grow in the years ahead," he added.

Earlier: The increase in the minimum wage next year will be eaten up by rises in rent according to Social Justice Ireland.

The body has reacted to Minister John Halligan's statement that the increase from 9.25 to 9.55 an hour is "pathetic".

The Taoiseach has said that any hike in the lowest rate of pay must be sustainable.

However Michelle Murphy, Research and Policy Analyst at Social Justice Ireland said politicians need to take the cost of living into account.

"You have to look are the pressures and what's increasing the cost of living," said Ms Murphy.

The biggest cost for a single person is housing and the biggest costs for a family is housing and childcare and the increase that the Low Pay Commission recommended will be eaten up next year, for a single person, by the increases in rent," she added.

Earlier: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that the minimum wage has to be increased in a sustainable way.

It follows criticism from Junior Minister John Halligan that the 30 cent increase is pathetic.

One thing we always have to bear in mind when it comes to wages is that we have to bear in mind the impact on employment, he said.

And if you increase wages too quickly, there is a risk that we could lose jobs, and that would be a terrible result  thats why we rely on the advice of the Low Pay Commission to ensure that we increase wages, and the minimum wage in particular, in a way thats sustainable, so that it doesnt get taken away again.

Labour Party spokesperson on Employment and Social Protection, Senator Ged Nash has said that Independent Alliance Minister John Halligan has made another 'empty promise' on the living wage.

Senator Nash said: "It is time John Halligan started to behave like a Minister and deliver on the things he tells the media he believes in.

He added: "Nothing we have seen to date from the Independent Alliance will give the low paid any real hope that the scourge of low pay, uncertain hours and insecurity will be tackled in any meaningful way by this government.

"The chocolate teapots in the Independent Alliance and John Halligan especially have been indulged for long enough, and here we have another empty promise from them on peoples livelihoods.

Earlier:

A Minister of State has described plans to increase the minimum wage by 30 cent as "pathetic".

John Halligan says the plans to up the rate from 9.25 to 9.55 per hour don't go far enough.

It comes as the Taoiseach raised eyebrows in a recent interview, when he include minimum wage workers - whose annual salary is under 20,000 - in his definition of 'middle class'.

Minister Halligan said it is disheartening, given the high cost of living in Ireland.

"It's disappointing when you look at the cost of living, you look at the cost of housing, the cost of renting," he said.

"We have to protect those who are most vulnerable, and the people who are most vulnerable are people who don't have work, and then people earning a minimum wage."
A single mother of three has been jailed for two years for smuggling 70,000 worth of cocaine into Dublin Airport.

Jade Seddon from Oldham in Manchester was caught with over a kilo of the drug in her luggage when she arrived from Brussels in March.
Clare County Council has announced that swimming has been temporarily prohibited at Kilkee beach due to the possibility of elevated levels of bacteria in the bathing water.

The announcement comes after advice of the HSE who suggested that heavy rainfall over the weekend could have elevated the levels of bacteria.
The US military has said it carried out a drone strike in Somalia that killed a member of the al-Shabab extremist group, while Somalia's government said it believes the strike killed a high-level al-Shabab commander responsible for several deadly bombings in the capital.

A US Africa Command statement said the air strike occurred on Saturday near Tortoroow, an al-Shabab stronghold in the Lower Shabelle region in southern Somalia.

President Donald Trump earlier this year approved expanded military operations against al-Shabab, including more aggressive air strikes and considering parts of southern Somalia areas of active hostilities.

Al Qaida-linked al-Shabab is the deadliest Islamic extremist group in Africa.

The US statement said the air strike was carried out in co-ordination with regional partners "as a direct response to al-Shabab actions, including recent attacks on Somali forces".

The statement said no civilians were killed.

A statement by Somalia's information ministry said the government believes that Ali Mohamed Hussein died in the operation co-ordinated with "international partners".

Ali had served as the extremist group's shadow governor for the capital, Mogadishu, and had been one of the group's most outspoken officials.

"This individual was part of an al-Shabab network responsible for planning and executing several bombings and assassinations that resulted in the deplorable death of numerous innocent civilians in Mogadishu," the ministry statement said.

A Somali intelligence official said at least one missile struck a car in which the al-Shabab leader was travelling.

The US military in early July said it carried out an air strike against al-Shabab in Somalia and was assessing the results.

The air strike followed one in June that the US said killed eight extremists at a rebel command and logistics camp in the south.

Somalia-based al-Shabab earlier this month mocked Mr Trump for the first time in a video that called him a "brainless billionaire".

The extremist group has also vowed to step up attacks in Somalia after the president elected in February declared a new offensive against al-Shabab, which continues to carry out deadly attacks in Mogadishu.

The extremist group has also carried out deadly attacks in neighbouring countries, notably Kenya, calling it retribution for sending troops to Somalia to fight al-Shabab.

PA
A legal battle has begun over secret letters revealing what the Queen knew of her Australian representative's plan to dismiss Australia's government in 1975.

The case could finally solve a mystery behind the country's most dramatic political crisis.

Historian Jenny Hocking is asking the Federal Court to force the National Archives of Australia to release the letters between the British monarch, who is also Australia's constitutional head of state, and her former Australian representative, Governor-General John Kerr.

The Archives have classified the letters as "personal", meaning they might never be made public.

The letters would reveal what, if anything, the Queen knew about Kerr's plan to dismiss prime minister Gough Whitlam's government in 1975 to resolve a deadlock in Parliament.

It is the only time in Australian history that a democratically elected federal government was dismissed on the British monarch's authority.

The dismissal stunned Australians and bolstered calls for the country to sever its colonial ties to Britain and become a republic.

Mr Whitlam's own son, lawyer Antony Whitlam, is arguing the case on behalf of Ms Hocking, and took on the case free of charge.

Ms Hocking, a Whitlam biographer, argues that Australians have a right to know the details of their history, and that the letters written in the months leading up to the unprecedented dismissal are key to unravelling the truth.

"It needs to be settled once and for all," she said during a court recess.

"There's a lot of uncertainty in this."

Antony Whitlam argued that the letters should be viewed as official, rather than personal, documents in part because the relationship between the governor-general and the Queen is an official one.

"It couldn't seriously be suggested that there was a personal relationship between the Queen and John Kerr," he told the court.

If the letters lose their "private" and "personal" classification, they are free to be made public 30 years after they were written like other government documents held in the Archives.

That means they could be available immediately.

Lawyer Tom Howe, who is representing the Archives, told the court that there was a distinction between the institution of the governor-general and the governor-general himself.

The governor-general himself, Mr Howe argued, is not a national institution, and thus his personal records are owned by him and are not subject to the Archives Act.

The Act allows for the release of official records.

Questions and conspiracy theories still swirl about the motivations surrounding the prime minister's dismissal.

Sir John, who died in 1991, said the decision to oust Mr Whitlam was his alone.

However, some Australians believe the Queen had a hand in the decision.

One of the most spectacular theories is that the US Central Intelligence Agency ordered Mr Whitlam's dismissal because the agency feared his government would close a top-secret US intelligence facility in the Australian Outback.

Sir John rejected that theory as false.

Before 1975, few Australians realised the governor-general - whose role is largely ceremonial - had the power to fire a prime minister during a constitutional crisis.

That crisis began when the opposition party tried to force Mr Whitlam to call general elections by blocking routine legislation in the Senate that allowed the government to pay public servant salaries and provide services.

Mr Whitlam refused to call an election, sparking a weeks-long constitutional impasse.

Sir John then fired Mr Whitlam, called an election and appointed opposition leader Malcolm Fraser as prime minister.

Weeks later, Mr Fraser's coalition won an overwhelming election victory.

Critics of Sir John dubbed his firing of Mr Whitlam an ambush, and said the governor-general should have warned the prime minister that it was coming.

Sir John said he was worried Mr Whitlam would have fired him first if he had tipped him off ahead of time.

Monday's hearing was the only one scheduled in the case.

Federal Court Justice John Griffiths is expected to issue a ruling at a later date.
A computer hacker who disrupted access to the British Airways website for more than an hour costing the airline an estimated 100,000 was caught after he boasted about his crimes on Twitter, a court heard.

"Computer geek" Paul Dixon, 24, of The Avenue, Seaham, County Durham, also admitted hacking into police websites in October 2014 then bragging about it.

The unemployed defendant, described by his barrister as socially isolated at the time of the offences, smirked as he walked out of Newcastle Crown Court having been handed a suspended two-year jail sentence and ordered to pay 200 costs.

He admitted five counts of unauthorised modification of computer material at a previous hearing.

Dixon spent just a few dollars to attack the Police Scotland, Durham Police, webuy.com and British Airways websites, Sarah Wood, prosecuting, told the court.

He used Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks which swamp a target website with an overwhelming stream of requests for access, causing the site to work very slowly or to shut down completely.

Dixon paid for websites which are designed to stress-test sites against attack, the court heard, purchasing a time-limited DDoS attack.

The origin of such attacks is normally hard to trace, Recorder John Aitken was told.

But Dixon gave the game away by tweeting about his exploits.

Ms Wood said: "He could not resist boasting about his activities online on his Twitter account.

"Indeed, this appears to be the sole motivation behind his actions."

Dixon did not make any money from the premeditated hacks, the court heard.

He went on hackers' forums and appealed for friends to name targets for him.

His first attack, on the Police Scotland site, did not cause it to crash completely, but it did cause the number of legitimate users to fall considerably during the "outage" which lasted from 7.41pm to 9.01pm on October 16 2014.

The force said the public used the website to report hate crimes, adding that it was "crucial" to its public awareness role.

The following day Dixon mounted a less successful attack on Durham Police's site, and another on October 19.

He put webuy.com out of service for 15 minutes on October 21, costing the firm around 500 in sales.

The attack on British Airways happened on October 26 and lasted 68 minutes.

Ms Wood said: "While the website was not brought down, the traffic to the website was so great that legitimate customers would not have been able to access it either to make a booking or to check in."

The airline said that disruption to the website would have cost it approximately 100,000.

Durham Police investigated and traced Dixon after searching Twitter for messages about the attacks.

During his first interviews he claimed his computer had been hacked but changed his story, later boasting the police should employ him for his skills.

Sam Faulks, defending, said in one interview police recommended Dixon should take an interest in football, get outside and get some vitamin D from sunlight.

He said Dixon's world in 2014 revolved around Facebook, Twitter, group chat sites and computers.

"He was not living in the real world as we understand it, he was living in the cyber world," Mr Faulks said.

His client was back then "self-obsessed", "puerile" and "fairly isolated".

"He had delusions of grandeur, he was bordering on obsessed with getting fame for his actions," he said.

Mr Faulks said Dixon had kept out of trouble for almost three years since the hacks and prison for a "nerd" such as him would be tougher than for "tattooed, shaven-headed monsters" the court sometimes dealt with.

Recorder Aitken told Dixon his offending was "simply to boost your own ego".

He said he would take the "exceptional course" of not immediately jailing Dixon, but imposed a night-time curfew for three months and ordered him to be supervised for 12 months, as well as handing him the two-year jail term which is suspended for two years.
A man has appeared in court accused of raping a 14-year-old girl who is alleged to have been attacked by two different offenders on the same night.

Khurram Rahi was charged with the assault by officers from British Transport Police, who are still hunting a second man who raped the teenager after she flagged down a passing vehicle for help.

A five-minute hearing at Birmingham Magistrates' Court was told that Rahi is alleged to have raped the girl, who cannot be identified, at Birmingham's Witton station last Tuesday.

Rahi, whose solicitor indicated that he will plead not guilty, appeared in the dock wearing dark tracksuit bottoms and a maroon shirt.

[timgBritishPoliceUniform_large.jpg[/timg]

Magistrates remanded the 27-year-old, of Rosefield Road, Smethwick, in custody to appear at Birmingham's Crown Court on August 28.

In a statement issued at the weekend, police said a 34-year-old man from the Birmingham area, who was also arrested on suspicion of rape, had been released pending further inquiries.

Thanking members of the public for supporting appeals for information, Detective Chief Inspector Tony Fitzpatrick said: "We still have a suspect outstanding for the offence in the vehicle.

"I would urge anyone who may have any information regarding this attack to get in touch as soon as possible.

"The second assault happened at approximately 2am close to Witton station. The victim flagged down a vehicle for help, a man then raped her."

The suspect being sought in relation to the second alleged offence is described as a thick- set man of Asian appearance, approximately 5ft 6in, with large biceps.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact BTP by sending a text to 61016 or by calling 0800 405040.
The chances of negotiating Brexit by the UK's planned exit date of March 2019 is "infinitesimally small" unless politicians work together, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said.

The Most Rev Justin Welby renewed calls for a cross-party commission to negotiate Britain's departure from the European Union, as he said major decisions should be taken "off the political table".

The Archbishop, who sits in the House of Lords, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "There are literally thousands of separate agreements to come to.

"If each one of those has to be argued as a point of confidence on the floor of the House of Commons, the chance of getting this done in what's now roughly 18 months is infinitesimally small.

"There has to be the political leadership that says we have major questions that are political, huge political decisions - the obvious one is the single market and customs union, but there are thousands of other decisions that can be made.

"Can the politicians not put at the front of their minds the needs of the United Kingdom to come out with a functional, working system for Brexit, and agree that certain things that, as it were, 'off the political table' and will be decided separately in an expert commission, or commission of senior politicians led by someone that is trusted in the political world?"

Downing Street dismissed the demand for an expert commission and insisted the Government was committed to the two-year Brexit timetable.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "We are committed to, and are, consulting widely on the issues of Brexit but there are no plans in relation to a commission."
US President Donald Trump has insisted there is no chaos at the White House, even as his new chief of staff enters a West Wing battered by crisis.

Retired general John Kelly, previously the homeland security secretary, takes over on Monday from the ousted Reince Priebus.

He will bring his military experience to an administration weighed down by a stalled legislative agenda, a cabal of infighting West Wing aides and a stack of investigations.

While Mr Trump is looking for a reset, he pushed back against criticism of his administration on Twitter on Monday.

He said: "Highest Stock Market EVER, best economic numbers in years, unemployment lowest in 17 years, wages raising, border secure, S.C.: No WH chaos!"

Mr Kelly's success in a chaotic White House will depend on how much authority he is granted and whether Mr Trump's duelling aides will put aside their rivalries to work together.

It is also unclear whether a new chief of staff will have any influence over the president's social media histrionics.

Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who was removed from the campaign in June 2016, said on NBC's Meet The Press that he expected Mr Kelly would "restore order to the staff" but also stressed that Mr Trump was unlikely to change his style.

"I say you have to let Trump be Trump. That is what has made him successful over the last 30 years. That is what the American people voted for," Mr Lewandowski said.

"And anybody who thinks they're going to change Donald Trump doesn't know Donald Trump."

Mr Kelly's start follows a tumultuous week, marked by a profane tirade from the new communications director, Mr Trump's continued attacks on his attorney general and the failed effort by Senate Republicans to overhaul the nation's healthcare law.

In addition to strain in the West Wing and with Congress, Mr Kelly starts his new job as tensions escalate with North Korea.

The United States flew two supersonic bombers over the Korean Peninsula on Sunday in a show of force against North Korea, following the country's latest intercontinental ballistic missile test.

The US also said it conducted a successful test of a missile defence system located in Alaska.

Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein said on CBS's Face The Nation that she hopes Mr Kelly can "be effective", and "begin some very serious negotiation with the North and stop this programme".

Another diplomatic fissure opened on Sunday when Russian President Vladimir Putin said the US would have to cut its embassy and consulate staff in Russia by several hundred under new sanctions from Moscow.

In a television interview, Mr Putin indicated the cutback was retaliation for new sanctions in a bill passed by Congress and sent to Mr Trump.

Mr Trump plans to sign the measure into law, the White House has said.

After Mr Putin's remarks, the State Department deemed the cutbacks "a regrettable and uncalled for act" and said officials would assess the impact and how to respond to it.

While Mr Trump is trying to refresh his team, he signalled that he does not want to give up the fight on healthcare.

On Twitter on Sunday, he said: "Don't give up Republican Senators, the World is watching: Repeal & Replace."

The protracted healthcare fight has slowed Mr Trump's other policy goals, including a tax overhaul and infrastructure investment.

PA
The US has hit Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro with financial sanctions after an election to rewrite the constitution.

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control announced the sanctions against Mr Maduro in a brief statement, a day after Venezuelans gave the president's ruling party virtually unlimited power in the South American country.

The Trump administration imposed sanctions on more than a dozen senior current and former Venezuelan officials last week, warning the socialist government that new penalties would come if Mr Maduro went ahead with Sunday's election for the assembly.

Electoral authorities claimed more than eight million people voted on Sunday to create a constitutional assembly endowing Mr Maduro's ruling party with virtually unlimited powers, though independent analysts estimated the real turnout was less than half that figure.

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles, the governor of the central state of Miranda, urged Venezuelans to protest on Monday against an assembly that critics fear will effectively create a single-party state.

Mr Maduro has said the new assembly will begin to govern within a week.

He said he would use the assembly's powers to bar opposition candidates from running in gubernatorial elections in December unless they sit with his party to negotiate an end to hostilities that have generated four months of protests that have killed at least 125 and wounded nearly 2,000.

Venezuela's chief prosecutor's office reported 10 deaths in new rounds of clashes on Sunday between protesters and police.

Mr Maduro said a new constitution is the only way to end such conflicts.

"The people have delivered the constitutional assembly," Mr Maduro said on national television.

"More than eight million in the middle of threats ... it's when imperialism challenges us that we prove ourselves worthy of the blood of the liberators that runs through the veins of men, women, children and young people."

Nations including Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Spain, Britain and the United States said they would not recognise Sunday's vote.

AP
Police are searching for a 23-year-old man who fled the Canberra Hospital on Saturday night.

Jonathon Hogan was taken to hospital after a court appearance and was last seen about 8.30pm.

Jonathon Hogan was arrested after escaping from Canberra Hospital.

NSW Police said Mr Hogan may be heading towards Dubbo.

ACT Policing said he was in custody for charges relating to property offences and resisting police.
Momentum is again growing to allow the ACT to legislate on voluntary euthanasia, as Victoria moves to introduce an assisted dying scheme from 2019.

The ACT and Northern Territory are unable to make laws on euthanasia, because of "Andrews Bill", a private members' bill named for conservative backbencher Kevin Andrews, introduced after the NT legalised euthanasia in 1995.

Labor Member for Ginninderra Tara Cheyne wants to overturn a 20-year-old bill stopping the ACT making laws on voluntary euthanasia. Credit:Jamila Toderas

ACT Labor politician Tara Cheyne asked the ACT branch's annual conference on Saturday to support her motion and petition to remove Andrews Bill and once again give the territory the right to legislate on assisted dying.

"This motion does not commit the party nor the government towards regarding voluntary euthanasia not voluntary assisted dying," Ms Cheyne said.
"We feel that we've hit our groove, so to speak," Draper says, "and it's just so encouraging that we seem to be getting stronger and stronger as a group and also as an organisation."

Australian String Quartet cellist Sharon Draper says, "It's been an incredibly busy year for the quartet". The current members of the quartet  Dale Barltrop, violin I, Francesca Hiew, violin II, Stephen King, viola and Draper  have been together since the beginning of 2016.

Caught for almost three years in the US at the beginning of World War II, Britten suffered great homesickness and yearned to return to his home on the Suffolk coast. His String Quartet No.1 in D major op 25 was commissioned by an American patron, Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge and was first performed in 1941 in Los Angeles, earning the composer the Coolidge Medal for Eminent Services to Chamber Music. While Britten was somewhat cavalier about the award, he found the $400 useful.

"This piece is incredibly atmospheric," Draper says. "The opening is actually very ambiguous and starts with the three upper voices almost up in the stratosphere with a pizzicato cadenza of the cello line underneath it. It's very unusual writing but I think it immediately captivates the audience and creates this atmosphere of being lost. The slow movement has almost the feel of a requiem to it but there's also great cheekiness particularly in the scherzo movement and there's incredible rhythmic drive and force in the last movement. It finally ends in triumph."

Paul Stanhope's String Quartet No. 2 reflects on the plight of Jewish exiles as they travel from a place of fear and anguish, sustained only by hope of a better future, on a journey to Australia. This work was commissioned by Kim Williams and was premiered in 2010 when Stanhope was Musica Viva's featured composer.

"The meandering melodies can cross bar lines [so that] you don't have any idea of a sense of pulse and this creates a sort of lost and unsettled feeling," Draper says. She describes the opening dirge as having incredible pathos, "but it gradually winds up and up tempo-wise and energy-wise until the whole piece runs into a very energetic finale and finishes with a bang, one could say, quite triumphantly."

Finally the quartet moves to j Dvorak's String Quartet No. 13 in G major op. 106. Dvorak was stimulated by his three years in the US but his return to his Czech homeland was a joyous one.
Up to 80 per cent of Canberrans want major gaming reform, supporting mandatory pre-commitment and $1 spins for poker machines, a new poll shows.

The poll also shows a slump in support for Labor since the last election, although its significance is difficult to gauge.

Anglicare ACT chief executive Jeremy Halcrow, who says poker machine reform is a matter of public health and safety. Credit:Elesa Kurtz

The strong support for $1 spins and mandatory pre-commitment - where voters decide upfront how much they are prepared to lose - comes in the face of Labor and Liberal opposition to both measures.

The Greens are insisting on both as a condition of poker machines in the casino - but there is no political will to extend the measures into clubs, which run Canberra's 5000 poker machines. At the moment gamblers can spend whatever they like, with spins of up to $10 a pop.
A large scale police search has uncovered a number of items homicide detectives believe to be connected to the alleged murder of Canberra artist, Eden Waugh.

ACT Policing said the items found at White Rocks in Karabar would undergo forensic analysis as police continue their search in the area.

Eden Waugh was allegedly killed by a single gunshot on November 3 in 2016.

Police found Mr Waugh, 37, dead with a gunshot wound to his chest when they were called to the Watson unit he shared with his partner on November 3 last year.

Over the weekend, a 29-year-old Karabar man was charged with accessory after the fact in relation to the alleged murder.
A departmental spokesperson said Foy had paid a 5 per cent deposit and was supposed to pay the balance of the $3.12 million purchase on July 18.

The office of Greens Cabinet minister Shane Rattenbury has told residents the sale is now in dispute, but it appears that information is incorrect. The government says "the parties are in discussion as to a completion date" but has otherwise refused to comment, and Foy has not responded to efforts to make contact.

Foy's Bevan Dooley and Stuart Clark at the site of the plastics-to-fuel factory in Hume, now rejected by the ACT government but still in Foy's sights. Credit:Rohan Thomson

Foy owes just under $3 million on the block it bought last year from the Land Development Agency, but missed settlement on June 26 this year.

Plastics-to-fuel company Foy has missed the deadline for paying the balance owing to the ACT government on its block of land in Hume.

Asked whether Foy had requested any other consideration in relation to the block or indicated that it no longer wanted the block, the spokesman said, "The Suburban Land Agency has had no direct contact with them."

Confusingly, asked about land works at estimates hearings on June 26, a departmental official said extra work had to be done to fix a spring that had "pumped up" on site before it could be settled. Ms Berry wrote to the estimates committee a week later, saying drainage work had been completed on May 10, with a settlement date of June 26.

Asked how much the government had spent preparing the site for sale, a spokesperson said, "No specific costs have been incurred in relation to Foy purchasing the block. Work was undertaken getting the subdivision (of three blocks) ready for sale including laying asphalt and providing power and drainage."

Foy bought the block for its controversial plastics-to-fuel factory, but the plan was effectively killed off by the findings of a health panel in May. The panel found in a report released on May 4 that the plant, a mix of "chemical processing facility, mini crude oil refinery and fuel storage facility", posed too many risks for unproven technology . And it said the ACT should require proof of performance before approving the project.

The following day, Foy updated the Australian Stock Exchange on the project, saying the panel had "suggested a pilot plant to assist in confirming the research results lodged by Foy during the approval process".
"It's never too late to find your missing person."

That's the message Melissa Pouliot has for suffering families after her missing cousin, Ursula Barwick, was recently found following a 30-year search.

Crime writer Melissa Pouliot wrote a book loosely based on her cousin's disappearance - which sparked a new investigation by police and discovered the girl had been killed in a car accident. Credit:Karleen Minney

Ursula, aged 17, had died in a car accident on the Hume Highway, near Tarcutta, in 1987, only weeks after she went missing.

Ursula had been living in Sydney under a new name, Jessica Pearce, and it was that name her new friends provided to investigators after the crash.
Could BHP's short-lived but memorable chief executive, Brian Gilbertson, be making his long-awaited return to the ASX?

More than three years have passed since the Gilbertson-chaired Jupiter Mines delisted from the ASX, with a shareholder list that included Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting.

Illustration: John Shakespeare.

And it looks like the time spent in hibernation has been good for Jupiter.

With the price of manganese ore staging a recovery last year, Jupiter's Tshipi venture is starting to churn out cash  including dividends  to the point where Jupiter has appointed Merrill Lynch to "investigate strategic options to realise shareholder value from the Tshipi manganese mine", according to its annual report.
Revelations the ALP accepted $400,000 in tobacco industry funding almost a decade after it banned such donations in 2004, coupled with a call by Senator Sam Dastyari for a complete ban on political donations of any kind has put the question of public funding for elections back on the agenda.

The row over the donations by a Chinese tobacco company executive, Peter Chen, to the ALP in 2011 and 2013, follows a call by ACT Labor last week for small donations to be boosted up to six-fold by tax payers in a bid to wean politicians off dependence on big business and, presumably, unions.

While that seems unlikely to succeed given it may create an opportunity for candidates and parties to write their own cheques using voters' money, it is indicative of ongoing concern.

Mr Chen's donations have been referred to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption by Greens leader, Richard Di Natale. This is because one of the donations, of $200,000, was apparently made to the NSW branch of the party.
The case for a new cultural facility in Parramatta is overwhelming. The population of western Sydney is 1.9 million, more than 7 per cent of Australia's population and 38 per cent of Greater Sydney's. Its population is projected to reach 3 million by 2036 and to absorb two-thirds of the population growth in the Greater Sydney region, making it one of the largest growing urban populations in Australia.

Yet according to a study two years ago western Sydney received only 1 per cent of cultural funding from the Commonwealth government, compared with 36 per cent to eastern Sydney. It shares in only 5.5 per cent of state government funding, compared with 87 per cent going to eastern Sydney.

It would be great to have a Parramatta venue for the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences to complement its current base at the Powerhouse Museum in Ultimo. After all, the museum already has two facilities in eastern Sydney  the Powerhouse and Sydney Observatory  and one in western Sydney, the Museum Discovery Centre in Castle Hill. One more venue in Parramatta would even up the score: two in the east and two in the west.

A purpose-built Parramatta museum would enable the Museum to display more of its huge collection. More important, it will enable it to play a quite different cultural role from the Ultimo Powerhouse, thoroughly in keeping with Parramatta's aspiration as a centre for technology and innovation. But the sting in the tail of the Premier's announcement on Monday is her statement that "the NSW government will retain an arts and cultural presence at the current Ultimo site following the relocation of the Powerhouse Museum to Parramatta". This suggests the downgrading of the Powerhouse facility at Ultimo, with no assurance as to how the site will be used. This short-changes Sydney.
Travelling from Sydney to Perth on Sunday I was aware of an active counter-terrorism operation in Sydney and was warned of delays due to "enhanced" screening. Yet, the security methodology being used was surprising.

Passenger and carry-on baggage screening stations, that are generally otherwise open, were closed, creating extended lines in the departure lounge. Nor did the actual screening process I went through appear to be any different to normal. The only difference was the creation of a large, vulnerable crowd left standing in the departure terminal.

And on Monday the situation appeared, if anything, worse, with crowds spilling onto the footpath. This creates a vulnerability to a vehicle-born attack.

Attacks on airport terminals have been occurring and should not be ruled out. In March 2016, three coordinated suicide bombings occurred in Belgium: two at Brussels Airport in Zaventem, and one at a central city rail station. The two suicide bombers carried large suitcases filled with explosives into the departure hall, killing 32 civilians and injuring more than 300 people.
Writer, political journalist and accomplished baker Annabel Crabb introduces her six-part exploration of Parliament House by explaining that the Canberra institution is "the most scrutinised structure on the continent and yet, paradoxically, it's also one of the most secret". She then sets off on an upstairs-downstairs tour, taking in the new arrivals to the 45th Parliament in 2016 and its official opening, as well as activities in the basement loading dock and a glimpse of the Midwinter Ball. Crabb is a good guide: vivacious and articulate, she makes the stream of information about the building and its history, rules and rituals lively and illuminating. Her collection of fab frocks appears to have been toned down to a more subdued basic black for this production, but there's no absence of colour as it's shot with an artful eye. DE

SBS Viceland, 8pm

Writer and comedian Adam Conover continues his investigations, which combine a light-hearted tone with serious debunking. In this episode, the target is weight-loss myths. Poor Sam is desperate to get in shape for his high-school reunion  a pool party, ugh  in order to impress the girl who once captured his heart. So he's initiated a concerted weight-loss campaign. Adam pops out of his fridge to demonstrate to him why his strategy  calorie counting, obsessive exercising, low-fat foods  is doomed to failure. Aided by a barrage of impressive statistics, the findings of a range of studies, and some snazzy graphics and animation, Adam details moves by the sugar industry over decades to demonise fats. He also manages to provide some more helpful strategies for happier, healthier living. Entertaining and informative. DE

movie Fantastic Four (2015)

Eleven, 8.30pm

Few critics liked this attempt to reboot the Marvel Comics title about a quartet of scientists and sidekicks whose experiments accidentally turn them into exotic superheroes. There are flaws, including the awkward insert of reshoots (you can spot them by the poor quality of Kate Mara's wig), but what I saw was an origin story where youthful connections endured and the thrill of discovery came with the cost of failure. Mara, Miles Teller (who has moments of soulful openness), Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Bell play the wayward four-piece, with Toby Kebbell as their colleague turned nemesis; his turn for the bad isn't entirely unexpected given that his character is named Victor Von Doom. Director Josh Trank hasn't worked since, but even if this fades out to merely set up sequels (that will never be made), it's a solemn, sometimes touching, superhero tale. CM
A $1 billion concessional loan to the controversial Adani Carmichael mine project in Queensland's Galilee Basin could expose taxpayers to a high risk of losing their money, according to an independent business analysis.

The economic assessment of the troubled project's outlook found the collapsing coal price, the uncertain global picture for thermal coal, and the $21.7 billion project's heavy reliance on external financing contributed to a high risk for taxpayers.

Among the problems was Adani's hope of using the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility to fund a key part of the project - a rail link to Abbot Point - while relying extensively for security on the availability of other, as yet unsecured, debt and equity financing.

The assessment was done by the business consulting firm, ACIL Allen, and commissioned by the Australian Conservation Foundation.
The move to legalise gay marriage in Australia is gaining momentum and likely to happen before the end of the year, with another government MP signalling he is willing to cross the floor to support change, and a Liberal senator warning failure to recognise marriage equality would be "political suicide."

On Monday, the federal Liberal MP for Brisbane, Trevor Evans, said he supported a free vote. His comments are being interpreted by supporters of gay marriage as a coded signal that he would be willing to cross the floor to help bring on a vote and force the issue to be dealt with by Parliament.

Mr Evans - who is openly gay - told News Corp the Coalition should dump its policy to hold a plebiscite on the issue given it has been rejected by Labor and the Greens in the Senate.
Visitors to two Queensland government offices in 1 William Street will be greeted by a robot, as part of a new trial.

The Department of Science, Information Technology and Innovation has partnered with cloud technology company Axalon to develop and trial a Google Home speaker called Eve to greet visitors at the reception it shares with the Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services.

A staff member using the Eve system at 1 William Street.

Innovation Minister Leeanne Enoch said the government saw an opportunity in Axalon's platform to use the Google Home artificial intelligence system to help visitors in 1 William Street.

Department of Science, Information Technology and Innovation director-general Jamie Merrick said Eve was a voice-enabled speaker, configured to have conversations with visitors.
According to the site's vice-president of communications, Paul Keable, the security breach has not been bothering the 12,000 people in Australia who have been signing up every month which have created about 17,000 unique connections successful matches.

However, some things, according to Ashley Madison, haven't changed and that is Australians' love affair with extramarital affairs, even after the online dating service had its data hacked in 2015 where details of its 36 millions users were leaked.

We've lost Prince and Bowie and the world is now captivated by a few dystopian, theocratic nightmares like The Handmaid's Tale and whatever is happening in the White House.

"We've done search research and found the terms 'have an affair' having continued to peak in Australia over the last couple of years," Keable said.

A joint investigation by Australia's Privacy Commissioner and its Canadian counterpart, which found the site's parent company didn't have the "appropriate safeguards" in place to protect the sensitive and personal information of its clients, is now complete and the deadline for Ashley Madison to implement the report's recommendations was Monday.

It's something Keable is confident the company has achieved and wants to let Australians seeking an affair know Ashley Madison is back. However he was coy to point out what new security measures have been implemented to ensure there is no sequel to the hack of 2015. Keable also said users will see a range of new administration features and security checks when logging into their accounts.

"What we sell is discretion. I won't outline exactly what we've done because that'll give the bad guys more information," he said.

The investigation also found a series of bots were found to be operating out of Australia in 2015, which have also been eradicated after "years of sinking research into the business and technology while implementing new security measures", Keable said.
A director of a tobacco company that is suspected of smuggling cigarettes has donated $400,000 to the Labor Party, possibly breaching NSW law and the ALP's own ban on taking tobacco industry funds.

Peter Chen, the sole Australian director of Sydney tobacco company ATA International, donated to the NSW and federal Labor parties via another of his companies, Wei Wah, which retails the cheap Chinese brand cigarettes ATA imports.

The revelations come as Labor's Senator Sam Dastyari, who oversaw one of Mr Chen's donations, has called for a ban on donations.

"I was one of the weapon suppliers in this [donations] arms race and responsible for fundraising  I'm telling you it needs to come to an end, and the time for that is now," Mr Dastyari told the ABC's Australian Story in an episode to be screened on Monday night.
Last year she was an outspoken opponent of the government's aborted bid to ban greyhound racing.

Ms Hodgkinson has been in the Parliament for 18 years, including as the minister for small business and the first female minister for primary industries.

Ms Hodgkinson informed the Nationals party room of her decision on Monday, putting it down to a "length-of-service" decision.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian faces yet another byelection within weeks, after Nationals MP Katrina Hodgkinson announced her retirement from Parliament.

Ms Hodgkinson's seat of Cootamundra is held on a margin of 20.4 per cent, but the Nationals will be nervous about a challenge from the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party, which took the seat of Orange from the party in a byelection last year.

"It's been a really challenging couple of years," Ms Hodgkinson told Fairfax Media.

"Every government faces its share of issue. It's wonderful to be in government but I feel the time is right to undertake some succession planning within the seat of Cootamundra and I would hope that as many members as possible who think they can do the job the community expects of them put their names forward to be preselected."

Ms Hodgkinson said any suggestion her decision was a vote of no confidence in Nationals leader John Barilaro or Ms Berejiklian was "blatantly untrue".

"I've had several discussions with both Gladys and John about this," she said. "They have both been very kind, because this is not an easy decision. Gladys and John have both been very generous."
Travellers planning to fly out of Sydney Airport in the forseeable future have been warned to expect lengthy waits, after huge queues of people snaked out of the domestic terminal T2 on Monday morning.

The queues - made up of people waiting to check in, and those in the baggage claim area - have been attributed to enhanced security measures, after an alleged plot to bring down a flight was uncovered at the weekend.

Domestic terminal T2, which handles Jetstar, Virgin and Tiger flights, was the worst-affected with a long line of passengers extending out the door and along the footpath.
Police are searching an area of bushland south-west of Sydney in a bid to find the body of 12-year-old schoolgirl Quanne Diec, allegedly murdered almost two decades ago.

The three-day search of dense bushland off Appin Road at Cataract starts on Monday, following information about the potential location of her body.

On Monday, Quanne's father Sam Diec visited the bushland site, where police were digging for her remains.

Addressing reporters, Detective Inspector Glen Parks said the search was a difficult time for the family.
"What they [residents] want to do is get the remaining cats behind the shopping centre to get them rehomed and not destroyed. "Council are not sending cats off to be rehomed, they are actually trapping them and destroying them." As a result of residents trying to rescue cats, a 49-year-old Acacia Ridge man is facing two counts of wilful damage after he allegedly attended an address on Boundary Road between 10.45pm on July 20 and midnight of July 21 and damaged a concrete block wall. It is understood the man believed cats had been trapped underneath the building and he had been trying to free them. Acacia Ridge Police Sergeant Kylie Doyle told Fairfax Media the man also allegedly smashed a window to a different building to look for cats late on July 23 and early on July 24.

Sergeant Doyle said police had also seen the man feeding cats in the area on July 17, which was reported to the council. The man was located at midnight on July 26, while feeding the cats, and arrested by police on the two wilful damage charges. The man is due to appear in Holland Park Magistrates court on August 31. "The actual feeding of the cats isn't a police matter," Sergeant Doyle said. "It's wasted a lot of our time because we're assisting the council and then his actions have now led to criminal activity as wilful damage is a crime.

"What he thinks is doing a good thing in feeding feral cats, it's actually now led to a crime." Sergeant Doyle said feeding a feral animal was an offence under the council's local laws. "We don't want to encourage it, we don't want anyone else to take up where he's left off," he said. "The council is removing the cats humanely in the interest of public safety ... we don't want anyone to start feeding the cats, it's just going to keep escalating the problem." Both the council and police were able to commence proceedings in court, and the man was already facing council-ordered proceedings in the Holland Park Magistrates Court.

Police said the man last appeared in court on March 17 where he was given conditions by the council to not go to the area or feed the cats. A council spokesman confirmed the man was facing two charges under the Land Protection (Pest and Stock Route Management) Act, 2002, for allegedly feeding a declared pest animal without reasonable excuse. "Feral cats spread disease and threaten native wildlife, including endangered species," the spokesman said. "Feral cats are declared as pests under the state government's Biosecurity Act and are required to be euthanised once captured. "In the past year, one cat captured at this site was identified as a domestic cat and was rehomed.

"Council is aware that some residents have been interfering with trapping programs, including interfering with traps and providing food to pest animals. "Feeding declared pest animals is an offence under the Biosecurity Act 2014 and anyone caught can be charged."



RSPCA Queensland spokesman Michael Beatty said one cat was taken from the Coopers Plains area to its Wacol facility on Saturday after residents alleged it was caught in a trap.



It was unclear if it was a trap set by council or by a resident. Ms Laskus said the residents trying to help the cats had an undeserving reputation. "It has all got out of hand because there are people on council who are definite cat haters ... the council has a big thing where they trap the cats and kill them," she said. "There has to be an ethical solution."
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has insisted the state's corruption watchdog has enough resources to deal with the mounting allegations arising from local government.

It comes after Fairfax Media revealed allegations former Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale used his mayoral car for chauffeur-driven trips to brothels and visits to backstreet massage parlours.

Annastacia Palaszczuk was asked if the crime watchdog had the resources it needed as allegations increase. Credit:AAP

When asked if a special inquiry into local government was needed, as suggested by member for Cairns Rob Pyne, Ms Palaszczuk said the matters were being dealt with by the Crime and Corruption Commission.

"It would be inappropriate for me to comment about those," she said.
A "last-minute" donation has saved a women's legal helpline, which helped about 2000 women a year, allowing the Brisbane-based service to continue assisting victims of domestic violence.

Doubts over government funding meant the Women's Legal Service Queensland, an Annerley-based community legal centre that was Queensland's largest provider of free legal and social work for women, was set to scale back its new domestic violence helpline.

Angela Lynch says the donation allowed the hotline to continue.

WLSQ chief executive Angela Lynch said more women than ever were coming forward to report cases of domestic violence.

"We are facing unprecedented demand in the community for our services because of the public conversation going on," she said.
The kayak belonging to a missing Japanese man has been found in the middle of Port Phillip Bay, adding to fears that he may not be found after authorities scaled back their search efforts on Monday.

Junichi Yoshimura, 41, has been missing since he launched his kayak from an Altona boat ramp, about 5am on Thursday.

On Monday, about 10.30am, the police helicopter found his abandoned yellow kayak in Port Phillip Bay, about 16 kilometres west of Edithvale.

"Water police have confirmed the kayak is that of the missing fisherman," Sergeant Cameron Scott said. "The search for the fisherman continues."
"It is also recognition of the number of women who have risen to the top in the most demanding of professions," she said.

In an article in the Commonwealth Law Review in 1908, Greig wrote about what her achievements would mean for other women in the profession:

"The first women lawyers are hardly likely to make fortunes. The pioneer never does. The first man that finds his way into the primeval forest exhausts his strength in clearing the ground; the second continues the work and sows the seed and erects the buildings; the third man comes along and reaps the profits of the others' labour," she wrote.

"Nevertheless the legal profession is likely to prove of increasing interest to women, not only for the facilities which it offers for earning a living, but also for the knowledge that is to be acquired thereby."

Today, more women graduate from Victorian law schools than men. They are also admitted as lawyers in higher numbers.
And here's today's big story - for the first time ever, the Australian Human Rights Commission has released national data on the prevalence rates of sexual assault within university communities.

Nina Funnell and Sharna Bremner write:

For some, the results will be shocking. For many others the results merely confirm what we've known for decades: that young women experience frightening levels of sexual violence, particularly in their university years.

Irrespective of what you hear in the public statements, news coverage and media releases, today belongs to the university sexual assault survivors, students, activists and their families. We didn't arrive here because of the "bravery" of universities, or the "courage" of vice-chancellors, as was suggested at the launch in August last year.
A 104-year-old tourist attraction in the goldfields town of Castlemaine is closing, with little notice, next week in what has been described as a "kick in the guts" to the Australian arts community.

Paintings by Australian masters including Frederick McCubbin and Arthur Streeton will be placed in storage when the Castlemaine Art Museum closes its doors, and five employees will be laid off.

Art consultant Louise Smith and friends who want to save the Castlemaine Art Museum. Credit:Darrian Traynor

Shocked and saddened supporters have started a campaign to save the museum after its board announced it has insufficient funds to operate.

The town could be without one of its major tourist attractions until 2019, but no official timeline has been given for reopening.



The gallery has hosted exhibitions by big name artists such as Ben Quilty, Bill Henson and Patricia Piccinini, exhibits many local artists' works, and holds priceless gold rush heritage items.
Police in the southern Philippines killed 15 people, including a city mayor, days after president Rodrigo Duterte ordered them to escalate a crackdown on drugs that has left thousands of Filipinos dead.

The early morning assault on three homes linked to Reynaldo Parojinog in the port city of Ozamiz, on Mindanao island, was the bloodiest assault yet in the crackdown that has been condemned by the United States, United Nations and human rights groups.

Senate opposition leader Franklin Drilon questioned the circumstances of the attack on Parojinog's home and pointed out that the deaths of two other mayors were subsequently found to be "rub-outs."

But Ozamiz police chief Jovie Espenido told Associated Press that police with a warrant went to the houses "to enforce the law to protect people who want peace in the country."
Dublin: The Sunday Times of London has fired the writer of an op-ed article denouncing the campaign by women of the British Broadcasting Corp. for equal pay after the column sparked widespread accusations that it was anti-Semitic and misogynistic.

The move came after the article, by Kevin Myers, an Irish journalist with a record of provocative right-wing statements, was pulled from its website and the editor of The Sunday Times and the editor of the paper's Irish edition apologised for the column.

Framing his piece as an attack on the push to close the pay gap at the BBC, Myers wrote:

"I note that two of the best-paid women presenters in the BBC -- Claudia Winkelman and Vanessa Feltz, with whose, no doubt, sterling work I am tragically unacquainted -- are Jewish. Good for them. Jews are not generally noted for their insistence on selling their talent for the lowest possible price, which is the most useful measure there is of inveterate, lost-with-all-hands stupidity. I wonder, who are their agents? If they're the same ones that negotiated the pay for the women on the lower scales, then maybe the latter have found their true value in their marketplace."
Owner occupied (June) Owner occupied (May) Investor (June) Investor (May) ANZ $165.0 $163.3 $82.8 $82.5 CBA $277.3 $276.7 $138.7 $139.3 NAB $141.4 $140.4 $103.4 $102.7 Westpac $241.3 $239.4 $146.8 $145.2

Owner occupied (June) Owner occupied (May) Investor (June) Investor (May) AMP Bank $9.2 $8.9 $2.9 $2.9 Bank of Queensland $16.1 $15.9 $11.2 $11.2 Bendigo and Adelaide Bank $22.9 $22.9 $11.8 $11.9 ING Bank $32.8 $32.6 $9.6 $9.5 Macquarie Bank $18.8 $18.5 $8.6 $8.6 ME Bank $12.4 $12.1 $5.3 $5.2 Suncorp $28.8 $28.5 $11.8 $11.7

The total volume of residential lending amongst the banks, including owner occupier and investor loans, has shot past $1.57trn, according to the newest figures from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA).The regulators latest Monthly Banking Statistics show that total lending increased by $9.8bn (or 0.6%) between May and June.Owner occupier loans sat at just over $1trn and represented 64.8% of total loans as of June. This was an increase of $7.4bn (or 0.7%) from the month before.The remaining $552bn (or 35.2% of total lending) was made up of investment loans  an increase of $2.4bn (or 0.4%) from the previous month.The big four banks held $1.3trn in residential lending in June or 82.6% of the total banking market share. Of this, $825bn was in owner occupier loans while $472bn was in investment lending.The individual figures for lending at the big four banks are found below with each number listed in billions of dollars:Growth was seen in owner occupier and investment lending across all major banks.The following non-major lenders also reported a significant number of owner occupier and investor loans with all figures once more listed in billions of dollars:For the second tier banks, owner occupier lending rose for all except Bendigo and Adelaide Bank which remained relatively stable. Levels of investment lending were a little more uneven with AMP, Bank of Queensland and Macquarie Bank remaining basically unchanged, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank decreasing, and ING Bank, ME Bank and Suncorp all increasing.
Over 1,200 mail-in votes added to Montco totals; Bucks still in limbo

Two of Montgomery County's three commissioners said they did not support disenfranchising more than 1,200 voters because of a handful of rule breakers
State Senator Steve Santarsiero (D-10) presented a check to Yardley Borough Police Chief Joseph Kelly for $68,600 for the purchase of a new police vehicle and motorcycle during a visit to the station. Our police put themselves on the line every day to keep our community safe, said Sen. Santarsiero. Dating back to when I was a Lower Makefield Township Supervisor more than...
World leaders in geographic information science speaking at UB conference

Universitys status as an academic GIS leader helped attract event

In addition to showcasing UBs leadership in geographic information sciences, this conference also spotlights how UBs international students make an impact both locally and globally. Partnerships such as CPGIS foster long-term and mutually beneficial relationships between UB and its international partners. 

BUFFALO, N.Y.  In 1992, University at Buffalo graduate students brought top geographic information scientists to Western New York for what would become the first inaugural International Conference on Geoinformatics.

The conference led to the formation of the International Association of Chinese Professionals in Geographic Information Sciences (CPGIS).

Now, 25 years later, as UB continues to play a leading role advancing geographic information science worldwide, the conference returns to Western New York from Aug. 2-4, giving leading scientists a forum to discuss the latest trends in GIS.

We have eight world-class scholars coming to speak, said Ling Bian, PhD, director of the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA) at UB and professor of geography in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Bian is organizing the conference with fellow UB faculty members Le Wang, PhD, professor of geography, and Li Yin, PhD, associate professor of urban and regional planning in the School of Architecture and Planning; and Laura Mangan at the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development.

GIS is the field of research that combines maps with data. It includes disciplines such as geography, information science, computer science and more. Since the 1970s, UB has been a leading institution in GIS research and education.

In 1988, UBs Department of Geography was chosen as one of three sites nationally for the NCGIA, an independent research consortium founded in the same year with support from the U.S. National Science Foundation.

The designation helped attract to UB faculty and students from around the world, including the founding members of the CPGIS, which has evolved into a globally influential GIS organization that publishes its own peer-reviewed journal. Many CPGIS members are now leaders in academia, business and government agencies.

In addition to showcasing UBs leadership in geographic information sciences, this conference also spotlights how UBs international students make an impact both locally and globally. Partnerships such as CPGIS foster long-term and mutually beneficial relationships between UB and its international partners, said Stephen Dunnett, UB vice provost for international education.

In a nod to the first International Conference on Geoinformatics, Dunnett will open the conference, just as he did 25 years ago when the CPGIS was formed.

The eight keynote speakers at this years conference include members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the U.K. Royal Society, and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

The conferences keynote speakers are:

Luc Anselin, University of Chicago and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

Michael Batty, University College London and a fellow of The Royal Society in the U.K.

Jing M. Chen, University of Toronto and a fellow in the Royal Society of Canada.

Jianya Gong, Wuhan University and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Michael Goodchild, University of California, Santa Barbara, and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

Huadong Guo, Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Deren Li, Wuhan University and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Anthony Yeh, University of Hong Kong and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The conference is open to the public, and registration is required at the conference website.
Ridgeons has raised over 8,000 for East Anglia Childrens Hospices (EACH) in support of the charitys EACHfest fundraising initiative.

The employees at Ridgeons 26 local branches across Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire created their own local fundraising festivals in July, which were enjoyed by colleagues, customers and trade suppliers.

They held bake sales, treasure hunts, raffles, bucket collections and exercise bike challenges, to name just a few of the activities.

The top fundraising branch was Ridgeons in Pampisford, Cambridgeshire, where 1,750 was raised through sponsored shaves and leg waxing. Keith Bane, Branch Manager, who had sported his moustache for over 30 years, had it shaved off to raise funds for the charity while Bob Mortimer, Assistant Manager, also had his beloved beard of three years shaved off. Two other colleagues, Ryan Kent and Chris Laurie, bravely had their legs and eyebrows waxed.

The 26 local branches of Ridgeons have set a goal of raising 30,000 over a two- year period. The East Anglia Childrens Hospices care for 368 children and young people with a life-threatening condition and support 459 family members.

Ian Northen, Chief Executive, Ridgeons, said: The Ridgeons colleagues in our local branches very much enjoyed raising vital funds for East Anglia Childrens Hospices during the EACHfest festival campaign. Thanks also go to all our customers and suppliers who joined in the fun and helped raise such a big amount. The branches have made an incredible start in their campaign to raise 30,000.

Karen Newton, Fundraising Manager for EACH, said: We are thrilled that such a big amount has been raised in such a short space of time by all the Ridgeons branches and we are looking forward to continuing our relationship with Ridgeons throughout their fundraising campaign.
With more women's sports on TV, more fans are tuning in
Local children are being invited to join an Animal Agents themed reading challenge at Burnham-On-Sea and Highbridge libraries.

Children can sign up for the libraries Summer Reading Challenge 2017, which asks 4-11 year olds to borrow and read any six library books during the summer holidays, a time when childrens literacy skills traditionally dip.

This years theme is Animal Agents, based on a detective agency staffed by all kinds of clever animals  furry, scaly and slippery  who are out to crack a case at the library with a little help from their friends.

Tony Ross, the UKs best-selling childrens illustrator (creator of the Little Princess books, illustrator of the Horrid Henry series by Francesca Simon, and of books by David Walliams and Claire Balding), has created this years exclusive artwork.

To take part in Animal Agents, all children need to do is to head to their local library where they will be given a collector folder to keep a record of their reading journey.

As children read at least six library books over the summer, they collect stickers which will help them crack the clues and help the Animal Agents find out whats really been going on behind the scenes!

Animal Agents launched in the two local libraries on 15th July and runs until 9th September 2017.

Theres a whole programme of events and activities planned at Somerset libraries for families over the summer to celebrate the Summer Reading Challenge. Just contact your local library or go to www.somerset.gov.uk/libraries to find out how to take part.

Wed like to make this the best year ever and increase the number of children signing up and completing this years amazing Animal Agents Reading Challenge, said Nathan Crook, Library Supervisor at Burnham, Cheddar & Highbridge Libraries.

Sue Wilkinson, CEO of The Reading Agency, added: At The Reading Agency, we believe that everything changes when we read and we know from our research how much fun families and children have when taking part in the Challenge.

This year we hope the wonderful characters created for us by Tony Ross will inspire more children than ever to take part and make use of their local library throughout the summer and beyond.

The Reading Agency is the leading national charity inspiring people of all ages and backgrounds to read for pleasure and wellbeing. Working with partners such as the public library service, our aim is to make reading accessible to everyone. The Reading Agency is funded by the Arts Council.

The Reading Agency runs the annual Summer Reading Challenge in partnership with the Society of Chief Librarians. This national reading for pleasure programme is now in its 19th year.

Last year over three quarters of a million children across the UK took part by borrowing, reading and talking about their favourite books.
Aiming to increase its cement production capacity from the current 15.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to nearly 20 mtpa in the next five years, is planning a four mtpa project in Mukutban (Yavatmal district), Maharashtra.
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beat street estimates as it improved margins by cutting costs and focusing on efficiency. At the same time, the fifth largest IT services firm has been pushing for more digital deals, which now contributes to over 22 per cent of its revenues, says Vineet Nayyar, vice chairman, in an interview with Romita Majumdar. Edited excerpts:
is working on commercialisation of graphene, an advanced material and considered to be a superb conductor. The first product is in the market.
Amid the military stand-off with India in Doklam, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday said the Chinese army is capable of defeating invading enemies.

Addressing the military parade to mark the 90th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army at Zhurihe in Inner Mongolia, Xi, who was clad in military fatigues, said he wanted the world's largest army to be the strongest to safeguard global peace.

"I firmly believe that our gallant military has both confidence and ability to defeat all invading enemies," said Xi, who commands the world's largest army of 2.3 million.

China's state-run media, experts, and former diplomats have denounced as "invasion" the presence of Indian troops in Doklam, which is disputed between Bhutan and China.

In June, Indian troops had stopped the PLA from constructing a road in Doklam, which is also claimed by its ally Bhutan. This triggered stand-off, which is now in its second month.

China has repeatedly asked India to pull back troops and threatened military conflict if New Delhi didn't do so.

In his speech at the parade, which was held for the first time on Army Day since the founding of the People's Republic of China, Xi said the PLA was combat-ready.

"Our military has the confidence and ability to write a new chapter in building a strong military and make new contributions towards the realisation of China's dream of great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and safeguarding world peace," he said in the address aired by the state media.

Inspecting the troops from an open-top jeep at China's largest military base Zhurihe, Xi said the Communist Party of China and the Chinese people all take pride in the PLA.

Salute to you, comrades," Xi called out to the soldiers from the jeep.

"Hail to you, chairman," they replied.

Xi is the Chairman of the Central Military Commission, the PLA's controlling body.

More than 12,000 service personnel from the army, navy, air force, armed police as well as the newly-formed rocket force and strategic support troops, took part in the parade.

Formations of conventional missiles, nuclear missiles and missiles for both nuclear and conventional strikes were displayed to show the country's capacity to deter, fight, restrain and win battles, said China's official news agency Xinhua.

Cutting-edge weapons like J-20 stealth aircraft, 8X8 all-terrain vehicles, radar-and-communication jamming drones and solid-fuel intercontinental missiles were among about 600 pieces of military hardware on show.

"Officers and soldiers, you must unswervingly stick to the fundamental principle and system of the Party's absolute leadership over the Army, always listen to and follow the Party's orders, and march to wherever the Party points to," said Xi.

After the Communist Party, the PLA is China's second most powerful institution.

"The world is not all at peace, and peace must be safeguarded," he said Xi.

In 2015, Xi, who favours a lean army, announced a reduction of 300,000 troops.

This month, an online news portal run by the PLA said the present force of 2.3 million will be whittled down to below 1 million.

The PLA was founded on August 1, 1927 by the Communists against the Kuomintang regime. The Communists eventually won the civil war, leading to the birth of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949.

--IANS

gsh/vd
APJ Abdul Kalam

However, in latest development, leader of a local Hindu outfit objected to the placing of Quran and Bible near the statue on the ground that "no permission was taken" for the same.

Hours later, officials manning the memorial, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 27, kept the Bible and Quran in a glass box in the vicinity of the statue.

Hindu Makkal Katchi leader K Prabhakaran filed a police complaint claiming that the two holy books (of Quran and Bible) were placed without permission from authorities.

"I respect all these books. But keeping them (in the memorial) without permission is wrong. Steps should be taken to see that such things are not done again," he told reporters.

Vaiko-led MDMK and the PMK have raised questions on the need for keeping the engraved 'Bhagavad Gita' alongside the wooden statue of Kalam playing the musical instrument 'veena' in the Rs 15 crore memorial, designed and built by the Defence Research and Development Agency with which Kalam was associated for a long time.

Meanwhile, Kalam's relatives Sheik Dawood and Salim told PTI earlier today, "An unnecessary controversy was raised by some people. DRDO officials worked tirelessly for the memorial construction and had not sculpted the Bhagavad Gita near the statue with any (ill) intention. Now we have left two books -- Quran and Bible near the statue".

They said they would also place a copy of Tamil treatise 'Thirukkural' near the statue soon.

They said Kalam was a leader to all Indians and no one should seek to politicise the issue.

An MDMK spokesperson said party founder Vaiko had already questioned the need for a Bhagavad Gita there, when Kalam used to refer only from 'Thirukkural'.

A PMK leader, who did not wish to be named, also questioned the need for sculpting the wooden piece with the name of 'Bhagavad Gita', saying Kalam was common to all citizens of India.

The memorial at Peikarambu, inaugurated on the second death anniversary of the popular scientist at his home town here, also has on display a replica of rockets and missiles on which the late scientist had worked.

Besides, about 900 paintings and 200 rare photographs of Kalam, who held the office of president from 2002 to 2007, are on display at the memorial.
The Congress Party on Sunday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of buying and threatening their MLAs in Gujarat for Rs 15 crore and paraded its 44 MLAs who are camping in Bengaluru.

Addressing a press conference here, senior Congress MLA from Gujarat Shaktisinh Gohil said, "Ask these MLAs the way they are threatened, they chose to stand by the party even when offered Rs 15 crore."

He said BJP is doing horse-trading and we are trying to protect the democracy.

"BJP is hitting below the belt; we are fighting to protect democracy. We have required numbers. There is no need for us to stay here (Bengaluru) for even a minute if they (BJP) say, they won't threaten," Gohil said.

Hitting back at the BJP, the Congress leader further said, "When there was a flood in Banaskantha, my MLAs were there with people but no BJP minister, leader or chief minister was there."

Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani had accused the Congress party of being insensitive and irresponsible, and said that they have sent their 40 MLAs to stay in a 5-star hotel in Bengaluru, while Gujarat is facing floods.

Gohil further said that they have also managed to establish contact with seven Congress MLAs, who were reportedly inaccessible.

"Seven MLAs (Member of Legislative Assembly) are in our contact, their conscience is awakening. We have requested them not to come in people's tricky ways, stick to the party," Gohil Said.

Earlier, the Congress had said that BJP is using "money, muscle and state power" to engineer defections, after at least six of its MLAs (Member of Legislative Assembly) had resigned from the party to join the BJP.

The party on July 28 flew 44 of its MLAs to Bengaluru to stop more of them from switching over to the BJP.
A court here on Monday issued summons to app-based cab service providers, including Ola and Uber, for allegedly not adhering to rules relating to fares.

Metropolitan Magistrate Abhilash Malhotra asked the company to represent itself by the authorised representative on the next date of hearing, December 11.

The court order came on a complaint filed by an NGO Nyayabhoomi through its secretary Rakesh Agarwal.

The complaint was filed against ANI Technologies Pvt Ltd which runs Ola, Uber India Systems Pvt Ltd and the Serendipity Infolabs Pvt Ltd which runs 'Taxi For Sure'.

"Prima facie, it is clear that excess fare has been charged by the respondent company in violation of Motor Vehicles (MV) Act notification dated June 20, 2013 as well as City Taxi Scheme (CTS)," the court said.

"Accordingly, prima facie of permit violation under section 192A of MV Act is made out," the court said.

The NGO has sought recovery of a whopping Rs 91,000 crore from cab service providers for allegedly not adhering to rules relating to fares and not operating by meters.

It had sought lodging of an FIR alleging that by providing taxi and auto rickshaw services, they were violating permit conditions which amounted to commission of offences under sections 66 and 192A of the MV Act.
The last date for filing of (ITRs) for the financial year 2016-17 will not be extended beyond today's (July 31) deadline, a top official said on Sunday.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy on Monday condemned the Congress Party's act of locking its MLAs in the wake of the horse-trading allegations and said it may happen that the grand old party distributes money to their leaders to remain loyal to the party.

"This act of the Congress Party indicates that they are trying to hide the nefarious activities of their MLAs and can distribute money to them to remain loyal to the party," Swamy told ANI.

Swamy said there is no use of locking the MLAs in a different state and the Congress Party cannot excuse themselves by saying that this has been done by other parties as well in the past.

"The MLAs could be congregated at one place, to ensure that they are not absent at the time of voting, but locking them up is not correct," he said.

Earlier on Sunday, the Congress accused the BJP of buying and threatening their MLAs in Gujarat for Rs. 15 crore and paraded its 44 MLAs who are camping here.

Addressing a press conference, senior Congress MLA from Gujarat Shaktisinh Gohil said, "Ask these MLAs the way they are threatened, they chose to stand by party even when offered Rs. 15 crore."

The Congress had said that the BJP is using "money, muscle and state power" to engineer defection, after at least six of its MLAs had resigned from the party to join the BJP.

The party on July 28 flew 44 of its MLAs to Bengaluru to stop more of them from switching over to the BJP.

In this backdrop, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday sought an enquiry report from the Chief Secretary of Gujarat over the allegations made by the Congress.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday suggested the victory of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Democrat Alliance in 2019 Lok Sabha polls was a foregone conclusion as "nobody has the strength to take on the prime minister."
The Patna High Court on Monday dismissed two petitions challenging formation of the new government by Nitish Kumar's JD(U) along with the BJP, saying no intervention of the court is required after floor test in the state Assembly.

The two PILs had challenged the formation of the new government on the ground that it had violated the judgement in the S R Bommai case.

After hearing all parties, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice A K Upadhyay dismissed the two PILs saying, after floor test in the state Assembly, no intervention of the court is required.

While one PIL was filed by RJD MLAs Saroj Yadav and Chandan Verma, the second PIL was filed by Jitendra Kumar who is a member of the Samajwadi Party.

On Friday last, the court had adjourned the matter for today.

The new Nitish Kumar government, in which NDA is a coalition partner, had comfortably won the trust vote on Friday last. While the ruling alliance got 131 votes, the opposition had secured 108 votes in the vote of confidence.

B C Pandey and Bhupendra Kumar Singh, lawyers on behalf of the petitioners, argued before the court that RJD, the single largest party, was not given a chance for government formation in violation of the Supreme Court judgement in the S R Bommai case and hence the oath of office and secrecy taken by ministers of the new government should be cancelled.

While Advocate General Lalit Kishore appeared on behalf of the state government, Y V Giri was the governor's counsel and the Union government was represented by S D Sanjay.

Y V Giri argued before the court that once the floor test is conducted, nothing else remains as the party clearly proved its majority on the floor of the House.

The new government had furnished a list of 131 MLAs in support of the new government and they acquired the same number of votes during the confidence vote on Friday last which justified the governor's decision to call them for forming a government, Giri said.

He told the court that the same procedure was followed recently in formation of government in Goa.

After hearing all the parties, the bench observed that no intervention was required.

On Friday last, lawyers of the petitioners had mentioned the two cases ahead of the crucial confidence vote and had prayed to the judge to cancel the trust vote since it violated the judgement in the S R Bommai case.

The lawyers had also prayed to the court to issue a directive to invite the leader of the single largest party to form the government.

Principal Additional Advocate General Lalit Kishore and Additional Solicitor General S D Sanjay had termed the PILs on July 28 last as "frivolous".
Though lower goods and services tax (GST) rates have boosted sales of auto LPG, the industry bodies want the fuel to be taxed at 5 percent, at par with compressed natural gas (CNG).
Brazil and the European Union (EU) have come together on a full blown offensive at the World Trade Organization (WTO) against in developing nations in response to a similar joint move by India and China.
The battle between India and Iran over Farzad B block has further intensified. Iran is now coming out with fresh statement that it is under no obligation to award the contract to India.
Have you filed your tax returns already? If you haven't, this is the last day to file your returns for 2016-17 financial year or assessment year 2017-18.



Keeping in view the government's inclination towards technology, the filing of returns has become speedy and hassle-free exercise for the citizens.



Here is how you can file your ITR online
Oil marketing companies like Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) have started increasing the prices of cooking gas by Rs 4 per cylinder as part of the phase-wise decontrol of the fuel.
The government still relies on the appeal of actor Amitabh Bachchan for marketing and selling the goods and services tax (GST) to the masses.

However, when it comes to the nitty-gritty of clarifying the tax structure or evolving a consensus on emerging issues, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia, Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) Chairperson Vanaja N Sarna, and Network Chairperson Navin Kumar take centre stage.

Complementing these efforts, Jaitley's colleagues in the Council of Ministers  such as Piyush Goyal, Suresh Prabhu, Smriti Irani, Nitin Gadkari, Jayant Sinha, Nirmala Sitharaman  went all out to allay apprehensions about the new tax regime among stakeholders.

The biggest issues that created apprehension were the difficulties faced by the small and medium enterprises, traders, and dealers when it comes to registering on the GSTN, generating invoices, and getting input tax credit.

Apart from industry-specific grievances, there is lack of clarity among businesses on how the anti-profiteering provisions will play out.

Sample the reactiveness of the governments Team GST:

When a message was going out that cigarettes would become less costly or their makers would corner higher margins under the regime than in the earlier taxation system, Jaitley convened an out-of-turn meeting of the Council to address the issue. Short of time, the meeting was held through video-conferencing. Even then, it reached a consensus to raise fixed cess on cigarettes.

Similarly, when reports came in about the cumbersome process of uploading returns, which made SMEs wary of the new system, Adhia went on national television to bust seven myths surrounding the issue.

For this purpose, he took to the Twitter handle  GST@GoI  specifically created to seek feedback from the stakeholders and clarify their queries.

He busted several myths, including the need for a computer and internet facility to generate invoices, or need to file three returns a month by everyone registered under the GST, among others. He went on to clarify that invoices could be generated manually as well and there is only one return to be filed that has three parts, of which the first part is to be filed by the registered person and two other parts are auto populated by the IT system.

Navin Kumar explained the steps those registering on the portal should take to avoid any problem. He allayed fears of crash of the GST portal due to information overload. "The GST portal is not down. It is up and running. Let me assure you that the portal has never crashed since it was opened on June 25, he reiterated in an interview.

However, the portal did need to stop the registration process briefly for software deployment and maintenance. "This is done only at night with due notice at the website," he clarified.

Teaming up with tax officials and IT executives, Adhia held GST Master Ki Class for three days each, in Hindi and English, to answer queries from all over India. Questions ranged from those on the composition scheme, inter-state supplies, the threshold for exemption for inter-state movements of goods, the need for filing separate returns in each state, the need of displaying on bills that one is on the composition scheme, tax on sale of used jewellery by households, eating out becoming expensive under the GST regime, and so on. He patiently clarified many of the issues.

When textile traders in Surat went on strike against the GST structure, the revenue department, including the CBEC, came up with a clarification as to why the rate of 5 per cent imposed on apparel could be brought to zero. It would hamper input credit to the segment, it clarified.

Sarna stood firm, saying the rates would not be revised unless there was an anomaly or the rates were unjustified. But, she also tried to accommodate some of the textile sector's demands. "It is an issue that has snowballed but it is not something which cannot be settled," she said, reaching out to the sector through a platform provided by the Confederation of Indian Industry. It is expected that some of the current concerns of industry could be taken up at the GST Council meeting on August 5.

Another pet peeve of industry has been about the proposed anti-profiteering body. The CBEC chairperson assured India Inc. that the yet-to-be-set-up body will take up only those cases which have a mass impact and where undue profit of over Rs 1 crore has been earned.
Those willing to join the police force of Bihar state, theres the opportunity. The Central Selection Board of Constable (CSBC) has released the official notification about recruitment of 9900 constables in the Bihar police department. Applicants can check it out on the official site of CSBC. The Bihar Police Recruitment Board Applications are now invited online in the prescribed form. Keep in mind the process of application submission will be through the online mode only. The prescribed forms are available on the website from July 31, 2017 to August 20, 2017. Check out the official notification here.
The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) as per tentative schedule will be taking the exam for Central Industrial Security Force Assistant Commandant Executive Limited Departmental Competitive Exam. The exam is conducted in order to recruit Assistant Commandants (Executive) in Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). An aspiring candidate should have completed four years of regular service in the rank of Sub-Inspector (GD)/Inspector (GD) including the period of basic training. The CISF provides security cover to nuclear installations, space establishments, airports, seaports, power plants, sensitive Government buildings and ever heritage monuments. Among the important responsibilities recently entrusted to the CISF are the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, VIP Security, Disaster Management and establishment of a Formed Police Unit (FPU) of the UN at Haiti. Also, it provides protection against Fire hazards.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor S S Mundra told they should get affirmation from a customer before passing on a service, instead of waiting for a negative confirmation to come from the customer for a service that the keep on bundling silently. Recently, this had become a major issue with one bank as the private lender started charging a customer for a service he never asked for. The excuse of the bank was that the customer did not explicitly ask the bank to stop the service.
Branding Strategy for Export Oriented Indian Products

Indias Foreign Trade Policy Statement released in 2015emphasises the need of a branding strategy. The India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) established by the Department of Commerce works closely with stakeholders across government and industry to promote and create international awareness of the Indian products and services in overseas markets. IBEF has undertaken focused branding activities for sectors namely engineering, pharma, plantations (tea, coffee and spices), services, textiles and leather. This is done through a 360o branding approach including onsite branding, advertising in media, digital marketing including social media, PR, knowledge kits and revamping the websites of many export promotion councils. IBEF actively works with Indian missions abroad for its branding activities in overseas events and also supports them with knowledge works and branding collaterals.

Department of Commerce encourages participation of exporters, export promotion councils, trade associations etc. in International Trade Fairs, Expos etc.

India Trade Promotion Organization (ITPO) is the trade promotion agency of the Department of Commerce. ITPO has finalized participation in 31 overseas exhibitions for 2017-18. Based on the proposals submitted by the Export Promotion Councils/Trade Promotion Organizations, an annual plan for organizing participation of exporters in various international fairs and expos is drawn and supported under the Market Access Initiative (MAI) scheme by Department of Commerce.255 proposals for export promotion activities/events in India and abroad for 2017-18 have been approved for assistance under MAI scheme. No targets of earning from such events are fixed.

This information was given by the Commerce and Industry Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman in a written reply in Lok Sabha today
The Border Security Force (BSF) signed an MoU with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) here today in the presence of MoS (Independent Charge) Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Kiren Rijiju. The MoU will enable NSDC to provide Skill training to retired and retiring BSF personnel, as well as to the population residing in the border areas. .

.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Rudy said Skill Development remained an ignored aspect until the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi created the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship two and a half years ago, soon after the NDA Government came to power. Suffering from colonial legacy, Skill Development remained a neglected sector while the Human Resource Development focus remained confined to imparting academic education, Shri Rudy said. Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) came to be regulated by the National Council for Vocational Training, an advisory body set up by the Government of India in the year 1956, and today the ITIs cater to around 23 lakh students at any point of time, he said. But this alone is not sufficient and there is much more demand for skilled workforce that the NSDC aims to bridge, he added. .

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In his address, Director General, BSF, Shri KK Sharma said todays agreement will enable the retiring BSF personnel to live a more productive life and contribute to nation-building. .

.

Following are the objectives of the MoU: .

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(a) To contribute to the Skill Development Agenda of the country by ensuring the successful roll out of NSQF (National Skill Qualification Framework) based skill training to the retiring or retired BSF personnel and local population at the area of deployment through NSQF compliant training programmes at multi-skill development centres run by BSF. This will help in meeting the aspirations of the stakeholders for training and employment. .

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(b) This collaboration aims to train and provide gainful employment to retired BSF personnel and their families, school students, youth, differently abled for five years starting from April 2017 to April 2022. .

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(c) The project will be of a limited time period i.e. (5 years) and in mission mode. As such, the curriculum development and capacity building will be encouraged to enable the model to be self-sustaining over time. .

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(d) The programme will be appropriately named keeping the objectives in view and will have BSF co-branding with Skill India and NSDC. .

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Shri Rajesh Agrawal, Joint Secretary, MSDE & Chief Executive Officer (CEO) from National Skill Development Fund (NSDF), Shri Manish Kumar, CEO from NSDC and senior officers of the Ministry of Home Affairs and BSF were present during the MoU sgning ceremony. .

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The Government lays special focus on imparting employment-oriented education, motivate students to be socially aware and responsible citizens, to inculcate a spirit of dignity of labour among the youth and commitment for social upliftment. The Government has notified National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) to enable a person to acquire desired competency levels, transit to the job market and at an opportune time, return for acquiring additional skills to further upgrade their competencies and ensure holistic development. .

.

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has taken several initiatives such as National Employment Enhancement Mission (NEEM) and Employment Enhancement Training Programme (EETP) for improving the employability of the students coming out of the technical institutions. Recently, AICTE has signed MOUs under EETP program with leading private companies for creating job opportunities for the students. Apart from this, AICTE Council has approved a host of measures like mandatory internships, curriculum revision in consultation with Industry and industry-readiness training at the end of the course to improve the employability of the students coming out of the technical institutions. .

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University Grants Commission (UGC) has started schemes such as Community Colleges, B.Voc. degree programme, Deen Dayal Upadhaya KAUSHAL Kendras in Universities and Colleges so as to enhance employability of students and make them industry-ready. .

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This Ministry, through UGC, is also implementing the scheme Career Oriented Courses to impart knowledge, skills and aptitude for gainful employment in wage sector in general and self employment in particular to candidates taking these courses so as to reduce the pressure on institutions of higher learning for Master Degree. The courses offered are in the form of Certificate / Diploma / Advance Diploma which students may opt parallel to their conventional B.A / B.Com/ B.Sc. degrees. .

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Further, the UGC has requested the Vice-Chancellors of all the Universities in the country to ensure review and revision of academic curricula of various programmes offered by them and by their affiliated colleges at least once in every three years. UGC has recommended that while undertaking such review and revision of academic curricula, the Universities should consider the existing and potential demand and supply of skill sets to make University/College students employable. .

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This information was given by the Minister of State (HRD), Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey today in a written reply to a Lok Sabha question. .

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Promoting Indias Tourism Potential Abroad

The Ministry of Tourism, as part of its on-going activities, regularly releases print, electronic, online and outdoor media campaigns in the international markets, under the Incredible India" brand-line, to promote various tourism destinations and products of India with the objective of increasing foreign tourist arrivals to the country. The Ministry also promotes various tourism destinations and products through its website and publicity and promotional material produced from time to time. These promotional activities are being undertaken by the 14 India Tourism Offices based in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris, Milan, Dubai, Johannesburg, Sydney, Beijing, Singapore and Tokyo.

In addition, a series of promotional activities are undertaken in important and potential tourist generating markets overseas through the India Tourism Offices abroad with the objective of showcasing Indias tourism potential and promoting tourism to the country. These promotional activities include participation in travel fairs and exhibitions; organising Road Shows, Know India" seminars & workshops; organizing and supporting Indian food festivals; publication of brochures, offering joint advertising and brochure support, and inviting media personalities, tour operators and opinion makers to visit the country under the Hospitality Programme of the Ministry.

Financial support is also extended under the Marketing Development Assistance Scheme to approved service providers and State Governments/Union Territories for promotional activities undertaken by them in the overseas markets including Sales-cum- study tours, participation in Fairs/Exhibitions and Road Shows and production of publicity material, Sales Tours etc.

For development of tourism infrastructure in the country, the Ministry of Tourism has launched two schemes in 2014-15 i.e.

Swadesh Darshan - Integrated Development of Theme-Based Tourist Circuits and PRASAD- Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Augmentation Drive.

Under Swadesh Darshan scheme the focus is on development of theme based tourist circuits in the country in a planned and prioritized manner on the principles of high tourist value, competitiveness, sustainability, enriching tourist experience and to enhance employment opportunities. Under this Scheme, thirteen thematic circuits have been identified for development namely; North-East India Circuit, Buddhist Circuit, Himalayan Circuit, Coastal Circuit, Krishna Circuit, Desert Circuit, Tribal Circuit, Eco Circuit, Wildlife Circuit, Rural Circuit, Spiritual Circuit, Ramayana Circuit and Heritage Circuit. As on 30.06.2017, the Ministry has sanctioned 63 projects for Rs.5309.95 crore under the Swadesh Darshan Scheme.

Under PRASAD Scheme a total number of sites identified at present are 25 viz., Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh), Amritsar (Punjab), Ajmer (Rajasthan), Ayodhya (Uttar Pradesh), Badrinath (Uttarakhand), Belur (West Bengal), Dwarka (Gujarat), Deoghar (Jharkhand), Gaya (Bihar) , Guruvayoor (Kerala), Hazratbal (Jammu & Kashmir), Kamakhya (Assam), Kanchipuram (Tamil Nadu), Katra (Jammu & Kashmir), Kedarnath (Uttarakhand), Mathura (Uttar Pradesh), Omkareshwar (Madhya Pradesh), Patna (Bihar), Puri (Odisha), Somnath (Gujarat), Srisailam (Andhra Pradesh), Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh), Trimbakeshwar (Maharashtra), Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) and Vellankani (Tamil Nadu). The Ministry has sanctioned a total of Rs.529.12 crore since 2014-15 till date including development of Omkareshwar in Madhya Pradesh for 2017-18.

This information was given by Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State for Culture and Tourism (Independent Charge) in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.
There is no provision in the Ministry of Human Resource Development to sanction/ open new schools for special/ mentally challenged divyang students. .

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However, Under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) of this Ministry, focus is on providing inclusive education to children with special needs (CWSN) in a neighborhood school, wherein children with and without disabilities participate and learn together in the same class. .

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Similarly under Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), the Scheme Inclusive Education of Disabled at Secondary Stage (IEDSS) is implemented to enable all students with disabilities an opportunity to complete four years of secondary schooling in an inclusive and enabled environment. .

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Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities is implementing a scheme namely Deendayal Disabled Rehabilitation Scheme (DDRS) under which grant-in-aid is provided to Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) for running special schools after functioning for a minimum period of 2 years. It does not provide funds for opening of special schools or any other project under DDRS. .

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The numbers of special schools assisted by Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities are 371 during 2016-17. The total no. of special schools being assisted in Karnataka are 5 in the year of 2016-17 (Information given at Annexure). .

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The focus of SSA is on providing inclusive education to CWSN in a neighborhood schools. IEDSS under RMSA encourages students with disabilities to complete four years of secondary schooling (classes IX to XII) by taking admission in the neighborhood secondary school. The enabling feature in the scheme is the provision of transport and escort allowances. This activity is sanctioned under the schemes annually to encourage and enable CWSN to attend regular school and to save their travelling time. .

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The matter relating to not providing admission to children comes within the purview of State Government. .

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As per RTE Amendment Act, 2012, children with disability have been included in the 25% admission quota given to disadvantaged children in private schools in consonance with Section 12(1)(c) of the RTE Act. The act is an enabling legislation and does not restrict access to children with disability to neighborhood schools within 25% reservation alone. .

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Section 17 of the said Act, mandates Government and the local authorities to provide the following to children with disabilities: .

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(i) Books, other learning materials and appropriate assistive devices to students with benchmark disabilities free of cost up to the age of eighteen years; (ii) to provide scholarships in appropriate cases to students with benchmark disability; (iii) to make suitable modifications in the curriculum and examination system to meet the needs of students with disabilities such as extra time for completion of examination paper, facility of scribe, exemption from second and third language courses. .

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SSA provides Rs. 3000/- per child per annum for the interventions related to education of CWSN. The major interventions under SSA are provision of free aids and appliances, transport, escort support, appointment of resource teachers, therapeutical support and barrier free access etc. .

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Under IEDSS in addition to the above listed interventions, Rs.3000/- per child per annum is provided as Central Assistance to be topped by the States by a scholarship of Rs.600/- per disabled child per annum. This includes monthly stipend of Rs. 200/- to the Girl students with disability. .

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As per Section 34 (1) of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, every appropriate Government is mandated to appoint in every Government establishment, not less than four per cent of the total number of vacancies in the cadre strength in each group of posts meant to be filled with persons with benchmark disabilities of which, one percent each shall be reserved for persons with benchmark disabilities namely (i) blindness and low vision; (ii) deaf and hard of hearing; (iii) locomotor disability including cerebral palsy, leprosy cured, dwarfism, acid attack victims and muscular dystrophy; iv) autism, intellectual disability, specific learning disability and mental illness; (v) multiple disabilities from amongst persons under clauses (a) to (d) including deaf-blindness in the posts identified for each disabilities. .

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This information was given by the Minister of State (HRD), Shri Upendra Kushwaha today in a written reply to a Lok Sabha question. .

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In a landmark judgement, a five-member bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan disqualified Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister, from holding public office for life. Sharif duly resigned. The development comes in the wake of allegations of corruption against the now ex-prime minister and his family originally made in the so-called Panama Papers.
Qatar filed a wide-ranging legal complaint at the World Trade Organization on Monday to challenge a trade boycott by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, Qatar's WTO representative Ali Alwaleed al-Thani told Reuters.

By formally "requesting consultations" with the three countries, the first step in a trade dispute, Qatar triggered a 60-day deadline for them to settle the complaint or face litigation at the WTO and potential retaliatory trade sanctions.

"The consultation request is to discuss and clarify the legality of these measures and find a way to bring them into conformity with their commitments," al-Thani said.

"We have always called for dialogue, for negotiations, and this is part of our strategy to talk to the members concerned and to gain more information on these measures, the legality of these measures, and to find a solution to resolve the dispute."

The boycotting countries have previously told the WTO that they would cite national security to justify their actions against Qatar, using a controversial and almost unprecedented exemption allowed under the WTO rules.

The text of Qatar's complaint sent to each country cites "coercive attempts at economic isolation" and spells out how they are impeding Qatar's rights in the trade in goods, trade in services and intellectual property.

The complaints against Saudi Arabia and the UAE run to eight pages each, while the document on Bahrain is six pages.

There was no immediate reaction from the three to Qatar's complaint, which is likely to be circulated at the WTO later this week.

The disputed trade restrictions include bans on trade through Qatar's ports and travel by Qatari citizens, blockages of Qatari digital services and websites, closure of maritime borders and prohibition of flights operated by Qatari aircraft.

The complaint does not put a value on the trade boycott, and al-Thani declined to estimate how much Qatar could seek in sanctions if the litigation ever reached that stage, which can take 2-5 years or longer in the WTO system.

"We remain hopeful that the consultations could bear fruit in resolving this," he said.

The WTO suit does not include Egypt, the fourth country involved in the boycott. Although it has also cut travel and diplomatic ties with Qatar, Egypt did not expel Qatari citizens or ask Egyptians to leave Qatar.

Al-Thani declined to explain why Egypt was not included.

"Obviously all options are available. But we have not raised a consultation request with Egypt yet," he said.

Qatar is also raising the boycott at a meeting of the UN Civil Aviation Organization on Monday, al-Thani said.

Many trade diplomats say that using national security as a defence risks weakening the WTO by removing a taboo that could enable countries to escape trade obligations.

Al-Thani said governments had wide discretion to invoke the national security defence but it had to be subject to oversight.

"If it is self-regulating, that is a danger to the entire multilateral trading system itself. And we believe the WTO will take that into consideration."
After blazing a trail in online and digital banking, Swedens financial industry is now emerging as a pioneer in the use of artificial intelligence (AI).Besides Aida at SEB, theres Nova, which is a chatbot Nordea Bank AB is introducing at its life and pensions unit in Norway. Swedbank AB is adding to the skills of its virtual assistant, Nina.
US forces carried out a missile interception system test on Sunday, a military agency said.

The US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the US Army conducted a successful missile defence test, using the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, Xinhua quoted the MDA as saying.

The MDA also said a C-17 military transport aircraft launched a medium-range target ballistic missile (MRBM) over the Pacific Ocean, which was "detected, tracked and intercepted" by the THAAD weapon system located at Pacific Spaceport Complex Alaska in Kodiak, Alaska.

The test was conducted to gather threat data from a THAAD interceptor in flight, it added.

This was the 15th tests for the THAAD weapon system.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least 10 people were reportedly killed in the deadly clashes between protesters and police that erupted during the Constitutional Assembly election in Venezuela on Sunday.

An opposition youth leader, a pro-government candidate and a soldier were amongst those who were killed, local media reports said.

Elections were held on Sunday to elect members of the Constituent Assembly who would replacing Venezuela's current National Assembly.

The Constituent Assembly will have the power to rewrite the Constitution.

The election comes after weeks of violent street protests in which many people have been killed or injured.

More than 100 people have been killed in the unrest ongoing in the country since April this year.

According to reports, the opposition leaders had called for a boycott of the vote, declaring it rigged for the ruling party.

Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Panama, Peru and the United States said they would not recognise Sunday's vote.
Russian President Vladimir V Putin announced on Sunday that 755 American diplomats would be expelled from Moscow by September 1.

The expulsions were ordered on Friday when Russia ordered the United States to reduce the number of their diplomats in the country as a mark of retaliation for new sanctions against Moscow passed last week by the US Congress.

Putin, while speaking in a television interview on the Rossiya 1 network, said that "Russia's patience in waiting for improved relations with the United States had worn out."

"We waited for quite some time that maybe something will change for the better, had such hope that the situation will somehow change, but, judging by everything, if it changes, it will not be soon," Putin said, according to the Interfax news agency.

The Russian Foreign Ministry had earlier issued a statement saying the number of American diplomats in the US Embassy in Moscow and its four consulates across the country should be reduced to 455 by September 1, which is the same as the number of Russian diplomats currently serving in the US

It also said it would seize two US diplomatic properties, including cottages just outside Moscow's city center and a warehouse facility in Moscow. The embassy properties must be handed over by August 1.

Russia's move came a day after the US Senate passed a bill expanding economic sanctions on Russia, as well as North Korea and Iran.

The massive vote margins reflected growing bipartisan anxiety over Trump's two meetings with Putin in Hamburg, Germany, this month.

Following the orders, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov threatened further retaliation against the US

"If the US side decides to move further towards further deterioration, we will answer, we will respond in kind," CNN reported Ryabkov, as saying to ABC's "This Week."

"We will mirror this. We will retaliate. ... But my whole point is, don't do this, it is to the detriment of the interests of the US"

The deputy foreign minister did not specify what Russia's plans for retaliation are, but said that the country has "a very rich toolbox at our disposal."

Earlier, Putin, speaking at a news conference in Finland, accused the US lawmakers of "insolence."

"We are behaving in a very restrained and patient way, but at some moment we will need to respond," Putin told reporters.

"It's impossible to endlessly tolerate this kind of insolence toward our country. This practice is unacceptable. It destroys relations and law," he added.

The sanctions bill would slap new sanctions on Russia, and would set into law penalties former president Barack Obama's administration imposed on Moscow in December, for its meddling in the US election last year and for its aggression in Ukraine.

The bill also would give Congress veto power to block any easing of those sanctions.

The growing tensions between Russia and the US over the sanctions bill come in the wake of the congressional investigations into Russian hacking into the 2016 election, which the US intelligence services have said was an effort to influence the election in Trump's favour.
After the crew members of the Air India flight from Mumbai to Jeddah flight were detained in Saudi Arabia for three hours due to a permit issue on June 26, a senior Air India Captain has requested the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to take cognizance in the matter and find an amicable solution by coordinating with the appropriate department at the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

"We believe your office will take swift necessary step to resolve this issue faced by pilots and crew, who are not just airline employees but citizens of this country. We are ready to correspond and cooperate with your office in any matter that is reasonably possible from our side," the letter by the senior Air India Captain read.

The letter further reads that it is reliably confirmed that the passports of pilots and crew members were detained and in turn, a document to the effect of an entry visa is issued for the purpose of entering the country or leaving the airport.

"This practice is not recognized by Saudi Arabia's own laws and it is in direct violation of human rights. In fact, a member of the Society of Human Rights has clarified as early as of 2011 that Saudi laws allow a non - Saudi to keep his or her passport and that the passport belongs only to its holder," the statement said.

The incident took place on June 26 when the crew members of the carrier landed in Jeddah.

The crew members of the Air India flight 931 were returning to their hotel after having dinner when their taxi was intercepted by Saudi police for a routine permit checking.

Despite showing a copy of immigration and valid Air India IDs, they were put in the police vans and were told not to use cell phones.

Subsequently, one of the crew members made a call to their hotel and explained the situation giving their location. Following which two hotel staff came for their release.

But despite showing the immigration paper to the police, the crew members were taken to the police station.

Later, cell phones of the crew members were confiscated and all of them were locked inside a room.

Three hours later, an Arab hotel staffer came and explained the police official about their identity following which they were released.

The crew members and the air hostess were detained as copies of permits are not valid in Jeddah.

The crew members upon reaching the hotel got a call from the station manager, Jeddah, who enquired about the incident.

The station manager said that the amnesty period is over in Saudi and the government is throwing out illegal immigrants.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Monday thanked actor Aamir Khan for contributing Rs 25 lakh towards state Chief Minister's Relief Fund through Aamir Khan Productions Pvt. Ltd.

The Chief Minister took to Twitter and said, "Thank you @aamir_khan for contributing Rs 25 Lakh towards Assam Chief Minister's Relief Fund through Aamir Khan Productions Pvt. Ltd."

Thank you @aamir_khan for contributing Rs 25 Lakh towards Assam Chief Minister's Relief Fund through Aamir Khan Productions Pvt. Ltd.  Sarbananda Sonowal (@sarbanandsonwal) July 31, 2017

On July 29, the actor posted a video on social networking site Twitter and urged people to come out support those affected in the Gujarat and Assam floods.

In the video, the actor said, "Friends, many areas of Assam and Gujarat have been affected by heavy floods. And there, our brothers and sisters who are staying have to face lot of difficulties. Lots of lives have also been lost and there has been a huge financial loss too. We are helpless in front of nature but we can help those staying there."

Adding, "I am appealing all to help the brothers and sisters staying in Assam and Gujarat. Please contribute to the CM relief fund. I am also going to contribute. Please support me. Thank you. Jai Hind."

For the unversed, heavy rains due to southwest monsoons have wreaked havoc in Gujarat as more than 25,000 people have been evacuated from parts of north and central Gujarat.

In Assam, as many as 79 people lost their lives in the devastating floods, eight of them in Guwahati.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Assam on August 1 to review the flood situation in the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In wake of the horse-trading allegations by the Congress against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the grand old party on Monday said that the saffron party is resorting to blatant manipulation of facts.

"The BJP is resorting to blatant manipulation. They are attempting to murder the parliamentary democracy. What they are attempting to do in Gujarat is going to fail. They may have been able to engineer sudden resignations, but then the total number of required votes is also coming down," Congress leader Om Prakash Mishra told ANI.

He added that the Congress is trying to take as much precaution as it is possible within its means and resources.

"We shall definitely win the seats in Gujarat as well as in West Bengal," Mishra asserted.

Earlier on Sunday, the Congress accused the BJP of buying and threatening their MLAs in Gujarat for Rs. 15 crore and paraded its 44 MLAs who are camping here.

Addressing a press conference, senior Congress MLA from Gujarat Shaktisinh Gohil said, "Ask these MLAs the way they are threatened, they chose to stand by party even when offered Rs. 15 crore."

The Congress had said that the BJP is using "money, muscle and state power" to engineer defection, after at least six of its MLAs (Member of Legislative Assembly) had resigned from the party to join the BJP.

The party on July 28 flew 44 of its MLAs to Bengaluru to stop more of them from switching over to the BJP.

In this backdrop, the Election Commission of India on Saturday sought an enquiry report from the Chief Secretary of Gujarat by Monday over the allegations made by the Congress.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Attorney General K.K. Venugopal on Monday asked the Supreme Court to take necessary action against Samjawadi Party leader Azam Khan for allegedly obstructing justice in the Bulandshahr rape case.

A bench of the apex court, headed by the Justice Dipak Misra was hearing the case involving Khan, who had made objectionable comments in the case.

The Samjawadi Party leader, in May, had said that situation in Uttar Pradesh is such that men should try and keep their women indoors.

His statement comes on the heels of Rampur incident where a group of men molested two women in broad day light.

"There is nothing astonishing in the fact that incidents of murders, loot. Rapes are being reported under this government. After the Bulandshahr incident men should try and keep their women and ladies of the house indoor as much as possible. And women should also avoid going to suspicious or lone places," said Khan.

Raising questions over the law and order in the state, a video of two girls being molested openly by a group of young men in Uttar Pradesh's Rampur district had set social media on fire.

Around 12 to 14 boys were seen in the video, molesting the women, even while they pleaded to let them go.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Bombay High Court on Monday rapped the Byculla jail authorities for not sending requisite material for mandatory magisterial inquiry into the death of inmate Manjula Shetye, and directed that the magisterial inquiry be completed in the matter at the earliest.

Meanwhile, the petitioner's lawyer informed the court that the doctor who has been said to be suspended was a temporary doctor, therefore he cannot be suspended.

Wherein for ordering inquiry as per mandatory provisions under section 176(1) A, it needs to be done in 24 hours.

The High Court has also directed the crime branch to give all documents and necessary videos of the post-mortem and asked the magistrate to do inquiry as soon as possible.

The hearing has been adjourned till 21st August.

Earlier, six Byculla women's prison officials, accused of murder of inmate, Shetye filed their bail pleas at a sessions court in Mumbai.

In the bail pleas, they blamed Sheena Bora murder accused Indrani Mukerjea of hatching a conspiracy against them for framing them in the murder case.

Their bail plea mentioned, "Indrani Mukerjea, a murder case under trial prisoner along with others have masterminded the false case to gain advantage and personal grudge against public servants."

The plea also says that Shetye's death was a result of her illness.

Earlier on June 30, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in the Bombay High Court seeking Criminal Investigation Department (CID) inquiry in the murder case of Shette.

Mukerjea's lawyer had filed an application in the special CBI court, claiming that she was assaulted by the jail authorities after the death of Shette sparked a protest in the prison.

Reportedly, over 200 women inmates, including Mukerjea, were booked for rioting and criminal conspiracy inside the Mumbai's Byculla jail.

The Nagpada Police also filed an FIR against six women prison staffers, including the jailor for the murder of Shette.

Shetye died at the J J Hospital on June 23 after being allegedly beaten up by the Byculla jail officials and staff.

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A major military parade, part of the celebrations of the 90th anniversary of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA), is being viewed as a pointed reminder of President Xi Jinping's firm grip on power.

This meeting came hours after United States President Donald Trump renewed his criticism over Beijing's failure to rein in North Korea and ahead of a key Communist Party meeting, where a major leadership reshuffle is expected.

The parade, presided by Jinping, marked the 90th anniversary of the PLA.

Jinping inspected 12,000 troops in various formations from an open-top military jeep.

More than 100 planes flew overhead and almost 600 types of weaponry were on display, according to the Defence Ministry.

Furthermore, Xi expressed his pride in the military and demanded the troops' continued "absolute loyalty" to the party, CNN reports.

"Troops across the entire military, you must be unwavering in upholding the bedrock principle of absolute party leadership of the military. Always obey and follow the party. Go and fight wherever the party points," Jinping said, as reported by the New York Times.

A Defence Ministry spokesman said the Zhurihe military base was selected to highlight the PLA's combat readiness.

North Korea had earlier tested an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and claimed it would reach all of the United States.

Trump has been, since then, pressing Beijing, Pyongyang's only major global ally that provides an economic lifeline to the regime, to use its leverage to make North Korea halt its nuclear and missile programme.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Indira Nagar police on Monday arrested all the five accused, who attacked a Chinese with knives here.

The accused were identified as Mani, Manikantha, Vijay, Arunkirran and Sharath.

The Police have also recovered two 2-wheelers from them, which were used for committing crime.

Earlier on Saturday, a Chinese identified as Yan, who arrived here to finalise a business deal, was attacked by five assailants.

Yan was waiting for his cab in Indiranagar, when five men came on bike and attacked him with knives.

As per the report, the accused wanted to snatch Yan's mobile and when he resisted they attacked him.

Yan however managed to escape from there with a cut on his face.

The accused had fled the spot by the time police van reached the spot.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Chitkara University today announced that it had bestowed Kailash Katkar, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Quick Heal with honorary doctorate in literature degree at the 12th Convocation held at Chitkara University Punjab Campus. Chitkara University conferred the honorary doctorate in recognition to Katkar achievements in the IT Security Space.

Kailash Katkar was born on 1st November 1966 in a small village in Maharashtra. He grew up in Pune and from a very young age, chose to break the norms of attending rigorous classroom sessions and decided to divert his inquisitiveness and hard work to create his own . This little spur of thought guided by sheer grit and gumption drove him to set up his own - from a small one-room, boot-strapped electrical device repair station to a Security Solutions empire spread across 80 countries worldwide.

Over 1200 students, both graduates and post-graduates, who have completed their degrees from various streams, were awarded the same in the 12th Convocation of Chitkara University, Punjab campus, at a glittering function in the university auditorium on the campus. The convocation ceremony was divided into three parts so that the degrees could be handed over to the students individually in the presence of the Chancellor of the university, Dr. Ashok Chitkara, by the Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Madhu Chitkara, and the guest of the day.

The dignitaries advised the students who were now ready to take on the real world to be successful in their professional life which is going to begin after the university days and said that values, peace in personal life and commitment are the core and in the competitive environment their basics will play crucial role.

Dr. Madhu Chitkara, who read out her annual report, spelt out the progress made by the University in the year gone by and how it has grown over the year gone by.

Rajdeep Singh was awarded gold medal for topping the electronics and computer engineering course while PayalTanwar topped the master's course in the same. Harji Harpreet Kaur topped the masters of computer application examination.

Taranpreet Kaur was awarded the gold medal for topping the graduate level course in pharmacy. In the bachelors of media course Sanya Jain was awarded the gold medal while at the master's level in media Abhilasha Kapoor finished on top.

Shubham Sharma was given the gold medal for topping in the mechanical engineering examination. Abha finished on top in the bachelor level architecture course.

Raghav Aggarwal, ShivangiMonga, TanviGoel, Ishan Mittal, Natasha Pundir, Jaswinder Kaur and Vivek Kaushil topped the various MBA courses of the university in 2017.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In the wake of Congress party moving 44 of its MLAs to Bengaluru to stop more of them from switching over to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the former on Monday said that their party representatives are willing to stay.

Congress MP D K Suresh told ANI, "MLAs are not staying against their will. They are freely moving inside and outside the resort. We aren't objecting to anyone".

Earlier in the day, BJP state president Jitu Vaghani said that the grand old party has failed itself.

"Only to make one man win, the entire Congress is falling. There is no Congress leadership in the country now, as its own members do not trust their own candidates. They have failed themselves," Vaghani said.

He added that "even with the flood situation in the state, the Congress is playing politics."

Earlier on Sunday, the Congress accused the BJP of buying and threatening their MLAs in Gujarat for Rs. 15 crore and paraded its 44 MLAs who are camping in Bengaluru.

Addressing a press conference, senior Congress MLA from Gujarat Shaktisinh Gohil said, "Ask these MLAs the way they are threatened, they chose to stand by party even when offered Rs.15 crore."

"The BJP is hitting below the belt; we are fighting to protect the democracy. We have the required numbers. There is no need for us to stay here (Bengaluru) for even a minute if they (BJP) say, they won't threaten.," he added.

The Congress had earlier said that the BJP is using "money, muscle and state power" to engineer defection, after at least six of its MLAs resigned to join the BJP.

In this backdrop, the Election Commission of India on Saturday sought an enquiry report from the Chief Secretary of Gujarat by Monday over the allegations made by the Congress.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Delhi court on Monday will continue the hearing on the matter of hijacking on an Air India plane to Lahore, Pakistan in 1981.

In the earlier hearing, the court had granted bail to two Sikh militants, accused of the hijacking.

They were asked to furnish a personal bond of Rs 2 lakh and two sureties of like amount each.

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh had directed the state's Legal Aid Team to extend help to the two Sikhs faced with possibilities of 'double jeopardy'.

The case dates back to September 29, 1981, when the accused allegedly hijacked an Air India plane from New Delhi en route to Srinagar via Amritsar and forced it to land in Lahore, Pakistan, where they were arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment.

In 2011, the Delhi Police had chargesheeted them under various sections 121 (waging war against the government of India), 121A (conspiring to commit certain offences against the state), 124A (sedition) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
A woman was stabbed to death late on Monday night outside the Tyagraj Stadium in New Delhi.

Santoshi, 40, a resident of 54 Bapu Park K M Pur and mother of five children, was stabbed five times according to Delhi Police.

She was stabbed outside Gate Number one of the Tyagraj Stadium.

She was immediately rushed to the AIIMS trauma centre where she was declared brought dead.

The attacker fled from the spot although police will be referring to the CCTV cameras outside the stadium's gate to catch the attacker.

Investigation on the matter is underway at the moment.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday asked states to follow the Union Territories of Chandigarh and Puducherry, who have closed the PDS system and have successfully implemented 100 percent Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme.

Addressing BJP MPs of northern states in Delhi, Prime Minister Modi said that "Everyone should get the benefits of the central government's schemes and programs."

Prime Minister Modi held the 6th round of informal meeting with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs of Punjab, Chandigarh, Haryana, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir at his residence on Monday. Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ananth Kumar also attended the meeting.

He said, "Due to the closure of the PDS system in Chandigarh and Puducherry, the money is being deposited in the beneficiary's account directly."

He added, "This system should also be implemented in other states."

During the meeting, the Members of Parliament (MPs) of northern states discussed various issues with the Prime Minister and apprised him about the growing faith of public towards policies of the government.

They also informed the Prime Minister as to how the public and small traders are supporting the Goods and Services Tax in their state.

The Prime Minister said that every businessman should register themselves in the GST.

Talking about the Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana (PMVVY), PM Modi appealed to the MPs representing various states to ensure that the adult citizens gets maximum benefit from such social security schemes introduced by the Union government, and said that only eight percent interest has been fixed in this scheme.

Prime Minister Modi said that several new schemes for development have been implemented in the Himalayan states which have changed the lives of these hill states.

He further said that huge potential for employment and tourism development has been emerged in these hill states.

Prime Minister said that ban on kerosene in Haryana and Chandigarh has ended the corruption in its allocation in these states.

BJP members of Parliament should take the work done by the NDA government to the public was the message given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the MPs of northern states.

Modi has been regularly meeting with BJP MPs from various states in groups and such meeting are seen as an attempt by the Prime Minister to prepare for general elections in 2019.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Fortis Healthcare has announced the appointment of Ajey Maharaj as Head, Corporate Communications. Ajey will succeed Raghunanadan Kochar with effect from August 1, 2017.

In his new role, Ajey will lead the internal and external communications for the Fortis group pan- India and also realize its overall goal of "creating a world class integrated healthcare delivery system in India, entailing the finest medical skills combined with compassionate patient care". Prior to this appointment, Ajey served as the Associate Vice-President, Corporate Communications, Fortis Healthcare.

In the new profile, Ajey will be designated as Head Corporate Communications and be elevated as Vice President. He joined the hospital group in December 2015 and was responsible for overseeing corporate communications for all Fortis hospitals across India.

Ajey Maharaj, 48, brings a wealth of experience spanning over 24 years in the Power and Telecom sector. He has previously worked with Bharti Tele Ventures, Reliance Energy, Asea Brown Boveri, Steel Authority of India and Tata Power Delhi Distribution.

A graduate from Hindu College, University of Delhi, he holds a post-graduate diploma in Management from the All India Management Association.

"I am honoured to be entrusted with the role of leading the corporate communications division in India at a time when the healthcare sector is witnessing tremendous changes. The industry offers a huge future growth potential which can only be realized with the combined efforts of our key stakeholders and the Government. In the coming years, our division will continue to focus on strengthening the overall communication around Fortis Healthcare's clinical expertise, patient-driven services, infrastructure and building on our core specialties to serve people better. I look forward to working with the team in India to give the best possible deliverables on our commitment in the coming years," said Ajey Maharaj.

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A kidney patient in critical condition, desperately needing to undergo Dialysis for his life to be saved, was evacuated at the Abiyana village in Santhalpur Taluka of Patan District in Gujarat by an IAF Cheetah helicopter.

This happened after a request was received at the Gandhinagar headquarters.

On arriving overhead the site, the pilot - Wing Commander Gautam Narain - saw the patient on top of the roof of a house completely marooned amidst flood waters on all sides.

The patient was then flown to District Headquarters Patan where he was duly handed over to Civil Administration officials waiting with an ambulance at the Patan University Helipad.

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After reports emerged that the Chinese troops had entered Uttarakhand on July 25th, the Uttarakhand Government has said that it has not received any official information as yet.

Speaking to ANI on the issue, Madan Kaushik, a spokesperson for the Uttarakhand government said that they had watched the report on TV but they had not received any official information on the issue.

"We haven't received any official information as yet. The stationed security forces have not given us any information nor has the district magistrate" he said.

Kaushik also said that they've ordered further probe into the matter.

Earlier, on July 25, in a fresh case of transgression, the People's Liberation Army from China crossed into Uttarakhand's Barahoti in Chamoli district and came upto 200 metres on the other side of the border.

Sources say that, the soldiers came up to 800m to 1 km into Indian territory.

This incident comes amid severe tensions between India and China resulting from the Doklam standoff.

In the past, Chinese troops have been known to cross over and write 'China' on rocks in the Chamoli district.

This area has also seen aerial transgressions and infiltration by foot patrols in 2013 and 2014.

The present standoff between India and China emerged after New Delhi expressed its apprehension over Beijing's road construction in the Sikkim sector of the border.

Consequently, China suspended the annual Kailash Manasarovar yatra and conceded that the decision to suspend the pilgrimage was due to the border scuffle.

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India and Pakistan will hold talks on two hydro-power projects under the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) at the Bank headquarters here today.

In a letter to India's Ambassador to the United States Navtej Sarna, Bank Vice President for the South Asia region Annette Dixon welcomed the participation of both countries.

She assured neutrality and impartiality of the international body in helping both India and Pakistan to find an amicable way forward.

Union Water Resources Secretary Amarjit Singh is leading the Indian delegation.

The two countries last held talks over the two projects in March this year during the meeting of Permanent Indus Commission in Pakistan.

Pakistan had approached the Bank last year, raising concerns over the designs of the two projects located in Jammu and Kashmir.

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A terrorist was killed by security forces in the ongoing encounter at Turna village in Uri sector of Line of Control (LoC) area of Jammu and Kashmir' Baramulla district on Monday.

The operation is still underway.

Yesterday, two Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists were killed in an encounter in Tahab area after which the Internet services was snapped in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district.

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Two Afghan workers for the Iraqi Embassy in Kabul were killed on Monday after few gunmen launched an attack.

Najib Danish, a spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry, has said three police officers were also wounded in the attack.

Danish said a suicide bomber blew up the gates at about 11:30 a.m. on Monday, after which three gunmen entered the Embassy's grounds and began firing.

Afghan special forces were called in and they succeeded in killing all of them.

Iraqi diplomats were taken to a safe place.

Earlier in May, a blast in Kabul's diplomatic quarter killed as many as 150 people, and injured hundreds, including children.

In July, at least 31 people were left dead after a car bombing claimed by the Taliban.

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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday accused Left and Trinamool Congress activists in Kerala and West Bengal of spreading fear among other nationalist parties.

"The members of the BJP, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and other parties are being killed in Kerala and West Bengal. Governments of these states are constantly trying to spread terror amongst members of nationalist parties," Union Minister Ananth Kumar told ANI.

He also claimed that the Government in Kerala is not taking any action with regard to the killing of an RSS worker.

We condemn such ignorant behaviour of "the Kerala Government and our members will protest against it," Kumar said.

"When we discuss the atrocities and lynching in Parliament today, we want there also to be a discussion for political violence," he added.

Earlier on Saturday night, a 34-year-old Kunnil Veettil Rajesh, RSS worker in Thiruvananthapuram, was killed while returning home after attending a 'shakha'.

The Kerala Director General of Police (DGP) Loknath Behera on Sunday had assured impartial probe in the matter and said that strong and firm action will be taken against the culprits.

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In a shocking turn of events, Dileep's manager Appunni surrendered before the Aluva police today in connection with the Malayalam actress assault case.

The Kerala High Court had rejected his anticipatory bail.

Earlier in July 26, actress and wife of actor Dileep, Kavya Madhavan, has been interrogated by the investigation team in the same case.

The prime accused 'Pulsar' Sunil had told the investigation team that after committing the crime, he had come to Lakshya, an online marketing firm run by Kavya at Kakkanad in Kochi.

Upon his statement, the police had conducted a raid at Lakshya.

The Kerala High Court had earlier rejected the bail plea of actor Dileep, who was arrested on conspiracy charges in the molestation case of a Malayalam actress.

Bail was denied on the grounds that the actor could possibly influence the witnesses in the case.

On July 11, Dileep was expelled from the primary membership of Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) after being arrested. He was also sent to 14-day judicial custody.

Earlier, the two main accused - Sunil Kumar and Vigeesh, in the abduction and assault of the Malayalam actress, were brought to Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu for evidence collection.

This came after a court of Aluva in Ernakulam district granted nine-day police custody of the two accused.

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Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Monday is set to vote in favour of Congress leader Ahmed Patel during the Rajya Sabha election in Gujarat, sources state.

Patel filed his nominations for the August 8 polls on 26th July.

The Congress has 57 MLAs in the 182-member Assembly and it needs 45 votes to win one Rajya Sabha seat.

However, after Congress Legislature Party leader Shankersinh Vaghela quit the party, which followed cross-voting in BJP-majority Gujarat Assembly during the Presidential elections, panic broke out in the party.

Vaghela resigned from the grand old party while asserting that he would not join any other political party.

"I am freeing myself of the Congress and every other party. I am not going to join any political party. I will quit as Leader of Opposition today. I will quit as MLA in the next sitting," he told supporters at his 77th birthday celebrations in Gandhinagar.

Alarmed by the resignation of six of its legislators in Gujarat, the Congress on Saturday approached the Election Commission and demanded a high-level probe into alleged poaching of MLAs by the BJP.

Last Saturday, the Congress flew its 44 of its remaining 51 MLAs in the 182-seat Gujarat Assembly to Bengaluru.

The Congress claims that the BJP is using "money, muscle and state power" to engineer defections.

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The Investigation Agency (NIA) has summoned Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani's second son to Delhi in the terror funding case.

The information is based on the NIA sources.

Both sons of Geelani, Naeem Geelani and Zahoor Geelani have been summoned by the investigative agency.

On July 24, the NIA arrested seven separatists over money laundering charges, for funding terror in the Kashmir Valley.

All seven separatist leaders - Altaf Shah, Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Mehraj Kalwal, Shahid-ul-Islam, Naeem Khan and Bitta Karate - were later sent to 10-day NIA custody.

The accused have been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The NIA visited Srinagar in May to probe the alleged funding by Pakistan for illegal activities in Kashmir, and questioned several separatist leaders on the issue of raising, collecting and transferring funds via the Hawala route and other channels to fund terror activities in Kashmir.

The NIA sleuths specifically questioned separatist leaders Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate and Gazi Javed Baba at that time.

The NIA is said to be probing all aspects of funding to separatist leaders and how they reportedly used these funds to fuel unrest in the Kashmir Valley.

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The Lok Sabha on Monday witnessed a heated discussion over reported incidents of mob lynching across the country with Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge accusing the government of "indirectly encouraging groups like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal as well as Gau Rakshaks."

He said that ever since the NDA government had come to power, incidents of lynching and mob violence have increased.

"There's a feeling of threat in many states, especially because of fringe groups. Incidents of lynching and mob violence are not under control. Taking matters into one's hands and exercising violence or killing another is unacceptable," Kharge said.

Listing out mob lynching incidents in Gujarat, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Kharge said, "Gujarat, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh - wherever BJP is in power, these mob violence and lynchings happen.It is a shame that this is happening in a democracy!"

A strong rebuttal came from the Bharatiya Janata Party MP, Nishkant Dubey, who said that many of the case mentioned by Kharge were pending in court under Indian Penal Code Section 352.

"The cases of violence Kharge is mentioning are already in the courts, so why is he saying all this? He cannot speak about these cases," Dubey said.

Citing the Ballabhgarh train lynching incident in which 16 year old Junaid Khan was fatally stabbed for allegedly carrying beef in a bag, Kharge blamed the government for failing to control such incidents.

"He came to Delhi to shop for Eid, but was lynched. No one questioned this and everyone is taking law into their hands. I request the government to list how many Gau Rakshaks they have arrested, and what lawful action they've taken. You have not taken any action, which is why there is such a rise in incidents. No action is being taken, and is instead being encouraged," Kharge said.

Countering Kharge, BJP Leader Hukmdev Narayan said that the Prime Minister had repeatedly condemned mob lynching and added that it was the states responsibility to keep a check on such incidents.

"When the prime minister himself has condemned the mob incidents repeatedly then it is upto the states to follow the law. The Centre can't send paramilitary on its own," he said.

Kharge also criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not speaking about mob lynching in his 'Mann Ki Baat' radio programme on Sunday.

"An RSS worker is murdered in Kerala and the Governor calls the chief minister. There are mob lynchings happening here and nothing is being done!" he added.

The BJP MP further questioned the opposition as to why the lynching of Srinagar's DSP Ayub Pandith was not worth a mention. Citing 'unity in diversity', he urged all religions should co-exist together and refrain from linking lynching incidents to religion.

"Is the mob lynching of DSP Ayub Pandith in J&K not an incident worth mentioning?" he asked.

Narayan further countered Kharge on the Ballabhgarh train incident, saying, " The Junaid incident was a fight over a train seat, why are you linking it with religion? What about Kerala?" he asked.

Earlier, many army veterans, reportedly, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Modi condemning the attack on Muslims and Dalits.

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More than 5000 students from over 50 schools of the city visited the three-day ROSATOM Festival of Science held from July 25 to 27 at B.M. Birla Planetarium.

Organised by the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation, ROSATOM, in association with Tamil Nadu Science and Technology Centre, the programme was aimed at creating awareness among younger generation on the importance of nuclear power and its role in a developing economy.

Seminars and discussions on topics 'Public perceptions about atomic energy: myths vs reality', 'Discoveries of the Year', 'Nuclear energy and its benefits', 'Why do we need science?' were held alongside Painting Competition on 'Nuclear Power Plants for Green World' on the inaugural day.

The event also witnessed the release of Tamil book on ABC's of Nuclear energy and titled 'ANUKARU ARICHUVADI'. The book was given away to the students who visited the science festival. The content of the book talks in a methodical yet simple language on the fundamentals of nuclear power and aptly complemented with animated illustrations for the children to imbibe the concepts in an effortless way.

Mikhail Gorbatov, Director, Russian Centre of Science and Culture was the Chief Guest. Dr. S.K. Malhotra, Disctinguished Scientist, Department of Atomic Energy, Mumbai, was the Guest of Honor. Dr. P. Iyamperumal, Executive Director, Tamil Nadu Science and Technology Centre, Presided over the event.

Prior to the science festival, lectures of Mikhail Kornienko, Russian pilot-cosmonaut; Elia Kabanov, a science journalist and Andrey Akatov, senior lecturer in Saint-Petersburg State Institute of Technology, were delivered in the educational institutions of Chennai and the Tamil Nadu Science and Technology Center that set the mood of the science festival in the city.

"I hope that the festivals of science which we may likely organise on a regular basis will become a good tradition between Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation and South India. This time we had with us around group of children which had come from Kudankulam area. So, the next year we will do our best to bring this festival to Kudankulam nuclear power plant, which plays a unique role in the Indo-Russian relations in the field of science and technology," added Ale?ey Pimenov, Regional Vice-President of Rosatom South Asia.

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The Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday conducted a raid at the house of the Chairman of Jammu Kashmir Social Peace Forum (JKSPF), Devinder Singh Behl, in connection with terror funding case in Nowshera.

The NIA yesterday interrogated Behl at his residence over his suspected connections with separatist elements.

The NIA also conducted searches at various premises of Behl, who is also a member of the legal cell of the Hurriyat.

He is a close associate of a top Hurriyat leader and regularly attends funerals of militants.

During the searches, the NIA team recovered four mobile phones, one tablet, other electronic devices, incriminating documents, financial papers and some other articles.

The NIA is investigating into his role as courier as he is suspected to be involved in routing funds to the separatist leaders from Pakistan based handlers.

Earlier on Wednesday, separatist leader and Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) chairman Shabir Shah, was sent to a seven-day Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody in connection with a terror-funding case.

On July 24, the NIA arrested seven separatists over money laundering charges for funding terror in the Kashmir Valley.

All seven separatist leaders - Altaf Shah, Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Mehraj Kalwal, Shahid-ul-Islam, Naeem Khan and Bitta Karate - were later sent to 10-day NIA custody.

The accused have been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Six of them were arrested from Srinagar, while Bitta Karate was arrested from New Delhi.

The NIA is said to be probing all aspects of funding to separatist leaders and how they reportedly used these funds to fuel unrest in the Kashmir Valley.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
United States Vice-President Mike Pence has said that "all options are on the table" in countering North Korea's nuclear programme, while speaking about reining in the threat during his trip to Estonia.

"The continued provocations by the rogue regime in North Korea are unacceptable, and the United States of America is going to continue to marshal the support of nations across the region and across the to further isolate North Korea economically and diplomatically," CNN quoted Pence, as saying.

Pence also rued over China's inaction to pressure Pyongyang.

"We believe China should do more. The President has been clear about that in his conversations with President Xi (Jinping) that while China has taken unprecedented steps to begin to isolate North Korea economically and to bring diplomatic pressure, we believe China has a unique relationship with the regime in North Korea and has a unique ability to influence decisions by that regime," he said.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley tweeted on Sunday morning about the administration's wish for China and other nations to put pressure on Pyongyang.

In a pair of tweets on Saturday, Trump also slammed China for not taking stronger action.

The developments come two days after North Korea tested a ballistic missile that it claims can reach all of the United States.

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Russia's full naval might was on display as the country celebrated its annual Navy Day in multiple time zones on Sunday.

Parades and demonstrations were held in all four corners of its vast territory, as well as at Russian bases abroad, including in Syria and in annexed Crimea.

According to the Russian state media, the celebrations began in the far eastern city of Vladivostok, where dozens of navy vessels and submarines from the country's Pacific Fleet put on a public display.

Celebrations were also held on the other side of the country in Baltiysk, the western base of Russia's Baltic Fleet.

Other celebrations included the display of the navy's flagship aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, near its base in the northern city of Severomorsk.

The main events of the day were carried out in St. Petersburg, where Russian President Vladimir Putin oversaw a parade featuring 50 combat ships and submarines, and a further 40 aircraft

"Russia's history is inseparable from the victories of its courageous and fearless Navy," Putin said in a speech.

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The White House has confirmed the removal of Anthony Scaramucci, the Communications Director, from his post and released a statement that says that the former felt it was best to give the new chief of staff John F. Kelly a "clean slate."

"Anthony Scaramucci will be leaving his role as the White House Communications Director. Mr. Scaramucci felt it was best to give Chief of Staff John Kelly a clean slate and the ability to build his own team. We wish him all the best," the White House statement read.

Scaramucci has been relieved just days after he reportedly launched a verbal tirade against other senior members of the President's senior staff.

The decision to remove Scaramucci has come at the new chief of staff's, John F. Kelly, request, the New York Times reports.

A White House official said Kelly wanted Scaramucci removed from his new role because he did not think he was disciplined and had burned his credibility, CNN reports.

According to the New York Times, Scaramucci had earlier boasted about reporting directly to the President and not the chief of staff. Following this, Kelly reportedly made clear to members of the White House staff at a meeting on Monday morning that he was the in-charge.

For the uninitiated, Scaramucci's abrupt removal has come just ten days after the wealthy New York financier was brought on to the West Wing staff.

Kelly was sworn-in as Trump's new chief of staff earlier in the day on Monday, and was primarily given the responsibility of initiating the President's stalled legislative agenda on Monday.

Kelly served as the commander of United States Southern Command for four years under President Barack Obama and served as a commanding general in Iraq from 2008 to 2009.

Kelly took over for Reince Priebus, who was ousted from the job after only six months on Friday.

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Nexgen Conferences, one of India's leading conferences and B2B event organizers announces Second edition of India's biggest ever 'HetNet and Small Cells Congress 2017', an international Conference cum exhibition. This conference is going to be held on Thursday, August 24, 2017 at ITC Maratha in Mumbai.

The Congress will bring the Information and Communication Technology industry at a common platform, to discuss, analyze, and showcase the prowess and future of HetNet & Small Cells deployment in ICT industry.

The comprehensive platform will witness the participation of key telecom industry stakeholders, thought leaders, analysts and professionals representing well-known organizations from across the industry.

It will facilitate the exchange of ideas and insights and enhance awareness regarding future challenges and possible solutions of deploying heterogeneous networks and small cells in the country on a large scale.

It is projected that there will be 25-50 billion connected devices globally by 2020, if provided the affordable access and seamless connectivity for voice and data. At present, India has more than 1 billion active mobile connections and millions of Indians have started getting online in a very short span of time.

The congress will shed light on the role of small cells and heterogeneous networks to ensure seamless customer experience, as well as a scalable and flexible high-speed data connectivity solution especially in crowded and remote areas.

In order to support the digitally-driven initiatives of government including Digital India and Smart Cities Mission among others, it is important for the ICT market landscape to understand the need of network planning while generating a heterogeneous network.

It will put major emphasis on addressing solutions and challenges to drive Network evolution towards HetNet in order to enhance coverage and capacity, improve QoE, and explore new revenue opportunities.

HetNet infrastructure is expected to carry more than 70 percent of all mobile network data traffic by 2020, which will account for USD 380 billion in mobile data service revenue. Telecom operators thus need to deploy heterogeneous networks as it enables integrated Wi-Fi, high-performance backhaul, and advanced traffic management while increasing the area served by small cells, with the help of Cell Range Extension (CRE).

It will help them to meet major challenges including limited spectrum resources, complex network environments, and high network costs.

"We are all set to host India's first-ever HetNet and Small Cells Congress 2017, which will provide a great opportunity for everyone to gain deep insights on growth opportunities and challenges ahead for the entire ICT industry landscape to effectively deploy HetNet and Small Cells. As small cells, carrier WiFi, DAS and C-RAN infrastructure investments are expected to account for $20 Billion by 2020, this highly interactive platform will enable all the participants to build the next-generation HetNet infrastructure roadmap for India," said CEO Nexgen Conferences, Anjani Kumar Singh.

As on date, this summit is sponsored by well-known organizations such as Huawei, Ericsson, Rosenberger, Delta and supported by COAI, Broadband India Forum, ITU - APT Foundation of India and TAIPA and more to join.

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United States President has decided to sack Anthony Scaramucci, the Communications Director.

Trump has relieved him just days after he reportedly launched a verbal tirade against other senior members of the President's senior staff.

The decision to remove Scaramucci has come at the new chief of staff's, John F. Kelly, request, the New York Times reports.

Scaramucci had earlier boasted about reporting directly to the President and not the chief of staff. Following this, Kelly reportedly made clear to members of the White House staff at a meeting on Monday morning that he was the in-charge.

For the uninitiated, Scaramucci's abrupt removal has come just ten days after the wealthy New York financier was brought on to the West Wing staff, in a decision that led to the departures of Sean Spicer, the former press secretary, and Reince Priebus, the president's first chief of staff.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
United States President Trump has said that his administration would "handle" the threat posed by North Korea's latest launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, the Washington Times reports.

"We'll handle North Korea. It will be handled. We will handle everything," Trump told the media at a Cabinet meeting in the White House, where he introduced the new chief of staff.

Trump added that his administration has "inherited" a series of foreign-policy challenges, including North Korea and the Middle East.

North Korea launched its second ICBM on Friday, which happens to be its 14th missile test this year.

Meanwhile, John F. Kelly was sworn-in as Trump's new chief of staff, and was primarily given the responsibility of initiating his stalled legislative agenda.

Trump further said that his administration has "done very well," taking note of the stock market, unemployment and business confidence.

Kelly took over for Reince Priebus, who was ousted from the job after only six months on Friday.

Also, Trump has removed Anthony Scaramucci, the Communications Director, at Kelly's request.

A White House official said Kelly wanted Scaramucci removed from his new role because he did not think he was disciplined and had burned his credibility, CNN reports.

Trump has relieved him just days after he reportedly launched a verbal tirade against other senior members of the President's senior staff.

For the uninitiated, Scaramucci's abrupt removal has come just ten days after the wealthy New York financier was brought on to the West Wing staff.

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The United States Treasury Department on Monday slapped sanctions on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

"Yesterday's illegitimate elections confirm that Maduro is a dictator who disregards the will of the Venezuelan people," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a statement, CNN reports.

The move comes a day after Maduro declared a sweeping victory in a vote that will allow him to further consolidate his power over the crisis torn nation.

The sanctions can clearly be called a clear signal of the Trump administration's opposition to Maduro's regime. A major part of the has called the vote an assault on democracy.

Owing to the development, beginning on Monday, all of the Venezuelan's president's assets that are subject to U.S. jurisdiction will be frozen.

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With effect from 28 July 2017

DB (International) Stock Brokers announced resignation of Sanjeev Rawal from the post of CFO of the Company with effect from 28 July 2017.

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Net profit of Larsen & Toubro (L&T) rose 2.09% to Rs 558.14 crore on 15.79% rise in net sales to Rs 13937.04 crore in Q1 June 2017 over Q1 June 2016. The result was announced after market hours on Friday, 28 July 2017.

On a consolidated basis, L&T's net profit rose 50.60% to Rs 1028.30 crore on 9.59% rise in net sales to Rs 23810.86 crore in Q1 June 2017 over Q1 June 2016.

L&T won new orders worth Rs 26352 crore at consolidated level in Q1 June 2017 in a challenging business environment. International orders at Rs 7885 crore, constituted 30% of the total order inflow. Major orders during the quarter were secured by infrastructure segment. Consolidated order book of the group stood at Rs 262860 crore as on 30 June 2017, marginally higher by 2% on a year on year basis. International order book constituted 26% of the total order book.

L&T said that prospects of a good monsoon, rural wage growth, pay hike for state government employees, lower lending rates and a modest pick-up in external demand are expected to catalyse GDP growth. The company said its focus continues to be on selective order intake, working capital reduction, cost optimization through strengthening execution operational efficiencies and productivity enhancement through digitalization and other initiatives. The company is optimistic of its growth aspirations in the medium term as the economic outlook improves.

Net profit of NTPC rose 12% to Rs 2618.17 crore on 4.3% rise in net sales to Rs 19879.32 crore in Q1 June 2017 over Q1 June 2016. The result was announced on Saturday, 29 July 2017.

Net profit of Pfizer declined 28.6% to Rs 57.17 crore on 16.02% decline in net sales to Rs 420.91 crore in Q1 June 2017 over Q1 June 2016. The result was announced on Saturday, 29 July 2017.

Among prominent companies, Reliance Power, Shree Cement and Siemens will announce April-June 2017 results today, 31 July 2017.

ONGC will be watched. With reference to media report suggesting Cabinet clears plan to pipe away HPCL stake to ONGC, the state-run oil major clarified that it was reported in the media that the Union Cabinet in its meeting held on 19 July 2017 has "in- principle" decided to disinvest its existing 51.11% of total equity shareholding in HPCL to ONGC. However, ONGC has not yet received any communication from the Government of India on the aforesaid decision. The clarification was issued on Saturday, 29 July 2017.

In the budget speech for the year 2017-18, the Finance Minister indicated that the government sees opportunities to strengthen its CPSEs through consolidation, mergers and acquisitions. By these methods, the CPSEs can be integrated across the value chain of an industry. It will give them capacity to bear higher risks, avail economies of scale, take higher investment decisions and create more value for the stakeholders. Possibilities of such restructuring are visible in the oil and gas sector. The government proposes to create and integrated public sector 'oil major' which will be able to match the performance of international and domestic private sector oil and gas companies.

Wipro announced that Wipro Gallagher Solutions (WCS) released the latest version of its Loan Origination System (LOS), NetOxygen v5.O. NetOxygen v5.0, which provides users such as loan officers, processors and administrators with more simplified innovation and configuration tools to meet lenders' evolving needs and support next-gen lender transformation. The announcement was made before trading hours today, 31 July 2017.

In the first of a series of significant advancements designed to simplify innovation, NetOxygen v5.O streamlines access to its Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) through the development of a Loan Gateway Service. The Loan Gateway Service enables direct data sharing between third-party partners and NetOxygen, accelerating the development and deployment of future-ready lending models. NetOxygen v5.O also accelerates and simplifies configuration through a suite of easy-to-use self-service tools available to business users. The business tools enable lenders to address necessary and urgent business changes such as fee schemes, conditions, products, and user maintenance without intervention from the IT team.

Alok Industries announced on Saturday, 29 July 2017, that it has a processing plant in Navi Mumbai, where there is no production since the last 14 months primary due to labour issues. Arising out of a notice that the company put up on 14 July 2017, a lock-out has been declared at the said plant from Saturday, 29 July 2017. The working of the company is however expected to remain normal despite the above development.

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Shares allotted at top end of Rs 805-815 price band

Security and Intelligence Services (India)'s (SIS) initial public offer (IPO) comprising fresh issue of shares aggregating upto Rs 362.25 crore and an offer for sale of up to 51.2 lakh shares by the selling shareholders begins today, 31 July 2017. The IPO price band is fixed at Rs 805-815 per share. The IPO closes on Wednesday, 2 August 2017.

Ahead of the opening of the IPO, the IPO Committee of the board of directors of the company at its meeting held on Friday, 28 July 2017, finalized allocation of 43.04 lakh equity shares in aggregate, to anchor investors at a price of Rs 815 per share. Anchor investors include Abu Dhabi Investment Authority - Behave, Reliance Capital Trustee Co, Birla Sun Life Trustee Company, Amundi Funds Equity India, Sundaram Mutual Fund amongst others.

The company intends to utilize the proceeds from the issue towards repayment & pre-payment of outstanding loans, funding working capital requirements and general corporate purposes.

Security and Intelligence Services (India)'s consolidated net profit rose 20.53% to Rs 91.28 crore on 19.05% growth in net sales to Rs 4567.09 crore in FY 2017 over FY 2016.

Security and Intelligence Services (India), promoted by Ravindra Kishore Sinha and Rituraj Kishore Sinha, is a leading provider of private security and facility management services in India.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News

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A total of 12 outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants were killed in separate counter operations in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq Saturday, military statements said on Sunday.

The operations in northern Iraq were conducted in the Zap and Matina regions, killing three terrorists who were allegedly preparing for an attack and destroying some weapon pits and caves, Xinhua quoted the Turkish Armed Forces as saying.

Another airstrike was conducted in Beytussebap district of Turkey's southeastern Sirnak province, killing nine PKK militants, including one senior member.

One Turkish soldier was also killed in an anti-PKK operation in southeastern Hakkari province, local media reported.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and the EU, has resumed its armed campaign against the Turkish government since July 2015.

--IANS

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At least 20 Islamic State militants were killed by Iraqi paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units in a conflict in the desert area near the Syrian border on Monday, a statement said.

The Hashd Shaabi units, backed by helicopter gunships, fought heavy clashes with IS militants when dozens of extremists attacked the military base at the border post of Tal Sufoug near Syria, Xinhua news agency cited the statement as saying.

The paramilitary units are deployed in the desert near the Syrian border to prevent cross-border IS movement between Iraq and Syria.

On May 29, the units made their first arrival at the border after they freed al-Qahtaniyah town near the Syrian border.

On July 10, Abadi officially declared Mosul's liberation from IS after nearly nine months of fierce fighting to dislodge the extremist militants from their last major stronghold in Iraq.

The Iraqi forces still have to wage more offensives to drive out the IS from their redoubts in Kirkuk, the adjacent sprawling rugged areas in Salahudin province, in addition to the remaining IS strongholds in the border towns with Syria, including Aana, Rawa, and al-Qaim.

--IANS

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A fresh batch of 590 pilgrims left Jammu on Monday for the ongoing Amarnath Yatra.

"Another batch of 590 pilgrims left the Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas at 5.45 a.m., in an escorted convoy of 16 vehicles for the Kashmir Valley," officials said here.

So far this year, 2.54 lakh devotees have performed the pilgrimage inside the cave shrine situated at 3,888 metres above sea-level.

The shrine houses an ice stalagmite structure that waxes and wanes with the size of the visible moon. Devotees believe the ice stalagmite structure symbolises mythical powers of Lord Shiva.

Pilgrims approach the shrine either through the traditional 46 km Pahalgam route or through the 14 km Baltal route.

Forty-eight pilgrims have lost their lives this year -- 17 died in a road accident, eight were killed in a terror attack and 23 due to natural causes

The yatra that commenced on June 29 will conclude on August 7 on Shravan Purnima coinciding with the Raksha Bandhan festival.

--IANS

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About 65 per cent of Egyptian families have nine children, which can hinder the nation's development, a minister said here.

"The population increase rate has reached 2.5 per cent, which requires raising the economic growth rate three times in no less than ten years, which is not happening for the time being," Egyptian Minister of Social Solidarity Ghada Wali said on Sunday.

The minister added that about 62 per cent of Egyptian mothers are illiterate.

Egypt's population has exceeded 100 million, including 93.4 million citizens in addition to at least 8 million expatriates, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics.

According to President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, terrorism and growing population are the largest challenges that Egypt is currently facing.

--IANS

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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and US President Donald Trump on Monday discussed the latest North Korean missile launch over the phone and agreed that China and Russia must contribute to the diplomatic pressure on Pyongyang.

"I completely agreed with President Trump on the recognition that we must take further action (regarding tougher sanctions against North Korea)," Abe told the media.

Abe said that "North Korea has trampled" over peaceful efforts to resolve regional tension and "unilaterally escalated (the situation)", adding that China and Russia and the rest of the international community "must take seriously this undeniable fact and increase their pressure" on Pyongyang.

Japan's Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda said Abe and Trump agreed it was necessary for Beijing, Pyongyang's closest ally, to assert its influence to ensure that North Korea abandons its nuclear and missile programme.

Trump wrote on Twitter on Saturday that he was "very disappointed in China", claiming it has done "nothing" to help solve the North Korea crisis.

Following North Korea's missile launch on Friday, the second intercontinental missile developed by the regime, Washington and its allies have stressed the need to step up sanctions.

The Hwasong-14 missile flew nearly 1,000 km and reached a maximum altitude of more than 3,700 km, suggesting that it could reach much of US territory.

--IANS

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With Indian scientific institutions facing flak for failing to translate and commercialise technology from labs to the market, the government has been urged to set up a separate organisation at the academia-industry interface to enable this, says Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Chairman Sekhar Basu.

"We have recommended there should be a separate organisation at the interface of academia and industry where we (scientific organisations) can go and offer them (the industry) the technology.

"This organisation can work at the interface between the industries who do the production and the scientists who have the technology. There is a commercial aspect to it and some technology aspect as well. That is what we exactly miss," Basu told IANS in an interview here on the sidelines of an event.

In his address at the event organised by the Indian Institute of Metals, the head of the country's atomic energy regulator had noted that Indian science was a "big failure" in this regard.

"Currently scientific institutions are under a lot of criticism because of the fact that our things are not going from lab to land. We are a big failure in this."

Asked to elaborate, Basu, who is also Secretary, Atomic Energy, told IANS that scientific institutions had come together recently at a meeting to float the idea to the Central government.

"We need to do this in a commercial way. The government is doing something about it; so we will probably know and be able to take it forward," he said.

On the nuclear technology front, Basu said India is looking forward to the operationalisation of the landmark India-Japan civil nuclear deal, which was signed in November 2016 but only came into force earlier this month.

India is the first non-member of the non-proliferation treaty to have signed such a deal with Japan. The deal clears the way for the US and French nuclear firms, which have alliances with Japanese companies, to engage in nuclear commerce with India. The Japanese technology is needed for the US and French firms to start the construction of nuclear reactors for India.

Basu says there are twin benefits of the deal: Good credit terms as well as nuclear technology.

"Japan may not be supplying reactors straight away, but we expect they may supply components to the reactor suppliers. We can get good credit terms... like the very good credit terms that are coming in for the bullet train... not only technology but also credit terms, so both together. In this (deal) we are looking for equipment and credit," he said.

Japanese firms have major stakes in companies like America's Westinghouse and French multinational group Areva which plan to build reactors in India. Japan's Toshiba is a major owner of Westinghouse.

"Areva is going through financial trouble and they are going through restructuring... similarly Westinghouse is in financial trouble. Once they are ready, we will take it and we have some conditions like it should be cheap (commercially viable) and they should have a reference reactor. These two conditions have to be met," said Basu.

Asked about the controversy over India's entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group, Basu said the resistance (from countries like China which argue India is not an NPT signatory) is "not making much of a difference now" due to the waiver granted to it in 2008 by the premier group to access civil nuclear technology.

However, he said, the membership is crucial for India in the long term.

"The reactors that we are buying... only because we had got the waiver. The waiver was required because we do not have uranium, we have not started mining this uranium. Now we have established that we have a lot of uranium but we have to open up those mines and mine opening takes time and there is public resistance, etc.

"All taken together it is taking time, but once we are able to do a good amount of mining... other things are not so complicated.

"If we become part of the NSG, it will help us gain better recognition and open up to the world," he said.

"That (resistance to enter NSG) will be there. As of now it is not making much of a difference because we have got the waiver, but long term it should be there. Why should we be isolated? We are a responsible country... we have our own pride," he added.

(Sahana Ghosh can be contacted at sahana.g@ians.in)

--IANS

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Telugu star Allu Arjun on Monday shared a picture with his daughter Arha, whom he described as the angel of his life, on Twitter and within minutes, the picture went viral with over thousand retweets.

"Me and my little angel Allu Arha. Pic a boo," Arjun tweeted along with the picture.

Arjun is married to Sneha Reddy, and the couple also has a son named Ayaan.

While Ayaan is 3-year-old, Arha was born last November.

On the career front, Arjun is gearing up to start shooting for his next Telugu outing, "Naa Peru Surya".

In the film, he plays a military officer and he is currently undergoing a physical makeover to essay the role.

"He has started working closely with a trainer for month-long to achieve the desired body for the role. As a military officer, he is expected to look a certain way and be extremely fit," a source close to Arjun had told IANS.

--IANS

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The Saudi Arabia-led Arab alliance which severed diplomatic relations with Qatar has insisted that Doha must meet a list of 13 demands before talks to resolve the Gulf region crisis could start.

"We reiterate the importance of Qatar's compliance with the 13 demands outlined by the four states," said a joint statement released by the Foreign Ministers of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt after a meeting in Manama, Bahrain, Xinhua news agency reported.

"We are ready to have a dialogue, provided the 13 conditions are met by Qatar," said Bahrain's Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa.

On Sunday, Qatar's Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation Authority denied a Saudi Press Agency's report that the Arab quartet had dedicated emergency air routes for Qatari aircraft.

Saudi media reports were spreading "false information", said the state-run Qatar News Agency.

The joint statement issued by the four Foreign Ministers also condemned Qatar's authorities for obstructing its citizens from performing Haj while Qatar accused Saudi Arabia of refusing to guarantee the safety of Qatari pilgrims.

The four countries cut off diplomatic and transport links with Qatar on June 5, accusing the Qatari government of supporting extremist groups, interfering in their internal affairs and seeking closer ties with Iran.

Qatar repeatedly denied the charges, citing it would not negotiate on issues related to its sovereignty.

On June 23, the four countries issued a list of 13 demands to end the rift with Doha. The demands included stopping Qatari terror financing and closing Al-Jazeera television.

Other demands included cutting off Qatar-Iran diplomatic ties, shutting down a Turkish military base in Qatar and handing over "terrorist figures" and "wanted individuals" to the four Arab countries.

Earlier this month, it appeared the nations had abandoned the 13-point list when diplomats told reporters at the United Nations they now wanted Qatar to accept "six broad principles".

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson flew to the region in July and presented proposals aimed at preparing both sides to hold direct talks.

During Tillerson's visit, Qatar and the US signed a deal on combating terrorism financing, one of the core demands of the Saudi-led alliance.

On July 21, in his first public speech since the crisis started, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani called for holding talks to resolve the Gulf standoff, though emphasising that any talks should be in respect of its national sovereignty.

--IANS

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A court here on Monday sentenced Artha Tatwa Group chief Pradip Sethy and two company directors to seven-year imprisonment for their involvement in the chit fund scam in Odisha.

The Bhubaneswar Chief Judicial Magistrate convicted Sethy, Srikrushna Padhee, and Manoj Patanik in a case registered at the Kharvel Nagar police station here.

Informed sources said the company had duped thousands of depositors of over Rs 500 crore.

Earlier, a Special CBI court had sentenced Sethy to seven years of imprisonment.

The group, registered under the Companies Act and Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, collected money from small investors in Odisha with a promise of high returns ranging from 15 to 20 per cent.

Along with Sethy, 20 company employees were also arrested for their involvement in the chit fund scam.

--IANS

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Australian authorities on Monday launched a nation-wide hotline service for sexually assaulted university students.

The service will be available to students around the clock, with specialist trauma counsellors from Rape and Domestic Violence Services Australia at the helm to provide support, reports Xinhua news agency.

Director and founder of End Rape on Campus Sharna Bremner told Xinhua on Monday that she hoped the hotline will help victims of assault and harassment - particularly in light of the report on sexual assault on Australian university campuses, which is due to be released on Tuesday.

"The hotline came about because we (End Rape on Campus) requested a specialist hotline for students, with 24/7 counselling," Bremner said.

The report into sexual assault and harassment at universities will detail the results of a student survey - undertaken by all the 39 universities which are part of the Universities Australia (UA) group - and Bremner anticipated there will be "mass panic from the universities" in light of what she expects will be damning figures.

The release of the survey is likely to see a number of students reach out for help, according to UA chief Belinda Robinson, and she hoped the support line will complement existing services that are already in place for survivors.

The support line will operate until November 30, when it will be re-evaluated to assess how many students accessed the service and whether it should be continued.

--IANS

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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday slammed the BJP for the hike in the price of subsidised cooking gas by Rs 4 per cylinder every month, accusing the party ruling at the Centre of not caring for the people.

"I am really concerned about the commoners. Earlier, subsidy was withdrawn on LPG and now again. The BJP does not care about the people," she tweeted.

The Trinamool Congress supremo accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of making public commitments and then going back on them.

"They only care about money. How can the BJP not carry out their social obligations? Where is their commitment to society at large? The BJP makes public commitments and then deviates from all," she said.

The Centre on Monday ordered state-run oil companies to raise subsidised cooking gas price by Rs 4 per cylinder every month to eliminate all subsidies by March next year.

--IANS

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Global aerospace major Boeing on Monday said it expects a demand for 2,100 new aircraft in India, valued at $290 billion, over the next 20 years.

According to the company's 2017 annual current market outlook (CMO) for India, factors such as high passenger traffic and growth of low-cost carriers will lead to the fulfilment for the demand forecast.

"Commercial aerospace demand in India continues to grow at unprecedented rates," said Dinesh Keskar, Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific and India Sales, Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

"The increasing number of passengers combined with a strong exchange rate, low fuel prices and high load factors bodes well for India's aviation market, especially for the low-cost carriers," he said.

Currently, passenger traffic growth in India is more than 20 per cent, which far exceeds the global average of 7.3 per cent.

Segment-wise, the company's annual CMO pointed out that single-aisle airplanes such as the "737 MAX" family, will continue to account for the largest share of new deliveries.

The company expects the airlines in India to need approximately 1,780 single-aisle airplanes in the next 20 years.

"The 737 MAX is the fastest-selling airplane in Boeing history because customers throughout the world, including India, want its combination of performance, flexibility and efficiency," Keskar said.

In addition, Boeing projected a worldwide demand for 41,030 new airplanes over the next 20 years, with India passenger carriers needing more than 5.1 per cent of the total global demand.

The company's CMO is the longest running jet forecast and regarded as the most comprehensive analysis of the aviation industry.

--IANS

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The Border Security Force (BSF) on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Skill Development Corp (NSDC) to provide skill training to its retired and retiring personnel.

BSF Director General K.K. Sharma said the five-year agreement will enable the retiring personnel to live a more productive life and contribute to nation building.

"This collaboration aims to train and provide gainful employment to retired BSF personnel and their families, school students, youth and differently abled for five years starting from April 2017 to April 2022," Sharma said.

The agreement was signed in the presence of Minister of State for Skill Development Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju.

Rudy said skill development remained an ignored aspect until Prime Minister Narendra Modi created the Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Ministry.

"Suffering from colonial legacy, skill development remained a neglected sector while the human resource development focus remained confined to imparting academic education," Rudy said.

"Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) came to be regulated by the National Council for Vocational Training, an advisory body set up by the Centre in 1956, and today the ITIs cater to around 23 lakh students at any point of time."

--IANS

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Can colour blind students be allowed to pursue medical courses, the Supreme Court on Monday asked the Medical Council of India (MCI).

A division bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice A.M. Khanwilkar asked the MCI to inform it of its decision before September 12, the next date of hearing.

The apex court's query comes after an expert committee of senior doctors, appointed by the court, opined that such students could be allowed to pursue the MBBS courses.

Calling the rule barring colour-blind people from medicine "regressive", the panel said the guidelines need to be revived and that many other countries allow colour-blind students into medical courses.

The court was hearing a plea by two medical aspirants who were denied admission after clearing the entrance examination in 2015 as they were suffering from partial colour blindness.

They had first approached Tripura High Court which had turned down their plea.

---IANS

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Much of Asia may see 50 per cent more rainfall due to climate change, although countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan may experience a decline in rainfall by 20-50 per cent, says a new report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

The increase in rainfall is not necessarily good news either, because the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has forecast fewer rainy days, but more intense rainfall on those days. This means more flooding, and less rainwater getting the chance to percolate underground to recharge aquifers.

And there will probably be more intense typhoons and cyclones as global temperatures go up, says the ADB report, called "A Region at Risk: The Human Dimensions of Climate Change in Asia and the Pacific".

Coastal and low-lying areas in Asia will be at an increased risk of flooding. Nineteen of the 25 cities most exposed to a one-metre sea-level rise are in Asia, seven in the Philippines alone. Indonesia will be the country worst hit by coastal flooding, with approximately 5.9 million people affected every year until 2100.

All this will have serious economic consequences. Global flood losses are expected to increase to $52 billion per year by 2050 from $6 billion in 2005. Moreover, 13 of the top 20 cities with the largest growth of annual flood losses from 2005-2050 are in Asia and the Pacificm with four in India: Mumbai, Chennai, Surat and Kolkata.

"The global climate crisis is arguably the biggest challenge human civilisation faces in the 21st century, with the Asia and Pacific region at the heart of it all," Bambang Susantono, ADB Vice-President for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development, said at the launch of the report. "Home to two-thirds of the world's poor and regarded as one of the most vulnerable region to climate change, countries in Asia and the Pacific are at the highest risk of plummeting into deeper poverty -- and disaster."

Climate change will also make food production in the region more difficult and costs higher. In some countries of Southeast Asia, rice yields could decline by up to 50 per cent by 2100 if no adaptation efforts are made. Meanwhile, in Central Asia, almost all crop yields in Uzbekistan are projected to decrease by 20-50 per cent by 2050 even in a two-degree Celsius temperature increase scenario.

Food shortages could increase the number of malnourished children in South Asia by seven million, as import costs will probably increase to $15 billion per year by 2050, compared to $2 billion now.

All coral reef systems in the region will collapse due to mass coral bleaching if global warming proceeds as per the business-as-usual scenario. The Paris Agreement aims to hold this rise down to 1.5 degrees Celsius, but even in that situation 89 per cent of coral reefs are expected to suffer from serious bleaching, severely affecting reef-related fisheries and tourism.

Climate change also poses a significant risk to health in Asia and the Pacific. Already, 3.3 million people die every year due to the harmful effects of outdoor air pollution, with China, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh being the top four countries experiencing such deaths. In addition, heat-related deaths in the region among the elderly are expected to increase by about 52,000 cases by 2050 due to climate change.

Under a business-as-usual scenario, a six-degree Celsius temperature increase is projected over the entire Asian landmass by the end of the century. Some countries in the region could experience significantly hotter climates, with temperature increases in Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the northwest part of China projected to become eight degrees hotter than they were at the start of the Industrial Age.

A business-as-usual approach could also disrupt functioning ecosystem services, prompting mass migration -- mostly to urban areas -- that could make cities more crowded and overwhelm available social services. Deaths related to vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue may also increase.

To mitigate the impact of climate change, the report highlights the importance of implementing the commitments laid out in the Paris Agreement. These include public and private investments focused on the rapid decarbonisation of the Asian economy as well as the implementation of adaptation measures to protect the region's most vulnerable populations.

Climate mitigation and adaptation efforts should also be mainstreamed into macro-level regional development strategies and micro-level project planning in all sectors. The region has both the capacity and influence to move towards sustainable development pathways, curb global emissions and promote adaptation, the report concludes.

At the launch of the report, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Director of the Potsdam Institute, said, "The Asian countries hold Earth's future in their hands. If they choose to protect themselves against dangerous climate change, they will help to save the entire planet."

Looking at the bright side, Schellnhuber added, "Leading the clean industrial revolution will provide Asia with unprecedented economic opportunities. And exploring the best strategies to absorb the shocks of environmental change will make Asia a crucial actor in 21st-century multilateralism."

(In arrangement with thethirdpole.net. Views expressed are those of the web site. Feedback at information@thethirdpole.net)

--IANS

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Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday accused the government of indirectly encouraging cow vigilantes and noted that there was an environment of "fear and terror" in the country.

Initiating a debate in the Lok Sabha on mob lynchings, Kharge said: "The government is indirectly encouraging groups like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal and gau bhakts (cow vigilantes)."

He urged the government not to turn Hindustan into "lynchistan".

"Don't make lynchistan out of Hindustan," Kharge said.

He said the incidents of mob lynchings were not coming down.

Slamming the BJP governments in Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh, the Congress leader said: "Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh have become mob lynching centres."

Kharge was referring to increasing incidents of cow vigilantes lynching people on suspicion of carrying beef or while ferrying cattle.

Kharge said that minorities, Dalits and women were being targetted under the Modi government.

He also demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should come to the House and clear his government's stand on the issue of mob lynching.

Kharge was interrupted by BJP's Nishikant Dubey, who said that the cases mentioned by him were subjudice and asked why he was discussing them.

Responding to Dubey, the Congress leader asked the government how many cases were registered against cow vigilantes and how many people had been arrested.

"On one hand you disown these people, but what action is being taken against them?" he asked, adding that no action was being taken against such people.

Hitting out at the government, Kharge said, "All these crimes are happening because you are trying to impose your ideology and philosophy on the people."

He said the lynchings were "planned", and mentioned Pehlu Khan, who was killed in Rajasthan in April when he was transporting cows with all valid documents, and other victims of mob lynchings.

BJP member Hukmdev Narayan Yadav however termed it a conspiracy against the government.

"These programmes are being run to malign the government... It is important to find out who is behind these attacks," Yadav said.

As opposition members protested, he said: "I am not blaming any party."

Yadav said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked states to take action and it is now the responsibility of state governments to take action.

The debate was taken up on Monday after a meeting of the Business Advisory Council of Lok Sabha on Thursday.

The lower house saw protests and disruptions through last week as opposition members demanded a debate on the issue, leading even to suspension of six Congress MPs for five days.

--IANS

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The Congress on Monday said around 300 people had died in floods in different parts of the country and accused the Modi government of "sleeping over" a human tragedy of gigantic proportions.

Talking to the media here, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said the flood situation in the country was "alarming" and about one crore (ten million) people had been affected.

He said the government was making perfunctory statements and has provided "little relief" after aerial surveys.

"An insipid BJP government sleeps over a human tragedy of gigantic proportions from east to west India," Azad said.

Azad, who is Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, said 82 people have died in Assam and two waves of floods in the state has affected over 25 lakh people in 29 districts.

Azad said at least 1,40,000 people have been displaced and at least 26,000 houses have been damaged. He said vulnerable wildlife species were under threat and 80 per cent of Kaziranga National Park was under water with 218 animals and 17 rhinos having drowned.

He said the Comptroller and Auditor General report had found a 60 per cent shortfall in release of central funds to some northeastern states for flood management schemes.

The Congress leader said that over two lakh hectares of crop area has been affected in the state with large tracks suffering severe damage and 200 schools are not in a position to conduct classes.

Azad said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not visited Assam so far and the money provided by the central government for rescue and relief work was grossly inadequate.

Referring to Gujarat, he said 128 deaths had taken place in the state with Banaskantha district accounting for 49, including 17 from one family.

Azad said 200 villages were without electricity and 945 roads, including five national highways and 31 state highways, had been damaged.

He said about 80,000 people had been evacuated and many were still waiting to be rescued. Taking a dig at the Modi government, he said they were "more interested in hijacking opposition MLAs than providing flood relief".

The Congress has witnessed defections in Gujarat ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections next month.

Azad said Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani visited the flood-affected areas of Banaskantha "five days after" the district witnessed damage to property and loss of life.

He said Modi had done a perfunctory aerial survey of the flood affected areas in the state.

Referring to Rajasthan, Azad said that 16 people have been killed in rain-related incidents and 12,000 people had been relocated to Jalore, Sirohi, Pali and Barmer districts.

Azad said four persons, including a father and son, have been killed in rain-related incidents in Himachal Pradesh, where several roads are blocked due to landslides.

Referring to West Bengal, he said floods have claimed at least 31 lives in the last 10 days and nearly 45,000 people had taken shelter in more than 2,000 relief camps set up in the flood-hit districts.

Azad said in Jammu and Kashmir, flash floods had wreaked havoc in Thathri town of Doda district inundating vast areas along the Batote-Kishtwar National Highway and washing away half a dozen houses.

Azad said at least 11 people had been killed in Odisha in lightning-related incidents, while 3,000 families and 27,000 livestock were affected in Manipur floods.

Azad said Mizoram faces the worst floods in 50 years and Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland had also been affected.

Referring to Jharkhand, he said eight people had been killed due to heavy rains in the state.

--IANS

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The Delhi government on Monday ordered a halt to the funding of 28 Delhi University (DU) colleges, which are wholly or partially funded by it, after they failed to constitute governing bodies.

"(I) have ordered the Finance Department to stop funding for all Delhi government funded colleges, as DU is not willing to have governing bodies for the last 10 months," Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia tweeted.

In another tweet, he alleged corruption as the intent behind the decision by the University. "I can not allow unchecked corruption and irregularities to be sustained on Delhi government funds in the name of Education."

The decision was taken at a meeting between Sisodia and the Finance Department on Monday.

He added that DU has been deliberately stalling the process of formation of governing bodies since September last year.

The series of events cited by Sisodia in another tweet mentioned that the DU Executive Council disapproved the governing body list sent by the state government twice this month, on July 3 and July 17.

Governing bodies at colleges are responsible for taking several administrative decisions. A full governing body comprises 15 members, out of which five are nominated by the state government.

Out of 28 colleges, 12 are wholly funded by the Delhi government, while the rest are partially provided for.

Maharaja Agrasen College, B.R. Ambedkar College, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, Keshav Mahavidyalaya and Bhagini Nivedita College are among the colleges wholly funded by the Delhi government.

College of Vocational Studies, Rajdhani College, Shivaji College, Motilal Nehru College, Aurobindo College, Kalindi College and Shyama Prasad Mukherji College are among colleges that are partially funded.

--IANS

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Under the scheme National Mission on Libraries, the government has approved a fund of Rs 224 lakh for improving the status of Delhi Public Library, the Ministry of Culture said on Monday.

"Modernisation and upgradation of Delhi Public Library is an ongoing continuous process. Every year grant-in-aid general for purchase of books, preservation and conservation, digitisation, office expenses and others is provided to Delhi Public Library," said the Ministry statement.

There are at present 35 branches and 62 mobile library points under the Delhi Public Library in the national capital.

"Delhi Public Library proposes to open two branches -- one at Ashok Vihar Phase-2 and one at Bawana in Delhi -- after completion of construction of library buildings," the statement added.

Most of the government-run libraries function under the administrative control of the respective state library authorities.

Currently, there are six libraries under the administrative control of the Ministry of Culture -- the National Library, the Central Secretariat Library, the Central Reference Library, the Delhi Public Library, the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library and the Rampur Raza Library.

--IANS

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Rome, July 31 (IANS/AKI) Doctors without Borders on Monday declined to sign the Italian government's controversial 'code of conduct' aimed at curbing the actions of charity rescue ships in the Mediterranean and stemming the numbers of migrants who reach Europe.

Besides Doctors without Borders, German NGO Jugend Reptet refused to sign the code, which was inked on Monday by just two charities - Maltese charity MOAS and Save the Children - at the Interior Ministry in Rome.

Save the Children Italy said it would "constantly check that the code of conduct does not hamper the effectiveness of rescue operations".

"The absolute priority remains saving human lives at sea."

The 11 point-code requires armed police on board NGO vessels and a ban on making calls or firing flares and has drawn criticism from rights groups including Amnesty International and the United Nations.

The aim of having an officer on board would be to guarantee security and also to root out human traffickers hiding among migrants, according to Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti, who demanded the code of conduct.

Phone calls made from the NGO vessels flares fired could signal to human traffickers when it is safe to send a boat to sea, he said.

A total 34 percent of rescue operations in the Mediterranean were carried out by NGOs and private rescue teams in the first four months of this year - more than by Italian Coastguard or European border patrol forces, according to Minniti.

NGOs including Spain's Proactiva Open Arms and Germany's Sea Watch, earlier refused to sign the code, saying it would endanger more lives in what is the most treacherous sea route in the world for migrants.

Amnesty and Human Rights Watch condemned Italy's new rules in a joint statement earlier this month, saying the measures would severely restrict the ability of humanitarian and aid groups to carry out their work, putting migrant lives at further risk.

The UN children's charity UNICEF also deplored the new code of conduct, saying it put many lives at risk, especially those of minors.

Almost 2,380 migrants perished in the Mediterranean this year as of July 26, according to figures issued on Friday by the UN migration agency, International Organisation for Migration.

Over 94,000 migrants have reached Italy from Libya this year - 85 percent of the total crossings - amid claims by Italian prosecutors that NGOs are abetting traffickers transporting refugees and migrants to Europe.

--IANS/AKI

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A former Auditor General of Pakistan was sentenced to one year in prison here by a court on Monday for concealing that he also held Canadian nationality.

The prosecution presented evidence confirming that Muhammad Akhtar Buland Rana was also a Canadian national. Senior civil Judge Mohammad Shabbir handed down the punishment to Rana, the Dawn reported.

Rana has been shifted to Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.

The government sacked Rana in 2015 after the Supreme Judicial Council found him guilty of misconduct.

In 2014, a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report revealed that Rana withdrew Rs 4.62 million from the national exchequer in excess of his salary and privileges in violation of rules and regulations.

There were also complaints against his unsanctioned foreign visits, his four passports (three Pakistani and one Canadian) and availing long leaves to complete residence requirements in Canada for immigration purposes along with allegations of abuse of power.

The Federal Investigation Agency filed a case against Rana for obtaining multiple Pakistani passports while still holding a Canadian passport. Rana apparently "never declared his other nationality".

Rana obtained the first passport in Islamabad in 1998. The second passport was issued from Toronto in 2002. Two more official machine-readable passports were issued in 2005 and 2011 in Pakistan. In 2012, he was issued a Pakistani diplomatic passport.

--IANS

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A decision on the commercial release of Genetically Modified (GM) mustard crop in the country will be taken by September, the Central government told the Supreme Court on Monday.

A division bench of Chief Justice J.S. Khehar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said it will hear the pleas challenging commercial release of GM mustard, if the central government allows its roll-out.

Taking into consideration that the sowing season of mustard begins in the month of October, the bench posted the matter for September.

The court was hearing a batch of pleas challenging the commercial rollout of GM mustard and open field trials citing health risks.

Earlier, the government was given was asked by the court to apprise it as to by when it will take a "well-informed and well-intentioned" policy decision on the roll-out.

Mustard is one of India's most important winter crops, which is sown between mid-October and late-November.

Seeking the implementation of the recommendations of the Technical Expert Committee, petitioners, environmentalist Aruna Rodrigues and others, have sought direction for inquiry and report on the field trials and application process of GM mustard crops.

Seeking a moratorium on the commercialisation of any other GM crop, they have said that genetically modified crops should not be released in open until there was a "comprehensive, transparent and rigorous biosafety protocol in the public domain conducted by agencies of independent expert bodies, the results of which are made public".

--IANS

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Sent from my iPhone

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
To cut oil import costs and reduce pollution through alternative fuels, the government is considering indigenous production of methanol from coal -- a pilot project for which is being set up in Odisha's Talcher, an official said on Monday.

Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari chaired a high level meeting on bio-fuels and methanol with experts, including NITI Aayog Member V.K. Saraswat who has been working on methanol-based fuel research.

During the meeting, Gadkari stressed on the need for clean fuel that can substitute fossil fuels, cut import cost and is cheap, a ministry spokesperson said.

While methanol is a promising fuel which is also being used in the West as well as China, but in most places it is being made from natural gas.

"This would be expensive for India since we import gas. For us, the best option is making methanol from coal. While technology exists for this, it is not commercially established yet," the official said.

India is presently importing methanol from Saudi Arabia and Iran. Indigenous production at present is very low as it is not cost effective due to import cost of natural gas.

"If we start making it from coal, it will become cost effective. Pilot project for coal to methanol is in Talcher," the spokesperson said, adding that the NITI Aayog is working on a roadmap for manufacturing methanol which can also be made from municipal solid waste.

--IANS

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The government on Monday suffered an embarrassment in the Rajya Sabha when it could not ensure passage of a bill to confer constitutional status on the Backward Classes Commission with the opposition succeeding in amending an important provision.

The house took up the Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill, 2017, which was earlier passed by the Lok Sabha.

But after day-long discussion, Congress members Digvijaya Singh, B K Hariprasad and Hussain Dalwai moved an amendment to clause 3 of the bill seeking to provide for appointment of all the five members of the commission from the OBC community, including a woman and a person from the minority community.

This was objected to by the government's side. Leader of the House Arun Jaitley said that what the Congress members were seeking could be looked into at the time of framing of rules under the law.

He said inclusion of such a provision barring entry of other community members in the commission could make the law unconstitutional as it may not stand judicial scrutiny.

As Congress members, including Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, P. Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal pressed for an immediate vote, Deputy Chairperson P J Kurien ordered a 10-minute suspension of proceedings for the two sides to sort out the matter.

CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury suggested that in case the bill could not be passed in the original form, the government could rectify the defects in the Lok Sabha where the legislation has to go back because there has been no unanimity in the Rajya Sabha. The amended bill from the Lok Sabha can be adopted by the house later, he said.

Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav said non-passage of the bill will give a wrong message to the country and suggested that the government and the main opposition Congress should sort out the issue and get the bill passed.

At the insistence of Congress members, the chair put their amendement to vote in a division which was carried with 75 voting for and 54 against, reflecting the lack of numbers on the government side.

When the amended Clasue 3 of the bill was put to vote, the BJP members voted against it. The result of the division was 69 ayes and 50 noes. A Constitution amendment bill can be passed only with the majority of the house present and two-thirds of those present voting in its favour.

The bill without Clause 3 that seeks to insert Article 330 8B was passed. The bill has to go back to the Lok Sabha where the govenment can amend it and get it passed as it has a majority.

After the fiasco for the government, both the sides traded charges. Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the Congress will have to regret this "moment" against backward classes for centuries to come.

Azad accused the government of being insincere and failing to do its homework.
Homeopathy has shown the ability to treat malaria and vitiligo in lab models, says new research by Mumbai's BMC-run BYL Nair Charitable Hospital and leading homoeopath Rajesh Shah.

Shah, founder of Life Force Homeopathy, said the findings have been published in two reputed international peer-reviewed journals recently -- the International Journal of Medical & Health Research and The European Journal of Pharmaceutical & Medical Research.

He said that in lab experiments in BYL Nair Hospital, one of the oldest Chinese homoepathic medicines, China Officinalis, and one of the latest homoeopathic medicines, Plasmodia Falciparum Nosode, were evaluated for inhibition of hemozoin, indicating their efficacy against malaria.

"This path-breaking research has supported several fundamental principles of homoeopathy and opens windows to more scientific research in treating many dreaded diseases, including malaria and other infections," Shah, who initiated these projects, told IANS.

In the second experiment with Dr Renuka Munshi, homoeopathic medicines showed effectiveness against vitiligo, the dreaded skin diseases in which there is a loss of pigment, leading to white patches on the skin.

Also called leucoderma, it has a deep social stigma attached to it. "Among vitiligo patients worldwide, the maximum are from India -- eight per cent of the country's population," Shah said.

He explained that in the lab cell-line models, the homoeopathic medicines selected showed an increase in colour formation with just small doses of 30C potency, which is highly encouraging.

Shah said though homoeopathy -- founded by the legendary German physician Samuel Hahnemann in the 18th century -- is the second most used medical system in the world as per WHO, it has been criticized over its efficacy owing to scarce research.

"But in recent years, a lot of research by eminent scientists from reputed institutions worldwide is underway in homoeopathy. For instance, scientist Jayesh Bellare and his team at IIT-Bombay made a breakthrough in 2008 demonstrating presence of nanoparticles in homoeopathic dilutions," Shah said.

In 2003, eminent Indian molecular biologist Dr A.R. Khuda-Bukhsh and his team demonstrated the effectiveness of homoeopathy in a laboratory model, he added.

In fact, in its earlier years, homoeopathy was labelled as a "placebo" medicine, but the recent lab experiments have silenced not only the critics, but shown that the potentised, ultra-dilute medicines in nanoparticle form have great therapeutic effects, said Shah.

He expressed optimism that his new landmark research would attract more scientists to evaluate homoeopathy in the light of modern science.

--IANS

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Junior doctors at the government-run Osmania General Hospital (OGH) here went on strike after relatives of a patient attacked their colleagues.

Nearly 250 junior doctors and house surgeons have been boycotting their duties except emergency services since Sunday night, demanding security for them and action against those involved in the attack.

The strike by medicos hit services at OGH, one of the oldest hospitals in the country and the biggest government-run facility in Telangana.

Patients coming from different parts of the city and other districts and neighbouring states faced hardships.

Four attendants of a woman patient, who died during the treatment, assaulted two female junior doctors and a duty doctor on Sunday night.

The 70-year-old patient, who was in critical condition, died at Intensive Care Unit.

Alleging that she died due to negligence by doctors, four of her relatives barged into the ICU and attacked them.

The junior doctors lodged a complaint with Afzalgunj Hospital. They demanded the arrest of the accused under non-bailable sections.

The Telangana Junior Doctors' Association called for a strike to protest against the rising number of attacks on medicos. It said this was the fourth incident at OGH in one month.

OGH Superintendent G.V.S. Moorthy tried to persuade them to call off the strike. He set up a committee to look into their demands and asked for a report within three days.

Following similar incidents at OGH and Gandhi Hospital in the past, authorities had taken some measures to provide security to medicos.

The association demanded that security personnel be deployed and CCTV cameras installed in all wards of the hospitals.

--IANS

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The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) on Monday provided one week relief to Sahara India Life Insurance Company Ltd against the order of insurance regulator IRDAI transferring its life insurance policy portfolio of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Ltd.

In a statement, Sahara India Life said SAT, condemning the order of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), also raised serious objection against the order.

The SAT had ordered status quo till it completes hearing on August 7.

"The SAT is going to decide a landmark case in the liberalised Indian insurance industry. This is going to be an important case under the Insurance Act," D. Varadarajan, a Supreme Court advocate specialising in company/competition/insurance laws, told IANS.

He said the status quo order was waiting to happen.

"The harsh and extreme order of IRDAI against Sahara India Life can be likened to a staged shooting by trigger-happy and over-zealous cops," Varadarajan quipped.

"How far the IRDAI is justified in acting on the basis of the report of the administrator who happen to be its own employee will be decided by SAT," he added.

"Not only a bias, even the likely would of bias in case of a harsh decision would raise many a eyebrows," said Varadarajan.

On July 28, IRDAI had ordered transfer of Sahara India Life's business portfolio to ICICI Prudential Life Insurance effective from July 31.

Last month, IRDAI had appointed its own official as an administrator of Sahara India Life. The administrator had initially ordered Sahara India Life to stop accepting new business.

The IRDAI had ordered transfer of Sahara India Life's insurance business to ICICI Prudential Life based on the administrator's report.

According to the statement, Sahara India Life felt that the order was passed to benefit a third party and in violation of the principles of natural justice.

"Existence of power is one thing while the mode and manner of exercise of that power is another thing. With its status quo order, the SAT would be inclined to examine the manner and method of exercise of power by IRDAI," Varadarajan said.

Sahara India Life challenged the IRDAI action, stating that its business was continuously in profit and the company has been in absolute and strict compliance of all regulatory norms /directions issued by the regulator.

It argued that there has not been even a single case of any complaint of non-payment of any claim to any policy holder and though the regulatory requirement of solvency margin is only 1.5, Sahara India Life has been maintaining solvency margin of more than 8 which reflects the company's sound financial health.

IRDAI had not even framed any scheme, to safeguard the interest of policy holders, which is a statutory requirement before transferring the business to ICICI Prudential, it said.

The order was passed in great hurry and there was neither any transparency in the action of IRDAI nor the legal provisions were complied with, Sahara India Life said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The German Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) censored its investigatory reports on the emissions cheating practices of domestic carmakers, the media reported on Monday.

The KBA already knew over a year ago that Porsche had installed illicit software to falsify the emission levels of its diesel vehicles in test settings, media reports said.

However, the authority delayed the publication of the related information under pressure from the German automotive industry, Xinhua news agency reported.

The KBA is a sub-department of the German Ministry of Transport headed by Alexander Dobrindt (CSU).

In the original and never published report on the nitrogen oxide emission levels of diesel-fueled Porsche Macan models, the KBA had identified an illegal function to reduce emissions levels during test settings.

The software in place must be considered as an "(illicit) defeat device according to regulations", the report said.

After an intervention by Porsche's mother company Volkswagen, the wording was changed to describe the function as being merely a "change to the emissions behaviour of the exhaust system".

In response to the revelations, Green Party (Gruene) politician Oliver Krischer said the correspondence was a clear indication that Transport Minister Dobrindt was aware of Porsche's emissions cheating practices in 2016.

"Back then, the scandal was covered up. Now Dobrindt is attempting to use Porsche as a sacrifice pawn to avoid being associated with the emissions cartel," Krischer said.

The Ministry of Transport did not deny that it had "discussed technical questions" with producers for the "report of the Volkswagen investigatory commission". Such a procedure was "internationally commonplace and necessary", the ministry insisted.

Monday's revelations are the most recent episode of a long-running scandal in which Dobrindt's ministry has been criticised for excessively close ties with German carmakers.

In December 2016, it was shown that the "Volkswagen investigatory commission" had removed sensitive passages from a report into diesel vehicle emissions.

--IANS

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Some of the largest investors, intermediaries and issuers in Asia Pacific are confident of India's stable economic growth in the region of 6.5 per cent and 7.5 per cent over the next 12-18 months, Moody's Investors Service said in a statement on Monday.

According to the global credit rating agency Moody's, the views were gathered in a poll conducted jointly with its Indian affiliate, ICRA Ltd.

"More than 60 per cent of market participants that Moody's and ICRA surveyed in Mumbai and Singapore believe that India's (Baa3 positive) GDP (gross domestic product) growth rate will range between 6.5 per cent and 7.5 per cent over the next 12-18 months," Moody's said.

"Given the economic and institutional reforms in India, and further changes that could follow, India will likely grow faster than similarly rated peers over the next 12-18 months despite a short-term drag caused by demonetisation," said Marie Diron, a Moody's Associate Managing Director.

On the impact of Goods and Services Tax (GST), Moody's said that over the medium term, the GST will contribute to productivity gains and faster GDP growth by making it easier to do business, thereby unifying national markets and enhancing India's attractiveness as a foreign investment destination.

It will also help facilitate the government revenue generation by improving tax compliance and administration; with both factors positive for India's credit profile, which is constrained by a low revenue base, Moody's said.

"Overall, as the positive economic impact of GST materialises, economic growth should gradually accelerate to around 8 per cent over the next three to four years," said Diron.

"On the question of which factors will drive conditions for Indian corporates over the next 12-18 months, 58 per cent of respondents in Mumbai and 53 per cent in Singapore say that a combination of three factors: GDP growth of 7.0%-7.5%, the commissioning of new production capacity and stabilising commodity prices will drive EBITDA growth," the statement said.

Moody's view is that India's GDP growth, together with capacity additions and stabilising commodity prices, will support EBITDA growth of 6-12 per cent at Indian corporates over the next 12-18 months.

As for the country's banks, 76 per cent of the persons polled agreed that the greatest risk to the asset quality of Indian banks over the next 1-2 years is their exposures to large corporates in the power, steel and infrastructure sectors.

While Moody's agrees that the banks' asset quality can deteriorate due to their exposures to certain sectors such as power, steel and infrastructure, the formation of new non-performing loans (NPLs) will be slower than in the past two to three years because of the banks' recognition of a large amount of NPLs.

According to Moody's, 76 per cent of the market participants in Mumbai and Singapore agree that the conventional power sector in the infrastructure segment is most likely to face the greatest credit stress over the next 12-18 months.

On the other hand, Moody's maintains a stable outlook on India's conventional power sector, reflecting improvements in domestic coal production, which moderate risks to fuel supply.

According to Moody's, the surveys were conducted during Moody's and ICRA's third annual India credit conference titled "Reforms, Sector Trends, Credit Risks & Opportunities".

The event was held in Mumbai on June 8 and in Singapore on June 21 bringing together 159 market participants in Mumbai and 61 in Singapore.
A suicide bomber and gunmen from the Islamic State attacked the Iraqi Embassy in the Afghan capital on Monday, leaving two guards dead, officials said.

The attack on the Embassy complex in the Shar-e-Naw neighbourhood lasted for nearly four hours until all attackers were killed by the security forces, the Afghan Interior Ministry said.

The incident happened at around noon. A bomber blew himself up at the gate of the Embassy while three others stormed the building. The insurgents were in police uniforms.

At around 11.10 a.m., four terrorists attacked the Embassy. First, a terrorist detonated his explosive at the first gate and three assailants entered the building, the Afghan media quoted the Ministry as saying.

"The terrorist attack ended with killing of the attackers," the Ministry said.

The Afghan government said one policeman was injured and all Embassy staff were safely evacuated.

But the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said that although its top diplomat in Kabul had been taken safely to the Egyptian Embassy, attempts were under way to remove two other Embassy employees. It added that two Afghan guards were killed.

"The Charge d'Affaires was evacuated to the Egyptian Ambassy," the Ministry spokesman Ahmed Jamal was cited as saying by Xinhua news agency. "The attack killed two of its Afghan guards."

In a separate statement, Jamal said "two of the diplomats of the Iraqi Embassy in Kabul traded fire with the terrorists who broke into the Embassy compound".

The Islamic State said it carried out the attack.

"IS fighters had placed explosives at the Iraqi embassy entrance, and two of them had entered the building where at least seven guards were killed in the ensuing conflict," said two unauthenticated statements published online by IS-linked Amaq news agency.

Pictures on social media showed black plumes of smoke rising into the sky.

The attack came a week after at least 35 people were killed in a suicide attack on government workers in Kabul. Last week's attack was claimed by the Taliban.

According to the UN, Afghanistan has seen at least 1,662 civilian deaths in the first half of 2017, with about 20 per cent of those in the capital.

--IANS

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A man was detained at Tampa Bay Comic Con on suspicion of stalking actress Kate Beckinsale, who later made a scheduled celebrity guest appearance at the event.

Terry Lee Repp, a 45-year-old resident of Iowa, was taken into custody on Saturday after he turned up at the Tampa Bay Convention Centre a couple of hours before Beckinsale was set to take the stage for a question and answer session, reports eonline.com.

Beckinsale filed a police report against him.

Police said in a statement that on Thursday Repp was seen at Centre during the Comic Con event and "has a history of following and harassing (Beckinsale) and came to Tampa in an effort to continue the harassing behaviour.

"Repp made physical contact with the victim during an event in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2016. During this encounter, Repp touched the victim's back and made a statement to the victim in reference to stabbing her," the statement said.

"In a continuing effort to harass the victim, Repp also travelled to Houston, Texas, in 2016 where (Beckinsale) was attending an event. Repp was detained by the Houston Police Department and trespassed from the event. Repp appears to have an irrational obsession with (Beckinsale) and has travelled across the country in an effort to harass her," the statement further read.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A man who allegedly physically and sexually abused his housemaid's three-year-old girl and pierced her with multiple needles in West Bengal's Purulia district was arrested from Uttar Pradesh, police said on Monday.

Sanatan Thakur, a resident of Purulia, was arrested from Renukoot on Sunday night. He was hiding in a temple disguised as a monk, Superintendent of Police from Purulia Joy Biswas told IANS.

The officer said the accused would be brought back to West Bengal. Thakur was missing since the incident came to light on July 15.

After the child died, the police arrested her mother for allegedly aiding him in the crime.

"Thakur is slapped with charges of rape (IPC 376), murder (IPC 302), criminal conspiracy (IPC 120 b) and various sections of Protection of Children From Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act," the officer added.

The girl child was admitted to state-run Seth Sukhlal Karnani Memorial Hospital on July 15. While the mother of the child only complained about fever, the doctors found that as many as seven needles were pierced into the child's body and one of her arm was also broken.

The doctors performed a surgery to take out all the needles from her body but failed to save her as she succumbed to sepsis and pneumonia on July 21.

--IANS

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The Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday issued summons to Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani's younger son Naseem Geelani for questioning in its ongoing probe in Jammu and Kashmir terror funding case.

Sources said that the central anti-terror agency asked Naseem Geelani to appear before it at its headquarters on Wednesday and also reissued summons to his elder brother Naeem Geelani, a doctor who was once based in Pakistan, as he failed to appear in response to the NIA's earlier notice calling him on Monday.

"NIA has issued summons to Geelani's younger son Naseem and reissued summons to his elder son Naeem who is admitted to hospital in Srinagar because of sudden ailment and did not appear before us today (Monday)," said sources.

Earlier in the day, the NIA also raided the ancestral home of Jammu and Kashmir advocate Devender Singh Behal, in Nowshera town of the state's Rajouri district, a day after arresting him over suspected involvement in the funding case.

As part of its crackdown on Kashmiri separatist leaders for their alleged involvement in funding terrorist activities, the NIA on Sunday raided Behal's home in Jammu's Bakshi Nagar and took him into custody. Four mobile phones, a tablet, electronic devices and financial documents were also seized.

NIA sources said Behal, who is considered close to Geelani and is regularly seen at funerals of slain militants, was being questioned for his role in the funding.

Behal heads the Jammu and Kashmir Social Peace Forum (JKSPF), a constituent of the hardline faction of the Hurriyat Conference led by Geelani and is also a member of its legal cell.

According to the agency, it was investigating Behal's role "as a courier as he is suspected to be involved in routing funds to the separatist leaders from Pakistan-based handlers".

The agency also has recovered a detailed protest calendar signed by Geelani that marks the role of separatists in organising events that are coordinated by Pakistani handlers to spread violence in the Kashmir Valley.

The NIA has recovered documents from Altaf Ahmad Shah 'Funtoosh', Geelani's son-in-law, that list dates of protests and other uncivil activities to be carried out in Kashmir after the July 8, 2016, killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani.

The calendar established systematic and planned violence that caused several deaths and injuries in the clashes between stone-pelters and security forces, an NIA official said.

NIA's investigation indicates that local clerics and separatist cadres along with the opposition parties who were funded by Pakistani agencies were involved in the radical activities.

One of the incidents listed was on August 6, 2016, when Geelani called for assembling and occupying local chowks and centres in the vicinity of villages and locals and playing of Islamic and 'azadi taranas' ("freedom songs") in mosques.

The calendar was also filled with dates marking activities in August 2016 when Jammu and Kashmir were marred by protests and stone pelting following the death of Wani.
Virtually giving up his national ambitions, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said no one can take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and hailed the way he takes decisions which he felt would take the country forward.

At a 75-minute press conference, he defended his decision to tie up with the BJP ditching the RJD and the Congress and said his party will remain committed to the support already extended to opposition Vice President candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

"I don't think anyone is suitable for that. There is nobody who has the capacity to take on Modi," Nitish Kumar said in reply to a question about the next general elections in which he has been speculated as a possible Prime Ministerial candidate.

With senior leader Sharad Yadav expressing unhappiness about the JD-U tying up with BJP, Nitish Kumar claimed the party was united. He dismissed as hypothetical questions about the JD-U joining the union cabinet.

He was critical of Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi's remarks that he knew three months ago that the JD-U would tie up with the BJP in Bihar and asked if that was so then why did he not stop it.

"If he knew it then he should have told me. When I decided to support (NDA Presidential candidate Ram Nath) Kovind I told them. I spoke to Rahul over the corruption charges against RJD leaders and asked him to suggest ways to come out of that so that I can speak outside."

He was reminded about his 2013 statement that the BJP had strayed from the ideals of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani.

He said he was already performing a national role in by being the Bihar Chief Minister and had done national duty during the V.P. Singh and Vajpayee governments.

"The decision I took (last week) was in the interest of Bihar against corruption. I hope the central government will go ahead with its action in eliminating benami properties like it took in the case of demonetisation and ending black money. Add to this is the GST reform that will transform trade and make it tough for black money to be generated out of business," he said.

He said the JD-U would support Gopalkrishna Gandhi. "I had informed the top leadership of the BJP about it... They have no objection."

He said the Congress was not amenable to suggestions by him on issues like during the Assam and Uttar Pradesh elections.

"Congress is the biggest (opposition) party and Rahul Gandhi should set an agenda. Even in the book release function of former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram I had said that the opposition should not be reactive but pro-active and Rahul Gandhi should set the agenda.

"But whatever I suggested you don't follow that," he said, adding the Congress did not want him to play any role in national . "I can be an ally but I cannot be a follower."

He said he liked Rahul Gandhi's action of tearing up the ordinance undoing the Supreme Court judgement barring convicted politicians from contesting elections.

He said the decision to again ally with the BJP was not pre-planned but spontaneous.

He said the developments surrounding Lalu Yadav and his kin including Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav relating to disproportionate assets had raised questions about his own stand of "zero tolerance" against corruption.

He said he met his party legislators on July 11 and said the party should not deviate from its policies and decided to request Tejashwi Yadav to explain the corruption charges levelled against him.

"But what was the answer? He (Tejashwi) said 'What can I say'? He asked me to help him on how he can go public with the explanation. But I told him that I have no idea of shell companies and benami properties," he said.

"I told them to say factual things that would benefit the Grand Alliance but there was arrogance from the other side. They were not ready to give any explanation."

On July 26, he said his party authorised him to take a decision as he made it clear he was unable to work in such a situation. Then after writing the resignation letter, he called up RJD chief Lalu Prasad and Congress leader C.P. Joshi.

"After that only I got the offer from the top leadership of the BJP to form a government in the state in which they said that they will also participate," he said.

This was endorsed by the JD-U legislature party after which there was a joint meeting of legislators of both the parties. Then they met the Governor to form a government.

Nitish Kumar said he did not need any certificate over his secular credentials.

"I fully believe in secularism, democracy, social justice and justice for all communities. In the cover of secularism no one has the right to amass huge properties. And secularism cannot be used as a cover up for corruption."

It was in this context that he supported Modi on surgical strikes, demonetization and elimination of Benami assets.

Referring to the "arrogance" of Lalu Prasad, Nitish Kumar said: "After the formation of Grand Alliance, he said he had drunk the venom." He asked: "Was I poison?"

"Lalu is only a caste leader, not a mass leader," he added.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Trinamool Congress on Monday said that CPI-M candidate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya's Rajya Sabha nomination was rejected by the Election Commission in accordance with existing laws and the party has nothing to do with it.

"They were given a chance of hearing in accordance with the Representation of the People's Act. The returning officer was also present during the hearing and discussed the matter with everyone. Then it was announced that CPI-M's Rajya Sabha candidate's nomination was declared as invalid by the Election Commission as it was not submitted within the stipulated time," Trinamool Secretary General Partha Chatterjee clarified.

"How is Trinamool Congress involved in this?" he asked.

Rejecting the CPI-M's allegation of conspiracy, Chatterjee, also state Education Minister, accused them of trying to malign the Election Commission by secretly tying up with the BJP.

"There is no conspiracy. They are trying to malign the Election Commission. Actually they had a secret understanding with the BJP before nominating a person like Bhattacharya who has never been a part of Rajya Sabha," Chatterjee alleged.

Taking a swipe at CPI-M legislature party leader Sujan Chakraborty's claims that the Trinamool was rattled by Bhattacharya's candidature, Chatterjee said his party has sufficient numbers in the Rajya Sabha to ensure victory of eight party candidates.

"Why should our party be frightened? With the kind of numbers the Trinamool Congress has, we could have named eight nominees and all of them would have won," he claimed.

The nomination of CPI-M Rajya Sabha candidate Bikash Bhattacharya was rejected on Monday, paving the way for five Trinamool Congress nominees and one from the Congress to be declared uncontested from West Bengal.

After much drama, the election authorities declared invalid Bhattacharya's nomination, on the ground that an additional affidavit was submitted after the 3 p.m. deadline on July 28 - the last date for filing of papers for the August 8 polls for six seats.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Oil prices hit a two-month high on Monday following reports that the US government could hit Venezuela with sanctions over holding a controversial constitutional assembly election called by President Nicolas Maduro.

Brent crude jumped to $52.85 per barrel, its highest level since late May, and US crude was back over the $50/barrel mark, reports the Guardian.

The surge came after US officials expressed anger over the election held in Venezuela on Sunday to choose delegates for its assembly, and to rewrite the constitution.

Critics claimed that the vote was designed to shore up Maduro's government.

It was marred by violent clashes between opposition supporters and troops, with at least 10 deaths and over 400 others injured.

Earlier on Sunday, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley warned Maduro that the result was not acceptable.

UK Foreign Office Minister Alan Duncan said he was "appalled" by the events in Venezuela.

"Appalled by sham-democratic Constituent Assembly in Venezuela, and yet more tragic deaths. Urgent negotiation needed to tackle crisis," he tweeted on Monday.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An aggressive opposition on Monday accused the Modi government of encouraging cow vigilantes to go for mob lynchings but the Centre argued that law and order needed to be tackled by states.

Responding to a debate in Lok Sabha under rule 193 which lasted for around six hours and saw heated exchanges between the treasury and opposition benches, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju urged members to condemn such incidents and asked states to act tough.

The Minister said the opposition was trying to gain political mileage over the killings across the country blamed on cow vigilantes.

Not satisfied with his response, the Congress, Left, Samajwadi Party and AIMIM members walked out.

"There is a trend of such incidents in the country. Be it any government in the states or at the Centre... the figure remains the same," Rijiju said, citing figures of such reported incidents against Dalits and Muslims in various states over five years.

"Do you want the Prime Minister to break the federal structure and take over the state machinery?" he asked.

Rijiju said the issue was raked up for debate only to target the Modi government's image whose popularity, he added, was increasing not only in the country but outside too.

"Since they have no issue, they try to create issues. Sometimes they rake up the issue of intolerance. Sometimes they organise protests like 'Not in my name'. They raise issues like attack on churches. Now they have come with . Three years back corruption was a big issue but this has vanished from the political sphere due to the Prime Minister's stand against it. So they come up with such issues and walk out of the House," he said.

He said whenever mob attacks took place in BJP-ruled states, immediate action was taken.

Initiating the debate, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said: "Hindustan should not become lynchistan." He accused the government of indirectly encouraging cow vigilantes.

"The government should tell the House how many of these cow vigilantes have been punished... How many have been arrested. You disown them but what action has been taken," he asked.

"No action is taken, rather they are encouraged. This government is against Dalits, minorities, and women. It is also being done so that your ideology could be enforced all over the country."

Trinamool Congress leader Saugata Roy demanded a separate law to address .

Roy said 97 per cent of the lynchings happened after the Modi government took power. "86 per cent (of the victims) were Muslims. I want to ask members of the ruling party... Do you want a 'Muslim-mukt' Bharat?"

He said such incidents were not being controlled because the BJP leadership was shying away from condemning them.

"It took three days for the Haryana Chief Minister to condemn the incident in Bahadurgarh. The Rajasthan Chief Minister took almost a month to condemn the lynching in Alwar," Roy said.

Biju Janata Dal leader Tathagata Satpathy said the lynchings were killing the rural economy.

BJP's Hukmdev Narayan Yadav called the killings a conspiracy against the government. "These programmes are being run to malign the government... It is important to find out who is behind these attacks."

Union Minister Ramvilas Paswan said it was the duty of states to control killer mobs.

"Do you want the Centre to send the Army to control goons? Even if a law is passed, it will be implemented by the state governments," said the Lok Janshakti Party leader.

The debate was taken up on Monday after a meeting of the Business Advisory Council last week.

The Lok Sabha saw protests and disruptions all through last week as opposition members demanded a debate on the issue, leading even to the suspension of six Congress MPs for five days.
Opposition members on Monday accused the Narendra Modi government of encouraging cow vigilantes by not taking any concrete action against them, and also demanded a separate law to address the problem.

The debate over the issue in the Lok Sabha saw some heated exchanges between treasury and opposition benches, as opposition members hit out at the government for the situation.

Starting the debate, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge accused the government of indirectly encouraging cow vigilantes and alleged that there was an environment of "fear and terror" in the country.

"Government should tell the house how many of these cow vigilantes have been punished... How many have been arrested. You disown them, but what action has been taken," he asked.

"No action is taken, and rather they are encouraged. This government is against dalits, minorities and women," Kharge said.

Urging the government not to turn Hindustan into "lynchistan", he said the incidents of mob lynchings were not coming down.

He also demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should come to the House and clear his government's stand on the issue.

Trinamool Congress' Saugata Roy meanwhile said 97 per cent of the lynchings happened after the Modi government came to power.

"I don't want to bring Hindu-Muslim (question) into this but 97 per cent of these killings took place after Narendra Modi came to power... 86 per cent (of victims) were Muslims. I want to ask members of the ruling party, you say you want 'Congress-mukt Bharat'. Do you want 'Muslim-mukt' Bharat?" he asked, demanding Parliament should pass a law protecting people against lynching.

Biju Janata Dal leader Tathagata Satpathy said the lynchings are killing the rural economy.

"Farmers are unable to sell useless animals. The economic cycle has been put to stop. This money could be their seed money to get another loan, but now you have totally damaged rural economy.

"You have actually damaged the rural economy by lynching process, you have started a process where you eventually kill the Hindu farmer... by killing the minority, you are killing the majority," he said.

Nationalist Congress Party's Supriya Sule said the house should stand united against such incidents.

"We should give a message we are one as parliament in condemning it. We should pass a resolution," she said.

BJP member Hukmdev Narayan Yadav however termed it a conspiracy against the government.

"These programmes are being run to malign the government... It is important to find out who is behind these attacks," he said.

Union Minister Ramvilas Paswan however said it was the states' duty to control such incidents.

"Do you want the Centre to send the Army to control goons? Even if a law is passed, it will be implemented by the state governments," said the Lok Janshakti Party leader.

Congress member Mohammad Asrarul Haque went ahead to say the Muslims wearing skull caps and burqa were being targeted.

"People who have skull cap and beard, women in burqa are today scared to step outside in public... People make remarks and if you oppose, they attack," he said.

The debate was taken up on Monday after a meeting of the Business Advisory Council on Thursday.

The lower house saw protests and disruptions through last week as opposition members demanded a debate on the issue, leading even to suspension of six Congress MPs for five days.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Rabat, July 31 (IANS/MAP) Ethiopia's Administration to Handle Refugees and Returnees (ARRA) has announced plans to include more than 34,000 refugee children in Ethiopian primary schools for the next school year, which begins next September.

The construction of 300 classrooms was underway in 27 refugee camps, in addition to providing the required teaching materials to these schools, ARRA said in a statement.

To date, about 116,500 refugee pupils were enrolled in 56 primary schools and the administration aimed to increase the number to 151,000 in the next school year in Ethiopia, the report said on Monday.

Ethiopia has more than 800,000 refugees, mainly from South Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia. ARRA is working to increase the number of refugee students in secondary schools to more than 2,500 for the next school year.

Last week, Ethiopia opened a new camp for South Sudanese refugees in Binshangul-Gumuz (west) to cope with the growing number of people entering the country to escape war in the youngest Nation of Africa.

--IANS/MAP

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Patna High Court on Monday dismissed two petitions challenging the formation of a new government by Nitish Kumar's JD-U along with the BJP, a government lawyer said.

After hearing the petitions, the court dismissed them on the ground that the new government in Bihar was formed as per constitutional process and had won the trust vote in the Assembly. The court said it could do nothing in the situation.

On Friday, after a brief hearing on the matter the court adjourned the matter till Monday.

Of the two petitions, one was filed by Jitender Kumar and the second by Rashtriya Janata Dal legislators Saroj Yadav and Chandan Kumar Verma.

They contended that the mandate in the 2015 Bihar Assembly polls was given to the Grand Alliance of the Janata Dal-United, RJD and Congress led by Nitish Kumar, against the BJP, and that it was to rule for five years.

They also said that despite the RJD being the largest party in the Assembly, Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi did not invite it to form the new government after Nitish Kumar dumped the Grand Alliance.

The petitions said this was against the Constitution and the court should intervene and dismiss the newly formed JD-U-BJP coalition government.

Nitish Kumar resigned on July 26 after dumping the Grand Alliance over corruption charges. He aligned with the BJP to form a new government.

After winning the trust vote on Friday, Nitish Kumar has expanded his cabinet and distributed portfolios to newly inducted Ministers.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
While controversial Bangladesh-born author Taslima Nasreen on Monday wondered how the itinerary of her visit to the city was leaked, official sources said police were probing the security breach.

Nasreen, now a Swedish citizen, was virtually packed off from the airport here around 8 p.m. on Saturday after huge protests outside as well as near the Taj Hotel where she planned to stay during her three-day sojourn.

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) legislator Imtiyaz Jaleel led one of the protests. The party activists waving placards and banners shouted slogans, demanding that she goes back, even as police rushed to the protest spots.

"People didn't want her to enter Aurangabad. I realised that if she came, there will be violence. So, she was sent back," Jaleel tweeted on Sunday.

An obviously peeved Nasreen made her displeasure known on Monday. "Nobody, but the police in Aurangabad, was informed about my itinerary and hotel booking. I wonder how fanatics got to know everything?"

"I had a dream to visit Ellora and Ajanta Caves. Can't believe it was not possible in the largest democracy in the world," she tweeted.

As a controversy erupted, top police officials declined to speak despite several attempts by IANS.

Nevertheless, official sources confirmed that police are probing how the travel plan of an international celebrity were leaked, giving rise to a potential law and order issue.

The sources revealed that after her flight from New Delhi landed on July 29, top officials met her and explained to her the "sensitive situation outside the airport and the hotel".

The sources said protesters had very specific information in advance on all confidential details, including her flight's arrival timing and her hotel stay, besides her plans to go around various tourist hotspots in and around the world-renowned tourism city.

The author, who is accorded tight security globally, was granted the option to step out and continue with her trip or return, and she reluctantly opted to take the next flight to Mumbai. Her current whereabouts are not clear, the sources told IANS.

The visit cancellation triggered a volley of reactions on the social media, which she countered by saying: "Can any of them tell what I wrote about the Prophet? They can't because they haven't read my books. They only use me for their political interests."

"I'm NOT an enemy, I'm a true friend of Muslims. Only friends and well-wishers want you to be educated and enlightened and your to be reformed."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In order to meet the target of increasing solar power capacity to 100 gigawatt (GW) by 2022, India will need to significantly ramp up the pace of solar capacity additions by 10 GW this year and over 15 GW per year, a recent joint survey said on Monday.

According to an Assocham-NEC Technologies study, India's installed solar capacity fell short of the target of 17 GW by the end of 2016-17.

"In 2014, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a goal to increase solar power capacity to 100 GW by 2022 -- five times higher than the previous target," said the joint report titled 'Capacity Building and Skill Development'.

The Assocham-NEC study stated that poor financial conditions of distribution companies, coupled with inadequate financial capacity of stakeholders, amounted to financial challenges in the Indian solar industry.

"Investment required per MW (megawatt) generation of solar power is around Rs 6 crore, which means a total of approximately Rs 600,000 crore for 100 GW," it added.

Pointing to the efficiency of solar cells as the biggest technological issue, the study said currently the efficiency ranges from 12 per cent to 20 per cent, though this continues to improve.

"The rest of the energy striking the panel is either reflected or is wasted as heat. The main issue with efficiency is that higher efficiency solar panels cannot be commercially mass produced," the study said.

The study noted that to achieve the 100 GW target by 2022, the focus has slightly shifted from indigenous manufacturing.

"Policies to curb the imports from other countries (for instance China) are not benefiting the domestic manufacturing. Furthermore, the increase in taxes in the GST structure in solar from 0 per cent to 5 per cent, coupled with reduced taxes in coal from 11.69 per cent to 5 per cent may lead to slow adoption of solar power in the Indian energy sector," it noted.

Highlighting the fact that foreign investment in Indian solar industry currently is less than 20 per cent, the study said that even after the 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) under automatic route and 74 per cent through foreign equity participation in a joint venture (without approval), it has not paved the path for significant foreign investments in Indian solar industry.

"The solar panels used in India are not designed to handle very high temperatures and dust prone conditions. Because of this, module damage is common and results in loss in energy generation," the study said.

The study added that the Indian solar industry is growing at a rapid pace and requires an integrator to coordinate with private companies and public sectors.

"There is need of a consolidator to bring every stakeholder on the same table to better define policies and frameworks for Indian solar industry -- public-private partnerships (PPPs) may offer an effective way to promote and implement rooftop solar PV projects, particularly in India," it added.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Russia on Monday called on all parties interested in settlement on the Korean Peninsula for restraint and establishment of a dialogue after a new missile launch by North Korea.

"We call on all parties involved to refrain from any steps which could lead to further escalation of tension in the region," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The statement also said Russia was concerned by the missile launch, which directly violated the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council, Xinhua news agency reported.

On Friday, North Korea test-fired a missile, which the country described as an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) called Hwasong-14, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

At the same time, Moscow was concerned by the military activities of the US, South Korea and Japan around the Korean Peninsula with the deployment of elements of the US global Anti-Ballistic Missile system in South Korea, it said.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Saturday ordered his aides to consult with their US counterparts on the deployment of four more mobile launchers of the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) on top of the two delivered previously, the South Korean JSC said.

"We suggest all interested parties immediately begin a comprehensive discussion about the establishment of collective efforts to resolve the situation on the basis of the ideas contained in the 'road map'," the foreign ministry statement said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The US has to abandon attempts at "sanctions diktat" and show the political will to improve relations with Russia to stop the aggravation of "political schizophrenia" that grips the Moscow-Washington ties, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.

"The way out of this situation lies in the channel of manifestation of the political will to improve relations, in the process of rehabilitation from the aggravation of political schizophrenia, fixing the desire to normalise these relations and abandoning attempts of sanctions diktat," Peskov was quoted as saying by Sputnik news agency.

Last week, the US Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill slapping tougher sanctions on Russia, with the White House saying that President Donald Trump intended to sign it.

In response, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Sunday that Moscow will reduce the US diplomatic staff in Russia by 755 persons.

At the same time, Moscow left to Washington the right to decide on which members of staff of its diplomatic missions in Russia will be dismissed, Sputnik reported.

"This is up to the US... This is both diplomats and people without the diplomatic status and those who were employed on site - Russian nationals who work there," Peskov told reporters.

The Kremlin spokesman added that Russia reserves the right to take additional countermeasures against the US, although it still hopes to continue cooperation with it in certain areas.

"On the whole, Russia is interested in continuing cooperation (with the US) where this is in our interests... The President outlined areas that are really a good opportunity for interaction," Peskov said, adding, it is "expedient to continue cooperation in these areas".

According to Putin, crucial areas of cooperation for the two countries include the joint actions against terrorism and obligations in nuclear arms control and space projects.
Breaking his silence on the JD-U's tie-up with the BJP in Bihar, Janata Dal-United leader Sharad Yadav on Monday described it as "unfortunate" and said he did not agree with the decision taken by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

"I don't agree with the decision in Bihar. It is unfortunate," Yadav told reporters outside Parliament.

"The mandate of the people (in Bihar in 2015) was not for this," the Rajya Sabha member said on Nitish Kumar's decision to break the JD-U's alliance with the Grand Alliance of the RJD and the Congress in the state.

After the unexpected break-up, Nitish Kumar aligned again with the Bharatiya Janata Party and formed a coalition government on July 27.

The decision had apparently upset Sharad Yadav, a former President of the JD-U who reportedly complained to party colleagues that Nitish Kumar did not consult him before deciding to embrace the BJP.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Leading e-tailer Snapdeal on Monday said it was terminating strategic discussions to sell its stake, ostensibly to rival Flipkart, as it had decided to pursue an independent path.

"As we have been exploring strategic options over the months, we have decided to pursue an independent path and terminate all strategic discussions, said a Snapdeal spokesperson in a statement, without referring to Flipkart.

A company official, who did not want to be identified, however told IANS that the formal negotiations scheduled here between the two e-tailers on Monday here were called off at a short notice.

Though Flipkart declined to confirm that its meeting with Snapdeal was cancelled, the latter's official admitted that their representatives could not meet to take the abandoned 'deal' forward.

"We have a compelling direction (Snapdeal 2.0) to create life-changing experiences for millions of buyers and sellers across the country," said the statement.

After Flipkart offered to buy out the Gurgaon-based Snapdeal at its revised $900-950 million price, the latter's board decided to seek the consent of its investors, including Ratan Tata and Premjiinvst of Wipro czar Azim Premji for exiting the e-tail business.

Other strategic and institutional investors in Snapdeal are Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Foxconn, Temasek and BlackRock.

"With the sale of certain non-core assets, we expect to be financially self-sustainable. We look forward to the support of our community, including employees, sellers, buyers and other stakeholders in helping us create a designed-for-India commerce platform," added the spokesperson.

Snapdeal has seen its fortunes dwindling in the face of stiff competition from Amazon and Flipkart.

Later, in an e-mail to his 1,200 odd employees, Snapdeal co-founder and Chief Executive Kunal Bahl said a lot of time and effort went into the process, leading to speculation and uncertainty for the team, partners and investors.

"We will continue the journey as an independent company. The opportunity of e-commerce in India is immense and the surface of the $200-billion market has barely been scratched yet," he said.

Affirming that the company had all the ingredients of success, the CEO said it was time for all to focus on the business and leverage its strength to build the best marketplace to connect buyers to sellers across the country.

On calling off talks with Flipkart, Bahl said the deal was complex to execute as reported by the media.

"First of all, there isn't going to be one successful model for e-commerce in India. In every market, there are multiple successful e-commerce businesses, and as long as one's strategy is differentia ted and has a clear path to success, there is a great company that can be built," he noted.

Elaborating on Snapdeal 2.0 (version), he said the new direction would enable anyone to setup a store online and focus on providing a wide range of products at great prices to consumers.

"We made progress on this new path over the months and are profitab le to make upwards of Rs 150 crore in gross profit in the next 12 months," he claimed.

Following streamlining of costs and sale of some assets like FreeCharge, Bahl said the company was financially self-sufficient and did not need to raise additional capital to reach profitability.

"Needless to say, we need to keep a tight control on our costs and work towards becoming an efficient culture, delivering profitable growth, month on month," averred Bahl.

Snapdeal on July 27 sold its mobile wallet FreeCharge subsidiary to the Mumbai-based Axis Bank for Rs 385 crore.

With many team members reiterating that the company should continue in its independent capacity, Bahl said the decision was made and there was no ambiguity about it.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi pushes for an end to caste-based politics, an upper caste BJP MP on Monday expressed shock over the party decision to "ignore" his Kayastha community by not inducting any legislator from it in the Nitish Kumar cabinet.

"It is a matter of sadness and surprise that not a single Kayastha has been inducted in the newly formed government. I will meet BJP President Amit Shah to draw his attention to it," Ravindra Kishore Sinha, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Rajya Sabha member from Bihar, said here.

Sinha, who has an RSS background, said members of the Kayastha community have been loyal to the BJP since 1977, voting for the party election after election, but have been ignored. He said there is a local saying that if the BJP is sure of support from a community, apart from the traders, it is the Kayasthas.

The BJP MP said there are suitable, educated and experienced BJP MLAs from the Kayastha community but they were deliberately ignored. "It's not good."

Sinha runs SIS (Security and Intelligence Services India Ltd), one of the biggest private security agencies in the country. He has assets worth Rs 564 crore and his wife's assets are Rs 230 crore, according to his nomination papers filed in 2014.

Interestingly, the caste factor has surfaced in BJP's Bihar unit after the formation of the new government.

Contrary to Modi's stand against caste-based politics, the BJP has given more space to three powerful upper castes -- Bhumihars, Rajputs and Brahmins -- by inducting over half a dozen MLAs from these communities in the cabinet.

Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who is also the face of the BJP on television channels and is known for his communication skills and legal expertise, belongs to the Kayastha community.

Another popular BJP leader from the community is Satrughan Sinha, known as Bihari Babu. He is an MP from Patna Sahib constituency.

According to BJP leaders here, upper castes have been the traditional voters of the party in Bihar. "BJP is sure of its traditional base of upper castes who have remained intact in Bihar since mid-1990s till today," said a leader, requesting anonymity.

But the party may face trouble in the coming days since the two allies of the BJP-led NDA -- Rashtriya Lok Samta Party of Union Minister Upender Kushwaha and Hindustani Awam Morcha of former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi -- are unhappy as Nitish Kumar has reportedly refused to induct ministers from these parties.

On Wednesday, Nitish Kumar resigned as Chief Minister, dumping Grand Alliance partners Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress.

He again took oath as Chief Minister with the support of the National Democratic Alliance on Thursday, while senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi took oath as Deputy Chief Minister.

Nitish Kumar then expanded his cabinet, inducting 27 ministers -- 14 from his Janata Dal (United) and 13 from the NDA -- after winning the trust vote on Friday.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Syria highly appreciates India's stand on the Syrian issue and New Delhi is welcome to invest in the West Asian nation's resources, Syria's Ambassador to India Riad Kamel Abbasi said on Monday.

"We highly appreciate India's stand on the Syrian issue," Abbas said at an event here, organised by the Observer Research Foundation think tank, to discuss the situation in Syria.

He said that his country also appreciated India's policy of having good relations with all sides -- the US, Russia, Arab countries and Israel.

He said the developments of 2011 were no Arab Spring but a bigger conspiracy against those countries affected and "especially Syria".

"It was made by America and its fellow Arab nations in the region to destroy Syria and divide Syria for the benefit of American interests and for the benefit of Israel," Abbas said.

Stating that Syria was the only secular Arab country, he said that it was also the only Arab country to oppose a US project in the Middle East.

He said a superpower like the US wanted to control the national resources of Syria after it was discovered that Syria was the richest country in the Middle East with its oil and gas reserves.

He said the 20th century was the "oil century" and was controlled by the US while the 21st century is "gas century" controlled by Russia.

He said that after Syria opposed the US project in the Middle East, Washington put up a plan which saw funding by Qatar and Saudi Arabia and Turkey opening its borders for terrorists to enter Syria.

According to Abbas, the US and its allies had their way in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Yemen, but failed in Syria.

He said that Syria opposed the plan for a pipeline to supply gas from Qatar via Saudi Arabia and Syria to Europe but accepted a plan for such a pipeline to supply gas from Iran, Iraq and Syria to Europe.

The Ambassador said that six blocks of gas and 14 blocks of crude oil have been discovered in Syria and of the 14 blocks, just four blocks can produce more crude oil than the entire production of Qatar.

He said that after Russia and Iran, Syria will supply the world with gas and after Syria, it will be Qatar.

"We want to ask our friendly countries to invest and join us in sharing our national resources. We won't allow Western companies or countries or American companies to come," he stated and added that India was also welcome to invest.

As for the current situation in Syria, Abbas said that the government was on its "final march" against terrorism and that Russian forces will help Syrian forces in eliminating this scourge.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Syria has no information about the 39 Indians believed to have been taken captive by the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organisation, the country's Ambassador Riad Kamel Abbas said on Monday.

"As of now, we have no information about those missing Indians," Abbas said while speaking about the situation in Syria at an event organised by the Observer Research Foundation think tank. "Whatever we know is what has been reported in the media."

He said the Syrian intelligence chief visited New Delhi recently and several officials from India's Ministry of External Affairs have also visited Syria in connection with the case of the missing Indians.

The 39 Indian construction workers, mostly from Punjab, had gone missing after the IS took control of the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2014.

However, even after the liberation of Mosul in July by Iraqi forces, there are no signs of the missing Indians.

It is believed they may be held captive in the Syrian city of Raqqa, the self-declared capital of the IS caliphate.

Abbas said Syrian forces have besieged Raqqa and the city was set to fall soon.

"What we are doing is trying to a create a safe passage for civilians in Raqqa to come out," he said. "If the Indians are in Raqqa, they can definitely come out safely."

--IANS

ab/mr

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Three interstate criminals, involved in a triple murder and carrying a reward of Rs one lakh each on their heads, have been arrested here, police said on Monday.

Police also recovered three pistols and 15 live cartridges from the accused.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Sanjeev Kumar Yadav said that Sonu, 23, Sumit, 22 both residents of Haryana and Sandeep, 25, of Delhi were arrested on Friday night from Mahavir Marg of Rohini area of north Delhi on a tip-off.

Police had earlier made three arrests in connection with the triple murder on April 30 in Dariyapur of Delhi.

Yadav said that the accused have admitted to committing the triple murder during interrogation, added police was now on trail of their gang leader.

--IANS

nkh/vd

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In the wake of about three dozen women in Rajasthan and Haryana's Mewat complaining about their braids having been mysteriously snipped, three similar cases have been reported from west Delhi, the city police said on Monday.

The police said cases under the Arms Act have been registered and probe ordered after unidentified persons cut the braids of three women on Sunday night in Kangan Heri village of west Delhi's Chhawla area.

"We received three complaints from victims that their braids were cut by someone. Prima facie, it appears a notorious gang is behind such cases as some residents have also complained of robberies. We suspect three youths caught on closed-circuit television footage," Deputy Commissioner of Police Surender Kumar said.

One woman, Munish, said as she was nearing home while returning from market around 7 p.m. she felt giddy and became unconscious. When she regained her senses, she found her braids had been cut.

"Curiously, her six-year-old daughter accompanying her did not see any person near her," the officer said.

Similar incidents were reported by Sri Devi and Omwati from Kangan Heri village on Sunday.

"Villages are tense over such anti-social activities and men have decided to conduct night patrols to catch those responsible but women fear venturing out," villager Rambeer Shokeen told IANS.

Many villagers believe someone practising witchcraft or occult practices was responsible for such incidents, Shokeen added.

--IANS

sp/tsb/vt

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The High Court here on Monday blocked a bid by a former Chief of Staff of the Iraqi Army to bring a private prosecution against former Prime Minister Tony Blair over the Iraq War.

General Abdul Wahed Shannan Al Rabbat accused Blair of committing a "crime of aggression" by invading Iraq in 2003 to overthrow Saddam Hussein, the Guardian reported.

No such crime exists in England and Wales and the court ruled there was "no prospect" of the case succeeding.

The General wanted to prosecute Blair and two other key ministers at that time -- Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Attorney General Lord Goldsmith.

Last year, Westminster Magistrates' Court had turned down Al Rabbat's bid to bring private prosecution, said the report.

He then sought a judicial review in an attempt to get the Supreme Court -- the UK's highest court -- to overturn a 2006 House of Lords ruling that there is no such crime as the crime of aggression under the law of England and Wales.

However, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, the Lord Chief Justice, along with another judge dismissed the General's application, saying there was "no prospect" of the case succeeding.

The UK's Attorney General had earlier intervened in the case, urging the High Court to block the challenge on the grounds that it was "hopeless".

Reacting to the ruling, a spokesperson for the Attorney General's office said the case had raised "important issues about the scope of the criminal law".

"It should be for Parliament, and not the courts, to create new criminal offences. This principle was upheld when the House of Lords ruled in 2006 that the 'crime of aggression' does not exist in English law.

"In this legal challenge, we argued that this remains the case today and the courts agreed."

In 2003, Britain joined the US-led coalition to overthrow Saddam Hussein after then US President George W. Bush and Blair accused Iraq of possessing weapons of mass destruction.

Last year, the UK's Iraq War inquiry, led by John Chilcot, ruled the invasion had not been the "last resort" presented to MPs and the public.

His report ruled Blair had overstated the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.

Michael Mansfield QC, appearing for Al Rabbat, argued that the report justified the prosecution of Blair. Speaking last year, former Labour Prime Minister Blair apologised to the families of those killed in the 2003 Iraq War, but insisted he did what he thought was the "right thing" at the time.

--IANS

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The US has slapped sanctions on Venezuelan President after Venezuela held its National Constituent Assembly (ANC) voting on Sunday.

"By sanctioning Maduro, the US makes clear our opposition to the policies of his regime," a statement by the US Treasury Department quoted Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin as saying on Monday, Xinhua news agency reported.

The statement also warned that anyone who participates in the ANC could be exposed to future US sanctions.

As a result of the sanctions, "all assets of subject to US jurisdiction are frozen," said the statement, adding that US persons are prohibited from dealing with him.

Venezuela's Vice President Tareck El Aissami said on Sunday that voting was proceeding smoothly, except for an "isolated incident" in Tachira state that authorities brought under control.

He called Sunday's vote "a turning point towards a Venezuela with equality (and) social justice."

Samuel Moncada, Foreign Affairs Minister, said the participation of Venezuelans on Sunday, in the election of a National Constituent Assembly (ANC) is a "vote for peace".

After voting, the Venezuelan minister told the press of the importance to seeing the people out voting and rejected the country's critics.

"Opponents, some governments and even the CIA do not recognize this power... because they have a plan to control Venezuela. We do not need them or the vote of opponents," said Moncada.

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German Minister for Economics Brigitte Zypries on Monday renewed her criticism of planned US sanctions against Russia, saying the measures "were quite simply contrary to international law".

The new bill passed by both houses of the US Congress, which has been publicly approved although not yet signed into law by President Donald Trump, would entail sanctions for German and European firms which cooperate with Russian entities, Xinhua news agency reported.

"The Americans cannot punish German firms because they are conducting business in another country," she said.

The minister said Germany wanted to avoid a trade war between Europe and the US. Berlin had therefore repeatedly encouraged Washington not to depart from the path of mutually agreed sanctions.

German business representatives have raised concerns that their interests could be harmed as a consequence, in regards to long-standing cooperation on European energy supply with Russian organisations.

--IANS

py/mr

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Despite nationwide violent clashes, electoral officials in Venezuela announced that the turnout in the controversial constitutional assembly, called by President Nicolas Maduro, was 41.5 per cent, the media reported on Monday.

However, the figure was disputed by the opposition coalition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), reports the BBC.

According to the MUD, 88 per cent of the voters abstained and refused to recognise the election which it says will turn the country into a dictatorship.

According to the National Electoral Council (CNE), just over eight million people went to the polls on Sunday to vote for the National Constituent Assembly (ANC), a body that President Maduro created to rewrite the nation's constitution

The election was marred by violence with widespread protests that began on Saturday night and claimed at least 10 lives besides leaving over 400 others injured. The MUD has put the toll at 14.

Meanwhile, Maduro hailed the election and warned of measures against Parliament, the public prosecutor's office, opposition leaders and the private media in his first televised speech after the vote, reports Efe news.

He said the new ANC would take power in the coming hours and would remove parliamentary immunity from "those who need it to be lifted".

The President promised that the ANC would counter the "parasitic bourgeoisie" and solve the economic crisis and political stalemate which has racked the country, as well as take over the judiciary.

Maduro also criticized the media's coverage of the vote, attacking privately run television channels for "censuring the elections".

A non-governmental organisation, Foro Penal Venezolano said that 64 people were arrested in the states of Zulia, Merida, Monagas, Aragua and in the cities of Caracas, Carabobo and Anzoategui.

Protestors burned a traffic police station in Caracas.

The opposition has called for more protests on Monday. It has refused to recognise the vote.

They also tried to oust Maduro last year via a recall referendum drive and accused the President of illegally blocking that drive.

The election was called by Maduro in late April. Since then the country has witnessed violent protests in which over 90 people were killed and thousands others injured.

Maduro and his decision has come under heavy criticism from other South American countries as well as by the European Union (EU) and the US, reports the BBC.

Venezuela has said it will withdraw from the Organisation of American States (OAS) after members including the US, Canada and Mexico said they would not recognise the authority of the assembly.

Venezuela has already been suspended from regional economic bloc Mercosur by fellow-members Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, following concern over human rights.

On Sunday, the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, dismissed the vote as a "sham election" and a "step towards dictatorship".

--IANS

ksk/dg

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Vidyut Jammwal is looking forward to starting shooting for his next thriller "Junglee" which will be directed by American writer-filmmaker Chuck Russell. He feels fortunate to be part of a film with a message for the global audience.

Russell has joined hands with Junglee Pictures to helm an action-adventure about a man and an elephant. It will throw light on the issue of elephant poaching and ivory smuggling.

The film is set to go on floors in October, with a release targeted for the summer of 2018.

"Being trained in Kalaripayattu since the age of three and given my love for animals, I couldn't have asked for a better script to showcase my potential. I consider myself really fortunate to get a chance to be part of a film that has a message of global significance," Vidyut said in a statement.

The "Commando" star added: "Above all being directed by the legendary Chuck Russell is any actor's dream and I can't wait to begin the shoot."

Russell is known for films like "A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors", "The Mask", Arnold Schwarzenegger-starrer "Eraser" and "The Scorpion King".

Priti Shahani, President, Junglee Pictures, also said that "Junglee" will narrate a heart-warming story penned by Ritesh Shah.

"Chuck was our first choice and we reached out to him thinking may be the story would appeal to him given that it raises an issue of global significance. And to our delight Chuck agreed and he will be flying in next month to start the prep," Shahani added.

Talking about roping in Vidyut for the film, she said: "Kalaripayattu, a form of martial arts which originated in Kerala, also forms an integral part of the film. Vidyut is trained in the martial art form since childhood. We are very happy to have roped in Vidyut for this thriller."

The action-thriller will unfold in the jungles of Kerala, and is scheduled to be shot in an elephant reserve in the state.

--IANS

sug/ks/dg

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As Apple drew severe criticism in China for removing all major VPN apps from the App Store in the country, the US tech giant has said it took the step as the country's VPN developers did not meet the new regulations.

In a statement, Apple said that earlier this year, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) announced that all developers offering VPNs must obtain a license from the government.

"We have been required to remove some VPN apps in China that do not meet the new regulations. These apps remain available in all other markets where they do business," Apple said.

With the help of VPNs, Chinese Internet users bypass the country's famous "Great Firewall" that heavily restricts their access to foreign sites. This also helps them in remaining hidden from Internet service providers.

In line with Chinese government's crackdown on Internet services, Apple removed all major VPN apps from the App Store in China.

VPN service providers in China on Saturday received a notification from Apple that their applications would be removed from the App Store "because it includes content that is illegal in China".

The notification was first shared by ExpressVPN, a VPN provider based out of British Virgin Islands which also operates in China.

"We are disappointed as it represents the most drastic measure the Chinese government has taken to block the use of VPNs to date and we are troubled to see Apple aiding China's censorship efforts," said ExpressVPN in a blog post.

However, users who access the apps from a different territory's App Store by indicating their billing address to be outside of China are not impacted.

The move is seen in line with the Chinese government's effort to censor open Internet.

--IANS

qd/ksk/vm

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Senior Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav on Monday said there is "no creamy layer" among the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and asked the government to remove the Rs 6,00,000 annual income ceiling for inclusion of OBC candidates in the reservation bracket.

"Why is there Rs six lakh annual income limit for the so-called 'creamy layer' among backward classes? Where is the creamy layer?" Yadav said while participating in a discussion on the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-third Amendment) Bill, 2017.

Yadav quoted a 2012 report of Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) that said the OBCs have 15 per cent share in central government jobs. In Grade A jobs, their share is 7.8 per cent, Yadav said quoting the report.

He said the Rs 6 lakh income ceiling is depriving a large section of deserving OBC people of the benefits of reservation in government jobs and educational institutions and asked the government to remove the limit.

"If you become an MP, your children would never get the reservation even if you are penniless and starving, because you will be counted as among the creamy layer. Therefore, we say that this ceiling should be removed," he said.

The 'creamy layer' threshold was set at Rs 1 lakh and more annual income in 1993, and subsequently it was revised to Rs 2.5 lakh in 2004, Rs 4.5 lakh in 2008, and Rs 6 lakh in 2013.

In October 2015, the National Commission for Backward Classes recommended that for the OBCs an annual family income of up to Rs 15 lakh should not be considered as creamy layer.

Yadav added that to uplift the backward classes jobs alone would not help and "the society's mindset needs to be changed".

He cited examples of Eklavya and Karna from the Mahabharata who were denied their rightful place just because they came from lower class.

--IANS

mak/rn

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If it took 10 days to shake the world with the Russian revolution in November 1917, it may have taken five days of serial disasters in the last week of July for to precipitate a global crisis in 2017. Cornered by an aggressive pushback from Congress, the military and mavens within his own party, and battling historically low popularity ratings, it is possible that the maverick president may be dangerously attracted to a diversionary confrontation with China over North Korean missile tests. Many presidents face problems in their initial days in office, but last weeks developments have been exceptional in post-World War II US history.
The rejected the nomination of Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, former Kolkata mayor and Left Front candidate for Rajya Sabha, on Monday. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) had decided to field Bhattacharya as the Left Front candidate after the partys central committee had voted against nominating party chief Sitaram Yechury with Congress support. Following this, the Congress fielded its own candidate. The Bengal unit of the CPI (M) was not in favour of fielding a candidate against the Congress as they argued it would bring the Congress and Trinamool Congress closer. In the event, Bhattacharya, a noted lawyer, found his nomination rejected as the returning officer said he submitted the papers at 3.05 pm, when the cut-off was 3 pm.
Television debates are passe. Karnataka politicians are debating public policy on . After the Congress hijacked the Kannada card to score over Bharatiya Janata Party as the election fever hots up in the state, BJP leader C T Ravi used his handle to question the government on its plan to teach Arabic in Karnataka schools while alleging that the central government was foisting Hindi on the state. Education Minister Tanveer Sait was quick to retort on the microblogging platform: such a decision was taken in 2009 under a BJP government, and a letter to that effect was sent to the Department of State Educational Research and Training in Bengaluru, he said. Sait followed up saying no aid was to given to any madrassas from the government. Over to Ravi.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President on Monday ruled out the speculation that he might quit as the party chief to join the Cabinet.
BJP national president Amit Shah addressing a press conference at the UP BJP office on the third day of his visit in Lucknow. UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is also seen (Photo: PTI)
BJP president today said there was no question of him leaving the party post and he was working "happily" and "wholeheartedly".
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday condemned the recent killing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker and called for an all-party meeting on August 6 regarding the same.

"An all party meeting will be convened on August 6 in Trivandrum. Peace meetings will be held in Trivandrum, Kottayam and Kannu on the same," Vijayan said after meeting with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and RSS leaders here.

He said that party offices and workers' houses can't be attacked and political parties should be more vigilant and ask workers to keep away from such incidents.

"It's sure that some unfortunate incidents have happened in the state. Due to this it has been decided that meeting between leaders of all political parties be held and it will be done district wise," he said.

Earlier on Sunday, Kerala Director General of Police (DGP) Loknath Behera said that impartial probe will be conducted into the RSS worker death case and said that strong and firm action will be taken against the culprits.

A 34-year-old RSS leader was murdered in Kozhikode on Saturday night. The police have so far detained eight people in connection with this case. The BJP has accused the Communist Party of India- Marxist [CPI-M]-led LDF government in Kerala for the killing of RSS leader.

Behera further informed that there is no complaint of any person is being terrorised or put under any pressure so far.

"We are cautious. I just want to say that we have acted for the last three days on whatever incident has taken place. I have personally taken a decision; henceforth this hooliganism will not go one step further. Not only we will book these persons under the various provisions of the particular act, we will also use the other security and preventive proceedings against them," he said.

The Kerala DGP also apprised about 'Gundaquad' (anti-goon squad) in the city, which has not been used for quite some time.

"Now, I have asked them to revive the 'Gundasquad'. So, tomorrow onwards we will take a very strong action against these people."

The BJP has blamed the CPI-M for carrying out the attack.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday called on Vijayan to nab the perpetrators and bring them to justice expeditiously.

Rajnath took to his Twitter handle to inform about the same and wrote that 'political violence is unacceptable in a democracy'.

"Spoke to Kerala CM Shri Pinrayi Vijayan today regarding the recent incidents of political violence in the state," he tweeted.

"I have expressed my concern with the law and order situation in the state of Kerala. Political violence is unacceptable in a democracy," he added.

He even requested the Chief Minister to curb the political violence in the state.

"I expect that the political violence in Kerala is curbed and that the perpetrators are brought to justice expeditiously," he tweeted.
The Gujarat Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) today detained three persons in connection with the seizure of 1,500 kgs of heroin valued at about Rs 3,500 crore from a merchant vessel off the Gujarat coast yesterday.

Though the vessel, identified as 'Hennry', claimed to have set sail from Iran and headed to Gujarat, the ATS is not ruling out the possibility that the contraband was loaded at a port in Pakistan before starting its journey towards Gujarat coast.

"Based on the (satellite) call details of the crew, we have detained three persons for questioning. They were picked up from different locations," said a senior ATS official.

"Though the boat claimed to have set sail from Iran, there is a possibility that the heroin was loaded at a port in Pakistan," he added.

In one of the biggest drugs haul, an Indian Coast Guard (ICG) ship seized 1,500 kgs of heroin valued at about Rs 3,500 crore from a Panama-registered merchant vessel off the Gujarat coast yesterday, said a release by the Defence PRO.

After the seizure of the boat and heroin, various agencies such as the ATS and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) swung into action and started their investigation.

The ATS official said that all the eight crew members on board the vessel are from either Bihar or Uttar Pradesh.

While talking to mediapersons at Porbandar yesterday, Commodore Rakesh Pal of the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) said two satellite phones were also recovered from the eight crew members, who are now undergoing joint interrogation at Porbandar.

"We have extracted call data from one of the seized satellite phones and given that data to various agencies such as ATS and NCB for further action," he said.

During primary investigation by the ICG, it was revealed that though the vessel was registered in Panama as "Hennry", the crew was transmitting its identity as Prince II, the release said.

The vessel was intercepted at around 12:00 hrs on July 29 and taken to Porbandar port yesterday for further investigation, it said.

Security agencies are trying to find out who in India was to take the delivery of the contraband.

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Three persons were arrested for allegedly smuggling bovines in two separate incidents in Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi district today, police said.

Police intercepted a group carrying 21 bovines at Dewal belt of Mahore tehsil in the district, a police officer said.

Two persons, Wazir Mohammad and Rafiq, were arrested, he said, adding they were smuggling the bovines to the Kashmir valley from Reasi.

In another incident, Bashir Ahmed was arrested and seven bovines were rescued which were also being smuggled to Kashmir, the officer said.

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43 out of 100 elderly people in India are victims of psychological problems due to loneliness, and other relationship issues, a new study has said.

Based on the feedback from 50,000 older persons across the country during the months of June and July this year, the study by Agewell Foundation revealed almost half of the elderly population were not taken care of by their families.

"43 per cent older persons are facing psychological problems due to loneliness, relationship issues. It was also observed that more than 45 per cent elderly claimed that their family members do not care for their needs and interests," the study revealed.

The foundation has appealed to the government and other stakeholders to make provisions in government schemes in keeping in mind the welfare and empowerment of the older people.

"Today there is an urgent need to include elderly friendly provisions in all governmental schemes and programs because their life span and their share in national population has increased remarkably.

"Ignoring their needs and rights and leaving them unaddressed can pose a great threat to our social development agenda. Older persons need to be brought into mainstream by focusing on their issues and encouraging their active participation in the society," Himanshu Rath, Chairman of Agewell Foundation, said.

Rath added that with the fast changing socio-economic scenario and demographic transition across the country, older people are the worst affected section of the society.

"Issues concerning older people have become a major challenge for all of us. Modern value system is replacing our centuries-old traditions. In modern fast-paced lifestyle, they are finding it tough to adjust themselves with emerging trends," he said.

The Foundation said strengthening financial inclusion of the elderly in order to make every individual above the age of 60 financially independent, was important.

Suggested provisions included free health counselors for the elderly living alone, establishment of a national institute for aged on the lines of AIIMS for treatment and research in age related ailments, and setting up of a national fund for the aged (on the lines of National Fund for Rural Development).

Rath also said setting up of a national commission for the aged, a prime minister's self-employment scheme for old people, would help in offering gainful engagement opportunities to retired older persons.

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The Rajasthan government today appointed 1982-batch IPS officer Ajit Singh as the state's Director General of Police, official release said.

Singh was earlier posted as DGP (Jail) and took over from Manoj Bhatt, who retired as Rajasthan DGP today.

Singh has been awarded the police medal twice and was also conferred the President's police medal in 2008.

He has held several key positions.

Dr Sunil Kumar Mehrotra, DGP (telecommunications and technical), has been given the additional charge as DGP (Jail), a state government release said.

Meanwhile, Bhatt was given farewell with full honours during a ceremony held at policeheadquarter and police academy.

Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria also wished him luck for his future endeavors.

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A special court here today rejected a plea of an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast that his arrest was a case of mistaken identity.

In his application, Dayanand Pandey said his name was Sudhakar Dwivedi and his arrest was the result of mistaken identity.

The special court for National Investigation Agency (NIA) rejected the application filed by Pandey, said special prosecutor Avinash Rasal.

After he took 'sannyas' (renounced the world), he came to be known as 'Swamy Amrutanand' and later as 'Shankaracharya', he said.

However, Rasal argued in the court that during his arrest, while signing arrest form, he never disputed that he was Dayanand Pandey, nor did he say anything when produced before a magistrate.

Accepting Rasal's argument, judge S D Tekale dismissed Pandey's application.

Six people were killed and nearly 100 others injured when a bomb strapped to a motorcycle went off at Malegaon in Nashik district of Maharashtra on September 29, 2008.

Twelve people, including sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Army officer Prasad Purohit, were arrested in connection with the blast in the town which has sizable Muslim population.

The NIA earlier this year gave a clean chit to Thakur, following which she obtained bail.

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Border Security Force (BSF) jawans today apprehended a Pakistani youth who crossed over the border near Thakurpur Border Out Post (BOP) under Dorangla police station, officials said.

The identity of the youth, said to be aged around 22 years, was yet to be established, the BSF officials said.

Later, the BSF handed over the youth to the district police, they added.

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In a double whammy for a 31-year-old owner of a flat in the Ghatkopar building that collapsed last week, he not just lost his house and family members but has to now grapple with repayment of the loan he took to purchase it.

Vinod Thak, who lost his mother Pramila Thak (55), sister-in-law Amrita Thak (30) and niece Veronika (3 months) in the tragedy, had bought the flat on the third floor of the Siddhi-Sai Cooperative Housing Society just seven months back, by taking a loan of Rs 50 lakh from a bank.

Thak works with a software company in Bengaluru and lives there. However, his mother, elder brother Lalit Thak, the latter's wife and infant daughter were residing in his flat here.

On July 25, all the four were in the flat when the building came crashing down. Lalit Thak survived, while the other three died.

Vinod Thak is now in a state of shock and does not know how to deal with the twin setbacks.

"I am completely torn apart. I don't know what to do. Tomorrow is the day when I am supposed to pay my monthly instalment (home loan EMI), but why and how should I pay? I have lost my property," the distraught software engineer told PTI.

"I am going to meet the bank executives with a hope that they will give me some relief on humanitarian grounds," he said.

Asked what kind of relief he wants, Thak said, "I need to hear their side too. I will file my submission to give me relief."



Seventeen people were killed when the four-storey residential building collapsed last week.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today sanctioned Rs 2 lakh each for the next of kin of those who lost their lives in the building collapse.

He also approved Rs 50,000 each for the injured, the PMO said.

Meanwhile, a relative of Thaks, Srinivas Chaudhary, demanded that the government expedite the process of rehabilitating the surviving residents of the building.

"Heard that PM Modiji announced a monetary relief of Rs 2 lakh to the deceased. This is quite ok, but we want our home back as soon as possible. So far, all the survivors are staying in the homes of their relatives," Chaudhary said.

Another survivor, who did not wish to be named, said, "This is very agonising. First, we lost our family members and assets and now, we are at the mercy of our relatives who have given accommodation to us."



"I have heard that the housing department is conducting a survey to allot temporary flats. When the state government cannot provide alternative accommodation in a week, there is no hope of speedy justice," he lamented.

When contacted, BJP Lok Sabha member from Mumbai's north east constituency, Kirit Somaiya, said, "I have spoken to the Thak family and advised them to approach the bank first. I will then pursue their case with the bank and appeal it to give moratorium (on loan payment)."



"The state government's as well as my top priority is to provide speedy relief to the aggrieved people. Their EMIs or loss of other assets will be compensated," Somaiya said.

"Apart from rehabilitation and redevelopment work for the victims and survivors, I am personally monitoring the progress against the accused in the case," he added.

A Shiv Sena worker, Sunil Shitap, was arrested last week in connection with the building collapse.

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Chinese police have arrested 230 members of a suspected pyramid scheme, a week after a rare demonstration in Beijing protesting a crackdown on the group.

The scheme, known as Shanxinhui or "philanthropic exchange", is under investigation and the group's founder Zhang Tianming, along with several employees, was arrested earlier this month.

But in an unusual display of public disobedience, hundreds of protesters affiliated with the scheme gathered in the capital Beijing today and 67 of them were detained.

Photos and videos on social media showed a large group chanting slogans and holding red banners urging President Xi Jinping to stop the investigation into the group, which they described as a legitimate platform being "persecuted".

Protests of such size are rare in Beijing, where ruling Communist party has little tolerance for public demonstrations and is particularly sensitive to activity in the country's capital.

Yesterday, the Guangdong public security bureau said on its official social media account that 230 members of the scheme had been arrested, with 142 facing criminal charges.

It added that 55 companies suspected of involvement in the scheme have been put under investigation, and pledged to "maintain the high pressure crackdown".

Shanxinhui is "the Falun Gong of a new era," one social media user said Monday, referring to the banned religious group that has been brutally suppressed by the Chinese government for nearly two decades after it staged a major protest in Beijing's centre.

Shanxinhui registered as a business partaking in "cultural activities" in the southern metropolis of Shenzhen in 2013, Chinese language publication The Paper cited government records as stating.

Its official Weibo microblog account has blank since last week, with no posts shown, and its website is not accessible.

A cached version of the website described the organisation as an equity investment group founded in 2013 that promotes causes such as forestry conservation and poverty alleviation.

As of June, as many as 2.3 million participants had not received a pay-out in the scheme involving billions of yuan, according to Chinese state broadcaster China National Radio.

Founder Zhang and the employees were arrested on charges of defrauding "a huge amount of property" from victims "under the guise of 'helping the poor and achieving common wealth'", according to a police statement.

Pyramid schemes have become increasingly popular in China in recent years, with promotional material spreading rapidly on social media networks.

Police investigated 2,826 pyramid scheme cases in 2016, nearly 20 per cent more than in 2015, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Congress has accused Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan of misleading the people on the issue of rooting out dacoits menace from the state.

The Congress reaction comes a day after Chouhan directed the (police) officials to launch an intensive campaign to eradicate menace of dacoits from the Chitrakoot region of the state.

An official release issued yesterday said Chouhan made it clear that stern action would be taken against those who are assisting or providing shelter to the dacoits and also directed police to take action against them in Chitrakoot region.

While accusing Chouhan of misleading the people about his achievements, the Congress said Chouhan had claimed that the dacoit menace had been rooted out completely from Madhya Pradesh then why he felt the need to issue fresh directives to nab the dacoits in Chitrakoot region.

The leader of opposition Ajay Singh accused the chief minister of misleading the people on this issue.

"The CM claimed on several occasions that dacoits have been eradicated from the state. However, he himself exposed his lie by issuing directives to the officials. What was the need to tell the officials to launch campaign against dacoits, if his previous claim was true," Singh added.

Singh also said that everybody knows that the dacoits have committed several crimes in Chitrakoot region of the state.

Of late, several reports of movements of dacoits in Chitrakoot region, about 500-kilometers from the state capital, have been reported.

During a television show in 2015, Chouhan had claimed that the menace of dacoits has been completely eradicated from the state.

State BJP spokesman Rajneesh Agrawal however said that the state had become free of dacoits.

"The border of this area (Chitrakoot region) is linked with Uttar Pradesh. So, CM issued directives only to deal with the effect of trans border effect of dacoit-infested area of Uttar Pradesh," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan today asked media persons to leave the venue of a peace meeting convened by him with top BJP and RSS leaders here.

The meet was held in the backdrop of the violence following the slaying of an RSS worker near here on Saturday.

As Vijayan reached the meeting venue, apparently on seeing a large contingent of electronic media persons occupying the room, he lost his composure and asked them to leave.

Just as the media persons were coming out, the chief minister asked the staff at the hotel, where the meeting was being held, why members of the fourth estate were allowed inside.

'Kadakku Purathu (just leave)', the chief minister said tersely to the media.

Only after they had left the venue, did he enter the meeting hall.

After the meeting, Vijayan, while giving details about it, declined to reply to a question as to why the media was not allowed inside the meeting hall.

Later in a clarification, the CM's office said the media was not invited for the meeting, not even for the photo-op ahead of the meeting, it said.

"When the chief minister and other leaders came to the venue, the entire media was inside the hall. That is why, the CM asked them to leave the hall," the statement said.

It was not possible to hold such a discussion in the presence of the media, it added.

CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said probably the chief minister got angry as the media took visuals without permission.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal has recommended the use of body cameras for police officers to reduce chances of misconduct by them.

In a letter to Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik, Maliwal said recording police-citizen encounters tends to significantly improve the functioning of police officers as it increases their accountability.

She referred to police officers in the United States who are mandated to use body cameras during the course of their work.

These cameras are attached physically to the uniform of police officers and record their surroundings during the course of their work. They are switched on as soon as a case is alloted to an officer.

Maliwal said results from several studies in the United States point towards improvement in police behavior due to use of body cameras.

These cameras significantly reduce chances of police misconduct and their footage has proved valuable in such investigations, she said.

"In light of the above (reasons), the DCW strongly recommends the Delhi Police to introduce the use of body cameras for all police personnel.

"As a pilot project, body cameras can be introduced for police officers dealing with PCR and crimes against women. If required, the funds for the same may be sought from Nirbhaya Fund," Maliwal said in the letter.

The Delhi Traffic had procured 200 body cameras till last year and a proposal for buying more cameras has been sent to the ministry.

The Delhi Police is also in the process of equipping its personnel deployed in Parakram vans with high-end body cameras. The Parakram vans, launched in May, are mandated for anti-terror operations and other serious situations warranting armed response.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Tamil Nadu's power distribution company has been asked to remove ash slurry deposited in the Buckingham canal and Kosasthalayar river in the state, Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan told the Rajya Sabha today.

He said the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (TANGEDCO) has also been asked to furnish a time-bound action plan for removal of ash slurry.

He was replying to a question by member of the House M K Kanimozhi on measures taken by government to protect the wetlands of Ennore creek.

"Central government has also issued notification for utilisation of fly ash generated from coal or lignite-based power plants to be used for construction projects," Vardhan said.

Other measures to protect wetlands, he said, include implementation of integrated scheme of National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Eco-systems (NPCA) and notification of the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2010.

"All the states have been advised to prioritise action for constitution of state wetland or lake authorities, identification and notification of wetlands," Vardhan said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Farm activists today alleged that agriculture land is being forcefully acquired in Maharashtra for the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) and said they will launch an indefinite fast from tomorrow to demand redressal of their grievances.

Members of the Corridor Virodhi Shetkari Sangharsh Samiti, a resistance group comprising farmers and their representatives who are opposing the project, said the state machinery was involved in "forceful" acquisition of land.

Ulka Mahajan, a social activist working for farmer welfare, said they have sought Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' intervention into the matter.

"There have been many instances of the violation of the land acquisition Act, 2013. Despite assurances given by the Union government, farmers are being forced to part with their land for Dighi Port Industrial Area project (which is part of DMIC)) in Raigad district of Maharashtra," she said.

Addressing a press conference here, Mahajan said over 78 villages, which house almost 75,000 people, in the district are being forced to give away their land by the government officials.

She also alleged large-scale corruption by revenue department officials in disbursement of compensation to farmers.

"I, along with six affected farmers, will sit on an indefinite fast from tomorrow in Raigad district demanding that the state government form a committee to look into our concerns," Mahajan said.

DMIC is a proposed industrial development project between the country's national capital and its financial hub.

It is one of the world's largest infrastructure projects which includes 24 industrial regions, eight smart cities, two airports, five power plants, two mass rapid transit systems and an equal number of logistical hubs.

Mahajan said she has written a letter to Fadnavis demanding immediate halt to acquisition of land from farmers who have not given their consent for the same.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Two boys were charred to death and a woman was injured when crackers stored in a godown here exploded after a fire broke out, police said.

Police and fire personnel retrieved the bodies of the boys aged 10 and 14 from the debris of the godown that collapsed under the impact of the incident at Mitra Gandhipuram locality yesterday.

The injured woman had been admitted to the government hospital here, police said, adding the cause of the fire was under investigation.

It was not clear immediately whether the three belonged to a family or why they were present in the godown, police said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Following are the top stories from the western region at 1730 hrs.

BOM12 GJ-DRUGS-DETAIN



Ahmedabad: The Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad detains three persons in connection with the seizure of 1,500 kgs of heroin valued at about Rs 3,500 crore from a merchant vessel off the Gujarat coast.

BOM7 MP-LABOURERS-ASPHYXIATION



Dewas: Four sanitation workers die of suspected asphyxiation while cleaning a septic tank in a village in Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh.

BES7 GA-SESSION-REGIONAL PLAN



Panaji: Goa's Town and Country Planning (TCP) Minister Vijai Sardesai says the land use plan for the state would be ready in the next six months.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
French Defence Minister Florence Parly has arrived in Chad, at the start of a tour of three Sahel countries, assuring that French troops in the region will have the means to carry out their mission against jihadist insurgents.

"You can count on my determination that you will have the necessary means to carry out your mission," she yesterday told the head of Operation Barkhane -- a 4,000-man French mission to shore up fragile Sahel countries against jihadist bombings, shootings and kidnappings.

"It's my fight, it's less risky than yours, of course," she added.

Parly was beginning a two-day swing of the region, during which she will be joined by German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen in a joint show of support for the initiative.

Parly "will reaffirm France's support for the emergence of a joint G5 Sahel force (...) tasked with playing a key role in fighting terrorism and trafficking which are contributing to instability in the region," the French defence ministry said in a statement ahead of her arrival.

After meeting Chadian President Idriss Deby in Ndjamena, Parly will heald for talks in Niger with head of state Mahamadou Issoufou and with President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in Mali.

The planned G5 Sahel anti-terror force would gather Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger in a 5,000-man joint unit.

France is trying to muster international support for the estimated USD 480 million it will cost, as the participating countries rank among the poorest nations in the world.

Newly-elected French President Emmanuel Macron has won a commitment -- yet to be detailed -- from German Chancellor Angela Merkel to support the scheme.

Von der Leyen will join Parly in Niger and Mali where they will "seize the opportunity to show their support for providing equipment and training for the G5 force, as well as their active efforts to mobilise European and international partners to support their action," the French defence ministry said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Union minister Nitin Gadkari today asked industry players to explore possibilities of producing green fuels like methanol from high-ash coal, officials said.

The Road, Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister also asked global players like Volvo and Stena Lines whether they could run automobile and shipping fleet on methanol.

Gadkari today chaired a high-level meeting of various ministries, ports and industry players here. Former agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and NITI Aayog member V K Saraswat were also present in the meeting, officials who attended the meeting told PTI.

The minister asked NITI Aayog to study automobile specifications that China has developed for running its fleet on ethanol. The Aayog has constituted three expert groups on production, utilisation and research and development of methanol.

The minister termed methanol as a promising solution to cut on India's huge Rs 7 lakh crore annual crude import bills.

"Most of the countries produced it from gas but in India it would be economically viable if we derive it from high-ash coal as India is surplus in coal generation," Gadkari said.

Addressing the meet, Gadkari asked the players like Larsen and Toubro and Thermax whether they could come forward with a technology for it, officials said.

The minister said the government not only plans to run automobile fleet on it but also intends to use it as main fuel for running vessels on waterways.

"This government is committed to promote clean fuel. We have lots of coal mines....I had a meeting with the Prime Minister," he said.

The minister said that if methanol proves to be viable barges could be easily run on the same and asked Cochin Shipyard whether the methanol-compliant engines could be manufactured.

Also he stressed the need on use of agri produce, solid waste for methanol production besides coal, saying that methanol production from coal will be cost-effective. A pilot project for coal to methanol is running in Talcher.

The stakeholders agreed that coal would be a better solution as manufacturing methanol from imported gas would be a costly proposition.

Thermax which was present in the meeting said it is in the process of manufacturing methanol from coal, officials said. Thermax said India should be able to have its own 1500- 5000 TPD (tonnes per day) plant by 2023 and all licensing will be Indian.

As per the presentation by NITI Aayog, methanol is a very promising fuel for waterways as it is clean, can be a good substitute for the heavy fuels thus not only cutting down on imports but also checking pollution. The Aayog is working on a road map for conversion of fuel to ethanol.

India at present imports methanol from Saudi Arabia and Iran and indigenous production is at a very low level.

Those present in the meet included experts and stakeholders including ministers and officials from Chemicals & Fertilizers, Petroleum & Natural Gas, New & Renewable Energy. The CMD of Cochin Shipyard was also present, officials said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
All eyes are on a meeting of all the parties of the Darjeeling hills, to be held in New Delhi tomorrow over Gorkhaland, while GJM supremo Bimal Gurung today said only his party could withdraw the indefinite shutdown in the hills, which is going on for 47 days.

The 30-member Gorkhaland Movement Coordination Committee (GMCC), a body of all the hill parties including the GJM, formed earlier this month, is in Delhi for the meeting. It had held all of its earlier meetings in the hills.

However, Gurung made it clear that the GMCC would not have any say as regards withdrawing the strike in the hills, apparently hinting at a crack in it.

"The GMCC has no role to play as far as withdrawing the bandh is concerned. The GJM had called it and only the GJM can withdraw it," he told a press conference here.

Condemning the police action on the GJM workers, Gurung hit out at the West Bengal government.

"All our programmes are being carried out peacefully and in a democratic way but unfortunately, the state government is trying to portray the movement as an undemocratic one and using brutal force to curb it," he said.

He also denied the allegations that the GJM had a "tacit understanding" with the Maoists.

Gurung welcomed Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP Majeed Memon's concern about the situation in the Darjeeling hills.

Memon raised the issue in the Rajya Sabha and urged the government to invite the agitators for talks to restore normalcy in the affected region.

Meanwhile, the GMCC has decided to meet Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh with a copy of the resolution, which is slated to be adopted at its meeting tomorrow.

"We have decided to meet the home minister with a copy of the resolution. The Centre needs to take concrete action," Munish Tamang, national working president of the Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh, told PTI.

The GJM has given a 10-day "deadline" to the Centre to intervene in the logjam arising out of its demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland or else, it has threatened to intensify the movement in the Darjeeling hills.

"We have given a 10-day deadline to the Union government. An indefinite shutdown is going on for 47 days, the Centre can't just sit idle when the hills are burning," GJM assistant general secretary Binay Tamang told reporters last night.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The government is planning strategic disinvestment of the Salem steel plant (SSP) in Tamil Nadu and not total disinvestment, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh said the financial reports of the SSP in the last few years showed a "dismal" picture of the once most-reputed steel plant in the country.

"There is a proposal for strategic disinvestment of the Salem steel plant, not total disinvestment," he said during Question Hour.

The minister said legal advisors and surveyors have been deployed to make a detailed analysis of the plant and a decision on the future of the plant would be taken after receiving their reports.

Singh said the plant, which produced 3.39 lakh metric tonnes per annum of steel, was considered to be the country's best plant producing stainless steel.

The minister said it has come to light that the plant's 46 per cent loss has happened due to high power tariff and the Tamil Nadu government has been requested to provide power at reasonable rates.

Replying to another question, Singh said India has a crude steel capacity of 126 million tonnes as on March 2017.

"The national steel policy 2017 envisages enhancing the domestic crude steel capacity to 300 million tonnes by 2030- 31," he said.

The minister said the crude steel capacity added 2007-08 to 2016-17 was 66.49 million tonnes.

During this period, domestic finished steel consumption grew by six per cent compounded annual growth rate and hence the reason for the financial health of the steel sector cannot be attributed to stagnant steel demand.

However, the financials of steel companies were adversely affected due to significant price fall of steel commodities and increase in imports of total finished steel (71 per cent) during 2014-15, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Naseem Geelani, the younger son of hardline Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Geelani, today said the government shouldn't only "target" those who don't agree with it and that the same yardstick should be used for everybody.

Naseem has been summoned by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with investigations into the funding of subversive activities in Kashmir.

"Accountability is good but there should be same yardstick. Don't target only those people who don't agree with you," he said in a Facebook post.

"(It should be) same for all politicians, you must not have forgotten name of Palm Jumeirah (in) Dubai and many more. At least we are ready, what about others?" he asked.

He was referring to allegations which surfaced some years back that a National Conference leader owned a condominium in the archipelago which is home to the most expensive properties in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Geelani's elder son Naeem, who was scheduled to appear before the NIA in Delhi, was yesterday admitted to the ICU at SKIMS hospital here after complaining of severe chest pain.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Indian government has submitted the requisite "opening note" and paperwork related to Vijay Mallya's extradition case to the liquor baron's legal team within the UK court deadline on Monday.

Chief Magistrate Emma Louise Arbuthnot, presiding at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London at the last hearing in the case on July 6, had set July 31 as the deadline for the Indian side - represented by the UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) - to provide Mallya's defence team with a detailed opening note on the case.

The 61-year-old tycoon is sought by Indian authorities for allegedly defaulting on several bank loans amounting to nearly Rs 9,000 crores.

"All matters are on track," official sources confirmed to PTI today.

The next hearing to assess the progress in the case will be held at Westminster Magistrates' Court on September 14.

Mallya, who has been in self-imposed exile in the UK since March 2016, was arrested by Scotland Yard on an extradition warrant on April 18 and is currently out on bail.

The CPS, arguing on behalf of the Indian government earlier this month, had told the court that they had "excellent cooperation" with the Indian authorities in the case and now had sufficient material to establish a prima facie case for the extradition of the former chief of erstwhile Kingfisher Airlines.

"We have completed a review of material sand I am happy to state that we have had excellent cooperation with the Indian authorities in this case. We are ready and willing to proceed and would invite the court to fix a hearing date at the earliest," CPS barrister Mark Summers had said.

The judge agreed with the CPS to "progress with some rigour" and retained December 4 as the date for a final hearing in the case.

If the Chief Magistrate rules in favour of extradition at the end of the trial, the UKhome secretary must order Mallya's extradition within two months of the appropriate day.

However, the case can go through a series of appeals before arriving at a conclusion.

India and the UK have an Extradition Treaty, signed in 1992, and Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi had recently indicated it was working fine.

"We are on the verge of extraditing an individual from India to the UK in the next week or 10 days. The extradition treaty is working just fine and there is no difficulty in the extradition treaty. We have extraditions already successfully completed," Mehrishi had said during his UK visit earlier this month.

So far only one extradition has taken place from the UK to India under the India-UK extradition treaty - that of Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel.

"He was extradited with the due process of law. We do understand that extradition does take time and there are multiple levels of appeal in either country and it is not the easiest of processes to complete. But being a liberal democracy that we are, we have to allow for the law taking its own course," Mehrishi added.

Mallya's extradition is also believed to have featured during bilateral talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart Theresa May on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Germany earlier this month.
A man has been arrested for allegedly stalking actress Kate Beckinsale.

Terry Lee Repp, 45, a resident of Iowa, was taken in custody at Tampa Bay Comic Con on July 29 on suspicion of following the "Underworld" actress, who was supposed to be present at the event, reported TMZ.

The accused was booked on Saturday morning on a USD 5,000 bond after he turned up at the Convention Centre, a few hours before Beckinsale, 44, took to the stage for a Q&A session.

The actress headed to the police station to file a report against Repp, due to which she postponed the session for several hours. But she made her scheduled appearance later.

As per police reports, Repp has a history of following and harassing (the actress) and came to Tampa in an effort to continue the harassing behaviour.

"Repp made physical contact with the victim during an event in Salt Lake City, Utah in 2016. During this encounter, Repp touched the victim's back and made a statement to the victim in reference to stabbing her.

"(He) appears to have an irrational obsession with (Beckinsale) and has travelled across the country in an effort to harass her. Repp's actions caused the victim substantial emotional distress and caused her to fear for her safety. Repp has been charged with stalking and was booked into Orient Road Jail," the statement read.

A Florida judge called for the charge on the accused to be upgraded to a felony from misdemeanour stalking as the alleged offence qualifies as "aggravated stalking".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan today demanded that the Union government withdraw it's decision to eliminate the LPG subsidy from March next year, saying it was a matter of concern.

The decision would only cause difficulties to the common man as their day to day expenses will steadily go up. Hence, government should be prepared to withdraw the decision, he said in a release.

The Chief Minister said that since July 2016, LPG prices had been increased at least 10 times. This month itself, at a single stroke, the LPG cylinder price had gone up by Rs 32, he said.

An LPG cyclinder priced at Rs 420 last June, was now Rs 480, he said.

Now to add to people's woes, the subsidy was being withdrawn, he said.

The government has ordered state-run oil companies to raise subsidised cooking gas (LPG) prices by Rs four per cylinder every month to eliminate all subsidies by March next year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today tore into RJD boss Lalu Prasad, insisting continuing in the Grand Alliance would have amounted to "compromising with corruption".

Having embraced the BJP after a four-year hiatus, Kumar claimed there would be "no challenge" to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2019 general elections.

He also said the proposal for a reunion had come from the "highest level" in the BJP which he accepted as "going got impossible" in the Grand Alliance due to accusations of corruption against his then deputy Tejashwi Yadav.

"There were corruption charges and cases were filed by the CBI (against Lalu Prasad and family). I had only told them to come out with proper answers. Instead, they made fun of me saying whether I was a CBI official or the police," he told a press conference.

"Laluji did not give any clarification on corruption charges. How could I remain silent after having talked about zero tolerance to corruption? Now I have a feeling that they did not have a proper answer," Kumar said.

Kumar, till recently seen as a potential challenger to Modi, said, "Nobody else (other than Modi) can occupy the PM's post. Now nobody has the strength to take on Modi."



Asked about his future role in national politics, Kumar, also the JD(U) chief, said, "Ours is a small party which does not harbour big national aspirations."



When asked about the possibility of JD(U) becoming part of NDA at the national level with ministers in the Modi government, Kumar said the JD(U) national executive will meet in Patna on August 19 and all such issues will be decided there.

He also hit back at RJD supremo Lalu Prasad and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi for criticising him for forging an alliance with "communal" BJP.

"Making huge money hiding behind the shield of secularism ...Is this secularism? ... I need no certificate of secularism from anybody," he said, questioning Lalu's secularist credentials.

Highlighting his own commitment to secularism, he said his government had given compensation to the victims of the Bhagalpur communal riots on par with those of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

On reports that senior JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav was upset over the party joining hands with BJP, he said, "It is not necessary that everybody always agrees on everything. One can have divergent views. The decision to break the Grand Alliance was taken by Bihar JD(U) at its executive meeting which I had to abide by."



"JD(U) is registered with the Election Commission as a regional party in Bihar and hence going against the decision of the state party was not possible for me," he said.

Kumar mocked at Rahul Gandhi for claiming that he had an inkling that Kumar would walk out of the coalition for the last three to four months. "Then why did he (Gandhi) meet me when I had gone to Delhi and sought his intervention...To ask RJD to come clean on the accusations.

"Congress did not act on time in Assam also when AGP had come on board. It cost us the Assam polls," he said, adding "we can be a partner but not a camp follower."



Even as Kumar defended his decision of aligning with the BJP, JD(U) veteran Sharad Yadav had earlier in the day voiced his disapproval, saying the mandate in the 2015 Assembly polls was for the grand alliance. He termed the development "unpleasant" and "unfortunate".

"The situation is very unpleasant to us... It is unfortunate that the coalition has been broken. People's mandate was not for it. Bihar's 11 crore people had endorsed our alliance," Yadav told reporters outside Parliament.

The Rajya Sabha member has met a number of opposition leaders since Nitish Kumar walked out of the 3-party Grand Alliance, which also included the Congress, and joined the NDA camp.

In Lucknow, BJP chief Amit Shah dismissed allegations of his party engineering splits and defections in rival political organisations.

"In Bihar, we did not break any party. Nitish Kumar had tendered his resignation as he had decided that he will not put up with corruption. Should we have told him with a gun to his temple that stay in that alliance?," Shah told a press conference.

Kumar also slammed Lalu over his claim that he made him the chief minister despite RJD having more MLAs.

"He (Lalu) arrogantly says that he made me the CM ... The people of Bihar showed him his worth in 2010 (when RJD's strength was reduced to 22)," he said.

Meanwhile, in a boost to the fledgling JD(U)-NDA alliance dispensation in Bihar, the Patna High Court today dismissed two PILs challenging the formation of a new government by Nitish Kumar, saying the court's intervention was no longer required after the floor test in the state Assembly.

While one public interest litigation was filed by RJD MLAs Saroj Yadav and Chandan Verma, the other was by Jitendra Kumar, a Samajwadi Party member.

Kumar had comfortably won the confidence vote 131-108 on Friday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Charges and counter charges flew in the Lok Sabha today over the issue of lynchings, with the Congress saying 'Hindustan' should not be allowed to become "lynchistan" and the government accusing the Opposition of enacting a "drama" in the name of secularism to defame Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The government asserted that mob-lynching or anything related to it was "unacceptable" and noted that the prime minister has himself condemned this several times while terming the acts as the "worst form of crime".

As the House discussed the issue of lynchings, Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju said it is the responsibility of the state governments to deal with such crimes and the Centre, on its part, has issued clear advisory in this regard.

"How is it possible for the Centre (to intervene in a state subject)? Does the opposition want the prime minister to break the federal structure and want the Centre to take over," Rijiju asked while replying to the debate.

The Congress, Left parties and AIMIM expressed unhappiness over the minister's reply and staged a walkout.

During the discussion on "incidents of atrocities and mob-lynching" in the country, members of all parties condemned the killings in the name of cow.

However, Opposition parties like the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Left and AIMIM accused the BJP-led government of encouraging groups behind the violence by cow vigilantes.

Initiating the debate, Leader of the Congress Mallikarjun Kharge said 'Hindustan' should not be allowed to become "lynchistan".

He alleged that this government was against minorities, Dalits and women, claiming that these sections had borne the maximum brunt of mob violence.

The Prime Minister says he is against such violence but what action has he taken, Kharge asked and added, "He (PM) says something and does something else."



He asked the government to give details of the action taken against the accused in these cases, claiming that they had become brazen because of lack of action.

Kharge, while citing the incidents of this year, said the lynchings had mostly happened in the BJP-ruled states and that there was an atmosphere of fear and terror across the country, which has brought a bad name to India in the world.

In his reply, Rijiju told the Opposition: "You have to stop vitiating the atmosphere of the country. If the prime minister has appealed, that should be respected. Everybody in India and outside is praising the prime minister. You get unmasked when you raise these issues. I am warning you. The more you malign us, we become stronger."



He added, "The image of the country does not get maligned by surgical strike (conducted by the Army), but by those who seek proof of it. The atmosphere does not get vitiated by respecting the Army, but it does by calling the Army Chief by names."



Kharge accused organisations like the VHP and Bajrang Dal of being involved in such violence.

"It is also being done so that your ideology and philosophy could be established in the country," the Congress leader said, pointing to the BJP's "links" with these outfits.

BJP-ruled Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh had become centres of mob lynching, he said, adding that such incidents would become a major threat to the nation's integrity.

Rijiju countered, "They (Opposition parties) are trying to find a political link in this (lynchings) to malign the image of the prime minister. They have made a joke in the name of secularism and are doing a drama."



He said the figures of incidents of communal violence will "unmask" the Opposition.

Accusing the opposition of "selective amnesia", the minister said an environment is created in the country that there is intolerance and no freedom of expression.

"There is freedom of expression, but we will not spare anyone who will badmouth the country," he said.

Recalling Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's visit to JNU after its student leader Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested over alleged 'pro-Azadi' slogans, Rjiju said a majority of the students in the varsity are "desh bhakts" (patriots) but some vitiate it.

He said the atmosphere in the country is not vitiated by saying 'Bharat Mata ki Jai', but it does when someone talks of breaking the country into pieces.

Referring to the murder of a BJP worker in Kerala, Kharge said the Governor there summoned the DGP on the issue, but nothing of that sort was done in other states where lynching incidents took place.

In his reply, the MoS for Home Affairs said Kerala had reported the highest number of incidents of communal violence in 2014 when it was governed by the Congress.

Uttar Pradesh topped the list in 2015, followed by Telangana and Karnataka, he said. In 2016, Uttar Pradesh against reported highest number of cases of communal violence, followed by West Bengal and Kerala, Rijiju added.

In terms of attacks on scheduled castes in 2016, he said UP topped the list, followed by Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.

Referring to attacks on churches in Delhi ahead of the assembly polls in 2015, Rijiju said he had sought a report from the police commissioner on the incidents related to attacks on places of worships.

The data showed that over 300 incidents of attack related to temples, around 30 to gurudwaras, 40-50 to mosques and 4-5 to churches, the minister said, adding this was contrary to the impression created by the Opposition parties which "tarnished" the image of the country.

While attacking the Congress, Rijiju said, "I want to tell Congress that during the regime of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi an order was passed that no Christian missionary or Father can enter Arunachal Pradesh ..If they entered, they would be arrested...They did not even allow Mother Teresa."



Rijiju hails from Arunachal Pradesh.

He went on to add, "Until three years ago, there was this issue of corruption, but after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power, the issue of corruption is no more there...So you people (Opposition) are discussing mob lynching."



BJP members earlier objected to Kharge citing incidents, saying many of the cases he was referring to were sub-judice.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar also objected to his reference to former President Pranab Mukherjee's speech, saying it was against rules.

Kumar said action had been taken against the hooliganism which had taken place in the name of cow protection.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will pay an one-day visit to Assam tomorrow to discuss a permanent solution to the flood problem in the state every year.

"The prime minister's visit is mainly to find a permanent solution to the flood problem that Assam is facing," state Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said at a press conference here.

He will hold two series of discussions here during the day and will leave for Delhi in the evening, he added.

The first meeting will be with the council of ministers and state officials. After that, the prime minister will address a meeting of NDA legislatures from BJP, BPF and AGP," Sarma said.

Asked about the state's demand, Sarma said Assam has enough funds.

"We still have Rs 324 crore of unspent money. Last year the Centre had announced Rs 400 crore (for Assam), but did not send it because we had money," he added.

Sarma, however, said the state government will submit a memorandum with some demands.

Earlier during the day, Congress leader and former chief minister Tarun Gogoi said Modi is paying a "token visit to the state only after facing severe criticism from all quarters as he visited Gujarat, but neglected Assam."



The Centre has already announced an ex-gratia of Rs two lakh each under the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund for the next of kin of people killed and Rs 50,000 to seriously injured persons in the recent flood in Assam.

The PMO requested Assam government to furnish details of requirement of funds along with list incorporating the names of the dead in flood, their next of kin and seriously injured persons.

A seven-member inter-ministerial central team had visited Assam on July 25 for four days to carry out an on-the-spot assessment of flood damage.

The flood situation in the state has improved but one more person was killed in Morigaon district taking the toll in the natural calamity to 83, including eight in Guwahati.

According to Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), about 5,000 people are still affected in Lakhimpur and Jorhat districts and 366 people are taking shelter in four relief camps in the two districts.

This year, two waves of floods in the state have affected around 25 lakh people from 29 districts prompting the administration to set up 1,098 distribution censtres and relief camps, where about 1.32 lakh people took shelter.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Meghalaya Director General of Police S B Singh today said a murder case was registered against constable Lusen A Sangma who shot dead havildar Litsingh Inghi in West Jaintia Hills district on Sunday.

"We have registered a murder case against the constable (Lusen A Sangma)," the DGP told PTI.

He said, "As a corrective measure, the district police chiefs and battalion commandants in the state were also directed to sensitize and educate the force on maintaining discipline and comradeship among the personnel."



Constable Lusen A Sangma shot dead havildar Litsingh Inghi in the early hours of Sunday at the Third Battalion camp at Sabsein village, around 15 km from Jowai the district headquarters.

Sangma, who was reportedly in an inebriated condition, rushed to the room of Inghi and fired six rounds from his weapon killing the latter at the spot even as the latter's friends were spared.

The Sunday's incident came in less than a month of another fratricide incident in East Khasi Hills district even as the person who was shot at escaped miraculously.

The DGP maintained that the police force is man power intensive force and hence the issue of 'man-management' is very critical.

Stating that the two incidences as 'mere aberrations', Singh said, "Lots of stress is given on training and maintaining discipline."



He said the aberrations could be because of many factors including personal problems, or the stress level and it could be also because of alcohol.

"Other things must have gone wrong and, alcohol only enhances and accentuates the enmity between them and to settle the grudges irrespective of the ranks," Singh said.

West Jaintia Hills district SP R Muthu said apart from a look out notices shared with all district police chiefs in the state, Assam Police were also alerted of the incident and to try and nab the outlawed constable.

Muthu also said that procedures is being followed to freeze Lusen's bank account shortly and his exact location cannot be ascertained as his mobile phone was found switched off following the incident.

Lusen, who escaped the camp by firing about 15 rounds into the air, has also taken the official weapon with him.

Asked if he is likely to land up with the armed militant outfits in the Garo Hills region, Muthu said, "It is not likely to happen."



According to the SP, Lusen was found to be a 'habitual offender of indiscipline' in the force wherever he was posted.

In the past, he would remain absent beyond the number of days allowed and then appear again, the SP said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who dumped the Grand Alliance with RJD and Congress to form the government with the NDA, today said there would be no challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2019 general elections.

"Nobody else can occupy it (PM's post)," he told reporters while responding to questions about whether Modi would return to power in 2019.

"Now nobody has the strength to take on the prime minister," he said.

Quizzed about his future role in national politics, Kumar, who heads the JD(U) and was earlier seen as a potential challenger to Modi in 2019, said, "Ours is a small party which does not harbour big national aspirations."



When asked about the possibility of JD(U) becoming part of NDA at the national level with ministers in the Modi government, Kumar said the JD(U) national executive will meet in Patna on August 19 and all such issues will be decided there.

When reminded of his remark while breaking away from the NDA in 2013 that he would "rather be decimated than join hands with BJP", he said, "That was in the context of that time."



Kumar spoke at length about events leading to the break-up of the Grand Alliance and his accepting the proposal from the "highest level" in the BJP for joining hands to form the government.

The chief minister said he was left with no option but to dump the Grand Alliance when the going got impossible. He said the decision to forge an alliance with the BJP was made "in the interest of Bihar".

He also hit back at RJD supremo Lalu Prasad and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi for criticising him.

"He (Lalu) arrogantly says that he made me the CM ... The people of Bihar showed him his worth in 2010 (when RJD's strength was reduced to 22)."



"The decision (to dump the alliance) did not come overnight. I repeatedly swallowed objectionable comments from the other side (RJD), including one by one of its leaders (former MP from Siwan Mohammad Shahabuddin who called him 'a CM of circumstance'). Lalu Prasad ignored it, saying it is an internal issue of his party."



"JD(U) leaders never spoke against the RJD supremo but leaders of that party always made objectionable comments against me, which I tolerated in the interest of the coalition. There used to be interference in good governance too but we managed to keep the development momentum," he said.

But, Kumar said, once the issue of corruption came to the forefront with CBI registering an FIR against Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav in a graft case, he could not carry forward the alliance any more.

"I, while supporting demonetisation, had made a strong case for simultaneous hit on benami property. I had no ground to defend them."



"I had talks with Lalu Prasad on several occasions when I told him to explain things in public (about the allegations) by putting facts, but it seems they (RJD) had no explanation," he said.

He ridiculed Prasad's secular credentials. "Making huge money hiding behind the shield of secularism ...Is this secularism? ... I need no certificate of secularism from anybody."



Kumar said his government had given compensation to the victims of the Bhagalpur riots on par with those of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Hitting out at Lalu for his repeated claim that he made him the chief minister despite his party having more MLAs than JD(U), Kumar said it reflected the RJD leader's "arrogance".

"Why did they not declare my name for the CM's post at the meeting at Mulayam Singh Yadav's home during talks over unification of the old 'Janata Parivar'. It was done after a month. It was in their own interest," Kumar said.

Recounting his association with Lalu, Kumar spoke of how he helped him win the election of the Patna University Students Union president. He also spoke about having mobilised non-Yadav MLAs to back Lalu's chief ministerial bid in 1990.

On reports that senior JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav was upset over the party joining hands with BJP, he said, "It is not necessary that everybody always agrees on everything. One can have divergent views. The decision to break the Grand Alliance was taken by Bihar JD(U) at its executive meeting which I had to abide by."



"JD(U) is registered with the Election Commission as a regional party in Bihar and hence going against the decision of the state party was not possible for me," he said.

He mocked at Rahul Gandhi for claiming that he had an inkling that Kumar would walk out of the coalition for the last three to four months. "Then why did he (Gandhi) meet me when I had gone to Delhi and sought his intervention...To ask RJD to come clean on the accusations.

"Congress did not act on time in Assam also when AGP had come on board. It cost us the Assam polls," he said, adding "we can be a partner but not a camp follower."



Kumar said he would continue to make efforts for a special status and financial package for Bihar.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
BJP president Amit Shah today said there was no question of him leaving the party post and he was working "happily" and "wholeheartedly".

Ending speculation that he would resign as party president if elected to the Rajya Sabha, Shah also denied that the BJP had broken any party in Bihar.

"It was Nitish Kumar who resigned from the post of the chief minister as he did not want to continue with the corrupt. Are we supposed to force them to continue?"



Shah, who arrived here Saturday on a three-day visit, answered a range of questions, including on getting elected to the Rajya Sabha and subsequently resigning as party president.

"There is no question of doing so. I have the responsibility of being the party president. I am happy, and I am working wholeheartedly. You people (media) please do not push," Shah told reporters.

The BJP president exuded confidence that the party would come back to power with more strength in the next Lok Sabha election in 2019.

"BJP will romp home victorious with bigger strength than 2014 on the basis of its development and good governance of the Modi government, as well as the 13 state governments of the party in the country," he said.

Calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi the "undisputed most popular PM" of the country, Shah said the government had "succeeded in ending the politics of family, caste and appeasement in the country".

The previous Manmohan Singh-led government suffered from "policy paralysis", he said.

"Every minister assumed himself to be the PM, and no one considered him as the PM."



He reiterated that unlike previous governments, which had just a couple of things to show as their achievements during their tenures, the Modi government had undertaken 50 important works in its three years.

Claiming that there were scams worth Rs 12 lakh crore in the 10 years of the UPA government, Shah said there was not a single allegation of corruption during the three years of the Modi government. Even the opposition could not cast any aspersions on this issue.

Making a special mention of the surgical strikes across the LoC last year, Shah said they projected the country as one with firm resolve in the global area, which can take any decision for its security.

Referring to Congress' Gujarat MLAs being shifted to Bengaluru to allegedly ward off "poaching", he said, "It can be understood if they speak about Gujarat. But why are they (Congress MLAs) being kept in locked rooms in Bengaluru...You must understand that."



Asked about his party not being as strong in the south as it was in the north, he said this was earlier said about the BJP's presence in the north as well.

To a question on the NIA blaming cross-border trade for terrorism, Shah said that the BJP had no relevance as it concerned the security agencies, the Army and the Jammu and Kashmir government.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Charges and counter charges flew in the on Monday over the issue of lynchings, with the Opposition parties targeting the Modi government and the ruling side asserting that it was the responsibility of the state governments to deal with such crimes.

As the House took up a discussion on the lynchings, members of all parties condemned the killings in the name of cow even as the Opposition parties like the Congress and Trinamool Congress accused the BJP-led government of encouraging groups behind the violence by cow vigilantes.

The BJP, in turn, slammed the Opposition parties for targeting the central government over lynchings and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly come out strongly against such acts.

The ruling party said "certain demons" have put on the "holy garb" to defame the government, likening it to an episode in the Ramayana, and asserted that the responsibility of containing mob violence is that of the state governments.

Initiating the discussion, Leader of the Congress Mallikarjun Kharge said 'Hindustan' should not be allowed to become "lynchistan".

He alleged that this government was against minorities, Dalits and women, claiming that these sections had borne the maximum brunt of mob violence.

The Prime Minister says he is against such violence but what action has he taken, Kharge asked and added, "He (PM) says something and does something else."



He asked the government to give details of the action taken against the accused in these cases, claiming that they had become brazen because of lack of action.

Citing a number of incidents this year to say that the lynchings had mostly happened in the BJP-ruled states, Kharge said there was an atmosphere of fear and terror across the country, which has brought a bad name to India in the world.

He accused organisations like the VHP and Bajrang Dal of being involved in such violence.

"It is also being done so that your ideology and philosophy could be established in the country," the Congress leader said, pointing to the BJP's "links" with these outfits.

BJP-ruled Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh had become centres of mob lynching, he said, adding that such incidents would become a major threat to the nation's integrity.

Referring to the murder of a BJP worker in Kerala, he said the Governor there summoned the DGP on the issue, but nothing of that sort was done in other states where lynching incidents took place.

BJP members objected to Kharge citing incidents, saying many of the cases he was referring to were sub-judice.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar also objected to his reference to former President Pranab Mukherjee's speech, saying it was against rules.

Kumar said action had been taken against the hooliganism which had taken place in the name of cow protection.

Countering Kharge's onslaught against the government, BJP leader Hukumdev Narayan Yadav said, "Some people are indulging in terror (atankvadi) activities to defame the government."



He slammed the Congress for questioning the intention of the Modi government and asserted that the responsibility of containing mob violence is that of the state governments.

Yadav, the MP from Madhubani in Bihar, said a fight between two ideologies has been going on for several decades and said that those who follow the path of "economic development and nationalism" will come out victorious.

During his speech, he extensively quoted Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and said the BJP ideologue had stated that "Muslims in India are descendants of Hindus."



He said every Muslim must respect Hindu sentiment and at the same time, Hindus must respect the Muslims.

Talking about nationalism, Yadav said freedom fighters Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan had sung the poem 'Vande Mataram' but there is an environment now in which singing it is considered a crime.

While targeting the Opposition, the BJP MP drew the attention of the House towards the 1984 anti-Sikh riots after the assassination of Indira Gandhi and raised the issue of killing of RSS workers in Left-ruled Kerala.

Sougata Roy of Trinamool Congress quoted the findings of a magazine to say that between 2010-2017 there were 63 incidents of mob violence in the name of cow protection.

He demanded a separate law -- "Manav Suraksha Kanoon" (human protection law) -- to deal with incidents of lynching, arguing that the Criminal Procedure Code and Indian Penal Code do not define lynching.

"The government keeps saying it wants Congress-free India, I want to ask, do you want to make a Muslim-free India as well," Roy said, provoking protests from BJP members.

Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju objected to Roy's remarks, saying that TMC MP should not mislead the House and should specify on what basis he is giving the data.

Roy said that cow-related killings are all "targeted killings" and accused workers of VHP, Bajrang Dal and local cow vigilantes of leading the mob violence.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar and S S Ahluwalia objected to the use of a word by Roy which was immediately expunged by Deputy Speaker M Thambi Durai.

Heated exchanges also broke out between Ahluwalia and BJP MPs on one side and Kalyan Banerjee and other TMC MPs on the other.

Roy sarcastically also remarked that a missing case has been registered in Darjeeling against a BJP MP, an apparent reference to Ahluwalia who represents the seat.

Ahluwalia responded by saying, "I am standing right in front of you.... How can I be missing?



Roy referred to the killing of Mohammad Akhlaq, Pehlu Khan and Junaid Khan and said it took long time for the state and central governments to condemn such lynching incidents.

He maintained that the Prime Minister has made "just two statements" -- one in 2016 and the other a few days ago -- and asked, "Why did it take him so long?"



The Trinamool leader said "very few cases" of bovine related cases occur in the eastern India in Bengal and Odisha. "Why is this not being controlled? Because top BJP leaders were shy of condemning it."



LJP leader and Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said the Opposition was attacking the Modi government for the responsibilities to be fulfilled by the states.

To opposition demand of bringing in a new law to deal with lynchings, Paswan said even such a law will have to be implemented by the states.

"Do you want the Centre to intervene whenever states do not fulfil their responsibilities?.... Should the Centre send Army to handle the situation," he asked the Opposition.

He said while Modi has condemned such incidents, the then Prime Minister (Rajiv Gandhi) during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots had remarked "when a big tree falls, the earth does shake".

He said in the past three years, Modi has not spoken on Ram Janmabhoomi or Uniform Civil Code or Babri Masjid or Article 370.

Paswan suggested that at the end of this discussion, the House should together condemn such lynching incidents and appeal all political parties and chief ministers to investigate such cases wthin 24 hours and a murder case should be lodged against the guilty.

Attacking the main opposition party, he quipped, "The Congress party has one leg in the grave."



He said the Congress party has only the cow vigilantism issue to raise as the NDA government has got rid of corruption and focussed on development.

Kharge said the discussion is about what has happened under the present government and answers should be given for that rather than talk about 1984 issues which the House had already discussed.

BJD leader Tathagat Satpathy said every Indian is precious and if it is not, then "we are criminals".

He said rural economy is getting damaged by incidents of lynching as an economic cycle has been stopped.

"By lynching movement... You will eventually kill Hindu farmers," Satpathy said.

Elaborating, he said Hindu farmers sell the cows and bullocks when they become useless whereas now the buyers have stopped going to villages.

The BJD leader suggested that each MP should take care of two pairs of bullocks and said he tells farmers in his constituency that they can take their cows and bullocks to houses of BJP workers.

"We shall remain united for India, not for someone's idea of unification," he said.

Samajwadi patriach Mulayam Singh Yadav said discrimination is happening on various grounds, religion, caste, language and region, and wanted it to end.

The atrocities committed against women, especially against wives in families, should be stopped, he said.

In a lighter vein, the veteran leader wondered how many of the Parliamentarians are suppressing their wives, eliciting laughter from the members present in the House.

K Gopal (AIADMK) said beef issue has become a polarising subject and emphasised that it is everybody's collective responsibility to ensure harmony in the society.

There should not be any discrimination against SC/ST people, he added.
US Vice President Mike Pence has raised the possibility of deploying the Patriot anti-missile defence system in Estonia, one of three NATO Baltic states worried by Russian expansionism, Prime Minister Juri Ratas said.

"We spoke about it today, but we didn't talk about a date or time," Ratas told state broadcaster ERR after Pence began a visit to the tiny frontline state yesterday.

The Patriot is a mobile, ground-based system designed to intercept incoming missiles and warplanes.

"We talked about the upcoming (Russian military) manoeuvres near the Estonian border... And how Estonia, the United States and NATO should monitor them and exchange information," Ratas said.

Relations between Moscow and Tallinn have been fraught since Estonia broke free from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991, joining both the EU and NATO in 2004 -- a move that Russia says boosted its own fears of encirclement by the West.

Concern in Estonia and fellow Baltic states Latvia and Lithuania surged after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and stepped up military exercises.

Pence, in remarks to journalists in the Estonian capital of Tallinn, spoke in strong but general terms about US support for eastern European countries.

Today, he heads to Georgia -- a non-NATO member that is also worried about Russia -- and then to Montenegro, which became NATO's 29th member on June 5.

"President (Donald) Trump sent me to Europe with a very simple message. And that is that America first doesn't mean America alone," Pence said.

"Our message to the Baltic states - my message when we visit Georgia and Montenegro - will be the same: 'To our allies here in Eastern Europe, we are with you, we stand with you on behalf of freedoms'."



Pence also said the Trump administration had "made it clear" that it stood behind NATO's Article 5 commitment that an attack on one member was an attack on all -- a pledge that Trump has been criticised for failing to spell out emphatically.

Pence's schedule in Tallinn includes meetings today with President Kersti Kaljulaid and her Lithuanian and Latvian counterparts, Dalia Grybauskaite and Raimonds Vejonis.

He is also to visit troops from the Enhanced Forward Presence programme, under which NATO has deployed four battalions to the Baltic states and Poland to bolster the alliance's eastern flank.

Moscow last year deployed nuclear-capable Iskander missiles into its Kaliningrad exclave, which borders Lithuania and Poland.

It is due to hold massive military exercises in Belarus and Kaliningrad in September. The so-called "Zapad" ("West") drills will see Russia showcase new hardware and upgrade existing systems in its western military region.

Georgia and the United States, meanwhile, are conducting their biggest ever joint military exercises.

Some 800 Georgian and 1,600 US troops are taking part in the Noble Partner 2017 drills -- the largest ever in Georgia since it fought a brief war with Russia in 2008.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Congress today said Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks of eradicating corruption during his 'Mann ki Baat' programmes but has remained silent on the Panama Paper leaks.

Congress leader Pawan Khera asked Modi what action had been taken against Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh over the Panama Papers issue, citing the case of Nawaz Sharif who quit as Pakistani prime minister.

"The prime minister speaks at length on corruption, but ignores Panama paper leaks. (Yesterday Congress vice- president) Rahul Gandhi mentioned about Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh's son and Lok Sabha MP Abhishek.

"His (Abhishek) name appeared in the Panama papers, (but) what action have you taken in this regard," Khera asked, suggesting that Modi should take cue from Pakistan on this.

The Supreme Court on July 28 disqualified 67-year-old Sharif for dishonesty and ruled that corruption cases be filed against him and his children over the Panama Papers scandal, forcing the embattled leader out of office.

The Congress leader said the BJP cannot keep "subverting democracy" and "yet come out holier than thou and talk about political integrity".

He was referring to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar dumping the grand alliance in the state to come into the NDA fold, and the recent defections of Congress MLAs to BJP in Gujarat, ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls.

"Where is the money coming from in Gujarat? Our MLAs said they were offered money (to defect). We are not getting any answers to this in the prime minister's Mann ki Baat," he said.

Khera also attacked the prime minister for not doing enough to curb the menace of cow-vigilante groups and "those spreading hate".

The Congress leader said Prime Minister's 'Mann ki Baat' appears to be "disconnected" from ground realities as it has failed to address issues like unemployment and agraririan crisis.

In his radio programme today, Modi spoke on varied topics ranging from how the new tax reform GST has transformed the economy to extensive relief being provided to the flood-hit states.

"The prime minister's speech was irrelevant as it did not touch the fundamental issues faced by the country. We did not get answers to several of our questions and it was completely disconnected with what people are thinking," Khera said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The 41-year-old woman who has filed a rape case against Rohit Tilak, the gread grandson of freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak, today demanded that he be subjected to a narco test.

Speaking to reporters, she claimed to possess the record of around 2,000 calls and messages purportedly sent to her by Tilak.

Advocate Tausif Shaikh, representing the complainant, said they have submitted the details of the call records and messages in the court.

The woman lodged a complaint against Tilak (38) on July 17 accusing him of forcing her to have sex with him since March 2015 under the pretext of marriage.

She said even on July 5, when she and Tilak met last, the latter attempted to sexually assault her.

"However, I foild his bid and bit him on his hand and shoulder. Police should conduct his medical examination. I demand that he (Tilak) be subjected to a narco test so that truth will surface and at the same time, I am also ready to undergo the test," the woman told reporters.

Meanwhile, a police protection was provided to the complainant who had claimed to have received "acid attack" threats from two unidentified persons who asked her to withdraw the case against Tilak.

In the FIR registered by the Vishrambaug Police, the woman had alleged that Tilak repeatedly raped her on the pretext of marrying her and also forced her into "unnatural sex".

The police had slapped charges of rape, unnatural offences, voluntarily causing hurt, insult with an intent to provoke breach of peace and criminal intimidation under the Indian Penal Code against Tilak.

A local court in Pune on July 21 granted protection from arrest to Tilak.

Earlier, the complainant had claimed before the media that she was under great pressure as she received "death threats" from Tilak's family.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Two more persons have been taken into custody in connection with the killing of an RSS worker here on July 29, police said here today.

With this, the total number of persons nabbed so far has gone up to 11, they said.

City Police Commissioner G Sparjan Kumar said two more persons were taken into custody today and their interrogation was underway.

"They were held from different places. With this, the total number of persons held in the case so far is 11," he told PTI.

Five or six persons were directly involved in the crime and the rest were involved in the conspiracy, he said.

Police recorded the arrest of seven persons yesterday.

Two others are in custody.

Rajesh, the RSS functionary, was hacked to death by a gang, allegedly led by a history-sheeter, here on Saturday night. His left arm was chopped off and there were several other injuries all over his body.

The BJP has alleged that the CPI(M) was behind the cruel act, a charge which the ruling party has dismissed.

In view of a series of clashes between the CPI(M) and BJP and the murder of the RSS worker here, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Director General of Police Loknath Behera were summoned by Governor P Sathasivam yesterday and apprised him of steps taken in the case.

Earlier in the day a meeting between Vijayan and top BJP-RSS leaders had agreed to support initiatives to promote peace and shun violence.

The meeting called by Vijayan also decided to convene an all-party meet here on August 6.

The state has been witnessing a serious of violent incidents allegedly involving BJP-RSS and CPI-M workers with the capital city rocked by incidents of attacks on houses of rival partymen in the past few days.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The AIADMK today accused DIG D Roopa, who exposed the alleged special treatment given to jailed party chief V K Sasikala, of "misconduct" and urged the Karnataka government to restrain the officer from speaking to media on the issue.

In a complaint letter addressed to Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, advocate N Krishnappan representing Va Pugazhendi, Karnataka AIADMK party secretary andspokesperson, said the government should ensure that Roopa did not give TV interviews and press statements on the matter.

Accusing her of trying to gain publicity through the media, he sought appropriate departmental action against the officer for her "misconduct".

In a report submitted on July 12 to Sathyanarayana Rao, who was DGP (Prisons) then, Roopa as Deputy Inspector of General (Prisons) had said there was "a talk" that Rs two crore had exchanged hands to give preferential treatment to Sasikala and that there were allegations against him also.

She had also said that a special kitchen was functioning inthe jail for Sasikala in violation of prison rules.

Sasikala is lodged at Parappana Agrahara centralprison here ever since her conviction in February in the disproportionate assets case along with her two relatives V NSudhakaran and Elavarasi, all serving a four-year jail term.

Alleging that Roopa was giving interviews to TV channels and issuing press statements targeting Sasikala despite her transfer and an inquiry being underway, the threepage complaint said, "We request you to restrain Roopa fromgiving TV interviews and press statements and thereby gaining media publicity".

The AIADMK also said that anonymous letters making certain allegations on Sasikalaand jail officials were also "leaked to the press".

"In order to fulfil her hidden ambitions, Roopa is indulging in such acts which shall not be allowed to continue. Therefore, it is essential that appropriate departmental action be initiated against her for her misconducts," read the complaint letter.

After Roopa and Rao indulged in a public spat over the report, the Karnataka government had shifted her as Deputy Inspector General ofPolice and Commissioner for Traffic and Road Safety, Bengaluru, while Rao was asked to go on leave.

The Congress government has also ordered a high level inquiry by aretired IAS officer into Roopa's report.

The complaint letter also termed the allegations made by Roopa against Sasikala as "baseless".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The ruling coalition of Senegal's President Macky Sall won a widely expected landslide in a legislative election, his prime minister has said, bolstering Sall's prospects for re-election in 2019.

The Benno Bokk Yakaar (BBY) coalition swept all but three of the country's 45 electoral departments, Prime Minister Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne told the public Senegalese press agency APS yesterday ahead of the official release of results.

The ruling coalition had "emerged victorious" following the vote on Sunday, Dionne said, while the turnout was 54 per cent among Senegal's 6.2 million registered voters, an increase on voting in 2012.

Dionne said President Sall's opponents were likely to be ahead in the departments of Kedougou, Saraya and possibly Mbacke, but otherwise the BBY list of candidates "had been voted in by the Senegalese people".

However supporters of Dakar Mayor Khalifa Sall (no relation), who is in jail awaiting trial for what supporters say are politically motivated embezzlement charges, claimed his coalition had taken the capital.

The full official results are expected tomorrow or a day after it.

There were a record 47 lists of candidates contesting the election, with 165 lawmakers due to take seats in parliament.

Some voters complained of being left off the electoral rolls on Sunday, and there were delays to voting in several places, partly due to bad weather.

Sall's main threat to increasing his power in parliament was posed by ex-leader Abdoulaye Wade, 91, who was aiming to drum up support for his own list of candidates and his son, Karim, who is not on the ballot but has ambitions for the presidency.

Wade won in the central department of Mbacke, the APS agency reported.

Back in Dakar, Cheikh Gueye, a key figure in Mayor Khalifa Sall's campaign, said the victory of his candidate's list in the capital was "as clear as the midday sun."



Warning they would stand their ground both politically and legally, he added: "We will not accept an electoral hold- up," responding to the prime minister's claim of victory.

Mayor Sall had been seen as a key contender for 2019 and a potential threat to the president in parliament. Then in March with allegedly misappropriating USD 2.85 million in city funds.

In the central town of Touba, police arrested three members of Wade's list after angry voters sacked a voting centre. They were released later yesterday, a source there told AFP.

On Sunday, the governor had extended voting there after long delays worsened by heavy overnight storms.

"These are the worst organised elections since independence," in 1960, said Bamba Fall, a leading member of Mayor Fall's list, from Dakar.

Police fired tear gas and arrested dozens during at times violent campaigning that left several injured in a country normally known for its peaceful democratic traditions.

Controversy also erupted over the failure to deliver enough new biometric ID cards needed to vote, which hundreds of thousands of Senegalese did not received in time.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Seven persons were killed and 14 others injured in a head-on collision between a pick-up jeep and a truck on Meerut road in Haryana's Karnal district today, police said.

The pick-up van was carrying 21 people.

The victims were returning from Haridwar when the accident occurred near Dhakwala Gujran village in Karnal, SHO of Police Station Sadar in Karnal district, Inspector Manoj Kumar said over phone.

While one person succumbed at the accident spot, six others died at the Kalpana Chawla Medical College in Karnal.

"All the injured were taken to Kalpana Chawla Medical College, out of which two seriously injured were rushed to PGIMER at Chandigarh," he said.

He said all the 21 travelling in the pick-up van belonged to Karnal district.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) deserter who cheated insurance companies by filing false theft claims for high-end cars was arrested in south Delhi's Vasant Vihar, police said today.

Devender Kumar Dabas (42), had managed to obtain insurance claims for BMW, Volkswagen and Honda sedans among other expensive vehicles, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Ishwar Singh.

On July 27, the police learnt he was coming to Vasant Vihar to meet his associates and set a trap in the area. They also learnt he had served with the paramilitary force and carried an unlicensed gun with him.

Realising that the police were onto him after arriving there, he tried to drive away in his black BMW that dod not have a number plate, Singh said.

He was nabbed and his weapon was seized.

In 2010, Kumar, using the-then launched Delhi Police website for registering vehicle thefts, started duping insurance companies.

He purchased old cars at low prices and obtained high- value insurance policies for them, targeting insurance agents struggling to achieve targets set for them by their companies, police said.

After insuring the vehicle, he lodged false theft reports of these cars and obtained high insurance claims.

Between 2016 and 2017, he lodged false theft reports of nine cars of different makes.

In 1998, Kumar was recruited as a Head Constable in the SSB. Since he was facing disciplinary issues, he deserted the force and started a tour and travel business.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Three men, carrying a reward of Rs one lakh each and wanted in a case in which three persons, including a Delhi Police assistant sub-inspector and a gangster were killed, have been arrested.

On April 30, gangster Monu Daryapur, his personal security officers -- Assistant Sub-Inspector Vijay Kumar and Constable Kuldeep -- and two others, Arun Shastri and Yogesh, were attacked by armed assailants at outer Delhi's Mianwali Nagar.

The armed men had fired indiscriminately at their car, killing Monu, Kumar and Shastri and injuring the other two.

Gangster Sonu Daryapur wanted to kill Monu since the latter had married his cousin.

He joined hands with one Rajesh alias Raje, to kill Monu. Rajesh was arrested last week. On May 20, one Satish was nabbed and on June 8, gangster Naveen Khatri was arrested for his role in planning the shootout.

On July 28, the police received information about three men involved in the Mianwali Nagar shootout coming to Rohini to meet one of their associates, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell), Sanjeev Kumar Yadav.

The three -- Sonu alias Kejriwal (25), Sumit alias Palotra (22) and Sandeep alias Padu (25) -- were arrested from near Bahadur Shah Marg, Sector 24-25 Rohini, he added.

Three pistols along with 15 cartridges were seized from them.

A reward of Rs one lakh had been declared by the Delhi Police on their arrest. The Haryana Police had announced a reward of Rs 25,000.

The accused confessed that they belong to a joint gang of Sonu Daryapur and Rajesh and have been involved in several killings, said the officer.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today ordered inquiry into the transfer of development rights to a project in the city, after the opposition targeted Housing Minister Prakash Mehta over the issue.

Fadnavis made the announcement in the Legislative Assembly.

The opposition leaders had alleged that Mehta overruled the Housing Department's view that the Development Control Rules do not support his decision to allow transfer of extra building (development) rights sanctioned to slum dwellers to another residential scheme.

Senior Congress leader and former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had raised the issue last week.

Making a statement in the House today evening, Fadnavis said, "Mehta has admitted that he had not consulted me before writing that note on the project. (But) One must not forget that no further decision was taken on the issue. Such things happen but it should not be blown out of proportion. I have already ordered a stay to the project after I learned about the irregularities."



The opposition MLAs, however, shouted slogans demanding a firm action against Mehta, who had earlier said Fadnavis had been intimated about his decision.

The opposition eventually staged a walk-out over the issue.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Two groups of students clashed in a North Kolkata college today, while classes were not held in another educational institution in the southern parts of city due to agitation by teachers and students.

In the first incident, two groups of students clashed at Jaipuria College in north Kolkata, police said.

Jaipuria College Principal Dr Asok Mukhopadahyay, who left the premises before the clash reportedly took place, later told reporters he heard about the incident which happened late afternoon and will sit with all sides within a fortnight to arrive at a solution.

Eyewitnesses said two students suffered injuries in the clash but this was not corroborated by the college authorities.

One of the two students Abhijit Banerjee said, "We inquired if there was any misappropriation of money meant for publishing the college magazine and we were severely beaten up by the rival group."



Police said a force was sent to the spot and the situation was now under control.

In the other incident, teachers of Charuchandra College did not attend classes today in protest against prolonged gherao by a section of students on Saturday, one of the teachers said.

This triggered a counter demonstration by some students who demanded that the college lifts ban on entry of ex-students and improve facilities of the students' toilet, a spokesman of the TMCP union said.

Bimalshankar Nanda, one of the agitating teachers, said, "We hope normalcy will be restored soon. But the college authorities must prevent entry of outsiders to the campus to facilitate resumption of classes."



College Principal Dr Satrajit Ghosh was not available for comments.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
BJP president Amit Shah today ruled out joining the Narendra Modi government after being elected to the Rajya Sabha, saying he was "happy" handling the party affairs.

"The question does not arise," was his reply at a press conference here, after he was asked whether he would quit as party president and join the Modi cabinet after entering the Upper House.

Shah, who arrived on a three-day visit here on Saturday, answered a range of questions.

"I have the responsibility of running the party. I am happy, satisfied and am working wholeheartedly," he said.

The BJP chief exuded confidence that the party would retain power at the Centre in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls with more strength.

"The BJP will romp home victorious with a bigger strength than in 2014 on the basis of development and good governance of the Modi government as well as the 13 state governments of the party," he said.

Describing Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the "undisputed most popular PM" of India, Shah claimed that the saffron party's government had succeeded in "ending the politics of family, caste and appeasement" in the country.

"As per the 13th Finance Commission, during the Congress-led UPA regime, Uttar Pradesh's share in the central taxes was Rs 2,80,467 crore. This rose to Rs 7,10,966 crore in the 14th Finance Commission during the Modi government," he said.

Shah also claimed that the local bodies' grant, which was "merely Rs 523 crore during the UPA rule", saw an "unprecedented hike by almost 88 times" under the Modi government, which allocated Rs 46,026 crore in this regard.

"During the UPA regime (13th Finance Commission), UP got grants amounting to around Rs 24,000 crore. The Modi regime increased it to Rs 48,000 crore. For the central schemes, Rs 1,39,052 crore has been made available to the state as an additional assistance," he said.

Shah claimed that if all the assistance extended to UP were summed up, then it would be "2.3 times" more under the Modi government than what was given during the UPA regime.

Alleging that the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government suffered from "policy paralysis", he said, "Every minister assumed himself to be the PM and no one considered him (Singh) the PM."



Shah also claimed that unlike the previous governments, which had "only a couple of things" to show as achievements, the Modi government had undertaken "50 important works" during its three-year rule so far.

Alleging that there were scams worth Rs 12 lakh crore during the 10-year UPA rule, he said there was "not even a single corruption allegation" against the Modi regime.

"Even the opposition could not cast any aspersion in this regard," said Shah.

The BJP chief claimed that the Army's surgical strikes across the Line of Control (LoC) last year had projected the country as "one with a firm resolve, which can take any decision for its security," in the global arena.

Referring to the Congress shifting its Gujarat MLAs to Bengaluru reportedly to ward off "poaching", he said, "I could have understood if they were kept in a locked room in Gujarat itself. But why Bengaluru, is beyond my understanding."



Asked about the BJP not being as strong in the south compared to the north, Shah played it down saying, "This was earlier said about our presence in the north as well."



To a question on the National Investigation Agency (NIA) blaming cross-border trade for terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP chief said the matter did not come within the ambit of the BJP and the Army, security agencies and the government of that state would be able to answer it.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
BEIJING (Reuters) - China will bolster efforts to stabilise and improve the trajectory of its economy, state radio on Monday quoted Premier Li Keqiang as saying.

Li also asked China's telecom companies, including China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, to keep cutting internet fees while raising internet speed, it added.

(Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Mayank Bhardwaj

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Two Indian states have asked cotton farmers to step up pesticide sprays to ward off potential harmful bug attacks as dry weather conditions in some parts of the country risk triggering infestations of pests like plant-eating whitefly.

Despite plentiful rains in most parts of the country, monsoon has been patchy in some areas of Punjab and Maharashtra, prompting the two state governments to initiate steps to stop pest attacks.

"We are a little concerned because of deficient rains in about six districts of the state and that's why we have reached out to farmers to help fight pest attacks, if any," Balwinder Singh Sidhu, Punjab's agriculture commissioner, told in a telephone interview.

The Punjab government will ensure that farmers get to spray extra rounds of pesticides to avoid any infestation, Sidhu said.

Cotton output has jumped fourfold since India allowed the genetically modified (GM) variety in 2002, transforming the country into the world's top producer and second-largest exporter of the fibre. Monsanto's lab-grown seeds yield nearly all of the cotton produced in India.

India grows cotton on 11-12 million hectares and is likely to have harvested 33.63 million bales (1 Indian bale = 170 kg) in the 2016/17 season that started on Oct. 1, slightly down from 33.78 million bales a year earlier, according to the Cotton Association of India.

While Punjab is not a major producer of cotton, Maharashtra is the second-biggest grower of the fibre.

The Maharashtra state administration has asked farmers in the Vidarbha and Marathwada regions to be vigilant for the next 8-10 days, when the crop is vulnerable to pest infestations, said an official at the agriculture ministry. The official declined to be identified as he was not authorised to talk to media.

Whitefly pests hit cotton crops in Punjab and neighbouring Haryana state in 2015, when India suffered back-to-back drought years for only the fourth time in over a century.

(Additional reporting by Rajendra Jadhav in MUMBAI; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Flying warehouses, robot receptionists, smart toilets do such innovations sound like science fiction or part of a possible reality? has been evolving at such a rapid pace that, in the near future, our world may well resemble that portrayed in futuristic movies, such as Blade Runner, with intelligent robots and technologies all around us.

But what technologies will actually make a difference? Based on recent advancements and current trends, here are five innovations that really could shape the future.
Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi has suggested legalising marijuana, a psychoactive drug, in India for medical purposes on the lines of the practice adopted by some developed countries like the US to curb drug abuse.

The suggestion was made by Gandhi at a meeting of a group of ministers (GOM), which examined the draft cabinet note National Drug Demand Reduction Policy, according to the minutes of the second meeting, a copy of which is with PTI.

The GoM approved the draft national policy with minor modifications suggested in the meeting.

Gandhi informed that in "some of the developed countries like the US, marijuana has been legalised which ultimately results in less drug abuse".

She said that "the possibility of the same maybe explored in India", as per the document.

When asked to elaborate, Gandhi told PTI that "marijuana should be legalised for medical purposes, especially as it serves a purpose in cancer".

During the meeting of the GoM, which was chaired by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Gandhi also stressed on the need for regulating the sale and availability of pharmaceutical drugs such as codeine cough syrups and inhalants among others which are being abused.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has directed the GoM to examine the draft policy for drug demand reduction which seeks to address the problem of drug and substance abuse in the country.

Referring to the national survey on drug abuse, conducted by the Ministry of Social Justice in collaboration with AIIMS, which covers students, transgenders and sex workers among others, Gandhi said children especially those living in and around major railway stations should also be covered.

She also suggested exploring the possibility of setting up de-addiction centres near these railway stations.

On the issue of legalising drugs in the country, the Social Justice and Empowerment Secretary G Latha Krishna Rao said "it may not be appropriate to legalise such drugs" in view of the large population and low level of literacy in the country and added that the possibility could be explored in future.

As per the document, Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers Ananth Kumar observed that drugs were easily available outside schools and colleges and said that an action plan needs to be drawn to create awareness and sensitise students against drug abuse in schools, colleges and universities.

Singh, who is also the minister of parliamentary affairs, said that the role of home ministry should also be well defined in the proposed policy.

The GoM also recommended the projected budget estimate of Rs 125 crore annually for implementation of the policy.

In an earlier meeting, the GoM had proposed preparing an action plan for controlling over the counter sale of sedatives, pain killers, muscle relaxants among others and preparing treatment modules for different age groups, including the subject of treatment of drug addicts as part of MBBS curriculum.

It also sought setting up of de-addiction centres in all prisons, juvenile homes, factories and industries.
Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said on Saturday the Model 3 had over half a million advance reservations as he handed over the first 30 to employee buyers, setting the stage for the biggest test yet of the company's strategy to become a profitable, mass market electric car maker.

Outside Tesla's Fremont, California factory, Musk showed off the $35,000 base vehicle with a range of 220 miles (350 km) on a charge that marks a departure from the company's earlier luxury electric cars.

Musk took to the stage driving a red Model 3, and said Tesla has produced 50 of the vehicles so far, including 20 for testing purposes. Hours before the event, Musk acknowledged it would be "quite a challenge" to build the car during the early days of production.

"We're going to go through at least six months of manufacturing hell," said Musk. The over half a million reservations are up from about 373,000 disclosed in April 2016. Customers pay $1,000 refundable deposits for the car, which is eligible for tax credits.

Any new buyers would likely not receive their car until the end of 2018, Musk said. A longer-range version of the car is priced at $44,000 and will drive 500 km on a single charge. The cars feature a streamlined dashboard devoid of buttons.


Idea Cellular and Vodafone are joining hands to give Reliance Jio a tough fight in the ongoing tariff war, and also in the 4G phone market. The feature phone market rekindled after a decade of inactivity when Mukesh Ambani launched the cheapest 4G feature phone, which the company claimed would offer the buyer unlimited voice calls.

Idea seems to have realized the potential of this market too and has indicated that it will be launching a new phone which will be the cheapest 4G smartphone. Unlike the JioPhone, this device will be able to download popular applications like Facebook, WhatsApp and Google.

According to a Mail Today report, Himanshu Kapania, the managing director of Idea Cellular Limited, the JioPhone does not seem to cater to the internet savvy generation. He explained, "while clearly it has an appeal for customers with voice usage, what appeal does it have for customers who have an Internet requirement; we will have to wait to see."

Other than that, the company also raised issues about net neutrality with the introduction of the JioPhone. The company claims that though the device they'll launch will be priced slightly higher (approx Rs 2,500), it will give the user freedom of choice to go with any network provider apart from giving access to download third party applications like Google, Facebook and WhatsApp.

According to Kapania, the company will not subsidise the phone. He also said that Aditya Birla Group company was working with handset makers to launch this phone.

Earlier this month, Reliance Industries Limited chairman Mukesh Ambani announced the 4G VoLTE feature JioPhone at an effective price of Rs Zero. However, customers first have to pay a security of Rs 1500, which will be fully refundable after three years.

Unveiling the 'India ka Smartphone', Ambani said that the launch of JioPhone is a critical element in bridging the divide between digital India.

JioPhone which will be launched for testing on 15 August, will be open for pre-booking from August 24 and will be commercially available by September this year.


The Chinese dragon is set to tighten its grip on the fast-growing Indian mobile phone market with two new smartphone brands, Comio and Infinix , set to make their debut in the coming days.

Comio from China's Topwise Communications will launch a smartphone on August 18, while the first smartphones from Hong Kong-based Infinix are being teased on Flipkart. As the influx of Chinese brands together captured a dominant 51 per cent of the Indian smartphone market, the share of Indian brands has more than halved to around 15 per cent over a year-and-a half, according to data from Counterpoint and ICD.

Chinese phone maker Xiaomi has the second largest pie of the market share in April-June quarter of 2017 with 15.5 per cent. Others in the top five bracket are Vivo with 12.7 per cent, Oppo with 9.6 per cent and Lenovo with 6.8 per cent, according to Counterpoint Research.

Chinese brand Gionee, which has been trying to break into the top five league, claimed they have amassed a 1.25 crore base over five years. "In India, we operate, make and sell products in the price band of Rs 8,000- Rs 25,000, a segment that is experiencing maximum growth over the years," said Gionee India director (business intelligence & planning) Alok Shrivastava. He claimed their recently launched A1 Plus clocked 74,682 pre-orders worth Rs 150 crore in 10 days. The brand owns nearly six per cent of the market share, he added.

ICD senior market analyst Jaipal Singh said, "Indian vendors' response to 4G technology has been very slow. Even when Reliance came with 4G, Indian brands had a very heavy 3G portfolio. Chinese models have been quick with adopting the technology from the beginning." Also, Chinese brands like Oppo and Vivo have a lot of cash to spend on marketing and distribution, which Indian brands don't, he explained. "The third factor is the product itself. China's background in manufacturing gives their brands an edge in working with huge volumes. So, they are able to offer devices at competitive prices with effective quality," said Singh.

Gionee's Shrivastava said they have designed their phones focusing on the selfie camera feature and long battery lives. These are the needs of the Indian customer today, he summed up. The brand is planning to set up an assembling unit in Faridabad with a capacity of 30 million units. Singh says the sheer size of India offers a huge opportunity for foreign brands. Of the 1.2 billion population, only 300 million Indians are estimated to own smartphones. However, the country is expected to become the second largest smartphone market by the end of 2017.

"China's domestic market, on the other hand, is saturated as 90 per cent of their population already owns smartphones," says Singh. Every vendor wants to be here, he adds. Optiemus Infracom, the brand that will sell and distribute Canada's BlackBerry devices, is set to launch a new smartphone on August 1. HMD Global will also launch an Android-based Nokia smartphone on August 16, pivoting from the brand's Windows-based phones.

Korean brand Samsung is still India's top selling brand. However, its market share fell to 24.1 per cent in the June quarter of 2017 compared to 25.6 per cent year-on-year, according to Counterpoint.


This past Thursday, lawmakers, members of the media and members of USTAR (which stands for Utah Science, Technology and Research) paid a visit to the Innovation Campus at Utah State University to see some of the ground-breaking technology as applied to batteries, autonomous vehicles and a 20-seat electric bus that charges itself wirelessly through tracks embedded in the roadway.

While not yet available commercially, many lawmakers are hoping that the state can move entrepreneurs to harness some of this new research and do something with it. On KVNUs For the People program on Friday, USTAR managing director Brian Somers said the bus was really amazing.

You could have a bus that could charge itself and do some continuous loops around a given area without having to stop and recharge. It also allows you to have smaller battery packs on the bus which reduces weight and other things. So its a really promising and interesting technology that we were able to witness, Somers said.

He said the bus has great acceleration and no emissions. Somers explained that USTAR has a very unique mission as a state economic development agency. Its purpose is to maintain a healthy technology eco-system within the state of Utah and to assist in developing, commercially, many of the technologies that are being tested and researched at institutions such as Utah State University.

You can find out more at <a href=http://www.ustar.org target=_blank>www.ustar.org</a> and <a href=http://innovation.usu.edu target=_blank>innovation.usu.edu</a>.
Tian Guoli (left) is named to head China Construction Bank. Chen Siqing (right) will succeed Tian as Bank of China chairman and party head. Photo: Visual China.

(Beijing)  State-owned China Construction Bank (CCB), the countrys second-largest lender, nominated Tian Guoli as its new chairman.

Tian, current head of the smaller Bank of China, was named party secretary of the CCB by the Communist Partys organization department, which oversees the appointment of government officials and state company executives, in a Monday meeting with senior CCB executives, sources close to the bank told Caixin.

Tian, 57, will replace Wang Hongzhang, chairman and party head of CCB since 2011. Wang, 63, has reached the required retirement age. In a separate meeting at BOC the same day, party officials appointed Chen Siqing, the banks president, to succeed Tian as BOC chairman and party head.

Top management changes at Chinas big state-owned banks and other major state companies normally require approval by the top leadership of the party.

Tian and Chen are among the 44 delegates elected by financial regulators, state-owned banks and insurers to this autumns 19th Party Congress, where they will help choose the Communist Partys leadership for the next term.

Tian and Chens nominations need to be approved by the banks boards. CCB and BOC are dual-listed in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

People who know Tian described him as capable, courageous and willing to make innovative moves. He has a reputation for strategic and international vision.

With his appointment as CCB chief, Tian returns to the bank after almost 20 years. Tian started his career at the bank in 1983 after earning a bachelors degree in economics and rose to assistant governor in 1997.

Tian left CCB in 1999 to help establish China Cinda Asset Management Co., one of Chinas four state-owned bad-asset managers set up to take over distressed loans from big state banks.

Tian took the helm of BOC in 2013 after three years as general manager of the state-backed conglomerate CITIC Group and chairman of the subsidiary CITIC Bank.

Chen, 57, joined BOC in 1990 and has specialized in risk management and bad loan disposal. He was named the banks president in 2014.

As of March 31, CCB had total asset of 21.7 trillion yuan, up 3.5% from the same time last year. The banks bad loans stood at 184.5 billion yuan, with a ratio of bad loans to assets of 1.52%.

BOC had 18.9 trillion yuan in total assets at the end of March with a bad loans ratio of 1.45%, the banks financial reports show.

Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com)
| BY Lynchy |

The campaign brings to life some of the ridiculous lengths real people have gone to to show their love for the iced coffee brand in a 90-second commercial. The spot features a ragtag chorus of Farmers Union Iced Coffee fans, (some of which are the real people) reworking the 80s classic love song, Nothings gonna change my love for you, written by George Benson.
| BY Ricki Green |

Further cementing its position as an innovator in the Australian out-of-home industry, Adshel has announced that Steve Geelan (pictured) will be heading up the future of automated out-of-home trading at the company.

With over 20 years experience, Geelan has worked across the fields of digital media, out-of-home innovation and automated trading. Geelans newly created national role will be focused on owning and developing the automation function in the front end of the business: allowing transactions, campaign planning, and content delivery to take advantage of the technology that now exists in out-of-home.

Geelan will be involved in the development and strategy of Adshels digital and data products, working closely with the product marketing, commercial, sales, systems, digital operations and audience intelligence teams at Adshel. From an External stakeholder point of view Geelan will primarily deal with agency programmatic trading desks, adtech companies and agency digital teams, as he helps create the new advertising eco-system that is automated out-of-home advertising.

Having previously worked for Adshel, Geelan has held positions as manager of the airport division for EyeCorp, commercial director at Mi9 and more recently as general manager at Site Tour, the SaaS location targeting offering for both sales and buying sides of the out-of-home industry.

Adshel is excited by Geelans start and even more so about the future of automated trading.

Says David Roddick, sales and marketing director, Adshel: Steves appointment reflects the strength of our business as a leader and innovator in the out-of-home market and our commitment to driving continued growth by leveraging new technologies to benefit our business and that of our clients and partners.

Steve will play a major role in shaping our digital future as he helps create the new automated out-of-home advertising ecosystem. He is certain to be a valuable asset to our growing business.
| BY Ricki Green |

The Australian commercial radio industry today unveiled a new brand positioning and identity via Joy, to underline radios strength as a dynamic, innovative and multiplatform medium.

The Radio Alive brand and logo will be used across the industry to reset perceptions about radio and highlight its broad ever-expanding reach and influence across broadcasting, online, social, mobile apps, podcasting and live events.

Commercial Radio Australia chief executive officer Joan Warner said creative agency Joy had been appointed to develop the new brand identity and launch campaign.

Says Warner: We recognise theres a need to refresh the way the advertising industry thinks about radio.

We are often perceived as a traditional analogue medium, when in reality radio is, and always has been, highly-adaptive. Radio now brings brands to life across multiple consumer touch points.

The new marketing campaign will be officially launched at the annual conference in Melbourne on October 13, which has been renamed Radio Alive 2017.

The Radio Alive platform follows the Radio. Its a Love Thing campaign that has been running since 2014 and has successfully promoted the strong emotional connection between radio and its listeners.

The new campaign is aimed at increasing advertising revenue for commercial radio at a time of intense competition from international competitors.

Says Andrew Wynne, principal, Joy: The Radio Alive brand reflects how radio is alive with talent, ideas and energy.
| BY Ricki Green |

Clemenger BBDO Melbourne and Carlton United Breweries have launched a new brand campaign for Carlton Dry, called Underthink It.

Based on the insight that our increasingly busy and complicated lives have resulted in a tendency to overthink the little things  from what to wear, what food to order, even which beer to drink  Carlton Dry hopes to stop beer lovers from sweating the small stuff and get back to having fun.

To do this the campaign introduces the Underthink Tank, a crack team of Underthinkers who solve lifes most overthought problems, including what to order on a menu, what to do if you forget someones name and whether to give someone a handshake or a hug, all from within a giant, keg shaped headquarters.

Says Evan Roberts, executive creative director, Clemenger BBDO, Melbourne: In this increasingly complicated world, Carlton Dry offers us simplicity. Smooth, refreshing simplicity.

Says Paul Reason, head of contemporary brands at Carlton United Breweries: We havent had a big communication campaign on Carlton Dry for a few years. We are very excited to bring Underthink It to the market because we think it is highly relevant & will resonate strongly with our target audience.

The campaign launches with multiple 30 and 15 TVCs. It also extends across radio, social, on-premise and festival activity, plus a national consumer promotion in partnership with Shazam.

Agency: Clemenger BBDO Melbourne

Creative Chairman: James McGrath

Executive Creative Director: Evan Roberts, Stephen de Wolf

Senior Creatives: Adam Barnes, Jonty Bell, Nick Jamieson

Shopper Creative Lead: Nick Jamieson

Executive Producer: Sonia Von Bibra

Senior Producers: Lauren Anderson and Lisa Moro

Group Account Director: Adam Kennedy

Project Director: Alicia Lowndes

Project Manager: Caroline Scott

Business Manager: Luke Slater

Planning Director: Mike Derepas

Digital Planning Director: Neville Doyle

Production Company: FINCH

Director: Alex Roberts

Managing Director/EP: Corey Esse

Producer: Kate Merrin

DOP: Matt Toll

Prod Designer: Lucinda Thomson

Editor: Michael Houlahan

Colourist: Martin Greer

Online: Jamie Scott

Post House: The Institute of Post Production & FINCH VFX

Sound House: Flagstaff Studios

Sound Engineer: Paul Le Couteur

Client: Carlton United Breweries

VP Marketing: Richard Oppy

Head of Contemporary Brands: Paul Reason
| BY Ricki Green |

This weekend, Hollywood producer, Dana Brunetti (The Social Network, House of Cards, Captain Phillips) announced the winners of his Jameson First Shot competition.

From thousands of entries from all around the world, three winners were selected  and they include Glue Society fellow, Alice Cogin from Australia.

Ollie Wolf from London, Jason Manella from Ontario, and Alice will all be flown to L.A. to shoot their original short ideas, each 15 minutes, with a full Hollywood crew over the next three weeks. The final three short films will premiere at a November gala in the USA.

As in previous years, a Hollywood star is chosen to appear in each of the three films.

This year Dominic West (The Wire, The Affair, Appropriate Adult) will feature in each of the short films, which he and Brunetti chose from thousands of entries from around the world.

Says Brunetti: Ive been involved in Jameson First Shot since the beginning and Im always amazed at the quality of the scripts that we have the opportunity to read. Ive been proud of every one of the 15 films that weve made, and I cant wait to get started on the next three  the scripts from Ollie, Alice and Jason are incredible.

Says West: I think that the people that have been involved in Jameson First Shot speaks volumes for how necessary a platform like this is. Each of their stories are going to challenge me, as theyve created characters that are very different to any that Ive played before.
| BY Lynchy |

Omnicom Media Group has appointed Kelly Huang as CEO of Omnicom Media Group Taiwan. Kelly replaces Elle Huang, who has resigned from her role as CEO after more than 7 years of service with the group. Huang joins from MEC Taiwan where she was the Managing Director and drove the agency to be No. 1 RECMA ranked agency in Taiwan on the back of building a strong reputation for creativity and effectiveness, particularly within the digital landscape.

Huang will lead Omnicom Media Group Taiwan with a mission to continue the digital transformation of the network and adding best-in-class technology and data analytics to leverage the opportunities of an everchanging marketplace. Both OMD and PHD will be reporting to her.

Doug Pearce, CEO, Omnicom Media Group Greater China said, Kelly knows the Taiwan market very well and fully understands the expectations of clients and the need for enhancing strategic, digital and data capabilities to drive higher levels of performance for our clients businesses. We are fortunate that our network has the reputation, teams and clients in place to be able to attract a leader of Kellys calibre.

Elle has demonstrated outstanding leadership and played an instrumental role in Omnicom Media Group Taiwans success over the years. We are thankful for her leadership and wish her the best for the future, he added.

Commenting on Huangs appointment, Cheuk Chiang, CEO, Omnicom Media Group APAC said, We are delighted to have Kelly join us to lead our Taiwan operations. An industry leader with a proven track record of success of taking an agency to a market leadership position, Kelly will ensure that we continue to deliver our objective of being the very best we can be across all our operations. Kellys passion for innovation, creativity and building high performance teams will be an asset and I am delighted to welcome her to the network.

When asked about her appointment, Huang said, I was attracted by the opportunity to lead the OMG network, and continue the transformation of its business to maximize the potential of the Taiwan market place. I am thrilled to be a part of OMG, and look forward to working with its talent and clients to take the business to the next stage of growth and development and creating a proactive, productive and energetic next chapter.
Both Unions ACT and the government have previously said the arrangement - in which the government provides Unions ACT with a list of companies which have tendered for a job - ensured companies which had breached work safety laws or had been found to have treated their workers unfairly did not receive taxpayer-funded work.
The title has a double meaning: in addition to the sense of community that's slowly being fostered among the characters, there's also a Neighbourhood Watch meeting being convened by one of them, Laura (Loren Kalis). Blackhurst says that attending it is part of the process that helps bring Catherine out of herself and breaks down her sense of isolation.
"I have no way to prove it," she says. "But he met with the then head librarian Harold White in 1969 and White said the library would be very interested in his papers if he ever wanted to give them to Australia."
Brenden Scott French, now based in Adelaide, is well known in Canberra. After obtaining his initial degree at the Sydney College of the Arts, his honours year was completed at the Canberra School of Art in 2003. He has had several residencies at the Canberra Glassworks and his work has been exhibited here as a finalist in the Ranamok prize exhibitions. His last solo exhibition at the Beaver Galleries was in 2012. As with most glass artists, he has been peripatetic, taking up several residencies abroad including a residency at the Northlands Glass Centre in Scotland. In 2001 he was the recipient of the prestigious Lino Tagliapietra International scholarship that enables artists to study at the Pilchuck Glass School in Seattle. His recent residency at Western Ridge in the Barossa Valley in South Australia has given rise to this latest and most varied body of work.
Hepatitis ACT chief John Didlick said the official World Health Organisation day this year was focussed on "elimination" of Hepatitis globally and the time had finally come where there was now a global, national and local strategy to help eliminate the liver-destroying disease.
Robyn Nolan is president of the National Council of Women in WA and she's also the former federal president of the Liberal Women's Committee and of the Liberal Women's Council in WA. Nolan is a reasonably circumspect person and diplomatic as is humanly possible  as you would have to be to get as far as she has in the Liberal Party  but she has some strong opinions on this and she's happy to share them.
Millennial Moms Review: 2022 Acura MDX is pretty close to the perfect family car

I dont know if perfect is attainable, especially considering weve got the world of options when it comes to modern vehicles. Were spoiled and, as such, we have very specific needs and wants. Driving-wise, the 2022 Acura MDX is one of my favourite ...
Just as Toyota Motor Philippines updated the specs of the Hilux pickup truck , theyve done the same for the Fortuner as well.
Photo: Contributed

I feel bullied.

There, Ive said it.

I feel bullied as I walk around Summerland and get involved in timely and topical discussions because I favour the Banks Crescent condominium development proposal.

This is a problem because it restrains free and thoughtful discussions. And its a problem because the vocal minority in Summerland, those opposed to the Banks Crescent development, have intimidated many people to the point where they steer clear of any discussions surrounding it.

That then clears the way for the people opposed to the proposal to win the day, despite a quiet majority of voters who believe it just isnt worth the fight.

But theres one important reason why we should speak up. Taxes.

None of us likes to pay more than we need to in taxes. The Banks Crescent development has great potential to ease the pressure on the citys available funds, and therefore the future tax burden on every citizen.

The expected injection of tax money, worth about $450,000, is nothing to sneeze at.

Theres other money too, in development charges, jobs and a non-profit care provider to manage the project that has said it would donate 10 per cent of its proceeds to local projects.

And what do we, as residents have to give up in exchange? Well, if you stop and think about it, not too much at all.

For those who dont know, a 404-unit condominium proposal by the Lark Group is planned for the Bristow Valley, just above the Summerland Trout Hatchery, where a small orchard now operates.

But the way some opponents present it, youd think Lark and city council have proposed opening up the pits of hell.

Its time to stop the over-the-top rhetoric. We all need to calm down and take time to think honestly about what the proposed development will mean to our lives.

For the most part, were talking about a slightly less attractive view of the lake, although the marina and the water would will remain visible for most people. It will also mean a few extra cars each week, probably not even enough to notice unless youre standing outside with clicker, tabulating each as it passes.

Ive recently read in the newspaper about one woman who was so distraught about the development that she was physically sick and couldnt sleep.

This is the sad truth about where inflammatory comments intended to elicit fear lead.

None of us wants to see this happening in our community.

By any measure, the Banks Crescent development will not impact anybodys life in any significant manner.

Admittedly, the development will pose a small inconvenience, especially during construction, but the water will still be blue, the wind will still brace your face when you step out onto the deck in the morning, and the birds will still come around for the seeds and nuts.

Critics of the project like to say that developments like this belong near downtown. Sure, it could work very well downtown, but that doesnt prohibit it from going ahead down by the lake either.

A developer knows the value of being able to market condos that possess a lake view and those located closer to the lake, than units located downtown.

The downside of being located closer to the lake means that those who buy the new condos wont likely be able to walk up to the main part of downtown, but I dont see that as an issue.

I am not sure of how many residents that now live down on the slope in front of the lake ever walk to downtown, or why they think it necessary that others would need that convenience that they dont enjoy themselves.

Heres a news flash: Ninety per cent of all retirement condos ever built in the history of condo building are not positioned close enough to their communitys main shopping core to allow the retirees to walk to the amenities. Thats why we have taxis, and minivans and shuttle busses.

Besides, its actually not up to us to make that decision. It's up to would-be buyers to decide where they choose to live.

In the interest of cutting through the noise, lets outline the real issues:

No. 1: It is not a high-risk building plan that will slide down off the slopes into the lake as opponents claim. If you think that, then you have never visited Vancouver, San Francisco or Kelowna. Engineers do this all the time. If properly planned, regulated and inspected, the Banks Crescent development ought to be easy, peasy.

No. 2: Congested traffic isnt going to happen to any great degree. Lets face it, were not living in a huge metropolitan area with traffic jams and a maze of bridges to cross while we fight off thousands of other commuters. People who live in the area might see an extra few vehicles each day, but certainly not enough to warrant pulling the plug on the whole development.

No. 3: Solly Road can actually handle the cars and pedestrian traffic quite well, thank you. Ill admit the route needs sidewalks or at least marked off walking lanes along the sides of the road. Hey, lets negotiate that into a condition of approval.

No. 4: The Summerland Fish Hatchery wants protection for its groundwater source during the construction phase. (Its going to be fine when the buildings are complete.) I do see this as a legitimate beef. But surely it cant be that hard to accomplish.

As I see it, the hatchery can continue to use the underground spring it uses now and it will also have a contingency source drawn from Okanagan Lake paid for by the developer, which it never had before. It sounds like win-win to me.

There are more tests to carry out to make sure water drawn from Okanagan Lake doesnt carry a virus into the hatcherys fingerlings and to ensure water temperatures are correct, but surely that cant be a project killer? Surely, there exists somewhere in this universe a work-around solution in which both can co-exist.

Or does the hatchery have a principle it is fighting to preserve? It has become a key rallying cry for opponents of the Banks Crescent project, so if the hatchery has unvoiced philosophical opposition to the condo development, in addition to its technical issues, then it owes it to the citizens of Summerland to be as transparent about its reasons as possible.

For now, everybody owes it to the hatcherys leadership team to take them at their word.

No. 5. Not In My Backyard, NIMBY. I actually see this a legitimate complaint. If I lived somewhere near the slopes where the condo development is planned, I might be feeling a little downcast too. I can understand the preference to being able to sit on a deck that overlooks an orchard to one with a view of a condo. But unless we can afford to buy all the land surrounding our homes to protect our views from future developments, we dont get to decide. It is out of our hands. That is an unfortunate reality to life in any community.

No.6. We cant forever cling to the sleepy, little town mentality, even though we all love it and that is what attracted so many of us to live here. We need balance and we need to find ways to prosper without losing the core of what this community is about.

The Banks Crescent development is likely the best chance that will come our way for some time.

Terry Fries is a Summerland-based journalist, and communications consultant. He can be reached at [email protected]

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Photo: Facebook

A boater on the South Thompson River used his speedboat's rooster tail to help douse a spot fire over the weekend.

Facebook user Lorrie Jane posted video of the boater circling and revving his engine to send a huge spray of water onto the river bank, where a grass fire was not far away from homes.

Other boaters cheered as the jet boat driver hit his mark.

A fire truck and helicopter soon arrived to douse the flames.
Photo: Kate Bouey A crash occurred on Highway 97 northbound, just north of Vernon.

UPDATE: 12:45 p.m.

A driver heading southbound on Highway 97 north of Vernon is believed to have pulled a U-turn in the middle of the highway leading to a collision with a vehicle heading northbound, according to an official on the scene.

Two pickups were damaged when the crash occurred at the right turnoff lane to O'Keefe Ranch. One person was taken to hospital.

"Our main priority was to check out the occupants but one had left in an ambulance and the other (driver) had been cleared by BC Ambulance," said BX/Swan Lake Fire Captain Brett Stickles. "We made sure there was no fluid leaking from either vehicle that could have caused a hazard or fire."

ORIGINAL STORY: 12:09 p.m.

A two-vehicle crash on the north side of Highway 97 just past Swan Lake Nursery caused some traffic delays Monday.

BX/Swan Lake firefighters, the RCMP, the BC Ambulance Service and the highways department attended the scene after being called just after 11 a.m.

Two pickups were damaged in the crash which occurred at the start of the exit to O'Keefe Ranch.

At least one person was reported to be injured.

A flagger was allowing traffic through the scene but traffic was moving slowly.

The scene was cleared just before 12:30 p.m.
Photo: Darren Handschuh

An information meeting is set for tonight in Kamloops for evacuees from the Elephant Hill wildfire.

Doors open at 5 p.m., with the meeting at 6, at the Sagebrush Theatre, 1300 9th Ave.

Emergency Operations Centre spokesperson Debbie Sell said the Elephant Hill fire has impacted several communities in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, resulting in evacuations from Loon Lake, Clinton, 70 Mile House, South Green Lake and surrounding rural areas.

Representatives from the BC Wildfire Management Branch, RCMP, Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, TNRD, Interior Health, Emergency Management BC and Red Cross will be in attendance to provide information and answer questions.
Average retail gasoline prices in Chattanooga have risen 2.4 cents per gallon in the past week, averaging $2.01/g yesterday, according to GasBuddy's daily survey of 170 gas outlets in Chattanooga. This compares with the national average that has increased 3.5 cents per gallon in the last week to $2.31/g, according to gasoline price website GasBuddy.com.Including the change in gas prices in Chattanooga during the past week, prices yesterday were 26.6 cents per gallon higher than the same day one year ago and are 13.6 cents per gallon higher than a month ago.The national average has increased 8.3 cents per gallon during the last month and stands 18.2 cents per gallon higher than this day one year ago.According to GasBuddy historical data, gasoline prices on July 31 in Chattanooga have ranged widely over the last five years:$1.75/g in 2016, $2.26/g in 2015, $3.16/g in 2014, $3.33/g in 2013 and $3.22/g in 2012.Areas near Chattanooga and their current gas price climate:Knoxville- $2.04/g, up 5.4 cents per gallon from last week's $1.98/g.Tennessee- $2.06/g, up 2.4 cents per gallon from last week's $2.04/g.Huntsville- $2.01/g, up 0.7 cents per gallon from last week's $2.01/g."The upward climb at pumps across the country has largely continued as crude oil prices rallied and stand within striking distance of $50 per barrel, said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com. "The rise in oil has come due to unrest and concern over the political outlook in Venezuela, a major supplier of crude oil to the U.S., due as well to Saudi Arabia's export cut to six million barrels per day. Add on top of it U.S. oil inventories that have declined over 50 million barrels from March and you have a recipe for a continued rally in gasoline prices in much of the country. Watch for some volatility in oil and gasoline prices in the weeks ahead, especially with what's going on in Venezuela. August will likely feature the summer's highest gasoline prices."For LIVE fuel price averages, visit http://FuelInsights.GasBuddy. com
The development of hybrid materials is an emerging field in materials science. As the researcher explained, the interest in these materials stems from "the success in combining that stability of inorganic components with the versatility of organic components. Blending them causes the properties of both to be combined and even improved," she pointed out. "What is more, hybrid materials can be processed in the form of gels, films, fibres, particles or powders. There is virtually no limit on the combinations of organic and inorganic components to produce hybrid materials, which have a huge number of applications in medicine, microelectronics, sensors, optical systems, the automotive industry and decorative surface coatings.

Paula Moriones resorted to a process (known as sol-gel) that allows hybrid materials to be synthesised; this results in porous materials with properties controlled at ambient temperature, and leads to savings with respect to other processes. The synthesis of these hybrid materials has resulted in a xerogel, a gel in a dehydrated state without any liquid inside it.

Nanometric-sized pores

As the researcher confirmed, gel formation time and the properties of the materials obtained are influenced by the conditions for synthesising these materials and the proportion of the ones that are organic. So, for example, the materials can have smaller or not so small pores, although always in nanometric sizes. "Pore size is crucial in the applications of these materials, because they can, for example, be used for the controlled release of drugs," she pointed out.

The research by Paula Moriones, which included a stay at the University of Lisbon (Portugal), also yielded other results. "Some of the synthesised materials are highly hydrophobic and repel water. This property enables them to be used in the pharmaceutical industry as elements for selectively trapping other materials on their surfaces or retaining them, and in the glass industry as protective coatings," concluded the researcher.
In Q2 2017, Wacker Chemie AG achieved a slight increase in sales compared with the adjusted prior-year figure reflecting the deconsolidation of Siltronic and substantial growth in EBITDA versus Q1 2017. The Munich-based chemical company posted sales of 1,218.3 million in the reporting quarter (Q2 2016: 1,199.2 million). That was a gain of some 2 percent and matched the preceding quarters level of 1,218.8 million. One of the main reasons for the increase versus Q2 2016 was the fact that, on balance, volumes for silicones and polymer products were noticeably higher year over year. Positive exchange-rate effects also supported the sales trend. As a result, WACKER could more than compensate for prices, which were somewhat lower overall than a year ago

WACKER generated EBITDA of 253.4 million in Q2 2017. That was about 4 percent less than last year (265.0 million), but almost 11 percent more than a quarter ago (229.3 million). One of the main reasons for the year-over-year decline was the fact that raw-material prices were higher. On the other hand, high plant utilization rates strengthened EBITDA in the reporting quarter. The Groups EBITDA margin for Q2 2017 was 20.8 percent (Q2 2016: 22.1 percent). A quarter ago, it reached 18.8 percent. Group earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) amounted to 101.9 million in Q2 2017 (Q2 2016: 104.5 million), corresponding to an EBIT margin of 8.4 percent (Q2 2016: 8.7 percent). Net income for the reporting quarter amounted to 60.5 million (Q2 2016: 58.9 million) and earnings per share came in at 1.17 (Q2 2016: 1.15).

WACKER has raised its earnings forecast for full-year 2017. EBITDA is now expected to be between 900 million and 935 million. The upper figure corresponds to the prior years EBITDA adjusted for special in-come (935.2 million). The company had previously expected adjusted EBITDA to decline by a mid-single-digit percentage. This revision is due not only to the strength of chemical business, but also to the fact that income from the stake in Siltronic AG is taken into account and is likely to be higher than previously anticipated. Group sales are still expected to rise by a mid-single-digit percentage compared with last year (4,634.2 million).

After the first six months of the year, we remain firmly on track to achieve our full-year targets, said Group CEO Rudolf Staudigl in Munich on Friday. Customer demand remains high, especially for silicones, but also for polymer products. Given the very good order levels, we have once again revised upward our earnings forecast for WACKER SILICONES. We have made further progress in reducing our costs for the polysilicon business and are decisively continuing our work on productivity-enhancing measures and technical improvements. The focus of our investing activities remains on increasing our down-stream production capacities in our chemical business, which accounts for three-quarters of Group sales. In doing so, we are laying the foundation for WACKERs profitable growth in the years ahead.

Regions

In Q2 2017, Group sales edged up in every region. The biggest increase was in the Americas, where sales rose by some 4 percent to 214.2 million (Q2 2016: 207.0 million). Sales in Europe reached 506.0 million, up 1 percent over last years figure of 499.0 million. In Asia, sales reached 440.3 million (Q2 2016: 436.5 million), likewise an increase of 1 percent.

Capital Expenditures and Net Cash Flow

In Q2 2017, the Groups capital expenditures amounted to 74.8 million (Q2 2016: 65.4 million), up by around 14 percent year over year. Investments went primarily toward expanding capacity for silicone and polymer products. Net cash flow from continuing operations amounted to 93.9 million in Q2 2017 (Q2 2016: 120.8 million).

Employees

WACKERs global workforce edged up in the reporting quarter. The Group had 13,689 employees as of June 30, 2017 (March 31, 2017: 13,594). At the end of the reporting quarter, 9,887 employees (March 31, 2017: 9,875) worked at WACKER sites in Germany and 3,802 (March 31, 2017: 3,719) at international locations.

Business Divisions

WACKER SILICONES generated total sales of 548.7 million in Q2 2017 (Q2 2016: 514.4 million), a rise of around 7 percent. Volume growth was the main reason for this increase. Compared with a quarter ago (555.6 million), the divisions sales were down 1 percent, primarily because the reporting quarter had fewer working days than Q1 2017. EBITDA at WACKER SILICONES reached 110.8 million in the reporting quarter, 18 percent higher than a year ago (93.7 million). In addition to sales growth, product-mix effects and high production output supported profitability. WACKER SILICONES exceeded its prior-quarter figure (107.4 million) by 3 percent. The EBITDA margin improved to 20.2 percent in Q2 2017, after 18.2 percent in Q2 2016 and 19.3 percent in the preceding quarter.

In the reporting quarter, sales at WACKER POLYMERS totaled 335.3 million, 3 percent higher than the year-earlier figure (325.7 million) and 9 percent above the preceding quarter (306.8 million). The main driver of this growth was higher volumes both year over year and quarter over quarter. The divisions Q2 2017 EBITDA amounted to 62.4 million (Q2 2016: 78.2 million). This decline of 20 percent was mainly caused by a substantial year-over-year increase in raw-material prices. The division announced price rises to counter this development. Compared with the preceding quarter (52.3 million), EBITDA grew by more than 19 percent as a result of higher sales and capacity utilization. The reporting-quarter EBITDA margin was 18.6 percent, after 24.0 percent a year earlier and 17.0 percent a quarter ago.

WACKER BIOSOLUTIONS posted total sales of 51.4 million in Q2 2017, 3 percent less than a year ago (53.2 million). This decline was chiefly due to somewhat lower year-over-year prices in certain product segments and marginally lower total volumes. Relative to the preceding quarter (51.4 million), the divisions sales were almost unchanged. WACKER BIOSOLUTIONS reporting-quarter EBITDA of 9.1 million was 1 percent above the year-earlier figure (9.0 million) and 14 percent below the preceding quarter (10.6 million). Product-mix effects and low utilization rates at certain production plants contributed to the quarter-over-quarter decrease. The EBITDA margin came in at 17.7 percent, after 16.9 percent a year ago and 20.6 percent in Q1 2017.

WACKER POLYSILICON generated total sales of 246.7 million in the reporting quarter. That was 9 percent down from the year-earlier figure (272.2 million) and around 8 percent less than a quarter ago (268.1 million). The decline was mainly due to polysilicon prices, which were lower both year over year and quarter over quarter. Volumes expanded noticeably during the reporting quarter. WACKER POLYSILICONs EBITDA in the quarter under review came in at 71.3 million, compared with 77.7 million last year. That was a decrease of 8 percent and was on a par with the preceding quarters level (70.5 million). Several factors impacted year-over-year EBITDA performance in different ways. Alongside lower polysilicon prices, EBITDA was influenced not only by last years special income from advance payments retained and damages received from solar-sector customers, but also by cost developments, including the start-up of the Charleston site, and by product-mix effects. Compared with the preceding quarter, the division made up for the decline in polysilicon prices by achieving cost reductions with the help of productivity-enhancing measures and technical improvements. The divisions EBITDA margin was 28.9 percent in the reporting quarter, after 28.5 percent in Q2 2016 and 26.3 percent in Q1 2017.

Outlook

In Q1 2017, WACKER reduced its stake in Siltronic AG to 30.8 percent. As stipulated by IFRS 5 (Non-Current Assets Held for Sale and Discontinued Operations), WACKER is retrospectively reporting the net income of Siltronic AG and its subsidiaries for 2016 as income from discontinued operations. Since March 15, 2017, WACKERs stake in Siltronic has been accounted for using the equity method.

This has not caused any changes to division-specific expectations versus the corresponding statements in the 2016 Annual Report. On publication of our Q1 2017 Interim Report, though, the Group revised upward its expectations for WACKER SILICONES, given the strong demand for its silicone products.

In the current Interim Report, the company is once again revising up-ward its earnings forecast for WACKER SILICONES. Given the good business conditions, full-year EBITDA is now expected to grow some-what more strongly than sales (Q1 2017 Interim Report: sales and EBITDA to grow by a high single-digit percentage). At the same time, WACKER is raising its forecast at the Group level and expects full-year EBITDA to amount to between 900 million and 935 million (Q1 2017 Interim Report: mid-single-digit percentage decline on a comparable basis, excluding special income). The upper figure corresponds to the prior years EBITDA adjusted for special income. This revision is due not only to the strength of chemical business, but also to the fact that income from the stake in Siltronic AG is taken into account and is likely to be higher than previously anticipated.

The projection for WACKERs key financial performance indicators for full-year 2017  based on the adjusted 2016 figures  is as follows:
Clariant delivered excellent top-line growth and further expansion in profitability in the first half of the year, said CEO Hariolf Kottmann. Our good business performance was primarily achieved by the recovery in Catalysis and the ongoing impact of the differentiated steering in Plastics & Coatings. For 2017, we are confident that we will achieve our targets, i.e. growth in local currency, progression in operating cash flow, absolute EBITDA and EBITDA margin before exceptional items in spite of a temporarily weaker cash flow in the first half.

First Half 2017  Significantly higher sales and continued improvement in absolute EBITDA

Clariant announced first half 2017 sales of CHF 3.132 billion compared to CHF 2.899 billion in 2016. This corresponds to 9 % growth in local currency driven by double-digit expansion in Catalysis and Natural Resources. Organic growth amounted to 5 %, driven by higher volumes.

Growth was most pronounced in Europe, Asia and North America. Sales in Europe rose by 8 % while the 11 % advance in Asia was supported by the strong sales development in China. Sales in North America increased by 14 %. Latin American sales were 3 % lower against a strong comparable base and also reflect the macroeconomic environment which remains challenging.

Care Chemicals and Catalysis both reported strong expansion. Sales in Care Chemicals rose by 8 % in local currency helped in particular by the Industrial Application business. Catalysis sales improved by 11 %, supported by organic growth of 6 %.

Natural Resources sales soared by 19 %, lifted mainly by the Kel-Tech and X-Chem acquisitions in North America in 2016. Underlying sales in Natural Resources improved likewise, driven by the solid growth in Functional Minerals. In Plastics & Coatings, sales grew by 4 % with continuing strong sales expansion in Additives as well as in China.

EBITDA before exceptional items increased by 9 % in Swiss francs and reached CHF 482 million, compared to CHF 444 million in the previous year. The absolute profitability improvement was mainly attributable to the positive developments in Catalysis and Plastics & Coatings.

The corresponding 15.4 % EBITDA margin before exceptional items increased due to the continued realisation of benefits from the differentiated steering in Plastics & Coatings and the improvement in Catalysis partly supported by the full consolidation of the Sud-Chemie India Pvt Ltd. joint venture.

Net income soared by 20 % in Swiss francs to CHF 153 million from CHF 128 million in the previous year. This expansion was supported by the improvement in absolute EBITDA before exceptional items as well as lower finance costs.

Operating cash flow decreased to CHF 116 million against a strong comparable base of CHF 208 million in the previous year. Good growth dynamics in June and the expected favourable demand in the coming quarters led to higher net working capital. This factor together with changes in other current assets and liabilities offset the positive influence of the EBITDA improvement.

Net debt increased slightly to CHF 1.584 billion from CHF 1.540 billion recorded at year-end 2016. This development reflects the usual seasonal increase seen in the first half of the year.

Second Quarter 2017  Further progress in sales and profitability

In the second quarter of 2017, sales rose by 8 % in local currency to CHF 1.530 billion. Underlying sales growth excluding acquisition effects and the full consolidation of the Sud-Chemie India Pvt Ltd. joint venture was 4 % in local currency. This progress was driven by higher volumes.

On a regional level, sales growth was led by North America at 18 % in local currency. Excluding acquisitions, sales in North America developed slightly positively. In Asia, sales in local currency grew by 10 % with a continuing strong development in China. Sales in Europe grew by 5 % and in the Middle East & Africa by 16 % in local currency. Latin America was impacted by the weak economic environment and declined by 2 % against a strong comparable base.

Sales in Care Chemicals grew by 8 % in local currency driven by higher volumes. Catalysis sales grew by a strong 20 %, 11 % of which was organic. Natural Resources sales soared by 22 % with organic growth of 5 %. Plastics & Coatings improved by 1 % despite a strong comparable base as the robust Additives sales offset a flattish development in Pigments.

EBITDA before exceptional items rose by 8 % in Swiss francs to CHF 232 million primarily lifted by the strong contribution from Catalysis and Plastic & Coatings, which could more than offset the temporarily lower margins in Care Chemicals and Natural Resources. As a result, the EBITDA margin before exceptional items on Group level increased further to 15.2 % from 15.1 % in the previous year.

Outlook 2017  Continued progression in profitability and operating cash flow generation

Clariant expects the uncertain environment, characterised by a high volatility in commodity prices, currencies as well as political uncertainties, to continue. In emerging markets, we anticipate the economic environment to remain challenging and volatile; we expect moderate growth in the United States, while growth in Europe is expected to remain stable.

For 2017, in spite of a continued challenging economic environment, Clariant is confident to be able to achieve growth in local currency, as well as progression in operating cash flow, absolute EBITDA and EBITDA margin before exceptional items.

Clariant confirms its mid-term target of reaching a position in the top tier of the specialty chemicals industry. This corresponds to an EBITDA margin before exceptional items in the range of 16 % to 19 % and a return on invested capital (ROIC) above the peer group average.
Valerie Jarrett is joining Lyft's board of directors, the company announced Monday, the latest of President Obama's former staffers to enter the world of ride-hailing.

Jarrett, the former senior adviser to the president, joins the panel as an independent director, expanding Lyft's board from eight to nine members. She will focus on addressing the problems of urban transportation, a Lyft spokeswoman said, drawing on her background as former commissioner of Chicago's Department of Planning and Development and chairwoman of the Chicago Transit Board, in addition to her eight years at the White House.

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Lyft announced the appointment in a company blog post.

"I am a frequent Lyft passenger and have been inspired by the strong community (co-founders) John (Zimmer) and Logan (Green) have created that is dedicated to enlightened corporate values," Jarrett said in a statement provided by Lyft. "We share a belief that reliable, affordable transportation positively impacts social mobility, and improves the quality of life in densely populated communities. I am thrilled to join the ride."

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Zimmer and Green, who sit on the board as the company's co-founders, welcomed Jarrett's appointment to the board.

"She will be a great partner for Lyft as we continue working alongside public transit agencies to provide upward mobility through transportation, reduce congestion, and ultimately reshape our cities," Green said in a statement. "We couldn't be more excited to welcome Valerie to the Lyft family."

Zimmer praised Jarrett for "perspective that will push Lyft forward as we work to improve people's lives with the world's best transportation."

Since leaving the White House in January, Jarrett has also joined the board of Chicago-based Ariel Investments, the Chicago Tribune reported in March. Obama's longest-serving adviser during his presidency, she became an adviser to the Obama Foundation after he left office.

Several other members of Obama's team have waded into the emergent world of ride-hailing in recent years. David Plouffe, Obama's 2008 campaign manager and then senior adviser, was hired to head Uber policy in 2014, but has since departed that role to lead policy for the philanthropist Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative. Former attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr. was hired to lead an investigation into Uber's corporate culture following a spate of high-profile company scandals this year.

Jarrett joints Lyft amid a period of growth largely stemming from Uber-related backlash  after the #DeleteUber scandal, widespread accusations of sexual harassment at Uber, a video showing founder and former chief executive Travis Kalanick berating a driver, and a series of other setbacks to Lyft's chief rival.

Lyft touted in its blog post that it had given more rides so far this year than in all of 2016. Still, Uber remains the giant of the industry, with recent valuations at about $70 billion  nearly 10 times that of Lyft.

Jarrett joins eight others on the board, but becomes the first not to represent a major shareholder, according to Lyft. The other board members are: founders Green and Zimmer, Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Ben Horowitz, General Motors President Dan Ammann, Icahn Capital's Jonathan Christodoro, investor and former Trulia chief financial officer Sean Aggarwal, Rakuten's Hiroshi Mikitani, and Floodgate Fund's Ann Miura-Ko.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel at the Department Fleet and Facility Management site near Goose Island on Nov. 24, 2014. With a $104.7 million offer, developer Sterling Bay has emerged as the winning bidder for the facility, the city announced Sunday. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)

Sterling Bay's already large swath of North Side land is about to get a whole lot bigger after the Chicago real estate developer struck a nearly $105 million deal to buy 18 acres near Goose Island from the city.

With a $104.7 million offer, the real estate developer has emerged as the winning bidder for the Department of Fleet and Facility Management site that Mayor Rahm Emanuel put up for sale almost a year ago, the city said in a news release.

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That deal, expected to be completed later this year, means Sterling Bay controls almost 60 acres of land in the area, creating a once-in-a-generation development opportunity along highly populated areas such as Lincoln Park and Bucktown, where large sites rarely become available.

The city's vehicle maintenance headquarters on Throop Street is just to the west of the former A. Finkl & Sons steel plant across the Chicago River. The Finkl site is part of about 40 acres of formerly industrial properties that Sterling Bay already has bought along the river.

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The city's land sale is the latest step in what could be a decadeslong reshaping of a 760-acre industrial corridor where some types of development, such as apartment towers, were long prohibited. The City Council recently approved major real estate zoning changes that are expected to pave the way for a number of ambitious developments.

Sterling Bay Managing Principal Andy Gloor did not respond to requests for comment on the Throop Street acquisition. The firm has yet to reveal specific plans for the former Finkl plant and nearby parcels it owns, but it is expected to invest billions of dollars in residential, office and retail space, an eastward extension of The 606 trail, and other uses.

In other deals, Sterling Bay is building McDonald's future headquarters in the Fulton Market district and has a $680 million deal to buy the two-tower Prudential Plaza office complex overlooking Millennium Park.

The developer will have invested hundreds of millions of dollars just to assemble the North Side land, including a $140 million deal for the Finkl site along Cortland Street and the river.

The city's fleet facility, and its 200 jobs, will move to Wentworth Avenue and 69th Street in Englewood after the sale to Sterling Bay. The facility is where city vehicles such as fire engines, snowplows and garbage trucks are maintained and repaired.

Proceeds from the Throop Street sale will help fund the new Englewood facility, a new police and fire training center in West Garfield Park, and other city facilities, according to the news release from Emanuel's office.

rori@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @Ryan_Ori
The once-remote location of Highland Beach is slowly growing more integrated, with about 20 white and five Hispanic residents making Highland Beach their home, according to census data.MUST CREDIT: Photo by Cheriss May for The Washington Post. (Cheriss May / Cheriss May)

Sag Harbor Hills and the neighboring districts of Ninevah Beach and Azurest are unique among beach communities in the Hamptons, the collection of affluent towns on the eastern end of New York's Long Island long known for attracting wealthy summer residents.

Founded in the village of Sag Harbor after World War II, in an era of deep segregation in the United States, they were home to a robust African American population. Developers offered parcels of land in parched areas of the village for just a few hundred dollars or more. Working-class black families purchased much of the land, eventually creating several communities linked by dirt roads along Route 114.

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Though their roots are working class, these neighborhoods of modest ranch houses and bungalows today are a haven for middle-class and upper middle-class black families, populated by doctors and lawyers, artists and academics. They rank as the oldest African American developments in the Hamptons and are among a handful of beach communities in the United States with African American roots.

The racial makeup of the districts kept home prices down for decades with many white buyers choosing to live in other parts of the village.

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Yet that is changing as home prices in the Hamptons continue to rise, says Dianne McMillan Brannen, a broker with Douglas Elliman who has lived in Ninevah for more than 25 years. "Investors are being lured to these areas now and are looking for bargains," she says. She estimates that about a dozen homes sold to investors last summer, up from four or five the previous year. "We welcome investment, but there is a real concern that these areas will lose the cultural identity that made them distinctive."

Sag Harbor is not alone. Across the country, some historically black beach communities that have long escaped major property development and an influx of real estate investors are increasingly fending off both.

- - -

Highland Beach, a town on the Chesapeake Bay near Annapolis, Md., was founded in the summer of 1893 by Charles Douglass - Frederick Douglass's son - and his wife, Laura, after they had been turned away from a restaurant at the nearby Bay Ridge resort because of their race. (Cheriss May / Washington Post)

As values soar in surrounding locations, pricing out many second home buyers, historically black beach enclaves from American Beach near Jacksonville, Florida, to South Carolina's rural Sea Islands are seeing sharp increases in development and new home buyers.

Like gentrification debates raging in largely urban areas across the nation, the increase in new money, along with a generational shifts, is sparking concerns in some historically black beach communities about the possible loss of their culture and identity.

"The irony is that many of these places were deemed undesirable when African Americans first moved there," says historian Andrew W. Kahrl, author of "The Land Was Ours: How Black Beaches Became White Wealth in the Coastal South." "Some of these areas are gold mines today, but those luxury resorts in parts of coastal Georgia, South Carolina and around the Chesapeake were havens for African American life and culture."

Historically black beach communities date back as far as the 1930s in a handful of coastal areas across the United States. Many sprang up during segregation when blacks were either barred from whites-only beaches or simply unwelcomed. While most were in the South, many took shape in the Northeast and Upper Midwest, evolving into beachheads for thriving economic and social life for African Americans.

Audrey Davis poses inside the home her family has owned since 1954. Audrey describes how her family has received several letters from real estate agents trying to get them to sell their home, in Highland Beach, Md., a historically black beach community where Frederick Douglass spent his summers. (Cheriss May / Washington Post)

Audrey Davis grew up spending her summers in Highland Beach, a historic African American enclave near Annapolis, Maryland. The town was a haven for affluent black Washingtonians seeking refuge from segregation and drew many black intellectuals including Paul Robeson, Booker T. Washington and Langston Hughes.

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Her grandfather, teacher and author Arthur P. Davis, purchased the land in the 1940s and built the wooden, two-story home that her parents still own today. "It was actually made from reclaimed wood from a whites-only hotel across the street," says Davis, who is director of the Alexandria Black History Museum in Virginia. "Our whole family would gather there in the summer because we cherished the sense of community."

But, she says, there is not a month that goes by that her parents do not receive a letter or two in their mailbox asking if they would consider selling the house. Though the waterfront community is relatively small - about 100 year-round residents - there has been a gradual uptick in home sales the past few years. The once-remote location of Highland Beach is slowly growing more integrated, with about 20 white and five Hispanic residents making Highland Beach their home, according to census data.

"Younger people looking for an affordable home on the water are mostly interested in the area," she says. "My hope is that newer people to the community will have the same sense of its history and importance as we do."

Former Mayor Ray Langston stands in front of the Frederick Douglass Museum and Cultural Center, housed in "Twin Oaks," the summer cottage built in 1895 for him. (Cheriss May / Washington Post)

African American homeownership along South Carolina's Sea Islands dates to 1865 when the Union army issued orders to give freed black men the island chain and abandoned rice plantations. Despite decades of decline, fueled by ravaging storms and overzealous development, a dwindling number of black families still live and work on the islands today.

Known as the Gullah, they are descendants of enslaved Africans who lived in the Lowcountry regions of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

A firm population count of blacks on the Sea Islands is difficult to obtain. But as part of an application for protected status in 2005, the Gullah/Geechee estimated their total population in the Carolinas, Georgia and northern Florida at 200,000, according to Marquetta Goodwine, co-founder of the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition.

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Though much of the island chain in South Carolina has been declared a Cultural Heritage Corridor by the National Park Service, that has not stopped developers from chipping away at waterfront locations. Property projects large and small now dot many locations, and some locals fear it will eventually resemble Hilton Head, the upmarket waterfront resort in South Carolina that was once home to the Gullahs.

"They're communicating with the developers, but when you have a multimillion-dollar development coming into an area, it's always going to be an unequal conversation," says Bernie Mazyck, president of the South Carolina Association of Community Development Corporations.

Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts, a sliver of Martha's Vineyard that is home to a lively African American population, has long attracted wealthy second home buyers. But the town holds a unique history for African Americans.

Located seven miles off the Cape Cod coastline, on the northern tip of the Vineyard, its harbor drew freed slaves and laborers in the 18th century and white locals sold them land. The town eventually became a popular destination for freed blacks, who came to work in the fishing industries.

Arthur Davis, his wife, Deloris and their daughter Audrey, stand outside their home that has been in their family since 1954. Their next door neighbor Joseph "Tex" Gathings stands behind them on the porch. (Cheriss May / Washington Post)

In the late 19th and 20th centuries, middle-class blacks began buying and renting summer homes in Oak Bluffs, eventually turning the town into a mecca for successful African Americans. Martin Luther King Jr. vacationed in Oak Bluffs, as did Joe Louis, Harry Belafonte and Dorothy West, a Harlem Renaissance writer. Barack Obama made regular trips to the town during his time in office.

Oak Bluffs Beach, known as the Inkwell, is a famed stretch of sand some say was named by Harlem Renaissance writers who came to the Vineyard and found inspiration near the water and thus named the beach that was once segregated from the white beach.

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Yet despite its history and oceanfront location, Oak Bluffs has not experienced the same kind of real estate squeeze as other historically black beach communities, says Richard Taylor, a real estate executive and director of the Center for Real Estate at Suffolk University in Boston. He is also the author of "Martha's Vineyard: Race, Property, and the Power of Place." He credits local officials, who have tightened already demanding rules on residential development to fend off new buyers' dreams of building larger homes closer to the ocean.

And while the town has seen a fair share of new buyers - white and black - the Vineyard's long history of celebrating African American culture has kept it as a vibrant location for black homeowners, Taylor says. "We have film festivals and book clubs and churches all dedicated to the history and culture of African American life," says Taylor, who has owned a home in the East Chop section of Oak Bluffs since the 1970s. He pointed to the popularity of the African American Heritage Trail of Martha's Vineyard, a preservation effort started in 1997 by a local high school teacher. "Black culture is deeply integrated into a way of life on the Vineyard, and that's helped keep this history vibrant and alive."

In Sag Harbor, the influx of money underscores the challenges facing many historically black beaches. While home prices and the pace of sales are falling across the Hamptons, Sag Harbor is bucking the downward trend.

Last year, the median price of a house in the Hamptons fell 5.3 percent from 2015, while the number of sales was down 13.7 percent, according to appraiser Jonathan Miller. But Sag Harbor saw a 25 percent increase in the median home sale price in 2016 compared with a year earlier, rising from $1.2 million to $1.5 million.

Though homes in the historically black sections of Sag Harbor have not yet reached those sales levels, prices are rising, says Frank Wimberley, a 90-year-old artist who has kept a home in Sag Harbor Hills almost half his lifetime. Still active today, the abstract painter creates new works in a studio at the back of his modest beach bungalow.

"It's worrisome because it's beginning to feel like a takeover," he says. "These areas were born when blacks were unwelcome in a lot of places. And for me and many longtime residents, they will always be places of special significance."

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Brannen, the broker with Douglas Elliman, is more blunt. "Rising home values are good, but eventually this part of Sag Harbor will look like just another upscale beach resort," she says. "And I don't think anyone wants that."
Last week, Patrick Wong was right where food-industry experts expected him to be: eating mac and cheese at a table in the perimeter of his neighborhood Whole Foods, surrounded by people doing pretty much the same thing.

"If I had the time to actually cook, I'd just get groceries," said Wong, 27, who lives in Streeterville. "It's a combination of laziness and convenience."

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In an effort to take a bigger bite of the food market and appeal to the massive Millennial demographic, grocery stores increasingly are adding restaurant-style options and spawning a new hybrid: the "grocerant." In recent years, consumers have shifted from eating out to eating at homeit used to be half and half, Lempert said, and now food at home accounts for 60 percent of mealsand drugstores, specialty stores and convenience stores all have increased in popularity.

"Supermarkets have lost market share, about 15 percent, to other retailers," said Phil Lempert of supermarketguru.com. "The supermarket [is] trying to recapture consumers by being all things food, looking holistically at food."

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Lempert defines "grocerant" as a grocery store that offers groceries as well as prepared foods and "a sit-down dining experience"a definition that fits several Chicago-area stores that have opened in recent years, such as Whole Foods, Mariano's and Eataly.

The supermarket subset has taken off in recent years, according to Aimee Harvey, managing editor at food-industry consulting firm Technomic. Harvey specializes in "retail meal solutions," or freshly prepared, un-packaged foods. In 2007, that was a $24.8 billion market. In 2013, the market had grown to $34.6 billionand supermarkets accounted for $19.5 billion of that.

That's because "grocerants" can offer both convenience and quality, Harvey said.

"It's about convenience, it's also about a consumer that wants value," she said. "We're becoming more of a population of foodies, people who are more informed about food."

And one age group in particular is driving grocerant growth: Millennials.

"This is a customer base that's pretty much grown up with things at their fingertips," Harvey said. "They want what they want when they want it. Supermarkets that provide a wide range of dining venues provide that for them."

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And there's a reason that food has become such a Millennial focus, Lempert said.

"[Millennials] are very passionate about food, and because of poor-paying jobs and living at home and so on, they were able to gravitate towards food as an affordable, fun way to develop community," he said.

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Take Eataly, for example: Shoppers can grab-and-go a cheaper sandwich or sit down for a pricier meal at one of the grocery's in-house restaurants. And Lempert mentioned the oyster bars at Mariano's stores as places young people can congregate around food.

"The oyster bar has been a huge draw for Friday and Saturday night," he said. "You look at the kind of identity a supermarket can get, it really positions them in front of other food stores in a very meaningful way."

So what's next for "grocerants"? Expect smaller grocery stores with a stronger focus on fresh foods, Lempert said. He and Harvey both said the perimeter of the stores, where fresher foods, hot bars and sit-down restaurants generally are located, will be expanding at the expense of the center aisles, which traditionally stock packaged foods and ingredients.

"Of course the customer is always going to need certain center-aisle things," said Harvey. "But as these grocerants really make their mark, it's all about the perimeter of the store."

mcrepeau@redeyechicago.com | @crepeau
Charles Welch, left, and Andrew Miller will launch Out to Lunch with a seafood pop-up at the former Sink | Swim space called Good Fortune. (Kirsten Opsahl)

Chef Charles Welch and business partner Andrew Miller are both out at year-old Honey's in Fulton Market.

Welch, who has also worked in the kitchens of Sepia and mk, and Miller, a food industry strategist, are branching out to create their own hospitality concept, which they're calling Out to Lunch. According to a representative, Out to Lunch "combines their respective experience by rolling out ambitious plans to launch a series of brand new restaurant and bar concepts in Chicago within the next 12 months."

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"We're proud of what we accomplished with Honey's," said Miller, "but Charlie and I developed a strong relationship and realized we had the same outlook and similar passions."

Welch agreed. "We share the same creative drive and just want to keep doing good work out there."

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But what does this mean? Both Welch and Miller remained mum on details, as "things will be coming out fast and hot," said Miller. In the future, Out to Lunch may be a brick-and-mortar, or an idea lab, or a consultancy, or some combination of many projects. "We're looking to shake things up in the restaurant industry, do things differently," said Welch.

In fact, Miller explains that the name of their project is a play on the colloquial meaning of "out to lunch" ("being a little out there, a little crazy").

"It's personal for us. We just left a successful concept (Honey's) to do something different," says Welch. "It's an amazing opportunity for us to build something."

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The duo's first project, dubbed (a little hopefully?) Good Fortune, will take up shop in the former Sink|Swim space in Logan Square, through the end of the year. The Scofflaw Group is re-concepting the space and is working with Out to Lunch to use it in the meantime.

Good Fortune will start service Aug. 18, with Welch in the kitchen serving up dim sum-style seafood carts, seafood dishes inspired by different coastal regions, and Welch's take on raw-bar service. The pop-up will only be open for dinners and late-night bar service.

"Good Fortune will let me express myself creatively, while we get our feet wet with our new projects," says Welch. "It'll be super fun to showcase our talent, and hopefully the pop-up takes off."

"We're cosmically conscious that we wanted to open a seafood space while our friends were closing their seafood space," says Miller. "That we're now in the space -- will we sink or swim?"

An interesting question, given that Welch and Miller opened Honey's to critical acclaim (with other partners). RedEye's Michael Nagrant called it one of the best openings of 2016, giving it a four-out-of-four review weeks after it opened. Phil Vettel, meanwhile, praised Welch's mastery of seafood, granting the restaurant a three-star review.

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So why leave a hot project just a year out? Welch and Miller were diplomatically mum on details, but stay tuned.

jbhernandez@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @joeybear85






After a packed, hot summer of family vacations, camp or kids underfoot, what's a parent or caregiver to do with all that free time on the first day of school?

For some, the first drop-off of the new year will mean the usual: Head to work. Others plan to double down on organizing and cleaning their summer-traumatized homes. How about a nap?

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Los Angeles mom Jill Simonian, with the youngest of her two daughters starting kindergarten, will be doing most of the above, with a breakfast bash thrown in for her mom friends in mid-August.

"Nothing like a good party with girlfriends to boost our happiness, motivation and to commemorate this new chapter of having a little bit more freedom with all our kids in school," she said. "I always feel reinvigorated when I spend time with friends and us moms don't do enough of that. Getting the kids back in school means we can celebrate our lives and friendships, too."

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Latisha Jones in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is a lawyer, professor and mother of three, including a year-old son. Her other two kids, 5 and 11, head back to school Aug. 9. She'll be mourning a little as she puts "vacation mom" into hibernation.

"Immediately after I drop my kids off for the first day of school, I cry at the thought of them growing up and another year of milestones," she said. "Five minutes later I rejoice at the thought of some alone time. Ten minutes after that it's back home to prep for them coming home and then off to work. The start of school signals the return of planning and prepping and order," she said.

In Newport, Pennsylvania, Lisa Batra will have a kindergartner and a second grader next school year, but they don't go back until after Labor Day.

"Camps end in the beginning of August and the boredom definitely sets in," she said. "For the first time, my youngest will ride the bus and I'll be at the bus stop taking photos and most likely shedding a tear or two. Afterwards, I'm getting that mani-pedi that I've been putting off. I deserve some me time!"

Avalon, California, mom Brittany Arnold has three kids: 5, 10 and 15. She's looking forward to reuniting with her fellow school parents.

"After taking the kids to school, we head to a local restaurant and spend a good hour catching up," she said. "It's great seeing our friends, too, since summer can be hectic. Most take the mornings off on the first day, so it's a great time to reconnect."

Allyson and her husband in Scottsdale, Arizona, have a date after the Aug. 9 school drop for their two kids, an 8-year-old daughter and a 5-year-old son going into kindergarten.

"We started a tradition two years ago on the first day of school to take the day off of work, go to breakfast with mimosas and go see a movie! Afterward, we come home and relax and then pick up the kids when school is out," she said.

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Other couples plan date time as well, including trips to the spa. Several moms said it's back to the gym for them or simply enjoying a long overdue uninterrupted shower.

Wanda Thomas in Philadelphia said she and her husband  the parents of a 6-year-old boy and an 8-year-old daughter  spent one first day of school "sitting in the house doing nothing but appreciating the peace and quiet, 'til hunger set in." They may catch a movie this time around, time permitting.

Things aren't looking quite that way for Amanda Spencer in Berwyn, Pennsylvania.

She has a 2-year-old starting two days of preschool in September. Her 4-year-old will be in pre-kindergarten five days week. Both will be going half days, until noon. She's already breathless:

"We'll probably just make it out the door on time for drop-off in the car line, one or both will be crying for the first day and I'll wind up walking both of them in, then head out to the grocery store and halfway there I'll remember I forgot the grocery store list but will continue there to see what I can recall from the list, then head to another grocery store for the balance of the food, go home and unpack the food, attempt to get the laundry downstairs and one load started, check my email on my phone, reply to any work emails, then get lunch ready for the kids and head out to pick them up. If there's time leftover, I'll get the sheets changed on the beds, and/or wipe as many counters as possible or dust one room."

Enough said.






Cellphones get in the way of children developing invaluable social and emotional skills at sleep-away camp. Parents try to sneak them in anyway. (PeopleImages)

I was listening to NPR after dropping my daughter at sleep-away camp Sunday when the host started discussing a report about parents who sneak forbidden cellphones into camp.

Rogue parents give kids dummy phones to hand over to their counselors at check-in and then arm them with secret, secondary phones. One parent mailed a phone in a care package. Another parent sewed a phone inside the lining of a teddy bear.

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I was aghast.

Why didn't I think of that?

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(Especially the teddy bear. Genius!)

I'm kidding (mostly), but it's sort of excruciating to drop an 11-year-old in the woods for a week knowing that she can't check in every couple of days.

It's hard to keep your imagination in check without a few all-is-well updates. Has a wildfire whipped through the campground? Is she hopelessly lost on a hiking trail? Are there grizzly bears in southern Michigan?

(Can you tell I'm raising kids in the city?)

I tracked down the full NPR report when I got home, so I could read about other clandestine methods at my disposal.

Again! Kidding! (Mostly.)

I tracked it down because I wanted to know how common it is for camps to ban phones and how frequently parents abuse such policies.

The American Camp Association accredits nearly 8,400 different sleep-away camps around the United States, and only 10 percent allow access to cellphones, according to the NPR report, headlined, "Are Helicopter Parents Ruining Summer Camp?"

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Cellphones, researchers say, get in the way of campers developing invaluable social and emotional skills  from navigating friendships to facing risks to overcoming homesickness, the report says.

Camp directors and counselors say the campers roll without their phones pretty well. Parents are a different story.

Meg Barthel, a counselor at Camp Echo in Bloomingburg, N.Y, told NPR she carries a Wi-Fi-enabled device around camp to respond to the mothers who are accustomed to constantly texting with their daughters. Asked how many messages she'll field in a day, Barthel answered, "Up to 100."

Some camps throw parents a bone and post photos on their websites throughout the week. But then the parents start calling to complain that they don't see their kid in any photos  or worse, they see their kid and their kid looks unhappy.

OK, fine. We're ruining summer camp.

I'm glad I didn't sew anything inside a teddy bear. (Also she doesn't have a teddy bear.)

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I usually consider myself a pretty chill parent when it comes to giving my kids their space.

This is my daughter's second sleep-away camp excursion. I even let her fly to Mexico without me over spring break. I called her school office once when she was in kindergarten, and when I identified myself, the woman said, "Your daughter's fine. We gave her some ice." I said, "What? Why does she need ice?" (Pause.) "Oh, wrong kid. Never mind." AND WE DID NOT CHANGE SCHOOLS.

In other words: I don't identify as a helicopter. But this no-phones-at-camp thing is hard!

I don't know the counselors. I don't know the fellow campers. I don't know the staff that runs the joint. And yet, I've entrusted them all with my first-born. Her physical and emotional health is 100 percent in their hands. Can't a girl get a text?

No, a girl can't. And I respect that. But I think we should ease up a bit on the eye-rolling about modern parents.

The NPR report, when I first heard it, was part of a "Wait Wait  Don't Tell Me" segment. People were laughing at us. And who can blame them? We provide such good material.

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But it's a terrifying world. (Always has been. I know.) And we're madly in love with our kids. (Parents always have been. I know.) And we're used to parenting with phones. (That part's new.)

Wanting to hear that our kids are OK doesn't make us helicopters. (Or snowflakes.) It just makes us humans.

Humans who've gotten used to a rather unnatural amount of communication with our offspring, historically speaking.

Which brings me to parents from previous generations: I give you props. When we were kids, you dropped us at sleep-away camp without so much as bug spray, let alone cellphones. It couldn't have been easy.

We can learn from you, and you can go easy on us. And our kids, above all, can learn to have fun without their phones.

Now, if you'll excuse me. I need to find a news station based in southern Michigan whose website I can monitor obsessively.

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hstevens@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @heidistevens13

[ My daughter went to Mexico, and all I got was a giant dose of parenting perspective  ]

[ Why your kid's short, brusque texts are actually good news  ]

[ Sibling rivalry takes no holiday  even at the beach  ]






First, the library director was banned from the library. Then, a faction of the library board went to court to oust a fellow trustee for a prior felony arson conviction. Amid the infighting, the library board in west suburban Bellwood has failed to hold its past nine scheduled meetings, according to its website.

The turmoil surfaced in two July court filings, the culmination of growing dysfunction at the library in this working-class suburb still reeling from allegations of misspending at its local school district.

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The library board last met in February. Since then, each board meeting is listed as either "canceled" or "no quorum" on the library's website.

"We are in limbo," said Deborah Giles, a library trustee who was elected in April. "We can't move forward.  Other than pay our regular bills, there are no decisions we can make on anything."

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Giles and two other trustees filed a complaint July 3 in Cook County Circuit Court to have fellow trustee Sharon Tharpe declared ineligible to serve on the board. Tharpe pleaded guilty in 2002 to arson with the intent to defraud an insurance company, a felony, and was sentenced to 24 months of probation, according to court documents.

Illinois law prohibits from holding elected municipal office anyone who "has been convicted in any court located in the United States of any infamous crime, bribery, perjury, or other felony."

Tharpe, library board president Mary Clements and an attorney listed as representing the library board in court documents did not return the Tribune's calls and emails requesting comment.

Court documents in the ongoing case also allege Tharpe doesn't live in Bellwood, citing a Chicago condo she purchased after selling her Bellwood condominium. The court filing argues that this, too, should bar her from serving as a trustee.

"A convicted felon and nonresident holding the public office of Library Trustee will adversely impact and threaten the integrity and/or credibility of Bellwood Public Library records and this local municipal library's ability to effectively transact business," the court records said.

Around the same time, in early July, an entity listed as the "Bellwood Public Library" filed a temporary restraining order to bar the library's director, Jacqueline Spratt, from library property. Spratt had been placed on administrative leave with pay pending an investigation, according to the court document, though it doesn't cite what the library director was being investigated for.

After Spratt received notice of her leave on July 1, she "came to the library to prevent a locksmith from changing the locks of the Library," the court records say.

But a judge rescinded the restraining order July 6, in part because "one of the necessary votes on the Bellwood Public Library Board was that of Sharon Tharpe, a convicted felon who did not have the legal authority to vote on the matters," court documents state.

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Spratt, who is now back to work at the library, said she was never given an explanation as to why she was put on administrative leave.

"I would try to tell them what the law was and, not every time but sometimes, I was told I was being insubordinate," Spratt said.

Giles and the two other trustees trying to remove Tharpe from office said they don't believe Spratt did anything wrong and questioned how the board could have decided to place Spratt on administrative leave without a quorum.

The board has six members and one vacant seat, the library's website says.

The suburb of about 19,000 residents is still grappling with recent problems on the board of Bellwood School District 88, which includes students from Bellwood, Maywood, Hillside, Broadview, Melrose Park and Stone Park.

Although the district was deep in debt, Tribune investigations last year revealed the school board allowed expensive travel junkets as well as the hiring of friends and family; the board had also diverted more than $105,000 from an education fund to refill a retirement account the district superintendent had drained years prior.

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On a recent weekday morning, Bellwood resident James Parker, 60, was working on his laptop at the library. He described it as a hub of the community: Kids flock there around 3 p.m. during the school year, and adults frequently access technology there and gather for exercise classes.

Parker said he's heard about some of the infighting on the board but is grateful he hasn't noticed a change in service at the library, which he uses about twice a week.

"I guess it's just one of those power struggles," he said.

The library website lists the board's next scheduled meeting for Sept. 12.

Angie Leventis Lourgos is a Tribune reporter. Clifford Ward is a freelance reporter.

Tribune reporter Steve Schmadeke contributed.

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eleventis@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @angie_leventis
A 21-year-old man was fatally shot on a porch in the 2400 block of North Meade Avenue on July 31, 2017, police said. (Elyssa Cherney / Chicago Tribune)

Four people were killed and 31 others were injured in weekend shootings in Chicago, including the wounding of a 4-year-old boy and the killing of his mother, according to police.

The violence brought to at least 407 the number of homicides this year, four more than this time last year, according to data kept by the Tribune.

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At least 2,190 people have been shot in Chicago this year, compared to 2,399 this time last year, the statistics show.

The 4-year-old boy and his mother were shot in the West Side's North Austin neighborhood about 5:20 p.m. Friday. A 19-year-old man was also hurt in the shooting in the 5200 block of West Kamerling Avenue, which a relative described as an ambush.

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Later Friday night, in the Southwest Side's Marquette Park neighborhood, an 18-year-old man was fatally shot and two other people were wounded in the 2500 block of West Lithuanian Plaza Court about 10:50 p.m.

Early Saturday on the West Side, two men, 32 and 30, were wounded in a rifle shooting that littered the street with more than 90 shell casings.

A 13-year-old boy was shot in the arm in the 1800 block of West 21st Street in the Heart of Chicago neighborhood just after 11:30 a.m. Sunday, according to police. He was taken to Stroger Hospital in good condition. He was standing on the sidewalk when a red car pulled up, and someone inside fired shots.

Two more men were fatally shot by the weekend's end. A 20-year-old man was killed in the Far South Side's Longwood Manor neighborhood about 4:30 p.m. Sunday, and a 21-year-old man was killed on the Northwest Side in the Belmont Central neighborhood about 12:20 a.m. Monday.
Martha "Tica" Sanchez was last seen around 3:15 p.m. July 4, 2017, in the 5100 block of West Fletcher Street in Chicago. (Chicago Police Department)

Chicago police are asking for the public's help in the search for a 24-year-old woman who's been missing for almost four weeks.

Martha "Tica" Sanchez was last seen around 3:15 p.m. July 4 in the 5100 block of West Fletcher Street in the Cragin neighborhood.

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Sanchez is described as a Hispanic woman, standing 5-foot-2 and weighing about 120 pounds with dark brown hair, brown eyes and a medium complexion. She has a small gap between her front teeth and a scar on her shin.

When she was last seen, she was wearing a short turquoise dress and high heels, according to police.

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Anyone with information is asked to call the Area North Special Victims Unit at 312-744-8266.
Ramon Flores and his next-door neighbor grew up on the Northwest Side playing tag in the park and taking turns being "Ghost in the Graveyard."



Early Monday, the childhood friends ran for their lives together. Flores didn't make it.



"I can just always picture it," said the friend, 18, who asked not to be named because he was worried about his safety. "He looked at me in my eyes."



The two had been hanging out on Flores' porch in the 2400 block of North Meade Avenue around 12:20 a.m., listening to music from the band Gorillaz, when a gunman dressed in black fired at least five shots from the other side of the street, according to Chicago police and witnesses.



The two ran to the backyard for cover.



"Ramon was already grabbing the wall because he got shot," the friend said. "He was trying to hold on to his balance."



Blood was streaking down his right arm and pooling in his hand, the friend said. Flores was having trouble breathing and couldn't talk.



"He showed me the blood in his hand. I'm pretty sure he was trying to give me a signal like, 'Call 911.' He looked at me and then he fell back," the friend said.



Paramedics rushed Flores to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, where he was pronounced dead at 12:57 a.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. The bullet had entered his arm and traveled into his chest, police said. He was 21.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 21 A 21-year-old man was fatally shot on a porch in the 2400 block of North Meade Avenue on July 31, 2017, police said. (Elyssa Cherney / Chicago Tribune)

More than a dozen friends and relatives gathered outside Flores' brick home in the Belmont Central neighborhood as detectives investigated. Flores' acquaintances had shown up at the hospital but were told they couldn't wait there, a friend said.



A Chicago police officer talked to the family in Spanish to explain what investigators were doing. The officer said it was his first crime scene since graduating from the academy this summer.



Flores' family hugged each other and cried. A young woman flung her arms around Flores' mother, who was leaning against a car.



"No, no, no, no," the young woman sobbed.



She sunk to the ground and rocked as she balled herself up.



"They didn't have to take him away from me. And from his mom and his whole family. No!" she screamed.



Friends spoke of Flores as fun-loving and family-oriented.



"He was very silly, he was outgoing," Flores' childhood friend said. "He was very social. He liked to talk to people. That's how he is."



But Flores also faced struggles.



He had been involved in gangs since high school, his friend said. He tried hiding it for a while, but his involvement had become known. His mother dogged him to get out of that life, fearing it could bring danger to the family, the friend said.



"We didn't butt in with his life, he didn't butt in with our life," the friend said. "He got along with all types of people, though. I see it as more bad blood toward him."



Flores' parents declined to comment.



When a police officer took down the red crime tape, relatives flowed back into the home. They crowded together on the porch.
Illinois Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, calls on Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner to have a meeting to discuss the changes the governor wants made to Senate Bill 1 during a news conference on the first day of a special session on education funding at the state Capitol, Wednesday, July 26, 2017, in Springfield, Ill. (Justin Fowler / AP)

Welcome to Clout Street: Morning Spin, our weekday feature to catch you up with what's going on in government and politics from Chicago to Springfield. Subscribe here.

Topspin

Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner is expected to receive and quickly veto a key education funding formula bill today, but don't expect the Democrat-controlled General Assembly to immediately take up an attempt to override him.

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Democratic Senate President John Cullerton has been holding onto the measure since May 31 using an obscure legislative tactic detailed in Sunday's Chicago Tribune. Cullerton says he wants to negotiate an agreement with the governor, and Rauner has accused Democrats of holding up the process.

The timing matters now, even though the question of how to change how Illinois pays for schools has percolated in Springfield for years. Money in the budget lawmakers approved this month won't be sent to school districts unless a new funding formula is approved. The first payments are due Aug. 10.

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Rauner's amendatory veto is expected to come today, and could give lawmakers, school officials and the public a first look at how the governor specifically wants to change the way Illinois divvies up school money.

But don't look for lawmakers to jump to override Rauner's veto immediately Monday like they did when he rejected their budget proposal and tax hike.

Both the House and Senate had some attendance issues last week as lawmakers vacationed or otherwise decided not to go to the Capitol at a time when not much was supposed to take place. The legislature could try for an override mid-August, when more lawmakers are expected to be around.

Every vote would matter if Democrats want to override Rauner. When this bill initially was approved, it didn't fly through the legislature with the three-fifths majorities needed to override the governor. Some Republicans broke ranks with the governor to approve a tax hike, but Rauner's labeling of the education funding plan as a "Chicago bailout" could particularly give Downstate lawmakers second thoughts about doing so again.

Rauner's chief political nemesis House Speaker Michael Madigan said last week there was a "good possibility of an override" in his chamber.

What's on tap

*Mayor Rahm Emanuel will make an announcement about the preschool application process.

*Gov. Rauner's schedule is listed as "final day of special session, events TBD."

*The Illinois House and Senate will be in special session.

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From the notebook

*And another one gone: Republican state Rep. Barbara Wheeler of Crystal Lake won't seek re-election next year.



"Many of you are unhappy with the irresponsible actions of the General Assembly, and rightfully so. The status quo continues in Springfield, where even simple reforms, such as term limits and fair redistricting, have not been successful. I am as frustrated as you are that the legislature has not taken action to make these fundamental changes," Wheeler told constituents on her website.



"In order to break Springfield of this pattern, a younger generation of leaders is needed in the General Assembly. For that reason, I have decided that I will not seek another term in the Illinois House of Representatives," said Wheeler, who was first elected in 2012.



Wheeler, who called herself "an avid supporter of term limits," said without them "the responsibility is on individual lawmakers to know when it is time to pass the torch."



She said she would use her remaining time in the legislature to "fight the anti-taxpayer agenda being pushed in Springfield." (Rick Pearson)

*Quick Spins: U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth joined announced her support of President Donald Trump's pick to be the next FBI director, Christopher Wray. Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin previously had announced his support. ... Gov. Rauner's office announced that the state on Aug. 26 will start a 100-day countdown to Illinois' bicentennial celebration in Kaskaskia, the first of the three cities that have served as Illinois' capital. The existing Kaskaskia site is home to only about a dozen people. Floods have devastated the area multiple times and even re-routed the mighty Mississippi River, leaving Kaskaskia on the Missouri side. ... From the Department of Streets and Sanitation on Friday: "So far this season, sweeping drivers have swept over 116,000 miles on our main and residential streets; over 2,700 alleys and have collected almost 63,000 cubic yards of debris."

*The Sunday Spin: On this week's show, Chicago Tribune political reporter Rick Pearson's guests were Lauren Chooljian, who is moving on after covering city politics for WBEZ-FM 91.5; Democratic state Rep. Rob Martwick of Chicago; and 9th Ward Ald. Anthony Beale. The "Sunday Spin" airs from 7 to 9 a.m. on WGN-AM 720. Listen to the full show here.

What we're writing

*How an obscure procedural move became latest conflagration for Rauner, Democrats.

*Madigan scraps Democratic rally at Illinois State Fair next month.

*Cook County soda tax to start Wednesday after a judge dismisses a legal challenge.

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*Judge denies pension windfall to teachers union lobbyist who was substitute for a day.

*Watchdog report rips Rauner's former DCFS chief over ethical, financial lapses.

*State worker retiring amid probe of racist emails in city water department scandal.

*Illinois election officials to review new request for voter data.

*Illinois' Obamacare rate proposals nearly out, but little certainty for those seeking insurance.

*City tests trash skimmer to clean Chicago River near Riverwalk.

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*Palos Township trustee resigns from Cook County commission after anti-Muslim Facebook posts.

What we're reading

*More people dying from gunshot wounds as Chicago marks 400 homicides.

*Grocery stores are adapting to male shoppers  and treating them like knuckleheads.

*Hipster website that spawned Lollapalooza headliner's career rips new album.

Follow the money

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*The Illinois Campaign for Political Reform tracks the week's top donations.

*Track Illinois campaign contributions in real time here and here.

Beyond Chicago



*Trump's weekend Twitter taunts of Senate Republicans on health care.

*In one week, Trump is defied at seemingly every turn, NYT reports in Sunday recap story.

*NYT ticktock on health care repeal and replace meltdown.

*WaPo profile of new Trump chief of staff John Kelly.

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*20,000 fans flee huge fire at music festival in Barcelona.
Gov. Bruce Rauner has promised to use his amendatory veto powers to "fix" the school funding bill, but so far he's been unwilling to detail the specific changes he wants to make. (Alexandra Wimley / Chicago Tribune)

SPRINGFIELD  The next move in a Capitol fight over how the state doles out money to school districts is up to Gov. Bruce Rauner after the Senate sent him a measure Monday following a two-month hold on the bill.

Rauner, who spent weeks vowing to quickly veto the legislation, did not do so Monday. His office indicated the governor will "now review the bill and take swift action."

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Left waiting are the state's roughly 855 school districts counting on the state making its first aid payment as scheduled Aug. 10. While it is unlikely schools will not open on time if the money doesn't arrive by then, some districts may have to cut programs, borrow money or tap into reserves. And neither Democrats nor Republicans want to shoulder the blame should the disagreement continue and schools eventually have to close their doors in the coming months.

Indeed, the finger-pointing already has started. Rauner spokeswoman Laurel Patrick accused Democrats of "sitting on the education funding bill for two months, in effect holding our students hostage."

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Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan didn't even wait for Rauner's expected veto, issuing a statement saying "the reform we need is being held back by a governor who is determined to pit one child against another for political gain."

At issue is a measure that puts in place sweeping changes to the state's formula for distributing money to school districts. Critics have long said the current plan benefits wealthy schools while shortchanging those in need, including Chicago Public Schools and Downstate districts. Without a new funding formula in place, state government has no authority to cut checks for schools, thanks to a provision Democrats inserted into the state budget.

Under the plan now on Rauner's desk, no school district would receive less than it did last year. But any new money above the $5 billion the state is supposed to pay out for the current year would first be sent to schools most in need.

The new money would be distributed according to what's known as an "evidence-based" model, which uses 27 metrics to determine an "adequacy target"  a dollar figure that each school district should spend per student in order to provide an adequate education. Schools that can't afford to reach their target would be first in line for the extra state money and entitled to the largest share. About 1 percent of the new dollars would be set aside for the state's wealthiest districts to share.

Though Rauner has said he supports large portions of the legislation, he's taken issue with a provision that sets aside $215 million to help pay for Chicago teacher pension costs, which the state already covers for districts outside the city. The governor also has raised concerns about another $250 million CPS has long received in the form of a special block grant.

Rauner has promised to use his amendatory veto powers to "fix" the bill by stripping out some of that CPS money and give it to other school districts, but so far he's been unwilling to detail the specific changes he wants to make. The changes will remain under wraps until at least Tuesday.

The governor called lawmakers back to Springfield for a series of special sessions on education funding, but attendance was spotty and no action was taken. On Monday, the House and Senate again met for only a few minutes on the final special session day.

While the legislation was approved May 31, Democrats had put a procedural hold on the bill to keep it off the Republican governor's desk. They contended the delay was needed to give the sides some time to negotiate an agreement, while Rauner argued the move was designed to create panic among school districts.

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Democratic Senate President John Cullerton asked Rauner to meet in an effort to strike an agreement. At first, the governor called the request "outrageous," before reversing course late last week and asking Democrats and Republicans to appoint negotiating teams.

Those lawmakers met over the weekend and continued to talk behind closed doors Monday. Democrats emerged to characterize the talks as "progress" toward reaching an agreement, but GOP lawmakers quickly dismissed it as a "political charade."

Republican Sen. Jason Barickman said Democratic Sen. Andy Manar indicated Democrats would make an offer.

"At that meeting, no offer was made," said Bloomington's Barickman. "In fact, we spent nearly an hour doing nothing more than listening to Democrats shuffle their papers and seemingly try to buy time so that they can continue this crisis that they have unnecessarily created."

Manar said he was not going to respond to Barickman's comments.

"Sen. Barickman understood that we are working on a counterproposal to their proposal," said Manar, of Bunker Hill in central Illinois.

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"We still believe there is significant progress that has been made, and we would like to continue on the path of that progress," said Manar, who added that a veto from Rauner would likely derail those efforts.

Barickman said Rauner's amendatory veto would "provide the assurance to schools and the schoolchildren that they need." But that's far from the case, given a veto could mean that no school funding formula is put in place.

Once Rauner issues his amendatory veto, the Senate must read it into the record the next time it is in session. Then a 15-day clock starts.

There are three options: The House and Senate could agree with the governor's changes, which is unlikely. They could vote to override the changes, and the bill would become law without them. They could also do nothing, meaning the measure essentially would die and lawmakers would have to return to the drawing board.

It would take 36 votes in the Senate to override Rauner. The measure passed that chamber with 35 votes, though two Democrats were recorded as not voting.

Cullerton said he wasn't sure if there was enough support for a Senate override, but Democrats there led the push for the changes, and it's doubtful they would walk away now.

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If the Senate overturns Rauner, the measure then goes to the House, where 71 votes are needed for an override. The bill passed with the bare minimum 60 votes, and there are just 67 House Democrats.

Speaker Madigan said last week that there was a "good possibility of an override" in his chamber, noting the willingness in early July of some House Republicans to break ranks with Rauner on an income tax increase and budget.

But House Republican Leader Jim Durkin said Monday that his members were united on this front.

"They don't have the support in the House," Durkin said of an override attempt. "Our caucus is pretty strong on this. If someone believes it will be a repeat of what happened with the budget, they are sorely mistaken."
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called on China and Russia to do more to stop North Korea after the isolated regime test-fired its second intercontinental ballistic missile in a month.

Abe, speaking after a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump, told reporters on Monday that they agreed more action was needed to mitigate the threat from North Korea. The comments echoed a statement over the weekend from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who called China and Russia "economic enablers" of the regime.

"We have made consistent efforts to resolve the North Korean problem in a peaceful manner, but North Korea has ignored that entirely and escalated the situation in a one-sided way," Abe said in Tokyo. "The international community, starting with China and Russia, must take this obvious fact seriously and increase pressure."

The comments add to a growing rift between the world's major powers over how to respond to Kim Jong Un's regime. The U.S. and its allies want China and Russia  which account for the bulk of North Korea's trade  to cut off financial flows to the country, while Beijing and Moscow are pushing for both sides to compromise.

The U.S. and North Korea, not China, are responsible for the increased tensions on the Korean Peninsula, so they have responsibility to "get things moving in the right direction," Liu Jieyi, China's ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters in New York on Monday.

China's biggest fears related to North Korea remain a collapse of Kim's regime that sparks a protracted refugee crisis, and a beefed-up U.S. military presence on its border.

Trump and Abe "committed to increasing economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea, and to convincing other countries to follow suit," the White House said in a statement Sunday. It said North Korea "poses a grave and growing direct threat" to the U.S. and its allies in the region.

United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley has announced she wouldn't call an emergency session of the Security Council to discuss the launch because "there is no point" if it produces nothing of consequence. Earlier this month, Russia and China blocked U.S.-led efforts to expand penalties against North Korea in a draft UN Security Council resolution condemning the July 4 missile test.

The Security Council is working on a new resolution even as China works with Russia on a road map on how to resolve the crisis, Liu said. The Chinese envoy made it clear such a plan would rely on his nation's position that dialogue should be based on North Korea suspending  but not giving up  its nuclear missile program in return for the U.S. and South Korea calling off joint military exercises.

Trump has expressed periodic public frustration with Beijing over the pace of its efforts to curtail Kim. Late Saturday he again linked China's actions to the broader U.S.-China trade relationship.

"I am very disappointed in China," Trump said in a series of Twitter posts. "Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!"

China's Vice Commerce Minister Qian Keming said at a briefing on Monday that the North Korea nuclear issue should be kept separate from the U.S.-China trade relationship.

Abe on Monday signaled continued support for the U.S., on which Japan relies to provide the protection of a "nuclear umbrella." After the latest ICBM test, two Air Force B-1B bombers conducted bilateral exercises with South Korean and Japanese fighter jets.

Abe said on Monday that he and Trump "fully agreed" that more action was needed on North Korea. Japan last week announced new sanctions on the regime. The targets included two Chinese organizations thought to have dealings with the country, which it did not name.

The latest North Korean missile, which landed in Japan's exclusive economic zone, reached an altitude of about 2,300 miles, according to South Korea's military, almost 621 miles higher than the previous test. That indicates progress toward North Korea's goal of developing a missile capable of hitting U.S. cities. North Korea's state media cited Kim as claiming he could now strike the entire continental U.S.

In a development likely to raise tensions in Japan, national broadcaster NHK showed footage that appeared to indicate the missile landing in the sea was visible from the north of the country.

The Washington Post's Qi Ding contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump speaking on Friday on Long Island told a gathering of police officers: "I said please don't be too nice  like when you guys put somebody in the car and you're protecting their head ... I said you can take the hand away, OK?"

That's not a trash-talking guy with a Confederate battle flag. That's the head of the executive branch (charged with implementing the laws), who has sworn to uphold the Constitution. This is the president who holds office at a time when police relations with minority communities have been rubbed raw, police shootings of suspects (or other deaths while in police custody, as was the case Freddie Gray's death in Baltimore) have become all too frequent (although a tiny percentage of the total number of police encounters with suspects) and his own anti-immigrant policies have set minority communities on edge. Trump is also happy to throw a match into a river of gasoline flowing through our country.

This disgraceful wink-wink to police officers reflects the president's bully-boy outlook and his complete lack of empathy for others. He still seems utterly unaware  or unconcerned  about the adverse effect his words have on others. One day it's summarily tweeting that he will expel all transgender personnel from the military; the next it's making police brutality into a joke. Not to mention bringing his brand of coarse rhetoric, complete with insulting remarks about Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama, to the Boy Scouts. The Boy Scouts of America leadership was forced to disclaim its intent to politicize the gathering and apologize to the scouts.

Likewise, after his grotesque comment about police brutality, the Suffolk County Police Department was forced to issue a defensive statement distancing itself from the president's dismaying language. "The Suffolk County Police Department has strict rules and procedures relating to the handling of prisoners, and violations of those rules and procedures are treated extremely seriously. As a department, we do not and will not tolerate 'rough[ing]' up prisoners."

In other words, the president is unfit to talk to the Boy Scouts and to police officers. He's a rotten role model who overtly incites bad behavior (just as he did in the campaign when he encouraged violence against protesters).

Reaction to the president's comments on policing were widely condemned outside right-wing circles. The ACLU put out a statement, which read in part:

"The president today told a group of police officers, 'We have your backs 100 percent,' if they gratuitously hurt people whom they suspect of a criminal offense. By encouraging police to dole out extra pain at will, the president is urging a kind of lawlessness that already imperils the health and lives of people of color at shameful rates. Innocent until proven guilty? Our president would rather not bother with that, expanding the role of the police officer to include judge, jury, and executioner."

Jonathan Blanks from the libertarian Cato Institute did not mince words:

"The president's comments are disgraceful and anathema to responsible policing and the Rule of Law. Causing intentional injury to a handcuffed suspect is not only against police procedure, but is a federal crime for which police officers have been sent to prison. What's worse, the reaction of the crowd of officers should strike fear into the heart of every parent on Long Island, particularly those of black and Hispanic young men, who fit the stereotypical description of the gang members President Trump described.

"In the name of law and order, the president made a mockery of the Rule of Law in his call for illegal violence against presumptively innocent suspects. It is a shameful day for the presidency and police agencies across the country should condemn the president's irresponsible and indefensible comments in the strongest possible terms."

Unfortunately, we don't see such outrage from right-wing groups ostensibly concerned with the erosion of values and rule of law. Concerned Women for America? Nothing. The Family Research Council? Of course not. The National Review? Silence. Right-wing legal groups (e.g., Federalist Society, Alliance Defending Freedom) were mute. There a long list of staunchly right-wing groups and individuals who were quick to condemn each and every one of Obama's utterances about police-community relations. Will they speak out now that the president is calling for police brutality? Don't hold your breath.

With Trump, right-wing entities are giving up the pretense of devotion to their stated purpose (e.g., family values, a color-blind society, Constitutional government, free market economics); they've been morally and intellectually corrupted by Trump and a movement that cannot indict its own side (no matter how repugnant the conduct or behavior at issue), nor give support to the left (as they see it). They've become Trump apologists and defenders, which often means undermining family values, Constitutional government, free markets, etc.

In their spasm of tribalism they've lost track of the principles that once motivated them. Those very principles can be destroyed  if the destroying is being done by one of their own. In fact, they'll even join in to cheer the nihilist-in-chief.

Washington Post
In another case of projection, President Donald Trump routinely refers to The New York Times as "failing." In reality the Times is seeing record subscription numbers. It is the White House that is failing.

Trump can't get the repeal of Obamacare, or any other legislative priority, through a Republican-controlled Congress. He has had no real achievements other than the confirmation of Justice Neil Gorsuch. It turns out that a president with under-40 percent approval ratings can't strong-arm legislators into doing his will, and Trump's clumsy attempts to do so have predictably backfired.

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Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke threatened to block federal projects in Alaska if Sen. Lisa Murkowski didn't back the Republican health-care "plan." As chairwoman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Murkowski let her displeasure be known by stalling a nomination that Zinke wants, and then by voting against the health bill anyway. She can now make life miserable for Zinke for as long as she wants, because her committee oversees his department. As the Washington Post noted, this is "political malpractice" of a high order, but it is typical of Trump's amateurish operation.

The health-care bill was only the second of two major legislative defeats Trump suffered last week. The other was the approval by veto-proof margins in both houses of sanctions against Russia, thus killing Trump's chances of delivering the rapprochement that Mike Flynn evidently promised the Russian ambassador before the inauguration.

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Yet another repudiation of the president came from his own Department of Defense. Trump tweeted an order banning transgendered individuals from military service, apparently without consulting the Pentagon's leaders in advance. The generals, in turn, let it be known that they were not going to act on Trump's tweets until the White House delivers a formal order and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis  who was on vacation and thunderously silent  issues implementation instructions. So Trump can't even get "my generals," as he refers to the leaders of America's armed forces, to carry out his rash edicts.

Meanwhile, the world becomes an ever-more dangerous place, with both Iran and North Korea testing long-range missiles. Kim Jong-un either already has, or will soon have, the ability to incinerate Washington. But Trump can barely notice world crises, because he is too preoccupied tending to his own, self-created crises.

The president spent much of last week focused on his feud with Attorney General Jeff Sessions and  by proxy  with then-White House Chief of Staff Reince Preibus. The proxy in the latter case was, of course, Trump's foul-mouthed Mini-Me, Anthony Scaramucci, who appears to have wandered into Washington straight off the set of "The Wolf of Wall Street."

"The Mooch," as he likes to be called, has taken a unique approach to his job as White House communications director. Shortly after taking the post, he accused Priebus of a "felony" for having supposedly leaked his financial disclosure form. In truth, the Export-Import Bank, where Scaramucci had previously been slated to go, had released the document in the normal course of business. This was merely a warm-up to the main act  the Mooch's gobsmacking interview with the New Yorker. He bad-mouthed Priebus ("a f-----g paranoid-schizophrenic) and Steve Bannon, threatened to fire the entire White House communications staff and vowed to "f-----g kill all the leakers."

No previous White House aide in history has ever said anything remotely like this on the record. (Imagine what Mooch says off-the-record  and yes he did go off-the-record with the New Yorker at one point.) In any other White House it would have been grounds for instant dismissal. Not this one. Trump evidently "loved" the Mooch's tirade so much that he fired not Scaramucci but Priebus. What kind of message does that send to other administration employees  and to every other American  about what kind of behavior this president expects?

President Donald Trump acknowledges the crowd after a rally at the Covelli Centre on July 25, 2017, in Youngstown, Ohio. (Justin Merriman / Getty Images)

The new chief of staff is the retired Marine general John Kelly, until now Trump's Secretary of Homeland Security. No doubt Trump hopes that the general can straighten out what ails the White House. It is, of course, a vain hope, because, to quote the Mooch, "the fish stinks from the head."

The dead-fish stench emanating from the White House has wafted all the way to the Justice Department. The president has been engaged in a passive-aggressive campaign against the man he calls "our beleaguered A.G."  beleaguered, of course, by Trump himself. Trump spent a week publicly needling Sessions for recusing himself from the investigation into the Trump campaign's Russia ties. There is plenty one can criticize Sessions for, including his apparent lies about his contacts with the Russians last year, but not for this. Having been involved in the Trump campaign, Sessions had no choice but to recuse himself.

Naturally, Trump is fine with Sessions' convenient lapses of memory. He only objected when Sessions did the ethical and honest thing. For good measure, the president has been berating Sessions for taking "a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!"

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Trying to use the criminal justice system to strike back at an enemy of the president is an impeachable offense. So is obstructing an investigation of the president and his aides. But the president appears so terrified of what special counsel Robert Mueller may uncover that he is willing to risk a constitutional crisis to stop the Kremlingate investigation. Yet Trump, a consummate bully, is too cowardly to either confront Sessions directly or to fire him; he prefers to make Sessions' life such a living hell that he will resign, thereby allowing the appointment of a stooge who will fire Mueller.

Trump's mistreatment of Sessions  one of his earliest and most loyal followers  has elicited a backlash from Sessions' friends in the Senate and in the nationalist-populist movement. Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Tucker Carlson, David Horowitz, and all of Trump's other toadies professed shock at one of their heroes mistreating another.

It's interesting to see what constitutes a breaking point for the Trump crowd. They were fine with Trump's ignorance, inconsistency and mendacity; his crazy conspiracy theories and unhinged tweets; his vile attacks on women, war heroes, and the press; his demonization of Mexicans and Muslims; his pussy-grabbing and general, all-around loutishness; his kowtowing to Vladimir Putin, Rodrigo Duterte and other loathsome dictators; his son's eagerness to collude with the Russian government and his own attempts to obstruct justice by firing the FBI director. The Trumpites excused all of this inexcusable conduct on the grounds that "at least he fights."

True, he fights. But what does he fight for? Not for conservative principles. He has no principles. Trump is not pursuing an "America First" policy. He is pursuing a "me first" policy. He will not fight for legislative priorities such as health-care reform  a subject he does not understand or care about  but he will fight to obstruct an investigation into his own misconduct.

None of this should be remotely surprising to anyone who has been awake for the past two years. Jeb Bush accurately called Trump the "chaos candidate" and predicted that he would be the "chaos president." This did not faze his fans for a second. They wanted someone to come in and shake up Washington. Well, they got what they wanted. Now we must all live with the calamitous consequences.

Foreign Policy

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Max Boot is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick senior fellow for national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. His forthcoming book is "The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam."

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Incoming White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci talks with reporters at the White House on July 25, 2017. He was out of the job by months end. ( Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images )

Anthony Scaramucci's shockingly brief stint in the White House was marked by a tirade in which he called one rival a "f------ paranoid schizophrenic" and said another rival was attempting a difficult form of self-gratification. The New York Times printed the whole quotes in both cases; the Chicago Tribune didn't. The Associated Press described the rival's alleged self-gratification as an attempt to "burnish his reputation."

It's always been difficult for newspapers to report the facts while protecting their most sensitive readers, and media in general are getting more lenient about publishing coarse language. Here's a timeline:

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1970: Bull in a courtroom

When a defendant at the Chicago Seven trial uses the word "b---s---" in court, The New York Times calls it a "barnyard epithet."

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1976: Joke by mail only

Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz tells an offensive joke about African-Americans and is fired. Only two newspapers print the joke verbatim: the Capital Times in Madison, Wis., and the Toledo Blade in Ohio, according to a Columbia Journalism Review report cited by author Daniel Levitas. The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal in Lubbock, Texas, tells readers they can show up at the newspaper offices and read the joke; more than 200 reportedly show up. The San Diego Evening Tribune offered to mail it, and more than 3,000 people request it. (We won't share the unfunny joke. Unlike readers in 1976, you can Google it if you choose.)

1991: Gorby goes blue

The Los Angeles Times logs its first use of the F-word spelled out, in an article quoting Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, according to the book "The F-Word," edited by Jesse Sheidlower. (The Washington Post follows a year later, and the F-barrier breaks open in 1998 when the Chicago Tribune, The New York Times and others print the Starr Report during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.)

1995: Forget it

The New York Times writes about how much money a worker needs to be able to quit a job, calling it "Forget You Money." The Times admits that it's a "family-newspaper approximation" for the actual term.

2000: Major-league moment

When a microphone picks up presidential candidate George W. Bush calling a New York Times reporter "a major-league a------," it's a local story for the Chicago Tribune, since it occurs in west suburban Naperville. But the Tribune doesn't print the offending word, calling it "an expletive" and "a vulgar term." The Chicago Sun-Times does print it. The major-leaguer's paper, the Times, calls it an "expletive deleted." But the Washington Times takes the strangest approach, citing "a vulgar euphemism for a rectal aperture."

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2004: Veep goes deep

Vice President Dick Cheney clashes with Sen. Pat Leahy on the Senate floor and tells him, "F--- yourself." The Washington Post prints the word; the New York Times refers to "an obscene phrase to describe what he thought Mr. Leahy should do." The Chicago Tribune initially calls it "an obscenity," then a few days later cites "a familiar four-lettered expletive, starting with 'f.'"

2010: Big deal

What is it with vice presidents? Joe Biden, excited that Obamacare is being signed into law, swears near a microphone. "Mr. President, this is a big  deal" is how The New York Times renders it, later making clear that the omitted word starts with F. The Chicago Tribune calls it a "big (expletive) deal" and "big (bleeping) deal."

2016: Getting grabby

An "Access Hollywood" recording from 2005 catches Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump boasting about groping women without their consent. "Grab 'em by the p---y" is how the Chicago Tribune renders it, while The New York Times spells out the whole word. The Tribune also spells out the word in certain cases, such as when referring to the "pussy hats" that anti-Trump protesters wear. Mainstream media are having the damnedest time as cultural standards keep shifting.

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Mark Jacob is the Tribune's associate managing editor for metropolitan news.

mjacob@chicagotribune.com
Since President Donald Trump won the Republican presidential nomination a question hangs over the right: Should the GOP survive or is it morally corrupted and politically deformed to such an extent that those of good conscience on the center-right must start anew? Having engaged in the original sin, if you will, of supporting Trump and then defending his aberrant presidency and helping thereby to define political deviancy down (as the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan described the decline of social and behavioral norms in his lifetime), has the GOP in essence forfeited political legitimacy permanently? There are several aspects to the question that deserve attention.

First, keep in mind the distinction between "should" (normative) vs. can (capacity). The former (should the GOP survive) goes to the moral culpability of those who lifted Trump to power and kept him there. They elevated a very dangerous man who has done and continues to do great damage to our country. They've in essence lost legitimacy as a constructive force; the center-right cannot fully purge the stain of Trump unless it sheds (or shreds) the skin of the GOP. Given the enormity of the GOP's malfeasance, a new party may in fact be required.

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Then there is the more practical question (can the GOP survive). Given how toxic the GOP brand has become, the time and cost of rehabilitating the brand may not be worth it. Alternatively, anti-Trump Republicans might conclude that the financial, legal and organizational burden of creating a new party with new state parties may be crippling.

We think a middle ground makes sense. An accountability project (maybe not quite at the level of reconciliation processes in the wake of fallen regimes in South Africa or Chile) certainly is needed; a turnover in leadership is essential. The party must repudiate Trump and the Trump era to go forward. Those intent on turning away from the Trump era will require visible symbols underscoring the party's repudiation of Trumpism, including perhaps a name change. (The New Republican Party? The Modern Republican Party?)

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Second, is such a dramatic break really needed? Yes, if, as #NeverTrump and #NoLongerTrump Republicans believe, the Trump problem is of an entirely different magnitude than, say, Watergate, and has resulted in much more serious, permanent damage to our democracy, then it is not enough to simply shuffle the presidential candidates, make some speeches and keep the platform and leadership essentially unchanged. And yes, most of the Republicans currently in the House and Senate need to go. They've put party over country, not lived up to their oaths of office and contributed to the polarization of our politics and erosion of our democratic norms. A clean, dramatic break is mandatory.

Third, both the specific agenda (a creaky facade left over from the 1980s) and the central values of the party are in need of revamping. Its positions on tax, budget, environmental, law enforcement and immigration policy are outmoded, counterproductive and in many cases not based on reality. That does not mean Republicans should copy Democrats. A second party with alternative views remains critical in a robust democracy. We need a party that favors market-based solutions where possible; cares about fiscal sanity; sees advantages in federalism; embraces a positive, essential role for government but is wary of highly centralized bureaucracy; and supports American leadership in defense of the international, liberal order. (By the way, it's always possible the current Democratic Party goes in that direction while the far left goes the full socialist route.)

Fourth, Trump's presidency should prompt center-right voters and leaders to re-define the purpose, foundational beliefs and role of the party. Civic character and dedication to democratic norms (as opposed to positions on a laundry list of issues) must be elevated in importance. The party needs to return to a mediating and moderating role whereby it weeds out the most extreme and most irresponsible elements. (Yes, here come the super-delegates.) The party needs to resume a role of gatekeeper (a goal furthered by diverting resources back to national and state parties and away from special-interest cliques and billionaire candidates and donors). Moreover, a party that believes in a strong role for civil society must dedicate itself to repairing frayed communal ties and institutions and ending rigid tribalism.

Fifth, how Republicans behave from here on out will play a huge role in determining the extent of the housecleaning/destruction of the GOP required. It makes all the difference in the world whether Democrats (by winning elections) save the country from Trump or whether the GOP (by impeachment, support for prosecution, primary challenge) takes matters into its own hands to expunge Trump. The latter would not erase entirely the original sin they committed when they backed him, but a Republican revolt against Trump (finally) would suggest internal reformation is possible. Republicans in office, running for office, in think tanks and other right-leaning groups should think long and hard about how they want the Trump presidency to end; it will become the defining event in their personal and political legacies. And the manner of Trump's political demise will largely determine whether the 2016 election was the last to produce a Republican president.

Washington Post

Jennifer Rubin is a columnist for the Washington Post.

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North Korea recently launched a missile that appears to be capable of hitting targets in the U.S. mainland, including Chicago. Pyongyang says that Washington should regard the launch as a "grave warning."

No argument there.

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This sobering development comes years earlier than many experts had predicted. The upshot: The U.S. policy of "strategic patience"  waiting for North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un to come to his senses and the bargaining table  is officially over.

President Donald Trump needs a far more muscular policy than his predecessor's, pronto. What will that be?

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So far, there's been talk of shooting down North Korean test missiles as a warning. But that could provoke Pyongyang to rain massive conventional retaliation on Seoul. Bad sequence.

There's been smarter talk of amping up the U.S. cyber campaign to send the North Korean missile program into a tailspin, much as the U.S. did against Iran's nascent nuclear program. But we hope that effort is already happening.

And the U.S. also is moving to impose economic sanctions against Chinese banks and businesses for trading with North Korea. Let's hope there is much more of that to come.

What hasn't worked yet: haranguing China, Pyongyang's major trading partner and ally, to do more to rein in the outlaw Kim regime. As President Trump rightly tweeted about China, "they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk."

A man watches a television screen showing a video footage of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un during the North's latest test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), at a railway station in Seoul on July 29, 2017. (Jung Yeon-Je / AFP/Getty Images)

Cut to America's recent display of military prowess: Two supersonic B-1 bombers streaked over the Korean peninsula as part of a joint exercise with Japan and South Korea. U.S. forces also demonstrated the effectiveness of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD), which detected, tracked and intercepted a medium-range ballistic missile launched from Alaska.

All this posturing is directed not only at Kim Jong Un, but also the leaders of China and their "What, us worry?" attitude.

The last thing China wants is U.S. supersonic bombers roaring close to its borders.

The last thing China wants is a potent demonstration of how the U.S. can knock down missiles before they reach the American mainland.

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The last thing China wants is Japan and South Korea seriously mulling whether they should go nuclear to defend themselves. Both countries are believed to be capable of jump-starting a nuclear program on short notice. At the moment, however, both countries rely on U.S. nuclear deterrence for their security. The big question: Can North Korea be deterred, just as the Soviet Union and China were? In other words, do the North Koreans believe that the U.S. will retaliate, possibly with nukes, if North Korea attacks Japan or Seoul? The greater the doubt, the greater the risk that North Korea will make a first strike.

All of this is unsettling and happening in China's neighborhood. And as any businessman will tell you, rising tensions and threats of war aren't good for business.

China has a choice. It can help defuse the situation by choking off its energy trade with North Korea. It can make Kim Jong Un and his elites go without their favorite cognac and fancy cars. China can yank hard on the North's economic lifeline and help inform average North Korean citizens that they could live far better lives without the Kim regime and its brand of leader-take-all communism. Just look south.

Beijing, the choice is yours. Every North Korean missile launch brings confrontation closer.
The average Chicago public transit commuter spends 115 minutes commuting every work day, 31 of those minutes waiting for trains and buses. That's a gold mine of downtime. How do people use it? Just look at your fellow passengers on the Red Line, or on a downtown-bound CTA bus. Heads down, thumbs tip-tapping on Candy Crush, eyes scrolling through texts or browsing tweets.

There are always passengers leafing through newspapers or books, but they're outliers. Many among us don't read for knowledge and information on buses and trains; they numb themselves with iPhones and Samsungs. Karl Marx suggested that religion is the opiate of the masses. Today, he'd say it's Facebook.

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Recently, however, we came across a brand of therapy that might help people kick the habit. Chicago journalist David Dewane came up with the idea to hawk to commuters the classics  Dostoyevsky, Whitman, Kafka, for example. The difference between Dewane and Barnes & Noble? Dewane's books are roughly the size of a smartphone, and about as thin. Just 48 pages. Approaching your stop? Just slip it in your back pocket and head out.

We hope Dewane's idea gets traction. As a nation, we read too little. A recent Pew Research Center study found that 1 in 4 Americans had not read a book within the past 12 months. That's triple the share of nonreaders in 1978. Television used to be the siren song that took us away from the printed word  now it's television plus our laptops, tablets and smartphones. Yes, we can and do read on our devices, but how much of that reading entails books?

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Admit it, you're likelier to scroll through an afternoon's worth of Facebook postings on the train than a few pages of Jane Austen.

That's where Dewane comes in. The classics shouldn't just be a past chapter in your life, something once assigned to you by your high school literature teacher. "I think there's something really magical about having serious texts on your body throughout the day," Dewane told Cheryl V. Jackson, a Tribune Blue Sky Innovation reporter. "I'm not under any illusion that we're going to go back  the phone's not going to become any less relevant in people's lives.  The frustration for me is there's this huge amount of our culture locked into books."

Dewane is relying on a crowd-sourcing campaign to get his enterprise revved up. Since his effort began in June, more than 800 people have gone on Kickstarter to back the project. Will his idea catch on? Like Dewane, we don't expect people to toss their phones and tablets onto bonfires, "Fahrenheit 451"-style. But we do hope they stake out a little time on their morning commute to perhaps thumb through a few pages of Bradbury.

That is, of course, right after they finish perusing their Tribunes.
Couple this with the dysfunction of the state government, and we have a perfect trifecta, government bodies run by politicians that only know how to tax and spend, incur mountains of debt, but do little to solve problems or improve the quality of life for citizens.

It's puzzling why any young person would want to remain and raise a family in this land of high taxes, fees, fines and murder rates that draw national attention. The mayor and City Council showed their total lack of interest in citizens at this week's court-mandated public hearing at the City Council meeting, as they did everything but listen to the speakers.

The city, county and the state are no longer governments of the people, by the people and for the people. We can substitute the word politicians for people, and we have a good description of what Chicago, Cook County and the state of Illinois are all about.

 Jack Higgins, Oak Brook

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The Music Box Theatre will host the Blue Whiskey Independent Film Festival. (Megan Bearder / Chicago Tribune)

After seven years in the suburbs, the Blue Whiskey Independent Film Festival will find a new home at the Music Box Theatre (3733 N. Southport Ave. 773-871-6604).

The festival, taking place from opening night on Thursday, Aug. 3 to Thursday, Aug. 10, will exhibit selected independently made films from across the world which will then compete for awards at a ceremony being livestreamed on YouTube on Friday, Aug. 11.

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Each festival night will showcase a feature film along with accompanying short films beforehand.

Thursday, August 3 at 7 p.m.

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"September Morning" (United States)

Five college freshmen experience 9/11 and its aftermath from their dorm room.

The feature film will be preceded by four short films:

"Hijo Por Hijo (Child For Child)" (Venezuela / United States)

A Venezuelan kidnapper deals with unexpected events while completing his last job.

"Husbands and Wives" (United States)

Jen and Sara have dark fantasies about their husbands.

"Save" (Spain)

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New parents experience the reality of having a child.

"The Transfer" (Israel / Germany)

Three Israeli soldiers lead a prisoner through the desert.

Friday, August 4 at 7 p.m.

"Monkey" (Bulgaria)

The father of two half-sisters falls into a coma.

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The feature film will be preceded by three short films:

"Lenses" (United States)

Two camera store employees are confused when someone wants to purchase a camera.

"Cliff, Superfan" (United States)

Documentary about Clifford Hayashi, a Stanford "superfan."

"L'accompagnante (The Accompanying Dancer)" (France)

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A story is described in the form of eight dances.

Saturday, August 5 at 7 p.m.

"I Am Still Here" (United States)

A ten-year-old girl is kidnapped and sold into sex slavery.

The feature film will be preceded by four short films:

"Illegal Aliens" (United States)

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A town council meeting is held to determine if a ban on immigrants should be placed.

"I Love New York" (United States)

An NYC newcomer meets a girl on the train.

"The Visitant" (Australia)

A husband sees his wife kiss another man goodnight.

"Neighbor" (United States)

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A homeless man witnesses a kidnapping.

Sunday, August 6 at 8:30 p.m.

"Two Worlds" (Poland)

A documentary about a twelve-year-old girl with two deaf parents.

The feature film will be preceded by three short films:

"Wintry Spring" (Egypt)

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A girl who lives alone with her father must deal with puberty.

"Lunch Time" (Islamic Republic of Iran)

A 16-year-old girl must identify the body of her mother.

"Fish" (Islamic Republic of Iran)

A woman tries to save her fish from dying.

Monday, August 7 at 7 p.m.

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"Across the River" (United Kingdom)

Two ex-lovers reminisce on what they once had.

The feature film will be preceded by three short films:

"That Party That One Night" (United States)

A high-school girl is ditched by her friends at a party.

"For My Next Trick" (United Kingdom)

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A young girl sets out to become a master magician.

"The Man Who Built Cambodia" (Cambodia)

A documentary about architect Vann Molyvann.

Tuesday, August 8 at 7 p.m.

"Shreelancer" (India)

A copywriter in Bangalore deals with his own self doubt.

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The feature film will be preceded by three short films:

"Das Paket (The Parcel)" (Germany)

A man receives anonymous packages in the distant future.

"Stung" (United States)

A heartbroken boy still loves his ex-girlfriend.

"Six Degrees of Separation" (Mexico)

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A day-in-the-life documentary about multiple different Mexican families.

Wednesday, August 9 at 7 p.m.

"Everything in the Song is True" (United States)

A documentary about four cowboys.

The feature film will be preceded by three short films:

"Das Fischer" (United States)

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A young German travels to Idaho.

"Spaceman." (United States)

A man sets out to become an astronaut.

"Closer Than They Appear" (Russia)

A six-year-old runs away to find his estranged father.

Thursday, August 10 at 7 p.m.

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"Gold Star" (United States)

A woman becomes her father's primary caretaker after his stroke.

The feature film will be preceded by four short films:

"Konig Opa (King Grandpa)" (German)

A man uses storytelling as a way to honor his grandfather's memory.

"Ya Albi" (United States)

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Eat. Watch. Do. Weekly What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life ... now. >

An immigrant to the United States struggles to bring her husband overseas.

"Peaceful Life" (France)

A homeless man is robbed of his prized possession.

"The Orange Story" (United States)

A store owner must abandon his life after the government orders the internment of Japanese Americans.

Individual day tickets can be purchased for $15 and festival passes can be purchased for $100 at bwiff.com.

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@AudreyGorden | agorden@redeyechicago.com
Even with all the fun that Lollapalooza brings, four days of partying in the park can be taxing on your body. Brunch x Burn is here to cure your festival hangover with brunch and yogathe proceeds of which will benefit a Chicago-based charity.

The pop-up event will take place at the W Hotel Lakeshore (644 N. Lakeshore Dr. 312-943-9200) from 11 a.m.- 3 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 6, the last day of Lollapalooza.

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The morning will include a boozy festival themed brunch, yoga with CorePower Yoga starting at 11:30 a.m., a recovery stretch station with Hyperice, refreshments, a flower-crown making station with The Crowning Event, a braid bar by Blowout Junkie and a nail art bar.

There will also be a festival themed photo booth, a live DJ, flash tattoos and "hangover kit" fanny pack swag bags handed out.

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Tickets, available through eventbrite.com, are $50 and proceeds benefit The Andrew Weishar Foundation, a Chicago nonprofit that provides resources to families with children or young adults facing cancer.

@AudreyGorden | agorden@redeyechicago.com
Nufer: Count your blessings

"While you are having that second piece of pie, reflect on the blessings of the past year and appreciate being with your loved ones on Thanksgiving Day"
By Waiyan Varsha Tse

Rising minimum wages have led commentators to declare the end of affordable Chinese labor. However, these assertions ignore the vast expanse of the Chinese mainland, and the varying economies that exist within it. The sprawling city of Chongqing especially stands out as a major emerging manufacturing destination for foreign investors.

Over the past years, manufacturing in China has steadily crept inland as companies seek not only to lower their costs, but also to take advantage of government incentive programs aimed at developing western provinces. In particular, the State Council enacted the China Western Development Plan in 2000, which prioritized increasing foreign direct investment (FDI) into Central and Western China.

The introduction of preferential development policies has seen Chongqing  long a strategic hub in the countrys west  become one of Chinas most important cities. Chongqing has achieved the highest regional GDP growth in China for three years running, growing at 10.9 percent in 2014, 11 percent in 2015, and 10.7 percent in 2017. As FDI in Western China continues to evolve, Chongqing will become an even more important city.

Preferential policies are often offered through industrial parks that seek to develop certain industries. In order to assist foreign investors better assess their investment opportunities in Chongqing, this article explores three key industrial zones and their preferential policies for foreign businesses.

Chongqing: Western Chinas manufacturing hub

The Chongqing government actively promotes the electronic information and electronic manufacturing industry, as well as other emerging industries like high-end equipment manufacturing, chemical medicine, new materials manufacturing, and new energy industry. In 2015, electronic manufacturing was the third fastest growing industry by profit in Chongqing, after automobile manufacturing and retail/commercial.

With the rapid growth in electronic and high-tech manufacturing, many leading multinational enterprises, including Hewlett-Packard, Foxconn, Inventec, Acer, IBM, Honeywell, CISCO, and HP are setting up their businesses in Chongqing. In June 2017, Ford made headlines when it announced that it would base its new production center in Chongqing Liangjiang New Area instead of Mexico, the originally planned destination.

These companies are drawn by Chongqings comparatively low cost of doing business, well-established infrastructure, pools of skilled labor, and regional preferential policies.

Chongqings preferential policies are one of the most appealing factors for foreign investors. In early 2017, the State Council released a guideline, Circular on Several Measures on Expanding the Opening to and Active Use of Foreign Investment (the Circular), outlining how the central government seeks to increase FDI into Central and Western provinces. The Circular grants local governments in these regions greater autonomy to offer local incentives and adopt local preferential policies.

RELATED: Made in China 2025: Implications for Foreign Businesses

Generally, Chongqings preferential policies include tax incentives, land and real estate benefits, foreign exchange management and credit, import and export assistance, and visa advantages. However, investors should note that preferential policies vary in different development zones even within the same province.



Chongqing Liangjiang New Area

Located in the north of the Yangtze River and east of the Jialing River, Liangjiang New Area is the first national-level development zone in inland China, and the third nationally after Shanghai Pudong New Area and Tianjian Binhai New Area.

As the first development area in inland China, Liangjiang New Area is expected to become a key component of Chongqings development. According to the Liangjiang New Area government, by 2020, 60 percent of Chongqings industrial land (171 square kilometers), 40 percent of its commercial land (125 sq. km,) and 60 percent of public land (108 sq. km) will be located in Liangjiang New Area.

To compete, Liangjiang New Area has a Six Low Costs concept, which includes low construction costs, low logistics costs, low production costs, low financing costs, low official business costs, and low tax cost. These Six Low Costs are formulated within Liangjiangs ten preferential policies.



Chongqing High Tech Industrial Development Zone (HIDZ)

Located in Chongqing Economic Circle and the metropolitan area, the heart of the Two Rivers peninsula, Chongqing High-Tech Industrial Development Zone (HIDZ) is the base for Chongqings industrial overhaul from traditional industries to high-tech industries. It was approved and established by the State Council in March 1991 as a state-level development zone.

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Spatially, Chongqing HIDZ is divided into two parts: the Eastern Reconstruction Area and the Western Expansion Area. While the majority of the industrial parks are in the Western Expansion area, the Eastern Reconstruction Area caters to more service-oriented industries.

Chongqing HIDZ has released six preferential policies in order to build an encouraging environment for foreign investors.



Chongqing Xiyong Microelectronic Industrial Park (MIP)

Located in western Chongqing, the Chongqing Xiyong Microelectronic Industrial Park (MIP) was established by the Chongqing municipal government in 2015.

The Chongqing Xiyong MIP is comprised of Xiyong Central Business Area, Xiyong Comprehensive Bonded Zone (CBZ), a chip manufacturing park, a packaging and testing park, a software park, an application industrial park, a scientific and technological innovation area, and a residential area. The Xiyong CBZ was approved by the State Council in February 2010 and is, so far, the largest duty-free zone in inland China. Along with the Xiyong MIP, the comprehensive bonded zone serves as a major gateway for inland China to international trade.

Xiyong MIP draws on skilled labor from the neighboring university district. Meanwhile, Xiyong area is the start of Yuxinou Railway to Europe. Xiyong MIPs exclusive focus is on electronic manufacturing industry, including integrated circuit, software, and information services industries.



Identifying the right location

Chongqings industrial parks present huge opportunities for foreign investors, especially those in the high-tech and electronic manufacturing industries.

Chongqing Liangjiang New Area has the most offerings of preferential policies, and it emphasizes low costs of production for investors, and the area boasts diversified industry focuses. It is especially attractive for electronic-focused manufacturing, automobiles, new-energy vehicles and high-end equipment manufacturing industries.

Meanwhile, Chongqing HIDZ caters to foreign enterprises committed to developing high-tech and focusing on technological innovation. The preferential policy in Chongqing HIDZ would not only benefit Fortune 500 companies, but also high-tech oriented SMEs and entrepreneurs.

Chongqing Xiyong Microelectronic Park is an option for electronic manufacturing and investors with export-oriented business operations due to its exclusive focus on electronic compliance manufacturing. It also has well-established infrastructure and logistic centers, and proximity to the neighboring Xiyong Bonded Zone, the largest duty-free zone in inland China.

It is also critical to note that beyond these three zones discussed above, there are other industrial zones in Chongqing and Western China at large that investors should consider. When foreign investors are looking at industrial and development zones for their future operations, it is important to evaluate the preferential policies that they offer and conduct thorough pre-investment research to make the best investment decision.



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Payroll Processing in China: Challenges and Solutions

In this issue of China Briefing magazine, we lay out the challenges presented by Chinas payroll landscape, including its peculiar Dang An and Hu Kou systems. We then explore how companies of all sizes are leveraging IT-enabled solutions to meet their HR and payroll needs, and why outsourcing payroll is the answer for certain company structures. Finally, we consider the potential for China to emerge as Asias premier payroll processing center.

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The Chinese insurance regulator has vowed to strengthen supervision to fend off financial risk and propel reform in the sector.

"The whole sector will put risk control in a more important position," Chen Wenhui, vice chairman of China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), said when addressing a two-day internal meeting ending Saturday.

"Actions will be taken to crack down on serious violations, dissolve hidden risk points and improve the long-term mechanism to hold the bottom line of no systemic risks," Chen said.

The CIRC deputy head stressed the insurance should be a "dashpot" for the economy and a stabilizer for society, instead of a source of risk.

His words came as a further response to big insurers that have grabbed headlines by using leveraged money to buy in shares in listed companies in seek of short-term profits or controlling stakes, triggering sharp volatility and market concerns late last year.

The insurance regulator has moved in to restrain such deals with an array of measures rolled out.

Highlighting stability and financial security, Chen said insurance would in no way become financing and investment tools of big shareholders and pledged policies to ensure healthy development of the sector with improved competitiveness and more opening up.

The regulator will strengthen the sector's role in supporting the real economy, he said.

Thanks to continued financial reforms and opening up, China's insurance saw booming growth in the past years. Insurance premium income jumped 27.5 percent year on year to 3.1 trillion yuan (about 460 billion U.S. dollars) in 2016.
China allocated 1.63 billion yuan (US$242.3 million) of financial aid to encourage university students to join the army in 2016, according to the Ministry of Education (MOE) Sunday.

A total of 124,100 university students ranging from undergraduates, postgraduates to doctoral students received funding last year for enlistment in the armed forces, while 8,117 ex-servicemen were also subsidized with 44.6 million yuan of funding to pursue their higher education degrees.

China has formed a comprehensive education aid system to encourage more university students to join the army, and those veterans can also be financially supported if they are willing to go to college, the MOE said.

The annual subsidy for each undergraduate will not exceed 8,000 yuan, and the sum for masters or doctoral students can reach up to 12,000 per capita each year, said the MOE.

The students' university name roll will be maintained during the period of enlistment, and they can resume their study after leaving the army, according to the MOE.
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Face recognition display screen. A smart traffic system launches at a crossroad in Shenzhen, Guangdong on April 17, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

China is looking to predict and prevent crime with the help of AI technology, according to a Financial Times report.

Facial recognition company Cloud Walk is helping police develop a system that tracks individuals' movements and behavior to assess their chances of committing a crime.

The big-data rating system warns police of highly suspicious groups based on where someone goes and what he or she does, a company spokesperson told FT.

Risks arise if a person "frequently visits transport hubs and goes to suspicious places like a knife store," the spokesperson added.

The vice-minister of science and technology, Li Meng, said that AI will be a key function in crime prediction for the government.

"If we use our smart systems and smart facilities well, we can know beforehandwho might be a terrorist, and who might do something bad," said Li.

The crime-prediction technology is dependent on several AI techniques, like behavioral recognition and gait analysis, to identify people from surveillance footage.

In addition, "crowd analysis" can be used to detect "suspicious" patterns of behavior in crowds, for example singling out thieves from normal passengers at a train station.

From shaming jaywalkers to keeping intruders out of university dorms, China continues to embrace facial recognition and other AI technologies in public spheres.

The State Council declared on July 20 that the country plans to build a world-leading AI industry worth $150 billion by 2020.
A flag guard formation consisting of officers and soldiers from the army, air force, navy and rocket force of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) attends a military parade to mark the 90th anniversary of the founding of the PLA at Zhurihe training base in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, July 30, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

"Enjoying peace is a bliss for the people, while protecting peace is the responsibility of the People's Liberation Army."

- President Xi Jinping (July 30, 2017, Zhurihe training base in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region)

The Chinese people will celebrate the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) on Aug. 1, 2017, which gives hope to all the oppressed people of the world.

It's an important commemoration for China, because the heroic PLA is the pride of the Chinese people, and indeed of the world in safeguarding world peace.

The PLA, under the supreme leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), has grown in strength and become more modernized and professional through nine decades of development.

Following the CPC's thoughts and command, it has emerged as stronger, more peacefully-inclined military backed by cutting-edge weaponry gaining the utmost trust, confidence, love and respect of the CPC and the people of China.

The PLA went through a long revolutionary process. Its origins can be traced back to the Nanchang Uprising beginning Aug. 1, 1927. As this was the first major Kuomintang-Communist engagement, the date was chosen as the PLA's birthdate.

Before and even during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45), the military went under the generic title of "Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army", while certain brigades were separately referred to as the Eighth Route Army or the New Fourth Army, etc. All military forces under CPC leadership were officially named the People's Liberation Army (PLA) on Nov. 11, 1948.

Undoubtedly, in the past 90 years, the PLA has, under CPC leadership, fought courageously in fulfilling its mission and made indelible historic contributions to China's liberation cause, socialist construction and reform drive, as well as in safeguarding national sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity and development interests.

In addition, PLA personnel have actively participated in UN peace keeping operations around the world in line with the national commitment to become a responsible country in world affairs.

Today's military is vastly different from its humble origins, when it had only 20,000 soldiers. Ninety years on, it boasts two million service personnel, making it the world's largest. China is second only to the United States in terms of defense budget, currently at US$152 billion.

Since Xi Jinping took over as the general secretary of the Communist Party of China and became president of China in November 2012 and March 2013 respectively, the PLA has been undergoing a monumental transformation to make it more integrated and flexible to fight a modern war.

President Xi Jinping is the prime reformer behind the historic overhaul. Since late 2012, the military has been capitalizing China's achievements in science and technology to help modernize its weapons and equipment guided by the military strategy developed under President Xi.

The past three years have seen rapid progress. During China's epic V-Day parade in September 2015, the whole world got a glimpse of China's world-class equipment, such as the Dongfeng-5B intercontinental strategic missiles, designed to carry nuclear warheads, and Dongfeng-21D anti-ship ballistic missiles.

Since then, the Type-99A main battle tank, J-20 stealth fighter jet, missile destroyers like Jinan and Yinchuan, and the frigate Yantai, have emerged, to name a few.

On June 28, the biggest latest- generation destroyer weighing 10,000 tonnes was launched as part of China's plan to become a global naval power. The new destroyer is equipped with new air defense, anti-missile, anti-ship and anti-submarine weapons. This ties in with the opening of the country's first overseas naval base in Djibouti near the Gulf of Aden on July 11, 2017.

The PLA's 90th anniversary comes "in the midst of China's fundamental military reform and strategic transformation." In September, 2015, President Xi announced demobilization of 300,000 troops of the 2.3 million-strong force. This is balanced by reforms enabling China to maintain its commitment to peace operations and relief efforts in dealing with major disasters, either domestic or abroad.

At the same time, changes are taking place in force balance, with reductions in infantry personnel but increases in the size of other services, including navy and missile forces.

While inspecting a massive military parade at the Zhurihe training base in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on July 30, 2017, President Xi said: "The PLA has the confidence and capability to build a stronger military and make a new and greater contribution to realizing China's two centenary goals and the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation, and safeguarding world peace."

He also ordered the PLA to follow the absolute leadership of the CPC.

The PLA is the embodiment China's socialist ideals, sovereignty, reform and quest for progress in all human endeavors. It is hoped, the PLA with strong ideals and beliefs, great tradition and bravery in combat having gone through 90 years of glory, will make great strides in building a prosperous China and a strong army under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as its core. Happy 90th birthday to the PLA!

Rabi Sankar Bosu, secretary of New Horizon Radio Listeners' Club, West Bengal, India
Speakers: Qian Keming, vice minister of Commerce; Long Guoqiang, vice minister of Development Research Center of the State Council Chairperson: Xi Yanchun, vice director-general of the Press Bureau, State Council Information Office Date: July 31, 2017

Xi Yanchun:

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Welcome to this press conference. Today, we will continue to analyze China's economic performance. Present are: Mr. Qian Keming, vice minister of Commerce, and Mr. Long Guoqiang, vice minister of the Development Research Center of the State Council. They will introduce the situation in regard to China's foreign trade and economic cooperation performance in the first half of 2017, and answer some of your questions.

Now, let's welcome Mr. Qian to give his briefing.

Qian Keming:

Good morning, friends from the media. It's a pleasure for me to attend this press conference. Now, I'll give you a short briefing on China's foreign trade performance in the first half of this year.

In this period, China's foreign trade posted a good performance, with some indicators surpassing expectations. The transition from old engines of growth to new drivers has accelerated, and the overall economic structure continues to improve.

First, let's have a look at foreign trade that has achieved stable growth.

This year, the world economy has grown at a faster pace, and international trade has finally bottomed out, promoting a better global environment for China to conduct its foreign trade. We effectively implemented policies for promoting steady growth and structural adjustment in foreign trade, improved trade facilitation, and further relieved the burden on enterprises, thus helping them to grasp new opportunities to explore the global market.

The foreign trade situation has remained good so far this year. The total volume of imports and exports reached 13.14 trillion yuan, up 19.6 percent over last year, finally rebounding after a two-year decline. Specifically, exports grew by 15 percent, and imports 25.7 percent year-on-year.

Besides, we have taken measures to improve the work in five areas and promote progress in three areas. Specifically, improvement has been achieved in the global market arrangement, domestic market division, product mix for foreign trade, composition of business providers, and trading methods; meanwhile, progress has been made in accelerating the development of demonstration centers for transforming and upgrading foreign trade, trade platforms and the global marketing network.

Generally speaking, the adjustment of the foreign trade structure and the transformation of growth drivers have gathered pace and achieved good results.

China's import and export trade with countries along the Belt and Road have enjoyed comparatively faster growth, among which, an increase of 21.9 percent was recorded with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), 30.4 percent with India and 33.1 percent with Russia. Domestically, foreign trade increased by 26.8 percent in the central area, 25.7 percent in the western area and 18.5 percent in the eastern area; thus, the central and western areas showed faster growth than the eastern area. In regard to the product structure, exports of mechanical and electrical products grew faster than traditional labor-intensive products. Export of automobiles and ships increased by 32.7 percent and 25.1 percent respectively. General trade imports and exports grew by 20.5 percent, higher than the processing trade, where the growth rate was 16.1 percent. In terms of the management structure, imports and exports handled by private enterprises grew by 20.4 percent, resulting in a moderate rise in their proportion of total foreign trade.

In addition, new modes of foreign trade have grown rapidly, with the import and export of cross-border e-commerce increasing by a staggering 66.7 percent. Market procurement exports grew by 27.8 percent, with pilot foreign trade comprehensive service business continuing to advance steadily. We have actively conducted a pilot program of innovation and development in the service sector, with imports and exports in services increasing by 9.2 percent in the first five months.
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Moscow will reduce diplomatic staff of the United States in Russia by 755 people in order to equal the number of Russian diplomatic personnel in the U.S., Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sunday.

"The personnel of the U.S. diplomatic missions in Russia will be cut by 755 people and will now equal the number of the Russian diplomatic personnel in the United States, 455 people on each side," Putin said in an interview broadcast with Russia's Rossiya TV channel.

Denouncing the latest "unlawful" move by Washington to tighten sanctions against Russia, Putin said it is time for Moscow to show that "we will not leave anything unanswered."

"We've been waiting for quite a long time that maybe something would change for the better, we had hopes that the situation would change. But it looks like it's not going to change in the near future," Putin said.

On Thursday, the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill slapping tougher sanctions on Russia, two days after the bill was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives.

The bill will be sent to the White House for President Donald Trump to sign into law or veto.

Putin said Russia has prepared a large set of measures to respond to the U.S. when it is necessary, including restrictions in "sensitive" areas of cooperation with the latter, which hopefully would not be affected for the moment.

"We could imagine, theoretically, that one day a moment would come when the damage of attempts to put pressure on Russia will be comparable to the negative consequences of certain limitations of our cooperation. If that moment ever comes, we could discuss other response options. But I hope it will not come to that. As of today, I am against it," Putin said.

According to the president, the above-mentioned areas mostly include the joint fight against terrorism, obligations in nuclear arms control and space projects rather than economic relations, Putin said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Friday that it would scale down U.S. diplomatic staff in Russia to 455 people and seize a U.S. warehouse and a recreational compound in Moscow.

It added that Russia reserves the right to give an adequate response if Washington takes further hostile measures.
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The Arab quartet on Sunday expressed preparedness for talks with Qatar under the condition that Doha meets their demands, said a statement issued by the quartet's foreign ministers.

"We reiterate the importance of Qatar's compliance with the 13 demands outlined by the four states," said a joint statement released by the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt after a meeting.

The foreign ministers also stressed that Doha must honor the six principles put forward by them during their previous meeting in Cairo, Egypt earlier the month.

The six principles include demands for Qatar to stop funding terrorism and extremist groups, stop inciting propaganda against them and halt interfering in their internal affairs.
 Flash

A Chinese woman reported missing in Japan left a thank-you note addressed to her parents at a guesthouse in Sapporo, Hokkaido News reported.

Wei Qiujie.[File photo]

Wei Qiujie, 26, a primary school teacher from Shaowu, Fujian province, disappeared on July 23 during an eight-day vacation to Hokkaido, the northernmost part of Japan.

In the note, which was left with other belongings in the guesthouse, she bade farewell to her family and said she was starting a new life, according to the report.

Her father, mother and younger brother traveled to Sapporo on Friday and met with police officers in Hokkaido on Saturday.

Wei, who was traveling alone, arrived in Hokkaido on July 18. She first stayed in Hako before moving to Sapporo two days later. She had paid the guesthouse in advance and was due to check out on July 25.

However, after leaving on the morning on July 22, Wei never returned, and the guesthouse called the police.

Wei Huasheng, the missing woman's father, said he received a message on WeChat from his daughter at 5:26 pm that day saying she had returned safely. She also "liked" a friend's post on Sina Weibo on July 23.

Hokkaido police traced Wei Qiujie to a hot spring resort next to Lake Akan in Kushiro on July 22, where she stayed overnight. Her whereabouts after she departed the next morning are unknown.

Japanese media reported that an employee at Akan Line, a tour company that operates cruises around Lake Akan, saw a woman who looked like Wei board a boat alone at 8 am on July 23.

With the search underway, Hokkaido police have released Wei's photo to the public and are asking people to report any sightings, according to Jiji Press.

Wei Huasheng said his daughter showed no change in character before leaving for Japan. He told Hokkaido police that it was her first time to visit, and that she does not speak Japanese and has no friends in the country, according to Kyodo News.

"I want to search for my daughter and bring her home," he was quoted as saying by Japanese media.

The airline with which the woman was booked to fly to Shanghai on July 25 said there is no record of her boarding the plane, rescheduling or canceling her ticket.
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 Flash

Japanese police have expanded the search area to the whole of Hokkaido in search of the Chinese teacher who went missing last week.

Security footage shows Wei Qiujie checks into a hotel in Sapporo on July 20, 2017 [Photo: dzwww.com]

They are looking in public areas such as tourist spots, bus stops, convenience stores and internet cafes for 27-year-old Wei Qiujie from Fujian province who was traveling alone in Japan.

Japanese media reports say Wei originally planned to travel with a colleague who later backed out and suggested Wei join a tourist group instead of going alone.

Police had previously been searching for Wei around Akanko, a spa resort in eastern Hokkaido, where witnesses say they had seen a woman matching Wei's description visiting a sushi restaurant and boarding a boat on July 23.

Media reports also say that Wei checked into a hotel in Akanko without a reservation on July 22.

Wei earlier left a handwritten letter to her parents in a hotel room in Sapporo saying goodbye and telling them she wanted to start a new life.

But Wei's friends reportedly said she had not shown any signs of wanting to make such an attempt.
BEIJING  Every evening, workers gather in the Shenzhen Industrial Park in Kashgar, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, waiting for buses to take them home. Companies based in the park, including electronic components makers and clothing manufacturers, have hired more than 3,000 workers from nearby villages and towns, making the industrial park one of the most bustling areas in the region.

A large number of highly competitive companies from outside the region have set up factories or subsidiaries in Xinjiang under the "pairing assistance" program, helping local residents find jobs close to their homes.

The program has allowed 19 provinces and municipalities to offer financial and personnel support to remote Xinjiang, building new infrastructure and funding local industry.

According to the National Development and Reform Commission, China's economic planner, since late 2012, the country's provinces and municipalities have allocated more than 13 billion yuan ($1.91 billion) to promote local industries and created more than 500,000 jobs in Xinjiang.

Thanks to support from other parts of the country, Xinjiang has seen rapid economic growth in the past few years, with infrastructure projects bringing the region closer to the rest of China.

According to official data, Xinjiang's regional economy grew by 7.6 percent in 2016, 0.9 percentage points above the national average. Per capita disposable income grew 8.9 percent to 18,355 yuan, also faster than the national rate.

By the end of 2016, the incidence of poverty in the region had dropped to 10 percent or less, according to a white paper issued by China's State Council Information Office.

The fast growth was partly boosted by infrastructure upgrades, which the region's authorities deemed as crucial for tackling overcapacity, deepening supply-side reform, and supporting the Belt and Road initiative.

Covering an area of 1.66 million square kilometers, or about one-sixth of China's land area, Xinjiang is huge and its infrastructure is still far from enough to support its development.

According to the provincial government work report issued earlier this year, Xinjiang plans to spend over 1.5 trillion yuan on infrastructure in 2017, including more than 200 billion yuan on new roads, 34.7 billion on the rail network, and 14.4 billion to upgrade the airport in the capital Urumqi.

The region also plans to invest over 227 billion yuan in projects including water diversion, power transmission, and cloud computing, according to the report.

The Belt and Road Initiative, aimed at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes of Silk Road, has injected new impetus into Xinjiang's development.

Since the initiative was proposed in 2013, Horgos, an old port bordering Kazakhstan in Xinjiang, has seen "explosive development," local officials said.

Last year, more than 2,400 companies were registered in Horgos. The city's GDP was 5.12 billion yuan in 2016, up 278 percent from 2015.

At the heart of the Silk Road Economic Belt, Xinjiang is also quickly building up strong industries, including chemicals, information technology, machinery manufacturing, and textiles.
Eight Chinese provinces and municipalities have entrusted National Council for Social Security Fund (SSF) with pension insurance funds totaling 410 billion yuan ($60.8 billion) for investment, according to Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security on Friday.

Lu Aihong, spokesman of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said Beijing, Shanghai, provinces of Henan, Hubei, Yunnan, Shaanxi and Anhui, and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region had signed commission contracts with SSF totaling 410 billion yuan by the end of June. National Council for Social Security Fund is responsible for managing these pension insurance funds and its account has received 172.2 billion yuan.

Lu said the ministry is promoting the entrusted investment of pension insurance funds in different provinces and stepping up the pace of making regulations on information disclosure.

In the end of 2016, National Council for Social Security had assets totaling 2 trillion yuan and 54 percent of them were entrusted investment assets.
Chinese visitors in traditional qipao dress pose for a group photo at a Hollywood boulevard beside the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. AFP

Chinese travelers are spending 28 percent of their income on average on international travel, with the millennials (those born in the 1990s) being the biggest spenders, allocating 35 percent of their income to travel, according to an industry survey.

The sixth annual Chinese International Travel Monitor report by Hotels.com said Chinese travelers of all age groups travel internationally more often and for longer, with the number of trips and number of days per trip increasing in the past year from three to four and from five to seven days, respectively.

Chinese tourists are also visiting multiple cities per trip, with over 80 percent saying they would not just stay in a single city, said the report.

The research combines data from more than 3,000 Chinese international travelers and more than 3,800 accommodation partners of Hotels.com.

This "more generation" is providing huge economic benefits to global economies. China's 122 million outbound tourists in 2016 were 4 percent more than in 2015, according to the report.

Despite China's slower economic growth rate, this year's report found spending on international travel increased across all age groups. Chinese travelers spent $3,600 on average in the last 12 months, more than a quarter of their income, and up from 24 percent of the previous year.

Jessica Chuang, regional marketing director of Hotels.com brand for Greater China, Southeast Asia and India, said the potential for growth in both the number of Chinese travelers and their spending power is enormous.

"Our research has identified that China outbound tourism offers huge economic benefits to many countries across the globe. It's therefore vital that hotels cater to Chinese travelers and develop innovative hotel services that tap into their enormous spending power."

Chinese travelers are expacted to spend an average 10 percent more on international travel over the next 12 months, with the millennials looking to increase their spend the most, with around two-thirds of the post-'80s and post-'90s consumers saying they expect to spend more.

The average amount spent per day has also increased by 8 percent from 2016, with dining, sightseeing, rest and relaxation activities proving most popular.

But shopping dropped in popularity. In 2016, 68 percent of travelers expressed an interest in shopping. That figure dropped to 33 percent this year so far.

The Asia-Pacific regions are still the most popular destinations82 percent of travelers have visited them in the past 12 months, the report said. It also said long-haul trips to Europe and the US have increased in popularity.

In the past 12 months, the number of Chinese travelers to Europe increased by 25 percent and those to the US by 11 percent. These destinations were particularly popular with the post-'80s travelers, with 42 percent visiting Europe and 29 percent visiting the US in the past 12 months.

Looking ahead, Chinese travelers show a desire to travel even further than before, with countries such as France, the US, Canada and Germany leaping in popularity, in comparison to their rankings in 2016.

Despite not making the top 10, Latin America stood out as an appealing destination, with research showing that the Chinese visiting Latin America tend to travel and spend morewith an average of nine international trips per year to the region, compared to over four overall, and have a higher average spend of $5,600 in the region compared to $3,600 overall.
A heavy-duty lorry receives coal load at a yard in Huaibei, Anhui province. Prices of coal and metals have risen this year, boosting profits and shares of listed companies in the sectors concerned. TIAN SHENG / FOR CHINA DAILY

Small tech shares out of favor due to fear of tighter regulation, high PE ratio and hopes of rise in IPOs

A rise in IPOs, expectations of stricter policy and high PE ratio are likely to hurt stocks of small technology companies as both retail and institutional investors in the equity market are increasingly favoring shares in commodity companies.

Shares in small companies in IT, biotech and new material sectors that have been in a tailspin of late, are expected to slump further, while coal, steel and nonferrous metal stocks are tipped to coast on the respective companies' brightening business performance.

"Investors are chasing stocks of listed companies with low valuations and good performance, and steering clear of stocks hyped up on concepts like 'technology-is-future'," said Zhan Jianwen, senior investment manager at China Investment Securities.

The last two years have seen a meltdown of the ChiNext Startup Index, which comprises many small tech stocks. On Friday, the index closed at 1734.07, down 57 percent from its record high of 4,037.96 on June 4, 2015, when the descent from the peak started.

Since June 2015, shares of 230 companies on the ChiNext fell more than 50 percent; 43 of them tumbled more than 70 percent; and 10, including well-known Dadong Xintai Electric and Qtone Education, crashed more than 80 percent.

Market-people attribute some of that meltdown to fears that financial regulations are likely to get stricter. A potential crackdown on accounting frauds and other illegal practices by listed small technology companies is believed to be imminent.

In addition, expectations of an IPO flood, and restrictions to preempt shadowy mergers and acquisitions or M&A aimed at boosting weak shares, have hurt the ChiNext Index, said Fu Jingtao, a market strategist with Shenwan Hongyuan Securities.

Regulators have been emphasizing that financial markets should serve the real economy, hinting at the possibility that IPOs will continue and may accelerate.

There were 260 IPOs in Shanghai and Shenzhen from January to July 14, more than the annual average of the last five years. In all, they raised 130.63 billion yuan ($19.38 billion), almost equalling the proceeds of last year.

Since 2013, the Chinese government has encouraged the development of some emerging sectors. Investors thus came to fancy stocks of companies engaged in fields like online education, online lottery and manufacture of robots.

In the first half of 2015, such stocks surged. "However, there are now more stocks with both reasonable valuations and good performance for the investors to choose, making the ChiNext companies with steep valuations not a good choice," said Fu.

The fall in M&A's of ChiNext companies meant that investors are no longer expecting M&A-related high growth, more so because in several cases, the acquired companies were subsequently found to be riddled with bad performance, Fu said.

In the January-May period, there were an average 10 M&A's per month, a far cry from the record 50 per month. Fu forecast that M&A's will decrease continuously until 2020.

"The ChiNext of today, however, should not be seen as a sign of weakness across the emerging sectors. Some of China's best tech companies are listed overseas," Fu said.

The price-earnings ratio of ChiNext stocks had peaked around 150 in 2015, exerting a great deal of pressure on the index, said Chen Jiahe, chief analyst of Cinda Securities.

That pressure has pushed the average price multiple to around 40 now. It will continue to find its bottom in the coming months, Chen said.

In contrast, coal, steel and nonferrous metal stocks have surged for the past several months, gaining momentum since June. The 300 Material Index rose almost 20 percent to 2454.73 on July 21 from 2047.95 on June 2. The index began its ascent early last year, and reached 1642.56 on Feb 5, 2016.

The commodity stocks are hot picks for their low PE ratio and companies' good performance, said Chen. "The higher-than-expected 6.9 percent GDP growth in the first half of this year and the central government's firm supply-side reforms like overcapacity reduction have boosted investor confidence."

With prices of coal and metals rising, profits of listed companies in those sectors have also kept pace, giving an impetus to their share price rise.

For instance, net profit of Ling Yuan Iron & Steel Group increased 608 percent year-on-year in the first half of the year, according to its interim report published on July 22. Its stock, which bottomed out in 2016 at 2.4 yuan, closed at 3.6 yuan in Shanghai on Friday.

However, Shenwan's Fu and Cinda's Chen both think that commodity stocks have limited upside potential as the contributory factors are already priced in.

"There has been no hot spot recently for the market to chase except the commodity stocks," Chen said, adding that China is already past the period of relying on the development of heavy industry.

So, unless there are some positives like higher exports, further economic growth would be difficult, Fu said.
Chinese tourists wearing military memorabilia saunter through central St. Petersburg, Russia, during a tour organized to relive memories of "Chinese Comrades in Red Petrograd". PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

CHANGSHA  A tour bus travels along a winding road on the outskirts of Moscow. Onboard, a posse of Chinese tourists, all in their 50s and 60s, sing along to Moscow Nights, a tune produced during the former Soviet Union. The air is thick with nostalgia.

This is a "Red Tour" organized by a travel agency in central China's Hunan province, home of Mao Zedong, according to Shu Liangliang, the tour guide.

Shu has been a tour guide for more than three years, taking Chinese visitors to iconic sites in Russia such as Lenin's tomb, the Kremlin and Red Square.

"Most of my tourists are senior citizens who experienced the "honeymoon phase" between China and the Soviet Union," Shu said.

Red Toursthose taking visitors to the sites of early communist activitiesare booming in China and Russia, as the two governments have inked agreements to boost such activities in recent years.

Shu vividly remembers one of his tourists reciting a Mao speech at the University of Moscow, where Mao originally gave the speech.

"He had memorized every word," Shu recalled.

In 2015, 22 tourism agencies from China and Russia agreed to conduct Red Tours during a tourism exchange program held in Shaoshan, birthplace of Mao Zedong.

As direct flight routes continue to open and disposable income increases, more and more such tours have hit the road.

In 2015, for example, 4,497 people from Hunan visited Russia on Red Tours. In 2016, the number rose 72.27 percent year-on-year to 7,747.

Last week, more than 1,000 people from Yan'an, a "Red City" in northwest China's Shaanxi province, began driving in a convoy to Russia as part of a Red Tour. A similar caravan of vehicles left from Changsha, capital of Hunan province.

To cater to rising demand, Russia's tourism authorities have launched a series of "red-themed" tourism products specially designed for Chinese tourists.

In St. Petersburg, known as Petrograd from 1914 to 1924, the local government touts products associated with the Soviet Union to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution, with itineraries imparting history about "Chinese Comrades in Red Petrograd" and the "February Revolution in Petrograd".

Meanwhile, China's red tourism sites, where its early communist activities began, are drawing a large number of Russian tourists, particularly Hunan province, hometown of Chinese revolutionary figures such as Mao, Liu Shaoqi, and Peng Dehuai, which currently has 140 red tourist sites.

Shaoshan, Mao's birthplace, is particularly popular with foreign tourists, said Wen Benhui, deputy head of the local tourism development commission.

"As the top tourism destination in Hunan, Shaoshan is becoming a driving force behind Hunan's red tourism," Wen said.

At the tourist sites, visitors can view historic posters of the revolutionary heroes, read stories of their early life and communist activities in their former residences, try on the uniforms of red soldiers, as well as enjoy local foods and watch performances depicting the heroes' fighting spirit.

Li Yalan, a Hunan-based tour guide with China Travel Service, said that her company receives on average 15 Russian tour groups per month, most of them coming as families. Last year, Hunan received 35,035 Russian tourists, up 31.66 percent year-on-year.

Like St. Petersburg, local authorities in Hunan also organized specially-designed Red Tours for Russian visitors, with themed tours such as "The early life of Mao Zedong" and "The War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression in Hunan" becoming quite popular.

"We hope to create great itineraries to boost the development of red tourism," said an official with the provincial tourism development commission.
A farmer in Huaxi village, Jiangsu province, checks a paddy that uses Japanese rice farming technology.PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

NANJING  After walking out of his spacious villa, Mei Zhenhua drives his Audi 6 to the rice farm in Huaxi village, known as China's wealthiest village.

The 34-year-old former metallurgy engineer has lived the agricultural life for a year and a half, as one of the seven "young smart intellectuals" selected by villagers to grow rice.

Huaxi in eastern China's Jiangsu province, about 130 km away from Shanghai, has been urbanized. With skyscrapers and a village-run aviation firm, Huaxi has accumulated wealth through the development of industries ranging from steel and chemical fiber to banking, new energy, logistics and marine transport.

However, villagers are no longer satisfied with the wealth generated from industrial development, even feeling embarrassed that agriculture has nearly died out. Nobody wants to eat produce from the village's 80 hectares of farmland, as it does not taste good.

In a decision agreed by 2,600 villagers in 2016, they gave 16 hectares of farmland to seven young people, college graduates aged 30 on average, to grow high-quality rice.

They were first sent to Asahi Noyu Farm in Japan to study how to grow high-quality rice, as none of them had farming experience.

"There is no secret in Japanese rice farming, only an artisan spirit in pursuit of perfection in each step of rice cultivation," said Mei, a graduate from China's Harbin Institute of Technology.

He said the problem of Chinese rice was a long-term focus on yield rather than taste and quality.

Returning from Japan, the seven young farmers started growing rice in Huaxi in May 2016, starting by leveling soil, selecting seed and growing seedling.

Mei said they were strict in each process, using traditional manual selection for good seed.

To ensure the water was clean, they dug a small reservoir near the field, where water is treated through three filtration procedures before irrigating the farm.

The experimental field yielded only 60 tonnes of rice last year, with a per-unit output only half of a normal Chinese rice field. However, the rice won the gold award at Jiangsu provincial rice appraisal and was soon sold out.

The village committee decided this year to give all of the village's 80 hectares of farmland to the seven farmers.

"Huaxi is after all a village. We cannot give up our agricultural roots," said Wu Xie'en, Party chief of Huaxi.

Industrialization and urbanization had been seen as a measure of development for a rural town. But people are now worried that without agriculture, the village may lose its nature, according to Wu.

The village committee has spent 50 million yuan ($7.3 million) on the good rice cultivation program. In the next five years, it will continue to send young people to study rice farming in partnership with the Japanese farm.

Cui Jingbin, one of the seven Huaxi farmers, studied in the Nishinippon Institute of Technology in Japan.

"Food safety and health are new pursuits for Chinese people. With the rice program, we neither want to earn big money, nor make an attraction, but explore a modern agricultural production system to grow high-quality rice," Wu said.

The village's current annual per capita income is over $15,000, with each household having a villa and private cars. Villagers also enjoy subsidized health care, and the village hosts over 2 million tourists every year.
BEIJING - The Chinese insurance regulator has vowed to strengthen supervision to fend off financial risk and propel reform in the sector.

"The whole sector will put risk control in a more important position," Chen Wenhui, vice chairman of China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), said when addressing a two-day internal meeting ending Saturday.

"Actions will be taken to crack down on serious violations, dissolve hidden risk points and improve the long-term mechanism to hold the bottom line of no systemic risks," Chen said.

The CIRC deputy head stressed the insurance should be a "dashpot" for the economy and a stabilizer for society, instead of a source of risk.

His words came as a further response to big insurers that have grabbed headlines by using leveraged money to buy in shares in listed companies in seek of short-term profits or controlling stakes, triggering sharp volatility and market concerns late last year.

The insurance regulator has moved in to restrain such deals with an array of measures rolled out.

Highlighting stability and financial security, Chen said insurance would in no way become financing and investment tools of big shareholders and pledged policies to ensure healthy development of the sector with improved competitiveness and more opening up.

The regulator will strengthen the sector's role in supporting the real economy, he said.

Thanks to continued financial reforms and opening up, China's insurance saw booming growth in the past years. Insurance premium income jumped 27.5 percent year on year to 3.1 trillion yuan ($460 billion) in 2016.
NAIROBI - Kenya's tourism marketers on Sunday promised to bring more Chinese tourists to the East African nation after a visit by Chinese business magnate Jack Ma.

Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) said travel agents have termed the visit by the billionaire a major boost and endorsement to their campaigns - that seek to woo Chinese travelers into Kenya.

KTB Chief Executive Officer Betty Radier said in a statement issued in Nairobi that China now listed among the top 10 tourist source market the country has potential for further growth.

Radier noted that KTB will invest more resources in strategic marketing initiatives aimed at attracting the high-end consumer segments.

"By end of April this year, we received 14,029 visitors from the country compared to 10,407 recorded in the same period last year, an increase of 34.8 percent," said Radier.

Last year, the market posted 47,860 arrivals up from 29,790 recorded in 2015, indicating a growth of 60.7 percent, she said.

Radier said family travel, resulting from the government's visa waiver for children under the age of 16, is among the factors contributing to the growth of the market.

Chinese billionaire Jack's visit coincided with the launch of mobile online training for travel agents in China rolled out by KTB to create top of mind destination awareness and spur interest for travel among the Chinese.

"As a result of his visit, I can assure you that our work of marketing Kenya has been made easier, interest to travel to Kenya has suddenly gone up and this is positive feedback," said Travel Service Bigeyes International co-founder Vivien Zhang.

A top 10 wholesaler of Africa and Middle East General Manager Johnson Chen disclosed that his company has received several inquires about Kenya that has been in the limelight in connection to Jack's visit and other China's development projects in Kenya, including Standard Gauge Railways.

"We anticipate to register an increase of travelers to Kenya in the month of September through to October, Kenya is now among the top sale destination owing to positives associations between the two countries," said Chen.

The tour operators were speaking over the weekend during promotional marketing campaigns by KTB in China's cities of Beijing, Shangai and Guangzhou.

KTB launched online mobile training for travel agents selling Kenya's products to enhance their knowledge on tourism packages the country is offering.

The marketing body has also planned to produce a destination video specifically for the Chinese market to sustain top of mind destination awareness among the Chinese.

The General Manager for Joy Way, an international travel company Eric Zhu said Kenya will host more family travelers from next year through a kid's safari package that the company has developed.

"Family travel segment to Kenya is increasingly becoming popular. In partnership with Kenya Airways, we are packaging this product around wildlife and the train services that cater for large groups and corporate clients," he said.

During his visit to Kenya, the Chinese business mogul known and respected globally for his innovative business solutions, said he saw a great future in Africa and urged both political and business leaders in the continent to embrace innovation.

Insisting the growth of technology in this era was the third phase of a global business development cycle, Jack said the new phase of technology development, driven by intelligence systems, would require the development of brains and innovations where innovation would replace human beings.
Motorcycles for take-out delivery service of Ele.me, stop outside a residential district in Beijing, May 5, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

Baidu Inc is close to finalizing a deal to sell its food delivery business, Baidu Waimai, to rival Ele.me, financial magazine Caijing reported on Sunday.

If everything goes smoothly, the deal will be announced within two or three weeks.

This news comes two months after media reported that Baidu Waimai was talking with China's leading delivery company SF Express.

According to reports, the two companies planned to establish a new company to operate the food delivery business. However, the two sides could not reach a consensus on price and conditions, and negotiations broke down.

Currently Baidu Waimai and Ele.me have reached a verbal agreement, Caijing said. After the deal, Baidu will hold shares in Ele.me, however, the figure has not been released.

In a previous interview in Caijing magazine, Baidu CEO Robin Li said Baidu Waimai needs innovation. "If it cannot beat other competitors, then drop it; a decision must be made," he said in the interview.

According to a report released by TrustData in May, Meituan Waimai, Ele.me and Baidu Waimai were the leaders in the domestic online food delivery market, with a monthly coverage rate of 1.23 percent, 0.97 percent and 0.2 percent respectively.

Also, an Alibaba executive told the magazine that Alibaba plans to take full control of Ele.me, and negotiations are currently underway. In 2015, Alibaba invested $1.25 billion in Ele.me, becoming the largest shareholder with a 27.7 percent stake.
A ship loads containers at a terminal in Qingdao, Shandong province. [Photo/China Daily]

The United States is expected to overtake the European Union as China's largest trading partner this year, a former vice-minister of commerce said.

Sino-US trade will continue to boom in the second half of this year, "with China's imports from the US growing faster than its exports". Therefore, the US trade deficit with China will decline, Wei Jianguo told China Daily in an interview.

Part of the reason why US would surpass the EU, which was China's top trading partner almost for the past decade, Wei said, lies in the ever-strengthening Sino-US economic and trade ties.

In April, China and the US agreed to initiate a cooperation plan to address trade imbalance. Under the plan, China will resume US beef imports, and allow rice imports for the first time.

Between January and June, Sino-US trade amount reached 1.85 trillion yuan ($275 billion), up 21.3 percent from last year, according to the General Administration of Customs. The growth rate is higher than that between China and the European Union members, which stood at 17.4 percent in the same period. Sino-EU trade was 1.97 trillion yuan.

"With such growth rate, it won't take long this year for China's total trade volume with the US to exceed that with the EU members", said Wei, also vice-president of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.
BRICS countries  a grouping acronym which refers to the countries of Brazil, Russia, India, South Africa and China  will step up cooperation in key industrial sectors, including information technology and intelligent manufacturing, as digital technology brings huge opportunities and becomes increasingly important in fostering economic growth, according to the ministers of the group in a statement released on Saturday.

China, Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa reached a consensus specifying emerging industries characterized by the internet, digitization and intelligence have deeply changed traditional business models, adding they would also be the new driving forces to the economy, according to the statement, released after the second meeting of the BRICS Industry Ministers concluded in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

Representatives of the countries said they would develop mechanisms for capacity cooperation, and promote deep cooperation in key sectors such as high-end manufacturing, shipbuilding, automobile and aircraft manufacturing. They also included some newly-emerged industrial areas such as next-generation information technology, biological and medical equipment, and new energy and new materials.

China's Industry and Information Technology Minister Miao Wei mentioned, as of this year, BRICS cooperation has entered into its second decade of operation.

"We are expected to fully take advantage of the BRICS mechanism, and join hands to cooperate in order to improve the industrial, economic and social development of BRICS countries," he said.

According to a plan in the statement, BRICS countries, which account for 23 percent of the global GDP in 2016, will boost dialogue mechanisms in industrial areas to explore effective technological, industrial and business cooperation modes in key areas, ensuring the industrial development strategy can be in sync with detailed industrial policies.

The plan also encouraged BRICS countries to enhance cooperation in infrastructure and technological innovation between institutions and organizations, as well as among national enterprises, research institutes and universities to gather more innovative resources.

In terms of standard cooperation, BRICS countries will encourage related government departments, standard organizations, enterprises and organizations in the industry to establish standards in intelligent manufacturing, additive manufacturing, robots and other new areas.
Workers assemble an ER30 model on a production line at Dongfeng Automobile in Xiangyang, Hubei province. YANG DONG / FOR CHINA DAILY

Carmakers failing to meet manufacturing goals could be fined; Daimler, Volkswagen already speeding up e-plans

China will soon introduce a dual-credit scheme for gasoline cars' fuel consumption and new energy car production, almost a year after first seeking public opinion about the issue in September 2016.

Zheng Lixin, spokesman of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said at a news conference on July 25 that the scheme is undergoing necessary procedures for promulgation and will be released soon.

Industry insiders believe the move shows China's commitment to speed up the development of clean vehicles, now that the government is gradually cutting subsidies and withdrawing them completely by 2020.

According to the draft scheme, automakers in the country will be assessed against the country's fuel-consumption demands. Meanwhile, they will be examined in terms of new energy vehicle credits.

Such cars include pure electric cars, plug-in hybrids and fuel cell models, though hybrids such as the Nissan Leaf are excluded.

As stipulated in the draft, the credits should account for 8 percent of an automaker's total in 2018, 10 percent in 2019 and 12 percent in 2020.

One new energy vehicle will be calculated as one to several units depending on a number of factors, including their mileage on one charge.

Those who fail to meet the goals will have to buy credits from other automakers or be fined.

Car associations of several countries including the United States, Japan and South Korea had asked the Chinese authorities to ease some of its items or postpone the scheme for some time out of worries that carmakers from their countries are not well prepared.

For example, Volkswagen, which currently sells about 4 million cars in China, may have to produce 60,000 to 300,000 electric cars a year.

Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the China Passenger Car Association, said the authorities may make some adjustments to its scheme. The spokesman acknowledged that the ministry would study their proposals, but said there will not be major changes.

He said carmakers should not be obsessed with whether there will be changes but work full speed to meet the goal.

"With or without changes, new energy vehicles are the overriding trend of the automotive industry. Those who hesitate are only wasting their time."

A visitor tries an electric car at an international new energy auto expo in Beijing this year. CHEN XIAOGEN / FOR CHINA DAILY

China has been the world's largest new energy car market since 2015. In the first five months of this year, sales totaled 136,000 vehicles nationwide, representing 7.8 percent growth year-on-year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Many automakers are accelerating their efforts to start local production of new energy vehicles.

German car giant Daimler has signed an agreement with China's BAIC Group to produce Mercedes-Benz-branded electric cars via their joint venture Beijing Benz Automotive.

In accordance with the 5 billion yuan ($736 million) agreement, the two are preparing to produce electric vehicles in China by 2020 and to provide the necessary infrastructure for battery localization using Chinese cells.

Volkswagen is partnering with JAC Motors to develop, produce and sell electric vehicles.

The 50-50 partnership will have a total investment of 6 billion yuan. Its first model, which will be produced at existing JAC facilities, is expected to roll off the assembly line in 2018.

Volkswagen is planning to deliver 400,000 new energy vehicles by 2020 in China.

John Zeng, managing director of LMC Automotive Shanghai, said the dual-credit scheme will even help to change carmakers' over-reliance on SUVs, which tend to consume more gasoline than sedans, for growth. Earlier this month, Great Wall Motor, China's largest SUV producer by sales, became a stakeholder of a new energy carmaker Yogomo, which analysts believe is a move to brace for the scheme.
Rebecca Liebert, president and CEO of Honeywell UOP, said the company helps its customers in China to make more money with better technology, better energy efficiency and better environmental footprint. BLOOMBERG

Rebecca Liebert leads Honeywell UOP's efforts to transform the petrochemical industry

Petrochemicals and their applications have pride of place in this energy-hungry worldand anyone who can help produce clean, cost-efficient energy will enjoy added significance, more so in large, populous countries such as China.

Honeywell UOP, a strategic business unit of Honeywell's performance materials and technologies division, does precisely that.

Rebecca Liebert, UOP's president and CEO, leads that effort with her emphasis on making complex things simpleshe calls it her forteand collaborating with Chinese companies.

Liebert said Honeywell helps its customers make more money with better technology, better energy efficiency and better environmental footprint.

At the heart of this make-better drive is UOP's methanol-toolefin or MTO technology.

Using Honeywell's technology, its corporate customers like petrochemical companies and oil refiners improve their olefin production capacity, reduce energy consumption and production costs.

In the context of energy, that's a virtual game-changer, which makes UOP a big deal in the industry.

This fact is not lost on Chinese energy players. In May, Wison Engineering Ltd signed a partnership agreement with UOP for the MTO technology. The two will also jointly provide EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) services, in which Wison is strong, to customers outside of China.

UOP sees the Belt and Road Initiative as a big opportunity. Liebert said: "It promises to raise the level of connectivity, cooperation and trade between dozens of nations that have traded with China for thousands of years.

"Honeywell is working with China's leading enterprises to bring economic development to these countries through its clean energy and chemicals technologies.

"Our MTO technology is one of the biggest opportunities for those countries that have very low-cost natural gas which can be put into methane and olefin."

Honeywell has 23 offices and 3,200 employees in markets covered by the initiative, including Pakistan, Kazakhstan and the Middle East that have a lot of gas and hence are keen on setting up MTO projects.

"We see the need for MTO projects in a lot of Belt and Road countries because that is where natural gas is. And if you have dry, clean, low-cost natural gas, you can easily convert it into methane, and go to olefin," Liebert said.

The growing Chinese market already accounts for 15 to 20 percent of UOP's global layout. So, the company is planning to add a brand new MTO catalyst manufacturing capacity by this year-end.

In China, UOP will be most helpful for private refiners, especially those that are not in a position to upgrade their technology to make products that meet the ever-rising standards and specifications, Liebert said.

"Cars are getting more advanced, they need higher quality fuel that can meet the environment requirements. We can help on this."

UOP, she said, can also help its clients make the most energy-efficient aromatics (a type of petrochemicals). "Chinese companies now really want to be environmentally friendly because they want to compete at the highest levelmeaning, they need the lowest cost structure."

Liebert said Honeywell UOP sees bright prospects in China in the next ten years, considering the growing affluence of the middle class, which creates demand for lifestyle-related things like cars and food takeouts.

All these are positives from the consumption perspective. For example, they create demand for air travel, which needs high-quality aviation fuel, a product of the petrochemicals and oil refining industry.

Similarly, demand for toys and plastic food containers can be met only with adequate supply of raw materials like petrochemicals.

Considering that several big petrochemical and refining projects will be set up in the next five years, UOP's focus is on them and on revamps, upgrades and improvements that will follow.

"With a growing economy, demand for our products and services is only going to be stronger and stronger," she said. "We won some major projects in China in the last few years and we'll continue to invest here to be part of this growth," Liebert said.

On a personal note, Liebert said climbing the corporate ladder and reaching the corner suite has nothing to do with being a woman.

"Some people think you got promoted because you were the only woman in the organization's top level. But I took training in petrochemical engineering very seriously. Even after receiving my PhD, I kept learning, growing and pushing myself. And I've a great team," she said during a meeting in Shanghai in June, full of poise, with her white-dotted black outfit and bluish candy-colored manicure lending an unmistakable feminine charm to her.

She joined Honeywell in 2006 from Alcoa Inc, where she was president of Reynolds Food Packaging. Prior, she served as business director of the solid polystyrene and high performance polystyrene business of Nova Chemicals.
A ceremony involving digital ribbon cutting marks the opening of the 100th retailer in Tokyo where WeChat Pay will be accepted for shopping payments. Tokyo is among the popular international destinations of outbound Chinese travelers. LU SHAOWEI/ FOR CHINA DAILY

WeChat Pay expands internationally to catch up with, and possibly overtake, market leader Alipay

WeChat Pay, the mobile payment tool developed by internet major Tencent Holdings Ltd, is accelerating overseas expansion as it narrows the gap with first-mover Alipay in China's red-hot digital payment arena.

In its latest endeavor, the company has applied for a license in Malaysia to offer local payment services via the app. If it is approved, the license would allow local users to link their local bank accounts to WeChat Pay and make payment in the local currency, the Malaysian ringgit.

The push into the Malaysian market highlights Tencent's ambition to capitalize on a growing number of internet-savvy users who are getting used to making payments by phone. Tencent wants to vie for a bigger slice of the overseas markets wherever the Chinese tourists and the diaspora have a growing presence.

The development comes just days after both WeChat Pay and Alipay struck a deal with US digital payment firm Stripe earlier this month, allowing merchants who use the latter to process transactions to accept Chinese payment tools on their websites and apps.

Tencent has taken the payment service to the United States two months earlier through a partnership with Silicon Valley-based mobile payment startup Citcon.

Under the agreement, WeChat users in China can extend their cashless transactions for shopping and taxis when they travel abroad.

WeChat is quickly gaining momentum as its 938 million active usersmore than double that of Alipay's 450 millionform the backbone of China's mobile banking market, which clocked transactions worth 18.8 trillion yuan ($2.77 trillion) in the first quarter of this year, according to Beijing-based consultancy Analysys.

WeChat Pay's share grew exponentially from low double-digit level just two years ago to 40 percent by the first quarter, while that of Alipay shrunk to 54 percent, according to Analysys.

Still it is playing the "chase and catch up" game with Alipay, with the latter having a wider global network for now. At the current stage, WeChat Pay is primarily targeting Chinese outbound tourists, who are becoming affluent and accustomed to the convenient "scan and pay" payment experience at home.

"The short-term target is still Chinese tourists," said Grace Yin, director of WeChat Pay's global operations, on the sidelines of a technology conference in Hong Kong. "The priority is nearby countries most frequented by them, such as those in Southeast Asia."

Currently, such cross-border transactions are available in 13 countries and regions, covering over 130,000 shops and supporting payments in 10 currencies. To beef up such capability, the internet giant also led a $13 million funding round in Australian cross-border payment firm Airwallex.

Thailand is on the list of countries where WeChat Pay has received a warm welcome. Bangkok's duty-free outlet King Power has seen sales significantly jump as more Chinese tourists adopted WeChat for payment, effectively shortening the long queue at checkouts, said the store's marketing manager Kuang Wei.

"(WeChat Pay) literally extends the shopping experience from China to Thailandshoppers don't have to worry about exchange rate or even the language barriersimply scan and pay," he said.

The store also publishes promotional ads and discount coupons through its WeChat official account, a service now being picked up by most merchants doing business in China as a gateway to customers.

In Japan, three quarters of stores inside Tokyo's Haneda Airport now accept WeChat as a payment option, boosting monthly revenue "by a large margin", said Takeshi Fujin, deputy senior executive officer.

"Duty-free stores and even taxis in Tokyo, which is a popular destination for Chinese travelers, can now be found using WeChat Pay," said Hunter Williams, partner of global consultancy Oliver Wyman.

"This follows the expansion of UnionPay's acceptance abroad," he said.
On July 15, EMVCo, an association facilitating standards in worldwide interoperability and acceptance of secure payment transactions, released QR code specification for payment systems, providing one of the first globally interoperable technical solution for QR code payment.

For Zhang Weili, 25, a sales representative with Shanghaibased Ailin Beverage Trade, this is good news as QR code payments will be popularized in other markets outside China.

"I am most comfortable with QR code payment, and I was a little bit surprised when I found that QR code payments, which have been dominating the mobile payment market in China, are not popular in some countries," said Zhang.

Cashless payments have been growing significantly globally, but markets are highly diversified, said Ben Gilbey, head of digital payment and labs, Asia Pacific, Mastercard.

In China, QR code is popular and has become dominant in the digital payment sector. It is the preferred method of both merchants and consumers, online and offline.

"But in other countries we see contactless payments are taking the lead, particularly in Asia Pacific and (in some markets outside the Chinese mainland, such as) Hong Kong. Samsung Pay, Apple Pay, Android Pay are quite successful in markets that favor contactless NFC (near field communication) payment," said Gilbey.

Payment technology providers are now using artificial intelligence, human-machine interactions, marketing based on data of consumption and payment behavior, according to Gilbey.

Mastercard collaborated with Softbank and PizzaHut to launch a robot called "Pepper", which helps consumers to place orders, recommends dishes from the menu, and accepts consumers' payments.

"Pepper" is likely to be used in other service sectors such as airlines.

Paul J Walsh, senior vice-president, Visa Platform Strategy & Innovation, said in a recent speech that Visa hopes to generate new business models from massive consumption data and predict consumer behavior and trends. It has plans to provide better, faster and more convenient mobile payment services.

For example, market players are analyzing data like the time taken to buy a cup of coffee, from lining up, payment, waiting for the coffee to be brewed to sipping from the cup. On average, it could be about 15 minutes. But in the future, coffeeshops may estimate which flavors are going to be ordered at a given time, so the waiting time for one's favorite coffee could be as short as 15 seconds.

China's UnionPay has been exploring connecting public services and payment methods, such as enabling cardholders to book appointments with physicians through its payment app, and tracking food safety information, to "add value to consumers and to merchants and public service providers".

China has been making a series of moves in opening up the bank card clearing market to international companies, including Visa, Mastercard, American Express and JCB, meaning that China's payment market will see increasing competition in the near future.
Environmental inspectors sent by the central government uncovered severe problems in Tianjin and the provinces of Anhui and Shanxi during a monthlong review and said slack leadership has led to environmental degradation in some areas.

The inspectors transferred 11,527 pollution-related cases to the provincial-level governments, following the highest-level environmental inspection since late April.

The governments are required to submit improvement plans within 30 days and make them public.

In the three provincial-level areas, 1,686 government officials had been held accountable for pollution as of the end of June. Officials from Shanxi were the most numerousmore than 1,000. Another 136 were detained, according to Ministry of Environmental Protection statements on Saturday and Sunday.

About 10,000 polluting companies were ordered to suspend production or shut down by the end of June, the ministry said. Of those, about half (4,331) were from Tianjin. Environmental authorities have issued fines totaling 1.25 billion yuan ($185 million).

The common thread in these cases was that leadership was weak and officials failed to give sufficient attention to pollution control.

Tianjin received an unusually harsh evaluation.

"There is a clear gap in Tianjin in meeting the requirements from the central government to match its position as a municipality and meet the expectations of the public," inspectors said on Saturday.

Some leaders did not insist on adherence to tough measures on air pollution, and air quality actually worsened in some periods. Likewise, the bureaus responsible for agriculture and urban greening did not work together, but evaded their duty to build a garbage processing plant, said Jiang Jufeng, head of the inspection team.

In Shanxi, inspectors also found that insufficient attention had been paid by provincial and city leaders, as the concentration of major airborne pollutants increased in 2016 and continued to worsen this year.

Leaders in Lyuliang, Shanxi province, were summoned to talk with the ministry twice because of severe pollution. But they did not pay sufficient attention, and measures to correct problems lagged behind schedule, said Yang Song, the team leader in Shanxi.

For example, 966 small coal-fired boilers in the city, which should have been phased out by the end of 2014, were still in operation at the end of 2016, hurting air quality.

In addition, six coal mines continued to operate illegally inside a natural protection zone in Jinzhong.

In Anhui, inspectors found that the provincial water resources bureau did not supervise drains, and that wastewater contained excessive pollutants. Also, officials in Hefei's Binhu New District allowed construction waste to pile up and harm wetland, they said.

In some places in the three areas, half the sewage was discharged without treatment.
All-female fighting force wins all-around respect The members of the only all-woman squad in the People's Liberation Army Special Operations Forces have been praised for their devotion to the cause, as Yang Wanli reports.

Every day at 5:35 am, before most people are awake, Wei Lingli, 20, and her comrades are out of bed. They have just a few minutes to wash and dress before embarking on a 5-kilometer run which they must complete in less than 24 minutes.

Recruits watch as one of their peers practices pullups on an exercise frame. FENG YONGBIN/CHINA DAILY

That's how every training day begins for the women of the 82 Group Army's Special Warfare Brigade, the only all-female squad in the People's Liberation Army Special Operations Forces, founded in March 2013 in Beijing. Most of the members were born after 1990, and they come from all parts of the country.

"We are women, but strong and tough," said Wei, who joined the brigade last year. After a year of training, her weight has risen from 50 kilograms to 55. "My body shape has hardly changed, but I've added more muscle," she said, displaying her strength by holding an 18-kilogram bottle of water in each hand.

Her new-found strength is the result of daily training. The weight of each female soldier's uniform and equipmenta water bottle, medicines, a signal flare, oil and cleaning equipment for firearms, ropes, grenades and mapsis about 10 kg.

When firearms and bullets are added, the figure rises to about 15 kg. The full ensemble is worn during daily route marches, usually of 30 to 40 km.

"Everyone in the brigade is best of the best," said Li Shanshan, the instructor, who joined the team when it was established. She recalled that last year's intake of 16 womenselected from a pool of 100 new soldiersinitially took about 17 minutes to run 3 km.

"After training for three months, more than 80 percent could complete a 3-km run in 14 minutes," she said. In addition to their outstanding physical condition, more than 75 percent of the team are college graduates.

For the brigade's members, combat skills are essential, including parachuting, scuba diving, rappelling and the use of weapons such as pistols, rifles and submachine guns.

"People make jokes sometime, saying no man would dare to marry such 'tough' women," Wei said. "But I think our iron will and brave hearts are our main attributes; we always advance in the face of difficulty."

Best choice

About six months ago, Zhang Yue, 24, celebrated the fourth anniversary of her admission to the elite brigade.

Zhang Yue adjusts her helmet as she prepares for a training session. FENG YONGBIN/CHINA DAILY

Before joining the unit, Zhang worked as a nurse in a military hospital in Hebei province. "To many people, it's a nice job that doesn't include tough training schedules and a harsh environment," she said. "But it wasn't the best choice for me. I wanted to be someone who could fight on the battlefield."

In 2013, Zhang passed the entry exam and was assigned to the brigade's first intake. She was not the only one to talk about pain and injury without complaint.

Jin Xiaohua, 23, was recently diagnosed with three fractures in her right leg, but when she was sent to hospital by her comrades after days in pain, she couldn't remember when or where the fractures occurred.

"It's not a big deal. My father taught me to be strong and optimistic when I was a child," she said. Unlike her peers, who mostly love popular music, Jin's favorite songs are all about the military, and the desire to join the army was rooted in her from childhood. "Every time I saw the national flag-raising ceremony or a military review on TV, I couldn't take my eyes from the screen," she said.

Jin was a junior student at the Shanxi Police College, where she learned unarmed combat and nunchaku martial arts while waiting for the annual army enrollment test. In 2015, she suspended her studies and started the brigade's two-year training program.

Her term of service will end late next month, and she was distraught at not being able to participate in daily training during her last weeks in the army. Instead, she used crutches to move between dormitories, where she helped to clean up and undertake other chores to help her comrades.

"Our friendship is different than in college. We are like family members who share happiness and sorrow. I will miss them all," she said.

A soldier shows off a new dress to her comrades. FENG YONGBIN/CHINA DAILY

"My efforts will never end," she said, explaining that she will return to the police college to complete her studies, and, following graduation, she will take an exam to enroll as a member of a SWAT team: "My ambition is to join the UN Peacekeeping Force and work for justice and a peaceful world."

Hu Chaocheng, 32, the brigade's male commander, said female soldiers are as aggressive and brave as men, even though the conditions are far more challenging for them than for their male peers.

Every summer, China's Special Operations Forces undertake several weeks' training at sea, which is less relaxing than it sounds. According to Hu, the external temperature is usually 50 C, while the water temperature is about 20 C8 degrees lower than in a swimming pool. Also, the quality of sea water in the training base is much poorer than that in tourist areas.

All soldiers must complete swimming and diving courses. "It's not like a vacation in the Maldives. Each swimming session is 3 km," Hu said. "With the sharp difference between the atmospheric temperature and that of the sea water, the body endures huge pressure."

Li, the instructor, has vivid memories of the first time she led the brigade to a mountainous area in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region for months of outdoor winter training.

"The outside temperature was about -10 C. We traveled for about two days in trains which only had hard seats, and there was no heating system at the training base," she said. "Hot water was limited, so each group of 10 girls shared a small bottle of hot water for drinking."

Hidden lives

Military camp is the breeding ground for the tenacity and courage of the women in the brigade. Their nonmilitary lives are hidden in their lockers, in which each member has a blue box to store personal possessions, from cosmetics to gifts from relatives and close friends.

In each 10-square-meter, six-person dormitory, the blue boxes are the soldiers' only source of privacy. Each locker contains two uniforms and a cap. The items in the small boxes are the only things that distinguish one soldier from another.

"The most relaxing time is laying on the bed with a face mask after training for a whole day," said Zhang, who took her box from the bottom of her locker and showed her personal possessions: a small beauty mirror bearing the handcarved words "Sisterhood never changes" from a friend in her hometown; a dozen handmade name tags from another friend at her home: and a portable table lamp, which she uses when she writes her diary after the 9pm lights-out call. She also had some makeuplipstick, face powder and eye shadowbut they showed few signs of having been used.

"Training is tough and makeup will quickly be destroyed by our sweat. We just use it at weekends for short daily breaks outside the camp," Zhang said. Only four people can take the break, which lasts from 8 am to 5 pm, at the same time, so we only get to leave the camp about once every two months.

The limited opportunities for leisure mean that those who take the break are always inundated with shopping requests. "The most popular items are snacks and cosmetics," Zhang said. "So, a shopping mall about 3 km away is our usual destination."

The camp is located outside Beijing's Sixth Ring Road, so a round trip to the downtown takes about four hours. According to Li, few members of the brigade have visited Tian'anmen Square; a must-see destination for most Chinese.

"Some soldiers get a chance to see the capital when they finish their term of service and are preparing to leave. But their love of China and its people is stronger than anyone else's," she said.

Contact the writer at yangwanli@chinadaily.com.cn
Craig Allen Ruhstorfer donates blood at the Pingdu blood donation station in Shandong province.[Provided to China Daily]

At the end of last month, Craig Allen Ruhstorfer offered another 400 milliliters of blood, unpaid, to a donation service station in Pingdu, a county-level city in Shandong province.

The 59-year-old teacher and donor, born in the United States, is also known by his Chinese name Liu Tianxin, and has become a familiar face to the staff at the blood donation station.

"He has been offering blood donations at our station since 2007 and he has been awarded three blood donation certificates," said Dong Yongguang, a staff member at the Pingdu donation station.

Ruhstorfer has been donating blood, twice a year, since 2003 when he worked as an English teacher in the eastern coastal city of Qingdao. To date, he has donated 28 times or 11,200 ml of blood.

Not only is he an unpaid donor, but Ruhstorfer also provides funding for 22 Chinese children. This started after he met a child in 2003 whose family was in difficulties. He gave money for the child to go to school, and his good deed led to more contributions to help other children.

The eldest of the beneficiaries is now 25 and he invited Ruhstorfer to his wedding as a family member.

The youngest one is 9 and still in elementary school in Henan province.

"One of my 'daughters' has entered her junior year and one of my 'sons' has been admitted to the well-known Pingdu No 1 Senior High School this year," said Ruhstorfer cheerfully.

"And I hope all my children can attend universities and live happy lives."

He worked as a nurse in Michigan before coming to China to become a teacher.

Comfortably fluent in Chinese, he has no barriers in daily communication. He teaches at Shangqiu Normal University, based in Henan province, and often takes the train to visit his students in Qingdao during the vacation, donating blood at the same time. Often, he also takes students to donate.

Ruhstorfer earns about 7,000 yuan ($1,035) every month, not enough to cover the school fees for his children. "I decide to sponsor their tuition or room and board according to the income of their families," Ruhstorfer said.

"Ruhstorfer often takes his children to our service station so he can buy them gifts after donations," said Jiao Haiyan, a staff member at the Pingdu station.

He lives frugally.

"I don't smoke or drink, or eat at expensive restaurants. I take the slow train because the tickets are cheaper. And this shirt I have worn for years and I will be wearing it as long as possible."

He received Golden Awards for blood donation in 2014 and 2015.

"As a foreigner who can insist on donating blood without payment, Ruhstorfer fully reflects a love without borders and is really admirable," Dong Yongguang said.
Walking from the east gate of the Central Academy of Fine Arts to its main studio takes less than 30 minutes, but for Li Cheng, a former campus security guard at the academy, the journey has taken almost a decade.

The 28-year-old recently received an official offer from the academy in Beijing, nearly 10 years after his first failed application at the country's top arts academy in 2008.

During his time as a security guard at the east gate, starting in 2012, he sketched workmates on the night shift in a silent hallway. When it came to the day shift, he would memorize English vocabulary.

Li was born in a small mountainous village in Hunan province. At age 4, he started scrawling bananas and watermelons with charcoal under the guidance of his mother, who nurtured his passion for painting.

Upon entering middle school, Li was able to continue painting thanks to his art teacher, Peng Dezhi.

"It is Peng who persuaded my parents to allow me to pursue my passion for painting," Li said.

Peng told him about the Central Academy of Fine Arts, the most coveted art school in China. He applied for the first time in 2008, but was rejected due to his poor academic performance.

Li then took on a variety of jobs to make a living, from a food delivery courier and a substitute art teacher in Changsha, capital of Hunan province, to a factory worker in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.

However, he got a chance to visit the academy in 2012 and decided that he would never give up his dream of studying there.

"I was so thrilled to visit the academy. I thought to myself, 'I must study in this divine place,'" he said.

Li applied for a job at the academy and began working as a security guard at the east gate. He started painting again and picked up his brush whenever he took a break. His artwork was seen by some students, who encouraged him to pursue his passion.

Li signed up for a training course at a small studio near the campus and went there every day after work. But successive failures in academic performance in 2013 and 2014 left Li feeling his dream was unachievable.

However, in 2016, he tried out for a fourth time, starting his academic courses from scratch. Eventually, his hard work paid off. He passed the professional test at the academy, ranking eighth nationwide.

"Sitting with classmates 10 years my junior makes me feel like I am recapturing my youth," he said.

Wang Keju contributed to this story.
Niu Jun with young leukemia patients in the Children's Hospital of Shanghai's dedicated classroom.Zhou Wenting / China Daily

Shanghai hospital first in city to offer regular schooling for young leukemia patients

A hospital ward in Shanghai that cares for children with leukemia has become the first in the city to provide regular classes taught by schoolteachers.

Education provision at the Children's Hospital of Shanghai used to be sporadic, at best, with classes given only occasionally by university students who were all volunteers.

This was an issue because children undergoing treatment for leukemia have to be hospitalized for weeks at a time over a period of two to three years.

Many ended up suspending their schooling altogether, which concerned Niu Jun, head of the hospital's social work department.

"It's important that they don't become separated from their education or fall behind in regards to their communication and interpersonal skills, because when they recover they will go back to school," said the 39-year-old Shanghai native.

To remedy the situation, Niu invited teachers from 12 of the city's kindergartens, primary and junior high schools to give lessons at the hospital, starting last spring.

They teach the curriculum, covering subjects such as Chinese, mathematics, social studies, science and art once a week.

The 50 or so children receiving treatment for leukemia are divided into three age groups and attend class in a room next to their ward, which is furnished in much the same way as a school classroom would be.

Sun Zhanli, an 11-year-old who was diagnosed with leukemia a year ago, said he looks forward to going to class every week.

"I'd even like to attend the classes for younger children if I could," said the boy from Lianyungang, Jiangsu province.

Liu Jing, whose 7-year-old daughter is also undergoing treatment, said she appreciates the hospital's efforts in providing for both her child's medical needs and psychological development.

A survey carried out by Niu's team three years ago found that nearly two in three young leukemia patients have emotional problems following their diagnosis, with their top concern being education.

"Such emotional change is more obvious with older children, especially those who performed well academically before coming to the hospital. Many would become depressed and introvert," he said.

"So we established this platform for children to interact with their peers and have access to education, which boosts their confidence."

To encourage the children to participate, they are given a stamp at the end of each class which, if they collect enough, can be exchanged for tickets to popular attractions such as Shanghai Disneyland and Changfeng Park aquarium.

Niu, who has an 8-year-old son, said the experience of being a father had given him fresh insight into how to care for children.

But he has known he wanted to work with youngsters ever since he started working at the hospital as a lab technician 19 years ago, he said.

"Most of the time when we see children in the hospital they are crying, but if you play with them or give them gifts, they will show you such pure smiles from the bottom of their hearts," he said.

"I want to see them smile more, and that is why I persevere."

Niu requested a transfer to the social work department 12 years ago and now dedicates his time to improving the hospital experience of children and raising funds to help impoverished families pay their medical bills.

He and his team raised more than 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) last year, benefiting about 500 young patients from poor families.
The People's Liberation Army's parade on Sunday reflected the Chinese military's latest efforts to strengthen its combat readiness and joint operation capability.

The PLA also used the occasion to publicize its achievements in armament modernization as nearly half of the weapons and equipment used in the event were presented for the first time in a parade, according to organizers.

The military sent 12,000 troops, about 600 land and naval weapons, and nearly 130 aircraft to participate in the parade, the first in the PLA's history to celebrate its birthday, which falls on Tuesday. The event was organized by the PLA Central Theater Command on orders of the Central Military Commission.

Field parade

The event began at 9 am at a training field of the Zhurihe Training Base, Inner Mongolia, as President Xi Jinping, also chairman of the Central Military Commission, took a car to inspect troops from all military branches who were taking part in the event. After the president returned to a central stage built to review the parade, more than 200 soldiers, carried by assault vehicles, escorted flags of the Party, the People's Republic of China and the PLA and passed the central stage.

Then 17 attack helicopters flew past the parade zone, forming the two Chinese characters of Aug 1, the birthday of the PLA. They were followed by another 24 helicopters that flew in a shape of the Arabic numerals of 90, which symbolized the 90-year history of the PLA.

Next, 18 transport helicopters, guarded by eight attack helicopters hovering low in the air, landed and deployed hundreds of soldiers at a rough training ground in front of the stage.

The demonstration of helicopters carrying troops to "penetrate enemy defense" was the first time the PLA has presented fighting maneuvers in a parade and also marked the public debut of the PLA Ground Force's airborne assault unit.

Weapons used by the ground strike group were the Type-99A main battle tank, Type-08 and Type-04A infantry fighting vehicles, 122-milimeter and 155-mm self-propelled howitzers, 300-mm multiple rocket launcher as well as HJ-10 anti-tank missile carrier. All represent the best arms of Chinese land forces.

Next in line was the information support group. It showed some of the nation's latest electronic warfare devices, such as electronic reconnaissance and electronic countermeasure vehicles, as well as anti-radar and communication-jamming drones, making public the PLA's information operation capacity for the first time.

The third group represented the Chinese military's special warfare prowess, with hundreds of elite commandos riding on dozens of light-duty reconnaissance and armored assault vehicles.

The fourth group - air and missile defense - featured early-warning radar, anti-aircraft missiles and anti-missile interceptors. The HQ-9B and HQ-22 missiles are new-generation weapons in China's air and missile defense systems.

The next formation, the naval combat group, was composed of marine and naval missiles including the latest models - HHQ-9B air defense missile and YJ-12A anti-ship cruise missile.

Up in the sky, the bulk of the aerial combat group roared through the dust and exhaust produced by moving vehicles on the ground. The group comprising seven elements - early-warning and control aircraft, bombers, transport planes, refueling tankers, aircraft carrier-borne and land-based fighter jets as well as a mechanized parachute unit.

Aircraft taking to the sky included almost all of the PLA's most advanced types, such as the J-20 supersonic stealth jet, the world's third type of fifth-generation fighter jet, KJ-500 early-warning and control plane and Y-20 strategic transport jet.

The next two groups were logistical support and counterterrorism forces.

The last, perhaps also the most eye-catching, group was from the PLA Rocket Force. Five types of ballistic missiles including DF-16G, DF-21D and DF-26 were carried by wheeled launch vehicles.

According to the Rocket Force, DF-16G carries conventional warhead and has high accuracy, strong destructive power and a short preparation time.

The DF-21D land-based, anti-ship ballistic missile features a large coverage and good penetration and target-tracking capabilities. It is a milestone in the PLA's effort to implant strategic capacity into its conventional ballistic missiles.

The DF-26, a new strategic deterrence weapon, is capable of conducting off-road launches of conventional and nuclear warheads in tough terrain. It can carry out a rapid nuclear counterattack and medium - to long-range precision strikes using a conventional warhead, the Rocket Force said.

Closeness to combat

Sergeant Major Ding Hui, a veteran tank driver who has taken part in four national-level parades - in 1999, 2009, 2015 and on Sunday, said the public can see via the Zhurihe parade what his unit, a mechanized infantry division, has gained through its combat-ready training in the recent years.

"You can see that we are well trained and equipped. Our training is now very close to actual battle. Our weapons keep improving - the Type-99A is the most advanced tank I've operated," he said. "Compared with previous tanks, it is easier and more comfortable to use and can communicate with other units such as aircraft to call for reinforcement."

Ding also said the tanks moved at a speed of 15 kilometers per hour in Sunday's parade, faster than that in previous parades, which was maintained at 10 km/h. He said the higher speed was meant to demonstrate the "fighting status" of tanks.

Major General Tang Ning, deputy chief of staff of the Central Theater Command's ground force, said the PLA Ground Force has been seeing huge strides in terms of information capacity and diversification.

Now, more combat units have air defense missiles and self-propelled guns in addition to their traditional weapons such as tanks and armored vehicles, Tang said. They have adapted to those new arms and modern joint operation, he said.

Major Mao Lei, an Air Force staff member in charge of training the paratrooper unit in the parade, said the composition pattern of his unit revealed its sense of combat readiness.

"During previous parades at Tian'anmen Square, we sent only one type of airborne tracked armored vehicle, but this time, our parade unit had not only the armored vehicle but also an airborne wheeled assault vehicle," he said. "This was because their combination, rather than merely one of them, is what we would use for a real battle. We showed today what we would be like in an actual war."

He said the Chinese parachute force has become capable of making long-range deployment of heavy-duty weapons thanks to the intensified training and deliveries of new equipment during the past five years.

"For instance, compared with the past, when we were capable of airdropping just one type of heavy-duty equipment in each operation, we are now able to deploy multiple types of such equipment in a single mission," he said.

Lieutenant Colonel Qing Yingsong, an Air Force officer from the Central Theater Command who makes plans for bombers' training, said the bomber units that appeared in the parade engage in regular drills to confront anti-aircraft, radar and electronic-warfare forces to hone pilots' capabilities.

He said the units also conduct long-range flight training over the high seas to test their strike capability.

Qing's colleague, Colonel Fan Huiyu, an Air Force researcher in the command, said the headquarters for air units in the parade used command and communications vehicles instead of fixed facilities in previous parades.

"This was because we treated this parade as an opportunity to verify our readiness for a real combat, which requires us to be mobile and to be able to respond quickly," he said.

Contact the writer at zhaolei@chinadaily.com.cn
Soldiers quick-march during the parade marking the 90th birthday of the PLA at Zhurihe Training Base in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region on Sunday.Feng Yongbin / China Daily

Almost 90 years ago, the predecessor of the People's Liberation Army - the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army - was founded by the 7-year-old Communist Party of China. The new army's creation followed a military uprising in Nanchang, Jiangxi province, led by the CPC.

At that time, the nation was an independent republic by name but continued to suffer the oppressive rule of warlords and the pain inflicted by foreign imperialists.

The first members of the force were mostly farmers who could no longer endure oppression, together with soldiers from the warlords' armies. They were inspired by the Party to save the country and liberate the people.

Soon after the army was formed, its name was changed to the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. The word "army" alone was in the name, rather than "armed forces", probably because the CPC only had ground troops at the time.

In the first years of the Red Army, its commanders and soldiers had shabby uniforms and used crude weapons - broadswords, sickles and spears. Only a few had firearms. Yet the poorly equipped army survived many extermination attempts by enemies who were often 10 times or even 100 times stronger.

The Red Army grew as poor people from across the country pinned their hopes for the future on the force and flocked to join it, playing an important role in the nation's victory in the 14-year War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45).

In 1947, at the climax of the War of Liberation (1946-49), the Red Army renamed itself the People's Liberation Army, the name by which it has been known ever since.

With the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the PLA set up its own Navy and Air Force.

In the early 1950s, the PLA freed the entire Chinese mainland and then began to reduce the number of troops. The Chinese military carried out four reductions before 1960, shrinking from 6.3 million at its largest to about 2.4 million.

Over the decades that followed, the PLA has spared no effort to modernize and strengthen its capabilities as a fighting force. It gradually developed its own tanks, aircraft and ships to replace weapons bought from other countries.

Remarkable progress was achieved in the mid-1960s, when the PLA became the fifth military in the world to possess and deploy nuclear weapons, though the Chinese government announced that it would never use such weapons in a first strike.

Despite many efforts in the 1970s and '80s, however, the PLA remained technologically and operationally behind its counterparts in many other countries - mainly because it was more important for the country to spend money on economic development and the improvement of people's livelihoods.

The situation began to shift in the 1990s, when China's top leaders realized that a succession of sweeping revolutions had been taking place in militaries around the globe, and if the PLA remained unchanged it would become incapable of safeguarding China and protecting its interests.

Modern weapons and equipment and new missions were given to the PLA during the presidencies of Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao in the past two decades.

In addition to its domestic missions, the Chinese military has contributed to international peacekeeping, maritime escorts and humanitarian and relief operations.

Since Xi Jinping became commander-in-chief of the PLA in 2012, the Chinese military has embraced a new chapter in its history. Its headquarters, regional command systems and individual branches have been overhauled to create a more modern, streamlined force.

President Xi has also repeatedly urged the PLA to boost its joint operational capabilities and combat readiness.

Now, the PLA has an aircraft carrier, a stealth fighter jet and powerful missiles. Its soldiers are well trained, spirited and dedicated. It continues to move forward toward its goal of being a world-class military.
Christopher Powers, executive director of TESOL International Association, and Zhang Haigang, vice general manager of China Daily 21st Century English Education Media, signed an agreement forming a knowledge partnership between the two organizations.

21st Century English Education Media, a subsidiary of China Daily and a leading ELT organization and publisher of English language learning and teaching resources in China, is excited to announce that it has signed a knowledge partnership agreement with TESOL International Association, a world leader in advancing expertise in English language teaching and learning.

The agreement, signed on 22 July in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, strengthens the mission and growth of both organizations. China Daily 21st Century and TESOL have agreed to collaborate on a number of new initiatives, including a three-day TESOL professional learning event in China in 2018. Additionally, the organizations will collaborate on teacher workshops and other regional and national English language teaching events throughout China.

As part of the agreement, China Daily 21st Century will help identify 2,000 new global members from across China, granting valuable access to TESOL's professional development resources and international networks. In addition, both organizations have agreed to explore other areas of English language teaching and learning.

Zeng Qingkai, editor-in-chief and general manager of China Daily 21st Century English Education Media, said that this strategic partnership has profound significance for both organizations. "With the aid of international authoritative and professional ELT resources, 21st Century English Education Media is determined to spare no effort to promote English language teaching in China and to provide more resources and opportunities for Chinese teachers of English," he added.

"TESOL and China Daily 21st Century English Education Media share similar interests in advancing English language teaching in China," said Christopher Powers, Executive Director of TESOL. "We look forward to a very productive and wide-ranging relationship with China Daily 21st Century for the years to come."
President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivers a speech after overseeing a grand military parade to mark the 90th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) at the Zhurihe training base in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, July 30, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

ZHURIHE, Inner Mongolia  Dozens of soldiers stormed out of 18 helicopters landing on a sandy patch in the heart of the vast Inner Mongolian prairie.

They joined thousands of other camouflaged soldiers in a massive miltary parade as tanks and missile launchers rumbled past. Fighter jets streaked across the clear blue sky, shooting flares.

President Xi Jinping reviewed the armed forces on Sunday morning as part of the commemorations to mark the 90th founding anniversary of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), which falls on August 1.

More than 12,000 service personnel from the army, navy, air force, armed police as well as the newly formed rocket force and strategic support troops, took part in the parade at Zhurihe military training base.

China needs to build strong armed forces more than any other time in history as the Chinese nation is closer to the goal of great rejuvenation than ever, Xi said, delivering a speech after overseeing the parade.

"The PLA has the confidence and capability to defeat all invading enemies and safeguard China's national sovereignty, security and development interests," said Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission.

Xi, who was endorsed as the core of the CPC Central Committee in 2016, called on the PLA to stay loyal to the Party, boost combat capability and continue to serve the people.

Observers said the parade had more of a combat feel as soldiers appeared as if they were gripped by the heat of battle.

"Here, the soldiers have the stares that kill," said Wang Ruicheng, deputy head of the general office of the parade headquarters.

Late leaders Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping also inspected troops in the field at key moments in history.

It is the first time for Xi to oversee such a large parade at a military base, and the first time for China to commemorate Army Day with a military parade since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.
An elderly woman looks at a screen that is capturing her face at an expo in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. [Photo/VCG]

China is looking to predict and prevent crime with the help of AI technology, according to a Financial Times report.

Facial recognition company Cloud Walk is helping police develop a system that tracks individuals' movements and behavior to assess their chances of committing a crime.

The big-data rating system warns police of highly suspicious groups based on where someone goes and what he or she does, a company spokesperson told FT.

Risks arise if a person "frequently visits transport hubs and goes to suspicious places like a knife store," the spokesperson added.

The vice-minister of science and technology, Li Meng, said that AI will be a key function in crime prediction for the government.

"If we use our smart systems and smart facilities well, we can know beforehandwho might be a terrorist, and who might do something bad," said Li.

Facial recognition equipment and a screen are installed at an intersection in Xiangyang, Hubei province, to shame jaywalkers. [Photo/VCG]

The crime-prediction technology is dependent on several AI techniques, like behavioral recognition and gait analysis, to identify people from surveillance footage.

In addition, "crowd analysis" can be used to detect "suspicious" patterns of behavior in crowds, for example singling out thieves from normal passengers at a train station.

From shaming jaywalkers to keeping intruders out of university dorms, China continues to embrace facial recognition and other AI technologies in public spheres.

The State Council declared on July 20 that the country plans to build a world-leading AI industry worth $150 billion by 2020.
China will hold an international convention on protecting and developing traditional villages in Xiamen, Fujian province, in late October.

The event will focus on how to protect agrarian civilization in a global context, sustainable development, China's heritage protection efforts, and new technologies.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and Fujian provincial government announced the event at a news conference in Beijing on Monday.

"Traditional villages are living cultural heritage that bear historical memory, culture and arts, and ethnic and regional features of the Chinese nation," said Zhao Hui, the ministry's chief economist.

"They are living proof of the continuation and development of civilizations, and the embodiment of the rich human wisdom in living as a community and in harmony with nature, which teaches an important lesson about how humans should develop in the current and future environment."

Yet he said it has been a challenge to protect traditional villages, as many have disappeared due to industrialization and urbanization.

"Protecting them is crucial to address sustainable development issues in the UN's Agenda 21," Zhao added. "It's conducive to combating poverty and guaranteeing access to basic resources such as water, sanitation and disaster prevention infrastructure in rural areas."

Some 4,153 locations have been listed as national traditional villages since the Chinese government launched an initiative to protect them in 2012.
The Porcelain House in Tianjin is to be auctioned on August 8 to pay off its landlord's debt. [Photo/VCG]

A court in Tianjin has decided to auction a house decorated with ceramic chips on August 8 to pay off its landlord's debt.

The People's Court of Dongli District in Tianjin previously planned to do the public sale on July 22, but it was postponed for 17 days. The building's initial bidding price would be more than 140 million yuan ($20.8 million), the Beijing News reported.

The Porcelain House, located in Chifeng street, Heping district, is a four-story art museum owned by Zhang Lianzhi. Zhang has to sell the house due to an economic dispute, but he claimed the ceramic building was worth nearly 9.79 billion yuan ($1.5 billion), citing an assessment report from an evaluation company he commissioned.

Why the huge price difference?

The Porcelain House was originally a French style building dating back to the 1920s. It was the former residence of Huang Rongliang, a Chinese diplomat in the Republic of China era (1912 - 1949). Zhang bought it for 30 million yuan from Tianjin commercial authorities in 2000, according to Huang Xiaoyan, Zhang's assistant.

Zhang, a porcelain collector, began renovating the house in 2000. It took him 10 years to complete the decoration, which involved covering the inside and outside of the building with hundreds of thousands of porcelain pieces, a staff worker in the house said. The house opened to the public as a museum in 2007.

More than 700 million fragments of ancient porcelain, 13,000 ancient porcelain vases and bowls, and many other antiques were used in his decoration, as well as hundreds of pieces of furniture dating to Ming (1368 - 1644) and Qing (1644 - 1911) dynasties, claimed Zhang.

However, the court's evaluation excluded those porcelain pieces. Zhang and the building's bid winner can decide for themselves about the porcelain pieces after the deal is finished, a judge surnamed Zheng working at the Dongli district court told Tianjin media.

On the contrary, Zhang's assessment involved two parts: the house property that's worth 330 million yuan and the porcelain, 946 million yuan.
Huazhong University of Science and Technology. [Photo/Xinhua]

A new undergraduate management regulation at one of China's top universities has sparked a nationwide debate on the future of the country's higher education system.

Huazhong University of Science and Technology in central Hubei Province says undergraduate students who perform poorly will not be able to continue their bachelor courses, but will instead only be able to achieve an associate degree.

Many Internet users think it is unacceptable not to be given a bachelor's degree after fierce competition in the earlier college entrance examination.

However, the university responded that the new measures respect students with different levels of potential.

"The system offers a certain degree of flexibility in the current education model. Students who don't get enough credits will be given another opportunity to continue their studies, rather than simply drop out of school," the university said in an online statement.

And Huazhong's justification has gained a lot of support on social media platform, Weibo.

User @Haishijiaowohuizhangdarenba said, "For those who face dropout, it is a good choice."

"The new measures will not affect those who study hard at all. For the slackers, it is better for them to learn the lesson at school than after graduation. It should be encouraged in other universities as well," posted @Chitushaonvyaolianle.

While @Liangleibadao said, "The regulation was adopted at Tsinghua University more than a decade ago. It is nothing new. The requirement is not that harsh at the end of day."

This is a wake-up call for many Chinese undergraduates, as universities usually have a higher threshold to get in, with only 40 percent of enrollment rate nationwide, but almost the lowest dropout rate in the world.

Reports say that 160,000 students dropped out of universities and colleges in China in 2011.

That was only 0.75 percent of the country's millions of students, compared with 15.6 percent in public universities in Australia and an average of 20 to 25 percent in the US.






A tank opens fire at the International Army Games 2017, in Korla, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, July 31, 2017. [Photo by Zou Hong/CHINA DAILY]

Suvorov Attack, one of the most popular events among the International Army Games 2017, kicked off on Monday in Korla, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

The International Army Games 2017, which will conclude on Aug 12, are comprised of 28 events held in Russia, China, Azerbaijan, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

The event features competition among infantry fighting vehicles. Except for Russia, which brought its own vehicles, the other countries will use Chinese infantry fighting vehicles.

Some people call the comprehensive games the military Olympics.

On Monday, China, Russia and Angola participated in the first day of the individual race.

Each team sends three IFVs to pass different obstacles, including mine, fire, water and an anti-tank ditch, to test the crew's maneuvering skills. Each crew also has to participate in three firing sessions.
Oil on canvas, Lotus pond. [Photo/Chinanews.com]

When summer is in full swing, ponds of lotus flowers are blooming in many parts of China. For Shangdong-born artist Zhang Shijian, the summer flower has become an important inspiration for his art over the years.

The Scent of Lotus, the 58-year-old painter's first solo exhibition, opened to the public at the No 1 Art Space in Beijing on Sunday, showcasing 40 of his oil paintings portraying the grace and beauty of lotus flowers and its thriving and withering through the changes of seasons.

Born in Jinan, East China's Shandong province, Zhang started his painting career in the early 1990s. Over the decades, he's formed a unique painting style with extraordinary use of colors and light. Since the lotus is a typical summer flower in Jinan, it has become one of Zhang's favorite objects of art creation.

"I'm never tired of sketching nature. We don't even need to modify it since nature is beautiful enough itself," Zhang told China News Service.

The exhibition runs until August 13.
[Photo provided to China Daily]

"I'd like a cheeseburger, large fries and a Cosmo, please."

In the beloved TV series Sex and the City, protagonist Carrie Bradshaw famously paid tribute to her love of New York City and the Cosmopolitan cocktail. This summer, do her one better and try it yourself  it's easy to look like a cocktail pro with our picks below.

[Photo provided to China Daily]

Millefiori Jug, Karma Living

Pour juice or ice water from this pretty jug  it makes your fruit-based cocktails taste that much sweeter. Don't believe it? Try making a pina colada, blue Hawaiian or mai tai.

[Photo provided to China Daily]

Floating Cooler, BigMouth Inc

Wonder how to keep your drinks close-by when you're in the pool? This pink flamingo floating cooler helps to hold five drinks while you can also store more bottles and cans with ice in the central bucket.

[Photo provided to China Daily]

The Shaker, Odeme

Experiment with your recipes using this glossy, gold-toned cocktail shaker  it'll definitely make your drinks more stylish.
LUO JIE/CHINA DAILY

Three weeks ago, G20 leaders committed to working together to address one of the world's most pressing and perplexing security threats: antimicrobial resistance (AMR)a fierce and evolving adversary against which conventional therapeutic weapons are of no use.

The threat is straightforward: bacteria and other microbes are becoming resistant to available medicines faster than new medicines are being developed. Every year, drug-resistant microbes kill about 700,000 people worldwidemore than three times the annual death toll from armed conflicts.

Last year, a special panel commissioned by the British government predicted that, by 2050, as many as 10 million more people will die from drug-resistant microbes every year. AMR now poses a clear danger to every person on the planet. Unless we confront it head-on, we could return to a world in which it is common for people to die from basic infections.

Beyond the cost in human lives, AMR could devastate the world's economies. In Europe alone, the annual healthcare costs and productivity losses associated with AMR already total about 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion).

The G20, for its part, has taken an important step forward: each G20 country has promised to start implementing national plans to fight AMR in earnest, and to do more to promote new treatments against resistant microbes. To that end, G20 leaders are calling for an international "research and development collaboration hub" to "maximize the impact of existing and new anti-microbial basic and clinical research initiatives". And they have promised to explore how market incentives can be used to encourage new research.

Beyond the G20, innovative public-private partnerships are emerging to deliver new treatments against drug-resistant killers such as tuberculosis. And some governments have already started filling critical roles in the global response to AMR, by collecting data on the spread of resistant strains of E. coli, salmonella and other common pathogens.

Now it is up to political leaders to follow through on their commitments. Because new treatments for multidrug-resistant microbes aren't expected to generate much return on investment, it is incumbent upon governments to make research and development in this field more attractive to private companies, and, in order to stem the development of resistance, to ensure that new drugs are not overused.

Besides, more well-funded collaborations between governments and private institutions are needed. When private institutions enter into such collaborative efforts, they must be prepared to work outside of traditional boundaries, accept the challenges associated with complex public projects, and be willing to bring their skills, ideas and experience to the table.

In responding to AMR, we can learn some valuable lessons from other global public health efforts. Malaria, which is caused by a parasite transmitted by more than 100 species of Anopheles mosquito, is a leading cause of death in many parts of the world. But its death toll has been halved over the last 15 years thanks to the high priority accorded to fighting the disease by many governments and private institutions.

Still, the parasite that causes malaria is developing resistance to artemisinin, which forms the basis for the most effective treatment: artemisinin-based combination therapies. Artemisinin resistance first emerged in Cambodia just over a decade ago, and has since spread through Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar and China. It is now approaching India, and experts fear it will eventually reach Africa. According to one recent study, if artemisinin resistance is allowed to spread, malaria will kill at least 116,000 more people every year.

Unless new treatments become available, the tremendous progress that the world has made against malaria will have been tragically short-lived. Fortunately, those engaged in the global response to malaria recognize that just as parasites are adapting to new situations, so must we. New efforts are underway to identify and minimize the spread of resistant malaria, while simultaneously developing new artemisinin-free treatments.

For example, the Regional Artemisinin-Resistance Initiative is working to halt the spread of resistant malaria in the Mekong Delta region, by monitoring and sharing drug-resistance data and promoting proper use of antimalarial treatments. So far, the initiative has secured $128.65 million through the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which is financed primarily by governments.

Moreover, Novartis and the Medicines for Malaria Venture (with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) are starting a new clinical trial next month to test KAF156, a molecule that could form the basis of a new treatment against artemisinin-resistant malaria strains.

At last year's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, 100 companies (including Novartis) and industry associations signed the Davos Declaration on AMR. Under that commitment, we promised to work together with governments to slow the development of resistance, by increasing our investments in research and development and making high-quality antibiotics available to patients who need them.

The G20's national action plans will, we hope, help us to meet these commitments. But political leaders, too, must marshal the will to turn words into action. We urgently need more resources to monitor resistance, stronger incentives for R&D, and innovative financing mechanisms to ensure widespread access to accurate diagnoses and quality medicines.

The world cannot afford to lose the fight against AMR. Winning it will require large-scale public-private cooperation, underpinned by political leadership that makes global public health a top priority.

The author is chairman of the Novartis board of directors. Project Syndicate
Overwork, a deep-rooted problem in Japan, is back in the spotlight.

A 23-year-old worker on Tokyo's new National Stadium, the centerpiece of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games, committed suicide in April. On July 20 his parents submitted an application for compensation to Japan's Labor Standards Office, saying the cause of his suicide was overworkhe worked 200 hours of overtime in the month before his death, twice as much as the "allowable" maximum 100 hours of overtime a month.

Death by overwork, which first hit the headlines in Japan in the 1970s, has a Japanese term: karoshi. Excessive overtime work is still the norm in Japanese companies. A government white paper released in October last year showed that almost a quarter of the companies employed people who worked more than 80 hours of overtime a monththe official threshold for the risk of karoshi.

Once a death is judged karoshi in Japan, the victim's family is entitled to receiving compensation. The Japan Times reported 107 people were confirmed to have died from overwork in fiscal 2016-17, which ended in March.

Overstressed workers are likely to succumb to heart attack, and cerebral stroke or commit suicide. In fact, apart from the 107 confirmed karoshi, 84 people either committed or attempted suicide because of overwork.

Matsuri Takahashi committed suicide in December 2015. She had joined Japan's biggest advertising agency, Dentsu, in April that year and put in more than 100 hours of overtime work every month. She was just 24.

An investigation was ordered into her death, and the company chief executive has resigned. And on July 12, the Tokyo Summary Court said the Dentsu case demands an open trial.

Why do Japanese people work themselves to death? Why can't they quit their jobs that require them to work long and extra hours?

The number of full-time, permanent jobs with benefits and chances of promotion in Japan has dropped from about 85 percent in the 1980s to less than 60 percent today, according to Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

The country's 3.1 percent unemployment rate is low, but most of the hiring over the past two decades of economic uncertainty has been for part-time positions. So full-time workers feel obliged to work extra hours lest their positions be made temporary. In fact, they are asked to work overtime for free, known in Japan as "service overtime".

Hard work is considered the cornerstone of Japan's postwar economic miracle. That's why leaving the office before one's superiors or seniors is considered rude. And although most Japanese workers get a 20-day paid leave a year, few take even half of it for fear of being seen as slacking or lacking commitment to their job.

Japan's culture of overwork is toxic. It has been blamed not just for a big number of karoshi, but also the critically low birth rate and declining productivity in Japan.

Approving a plan on Tuesday to curb excessive work hours that people are angry with, the Japanese government announced to cut the suicide rate by 30 percent in the next 10 years.

But the plan to reduce the suicide ratethe ratio per 100,000 peoplefrom 18.5 in 2015 to less than 13.0 in 2025 sounds ambitious. The number of suicides in Japan has dropped since 2003 when a record 34,427 people took their own lives. But Japan still has the highest suicide rate among the Group of Seven countries.

The government has been trying to change the overtime culture in Japan by, among other things, naming and shaming more than 300 companies, including Dentsu, for forcing their employees to work overtime and other workplace violations. But without any penalties, it can hardly discipline the companies steeped in a culture of overwork, discrimination and harassment.

The upcoming trial of Dentsu, however, could shine more light on "service overtime" and sound the alarm for company managements to stop forcing their employees to work overtime for free and long hours.

The author is China Daily Tokyo bureau chief. caihong@chinadaily.com.cn
The flag raising ceremony during the military parade at Zhurihe training base in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region Sunday, July 30, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

It was the first time a large-scale parade had been staged as part of commemorations to mark the founding of the People's Liberation Army, which celebrates its 90th birthday on Tuesday.

It was the first time a parade of such scale and importance has been held in the field.

It was the first time President and PLA commander-in-chief Xi Jinping was seen in PLA fatigues on an occasion like this.

It was the first time some of the PLA's new weapons made their media debut.

All these firsts occurred on Sunday at Zhurihe in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, which is the PLA's largest and most sophisticated combined tactics training base.

That the show was staged at the once mysterious Zhurihe, a training base devoted specifically to drills in simulated combat environments, where the PLA's latest weapons along with its latest tactics and methods of operation are tested, was not only further proof that the PLA is embracing greater transparency but also a sign of its greater self-confidence.

China's past experience of being ravaged by foreign powers has cultivated in Xi an acute awareness of the nation's need for a strong, capable military.

Although to some scrutinizing it from a different perspective it may have sent a divergent message, as Xi told the PLA troops on parade on Sunday, the country needs a strong military "more than ever" as the world is far from tranquil, and the country's peace needs to be guarded.

And certainly, above all, Sunday's parade was a review of the military reform Xi has masterminded and presided over.

Barely a year after he assumed leadership of the Communist Party of China in 2012, Xi incorporated national defense and military reform into the country's comprehensive reform plans. For the first time in history, national defense and military reform were written into the resolutions of a CPC plenum as an independent section.

Two years later, Xi officially inaugurated the ongoing reforms amid a high-profile anti-corruption campaign within the PLA. An overall plan was announced in July, followed by a 300,000 cut in PLA troops in September and an implementation plan for command system reform in October.

Since then, the PLA has realized a profound change in structure and strategic thinking.

The formations at the Sunday parade were reportedly structured in combat groupings to reflect the PLA's new emphasis on joint operations, echoing Xi's idea that combat effectiveness is the fundamental gauge for the military, and demonstrating that the PLA is getting closer to what Xi envisions as a leaner, more capable, world-class modern military.
Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, speaks at a symposium for provincial and ministerial level officials held on Wednesday and Thursday in preparation for the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. MA ZHANCHENG / XINHUA

President Xi Jinping's recent speech at a meeting of provincial and ministerial-level officials has been viewed as setting the tone for the political, ideological and theoretical foundations of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China to be held later this year.

Xi said that experience has proved that socialism with Chinese characteristics is the best way to ensure the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people, and there is every reason to be confident as great achievements have been made over the past four decades since reform and opening-up was launched, especially over the past five years in terms of implementing a new concept of development, deepening reform, enhancing the rule of law, improving the environment and building a strong military.

A number of so-called China-watchers have long predicted a "China collapse". But the truth is that China's growth rate still surpasses that of many major economies in the world, the Party is getting stronger and the country's circle of friends in the international community is expanding.

At present, the major task for the CPC is to lead the country to accomplish the goal of building a moderately prosperous society by 2020.

After 2020, China will strive to become a modern socialist country by 2049, the centenary of the People's Republic of China.

The Party understands that people want better education, higher incomes, stable jobs, reliable social insurance, higher quality medical services, more comfortable living conditions, a more beautiful environment and a richer cultural life.

Socialism with Chinese characteristics will prove that it can withstand the test of history and also expand the pathway to modernization for developing countries, thus providing Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions to the problems facing mankind.
A combination of two photos shows US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin as they arrive for the G20 leaders summit in Hamburg, Germany, July 7, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

DONALD TRUMP is expected to sign legislation that imposes sweeping sanctions on Russia, Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and he will have to consult Congress if he wants to lift them. Beijing Youth Daily commented on Saturday:

The approval of the simultaneous sanctions on the three countries with an overwhelming bipartisan majority of 97 to 2 in the Senate has implications for the Trump administration, as the bill requires Trump to acquire congressional approval before he eases or lifts the sanctions.

That the move limits the president's powers to lift the sanctions points to an ever-solid bipartisan consensus that the president of the United States, who normally does not need congressional support to exercise diplomatic powers, should be subject to Congress. The pro-establishment forces in both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party may have played a role in pushing forward the bill, as Congress remains vigilant to Trump's handling of ties with Russia.

The Russian factor has been a thorn in the US politics since Trump's election. The legislation is in part a response to conclusions by US intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in last year's presidential election in the United States, and to further limit Trump's inclination to seek warmer ties with Moscow.

Even if he refuses to endorse the legislation, Congress could still overrule Trump and turn the bill into law.

Meanwhile, the legislation risks invoking retaliation from the sanctioned parties. The Russian Foreign Ministry has complained of "growing anti-Russian feeling" in the US, and Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that his country would fight back against "boorish US behavior".

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani took a similar stance more than a week ago after US State Department complained Iran was "in default of the spirit" of the 2015 nuclear deal.

All in all, it reinforces the impression that the Trump administration's learning curve is exceptionally long.
Photo taken on July 16, 2017, shows the summer scenery at Yamdroktso Lake, about 110 kilometers from Lhasa, Southwest China's Tibet autonomous region. Yamdroktso is one of the three holy lakes in Tibet. The other two are Namtso Lake and Mapam Yumco Lake. Due to Yamdroktso's mesmerizing natural scenery, it attracts numerous international visitors every year.[Photo/Xinhua]
A wildlife park in Kenya.[Photo/Xinhua]

Kenya's tourism marketers on Sunday promised to bring more Chinese tourists to the East African nation after a visit by Chinese business magnate Jack Ma.

Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) said travel agents have termed the visit by the billionaire a major boost and endorsement to their campaigns - that seek to woo Chinese travelers into Kenya.

KTB Chief Executive Officer Betty Radier said in a statement issued in Nairobi that China now listed among the top 10 tourist source market the country has potential for further growth.

Radier noted that KTB will invest more resources in strategic marketing initiatives aimed at attracting the high-end consumer segments.

"By end of April this year, we received 14,029 visitors from the country compared to 10,407 recorded in the same period last year, an increase of 34.8 percent," said Radier.

Last year, the market posted 47,860 arrivals up from 29,790 recorded in 2015, indicating a growth of 60.7 percent, she said.

Radier said family travel, resulting from the government's visa waiver for children under the age of 16, is among the factors contributing to the growth of the market.

Chinese billionaire Jack's visit coincided with the launch of mobile online training for travel agents in China rolled out by KTB to create top of mind destination awareness and spur interest for travel among the Chinese.

"As a result of his visit, I can assure you that our work of marketing Kenya has been made easier, interest to travel to Kenya has suddenly gone up and this is positive feedback," said Travel Service Bigeyes International co-founder Vivien Zhang.
File photo shows Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a news conference after the G20 summit in Hamburg, northern Germany, July 8, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

MOSCOW - Moscow will reduce diplomatic staff of the United States in Russia by 755 people in order to equal the number of Russian diplomatic personnel in the US, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sunday.

"The personnel of the US diplomatic missions in Russia will be cut by 755 people and will now equal the number of the Russian diplomatic personnel in the United States, 455 people on each side," Putin said in an interview broadcast with Russia's Rossiya TV channel.

Denouncing the latest "unlawful" move by Washington to tighten sanctions against Russia, Putin said it is time for Moscow to show that "we will not leave anything unanswered."

"We've been waiting for quite a long time that maybe something would change for the better, we had hopes that the situation would change. But it looks like it's not going to change in the near future," Putin said.

On Thursday, the US Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill slapping tougher sanctions on Russia, two days after the bill was approved by the US House of Representatives.

The bill will be sent to the White House for President Donald Trump to sign into law or veto.

Putin said Russia has prepared a large set of measures to respond to the US when it is necessary, including restrictions in "sensitive" areas of cooperation with the latter, which hopefully would not bse affected for the moment.

"We could imagine, theoretically, that one day a moment would come when the damage of attempts to put pressure on Russia will be comparable to the negative consequences of certain limitations of our cooperation. If that moment ever comes, we could discuss other response options. But I hope it will not come to that. As of today, I am against it," Putin said.

According to the president, the above-mentioned areas mostly include the joint fight against terrorism, obligations in nuclear arms control and space projects rather than economic relations, Putin said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Friday that it would scale down US diplomatic staff in Russia to 455 people and seize a US warehouse and a recreational compound in Moscow.

It added that Russia reserves the right to give an adequate response if Washington takes further hostile measures.
A Chinese woman reported missing in Japan left a thank-you note addressed to her parents at a guesthouse in Sapporo, Hokkaido News reported.

Wei Qiujie, 26, a primary school teacher from Shaowu, Fujian province, disappeared on July 23 during an eight-day vacation to Hokkaido, the northernmost part of Japan.

In the note, which was left with other belongings in the guesthouse, she bade farewell to her family and said she was starting a new life, according to the report.

Her father, mother and younger brother traveled to Sapporo on Friday and met with police officers in Hokkaido on Saturday.

Wei, who was traveling alone, arrived in Hokkaido on July 18. She first stayed in Hako before moving to Sapporo two days later. She had paid the guesthouse in advance and was due to check out on July 25.

However, after leaving on the morning on July 22, Wei never returned, and the guesthouse called the police.

Wei Huasheng, the missing woman's father, said he received a message on WeChat from his daughter at 5:26 pm that day saying she had returned safely. She also "liked" a friend's post on Sina Weibo on July 23.

Hokkaido police traced Wei Qiujie to a hot spring resort next to Lake Akan in Kushiro on July 22, where she stayed overnight. Her whereabouts after she departed the next morning are unknown.

Japanese media reported that an employee at Akan Line, a tour company that operates cruises around Lake Akan, saw a woman who looked like Wei board a boat alone at 8 am on July 23.

With the search underway, Hokkaido police have released Wei's photo to the public and are asking people to report any sightings, according to Jiji Press.

Wei Huasheng said his daughter showed no change in character before leaving for Japan. He told Hokkaido police that it was her first time to visit, and that she does not speak Japanese and has no friends in the country, according to Kyodo News.

"I want to search for my daughter and bring her home," he was quoted as saying by Japanese media.

The airline with which the woman was booked to fly to Shanghai on July 25 said there is no record of her boarding the plane, rescheduling or canceling her ticket.

caihong@chinadaily.com.cn
A community leader has called on Chinese parents with children studying in the United States not to overreact about the alleged kidnapping of Zhang Yingying, a visiting scholar who went missing in June.

Simon Pang, president of the US Sino Friendship Association, said the incident had concerned Chinese people - and Asians generally - but stressed it was an isolated case.

The Asian community has been actively involved in the case, he said. "Even Henry Chang-Yu Lee (one of the world's foremost forensic scientists) has been involved. I was also involved, making comments, making suggestions," he added.

Zhang, 26, who was on a study program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has not been seen since June 9, when a campus security camera recorded her getting into a dark-colored car near a bus stop.

Prime suspect Brendt Christensen, 28, of Champaign, was indicted this month on a charge of kidnapping and pleaded not guilty. He will stand trial on Sept 12.

Based on the evidence collected, police say they believe Zhang is no longer alive.

People of Chinese origin living in the US have made efforts to look for Zhang and closely followed the case.

Still, Pang pointed out that "in every country you travel there are good people and bad people". Concern over security is not a good reason to miss out on opportunities to study or work in the US, he added.

He said the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles is doing a good job of protecting Chinese students by "working very closely with Chinese student bodies to make sure everybody stays safe" and by sharing its emergency contact numbers.

Pang is leading a delegation of elected officials from California, including five mayors and entrepreneurs, to China. The trip is scheduled to take them to Beijing and then to the provinces of Sichuan, Fujian and Guangdong.

It is the sixth time his association has worked with the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries to arrange such a trip.

"Some US reports about China are very negative, so we like to invite elected officials and local mayors to visit China, so at least they can see that China is very different from what is reported," Pang added.
People wait to vote during the election of the National Constituent Assembly (ANC) at a polling station in Caracas, Venezuela, on July 30, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

CARACAS - Venezuela's Vice President Tareck El Aissami said on Sunday that voting was proceeding smoothly, except for an "isolated incident" in Tachira state that authorities brought under control.

He called Sunday's vote "a turning point towards a Venezuela with equality (and) social justice."

From the early morning, Venezuelans turned out in large numbers to vote for a constituent assembly to amend the constitution, said El Aissami.

"The people have turned out en masse to exercise this fundamental human right, this right that shows Venezuelans' civic spirit (and) commitment to building a country in a peaceful and democratic way," El Aissami told reporters, after casting his vote in central Aragua state.

Samuel Moncada, foreign affairs minister, said the participation of Venezuelans on Sunday, in the election of a National Constituent Assembly (ANC) is a "vote for peace."

After voting, the Venezuelan minister told the press of the importance to seeing the people out voting and rejected the country's critics.

"Opponents, some governments and even the CIA do not recognize this power...because they have a plan to control Venezuela. We do not need them or the vote of opponents," said Moncada.

Moncada highlighted the election for the ANC, which will rewrite the Constitution, as a "declaration of sovereignty," as well as "self-determination, independence, liberty, rebellion and pride."

As the day went on, however, tensions bubbled over into violence and five dead were reported.

In the morning, Ricardo Campos, 30, died in the northeast state of Sucre, the prosecutor-general's office said on Twitter.

An opposition legislator, Deputy Henry Ramos Allup, identified Campos as a youth opposition leader for the conservative Democratic Action (AD) party, and said he died of a gunshot near his home.

Later in the day came the announcement of four more deaths. Two adults, Luis Zambrano, 43, in the central state of Lara, and Ronald Ramirez, an army lieutenant, in the western state of Tachira.

According to the prosecutor-general, Luis Zambrano was shot dead during a protest in Barquisimeto, the capital of Lara, while Ramirez was shot in the left lung during an opposition protest at the Jauregui de La Grita military school in Tachira.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan (L), Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir (R), Foreign Minister of Egypt Sameh Shoukry (2nd L) and Foreign Minister of Bahrain Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa (2nd R) pose for a photo before their meeting in Manama, Bahrain on July 30, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

MANAMA - The Saudi Arabia-led Arab quartet on Sunday expressed preparedness for talks with Qatar, while insisting that Doha must meet their demands.

"We reiterate the importance of Qatar's compliance with the 13 demands outlined by the four states," said a joint statement released by the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt after a meeting.

Speaking at a televised joint news conference, Bahrain's Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa said the four countries are ready for dialogue with Qatar if it announces its "sincere willingness" to stop funding terrorism and extremism, halt interference in other countries' foreign affairs, and respond to the 13 demands.

"We are ready to have a dialogue provided the 13 conditions are met by Qatar," said Sheikh Khalid.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir said their demands "cannot be negotiated," adding steps taken by his country along with the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt were "sovereign and within international accords."

On the issue of Qatari Hajj pilgrims, Al Jubeir said they are welcome by Saudi like pilgrims from any other country.

"Kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not accept politicization of the pilgrimage, which is a religious act," he said. "We will welcome Qatari pilgrims like other Muslims."

He blasted Iran for trying to exert influence by benefitting from the situation in the Gulf.

"Any country that has dealt with Iran has a negative consequence, and if our brothers in Qatar think they will reap any benefits with Iran then they did not assess the situation properly," he said.

UAE Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister Sheikh Abdulla bin Zayed Al Nahyan said all measures taken by four states were within international laws and "essential to deter the scourge of terrorism which affected stability of other countries."

The Saudi-led quartet cut diplomatic ties with Qatar and imposed a blockade on the tiny rich Gulf nation on June 5, citing Doha's support of terrorism and extremism, interfering in their internal affairs and seeking closer ties with Iran, a Saudi rival.
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The Mi-171A2 is a civilian version the Mi-8/17 helicopter, but from a technological standpoint, it is categorically considered an aircraft of the 21st century.

While presenting the Mi-171A2 to a large group of Russian and foreign journalists, Dmitry Zuikov, the head of marketing at the Russian Helicopters holding company, said that the Mil-171A2 is powered by newly-designed engines that ensure the rotorcraft's fail-proof use in high humidity tropical conditions.

"The Mi-171A2 is ideally suited for regions like the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Latin America and boasts the best qualities of the Mi-8/17 series, including the onboard equipment. Because most of its elements are made in Russia, we can freely sell it abroad disregarding any sanctions," Zuikov added.

The Mi-171A2's cabin accommodates up to two crew members and 24 passengers in energy-absorbing seats.

The helicopter takes a mere 40 minutes to be converted to a cargo version.

It has a maximum payload of four tons inside the cabin, while the maximum payload on the external sling is 5 tons  a whole ton more than its Mi-8/17 predecessor can boast of.

A great deal of attention has been paid to safety. In a departure from the earlier layout where the main fuel tanks were placed on both sides of the airframe and an additional one on top, in the Mi-171A2 the fuel tanks are bigger and are located only on the sides.

"This has increased the helicopter's range up to 800 kilometers and made it safer too," Zuikov said.

When asked by Sputnik if the impressive experience of the Mil helicopters' use in high-humidity tropical conditions, mountainous areas and over the sea had been put to use in the design of the Mi-171A2, Dmitry Zuikov said that during their work on the new helicopter, the engineers had consulted all the Mi-8/17 users in Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, India and China.

"They all said that the Mi-8/17 is a flying Kalashnikov, a platform that can be modified on end to meet every possible demand by its potential users," Zuikov said.

Apart from the Mi-171A2, visitors at the MAKS-2017 air show also had a chance to watch demonstration flights by the Mi-28NE and Mi-35 helicopter gunships, along with the Ansat light multirole helicopter and medium-class Mi-38.

Sputnik
Hundreds of Muslim refugees living in Finland have reportedly given their lives to Christ, according to a report from Finnish media outlet Yle Uutiset.

The Christian Post reported on the conversions taking place, which are mainly happening within the Evangelical Lutheran Church, one of Finlands national churches.

Hundreds of Muslim asylum-seekers from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries in the Middle East are responding to the Holy Spirits call upon their lives.

So many former Muslims have expressed interest in Christian faith that the Finnish church has created special confirmation classes to serve these refugees and help them learn more about the Christian faith.

One Christian convert, 32-year-old Johannes, explained why he decided to make a profession of faith: "I found that the history of Islam was completely different from what we were taught at school. Maybe, I thought, it was a religion that began with violence. A religion that began with violence cannot lead people to freedom and love. Jesus Christ said 'those who use the sword will die by the sword.' This really changed my mind."

Although many of the converts cited disillusionment with Islam as the reason for their conversion, there is speculation that fear of deportation may be driving the conversions of others.

Christians are less likely to be deported to the Middle East since they would likely face persecution.

Photo courtesy: Thinkstockphotos.com

Publication date: July7 31, 2017
What do Christians do with the Old Testament, with its weird laws, brutal violence, and unpredictable God? Some are confused by it, some are afraid of it, and some simply ignore it. Our confusion, fear, and avoidance of the Old Testament has led to a severe problem. Like a doctor examining a patient, Brent Strawn examines our Old Testament habits and makes a dire diagnosis that supplies the title of his new book: The Old Testament is Dying.

Strawns analysis is divided into three sections. The first two focus on the problem (Part 1: The Old Testament as a Dying Language and Part 2: Signs of Morbidity), while the final section offers a solution (Part 3: Path to Recovery). Strawns grave assessment should cause great concern to any who believe, along with Paul the apostle, that all Scripture is divinely inspired and profitable for teaching (2 Tim. 3:16). But his suggested treatment should be a source of great hope.

A Disappearing Language

Strawn bases his diagnosis on empirical data from a 2010 Pew Forum survey (inspired by Stephen Protheros 2007 book, Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to KnowAnd Doesnt). In addition, he draws on patterns of Old Testament usage in popular sermons, hymns, and songs, and in the Revised Common Lectionary (a daily Bible-reading plan used by certain Protestant denominations). Despite widespread claims of religiosity among the US population, Strawns evidence strongly suggests that most American Christians are relatively ignorant of basic truths about the Bible, particularly the Old Testamentand that trends in sermons and worship are contributing to the problem. For the most part, the Old Testament is ...

1
I had the privilege or reading a pre-release version of "God Shines Forth: How the Nature of God Shapes and Drives the Mission of the Church." Here are 20 quotes from the book, which you should pick up.
Abortionist Scheduled for Criminal Trial in SC

Contact: Liberty Counsel,

407-875-1776, Media@LC.org;

Press Kit

SPARTANBURG, S.C., July 31, 2017 /Christian Newswire/ -- Abortionist James Pendergraft, IV is now scheduled for criminal trial in Spartanburg following his arrest in 2015 during a routine traffic stop. The outcome of the trial by jury will have implications on the future of a chain of four Central Florida abortion businesses.



Photo: Mat Staver and Baby Rowan at the morgue



Pendergraft was charged with five drug-related crimes and an additional five drug counts were added on May 6, 2016, after a grand jury issued indictments against him. Pendergraft was in the possession of illegal narcotics, such as marijuana, LSD and drugs used to sedate women for abortions. Sheriff's deputies also found surgical implements that were covered in blood and human tissue from abortions that Pendergraft had illegally performed without a license throughout South Carolina.



On May 5, 2017, the Florida Department of Health revoked the facility licenses of four abortion facilities where Pendergraft serves as Chief Financial Officer. Those facilities are:

EPOC Clinic, LLC in Orlando.



Ft. Lauderdale Women's Center, LLC in Ft. Lauderdale.



Orlando Women's Center, LLC in Orlando.



Ocala Women's Center, LLC, an Ocala abortion facility that closed in 2015.



The Florida Department of Health cited Pendergraft's arrests as the basis for the facility license revocations. According to Florida law, criminal arrests are disqualifying acts, meaning that even an arrest without a conviction disqualifies the person from employment that requires licensure. If convicted, Pendergraft should lose his Florida medical license.



Pendergraft's abortion clinics have a notorious history. For example, on April 2, 2005, 911 Emergency received a frantic call from a woman claiming her friend had given birth to a live baby at Pendergraft's EPOC clinic in Orlando. When the mother alerted medical staff that her 22-week-old baby was born alive, the staff told her to leave the baby in the toilet. The young mother held the child and the amniotic sac in her hands as she called a friend at a nearby hotel who had traveled with her to Orlando from out of state. An ambulance was dispatched, but arrived too late to save the baby. An autopsy report and photos showed a perfectly formed baby boy who died from premature birth, confirming part of the mother's story. Liberty Counsel represented Baby Rowan's mother. The photographs of Baby Rowan posted on the Liberty Counsel website were taken by Mat Staver at the morgue.



Pendergraft was previously convicted of extortion and conspiracy and spent time in a federal prison. The case arose out of his Ocala abortion clinic. He has also been sued for malpractice regarding an abortion and the jury awarded the plaintiff $36.7 million.



"James Pendergraft has a long history of hurting women and killing innocent babies," said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. "Liberty Counsel represented a mother whose perfectly healthy son, Rowan, was born alive after a botched, late-term abortion at one of Pendergraft's abortion facilities. Cradling Rowan's moving body, the mother screamed for help and pleaded with abortion clinic workers to call 911, but she was ignored until her son died in her arms. Pendergraft should be locked up and lose his medical license so that he can never hurt women and children. We must make the womb a safe place again," said Staver.



Liberty Counsel is an international nonprofit, litigation, education, and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics.


Collecting Guide: Clarice Cliff ceramics

The bold designs of Clarice Cliff's Art Deco ceramic ware have been sought-after since the 1920s. Here we present a primer on her life and work, illustrated with pieces from the Andre Aerne Collection, sold to benefit the Muskegon Museum of Art

The striking creations of trailblazing British ceramic artist Clarice Cliff have acquired something of a cult following  celebrity collectors include Vogue editor Anna Wintour and actress Whoopi Goldberg  and can fetch anything from $100 to $30,000. Ahead of our upcoming online sale, Clarice Cliff Ceramics: The Andre Aerne

Collection, from 14 to 25 August, we trace the extraordinary life of the pioneering icon, and offer an expert guide to collectors of her wares.

No ordinary factory girl Clarice Cliff was one of seven children born into a working-class family in 1899 in the industrial town of Tunstall in Staffordshire, in the Midlands of England. Her father worked in the iron industry and her mother took in washing to supplement their income, explains decorative arts specialist Natalie Voorheis. At the end of the 19th century there were no fewer than 13 pottery works in Tunstall and, as was usual for girls at the time, Cliff was sent to work in the potteries at the age of just 13. But Cliff was to prove no ordinary factory girl. Most of her peers would have sat tight after landing a job like this, but a few years later she took the unconventional step of moving to another factory, A.J. Wilkinsons, the specialist continues. It meant a long commute, but her new employer offered better career opportunities.

Open a larger version of this image A group of Clarice Cliff wares. 20th century, various black printed script, 8 in (22 cm) diameter, the centrepiece bowl. This lot was offered in Clarice Cliff Ceramics: The Andre Aerne Collection sold to benefit the Muskegon Museum of Art, 14-25 August 2017, Online, and sold for $1,500

Sent to the Royal College of Art Cliff was ambitious, and at the Wilkinson factory she began to collect skills in the workplace  modelling figures and vases, gilding, keeping pattern books, painting by hand, and working with the all-male team of designers to learn as much as she could. The head of the Wilkinson factory, Colley Shorter, recognised her talent and enthusiasm, and sent her to the Royal College of Art in London for three months  followed by a trip to Paris to take in the latest fashions. Upon Cliffs return, he gave her a studio of her own. It was here that she would create the famous Bizarre line of wares in 1927, says Voorheis. She was in charge of a team of workers, dubbed the Bizarre Girls, who would paint her designs by hand onto iconic Deco forms.

Open a larger version of this image Three Clarice Cliff Inspiration vases. Second quarter 20th century, various blue, 7 in (19 cm) high, the tallest. This lot was offered in Clarice Cliff Ceramics: The Andre Aerne Collection sold to benefit the Muskegon Museum of Art, 14-25 August 2017, Online, and sold for $1,625

Women were rarely modellers  let alone designers Factory work was strictly hierarchical, with jobs delegated along gender lines. Women were rarely modellers  let alone designers, Voorheis explains. Yet Cliffs ability and drive enabled her to break through such historic contraints. When she became a designer each of her pieces was stamped with the Clarice Cliff signature, and soon she became a household name. She was one of the first women of the potteries to launch a line under her own name like that, says Voorheis. These days the idea of the personal brand  such as Orla Kiely or Jo Malone  is so central to the fashion and art industries that we do not question it. But when Cliff first achieved her success in the 1920s, there was not much precedent for a young woman from a working-class family becoming a designer, and branding her work with her own name.

Open a larger version of this image A poster advertising a 1972 exhibition of Clarice Cliffs pieces

A crowd-pleasing talent As well as her talent for designing vibrant patterns that appealed to the masses, Cliffs success owed much to Colley Shorters gift for marketing. He was a total master of modern advertising, Voorheis says. He hired well-known personalities to come and be seen and photographed buying pieces of Cliffs Bizarre ware, and he held painting demonstrations in prominent department stores that would draw crowds of people. Cliffs constant stream of new and exciting designs kept her firmly in the medias eye, and the newspapers loved her rags-to-riches story. The Daily Mirror newspaper in England described her (rather patronisingly) as one of the romances of the pottery trade who had started out as a humble little gilder in a china factory.

Open a larger version of this image A group of Clarice Cliff tablewares. Various black printed script and impressed, 7 in (18.5 cm) high, the pitcher. This lot was offered in Clarice Cliff Ceramics: The Andre Aerne Collection sold to benefit the Muskegon Museum of Art, 14-25 August 2017, Online, and sold for $3,250

Influenced by Cubism and De Stijl While Cliff was undoubtedly inspired by the Art Deco designs of the 1920s, she also looked farther afield for ideas  namely, the avant-garde movements of Cubism and De Stijl. Many of her wares have distinctly modernist shapes and visible brushstrokes, something that was discouraged from the usual lines of production and which demonstrates her pioneering vision. She made things that were designed to be used in the home  tea and coffee sets, candlesticks, vases, plates  but she also wanted women to have access to interesting and colourful things, Voorheis explains. Not everyone would have known what the Cubists were doing but she was heavily influenced by them, and so it made its way into the homes of ordinary people.

The Vogue editors choice Cliff was a prolific artist and produced many hundreds of designs during the inter-war period, but her style remains immediately recognisable. Some of the common threads are bright colours, patterns and interesting shapes, says the specialist. They're vibrant and light-hearted  I think thats why theyre still so appealing. When the fashion documentary The First Monday in May was released in cinemas in 2016, fans of Vogue were treated to a view of Anna Wintours office and New York home  revealing the magazines influential editor-in-chief to be an avid collector of Clarice Cliff ceramics. There were all these minimal, neutral furnishings, highlighted by stunning pops of colour provided by Cliffs designs, Voorheis says. Cliffs ceramics are timeless. Although these pieces were designed and bought to function as household items, they are now considered to be important examples of British Art Deco style. In museum collections Whenever youre collecting something, its really important to buy it because you love it, advises our specialist, but you should also learn about the patterns and shapes that characterise Clarice Cliffs output. Once you know more about her work its great fun to discover patterns you recognise, and perhaps even to collect by hunting down one example of each set. Although much Clarice Cliff is in private collections, it is also to possible to see examples in museums such as the V&A in London and The Met in New York.





Open a larger version of this image Three Clarice Cliff vases. Second quarter 20th century, various black, 10 in (25.5 cm) wide, the largest. This lot was offered in Clarice Cliff Ceramics: The Andre Aerne Collection sold to benefit the Muskegon Museum of Art, 14-25 August 2017, Online, and sold for $5,000
AUSTIN  The check came as a surprise to Gov. Greg Abbott -- a $1 million gift from a West Texas cattle rancher and his wife who just wanted to say thanks.

Mike and Mary Porter, who run the Cross Creek Ranch near the tiny Hill Country town of Doss, said their motivation was simple: They like the governor.

"We don't expect anything out of this ... nothing in return," Porter, 69, a retired U.S. Army veteran, told the Houston Chronicle. "We believe Governor Abbott has put forward a vision to keep Texas exceptional, and we wanted to do our part in supporting what he's doing. That's all there was to it."

Though rare in Texas politics, the delivery of a single, seven-figure check -- which the Porters presented to Abbott at his Austin campaign office when they met him for the first time in late June -- is part of a growing national trend toward seven-figure donation checks, say experts who follow political money-giving.

"People have become much more accustomed to asking for -- and receiving -- million-dollar contributions," said Michael Malbin, executive director of the Washington-based Campaign Finance Institute and a political science professor at the State University of New York in Albany. "If more candidates are asking for these larger contributions, it becomes part of an atmosphere where there will be more."

In fact, national campaign finance records for the 2016 election cycle analyzed by the National Institute on Money in State Politics show that there were 47 contributions of $1 million or more made in eight states. There were no contributions that large in Texas during that period.

Illinois topped the list, with a total of $32 million given in various sizes of seven-figure checks, including a $9 million single-check contribution by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner to House Minority Leader James Durkin, a fellow Republican and nine-term incumbent.

The million-dollar club has also grown in Texas, campaign finance records confirm.

"Everything is bigger in Texas and that includes campaign donations," said Mark Jones, a political scientist at Houston's Rice University who has studied donation trends for years. "In the future, I would expect that we'll see more and more of these signature donations, seven figures on the checks where we used to see mostly six figures."

For Abbott, the Porter's check helped the governor raise a whopping $10 million for his campaign war chest in the last 12 days of June, a record run-up for a seasoned incumbent who has only token Democratic opposition so far, in perhaps the reddest of the Red States. It easily outdistanced the nine $250,000 checks he received during the same period from seasoned political donors and the 16 well-known donor families that gave him $100,000 or more.

Another factor in the rise in big-dollar donations is a controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed wealthy donors to give tens of millions of dollars to candidates through so-called Super PACs.

Before they delivered their big check, the Porters were unknown to most everyone in Texas politics.

State records show they donated $5,000 to Abbott when he ran the first time for governor in 2014. Their only other political contribution was to state Rep. Doug Miller in 2016, in an unsuccessful reelection race that he lost in the GOP primary.

Their previous generosity helped the Doss Volunteer Fire Department build a new station and has allowed wounded military personnel to hunt deer at their ranch as part of the Combat Marine Outdoors program, along with support for local "education, medical, social services, 4H and (Future Farmers of America) programs," according to an online bio.

As seven-figure contributions become more common in Texas and other states that allow unlimited individual gifts, some political observers worry that government decisions could be influenced even more, though most say the Porters seem to be in the category of givers that are generally benign.

"People give money to politicians for two reasons: Because they agree with them philosophically or politically, or because they want preferential treatment in some form," said Jones, echoing the sentiments of colleges outside Texas. "Either way, though, a million-dollar check will surely get your phone call returned."

At the same time, Craig McDonald, executive director of the Austin-based ethics watchdog group Texans for Public Justice, said the single million-dollar contributions highlight the continued influence that Big Money has on government, regardless of the donor's intentions.

"People in Texas have never been much to hide their big contributions. It's almost like they want credit for them," he said. "And while a million dollars is a lot of money to contribute, it's not as unusual as it used to be."

Bottom line: The Elite Club for statewide elected officials' campaigns clearly has grown more and more expensive over time, say political scientists and campaign consultants in Austin.

Some attribute that trend to the so-called Citizens United decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2010, with allowed unlimited donations to the Super PACs and other organizations, including ones that supported only one candidate.

The result was swift and surprising. While the $460 million in contributions to the 2007 presidential campaigns came from donors who could give no more than $2,300 each, by 2015, 78 of the top donors gave $1 million or more to Super PACs supporting a candidate like U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and others. That accounted for nearly a quarter of all the money raised by the presidential candidates and their Super PACs combined, according to a published review authored by Malbin.

Even before that, single, million-dollar checks were not unheard of in Texas, one of at least 12 states with no limits on campaign donations by individuals. After all, millionaire Tony Sanchez spent $62 million of his own money in losing to incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Perry in 2002.

A previous record was set more than two decades ago by Dallas billionaire H. Ross Perot, who wrote a $953,000 check to pay off the campaign debt of attorney Tom Luce, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1990. Then the million-dollar line was officially crossed for the first time in 2006. Twice.

In the gubernatorial race that year, Houston trial lawyer John O'Quinn gave $1 million to Democrat Chris Bell, who was running against Perry and lost.

The same year, Perry got $1 million in two $500,000 checks from the Republican Governors Association. That was made possible by a $1 million donation to that group from veteran GOP contributor Bob Perry, a Houston home builder who was no relation to the governor.

Rick Perry used the money to pay for a television commercial attacking Bell for accepting the seven-figure check from O'Quinn.

Eight years later, Wendy Davis  who was running against Abbott  got a $1 million check from retired Austin doctor Carolyn Oliver, who said at the time she was inspired by Davis' uphill bid to become Texas' first Democrat elected governor since Ann Richards won in 1990.

Houston trial lawyer Steve Mostyn also wrote a $1 million check to a joint committee that Davis ran with a Democratic turn-out-the-vote group.

Despite the trends and all the attention he's gotten for his recent contribution to Abbott, Porter -- a father of five grown children -- said he remains surprised by all the attention he and his wife are gettting.

"At a time when the politics in this country is pretty toxic, politicians are out there, whether its people like Trump or Nancy Pelosi or whoever, they're out there doing the heavy lifting every day," he said. "It's a gotcha world ... We need to do what we can to support the ones we agree with. We thought more people should step up. And that's what we did."
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A third company is entering the market to send water to oil and gas operations in the Delaware Basin.

Wolfcamp Water Partners, a seven-employee Fort Worth start-up out of the offices of private oil and gas firm Vermilion Cliffs Partners, has leased 31,000 acres in the foothills of the Davis Mountains, drilled into the Capitan Reef aquifer, and looks to pump about 200,000 barrels, or more than 8 million gallons a day.

RELATED: Woodlands company sees profit in mixing water and oil

Wolfcamp is at least the third company looking to tap West Texas aquifers, build pipelines and ship water into the heart of the Delaware, behind The Woodlands-based water well firm Layne Christensen and West Texas rancher Dan A. Hughes.

But 200,000 barrels a day is just a target, said CEO Toby Darden. The Capitan has about 55 billion barrels or roughly 2.3 trillion gallons in place under their lease, he said, and the company wants to recover just two or three percent of that over 20 years.

Were very careful about the aquifer, Darden told the Chronicle late last week.

A key to the Capitans use, said Darden, is the low salt content of the water there. Residents and politicians are encouraging oil and gas companies to use salty water, called brackish, for oil and gas production, saving fresh water for drinking and agriculture. But water that is too salty doesnt work well in hydraulic fracturing operations.

Fresh water in Texas is pretty precious, Darden said. At the same, theres such a need for frac water, all of the current projects in West Texas together barely scratch the ultimate demand, he said.

Wolfcamp is working with at least 12 large production companies on the project.

The company plans to break ground on wells, catch basins and a 65-mile pipeline by the end of the year, and begin shipping in the third quarter next year.
An old company with a new business model has now purchased land in West Texas and plans to build the first new Texas oil refinery in decades.

MMEX Resources Corp., a company that used to explore and produce oil and gas, closed on Friday on 126 acres in Pecos County near Fort Stockton for construction of a 15-acre, 10,000 barrel-per-day crude distillation plant.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Michael Ciaglo/Houston Chronicle Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Michael Ciaglo/Houston Chronicle Show More Show Less 3 of 3





Energy Secretary Rick Perry is scheduled to stop off in Piketon, Ohio this morning to tour a former nuclear enrichment facility where cleanup efforts are nearing the three decade mark.

On the visit to the Department of Energy's Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Perry will meet with Ohio politicians, including U.S. Senator Rob Portman and U.S. Congressmen Brad Wenstrup and Bill Johnson.
Manuel Pucha, who has impressed Houston diners with accomplished French food at La Table in Galleria, is setting out on his own. The 42-year-old Ecuadoran-born chef will open Maison Pucha Bistro at 1001 Studewood, in the space that until recently was home to Black & White restaurant (and before that Stella Sola).

For several years now Pucha has been assessing taking the leap, but owning a restaurant was an endeavor he knew he didn't want to make alone. About a year and a half ago he finally convinced his two brothers, who currently live and work in New York City  Cristian, a sommelier and bar manager, and Victor, a French-trained pastry chef  to join forces with him in Houston. They both are leaving their jobs and packing up their respective families to make the move.
Two Houston properties, one a popular music venue and the other a mansion in the city's poshest neighborhood, were recently added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The newly-restored Heights Theater along 19th Street and The Charles W. and Mary Duncan House on Inverness Drive in River Oaks are now on the lengthy list of historic places worthy of preservation.

HEIGHTS LOVE: How the Heights became the Heights

Owner and entrepreneur Edwin Cabaniss acquired the 90-year-old Heights Theater building in 2015 hoping to add a venue to Houston's thriving music scene. He also had an eye on reviving the history of the building itself.

"We have been working toward this since we purchased the building in 2015. It's a long and tedious process, but well worth the wait," Cabaniss said Monday. "The federal designation assures that theater will be preserved in perpetuity. We could not be more pleased."

Cabaniss also owns the Kessler Theater, a performing arts venue in the Winnetka Heights area of Dallas, adjacent to the Bishop Arts District.

RELATED: Houston buildings that have been converted from one purpose to something entirely different

The Heights Theater hosted its first official concert last November and has an eclectic slate of shows scheduled over the next month including an appearance by Roger Creager on Friday, Aug. 4. Marcia Ball, Rhett Miller, James McMurtry, Cory Morrow and others are scheduled to perform over the next few weeks.

Built in 1929 with a Mission-style stucco facade, and updated in 1935 with an Art Moderne-style exterior, the Heights Theater was heavily damaged by arson in 1969 and sat vacant for years until it was revived in the late '80s as an art space and event center.

The building's history goes back even further than once imagined.

"In doing our research, we discovered that the original four buildings at this location date back to the late 1800s. There was an outdoor theater, a beer hall, a boarding house and even a hospital," Cabaniss said.

PREVIOUS: Heights Theater hosts sold-out opening night

The house on Inverness Drive was built in 1947 and has five bedrooms and seven bathrooms. It is one of several post-war Houston homes in the registry. It's been appraised at just over $3.3 million.

Google Maps

Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the register is overseen by the National Park Service. The goal is to preserve the America's unique and groundbreaking architecture and history.

DOME LOVE: Dome named to National Register of Historic Places

In all there are more than 1.5 million other buildings and properties on the list.

Other notable Houston-area properties in the registry include the Astrodome, the Heights State Bank Building (currently the resurrected music venue Rockefeller's), Houston City Hall, the Julia Ideson Building and the Kennedy Bakery, which is better known as historic watering hole La Carafe in the Market Square district.
Popular oil and gas networking website Oilpro.com will permanently shut down Wednesday, about seven months after its founder pleaded guilty to stealing data from rival site Rigzone.

The website said Monday "it is with great sadness that we announce the closure of Oilpro.com." Oilpro was touted as a professional network for oil and gas professionals, essentially LinkedIn for the energy sector.

"Many years ago, we set out to create a vibrant online community of oil and gas professionals. To that end, we were successful - you were successful," the Oilpro message added.

Oilpro founder and former CEO David Kent was arrested by the FBI last year for hacking a competitor that he had previously created and sold. Kent, of Spring, was accused of stealing database information from Rigzone in order to expand Oilpro's membership. All the while, Kent was trying to sell Oilpro to Rigzone's parent company, New York-based DHI Group, authorities said.

Kent was allegedly seeking at least $20 million for a potential Oilpro sale. He previously sold Rigzone to DHI for $51 million in 2010.

In December, Kent pleaded guilty to a federal charge of computer fraud. A civil lawsuit by DHI against Kent is pending.

Authorities say he stole information from more than 700,000 customer accounts from early 2014 through much of 2015.

Oilpro made its debut in 2013. By January 2016 its membership exceeded 500,000, about 20 percent of whom came from the hacked Rigzone databases, according to the criminal complaint. Oilpro would reach out to Rigzone members via email and offer to register them for free, investigators concluded.

In 2000, Kent and his father started Rigzone, which featured oil and gas information as well as details on jobs in Houston and worldwide. The Rigzone membership database alone was valued at $6 million at the time, according to the federal complaint.

Kent left Rigzone one year after the sale and started Oilpro as soon as his non-compete agreement ended.
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Daddy Warbucks and the red-headed title character are dream roles in the musical "Annie," but both stars of Purple Box Theater's current production had to be coaxed into playing them.

"I have never done a musical," said Albert Alonzo, when his son, Liam, pleaded with him to take the part.

Besides, the Clear Lake father explained, he was tired after twice portraying the Tom Cruise role in "A Few Good Men" this year.

Vanessa Marsh, 9, of Friendswood was tired, too, when her mother informed her that she had aced the audition.

More Information WANT TO GO? What: "Annie" Where: Purple Box Theater, 1309 W. Parkwood, Friendswood When: 7 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 4-13 Cost: $15, $12 seniors Information: 818- 642-4665; www.thepurpleboxtheater.com See More Collapse

Dog made the difference

"This is her first actual show," Kerry Marsh said. "So, she didn't want too big of a role. It was 10 o'clock at night, just as Vanessa got home from a violin camp. She was stressed out; so she fell apart. She cried that it was too big of a role.

"But now she's very excited; she's excited about the dog."

"The dog" is a canine that Vanessa looked forward to meeting when it showed up in the last week of rehearsal to play Little Orphan Annie's faithful mutt, Sandy. The mixed-breed pooch, named Felicity, is from Friendswood Animal Control and is available for adoption, director Cathy Holbrook said. For information on her, contract Amy Castro at 281-728-2248.

Others in the cast include: Maryana Nagorski, Victoria Reyes, Chase Harris, Suzy Newsom, Richard Grosclose, Jeff Blackman, T'Mar Bunch, Mylana Valdina, Sarah Staples, Elena Vazquez, Kailey Morand, Keara Smith, Giselle Alcala, Taylor Mitchell, Milla Filippov, Ashley DiCicco, Julie Blackman, McKenna Fritts, Ava Vazquez and Liam Alonzo.

Playing multiple roles, including "President Franklin Roosevelt" is Friendswood Mayor Pro Tem Steve Rockey.

Liam, 9, who plays a child at the orphanage where we first find Annie.

The Alonzo father and son had enjoyed performing together in "The Little Princess" in a previous summer at Purple Box.

"Liam pressed and pressed for me to play Daddy Warbucks, and I said, 'But there isn't even a part for you,' " recalled Albert Alonzo.

However, Holbrook said she would find a part for Liam if his father would take the part, and that's what happened.

Turning into Annie

A highlight of any production of "Annie" is the song "It's the Hard Knock Life," in which Annie leads her fellow orphans in a production number that involves housekeeping chores at their orphanage.

"It's very exciting. I like to be the center of attention," Vanessa said.

A natural blonde, Vanessa said she's had her dyed red and her hair curled to look like the comic-strip character Annie.

The budding actress also competes on a team at Sharks Swim Club in Friendswood, studies ballet and jazz, and continues her private violin, voice and piano lessons.

She and her parents, Kerry and Robert, a chemical engineer, moved to Texas two years ago from Utah.

Alonzo, 38, grew up in Houston, graduating in 1997 from Milby High School, where he performed in many stage productions.

"I also did a couple of one-acts in college," he said, explaining that he earned a 2003 bachelor of science degree in interdisciplinary studies from the University of Houston-Downtown.

Alonzo is the case manager for Chief United States Bankruptcy Judge David R. Jones. Their office is located a few blocks from UHD, where Alonzo's wife, Liza, is director of alumni relations.

The Alonzos also have a second son, Luke, who is 6.

"Annie," which debuted on Broadway in 1977, boasts music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin and book by Thomas Meehan. It won seven Tony Awards, including best musical.

Don Maines is a freelance writer who can be reached at donmaines@att.net
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Under Greater Houston Partnership letterhead, a slew of Houston-area business leaders have asked Gov. Greg Abbott to rethink the so-called "bathroom bill" currently under consideration in the Texas Legislature.

The letter expresses concern for what could happen to the state if the bill becomes law. It is dated July 31 and addressed to "The Honorable Greg Abbott."

The business leaders represent business and industries from across the region, including diverse areas of oil and gas to education to transportation.

In its entirety, it reads:

"Dear Governor Abbott,

"Texas has worked for decades to establish as a great place to do business. Through smart, pro-growth public police, the state has succeeded, and out business environment is the envy of states across the country. In addition to our economic success, Texas has become well-known for its excellent quality of life and our welcoming, inclusive spirit - attributes that have helped draw talented individuals to the state from across the nation and around the globe.

"As members of Houston's business community, we write to express our concern with the proposed 'bathroom bill' being considered in this special legislative session. We support diversity and inclusion, and we believe that any such bill risks harming Texas' reputation and impacting the state's economic growth and ability to create new jobs.

"Innovative companies are driven by their people, and winning the talent recruitment battle is key. Any bill that harms our ability to attract top talent to Houston will inhibit our growth and continued success - and ultimately the success or our great state.

"We appreciate your leadership in Texas and urge you to avoid any actions, including the passage of any 'bathroom bill,' that would threaten our continued growth."

The letter is then signed by "Houston Business Leaders," including:

Jeff Shellebarger, president of Chevron North America E&P, current chair of Greater Houston Partnership.

Marc Watts, vice chair of Greater Houston Partnership.

Bob Harvey, president and CEO of Greater Houston Partnership.

Blake Pounds, managing director of Houston Accenture.

Steve Stephens, CEO of Amegy Bank.

Thomas Perich, chairman of Andrews Kurth Kenyon LLP.

Eduardo Aguirre, chairman and CEO of Atlantic Partners Group LLC.

Andrew Baker, managing partner of Baker Botts LLP.

Manolo Sanchez, chairman of BBVA Compass.

Steve Pastor, president, petroleum at BHP Billiton Petroleum.

Alan Thompson, senior partner and managing director at The Boston Consulting Group.

John Minge, chairman and president of BP America.

Patrick C. Oxford, chairman of Bracewell LLP.

Thad Hill, president and CEO of Calpine Corporation.

Ric Campo, chairman and CEO of Camden Property Trust.

David McClanahan, retired president and CEO of CenterPoint Energy.

Tony Chase, chairman and CEO of ChaseSource.

Ryan Lance, chairman and CEO ConocoPhillips.

George A. DeMontrond III, president of DeMontrond Automotive Group.

Earl Shipp, vice president of Gulf Coast Operations for Dow Chemical Company.

Deborah Byers, Houston office managing partner of Ernst & Young LLP.

Linda DuCharme, president of ExxonMobil Global Services Company.

Charles C. Foster, chairman of Foster LLP.

Paul Hobby, founding partner of Genesis Park LP.

Daniel M. Gilbane, president-Gilbane Southwest of Gilbane Building Company.

Deborah Cannon, former chair of Greater Houston Partnership.

Earl Hesterberg, president and CEO of Group 1 Automotive.

Welcome Wilson Sr., chairman of GSL Welcome Group.

Jeffrey A. Miller, president and CEO of Halliburton.

Lynne Liberato, partner of Haynes and Boones LLP.

Jim Postl, president of James Postl Interests.

Dan Bellow, president-Houston JLL.

David Taylor, managing partner-Houston of Locke Lord.

Gina Luna, CEO of Luna Strategies.

Wayne McConnell, managing partner of McConnell & Jones LLP.

Carrin Patman, board chair of METRO Board of Directors.

Kenneth Guidry, president of PKF Texas.

Massey Villarreal, president and CEO of Precision Task Group Inc.

Duke Austin Jr., president, CEO and COO or Quanta Services.

David Leebron, president of Rice University.

Andy Waite, co-president of SCF Partners.

Tom Ryan, chairman and CEO of Service Corporation International.

Bruce Culpepper, president of Shell Oil Company.

Lisa Davis, CEO Global Energy and member of the managing board of Siemens AG.

John Nau, president and CEO of Silver Eagle Distributors LP.

Donna Sims-Wilson, president of Smith Graham & Company.

Dave Dunlap, president and CEO of Superior Energy Services.

Fernando Assing, president and CEO of Tesco Corporation.

Fred Zeidman, treasurer and CFO of Texas Heart Institute.

Kevin Roberts, president-Southwest of Transwestern.

Bobby Tudor, chairman of Tudor, Pickering, Holt and Co.

Anna M. Babin, president and CEO of United Way of Greater Houston.

Mark Kelly, chairman of Vinson & Elkins LLP.

Laura Bellows, president and chairman of W.S. Bellows Construction Corporation.

Denis C. Braham, attorny at law at Winstead PC.
In Venezuela, protesters fired a fireworks from pipes at national guard members during clashes in this past week. Getty reported that "protesters took over streets in Caracas on Friday in a show of defiance to President Nicolas Maduro, as the crisis gripping Venezuela turned deadlier ahead of a controversial weekend election that has earned international scorn."

In China and Russia, military leaders polished all the brass and trotted out many of the troops for displays of power as obvious warnings to the rest of the world and celebration of the 90th birthday of Chinese People's Liberation Army.
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When he was required to come up with a project for his sixth grade history class, Adrian Pacini wanted to bake cookies. Instead, his friend convinced him to make a film about ancient Egypt.

Pacini was surprised at how swept up in the project he became. He built sets, crafted costumes, acted and edited the project.

"That's what sparked my interest in film," he recalled.

Four years later, Pacini is an internationally-acclaimed filmmaker.

The 16-year-old Sugar Land resident and rising sophomore at Fort Bend ISD's Clements High School won the top filmmaking honors at the 2017 International Thespian Festival in June for his short film, "Beyond."

Pacini, who had attended several filmmaking camps and experimented on his own over the past few years, decided to craft a short film to enter the state festival competition.

Using his own home and knick-knacks from around the house, Pacini created "Beyond," a wordless, stop-motion animated film. The three-minute-thirty-five-second picture depicts the adventures of a miniature triceratops dinosaur and the friends he meets along the way  a porcelain ballerina, a nesting doll, a stuffed horse, a plastic kangaroo and what appears to be a toy dog in a cactus costume.

"I just kind of went around my house and tried to find things that looked like they had a personality and a face," Pacini said.

Each of the "characters" that Pacini chose holds some significance to his own life. The protagonist is the gift Pacini's parents told him his baby sister had picked out for him when she was brought home from the hospital. The horse and the kangaroo are also relics from his childhood and the nesting doll is a souvenir from the family's trip to Prague.

"All the characters had a background," Pacini said.

He spent the better part of a day just filming the scenes in small bursts  moving the characters slightly between each cut to create the illusion of animation. Then, with help from his mom and a close friend, Pacini picked the music for the short  an especially important element for a film with no dialogue.

In spite of the effort that went into creating "Beyond," Pacini was shocked when his film was selected as the winner at the Texas Thespians festival.

"I had been really nervous," Pacini said. "I watched all the other films and they were also really good."

Little did he know that his film would go on to win the Overall Superior award at the international festival  which brought students from around the U.S. and internationally to Lincoln, Nebraska  and would be the only film screened on the main stage before an audience of thousands.

"It was just unreal," Pacini said.

While Pacini is elated by the achievement, he has no intention of slowing down. He hopes to increase the interest in and resources for filmmaking at his school. He plans to continue to experiment and make new projects while he's in school and wants to pursue his dream to become a film director "in the big leagues."

Liz Winner, assistant director for Clements High School's theater department, believes Pacini has the passion to really develop his craft.

"Adrian is just a super vibrant and dynamic student," Winner said. "I want to see him pushing the boundaries."
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Renowned playwright, author and Oscar-nominated actor Sam Shepard, many of whose notable works were written and first performed in San Francisco, died Thursday, a family spokesman said Monday. He was 73.

Mr. Shepard died with his family near him at his Kentucky home after a battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrigs disease.

Mr. Shepard produced 44 plays, wrote several books, short stories and memoirs. He earned wide praise from critics and fans for his celebrated style and original voice that often explored emotional truths of the family amid a backdrop of the American West.

In the Bay Areas theater scene, he inspired generations of actors and writers.

His impact on American writing is immeasurable, said Loretta Greco, who as artistic director at San Franciscos Magic Theater knew and worked with Mr. Shepard over the past decade. He inspired most of us who were working with his cannon of writing, and he ignited the new play revolution.

Mr. Shepards history with the theater, though, dates back to the 1970s when he did a stint as playwright-in-residence after moving to Mill Valley from New York. Perhaps his most acclaimed work, Buried Child, eventually won him a Pulitzer Prize after debuting at Magic Theater in 1978.

He wasnt haughty. He wasnt academic  although he was quite brilliant, Greco said. He was soulful and true to his own complicated self  always.

In 2013, Magic and other theaters around the Bay Area held a multi-theater celebration of Mr. Shepards work to coincide with his 70th birthday. Magic Theater has produced his works 24 times in its 50-year history, and is planning a celebration of Mr. Shepard in September, when it kicks off its season.

Born in 1943 to a Army officer father and teacher mother, Mr. Shepards family eventually settled in Southern California, where he graduated high school before wandering east.

He became acquainted with the New York theater scene and soon began his career with Off-Off-Broadway groups including La MaMa and Caffe Cino. Eleven of his works went on to win Obie Awards  the first two in 1965 with Chicago and Icaruss Mother.

He was later nominated for two other Pulitzers for his Broadway works Fool for Love and True West.

Mr. Shepard was also a prolific actor, who starred in more than three dozen films, including Black Hawk Down, The Pelican Brief and Steel Magnolias. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Chuck Yeager in 1983s The Right Stuff. His most recent work was on the Netflix show Bloodline.

But Mr. Shepards work in the film industry went beyond acting. He wrote several screenplays, including Wim Wenders Paris, Texas, and Robert Altmans film adaptation of Fool for Love.

He was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1986 and in 1994 he was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame.

He was married to actress O-Lan Jones for 15 years, beginning in 1969, and the couple had one son, Jesse in 1970. Mr. Shepard later had a decades-long relationship with actress Jessica Lange, with whom he had a son and daughter.

Mr. Shepard joined Jesse in 2003 for a reading of his sons collection of stories covered by The Chronicle at City Lights Bookstore.

His family has not yet made plans for a public memorial.

Mr. Shepard is survived by his children, Jesse, Hannah and Walker, and his sisters, Sandy and Roxanne Rogers.

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ESernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky
Nine women were arrested and charged with prostitution over the weekend in a border town after a large-scale sex trade sting.

According to a Harlingen Police Department press release, the operation ran from Friday, July 28 to Saturday, July 29 in Harlingen, a South Texas town near the border between Brownsville and McAllen.
Lawyers for a former Houston dentist accused of causing debilitating brain damage in a 4-year-old patient while sedating her during a routine procedure said Monday that there is a difference between a mistake and a crime.

"Dr. Jefferson feels extreme sympathy for the family of the child involved," said Morgan Bourque, an attorney for Bethaniel Jefferson. "At this time, we'd like everyone to understand there's a difference between a mistake  an accident  and criminal behavior."


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A man's night with a reported ghost in South Texas has gone viral, attracting 5.3 million views on Facebook since Friday, but not everyone is buying his story.

Potus Frank Ramirez of Corpus Christi recorded a video of his hotel room in Harlingen after he claimed paranormal activities in the room were keeping him awake.

GHOSTS ONLINE: Cleveland officer explains 'ghost' image seen on social media

"I was laying here, watching CNN, and that phone fell of its cradle and I have no idea why," Ramirez said in the beginning of the video. "It's really freaking me out so I decided to turn on my phone, because I can't figure out what's going on and this happened a couple of times already."

Ramirez described towels and cups being knocked over without explanation. While filming, the phone on the dresser flew off of its saddle.

In the video, Ramirez asked who the ghost is and what it wants. Eventually, he opened to door, said he needed to get some sleep. The entity he believes is knocking things over seemed to leave after Ramirez asked it to.

HAUNTED HOME: A haunted house for sale in Mineral Wells comes with nine ghosts

Story continues below...

Whether an actual ghost moved things or if the room was elaborately set up by Ramirez is debated in the video's comments on Facebook. Some viewers accuse him of using fishing line or strings to make the objects move. People have pointed out the phone, hanger and towel only move when he's standing in front of the objects, making some people think Ramirez moved them himself.

"Starting around 2:15 to 2:30 he moved the camera around to the other side of the room to grab a string attached to the towel and then faced the mirror/towel to pull the string," one commenter wrote. "After that, he then laughed."

Others believe the room was truly haunted, citing their own personal encounters with ghosts.

Ramirez told news station KSAT that he got a new room after he told hotel staff his room was haunted. He told the news station that the hotel staff said they will keep guests out of the room until it's blessed.
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A California man made a real mess when police tried to arrest him on an open warrant.

The Richmond police detained the man at 6:30 p.m. after receiving a call about him walking around the North Richmond area, the police wrote on Facebook.

The man gave police a false name, which coincidentally was for someone who was wanted for arrest. When the man provided police his real name, an arrest warrant also came up in the system, the Richmond Police wrote. The man was also on parole.

ON THE RUN: Fugitives sought by Houston-area police

While transporting the man to the county jail in Martinez, he moved his handcuffed hands to the front of his body, undressed, and started throwing his clothes out of the police car onto the freeway.

"As soon as the officers realized the suspect was throwing his clothes out of the police car, they also realized he had just defecated, started to eat his feces and spat feces at the officers," the Richmond police said. "The officers immediately pulled over on I-80 and asked for assistance."

WANTED: Texas police hoping funny Facebook selfies lead to robbery suspect's capture

Additional police officers were called to help subdue the man and shut down the freeway.

A request for comment has been placed with the Richmond Police Department.
A police officer's job is to protect and serve and one rookie officer took the latter part to heart when he bought diapers for a struggling mother accused of stealing them for her infant son.

HELPING K-9's: Woman donates $4000 for bulletproof vests for police dogs

Officer Bennett Johns responded to a shoplifting call at a grocery store in Maryland, for a young mother caught by security attempting to steal two packs of diapers for her 2-year-old son earlier this month.

The mother told Johns that she purchased some groceries and didn't have enough money to buy the diapers.

Story continues below...

Officer Johns said this situation reflected his own growing up and decided to purchase the diapers out of his own pocket so that the young child would not suffer.

GIVING BACK: These are the 50 things you can toss or donate and not miss afterward

"I see [the toddler] and I see myself growing up with a single mother and I want him to have a better life too," Johns says in the video above, which has gone viral.

The officer did issue the woman a criminal citation for theft. The theft charge is a misdemeanor.
The summers final Live on the Waterfront concert was held Wednesday evening at Prince Arthurs Landing. The popular series in Thunder Bay has completed nine weekly shows that began on July 13. Wednesdays concert was unique as it was held one hour later in the evening to mesh with the 10 p.
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Los Angeles, July 31 : Model David Gandy was always told that he would never earn more than a female model.The 37-year-old says he was always warned about the limitation for males in the fashion industry, reports femalefirst.co.uk.



"We were always told, 'This is your limitation you're never going to earn as much as the women', and I looked at that and I thought, 'Well, that's wrong'," Gandy told The Sun newspaper."I'm in the only industry where women are more powerful than men - and earn about five times as much," he added.



Gandy's father, Chris, finds the fact he is less powerful than his female colleagues "hilarious"."My dad still finds that hilarious. We're in the same campaigns, we're in the same coverage, and no one was really building a brand."
Copiii cu nevoi speciale din Stefan Voda au conditii de reabilitare mai bune, datorita UE si Fundatiei Soros Moldova
A new Massachusetts law signed Thursday by Republican Gov. Charlie Baker assures that women wont be forced to choose between a healthy pregnancy and keeping their jobs, according to advocates for working women.

The measure approved by the Legislature requires employers to offer reasonable accommodations to pregnant workers and makes it illegal to fire or refuse to hire a worker because of her pregnancy.

Accommodations could include anything from temporary transfers to less strenuous positions, to providing workers with a stool to sit on or more frequent bathroom breaks.

It would also require employers to provide time and private space for nursing mothers to pump breast milk.

Baker suggested the rules were long overdue, adding they would help expectant and working mothers support their families and raise healthy children.

Among those attending the signing ceremony at the Statehouse was Alejandra Duarte, who in April testified before a legislative committee about how she lost her baby at 19 weeks after working grueling 10-hour shifts at an industrial laundry in Worcester.

After becoming pregnant, Duarte said she requested that she temporarily be given less strenuous duty. Instead, she recalled, her supervisor gave her longer shifts and more responsibilities, which included pushing 600-pound laundry carts.

In an interview after Thursdays ceremony, Duarte said she hopes the new law would assure that no other woman suffers as she did.

It feels that from so much pain something good came out of it, she said. From now on, women will have more protections and be able to stay working and provide for their children.

Democratic Sen. Joan Lovely, a co-sponsor of the bill, said women like Duarte should not have to choose between having a healthy pregnancy and earning an income for her family.

Democratic House Speaker Robert DeLeo made the bill a priority for this legislative session after MotherWoman, a Hadley-based advocacy group for working women, negotiated an agreement with Associated Industries of Massachusetts, an organization that represents employers, on proposed language in the bill.

Businesses could seek an exemption from the law, which takes effect next April, if they could prove compliance would result in an undue hardship.

At least 18 other states have similar protections for pregnant workers, backers of the measure said.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
British police said Thursday they have reasonable grounds to suspect that local authorities may have committed corporate manslaughter in a deadly high-rise fire in London.

The Metropolitan Police force said it has officially informed the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which owns the Grenfell Tower public housing block, and the management group the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Association that they are under suspicion.

The news came in a letter from police sent to residents of the building. The letter said a senior representative of each body will be interviewed about the fire as part of the police investigation.

The police force confirmed to The Associated Press that the letter is genuine, but stressed it does not mean a decision has been made on whether to charge any individual or organization.

Police have said for weeks that their investigation will consider whether anyone should be charged with a crime. The force said Thursday it was considering the full range of offencss, from corporate manslaughter to regulatory breaches.

At least 80 people died June 14 when an early morning fire ripped through the west London high-rise. It was the deadliest fire in Britain in more than a century.

Huge investigations by police, fire officials and others are underway to determine how a blaze that started with a refrigerator in one apartment got out of control so quickly in the 24-story building.

Attention has focused the buildings new aluminum cladding, installed during a recent renovation, and authorities want answers fast because thousands of other buildings in the country could be affected.

Angry residents want to know how building regulations that were meant to be among the worlds best could have failed so catastrophically. Many accuse officials in Kensington and Chelsea, one of Londons richest boroughs, of ignoring their safety concerns because the building was home to a largely immigrant and working-class population.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Older people are dying on the job at a higher rate than workers overall, even as the rate of workplace fatalities decreases, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal statistics.

Its a trend thats particularly alarming as baby boomers reject the traditional retirement age of 65 and keep working. The U.S. government estimates that by 2024, older workers will account for 25 percent of the labor market.

Getting old  and the physical changes associated with it  could potentially make a workplace injury into a much more serious injury or a potentially fatal injury, said Ken Scott, an epidemiologist with the Denver Public Health Department.

Gerontologists say those changes include gradually worsening vision and hearing impairment, reduced response time, balance issues and chronic medical or muscle or bone problems such as arthritis.

In 2015, about 35 percent of the fatal workplace accidents involved a worker 55 and older  or 1,681 of the 4,836 fatalities reported nationally.

William White, 56, was one of them. White fell 25 feet while working at Testa Produce Inc. on Chicagos South Side. He later died of his injuries.

I thought it wouldnt happen to him, his son, William White Jr., said in an interview. Accidents happen. He just made the wrong move.

The AP analysis showed that overall workplace fatality rate for all workers  and for those 55 and older  decreased by 22 percent between 2006 and 2015. But the rate of fatal accidents among older workers during that time period was 50 percent to 65 percent higher than for all workers, depending on the year.

The number of deaths among all workers dropped from 5,480 in 2005 to 4,836 in 2015. By contrast, on-the-job fatalities among older workers increased slightly, from 1,562 to 1,681, the analysis shows.

During that time period, the number of older people in the workplace increased by 37 percent. That compares with a 6 percent rise in the population of workers overall.

Ruth Finkelstein, co-director of Columbia Universitys Aging Center, cautions against stereotyping. She said older people have a range of physical and mental abilities and that its dangerous to lump all people in an age group together because it could lead to discrimination.

Im just not positive that 55-70 year olds need so much more protection than workers 52-20, but are all those people needing protection now? Yes, absolutely. We are not paying enough attention to occupational safety in this country.

The AP analysis is based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Census for Fatal Occupational Injuries and from one-year estimates from the American Community Survey, which looks at the working population. It excludes cases where the cause of death was from a natural cause, including a heart attack, stroke among others.

AP also examined the number and types of accidents in which older workers died between 2011, when the bureau changed the way it categorized accidents, to 2015:

Fall-related fatalities rose 20 percent.

Contact with objects and equipment increased 17 percent.

Transportation accidents increased 15 percent.

Fires and explosions decreased by 8 percent.

We expect that there will be more older workers increasing each year and they will represent a greater share (of the fatalities) over the last couple of decades, said Scott, the Denver epidemiologist. This issue of elevated risk is something we should be paying close attention to.

An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found in 2013 that 44 percent of older Americans said their job required physical effort most or almost all of the time, and 36 percent said it was more difficult to complete the physical requirements of their jobs than it was when they were younger.

William White Jr. said his father had been working in the same Chicago-based warehouse for over a decade and was a manager when he fell to his death on Sept. 24, 2015.

My dad was the best at what he did. Hes the one who taught me everything I know, the 26-year-old Chicago resident said. He went up to get an item for the delivery driver and the next thing you know he made a wrong move and fell. The job is fast-pace and everybody is rushing.

Thomas Stiede, principal officer for Teamsters Local 703, said White knew the safety procedures and cant understand why White didnt wear a safety harness.

He was a very conscientious employee, he said, his voice cracking with emotion.

Testa Inc. was fined $12,600 by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration for failing to provide safety training. The company declined to comment for this story.

The same year White died, the fatal accident rate in Illinois for older workers was 4.5 per 100,000 workers, 60 percent higher than the comparable rate for all workers.

In most states, the fatal accident rates for older workers were consistently higher than comparable rates for all workers.

Nevada, New Jersey and Washington had the greatest percent increase in fatal accident rates for older workers between 2006 and 2015.

The three states with the biggest percent decrease were Hawaii, Oregon and Vermont.

Eight states saw their overall workplace fatality rate drop, even as the rate for older workers increased: Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New York, Texas, Utah and Washington.

In two states  North Dakota and Wisconsin  the trend was reversed; older worker accident rates got smaller while the accident rate overall increased.

Zooming in to metropolitan areas, Las Vegas ran counter to the national trend.

In 2006, the fatal accident rate among older workers in the Las Vegas metropolitan area was lower than the rate among all workers. But by 2015, the rate of deaths among older workers more than doubled even as the rate among all workers declined.

Transportation accidents account for a large portion of fatal workplace incidents among both older workers and workers in general.

In one such incident, Ruan Qiang Hua, 58, died last Nov. 21 from injuries suffered in a forklift accident at Good View Roofing and Building Supply warehouse, according to the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration. After a bag or mortar fell from the pallet, Qiang backed up and rolled off a ramp. The forklift tipped over and Qian was crushed when he jumped off.

The agency fined the San Francisco-based company $62,320 for allegedly failing to ensure that forklift operators were competent and wore seat belts.

The company is appealing the penalties, according to OSHA.

Records show that Hua was not properly trained or certified as a forklift operator. Video of the incident showed he was not wearing his seatbelt. Other video from the worksite showed that other forklift operators also had not used their seat belts and that the employer failed to install a curb along the sides of the ramp to prevent the lifts from running off the ramp.

The company declined to comment for this story.

In California, the 2015 rate of fatal accidents was 3.4 per 100,000 workers for older workers, 60 percent higher than the rate for all workers

The AP analysis showed that older workers were involved in about 1 in 4 fatal workplace accidents related to fires and explosions from 2011 to 2015.

In April 2014, Earle Robinson, 60, and other employees were doing maintenance work at Bryan Texas Utilities Power Plant, about 100 miles north of Houston, when there was a loud explosion. Workers called 911 and pleaded for help.

Hes in bad shape. Hes got a lot of facial burns, according to a transcript of the 911 calls. Hes got some pretty bad burns.

Robinson was taken to a hospital in Houston and died days later.

The company declined to comment for this story.

The year Robinson died, the fatality rate among older workers in Texas was 6.1 per 100,000 workers  43 percent higher than the accident rate for all workers.

The National Center for Productive Aging and Work is pushing for changes in the workplace to make it safer for older workers.

We advocate to make workplaces as age friendly as possible, said co-director James Grosch.

For example, increased lighting helps older workers whose eyesight has weakened with age.

He said the center is emphasizing productive aging. How people can be more productive, he said. How their wisdom can be leveraged in a workplace.

The year-old center is part of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Maria Ines Zamudio is studying aging and workforce issues as part of a 10-month fellowship at The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, which joins NORCs independent research and AP journalism. The fellowship is funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The U.S. governments auto safety agency has expanded an investigation into complaints of exhaust fumes inside Ford Explorer SUVs, adding two model years and nearly 400,000 vehicles.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Thursday night that the probe now covers more than 1.3 million Explorers from the 2011 through 2017 model years. The agency made the move after finding more than 2,700 complaints of exhaust odors in the passenger compartment and fears of carbon monoxide in an investigation that it started a year ago. Among the complaints were three crashes and 41 injuries, mostly loss of consciousness, nausea and headaches.

Many of the complaints came from police departments, which use the Police Interceptor version of the Explorer in patrol fleets. Police complaints included two crashes with injuries and another injury allegation due to carbon monoxide exposure.

On Thursday night, the agency said it had upgraded the probe from an investigation to an engineering analysis, a step closer to a recall. That could mean high costs for Ford down the road if it has to do a recall.

Company spokeswoman Elizabeth Weigandt said Thursday night that Ford has a team working with police, customers and NHTSA to investigate the reports and solve problems. Customers with concerns can call a dedicated hotline at (888) 260-5575 or visit their local dealer.

NHTSA also said it will examine Explorer Police Interceptors used by the Austin, Texas, Police Department. The Austin American-Statesman reported this week that the city installed carbon monoxide alarms in its 400 Explorers and parked 60 of them when the alarms activated. The alarms were installed after officers reported becoming sick while in the vehicles. The city could end up parking its entire fleet.

A total of 791 people have complained to the government about the fumes, while Ford has received more than 2,000 complaints and warranty claims.

In the documents, NHTSA said it tested multiple vehicles at its Ohio research center, and it has made field inspections of police vehicles involved in crashes. As of Thursday, the agency has found no evidence or data to support claims that injuries or crash allegations were caused by carbon monoxide poisoning. But the agency said it has early tests that suggest carbon monoxide levels may be higher in certain driving conditions although the significance and effect of those levels remains under evaluation.

The agency also said that through cooperation with police departments, it has learned that the Police Interceptor version of the Explorer is experiencing exhaust manifold cracks that are hard to detect and may explain exhaust odors. Investigators will evaluate the cause, frequency and safety consequences of the cracks, and whether Explorers used by civilians are experiencing cracked manifolds, the agency said.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Arizona transportation officials are moving forward with a first-in-the-nation pilot program that will use thermal camera technology to curb the wrong-way driving problem plaguing the state.

The detection system will illuminate a sign that notifies the wrong-way driver and immediately alert the state Department of Public Safety. Arizona Department of Transportation officials will update message boards along the interstate, cautioning other drivers of a wrong-way vehicle.

The program will be installed on a 15-mile (24-kilometer) stretch of Interstate 17 in Phoenix, along roadways and ramps.

Wrong-way drivers have caused at least eight deaths in Arizona this year.

In early June, metro Phoenix saw three wrong-way wrecks over the course of about two weeks. The two resulting fatalities prompted Gov. Doug Ducey to urge state agencies to accelerate and broaden the thermal camera detection program.

I want those cameras implemented as quickly as possible, and expanded to as many areas as possible where they may make a difference and save a life, Ducey said.

Transportation spokesman Steve Elliott said officials have moved the projects timeline forward about a month by pre-ordering materials, including cameras, poles and fiber-optic cables.

In June, Sen. Karen Fann, vice-chairman of the state Senate Transportation Committee, said wrong-way wrecks have always been a problem, but increasingly so in recent years.

I havent seen as many in my entire life as Ive seen in the past five years, said Fann, who owns a highway construction company.

The Arizona State Transportation Board unanimously voted Friday to award the contract to Contractors West, Inc., a Mesa-based company that specializes in highway electrical and sign work.

State officials expect the cameras will be installed between the Interstate 10 and Loop 101 interchanges on I-17 by the end of November.

Elliott said its important that the project adheres to the timeline, which slates camera installation for early August. If Contractors West does not sign the contract by Monday, the board will offer the project to the next lowest bidder.

Contractors Wests bid was about $1.9 million, 6.6 percent higher than the states estimate but within the projects $3.7 million budget. State officials used some of the funding to purchase equipment in hopes of expediting the project.

Department of Public Safety officials said there have been 956 reported incidents involving wrong-way drivers so far in 2017. More than 80 percent of the drivers are impaired, they said. Most reported incidents dont result in arrests or collisions because motorists correct themselves, said Alberto Gutier, director of the Governors Office of Highway Safety.

Transportation officials installed lower and larger wrong way and do not enter signs on freeway ramps in 2015, in an effort to curb the problem. Dallas Hammit, a state engineer and deputy director for transportation, said the program will also help identify the ramps where wrong-way drivers are more prone to enter the freeway.

The new system will allow law enforcement to respond to wrong-way driving cases even faster than it already does, Elliott said.

It really boils down to notification and early word, Elliott said.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Ohio Power Siting Board has ruled that the Lake Erie Wind Development Corp.'s application to build wind turbine's in the lake is now complete and a formal review -- including hearings -- will soon begin.

Before that process can get under way, LEEDCo's developer, Icebreaker Windpower, Inc., must send copies of the massive application to public libraries and to local governments and explain how the public and municipalities can be involved in the case, said Beth Nagusky, LEEDCo's director of sustainable development.

As the first freshwater wind farm in the world, Icebreaker is a $126-million demonstration project. The goal is to prove it can be done and can stand up to shifting lake ice, opening the door to large future developments.

Icebreaker's six-turbines would be located 8 to 10 miles northwest of downtown. The power they generate would flow through an under-lake bed cable to a Cleveland Public Power substation on North Marginal Road near the old CPP power plant, now popularly known as "the whale building," visible from the East Shoreway.

First proposed by the Cleveland Foundation in 2003, the project has been awarded a $50 million federal grant and attracted Norwegian wind farm developer Fred. Olsen Renewables, which has created a U.S. subsidiary for the project.

LEEDCo must also pay Ohio an application fee before the siting board's formal evaluation begins, and that is going to cost about $50,000, according to the siting board's letter to Icebreaker. Typically, an application fee for such a small wind farm would be about $10,350.

"Due to the novelty and potential complexity of the staff investigation, it is anticipated that this application fee will not cover all the [siting] board's expenses associated with this case," Asim Haque, chairman of the siting board, wrote to the company. "The initial application fee shall be increased by $39,650. Additional invoicing may be necessary."

David Karpinski, an engineer and LEEDCo vice president of operations, said the company expected the higher application fee. "We have to fund the [state] staff time for all the work. This is right in line with what we thought."

The siting board held up Icebreaker's application in April after determining that the company had not fully explained its plans to monitor the impact of the construction of the project on birds and bats and on fisheries and aquatic life.

Since then Icebreaker has negotiated and signed agreements with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to monitor the impact of the project on birds, bats, fish and other aquatic life before, during and after construction of the wind farm. Icebreaker filed those details with the siting board about 10 days ago.

Once the siting board's evaluation officially begins, the board will set a public hearing 60 to 90 days in the future and the staff will begin its evaluation, which could include requests for more information and documents. There will be a public hearing in Cleveland and at least one or more administrative hearings in Columbus. In other words, the process will move much like a utility rate case. Objectors can officially intervene. Anyone can submit letters both for and against the project.

Construction is now expected to begin in 2019 rather than the summer of 2018.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A 19-year-old man was shot to death Sunday as he drove by Cudell Recreation Center, police said.

Antonio Montgomery died at MetroHealth after being shot in the head about 8 p.m. in the 2000 block of West 98th Street, according to police.

Montgomery was driving a GMC Arcadia SUV with two people inside when someone at the recreation center fired at least 20 gunshots, police said.

One of the bullets ripped through the SUV's back windshield and hit Montgomery in the head, according to police reports.

His car drove out of control until it crashed into a tree south of Madison Avenue, police said. The crash severed the tree. Montgomery's passengers were not injured, police said.

It was the second deadly shooting in as many days in Cleveland. Ledarrius Howze, 25, was fatally shot Saturday on Spruce Court.

Police are searching for two men who stole a gun from Howze, then shot him, police said.

No arrests have been made in either case.

There have been 62 homicides this year in the city, one more than at this time last year.

If you'd like to comment on this story, visit Monday's crime and courts comments section.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Ohio Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a challenge to Cleveland Councilman Jeff Johnson's mayoral candidacy after the person who filed the challenge failed to present evidence to the court.

Clevelander Ed Davila filed his challenge July 13, contending Johnson was ineligible to hold public office or run for mayor because of his criminal convictions in 1998.

Johnson is one of eight people on the primary ballot challenging incumbent Frank Jackson. Two other write-in candidates also are challenging Jackson.

In the decision announced Monday, the court said Davila failed to file his evidence and brief for the case that was due by July 27. The court then dismissed his case for failing to prosecute it with the required level of diligence.

In May, the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections voted 4-0 vote to reject the challenge after hearing testimony from both Davila and Johnson. The board's decision was in line with a legal opinion prepared for board members by Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh.

In the suit Davila filed with the Supreme Court, Davilla argued that the elections board got it wrong and that Johnson should be disqualified. He asked the court to order the elections board to change its decision and disqualify Johnson.

Johnson was convicted of three federal counts of Hobbs Act extortion in 1998. The charges accused him of demanding campaign contributions from Arab-American grocers in Cleveland.

Johnson served nine months in prison before he was released to halfway houses in Columbus and then Cleveland. He served two months in each.

As a convicted felon, Johnson was barred by state law from holding a position of public trust - including a seat on City Council or mayor of Cleveland.

But in 2007, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Nancy McDonnell granted an expungement that cleared the way for him to hold office. Although the conviction remains in place in the federal court records, the judge's decision effectively removes his conviction from the eyes of the state.

Cases involving bribery carry an additional stipulation in the state law that forever forbids someone convicted of that crime from holding office.

Davila argued to the elections board that Johnson's conviction under federal statutes essentially amounted to bribery and that the expungement therefore did not restore his ability to hold office.

The Summit County prosecutor, acting as a special counsel for the elections board, disagreed, finding that bribery and extortion are two different crimes. Based on her recommendation, the elections board rejected Davila's challenge.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- State regulators writing the rules for Ohio's new medical marijuana program wrapped up their work Monday, one month ahead of the statutory deadline.

The result: A tightly regulated program that will start small, with the ability to grow as more patients sign up.

Rules and regulations for medical marijuana stores, product manufacturers and testing labs; doctors, patients and caregivers were among those that cleared the Ohio legislature's Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review on Monday without objection from the panel. The rules officially take effect in August.

Cultivator rules specifying license requirements for medical marijuana growers were approved in April, and the state is now reviewing 185 applications for 24 grow licenses.

Ohio legislators passed the medical marijuana law in late May 2016, but it will likely be more than a year before patients can walk into a dispensary and buy their medicine.

The law established a framework for the program that established 21 qualifying medical conditions and a two-year time line for rolling out the program. The law also doesn't allow smoking marijuana or growing it at home.

Details such as who will grow and sell marijuana and how much patients can buy, were left to the Ohio Department of Commerce, Ohio State Board of Pharmacy and Ohio State Medical Board.

Like the cultivator rules, the regulations approved Monday did not significantly change from when they were introduced several months ago.

Patients and caregivers

Patients will be registered by physicians with whom they have a bona fide relationship. Patients will pay a $50 annual registration fee, discounted 50 percent for veterans and people receiving federal disability assistance.

Patients can only possess a 90-day supply of medical marijuana products at any one time. The pharmacy board increased this amount from 6 ounces to 8 ounces of marijuana or marijuana products containing the equivalent amount of THC, a compound in cannabis that generate a "high."

Ohio is the first of the 29 states that have legalized medical marijuana to calculate limits this way.

Patients could mix and match products but each amount added together could not exceed a total 90-day supply. So if a patient bought 70 days worth of plant material, he or she could not buy more than 20 days worth of vaping oils or edibles.

Patients can dedicate up to two caregivers to buy medical marijuana on their behalf, and caregivers can serve up to two patients except in hospice and other situations allowed by the pharmacy board. Caregivers will pay a $25 fee per application.

Processors and dispensaries

The commerce department will license up to 40 processors to make marijuana oils, patches, topical lotions, capsules and edibles. Processors will pay a $10,000 application fee and, if awarded a license, a $90,000 fee, renewable each year for $100,000.

The state will license up to 60 dispensaries statewide -- more than the initial 40 proposed -- to sell marijuana products and plant material for vaporizing. The pharmacy board last week released a draft plan to distribute those licenses by population that shows many rural and suburban counties would not have one dispensary.

Dispensary applicants will have to pay a $5,000 application fee and a $70,000 license fee every other year.

The state can license additional processors and dispensaries after Sept. 8, 2018 to meet patient demand.

Like cultivators, dispensary and processor licensees will have to submit extensive security, financial and operational plans, including how they will safely transport marijuana to the next stop in the supply chain.

Cultivators, processors and dispensaries must be located at least 500 feet from schools, playgrounds, libraries and churches.

Doctors

Ohio physicians will have to take two hours of continuing education courses and register with the state medical board in order to recommend marijuana to patients. Doctors are required to explain the benefits and risks of medical marijuana to patients before issuing a recommendation.

The recently passed state budget bill eliminated the requirement doctors tell patients the benefits of marijuana treatment outweigh the risks.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- State Sen. Frank LaRose raised the most money in the race for Ohio secretary of state, according to campaign finance reports released by the Ohio Secretary of State's office Monday.

Monday was the deadline for statewide candidates to submit campaign finance reports for the first half of 2017, though candidates often voluntarily provide information on donations after the June 30 reporting deadline.

Current Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted is term-limited, and is running for governor instead. The secretary of state is responsible for overseeing Ohio's elections and processing business filings.

Read more about the candidates, and how much money they pulled in more than a year away from 2018 election.

Frank LaRose

Republican State Sen. Frank LaRose raised $455,040 between Jan. 26 and July 31. His campaign spent $82,930 and has $555,717 cash on hand.

He's emphasized his background as a decorated Green Beret in the U.S. Army Special Forces and an Iraq War veteran. His family owns the House of LaRose, a Brecksville-based beer distributor.

As a state lawmaker, LaRose, of Hudson, has advocated for online voter registration, electronic filing of local campaign finance data and redistricting reform. He also has performed what's known as political advance work -- that is, scouting out a location in advance of a candidate's public appearance -- for Republican presidential campaigns in 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016 and for President Donald Trump's inauguration this year.

Kathleen Clyde

Democratic State Rep. Kathleen Clyde, a prominent advocate for voting rights from Kent, raised $342,580 between Dec. 17 and July 31. Her campaign spent $80,263 and has $425,576 cash on hand.

She's pledged to make voting in Ohio easy and accessible. Clyde has been the Democrats' go-to critic of many voting policies implemented by legislative Republicans and by Husted, including removing hundreds of thousands of inactive voters from voting rolls and eliminating the so-called "Golden Week" that allowed Ohioans to register and vote at the same time.

If elected, Clyde said many of her proposals to increase voter turnout could be implemented by her office, without the involvement of the Ohio General Assembly.

Dorothy Pelanda

Republican Dorothy Pelanda, a state representative from Central Ohio, raised $130,268 between Dec 16 and July 20. Her campaign spent $51,377 and has $93,054 cash on hand.

Pelanda has shown interest in election issues during her time in the Ohio House of Representatives. She has sponsored legislation that would end special primary elections to fill congressional vacancies in districts where only one candidate is running. The measure, intended to save tax dollars, is similar to one LaRose is pushing in the Senate.

You can find all of cleveland.com's coverage of the campaign finance filing deadline here.
CANTON, Ohio - A Stark County Sheriff's deputy is thanking the family who presented him with a small yet heartfelt token while he was on patrol this weekend.

Deputy Joshua Vacha had just left a drive-thru Saturday in Plain Township, across the street from Walsh University, and drove into a parking spot when a woman - who he later learned was Holly Cugini - pulled up in a spot next to him.

Her son Zander, 7, hopped out of the backseat and presented Vacha with a stone, painted with red and blue stripes and the words, "We support you!"

The Cugini family regularly paints rocks with words of encouragement and hides them around town, but Vacha is the second law enforcement officer the Cuginis have approached with a rock of their own. The first was North Canton police officer Gary Dodge.

Dodge posted a photo of his stone on an Instagram page and captioned it by saying he was approached by the Cuginis while running radar from his cruiser.

"It brought tears to my eyes..." Dodge's caption read, in part. "It's moments like these that really hit home fro me and remind me how great it is to protect and serve."

Vacha had never met the Cugini family before the chance encounter, and they have not met in person since the encounter, the deputy said. However, he has connected with the family via Facebook and may meet up in the future.

"We really didn't do this for the public attention of it all," Cugini said. "We just did this as my kids' way of saying, 'Hey, we're here. We look up to you. We support you, and we want other kids to follow in their footsteps."

"I will always carry this stone with me while on duty for the remainder of my career," Vacha said.

Check out the video above to hear more from Holly Cugini and Deputy Vacha.
Corey Lewandowski wants Richard Cordray fired. What happens if President Donald Trump lets Obamacare fail? And a look at how many state inspectors there are for fair rides. All this in today's Ohio Politics Roundup from Seth Richardson.

Lewandowski calls for Cordray's firing: It was sort of an odd exchange between Corey Lewandowski - former campaign manager for President Donald Trump - and NBC's Chuck Todd on "Meet the Press" when Lewandowski called for the administration to fire Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray.

The suggestion came without prompting and was sort of out of the blue, as Todd noted.

CHUCK TODD: I have to say,Corey, that was sort of a random thing you just introduced there. What's with the focus on Mr. Cordray? How is that at the top of the agenda there?

COREY LEWANDOWSKI: I think there's three things on the agenda. It's tax reform, it's building a wall on the southern border, it's repeal and replace of Obamacare which didn't get done--but I think Richard Cordray is somebody who is campaigning now for the governor of Ohio, he's sitting in an office now at the CFPB, and I--you know, it's my recommendation to the President of the United States to fire Richard Cordray, and if he wants to run for the governor of Ohio, go do it, but my concern is, you've got an unelected bureaucrat sitting in an office right now and I hope that the new chief of staff looks at him moving forward and saying it's time to act decisively.

What gives?: Cordray, of course, is rumored to be mulling a run for governor. He's well known and involved in the economic issues that voters found most important during the 2016 election.

The problem is that congressional Democrats like him in his current spot. Should he leave on his own accord, Trump would have the opportunity to put someone in his place who could dismantle the CFPB.

But there's another tangle. If Trump fires Cordray, Cordray could become a martyr, increasing his popularity in a run for governor. And the administration doesn't want that.

Trump hasn't expressly stated he's interested in the Ohio gubernatorial race, but the administration sure seems to be getting involved. Vice President Mike Pence gave U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci a shoutout during a visit in June, but insisted it wasn't an endorsement for Renacci's gubernatorial bid. And Renacci is very openly touting himself as the pro-Trump candidate in a four-way primary.

Not to mention Trump's personal interest in boosting Ohio Republican Party Chairman Jane Timken to that position.

Renacci and Lewandowski: Todd asked Lewandowski if he had any clients in Ohio given his keen interest in Cordray as it relates to Ohio, to which Lewandowski said he did not.

That might be technically true, but the Trump confidant is raising money for Renacci's gubernatorial bid, according to BuzzFeed's Henry J. Gomez.

One more thing: Lewandowski is also getting ready to appear at the City Club on Thursday in what's been a polarizing decision.

Who recommended Lewandowski speak at the City Club?

None other than Jim Renacci.

Buzzkill: Rural medical marijuana patients would be out of luck regarding the location of dispensaries if a state proposal for licensing takes effect.

"Cuyahoga and Franklin counties would get five medical marijuana stores each, while many rural and some suburban counties would have none under a proposal to distribute Ohio's limited number of available licenses," cleveland.com's Jackie Borchardt reports.

Mike DeWine still up in the polls: A new poll has Attorney General Mike DeWine still leading the four-way pack of Republicans for governor in name ID and favorability.

As I report, DeWine leads in a four-way ballot with him, Renacci, Secretary of State Jon Husted and Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor. DeWine also leads a two-way ballot against Husted.

What's next with Obamacare: After a stunning Friday morning failure by Senate Republicans and the Trump administration to repeal the Affordable Care Act, there are still a lot of unanswered questions about what's next for the health care law commonly known as Obamacare.

Now, Trump has said he'll simply let the law fail. But as cleveland.com's Stephen Koff points out, that could end up costing the federal government billions.

The root of all this stems from subsidies the federal government pays to insurance companies to offset costs for consumers (Koff does a wonderful job explaining this in more detail). Trump's threatened to not dole out payments that could raise premiums.

"That means instead of paying a $290 subsidy, the government would have to pay $369," Koff writes. "In other words, the premiums might rise by 20 percent but, because of subsidy and affordability rules, the government's payment would rise by 27 percent."

Kasich's victory lap: Speaking of Obamacare, Ohio Gov. John Kasich took a victory lap on Fox News Sunday over the repeal bill's failure. Kasich has been one of the most outspoken and staunchest Republican opponents to the Senate plan.

"I'm happy to say I actually think it's a good thing for this reason," Kasich said. "I think Republicans looked over the cliff and I think they saw that there were going to be a lot of people who were going to be hurt, particularly people who don't have much of a voice, who the machine and the system grinds down, and they pulled back."

Tragedy at the fair: While the number of fair rides that state inspectors have to sign off on has doubled in the last 15 years, the number of actual inspectors has remained the same, Borchardt reports.

That comes out after state agencies announced they were investigating what caused a ride malfunction at the Ohio State Faire that left one dead and seven injured.

ECOT: The Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow - an online charter school in the state - has been nothing short of embattled, especially as the state tries to recoup $60 million in overpaid disbursements.

But how did ECOT come to be? The Columbus Dispatch's Catherine Candisky and Jim Siegel took a look at the genesis of the program.

"After making and losing his first fortune in the office supply business, William Lager hatched a plan for Ohio's first online charter school on the back of napkins over countless cups of coffee at a West Side Waffle House," they write.

Trump's Youngstown promises: During Trump's Wednesday rally in Youngstown, he made some pretty big promises about reopening shuttered factories in the once thriving industrial town.

As David Skolnick and Kalea Hall of The Vindicator report, experts don't think that's likely.

"How realistic is it for the Mahoning Valley, which has lost about 35,000 primary metal jobs in the past 40 years, to have all of them return?" they write. "Not very, according to interviews conducted by The Vindicator with manufacturing, business, government and steel-union officials."

Rick Perry: Pence and Trump aren't the only members of the administration who visit Ohio. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry will also be in the Buckeye State on Monday touring the American Centrifuge Project facility in Piketon, according to The (Hillsboro) Times-Gazette.

Get Battleground Briefing, our FREE politics newsletter, delivered to your inbox: Sign up here. Tips or links? Send here. Follow along on Twitter: @SethARichardson
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Opponents to a ballot measure that seeks to curb the money the state spends on pharmaceutical drugs has spent three times as much as supporters of Issue 2 and in less time.

Ohioans Against the Deceptive Rx Ballot Issue spent $9.7 million of the $15.8 million it has raised from May 30 to June 21, according to campaign finance reports filed Monday with the Ohio secretary of state.

Ohio Taxpayers for Lower Drug Prices raised $3.7 million from January through June 30 and has spent nearly all of it, according to its report.

The state's deadline for campaign finance reports was Monday. The campaigns won't have to report again until late October.

The financial reports show each side has spent high levels of cash relatively early for a statewide ballot initiative campaign and the pace will likely increase into the final stretch. The election is Nov. 7.

If Issue 2 passes, Ohio can't pay more for prescription drugs for Medicaid, state employee health plans and other state-run programs than the U.S. Veterans Administration pays.

While supporters say the state could save $400 million a year, opponents dispute the figure.

The two sides have traded barbs on television advertisements and in the media for months. The aggressive campaigns could make Issue 2 the most expensive ballot issue in Ohio history.

Opponents have developed a coalition that includes the Ohio Hospital Association, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce and a number of veterans groups to fight Issue 2, which they warn will increase drug prices for people with private insurance.

Despite the coalition, Monday's campaign finance report show the money poured into the opposition coffers came from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, PhRMA, a trade association.

Dale Butland, communications director for the opposition group, said that other coalition members may contribute at a later date.

"We have said from the very beginning that PhRMA is funding this campaign," he said. "As you can see from the report that is entirely true. PhRMA gets it money from the member companies and PhRMA gives the money to the LLC, which then contributes to our (political action committee.)"

Butland said that the opposition is educating the public about the real consequences to their pocketbooks, and the campaign is not cheap.

"The other side has spent a lot of money to, I would argue, hide the truth," he said.

Dennis Willard, a spokesman for Ohio Taxpayers for Lower Drug Prices, which supports Issue 2, said he wishes he could see a list of which drug companies are contributing to PhRMA, and how much they're spending.

"There's a reason that they are hiding where the money is coming from because they're running a campaign of lies, distortions and cover-ups," he said. "Big drug companies are spending millions of dollars to protect their profits that they're putting before patients."

All but $151 of the proponent's contributions came from the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which supported a similar measure in California last year that failed.

Crime victims' rights

Marsy's Law for Ohio, the group backing Issue 1, reported raising $2.9 million, all from California businessman Henry Nicholas. Nicholas sponsored similar initiatives in California, Montana, South Dakota, and North Dakota. Named after Nicholas' sister, who was murdered in 1983, the measure would strengthen crime victims' rights in the Ohio Constitution.

The campaign spent $2.85 million, including $2.3 million to a Texas consultant to collect the hundreds of thousands of signatures needed to put the issue on the November ballot.

Redistricting reform

A congressional redistricting measure isn't on the ballot this year. But supporters say they're well-positioned to put their proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot in 2018.

Fair Congressional Districts for Ohio reported raising $29,782 during the first six months of the year -- $18,877 of that came from more than 200 individual contributors. The campaign also received $24,577 in-kind, from Common Cause Ohio, the Ohio Environmental Council, the League of Women Voters of Ohio and league chapters in Cleveland, Kent and Marion.

The group reported spending $21,461 -- about $12,000 was spent printing petitions and $10,000 was spent on legal services.

The measure would require bipartisan support of congressional district maps drawn by the same seven-member panel that draws Statehouse district lines. Ohio voters in 2015 overwhelmingly approved the changes to the Statehouse district process.

Cleveland.com reporter Jackie Borchardt contributed to this report.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - All Ohio State Fair rides have passed re-inspection and are operating, after the fatality on the Fire Ball last week.

Meantime, the state has released the contract it has with New-Jersey-based Amusements of America, which owns and operates the rides.

The company was required to pay for an independent ride inspector and buy an insurance policy for "claims of injury, death, damage, loss, costs, including attorney fees, or any other loss arising or claimed to have arisen from Licensee's operations..." the contract states.

The policy had to be at least $10 million, including up to $2 million per occurrence of injury or death.

The state is not legally responsible from claims of injury and death that arise from the company's operation and occupation of the fair, the contract states.

Tyler Jarrell, 18, was killed during the ride and seven others were injured.

While the Ohio Highway Patrol continues to investigate how the ride broke apart in mid-air last Wednesday night, the man's family has hired an attorney to look into the matter and file a wrongful death suit.

Amusements of America released a statement Monday saying all indications point to the fatality being a problem with the ride and not of an operator or inspectors, since the Fire Ball remains closed around the world and the Ohio State Fair midway is operating again.

"There is no evidence that operator error played a role in the accident," the statement said. "We continue to keep those affected by this tragic accident in our prayers and work cooperatively with the ongoing investigation."

The contract, dated Sept. 21, 2016, was a renewal of a 2014 contract. It requires Amusements of America to follow all state laws governing ride safety.

"Licensee shall only provide modern, well-constructed and well-maintained Amusement Rides and Attractions which are of the Ohio State Fair quality," the contract states.

Amusements of America had 14 days before Wednesday's fair opening to set up the rides, according to the contract. It will have 7 days after the fair's Aug. 6 close to tear them down. But the contract states more time can be given if the company asks for it in writing.

Amusements for America sets the ticket prices for the rides, and pays the state 40 percent of the gross receipts the ticket and admission sales up, to $1.5 million a day.

The state's cut increases incrementally if sales increase, up to 45 percent if daily sales are over $1.7 million.

The Dutch manufacturer of the Fire Ball, KMG, has ordered customers across the world to cease running the Fire Ball until further notice, as it is also investigating the matter.
The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission form
And as our source, Mariya Taher, points out, at the time, FGM wasn't actually a crime: "There was no federal law in place. That law passed in 1996, so by the time I carried out my thesis, there was."

Mariya Karimjee, who grew up in the same religious community as this Mariya, told This American Life last year that she too was cut in someone's living room. Unlike our source, she bled profusely for days afterward, suppressed the memory for many years, and remains unable to have anything approaching a normal sex life.

In Mariya's community, khatna is traditionally done in the home, and by women with little-to-no training. Girls as young as six or seven are taken to an "auntie's house" under false pretenses, essentially like being told you're going to McDonald's and stopping at the dentist instead. But y'know ... obviously way worse.

3 It's Mostly Women Perpetuating Female Genital Mutilation

The Quran makes no mention of female genital mutilation. Neither does the Bible or the Torah. Yet Muslims, Christians, and Jews around the world still do it. W-why?

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"I found that there were so many different reasons for why it was carried out, from hygiene to sexual control -- I've actually heard justifications that it is done to decrease your sexuality as well as increase your sexuality, or that you have to undergo it because it is an identity marker in a way ..."

It's not a rural problem, or even an issue of ignorance. Of the 385 women Mariya interviewed, 80 percent had experienced FGM firsthand, and more than half were college-educated. "It's a practice that you can't just say is being continued by an ignorant group of people. Particularly the Dawoodi Bohra group in which I was raised in. They pride themselves on education for women, so they're a very highly educated population. But this fact also shows you how powerful the idea of tradition is ... My mom, when I talked to her about it, really I believe carried it out because it was tradition. It was something that other women had done to girls in their families, so you have to continue it because it was supposed to be for the good of the girl. Really, my mom didn't think to question it, because you don't question the traditions ... I think men not knowing about it is changing now, because there's so much media attention, but previously that was very common too -- men did not know anything about it, and that's why my relatives ... my own father didn't know about it, and he had four younger sisters."
Get the FULL Hungarian Grand Prix Race Results HERE

Kimi Raikkonen felt he had the pace to win Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix and end his Formula 1 victory drought, blaming himself for missing out on pole in qualifying.

Raikkonen was left frustrated sitting behind Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel for much of the race in Hungary, the leader running slowly due to a handling issue.

Raikkonen's lack of a move on Vettel for the lead raised questions about Ferrari's tactics, leaving the Finn to fall into the clutches of Lewis Hamilton behind.

Raikkonen eventually finished second, but had no hard feelings about the result or Ferrari's approach.

"I caught up with Sebastian at the end of the first stint and once he pitted I had very good speed but the team called me in," Raikkonen explained.

"I'm sure there were reasons for that, maybe the Mercedes, who had stopped early and had fresh tyres were going quick. Anyhow, my whole race was basically following Sebastian but then Mercedes caught us and I was going he would go as fast as he could without saving tyres, as they were catching us.

"Being in the middle is a bit of an awful place to be, because a bad exit in the last corner with the guy behind having DRS may allow him to get you. But that happened maybe once when I got a bit sideways in the last corner.

"Today the car was great, I was just following my own rear wing - well, at least it looked the same... Obviously I want to win but this was a great result for the team.

"In the end we got another one-two and I can look at what I did yesterday and blame

myself for not giving myself a better chance in the race.

"My car was good, we had a plan as a team, Seb was first yesterday and he got away first. The aim was, in whatever way, to finish one-two."
Even organizations that operate with an enlightened security mindset are most likely focused on their own domain. They are certainly very aware that their data travels and is transacted beyond their corporate walls, but few actively audit how its handled by third-parties on a daily basis. The recent discovery that a Verizon partner left an Amazon S3 bucket inadvertently unsecured, thus exposing sensitive Verizon customer information, highlights the need for enterprises to have visibility into how partners and other stakeholders keep their data secure.

The story is becoming part of a recurring theme, but the magnitude of this potential breach was staggering. Verizon partner Nice Systems logged customer files that contained sensitive and personal information (including customer names, corresponding cell phone numbers, and specific account PINs) on an Amazon S3 bucket. For reasons unknown, that bucket was left unsecured, thus exposing more than 14 million Verizon customer records to anyone who discovered the bucket. Security experts have suggested that this level and type of exposure can ultimately result in account takeovers through phone number hijacking. With access to the vulnerable data, hackers could break into customers email and social media accounts, even for those using multi-factor authentication. The situation was fixed (after six days of round-the-clock remediation), but the exposure could have led to extreme consequences.

While Nice Systems surely had permission to log and access these files per agreement with Verizon (and, we're guessing, through approval of customers), the company clearly was not acting in a way that Verizon would approve. As a Verizon spokesperson said, Verizon provided the vendor with certain data to perform this work and authorized the vendor to set up AWS storage as part of this project. Unfortunately, the vendors employee incorrectly set their AWS storage to allow external access.

Ultimately, Verizon is taking the hit for this, as is the case when any big brand is implicated. I was recently in a large meeting where I asked for a show of hands from people familiar with the "Verizon breach." Every hand in the room shot up. I then asked who had heard of Nice Systems. A PR guy who spends his days glued to news sites was the lone hand-raiser. The point is, visibility into how your data is being used, and ensuring adherence to policies you use within your own corporate infrastructure must be maintained by all who have permission to touch your data. And in the end, it's your job to make sure it's being enforced.

Let's be clear; people make mistakes, and busy, multitasking people make more than they should. Is that okay? Well, it has to be, because humans are not infallible. But make no mistake; this very same scenario is definitely  and I guarantee this within 100% accuracy  happening to a company with whom you have a relationship. It may very well be happening within your own organization.

There are two unassailable factors that make the lives of CISOs difficult: 1) IT infrastructures have a massive, and endlessly growing, number of potential attack points; and 2) humans screw up sometimes. Yet, even knowing all of this, we feel secure enough to hope that checklists and quarterly audits will keep our data protected. We even act surprised when an entry point to our network is discovered or access to a server was inadvertently made public. We also expect partners to operate according to the same rules we enforce for ourselves.

So the Verizon breach should be a wakeup call to companies that share PII, shopping cart data, and customer service data with external vendors or third parties. Do you know what precautions they take to ensure that the data is secure? Are you certain that partners are continuously monitoring their environments to ensure that mistakes arent made leaving customer data open to the world?

Really, this isnt anything different from what weve thought about in security for the last couple of decades. But because of the cloud, the faster pace of change in modern IT environments, and automation of everything (including attacks), we need to step up our game. We need to be continuously vigilant and understand how automation and continuous monitoring can replace an imperfect reliance on human behavior. The entire nature of the cloud, and the advantages that we gain from the cloud are simultaneously those things that put us at risk. APIs that transact data among multiple apps allow us to deliver a more customized experience to users, but that relies on sharing of data. We will all claim we only share with trusted sources, but technology isnt static. It engages, moves, and is transacted in nanoseconds at the behest of developers tasked with solving technology and business issues. Its fast and agile and if we dont act the same way we lose our competitive advantage. We also must rely on the interaction with partners, customers, and other stakeholders in order to deliver what customers want. Hasnt the time come to get a handle on how we protect our data and our people?

Verizon and its customers are just fine. It is a company thats built a solid reputation on quality, value, and now, security. The company and its partners got a wakeup call, and that will be helpful in the long run. We should see this as an opportunity to ask ourselves if we have the stomach to operate on a loose strategy of hoping for the best. That won't be enough, and we must ensure that rigorous and appropriate security is applied wherever our data resides.






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NEW MILFORD - Kristen Gizzi, the executive director of the company that owns Litchfield Crossings in New Milford, has been named a VIP Woman of the Year Circle inductee by the National Association of Professional Women, it was announced this week.

Gizzi was honored for her leadership in entrepreneurship. She is general counsel, director of development and executive director of ECCO III Enterprises, a Yonkers, N.Y.-based heavy construction and real estate company. The Gizzi family owns ECCO III Enterprises.

Gizzi uses her legal experience to manage contract evaluation, dispute resolution, leasing and marketing for the company.

My expertise in evaluating the totality of any given circumstance in order to provide sound advice is drawn from my legal and business background, Gizzi said. I believe ones integrity and reputation are paramount to success. It is those values, and my continued willingness to learn and grow as a person, which have allowed me professional growth and success.

Litchfield Crossings, located at 169 Danbury Road, is home to Kohls, Big Lots, Panera Bread, Home Goods, Petco and several other businesses. Gizzi oversees all operations at the shopping center, including compliance with municipal regulations and maintaining business relationships with tenants.

I am an integral part of the executive team, she said. I participate in all aspects of decision making and manage a large, growing real estate portfolio.

She has also made a special effort to incorporate Litchfield Crossings and ECCO III Enterprises into the New Milford community. Litchfield Crossings launched LFC Cares, which supports organizations such as New Milford Historical Society, Vietnam Veterans of America, Water Witch Hose Company No. 2, Alzheimers Association, Nationwide Childrens Hospital, SPCA of Connecticut, and National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Gizzi also works with Hopes Door, The Phoenix and the Rose, and New Milford Hospital.

We are a family business and were old-fashioned in some ways, Gizzi told The News-Times in a previous interview. We believe in values and integrity. We would never put our name to something or invest in something that we couldnt stand behind. We wouldnt invest in a retail center of this magnitude and put this much energy into something in a place that we thought didnt also have those values.

The National Association of Professional Women, or NAPW, is a networking organization exclusively for women and has more than 850,000 members. Former television personality Star Jones is president of the publicly traded company.

Im pleased to welcome Kristen into this exceptional group of women, Jones said of Gizzis induction into the VIP Woman of the Year Circle. Her knowledge and experience in her industry are valuable assets to her company and community.

cbosak@hearstmediact.com; 203-731-3338
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Connecticut often gets high marks for education; the state's public schools are touted as some of the best.

For example, in November 2016, education site Niche ranked Westport the best school district in Connecticut and the 12th best in the country in its annual report. Seven Connecticut school districts made the top 100 nation-wide.

According to a new report by financial site Wallethub, Connecticut has the eighth best school system in the country based on quality and safety.

WalletHub also looked into how education spending affects a school system's success rate. The conclusion is results are mixed.

Click through to see how Connecticut ranks in certain criteria and keep clicking for the top 10 bests school districts. Visit WalletHub for the full report.

Many of the schools that fall in the top 10 also rank high in spending. For example, Vermont, the number five best school system, ranks first for spending; Massachusetts the number one best school system ranks seventh for spending.

Connecticut ranks fifth for spending and eighth for quality and safety.

In February, Gov. Dannel Malloy released a new education budget that was met with mixed reviews. Some of the budget's proposed changes are:

Increase special education aid by $10 million

More seats for charter schools and magnet schools and increases the per-pupil for charter schools to $11,482

Cut higher education block grants 4.5 percent

Redistribute ECS grant, giving 38 municipalities more and the rest, less.

Consolidates the state Office of Higher Education into the state Department of Education

There are instances where high-spending states don't rank high for quality and safety. States like New York, Rhode Island and Wyoming fall into the top 10 highest-spenders but fall into the bottom half of quality and safety rankings.

Maine, on the other hand, ranks number 10 best school system and is close to the bottom for spending, ranking 43.
President Trump has become the ideal energizer for Connecticuts two U.S. Senators, Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy.

Both have been vocal opponents of Trump  opposing his stand on immigration, highlighting the Russian investigation, healthcare, Trumps idea of tax reform and just about every other position taken by the Trump administration.

Seemingly every time you turn on a television news station, either Blumenthal or Murphy are there talking about possible obstruction of justice charges, impeachment and other actions that might be taken against Trump.

Recently, all media outlets had photos of the two senators leaving the Iglesia De Dios Pentecostal Church where Nury Chavarria has taken refuge. She has lived in the United State for 24 years, has four children, all American citizens, and was scheduled to be deported.

What are the implications of all this activity on the part of our two senators?

Well, I believe that much of what they have been doing is just normal for them.

They like to keep their names in front of the public. President Trump has made it all so easy to do so.

However, I also believe that at least some of their activity is because both of them are potential candidates for either President or Vice President in 2020.

Chris Murphy will be reelected in 2018. While most political observers, I believe, recognize that his reelection is pretty much a given, he still is running hard against an unknown opponent. Next year will come and go and he will crush whoever is persuaded to be the sacrificial opponent. The win will just give Sen. Murphy that much more national publicity and another boost in his potential for consideration for higher office in 2020.

At this point, potential candidates in 2020 would include Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, all of whom have one thing in common  they are or will be septuagenarians or older, come 2020. Is it time for a new look in the Democratic Party?

Dick Blumenthal is not chronologically young at age 71 but he certainly gives the appearance of being a young vibrant person.

Chris Murphy is young. He just turned 43, and is vibrant and as aggressive as anyone in the political arena. He has what it takes to get people excited and, along with Cory Booker of New Jersey, is the future and hope of the Democratic Party.

I believe that both Dick and Chris have a very reasonable shot in 2020, but, if I had to pick just one of them, I would go with Chris Murphy.

Strange, isnt it, what the fallout from Trumps ridiculous antics has created. Trump hasnt done anything that will benefit the American people, but he has without a doubt created significant opportunity for both Dick Blumenthal and Chris Murphy.

Edward Marcus is former chairman of the Democrat State Central Committee in Connecticut, former state Senate majority leader, and principal of the Marcus Law Firm.
Now Playing: If you want to get away for the best price, aim for a late summer flight. Sean Dowling (@seandowlingtv) has more. Video: JW Player

Sometimes you just have to get away. Well, as you sit at your desk needing a break, the best day to book a late summer trip has been revealed.

The website FareCompare.com says Aug. 22 is the date that most airlines go with to signal the start of the cheaper fall season.
Great Allegheny Passage improvements coming

The bids were opened Nov. 1 and Adam Eidemiller's was the lower of two bids received. The project will take two weeks starting within the next week.
A nine-year-old boy battling a rare form of cancer penned an adorable note reminding himself to 'be jolly'.

Lorraine Mitchell, 49 from Leigh-on-Sea, found the handwritten missive in Finn's school bag as he was battling tumours in his spine, pelvis and shoulders.

And now that the brave youngster is in recovery, the piece of paper takes pride of place on the family's kitchen fridge.

Finn was diagnosed with a rare form of soft tissue tumour back in September 2016 after experiencing severe stomach pains that left him struggling to walk, crying in his sleep and 'screaming in pain'.

Metastatic rhabdomyosarcoma affects fewer than 60 children in the UK each year - and Finn's was stage 4.

Brave: Finn was diagnosed with a rare form of soft tissue tumour, back in September, after suffering from severe stomach pains that left him struggling to walk and 'screaming in pain'

Finn's proud mother Lorraine said: 'I found his "be jolly" note in his school bag at the start of the school term in September, which was around the time he began to deteriorate'

Mother-of-two Lorraine told MailOnline: 'Finn first became ill at the end of August last year and very quickly deteriorated. Consequently, it was a huge shock for us all and Finn has been so brave.

'Finn has had to deal with many difficult challenges such as his phobia of needles and anaesthesia, extreme nausea, loss of weight, constant lethargy, loss of mobility and bodily functions, loss of his hair, in addition to managing extreme pain on a daily basis.

'He has missed nearly a whole year of school and all the activities a normal nine-year-old should be enjoying. Despite this, Finn is still smiling and has been so positive, we are super proud of him.'

By Christmas Finn, who has a 19-year-old brother named Dan, was in the acute stage of his chemotherapy treatment and was 'very poorly', having a feeding tube inserted as he had lost so much weight.

Lorraine, who works as a learning support assistant at a primary school, said: 'I found his "be jolly" note in his school bag at the start of the school term in September, which was around the time he began to deteriorate and he must have been quite ill at this point.

Gruelling: The youngster endured nine sessions of intensive chemotherapy over a period of six months and has missed almost a year of school. He is hoping to return in September

Last Christmas, Finn who has an older brother called Dan, was in the acute stage of his chemotherapy and was 'very poorly', having a feeding tube inserted (pictured in hospital)

'We kept it in his notebook and we bought it into hospital with us, though it now takes pride of place on our fridge.'

The youngster endured nine sessions of intensive chemotherapy over a period of six months and has missed almost a year of school. He is hoping to return in September.

Finn's consultant recently confirmed that the youngster is in 'very good' partial remission with most of his tumours having disappeared, while traces that remain are currently inactive.

He has started chemotherapy maintenance treatment and also recently completed a course of radiotherapy to his lungs at University College London Hospital (UCLH).

Lorraine said: 'Finn has coped amazingly well. He still prefers not to talk about his illness.

Mum Lorraine said: 'Finn is a huge Harry Potter fan, he also has his own You Tube video channel and hopes one day to become a vlogger'

Proud Lorraine said of her son: 'This has been a great medium for him to express himself. I think it is a reflection of his positivity that he has chosen a phoenix as his username and logo'

Recovery: Finn has started chemotherapy maintenance treatment and also recently completed a course of radiotherapy to his lungs at University College London Hospital

'He has spent so much time in hospital this last year but he has always concentrated on just getting through the treatment in order to get home again.'

Adding that her son had always been 'a little bit quirky', Lorraine said: 'He has recently created his own You tube channel, Finnthephoenix: fired up, as he would like to become a famous vlogger when he grows up.

'This has been a great medium for him to express himself. I think it is a reflection of his positivity that he has chosen a phoenix as his username and logo.

'He also recently told me that he thinks that life is a dream and when you die, you just wake up... very profound for a nine-year-old.'

Finn and Lorraine are supporting the Cancer Research UK Kids & Teens Star Awards, in partnership with TK Maxx. To nominate someone to receive an award or to find out more about the campaign, visit: cruk.org/kidsandteens
His deft way with a pork chop has seen him become one of Britain's best known television chefs.

But it seems Nigel Slater's habit of fondling food as he prepares it doesn't always endear him to viewers.

An episode of the floppy-haired food writer's Eating Together series divided female fans tuning in on Sunday, with one taking to Mumsnet to wonder aloud why Slater insists on 'caressing' ingredients as though they were 'alive'.

The mum said that, while she loved watching the chef cook, she occasionally had the urge to 'slap him and tell him to just f***ing cook it'.

A re-run from the TV chef's Eating Together series caused quite the stir on Mumsnet

One mother who tuned in took to the forum to complain about his habit of 'caressing' food 'like it is alive'

Her comments prompted a flood of replies from fellow viewers, not all of whom echoed her feelings - such as one who said she found his on-screen stroking 'so soothing'.

The Mumsnet debate appeared to have been sparked by an episode of Eating Together which aired on BBC Two on Sunday afternoon. It followed the chef as he visited Trowbridge for an insight into the culinary traditions of one of the UK's largest Moroccan communities, and tried his hand at a spicy Indonesian fish dish.

It saw Slater handling roughly hewn carrots for a Sunday roast and squeezing prunes for a spiced duck - as well as bemoaning a 'slippery' garlic clove that escaped his pestle.

Mumsnet user SheWhoDaresGins2 posted: 'I love watching what Nigel Slater cooks but my god the man has to f***y on with the food!'

Still, her irritation was not so great as to make her switch off altogether.

'On the flip side his food always has me salivating,' she wrote.

Other viewers agreed that the TV chef was occasionally guilty of 'faffing about' with food

Some fellow mums echoed her thoughts on Slater, with one admitting she and her husband used a phrase of the chef's - 'dropping a little scone' - as code for 'faffing about unnecessarily'.

Another declared him 'dithery' and 'much better in print than on the telly'.

But other fans jumped to his defence, including one woman who declared that she loves 'the way he caresses and respects the ingredients', and even said she found it 'soothing'.

User Annelovesgilbert felt the same, adding: 'I find his gentle faffing really relaxing.'

Viewers divided: Some fans were irked by Slater's 'faffing' - but others found it 'soothing'

Some mothers insisted they found Slater's 'gentle faffing' to be 'soothing' and 'relaxing'

Other TV chefs were dragged into the mix too, with one mum, who said Slater was her favourite chef, chiming in: 'I can't take too much of Nigella practically mating with her food.'

Another suggested Mary Berry's 'straightforward' kitchen manner was behind her success.

Other viewers were too preoccupied by the TV chef's enviable kitchen to notice how he handled the food, with one remarking on his 'neatly labelled glass jars' and another admiring Slater's 'lovely bi-fold doors'.
Into the future: Hannah Jones after her graduation

Tears streaming down her face, Kirsty Jones beamed as she watched her eldest daughter, Hannah, walk across the stage to collect her graduation certificate.

Cheers went up from the crowd as Hannah, 22, donned her cap and gown to pick up her English degree from Aberystwyth University  none of them louder than her proud mum. I was clapping, screaming and wolf-whistling at her, admits Kirsty, 51, a little sheepishly. Even when everyone else had stopped applauding, I kept going.

The families on either side were looking at me like I was crazy, but I couldnt help it  I wanted to shout at the top of my lungs: Thats my daughter! 

Any parent will understand such delight at watching their child take their first steps into adulthood. But this was no ordinary mothers pride. For just eight years ago, Hannah was at deaths door.

Having contracted a rare form of leukaemia as a child, her heart was so badly damaged by chemotherapy that she was housebound  and doctors gave the terminally-ill youngster just months to live.

Her family, from Marden near Hereford, never dared to imagine a future in which Hannah would lead a normal life. A heart transplant was her only hope of survival.

But the wait could be up to several years and her chances were slim. Then, aged 13, Hannah made legal history when she announced, with a conviction rarely seen in one so young, that she wanted to be taken off the transplant list.

Too much of her young life, she pleaded, had been spent in hospital, and the transplant was a risk she simply didnt want to take.

What ensued was a controversial court case in which Hannah, supported by her parents, battled doctors for her right to die  and won.

She was allowed home to spend whatever time she had left with her family and friends, who awaited, with agonising certainty, the day she wouldnt wake up.

Then, a year later, Hannah  by then dangerously ill  changed her mind. A donor heart was found within months and, in July 2009, she had the transplant which gave her a second shot at life.

Today, there is nothing about the spirited, bubbly young woman, with her sparkling eyes and pixie crop of fair hair, which hints at her traumatic teenage years.

But Hannahs path has been far from smooth, even after the transplant, which leaves her grateful for the smallest achievements.

Milestones which might seem ordinary to other young women  learning to drive, her school prom, her first boyfriend, graduation  have, to Hannah, been triumphs beyond her wildest dreams.

Ive never had an easy life, she shrugs, sitting in the living room of the cosy fishermans cottage in New Quay, West Wales, which she shares with her mum, stepdad Daniel (her parents separated three years ago) and siblings, Oliver, 20, Lucy, 18, and Phoebe, 13.

Hannah in her bed in Great Ormond Street hospital, London, whilst recovering from a heart transplant

Ive had quite a lot of bumps along the way, but Ive got through them. Its made me who I am.

Hannah was too young to remember her early illness, simply recalling a blur of hospital stays, weeks in bed, and missing friends parties.

But Kirsty, a retired nurse, will never forget the day, in December 1999, when her four-year-old daughter was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia, a rare form of blood cancer. She was really poorly and we didnt know what was wrong, she says.

I remember waking up by her bed in hospital, surrounded by all these little ones with no hair, and thinking that could be Hannah.

She started an intensive four months of chemotherapy, during which she lost her all her hair and the skin on her hands and feet as side-effects of the medication.

But Hannah refused to let it get her down. Photos from the time show a tiny, frail toddler in gingerbread-print pyjamas, grinning from ear-to-ear despite the tube in her nose and not a single hair on her little head.

Then, two months into her treatment, the Jones family received shattering news: the high-strength drugs had irreparably damaged Hannahs heart, leading to a condition known as cardiomyopathy, which affects one in 1,000 chemo patients.

Doctors said the cancer was in remission, so Hannahs best hope was to stop the treatment and pray for the best.

In March 2000, she was allowed home. But she was incredibly weak: she weighed just 2 st, had to be fed by a tube in her nose and needed an oxygen cylinder to breathe.

As the months passed, thanks to Hannahs determination and the unwavering support of her parents (Kirsty gave up her job to care for her), she showed signs of improvement.

Aged nine, she started school for the first time and thrived, making friends quickly and doing well in English, drama and history.

I did half a day because I couldnt manage any more, but I loved it, Hannah says. I felt so isolated at home, not being able to run around and have fun. My friends knew I was ill, but I didnt like talking about it if I didnt have to.

Tragically, it wasnt to last. Just before her 12th birthday, Hannah started complaining of stomach aches  and one day she collapsed in class. She was taken to Birmingham Childrens Hospital, where doctors told her that her heart was enlarged and her liver was swollen. The only course of action was a transplant.

But when a team of doctors from Great Ormond Street Childrens Hospital arrived at Hannahs bedside to explain the procedure, she shocked them by saying no.

They explained everything, and I understood it, she says. Then I looked at my consultant and said: No, I dont want a new heart. I want to go home.

Hannah with her proud mother Kirsty

I had just had enough of being in hospital. As much as the doctors were doing their best, I wanted to be around my friends and family and my pets [she has a cat, Suki, and a horse, Quibble] and be as normal as possible.

I was sick of seeing the same four walls and hearing the hospital monitors beeping. I knew waiting for a new heart would mean months in hospital, and I didnt want that.

Hannahs parents faced an agonising choice: to support their daughter, knowing it would mean losing her, or to convince her to reconsider.

There was never any doubt in my mind, says Kirsty. I was an intensive-care nurse, so I knew how risky the surgery could be. And the thought of her being on a list and spending every day and night in hospital didnt seem the best way to live what could be the last few months of her life. So I was happy to take her home.

I never once thought, Am I right? But it was incredibly hard, when Hannah was semi-conscious and in bed all day, and her brother had to carry her to the bathroom and help me wash her.

Hannahs story made headlines from America to Australia. She became the girl who said no to a heart. And while strangers sent messages of support, others questioned whether someone so young could make such a decision.

We did get a lot of abuse for supporting Hannahs decision, Kirsty admits. It was horrible. The people who criticised us had no idea what it was like being with her 24/7, watching her in the most terrible pain.

For her part, Hannah says she tried to focus on enjoying the time she had left, and not worrying about what other people thought. Mum and Dad were very private about how they were feeling  I think they hid their emotions so it didnt make me feel worse, she says. Im sure there were times when they thought, Are we doing the right thing? Is she OK?. But they didnt let me see that. They always supported me.

Doctors initially accepted the Joneses decision, but when a different consultant  who had not met Hannah  raised the prospect of a transplant again some months later, and Kirsty stormed out of the appointment, things turned nasty.

A child protection officer at Hereford Hospital called the family home, threatening to launch High Court proceedings to forcibly remove Hannah because her parents were preventing her treatment.

Legally, medical professionals treating under-16s are entitled to do this if they believe its in the childs best interests. Mercifully, the hospital decided against sending police officers, and instead a female child protection officer turned up. She took the familys side and, three days later, the doctors backed down.

On top of her studies, she is also spearheading a campaign to save New Quay's lifeboat being downgraded to an inshore craft (pictured with friends for her 16th birthday in 2011)

I would have fought tooth and nail to keep Hannah at home, says Kirsty. Thankfully, the protection officer saw how mature she was and how sure she was of her decision.

It was a hollow victory for the family, who, over the next eight months, watched as Hannahs health failed.

In an interview in this newspaper in November 2008, she was so short of breath she could barely talk. Its hard, at 13, to know Im going to die, but I know whats best for me, she said.

Then, the day before her 14th birthday, in April 2009, Hannah called her mum into her bedroom and told her that shed changed her mind.

It didnt come as a surprise, because wed been discussing it for a while, Kirsty explains. She told me she didnt want to go back on the transplant list until after her birthday, because shed spent the last five birthdays in hospital and wanted to be at home.

Hannah thought long and hard before making her decision. I started thinking about finishing high school: my prom was a year away and everyone was talking about what they were going to do when they were older. I thought, I want to live. I could see I was getting more and more ill, and it was time to try the transplant.

I dont have any regrets about saying no at first. This time, it was on my terms.

Just three months later, Hannahs doctors found her a heart. And not a moment too soon.

Shed chosen to die in Hereford Hospital, so she was in the intensive care ward there, explains Kirsty. She was unconscious, her blood pressure was at zero and we were literally hours away from turning off the machines that were pumping her full of medication.

I remember the helicopter arriving to take us to Great Ormond Street, and I said to her, Look, its landing on the H for Hannah.

I was a nervous wreck. I said goodbye to her as she went under. I didnt know if my little girl would ever come back.

Six-and-a-half hours later, Hannah woke up with a new heart. I was hazy from all the medicine, but I remember Mum smiling at me and saying, Youve got it. Youve got the heart, she says.

Shed overcome the biggest hurdle, but Hannahs recovery wasnt easy. She had various setbacks  swine flu, chest infections  and had to learn basic tasks all over again: walking to the bathroom, brushing her hair, gaining the strength to hug her mum.

She went back to school 18 months after her transplant and, astonishingly, achieved three GCSEs, later taking six more and going on to do A-levels in English Literature, History and Drama.

I didnt think it was possible to live like this, she says. Id always been so sick. It was a shock to realise how much energy I had.

Hannah dancing in a school drama

She took up dancing and singing at school and was overjoyed to get a place at Aberystwyth University in 2014, where she studied English and Drama, hoping to become a primary teacher. Earlier this month, she graduated with a 2:2, and won a place at Bath Spa University to do her teacher training.

Six months ago, she met her first boyfriend, Sum, a 28-year-old PhD student, online. Hes so lovely. We went on our first holiday to Lanzarote a few months ago. He wants to get married and have children, but Ive said Im not in a hurry to settle down. Im only 22!

Mentally, Hannah has put her turbulent early life behind her. But it still affects her: shes on a cocktail of ten tablets a day, has to avoid certain foods (such as grapefruit and blue cheese, which reduce the effectiveness of her immune-suppressive drugs) and doesnt drink alcohol for fear of aggravating her heart.

Theres also the issue of how long her donor heart will last. Transplant patients are at most risk in the first year, and after that survival rates stand at around 60 per cent for ten years and 20 per cent for 20 years.

You dont allow yourself to think about the future at first, says Kirsty. And then you think, OK, maybe weve got a few more years, and then she takes a backwards step and you dont know what to think.

She might only have five or ten years, but theyre going to have been the best five or ten years ever. Shes doing everything she wants to do.

And Hannah never stops. Her latest fight is against the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, who are downgrading the all-weather lifeboat in her town  where her stepdad is coxswain  leaving 73 miles of sea unguarded.

Ive come out the other side of something horrible and I want to help as many people as I can, she says. Recently, she penned an open letter to the man whose heart now beats in her chest. She doesnt know much about him, other than that he was a 40-year-old from Scotland who died in a motorcycle accident.

She wrote: Every day, I try to picture your face and imagine what you look like. I think of you, surrounded by your loving family  maybe with your wife and children who miss you very much.

I am able to have dreams now, because of you  and I promise you that I will live my life to the full, every single day.

Whatever the future holds, shes certainly doing that.
A Sydney mother-of-three, whose four-year-old son likes to dress as Elsa from Frozen, has opened up about why she has 'never batted an eye'.

Jennie Sager, 40, said her son Noah loves to wear the distinctive blue 'Elsa' dress and she doesn't want to 'squash his individuality'.

'You see people roll their eyes or sigh at you or laugh at you as they walk past but we don't want them to laugh at him and then he notice and start feeling ashamed,' Ms Sager told Daily Mail Australia.

A Sydney mother-of-three has shared how she doesn't want people to pass their judgement onto her four-year-old son for wearing an Elsa dress

'We want him to be free to express who he is, we don't want him to hear people say "what are you doing let your son wear a dress", we don't want to squash his individuality.

'He has a huge imagination and we love that sense of purity. He doesn't know that society considers it strange, that purity in children gets destroyed as we get older.

'But who determined that blue is for boys and pink is for girls? It's just something that society created.'

'He has a huge imagination and we love that sense of purity. He doesn't know that society considers it strange, that purity in children gets destroyed as we get older'

Ms Sager said that she doesn't remember her son ever asking to wear the dress, although she said he must have, but to her it has always just been that way.

'I think we just laughed and thought it was cute, we didn't see it as an issue... We just see it as a kid loving a movie and loving something bright and shiny, we never batted an eye.'

Ms Sager said that there has been mixed reactions from parents to Noah wearing the dress but some have come up to say how "awesome" they think it is.

'Although it's a compliment it's a bit like, well they don't go up to girls who wear superhero costumes and say the same thing,' she said.

'It seems to be that people think it's awesome for a girl to be in a tough boy outfit but when boys do it and wear a girls costume it's not treated the same way.'

Noah fell in love with Frozen two years ago and owns two Elsa dresses, Elsa shoes and pink Elsa pyjamas as well as a crown, Elsa and Anna dolls among other things, Ms Sager explained.

'It seems to be that people think it's awesome for a girl to be in a tough boy outfit but when boys do it and wear a girls costume it's not treated the same way,' Ms Sager (pictured with family) said

'He often doesnt answer me unless I refer to him as Elsa,' Ms Sager said of her son, Noah

In a piece the proud mother wrote for Yahoo she said Noah recently told his preschool teachers that he will only respond to the name 'Elsa' when called.

'He often doesnt answer me unless I refer to him as Elsa,' she added.

'Hes a preschooler with a future in stand-up comedy. He is also sensitive, playful, and an incredibly loving soul who is by far the most generous in our family,' she went on.

'He does not care what other people think. Noah well and truly beats to his own drum.

'But, if society has its way, it will crush this individuality out of him and he will become just as boring as everybody else.'

The proud mother (pictured right) said her son Noah does not care what other people think and he 'well and truly beats to his own drum'

Noah recently told his preschool teachers that he will only respond to the name 'Elsa' when called

She said family members have asked her if she thought Noah 'would grow up to be gay'.

'Others asked me why I wasnt firmer with him and why would I let him wear a dress,' she wrote.

'Given the current state of society, where people are marching for gender equality, refugee rights, and global tolerance, it seems were forgetting about toddlers and preschoolers and the stereotypes we instill in them from a very early age,' she continued.

Ms Sager said that she and her husband concentrate on showing their children the both of them doing a variety of different tasks and mixing up gender roles.

'How you raise your children is clearly your choice, but my decision is to raise my boys... to be confident, proud, loving, kind, and accepting of absolutely everyone,' she wrote.
Like many young women, by the time she was 24, Bec Craven thought she had her life planned and totally mapped out.

After she had finished holidaying in Bali, she intended to move to Cairns from her home on the Gold Coast, study marine biology and travel the world - perhaps as a fashion model.

But all of this was dashed when the now 28-year-old contracted a mystery virus which resulted in cardiomyopathy - a chronic heart disease - and she had to have a mechanical heart inserted in June 2015.

Reflecting on that time two years ago, Ms Craven told Mamamia on Monday: 'Every day was a struggle with bad thoughts... After my first open heart surgery I hated my scar. It made me cry.'

Gold Coast model, Bec Craven (pictured), 28, was fitted with a mechanical heart two years ago after she struggled with heart failure

She said that at first, she used to struggle with her scar the transplant left (pictured), admitting it made her cry - but now she feels like Xena the Warrior Princess and wears it with pride

The artificial heart was fitted after Ms Craven contracted a mystery virus in Bali and was later treated for pneumonia and heart failure (pictured in hospital following the transplant)

Ms Craven's artificial heart - or left ventricular assist device (LVAD) - was fitted after she contracted the mystery virus in Bali and was later treated for months for pneumonia, before the doctors realised it was heart failure.

WHAT IS A LEFTVENTRICULAR ASSIST DEVICE (LVAD)? * The left ventricle is the large, muscular chamber of the heart that pumps blood out to the body. * A left ventricular assist device (LVAD) is a battery-operated, mechanical pump-type device that's surgically implanted. * It helps maintain the pumping ability of a heart that can't effectively work on its own. Source: Heart.org. Advertisement

'They [the doctors] thought I'd caught a virus again and it's gone straight back to my heart and I got sick quite quickly,' Ms Craven told Daily Mail Australia at the time.

'That's when they started to bring up the transplant. My heart was getting worse. It was really hard to deal with.

'I couldn't walk to the bathroom without being puffed. Having a transplant that would be awesome, to have a new heart, because I can't do much with this one.'

As the cardiomyopathy took its toll, Ms Craven was told she would only have one month to live if she did not have the lifesaving open heart surgery to put a left ventricle assist device (LVAD) - a mechanical pump - into her body to help the organ function better.

'It's like carrying a handbag around that's 2kg... it's a better quality of life but in saying that there's things I want to do that I can't do with this bag,' she said of the device at the time.

Since she was fitted with the artificial pump in 2015, the model has had countless ups and downs with the device - initially, she needed 24-hour supervision

'After my heart transplant I felt like absolute cr*p,' she said (pictured: an X ray of the mechanical pump) - she felt as though she had to 'start all over again'

She said she also used to 'ask the nurses to cover [my scar] with a bandage' (pictured in hospital)

Since she was fitted with the artificial pump in 2015, the model has had countless ups and downs with the device.

As well as needing 24-hour care and supervision from her family in the first six months, Ms Craven later struggled with accepting the scar her transplant left - and the fact that she felt as though she was missing out.

'After my heart transplant I felt like absolute cr*p,' she told Mamamia.

'I was thinking, "Oh my god, I got this mechanical heart and I ended up feeling great and now I have the gift I've been wanting for so long and I feel like I have to start all over again."

She added that she used to 'ask the nurses to cover [my scar] with a bandage'.

However, over time, the inspirational 28-year-old has learned to embrace both her heart and the mark it has left on her body

'I have similar dreams to what I had before,' Ms Craven said - 'Some of them have been twisted a little and some have been outright squashed'

However, over time, the inspirational 28-year-old has learned to embrace both her heart and the mark it has left on her body.

She said she feels like she's Xena the Warrior Princess and is no longer afraid to show it - whether she is in swimwear or clothes.

A recent upload to her Instagram profile shows Ms Craven having been swimming with a manta ray - a 'bucket list goal to tick off the list' since her transplant.

The model and animal lover has also been swimming with humpback whales, surfing and more in the past twelve months.

'I have similar dreams to what I had before,' Ms Craven said.

'Some of them have been twisted a little and some have been outright squashed. I want to prove to the world that imperfections are beautiful and nothing can stop you. You are as strong as what the world makes you.'

For more information on organ donation, click here.
Two sisters from Hobart who started their jewellery business at a market when they were 16 and 11 are now turning over millions.

Opening up about their humble beginnings, Hannah Vasicek, 27, and Rachel Vasicek, 22, said that they were 'born hustlers'.

'When I was 12 we would spend two hours on the bus to and from school and I started my first business selling lollies on the school bus,' Hannah told Daily Mail Australia.

'I would buy a box of wholesale lollies for $100 and then I would profit $200 once I sold a box and we were selling about two boxes a week.'

Hannah Vasicek (right), 27, and Rachel Vasicek (left), 22, started their jewellery business at a market when they were 16 and 11 are now turning over millions

Hannah said that she would then use that money to buy beads and was selling the jewellery to anyone who would look at it.

'I started making jewellery when I was 12 and absolutely loved it... I started the brand as Handmade by Hannah and I was supplying it to stores in Hobart.

'They were selling out like crazy so I thought I needed to cut them out, so that's when we started at the markets.'

Now Hannah and Rachel have a booming business - in their jewellery brand Francesca - but it hasn't always been smooth sailing.

Although business is booming for Hannah and Rachel now, it hasn't always been smooth sailing

'I'm actually really passionate about women in business and so is Rachel and we both had a lot of resistance against following the entrepreneurial path,' Hannah said.

'Rachel and I have both had comments from teachers and the public that have said "oh what a waste of their brains going into fashion and jewellery" and things like that.

'There was a bit of a resistance against us doing what we love as opposed to our career, which was a bit disheartening, but it gives you more passion to prove them wrong.'

The sisters were unsure about their future and didn't think they could make a career out of the business so Hannah went straight to university to study a science and law degree.

When she had almost completed uni she was offered a graduate law position at a top law firm.

The sisters were unsure about their future and didn't think they could make a career out of the business (pictured is their diamond collection)

'They grilled me about the business and they gave me a month to decide to either give up the business and take the job or turn it down and that's when I was really like "ahh I don't know what to do".

'We're so glad I turned it down,' Hannah said.

It was when they won a global entrepreneur award it gave them the confidence to think that it would become something more than it was.

With the goal to open a store in Hobart they knew they had to do it right and made sacrifices to give the business the best chance they could.

'Obviously I sacrificed this graduate law position, which was a difficult decision, but I had to work two days a week at a law job to pay for the rent for the rest of the week,' Hannah said.

'I actually sold my car so I had this little white Mitsubishi and I sold it for $10,00 and I put all the money into the business, that's probably the first kind of sacrifice but a lot of it is has been mostly time and working around the clock.'

It was when they won the global entrepreneur award it gave them the confidence to think that the business would become something more than it was

'It was tough but it was something we were both passionate about so knew that there would be sacrifices we would have to make.'

Rachel was considering following Hannah's path to law school but it was Hannah who made her think twice.

'Instead of going to uni she's learnt everything on the job and heading the whole marketing, photography and graphic design of the whole business,' Hannah explained.

Although they may not always get on, like most sisters, Hannah and Rachel couldn't be happier to be working on the business together.

'We love each other, it's great, we have our own niches in the business, Hannah's more of the entrepreneur and I'm more of the creative and we bring our unique styles into it,' Rachel told Daily Mail Australia.

Rachel was considering following Hannah's path to law school but it was Hannah who made her think twice

'Hannah's style is more classic and mine is more edgy so when it comes to designing the pieces we have our own input.

'We have a common goal, people sometimes clash if they have different values but we've been brought up with the same values.'

The sisters didn't predict that their business would be as big as it has become.

A crowning moment for Hannah and Rachel was being asked to go to the Golden Globes to showcase their jewellery in 2014.

Rachel was still in school so couldn't go and they didn't have much money so they crowdfunded $5,000 so Hannah could buy return flights.

'I was coming from Tassie and no one really knew the brand at that stage. I packed all of my jewellery in two suit cases, I got on the plane and flew over and was there for 48 hours.

'Here I was meeting Victoria Secret models when most people from the small town we grew up in probably wouldn't even know what the Golden Globes were.'

The sisters (pictured centre) didn't predict that the business, now called Francesca, would be as big as it has become

When the opportunity came for the sisters to open their store in Hobart they said that everyone, including the naysayers, could see that their 'passion had come to life'.

'Some of our biggest critics in the beginning are now our biggest advocates and now they're seeing that we're achieving our dream while also giving back to people,' Hannah explained.

Although Hannah and Rachel's perseverance has played a major part in where they are today, they can't ignore the people that have helped them get there.

When they were struggling to get a loan from the bank one customer took it upon herself to ring up the person who held the highest position she could get in touch with at the bank and sold them the story of the business.

'If it wasn't for someone like her and a lot of people like her throughout the businesses growth who believed in the story of the brand and believed in us we, wouldn't be here.

'All of our customers have had faith in us from the beginning,' Hannah told Daily Mail Australia.

When the opportunity came for the sisters to open their store in Hobart they said that everyone, including the naysayers, could see that their 'passion had come to life'

One of the core beliefs of the business is the empowerment of women and the sisters act as mentors for those who have dreams they're trying to pursue.

They will soon be launching a new program that will provide female refugees with jobs and they have also worked with an anti-trafficking organisation where they created an exclusive range that made $10,000.

'It's our way of giving back - it's crazy to think that we started from a market stall but now we're making millions in turnover in less than five years.

'Our biggest brand vision is to empower people to live the life they love... everyone has the opportunity to do the career that everyone expects from you but you have to be true to yourself and love going to work every morning'.
A woman who lost her leg to cancer has opened up about her struggles with body image - and how she was able to bounce back by embracing her prosthetic limb.

Jessica Quinn was just nine years old when she was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma - a type of bone cancer - and eventually she had her leg amputated to stop the disease from spreading.

The now-24-year-old, from New Zealand, said she has been living with 'three legs' - a 'running' leg, an 'everyday' leg and a 'swimming' leg.

'They each have different personalities because it allows me to be a different person,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

Jessica Quinn (pictured with her running 'blade' leg) lost her leg to bone cancer after she was diagnosed at the age of nine

Growing up, Jessica (pictured with her swimming leg) revealed how she faced challenges with body image where she endured eight years of hiding her prosthetic leg

The 24-year-old (pictured with her lifelike leg) said she has been living with 'three legs' - each with 'different personalities'

She opened up about how she was able to bounce back by embracing her prosthetic limb

'I've got my lifelike prosthetic everyday leg - it gets me from A to B. I have my running leg - I like to call it my blade. I use it strictly for training. And I've got my swimming leg.

'Since getting my blade, I discovered how liberating it was wearing a leg that doesn't even attempt to look like a leg.

'But it is what it is and I love that. Don't get me wrong, I love my lifelike leg because sometimes you simply want to feel human.'

Growing up, the fitness enthusiast revealed how she faced challenges with body image where she endured eight years of her life hiding her prosthetic leg.

But the now-24-year-old said she was able to overcome her low self-esteem after she decided to wear shorts one day in her final year of high school.

'I was the only girl who wanted her skirt lengthen. I didn't wear anything above my knee. I did everything to try and hide my leg,' Jessica said.

The young New Zealander was just nine years old when she was diagnosed with bone cancer

Like any teenage girl, Jessica said she struggled with body image where she would go to extreme lengths to hide her insecurities

With more than 150,000 followers on Instagram, Jessica may seemed to be leading a fun-filled lifestyle - but her journey was not easy

Like any teenage girl, Jessica said she struggled with body image where she would go to extreme lengths to hide her insecurities.

'I was struggling with body image for a good few years. I didn't want to leave the house... I had huge insecurities and I was really self-conscious about it,' she said.

'I remember telling mum to bring my track pants to school because I was cold... But I wasn't cold, I just wanted to cover my legs.'

However, at the age of 17, she bravely went to school with shorts on for the first time after realising she no longer wanted to 'beat herself up'.

'I realised I couldn't keep this up anymore. It got to a point where I know I couldn't do this forever so I needed to change,' she said.

'I think you reach a point where you get sick of letting the things you have no control over, have control over you and how you live your life.

'I told myself I needed to either let it take control of my life or move on and make something great from it and try to be confident.

A young Jessica had to get her leg amputated to stop the cancer from spreading

She underwent several rounds of gruelling chemotherapy from the tender age of nine

'Cancer had taken so much from me, I wasn't prepared to let it take any more.'

She revealed that her supportive friends were behind her decision to wear shorts to school after encouraging her to embrace her self-image.

'My friends actually pushed me into wearing shorts to school. I've always had supportive friends from the get-go,' she said.

'I remember feeling so great wearing them.'

With more than 150,000 followers on Instagram, Jessica may seemed to be leading a fun-filled lifestyle - but her journey was not easy.

She opened up about her near-death ordeal after her weight plummeted to a dangerous 18 kilograms following her cancer diagnosis.

With more than 150,000 followers on Instagram, Jessica may seemed to be leading a fun-filled lifestyle - but her journey was not easy

The young woman had undergone several rounds of gruelling chemotherapy from the tender age of nine.

'I was pretty much rushed into chemo when we discovered the diagnosis,' she said.

'I had chemo for five-six months and I had to amputate my leg - it was a really bad time. I was having surgery and chemo - one after the other.

'I remember on Christmas Day, I was the sickest I'd ever been. Even though my cancer was gone, I was just so weak.

'I was 18 kilograms, it really knocked me back. There were a lot of close calls. It was the hardest moment of my life, this was the closest I got to losing my battle.'

But a young Jessica defied the odds of survival - and she has since been cancer-free for more than 15 years.

'I was a child but I bounced but quite quickly,' she said.

Earlier last year, she teamed up with a photographer friend to shoot 'modelling' photos as part of a campaign

The now-24-year-old, from New Zealand, said she has been living with 'three legs'

Earlier last year, she teamed up with a photographer friend to shoot 'modelling' photos as part of a campaign.

'Modelling isn't my full-time career - it was more of a social media thing to get the message out there - but it did get me to where I am today,' she said.

'I really wanted to show people that I don't have a leg but also make everyone feel good about their insecurities. We all have them - no matter how big or small.

'I'm definitely not perfect but I wanted to normalise that - show people no matter what you've gone through, go through your plan b and make it something amazing.

'We all have insecurities - but you need to be confident in the skin you're in.'

The 24-year-old has been leading an active lifestyle - and she even trained for a marathon

Jessica defied the odds of survival - and she has since been cancer-free for more than 15 years

After a whirlwind decade, Jessica - who is working on her own project called Plan Be - said there was nothing she would change if she could rewind back on her life.

'I've been through so much but I'm really lucky I got to learn the lessons at a young age because I now have a huge respect for my life,' she said.

'I guess my main advice for young girls is just be patient with yourself. Allow yourself to go through all the hard times and emotions.

'Try your best to stay positive. I think you need to go through all the challenges in life before time makes us appreciate the things we have.

'I'm 100 per cent happy with the person I am. I am beyond proud of my life because I fought so hard to have it. The best part is, my story is only just beginning.'

To follow Jessica Quinn's journey, please visit her Instagram, Facebook and website.
Two sisters with an unbreakable bond have revealed how they are so inseparable, they had a double wedding and are even going on honeymoon together.

Best friends as well as sisters, hotel receptionist Anita Bacanovic, 26, and Manuela Radolovic-Selmanovic, 28, from Liznjan, Croatia jumped at the chance of a joint betrothal, when it was suggested by the younger woman's fiance.

Now Anita, Manuela and their respective husbands - barman Matej, 25, and builder Admir, 32 - will be honeymooning as a foursome, later this year in Thailand.

Anita, from Liznjan, Croatia, said: 'It's unusual to see two brides in the same place on the same day.

'But getting married with my sister was just so special and magical, because we are so close. I am so glad we decided to do it.'

Sisters Anita Bacanovic, 26, and Manuela Radolovic-Selmanovic, 28, on their shared wedding day in Croatia

Forget the grooms! Anita and Manuela sharing a dance on their joint wedding day

The sisters share everything and according to Manuela they are the same in every way aside from their husbands

Manuela agreed, adding: 'I was on cloud nine, it really was the most amazing day of my whole life.'

Anita met Matej in her hometown where they were both working and, in July last year, after five years together, he proposed at their home with Croatian love songs playing in the background.

She said: 'He'd been so nervous all day that I didn't know what was wrong with him. I kept asking, 'Whatever is the matter?' I had no idea he was about to propose.

'He put our song 'Naucila Si Me', meaning 'you taught me' on YouTube, by Ivan Zak - and got down on one knee. I burst into tears and said yes.'

Admir, Manuela, Matej, and Anita, clinking glasses on their wedding day

Manuela, her sister Anita, her husband Matej and Manuela's husband Admir on their joint wedding day

After toasting their engagement with Champagne, Anita phoned her sister Manuela to tell her the exciting news.

'I called her straight away. She's my sister and my best friend, so she had to be the first to know,' recalled Anita. 'Then we told our whole family, and they were so happy about it.'

In the months which followed, Anita started making plans for her 100-guest wedding in April this year.

'Manuela helped me make plans, find venues, and do all the things a sister does,' Anita recalled.

Bride Manuela with her husband Admir on their wedding day this year. The couple were not engaged when her sister Anita suggested they should all tie the knot together

Anita (left), aged about six, and Manuela, about eight, with their mum Ines

'She and Admir always said if they got married, they wouldn't want a big wedding like ours. They'd want something private, somewhere abroad.'

Manuela and Admir, who have been together for 10 years after meeting through mutual friends in Liznjan and now live in Duisburg, Germany, always planned to marry one day, but had never got engaged.

But in October 2016, when Anita and Manuela were chatting over a coffee with Matej, he suggested the four of them should tie the knot together.

Anita said: 'He just laughed, saying, 'Why don't you join us on our wedding day?' It was something I'd never thought of, but it felt right.

Anita was the first to get engaged, when Matej popped the question after five years together

The couples celebrated at a joint party with 150 guests and will honeymoon together later this year

Manuela and Admir live in Germany and her sister and husband are planning to move to the same town as they can't bear to be apart

Close bond: The foursome holidaying together in December 2016

'We are so close, we have the same friends and family. We really have the same everything except husbands, so it made perfect sense.'

When Manuela suggested the double wedding idea to Admir, who was working in Germany, he immediately agreed.

'What could be better than getting married all together?' Manuela smiled. 'Me and Anita do everything together, so sharing our wedding day made perfect sense.'

Admir had moved to Germany to work and was joined by Mauela after their wedding, meaning the sisters phone and videocall each other every day. They contacted the venue and the caterers to increase the numbers from 100 to 150, to accommodate both couples' guests.

Manuela and Admir exchanged rings by the pool in a civil ceremony after her sister's church wedding

Anita and her husband Matej got married in Saint Cosmas and Damian church in Fazana, western Croatia

Then they went shopping for wedding dresses together, Anita opting for a fishtail-style and Manuela for a princess gown.

And when the big day came, on April 29 this year, the sisters' fireman dad Dragan, 51, gave Anita away first in Saint Cosmas and Damian church in Fazana, western Croatia.

Then he gave his eldest daughter, Manuela, away by the pool at Hotel Villa Letan, nearby.

Anita chose the church because of her Christian faith and Manuela a civil location because they preferred the pool-side. But they enjoyed a joint party afterwards.

Anita and Matej wanted a traditional church wedding because of their Christian faith

Manuela and Admir wanted to have a more relaxed civil ceremony by the pool

As well as being the brides, the sisters were also each other's maids of honour

After planning her own wedding, Anita expanded the guest list to 150 to accommodate her sister and her groom

Manuela, Admir, Anita and Matej cutting their wedding cake

Manuela (left) with Anita and their dad Dragan who walked both his daughters down the aisle on the same day

Manuela, also her sister's maid of honour, sat in the pews in her white dress, with husband-to-be Admir.

She said: 'It was such an emotional day, but so special. I couldn't stop crying.

'We always thought we wanted a private and simple wedding, maybe even abroad.

The foursome are planning on honeymooning in Thailand later this year

Anita and her husband Matej getting married on 29 April this year, with Manuela and Admir (right) watching

The newlyweds enjoy an affectionate moment by the beach after their ceremony

Best decision ever! Anita's sister didn't want a big wedding but in the end Manuela said that joining her sibling on the special day was the ideal solution

'But getting married on the same day as my sister was the best decision I ever made.'

Now the couples are even going on honeymoon together, in December, to Thailand for two weeks.

'We love spending time with each other, so why not?' laughed Manuela.

And now Anita and Matej are even planning on moving to the same town as Manuela in Germany because the sisters cannot stand to be apart.
Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg broke down as she opened up about her husband's death in a heart-wrenching interview.

The social media giant's chief operating officer recalled how she 'screamed' down the phone to her best friend just hours after her husband Dave suffered a heart attack while on holiday in Mexico in May 2015.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, the mother-of-two's voice wavered as she said: 'My biggest fear when Dave died was that my kids weren't going to be okay.

Heart-breaking loss: Sheryl Sandberg opened up about losing her husband Dave Goldberg, pictured together in 2013, in a heart-wrenching Desert Island Discs interview

Candid: The Facebook COO, pictured in June, fought back tears as she recalled phoning one of her best friends in the hours after Dave's death. He suffered a heart attack while exercising

'I called Mindy - one of the girls, she had lost her mother when we were 13 - screaming from the hospital when Dave died: "Tell me my kids are going to be okay, tell me my kids are going to be okay".'

The businesswoman, 47, revealed how her group of childhood friends, whom she affectionately calls 'The Girls' supported her through her grief and praised her boss, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, for helping rebuild her confidence at work.

She said: 'Mark - I don't even know how he knew to do this, my 15-year younger boss - Mark Zuckerberg said to me not just "do you need time off", he said that, but he said: "I am glad you're here because you made an important point today".

'Hearing that was so helpful... For me, getting out of the house and having something else to do, for me, was a lifeline... We help others by rebuilding them.'

Support: Sandberg, third from left, has praised her group of childhood friends, whom she affectionately calls 'The Girls' for helping her cope with her grief. She shared this photo of the group in December last year alongside a touching post. (l to r: Eve Greenbarg, Elise Scheck Bonwitt, Sandberg, Mindy Levy, Beth Redlich, Pam Solomon Srebrenik and Jami Passer)

Praise: Sandberg described how her boss, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, pictured together, helped rebuild her confidence at work following Dave's death

Sandberg also described how she often speaks about her husband with her son and daughter, who were aged seven and 10 when their father died.

'I tried to make it okay for them to grieve,' she told presenter Kirsty Young. 'We still talk about Dave, we talk about Dave all the time.

'I try never to sugar coat it, I always say to this day: "I miss him too. It's horrible that this happened to us but it's not our fault, it's not your fault, and Daddy would want you to be happy"... It's about taking back joy, because my kids deserve joy.'

Power player: Sandberg with (l-r) Amazon's chief Jeff Bezos, Larry Page of Alphabet, Vice President Mike Pence and President Donald Trump at a meeting at Trump Tower last December

Sandberg, who writes candidly about her experience in her new book, became emotional as she described how 'The Girls' helped her overcome the intense feeling of isolation she felt in the weeks and months after losing Dave.

'A couple of weeks after Dave died I just couldn't take it I just sent an email: "Someone come",' she recalled.

'They have jobs, one of them has five kids, they are busy. But I knew they weren't going to fight over who wasn't coming, they were going to fight about who would. They are always there.'
A woman was left struggling to breathe after her nose collapsed due to a poorly performed nose job.

Belinda, 46, from the US, was 25 when she first had rhinoplasty surgery that left her looking 'like a witch', and has been desperate to correct it ever since.

But she was stuck with the pointy appendage for 21 years - after being turned down by 50 other doctors unwilling to correct it.

Belinda was left with a pointy nose after undergoing surgery to change the shape of her nose (left). But she finally had it transformed by Botched doctors - who fixed it with part of her rib

Dr Paul Nassif (left) and his colleague Dr Terry Dubrow (center) examined Belinda's nose and explained that it had collapsed in the middle because too much cartilage was removed

Belinda had her first surgery 21 years ago to remove a bump in her nose (pictured), but the poorly performed procedure meant too much of her cartilage was taken out

After consulting with E! Botched doctor Paul Nassif, Belinda finally heard the news she'd been waiting for as he told her he could reconstruct her nose, using part of her rib.

Dr Nassif explained to Belinda why she had been suffering for so many years.

'When the surgeon removed the hump, the middle part of your nose collapsed in,' he said.

Dr Nassif and his colleague Dr Terry Dubrow were stunned when Belinda revealed she had had at least 50 other consultations, but that every doctor had turned her down and refused to touch her nose.

She said that her original doctor had told her he was a 'plastic surgeon, not a miracle worker'.

Before: Belinda's nose had a pinched appearance thanks to the botched procedure

Oh dear: Her nostrils had also begun to collapse inwards, making it very difficult for her to breathe properly

Recovery: Despite the pain, Belinda was thrilled to have undergone surgery that was going to fix the problem and leave her with a nose she would be happy with

Happy: After complicated surgery using part of Belinda's rib, she was thrilled with her new nose and could breathe properly once again

She couldn't wait to show off the results to her loving husband Marty

Dr Nassif agreed to operate on her nose which had partially collapsed in on itself.

He explained that he needed to reconstruct her nose by taking out part of her ribs to replace the cartilage and re-establish her nose.

The complicated operation was a success and left Belinda with 'hope' for the future.

Belinda and her husband Marty were delighted with the results.

'Not only was my nose long and pointy. I also had a hard time sleeping and breathing as a result.

'I was embarrassed to meet people face-to-face, and felt ugly and unattractive.

'Thanks to the doctors I'm able to breathe and I'm actually sleeping well,' Belinda said.

'I feel like my nose looks good. I feel hopeful for the future,' she said.
French actress Jeanne Moreau, who lit up the screen in 'Jules et Jim' and starred in some of the most critically-acclaimed films of the 20th century, has died aged 89.

The husky-voiced actress epitomised the freedoms of the 1960s and brought daring and tomboy charm to a string of cinematic masterpieces from Louis Malle's 'Lift to the Scaffold' to Joseph Losey's 'Eva'.

Moreau, who was still making films at 87, was found dead at her home in Paris early Monday, the district's mayor told AFP.

Glamorous French screen icon Jeanne Moreau, left in 2005, and, right, in her role as Mata Hari, Agent H-21, has died age 89 in her Paris home

Once described by US director Orson Welles as 'the best actress in the world', she was also a feminist icon, a trailblazer for liberated women at a time when cinema was slowly waking up to women's issues.

'Physical beauty is a disgrace,' she once said in her characteristic rasp, her voice redolent with the French cigarettes she constantly smoked.

Moreau, who was still making films at 87, was found dead at her home in Paris early Monday, the district's mayor told AFP (she is pictured with Brigitte Bardot in Viva Maria)

Having racked up over 130 films over six decades, she continued acting late in life, appearing on stage at the Avignon festival in 2011, and in 2012 on screen in Ilmar Raag's 'An Estonian in Paris' and Manoel de Oliveira's 'Gebo and the Shadow'

Once described by US director Orson Welles as 'the best actress in the world', she was also a trailblazer for liberated women

Born in Paris 1928 to an English-born chorus girl and a French restaurant owner, she took to acting with apparent effortless ease

Leading tributes to the plain-speaking actress, French President Emmanuel Macron said Moreau had 'embodied cinema' and she was a free spirit who 'always rebelled against the established order'.

It was that sparky rebel spirit that also had some of the world's greatest directors beating a path to her door, including Welles for his 'Chimes at Midnight', Michelangelo Antonioni for 'La Notte' and Luis Bunuel for his 1964 film 'Diary of a Chambermaid'.

Born in Paris 1928 to an English-born chorus girl and a French restaurant owner, she took to acting with apparent effortless ease, defying her father's wishes by joining the Paris conservatoire at the age of 18, and gaining entry to the elite Comedie Francaise theatre troupe two years later.

Jeanne Moreau, pictured on her way to the 16th Annual European Film Awards in Berlin, 'embodied cinema', according to President Macron
As well as looking impeccably stylish on official engagements, the Duchess of Cambridge is known for her ability to pull off the most appropriate look for the occasion.

And today she yet again struck the right note in a pale grey Catherine Walker coat dress as she visited the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery just outside Ypres in Belgium.

The Venetian wool coat dress featured hand applique taupe corded lace and the pale grey colour was the perfect shade for the solemn occasion.

Although she recycled the white Alexander McQueen dress she wore to Princess Charlotte's christening for yesterday's commemorations, today's outfit is a new addition to her wardrobe.

As well as pinning a poppy to her lapel, Kate gave a nod to the Commonwealth in a diamond and pearl maple leaf brooch.

The Duchess of Cambridge hit the right note in a muted grey coat dress for a visit to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery Bedford House on the outskirts of Ypres, Belgium

The lace embellished number came from Catherine Walker, one of Kate's go-to designers

Solemn occasion: The Duchess lays flowers at the Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves

She teamed the ensemble with a pair of blush court shoes and completed the look with a dove grey hat with a pale pink embellishment.

The Duchess wore her recently chopped hair swept back in a low bun, and accessorised with pearl earrings and a small pink clutch bag.

Kate and William are on a two-day visit to Belgium and will later join Prince Charles and Prime Minister Theresa May for a ceremony to remember those killed in the notorious First World War campaign.

This morning, the couple were pictured walking among the graves at the Tyne Cot cemetery, the largest Commonwealth burial ground in the world with 11,971 servicemen buried or remembered there - 8,373 of them identified.

They Duchess accessorised with a delicate grey and pink hat and pearl drop earrings

The royals were given a tour by Victoria Wallace, Director General of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Kate and William are in Belgium to commemorate the centenary of the Battle of Passchendaele

More than 100 days of bloodshed in the summer and autumn of 1917, starting on July 31, left hundreds of thousands dead or injured on both sides.

The British royals will join Belgian royals King Philippe and Queen Mathilde at a memorial ceremony later today.

Yesterday evening, William and Kate joined Prime Minister Theresa May to represent Britain at the Menin Gate and a later show in the Gross Markt square.

The royals were joined by Belgium's Queen Mathilde and Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence

The Duchess of Cambridge arrived wearing a white Alexander McQueen coat-dress - which she first debuted at Princess Charlotte's christening in 2015 (right)

Kate paused to chat with workers from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission

The Duchess with Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, the husband of Princess Anne

The Duchess of Cambridge arrived wearing a white Alexander McQueen coat-dress, and wore a white hat by Lock & Co with her hair in a chignon bun.

She accessorised with a pair of grey pumps and matching clutch bag, finishing the look with pearl earrings and a pearl brooch.

She first debuted the McQueen coat-dress at Princess Charlotte's christening, while the Lock & Co hat was a reprisal from her Trooping the Colour appearance in 2015.

The Prime Minister's understated black hat featured a somewhat fussy bow detail

Prime Minister Theresa May cut a somewhat dour figure this afternoon in a grey outfit from Escada

Prime Minister Theresa may wore a grey dress and matching jacket from Escada and a black hat by Liz Felix

The Prime Minister greeted Kate with a handshake and a curtsy as she arrived at Tyne Cot cemetery

While Kate struck the right note by playing it relatively safe in a soft shade of grey, the Prime Minister Theresa May went for a more out-and-out sombre look.

Political style blogger Laura Dunn, identified her ensemble as a grey Escada dress and jacket, Twister gold block heels from Russell & Bromley, a black hat by Liz Felix and an Amanda Wakeley bag.

The dark grey outfit is a departure for Mrs May who usually avoids the shade in favour of her go-to navy - her most worn colour, followed by black.




Clothing etailer Boohoo has come under fire from customers who have criticised the company for using models with 'small figures' to showcase its plus size range.

Twitter user Suz took to social media to complain about the company's models after shopping for bikinis on the online shop.

Tweeting under the handle @suzziiee_main the beauty therapist, from Dunfermline, Scotland, shared pictures of the Plus Lucie Crochet Colour Pop Triangle Bikini currently on sale on the website for 15.

Fashion etailer Boohoo has come under fire from customers who have criticised the brand for using models with 'small figures' in their plus size ranges

Suz accompanied the photos with a tweet in which she expressed her disappointment at the brand's chosen model.

Earlier this week she wrote: 'Anyone else majorly offended that this is a 'plus size' bikini on a 'plus size' model?!?! no wonder girls think they are 'fat'. (sic).'

It seems that many other customers agreed with Suz, with the tweet receiving almost 1,000 likes.

Twitter user Suzie shared photos of the model pictured wearing the Plus Lucie Crochet Colour Pop Triangle Bikini on social media

Fellow customers agreed that they were shocked at how plus size women were represented by the brand

Several women replied to the tweet, venting their frustrations over the representation of plus size shoppers on the site.

User Meggan VanderMeulen complained: 'Yeah... that was my only problem with ordering from boohoo. Because I couldn't even imagine the clothes on my body.'

CJ was particularly offended commenting: 'i am fuming. i've been reduced to tears. i am really hurt by this. hopefully they fix it (sic)'

Meanwhile other shoppers have come forward with complaints about Boohoo's approach to plus size clothing.

Twitter user Holly pointed out that she had discovered something rather unsettling while shopping for plus size jump suits

Twitter user Holly pointed out that she had discovered something rather unsettling while shopping for plus size jump suits.

Tweeting a screen shot of Plus Laila Jersey Tie Waist Jumpsuit Holly pointed out that the model was listed as wearing a 'size 6'.

She tweeted: 'So @boohoo ... is this a typo or do you actually have a size SIX modelling your plus range??'

In another tweet an account called 'Free To Be OK' has accused the retailers of 'fat taxing' pointing out that Boohoo charge more for plus size items

In another tweet an account called 'Free To Be OK' has accused the retailers of 'fat taxing' pointing out that Boohoo charge more for plus size items.

Sharing a photo of the plus size Ella Lace Maxi Dress, Free to Be OK write: 'Why so blue? Because this @boohoo plus size dress IS FIVE WHOLE POUNDS more expensive than the main collection #fattax'.

MailOnline has contacted Boohoo for a comment.
The Duchess of Cambridge has signalled her determination to beef up her office  and public profile  with the appointment of a high-flying new private secretary.

Kate has poached Catherine Quinn, currently chief operating officer at Oxford Universitys Said Business School, to become her gatekeeper.

Mrs Quinn, 58, who previously held roles at the Wellcome Trust and the Middle Temple, is likely to receive a six-figure salary which will be met by Prince Charles through his private income from the Duchy of Cornwall.

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The Duchess of Cambridge, pictured today, has appointed Catherine Quinn chief operating officer and associate dean for administration at Oxford University's Said Business School

Catherine Quinn (pictured), who holds has an MBA from Said Business School and degrees from US and UK universities, will take up her new post in October

Last year he spent close to 3.5million supporting William, Kate and Harrys official work and private households.

Mrs Quinn will replace Rebecca Deacon, dubbed Kates Girl Friday, who is leaving at the end of this week to work as a private consultant. Much-liked Miss Deacon, 34, has been a member of the duchesss inner circle from the time of her wedding to Prince William in 2011, guiding her through the early years of royal life.

Lancashire-born Mrs Quinn, a divorcee with a grown-up son, has an MBA from Oxford as well as degrees from other British and US universities.

She spent several years working at Oxford, directing the universitys Research Services and co-founding Oxford University Consulting, before joining the Wellcome Trust, the charitable healthcare foundation, where she led its grant-giving operations.

Ms Quinn will replace Rebecca Priestley (pictured), who announced in March she would be stepping down from as Kate's right-hand woman after 10 years of service to the royal family

Close: The Duchess of Cambridge with outgoing private secretary Rebecca Priestley

Often seen standing discreetly behind her royal boss during engagements (left in July last year), Rebecca Priestley also accompanied Kate on royal tours (right in Canada last year)

From there she moved to become chief executive of the Middle Temple, one of the Inns of Court to which barristers belong. Finally she joined Oxford Said, juggling the role with positions on the boards of the Charity Commission, the Met Office, the Royal British Legion and the National Memorial Arboretum.

Her appointment is a significant one, coming as William quits as an air ambulance pilot to become a full-time working royal in support of the Queen, 91, whose husband Prince Philip, 96, will officially retire from public duties tomorrow.

Royal aides acknowledge that Kate will also be taking a significant step up in support of the monarch. Both she and William have been rattled in recent years by suggestions that they are workshy.

As private secretary, Mrs Quinn will become integral to every aspect of Kates private and public life.

A source said: This is a significant appointment and signifies what many see as the professionalising of William and Kates private office as they embrace a more high profile royal role.
Her long-awaited feature film debut finally hits screens next month, making it quite the significant summer for Cressida Bonas.

Prince Harry's ex, 28, will play a leading role in Mrs Orwell, which opens at the Old Red Lion Theatre in North London on Tuesday, set during the last months of writer George Orwell's life as he lay dying in hospital from tuberculosis.

Stills from the upcoming play show an unusually dressed down Cressida in am old-fashioned checked skirt and orange cardigan, with her hair noticeably shorter and curled.

Peter Hamilton Dyer plays Orwell who asked his friend Sonia Brownell, 30, a magazine assistant editor, to marry him in the last months of his life in 1949.

She spent the rest of her days trying to protect Orwell's legacy before dying from a brain tumour in 1980.

Peter Hamilton Dyer and Cressida Bonas attending the Mrs Orwell photocall, at the Old Red Lion Theatre, London

Director Jimmy Walters, an old Leeds University pal, previously starred with Cressida in Othello and believes the play will prove her talent as an actress.

'I knew she would be great as a person and as an actress,' he told the Evening Standard.

'She is just a great actress, she does a lot of research and she read a lot of books for the role so shes really so well informed about it.'

She'll also be seen on the big screen in Tom Stoppard's Tulip Fever with Cara Delevingne and Judi Dench after the film was finally given a US release date, following two years of delays.

The aspiring starlet, 28, plays Sonia Brownell who married the dying author during the last few months of his life

The play is set in a London hospital where Orwell spent the last few months of his life and the entirety of his marriage to Sonia

And the aspiring thespian is hoping that her small role will lead to bigger and better things, as she sets her sights on a career Stateside.

'I'm a real home person and close to my family, but would love to go out to LA if the right opportunity came along,' she told the Evening Standard.

'I do feel more at home in theatre so perhaps even New York.'

The actress was not quite her usual glamorous self in a brown checked skirt, flat shoes and an orange cardigan

The play's director, an old university friend of Cressida's, said the show will prove her star quality

In addition to starring in the play, Cressida's first feature film will finally hit screens next month

She's previously starred in a short film for Burberry as well as taking on the role of Daisy in an interactive version of The Great Gatsby.

But she's perhaps best known for her connections to royalty.

A close friend of Princess Eugenie and her sister Beatrice, she was introduced to Prince Harry by his cousins and dated the royal for two years before splitting in 2014.

Harry is now in a high-profile relationship with Suits star Meghan Markle while Cressida has reunited with 6ft 6in Harry Wentworth-Stanley, a chartered surveyor and former public schoolboy, who was born in Hampshire but now lives in London.
If you had told a 13-year-old Misty Copeland that 21 years later she would be named a global spokesmodel for Estee Lauder's Modern Muse fragrance, she might not have believed you.

In a letter to her younger self on glamour.com, the prima ballerina, now 34, calls the appointment, which was announced Monday, 'wild' and 'important'.

'It matters that women and girls see themselves represented in every hue and every shape, with different careers and different paths. Youre going to do that for people. That is a huge deal,' she wrote.

Pirouettes and perfume: Prima ballerina Misty Copeland, 34, has been named the new global spokesmodel for Estee Lauder Modern Muse fragrance

Sneak peek: Misty's campaign for the fragrance, which replaces one starring Estee Lauder face Kendall Jenner, will debut this August

On pointe: Misty recently performed in Don Quixote at the American Ballet Theater, where she is a principal dancer

Itll be a long journey to discovering and accepting who you are, to knowing that different can be beautiful. But trust that you will eventually discover beauty in your own terms. Youll feel strongest, and most beautiful, on stage. And you will feel most confident when you are natural and just yourself. Remember this feeling. - Misty Copeland, glamour.com

Misty's history of challenging the status quo - she is the first African American woman to hold the position of principal dancer at the American Ballet Theater - is one of the primary reasons she was chosen for the beauty gig.

'When Estee Lauder launched the Modern Muse fragrance in 2013, we embraced the idea of women as muses, living life on their own terms, achieving great things and inspiring everyone around them,' said Estee Lauder global brand president Stephane de la Faverie.

Fittingly, the theme of her campaign, debuting August 2017, is 'What inspires you?' and features Misty in a frothy pink gown and matching pointe shoes surrounded by a group of young, tutu-clad ballerinas.

Beauty within: 'Itll be a long journey to discovering and accepting who you are, to knowing that different can be beautiful,' Misty wrote in a letter to her 13-year-old self on glamour.com

Beyond the stage: The ballerina also stars in campaigns for athletic wear brand Under Armour

Spritz and leap! Misty shared some of her dancer 'beauty hacks', like how to apply perfume, in a video for glamour.com

While Misty takes her new role seriously, she showed off her playful side in a video for glamour.com where she demonstrates her 'beauty hacks' through dance.

To show how to apply mascara, she wiggles the brush across the base of her lashes as she bourrees back and forth across the floor. To dry her nail polish, she pulls out a fan she used earlier this year in a production of Don Quixote and fans her hand mid-frolic.

And then comes a tip we can actually see her using in real life: She sprays the air with Modern Muse and then gracefully leaps through the jasmine, tuberose and patchouli-scented area.
A fake McDonald's Twitter account, which went unnoticed by the fast-food giant for nearly a year, went viral over the weekend when it tweeted a number of disturbing messages.

The account, claiming to represent 'McDonald's Hong Kong', first appeared on the scene in October 2016, and at the beginning was only posting promotional tweets.

But over the last week, the account appeared to go truly rogue with a series of increasingly unhinged messages, suggesting that the person running it was going through some serious personal problems.

Concerned: A fake McDonald's Twitter account had users worried after it began posting disturbing messages between promotional tweets

Hitting the big time: The account, claiming to be 'McDonald's Hong Kong', had been set up back in October 2016

'Where is my son they took my son,' the account tweeted on July 29, also adding: 'I want to quit she left me.'

What made the tweets even more jarring is that they continued to be interspersed between additional promotional materials.

'I miss her so f***ing much. F*** this job. Where is my wife and where is my son...' reads another tweet, posted just after another promoting McDonald's mobile-friendly website.

Other users eventually noticed the alarming messages and sharing them with their followers.

Red flags: Last week is when the disturbing tweets first began to surface

Bringing it to attention: Other users noticed what was going on, and several even direct-messaged the account to make sure the person running it was alright

'Everything ok?' asked one user, sharing a number of the tweets, with another adding: 'What even the hell is happening over at @Mc_DonaldsHK?'

Then on Sunday the Twitter account was shut down after it was 'reported for impersonation' by the burger chain and has since changed its handle to @notMcDonaldsHK, to flag itself as a parody account in line with Twitter policy.

BuzzFeed reached out to the makers of the account, who turned out to be UK teenagers, and spoke to one of them, an 18-year-old from London called Zain.

Zain revealed that he had forgotten about the account until recently, when he logged in and saw that it was being taken seriously by users as an official McDonald's account.

No more: McDonald's reported the account for impersonation and despite changing the name it remains suspended

'At this point, we realized that with this mistake they had put us in more power than they wanted to,' he said.

After posting the disturbing tweets, the group of teenagers found that users were direct-messaging the account to ask if the person behind the tweets was okay.

McDonald's confirmed to Gizmodo that the account was indeed a fake and that the company was looking to shut it down. Despite the name change, it remains suspended.

Sadly, despite the furor it caused, Zain said that he won't be continuing on with the parody account, saying 'The peak of its time is done' and he believes it will soon become 'unfunny.'
Online retailer Zazzle has come under fire for a lack of diversity in the models it has cast for its website  which has led to some incredibly awkward consequences.

Twitter users pointed out last week that T-shirts on the site with some very race-specific quotes and phrases were being modeled exclusively by white women.

The site is facing criticism for seemingly having no black models on hand to wear shirts with sayings like 'Black Girl Magic, 'melanin & mascara', and 'unapologetically black'.

Cringe: Zazzle is drawing criticism after Twitter users noticed white women were modeling shirts about black female empowerment

That's awkward: Almost all of the models on the website are white

Yikes... The images feature white models in shirts saying things like 'black queens' and 'angry black woman'

The issue: The shirts are from independent sellers but use Zazzle's templates

What needs fixing: It seems that one model with model one type of shirt, and then different designs are digitally added

Zazzle sells a wide range of customizable products, including shirts, wearable accessories, stationary, phone cases, and home decor.

Shoppers can personalize their own products or buy pre-made items from several independent sellers who use Zazzle's basic products and templates. The designs are all printed on a limited range of styles, so a simple basic T-shirt shape may be offered with countless designs.

It appears that Zazzle simply shoots a single model in one of these template products  say, a crew-neck white T-shirt or a white long-sleeve tee  and then digitally updates them with specific designs from its sellers.

This time-saving process is how every shirt on the site comes to be modeled by just a handful of men and women, no matter what is printed on them.

So bad: Cries of cultural appropriation have been made for much less

Get on it! Zazzle has yet to address the controversy or fix the issue

Yeesh... A white model wears a shirt referencing melanin and coconut oil

Ongoing problem: There are several tees worn by white models that say 'black girl magic'

However, this means that even a shirt that is about black female empowerment is modeled by a white woman, since most of the models the site uses are white.

Shirts available on Zazzle that are modeled by white women say things like 'Angry Black Woman', 'Black is Gorgeous', and 'Danger: Educated Black Woman'.

There is one that says 'Black Queens are Born in March' and another that reads 'Melanin & Coconut oil & Hips & Magic'.

Fashion magazines have been accused of cultural appropriation for styling white models with Bantu knots and baby hair designs, yet one white model on the site wears a tee advertising those very things.

There is even a particularly awkward shirt featuring a quote from US Representative Maxine Waters, which reads: 'I am a strong black woman. I cannot be intimidated, and I'm not going anywhere.'

Dudes too: There are also shirts modeled by men with messages about black men

Embarassing: Twitter users have pointed out the very awkward mistake

Pay attention! Unsurprisingly, it has left several people quite offended

In fact, there are also several shirts with statements about being a black man that are modeled by a white man.

The cringe-worthy mistake was noticed last week by several Twitter users who criticized Zazzle for not having enough diversity to find black women for shirts like these.

'What, no Black models?' asked @Shikimag.

'White models + generic pro-black women slogans @zazzle = the most awkward mess on EARTH,' wrote Yousra Elbagir. 'Hoping that someone got fired for this BS.'

Zazzle has yet to respond to the controversy or correct the issue on its product pages.
This is the adorable moment a family donned bike helmets to eat breakfast - in solidarity with their baby who needs to wear one 23 hours a day.

Little Jonas Gutierrez, four months, from Antonio, Texas, suffers from severe plagiocephaly - flat head syndrome.

The condition means the back of his head is flat and his brain is pushing his skull to the sides - so his head is as wide as it is high.

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Sweet: Jonas Gutierrez has to wear this helmet for 23 hours every day in order to correct the shape of his head, which is currently flat

'Cool beyond my years': The four-month-old was born with plagiocephaly, which means the top of his head is flat and his brain is pushing his skull out to the sides

Warning: Doctors told Jonas's parents that he could end up with misshapen facial features if they didn't do something to correct the problem immediately

Doctors warned that the tot could end up with misshapen facial features if he didn't don a hard hat to help mould his head into shape.

When he came home wearing his new helmet last week, his big sister Camila, three, noticed something was different.

Mom Shayna, 31, a nursery director, said: 'Camila said, "Jonas has a helmet," and I said, "Yes, to fix his head."

'She said, "I have got a helmet," and she went to her closet and got her helmet out.

'Often my husband will be working on his bikes and she will wear her helmet on her scooter.

'On Saturday morning she went and got her helmet and asked my husband to put it on. Then she said, "I will get yours daddy."'

Camila and her dad, licensed irrigator Gary, 30, wore their helmets as they munched on their scrambled eggs at the table.

Show of support: It was Jonas's sister Camilla who came up with the idea to have the family all wear their bike helmets, so her little brother wouldn't feel like the odd one out

Thoughtful: The little girl picked up her own bike helmet, and then made sure she found one for her dad to wear, too

Doting mom Shayna watched on and snapped a precious photo of the moment.

She said: 'It was just too cute.

'Her helmet is still lying around and if she sees my husband he will put his on.

'She will do as much as a three-year-old can grasp. She will tell Jonas hers has giraffes on it. It's very sweet.'

Jonas was born with a large head which placed him in the upper 99th percentile for newborns.

Medics believe that pressure on the back of his skull could have started in the womb.

In his early days he slept perfectly and developed a soft spot on the back of his head where it rested as he led on his back.

Shayna and Gary tried turning him onto his tummy and repositioning him through the night but he kept rolling back into the same position.

Love: Jonas's big sister, three, is incredibly supportive of her sibling

Nearly there: The little boy will have to wear his helmet for up to six months

Mom-of-two Shayna said: 'At four months my paediatrician wanted me to get it checked out.

'When we visited the doctor we thought it was a mild case but I guess that's mother's love - it was actually quite severe.

'His brain is pushing his skull out to the sides.'

The couple were told the best solution would be cranial helmet therapy.

The tot now wears a special helmet designed to lessen the deformity and sculpt his head back into shape 23 hours a day.

Shayna added: 'We are super excited about the progress and changes that will be made.'

Jonas will have to wear the helmet for up to six months.
The NHS will create 21,000 mental-health posts by 2021, the Government has revealed.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the aim was to treat an extra one million people over the next four years under one of the biggest boosts to mental care in Europe.

Campaigners have long argued mental health in the UK is woefully underfunded  and warn psychological conditions are not treated as seriously as physical health problems.

Now it has been promised that mental and physical health services will be integrated for the first time in a 1.3 billion drive to provide services seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

However, a health body has questioned whether enough people could be trained in such time, and if there are the resources to do so.

Mr Hunt adds that throwing money at the NHS can fail unless a workforce plan is in place.

The NHS will create 21,000 mental-health posts by 2021, Jeremy Hunt has revealed

HALF OF MENTAL HEALTH UNITS OUT OF DATE OR UNSAFE Thousands of mental health patients are being treated in unsafe hospital units, warn inspectors. Two in five mental health services inspected in the last three years have not met safety requirements, the Care Quality Commission said. Some 40 per cent of NHS services and 39 per cent of private units were classed either as 'inadequate' or 'requires improvement' when it came to safety, the inspectors said in their scathing report. They warned patients are often treated in out-of-date wards, with insufficient staff and many blind spots where they can harm themselves or others. And they said thousands are locked up for years in asylum-like units that 'have no place' in modern healthcare. Some institutions are still putting men and women in mixed-sex wards  a practice experts said should have been eliminated decades ago. Mental health care has been identified as a major priority by Theresa May, who called shortfalls in services a 'burning injustice'. Advertisement

The plan will see 'dramatically' increased numbers of trained nurses, therapists, psychiatrists, peer support workers and other mental health professionals, according to the Department of Health.

Mr Hunt said: 'As we embark on one of the biggest expansions of mental health services in Europe it is crucial we have the right people in post  that's why we're supporting those already in the profession to stay and giving incentives to those considering a career in mental health.'

Throwing money at the NHS can fail

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Best of Today show, Mr Hunt said: Were going through the biggest expansion of mental health provision anywhere in Europe.

In the past we have made the mistake too often of saying that the way you solve these problems is through a big injection of money.

'Health secretaries, different parties and myself have thought that is the solution and they havent had a proper workforce plan.

You can put the money in, but if you havent got the doctor and nurses to employ with that money, youre not actually going to improve the care for patients.'

Plans do not add up

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said the Government's policies do 'not add up'.

Chief executive Janet Davies said: 'If these nurses were going to be ready in time, they would be starting training next month.

'But we have seen that the withdrawal of the bursary has led to a sharp fall in university applications and we are yet to see funding for additional places.

'There is already a dangerous lack of workforce planning and accountability and this report is unable to provide detail on how the ambitions will be met.

'It is clear the Government will need to work hard just to get back to the number of specialist staff working in mental health services in 2010.

'Under this Government, there are 5,000 fewer mental health nurses and that goes some way to explaining why patients are being failed. The NHS needs to see hard cash to deliver any plans.'

Earlier this year it was revealed mental health trusts in England have had their funding cut by 150m over the past four years, according to BBC Panorama and think tank the Health Foundation.

The 1.3 billion drive promises mental health services seven days a week, 24 hours a day

Hunt: There has been an expansion already

Mr Hunt, responding to Mrs Davies's comments, told BBC News: 'Well, I think it's an ambitious target but I think the mistake health secretary after health secretary from different parties and different governments have made is that they've thought "If you want to solve a problem, you put the money in", and money of course is very important, but you've got to have the people.

'So we are investing more in training up people  we actually have 32,000 more people providing mental health care than we did in 2010, so there's been a big expansion already  but today we are announcing another 21,000 posts, which will mean a lot more money going into training.'

Mr Hunt said the 2,000 posts would be for children and young people's provision, and another 4,600 extra nursing staff working in crisis care.

Professor Wendy Burn, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, which helped devise the plan, said: 'As medically trained doctors, psychiatrists are vital to the treatment of mental illness.

'You would expect to see a consultant if you had cancer and the same applies for mental health.

'The 570 extra consultants promised in this strategy will be crucial to delivering the high-quality, robust mental health services of the future.'

Retaining staff and encouraging some of the 4,000 psychiatrists and 30,000 trained mental health nurses not substantively employed by the NHS to return to the profession will form a major part of the drive.
Eating disorders have traditionally been more common in young girls and women.

But now the number of men admitted to hospital with such conditions has risen by 70 per cent over the past six years  the same rate of increase as among women.

The number of hospital diagnoses in males over the age of 19s jumped from 480 in 2010-2011 to 818 in 2015-2016, NHS Digital data reveals.

The rate of increase was slightly higher among older men in their 40s and 50s.

Experts blame peer pressure to attain a muscular look as well as men trying to copy what they see as the ideal body image of male celebrities and models.

But greater awareness about eating disorders may be encouraging sufferers to come forward to get help, they believe.

Lack of understanding for men suffering from eating disorders can be a barrier (file picture)

Dr William Rhys Jones, of the Royal College of Psychiatrists' eating disorders faculty, told The Guardian: 'Pressure for body perfection is on the rise for men of all ages, which is a risk factor for developing an eating disorder.

'Images of unhealthy male body ideals in the media place unnecessary pressure on vulnerable people who strive for acceptance through the way they look.'

He said a lack of understanding and sympathy for men suffering from eating disorders  which can include anorexia nervosa, bulimia and binge eating disorder  can be a barrier for those who need help.

And because sufferers of eating disorders are usually assumed to be female, many men may be simply too ashamed to admit they have a problem.

More than 725,000 men and women in the UK are affected by eating disorders, according to the charity beat.

Key findings

The rate of increase was slightly higher among older men, at 70 per cent for the 41-60 age category.

This is compared with 67 per cent in the 26-40 group and 63 per cent among 19-to-25-year-olds.

In the same period, cases rose by 61 per cent rise among women aged 19-25 and by 76 per cent among middle-aged women.

The figures show that men are still in the minority for overall cases of patients diagnosed in hospital.

In 2015-16, there were 1,098 male adults and children and 12,054 female adults and children.

More than 300 under 12s  boys and girls  were admitted to hospital with an eating disorder during this year.

The fastest rate of change among all ages over the six-year period was in 13- to 15-year-olds  a jump from 565 to 1,383 over the six years.

SPOTTING EATING DISORDERS IN OTHERS It can often be very difficult to identify that a loved one or friend has developed an eating disorder. Warning signs to look out for include: Missing meals

Complaining of being fat, even though they have a normal weight or are underweight

Repeatedly weighing themselves and looking at themselves in the mirror

Making repeated claims that they've already eaten, or they'll shortly be going out to eat somewhere else and avoiding eating at home

Cooking big or complicated meals for other people, but eating little or none of the food themselves

Only eating certain low-calorie foods in your presence, such as lettuce or celery

Feeling uncomfortable or refusing to eat in public places, such as at a restaurant

The use of "pro-anorexia" websites It can be difficult to know what to do if you're concerned about a friend or family member. It's not unusual for someone with an eating disorder to be secretive and defensive about their eating and their weight, and they may deny being unwell. Source: NHS Choices Advertisement

Men don't realise they have a disorder

Men who are affected might find it doubly hard to get the correct diagnosis and treatment, as many health professionals associate eating disorders with women, says Sam Thomas of the charity Men Get Eating Disorders Too.

In fact, binge eating disorder is thought to affect men and women equally, whereas with anorexia and bulimia it is predominantly women who are sufferers.

'Many men don't realise they have an eating disorder,' Mr Thomas previously told MailOnline.

'They'll know that they have issues with food, but it often won't occur to them to think that they could be suffering from an eating disorder and need help.'

Rising steroid use among middle-aged men

Furthermore, recent research suggests there is a worrying growing trend among middle-aged men taking anabolic steroids which is commonly used by bodybuilders.

According to a Harvard Medical School report, there are now an estimated 2.9 million to 4 million steroid users in the US, the researchers said.

And in the UK, Home Office figures show 60,000 people used the drug in 2014, but experts claims the number is far higher and is closer to one million.

The study showed long-term use of muscle-building anabolic steroids may weaken the functioning of the heart by clogging arteries.

It was also linked to elevated blood pressure and cholesterol levels - both risk factors for heart disease.
Dementia is far more common in the 'stroke belt' of America's Deep South than anywhere else in the country, new figures reveal.

Researchers found that states with a high rate of stroke deaths also have a higher rate of dementia diagnoses.

These states are disproportionately in the south - a region referred to as the Stroke Belt - where rates of high blood pressure and diabetes are far above the national average.

And now, a new study published in JAMA Neurology shows that area is also something of a 'dementia belt'.

Experts warn it is no coincidence that these states also have a high proportion of black residents, significant levels of poverty, and poor access to healthcare.

Risk factors for a stroke and dementia could be linked and most common in the southern United States, a new study claims

CERTAIN AREAS OF THE UNITED STATES HAVE A HIGHER RISK OF CARDIOVASCULAR DEATHS A map shows that those living along the Mississippi River and nearby areas in the South are more likely to die from a stroke or other cardiovascular diseases. These are the same regions that are plagued with high obesity and diabetes rates, significant levels of poverty and are lacking access to quality healthcare. Although rates of cardiovascular disease have substantially decreased over the past 50 years, it is still the leading cause of death in the United States. Cardiovascular disease mortality rates are significantly higher in counties extending from southeastern Oklahoma, into the Mississippi River valley and to eastern Kentucky. Advertisement

Researchers examined 7,423 individuals who all use a healthcare delivery system in Northern California called Kaiser Permanente.

Just over 4,000 of the participants were women and 1,354 were black.

Black participants, it was determined, were more likely to be born in state with a high stroke mortality rate.

The researchers found that, of these individuals who are now living in Northern California and all have equal access to medical care, people from nine states in the Stroke Belt were more likely to develop dementia.

Specifically, of the individuals born in those states, nearly 40 percent developed dementia. By comparison less than 30 percent of people born in other states were diagnosed with the disease.

The nine states considered high stroke mortality states in the study were Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, South Carolina and West Virginia.

Researchers also looked at other factors, specifically race, and found that black individuals born in high stroke mortality states had the highest risk for dementia compared with those individuals who were neither of those things.

Additionally, 20-year dementia risks at age 65 were 30.13 percent for those people born in high stroke mortality states and 21.8 percent for those people not born in those states.

It isn't known what causes dementia, which is characterized by a severe decline in mental ability. The most common form of the disease is Alzheimer's.

Dementia isn't a specific disease, but instead defines a wide range of symptoms from a decline in memory to other thinking skills serious enough to reduce a person's ability to function.

Most dementias are progressive, meaning the symptoms start slowly and get worse gradually. There are no known cures.

Researchers found that, of these individuals who are now living in Northern California and all have equal access to medical care, people from nine states in the Stroke Belt (pictured in red) were more likely to develop dementia

However, these results show that there could be a clear link between the risk factors associated with a stroke and risk factors associated with the brain disease.

People living in the Stroke Belt states might be at a higher exposure to risk factors that increase their risk of dementia, such as elevated blood pressure and hypertension.

Strokes happen when blood flow is cut off to part of the brain, causing cells to die.

This study found that risk factors that might be linked to this brain attack could also be linked to dementia, which causes cognitive functioning to rapidly decline.

The study has limitations, including that authors did not have complete residential history and could not determine how long the people, who had eventually migrated to California, lived in high stroke mortality states.

Because of this, authors couldn't determine if living in a Stroke Belt state for a longer time made it increasingly likely to develop dementia.
American adults are too drugged up to get the best jobs, a number of reports have concluded.

A surge in drug abuse in men and women without a college diploma has caused American companies to struggle to find skilled workers.

In the past few years there has been an uptick in opioid addiction, with the most common being heroin and the powerful contaminant fetanyl.

Fentanyl, the drug responsible for the death of musician Prince last year, is a man-made opioid 100 times more powerful than morphine.

American adults are too drugged out to get the best jobs, a number of reports have concluded (stock image)

These reports show a cyclical nature to the drug epidemic in certain parts of America.

Due to the loss of manufacturing jobs in America, people have turned to drugs as a coping mechanism. The resulting drug abuse leads to even more joblessness, which causes people to feel hopeless.

Jed Kolko, an economist at the job search website Indeed, told Axios there are more people of a 'prime age' each year who cite illness or disability as the reason they are unemployed.

He looked at a recent US population survey and found that between 5.6 and 5.7 percent of Americans over the age of 18 didn't work last year because of illness or disability.

Drug addiction is considered to be illness or disability, but it s not clear how much of that percentage is caused by it.

Jed Kolko, an economist at the job search website Indeed, told Axios there are more people of a 'prime age' each year who cite illness or disability as the reason they are unemployed

And the epidemic is hitting American companies as hard as the population, because they are having such a tough time finding skilled workers.

Reports suggest that many owners and managers at manufacturing jobs are turning towards automation because they do not know how to deal with addicted workers.

That means people are losing jobs in favor of robots and computers.

One West Virginia company reported that half of its applicants for a manufacturing job fail or refuse to take a mandatory pre-employment drug test.

In March a survey by the National Safety Council found that over 70 percent of employers in the United States feel the direct impact of prescription drug misuse in the workplace.

Even when taken as prescribed, the drugs can impair workers, NSC President and CEO Deborah Hershman said.

Drug poisonings now eclipse car crashes as the leading cause of preventable deaths among adults.

Figures released in June by the New York Times revealed drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death in American adults under 50.

A New York Times graph shows that drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death in American adults under 50

The data, published in a special report by the Times' Josh Katz, lays bare the bleak state of America's opioid addiction crisis fueled by deadly manufactured drugs like fentanyl.

The figures are based on preliminary data, which will form part of an official report by the CDC later this year.

Experts warn a key factor of the surge in deaths is fentanyl, which can be 50 times more powerful than heroin.

PROFESSIONALS 'MICRODOSING' ON DRUGS TO BOOST THEIR CAREERS Professionals are increasingly taking low doses of illegal drugs such as LSD and 'magic' mushrooms to improve their mood and performance at work. The trend for 'microdosing', as it's known, has reportedly become particularly popular in California's affluent Silicon Valley. A growing number of people are reportedly taking the substances every day before work to reduce their anxiety. Devotees do not take enough to 'trip' but ingest regular, barely perceptible doses with the aim of experiencing boosted mental clarity and creativity. Internet forums are full of microdosers sharing their experiences. In one, a 26-year-old male studying for his final year of a bachelors degree while working up to 40 hours a week feels the habit boosts his mental clarity. He wrote: 'After doing extensive research on microdosing and reading about the potential to help alleviate depression, increase energy levels, increase creativity and elevate mood I decided to pursue it for its therapeutic value. 'My thoughts seem to become more fluid and seem to be accessed easier. Reading becomes much more focused and I get involved in the text.' He reported scoring a B+/A- average on his papers. There are a small number of advocates of microdosing in the medical community. Scientist Amanda Feilding, the founder and director of the Beckley Foundation in Oxford, has long been a fan. Before it was made illegal in 1968, Ms Feilding would take LSD to boost her creativity and even found her performance in the Chinese abstract board game 'Go' improved. Advertisement

The Times said its data showed between 59,000 and 65,000 people could have died from overdoses in 2016, up from 52,404 in 2015, and double the death rate a decade ago.

Now, politicians are taking notice as well.

At the beginning of July, Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen related opioid use to the declining labor participation rate while speaking at a congressional testimony.

And in June, Ohio attorney general Mike DeWine said 40 percent of applications in the state were either failing or refusing drug tests.

'This prevents people from operating machinery, driving a truck or getting a job managing a McDonald's,' he said at a Congressional hearing.

In June, Georgia authorities warned about new forms of fentanyl which are resistant to Narcan, the only known cure for a drug overdose.

Acrylfentanyl and tetrahydrofueron are two new strains of the drug that overwhelm the brain with such intensity that Narcan (the brand name for naloxone) has little to no effect.

Narcan works by blocking the brain receptors which fentanyl unlocks.

Drug users experience their high from opioids because the substance seeks out receptors in the brain, attaches to them, and 'unlocks' them - like a key.

Over the next few minutes and hours the drug repeatedly locks and unlocks those receptors, triggering a rush of joy, calm and pain relief.

However, too much of a drug can overload those receptors and start to block the blood flow to the brain.

This causes shortness of breath and a slow heart rate.

Narcan can reverse this dangerous effects in a matter of seconds if it is administered early enough.

Like fentanyl, the substance attaches to brain receptors. But unlike fentanyl, it does not unlock it. Rather, it blocks and protects it, warding off the opioids.

However, authorities are seeing that people who overdose on synthetic forms of fentanyl, such as the two detected in Georgia in June, are so powerful that Narcan cannot stop the drug from continuing to pummel the brain's receptors.
Go to your GP complaining of depression and youre likely to walk away with a prescription for an antidepressant.

However, you might need two or three more different prescriptions before you eventually find the medication that works for you.

And even if it does, the benefits may well be little better than a placebo  and along the way you are likely to experience some unpleasant side-effects, such as drowsiness, nausea, insomnia and loss of libido.

The drugs don't always work: Doctors have long treated depression by assuming it's a chemical imbalance - but is this the whole story?

But psychiatrists are increasingly confident that, within a few years, things could be very different, with patients being tested to find out whether a drug is likely to work for them.

Their prescription would then be a drug cocktail tailored to their specific biology  and that cocktail might include an anti-inflammatory drug such as ibuprofen.

What is driving these changes is a radical new theory about a cause of depression. For decades, psychiatrists had suggested it was due to a brain chemical imbalance: treatment was aimed at restoring this balance, usually by boosting levels of the mood chemical serotonin.

This ignored the emerging evidence that around 30 to 40 per cent of people with depression also had chronically raised levels of inflammation in their brains. Recent research has indicated that this can reduce the effectiveness of the mood-boosting pills.

Last year, Carmine Pariante, a professor of biological psychiatry at Kings College London, showed that measuring the level of two markers for inflammation in the blood could accurately predict if a depressed patient would benefit from the standard antidepressants, known as SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), such as Prozac.

We found that above a certain level of inflammation, there was not going to be any benefit, he says.

This could make a significant difference to patients. Half of all patients with depression fail to find an effective drug with their first prescription, says Professor Pariante, and a third dont benefit from any of them.

Little-known: Yet 30 to 40 per cent of people with depression also had brain inflammation

When a patient doesnt respond to an antidepressant, doctors commonly increase the dose. But Professor Pariantes research suggests something else might be more effective.

If inflammation levels are too high, an anti-inflammatory drug may help, he says. We are testing one commonly used to treat acne, an antibiotic called minocycline.

Paying attention to inflammation also promises to change the way we think about depression generally. It makes depression just a part of what is going on in the whole body, explains Professor Pariante.

Patients seem to instinctively understand this, because they are very aware of the physical feelings that come with depression. The aches and pains and the feeling of being sick and tired can be just like flu. Thats because inflammation is a sign of increased activity by the immune system.

Most chronic diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer and Alzheimers, involve inflammation. It is the swelling and redness you see when you cut your finger or catch flu.

In the short-term, inflammation is protective, but in the long-term it becomes damaging. Inflammation makes depression worse in several ways, says Professor Pariante. One is by raising production of damaging free radicals  these are a normal by-product of energy production but in excess, they affect the signals between different parts of the brain.

Inflammation also brings down levels of various chemical messengers in the brain that can improve your mood, such as serotonin, dopamine and endorphins, which have opium-like effects.

Did you know? Most chronic diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer and Alzheimers, involve inflammation

But new research shows it also affects a much less familiar, excitatory brain chemical called glutamate  depressed patients have been found to have high levels of glutamate and it has been shown to alter the flow of signals between brain cells.

Exactly how this causes depression isnt yet clear, but recent research has found that blocking it with a tranquilliser called ketamine, normally used on horses, can have a dramatic effect on long-term depression and suicidal thoughts. Nearly half of a group of 100 patients with severe depression given a ketamine injection once a week responded to treatment for the first time, according to a report in April from the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust.

Understanding inflammation may help explain a test for spotting patients who will or wont respond to treatment. This is because inflammation can alter the way depressed people see life.

The technical term is negative bias, explains Catherine Harmer, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at Oxford University. In daily life, these patients put a pessimistic spin on what people say or their facial expressions.

But they are not just naturally grumpy  another study has shown it might be an effect of inflammation. This negative bias phenomenon is a way of spotting those who will respond to medication, because an antidepressant works in patients with inflammation by making them more optimistic, an effect that happens fast.

Professor Harmer tests their response with a series of pictures of faces with different emotions. At first, they see them as being more negative than a healthy person would. But within a week or so of taking the drug, some are seeing them in a more positive light, long before other signs of depression start changing.

The test is now being trialled in a major study involving five countries in the EU.

So, why do peoples brains become inflamed in the first place? A major factor is stress, according to Philip Cowen, a professor of psychopharmacology at Oxford University and a clinical scientist with the Medical Research Council.

Stress fires up the immune system and releases the hormone cortisol, he says. That raises inflammation in the brain and around the body.

Doctors already routinely test inflammation levels in, for example, cancer, Crohns disease and rheumatoid arthritis, so it could easily be done for depressed patients. That would show who might benefit from existing anti-inflammatory drugs.

These range from standard painkillers such as aspirin and ibuprofen  the so-called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)  to heavyweight rheumatism drugs.

I wouldnt recommend you take them without a doctor being involved, but trying a natural anti-inflammatory, such as omega 3 in fish oil capsules, would be unlikely to cause a problem, says Professor Cowen. Youd need to be getting at least a gram of the EPA essential fatty acid it contains.

That depressed patients with chronic inflammation are likely to have raised cortisol from stress means that relaxation therapies such as yoga and meditation might also be helpful to them. So, too, might probiotics.

The inflammation connection with depression is still at the research stage, and clinical trials are needed. Even so, it is already encouraging some researchers to experiment with combining drugs that affect the various mood-changing brain chemicals, such as dopamine and endorphins, rather than just targeting serotonin with SSRIs.

This is because one of the effects of inflammation is to alter the levels of all these brain chemicals. Bringing in inflammation doesnt just hold out the hope of a new, improved toolbox, but of seeing depression in a new light  not as a mysterious mind malfunction, but something as physical as arthritis or heart disease.

And that could be the biggest change of all.
Frail and suffering from various health problems, 79-year-old William Hammersley's DIY days were behind him. But when his son Des, 53, arranged a trip to a home-improvements superstore, the grandfather-of-two from Chesterton, Staffordshire, was delighted. 'Dad loved DIY,' recalls Des, a plumber. 'So I took him to the nearby JTF Warehouse.'

It was a fatal decision. William fell victim to Legionnaires' disease. A poorly maintained hot tub on display infected 21 people, killing three, including William. He died in North Staffordshire Hospital in August 2012.

Among the survivors were William's wife Clarissa, 82, and Des's partner Claire, who was left with a damaged lung.

Unlucky: Kevin Dick, a 54-year-old sales manager from Inverness, was one of several hundred people to have caught deadly Legionnaires' disease, last year

This month, the company responsible for the outbreak was fined 1 million. During the court case, Clarissa suffered a stroke. As Des told Good Health: 'This has been a complete tragedy for the whole family.'

It's a heartbreak that affects hundreds of families in the UK every year. Official statistics put the number affected by Legionnaires' disease in England and Wales at over 550 a year. But some experts believe the true figure is as high as 9,000.

There are also concerns that the number affected on holiday abroad is rising, with tourists being warned to be particularly wary of hotels and villas in hot climates that have lain empty for months over winter.

And yet the disease is entirely preventable  so why are people still dying from it?

Legionnaires' is a nasty form of pneumonia, caused by the bacterium Legionella pneumophila, that kills about one in ten of its victims by causing rapid lung failure and depriving organs of oxygen.

In its early stages, it is easily mistaken for flu. Even if pneumonia is diagnosed, if Legionella isn't recognised as the culprit the wrong antibiotics may be given.

Legionella occurs naturally in ponds, lakes, rivers and reservoirs. There, it's harmless. Swallowing infected water is very unlikely to cause an infection, since concentrations are too low and the bug has to be breathed into the lungs.

Danger: After trying for three days to fight what he thought was the flu with Lemsip, his temperature hit 41c - which is dangerously high

The problem is when Legionella finds its way into man-made water systems, where conditions can be ideal for it to breed. It feeds on nutrients including rust and scale and thrives in temperatures between 20c and 45c.

In poorly maintained equipment such as air-conditioning cooling towers, spa pools and showers, infected water can be 'aerosolised', converted into a fine spray that's easily breathed in. Without prompt treatment, Legionella breeds rapidly in the lungs  but with early symptoms of headache, muscle pain and a temperature of 38c or above, the disease can easily pass for flu.

But as the bacteria start to multiply (incubation takes between two and ten days), the tiny air sacs in the lungs become inflamed and fill with fluid.

At first, this causes a persistent dry cough, but as the condition worsens, those affected start to produce phlegm and experience increasing shortness of breath.

Anyone with these symptoms should seek help, especially if they've been abroad, says Richard Russell, a consultant respiratory specialist at Lymington New Forest Hospital and adviser for the British Lung Foundation.

'Giving your doctor a history of foreign travel will make the penny drop quicker,' he says. Some people are more vulnerable than others. Most cases of Legionnaires' disease are among the over-50s, with the majority aged 70 or more. People who smoke, drink heavily, have an existing lung condition or are generally in poor health should 'consider avoiding water systems that could be contaminated, such as spas', says NHS England.

Figures show cases in England and Wales have been steadily increasing for the past four years. But, shockingly, one expert says the official figures might be way off the mark.

Shocking: Experts believe there are up to 9,000 cases of the disease each year in the UK

'It's possible that the number is closer to 9,000 a year and that the number of deaths could realistically be more like 900,' says Debbie Green, operations director at Nemco Utilities, a buildings risk management consultancy specialising in Legionella control.

This is based partly on European research suggesting that up to three per cent of the 300,000 infections diagnosed as pneumonia in the UK are in fact Legionnaires' disease. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) insists regulations regarding Legionnaires in the UK are strict. These involve regular treatment of water storage containers with chemicals and, crucially, keeping water at the correct temperatures. Under UK regulations, cold water must be stored below 20c.

The bug is extremely rare in the home because domestic water systems are fed directly from clean mains supplies and daily water usage is sufficient to 'turn over' the entire system.

So why are there still so many cases in the UK? Debbie Green fears some organisations may be cutting corners. 'It's possible that insufficient funding, particularly in the public sector, has a part to play,' she told Good Health.

Statistics from the HSE show that poorly maintained hot and cold-water systems cause a quarter of the cases, followed by cooling towers (16 per cent) and spa pools (14 per cent). In the case of the JTF Warehouse outbreak, there had been a 'misguided assumption' that JTF could manage the risk without spending on specialist consultants, said the crown court judge.

Another concern is that the number of Britons infected abroad has increased, rising more than 65 per cent from 2013, to 146 cases.

Spain, where 26 Britons contracted the disease in 2015, heads a top ten of at-risk destinations for Legionnaires issued by Public Health England, followed by Italy (21 cases) and Greece (17).

HOW TO TREAT IT Legionnaires' disease is treated with a course of antibiotics, such as erythromycin or clarithromycin. Antibiotics will be taken as a tablet or capsule, or through a continuous drip into a vein in your arm. How long you'll need antibiotic treatment for will depend on how severe the condition is. Treatment usually lasts about a week, but may continue for up to three weeks. Around 90% of people with Legionnaires' disease make a full recovery after taking antibiotics. However, while you may start to feel better after a few days, it can take weeks until you're completely back to normal. During this period, it's common to feel tired. Legionnaires' disease can be particularly serious in people with pre-existing health conditions. In this case, you may be admitted to hospital so your health can be closely monitored. Source: NHS Choices Advertisement

A growing threat is in the increasingly popular destination of Dubai. With over 10.8 million visits from UK tourists in 2015, the chance of catching the disease in Spain is 2.8 in a million. The risk in Dubai is far greater, 41 in a million  almost on a par with Thailand, says PHE.

Tourists should be wary of hotels and villas in hot climates that have lain empty for months over winter, warns Nick Harris, former head of international holiday and travel law at solicitors Simpson Millar.

'The Greek islands are a classic example. At the beginning of the holiday season, there will be a spike in legionella claims, and a lot of that is because the hotels close down over winter.'

There is little really that tourists can do apart from being aware of the symptoms, says Simon Dooner of risk-management company Legionella Control International.

'I know of people who will run showers in their holiday villas before they will use them. While it can't do any harm, in the end you have to trust that the people operating the systems are taking the correct precautions.'

He says in hotter countries 'the authorities allow cold water to be stored at 25c'. So 'unless you are treating the water chemically, you've got conditions conducive to the growth of the bacteria'.

Kevin Dick, a 54-year-old sales manager from Inverness, caught Legionnaires on holiday in Thailand with his wife Linda in May. He started to feel ill shortly before landing at Heathrow. 'It felt like flu,' he says. 'I was sweating; hot and cold. I assumed I'd picked up a bug on the plane.'

After trying for three days to fight what he thought was the flu with Lemsip, his temperature hit 41c. Rushed to Raigmore Hospital, he was diagnosed with pneumonia and put on antibiotics: the diagnosis of Legionnaires wasn't made until a week later. In all, he would be off work for nine weeks.

'It was only later when I read up about it that I realised what a lucky escape I'd had,' says Mr Dick.

So how can you tell if it might be Legionnaires or 'just' flu?

Professor Mark Britton of the British Lung Foundation explains that early symptoms such as muscle aches, tiredness, headaches, a dry cough and sudden high fever are 'very similar to flu, but usually more severe and more acute in onset'.

'If you experience a sudden high temperature, shivering, and a loss of alertness, together with some of the above symptoms and may have been exposed to water droplets such as at a spa, urgently seek medical advice.'
Pupils as young as 11 could have lessons in breastfeeding to make it more widespread.

Leading doctors say the move is needed because only 0.5 per cent of British women are still breastfeeding after one year  the lowest rate in the world.

Girls  and boys  would be taught the basics in sex and relationship classes at secondary school.

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, which made the recommendation, said many women were too embarrassed to breastfeed in cafes or public places and worry they might be judged by other mothers for doing it wrong.

Only 0.5 per cent of British women are still breastfeeding after one year  the lowest rate in the world (file image)

It believes that educating girls and boys about breastfeeding from an early age will help normalise the practice and remove any potential stigma.

Regrettably, the attitudes of a large part of society mean breastfeeding is not always encouraged, said Professor Neena Modi, who is president of the royal college.

Support is patchy, advice is not always consistent and often overly dogmatic, support at work not always conducive to continued breastfeeding and, perhaps most worryingly, breastfeeding in public is often stigmatised.

Viv Bennett, the chief nurse at Public Health England, said: We can all help women wherever they are. Creating a wider culture of encouragement and support will help make a mothers experience all the more positive.

Breastfeeding has many benefits for mother and child and is known to prevent infections, stave off obesity and boost IQ. Yet despite numerous breast is best campaigns by the Government and the NHS, rates have barely improved.

The royal college said that the Government should ensure familiarity with breastfeeding is included as part of statutory personal, health and social education in schools.

Viv Bennett, the chief nurse at Public Health England, wants to help more women

Taught at secondary level from the age of 11, these PSHE lessons include sex education and sessions on relationships, bullying and human rights.

The royal college is also calling for breastfeeding breaks at work as well as designated rooms and fridges. Women should be allowed to leave to express milk into a bottle or go to a nearby creche and feed their baby directly.

And if women choose to take breastfeeding breaks, their salaries and career should not be affected.

A survey of 1,000 mothers found many gave up early because they lacked support or worried their baby was not getting enough milk. According to the research by Mumsnet, 27 per cent of women who stopped after one day felt they did not know what they were doing. Among women who stopped after six weeks, 42 per cent were worried they were not producing enough milk and 34 per cent were just exhausted.

Theres no sense in endlessly telling women that they must breastfeed, but letting them down when they have a baby in their arms, said Justine Roberts, the websites chief executive.

Breastfeeding is a skill, and most mothers need support when they hit a problem, especially given that they are often shattered, sore and sleep-deprived.

The guilt, anger and sadness experienced by many mothers who switch from breastfeeding is palpable, and its deeply unfair to leave so many feeling that theyve failed.

The NHS advises women to breastfeed exclusively for six months  with no formula milk  but only 1 per cent manage this. Research by Unicef in 2012 found that modest increases in breastfeeding could save the NHS 40million a year in GP and hospital appointments.

Breastfeeding allows the mother to pass on her immunity to the baby, reducing the likelihood of coughs, colds, ear infections and allergies. It also prevents obesity in childhood as the milk has much a lower fat content than formula milk.

Breastfeeding is beneficial for the mother and helps her lose weight by burning up to 500 calories a day.

Claire Livingstone, policy adviser at the Royal College of Midwives, said: There has been significant and reliable evidence produced over recent years to show that breastfeeding has important health advantages for both mother and baby.

Pupils as young as 11 could have lessons in breastfeeding to make it more widespread (file image)

Breastfeeding is known to positively impact on mother-baby relationships as well as nurturing maternal and infant mental health.

Chris McGovern, who chairs the Campaign for Real Education, said: Breastfeeding should not be part of the national curriculum. Weve got a situation where 20 per cent of school leavers cant read or write and are essentially unemployable.

Im not trying to diminish the importance of breastfeeding, but schools should be focused on doing what theyre supposed to do. This is just being politically correct, and schools have other priorities.

The royal college, which represents 17,500 doctors, nurses and other specialists, cautions against overbearing advice from midwives and parenting organisations that puts mothers under pressure to breastfeed. This can have the adverse effect of making women feel inadequate if they find it too difficult and then switch to formula milk.

A Lancet study in January showed that only 0.5 per cent of UK babies still have breast milk after a year, compared with 23 per cent in Germany and 56 per cent in Brazil.

Sixty-three per cent of women said they would be worried about breastfeeding in front of strangers, and 44 per cent with friends.
If you wear high heels at work, prepare for some good news  and some bad.

British researchers say evidence suggests both women and men find those in heels more appealing.

Almost two-thirds of businesswomen think high heels make them more attractive  a boost to self-image, confidence and general well-being.

Men are almost twice as likely to smile at a woman in heels than one in flats, and are significantly more likely to offer her help.

British researchers say evidence suggests both women and men find those in heels more appealing. Above shows a woman at work while wearing high heels

But the same academics also point out that the shoes cause back pain, broken ankles and sprains, and more than double the risk of developing bunions.

They add that women who wear heels can suffer injuries from their toes up to their spine, and are more likely to fall. The scientists even go so far as to say that tougher laws are needed to stop women being forced to wear high heels at work against their will.

The findings follow high-profile complaints from women told to wear heels as part of their job.

An air hostess said she was made to feel like a prostitute by British Airways because she had to wear high heels in airports. BA however does not make staff wear them while working on the plane.

And last year receptionist Nicola Thorp was sent home from a London office after arriving in flat shoes and being told she had to have a 2in-4in heel. She set up a petition, which attracted more than 152,400 signatures, asking for a law banning firms from demanding that women wear heels.

A team at Aberdeen University reviewed 20 publications on high heels to find the high risk of injury and musculoskeletal pain. The results are published in the journal BMC Public Health. Lead author Dr Max Barnish said: There is pressure on women to wear heels, and celebrity influence with people such as Victoria Beckham and Kate Middleton making it fashionable to do so, whether they intend to or not.

Men are almost twice as likely to smile at a woman in heels than one in flats, and are significantly more likely to offer her help

There is often not an absolute rule to wear heels, but in some workplaces there can be an unspoken expectation which means that everyone does it.

Evidence shows women are suffering ankle fractures and sprains, back pain and bunions. But they are judged to be attractive, which creates a dilemma. We feel the Government should follow the lead of other authorities which have introduced specific laws to tackle this practice rather than relying on existing legislation.

A Government spokesman said: No employer should discriminate against workers on grounds of gender  it is unacceptable and is against the law. Dress codes must include equivalent requirements for both men and women. To make the law clearer to employers and employees, the Government will produce new guidance on workplace dress codes.
After controversy erupted over authorities leaving a copy of Bhagavad Gita next to the statue of former President APJ Abdul Kalam at his memorial in Rameswaram, a Bible and Quran were also laid by his relatives.

The government was applauded for the tribute to the 11th president of India, but it was also criticised for appearing to place an engraved copy of the Hindu holy text next to the statue of Kalam playing a 'veena'.

When questioned, an official explained that Kalam, who held office between 2002 and 2007, loved the veena and he often quoted from the Bhagavad Gita.

Controversy erupted when the Abdul Kalam tribute was unveiled with an engraved copy of Hindu holy text Bhagavad Gita beside it

The late scientist turned statesman, who died aged 83 in July 2015, has been honoured two years on from his death with the memorial in his birthplace of Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu

The controversy began when MDMK leader Vaiko questioned if Bhagavad Gita is more sacred than the Tamil book Thirukural written by Thiruvalluvar, and alleged that the Centre was trying to saffronise even Kalam's legacy.

NDTV quoted him as saying: 'People who would visit the memorial all over the world, shouldn't mistake that he loved only the Gita.

'It will be a fitting tribute if Thirukurazh is placed there instead. It's universally acceptable.'

Modi unveiled the memorial to much fanfare last week, but opinion has been divided on social media over the use of the engraved Bhagavad Gita

Not wanting the controversy to grow bigger, Kalam's grand nephew Sheik Saleem placed a Bible and a Quran next to the Bhagavad Gita to prove that Kalam was a man who was beyond religion and who had a grand dream of a better India.

But these were later moved due to protests from fringe Hindu groups, it's believed.

The Indian Express reported that Hindu Makkal Katchi leader K Prabhakaran filed a police complaint claiming that the two holy books were placed without permission from authorities.

The memorial in his Tamil Nadu birthplace, which was unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week, also has hundreds of paintings and rare photographs of the late scientist turned statesman, who died aged 83 in July 2015.

The entrance is a replica of India Gate in New Delhi.
The Pakistan Supreme Court's verdict is out. Nawaz Sharif has followed the Pakistani tradition of vacating the Prime Minister's chair before completing his term.

He has been replaced by his brother Shahbaz Sharif, who until now was the chief minister of Punjab. Interestingly, Shahbaz has been replaced in his previous post by his son, ensuring the family remains in control.

Shahbaz will only take over after 45 days, once he wins elections to parliament; and until then there will be an officiating Prime Minister.

Pakistain's prime minister Nawaz Sharif pictured in May this year during an event in Beijing

Panama Papers

Interestingly, contrary to most claims, Nawaz has not been charged directly with cases relating to the Panama Papers, but for hiding details about his employment in the Dubai-based Capital FZE company, when he filed his nomination papers in 2013, for not justifying source of funds for his property in London and for the purchase of two companies.

It again brings to the fore the words of a small-time politician in Pakistan, Javed Hashmi, who stated that 'while politicians are being held accountable, army chiefs and the judiciary are not'. This decision has created instability in Pakistan.

The stock market has begun tumbling, protesters have taken to the streets, security is high and the opposition is baying for blood.

The team of civilian and military investigators found there was a 'significant disparity' between the Sharif family's income and lifestyle in its report

The decision has indicted Nawaz's entire family, thereby ensuring that his heir apparent, Maryam Nawaz, is also out of the picture. Clearly, a planned move to remove the entire family from the political scene!

This action could not have been of the judiciary alone, but would have the backing of the army chief. Turmoil will only increase in the coming days.

The opposition will demand early elections, to ensure that the family is kept away from the political scene and the public with fresh memories could vote the party out.

Imran Khan, seen to be close to army generals, would lead the charge.

Sharif has been ousted by graft allegations once before, when he was sacked by the country's then-president during the first of his three terms as prime minister in 1993

The army, though controls the nation from behind the throne, however, was being affected as Nawaz was difficult to manoeuvre. He had to go to enable them to continue pushing their terror factory agenda.

Pressure was mounting from all directions, the US was threatening to enhance cross-border strikes onto the Taliban and Haqqani network, camps and hideouts, India was retaliating with full-measure on the LoC, infiltrators were being culled on entering, separatists' hands were being tied in knots by the NIA and Iran had begun firing across the border.

The Pakistani army was being compelled to change strategy, and Nawaz was the 'main block'.

Shahbaz Sharif was named as his brother's successor Saturday, becoming heir to the Sharif political dynasty -- but first he will have to contest elections to win a national assembly seat

A missing link in the entire case appears to have been the Kulbhushan Jadhav episode in the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The government accepted the court's jurisdiction in the case, which it could have questioned and then nominated a firm, which had represented India before in the same court and lost.

Furthermore Pakistan's preparations were seen to be incomplete, due to which they lost the appeal. The blame was on the government, not the army.

Chinese support

However, it was the army which was embarrassed as it has kept Jadhav hidden from even the government. The only commonality between the army and Nawaz was China, where both met eye to eye.

Supporters hold placards of Nawaz Sharif (R) and his brother Shahbaz Sharif (L), leaders of political party Pakistan Muslim League-N (PMLN)

It is only the Chinese support that has kept the nation ticking, despite a failing economy. They have provided Pakistan with diplomatic support by preventing Hafiz Saeed being declared a global terrorist, who is the protege of the deep state. The nation needs China to survive.

In the days ahead, as internal confusion reigns supreme, the army would tighten its hold over the polity.

Shahbaz, though claiming to have better relations with the army, had irked the generals on earlier occasions when he refused to permit them to launch anti-terror operations in Punjab and questioned the head of their Inter Services Public Relations, something that created a major furore between the army and the state, known as the Dawn (newspaper) Leaks.

Pakistani opposition leader Imran Khan gestures during a news conference regarding the dismissal of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, in Islamabad

It led to the resignation of the information minister.

Violations

For India, despite rhetoric, nothing much would change. The Pakistani army cannot change its policies on its terror factories. It may change tack and enhance violations, for which India is prepared and would retaliate appropriately.

It may enhance infiltration, for which we are again ready and prepared to cull those seeking to enter. It cannot change any situation for the separatists as it is beyond them. Power may make them bold, but also make them foolhardy.

Pakistan should remember that every time it has attempted something new, it has hurt the nations more. The way things appear to be moving in Pakistan, Nawaz and his family would fade into the sunset in Dubai or London, akin to Pervez Musharraf, while his brother's future would be decided with time.

Within the nation, the only option is to either shift the capital to Rawalpindi or shift the army headquarters to Islamabad.

After all, the army would run the state, either surreptitiously or directly.
An India Today investigation has revealed how Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) is benefiting from the recent torrent of Chinese investment in more ways than merely infrastructure improvements.

The terrorism framework in PoK is also benefiting from the fresh flow of funds as opposition to India hardens.

Over 30 religious and jihadi groups have come together to form Daifa-e-Pakistan that has demonstrated and carried out rallies across Pakistan to step up terrorism in Kashmir.

Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) is benefiting from the recent torrent of Chinese investment

According to sources, the aim of the movement is to create a new force of terrorism and channel it against India.

One such rally was organised by Daifa-e-Pakistan at Mall road in Lahore. The participants included the leaders of the banned terror groups Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Hijbul Mujahideen, Jamiat-ul- Mujahideen.

They demonstrated against India and defined a new wave of negative propaganda.

An India Today investigation has revealed the inner workings of so-called 'terror camps'

According to sources, Pakistan is leaving no stone unturned to stoke the unrest in Kashmir caused after the killing of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani last year.

Though the US has declared Hafiz Saeed and Hijbul chief Syed Salahuddin global terrorists with rewards for their arrest, these two have been spreading venom against India in different cities of Pakistan.

Over 30 religious and jihadi groups have come together to form Daifa-e-Pakistan

Indian agencies are concerned that the Pakistan-funded terror groups are roping in youngsters for their mission.

Much like Hafiz Saeed's son, former ISI chief Hamid Gul's son is also echoing anti-India propaganda by creating associations to mobilise the youth.

The number of infiltrators into the India this year has been the highest in the past decade, underscoring Pakistan's agenda.

This has led to tension along the Line of Control and ceasefire violations. In the last nine years, after a devastating earthquake in 2006 in PoK, the infrastructure has undergone radical change.

Not only roads, but hydropower projects and other ventures are visible on the ground.

The pace at which these developmental projects are coming up is worrying for India.

China's 'development' projects' in PoK and neighbouring Gilgit-Baltistan that involve several thousand Chinese personnel belonging to the construction corps of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) point towards Beijing's expansionist geo-strategic agenda in the region.

Gilgit-Baltistan is part of the disputed territory of J&K occupied by Pakistan and is known as the Northern Areas of Pakistan. Some part of the Aksai Chin region was also gifted to China by Pakistan.

Many people living in Gilgit and Baltistan are unnerved by the increasing Chinese presence in the area and feel that their resources and land are being sold to China by Pakistan without compensating the actual stakeholders, India Today TV found.

Some even believe that all environmental issues are being ignored to favour economic interests of Pakistan.

Farman Ali, a well-known journalist from Gilgit, said, 'People who raise their voices against Pakistan are either being jailed or harassed by Pakistani security agencies in Gilgit and Baltistan.'

The body of a dead Kashmiri covered in the flag of ISIS

There are some in PoK who believe that the ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is going to help economic prosperity in the area but that will be clear only when the projects are completed and locals are engaged by Pakistan in economic activities.

So far, residents have not been employed in construction work, except some security personnel who have been engaged for protection of Chinese workers.

With the reported stationing of a unit of PLA soldiers near the Khunjerab Pass and Chinese military officials frequenting the field command office of Gilgit, which happens to be Pakistan's military headquarters in the region, a pervasive Chinese intent of establishing a military edge in India's northern sector cannot be negated, observers say.
By all rights, Kargil Vijay Divas, the formal end of the Kargil war of 1999, ought to be a solemn event commemorating the sacrifices of the 474 officers and men who died pushing back Pakistani intruders from the strategic heights above Kargil.

By and large it is indeed observed as such, except, curiously, by people close to the ruling party who use the occasion to bait liberal academics in Indian universities.

Political move

In JNU, the vice-chancellor led a tiranga rally on the eve of Kargil Vijay Divas in which he not only demanded that a tank be placed on campus to promote 'love for the army', but a retired general, well known for his hawkish performance in TV channels, likened the occasion to a 'capturing' the liberal fortress of JNU and called on similar 'victories' in Jadavpur University and University of Hyderabad.

Jagadesh Kumar, who demanded that a tank was placed on campus, speaks during a media interaction at Jawaharlal Nehru University

So, it was not surprising when, a week later, the students' wing of the BJP forcibly set up a Kargil 'memorial' on the University of Hyderabad campus, which was subsequently demolished by varsity authorities.

That it was a political move, and not really motivated by any solemn goal of commemorating the Kargil sacrifices, is evident from the fact that it was set up near a memorial for Rohit Vemula, a Dalit student who committed suicide in January 2016.

It is ironical that elements close to the BJP are using Kargil in their culture wars against liberalism. This is because the whole Kargil Divas was actually a means of concealing the guilt of the BJP-led NDA government in allowing Pakistani forces to make massive incursion in a strategically critical part of the country.

Major Gen GD Bakshi addresses JNU students at an event organized by ABVP to pay homage to soldiers killed fighting terrorists in Pampore J&K

That is why we have no similar public 'celebrations' for the day Indian forces flew in to rescue Kashmir on October 27, 1947, or when they turned defeat into victory in Asal Uttar in September 1965, or for that matter, captured Dhaka in December 1917.

The failure of the BJP-led government was at three levels. First, it failed in its strategic assessment of Pakistan. Even as the Pakistan Army was readying to cross the LoC in February 1999, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was making India's most dramatic gesture of peace by visiting the Minar-e- Pakistan in Lahore.

Claims of 'Pakistani perfidy' would have had greater credibility had they been accompanied by an acknowledgement of your own naivety and culpability.

Indian Soldiers Fire Artillery In The Kargil Sector Against A Pakistani Backed Armed Intrusion Into India's Side Of Kashmir

Shortcomings

At the second level was the inability to understand what was happening even after the first news of Pakistani infiltration came in on May 5, 1999. The first formal meeting of the cabinet committee on security (CCS), the one in which it finally authorised the use of IAF, took place only on May 25.

This was a failure of not just the brigade in question, but up the ladder to the division, Corps, Army HQ, the R&AW, PMO and the CCS. Yet, as is famously known, no one paid the price for this except a lowly brigadier.

At the third level, was the nature of the Indian response that led to heavy casualties. The government insisted that the conflict be confined to the area in which the Pakistanis had intruded. So instead of fighting on a ground of our choosing our soldiers were made to undertake frontal attacks on a ground well prepared by the Pakistani forces.

An Indian soldier dials in the targeting of an artillery piece 27 May 1999 in the village of Drass in Kashmir state as India staged a second day of air strikes against Islamic guerillas

Several excuses were trotted out for this, principally that a wider conflict would have been escalatory and could have led to nuclear war. But surely, there were alternatives and why was the onus of preventing escalation on us, and not the Pakistanis?

Review panel

The Kargil Review Commission was set up with the careful mandate to 'review the events leading up to the Pakistani aggression' and to recommend measure to prevent a recurrence.

It self-consciously avoided apportioning blame, and though it broadly absolved the military brass and criticised R&AW (Research and Analysis Wing) it did refer to the 'euphoria in some political quarters' over the Lahore process.

The sheer bravery of the troops, who set aside the canons of modern warfare and frontally took on the enemy, saved the government's neck.

Their sacrifice does indeed demand solemn observance, but always with the knowledge that had the government handled the situation more competently, they may have been with us today.

Instead, what we are forced to confront is the shoddy and sad use of the occasion to promote a political platform.
Half of those staying in the UK for their summer holidays this year do not have any insurance to cover their trip, new research has shown.

This is despite the average holidaymaker taking 676 in valuables away with them on their 'staycation'.

But with a free national health service at the point of service, is it ever necessary to take out additional travel insurance when holidaying in your home country?

Without insurance holidaymakers have no cover for lost, stolen or damaged belongings

In a study of 2,500 Britons by the insurer Policy Expert, 75 per cent said they were taking a holiday in the UK this summer.

Half of those said they didn't have any insurance to cover them  should something go wrong on the trip such as if their possessions are stolen or damaged.

Not only did they not have travel insurance, their home insurance would also not cover them for their belongings when they were taken out of the house.

Just 13 per cent of those asked said they would take out travel insurance for a staycation.

The research also said 8 per cent of Britons on a staycation had been a victim of loss, theft or damage with mobile phones, cameras, wallets and jewellery being the most common items stolen.

Travel insurance policies can cover cancellations or delays but clauses may apply for UK trips

A quarter of those staying in the UK had chosen to do so because it was cheaper than going away while 42 per cent said it was an easier option and 53 per cent said they did so because they wanted to visit the British countryside or seaside.

Separate research from Direct Line showed that London was the most popular location for UK staycations last year, followed by Cornwall, the Scottish Highlands and the Lake District.

But if you're going away in the UK, do you really need to buy insurance and if so what kind?

Rebecca Hollingsworth, policy adviser for travel at the Association of British Insurers, said: 'People may not be aware that a number of travel insurance policies offer cover for UK breaks.

'This means you could get your money back for pre-booked accommodation if your holiday has to be cancelled at short notice  for example because you fall seriously ill or suffer a bereavement.

'Policies may also provide cover if valuables such as cameras or laptops are lost or stolen, although it's also worth checking whether this is already offered as part of your home insurance.'

If you have an annual travel insurance policy this should provide cover for any of your trips  whether they are in the UK or abroad.

Holidaymakers take an average of 676 away with them in valuables on UK trips

The cover will be the same wherever you are in the world but the amount for medical cover in the UK is likely to be different  because you won't have to pay for emergency medical treatment in the UK.

Everything else, such as cancelling the trip, ending it early and emergency travel expenses should be included.

However, double check the policy because some insurers stipulate that you need to be a certain distance from your home for the insurance to be valid or the holiday needs to be a set number of days.

For example, Direct Line only covers UK trips if you had paid to stay in pre-booked accommodation for two or more consecutive nights, while LV says the trip must either be more than 25 miles from your home, have pre-booked accommodation or involve a sea crossing.

You may also be able to get some cover for your belongings with your existing home insurance.

If you have contents insurance, this will cover all of your belongings when they are in your home from loss, damage or theft. Generally accidental damage is not included as standard so this may be something you need to pay extra for.

However, once these items are out of the house, they won't be covered unless you also have 'personal possessions' cover. This typically costs around 20 per year and covers individual items up to the value of 1,500 to 2,000.

Although if you're relying on your contents insurance remember this is only covering your belongings and won't pay out if you need to cancel the holiday for any reason, cut it short or if you need emergency travel expenses.
I am a landlord and am really worried about my profits dropping since Aprils tax changes.

I currently use a letting agent to market and manage my properties but it's pretty expensive for what I get.

Im wondering whether I should ditch them and start advertising myself through one of these cheap online sites where I just connect with tenants directly. What are the risks and should I do it as it will save me a lot of money?

There are real risks attached to renting your home on the same platform you would use to sell trainers

This is Money replies: For landlords eager to put more money in their pocket it can be tempting to decide to take on the job of letting and managing your property yourself.

This is especially the case now, as tax changes start to eat into monthly rental profits, with the beginning of the removal of full mortgage interest tax relief and the end of an automatic wear and tear allowance.

Yet, it's important to weigh up the extra work that you will have to do, whether you are willing to commit to it, and also the legal requirements for landlords that a letting agent would normally look after for you.

If you are happy to do all that, then becoming a DIY landlords is possible. If not, then be wary of taking it on.

You'll need to advertise, do viewings and paperwork, take a deposit and abide by the rules, ensure the property is safe, do check-in and an inventory - and then get a network of tradespeople that means you can get a plumber round immediately in an emergency.

In comparison to this, typical letting agent fees are charged in three brackets:

Tenant finding and setting up the tenancy

Tenant finding, set up and collecting rent

Full management: here the letting agent does all the work and it is hands-off

Costs for all of these services vary, with tenant finding typically setting landlords back about a month's rent, a rent collection service taking a cut of about 5 per cent per month, and full management costing between 10 and 15 per cent of monthly rent.

Often charges will be expressed as a percentage of annual rent, or of the length of the tenancy, but charged monthly.

Some online letting agents will do some of the work above for less - often charging a flat fee. It is also work seeking out smaller boutique letting agents and asking them what they can do for you that a big high street agent cannot.

The best of these smaller agents pride themselves on their bespoke service and in the years of relationships they build up with landlords and tenants. That can be worth paying for.

It's considerably easier to let your own property nowadays, but there are traps to beware

Fareed Nabir, chief executive of LetBritain, replies: With landlord incomes now facing the double hit of Aprils tax changes and an additional 300million in agency fees, if recent government plans for a ban on charging letting fees to tenants comes into force, the question of letting affordability and worrying landlords across Britain.

Todays tenants are more numerous and mobile than ever before, so its easy to see the appeal of cheap online listing sites such as Gumtree and Spareroom  platforms that arguably capture a critical mass of the UKs rental population.

The format is seemingly good enough; from the comfort of your own home, you can instantly list your property  at minimal to zero cost  and get it in front of a vast pool of potential tenants, without having to deal with potentially uncommunicative or extortionately priced letting agents.

Nabir: You could consider an online service which conducts background checks just as comprehensive as those done by letting agents - for a fraction of the cost

However, as with all things deemed too good to be true, they often are.

There are real risks attached to renting your home on the same platform you would use to sell trainers.

According to the Department for Justice, in the first three months of this year alone, 35,188 UK landlords were forced to take legal action against their tenants.

Of the 26,009 tenants ordered by the courts to leave, almost a third of these refused to budge until the bailiffs arrived at the front door  highlighting that landlords are now more exposed to loss than tenants.

The average eviction takes 41 weeks, during which time not only will you potentially face lost rental income from a disastrous tenancy - impacting your ability to pay your mortgage - but you may also have to bear additional legal, insurance and refurbishment costs.

Completing an eviction can cost up to 2,000 and may take up to a year, with damages to your property placing a considerable burden upon your insurance premiums.

With UK entering a new era of digital tenancies, these figures underline the need to marry the ease and efficiency of online solutions with the essential security of comprehensive tenant verification processes.

Rather than online sites that do not specialise in property rentals and therefore lack any process of tenant verification, you could consider an online service which conducts background checks just as comprehensive as those done by letting agents - for a fraction of the cost.

Be sure to research landlord-friendly online property letting platforms to ensure that you arent paying exorbitant fees for a poorly communicated, base level of due diligence.

Nick Marr, co-founder of TheHouseShop.com, argues that with more and more tenants falling victim to scam landlords, websites that don't demand checks from both sites are losing the best tenants.

Marr: Online security and fraud prevention is becoming an increasingly important concern for safety-conscious home-hunters

He said: As landlords profits are squeezed by Government-imposed tax relief cuts, stamp duty surcharges and a potential increase in letting agency costs as a result of the tenant fees ban  more and more private landlords are turning to DIY online platforms to find tenants for their properties.

However, many of the classified ad sites commonly used by such landlords offer little-to-no security checks to verify the authenticity of adverts.

Unfortunately, these sites have therefore become favourite targets for scammers looking to secure up-front payments from tenants for properties that they either do not own, or that never existed to begin with.

Recent estimates from Shelter show that as many as 250,000 renters have fallen victim to rental fraud and scams in the past five years  with almost 50,000 victims in the past 12 months alone.

It is estimated that bogus landlords are making a whopping 775million through rental scams, with an average cost per victim of roughly 2,400, showing the scale of the damage caused by scammers.

Online security and fraud prevention is becoming an increasingly important concern for safety-conscious home-hunters, especially for the thousands of tenants looking for private landlord properties that they will not find on the big agent-only portals.

Recent YouGov research we commissioned found that the majority of Brits said they would be more likely to use a property website that runs a variety of checks to verify the identity of advertisers and confirm property ownership details.

Interestingly, older age groups were the most cautious when it came to fraud prevention and online security, with 24 per cent of 45-54 year olds and 29 per cent of over 55s saying they are much more likely to use a property site with additional security checks.

Its been almost a year since we launched our mandatory Land Registry ownership verification check and we have now built up thousands of verified private rental listings on the site.

We are finding that more and more of our traffic is coming from tenants using Google to track down private landlords, and being able to provide a safe and secure platform for renters to engage with landlords directly has been a huge achievement for us.

Home-hunters are becoming increasingly concerned about online safety and security, and these concerns are impacting which sites they choose to use.
Building your own home isn't everyone's cup of tea, but it can be easier than you imagine if you opt to work in partnership with a developer from an early stage.

This approach is known as custom build, and is much the same as buying a new-build home, but instead of getting one the off the shelf, you get to pick exactly how it is built.

Plots are usually sold to custom builders in smaller groups than you'd find on large-scale new homes developments, and if everyone is doing custom build, the development that results is likely to have a lot more personality than commercial estates tend to.

Custom build gives the customer a real say in their build as opposed to buying a fixed design on a fixed plot from a volume house builder

Custom build has frequently been confused with self-build - which is more labour-intensive - and there is an argument that this has put some people off.

But custom build is often managed by a developer for you, giving you the best of both worlds - a new home and one that meets your needs perfectly because you influence its design.

Fewer homes are custom built in England than many other countries, but the government has stated that it's aware of evidence of more demand for them -including from older people.

What are mortgage rates like? Virgin Money has just launched two custom-build mortgages. A three-year tracker rate at 80 per cent loan to value, available at 4.79 per cent with a 1,995 product fee

A three-year tracker rate at 85 per cent loan to value available at 4.99 per cent with a 1,995 product fee Virgin Moneys custom-build products allow you to transfer to a new mortgage rate when your build is finished, with no early repayment charge. Additionally, Virgin Money does not pass on the charge for indemnity insurance, saving customers 1,300 on average in upfront costs. Talk to a mortgage broker for more information.

As a result, it's a scheme supported by government, which recently brought in rules to require all local councils to keep a list of those interested in doing custom build in the area - but it hasn't taken off quite as predicted.

Mostly this is to do with how many plots are available for custom build and, critically, where they are. There aren't that many plots for sale and even fewer of them are in areas where there is a shortage of properties to live in.

In spite of the government commitment to release publicly owned brownfield land sites for development, in London particularly, this hasn't been the panacea many were hoping for. You can search available plots here.

Even in more rural areas there is a shortage of land available to custom build on.

If you can't find what you're looking for on the property portals or through one of the several custom-build specialists, your best bet is to register your interest to build your own home with the council in this area.

We spoke to Andy Frankish, new homes director for mortgage broker Mortgage Advice Bureau, to find out what you need to know if custom build is for you.

Frankish: The final value of the property is normally greater than the total build cost

What is custom build?

Self-build is typically the project of building a house on a single plot by an individual who is responsible for acquiring the land, designing and building the dwelling and managing the entire project.

Custom build is demand-led housing whereby plots on larger developments are sold to individuals who have the flexibility to take on the design and build the property themselves or contract a single developer to complete the whole project on their behalf.

In short, custom build gives the customer a real say in their build as opposed to buying a fixed design on a fixed plot from a volume house builder.

Why do custom build?

Firstly, you get much more choice and input into the finished design of your home. In addition, the final value of the property is normally greater than the total build cost so when you remortgage the property you benefit from a lower overall loan-to-value.

Can I get a mortgage before the house is built?

Mortgage finance is released in stages (typically four) throughout key stages of the build.

This helps the developers cash flow for the project by reducing their cost, which can then be passed on to the customer therefore making custom build more affordable, typically by 5 per cent to 10 per cent.

Custom build mortgages are seen as specialist mortgage funding.

Although most brokers can source custom-build mortgages they may not access all the options, so its best to use a specialist mortgage broker who understands the custom-build market and can advise accordingly.

Rates are competitive but not the cheapest on the market and there is no Help to Buy available.

Will I have to keep paying a higher mortgage rate even after the house is finished?

Generally, once the building is complete the mortgage rate drops to a standard rate so at most it's one year of paying interest at a slightly higher rate which is normally easily offset by the cost savings.

It is of course possible to remortgage the property once the product term is up, subject to early repayment penalties.

Why don't more people take custom-build mortgages if it's such good value?

Custom build is still emerging as a mortgage product but is well supported by lenders and competition on pricing is improving.

Because of the stage payments not all lenders systems have the ability to deal with this type of product as yet, but as customer demand increases we expect the number of lenders in this sector of the market to also increase.

How do I get started?

A serviced plot is typically a slab with all the utilities and roads already in place. The customer can then choose exactly what goes on this slab.

This may mean employing an architect who will work to a prescribed code which has outline planning or, more commonly the customer will work with a developer who has a range of products that can be put on the slab, and which can then be customised to suit their individual needs and requirements.

Local authorities have a responsibility to keep a register of plots available for custom build. Those potentially interested can register interest in these plots by clicking here.
Carrying a giant teddy bear Mel B's estranged husband Stephen Belafonte was spotted visiting his six-year-old daughter Madison at a supervised visitation center in Los Angeles.

The film producer - who is still under a temporary restraining order taken out by former Spice Girl Mel - spent four hours with the girl as part of an agreed visit in the ongoing divorce battle.

In exclusive photos obtained by DailyMail.com Madison - who is Stephen's only biological child with mom-of-three Mel - looked cute dressed in a denim outfit and sun-glasses as she arrived at the center with her chaperone, the couple's former marriage therapist Dr Charles Sophy.

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Stephen Belafonte, 42, is still under a temporary restraining order taken out by Melanie 'Mel B' Brown, meaning he is only allowed to visit their daughter Madison, six, in the confines of a counselling center with a court monitor present

Photos obtained by DailyMail.com show Belafonte was spotted heading to visit his daughter while under court supervision. Brown accused him of domestic abuse

Madison went to visit her dad accompanied by Dr Charles Sophy, the ex couple's former marriage therapist

The 42-year-old film producer, who was was accused of abusing ex Mel following the split, was also snapped arriving at the center with the huge toy bear under his arm as a gift for his daughter.

Mel, also 42, was granted a temporary restraining order against her ex on April 3 after accusing him of physically and emotionally abusing her.

The former Spice Girl alleged that she was 'in fear' for her life after a series of beatings and that Belafonte's alleged abuse ramped up when her career was on an upswing.

At a court hearing in April, a judge ruled Belafonte can see Madison but only in the confines of a counselling center with a court monitor present.

He was not granted permission to re-establish contact with the America's Got Talent judge's daughter Angel, who was born three months before their wedding - but whose father is Hollywood star Eddie Murphy.

A source close to the producer told DailyMail.com: 'As part of the terms of the restraining order Stephen was granted time to see Madison twice a week for four hours and he cherishes the visits. It would break his heart if he wasn't able to see his daughter again.

Madison looked cute and casual dressed in a denim outfit and sun-glasses as she arrived at the center with her chaperone

Belafonte is allowed to visit Madison but was not granted permission to re-establish contact with Angel, 10. He has acted as a step-father to Angel, but now Mel is 'strongly opposed' to him maintaining contact with her

Belafonte was seen clutching a pack of cigarettes as he headed to his car. After the visit he left in a black Cadillac Escalade

'All he cares about in this divorce is getting to see both Madison and his step-daughter Angel.'

Belafonte enjoys a close relationship with Angel, but Mel is 'strongly opposed' to him maintaining contact with her second child.

The producer hasn't seen Angel, born in April 2007, since April 1 this year, while her biological dad Murphy has had little to do with her upbringing.

Instead Belafonte has acted as Angel's step-father, sharing parental responsibilities with Mel throughout their decade long marriage.

The former couple is still embroiled in a legal battle over joint custody of their only biological child Madison.

Mel B headed to court last week to fight her ex nanny's defamation suit against her. Brown alleged Lorraine Gilles had a relationship with Belafonte in court documents she filed to get a restraining order against him

Lorraine Gilles said the allegations brought by Brown were defamatory and claimed she had threesomes with Brown and Belafonte but her primary sexual relationship was with the Spice Girl. Mel B brought her daughter Phoenix (left) with her to court

Belafonte is based in Los Angeles, and California Law stipulates a step-parent can win 'reasonable visitation rights' if it is deemed to benefit the child in question.

The source said: 'Stephen hasn't seen or spoken to Angel since the day he took her out for her 10th birthday on April 1, that's four months without seeing her.

'He's not even allowed to text her back otherwise he would breach the restraining order. Mel has ripped him out of Angel's life. Stephen has never been accused of anything to do with the children so it doesn't make sense.'

After the supervised visit last Sunday Belafonte was seen leaving the center and was immediately served with a subpoena by Mel's attorney Larry Bakman.

The producer then left in a black Cadillac Escalade.

It's believed the paperwork was in connection to the defamation court battle between Mel and the couple's former nanny Lorraine Gilles.

In April Gilles sued Mel for portraying her as a 'home-wrecker' and 'prostitute' in a declaration in support of a request for a Domestic Violence Restraining Order against Belafonte.

Mel B claimed Gilles (left of her lawyer) is acting as a 'puppet' of her estranged ex husband Stephen Belafonte

Gilles was a nanny for Mel B's two youngest daughters Angel and Madison for seven years. Mel B said she was concerned for her daughters to hear about Gilles' sexual allegations

Mel had alleged that Gilles carried on an affair with Belafonte and claims the nanny fell pregnant to him and Belafonte convinced her to get an abortion.

But Gilles said the entire story was a lie and sued Mel for defamation, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress, asking for unspecified damages.

The source said Belafonte's lawyers are unhappy he was served with the subpoena after visiting his daughter.

'Stephen's lawyers are looking into this, there's some places you can't serve people with legal paperwork and a center for supervised visits is one of them,' the source said.
Jim Carrey is demanding LAPD hand over photos and other items taken at the scene of his late girlfriend's suicide - despite her mother's attempt to block him from accessing the material.

The actor, who has been embroiled in a wrongful death lawsuit after the death of Cathriona White in 2015, served subpoenas to doctors, police, and investigators, requesting records and evidence from the incident that could help his defense.

White's mother, Brigid Sweetman, and estranged husband Mark Burton, have accused the Hollywood star of being responsible for her death, alleging he gave her multiple STDs and provided her with the drugs with which she took her own life.

Carrey has maintained that his ex-girlfriend had a history of depression and denied all allegations he gave White any prescription pills and alleges she took them without his knowledge.

Jim Carrey is seeking records from the three police officers who arrived at the scene of Cathriona White's suicide (right) in hopes it would help his defense in the wrongful death lawsuit

The actor, who had an on-again, off-again, relationship with White from 2012, has denied all allegations that he provided White with the prescription drugs with which she used to take her own life, alleging she took them without his knowledged (pictured in 2015)

Sweetman and Burton have since challenged Carrey's attempt to obtain items from the scene by filing a motion demanding the judge to quash the subpoenas, claiming it is an invasion of privacy.

Court documents obtained by DailyMail.com show the comic's lawyer served ten deposition subpoenas in April for business records on seven of White's medical providers for her medical, dental, and pharmacy records, and three police officers and investigators for records relating to the investigation of her death.

They were also served on Sweetman and Burton's lawyers, who objected to the demands.

However, documents show they would withdraw their motion if Carrey agreed to re-serve the papers without two requests for physical items collected at the scene of White's death - including prescription or non-prescription bottles, clothing, notes, computers, laptops, and cellular phones.

Carrey has argued that Cathriona had a history with depression and that she had attempted suicide in the past

White's mother Brigid Sweetman (pictured left) and estranged husband Mark Burton (right) filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Carrey in October after White committed suicide in 2015

They also requested to view the evidence before it is turned over to him.

Carrey and his attorney stated that the other party's requests are 'completely unworkable,' as the items sought are relevant to the case.

The Dumb and Dumber star began dating White, an Irish native, in 2012, but the two later broke up after it was revealed she had secretly married Burton to obtain a Green Card after her visa expired, according to court papers.

White allegedly attempted to taker her own life after the break up in January 2013, using medication she had obtained from her dentist, whom she was seeing for dental work.

Around this time, she also accused Carrey of transmitting multiple STDs to her, which he denied.

The actor allegedly shamed her by calling her a 'w***e' and threatened her with the help of 'fixers' to silence her.

The pair got back together in 2014 and remained in a relationship for ten months until her suicide.

The 30-year-old was found dead in her Los Angeles home in 2015, surrounded by empty bottles of painkillers Ambien, Propranolol and Percocet - drugs which were acquired by Carrey using the alias Arthur King, lawsuits allege.

When White confronted Carrey, he shamed her by calling her a 'whore' and even threatened to silence her, according to Sweetman's lawsuit

Her mother claimed the 'fixers worked' on her daughter, and filed a suit last October demanding general damages, economic damages, funeral and burial expenses, punitive damages and attorney fees.

Carrey however, is now seeking records from the three police officers who arrived to the scene, her medical prescriptions, including those from her dentist, and records from her physician who performed nasal surgery in 2014.

The actor's attorney argues that under California law, litigants do not have to serve a notice to consumer in circumstances where 'the consumer is deceased and there is no personal representative of the consumer's estate to assert privileges on the consumer's behalf.'

He makes note that, neither White's mother nor husband, are personal representatives for her, and that there is no evidence that White would have consented for them to view these records on her behalf.

According to court papers, 'The production of records dating from December 1, 2011 through decedent's death on or about September 28, 2015, is reasonable because:

(a) they are likely to confirm or deny Plaintiffs' allegations as to White contracting any sexually transmitted disease; (b) likely to contain information concerning White's prescription drug usage; (c) likely to confirm White's history of depression or suicidal attempts that are completely unrelated to White's interaction with Carrey and (d) likely to contain information concerning her marriage with Burton and/or White's estranged relationship with her biological mother, Sweetman.

In 2016, Carrey spoke out against the lawsuit, alleging White had a history with depression.

'I will not tolerate this heartless attempt to exploit me or the woman I loved. Cat's troubles were born long before I met her and sadly her tragic end was beyond anyone's control.

'I really hope that some day soon people will stop trying to profit from this and let her rest in peace.'
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From injured diggers lying in the rubble to rows upon rows of unmarked graves, the First World War's Battle of Passchendaele was as grim as any ever remembered.

Monday marks 100 years since the start of the Battle of Passchendaele, which killed or wounded an estimated one million solders, 77,000 of whom were Australian.

After eight weeks of fighting, an estimated 38,000 Australian soldiers never returned home.

Wounded men of the 3rd Australian Division surrounded by the bodies of their dead comrades during World War One

The battle was fought by the Allies against the German Empire for control of the Belgian city of Ypres.

Officially known as the Third Battle of Ypres, Passchendale took place on the Western Front from July to November 1917.

Images of the Australian Imperial Force at Passchendaele show the horrific conditions Australian soldiers endured 100 years ago.

The haunting photographs show wounded men of the 3rd Australian Division surrounded by the bodies of their dead comrades.

Many soldiers died falling into craters filled with mud and slime, from which it proved impossible to free themselves.

Australian infantry wounded at a first aid post near Zonnebeke Railway Station in Belgium during World War One

A section of the Tyne Cot Cemetery in Passchendaele, Belgium, during the conflict

One photo shows Australian members of a field artillery brigade passing along a duckboard track to navigate the thick mud and water below.

Another shows Australian infantry wounded at a first aid post near Zonnebeke Railway Station.

The comradery of the soldiers is evident in photos showing men carrying their fallen friends.

The photos were provided by the Australian War Memorial ahead of the 100-year anniversary.

Australian stretcher bearers transporting wounded while other troops move over a duckboard track

Members of a field artillery brigade walk along a duckboard track over mud and water

The battle, one of the most infamous chapters of the Great War, was this weekend remembered across the world.

The Prince of Wales and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge went to Belgium to join the British Prime Minister to pay their respects to those who fought.

They will be marking the centenary of the great push to break through the German lines around Ypres.

The main service of commemoration takes place at Tyne Cot cemetery outside Ypres. It is the largest Commonwealth cemetery in the world.

No fewer than 11,965 men lie there, most in graves with no name.

Members of the 2nd Australian Pioneer Battalion making a wagon track from planks of lumber at Chateau Wood

Troops of the 5th Division walking along a winding duckboard during the 'war to end all wars'
Republican Congressman Greg Gianforte will work off his sentence for assaulting a reporter by volunteering for non-profit that builds custom children's wheelchairs.

Gianforte will perform 40 hours of community service with Reach Out and Care Wheels (ROC Wheels) in Bozeman, Montana.

The service is part of Gianforte's sentence for attacking Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs.

Gianforte was sentenced for assaulting a reporter in the run-up to the Montana special election

The Montana Congressman was charged with assault after slamming Jacobs to the floor the day before he was elected.

According to a Fox News team which witnessed the incident, Gianforte 'grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him into the ground.'

He broke Jacob's glasses and then shouted 'get the hell out of here'.

Gallatin County Court Services director Steve Ette says the congressman is working with ROC Wheels on when and how his hours will be completed. He has until November 28.

On its website ROC wheels says: 'We provide adaptive wheelchairs to severely disabled children around the globe.

'Since 1999 we have passed along the gift of mobility to over 10,000 of the current 6.5 million children in need.'

Reach Out and Care Wheels is based in Bozeman, Montana. On its website it describes how it provides custom wheelchairs (pictured) to disabled children across the globe

Rep. Gianforte must also complete 20 hours of anger-management counseling after he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault in June.

He avoided a civil lawsuit by writing a letter of apology to Jacobs and donating $50,000 to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Jacobs described the incident as the 'strangest thing that has ever happened to me in reporting on politics.'

He said: 'He took me to the ground, I think he whaled on me once or twice, he got on me and I think he hit me.'

Greg Gianforte won Montana's special election on May 25 against Democrat Rob Quist. He admitted in his victory speech that he was 'not proud of what happened' with Jacobs

Gianforte defeated first-time Democratic candidate Rob Quist in Montana's May 25 special congressional election.

During his victory party, he admitted body-slamming Jacobs and said he was ashamed of the incident.

He said: 'Last night I made a mistake and I took an action I can't take back and I am not proud of what happened.

During his maiden speech to Congress Gianforte called for more civility in politics - but was booed by some of his own Republican caucus

'I should not have responded the way I did and for that I am sorry.'

When Gianforte was sworn in as a member of Congress in June he drews boos from some of his own Republican caucus.

The 56-year-old is a multimillionaire was previously a technology entrepreneur.
President Donald Trump provided assurances Monday that his administration will 'handle' North Korea following Kim Jong-un's latest act of aggression - an intercontinental ballistic missile launch last Friday.

'We'll handle North Korea. We're going to be able to handle them. It will be handled. We handle everything,' Trump said as he sat alongside Defense Secretary James Mattis during a cabinet meeting this morning.

The time for talk on North Korea is 'over', the United States said Sunday, spurning a UN response to Pyongyang's latest ICBM launch in favor of bomber flights and missile defense system tests.

Nikki Haley, the US envoy to the United Nations, said yesterday that there was 'no point' in holding a fruitless emergency Security Council session, warning that another weak council resolution would be 'worse than nothing' in light of the North's repeated violations.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO

'We'll handle North Korea. We're going to be able to handle them. It will be handled. We handle everything,' Trump said as he sat alongside his Defense secretary, James Mattis, during a cabinet meeting this morning

This July 28, 2017 picture released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency shows North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-14 being launched at an undisclosed place in North Korea

North Korean leader Kim boasted of his country's ability to strike any target in the US after an intercontinental ballistic missile test Friday which weapons experts said could even bring New York into range -- a major challenge to Trump.

US strategic bombers on Saturday flew over the Korean peninsula in a direct response to the launch, and on Sunday American forces successfully tested a missile interception system which the US hopes will be installed on the Korean peninsula.

Under Kim's leadership, North Korea has accelerated its drive toward a credible nuclear strike capability, in defiance of international condemnation and multiple sets of UN sanctions. The US Senate passed new bipartisan sanctions on Pyongyang on Friday.

Haley urged China, Japan and South Korea to tighten the screws on Pyongyang after the missile launch.

'An additional Security Council resolution that does not significantly increase the international pressure on North Korea is of no value,' she said in a statement late Sunday.

'It sends the message to the North Korean dictator that the international community is unwilling to seriously challenge him.

'China must decide whether it is finally willing to take this vital step. The time for talk is over.'

Nikki Haley, the US envoy to the United Nations, said yesterday that there was 'no point' in holding a fruitless emergency Security Council session. She's seen speaking to reporters last week at the UN

Earlier, Trump warned that he would not allow China -- the impoverished North's sole major ally and economic lifeline -- to 'do nothing' about Pyongyang.

In two tweets Trump linked trade strains with the Asian giant -- marked by a trade deficit of $309 billion last year -- to policy on North Korea, after South Korea indicated it could speed up the deployment of a US missile defense system that has infuriated China.

'I am very disappointed in China. Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk,' Trump wrote.

'We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!'

Trump has repeatedly urged China to rein in its recalcitrant neighbor, but Beijing insists dialogue is the only practical way forward and rejects suggestions it has a special responsibility in the situation.

'The DPRK nuclear issue is not due to China, the settlement of the DPRK nuclear issue requires the concerted efforts of all parties and the parties should properly recognise this issue,' China's foreign ministry said in a statement, using the acronym for North Korea's official name.

Timeline of nuclear and major missile tests in North Korea since January 2016

A US Air Force B-1B Lancer assigned to the 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, deployed from Dyess Air Force Base in Texas, prepares for a 10-hour mission from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, into Japanese airspace and over the Korean Peninsula

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reacts during the long-range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-12 (Mars-12) test launch in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on May 15, 2017

Beijing also rejected Trump's linkage of trade and the North, with commerce vice-minister Qian Keming saying at a briefing Monday the issues 'are not related, and should not be discussed together'.

But Shinzo Abe, the prime minister of US treaty ally Japan, also urged Beijing to act -- along with Moscow -- after telephone talks with Trump on Monday Tokyo time.

The North has 'trampled all over' efforts to seek a peaceful solution to the situation and 'unilaterally escalated' tensions, he said.

'The international community including China and Russia must take it seriously and step up pressure,' Abe told reporters.

Russia's foreign ministry, however, said it was 'unjustified' for the US and other nations to try to blame Moscow and Beijing for the situation.

Pyongyang lauded the developers of the missile at the weekend, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

The US-led campaign only provided 'further justification' for the North's resolve to maintain its weapons programs, the foreign ministry said in a statement carried by KCNA.

The ICBM test 'is meant to send a stern warning to the US making senseless remarks, being lost to reason in the frantic sanctions and pressure campaign against the DPRK,' it said.

General Terrence J. O'Shaughnessy, Pacific Air Forces commander, said Saturday that the US is 'ready to respond with rapid, lethal, and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing' if it has to.

'Diplomacy remains the lead. However, we have a responsibility to our allies and our nation to showcase our unwavering commitment while planning for the worst-case scenario,' O'Shaughnessy said.

Analysts said the talking coming out of Washington, however, is evidence that the Trump administration has run out of patience with the diplomatic approach, and could consider military intervention.

The latest ICBM test 'poses a seemingly tangible threat to the national security of the US', said Jeung Young-Tae, director of military studies at Dongyang University in South Korea.

'Now the US will see no point in negotiation, which only helps Pyongyang earn more time to develop its weapons programmes,' he said.

'Whether we want it or not, the risk of unilateral military action by the US cannot be ruled out at this point.'
A coroner is set to hand down his findings into the death of a radicalised Melbourne teenager who was killed after stabbing two police officers.

Numan Haider, 18, was shot in the head outside Endeavour Hills police station, south east of Melbourne, on September 23, 2014, after he attacked a Victoria Police officer and an Australian Federal Police officer with a knife.

Last year, Victorian Coroner John Olle held an inquest into the circumstances that lead to Haider's death, with the results due to be revealed on Monday.

Numan Haider was killed after he attacked two police officers with a knife, with the findings into his death due Monday

The coronial investigation began just 10 days after Haider attacked the officers, who had arranged to meet the teenager to assess his recently cancelled Australian passport and his attitude towards the Australian Government.

Haider struck without warning, pulling a knife from inside his jacket as the officers approached him in the car park of a nearby childcare centre.

He stabbed the Victoria Police officer in the arm and the AFP officer in the chest during the attack.

Haider was on top of the AFP officer when the Victoria Police officer shouted for him to drop his weapon before opening fire, the inquest was told.

Haider emigrated to Australia from Afghanistan when he was seven years old, and in the months leading up to his death had become increasingly interested in events in the Middle East.

Having developed a resentment of law enforcement, the Melbourne teen came to the attention of authorities in 2014, who began monitoring his behaviour.

The coroner removed the body of the 18-year-old from Endeavour Hills Police Station in Melbourne, on September 24, 2014

Haider had emigrated to Australia from Afghanistan when he was seven years old, and in the months leading up to his death had become increasingly interested in events in the Middle East and developed a resentment of law enforcement

During the inquest both Victoria Police and ASIO gave contradicting evidence, disagreeing about what the agencies had known in the lead-up to Haider's death.

Two ASIO officers declared they believed the agency had told Victoria Police about extremist posts on Haider's Facebook account.

The posts included a picture of Haider wearing a balaclava and holding a Shahada flag, which has been linked to Islamic State.

They also said that a prior incident where Haider had behaved erratically outside a shopping centre had been common knowledge between the agencies.

Victoria Police and ASIO officers gave contradicting evidence about extremist posts on Haider's Facebook account,which included a picture of Haider wearing a balaclava and holding a Shahada flag

However, three Victoria Police officers giving evidence said no information about extremist social media postings had been shared.

The officers also said they would have reconsidered meeting Haider had they seen the posts

They said they would have reconsidered meeting the teenager had they seen the posts and their accompanying offensive comments about law enforcement agencies.

Previously the Coroner had described the case as extremely sensitive, saying it had attracted significant comment and attention.

'It's important to remember there are three Victorian families directly involved in this incident,' he said.
The search for a kayaker missing off the coast of Victoria for more than three days has resumed after severe weather conditions hampered efforts to find him.

Japanese national and Torquay resident Junichi Yoshimura, 41, was reported missing by colleagues on Friday.

An air and water search entered its third day on Sunday, and authorities focused on the southern end of Port Phillip Bay and Corio Bay because of the previous day's extremely windy conditions.

The search continues for kayaker Junichi Yoshimura (pictured), who has been missing off the coast of Victoria for more than three days

The 41-year-old had been working as a baker at Zeally Bay Sourdough in Torquay, southwest of Melbourne,The Age reported.

Business owner Joel Farnan was still optimistic his employee would be found, believing Monday was the best option for a search because the winds would have died down.

'I know that we have got some really good people  the water police and police air wing have been doing just everything they can... to find him,' Mr Farnan said.

It is understood the man's family were due to arrive in Melbourne on Tuesday morning.

His yellow kayak (pictured) has not been located since he left home at 5am last Thursday

Mr Yoshimura's car was earlier found next to the Altona boat ramp but there was no sight of his bright yellow '2 Monks' kayak.

It is believed Mr Yoshimura left home about 5am on Thursday to go fishing but did not take a wetsuit or life jacket.

Authorities said Mr Yoshimura often went fishing but it was unclear which direction he was headed on Thursday.

Anyone who sees him is urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Four in ten GPs are planning to quit within the next five years, research reveals.

And a quarter of doctors who want to stay on intend to significantly reduce their working hours, according to the survey.

A fifth said their surgery had at least one vacant post and some had not had any applicants in the last 18 months.

The research by the Royal College of GPs casts further doubt on the Governments pledge to hire an extra 5,000 family doctors by 2020.

A quarter of doctors who want to stay on in their job intend to significantly reduce their working hours, according to the survey. Pictured: A file image of a doctor with patients

And it backs up the NHSs own figures from March which showed an average of 150 GPs were leaving surgeries every month.

Departing doctors are not being replaced by young trainees, who are pursuing specialist hospital careers instead. The NHS attempted to address this crisis last year with a new strategy  the GP Forward View  which promised more funding and measures to reduce workload.

But todays report reveals that this has had limited impact on doctors morale.

The survey was carried out by 1,250 family doctors online and over the phone between January and March 2017. Some 38 per cent were either unlikely or very unlikely to be working in surgeries within the next five years.

Another 20 per cent said there was at least one doctor vacancy at their surgery that had remained unfilled for three months or more. One unnamed doctor from the South West said his surgery had advertised for a GP for 18 months without hearing from a single applicant.

The research casts further doubt on the Governments pledge to hire an extra 5,000 family doctors by 2020. Pictured: Healthy secretary Jeremy Hunt

Another 28 per cent of GPs who werent planning to leave said they wanted to significantly reduce their working hours

Most wanted a better work-life balance, while others had health or wellbeing issues.

Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chairman of the RCGP, said family doctors were becoming desperate. She added: Above all else we need to see efforts stepped up to keep hard-working, experienced GPs in the profession, and the best way to do this is to tackle workload pressures and improve the conditions under which all GPs and our teams are working.

Government figures last month showed the average GP was now working the equivalent of a four- day week. According to Health Education England, GPs typically work 83 per cent of full-time hours, down from 90 per cent in 2009. Many opt to go part-time, including women with children or others wanting to do managerial or private work.

21,000 mental care jobs Jeremy Hunt has promised to hire an extra 21,000 mental healthcare workers over the next three years, including doctors, nurses and therapists. The Health Secretarys recruitment drive will involve attracting graduates into traditionally unpopular posts as well as persuading doctors and nurses who have left the health service to return. But figures last week showed that the health service tried to fill more than 86,000 vacant posts in the first three months of the year, a third of which were for nurses. The 21,000 anticipated new workers will include 2,000 nurses, psychiatrists and therapists specialising in child and adolescent mental health services. There will also be 4,600 nurses for crisis care and 2,900 counsellors. Mr Hunt said: These measures are ambitious, but essential for delivering the high-performing and well-resourced mental health services we all want to see. But Janet Davies, chief executive and general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said that the Government was unable to provide detail on how the ambitions will be met. Advertisement

Dr Richard Vautrey, chairman of the BMAs GP committee, said: Despite the GP workforce shrinking again last year, the Government has continued to promise 5,000 extra GPs to patients. It is time to admit that this pledge is now unachievable. In order to create a stable GP workforce, the Government must expand the number of GPs entering the profession, and urgently address the underlying issues, particularly the unsafe workload pressure, behind the recruitment and retention crisis in general practice.

A Department of Health spokesman said: We recruited the highest number of GP trainees ever in 2016  but crucially, we are giving GPs the financial backing to support improvements in patient care, with a 2.4billion increase in funding.

An NHS England spokesman said: This report rightly acknowledges the hundreds of millions of pounds of extra investment we are putting into general practice.

We are just over one year into a five-year action plan and, as the RCGP point out, it will take time for all the effects to be felt but the measures we are working on, including expanded recruitment schemes, show how committed we are to helping GPs meet the needs of ever- rising patient demand.

NHS gives male doctors more bonuses... because they ask

Male senior doctors are more likely to get bonuses than their female colleagues because they ask for them, it is claimed.

More than 52 per cent of 43,856 NHS hospital consultants in England received a merit-based award in 2015, ranging between 17,000 and 77,000, a report found. Of those receiving one for the first time, just 65 were women while 252 were men.

But a report by the Advisory Committee on Clinical Excellence Awards found that women who applied for bonuses were just as likely to be successful as men  both male and female consultants had a 26 per cent success rate. Clare Marx, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, believes this shows that fewer women are receiving bonuses because they are less inclined to ask for them.

She told The Sunday Telegraph: We find that women are unlikely to put themselves forward unless they feel they can tick all the boxes  whereas by and large men are more likely to just give it a whirl.

Women on the whole tend to be quite time-poor, so when they think they will not get awards, they are reluctant to try. The issue that concerns us is that they are less likely to be even encouraged to try. The findings come in the wake of the row over the gender pay gap at the BBC.
Border Security Minister Peter Dutton has pleaded for patience and help, with two-hour check-ins the new normal after authorities foiled a Sydney-based plot to bomb a passenger plane.

Mr Dutton says Australia faces 'imminent' security threats and has urged travelers to accept ramped up security measures at the country's airports, and if possible stay away entirely.

'If you don't need to go inside the airport through the security section, then please don't,' he told the Nine network on Monday.

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Passengers are saying they can feel a police presence at Sydney Airport (pictured Monday)

Security has extensively increased at the airports across Australia (Sydney pictured Monday)

Authorities have warned of two hour delays for passengers boarding domestic flights (pictured Monday)

Passengers are warned to arrive at least three hours early for international flights (pictured)

Huge delays come after a terrorist plot to bomb plane at Sydney airport was foiled at weekend

Travelers are taking to social media about the delays at Sydney Airport this morning

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has been assessing the new arrangements with police, domestic intelligence agency ASIO and the Office of Transport Security on Monday morning.

Domestic passengers are being advised to arrive two hours before their flights, and international passengers three hours before, to allow for the extra security checks in place after the plot was exposed.

'I want to thank the travelling public for their forbearance, having to get to the airport earlier and wait longer to get through security,' Mr Turnbull told ABC radio from Perth on Monday.

'(Security measures) will be required for as long as the threat is assessed as requiring them.'

Mr Dutton said the public needed to be the eyes and ears of Australia's security agencies, telling the Nine network they may provide 'that one part of the jigsaw that helps thwart the next terrorist attack'.

Four Sydney men were arrested over the bomb plot on Saturday, but Mr Dutton won't confirm reports Australia only learned of the plan last week via a tip-off from overseas.

With an investigation underway, the Prime Minister was reluctant to comment on details or speculation, about the plot, including whether it involved a bomb or gassing passengers.

'There will obviously be more to say over coming days,' Mr Turnbull said.

'It will be alleged that this was an Islamist, extremist terrorist motivation.'

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the delays will occur for as long as they see threats

Passengers are taking to Twitter saying they feel safe despite heightened security (pictured)

Although authorities are warning of lengthy delays, some passengers say lines moved fast

Thousands are left with lengthy delays and people are advised to avoid airport if possible

Arriving atleast two hours before a flight could become the new normal authorities say

Delays are caused by extra security measures taking place including several explosive checks

Mr Dutton also won't confirm reports the men may have planned to get carry-on baggage containing a bomb disguised as a meat grinder onto a plane leaving Sydney.

He said Australians must do their part to help police and security agencies dealing with 'always imminent' security threats to Australia.

'They have obviously interrupted what was planned to be a significant event here,' Mr Dutton said.

Travelers have told media they can really feel the extra police presence at the airports now

Authorities said Australia faces 'imminent' security threat urging travelers to accept delays

Heightened security comes after police foiled plane bomb plot at the weekend (pictured)

Four men were arrested over the bomb plot on Saturday found in Sydney suburbs (pictured)

'I want to put a call out this morning ... just to reinforce those times. Three hours before international flights and two hours before domestic flights.'

He told people to stay away from airports unless they needed to be there, drop loved ones kerbside if they could, and not to pass through security check points unless that was essential.

Airlines are now enforcing the new two and three hour arrival advice for domestic and international travelers and security experts say the arrangements will likely be in place for the foreseeable future.

It is advised people stay away from airports unless a passenger on a flight (pictured Monday)

Airport spokespeople have said the airports are only a little more congested than usual

Heightened security measures are occurring across all airports across Australia (Sydney airport pictured Monday)

Travelers at major airports appear to be heeding the new arrangements, and Mr Dutton thanked them for that.

A Melbourne airport spokesman told AAP the city's airport was a little more congested than usual for a Monday morning, but flights were getting away on time.

'We've been very fortunate in that Victorian travelers have really taken onboard the need to get to the airport a bit earlier, so the new measures are being implemented really successfully,' he said.

Brisbane Airport said there were no significant delays on Monday morning, but said passengers should prepare themselves for a ramped up police presence, and slower security processing, and more trace testing for explosives.

The extensive security measures come as a response to plane bomb plot exposed Saturday

While the delays are lengthy, many passengers aren't complaining and instead praise safety
A pizza shop owner who was terrorised by a man wielding a meat cleaver has spoken out about the ordeal.

'I honestly thought it was gonna get worse,' Sevens Pizza owner, Salvatore Rizzo, told Seven News.

'I don't know what would have happened if I hadn't have got that cleaver out of his hands.'

The attacker, who was the proprietor of a Chinese takeaway shop next door to Sevens Pizza in Taylors Hill, Melbourne, was reportedly upset over outdoor seating arrangements when the incident occurred on Thursday at 9pm.

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The attacker (pictured wearing a white shirt) lunges at Mr Rizzo's father with a meat cleaver

It is understood by 9News that the two owners had had a 'verbal altercation' minutes before the attack.

Mr Rizzo told The Herald Sun that the 'the shopkeeper held dad by the throat, at which point a fight broke out'.

Mr Rizzo broke up the fight and escorted his father back into the store.

Two workers lunge at the attacker in an effort to stop him from injuring Mr Rizzo's father

But seconds later, the owner of the Chinese takeaway shop burst into the Sevens Pizza kitchen, violently swinging a meat cleaver.

The man ran behind the counter and began to attack the staff, injuring four workers including Mr Rizzo's father and sister.

In self-defense, the elder Mr Rizzo snatched up a grate from the pizza bar, but couldn't stop the attacker from slashing him across the face.

Mr Rizzo's father collapses onto the counter fom injuries sustained to his hands and face

A number of workers including Mr Rizzo could be seen struggling to overpower the attacker and seize control of the weapon.

'He suffered injuries to his hands and fingers which required stitches,' Mr Rizzo said.

'It was pretty intense, it was a big weapon.'

Mr Rizzo's sister also received treatment for lacerations to her hands, and in a bizarre turn of events, the attacker reportedly returned later than night to reclaim his meat cleaver.

Salvatore Rizzo (pictured) told Seven News that he thought the situation could only get worse

Another worker said 'there was blood everywhere'.

Two men were both taken to hospital for treatment, according to police spokeswoman Natalie Savin.

It is understood that Mr Rizzo's father won't be working again for some time, as he is 'pretty shaken up' from the incident and 'isn't feeling well'.

Staff of Sevens Pizza Kitchen were attacked by a man wielding a meat cleaver overnight

'It's absolutely ridiculous,' Mr Rizzo said.

'He could've killed my workers, all over a table. He didn't really say anything... he just came it and started swinging.'

Staff are reportedly so afraid of the man, that the are looking into hiring security until they can secure a restraining order against him.

'I'm very nervous. I don't know what he is capable of. If he is capable of bringing in a cleaver, what is be capable of bringing in next?'

The attacker went behind the counter, and 'started swinging' a meat cleaver at employees

A 48-year-old Taylors Lakes man is currently in hospital with 'serious arm injuries', while a Delahey resident, 49, is being treated for minor facial lacerations.

Ms Savin said that both injured men are fully assisting police with their investigation.

Mr Rizzo said the New Dragon Gourmet Chinese restaurant was closed on Sunday and they have not seen or heard from the owner.

Daily Mail Australia attempted to contact the owner of New Dragon Gourmet Chinese for comment.
A 51-year-old man has been rushed to hospital with serious burns to 60 per cent of his body after a large fire started at an chemical disposal factory in west Sydney.

Firefighters were called to the blaze on Links Road, near St Mary's train station, about 8.30am on Monday.

It is believed an explosion ignited the fire at the factory, which safely disposes of chemical waste, before spreading to a neighboring property, 9 News reported.

The 51-year-old employee was at his work station when the explosion occurred and has serious burns to his lower body, hands, chest and face.

The injured man, who has worked at the factory for three years, was flown to Royal North Shore Hospital in a CareFlight helicopter.

He is in critical condition and is understood to be undergoing surgery.

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A 51-year-old man has been rushed to the hospital with serious burns to 60 percent of his body after a large fire started at an chemical disposal factory in west Sydney (pictured)

Firefighters were called to the raging blaze on Links Road, near St. Mary's train station, around 9am on Monday (pictured)

The blaze has since been contained by the numerous fire crews at the scene (pictured)

Fire crews were met with a series of small explosions when they arrived, believed to be caused by aerosol cans, according to 7 News.

Smoke was billowing out of the building with firefighters quickly requesting more help to bring the fire under control.

Firefighters said they were concerned about gas cylinders at the facility.

About 100 firefighters tackled the blaze, which has since been contained. There are 50 firefighters still at the scene.

More to come.

About 100 firefighters tackled the blaze, which has since been contained (pictured)

The injured man was flown to Westmead Hospital in a CareFlight helicopter (pictured)

Firefighters are pictured outside of the factory on late Monday morning
Police are investigating the student head of Cambridge's equality group after he claimed that 'all white people are racist' and praised rioters in Dalston who lit bonfires and hurled petrol bombs at police.

Jason Osamede Okundaye, who runs the Black and Minority Ethnic society at the elite institution, posted the shocking tweets amid violent protests in east London last night over the death of Rashan Charles.

He said that white people had 'colonised' Dalston and ordered them to 'go back' to areas such as Exeter and 'Solihurst' (sic).

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Jason Osamede Okundaye, pictured, who runs the Black and Minority Ethnic society at the elite institution, posted the shocking tweets amid violent protests in east London

Okundaye, 20, wrote to his thousands of Twitter followers: 'ALL white people are racist. White middle class, white working class, white men, white women, white gays, white children they can ALL geddit'

He said that white people had 'colonised' Dalston and ordered them to 'go back' to areas such as Exeter and 'Solihurst' (sic)

Okundaye, 20, wrote to his thousands of Twitter followers: 'ALL white people are racist. White middle class, white working class, white men, white women, white gays, white children they can ALL geddit.'

However, his online outburst may now have landed the student in hot water after officers confirmed they were looking into the tweets.

A Cambridgeshire police spokesman said: 'We are aware of these matters and they are in hand. I can confirm that police are investigating the incident at this time.'

The student at Cambridge's Pembroke College - who previously attended a 36,000-a-year public school - also claimed it was 'absolutely delicious' to watch 'middle-class white people despair over black people protesting in their colonised Dalston'.

A spokesman for the University said: 'The College is looking into this matter and will respond appropriately.'

Critics accused Mr Okundaye of encouraging hatred. Tory MP Bob Blackman said the student should be 'prosecuted for inciting racial hatred'.

He added: 'That is stirring up racial hatred unnecessarily - and completely without justification.'

Mr Okundaye, who has been involved in a series of anti-racism initiatives, was born in South London and says he is a member of the Edo tribe in Nigeria. He was educated on an academic scholarship at the independent Whitgift School in Croydon, which was founded in 1596 and charges fees of up to 36,400 for full boarders.

Last year, the sociology and politics student was part of a Cambridge campaign calling for a bronze cockerel, which was the symbol of Jesus College, to be 'repatriated' to Africa.

The newly-elected president of the Black and Minority Ethnic Campaign was among students demanding that the sculpture, which had pride of place in the college's dining hall, be handed back in a ceremony to Nigeria, from which they claimed it had been looted.

The campaign, which was likened to one at Oxford University over a statue of Cecil Rhodes, forced the college to remove the cockerel.

Mr Okundaye, an outstanding student at Whitgift who won an Oxford theology prize and the Harvard Book prize in 2015, has since criticised public school colleagues for narrow mindedness and has claimed that 'white men's obsession with my skin meant I was made to feel naked'.

He also posted an image praising the rioters as 'doing amazing'

Jason Osamede Okundaye, pictured, is the head of Cambridge's Black and Minority Ethnic society

Okundaye, pictured, also claimed it was 'absolutely delicious' to watch 'middle-class white people despair over black people protesting in their colonised Dalston'

On Friday, demonstrators barricaded part of the area's Kingsland Road - close to where Mr Charles died last week following a struggle with a police officer - with wheelie bins, mattresses and household debris.

The 20-year-old died after he was chased by an officer who attempted to remove an object from his throat, according to an initial probe by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Footage on social media appeared to show at least one police officer attempting to restrain the 20-year-old in a shop close to where the protest is being held.

Dramatic video taken last night showed more than a dozen officers retreating from protesters who launched objects at them.

Footage that sparked the riots: An officer appears to restrain Mr Charles on the floor of the shop, in Kingsland Road, east London, at 1.45am last Saturday

The violence has drawn parallels with the London riots in 2011, which were sparked by the police shooting of 29-year-old Mark Duggan in Tottenham.

And as night descended, worrying videos showed youths setting fire to mattresses in the middle of the road and pelting police vans with objects.

The windows of several shops in Kingsland High Street were smashed as the violence extended beyond Dalston Kingsland Station.
Illegal immigrants are being flown into the UK in business class on light aircrafts by smuggling gangs who charge up to 900 a seat.

Two British pilots were arrested this month, after allegedly trying to fly in 14 Albanians from Holland, according to The Sun.

Three children were said to be among the passengers that the suspects, aged 47 and 62, planned to take from Holland in a hired eight-seated vessel.

Lithuanian pilot Algirdas Barteska, 60, who was caught people smuggling when he flew three Albanian illegal immigrants to remote Seething airfield, Norfolk

The Cessna aircraft used by Lithuanian Algirdas Barteska. He was caught after Border Force officials acting on a tip off were lying in wait for him as he landed at a remote airfield

The pilots, who have not been named, flew to Holland from Lydd, Kent before they were arrested this month.

Their aircraft was one of at least three that has been stopped by officials this year.

It is feared that hundreds of migrants could be planning to use the planes to enter the country illegally.

But former UK Border Force boss Tony Smith told the newspaper: Its a worry. Traffickers are increasingly desperate because of tougher controls at places like Calais.

Some migrants are prepared to pay more to guarantee getting to the UK. It costs a lot of money to run a small aircraft.

Approximately 30 airstrips in the South East are thought to be particularly vulnerable to smugglers, because they have no protection from over-stretched border officials.

A Dutch Judge has since remanded the British suspects in custody.

This was a sophisticated plan and more wide-ranging than these initial arrests, a Dutch source said.

There is a network operating in Britain to get people into the country illegally and the criminal gangs behind it are making a lot of money.

The arrests come at a time when Britains borders appear to be increasingly vulnerable. Pictured, migrants seen around truck stops in Calais

An official report revealed that nearly half the entry points on the east coast were not visited by Border Force staff for more than a year

Calais Dunkirk Airport airport, just a few miles away from the now cleared 'Jungle' migrant camp

The arrests come at a time when Britains borders appear to be increasingly vulnerable.

Earlier this month, an official report revealed that nearly half the entry points on the east coast were not visited by Border Force staff for more than a year.

Twenty-seven out of 62 small ports had been unguarded for fifteen months from April 2015 to June 2016.

Earlier this month, UK nationals Edward Buckley, 45, and David Green, 53, were jailed for 30 months for attempting to fly four illegal Albanian immigrants to the UK on a Cessna 172.

Earlier this year, Lithuanian Algirdas Barteska, 60, was jailed for six years after he was caught landing his Albanian passengers at a remote airfield.

Officers watched as he helped one man and a mother and her five-year-old daughter climb out of his Cessna light aircraft with their bags and a suitcase at the private member's flying club in Seething, Norfolk.

Two of the Border Force staff then sprinted after his plane as it taxied along at around 6mph to take off again and banged on the cockpit window to force him to stop.

Barteska was arrested and was found to be carrying 5,000 euros in 500 euro notes which were said to be his fee for bringing in the man and the woman and her daughter on June 24 last year.
Joe Biden called John McCain ahead of the Senate's vote on the healthcare repeal and lobbied for the lawmaker to go against it, according to reports.

Senator McCain's shocking vote was reportedly influenced by Biden during a phone call from the former vice president in which they talked about McCain's brain cancer.

In an emotional talk with the Arizona Republican, Biden is said to have discussed McCain's glioblastoma diagnosis, the same tumor that killed his son Beau in 2015.

After the reported phone call, McCain went into the Senate and stunned fellow lawmakers when he voted against his party's 'skinny' repeal of Obamacare on Friday.

Former vice president Joe Biden (left) allegedly called John McCain (right) before the senator's shocking healthcare vote on Friday. Biden reportedly told McCain to vote against the Obamacare repeal

In an emotional appeal to the Arizona Republican, the two are said to have discussed McCain's recent glioblastoma diagnosis, the same disease that killed Biden's son Beau in 2015 (pictured together in 2008)

McCain was lobbied by Biden and also by his old friend Joseph Lieberman, a former senator from Connecticut, the Washington Post reported.

After McCain's reported phone calls with the two retired politicians, he walked into the chamber and stunned both Republicans and Democrats when he voted against the healthcare repeal.

Biden reportedly asked McCain to vote against the repeal during their conversation before the early morning vote, although it is unclear exactly what time the call took place.

The Post reported the two also talked about McCain's cancer during the phone call.

McCain was reportedly lobbied by Biden and also by his old friend Joseph Lieberman, a former senator from Connecticut, to vote no against the repeal

Biden's son Beau was diagnosed with glioblastoma in 2013, that same form of cancer McCain was recently told he has.

Beau started experiencing signs of the tumor in 2010 after complaining of a headache, numbness and sometimes paralysis, thinking he had suffered from a mild stroke.

After years of back and forth with doctors, he was finally diagnosed with the cancer.

He received radiation and chemotherapy treatments, which stabilized the cancer temporarily. Two years later it came back, and within 10 days he died at age 46.

McCain's diagnosis story is similar, the 80-year-old was hospitalized for a blood clot just behind his left eye.

The clot was discovered during a routine physical and because he was complaining of headaches and dizziness.

The politician was diagnosed with glioblastoma following pathology reports.




Brisbane has woken Monday morning to a thick blanket of fog covering the CBD.

The weekend's record temperatures across the east coast combined with high humidity has turned the Brisbane capital almost invisible.

Commuters have shared photos travelling in to the city from the outer suburbs showing the extent of the coverage.

Travellers are facing extended delays in and out of Brisbane following Sydney's major terror raids on Saturday.

Brisbane has awoken Monday morning to a thick blanket of fog covering the CBD

The weekend's record temperatures across the east coast combined with high humidity has turned the Brisbane capital almost invisible

Commuters have shared photos travelling in to the city from the outer suburbs showing the extent of the coverage

The heat is set to remain in Brisbane and across Queensland, with temperatures in the high 20s from the state's south-east in the Gold Coast stretching up to Cairns in the far-north.

High periods of sun are expected for the mid to south-eastern areas of the state, with potential showers in Townsville and Rockhampton further north.

The warm weather in Brisbane is expected to push the fog out of the city and residents can expect clear blue skies as the day progresses.

People travelling interstate are being recommended by airport staff and the Prime Minister to allow extra time for commuting with extended delays expected following the major terror raids across Sydney on Saturday.

The warm weather in Brisbane is expected to push the fog out of the city and residents can expect clear blue skies as the day progresses

Brisbane has woken Monday morning to a thick blanket of fog covering the CBD

Commuters have shared photos travelling in to the city from the outer suburbs showing the extent of the coverage

A home-made bomb was discovered in a Surry Hills apartment allegedly to be used to take down a plane.

Four men were arrested in the dramatic raids across Sydney, in suburbs including Punchbowl and Lakemba.

While the full extent of the alleged conspiracy is not yet known, the men may have planned to detonate a homemade bomb on a flight from Sydney to the Middle East, possibly Dubai, according to Seven News.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull advised travelers to arrive at the airport at least two hours earlier to allow for extra security measures.

'Travelers should be prepared for additional security at screening points while it's important Australians ... should be aware of an increased threat,' Mr Turnbull said.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull warned travelers to allow extra time for extra security measures at airports

Passengers are being warned to arrive at airports across Australia at least two hours early

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin said the extra safety measures were taken overnight at domestic and international airports across the country.

Virgin Australia released a statement saying the precautionary measures meant it may take 'a little longer' to get through the screening processes.

Delays will be caused by the extra screening measures on baggage as well as hand luggage where there is a limit on carry on to make the process as quick as possible.

Virgin Australia suggested passengers should arrive at least two hours before a domestic flight and at least three hours before an international flight.
An American professor was paid almost 1.7million over four years to run a British university criticised for its low teaching standards.

Professor Craig Calhoun, who left the London School of Economics last September, was handed 50,000 in bonuses despite his institution being ranked one of the worst for teaching.

The 65-year-old also lived in a grace-and-favour flat overlooking the Thames with a market rent of 120,000 a year, provided by LSE.

Students gave the elite Russell Group university a satisfaction score of only 75 per cent  155th in the country, according to a Government-backed survey.

Professor Craig Calhoun, who left the London School of Economics last September, was paid almost 1.7million over four years by the university

The 65-year-old, who made Angelina Jolie a 'visiting professor' last year, also lived in a grace-and-favour flat overlooking the Thames with a market rent of 120,000 a year, provided by LSE

Professor Calhoun, who made Angelina Jolie a 'visiting professor' last year, left LSE a year earlier than planned to run a think-tank in California.

Following his departure, he and his wife went on a European tour which included trips to Venice, Bologna and Paris.

Universities minister Jo Johnson has called for an end to the 'ratcheting up' of vice-chancellor pay at a time when tuition fees are rising to 9,250 a year.

He said universities should award pay rises only for exceptional performance, including in the Government's Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) rankings.

The LSE  a notorious hotbed for hard-Left activists  received a bronze in this year's TEF, the lowest possible mark.

Details of Professor Calhoun's pay and perks, obtained by the University and College Union under the Freedom of Information Act, show that after his appointment in 2012, he was paid 88,000 for 'international relocation' on top of his 378,000 pay package. In 2015/16, he was given a pay rise to 413,000.

It made him the tenth best-paid vice-chancellor in the country and one of only two in that top ten whose university received a bronze in the TEF. In total, he earned 1,654,000 over the four years. The data also reveals he claimed 8,907 in personal expenses last year.

His Twitter account boasts that he travelled to India and Pakistan on university business.

Some 207 other senior staff at the university earned more than 100,000 last year.

His predecessor, Howard Davies, resigned over a scandal which saw LSE accept a 1.5million donation from Colonel Gaddafi's son Saif. Professor Calhoun, who had previously been director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University, remained a 'centennial professor' at LSE after his departure to head the Berggruen Institute in Los Angeles.

In 2015, the Mail revealed Professor Calhoun had his bills, furnishings, phone costs and private medical insurance covered by the university  and spent 59,811 on flights in one year for work travel.

Calhoun (pictured in Venice with his wife) left LSE a year earlier than planned to run a think-tank in California. Following his departure, he and his wife went on a European tour which included trips to Venice, Bologna and Paris

The LSE was ranked 20th in the world in this year's Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings, but it is feared that international renown may be coming at the expense of students.

Students at LSE  half of whom are from overseas  have complained of substandard teaching and a lack of contact with staff.

Meanwhile, an audit of UCU data by the Daily Mail of all 56 universities scoring bronze in the TEF found 15 paid their vice-chancellors more than 200,000.

Yesterday Sally Hunt, of the UCU, said: 'Excessive pay rises and the arbitrary nature of the rises of vice-chancellors have long been a source of embarrassment for the sector and UCU has raised the issue many times.' She said ministers should tackle universities' remuneration panels.

John O'Connell, of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'Across the public sector, too often we see high pay and bonuses paid out seemingly regardless of performance or outcomes.'

Universities UK, which represents vice-chancellors, said salaries were 'comparable to similarly sized public and private organisations'.

The LSE said salaries were 'assessed relative to contribution and performance', while Professor Calhoun did not respond to a request for comment.
HIV tests should be given to everyone who registers with a GP, an NHS-funded study has recommended.

A routine blood test for all patients could catch HIV earlier and save lives, according to British researchers. They are recommending the move in 74 high-risk local authority areas, at a cost of 4 million  or 25 for each test.

The study, funded by the Department of Health, found routinely screening patients for HIV increases the diagnosis rate four-fold, helping to prevent people passing on the virus which leads to AIDS.

This is based on a four-year pilot in Hackney, a multi-ethnic and deprived London borough with a high rate of HIV.

Lead author Dr Werner Leber, from Queen Mary University of London, said: Weve shown that HIV screening in UK primary care is cost effective and potentially cost-saving, which is contrary to widespread belief. Pictured: A file image of a blood test

The cost will raise concerns at a time when the NHS is struggling to fund cataract and hip surgery, however the researchers state that HIV tests would become cost-effective within 33 years or sooner.

Lead author Dr Werner Leber, from Queen Mary University of London, said: Weve shown that HIV screening in UK primary care is cost effective and potentially cost-saving, which is contrary to widespread belief.

An estimated 13,300 people in the UK are unaware that they have the HIV virus  around one in eight of sufferers. Currently it is diagnosed principally in sexual health clinics or during routine testing in pregnant women.

Two in five people with HIV are diagnosed late, meaning their lives are cut short and treatment is more expensive.

Public Health England has backed the recommendation for all patients in high-risk areas to be tested for HIV.

A PHE spokesman said: PHE recommends that all GPs in areas of high or extremely high HIV prevalence should offer HIV testing to everyone who registers with the practice and has not previously been diagnosed with HIV.

Researchers at Queen Mary University and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine led a study of more than 86,000 people in 40 GP surgeries in Hackney. In four years, 32 people were diagnosed with HIV, compared to 14 in areas where there was no testing.

Dr Clare Highton, from the City and Hackney Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said the results showed the value for money of HIV screening.

The study, funded by the Department of Health, found routinely screening patients for HIV increases the diagnosis rate four-fold. Pictured: Prince Harry has blood taken for an HIV test

She added: This intervention means that people with HIV are able to live longer and healthier lives and the spread of infection to other people is halted.

The study, published in the Lancet, concludes that routine testing just clears watchdog NICEs cost-effectiveness threshold. It would cost 600,000 to roll out to the 11 areas with similar levels of HIV to Hackney, and 4 million to extend to a further 63 high-risk authority areas, including Birmingham, Salford, Leeds and Coventry.

A comment piece published with the study in the journal Lancet HIV states that opt-out HIV tests are similarly cost-effective to controversial HIV pill PrEP.

However it costs a small fraction of the multi-million pound budget for the 4,000 a year treatment, provided to people in danger of HIV due to their high-risk sex lives to prevent them getting it.

Authors Dr Brooke Nichols and Dr Gesine Meyer-Rath, from the school of public health at Boston University, state: This trial has shown that opt-out rapid HIV testing in primary care clinics in a London borough with a high HIV prevalence resulted in an increased rate of HIV diagnosis and identification of patients at higher CD4 cell counts, which is a marker of immune capacity.

A mathematical model showed primary care HIV screening in high prevalence areas became cost effective after 33 years. But factoring in the higher costs of care for people diagnosed late suggests screening could become cost-effective within 13 years.
Playing music loudly, allowing dogs off leads, drinking alcohol in public and even selling lucky heather are now crimes punishable with fines under Victorian-style laws brought in by councils.

Failing to clean windows, skateboarding, swearing and feeding birds are among other activities also being penalised across the country in what critics say is a drive to restrict freedom.

Campaigners claim busybody powers introduced in the 2014 Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act had created a patchwork of criminal law.

People drinking: Ministers insist the orders  similar to an Asbo  are to curb anti-social behaviour, such as spitting and aggressive begging

They say that Public Spaces Protection Orders, which allow town halls to target anti-social behaviour at a local level, mean an activity that is illegal in one street may not be in the next.

Ministers insist the orders  similar to an Asbo  are to curb anti-social behaviour, such as spitting and aggressive begging.

But the rise in the number of PSPOs has raised concerns from the Manifesto Club, which opposes excessive regulation, that they are a blank cheque for the arbitrary use of power.

In total, 152 of 348 (44 per cent) of local authorities in England and Wales have at least one order in place. Anybody flouting the orders is liable for a fine, normally ranging from 70 to 100, issued by a police officer, police community support officer, council worker or private security guard employed by the town hall.

Dog off a leash: Campaigners claim busybody powers introduced in the 2014 Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act had created a patchwork of criminal law

Figures uncovered using Freedom of Information requests showed 1,906 fines were imposed last year  up from the 470 issued in 2015. Between March 2016 and June 2017, ten councils passed new orders banning swearing and foul language, usually without providing definitions, making them a de facto language police, said the campaign group.

In Brighton, anyone using a portable barbecue on the beach could be penalised if they refuse to let it to be put out. In Southampton, 30 fines of 100 were levied against homeless people for begging in 2016. In Oxford it is now a crime to enter a tower block if you are under 21 unless you live there or are visiting a resident.

In June 2016, the driver of a Mercedes was fined 100 by Kensington and Chelsea Council in London for playing loud bhangra music, while in the same month a motorist was penalised for performing stunts (filming). Meanwhile, in Cambridge 18 fines were issued to people for advertising or touting a punt tour.

Playing music loudly: 1,906 fines were imposed last year  up from the 470 issued in 2015

Council bosses have also tried to ban pigeon feeding and taking dogs off their lead, says the Manifesto Club. Director Josie Appleton said: Councils were at first slow to use PSPOs, but now the powers are being whipped out in response to a wide variety of local disputes or problems.

The result is a patchwork of vague, absurd criminal law...

Liberal Democrat peer Lord Clement-Jones said it was utterly alarming that the powers were restricting freedom of expression in an unprecedented way.

But Simon Blackburn, chairman of the Local Government Associations safer and stronger communities board, said that PSPOs were an effective way of tackling persistent anti-social behaviour problems raised by local residents and businesses.
You can't walk down the street without passing a so-called 'smartphone zombie' too engrossed by their screen to watch where they are going.

Four in ten of us admit suffering a technology-related mishap after paying more attention to devices than the pavement.

Now one city has decided it's time to take drastic action  and made it illegal to cross the road while using a mobile.

Those caught using phones, tablets or other electronic devices at crossing points could find themselves slapped with a fine of up to $100 (75).

Those caught using phones, tablets or other electronic devices at crossing points in Honolulu, Hawaii, could find themselves slapped with a fine of up to 75 starting in October

The policy will be introduced in Honolulu, Hawaii, from October, with council leaders saying it is necessary to tackle 'distracted walking'.

It comes after an American study previously found there had been more than 11,000 injuries in the US resulting from phone-related distraction while walking between 2000 and 2011.

Explaining the decision, mayor Kirk Caldwell said: 'We hold the unfortunate distinction of being a major city with more pedestrians being hit in crosswalks ... than almost any other city in the country.'

Councillor Brandon Elefante, who introduced the legislation, added: 'As technology has advanced in the last decade, we see that more and more people are really not paying attention to their surroundings, and looking at their mobile electronic devices.

'Safety is a concern. We certainly don't want it to lead to a casualty or a severe injury with people crossing the street.'

The law covers mobile phones, paging devices, video games, 'digital photographic devices' and 'digital video recording devices'.

It comes after an American study previously found there had been more than 11,000 injuries in the US resulting from phone-related distraction while walking between 2000 and 2011

Under a staggered fine system, a first offence will lead to a fine of between $15 (11) and $35 (27), followed by one of up to $75 (57) for a second violation and up to $100 (75) for a third within a year.

However opponents say the law infringes on citizens' personal freedoms, with local resident Ben Robinson branding it 'intrusive'.

The recent rise in pedestrians using their phones while out and about has seen several cities adopt new measures to avoid accidents.

The German city of Augsburg last year embedded traffic signals into the ground near tram tracks to help downward-fixated pedestrians avoid injury. And London's Brick Lane previously put coloured padding on lampposts to protect walkers.

In Britain, four out of ten people say they have had a technology-related mishap, according to figures compiled for Accident Awareness Week in 2015. It found 13 per cent of people have walked into someone or something while checking their mobile phone, rising to 43 per cent among the younger generations.

A poll by the AA last year also found seven out of ten motorists 'often' see gadget-obsessed pedestrians walking off the pavement without looking. Official figures show the number of pedestrian deaths in the UK due to 'lack of attention' rose from 398 in 2013 to 446 in 2014, but it is not known what role technology played in the increase.
Europcar has a motto  moving your way. But rather fewer customers may be moving the car hire giants way in future after its offices in the UK were raided by officers from trading standards.

The French-owned firm, Europes biggest vehicle rental operator, is under investigation for overcharging as many as half a million customers for repairs by as much as 300 per cent, resulting in a potential fraud that the company itself values at 30million.

It is said to have entered into secret arrangements with repairers, allowing it to pay much less to them than it charges its customers.

The case has highlighted concerns about an industry increasingly characterised by dodgy practices as firms compete in a market made ever more competitive by price comparison websites.

Stephen Stanford, a retired works foreman from Birmingham, refuses to trust any car hire firm nowadays after being charged hundreds of pounds with no justification

If an operator is forced to cut its headline price, then there is always a way to lighten the wallet of the unsuspecting driver.

It might be a last-minute excess charge levied at the pick-up desk, an up-front deduction for fuel or, most egregious of all, inflated demands for damage, much of it trivial or non-existent, or caused by someone other than the customer. Many of the repairs charged for are never carried out.

Car hire is a Wild West industry in which the normal laws of commerce do not apply.

Initial offers are often no guide to the eventual price, and card deposits of up to 2,000 are demanded from customers intimidated into believing they face huge liabilities if an accident occurs.

These threats are levelled by unscrupulous counter staff who often earn commission.

Bogus damage to cars of the kind now being investigated was Roger Bradshaws nightmare when he and his family rented from Europcar for a holiday in France

Excess charges can be hugely excessive. In one case uncovered by the Daily Mail, car hire brand Budget levies a staggering 8,416 charge on Mercedes E-Class saloons rented at Faro airport in Portugal.

These near-unaffordable prices are designed to scare customers into taking out additional insurance.

The people at the desk use fear sales techniques, says Martin Lewis of MoneySavingExpert.com. And I see customers panic all the time.

On many occasions, a customer throws open their debit or credit card account to a company which can then extract money from it at will and on the flimsiest of grounds.

Once taken, it is a nightmare to get the money back.

As the unfolding Europcar scandal shows, these tactics are not just the work of shabby local operators. Mail readers have complained about the behaviour of car rental giants Avis and Hertz, in addition to Europcar.

As millions of Britons head for the sun, they are being warned to heed the first and last rule of car hire: Caveat emptor  let the buyer beware.

Stephen Stanford, a retired works foreman from Birmingham, refuses to trust any car hire firm nowadays.

We have a villa in Portugal, which we try to get away to a couple of times a year, he says.

We hired a car online from Avis and paid for the insurance, but at Faro airport we were told that the insurance was inadequate and if we had an accident it would cost us a lot of money. So, I paid 150 euros for additional cover.

The man on the Avis desk counted out the money in front of us, and we assumed it would appear on our paperwork. We did not check this until later, when we discovered there was no record of this extra money being paid at all.

One month after we came back from Portugal, I checked my bank statement and found they had taken another 425 euros from my account.

I got in touch with the Avis office in Faro straight away but had no joy, as I was told no one there spoke English.

After this, I went online and, to my amazement, found advice on the Avis website warning people about hire-car rip-offs. And here they were doing it themselves. No reason was given for the deduction and Mr Stanford is resigned to the loss of his money.

When former police officer Steve Tovagliari booked a holiday in Majorca, he was advised by his son to avoid the Europcar subsidiary Goldcar, which is the subject of numerous damning reviews by customers.

So he booked his hire car from a company called Rhodium through the agency Holiday Autos.

Imagine my shock when I arrived at Palma airport to find that Rhodium was part of Goldcar, he says.

Loss and frustration duly ensued. From the first minute, the lady on the desk, a Bulgarian called Olga, started her sales pitch  from upgrading, to changing to an automatic, to satnav and, finally, extra insurance.

I showed her a copy of my UK-purchased insurance, which covered me for 5,000 of damage and stated that I didnt need any other, but she shook her head and said it wasnt valid.

Heather Cunliffe, a teacher from Bedford, was on a honeymoon in Spain with her husband, Mike, when her Europcar rental was clipped

I am quite a strong character and stood my ground. Some 20 minutes later, with a queue forming behind me, we were still at an impasse.

She insisted that without purchasing the insurance she would take a payment of 1,400 euros from my card which, if there was no damage, would be refunded in 30 days. Not an authorisation, but an actual payment.

I insisted on speaking to a manager and, suddenly, her perfect English disappeared and she stated that she did not understand what I was saying. I was now tired, the people in the queue were getting restless, and we needed to get to our hotel. It was 180 euros for insurance or 1,400 euros with no guarantee of ever seeing that money again.

We had 50 miles to drive and I had no option but to take the insurance, under protest. A large smile returned to Olgas face, together with her perfect English. It was appalling.

On his return to Britain, Mr Tovagliari contacted Holiday Autos  with whom his car hire contract was made  but weeks went by with no result. Only when he contacted the Mail and copied in Holiday Autos did the company ring him and promise to return the money.

Since the internet has taken over and driven prices down, the car hire companies are finding other ways of making money, says Mr Tovagliari.

And, of course, the staff make their money from commission  Olga tried to sell me satnav and there was satnav already in the car.

As Money Mail revealed a few days ago, Hertz is charging up to 204 to hire a TomTom satnav for a two-week break in Europe in August, when a basic model can be bought online for less than 90.

Bogus damage to cars of the kind now being investigated was Roger Bradshaws nightmare when he and his family rented from Europcar for a holiday in France.

On arrival at the hire desk at the airport in Limoges, he was told he would have to pay a 1,500 deposit with his credit card, or not have the car.

When the representative took me to the car, I started to take photographs of the vehicle, but the rep tried to stop me, saying it was against the law to photograph cars, he says.

I decided to continue to take photos, much to his protest.

Prior to returning the car, I again photographed every inch, both inside and out. The pictures were timed and dated. I filled the tank with fuel at the garage close to the airport.

Unfortunately, when I returned the car, there was no one on the check-in desk, so I left the keys in a box nearby, as suggested by a rep from another car-hire company.

Having not received my deposit back after a couple of weeks, I contacted the UK base of Europcar, where I had made the original booking.

Eventually, I received an email advising me the deposit was not refundable because all the tyres were scuffed, there were several scratches on the front, sides and rear of the car, a front light was broken and the fuel tank was empty.

I sent copies of the pictures and of the receipt for the fuel, and suggested if there were problems with the car they occurred after I had left the vehicle. I again asked for my deposit. They refused, despite the overwhelming evidence.

Mr Bradshaw, a retired driving instructor from Colchester, threatened legal action and received a refund in 48 hours.

British tourists are being billed hundreds of pounds for bogus repairs for scratches and dents on hire cars (file image)

Heather Cunliffe, a teacher from Bedford, was not so fortunate. She was on a honeymoon in Spain with her husband, Mike, when her Europcar rental was clipped.

The other driver immediately admitted liability and even phoned Europcar to inform them.

It is clear from the nature of the damage and pictures of the location  which Europcar never asked for  that we were entirely faultless, says Heather.

However, Europcar deducted about 250 and told us it will not be refunded as the third party was not at fault. They have simply ripped us off.

Ian Adams fell foul of the dreaded Goldcar during a trip to Spain, despite taking precautionary photographs on picking up his vehicle.

When I took the car back [the Goldcar employee] went straight to a mark so small you would not see it in an underground car park, he says. Nevertheless, he was charged 250.

A Europcar manager has previously told the Daily Telegraph that the company advises staff to find new damage when the car is returned, and then charge an inflated repair price.

The returns team are measured by the amount of damage they find, said the whistleblower. The best teams find new damage on one in five returned vehicles. Agents earn 4 per vehicle for spotting damage and can make up to 1,000 a month in peak season.

Repairs have become a major earner for rental companies in the past five years. Big hire firms can use the volume of work they offer to small bodyshop companies to pressure them into offering reductions on parts, paint and hourly labour rates.

But those savings are not passed on to the hirer of the damaged vehicle, who pays the full market rate. Which some might regard as fraud, pure and simple.

Avis Budget, Hertz and Enterprise, which owns Alamo and National, admit to not always fixing dents and scratches they charge for

Jason Moseley, director of the National Body Repair Association, which represents 850 bodyshops in the UK, says: We would like to see more transparency on repair costs and a fairer deal for our members from the big corporates, which can then be passed on to the consumer.

Avis maintains that its charges reflect the real cost to the company of repairs.

A spokesman said: We may elect to conduct any repairs following a subsequent rental or at the end of its life as part of the remarketing process.

When the car is not returned to the manufacturer and we sell it on the open market, we may choose instead to absorb a reduction in the price.

Owned by French investment company Eurazeo, Europcar operates in some 140 countries and is valued at 3.6billion.

It enjoys the biggest market share in Europe  19 per cent of the 11billion sector  ahead of US rivals Avis-Budget, Hertz and Enterprise, and Germanys Sixt.

Europcar, the second biggest operator in the UK after Enterprise, has engaged in a buying spree of medium-sized independent car hire firms of late, but now its good name is in jeopardy.

Mr Stanford says he has learned his lesson after his experience with Avis at Faro airport. He no longer hires a car when he and his wife visit their house in the Algarve.

I thought, I cant afford to pay this kind of money three or four times a year, so I bought a secondhand Ford Fiesta, which I keep out there, he says.

We get a ride from the airport for 55 and then use our own car to get around. It cost only 620, which over time works out a lot cheaper than all these ridiculous hire charges.

It gives me peace of mind instead of the worry of hiring and being ripped off. You go for a holiday to relax and you end up feeling you cant trust anyone.
Broadband bills could rise by 20 a month under a BT plan to deliver internet access to millions of rural customers, experts warn.

The firm has offered to ensure every home has access to decent broadband  but industry rivals said that the costs will be passed on to customers.

In addition, around 60,000 remote homes still wouldnt receive the minimum speed because it would cost too much.

The Digital Economy Act, introduced this year, set out an obligation to introduce a minimum speed of ten megabits per second (Mbps).

But ministers are considering a voluntary offer from BT to deliver the rollout rather than wait for a request from the Government.

Broadband bills could rise by 20 a month under a BT plan to deliver internet access to millions of rural customers

It said that BTs proposal meant many premises would receive substantially more speed and connections far faster than through a regulatory approach.

However, rivals warned this would mean that average bills would be driven up

Under the plans, which would largely be delivered by Openreach  the arm of BT that owns and maintains the cabling  the firm would spend up to 600million on a five-year upgrade of the lines.

Openreach has the largest fibre broadband network in Britain, covering more than 26.5million premises.

It said the Governments preferred option of a minimum download speed of 10Mbps, 1Mbps upload and quality conditions will cost 1.46billion.

Around 1.4million households cannot get the minimum connection speed in the most remote areas, according to Ofcom. But MPs insist the total is far higher and are calling for a refund for those who do not receive the speeds they pay for.

MPs said last week that 16 of the 20 constituencies with the worst download speeds were rural.

BT has offered to install the infrastructure for 99 per cent of premises, with coverage across the board by 2022. But a Government consultation document reveals that 60,000 homes would not get the minimum speed of broadband because the price per household would be above the reasonable cost threshold of 3,400, saving BT 400million.

Culture Secretary Karen Bradley said: We welcome BTs offer and will look at whether this or a regulatory approach works better.

Culture Secretary Karen Bradley said her department 'welcomes BTs offer and will look at whether this or a regulatory approach works better'

Whichever of the approaches we go with, the driving force behind our decision-making will be making sure we get the best deal.

The Government said that if BTs proposal was accepted, it would be legally binding.

BT chief executive Gavin Patterson said: We are pleased to make a voluntary offer to deliver the Governments goal for universal broadband access.

We expect 95 per cent of homes and businesses to have access to superfast broadband of 24Mbps or faster by the end of 2017.

Our initiative aims to ensure that all premises can get faster broadband, even in the hardest-to-reach parts. But former Tory chairman Grant Shapps warned that ministers were in danger of being hoodwinked.

He said the history of broadband rollout showed the Government should press ahead with compulsory minimum standards rather than agreeing to a voluntary deal.

He added: Given the appalling track record of missed deadlines and failed delivery on broadband, there is no reason to trust that Openreach will achieve the rural rollout that it now claims. Ministers are in danger of being hoodwinked into accepting a deal when it would doubtless be more effective to enact the powers they have already passed.

Tom Watson, Labours shadow digital, culture, media and sport secretary, said the public should be wary of the announcement.

He added: They will be rightly wary they will be forced to pay the price in extra or hidden charges.
Ketton-Cremer (pictured) was a gentle, private man who lived in an age when such things as homosexuality were only hinted at

When Robert Wyndham Ketton-Cremer, poet, squire and pillar of Norfolk society, learned of the death of his younger brother Richard in the Battle of Crete in 1941, he decided that the Jacobean family home, Felbrigg Hall, should pass to the National Trust.

Richard, an airman in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, died without children, and Robert, known to friends as Bunny, appears to have suspected that he himself would not produce a successor. This may or may not have been because he was gay.

Ketton-Cremer was a gentle, private man who lived in an age when such things were only hinted at, not only because of social convention but also for the simple reason that a homosexual act could land one in jail. As a Justice of the Peace, he would have been only too aware of the consequences of being outed.

If he was attracted to men, this composer of pastoral sonnets preferred his sexuality to remain a moot point, debated in private by friends, perhaps, but not a subject to be addressed head-on. His circle, which included Anthony Powell, author of A Dance To The Music Of Time, and historian A. L. Rowse, respected this position.

When Ketton-Cremer, a one-time High Sheriff of Norfolk, died in 1969 aged 63, he took his private life to the grave. But it is private no longer, thanks to, of all institutions, the National Trust.

To the dismay of his godchildren, Wyndhams sexuality is being raked over in the Trusts Prejudice and Pride project, in which the previously secret private lives of occupants of some of its properties are used to mark the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexual acts in England and Wales.

A short film about him has been produced. The Unfinished Portrait is narrated by Stephen Fry, who justifies the outing by telling viewers that they have so far enjoyed only an incomplete portrait of this Oxford contemporary of literary giants such as W. H. Auden and Graham Greene.

The fact that Ketton-Cremer  whose quiet generosity enriched the Trust  preferred an incomplete portrait is ignored, on grounds that: To do anything less is to suggest that same-sex love and gender diversity are somehow wrong, and lets past prejudice and discrimination go unchallenged.

Ketton-Cremer decided in 1941 that the Jacobean family home, Felbrigg Hall (pictured), should pass to the National Trust

Fry points to Ketton-Cremers biography of Britains first Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole, in which he discusses the great mans possible homosexuality.

As a tolerant, generous and honest biographer himself, this fuller portrait of Robert [Ketton-Cremer] is perhaps one he would recognise and appreciate, says the comedian, actor and author.

The trouble is, we cannot know if that is the case as Ketton-Cremer has no opportunity to speak for himself.

Those speaking on his behalf are anything but certain of his sexual leanings, but  more importantly  upset by the Trusts speculative delving into a life characterised by discretion.

Tristram Powell, elder son of author Anthony and a godson of Ketton-Cremer, sees no reason to co-opt a dead man into a 21st-century exercise in political correctness. His sexuality was incidental and scarcely headline material, he told Pink News. It certainly wasnt the main focus of his life, which he was fortunate enough to be able to live as privately, or as the Trust would say hidden away, as he wished.

The project is part of a policy pursued by the outgoing director-general of the Trust, Dame Helen Ghosh (pictured)

The outing of him by the Trust for its own commercial reasons feels exaggerated and mean-spirited  another kind of intolerance.

Ted Coryton, another of Ketton-Cremers godchildren, who visited the Felbrigg estate in the Fifties, would like to know how the Trust can be so sure of his sexuality, but, more importantly, why it felt the need to turn him into a public exhibit.

There was no indication to me that he was gay, Mr Coryton told the Telegraph. I never saw anyone at the house to suggest he had a relationship with anyone.

I feel that the National Trust is now trying to get cheap publicity and is using this campaign to market their houses. It is despicable.

He gave them his family home and they should respect his right to privacy. I wouldnt mind at all if he was gay. But if he didnt announce it, why does the National Trust think it has the right to pry into his past and say he is gay?

Ketton-Cremers goddaughter, who prefers her identity to be withheld, is equally incensed. It is so hurtful, she said. It is outrageous and unnecessary. The National Trust has done this for publicity to get people to visit the hall and make money. I, personally, didnt think there was any suggestion he was gay.

I would like to know what proof they have. I think Bunny would have felt betrayed. He was a fascinating man, a brilliant historian and biographer, and that was how he would want to be remembered. His sexuality was a private matter and should remain so.

In the short film, Stephen Fry paints the squire and poet as a victim of the pernicious attitudes of the times, a man who defied convention. Yet, whatever his sexuality, Ketton-Cremer appears to have been a model of convention, who simply preferred one part of his life to remain private property.

In the short film, Stephen Fry (pictured) paints the squire and poet as a victim of the pernicious attitudes of the times, a man who defied convention

Friends were happy to let it remain so, although Anthony Powell once made a throw-away remark suggesting his friend preferred not to act on any urges. His verdict: Quite sexless, I think. Violet [Powells wife] said he was in love with some local archdeacon or something, some dignitary of the church, but he never showed the slightest sign.

The Prejudice and Pride project is seen by critics of the Trust as another example of its shift away from an institution glorifying Britains great houses and monuments to a body intent on modernising the past, while cheapening venues with family friendly activities.

Its all part of a policy pursued by the outgoing director-general of the Trust, Dame Helen Ghosh  previously a career civil servant steeped in the Blair-era modernising agenda.

She is now headed for one of the most sought-after sinecures in the Establishment firmament, Master of Balliol College, Oxford. Her successor is yet to be appointed.

Professor Richard Sandell, from the University of Leicester, who was commissioned by the Trust to research Ketton-Cremers life, says his team engaged deeply with the ethical issues surrounding their work.

Stephen Fry justifies the outing by telling viewers that they have so far enjoyed only an incomplete portrait of this Oxford contemporary of literary giants such as W. H. Auden and Graham Greene (pictured)

As evidence of the squires secret life, he cites four local people who claim his homosexuality was an open secret.

Also presented is an extract from a biography of Sir John Betjeman which referred to Ketton-Cremer as an openly homosexual close friend.

I would strongly argue that we cannot perpetuate the values and attitudes of the past, Professor Sandell said.

We discovered so much more to him than we knew. Hes a well-known biographer of [the poet] Thomas Gray and Robert Walpole, and discussed their same-sex desires in an open and honest way.

But we also found love poetry from his time at Oxford. We get a sense that it was difficult to be who he was.

In a statement, the National Trust says it is proud of creating a fuller portrait of a man who sought no such notability during his life.

The people we interviewed were clear we werent outing him, as among those who knew him, it was widely accepted, said a spokesman.

Stephen Fry says in the film: Today, we must celebrate LGBTQ histories in plain sight. Yet Wyndham Ketton-Cremer preferred not to live that way. It was his choice  but now, in death, it has been taken from him.
Kelly Green, 32, (left with her husband Shane Green) moved from Eastbourne, East Sussex, in the UK to Tristan da Cunha (pictured), one of a remote group of volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, in July 2013. The whole island descends from just seven families and has a population of just 138 inhabitants. It is only accessible by boat from Cape Town, South Africa, and the journey can take anywhere from a week to 15 days - depending on the weather. After going through a tough break up, Kelly travelled to the island to visit her parents in 2010 as her dad was a diplomat posted there. Kelly said she 'fell in love' with the island and it was there that she met her now husband Shane Green, 33. Shane, a carpenter who has lived on the island for his entire life, had helped Kelly carry her luggage off the raft and they soon became besotted with each other. Kelly made the move to Tristan da Cunha permanently in July 2013 and the couple now have two children together - Savannah, eight, and Seren, who is 16-months-old.
A Toronto man admitted to killing his mother and two of his brothers with a crossbow out of fear of losing his fiancee three weeks before their wedding.

Brett Ryan, 36, appeared in court on Friday and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder of his oldest brother, Christopher, and two counts of second-degree murder of his mother, Susan, and his younger brother Alexander.

He also pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of his older brother Leigh, according to the Toronto Star.

The family members were discovered at the home on August 25, 2016 suffering from serious wounds with a crossbow lying nearby. All three died at the scene.

Ryan planned his 66-year-old mother's death because he feared she would expose the lies he had told to his fiancee, but according to the statement of facts in court, he only intended to persuade her not to mention his financial situation.

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Toronto man, Brett Ryan, 36, pleaded guilty to killing his mother, Susan, and brothers, Christopher and Alexander, with a crossbow out of fear of losing his fiancee before their wedding. Ryan (left and right) lost his job and didn't want his fiancee to find out

Ryan planned his 66-year-old mother's death because he feared she would expose the lies he had told to his fiancee. He also killed his older brother Christopher (pictured) when he arrived to the home to help his mother

The family members (pictured) were discovered on August 25, 2016, at the home suffering from serious wounds with a crossbow lying nearby. All three died at the scene

He believed his fiancee would call off the wedding if she found out that he lost his job because of his past criminal record.

Ryan was arrested in 2008 in relation to 14 bank robberies committed throughout Toronto and Durham Region, according to CP24 Go.

At the time he wore a fake beard as a disguise and was called the 'fake beard bandit' by officials.

In 2009, he pleaded guilty to committing eight of the bank robberies and was sentenced to five years in prison.

However, due to pretrial custody, he only served three years and nine months, according to the Star.

Two months before the murders, Ryan got a job at an IT company, but before he started, he was fired after his employer found out he had a criminal record.

Just a few days before the shocking killings, he admitted to his mother that he didnt have a job and that he was lying to his fiancee about it.

According to the Star, he was telling his fiancee that he was working from home while he stayed at their condo.

Two months before the murders, Ryan was fired after his employer found out he had a criminal record. Days before the killings, he told his mother he didnt have a job and that he was lying to his fiancee about it

When Susan told her son to admit the truth, he was worried his fiancee would break off their engagement, despite his mother telling him that she would continue to support him financially, according to the statement of facts.

Before he left his apartment that he shared with his fiancee on that tragic day, Ryan set up a laptop, an iPad and iPhone, that were supposed to be activated in order to create an internet footprint that would serve as an alibi.

He then arrived at his mother's Scarborough home to confront her shortly after 12pm.

When the confrontation became heated, his mother called his older brother, Christopher, 42, to the home.

But during the argument, Ryan slipped away to retrieve the crossbow from the garage.

Ryan then stabbed his mother with a crossbow bolt and strangled her to death using a yellow nylon rope.

When Christopher arrived to the home, Ryan shot him in the back of his neck using the crossbow, according to the Star.

He moved their bodies into the garage and hid them under a tarp.

But as Ryan was leaving the garage, his 29-year-old brother Alexander showed up.

When Christopher arrived to the home, Ryan shot him in the back of his neck using the crossbow (file image). He moved their bodies into the garage and hid them under a tarp

The brothers fought and Ryan got the upper hand long enough to fatally stab Alexander with a crossbow bolt.

Leigh, 38, who was in his room at the home, came outside after hearing all of the commotion.

When he saw the bodies, he ran inside and called for help. Ryan assaulted Leigh, who somehow escaped and ran to a neighbor's home to call 911.

During the police investigation, Ryan was found to be living at the address of the crime scene when he filed for bankruptcy in 2010.

A police source told CTV News that two bodies were discovered in the garage at the Scarborough home and the third was found in a driveway.

Ryan was sentenced to life imprisonment without eligibility for parole for 25 years on Friday.
A van has plowed into a crowd in Los Angeles, injuring nine people and leaving one man in critical condition.

Eight people were transported to area hospitals after the vehicle struck the crowd on West Pico Boulevard around 3.45pm Sunday, the Los Angeles Fire Department said on Twitter.

A ninth person, an off-duty Los Angeles firefighter, was hurt but did not need to be taken to a hospital.

A van that plowed into a crowd in Los Angeles on Sunday injured nine people and left one man in critical condition

Eight people were transported to area hospitals after the vehicle struck the crowd on West Pico Boulevard around 3.45pm, the Los Angeles Fire Department said on Twitter. Officials look into the van at the scene

A ninth person, an off-duty Los Angeles firefighter, was hurt but did not need to be taken to a hospital. According to the fire department, a 44-year-old man is in critical condition

According to the fire department, a 44-year-old man is in critical condition.

Three people, an 18-year-old woman, a 28-year-old woman and a 30-year-old man were listed in serious condition. Four others were in fair condition with their ages ranging from 18-51.

A witness at the scene said the van jumped a curb and careened into a group of people eating outside The Fish Spot restaurant in the city's Mid-Wilshire neighborhood.

Courtney Crump said several victims were pinned under the van and one man had severe head injuries. Crump said witnesses held the driver until authorities arrived.

Los Angeles police spokesman Josh Rubenstein said the crash appeared to be an accident.

Video footage from a news helicopter showed the white van on the sidewalk in front of The Fish Spot restaurant.

The vehicle appeared to have knocked down a white picket fence surrounding outdoor seating for diners.

Authorities said the cause of the crash is still under investigation.

A witness at the scene said the van jumped a curb and careened into a group of people eating outside The Fish Spot restaurant. Courtney Crump (right) said several victims were pinned under the van and one man had severe head injuries

Crump said witnesses held the driver until authorities arrived. Another witness was spotted speaking to authorities following the crash

The vehicle appeared to have knocked down a white picket fence surrounding outdoor seating for diners at The Fish Spot restaurant
North Korea's famous pyramid-shaped hotel has been renovated, despite never having welcomed a single guest.

The 105-story Ryugyong Hotel - the world's tallest unoccupied building - in the capital Pyongyang, has been spruced up and awarded two new walkways and a brand new sign boasting about North Korea's latest nuclear missile launches.

The renovations may be a sign that dictator Kim Jong-Un could be about to finish the project started by his grandfather in 1987, branded 'the Hotel of Doom'.

Finally opening? Walls set up to keep people out of a construction area around the 105-story Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea, were pulled down to reveal renovations and two new walkways, indicating that the hotel may finally be set to open

The hotel has never opened, and decades of delays has been plagued by rumours that the building may not even be structurally sound.

If nothing else, it at least has a new propaganda sign: 'Rocket Power Nation.'

The walls around the hotel came down on as the North marked the anniversary of the Korean War armistice.

The day after Thursday's anniversary, North Korea test-launched its latest intercontinental ballistic missile, which experts believe demonstrated that the state's weapons can now theoretically reach most of the United States.

Landmark: The building of the Ryugyong Hotel began in 1987, but despite 30 years of construction, the hotel has yet to welcome a single guest

'Rocket Power Nation': When the walls came down on Thursday, they revealed two broad new walkways leading to the building and the big red propaganda sign declaring that North Korea is a leading rocket power

For more than a week leading up to the anniversary, a major holiday in North Korea, 'soldier-builders' at the site in central Pyongyang were clearly visible behind the walls, along with heavy equipment for digging and brightly colored propaganda billboards that are a staple at North Korean construction sites, intended to boost morale.

Rumors, almost always unfounded, of plans to once and for all finish the hotel project are something of a parlor game among Pyongyang watchers. And it remains to be seen if the current work on the Ryugyong is intended to be a step toward actually finishing the long-stalled project or, more likely, an effort to make better use of the land around it.

But it's not surprising that work to do something with the idle landmark would begin. Pyongyang has been undergoing massive redevelopment since Kim assumed power when his father died in late 2011.

At Kim's orders, several major high-rise areas have been completed, including one with a 70-story residence and dozens of other tall buildings in the capital's 'Ryomyong,' or 'dawn,' district in April. Pyongyang also has a new international airport, a massive sci-tech complex with a main building shaped like a giant atom, and many other recreational and educational facilities.

Long time coming: A woman walks past the site of the Ryugyong Hotel in 1990, the sign in red reads 'Let's all together struggle heroically!'

Danger: The day after the walls around the hotel came down, North Korea test-launched its second intercontinental ballistic missile, which experts believe demonstrated that the North's weapons can now theoretically reach most of the United States

How Kim can afford to pay for the apparent construction boom and his significantly accelerated testing of multimillion-dollar missiles is a mystery, but has led many sanctions advocates to point the finger at China, by far North Korea's biggest trading partner, for not doing enough to turn the economic screws on its neighbor.

From a distance, the glassy, greenish-blue Ryugyong looks like it's ready for business. But it is believed to be far from complete inside and possibly even structurally unsound.

Work on the building started in 1987 while Kim's grandfather Kim Il Sung, North Korea's founder and 'eternal president,' was still alive. It was supposed to open in 1989 and would have been the world's tallest hotel - surpassing another in Singapore that was built by a South Korean company.

But a severe economic crash and famines in the 1990s left North Korea in no position to pump funds into the hotel's construction, and it stayed little more than an embarrassing concrete shell for well over a decade before Egypt's Orascom Group - which was also key in establishing the North's cellphone system - helped pay for work to complete the building's shiny exterior in 2011.

Questions remain about whether it is structurally sound enough to ever operate as a hotel or office building.

Officials have offered no information regarding their plans for its future.
A teenager is in a coma after falling four storeys from an apartment building in Perth.

Noah Bahigwa was scaling a building in the city's west early Saturday morning after his friends failed to answer the door to let him in.

The 16-year-old attempted the climb to the sixth floor of the Mounts Bay Road Apartment Hotel complex in wet and slippery conditions at 1:30am before falling.

He is in a critical condition at Royal Perth Hospital.

Noah Bahigwa is in a coma after falling from the fourth floor of a Perth apartment building

The 16-year-old attempted the climb to the sixth floor of the Mounts Bay Road Apartment Hotel complex in the wet and slippery conditions at 1:30am before falling

Confronting images show Mr Bahigwa with several tubes to help him breathe and eat while in the coma.

The 16-year-old reportedly climbed the building to reach his friend's apartment, but soon realised he was on the wrong side of the complex. He was with another friend at the time of the accident.

While the pair attempted to climb back down from the sixth floor, Mr Bahigwa slipped and fell to the ground.

Mr Bahigwa slipped and fell four storeys early Saturday morning from the Mounts Bay Road Apartment Hotel complex

He was on the fourth storey when he fell.

Images taken of the scene show a broken railing with what appears to be hand marks. It is not known whether the damage was caused by a falling Mr Bahingwa.

His family are holding an around-the-clock vigil at his bedside.

Mr Bahigwa's brother, Glory, told the West Australian Noah is 'being given the best possible care'.
It may still be pitch black outside but 4.05am is the moment when millions of Britain's worriers wake up concerned about their health, according to a new report yesterday.

For the latest research shows that Brits are becoming a nation of night time worriers with more than three fifths of the population - that's over 32million adults - waking up in the middle of the night thinking about a health concern that has not been checked off of their to-do list.

Overdue dental check-ups, losing weight and tackling stress are top health tasks keeping Britain awake, according to new data from Bupa Health Clinics.

It may still be pitch black outside but 4.05am is the moment when millions of Britain's worriers wake up concerned about their health (file image)

The research identified 4.05am as the most common time for a 'health wakeup call', and it's overdue dental check-ups (25%), losing weight (23%) and talking to someone about stress or a mental health issue (20%) that are disturbing the country's sleep the most.

Booking a GP appointment for a niggling symptom and getting a general health check-up complete the top five concerns, according to the research by Bupa Health Clinics, which surveyed over 4,000 people across the UK.

Worryingly, a fifth of Britons admit that general health tasks are the least likely area of 'life' to be checked off the to-do list, being frequently delayed instead.

People are more likely to complete tasks related to work, their finances or relationships instead; meaning that paying in a cheque, asking for a pay-rise and even arranging a date will be prioritised over booking a GP appointment or scheduling in a health check.

However, it's not hearing the potential outcome of medical appointments that's putting people off, as almost half of respondents agree that there is just always something 'more important' to deal with in their busy lives.

Dr Luke James, Medical Director at Bupa Health Clinics said: 'This research highlights that despite de-prioritising them, lingering health tasks can quickly go from being a simple reminder to book an appointment, to enough to keep you up at night - 59% percent of respondents struggle to nod off when they go to bed and are instead worrying about not giving their health the attention it needs.

'The issue is that persistent worrying can lead to further problems - blood pressure can go up and people can start suffering from things like heart palpitations. These are potentially more serious conditions, which can be much more difficult to bounce back from. It's time for the nation to act, tick those actions off the list, and worry less.'

Losing weight is one of the top health tasks that get Britons waking up in a panic (file image)

However, health-related 'to-dos' popping into our minds is not confined to the early hours - other common worry-moments are during the nation's down time (19%), in the shower (7%) and on the daily commute (6%).

The research also revealed that people in Belfast are the most likely to be woken up by a nagging health related task, followed by people from Cardiff, then Bristolians, those from Edinburgh and lastly the residents of Glasgow.

From a more national perspective, health-related tasks pop into our heads an average of five times a week with the top ten concerns being:

1. A dental check up;

2. Losing weight;

3. Talking to someone about stress or a mental health concern;

4. Booking a GP appointment about a niggling symptom;

5. A general health assessment;

6. Treating aches and pains;

7. Getting a flu jab;

8. Getting a mole checked;

9. Giving up smoking;

10. Treating a skin related issue like psoriasis or eczema.
A man was rushed to the hospital and is in critical condition after he attempted to flip off a bridge in Washington.

On Saturday, several teens were at an abandoned bridge near Spokane Falls Community College in Spokane, Washington when they were approached by a man who saw them jumping into the water.

Two teens, Jacob Rosenberg and Marcus Olin, said the man claimed he could do a backflip into the water.

On Saturday, several teens were at an abandoned bridge near Spokane Falls Community College in Spokane, Washington jumping into the water

But when he tried to do it, the man over-rotated and hit the water hard enough to be knocked unconscious.

Luckily, several of the teenagers were said to be trained lifeguards. They quickly jumped into the water after the man.

'We thought that he would be okay because he would start breathing again,' Rosenberg said to KREM2.

But when he tried to do it, the man over-rotated and hit the water hard enough to be knocked unconscious

'But there was so much blood blocking him from breathing he would eventually stop and he'd be gone.'

The teens brought the man back to life four times using CPR before local authorities arrived at the scene.

Olin said: 'It was definitely a scary experience to see someone lose their life and then come back to life.'

Spokane Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer added that they were able to get the man's heart back beating using a defibrillator.

He was taken to the ICU at Sacred Heart and was said to be in critical condition.
Police have discovered flight details for a Jakarta to Sydney flight as investigations continue into the arrest of two father and son duos over an alleged plot to blow up a plane.

The ISIS-inspired plot allegedly planned by the Lebanese-Australian duos, was foiled by counter terror police during a series of dramatic raids across Sydney on Saturday.

As police continue to search properties linked to the two families, a letter also found in a bin at one home in Lakemba, in the city's west, had links to another home raided in Surry Hills, the Daily Telegraph reports.

While the full extent of the alleged ISIS-inspired conspiracy is not yet known, so far it is believed the men - including the two father's aged in their 40s - planned to gas all passengers on board before detonating the bomb.

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A letter found in a bin at one home in Lakemba (pictured), in west Sydney, had links to another home raided in Surry Hills

Police have discovered flight details for a Jakarta to Sydney flight as investigations continue in the wake of counter terror raids over the weekend

Two father and son duos are reportedly the four men accused of plotting to bring down a plane departing from Sydney with a homemade bomb

Pictured: One of the men detained by police is led away with a towel protecting his identity

Airlines fly from Jakarta to Australia daily, with direct flights to all capital cities.

According to The Australian the four, who are all related, allegedly made a 'non-traditional' device designed to kill passengers with a sulphur-based gas.

A kitchen mincer is believed to be among the everyday items the alleged attackers used to form a lethal device, according to the Herald Sun.

The apparatus was reportedly 'ready to go' as counter-terrorism police stormed properties across the city's west and inner-east.

Police officers rummage through a selection of rubbish found in a bin following a search at the Lakemba home

While the full extent of the alleged ISIS-inspired conspiracy is not yet known, police continue to search the properties at Lakemba, in Sydney's west, and the inner-city suburb of Surry Hills

A policeman shines a light on evidence seized during the searches at the alleged terror-related properties

A kitchen mincer is believed to be among the everyday items the alleged attackers used to form a lethal device

Police prepare to record evidence found during an extensive search of the Lakemba home

One of the accused is pictured with a bandaged head following his arrest on Saturday night

Australian Federal Police at the check-in at Sydney Airport on Sunday as part of heightened security measures across the country

The accused, whose names are known to Daily Mail Australia but not yet confirmed by police, were arrested in the simultaneous raids.

Australian Federal Police, ASIO and NSW Police jointly carried out the operation on Saturday in Surry Hills, Lakemba, Wiley Park and Punchbowl.

One of the men was reportedly dragged from his Lakemba home wearing only a towel, while his father was arrested at a property in neighbouring Punchbowl.

The other father and son duo are understood to have been arrested in separate raids.

Police standing by at Sydney Airport following the dramatic raids on Saturday afternoon

Police are seen continuing their investigations in the aftermath of the Sydney terror raids

Long queues and waits were expected following a thwarted alleged terror threat on Saturday

The counter-terror raid in Surry Hills (pictured) took place just metres from the Redfern Mosque (pictured)

One man draped in a bed sheet with a heavily-bandaged head was seen being led into an ambulance outside a Surry Hills property.

The man appeared to be distressed and bleeding as he walked to a waiting ambulance, Nine News reported.

He could be heard saying 'they bashed me.' When asked by who, he answered 'police'.

When asked why he was being arrested, the man mumbled 'I don't know nothing'.

Shocked neighbours have said the family living in the property were 'perfectly nice and normal people'.

'We knew them to say hello to and they seemed nice,' said one woman, who didn't want to be identified.

The woman, who lives at the back of the property, said an elderly couple lived in the home and had adult children.

AUSTRALIAN TERROR PLOT FOILED: THE ALLEGATIONS What was the plot? The group allegedly planned to use an improvised device to bring down a commercial plane in an Islamist-inspired conspiracy. Police say they have limited information so far about the date, location or specific strategy involved. What happened during the raids? NSW and Federal Police swooped on five properties in the Sydney suburbs of Surry Hills, Lakemba, Wiley Park and Punchbowl on Saturday afternoon and found a 'considerable' amount of material. But police won't say if they discovered an actual explosive device. Could it have happened? AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin said they treated the plot as credible and there was an intention and 'quite possibly a capability' to carry it out. However, he also said there was no reason to believe security at Australian airports has been jeopardised. What happens now? The arrested men haven't yet been charged. Police say their searches at four of the properties are ongoing and could take 'many more days' as they gather enough evidence to support charges. What's changing at airports? Travellers have been told to arrive two hours earlier to make allowances for increased scrutiny. They may notice 'intensified' security procedures, but some bolstered arrangements will happen behind the scenes. Travellers have also been asked to limit baggage to make things easier. Advertisement

Forensic teams (pictured) and the bomb squad attended the scene during the Surry Hills raid

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has told the public not to panic and to inform police (pictured) of any suspicious activity

Police said raids took place in the suburbs of Surry Hills, Lakemba, Punchbowl, and Wiley Park

Residents living near the Surry Hills home, just metres from the Redfern Mosque, were evacuated while the bomb squad worked to remove the 'explosive device'.

One neighbour of a man arrested in Wiley Park told The Daily Telegraph the accused would nurture stray cats in the area.

'He and his brother would feed about 15 cats and when we complained that they were bringing ticks and diseases into the block, they would walk off,' they said.

Relatives of two of the accused spoke out following the arrests, saying they 'love Australia'.

The four men arrested for their alleged role in the conspiracy can be detained for up to a week while investigators comb through evidence.

A magistrate ruled police can hold the men for an 'additional period of detention' under the Crimes Act while investigations continue.

'This recognises that terrorism investigations are inherently complex and that there can be legitimate reasons for extended periods of detention for suspects in such matters,' an AFP statement said.

Airports across Australia are experiencing long queues, with frustrated travellers vented their anger on social media

Passengers waiting after long queues formed following heightened security at airports

Police on the scene in the Lakemba area following the aftermath of the Sydney terror raids which resulted in four arrests

A number of 'items of interest' were seized in the raids and searches continued on Sunday, with AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin suggesting they may take 'many more days'.

The plan involved an improvised device and was Islamist-inspired, he added.

'We've taken this threat very seriously,' Mr Colvin said.

'You should infer that we think this was credible and there was an intention, and there was quite possibly a capability as well.'

Airports across Australia are experiencing long queues after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull warned of heightened security measures across the nation.

He said the raids were a 'major joint counter-terrorism operation' and reminded the Australian people 'the threat of terrorism is very real'.

'The office of transport security has advised security screening will take longer, and travellers should arrive at terminals at least two hours before flights to allow ample time for screening,' he said on Sunday.

Travellers turned to social media posting photos of massive queues leading into customs at Sydney Airport and passengers tweeting to not underestimate the wait.

'Not sure I agree with the ''creation'' of a mass gathering ''before'' security screening -closed screening stations,' one traveller tweeted.

Police officers continue their investigation in Lakemba following raids on Saturday afternoon

Police found an 'explosive device' and part of Cleveland Street (pictured) in Surry Hills was cordoned off

'Long queues at Sydney Airport - paranoid security state in full regalia,' another wrote.

Some passengers were warning others to add an extra 30 minute travel time onto the already extended period.

'T3 Sydney airport a mess. If you are flying come very early,' another social media user wrote.

Prime Minister Turnbull reiterated the raids were aimed at stopping an alleged terror plot to 'bring down' a plane and said security screening will take longer over the coming days.

'Some of the measures will be obvious to the public, some will not be - those travelling should go about their business with confidence,' Mr Turnbull said.

Police are pictured as they continue their investigations into the terror raids on Sunday

Australian Federal Police are pictured on Sunday in the aftermath of the Sydney terror raids

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin (pictured) said details of the alleged terror plot are still emerging

'The office of transport security has advised security screening will take longer, and travellers should arrive at terminals at least two hours before flights to allow ample time for screening.

'They should limit the amount of carry-on and checked baggage, as this will help to ensure that security screening is efficient.'

Virgin Australia released a statement on the extra security.

'Passengers should arrive at least 2 hours before domestic flights and 3 hours before international flights to allow time for security screening,' the statement read.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (pictured) said for those travelling on planes to allow extra time for heightened security measures on Sunday

Australian Federal Police are seen at a property in Lakemba in Sydney's west on Sunday

Cleveland Street was cordoned off and shouting and screaming was heard as a man was led away by police

'Passengers should limit the amount of carry-on and checked baggage they travel with as this will help to ensure security screening is efficient.'

New South Wales Police confirmed that the four men in custody were yet to be charged.

Australia's terror threat remains at probable.

Prime Minister Turnbull released a statement on the raids, confirming the involvement of the Australian Federal Police, ASIO and NSW Police.

Australian Federal Police on Sunday leaving a property after the dramatic terror raids

Cleveland Street (pictured) was closed between Elizabeth St and Young St, and Goodlet Lane was also closed

Residents living near the Surry Hills home were evacuated while the bomb squad worked to remove the 'explosive device' and forensics (pictured) examined the scene

'These operations are designed to disrupt and prevent plans to undertake terrorist attacks in Australia,' the statement said.

'My number one priority, and that of my government, is the safety and security of all Australians.

'The public should be reassured that our security and intelligence agencies are working tirelessly to keep us safe.'

Mr Turnbull urged people to call the National Security Hotline on 1800 132 400 if they see or hear anything suspicious.

Goodlet Lane in Surry Hills (pictured) was closed while police examined the scene of the raid

Police involved in the raid were acting to prevent an alleged plot to bring down a plane with a 'bomb'

An 'explosive device' was discovered at the Surry Hills (pictured) property and deactivated by a bomb squad that was called to the scene
A Brisbane woman who killed her Adelaide grandfather went to his home wearing rubber gloves and armed with a knife, a court has heard.

Brittney Jade Dwyer, 19, has pleaded guilty to murdering 81-year-old Robert Whitwell at his Adelaide home in August last year.

In sentencing submissions, the South Australian Supreme Court on Monday was told the killing was 'almost sociopathic in style'.

Prosecutor Jim Pearce also objected to the proposed tendering of a psychiatric report prepared about Dwyer because it raised issues that had not come out in any other material before the court, including Dwyer's police interview.

Brittney Dwyer, a Brisbane woman who killed her grandfather at his Adelaide home in 2016, was wearing gloves and holding a knife when she attacked the 81-year-old, a court has heard (pictured together)

Prosecutors said Dwyer and a friend drove from Queensland to Adelaide in April last year and spent days 'observing' Mr Whitwell's suburban property (pictured)

Dwyer's friend Shelby Lee Angie Holmes (pictured at court on Monday) pleaded guilty to home invasion after she attempted to steal $30,000 from Mr Whitwell

Dwyer has been described as 'cruel and deceitful' and feigned innocence after her grandfather's death.

The young woman was forced to listen to Mr Whitwell's brothers and her own parents victim impact statements in June in South Australia's Supreme Court.

Geoffrey Whitwell described welcoming Dwyer into his home after she travelled to South Australia following her grandfather's death, Adelaide Now reported.

'We welcomed you into our home, embraced you and comforted you, all the while you wept with your fake tears and made comments like 'my poor poppa',' he said.

'I now know that I had been embracing and comforting my brother's killer. You are a master of deception, I will give you that.

'I will never forgive you. You're a cruel, deceitful person with no regard for human life  I believe you are dangerous and evil and deserve the highest penalty.'

Dwyer's friend Shelby Lee Angie Holmes pleaded guilty to home invasion after she attempted to steal $30,000 from Mr Whitwell.

Tonya Dwyer, the victim's daughter, only addressed Holmes' actions in her statement by calling her 'unbelievable.'

Dwyer's father merely asked the court to impose an appropriate prison sentence on his daughter the ABC reported.

Dwyer, 19, has pleaded guilty to murdering Robert Whitwell

In sentencing submissions, the South Australian Supreme Court on Monday was told the killing was 'almost sociopathic in style'

Prosecutors said Dwyer and Holmes had driven from Queensland to Adelaide on April 30 and spent days 'observing' Mr Whitwell's suburban property.

Police said the pair were hoping to steal from him, and discussed their interactions with Mr Whitwell over text messages.

When Holmes admitted the 81-year-old was 'lovely' Dwyer said: 'Don't get attached to him he might have to die.'

The court previously heard more than 19,000 text messages, which were sent over a two year period between Dwyer and Holmes, had been recovered during investigations.

Mr Whitwell's body was found inside his Craigmore home, north of Adelaide, on August 8, 2016.

Another of Dwyer's friends Bernadette Burns, 21, has been charged with murder but she maintains her innocence.
China has hit back against Donald Trump, after the U.S. President tweeted he was 'very disappointed' in Beijing after North Korea's latest missile test.

Taking to Twitter, the President claimed China has been 'allowed' to benefit financially from U.S. trade, but despite this had done 'nothing' to help tackle the issue of North Korea.

Beijing responded in a statement today that U.S.-China trade had nothing to do with North Korea, and that China was not the cause of the nuclear issue, nor solely responsible for finding a solution.

At it again: Donald Trump took to Twitter once more to hit out at China, calming Beijing has been 'allowed' to benefit from U.S. trade, but is not doing enough to tackle North Korea

'Doing nothing': A military parade marks the 90th anniversary of China's People's Liberation Army on Sunday, as the nation was criticized by Trump for not taking action on North Korea

North Korea conducted another successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile that proved its ability to strike the U.S. mainland, drawing a sharp warning from Trump and a rebuke from China.

However, the U.S. president did not consider Beijing's response adequate, and tweeted yesterday: 'I am very disappointed in China.

'Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk.

'We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!'

Hitting back: China's Foreign Ministry said the issues with North Korea did not arise in China and that all sides need to work for a solution

Chinese soldiers carry the flags of the Communist Party, the state, and the People's Liberation Army during a military parade the day after North Korea announced their missile launch

Launch: This photo distributed by the North Korean government on Saturday, allegedly shows the launch of a Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile at an undisclosed location

This was followed by a statement during a Monday press conference, where Trump said: 'We'll handle North Korea. It will be handled. We [United States] handle everything.'

China's Foreign Ministry responded to Trump today, saying the North Korean nuclear issue did not arise because of China and that everyone needed to work together to seek a resolution.

'All parties should have a correct understanding of this,' it said, adding the international community widely recognised China's efforts to seek a resolution.

The essence of Sino-U.S. trade is mutual benefit and win-win, with a vast amount of facts proving the healthy development of business and trade ties is good for both countries, the ministry added.

Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Qian Keming, weighed in too, telling a news conference there was no link between the North Korea issue and China-U.S. trade.

'We think the North Korea nuclear issue and China-US trade are issues that are in two completely different domains. They aren't related. They should not be discussed together,' Qian said.

Moscow also weighed in on the issue later on Monday, backing Beijing in critique of Donald Trump and the United States.

Russia's foreign ministry accused the United States of trying to 'shift responsibility' for developments on the Korean peninsula onto Russia and China.

'We view as groundless attempts undertaken by the U.S. and a number of other countries to shift responsibility to Russia and China, almost blaming Moscow and Beijing for indulging the missile and nuclear ambitions of the DPRK (North Korea),' the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.

China, with which North Korea does the large majority of its trade, has repeatedly said it strictly follows U.N. resolutions on North Korea and has denounced unilateral U.S. sanctions as unhelpful.

Attack: Tweets by U.S. President Donald Trump accusing China of doing 'nothing' in response to North Korea's nuclear programme

Nikki Haley, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, said in a statement China must decide if it is willing to back imposing stronger U.N. sanctions on North Korea over Friday night's long-range missile test, the North's second this month.

Any new U.N. Security Council resolution 'that does not significantly increase the international pressure on North Korea is of no value', Haley said, adding that Japan and South Korea also needed to do more.

Abe told reporters after his conversation with Trump that repeated efforts by the international community to find a peaceful solution to the North Korean issue had yet to bear fruit in the face of Pyongyang's unilateral 'escalation'.

'International society, including Russia and China, need to take this seriously and increase pressure,' Abe said. He said Japan and the United States would take steps towards concrete action but did not give details.

Abe and Trump did not discuss military action against North Korea, nor what would constitute the crossing of a 'red line' by Pyongyang, Deputy Chief Cabinet spokesman Koichi Hagiuda told reporters.

'Pyongyang is determined to develop its nuclear and missile programme and does not care about military threats from the U.S. and South Korea,' state-run Chinese tabloid the Global Times said on Monday.

'How could Chinese sanctions change the situation?' said the paper, which is published by the ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily.

China wants both balanced trade with the United States and lasting peace on the Korean peninsula, its official Xinhua news agency added in a commentary.

'However, to realise these goals, Beijing needs a more cooperative partner in the White House, not one who piles blame on China for the United States' failures,' it added.

The United States flew two supersonic B-1B bombers over the Korean peninsula in a show of force on Sunday in response to the missile test and the July 3 launch of the 'Hwasong-14' rocket, the Pentagon said. The bombers took off from a U.S. air base in Guam and were joined by Japanese and South Korean fighter jets during the exercise.

'North Korea remains the most urgent threat to regional stability,' Pacific Air Forces commander General Terrence J. O'Shaughnessy said in a statement.

'If called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal, and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing.'
A couple have spoken out about how they will spend the rest of their lives raising their three grandchildren after their parents were found dead on a Florida highway from a fentanyl overdose.

The bodies of Daniel and Heather Kelsey were found near their still running SUV on the Interstate 4 near DeLand, Florida on New Year's Eve.

Their three children - Joey, 5, Aiden, 2, and Nicholas, 1 - were found by police strapped in their car seats watching a movie.

Heather's father Mike Belisle, 58, and her step-mother Lynne, 56, took the boys in after the parent's shock death.

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Mike Belisle, 58, says he will spend the rest of his life raising his three grandchildren after his daughter Heather Kelsey and her husband Daniel died of an overdose in Florida

'We're going to spend the rest of our lives raising kids because of drugs,' Mike said in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel.

'Me and Lynne, in a perfect world, we'd love to just be grandparents. But we're not the only ones out there having to do this. This is an epidemic.

'I'm going to be 75 when the youngest one is 18.'

'People like Daniel and Heather... people like them need to be made aware of the damage and carnage left behind when they make foolish choices. They are not in this all by themselves.'

Joey, 5, Aiden, 2, and Nicholas, 1, are being raised by their grandparents Mike and Lynne Belisle after their parents fatally overdosed in front of them on New Year's Eve

The bodies of Daniel and Heather Kelsey were found near their still running SUV on the Interstate 4 near DeLand, Florida on New Year's Eve

Dashcam footage from the highway patrol officer shows the boys being carried from the car while their parents were dead on the ground

Recently released dashcam footage from the highway patrol officer who found the couple shows Heather slumped by the outside of the car, while Daniel's body is in the grass nearby.

The officer beeped his horn, yelled out 'hello' and shook the couple's legs thinking they may have been asleep, according to News6.

Music from the car's DVD player was blaring when the officer approached the car.

The boys were removed from the vehicle as their parents were dead on the ground. One of the children could be heard screaming 'Daddy' several times.

The medical examiner's toxicology results took five months to reveal the couple had died from the potent synthetic opioid fentanyl.

Lynne Belisle is pictured above with one of her grandchildren. She and her husband have been raising them in Florida since January

The couple, who had been married for six years, had appeared to turn a corner in relation to their drug addiction in the month before their deaths

The couple, who had been married for six years, had appeared to turn a corner in relation to their drug addiction in the month before their deaths.

They had recently moved into a new rental home and had both secured jobs. The couple had hosted Christmas for Heather's parents the week before they died.

Heather's father said he thinks they may have decided to 'treat themselves' to the drugs given they had been clean for several weeks.

He said Heather and Daniel 'did something unfathomable to me with their kids in the car.'

'They did love them. They are very loving children - that didn't come from nowhere,' Mike added.
In the latest video to be released proving you shouldn't leave three children alone together, an adorable triplet trio has been caught in act of destroying the family photo collection.

'So, I've been called in the playroom where the boys are causing havoc with all of Mummy's photos,' says the father-of-five, who was presumably tasked with keeping the tots under control.

The footage, shot on July 30 near Melbourne, Australia, shows Christian, Jordan and Carter laughing as they ruin a stack of their mothers' old photos.

Scroll down to watch the video

The father-of-five was in another room when he realised what the mischievous trio had done

'And there's Jordan, acting innocent,' narrates the father, as the child wearing a grey jumpsuit tires to distance himself from the havoc his brother has caused.

'And Christian is in the middle of it!' the father calls, as the seated child throws a toy away from a stack of Kodak moments.

'What are you guys doing!' the father calls, as ringleader Christian giggles and crushes family memories with his bare hands.

'No! What are you doing?' he asks Jordan, who laughs and claps his hands together, spurring on his brother's laughter

Meanwhile, Carter decided to make a dash for freedom, folded photographs in hand, as Christians laughs.

Carter has decided to fold the photos in half before trying to run out of the room with them

Ringleader Christian (pictured) sits on top of a pile of his mother'd old photos and negatives

'This is not funny!' their father calls, as Jordan starts dancing on top of a pile of ruined photos and clapping his hands together.

'Jesus,' the father can be heard muttering as Christian rolls what is presumably a treasured memory into a telescope.

Jordan, meanwhile, has decided to try and make his escape as Carter eggs him on with giggles and applause.

Christian (left) has rolled a photo into a telescope, egged on by the clapping of Carter (right)

On closer investigation, it appears that the father and so-called authority figure in the video can barely hold back his own laughter.

'I think they enjoy getting caught a bit too much.." their father wrote online.

No word yet on how the triplets' mother responded to this egregious breach of protocol.

Five times the trouble! From left: Jordan, 1, Carter, 1, Orlando, 3, Sophia, 5 and Christian, 1

'They pretty much do things like this all the time,' their father told The Daily Mail, who admitted to mixing the boys up all the time.

In addition to the (identical) triplets, the family also have a four-year-old daughter, Sophia and a son, Orlando, who just had his third birthday.

'My wife couldn't move for 45 minutes in shock after we found out we were having triplets after already having two children,' he said.
A 24-hour support line for university sexual assault victims is being launched ahead of the release of a national report on campus abuse.

Universities Australia is launching the interim phone line the day before a survey looking into the scale of sexual assault and harassment among students is made public by the Australian Human Rights Commission on Tuesday.

ANU vice chancellor Brian Schmidt expects the results to prompt an influx of reports for those who have never shared their own experiences with sexual abuse, the ABC reported.

A 24-hour support line for university sexual assault victims is being launched ahead of the release of a national report on campus abuse (stock picture)

In September, a student made claims Sydney University (pictured) was not supportive and even suspended her from her course after her studies fell apart as a result of sexual abuse

He said data may be harrowing for students who have been impacted by sexual abuse and warns it will likely be confronting.

'The results will be shocking, and we should be shocked,' he said.

Despite the results revealing insight that may be distressing students may likely use the new information as a prompt to speak out.

'We know the release of the survey is likely to see a greater number of students seeking counselling support,' Universities Australia chief executive Belinda Robinson said on Monday.

'We expect the results will be challenging for everyone. But particularly so for students, victims and survivors who have told their stories as part of this important project.'

University of Sydney student Katie Thorburn (pictured) made a report after being raped at a party last year

Another university student, Sarah, said she was also raped on campus

In October last year three young women shared their stories of how they were allegedly raped at Australian universities - two when they were just 18.

They were some of 575 students who were sexually assaulted on campus in the past five years, with only six alleged perpetrators expelled.

The previous month, two women who were raped on their university campus shared insight into their horrific experiences as they called for more support from the universities.

University of Sydney student Katie Thorburn FIRST made a report after being raped at a party in 2015.

Another university student, Sarah, said she was also raped on campus.

Despite the results revealing insight that may be distressing university students may likely use the new information as a prompt to speak out

Ms Thorburn said Sydney University was not supportive and even suspended her from her course after her studies fell apart as a result of the attack.

The 1800 572 224 support line will operate from 9am on Monday until November 30 in addition to universities' existing phone and face-to-face counselling services.

All of Australia's 39 universities took part in the AHRC's report being released on Tuesday.

'The results will help us to combat sexual harassment and sexual assault and to improve support for students,' Ms Robinson said.

Former commission president Gillian Triggs last year said she hoped the data would shine a light on disturbing initiation rituals, the experience of international students, and the rates of sexual assaults at universities compared to wider communities.

National domestic violence helpline: 1800 737 732 or 1800RESPECT. In an emergency call triple-zero.
A New Zealander accused of killing a Brisbane man by pushing him into the path of an oncoming truck during a road rage scuffle has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter.

Tamate Henry Heke allegedly pushed Shane Merrigan, 50, in front of a truck on the Gateway Motorway at Eight Mile Plains on December 1, 2015.

Mr Heke pleaded not guilty to one count of manslaughter as his Brisbane Supreme Court trial began on Monday.

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Tamate Henry Heke has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter after a 2016 road rage altercation

He further pleaded not guilty to an alternative charge of unlawful striking causing death.

Mr Heke, 36, appeared in the Brisbane Magistrates' Court in December 2015, originally accused of deliberately pushing Merrigan, into the path of a truck on

He told Queensland Police he had been tailgated by Mr Merrigan, who also made rude gestures and mirrored his lane changes, according to the Courier Mail.

Mr Heke leaves the Brisbane Magistrate's Court after pleading not guilty to manslaughter

50-year-old man Shane Merrigan hit by a truck after a road rage incident in December 2015

The newspaper reports Mr Heke said Mr Merrigan then pulled over in front of him, which was when the two men got out of their cars and a physical confrontation started.

It is alleged that Merrigan was 'deliberately' pushed into the path of a truck when the confrontation between the men spun out of control.

Mr Heke was due to get married the week after the incident and was 'devastated' by the incident, defense lawyer Adam Magill told reporters after the December 2015 hearing.

All but one laneway was closed on the Gateway Motorway following the fatal accident in 2015

Before the 2015 incident, Heke had ' never really been in trouble with the police before so it's devastating for him and his family', Magill said.

'They're devastated, it's going to be a long road.'

The 36-year-old's fiancee and other family members had flown to Brisbane to support him after the original incident

Mr Heke's lawyer Adam Magill speaks outside Brisbane Magistrates Court in December 2015
A disgusting discharge of black sewage seeped into Niagara Falls Saturday afternoon as shocked tourists cringed from the putrid smell.

The foul-smelling black gunk was first mistaken as an oil leak by Pat Proctor, the vice president for Rainbow Air Inc, which provides helicopter tours over the falls.

Proctor was one of the first to spot the gunk pouring into the Niagara River. He told Buffalo News that he was 'praying it wasn't an oil leak'.

'It looked like something out of a sci-fi movie,' he added. Proctor said he then called Mayor Paul Dyster.

A disgusting discharge of black sewage seeped into Niagara Falls Saturday afternoon as shocked tourists cringed from the putrid smell. The Maid of the Mist tweeted this photo showing the disgusting discharge directly below their ship as tourists were boarding

The foul-smelling black gunk was first mistaken as an oil leak by Pat Proctor, the vice president for Rainbow Air Inc, which provides helicopter tours over the falls. Proctor was one of the first to spot the gunk pouring into the Niagara River (left and right)

The sewage dump came from the Niagara Falls Waste Water Treatment Plant. Officials at the plant said they had the proper discharge paperwork to release the muck into the river, according to Buffalo News.

But their timing of the release was all off as several business owners and tourists were left shocked and disgusted by the smell that engulfed visitors at Niagara Falls State Park around 4pm on Saturday.



'We were shocked,' Nick Melson, Niagara Falls city administrator, told the newspaper. 'We were caught off guard. We had to do some digging ourselves to find out what was going on. And we are very upset that we weren't notified.'

'We're very upset with the lack of communication and we're going to rectify that with all the stakeholders,' Melson said.

The Maid of the Mist also took to Twitter trying to figure out what happened.

'@PDyster: Why the smelly black discharge into Niagara River on very busy tourist weekend? @NiagaraFallsUSA @NYstateparks,' the company tweeted.

'@PDyster: Why the smelly black discharge into Niagara River on very busy tourist weekend? @NiagaraFallsUSA @NYstateparks,' the Maid of the Mist tourism company tweeted

The sewage dump came from the Niagara Falls Waste Water Treatment Plant. Officials at the plant said they had the proper discharge paperwork to release the muck into the river

By 8am Sunday morning, the water cloud had dissipated. Officials said the sewage changed the water color because of the sediment that was released from the bottom of the basin. The sediment contains residue from the black carbon filters that normally trap small particles

The company attached a photo of showing the disgusting discharge directly below their ship as tourists were boarding.

The Water Board apologized to residents and tourists for causing any alarm in a statement and assured that there would be better communication in the future.

By 8am Sunday morning, the water cloud had dissipated.

'We don't normally do this during tourist season,' Water Board Executive Director Rolfe Porter told the Buffalo News.

He said one of the sewage plant's five sediment filtration basins was taken offline and flushed out in preparation for contractors coming in Monday to begin work to upgrade the basin.

The maintenance on Monday should last between two and four hours. Porter said the sewage changed the water color because of the sediment that was released from the bottom of the basin.

The sediment contains residue from the black carbon filters that normally trap small particles.

Porter also confirmed that the the sewage plant did not exceed the limits of the sewage discharge permits issued to the Water Board.
Two men and a teenager have pleaded guilty to plotting a terrorist attack on government buildings, including police headquarters, in Sydney almost three years ago.

Jibryl Almaouie and Sulayman Khalid on Monday in the NSW Supreme Court in Parramatta pleaded guilty to conspiring to carry out an act of terror in late 2014.

Another person under 18, who cannot be named, also pleaded guilty to the plan which involved carrying out attacks on government buildings with firearms.

Two men and a teenager have pleaded guilty to plotting a terrorist attack on government buildings, including police headquarters, in Sydney almost three years ago (pictured is the police raids in 2014)

Jibryl Almaouie and Sulayman Khalid (pictured on SBS) on Monday in the NSW Supreme Court in Parramatta pleaded guilty to conspiring to carry out an act of terror in late 2014

The trio that pleaded guilty on Monday did not stand when Justice Geoff Bellew entered the courtroom (pictured is Sulayman Khalid during a previous court appearance)

The two men and the teen who pleaded guilty on Monday are among six involved in the plot. The other three pleaded guilty earlier this year.

Three other men implicated in the plan, Mohammed Almarie, Farhad Said and Ibrahim Ghazzawi, all pleaded guilty in April to the lesser charge of knowingly making a document likely to facilitate a terrorist act.

The trio that pleaded guilty on Monday did not stand when Justice Geoff Bellew entered the courtroom. Neither did their families watching from the public gallery.

'Not guilty, oh sorry, I mean guilty,' Khalid said upon entering his plea to the charge.

Pictured are Jibryl Almaouie and his brother Mohamed Rashad Almaouie

Khalid and Almaouie were remanded in custody, while lawyers for the teen argued his strict bail should be continued, but Justice Bellew revoked it.

The teen smiled and blew a kiss to his family, who cried, as he was led away into custody.

The charge of conspiring to do acts in preparation of a terrorist act carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

The three are due to reappear for sentencing submissions in early October.
Officials believe they have found the remains of a man who went missing last month while he was searching for infamous hidden treasure.

Eric Ashby, 31, was rafting with three other people on the Arkansas River in Fremont County, Colorado on June 28 when the raft capsized.

His three friends survived, but Ashby did not and has been missing since. Search and rescue teams have been looking for him.

On Friday afternoon human remains were found 15 miles downstream from where he went missing, ABC 13 reported.

However, the remains have not yet been identified.

Officials believe they have found the remains of Eric Ashby, 31, (pictured) who went missing last month while he was searching for Forrest Fenn's notorious hidden treasure

Ashby moved to Colorado Springs in April 2016 to search for Fenn's treasure. He went missing on June 28 and on Friday officials found human remains. If authorities identify the remains as Ashby's, he will be the third person to have died while searching for Fenn's treasure

Ashby moved to Colorado Springs in April 2016 to search for treasure said to be worth $2million hidden in the Rocky Mountains by New Mexico art dealer and collector Forrest Fenn.

If officials identify the remains as Ashby's, he will be the third person to have died while searching for Fenn's treasure.

Ashby's sister, Lisa Albritton told Fox 21 she believes 'something sinister happened that day at the river'.

None of the three people who accompanied Ashby on the rafting trip have been charged with any crime, according to KRDO.

Two other men have died since 2016 while searching for Fenn's treasure, which he hid in 2010 inside a bronze treasure chest, which he claims contains 265 gold coins along with gems, rubies and hundreds of gold nuggets.

Randy Bilyeu, 54, disappeared along the Rio Grande River in January 2016 and Colorado pastor Paris Wallace, 52, went missing in June.

Two other men have died since 2016 while searching for Fenn's treasure since 2016. Randy Bilyeu, 54, (left) disappeared along the Rio Grande River in January 2016 and Colorado pastor Paris Wallace, 52, (right) went missing in June

Fenn hid his treasure 2010 inside a bronze treasure chest, which he claims contains 265 gold coins along with gems, rubies and hundreds of gold nuggets. He says the chest is Roman in appearance (similar shown above)

After authorities found both men dead in New Mexico, officials demanded that Fenn retrieves the treasure to bring an end to the 'nonsense and insanity'.

'He's putting lives at risk,' New Mexico's top law enforcement officer, State Police Chief Pete Kassetas said at the time.

Fenn himself said at the time he would consider it after he received hundreds of emails, but he did not.

The 86-year-old encourages readers to follow clues in his two books - Thrill of the Chase and Too Long For Walking - to find the treasure.

The author said he buried the goods in 2010 and that the treasure hunt is his way of encouraging families to get outdoors and spend time together.

New Mexico art dealer and collector Forrest Fenn, 86, (pictured) hid his treasure, which he says is worth $2million, in the Rocky Mountains in 2010

He encourages hunters to follow clues in his two books - Thrill of the Chase and Too Long For Walking - to find the treasure

He told DailyMail.com in June after Wallace went missing: 'It is terrible news that the man has gone missing. I pray that he will be found safe and well.

'If I were 10 years younger I would be out looking for him myself.

'It is unfortunate that hundreds of hunters and hikers are lost each year in our forests and waterways.'

In rules on a website about the hunt, he stipulates that readers should never attempt the search alone.
A father allegedly pointed a .45 calibre pistol at his four-year-old daughter and pulled the trigger before allowing her to play with the high-powered weapon.

The 32-year-old Revesby man was charged on Monday with six offences, including four counts of illegal firearm possession.

He is also facing charges of allowing an unauthorised person to possess firearm and production/possession of child abuse material (firearm).

A father allegedly pointed a .45 calibre pistol at his four-year-old daughter and pulled the trigger before allowing her to play with the high-powered weapon

During the investigation, police accessed mobile phone video footage which allegedly shows the man, sky-larking with one of the Colt .45 handguns, pointing it at his four-year-old daughter and pulling the trigger.

The weapon did not discharge.

The images also show the man allegedly pointing the shotgun at the phone camera.

Detectives seized a .25 calibre Walther TP-model pistol, two Colt 1911 45 calibre automatic pistols and a Bentley-brand 12-gauge shotgun from addresses at Revesby and Granville as part of their inquiries.

Officers from Strike Force Bowser, a NSW Terrorism Investigation Squad case relating to illegal firearms, allege further footage shows the child playing with the automatic pistol and pulling the trigger, without effect.

During the investigation, police accessed mobile phone video footage which allegedly shows the man, sky-larking with one of the handguns

Detectives seized a .25 calibre Walther TP-model pistol, two Colt 1911 45 calibre automatic pistols and a Bentley-brand 12-gauge shotgun

The investigation is not terror-related, but police have condemned the alleged behaviour.

'Allowing a child to play with a firearm of any kind is reprehensible and is a serious criminal offence,' Assistant Commissioner, Mark Murdoch, said.

The father has been remanded in custody and ordered to appear in Burwood Local Court on August 16.
An award-winning historian has taken to Sydney's Federal Court to get secret letters about the dismissal of former prime minister Gough Whitlam made public.

Professor Jenny Hocking is seeking the release of dozens of 'palace letters' between Queen Elizabeth II and former governor-general Sir John Kerr by the National Archives of Australia.

The correspondence, which has remained secret for more than 40 years, would reveal just how much the Queen knew about Kerr's plan to discharge Whitlam from office.

Professor Jenny Hocking is seeking the release of dozens of 'palace letters' held by the National Archives of Australia, which would detail the events around Gough Whitlam's dismissal

Whitlam (pictured in 2004) was dismissed from office on November 17, 1975, with Liberal Opposition Leader, Malcolm Fraser, installed as caretaker prime minister

The National Archives has refused to release the documents, claiming they are 'personal' communications rather than official records.

However, Professor Hacking believes they are crucial historic notes that would provide Australian's the full story regarding the controversial dismissal.

'It's perverse to see them as personal letters given who they're portraying,' Professor Hocking said.

The author, 62, who has written a two-volume biography on Whitlam, said that the letter were significant and should be made public because of their 'nature,' 'timing' and volume.

'It will give us a real insight into what Kerr was thinking, what he was considering as his options in the lead-up to the dismissal,' she said.

'And I think more significantly, how much the palace knew about that aspect of Kerr's entire thinking.'

The correspondence has remained secret for more than 40 years, with the National Archives refusing to release them as they claim they are 'personal' rather than official correspondance

The author, 62, who has written a two-volume biography on Whitlam, said that the letter were significant and should be made public because of their 'nature,' 'timing' and volume.

Whitlam was dismissed from office on November 17, 1975, ending a three-week parliamentary stand-off and seeing Liberal Opposition Leader, Malcolm Fraser, installed as caretaker prime minister.

The decision came from then Governor-General Sir John Kerr, with rules prior to 1975 meaning he carried unwritten constitutional powers to sack a prime minister in a crisis.

Whitlam remains the only democratically elected Prime Minister to be dismissed on the British Monarch's authority.

Professor Hocking called the dismissal unusual, given it had been 'cast in so much secrecy at the time and since'.

Then Governor-General Sir John Kerr sacked Gough Whitlam after a three-week parliamentary stand-off, with Whitlam pictured here holding his original letter of dismissal

If the 'palace letters' are made public they could reveal just how much Queen Elizabeth the second (above left) knew about John Kerr's (above right) plan to discharge Whitlam from office

Other archival material that revealed Sir John consulted with High Court judge Sir Anthony Mason before sacking Mr Whitlam 'totally changed the way we looked at the dismissal'.

'We need to know what else is there,' Prof Hocking said.

The case is asking for the letters classification as 'private' and 'personal,' thus making them public after 30 years, like other government documents.

But the public may never see the letters, with an embargo on them until 2027 and her majesty holding the rights to their release.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is also a supporter of the letters release, even having plans to write to Buckingham Palace, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.
Two missed clues may have been able to stop the Son of Sam serial killer before he attacked his last two victims 40 years ago today in Brooklyn, New York.

On July 31, 1977, David Berkowitz, also known as the Son of Sam, stood at the passenger window of Robert Violante's and Stacy Moskowitz's car and shot them with his .44-caliber revolver.

The 20-year-olds were left fighting for their lives - Moskowitz suffered two gunshot wounds to the head and neck, while a third pierced Violante's left eye.

Moskowitz's devastated parents, Jerry and Neysa Moskowitz, were sitting in the waiting room of Kings County Hospital with Violante's father, Pat Violante, when they encountered New York Post reporter Steve Dunleavy.

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Missed clues may have been able to stop the Son of Sam serial killer, David Berkowitz (pictured), before he struck his last two victims in Brooklyn

On July 31, 1977, Berkowitz (left during his arrest), stood at the passenger window of Robert Violante's (right) and Stacy Moskowitz's car and shot them with his .44-caliber revolver

The 20-year-olds were left fighting for their lives - Stacy Moskowitz (pictured) suffered two gunshot wounds to the head and neck, while a third pierced Violante's left eye. Moskowitz succumbed to her injuries after undergoing emergency surgeries

Moskowitz's devastated parents, Jerry and Neysa Moskowitz, were sitting in the waiting room of Kings County Hospital with Violante's father, Pat Violante, when they encountered New York Post reporter Steve Dunleavy (right). Berkowitz is pictured on the left

Dunleavy wrote that he was the only news reporter in the hospital at the time and witnessed the 'agony of the families of the last two victims'.

Moskowitz later succumbed to her injuries and Violante survived, but he was left permanently blind in one eye.

Berkowitz was arrested 11 days later on August 10, 1977, after police traced a parking ticket that had been left on his car in Brooklyn.

The 64-year-old pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in June 1978 for killing six people and wounding seven others during the horrific shooting attacks in New York City between 1976 and 1977.

Dunleavy, who was the lead reporter on the Son of Sam attacks for the Post, is now offering some new insight on the case ahead of the debut of the Smithsonian Channel documentary, The Lost Tapes: Son of Sam, this Sunday.

The New York Post reporter recalled how after Berkowitz's last attack, the pair became pen pals.

'I need you now Dunleavy I should really kill you but I need you' Berkowitz wrote in one letter, Dunleavy revealed.

Berkowitz was arrested 11 days later on August 10, 1977, after police traced a parking ticket that had been left on his car (pictured) in Brooklyn

Dunleavy revealed that there were missed clues by the Yonkers Police Department that could have gotten them closer to Berkowitz (pictured in 1977) before his last attack. Dunleavy wrote that it involved a man called Sam Carr, the real-life Sam whose name Berkowitz used

Carr lived behind the Berkowitz (center in 1977) apartment on Pine Street with his wife and their dog Harvey, a black Labrador. Dunleavy said he spoke to Carr after Berkowitz' arrest. Carr gave Dunleavy several letters from Berkowitz to his wife

One letter in particular caught Dunleavy's attention. Berkowitz wrote to Carr's wife complaining about their dog. Carr said the dog had even been shot by Berkowitz and the bullet was still lodged inside the canine

The letters and the bullet could have been traced back to Berkowitz before he killed for the last time in 1977

For a year, Berkowitz eluded police, leaving brazen letters (pictured) mocking the authorities

In another: 'When I killed, I really saved many lives. You will understand later. People want my blood but they don't want to listen to what I have to say I am doomed now, my fate has already been decided. There are other 'Sons' out there  God help the world.'

More interestingly, Dunleavy revealed that there were possible missed clues by the Yonkers Police Department that could have gotten them closer to Berkowitz before his last attack.

Dunleavy wrote that the clues involved 'a slightly nutty old man called Sam Carr  the real-life Sam whose name Berkowitz co-opted for his own insane moniker'.

Carr lived behind the Berkowitz apartment on Pine Street with his wife and their dog Harvey, a black Labrador.

Dunleavy said he spoke to Carr after Berkowitz' arrest.

He said Carr invited him inside his home and gave him dozens of 'letters from Berkowitz to his wife'.

One letter in particular caught Dunleavy's attention. Berkowitz had written to Carr's wife complaining about their dog.

Carr also revealed to Dunleavy that Harvey had even been shot in the rear end by Berkowitz and the bullet was still inside the dog.

For a year, Berkowitz eluded police, leaving brazen letters mocking the authorities.

At the time, he confessed to all of the killings and claimed to cops that he was following the orders of a demon who was manifested in the form of a dog named Harvey that was owned by his neighbor named Sam Carr.

But when Dunleavy spoke to Yonkers cops, they 'did not consider it of any importance'.

'The cops there said they never heard a complaint from Sam Carr,' Dunleavy wrote. But Carr said otherwise.

Dunleavy eventually told Stacy's and Bobby's parents about Carr's story.

'To think so much of this could have been avoided,' Neysa said.

Dunleavy's story comes a week before premiere of The Lost Tapes: Son of Sam. The documentary will air on August 6 at 9pm on the Smithsonian Channel.

Last year, Berkowitz was denied parole for the 15th time and will appear before the parole board in May 2018.

But when Dunleavy spoke to Yonkers cops, they 'did not consider it of any importance'. 'The cops there said they never heard a complaint from Sam Carr,' Dunleavy wrote. But Carr said otherwise. Last year, Berkowitz (pictured in 2009) was denied parole for the 15th time

In June 2016, Berkowitz said he viewed himself as a model inmate who had been helping others behind bars with 'kindness and compassion'.

Berkowitz, who was found mentally competent, was also thought to be behind many unsolved arson cases in New York City.

At the time of the attacks, Berkowitz received tons of coverage by the media concerning the case and had nearly reached celebrity status at the time.

Because of this, the state enacted the 'Son of Sam laws' in an effort to keep criminals from earning money from the publicity their crimes could receive.

Berkowitz, who is currently serving six consecutive 25-years-to-life sentences for the horrific killings, told a parole board last year that he's 'really done wonderful,' according to the transcript dated May 17 that the New York Post obtained.

'I was constantly putting myself out there to help other individuals, with kindness and compassion,' he said.

'I mean, I feel that's my life's calling, all these years. My evaluations, and so forth, should show that to be true.

'I've done a lot of good and positive things, and I thank God for that.'

Survivor Jody Valenti (left) was with her friend Donna Lauria (right) when they were attacked by Berkowitz in 1976 when she was 19 years old. Lauria was the first victim who was killed by Berkowitz

On April 17, 1977, victims Valentina Suriani, 18, and Alexander Esau, 20, (both pictured above) were shot dead

Donna DeMasi, 16, (left) was shot while she and a friend chatted under a street lamp in Queens. They both survived, though her friend paralyzed. Christine Freund was shot dead while sitting in a car with her fiance

Berkowitz, who became eligible for parole in 2002, said that he is carrying out his 'life's calling' by being a 'caregiver' in prison.

While serving four decades behind bars at the maximum-security Sullivan Correctional Facility in Fallsburg, Berkowitz has helped to operate chapel services, worked with mental heath inmates and conducted bible studies.

In addition, he also graduated from Sullivan Community College with top honors before he was transferred to Shawangunk Correctional Facility in Wallkill.

'I feel I am no risk, whatsoever,' Berkowitz said, despite calling his crimes a 'terrible tragedy'.

The '.44 Caliber Killer' added: 'I continue to go forward with my life. I do a lot of good things.'

While appearing before the board, he said that he truly regrets what he did and that he is 'deeply sorry'.

When the parole board questioned why Berkowitz went on a killing rampage in the first place. He said: 'It's beyond my comprehension,' he replied. 'I look back with, like, so much disbelief. There are times that I wake up and say, I can't believe this happened'

'Unfortunately, it was a terrible tragedy. I regret that with all my heart. I would do anything if I could ever change that,' he said.

'It was a time that my life was out of control. I'd do anything if I could go back and change that, but it's impossible to go back into the past and fix those kinds of things.'

'I have a heart for helping and reaching out to inmates, offenders, who have psychiatric problems, who have a lot of depression, and things like thatso, I feel that's my calling in life,' Berkowitz said.

He stated that if they were to release him from prison, he would have a place to live with 'outstanding members of society' whom he called good friends as some are ministers.

However, the parole board questioned why Berkowitz went on a killing rampage in the first place.
A distinct yellow kayak belonging to a missing Victorian fisherman has been found, but the search for its owner continues.

Torquay resident Junichi Yoshimura, 41, has been missing for more than four days and after a widespread search his kayak was found on Monday, 16km west of Edithvale in Port Phillip Bay.

The discovery was made more than 60km east of the Altona boat ramp where Mr Yoshimura's car was parked.

His yellow kayak (pictured) has not been located since he left home at 5am last Thursday

It is believed the Japanese man left home about 5am on Thursday to go fishing but did not take a wetsuit or life jacket.

Authorities say Mr Yoshimura often went fishing but it is unclear which direction he had headed.

An air and water search entered its third day on Sunday, and authorities focused on the southern end of Port Phillip Bay and Corio Bay because of the previous day's extremely windy conditions.

The 41-year-old had been working as a baker at Zeally Bay Sourdough in Torquay, southwest of Melbourne,The Age reported.

Business owner Joel Farnan was optimistic his employee would be found, believing Monday was the best option for a search because the winds would have died down.

'I know that we have got some really good people  the water police and police air wing have been doing just everything they can... to find him,' Mr Farnan said.

The search continues for kayaker Junichi Yoshimura (pictured), who has been missing off the coast of Victoria for more than three days

It is understood the man's family were due to arrive in Melbourne on Tuesday morning.

Mr Yoshimura's car was earlier found next to the Altona boat ramp but there was no sight of his bright yellow '2 Monks' kayak.

It is believed Mr Yoshimura left home about 5am on Thursday to go fishing but did not take a wetsuit or life jacket.

Authorities said Mr Yoshimura often went fishing but it was unclear which direction he was headed on Thursday.

Anyone who sees him is urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
A violent, left-wing extremist group has defended a leading Islamic businessman's claim Australian women need Muslim men to fertilise them, calling his critics 'bigots' and 'racists'.

Halal Certification Authority president Mohamed Elmouelhy told his Facebook followers Australia's white race would die out within 40 years.

He added that with Australian men a 'dying breed', local women needed Muslim men to 'fertilise them' and 'keep them surrounded by Muslim babies'.

Despite the outcry on social media last week, left-wing extremist group Antifa has described Mr Elmouelhy's critics as 'bigots', even though he had called for 'bigots' to commit suicide.

'Racists attacking Mohamed Elmouelhy - more Muslim babies is a good thing. Bigots,' it said on Facebook.

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Halal company president Mohamed Elmouelhy says Australia's white race will be extinct soon

Halal Certification Authority boss says Australian women need Muslim men to fertilise them

Left-wing extremist group Antifa which claimed responsibility for assaulting conservative commentator Andrew Bolt in June are defending Mohamed Elmouelhy

Antifa has defended the halal boss' call for Muslim men to fertilise Australian women

This is the same group which claimed responsibility in June for spraying conservative Sky News commentator Andrew Bolt with glitter at a book launch in Melbourne.

Less than eight weeks later, they are weighing into more controversy by defending Mr Elmouelhy, who was commenting on Hebrew University in Jerusalem publishing research which showed sperm counts in men from Australia, New Zealand, North America and Europe had declined by more than 50 per cent in less than 40 years.

'Your men are a dying breed, Australian women need us to fertilise them and keep them surrounded by Muslim babies while beer swilling, cigarette smoking, drug injecting can only dream of what Muslim men are capable of,' he said.

'Muslims have a duty to make your women happy.'

Mr Elmouelhy, who is the president of Halal Certification Authority, said Australia's white race 'will be extinct in another 40 years' if the country is 'left to bigots'.

The Muslim businessman called on these 'bigots' to kill themselves or plan to die, before a public outcry led to him making his Facebook page private as critics flooded his social media account.

Mohamed Elmouelhy says Australian men are too busy drinking beer to be future fathers

The halal businessman also called on 'bigots' to choose a cemetery plot or commit suicide

Andrew Bolt, who fought off Antifa, said Mohamed Elmouelhy's remarks were a 'strange joke'

'Because you are declining, better go choose a plot for yourself at your local cemetery,' he said.

'If you can't afford it, commit suicide. It is a cheaper alternative for bigots.'

Andrew Bolt, who threw punches at the Antifa thugs in June, said Mr Elmouelhy could not plausibly say his vile remarks were satire.

'A strange joke. More like an invitation to a fight,' he said on his blog on Monday.

Mr Elmouelhy's comments followed research by Hebrew University-Hadassah Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine in Jerusalem which found male fertility had sharply declined by more than 50 per cent in less than 40 years in Western nations, including Australia.

It found an annual 1.4 per cent decline in sperm concentration in those countries between 1973 and 2011, had produced an overall fertility drop of 52 per cent.

The Muslim businessman says drug use among Australian men would see white race die out

Muslim businessman Mohamed Elmouelhy says Australia's white race will die out in 40 years

The analysis did not explore reasons for the decline in sperm counts, but researchers have previously cited links to certain chemicals and pesticides, smoking, stress and obesity.

This suggests measures of sperm quality may reflect the effects of modern living on male health and act as a 'canary in the coal mine' signalling broader health risks.

'This study is an urgent wake-up call for researchers and health authorities around the world to investigate the causes of the sharp ongoing drop in sperm count,' said Hagai Levine, who co-led the research.

Mr Elmouelhy's latest post comes just days after he predicted more non-Muslims in Australia would be eating more halal food than ever.

The 2016 Census revealed that Muslims made up 2.6 per cent of the Australian population, up from 2.2 per cent in 2011.

Australia's Muslim population soared to more than 604,000 people, overtaking Buddhism as the most popular non-Christian religion, and marking a significant jump from 341,000 a decade earlier.
A person is believed to have died on Monday after their car crashed into a tree and burst into flames.

Emergency crews were called to the serious single accident around 1.05pm in Mango Hill, north of Brisbane.

The car appeared to have flipped upside down after colliding with the tree on Kinsella Rd East.

A person is believed to have died on Monday after their car crashed into a tree and burst into flames around 1.05pm in Mango Hill, north of Brisbane (pictured)

The road is closed and police are urging people to avoid the area.

Queensland Ambulance confirmed there was 'one occupant' of the car but wouldn't comment further.

Queensland police declined to confirm if anyone in the car was injured or killed during the accident.

The car appeared to have flipped upside down before igniting (pictured)
A woman alleges that she was not offered a refund after she took a bite out of her McDonald's Quarter Pounder and found that the meat was completely raw.

The Karama woman, who ordered Quarter Pounder meals for herself and her children at a Darwin McDonald's store on a Sunday lunch treat, thought that something didn't taste right after her first mouthful.

After peeling back the bread, she looked down at the patty and discovered that it hadn't been cooked.

A McDonald's customer found the patty was RAW when she took a bite of her Quarter Pounder

'I took all the burgers back and the manager came racing around the corner and shook my hand and said she'd speak to the staff members,' the customer said.

She told NT News that her meals were replaced with chicken burgers, but she wasn't offered a refund.

She said that she couldn't even eat the chicken burger, because she still felt ill from the raw meat in the first.

When she demanded to be contacted by a representative from McDonald's head office, a man with a 'carefree attitude' told her that policy dictated the meat only had to be checked once in a 24 hour period.

'I said I wasn't happy with the response and that I'd be taking it to the health and safety food inspectors and she just said 'do what you've got to do',' she said.

The customer also confessed that she'd been turned off eating at McDonald's for life.

After finding RAW meat in a burger, the customer said she's been turned off McDonald's for life

A company spokeswoman told The Daily Mail that McDonald's takes food safety very seriously and incidents such as these are rare.

'The restaurant confirmed the issue was isolated and did not affect any other products,' she said. 'We have also reinforced cooking procedures with this restaurant.'
After Meg Whitman dismissed speculation that she is replacing Travis Kalanick as Uber's CEO, the board is struggling to find someone to fill the company's top spot.

Amidst the disorganization of the board, Kalanick continues to meddle despite the fact that he stepped down in June, according to Recode.

The outlet reported that Kalanick has been telling people that he is 'Steve Jobs-ing it', a reference to the Apple founder who was fired and then returned to the company.

Sources have said Kalanick is trying to stay involved in daily operating decisions and is having a difficult time letting go of the company. Top executives are now hoping they can look to the board for help, the outlet said.

However, the board itself is disorganized and members don't trust one another, according to Recode.

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Though former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick (left in 2016) stepped down from his position in June, he is having trouble letting go of the company, sources have said. He has reportedly been telling people that he is 'Steve Jobs-ing it', a reference to the Apple founder who was fired and then returned to the company (right in 2010)

After Meg Whitman, (pictured) the former Hewlett-Packard CEO, dismissed speculation that she is replacing Travis Kalanick as Uber's CEO, the board is struggling to find someone to fill the company's top spot

Recode says part of the reason Whitman did not to stay in the running for CEO was because of the unprofessional process.

Sources told the outlet she was never formally offered the position, and though she was supposed to meet with board members, that never happened.

Now the board reportedly has four candidates in mind, but they are all men, Recode says.

A female CEO could have been seen as a sign of progress for Uber which has been slammed with numerous sexual discrimination allegations, according to Axios.

The decision to hire a woman would have sent a strong message no doubt in the wake of the sexual harassment scandal plaguing the company, which led to the termination of 20 employees.

AOL head honcho Tim Armstrong, former Ford CEO Mark Fields, and departing GE chairman Jeff Immelt had been said to be in the mix.

Part of the reason Whitman (pictured) did not to stay in the running for CEO was because of the unprofessional process, some sources say

Hours after stepping down from chair of the Hewlett-Packard board, multiple sources claimed 60-year-old Whitman was the front-runner for the top spot at the popular ride sharing company.

But claiming the rumors were a distraction from her ongoing role as the computer giant's CEO, she officially ruled herself out of the running.

In a statement on Twitter, she said: 'Normally I do not comment on rumors, but the speculation about my future and Uber has become a distraction.

'So let me make this as clear as I can. I am fully committed to HPE and plan to remain the company's CEO.

'We have a lot of work still to do at HPE and I am not going anywhere. Uber's CEO will not be Meg Whitman.'

Whitman had been seen as the perfect pick to take over the reigns of Uber with her lengthy experience as the former eBay and Hewlett-Packard CEO and expertise at taking companies public, reported Axios and Bloomberg.

The Harvard and Princeton graduate has a wealth of political ties, once running to be the governor of California in the 2010 race and also backing numerous Republican candidates.

Sources have said Kalanick is trying to stay involved in daily operating decisions and is having a difficult time letting go of the company

Kalanick's alleged meddling is not completely surprising. Although he stepped down, a report released in late June revealed the founder of the ride-hailing service would still be an integral part of the company moving forward.

He will also remain a towering presence because of his 'huge' stake in Uber, which is valued at $7billion.

Kalanick was urged to step down by five of the company's biggest investors who demanded his resignation according to The New York Times, who obtained a copy of the letter those individuals sent to Kalanick.

In the aftermath of that shocking revolt by the company's primary shareholders, it was revealed that while Kalanick was out as CEO he would remain a member of the Uber board.

'I love Uber more than anything in the world and at this difficult moment in my personal life I have accepted the investors request to step aside so that Uber can go back to building rather than be distracted with another fight,' said Kalanick.

Kalanick's style largely defined Uber's approach and helped it become a transportation colossus valued at nearly $70billion, the largest private firm backed by venture capitalists in the world.

But that brashness has also been blamed for a string of scandals this year, from the unearthing of a culture of sexism and bullying at Uber to a Department of Justice federal investigation and a high-stakes lawsuit filed by Alphabet Inc's autonomous car division, Waymo, that threatens Uber's self-driving car ambitions.
There may be huge queues of eager travelers waiting to get through the new lengthy security measures Sydney Airport but it seems one Australian airline didn't get the memo.

Jetstar have sent reminder text messages to their passengers advising them to arrive only 60 minutes before their domestic flight departs.

'We recommend being at the airport 60min (sic) before departure,' a Jetstar text sent on Monday read.

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Jetstar said a text advising passengers to arrive one hour before flights was a mistake (pictured Monday)

Jetstar sent the text to passengers despite the lengthy delays at Sydney Airport (pictured)

Authorities are advising passengers to arrive at least two hours before a domestic flight

While the budget airline has always advised their passengers to arrive an hour before a flight takes off, a Jetstar spokesman told Daily Mail the text advising passengers to arrive 60 minutes before their flight was a mistake.

'The text was a mistake and we're looking into it ... it shouldn't have happened that way,' he said.

Jetstar spokesman said they were looking into the number of people who received the old text and a text with new information would be updated Monday night.

The spokesman said the company had updated the flight arrival times to follow suit with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's recommendations.

Mr Turnbull advised all travelers to arrive at least two hours before a domestic flight and three hours earlier for international flights, which could become the new normal.

'(Security measures) will be required for as long as the threat is assessed as requiring them,' he said.

The lengthy delays come after increased security measures were taken at major airports

Passengers advised to arrive three hours before their international flights (pictured Monday)

Despite Jetstars' 'mistaken texts' other major airlines posted the reminder wait time online

Extra security comes after police foiled a terrorist plot to bomb a Sydney plane at weekend

Passengers have posted online saying they aren't frustrated by delays and instead felt safer

With some passengers posting to social media about the lines being out the doors at Sydney Airport Monday morning, the huge queues could mean passengers miss their flights if they follow the text message reminders sent by the budget airline.

Arriving hours earlier for a flight is to allow time for the extra security measures taking place after the Federal Police foiled a terrorist plot to bomb a Sydney plane at the weekend.

Virgin Australia and Qantas have both released statements advising their passengers to arrive at the airport early.

'A reminder if flying from a major Australian airport to pls (sic) allow more time for security screening,' Qantas posted to Twitter Sunday.
A north Queensland bodybuilder sentenced to jail for dealing ice has allegedly been caught with the same drug stashed up his backside just hours after leaving court.

Christos Panagakos, 25, was sentenced in the Supreme Court in Mackay last Thursday to three and a half years in jail after pleading guilty to three charges of trafficking ice and ecstasy.

The same court had earlier heard Panagakos, who has an appalling eight-page criminal record, was now 'clean' and had removed himself from the drug scene.

Bodybuilder Christos Panagakos pleaded guilty to three counts of trafficking ice and ecstasy

Drug dealer Christos Panagakos was allegedly caught with ice and Valium stashed in his anus

Christos Panagakos told the Queensland Supreme Court he had been turning his life around

But within hours of his sentencing and while on his way to Mackay watch house, Panagakos was searched and allegedly found to be carrying a stash of ice and Valium in his anal canal, the Daily Mercury reported.

Upon sentencing by Justice James Henry, the prisoner had sobbed into his partner's arms, hugged her goodbye and emptied his suit pockets before being led from court to the watch house ahead of a stint in Capricornia Correctional Centre.

During this journey, authorities allegedly located an unknown quantity of the drugs inside Panagakos's body.

He has been charged with attempting to smuggle ice and Valium into the Mackay watch house and will face court again on August 7. There is no suggestion his girlfriend had anything to do with the drugs.

Bodybuilder Christos Panagakos was allegedly found with drugs stashed up his backside

Christos Panagakos documents his bodybuilding exploits and tattoo collection on Facebook

Bodybuilder Christos Panagakos has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison

Panagakos, an aspiring personal trainer who regularly posts pictures of his sculpted body to social media, had been the target of an extensive police operation utilising phone taps between March and April 2015

Justice Henry described Panagakos as 'obviously well-entrenched' as a drug supplier and said he had an 'appalling criminal history'.

In sentencing submissions, defence barrister Ron Frigo said Panagakos had largely rehabilitated, was studying fitness and launched a meal preparation and delivery business, according to the Daily Mercury.

Crown prosecutor Nathan Crane said Panagakos became caught in a 'web of activity' with other drug dealers and buyers.

In one police phone tap he was heard trying to buy between 112 and 224 grams of ice from Beenleigh on the Gold Coast. Another involved a buyer who was prepared to pay up to $6700 for an unknown amount of the same drug.

Christos Panagakos has an eight-page criminal record which could get longer next month

Queensland's anti-bikie Taskforce Maxima has previously targeted Christos Panagakos

Bodybuilder Christos Panagakos has allegedly been found with drugs in his anal passage

A further charge involved the sale of 500 ecstasy pills.

Panagakos could be heard in one telephone intercept describing the product he was selling as 'f***ing primo'.

He will be eligible for parole in 10 months.

Panagakos has previously been targeted by Queensland's anti-bikie Taskforce Maxima, which conducted helicopter surveillance of his home and followed his car.

In April last year he walked free from court due to time already served on remand after pleading guilty to minor drug charges.

Four months earlier a Supreme Court judge had ruled police unlawfully searched Panagakos's car, leading to more serious charges being dropped.
The toddler daughter of a NSW woman who allegedly talked about sacrificing a child to a 'wolfman' suddenly disappeared from a block of units where she lived, a court has heard.

Neighbour Ellen Campbell told the Newcastle Supreme Court on Monday she'd been suspicious about what happened to the toddler.

The child's mother, 44, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty to murdering the little girl between Christmas 2000 and Christmas 2001.

Neighours thought something was wrong when the woman stopped hanging out baby clothes

Ms Campbell told the court she had been a stay-at-home mum living in a block of units in the Hunter region when she regularly tried to talk to the accused woman but was ignored.

She used to see the woman putting out baby clothes on the line but 'all of a sudden' this stopped, which Ms Campbell thought was 'really weird'.

Ms Campbell at one stage asked the woman where her baby was but she didn't reply.

She described how the curtains were always drawn in the woman's flat and she never turned the lights on. The only thing she could see inside the flat was a candle flickering.

Another witness, Valerie Seymour, told the court she and her late husband, Maurice, had owned the block of units where the accused woman was living with her toddler and they became quite close.

Ms Seymour said the woman wouldn't let the toddler outside unless Maurice was there because she was frightened somebody would grab the little girl.

According a neighbour, the woman never turned on her lights and didn't open her curtains

The woman also had to be moved to another unit after she became convinced someone was living in the roof.

It was after Christmas 2000 when the woman told the Seymours her daughter was being looked after by another couple until she had 'pulled herself together'.

After visiting the woman one day, Mr Seymour told his wife he was absolutely amazed there was not one photo of the toddler in the woman's unit.

The woman pleaded not guilty to murdering her toddler daughter in Newcastle Supreme Court

'He couldn't believe it,' Ms Seymour said on Monday.

The accused woman later moved to an isolated area in the Hunter region where she gave birth to another girl in late 2003.

Ms Seymour said her husband again visited the woman and returned home to describe how he thought this girl, who was later taken away by authorities, had been starving.

The mother reportedly believed that it was her duty to sacrifice her daughter to the 'wolfman'

The woman was feeding the girl a bottle of water and some grapes.

'He (Maurice) thought she looked like a Third World baby. She couldn't cry anymore. She was just limp in (the woman's) hands,' Ms Seymour said.

The court has been told the woman talked about having to slit a child's throat for the 'wolfman' before her first daughter disappeared.

She believed this sacrifice would mean aliens would come to 'take her home'.
A man is accused of shooting at a group of teenage girls with an air rifle in Sydney's southwest on the weekend.

Police say the 28-year-old man fired shots through the open window of his white truck.

He was able to hit and injure a girl, 17, before driving off on Saturday evening.

A man is accused of shooting at a group of teenage girls with an air rifle in Sydney's southwest on the weekend (stock picture)

The teenagers were standing next to the Hume Highway near Woodward Park at Liverpool when the attack occurred, police said in a statement on Monday.

The 17-year-old received a laceration to her face and swelling while two 16-year-old girls weren't injured.

The alleged shooter handed himself into police on Sunday and will face Liverpool Local Court in mid-August.
A woman who went on a racist rant on an Adelaide bus engaged in behaviour that 'cannot be condoned in a civilised society', a court has heard.

Stacey Marie Thomason, 31, pleaded guilty to an abusive language charge in Adelaide Magistrates Court over the verbal attack on a woman and her young child on a bus in November last year.

In sentencing Thomason to 200 hours of community service work on Monday, Magistrate David McLeod said the 31-year-old had directed a racial slur at an Asian woman and had also called her a 'f*****g c***' in front of other passengers.

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Stacey Marie Thomason was sentenced to 200 hours community service after a racist tirade in November

Ms Thomason appeared in court on Friday, receiving 200 hours of community service

Mr McLeod said the incident caused significant concern and embarrassment to those other passengers as well as the victim of the tirade.

'It cannot be condoned as appropriate behaviour in a civilised society,' he said.

The court heard the incident was the result of Thomason being drunk at the time and her anger over the Asian woman not paying when she boarded the bus with her child.

Almost immediately Thomason yelled at her 'you're not Australians'.

But defence counsel told the court that she was distraught and deeply sorry for her behaviour.

On the day in question, she had been returning from Kadina where she had gone to visit her three children who had been taken from her as a consequence of her being unable to properly protect them from her abusive partner.

Footage published on social media at the time allegedly showed Thomason swearing repeatedly at an Asian woman and her daughter on a public bus in Fullarton, Adelaide.

'Excuse me, they're not f******* people, they're not f******* Australian and she didn't pay for her f***ing ticket d******,' Thomason is allegedly heard saying.

'Literally, theyre f***ing invading our country, cant you see it  f***ing Chinese people (are) f***ing everywhere.

Ms Thomason apologised outside court in June saying she was embarrassed and 'very sorry'

Ms Thompson yelled at an Asian mother and daughter on the bus that they 'weren't Australian'

Outside court on June 17, Thomason told reporters she was sorry and when asked if she was embarrassed, she said: 'Very much so'.

'It is not like me at all,' she said. 'I am a very nice person and I am not normally like that. At the moment no comment until my court (hearing), if that is okay.'

Thomason has already served a three month Transport Barring Order, and will now carry out 200 hours of community service.
Sydney's run of incredible winter weather has come to an end.

The city was drenched this afternoon following one of the driest Julys on record.

The city centre saw six millimetres of rain, Hornsby copped 11 millimetres and Frenchs Forest had 10 millimetres.

And the rain hasn't stopped just yet.

Commuters have been warned to prepare for a soggy trip home, with more set to fall about 5pm.

The Sydney city centre was soaked on Monday after a bright and sunny weekend

Six millimetres of rain fell in Sydney over the day, with more expected to drench commuters on their way home

'The sky is set to clear in the next couple of hours but more rain could fall this afternoon,' Weatherzone meteorologist Graeme Britain told Daily Mail Australia.

He said there was lightning recorded in Sydney about 2pm.

Mr Britton added Sydneysiders can expect conditions to return to sunny for Tuesday and Wednesday, but said to ready the umbrellas for Thursdays.

Temperatures also plummeted to 12C by mid-afternoon- less than half they were on Sunday when Sydney soared to a record-breaking 26C.

The dark grey rain clouds were in stark contrast to the vibrant blue skies Sydneysiders enjoyed on Sunday

While the city enjoyed a short reprieve late in the day, storms surrounded the area and were expected to return after 5pm

The rain is expected to return again on Thursday, though Sydneysiders should enjoy a sunny Tuesday and Wednesday

The New South Wales capital registered 26C on Sunday, a temperature not reached until October last year.

Thousands headed to the iconic Bondi Beach with surfers and swimmers shedding the wetsuits to soak up the sun.

The uncharacteristic weather was thanks to a warmer air mass that moved in on Thursday, combined with westerly winds pushing across the coast.

Sydney set a new temperature record for July on the weekend as residents flocked to the beach to enjoy the stunning heat usually reserved for late spring

Thousands headed to the iconic Bondi Beach on Sunday with surfers and swimmers shedding the wetsuits to soak up the sun

A family enjoyed the balmy Winter weather at Bondi Beach

The New South Wales capital registered 26 degrees celsius on Sunday, a temperature not reached until October in 2016

People flocked to Icebergs on Bondi Beach to enjoy the record heat on Sunday

It followed a notably cold and dry start to winter for many parts, except across the tropical north which has posted record warm temperatures.

Brisbane saw a similarly Spring-like day on Sunday, with clear skies and 25 degrees to finish the month of July.

Darwin typically topped all major at a sweltering 32 degrees.

Perth and Melbourne residents missed out on the stunning weather, with both cities experiencing minor rain.

Central and south-eastern Western Australia had 10-20mm of rainfall with strong winds.

Thousands flocked to Bondi Beach to enjoy weather normally saved for summer

Surfers flocked into the surf to take advantage of the warm winds

The warm temperatures clearly brought out the creativity in people

The uncharacteristic weather was thanks to a warmer air mass that moved in on Thursday, combined with westerly winds pushing across the coast

Some people couldn't wait to hit the water as temperatures maxed out at 26 degrees in Sydney

People shedded their winter layers to soak up the 26 degree Sydney heat

Forecasters warn that the balmy weather won't stay for long, with temperatures tipped to plummet six degrees to beneath 20C on Monday.

Melbourne will get slightly cooler, with possible showers and cold temperatures for the next few days.

Brisbane looks set to continue its steady run of balmy weather, with 25 degrees and sunshine predicted for next couple of days ahead.

Hobart and Canberra are to shiver through the week with temperatures topping out at 12 degrees for most days.

THREE DAY WEATHER FORECAST SYDNEY

Monday: Max 20 and rain Tuesday: Max 18 and mostly sunny Wednesday: Max 18 and mostly sunny BRISBANE Monday: Max 25 and mostly sunny Tuesday: Max 25 and mostly sunny Wednesday: 23 and mostly sunny CANBERRA Monday: Max 12 and rain Tuesday: Max 15 and frost then sunny Wednesday: Max 12 and frost then sunny DARWIN Monday: Max 32 and mostly sunny Tuesday: Max 32 and sunny Wednesday: Max 32 and sunny MELBOURNE Monday: Max 15 and possible showers Tuesday: Max 15 and mostly sunny Wednesday: Max 15 and mostly sunny ADELAIDE Monday: Max 16 and showers Tuesday: Max 16 and possible shower Wednesday: Max 15 and possible shower PERTH Monday: Max 18 and clearing shower Tuesday: Max 17 and windy Wednesday: Max 17 and mostly sunny HOBART Monday: Max 12 and possible shower Tuesday: Max 12 and mostly sunny Wednesday: Max 12 and mostly sunny Source: Weatherzone Advertisement

Beach chairs were empty as people flocked to the surf

Some people chose to just sit and soak the record temperatures in

Others lay in the shallows enjoying the sunshine at Bondi Beach

Sydney sweltered through its hottest July day on record Sunday

The uncharacteristic weather is thanks to a warmer air mass that moved in on Thursday, combined with westerly winds pushing across the coast
Islamophobic flyers have been posted around the city of Penrith claiming to be from the local council.

Document is titled 'Say no to the Burqa' and in the footnotes claims to be from the Penrith City Council, providing an address and contact number.

'For reasons of security no person with any form of facial covering should be allowed to enter or be served in Penrith,' the flyer reads.

'Save our values, save our laws.'

The council told Daily Mail Australia they were aware of the flyers and strongly denied any links.

Islamophobic flyers have been spread around the city of Penrith claiming to be from the local council

Document is titled 'Say no to the Burqa' and in the footnotes claims to be from the Penrith City Council, providing an address and contact number

'It has come to Council's attention that information titled 'say no to the burqua in Penrith' is being distributed in parts of the Penrith Local Government area giving Penrith City Council as the official contact for further information. Penrith Council did not produce or distribute this document,' the council said in a statement.

'Any person who makes a document on the authority of Council when in fact Council did not authorise the making of it may be guilty of a criminal offence. Any person identified for doing so will be brought to the attention of the Police.'

The post on a Penrith community page has been reacted to over 200 times with nearly 100 comments.

The council told Daily Mail Australia they were aware of the flyers and strongly denied any links

Reactions have been mixed, with many saying a ban would only increase racial tension.

'Banning Burqas in any other country has never stopped anyone from committing a crime,' a Facebook user said.

'What rule are they breaking?' another said.

Some believed banning Islamic clothing was too extreme, rather saying they should remove head coverings when required.

'I don't see a problem with the Burqa in any shape or form but I do believe they need to show their faces for law enforcement or identification,' one person commented.
Prisoners are using wifi from nearby pensioners' homes to watch porn on mobile phones that they have smuggled into their cells.

Staff at HMP Gartree in Leicestershire were stunned to find inmates logging on to the internet on their illicit devices.

They discovered that the prisoners at the Category B jail were using hotspots from nearby residents - many of whom were pensioners.

Staff at HMP Gartree (pictured) in Leicestershire were stunned to find inmates logging on to the internet on their illicit devices

A letter has now been sent to people in nearby homes asking them to protect their wifi connections or to turn off the hotspots.

But pensioners, whose homes back onto the jail, were furious that they are the ones being told to do something about it.

Mary Dilks, 70, who lives near the jail, told The Sun: 'They said inmates were using residents' internet connections and asked us to get our security checked.

'But I'm not happy. It should be the prison who sorts out any problem, not us. The real problem is that prisoners shouldn't have mobile phones in the first place.'

Neighbour Peter Jackson, 65, said: 'I think people would be disgusted their internet was being used by criminals, especially if it's to view porn. God knows what these people might be looking at.'

It is a criminal offence to bring a mobile phone into prison, or transmit sounds or images from within a prison using a mobile phone.

These offences carry a maximum penalty of two years in prison.

The Prison Service insisted it was taking 'decisive action' in its clampdown on mobile phones in jails.

A letter has now been sent to people in nearby homes asking them to protect their wifi connections or to turn off the hotspots. Pictured is the inside of HMP Gartree

A spokeswoman told MailOnline: 'We are taking decisive action to find and block mobile phones in prisons, including a 2m investment in detection wands and technology to block mobile phone signals.

'It is a criminal offence to smuggle mobile phones into prisons, and we will always push for the strongest possible punishment where there is evidence of misconduct.'

HMP Gartree is home to the largest number of prisoners on life sentences in the UK and its previous inmates include Ian Brady and Fred West.
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Britain's summer is set to continue to be a damp squib with rain falling in parts of the country for most of August, which could be the wettest in at least three years.

So sunseekers were out in force in beaches and parks across some parts of the country today to make the most of the 72F (22C) dry weather, before rain sweeps in later this week and threatens to ruin summer holidays.

The Met Office has warned of a risk of 'prolonged rain' in southern England for the next fortnight and weather on the 'changeable side' the second half of the month, with the wettest conditions expected in the North West.

It comes after families have suffered a washout start to the school holidays, with heavy rain and thunderstorms replacing the hot and sunny conditions that characterised the start of July in Britain.

Hanna Green (left) watches as Revd Stephanie Jenner baptises her 16-month-old daughter Lola in the sea at Weymouth today

Reb Jenner, from the Dorchester Methodist and United Reformed Church, holds Lola following the Christening in Weymouth

Holidaymakers enjoy a spot of good weather on Weymouth beach in Dorset today before rain arrives tomorrow

A woman relaxes in a deckchair on Weymouth beach today as the country enjoys warm weather before the rain comes

This couple enjoy a book each as they make the most of a warm day on Weymouth beach on the south coast today

A man cycles with a girl through Kensington Gardens in London today as they enjoy the pleasant weather

Holidaymakers enjoy a period of good weather on Weymouth beach today as many take to the water to make the most of it

A woman cycles along a path in Cambridge today - although the good weather is not expected to last long

Cyclists make the most of the pleasant weather in Cambridge today before the rain sweeps in later this week

A woman looks at her phone next to a lake in Kensington Gardens in Central London today during the warm weather

Next month's expected rainfall could beat the past two Augusts, with 2016 seeing 96 per cent of the 89.5mm (3.6in) average and 2015 having 117 per cent - but it would be some effort to beat 2014, which had 155 per cent.

Seven of the last ten Augusts have seen more than the normal amount of rainfall - under the 1981 to 2010 long-term average - with the second highest after 2014 in the past decade being 2008, which had 149 per cent.

Temperatures in many areas could be below the July average of 66F (19C) today, although parts of London and the South East could get up to 72F (22C) - and that is the warmest the country is expected to be for the week.

The UK could even be hit by the tail of hurricanes, with 15 expected in the North Atlantic region over the coming months - which is three more than average, reported The Sun.

Your browser does not support the <code>iframe</code> HTML tag. Try viewing this in a modern browser like Chrome, Safari, Firefox or Internet Explorer 9 or later.

The Environment Agency has four floor alerts out for England today for the North Dartmoor rivers in Devon, River Cole and Dorcan Brook in Wiltshire, River Wid and Can in Essex and St Austell and Par rivers in Cornwall.

Today, heavy rain is expected over Scotland while showers are forecast across eastern England, before rumbles of thunder follow overnight  and showery conditions will continue tomorrow, most frequent in the North and West.

Heavy rain will hit the South West on Wednesday and on Thursday, rain in the North and East will clear for most except for northern Scotland, where heavy outbreaks may continue - before showery rain follows in some areas.

Met Office forecaster Emma Salter said: 'It's a lot cooler than usual for late July. Temperatures will stay close to normal in early August, but feel cooler in showers and stronger winds.

Families enjoy the weather at Weymouth this morning before rain follows later this week in many parts of Britain

People walk over Millennium Bridge in Central London on a sunny morning today with blue skies in the capital

A woman walks through the wheat fields in the morning's sunshine at Dunsden in Oxfordshire today

Yesterday: A woman shelters from the rain with a very British umbrella as she walks along Whitehall in Westminster

Yesterday: A rain shower is photographed out at sea on the North East coast as the country was hit by weather

'Monday and Tuesday will be breezy with showers, possibly heavy and thundery, with a wet spell UK-wide arriving on Wednesday into Thursday, when it will be windy too.

'To August 12, it is likely to remain unsettled across the UK, with a mixture of sunshine and showers, heaviest and most frequent in the North West, with the risk of thunder.'

Yesterday, music lovers were left disappointed as The Y Not festival in Pikehall, Derbyshire, was shut down by organisers, over safety concerns after wind and rain battered the grounds and stages of the event.

Yesterday's top UK temperature of 71.1F (21.7C) was recorded at High Mowthorpe in North Yorkshire, a long way off the hottest day of the year so far of June 21, when 94.1F (34.5C) was reached at London Heathrow Airport.
The Chancellor (pictured last week) said the government did not have a 'plan' to slash tax rates and regulation if Brussels tries to punish us in negotiations

Downing Street slapped down Philip Hammond today over his call for an 'off the shelf' Brexit transition deal - and insisted free movement will end in 2019 .

Mr Hammond has been leading calls for a transitional period of up to three years, suggesting it could be identical to Norway's arrangements.

That could mean unfettered immigration from the EU essentially staying in place until 2022.

But his push for a softer departure from the bloc has alarmed more strident Brexiteers in the Cabinet.

Boris Johnson was forced to deny last night that he is ready to quit if Brexit is watered down.

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox has made clear he does not believe that keeping unregulated free movement after we formally leave the bloc in March 2019 would 'keep faith' with the verdict of the public in the referendum.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt tried to cool tempers this morning, admitting that the issue aroused 'huge passions' on both sides but saying ministers were united on delivering a Brexit that regained control of 'laws, borders and money'.

But allies of the key players have been taking swipes at each other, with one minister telling the Daily Telegraph that Dr Fox and Mr Johnson were in 'fantasy land'.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman denied today that the government was looking for an 'off the shelf' transition deal.

And he made clear that freedom of movement would not continue after the UK formally leaves in March 2019.

'The Prime Minister's position on an implementation period is very clear and well-known,' the spokesman said.

'Free movement will end in March 2019. We have published proposals on citizens' rights. Last week, the Home Secretary said there will be a registration system for migrants arriving post-March 2019.

'Other elements of the post-Brexit immigration system will be brought forward in due course. It would be wrong to speculate on what these might look like or to suggest that free movement will continue as it is now.'

Mr Hammond has also risked inflaming tensions with Cabinet colleagues by insisting Britain will not become a tax haven after Brexit - amid fresh signs of tensions within the Cabinet.

The Chancellor said the government did not have a 'plan' to slash tax rates and regulation if Brussels tries to punish us in negotiations.

The remarks, in an interview with French newspaper Le Monde, contrast sharply with his warning earlier this year that the UK could 'change our economic model' in the wake of a bad deal. It has also been seen as effectively contradicting the government's previous line that 'no deal is better than a bad deal'.

In an extraordinary intervention last night, Mr Johnson attacked Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable after he referred to rumours the Foreign Secretary may resign over the transition proposals.

A spokesman for Mr Johnson said: 'Vince Cable is making this stuff up and maybe he should take more time to think up some policies rather than wasting his time on peddling lies.'

Senior Tory sources have said neither Mr Johnson nor International Trade Secretary Liam Fox were made fully aware in advance of the scale of Mr Hammond's proposals for a three-year 'transition' from Brexit that could see migration from the EU continue unchecked until 2022.

Both men were out of the country on trade missions last week when plans for a Brexit transition deal were set out by Mr Hammond and Home Secretary Amber Rudd.

Boris Johnson has accused new Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable (pictured together in 2011) of lying about the scale of Cabinet 'civil war'

Liam Fox (pictured right) was not made fully aware of the scale of Mr Hammond's proposals for a three-year 'transition' from Brexit. David Davis (left) has been leading Brexit negotiations for the government

Theresa May was at the Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Ypres, Belgium, today for a service to mark the centenary of the battle of Passchendaele

Tory MP Nadine Dorries tweeted today mocking the unseemly spat between senior figures over Brexit

Mr Hammond claimed that the Cabinet was united behind his vision for a draw-out departure from the EU.

He said 'literally nobody' was seeking a 'cliff edge' end to mass immigration from the EU, despite the government's manifesto commitment to slash net migration to under 100,000 a year.

But a source close to Dr Fox said he had not signed up to any agreement on how immigration from the EU should be managed during a Brexit transition.

'There is broad agreement that there needs to be some form of implementation period and that it needs to be completed before the next election,' the source said. 'But as to what that implementation period looks like or how long it lasts - all that is still for debate.'

ARCHBISHOP PLEADS FOR CROSS-PARTY WORKING ON BREXIT The chances of negotiating Brexit by March 2019 are 'infinitesimally small' unless politicians work together, the Archbishop of Canterbury has warned. The Most Rev Justin Welby renewed calls for a cross-party commission to negotiate Britain's departure from the European Union, as he said major decisions should be taken 'off the political table'. The Archbishop, who sits in the House of Lords, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'There are literally thousands of separate agreements to come to. 'If each one of those has to be argued as a point of confidence on the floor of the House of Commons, the chance of getting this done in what's now roughly 18 months is infinitesimally small. 'There has to be the political leadership that says we have major questions that are political, huge political decisions - the obvious one is the single market and customs union, but there are thousands of other decisions that can be made. 'Can the politicians not put at the front of their minds the needs of the United Kingdom to come out with a functional, working system for Brexit, and agree that certain things that, as it were, 'off the political table' and will be decided separately in an expert commission, or commission of senior politicians led by someone that is trusted in the political world?' Advertisement

A leading ally of Mr Johnson also warned that any transitional deal should be limited to two years, rather than the three favoured by the Chancellor.

Gerard Lyons, a former economic adviser to Mr Johnson, also compared 'alarmist' warnings of a Brexit 'cliff edge' to the hysteria over the so-called Millennium Bug, which failed to materialise.

In a swipe at the Chancellor, Mr Lyons said: 'Enough is enough. The leader is away so those in other senior roles seem to think they can play.

'The trouble is new ideas on Brexit should not be floated in public in the way they currently are, as if Government policy is being made by whoever can occupy the news agenda for that day.'

Tory backbencher and Brexit campaigner Iain Duncan Smith urged his colleagues to keep their disagreements to themselves.

He told the Guardian: 'Conservative backbenchers now wish Cabinet members would practise what some are preaching and that they 'transition' from saying too much about Europe to saying nothing at all.'

The former Work and Pensions Secretary added the transition should 'last up to two years' - despite Mr Hammond saying it could last up to three.

The Archbishop of Canterbury waded into the debate today, warning that the chances of negotiating Brexit by March 2019 are 'infinitesimally small' unless politicians work together.

The Most Rev Justin Welby renewed calls for a cross-party commission to negotiate Britain's departure from the European Union, as he said major decisions should be taken 'off the political table'.

The Archbishop, who sits in the House of Lords, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'There are literally thousands of separate agreements to come to.

'If each one of those has to be argued as a point of confidence on the floor of the House of Commons, the chance of getting this done in what's now roughly 18 months is infinitesimally small.

'There has to be the political leadership that says we have major questions that are political, huge political decisions - the obvious one is the single market and customs union, but there are thousands of other decisions that can be made.

'Can the politicians not put at the front of their minds the needs of the United Kingdom to come out with a functional, working system for Brexit, and agree that certain things that, as it were, 'off the political table' and will be decided separately in an expert commission, or commission of senior politicians led by someone that is trusted in the political world?'
North Korea has called its latest missile launch a 'stern warning' against US President Donald Trump's threats of new sanctions.

Kim Jong-Un boasted of his country's ability to strike any target in the US after the test on Friday that experts fear could even bring New York into range.

State propaganda said this morning that it was intended as a 'stern warning' to the U.S. for 'making senseless remarks' and being 'lost to reason in the frantic sanctions and pressure campaign against the DPRK'.

It comes after the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations said Washington is 'done talking about North Korea'.

North Korea under Kim Jong-un (pictured) has said its latest missile launch was a 'stern warning' against US President Donald Trump's threats of new sanctions

Kim Jong-Un boasted of his country's ability to strike any target in the US after the test (pictured) on Friday that experts fear could even bring New York into range

The US carried out a successful test of its missile defense system in a pointed show of force over the weekend. A US Air Force B-1B Lancer is pictured during a 10-hour mission from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, into Japanese airspace and over the Korean Peninsu

The US carried out a successful test of its missile defense system in a pointed show of force over the weekend.

A bilateral mission led by US strategic bombers on Saturday flew over the Korean Peninsula in a direct response to the North's launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The exercise was followed Sunday by a successful test by American forces of a missile interception system the US hopes will be installed on the Korean peninsula.

Under Kim's leadership, North Korea has accelerated its drive towards a credible nuclear strike capability, in defiance of international condemnation and multiple sets of UN sanctions. The US Senate passed new bipartisan sanctions on Pyongyang on Friday.

But the US-led campaign only provided 'further justification' for the North's resolve to maintain its weapons programs, Pyongyang's foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

'The... test-fire of ICBM ... this time is meant to send a stern warning to the U.S. making senseless remarks, being lost to reason in the frantic sanctions and pressure campaign against the DPRK,' it said, using an acronym for the North's official name.

US President Donald Trump warned that he would not allow China - the impoverished North's sole major ally and economic lifeline - to 'do nothing' about North Korea

A U.S. Air Force B-1B bomber, top, flies with South Korean fighter jets F-15K over Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea yesterday

The statement came hours after US President Donald Trump warned that he would not allow China - the impoverished North's sole major ally and economic lifeline - to 'do nothing' about North Korea.

In his critique of Beijing, which came in two tweets, Trump linked trade strains with the Asian giant - marked by a trade deficit of $309 billion last year - to policy on North Korea, after South Korea indicated it was speeding up the deployment of a US missile defense system that has infuriated China.

'I am very disappointed in China. Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk,' Trump wrote.

'We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!'

Trump, who is at loggerheads with Beijing over how to handle Kim's regime, has repeatedly urged China to rein in its recalcitrant neighbour, but Beijing insists dialogue is the only practical way forward.

On Sunday US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley tweeted that she was 'done talking' about North Korea.

'China is aware they must act. Japan & SKorea must inc pressure. Not only a US problem,' she said.

Trump's tweets coincided with a 10-hour bilateral mission that saw US B-1B bombers along with fighter jets from the South Korean and Japanese air forces practice intercept and formation drills.

It was followed by the successful test of the missile defense system, with the launch of a medium-range missile over the Pacific that was 'detected, tracked and intercepted' in Alaska.

Under Kim's leadership, North Korea has accelerated its drive towards a credible nuclear strike capability, in defiance of international condemnation and multiple sets of UN sanctions

'North Korea remains the most urgent threat to regional stability,' said General Terrence O'Shaughnessy, Pacific Air Forces commander, in a statement.

'If called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal, and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing.'

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said he held telephone talks with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and agreed on the need to put 'the heaviest possible pressure' on North Korea.

'We confirmed that we will closely cooperate in adopting a fresh UNSC (UN Security Council) resolution, including severe measures, and working on China and Russia,' Kishida told reporters.

In a standard response to the test, Beijing urged restraint by all sides, after the US and South Korea conducted a live-fire exercise using surface-to-surface missiles.

The heads of the US and South Korean militaries also discussed 'military response options' after North Korea's launch, the Pentagon said.

The US military will also roll out 'strategic assets' to the South following the North's missile test late Friday, according to South Korean defense minister Song Young-Moo.

Song declined to specify the nature of the mobilization, but the phrase usually refers to high-profile weapons systems, such as stealth bombers and aircraft carriers.

This morning, China said the US should not link trade to discussions about North Korea's nuclear programme.

'We believe that the North Korea nuclear issue and China-US trade are two issues that are in two completely different domains,' Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Qian Keming told a press briefing, adding the issues 'are not related, and should not be discussed together'.

'In general, China-US trade, including mutual investment, is mutually beneficial, and both China and the United States have gained great profits from bilateral trade and investment cooperations,' he said.
Residents are being priced out of living in the Bay Area with homes under half a million dollars becoming a thing of the past.

With so many tech workers descending upon the area with the rise of companies in Silicon Valley, house prices are soaring and the stock is in in short supply.

Families cannot afford to live in the houses and are having to move out meaning the Bay's workforce are leaving en masse which has drawn criticism.

This three-bedroom house in Oakland is on the market with an asking price of $599,000

Teachers, office workers and those who ply their trade in the industrial sector are among those upping sticks and leaving the popular area of California.

Sereno estate agent Roxy Laufer told Mercury News two of her clients moved to San Diego because of the housing situation and said: 'The economy doesn't run on people earning over $150,000 a year.

'If we are driving out the people who do necessary work, what is going to happen?'

Many of those landing in the area are employed by two of Silicon Valley's biggest hitters - Google and Apple.

As they move in, those working in San Francisco and Oakland are being forced to move to places right on the outskirts of what is considered the Bay Area.

They face long commutes from cities such as Tracy, Stockton and Vallejo.

This two-bedroom house in Richmond, California, which is 16 miles from Google's headquarters is one of a limited number of houses on the market for less than half a million dollars. The asking prince is $450,000

The further away from the central Bay Area hub, the cheaper the house prices tend to get. This three-bedroom house in Pittsburg, California, is 41 miles from San Francisco, which is still drivable in less than an hour

A report by Core Logic revealed June sales grew nine percent year-on-year on homes more than $500,000.

Although the housing stock is at record lows, the number of homes sold in the Bay Area increased due to the amount of people flocking to the area.

Industrial cities in California, once renowned for crime and gangs, have been turned around by the housing revolution.
Neil Rix, pictured, wants to replace his 26,000 Toyota Prius with a much more expensive Volvo, Mitsubishi or Skoda

The mayor of Dover who sparked outrage after he was filmed snorting white powder in a toilet cubicle has demanded a bigger official car to reflect his 'prestige and status'.

Neil Rix wants to replace his 26,000 Toyota Prius with a much more expensive Volvo, Mitsubishi or Skoda.

The 55-year-old has cited health and safety reasons, saying his town sergeant is 'above average height for a British man' and his 'head touches the roof' when driving the vehicle.

Dover's first citizen also argued that his car should 'reflect the prestige and status of the mayoralty'.

Mr Rix was elected mayor in April 2016 by a casting vote and months later a minute-long video emerged showing him snorting white powder.

The clip released in August last year - which was reportedly filmed years before the mayor took office - shows him urging another man in the toilet to close the cubicle door before removing a package from his pocket.

He then appears to lean over the toilet cistern and snort a substance through a bank note.

The defiant mayor said at the time: 'Someone had put drugs into my beer and I did not know I was being filmed.'

He added that he would not be resigning as 'it could have been sherbet' or 'icing sugar'.

In its report Dover Town Council agreed to increase the sum available for the car to 5,000 after it was argued the hybrid was too small and uncomfortable for the town sergeant to drive the mayor to functions.

Months after Mr Rix was made mayor a minute-long video emerged showing him snorting white powder. The clip shows him urging another man in the toilet to close the cubicle door before removing a package from his pocket

The council said: 'The car is very often used by the town sergeant and annual appraisal of his role has highlighted that because he is above average height for a British man, the Prius is not entirely comfortable for him to drive particularly on journeys of over an hour.

'There is some risk of physical harm to the town sergeant in obliging him to continue to use a car in which the seat is at its lowest position but his head touches the roof.

'The current mayor is also subject to similar discomfort.'

The authority looked at whether it would be possible for the mayor to use public transport, his own vehicle, or the town sergeant's car, but these options were rejected.

Three potential replacements - a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, Skoda Superb Hatch SE l Executive and Volvo S90 hybrid T8 twin engine - have been recommended to the authority.

The mayor's current car is a Toyota Prius - but he says it is too small and cramped for his driver (stock photo)

Three potential replacements - a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, Skoda Superb Hatch SE l Executive and Volvo S90 hybrid T8 twin engine, pictured - have been recommended to the authority

The report added: 'The mayor believes that the make of vehicle should reflect the prestige and status of the mayoralty.'

Furious town councillor Peter Wallace has slammed the comments, saying Mr Rix 'really just wants a big gangster car'.

He said upgrading the official limo now is 'inappropriate at a time of austerity'.

Mr Wallace continued: 'People like nurses do a really important job and they don't have a car, but the mayor just goes about meeting people and eating sandwiches' he said.

'At the same meeting a spokesman from the Outreach Centre came along to talk about how they need funding to give homeless people beds for the night and training to get a job.

At the time the video was released, the defiant mayor said: 'Someone had put drugs into my beer and I did not know I was being filmed.' He added that he would not be resigning as 'it could have been sherbet' or 'icing sugar'.

'Imagine if we could use the money spent on leasing a car to fund the homeless night shelter instead. I'd be much prouder to look back on my year as mayor saying I helped people get off the streets rather than boasting I had a new car.'

Mr Rix runs the NT Rix scaffolding company and represents Buckland ward, the area of Dover in which he was born.

He also formed the company Dover Demolition, which flattened the town's high-rise Burlington House building in February 2016.
He was clearly desperate to fulfill his fast food cravings.

A bird-brained suspect in the Bronx has been caught on CCTV storming into a fast food join and filling a tote bag with fried chicken and biscuits.

The fiendish fowl thief was filmed entering Texas Chicken and Burgers on East 138th street at just after 10pm on Sunday night.

Shocked customers watched as the suspect jumped over the counter and filled his bag up with dozens of pieces of chicken.

But he decides he needs a bit more to round out his meal and, after careful consideration, picks up a tray of fried biscuits.

He then clumsily roles back over the counter and shoves all of them into his bag.

Police said the suspect shoved aside a store worker who tried to stop him - but not before exposing his face straight to the store's CCTV.

Patrons and employees could barely believe their eyes as they watched the crook at work

Employee Preet Singh told the New York Post the suspect told them to 'leave him alone' when he came in.

He added: 'I thought he was playing. Somebody coming in for a robbery, he wants money, he doesn't want chicken.'

After stealing the chicken, the thief then decided to take a tray of biscuits to round off the meal

The suspect is described as having long braids, wearing a black and pink shirt, blue jeans and blue sneakers.

Hopefully he enjoys his felony fast food feast, it's not likely he'll get the same grub while in prison.
An Australian author who spent three months in a South American jail has given drug mule Cassie Sainsbury some much-needed advice about doing time.

The bestselling author - who spent three months behind bars in Bolivia - says she could get out early if she plays her cards right in jail.

Rusty Young lived in Colombia for seven years and recently revealed he has worked undercover for the US government rescuing hostages from drug cartels.

Scroll down for video

Bestselling author Rusty Young is an expert on the South America drug trade and has some advice for Cassie Sainsbury (pictured, middle)

Young (pictured) lived in Colombia for seven years and recently revealed he has worked undercover for the US government rescuing hostages from drug cartels

His advice to the 22-year-old former sex worker from Adelaide is to 'keep quiet, learn Spanish and stay out of the headlines,' Nine News reported.

He says by speaking to the media and playing innocent while pleading guilty in court 'Cocaine Cassie' won't be doing herself any favours.

'Colombians hate international headlines in which their country is associated with cocaine,' he said.

'Every time Cassandra Sainsbury or a member of her family or even her lawyer speak to the press, that just reinvigorates the news cycle.'

Young suggests that Sainsbury (pictured) learn Spanish in jail as authorities looks favourably upon inmates who study

Young (pictured) bribed guards at a Bolivian jail to let him spend three months behind bars with a convicted British drug smuggler, and wrote a book about the experience

He also advises her to learn Spanish so she can communicate while in El Buen Pastor Prison womens prison and because authorities would approve.

Following this advice could see her sentence reduced by up to a quarter.

Sainsbury has already admitted to the drug trafficking charges after a tip-off led to her being caught with 5.8 kilograms of cocaine while trying to fly home from Bogota.

The illegal drugs were packed in 18 separate bags and had an estimated street value of $1.7million.

Young says Sainsbury (pictured with seized cocaine) should keep quiet and stop speaking to the media as cocaine-related news does not go down well in Colombia

Young says if she stops talking and keeps her head down, Sainsbury (pictured) could have her sentenced reduced

The Adelaide woman told a judge last week that she was forced to carry the bags by a man who threatened to kill her family and her fiance.

'I didn't want to take a package with me. I was told my family and partner would be killed,' she told the packed court room.

Senior Judge Sergio Leon then suspended the hearing, saying her statements violated the plea bargain.

Young says speaking out is not a good strategy in Sainsbury's situation, and doubts a Colombian cartel is behind the seizure.

'Cartels don't run mules through airports, they have nothing to do with that. They push tonnes of cocaine. This is a relatively small level amount, it's not a professional operation,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

Therefore she would not face retribution in jail if she told authorities who was really behind the drug shipment.

Young is more than familiar with conditions in South American jails, as he bribed guards to let him spend three months locked up with a British convict in Bolivia.

His book based on the experience, Marching Powder, became an international bestseller, and he has just released a novel titled Colombiano.
Ramped-up security at Australian airports in the wake of terror arrests has made travellers more vulnerable to an attack, an expert claims.

Australian Security Magazine executive editor Chris Cubbage flew from Sydney to Perth on Sunday when he noticed the changes in security put passengers at more risk rather than less.

'The only difference was the creation of a large, vulnerable crowd left standing at the departure terminal,' Mr Cubbage wrote for The Sydney Morning Herald.

Security and police presence was increased at Sydney Airport on Sunday as police in the New South Wales capital investigated an alleged terror plot

Security and police presence was increased at Sydney Airport on Sunday as police in the New South Wales capital investigated an alleged terror plot.

Four men were arrested during raids across Sydney on Saturday night, and are being held in custody.

Father and son Khaled and Mahmoud Khayat were arrested alongside Khaled and Abdul Merhi who are also believed to be related.

The group allegedly planned to smuggle a bomb onto an airplane in a meat grinder, the ABC reports.

The major terror investigation and subsequent arrests prompted authorities to ramp-up on security at Sydney airport, causing delays for passengers on Sunday and Monday.

Australian Security Magazine executive editor Chris Cubbage flew from Sydney to Perth on Sunday when he noticed the changes in security put passengers at more risk rather than less

People crowd a terminal at Sydney's domestic airport as passengers are subjected to increased security, in Sydney on Monday

Long lines form at Sydney Airports T2 Domestic Terminal as passengers are subjected to increased security

Mr Cubbage said the security methodology used at the airport concerned him.

He said the situation appeared worse on Monday with crowds noticeably spilling out onto the footpath.

Mr Cubbage said it made passengers vulnerable to being attacked by a vehicle.

While he said extra police officers created the sense there was added security, he said it had a negative effect.

'There appeared an obvious intent to create a sense of security at screening points but instead the outcome was to create anxiety and an attack point in the terminal,' Mr Cubbage said.

Huge lines at Sydney Airport pictured on Monday - the first weekday morning since news broke of the Sydney-based terror plot

Mr Cubbage recommended The Smart Security Project - a joint initiative of the Airports COuncil International and the International Air Transport Association.

Under the project, passengers would pass through security checkpoints freely, with security resources allocated based on risk.

The Smart Security Project aims to reduce queues and waiting times and turn to technology for less intrusive screening.

Counter terrorism police raided four houses across Sydney on Saturday night and arrested four men over an alleged terror plot that involved blowing up an aircraft

The project has been tested in Melbourne, but Mr Cubbage said there was a long way to go before it was properly implemented.

He said the overwhelming security on Sunday and Monday was ineffective and made passengers anxious.

'It would be preferable and reasonable to continue, or appear to continue as normal and process passengers with minimal inconvenience and the greatest efficiency,' he said.
A police officer was slammed by revellers after skidding into a 180-degree turn past people stood on the pavement before emerging to aid an arrest.

In shocking footage shared online by witness Warren Wallace, a man seemingly covered in blood appears to be arguing with a female officer who asks his name and threatens to arrest him for a public disturbance.

Another female officer can be seen talking animatedly to a second man, until sirens are heard as a back-up vehicle arrives on the scene in Gillingham, Kent.

But as the second police car screeches into view, it spins 180 degrees, crashing into railings on the other side of the street before two male officers jump out of the car.

Many of the revellers were shocked by the dramatic arrival.

One can be heard saying: ''What the f*** is that about? Do you want to kill people?'

Mr Wallace's video has had more than 3.7million views and 28,000 shares in just 15 hours, as amused viewers debate whether the maneouvre was purposeful or lucky.

In a spin: Witness Warren Wallace shared footage of a police car's dramatic entrance (pictured) to a disturbance in Gillingham, Kent, just after 3am on Sunday. He wrote in the caption: 'Gillingham's answer to 2 Fast 2 Furious'

He wrote in the caption: 'Gillingham's answer to 2 Fast 2 Furious.'

A spokesman said: 'Kent Police was called at 3.03am on Sunday 30 July to Canterbury Street in Gillingham following reports of a disturbance.

'Patrols attended and officers made an urgent radio call to colleagues for assistance.

'A police patrol vehicle responding to the urgent call was involved in a minor collision with some railings after it had skidded on a wet road whilst coming to a halt.

'Nobody was injured as a result of the collision.'

The spokesman added: 'Two men were arrested following the disturbance and have since been released without charge.'

A police spokesman said two men were arrested during the disturbance but have since been released without charge

In shocking footage shared online by witness Warren Wallace, a man seemingly covered in blood (right) appears to be arguing with a female officer who asks his name and threatens to arrest him for a public disturbance. Another female officer (left) can be seen talking animatedly to a second man, until sirens are heard as a back-up vehicle arrives on the scene

Many people on Facebook found the video an entertaining watch - while some have expressed concern about whether or not the driving was safe.

Clark Freeman said: 'Crazy driving.'

While Lucas Tumilty added: 'Serious bit of a parking that though.'

Kerstie Emma Willis said: 'I think that's classed as dangerous driving.'
A 41-year-old man has been executed in Yemen after he was convicted of raping and killing a three-year-old girl.

Muhammad al-Maghrabi was shot to death with an AK-style rifle in the capital of Sanaa on Monday.

Pictures show Maghrabi laying on the floor with his hands bound behind his back before a soldier standing over him opens fire.

Muhammad al-Maghrabi, 41, was shot dead in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa on Monday

Maghrabi was killed after being convicted of raping and murdering a three-year-old girl

He was brought to the main square in Sanaa in an armoured van before soldiers laid him on the floor to carry out the sentence

As a crowd of thousands watched, one soldier fired shots through Maghrabi's back, killing him

The execution was watched by a crowd of thousands who gathered in the city's main square.

Maghrabi was brought there by prison van before being laid down on a rug where he was fatally shot through the back.

Television cameras broadcast the sentence across the country while viewers filmed it on their phones.

Sharia law is the source of all legislation in Yemen, according to a US State Department report.

Under the law murder is punishable by the death sentence, thought the family of the victim do have the power to lessen the punishment.

While beheading is common, sharia does not specify how the death sentence should be carried out.

Onlookers filmed the execution on their phones while a television crew gathered around to get the best angle (rear left)

Thousands of people including those carrying cameras on selfie sticks gathered to watch the execution in Sanaa on Monday

Maghrabi steps out of the prison van and into the square where he was then shot dead
Jodie Halliwell was walking her seven-stone dog Dexter when he slipped into a canal

A mother has told how she dived into a canal twice while trying to rescue her seven stone dog despite nearly drowning after getting stuck in sinking mud.

Jodie Halliwell, 33, was walking her dog Dexter when he slipped into the water in Wigan, Greater Manchester, and without thinking she dived in to rescue him.

But her feet sank into the muddy base of the canal and she soon found herself struggling to breath as she battled to lift up the eight-month-old Dogue de Bordeaux.

Passers-by rescued her from 'certain drowning', but panicked Dexter then fell in again, prompting Miss Halliwell to dive back in after him - spending 30 minutes in the water with him in total on July 17.

It took a group of fishermen to come to the rescue and form a 'human chain' to drag Miss Halliwell and the dog out of the water and save their lives - while others walked past without bothering to stop.

Firefighters advise against jumping into cold water to save a pet, but Miss Halliwell - who was left bleeding and with internal bruising - vowed she would do it again.

Miss Halliwell's feet sank into the muddy base of the canal and she soon found herself struggling to breath as she battled to lift up her eight-month-old Dogue de Bordeaux

She said: 'I jumped in without thinking. I just dived in. I didn't realise until after that I was risking my own life and then I realised I could have died.

'It was just mad. I've never experienced anything like that before in my life. I have no idea what would have happened if they weren't there. They absolutely saved my life.

'I treat the dog like he's my child. I couldn't have left him. I would do it again one million percent. It's mother's instinct.

'There are no words to describe what he means to me. He is part of the family. It makes me feel sick to think of anything happening to him.

'I absolutely believe that I would have drowned with the dog if they weren't there.'

Miss Halliwell was left with internal bruising but vowed she would dive in again to save her dog

Miss Halliwell with her sons Brayden Hudson (left), ten, and Blaine Ainscough (right), eight

The sales account manager lives near the canal and takes her dog down there every day - but has now vowed not to take him back until he has taken swimming lessons.

Miss Halliwell said: 'I didn't see him fall in but I've been told his back legs slipped off the edge. I haven't walked down there since. I was massively shaken up.

'There was five people in the area fishing. I was screaming because he has never been in the water before. He's only eight-months-old.

Carl Warburton was among those who helped save Miss Halliwell and Dexter in the canal

'They were trying to lean down to call him over but they couldn't quite reach him because the bank was that deep. He was swimming around in a circle.

'He started going under the water and coming back up but I could see him losing strength. It was a natural reaction to jump in and save him.

'I managed to grab him and swim to the side with him and people were trying to reach down to pick him up. It was like sinking mud.

'The more I was holding him up the more I was sinking. I was struggling. The water was freezing. They grabbed him by the neck but Dexter was trying to bite them.

'A lot of people would have been like "no way" because he was going for them but they hauled him out. It was a massive struggle.

'They finally dragged me to the side. I was completely out of breath. I told them to put his lead on him and he got scared and jumped back and he went in again.

'Without thinking I dived back in for him. He was swimming out to the deep side. It was a massive panic. It is so deceiving. You don't realise how deep it is.

'I managed to get him to the side again but I had no power. I couldn't even lift him up they were all screaming at me to motivate me to hold him up.

The powerful Dogue de Bordeaux breed was made famous in the 1989 comedy film Turner & Hooch starring Tom Hanks and Beasley the dog

'It took me a bit longer the second time to get him out. This time my chest was so tightened and I thought I wasn't going to make this.

'I had no strength to hold myself up. I said "I can't breathe, I can't do this" but they were strong for me and were trying to grab me.

'They made a bit of a human chain so they could get to me. They dragged me up by my clothes, it wasn't very graceful. Between them they managed to hold me up.'

Four days later Miss Halliwell took Dexter to the vet's after he picked up an infection from the canal water, but after being put on medication he is back to his usual self.

Miss Halliwell took Dexter to the vet's after he picked up an infection from the canal water

She said: 'There was a couple that walked past and they just turned a blind eye to it and carried on walking. This family that saved me were going mad.

'They couldn't believe people were walking past. We didn't have any towels so they all took their clothes off to dry me with them and then gave me a beer.

'I didn't take their number or address because of the state I was in. I was internally bruised on my upper body.

'I cut all of my toes, they were pouring with blood. I was covered from head to toe in gunk and grass. I was horrible. It was very dramatic and awful. They truly are heroes.'

Miss Halliwell posted a message on social media about her ordeal and tracked down the fishermen, named as Stephen Warburton, Samuel Raferty, Carl Entwistle, Melanie Darwen and Sylvia Warburton. She has vowed promised to buy them all a drink soon.

Earlier this month, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service issued a warning to dog owners over jumping into water to save their pets. A spokesman said: 'Never enter the water to try and save a dog - the dog usually manages to scramble out.'

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service also advised dog owners not to jump into water to save their pets even if they were struggling to swim.

The powerful Dogue de Bordeaux breed was made famous in the 1989 comedy film Turner & Hooch starring Tom Hanks and Beasley the dog.
Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo has told a Spanish judge today that he has 'never tried to avoid taxes.'

The Portugal forward was questioned at a court on the outskirts of Madrid today to determine whether he committed tax fraud worth almost 15 million euros.

Ronaldo spent more than 90 minutes answering the questions of investigating judge Monica Gomez.

According to a statement released by his public relations firm, the 32-year-old Ronaldo told the judge: 'I have never hidden anything, and never tried to avoid taxes.'

Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo (pictured) is appearing before a Spanish judge today as part of a probe to determine whether he committed tax fraud

A member of Real Madrid's Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo communication team speaks to the media afterthe forward appeared before a court in Pozuelo de Alarcon

Police and media stand waiting for the arrival of Real Madrid's Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo to appear at a court in Pozuelo de Alarcon, Madrid, this morning

Judge Gomez took Ronaldo's testimony as part of an investigation to determine if there are grounds to charge him. The session at Pozuelo de Alarcon Court No. 1 on the outskirts of Madrid was closed to the public because it is part of an ongoing investigation.

In June, a state prosecutor accused Ronaldo of four counts of tax fraud from 2011-14 worth 14.7 million euros ($16.5 million). The prosecutor accused the Portugal forward of having used shell companies outside Spain to hide income made from image rights. The accusation does not involve his salary from Real Madrid.

Ronaldo denies any wrongdoing.

'Spain's Tax Office knows all the details about my sources of income because we have reported them,' Ronaldo told the judge, according to his statement. 'I always file my tax returns because I think that we should all file and pay our taxes.

'Those who know me know that I tell my consultants that they must have everything in order and paid up to date because I don't want trouble.'

Both before and after his court appearance, Ronaldo used an alternative entrance to avoid a large swarm of more than a hundred journalists from Spain and aboard gathered near the main door to the court.

A car believed to be carrying Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo entered a back door garage before he was due to testify on charges of tax fraud this morning

An investigating judge will take the 32-year-old's testimony as part of a probe to determine if there are grounds to charge him

Court officials had said that either Ronaldo or his lawyer would speak to the media after he saw the judge, but instead the player's spokesman, Inaki Torres, stepped up to the temporary podium in front of the courthouse to announce that Ronaldo 'was on his way home.'

The prosecutor said in June that Ronaldo used what was deemed a shell company in the Virgin Islands to 'create a screen in order to hide his total income from Spain's Tax Office.'

The prosecutor accused Ronaldo of declaring 11.5 million euros ($12.8 million) earned from 2011-14 in a tax return filed in 2014, when the prosecutor said Ronaldo's real income during that period was almost 43 million euros ($48 million). It added that Ronaldo falsely claimed the income as coming from real estate, which 'greatly' reduced his tax rate.

The prosecutor also said that Ronaldo did not declare income of 28.4 million euros ($31.8 million) made from the cession of image rights from 2015-20 to another company located in Spain.

Ronaldo said that he told judge Gomez on Monday that that his financial planning hadn't changed since 2004, when he was at Manchester United. He said he kept the same arrangement when he joined Madrid in 2009.

'When I signed for Real Madrid I didn't create a special business structure to handle my image rights, I kept the same one that had been managing them when I was in England,' Ronaldo said, according to the statement. 'It was checked out by the English Tax Office and was found legal and legitimate.'

The Real Madrid superstar arrived at Pozuelo de Alarcon Court No. 1 in the outskirts of Madrid on Monday about half an hour before he was to appear at 11.30am local time

The 32-year-old Ronaldo used an alternative entrance to avoid a large swarm of journalists gathered near the main door to the court, according to court officials

A four-time Ballon d'Or winner, Ronaldo is one of Europe's best soccer players. He has led Madrid to back-to-back Champions League titles and helped Portugal to win last year's European Championship.

Last month, Spain's state prosecutor also accused former Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho of defrauding 3.3 million euros ($3.7 million) in 2011 and 2012 from income made from image rights. Mourinho, now coach of Manchester United, has yet to be summoned for questioning and through his agent has denied any wrongdoing.

The probes into Ronaldo's and Mourinho's financial arrangements are the most recent high-profile tax cases involving soccer's top names in Spain.

Last year, Barcelona forward Lionel Messi and his father, Jorge Horacio Messi, were found guilty on three counts of defrauding tax authorities of 4.1 million euros ($4.6 million) from income made from image rights. They have both paid additional fines in exchange for their 21-month jail sentences to be suspended.

Both former Real Madrid forward Angel Di Maria and Barcelona defender Javier Mascherano have admitted to tax fraud in exchange for lighter treatment from the law, and prosecutors have also opened tax fraud investigations into former Atletico Madrid striker Radamel Falcao and former Real Madrid defender Fabio Coentrao.

In Spain, a judge can suspend sentences of less than two years for first-time offenders.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping has told his troops 'a strong army is needed now more than ever' during a huge military parade

XI, wearing military clothing, warned the 'world isn't safe at this moment' as he watched the display at Zhurihe Training Base in China's remote Inner Mongolia region.

Among the terrifying weapons on display was China's Chengdu J-20 stealth jet fighter as well as its new DF-31AG intercontinental ballistic missile. The rocket is mounted on an all-terrain vehicle to make it harder to track.

The event, to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army, was at Asia's largest military training centre which features life-size mock-up targets, including Taiwan's presidential palace.

It came as a number of the world's superpowers flexed their muscles in massive parades to showcase their military strength.

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Divisions on display: Up to 12,000 troops, 570 vehicles and 129 jets participated in the parade. State media reported that it was the first time that 40 per cent of the vehicles had been presented, which highlighted China's massive military spending

XI, wearing military clothing, warned the 'world isn't safe at this moment' as he watched the display at Zhurihe Training Base in China's remote Inner Mongolia region

The PLA rolled out some of its latest weapons at the parade, including the DF-31AG ICBM (pictured). The nuclear-capable ballistic missile has a reported range of 6,000 miles. President Trump has sharply criticized China for not doing enough to stem the nuclear ambitions of North Korea

China's party-run media said about 12,000 troops, more than 100 types of aircraft and 600 pieces of military hardware were put on display at the sprawling desert camp

The parade featured dozens of military vehicles and rocket launchers as well as thousands of frogmarching troops

A formation soldiers from the PLA's Rocket Force, which controls the nation's arsenal of nuclear and conventional ballistic missiles, shout pledges of loyalty during the parade, which are part of the celebrations of the 90th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army

Chinese Type 99 tanks parade, followed by elite airborne troops in helicopters above. The march took place at the remote Zhurihe training base in inner Mongolia, which is Asia's largest military training centre. The Chinese military said the parade had been planned for some time, and was not related to the current tensions in North Korea

Clad in military fatigues President Xi inspected the 12,000 troops, repeatedly shouting 'Hello comrades!' and 'Comrades, you are working hard!' into microphones fixed on top of a jeep.

Troops shouted back: 'Serve the people!', 'Follow the Party!', 'Fight to win!' and 'Forge exemplary conduct!'

In a live address Xi, who commands the People's Liberation Army, called on the Chinese military to transform itself into an elite fighting force to bolster the country's rise into a world power.

He said the Chinese military had the capabilities to 'preserve national sovereignty, security and interests' and demanded the troops' show 'absolute loyalty' to the party

The PLA has undergone an extensive modernisation programme with the strategic aim of competing with the US for regional dominance.

Hundreds of thousands of troops have been cut, and an anti-corruption purge has removed dozens of officers, while also investing heavily in aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and stealth fighters.

A trio of Chinese J-20 stealth fighters fly overhead during the parade. The newest generation fighter by the Chinese air force is the country's most advanced aircraft and designed to potentially rival the F-22 and the F-35 of the US Air Force

Xi said the military must, 'Always listen to and follow the party's orders, and march to wherever the party points' and said that the world was not peaceful, however he did not specify any hot spots the Chinese military would intervene in

China's military has undergone an extensive modernisation programme, cutting thousands of troops while investing heavily in modern technology, including drones, stealth fighters, nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers

Unlike previous parades seen in Beijing, the troops in Inner Mongolia were clad in full combat gear, to further emphasis their readiness. It was also the first time that President Xi had reviewed troops in such a way

Missile launchers, self-propelled artillery and transport helicopters stand on display behind the formations of troops. Xi said the Chinese military had the capabilities to 'preserve national sovereignty, security and interests'

It has been decades since China last fought a war and the country insists it has no hostile intent, and simply needs to defend itself. However it's increasingly assertive stance in the South China Sea has rattled its neighbours

More than 100 planes flew overhead and almost 600 types of weaponry were on display for the occasion  nearly half of which were making their debut in public, according to the Defence Ministry

The Chinese flag is raised during a military parade at the Zhurihe training base in China's northern Inner Mongolia region

Since coming to power in 2012, the president has trumpeted the need to build a stronger combat-ready military, while leading efforts to centralise the Communist Party's control over it

Troops make preparation for a military parade 90th birthday celebration of the Chinese People's Liberation Army

Elsewhere yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin oversaw a pomp-filled display of Russia's naval might as the Kremlin paraded its sea power from the Baltic Sea to the shores of Syria.

Some 50 warships and submarines were on show along the Neva River and in the Gulf of Finland off the country's second city of Saint Petersburg after Putin ordered the navy to hold its first ever parade on such a grand scale.

Putin told servicemen: 'Today much is being done to develop and modernise the navy. The navy is not only dealing with its traditional tasks but also responding with merit to new challenges, making a significant contribution to the fight against terrorism and piracy.'

The showcase event to mark Russia's annual Navy Day is the latest to be beefed up by Putin, with the Kremlin strongman also bolstering the traditional WWII victory parade in Moscow as he looks to flex the country's military muscles.

Russia has ramped up its military manoeuvres as ties with the West have slumped over Moscow's meddling in Ukraine, unnerving NATO and its members in Eastern Europe.

It came as Putin on Sunday said the United States would have to cut 755 diplomatic staff in Russia and warned of a prolonged gridlock in its ties after the US Congress backed new sanctions against the Kremlin.

Putin added bluntly that Russia was able to raise the stakes with America even further, although he hoped this would be unnecessary.

A US State Department official denounced the move as a "regrettable and uncalled for act," adding that Washington was now weighing a potential response.

Russian President Vladimir Putin oversaw a pomp-filled display of Russia's naval might as the Kremlin paraded its sea power from the Baltic Sea to the shores of Syria

Russia staged its own show of force on Sunday with President Putin joining a naval display

Russian warships sail during the Navy Day parade in Kronshtadt, a seaport town in the suburb of St. Petersburg

A boat with Russian President Vladimir Putin onboard sails along the Neva river during the Navy Day parade

Some 50 warships and submarines were on displayed in the Gulf of Finland and on the Neva river around St Petersburg

Russia has ramped up its military maneuvers as ties with the West have slumped over Moscow's meddling in Ukraine, unnerving NATO and its members in Eastern Europe

Russian news wire Interfax reported that six vessels, including the latest generation 'Krasnodar' diesel submarine, were taking part in the parade

In response to Russia's display, Georgia and the United States launched their biggest ever joint military exercises yesterday in the latest show of support for the tiny Caucasus nation that has squared off against Russia.

The start of the drills comes a day ahead of a two-day visit to Tbilisi by US Vice President Mike Pence during which he is expected to reiterate Washington's backing for Georgia's wish to join NATO.

Some 800 Georgian and 1600 US troops are taking part in the Noble Partner 2017 drills - the largest ever in the Caucasus nation since it fought a brief war with Russia in 2008.

Georgia's Defence Minister Levan Izoria called the scale of exercises 'unprecedented', insisting they will 'make clear the support for Georgia by the NATO member states, especially the US.'

The US has sent some of its M1A2 Abrams main battle tanks and M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles across the Black Sea for the drills, which will last until August 12.

The exercises also included 400 servicemen from Armenia, Germany, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

It comes a day after North Korea tested a ballistic missile that it claims can reach all of the United States, US President Donald Trump criticised China for not reining in Kim Jong Un and his missile program.

'I am very disappointed in China,' Trump wrote in a pair of Twitter posts. '...they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!'

North Korea's test Friday of an intercontinental ballistic missile was its second of the long-range weapon in a month. The first on July 4 showed the missile had the range to reach Alaska.

Friday's test was designed to show the Hwasong-14 missile's maximum range with a 'large-sized heavy nuclear warhead,' a statement from Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency said.

It said Washington should regard the launch as a 'grave warning.'

British servicemen gather before the official opening ceremony of the joint multinational military exercise 'Noble Partner 2017' at the military base of Vaziani, outside Tbilisi, in Georgia

Georgian servicemen line up during the official opening ceremony of the joint multinational military exercise

The exercises included 400 servicemen from Armenia, Germany, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom

US servicemen sit on a M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tank before the official opening ceremony

Some 800 Georgian and 1600 US troops are taking part in the Noble Partner 2017 drills - the largest ever in the Caucasus nation since it fought a brief war with Russia in 2008
A puppy has been saved in China after having both of its hind legs ripped off.

The dog, less than a month old, was found abandoned by the side of a road in Chengdu earlier this month, according to Qiming Small Animal Protection Group.

The animal group took the tiny canine to a vet, who performed leg amputation surgery on it. The vet said the dog had been 'extremely strong' and was recovering well after the operation.

The puppy, named Fu Rui, was found by an animal volunteer who saw it crawling at the side of a road in Chengdu using its forearms on July 17. The dog's hind legs had nearly been torn off

Vets at the Chengdu Xin Zhi Lv Veterinary Clinic treated the puppy before performing amputation surgery on it. The operation went smoothly and the dog is recovering well

Tong Tong, a spokesman from Qiming Small Animal Protection Group, told MailOnline that the dog, a boy, was found by one of their volunteers on July 17 on Shengtai Avenue in Chengdu's Wenjiang District.

The spokesman said when the dog was found, both of its lower hind legs were nearly torn off from its body, and it was crawling at the side of the road using its forearms

'We don't know how the dog got injured or who attacked it, but it seemed like someone had try to rip off its legs deliberately using their hands,' said Tong Tong.

The spokesman added: 'We are horrified by the incident and we condemn the person who has given the small puppy such shocking injuries.'

Tong Tong added: 'Judging from our experience, people usually hurt animals in a cruel way when they are under extreme stress or anger and want to release their emotions.'

Li Xiaokun, a vet from the clinic, said the puppy had been 'extremely strong' during the operation. It is now recovering well at the clinic under 24-hour care

Qiming Small Animal Protection Group suspected the dog was a puppy of a stray dog. Workers gave it basic treatment before taking it to the Chengdu Xin Zhi Lv Veterinary Clinic.

Li Xiaokun, a vet from the clinic, told MailOnline that he and his colleagues decided to give the puppy amputation surgery because 'it was not possible to have them re-attached to its body'.

Dr Li explained: 'The dog's hind legs were dead from the ankle down and worms had started to grow on them.'

He added: 'The operation was risky because the puppy was so young. However, it was extremely strong during the operation.

'Its condition has stabilised now. We're giving it 24-hour care and it's recovering well.'

Dr Li said some of the puppy's skin was missing around the ankle and the clinic planned to give it a tissue expansion operation in about a month to ensure that its operative wounds would be fully covered.

After the puppy recovers, the clinic would make it a wheelchair to help it walk.

The clinic said they would give the puppy a follow-up operation in about a month to ensure it recovers well. A vet is pictured feeding the tiny canine (left) and cleaning its teeth (right)

Qiming Small Animal Protection Group has raised funds for the puppy's operation through an online donation page.

The puppy has been named Fu Rui, meaning 'free' in English. The name was selected after receiving the most votes from the people who donated money to the dog on WeChat, a Chinese social media platform.

Qiming Small Animal Protection Group hopes that the puppy could grow up healthily and safely.

'We hope its mind would be free and not restricted by the fact that it does not have hind legs,' said the animal group, who also urged the Chinese authority to set up animal protection law in order to avoid incidents as such.

Tong Tong, the spokesman, said: 'At the moment, there is no law to protect animals' welfare in China. There is a draft under consideration, but no official legal policies have been passed.

'However, considering the scale of underground animal meat trading industry, I think it would be challenging for the authority to approve related law anytime soon.'


Human rights researcher Siddharth Kara, pictured, calculated that nowadays each victim makes an average of 3,030 a year for those who exploit them - with some making more than 10 times that figure

Experts have warned that slavery is more profitable than ever with traders making 30 times more than in the 18th and 19th century.

Human rights researcher Siddharth Kara calculated that nowadays each victim makes an average of 3,030 a year for those who exploit them - with some making more than 10 times that figure.

Meanwhile sex trafficking makes up half of the profits of the illegal industry despite those victims only accounting for 5% of modern slaves. It can bring in profits of more than 27,000 per person.

Mr Kara told The Guardian: 'Human life has become more expendable than ever.

'Slaves can be acquired, exploited and discarded in relatively short periods and still provide immense profits for their exploiters.

He added: 'Unless slavery is perceived as a high-cost and high-risk form of labour exploitation, this reality will not change.'

Kara's calculations were based on data from 51 countries recorded over a 15-year period as well as thousands of victims of slavery.

According to experts the scale of slavery has dramatically increased - with approximately 21 million people being exploited worldwide compared to the 13 million people who were sold as slaves between the 15th and 19th century.

Nowadays it is far easier for traders to transport their victims amid steady migration flows and inexpensive travel.

In England last year, more than 1,200 children were rescued from sexual, domestic or labour slavery.

According to experts the scale of slavery has dramatically increased - with approximately 21 million people being exploited worldwide compared to the 13 million people who were sold as slaves between the 15th and 19th century (stock photo)

They were identified by police, charities and welfare experts as potential victims of so-called modern slavery, which includes human trafficking and forced labour.

But the figure could merely be the 'tip of the iceberg', with many more unreported cases, the study by the Children's Commissioner for England warns.

Anne Longfield has urged politicians to stamp out the 'horrendous exploitation' of youngsters by adults.

She said slavery was just one of several serious issues that forced millions of children across the country to live 'vulnerable or high-risk lives'.

Her report cites the latest figures from the Government's national referral mechanism (NRM), the official framework for identifying and helping victims of slavery and trafficking.

Nowadays it is far easier for traders to transport their victims amid steady migration flows and inexpensive travel (stock photo)

Some 1,204 children aged up to 17 were referred to the NRM last year for suspected domestic servitude, labour or sexual exploitation in England  an increase of a third, from 901 in 2015.

British nationals were the biggest group at 247, with 209 of them feared to have been caught up in sexual exploitation.

They were followed by 223 Albanian youngsters, of whom 150 were referred for potential labour exploitation. The third highest source of referrals were 200 Vietnamese children, with 101 of them feared trapped in forced labour.

Nigerian children also made up 40 of the NRM referrals in 2016, with 18 of these for suspected domestic servitude.

However, the report says there are many 'invisible children' who may be 'particularly vulnerable' due to gaps in identification.

These youngsters may 'have been victims of modern slavery but not reported to the national referral mechanism'.
Chilling text messages and handwritten notes sent between a group of would-be terrorists reveal they plotted to attack ASIO or police headquarters and devised a bizarre plan to build an 'army' by preaching Islam to Aboriginal people.

Jibryl Almaouie, 23, Sulayman Khalid, 22, and a teenager who cannot be named pleaded guilty on Monday to plotting an act of terror in Sydney in 2014.

Khalid made an infamous appearance on SBS program Insight in 2014 when he wore a shirt bearing an Islamic State flag.

'Why don't we target a big organisation? ... Headquarters of police force, ASIO... something massive,' one text between the trio read, according to Nine News.

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Jibryl Almaouie and Sulayman Khalid (pictured on SBS) pleaded guilty on Monday in the NSW Supreme Court to conspiring to carry out an act of terror in late 2014

The trio that pleaded guilty on Monday did not stand when Justice Geoff Bellew entered the courtroom (pictured is Sulayman Khalid during a previous court appearance)

Chilling text messages sent between the group of would-be terrorists reveal they plotted to attack ASIO or police headquarters

Three other men, Mohamed Almaouie, Farhad Said and Ibrahim Ghazzawy, previously pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of knowingly making a document likely to facilitate a terrorist act.

Handwritten notes and intercepted phone messages included in the tendered facts for Ghazzawy's sentencing shed light on some of the group's obscure plans.

The extremists detailed their plan to launch 'guerilla warfare' in the Blue Mountains after converting local Aborigines to Islam in order to build a militia.

'The plan is gorilla (sic) warfare ... we are going to go to the woods and attack the dogs there, Blue Mountains and the surrounding forests,' Ghazzawy wrote in one document.

'Army = Buildings, Fortresses, Plans etc,' the notes states.

The group said they would start slowly but could eventually 'own (the) world'.

It was also revealed the used code words to plan the attack, including 'banana' for 'gun', 'party' for 'terror attack' and 'wedding date' for 'date of attack'.

'I am going to get paradise through that banana,' one SMS read.

The trio who pleaded guilty on Monday did not stand when Justice Geoff Bellew entered the courtroom. Neither did their families watching from the public gallery.

It was also revealed the used code words to plan the attack, including 'banana' for 'gun', 'party' for 'terror attack' and 'wedding date' for 'date of attack'

Pictured are Jibryl Almaouie and his brother Mohamed Rashad Almaouie

'Not guilty, oh sorry, I mean guilty,' Khalid said upon entering his plea to the charge.

Khalid and Almaouie were remanded in custody while lawyers for the teenager argued his strict bail should be continued, but Justice Bellew revoked it.

The teenager smiled and blew a kiss to his family who wept as he was led away into custody.

The charge of conspiring to do acts in preparation of a terrorist act carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

The three are due to reappear for sentencing submissions in early October.

Two men and a teenager have pleaded guilty to plotting a terrorist attack on government buildings, including police headquarters, in Sydney almost three years ago (pictured is the police raids in 2014)
A hunt is underway for a suspect with a 'Ricki Rose Murray' tattoo on his arm who escaped from hospital while in custody.

Jonathon Hogan, 23, had absconded from the Canberra Hospital while under watch on Saturday.

Before being hospitalised, Hogan was in court to face charges relating to property offences and resisting police.

Have you seen him? Jonathon Hogan, 23, (pictured) is wanted by ACT police for questioning

He was last seen at the hospital building at 8.30pm.

ACT police have refused to comment on why Hogan was brought to the hospital.

But they have warned the public to refrain from approaching the man and instead inform them of his whereabouts as soon as he is found.

Meanwhile, NSW police told Daily Mail Australia Hogan may be heading to Dubbo.

Hogan has been described as being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander appearance descent, about 180cm (5'11') tall, of slim build, with brown eyes and dark hair.

He has the words 'Ricki Rose Murray' tattooed inside his right forearm and the word 'Ricki' tattooed inside his left forearm.
Optometrist Honey Rose failed to spot brain condition symptoms during a routine eye test

The 'devastated' family of an eight-year-old boy who died from a brain condition today slammed the decision to overturn the manslaughter conviction of Boots optometrist who failed to spot it.

Honey Rose, 35, who missed the life-threatening condition during a routine eye test, was sentenced to a two-year suspended prison term last year - but her gross negligence manslaughter conviction was quashed this morning.

Mother-of-three Rose, of East Ham, East London, failed to notice that Vincent Barker had swollen optic discs when she examined him at a branch of Boots in Ipswich, a jury was told during her trial.

The abnormality is a symptom of hydrocephalus - fluid on the brain - and Vincent died in July 2012, about five months after the eye test.

The child's parents Joanne and Ian Barker said today that if Rose 'had not breached her duty of care to our son he would still be with us today'.

They added: 'We are understandably devastated. We feel that the conviction of manslaughter by gross negligence should have been upheld.

Rose failed to notice that eight-year-old Vincent Barker (pictured) had swollen optic discs when she examined him, a jury was told

'Not only has Vinnie been let down by an individual optometrist, today he has also been failed by the legal system.'

The parents continued: 'We are hugely aware of the controversy and concern that the case generated.

'We felt that the gravity of such a conviction helped to protect patients and safeguard the reputation of medical practices and professionals adhering to good practice against those few who breach their duty of care.

'Instead this case now opens the gates for medical practitioners to operate outside of the standard at which they are required to perform, without full accountability or responsibility to uphold their duty of care.'

They concluded: 'We have endured five years of harrowing investigations and court proceedings. To be left now, putting our faith in the General Optical Council and their responsibility to uphold the standards of their profession to ensure that Honey Rose is unable to resume any practice in optometry.'

Parents Joanne and Ian Barker (pictured outside Ipswich Crown Court in August 2016) said today that if Rose 'had not breached her duty of care to our son he would still be with us today'

Judge Jeremy Stuart-Smith, sentencing after her trial at Ipswich Crown Court, said although it was a 'single lapse', the breach of duty was so serious that it was criminal.

The case was thought to be the first conviction of an optometrist for gross negligence manslaughter.

Today, Sir Brian Leveson, sitting with two other judges at London's Court of Appeal, announced that they had allowed her appeal and that the conviction was quashed.

The Court of Appeal judges ruled that there had been a 'serious breach of duty' by Rose, but that it did not constitute the crime of gross negligence manslaughter.

The abnormality is a symptom of fluid on the brain ('hydrocephalus') and Vincent died about five months after the eye test

Sir Brian said: 'The question raised by this case can be simply stated.

'In assessing reasonable foreseeability of serious and obvious risk of death in cases of gross negligence manslaughter, is it appropriate to take into account what a reasonable person in the position of the defendant would have known but for his or her breach of duty?'

He said the court had concluded that 'in assessing reasonable foreseeability of serious and obvious risk of death in cases of gross negligence manslaughter, it is not appropriate to take into account what the defendant would have known but for his or her breach of duty'.

Sir Brian added: 'Were the answer otherwise, this would fundamentally undermine the established legal test of foreseeability in gross negligence manslaughter which requires proof of a 'serious and obvious risk of death' at the time of breach.

'The implications for medical and other professions would be serious because people would be guilty of gross negligence manslaughter by reason of negligent omissions to carry out routine eye, blood and other tests which in fact would have revealed fatal conditions notwithstanding that the circumstances were such that it was not reasonably foreseeable that failure to carry out such tests would carry an obvious and serious risk of death.

'For these reasons, this appeal is allowed and the conviction is quashed.'

Sir Brian continued: 'We add that this decision does not, in any sense, condone the negligence that the jury must have found to have been established at a high level in relation to the way that Ms Rose examined Vincent and failed to identify the defect which ultimately led to his death.

'That serious breach of duty is a matter for her regulator; in the context of this case, however, it does not constitute the crime of gross negligence manslaughter.'
The Kremlin says Washington needs to show 'political will' for Russia-U.S. relations to recover.

President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Monday that it will take time for the U.S. to rid itself of what he called 'political schizophrenia.' He added that Russia remains interested in constructive cooperation with the U.S.

On Sunday, Putin said the U.S. would have to cut 755 of its embassy and consulate staff in Russia - a sweeping reduction which he described as a response to new U.S. sanctions.

The Russian Foreign Ministry also announced closing down a U.S. recreational retreat on the outskirts of Moscow as well as warehouse facilities.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said Monday that the U.S. needs to rid itself of what he called 'political schizophrenia'. Above, Putin at a naval parade in St. Petersburg on Sunday

Moscow's move showed that its earlier hopes for an improvement in Russia-U.S. ties after Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential election have withered.

The U.S. State Department called Putin's move 'a regrettable and uncalled-for act.'

Putin's announcement Sunday came three days after the U.S. Congress approved sanctions against Russia and just hours after U.S. Vice President Mike Pence landed in Estonia, which borders Russia, for talks with the country that holds the rotating European Union presidency.

Vice President Pence on Monday assured the Baltic states of U.S. support if they faced aggression from Russia, telling them that Washington firmly backs NATO's doctrine of collective defense.

He said Moscow's recent actions against U.S. diplomats 'will not deter' U.S. backing of its allies on Russia's doorstep.

Russian's Foreign Ministry on Friday ordered a reduction by September 1 in U.S. diplomatic personnel in Russia to 455 people in response to a new package of American sanctions. The White House says President Donald Trump will sign those sanctions into law.

Putin has ordered the U.S. to reduce its embassy staff by 755 workers. Above, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow on Sunday

Russian and American flags fly outside the U.S. Embassy in Moscow on Monday

Putin says Russia will also be seizing two American properties - a retreat outside Moscow (above) and a diplomatic warehouse

The sanctions, which also target Iran and North Korea, seek to punish Moscow for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and for its military aggression in Ukraine and Syria.

'We had hoped that the situation will somehow change, but apparently if it changes, it won't be soon,' Putin told Rossiya 1, explaining why Moscow decided to retaliate. 'I thought it was the time to show that we're not going to leave it without an answer.'

Russia is open to cooperating with the U.S. on various issues, including terrorism and cybercrime, but instead it 'only hears unfounded accusations of meddling in U.S. domestic affairs,' he said.

Putin said more than 1,000 people are currently employed at the Moscow embassy and three U.S. consulates in Russia. They include both Americans and Russians hired to work in the diplomatic offices.

The Russian leader did not explain how the figure of 755 positions was calculated.

Trump and Putin met for the first time at a G20 summit in Germany this month. Russia's hopes for warmer relations with the US under Trump appear to be souring with the massive expulsion

In a statement, the State Department said: 'This is a regrettable and uncalled-for act. We are assessing the impact of such a limitation and how we will respond to it. We have no further comment at this time.'

The State Department declined to give an exact number of American diplomats or other U.S. officials in Russia, but the figure is believed to be about 400, some of whom have families accompanying them on diplomatic passports.

The vast majority of the more than 1,000 employees at the various U.S. diplomatic missions in Russia, including the embassy in Moscow and consulates in St. Petersburg, Vladivostok and Yekaterinburg, are local employees.

Asked about the potential for additional sanctions against Washington, Putin described the reduction in diplomatic staff as 'painful' and said he currently opposes further measures.

'We certainly have something to respond with and restrict those areas of joint cooperation that will be painful for the American side, but I don't think we need to do it,' he said, adding that such steps could also harm Russian interests.

Putin mentioned space and energy as the main areas where Russia and the United States have successfully pursued projects together.

Along with the cap on the size of the U.S. diplomatic corps in Russia, the Russian foreign ministry on Friday said it also was closing down a U.S. recreational retreat on the outskirts of Moscow as well as warehouse facilities.

The diplomatic tit-for-tat started under former U.S. President Barack Obama. In response to reports of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, Obama ordered the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats and shut down two Russian recreational retreats in the U.S.
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The Duchess of Cambridge has today laid flowers at the graves of German soldiers buried alongside Allies who were among the half a million 'swallowed by the mud' of Passchendaele.

Kate and her husband William paid a solemn visit to Tyne Cot cemetery near Ypres in Belgium as they commemorated the centenary of the bloody First World War battle.

The 35-year-old joined Belgian Queen Mathilde and German foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel in laying a posy at the graves of four German soldiers buried at the cemetery, the largest Commonwealth burial ground in the world with 11,971 servicemen buried or remembered there.

The Royal couple had been joined by Prince Charles and Prime Minister Theresa May for a ceremony to remember those killed in the notorious battle.

Prince Charles spoke of the 'courage and bravery' of British soldiers killed in what was one of the bloodiest campaigns of the First World War, lasting 100 days in the summer and autumn of 1917.

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The Duchess of Cambridge laid flowers at war graves in Ypres today during a ceremony marking 100 years since the Battle of Passchendaele - where hundreds of thousands of allied soldiers fell

Honouring: The Duchess stood in silence for a moment as she honoured the memories of the thousands of Commonwealth soldiers killed in battle

Prime Minister Theresa May greets the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge as she arrives at the Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery ahead of the ceremony

Prince William watched on as his wife, the Duchess of Cambridge, knelt to leave a floral tribute by the graves of fallen soldiers

Kate, dressed in a peach-coloured outfit, joined Belgian Queen Mathilde and German foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel in laying flowers at the graves of four German soldiers buried in Tyne Cot

In his address to the gathering, the Prince said: 'We remember it not only for the rain that fell, the mud that weighed down the living and swallowed the dead, but also for the courage and bravery of the men who fought here.'

He added: 'In 1920, the war reporter Philip Gibbs - who had himself witnessed Third Ypres - wrote that 'nothing that has been written is more than the pale image of the abomination of those battlefields, and that no pen or brush has yet achieved the picture of that Armageddon in which so many of our men perished.'

'Drawn from many nations, we come together in their resting place, cared for with such dedication by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, to commemorate their sacrifice and to promise that we will never forget.'

The Duchess of Cambridge looked elegant for the occasion in a white coat dress with a grey leaf pattern by Catherine Walker, teamed with a dove grey hat with a delicate pink embellishment.

She joined Belgium's Queen Mathilde and German foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel in laying wreaths at the graves of four German soldiers. The graves, one of which carried the name Otto Bieber, are the burial sites of German fighters who were treated in the area after the battle.

Both Kensington and Buckingham Palaces said they did not know whether a Royal had laid flowers at a grave of a German soldier before.

Taking the lead: Prince Charles and Belgium's King Philippe lead the way through the cemetery followed by Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge

The Duchess of Cambridge, King Philippe of Belgium, Prince Charles, Queen Mathilde of Belgium, Prince William, and Theresa May attend the Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery

Speech: Prince Charles led commemorations, and spoke of the of the 'courage and bravery' of British soldiers killed at Passchendaele during the First World War

Family: Britain's Prince Charles greets Prince William and Catherine the Duchess of Cambridge as he arrives

Greetings: Theresa May curtsies again as she is greeted by Prince Charles upon his arrival

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge speak with Victoria Wallace, Director General of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission

A serviceman at the Commonwealth War Graves Commisionss Tyne Cot Cemetery ahead of a ceremony attended by the Prince Charles, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Belgian royals

King Philippe (left) of Belgium and Britain's Prince Charles walk past headstones of soldiers who fell in World War One at The Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Zonnebeke this morning

Servicemen march through the Commonwealth War Graves Commisionss Tyne Cot Cemetery ahead of a ceremony attended by Prince Charles, Prince William, the Duchess of Cambridge, and King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium

Mrs May, sombrely dressed, read a Bible passage from Ecclesiasticus.

The ceremony also included singing and the Calling Of The Names, personal stories of some of the thousands of British and Commonwealth soldiers and others present at the battle, including nurses and stretcher-bearers.

They also included a letter written by a German soldier.

They included an account by Private Bert Ferns, of the Lancashire Fusiliers, who fought in the battle, read by Fusilier Shaun Mclorie.

WILLIAM'S 'PROPER TEARY MOMENT' The Duke of Cambridge admitted choking back tears as he paid tribute to the thousands killed at Passchendaele on the 100th anniversary. William told of his emotional gut reaction to hearing the Last Post at Menin Gate, Ypres, with the families of soldiers killed in the bloodbath. He was so moved that he recounted Sunday's service when he met interns who have been showing relatives around cemeteries in Ypres, Belgium. William, 35, said: 'It was phenomenal - a proper teary moment for me. At the end it was so amazing. It was very, very moving.' Advertisement

He said: 'I staggered up the hill and then dropped over the slope into a sort of gully.

'It was here that I froze and became very frightened because a big shell had just burst and blown a group of lads to bits; there were bits of men all over the place, a terrible sight, men just blown to nothing.

'I just stood there. It was still and misty, and I could taste their blood in the air.'

William completed the Calling Of The Names by reading that of the Unknown Soldier, saying he was 'A soldier of the Great War, known unto God.'

Charles and King Philippe then led the laying of wreaths at the cross of remembrance.

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said that 'the battle of Flanders stands like Verdun for the senseless horror of war.'

'Diplomacy must never again fail as it did in 1914, there must never again be war in the middle of Europe, and never again must the youth of our continent be slaughtered,' Gabriel said in a statement.

He recalled that there has never before been a period in Europe of more than 70 years without war and destruction.

'Today it is more true than ever in a world full of crises and conflicts that Europe is far more than a single market,' Gabriel said. 'Europe is a project of peace. Europe is our future. Only united can we succeed in protecting our interests and defending our values.'

Earlier, at dawn, around 100 people gathered at the Welsh memorial in Langemark, near where the battle began, as a cannon salute marked the start of commemorations.

Welshman Peter Carter-Jones says the ceremony, and other commemorations held over the weekend, were 'very moving.'

Prince Charles embraced his daughter-in-law (left), Kate, and his son, Prince William (right) ahead of the commemoration today

Theresa May is pictured speaking during the commemorations at the Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery100th Anniversary of Passchendaele

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge stood in solemn silence as they attended the ceremony today

The ceremony also included singing and the Calling Of The Names, personal stories of some of the thousands of British and Commonwealth soldiers and others present at the battle, including nurses and stretcher-bearers

The Duchess of Cambridge received a bouquet of flowers from a young boy as she attended the commemorations today

Prince Charles spoke of the 'courage and bravery' of British soldiers killed in what was one of the bloodiest campaigns of the First World War, lasting 100 days in the summer and autumn of 1917

Kate joined Belgium's Queen Mathilde and German foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel in laying wreaths at the graves of four German soldiers

Prince Charles smiles as he looks at a mechanical War Horse during an event to mark the 100th Anniversary of Passchendaele

Prime Minister Theresa May and Mr Steven Vandeput, Minister of Defence, Federal Government of Belgium lay wreaths on the Stone of Remembrance during a ceremony at the Commonwealth War Graves

Theresa May stoops to leave a wreathe at the Stone of Remembrance during a solemn commemoration this afternoon

He said 'all this has been done for those thousands of young men who died here so we can live in freedom. That is what it is about. It is for them, not for us.'

When the battle started on July 31, 1917, World War I was entering its fourth year. Both sides were desperate for a breakthrough after suffering hundreds of thousands of casualties the year before at Verdun and the Somme in northern France, two other battles that vie with Passchendaele as the most costly of the war.

Britain's Sir Douglas Haig was convinced he could force a breakthrough at Ypres, even though two earlier battles there had failed. The goal was to shut down German submarine operations on the Belgian coast. Haig's plan to take the village of Passchendaele in a few days and move on to the coast turned out to be wildly ambitious.

With rain turning the swampy terrain to mud and the Germans armed with mustard gas, it would take until November for the Allies to capture the village. They never got close to the ports of Zeebrugge and Ostend.

Irish Guards walk between gravestones of World War One soldiers at the Tyne Cot cemetery ahead of a commemoration to mark the centenary of Passchendaele

Solemn: The commemorations mark the centenary of Passchendaele, also referred to as The Third Battle of Ypres

A field of tribute poppies is seen at the Tyne Cot cemetery ahead of a commemoration to mark the centenary of Passchendaele, The Third Battle of Ypres today

Royals and politicians are gathering to pay tribute to the hundreds of thousands of soldiers killed in the notorious battle

Bedford House is the final resting place of more than 5,140 servicemen of the First World War and nearly 70 servicemen of the Second World War

The couple were given a guided tour by Victoria Wallace, Director General of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission ahead of a ceremony with the Belgian royals

The Duchess of Cambridge took a seat among other Royals and politicians ahead of a service to remember the war dead today

Yesterday evening, William and Kate joined Mrs May to represent Britain at the Menin Gate and a later show in the Gross Markt square.

William spoke as the daily Last Post was played at the towering edifice, inscribed with the names of the missing from three years of hard fighting around Ypres a century ago.

Watched by some 200 descendants of those who fought, he said: 'During the First World War Britain and Belgium stood shoulder to shoulder.

'One hundred years on, we still stand together, gathering as so many do every night, in remembrance of that sacrifice.'

HOW BRAVE SOLDIERS BATTLED THROUGH MUD DURING 103-DAY OFFENSIVE The Battle of Passchendaele left hundreds of thousands of men dead and wounded but was not the decisive breakthrough the British had hoped for, as soldiers were hampered by unseasonal wet weather and stiff German resistance. The Third Battle of Ypres began in the early hours of July 31, 1917. Its primary objective was to dislodge German forces from the high ground around the city of Ypres and then advance to Belgian coastal ports from where German U-boats threatened Allied shipping. Men from virtually every corner of Britain's Empire took part. The battlefield in Belgium was turned into a hellish quagmire of mud and shell craters as the fighting went on during the summer and autumn of 1917 The battlefield in Belgium was turned into a hellish quagmire of mud and shell craters as the fighting went on during the summer and autumn of 1917. There were an estimated 325,000 Allied casualties, including many Australian, New Zealand and Canadian soldiers. The Germans lost between 260,000 and 400,000. Some 4.25 million shells were fired at the German lines from 3,000 big guns in the two weeks before the battle started - alerting them to an imminent attack. The battle lasted 103 days - from July 31 to November 10, 1917. The Menin Gate memorial in Ypres bears the names of 54,391 fallen soldiers whose graves are unknown. The Last Post has been played every evening at 8pm at the memorial since 1928 - bar a period during the Second World War. Last night was the 30,752nd time. The weather in Flanders during the offensive was the worst in the region for 30 years, reducing much of it to a quagmire. Five inches of rain fell on Passchendaele in August 1917. The average for the UK in August 2016, by comparison, was 3.4 inches. The British advanced just 1.6 miles between July 31 and August 2, 1917 - the equivalent of Downing Street to St Paul's Cathedral in central London. In that period alone they suffered 32,000 casualties. Advertisement

Sunday's poignant Last Post was the 30,752nd time it has been played since 1928.

The towering Menin Gate in the Belgian town is covered with the names of 54,391 British dead who have no known grave, according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

In just over three months of conflict there were more than half a million casualties - 325,000 Allied soldiers and 260,000 to 400,000 Germans - in the Belgian battlefields.

Later, dignitaries and hundreds of guests watched the show, led by Dame Helen Mirren, which included testimony from soldiers projected on to the walls of the Cloth Hall.

Yesterday, the pair paid tribute to the tens of thousands killed in one of the First World War's bloodiest conflicts.

The couple stood in solemn silence as the Last Post sounded and more than 54,000 poppy petals  one for every man who died  cascaded down at an emotional service to mark 100 years since the Battle of Passchendaele began.

Prince William and Kate were in Belgium to start a two-day commemoration of the battle, fought near Ypres between July 31 and November 10, 1917. In all, 325,000 Allied soldiers and 260,000 Germans were killed or wounded.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visiting Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery Bedford House on the outskirts of Ypres, Belgium

The Duchess wore a poppy and a diamond and pearl leaf brooch, on her pale grey Catherine Walker coat

A military band processes through the cemetery this morning, ahead of a ceremony attended by European royalty

The Duchess of Cambridge speaks with workers from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission

William and the king of Belgium laid wreaths at the Menin Gate memorial in Ypres which bears the names of more than 54,000 fallen soldiers aged between 15 and 60 who have no known grave. Many drowned in thick mud caused by weeks of rain, summed up in poet Siegfried Sassoon's line: 'I died in hell, they called it Passchendaele.'

The Last Post has been played at the Menin Gate nearly every evening at 8pm since the unveiling of the memorial in 1928. Last night was the 30,752nd time.

William, wearing a poppy and his medals, told the commemoration crowd: 'During the First World War, Britain and Belgium stood shoulder to shoulder. One hundred years on, we still stand together, gathering as so many do every night, in remembrance of that sacrifice.'

Today a special service will be held at Tyne Cot military cemetery where thousands of soldiers lie.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating after a drone was spotted as a jetliner approached New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport.

United Airlines Flight 135 was arriving from Switzerland on Sunday when the flight crew of the Boeing 767 reported a near miss with the drone at 850 feet (259 meters), about two miles away from the airport.

According to rules posted on the FAA website, drones are prohibited from flying within a five mile radius of airports, unless operators have previously notified air traffic control. The FAA also generally restricts drones to flying below 400 feet in the air.

A United Airlines flight inbound from Switzerland reported a near miss with a drone during its approach into New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport on Sunday

In the audio recording obtained by 4 New York, a United Flight 135 pilot radioed in to air traffic control and said, 'I'd like to report a near miss with that drone. It's at 850 feet. Just on the other side of the bridge, on final' approach.

Other pilots and air traffic controllers can be heard on tape alerting each other to the drone's presence.

At one point an ATC worker tells an approaching pilot that the drone is 'on the center line, approximately at three-mile final at 850, white in color.

When an ATC worker is asked about whether they were going to send someone to go track down the drone's operator, the ATC worker replied that they had been reporting it for 'quite a while' and had already made four calls to the cops.

CBS New York reports that the United flight's near miss occurred at 11.55pm.

The white drone (similar to shown) was said to be about two miles away from final approach to the airport and flying at 850 feet when it almost collided with the United flight

A United spokesperson said in a statement to 4 New York that the United 135 flight crew 'monitored the drone and landed the aircraft safely,' after reporting that the drone was flying near the runway.

Both NYPD and the FAA have said they are investigating.

In February, the FAA released a list of drone sightings reported near air traffic control facilities.

Data from February to September 2016 indicated that there were 1,274 reported possible drone sightings, up from 874 during the same period in 2015.

While some pilots reported that their planes were struck by drones in the air, the FAA's incident investigations found no evidence of drone strikes, instead determining that the impacts were caused by other things, such as birds or wires.

The FAA noted that while it is legal to fly drones, people who fly authorized drones in the vicinity of airplanes and helicopters could face large fines and criminal charges, including jail sentences.
Tragedy: Khrystyna Maksymova, 14, died after trying to save a dog from drowning

A 14-year-old girl from Edmonton, Canada, has died after jumping into a pond trying to save her neighbor's dog from drowning.

Khrystyna Maksymova had been walking the dog with her 11-year-old sister when it went into the water to chase a flock of geese, local news reports.

However, once in the water, the brave teenager reportedly found herself stuck in mud and weeds and was unable to swim to the shore.

Ms Maksymova and her sister Anastasiia would often walk the dogs in their neighborhood in north Edmonton, according to a local resident.

'She was a very sweet and polite girl,' Vanessa Freeman told the Edmonton Sun.

'She absolutely loved animals and was showing her parents she could handle the responsibility of a dog by walking a few other dogs in the community.'

Khrystyna Maksymova had been walking the dog with her 11-year-old sister

Last Saturday afternoon, the girls had been taking one such pet for a walk when it suddenly went after a flock of birds and jumped into a drainage pond.

Ms Maksymova, a talented gymnast who was set to compete at national levels in 2018, followed the dog but got stuck and disappeared from view.

Brave: The teenager had been walking a neighbor's dog with her 11-year-old sister near this pond in Edmonton, and got stuck in the mud when going in after the pet

Ms Maksymova and her sister Anastasiia would often walk the dogs in their neighborhood in north Edmonton, according to a local resident

Several local residents made attempts to save her, but also found themselves stuck in the mire.

Emergency services arrived shortly before 2pm, and pulled Ms Maksymova from the water.

She was rushed to hospital and put on life support, but died the following day.

On Sunday, the local community held a candle-light vigil for the teenager, with dozens gathering to honor Ms Maksymova's life.
Australian Muslims have condemned the four men who allegedly plotted to bring down a commercial plane flying from Sydney to the Middle East.

Two father and son duos were arrested over the alleged plot after dramatic raids across Sydney on Saturday.

Their alleged plan to detonate a homemade bomb using kitchenware was slammed by members of Sydney's Muslim community on Monday.

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Four men (one pictured) have been arrested after the NSW Joint Counter Terrorism team conducted raids throughout Sydney suburbs late on Saturday

'My religion doesn't say to do this sh** mate,' one man told A Current Affair.

Men and women insisted the four men allegedly planning to blow up a civilian plane did not represent them or their faith.

'They didn't follow the rules, this is not Islam's fault, it is his fault,' one woman said.

'Anything happening against humanity is very bad,' another man said.

One man said Muslims were just as at risk of falling victim to terrorism as anyone else.

'I'm going to Morocco next week and there's a danger to myself too. We Muslims, we're in danger too,' he said.

'They didn't follow the rules, this is not Islam's fault, it is his fault,' one woman said

'My religion doesn't say to do this sh** mate,' one man said condemning any link between Islam and terrorism

Islamic community leader Keysar Trad said Muslims were not immune to Islamic terrorism.

'If they bring down a plane coming out of Sydney, they'll be killing fellow Muslims,' he said.

'There's hardly a commercial airliner that flies out of Sydney that does not have a number of Muslims on it, a number of devout practising Muslims who pray five times a day. Who turn to god and pray for this country and to keep this country safe.'

Regardless of what religion or nationality its victims, Mr Trad condemned Islamic terror.

Islamic community leader Keysar Trad (pictured) said Muslims were not immune to Islamic terrorism

'There is no justification whether there's Muslims or otherwise on that plane. No justification for attacking or targeting a civilian plane and no justification for contemplation of terror,' he said.

Mr Trad said Muslims were horrified when they saw acts of terror taken out in the name of Islam.

'We as Muslims are always on alert. We don't want to see any acts of terror, not in our name, not in anyone else's name,' he said.
A jury began deliberations Monday at the federal securities fraud trial of Martin Shkreli, the former biotech CEO best known for hiking up the price of a life-saving drug and for trolling his critics on social media.

The deliberations follow about a month of testimony in federal court in Brooklyn, most it from investors in two failed hedge funds run by the defendant.

The witnesses told jurors that the 34-year-old Shkreli concealed the fact that he lost millions of dollars and made them the victim of a scheme to pay them back with worthless stock in a startup drug company.

The trial 'has exposed Martin Shkreli for who he really is - a con man who stole millions,' a federal prosecutor, Jacquelyn Kasulis, said in closing arguments last week.

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'Pharma Bro' in court: Martin Shkreli (L), former chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals and lawyer Benjamin Brafman (R), arrives at the United States Federal courthouse in Brooklyn on Monday

Shkreli, 34, is accused of concealing from investors the fact that he lost millions of dollars in two failed hedge funds

The defense countered by portraying Shkreli as a troubled genius and a 'prodigy.' and arguing that the investors weren't victims because they ended up recouping their money when the drug company went public. Some even made large profits when the stock price took off.

'Who lost anything? Nobody,' defense attorney Ben Brafman said in his closing argument.

Some investors had to admit on the witness stand that partnering with Shkreli was 'the greatest investment I've ever made,' he added.

Before his arrest in 2015 in the securities fraud case, Shkreli became notorious for purchasing the rights to a life-saving HIV drug called Daraprim and promptly raising the price by 5,000 percent, from $13.50 to $750 per pill.

The move sparked widespread condemnation, to such a degree that for some time Shkreli became known in the media as 'The Most Hated Man in America.'

Defense attorney Ben Brafman, pictured arriving in court with Shkreli on Monday, told the jury his client was a troubled genius

Notorious: Shkreli is best known for hiking up the price of a life-saving HIV drug and for trolling his critics on social media

The defendant, who didn't testify, also came into the trial with a reputation for trolling his critics on social media to a degree that got him kicked off Twitter and earned him the moniker 'Pharma Bro.'

Rather than lay low like his lawyers wanted, Shkreli got into the act, using Facebook to bash prosecutors and news organizations covering his case. In one recent post, he wrote, 'My case is a silly witch hunt perpetrated by self-serving prosecutors. ... Drain the swamp. Drain the sewer that is the [Department of Justice].'

Shkreli stands accused of eight counts of securities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud for allegedly stealing $11million in stock from his first pharmaceutical company Retrophin to pay off investors who lost money in two of his hedge funds.

The 12-member jury began deliberations at a federal court in Brooklyn on Monday. They were instructed by the judge on Friday after closing arguments from the defense and prosecution.

If convicted of the most serious counts, he faces up to 20 years in prison but would likely receive far less time under sentencing guidelines.

While his hiking of Daraprim has nothing to do with the criminal charges against him, his notoriety was such that the trial was initially delayed over difficulties in finding an impartial jury.
Men outnumbered women in Australian penal colonies by six to one, so they were highly prized as wives and mothers, study found

Gender imbalances in early Australian penal colonies helped to create strong marriages with the benefits still felt to this day, according to new research.

Because women were outnumbered by men by six-to-one in some areas, they were able to choose better husbands and their husbands were nicer in return, researchers from the University of New South Wales said.

This imbalance also meant women were more highly prized as caregivers and mothers than as workers, creating a very traditional view of genders roles.

Researchers found this made marriages which were stronger, more stable and made both sexes happier than areas where the genders were more closely balanced.

And incredibly the benefits of such strong unions are still being felt 150 years later.

The results were published in journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society and first reported by The Telegraph.

Pauline Grosjean, of the School of Economics from the University of New South Wales, said: 'This inadvertent sociological experiment changed mating market conditions.

'We find that both men and women are happier, and the happiness gap within married couples is smaller in areas where convict-era sex ratios were heavily male-biased.

Imbalance and subsequent competition made for happier marriages. Even today marriages in areas with an historic imbalance are stronger, researchers say

'One interpretation of this result is that, because women have higher bargaining powers, they are more picky and search for a better match, and as an indirect effect, those men who do marry also benefit from this better match quality.'

However, researchers also found that areas with historic gender imbalances are less likely to have women in the workforce, and women are less likely to occupy professional positions when they do work.

From 1787 until the 1830s researchers found that men outnumbered women by six to one, though there were huge regional variations.

In the county of Bligh, in New South Wales, analysts discovered there was just one registered woman living among 219 men.
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The remarkable bravery of the nurses who tended to wounded soldiers as bombs rained down on them during the Battle of Passchendaele has been highlighted in a new book.

Nurses of Passchendaele uses the diaries of the small army of courageous women who risked their lives to help those injured on the Western Front during the First World War campaign.

Today marks 100 years since the start of the battle near the Belgian city of Ypres, which killed or wounded an estimated one million solders, 77,000 of whom were Australian.

Harrowing diary entries give a startling insight into the horrors of the notorious campaign, with many of the nurses becoming physically or mentally ill as a result of their front line work.

The incredible bravery of the nurses who served behind the front lines during the Passchendaele offensive, including one American woman who gave up her gas mask to protect a wounded soldier - only to die from the exposure

Diary entries from the women reveal they lived in fear of the constant shelling, protected only by wooden shacks and tarpaulins, while many soldiers remarked that they felt safer in the trenches than the hospital

One nurse even sacrificed her own life after giving her gas mask to a stricken soldier, exposing herself to the deadly toxins from gas shells in the process.

Yet, despite their heroic actions, very few nurses received compensation in the form of a war pension.

One nurse, Hilda Loxton, wrote in her diary: 'Most of the patients were very nervous when the planes were bombing around us, almost all were very badly wounded.

'They were so helpless and there was no protection except the thin wooden roofs.

'We had no sandbags or dugouts at that time - many remarked they felt safer in the trenches.'

Australian nurse Violet Payne recounted the deafening noise of the 'terrible guns' which would make her head ache and the remarkably upbeat attitude of soldiers she treated who in many cases she knew tragically would not survive their grave injuries.

She said: 'The boom of those terrible guns I shall never forget - for a week I scarcely closed an eye and my head ached. They fairly shook the earth continuously day and night.

'At one time so many wounded came in that every available space held a stretcher.

'Then the stretchers had to be placed outside everywhere imaginable, and to add to their misery a drizzly rain fell.

'The only shelter was a ground sheet placed over them, but how gratefully and cheerfully the poor fellows accepted even this poor effort. They were so thankful to be out of that inferno.

Pictured is Minnie Hough, wearing her gas mask while serving on the Western Front. She was born in Sydney, Australia, and trained in children's nursing before being selected as one of 20 nurses to serve. Given distinctive blue uniforms, they were known as the Bluebirds

Nellie Spindler (left), from Wakefield, was killed during the battle when a shell landed on the casualty clearing station she was working in. She was the only women to be buried with full military honours during the battle. Sister Kate Luard (right) ran a clearing station along with a team of 40 nurses and was Mentioned in Dispatches for courageous conduct

The nurses recalled the first question they were always asked was 'is it a Blighty?' - soldier slang for an injury severe enough that they would be sent home from the front (pictured, a nurse with walking wounded troops)

'The first words invariably uttered were 'sister, do you think it might be a Blighty?' even though you knew often they were fatal.'

A Blighty was a slang term for an injury severe enough that the victim would be returned home.

Nurse May Tilton recalled fearing immanent death as the German Gotha bombers circled ominously above their headquarters.

She said: 'All through the night they peppered us with bombs. It was terrifying lying in bed, expecting every minute to be blown to pieces.

'I could not control the violent trembling of my legs. My knees positively knocked together. I could laugh at myself, but I could not stop the trembling.

'We worked night after night, in the din of raging battles - dressed and bandaged the wounded, comforted them, praised their courage, their grit and strength of will.

Annie Hanning, Agnes Warner, Hilda Loxton and Minnie Hough are pictured visiting a slit trench close to one of the surgical outposts used to treat casualties at Passchendaele

May Tilton, a nurse from Australia, recalled shaking uncontrollably as she struggled to sleep as German bombers dropped explosives around her medical station, saying she 'expected every minute to be blown to pieces'

Nellie Spindler, who was killed during the battle, is pictured left. Kate Luard, who received the rare honour of RRC and Bar for her work during Passchendaele, is pictured right

'The atmosphere reeked with the mingled odours of blood and humanity, antiseptic and gas.

'"I don't want to die, sister", said one nice-looking Englishman. "I've got a wife and two little girls".

'He had a tourniquet above a frightfully smashed up leg that fell to bits as we lifted him from the stretcher. He never saw daylight again.'

Many years later British nurse Catherine Black wrote about her traumatic time in the Ypres Salient which had left permanent scars.

She said: 'You could not go through the things we went through, see the things we saw, and remain the same. You went into it young and light-hearted. You came out older than any span of years could make you.

The stories of the women are collected in a new book by Christine Hallett

'But at the time you did not reflect on it much, or on anything else. You did not dare to.

'Instead you filled your mind with concrete facts - pulses and temperatures, dressings and treatments - because you soon learned that if you concentrated hard enough on them it stopped you remembering other things.'

A heartbreaking act of compassion was carried out by US nurse Helen Fairchild who gave her gas mask to a soldier.

This act of self-sacrifice had meant that a stomach ulcer which was already making her very ill became more acute. It eventually killed her.

Author Christine Hallett, 54, of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, said: 'When I embarked on this project, I had many doubts. I was not sure how I could do justice to the work of the women who saved so many lives on the Ypres Front during the First World War.

'If the wounded soldiers survived long enough to reach hospitals behind the lines, a new struggle began between the fierce grip of death and the skilled artistry of the nurse.

'And even as nurses were putting all their strength into saving their patients, they were, themselves, in danger from aerial bombardment, long-range artillery and gas.

'The stories of the nurses which are told in their diaries are so emotive and poignant. Without their efforts at the casualty clearing stations and hospitals there would have been a lot more lives lost.

'Their importance to the war effort can not be underestimated.'

Nurses of Passchendaele, by Christine Hallett, is published by Pen & Sword and costs 10.39
A disqualified L-plate driver who was drunk and high on drugs when he mowed down and killed Harley Chester (pictured) has begged to be released from jail

A disqualified L-plate driver who was drunk and high on drugs when he mowed down and killed a pedestrian has begged to be released from jail.

Dylan Michael Lanc-Quin, 20, was under the influence of methamphetamine, cannabis and alcohol when he ran over Harley Chester, 28, in Adelaide's west last year.

Lanc-Quin, who fled the scene, apologised to the victim's family in the Adelaide District Court on Monday before asking to be freed so he could begin rehabilitation.

'I took away a loving member of the community who cannot be replaced and I'm really sorry... there's no excuse for my actions,' Lanc-Quin said, according to The Advertiser.

'I accept full responsibility for what I've done, and not a day goes by that I'm not disappointed in myself and sorry for my actions... there are no excuses.

Dylan Michael Lanc-Quin, 20, was under the influence of methamphetamine, cannabis and alcohol when ran over Harley Chester, 28, in Adelaide's west in 2016

'After I am released, I will make a difference in the community and learn from my mistake... I will continue working toward being a better person.'

The victim's twin sister, Tarita Chester, said she became 'severely depressed' following her brother's death.

'I love my twin brother more than anyone could ever love or care about someone,' she told the court, according to the ABC.

'I didn't get a hug and a kiss to let him know it was all OK - it wasn't all OK - you left him to die.'

Lanc-Quin was remanded in custody and will be sentenced next month.
Justin Welby waded into the row by warning that the chances of negotiating Brexit by March 2019 are 'infinitesimally small'

Downing Street today slapped down the Archbishop of Canterbury after he called for an 'expert' commission to be put in charge of key Brexit decisions.

Justin Welby waded into the row by warning that the chances of negotiating Brexit by March 2019 are 'infinitesimally small' unless there is cross-party cooperation.

He demanded that major elements of the talks be taken 'off the political table'.

But the Prime Minister's official spokesman said there were 'no plans' to create such a commission and the talks remained on schedule.

Interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, the Archbishop, who sits in the House of Lords, said 'literally thousands' of agreements had to be reached with Brussels.

'If each one of those has to be argued as a point of confidence on the floor of the House of Commons, the chance of getting this done in what's now roughly 18 months is infinitesimally small,' he said.

'There has to be the political leadership that says we have major questions that are political, huge political decisions - the obvious one is the single market and customs union, but there are thousands of other decisions that can be made.

'Can the politicians not put at the front of their minds the needs of the United Kingdom to come out with a functional, working system for Brexit, and agree that certain things that, as it were, "off the political table" and will be decided separately in an expert commission, or commission of senior politicians led by someone that is trusted in the political world?'

But Theresa May's spokesman said: 'We are committed to and are consulting widely but there are no plans in relation to a commission.'

The comments will revive memories of the referendum campaign, when Environment Secretary Michael Gove warned that the public was fed up with 'experts' telling them they knew what was best for the country.

The spat comes amid more evidence of clashes between 'hard' and 'soft' Brexit camps in the Cabinet.

Mr Hammond has been leading calls for a business-friendly deal with a transitional period of up to three years. But the prospect of free movement essentially staying in place until 2022 has alarmed more strident Brexiteers in the Cabinet.

The spokesman for the PM, pictured on holiday last week, said: 'We are committed to and are consulting widely but there are no plans in relation to a commission.'

Boris Johnson was forced to deny last night that he is ready to quit if Brexit is watered down. Chancellor Philip Hammond has been leading calls for a business-friendly deal with a transitional period of up to three years

Boris Johnson was forced to deny last night that he is ready to quit if Brexit is watered down. International Trade Secretary Liam Fox has made clear he does not believe that keeping unregulated free movement after we formally leave the bloc in March 2019 would 'keep faith' with the verdict of the public in the referendum.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt tried to cool tempers this morning, admitting that the issue aroused 'huge passions' on both sides but saying ministers were united on delivering a Brexit that regained control of 'laws, borders and money'.

But allies of the key players have been taking swipes at each other, with one minister telling the Daily Telegraph that Dr Fox and Mr Johnson were in 'fantasy land'.
David Turner faces jail following a ruling over child sex dolls like those he imported

A former churchwarden faces jail after a judge dismissed a claim a child sex doll he imported was not 'obscene'.

Ex-primary school governor David Turner, 72, pleaded guilty to importing the child sex doll after an application to dismiss the charge was turned down.

Border guards have seen a surge in seizures of child-like sex dolls, leading investigators to identify dozens of previously unknown suspected paedophiles.

Turner, of Ramsgate, was also found to have 17 pen drives containing more than 33,000 indecent category C images of children aged three to 16 when he was arrested.

In police custody, Turner admitted buying clothing for his doll and claimed he had bought it as a 'companion' to join him and his wife.

He also admitted having sex with another, similar, doll, the National Crime Agency have said.

His defence team asked the judge at Canterbury Crown Court for a 'trial of issue' to rule on whether the dolls are obscene, but the claim was dismissed today.

The lifelike silicone sex aids, which weigh around 55lb (25kg) and can cost thousands of pounds, are being imported into the UK after being sold by traders on sites including Amazon and eBay, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

The dolls, often manufactured in China and Hong Kong, are a 'relatively new phenomenon' in the UK and should be criminalised, the operations manager at the NCA's Child Exploitation Command, Hazel Stewart, said.

Border officials have seen a surge in the number of child sex dolls being imported to the UK. Pictured are some of the dolls seized by the National Crime Agency

Border Force officers have seized 123 dolls in little more than a year since March 2016 and so far seven people have been charged with importing them, including one man who was jailed last month.

Of the seven men charged with importing the dolls so far, six also faced child porn allegations.

Dan Scully, deputy director for intelligence operations at the Border Force, said this showed those who ordered the models often strayed into sex crimes.

'Border Force intelligence and detection officers started to notice an increase in prevalence of seizing these child-like dolls.

'What's critical, I think, for this investigation, these items were going to individuals, in many cases, who were committing other offences in relation to harm of children,' he said.

'They were also, critically, people who were otherwise unknown to UK law enforcement in having an interest in sexual activity with children.

'By identifying these importations, working with partners, what we've identified is a whole set of people with interests in sexual activity with children who were completely unknown.'

Turner (pictured ay court with his daughter) said the doll was a 'companion' for him and his wife. He will be sentenced next month following the first-of-its-kind ruling today

The trial of issue at Canterbury Crown Court in the case of Turner was described as setting an 'important' precedent in how suspects can be prosecuted.

Turner was unable to be sentenced on Monday because a pre-sentence report had not been prepared. Judge Simon James said the importation of a child sex doll was an 'unusual offence' and that it 'adds a degree of complexity'.

He was freed on bail to be sentenced on September 8 for the importation charge and for pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to possessing or making more than 34,000 indecent images of children aged around three to 16.

A doll like that which Turner tried to import was shown by the National Crime Agency in a bid to raise awareness of the growing problem

Jon Brown, from children's charity the NSPCC, said: 'There is no evidence to support the idea that the use of so-called child sex dolls helps potential abusers from committing contact offences against real children.

'And in fact there is a risk that those using these child sex dolls or realistic props could become desensitised and their behaviour becomes normalised to them, so that they go on to harm children themselves, as is often the case with those who view indecent images.

'The NSPCC is calling on Government to take action to criminalise the manufacturing, distribution and possession of these grotesque dolls, in the same way it does indecent images of children.

'And until this loophole is closed, online retailers who have these items available to purchase should immediately remove them from sale.'

The charity also called on the Government to criminalise the manufacture, distribution and possession of the 'grotesque' dolls.
A four-year-old boy has died after accidentally shooting himself at his home in Tampa.

Police are investigating the incident after finding a loaded handgun at the house in East Hanna Avenue at 5.46pm on Sunday.

The boy - named as Ashton Gooding - was found inside with a gunshot wound and was taken to Tampa General Hospital in Florida.

Police cordon off East Hanna Avenue in Tampa, Florida, after the boy shot himself at his home

Police tape outside a home thought to be the one where four-year-old Ashton Gooding was found

A man walks down the street after the police were called to reports of the boy shooting himself

Officers have said the youngster found the weapon and that it 'discharged'.

He was pronounced dead at the hospital and the investigation by Tampa police and the State Attorney's Office is continuing, according to 10 News WTSP.
The same council that tried fining a little girl for selling lemonade has issued a penalty notice to a cycle shop for setting up a free bike pump.

Isambard's Cycles tweeted that it will no longer offer the pump to passing bikers, after Tower Hamlets Council threatened them with a fine.

Jobsworths from the authority allegedly demanded they are paid 'for the privilege' to use the pavement outside the shop.

It comes after 100 miles of London roads were closed for the Ride London event.

Isambard's Cycles tweeted that it will no longer offer the pump to passing bikers, after Tower Hamlets Council threatened them with a fine

The council said: 'The area outside the shop is narrow and it is already difficult to get a pram or a wheelchair past the shop, without these items being displayed'

Criticising the council on Twitter, the store wrote: 'First #lemongate now #airgate.

'Sort your enforcement officers out.'

They added: 'Tower Hamlets are fining us for having this free pump outside for cyclists to use.

'As of next week it will no longer be available.

'If we want to provide a free pump for passing cyclists, Tower Hamlets expect us to pay for the privilege.'

Just this month the council's enforcement officers caused a five-year-old girl to cry after shutting down her homemade lemonade stand.

The furious owners of the cycle shop slammed the council on Twitter after being visited by officers three times

The young entrepreneur set up stall for music lovers as they made their way to the Lovebox Festival in East London.

Officials said she and her father, Andre Spicer, were 'trading without a permit', near their home in Mile End and fined her 150, which was later overturned.

Mr Spicer, a professor at City University, told the Evening Standard: 'Its not like she was trying to make a massive profit, this is just a five-year-old kid trying to sell lemonade.

Officials said the girl and her father, Andre Spicer, were 'trading without a permit', near their home in Mile End and fined her 150, which was later overturned

'She sobbed all the way home and was telling me: "Dad, Ive done a bad thing". She was very upset because she was proud of selling it, and this really soured the experience.'

A spokeswoman for the local authority said: We are very sorry that this has happened.

'We expect our enforcement officers to show common sense, and to use their powers sensibly. This clearly did not happen.

'The fine will be cancelled immediately and we will be contacting Professor Spicer and his daughter to apologise.'

In a statement, Tower Hamlet Council said the shop had repeatedly failed to apply for a licence that would

'The area outside the shop is narrow and it is already difficult to get a pram or a wheelchair past the shop, without these items being displayed.

'A week later they had still not applied for a licence so we issued a fine for having goods on the highway.

'We then visited again last weekend and they still had not applied for a licence so we said that we would fine them again.

'We will visit the shop for a fourth time this week to offer help in applying for a licence and, if they do, we can review the latest fine.'
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A jaunty Ivanka Trump was all smiles on Monday morning as she popped down the steps of her Kalorama mansion and headed off to the White House in a fresh nautical look.

The carefully coiffed and fastidiously foundationed First Daughter flashed a smile and a gave wave as she hit the pavement in front of her $5.5million mansion, showing off her seasonally-appropriate summer look before boarding her SUV and taking off for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Husband Jared Kushner left about 40 minutes before his wife with an equally wide grin plastered across his face.

Ivanka had big day on Monday, which kicked off in the Oval Office where she, Jared Kushner and Dina Powell huddled together to watch the swearing in of newly appointed chief-of-staff, John Kelly.

This is the first time Ivanka has been seen since a Politico story revealed that she did not know about her father's plan to ban transgender military members until she read about it on Twitter.

In the wake of that incident, Ivanka 'desperately wants to lower expectations of what she can achieve in an administration where she views herself as one person on a large team' according to White House officials.

She also wants to let everyone know how popular she is as well, and on Monday morning posted a photo of some 'Thank You' cards she had received at work, writing: 'Grateful to receive these thoughtful letters. Thank you for sharing your kind words! It is an honor and a privilege to serve our great country.'

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Anything goes: Ivanka Trump headed to the White House on Monday morning in a nautical-themed outfit, with a sailor tie on her blouse and a blue tweed skirt

Sea change: It is the first time that the First Daughter has been seen since a report over the weekend revealed she learned of the transgender military ban on Twitter

Peter Pan: Ivanka's husband broke from his tradition of grays and blacks by popping out in a blue suit with a red tie (above)

Steering the ship: John Kelly is sworn in while Ivanka and Jared look on alongside Dina Powell (left)

Thirst trap: Ivanka posted a photo of all the fan letters she had received on Monday (above) shortly after her abilities in her current role were called into question

Ivanka was not the only person who was kept in the dark about the ban, with almost every single member of the administration, the US Joint Chiefs and the employees at the Pentagon also completely unaware of President Trump's latest ban.

Jared Kushner, Ivanka's husband and the son-in-law of President Trump, was also not told about the ban ahead of time.

Most shocking of all however is the claim being made by officials that Vice President Mike Pence was also not informed ahead of time or involved in the discussions regarding President Trump's decision.

Vice President Pence had been pushing the hardest to see policies like this reversed now that Republicans controlled the executive and legislative branches.

The ban reverses the Obama administration policy allowing transgender people to serve, which was implemented so well that there are currently over 15,000 transgender individuals working in the armed forces in some capacity.

Ivanka has now been in her job at the White House for five months, and has yet to demonstrably show that she has any real impact despite the fact that she has more access to the Commander-in-Chief than anyone else in the building.

That was on display for the first time back in April when President Trump signed an anti-Planned Parenthood law that aims to defund the organization because of the fact that they perform abortions.

Ivanka made it known that she was opposed to the idea, and given her close relationship with her father many thought the law would never be signed by President Trump at the behest of his daughter.

It was later revealed that Ivanka even went and had a private meeting with the group's leader Cecile Richards, but nothing could change her father's mind.

That law was also championed by Vice President Pence, who has quickly emerged as Ivanka's biggest policy foe in the Trump administration.

Setting sail: Ivanka was not the only person who was kept in the dark about the ban, with almost every single member of the administration, the US Joint Chiefs and the employees at the Pentagon also completely unaware of President Trump's plan to ban

Seas the day: Ivanka has now been in her job at the White House for five months, and has yet to demonstrably show that she has any real impact in her position

Rising waters: Ivanka's efforts also failed when she tried to stop her father from backing out of the Paris Climate Deal

Titanic: That decision had the added pressure of a phone call from Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio, who begged her to intervene

Her efforts also failed when she tried to stop her father from backing out of the Paris Climate Deal.

That decision had the added pressure of a phone call from Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio, who begged her to intervene.

Ivanka does however have a knack for disappearing when these policy shifts come about, having skipped the Rose Garden speech where her father announced the decision to pull out of the climate deal in order to be with her children as they observed the Jewish holiday Shavout.

Ivanka has been in her job for five months

And on Wednesday she made sure to avoid the photographers ahead of her father's announcement by getting into a waiting SUV in the garage of her home - despite having no knowledge of the decision.

Ivanka is also finding herself under attack more and more, with a tweet she sent out last month thrown back in her face last week in the wake of this new ban.

'I am proud to support my LGBTQ friends and the LGBTQ Americans who have made immense contributions to our society and economy,' wrote Ivanka in June at the start of Pride.

Her father had also been a very vocal supporter of gay rights on the campaign trail, something that had previously been almost unheard off from a Republican candidate.

'Ask yourself, who is really the friend of women and the LGBT community? Donald Trump with actions or Hillary Clinton with her words?' said Trump in June 2016 after the massacre at Pulse nightclub in Orlando.

'I will tell you who the better friend is. And some day I believe that will be proven out big league.'

Safe haven: Those hoping however for a blowout battle between president Trump and Ivanka should not hold their breath according to multiple sources

Master and Commander: 'I know her well enough to know her relationship with her father, which is that she will never, ever, go against the grain,' said one friend of Ivanka

Captain's log: Ivanka (above last week heading to work) has been at odds with a number of her father's policy moves in office, including his decision to sign an April law aiming to defund Planned Parenthood

Ivanka is getting a big win in the personnel department at the White House however, with the First Daughter reported to have been less than fond of both Sean Spicer and Reince Priebus

Those hoping however for a blowout battle should not hold their breath according to multiple sources.

'I know her well enough to know her relationship with her father, which is that she will never, ever, go against the grain,' said one friend of Ivanka.

Another added: 'She wanted to be the apple of her fathers eye. Theres no question, she worked hard to be the perfect image her father wanted.'

Meanwhile, a socialite pal said that the criticism Ivanka is facing is something she can handle in stride.

'Everyone knew that Jareds father was a felon and her father was a buffoon, but you looked past that because they stood on their own two feet and were sophisticated and presentable,' they explained.

'They were accepted despite their parents. Now, theres no separating the two.'

Ivanka is getting a big win in the personnel department at the White House however, with the First Daughter reported to have been less than fond of both Sean Spicer and Reince Priebus.

Spicer handed in his notice two Fridays ago, while this past Friday Priebus was fired by President Trump.
A female cyclist has chipped her two front teeth when she slid on diesel oil that was deliberately poured onto a Melbourne bike path.

Brittany Slater, 21, said she chipped her teeth after falling off her bike when it lost control while passing over an oil spill that was laid there by an irresponsible individual.

'I fell on my nose and on my teeth,' she told Nine Network.

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Cyclist Brittany Slater, 21, said her front teeth chipped no thanks to the oil trap left at the path

Ms Slater said was riding from work when she hit the oil trap and fell.

She told the TV station that the dental surgery was an 'expensive' affair,and that she would press charges if the perpetrator was found.

Leading Senior Const Rueben Larson told Herald Sun the black substance could have been diesel oil.

Police are appealing for information following a series of incidents targeting bicycle paths in Melbourne.

Investigators said the Dynon Road path, particularly on the bend between Dynon Road and Arden Road, has been subject to oil spills for the past three weeks.

The Capital City Trail has also been affected.

Ms Slater tooth was chipped and she told the station that the cost for repair was 'expensive'

The black substance seen here is believed to be diesel oil left by an irresponsible individual

These incidents are believed to be deliberate acts, with the latest occurring overnight.

The dangerous spills have caused cyclists to lose traction and control of their bikes.

'It's of very serious concern,' Leading Sen-Constable Larson told the Herald Sun.

'Coming off a bicycle at high speed can lead to some serious injuries.

'We have concerns that there may be further incidents which could result in further people sustaining injuries or being hospitalised as a result.'

Approximately one thousand cyclists use the route that Ms Slater uses daily.
In his last phone call with his mother hours before he was found raped and murdered in a vacant Sydney property, a 16-year-old boy whispered: 'I am at Aymen's house', a jury has been told.

After the 9.42 pm call was cut off, the teenager's family searched for the boy, reported him missing to police and at 4am went to the home of Aymen Terkmani.

Terkmani told them a 'deliberate lie' saying he parted from the boy at 7.30pm when in fact he had later raped him, beat him with a toaster and rolling pin, and strangled him, prosecutor Andrew Robinson told the jury on Monday.

In his last phone call with his mother hours before he was found raped and murdered in a vacant Sydney property, a 16-year-old boy whispered: 'I am at Aymen's house', a jury has been told

After the 9.42 pm call was cut off, the teenager's family searched for the boy, reported him missing to police and at 4am went to the home of Aymen Terkmani (pictured in custody)

He was opening the crown case at the NSW Supreme Court trial of Terkmani, 24, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder and aggravated sexual assault of the teenager at a vacant Fairfield East house on the evening of May 16, 2015.

He alleged the teenager was under the influence of ecstasy when he was killed by Terkmani.

His numerous injuries included a skull fracture, brain damage, fractured ribs, fractured eye socket, collapsed lung and internal injuries.

Terkmani lived near the vacant house and had smoked cannabis with others and installed a pool table there, Mr Robinson said.

Prosecutors alleged the teenager was under the influence of ecstasy when he was killed by Terkmani

Police are pictured at the scene in in May, 2016. Terkmani lived near the vacant house and had smoked cannabis with others and installed a pool table there, prosecutors said

The teenager, who rode a bike, also lived in the area, and on the evening of May 16 told his father he would go to McDonald's to get dinner.

Defence barrister Mark Austin told the jury Terkmani's case would be: 'I had nothing to do with this death'.

Terkmani and his father told police he stayed at home for the rest of the night from 7.30pm when the teenager left their house following a meal at McDonald's.

Mr Robinson referred to calls that evening between the teenager and family members asking him to come home, including one in which the father said 'his son sounded slower or quieter than normal'.

The teenager's injuries included a skull fracture, brain damage, fractured ribs, fractured eye socket, collapsed lung and internal injuries

Defence barrister Mark Austin told the jury Terkmani's case would be: 'I had nothing to do with this death'. Officers are pictured at the scene

In her last call, the mother said he was 'whispering like he was trying to hide something', and she said she would pick him up.

Family members drove around looking for him and at 11pm went to the Terkmani house, but no-one answered the door.

But, Mr Robinson said, the mother had noticed her son's pushbike outside the house and it was found in a nearby street the next day.

In Terkmani's room, police later found items including a $5 note which had a spot of blood on it.

The trial is continuing.
Vice President Mike Pence on Monday assured the Baltic states of U.S. support if they faced aggression from Russia, telling them that Washington firmly backs NATO's doctrine of collective defense.

He said Moscow's recent actions against U.S. diplomats 'will not deter' U.S. backing of its allies on Russia's doorstep.

Pence's comments to the presidents of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, ahead of Russian war games nearby, were clearly intended to reassure following Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and U.S. President Donald Trump's early lukewarm support for NATO.

Pence spoke after Russian President Vladimir Putin laid out Russia's decision to expel 755 U.S. diplomatic personnel from Russia in retaliation for Congressional passage of sanctions legislation that hits Russia.

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Vice President Mike Pence delivers a speech next to Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite and Latvia's President Raimonds Vejonis as they visit NATO's Enhanced Forward Presence mission and Estonian troops in Tallinn, Estonia July 31, 2017

The White House has indicated Trump will sign the legislation  although he has repeatedly called for better relations with Moscow.

'President Trump has made it clear: America is open to a better relationship. But the President and our Congress are unified in our message to Russia  a better relationship, and the lifting of sanctions, will require Russia to reverse the actions that caused sanctions to be imposed in the first place,' Pence said.

'We hope for better days, and better relations with Russia, but as I said earlier today, recent diplomatic action taken by Moscow will not deter the commitment of the United States to our security, that of our allies, and freedom-loving nations around the world.'

'And be assured: The United States rejects any attempt to use force, threats, intimidation, or malign influence in the Baltic States or against any of our treaty allies  and under President Donald Trump, the United States will stand firmly behind our Article Five pledge of mutual defense  and the presence of the U.S Armed Forces here today proves it,' he said.

REASSURANCE: Vice President Mike Pence (L) and his wife Karen Pence (R) wave as they disembark from Air Force Two upon their arrival at Tallinn Airport, Estonia, 30 July 2017

SEVASTOPOL, RUSSIA - JULY 30, 2017: Warships take part in the Russian Navy Day parade in Sevastopol

Vice President Mike Pence listens to Estonia's President Kersti Kaljulaid as they walk through Kadriorg park, close to Estonian Presidential office in Tallinn, Estonia July 31, 2017

Vice President Mike Pence, right, and Estonia's Prime Minister Juri Ratas speak prior to their meeting at the Government palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Sunday, July 30, 2017. Pence arrived in Tallinn for a two day visit where he will meet Baltic States leaders to discuss regional security issues as well as economic and political topics

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday the U.S. needs to rid itself of 'political schizophrenia.'

During a visit to NATO's Brussels headquarters in May, Trump jarred allies by not restating U.S. support for a critical portion of the alliance's charter and instead berated some members for not spending enough on defense.

His remarks were directed both at the small nation's living in the shadow of Moscow, and at other European allies who were taken aback by President Trump's failure to explicitly state his commitment to NATO's mutual defense pact on his first trip to Europe  something he rectified in Hamburg this summer.

'Under President Trump, the policy of the United States is to place the place the security and prosperity of America First. But as the President has made clear, and as my presence here today demonstrates, America First does not mean America alone,' Pence said.

Trump has since said he supports the NATO charter's Article 5, the requirement that each member of the alliance defend each other if they come under attack.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends parade on Russia's Navy Day the Main Naval Parade to mark Russian Navy Day in St. Petersburg, Russia, on 30 July 2017

The Vice President also provided assurances the U.S. backs Article V defense obligations, at a time of White House turmoil. Monday is the day retired Gen. John Kelly takes over as White House chief of staff

"A strong and united NATO is more necessary today than at any point since the collapse of communism a quarter-century ago and no threat looms larger in the Baltic states than the specter of aggression from your unpredictable neighbor to the east," Pence said at news conference with the three Baltic presidents.

"Under President Donald Trump, the United States stands firmly behind our Article 5 pledge of mutual defence. An attack on one of us is an attack on us all."

Russia is scheduled next month to hold large-scale military maneuvers with its ally Belarus. The U.S. army's top general in Europe said this month that the Zapad war games could be a "Trojan horse" resulting in military equipment being left in Belarus.

Pence's trip to Europe comes amid a White House staff shakeup, the defeat of major healthcare legislation, and an ongoing standoff with Moscow. New White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci walks into the White House in Washington, DC after giving a television interview, July 26, 2017

He warned that Russia continues to "seek to redraw international borders by force, undermine democracies of sovereign nations and divide the free nations of Europe, one against another".

Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite told Lithuanian radio that NATO's air-policing missions would be doubled during the Russian-led Zapad exercise.

Pence is also due to visit Montenegro, the alliance's newest member, and make a stop in Georgia, an aspiring member, which fought a brief war with Russia in 2008.

Pence repeated Trump's admonition about nations who have fallen short of a pledge to dedicate 2 per cent of their national budgets to defense, though he hailed Estonia for living up to its commitments.

'President Trump has made it clear that every NATO member must finally contribute their fair share and meet their financial obligations,' he said.

'At this moment, I am proud to stand in the heart of one of only five NATO member states that meets this basic standard. Estonia joins the United States, the United Kingdom, Greece, and Poland in meeting or exceeding their obligation for our common defense. And Im grateful to report that by the end of 2018, Latvia and Lithuania will join these nations in fulfilling their commitment  and President Trump expects all our NATO allies to follow your lead,' he said.

Further backdrop for the diplomatic positioning are ongoing investigations in Congress and at the FBI of alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Investigators are probing contacts between Trump associates and Russian officials.
The father of a seriously ill baby is seeking US treatment and hopes Charlie Gard supporters will help after he claimed doctors want to turn off his son's life support.

Alfie Evans, who is 14 months old, is in a coma at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool with a condition staff have struggled to diagnose.

Growing numbers of supporters of tragic Charlie, who died on July 28 after his parents were not allowed to take him to America for experimental treatment, are rallying around the baby.

Alfie has been in the hospital's intensive care ward since last December and suffers regular seizures.

Alfie Evans (left) is in a coma at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool. His father Tom (right) is hoping to take him to America for treatment

Alfie (pictured) has been in the hospital's intensive care ward since last December and suffers regular seizures

His father, Tom Evans, from Bootle, Merseyside, said the death of Charlie had come as a devastating blow, and described how he held his own son tight and burst into tears after he heard the news.

As in the Charlie Gard case, doctors have warned they may have to take legal action as Mr Evans, 20, will not let them switch off Alfie's life support.

Both he and Alfie's mother, Kate James, have not yet faced a court battle and are hopeful it will not come to that after more than a dozen American hospitals said they might be able to help.

Mr Evans said: 'I'm pleading for help from anywhere now.

'I've been getting in touch with lots of hospitals, and I've had a particularly positive response from one in Miami, which has received Alfie's details.'

He added: 'I'm heartbroken for Charlie's parents. There's no words to understand what his parents have gone through, but they can be so proud of what they've done for their son.

'I'm worried because I think Charlie might have had more of a chance than my son, who doesn't even have a diagnosis - I'm worried about Alder Hey doing the same.

'When I heard about Charlie I just held Alfie as tight as I could, cuddled him and cried my eyes out.'

More than 22,000 people have now joined the 'Alfie's Army' page on Facebook, with thousands of pounds also donated to a fundraising page.

One supporter wrote yesterday: 'So after losing our precious little Charlie and being in floods of tears, I'm ready to support Alfie all the way and become part of Alfie's Army.'

Another wrote: 'Charlie will forever be in our hearts. We loved him so much. Now we fight for Alfie.'

Alfie seemed a healthy, smiley baby in his first few months, but his parents took him to the doctor after noticing he was still very weak.

Alfie's father, Tom Evans, from Bootle, Merseyside, was 'heartbroken' when he learned Charlie Gard (pictured with his parents Chris Gard and Connie Yates) had died

Doctors at Alder Hey Children's Hospital (pictured) have not diagnosed 14-month-old Alfie Evans

They said they were told he might just be a late developer, but then had to rush to hospital when he sloped back in his chair and began strange jerking movements.

Alfie's condition deteriorated and doctors at Alder Hey diagnosed him with pneumonia, bronchitis and other infections.

He then suffered seizures and slipped into a coma shortly afterwards. His condition is still undiagnosed.

An Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust spokesman said: 'We understand that this is an incredibly difficult time for the family concerned and we continue to liaise directly with them.

'We are unable to comment on individual cases. Alder Hey is a specialist children's hospital which therefore means we treat many children with often complex, life threatening conditions.

'Unfortunately despite the best efforts of our clinicians, some of these children are sadly unable to recover from their illness.

'In such a situation, medical professionals will meet to discuss the most appropriate care plan going forward, focusing on the comfort and wellbeing of the child concerned.

'The Trust will often seek advice from specialist clinicians at other trusts. The care plan is always discussed in full with the family to reach agreement between clinicians and parents about the most appropriate care.'
President Donald Trump has no plans to move Attorney General Jeff Sessions to Homeland Security, the White House said Monday.

'There are no conversations about any cabinet members moving in any capacity, and the president has 100 percent confidence in all members of his cabinet,' White House Press Secretary Sarah Hucakbee Sanders said.

Trump and Sessions appeared to be on better footing on Monday morning at a cabinet meeting, where Sessions sat across from the president.

The attorney general smiled as Trump delivered opening remarks to reporters.

President Donald Trump is having his first face-to-face meeting with Attorney General Jeff Sessions since he began a humiliating public campaign against his cabinet secretary

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions smiles as U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House this morning

It was the first time they'd seen each other since Trump began a humiliating public campaign against his cabinet secretary.

The president hosted his entire Cabinet at the White House this morning.

Trump and Sessions had been speaking about one another but not to one another throughout an unusual disagreement over the law enforcement official's decision to recuse himself months ago from the Justice Department's investigations involving the 2016 election.

Instead of firing his attorney general, Trump has repeatedly berated him on Twitter.

Trump was said to be considering a shakeup that would keep Sessions in the cabinet but in a lower-profile position than the one he's currently in. Hucakbee Sanders shot the notion down in her briefing on Monday, saying that Trump had no interest in moving, or firing, him.

Republican lawmakers informed Trump last week that any move to oust Sessions would be met with blowback on Capitol Hill.

Sessions was right to recuse himself from investigations into the last election, including any Russia probes, given his involvement in Trump's campaign, they've said.

'If Jeff Sessions is fired, there will be holy hell to pay,' Sen. Lindsey Graham forewarned.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate's Judiciary Committee, explicitly told Trump that his committee would not schedule hearings on a new attorney general this year if he cans Sessions - so he may as well forget about it.

'Everybody in D.C. Shld b warned that the agenda for the judiciary Comm is set for rest of 2017. Judges first subcabinet 2nd / AG no way,' Grassley tweeted.

Trump's meeting today also put him in the room with Rex Tillerson, his secretary of state, who he'll have lunch with later today as well, and James Mattis, his defense head. They are seen on the left and right of Trump

Trump's onslaught against Sessions, which has included claims that he's 'VERY weak' and 'beleaguered,' follow a pattern of aggressive rhetoric toward Justice Department officials since the deputy AG brought on Robert Mueller, a former FBI director, as special counsel.

Mueller's team took over the FBI's probes into Russian meddling and Russian collusion after Trump sacked the bureau's head, James Comey, in a fury over his perceived lack of loyalty amid a host of performance issues.

Graham, a South Carolina Republican, told Capitol Hill reporters on Thursday that 'any effort to go after Mueller could be the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency, unless Mueller did something wrong.

'Right now, I have no reason to believe that Mueller is compromised,' he added.

Huckabee Sanders said in response that Graham 'has got a pretty heavy lift and he should probably stay focused on his job and getting some of the things done on health care and not worry so much about other peoples in this administration.'

She said then that she didn't know if Trump had finally spoken to Sessions.

'And Ive said anybody that doesn't have the confidence of the president moving forward, he has the ability to fire them, and if he decides to do that he certainly will,' she told Fox News' Martha McCaullum. 'This isnt a president that shies away from taking action and taking decisive action. If he chooses to do that, he certainly would.'

Trump had reportedly been considering a change in his cabinet line-up that would see Sessions move over to the Department of Homeland Security so that he could nominate a new attorney general.

The president has named his DHS chief, John Kelly, to chief of staff. He started today.

Sessions was known in the Senate as an immigration hardliner, which would have made him an ideal choice to lead Trump's DHS.

Trump sent Sessions to El Salvador last Friday to deliver a speech near the immigrant gang MS-13's headquarters while Kelly accompanied him to an area that's been terrorized by MS-13 in New York.

Trump is reportedly considering a change in his cabinet line-up that would see Sessions move over to the Department of Homeland Security so that he could nominate a new attorney general. He made his DHS chief, John Kelly, his chief of staff. They're seen in the Oval Office today

If Trump were to nominate Sessions to Homeland Security chief, the cabinet official would have to go through another set of confirmation hearings in the Senate. Trump's attorney general appointee would also be grilled and then voted on by senators.

Graham dismissed the idea of playing musical chairs with the cabinet Saturday on Twitter.

'AG Jeff Sessions has a good ring to it. Highly qualified, committed to the rule of law, tough on crime, and fiercely independent,' the Republican senator wrote.

Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine who's become a thorn in Trump's side on health care, said Sunday, 'Its up to Jeff Sessions and the president. But if hes being moved because of his correct decision to recuse himself I think thats a mistake.'

The Alabama politician resigned from safe Senate seat to serve in Trump's administration.

He was one of Trump's earliest endorsers on Capitol Hill. Sessions was also a member of the president's inner circle in the transition.

Trump said last week that he didn't put much stock in Sessions' endorsement last week. The Alabama senator had nothing to lose in helping him, the president said.

Already, Trump says he had the momentum and was drawing huge crowds without major endorsements like Sessions'.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate's Judiciary Committee, explicitly told Trump that his committee would not schedule hearings on a new attorney general this year if he cans Sessions - so he may as well forget about it

Sessions told Fox News' Tucker Carlson on Thursday evening that Trump's comments were 'hurtful,' but he understands his 'feelings about [the Russia probes] because this has been a big distraction for him.'

'At any time I serve at the pleasure of the president,' he said. 'If he wants to make a change he can certainly do so and I would be glad to yield in that circumstance; no doubt about it.'

Trump's meeting today also put him in the room with Rex Tillerson, his secretary of state, who he'll have lunch with later today as well, and James Mattis, his defense head.

The president has also butted heads recently with the two of them.

Tillerson came back to the State Department last week after a cooling off period that seemed like it could be a precursor to an early exit.

Mattis just returned from a vacation that overlapped with the president's surprise announcement that he was barring transgender persons from serving in the military.

The directive came in the form of a tweet that the Pentagon has since said it will not enforce until Trump submits proper guidance to DOD.
The body of a Queens teen who disappeared Sunday during an evening swim has been recovered.

Jovani White, 19, and his girlfriend reportedly arrived to the Smith Point Beach when lifeguards were off duty. White was with other friends at the beach when the group lost sight of him in the water and called for help.

Officials at the Suffolk County Parks say the swimmer was caught into heavy rip tides and vanished sometime before 7 pm.

The Coast Guard and Suffolk County Police set out a search several miles on the coastline through the evening and into early Monday.

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Jovani White, 19, went missing when he was swimming at Smith Point Beach in Long Island - this news report aired before the body had been found

Officials and police searched late Sunday and early Monday

Officials say the drowning incident is the first of its kind to occur in the area this year

White's girlfriend, who has not been identified, was rescued from the ocean.

Following the deadly accident, signs were posted at the beach warning visitors of hazardous rip currents.

Officials say the drowning incident is the first of its kind to occur in the area as of this year.

Also on Sunday, police searched the Jersey Shore for 24-year-old Zuzana Oravcova, who was said to be skinny dipping with her boyfriend when she went missing around 2:30 am.

Oravcova's boyfriend, Thomas Kadlec, 23, immediately contacted authorities at the scene.

Signs were posted up at the beach after the deadly accident

Rip currents were said to be heavy

Oravcova, a student who worked at a boardwalk in the area, has been found, and the search suspended.

In another mysterious case last month, a young man was discovered floating in the Conservancy Pond at Central Park. The incident came just weeks after two corpses were found in the park in two different areas of the water.

One of the men was naked and the other wearing only pants.

An investigation has been underway since, while officials say there are no clear signs of a homicide or trauma to the men.

'There's no signs of criminality as of now to make this anything other than coincidence,' the New York Police Department's chief of detectives, Robert K. Boyce said in a statement. 'But it is unusual for the park.'
Hundreds of volunteers have helped search for a Utah man after family and friends said he disappeared under strange circumstances.

Paul Swenson's wife said the 30-year-old was acting strangely when he went to an appointment in Salt Lake City on Thursday and never returned to their home in American Forks, FOX reported.

When his car was recovered, a container of alcohol was found - which Swenson's best friend Cody Wilding said didn't belong to him. There were also other people's clothing inside, he added.

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Paul Swenson's wife said the 30-year-old was acting strangely when he went to an appointment in Salt Lake City on Thursday and never returned

When his car was recovered, police found a container of alcohol they say didn't belong to Swenson, along with other people's clothing

Sgt. Josh Christensen of the American Fork Police Department said it was unclear if he was suffering from a medical or mental crisis

His wife Ashlee Swenson, who noticed he was acting strangely when he left, said: 'He's going through something, something's different.'

Sgt. Josh Christensen of the American Fork Police Department said it was unclear if he was suffering from a medical or mental crisis.

Police tracked down Swenson's car on Friday and found a container of alcohol inside it along with 'random people's clothing', Wilding said.

His friends and family formed a Facebook group to organize the search for Swenson, and his wife issued an emotional plea through a video that also featured their baby daughter.

In it, she said: 'He is such a light in our lives, and he bring such happiness in our world. I want him to know that wherever he is, whatever happened, we're here and we have so much love and support.'

On Saturday, hundreds canvassed the Salt Lake area with flyers, while people from as far as Texas posted in the Facebook group asking how they could help.

His friends and family formed a Facebook group to organize the search for Swenson, and his wife (left) issued an emotional plea through a video that also featured their baby daughter

In it, she said: 'He is such a light in our lives.... I want him to know that wherever he is, whatever happened, we're here and we have so much love and support'

While family and friends have received tips from people who said they may have spotted a man matching Swenson's description, he remains missing.

His brother said he was unsure what condition Swenson was in, and said anyone who might come across him should contact authorities and keep an eye on his whereabouts.

Wilding questioned whether his best friend's disappearance was the result of foul play and said: 'The truth is we just don't know.'

Swenson is described as having red hair, with a large tattoo down his right arm. He is 6 feet tall and about 190 pounds and was last seen wearing a heather-gray shirt, black jeans and black Converse shoes.

Anyone with information should call the American Forks police at 801 763 3020.
Kathryn Smith, 24, pictured, was jailed for life in April last year following her conviction for murder after the attack on 21-month-old Ayeeshia Jane Smith

A mother who stamped her toddler daughter to death has had her sentence slashed by judges.

Kathryn Smith, 24, was jailed for life in April last year following her conviction for murder after the attack on 21-month-old Ayeeshia Jane Smith at the family home in Staffordshire in May 2014.

She was handed 363,000 of taxpayers' cash along with her boyfriend to help the pair fight their original case.

During sentencing, Smith was branded a 'devious, manipulative, selfish young woman' by a judge at Birmingham Crown Court - but she then attempted to have her conviction quashed based on directions given to the jury.

Today at the Court of Appeal in London, three judges headed by the Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas, dismissed her appeal.

Lord Thomas said that the judge's summing up was 'both thorough and fair' and there was 'ample' evidence on which the jury could have reached the verdicts they did.

But the minimum term was reduced from 24 years to 19 years with judges deeming that the original sentence did not properly reflect the circumstances of the murder.

They also ruled that her previous conduct, the other offences of which Smith was convicted and the mitigating factors - such as a lack of previous offending - needed to be taken into account.

Ayeeshia collapsed at the flat in Britannia Drive, Burton-upon-Trent, after suffering a fatal heart laceration - a type of injury usually only found in crash victims.

It emerged that she had previously suffered a bleed on the brain from an assault at her mother's hands and a pattern of recent injuries including a huge bruise on her spine.

Ayeeshia collapsed at the flat in Britannia Drive, Burton-upon-Trent, after suffering a fatal heart laceration - a type of injury usually only found in crash victims

Ayeeshia, who was taken into care for a period in mid-2013, also had several broken ribs, and other marks and abrasions on her body.

Smith, of Nottingham, had denied having anything to do with her daughter's death.

Sentencing the mother at Birmingham Crown Court in April last year, Mrs Justice Andrews had said: 'You are a devious, manipulative, selfish, young woman who would stop at nothing to get your own way.'

She added: 'Ayeeshia was a particularly vulnerable victim, thin and slight of frame, deserving of protection and under the protection of social services for the whole of her short life.

'She was killed in her own home by her own mother - that is the grossest breach of trust.'

Lord Thomas said Smith's counsel argued that too much weight had been given to aggravating features and too little to her youth, immaturity, vulnerability, absence of previous convictions, obvious instances of good and appropriate parenting and the lack of intent to kill.

He added that in some cases, when a parent was convicted of killing his or her child, there would be seriously aggravating factors, such as the use of any weapon against the child or the exposure of the child to hard drugs.

In Smith's case, the trial judge identified as aggravating factors the vulnerability of the child, breach of trust, infliction of considerable force and the fact that the blow which killed was not an isolated incident of violence.

The mitigating factors were the the lack of intention to kill - although this was heavily discounted on the basis that the assault was in anger - Smith's age and lack of maturity.

She concluded that when a balancing exercise was carried out, the aggravating factors significantly outweighed the mitigating factors so they justified a very substantial uplift in the starting point of 15 years.

In that way, the judge reached the minimum term of 24 years, the equivalent, as she stated, of a determinate sentence of 48 years.

Lord Thomas said: 'It is important that a judge does bear in mind proportionality.

'In sentencing in such cases where the parent was young and, as in the present case, young in terms of immaturity, ordinarily in the absence of unusual aggravating features accompanied by a lack of mitigating features, a minimum term in excess of 20 years would require very serious aggravating features and very careful reflection before such a sentence was imposed.'
Passengers boarding domestic flights in Australia may soon need to carry photo identification under new rules being considered by the government.

The Turnbull government has been debating the idea of introducing mandatory ID checks for months as part of a general effort to keep Australians safer.

Although unlikely to come into effect before the new Home Affairs office is up and running, the idea is seeing renewed attention following anti-terror raids in Sydney.

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Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull (pictured) and his government are considering tough new rules that would force all domestic air travellers to carry photo identification

The new rules would be implemented at airports (pictured) around Australia and would be likely to increase delays

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is open to the idea as are various security agencies, the Herald Sun reported.

There are concerns the ID checks could cause delays, inconvenience people without drivers' licences or passports, and require new equipment.

The new measure has been broadly supported with Opposition Leader Bill Shorten giving his approval.

'It seems to me at first blush to be a bit sensible that you know who is actually getting on the plane,' he said.

Mr Turnbull (pictured) says his government is working night and day to keep Australians safe

'In some countries, when you travel you have to have photographic ID when you present to board a plane - in Australia you don't.'

Justice Minister Michael Keenan said the government would do whatever was needed.

'If there was a requirement to do that to keep the Australian people safe, then obviously we would do that,' he said.

The focus on airport security comes after police say they foiled an 'Islamist-inspired' plot to bring down a passenger jet.

One of the anti-terror raids in Sydney took place at a home in Surry Hills (pictured) where one of the four men was arrested

Raids across Sydney resulted in the arrests of four men who are accused of planning to blow up a plane with an 'improvised device.'

The counter-terrorism raids led to a ramping up of security at airports around Australia.

Passengers faced long queues and extra bag checks as the government assured the public it was doing everything it could to prevent attacks.

'Be assured, we have the finest security and intelligence services in the world,' Mr Turnbull said.

'They are working, as is my government, and all the governments around Australia, night and day to keep Australians safe.'
France announced Monday it would open two shelters for migrants sleeping rough around the port of Calais, relenting to pressure to improve the lot of hundreds of people hiding from police.

The centres will be located in the towns of Troisvaux and Bailleul, situated about 50 miles inland from Calais, Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said.

Each will have a capacity of 300, he told reporters, estimating the number of migrants currently in the northern port at between 350 and 400.

France's highest administrative court ruled the government and Calais must provide hundreds of migrants with drinking water, showers and toilets (file photo of 'The Jungle')

His announcement came hours after France's highest administrative court ordered the state to provide drinking water, showers and toilets for the migrants, saying that its refusal so far to do so 'exposed them to inhuman and degrading treatment.'

The Council of State was ruling on an appeal by the interior ministry and the city of Calais against an injunction issued by a court in Lille last month.

In its decision Monday the Council of State upheld the order sought by a group of charities, saying that migrants were developing skin diseases such as scabies and festering wounds as they had no way of washing themselves or their clothes.

The situation was causing 'serious psychological problems', it added, calling the state's failure to address the situation 'a serious and clearly illegal blow to a basic right'.

Calais' Mayor Natacha Bouchart said she would ignore the order.

'The decision by the Council of State is unfair to the people of Calais because it threatens them with the emergence of yet another Jungle,' she said, referring to the sprawling migrant camp from which over 6,000 people were evacuated last year.

'In the absence of a national and European policy offering a global solution on controlling immigration, Calais will not implement the injunctions,' she declared in a statement.

Collomb too had argued that the provision of services could have a pull effect on migrants who trek across Europe to Calais in the hope of stowing away on a truck crossing the Channel to England.

Charities have been fiercely critical of the squalid conditions facing hundreds of migrants who have returned to the port city (file photo of 'The Jungle')

On Monday, the minister said that the addition of two new shelters to the around 450 already in operation around the country would help speed up the processing of asylum claims from those migrants who wished to stay in France.

'We do not want to repeat the bad experiences of the past,' he warned, alluding to the squalid Jungle.

He also announced an internal police investigation into claims of excessive force being used by officers against the migrants in Calais.

Charities have been fiercely critical of the squalid conditions facing hundreds of migrants who have returned to the port city after government bulldozers razed the camp known as the 'Jungle'.

A local court said this year that the authorities must provide access to water, prompting an appeal by the interior ministry and Calais commune.

Rejecting that appeal, the Conseil d'Etat ruled that the treatment of migrants was inhuman.

Migrants seen around the truck stops in Marck, Calais, earlier this year

'The Conseil d'Etat considers that these living conditions reveal a failure by the public authorities that has exposed these people to inhuman or degrading treatment,' the court said in a statement.

'These shortcomings are a serious and unlawful infringement on a fundamental freedom.'

It said the lower court was within its rights to order the provision of toilets, drinking water and showers.

France has avoided the brunt of Europe's migrant crisis, receiving a fraction of the asylum seekers handled by countries like Italy and Germany.

While Macron has called for migrants to be treated with dignity, his own government has taken a tough stance, refusing to open a new migrant reception centre in Calais, saying it would act as a magnet for other migrants.

Last week, Human Rights Watch pressed France to end what it described as recurrent police violence against migrants in Calais, where hundreds have returned despite the demolition of a sprawling camp.

Many of the Calais migrants seek a better life in Britain.

The European Union is struggling to find a coherent answer to a migration crisis that has tested cooperation between member states. Macron has instructed his government to speed up France's asylum process.
A benefits cheat who claimed she was too disabled to walk more than a yard was caught out by holiday photos of her snorkeling and quad biking in the Maldives.

Linda Hoey, 58, from Tamworth in Staffordshire, fraudulently claimed 65,244 in Disability Living Allowance and used her disability car to avoid paying 15,690 in M6 toll charges over a 14-year period.

She said that degenerative arthritis and back problems meant that she could only walk a yard a minute, and couldn't stretch her arms above her head.

But was caught out when pictures from her holiday in Egypt and the Maldives to celebrate her 20th wedding anniversary to husband Michael were passed to the Department for Work and Pensions.

Linda Hoey (pictured snorkeling in the Maldives), 58, from Tamworth in Staffordshire, fraudulently claimed 65,244 in Disability Living Allowance and used her disability car to avoid paying 15,690 in M6 toll charges over a 14-year period

She said that degenerative arthritis and back problems meant that she could only walk a yard a minute, and couldn't stretch her arms above her head. She is pictured quad biking on holiday

A court heard how she was also pictured on her knees altering her daughter's wedding dress and bent over a pool table with a cue in her hand.

Inquiries also revealed that she was a member of a gym, and had been attending regular swimming and badminton lessons.

Despite claiming that her arthritis meant she was unable to work, she was employed full-time for PartsWorld, a car accessory supplier in Cannock, for 17 years.

She was found guilty of misrepresenting her benefit claim between 2001 and 2015 and misusing an exemption pass for the M6 Toll Road between 2004 and 2015 at Stafford Crown Court on Friday.

Prosecutor Anthony Cartin said: 'She had been working full time from 1997 in a desk job doing the exact thing - sitting for a long time in the same position - she said she could not do without pain.

'She has lied and exaggerated, cheating you, me and the public out of money from the public purse.

Linda Hoey, 57, who claimed she needed a stick to get around, had been given the highest amount of mobility allowance for degenerative arthritis and a back problem since 1995

'You have some health issues but you exaggerated the impact on your daily life because you know what you have to say to get disability living allowance.'

Hoey told the court: 'I have not been dishonest. My mobility has got worse.

'I cannot walk without severe discomfort but perhaps I could have explained things a lot better on the forms I filled in.'

Stewart Halstead, Hoey's former boss at PartsWorld - which she left in 2014 - said he was unaware of her claimed health problems.

He revealed that he had never seen her use her stick, and that she would regularly walk up and down stairs with trays of hot drinks.

The mum-of-four filed her first form claiming Disability Living Allowance in 1995, and successfully made an appeal for more money in April 2005.

But the scam finally ended when the DWP saw pictures of her scuba-diving in the sun-kissed Indian Ocean and stretching her hands above her head whilst lazing on a hammock in 2013.

The tell-tale pictures were found when police in on her home on February 24 last year after the Department for Work and Pensions received a tip-off.

Officers spotted her walking down the stairs to answer the front door, and found that her home had not been adapted for her supposed disability.

Jurors were told how she regularly used the M6 Toll for free as she was on the highest mobility element of the allowance, and regularly got an updated car free of charge.

Her husband became her official carer after he gave up his job to launch a business from their home.

Jurors were told how she regularly used the M6 Toll for free as she was on the highest mobility element of the allowance, and regularly got an updated car free of charge

The pair enjoyed holidays in Egypt in 2012 and in the Maldives in 2013 to celebrate their wedding anniversary

The pair enjoyed holidays in Egypt in 2012 and in the Maldives in 2013 to celebrate their wedding anniversary.

She was bailed and ordered to return to court in September for sentencing.

A DWP spokesman said: 'Only a small minority of people try to cheat the benefits system, but cases like this show how we are rooting out those who are stealing taxpayers' money and diverting it away from the people who really need it.'

In a statement Midland Expressway Ltd, which operates the M6 Toll, said: 'This is very much a matter for the DWP although Midland Expressway Limited is very pleased that a conviction has been secured in this clear case of benefit fraud.

'Midland Expressway Limited finds it completely unacceptable for anyone to take part in any fraudulent activity, whether involving the M6 Toll or not, and we will continue to fully support the DWP in such matters.'
A defense lawyer in a murder case involving famed jeweler Jeffrey Rackover's 'adopted son' is seeking to put a prosecutor on the witness stand to shed light on the methods police had employed to get his client to talk after his arrest.

Lawrence Dilione, 28, and James Rackover, 26, are accused of stabbing to death Hofstra University graduate Joseph Comunale during a party at an Upper East Side apartment in November 2016.

Comunale's burned body was later discovered by police buried in a shallow grave in New Jersey.

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Defense lawyer for murder suspect Lawrence Dilione (pictured left) is seeking to put a prosecutor on the witness stand to shed light on the methods police had employed to get his client to talk about the killing of Joseph Comunale (right)

Dilione (left) and James Rackover (right) have been charged with stabbing to death the Hofstra University graduate during a party in November 2016

Dilione and Rackover have been charged with murder, concealment of a human body, hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence. Both have pleaded not guilty to all the counts.

Now, Dilione's defense lawyer Michael Pappa wants to subpoena Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Antoinette Carter's records to find out whether the prosecutor knew about the tactics detectives had employed to get a statement from his client during the 40 hours he spent in police custody, reported the New York Daily News

Dilione reportedly told police he struck Comunale, 26, inside Rackover's apartment on East 59th Street on the night of November 13, but he claimed it was Rackover who pummeled and ultimately stabbed the victim to death.

The Daily News has reported, citing unnamed sources, that police used illegal techniques to get information out of Dilione during his two-day interrogation.

Pappa, the suspect's defense lawyer, earlier asked for records pertaining to Carter's communications with police at the early stages of the murder investigation.

Dilione, Rackover and their co-defendant, Max Gemma, are scheduled to appear before Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Charles Solomon for a status conference on Tuesday, at which time the district attorney's office is expected to respond to Pappa's request for Carter's records.

Dilione (left) told police after his arrest that he knocked out Comunale, but that it was Rackover (right) who killed him

Defense attorney Michael Pappa (far left) earlier asked for records pertaining to Carter's communications with police

The fact that an ADA may serve as a fact witness in a hearing does not necessarily prevent him or her from trying the case, Manhattan District Attorney'd Office spokeswoman Joan Vollero said in a statement.

Court documents filed last month by Gemma's attorney Mark Bederow allege that Rackover flew into a rage at the party during a fistfight between Comunale and Dilione.

He 'punched and kicked (the victim) in the head and face several times, and smashed the back of his head into the hard wood floor several times,' the June filings said.

'Rackover's attack left Comunale bleeding profusely and created a bloody mess in the living room floor.

'Rackover panicked about returning to prison. He ordered Gemma and Dilione to take off their clothes.'

He then allegedly wrapped Dilione's jeans around the victim's neck 'as if he were preparing to choke Communale,' according to the court filings.

Gemma was told to leave the apartment, his lawyer said in the documents.

'When Gemma left, Comunale was no longer on the living room floor and Rackover, who was standing in the bathtub, glared at Gemma,' the documents allege.

It has previously been alleged that Comunale was stabbed 15 times at the alcohol and cocaine-fueled party inside Rackover's luxury apartment, paid for by jeweler-to-the-stars Jeffrey Rackover, after an argument over cigarettes.

His stabbed and charred body was found three days later by police in Oceanport, New Jersey.

James Rackover and Dilione are accused of driving Comunale's body from the apartment to New Jersey on the same night he was stabbed and burying him in ditch.

Dilione previously told cops that he had knocked out Comunale after fighting over the pack of cigarettes but claimed it was Rackover who allegedly choked and stabbed the victim.

He also alleged that Rackover tried to dismember Comunale in the bathtub with a serrated blade.

Rackover, the 'adopted son' of a famed jeweler, is suspected of repeatedly stabbing the victim and then dumping his body in a ditch in New Jersey

They allegedly removed Comunale's body from the apartment by using a luggage cart from the luxury building.

Rackover lived in the building with his 'adoptive' father. The famed jeweler has designed baubles for the likes of Jennifer Lopez and was responsible for Melania Trump's $3million engagement ring.

Jeffrey Rackover has since distanced himself from Rackover but was named in a lawsuit filed in June of helping to cover up the murder.

Comunale's father claimed 57-year-old Jeffrey provided cleaning supplies to Rackover and claimed the pair were in a sexual relationship.

The lawsuit also says that Jeffrey let Rackover borrow his Mercedes-Benz to dispose of the victim's dismembered remains on the Jersey Shore.
Sigmar Gabriel said Europe was 'more than a single market' (file picture)

The German foreign minister was criticised today after using a Passchendaele memorial service to insist European unity is crucial for peace.

Sigmar Gabriel hailed the European 'project of peace' for preventing bloodshed - saying it was 'more than the single market'.

The comments came in a statement as Mr Gabriel joined Theresa May and members of the Royal Family at a service for the centenary of the Battle of Passchendaele - where hundreds of thousands of allied soldier fell.

But they were slammed as 'inappropriate' by a Tory former defence minister.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were with Prince Charles and the Prime Minister remembering those killed in the notorious First World War clash.

The Prince of Wales spoke of the 'courage and bravery' of British soldiers killed over the course of a bloody 100 days in the summer and autumn of 1917.

In his statement, Mr Gabriel said that 'the battle of Flanders stands like Verdun for the senseless horror of war'.

'Diplomacy must never again fail as it did in 1914, there must never again be war in the middle of Europe, and never again must the youth of our continent be slaughtered.'

Mr Gabriel recalled that there had never before been a period in Europe of more than 70 years without war and destruction.

'Today it is more true than ever in a world full of crises and conflicts that Europe is far more than a single market,' he said.

'Europe is a project of peace. Europe is our future. Only united can we succeed in protecting our interests and defending our values.'

But Tory former defence minister Sir Gerald Howarth said: 'To imply as he has done that we have cannot have a peaceful Europe without the EU is a damning indictment of other members of the EU.

'It is clearly inappropriate at a ceremony that is marking the hardest sacrifice by other nations as a result of German tyranny.'

In his address to the gathering, the Prince said: 'We remember it not only for the rain that fell, the mud that weighed down the living and swallowed the dead, but also for the courage and bravery of the men who fought here.'

Mrs May curtsied as she was greeted by Prince Charles upon his arrival at the commemoration

Curtsey: Prime Minister Theresa May greets the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge as she arrives at the Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery ahead of the ceremony

The Duchess of Cambridge laid flowers at war graves in Ypres (left) today during a ceremony marking 100 years since the Battle of Passchendaele. Mrs May is pictured right speaking during the commemorations at the Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery100th Anniversary of Passchendaele

He added: 'In 1920, the war reporter Philip Gibbs - who had himself witnessed Third Ypres - wrote that 'nothing that has been written is more than the pale image of the abomination of those battlefields, and that no pen or brush has yet achieved the picture of that Armageddon in which so many of our men perished.'

'Drawn from many nations, we come together in their resting place, cared for with such dedication by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, to commemorate their sacrifice and to promise that we will never forget.'

The Duchess of Cambridge looked elegant for the occasion in a white coat dress with a grey leaf pattern by Catherine Walker, teamed with a dove grey hat with a delicate pink embellishment.

The 35-year-old joined Belgian Queen Mathilde and German foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel in laying wreaths at the graves of four German soldiers buried in Tyne Cot.

Mrs May, sombrely dressed, read a Bible passage from Ecclesiasticus.
An adorable video of a nine-year-old boy with Down Syndrome belting out a Whitney Houston song has brought a tear to the eye of millions of people worldwide.

Dane Miller, from Prosper, Texas, was filmed giving his passionate rendition of Houston's 1993 hit, I Have Nothing, by his auntie during a family car journey.

As he nailed the song, from Houston's album, The Bodyguard, he danced to the beat as if performing to a stadium full of people.

Soulful: Dane Miller (pictured), from Prosper, Texas, was filmed giving his passionate rendition of Houston's 1993 hit, I Have Nothing, by his auntie during a family car journey. As he nailed the song, from the album, The Bodyguard, he danced to the beat as if performing to a stadium

Jeanne Miller, Dane's proud auntie, shared the video on Facebook with the caption: 'Is this boy not the sweetest thing ever?! He loves to sing  . Whitney would be proud #getthatboyamic #mynephewDanerocks'.

The video has had an incredible 18.6million views as well as more than 195,000 shares since Jeanne shared the video last Monday.

'He is just very vibrant,' Jeanne told ABC News. 'He's very high-functioning so if he hears music, it's just something that sticks with him. He's very proud [of the video]. He just smiles and giggles.'

Inspiration: Jeanne Miller, Dane's proud auntie, shared the video on Facebook with the caption: 'Is this boy not the sweetest thing ever?! He loves to sing  .' She added: 'Whitney would be proud #getthatboyamic #mynephewDanerocks'

Dane's mother, Danna Miller, said: 'Nine years ago God blessed us with this amazing child. We are so humbled and honored that we were chosen to raise such a joyful and loving child. Here is just a little taste of what we experience everyday.'

Dane's other favourite artists include Taylor Swift, Kidz Bop Kids and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra

She told ABC News that her 13-year-old son Dawson introduced his younger brother to the Houston classic.

She added: 'When we had Dane, we didn't know that he had Down syndrome, but it wouldn't have mattered. He has been probably the biggest blessing of our lives. He is just so loving and joyful. He is what's good about this world.'

Danna told Inside Edition: 'He's been musical since around two years' old. He's been playing the drums. He sings. He loves music. He puts his whole heart into everything he does.'

Dane's other favourite artists include Taylor Swift, Kidz Bop Kids and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra - in particular their song, Carol of the Bells.

Messages of support and encouragement for Dane, who has his own YouTube channel, have been pouring in from commentators on the viral video.

Victoria Latenser said: 'His pure joy and beauty brings tears to my eyes. Thank you God for giving this beautiful soul to this world.

Dane's mother, Danna Miller, said: 'Nine years ago God blessed us with this amazing child. We are so humbled and honored that we were chosen to raise such a joyful and loving child. Here is just a little taste of what we experience everyday'

'He's a brilliant ray of sunshine. I look forward to seeing more from this precious human being. And thank you Dane for changing the way others see those born with something extra.'

Dayna Steven added: 'Omg my heart is melting.'

While Greta White said: 'What removes barriers and give pure emotion and strength? This young man and music.'
She is one of the world's most infamous divorcees - but now 'Catwoman' Jocelyn Wildenstein is set to become a bride for the second time.

DailyMail.com can reveal the flamboyant New York socialite, famed for her feline features, is engaged to her fashion designer boyfriend Lloyd Klein.

The couple's 14-year romance appeared to be over last December when 71-year-old Jocelyn sank her claws into Klein in a now-notorious catfight.

However the loved-up pair say the headline-grabbing tussle that saw them both thrown behind bars only made them realize how much they couldn't bear to be apart.

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Lloyd Klein, 50, started plotting his fairy tale engagement to Jocelyn Wildenstein, 71, after charges against her for felony assault were dismissed earlier this year

He bought a 32-carat diamond engagement ring 'worth millions' with a black gold and platinum setting and proposed at the Versace Mansion in Miami

The ring is so lavish, Wildenstein has only worn it a handful of times. After the photo shoot with DailyMail.com, two armed bodyguards were on hand to escort it back to a safe the moment she slipped it off her finger

Lloyd has been secretly plotting his fairy tale proposal ever since the charges were dismissed - selecting a 32-carat diamond ring 'worth millions' as the ultimate token of his love.

He designed the black gold and platinum setting himself in the shape of a coiled serpent then finally presented it to thrilled Jocelyn at a sumptuous dinner last month at the Versace Mansion in Miami.

'It was romantic, dramatic and wonderful. I showed Jocelyn the ring and she said "yes!" - she was in heaven,' Lloyd told DailyMail.com.

While the 50-year-old couturier won't reveal the exact figure he paid, the stunning sparkler is so pricey that head over heels Jocelyn has only worn it on a handful of special occasions.

Two armed bodyguards are on hand to escort it back to a safe the moment she slips it off her finger.

Klein chose to pop the question at Gianni Versace's former mansion, the Villa Casa Casuarina, on the Miami oceanfront

Klein swooned over his bride-to-be, saying she had enchanting eyes and one of the most beautiful bodies he had ever seen

Klein likened their tumultuous love story to Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton's relationship. Burton bought the actress a 68-carat diamond ring in 1969 for $1,050,000

Jocelyn paraded the giant gem this week in an exclusive photo-shoot with DailyMail.com - but played down its extraordinary extravagance.

'It doesn't matter how much it cost. I have many rings and pieces of jewelry. I love this one because it came from the heart,' she said, posing playfully in a figure-hugging pink Versace mini-dress.

The couple liken their ups and downs to the tumultuous romance between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, who famously bought her a 68-carat diamond ring in 1969 for $1,050,000.

'Richard bought Elizabeth this ring so why shouldn't Jocelyn have the same,' Lloyd laughed.

'She is whimsical, magical, she has something to offer that nobody else in the world does.

'Her eyes are enchanting and she also has one of the most beautiful bodies I've ever seen. And I should know - as a fashion designer I've seen many beautiful bodies.'

Four years after her divorce, Klein saw Wildenstein at a New York fashion show. He said she reminded him of a sculpture

Jocelyn became the world's most recognizable divorcee in 1999, having landed a then-record $2.5 billion settlement from her late ex-husband, the art dealer Alec Wildenstein.

She had been single for about four years when she agreed to step in at the last minute when a friend needed an extra runway model at a New York fashion show.

'I was sitting at the end of the runway and she came walking towards me in a fur coat,' Lloyd recalled 'Of course I knew who the famous Jocelyn Wildenstein was. But when I saw her, wow! She looked like a sculpture.

'In Paris, where I grew up, they would put paper on the tables in the cafes and when I waited for my food I would always sketch a woman's face. 'I realized at that moment that that face looked exactly like Jocelyn. I knew then and there she was the star of my life.'

But while smitten Lloyd continued to pester mother-of-two Jocelyn for dates she took a little longer to warm to his advances.

Wildenstein became one of the most famous divorcees in the world in 1999 after landing a then-record $2.5 billion settlement from her late ex-husband, art dealer Alec Wildenstein

The socialite said it took her a while to warm up to Klein's advances. She told DailyMail.com: 'You never know if you're ready for a relationship'

After a horrific car crash in Paris that nearly killed Klein in February of 2004, the pair became inseparable. He underwent major reconstructive surgery to his face

'When I got divorced I was so happy. I love to be spontaneous, I was enjoying my freedom,' Jocelyn, also a proud grandmother, explained. 'We met maybe four or five times but for me it takes a while to develop something. You never know if you're ready for a relationship.'

Lloyd hoped he had finally won Jocelyn's heart when the pair both happened to be in Miami months later and they met for a plush dinner date at the famous Delano South Beach hotel.

'I was staying in the penthouse. I invited her back to my suite but she refused,' Lloyd lamented.

'But that just made me all the more determined.'

What finally sealed their love was not a romantic gesture or a passionate clinch, but rather a devastating car accident that nearly claimed Lloyd's life in February 2004.

Wildenstein was expecting to celebrate Klein's birthday with him in 2004 but he never showed up. The next day his mother called her to tell her he was in critical condition

Wildenstein said she realized how much her fiance meant to her when he was in a coma hanging between life and death in 2004

Lloyd was driving to a Paris airport to catch a flight to New York when his car crashed in foggy conditions, leaving him critically injured. The designer was headed to the US to stage his seventh show at New York Fashion Week and was due to celebrate his birthday with Jocelyn the next night.

Instead, he spent two days in a coma and had undergone major reconstructive surgery to his face by the next time the lovebirds met.

'I was expecting to see him but he didn't show up. The next morning there was no news,' Jocelyn said. 'I didn't know what to think.'

'Then his mother rang me to tell he was in intensive care. I wanted to see him but his life was literally hanging between life and death.

'I was so worried, I realized how much he meant to me.' Lloyd would overcome his injuries and the pair became a couple, splitting their time between his LA home and Jocelyn's sprawling Manhattan apartment which occupies an entire floor of the Trump World Tower.

In December, the couple got into an altercation at Wildenstein's apartment at Trump World Tower

Wildenstein put her $13 million New York condo for sale following the brawl that nearly ended their relationship

Mercurial Jocelyn insists she always shunned interviews and publicity but her extravagant lifestyle and alleged $5 million worth of plastic surgery meant she was rarely out of the tabloids.

Lloyd continued to design clothes for countless A-list celebs including Joan Collins, Tyra Banks, Eva Longoria, Nicki Minaj and Pink.

In 2013 however his fashion career was forced on to the back foot after he was diagnosed with lymphoma cancer.

Doctors removed a tumor the size of an orange from under Lloyd's armpit and he underwent months of chemotherapy before eventually going into remission.

'He was losing his hair, losing his eyebrows, but the light in his eyes never changed,' said Jocelyn. 'He was still so handsome - and he still looked great naked.'

Of course their relationship would face one further test in December last year when a blazing late night argument resulted in Jocelyn getting arrested for scratching Klein's face and chest.

Lloyd escaped by bundling her into a closet but, wrongly believing she was trapped, she called the police herself, igniting a tabloid storm in the process.

Shocked Lloyd would face the ignominy of arrest himself when, days later, police accused him of pushing Jocelyn when he went back to collect his belongings.

'Bad things happens, just like the car crash': Klein told DailyMail.com the couple has moved on from the headline-grabbing fight

The pair were banned from going within 1,000 yards of one another or communicating by phone, email or text but Jocelyn said they continued to message in secret - like 'naughty schoolchildren' in the back of class.

Authorities dropped all charges after they both insisted the incident was blown out of all proportion and they were still in love.

'The fight was just one night. It could have destroyed our relationship but it didn't,' Jocelyn said.

'We were not supposed to speak directly afterwards but he sent me sweet messages through friends.

'I think the police made too much out of the incident. The police officer put his fingers into my skin so deeply that he left me with a scar.

'But this is just the circle of life. Bad things happens, just like the car crash. You cannot erase them but we never change who we are.'

For Lloyd, the troubling experience reminded him of what he cared most about in the world - his beloved Jocelyn.

Wildenstein said the pair behaved like 'naughty schoolchildren' and continued to speak and send messages to each other when they weren't allowed to after their 'catfight'

Coming from a family of diamond dealers, he set about acquiring the huge 'D flawless,' pear-cut stone from Belgian jewelers, Anvers, which he encrusted in his ornate gold reptile skin design for extra flourish.

And so, some 14 years after setting his heart of one of the world's most recognizable women, he asked Jocelyn to marry him over a dinner to mark the 20th anniversary of Gianni Versace's death on July 15.

The meal was hosted at the late fashion icon's former mansion, the Villa Casa Casuarina on the Miami Beach oceanfront.

'We were sat outside but when the rain came down they moved us into Versace's private dining room. It was the perfect setting,' recalled Lloyd, whose brother is the renowned painter Yves Klein.

'I said: "Jocelyn this was the day Versace died and this is the day we will live."'

Wildenstein has not revealed if she will change her last name. They will start revealing wedding plans after Klein's new collection debuts at New York Fashion Week in February

Celebrities are likely to attend the couple's wedding, but it is not known if Wildenstein's children will show up. Alec Junior and Diane have not been on speaking terms with their mother since she accused her ex husband's family of cutting off her annual maintenance

The couple will unveil more of their wedding plans after Lloyd's new collection debuts at New York Fashion Week in February.

Guests are likely to include many of their celebrity pals, famous faces from the world of fashion and Lloyd's 30-year-old son Mathias, who lives in the Swiss town of Basel. They will also extend an invitation to Jocelyn's son Alec Junior and daughter Diane, and Diane's two boys Noah and Leon.

Jocelyn is not on speaking terms with either of her children after she accused her ex-husband's family of cutting off her multi-million dollar annual maintenance in 2015.

But Lloyd offered an olive branch, saying: 'I hope they come. I love them both. Diane is great. Alec Junior is like his mother, very wild. I hope they will reunite.'

But will Jocelyn ditch her famous second famous name to become Mrs Klein - and in doing so finally escape another of her tabloid monikers, the 'Bride of Wildenstein?'

'Who knows,' she told DailyMail.com with a typically enigmatic smile. 'I don't program my life. Life for me is about going with the flow.

'Never speak of the past and never worry about the future - just enjoy the present because you never know what is around the corner.'
Nicholas Gully, 47, from Brighton, was arrested after a teenage boy claimed he had been raped in the toilets of a gym

A Harley Street therapist who specialises in sex addiction is facing jail after he was convicted of raping a child at a leisure centre.

Nicholas Gully, 47, from Brighton, was arrested after a teenage boy claimed he had been raped in the toilets of a gym.

He told the court he had been waiting for a lift home from his mother when Gully approached him in the public toilets.

The boy tried to escape the therapist by going into a cubicle but the therapist followed him in.

The married father-of-two, who treats patients suffering from sex and love addiction, then sexually assaulted the 14-year-old.

After a five day trial at Hove Crown Court a jury found him guilty of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault.

The therapist was warned he faced a long jail sentence and the case was adjourned for reports.

Gully of Rottingdean, Brighton is one Britain's leading psychotherapists treating patients for sex and love addictions.

With 27 years experience he has worked with patients in Harley Street and the Priory Clinic.

The jury heard he had raped the boy in January this year after following him into the public toilets at the King Alfred Leisure Centre in Hove, East Sussex.

The teenager had been who was waiting for a lift home from his mother, told the court he had spotted Gully pacing around the foyer on his mobile phone.

He said the therapist was repeatedly attempting to make eye contact with him and he overheard him say there was a 'sexy boy' nearby.

The boy claimed that he went into the public toilets to escape the attentions of the older man.

But Gully allegedly followed him into the bathroom and stood beside him at the urinal and touched him inappropriately.

When the boy tried to escape by entering a cubicle Gully followed him in there and shut the door.

Nicholas Gully, 47, denied one count of rape and two counts of assault by touching but was found guilty today

In a 10 minute ordeal he was then allegedly subjected to a terrifying rape.

Giving evidence behind a screen the teenager said: 'I was trying to avoid him and the toilet was the only place I could lock myself away from him.'

He said he went into the bathroom area to use the urinal but Gully came up beside him and touched him.

The boy said he immediately ran to the cubicle and locked himself in and waited for Gully to go.

But when he opened the door to check whether the older man had gone Gully stepped into the cubicle with him.

The boy told the court: 'When he entered he did so quite aggressively. I was intimidated. He said for me to be quiet. He said: 'Shush' like he was angry. He scared me. I thought he had some sort of weapon in his bag.'

The boy said Gully then committed a sex act on him before he was made to carry out the same act on him.

Hove Crown Court heard the child was too scared to cry out and fight back during the assault.

But afterwards he called and texted his friends in tears and told them he wanted to kill himself after the sexual assault.

He told one: 'I feel disgusting. I want to die. This is so f******d up. I did not even struggle because I thought he had a knife.

Hove Crown Court was told the teenage boy had gone to the gym at the King Alfred Centre in Hove (pictured), when he was raped

'Maybe I deserve it. Maybe he thought I wanted it. He's just so disgusting and he should pay.'

His friends urged him to tell his mother and the police and he eventually he confided in his aunt who alerted his family.

In court Gully admitted having sexual contact with the boy but claimed he had consented.

Psychologist Nicholas Gully arrives by prison van to hear the verdict at Lewes Crown Court today

He told the jury he but thought the boy was over the legal age and thought he was an 'easy pick-up'.

Gully, claimed to be unaware of the boy's age until he was arrested, and when told he said 'this is bad.'

Beverley Cherrill, defending, said most people would look at Gully with a sense of disgust but she urged the jury not to judge his morals.

'There is sexual contact,' she said. 'That is accepted. But he isn't charged with being amoral. He is not charged with grooming a child. He is accused of rape  of having sex without consent.'

Miss Cherrill said, asked the jury why Gully would risk everything for a casual hook up with he could just as easily have used an app such as Grindr.

She said: 'This was an easy pick up. It was a nice way to spend 10 minutes before he had a shower.'

Gully told jurors the boy engaged in sexual contact and wanted to perform a sex act on him, to which Gully 'pushed him away' after 'ten or 15 seconds.'

He said he thought the teenager was interested, as they had 'made eye contact a few times' in the communal area of the King Alfred Leisure Centre in Hove.

Gully, of Rottingdean, Brighton, a leading psychotherapist who also heads the Brunswick Clinic, was later arrested and questioned by police over the rape.

He will be sentenced on September 6.
A suspected burglar who broke into a woman's home and passed out on her bed after drinking 'expensive' champagne has been charged.

The 36-year-old man was discovered by the home owner who found him fast asleep on her bed.

The man was believed to have consumed a bottle of Louis Perdrier champagne from 11:30am and 1:00pm which cost about $83 per bottle before passing out, Esperance Express reports.

The man was believed to have consumed the champagne pictured above before passing out

The man had also damaged the woman's front door at her Esperance home, located 700km south-east of Perth, on Friday during an alleged break-in, the ABC reports.

Esperance police officer-in-charge Richard Moore told the ABC the woman found the allegedly drunk man fast asleep on her bed.

She left in a hurry to alert the police.

The burglary was even mentioned on Esperance police Facebook page last week.

'He has consumed some champagne, I'm not sure how expensive it was, but in the photo, it looks expensive,' Senior Sergeant Moore told the ABC.

'It must have been quite potent because he has fallen asleep in the resident's bed, which is not a good thing, and the owner has returned home and located this male person in her bed.'

'She actually used her initiative which is really good, she crept out of the house and managed to phone police who attended and arrested the offender,' Senior Sergeant Moore said.

The suspect, 36, had damaged the woman's front door while trying to break into her home

Esperance police Facebook page has mentioned about the burglary which occurred recently

Police said the man's blood alcohol reading was eight times above the legal driving limit at the time.

He had to be taken to the Esperance hospital as a precaution after the police discovered high levels of alcohol in his body.

The man has been charged with burglary and stealing and will appear in Esperance Magistrate Court on August 8.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Esperance police for comments.
A computer repairman was filmed being terrorised and killed by a fake policeman during a bondage sex session as they listened to Classic FM, a court heard.

Peter Fasoli, 58, was allegedly tied up, gagged and smothered with cling film by 'fantasist' Jason Marshall who tricked his way into his home in January 2013.

Afterwards, Marshall, 28, set fire to the victim's one-bedroom bungalow in Northolt, west London, to cover up for the killing, jurors heard.

For nearly two years, Mr Fasoli's death was put down to an accident until his nephew discovered footage - which is several hours long - on his computer hard drive.

Peter Fasoli (pictured), 58, was murdered by 'fantasist' Jason Marshall at home in January 2013, the Old Bailey heard

Prosecutor Edward Brown QC told jurors at the Old Bailey the attack was 'as shocking as it was determined'.

He warned the video evidence showed the actual killing itself and said: 'The issues in this case are such that you will need to watch what on any account is very disturbing evidence.'

The final hours of Mr Fasoli's life were recorded as Classic FM was heard playing in the background.

The harrowing footage was recovered by Mr Fasoli's nephew Christopher Murgatroyd who examined his uncle's fire-damaged computer out of curiosity in November 2014.

Expecting to find his uncle's research on his family tree, Mr Murgatroyd was horrified to find himself watching his violent death, jurors heard.

The defendant first got in contact with Mr Fasoli through gay social networking site Badoo in December 2012 and offered to set up a threesome, the Old Bailey heard.

Marshall invented the persona of a 'law enforcement operative' to 'dominate' his victim for his own 'murderous purposes', the court heard.

Kitted out with a police utility belt, handcuffs and a pistol holster, he told the computer repair expert he was under arrest 'for being a spy under the Espionage Act of 1946'.

During sexual role play, Marshall stripped the victim in his sitting room and insisted he had hacked into a government computer to help a terrorist, it is said.

The murder suspect then used handcuffs to clamp Mr Fasoli's hands behind his back. He is said to have pulled on a pair of latex gloves as he gagged the alleged victim and tied his ankles together with some rope before telling him to lie on his bed for an 'interrogation'.

By 8.20pm, Mr Fasoli appeared to be in distress as he tried to remove his gag and asked Marshall: 'How would I know if you're not playing a game?'

When he asked if he could get dressed, Marshall stubbed out a lit cigarette on his chest, the Old Bailey heard.

The court heard Marshall threatened to give Mr Fasoli a 'little jolt' with his Taser, pressed a large hunting knife against his throat and injected him with what he claimed was a sedative called 'Haliperidol' several times as the supposed role play grew increasingly violent.

Marshall, 28, later set fire to the bungalow in Northolt, west London, to cover up the murder, the jury was told. For nearly two years Mr Fasoli's death was thought to have been an accident

He demanded to know Mr Fasoli's PIN before leaving the flat to go to a cash machine for nearly 20 minutes at around 9pm as his bound and gagged victim lay helplessly on his bed, it is claimed.

When he returned, the victim screamed that he could not breathe and began to 'squeal' as Marshall clamped his hand over his nose and put his arm around his neck, the court heard.

The pair struggled together on the bed and Mr Fasoli shouted out 'No, no, please!' when Marshall produced a roll of cling film and wrapped it around his face.

Marshall, who was shown in the video wearing latex gloves, then held a plastic bag over his head for one minute and 42 seconds, jurors were told.

Afterwards, the defendant spoke into his radio saying: 'Oscar one, from papa four, ready for transport over,' jurors heard.

Later, the victim could be heard gurgling, still alive, as Marshall checked for a pulse, and speaking into his radio allegedly said: 'Urgent ambulance required at my GPS location...yeah that's lack of oxygen and can I get them with a crash trolley please.'

Mr Brown said: 'Obviously there was no real radio connected to anyone, let alone an ambulance.

'There is an ominous determination and seriousness in the way the defendant is carrying out the task, as he sees it. There is no emotion, no panic, no regret.'

Mr Fasoli could be heard struggling for breath before Marshall unrolled more cling film and kicked him 'as if testing for a reaction'.

As his victim lay dying on the floor, Marshall allegedly stood and 'calmly' lit a cigarette then made the sign of the cross and recited a blessing for the departed in Latin - Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti - and the word resurrection.

Mr Brown told jurors: 'There is a telling feature of this case - whilst the defendant sought to tempt the deceased into thinking their encounter that night was to be sexual in nature, the sexual element of the night's events played only a short part early on and soon was superseded by physical domination and then violence.'

He added: 'What eventually transpires is a man who for his own terrible purposes takes advantage of the stage he has created and who then kills Peter Fasoli, deliberately.

'The role playing progressed to tying up, then to abuse, then to deliberate smothering and then to death.'

At the time of Mr Fasoli's death, an investigation concluded it was an accident and the fire was sparked by a faulty light which may have fallen onto his bed.

But Mr Brown said: 'The fire was intended to hide a terrible crime.

'Peter Fasoli was killed intentionally. He had been subjected to a calculated and determined attack by this defendant whom he invited into his home.

'In the end he literally fought for his life but by the time Mr Fasoli fully understood the true motives of the person who had tricked his way into his home, it was too late.

'Desperate as his attempts were, he could do nothing - as you will all too graphically come to understand.

'The fire was set by this defendant in an attempt to disguise what truly happened - and the defendant Jason Marshall very nearly succeeded in escaping justice.'

The full gruesome CCTV recording lasted for six hours, the court heard.

When the visual flickered off, the audio continued as the defendant tidied up, jurors heard.

At 12.41, the sound of a cigarette lighter being flicked could be heard before footsteps leaving the flat.

The crackle of flames taking hold and fire alarm were also caught just before the recording ended.

After he fled the scene, Marshall sent a 'calculated and cynical' message to Mr Fasoli on the Badoo chat line apologising for not seeing him the night before.

A post-mortem examination initially gave the cause of Mr Fasoli's death as inhalation of fire fumes.

A re-examination found he was still alive when the fire was set but restraint and asphyxia also contributed to his death, Mr Brown said.

Marshall, of East Ham, in east London, denies murder. The trial continues.
An impatient driver takes an unexpected bath when the boat they're traveling on is found not to be docked in what is said to be a port in Crimea.

Video shows a large ship slowly making its way to land, preparing to dock as passengers wait patiently beside their cars.

Out of nowhere a moving vehicle starts making its way to the boat's exit - and falls into the watery space remaining between land and vessel.

A crewman notices the car and tries to stop it, but it's too late, and the car shockingly dives into the water.

The unverified video, said to be supplied by Maritime Directorate, is thought to have occurred on the Protoporos IV ferry vessel, which was approaching the pier in the port of Crimea, according to local Russian reports.

The same reports from the publication Kerch, believe that there was just one person in the vehicle and that they were unharmed. The car is also said to have been salvaged from the water after emergency divers and rescuers were sent to the scene.

What is said to be the Protoporos IV ferry vessel, pictured, approaches the pier in the port of Crimea. The large ship slowly makes its way to land, preparing to dock as passengers wait patiently beside their cars

Out of nowhere a moving vehicle starts making its way to the boat's exit, pictured, not realising that the boat, Protoporos IV, has yet to dock at the pier in the port of Crimea

A crewman notices the car and tries to stop it, pictured, but it's too late, and the car shockingly dives into the water before the ship can dock at at the pier in the port of Crimea

It is believed that there was just one person in the vehicle and that they were unharmed. The car, which fell into the water, pictured, is also said to have been salvaged by divers and rescuers

Crimea is a major peninsula that was annexed by Russia in 2014, in a move that was widely condemned by the international community.

Ukraine continues to demand claim over the territory, as war continues in the East between pro-Ukrainian fighters and pro-Russian separatists.
A mother who saw an Ikea table 'explode' in her living room described how she burst into tears after the glass spontaneously shattered near her one-year-old son.

The 25-year-old mother said nobody was touching the tempered glass SALMI table when she heard a bang and it shattered all over her living room.

'All I heard was a massive bang. It sounded like a gun shot it was so loud.

An Ikea table spontaneously shattered while a one-year-old boy was playing nearby in the Cardiff family home

'The glass table had just exploded. It just shattered everywhere, all over my living room floor.'

The mother from Llanrumney, Cardiff, began to sob when she realised how seriously her son and could have been injured.

The tempered glass is designed to minimise risk, but spread across the living room's floor

'He was playing on a push-along car.

'It could have been so much worse if he was under the table.

'My dog too. I would have been devastated if it had hurt either of them.'

She bought the table eight months ago, says she cleaned it regularly and hadnt spotted any chips or scratches in the glass.

A spokesman for Ikea said it uses special tempered glass designed to minimise risk of injury should it shatter.

'The safety of our products is always our main priority and our entire range is tested rigorously to meet the highest standards.

'The SALMI table is made of tempered glass. We understand the experience of

the glass breaking can be distressing, however tempered glass is designed

to shatter to minimise risk of injury.

A stock photo showing how the Ikea SALMI table would have looked before it 'exploded'

The mother from Llanrumney 'burst into tears' when she realised how seriously her son could have been injured when the Ikea SALMI table exploded

'Over time small knocks and fractures can affect the durability of tempered glass and this can cause breakage, even if such damage isnt visible.

'We have already started an investigation into this incident and are in the process of contacting the customer affected.'
The White House's updated tax proposal is not likely to include a tax hike on the rich, a senior official said Monday.

The president's chief strategist, Steve Bannon, had been lobbying for a rate increase on the country's top earners to offset cuts for low- and middle-income Americans.

In his latest pitch, Bannon suggested that anyone making more than $5 million a year be taxed at 44 percent instead of the present rate of 39.6 percent.

Marc Short, legislative affairs director to Trump, told DailyMail.com on Monday that a rate hike would not be part of the principles that the White House submits to Congress, however.

'We believe that raising taxes is not a formula for growth, so I don't think that you will see us looking to raise rates on any particular individual or level,' Short said during a gaggle with reporters.

The White House is hell-bent on passing the tax reform package that President Donald Trump promised before the end of the year. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin (center) and Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short (right) talked about the tax push today at the Newseum

The president's chief strategist, Steve Bannon, had been lobbying for a rate increase on the country's top earners to offset cuts for low- and middle-income Americans. It won't be part of the White House's tax push, though

The White House is hell-bent on passing the tax reform package that President Donald Trump promised before the end of the year.

It's pushing an aggressive schedule that will see legislation go through mark up in both the House and the Senate in early September, then go to the floor in the lower chamber in October.

The upper chamber will take up their bill in November, according to Short's schedule.

'We will have success. This is a pass-fail exercise, and we will pass tax reform,' Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said Monday at an Americans for Prosperity event.

Short seconded Mnuchin and said: 'Not only is it something that we would like to do, it's something that we have to do this year.'

Trump is turning his attention to tax reform following the collapse of major legislation to repeal Obamacare. The president is to speak on the need for reform at a small business event on Tuesday.

The White House is hell-bent on passing the tax reform package that President Donald Trump promised before the end of the year. 'This is a pass-fail exercise, and we will pass tax reform,' Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin (left) said Monday

The new legislative push comes as Trump as revamped his White House staff, installing a telegenic new communications director in Wall Street savvy Anthony Scaramucci, who nevertheless has drawn headlines for his attacks on White House rivals.

Overseeing the new White House operation will be Gen. John Kelly, who spent four decades in the Marines but whose inclination for the complexities of tax policy tradeoffs is unknown.

Trump plans to call for a historic overhaul, Axios reported Monday.

The president, who was criticized for failing to do enough to try to build public support for the GOP's Obamacare repeal legislation, could take to the road with speeches in the industrial heartland in August, according to the report.

His first stop is in Huntington, West Virginia, on Thursday.

The president's legislative affairs director, Marc Short, (left) seconded Mnuchin and said: 'It's not only something that we would like to do, it's something that we have to do this year'

A statement of principles that congressional Republicans and the White House released last week called for cutting individual corporate tax rates 'as much as possible.'

The principles also call for quicker depreciation of business assets.

House Speaker Paul Ryan and Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady agreed to drop a border-adjusted tax in the agreement that they'd been pursing but other Republicans, including the activists at AFP, were opposing.

Short said the White House has been working 'very diligently' to make sure it's on the same page as legislators.

But the statement released was vague in many respects. It made no specific mentions of deductions to be eliminated, for example. A plan for a border adjustment tax got jettisoned, and didn't appear in the joint statement.

President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, U.S., July 31, 2017

Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin (R) and National Economic Director Gary Cohn speak about President Donald Trump's new tax reform plan during a briefing at the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on April 26, 2017 in Washington, DC

File photo shows U.S. President Donald Trump. The Trump administration on April 26, 2017 called for cutting the corporate tax rate to 15 percent from 35 percent in a new tax plan it said will help spur the U.S. economy to an annual growth rate of 3 percent or higher

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly sits during his first meeting of U.S. President Donald Trump's cabinet at the White House in Washington, U.S., July 31, 2017

In this June 7, 2017, photo, National Economic Council chairman Gary Cohn, left, shakes hands with real estate developer Steve Roth, right, as they arrive at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., to board Marine One for a short trip back to the White House after Trump spoke about healthcare and infrastructure in Cincinnati

According to the principles, congressional committees will seek to 'make taxes simpler, fairer, and lower.'

'We have always been in agreement that tax relief for American families should be at the heart of our plan. We also believe there should be a lower tax rate for small businesses so they can compete with larger ones, and lower rates for all American businesses so they can compete with foreign ones. The goal is a plan that reduces tax rates as much as possible, allows unprecedented capital expensing, places a priority on permanence, and creates a system that encourages American companies to bring back jobs and profits trapped overseas.'

Lawmakers for years have searched for a way to simplify the tax code, slash corporate income tax rates, find a way to repatriate income being held overseas, and raise revenue by getting rid of deductions.

Trump told the Wall Street Journal last week that middle-income people have gotten 'screwed,' and that a goal was to put the tax burden on upper-income people.

IT CAN'T GO WORSE: Senator John McCain leaves the the Senate chamber at the U.S. Capitol after voting against his own party

"The truth is, the people I care most about are the middle-income people in this country who have gotten screwed," the president said. "And if there's upward revision, it's going to be on high-income people,' he continued.

But a nonpartisan analysis by the Tax Policy Center reveals that the group getting hit the hardest by a plan as described by the president would be upper middle-class households earning between $150,000 and $300,000.

The study found that about 20 percent of households could see an increase, the Wall Street Journal reported. About a third of the 19 million households in that income range would see taxes rise by $3,000 to $4,000 a year.

In a departure from the leadership driven, secretive process that brought about healthcare legislation that imploded last week, the joint statement calls for 'regular order' on tax reform.

'Our expectation is for this legislation to move through the committees this fall, under regular order, followed by consideration on the House and Senate floors,' it says.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said last week that ending taxation of overseas corporate profits and moving to a 'territorial' system was a 'very, very, very high priority,' the Washington Examiner reported.
A police helicopter rescued about 35 hikers stranded by flooding in a national forest in Arizona  the latest incident in which groups were trapped by flood waters during the state's rainy season.

The rescue Sunday in a canyon on the outskirts of Tucson took place a week after 17 people were saved after flash flooding through a different canyon several miles away, and 15 days after ten members of an extended family died in flash flooding along a river.

Those rescued Sunday evening weren't in immediate danger, the Pima County Sheriff's Department said.

At least 35 hikers were stranded by flash flooding in the Sabino Canyon Recreation Park in the outskirts of Tucson, Arizona on Sunday. They were rescued by police helicopters

An Arizona Department of Public Safety helicopter was used to ferry out the people who were stranded at a flooded, bridged crossing leading to two popular trails in the Sabino Canyon area.

The National Weather Service had issued a flash flood warning for the canyon and other parts of the Santa Catalina Mountains due to thunderstorms that dropped heavy rain, including two inches at a ranger station on Mount Lemmon.

It wasn't known whether the hikers were already in the canyon when the warning was issued.

The situation was reported to the Sheriff's Department about 7pm and the rescue was concluded nearly four hours later, Deputy Cody Gress said.

The Sabino Canyon Recreation Park has frequently flooded during this rainy season. A flash flood warning was issued on the day when the 35 hikers were rescued

Personnel from the Sheriff's Department and Southern Arizona Rescue Association assisted as the police helicopter flew several hikers at a time between a landing spot on a canyon road and the parking lot at a visitor center, Gress said.

Nobody was hurt or required medical condition. Authorities decided to use the helicopter partly because one impatient hiker decided to swim across the flood water, Gress said.

That person 'just barely made it across. Our concern is we had anxious hikers willing to do that,' he said.
Peter Dutton has warned the terror threat against Australia will increase and the number of attacks will continue to grow.

The newly appointed Home Affairs Minister said it was impossible to ignore the threat after four men who allegedly planned to blow up a plane were arrested in Sydney on Saturday during terror raids across the city.

'People who don't believe we need to do all we can do to make sure that we are absolutely as effective as humanly possible, they need to look at the facts,' he told The Daily Telegraph.

Australian Federal Police and NSW Police officers are seen leading a terror suspect during counter-terrorism raids in Surry Hills, Sydney, Saturday

'The facts demonstrate that we have foreign fighters returning to Australian shores, we've got people being radicalised online.

'This threat is not going to go away, it's going to increase.'

Mr Dutton said the new Home Affairs portfolio, announced by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in July, would bring Australia a step closer to combating terror.

The portfolio will be made up of ASIO, the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre and the Office of Transport Security.

'The facts demonstrate that we have foreign fighters returning to Australian shores, we've got people being radicalised online,' Mr Dutton said

Terror raid aftermath at Cleveland Street, Surry Hills - four men were arrested after the NSW Joint Counter Terrorism team conducted raids throughout Sydney

Police attend an apartment complex in Sproule Street, Lakemba as part of terror raids conducted across Sydney on Saturday

Mr Dutton said the portfolio would allow security agencies to share information more freely.

He thanked the Australian Federal Police for successfully preventing the alleged terror attack.

Four Lebanese Australians were arrested on Saturday night during major terror raids at five houses across the city.

Federal and State Police officers are seen at a crime scene in Surry Hills, Sydney, Australia on Sunday, 30 July

New South Wales Police officers arrive at a crime scene in Surry Hills, Sydney, Australia on Monday

The police allege the men were behind a sophisticated attempt to kill people aboard a commercial airline flying from Sydney to the Middle East - possibly Dubai.

The four men reportedly worked to make a homemade bomb disguised as a commercial kitchen mincer.

The men remain in police custody but are yet to be charged.
Senior figures in the Liberal Party have warned they will move to replace Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull if he allows renegade moderate MPs to cross the floor.

The party's right faction says if Mr Turnbull cannot stop the group - who have called for a conscience vote on gay marriage - it means he has lost control.

If a spill motion succeeds in ousting Mr Turnbull, Peter Dutton is likely to replace him with Greg Hunt taking current deputy Julie Bishop's place.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (pictured at Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade) faces a leadership spill if he does not stop moderate MPs from crossing the floor

Senior Liberals say Mr Turnbull must maintain party policy on gay marriage (pictured, rally to avoid same-sex marriage plebiscite) or face a challenge to his leadership

Party conservatives fear breaking the election promise of a plebiscite on gay marriage would lose the party's base, The Daily Telegraph reported.

A senior party figure warned that allowing the group of moderates to cross the floor on same-sex marriage would be the end of Mr Turnbull.

'It's terminal. If Turnbull can't control the moderates, what's the point of his prime ministership?' a senior Liberal asked.

Right faction leaders support Mr Turnbull at present and insist they do not want a leadership change.

Senior Liberals say Mr Turnbull's (pictured) leadership is 'terminal' if he allows the group of moderates to cross the floor on same-sex marriage

Senior conservatives fear that a breaking of the election promise of a plebiscite on gay marriage (pictured, supporters of gay marriage) would lose the liberal party base

But they said betraying their voters on the same-sex marriage 'would put Malcolms leadership under threat.'

'Effectively it says to our base, "We just dont care about you." There are people sticking with the Liberal Party and the National Party, despite the difficulties we've had, because of our stance on issues like marriage,' said a second senior Liberal.

Mr Turnbull promised a plebiscite going into the 2016 election but moderate MPs are planning to cross the floor with a conscience vote if required.

The group of moderates - which includes Warren Entsch, Dean Smith, Tim Wilson, and Trevor Evans - is working to force a vote on same-sex marriage in parliament.

The move comes just weeks after Christopher Pyne was caught on tape saying the government was planning a sooner-then-expected move on gay marriage.

That prompted former PM Tony Abbott to lash out at the senior frontbencher, calling him disloyal.

Christopher Pyne (pictured) is supporting the group of moderates who are planning a conscience vote on the issue

Right faction leaders say Immigration Minister Peter Dutton (pictured) is likely to replace Mr Turnbull if he is ousted
A 24-year-old woman who was swept away while skinny-dipping with her boyfriend off Jersey Shore has been found dead.

Zuzana Oravcova of Slovakia, a student working at the Sweet Shoppe at Jenkinson's boardwalk as part of a visa program, was swept away from her boyfriend Thomas Kadlec, 23, after they took an early morning swim at Point Pleasant Beach on Sunday.

Authorities say a body was recovered in the ocean off Point Pleasant in New Jersey, late Sunday evening. It has since been positively identified as Oracova.

'It's a real tragedy,' Point Pleasant Beach Mayor Stephen D. Reid said.

Zuzana Oravcova (pictured) of Slovakia, was swept away from her boyfriend Thomas Kadlec, 23, after they took an early morning swim at Point Pleasant Beach on Sunday

Oravcova, 24, has since washed up dead after going 'skinny dipping' off the Jersey Shore

A second swimmer who also went missing on Sunday, Jovani White, 19, was recovered from the water around 6:40am on Monday. He had disappeared while swimming off Smith Point Beach in Long Island with his girlfriend on Sunday.

Oravcova and her boyfriend Kadlec, had entered the strong waters at Point Pleasant without any clothes on around 2.30am on Sunday morning, according to the local New Jersey reports.

After struggling in the high surf, Kadlec swam to shore alone and immediately told authorities that Oravcova was still out in the ocean, prompting the search.

Oravcova (pictured) was a student working at the Sweet Shoppe at Jenkinson's boardwalk as part of a visa program

Oravcova and her boyfriend Kadlec, had entered the strong waters without any clothes on around 2.30am on Sunday morning

She was working at the Sweet Shoppe at Jenkinson's Pavilion before her tragic death

Upon his return to shore, Kadlec immediately notified a Point Pleasant Beach boardwalk employee that his girlfriend was still in the water.

Witnesses said they saw Kadlec emerge from the water naked and there were several pieces of clothing left in a pile on the beach, according to ABC 7.

A witness told the station: 'We called some help, we called the police and said there's still a girl in the water.

'It's really sad for this community. I think she was a local person.'

Witnesses said they saw Kadlec emerge from the water naked and there were several pieces of clothing left in a pile on the beach

Local New Jersey police, the US Coast Guard and dive teams searched all day on Sunday for the missing student from Slovakia

Police, the US Coast Guard, dive teams and helicopters were thrown into action, searching the rough waters for Oravcova.

Eventually, they were forced to suspend the search on Sunday night.

'We extend our deepest condolences to the family and loved ones during this extremely difficult time,' Capt. Scott Anderson, commander of Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay told App. 'Suspending a search is always a difficult decision and it's something we don't take lightly.'

Her body was spotted later that evening by pedestrians walking along the beach around 11:50 p.m.

The National Weather Service issued a warning about strong rip currents along the Jersey Shore on Sunday morning.

The warning remained in effect throughout the day.
Paul Dixon, 24, pictured, of County Durham, admitted hacking into police websites in October 2014 then bragging about it

A computer hacker who disrupted access to the British Airways website for more than an hour costing the airline an estimated 100,000 was caught after he boasted about his crimes saying 'where is your security now', a court heard.

Paul Dixon, 24, of The Avenue, Seaham, County Durham, also admitted hacking into police websites in October 2014 then bragging about it.

The unemployed defendant, described by his barrister as socially isolated at the time of the offences, smirked as he walked out of Newcastle Crown Court having been handed a suspended two-year jail sentence and ordered to pay 200 costs.

He admitted five counts of unauthorised modification of computer material at a previous hearing.

Dixon used a PayPal account, under a fake name, to buy a tool called 'stress time' online which he applied to websites so they became unusable.

Newcastle Crown Court, sitting at Moot Hall, heard how the 24-year-old targeted the websites of British Airways, CEX and Police Scotland in October 2014.

Dixon, who was 21 at the time, also targeted the Durham Constabulary website ontwo separate occasions.

Sarah Wood, prosecuting, told the court: 'He could not resist boasting about his achievements online by his Twitter account.'

She told the court how Dixon also used Twitter to ask other social media users which websites he should target next posting 'give me targets'.

Dixon, who also discussed his offending on Skype, first targeted the Police Scotland website on October 16.

The unemployed defendant was handed a suspended two-year jail sentence and ordered to pay 200 costs

Ms Wood said: 'The website did not crash completely but the number of visitors dropped during the period of the outage'

He then hacked the Durham Constabulary website on October 17 and October 19.

On the first occasion the cyber attack was stopped by security but on the second occasion he was able to hack the website leaving it unusable.

Miss Wood told the court how Dixon boasted 'where is your security now' on Twitter.

On the 21 October, Dixon hacked the CEX website leaving it unusable for quarter of an hour and costing the second hand goods chain between 450 and 500.

Miss Wood said: 'The attack had an impact on company profits and an effect on its customers.'

Dixon's final cyber attack on the British Airways website lasted for 68 minutes and could have resulted in the company losing up to 100,000.

Ms Wood said: 'Customers were not able to access it to make bookings or check in.'

She told the court how he tweeted 'Nazi British Airways.com oops' following the attack.

The court heard how officers started to investigate following the cyber attacks on Durham Constabulary and found the Twitter account run by Dixon.

When Dixon was arrested he told police his computer had been hacked and somebody else was responsible for the attacks.

When he was told there was no evidence of third party involvement, Dixon admitted the offences and told police they should be employing him rather than prosecuting him.

After initially denying the offences, Dixon pleaded guilty to five counts of unauthorised modification of computer material on the day of his trial in April.

Sam Faulks, defending, told Judge John Aitken that for a 'computer nerd' like Dixon, going to prison would be a pretty 'ghastly' experience.

Mr Faulks told the court how Dixon had been a very active participant in the cyber world and he was swept up in the online community.

He said: 'He was not living in the real world as we understand it. He was living in his cyber world.

'He was 21 at the time of this offending but he was behaving very much like a stroppy teenager.

'He was keen, borderline on being obsessed, in getting fame for his actions.

'He was not carrying out the attacks for financial benefit. This defendant is certainly not a criminal mastermind.'

Judge Aitken told Dixon how he carried out the cyber attack to boost his own ego.

He said: 'What you were doing was bragging to your friends. It's as desperate as that.

'You're a 21-year-old bragging to people who are still at school about what you could do.'

Judge Aitken told Dixon that he was able to suspend his prison sentence as he had not been in trouble since the offences three years ago.

Dixon was sentenced to two years in prison suspended for two years.

He was also ordered to abide by an electrically monitored curfew, pay 200 costs and 100 victim charge.
Student Holly Ellis (pictured) ended up getting her nose broken in several places while out in Newcastle city centre

A student who had just spent 5,000 on a new nose had it broken in a vicious attack while sat on a nightclub toilet.

Holly Ellis, 23, said an old school friend was aware of her operation and 'kicked the s*** out of her face' while wearing high heels.

Ms Ellis was 'completely devastated' after the brutal attack in Newcastle city centre which left her black and blue and with a swollen nose.

She had just had the closed rhinoplasty operation surgery in London after waiting years to get a bump in her nose fixed one month before the attack on Friday night.

Ms Ellis, from Grantham, Lincolnshire, was self-conscious about her nose during her time at school and was delighted to get it rectified.

But she believes the suspect, who she had not seen for around 12 years, knew about the surgery and chose to attack her.

She told the Mirror Online: 'I'm still in shock and completely devastated with the state of my nose after waiting for years to have surgery to take the lump away.'

The special effects and media make-up student was out with her cousin and a friend at the Illegitimate nightclub in the busy city centre when the attack took place.

She said she ran into one of her old classmates and they were 'catching up' in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Ms Ellis said: 'She mentioned she is a mother. I said that's nice and she didn't like the fact I'd said that's nice.

'She was being on and off. She mentioned that me and a friend had been a bit of a b**** to her in school.

'I said to her to stop being silly, that girls can be b****** and that it was 12 years ago.'

Ms Ellis, (pictured) from Grantham, Lincolnshire, was self-conscious about her nose and paid 5,000 for surgery

The 23-year-old student (pictured) was rushed to hospital and is now worried she needs more nose surgery

She then went into the toilet and sat on one of the cubicles, leaving the door open so she could talk to her friends.

Holly, whose nose job news had been all over social media, said she went into the ladies room with the girls and sat in one of the cubicles on the toilet.

However, she said she left the cubicle door open so they could continue their conversation.

She added: 'Then she just came in and started kicking me in the face with her heels on.

'I was sat on the toilet and tried to protect my face. Because I just had my nose done I was protecting it. I went to the floor.

Ms Ellis was 'covered in blood' and later found out her nose had been broken in several places

'She knew I had always hated my nose. So she knew I hated my nose and she probably realised my look had gone.'

The student was 'covered in blood' and taken to hospital where she found out her nose was broken in several places and fears she might have to get the job redone.

A Northumbria Police spokeswoman said: 'Police are investigating an assault at Illegitimate Club, Bigg Market in Newcastle city centre at approximately 2.40am in the early hours of Saturday, July 29.

'A 23-year-old woman was assaulted and received facial injuries.

'Police are appealing for witnesses, anyone with information is asked to contact Northumbria Police on 101 quoting reference 201 of 29/07/17.'
Beachgoers were photographed climbing on hundreds of tons of rocks just hours after a 50ft cliff collapsed and forced a young family to 'run for their lives'.

A woman and her husband were seen strolling along Towan beach near Newquay in Cornwall on Sunday when huge rocks fell onto the beach.

Eyewitnesses said people walking on the beach were lucky not to get caught but on the same day a group of people were spotted clambering over the rocks.

Holidaymakers Kirsty Duffy and Katie Blake, from Scotland, described the terrifying ordeal and noticed a young family with two children on the edge of the cliff.

A group of friends were photographed climbing on the rock fall just hours after it fell from the cliff

Hundreds of tons of rocks had fallen 50ft and ended up on the beach near Newquay in Cornwall

Ms Duffy said: 'We were walking along the beach when we heard a noise and at first we thought it was a train or something.

'All of a sudden there was a big rock fall and I looked up to see a young family with two children on the edge of the cliff trying to get away.

'The rocks came down quite quickly and it was really scary. The young family up there when the rubble began to fall just got away with the help of a lifeguard.

'We went down again last night and there were kids playing on the rocks and looking into the tunnel bit.

'It was such a lucky escape for them and you just don't expect this sort of thing to happen.'

Another stunned witness said: 'A woman and her husband had to run for their lives. They were walking past and there was a huge rumble and it all came tumbling down.'

The incident occurred below the Victoria Hotel and next to an old tram track pathway.

Another witness who visited the scene on Monday said that further large cracks were appearing around the cliff face.

He said the situation was dangerous believing further landslides were likely and added that he could not believe a cordon or similar safety measure hadn't been put in place.

Another witness added: 'There was a family just about ten yards away when it happened They just turned and legged it.

'A few seconds earlier and they would have been right where the rocks came down. It was a really big fall.

The woman said there was no cordon around the cliff fall and said it could 'still be very dangerous'.

She added: 'It could still be very dangerous there - very dangerous. The cliffs could be unstable and more rocks could fall - more could come down.

'This was a big fall - it was very. very loud, we thought it was thunder.

'I asked families that were there, 'can you please stay away from the cliffs' because of the rock fall.

'And a couple of families said, 'thank you very much'. That's all you can do.'

A Coastguard spokesman said: 'When standing at the bottom of a cliff, we would always advise people that they shouldn't stand less than the height of the cliff away.

Hundreds of tons of rock (pictured) fell from the cliff at Towan beach near Newquay in Cornwall

Just hours after the fall, five people were photographed climbing on the rocks which had ended up on the beach (pictured)

'That means that if the cliff is 25 metres high, don't go closer than 25 metres towards it.

'The cliffs along the UK coastline are continually eroding, with pieces falling from them that can be just a few small rocks or as large as a car.

'We've seen a number of cliff collapses around the coast in recent months. It's very clear that cliffs are very unstable in places.

'We really can't stress enough how important it is to keep back from the edge. There is no 'safe' place to be.

'Some of the cracks that have appeared have been several feet away from the edge.

'Don't be tempted to go and investigate and don't risk going to the edge to get a dramatic picture  no selfie or photograph is worth risking your life for.

'Use the designated paths, take notice of any warning signs, be responsible and don't take an unnecessary risks.

'If you see a crack in a cliff, don't be tempted to take a closer look to investigate or take pictures.

'It might be the last picture you ever take, as the cliff could well collapse.'
ISIS is establishing a new stronghold in Libya as government forces in Iraq and Syria chase the terrorists out of its boltholes in the war-ravaged nations.

Terror experts claim the group is taking advantage of the chaotic security and political situation to use Libya as a launchpad for its resurgence.

Having been chased out of the capital Sirte last year, ISIS is now believed to be recruiting jihadis from rural southern regions and the western town of of Sabratha, just 60 miles from the Tunisian border.

ISIS is establishing a new stronghold in Libya as government forces in Iraq and Syria chase the terrorists out of its boltholes in the war-ravaged nations

ISIS fighters have recently been seen moving through the country, according to Mohamed Ghasri, a spokesperson and senior commander of the Mistrata-based al-Bunyam al-Marsous militia.

He said the terror group is 'trying to regroup and break through our lines in the south'.

'ISIS in Libya can regenerate quickly,' security analyst Robert Young Pelton told Fox News.

This was echoed by Joseph Fallon of the UK Defence Forum who said the group's global threat cannot be underestimated.

'ISIS has retreated south of Sirte to regroup,' he told Fox News. 'Here, it can jeopardize western interests through guerrilla warfare sabotaging Libya's oil facilities and ports and through calculated use of terror to unleash a mass migration of people to destabilize neighboring countries and Europe.'

Libya has some of Africa's biggest oil reserves - many of which are located just south of Sirte - and produces more than 800,000 barrels every day.

Terror experts claim the group is taking advantage of the chaotic security and political situation to use Libya as a launchpad for its resurgence

More fighters are expected to flood While more fighters are now expected to flow into Libya as the pressure on Iraq and Syria mounts, exactly how big the ISIS ranks in Libya are at present, remains largely contested.

Backed by a US-led coalition, Iraqi forces recaptured the city of Mosul from ISIS in July.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces fighters are now trying to capture the northern city of Raqqa, ISIS's de-facto capital in Syria.
Pauline Hanson has slammed the ABC for what she says is a lack of regional content.

The One Nation leader says the national broadcaster is spending too much time and money on trying to compete with existing free-to-air commercial networks.

A spokesman for Ms Hanson told The Courier-Mail the ABC were 'using taxpayer money to outbid and outclass' the other channels.

Pauline Hanson has slammed the ABC for what she says is a disregard for Australian content

'They are not setting aside the airtime, the resources, the budget or the people to go out and create stories for regional Australia,' he said.

'Instead they're purchasing content from New Zealand and abroad that really has no relevance to regional viewers across the country.'

The ABC's annual report for 2015-16 shows about 1,000 stories each month were contributed to news platforms by regionally based staff - but it also notes the levels of Australian content broadcast had fallen.

'Levels of first-run Australian content declined in 201516,' the report read.

'Similarly, first-run Australian content broadcast in day-time decreased due to the reduced coverage of regional sport, and the removal of Big Ideas from the schedule.'

The ABC's annual report shows that regionally-based journalists contributed about 1,000 stories every month over the 2015-16 year to ABC news platforms

One Nation has long been critical of the ABC - especially in terms of the broadcaster's coverage of the party.

The ABC have held two out of three forums planned for this year in regional Australia.

Members of the ABC Board, Leadership Team and Advisory Council have attended meetings in Alice Springs and the Riverina to speak with community members.

The broadcaster is using the meetings to discover how regional residents view the ABC and its services and to get advice on how the network can improve their offerings.

One Nation are calling for the ABC to control no more than three digital channels, and the SBS no more than one.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted One Nation and the ABC for comment.
Police are hunting a customer who left a McDonald's bathroom seconds before it exploded in Florida.

A $1,000 reward has been offered on the man who was captured on CCTV walking from the restaurant on North Orange Blossom Trail in Orange County on Sunday afternoon.

The blast in the men's bathroom caused significant damage and caused diners to flee from the building.

The man, wearing a grey or white tank top and a pair of black shorts walking outside the McDonald's

The man was pacing outside the restaurant on North Orange Blossom Trail in Orange County on Sunday afternoon before he entered

Orange County Sheriff's Captain Angelo Nieves told the Orlando Sentinel: 'This explosion was dangerous.

'It could have injured someone and this is a location where you have youngsters. You have young children and this could have caused harm to them."

Thankfully, nobody was in the bathroom at the time of the explosion.

Ten minutes before the explosion, the man can be seen pacing outside the restaurant wearing a light tank top, shorts and a black back brace.

Having gone inside, he can then be seen leaving in a rush, and 30 seconds later the bathroom exploded.

Children were in the restaurant at the time, and they all had to be evacuated in order to allow the state fire marshals office and the hazardous device team to investigate.

Owner Bob Allegroe said the explosion was caused by an unknown device and that the restaurant would be closed while investigations are carried out.
At least three girls every month are dumped outside orphanages in India's capital Delhi, as the city struggles with increasing numbers of children awaiting adoption.

Hospitals, orphanages and police stations across Delhi are overwhelmed with abandoned girls dumped in baby baskets no longer wanted.

Adoption officials claim there are too many babies waiting to find forever homes, but a leading charity claim baby baskets - where parents can leave unwanted children without fear of prosecution - are pivotal in ensuring the survival of these babies.

New hope: Three-month-old baby girl being picked up by Beena, 39, a caregiver, from the wicker cradle after being abandoned by her parents at Palna, a non-governmental organisation in New Delhi, India

At the same time, the statutory body responsible for facilitating adoptions is currently only managing a third of their annual goal of successful processes.

The Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), a statutory body which facilitates the process of placing children with adoptive parents, manages to arrange the adoption of 3,000 children a year. While they have 10,000 couple registered to adopt.

Theyve set themselves an ambitious target to increase the adoption figure to at least 10,000 annually by 2018-19.

Deepak Kumar, the CEO and secretary of CARA said: The cradle scheme started to stop mothers killing their unwanted babies. Many women in India do not want to openly abandon their babies due to the stigma attached to being an unmarried mother.

'So many women used to throw their babies in bushes and dustbins. Now, they can leave their baby without anyone knowing what theyve done, with complete anonymity, and ensuring the safety of the baby. We want women to know they dont have to kill their baby. There are a lot of people who would love to adopt so we want them to use the cradle scheme.

Saved: The abandoned children, especially girls, in India have found a new ray of hope with the baby cradle scheme

Girls not wanted: Officials in Delhi, India, say hospitals, orphanages and police stations across the capital are overwhelmed with abandoned girls

Future chances: Seema, 42, a caretaker, pictured while holding seven-months-old girl at Matru Chaya, an adoption centre in New Delhi, India

Palna, an adoption agency connected with the Delhi Council of Child Welfare (DCCW), has been caring for abandoned children for 40 years and receives at least three babies every month via the cradle scheme.

Lorraine Campos, the assistant director of Delhi Council of Child Welfare (DCCW), said: We have around 10 children at the moment who came to us via the cradle. It works and we want more and more women to know about it.

India is renowned for its female foeticide. A shocking number of baby girls are found dead or alive in bushes or even buried alive across parts of India. Babies in rural parts of India do not even see their first birthday due to malnutrition and harsh living conditions.

But a growing number of charities and childrens homes are implementing the cradle scheme. Its an electronic cot that sits outside orphanages and hospitals and alerts staff when it has a new arrival. It also allows mothers to give up their baby without having to identify themselves. It has brought a ray of hope for vulnerable women in India, but also couples seeking to adopt.

Bincy Biju, 35, is one of the nurses who attends to a cradle outside Palna. Its a mixed feeling when I hear the alarm bell, she said. I rush towards the gates as soon as I hear it but as I approach the cradle I get a sinking feeling. Sometimes I find a newborn baby and sometimes I find a baby a few months old. Every time another baby arrives its heartbreaking but its also like welcoming a new baby to the family. All the children here are like my own children and I love them all very much.

The DCCW ensures each baby has no claimants, by working closely with the Delhi police and other agencies, before allowing adoption. On occasion, during the process some mothers come back for their baby but its rare.

Sadly, there are many more girls than boys abandoned and in desperate need of adopting in India.

Lorraine added: Usually a boy is left with us if he belongs to an unmarried mother or has a medical issue. Girls are most often left as they could be a third daughter, or born into poverty etc. But its sad to say most abandoned children are born to unmarried women who are rape victims, minors or victims of incest. They all have their own - but genuine - reasons. It is a myth that only poor people abandon their children. People from all backgrounds leave their children here. Some children are left in a cradle with a suit case filled with branded clothes, which only hints to their background.

Entrance to Palna, showing the wicker cradle where the infants are placed. When the cradle feels the weight, a sound alarm buzzes in the office area and the child is collected

Shanti, 57, a caregiver at the Palna centre, putting the three-month-old baby girl in a crib after her medical check-up

Baby baskets: The mechanical cradles enables parents to leave their unwanted children without the risk of being prosecuted

As well as girls, many of the babies abandoned are also mentally challenged.

Dr Mansi Thapliyal, a physiotherapist at the Palna centre, said: Most of the mentally challenged toddlers here have no reflex system. They have no mechanism to move and they often get ignored by prospective couples but we stay positive and keep trying our best to get them a family too.

Matru Chaya, is another adoption agency in Delhi, and is a huge supporter of the cradle scheme.

Seema, 42, who is one of the agencys caretakers for the last eight years, said: Ive picked up babies from the cradle all hours of the day. The most emotional was a new born baby, left in the cradle at 2am, and born three months premature with her umbilical cord and drips still attached. I wondered what on earth had made her mother leave her. Today, she is a healthy child and already in an adoption process.

Currently, CARA has 14,000 couples on the waiting list to adopt, and 20 of those are from Britain.

Deepak added: Last year 14 couples from the UK adopted a baby. Those numbers should be higher and were working on that. There are many people who want to adopt and if women are aware of the cradle scheme at least there are couples who will give their baby a home. We do not want women to kill their baby. Well make sure they find a family who will love them.
An official in charge of Kenya's computerized voting system has been found dead just over a week before the country's election.

Chris Msando, an IT manager for the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, was found dead on Saturday in a forest outside Nairobi.

His body was found alongside that of an unidentified woman. Both of them were naked and appeared to have been tortured.

Chris Msando (pictured) was found dead in the forests outside the Kenyan capital Nairobi

It is unclear why it took Kenyan Police 48 hours to formally identify the body at the City Mortuary.

Police sources told the Kenyan Star that one of Msando's arms had been cut off.

His body was further reported to have had visible injuries on his back, belly, and left side of his head.

IEBC chairperson Wafula Chebukati said: 'There was no doubt he was tortured and murdered.'

Msando was last seen at 10pm on Friday evening. A security camera recorded his grey Land Rover Discovery on Mombasa Road in the south east of the capital.

The body was discovered on Saturday but it took Kenyan Police 48 hours to formally identify it

Odinga's opposition alliance NASA condemned the 'heinous murder' of Msando, saying in a statement they were 'gravely concerned' about its implications.

'That no effort was made to camouflage this killing as an accident shows the determination of the killers to send a chilling message that they will stop at nothing to ensure the outcome they desire,' read the statement.

Msando was in charge of a system of electronic voter identification and vote counting seen as crucial to avoid rigging, and was the second in command in the commission's IT department.

Msando's Land Rover Discovery had been found abandoned in the south east of Nairobi

He had recently appeared on television, explaining the voting system and assuring viewers that the polls would be successful.

All eyes are on this electronic system ahead of August 8 polls after its crash in 2013 led the opposition to accuse the election commission of rigging the election.

Tensions have risen in Kenya ahead of the presidential election, which has been a bad-tempered and tight race between President Uhuru Kenyatta and longtime opposition leader Raila Odinga.

While 2013 polls were largely peaceful, Kenya remains traumatised by a disputed 2007 election, which Odinga claimed was rigged.

Chris Msando was in charge of overseeing Kenya's computerized voting system ahead of a crucial presidential vote on August 8

Two months of ethnic clashes and a crackdown on protests left 1,100 dead in east Africa's richest economy, which had been seen as a bastion of stability in the region.

Msando's death follows a mysterious attack at the home of deputy president William Ruto on Saturday in Eldoret northwest of Nairobi.
'Tornado' riots teams have taken back control of a prison after two wings were taken over by furious inmates who had gone weeks without a shower or change of clothes, an expert has revealed.

Specially-trained officers were dispatched to HMP The Mount, in Hertfordshire, where some prisoners have been shut inside their cells non-stop for more than a fortnight.

The Mount's H Wing and L Wing, which house 110 and 117 inmates respectively, have both been taken over by prisoners, with ambulance crews now also on the scene.

And a text purportedly from someone inside the Category C prison claims 'we had the screws running scared' and promising further trouble tomorrow.

But a Ministry of Justice spokesman said the incident had been 'resolved'.

Specially-trained officers armed with riot shields arrive at HMP The Mount after riots broke out in two wings

The array of vans outside The Mount this evening. Hertfordshire Police and the East of England Ambulance Service attended, along with the 'Tornado' teams

Staff appear to be relaxed as they prepare themselves to enter the Category C prison to diffuse the situation

Having assembled the necessary gear, the officers head into the prison to get the job started

Prison expert Alex Cavendish - who predicted the riots on social media just two days earlier - told MailOnline that prisoners have been subjected to squalid conditions because the jail is currently 47 officers short.

'A lot of the prisoners at the Mount are within the last year of their sentence, so the situation in there must be pretty desperate for those with an imminent releases on the cards to behaving like this,' he said.

'For the last two weeks there has been almost total lockdown, except for guards bringing cold food to their cells twice a day.

'Some of these prisoners may not have been able to take a shower for three weeks. No showers, no opportunities to call home, no opportunities to change dirty clothes.

'You can imagine that, two men, sitting in a cell with hot weather like we've been having, without the opportunity to do those things, it's going to be pretty unpleasant.

'Plus they have no means of calling their families, they have no way of knowing what is going on outside.

A text purportedly from someone inside the Category C prison claims 'we had the screws running scared' and promising further trouble tomorrow

Police vehicles pass signage for The Mount Prison, in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire

The Mount's H Wing and L Wing, which house 110 and 117 inmates respectively, have both been taken over by prisoners, with ambulance crews now also on the scene

'And when you open the door after an extended lockdown, you never know what you are going to get. You might get an 'alright guv' or you might get a bucket of urine and faeces chucked over you.'

A mother whose son is currently inside the prison also said that the prison had been on lockdown, although he did manage to find a way of communicating with her.

Laura Bradshaw tweeted: 'My son is at The Mount he has been on 24 hour lock down for weeks - apparently told Governor knows it's illegal but who is going to stop him.'

She later added: 'Quite often he says he's feeling unwell and I ask if he's seen a doctor - he said it's difficult to get to see them'.

Mark Fairhurst, acting national chairman of the Prison Officers Association, said staffing issues at jails are a national problem.

He said: 'It's an epidemic throughout the country and we've been telling the employer for years now that they need to sit down with us and restructure the whole salary scales.

'They are just not competitive enough with other public sector bodies or private industry.

'So we need to increase the starting salary to incentivise people to join and then we need to give them regular increments to incentivise them to stay. That's not happening at the moment.'

Asked why it is difficult to retain staff he said: 'It's a combination of adverse working conditions, the violence that they face, and the poor salary.'

Mr Cavendish pointed to a number of cuts - governors were ordered to make savings of 149million every year from 2014 - as the main reason for short staffing.

Although it was announced by then-Justice Secretary Liz Truss in November last year that 2,500 extra officers would be hired across the UK, Mr Cavendish pointed to the fact that many are now being recruited straight from college.

He added: 'You cannot just get these people off the shelves. They are focusing on people who are physically fit and don't have a criminal record, that's about it.

Just two days ago, prison blogger Alex Cavendish claimed the jail was in 'total lockdown'

The Ministry of Justice declined to comment on claims online that a wing had been taken over

'But these young officers are coming in with just basic training and no experience, and they may not be able to deal with situations in a way that a more experienced officer could.

'We saw recently in Aylesbury eight prison officers being taken to hospital. If you are paying people close to the minimum wage, they are not going to put up with those conditions for very long.

'Now, people are actually leaving the prison service quicker than they can recruit. When you get to that stage, it is a disaster waiting to happen.'

An assessment from the jail's Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) said that last summer 'all the ingredients were in place for The Mount to suffer disorder such as has been experienced in other prisons - staff shortages, readily available drugs, mounting violence'.

A riot squad has been called in to HMP The Mount in Hertfordshire following reports of trouble

The report covering the 12 months to the end of February said that during the year The Mount has struggled with staff shortages 'driven by uncompetitive pay scales'.

It said: 'Experienced staff have left and not been fully replaced, so that at the end of February there were 24 vacancies out of a complement of 136 officers, and a high proportion of officers and managers had less than two years' experience.'

Despite the shortages the IMB said the establishment ended the year as a safe prison where prisoners have a good chance of rehabilitation, with the Governor and staff managing to control violence.

It said the drug problem at the jail was most acute in November when a number of prisoners suffered serious short-term health problems with 70 emergency call-outs in the month, mainly for drug related problems.

The substance known as Spice is a 'big concern', the report said, adding that while drone deliveries have declined, 'the supply is still getting in'.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: 'Specially trained staff are working to resolve an incident involving a number of prisoners at HMP The Mount. The prison is completely secure and there is no risk to the public.'

The prison was built on the site of a former RAF station and opened in 1987..

According to the Ministry of Justice, The Mount now houses over 1,000 prisoners and is a hybrid and training and resettlement prison, catering for number of prisoners who are in the last six months of their sentence and are residents of Hertfordshire and the surrounding areas.

The prison has a troubled recent history. Earlier this year, two men were jailed for smuggling drugs inside using a drone.

Just this week, it emerged that an inmate was using a smuggled-in phone to harass a woman against whom he previously had a restraining order.

In 2015, inmates at the prison filmed themselves throwing parties, drinking alcohol and taking drugs while behind bars.

A video emerged in March showing a lag boasting from his cell about his cushy life, where he dines on steak dinners and makes more money than he did on the outside by selling designer drug 'spice'.

Frankie Dawson, 30, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years behind bars in The Mount in November after being convicted of wounding and inflicting grievous bodily harm.

The clip showed him brazenly bragging about his prison life, in which he claims he makes a steady income selling spice to inmates, and enjoys meals of steak and cheesecake washed down with bootleg booze.
JK Rowling hates Donald Trump.

I dont just mean she dislikes him intensely, I mean she loathes him with a raw, visceral fury.

The billionaire Harry Potter author broadcasts this fact on a daily basis to her 11 million followers on Twitter.

Barely an hour goes by without Ms Rowling publicly attacking, mocking, sneering at and generally abusing Trump.

Of course, that is entirely her prerogative and she is far from alone in this regard.

A lot of people, including many left-wing celebrities like her, feel the exact same way about the 45th President of the United States.

Politics is a passionate business. It inflames people.

And no politician in the history of Planet Earth inflames people quite as much as Donald J. Trump.

Scroll down for video

J.K. Rowling hit out at President Donald Trump in a series of tweets where she blasted the president after seeing an edited video that attempts to show Trump refusing to shake the hand of a disabled boy

But in the real, unedited clip shared by the White House, Trump is seen greeting the little boy (left) before starting a press conference on Obamacare. That edited video clip sent Rowling on a Twitter rant where she alleged that the president avoided the little boy (pictured right)

On Friday, a video was posted on Twitter by Ansel Herz, deputy communications director for Democrat Rep. Pramila Jayapal.

It showed Trump appearing to avoid shaking hands with a disabled child before leaving a White House function.

Child in wheelchair reaches up twice to shake the presidents hand, was Herzs simple but devastating caption.

If youre disgusted by this, he added, follow my boss: @RepJayapal. People call her the anti-Trump. 

Disgust duly followed.

The short video clip went viral within minutes, sparking horror and rage around the world.

Keith Olbermann, infamous left-wing political commentator who now hosts a Trump-bashing GQ webshow The Resistance, led the charge, re-tweeting Herzs video clip with the words: About Trump, this is mortifying, revelatory. OTOH, Im somebody who shook his damnable hand. The child is fortunate he didnt touch the evil.

For JK Rowling, this was the moment she had long been waiting for.

Here, right before our very eyes, was actual visible proof that Trump really is a barbaric, callous monster as she keeps saying.

She hit her laptop faster than Usain Bolt hits his stride.

First, Rowling retweeted Herzs tweet alongside a quote she had located from legendary civil rights activist Maya Angelou that read: When someone shows you who they are, believe them.

Rowling sent a series of tweets blasting Trump after sharing an edited video that seemingly shows Trump avoiding shaking the hand of a a wheelchair-bound boy at a press conference last week. The edited video has since been taken off of Twitter

In other words, THIS was the real Donald Trump: a merciless man who would deliberately ignore a young disabled child reaching up to shake his hand.

Seconds later, she tweeted again: Trump imitated a disabled reporter. Now he pretends not to see a child in a wheelchair, as though frightened he may catch his condition.

Wow.

No room for ambiguity there.

Rowling was very clear: Trump knew the disabled child was there and snubbed him because he was worried about being infected with whatever disease the boy may have.

Tweets No3 and No4 came together, fast and furious: This monster of narcissism values only himself and his pale reflections. The disabled, minorities, transgender people, the poor, women(unless related to him by ties of blood, and therefore his creations) are treated with contempt, because they do not resemble Trump.

Then, in tweet No5, Rowling got personal, invoking the spirit of her mother who died in 1990.

My mother used a wheelchair. I witnessed people uncomfortable around her disability, but if they had a shred of decency they got over it.

Tweet No6 explained this was why Rowling felt SO enraged: So, yes, that clip of Trump looking deliberately over a disabled childs head, ignoring his outstretched hand, has touched me on the raw.

Again, she left no room for any doubt. Trump hadnt accidentally snubbed the boy, he had done it deliberately.

Tweet No7 clarified why this was so vile: That man occupies the most powerful office in the free world and his daily outrages against civilised norms are having a corrosive effect.

And then, in Tweet No8, JK Rowling reached peak anger: How stunning, she wrote, and how horrible, that Trump cannot bring himself to shake the hand of a small boy who only wanted to touch the President.

It turns out that Trump spent more time with the boy in the wheelchair than any other guest - displaying all the compassion and empathy he had been accused of failing to display

By this stage, it would be hard not to share Rowlings uncontrollable rage  right? I suspect most of her 11.4 million Twitter followers would certainly have felt that way.

They trust Rowling.

As she never ceases to remind us from her high moral plinth, she is the very beacon of honesty, decency and fairness in a world increasingly blighted by Trump-related lies, indecency and unfairness.

She, like Rep. Jayapal, is the anti-Trump.

She is someone who would never snub a disabled boy.

Theres just one problem: it was all a lie.

Trump didnt snub the boy. In fact he did the complete opposite.

The full video of this incident emerged several hours after Rowling tweeted.

It shows Trump heading directly to the boy the moment he entered the room.

He greets him before he greets anyone else.

As she never ceases to remind us from her high moral plinth, Jk Rowling is the very beacon of honesty, decency and fairness in a world increasingly blighted by Trump-related lies, indecency and unfairness

Then the President crouches down, touches the boy and talks just to him for a few more seconds before moving on.

It turns out that Trump spent more time with the boy in the wheelchair than any other guest - displaying all the compassion and empathy he had been accused of failing to display.

By the time this longer video appeared, the original edited clip was everywhere, gleefully fuelled by high profile liberals.

Chelsea Clinton, who has 1.8 million followers, seized on Rowlings tweets, re-tweeting both the Maya Angelou quote and clip, and the one about how stunning and horrible it was that Trump snubbed the boy.

As Sir Winston Churchill once said: A lie gets halfway round the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

Ansel Herz, once he saw the full video, immediately removed his tweets.

Deleted because it turned out to missing some context, he said. Apologies.

Missing some context? You can say that again, buddy.

Lets be very clear: you made the whole world think Trump hates disabled kids.

Now, at this point, some five hours after her vicious tweet-storm, JK Rowling started to be bombarded with demands to delete her own tweets and apologise. I tweeted her myself to say: Whats stunning and horrible is how you lied to viciously smear Trump. Delete these lies.

She didnt respond, to anybody.

The worlds most aggressively self-righteous tweeter went unusually silent.

A whole day went by.

Then another.

Finally, more than 48 hours later, Rowling came back on Twitter yesterday.

But not, it transpired, to delete the tweets that she now knew were 100% wrong.

No, instead she wished to rant about some deeply offensive comments made by an Irish newspaper columnist.

This filth was published in the Sunday Times, she seethed. Let that sink in for a moment.

I didnt have much time to let it sink in before the newspaper concerned deleted the column, profusely apologised and fired the journalist who wrote it.

Yet, incredibly, indignant Rowling saw no inconsistency in allowing her own deeply offensive tweets about Trump and the disabled boy to remain on her feed.

Even the boys mother pleaded with her to remove the tweets.

Ummm, said Marjorie Kelly Weer in a Facebook post, if someone can please get a message to JK Rowling. Trump didnt snub my son & Monty wasnt even trying to shake his hand (1. Hes 3 and hand shaking is not his thing. 2. He was showing off his newly acquired secret service patch). Thanks.

But this too fell on deaf, or stubborn ears.

Last December, in yet another rant about Trump, JK Rowling made her feelings crystal clear about people who dont apologise for getting things wrong.

She did so by tweeting this quote from the 17th century French writer Francois de la Rochefoucauld: No people are more frequently wrong than those who will not admit they are wrong.

It has now been three days since JK Rowling posted a pack of lies about Donald Trump to her 11 million followers.

She knows it was wrong. We all know it was wrong.

Yet, as I write, she still refuses to delete the tweets, correct her lies, or apologise.

Even if she does so now, perhaps after reading this column, the damage has been done.

By contrast, everyone else I have mentioned did remove their tweets once they realised the truth.

Herz deleted, Olbermann deleted and Chelsea Clinton, when I brought it to her attention yesterday, also deleted.

Rowling, however, would prefer to continue using a three-year-old disabled boy to falsely smear Donald Trump, such is her blind hatred for the man.

By doing so, she is telling her millions of young impressionable Potter fans that its absolutely fine to lie and never correct or apologise for a lie  after spending the past two years telling them that Trump is disgusting because he lies and never corrects or apologises for his lies.

This makes her a shameful, disgraceful hypocrite.

Nobody should believe a word this self-appointed High Priestess of Honesty ever says again, about anything.
Qatari authorities have accused Saudi Arabia of jeopardising the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca of Qatari pilgrims by refusing to guarantee their safety.

Saudi Arabia and its allies have been boycotting Qatar since June 5, accusing it of backing extremist groups and of ties to Shiite Iran, in the region's worst diplomatic crisis in years.

On July 20, Riyadh said that Qataris wanting to perform this year's hajj would be allowed to enter the kingdom for the pilgrimage, but imposed certain restrictions.

The Saudi hajj ministry said Qatari pilgrims arriving by plane must use airlines in agreement with Riyadh.

On July 20, Riyadh said that Qataris wanting to perform this year's hajj (a file photo of a past one pictured above) would be allowed to enter the kingdom for the pilgrimage, but imposed certain restrictions

They would also need to get visas on arrival in Jeddah or Medina, their sole points of entry in the kingdom.

The Qatari Islamic affairs ministry, in a statement published by the official QNA news agency on Sunday, said the Saudi side had 'refused to communicate regarding securing the pilgrims safety and facilitating their Hajj'.

The ministry accused Riyadh of 'intertwining politics with one of the pillars of Islam, which may result in depriving many Muslims from performing this holy obligation'.

According to the statement, 20,000 Qatari citizens have registered to take part this year. The ministry said it denied Saudi claims that Doha had suspended those registrations.

'The distortion of facts is meant to set obstacles for the pilgrims from Qatar to Mecca, following the crisis created by the siege countries,' the Qatari ministry added, referring to Saudi Arabia and its allies.

Some Gulf media claimed the Qatari statement was a call for the 'internationalisation' of the management of the hajj season, which is run by the Saudi authorities.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told Arabiya news channel on Sunday said calls to 'internationalise (the management of) hajj' was a 'declaration of war'

'Any call to internationalise (the management of) hajj is an aggressive act and a declaration of war,' Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told Arabiya news channel on Sunday.

But Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani described the claims as 'media fabrications'.

'There has not been a single statement by a Qatari official concerning the internationalisation of hajj,' he told Al-Jazeera news channel.

Qatar's National Human Rights Committee on Monday said it will complain about the Saudi restrictions to the United Nations, the Arab League and the Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation.

'Anti-Qatar rhetoric... threatens the security of Qatari pilgrims,' the committee said in a statement.

The hajj, a pillar of Islam that capable Muslims must perform at least once in a lifetime, is to take place this year at the beginning of September.

Saudi Arabia and its allies Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates cut diplomatic ties and imposed sanctions on Doha in June, including the closure of their airspace to Qatari airlines.

The four Arab states accuse Qatar of supporting extremists and of growing too close to Shiite-dominated Iran, the regional arch-rival of Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia.

Qatar denies the allegations and accuses the Saudi-led bloc of imposing a 'siege' on the tiny emirate.
A man fatally shot his son and wounded his wife before he killed himself in a murder-suicide, police said.

Thomas Phillip Powers, 46, killed his 26-year-old son Phillip Tyler Powers at their home in Jefferson, Georgia, on Sunday night before he committed suicide, police said.

Thomas' wife Donna, who suffered a gunshot wound to her hands, managed to call for help before she was taken to the hospital, the Athens Banner-Herald reported.

Thomas Phillip Powers, 46, (right) killed his 26-year-old son Phillip Tyler Powers (left) at their home in Jefferson, Georgia, on Sunday night

Thomas (right of left with Donna) wounded his wife before he turned the gun on himself and committed suicide. Pictured right, Donna with her son

Police arrived at their home on Fairlane Drive after Donna called for help at around 10.30pm.

Both father and son were found dead at the scene, and Donna was transported to the Athens Regional Hospital with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound.

An investigation is ongoing, and police said it remains unclear what Thomas' motivations were and what events led to the murder-suicide.

'We talked to [Donna Marie Powers] enough last night to get important information, but well have to re-interview her today, Jefferson Police Chief Joe Wirthman told the Athens Banner-Herald on Monday.

Police arrived at their home on Fairlane Drive after Donna called for help at around 10.30pm
Upset: Maryya Dean (pictured) and her family were left humiliated after being ordered to leave the pool in the Algarve, Portugal

A British family were left 'humiliated' after being ordered to leave a swimming pool in the Algarve because they were wearing burkinis.

Maryya Dean, 36, claims she was forced to perform a 'walk of shame' with her nine-year-old daughter and sister-in-law Hina by a furious apartment worker, during a trip to the Portguese holiday haven.

The women were relaxing in the private pool at their rented apartment complex in Albufeira, when a man barked that their costumes were 'not acceptable.'

He fumed that they 'must wear a bikini to follow Portuguese culture'.

The relatives were incensed further when the worker made Ms Dean's daughter stand up to demonstrate appropriate swimwear- a conventional costume.

Ms Dean, from Chessington in Surrey, was wearing a normal swimsuit with three-quarter length leggings.

While her sister-in-law was wearing three-quarter length leggings and a top that covered her arms down to her elbows.

The women said they wore the conservative swimwear because it made them feel comfortable and for cultural and religious reasons.

Maryya Dean (pictured left and right), 36, claims she was forced to perform a 'walk of shame' with her nine-year-old daughter and sister-in-law Hina

Swimwear: Hina said the family had chosen to wear their burkini's (file photo) for cultural and religious reasons

Ms Dean, from Chessington in Surrey, was wearing a normal swimsuit with three-quarter length leggings

The worker made Ms Dean's daughter stand up to demonstrate appropriate swimwear- a conventional costume

Hina told the Mirror: 'I was not allowed to wear swimming gear that I am comfortable in and that was actually made for women like me to wear.

'We told him [the apartment worker] it was swimwear but he said ''you have to wear a bikini or shorts. In Portuguese culture, it's not acceptable.''

'He said we had to abide by Portuguese culture if we were in the country.'

Ms Dean: added: 'I keep thinking about it. We had to do a 'walk of shame' back to the apartment, it was disgusting.

'It was a very distressing experience for me and my family.'

The women were relaxing in the private pool at their rented apartment complex in Albufeira (file photo), when a man barked that their costumes were 'not acceptable.'

Have you had a bad holiday experience you'd like to share? Get in touch by calling 0203 615 1875 or email anthony.joseph@mailonline.co.uk
President Donald Trump's furor at China over its refusal to take on North Korea more directly could lead to the imposing of economic sanctions on Beijing.

White House officials told Politico that trade restrictions are on the table but nothing is set in stone. They'll continue to discuss possible punishing actions today.

Treasury had already blacklisted two Chinese nationals, a Chinese bank and a Chinese shipping company for their involvement in North Korea's illicit weapons program last month.

It said then that more sanctions could hit Chinese entities as part of the effort to choke off money and resources North Korea relies on to prop up its regime.

President Donald Trump's furor at China over its refusal to take on North Korea more directly could lead to economic sanctions on Beijing

Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, meets with his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump, in the latter's Florida resort of Mar-a-Lago in April. Trump warmed to Xi after the visit - but has grown annoyed with China since

Trump slapped Beijing in tweets over the weekend for doing 'nothing' to reign in Kim Jong-un's government

'We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!'

The tough talk toward China signaled a growing impatience with both Pyongyang and Beijing in the face of another ICBM test.

Kim's government launched a Hwasong-14 missile on Friday in a fresh affront to the US.

The launch was 'meant to send a stern warning to the US making senseless remarks, being lost to reason in the frantic sanctions and pressure campaign against the DPRK,' a statement from North Korea said.

Kim's missile tests have become more frenetic since Trump took office.

Ten times North Korea has tried to launch intercontinental weapons. Eight times the launches were successful.

Trump provided assurances Monday that his administration would 'handle' North Korea following the latest act of aggression.

'We'll handle North Korea. We're going to be able to handle them. It will be handled. We handle everything,' Trump said as he sat alongside Defense Secretary James Mattis during a cabinet meeting this morning.

Launch: This photo distributed by the North Korean government on Saturday, allegedly shows the launch of a Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile at an undisclosed location

He made no mention of China in his remarks on Monday after a set of harsh tweets on Saturday that were directed at Xi Jingping's government.

'I am very disappointed in China. Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk.,' Trump said then. 'We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!'

Trump took aim at China over it's trade deficit of $309 billion last year in the messages that were markedly different in tone than the ones he sent last spring claiming that Xi was doing his very best to confront North Korea.

Attack: Tweets by U.S. President Donald Trump accusing China of doing 'nothing' in response to North Korea's nuclear programme

China's commerce vice minister said Monday, as Trump considered ramping up sanctions, that trade and North Korea 'are not related, and should not be discussed together'.

The US and South Korea meanwhile indicated that they could deploy a missile defense system sooner than anticipated as tensions heighten withe the authoritarian regime to the North.

China has warned that the deployment of THAAD will only exacerbate the situation, but the US and South Korea have moved forward with plans to put it in place, anyway.

Beijing said in a statement after Trump's tweets that 'the DPRK nuclear issue is not due to China, the settlement of the DPRK nuclear issue requires the concerted efforts of all parties and the parties should properly recognize this issue.'
Video shows the moment a deranged driver repeatedly crashed into a car in front of him at a busy Los Angeles intersection.

The video, taken by Gus Juanillo, shows a driver in a tan car backing up and then plowing into a white car in front of him repeatedly in Huntington Park, California.

The incident happened earlier this month, during the morning commute.

A driver in Huntington Park, California was caught on video repeatedly running into the car in front of him earlier this month

It's unclear what prompted the early morning rampage at an intersection in Huntington Park, California

Juanillo wrote on YouTube that he had stopped to get a donut and an energy drink for breakfast on the way to work just before 8am when he saw the scene play out.

Not only did the driver crash into the car in front of him, but he hit another car behind him when he reversed.

Eventually the driver backed up and peeled out, hitting the white car and another car in front of it before speeding off down the road.

As the car takes off, a hub cap is seen rolling across the road. It's unclear which car the hubcap came from.

The car is seen above reversing and then crashing back into the white car in front of it

The driver's tires started smoking when he slammed on the gas

Eventually, the driver reversed one last time and sped out across the intersection

The driver hit the side of the two cars in front of him as he left, causing a hubcap to fall off

The driver was eventually apprehended, after running into five parked cars, KABC reported.

Authorities told the outlet that by the time they arrived on the scene, the man's car had caught fire and was inoperable.

The suspect was hospitalized for injuries sustained in the incident, but was booked into jail after he was released. He is likely to face multiple felony charges. His name has not been released.

The driver in the white car also sustained minor injuries.
An Oregon couple has been fighting a legal battle after they lost custody of their two kids because both were designated not intelligent enough to care for them in a safe and proper manner.

Amy Fabbrini, 31, was reportedly unaware about her state of pregnancy when she grew far into her third trimester with her now eldest son, Christopher.

Fabbrini did not receive formal examination or treatment within the ninth month term and went into advanced labor at the family's home, where she gave birth Sept. 9, 2013.

Fabbrini's partner, Eric Ziegler, 38, was receiving financial aid through the Social Security and Supplemental Security Income program on the behalf of a mental disability he was diagnosed with.

Earlier this year, Social Services acquired and fostered the pair's second newborn baby, Hunter, while he was in the hospital, following past allegations brought against them.

Amy Fabbrini, 31, and Eric Ziegler, 38, lost custody of their two children after being deemed 'not intelligent enough'

Fabbrini's family did not believe she had 'the instincts' to be a mother

Ziegler was receiving financial aid through the Social Security and Supplemental Security Income program for his mental disability

Fabbrini's father said he and his wife were acting as the primary caregivers at the time, because he believed his daughter did not possess the 'instincts to be a mother'

A relative to the couple initially expressed concern in a complaint to authorities regarding the Christopher's well-being under the care of Fabbrini and Ziegler, according to the Oregonian.

A child welfare report alleged Ziegler had been 'sleeping with the baby on the floor and almost rolled over on him.'

Fabbrini's father, Raymond, said he and his wife were acting as the primary caregivers at the time, because he believed his daughter did not possess the 'instincts to be a mother.'

After taking a required IQ test, Ziegler scored a meager 66 and Fabbrini a 72. The IQ of the average person ranges anywhere from 90-110.

Ziegler's IQ score categorized him under the mild 'intellectual disability' range, while Fabbrini 'extremely low to borderline range of intelligence,' according to the report.

Fabbrini had been working as a grocer to help provide for her family at the time. Ziegler was unemployed due to his health condition.

Board member of Healthy Families of the High Desert and advocator for the couple, Sherrene Hagenbach, said the decision to place Christopher and Hunter up for adoption lacks substantial ground work and may be even more detrimental to the family as a whole.

'They are saying they are intellectually incapable without any guidelines to go by,' Hagenbach said.

'They're saying that this foster care provider is better for the child because she can provide more financially, provide better education, things like that.

The parents will continue to visit their two children in foster care

'If we're going to get on that train, Bill Gates should take my children. There's always somebody better than us, so it's a very dangerous position to be in.'

Domestic abuse and neglect were not factors in the custody case.

Fabbrini's aunt, Lenora Turner, told the Oregonian she believed the decision was unfair in the grand scheme.

'I honestly don't understand why they can't have their children. I go to the grocery store and I see other people with their children and they're standing up in the grocery cart.

'I think, how come they get to keep their children? How do they decide whose child they're going to take and whose child can stay?' Turner said.

Fabbrini and Ziegler insisted that they have complied to all of the state's orders over the course of the past several years.

'We've just done everything and more than what they've asked us to,' Fabbrini said.

'It doesn't seem like it's good enough for them ... They're saying, 'Who would parent Christopher better, the foster parents or the parents?' is basically what they're going on.' Ziegler added.

So long as Oregon's parental rights law stays in effect, both children will remain under watch by foster care.

The parents will continue to have visitation rights under the supervision of another.
A senior Iraqi general predicted a relatively easy victory for his forces in the upcoming battle for the Islamic State haven of Tal Afar.

General Najm al-Jabouri said the battle will be simple as the enemy's 2,000 fighters and their families are 'worn out and demoralised'.

Less than one month after declaring victory in the city of Mosul, Iraqi forces are poised to attack Tal Afar, which is around 40 km to the west of the city.

'I don't expect it will be a fierce battle even though the enemy is surrounded,' Major-General Jabouri said.

General Najm al-Jabouri said the battle will be simple as the enemy's 2,000 fighters and their families are 'worn out and demoralised'

The battlefield commander added that the fight would be easy in comparison to the nine months of gruelling urban combat in Mosul, which took a heavy toll on Iraqi forces.

'The enemy is very worn out,' said Jabouri, who was mayor of Tal Afar when it was overrun by insurgents more than a decade ago. 'I know from the intelligence reports that their morale is low.'

Tal Afar had around 200,000 residents before falling to Islamic State.

But it experienced cycles of sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shi'ites after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and has since produced some of Islamic State's most senior commanders.

It has also become the focus of a wider regional struggle for influence.

Turkey, which claims affinity with Tal Afar's predominantly ethnic Turkmen population, opposes the involvement of Shi'ite paramilitary groups fighting with Iraqi forces, some of which are backed by Iran.

Jabouri estimated there were between 1,500 and 2,000 militants left in Tal Afar. The figure may include some family members who support them.

A fighter waves an ISIS flag in Mosul. Iraqi forces have since retaken the city

'It's a large number, but the terrain is favourable (to Iraqi forces),' he said. Only one part of the city, Sarai, is comparable to Mosul's Old City, where Iraqi troops were forced to advance on foot through narrow streets.

The rest of Tal Afar can be navigated in tanks and armoured vehicles.

Unlike Mosul, where Islamic State effectively held hundreds of thousands of people hostage to slow the advances of Iraqi forces, Jabouri said few civilians remained in Tal Afar, except those related to the militants.

Iraqi forces expect to face bombs, snipers and booby-traps. Despite being surrounded, there is no sign the militants are running low on ammunition, Jabouri said.

He added that many local Turkmen members of Islamic State already managed to escape by mingling with displaced civilians and fled to Turkey, where they can blend in anonymously.

Of the remaining militants, Jabouri believed many were foreigners - from Turkey, former Soviet Republics and Southeast Asia -- who became trapped after Iraqi forces severed all routes between Mosul and Tal Afar earlier this year.

The city had already been sealed off by Kurdish forces to the north, and mainly Shi'ite paramilitaries to the south leading to shortages of food and water.

The U.S.-led coalition has conducted air strikes in and around Tel Afar, paving the way for Iraqi forces to storm the city after reorganising and recuperating from Mosul.

Jabouri said all that remained was to receive orders from Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi to launch the assault: 'perhaps it will be in days, or a week, or two'.

Beyond Tal Afar, Islamic State still controls other pockets of territory in Iraq, including the town of Hawija and the surrounding area.
A great-grandfather has finally taken a step onto the property ladder by buying his first home - aged 99.

Geoffrey Green has spent his life working as a tenant farmer on estate-owned farmland - following two generations of his family who previously worked there.

But the 99-year-old has decided it was finally time to depart the farmhouse and buy his own property - a suite with assisted living in a brand new retirement village.

Mr Green as a child (left) and the 99 year old first time buyer outside his new home in Witney (right)

Mr Green, of Combe, Oxon., said: 'I've had a wonderful life and I worked hard.

'My father said to me 'Do everything a man can do but do it better' - and I worked damn hard.'

And speaking of his first very own home, in Richmond Witney retirement village, also in Oxfordshire, he said: 'I like it very much here but I do sometimes go back to the Manor Farm.'

Manor Farm, in Combe, was where Mr Green was born at the end of the First World War in 1918, to a family who had worked as farmers since the late 19th century.

He said: 'My father was a farmer, my grandfather was a farmer - it goes back to 1878.'

And Mr Green wasted no time joining the family business - as a young man, he began farming on the Blenheim Estate in Woodstock, Oxon., where he grew up.

During his years farming on the Estate, Mr Green looked after pigs, sheep and cattle - all of which he said have gone now.

He also grew a variety of crops, and said seeing them grow was one of the most satisfying parts of the work.

He said: 'There is a satisfaction about seeing the crops grow and then harvesting them.

Mr Green relaxes in his new home after deciding to leave his farmhouse

'But farming has changed a lot over the years - with the big difference being mechanisation. Horses used to provide the power - now it's horsepower.

'Nowadays tractors all have satellite navigation and screens and I wouldn't be allowed to drive any of them.'

And he said the job wasn't without its perks - over the years he encountered some famous faces, even dining with Harold Macmillan while he was Prime Minister.

And it was also farming that led to Mr Green meeting his late wife Eileen at a Young Farmers' dance. The pair married when he was 24, and lived together on a farm.

Although he retired from farming when he turned 80, Mr Green is pleased that his son and grandson have followed in his footsteps, becoming tenant farmers on land owned by Blenheim Estate.

The nonagenarian, who puts his longevity down to 'abstinence from vices', finally decided to settled down last November - after growing tired of being 'chief cook and bottle washer'.

He said: 'I'd never bought a house before because I'd always lived on the farm in houses on the Blenheim Estate.'

Mr Green has settled in well to his new home - but he did add: 'They say farmers never retire.'
A Lebanese-Australian accused of plotting to bring down a passenger plane was only arrested after the British government threatened to issue a public travel warning if Sydney terror raids were not conducted immediately, according to local reports.

Khaled Khayat and three other men were arrested in dramatic raids across Sydney on Saturday after a foreign intelligence agency intercepted communication to the alleged conspirators from Syria, the ABC reported.

Khayat's son, Mahmoud Kayat was also arrested, along with Abdul El Karim and Khaled Merhi, who are related to Ahmed Merhi, who traveled to Syria in 2014 and is fighting for IS.

Khaled Khayat, pictured in a Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs jersey, is one of the Lebanese-Australian men who were arrested during Saturday's terror raids in Sydney

The men (one pictured being led away by police) were arrested in dramatic raids on Saturday

One of the accused is pictured with a bandaged head following his arrest on Saturday night

The men, reportedly led by Khayat, allegedly planned to put toxic gas in a mincer which could have exploded or poisoned passengers on board a commercial jet.

The target of the alleged terror plot was an Etihad flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi with up to 500 passengers and crew on board, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Local police reportedly wanted to gather more evidence before making the arrests, but the British government warned it would issue a public security alert for travel to Australia if the raids were not carried out.

The federal government has refused to reveal details of the alleged plot and will only say the alleged terrorists planned to use a device to 'bring down' a plane.

MailOnline contacted the British Foreign Office for comment, but the agency would not comment on the matter.

Police are pictured at the scene of Saturday afternoon's terror raids in Surry Hills the following day

Federal and State Police officers are pictured at a crime scene in Surry Hills following the raids

New South Wales Police officers arrive at a crime scene in Surry Hills in Sydney on Monday

'I don't want to go into the detail but... there was a significant threat that federal police, ASIO, NSW police and other agencies dealt with and are in the process of dealing with,' Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton said on Monday.

Mr Dutton declined to comment on which agency provided the government with the intelligence that triggered the raids.

The accused terrorists have strong links to Islamic State, according to the ABC, which reported Khayat's brother is believed to be a senior ISIS figure.

'We're obviously looking at the links they have to the organisation within the Middle East,' Justice Minister Michael Keenan told the ABC's 7.30 on Monday.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull described the alleged conspiracy as 'a very serious terrorist plot' but refused to elaborate.

He also would not confirm reports an overseas tip-off triggered the raids.

NSW Police and forensic officers at the scene of a counter-terrorism raid on a property in Cleveland Street in Surry Hills

Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton (pictured) has refused to reveal details of the alleged plot

Mr Dutton apologised to travellers experiencing delays at Australian airports after security measures were stepped up

Police officers are seen at a crime scene in Surry Hills in Sydney after four men were arrested

'Good intelligence, great police work, great investigation, great co-ordination has enabled us to disrupt that plot,' Mr Turnbull said.

It is believed the plot may have involved smuggling the meat grinder in hand luggage on to the long-haul flight.

Australian National University criminologist Clarke Jones described the plan as 'amateurish' in nature.

'If it was to be hand luggage, that's a very crude plan and shows a lack of experience and the fact that they might not have travelled a great extent,' he said.

Mr Dutton said the threat of such plots was ever-present.

'We need to recognise that these people do have the capacity through the internet or through instruction otherwise... to execute a plan to bring a plane down or to bring some device onto a plane,' he told ABC TV.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull described the conspiracy as 'a very serious terrorist plot' but refused to elaborate

Police at an apartment complex in Sproule Street, Lakemba, the scene of one of the terror raids

Australian Federal Police and NSW Police officers are seen during the counter-terrorism raids

Travellers are experiencing long delays at Australian airports after security was ramped up over the weekend

Mr Dutton apologised to travellers experiencing delays at Australian airports after security measures were stepped up in response to the arrests.

Meanwhile, a magistrate on Sunday granted police an additional period of detention, which can last up to seven days, to hold the four men while their investigation continues.

The group were arrested when police swooped on five properties in the Sydney suburbs of Surry Hills, Lakemba, Wiley Park and Punchbowl on Saturday afternoon.

A number of 'items of interest' were seized during the searches at four of the properties.

The plan was 'Islamist-inspired', federal police have said.

New South Wales Police confirmed that the four men in custody were yet to be charged.

Australia's terror threat remains at probable.
A dozen members of President Trump's cabinet gather for weekly bible study group meetings, in a power-packed gathering that includes a top spymaster as well as endangered Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Despite having schedules packed with travel and heavy responsibilities  the religious heavy-hitters attend the study whenever they can, said Ralph Drollinger of Capitol Ministries.

One person he didn't mention as attending is President Trump.

'It's the best Bible study that I've ever taught in my life. They are so teachable. They're so noble. They're so learned,' he told CBN News, which will soon air a segment on the study group and reported on it Monday.

NOT THERE: A dozen of President Donald Trump's cabinet members attend a weekly bible study group, according to a new report

Among regular attendees is Sessions, who demonstrated his willingness to turn the other cheek while enduring repeated slights from the president, who even called him 'weak' in a tweet last week.

'He'll [Sessions] go out the same day I teach him something and I'll see him do it on camera and I just think, 'Wow, these guys are faithful, available and teachable and they're at Bible study every week they're in town,'' Drollinger told the religious network.

'These are godly individuals that God has risen to a position of prominence in our culture,' said Drollinger, who has also set up bible study groups in Congress and in state capitals.

SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE: Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who endured a series of slights from President Trump last week, is a regular attendee at weekly bible study sessions

UNDER-STUDY: Vice President Mike Pence attends the bible study sessions when it fits with his travel schedule

WE NEED EDUCATION: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos also attends

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson is among a dozen attendees

He said with a laugh: 'I don't think Donald Trump has figured out that he chained himself to the Apostle Paul.'

Sessions has long identified himself with other religious conservatives in Congress. He found last week that he could count on them for continued support despite Trump's barbs and his own tenuous job situation.

'This effort to basically marginalize and humiliate the attorney general is not going over well in the Senate. I don't think it's going over well in the conservative world,' Sen. Lindsey Graham said, the Hill reported. 'If Jeff Sessions is fired, there will be holy hell to pay.'

Pence, who was in Estonia on Monday, participates when his schedule allows.

'OOPS WE FORGOT TO INVITE THE PRESIDENT': Energy Secretary Rick Perry is among those attending the White House bible study group

GOOD BOOK: Donald Trump holds up his bible during a campaign stop in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2015

'Mike Pence has uncompromising biblical tenacity and he has a loving tone about him that's not just a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal,' Drollinger said, adding: 'He brings real value to the head of the nation.'

The report of the bible study group comes just days after Trump communications director unloaded in a profanity-laced tirade against since-resigned chief of staff Reince Priebus and senior strategist Stephen Bannon.

Shortly after Christmas in 2015, Trump brandished a bible as he told an Iowa crowd: 'I even brought my Bible  the evangelicals, OK? We love the evangelicals and were polling so well.'

He continued: 'This Bible was given to me by my mother, going to Sunday school  So, we love the Bible. Its the best. We love The Art of the Deal, but the Bible is far, far superior, yes.

Cabinet members reported to attend the meetings include Sessions, Energy secretary Rick Perry, Education secretary Betsy De Vos, Health secretary Tom Price, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, Housing Secretary Ben Carson, and EPA administrator Scott Pruitt.
Anthony Scaramucci enjoyed a last supper at Donald Trump's namesake hotel in Washington DC on Monday after getting axed as the President's chief spokesman just 10 days after he was hired.

He dined at the Trump Hotel's BLT Prime with former Trump campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson and a couple of administration employees.

Scaramucci spent most of the dinner on his cell phone and barely touched his food - after just over a week as the White House communications director during which his most notable moment was a foul-mouthed rant about Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon.

Anthony Scaramucci was spotted dining at the Trump Hotel restaurant in Washington DC with Trump loyalist and CNN contributor Katrina Pierson (left) on Monday hours after he was fired by the President

Scaramucci is pictured walking behind press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders as a smililing Kellyanne Conway looms in the background before he left the White House on Monday

The former White House supremo was let go on the first day of Gen. John Kelly's tenure as White House Chief of Staff and after revelations about his wife filing for divorce while pregnant emerged at the weekend.

And after wrapping up the business day on Monday, President Trump tweeted 'A great day at the White House'.

At the Trump Hotel, Scaramucci chose a discreet table at the corner of the BLT restaurant under a tree, one of four planted in huge boxes in the restaurant.

He declined to be interviewed and left quietly through a side exit. It was the first time he had been seen in public all day since he was sacked.

The DailyMail's exclusive photo reveals that Trump surrogate Pierson is among those Trump loyalists closely connected to the ousted Mooch.

The president is likely to question, along with his inner circle, just why she was providing counsel to the discredited former White House supremo immediately after his axing.

Observers thought it extraordinary that after the day of bloodshed that saw him axed from the White House, he should be seen at the Trump Hotel.

But one diner said: 'Maybe Trump was putting him up and he didn't have time to check out yet. I guess as he's not from D.C he hasn't go his own base.

'He was in and out so quickly. It's incredible.'

Scaramucci's appearance at the restaurant came after President Trump proclaimed that Monday had been another 'great day at the White House' after Scaramucci was earlier escorted from the West Wing.

Trump made the defiant declaration in a tweet after 6pm Monday  on yet another turbulent day, on which he claimed at the outset there was 'no chaos' in the White House.

Prior to being seen with Scaramucci at the restaurant, Pierson - who was Trumps spokeswoman in the final year of the campaign - tweeted on Monday afternoon that the Mooch had managed to stop news of his firing from being leaked.

'FWIW: @Scaramucci was fired at 8am but the press found out when the WH shop released it in the afternoon. Apparently, he stopped the leaks,' she tweeted.

It followed news from the White House hours earlier that Trump had concluded that the man brought in to salvage his message operation had made 'inappropriate' comments in a call where he ridiculed senior White House officials, and that the new White House chief of staff saw fit to dispatch Scaramucci during his own first hours on the job.

'A great day at the White House!' Trump tweeted, hours after the stunning news that Scaramucci was out. It was just the latest dramatic staff shake-up to rock the White House, one that saw the departure of chief of staff Reince Priebus, the victim of Scaramucci's tirade, on Friday.

The Mooch's departure came as as Gen. John Kelly brandished new authority over all staff working inside the White House on his first day on the job as the new chief of staff.

'Anthony Scaramucci will be leaving his role as White House Communications Director,' the White House said in a brief statement. 'Mr. Scaramucci felt it was best to give Chief of Staff John Kelly a clean slate and the ability to build his own team. We wish him all the best.'

Scaramucci, who lasted just over a week as the White House communications director, dined at the Trump Hotel's BLT Prime where steaks range from $53-65

COULD BE WORSE: President Trump tweeted about the tumultuous day Monday evening

'The president certainly felt that Anthony's comments were inappropriate for someone in that position, and he din't want to burden Gen. Kelly also with that line of succession,' White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday

Trump loyalist and CNN contributor Katrina Pierson tweeted that Scaramucci had managed to stop news of his firing from being leaked

The official statement came just minutes after the New York Times first reported the news on Monday, and came hours after the president tweeted there was 'No WH chaos!'

Scaramucci started the job just a week ago, and immediately shook the White House with controversial statements, including vulgar attacks on senior White House staffers, along with a vow to hunt down leakers.

Sanders declined to answer questions about whether Trump asked Scaramucci to leave or whether Kelly pushed him out to get a clear line of authority.

'He does not have a role at this time in the Trump administration,' Sanders said. 'I dont have much else to add,' she said when pressed for details.

She indicated that Kelly had full authority within the White House. She said all White House officials  including Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner  would report through Kelly.

'That includes everybody at the White House,' she said.

'The president certainly felt that Anthony's comments were inappropriate for someone in that position, and he din't want to burden Gen. Kelly also with that line of succession,' Huckabee Sanders said.

Asked if Trump regretted hiring the short-time Scaramucci, Huckabee Sanders said: 'I'm not going to get into anything beyond what I've already said on that front.'

Getting rid of Scaramucci was among Kelly's first orders of business.

Almost immediately after getting sworn in, Kelly told Scaramucci he needed to leave.

SHORT-TIMER: Anthony Scaramucci attends the daily White House press briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House July 21, 2017 in Washington, DC. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer quit after it was announced that Trump hired Scaramucci, a Wall Street financier and longtime supporter, to the position of White House communications director

Outgoing White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer attends the presentation of the Medal of Honor to former US Army medic and Vietnam War veteran James McCloughan (not pictured) by US President Donald J. Trump, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC. He resigned his post after learning Scaramucci got hired

That happened at 9:30 am, Axios reported, citing a source who said Kelly needed to assert his influence but was 'gracious in the way he did it.' The White House was able to keep a lid on the news for a few hours before it appeared in the New York Times.

The report characterized Jared Kushner and Ivnka Trump as being 'fully supportive' of Kelly, to whom they would now report. Having touted Scaracmucci, they were pleased that he accomplished his purpose of forcing out Priebus, according to the report.

Scaramucci's sudden exit was a demonstration of the four-decade Marine's effort to seize control of the operation of the White House. 'Gen. Kelly has the full authority to operate within the White House and all staff will report to him,' she said.

She said Scaramucci and Kelly came to the decision by 'mutual agreement,' although the official statement issued by the White House said it was Scaramucci's idea.

Asked about any changes in Spicer's role  he is expected to leave at the end of August  Sanders said: 'I'm not aware of any changes that have been made on that front.'

She made it apparent that Trump was behind the decision. 'We all serve at the pleasure of the president but I think that this was a mutually agreed conversation that took place between several people.'

Scaramucci unleashed a profanity-laced tirade against resigned chief of staff Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon last week.

Priebus resigned Friday. Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, a Priebus ally, quit the day Scaramucci's appointment was announced. A White House official predicted to DailyMail.com last week that Scaramucci wouldn't last long.

Scaramucci at first seemed unperturbed by Lizza's report. He defended his 'colorful language' but vowed to 'refrain in this arena'

Scaramucci turned on journalist Ryan Lizza, saying late on Thursday that he 'made a mistake in trusting a reporter'

Neither Priebus nor Bannon publicly pushed back at Scaramucci for the comments. Trump reportedly thought less of Priebus for failing to defend himself. In a CNN interview after his departure, Priebus declined to after Scaramucci and continued to laud Trump's accomplishments.

A White House official said Monday that no one on Trump's senior staff, including Bannon, Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, Spicer, and press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, objected to Scaramucci's firing.

'General Kelly's arrival turned out to be a neat solution to a real problem of Anthony's own making,' the official said, requesting anonymity to speak freely.

'I don't think anyone was shocked. Mostly relieved,' said the official.

The White House statement on Scaramucci's sudden exit echoed the same language Priebus used to announce his departure  deploying the same phrase, 'clean slate.'

NO CHAOS HERE: Despite a staff shakeup, an Obamacare repeal debacle, internal staff feuds and an ongoing tiff with his attorney general, Trump insisted Monday that his White House isn't a hotbed of chaos

Scaramucci was seen in an animated conversation with counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway early Monday afternoon.

He was escorted off White House grounds, a source familiar with the scene told CBS News. He is the second White House communications director, following Mike Dubke's resignation. Spicer also filled in doing the position.

Scaramucci never denied the profane comments, although he wrote on Twitter that he would refrain from such comments in his new role, and complained he shouldn't have trusted a reporter.

Monday was the first day for new chief of staff Gen. John Kelly, who is seeking to wrestle control of a chaotic and leak-prone White House.

Fox News reported Monday afternoon that Kelly was behind the firing. Trump hailed Kelly at a cabinet meeting Monday, lauding his accomplishments at the Homeland Security Department, which he headed before his new assignment.

Scaramucci himself began the job with seeming carte-blanche from the president on a mission to root out leakers.

On his first and only trip to the White House podium, he announced that then-deputy spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders would be elevated to press secretary.

MEET THE NEW BOSS: President Donald Trump talks with new White House Chief of Staff John Kelly after he was privately sworn in during a ceremony in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump, Monday, July 31, 2017, in Washington. Kelly was reportedly behind Scaramucci's departure

White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci walks into the White House in Washington, DC after giving a television interview, July 26, 2017

He said he reported directly to the president  and made repeated references to conversations he had with Trump during brief tenure.

Scaramucci immediately vowed to fire the whole communications staff if needed in order to find the source of damaging leaks.

Instead, it was Scaramucci on the outs after just 10 days on the job.

Scaramucci launched an extraordinary attack on his White House colleagues Reince Priebus, calling him a 'f****** paranoid schizophrenic', and accused Steve Bannon of 'sucking his own c***'.

Following his remarks, Priebus made no public effort to push back. By Thursday, Priebus was telling the president that he was resigning from his post.

President Donald Trump praised his new White House chief of staff John Kelly on Monday, saying at the beginning of a cabinet meeting that the retired general would be a 'superb' addition to the West Wing

Earlier in the day, Scaramucci called into CNN Thursday morning to talk about his bad blood with Priebus

Scaramucci ended the phone call by telling Lizza: 'Yeah, let me go, though, because I've gotta start tweeting some s*** to make this guy crazy.' He then posted this on Twitter, tagging Priebus

Lizza, having just spoken to Scaramucci on the phone, confirmed that he was blaming Priebus for the leak in this tweet

In a phone call with New Yorker reporter Ryan Lizza late on Wednesday night, a 'worked up' Scaramucci took aim at the White House Chief of Staff, accusing him of leaking information to the press about him, and Chief Strategist.

Following the publication of the article, Scaramucci turned on the journalist.

'I made a mistake in trusting a reporter. It won't happen again,' he tweeted.

During the call with Lizza, the Mooch, as he has become known, accused Priebus of leaking word of a dinner he had Wednesday night with President Trump and Fox news host Sean Hannity, along with former Fox News president Bill Shine and first lady Melania Trump.

Scaramucci suggested that his relationship with Chief of Staff Reince Priebus (pictured) was brotherly, then mentioned the Biblical brothers Cain and Abel. Cain murdered Abel. Priebus' last day was Friday

The profane interview also included attacks after senior White House strategist Stephen Bannon

'Oh, Bill Shine is coming in. Let me leak the f***ing thing and see if I can c**k-block these people the way I c**k-blocked Scaramucci for six months,' he said, in reference to the months he was kept out of the White House, reportedly by Priebus, after having sold his company.

He repeatedly pressured reporter Ryan Lizza to reveal the source of his tweet about the dinner, threatening to fire his own entire communications staff if he wouldn't reveal who did it.

July 31, 2017 Deidre Scaramucci is spotted heading to a doctors office with her son in Long Island NY.

After the visit she stopped by a Starbucks for coffee and a cookie for her son.

'Who leaked that to you?' Scaramucci asked him. 'What I'm going to do is, I will eliminate everyone in the comms team and we'll start over.'

Scaramucci didn't take a salary for his post. To join the government, he sold his company, SkyBridge Capital, although that deal was under review from government trade authorities because of a Chinese buyer.

Scaramucci accused Priebus of being behind the leak of a personal financial disclosure showing he could be worth up to $85 million, although the document behind the report turned out to be publicly available.

Scaramucci threatened almost immediately to be a source of constant distraction during his short tenure at the White House.

His estranged wife Deidre delivered a baby boy last Monday, during his fourth day on the job. Scaramucci skipped the birth in favor of riding Air Force One to accompany the president for a speech at the national Boy Scout Jamboree.

The baby was born with health problems and was whisked to neonatal intensive care.

The short-lived communications director visited mother and child on Friday  after attending another Trump speech on Long Island.

He was spotted boarding Air Force One without a wedding ring on.

He was widely lambasted for greeting the news of his expanded family by sending his wife a text message that read: 'Congratulations, I'll pray for our child.'

News broke about the same time that Diedre had filed for divorce early in July while she was eight months pregnant.

In yet another slight, Scaramucci was incorrectly listed as dead in the Harvard Law School alumni directory, the Washington Post reported.

Scaramucci does not have a role in the administration, Huckabee Sanders said. Before he was named communications director, he had a position at the Export-Import Bank. He took that position after a post a high-level liaison to business groups didn't pan out.
A champion powerboat racer was killed in a collision during a speed race at Michigan's St. Clair Riverfest Classic on Sunday afternoon.

Keith Holmes, 54, of Nunica, Michigan was manning the throttle of the 40-foot-long American Ethanol Cat Can Do boat during the collision with the 50-foot-long Miss GEICO boat, while they were racing at the north end of the course in St. Clair, Michigan.

Holmes, who captained the boat, was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Other racers were injured, but did not require hospital treatment.

Keith Holmes, 54 (right), died during a collusion with another boat while racing his power boat during the St. Clair Riverfest Classic in Michigan

The crash occurred at about 5.30pm and the day's races were then called off. Both boats involved in the accident are being held in St. Clair and authorities are investigating the cause of the crash, according to The Times Herald.

Undersheriff Tom Buckley of St. Clair County told FOX2 that the two boats were making their first turn when something 'forced one of the boats to veer off into the wrong direction,' and then hit the other boat.

Holmes, a champion racer, was the captain of the boat and the throttleman during the race

'I grabbed my binoculars and looked right at it, and Geico's front end of the boat was gone on the one side of the pontoon, and I could see guys jumping out of the boat afterwards, out of the other boat,' race viewer Ken Osiwala told FOX2.

Holmes's boats have been known to reach speeds of up to 200mph.

Holmes is the first fatality to occur during the 23-year history of the power boat race, Buckley said.

The American Ethanol Cat Can Do Facebook page posted a note to fans asking for 'prayers as we wrap our minds around the events of today. Remember all, as we look for peace and comfort. We feel the love of the boating community and your support is appreciated.'

Meanwhile, the Miss GEICO Race Team posted a note on Facebook saying that the team had been 'involved in a tragic racing incident' and extended thoughts and prayers to the American Ethanol team. They also noted that neither of the GEICO boat's crewmates were injured in the crash.

Holmes' friend, NASCAR announcer Jeff Striegle, told M Live that Holmes was 'arguably one of the best off-shore power boat racers in the world.'

Holmes is the first fatality to occur during the 23-year history of the St. Clair Riverfest Classic

A friend said Holmes was 'arguably one of the best off-shore power boat racers in the world

His last win was a photo finish in the Extreme Class of the 2017 Lake Race at Lake Ozark, Missouri. In 2016, Holmes' wins included the Superboat International Mentor Grand Prix in Cleveland, Ohio and the St. Clair Riverfest Classic, according to his team's website.

Earlier this year, Holmes spoke in Washington, DC and in Miami, Florida, discussing why he switched to racing with ethanol fuel and the benefits of using the cleaner fuel source.

Holmes' American Ethanol Cat Can Do was driver Jamie Sartin, of Norcross, Michigan. The Miss GEICO boat was driven by Marc Granet, of Boca Raton, Florida, and the throttleman was Scott Begovich, of Jupiter, Florida.
A Labour councillor has been suspended after she posted a tweet labeling gay pride marchers as 'paedophiles'.

Chika Amadi, a councillor on Harrow Council since 2014, shared a post from anti-LGBT Christian website LifeSiteNews.com earlier this month.

The 2014 article showed a picture from the 2011 Toronto Pride march with a young girl appearing to cover her eyes as a naked man walked past.

Earlier on Monday Chika Amadi, a councillor on Harrow Council since 2014, called gay pride marchers as 'paedophiles'

The deleted tweet was posted earlier this month, however she has since posted more coments with more homophobic undertones

A Twitter post from Sunday night re-posted the photo of the young girl covering her eyes

Her words with the now deleted tweet read: 'Walking about naked in front of children is nothing but paedophelia being labelled liberalism.'

When other Twitter users accused her of homophobia, a tweet sent in response said: 'Evil. If you dare walk naked in front of my child God will give you terrible assignment that will put you to perpetual sleep. Be warned.'

The Evangelical Christian stoked the ire of many Twitter users with her comments and was later suspended by the Labour party.

A Labour spokeswoman said: 'Chika Amadi has been suspended from the Labour Party pending an investigation.'

Harrow Council's leader, Sachin Shah, told the Evening Standard: 'As Leader of Harrow Council and a proud Harrow resident I absolutely reject and condemn these abhorrent statements.

'Homophobic views have no place in our community  which is one of the most diverse and accepting in all of the UK.

'We stand for equal rights for all  and I have asked the national Labour Party to deal with this issue swiftly and decisively.'

On her Facebook page last month the Councillor defended her beliefs in homosexuality with public posts

Mrs Amadi describes herself as a legal adviser, pastor and author and has been a councillor since 2014

Dylan Thomas and Sarah Kerton, the co-chairs of LGBT Labour, also issued a separate statement calling the comments 'offensive, distasteful and homophobic'.

They called for Harrow council's Labour group to suspend Amadi and for her to be reported to the party's standards committee.

'These comments have no place in modern society and are unacceptable from a Labour party councillor,' the statement said.

Mrs Amadi has a history of posting homophobic posts online. On her Facebook page last month she defended her beliefs in homosexuality.

She wrote: 'Recently one respectable man in my constituency questioned me on my faith especially on homosexuality () I warned him not to try me next time.

'Anyone who wants to bring me down from my political career because of my faith and stand on the word of God will encounter the burning anger of the God that I serve.'

In a comment underneath Amadi's post, one Facebook user wrote: 'Vultures will eat their flesh', to which Amadi replied: 'Amen. Thank you for standing with me and others in that circumstance.'

Mrs Amadi has a history of posting homophobic posts online as seen in the Facebook post above

In another Facebook post, the councillor shared a quote from the president of the Gambia in which he threatened gay men and women with prison.

The quote reads: 'Homosexuality is anti-humanity. I have never seen a homosexual chicken, or turkey. If you are convicted of homosexuality in this country, there will be no mercy for offenders. We will put you in the female wing of the prison.'

Mrs Amadi describes herself as a legal adviser, pastor and author and has been a councillor for the Edgware ward since 2014.
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The wife of Anthony Scaramucci was spotted strolling through Manhasset on Monday morning, enjoying some one-on-one time with her son Nicholas while getting away from her estranged husband.

Deidre Scaramuuci was all smiles as she and Nicholas made their way to a doctor's appointment in town and then headed over to Starbucks for some hot beverages and a cookie.

It was a difficult week for Deidre, who did not have Anthony by her side when she went into labor on Monday with the couple's son James, who arrived two weeks early.

Anthony did however send his wife a text message that day, writing to her from West Virginia: 'Congratulations, Ill pray for our child.'

James is going to need those prayers more than ever now as he is being raised by two unemployed parents, with Anthony resigning as White House Communications Director on Monday after 10 days on the job.

Waiting to exhale: Deidre Scaramucci, 38, and her 4-year-old son Nicholas (above) went out for coffee and a cookie on Monday

Not relaying the message: She could be seen smiling as she and her son walked though the town of Manhasset, just before Anthony stepped down as Communications Director

Growing brood: It was just one week ago that Deidre gave birth to the couple's second son, James (above leaving Starbucks with son Nicholas)

Enigma: It is unclear if Deidre knew at this time her estranged husband was stepping down from his job

Follow the leader: Sarah Huckabee Sanders cuts a fluorescent path as she exits the Oval Office ahead of Anthony and Kellyanne Conway

Deidre had a large grin on her face while Nicholas happily nibbled away on a cookie just an hour before news that Anthony's short-lived career as the White House Communications Director was over became public.

The pair made their way out of Starbucks together, greeting a dog and chatting with a few people as they made their way out of Starbucks.

It is unclear however if Deidre knew at this time her estranged husband was stepping down from his job.

The two have had a fraught relationship for some time now, and Deidre first filed papers in their divorce while nine months pregnant.

She looked phenomenal on Monday in a simple white tank and a pair of leggings with skulls and bones and stars.

Two hundred miles south, Anthony was briskly heading away from the White House after the news of his departure broke, accompanied by his former co-worker Kellyanne Conway.

Sarah Huckabee sanders later confirmed at the afternoon press briefing that Scaramucci has no role at all in the Trump administration at this time.

His departure came just hours after John Kelly was sworn in as chief-of-staff.

Anthony somehow managed to pack a lifetime of memories into the less than two weeks her served in his latest White House role.

It all began with the resignation of Sean Spicer on his first day in office, which was followed exactly one week later with the sacking of Anthony's primary White House foe, chief-of-staff Reince Priebus.

In between those two high-level departures, Anthony delivered what will go down in history as one of the most candid and vulgar interviews in White House history.

Anthony made it very clear during that conversation with Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker that he had his sights set on getting rid of Reince next, calling him a 'f****** paranoid schizophrenic.'

When asked how he felt about Steve Bannon meanwhile, Anthony commented: 'Im not trying to suck my own c***

Not a hair out of place: Two hundred miles south, Anthony was briskly heading away from the White House after the news of his departure broke

Leader of the pack: Deidre was nine months pregnant when she filed divorce papers asking that her union with Anthony be terminated

Cookie monster: Anthony somehow managed to pack a lifetime of memories into the less than two weeks her served in his latest White House role

Deidre Buchanan: After grabbing coffee it was back home to the family's multi-million dollar Long Island mansion

Main man: Deidre's newborn son James did not join her and Nicholas on their snack run

What no one was aware of at the time was that while Anthony was hunkered down at the White House, his wife was in a New York City hospital with their newborn son.

Adding insult to injury was the fact that Anthony then waited close to a week to see his child, opting to attend a dinner with Fox Mews host Sean Hannity.

It was just last Friday that multiple sources told Page Six that Deidre had decided to call it quits with the then-newly appointed White House Communications Director after three years of marriage.

'She is tired of his naked ambition, which is so enormous that it left her at her wits end,' said one source.

Another source said that Scaramucci's new boss was also causing problems in the couple's relationship.

'Deidre is not a fan of Trump, and she hasnt exactly been on board and supportive of Anthony and his push to get back into the White House,' said the second source.

On Friday evening, Scaramucci tweeted: 'Leave civilians out of this. I can take the hits, but I would ask that you would put my family in your thoughts and prayers & nothing more.'

This will be the second divorce for the father-of-five, who also has a daughter Amelia, 21, and two sons, 18-year-old Anthony Jr and Alexander, 24, who goes by AJ.

Ball had managed to keep a low profile throughout her husband's bombastic campaign to land a top-tier position at the White House on President Trump's staff.

She also seemed to be supportive of her husband's political ambitions as she appeared with him at events and even posed alongside him as he flaunted his 'Make America Great Again' cap.

Soon after he sold Skybridge, Scaramucci was named Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs and an assistant to President Trump.

'Anthony is focusing on his children, his work for the president and the American people. There is nothing more important to him,' said the second course, who is close to the moneyman.

'I dont know who Deidre thought she was marrying but anyone who knows Anthony knows hes an ambitious man.'

Gucci: Deidre carried a logo diaper bag for the Italian leather company that retails for $2,000

Chanel: She also lugged along her $2900 GST Shopper from the iconic French fashion label

Rome if you want to: Deidre capped off her look with a pair of $295 studded flip flips from Valentino, which she wore with her $185 SoulCycle spandex

Rainman: Anthony has not made any appearances since it was annoucned that Preibus had been let go on Friday

Neo: Anthony arrived back at his Long Island home on Saturday to see his six-day old son for the first time

Scaramucci got his start in the world of finance at Goldman Sachs, working at the firm for 17 years after graduating from law school in 1989.

He then left in 1996 to start his own firm, Oscar Capital Management, which in 2001 sold to Neuberger Berman.

It was in 2005 that he created Sky Capital, which became his biggest success and pushed his fortune over the billion-dollar mark.

One of the myth-like stories told about Scaramucci is the one about how he was hired, fired and then rehired by Goldman in the span of just one year.

That polarizing characteristics that could make such a situation seem plausible were certainly on display this week, when Scaramucci delivered a foul-mouthed tirade of an interview to a reporter from the New Yorker after failing to state at any point that what he was saying was off the record.

While Scaramucci chalked up his comments in the interview as 'colorful language', he cancelled his appearances on a number of panels at Politicon this weekend

Scaramucci has also hosted the Fox Business Network's Wall Street Week in 2015 after he pitched the idea of a revival to Roger Ailes.

And now he is free to be on TV all he wants.
Shocking video footage has captured the moment an offender on the run clamped his teeth around a police dog's ear and head.

German Shepherd Theo was deployed by his handler after a suspect refused to surrender to police following a chase through Hyde, Manchester.

Mobile phone footage filmed by a horrified bystander shows the man sink his teeth into the six-year-old police dog after it captures him in the middle of the road.

Mobile phone footage filmed by a horrified bystander shows the man sink his teeth into the six-year-old police dog after it captures him in the middle of the road

PC Gareth Greaves and police dog Theo were both injured during the struggle

The man had abandoned his car and led police on the chase in June.

He can be seen in the clip repeatedly hitting and kicking Theo as he tries to break free of the dog's grip.

The footage then shows a second man arguing with Theo's handler PC Gareth Greaves and shouting at the suspect on the floor to 'bite the dog's ear off'.

Back up officers arrived soon after and the two men were detained.

PC Greaves said the tussle lasted some seven minutes, during which time both he and Theo were kicked to the floor.

He was left with a split lip and a broken hand following the incident.

Theo suffered a wound to his head after being bitten and was unable to lie down for several days due to bruising.

The man can be seen in the clip repeatedly hitting and kicking Theo as he tries to break free of the dog's grip

Theo suffered a wound to his head after being bitten and was unable to lie down for several days due to bruising

PC Greaves said: 'It was a seven-minute incident. It was quite horrendous, I was kicked to the floor, had my lip bust. It was not nice'

PC Greaves said: 'It was a seven-minute incident. It was quite horrendous, I was kicked to the floor, had my lip bust. It was not nice.

'He wasn't giving up at all. He was a pretty determined individual. He put up quite a bit of resistance. We didn't finish until midday that day. My wife is a specialist operations officer.

'She helped patch Theo up. He had a nice warm bath and we cleaned up his head wound from the bite.'

The six-year-old dog previously appeared in the Manchester Evening News after he helped catch two burglary suspects in Saddleworth last year.

Theo has also been set on fire while on duty, helped catch robbers and even starred in children's book 'Theo and the Mystery Muffin Thief', penned by PC Greaves.

The man in the clip has since been charged with a public order offence, but was not charged for attacking Theo.

PC Greaves said the incident highlights the need for a law to recognise working animals injured while on duty.

PC Greaves said the incident highlights the need for a law to recognise working animals injured while on duty

He said: 'I went straight back to work and so did Theo, it is what they want to do, they want to work.

'Theo has been set on fire detaining a man, he has been assaulted, there have never been any charges brought against the man for this.

'He gets injured, he suffers and couldn't lie down for four days. To members of the public he is a police dog, but to us he is family.

'A lot of people don't realise the police dogs come home with us.'
The White House said Monday afternoon that all senior aides  including Donald Trump's family members  will report to new chief of staff John Kelly.

The move marks a change in the West Wing, where first daughter Ivanka Trump, her husband Jared Kushner, chief strategist Steve Bannon and other top officials have all enjoyed Oval Office walk-in privileges and direct access to the president.

'General Kelly has the full authority to operate within the White House and all staff will report to him,' press secretary Sarah Sanders said Monday during a late afternoon press briefing.

Asked if that included Kushner, Bannon and other heavy hitters, she replied: 'That includes everybody at the White House.'

White House chief of staff John Kelly (left) will have all the senior Trump aides reporting to him instead of to the president directly, in a staffing shakeup that will make the West Wing look more like previous administrations

Presidential daughter and policy adviser ivanka Trump will have to go through Kelly to get to her dad  at least at work

Jared Kushner, who heads a business innovation team and is in charge of a Middle East peace initiative, will also have to report to Kelly instead of dealing directly with his father-in-law

Sanders emphasized that Kelly, a retired Marine general, would 'bring new structure to the White House, and discipline and strength.'

'General Kelly has the full authority to carry out business as he sees fit,' she said.

Kelly's arrival in the West Wing followed the departure of Reince Priebus, whose factional approach to management drove some of his colleagues to find direct routes to the president instead of working through a traditional chain of command.

Priebus, a former Republican National Committee chairman, represented the establishment wing of the GOP that had once been intensely skeptical about Trump's chances to win the presidency.

He often clashed with Kushner and Bannon, with the three men often feuding over hiring and policy and plotting their own paths to get pet projects in front of Trump.

A more typical arrangement in modern White Houses has been for the chief of staff to serve as the Oval Office's ultimate gatekeeper, deciding which meetings the president should take and which matters rose to a level that required an executive decision.

Steve Bannon (left), who managed campaign strategy for Trump and is one of his closest advisers, is no longer expected to have 'walk-in' privileges in the Oval Office  the way it has been in previous White Houses. The same will be true of Kellyanne Conway (right)

Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, announced the changes during a Monday afternoon briefing

Kelly's first move on Monday after his swearing-in was to get the president's sign-off on the firing of communications director Anthony Scaramucci just 10 days after his appointment was announced.

'We all serve at the pleasure of the president,' Sanders said Monday, while framing Scaramucci's quick dismissal as the result of 'a mutually agreed' arrangement 'that took place between several people.'

It's unclear how Trump's everyday work style will be affected by the addition of Kelly as what will amount to a military-minded chief operating officer.

In addition to Bannon, Kushner and Ivanka Trump, outgoing press secretary Sean Spicer was known to duck into the Oval Office at will.

Outgoing White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus was seen as a territorial manager, pushing his own agenda as often as he advocated for others  forcing senior White House staff to go around him and deal directly with President Trump

Trump 'will still meet with whoever he wants,' an administration official said Monday  perhaps including social media director Dan Scavino, to whom he often dictates tweets in the Oval Office

The same can be said of White House social media chief Dan Scavino, who sits across from Trump's desk as the president dictates and reviews the content of daytime tweets.

'The president will still meet with whoever he wants,' an administration official said Monday. 'But Kelly will make sure that's a one-way street.'

The official said Kelly 'might make the president more productive' if he can field questions and streamline processes in a way that frees up Trump to deal with only the most urgent matters in greater depth.

'Reince [Priebus] wasn't very good at advocating for everyone else's needs,' the official added, noting that the outgoing chief 'came in with his own agenda.'
An undercover investigation by the Daily Mail today lays bare how car hire firms are heaping extra charges on to holidaymakers bookings.

Europcar, Goldcar and Firefly, which is owned by Hertz, all added charges to bookings by a reporter in Spain.

Budget and Thrifty, which is also owned by Hertz, quoted hugely inflated costs for renting a car in person  while their websites offered very similar vehicles at the same location for less than half the price.

Firefly: A worker insisted to an undercover Mail reporter that she had to take out the firm's excess insurance - or pay a 1,400 euro deposit

The Mails findings come after we revealed yesterday how tourists are being billed hundreds of pounds for repairs on hire cars which firms admitted they do not always carry out.

MoneyMails investigation today reveals how car hire firms also:

Pressure drivers to buy excess insurance  even if they have already bought full cover through a different company;

Block more than 1,200 from drivers cards when they use third party insurance;

Raise prices for those who book at the desk rather than online;

Charge inflated fees for petrol that you cannot avoid paying;

Penalise new drivers with an extra fee that isnt disclosed in terms and conditions;

Add a surcharge for hiring at the airport.

If drivers damage a hire car abroad, they often have to pay the first few hundred pounds to cover repairs  known as the excess.

But car hire firms have raised excess charges for holidaymakers involved in accidents to more than 1,000 on average. As a result, many drivers opt to pay up front for excess waiver insurance, which covers all costs. These policies are offered by car hire firms but are much cheaper if bought through online brokers.

An undercover reporter from MoneyMail flew to Malaga Airport in southern Spain and found rental firms are cynically penalising drivers who buy these cheaper policies.

There are no laws forcing car hire firms to accept an excess waiver insurance policy that a customer has bought independently.

That means they are free to demand that customers either buy the hire firms own policy or pay a deposit to cover potential damages and, if any deductions are made, later claim from their third-party insurer.

Martyn James, of complaints website Resolver, said: Car hire companies have got away with fleecing customers for decades. Its about time the authorities clamped down on these sharp practices.

James Daley, of consumer website Fairer Finance, said: Car hire is like the Wild West. It is impossible to know exactly what has been charged until the cars returned and even then customers end up holding their breath to see what the final credit card bill will be.

You're tired, stressed - and they're ready to rip you off

It is 10am and the arrivals terminal at Malaga Airport on the Costa Del Sol is teeming with bleary-eyed families and groups of friends. I have flown there because of repeated concerns that car rental firms are ripping off British holidaymakers, writes Victoria Bischoff.

A year ago the Mail revealed how firms were penalising drivers for buying insurance through third party websites. Excess waiver insurance policies  which can be bought online for about 10  pay out if theres any damage to the car.

But car rental firms insisted drivers could only use these if they also let them take a huge card deposit, only to be repaid if the car was returned undamaged.

On my return I found salesmen were up to the same tricks  and had added some more ... ready to wring extra cash out of the tourists leaning wearily on their suitcases, desperate to get to their hotels.

FORCED TO INSURE THE CAR FOR THREE DAYS

At Hertz I have booked a Fiat 500 for one day online for 57.92euros and separately taken out a policy from iCarhireinsurance for 8.97.

After approaching the desk, the pitch starts. At the moment there is not included the full insurance. Just the basic, the saleswoman says. I need to take from your credit card now 1,400euros.

The sum will be held and then be released as long as I return the car undamaged. I hand her the certificate showing I have full cover through another company. Yes, this is very good. But you still have to pay, she insists.

This is not with us. She says the only way to avoid the deposit is to buy Fireflys own insurance. But the firm does not offer cover for just one day. Instead, I must pay for three days at 56euros.

And, instead of being billed the price I was quoted online, the price has risen to 61.91euros. Firefly has added a charge for paying by credit card and tax. Whats more, I can only drive 60km without incurring extra costs. Anything over this and Ill pay 37p per km not including VAT.

A spokesman for Firefly said the credit charge fee is not included in the booking process as it only applies if a credit card is used to pay.

The firm said it is standard practice in the industry to block an amount as a deposit on the drivers card if they do not take out full cover with them.

It said its maximum deposit is 1,100euros and fee quoted was human error, for which we apologise.

In the event of damage or theft, a driver with insurance from another firm still has to pay Firefly up to the excess amount and then claim this back from the third party insurer.

FUEL OPTION COULD NOT BE CANCELLED

At Goldcar I also reserved a Fiat 500 for 44.86euros. I am served by Enrique. Im guessing youre not taking the insurance, he says. So you have to also leave a deposit of 1,100 euros.

I show him my excess insurance document. Yeah but thats with a broker  thats not with us, he says.

The salesman at Goldcar said third party excess waiver policies are not worth it and that, because of the time it can take to get refunds through them, it is better to spend a little bit more money.

Goldcar: The reporter was encouraged to take an expensive fuel option by salesman, Enrique

My options are to pay 60euros for Goldcars insurance or have the huge deposit held from my account.

I have chosen a Flex Fuel option, meaning I can return the car without having to fill up the tank. This is the best choice, Enrique assures me. All he needs is a 53 deposit  the cost of the full tank. If there is fuel left when I return the car Goldcar will refund the difference. The emptier the better in fact, he adds.

But there is a catch. Car hire firms typically charge more for fuel than a regular petrol station. So the emptier my tank, the more Ill overpay.

When I ask the salesman if Goldcar charges the same rate for fuel as a petrol station, he says a little bit more.

Only when I ask if there is a fee for this service, he reveals there is also a non-refundable 18euro charge. Can I switch so I can refuel before returning the car? We cannot change it. Youve chosen the vehicle that way, its that way, he says.

Enrique says there is an extra 5euro charge because I have less than four years on my driving license  a fee not mentioned in my booking terms and conditions.

The extras mean my 44.86euro bill is now 68  52 per cent extra. On top of this I must leave a 53euro deposit for a tank of fuel and a 1,100euro deposit in case I damage the car. So, for the duration of the holiday I could be 1,221euros worse off.

Europcar announced last month that it is buying Goldcar but it would not comment on current issues with the firm.

Goldcar said the charge for new drivers was not in its terms and conditions because of a mistake in the English version. It said there is also a 4euro a day charge for having a diesel car to reflect the additional benefits of lower fuel consumption, lower fuel price and usually a more powerful engine.

It apologised if it was the case that staff had not explained the insurance options clearly.

A spokesman added: The Flex Fuel option is popular because many customers are obliged to return their vehicles very early in the morning and cannot be sure they will be able to fill up before return.

CAUGHT OUT BY EXCHANGE RATE PLOY

At Europcar Ive reserved another Fiat 500 for the day at 101euros, which is double the price at Goldcar.

Again Im told I only have basic insurance. So in the event of a crash Ill be responsible for an 870euro excess.

A salesman recommends full cover with Europcar. When I pull out my own excess policy, he accepts it but a deposit of 300euro must still be held. This is to cover charges other than damage.

Europcar: The reporter was charged a 15euro fee for collecting a booked car at the airport

The petrol tank is given full, with no deposit required, and I must return it full. I hire the car and return it with no problems.

Later, when I look at the breakdown of charges, I spot a 15euro fee for something called premium station charge included in the 101euro bill. When I ask another saleswoman what its for Im told its an airport charge, automatically added by the firm to all rentals just because it is from the airport.

I then notice the bill an additional 3.25 per cent charge for converting the 101euro price into pounds. This has bought the total bill up to 92.38 instead of the 89.22 estimated on my email booking.

At no point was I asked if I wanted to pay in pounds. Doing so works out more expensive because companies can use their own exchange rate and there is usually a fee for doing the conversion.

A spokesman for Europcar said: The customer should be asked their currency preference. The company apologises if this didnt occur on this occasion and it would be happy to refund the difference. A premium location surcharge is applied because of the charges levied by airport operators.

CARS WERE 'DOUBLE THE ONLINE PRICE'

While at the airport I also tried renting without a pre-booking. At Budget, I ask for a car big enough for three plus suitcases. They dont have any left, Im told. Its either a very small or very big car.

For a seven-seat Volkswagen Touran its 1,200euros for seven days with full cover included. However, when I look online I see the firm will allow me to pick up a very similar car within 24 hours for 517.24euros  less than half the price.

At Thrifty, which is owned by Hertz, I am told that I can have a Citroen Picasso for 723. Its website is offering a similar car within 24 hours for 300.81.

A spokesman for Budget said: We have investigated this incident and have addressed the issue to ensure that it doesnt happen again.

'We strive to deliver a satisfactory rental experience and apologise that this was not the case in this instance. Across Europe, Budgets standard walk-up rates are the same as the non-prepaid rates online.

Thrifty said prices might be nominally cheaper on the internet  but the difference should not have been as high as we found. It said prices could fluctuate demand, destination and other factors.

For both Budget and Thrifty, online prices quoted did not include full excess waiver insurance. The fee quoted at the desk did.
The four Sydney men detained over an alleged conspiracy to bring down a plane may have already tried to smuggle a bomb onto an international flight before their arrests.

The Lebanese-Australian men might have then developed a different plan to get their improvised device onto a domestic flight after the first failed, law enforcement officials told ABC's 7.30.

It comes after it was revealed the men have clear links to Islamic State figures overseas as well as ties to the aviation industry.

The men have been named in reports as fathers and sons Khaled and Mahmoud Khayat and Khaled and Abdul Merhi, who are all related through marriage.

They remain behind bars despite not yet being charged following their arrest on Saturday.

Their target was allegedly an Etihad flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi with up to 500 passengers and crew aboard, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Scroll down for video

Khaled Khayat, pictured in a Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs jersey, is one of the Lebanese-Australian men who were arrested during Saturday's terror raids in Sydney

However, authorities have continued refusing to elaborate on the group's plot to 'bring down' a plane and won't confirm if a series of raids in the Sydney suburbs of Surry Hills, Lakemba, Wiley Park and Punchbowl were triggered by intelligence from Britain and the US.

Khaled Khayat's brother is believed to be a senior Islamic State figure while the other two men are related to Ahmed Merhi, who travelled to Syria in 2014 to fight for the jihadist group, the ABC reported on Monday.

Khaled Khayat reportedly has no criminal history and he has been pictured online wearing the jersey of his favourite rugby league team - the Canterbury Bulldogs.

One of his sons, who has not been arrested, studied aviation management at UNSW and mixes with pilots and airline workers, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

The men (one pictured being led away by police) were arrested in dramatic raids on Saturday

One of the accused is pictured with a bandaged head following his arrest on Saturday night

The son has posted social media pictures with people who were pilots, air traffic controllers, and airline managers, according to Fairfax, but there is no suggestion that he's connected to the alleged plot.

Two theories have emerged about the alleged plot, with the men reportedly planning to either smuggle a bomb onto a plan inside a meat grinder, or use a poisonous gas.

The investigation was not a sting operation but a developing plot that was detected, Reuters reports two US officials familiar with the arrests said.

One of the officials said the alleged plot was 'fairly well along' when Australian authorities disrupted it.

The target, the other official said, appeared to have been a commercial flight from Sydney to the Gulf.

Federal and State Police officers are pictured at a crime scene in Surry Hills following the raids

New South Wales Police officers arrive at a crime scene in Surry Hills in Sydney on Monday

Travellers at Australian airports will on Tuesday face another day of delays amid heightened security screenings.

Australian National University criminologist Dr Clarke Jones said the Government needed to go 'back to basics' and invest in prevention measures.

'It's been full steam ahead in relation to security, legislation, police and intelligence, all at the expense of community resilience and building up protective mechanisms within vulnerable communities,' he told AAP.

The men are being held in Sydney under terrorism legislation that grants authorities the power to keep them in custody as evidence is gathered to support charges.

The tip-off came from a foreign intelligence agency that intercepted communication to the alleged conspirators from Syria, the ABC reported.

NSW Police and forensic officers at the scene of a counter-terrorism raid on a property in Cleveland Street in Surry Hills

Local police reportedly wanted to gather more evidence before making arrests, but the British government warned it would issue a public security alert for travel to Australia if the raids were not conducted immediately.

The federal government has refused to reveal details of the alleged plot and will only say the alleged terrorists planned to use a device to 'bring down' a plane.

'I don't want to go into the detail but... there was a significant threat that federal police, ASIO, NSW police and other agencies dealt with and are in the process of dealing with,' Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton said on Monday.

Travellers are experiencing long delays at Australian airports after security was ramped up
Vice-chancellor Craig Calhoun, 65, left LSE a year earlier than planned

A university boss who was paid almost 1.7million over four years campaigned against immigration curbs and Brexit and even spoke in support of Jeremy Corbyn  before quitting his post and leaving the country.

American professor Craig Calhoun, 65, voiced admiration for the Labour leaders rail nationalisation plans and publicly backed Remain while leading the London School of Economics (LSE).

The vice-chancellor also led an impassioned campaign against Prime Minister Theresa Mays efforts to curb immigration, criticising what he called government attacks on foreign students.

Yesterday, the Daily Mail revealed how he earned 1,654,000 during his four years leading the LSE and, despite the university being ranked 155th in the country for student satisfaction, was handed 50,000 in performance-related bonuses.

Yet despite his stated concern for the wellbeing of the country, Professor Calhoun left the university a year earlier than planned in September last year to take up a post at a pro-EU think-tank in California.

Within months of Professor Calhoun leaving, the university  which receives substantial funds from the taxpayer and student fees  was awarded the lowest possible mark in the Governments Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF).

Then-London Mayor Boris Johnson, former Prime Minister David Cameron and Craig Calhoun at the The Electric City Conference in 2012

The London School of Economics (LSE) was ranked 155th in the country for student satisfaction

Peter Bone, Tory MP for Wellingborough, said: People will be amazed at the amount of money he got while at LSE. These astronomic payments, which are partly being funded by students, are wrong.

Furthermore, if you are heading up a university, you should not be politically campaigning. Vice-chancellors should be largely neutral. What you should be doing is encouraging every point of view, and I would very much not want to go and speak at the LSE if I knew the vice-chancellor was a mad europhile. Im glad hes in California now.

Professor Calhoun, who campaigned against Brexit in the run-up to last years vote, was a vocal critic of Mrs Mays efforts to curb immigration, and in an interview in August he said: The UK is as much a global leader in higher education as in sports. But Government attacks on foreign students could end this.

He gave a similar interview when he was appointed in 2012, warning: People are worried about the possibility the Government might suddenly and without notice revoke visas.

Professor Calhoun now heads the Berggruen Institute based in Los Angeles, which runs the Council for the Future of Europe that aims to research and debate ways forward for a united Europe.

In June 2016 he signed a letter to the Evening Standard alongside other vice-chancellors in which he warned of the damaging effect of Brexit. University heads were criticised for being self-centred in the run up to the Brexit vote after complaining that leaving the EU would lose them money.

Craig Calhoun and American actress Angelina Jolie at LSE

The vice-chancellor also led an impassioned campaign against Prime Minister Theresa Mays efforts to curb immigration

In October 2016  a month after his departure from LSE  Professor Calhoun wrote a post on his official Facebook page, which was open to the public, criticising what he called the right-wing UK government.

Responding to claims that foreign academics had been barred from advising the Government on Brexit, he accused Theresa May of utter madness and stoking popular xenophobia.

And in September 2015 he tweeted a link to a Guardian article about Mr Corbyns rail nationalisation plan, stating: Corbyn would renationalise Britains railroads: hard, but would reverse one of the least successful privatisations.

Yesterday, the Daily Mail reported that on top of his enormous pay package, Professor Calhoun lived in a grace-and-favour flat overlooking the Thames with a market rent of 120,000 a year, provided by LSE.

Yesterday, Robert Halfon, Conservative MP for Harlow and the new chairman of the education select committee, said of Professor Calhouns pay: This is not social justice for students.

He later added: There needs to be a lot more scrutiny on what vice-chancellors and senior managers at universities are being paid. This pay should be performance-related and entirely linked to not just the quality of teaching, but also the destination data in terms of employment for the students.
ON THE RUN: A manhunt continued on Monday for the last remaining fugitive, 24-year-old Bradley Andrew Kilpatrick, after he escaped from Walker County jail on Sunday night

A dozen inmates managed to escape from an Alabama prison by using peanut butter to cover the number on a door that lead outside and fool a new jail employee into opening it.

The 12 inmates broke free from the Walker County Jail in Jasper on Sunday night.

Eleven of the prisoners have since been recaptured but one remains on the run.

Walker County Sheriff James Underwood said the inmates covered the numbers identifying the outside door and persuaded the jail employee watching them on surveillance cameras to open it from his control booth.

'Changing numbers on doors with peanut butter - it may sound crazy, but these kinds of people are crazy like a fox,' Underwood said.

'He thought he was opening the cell door for this man to go in his cell, but in fact he opened up the outside door.

'Escapes happen.

'We've got some evil people down here, and they scheme all the time to con us and our employees at the jail. You've got to stay on your toes. This is one time we slipped up. I'm not going to make any excuses.'

CAPTURED: Ethan Pearl (left) and Larry Inman (center) and Christopher Smith (right) were all captured by authorities in the early hours of Monday morning

'I said it was human error and he made a mistake,' Underwood said. '(The guard is) a young guy, he hasn't been there that long. This young man was a weak link, and they knew it.'

Underwood said the escape happened about 6.20pm on Sunday and he estimated the inmates had cleared the barbed wire fence in less than 10 minutes.

He said the only person seriously hurt in the entire escape incident was an inmate who sliced his thumb climbing over a razor-wire fence.

All but one of the dozen inmates were captured within hours.

A manhunt continued on Monday for the last remaining fugitive, 24-year-old Bradley Andrew Kilpatrick, of Cordova, who had been jailed on charges of possessing marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

The fugitives were between 18 and 30 and had been jailed on a range of different charges.

Two of those who escaped were serving jail sentences for attempted murder.

Residents were told by the Jasper Police Department to stay indoors and turn on all their lights while the fugitives were on the loose.

CAPTURED: Johnny Richard Hunter (left) and (right) Timothy Chaz Coope

CAPTURED: Kristopher Keith Secrest (left) and (right) Christopher Cole Spain

The Walker County Sheriff's Office released a list of prisoners they were hunting for, as well as their mugshots late on Sunday.

Eight of the prisoners were captured on Sunday night, while three others were captured in the early hours of Monday.

Christopher Micheal Smith, age 19, of Jasper was captured at 4.21am. He was in prison for attempted murder.

Larry Inman Jr, 29, of Parrish, who is in jail for two counts of receiving stolen property, attempting to elude and failure to appear was apprehended at 1.52am.

Authorities also captured Ethan Howard Pearl, 24, of Jasper at 2.06am. He was jailed for resisting arrest, obstructing government operations, possession of drug paraphernalia, promoting prison contraband and failing to appear.

CAPTURED: Michael McGuff (left) and Steven Blake Lamb (right) escaped at about 6.30pm

CAPTURED: Steven Sanford Hartley (left), 27, was in jail for theft, while Quadrekas Latoddrick Key (right), 21, was jailed for possession of a controlled Substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, and attempting to elude

Steven Blake Lamb, 28, of Quinton was captured by police at 10.42pm. He was jailed for attempted murder, first-degree robbery, first-degree theft, reckless endangerment and probation revocations.

Michael Adam McGuff, 30, of Jasper was captured at 10.30pm. He was serving a prison sentence for third-degree escape and obstructing government operations.

The other inmates who were recaptured include Johnny Richard Hunter, 26, Christopher Cole Spain, 18, Kristopher Keith Secrest, 20, Quadrekas Latoddrick Key, 21, Timothy Chaz Cooper, 28, and Steven Sanford Hartley, 27.

The sheriff's office offered a $500 reward for information that led to the capture of the missing inmates.

Walker County Jail holds about 250 prisoners, according to its website.
Jeremy Hunt admitted yesterday that throwing money at the NHS could fail and that his own plans to rescue the health service had resulted in ballooning costs for the taxpayer.

The Health Secretary said different parties had 'made the mistake too often' of trying to solve problems with a big injection of cash, but without a proper strategy for how it should be spent.

He acknowledged that he too had made the same error, and that his efforts to deal with the fallout of the Mid Staffordshire hospital scandal had resulted in costly agency nurses being used to plug gaps.

Jeremy Hunt admitted yesterday that throwing money at the NHS could fail and bemoaned lack of a proper strategy in using cash injections

In frank comments, he said his lack of a proper workforce plan ended up with a 'ballooning of the agency bill, costing the NHS a fortune'.

He told Radio 4's Today programme yesterday: 'In the past we have made the mistake too often of saying the way you solve these problems is with a big injection of money. Health secretaries, different parties  and I hold my hand up to this myself as well  have thought that is the solution and they haven't had a proper workforce plan.

'The truth is you can put the money in but if you haven't got the doctors and the nurses to employ with that money, you aren't actually going to improve the care for patients.'

Mr Hunt made the comments as he announced plans to hire an extra 21,000 mental health care workers over the next three years. The recruitment drive is designed to transform struggling mental health services.

But the announcement comes at a time when the NHS is facing a severe workforce crisis.

In frank comments, he said his lack of a proper workforce plan ended up with a 'ballooning of the agency bill. File photo above shows woman getting a check up

Agency workers were used to correct historic under-staffing in the wake of the Mid Staffs scandal, in which failings including a lack of nurses contributed to the deaths of hundreds of patients at Stafford Hospital between 2005 and 2009.

Spending on agency staff soared as the number of full-time hospital nurses failed to keep pace with demand.

MILLIONS PAID TO AGENCIES TO PLUG GAPS One of the biggest drains on NHS resources has been the hiring of of agency nurses, with millions spent every year plugging severe staffing gaps on hospital wards. In 2012/13, 168 trusts spent a total of 327million on agency nurses. This soared to 485million in 2013/14, according to figures from the Royal College of Nursing. The RCN predicted the total bill for all 220 NHS Trusts would be likely to reach around 980million in 2015, although this has not been confirmed by official figures. In 2015, taxpayers paid five of the major nursing agencies used by the NHS an eye-watering 97million. In November that year, the Government introduced caps on the amounts that could be paid to agencies for temporary staff, but figures have shown the limits have been regularly breached by hospitals. In some cases agencies have received more than seven times the rate paid to staff nurses. Agencies have earned up to 1,600 per shift, compared with an average of around 212 a day for those employed by the NHS. Advertisement

In 2015, the Government introduced caps on the amount that could be spent on agency staff, but figures have since shown that the limits have been regularly breached as hospitals struggle to fill rotas.

Mr Hunt said: 'In the past, if you look at what happened in 2002  Tony Blair put a lot more money into the NHS  but five years later, Derek Wanless, the architect of those plans [who wrote a major report on public health], said that 43 per cent of that extra money went into higher pay and prices because he didn't have a workforce plan.

'If you look at me, I had to deal with Mid Staffs and we wanted a big expansion in the number of hospital nurses.

'We didn't have a proper workforce plan and ended up with a ballooning of the agency bill, costing the NHS a fortune, which we are now tackling.'

He added there had to be strategic thinking and a proper plan in place to make a difference.

Hospitals across the country have been routinely left at the mercy of agencies because staffing cuts have left them so short of full-time nurses.

In 2015, the Royal College of Nursing said the NHS was on course to spend 980million hiring agency nurses to plug severe staffing gaps on wards.

The figure amounted to an average of 4.2million per hospital trust. The total was up from 485million in 2013/4 and 327million in 2012/3.
A convicted criminal, who once left a toddler brain damaged following a horror car crash, has been appointed head of the family empire that runs Bernard Matthews.

Antonio Singh Boparan has been appointed as the managing director of Britains third largest food manufacturer 2 Sisters Food Group, by his millionaire father Ranjit Singh Boparan  nicknamed the chicken king. The 50-year-old controls a number of chicken factories across the country and is the director of some 50 businesses including Harry Ramsdens.

Now his son Antonio  an heir to the familys 190m fortune - looks set to take day-to-day control of the business.

Antonio Boparan Singh, right, is pictured his father Ranjit Boparan Singh outside court in 2008

However he is a controversial figure.

Antonio Boparan was jailed for 21 months for causing horrific injuries to one-year-old Cerys Edwards in a crash while overtaking into another vehicle while overtaking at 72 miles an hour in a 30 mile per hour zone in November 2006.

It left 11-month-old Cerys Edwards with a broken spine and severe brain damage. The toddler required round-the-clock care and eventually died from complications caused by an infection aged nine.

Boparan, then 19, was found guilty of dangerous driving, with the judge saying he had shown an arrogant disregard for safety. He served six months of his 21-month long sentence, before being released under curfew. Had Cerys died in the crash, he would have faced up to 14 years in prison.

Her father said at the time of her death: [Boparan] served six months. Cerys suffered for nine years and now she has lost her life.

Its an insult. He never served a proper sentence. Perhaps its time something happened.

In 2015, the 30-year-old was also jailed for a year after admitting his part in a bar crawl which left a man blind in one eye.

The incident centred on a brawl that took place at Birminghams Nuvo Bar during which two men were punched and kicked while one had his face slashed with a champagne flute.

The horror crash left 11-month-old Cerys Edwards with a broken spine and severe brain damage

The aftermath of the smash. The toddler required round-the-clock care and eventually died from complications caused by an infection aged nine

Antonio Boparan, who had splashed out 400 to secure a VIP table at the bar, punched and kicked a 31-year-old in a street shortly after the brawl after mistaking him for being a member of the group involved in the fight.

One of the victims suffered a fractured eye socket before ultimately losing use of the eye.

Now Boparan has been handed a top role, running the day-to-day business of the 2 Sisters Food Group.

The Birmingham-based food manufacturing company was established in 1993 as a frozen retail cutting operation but now employs more than 23,000 people and is one of the largest food companies in the UK by turnover.

It controversially bought Bernard Matthews from private equity firm Rutland Partners last September, using a pre-pack administration that meant it did not take on the turkey producers 75m pension black hole  leaving 700 workers at risk of losing at least 10pc of their retirement incomes.

Outside of Bernard Mathews the Boparan -family empire includes Foxs biscuits and it alos snapped up US-style restaurant chain Eds Easy Diner earlier this year.

A spokesman for 2 Sisters Group said Antonio Boparan had held a number of senior roles at the business, including managing director, for the past six years.

They said that changes to his status as a director had been filed last week with Companies House.

The spokesman said: These were for governance reasons and involved several other executives at the business.
A Perth property developer and father-of-two has narrowly escaped death after suffering a horror wipe-out at one of the world's deadliest breaks.

Luke Wyllie, 36, was surfing at Gnaraloo, in Western Australia's isolated North West region, when he fell off a wave and was dragged across the jagged coral reef.

The accomplished big wave surfer was pulled from the water and then airlifted from the remote break to Royal Perth Hospital with serious injuries.

He suffered a suspected fractured neck, broken ribs and cuts across his body as a result of the stack, but was in a stable condition on Tuesday, Perth Now reported.

Perth property developer Luke Wyllie, 36, (pictured) suffered a fractured neck and ribs after wiping out while surfing at a deadly reef break in Western Australia's North West

Mr Wyllie (pictured with wife Sam) was pulled from the water and then airlifted from the remote break to Royal Perth Hospital

Mr Wyllie is the stepson of late businessman Bill Wyllie, who had an estimated wealth of almost $500 million in 2003. His mother, Perth philanthropist Rhonda, now has a majority stake in the family's investment group.

It's believed Mr Wyllie was on holidays in Exmouth with his wife and two young children before making the trip five hours down the coast to Gnaraloo.

Big wave surfer Mick Corbett told Perth Now that Mr Wyllie was respected amongst the local surfing community.

'One time I actually flew up to Gnaraloo with him and he was one of if not the best surfers out there,' he told the publication.

'There was some pretty heavy hitters in the water at the time and it was about as big as Gnaraloo gets. So he definitely knows his way around there.'

Just last year an experienced surfer died at Gnaraloo, at a reef break known as Tombstones. The 55-year-old was pulled from the water with 'significant' facial injuries after colliding with the reef.

It's believed Mr Wyllie was on holidays in Exmouth with his wife and two young children before making the trip five hours down the coast to Gnaraloo
A California man who was found unconscious at the bottom of a shallow pool five days ago passed away on July 23rd.

Aaron Pappas, 43, arrived at the Asha Urban Baths in Sacramento on July 18 to practice some new breathing techniques he had been working on according to his girlfriend, and later left in an ambulance after he was found shortly after facedown in a pool.

There were no witnesses to the incident either, which authorities appear to have accepted was an accidental drowning after their initial investigation.

Om: Aaron Pappas (above) died after he was taken off of life support at the University of California-Davis

Scene: He was found facedown at the bottom of a shallow pool on July 18 (Asha Baths above)

Aaron was rushed to the University of California-Davis hospital and stayed there until he passed away on Sunday soon after he was taken off of life support.

Pappas' girlfriend Sarah Estabrook and his sister Brenda Berry both said that he had been practicing what is known as the Wim Hoff method at the time of his death, which informed a large part of the conclusion authorities came to regarding the death,

In that practice, individuals try and control their hyperventilation in an attempt to aggressively fill their body with oxygen.

Hoff has stated it can help with trauma, allowing an individual to hold their breath for two minutes of more.

Final farewell: Pappas' girlfriend Sarah Estabrook and his sister Brenda Berry both said that he had been practicing what is known as the Wim Hoff method

Namaste: In that practice, individuals try and control their hyperventilation in an attempt to aggressively fill their body with oxygen

A website devoted to the practice however strongly urges participants to avoid trying the technique near water out of fear of drowning should they pass out.

Pappas did not heed that warning, and that is why his friends and family believe he is gone.

'Aaron was a well respected teacher of yoga, including acro yoga, an awesome Thai masseuse, an Alcoholics Anonymous evangelist, an artist, a musician, a hiking guide, a magician, a servant, and a student of life. Aaron's mission was to help as many people as possible, regardless of their life's circumstances,' read his obituary in the Sacramento Bee.

'By virtually all accounts, he was extraordinarily successful. Part healer, part yogi, part student, and full of light; beloved son, brother, uncle, nephew, cousin, and true friend to many. Aaron will be profoundly missed.'
A man who attempted to smuggle a pipe bomb onto a plane was allowed to fly again days later because police did not realise the device was viable, a court has heard.

Nadeem Muhammad, 43, was attempting to board a flight to Bergamo, Italy, on January 30 when security officers at Manchester Airport found the device, made from batteries, tape, a marker pen and pins.

Jonathan Sandiford, prosecuting, told the trial at Manchester Crown Court Muhammad had intended to detonate the device once on board the Ryanair flight.

Nadeem Muhammad, was attempting to board a Ryanair flight to Bergamo, Italy from Manchester airport when the pipe bomb was found

But the court heard when airport security swabbed the bomb there was no trace of explosive on the outside and officers did not believe it was a viable device.

Muhammad, who was born in Pakistan but had an Italian passport, was questioned by police but not arrested and on February 5 boarded another flight to Italy.

Mr Sandiford said: 'At that stage nobody had realised this was a real device and the defendant was allowed to go on his way.'

He said it was only on February 8 when the device was examined again that suspicions were raised and the bomb squad was called.

The explosive was then sent for examination by expert Lorna Philp, who found it was a 'crude but potentially viable improvised explosive device'.

Muhammad was arrested when he returned to the UK on February 12.

Mr Sandiford said the explosive, which experts said would have been 'unreliable' and 'unpredictable', was made up of batteries, the barrel of a marker pen, pins, and double base smokeless propellant normally found in firearms ammunition.

Manchester Crown Court (pictured) where he denied possession of explosives with intent to endanger life or property and an alternative charge of possession of explosives under suspicious circumstances

If wires, protruding from either end of the tube, had been connected to each other the device would have detonated.

Mr Sandiford said: 'The prosecution say that on January 30 this year the defendant attempted to carry an assembled and viable improvised explosive device through security at Manchester Airport and onto the Ryanair flight with which he was booked to fly to Bergamo, or Milan, in Italy.

'The only reason he would have for trying to get that explosive device onto the aeroplane was that he intended to detonate it within the confines of the Boeing 737 aircraft.'

The device was spotted by officers carrying out routine searches at the airport and was found within the zip lining of the small green suitcase Muhammad was carrying.

When initially questioned he said the device may have been placed into his bag by his wife or another person.

Mr Sandiford said the prosecution could not be sure if terrorism was the motive.

He said: 'That may be the most likely motive but equally it could be a desire to commit suicide or another purpose altogether.'

He said the defence were expected to argue that the explosive was placed into Muhammad's luggage by an unknown person and for an unknown reason.

Muhammad, of Tinline Street, Bury, denies possession of explosives with intent to endanger life or property and an alternative charge of possession of explosives under suspicious circumstances
PhIlip Hammond was urged to put a sock in it last night as Cabinet anger over his public attempts to dilute Brexit boiled over.

The Chancellor was accused of undermining Theresa May after appearing to rule out the option of walking away from talks without a deal.

Downing Street moved to reassure Leave supporters that Theresa May will end free movement in 2019.

The Chancellor suggested change would take years and that the UK economy would remain recognisably European.

PhIlip Hammond was urged to put a sock in it last night as Cabinet anger over his public attempts to dilute Brexit boiled over

One Cabinet source said ministers were angry about his attempt to bounce the Government into backing his vision of Brexit while Mrs May was abroad.

He should put a sock in it, stop undermining the Prime Minister and get back to developing a sound economic plan, the source said.

The mood is angry. The PM is leading on Brexit, not him. He and his people need to go away  they are crashing the car before weve started to really get stuck into the big discussions. No10 insiders also voiced exasperation at Mr Hammonds claim last week that literally nobody wants a significant fall in EU immigration after Brexit  a view not shared by Mrs May.

There was also concern about his suggestion that a transition deal could last three years  ending barely two months before the scheduled date of the next election.

The Chancellor (pictured with Brazil's Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles) was accused of undermining Theresa May after appearing to rule out the option of walking away from talks without a deal

Former local government minister Andrew Percy suggested the Chancellor should resign if he wished to continue speaking out on Brexit. He said most Eurosceptics were willing to accept a time-limited transition from the EU to give new customs and immigration systems time to bed in.

But in a thinly-veiled swipe at Mr Hammond, he criticised almost daily freelancing about the contents of such an agreement, adding: The current principles of free movement have to end.

We need to maintain flexibility, but it cannot retain the current rules because that would not be delivering the will of the people. The only views we need to hear are that of the Government, not members of the Government.

If they want to express views as individuals they need to quit and make their views known as backbenchers.

There was also annoyance in Downing Street that a key immigration announcement was presented as if it would let free movement continue in all but name.

Theresa May has made it clear that free movement will end in March 2019

No10 believes the announcement of a registration scheme for new arrivals from the EU after March 2019 is a significant first step in sketching out a post-Brexit immigration system.

But it was presented by Mr Hammond and Home Secretary Amber Rudd last week as a way of avoiding a cliff-edge fall in EU immigration.

The PMs official spokesman said yesterday that Brexit would not be watered down, adding: Free movement will end in March 2019.

We have published proposals on citizens rights. There will be a registration system for migrants arriving post-March 2019. Other elements of post-Brexit immigration will be brought forward. It would be wrong to speculate what these might look like or suggest free movement will continue as it is.

Mrs Mays spokesman also said the PM was clear that any transitional deal  or implementation period  would be time limited and would not turn into some kind of permanent political purgatory.

No10 rejected an off-the-shelf transitional deal  such as temporary membership of the European Economic Area  which Mr Hammond told colleagues he favoured.

The row followed Mr Hammonds latest intervention in which he suggested the Government had all but abandoned the threat to walk away without a deal if Brussels tried to punish the UK.

He used an interview with French newspaper Le Monde to play down suggestions that the UK could turn itself into a corporate tax haven if Brussels played hardball.

Former local government minister Andrew Percy suggested the Chancellor should resign if he wished to continue speaking out on Brexit

I often hear it said that the UK is considering participating in unfair competition in regulation and tax, he said. That is neither our plan, nor our vision for the future.

I would expect us to remain a country with a social, economic and cultural model that is recognisably European.

Former Brexit minister David Jones said: I was surprised to see the Chancellors comments. We are over-taxed. If we want a vibrant economy we need lower taxation.

This is another instance of our negotiating position being laid out when these are cards we should be playing close to our chest.

It does weaken our position. It is unhelpful, as well as discourteous, to the Prime Minister.

It was Mr Hammond who first floated the idea of a low-tax, low-regulation model in January. No10 insisted yesterday that Mrs May could still walk away from the negotiations with Brussels.
JK Rowling has apologized to the family of a disabled boy after she hit out at President Donald Trump on Twitter for falsely accusing him of refusing to shake the boy's hand.

The author's apology came after her tweets were called out by Piers Morgan, however she has still refused to apologize to Trump for her accusations.

'Re: my tweets about the small boy in a wheelchair whose proferred hand the president appeared to ignore in press footage, multiple sources have informed me that that was not a full or accurate representation of their interaction,' Rowling tweeted just after 2pm on Monday.

'I very clearly projected my own sensitivities around the issue of disabled people being overlooked or ignored onto the images I saw and if that caused any distress to that boy or his family, I apologise unreservedly.

'These tweets will remain, but I will delete the previous ones on the subject.'

Rowling's original tweets called out the 71-year-old Republican president who appeared to avoid shaking the hand of a wheelchair-bound boy in an edited video on Twitter.

When a longer video clip of the encounter was released, it turned out that Trump had not snubbed the young boy and instead had welcomed him first in the room.

Morgan then called out the British author on Twitter and in his DailyMail.com column on Monday for her false claims before she finally apologized to the family.

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JK Rowling apologized to the family of a disabled boy on Monday afternoon one day after she hit out at President Donald Trump for his apparent refusal to shake the boy's hand. However, she has still refused to apologize to Trump for her accusations

In his column, the British journalist called out Rowling for her hatred of Trump, saying she 'loathes him with a raw, visceral fury'.

'Barely an hour goes by without Ms Rowling publicly attacking, mocking, sneering at and generally abusing Trump,' he wrote. 'Of course, that is entirely her prerogative and she is far from alone in this regard.'

However, Morgan wrote that her tweets turned out to be lies, which she hadn't apologized for or corrected at the time.

He said she would rather 'continue using a three-year-old disabled boy to falsely smear Donald Trump, such is her blind hatred for the man'.

He continued: 'By doing so, she is telling her millions of young impressionable Potter fans that its absolutely fine to lie and never correct or apologise for a lie  after spending the past two years telling them that Trump is disgusting because he lies and never corrects or apologises for his lies.

'This makes her a shameful, disgraceful hypocrite.

'Nobody should believe a word this self-appointed High Priestess of Honesty ever says again, about anything.'

Piers Morgan called out JK Rowling after she hit out at President Donald Trump in a series of tweets where she blasted the president after seeing an edited video that attempts to show Trump refusing to shake the hand of a disabled boy

But in the real, unedited clip shared by the White House, Trump is scene greeting the little boy (above) before starting a press conference on Obamacare. The edited video clip sent Rowling on a Twitter rant where she alleged that the president avoided the little boy (pictured right)

Trump had met with a group of 'victims of Obamacare' on July 24 before he gave a press conference about health care reform.

The 'victims' stood behind the president on stage as he gave his speech.

An edited video seemingly shows Trump taking the stage and avoiding shaking the hand of a a wheelchair-bound boy. That video has since been deleted from Twitter.

That clip sent Rowling on a Twitter rant about the 'stunning moment' where she alleged that the president avoided the little boy.

'Trump imitated a disabled reporter,' she tweeted to her 11 million followers. 'Now he pretends not to see a child in a wheelchair, as though frightened he might catch his condition.

'(Unless related to him by ties of blood, and therefore his creations) are tread with contempt, because they do not resemble Trump,' she continued.

The 51-year-old stated that her mother used a wheelchair before adding: 'So yes, that clip of Trump looking deliberately over a disabled child's head, ignoring his outstretched hand, has touched me on the raw.

'That man occupies the most powerful office in the free world and his daily outrages against civilised (sic) norms are having a corrosive effect.

'How stunning, and how horrible, that Trump cannot bring himself to shake the hand of a small boy who only wanted touch the President,' Rowling concluded.

The footage Rowling retweeted appeared to show Trump ignoring the child, but Morgan found the actual, unedited video that shows Trump greeting the child first.

The 52-year-old journalist and host of Good Morning Britain took to Twitter to call Rowling out for failing to apologize for her tweets, which were based on incorrect information.

'So @JK_rowling's been back on Twitter but neither deleted, nor apologised (sic) for, this disgraceful lie. Her Trump-loathing knows no honesty,' Morgan tweeted.

The 52-year-old British journalist and host of Good Morning Britain even tweeted Rowling the photos of Trump greeting the little boy. He asked, 'Why won't she delete & apologise (sic)?'

He later tweeted that Rowling has been active on Twitter but 'neither deleted, nor apologised (sic) for this disgraceful lie. Her Trump-loathing knows no honesty'

He added: 'JK Rowling, in eight tweets, raged that Trump snubbed a disabled boy. This is Trump greeting that boy. Why won't she delete and apologise(sic)?'

Morgan also called out Chelsea Clinton on Twitter questioning why she hadn't undone her retweet of 'Rowling's lie'.

'Yes, good point. Why have you not undone your retweet of this lie, @chelseclinton?,' he tweeted along the a screen grab showing that she had retweeted Rowling.

Clinton replied back to Morgan on Twitter and wrote: 'Hello Piers-I hadn't seen the full video until now. I removed the retweet. And, the President should have shaken the boy's hand at the end.'

Morgan also called out Chelsea Clinton for retweeting Rowling's messages

Clinton responded to Morgan and removed the retweet before stating: 'And the President should have shaken the boy's hand at the end.'

Morgan fired back at Clinton with a screen grab of what the boy's mother thought of the situation

He responded to her and wrote: 'Thank you, Chelsea. That is the right thing to do. Over to you, @jk_rowling...'

Morgan added: 'As for your suggestion President Trump should have shaken the boy's hand in the 2nd clip, @chelseaclinton - Monty's mum says this:'

He then shared a screen grab of a Facebook post where a woman, who claims to be the child's mother said: 'Uummmmm.....If someone can please get a message to JK Rowling: Trump didn't snub my son & Monty wasn't even trying to shake his hand (1. He's 3 and hand shaking is not his thing 2. he was showing off his newly acquired secret service patch). Thanks.'

Morgan isn't the only one to call Rowling out over her tweets on Sunday.

CNN's Brian Stelter tweeted her and said: 'Why hasn't @JK_rowling corrected her bogus tweets about this?'
The Chancellor was last night called on to stand up for the Falkland Islands as he prepared to make the first visit to Argentina by a British Cabinet minister for 16 years.

Philip Hammond will travel to Buenos Aires tomorrow for talks with president Mauricio Macri and other ministers.

The visit, part of a four-day trip to South America, is designed to revive trade links that never recovered after the 1982 Falklands War.

No British Cabinet minister has visited Argentina since 2001, when Tony Blair made a symbolic stopover at the Iguazu Falls on the border with Brazil.

Philip Hammond (pictured today with Brazil's Finance Minister Henrique Meirelle) will travel to Buenos Aires tomorrow for talks with president Mauricio Macri and other ministers

But relations have thawed following the election of President Macri, who has adopted a less confrontational stance over the Falklands, which Argentina claims sovereignty over.

The trip will provide a chance to drum up business for companies flying out with the Chancellor  such as the London Stock Exchange. But it comes just months after Argentina claimed Brexit could end Europes support for UK control of the Falklands, which it calls the Malvinas.

In 2015 Mr Hammond hit out at the then Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchners aggressive claim on the Falklands, saying: The bullying and harassment to which the islanders continue to be subjected is shameful - its counter-productive, its wrong and it must stop.

Tory MP Andrew Rosindell yesterday urged Mr Hammond to resist any attempt to barter away sovereignty in exchange for trade links.

No British Cabinet minister has visited Argentina since 2001, when Tony Blair made a symbolic stopover at the Iguazu Falls on the border with Brazil

Mr Rosindell, a member of the all-party Falklands group, said: The Chancellor is right to drum up business for Britain in Argentina. But one thing that will never be for sale are the British Falkland Islands.

The sovereignty of the islands must not, under any circumstance, be up for discussion. They may figure on the Buenos Aires spreadsheet as an asset that it would like to bid for, but the rights and freedoms of the islanders must never be traded away.

Mr Hammond held trade talks with the Brazilian government yesterday and will meet local business leaders in the country today before heading to Argentina.
Following White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci's surprise ouster on Monday, Twitter has exploded with mirthful insults in response.

Scaramucci's tenure in the role lasted only 10 days from the time it was announced, and less than a week from his official start date on July 26.

The brief White House turn of the hedge fund manager was marked by near daily drama.

'The Mooch' last week gave a profanity-laced interview to the New Yorker eviscerating other top White House staffers.

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Scaramucci's tenure in the role lasted only 10 days from the time it was announced, and less than a week from his official start date on July 26

Many made reference to Queen's hit song 'Bohemian Rhapsody', which includes the lyrics 'Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?'

Others thought the closing lyrics of the Queen song summed up the situation neatly

Mashable journalist Chris Taylor referred to the brevity of Scaramucci's tenure in the role

His wife also gave birth last week in his absence, though he sent her a congratulatory text message.

It emerged shortly after that his wife had filed for divorce.

Scaramucci is also believed to have engineered the firing of former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus last week, who was replaced by DHS Secretary John Kelly.

In a cruel twist, Kelly is believed to have been behind Scaramucci's firing shortly after he took over as chief of staff on Monday.

All of this made for much mirth in the peanut gallery on Twitter.

Many made reference to Queen's hit song 'Bohemian Rhapsody', which includes the lyrics 'Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?'

Scaramouche is a stock clown character of the classic Italian commedia dell'arte theatrical form, and the fandango is a lively couples dance traditional to Spanish culture.

Actress Kate Hudson, star of the 2003 film How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, got in on the fun

Another user found a piece of salient romantic advice in the day's firing drama

Others mocked the standard canned 'family' excuse for high-level terminations, in light of Scaramucci's pending divorce

Scaramucci's wife also gave birth last week in his absence, though he sent her a congratulatory text message

'I guess he would not do the Fandango,' wrote actress Lesli Margherita.

'I did the math, and Scaramucci lasted for exactly 2,400 plays of Bohemian Rhapsody,' observed Mashable journalist Chris Taylor, referring to the brevity of Scaramucci's tenure in the role.

Others thought the closing lyrics of the Queen song summed up the situation neatly.

'I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy, because I'm easy come, easy go, little high, little low, any way the wind blows,' joked Mimi LeRoche.

Another user found a piece of salient romantic advice in the day's firing drama.

Twitter erupted in mockery after Scaramucci's surprise ouster on Monday a week into the job

Genetic scientist Eugene Gu found a familiar sequence in the past week's events

Brian Beutler, editor at the New Republic, found a parallel between Scaramucci and the German legend of the scholar who made a pact with the devil

'Marry whoever you were most excited to share the Mooch news with,' cracked Joe Berkowitz, a pop culture writer for Fast Company.

Others mocked the standard canned 'family' excuse for high-level terminations, in light of Scaramucci's pending divorce.

'The Mooch is leaving his job to spend more time with his...oh, wait,' wrote comedienne Jen Kirkman.

Genetic scientist Eugene Gu found a familiar sequence in the past week's events.

'He got hired, divorced, had a baby, and fired in 10 days. Like a fruit fly,' wrote Gu.

Attempts to empathize with the human side of Scaramucci's wild ride in the limelight were not immune from mockery

Brian Beutler, editor at the New Republic, found a parallel between Scaramucci and the German legend of the scholar who made a pact with the devil, who granted the man his magical powers in exchange for his soul after death.

'The Mooch is like Faust, if Faust made his bargain on live television and then immediately slipped on a banana peel and died,' Beutler wrote.

Attempts to empathize with the human side of Scaramucci's wild ride in the limelight were not immune from mockery.

'In all seriousness, this is a sad story. Not a laugher. Guy sold his company, divorced his wife, didn't see his kid's birth, for.... this,' wrote Sam Stein, politics editor at the Daily Beast.

'This tweet does a great job of succinctly summarizing how funny this is,' responded Rodger Sherman.
A new generation of electric cars which rolled off the production line last week are being hailed as the Ford Model T of the modern age.

The arrival of the Tesla Model 3 has been described as a watershed moment for electric cars, which have long been considered costly, inefficient and impractical.

With a predicted price tag of just 30,000 after government grants, it is comfortably the most affordable Tesla model to come to market.

The arrival of the Tesla Model 3 (pictured) has been described as a watershed moment for electric cars, which have long been considered costly, inefficient and impractical

Just as the Ford Model T brought the internal combustion engine to the masses in 1908, experts predict the Tesla Model 3 will thrust electric cars into the mainstream.

The first 30 models were handed over to customers during a glitzy ceremony at the companys factory in California last Friday.

It came two days after the environment secretary Michael Gove announced a ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars from 2040.

The expectation that other countries will follow suit has sent Teslas shares soaring. The companys market value has now overtaken that of Ford, even though it has never logged a profit.

It has also bloated the personal fortune of billionaire co-founder Elon Musk, the South African-born space pioneer and PayPal founder.

The first 30 models were handed over to customers during a glitzy ceremony at the companys factory in California last Friday

The new car is expected to arrive in UK showrooms next year. Musk, 46, told the launch event that he expects to churn out 500,000 Model 3s a year.

He has vowed to radically change the way people drive by taking on well-established car giants with the companys range of sleek electric vehicles.

He said last week: This is the day weve been working towards since the beginning of the company. If youre trying to make a difference in the world you have to make cars that people can afford.

The Tesla Model 3 goes from zero to 60mph in less than six seconds and can cruise for at least 200 miles. It can be charged from a household plug, or from one of Teslas roadside charging points.

It has hardware installed which will allow for driverless journeys.

With only a small number of moving parts, the makers boast it is virtually maintenance-free. The car doesnt have a key, instead drivers open it using their smartphone.

Over time, drivers will have the option to pay for iPhone-style updates which will unlock new features and correct any glitches.

A 40,000 version will also be on offer. That will have a range of 310 miles and even faster acceleration.

The new car is expected to arrive in UK showrooms next year. Elon Musk, founder, 46, told the launch event that he expects to churn out 500,000 Model 3s a year

The new Tesla models are a far cry from early electric vehicles which have been criticised as cumbersome, slow and expensive gimmicks reserved for the super-rich.

Their popularity in the UK has also been stifled by a lack of public charging points. There are just 11,000 in the UK, of which only 800 offer fast charging  effectively ruling out long journeys in electric-only cars.

However the Government is introducing legislation which will soon require all petrol stations and motorway services to install electric charge points.

It has previously announced that 35million will be spent on charge points on streets and in workplaces.

Earlier this month, Volvo announced that all of its new models will be either fully electric or hybrid. The RAC Foundation said it could be the spark which turns modern motors electric. Figures have revealed a 15 per cent drop in UK sales of diesels after stark warnings about pollution and costly levies.
A British butterfly is flying high again after coming back from the brink of extinction.

The Comma, named for the white punctuation mark shape on the underside of its wings, was close to dying out a century ago.

Its caterpillars ate hops, but numbers fell as hop-farming declined with the loss of village breweries.

The Comma, named for the white punctuation mark shape on the underside of its wings, was close to dying out a century ago

However the Comma adapted to eat nettles instead, and so has made an extraordinary comeback, with a 138 per cent population rise in the last 40 years alone.

Once it was only found in a few counties in the Welsh borders and south-east England  but now it is one of the few species increasing its range.

The butterflies, which look like a withered leaf when resting, have spread 250 miles since the 1970s throughout England and Wales, to the Isle of Man and even southern Scotland.

Commas can be found feeding on bramble, thistles and knapweed along rivers. They are believed to have benefited from the changing climate, needing the warmth of the sun to be active.

The butterflies, which look like a withered leaf when resting, have spread 250 miles since the 1970s throughout England and Wales, to the Isle of Man and even southern Scotland

Conservationists now want to keep track of their numbers as part of the Big Butterfly Count, which encourages people to spot and record butterflies during three weeks of summer until August 6.

Sir David Attenborough, president of Butterfly Conservation, said: The Comma is one of our most exquisite butterflies, and hearteningly is also something of a butterfly success story.
The maritime tradition of the captain going down with the ship is tied to the Victorian ideals of sacred honour, service and responsibility.

Captain Edward Smith of the Titanic is perhaps best known for perishing with the RMS Titanic when it sank on its maiden voyage when it sank in 1912.

However, a new study suggests we have not lost this sense of duty.

Research found the desire to protect ones reputation is as strong as ever and is grounded in humans' evolutionary psychology.

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New research suggests the desire to protect ones reputation is as strong as ever and is grounded in humans' evolutionary psychology (stock image)

DEATH BEFORE DISHONOUR The paper said that people's survival depends greatly on participating with others and damage to their reputation might mean they could no longer participate in cooperative society. Researchers believe that keeping a good reputation means other people will want to socialise with you which in turn increases your chances of survival. In this sense it might make sense to die rather than dishonour your genes and by extension your family and successors. Across 100 countries, the report found people believed being physically safe was as important as being rich, successful and having the freedom to do things their own way. Advertisement

In a new paper called Death before Dishonour, researchers found people would often go to extreme lengths to protect their honour.

Thirty per cent of people would rather fully submerge their hands in a pile of revolting worms and 63 per cent would rather endure physical pain than be called a racist, researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found.

'A 'big data' study found that maintaining a moral reputation is one of people's most important values', researchers found.

'In making hypothetical choices, high percentages of 'normal' people reported preferring jail time, amputation of limbs, and death to various forms of reputation damage (i.e., becoming known as a criminal, Nazi, or child molester)', they said.

The paper found people's survival often depended greatly on participating with others.

Researchers believe that keeping a good reputation means other people will want to socialise with you.

This in turn greatly increases someone's chance of survival.

In this sense it might make sense to die rather than dishonour your genes and by extension your offspring.

Captain Edward Smith of the Titanic (pictured) is perhaps best known for perishing with the RMS Titanic when it sank on its maiden voyage when it sank in 1912

Across 100 countries, the report found people believed being physically safe was as important as being rich, successful and having the freedom to do things their own way.

Researchers used the 2015 World Values Survey where participants were asked to rate certain aspirations, such as 'to be rich' and how important it was to them, writes The Times.

Then, researchers asked people would they would prefer in certain scenarios - for example 'get a swastika tattooed prominently on your face' or 'die right now'.

One hundred and twenty three university students were asked what they would prefer in certain scenarios - from freezing their fingers to submerging their hands in a bucket of worms.

'Although the body will degenerate and eventually perish, an immaterial reputation is potentially immortal,' researchers said.
Russia says it will deploy powerful lasers on its new sixth-generation fighter jets to destroy enemy missiles.

The lasers will be able to 'burn' enemy homing systems on attacking missiles, according to the Russian defence industry.

But it could be a while before we see the aircraft lasers in action, with experts predicting they won't be ready until at least 2035.

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In the hope of destroying enemy missiles, Russia says it will deploy powerful lasers on its new sixth-generation fighter jets. The lasers will be able to 'burn' enemy homing systems on attacking missiles, according to the Russian defence industry (artist's impression)

RUSSIAN LASER AIRCRAFT Russia plans to implement the lasers on its sixth-generation MiG-41 aircrafts. The lasers will be able to physically destroy attacking missiles' homing heads. Mr Vladimir Mikheyev said: 'Roughly speaking, we'll be able to burn out "the eyes" of missiles that "look at us."' Advertisement

Russia plans to implement the lasers on its sixth-generation MiG-41 aircrafts.

Speaking to Russian news agency, TASS, Vladimir Mikheyev, the Adviser to the First Deputy CEO of Radio-Electronic Technologies Group (KRET), said: 'We already have laser protection systems installed on aircraft and helicopters, and now we are talking about developments in the field of powered lasers that will be able to physically destroy attacking missiles' homing heads.

'Roughly speaking, we'll be able to burn out "the eyes' of missiles that "look at us."

'Naturally, such systems will be installed on sixth-generation aircraft as well.'

Russia says it will deploy the powerful lasers on its new sixth-generation MiG-41 fighter jets. Pictured is a MiG-31 aircraft

While Mr Mikheyev is optimistic about the laser aircrafts, it could be a while before they are deployed.

Experts speaking to National Interest said that the sixth generation aircraft is still in the stage of conceptual design.

Vasily Kashin, a Russian defence analyst at Moscow's Higher School of Economics (HSE) told The National Interest that the sixth generation aircraft would be 'at best deployed by 2035-40.'

The news comes just two months after the US army successfully hit an unmanned target using a high-powered laser mounted on a Apache AH-64 helicopter

LASER WEAPONS Laser systems have been on the Apache since 1984 when it first entered service. However, they were low-powered and could only guide air-to-ground missiles. The test was the 'first time that a fully integrated laser system successfully engaged and fired on a target from a rotary-wing aircraft over a wide variety of flight regimes, altitudes and air speeds,' defence company Raytheon said. The weapon is almost silent and invisible which makes it particularly hard for enemies to detect and will be on the battlefield 'sooner rather than later'. The US military is increasingly looking into laser weapons and there has been a 30-kilowatt laser on the USS Ponce - an amphibious transport dock ship - since 2014. Advertisement

Alongside the laser aircraft, Mr Mikheyev sees a swarm of unmanned drones being deployed.

He said: 'One drone in a formation flight will carry microwave weapons, including guided electronic munitions while another drone will carry radio-electronic suppression and destruction means, and a third UAV will be armed with a set of standard weaponry.'

The news comes just two months after the US army successfully hit an unmanned target using a high-powered laser mounted on a Apache AH-64 helicopter.

The demonstration was the first time a fully integrated laser system was successfully fired on a target from a rotary-wing aircraft, according to defence company Raytheon who manufactured the device.

The weapon is almost silent and invisible which makes it particularly hard for enemies to detect and could be used on the battlefield in the near future.

The laser, which was tested at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico successfully hit a target 0.9 miles (1.4 km) away.

The laser, which was tested at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico successfully hit a target 0.9 miles (1.4 km) away

Demonstration is the first time a fully integrated laser system has successfully fired on a target from a rotary-wing aircraft (artist's impression), according to defence company Raytheon

The laser was manufactured by Raytheon who said their device 'provides long-range surveillance, target acquisition, tracking, range finding and laser designation'.

Laser systems have been on the Apache since 1984 when it first entered service, but they were low-powered and could only guide air-to-ground missiles.

These lasers are particularly accurate because unlike bullets and artillery which fire in an arch, they fire in straight lines and are powerful enough to destroy targets.

These lasers (pictured) are particularly accurate because unlike bullets and artillery which fire in an arch, they fire in straight lines and are powerful enough to destroy targets

The company used an electro-optical infrared sensor - which is a version of the Multi-Spectral Targeting System.

'By combining combat proven sensors, like the MTS [Multi-Spectral Targeting System], with multiple laser technologies, we can bring this capability to the battlefield sooner rather than later', said Art Morrish, vice president of Advanced Concept and Technologies for Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems.

The weapon (pictured) is almost silent and invisible which makes it particularly hard for enemies to detect and could be used on the battlefield in the near future

According to Matthew Ketner, branch chief of the High Energy Laser Controls and Integration Directorate, the power of the laser beam can be adjusted for any material - there is even a non-lethal adjustment for human targets.

Mr Katner said lasers have taken out cruise missiles, mortars and other projectiles during testing.

'Unlike a traditional gun lasers don't run out of bullets', he said.

Laser systems have been on the Apache (pictured) since 1984 when it first entered service. However, they were low-powered and could only guide air-to-ground missiles

But they do use a lot of energy and are unable to penetrate haze, smoke and materials with anti-laser coatings.

The US military is increasingly looking into laser weapons and there has been a 30-kilowatt laser on the USS Ponce - an amphibious transport dock ship - since 2014.

It has been tested extensively and is authorised for defensive use, Mr Katner said.

At the end of May, Department of Defence bosses revealed a new $3.2m (2.5m) project with Clemson University engineers to investigate the science behind laser weapons.

The military has already deployed some lasers as defensive weapons to shoot down incoming missiles and drones, but the two projects will address underlying issues with making them more widespread.

Earlier this year a silent killer that could spell the end for enemy drones was tested by US Army infantry troops for the first time.

The laser, which was tested at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico successfully hit a target 0.9 miles (1.4 km) away

During a ten day firing exercise, 50 drones were brought down by the laser weapon, an improved version of a system that was tested last year.

And it is hoped that Stryker infantry-transport vehicles mounted with the laser could soon be deployed to the front lines.

The Mobile High Energy Laser (MEHEL) is just one system the US Army is exploring to deal with the growth of inexpensive off-the-shelf unmanned aerial systems that are being used in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Nasa's Cassini spacecraft has captured Saturn's southern auroras, or southern lights, in the closest detail ever recorded.

The natural light displays at the planet's poles are created by charged particles raining down into the upper atmosphere making gases there glow, the same process that produces Earth's auroras.

The charged particles are a steady stream of material released from the sun, known as the solar wind.

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Nasa's Cassini spacecraft has captured Saturn's southern auroras, or southern lights, in the closest detail ever recorded. The images (inset) were taken in visible light using the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 20, 2017, at a distance of about 620,000 miles (one million km) from Saturn

CAPTURING SATURN'S SOUTHERN AURORA The images were taken in visible light using the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 20, 2017, at a distance of about 620,000 miles (1 million km) from Saturn. The views look toward 74 degrees south latitude on Saturn and the image scale is about 0.9 mile (1.4km) per pixel on Saturn. The small image size is the result of a setting on the camera that allows for shorter exposure times. This enabled Cassini to take more frames in a short time and still capture enough photons from the auroras for them to be visible. Advertisement

The dark area at the top of the black and white images is Saturn's night side.

The auroras rotate from left to right, curving around the planet as Saturn rotates over about 70 minutes, compressed into a movie sequence of about five seconds.

Background stars are seen sliding behind the planet.

Cassini was moving around Saturn during the observation, keeping its gaze fixed on a particular spot on the planet.

This causes a shift in the distant background over the course of the observation period.

In a written statement, a Nasa spokesman said: 'Cassini gazed toward high southern latitudes near Saturn's south pole to observe ghostly curtains of dancing light, Saturn's southern auroras, or southern lights

'Some of the stars seem to make a slight turn to the right just before disappearing.

'This effect is due to refraction, the starlight gets bent as it passes through the atmosphere, which acts as a lens.

'Random bright specks and streaks appearing from frame to frame are due to charged particles and cosmic rays hitting the camera detector.'

The aim of the observation was to observe seasonal changes in the brightness of Saturn's auroras, and to compare with the simultaneous observations made by Cassini's infrared and ultraviolet imaging spectrometers.

The images were taken in visible light using the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 20, 2017, at a distance of about 620,000 miles (1 million km) from Saturn.

The views look toward 74 degrees south latitude on Saturn and the image scale is about 0.9 mile (1.4km) per pixel on Saturn.

The small image size is the result of a setting on the camera that allows for shorter exposure times.

This enabled Cassini to take more frames in a short time and still capture enough photons from the auroras for them to be visible.

The Cassini spacecraft has circled Saturn for nearly 13 years, gathering unprecedented insight on the ringed planet and its many moons.

The dark area at the top of this scene is Saturn's night side. The auroras rotate from left to right, curving around the planet as Saturn rotates over about 70 minutes, compressed here into an animated sequence of about five seconds

This false-colour composite image, constructed from data obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft in 2008, was used as a comparison in the video. It shows the glow of auroras streaking out about 600 miles (1,000km) from the cloud tops of Saturn's south polar region

Twenty years after leaving Earth, NASA's Cassini spacecraft (artist's impression) has begun its final mission. Cassini's mission will officially terminate on September 15, after a planned plummet through Saturn's atmosphere.

Cassini's mission will officially terminate on September 15, after a planned plummet through Saturn's atmosphere.

NASAs Cassini spacecraft is now 15 weeks into its grand finale dives, dipping in and out of the narrow gap between Saturn and its rings.

As it comes closer to the planet than ever before, Cassini is making surprising observations that could incite more questions than answers.

This includes one of its last looks at the Saturn atmosphere that will soon become its final resting place.

NASAs Cassini spacecraft is now 15 weeks into its grand finale dives, dipping in and out of the narrow gap between Saturn and its rings  but, as it comes closer to the planet than ever before, Cassini is making surprising observations that could incite more questions than answers

A breathtaking image taken roughly 680,000 miles from the planet shows the banded arc stretching far out into the blackness of space, in a scene reminiscent of the stunning rainbows seen here on Earth  albeit without the characteristic sequence of colors

This false-color view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft gazes toward the rings beyond Saturn's sunlit horizon. Along the limb (the planet's edge) at left can be seen a thin, detached haze. This haze vanishes toward the right side of the scene

The latest false-colour view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, released on July 28, shows it gazing toward the rings beyond Saturn's sunlit horizon.

Along the limb (the planet's edge) at left can be seen a thin, detached haze, which vanishes toward the right side of the image.

A breathtaking image taken roughly 680,000 miles from the planet released the week before also shows the banded arc stretching far out into the blackness of space.

The scene is reminiscent of the stunning rainbows seen here on Earth  albeit without the characteristic sequence of colours.
In the 1980s, researchers discovered a massive garbage patch in North Pacific between Hawaii and California - dubbed the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

But now, researchers have discovered a new garbage patch in the South Pacific - and it's about 1.5 times the size of Texas.

The new garbage patch, uncovered by a team of researchers and volunteers on a six-month voyage, consists mostly of tiny pieces of plastic that are difficult to remove from the ocean.

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An research expedition uncovered a large amount of plastic in a remote area off the coasts of Chile and Easter Island while sailing aboard the ORV Alguita. Pictured is a sample of the tiny pieces of plastic collected on the expedition

The research expedition, led by Captain Charles Moore and his team of volunteers, uncovered a large amount of plastic in a remote area off the coasts of Chile and Easter Island while sailing aboard the ORV Alguita.

'We discovered tremendous quantities of plastic,' Moore told Research Gate.

'My initial impression is that our samples compared to what we were seeing in the North Pacific in 2007, so its about ten years behind,' said Moore, who has worked to raise awareness about plastic pollution since he saw the North Pacific patch while captaining a racing yacht in the 1990s.

Moore says the newly discovered southern patch could be as big as a million square kilometers, or about 1.5 times the size of Texas.

WHAT ARE GARBAGE PATCHES? Garbage patches are regions with high concentrations of marine debris, according to the NOAA. They form from rotating ocean currents called gyres, and are not actually islands of trash, as commonly believed. These patches are mostly composed of microplastics, most of which are the remnants of larger pieces of plastic garbage that have been broken up by the sun, salt, wind, and waves. Advertisement

Garbage patches are regions with high concentrations of marine debris, according to the NOAA.

They form from rotating ocean currents called gyres.

Moore's expedition group was only the second team to collect sample of plastic pollution in the South Pacific Gyre.

The first team to do this was led by researcher Dr Markus Eriksen, who crossed the gyre in a single line transect in 2011.

'At that time I saw very little debris,' Dr Eriksen told Research Gate.

However, since the, more trash is thought to have entered the ocean.

Captain Charles Moore (pictured center) aboard a research vessel. Moore says the newly discovered southern patch could be as big as a million square kilometers, or about 1.5 times the size of Texas

The new South Pacific garbage patch was uncovered by a team of researchers and volunteers on a six-month voyage. Pictured in blue sail icons is the ORV Alguita ship's route. Her mid-day coordinates were tracked and recorded every day during the expedition

Moore also says that he may have found more debris due to the patchy nature of plastic in the ocean - for example, one sampling trawl can pick up very little plastic because it missed a concentrated area, while the next one could contain large amounts of plastic.

This is why a research expedition over multiple months and crisscrossing a remote area off the coasts of Chile and Peru were necessary to determine the extent of the pollution.

The new garbage patch, uncovered by a team of researchers and volunteers on a six-month voyage, consists mostly of tiny pieces of plastic that are difficult to remove from the ocean

'We found a few larger items, occasionally a buoy and some fishing gear, but most of it was broken into bits,' said Captain Charles Moore, the leader of the expedition

However, according to Moore, the term 'garbage patch' can be misleading because the newly discovered garbage patch is mostly comprised of tiny plastic particles as opposed to plastic bags or six pack plastic can holders floating in the ocean.

Moore says that this may suggest that the plastic found in this South Pacific patch undergoes a longer journey than the trash in the North Pacific garbage patch, which will eventually break apart into smaller pieces.

Since the expedition team returned in May, they've been cleaning their samples so that they can analyze them more closely

According to Captain Charles Moore, the leader of the expedition, the term 'garbage patch' can be misleading because the newly discovered garbage patch is mostly comprised of tiny plastic particles as opposed to plastic bags or six pack plastic can holders floating in the ocean

'We found a few larger items, occasionally a buoy and some fishing gear, but most of it was broken into bits,' said Moore.

The problem with tiny pieces of plastic is that they're very hard to clean up, and should be prevented from entering the ocean

'We havent yet done lab analysis, but based on my visual impression, an enormous area of the South Pacific has millions of plastic particles per square kilometer,' said Moore.

The problem with these tiny pieces of plastic is that they're very hard to clean up, and should be prevented from entering the ocean altogether.

'This cloud of microplastics extends both vertically and horizontally.

'Its more like smog than a patch.

'Were making tremendous progress to clean up smog over our cities by stopping the source.

Moore says it will take a while before they can publish their results, but he wants to share his primary observations now that the newly discovered garbage patch is mostly comprised of tiny plastic particles as opposed to plastic bags or six pack can holders floating in the ocean

'We have to do the same for our seas.'

Since the expedition team returned in May, they've been cleaning their samples so that they can analyze them more closely.

Moore says it will take a while before they can publish their results, but he wants to share his primary observations now
The current political discourse sounds like people are speaking two different languages, according to a new study.

Penn State psychologists determined that even though Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were both speaking English during the 2016 presidential election, semantically, they were so far apart that the difference was actually worse than if one of them were speaking Chinese.

In a series of studies, the researchers found a split between the words democrats and republican presidential candidates used and how they meant them - they also found this 'semantic divide' appears to be growing and may continue to make the possibility of a bipartisan dialogue difficult, if not impossible.

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Penn State psychologists determined that even though Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were both speaking English during the 2016 presidential election, semantically, they were so far apart that the difference was actually worse than if one of them were speaking Chinese

THE STUDY The Penn State researchers compiled a list of 213 single words and 397 word phrases, including 136 politically charged words like 'minority,' 'spending' and 'justice.' They looked at all Presidential elections since 1999 and used an artificial intelligence neural network to statistically examine how often the words appeared together. They found a massive split between the words democrats and republican presidential candidates used and how they meant them. For example, in the 2016 election, Trump would apply the word 'deal' to almost anything. Clinton used the word 'education' in association with women and family, making it a diversity-charged word when coming from her mouth. They found this 'semantic divide' has been worsening over time and makes the possibility of a bipartisan dialogue difficult, if not impossible. Advertisement

'In a lot of ways, it's worse than speaking two different languages,' Ping Li, lead author of the study and associate director of the Institute for CyberScience, said in a release.

'If, for example, I speak Chinese and you don't, you have no idea what I'm saying.'

'But, if we're both speaking English and you think you know what I am saying but don't get what I actually mean, or worse, think it means something different, it can be really confusing.'

The team of researchers looked at how candidates used words together, known as word association.

A simple example they gave was how when the word 'table' is used in conjunction with 'chair,' it's obvious the speaker is referring to furniture; however, if 'table' is used in a sentence with 'town council,' the speaker could be referring to a legislative action.

In total, the researchers compiled a list of 213 single words and 397 word phrases -including 136 politically charged words like 'minority,' 'spending' and 'justice' - and then used an artificial intelligence neural network to statistically examine how often the words appeared together.

Trump would liberally apply the word 'deal' to almost anything. 'Of course, 'deal' is often associated with business, but, in his speeches, he also associated it with family and education, which would not traditionally be grouped together,' Li said

'For example, if I use the word 'security,' that can mean a lot of different things,' Li said.

'Maybe I am referring to job security, or cyber-security, military security, or some other type of meaning for the word.

By studying elections from 1999 to the present, the psychologists determined that in politics, context can be subtler and more complicated and that political word association has changed over time.

'What you see is that the parties have become farther and farther apart as time goes on,' Li said.

He added: 'Also, not only do the words in political speeches reflect different ideologies and ideas of the parties, but they can reflect the times of when the speech was made, so the meaning can change over time.'

Clinton, on the other hand, most often used the word 'education' in association with women and family, making it a diversity-charged word when coming from her mouth

In the most recent election, the researchers found differences in how Trump and Clinton used words such as 'deals' and 'education,' mainly in how Trump would liberally apply the word 'deal' to almost anything.

'Of course, 'deal' is often associated with business, but, in his speeches, he also associated it with family and education, which would not traditionally be grouped together,' Li said.

Clinton, on the other hand, most often used the word 'education' in association with women and family, making it a diversity-charged word when coming from her mouth.

By studying elections from 1999 to the present, the psychologists determined that in politics, context can be subtler and more complicated and that political word association has changed over time

In a follow-up study, the psychologists examined the word associations of 324 participants.

Based on the way they organized - or grouped - a list of 50 political concepts, a machine-learning algorithm was then able to predict their political leanings and what party they belonged to.

It was also able to accurately predict which candidate they were likely to vote for in the presidential election.

In the future, Li said the researchers may try to provide a more detailed picture of these interdependences by looking into more political concepts and documents from a larger pool of candidates and with more sophisticated computational methods.
Proxima b, an Earth-size planet right outside our solar system in the habitable zone of its star, may not be able to keep a grip on its atmosphere, a new study has found.

Experts found Earth's atmosphere wouldn't survive in close proximity to the violent red dwarf that Proxima b orbits.

This would leave the surface exposed to harmful stellar radiation, dramatically reducing its potential for habitability.

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Experts found Earth's atmosphere wouldn't survive in close proximity to the violent red dwarf that Proxima b orbits, leaving its surface exposed to radiation.

ATMOSPHERE FACTS Atmospheres are essential for life as we know it. Having the right atmosphere allows for climate regulation. It also allows the maintenance of a water-friendly surface pressure, shielding from hazardous space weather, and the housing of life's chemical building blocks. Advertisement

'We decided to take the only habitable planet we know of so far  Earth  and put it where Proxima b is,' said Katherine Garcia-Sage, a space scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and lead author of the study.

At only four light-years away, Proxima b is our closest known extra-solar neighbor.

However, due to the fact that it hasn't been seen crossing in front of its host star, the exoplanet eludes the usual method for learning about its atmosphere.

Instead, scientists must rely on models to understand whether the exoplanet is habitable.

The NASA study, published on July 24, 2017, in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, suggests Earth's atmosphere wouldn't survive in close proximity to the violent red dwarf.

Garcia-Sage and her colleagues' computer model used Earth's atmosphere, magnetic field and gravity as proxies for Proxima b's.

They also calculated how much radiation Proxima Centauri produces on average, based on observations from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.

With these data, their model simulates how the host star's intense radiation and frequent flaring affect the exoplanet's atmosphere.

'The question is, how much of the atmosphere is lost, and how quickly does that process occur?' said Ofer Cohen, a space scientist at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell and co-author of the study.

'If we estimate that time, we can calculate how long it takes the atmosphere to completely escape  and compare that to the planet's lifetime.'

At only four light-years away, Proxima b is our closest known extra-solar neighbor.

An active red dwarf star like Proxima Centauri strips away atmosphere when high-energy extreme ultraviolet radiation ionizes atmospheric gases, knocking off electrons and producing a swath of electrically charged particles.

In this process, the newly formed electrons gain enough energy that they can readily escape the planet's gravity and race out of the atmosphere.

Opposite charges attract, so as more negatively charged electrons leave the atmosphere, they create a powerful charge separation that pulls positively charged ions along with them, out into space.

WHAT MAKES PROXIMA B UNIQUE Distance: This is the closest Earth-like planet we could ever find. Orbiting our nearest star, the planet is only four light years away. Missions to send spacecraft to the planet to examine for signs of life are already in planning, and could happen within decades. Composition: The planet is rocky and a similar size to Earth. Temperature: It lies in the 'habitable zone' of its star, which means there could be liquid water on its surface - a key ingredient for alien life. The temperature on the surface of the planet could be between -90 and 30 Celsius (-130 and 86 Fahrenheit). Atmosphere: If Proxima b has an atmosphere, the simple ingredients - water, carbon dioxide, and rock - that are needed for the formation of biochemical cycles that we call life, could all be present and interacting on the planet's surface. Advertisement

In Proxima Centauri's habitable zone, Proxima b encounters bouts of extreme ultraviolet radiation hundreds of times greater than Earth does from the sun.

That radiation generates enough energy to strip away not just the lightest molecules  hydrogen  but also, over time, heavier elements such as oxygen and nitrogen.

The model shows Proxima Centauri's powerful radiation drains the Earth-like atmosphere as much as 10,000 times faster than what happens at Earth.

'This was a simple calculation based on average activity from the host star,' Garcia-Sage said.

'It doesn't consider variations like extreme heating in the star's atmosphere or violent stellar disturbances to the exoplanet's magnetic field  things we'd expect provide even more ionizing radiation and atmospheric escape.'

To understand how the process can vary, the scientists looked at two other factors that exacerbate atmospheric loss.

First, they considered the temperature of the neutral atmosphere, called the thermosphere.

Proxima B was discovered in August 2016 orbiting our closest neighbouring star, Proxima Centauri, which is just 4.2 light years (25 trillion miles) away from Earth

'This study looks at an under-appreciated aspect of habitability, which is atmospheric loss in the context of stellar physics,' said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, a Goddard space scientist not involved in the study.

'Planets have lots of different interacting systems, and it's important to make sure we include these interactions in our models.'

The scientists show that with the highest thermosphere temperatures and a completely open magnetic field, Proxima b could lose an amount equal to the entirety of Earth's atmosphere in 100 million years  that's just a fraction of Proxima b's 4 billion years thus far.

When the scientists assumed the lowest temperatures and a closed magnetic field, that much mass escapes over 2 billion years.

'Things can get interesting if an exoplanet holds on to its atmosphere, but Proxima b's atmospheric loss rates here are so high that habitability is implausible,' said Jeremy Drake, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and co-author of the study.

'This questions the habitability of planets around such red dwarfs in general.'

Red dwarfs like Proxima Centauri or the TRAPPIST-1 star are often the target of exoplanet hunts, because they are the coolest, smallest and most common stars in the galaxy.

Because they are cooler and dimmer, planets have to maintain tight orbits for liquid water to be present.

But unless the atmospheric loss is counteracted by some other process  such as a massive amount of volcanic activity or comet bombardment  this close proximity, scientists are finding more often, is not promising for an atmosphere's survival or sustainability.
A person needs breaks, but a robot can work forever.

With this in mind, one of Sweden's biggest banks, has tapped a robot to be 'always at work, 24/7, 365 days a year.'

Now those who bank at SEB can bring their financial questions to Aida, an artificially intelligent customer service representative.

Aida is a chatbot with vast amounts of individual client data, meaning she - Aida was designed to sound like a woman because of research suggesting customers feel more comfortable with female voices - can quickly handle straightforward customer needs

'There are some frequent, simple tasks that we need to deal with manually today, and in that effort we're looking into AI to see how we can deploy it, and Aida is one,' Johan Torgeby, the chief executive officer of SEB, told Bloomberg.

Aida is a chatbot with vast amounts of individual client data, meaning she - Aida was designed to sound like a woman because of research suggesting customers feel more comfortable with female voices - can quickly handle straightforward customer needs.

AI might be part of the cure to the Swedish banking customer service issue - a recent study by market researcher GfK said these chatbots could help close the gap between what bank customers hope to receive from their financial institutions and what they actually get

BANK BOTS SEB just rolled out Aida, a customer service virtual assistant meant to handle easy tasks and free up time for real human employees. Last year, the bank debuted Amelia to work with internal IT support. Swedbank has Nina, a female-voiced assistant that allows customers to simply message her with their questions in order to find answers and identify the financial services best suited for their needs. Nordea Bank has introduced a virtual assistant named Nova - also meant to sounds like a woman - to its life and pensions unit. In the future, Nordea plans to task Nova help customers invest, open accounts and cancel lost credit cards. Advertisement

More complex tasks - like coming up with a mortgage or loan plan to best suit a customer's needs - will still require a human banking assistant, but Aida's presence is meant to help with the easy tasks to help free up time of the human employees.

Last year, SEB rolled out a different virtual assistant named Amelia.

Rather than helping customers with traditional banking needs, she's tasked with working with employees and assisting internal IT support.

'Digital employees will change the way in which banks manage their business and provide a platform for new services,' Chetan Dube, CEO of IPsoft, which made Amelia.

In Amelia's first three weeks, over 4,000 conversations were held with 700 employees, and she solved the majority of issues without delay.

Together, IPsoft and SEB bank are are working to train and develop Amelia together.

Specifically, they're looking into how she can directly enhance the customer service experience as well.

Virtual assistants have actually become commonplace in Sweden as branch closures have caused customer satisfaction scores to drop 20 percent.

Last year, SEB rolled out a different virtual assistant named Amelia. Rather than helping customers with traditional banking needs, she's tasked with working with employees and assisting internal IT support

Swedbank has Nina, a female-voiced assistant that allows customers to simply message her with their questions in order to find answers and identify the financial services best suited for their needs.

Nordea Bank has introduced a virtual assistant named Nova - also meant to sounds like a woman - to its life and pensions unit.

In the future, Nordea plans to task Nova help customers invest, open accounts and cancel lost credit cards.

AI might be part of the cure to the Swedish banking customer service issue - a recent study by market researcher GfK said these chatbots could help close the gap between what bank customers hope to receive from their financial institutions and what they actually get.

Robots have been employed in various ways as of late, from grocery store stockboy jobs to security positions.

Last week, Schnucks grocery store in the U.S. announced the introduction of a fleet of robot stock boys named Tally with screens to 'make them appear friendly' to its workforce.

Robots have been employed in various ways as of late, from grocery store stockboy jobs to security positions. Last week, Schnucks grocery store in the U.S. announced the introduction of a fleet of robot stock boys named Tally with screens to 'make them appear friendly'

The robo employees don't have limbs and can't physically stock the shelves, but they'll be tasked with wandering the isles to check inventory and verify prices.

Each data-collecting robot is 30 pounds and 38 inches tall with an extension that can make it stretch taller to scan out-of-reach shelves.

It will also have multiple sensors and cameras atop a circular base 'that resembles a Roomba vacuum' to enable it to navigate the store and detect out-of-stock items, which it will then report to the management.

Another robo worker named STEVE also came into the spotlight soon, but not for a good reason.

STEVE was a security robot tasked with patrolling MRP Realty's headquarters in Washington D.C. - but he was only on the job a few days before plunging into a fountain.

A security robot created by the company Knightscope was patrolling an office complex in Washington D.C. when it rolled into a fountain and met its untimely demise

While the world joked he was a suicidal, it turned out out the roboguard didn't kill himself after all and simply took a tumble after skidding on a loose brick.

Its Silicon Valley-based maker, Knightscope, said data from STEVE's 'black box,' as well as video and tests, showed the unscheduled water stop was caused not by foul play or rain, but by an algorithm failing to detect the uneven surface, resulting in a skid.

According to the company, STEVE has 'an extensive catalog of security capabilities' and was mapping the grounds in order to be fully autonomous when the incident occurred.

It said a replacement machine was on site within 48 hours.
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The Terror on Platform 4.

That's what the movie of our experience trying to get to Tokyo's Narita Airport would be called.

We're waiting for a train to the airport from Tokyo Station to catch a flight back to London, but we're desperately late and panic has wrapped its cold fingers around us.

The fear is all the more acute because we've got Finnair business-class seats waiting for us, but there's a real possibility that we won't be sliding into them  and I'm putting the blame at the door of Tokyo's Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

Ted Thornhill was so taken with the Mandarin Oriental in Tokyo that he just couldn't leave - and nearly missed his flight home. Pictured is the hotel's Sushi Sora restaurant, which affords guests stunning views of the city

The bathroom in Ted's suite was not helpful when it came to a prompt departure

Suite life: Ted's room was bigger than his London flat and featured a swanky living room area

The views from the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo are nothing short of stunning, with Mount Fuji visible on one side

The reason? The soft 450-thread-count cotton bedding in our 31st-floor room there, the stupendous views from it across the city and out to Mount Fuji beyond and a mouth-watering breakfast buffet all combined to snare us and drain our sense of urgency.

We just couldn't leave.

When we should have been at breakfast we were snoozing blissfully amid the Egyptian linen.

When we should have been checking out we were running a bath  it's by the window, too enticing a scenario to skip.

The hotel's swish bar is where the well-heeled gather to sip cocktails and admire the stunning views

The hotel's Michelin-starred Cantonese restaurant, Sense, has a sense-ational setting

Executive Sous Chef Nicolas Boujema whips up authentic French dishes in Mandarin's Signature restaurant

The hotel's lobby makes a definite statement - you've entered a world of luxury

When we should have been on the train we were ordering poached eggs and scoffing croissants my French girlfriend said were 'perfect'. And believe me, she is VERY fussy about her croissants.

In the end, we only catch our flight because it's delayed by 30 minutes.

Lesson learned.

The 179-room Mandarin Oriental Tokyo is in Tokyo's financial district, Nihonbashi, close to the Imperial Palace and the world-renowned Ginza shopping district.

As this image of the hotel spa shows, the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo takes the relaxation levels of its guests very seriously

Swanky turned up to 11: This is the Oriental Lounge - where guests can revel in yet more opulence

The Presidential Suite bathroom takes up a fair amount of acreage - and has views of Mount Fuji to boot (pictured on the right-hand side)

WHY FINNAIR'S BUSINESS CLASS IS THE BUSINESS What first? A play with the massage function on the seat or another sip of Champagne by Nicolas Feuillatte? Flying business class with Finnair presents passengers with several quandaries, the aforementioned choice being the most immediate when I board. We fly from London to Helsinki then on to Tokyo on board an Airbus A330. Initially I'm a tad disappointed that it's not the airline's rather splendid new A350, but once I settle in, I'm impressed. Flying business class with Finnair is a real treat - even on slighty older aircraft I'm able to manoeuvre my body to all manner of angles using a control panel on my armrest. The back of the seat and footrest can both be moved separately if desired and the seat goes completely flat for sleeping purposes. I manage to get a solid few hours and I find sleeping on planes very difficult, almost impossible, normally. The fact that there's plenty of room for the legs and feet helps  it makes turning over mid-slumber something that won't disturb. Several other aspects of the product impress, too. The food is very good indeed  the choices for dinner include minced pike cake with cold smoked pike, potatoes, horse-radish and egg; roasted omega-3 pork rib, parsnip and apple or pan fried beef with miso flavoured sauce and miso soup. I have the beef and it's excellent. There's even an amuse bouche beforehand of smoked whitefish mousse and rye chips. The wine is top, too. The choice includes a Chateau De Come French red, Villa Maria New Zealand riesling and a Chateau De Rochemorin sauvignon blanc. These aren't run-of-the-mill quaffing options, mark my words. And to top it all off  the headphones you're supplied with will keep even fussy audiophiles content (I know, because I am one) and there's a cute (bespoke) Marimekko toiletries bag, too. As for the earlier quandaries? Obviously I did both at once. Advertisement

Mandarin Oriental Tokyo occupies floors 30 to 38 of the Nihonbashi Mitsui Tower

And because it occupies floors 30 to 38 of the Nihonbashi Mitsui Tower, everyone is guaranteed a splendid view.

We're housed in one of the top suites  a 'Mandarin Suite' - which has more square footage than my London flat and scintillating views from two sides.

There are two loos, a lounge area with a huge study desk at one end, two large TVs, a bedroom with a king-sized bed and a marble bathroom that is architecturally jaw-dropping.

The loo and rain shower are in compartments to the left, a double sink sits on the right and at the end a deep sunken bath by tall windows. Toiletries are by Bottega Veneta.

Dreamy.

So what else does the hotel offer?

Everything your heart desires, essentially.

Hungry? It has several restaurants including a Michelin-starred French restaurant  Signature  and a Michelin-starred Cantonese restaurant, Sense.

We eat a divine lunch at the sushi restaurant, Sushi Sora.

There are just eight seats here - so the atmosphere is intimate and relaxing.

Guests have a choice of two views. They can either watch head chef Yuji Imaizumi working his magic with the fish brought in fresh that day from the world-famous Tsukiji market or, if they turn to the right, gaze at the hypnotically gigantic metropolis below through floor-to-ceiling windows.

I opt for a steady rotation of the two in between mouthfuls of suishi that is ridiculously fresh and tasty.

In the evening we go for pizza at the 38th floor pizza bar.

By this stage in the proceedings we know enough about the hotel to anticipate that the pizza will probably be brilliant.

We're getting the impression that the Mandarin Oriental's standards are nothing less than perfection.

And we're right.

The pizza is only the best I've had in years. Anywhere.

The chef tells us that he learned his trade in Florence and it shows.

The pizza, made from organic Italian flour, is beautifully light and crisp. I challenge any Italian not to be impressed.

Before heading for bed we gaze at the twinkling lights outside over a glass of champagne at the Mandarin Bar.

But the terror on platform 4 awaits.
A young woman from Kyrgyzstan has revealed how bride kidnappings are still a common problem in the central Asian country despite being made illegal 13 years ago.

Gulzat Akmatbekova, 36, from the Naryn region of Kyrgyzstan told MailOnline Travel that her mother, sister and best friend were all forced into marriages against their will after being abducted and thrust in front of the alter.

Opening up about the 'warped tradition', the part-time tour guide for Saga holidays said: 'My mother told me she was crying, she didn't want to marry my father. She had a boyfriend at the time but she was abducted against her will.'

Troubling trend: A young Kyrgyzstani woman has revealed how bride kidnapping is still a common problem in the central Asian country despite being made illegal 13 years ago (above, an image captured by Noriko Hayashi showing a bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan)

Gulzat said that her mother was kidnapped by her father after a trip to the cinema where they had been to watch a film with mutual friends.

Her mother, then aged 18, was transported to her father's home where an unconsensual marriage took place in the presence of his family.

She explained that her mother was subjected to psychological bullying by her father's relatives and eventually she caved in.

She said: 'They said it was her destiny to marry my father and she would be unhappy if she left.

Targets of bride kidnappings in Kyrgyzstan are usually young women around the age of 18 (above, another shot by Japanese photographer Noriko Hayashi showing a bride kidnapping)

'She told me she wanted to run away but Kyrgyz girls are told to respect their elders. For that reason, she stayed with my father. They seem happy but it was never my mother's wish to marry my father.'

Similarly, Gulzat's sister was also kidnapped and forced to wed. But unlike her mother, the drawn out marriage ended in divorce.

Gulzat said that her sister was dating someone at the time when an older man started grooming her for marriage.

Some women are submitted to violence, it's not good. Things are getting better but there's more to be done

The suitor, who was seven years older, would ply her with gifts.

Then one day, he kidnapped her, threw her into his car and took her to another city in Kyrgyzstan where his parents lived. She was then married against her will.

Gulzat's parents were contacted by her sister's new husband's family and told the news.

Apparently the two families knew each other and they gave the union their seal of approval. They were further swayed by a deluge of gifts which included a live sheep, sweets and fruit.

However, ten years later Gulzat's sister divorced her partner.

On the case: Bride kidnappings are thought to be more common in the rural areas of Kyrgyzstan

'My sister told me their characters didn't match and they were always arguing. It wasn't a happy marriage.'

While there is little research available, a previous survey conducted by the non-profit Open Line found that 60 per cent of stolen marriages ended in divorce.

Gulzat said her best friend was also a victim of kidnapping and she was abducted by a man who she viewed as a friend.

While she was traumatised by the ordeal, the young woman stayed with her abductor as she was told by relatives that this was her chosen path.

Despite their rocky beginnings, the couple went on to have four children and are still together today.

Giving her verdict on the trend for 'grab and run' nuptials, Gulzat said: 'Bride kidnappings are definitely more common in the rural areas but it still happens across the country.

Gulzat Akmatbekova, 36, from the Naryn region of Kyrgyzstan told MailOnline Travel that her mother, sister and best friend were all forced into marriages

'Some women are submitted to violence, it's not good. Things are getting better but there's more to be done.

'Luckily I escaped the trend. I am married but it was my decision. I was 20 and thought it was a good age for marriage.'

Targets of bride kidnappings in Kyrgyzstan are usually young women around the age of 18.

Once abducted, the girls are taken to the family home of their would-be grooms and subjected to verbal persuasion and even rape by the man until she agrees to the marriage.

It's thought that the practice of bride kidnapping started in the 19th century and didn't become popular until the 1940s and 50s, when Kyrgyzstan was part of the Soviet Union.

Offering more insight into how the ritual came about, Gulzat concluded: 'This isn't our tradition. It has become confused over the years.

'It started out as a way of allowing couples to elope. The boy would innocently "steal" the girl so they could marry without their parents' consent.

'But uneducated people confused the main meaning of this and now it puts women in danger.'

Bride kidnapping has been illegal in Kyrgyzstan since 1994 but there is little data on the success of law enforcement.
Matty J has a bevy of women vying for his attention on The Bachelor.

And according to NW Magazine one beauty is a secret 'wild child', who was 'involved in a drunken punch-up at a house party years ago.'

According to the publication, the unnamed contestant has a 'wholesome' image on the show and is 'adorably awkward.'

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Can you guess who? A Bachelor beauty trying to win over Matty J is a secret 'wild child' and was 'involved in a drunken PUNCH-UP at a house party'

Matty J's season premiered on Wednesday evening and 22 girls are in the running to be his leading lady.

So far he has sent home three contestants, Stacey, Laura-Ann and Monica.

Meanwhile, the girls have already been making headlines, with photos recently emerging of Simone Ormesher working as a topless waitress.

Controversial: Some of the girls have been making headlines recently, with photos emerging recently of Simone Ormesher (pictured) working as a topless waitress

Taking to Facebook on Friday, the Manchester-born beauty said she had initially felt 'ashamed' and 'embarrassed' of her past but had gotten through the emotional turmoil thanks to her loved ones.

It was also revealed that Leah Costa also performed topless work to support herself through university, as video emerged of her whipping a man's buttocks during a buck's party.

Speaking with Daily Mail Australia one pal revealed even Leah found the work empowering, saying: 'She is comfortable in her own skin and she never felt disrespected - they are just boobs!'

Cheeky! Leah Costa was also revealed to perform topless work to support herself through university, as video emerged of her whipping a man's buttocks during a buck's party (pictured)

'Comfortable in her own skin': Speaking with Daily Mail Australia one pal revealed even Leah found the work empowering

Searching for 'the one': Matty J is looking for love on this season of The Bachelor, after failing to find love with Georgia Love on The Bachelorette last year

Matty J is looking for love on this season of The Bachelor after failing to find it with Georgia Love on The Bachelorette last year.

He was left heartbroken when he placed runner-up after she chose Lee Elliott as her winner in the finale.

On Friday, fans thought Matty J had let the winner's name slip, when he and contestant Laura Byrne were both seen at the snow on the same day.

Does she win? On Friday, fans thought Matty J had let the winner's name slip, when he and contestant Laura Byrne (R) were both seen at the snow on the same day
They face off as mortal enemies in the upcoming Stephen King adaptation The Dark Tower.

And on Sunday, Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey put their on-screen chemistry on show as they did a photo call for the film due out on Friday.

The two hunks appeared happy and relaxed as they held court in New York.

Work event: Idris Elba, 44, and Matthew McConaughey, 47, attended a photo call Sunday for their new movie The Dark Tower, opening in theatres on Friday

Luther star Elba, 44, accentuated his six-foot, three-inch stature in a dark ensemble of buttoned-down jersey shirt and tapered pants.

He also sported a pair of high-top, black sneakers with white soles.

Oscar-winner McConaughey, 47, paired a taupe cotton shirt, untucked and half unbuttoned, with rolled up sleeves, with boot-cut blue jeans and brown cowbo=y boots.

Both men rocked beards that were neatly trimmed.

All in good fun! The co-stars, who play mortal enemies in the fantasy flick, playfully faced off

Say cheese: The two hunks appeared happy and relaxed as they promoted their project that's based on the Stepeh King books

Dapper: The Luther star opted for a buttoned-down jersey shirt and tailored pants while the Oscar winner went for a taupe cotton shirt and jeans

Elba stars as horror writer King's protagonist Roland Deschain, AKA The Gunslinger.

McConaughey is his life-long enemy The Man In Black.

The Dark Tower is what holds the universe together and The Gunslinger's mission, in a seemingly eternal battle, is to prevent The Man In Black from toppling it.

Roles: In The Dark Tower, Elba, as The Gunslinger/Roland Deschain, does his best to protect the Dark Tower from his life-long enemy, The Man in Black, played by McConaughey

Fans of the series can expect many Easter Eggs throughout the film, much like Stephen does in his novels.

'As one of his 'Constant Readers,' one of the things I found so much pleasure in was the fact that when I read one novel and I read the next one, there was the same town, there was the same character, or there was Castle Rock. It blew my mind,' director Nikolaj Arcel told EW. 'I wanted to have that same feeling.'

'I wanted Paul Sheldon's book Misery's Child in one of the shots. I wanted one of the old haunted places to be Pennywise's house. And I got all that. It's just like a dream come true for me, mixing every single thing. Cujo's going to walk by. It's just fun.'
South Philadelphia-born Amber Rose is trying her best to soften the blow of a remark she's made about her old stomping grounds.

On a recent episode of the Drunk Champs podcast, she'd said that 'a lot of the people where I'm from aren't traditionally attractive people.'

Yet she's told TMZ on Saturday night that 'I never said anyone was ugly! Im so frustrated,' allowing that 'maybe I shouldnt have said the word "traditional," but I just meant, like, as far as societys standards of beauty, which I never felt like I was beautiful. I felt like they were beautiful!' the 33-year-old's insisted.

She's summed up her defense of her point: 'So, it was actually the opposite of what everyones saying, so it makes me really sad. Shout-out to Philly. I love you guys.'

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On the defensive: South Philadelphia-born Amber Rose is trying her best to soften the blow of some remarks she's made about her old stomping grounds

On her Drunk Champs episode, posted in video form to YouTube on July 12, she'd said: 'Agreed' when co-host N.O.R.E. had called Philadelphia 'the depths of hell.'

'You know, its crazy. I grew up in a very poor neighborhood, and I dont know how I can say this without sounding, like f***ed up, but a lot of the people where Im from arent traditionally attractive people,' Amber had said.

N.O.R.E., a rapper who used to go professionally by Noreaga, had replied: 'Hmm, I understand what you're saying,' before the Slutwalk impresaria'd barreled ahead.

'And for me, being blessed with beauty, as beautiful women know, is a blessing and a curse. And to grow up in such a area and be blessed with beauty, it was very difficult for me,' the ex-wife of Wiz Khalifa had said.

Origins: On a recent episode of the Drunk Champs podcast, she'd said that 'a lot of the people where I'm from aren't traditionally attractive people'

'And a lot of people, you know, used to be like: "You aint from South Philly. Youre from California or something." And, like, I would be on the bus, and theyre like: "Where are you from?" And Im like: "Im from Broad and Ellsworth."'

To hear her tell it, then 'theyre like: "Nah, you ca- youre not, like, from there-from there." And Im like: "Yeah, I was born and raised in Broad and Ellsworth."'

During that interview, she'd also gone on to say: 'I grew up on a third floor apartment, and so yeah, it was very difficult, but I, you know, I never felt like I belonged there. I always felt way bigger than the city was, like it wasnt big enough for me.'

The Huffington Post have archived multiple tweets written by people who'd detected a racial angle in what Amber had said about South Philadelphia.

#PressPlay #AmberRose speaks... View previous post! A post shared by The Shade Room (@theshaderoom) on Jul 27, 2017 at 2:36pm PDT

'Blessing and a curse': She's said that 'to grow up in such a area and be blessed with beauty, it was very difficult for me,' and that some in South Philly didn't believe she was from there

'Amber Rose is gorgeous, but when she refers to herself as "traditionally attractive," what is she placing emphasis on? Her racial ambiguity?,' tweeted Evette Dion, whose bio on Twitter refers to her as a senior editor at Bitch Media.

A different Twitter account needled Amber about her word choice: 'Traditionally attractive means what though? Light? Mixed? Help me out Amber Rose.'

'Amber Rose said girls from Philly arent traditionally attractive. Basically saying black women are ugly. This who yall gave a pass to,' wrote another Twitter user.

This Thursday, Instagram account The Shade Room posted a video of Amber explaining her comments on her own Instagram Story, seemingly also on Thursday.

'Help me out Amber Rose': The Huffington Post have archived multiple tweets written by people who'd detected a racial angle in what Amber had said about South Philadelphia

Verified: One of these tweets had been posted by Evette Dion, whose bio on Twitter refers to her as a senior editor at Bitch Media

'This who yall gave a pass to': Another Twitter user has written a post accusing Amber of 'Basically saying black women are ugly'

She's groused that 'I know that people really, like, want me to be a superficial b****, but Im just not that person,' and she's maintained that 'I find beauty in everyone.'

Amber's gone on to note on her Instagram Story that 'its not easy doing interviews and, you know, always saying things the way you really want to articulate.'

Her is that 'I wasnt saying thats how I felt. I was saying thats how people treated me, and it just didnt come off properly in the interview,' and she's said that 'I just watched a clip, and Im, like, cringing, because Im just so not that girl, man.'

On Friday TMZ ran a video interview in which N.O.R.E. offered a different theory about Amber's comments on Drunk Champs while out and about in New York City.

'I find beauty in everyone': This Thursday, Instagram account The Shade Room posted a video of Amber explaining her comments on her own Instagram Story, seemingly also on Thursday

'I think what she was trying to say is, like, exotic-looking. I dont think she was trying to say, like, beautiful. Like, she was just trying to say, like  cause she is exotic-looking. Like, you know what Im saying?' said N.O.R.E.

'Like, you know, the...,' he said, gesturing at his own bald head before joking that 'she almost got a N.O.R.E. cut. But she was trying to say, like, you know, she was exotic, and  thats what I think. You know, I cant speak for nobody else, but as a person that I consider my sister, I think thats what she meant.'

He iterated his point: 'She meant that theres not a lot of exotic people from where she was at, at that  in a particular neighborhood.'

Seen in May: Amber's told TMZ that 'maybe I shouldnt have said the word "traditional," but I just meant, like, as far as societys standards of beauty, which I never felt like I was beautiful'

He's also said of her remarks: 'I dont think she meant it the way people are taking it. Im saying that shes not saying theres no pretty people in Philadelphia.'

Said N.O.R.E.: 'Shes saying that exotically, like, you know - you know, shes different. Shes, like, shes stacked in places where other peoples not stacked.'

He went on: 'Shes half white, half black, and predominantly, the neighborhood - I guess she shouldve described it, Im just guessing - is all, you know, a one-way type of way. And shes, like, shes a little exotic-looking, and thats all I think she meant.'
She's gearing up for her official TOWIE return after two years away.

And having fully recovered from her recent breast reduction, Lauren Pope looked better than ever partying by the ocean's edge in Ibiza on Sunday.

The Essex girl, 34, showed off her still ample cleavage and impressively toned abs as she partied with pals in the Spanish sun.

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Holiday vibes: Lauren Pope, 34, having fully recovered from her recent boob reduction, looked better than ever sipping cocktails by the shore in Ibiza on Sunday

Showing off her still sizeable bust in a stringy black bikini top, the star opted for a pair of semi-sheer high-waisted trousers to go over her bikini bottoms.

Pushing back her long blonde tresses with a pair of oversized designer shades, Lauren wore subtle gold jewellery that reflected in the sunlight as she walked.

Lauren left the ITVBe reality show in 2015, claiming afterwards that the filming of the series was by far the hardest she had experienced.

The reality TV star expressed that by that point she had no mates left of the show and was struggling to balance her business ventures with filming.

Dressed to impress: Showing off her sizeable bust in a stringy black bikini top, the star opted for a pair of semi-sheer high-waisted trousers to go over he bikini bottoms

Speaking afterwards she said: 'I kind of had no mates left. The last series was not a fun series for me and I think the fun kind of went from TOWIE for me, and it made my decision a lot easier.'

'I think it was just the right time, I had been thinking about it for a while.

'It was getting to a point where that was getting affected as I was having to miss meetings if I was filming abroad.'

Waterside: Pushing back her long blonde tresses with a pair of oversized designer shades, Lauren wore subtle gold jewellery which caught the sunlight as she walked

The star has recently reemerged following a breast reduction after seeking a more natural bust size.

Lauren first went under the knife at 23 years old, boosting her bust from its initial A Cup before finding fame as a glamour model.

But she has revealed she's now removed her breast implants as she was sick of looking 'trashy' and is ready to begin the next phase of her life.

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, the businesswoman explained that she had her E Cup implants - the result of a second boob job - removed last week and has been recovering in secret.

New horizons: Lauren left the show in 2015, claiming afterwards that the filming of the series was by far the hardest she had experienced

'I'm back to small boobies!' she admitted. 'I've thought about it for a long time. It's really hard to explain but it's not a big dramatic decision. It's just I feel like I am taken seriously now in the world of business.'

Lauren - who is the founder of hair extension company Hair Rehab London - has enjoyed several career ventures in her time.

The blonde bombshell first burst onto the scene as a glamour model, before starring in TOWIE. She has since been working on her DJ career and continuing to grow her beauty business into an empire.

Feeling lonely: The reality TV star expressed that at that point she had no mates left of the show and was struggling to balance her business ventures with filming

And it's this transition that inspired Lauren to go back under the knife. She revealed: 'It's taken a long time but I feel like my old big boobs are my old life.

'It's time to grow up. This is like a new realm and it's a nod to that. It's not like I'm anti-surgery at all, I was quite happy with them but i just decided to do it.

'The clothes I like will look chicer with smaller boobs. The past few years I'd go for outfits that made them look smaller and there were certain clothes I couldn't wear because it would look trashy.'

Woman of many talents: Lauren - who is the founder of hair extension company Hair Rehab London - has enjoyed several career ventures in her time

Whilst she explained she wasn't sure of the exact cup size she'll be now, she revealed: 'I'm excited to see how they look. I'm still sore and I'm still swollen but I think it'll probably be a big B or small C [cup].'

Lauren - who recently announced her plans to return to TOWIE- documented her second boob job in an episode of the ITVBe series in 2012.

She was one of 40,000 women affected by the faulty French Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) when she initially had her breast size boosted, and during the process of removing the implants, she replaced the items with larger ones.

Hectic schedule: The blonde bombshell first burst onto the scene as a glamour model, before starring in TOWIE and has since been working on her DJ career while continuing to grow her beauty business into an empire

Lauren has always spoken candidly about her plastic surgery and explained to MailOnline that she didn't want her fans to have unrealistic expectations when it came to body image.

Explaining that she didn't agree with photoshopping her figure in selfies, she revealed: 'Instagram is a bit like your creative space - just know your angles.

'To get one decent selfie I've probably taken about 50 - I know I need to pop one hip out, pull my belly in! And I spend about 10 minutes putting filters on myself - I enjoy doing it! It's just a but of fun.'

Stylish: In another shot, the beauty donned a stylish yellow bikini top trimmed with multi coloured thread, and paired it with patterned leopard print trousers

'It's time to grow up': Lauren revealed she's now removed her breast implants as she was sick of looking 'trashy' and is ready to begin the next phase of her life

Adding that she still gets trolled for some of her posts, the beauty guru added: 'If I do bikini stuff I'll do videos as well just to shut people up as you can't edit a video - it's just angles.'

The entrepreneur is no stranger to being slated online, explaining: 'I've heard everything about my looks - I look like a horse, like an alien.

'I've heard it all I don't give a s**t anymore but when someone annihilates you as a person I'm like hold on a minute... Especially if you've been edited in a way that wasn't how you were trying to be.

'The editing on TOWIE can sometimes show you in a great light or a terrible light so I find this really frustrating.'

Moving on: 'It's this transition that inspired Lauren to go back under the knife. She revealed: 'It's taken a long time but I feel like my old big boobs are my old life'

Under the knife: Lauren - who recently announced her plans to return to TOWIE- documented her second boob job in an episode of the ITVBe series in 2012 after receiving PIP implants

Honest: Lauren also explained that she didn't agree with photoshopping her figure in selfies, she revealed: 'Instagram is a bit like your creative space - just know your angles'

Lauren is currently being kept busy with her hair extension company Hair Rehab London - and the launch of their new weft hair extensions to celebrate their 10th anniversary.

Now a recognised businesswoman, Lauren admitted that making the transition from a glamour model wasn't a simple one.

'I think as long as you just keep doing what you're doing and making sure it's of the best quality, eventually people will take you seriously,' she reasoned. 'It's only the past couple of years things have clicked into place. Now amazingly people invite me to give business talks. It's taken a long time but I feel like finally it's happened.'
The fashion-forward sisters often find themselves travelling across the pond to carry out work commitments.

And deciding the 'time is right' for them to invest in a solid base in Los Angeles, Cara Delevingne, 24, and her sister Poppy, 31, have reportedly snapped up the former Hollywood home of actor Jared Leto.

It's believed the girls have splashed out 1.56million on the luxury pad that comes complete with TWO kitchens and even a recording studio.

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New pad: Sisters Cara Delevingne, 24, and Poppy, 31, have reportedly snapped up actor Jared Leto's former Hollywood home for 1.56million

Plush: The property comes complete with two kitchens, a recording studio and swimming pool

According to The Sun, Cara and Poppy have decided to invest in a property in Hollywood together, given the amount of time they frequently spend there.

A source claimed to the paper: 'Cara and Poppy are both spending more and more time in LA and decided the time was right to have a base out there.'

'Being so close, the idea of sharing a house seemed a natural step,' they added. 'They're really excited to get hold of the keys and bring their own vibe to the place.'

Spacious: It also boasts four bedrooms, three bathrooms and 4,021 square feet of living space

Luxurious lagoon: The pool sits just beneath an adjoining hot tub

Outdoor oasis: The outside area even includes living room spaces, as well as a built-in barbecue and fire pit

It's said Jared's former home comes complete with two kitchens, a recording studio and swimming pool, along with four bedrooms, three bathrooms and 4,021 square feet of living space.

The posh pad was first built back in 1955, and is believed to have once belonged to singer Jimmy Durante.

The glamorous residence sits on a 12,485 square-foot lot.

Multi-level luxury: The celeb sisters purchased a two-story house in the Hollywood Hills

So much space: The posh pad boasts a spacious living room on one floor and a massive family room on the other

Star-studded history?: The place is rumored to have once belonged to singer Jimmy Durante

Modern mansion: The building was constructed in 1955, and sits on a 12,485 square foot lot

The massive home boasts over a dozen rooms, with the official count totaling at 14.

In addition to the lagoon-style pool, the outdoor area also features a hot tub and a massive patio.

There is even a built-in barbecue and a fire pit.

Boastful bedrooms: Each floor contains a massive bedroom

Elegant amenities: The first floor houses the master bedroom, which is attached to a master bath and a walk-in closet

Lap of luxury: The large sleeping chamber on the lower level isn't attached to a bathroom, but boasts a walk-in closet the size of a full room

Guests galore: The upper level also contains two other bedrooms

In the interest of lounging around while also enjoying the outdoor environment, the lavish house includes living room spaces outside.

The Delevingne sisters will be able to enjoy relaxing on the grassy lawn, as they are surrounded by greenery.

The home has a beautiful aesthetic, thanks to its lush landscaping and tree top view.

Bathroom beauty: In addition to the master bathroom, the home also includes two other washrooms

Sparkly shower: The master bathroom boasts a tub and a shower

Priceless porcelain: The lower level houses two washrooms

The incredible abode is two stories tall, located in Los Angeles' Hollywood Hills neighborhood.

The first floor boasts a spacious living room, a kitchen, and a dining room.

It also includes the master bedroom, as well as two other sleeping chambers, and a shared bathroom.

Cooking in comfort: The enormous abode has a sizable kitchen on the first floor, situated next to a dining room

Cozy cooking: The lower level has a second, smaller kitchen

The house's lower level is where the recording studio finds its home.

It also boasts the pad's second, significantly smaller kitchen, as well as a large family room.

On the bottom floor is another humongous bedroom, attached to a walk-in closet that's roughly the same size as a standard room.

Endless opportunities: The pad boasts 14 rooms

Shared spaced: In addition to the family room and living room, the home also has a utility room

Keeping contained: On the lower level, there is also a room for storage by the stairs

Cooling off: The Delevingnes will beat the California heat with the house's central cooling system

The lower level also houses two more bathrooms, a utility room, and some storage space next to the stairs.

The celebrity sisters will be able to keep cool in the Southern California heat, thanks to the home's central cooling system.

And they shouldn't have any trouble parking, as the residence comes equipped with a two-car garage.

Music magic: The recording studio can be found on the lower level

No parking problems: The home comes with a two-car garage

Incredible atmosphere: The outdoor area flaunts lush landscaping

Cara is currently featured in the new movie Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, alongside songstress Rihanna, having turned her attentions to acting instead of modelling.

And Cara is well acquainted with the property's previous owner, as she had starred alongside movie star Jared in the superhero flick Suicide Squad released last year.

While she featured in the film as the Enchantress (aka June Moone), Jared had a starring role as the Joker and Margot Robbie had also been among the cast.

Pals: Cara is well acquainted with the property's previous owner, as she had starred alongside movie star Jared in superhero flick Suicide Squad released last year

Co-stars: While she featured in the film as the Enchantress (aka June Moone), Jared had a starring role as the Joker and Margot Robbie had also been among the cast

The British model had shot to stardom thanks to her catwalk presence, but has become an aspiring actress of late.

However, Cara has insisted she hasn't entirely quit modelling to pursue a career in the film industry, explaining in an interview with News Corp: 'Acting is something I've wanted to do my entire life. But it's not something I need to stop anything for.

'It's more about proving myself,' she insisted.

New direction: Cara is now featured in the new movie Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, alongside songstress Rihanna, having turned her attentions to acting instead of modelling

Although, she has previously admitted that she 'didn't like myself as a model'.

Speaking with Radio Times, Cara confessed: 'I didn't like what I stood for. I didn't like what it was turning me into.

'Not that I was focused about how I looked all the time, but it is kind of about that.'

'That's not me at all,' she claimed. 'You speak to all my oldest friends and they know I'm not a model. I don't give a s**t about what I look like.'

Multi-tasking: However, Cara has insisted she hasn't entirely quit modelling to pursue a career in the film industry, as she won't 'stop anything' to pursue her film ambitions

Her sister Poppy, who is married to James Cook, seems to be following suit, as she too is distancing herself from modelling to feature on the big screen.

She had starred in Guy Ritchie's latest offering King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword, in which David Beckham had made a cameo and will feature in upcoming movie Kingsman: The Golden Circle set for release later this year.

Speaking after Poppy landed the 'Kingsman' role, a source added to The Sun that her addition 'speaks volumes' as she was 'personally chosen' for the part by director Matthew Vaughn.

They said: 'The Delevingnes are in huge demand in Hollywood right now, and this is a pretty big deal for Poppy in the wake of Cara's success in Suicide Squad.'

Something in their genes? Her sister Poppy, who is married to James Cook, seems to be following suit, as she too is distancing herself from modelling to feature on the big screen

One with nature... The home includes a gorgeous view of the tree tops
She dropped the bombshell that they had finally settled on a 2.9million home just north of London, last week.

And now Sam Faiers has shared an insight into what the plush Hertfordshire pad might look like.

The expectant former TOWIE star teased a video via Instagram on Sunday from inside the glamorous new 'orangery'.

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First look: Sam Faiers shared an insight into the look of her new Hertfordshire home on Sunday, sharing internal pictures to Instagram

'Always my dream to have an orangery,' she wrote, beside a picture of floor-to-ceiling windows and a vast and empty tiled-floor room.

'So excited... New home. New beginnings,' she captioned another shot of the fireplace.

Already, the exquisite home looks like the perfect blanc canvas for the three-piece family, who are expecting a fourth addition by the end of the year.

MailOnline exclusively has learned that the happy couple moved into the new place last week.

Moving on: Sam and her family have already moved into the plush 2.9million home

A source explained: 'Samantha and Paul have been looking for the perfect property for some time and theyve now found a property they believe is perfect to bring up their family.'

The source went on to say: 'The property is located in a privately gated road and boasts its own swimming pool along with several acres of land.'

It was previously reported that Sam and Paul were renting the home of One Direction star Niall Horan on a temporary basis while they house hunted.

New family home: Sam and partner Paul Knightly (left) have spent the summer looking for the perfect spot

Expanding the family: Sam has baby son Paul with partner Paul but they're now expecting their second child and need somewhere bigger to live

The move from native Essex was reportedly prompted by her desire to ditch the TOWIE [The Only Way Is Essex] association.

In the last series of The Mummy Diaries, a series which follows Sam and her family through early family life, fans saw Sam and Paul exploring the idea of life in Los Angeles.

But properties in Venice Beach were not quite up to Samantha's standards, like they were in Beverly Hills.

One on the way: The couple announced their happy baby news three weeks ago and Sam is almost five months gone

Room to grow: The house is said to have land and a pool of its own, which will prove popular with baby Paul

The former TOWIE star viewed a stunning detached property, which was on the market for $2.3 million, but decided that the 'quirky' area was not right.

The fitness entrepreneur even enquired about the California version of Brentwood, stating that she is from the UK version - but was again disappointed that her and Paul would not get 'more bang for their buck' in the equally prestigious location.

'For that price tag, you'd expect a gate, a swimming pool, two or three floors... this had none of that,' she said, disappointed.

Searching abroad: Previously, the couple had been looking at homes in Los Angeles

Not ideal: Their hunt for a California home featured on reality TV show The Mummy Diaries, which had just been renewed for three more series

The Mummy Diaries has recently been acquired for three more series, which will see the show continue to air until at least 2019.

Forthcoming shows have already been boosted by the news that Sam is almost five months pregnant with her second child.

Announcing the news three weeks ago, she wrote on Twitter: Words can't describe how excited we are to meet you baby. We love you so much already'
He's spent the last few weeks in the US wrapping up his upcoming film Thor: Ragnorak.

And over the weekend, Chris Hemsworth was spotted back home in his Byron Bay stomping ground.

Although looking happy to be reunited with his family, the 33-year-old was seen walking around the streets with an ice-pack.

What happened? Over the weekend, Chris Hemsworth was spotted back home in his Byron Bay stomping ground carrying an ice-pack

Dressing casually for the warm winter's day, Chris wore a plain white t-shirt that showcased his bulging biceps.

Keeping on trend with the beach town, he teamed his top with a pair of dark board shorts.

The star kept out the sunny glare with some tinted sunglasses.

Bruised and battered? Although looking happy to be reunited with his family, the 33-year-old was seen walking around the streets with a healing pack

Hunk: Dressing casually for the warm winter's day, Chris wore a plain white t-shirt that showcased his bulging biceps

Sunny Byron: The star kept out the sunny glare with some tinted sunglasses

The Thor actor further accessorised his look with a band and a silver watch.

Chris' bronde hair was styled into a messy and effortless scruff that matched his stubble filled beard.

Stepping out from what looked to be a podiatry clinic, one shot showed the Tourism Australia ambassador checking out his receipt.

Rocking it: Chris' bronde hair was styled into a messy and effortless scruff that matched his stubble filled beard

Overcharged? Stepping out from what looked to be a podiatry clinic, one shot showed the Tourism Australia ambassador checking out his receipt

Dream team: Last weekend, the former Home And Away star was seen jetting off on a boys weekend to San Diego's Comic Con while his wife Elsa Pataky, 41, partied at Splendour in the Grass

Last weekend, the former Home And Away star was seen jetting off on a boys weekend to San Diego's Comic Con while his wife Elsa Pataky, 41, partied at Splendour in the Grass with their three-year-old twins Tristan and Sasha.

The couple who are also the parents to five-year-old daughter India-Rose began dating in early 2010 before marrying in December the same year.

In 2015, Chris and Elsa's brood relocated from Los Angeles to Byron Bay so that they could raise their family away from the spotlight.

Loved up: The couple who are also the parents to five-year-old daughter India-Rose began dating in early 2010 before marrying in December the same year
She regularly posts snaps of her French bulldog to Instagram.

And Shanina Shaik recently brought along her beloved pet pooch Choppa to work, incorporating him into her latest shoot.

The 26-year-old was spotted on set in Los Angeles on Saturday, with the pup perched under her arm as she expertly posed for photos.

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Say cheese! Shanina Shaik was spotted on set in Los Angeles on Saturday, with her pup Choppa perched under her arm as she expertly posed for photos

The Melbourne-born stunner was dressed in high-waist jeans and a variety of off-shoulder tops that flaunted her glowing tan and lithe figure.

She wore an array of Swarovski accessories and had her hair styled in a voluminous long bob style.

The Victoria's Secret model wore a natural makeup palette that featured her signature defined brows and a pop of pastel pink on her lip.

Chic: The Melbourne-born stunner was dressed in high-waist jeans and a variety of off-shoulder tops that flaunted her glowing tan and lithe figure

She snapped her own photo of Choppa the same day and shared it to social media.

'He deserves some sparkle too!' she captioned the shot of the canine wearing what appeared to be Swarovski flower designs on his collar.

'You're both lucky to have each other,' fawned one of her followers in the comments section.

'He deserves some sparkle too!' she captioned the shot of the canine wearing what appeared to be Swarovski flower designs on his collar

Shanina will reportedly be joined by her fiance Gregory 'DJ Ruckus' Andrews on the catwalk at David Jones' Spring/Summer 2017 Collection show in August.

'What's particularly special is that my fiance Gregory will be joining me on the trip too,' the Australian supermodel told The Daily Telegraph.

It will be the first time the duo have ever modelled in a runway show together.
It's been the most-watched and most-talked about series in the show's three-year history.

And the Love Island contestants gave fans the last hurrah on Sunday night, as they came together for the ultimate Class Of 2017 photo.

From on-screen villain 'Muggy Mike' right down to new addition baby Cash Hughes, the 32 castmembers posed up a storm following the Love Island: Reunion show.

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All together now: Love Island's contestants came together for one last Class Of 2017 photo on Sunday night, following the Love Island: Reunion show on ITV2. Pictured are (back row L-R) - Dom Lever, Jamie Jewett, Steve Ball, Alex Beattie, Georgia Harrison, Nathan Joseph, Tyla Carr, Jonny Mitchell, Mike Thalassitis, Chyna Ellis, Tyne-Lexy Clarkson, Amelia Peters, Ellisha-Jade White, Craig Lawson. Middle row (L-R) Marino Katsouris, Harley Judge, Camilla Thurlow, Rob Lipset, Shannen McGrath, Sam Gowland, Chloe Crohurst, Montana Brown, Theo Campbell. Front row (L-R) Danielle Sellers, Marcel Somerville, Gabby Allen, Jessica Shears, Kem Cetinay, Amber Davies, Chris Hughes, Olivia Attwood and Simon Searles

New addition: Of course, Olivia Attwood and Chris Hughes' 'baby' Cash was present

Winners Kem Cetinay and girlfriend Amber Davis were front and centre for the family portrait, with the smitten hunk planting a kiss on his girlfriend's cheek as a show of affection.

Fourth runners up Gabby Allen and Marcel Somerville were posing to the left, some familiar faces were lined-up behind.

Much to the humour of tweeters, petite Camilla Thurlow could be seen peeping out behind everyone else.

With just one eye showing, Camilla was just not tall enough to meet the height of the hunks in front.

The tiniest member of the cast photo had to be Cash Hughes, however.

Fans will remember Chris Hughes and Olivia Attwood's 'baby' for a fleeting appearance towards the end of the summer show when the islanders were tasked with faux parenthood.

Chris took to the task like a duck to water and fans were therefore thrilled to see the hunk reunited with his baby in a cute family portrait with girlfriend Olivia.

Winner, winner: This year's winners Kem Cetinay and girlfriend Amber Davis were front and centre for the cast photo

The show brought out the worst in some people on Sunday night as relationships were broken before everyone's eyes.

Jonny Mitchell lived up to his love rat reputation when he left love interest Chyna Ellis aghast by appearing to dump her live on air.

Show host Caroline Flack quizzed the duo over the nature of their romance and when Jonny suggested the pair were 'keeping things open', his flame Chyna was left open-mouthed after what seemed like an on-air dumping.

'What the hell?' Chyna Ellis was left open-mouthed during Love Island's live reunion show on Sunday night as Jonny Mitchell claimed their romance was being 'left open' much to her shock

Oops: The dark-haired hunk appeared to land himself in it as he played down his and Chyna's relationship status

Hitting back: Chyna was quick to question her beau and pointed out that he had whisked her off to Budapest for the weekend

Much to her surprise Jonny was keen to play down their relationship and when quizzed over his relationship status, he told Caroline: 'We're keeping it open.'

A visibly shocked Chyna was quick to repsond: 'Keeping it open? What the hell?'

An awkward Jonny then stuttered in response: 'We're just very good friends... we're having a bit of fun.'

Chyna then pointed out that Jonny's idea of having a 'bit of fun' involved taking her overseas, prompting Jonny's Love Island nemesis Theo Campbell to remark: 'Can I be a good friend?'

With tensions clearly rising between Jonny and Chyna, Caroline was quick to move on from the showdown, quipping that things had suddenly got very 'awkward' in the studio.

'We're just very good friends': Jonny tried to reason, prompting host Caroline Flack to brand the exchange 'awkward' and just move on

Ouch: Tensions were clearly rising between the duo, with Jonny's nemesis Theo joking that he too wanted to be a 'good friend' of Chyna's

During the reunion show, Montana Brown and Alex Beattie yet again denied recent rumours that they have 'secretly split' and insisted the claims were 'definitely not true'.

Alex hit back: 'We're just [living] at opposite ends of the country, but we're making it work.'

He and Montana had made their romance official while starring on the dating show, but Alex was left red-faced when he had told his girlfriend he loved her and she hadn't reciprocated his feelings.

Asked if Montana had dropped the L-word yet, a frustrated Alex quickly replied: 'No not yet,' through gritted teeth before bowing his head.

Tyla and Mike Thalassitis confirmed that their brief romance has come to a complete halt, with Mike focusing on enjoying himself and 'doing bits' instead and Tyla insisting she was after a man that, like her, wants to actually settle down.

The final four couples revealed how their relationships were faring now they were back on home soil.

Not happy: Chyna had hit out at Jonny via Snapchat during the show branding him a 'pr**k'

More than friends: Jonny and the blonde beauty had looked pretty cosy during their trip to Budapest that they documented all over social media

'Definitely not': Montana Brown and Alex Beattie made sure to hit back at rumours they have split once again, insisting they are very much together and making their romance work

Marcel and Gabby once again confirmed that, after abstaining while on camera, they have finally done the deed and had sex. Gabby revealed: 'It was the first time we had a night on our own... oh my god, yes. It was worth the wait!'

Probed for the juicy details by Caroline, Marcel insisted a 'gentleman never tells', but was quick to confirm that he and Gabby had got hot and heavy with one another a 'few times' in just one night.

They revealed that they are looking forward to having a 'real relationship' on the outside and while they had no current plans to move in together, they have discussed potentially setting up home in a 'few months' time.

Olivia was quick to leave her beau Chris red-faced, as she revealed that he had actually asked her for a key to his flat that morning.

All over: Tyla and Mike Thalassitis confirmed that their brief romance has come to a complete halt, with Mike focusing on enjoying himself and 'doing bits'

'We want different things': Tyla insisted she was after a man that, like her and unlike Mike, wants to actually settle down

'It was worth it': While Gabby and Marcel confirmed yet again they have finally had sex

Gabby revealed: 'It was the first time we had a night on our own... oh my god, yes. It was worth the wait!'

Chris was quick to insist it 'never happened' and the playful pair continued to embarrass each other as they discussed their turbulent relationship in the villa.

Making her boyfriend squirm, Olivia referred to her boyfriend's tendency to break down in tears and joked that he had cried since leaving Love Island - 'after sex'.

Her banter-filled remark, however, backfired when Chris hit back: 'Legit if anyone was crying after sex it was her,' prompting Liv to share slightly too much information, as she added: 'Yeah it was me, the next day. I was waddling.'

Much to fans delight, the duo were reunited with their faux son, baby Cash Hughes.

Camilla Thurlow and Jamie Jewitt, meanwhile, parted ways with the sultry chat as they discussed their plans to visit a refugee camp together.

Too much information? Chris and Olivia had been just as forthcoming about their bedroom antics, with Olivia joking her beau had cried after they'd slept together

Backfired: Her joke came back to her bite her though as Chris hit back: 'Legit if anyone was crying after sex it was her'

On Love Island, Jamie had told Camilla he wanted to whisk her away to Ibiza when filming came to an end, but the couple revealed their sun-drenched holiday has taken a back burner.

Jamie confessed that his romance with the blonde beauty is 'better than ever' and while they are yet to put an official label on their relationship, he teased: 'We are very close.'

Last but not least, Love Island winners Kem Cetinay and Amber Davies seemed just as besotted as each other and despite their tumultuous journey in the villa, they insisted they haven't had a 'bad day' since rekindling their romance after Kem's trip to Casa Amor with the boys.

'We're very close': Camilla and Jamie revealed they are on the way to becoming an official couple and explained their plans to visit a refugee camp together

Sweet: Jamie confessed that his romance with the blonde beauty is 'better than ever' since leaving the Love Island villa and having met each other's family and friends

The triumphant pair shed light on their plans to move to Essex together, but insisted they wouldn't be 'rushing' the move, as they hope to 'build on their relationship' before jumping into taking the next steps together - including marriage.

Although, having previously spoken with one another about tying the knot, they seemed to disagree when it came to when they would finally wed.

Kem joked he wouldn't marry until he was 30, prompting Amber to remark: '30? That's interesting. I thought we said before, five years and engagement.'

Squirming a little in his seat, Kem reassured Amber: 'Yeah so we'll think about it in five years time,' although he did add that he wasn't planning on marriage 'anytime soon'.

'No time soon': Love Island winner Kem brushed off talk of marriage to girlfriend Amber Davies, admitting he wasn't planning on tying the knot until he is 30

Love Island Awards: The Muggys Most Romantic: Kem for his speeches to Amber Best Supporting Face: Jonny for his 'watching Theo jump in the pool face' Totes Awks: Stormzy for his tweet calling out Olivia - but recieved by Georgia for 'coupling up with Kem' Dry Your Eyes Mate: Tyla for 'crying over Jonny' Muggiest Moment of the Series: Mike for 'being muggy Mike' Advertisement

Instead, it seems he is focusing on his career as a rapper, teasing that he and Stormzy have teamed up together on an exciting new project.

Tweets had been exchanged between the 'Big For Your Boots' hit-maker and Kem hinting at a collaboration, with Kem confirming live on air on Love Island's reunion show: 'There's definitely something going on.'

'Everyone is going to see it,' he promised. 'Man like Stormzy is coming through.'

While fans will have to eagerly wait for Kem's debut rapping track, they did find themselves witnessing a surprise performance from Blazing Squad.

Marcel's former band surprised him on the show and gave an impromptu performance of their hit Flip Reverse, with the reality star jumping up to join them on stage, much to his girlfriend Gabby's delight.

The show then wrapped up with its own award ceremony titled 'The Muggys', where Kem won a gong for his romantic speeches to girlfriend Amber and Mike won Muggiest Moment of the Series, as voted by fans, for simply being 'muggy Mike'.
He was recently axed from his David Jones ambassador gig after five years.

And Jason Dundas opened up on Sunday about a surprising naked selfie he posted to social media earlier this year.

The 34-year-old spoke with The Herald Sun and explained his motive for the Instagram photo was to 'poke fun' at the 'blatant sexuality' featured on Instagram.

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Revealing: Jason Dundas has opened up about a surprising naked selfie he posted to social media earlier this year

'I jumped on the bandwagon to poke fun, but I started getting smashed with [direct messages] saying your account is about to be ripped down,' he told the publication.

'I'm just so confused about it and Im so frustrated with people posting blatant sexuality that gets a huge following,' he added.

The television personality had shared a sideways shot of himself posing nude on a multi-coloured rug with headphones in his ears.

'I'm just so confused about it and Im so frustrated with people posting blatant sexuality that gets a huge following,' he added

The caption that accompanied the image read: 'Clothes are overrated. Little afternoon stretch in my yoga room.'

The former X-Factor host decided to delete the upload an hour later.

'I've got this love-hate relationship with Instagram. Whenever I post things, I lose followers. When I dont post things, I gain followers,' he described.

'I've got this love-hate relationship with Instagram. Whenever I post things, I lose followers. When I dont post things, I gain followers,' he described

The Penrith-born star was axed from his promotional role for David Jones earlier this month.

'(David Jones) asked me what I wanted to do. I was like, "Well, I had an awesome time." It naturally came to an end,' he told The Daily Telegraph.

'I worked with David Jones for five years. It went above and beyond what I expected. I'm stoked,' he continued.
He's never been afraid to experiment with style.

And Christian 'Prince' Wilkins did just that over the weekend when he attended the Veuve Clicquot Winter Soiree at Mrs Sippy.

Looking happy to be at the Double Bay event, the 22-year-old socialite turned heads as he channeled his inner Fabio in a busy and uncoordinated ensemble.

Where to look first! Over the weekend Christian 'Prince' Wilkins attended the Veuve Clicquot Winter Soiree at Mrs Sippy in a bold ensemble

The son of Today host Richard Wilkins was spotted in a blue and yellow printed shirt which had minimal buttons done up.

Exposing his marginally hairy chest, Prince added a tasseled suede jacket over the top.

Toning down his bold ensemble, the socialite wore distressed denim jeans that featured a large rip in the right knee.

Fabio? The son of Today host Richard Wilkins was spotted in a blue and yellow printed shirt which had minimal buttons done up

Wild child: Toning down his bold ensemble, the socialite wore distressed denim jeans that featured a large rip in the right knee

Posers: Prince was also seen posing with television personality Gemma Cole

The aspiring model teamed his look with large dirty and scuffed boots that had holes in them.

Accessorising with multiple statement rings, he left his hair out donning a side path.

Prince was also seen posing with television personality Gemma Cole.

Hidden agenda? Placing one arm around the female event-goer, Prince used his other hand to open up his shirt and expose more skin

Stunner: NRL WAG Belinda Bartholemew was also seen making an appearance in a black mini dress

Stylish: Instagram yogi Caroline Groth kept her look monocrome in a statement checkered mini skirt

Placing one arm around the female event-goer, Prince used his other hand to open up his shirt and expose more skin.

Gemma was spotted wearing a fur jacket over a black knit dressed and grey thigh high boots.

Other event attendees included NRL WAG Belinda Bartholemew, Instagram yogi Caroline Groth and Ninja Warrior star Katie Williams.

Fitness friends: Caroline was also seen posing with Ninja Warrior star Katie Williams
Scott Disick was spotted living it up in The Hamptons this weekend.

The father-of-three was 'sloppy drunk' Saturday at the upscale Sunset Beach hotel, a source revealed to DailyMail.com exclusively.

Allegedly, the reality star was intoxicated as he partied it up at a bar and at one point even 'screamed out "I want my d*** sucked' at the crowded club according to the insider.

One too many? Scott Disick was spotted living it up in The Hamptons on Saturday, where the New York native was said to be 'sloppy drunk' and while partying it up with girls at a bar. Above, the ex of Kourtney Kardashian is caught in a candid by user @rodgers_faye

The ex of Kourtney Kardashian was partying hard at the luxe Sunset Beach on New York's Shelter Island, where he posed for a selfie with IG user @celeste_lynne and was caught candidly another user of the picture-sharing site.

'He was sloppy drunk,' a source told DailyMail.com.

'At one point he just walked over to two girls and started grabbing them, then screamed out: "I want my d*** sucked."'

Since his split with the eldest Kardashian sister, the reality star has been seen with a bevvy of beauties while partying it up all over the world.

Oh Lord: According to a source at the bar, a drunk Disick 'just walked over to two girls and started grabbing them, then screamed out: "I want my d*** sucked."' Above, the reality star is seen in a post from the upscale Shelter Island Hotel's Sunset Beach

Not cool: Although the New England bred bachelor (above in 2016) did call himself a 'sex addict' on KUWTK, in an E! interview he clarified that he 'just like[s] sex, but' is 'not a sex addict' and that the comment was made 'in a humorous, joking fashion'

And though the New England bred bachelor called himself a 'sex addict' in the last season of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, it looks like Disick is backpedaling on those comments.

He clarified his comments in an chat with E! News explaining, 'I would say I think it's a little rude that everybody keeps addressing me as a sex addict.

'I just like sex, but I'm not a sex addict. I said that in a humorous, joking fashion on the show and now I'm getting billed as one, and it's not the case. I do like sex, but I am not an addict.'

Having fun? Since his split with the eldest Kardashian sister, the reality star has been seen with a bevvy of beauties while partying all over the world. Above the star is in his element, joined by bikini-clad darlings (and nightlife mogul Connor Treacy, left) at a Las Vegas pool party

And though Scott appears to be enjoying the bachelor life, last week a source told People that in Disick's 'ideal world... he would still be with Kourtney.'

'He wants her back, but he just isn't taking the steps needed to make that happen,' the source continued.

'Scott is really sad about it, and it's part of why he's lashing out,' the insider noted.

Totally innocent? As rumored love-interest Bella Thorne admitted she was 'never with him sexually' during a recent interview, the reality star reiterated those claims, as they are pictured together at LAX in May

This comes on the heels on Scott and pal Bella Thorne both denied ever having a 'romantic' relationship.

The former Disney diva admitted she was 'never with him sexually' during a recent interview, the reality star reiterated those claims.

The Lord said: 'We have nothing to do with each other romantically.'

'No one expects it to turn into anything serious': Meanwhile, the half-Armenian socialite is still casually dating 23-year-old boxer-turned-model Younes Bendjima (pictured July 6)

Meanwhile, the half-Armenian socialite is still casually dating 23-year-old boxer-turned-model Younes Bendjima.

'Everyone around her knows she's just having fun and no one expects it to turn into anything serious,' a source told People.

Kourtney and Scott are parents to three children - Mason, seven, Penelope, four, and Reign, two - they had initially split in 2015 before briefly rekindling their romance last year.
She may have found herself booted from the Love Island villa early on into its third series.

But Jessica Shears made sure all eyes were firmly on her, as she arrived at the ITV studios in London ahead of the dating series live reunion show on Sunday night.

Dressed to impress for the occasion, the glamour model from Devon looked simply sensational in her skimpy design that made for a VERY leggy display, thanks to its eye-wateringly short hemline.

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Sensational: Jessica Shears flaunted her desirable curves and incredibly toned pins as she stepped out for the Love Island live reunion show on Sunday night

Jessica's dress sheathed her desirable curves, leaving her impressive golden glow that she has managed to sustain following her stint in the Mallorcan sunshine.

The reality star's little black dress boasted a bandeau neckline and skimmed her thighs, leaving her incredibly toned pins firmly on view, while nipping in at the waist to accentuate her slender physique.

She teamed her scanty attire with a pair of patent heels in the same shade and left her glossy brunette tresses down in a softly tousled style.

Jess finished off her look with glamorous make-up that came complete with highlighted cheekbones, a subtle smokey eye and a deep pink lipstick across her lips.

Loved-up: Close beside her had been her co-star beau Dom Lever, who appeared to be all clad in black like his girlfriend

Dazzling: Jess' little black dress boasted a bandeau neckline, skimming her thighs and leaving her incredibly toned pins on view, while nipping in at the waist to flaunt her slender frame

She appeared happy to pose on her arrival ahead of joining her fellow islanders on air on ITV2 and was pictured throwing her head back while smiling broadly as she struck up a series of poses.

Of course, the smitten starlet wasn't without her co-star beau Dom Lever, who appeared close beside Jessica.

And appearing to co-ordinate his outfit to that of his girlfriend's, Dom too was clad in an all-black ensemble that he threw an acid wash denim jacket over.

Cuddling up together for photographers, the duo proved their relationship is still going strong despite their rocky start.

Smitten: Cuddling up together for photographers, she and boyfriend Dom proved their relationship is still going strong despite their rocky start

Not only had the couple been forced apart, following Jess' exit from the villa, Dom then learned of swirling rumours claiming his new love had bedded fellow islander Mike Thalassitis on her first night away from the show.

He had to spend two weeks mulling over the thought, before reuniting with Jess and confronting both her and Mike for the truth - they have vehemently denied claims that suggest of a dalliance between them.

Putting his faith in his current flame, Dom has stood by Jess and the duo even cemented their love for each other by getting matching tattoos etched onto their arms.

Dedication: They have known each other for less than two months, but that hasn't stopped Dom and Jess cementing their new love with matching tattoos

Despite only meeting two months ago, the pair relished the chance to make a very permanent commitment to each other, opting for a similar design of two palm trees encased within a heart and each other's first initial.

They were later seen by Love Island fans flaunting their matching inkings on the show's live reunion and when host Caroline Flack remarked that it was a big testament to each other, Dom remarked that it was more of a 'tribute to Love Island'.

He also confirmed that he and Jess have been discussing marriage and babies already, not fazed that they are only weeks into their romance.

Joining Dom and Jess for the last Love Island: Aftersun spin-off show had been their co-stars Chloe Crowhurst and Chyna Ellis.

Stunning: Joining Dom and Jess for the last Love Island: Aftersun spin-off show had been their co-stars Chloe Crowhurst and Chyna Ellis

Chloe looked incredible in an orange mini dress that boasted lace-up detailing up either side. Like Jess, she too showcased her lengthy legs, adding height to her ensemble with a pair of metallic strappy heels, and wore her long blonde tresses down in glamorous curls past her shoulders.

Chyna, meanwhile, was clad in a suede pastel pink frock that stole a look at her bust and sat high on her upper thighs. It came complete with racy lattice detailing down its centre.

She teamed her revealing attire with a complementing duster coat and a gleaming white pair of barely-there heels.

Gorgeous: Chloe Crowhurst looked incredible in a form-fitting orange dress that featured lace-up detailing at either side

Glamorous: She teamed her number with a pair of metallic strappy heels and a two-tone clutch

While Chyna's time on Love Island was short-lived, she became a main talking part of the series' reunion show, thanks to an awkward showdown with her beau Jonny Mitchell.

Jonny and blonde beauty Chyna had struck up a romance once they had both left Love Island, with the dark-haired hunk whisking his co-star away to Budapest for a romantic weekend together.

Their unlikely pairing had surprised viewers and when quizzed over their status as a couple, Jonny had played down their relationship to Caroline, insisting they were just 'very good friends'.

Beauty: Chyna dazzled in a thigh-skimming pastel pink suede frock that stole a look at her cleavage

Drama: While Chyna's time on Love Island was short-lived, she became a main talking part of the series' reunion show, thanks to an awkward showdown with her beau Jonny Mitchell

He also claimed that the pair were 'keeping their romance open', prompting a visibly shocked Chyna to hit back: 'Keeping it open? What the hell?' as she clearly hadn't been thinking the same.

As the pair awkwardly clashed over their romance, Caroline quickly moved the show on, but unwilling to let things lie, Chyna hit out at Jonny via her Snapchat and branded him a 'pr**k'.

Fans, meanwhile, were also treated to interviews with the show's four final couples and an impromptu performance from Blazin Squad, as some of the former band had turned up to surprise Marcel Somerville.

Awkward: Chyna and Jonny had struck up a romance away from the cameras, but he appeared to play down their relationship status live on air

Not impressed: Chyna hit back: 'Keeping it open? What the hell?' as she clearly hadn't been thinking the same

Not impressed: As the pair awkwardly clashed, Caroline quickly moved the show on, but unwilling to let things lie, Chyna hit out at Jonny via her Snapchat and branded him a 'pr**k'

Exciting: Fans, meanwhile, were also treated to interviews with the show's four final couples and an impromptu performance from Blazin Squad
She might be a famous face, but it seems that Laura Csortan is just like the rest of us.

According to The Daily Telegraph, the 40-year-old tried to sell a dress on Facebook.

The publication reports that the former Wheel of Fortune co-host and model posted a gold $2,000 Alex Perry gown for sale, for just $150.

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Just like the rest of us! Laura Csortan lists her $2,000 Alex Perry dress for sale at a bargain price on Facebook

The Daily Telegraph reports that the new mother posted the stunning size eight frock to the group called Swap, Sell, Buy or Trade - Eastern Suburbs Sydney (non baby related).

The post featured photographs of the dress, with Laura writing that is was 'never worn' and would fit a 'size eight or 10.'

The publication reports that the post has now been removed from the page, and it is unclear if it had sold or not.

Sweet: Earlier this month, Laura enjoyed a break in Byron Bay with her daughter, Layla Rose, eight months

Having her say: Earlier this month, she lashed out on Instagram over 'heartbreaking accusations' by The Sunday Telegraph, that she was 'dating' Anthony Bell (pictured R)

Earlier this month, Laura enjoyed a break in Byron Bay with her daughter, Layla Rose, eight months.

The blonde TV personality gave birth to her tiny tot in November and has kept the father's identity under wraps, previously saying 'he doesn't want to be involved'.

Earlier this month, she lashed out on Instagram over 'heartbreaking accusations' by The Sunday Telegraph, that she was 'dating' Anthony Bell.

Single mother Laura claimed the publication also insinuated that the celebrity accountant is the father of her little girl.

Opening up: Laura gave birth to her tiny tot in November, and has kept the father's identity under wraps, previously saying 'he doesn't want to be involved'

Calling the article 'cruel,' she said: 'No mother, let alone a single mum should be put through an insinuation like this just because they support a friend unconditionally,' she said, after pictured emerged of them in Queensland together, while she was holidaying there.

'Anthony is one of my closest friends and we are not (nor have we ever been) in a coupled relationship,' she added in part of her post.

Laura also wrote that she and her family were helping Anthony through his high-profile split with former Getaway star Kelly Landry.
Roxy Jacenko and Oliver Curtis became engaged for a second time earlier this month.

And on the weekend, the pair were clearly back to being a happy family unit as they joined daughter Pixie Curtis on the set of a photo shoot for her accessories line, Pixie's Bows.

The 37-year-old and her husband showed a united front as they each placed an arm around their beaming daughter.

Happy family: Roxy Jacenko and Oliver Curtis joined daughter Pixie Curtis on the set of a photo shoot for her accessories line, Pixie's Bows

In snaps shared exclusively with Daily Mail Australia, the businesswoman laughed gleefully at the camera while Pixie adorably hid behind her proud dad.

The PR maven looked joyful, cutting a casual figure in blue jeans, a Supreme shirt and white sneakers.

Oliver meanwhile chose a pair of grey shorts, a blue shirt and matching blue cap, with sunglasses hung from his collar.

Pixie looked adorable in red and white checked pants, a pale blue shirt and her signature headband.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Roxy revealed it was, 'the first shoot (Pixie's) father Oli has been on'.

Roxy revealed it was: 'the first shoot (Pixie's) father Oli has been on'.

Fashionable: The PR maven looked joyful, cutting a casual figure in blue jeans, a Supreme shirt and white sneakers

In one fun image, the blonde showed her cheeky side, poking her tongue out as she posed alongside a member of Pixie's styling team.

Roxy also shared one behind the scenes image to Instagram, captioning the snap: 'On set with our little superstar @pixiecurtis shooting her new #pixiesbows campaign.'

It was only the best for Pixie on the day, and her styling team comprised of some notable creatives, including celebrity make-up artist Max May, known for creating looks for Lara Bingle.

The five-year-old's hair was tended to by celebrity stylist Richard Kavanagh and Roxy tells Daily Mail Australia he, 'transformed Pixies Shoulder length hair to hair to locks to rival Rapunzel.'

Behind the scenes! It was only the best for Pixie on the day, and her styling team comprised of some notable creatives, including celebrity make-up artist Max May, known for creating looks for Lara Bingle

Help from mum: Pixies Bows was established by Pixie and her mum Roxy in 2011

Mum's the word: Pixie posers with Richard Freeman (who was the photographer on the shoot) in a candid photo taken by Roxy

Roxy had shared further images from the behind the scenes of the shoot over the weekend, which showed Pixie being pampered by a stylist.

The doting mum uploaded two adorable photos as she joined her daughter for the shoot at B2 Studios in Sydney.

Precious Pixie, who has just started at primary school, appeared to be enjoying her time in the spotlight.

Pampered:The five-year-old's hair was tended to by celebrity stylist Richard Kavanagh and Roxy tells Daily Mail Australia he, 'transformed Pixies Shoulder length hair to hair to locks to rival Rapunzel'

She watched-on with intrigue while hairdresser styled her flame-coloured locks from shoulder length to flowing down her back.

Roxy's fans instantly inundated the photos with gushing comments, with follower writing: 'Her hair!!!! OMG. Gorgeous!!'.

Although she is a tot, Pixie is already becoming a business mogul, shooting her 2017 Spring/Summer campaign for her Pixies Bows hair accessory line.

The brand was established by Pixie and her mum Roxy in 2011 and is a booming online business.
He's part of this season's 'battler couple' on The Block with wife Sarah.

And Jason, 46, has opened up about doctors misdiagnosing him with cancer when he was 23.

The Melbourne plumber spoke with Woman's Day about the traumatic moment his physicians delivered the wrong prognosis to him as a young man.

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Traumatic: The Block's Jason, 46, has opened up about being misdiagnosed with cancer when he was 23

'I couldn't believe it when the doctors told me I had three to six months to live,' he recalled to the magazine.

'It was a benign tumour, but initially doctors thought it was cancer and it had spread,' he explained.

'When they operated they realised it was all okay,' he continued.

'I couldn't believe it when the doctors told me I had three to six months to live,' he recalled to the magazine

The father of three has weathered a number of storms with Sarah, a palliative care nurse, during their 25-year relationship, including crippling financial difficulties.

Jason's plumbing business reportedly went into liquidation at the same time Sarah's father passed away from cancer.

He also suffered a debilitating back injury, which left him bedridden for six months.

Battlers: The father of three has weathered a number of storms with Sarah, a palliative care nurse, during their 25-year relationship, including crippling financial difficulties

The McKinnon-based couple told The Leader they believe they're the 'perfect' team to win The Block, due to their ability to overcome obstacles.

'We will be perfect for this: we are unstoppable, amusing and have impeccable taste,' offered Sarah, 45.

'We have already been through so much already, so how hard could it be?' added Jason in an interview with 9Homes.

'We will be perfect for this: we are unstoppable, amusing and have impeccable taste,' offered Sarah, 45
They're working tirelessly on The Block as they renovate their respective houses.

And stress is starting to get to the teams.

On Monday's episode, drama erupted as Georgia clashed with Elyse Knowles and her boyfriend, Josh Barker, with Josh making Georgia cry.

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'He's an a****le and a d***head!' The Block's Georgia (L, pictured with husband Ronnie) bursts into tears after a showdown with Josh Barker and girlfriend Elyse Knowles

Georgia called Josh an 'a****le' and a 'd***head,' after the clash, saying how mean he was to her and her husband, Ronnie.

'I can't stand when people are mean, that was mean...how about you be a nice person, give that a go!'

Her comments came after she and Ronnie had to tell Elyse and Josh that they were taking some money from their budget.

Ouch! Her comments came after she and Ronnie had to tell Elyse and Josh (pictured) that they were taking some money from their budget

Ronnie and Georgia had won the first challenge - to renovate a bedroom - and got to choose which house they wanted to renovate on the show.

They chose house number three, which was the house which contained the bedroom that Josh and Elyse renovated for the challenge.

Josh and Elyse came second place in the challenge.

House number three came with a safe, which contained $45,000 in vouchers and $5,000 in cash.

Unimpressed: Josh had a go at Ronnie and Georgia after hearing the news, saying: 'Wouldn't expect anything else from a couple like you guys'

They also got to participate in 'the big steal,' where they could chose to swap houses with another team, or steal money from another team.

They would be able to steal how much they spent on the challenge from who the budget of any team of their choosing.

The pair chose Elyse and Josh, with the pair not taking it to well.

'So ours is a bit of a strategic move and we think you guys are pretty amazing, pretty capable and so were going to just have to take $8,500 from your budget,' Georgia said, with their renovations for the challenge costing them approximately $8,500.

Winning room: Pictured is Ronnie and Georgia's renovated room that won them the prize

Josh had a go at Ronnie and Georgia after hearing the news, saying: 'Wouldn't expect anything else from a couple like you guys.'

Ronnie then apologised but as the couples walked back to their work sites, they took digs at one another.

'Good luck guys,' Josh said.

Elyse added: 'Have fun getting all that rubbish,' referring to the rubbish they dumped in a room in their house from the first renovation, rather than putting it in a bin and saving Ronnie and Georgia time.

'You want to have some good ideas, it's a big week,' he said, as bathroom week kicked off.

Tradesman Josh added: 'It's a game. You guys have proven you guys are players, so. It's going to be a long three months.'
Zack Morris won't be too happy about this.

Tiffani Thiessen and Mario Lopez reunited for a good cause 24 years after Saved By the Bell went off air.

The famous pair reunited at a Num Noms toys company event in West Hollywood on Sunday.

The family-friendly event was hosted by the 43-year-old actress, who was accompanied by her look-alike seven-year-old daughter, Harper.

Back together: Former Saved By The Bell co-stars Mario Lopez and Tiffani Thiessen had a mini reunion alongside their families at a Num Noms toys event in West Hollywood on Sunday

Tiffani is also mom to a two-year-old son, Holt, with her husband of 12 years, Brady Smith, 45.

Mario also brought his family along to the event.

The 43-year-old Extra host was joined by his wife of five years, Courtney Mazza, 34, and the couple's two kids, Gia, six, and Dominic, three.

Clearly still good friends, Tiffani and her daughter even posed for photos alongside Mario and his family.

Host with the most: The family-friendly event was hosted by the 43-year-old actress, who looked chic in her jeans and Senreve clutch

Mother-daughter day... Tiffani was accompanied by her look-alike seven-year-old daughter, Harper

The pair played A.C. Slater and Kelly Kapowski on the cult teen comedy series, which followed six students at the fictitious Bayside High School.

And Mario wasn't Tiffani's only former co-star in attendance.

Ian Ziering, who starred alongside the brunette beauty in Beverly Hills, 90210, also turned out for the event.

Let them eat cake... The actress posed with desserts designed to look like the cult Num Noms toy characters

Family first: As well as Harper, Tiffani is also mom to a two-year-old son, Holt, with her husband of 12 years, Brady Smith

Hands-on mom: The actress was seen helping her adorable daughter with a craft activity at the event

The 53-year-old Sharknado actor attended alongside his wife of seven years, Erin Ludwig.

The couple have two daughters together, Mia, six, and Penna, four.

Ian was also seen posing for photos alongside Tiffani, Mario and their respective families.

Lending support: Ian Ziering, who starred alongside Tiffani in Beverly Hills, 90210, also turned out for the event

Close: The smiling star posed for photos alongside her former co-stars, as well as Mario's wife and kids

Tiffani looked stylish at the event, which was held at Au Fudge bistro.

She wore a pale blue top, which she teamed with a pair of distressed denim jeans.

The eternally youthful star also donned a pair of black a orange cage stilettos and carried a blue envelope clutch purse.

Doting dad: Mario brought his family along to the event, seen here with kids Gia, six, and Dominic, three

Hamming it up: At one stage, Mario was seen snapping selfies with his cute kids, as Dominic pulled faces at the camera

Just like his daddy... Mario and Dominic showed off their almost identical smirks as they posed for photos at the event

Meanwhile, Mario also opted for a blue top, which he teamed with faded black jeans.

The hunky star also wore dark grey sneakers.

Ian also went for a blue T-shirt, teaming it with a pair of dark grey shorts and white sneakers.
Golnesa GG Gharachedaghi made her runway debut after getting her outfit jacked by Janice Dickinson on Sunday's episode of Shahs Of Sunset.

The 35-year-old reality star was set to walk during Los Angeles Fashion Week for designer Erik Rosete.

Erik picked a shiny silver romper for GG but Janice, 62, scooped it up off a rack.

Runway debut: Golnesa 'GG' Gharachedaghi made her runway debut during Sunday's episode of Shahs Of Sunset after having her outfit jacked by Janice Dickinson

'You got jacked,' Erik informed GG.

'You can find that old a** b**** something else,' GG said.

The brunette beauty told the camera: 'I thought this b**** died out with The Flintstones.'

GG showed that she's changed her ways and instead of erupting went with the flow as Erik picked her out a new outfit.

Took it: Janice took the shiny silver romper that had been picked out for GG

Outfit swiped: GG had some harsh words for Janice after she took her outfit

Showing support: Reza Farahan, Shervin Roohparvar and Adam Neely supported GG

Romper drama: GG turned around after being told that Janice was wearing her outfit

Shervin Roohparvar, Reza Farahan and his husband Adam were backstage with GG giving her support.

Reza floated his and Mike Shouhed's idea to go to Israel to Shervin and GG who were reluctant to go due to their roots in Iran.

'They want to bomb Iran,' GG said.

Top model: Janice took photos in the romper by Erik Rosete

Israel trip: GG admitted that she was reluctant to go to Israel

The walk: The reality star nearly stumbled on the runway but recovered

Front row: Adam, Reza and Shervin sat front row to support GG

'We're just going on vacation. F*** Iran,' Reza said, angering GG.

She ater told the cameras: 'That's a very extreme statement to make. Guess where you're from homie.'

GG nearly tumbled during her runway walk but rebounded and closed the show by walking alongside Erik and Janice.

Natural beauty: GG recovered and strutted down the runway

Show over: Janice and GG flanked designer Erik at the end of the show

Asa Soltan Rahmati, Shervin and GG met up at a pumpkin patch and Asa listened as GG and Shervin shared their reservations about going to Israel.

GG said she loves Iran because it's her roots and it would be difficult to go to Israel because of the hostility between the countries.

Mercedes 'MJ' Javid and fiance Tommy meanwhile decided to have a baby and get married later.

Peace party: Reza was planning a Peace In The Middle East party to sway his friends to go to Israel

Baby plans: Mercedes 'MJ' Javid and fiance Tommy decided to try to have a baby first and get married later

Reza planned his Peace In The Middle East party hoping it would sway the group to go to Israel.

MJ committed early to the trip after realizing that she needed a break from caring for her ailing father.

The crew dressed up as Jews and Muslims and Reza again pressed for the trip to Israel.

Trip time: Reza and Mike Shouhed told MJ about the planned trip to Israel

Quick decision: MJ decided to go to Israel as she needed a break from caring for her ailing father

Home visit: Mike was looking forward to seeing family in Israel

'Am I going to be welcome?,' asked Shervin.

Mike who has family in Israel assured Shervin that all types are welcome.

'They don't accept Muslims,' GG said.

New store: Asa Soltan Rahmati was looking forward to her new kaftans store in Venice

Pumpkin patch: The pregnant reality star met up with GG at a pumpkin patch

Being honest: GG opened up to Asa about her reluctance to go to Israel

Home visits: Photos of GG making her yearly visit to Iran were shown as she explained her position

She admitted that she was open to the idea until Reza said 'f*** Iran'.

Reza then apologized and said he was wrong as he clarified that he loved the people and the land but had issues with the government.

GG appreciated the gesture and told the camera she realized that Reza was not judging Iran as a whole as she may have been doing with Israel.

Gay rabbi: Reza was a gay rabbi for his Peace In The Middle East party

Party time: Mike was dressed as Moses for the themed party

'F*** yeah,' GG said when Reza asked if she was going to Israel.

'Peace in the Middle East! Thank you for coming,' Reza shouted.

Shahs Of Sunset continues next week on Bravo.

Right words: GG opened up to the idea of going to Israel after Reza apologized for saying 'f*** Iran'
Sonia Kruger has no interest in social norms when it comes to clothing.

The 51-year-old told Stellar magazine this week that she 'doesn't subscribe' to the notion that age should limit a woman's wardrobe.

Referring to the infamous gold jumpsuit she wore to last years The Voice finale, she told the publication: 'Essentially I am very immature.

Work it! Sonia Kruger 'doesn't subscribe' to the notion that age should limit a woman's wardrobe, referring to the infamous gold jumpsuit she wore to last years The Voice finale

'Some people would say perhaps [the gold jumpsuit] was age-inappropriate. I don't subscribe to that. I don't like that term. What does it even mean?'

Meanwhile, the TV host posed on the cover of Stellar pant-less, showing off her fantastic pins, in nothing but a white, over-sized shirt.

But Sonia did admit to having some regrets about her career, revealing that she wishes she had tried to break Hollywood following the success of her debut Baz Luhrmann's 1992 film Strictly Ballroom.

The blonde, who played Tina Sparkle in the movie, told Stellar: 'I just didn't have the confidence.'

Relaxed: Meanwhile, the TV host poses on the cover of Stellar pant-less, showing off her fantastic pins, in nothing but a white, over-sized shirt

She told the publication: 'Some people would say perhaps [the gold jumpsuit] was age-inappropriate. I don't subscribe to that. I don't like that term. What does it even mean?'

While she may have some regrets about her career, Sonia recently revealed to TV WEEK magazine how grateful she is to be a parent.

'I feel really lucky to have her (Maggie),' the 51-year-old told the publication, but admitted she won't 'push her luck' for baby number two.

'I feel really lucky to have her. I'm going to be grateful forever and a day that I got to have her,' The Voice host gushed.

Happy: While she may have some regrets about her career, Sonia recently revealed to TV WEEK magazine how grateful she is to be a parent

Chance: 'I feel really lucky to have her (Maggie),' the 51-year-old told the publication, but admitted she won't 'push her luck' for baby number two

But having struggled previously for years to conceive, Sonia admitted that it may be a hard road ahead.

'I don't think I'll push my luck,' the Channel Nine personality said, adding that her priority is to maintain her health and fitness.

Sonia has been dating Craig McPherson, a Channel Seven employee, since September 2008.

The couple welcomed their first child, Maggie, via IVF treatment in January 2015.
Jennifer Garner certainly earned her fashion stripes on her latest outing.

The 45-year-old actress was spotted looking stylish while heading to church in Los Angeles on Sunday.

The actress faithfully attends a service each week, along with some or all of her children and this trip was no different.

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Faithful: Jennifer Garner, 45, was seen attending church in Los Angeles on Sunday

Jennifer looked lovely in a striped, blue-and-white blouse, tucked into a white, A-line skirt.

The 45-year-old beauty added a pair of trendy, navy sandals and a matching handbag to her ensemble.

Jennifer's look was complete with a delicate necklace, a watch, bracelet, and a pair of shades.

Classic and chic: The actress looked lovely in a striped, blue-and-white blouse, tucked into a white, A-line skirt

Family affair: The actress faithfully attends church weekly, along with some or all of her three children. She is pictured with daughter Violet, 11, Seraphina, eight, and Samuel Affleck, five

Having attended church growing up, the Miracles From Heaven star stopped once she moved to Los Angeles.

While filming the based-on-a-true-story drama in 2015, Jennifer's children questioned why their family didn't regularly attend church.

That prompted the star to make church a priority, and now she and her children attend weekly.

A pause: Having attended church growing up, the Miracles From Heaven star stopped once she moved to Los Angeles

Good inquiry: While filming the based-on-a-true-story drama in 2015, Jennifer's children questioned why their family didn't regularly attend church

Jennifer is proof that priorities determine what one makes time for, no matter how busy.

Between 2017 and 2018, the Golden Globe-winner will star in four projects.

This year, the Houston, Texas native will appear in The Tribes of Palos Verdes, and take the lead in Amusement Park, Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda and voice a character in Llama Llama.
She recently got engaged to her husband Oliver Curtis, 31, for a second time.

And on Monday, photos revealed that Roxy Jacenko's wedding might be closer than expected.

Arriving at the 37-year-old's Paddington Sweaty Betty headquarters, renowned Sydney dress designer Nicky Velani from Velani by Nicky was spotted carrying a large garment bag.

Exclusive! On Monday, Roxy Jacenko's dress designer Nicky Velani was spotted arriving at her office carrying a large garment bag

Carrying a dress on a white hanger, the designer was seen ringing the bell at Roxy's office.

Ensuring the masterpiece didn't get wet in the Sydney rain, Nicky tightly gripped a brown umbrella.

Nicky was dressed all in black for the dress fitting.

It's here! Carrying a dress on a white hanger, the designer was seen ringing the bell at Roxy's office

Protecting the star: Ensuring the masterpiece didn't get wet in the Sydney rain, Nicky tightly gripped a brown umbrella

Stylish: Nicky was dressed all in black for the dress fitting

Donning a black dress and blazer, she completed her ensemble with leather boots.

Along with her purse, the high in demand designer was also spotted carrying a large brown paper bag to the meeting.

Earlier in the day, Roxy was seen in high spirits unloading an extensive collection of coat hangers out of her car.

Looking the part: Along with her purse, the high in demand designer was also spotted carrying a large brown paper bag to the meeting

Something to smile about? Earlier in the day, Roxy was seen in high spirits unloading an extensive collection of coat hangers out of her car

Team Sweaty Betty: Accompanied by her protege Holly Asser, the mother to five-year-old Pixie and three-year-old Hunter was seen emptying her boot

Accompanied by her protege Holly Asser, the mother to five-year-old Pixie and three-year-old Hunter was seen emptying her boot.

Roxy channelled an All American Stars look donning a red and black jumper that was emblazoned with stars on both sleeves.

Pairing her look with leather pants, Roxy showcased her lean and toned legs.

Fashion forward: Roxy channeled an All American Stars look donning a red and black jumper that was emblazoned with stars on both sleeves

What's in the bag? Walking in a pair of black pumps, the PR maven was also seen carrying multiple gift bags into the office

Walking in a pair of black pumps, the PR maven was also seen carrying multiple gift bags into the office.

Looking excited for her afternoon fitting plans, Roxy was all smiles.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Roxy's dress designer Nicky revealed she can take anywhere between one week to six months to create a custom gown.

'I usually take around 4-6 months to create a gown but I have had a few clients request a custom made gown in a shorter turnaround.'
Last week, it was claimed that her relationship with Joey Morrison had come to an end, following months of hoping that they would marry and start a family.

But Lauren Goodger, 30, was seen putting on a brave face on Sunday night, as she stepped out for a night on the town with pals Pascal Craymer and Lauryn Goodman.

The former TOWIE star smiled as she strolled through the streets of Camden, north London, in an eye-catching black minidress, in which she showed off her ample bosom and curvy legs thanks to its plunging and daringly thigh-skimming features.

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Night out on the town: Lauren Goodger (centre) enjoyed a night out with her pals Pascal Craymer (left) and Lauryn Goodman (right) in Camden, north London on Sunday

She complemented her barely-there frock, which featured an asymmetrical hemline, with a semi-sheer back striped duster jacket, while red strappy sandals added a flourish of bold colour to her look.

Sporting a deep golden tan, Lauren styled her voluminous chestnut brown tresses in soft waves, while she benefited from a generous application of glossy makeup.

With a black leather handbag resting on her shoulder, she linked arms with Lauryn, who caught the eye in a plunging tight white dress with a lace-up feature.

Catching the eye: The former TOWIE star smiled as she strolled through the streets of Camden, north London, in an eye-catching black minidress

Display: The 30-year-old showed off her ample bosom and curvy legs through her dress's plunging and daringly thigh-skimming features

Semi-sheer: She complemented her barely-there frock, which featured an asymmetrical hemline, with a semi-sheer back striped duster jacket

Tanned: Sporting a deep golden tan, Lauren styled her voluminous chestnut brown tresses in soft waves, while she benefited from a generous application of glossy makeup

Adding a touch of pizzazz to her look with a silver duster coat and glittering choker, she flashed a little less skin than pal Pascal, who stepped out in a deeply plunging shimmering blue dress, which was cut to her torso.

On Friday, it had been revealed that Lauren was 'questioning' her relationship with boyfriend Joey, admitting she was finding it difficult to maintain their romance while he serves time in prison.

The former reality star admitted she 'needed time' to decided whether their 15-month relationship was 'worth it', after having previously denied split rumours.

The reality star was said to have informed her pals of her break up during a night out in London to support Vicky Pattison at the launch of her latest collection with Ann Summers last week.

You've got to hand it to her: With a black leather handbag resting on her shoulder, she held hands with Lauryn, who caught the eye in a plunging tight white dress with a lace-up feature

Having a laugh: The trio shared a laugh as they enjoyed their fun-filled night out on the town

Silver: Lauren added a touch of pizzazz to her look with a silver duster coat and choker

Cut: Pascal wore in a deeply plunging shimmering blue dress, which was cut to her torso

However, a representative for Lauren denied that she and Joey have called it quits, telling MailOnline: 'Lauren and Joey haven't officially broken up, but Lauren is questioning her relationship and having doubts.

'It's not easy being with someone who is in prison especially with all the scrutiny and speculation.'

They added: 'She loves Joey deeply but she needs time to work out if this relationship has legs and whether it will all be worth it in the end.'

Their comment comes after a source claimed to The Sun that Lauren had confirmed she and Joey are no longer an item.

Just hanging out together: The trio turned heads as they strolled the bustling city streets

Snapshots: On Sunday night, Lauren took to Instagram to a share shots of herself with her pals

Pampered: Lauren revealed that the trio had enjoyed a 'hotel pamper' before heading out

'She said she is finished with Joey and that the relationship is over,' the insider told the paper.

'It didn't really come as a shock to anyone because people know it wasn't exactly the perfect relationship for her to be in.

'In fact, we're completely relieved it's over,' they added, suggesting Lauren was moving on from her heartbreak and appeared to be 'back to her usual self' as she partied with former I'm A Celebrity winner Vicky and her fellow TOWIE stars Ferne McCann and Danielle Armstrong at the lingerie event.

The end? Lauren's night out came amid reports that she has split from jailbird beau Joey Morrison, who is due for early release next year

Moving on? According to The Sun, the former TOWIE star had shared news she is single while attending Vicky Pattison's Ann Summers launch on Thursday evening

Reports of her 'split' with Joey comes just days after it was claimed the couple had been embroiled in a heated argument during a prison visit Lauren had made to see her former flame.

A source previously claimed to The Sun that while Lauren is 'completely in love' with Joey she had become 'frustrated' with the circumstances of their relationship and it led to a 'furious argument' between the pair.

For over a year, Lauren has been forced to visit Joey in prison, as he has been in the midst of serving a 16 year violent drugs-related prison sentence.

He was convicted of a string of offences, including possession of a firearm, kidnapping, blackmail and actual bodily harm, and is due for a 2018 release.

Taking her mind off it: Inside the event, Lauren appeared happy to party with her girl pals despite her romance woes

It's not the first time the pair have found themselves at the centre of speculation they have split, as Lauren was forced to address reports of a break up back in May.

At the time, she shut down such claims and insisted she and Joey were very much together as just a month before, they had celebrated their first anniversary together.

She tweeted: 'No We have not split it was our year anniversary last month And I'm keeping my relationship private for now Thanks x (sic)'

Lauren had spoken of her hopes to settle down with Joey following his release from prison and expressed her desire for the pair to start a family together.

'LG is back': Lauren cryptically suggested she was back to her self while partying with Danielle Armstrong (above) at the event

Welcome distraction: As she shared snaps alongside her former TOWIE co-stars Danielle and Ferne, along with Vicky and Casey Batchelor, Lauren added that she was 'so glad' to be out with her pals

The reality star had appeared on Channel 5's In Therapy and confessed: 'I think [Joey] will be a good dad... people are saying wait until he's out.

'I want to get married and have children. I want a beautiful household with lots of love and affection. I want to have quite a few children, four... as many as I can.'

A friend of hers then revealed that Lauren had planned to fall pregnant during Joey's day release, adding: 'She is so desperate to start a family and she loves him so much she doesnt care how it happens as long as it happens.'

As reports of her split with Joey emerged, Lauren was seen surrounding herself with her girl pals during her night out in London.

Plans: Lauren had spoken of her hopes to settle down with Joey following his release from prison and expressed her desire for the pair to start a family together on Channel 5's In Therapy

Brushing off her heartbreak: She hasn't yet addressed the speculation herself on social media, instead choosing to share pictures of herself and her friends online instead

She hasn't yet addressed the speculation herself on social media, instead choosing to share pictures of herself and her friends online instead.

Although, as she shared snaps alongside her former co-stars Danielle and Ferne, along with Vicky and Casey Batchelor, Lauren cryptically added that she was 'so glad' to have seen them on Thursday evening.

She also continuously remarked in several of her posts that 'LG is back'.

The split will come as a devastating blow for Lauren, as in recent weeks she has found herself locked in a bitter feud with her former fiance Mark Wright.

Tension: The split will come as a devastating blow for Lauren, as in recent weeks she has found herself locked in a bitter feud with her former fiance Mark Wright

Tensions grew between the pair following her accusations that the Take Me Out: The Gossip presenter had her 'removed' from Essex hotspot Sheesh, Chigwell - a claim that Mark has vehemently denied.

She went on to explosively accuse her ex of seeing her at 'the same time' he began dating his now wife Michelle Keegan - Mark insisted there was no truth in this - and appeared to take a snide swipe at the former TOWIE star on Instagram recently.

Sharing a throwback photo of herself during a night out when she was in her early twenties, Lauren remarked: 'Back in the day when I wasn't aloud out but my mates had my back London days 23/24 whoop love to my London boys.'

Taking a swipe: She appeared to hit out at the former TOWIE star on Instagram recently, sharing a throwback picture of herself back when, she claims, she was 'wasn't allowed out' while dating ex Mark

Her comment come after Lauren has frequently blasted Mark for being 'controlling' while reminiscing about their romance - much to his chagrin.

MailOnline have previously reached out to a representative for Mark.

She dated Mark through her teenage years before starring in TOWIE in its 2010 inauguration, when they were in one of their many 'off' stages, with the first episode seeing her birthday ruined by Mark cosying up to flame Sam Faiers.

As time wore on, the couple's convoluted romance captivated viewers with Mark devastating Lauren on a number of occasions when he enjoyed flings with both Sam and Lucy Mecklenburgh - leading to constant rows within the group before the couple finally split in 2012.
Former Spice Girl Mel B has filed five separate legal motions against her former nanny, Lorraine Gilles, in a bid to strike out the case from court.

In court documents obtained by MailOnline, the embattled hitmaker, 42, authorised her legal team to shut down her former employee's libel lawsuit against her, spending thousands of pounds to counter her case in the process.

The America's Got Talent judge was hit with the suit after she claimed that 25-year-old Lorraine was one of the main reasons her marriage to film producer Stephen Belafonte broke down in her March divorce paperwork.

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Striking out: Former Spice Girl Mel B has filed five separate legal motions against her former nanny, Lorraine Gilles, in a bid to strike out the case from court

To counter the case, Mel B's representation, the Buchalter law firm, submitted 403 pages of legal dockets in a frantic bid to urge Judge Dalila Lyons of Los Angeles Superior Court to rule the suit 'null and void under California law.'

The official court records reveal that the Leeds native's lawyers filed five 'Motion to Strike Plaintiff's Entire Action' in an attempt to have the LA judge to rule in her favour without hearing her former employee's case.

The fevered display reveal Mel's attempts to counter a potential award of damages to Lorraine and mounting legal fees should the Judge proceed with a case, Mel could be hit with 3million payout plus her former staff member's legal fees.

Claims: The America's Got Talent judge was hit with the suit after she claimed that 25-year-old Lorraine(Pictured above) was one of the main reasons her marriage to film producer Stephen Belafonte broke down in her March divorce paperwork

Legal: In court documents obtained by MailOnline, the embattled hitmaker, 42, authorised her legal team to shut down her former employee's libel lawsuit against her, spending thousands of pounds to counter her case in the process

'Null and void': To counter the case, Mel B's representation, the Buchalter law firm, submitted 403 pages of legal dockets in a frantic bid to urge Judge Dalila Lyons of Los Angeles Superior Court to rule the suit 'null and void under California law'

The document comes after it was previously reported that Mel B 'spent thousands of pounds' on legal fees in a bid to gag her former nanny, according to the Mirror.

Mel B's legal motions Mel filed three separate declarations in support of 'Motion to Strike Plaintiff's Entire Action' against former nanny Lorraine Giles'

One notice in support of 'Motion to Strike Plaintiff's Entire Action'

And one request of judicial notice in support of the hitmaker's 'Motion to Strike Plaintiff's Entire Action' Advertisement

The situation occured after she alleged that the pretty blonde from Germany had an affair with Stephen and terminated a pregnancy after their secret trysts. The nanny heavily denied the allegations and filed a lawsuit against Mel for libel.

An LA legal source told the paper: 'Mel has spent thousands of pounds on lawyers to try and shut down the nanny. She knows a full-blown trial could cost her vast amounts in legal fees alone. If she loses it would be unthinkable for her financial status.

'Mel has told the judge her accusations about Lorraine were no smear campaign as she did not act in reckless disregard'.

MailOnline had contacted a representative for Mel B for comment at the time.

Pushing back: The document comes after it was previously reported that Mel B 'spent thousands of pounds' on legal fees in a bid to gag her former nanny, according to the Mirror

Rumours: Mel B alleged that the pretty blonde from Germany had an affair with Stephen and terminated a pregnancy after their secret trysts

Meanwhile the star is thought to want to return to Britain full-time once the legal drama has been put to bed to spend time with her family in Leeds.

The Wannabe songstress filed for divorce from Belafonte, the father of her youngest child, in March after 10 years of marriage.

She successfully obtained a restraining order against him after alleging abuse. The spousal support hearing is slated for the end of this month.

Debt: The Wannabe songstress is said to be battling debts having spent the 38million fortune she accumulated during her time in the Spice Girls

It is reported that the furore around the divorce has cost Belafonte half a million dollars in contracts. He is said to be seeking $200,000 for his divorce lawyers.

The music star is said to be battling debts having spent the 38million fortune she accumulated during her time in the Spice Girls.

While he was granted access to Madison, Stephen lost his battle to regain contact with Mel's daughter Angel, who was born three months before the pair's wedding in 2007.

Hometown girl: Deciding she wants to be nearer to her family in Leeds, particularly after her father's death this year, it is understood Mel wants clean start away from LA

Following the hearing in late April, Mel's lawyer Larry Bakman immediately opposed giving Belafonte visitation rights, as he branded him a 'convicted domestic violence offender' with an 'extensive criminal history'.

He went on to claim that Stephen had been 'involved in adult pornography' and the 'importation of women from other countries' to work in the industry as well as 'possible money laundering'.

Melfiled for divorce on March 20 and said in court papers that she was the victim of 'multiple physical beatings' at the hands of her husband.

She also claimed he threatened to 'destroy' her career by releasing sex tapes of her. Lawyers for Stephen have branded the allegations 'outrageous and unfounded', and 'nothing more than a smear campaign'
She has a whole host of famous friends, including fellow models of the moment Kendall Jenner and Suki Waterhouse.

And Cara Delevingne is set to celebrate her birthday in style as she is splashing out 100,000 for a girls-only trip to Mexico for 20 of her best pals.

The model, who turns 25 on August 11, will fly Kendall, Suki and a handful of her closest friends out to central America after she finishes promoting the release of her new film, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.

Birthday extravaganza: Cara Delevingne is set to celebrate her 25th in style as she is splashing out 100,000 for a girls-only trip to Mexico for 20 of her best friends

A source told MailOnline: 'The Mexican premiere of Valerian marks the end of the movie's promotional tour so Cara has, very generously, decided to fly out 20 of her best girlfriends for the adventure of a lifetime.

'She's invited all her closest friends, including Kendall Jenner, Suki Waterhouse, Georgia May Jagger, Jamie Winstone, and, of course, her older sisters Chloe and Poppy.'

Cara, whose next film Tulip Fever is set to be released on August 25, is snatching a few weeks out of her jam-packed schedule to explore the wild beauty of Mexico.

The actress is known for throwing wild birthday parties and her adventurous getaway will culminate in a no expenses spared bash with her friends.

Girl squad: Cara, who counts Kendall Jenner and Suki Waterhouse among her best friends (pictured), will fly her gal pals to central America where they will go on adventurous treks and explore the wildlife in the country

The source said: 'The girls will be trekking in the rainforest, kayaking and going on excursions to sample the varied wildlife of the region... all finished off with a massive party to celebrate Cara's birthday at the end.

'It's a girls-only trip and Cara wanted to celebrate a busy few months of hard work and get away from it all as much as possible with those closest to her.

'It's going to be an incredible trip.'

Busy schedule: Cara is taking some time out with her friends after she finishes promoting her new film Valerian, but it won't last for long as the actress's next flick Tulip Fever is set to hit cinemas on August

Best friend: Suki has helped to organise the model's birthday bashes in the past, throwing Cara a wild 23rd party in a strip club in Toronto

The model, who has become known for her wild and extravagant bashes, was surprised by a naked model who jumped out of a cake on her 24th birthday.

Best friend Suki organised the star's 23rd birthday party, which was held at a strip club in Toronto.

Cara partied in Ibiza for her 22nd and threw a 'cross-dressing party' in London to mark her 21st.

Wild bash: Cara's adventurous getaway will culminate in a no expenses spared party to rival the model's previous celebrations

Living large: Cara partied in Ibiza for her 22nd and threw a 'cross-dressing party' in London to mark her 21st

Cara, who is also close to Kendall, Gigi Hadid and Hailey Baldwin, revealed she calls her modelling circle the Super Natural Friend Group.

She told Allure magazine in 2016: 'We all have such cool individual lives and weve been dreaming about them since we were so young.'

The starlet added that she was fiercely loyal to her friends, explaining: 'Im a Scorpio, so I stick to people. If I love you, I love you. If I dont like you, youre screwed.'
They were pictured together for the first time in two months two weeks ago in Nantucket.

And now it is reported that Kourtney Kardashian, 38, and Scott Disick, 33, are back co-parenting once again after the fashion mogul sat down with the star during their recent family breakaway to enforced a no-partying rule.

According to TMZ, the former couple - who share children Mason, seven, Penelope, five, and Reign, two - have discussed their issues while putting boundaries in place so they can do what's in their kids' best interest.

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Back on track: It's reported that Kourtney Kardashian, 38, and Scott Disick, 33, are back co-parenting once again after the fashion mogul sat down with the star during their recent family breakaway to enforced a no-partying rule

The E! reality star was reportedly banned from seeing his kids in May and told to 'clean up his act' after he was seen cosying up to several beauties including Bella Thorne, Ella Ross and Chloe Bartoli following his partying display in Cannes.

Now insiders close to the two have told the publication that Kourtney has lifted the New York native's limitations as long as he keeps his lifestyle in check for the sake of their darling children.

They said: 'Kourtney's laid out the rules loud and clear to Scott. If things are gonna work, there's no more hard partying and he's gotta respect her dating someone else.

'So far, Scott's obliged and things have gone swimmingly.

Co-parenting: According to TMZ, the former couple - who share children Mason, seven, Penelope, five, and Reign, two - have discussed their issues while putting boundaries in place so they can do what's in their kids' best interest

In the past: The E! reality star was reportedly banned from seeing his kids in May and told to 'clean up his act' after he was seen cosying up to several beauties including Bella Thorne, Ella Ross and Chloe Bartoli following his partying display in Cannes

Adding: 'While they're totally done romantically, they realize the importance of showing their kids they can get along.'

MailOnline have contacted Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick's reps for comment.

This May, Kourtney partied in Cannes alongside her her younger sister Kendall and new beau Younes Bendjema - who's a decade and a half her junior.

While Scott happened to be in the south of France at the same time, cozying up to a string of women that included Bella but also names like Chantel Jeffries.

Previously, TMZ claimed that friends of the New York native - including Kourtney - had attempted to 'intervene' in the situation but at the time proved unsuccessful in their efforts.

Moving on: This May, Kourtney partied in Cannes alongside her her younger sister Kendall and new beau Younes Bendjema - who's a decade and a half her junior

Getting cosy: While Scott happened to be in the south of France at the same time, cozying up to a string of women that included Bella but also names like Chantel Jeffries

It wasn't the first time the KUWTH star had confronted her former beau from seeing their brood, having previously put him on the 'do not enter' list at the security gate in 2015, leaving it an entire month without seeing his children.

The reports comes after both had been enjoying their time separately in Cannes, Kourtney with her new man French model Younes, 23, while Scott has been spotted getting cosy with not one but four women during his time in the French Riviera.

The troubled star first arrived in the South of France with actress Bella Thorne, 19, earlier in the week but swiftly moved onto stylist Chloe Bartoli, 26 - his ex-girlfriend and the same woman he was caught cheating with in 2015, triggering his split with Kourtney.

Luxury: Scott has been pictured with his ex girlfriend Ella Ross who was joined by her pal, stunning UK blogger Maggie Petrova soaking up the sun and having fun in a luxury pool

He was then pictured with his ex girlfriend Ella Ross who was joined by her pal, stunning UK blogger Maggie Petrova soaking up the sun and having fun in a luxury pool.

Despite their sexy display in the pool, Maggie revealed exclusively to MailOnline: 'I'm good friends with Ella Ross, there is nothing going on with me and Scott, just friendship'.

It's been rumored that Scott - who shares children Mason, seven, Reign, two and Penelope, four, with Kourtney - is on a mission to make his ex jealous.

An insider revealed to E! News that Scott bringing Bella to Cannes 'was 100 percent to piss Kourtney off'.

Limitations: Now insiders close to the two have told the publication that Kourtney has lifted the New York native's limitations as long as he keeps his lifestyle in check for the sake of their darling children

Kourtney and Scott first got together in 2006 when Joe Francis, founder of Girls Gone Wild, introduced them in Mexico.

The couple previously broke up in 2009 after Kourtney found text messages on Disick's phone addressed to 'my wife' but when she realized she was pregnant, they reunited and son Mason was born December of that year.

In 2010, Disick, worth an estimated $12 million, proposed but Kardashian turned him down.

Blast from the past: Kourtney and Scott first got together in 2006 when Joe Francis, founder of Girls Gone Wild, introduced them in Mexico (Pictured in 2008)

Two years later, the couple's daughter, Penelope, was born on July 8, 2012 and their third child and second son, Reign, was born on December 14, 2014.

They've been on-and-off and broke up for the last time two years ago.

Scott referred to himself as a 'f***ed up, horrible sex addict' on a Keeping Up With The Kardashians episode that aired in May, as US Weekly reported.
Their time in the villa may have been short-lived, but that didn't stop the Love Island rejects from having a blast at the reunion after-party.

Leading the way was original cast member Chloe Crowhurst, who packed on the PDA with Shannen McGrath before stumbling along the street with Georgia Harrison.

The reality stars were enjoying a wild night out at London club Libertine on Sunday, celebrating the end of the third series of the ITV2 programme, which proved to be a a smash ratings success this summer.

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Love Island lust: Leading the way at London club Libertine on Sunday was original cast member Chloe Crowhurst, who packed on the PDA with Shannen McGrath

Chloe looked lovely in a tangerine frock with racy lace-up detailing at the hips showcasing her toned legs.

She dressed the orange number up with a pair of gold heels and wore her blonde locks down loose in tumbling curls.

After failing to forge a romantic connection in the villa, Chloe was spotted locking lips with Shannen, who enjoyed a blink-and-you'll miss it appearance on the show.

The gossip-loving star then strutted along the street with fellow Essex girl Georgia.

Gal pals: Essex beauties Chloe and Georgia Harrison were getting better acquainted

They should have coupled up! Shannen - who enjoyed a blink-and-you'll miss it stint on the show - and Chloe both failed to find love in the villa

Tangerine dream: Chloe looked lovely in an orange frock with racy lace-up detailing at the hips showcasing her toned legs

Glam girls: Despite not being in the show for long, Danielle Sellers (left) and Chyna Ellis (right) ensured they were the centre of attention

The one-time TOWIE star had a short-lived romance with Chloe's former partner Sam before being axed in the final week.

Georgia showed off her tiny waist in a latex bralet and high-waisted striped trousers as she tottered along in her heels.

Also putting on a rather raucous display outside the club was Chyna Ellis and Danielle Sellers, giggling as they hopped on board a Tuk Tuk taxi.

Blondes have more fun! The pair caused a stir on the streets of Soho

Cuddling up: The girls were putting on a rather raucous display outside the club

Oops: Jonny Mitchell's new girlfriend accidentally flashed her underwear

There was no sign of Chloe's on/off boyfriend Jon Clark at the club, despite the pair recently reconciling.

Chloe and Jon had been all over each other on a romantic break to Lanzarote earlier this month, making up for lost time.

The pair seem to have brushed their very public spat under the rug, amid reports Chloe could be lined-up to join Jon on TOWIE.

The Essex lad previously claimed she dumped him in order to chase fame on TV, while she alleged he had cheated on her countless times.

Oops: Chyna took a tumble in her taxi, ending up on the floor of the vehicle

Making an impact: Chyna was sporting a tiny lace-up dress in a pretty pastel pink
They announced their split last September.

And Liev Schreiber insisted in TV WEEK magazine that he and former partner Naomi Watts, 48, are on amicable terms.

'So far, it's been great,' the 49-year-old told the publication, stating that their children, sons Sasha, 10, and Kai, eight, are their most important priority.

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'So far, it's been great': Liev Schreiber, 49, told TV WEEK magazine that his children Sasha, 10, and Kai, eight, are his most important priority, following his split with Naomi Watts, 48

'For me, it's our kids (that are the most important),' Liev candidly told TV WEEK.

'It's important we find ways to fill in the cracks with each other,' the four-time Golden Globe nominated actor said of sharing parenting responsibilities.

'In the case of me and Naomi, we're always going to have a relationship because we have children. So it's important we work together well in that way. So far, it's been great.'

Main priority: 'For me, it's our kids (that are the most important),' Liev candidly told the publication. (Pictured with his sons)

Liev's candid comments come shortly after the former couple reunited for son Sasha's tenth birthday.

A photo shared to Naomi's Instagram Story last Wednesday, saw the parents helping their little boy cut a slice of birthday cake.

The pictured shared with Naomi's 822,000 Instagram followers, saw the King Kong star in a blue and white loose-fitting frock while doting over Sasha.

Liev, dressed in a denim shirt, was also very much a hands-on father while celebrating their son's special day.

Naomi simply captioned the moment '10!!!'

Proud mother: Naomi is pictured here with the couple's precious sons

Putting their differences aside: Last Wednesday, the former couple reunited to celebrate their son Sasha's tenth birthday

Naomi and Liev also share an eight-year-old son, Kai.

The former couple announced their split in September last year.

'Over the past few months we've come to the conclusion that the best way forward for us as a family is to separate as a couple,' they said in a statement at the time.

'It is with great love, respect, and friendship in our hearts that we look forward to raising our children together and exploring this new phase of our relationship.'

'So lucky to be his mummy': The King Kong star recently paid tribute to her son while sharing several throwback photos to her Instagram Story, from a recent holiday in Africa

Their boys: Naomi and Liev also share an eight-year-old son, Kai

In happier times: The pair announced their split in September last year

They added: 'While we appreciate your curiosity and support, we ask the press to be mindful of our children and respect their right to privacy.'

Naomi is now understood to be dating her Gypsy co-star Billy Crudup, with a source confirming their relationship to People.

It was also reported they were spotted holding hands in New York earlier this month.

New love? Following her split with Liev, Naomi is understood to be dating her Gypsy co-star Billy Crudup (right), with a source confirming their relationship to People
He melted hearts in 1986 as reckless fighter pilot Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell.

And Tom Cruise is getting back in action 31 years after the release of Top Gun as he prepares to film the movie's long-awaited sequel.

The Hollywood star, 55, was seen dashing across a field with a friend before he piloted a helicopter in training for the role.

Action man: Tom Cruise is getting back into the role of Maverick 31 years after the release of Top Gun as he prepares to film the movie's long-awaited sequel

Tom raced across a stretch of grass last Monday wearing a white T-shirt, jeans and a pair of aviators, a key part of Maverick's original costume.

He held a black jumper in his right hand and ran in a pair of black trainers as a friend followed behind him.

The action movie star wore his hair closely cropped and looked in a hurry to get to the helicopter.

Tom's companion ran behind and wore a lanyard around his neck.

In control: The actor dashed across a field then took a helicopter for a spin ahead of filming later this year

The pair stopped and embraced for a moment by the side of the field and Tom stopped to pull on a black jumper.

They then strolled through the grass, passing a fire engine and emergency staff, who stood and chatted by their vehicle.

Tom's friend had also layered up in a puffy jacket as they made their way towards the helicopter.

Getting in shape: The actor sprinted across the grass and was followed by a friend

Cool: Tom wore a pair of aviator sunglasses, like Maverick did, which he teamed with a white T-shirt and a black jumper

Getting close: Tom pulled his friend into an embrace after they finished their run

It looked like the crew were ready for anything to happen as Tom also passed an ambulance en route to the flying machine.

When the actor reached the helicopter he shook hands with the men who would be helping him fly the vehicle.

While one man held the doors open for him, Tom chatted to the group and motioned with his hands.

Emergency: Tom and his friend walked past a fire engine and a group of emergency workers as they headed towards the helicopter

Keeping warm: Tom pulled on a black jumper and his pal wrapped up in a black puffy jacket

Ready for anything: It appeared Tom would be ready for any eventuality as he walked past a parked ambulance

Having a chat: Tom looked deep in discussion with his friend, who wore all black

Getting back in character: This will be the first time that Tom takes on the role of Maverick for 31 years

Saying hello: Tom shook hands with a helicopter pilot, who held the door open for the Hollywood actor

Tom later stepped into the helicopter, taking the powerful machine for a spin.

The actor sat in the right-hand seat of the vehicle, next to the man in the blue shirt.

The black helicopter rose into the air and moved away from the field as the actor practiced his flying skills.

Getting the info: Tom listened intently as the experts spoke to him

A real life action man: Tom is famous for doing his own stunts in his many action-packed Hollywood blockbusters

Time to fly: After having a chat, the star made his way to get into the helicopter

Hopping in: Tom pulled open the door of the helicopter so he could get inside and take the vehicle for a spin

Eyes on him: He was watched closely by one of the helicopter pilots, who walked around to Tom's side of the machine

Tom confirmed the Top Gun sequel in May, when he was promoting his new film The Mummy.

Filming is believed to be taking place later this year and it is slated for release in 2019.

The action star is the only actor who has been confirmed for the movie sequel and production staff are remaining tight-lipped about the plot of the new film.

Wrapping up: While he walked to his side of the plane, the action star pulled on his black jumper

Jumping up: The actor climbed into the cockpit of the powerful flying machine, ready to go

Ready to go: The actor sat in the right-hand seat of the vehicle, next to the man in the blue shirt

All systems go: Tom wore a headset and a microphone as he made the final preparations before they took off

Squinting: The actor stared out into the distance as his co-pilot got himself organised

New romp: Tom confirmed the Top Gun sequel in May, when he was promoting his new film The Mummy

The new film has even got the seal of approval from Val Kilmer, who played Tom 'Iceman' Kazanski in the military movie.

In a Reddit AMA, the actor wrote: 'They are being understandably quiet about the script, but I am sure it's going to hit every note it's supposed to after all these years!'

Val's character in the original film was Maverick's rival, but the pair eventually learned to work together.

Maverick's second outing: Filming is believed to be taking place later this year and it is slated for release in 2019

Wrapped in mystery: The action star is the only actor who has been confirmed for the movie sequel and production staff are remaining tight-lipped about the plot of the new film

Into the air: The pair piloted the helicopter off the ground as the powerful machine rose into the air

Keeping safe: Emergency staff watched the pair fly from the ambulance as Tom took to the skies
She left viewers confused after having sex with Jamie Jewitt in the Love Island villa, despite only ever kissing her ex Jonny Mitchell during their four-week fling.

But Camilla Thurlow defended her decision while appearing on Lorraine on Monday, explaining that she may be 'cautious' with men but she 'still has wants and needs'.

The Scottish bomb disposal expert, 28, was then left blushing as Calvin Klein hunk Jamie joked that he was a better match for her than her rumoured ex Prince Harry.

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Honest: Camilla Thurlow defended her decision on Lorraine, explaining that she may be cautious' with men but she still has 'wants and needs'

Camilla was grilled by Dan Wootton over the 'change' in her reserved nature across her time in the villa.

She explained: 'You do get more comfortable in there. I understand why people see it as a change.

'The reason I'm reserved is because I'm old enough to have made mistakes in the past. It's made me cautious with other people.

'At the same time I'm still a person and I still respect my own wants and needs.'

Cheeky: She explained: 'You do get more comfortable in there. I understand why people see it as a change'

Opening up: 'The reason I'm reserved is because I'm old enough to have made mistakes in the past. At the same time I'm still a person and I still respect my own wants and needs'

Thurlow, who was rumoured to have dated royal Prince Harry in 2015, was less keen to open up about that high-profile relationship.

When Dan asked if Camilla's past rocky romances made her more 'cautious' with Prince Harry, she subtly dodged the question.

'I only ever went in there [Love Island] as Camilla, as myself,' she declared.

Coy: Thurlow, who was rumoured to have dated royal Prince Harry in 2015, was less keen to open up about that high-profile relationship

Well avoided: When Dan asked if Camilla's past rocky romances made her more 'cautious' with Prince Harry, she subtly dodged the question

Stirring: Dan then asked: 'How does Jamie compare to Prince Harry,' to which Essex-born Jamie, 27, reacted with mock-despair

Oh dear! 'Comparing me to a royal? Jesus!' he laughed as he hid his face in his hands

Take that, Harry! Dan Wooton then joked: 'I think Jamie's hotter,' to which Jamie responded by chuckling and telling the camera: 'Do you hear that Prince Harry?'

'You're in there for seven weeks - my main concern was that I didn't do anything I would regret on the outside.'

Dan then asked: 'How does Jamie compare to Prince Harry,' to which Essex-born Jamie, 27, reacted with mock-despair.

'Comparing me to a royal? Jesus!' he laughed as he hid his face in his hands.

Good looking couple: Camilla looked chic in an embroidered miniskirt and cross-strap heels, while Jamie looked dapper in a navy suit

Working their angles: The couple appeared to be in great spirits as they left the ITV studios

Dan then joked: 'I think Jamie's hotter,' to which Jamie responded by chuckling and telling the camera: 'Do you hear that Prince Harry?'

The couple have been inseparable since leaving the villa, posting endless loved-up selfies on Instagram and documenting their time together.

And Jamie confirmed they were going from strength to strength, confessing: 'When we were in the villa we wanted to be cautious because outside it could be different.

Simply stylish! Camilla showcased a glowing tan as she rocked a pinstripe ruffled shirt tucked into her skirt

Going strong: Jamie confirmed they were going from strength to strength, confessing: ''Now we're out and it's been a few days, everything is just as great - if not better'

Taking centre-stage: Calvin Klein model Jamie, 27, looked perfectly at ease in front of the camera

'Now we're out and it's been a few days, everything is just as great - if not better.'

Jamie visited Camilla's hometown in Scotland last week, with the pair enjoying a tour of 'Thurlow manor' and meeting her family.

Camilla gushed: 'This week it was lovely, Jamie came up to Scotland, we played rounders. He met my family which was lovely and quite normal.'

The brunette beauty also addressed the furore that surrounded her granny, as viewers erupted into a frenzy when they learned that she watched Love Island with subtitles on.

Laughing, Camilla admitted: 'She was always watching! She was a big fan. I never expected her to watch it, but she loved it.

'That's the thing about Love Island - people loved it across all generations.'

Hmm: Camilla and Jamie kept quiet about rumours of a brewing romance between Love Island Mike Thalassitis and presenter Caroline Flack - which were strengthened by this cosy selfie

Too cute: Jamilla have been going from strength to strength since leaving the Love Island villa, documenting their trips to see each other's families on Instagram

Jetting off: Camilla shared a similar sweet photo of them together, waiting to take off as she thanked her followers for their support throughout the series

Camilla and Jamie were also asked about rumours of a brewing romance between Love Island Mike Thalassitis and presenter Caroline Flack.

After the reunion on Sunday night, Mike seemed to be very flirty with the pretty presenter and posted a very cosy selfie of the pair.

Despite fans already speculating if their was a romance brewing between the two, they did nothing to dispel rumours with her wrapping his arm around her neck as they posed for a celebratory shot.

He captioned the snap: 'Who really won Love Island.'

Jamie smirked but kept quiet on the rumours, mumbling: 'No idea, I didn't know about that! Get your insiders on the case.'

Cute: Camilla shared this sweet picture of herself asleep on Jamie, writing: 'Fingers crossed we don't miss our stop'

Giddy up! Sharing snaps from their loved-up outing, the Calvin Klein underwear model quipped on Instagram: 'What a tour guide'
They've been a real-life couple for almost two years, as well as starring as husband and wife in ITV period drama, Victoria.

And Jenna Coleman and Tom Hughes were at their regal best as they posed for a new teaser for the hotly-anticipated second season of the show, which was released on Monday.

The actress, 31 - who portrays Queen Victoria in the series - looked poised and elegant in a stunning off-shoulder gown as she dazzled in the newly-released sneak peek.

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A royally good show: Jenna Coleman and boyfriend Tom Hughes were at their regal best as they posed for a new teaser for season two of Victoria, which was released on Monday

The former soap star completed her royal transformation by pinning her brunette tresses off her face into the late monarch's trademark style.

Tom - who portrays Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, in the ITV2 drama - looked dashing in his costume, complete with a smart suit jacket and a gold waistcoat.

Series two of Victoria will pick up just six weeks after the gripping season one finale, which saw the monarch gave birth to the first of her nine children.

The exciting trailer, released in May, teased a glimpse of the couple christening their newborn in a stunning church ahead of the launch of the second season in the autumn.

Must be love: The couple (pictured in London in August 2016) have been dating on and off for two years and moved in together last September

Viewers will be taken back to the 1840s, the time when Victoria gave birth to six children of her nine-strong brood.

But series creator Daisy Goodwin revealed the young lovebirds' relationship will be on the rocks as they face the challenge of becoming parents for the first time.

The second series - made up of eight episodes - will establish Victoria as a leader who must learn to balance her responsibilities as a queen and a mum.

'Victoria and Albert are facing the challenge of being new parents and Victoria is not very keen on motherhood,' she told the Radio Times at the BFI & Radio Times Television Festival in April.

Thrilling: Victoria series two will pick up just six weeks after the gripping season one finale, which saw the monarch gave birth to the first of her nine children

'The situation in the country is very dicey, theres the biggest depression theres been for twenty years, there are political movements calling for the abolition of the monarchy, theres unrest in Ireland, there is all kinds of, theres warfare in Afghanistan, it all sounds quite familiar, doesnt it?'

'Its a time of great unrest, personal unrest and political unrest. What could possibly go wrong?'

The historical drama will also see Victoria - who became known as the 'famine queen' - tackle the blight of 1845 Irish potato disaster which killed more than a million people.

Dame Diane Rigg will join the cast as the queen's new Mistress Of The Robes The Duchess of Bucchleuch.

Historic: Viewers will be taken back to the 1840s, the time when Victoria gave birth to six children of her nine-strong brood

Line Of Duty star Martin Compston will also make a guest appearance as social activist Dr. Robert Traill.

Nigel Lindsay, David Oakes, Daniela Holtz, Catherine Flemming and Nell Hudson will reprise their role in the upcoming series.

Season one drew in an average of 7.7 million viewers and loyal fans will be pleased to find out Albert will survive this season, in real life Albert died in 1861.

Followers will also be delighted there is a two-hour Christmas special penned in for the ITV series.

Making of a queen: The second series - made up of eight episodes - will establish Victoria as a leader who must learn to balance her responsibilities as a queen and a mum

Jenna and Tom's real-life romance came to light last summer when it was claimed they had been dating on and off for the best part of a year.

Soon after news of their relationship emerged, the couple moved in together, having known each other in separate acting circles for as long as three years.

A source told The Mail On Sunday at the time: 'Theyve been together for months, on and off since last summer.

'The reason the chemistry is so tangible is because they are dating in real life. Those scenes are very real. They are completely hooked on one another.'
She confirmed she was engaged to Hugo Taylor on Sunday, after fuelling speculation of a proposal by hiding her ring finger on social media.

And now the happy news has been confirmed, former Made In Chelsea star Millie Mackintosh wasted no time in showing off her dazzling engagement ring on Instagram on Monday.

Coyly grabbing onto her sleeve, the star drew attention to the mammoth diamond sparkler on her ring finger, giving fans a glimpse of the band.

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Dazzling: Now her engagement to Hugo Taylor has been confirmed, former Made In Chelsea star Millie Mackintosh, 28, wasted no time in showing off her dazzling engagement ring on Instagram on Monday

Wow factor: Coyly grabbing onto her sleeve, the star drew attention to the mammoth diamond sparkler on her ring finger, giving fans a glimpse of the band

Captioning the photo 'big sleeve obsession' the Quality Street heiress showed off her slender figure in a ivory gypsy-style blouse with dramatic flared sleeves.

Showing off her tanned and toned pins she slipped on pair of thigh-grazing hotpants, paired with studded Grecian inspired sandals.

Her brunette locks were styled in cute plaits and for a pop of colour she wore red feathered earrings.

One fan wrote 'YES FINALLY. congrats Millie' while another impressed follower typed 'it's in full view now, what a rock'

Celebrating: Millie and boyfriend Hugo confirmed their engagement on Sunday

Millie and her former MIC co-star beau confirmed the news to MailOnline on Sunday,

The announcement comes 14 months after Millie's divorce was finalised with Professor Green, 33.

A representative for Hugo Taylor told MailOnline: 'I can confirm that Hugo and Millie did get engaged whilst they were on holiday in Greece.'

Despite being spotted wearing a huge new ring, Millie had deliberately hidden her ring finger at any given opportunity on Instagram and teasingly declared she'd had the 'best birthday ever'.

The couple went public with their rekindled romance in May 2016 when they travelled to the Monaco Grand Prix for Hugo's 30th birthday celebrations - the same week that Millie's divorce from rapper ex Professor Green, 33, was finalised.

Fun in the sun: The former reality star has been enjoying the best birthday ever, after getting engaged during her 28th celebrations in Greece

Sealed with a kiss: The couple certainly seemed to be celebrating as they enjoyed a lavish week away to mark the occasion

What a dazzler! The fashion designer inadvertently offered fans a glimpse at her glittering new rock, when she was pictured applying sun cream during her yacht day this week

Risque! Though she hid her ring finger, Millie , 28, bared everything else in a completely NUDE and titillating snap on Instagram on Saturday

Daring to bare: Millie had previously posed topless on a yacht in Mykonos on Thursday after flaunting a huge diamond ring on her finger

Rock on: Millie has been trying to hide the jewellery on her Instagram but holiday pictures shown by MailOnline capture the rock

They previously dated back in 2011 when they met on E4 reality show, Made In Chelsea.

But the union was not to last and ended rather dramatically when Millie discovered Hugo had cheated on her with her friend, Rosie Fortescue.

At the time, Millie claimed she would always love Hugo, saying in an interview: 'I loved him - those feelings dont disappear  but I just always have to remind myself why were not together.'

'I do think that, for the rest of my life, every time I see him, Ill get that feeling in my stomach. I dont think I could ever not get that butterfly feeling

Millie and Professor Green, real name Stephen Manderson, announced their split in February 2016 after just over four years together.

In a statement released at the time, they said: 'It is a mutual decision, we still care deeply about each other and would like it to be known that it is on amicable terms and we wish each other well.'

Plenty to smile about: Sunglasses entrepreneur Hugo, 31, looked like the cat that got the cream as he enjoyed a Grecian break to celebrate Millie's 28th birthday

Sea-ze the day! The former Made In Chelsea star showcased her golden Grecian tan in a red and white star-print bikini as boyfriend Hugo snapped away on his camera phone.

Hiding something? Millie continued to play coy on social media, hiding her ring finger at any given opportunity after being spotted wearing a dazzling sparkler

Bikini babe: The brunette looked happy and relaxed as she took some time out from her busy work schedule to enjoy a week of fun in the sun with her man

Their two-and-a-half-year marriage was dissolved in just 30 seconds in May 2016.

They were granted a decree nisi at Central London Family Court, with Millie citing 'unreasonable behaviour' as the reason for their split.

In the wake of the engagement news, thoughts seemed to turn to Millie's ex, when it was claimed that the marriage news was being treated as 'sensitive'.

A source told The Sun on Sunday night: 'They're very happy together... but Millie only recently came out of her first marriage.

'It is still a sensitive subject and one she plans to handle delicately because she knows what some of the reaction is likely to be.'

Millie and Stephen started dating in November 2011 after the rapper saw her on the cover of men's magazine FHM.

The rapper contacted Millie through her agent and they had their first date at the Groucho Club in Soho.

Coy: Millie noticeably disguised her ring finger as she tucked into a delicious dinner on Wednesday night, telling her followers she'd had the 'best birthday ever' on social media

Loved up: The couple went public in May 2016 when they travelled to the Monaco Grand Prix for Hugo's 30th birthday celebrations (pictured) - the same week Millie's divorce was finalised

They went public at the BRIT Awards in February 2012, with Stephen proposing on holiday in Paris just over a year later in 2013.

The couple tied the knot in a lavish ceremony at Babington House in Frome, Somerset, in September 2013.

Earlier this year, Pro Green lashed out at Millie in his new track Eye On The Door, rapping about their lack of sex life, drug use and hinting that cheating was to blame for their split.

But in spite of his very public bashing of his ex-wife, the musician admitted that splitting from Millie felt like experiencing a death.

He told the i newspaper earlier this month: 'Of course whether youre happy somethings finished or not, it doesnt change the fact that it does still feel like theres been a death.

The ex factor: Millie tied the knot with rapper ex-husband Professor Green, 33, in a lavish ceremony at Babington House in Frome, Somerset, in September 2013

'An energy thats always been in your presence is suddenly no longer there and youre an idiot if you think thats not going to affect you.'

The rapper has since moved on with model Fae Williams.

Millie discussed her divorce with Pro Green in the August issue of Red magazine, insisting it was completely amicable, despite the fact she ripped up her wedding dress and wore it as a blood-stained Halloween outfit last year.

She said: 'We just agreed to separate with kindness and as friends. You see so many people tear each other apart and if you support each other through it, remain dignified, that's really the way to do it.

'I'm a positive person and if it's not working then you move on. Everyone deserves to be happy.'

Red hot: Millie showcased her toned and tanned abs in a frilly scarlet two-piece as she sipped a green juice poolside at Kensho Boutique Hotel & Suites on Friday

The socialite also admitted her relationship with Hugo is completely different to when they dated during their Made In Chelsea years.

She told Red: 'I'm really happy and we have fun. Our relationship is a totally different thing now.

'We've known each other for ten years and dated when we were much younger [but] it was a different thing, a whirlwind.

'It was definitely weird dating someone when there was a camera there, but only there for half of what was going on.'

And Millie even hinted that she is eyeing a family with Hugo in the future, adding: 'I'd definitely like two kids, but I'm happy to be the baby-sitter for now.

'I'm a godmother and have three pregnant friends. I'm enjoying seeing them go through it.'
He's known to be a resident hunk of Hollywood, while she has garnered a huge fan base through her charm and wit.

So it will come as great news for some that Liam Hemsworth, 27, and Rebel Wilson, 37, have teamed up together for upcoming romantic comedy Isn't It Romantic.

Filming one particularly steamy scene in Manhattan, New York on Monday, Liam held Rebel in his arms while leaning down to passionately kiss her.

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Upcoming film: Liam Hemsworth, 27, and Rebel Wilson, 37, have teamed up together for upcoming romantic comedy Isn't It Romantic

Rebel wore a floor length red gown, which was low cut to emphasise her cleavage, and featured an off the shoulder sleeve neckline.

Her strawberry blonde locks were styled into curls, and she swept a fringe over her face, while displaying an enviably smooth complexion.

Handsome Liam wore a slick black suit layered over a crisp white shirt, and completed the look with a black tie.

Steamy: Filming one particularly steamy scene in Manhatten, New York on Monday, Liam held Rebel in his arms while leaning down to passionately kiss her

Busty: Rebel wore a floor length red gown, which was low cut to emphasise her cleavage, and featured an off the shoulder sleeve neckline

He swept his golden tresses off his face, while sporting his signature groomed beard.

He towered above Rebel as he swept her in his arms, and was seen to smile down at her fondly after he had given her a passionate smooch.

The funny flick centres on Rebel's character Natalie, a woman who is cynical about love, but suddenly finds herself trapped in a romantic comedy.

Glowing: Her strawberry blonde locks were styled into curls, and she swept a fringe over her face, while displaying an enviably smooth complexion

Hunk: Handsome Liam wore a slick black suit layered over a crisp white shirt, and completed the look with a black tie

Romantic: He towered above Rebel as he swept her in his arms, and was seen to smile down at her fondly after he had given her a passionate smooch

Liam stars opposite the Australian, as does her Pitch Perfect love interest, Adam Devine.

She and the two men will form the movie's love triangle, with Rebel rejecting Adam while pining away for Liam.

Along with Adam, Isn't It Romantic also stars Priyanka Chopra and Betty Gilpin.

The Todd Strauss-Schulson directed film is set to be released on Valentine's Day in 2019.

Romcom magic: The funny flick centres on Rebel's character Natalie, a woman who is cynical about love, but suddenly finds herself trapped in a romantic comedy
The steamy third series of Love Island saw five couples getting down and dirty after enduring weeks of sexual tension.

But Iain Stirling, 29, insisted that fantasy drama Game Of Thrones was more X-rated than the outrageously popular ITV2 dating show.

Speaking on This Morning on Monday, the Scottish voiceover hunk said: 'If you actually watch the show, it's not particularly raunchy - Game Of Thrones is raunchier.'

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Saucy: Iain Stirling, 29, insisted that fantasy drama Game Of Thrones was more X-rated than the outrageously popular ITV2 dating show

Say it like it is: Speaking on This Morning on Monday, the Scottish voiceover hunk said: 'If you actually watch the show, it's not particularly raunchy - Game Of Thrones is raunchier'

Iain's comments come after Amber and Kem, Olivia and Chris, Camilla and Jamie, Montana and Alex and Jess and Dom all had sex in the villa.

And it seems some viewers were affronted by the bedroom scenes, as Ofcom received 30 complaints for displaying sex and the shows general standards.

Hosts Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford admitted that they started watching Love Island because their 15-year-old son Jack did.

Laughing, Iain said: 'I've not met anyone watching the show because they want to. Everyone has a sordid reason!'

X-rated: Iain's comments come after Amber and Kem, Olivia and Chris, Camilla and Jamie, Montana and Alex and Jess and Dom all had sex in the villa. Pictured, Gabby and Marcel famously held out until they left

Confession: Hosts Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford admitted that they started watching Love Island because their 15-year-old son Jack did

Candid: Laughing, Iain said: 'I've not met anyone watching the show because they want to. Everyone has a sordid reason!'

Discussing the momentous popularity of the show this year, he added: 'When anyone gossips, it ultimately boils down to who cops off with who.

'We just unashamedly do that on the show.'

Iain, who has attracted a cult following from fans who dubbed him their new 'crush', admitted it wasn't all voiceover work - as he managed to cultivate a deep tan in Mallorca.

'I'm the most tanned man in Scotland, I'm not allowed back in Scotland unless I go a couple of shades lighter,' he joked.

Lustful: Fans dubbed the hunky comedian their 'new weird crush' while others said he was downright 'very fit'

Going the whole way: Viewers saw many couples including Montana and Alex (above) get hot and heavy under the covers

Three's a charm: Wrapping up the sexy display on one episode were long-standing couple Olivia and Chris, who indulged in a steamy tryst from the comfort of their own bed

The comedian added that despite his hilarious commentary, he had never met the Islanders before the wrap party.

'I don't ever go to the villa. i snuck into the camera hides. I saw them from afar. It's like the zoo.'

Discussing the reaction to his voiceover jokes - which often saw him target the housemates in a humorous way - Iain admitted that some Islanders' parents were less than impressed.

'A few people enjoyed it, a few people thought it was funny. A couple of people were like "my mum and dad dont like you"

Cheeky chappy: Iain joked that he was typing his number into host Ruth's phone, confessing that it was a bit 'muggy' of him

Stirling effort! Fans couldn't handle their excitement as they gushed over Iain's hunky appearance onscreeen

'I got a photo with Alex. I used to joke that Alex didnt say much, so in the photo I made sure he was chatting in my ear. Now he wont shut up!'

Batting away any jokes that he might be hungover from the Love Island reunion party on Sunday night, he said: 'I went to bed at a very reasonable hour this morning.

'It was fun, I could have done with a couple more hours sleep. After this I'm going to go back to bed.'

And after more than a month of listening to Iain's voice, fans could finally put a face to the name.

Many dubbed the hunky comedian their 'new weird crush' while others said he was downright 'very fit' in the words of Olivia Attwood.

Not just a pretty voice: Love Island's voiceover man Iain Stirling, 29, stunned viewers when he revealed his handsome good looks on Sunday night's reunion show

Cheeky quips: During his interview, Iain had the audience howling as he once again mocked the Islanders

'I'm in love with Iain and I don't know what to do. Send help #swoon,' one wrote on Twitter after his appearance on the show.

'Could listen to his voice forever and he's a looker.. you're a looker mr! See you live fella,' another added.

'I fancy Iain Stirling so much,' a third penned, while another agreed: 'Just watched Iain on This Morning he is so FIT!! Cant wait to see him on tour'

Others wrote: 'Iain Stirling is my new crush. Was gonna say weird crush but nah, deffo not weird. Hes hot ha,' and 'Thank you to This Morning for getting Iain Stirling on cos having a gaze at him has started my morning off well.'

And fans will get to see plenty more of the comedian, as he is leaving the pastures of Love Island to launch his stand-up tour titled 'U OK, hun?X' around the UK, starting next February.
It's the Channel Nine program, hosted by Karl Stefanovic, that sees everyday people commit to a life-changing experience, over the course of a year.

And on Monday night's episode of This Time Next Year, farmer Brad Purdy, 36, came clean on his sexuality.

After revealing he's interested in dating men, he said: 'It's nice to wake up and think "what am I going to do today?" instead of going over the last 20,000 lies you've told.'

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'It's nice to not go over the last 20,000 lies you've told': Farmer Brad Purdy, 36, shared his relief over not hiding his sexuality anymore, after coming out as gay on Monday's This Time Next Year

Sharing to Karl, 42, and the audience why he chose to star on the program, Brad explained: 'I felt like I was wasting my life.

'I was sitting at home feeling sorry for myself, and this ad kept coming up. I was like, it feels like it's almost talking to me.

The personality, based in Baradine in New South Wales, talked of the challenges of coming clean about his sexual preference.

Detailing the process: The personality, based in Baradine in New South Wales, talked of the challenges of coming clean about his sexual preference: 'There was quite a few times there I felt like running. But it was good to have deadlines to meet. And we got there'

New chapter: Since Brad has come out as gay, he's looking forward to finding a long-term relationship

'There was quite a few times there I felt like running. But it was good to have deadlines to meet. And we got there.

'My friends and family, they're the people who have been lied to. It's nice to wake up and think "what am I going to do today?" instead of going over the last 20,000 lies you've told.'

Since Brad has come out as gay, he's looking forward to finding a long-term relationship.

Reflection: Prior to the show's debut on Monday, Karl revealed on KIIS 101.1's Matt & Meshel in the Morning radio show, that the new series had caused him to reflect on the past 12 months

Prior to the show's debut on Monday, Karl revealed on KIIS 101.1's Matt & Meshel in the Morning radio show, that the new series had caused him to reflect on the past 12 months.

Radio star Meshel Laurie mentioned that since Karl had experienced such a headline-making year, he was the perfect choice to host the show which features everyday Australians tackling big personal challenges in 12 months.

At first Karl appeared to avoid the topic of his broken marriage to wife-of-21-years Cassandra Thorburn and deflected the question by making fun of the show's co-host Matt Tilley.

Comments: At first Karl appeared to avoid the topic of his broken marriage to wife-of-21-years Cassandra Thorburn but then stated of the show: 'It puts things in perspective'

New romance: Since announcing his split with Cassandra late last year, Karl has begun a romance with shoe designer Jasmine Yarbrough (pictured)

'It has been a terrible year for you in some cases personally,' he joked to Matt.

'I know you wanted to be on Ninja Warrior and couldn't make it.'

However, Karl then went on to address Meshel's question.

'In all seriousness, what I've been through pales in comparison to what these wonderful people are going through in their lives and they're trying to make those little changes,' the Today show host explained.

'I must applaud their courage, it puts a lot of things in perspective.'
She's the former lingerie model that appeared to confirm her romance with rocker Daniel Johns, 38, in May this year.

And now a source has reportedly told The Daily Telegraph's Confidential, that Michelle Leslie is no longer friends with best pal Louise van de Vorst.

Alleging that the 36-year-old 'ran-off' with Daniel, Louise's ex-boyfriend of four years, the insider said: 'Michelle has shacked up with her former mate's ex, which is incredible.'

'No longer friends': The Daily Telegraph's Confidential reported on Tuesday that Michelle Leslie (left), 36, is 'no longer' friends with Daniel Johns' ex of four years, Louise van de Vorst (right), after beginning a romance with the Silverchair rocker

'Michelle used to be BFFs with Louise, including for the big chunk of time Louise was engaged to Johns,' a source reportedly told Confidential.

'So Michelle has shacked up with her former mate's ex which is incredible,' they went on to say.

Michelle's former best friend Louise van de Vorst dated Silverchair frontman Daniel for four years until 2012.

Connection: Michelle's former best friend Louise van de Vorst dated Silverchair frontman Daniel for four years until 2012

Case of the ex: An insider reportedly told Confidential that Michelle 'shacked up' with Louise's ex, and Silverchair frontman Daniel (pictured), 38

Louise became engaged to actor and musician Jaime Robbie Reyne in 2015, and welcomed their first child, Roosevelt last March.

Meanwhile just last Saturday, Michelle sparked rumours that she's engaged to Daniel.

The slender beauty was pictured wearing a diamond ring on her wedding finger at Sydney Airport, as the pair prepared to board a flight to Los Angeles.

Set to wed? Just last Saturday, Michelle sparked rumours that she's engaged to Daniel. The slender beauty was pictured wearing a diamond ring on her wedding finger at Sydney Airport, as the pair prepared to board a flight to Los Angeles

Michelle and Daniel looked happy to be in each other's company, putting on a loved-up display.

Michelle, who was arrested in 2005 and jailed for possessing two ecstasy pills in Bali, Indonesia, appeared to confirm their relationship in May this year with a photo posted to Instagram.

Daniel looked ecstatic in the snap which showed him sitting with a guitar as Leslie laughed beside him.
Matthew McConaughey has starred in over two dozen movies and has an Oscar on his mantle.

But the 47-year-old actor has not let fame get to his head as he eschews designer duds in favor of a casual look whenever he can.

On Monday, The Dark Tower star was seen carrying a backpack as he headed out of his hotel and made his way to an appearance on Good Morning America.

Laid-back look: Matthew McConaughey donned jeans and a T-shirt In New York City ahead of his appearance on Good Morning America

The Texan also wore a pair of brown cowboy boots as he made his way through the Big Apple.

The Dallas Buyers Club star rocked a blue T-shirt that clung to his fit figure, showing off his defined chest and muscular arms.

The ex of Sandra Bullock tucked the tee into a pair of blue jeans that he accented with a brown belt.

Coordinated celeb: The 47-year-old sported brown shoes and a matching belt for the show

Caffeine kick: The acclaimed actor carried a coffee as he left his hotel

The celeb coordinated his shoes to match his belt, and toted a grey backpack as he left his hotel.

The A-lister hid his famous face behind a pair of aviator sunglasses.

The Interstellar alum needed a caffeine kick ahead of his early morning appearance, clutching a coffee drink in one hand and holding something wrapped in a cloth napkin in the other.

Wishing America a good morning... The star appeared on Monday's episode of GMA

Big baddie: The A-lister plays the villainous Man In Black in the new movie The Dark Tower

The father-of-three ditched his shades on GMA, but kept the rest of his low-key ensemble the same.

He sported perfectly tousled hair for the show, where he was promoting his upcoming movie, The Dark Tower.

Matthew stars opposite Idris Elba as the Man In Black, portraying the film's villain.

Longtime loves: Matthew with his wife, Camila Alves

Competing segments: While her husband appeared on GMA, the 35-year-old was leading a cooking segment on rival program, the Today Show

But as the actor appeared on Good Morning America, his wife was also gracing daytime television screens.

Camila Alves, 35, went on rival program the Today Show on Monday, to perform a cooking segment.

The beauty took to Instagram to reveal she'll be treating viewers to a couple Brazilian recipes, writing: 'Don't miss me teaching two Brazilian summer recipes! It is happening at the #grill on the @todayshow at 8:45am Est!'
Over the weekend, she used an interview and an Instagram post to silence speculation that her romance with Alex Beattie had secretly come to an end.

But no sooner than the flames had been put out, Montana Brown ignited the whispers once again, when she was spotted leaving the Love Island reunion after-party with castmate Simon Searles on Sunday night.

Wearing a shimmering champagne pink off-the-shoulder dress, 21-year-old Montana was seen walking beside Simon, 28, as they exited London's Libertine nightclub - but Alex, 22, was nowhere in sight.

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Stepping out: Montana Brown and Simon Searles were spotted leaving the Love Island reunion after-party, held at London nightclub Libertine on Sunday night

Before hitting the town for the bash, Montana and Alex sat down for an interview with their castmates, and denied that their romance had come to a premature end.

Speaking with host Caroline Flack, Hertfordshire-based Montana insisted that the sole factor getting in the way of them spending more time together was the distance between her Home Counties residence and Alex's Newcastle home.

On Saturday, Alex shot down rumblings of a split, when she took to social media to express her affection for Montana - a move which was reciprocated.

Low profile: The pair seemed intent on keeping a low profile as they made their exit together

Denied: Their exit together came just hours after Montana shot down rumours that she and boyfriend Alex Beattie had gone their separate ways

Pink: The 21-year-old wore a shimmering champagne pink dress for her night on the town

Reunited: Earlier, Montana shared a celebratory snap of herself with beau Alex Beattie

While Geordie lad Alex insisted that he and his girlfriend are very much together, Montana told fans she had chosen to sleep in her man's T-shirt while battling with the newfound distance between them since touching back down in the UK.

According to reports, before the group interview, the duo had not seen each other since since leaving Love Island on Sunday night. But Montana hinted at a reunion by sharing a photo of herself in Alex's top to her Instagram page.

Following a night out with her girl pals, she posed in the sleeveless grey garment and added the caption: 'Sick night with. Y girls! Sleeping in baes top @alex.beattie see you very soooooon.' [sic]

The brunette beauty cut a glam figure while sporting flawless make-up and her dark tresses down past her shoulders in a tousled style.

United front: Montana, 21, and Alex, 22, brushed off recent speculation of having 'secretly split' over the weekend, when they took to their social media accounts

'Sleeping in baes top': The brunette beauty paid homage to her beau by choosing to go to bed in his t-shirt before hinting she'll see him soon

'No we definitely haven't': Alex, meanwhile, defiantly insisted he and Montana are very much still together

Alex, meanwhile, has been seen reaffirming his relationship status on Twitter amid claims he and Montana have 'secretly split'.

Addressing the rumours, Alex insisted that hadn't been the case, replying directly to one fan who had asked about the couple: 'No we definitely haven't [split]. Just trolls being trolls.'

A source told The Sun: 'Montana is keen to follow her dreams as a TV presenter and has been attending meetings this week to get the wheels in motion.

'She doesn't like partying and isn't a big drinker so personal appearances in nightclubs aren't really her thing. Instead she is ambitious and very much a career woman  her relationship with Alex is going to take a back seat.'

Long time apart: According to reports the duo, who coupled up on the show, had not seen each other since leaving the show until the reunion on Sunday night

MailOnline has contacted representatives for Montana Brown and Alex Beattie for comment.

Rumours of trouble in paradise hit after Montana admitted she hadn't felt ready to tell Alex that she loved him, despite him telling her while the duo were still starring on the hit dating series.

Montana revealed that it would take her more time to reciprocate her flame's feelings during an episode of This Morning.

'I don't love Alex yet, no,' the graduate confessed in a live video clip from location as her slightly red-faced beau looked on.

Cringe confession: Montana revealed that it would take her more time to reciprocate beau Alex Beattie's feelings of love after she was voted off Love Island

Talking after their surprising boot from the summer smash-hit ITV2 series, just a day before the final, Alex gushingly confessed: 'In my eyes, I do love the girl. The whole island thing was intense but out relationship was really strong.'

And when asked by Ruth Langsford if she felt the same way about the hunk, Montana candidly revealed: 'I don't love Alex yet no.'

With everyone left in a state of shock and her man turning red beside her, the beauty explained the statement.

'I don't want say it when I don't mean it yet. When I say it, it will mean more,' she revealed.

Not reciprocated: The stunning graduate, 21, shockingly revealed she 'didn't love Alex yet' in a live video clip from location as her slightly red-faced beau looked on This Morning

'When I say it, it will mean more': With everyone left in a state of shock and her man turning red beside her, the beauty explained the statement

Shrugging off the embarrassment, Alex proved to be every inch the supportive boyfriend as he admitted: 'Love is a massive thing. It if takes her more time then that's fine.

'I'm easy going and chilling. I'm comfortable with her emotions at the moment,' he assured that he was fine with her emotion.

The pair were then asked by former Love Island contestant Chloe Crowhurst if they would be able to make things work in the real world due to their long distance.

Defiant Montana proved she was still smitten enough in their relationship: 'We'll make it work even though we live miles apart.

'We'll make it work': Defiant Montana proved she was still smitten enough in their relationship

Perfect pair: Montana found romance with Alex Beattie before they were voted off Love Island

'Distance not a problem. If anything it'll make up stronger. Bring us closer,' she continued as Alex looked on.

This comes after Montana claimed she was 'encouraged to be bitchy' due to the stressful environment.

She admitted was 'guilty' of saying some things 'in the heat of the moment', following a dramatic few days which saw her bad-mouthing her friends Gabby Allen and Camilla Thurlow.

She told the Daily Star: 'We were all encouraged to be bitchy. It was in the heat of the moment and I have been guilty of saying some things.'
MTV is set to revive its hit show Total Request Live (TRL) in October.

The original series was a staple for teens and young adults from 1998 to 2008, making host Carson Daly a household name.

But Daly will not be returning to the show, which had such guests as Tom Cruise and Christina Aguilera, according to The New York Times. The star is too busy with his work on the Today show.

In with the recycled: MTV is set to revive its hit show Total Request Live (TRL) on the struggling network in October, although popular host Carson Daly will not be returning to helm the revamp; here he is seen in 2001 with Tom Cruise

Airing from Times Square in New York City, the show will include rotation of different hosts, including rapper DC Young Fly and Chicago radio host Erik Zachary.

Additional hosts will be announced in the coming weeks and construction on the new studio is currently underway.

It will air from the revamped space in the Viacom building where MTV currently houses its east coast production.

The show, which during its initial run featured huge stars like Gwen Stefani, Beyonce and Britney Spears, is set to return in October.

Famous guests: Britney Spears was a frequent guest of the show and made several appearances, including this one with Carson in 2002

Live entertainment: Beyonce dropped by the NYC studios in 2006 and ate a birthday cake with her face on it as part of her appearance

Part of the reason the network has decided to bring back the show is because it's apparently what artist and performers want as a platform to showcase their music.

Chris McCarthy, MTV's hip 42-year-old president told the NYT of the revival: 'It's the right route. When you talk to artists and they say to you, unaware of what we're doing, can you bring back 'TRL'? We'd be crazy not to reinvent that.'

The network, which in recent years starting doing more news and long-form think pieces, got away from its original goal.

New hosts: DC Young Fly (left) and Chicago radio host Erik Zachary (right) are two of the new rotation of hosts slated for the revamp

McCarthy says he wants to bring back what made MTV so appealing in the first place.

'We put young people on the screen, and we let the world hear their voices. We shouldn't be writing 6,000-word articles on telling people how to feel.'

'MTV's reinvention,' he continued, 'is coming by harnessing its heritage.'

Carson Daly interviewed multiple musicians, including *NSYNC in 2000

Eminem was also a popular guest on the show that aired from 1998 to 2008 (seen here in 2000)

The new iteration of TRL will feature the same in-studio interviews and performance, with a young studio audience watching both veteran and up-and-coming performers right in the center of New York City.

McCarthy told the New York Times, it will initially run an hour a day as part of the afternoon broadcast, but might end up at two to three hours as the show develops and becomes more popular.
She's famed for her stunning physique and rounded rear.

So it's natural that Kimberley Garner, 27, would want to showcase her best asset in a high cut Brazilian brief style bikini while on holiday in Saint-Tropez.

Flaunting her pert tush, the former Made In Chelsea star looked stunning as she was spotted getting close to a handsome mystery man.

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Pert posterior: Kimberley Garner, 27, showcased her best asset in a high cut Brazilian brief style bikini while on holiday in Saint-Tropez

With his broad, muscular frame and devilishly handsome looks, the mystery man looked like the cat who got the cream as he stared down at the blonde beauty.

Kimberley looked smitten as she sauntered up close to the tanned hunk, and flattered her sensational physique in her black two piece.

Her bikini featured a plunging neckline, which emphasised her ample cleavage, and was cut low on her torso to emphasise her tiny waist.

Getting close: Flaunting her pert tush, the former Made In Chelsea star looked stunning as she was spotted getting close to a handsome mystery man

Lucky man! With his broad, muscular frame and devilishly handsome looks, the mystery man looked like the cat who got the cream as he stared down at the blonde beauty

Mystery man: Kimberley looked smitten as she sauntered up close to the tanned hunk, and flattered her sensational physique in her black two piece

Her defined stomach boasted prominent ab lines, and she further accentuated her slender frame with her briefs.

She pulled the briefs high on her hips in a 90's fashion that is favoured by Bella Hadid and Kylie Jenner, and the skimpy cut fully exposed her bottom.

Frolicking in the sea, she showed off her long, lean legs, and styled her blonde tresses loose before tying them up into a high bun.

Busty: Her bikini featured a plunging neckline, which emphasised her ample cleavage, and was cut low on her torso to emphasise her tiny waist

Toned: Her defined stomach boasted prominent ab lines, and she further accentuated her slender frame with her briefs

Bottoms up! She pulled the briefs high on her hips in a 90's fashion that is favoured by Bella Hadid and Kylie Jenner, and the skimpy cut fully exposed her bottom

Leggy lady: Frolicking in the sea, she showed off her long, lean legs, and styled her blonde tresses loose before tying them up into a high bun

Later on, the beauty was seen to hop on the back of a jet ski with the hunk, wrapping her arms around him as the pair sped over the crystal clear sea.

Emerging from the waters with the man, Kimberley flicked her wet tresses off her face while he took off his life jacket, revealing his ripped torso beneath.

The pair looked enamoured by each other as they could't take their eyes off one another while leaving the waters.

Romantic: Later on, the beauty was seen to hop on the back of a jet ski with the hunk, wrapping her arms around him as the pair sped over the crystal clear sea

Hot couple: Emerging from the waters with the man, Kimberley flicked her wet tresses off her face while he took off his life jacket, revealing his ripped torso beneath

Look of lust: The pair looked enamoured by each other as they could't take their eyes off one another while leaving the waters

Ripped to shreds: The duo made quite the couple as they both displayed their impossibly toned physiques

The bikini designer shot to fame in 2012 in Series 3 of MIC where she caught the gaze of many male cast members including Spencer Matthews, 27, and Richard Dinan.

After one date with Spencer, the pair decided not to take the chemistry any further.

Kimberley has now turned her attention to the world of swimwear design.

Sea drenched: Kimberley looked immaculate despite being soaked by the sea, and displayed her prominent hip bones with the high cut briefs

Bikini body: Kimberley pulled her briefs up high to show off her toned tush

A helping hand: The handsome hunk was close by to Kimberley at all times, placing his hand on the small of her back

Glamorous: Kimberley sported a full face of make up, complete with defined brows

The starlet proudly ensures all the pieces in her self-titled swimwear range are made in England and the Italian fabric is hand-cut in London - in a luxury touch to help her designs stand out in the market.

Speaking to MailOnline, she said: 'I designed this year's swimwear collection all around the Island, with tropical-inspired hand drawn prints.

'I wanted it to capture that balmy, relaxed feeling of being on holiday.

'It's really cool being a young designer and I love the creative process, from design to seeing the final product. This collection is my favourite yet.'

Do you know who Kimberley's mystery man is? Contact abby.rose@mailonline.co.uk

Rising star: The bikini designer shot to fame in 2012 in Series 3 of MIC where she caught the gaze of many male cast members including Spencer Matthews, 27, and Richard Dinan

Former flames: After one date with Spencer, the pair decided not to take the chemistry any further. Kimberley has now turned her attention to the world of swimwear design

New venture: The starlet proudly ensures all the pieces in her self-titled swimwear range are made in England and the Italian fabric is hand-cut in London - in a luxury touch to help her designs stand out in the market

Sea day: Kimberley and the handsome man appeared to have a whale of a time as they frolicked in the waters

Taking a dip: Kimberley gracefully pointed her toes as she dipped them in the sea
With their show having already taken them to Los Angeles, New York City the South of France, they're on the verge of unveiling their most explosive season yet.

And, on the day that Made In Chelsea: Ibiza is set to debut, never-before-seen shots of the castmembers posing in swimwear on the White Isle have been unveiled.

Frankie Gaff is seen displaying her enviably toned figure in a skimpy white halterneck bikini as she poses by a large glistening pool alongside the likes of Olivia Bentley, Alex Mytton and Jamie Laing.

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White Isle: (L-R) Olivia Bentley, Alex Mytton and Jamie Laing and Frankie Gaff are season posing in glossy new promo shots to promote their show Made In Chelsea: Ibiza

Not to be outdone, Olivia sizzles in an orange string bikini as she soaks up the sunshine at Villa Can Cosmi - the stunning location they called home as they shot drama-filled episodes of the popular reality show earlier this summer.

As Alex and Jamie make the most of the Balearic island's balmy weather, they are seen posing shirtless, with colourful swimming shorts being their only attire.

In images unveiled by MailOnline earlier this month, Frankie, Georgia and Mimi Bouchard are seem looking beach-ready in bikinis and flowing sarongs.

United we tan: Frankie and Olivia display their tanned and toned frames in skimpy bikinis

Here come the boys: Alex and Jamie are seen going shirtless, wearing just swimming shorts

The cast have also teased exclusively to MailOnline that this promises to be the most dramatic summer season to date.

Last year's newest bad boy addition to the cast, Harry Baron, said of MIC: Ibiza: 'There was drama last season  but this time, expect worse!

He added: 'Its going to be a fantastic watch. Gripping!

MIC stalwart Jamie Laing will appear in the new run of episodes and is in fact one of the only cast members from the reality show's first year to be appearing.

Drama: Earlier this month, it was revealed that Made In Chelsea: Ibiza is set to be the show's most explosive summer series yet

To be continued: Last season, various relationships were left strained: things were tense between Harry and Ella Wills [pictured L with Daisy Robins] after a turbulent series of run-ins with her and boyfriend Julius Cowdrey

A lot of interesting things happen...' he teased, without giving too much away.

New girl Mimi also hinted at six weeks of high drama: 'Its an amazing series. You see a new side to everyone!'

The show returns for its fourth summer season, making this the 17th run in MIC's seven-year history.

Tease: New girl Mimi Bouchard also hinted at six weeks of high drama - 'Its an amazing series. You see a new side to everyone!'

Much like the previous year's MIC: South of France and the year before's MIC: LA, the trip abroad will see the cast hitting the beaches for a summer of partying and, most likely, romance.

Last season, various relationships were left strained. Things were tense between Harry and Ella Wills, after a turbulent series of run-ins with her and boyfriend Julius Cowdrey (who is not featuring in the current season).

Mimi and Liv Bentley were at each other's throats after Liv blamed Mimi for splitting up her and Fredrik Ferrier (who is also noticeably absent in Ibiza), and Toff ended her brief fling with new boy Sam Prince.

On or off? Last season Toff ended her brief fling with new boy Sam Prince

Meanwhile, romance was dicey between Sam Thompson and Tiff Watson, Jamie and Frankie.

Sam and Tiff announced they were taking a break for the summer and that they were allowed to see other people; Tiff doesn't appear in the cast photo, but is thought to be making an appearance.

Sam's sister Louise Thompson and boyfriend Ryan Libbey are also set to make a guest appearance, as well as Victoria Baker Harber.

Jamie and Frankie appear to be back on going by the cast image - however, their relationship has been a notoriously rocky one and the status of it is anyone's guess.

She's back: Former cast member Emily Blackwell also crops back up this season - sure to have her eye on one of the boys [pictured L with Liv Bentley and Harry Baron]

Former cast member Emily Blackwell also crops back up this season - sure to have her eye on one of the boys.

Also not appearing in this summer edition are Binky Felstead and Josh Patterson.

This will be the first season Binky hasn't been in, and is sitting it out due to the birth of her baby India, who she and JP welcomed in June.

Made In Chelsea: Ibiza is set to air on E4 on Monday at 9pm.
Jake Paul has been coined the 'worst neighbor' for making loud noises as he shoots his goofy YouTube videos at his West Hollywood home.

And on Sunday the police had their eye on the blonde daredevil, 20, who was recently let go from his Disney Channel TV series Bizaardvark.

As the star sat in his car outside his house while waiting for a friend to pull behind him, police talked to him. He was then given a ticket for being in a No Stopping Anytime zone. The ticket could cost him as much as $400.

Not fun: YouTube sensation Jake Paul was ticketed by police for waiting outside his home in his car on Sunday

Fans everywhere: A crowd of his followers surrounded his grey car as a female officer talked to the former Disney star

The prankster wore a red hoodie and looked to be upset as he glanced at his ticket.

He was in a grey four-door sedan with tinted windows as a female officer approached him.

It is not uncommon for streets in his West Hollywood neighborhood to have No Stopping Anytime signs as the area is very congested.

His digs: The star lives in a two-story home in the crowded West Hollywood area; his neighbors have been mad about noise created by fans and his videos

There was a crowd of fans outside his two-story home, which he accidentally released the location of on one of his YouTube videos.

This ticket comes the day after he tweeted that he had outgrown Disney and will no longer play Dirk on the Disney Channel's Bizaardvark.

He was on the show for two years.

His brother is famous too: Jake's older brother is Vine star Logan Paul (left); seen here in 2016

'My team, Disney Channel, and I have come to the agreement it's finally time for me to move from the Disney family and Bizaardvark,' Paul said in the statement posted to his Twitter.

The YouTube star, who is famed for his 'crazy' pranks which have included throwing a Harley Davidson in his backyard pool and setting furniture on fire, said that 'being a part of the Disney family for the past two years was incredible and a dream come true.'

The network also released a statement thanking Paul for his work.

'We've mutually agreed that Jake Paul will leave his role on the Disney Channel series 'Bizaardvark,' the statement read.

Disney star Jake Paul (right) who was accused of terrorizing his West Hollywood neighborhood was dropped by the network, but the Millennial 'influencer' insisted that he's 'outgrown' the channel. Paul made the announcement (left) on Twitter Saturday evening

Paul (pictured) has portrayed Dirk on Disney Channel's Bizaardvark for the last two years. 'My team, Disney Channel, and I have come to the agreement it's finally time for me to move from the Disney family and Bizaardvark,' Paul said in the statement

Earlier this week, Paul clambered up on top of a KTLA van while he was being interviewed on Tuesday. He made headlines when families in the LA neighborhood accused him of turning their lives into a 'living hell'

'We thank Jake for his good work on the TV series for the past 18 months and extend our best wishes to him,' the statement added.

Paul wrote that he loves his cast mates and will continue to support Disney, but 'I have outgrown the channel and feel it's time to move forward in my career..

The star made headlines when families in his LA neighborhood accused him of turning their lives into a 'living hell'.

And while his 8.5 million young followers may be impressed with his antics, his neighbors are not.

Paul and his 'squad' love to throw rowdy parties, while he often publicizes his address which allows hoards of his young fans - he calls 'Paulers' to show up outside his home.

'It used to be a really nice, quiet street and now [it's] just this, like, war zone,' Maytal Dahan told KTLA. 'We're families here and we're more than happy to have them live here if they're respectful of their neighbors, but they're not.'

Neighbors are even considering banding together to file a class-action public nuisance lawsuit against Paul and the homeowner. They say not only is Paul annoying but he's dangerous.

His fire stunt, when he set ablaze furniture in his pool, saw flames reach the height of the home.

He also released 'rap' song, 'It's Everyday Bro,' which became the tenth most disliked video in YouTube history

Meanwhile, Paul seemed amused by the misery he is imposing on those around him.

'The neighbors hate me,' he told KTLA, laughing.

When a reporter told him that locals fear he has turned the neighborhood into a 'circus' with his non-stop parties and dangerous stunts, the millennial replied: 'But, I mean, people like going to circuses.'

Paul was then seen running and skipping through the streets before climbing on top of the KTLA van - ignoring the pleas of staffers to stop.

He has since taken to taunting his neighbors on Twitter, posting footage of his KTLA interview with a laughing emoji, and the caption: 'I'm dead.'

In Paul's YouTube bio, he described himself as living 'a crazy life' 'making comedy vids, acting, doing action sports, & going on crazy adventures' with his squad 'Team 10'.

He also released a laughably bad 'rap' song, It's Everyday Bro,' which became the tenth most disliked video in YouTube history.

Earlier this year, Paul landed himself in trouble after he filmed himself hiding in the bathroom of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building after attending a Social Media Event at the White House.

Logan shut down a New York City street on July 15 when fans rushed to see him at a pop up shop he'd set up for the day. He thanked the NYPD afterwards for 'keeping them safe'

He has also gotten into trouble with the Secret Service.

He claimed he spent several hours in the White House before leaving in the early morning. But sources confirm the video was fake and actually just filmed during the event. After he posted footage of the stunt on his blog, he was visited by the Secret Service at home.

In June, Paul was accused of emotionally abusing his ex-girlfriend Alissa Violet who also claimed he used his agency Team 10 to take advantage of women. He has denied the claims.

His older brother, 22-year-old Logan Paul, is also a YouTube star. Logan caused his own commotion in Manhattan on July 15 when his fans shut down an entire street.

They had rushed to the area after he set up a pop-up shop for the day. He took to Twitter afterwards to thank the NYPD for 'keeping my fans safe'.
Shia LaBeouf is giving away tickets to the gun show.

On Sunday, the actor was photographed on Tybee Island in Georgia on the set of his new movie The Peanut Butter Falcon. The star was walking on the beach holding a rifle while shirtless.

The photos come in the wake of the scandalized celeb's arrest in the Peach State earlier this month.

Gun show: Shia LaBeouf carried a gun and showed off his buff body on the set of his new movie

In the new shots from set, the 31-year-old was putting his fit physique on display, going completely shirtless at one point.

The Transformers star wore only denim shorts and tan sneakers, giving the world a clear view of his muscular chest and buff arms.

His beach body was inked with several tattoos as he slung a prop rifle over his shoulder and carried a white shirt and red cap in his hands.

Star-studded cast: The 31-year-old was photographed walking on the Georgia beach with co-stars Dakota Johnson and Zack Gottsagen

Keeping it casual: The actor was wearing a T-shirt, jean shorts, and a red cap

In another shot with co-stars Dakota Johnson and Zack Gottsagen, the Disney alum was wearing his tee and hat, while also sporting a brown backpack.

The controversial celeb rocked a full beard on his face, and carried his shoes in his hands.

Dakota and Zack both kept it casual for the scene, with the Fifty Shades Of Grey star wearing a white tank top and floral skirt and the newcomer in a black, graphic T-shirt and camo shorts.

In the film, Shia plays a down-on-his-luck fisherman named Tyler, who is helping to train a young man with Down syndrome played by Zack, who has high-functioning Down syndrome in real life, so he can attended a professional wrestling school.

Mug shot: Earlier this month, the former Disney star was arrested for disorderly conduct and public drunkenness

Earlier this month, the Even Stevens alum was arrested in Savannah for disorderly conduct, obstruction, and public drunkenness.

Police arrived after an intoxicated Shia began swearing in front of women and children, after his request to bum a cigarette was rejected.

He attempted to avoid arrest by running to a nearby hotel, but was booked in the lobby.

He was released from jail later that day on a $3,500 bond.

Racist rant: The scandalized celeb said some foul things about one of his arresting officers, who was black

Saying sorry: Shia issued an apology for his offensive behavior on Twitter

While he was being detained, Shia went on an expletive-ridden tirade, in which he yelled at an officer: 'I got more millionaire lawyers than you know what to do with, you stupid b---h!'

His words also became violent, saying: 'If I had my gun I'll blow your sh-t up,' and 'You put your own kind in the f--king pen.'

As he was getting fingerprinted, the actor went on a racist rant, exclaiming: 'A black man arrested me for being white.'

He also told the black officer 'You're going to hell, straight to hell, bro.'

The celeb ultimately apologized for his offensive words, penning a solemn statement on Twitter.
It was just last week that Danny Dyer, 39, was seen moving out of the home he shares with wife Joanne Mas and their three children, fueling speculation that their marriage is on the rocks.

And in a case of art imitating life, upcoming EastEnders scenes will see his soap character Mick Carter confess to cheating on wife Linda, rocking their relationship.

Explosive BBC scenes see the family man admitting to his shell-shocked wife that he kissed daughter-in-law Whitney.

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Mirroring his real life 'marriage woes'? Upcoming Eastenders scenes will see Danny Dyer's soap character Mick Carter confess to cheating on wife Linda, rocking their relationship

The story line - which airs on August 8th - will see two emotional episodes, dedicated to the staple couple battling to save their relationship.

A source told The Mirror of the scenes: 'Viewers will know by then that there is nothing between Mick and Whitney at all, it was just one of those unfortunate things between two people in dark places that never should have happened.

'As Linda lets rip, Mick starts off all humble but soon defends himself, pointing out all the things he's had to deal with while she's been away. It's a proper humdinger. Can they can back from this? It's impossible to tell.'

Split? Last week Danny Dyer, 39, was seen moving out of the home he shares with wife Joanne Mas and their three children, adding to further speculation their marriage is on the rocks

Much like his one screen character, who shares four children with his fictional teenage sweetheart, Danny met Joanne as an adolescent, and the duo embarked on a 25 year relationship before marrying last year after she proposed.

But in mid July the EastEnders favourite was seen removing belongings from the house to move into a 1700-a-month rented apartment, where his on-screen wife Kellie Bright was helping with the transition.

The move comes after it was claimed he embarked on an affair with Sarah Harding in 2012, as friends told The Sun they hoped the couple would reconcile once again.

Danny has suffered an embattled few months as he jetted to south Africa in March for an extended break from the BBC soap after growing overcome with exhaustion.

Hot on the heels of his comeback, he and Joanne were faced with rumours of his 'wild and sexual' six-week affair with Sarah in 2012, while they filmed little-known comedy Run for Your Wife - in yet another accusation of infidelity for the star.

Mistake: Viewers will know by then that there is nothing between Mick and Whitney at all, it was just one of those unfortunate things between two people in dark places that never should have happened.

Shirley confronting Whitney: The story line- which airs on August 8th, will see two emotional episodes- complete with tears, tantrums and tribulations, dedicated to the staple couple battling to save their relationship

Last month, it was reported that Danny was residing in a hotel near the EastEnders set. Sources stated he was without Joanne or their three children, and had been staying alone, reportedly wearing the same outfit for the duration of his stay.

The couple share daughters Danni, 19, Sunnie, nine and son Arty, three, and have been together since meeting in school in 1992 - yet only married last September in an idyllic Spanish-themed ceremony.

Danny's youngest children reportedly visited the star's new digs the same week, reportedly helping their dad stock up on shopping after having a tour of the apartment.

Tough times: In images obtained by The Sun , the EastEnders favourite, 39, was seen removing belongings from the house to move into a 1700-a-month rented apartment, where his on-screen wife Kellie Bright was helping with the transition

Sources told The Sun: 'At first, we hoped Danny and Jo would patch things up again as they have so many times before. Its not the first time Danny has stayed away rather than go home after filming. But its clear this time it is different.

'He is obviously hoping that she changes her mind and that they can work things out. But things have never been this bad between them before. Before he was forced to take his break from EastEnders this year he was in a pretty dark place...

'It is clear that the problems between them are much more serious than that. Danny would never have moved out otherwise.'

Troubled: 'It is clear that the problems between them are much more serious than that. Danny would never have moved out otherwise'

Neighbours revealed Danny was working with the removal men from around 9am-5pm. Joanne was later seen looking in the window of an estate agent shop.

MailOnline has contacted a representative for Danny for comment.

Last month, before Danny was seen with the removal van, it was claimed Joanne had checked his phone and found he was back in contact with a group she deemed 'bad influences' after which she sent him packing.

Danny has been embroiled in a number of cheating scandals, although Joanne has always forgiven the star - despite the string of well-publicised heartbreaks.

Brief break: Danny has suffered an embattled few months as he jetted to south Africa in March for an extended break from the BBC soap after suffering exhaustion

In 2013, an EastEnders fan was delighted when Danny revealed he was joining the soap before the news was announced, shortly before reportedly enjoying a romp with the star behind then-pregnant Joanne's back.

Laura Boyd, 20, told The Sun at the time: 'It was the best sex I have ever had. He was a real gentleman. I felt like I was floating in a bubble for days afterwards.'

Just a year later, Danny was once again said to have strayed with a 21-year-old fan, who alleged they met in a nightclub and she later snapped a nude picture of him.

While remaining quiet about other stories both Danny and Joanne lashed out at the claims, with the latter tweeting:' As for today's kiss and tell Kiss my a*** #skank."
Newlyweds Jessica Chastain and Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo were spotted back in their Manhattan neighborhood on Tuesday following their honeymoon in Africa.

The 40-year-old actress - who relies on stylist Elizabeth Stewart - looked chic in a navy wrap dress, bright floral flats, retro seventies shades, and a beige bag.

The two-time Oscar nominee also showcased her large diamond wedding ring along with her cherry-shaded manicure.

NYC: Newlyweds Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo and Jessica Chastain were spotted back in their Manhattan neighborhood on Tuesday following their honeymoon in Africa

Belted: The 40-year-old actress - who relies on stylist Elizabeth Stewart - looked chic in a navy wrap dress, bright floral flats, retro seventies shades, and a beige bag

Wedding bling! The two-time Oscar nominee also showcased her large diamond wedding ring along with her cherry-shaded manicure

On July 21, Jessica shared snaps of herself and the 34-year-old Italian count roughing it at Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park and Botswana's Okavango Delta elephant sanctuary.

'Sometimes being without Wi-Fi, cell service, Instagram, Twitter, and emails is exactly what you need,' Chastain - who boasts 2.5M social media followers - wrote on Instagram.

'There were no ovens and all the cooking was on the fire! Delicious. Loved our guide, Spike. Unparalleled knowledge of wildlife and nature. GL & I loved sitting by the fire and learning about the constellations above us.'

It was a far cry from the Miss Sloane actress and the FIOL co-founder's sophisticated June 10 nuptials at his aristocratic family's estate, Villa Tiepolo Passi.

'I found a new friend for Chaplin!' On July 21, Jessica shared snaps of herself and the 34-year-old Italian count roughing it at Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park and Botswana's Okavango Delta elephant sanctuary

Bride and groom: It was a far cry from Chastain and the FIOL co- founder's sophisticated June 10 nuptials at his aristocratic family's estate, Villa Tiepolo Passi

'He's a gentleman,' the Juilliard grad gushed to W Magazine back in 2015.

'And that's very important to me. He's from an old-school Italian family. No one in his family has ever been divorced!'

Jessica - who split with writer-director Ned Benson in 2010 - first met Gian in 2012 while he was working as Director of Public Relations for Armani.

Women's Marcher: On July 24, the Miss Sloane actress was unveiled as the face of Ralph Lauren's new fragrance Woman, which will be available for $110 beginning next month

On July 24, Chastain was unveiled as the face of Ralph Lauren's new fragrance Woman, which will be available for $110 beginning next month.

The Women's Marcher said the perfume celebrates ladies who 'have their own agencies, who don't just react to the men around them. They have their own point of view.'

The Golden Globe winner will next attend the world premiere gala presentation of Woman Walks Ahead at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.

Sioux chief Sitting Bull: The Golden Globe winner will next attend the world premiere gala presentation of Woman Walks Ahead at the Toronto International Film Festival in September

Standing Rock Reservation: In director Susanna White's (L) Dakota-set drama, Jessica plays Brooklyn portrait painter Catherine Weldon alongside Michael Greyeyes and Sam Rockwell

In director Susanna White's Dakota-set drama, Jessica plays real-life Brooklyn portrait painter Catherine Weldon alongside Michael Greyeyes, Sam Rockwell, and Ciaran Hinds.

Chastain will also play gambling entrepreneur Molly Bloom in Molly's Game, which hits US theaters November 22 and UK theaters December 26.

Aaron Sorkin makes his directorial debut with the poker princess drama, which also stars Kevin Costner, Idris Elba, and Michael Cera.
They recently returned from a romantic sun-soaked holiday in Brazil.

And it looked as though Jessica Serfaty and Ed Westwick were still in the throes of love as she shared a saucy snap of them enjoying a bath in a Malibu abode on Monday.

The American model ex-girlfriend of One Direction's Niall Horan, 26, and the talented British-born Gossip Girl star, 30, looked as besotted as ever in the revealing picture.

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'Lover man oh where have you been?' It looked as though Jessica Serfaty and Ed Westwick were still in the throes of love as she shared a saucy snap of them enjoying a bath on Monday

Taking to Instagram and Twitter, the naked couple could be seen sharing a bath overflowing with foam, against the backdrop of the Malibu skyline.

Toasting to their love, the couple stared seductively into each other's eyes, though it's not clear who was taking the snap.

'Lover man oh where have you been?', Jessica wrote alongside the picture, adding a heart emoji.

Jessica got her first taste of the spotlight on cycle 14 of America's Next Top Model, she came in fifth place.

In April 2016 her ex-husband Ididia Serfaty, 31, told DailyMail.com that she had 'abandoned' her young son Roman, aged eight, to pursue her dreams of fame and fortune in Hollywood.

In an exclusive interview he said she only sees the youngster in the summer holidays. Her ex-husband has looked after Roman for over five years as a single dad at their home in Arkansas.

Model behaviour: Jessica got her first taste of the spotlight on cycle 14 of America's Next Top Model, she came in fifth place

Jessica, responding to a request for comment on her ex's claims, told Daily Mail Online that she remains a very involved parent to Roman and that she speaks to her son ever other day.

'Before our divorce Roman had been raised for most of his life in California with me while I was doing modeling, acting and everything and Ididia was a stay-at-home dad for two years in California,' she said.

The model added: 'Then we decided to get a divorce and as part of that Ididia wanted the divorce to take place in Arkansas - where we were from - so we could be around family. So I put my work and career - and I had a lot of things going on at the time - I put it all on hold and went to Arkansas.

Proud mum: In April 2016 her ex-husband Ididia Serfaty, 31, told DailyMail.com that she had 'abandoned' her young son Roman, aged eight, to pursue her dreams of fame and fortune in Hollywood- but she states she is an involved parents

'Now in the divorce I got given a judge who was very small-minded and he said for us to have dual custody - which we both wanted - it was impossible because Ididia didn't want to leave Arkansas and I had everything we had worked for for so long back in California. So the judge said I could either stay in Arkansas and co-parent or do what I'm doing now and see him in summer and Christmas - because he has to go to just one school - he can't go back and forth.'

The ex added: 'She doesn't see Roman as regularly as you'd like to hear. We're in Arkansas and she's in LA. In fact it's in our divorce decree that she can fly him out to California once a month as long as he's not missing school.

'But what she takes is just six weeks in the summer. So she sees Roman six weeks out of every year and some Christmases. Last Christmas she didn't see him. But she's young. She's probably not thinking about us.'
She is preparing to welcome yet another male into her household, after falling pregnant with another son.

And Danielle Lloyd, 33, paid a fitting tribute to her unborn child as she dressed in a turquoise blue shade to celebrate the impending arrival of her fourth child at her lavish Mad Hatter's themed baby shower.

While attending the tea party held at the Secret Terrace in Park Regis Hotel, Birmingham, the former WAG spoke candidly of her difficult pregnancy, revealing that her baby is currently breech in an interview with OK! magazine.

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Radiant: Danielle Lloyd, 33, looked sensational as she toasted to the new arrival of her unborn child at her lavish baby shower - sporting blue in a nod to her fourth son

Danielle - who is eight months pregnant with her first child with fiance Michael O'Neil - admits she had been 'panicking a lot' on hearing the news, but is hopeful that 'the baby can turn' as she still has a way to go until her due date.

A baby in breech position means they are lying feet first with their bottom downwards in the womb, making delivery more complicated for the mother.

Along with concerns over her baby's position, Danielle revealed she has had to deal with sciatica - pain down the leg from the lower back - and Braxton Hicks too.

'I've got sciatica, my nerves are sore... I'm fed up of going to the toilet every five minutes. That stuff I'm not going to miss,' she insisted, although she did add to the publication: 'I will miss my bump a bit.'

'I was panicking a lot': At the shower, the former WAG told OK! magazine that she has learned her baby is breech and the news had caused her concern

Difficulty: She is expecting her first child with fiance Michael O'Neil and spoke candidly of the struggles she has faced throughout her pregnancy including sciatica and Braxton Hicks

Referring to her bouts of Braxton Hicks (slight contractions), Danielle said: 'It can be painful sometimes. I start to think, is this it? Am I going into labour?'

Interview: Danielle speaks candidly about her pregnancy in the latest issue of OK! magazine

'I think I've put Michael off kids for life,' she claimed.

The TV personality had previously confessed that her fourth pregnancy has been highly stressful, due to a traumatic experience that saw her son arrive 10 weeks early back in 2011.

She admits that during a trip to Dubai, Danielle suffered a water infection which can bring on premature labour.

'When I was walking I could feel the pressure and I thought I was going to have the baby,' she recalled. 'Because of what I went through with Harry, I knew the baby could come at any time.'

Throughout her difficulty, however, Danielle has had her fiance Michael supporting her and she credited her beau for 'doing everything' to make things easier for her.

Her comments came as she toasted to their new arrival at her baby shower, looking a vision in blue in a nod to welcoming yet another boy into her household.

Concerned: The TV personality had previously confessed her fourth pregnancy has been highly stressful, due to a traumatic experience that saw her son Harry arrive 10 weeks early

On edge: Danielle revealed she had a scare on holiday in Dubai where she contracted a water infection that could have led to premature labour, but credited Michael for being so supportive

She sported a fitted turquoise blue lacy dress that sheathed her pregnancy frame and the former Celebrity Big Brother star was pictured beaming from ear-to-ear as she posed in front of a floral wall while tenderly cradling her burgeoning baby bump - perfectly highlighted by her sartorial choice.

Danielle's lightened tresses fell in soft glamorous curls behind her shoulders and she sported a flawless make-up look - ensuring all eyes were on her at the no doubt star-studded event.

Danielle is also mum to three boys whom she shares with her ex-husband Jamie O'Hara; Archie, seven, Harry, six, and George, three, and joked that she is a 'boy-making machine', revealing that Michael has suggested trying gender selection if they are to have another child together.

Already a mum-of-three: Danielle is also mum to three boys whom she shares with her ex-husband Jamie O'Hara; Archie, seven, Harry, six, and George, three

She, meanwhile, isn't so keen to expand her brood once more and insists if the couple did want to have another child together, they would need to move quickly as she doesn't want to fall pregnant at an older age.

'I feel like I can't go through another pregnancy,' she remarked.

Danielle had confirmed she is expecting again in February, earlier this year, 12 months after announcing her engagement to Michael.
She's reportedly plumped for a Hollywood home with sister Cara - but Poppy Delevingne had a New York state of mind on Monday.

The lean model was pictured running to catch one of the famous yellow cabs in the East Village while she enjoyed a city break with husband James Cook.

Spending much of her time in the States, Poppy, 31, was pictured shortly after reports emerged that she and sister Cara, 24, had splashed 1.5million on Jared Leto's Hollywood mansion.

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Taaaaxi: Poppy Delevingne and hubby James Cook were spotted running to catch a famous yellow cab in New York City's East Village on Monday

Hand in hand with husband James, 31, the pair cut cool figures standing on the sidewalk and trying to hail a cab.

Poppy, wearing a floral patterned co-ord, had her famously long legs on show in the breezy summer ensemble.

Wrapping a grey hoodie around her waist for warmth, the star pulled her long blonde tresses back into a ponytail and donned a pair of black Ray-Ban Aviators for style.

Model James in turn opted for a Home Counties look pairing a loose fitting light blue shirt with a pair of darker blue chinos, interrupted by a splash of pink from his leather belt.

Loved up: Hand in hand with husband James, 31, the pair cut cool figures standing by the typical New York City roadside trying to hail down a cab

Chic: Poppy, wearing a floral patterned co ord, had her famously long legs on show in the breezy summer ensemble

Catch me if you can: Wrapping a grey hoodie around her waist for warmth, the star pulled her long blonde tresses back into a pony tail and donned a pair of black Ray Ban Aviators for style

Getting chic done: The British beauty looked chic as she carried her back behind her

The pair eventually flagged down a yellow cab and made a quick dash together to catch it.

Poppy and James' outing follows claims that she and younger sister Cara, 24, have purchased Jared Leto's old home while they spend increasingly more time in LA.

A source told The Sun: 'Cara and Poppy are both spending more and more time in LA and decided the time was right to have a base out there.'

Moving on up: Spending much of her time in the States, Poppy, 31, was pictured shortly after it emerged that her and sister Cara, 24, reportedly splashed 1.5million on Jared Leto's Hollywood mansion

'Being so close, the idea of sharing a house seemed a natural step,' they added. 'They're really excited to get hold of the keys and bring their own vibe to the place.'

It's said Jared's former home comes complete with two kitchens, a recording studio and swimming pool, along with four bedrooms, three bathrooms and 4,021 square feet of living space.

And Cara is well acquainted with the property's previous owner, as she had starred alongside movie star Jared in superhero flick Suicide Squad released last year.

The look of love: The pair eventually flagged down a yellow cab and made a quick dash together to catch it

While she featured in the film as the Enchantress (aka June Moone), Jared had a starring role as the Joker and Margot Robbie had also been among the cast.

Cara is now featuring in new movie Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, alongside songstress Rihanna, having turned her attentions to acting instead of modelling.

Like Cara, Poppy is currently distancing herself from modelling to feature on the big screen.

Hot stepper: Poppy proved quick on her feet as she dashed for her cab while James followed closely behind

She had starred in Guy Ritchie's latest offering King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword, in which David Beckham had made a cameo and will feature in upcoming movie Kingsman: The Golden Circle set for release later this year.

Speaking after Poppy landed the Kingsman role, a source added to the newspaper that her addition 'speaks volumes' as she was 'personally chosen' for the part by director Matthew Vaughn.

They said: 'The Delevingnes are in huge demand in Hollywood right now, and this is a pretty big deal for Poppy in the wake of Cara's success in Suicide Squad.'
He's battling it out in Samoa on Australian Survivor.

But former special ops commander Mark W has revealed that he almost applied for The Bachelor.

The 37-year-old TV star told Woman's Day that he wanted to go on the dating show in 2013, but is still single and looking for a relationship.

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Move over Matty J! Australian Survivor's Mark (pictured) reveals he nearly applied for The Bachelor

'When the first one came on I thought about applying for it,' Mark told the publication, referring to the series that starred Tim Robards.

'I was a secret fan.'

The hunky personality revealed what he looks for in a woman - someone who is 'ambitious' and 'make the most of life.'

On the search for 'the one': Matty J (pictured) is Australia's newest Bachelor

Mark, according to his Australian Survivor profile, has just started his own fashion label and is based in New York.

He said that he wants to inspire other military veterans to 'live a full life' during his time on Survivor.

'It can be hard after leaving the military so I am encouraging them to have a go,' the hunk added.

Who is the lucky lady? Matty had 22 women vying for his affections on the show

Matty J, meanwhile, is Australia's newest Bachelor.

The Sydney-based marketing manager, 30, is looking for love after getting rejected by Georgia Love on The Bachelorette last year.

He finished in second place, with Georgia selecting Lee Elliott as her winner.

Single and ready to mingle! The Sydney-based marketing manager, 30, is looking for love after getting rejected by Georgia Love on The Bachelorette last year
In the last few months, he has been busy kicking off his own solo music career alongside making his big screen debut in his first major movie role in Dunkirk.

But it seems Harry Styles, 23, has still had time to find love, with the One Direction star reportedly 'besotted' with new flame Camille Rowe, 27.

The genetically gifted duo sparked speculation they are now dating while attending a gig together in New York recently.

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New lady in his life: Despite his hectic schedule, it seems like Harry Styles, 23, has still had time to find love, as he is reportedly 'besotted' with Victoria's Secret angel Camille Rowe, 27

'They are well suited': The genetically gifted duo sparked speculation they are now dating while attending a gig together in New York recently

A source revealed to The Sun: Harry and Camille are in the early stages of dating. He's very protective of his relationship, so isn't going to want to make a big show of things... he seems besotted.'

They added to the publication that the pair appeared 'well suited'.

MailOnline have contacted representatives for both Harry and Camille.

It looks like Harry's close friend Nick Grimshaw may have fuelled the hot new romance after he hooked him up to a heart monitor and showed him a sizzling snap of Camille a few weeks prior.

A source revealed to The Sun: Harry and Camille are in the early stages of dating. He's very protective of his relationship, so isn't going to want to make a big show of things... he seems besotted'

'Im sure shes a wonderful person': It looks like Harry's close friend Nick Grimshaw may have fuelled the hot new romance after he hooked him up to a heart monitor and showed him a sizzling snap of Camille a few weeks prior

Photogenic: Camille, who now resides in Los Angeles, has previously modelled for brands including Adidas Original, Louis Vuitton, Dior and French label Zadig and Voltaire

Speaking of the blonde bombshell - who was discovered in Paris at 18, Harry enthused: 'I dont know her. Im sure shes a wonderful person.'

Camille, who now resides in Los Angeles, has previously modelled for brands including Adidas Original, Louis Vuitton, Dior and French label Zadig and Voltaire.

She went on to make her Victoria's Secret debut in 2016 and a few months prior was named as Playboy's Playmate of the Month for April.

Big moment! She went on to make her Victoria's Secret debut in 2016 and a few months prior was named as Playboy's Playmate of the Month for April

Previous flame: The former X Factor star was first linked to Kendall way back in 2013 and their relationship has been on and off over the years

Lucky man! Harry also reportedly enjoyed a fleeting romance with Kendall's close pal Cara Delevingne in the same year

It's not the first time Harry has found himself linked to a catwalk star, as he has had previous with four of Camille's fellow Victoria's Secret models, having dated Cara Delevingne, Kendall Jenner, Sara Sampaio and Nadine Leopold.

The former X Factor star was first linked to Kendall way back in 2013 - the same year he was said to have enjoyed a fleeting romance with her close pal Cara.

Their relationship has been on and off over the years, with the duo appearing to rekindle things briefly on a Caribbean cruise in 2016.

Ladies man: Harry also dated Sara in 2015 after they were photographed outside a New York hotel

Wow: The hunk was also linked to stunning Nadine Leopold in 2015, who attended his 21st birthday party

Harry reportedly dated Sara in 2015 after they were photographed outside a New York hotel.

The same year he was linked to stunning Nadine Leopold, who attended his 21st birthday party.

Earlier this year Harry was linked to food blogger Tess Ward - but they called time on their romance just weeks after their relationship came to light.

The relationship failed to take off due to their hectic schedules and that Tess still had lingering feelings for her ex-boyfriend.

Harry has also reportedly dated TV presenter Caroline Flack and American songstress Taylor Swift.

Short-lived: Earlier this year Harry was linked to food blogger Tess Ward - but they called time on their romance just weeks after their relationship came to light

Exes: Harry has also reportedly dated TV presenter Caroline Flack and American songstress Taylor Swift




Earlier this month, she took to Instagram to share video in which she was eating what appeared to be magic mushrooms in Bali.

And on Tuesday, Megan Marx took to Instagram to show off her attempt at a 'rain dance'.

The 28-year-old socialite captioned the image, in which she's posed with her legs splayed in a barely-there bikini: 'Doing the rain dance'.

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Risque! On Tuesday, Megan Marx took to Instagram to show off her attempt at a 'rain dance'

The former Bachelor star went on to praise her accommodation, and the 'attentive' staff who were helping her learn 'Bahasa', the local language.

She wrote: 'Haven't felt this special in a long time- this luxury hotel is on 5 hectares of land and rice paddy fields with only 22 rooms.

'The staff were so attentive and lovely- even helped me brush up my absolute terrible excuse for Bahasa (I'm starting to learn- finally!)'

She concluded: 'If you're ever in Ubud- highly recommend.'

Megan's latest post comes after she was caught appearing to eat psychedelic mushrooms on Instagram.

Video controversy: Megan's latest post comes after she was caught appearing to eat psychedelic mushrooms on Instagram

Putting on a busty display in a plunging blue top, Megan nodded her head along to the background music as she appeared to chew the substance.

And it wasn't the first time the former girlfriend of Bachelor star Tiffany Scanlon has apparently flaunted her use of illicit substances online.

Local: The former Bachelor star praised her accommodation, and the 'attentive' staff who were helping her learn the 'Bahasa' meaning the local language

According to the Daily Telegraph, when responding to a question from her high school's alumni Facebook page, the blonde beauty hinted she'd consumed something risque.

She commented: 'I've taken so many drugs I don't know where I am... Pretty sure I'm at the supermarket though if we have to be specific.'
A new promotional shot for Deadpool 2 featuring actress Zazie Beetz was released on Monday. She plays Domino in the Marvel sequel.

The 26-year-old German-born star was posed in a seductive one piece-outfit, showing off her ample cleavage. She's wearing long black gloves that extend past her elbow, with a collection of weapons on her belt.

It was a tongue-in-cheek nod to a previous shot taken by the star of the franchise, Ryan Reynolds, where he was laying on a bear rug. Here Zazie is laying on a flattened Deadpool.

Gorgeous: Zazie Beetz, 26, posed in this Deadpool 2 promotional shot Ryan Reynolds tweeted on Monday

Reynolds, 40, tweeted the shot of Beetz on Monday, writing, 'Some people just know how to work a red carpet,' adding the hashtags, '#Domino' and '#DeadPool2.'

It was a nod to a 2015 image of Reynolds in Deadpool costume lying seductively on his side on a bearskin rug, in a parody of Burt Reynolds' nude shot for Cosmopolitan magazine in 1972.

Ryan in March announced that Beetz, who's also been seen in the TV series Atlanta and the film Finding Her, was joining onto the franchise in a series of tweets. First, he tweeted the phrase, 'Domino Effect,' later writing, 'Zazie Beetz Effect.'

Parody of a parody: Reynolds in 2015 spoofed Burt Reynolds' 1972 Cosmo pictorial in a promotional shot for the movie

The Domino character made her first appearance in the comics in 1991, establishing herself as a mercenary who can generate her own lucky breaks.

The sequel to the 2016 film will also feature Josh Brolin, while Morena Baccarin, Brianna Hildebrand, Stefan Kapicic and Leslie Uggams will continue in their roles from the original, which took in more than $783 million worldwide.

The film hits theaters on June 1 of 2018.
An esteemed Australian performer has popped up in Westeros.

Well-known actor Brendan Cowell made his debut on Monday's episode of Game of Thrones.

It was a blink-and-you've-missed it spot but the actor will be more of a fixture in episodes to come.

He has arrived! Brendan Cowell makes a blink-and-you'll-miss it debut in Game of Thrones

Season fixture: The 40-year-old will star as Harrag the Ironborn for three episodes of critically-acclaimed fantasy drama series

The 40-year-old will star as Harrag the Ironborn for three episodes of critically-acclaimed fantasy drama series

Best known for his roles in Love My Way and The Slap, the actor appeared fleetingly in episode three of the current season.

Brendan appeared in a key scene that saw Alfie Allen's character, Theon Greyjoy, rescued from the ocean and hoisted onto Harrag's battle ship.

He perfectly fit the casting call description that went out last August.

'Warrior, in the 35  45 age range,' it read. 'The character is a tough-looking bruiser with the attack skills of a pit bull, and the actor needs to be great at fighting.'

Key player: Brendan appeared in a key scene that saw Alfie Allen's character, Theon Greyjoy, rescued from the ocean and hoisted onto Harrag's battle ship

The note also stated that the role would have a 'considerable' amount of dialogue and describes it as an 'excellent part for a top-end actor.'

Appearing bearded and with a large scar on his forehead, the Newtown-based star looked every inch the seafaring soldier.

Part of the Iron Islands dynasty Harrag is a nominal character in George R.R. Martin's book series.

A long way from Newtown: Brendan joined the cast during filming of the seventh season last autumn in Basque Country, between Spain and France

The theory is the show's executive producers, D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, have decided to expand the character into a new and expanded composite role.

Brendan joined the cast during filming of the seventh season last autumn in Basque Country, between Spain and France.

The Cronulla-born actor already has 19 television credits under his belt, including medieval crime family drama The Borgias and Indigenous sketch show Black Comedy.

Last year, he starred alongside Billie Piper in the critically-acclaimed theatre production Yerma in London.
War on drugs in the Philippines

A Philippine mayor accused of involvement in narcotics trafficking was shot dead along with 14 other people in a police raid Sunday -- the latest official to die in President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs.

Duterte has singled out local officials, policemen and judges as part of a crackdown that has made him popular with many Filipinos but has been condemned by human rights groups and other critics.

Among those Duterte named was Reynaldo Parojinog, mayor of Ozamiz city on the southern island of Mindanao. He was killed along with his wife, his brother and 12 others in what police described as a dawn raid on his home.

"Police were serving a search warrant when the security guards of the mayor fired at them, so our policemen retaliated," regional spokesman Superintendent Lemuel Gonda told AFP.

However Jeffrey Ocang, an aide to the Parojinogs who are an influential political clan, denied there had been any exchange of gunfire and said the mayor's camp did not fire a shot.

Police said none of their officers was hurt apart from one who sustained a minor injury from an explosion.

Following the raid police arrested Parojinog's daughter, the city's vice-mayor, and said she would face charges.

Officers recovered grenades, ammunition and illegal drugs from the Parojinog compound, according to provincial police chief Jaysen De Guzman.

Duterte won the presidency last year after promising to kill tens of thousands of criminals to prevent the Philippines from becoming a narco-state.

Since he took office, police have reported killing nearly 3,200 people in the drug war. More than 2,000 other people have been killed in drug-related crimes, according to police data.

Rights groups say many of those victims have been killed by vigilante death squads linked to the government, and that Duterte may be overseeing a crime against humanity.

In a speech last year Duterte said Parojinog was among mayors involved in the illegal drug trade.

Commenting on Sunday's raid, presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said: "The administration vowed to intensify the drug campaign."

Police said they had conducted surveillance on Parojinog based on the president's remarks. "He has many security personnel who carry unlicensed firearms," regional police chief Timoteo Pacleb told radio DZMM on Sunday.

Two other mayors Duterte mentioned in his so-called "drug list" were killed last year.

In November Rolando Espinosa, the mayor of Albuera town, was killed inside his cell during a night-time raid in a provincial jail. Police claimed Espinosa shot at them first despite being in custody.

Duterte defended the officers involved in that raid and ordered their reinstatement, but critics said the decision would worsen the nation's "culture of impunity".

In October Samsudin Dimaukom, the mayor of the southern town of Saudi Ampatuan, was killed in a shoot-out at a police checkpoint on suspicion he and his security personnel were transporting illegal drugs, authorities said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem on July 30, 2017.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday defended his decision to remove metal detectors from the entrance to a Jerusalem holy site after deadly unrest, saying it was in the best interest of security.

Israel installed metal detectors and security cameras after a July 14 attack near the Haram al-Sharif, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, in which gunmen killed two policemen.

Israeli police said the metal detectors were needed because guns were smuggled into the site and the assailants emerged from it to carry out the attack.

The move sparked Muslim protests and deadly unrest, and the government removed the detectors on Tuesday as well as the cameras.

That, however, brought fierce criticism from the far-right flank of Netanyahu's own conservative coalition.

A poll of Israeli Jews found 77 percent thought the move constituted "capitulation", while even the normally pro-Netanyahu newspaper Israel Hayom attacked his handling of the crisis.

"I listen to the sensitivities of the public, I understand their feelings, I know that the decision we took is not an easy one," he said at the start of Sunday's cabinet meeting -- his first public comment on the removal of all the security measures.

Metal detectors installed by Israeli authorities are seen outside the Lions' Gate entrance to Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem on July 23, 2017

"At the same time, as prime minister of Israel, as the one who carries the burden of Israel's security on his shoulders, I am obliged to take decisions in a calm and considered way. I do that with a view to the big picture," he said.

Palestinians saw the new security measures as Israel asserting further control over the holy site, which houses the revered Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

It is located in east Jerusalem, seized by Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed in a move never recognised by the international community.

It is the third-holiest site in Islam and the most sacred for Jews as the site of the first and second ancient temples.

Muslims refused to enter the shrine and prayed in the streets outside for more than a week.

Protests and deadly unrest erupted in the days after the measures were installed, with clashes breaking out around the compound in Jerusalem's Old City, in the occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip.

Seven Palestinians were killed in clashes.

A Palestinian also broke into a home in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank and stabbed four Israelis, killing three.
Leung Kwok-hung -- known locally as "Long Hair" -- was cleared Monday of misconduct in a case he said was politically motivated

A pro-democracy Hong Kong lawmaker who was recently removed from parliament after a Beijing intervention was cleared Monday of misconduct in a case he described as politically motivated.

Leung Kwok-hung -- known locally as "Long Hair" -- is a veteran activist from the League of Social Democrats, and had been charged by the city's corruption bureau over a payment received while in public office from a high-profile anti-Beijing media tycoon.

He was accused of "wilfully and intentionally" failing to declare HK$250,000 ($32,000) from the founder of Apple Daily newspaper Jimmy Lai between 2012 and 2016. The paper is highly critical of Beijing.

Judge Alex Lee acquitted him "on benefit of doubt" Monday, saying the prosecution had failed to prove the money was a personal payment to Leung in his capacity as lawmaker, rather than a payment to his party.

Leung had received the payment into his personal bank account but the defence argued it was a party donation, which meant it would not need to be declared.

"Despite the suspicions I have of the defendant's conduct, I am not satisfied that the prosecution has proven its case against him beyond reasonable doubt," Lee said in the judgement.

Leung's trial came at a time when many fear semi-autonomous Hong Kong's freedoms are under threat from Chinese authorities.

Two weeks ago, he was one of four pro-democracy legislators disqualified from parliament by the High Court over changing their oaths of office to reflect their frustrations with Chinese authorities last year.

Their removal came after an unprecedented intervention from Beijing demanding oaths be taken in a "solemn and sincere" manner.

Leung Kwok-hung was among a number of leading Hong Kong democracy campaigners facing court cases, including over their participation in 2014's mass pro-democracy Umbrella Movement rallies

A number of leading democracy campaigners are currently facing court cases, including over their participation in 2014's mass pro-democracy Umbrella Movement rallies.

After his acquittal, Leung, 61, raised his arms outside the district court as supporters gathered round him.

"I hope the democracy camp will continue to stand firm in the coming years," said Leung, wearing a T-shirt bearing the words "civil disobedience".

However, he said the ruling did not convince him the city's judiciary was safe, describing it as "under attack" by political forces.

Leung's activism has landed him in jail several times.

In 2014, he spent four weeks behind bars for criminal damage and disorderly behaviour during a political protest, and in 2002, he was jailed for two weeks after protesting inside the legislative council chambers before he became a lawmaker.

Hong Kong was returned to China by Britain in 1997 and is ruled under a "one country, two systems" deal which allows it much greater liberties than seen on the mainland.

But there are serious concerns that an ever more assertive Beijing is trampling over the agreement.
Marine worms may hold the key to medical breakthroughs including speedier recovery from surgery and more blood transfusions

For centuries, the only use humans found for the lugworm -- dark pink, slimy and inedible -- was on the end of a fish hook.

But the invertebrates' unappreciated status is about to change.

Their blood, say French researchers, has an extraordinary ability to load up with life-giving oxygen.

Harnessing it for human needs could transform medicine, providing a blood substitute that could save lives, speed recovery after surgery and help transplant patients, they say.

"The haemoglobin of the lugworm can transport 40 times more oxygen from the lungs to tissues than human haemoglobin," says Gregory Raymond, a biologist at Aquastream, a fish-farming facility on the Brittany coastline.

"It also has the advantage of being compatible with all blood types."

Raymond and his team, which specialises in fish egg production, joined forces with biotech firm Hemarina in 2015 in the hope of securing a reliable means of lugworm production.

The facility now churns out more than 1.3 million of the creatures each year, each providing tiny amounts of the precious haemoglobin.

"We started basically from zero. Since the worm had never been studied, all parameters needed inventing from scratch, from feeding to water temperature," says project researcher Gwen Herault.

Medical interest in the lugworm -- Arenicola marina -- dates back to 2003, when the outbreak of mad-cow disease in Europe and the worldwide HIV epidemic began to affect blood supplies.

The problem was that animal haemoglobins, as a substitute for the human equivalent, can cause allergic reaction, potentially damaging the kidneys.

In lugworms, though, haemoglobin dissolves in the blood and is not contained within red blood cells as in humans -- in other words, blood type is not an issue -- and its structure is almost the same as human haemoglobin.

In 2006, the worm's potential was validated in a major study.

Scientists at Roscoff, close to Plomeur, extracted and purified haemoglobin from local-caught lugworms and tested it on lab mice. The rodents were fine and showed no sign of the immune response that dogged other animal substitutes.

If proven safe for humans, the researchers said, the worms' oxygen-rich blood could tackle septic shock -- a crash in blood pressure that can cause fatal multiple organ failure -- and help to conserve organs for transplantation.

Clinical trials of the blood product began in 2015. Lugworm haemoglobin was used last year in 10 human kidney transplants at a hospital in the western French city of Brest and 60 patients are currently enrolled in tests of the blood product across France.

- Male or female? -

Marine worms are better known as providing bait for fishermen

The secrets of lugworm haemoglobin lie in its ability to survive in extreme conditions, burrowing into sand at the edges of the tide.

The worm grows to about 25 centimetres (10 inches) in length and has several bushy external gills along its body.

At high tide, submerged in water, the worm builds up stocks of oxygen that, astonishingly, allow it to survive more than eight hours out of the water at low tide.

Anyone who has walked along a sandy beach at low tide will see evidence of lugworms, from the tiny coiled casts of sand they throw up from their burrow, 10 cms below the surface.

But, apart from anglers who dig up the creatures for bait, lugworms are rarely seen -- and breeding them is a novel challenge.

"The main difficulty is working with a small animal that lives its life hidden," explained Raymond.

Aquastream struggled at first with basic rearing problems -- including how to tell a male lugworm from a female.

After nine months of testing, "50 percent of adult worms survived and a good deal of them produced eggs," said Herault.

The larvae start out around 1mm in length and the worms are transported to Hemarina's testing site once they reach 5mm.

Aquastream director Nathalie Le Rouilly said that her firm's collaboration with Hemarina could provide the world of medical science with a sustainable supply of the worms.

"There is nowhere else in France or the world that has the capacity to produce lugworms in a controlled environment to ensure a supply of their haemoglobin," she says.

Scientists are excited by the potential of lugworm haemoglobin -- although they also point to a rigorous testing procedure before the molecule can be certified as safe and effective for humans.

"The properties of extracellular haemoglobin extracted from the lugworm could help protect skin grafts, promote bone regeneration and lead to universal blood," says Raymond.

If this vision turns real, lugworm blood may also allow donor organs to live longer outside the bodies, potentially helping thousands of recipients each year.

And, one day, freeze-dried lugworm blood could be a crucial backup for standard blood supplies -- a boon in combat zones or disasters.
A picture taken on September 9, 2016 shows a general view of Muslim pilgrims from around the world circling around the Kaaba at the Grand Mosque in the Saudi city of Mecca

The Qatari authorities have accused Saudi Arabia of jeopardising the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca of Qatari pilgrims by refusing to guarantee their safety.

Saudi Arabia and its allies have been boycotting Qatar since June 5, accusing it of backing extremist groups and of ties to Shiite Iran, in the region's worst diplomatic crisis in years.

On July 20, Riyadh said that Qataris wanting to perform this year's hajj would be allowed to enter the kingdom for the pilgrimage, but imposed certain restrictions.

The Saudi hajj ministry said Qatari pilgrims arriving by plane must use airlines in agreement with Riyadh.

They would also need to get visas on arrival in Jeddah or Medina, their sole points of entry in the kingdom.

The Qatari Islamic affairs ministry, in a statement published by the official QNA news agency on Sunday, said the Saudi side had "refused to communicate regarding securing the pilgrims safety and facilitating their Hajj".

The ministry accused Riyadh of "intertwining politics with one of the pillars of Islam, which may result in depriving many Muslims from performing this holy obligation".

According to the statement, 20,000 Qatari citizens have registered to take part this year. The ministry said it denied Saudi claims that Doha had suspended those registrations.

"The distortion of facts is meant to set obstacles for the pilgrims from Qatar to Mecca, following the crisis created by the siege countries," the Qatari ministry added, referring to Saudi Arabia and its allies.

Some Gulf media claimed the Qatari statement was a call for the "internationalisation" of the management of the hajj season, which is run by the Saudi authorities.

"Any call to internationalise (the management of) hajj is an aggressive act and a declaration of war," Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told Arabiya news channel on Sunday.

But Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani described the claims as "media fabrications".

"There has not been a single statement by a Qatari official concerning the internationalisation of hajj," he told Al-Jazeera news channel.

Qatar's National Human Rights Committee on Monday said it will complain about the Saudi restrictions to the United Nations, the Arab League and the Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation.

"Anti-Qatar rhetoric... threatens the security of Qatari pilgrims," the committee said in a statement.

The hajj, a pillar of Islam that capable Muslims must perform at least once in a lifetime, is to take place this year at the beginning of September.

Saudi Arabia and its allies Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates cut diplomatic ties and imposed sanctions on Doha in June, including the closure of their airspace to Qatari airlines.

The four Arab states accuse Qatar of supporting extremists and of growing too close to Shiite-dominated Iran, the regional arch-rival of Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia.

Qatar denies the allegations and accuses the Saudi-led bloc of imposing a "siege" on the tiny emirate.
Once a Kenyan success story, homegrown Nakumatt supermarkets are now grappling with severe product shortages

The butcher is closed, metres of shelves are empty save for a single brand of shampoo and, worst of all, the toilet paper is out-of-stock.

Once a Kenyan success story, homegrown Nakumatt supermarkets are grappling with product shortages so severe even the country's best-known cartoonist has taken notice, lampooning the company's slogan in a recent drawing as, "You need it, we don't have it".

The dizzying fall of East Africa's largest retailer has been blamed on a combination of bad management, misguided expansion plans and increased competition, and many industry insiders say the damage wrought on the company is so severe that it may not survive.

"It's what I call a perfect storm, where a series of events have come together to create the position that we're in," said Andrew Dixon, a former executive with Britain's Tesco supermarket recently hired to head up Nakumatt's marketing.

The chain's position today is indeed a tenuous one: Nakumatt has become so bad at paying its bills that some suppliers demand to be paid upfront or refuse to deliver. The landlord of one supermarket recently raided the premises and seized merchandise in lieu of unpaid rent.

Nakumatt has become so bad at paying its bills that some suppliers demand to be paid upfront or refuse to deliver

It wasn't always like this.

Nakumatt's transformation from a one-store mattress retailer into a region-spanning grocery empire is a fairy-tale saga in a country where entrepreneurship is a cardinal virtue.

The chain's story starts in 1979 in Kenya's Indian community, when a father, fresh off of the bankruptcy of another business, started a mattress store with his two sons in the Rift Valley town of Nakuru.

The store was named "Nakuru Mattresses," which was later contracted to Nakumatt and what would become one of the best known brands in East Africa.

The shop flourished and by the mid-1980s the family opened their first store in the capital Nairobi.

The current difficulties have seen two Nairobi stores and three in Uganda shuttered.

However the business still employs 7,000 people and has 45 stores in Kenya, eight in Uganda, three in Rwanda, five in Tanzania and does annual sales of $600 million (511 million euros), according to Dixon.

- Bad luck -

Newly appointed Nakumatt Chief Marketing Officer Andrew Dixon speaks during an interview with AFP in Nairobi

Dixon has identified three reasons for Nakumatt's struggles.

The first was a stroke of bad luck -- the September 2013 attack by jihadists on the Westgate mall in Nairobi that left 67 people dead and destroyed Nakumatt's flagship store, which Dixon said accounted for 10 percent of the company's turnover.

The second is the proliferation of malls in the capital. In its policy of expansion, Nakumatt has had to commit to opening new markets years in advance, and sometimes, when they finally do open, they end up not being as successful as expected.

The final blow is Kenya's economic growth, which, while strong, is less than Nakumatt anticipated.

"We had originally put together a business plan which had assumed a certain growth in the economy. That growth has now slowed," Dixon said, adding that the retail sector's share of GDP has dropped from 12 percent to 6 percent.

Sources among Nakumatt's competitors point to a fourth reason: the company's acquisition at the end of 2016 of minority shareholder John Harun Mwau's stake in the chain for a sum Kenyan media reported to be at least $30 million.

In 2011, American investigators froze Mwau's assets in the United States over allegations that he was involved in drug trafficking, a charge he denies.

The businessman and politician's scandalous reputation was seen as hampering Nakumatt's quest to convince investors to inject $75 million into the company.

- The giants in waiting -

The time for Nakumatt to sort out its affairs is running out.

Wholesalers, who have relied for years on Nakumatt's business to connect them with Kenya's rising middle class, are losing patience.

So, too, are mall owners, who have watched the balance of unpaid rent from the stores grow by the month.

The landlord of one shopping centre in Nairobi's northern outskirts grew so tired of waiting that in early July they raided the Nakumatt on their premises, seizing trucks, televisions, trolley and refrigerators to auction in a bid to recover 51 million shillings ($491,000) in unpaid rent.

Julien Garcier, managing director of market research company Sagaci, said Nakumatt did not only need new investors, but fresh ideas and outside expertise.

"Yes, they have been around for a long time, but above all, it's a family business and they are now facing a fairly sudden rise in competition and their lack of know-how is making them make expensive mistakes," Garcier said.

That competition is not just from local brands like Tuskys, Chandarana and Naivas, but also from France's Carrefour and American chain WalMart, both of which have recently emerged -- albeit on a small scale -- on the scene in Kenya.

At the opening of a WalMart-owned Game supermarket in 2015, a local television station came across Nakumatt boss Atul Shah browsing the aisles, who made what seemed to be an admission of weakness.

"The biggest trouble I go through is, what next?" he told the journalists. "Always, we're looking for ideas."
A statue of a teenage girl symbolising the plight of former "comfort women", outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul

South Korea Monday began an official review of a controversial agreement with Japan over Second World War sex slaves, formally reopening an issue that still strains ties between the US allies.

Mainstream historians say up to 200,000 women, mostly from Korea but also other parts of Asia including China, were forced to work in Japanese military brothels during World War II.

The plight of the so-called "comfort women" is a hugely emotional issue that has marred relations between the Asian neighbours for decades. For many South Koreans it epitomises the abuses of Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule over the Korean peninsula.

South Korea and Japan reached a "final and irreversible" agreement in December 2015, under which Tokyo offered an apology and one billion yen (now $9 million) to open a foundation for the dwindling number of comfort women who are still alive.

The deal, reached by the previous Seoul administration of Park Geun-Hye, was condemned by some of the women and South Korean activists, who took issue with Japan's refusal to accept formal legal responsibility and questioned the sincerity of its apology.

A government-appointed task force was launched Monday to investigate the deal, Seoul's foreign ministry said.

"Our task is to thoroughly review the problems in the negotiations and in the agreement itself," its head Oh Tai-Kyu told reporters after its first meeting, adding the task force will consider "whether the opinions of the victims have been fully reflected in the agreement".

New President Moon Jae-In had promised a review on the campaign trail.

But the move threatens to complicate relations with Tokyo, even as the two countries, both of them security allies of Washington, face threats from nuclear-armed North Korea.

Japan maintains that the two countries must abide by the agreement.

Since its signing it has pressed Seoul to remove a statue of a girl erected in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul by activists to symbolise the victims of sex slavery.

They have since put up more statues -- including one outside the Japanese consulate in Busan -- which led to Tokyo recalling its ambassador for three months earlier this year.

Several of the surviving South Korean comfort women -- currently numbering 37 -- refused to accept the final compensation provided by Japan.

A group of 12 comfort women filed a lawsuit against Seoul last year for signing the agreement without their consent and despite Tokyo's refusal to take legal responsibility.
A faction of Abu Sayyaf has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, with members among militants who have been occupying parts of Marawi

Islamist militants in the Philippines have beheaded seven local loggers they kidnapped last week in their stronghold in the strife-torn south, police said Monday.

The bodies of the loggers were found on Sunday in a mountainous village on the island of Basilan, local police chief John Cundo told AFP, blaming the killings on a faction of the Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom group based there.

The group of senior Abu Sayyaf leader Furuji Indama abducted and killed the loggers apparently over a local business row rather than for its typical ransom activities, Cundo said.

"This was an act of revenge by Indama who may have blamed the destruction of his rubber plantation on these loggers. The kidnappers did not demand ransom but immediately beheaded the loggers," Cundo said.

The Abu Sayyaf is a loose network of militants formed in the 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.

One faction based on Basilan has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, with members among militants who have been occupying parts of Marawi, the largely Catholic nation's most important Islamic city, since May.

The militants have withstood a US-backed military offensive in Marawi that has claimed 650 lives and displaced nearly 400,000 people.

President Rodrigo Duterte has imposed martial law across the southern third of the Philippines, including Basilan, to quell the militant threat.

The Abu Sayyaf, blamed for the worst terror attacks in the nation's history, is known to behead its hostages unless ransom payments are made.

The militants beheaded two Canadian hostages last year and a German captive in February after ransom demands were not met.

Abu Sayyaf militants are holding more than 20 hostages, including several foreigners, in Basilan and another of their bases on the southern island of Sulu, according to the military.
Panasonic is best known abroad for electronics, but has shifted to other sectors, including energy and an auto division that makes products from electrical components to navigation systems

Panasonic on Monday reported quarterly gains in profits and sales thanks to a strong performance in its auto-related sector, confirming the Japanese electronics mainstay is on course for recovery.

The Osaka-based company is best known abroad for electronics, but has shifted to other sectors, including energy and an auto division that makes products from electrical components to navigation systems.

Panasonic, which suffered profit and sales falls in the previous fiscal year that ended in March, said net profit surged 67.1 percent to 48.8 billion yen ($441 million) for the April-June period.

Quarterly sales rose 5.1 percent to 1.87 trillion yen, while operating profit jumped 16.9 percent to 83.9 billion yen for the three months.

"The company achieved increases in both sales and operating profit mainly due to the growth of automotive-related business," offsetting the negative impact from cost increases, Panasonic said in a statement.

The company left its annual outlook unchanged, forecasting net profit to increase to 160 billion yen for the fiscal year to March 2018 from 149 billion yen the year before.

Annual sales are seen at 7.8 trillion yen, also unchanged.

Panasonic is on a steady recovery path as "the current year is a solid stepping stone for further growth next year," said Masahiko Ishino, senior analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Center.

Automotive products are bound to grow as carmakers launch new models, while operations are strengthening in the appliances division, Ishino told AFP ahead of the release.

Panasonic and US electric car maker Tesla have agreed to start working together on solar energy products.

The pair have already teamed up on the world's biggest lithium-ion battery factory in the US state of Nevada.
People raise their fists as they shout slogans to protest against the US military presence in front of the US Kadena Air Base in Cyatan, Okinawa prefecture in 2016

Japan said Monday the United States had returned a sliver of land at a controversial US air base on the southern island of Okinawa which has sparked a lengthy and fierce dispute.

Tokyo said the return of the land, which accounts for less than one percent of the 481-hectare (1,188-acre) Futenma base, would improve conditions for locals.

But many Okinawa residents want the Marine air base moved off their island altogether.

They reject the Japanese and US government project to minimise noise and potential safety problems by moving the base from a crowded city to a sparsely populated district in Okinawa's north.

Both Tokyo and Washington have consistently rejected the idea of moving the base out of Okinawa altogether.

The US gave back the plot under a 2015 agreement to speed up the return of land on the island.

"Thanks to the return of the land, a city road will be fully open and the living environment for locals will be largely improved," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, the government's top spokesman, told reporters.

"We'll try to visibly reduce Okinawa's burden," he said.

In February the government resumed work on building the replacement base after it was stalled by a series of administrative and legal moves, sparking angry protests and scuffles with police.

Okinawan Governor Takeshi Onaga had tried to block efforts to reclaim land for the new offshore facility and he and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe filed rival lawsuits to try to settle the issue.

But in December the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the central government, giving the green light to move ahead on construction.

Onaga, however, filed a fresh lawsuit last week against the central government to try and halt construction.

The governor had no immediate comment on the land return.

Okinawa, which accounts for less than one percent of Japan's total land area, hosts about 28,000 US troops -- more than half of about 47,000 American military personnel stationed in Japan.

Islanders have complained for decades that the rest of the country ignores their burden, which also includes hosting some 70 percent of land allotted for US bases in Japan.
John Kelly, US President Donald Trump's newly-named chief of staff, is a retired four-star marine general who had been his Homeland Security secretary

President Donald Trump attends a swearing-in ceremony Monday for his newly-named chief of staff John Kelly, appointed as part of a shakeup meant to instill order at a fractious White House bereft so far of major legislative achievements.

Trump was scheduled to take part in a 9:30 am (1330 GMT) ceremony for Kelly, a retired four-star marine general who had been his Homeland Security secretary.

The US president on Friday announced via Twitter that he had picked Kelly to replace outgoing chief of staff Reince Priebus, rumored for weeks to be on the verge of being sacked.

The chief of staff traditionally manages the president's schedule and is the highest ranking White House employee, deciding who has access to the president.

The shakeup was made public one day after the Senate failed -- to Trump's great frustration -- to pass a bill repealing Obamacare, a key campaign pledge by the billionaire businessman during his White House run.

The staffing overhaul has been greeted with relief by some in Washington who have been alarmed by a White House often criticized as undisciplined and wracked by leaks and internal squabbles.

"I think he will bring some order and discipline to the West Wing," one prominent Republican, US Senator Susan Collins, told NBC television on Sunday.

Since taking office six months ago, Trump's tumultuous administration has seen a succession of negative headlines and brewing scandals.

Adding to the chaos, the president has parted with a number of top officials including his national security advisor, deputy national security advisor and FBI director among others -- an unparalleled turnover for such a young presidency.

Just one week before sacking Priebus, Trump dismissed his chief spokesman Sean Spicer and announced that he had hired a Washington outsider, brash Wall Street financier Anthony Scaramucci, to run his communications operation.

Washington insiders surmise that the decision to move Kelly from the helm of the Homeland Security Department may be part of a strategic effort by the president to inoculate himself from the widening investigation into Russia's attempt to influence the 2016 election.

They have speculated that Trump may be planning to have his Attorney General Jeff Sessions -- who heads up the Justice Department -- replace Kelly as secretary of homeland security in a bid to thwart the probe, which many believe threatens his presidency.
Yemeni security forces prepare to execute a man convicted of raping and murdering a three-year-old girl at a public square in Yemen's capital Sanaa on July 31, 2017

Thousands of people gathered in the rebel-held Yemeni capital Monday to witness the public execution of a man convicted of raping and murdering a three-year-old girl.

Mohammed al-Moghrabi, 41, was sentenced to death for the June 25 rape and murder by a court run by the Shiite Huthi rebels who control Sanaa.

The gruesome crime coincided with the first day of Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, and sparked anger among the population.

Moghrabi was first given 100 lashes and then made to lie flat, his face on the ground, and killed by multiple gunshots by security forces to cheers from the crowd.

Police said they escorted him to Tahrir square where he was executed amid fears the angry crowd could lynch him.

The public execution was widely aired on Huthi-run media in Yemen, framed as an example of the Shiite rebels' efforts to combat crime in their areas.

The Iran-backed Huthis have been locked in war with the Saudi-backed internationally-recognised government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi for two years.

More than 8,000 people have been killed and millions displaced in the conflict, while nearly 2,000 have died of cholera since April.

The United Nations has described Yemen as "the largest humanitarian crisis in the world," with 10 million civilians in acute need of life-saving aid as the country teeters on the edge of famine.
New York's landmark Waldorf Astoria Hotel: a report says the hotel's owner Anbang has been ordered to sell its overseas assets

China has ordered Anbang Insurance Group, the conglomerate which owns New York's historic Waldorf Astoria hotel, to sell its overseas assets, Bloomberg News reported Monday.

The financial news agency, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter, said Chinese authorities have told Anbang to bring the proceeds back to China after disposing of holdings abroad.

The company denied the claims, telling Bloomberg in a statement: "Anbang at present has no plans to sell its overseas assets."

"Currently, Anbang's various businesses and operations are all normal, and the company has ample cash and sufficient solvency capabilities."

The news comes less than two months after the departure in June of the firm's president Wu Xiaohui, who was also reported to have been detained.

Chinese magazine Caijing said at the time that regulators may be investigating Anbang's compliance with insurance products or insurance fund investments.

In May the Insurance Regulatory Commission accused Anbang of violating certain provisions and banned the group from filing applications for new insurance products for three months.

Beijing began last year to roll out restrictions to curb capital flight overseas. Regulators are now investigating potentially risky loans to large companies such as the Wanda, HNA and Fosun conglomerates.

The clampdown follows several overseas "shopping sprees" last year which raised concerns about reckless spending abroad.

Financial watchdogs are now focused on managing what are termed "grey rhinos" -- risky financial practices that have long been visible but ignored.

Anbang, established just 13 years ago, has grown from a domestic seller of property insurance into a financial services powerhouse, making a name for itself abroad by buying the Waldorf Astoria for a record $1.95 billion in 2014.

Anbang also made a $14 billion dollar bid for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, but pulled out of a bidding war with Marriott, which ended up buying Starwood last year.

The company was also in aborted talks with Jared Kushner, a White House adviser and US President Donald Trump's son-in-law, to redevelop a Manhattan office tower, Bloomberg reported this March.
Swe Win (C), the editor of Myanmar Now, is escorted to a court by police in Mandalay a day after he was detained by police at Yangon airport as he tried to fly to Bangkok under a controversial law often wielded against the press

One of Myanmar's most prominent investigative journalists was granted bail on Monday after being charged with insulting a Buddhist monk who praised the killer of a Muslim government lawyer.

Police detained Swe Win at Yangon airport on Sunday evening as he tried to fly to Bangkok, claiming that he might evade a defamation charge leveled against him earlier this year.

He has been sued by supporters of the hardline Ma Ba Tha movement for posting an article on Facebook quoting a Buddhist abbot who said firebrand preacher Wirathu should be expelled from the monkhood.

Wirathu, who has been dubbed the "face of Buddhist terror" for his anti-Muslim diatribes, caused outrage when he publicly praised a man who shot respected Muslim government lawyer Ko Ni earlier this year.

Swe Win was granted bail on Monday in the central city of Mandalay, where the charges were filed.

"He got the bail from the court today," his lawyer Khin Maung Myint told AFP, adding he would next appear on August 7.

Speaking outside the court Swe Win, the editor of the Myanmar Now news agency, ridiculed the case.

"The person who sued me for this case is a member of Ma Ba Tha, but Ma Ba Tha is not even an official organisation," he told reporters, referencing a recent ruling by Myanmar's top ecclesiastical body ordering the hardline group to disband.

He is the latest casualty of a controversial law that has been increasingly used against journalists since Myanmar's first elected government for generations took power last year.

Hopes had been high that the new government of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi would usher in an era of free speech when they took power last year after half a century of military rule.

But defamation prosecutions have soared since her party came to power, increasingly targeting social media satirists, activists and journalists.

Under the broadly worded article 66(d) of the Telecommunications Act, anyone convicted of "restraining wrongfully, defaming, disturbing (or) causing undue influence" online faces up to three years in jail.

Facing public outcry, the government has proposed changes to the law, including allowing judges to grant bail and forbidding third parties from bringing cases.

But critics say the changes, which also include dropping the need for government approval to bring cases, could make the law even worse.

Swe Win is the fourth Myanmar reporter to be detained in a month after three others were arrested for covering an armed insurgent group.

Another prominent journalist, Kyaw Min Swe, an editor at the Voice journal, is also facing charges under 66(d) for an article satirising the military.
England celebrate victory against South Africa on the final day of the third Test at The Oval in London on July 31, 2017

Moeen Ali became the first bowler in The Oval's 100-Test history to take a hat-trick as England wrapped up a crushing 239-run win in the third Test against South Africa on Monday.

Victory put England 2-1 up in this four-match series, with just the fourth Test at Old Trafford starting on Friday to come.

After having Dean Elgar (136) and Kagiso Rabada (nought) caught at first slip by Ben Stokes with the last two balls of his 16th over, off-spinner Ali ended The Oval's landmark match when he had Morne Morkel lbw with the first ball of his next over -- although England had to first review umpire Joel Wilson's not out decision.

"I was very confident it was out, as soon as it hit his pad," Ali told Sky Sports of his hat-trick delivery.

"It was a great feeling."

Moeen Ali (right) took a hat-trick as England beat South Africa by 239 runs in the third Test at The Oval on July 31, 2017

Ali's treble saw him become the 13th England bowler to take a hat-trick at this level, with South Africa's second innings the first in the 140-year history of Test cricket to include four first-ball ducks.

South Africa, set a mammoth 492 for victory, were all out for 252 after lunch, with Worcestershire all-rounder Ali taking four for 45.

"What a way to celebrate the 100th Test at this ground," said England captain Joe Root.

He added that England's first-innings batting, with man-of-the-match Stokes making 112 and former captain Alastair Cook 88 in a total of 353, had laid the platform for an emphatic success.

South Africa's Dean Elgar celebrates reaching his century on the final day of the third Test against England at The Oval on July 31, 2017

"I think the way we batted in the first innings was really important and set a good benchmark for us.

"Alastair Cook's innings was crucial -- we could have gone five or six down but the way he played was brilliant."

The way this series has see-sawed -- England won the first Test at Lord's by 211 runs and South Africa took the second at Trent Bridge by 340 runs -- will give the Proteas hope of bouncing back in Manchester.

"At no point have we made excuses -- we know Trent Bridge wasn't good enough, we've responded," said Root.

- Philander blow -

South Africa were hampered by key seamer Vernon Philander, the man-of-the-match at Trent Bridge, being off the field for much of this Test with a viral infection.

England's Toby Roland-Jones took a total of eight wickets in his debut Test against South Africa at The Oval

"It's obvious to say that someone like Vernon Philander missing out on that first innings was costly, so they got 100 runs too many in that innings, but you have to say the English team batted well," said South Africa captain Faf du Plessis.

South Africa resumed on Monday on 117 for four, with left-handed opener Elgar (72 not out) and Temba Bavuma (16 not out) having already helped the Proteas recover from 52 for four on Sunday.

Victory was all but beyond South Africa, with no side having made more to win in the fourth innings of a Test than the West Indies' 418 for seven against Australia at St John's in 2003.

Middlesex seamer Toby Roland-Jones, who had followed up his stunning Test debut bowling innings return of five for 57 by dismissing star batsman Hashim Amla cheaply for the second time in the match on Sunday, eventually ended a stand worth 108 runs.

His full-length delivery struck Bavuma on the pad as the diminutive batsman got only half-forward.

Aleem Dar ruled not out but England reviewed the experienced Pakistani umpire's decision and Bavuma had to go for 32 after a defiant innings of more than two hours.

There was no need for a review next ball as South Africa's 160 for five became 160 for six when Philander inexplicably padded up to Roland-Jones and was plumb lbw.

The 30-year-old Elgar, batting with a bruised finger, battled on for his eighth century in 38 Tests by lofting Ali over mid-off for a 16th four in 149 balls.

But Chris Morris, who survived Roland-Jones's hat-trick delivery, fell to the last ball before lunch when he edged Ali to man-of-the-match Stokes to leave the Proteas 205 for seven.

Elgar's more than five-and-half hours at the crease ended when he prodded forward to Ali and Stokes did the rest.
Members of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces move through destroyed buildings in Raqa on July 28, 2017

Food access in Syria's battle-torn Raqa is now at "a critical turning point," aid organisations said Monday, with markets shuttered and residents depending fully on their dwindling stockpiles.

Raqa has been gripped by fierce fighting for nearly two months and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have ousted the Islamic State group from half of the northern city.

An assessment released Monday by REACH, a network of humanitarian organisations operating around Raqa, painted an increasingly dire picture.

"While in previous weeks residents were able to purchase some food at markets, the majority of key informants reported that residents are now relying entirely on food stored from previous weeks," it said.

"Food markets, which were functioning sporadically three weeks ago, are generally no longer in operation."

Bread was consistently found in 15 of Raqa's 24 neighbourhoods several weeks ago. Now it is no longer regularly available anywhere in the city.

Food prices have also skyrocketed, forcing residents to eat smaller meals or skip them entirely, the report said.

Raqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), an activist collective publishing news from inside the city, has also warned of food problems.

"The bakeries are closed because there's no fuel or flour, and the shopowners have fled. Whatever flour is here is spoiled and full of worms," RBSS activist Husaam Eesa told AFP earlier this month.

"People can't store things in the refrigerators because there's no electricity. They can't cook because there's no water."

The United Nations estimates that between 20,000 and 50,000 people are still in Raqa, but REACH said the number could be as low as 10,000.

It estimated that the most densely populated district was Al-Hurriya in the north, with at most 5,000 residents, and that 14 out of the 24 neighbourhoods were abandoned or almost abandoned.

According to REACH, only one wing of Raqa's state hospital is still functioning but offers just basic first aid.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) echoed those concerns on Monday, saying wounded civilians were often trapped in the city for days or weeks without medical care.

"In Raqa city, if you don't die from airstrikes, you die by mortar fire; if not by mortars then by sniper shots; if not by snipers, then by an explosive device," a 41-year-old with shrapnel wounds to his chest told MSF after he fled Raqa.

"And if you get to live, you are besieged by hunger and thirst, as there is no food, no water, no electricity."
Crew on a Sri Lankan Airlines plane carrying 202 passengers have extinguished a mid-flight fire triggered by a mobile phone battery

Crew on a Sri Lankan Airlines plane carrying 202 passengers have extinguished a mid-flight fire triggered by a mobile phone battery in an overhead locker, the carrier said Monday.

The airline said a "major" incident was averted by the quick-thinking attendants on the flight Sunday from Kochi in India to Colombo.

Smoke was detected shortly after a meal service on the 70-minute flight, it said.

The smoke came from an overhead bin, the airline added, thanking its crew for "averting a major incident".

Crew suspected a lithium battery fire and put the luggage in water after failing to stop the smoke with a fire extinguisher, an airline statement said.

"The situation was successfully contained and the bag ceased to emit smoke," the statement said. "Upon investigation, the crew found a lithium battery pack and two mobile phones in the bag."

The airline did not give the make or model of the battery and the phones involved, but said an investigation was underway into the incident on the Airbus A330-200 aircraft.

No one was hurt.

In October, the carrier joined other airlines in banning Samsung Note 7 phones from its flights fearing spontaneous combustion.
Former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli arrives at the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York , July 31, 2017

A US jury was deliberating Monday on whether to convict Martin Shkreli, a former hedge fund manager and pharmaceutical executive once dubbed "The Most Hated Man in America" of securities fraud.

The 34-year-old, who is best known for jacking up the price of HIV drug Daraprim from $13.50 a pill to $750 overnight in 2015, risks up to 20 years in prison if found guilty following a month-long trial.

He stands accused of an eight-count indictment for allegedly stealing $11 million in stock from his first pharmaceutical company Retrophin to pay off investors who lost money in two of his hedge funds.

The 12-member jury began deliberations at a federal court in Brooklyn, New York on Monday, an official in the prosecutor's office told AFP. They were instructed by the judge on Friday after closing arguments from the defense and prosecution.

Government attorneys said the evidence against Shkreli was overwhelming, arguing that he told "lies upon lies" to investors for years in running a Ponzi-like scheme across multiple firms.

Shkreli declined to testify. His defense lawyer portrayed him as a troubled genius who camped out in his office in a sleeping bag for two years to build single handedly a successful pharmaceutical to ultimately repay wealthy investors.

Shkreli is charged with securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy for orchestrating three inter-related schemes to defraud investors and misappropriate assets.

While his hiking of Daraprim has nothing to do the criminal charges against him, his notoriety was such that the trial was initially delayed over difficulties in finding an impartial jury.
US President Donald Trump (R) shakes hands with newly sworn-in White House Chief of Staff John Kelly

John Kelly was sworn in Monday as the new White House chief of staff, as US President Donald Trump looked to the retired Marine general for leadership after a shake-up of his top staff.

Kelly, 67, is replacing Reince Priebus, who was forced out last week after the spectacular failure of Trump's bid to repeal Obamacare and as an ugly in-house feud spilled into the open.

"We just swore in General Kelly -- he will do a spectacular job, I have no doubt, as chief of staff," Trump said after the Oval Office ceremony.

"What he has done in terms of homeland security is record-shattering, if you look at the border, if you look at the tremendous results we've had," Trump said.

Trump accentuated the positive in an early morning tweet: "Highest Stock Market EVER, best economic numbers in years, unemployment lowest in 17 years, wages raising, border secure, S.C.: No WH chaos."

Republicans are hoping Kelly, who served as Homeland Security secretary for the first six months of Trump's presidency, will succeed in imposing discipline on a White House whipsawed by controversy.

The chief of staff traditionally manages the president's schedule and is the highest ranking White House employee, deciding who has access to the US leader.

But many question whether anyone can rein in the mercurial, Twitter-happy Trump, who has appeared to encourage the infighting among various factions vying for influence in his administration.

Under pressure from a widening probe into his campaign's contacts with Russia last year, Trump last week attacked his own attorney general for disloyalty, alarming his conservative base, before turning on Priebus.

In another tweet Monday, Trump hinted that Congress's own health insurance plan should be replaced for its failure to repeal Obamacare, his predecessor's signature reform of the US health care system.

"If Obamacare is hurting people & it is, why shouldn't it hurt the insurance companies and why should Congress not be paying what public pays?"

Since taking office six months ago, Trump's tumultuous administration has seen a succession of negative headlines and brewing scandals.

Fueling the fire, the billionaire Republican has parted with a number of top officials including his national security advisor, deputy national security advisor and FBI director, among others -- an unparalleled turnover for such a young presidency.
President and CEO of Discovery Communications David Zaslav, seen in a 2012 photo, has announced the television group is aquiring rival Scripps Networks for $14.6 billion

Discovery Communications announced Monday it was buying television rival Scripps Networks Interactive for $14.6 billion, a deal that will give it Food Network, Travel Channel and other channels in global markets.

The deal will unite the Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Eurosport and others operated by Maryland-based Discovery Communications with the operations of Scripps, which include HGTV, DIY Network and Great American Country.

Scripps also operates Poland-based TVN; UKTV, a joint venture with BBC Worldwide; and Asian Food Channel.

Discovery's president and chief executive David Zaslav said the deal will create a "more dynamic media company with a global content engine that can be fully optimized and monetized across our combined networks, products and services in every country around the world."

In the US, the combined firm will serve nearly 20 percent of ad-supported pay-TV audiences, according to a joint statement.

Scripps chairman and CEO Kenneth Lowe said the deal is "an unmatched opportunity for Scripps to grow its leading lifestyle brands across the world and on new and emerging channels including short-form, direct-to-consumer and streaming platforms."

The companies said they expect the deal to result in cost savings of some $350 million and open the door to global expansion.

The agreement to buy Scripps at $90 per share is a 34 percent premium above the July 18 closing price of the Tennessee-based company. It is expected to close in early 2018.

The cash-stock transaction will give Discovery shareholders 80 percent of the new company with the remaining 20 percent owned by holders of Scripps.
The United States is set to start shipping coal to Ukraine for the first time

The United States is set to start shipping coal to Ukraine for the first time under a "historic" deal announced Monday that should help the crisis-hit nation end reliance on Russia.

The agreement inked earlier this month by US firm Xcoal Energy & Resources and Ukraine's state-owned energy firm Centrenergo will see some 700,000 tonnes of coal delivered by the end of the year.

The move marks a sharp reversal for ex-Soviet Ukraine as it battles a Russian-backed insurgency, and a victory for US President Donald Trump, who championed the deal as he seeks to bolster the American coal sector.

US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross hailed the agreement to export thermal coal, saying it "has brought enormous benefit to our nation's coal communities," one of Trump's signature campaign promises.

In addition, the deal "will allow Ukraine to diversify its energy sources ahead of the coming winter, helping bolster a key strategic partner against regional pressures that seek to undermine US interests," Ross said in a statement.

Thermal coal, used in power plants and for heating, has a much lower market price than metallurgical coal.

Ukraine has been scrambling to acquire reserves of the fuel needed to keep thermal power plants running since cutting off deliveries from the separatist-controlled regions in the east of the country in March, even turning to Russia which it accuses of supporting the separatists.

The rebel regions had continued to supply the specific type of coal used for producing heating fuel to the rest of Ukraine even as the two sides waged a three-year war that has claimed more than 10,000 lives.

Speaking at the US Embassy in Kiev, Xcoal president Ernie Thrasher hailed the deal as "historic" and said the firm was "committed to serving Ukraine's needs."

Xcoal is based in Pennsylvania, a state that flipped and voted for Trump in the November presidential elections.

Centrenergo boss Oleg Kozemko said the contract between the two companies "was signed to fulfil an agreement" reached between Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko.

"The first shipment of 85,000 tonnes is expected in early September," said Kozemko, who insisted the supplies should help the country through the cold winter months.

US Energy Secretary Rick Perry said US coal will be "a secure and reliable energy source for Centrenergo and its electricity customers."

Ukrainian officials have previously called for a complete ban on coal imports from Russia, which is accused by both Kiev and the West of sending troops and arms to fuel the rebellion.

To supplement supplies, Ukraine has already turned to South Africa to source anthracite coal.

The United States and the EU have imposed sanctions on Russia, but efforts to make progress on a stalled 2015 peace deal have faltered as fighting has dragged on.

A fresh round of talks between the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France failed to produce a breakthrough earlier this month.
Imtiaz Cajee, nephew of Ahmed Timol, the anti-apartheid activist who died in police custody in 1971, said the daughter of the policeman guarding him helped them track him down to force him to give testimony at the inquest

A South African policeman present when an anti-apartheid operative plunged to his death more than 40 years ago insisted on Monday that the victim had jumped to his death.

But the judge hearing the inquest into the death of Ahmed Timol warned him that he could face prosecution based on the court's findings and his evidence.

Joao Rodrigues served in the security branch of the apartheid regime and was guarding Timol when he plunged to his death from a Johannesburg police station window in 1971.

Rodrigues only gave evidence to the court after his own daughter revealed his whereabouts to the family of Timol.

She gave him up after hearing about their campaign for a fresh probe into his death, Timol's family told AFP before Monday's hearing.

At the inquest, Rodrigues, now 78, insisted he had seen Timol jump through a window.

"It all happened in a split second," he told the court. "I wanted to stop him but the chair I was sitting on was in the way. I lost my balance and fell.

"I saw him opening the window and saw him diving through that window."

"I got up and saw a body lying on the ground below. I screamed 'Timol has jumped'," said Rodrigues.

"I had tried my best, I moved as fast as possible but I couldn't reach him before he was through the window."

Rodrigues said that he was pressured by senior colleagues to write an untrue statement following the incident claiming that he had first fought with Timol.

"I never touched Timol," said Rodrigues who resigned after the initial inquest.

"I realised there would be no future in the police or any promotions."

Timol, a 29-year-old communist volunteer, was arrested in Johannesburg in October 1971 and after five days in detention died after plummeting from the 10th-floor window.

The 1972 inquest found that Timol had taken his own life.

But that verdict is being re-examined after a campaign led by his family who have always insisted that he was pushed by police.

- 'Still looking for answers' -

Anti-apartheid campaigner Ahmed Timol plunged to his death from the 10th floor of Johannesburg Central Police Station in 1971

Until recently, Timol's family thought Joao Rodrigues was dead.

But following their high-profile campaign for information including court action, protests, exhibitions and a book on the incident, his daughter contacted them.

"She was inspired that we were still looking for answers," Timol's nephew Imtiaz Cajee told AFP Monday ahead of Rodrigues' evidence to the inquest.

"The last line of her email said she hoped we'd find closure. This is what we'd wanted for all these years. She's helping us out -- we were surprised."

Cajee's account of how Rodrigues was revealed to be alive and was located so that he could be ordered to attend Monday's proceedings in Pretoria was confirmed by a source close to the police.

Cajee said that the testimony of Rodrigues, who claimed to have been only a pay clerk passing through police headquarters at the time of the death, added a new dimension to the inquest.

"We never thought we'd get Rodrigues. He was the last person in the room with my uncle. We were lucky when this email came," he said.

Timol's brother Mohammad, who was in court, also called the email from Rodrigues' daughter a "very big development".

"He stands by his story that Timol jumped even though the pathologist said he bore signs of torture and a trajectory expert said there is no way he jumped."

Neville Els -- a former security branch officer who specialised in explosives and inspected Timol's yellow Ford Anglia car after his arrest -- also gave evidence on Monday.

Els, 82, repeatedly told North Gauteng High Court he could not recall details of cases.

The judge in the case, Billy Mothle, warned Els and Rodrigues that they could face prosecution based on the inquest's findings and their evidence to the court.

The inquest continues.
Britain's interior minister Amber Rudd is expected to meet with social media sites and web giants including YouTube, after she flies into San Francisco

Britain's interior minister Amber Rudd will meet with tech leaders in California's Silicon Valley this week to try and combat online content inciting extremism, the government said Monday.

Rudd is expected to meet with social media sites and web giants including YouTube, after she flies into San Francisco.

In the wake of deadly terror attacks in London and Manchester, British Prime Minister Theresa May announced plans to clamp down on extremist content.

"The threat we face is evolving, rather than disappearing, as Daesh (the Islamic State jihadist group) loses ground in Iraq and Syria," a senior government source said.

"The fight is moving from the battlefield to the internet."

After four militant attacks in Britain which killed 36 people this year, senior ministers have repeatedly demanded that the world's biggest internet companies do more to suppress extremist content and allow access to encrypted communications.

May wants internet companies to develop tools to automatically identify and remove harmful material, based on what it contains and who posted it.

She would also like to see companies block users who post extremist content, and alert authorities when they identify content that could be harmful.
Libya's UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, pictured on July 26, 2017, wants a referendum on a draft constitution

Libya's UN-backed prime minister Fayez al-Sarraj called on Monday for a referendum on a draft constitution approved over the weekend following years of wrangling in the war-torn country.

Libya had no constitution throughout the four-decade dictatorship of Moamer Kadhafi, who was overthrown and killed in a NATO-backed 2011 uprising.

Libyans elected a 60-member panel in 2014 to draft one, although the vote was marred by low turnout as public frustration mounted over the weak central government's failure to restore order in the wake of the uprising.

The panel finally voted through its draft constitution on Saturday, paving the way for a national referendum to enshrine it into law.

The document defines the structure of power, the status of minorities, the role of Islamic law in legislation and seeks to create institutions capable of restoring stability after years of violence.

The vote in the eastern city of Baida was disrupted by protesters, but the draft finally passed by 43 votes out of the 44 members present.

Sarraj on Monday "welcomed the vote by the Constituent Assembly on the draft Libyan Constitution", according to a statement on the unity government's Facebook page.

"Freedom of opinion and expression must be respected by all, along with the right of all the Libyans to choose their way of life without terror or threat," he said.

He called on political actors to "create a suitable climate" for holding a referendum on the constitution.

If passed, the draft text would make Libya a republic with a president and two houses of parliament. Tripoli would remain the capital, Islam would be the state religion and Islamic law a source of legislation.

Arabic would be the language of the state, but the text also recognises the languages of Libya's Berber, Toubou and Tuareg minorities.

The Assembly had 18 months to write the draft but was bogged down by political unrest.

Sarraj's Government of National Unity, the result of UN-backed talks, has struggled to impose its authority across the country and is not recognised by a rival government in Libya's east.

But last week Sarraj met Khalifa Haftar, a powerful eastern-based military commander who backs the rival administration, for French-backed talks aimed at resolving the main split in the country.

The two called for a ceasefire, peace talks, elections and "building the rule of law" in a country where dozens of armed groups have thrived in the power vacuum created by Kadhafi's ouster.
People watch as coverage of an ICBM missile test is displayed on a screen in a public square in Pyongyang on July 29, 2017

North Korea could field a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile able to strike America by next year, but Pyongyang must first overcome important technological hurdles, a US expert warned Monday.

North Korea has alarmed the international community by the pace and progress of its missile development program, and this month leader Kim Jong-Un conducted two tests of an ICBM.

The first of these trials, which Kim described as a gift to "American bastards," showed the rocket had the potential range to hit Alaska.

But a second rocket test last week flew even longer and could have reached as far as America's West Coast, experts say.

Michael Elleman, of the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the 38 North Analyst think tank, said it appears that the "re-entry vehicle" that would carry a warhead back into Earth's atmosphere from space had failed during the second test.

"Most likely it broke up into pieces," he said.

"Prior to completely breaking up, it appears to have been shedding some of the outer layers, and then it must have finally disintegrated."

Elleman's assessment was based on video shot in Japan's Hokkaido that shows an object in the night sky breaking up at an altitude of about six to 2.5 miles (four to 10 kilometers).

Without a proper protection during a re-entry stage, a missile's warhead could burn up.

Still, Elleman said Pyongyang is learning fast and that depending on North Korea's testing schedule, a deployment next year is possible.

Citing US officials, The Washington Post last week said the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) now believes North Korea will be able to deploy an ICBM capable of carrying a nuclear weapon as soon as next year -- two years earlier than the agency's previous estimate.

"I tend to believe the recent (DIA) assessment that, by late this year or sometime next year, they should have a system that's what I call 'reliable enough,'" Elleman said in a conference call with reporters.
CHICAGO (AP) - Illinois may have ended its historic budget impasse, but the Capitol finds itself stuck in political gridlock again, this time over school funding.

The Democratic-led Legislature and Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner are at odds over a proposal that would alter how Illinois distributes school money.

Legislators approved a required plan that re-writes the funding formula, but Rauner opposes it and says he'll send it back with changes. Democrats are unsure if they have the votes to override him and are using a procedural hold to keep it off Rauner's desk, at least until Monday.

FILE - In this July 26, 2017 file photo, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner speaks during a news conference on the first day of a special session on education funding at the state Capitol, in Springfield, Ill. A proposal to change how Illinois distributes school money is locked up in a fight between the Democrat-majority Legislature and Republican Gov. Rauner. (Justin Fowler/The State Journal-Register via AP File)

In the meantime, Rauner has convened a costly special session, but no one has budged in the first few days. With the bill's fate undetermined, it's unclear when, or if, schools will get funding.

Here's a look at the situation:

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING NOW?

The new budget requires the state to replace its long-criticized school funding formula with one that provides more adequate funding to districts based on the needs of their students. The Legislature approved a so-called "evidence-based" plan that's largely supported by experts.

However, Rauner objects to some money for Chicago Public Schools, including additional pension help. He has repeatedly said he'll use his amendatory veto powers but has declined to specify what exactly he'll do. There are legal limitations on what changes he can make.

Democrats say the plan is fair since Chicago is the only Illinois district that pays the employer portion of teacher pension costs. Republicans say the new formula means Chicago will continue to get money that it previously received as a block grant.

The first payment to schools is due Aug. 10, but without a new funding formula, they won't get anything.

WHAT'S THE HOLD UP?

Senate President John Cullerton says he hasn't sent Rauner the bill because he wants to address concerns in a private meeting. Rauner insists the bill should first be sent to him.

"I again urge the governor to show us any changes he wants and to sit down for rational discussions now," said Cullerton, who plans to send the bill Monday.

Rauner said he expects lawmakers to hash it out before it gets to him.

"If a reasonable compromise that is in the best interest of our children isn't reached, I will move forward with my amendatory veto on Monday, as planned," he said Friday.

There currently is no viable backup or new plan in the works.

WHAT HAPPENS ONCE THE BILL IS SENT TO THE GOVERNOR?

If Rauner issues an amendatory veto, the bill would return to the Senate. To overrule or accept his changes, legislators would need a three-fifths majority vote.

There are enough Democrats in the Senate for that to happen without Republican votes, but not in the House.

House Republican Leader Jim Durkin says his caucus stands firmly behind Rauner, unlike with the budget, when some GOP lawmakers voted with Democrats to override Rauner's vetoes and end the impasse.

"We are united with the governor," Durkin said after emerging from a rare closed-door meeting with all Republican lawmakers and Rauner on Thursday.

If there aren't enough votes to override the governor or accept the changes, the bill would die.

HOW DOES THE NEW FORMULA WORK?

Republicans and Democrats agree that way Illinois has distributed school funding for 20 years needs an overhaul, but they disagree about how to change it.

Illinois uses a complex formula that requires districts to rely heavily on local property tax revenues. That leaves a wide per-student spending gap between districts that have low and high property tax wealth.

The new calculation channels money to the neediest districts first after ensuring that no district receives less money than last school year. The plan also includes pension help for Chicago.

WHAT'S THE IMPACT ON SCHOOLS?

Even if there's no new formula in place, public schools across Illinois are largely expected to open on time. But it's unknown how long they could manage.

Some districts have reserves for a few months. Others, like Chicago Public Schools, have borrowed. A spokeswoman for the nation's third-largest district said schools will stay open no matter "what it takes."

In the central Illinois community of Canton, Superintendent Rolf Sivertsen says the 2,600-student district will rely on property tax revenues and be forced to tap into $8 million in reserves, which took years to save. But he says it'll only go so far toward covering the needed $24 million annual budget. Without a solution, his school district won't be able to stay open all year.

"There's a whole range of emotions: anger, frustration, and disappointment," said Sivertsen.

___

Associated Press writer Sara Burnett contributed to this report.

___

Follow Sophia Tareen on Twitter at https://twitter.com/sophiatareen . Sign up for the AP's weekly newsletter showcasing our best reporting from the Midwest and Texas at http://apne.ws/2u1RMfv .
OCEANSIDE, Calif. (AP) - Courtney Conlogue of Santa Ana held off Sage Erickson of Ojai to win the Paul Mitchell Neon Supergirl Pro surfing contest Sunday at the Oceanside Pier.

Conlogue won the contest for the second time. She also won in 2009

Conlogue pulled the event's highest single-scoring wave during the final, earning a near-perfect 9.77 with a massive air-reverse.

More than 120 of the top pros made this the largest women's surf contest in the world and the lone women's WSL qualifying event scheduled in the U.S. for the 2017 season.

Conlogue earned 6,000 points and $10,000. Erickson earned 4,550 points and $5,000.

Erickson eliminated defending Supergirl Pro champion Coco Ho in the quarterfinals.

Tatiana Weston-Webb and Caroline Marks tied for third.
SYDNEY (AP) - A legal battle over secret letters revealing what Queen Elizabeth II knew of her Australian representative's stunning plan to dismiss Australia's government in 1975 opened in federal court Monday, in a case that could finally solve a mystery behind the country's most dramatic political crisis.

Historian Jenny Hocking is asking the Federal Court to force the National Archives of Australia to release the letters between the British monarch, who is also Australia's constitutional head of state, and her former Australian representative, Governor-General Sir John Kerr. The Archives have classified the letters as "personal," meaning they might never be made public.

The letters would reveal what, if anything, the queen knew about Kerr's plan to dismiss Prime Minister Gough Whitlam's government in 1975 to resolve a deadlock in Parliament. It is the only time in Australian history that a democratically elected federal government was dismissed on the British monarch's authority. The dismissal stunned Australians and bolstered calls for the country to sever its colonial ties to Britain and become a republic.

Prof. Jenny Hocking arrives at the Federal Court in Sydney, Monday, July 31, 2017. Hocking, a Monash University historian, is asking the court to force the National Archives of Australia to release the letters between the British monarch, who is also Australia's constitutional head of state, and her former Australian representative, Governor-General Sir John Kerr. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Whitlam's own son, lawyer Antony Whitlam, is arguing the case on behalf of Hocking, and took on the case free of charge.

Hocking, a Whitlam biographer, argues that Australians have a right to know the details of their history, and that the letters written in the months leading up to the unprecedented dismissal are key to unraveling the truth.

"It needs to be settled once and for all," she said during a court recess. "There's a lot of uncertainty in this."

Antony Whitlam argued that the letters should be viewed as official, rather than personal, documents in part because the relationship between the governor-general and the Queen is an official one.

"It couldn't seriously be suggested that there was a personal relationship between the Queen and John Kerr," he told the court.

If the letters lose their "private" and "personal" classification, they are free to be made public 30 years after they were written like other government documents held in the Archives. That means they could be available immediately.

Lawyer Tom Howe, who is representing the Archives, told the court that there was a distinction between the institution of the governor-general and the governor-general himself. The governor-general himself, Howe argued, is not a national institution, and thus his personal records are owned by him and are not subject to the Archives Act. The Act allows for the release of official records.

Questions and conspiracy theories still swirl about the motivations surrounding the prime minister's dismissal. Kerr, who died in 1991, said the decision to oust Whitlam was his alone. But some Australians believe the Queen had a hand in the decision.

One of the most spectacular theories is that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency ordered Whitlam's dismissal because the agency feared his government would close a top-secret U.S. intelligence facility in the Australian Outback. Kerr rejected that theory as false.

Before 1975, few Australians realized the governor-general - whose role is largely ceremonial - had the power to fire a prime minister during a constitutional crisis.

That crisis began when the opposition party tried to force Whitlam to call general elections by blocking routine legislation in the Senate that allowed the government to pay public servant salaries and provide services. Whitlam refused to call an election, sparking a weeks-long constitutional impasse.

Kerr then fired Whitlam, called an election and appointed opposition leader Malcolm Fraser as prime minister. Weeks later, Fraser's coalition won an overwhelming election victory.

Critics of Kerr dubbed his firing of Whitlam an ambush, and said the governor-general should have warned the prime minister that it was coming. Kerr said he was worried Whitlam would have fired him first if he'd tipped him off ahead of time.

Monday's hearing was the only one scheduled in the case. Federal Court Justice John Griffiths is expected to issue a ruling at a later date.
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump bragged about a mission accomplished in veterans' health care that has not been achieved. He threatened to end health insurers' "bailouts" that actually help consumers. And he cited "tremendous" costs to taxpayers from providing health services to transgender troops without providing evidence of that expense.

Over a week dominated by internal strife in the administration, a potty-mouthed tirade from the new communications chief and the collapse of health care legislation, policy was aired on a number of fronts as well. Some of it was factually challenged or just plain wrong.

A look at a sampling of statements from last week.

Capitol Hill police officers David Bailey, left, and Crystal Griner listen as President Donald Trump speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, July 27, 2017, during a ceremony to recognize the first responders from the June 14 Congressional baseball shooting. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

TRUMP: "If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!" - tweet Saturday.

THE FACTS: If you think of a bailout as an infusion of government money to keep an industry in business, that's not what is going on here. He's talking about federal payments to insurance companies that are used to reduce deductibles and co-payments for consumers with modest incomes. Trump has only guaranteed those payments will continue through July.

Analysts have said that without the payments, more insurers might drop out of the system, limiting options for consumers and clearing the way for the insurers that stay to charge more for coverage.

Trump's threat to end "bailouts" to members of Congress is something of a mystery. What is clear is that he is upset they did not pass the Republican health care bill and wants them to think he will punish them if they don't get rid of Obamacare.

___

TRUMP: "We've begun to process seamlessly transferring veterans' medical records. Horrible situation. You couldn't get your medical records. And now it's so easy and so good. And the system is fixed, finally, after all of these years."

THE FACTS: That IT system is not fixed. The multiyear effort has barely begun. The costs are not even accounted for in Trump's proposed 2018 budget. The VA expects its outmoded scheduling system to remain for several more years.

___

TRUMP: "We have Choice. ... We have nearly doubled the number of veterans given approvals to see the doctor of their choice."

THE FACTS: He's exaggerating the progress on this front. Trump is referring to the VA's Choice program, which offers federally paid medical care outside the VA. Put in place after a 2014 wait-time scandal at the Phoenix VA, the program allows veterans to see outside doctors if they must wait more than 30 days for an appointment or drive more than 40 miles to a VA facility.

The department's approvals to veterans to use Choice have grown under Trump, but they haven't nearly doubled. VA Secretary David Shulkin wrote in a recent USA Today editorial that outside care programs for the first half of the year increased 26 percent over the same period last year. The program is also running out of money and will need an emergency replenishment by Congress to head off disruptions in care.

___

TRUMP: "We've published wait times at every VA facility. I used to go around and talk about the veterans and they'd stand on line for nine days, seven days, four days ... 15 days. People that could have been given a prescription and been better right away end up dying waiting on line. That's not happening anymore."

THE FACTS: Problems of delay or substandard care at some of the VA facilities have not disappeared. On access, the VA reported recently that veterans have been waiting more than 60 days for new appointments at about 30 VA facilities nationwide.

On quality of care, the VA's inspector general issued urgent action reports in April and May warning that patients at Washington's VA medical center were being put at unnecessary risk of harm due to bad inventory practices, like potentially dirty syringes and medical supply shortages.

___

TRUMP: "We've delivered same-day mental health services at every VA medical center."

THE FACTS: This may be the case, but it happened before Trump took office. By late 2016, the department's blog announced that the goal of providing same-day primary and mental-health care when medically necessary would be achieved at every VA medical center by year's end. Shulkin told Congress in late January the services already were fully in place.

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TRUMP: "Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail." - tweet Wednesday saying transgender troops would be banned from the armed forces.

THE FACTS: He's offered no substantiation for the assertion that transgender military members represent tremendous medical costs and disruption. A Rand Corp. study found otherwise.

It estimates that out of about 1.3 million active-duty military personnel, 2,450 are transgender. Only a subset would seek transition-related care, such as hormone therapy and sex-reassignment surgery. Based on private insurance data, the study estimates a minimal increase in costs from such care for the active-duty armed forces - no more than 0.13 percent, or $8.4 million annually.

As for disruption, members representing less than 0.1 percent of the total force would seek transition-related care that could affect their deployments, the study says.

The Pentagon says it is allowing transgender troops to remain in uniform and not changing its policy otherwise until Defense Secretary Jim Mattis receives an authoritative directive on what to do.

___

TRUMP: "Problem is that the acting head of the FBI & the person in charge of the Hillary investigation, Andrew McCabe, got $700,000 from H for wife!" - tweet Tuesday.

THE FACTS: That's wrong. McCabe's wife, Jill McCabe, did not get $700,000 in donations from Hillary Clinton ("H'' in the tweet) for a Virginia state Senate race in 2015. Jill McCabe got the money from Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe's political action committee and the Virginia Democratic Party. Those donations happened before the FBI says McCabe was promoted to deputy director of the FBI and took a supervisory role in the Clinton email investigation. He became acting director in May after Trump fired James Comey.

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TRUMP: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!" - tweet Tuesday.

THE FACTS: Trump is entitled to be dissatisfied with his attorney general but there's a backstory. If Sessions has been quiet about Clinton, it's because the election is over and he promised during his confirmation hearings in January to step aside from any investigation of her. As a Trump campaign loyalist last year, he was a critic of the Democratic nominee and said in January that his objectivity could be in question if he was involved in any Justice Department action concerning her email practices as secretary of state.

Trump is also upset that Sessions stepped aside from the investigation into possible collusion between Russian officials and the Trump campaign.

The effect of those recusals is to leave Trump potentially more exposed to Justice Department professionals who do not have political ties to him.

___

ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI, White House communications director: "In light of the leak of my financial disclosure info which is a felony, I will be contacting @FBI and the @JusticeDept" - tweet Wednesday, later deleted.

THE FACTS: His financial disclosure was not leaked - illegally or otherwise. It is a public record.

It was released after a public records request by a Politico reporter to the Export-Import Bank, where Scaramucci had been employed at a senior level since mid-June. The Associated Press subsequently obtained the same financial disclosure Thursday. A reporter filled out a publicly available form, turned it in at the bank's office and was emailed a copy of Scaramucci's financial disclosure a half hour later.

In a feuding White House, Scaramucci appeared to blame chief of staff Reince Priebus for leaking the information, by attaching Priebus' handle to the tweet. Scaramucci then denied he was blaming Priebus. Then The New Yorker published an interview with Scaramucci in which he went on a profane tirade against Priebus, calling him "paranoid schizophrenic" and pledging to get him and others fired. Scaramucci made vulgar comments about White House chief strategist Steve Bannon as well.

After all this, Trump announced he was replacing Priebus with Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly.

___

TRUMP: "Lebanon is on the front lines in the fight against ISIS, al-Qaeda and Hezbollah." - at news conference Tuesday with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

THE FACTS: Not so with Hezbollah. The group is a partner in the Lebanese government, with two Cabinet seats. The Lebanese government is indeed fighting against the Islamic State group and al-Qaida. But so is Hezbollah. Its fighters are leading a military offensive to wipe out Sunni extremists from IS and al-Qaida from areas along the Lebanese-Syrian border.

___

TRUMP: "We're going to be a net exporter of energy very shortly." - Youngstown, Ohio, speech Tuesday.

THE FACTS: Depends how you define very shortly. The U.S. Energy Information Agency said in January the country could become a net energy exporter by 2026 if trends remain. The White House said in its own report last month it could happen as soon as 2020 but did not substantiate the claim.

As a net exporter, the U.S. would still import oil, natural gas and other energy sources but send abroad more than it buys.

___

SCARAMUCCI: "The majority of the American people, certainly all the American people that voted for him, either don't care about the tweets, they find them funny. They find them refreshing. They don't overreact ... and micro-analyze them the way you guys do." - CNN on Wednesday.

THE FACTS: Actually, most Americans frown on Trump's Twitter conduct and most Republicans do not find his tweets refreshing, according to a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll. In all, two-thirds of people find his tweets "inappropriate" and "insulting" and about half said they're "dangerous," the poll found. One-third said they are effective.

Among Republicans, about 40 percent called his tweets inappropriate and insulting and about the same percentage called them refreshing. Fewer than 3 in 10 Republicans called his tweets dangerous and a majority said they're effective.

___

TRUMP: "As I said from the beginning, let ObamaCare implode, then deal." - tweet Friday.

THE FACTS: He didn't say that from the beginning. During the 2016 campaign, he promised to "immediately repeal and replace" Barack Obama's health care law, as he put it on one tweet from last year. He did not propose to let the law fail, then follow up with a new package.

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TRUMP: "Democrats, they win in Youngstown. But not this time. Right? They started to get a little nervous at the beginning of that evening when they said Youngstown seems to be going the other way. That hasn't happened in a lot of decades." - Youngstown speech.

THE FACTS: Trump errs in claiming that 2016 election victory in Mahoning County, where Youngstown is situated. He did a lot better in the county Mitt Romney did in 2012, but he still lost to Clinton by 3 percentage points - 50-47. Romney lost to Obama by 29 percentage points there in 2012.

___

Associated Press writers Emily Swanson, Eric Tucker, Matthew Daly, Lauran Neergaard and Stephen Ohlemacher in Washington and Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed to this report.

___

Find AP Fact Checks at http://apne.ws/2kbx8bd

In this photo taken July 26, 2017, President Donald Trump pauses while speaking in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

FILE - In this July 25, 2017 file photo, White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci speaks to members of the media at the White House in Washington. Scaramucci went after chief of staff Reince Priebus Thursday, July 27, 2017, as a suspected "leaker" within the West Wing in a pull-no-punches interview that laid bare the personality clashes and internal turmoil of Donald Trump's presidency. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
NEW YORK (AP) - Weary Republicans in Washington may be ready to move on from health care, but conservatives across the United States are warning the GOP-led Congress not to abandon its pledge to repeal the Obama-era health law - or risk a political nightmare in next year's elections.

The Senate's failure to pass repeal legislation has outraged the Republican base and triggered a new wave of fear. The stunning collapse has exposed a party so paralyzed by ideological division that it could not deliver on its top campaign pledge.

After devoting months to the debate and seven years to promising to kill the Affordable Care Act, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., simply said: "It's time to move on."

FILE - In this July 25, 2017 file photo, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., center, with Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, right, and Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., talks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington. Weary Republicans in Washington may be ready to move on, but conservatives across the country are warning that the GOP-led Congress cannot abandon its pledge to repeal "Obamacare" without triggering a political nightmare in next year's midterm elections. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

But that's simply not an option for a conservative base energized by its opposition to the health law. Local party leaders, activists and political operatives are predicting payback for Republicans lawmakers if they don't revive the fight.

"This is an epic fail for Republicans," said Tim Phillips, president of Americans For Prosperity, the political arm of the conservative Koch Brothers' network. "Their failure to keep their promise will hurt them. It will."

To the American Conservative Union, the three Republican senators who blocked the stripped-down repeal bill that failed in the wee hours Friday are "sellouts." A Trump-sanctioned super political action committee did not rule out running ads against uncooperative Republicans, which it did recently against Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev.

There are limited options for directly punishing the renegade senators - John McCain of Arizona, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine. None of the three is up for re-election next fall. McCain, whose dramatic "no" vote killed the bill, , was just re-elected to a 6-year term and has probably faced his last election, has brain cancer and is hardly moved by electoral threats.

Still, broad disillusionment among conservative voters could have an impact beyond just a few senators. Primary election challenges or a low turnout could mean trouble for all Republicans. Democrats need to flip 24 seats to take control of the House of Representatives, a shift that would dramatically re-shape the last two years of Trump's first term.

"If you look at competitive districts, swing districts, or districts where Republicans could face primary challenges, this is something that will be a potent electoral issue," Republican pollster Chris Wilson said of his party's health care failure. "I don't think this is something voters are going to forget."

One such challenger has emerged. Conservative activist Shak Hill, a former Air Force pilot, plans to run against second-term GOP Rep. Barbara Comstock in a competitive northern Virginia district.

Hill told The Associated Press that Comstock, who voted against a GOP House health care repeal bill in May, "has failed the moral test of her time in Congress."

The leaders of other groups, such as Women Vote Trump, have begun to court primary challengers to punish those members of Congress deemed insufficiently committed to President Donald Trump's agenda.

"I expect that we will get involved in primaries," said the group's co-founder, Amy Kremer. "You cannot continue to elect the same people over and over again and expect different results."

On Capitol Hill, some Republicans insist their health care overhaul could be saved in the short term. Yet party leaders - backed by outside groups - are signaling that they would probably move on to taxes. Republicans hoped the issue would bring some party unity, even as realists in Washington view the a tax overhaul - something that hasn't happened in more than 30 years - as one of the most complex legislative projects possible.

The Trump administration has become engulfed in internal drama over personnel and personalities. Trump on Friday ousted his chief of staff, Reince Priebus, and replacing him with Home Security Secretary John Kelly. The president did not appear to share conservatives' outrage about the Senate's vote, but repeated his promises to remake the health system.

"You can't have everything," Trump said, adding: "We'll get it done. We're going to get it."

Around the country, Republican voters continue to support efforts to repeal former President Barack Obama's health law, even if there is little agreement on an alternative.

A CNN poll released last week found that 83 percent of Republicans favor some form of repeal, while only 11 percent of Republicans want the party to abandon the repeal effort. Among all adults, 52 percent of voters favor some sort of repeal, with 34 percent favored repeal only if replacement could be enacted at the same time.

"The political pressure on something like this is real," said GOP strategist Mike Shields. "I don't think this is over."

Like others Republican operatives, Shields said the party's ability to enact the rest of Trump's agenda - taxes, infrastructure and the border wall - could help "mitigate how upset people will be" about health care.

"If this is part of a general trend," he said of the GOP's governing struggles, "I think that can be pretty disastrous for 2018."

Republicans will be held responsible for any negative economic fallout from the current health system's failure, said Paul Shumaker, a North Carolina Republican pollster and senior adviser to Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C.

As early as October, voters are likely to see increased costs as insurance companies notify people about their new rates. By next October, it will be too late to unlink Republicans from the problem, Shumaker said.

For now at least, many Trump supporters blame the Republican Party's problems on its leaders in Congress.

"They certainly didn't have their house in order," said Larry Wood of Waynesboro, Virginia, who voted for Trump only after supporting Ohio Gov. John Kasich in the 2016 GOP primary. The 69-year-old retired homebuilder says the failure falls at the feet of Congress.

Trump seems content to let the current system collapse.

"As I said from the beginning, let ObamaCare implode, then deal. Watch!" he said in a tweet.

___

Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa. Associated Press writer Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.

FILE - In this July 28, 2017 file photo, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska passes reporters as she leaves the Senate Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington. Weary Republicans in Washington may be ready to move on, but conservatives across the country are warning that the GOP-led Congress cannot abandon its pledge to repeal "Obamacare" without triggering a political nightmare in next year's midterm elections. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)
TALLINN, Estonia (AP) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Monday strongly pledged America's commitment to protecting NATO allies against attacks, including the Baltic states, which have anxiously watched a growing Russian military presence in the region.

"Under President Donald Trump, the United States stands firmly behind our Article 5 pledge of mutual defense - an attack on one of us is an attack on us all," Pence told reporters after meeting with the presidents of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the Estonian capital of Tallinn.

Mutual defense is a vital issue for the three small former Soviet states that border Russia, which were all occupied for nearly five decades by Soviet troops before regaining their independence in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, right, and Estonia's President Kersti Kaljulaid pose for photographers prior to their meeting at the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Monday, July 31, 2017. Pence is visiting Estonia to meet the leaders of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to underscore America's commitment to NATO and convey Washington's support to the Baltic nations. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

Noting that Trump "knows security is the foundation of our prosperity," Pence said America and the Baltic countries would seek new ways to increase prosperity by increasing two-way trade that currently amounts to $3.5 billion and increasing mutual investments.

Earlier, he met Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid, the president of Latvia, Raimonds Vejonis, and Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite.

Estonia currently holds the rotating presidency of the 28-nation European Union.

Pence is also scheduled to meet NATO troops from Britain, France and the United States that are stationed in Estonia. The alliance has deployed some 4,000 troops and military hardware in the three Baltic states and Poland to counter Russia's presence in the Baltic Sea region.

Pence is in Estonia on the first leg of a European tour that also takes him to Georgia and Montenegro, two other regions facing strong pressure from Russia.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, second from right, accompanied by the leaders of Baltic states, from left, Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid, Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis and Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, speaks during a news conference following their meeting in the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Monday, July 31, 2017. Pence is visiting Estonia to meet the leaders to underscore America's commitment to NATO and convey Washington's support to the Baltic nations. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence waves as he arrives at the airport in Tallinn, Estonia, Sunday, July 30, 2017. Pence arrived in Tallinn for a two day visit where he will meet Baltic States leaders to discuss regional security issues as well as economic and political topics. (AP Photo/ Mindaugas Kulbis)

A protocol official sets a flag of the United States and flags of the Baltic states, from left, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, before the arrival of U.S. Vice President Mike Pence at the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Monday, July 31, 2017. Pence is visiting Estonia to meet the leaders to underscore America's commitment to NATO and convey Washington's support to the Baltic nations. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a news conference following a meeting with Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid, and Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis at the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Monday, July 31, 2017. Pence is visiting Estonia to meet the leaders to underscore America's commitment to NATO and convey Washington's support to the Baltic nations. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, right, and Estonia's President Kersti Kaljulaid walk together prior to their meeting at the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Monday, July 31, 2017. Pence is visiting Estonia to meet the leaders of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to underscore America's commitment to NATO and convey Washington's support to the Baltic nations. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is greeted by Estonia's President Kersti Kaljulaid prior to their meeting at the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Monday, July 31, 2017. Pence is visiting Estonia to meet the leaders of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to underscore America's commitment to NATO and convey Washington's support to the Baltic nations. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, right, and Estonia's President Kersti Kaljulaid greet each other prior to their meeting at the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Monday, July 31, 2017. Pence is visiting Estonia to meet the leaders of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to underscore America's commitment to NATO and convey Washington's support to the Baltic nations. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a news conference following a meeting with Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid and Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis at the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Monday, July 31, 2017. Pence is visiting Estonia to meet the leaders to underscore America's commitment to NATO and convey Washington's support to the Baltic nations. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, right, and Estonia's President Kersti Kaljulaid walk together prior to their meeting at the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Monday, July 31, 2017. Pence is visiting Estonia to meet the leaders of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to underscore America's commitment to NATO and convey Washington's support to the Baltic nations. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, right, and Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite bow each other as they attend the official welcoming ceremony prior to their meeting at the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Monday, July 31, 2017. Pence is visiting Estonia to meet the leaders of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to underscore America's commitment to NATO and convey Washington's support to the Baltic nations. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, right, and Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite, second from right, bow each other as Estonia's President Kersti Kaljulaid, left, chat with Latvia's President Raimonds Vejonis during an official welcoming ceremony prior to their meeting at the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Monday, July 31, 2017. Pence is visiting Estonia to meet the leaders to underscore America's commitment to NATO and convey Washington's support to the Baltic nations. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, right, Estonia's President Kersti Kaljulaid, second from right, Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite, second from left, and Latvia's President Raimonds Vejonis speak prior to their meeting at the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Monday, July 31, 2017. Pence arrived in Tallinn for a two day visit to meet leaders of Baltic states to discuss regional security issues as well as economic and political topics. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

Estonia's Prime Minister Juri Ratas, left, welcomes U.S. Vice President Mike Pence prior to their meeting at the Government palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Sunday, July 30, 2017. Pence arrived in Tallinn for a two day visit where he will meet Baltic States leaders to discuss regional security issues as well as economic and political topics. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

Estonia's Prime Minister Juri Ratas, left, welcomes U.S. Vice President Mike Pence prior to their meeting at the Government palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Sunday, July 30, 2017. Pence arrived in Tallinn for a two day visit where he will meet Baltic States leaders to discuss regional security issues as well as economic and political topics. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, right, Estonia's President Kersti Kaljulaid, left, Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite, second from right, and Latvia's President Raimonds Vejonis pose for photographers prior to their meeting at the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Monday, July 31, 2017. Pence arrived in Tallinn for a two-day visit to meet leaders of Baltic States to discuss regional security issues as well as economic and political topics. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, right, and Estonia's Prime Minister Juri Ratas speak prior to their meeting at the Government palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Sunday, July 30, 2017. Pence arrived in Tallinn for a two day visit where he will meet Baltic States leaders to discuss regional security issues as well as economic and political topics. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, right, and Estonia's Prime Minister Juri Ratas speak prior to their meeting at the Stenbocki house in Tallinn, Estonia, Sunday, July 30, 2017. Pence arrived in Tallinn for a two day visit where he will meet Baltic States leaders to discuss regional security issues as well as economic and political topics. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
MADRID (AP) - Cristiano Ronaldo told a Spanish judge Monday that he has "never tried to avoid taxes."

The Real Madrid forward, who is from Portugal, was questioned to determine whether he committed tax fraud worth almost 15 million euros ($17.5 million). Ronaldo spent more than 90 minutes answering the questions of investigating judge Monica Gomez.

According to a statement released by his public relations firm, the 32-year-old Ronaldo told the judge: "I have never hidden anything, and never tried to avoid taxes."

Journalists wait outside a court on the outskirts of Madrid, Monday, July 31, 2017. Real's soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo appeared at a Spanish court to answer questions as part of an investigation to determine whether he committed tax fraud. Ronaldo arrived and left through a side door at Pozuelo de Alarcon Court No. 1 in Madrid on Monday. The session with the investigating judge is closed to the public. (AP Photo/Paul White)

Judge Gomez took Ronaldo's testimony as part of an investigation to determine if there are grounds to charge him. The session at Pozuelo de Alarcon Court No. 1 on the outskirts of Madrid was closed to the public because it is part of an ongoing investigation.

In June, a state prosecutor accused Ronaldo of four counts of tax fraud from 2011-14 worth 14.7 million euros ($16.5 million). The prosecutor accused the Portugal forward of having used shell companies outside Spain to hide income made from image rights. The accusation does not involve his salary from Real Madrid.

Ronaldo denies any wrongdoing.

"Spain's Tax Office knows all the details about my sources of income because we have reported them," Ronaldo told the judge, according to his statement. "I always file my tax returns because I think that we should all file and pay our taxes.

"Those who know me know that I tell my consultants that they must have everything in order and paid up to date because I don't want trouble."

Both before and after his court appearance, Ronaldo used an alternative entrance to avoid a large swarm of more than a hundred journalists from Spain and aboard gathered near the main door to the court.

Court officials had said that either Ronaldo or his lawyer would speak to the media after he saw the judge, but instead the player's spokesman, Inaki Torres, stepped up to the temporary podium in front of the courthouse to announce that Ronaldo "was on his way home."

The prosecutor said in June that Ronaldo used what was deemed a shell company in the Virgin Islands to "create a screen in order to hide his total income from Spain's Tax Office."

The prosecutor accused Ronaldo of declaring 11.5 million euros ($12.8 million) earned from 2011-14 in a tax return filed in 2014, when the prosecutor said Ronaldo's real income during that period was almost 43 million euros ($48 million). It added that Ronaldo falsely claimed the income as coming from real estate, which "greatly" reduced his tax rate.

The prosecutor also said that Ronaldo did not declare income of 28.4 million euros ($31.8 million) made from the cession of image rights from 2015-20 to another company located in Spain.

Ronaldo said that he told judge Gomez on Monday that that his financial planning hadn't changed since 2004, when he was at Manchester United. He said he kept the same arrangement when he joined Madrid in 2009.

"When I signed for Real Madrid I didn't create a special business structure to handle my image rights, I kept the same one that had been managing them when I was in England," Ronaldo said, according to the statement. "It was checked out by the English Tax Office and was found legal and legitimate."

A four-time Ballon d'Or winner, Ronaldo is one of Europe's best soccer players. He has led Madrid to back-to-back Champions League titles and helped Portugal to win last year's European Championship.

Last month, Spain's state prosecutor also accused former Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho of defrauding 3.3 million euros ($3.7 million) in 2011 and 2012 from income made from image rights. Mourinho, now coach of Manchester United, has yet to be summoned for questioning and through his agent has denied any wrongdoing.

The probes into Ronaldo's and Mourinho's financial arrangements are the most recent high-profile tax cases involving soccer's top names in Spain.

Last year, Barcelona forward Lionel Messi and his father, Jorge Horacio Messi, were found guilty on three counts of defrauding tax authorities of 4.1 million euros ($4.6 million) from income made from image rights. They have both paid additional fines in exchange for their 21-month jail sentences to be suspended.

Both former Real Madrid forward Angel Di Maria and Barcelona defender Javier Mascherano have admitted to tax fraud in exchange for lighter treatment from the law, and prosecutors have also opened tax fraud investigations into former Atletico Madrid striker Radamel Falcao and former Real Madrid defender Fabio Coentrao.

In Spain, a judge can suspend sentences of less than two years for first-time offenders.

___

Wilson reported from Barcelona.
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) - Twelve Ugandan soldiers were killed and seven others injured in an ambush by al-Shabab Islamic extremists in southern Somalia on Sunday, Uganda's military said Monday.

The troops are deployed to Somalia as peacekeepers under the banner of the African Union.

The Ugandans were conducting a joint patrol with Somali forces when they were attacked in Lower Shabelle region, according to Ugandan authorities.

There was no word on any casualties among the Somali forces.

Al-Shabab claimed it killed 39 soldiers. It was not possible to verify the claim; the group frequently inflates death tolls from attacks carried out by its fighters.

Sunday's attack came hours after a car bomb in Somalia's capital killed at least five people, most of them civilians, shattering a month of relative calm in Mogadishu.

The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab is the deadliest Islamic extremist group in Africa. It maintains a presence largely in Somalia's rural areas and continues to pose major challenges to the allied Somali and African Union forces, even as the AU force plans to pull out of Somalia in the coming years and leave security to Somali troops.

Hundreds of African Union soldiers have been killed in recent years as al-Shabab targets their military bases as well.

Sunday's ambush was one of the deadliest attacks on Ugandan forces in recent years. In September 2015 al-Shabab killed at least 19 Ugandan soldiers at a military base in Janale, southwest of Mogadishu.

Al-Shabab is opposed to the presence of foreign troops inside Somalia and has mounted deadly attacks in the capitals of Uganda and Kenya, which also has troops in Somalia.
WHITNEY POINT, N.Y. (AP) - Authorities in upstate New York have captured an alligator that got loose.

According to Animal Adventure Park, New York state Department of Environmental Conservation crews captured the renegade reptile Saturday behind the fairgrounds in rural Whitney Point. Sightings of the alligator were first reported July 22.

Officials say the alligator is 3 feet, 3 inches long. They believe it's someone's pet.

The alligator will be quarantined and then permanently placed in an exhibit at Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville. The privately owned zoo, just east of Binghamton, is home to April the giraffe, whose pregnancy and birthing of a male calf was an internet sensation this year.

Staffers at Animal Adventure say they are looking forward to educating visitors about the alligator.
RODANTHE, N.C. (AP) - Gov. Roy Cooper plans to visit the bridge where three transmission cables were damaged, causing the evacuation of tourists from two islands on North Carolina's Outer Banks.

A news release from the governor's office says Cooper will visit the Bonner Bridge on Monday. It spans the Oregon Inlet. Three cables were damaged Thursday by a construction company building a new bridge parallel to the current one.

After the stop, Cooper will visit businesses in Rodanthe, south of the bridge on Hatteras Island.

The loss of all power to Hatteras and Ocracoke islands caused authorities to order tourists to evacuate. It's not known when they'll be able to return.

Electric cooperatives are using generators on the two islands after PCL Construction accidentally drove a steel casing into the underground transmission cable.
LONDON (AP) - Britain's High Court on Monday blocked a bid by Saddam Hussein's former chief-of-staff to prosecute former Prime Minister Tony Blair for invading Iraq in 2003.

Former Gen. Abdulwaheed Shannan Al Rabbat also sought to prosecute Blair's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Attorney General Peter Goldsmith because of their involvement in the decision.

The case centered on the concept that a "crime of aggression" would be recognized under English law, as it is under international law. Al Rabbat's lawyers argued that this would have made it possible for the British leaders to be held personally accountable - and subject to criminal trials and even prison - if convicted for their actions.

It is not the first time the British leadership has been called to account for the war in which the United States and Britain led a coalition to oust Saddam on the grounds that he held weapons of mass destruction. Other court action failed.

However, an inquiry into the Iraq war, led by John Chilcot, concluded that "the invasion was not prompted by the aggression of another country."

The inquiry's conclusion prompted Al Rabat's lawyers to question earlier court decisions and to ask the Supreme Court to review the matter. But the judges rejected that bid, saying it was "for Parliament and Parliament alone" to decide whether "to make such conduct criminal under domestic law."

Al Rabbat's lawyer, Imran Khan, said Monday that the judgment "sets a dangerous precedent in times of global insecurity" adding that "any leader can act as he/she chooses knowing that whatever action they take, it can be taken with complete impunity."

Khan called on Parliament to enact a law making accountability clear in the future.
A Romanian criminal gang are suspected of stealing iPhones worth 500,000 euros from a delivery truck in the Netherlands - while the vehicle was still in motion.

The dangerous heist was carried out in Eindhoven, in the southern Netherlands, last week, with the driver arriving at his destination shocked to find out he had been robbed.

The loot, worth 446,700, and the vehicle used by the gang was later tracked down by Dutch police, and five men aged from 33 to 43 are now in police custody, a spokesman said Monday.

Speed robbery: Dutch police arrested five Romanian men suspected of stealing iPhones worth 500,000 euros in a dangerous heist on a moving truck

The men allegedly stole the iPhones in the late-night raid a week ago by driving a modified van so close to the delivery truck that one of the suspects was able to clamber across the van's hood and break into the truck while it drove along a road, police spokesman Ed Kraszewski said.

He said the suspect then passed boxes of iPhones back to the van through a hole cut in its roof.

Kraszewski said police have long been investigating thefts from trucks but remained skeptical that such a heist could succeed. Not anymore.

'The truck was taking its freight from A-to-B and did not stop. Even so, (the phones) were gone,' he said.

'So it must have happened that way. And now we finally have the evidence, with the van and the loot.'

The men were arrested Saturday at a holiday park in the central Netherlands, where police also recovered iPhones and the van they believe was used in the theft.

The suspects were to appear Tuesday before an investigating judge.

Such raids have been reported elsewhere in Europe, almost always targeting high-end smartphones, but there have been no arrests in the other cases, Kraszewski said.

Dutch police plan to send fingerprints of the suspects to European colleagues to check for matches in previous thefts.
LONDON (AP) - Free movement to Britain from European Union countries will end when the U.K. leaves the bloc in March 2019, Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesman said Monday. But he acknowledged it's not yet certain what migration arrangements will look like after that.

Spokesman James Slack said that "other elements of the post-Brexit immigration system will be brought forward in due course."

"It would be wrong to speculate on what these might look like, or to suggest that free movement will continue as it is now," he said.

FILE- In this Friday, June 23, 2017 file photo British Prime Minister Theresa May prepares to address a media conference at an EU summit in Brussels. May's office said on Monday, July 31, 2017 that free movement to Britain from European Union countries will end when the U.K. leaves the bloc in March 2019, but it's uncertain what migration arrangements will look like after that. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, file)

May's government is divided on how to implement Brexit, and ministers have been sending mixed signals about the U.K.'s future relationship with the bloc.

The government says that Britain will leave the bloc's single market and customs union, and end free movement from EU countries. But officials also say the changes, which have huge economic implications, won't happen overnight.

Last week Treasury chief Philip Hammond said Britain will abide by some EU rules for up to three years post-2019, suggesting some form of continued free movement to help businesses avoid a "cliff edge."

Hammond is one of several ministers who favor a compromise "soft Brexit" to ease the economic shock of leaving the EU.

But Trade Secretary Liam Fox, who is strongly pro-Brexit, said the Cabinet has not agreed a position on immigration policy.

"I have not been involved in any discussion on that," Fox told the Sunday Times.
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - The U.S. military said Monday it carried out a drone strike in Somalia that killed a member of the al-Shabab extremist group, while Somalia's government said it believes the strike killed a high-level al-Shabab commander responsible for several deadly bombings in the capital.

A U.S. Africa Command statement said the airstrike occurred Saturday near Tortoroow, an al-Shabab stronghold in Lower Shabelle region in southern Somalia.

President Donald Trump earlier this year approved expanded military operations against al-Shabab, including more aggressive airstrikes and considering parts of southern Somalia areas of active hostilities.

The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab is the deadliest Islamic extremist group in Africa.

The U.S. statement said the airstrike was carried out in coordination with regional partners "as a direct response to al-Shabab actions, including recent attacks on Somali forces." The statement said no civilians were killed.

A statement by Somalia's information ministry said the government believes that Ali Mohamed Hussein died in the operation coordinated with "international partners."

Ali had served as the extremist group's shadow governor for the capital, Mogadishu, and had been one of the group's most outspoken officials.

"This individual was part of an al-Shabab network responsible for planning and executing several bombings and assassinations that resulted in the deplorable death of numerous innocent civilians in Mogadishu," the ministry statement said.

A Somali intelligence official said at least one missile struck a car in which the al-Shabab leader was travelling. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

The U.S. military in early July said it carried out an airstrike against al-Shabab in Somalia and was assessing the results. The airstrike followed one in June that the U.S. said killed eight extremists at a rebel command and logistics camp in the south.

The Somalia-based al-Shabab earlier this month mocked Trump for the first time in a video that called him a "brainless billionaire." The extremist group also has vowed to step up attacks in Somalia after the president elected in February declared a new offensive against al-Shabab, which continues to carry out deadly attacks in Mogadishu.

The extremist group also has carried out deadly attacks in neighboring countries, notably Kenya, calling it retribution for sending troops to Somalia to fight al-Shabab.
ATHENS, Ga. (AP) - Musicians are offering a reward for information about a burglary at a popular music venue in Georgia.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports Athens-Clarke County police spokesman Sgt. Jim Schultz says the 40 Watt Club in Athens was burglarized early Friday. A talent buyer for the club, Velena Vego, says more than $20,000 worth of house equipment was stolen. Vego says the electronic equipment has the club's name engraved on it.

The nearly 40-year-old club has changed locations several times, and has been described by Rolling Stone as "legendary."

On Friday, David Lowery of Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker tweeted he would offer $5,000 for an arrest and conviction. Mike Mills of R.E.M. offered another $5,000, and Jason Isbell followed suit Saturday, bringing the pot to $15,000.

___

Information from: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, http://www.ajc.com
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - Archaeologists at Cambodia's Angkor Wat temple complex studying the site of a hospital from eight to nine centuries ago say they have found a large statue in their excavations.

The government agency that oversees the complex, the Apsara Authority, said on its website that the 1.9-meter (6-foot, 3-inch) tall, 58-centimeter (23-inch) wide statue was discovered Sunday by its team, working with experts from Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. It is one of the largest statues from the era to be unearthed in recent years.

The agency said the statue, believed to be from the 12th or 13 century, is thought to have been a symbolic guardian of the entrance of the hospital. It was found buried 40 centimeters (16 inches) under the ground, and will be put on public exhibition in the museum in the northwestern province of Siem Reap, where Angkor is located.

FILE - In this March 20, 2015, file photo, the sun rises behind Angkor Wat on the northern outskirts of Siem Reap province, some 230 kilometers (143 miles) northwest of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Archaeologists at Cambodia's Angkor Wat temple complex studying the site of a hospital from eight to nine centuries ago said they found a large statue in their excavations Sunday, July 30, 2017. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith, File)

In late 2011, archaeologists at the temple complex unearthed the two largest Buddhist statues found there in eight decades.

Angkor was the capital of the Khmer Empire, which flourished from approximately the 9th to 15th centuries. Large numbers of architectural and religious artifacts have been looted from there and sold overseas, while others were buried for safekeeping during a civil war in the 1970s.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans signed more contracts to buy homes in June, snapping a three-month decline in pending sales.

The National Association of Realtors said Monday that its pending home sales index rose 1.5 percent in June to 110.2. The gain still puts the pace of contract signings below its March level. The index has increased just 0.5 percent over the past 12 months.

The U.S. housing market is increasingly confronted with a shortage of properties listed for sale. In the aftermath of the housing bubble bursting a decade ago, there are multiple reasons for the lack of homes available to buy. Investors that bought foreclosed houses during the downturn are now renting them at a tidy profit, while many existing homeowners say they cannot afford the down payment to sell their house and buy a more expensive property.

As a consequence, prices are climbing faster than wages while number of homes listed for sale has plunged. All of this limits just how much sales volumes can advance.

There were 1.96 million homes for sale in June, a 7.1 percent decline from a year ago.

The median sales price has climbed 6.5 percent over the past year to $263,800, a rate more than double the increase in hourly average earnings.

Pending sales contracts are a barometer of future purchases. A sale is typically completed a month or two after a contract is signed. This should signal a slight increase in home sales in the next few months. The Realtors reported last week that completed sales fell 1.8 percent in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.52 million.
BERLIN (AP) - The Palestinian man who fatally stabbed one person and wounded six others at a Hamburg supermarket appears to have radicalized himself and says he decided to commit an attack in hopes of dying a "martyr," German prosecutors said Monday.

Federal prosecutors, who handle terrorism cases in Germany, said they were taking over the investigation of the suspect, identified only as Ahmad A. in line with German privacy rules.

They said there's no evidence that he carried out Friday's attack as a member of the Islamic State group or any other terror organization, or that he was in contact with or under the influence of a member of any terror group at the time. There's also no evidence that other people were involved.

In this July 30, 2017 photo a woman puts down flowers in front of a supermarket in Hamburg, Germany. German prosecutors say the Palestinian man who fatally stabbed one person and wounded six others at the Hamburg supermarket appears to be a self-radicalized Islamic extremist who hoped to die as a "martyr." Federal prosecutors, who handle terrorism cases in Germany, said Monday, July 31, 2017 that they were taking over the investigation of the suspect, identified only as Ahmad A. (Bodo Marks/dpa via AP)

Prosecutors said that the investigation has pointed to a likely Islamic radical motive, and indicates that Ahmad A. radicalized himself.

He has told investigators that he had been considering Islamic radical issues for some time and decided two days before the attack to live "a corresponding way of life," they added.

They said "on the day of the act itself, he consequently decided to commit an attack, linked with the hope of dying as a martyr."

The suspect carried out the attack with a kitchen knife he grabbed from a supermarket shelf. He was then overwhelmed by passers-by and arrested, and is in custody on suspicion of murder and five counts of attempted murder.

Ahmad A., a 26-year-old who was born in the United Arab Emirates, had had his asylum application rejected and was cooperating with authorities in efforts to secure new identity papers so that he could be deported.

Officials have said that he was known to authorities as a suspected Islamic radical but not as a "jihadist." They also considered him psychologically unstable but didn't conclude that he posed any immediate danger.

Toufiq Arab stands inside a supermarket in Hamburg, Germany,Monday July 31, 2017. German prosecutors say the Palestinian man who fatally stabbed one person and wounded six others at a Hamburg supermarket appears to be a self-radicalized Islamic extremist who hoped to die as a "martyr." Federal prosecutors, who handle terrorism cases in Germany, said Monday that they were taking over the investigation of the suspect, identified only as Ahmad A. According to German dpa news agency, Toufiq Arab and other pedestrians stopped the attacker. ( Daniel Reinhardt/dpa via AP)
LONDON (AP) - A judge sentenced a former Royal Marine to 18 years in prison Monday for a series of terrorism-related offenses.

Thirty-one-year-old Ciaran Maxwell lived a double life as a member of the military and as a bombmaker for dissident Irish republicans. He pleaded guilty to preparation of terrorist acts between January 2011 and August 2016, possessing images of bank cards for fraud and possessing marijuana.

He stashed anti-personnel mines, mortars and 14 pipe bombs in 43 purpose-built hideouts in Northern Ireland and England. Judge Nigel Sweeney said there was no doubt that the ultimate intent of those planting the devices was to kill.

"You were strongly committed to the cause," Sweeney said.

Maxwell's lawyer, Paul Hynes, told the court his client was not ideologically driven and would not have used violence for a cause.

Maxwell, who had been brought up as a Roman Catholic in a largely Protestant town, claimed he faked his support for the dissidents' cause because he believed old connections wished "serious ill" on him and his extended family in Northern Ireland and England.
TOMS RIVER, N.J. (AP) - Authorities have recovered the body of a Slovakian woman who disappeared while swimming at the Jersey shore.

Ocean County Prosecutor's Office spokesman Al Della Fave (fahv) says two off-duty lifeguards found the body of 24-year-old Zuzana Oravcova in the surf line in Toms River late Sunday.

Oravcova disappeared early Sunday while swimming off Point Pleasant Beach with 23-year-old Thomas Kadlec, also of Slovakia. Authorities said both began struggling in the rough surf. Kadlec was able to return to shore, but Oravcova was swept away.

Oravcova had been working at a boardwalk candy store for the summer.

The National Weather Service had issued a warning about dangerous rip currents along the Jersey shore over the weekend. Many towns had banned swimming at their beaches.

An autopsy is pending.
JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) - A man who was arrested in a truck filled with guns during an attempt to rescue a teenager he thought was in drug trouble has pleaded guilty to weapons charges but says he isn't going to let that stop him from trying to save people from succumbing to the ravages of opioid addiction.

John Cramsey, who was spurred to action last year by his daughter's death from a drug overdose, said Monday that saving others has become his calling. The 52-year-old gun range owner from East Greenville, Pennsylvania, was arrested with two other people last year during their aborted attempt to rescue a teenager in New York. He pleaded guilty to the weapons charges on Monday.

Standing on the courthouse steps, he sounded like a man who had just begun to fight. He described the scourge of heroin and opioid addiction as worse than an epidemic.

Defense attorney James Lisa, right, talks with the press after his client, John Cramsey left, pleaded guilty to two weapon possession charges in state Superior Court on Monday, July 31, 2017, in Jersey City, N.J. Cramsey, arrested on the New Jersey side of the Holland Tunnel in June 2016 with a vehicle full of weapons on a self-described mission to rescue a teenager from a drug den, pleaded guilty Monday to weapons charges, but said he would continue his battle against the scourge of drug addiction.(Andrew Maclean/NJ Advance Media via AP)

"This is the plague," he said. "An epidemic, you'll find a cure for eventually. A plague kills everything in its path."

Cramsey had channeled his grief over his daughter's death into a mission to save others from the same fate. He started a group for concerned parents and recovering addicts and began making trips to homes and hotel rooms to pull people out of dangerous situations and find them treatment, people involved in the efforts have said.

Few might have known about Cramsey outside Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley had he, Dean Smith and Kimberly Arendt not been stopped on June 21, 2016, near the Holland Tunnel in Jersey City.

Smith, a videographer and graphic designer, was driving Cramsey's neon-painted truck, which police said was pulled over because it had a crack in its windshield and objects hanging from a rearview mirror.

The defendants contended they were stopped because of the truck's Second Amendment-themed decorations, and they sought unsuccessfully in court to have the search invalidated.

Arendt was a former camp counselor of 18-year-old Jenea Patterson, who reached out after a girl she was with died of a drug overdose. Patterson later denied she was seeking help, but she died in January of a drug overdose.

Cramsey said he went to her funeral. He said he keeps asking himself, "What if, what if I'd gotten to her?'"

"I would have carried her out if I'd had the chance," he said. "If I'd had to leave my truck there and run to get that girl, I would have."

Police recovered a semi-automatic, military-style rifle, a shotgun, five handguns and tactical gear. All three defendants faced multiple weapons charges under New Jersey's gun laws, which are stricter than Pennsylvania's and require guns transported in cars to be kept locked and unloaded in a trunk or secure container.

Cramsey pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a gun and possession for an unlawful purpose. Each count carries a maximum sentence of five years with no parole for a year, but under the plea deal his attorney can apply for a probationary sentence that wouldn't include prison.

Smith, of Whitehall, Pennsylvania, and Arendt, of Lehighton, Pennsylvania, were accepted into a pretrial intervention program. The probationary program, if completed, can lead to charges being dropped. Cramsey was denied entry into the program, and attorney James Lisa said he's appealing.

Cramsey's methods aren't universally praised. In an interview with investigators played in court in June, Smith characterized Cramsey as "a danger to himself and others."

Cramsey said he receives calls from people "all over the world" and will continue his mission.

___

Contact Porter at https://www.twitter.com/DavidPorter_AP

John Cramsey talks to the media after he pleaded guilty to two weapon possession charges in state Superior Court Monday, July 31, 2017, in Jersey City, N.J. Cramsey, arrested on the New Jersey side of the Holland Tunnel in June 2016 with a vehicle full of weapons on a self-described mission to rescue a teenager from a drug den, pleaded guilty Monday to weapons charges, but said he would continue his battle against the scourge of drug addiction. (Andrew Maclean/NJ Advance Media via AP)

John Cramsey, center back, talks to a friend in state Superior Court Monday, July 31, 2017, in Jersey City, N.J. Cramsey, of East Greenville, NJ., arrested on the New Jersey side of the Holland Tunnel in June 2016 with a vehicle full of weapons on a self-described mission to rescue a teenager from a drug den, pleaded guilty Monday to weapons charges, but said he would continue his battle against the scourge of drug addiction. (Andrew Maclean/NJ Advance Media via AP, Pool)

Superior Court Judge Mitzy Galis-Menendez gives instructions to the attorneys in the Holland Tunnel gun case Monday, July 31, 2017, in Jersey City, N.J. John Cramsey, of East Greenville, NJ., arrested on the New Jersey side of the Holland Tunnel in June 2016 with a vehicle full of weapons on a self-described mission to rescue a teenager from a drug den, pleaded guilty Monday to weapons charges, but said he would continue his battle against the scourge of drug addiction. (Andrew Maclean/NJ Advance Media via AP, Pool)
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - A federal judge has struck down Alabama's one-of-a-kind law that enabled judges to put minors seeking abortions through a trial-like proceeding in which the fetus could get a lawyer and prosecutors could object to the pregnant girl's wishes.

Alabama legislators in 2014 changed the state's process for girls who can't or won't get their parents' permission for an abortion to obtain permission from a court instead. The new law empowered the judge to appoint a guardian ad litem "for the interests of the unborn child" and invited the local district attorney to call witnesses and question the girl to determine whether she's mature enough to decide.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Russ Walker sided Friday with the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama , writing that the law unconstitutionally and impermissibly imposes "an undue burden on a minor in Alabama who seeks an abortion through a judicial bypass," and violates the girl's confidentiality by potentially bringing other people from her life into the process.

Both the judge and the ACLU said they were aware of no other state with such a law.

Every state requiring parental consent for abortions involving minors must also have a "judicial bypass" procedure so that girls can get a judge's approval in a way that is effective, confidential, and expeditious, the ACLU said.

The state had argued that the law was intended to allow a "meaningful" inquiry into the minor's maturity and the process was still a "confidential, and expeditious option for a teenager who seeks an abortion without parental consent."

The civil rights organization said it had the opposite effect, by enabling lawyers for the state or the fetus to subpoena the minor's teacher, neighbor, relative or boyfriend to testify she's too immature to choose an abortion, or that continuing the pregnancy would be in her best interest.

"The problem with all that is, the very teens who find it necessary to seek judicial bypass are often vulnerable and could be subject to physical and mental abuse if it became known they are pregnant and seeking an abortion," said Alabama ACLU's executive director, Randall Marshall.

The ACLU filed the lawsuit in 2014 in federal court in Montgomery on behalf of Reproductive Health Services, a Montgomery abortion clinic.

It is unclear how many such proceedings have happened since the law was enacted. Walker noted that a district attorney this summer opposed the abortion request of a 12-year-old girl who had been raped by an adult relative, and said it was the first case she was aware of that was decided under the new law.

The girl was 13 weeks pregnant and had just completed fifth grade when she went before a family court judge, according to a court record. The judge approved the abortion on June 27, and the district attorney appealed the same day, arguing that the girl was too immature to make an informed decision. The Alabama Court of Civil Appeals on July 12 ruled in favor of the girl.

Walker noted in a footnote of the ruling that, under the law, a girl seeking court permission for an abortion in Alabama could face both a lawyer for the fetus and "the chief prosecuting authority of the county in which the minor resides, empowered by the act to represent the state's public policy to protect unborn life, and backed by substantial state resources."

Marshall said the prosecutor in the 12-year-old's case made her situation worse by delaying her ability to obtain an abortion as her pregnancy progressed into the second trimester.

A spokeswoman for the state attorney general's office said the office is reviewing the decision.
ST. LOUIS (AP) - A murder trial begins this week for a white former St. Louis police officer accused of killing a black suspect nearly six years ago.

Jason Stockley, 36, is charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the December 2011 shooting death of Anthony Lamar Smith. Charges were filed last year after then-Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce cited unspecified new evidence. The trial begins Tuesday and is expected to last two weeks.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Smith was shot following a police chase during a drug investigation. Circuit Judge Timothy Wilson has ordered lawyers and witnesses not to discuss the case, but evidence will certainly include video , both from police and from a bystander.

A key issue is a .38-caliber Taurus revolver police said was found in Smith's car. Police reports say Stockley's DNA - but not Smith's - was on the gun. Stockley told investigators he unloaded the revolver as a safety precaution after the shooting.

The police video from after the shooting shows Stockley going into the back of his police SUV. He appears to dig through a duffel bag. He didn't appear to have anything in his hands when he got out of the SUV and returned to Smith's car. The police video then stops.

Stockley's lawyer has said Stockley was looking for a "clot pack" to stop Smith's bleeding.

Video from a bystander shows Stockley later climbing into the driver's seat of Smith's rented Buick immediately after officers pulled Smith out.

According to police reports, Stockley told internal investigators and his sergeant that he believed Smith was reaching for a revolver after being ordered to show his hands.

The trial is the latest of several across the U.S. involving the fatal police shootings of black men. Officers were acquitted in recent trials in Minnesota, Oklahoma and Wisconsin. A case in Ohio twice ended with hung juries, and prosecutors have decided not to seek a third trial.

Stockley has waived his right to a jury trial, so his case will be decided by a judge.

Wilson must determine whether Stockley feared for his life and was justifiably defending himself in killing Smith, 24. Wilson has ordered lawyers and witnesses not to discuss the case and has barred cameras and electronics from the courtroom.

"This is not an easy case," Wilson wrote in his July 24 order granting a bench trial, which prosecutors opposed. "Whatever the ultimate outcome, it likely will be melancholy."

The shooting happened after Stockley and his partner spotted Smith in a suspected drug transaction in a fast food parking lot, leading to a 1-mile (1.6-kilometer) chase that ended with Smith's car crashing.

Police dashboard recordings and two videos from a restaurant show the officers pulled behind Smith's silver Buick. As they got out, Smith backed into the police SUV and sped past Stockley, who fired several shots. The officer eventually rammed their SUV into the back of Smith's car, causing its air bags to deploy. The officers got out, and Stockley fired several shots into the car.

___

Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com
TALLINN, Estonia (AP) - The Latest on the visit to Europe of U.S. Vice President Mike Pence (all times local):

6:30 p.m.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has ended a visit to Estonia after assuring the three Baltic states that the U.S firmly supports them and will come to their defense if they are threatened by an outside force, in line with a NATO treaty.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, right, and Estonia's President Kersti Kaljulaid walk together prior to their meeting at the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Monday, July 31, 2017. Pence is visiting Estonia to meet the leaders of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to underscore America's commitment to NATO and convey Washington's support to the Baltic nations. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

Before leaving the Estonian capital, Tallinn, Pence greeted NATO troops saying, "no threat looms larger in the Baltic states than the specter of aggression from your unpredictable neighbor to the east," in an obvious reference to Russia.

Earlier, he met the presidents of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania for talks on security and regional issues.

He also planted an English oak before departing with his wife Karen on Air Force Two to Tbilisi, Georgia, on the next leg of a European tour that also takes him to Montenegro.

___

1:10 p.m.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has strongly pledged America's commitment to protecting NATO allies against attacks, including the Baltic states, which have anxiously watched a growing Russian military presence in the region.

"Under President Donald Trump, the United States stands firmly behind our Article 5 pledge of mutual defense - an attack on one of us is an attack on us all," Pence told reporters Monday, after meeting with the presidents of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the Estonian capital of Tallinn.

Mutual defense is a vital issue for the three small former Soviet states that border Russia, which were all occupied for nearly five decades by Soviet troops before regaining their independence in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Noting that Trump "knows security is the foundation of our prosperity," Pence said America and the Baltic countries would seek new ways to increase prosperity by increasing two-way trade that currently amounts to $3.5 billion and increasing mutual investments.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, right, and Estonia's President Kersti Kaljulaid pose for photographers prior to their meeting at the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Monday, July 31, 2017. Pence is visiting Estonia to meet the leaders of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to underscore America's commitment to NATO and convey Washington's support to the Baltic nations. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, second from right, accompanied by the leaders of Baltic states, from left, Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid, Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis and Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, speaks during a news conference following their meeting in the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Monday, July 31, 2017. Pence is visiting Estonia to meet the leaders to underscore America's commitment to NATO and convey Washington's support to the Baltic nations. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence waves as he arrives at the airport in Tallinn, Estonia, Sunday, July 30, 2017. Pence arrived in Tallinn for a two day visit where he will meet Baltic States leaders to discuss regional security issues as well as economic and political topics. (AP Photo/ Mindaugas Kulbis)

A protocol official sets a flag of the United States and flags of the Baltic states, from left, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, before the arrival of U.S. Vice President Mike Pence at the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Monday, July 31, 2017. Pence is visiting Estonia to meet the leaders to underscore America's commitment to NATO and convey Washington's support to the Baltic nations. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a news conference following a meeting with Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid, and Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis at the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Monday, July 31, 2017. Pence is visiting Estonia to meet the leaders to underscore America's commitment to NATO and convey Washington's support to the Baltic nations. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is greeted by Estonia's President Kersti Kaljulaid prior to their meeting at the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Monday, July 31, 2017. Pence is visiting Estonia to meet the leaders of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to underscore America's commitment to NATO and convey Washington's support to the Baltic nations. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, right, and Estonia's President Kersti Kaljulaid greet each other prior to their meeting at the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Monday, July 31, 2017. Pence is visiting Estonia to meet the leaders of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to underscore America's commitment to NATO and convey Washington's support to the Baltic nations. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a news conference following a meeting with Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid and Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis at the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Monday, July 31, 2017. Pence is visiting Estonia to meet the leaders to underscore America's commitment to NATO and convey Washington's support to the Baltic nations. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, right, and Estonia's President Kersti Kaljulaid walk together prior to their meeting at the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Monday, July 31, 2017. Pence is visiting Estonia to meet the leaders of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to underscore America's commitment to NATO and convey Washington's support to the Baltic nations. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, right, and Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite bow each other as they attend the official welcoming ceremony prior to their meeting at the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Monday, July 31, 2017. Pence is visiting Estonia to meet the leaders of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to underscore America's commitment to NATO and convey Washington's support to the Baltic nations. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, right, and Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite, second from right, bow each other as Estonia's President Kersti Kaljulaid, left, chat with Latvia's President Raimonds Vejonis during an official welcoming ceremony prior to their meeting at the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Monday, July 31, 2017. Pence is visiting Estonia to meet the leaders to underscore America's commitment to NATO and convey Washington's support to the Baltic nations. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, right, Estonia's President Kersti Kaljulaid, second from right, Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite, second from left, and Latvia's President Raimonds Vejonis speak prior to their meeting at the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Monday, July 31, 2017. Pence arrived in Tallinn for a two day visit to meet leaders of Baltic states to discuss regional security issues as well as economic and political topics. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

Estonia's Prime Minister Juri Ratas, left, welcomes U.S. Vice President Mike Pence prior to their meeting at the Government palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Sunday, July 30, 2017. Pence arrived in Tallinn for a two day visit where he will meet Baltic States leaders to discuss regional security issues as well as economic and political topics. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

Estonia's Prime Minister Juri Ratas, left, welcomes U.S. Vice President Mike Pence prior to their meeting at the Government palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Sunday, July 30, 2017. Pence arrived in Tallinn for a two day visit where he will meet Baltic States leaders to discuss regional security issues as well as economic and political topics. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, right, Estonia's President Kersti Kaljulaid, left, Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite, second from right, and Latvia's President Raimonds Vejonis pose for photographers prior to their meeting at the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Monday, July 31, 2017. Pence arrived in Tallinn for a two-day visit to meet leaders of Baltic States to discuss regional security issues as well as economic and political topics. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, right, and Estonia's Prime Minister Juri Ratas speak prior to their meeting at the Government palace in Tallinn, Estonia, Sunday, July 30, 2017. Pence arrived in Tallinn for a two day visit where he will meet Baltic States leaders to discuss regional security issues as well as economic and political topics. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, right, and Estonia's Prime Minister Juri Ratas speak prior to their meeting at the Stenbocki house in Tallinn, Estonia, Sunday, July 30, 2017. Pence arrived in Tallinn for a two day visit where he will meet Baltic States leaders to discuss regional security issues as well as economic and political topics. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
NEW YORK (AP) - George Clooney's foundation is planning to open seven public schools for Syrian refugee children.

The Clooney Foundation for Justice announced a new partnership Monday with Google, HP and UNICEF to provide education for more than 3,000 refugee children in Lebanon.

George and Amal Clooney said in a statement Monday that the foundation's commitment of more than $2 million toward education for Syrian refugees aims to prevent thousands of young people from becoming "a lost generation."

FILE - In this Feb. 1, 2016 file photo, Amal Clooney, left, and George Clooney arrive at the world premiere of "Hail, Caesar!" in Los Angeles. Clooney's foundation is planning to open seven public schools for Syrian refugee children. The Clooney Foundation for Justice announced a new partnership Monday, July 31, 2017, with Google, HP and UNICEF to provide education for more than 3,000 refugee children in Lebanon. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

"They have been victims of geography and circumstance, but that doesn't mean there isn't hope," the couple wrote in a statement provided to The Associated Press. "Our goal with this initiative is to help provide Syrian refugee children with an education and put them on a path to be the future leaders their generation desperately needs."

A UNICEF spokesman described the couple's support as "investing the future of the entire region."

George and Amal Clooney established the Clooney Foundation for Justice last year to support equity in courtrooms, classrooms and communities around the world.
DETROIT (AP) - Ride-hailing service Lyft carried more passengers through June this year than it did in all of last year as it capitalized on missteps by Uber.

Ridership through June surpassed the record 162.5 million rides it gave in all of 2016, Lyft said Monday. A spokeswoman wouldn't give an exact number.

The company has made its gains as some people avoid Lyft's much larger rival, Uber. Both companies are based in San Francisco.

FILE - In this March 31, 2016, a Lyft ride-hailing service logo is displayed on a vehicle at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Seattle. Ride-hailing service Lyft carried more passengers through June 2017 than it did in all of 2016 as it capitalized on missteps at Uber. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

Uber has been without a CEO since June when company co-founder Travis Kalanick stepped down under pressure from the board. The departure took place after investigations by outside law firms uncovered widespread sexual harassment at the company. Kalanick also was captured on video in a profanity-laced tirade toward an Uber driver, and the company is under federal investigation for allegedly using software to thwart city inspectors who were trying to monitor its drivers.

And finding a replacement for Kalanick has not gone smoothly. The reported front-runner, Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman announced on Thursday that she would not take the job. Media reports say some board members are now talking to outgoing General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt. The New York Times reported Monday that Kalanick may attempt to regain an operational role in the company he helped to create.

Lyft wouldn't comment on Uber but says it added 160 U.S. cities this year. The company operates only in the U.S.

Uber says it's given more than 5 billion rides worldwide since 2010.

Lyft confirmed its 2017 ridership numbers for the first time Monday while announcing the appointment of a new board member. Former Obama administration senior adviser Valerie Jarrett is the board's 10th member. She was assistant to the president for public engagement and intergovernmental affairs for his entire term, according to Lyft.
KINSHASA, Congo (AP) - Congo's political opposition says dozens of people have been detained following demonstrations in the capital calling for presidential elections by the end of the year.

Victor Tsesongo with the group known as LUCHA says protesters gathered Monday in Kinshasa for a peaceful march. He says at least 50 people were brought in for questioning.

Authorities in Congo did not respond to requests for comment following the demonstration that was broken up by police.

Tensions are growing in the vast Central African country after officials failed to organize elections late last year. A political agreement brokered by the Catholic church calls for the vote to be held by the end of 2017.

But Congo's electoral commission has indicated that the deadline will not be met.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Trump administration on Monday hailed a Pennsylvania-based company's deal to supply coal to Ukraine in preparation for winter heating needs, saying it would bolster a key U.S. ally often threatened by Russia.

The deal, potentially worth about $79 million, calls for Xcoal Energy and Resources to ship 700,000 tons of thermal coal to Ukraine to heat homes and businesses. The first shipment is expected to leave the Port of Baltimore next month at a cost of $113 per metric ton.

Energy Secretary Rick Perry said U.S. coal "will be a secure and reliable energy source" for Ukraine, which he said has been "reliant on and beholden to Russia to keep the heat on. That changes now."

In this July 18, 2017 photo, Energy Secretary Rick Perry attends a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington. The Trump administration says a Pennsylvania-based coal company has won a contract to supply coal used for heating to Ukraine's state-owned power company. The deal announced Monday calls for Xcoal Energy and Resources to ship 700,000 tons of thermal coal to the Ukraine to heat homes and businesses. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

The U.S. "can offer Ukraine an alternative, and today we are pleased to announce that we will," Perry said, calling such deals "crucial to the path forward to achieve energy dominance" for the U.S.

President Donald Trump has vowed to revive the struggling coal industry and has cited increases in U.S. coal exports as evidence the strategy is working. The Energy Department said in July that coal exports have risen sharply in 2017 amid increased demand in Asia and Europe, but are still below capacity.

The deal comes amid increased tensions in U.S.-Russia relations. Russian President Vladimir Putin says the U.S. will have to cut its diplomatic staff in Russia in response to new sanctions against Russia. Congress approved those because of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and its military aggression in Ukraine and Syria.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the coal deal will allow Ukraine to diversify its energy sources ahead of the coming winter, noting that Russia has restricted some natural gas deliveries to Ukraine and other neighbors in a bid to "choke off opposition to its ambitions."

Perry was recently fooled by a pair of Russian pranksters impersonating the prime minister of Ukraine. Topics on the mid-July call included coal exports. Perry met with Ukraine's president, Petro Poroshenko, in June.
NEW YORK (AP) - Riding-sharing company Uber plans to launch its own credit card, partnering with the British bank Barclays.

The card will be coming later this year, Barclays said last week.

Uber would be the first of the riding-sharing companies to have a co-branded credit card, which are a popular way for companies to cement customer loyalty. They typically give points or credits toward awards, with the most popular cards offering airlines and hotels.

FILE - In this Monday, Sept. 12, 2016, file photo, a self-driving Uber sits ready to take journalists for a ride during a media preview in Pittsburgh. Riding-sharing company Uber plans to launch its own credit card, partnering with the British bank Barclays. The card will be coming later in 2017, according to Barclays. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

Uber rival Lyft has a partnership with Delta that offers miles, though it's not via a card.

No details about terms or rewards on the Uber cards were available yet, though the awards seem likely to go toward ride credit. Earlier this year, Uber partnered with American Express to give Platinum Card customers a $200-a-year credit toward free rides.
HBO was the latest target to a major cyber attack after hackers heisted and released 'proprietary information' from show scripts and episodes.

Hit television shows Ballers and Game of Thrones were two of main series included in information exposed of the hacked material.

The corporation has since consulted with law enforcement and cybersecurity firms to figure out the most effective and appropriate ways to handle the matter and possibly reprimand anyone found involved.

In a mass email to HBO employees, CEO Richard Pepler announced some of the network's programming was also stolen.

Targeted: Among the shows said to be affected by the hack include Game Of Thrones, starring Kit Harrington (left); and Ballers, starring Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson (right)

Taken: An episode of Room 104, starring James Van Der Beek (pictured), was also said to have been leaked

'Any intrusion of this nature is obviously disruptive, unsettling, and disturbing for all of us. I can assure you that senior leadership and our extraordinary technology team, along with outside experts, are working round the clock to protect our collective interests. The efforts across multiple departments have been nothing short of herculean,' Pepler wrote in the email.

Pepler said he feels strongly HBO will get to the bottom of the breach with the efforts and teamwork of the company as a whole.

'The problem before us is unfortunately all too familiar in the world we now find ourselves a part of. As has been the case with any challenge we have ever faced, I have absolutely no doubt that we will navigate our way through this successfully.'

In a mass email to HBO employees, CEO Richard Pepler announced some of the network's programming was also stolen

HBO has consulted with law enforcement and cybersecurity firms to figure out the most effective and appropriate ways to handle the matter

Jeff Cusson, spokesman of HBO did not release specifics on which episodes or data that was leaked.

According to Entertainment Weekly, the hackers claim they stole 1.5 terabytes of data from the company.

Some of the script from next week's episode of Game of Thrones has also been posted online.
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Prosecutors in Mexico say they have arrested a major financial operator for the Sinaloa drug cartel. Nahum Abraham Sicairos Montalvo is wanted on multiple arrest warrants in the United States.

A statement by the Attorney General's Office says Sicairos Montalvo was captured early Monday in an upper-middle class suburb north of Mexico City with the help of soldiers.

The man known as "El Quinceanero" was detained for extradition to the U.S.

One of his alleged collaborators was also captured during the arrest. More than a kilogram of crystal methamphetamine was recovered at the scene.

Sicairos Montalvo is thought to work for Damaso Lopez Serrano, who reportedly turned himself in to U.S. authorities just last week. Multiple U.S. law enforcement agencies have refused to comment on that report.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A Republican Senate candidate in Wisconsin who calls himself "strongly pro-life" once sent a letter to a pro-abortion rights group praising its work and saying there was potential for a "strong partnership."

The letter is the latest record from Kevin Nicholson's time in 2000 as head of the College Democrats of America that is haunting him as he tries to win over conservative support for a Senate run. He also voiced his support for a "woman's right to choose" when he spoke at the 2000 Democratic National Convention.

Nicholson is running as a conservative for the seat held by Democrat Tammy Baldwin. He says he stopped being a Democrat years ago - after serving in the U.S. Marines, having children and working as a business consultant. He's likely to face one or more Republican opponents, putting a spotlight on Nicholson's positions on core conservative issues such as abortion.

FILE This undated file photo provided by Kevin Nicholson, shows Nicholson, a former Marine and past president of a national college Democratic group, who posted online Wednesday, July 26, 2017, that he has launched a Republican bid for the U.S. Senate in Wisconsin, becoming the first GOP challenger to Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin. (Kevin Nicholson via AP, File

His campaign spokesman Michael Antonopoulos downplayed the letter on Monday.

"It's pathetic to see Tammy Baldwin and her liberal allies dredging up decades old material from Kevin's college days," Antonopoulos said. "As the father of three children and a combat veteran who has seen innocent life destroyed, Kevin has made clear why he is strongly pro-life today."

Nicholson sent the letter via fax on June 28, 2000, to EMILY's List, a national Democratic group that helps raise money to support female candidates who support abortion rights.

Nicholson asked the political director of EMILY's List for a $10,000 donation, saying there was "great potential for a strong partnership."

EMILY's List president Stephanie Schriock was in Wisconsin on Sunday to attend a fundraiser for Baldwin. Schriock said the letter shows that Nicholson can't be trusted.

Schriock said Nicholson "knows he has a problem" with his change in position on abortion, which she attributed to "political expediency." The fact that Nicholson now says his previous support for abortion rights was a mistake should make women voters nervous, Schriock said.

"This is really about the voters of Wisconsin understanding when he stands," she said.

Nicholson, 39, has argued that because he chose to become a Republican after his life experiences, his beliefs are more solid than when he was younger and a Democrat. He touted his anti-abortion stance in his campaign launch video released last week.

"The one thing in life you cannot compromise are your principles," Nicholson said in the video. "I'm strongly pro-life. I've seen innocent children killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. And here in this country, it is unacceptable for our government to systematically allow the lives of innocent children to be taken."

___

Follow Scott Bauer on Twitter at https://twitter.com/sbauerAP
MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Wisconsin conservationists warned Monday that Gov. Scott Walker's plan to exempt a massive Foxconn electronic plant from key environmental regulations would leave the public in the dark about the plant's impact, jeopardize wetlands and set an alarming precedent.

President Donald Trump announced last week that Wisconsin had won a high-stakes interstate battle for the $10 billion plant. Plans call for building a 20 million-square-foot plant on a 1.56-square-mile campus somewhere in southeastern Wisconsin. The company hasn't selected an exact location but is eyeing sites in Racine and Kenosha counties.

Spurred by Foxconn's promise to create as many as 13,000 jobs, Walker's office released a bill Friday that would hand the company $3 billion worth of incentives. The bill includes provisions that would lift the requirement that state agencies prepare environmental impact statements on plant construction and operations.

FILE - In this May 27, 2010 file photo, a worker looks out through the logo at the entrance of the Foxconn complex in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. Conservationists are lining up to oppose Republican plans to eliminate key environmental regulations as part of an incentive package to lure a $10 billion Foxconn electronics plant to southeastern Wisconsin. Gov. Scott Walker's incentives bill would exempt the company from environmental impact statements and state permits for filling wetlands and building on lake beds. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

The measure also would exempt Foxconn from obtaining state permits for a wide range of activities, including filling wetlands, building on lake or river beds, changing the course of streams, building artificial water bodies that connect to existing waterways and modifying shorelines. The state Department of Natural Resources could choose whether to require Foxconn get permits for bridge and culvert construction.

Midwest Environmental Advocates attorney Sarah Geers said environmental impact statements provide the public with a detailed, wide-lens analysis of a project's impact, enabling builders and government officials to find ways to mitigate the effects. Without such analyses, no one will know what harm the plant might cause.

Foxconn would still need permits to fill federal wetlands. The state exemptions could result in a loss of state wetlands, though, the conservationists said. That could translate to poorer water quality, more flooding and the loss of wildlife habitat around the plant.

What's more, the measure invites other states to gut their environmental laws to attract industry, said John Rumpler, clean water program director for Environment America.

Walker's office referred questions to DNR spokesman James Dick. He said eliminating environmental impact statements will streamline the construction process. Since Foxconn hasn't selected a site yet, no one knows if any wetlands will be affected, he said.

The company would still have to obtain state and federal air, water quality and waste permits, Dick added. Those applications require a public comment period so people would still be able to keep abreast of developments, he said.

The governor signed an agreement with Foxconn on Thursday that calls for the Legislature to approve the incentive package by Sept. 30.

A public hearing on the bill could come this week. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said last week he would like to have the Legislature vote on the bill in mid to late August. Senate Republican Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald's spokeswoman Myranda Tanck said no timeline had been set yet for action on the bill.

Sen. Mark Miller, a Monona Democrat who sits on the Senate's natural resources committee, said the bill gives away too much to a company that hasn't delivered on its promises. Foxconn has pledged to build plants around the world and backed out.

"The governor has been suckered once again," Miller said. "He's gone and bet the farm on this one big deal with a company with an unreliable record."

An email sent to Foxconn's general media inbox seeking comment wasn't immediately returned.

___

Associated Press writer Scott Bauer contributed to this report.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - After 30 years on the run, a foreign national wanted on federal drug charges has been captured.

Officials from the U.S. Marshal's Office said Monday that 68-year-old Colombian national Humberto Bonilla was arrested in New Jersey earlier this month. Also known as Humberto Reyes, Bonilla had an outstanding warrant in connection to federal charges out of Virginia.

A federal arrest warrant was issued in 1987 charging Bonilla with failing to appear on charges of possession with intent to distribute marijuana. An investigation for the fugitive spanned several states.

Authorities developed information earlier this year that Bonilla was possibly living in New Jersey. On July 18, marshals made contact with Bonilla, who denied his identity. Marshals fingerprinted him on the spot.
SEATTLE (AP) - Alaska Airlines says it is taking precautions including requiring employees to change their passwords after Virgin America's computer systems were hacked.

An Alaska Airlines spokeswoman said Monday that the company noticed unusual activity in Virgin's systems in March and notified law enforcement and hired cybersecurity experts. She said customer information wasn't affected but employees and contractors will be required to change passwords every 90 days.

About 3,100 employees may have had their login information stolen, the airline said. Another 110 also had personal information compromised, including addresses, Social Security numbers and health-related information. The airline is paying for credit-monitoring services for those 110 employees and contractors.

Alaska bought California-based Virgin America last year.

A letter to Virgin America employees from Kyle Levine, general counsel of Seattle-based Alaska Air Group Inc., was posted on the California attorney general's website last week.

Levine said the hacker or hackers gained employees' login information and passwords to Virgin America's network. He offered advice for employees who think they might be victims of identity theft.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - With a union election scheduled this week, the National Labor Relations Board is newly charging that Nissan Motor Co. violated workers' rights at its Mississippi plant by engaging in anti-union activity.

The board alleges a supervisor acted illegally on March 30, well before workers filed for a vote asking that the United Auto Workers to represent them. A vote to decide that question is scheduled Thursday and Friday among about 3,700 workers at the plant in Canton, just north of Jackson.

The UAW and its supporters seized on the amended complaint Monday to press their claims that Nissan's ongoing anti-union campaign is unfair and illegal.

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., right, expresses his desire for a company intimidation free union vote at the Nissan vehicle assembly plant in Canton, Miss., during a Jackson, Miss., news conference, Monday, July 31, 2017, where he was joined by local the mayors of Canton and Jackson. Joining Thompson were Nissan employees Travis Parks, left, Lee Ruffin, second from left, Eric Hearn, center and Ernest Whitfield, second from right. The UAW has a vote scheduled Aug. 3-4, on whether it should represent some 3,700 workers. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

"If we lose, it's a direct result of the unlawful behavior and threatening and intimidating and coercing of workers, and it's not over," UAW Secretary-Treasurer Gary Casteel told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. The union has been threatening to file additional charges with the labor board, but has not yet done so.

Nissan spokeswoman Parul Bajaj said the company denies the specific behavior alleged in the complaint, as well as broader UAW claims that the Japanese automaker's anti-UAW stance is illegal or amounts to intimidation.

"We're staying within the law," plant human resources director Rodney Francis told The AP by phone. "We have the right to communicate our positions."

The new complaint is an allegation and the company has until Aug. 11 to respond. Eventually, a judge could decide whether Nissan committed the acts.

The complaint alleges that a supervisor improperly interrogated workers about their position on the union, threatened that workers could lose wages and benefits if they supported the UAW, and that the plant could close if workers backed the union. The complaint also claims the supervisor implied that employees could get better benefits and job conditions if they rejected the UAW.

The UAW has alleged 13 times since late 2015 that Nissan or contract labor provider Kelly Services have broken laws against anti-union activity in Canton. The labor board has found enough merit in eight of those claims so far to include them in its formal complaint.

Casteel said that one-on-one meetings between workers and supervisors, as well as Nissan statements about how UAW representation could spark layoffs are further violations of federal law.

"If your employer said all these things to you and you were considering unionization, they're directly threatening your livelihood," Casteel said.

Francis, though, said it's the UAW that's overplaying its hand, making promises it can't deliver on, such as claiming it would restore a traditional pension plan that the company froze.

"They continue to make false promises about job security, and saying they're going to bring pensions back," he said.

Nissan expressed concern that the UAW would try to stop the election because the union fears a loss, but Casteel said union supporters have worked too hard to be denied a ballot.

"They deserve a chance to vote," he said.

Casteel, though, said it was possible the union would pursue more charges after the election, as it did when it lost a plant-wide election at Volkswagen AG in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba and Canton Mayor William Truly, all Democrats, held a news conference Monday to support the UAW.

"We have to be clear that we are a business-friendly state," Lumumba said. "However, we demand that our businesses be friendly to our workers. No longer can we subscribe to the notion of exploiting workers."

Republican Gov. Phil Bryant and leaders of business groups oppose the UAW.

___

Follow Jeff Amy at: http://twitter.com/jeffamy . Read his work at https://www.apnews.com/search/Jeff_Amy .

Nissan auto worker Ernest Whitfield sports a pro-UAW union hat during a Jackson, Miss., news conference, Monday, July 31, 2017, where local officials and U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., expressed their support for a company intimidation free union vote at the Nissan vehicle assembly plant in Canton, Miss. The UAW has a vote scheduled Aug. 3-4, on whether it should represent some 3,700 workers. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Jackson, Miss., Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, center, expresses his support for a intimidation free union election during a Jackson, Miss., news conference, Monday, July 31, 2017. Lumumba joined Canton, Miss., mayor and U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., right, in expressing their support for an intimidation free union vote at the Nissan vehicle assembly plant in Canton, Miss. The UAW has a vote scheduled Aug. 3-4, on whether it should represent some 3,700 workers. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
NEW YORK (AP) - An appeals court in New York says a U.S. citizen detained for more than three years in a bungled immigration case cannot sue for damages.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reached the conclusion in a 2-1 vote. The ruling blocks 32-year-old Davino Watson from receiving $82,000 awarded by a Brooklyn federal court judge for his 2008-to-2011 incarceration.

A majority opinion written by Circuit Judge Dennis Jacobs found "no doubt the government botched the investigation" but saw no malice in the case's handling. The judges noted the government misidentified Watson's parents and misinterpreted the law.

In a scathing dissent, Chief Judge Robert Katzmann decried the lack of legal representation for immigration detainees.

Attorney Mark Flessner says his client suffers from health issues related to his detention and is thus unemployed.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The Latest on a proposal to lower the minimum score for California's attorney exam (all times local):

4 p.m.

A proposal to lower the minimum score on the most recent licensing exam for California attorneys has cleared its first hurdle.

A California State Bar committee voted Monday to send the proposal out for public comment until Aug. 25. The California Supreme Court will have final say over the score.

The proposal would lower the minimum score only for the July 2017 exam from 144 to a little over 141. The seemingly minor reduction could significantly boost the pass rate, which has declined alarmingly in recent years.

California has among the lowest pass rates in the country, though state bar officials say it also has the second-highest passing score requirement.

___

11 a.m.

The State Bar of California is proposing lowering the minimum score on the most recent licensing exam for attorneys amid an alarming decline in people passing the test considered one of the toughest in the U.S.

State Bar staff told The Associated Press that they planned to present the option to the agency's Committee of Bar Examiners on Monday.

The proposal would lower the score needed only for the July exam from 144 to a little over 141. The seemingly minor reduction could significantly boost the pass rate.

On the July exam, it fell from nearly 62 percent in 2008 to 43 percent in 2016, mirroring a national trend.

California has among the lowest pass rates in the country, though state bar officials say it also has the second-highest passing score requirement.
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - A man charged in connection with a deadly carjacking at an upscale New Jersey mall has pleaded guilty.

Kevin Roberts pleaded guilty last week to carjacking as part of a deal with Essex County prosecutors. The deal came about four months after another man charged in the case was convicted on felony murder charges.

Roberts had been due to go on trial in September. He faces a 20-year state prison term when he's sentenced Nov. 13.

Prosecutors say Roberts was among four men involved in the December 2013 carjacking and fatal shooting of Dustin Friedland at The Mall At Short Hills in Millburn. Friedland's wife testified at trial about seeing him gunned down in front of her.

Trials for the two remaining defendants are pending.
The Scottish Government has called for Scotch to be defined in UK law in order to protect whisky exports after Brexit.

Scotlands Economy Secretary Keith Brown has written to UK ministers calling for protection of the Scotch whisky industry, in light of International Trade Secretary Liam Foxs visit to the US this week.

The industry is worth around 4 billion to Scotland in exports and an EU definition of whisky currently protects sales from sub-standard products.

Scottish Government calls for UK legal protection of Scotch whisky post-Brexit

Mr Brown said: Aside from being a key part of Scottish culture and identity, our whisky industry supports around 20,000 jobs.

The US made clear in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership discussions that they would support a relaxation of the definition of whisky, which would open the market up to a number of products which do not currently meet that standard.

Whisky is a product which is worth around 4 billion to Scotland in exports.

It is vital that we continue to have robust legal protection of Scotch whisky, which is why I have sought clarification from the UK Government as to whether Scotch whisky featured in discussions during last weeks trade visit by the Secretary of State for International Trade.

I am also demanding that the current EU regulations are guaranteed post-Brexit.

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox visited America this week (Sait Serkan Gurbuz/AP)

After reports this week that the UK Government is contemplating trade deals that threaten the value and reputation of Scottish produce, once again we can see the confusion which is at the heart of the UK Governments Brexit position.

We need to be sure that any future deals work for Scotland and are not threatening the livelihoods of our farmers and producers.

This is why all four UK governments should have oversight of the negotiations to ensure, as far as possible, that the right outcomes for everyone are secured.

A UK Government spokeswoman said: Scotch is a UK export success story and we will support the industry so that it continues to thrive and prosper post-Brexit.

Whisky is worth about 4b to Scotland in exports (Andrew Milligan/PA)

The UK Government has a strong relationship with the Scotch Whisky Association and is working closely with the industry as we aim to secure the best possible deal for the whole of the UK.

Rosemary Gallagher, Scotch Whisky Association head of communications, said: To support jobs and growth in the Scotch Whisky industry after Brexit, we are looking for the government to prioritise a range of matters, including robust legal protection of Scotch Whisky in the EU and global markets.

Regarding the EU whisky definition, all whisky produced or sold in the EU must be, among other things, matured for at least three years. We would be opposed to any weakening of the whisky definition as a result of trade negotiations with other countries or through any other means.
One person has been killed and eight others injured in an explosion at an apartment building in northern Spain.

The Navarra regional government said police are investigating the explosion in the town of Puente la Reina, near the city of Pamplona, at 1.30am local time on Sunday.

The body was found in a first-floor apartment but it is yet to be identified. Police believe it could be the tenant, an 80-year-old man.

The three-storey building in Spain was evacuated due to damage to its structure (Alvaro Barrientos/AP)

Flying glass and bricks from the explosion hit eight passers-by in the street, and four people were taken to the hospital. One of them is in a serious condition.

The three-storey building was evacuated due to damage to its structure.
The High Court has blocked a bid by a former chief of staff of the Iraqi army to bring a private prosecution against Tony Blair over the Iraq War.

General Abdul Wahed Shannan Al Rabbat has accused Mr Blair, while UK prime minister, of committing a crime of aggression by invading Iraq in 2003 to overthrow President Saddam Hussein.

The general wanted to prosecute Mr Blair and two other key ministers at the time  foreign secretary Jack Straw and attorney general Lord Goldsmith.

Protesters hold a banner outside the London home of Mr Blair (PA)

His lawyers asked Londons High Court for permission to seek judicial review in an attempt to get the Supreme Court, now the highest court in the land, to overturn a ruling by the House of Lords in 2006 that there is no such crime as the crime of aggression under the law of England and Wales.

Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, the Lord Chief Justice, and Mr Justice Ouseley dismissed the generals application, saying there was no prospect of the case succeeding.

The case was brought after Westminster Magistrates Court refused to issue summonses in November last year on the grounds that the ex-ministers had immunity from legal action, and in any event the current Attorney General, Jeremy Wright QC, would have to give consent.

The general lives in Muscat, Oman, does not possess a passport and cannot travel to the UK.

Detail of a declassified handwritten letter sent by Tony Blair to George Bush (PA)

The UK was part of the coalition led by the US which invaded Iraq after American president George W Bush and Mr Blair accused Saddam of possessing weapons of mass destruction and having links to terrorists.

Michael Mansfield QC, appearing for General Al Rabbat, said at a recent one-day hearing that the inquiry into the invasion conducted by Sir John Chilcot, which concluded with a report published in July last year, justified the prosecution of Mr Blair.

Mr Mansfield said the main findings were contained in a paragraph early in the 12-volume report and could be summarised as concluding that Saddam did not pose an urgent threat to the interests of the UK, and the intelligence regarding weapons of mass destruction had been presented with unwarranted certainty.

It also concluded that peaceful alternatives to war had not been exhausted and that the war in Iraq was not necessary.

The long-awaited Chilcot report was published in 2016 (PA)

Mr Mansfield argued that the international crime of a war of aggression had been accepted by then UK attorney general Sir Hartley Shawcross QC in the 1940s, at the time of the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war crimes.

The QC contended that, as the international community had held those responsible for the Second World War to account by prosecuting those thought responsible for aggression at Nuremberg, it was the duty of the UK courts to follow that example in relation to the Iraq War.

The House of Lords decided in the 2006 case of R v Jones, which also concerned the Iraq War, that although there was a crime of aggression under customary international law, there was no such crime under English law.

Mr Mansfield argued that the Jones case was wrongly decided and permission should be given to allow General Al Rabbat to re-argue the issue before the Supreme Court.

But the High Court ruled: In our opinion there is no prospect of the Supreme Court holding that the decision in Jones was wrong or the reasoning no longer applicable.
A surge in seizures of child-like sex dolls by border officers has led investigators to identify dozens of previously unknown suspected paedophiles.

The lifelike silicone sex aids, which weigh around 55lb (25kg) and can cost thousands of pounds, are being imported into the UK after being sold by traders on sites including Amazon and eBay, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

The dolls, often manufactured in China and Hong Kong, are a relatively new phenomenon in the UK and should be criminalised, the operations manager at the NCAs Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command (CEOP), Hazel Stewart, said.

Border Force officers have seized 123 dolls in little more than a year since March 2016 and so far seven people have been charged with importing them, including one man who was jailed last month.

The figures were revealed as a judge at Canterbury Crown Court dismissed an attempt by ex-primary school governor David Turners barrister to argue that a doll he imported was not obscene.

A sex doll imported from abroad

Former churchwarden Turner, 72, pleaded guilty on Monday to importing the child sex doll after the application to dismiss the charge was turned down.

Of the seven men charged with importing the dolls so far, six also faced allegations linked to child abuse images.

Dan Scully, deputy director for intelligence operations at the Border Force, said this showed those who ordered the models often strayed into sex crimes.

Hazel Stewart, of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command, with a boxed up doll

Whats critical, I think, for this investigation, these items were going to individuals, in many cases, who were committing other offences in relation to harm of children, he said.

They were also, critically, people who were otherwise unknown to UK law enforcement in having an interest in sexual activity with children.

By identifying these importations, working with partners, what weve identified is a whole set of people with interests in sexual activity with children who were completely unknown.

(John Stillwell/PA)

Ms Stewart said the dolls were unlike those people might associate with stag dos and were the precursor to more sophisticated child sex robots, which she warned were just around the corner.

They are the weight of a seven-year-old child, they are not something that is the traditional blow-up doll, she said.

(John Stillwell/PA)

The dolls, with their unnerving glass-eye stare, false eyelashes and crooked fingers and toes, often come packaged with accessories including a choice of wigs, a USB device to warm the spongy silicone skin, and a cleaning device.

The trial of issue at Canterbury Crown Court in the case of Turner, of Hollicondane Road, Ramsgate, was described as setting an important precedent in how suspects can be prosecuted.

A boxed up sex doll of the type imported from abroad

Turner was unable to be sentenced on Monday because a pre-sentence report had not been prepared. Judge Simon James said the importation of a child sex doll was an unusual offence and that it adds a degree of complexity.

He was freed on bail to be sentenced on September 8 for the importation charge and for pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to possessing or making more than 34,000 indecent images of children aged around three to 16.

The NSPCC called on the Government to criminalise the manufacturing, distribution and possession of child sex dolls, and for online retailers to remove them immediately.

Barnardos chief executive Javed Khan said: We welcome the action by the National Crime Agency (NCA) and Border Force to ban these obscene and realistic sex dolls based on young children.

An Amazon spokesman said: All Marketplace sellers must follow our selling guidelines and those who dont will be subject to action, including potential removal of their account, while eBay added: Items of this nature are prohibited from being sold on our platform. Our teams conduct regular sweeps of the site to remove any listings that contravene our policies.
Liverpool fans have overwhelmingly backed the introduction of rail seating in Premier League grounds in what has been viewed as a key vote on the idea of safe standing.

In a week-long poll run by the clubs biggest independent supporters group Spirit of Shankly (SoS), 88 per cent of the nearly 18,000 fans who took part voted in favour of rail seating.

Rail Seating Vote - Results: 88% vote in favour of introducing rail seating. Full details here https://t.co/Y9mmu4CYvh pic.twitter.com/cWb1RaEMe4  Spirit of Shankly (@spiritofshankly) July 31, 2017

Grounds in Englands top two divisions have been all-seated ever since Lord Justice Taylors inquiry into the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 which left 96 Liverpool fans dead.

Calls for a relaxation of that requirement, however, have been growing over the last decade, as many fans continue to stand throughout games, more has been revealed about the real causes of the 1989 tragedy and British fans have seen how supporters in Germany and elsewhere are allowed to stand during games.

Last month, after repeated calls from fans groups, the Premier League wrote to its clubs asking them if they would be interested in taking part in a safe-standing trial and League Ones Shrewsbury announced they would be installing a section of rail seats at their ground.

The debate, however, has always been more contentious and sensitive on Merseyside, with many relatives of Hillsborough survivors and victims strongly opposed to any softening of the all-seater requirement.

This is why SoS conducted the poll and why its result will be so keenly observed.

In a statement, SoS chair Jay McKenna said: Its an incredible turnout, we arent aware of such numbers voting before.

#Breaking Liverpool fans back the introduction of rail seating in Premier League grounds - independent supporters' group Spirit of Shankly pic.twitter.com/Ibn3a3BDxH  PA Dugout (@PAdugout) July 31, 2017

It demonstrates to us that we were right to have this discussion and that supporters, families and survivors want to have their say. After nine months of discussion, we have now had the vote and it will be taken as the position for Spirit Of Shankly. The size of the turnout majority means that no one can be in any doubt that supporters have had their say and made an informed decision.

But McKenna stressed that this result should not be celebrated as a win and SoS has issued a statement to Liverpool fans explaining the need for further mature and sensitive conversation on the matter.

McKenna said: The vote is significant and we know people will see this as backing of rail seating. However we say to anyone who is campaigning for this to understand sensitivities and respect the views of those who disagree.

Those who have been through incredible heartache and tragedy have every right to be heard and to ask important questions about safety. It was important in our conversations to have these answered. It would be wise for that to take place elsewhere.

Successfully trialled at Celtic last season, rail-seat sections have safety barriers on every row to prevent surges and the seats can be flipped up and locked in place when not required. Unlike traditional terraces, fans are assigned a seat which helps with crowd control.

Safe standing area at Celtic Park

The SoS poll ran from July 22-28 and 17,910 fans voted.

On the main question of whether they were in favour of rail seating areas in stadiums, 15,798 (88.21 per cent) voted yes, 902 (5.04 per cent) were against with the remaining voters saying they either wanted more information or were undecided.

Nearly nine in 10 voters said they would either definitely or probably use a rail seating area, and of those old enough to have stood on Anfields old Kop terrace, 85 per cent voted in favour.
Phil Jones has been banned for two matches and Daley Blind fined by UEFA after the Manchester United pair were found guilty of breaching the governing bodys doping regulations after the Europa League final in May.

Jones was understood to have been verbally abusive towards a doping control officer after he was requested to attend drug-testing after the final in Stockholm on May 24, and will now miss the UEFA Super Cup match against Real Madrid next week and Uniteds first Champions League group stage match in September. He has also been fined 5,000 euros.

It is understood Blind was reluctant to take a test as requested because he wanted to celebrate with his team-mates, whose 2-0 victory over Ajax ensured their qualification for this seasons Champions League. He was fined 5,000 euros.

Daley Blind, right, holds the Europa League trophy

There is no suggestion that either player was guilty of doping.

United have been fined 10,000 euros over the rule breaches. The club are understood to be aware of UEFAs decisions, and have three days to appeal against them. However, they have not yet indicated to UEFA whether they will or not. UEFA announced the charges and sanctions on its website on Monday afternoon.

In its statement, it said: The club (United) has been charged for infringements of the UEFA anti-doping regulations (ADR) concerning the doping control procedure.

In particular, according to Appendix B (17) of the aforementioned regulations, the teams are responsible for ensuring that the players drawn to undergo doping controls are taken by the respective team representatives to the doping control station straight from the pitch as soon as the match is over. This applies even when chaperones are appointed by UEFA.

The player Philip Jones has been charged for insulting and directing abusive language towards the doping control officer (Article 15 (1) of the UEFA disciplinary regulations), as well as for lack of co-operation and respect towards the doping control procedure (Article 6.05 ADR).

Phil Jones

The player Daley Blind has been charged for violation and non-compliance with Article 6.05 (a) of the UEFA anti-doping regulations, which states that every player designated to undergo as doping control is personally responsible for reporting immediately to the doping control station as notified.

Blind played the full 90 minutes against his old club Ajax, while Jones was an unused substitute in Sweden.

United manager Jose Mourinhos defensive options in continental competition had already been depleted after UEFA gave Eric Bailly an additional two-match ban for his sending-off against Celta Vigo earlier in the Europa League campaign.

88' - Red cards for both sides as Bailly and Roncaglia are sent off. #MUFC #UEL  Manchester United (@ManUtd) May 11, 2017

The Ivorian had already missed the final in Stockholm, but now also misses the Super Cup and the Red Devils opening Champions League group stage match.

Mourinho moved to increase Uniteds depth at the back by signing Sweden international Victor Lindelof earlier this summer from Benfica.

United have not commented on the matter and no decisions have yet been taken on whether appeals will be made against any of the decisions.

It is understood Jones was upset to have missed out on a squad photograph taken after the match paying tribute to victims of the Manchester terrorist attack earlier in the week. He expressed this disappointment to officials at the time.

Blind did feature on that photograph and did join in some of the celebrations, accompanied by a chaperone. This is permitted in other competitions but was not the case in this instance. It is understood he did not realise he had done anything wrong until reaching doping control.
A D-Day veteran has received his world record certificate after becoming the oldest person to tandem skydive  at the age of 101 years and 38 days.

Bryson William Verdun Hayes, known as Verdun, smashed the record on May 14 this year when he skydived from a height of 15,000ft.

He was presented with his Guinness World Records certificate at a surprise ceremony hosted by the Royal British Legion in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.

Great-grandfather Mr Hayes, from Croyde, Devon, was given a guard of honour by members of 10 Queens Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment.

The presentation took place at the Royal British Legions Somerset Legion House, where dozens of members from the regiment are currently enjoying a seaside break.

Mr Hayes raised 3,600 for the charity through his skydive  with part of the money going to support the centre.

Verdun Hayes ahead of his tandem skydive on May 14 (Skydive Buzz)

Army veteran Claire Rowcliffe, director of fundraising at the Royal British Legion, said it was a privilege to present Mr Hayes with his world record certificate.

Family and friends applauded as the widower, who skydived at Dunkeswell, Devon, was handed his certificate.

The previous world record was held by Canadian Armand Gendreau, who skydived in June 2013 aged 101 and three days.

Craig Glenday, editor-in-chief of Guinness World Records, described Mr Hayess skydive as an amazing feat.

Verduns enthusiasm for life is inspiring and something many of us can learn from, he added.
The US has hit Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro with financial sanctions after an election to rewrite the constitution.

The Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control announced the sanctions against Mr Maduro in a brief statement.

The Trump administration imposed sanctions on more than a dozen senior current and former Venezuelan officials last week, warning the socialist government that new penalties would come if Mr Maduro went ahead with Sundays election for the assembly.

Electoral authorities claimed more than eight million people voted on Sunday to create a constitutional assembly endowing Mr Maduros ruling party with virtually unlimited powers, though independent analysts estimated the real turnout was less than half that figure.

People line up to enter to a poll station during the election for a constitutional assembly in Caracas

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles, the governor of the central state of Miranda, urged Venezuelans to protest on Monday against an assembly that critics fear will effectively create a single-party state.

Mr Maduro has said the new assembly will begin to govern within a week.

He said he would use the assemblys powers to bar opposition candidates from running in gubernatorial elections in December unless they sit with his party to negotiate an end to hostilities that have generated four months of protests that have killed at least 125 and wounded nearly 2,000.

Anti-government demonstrators wait for Venezuelan Bolivarian National Guards at a barricade in Caracas (AP)

Venezuelas chief prosecutors office reported 10 deaths in new rounds of clashes on Sunday between protesters and police.

Mr Maduro said a new constitution is the only way to end such conflicts.

The people have delivered the constitutional assembly, Mr Maduro said on national television.

More than eight million in the middle of threats  its when imperialism challenges us that we prove ourselves worthy of the blood of the liberators that runs through the veins of men, women, children and young people.

Nations including Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Spain, Britain and the United States said they would not recognise Sundays vote.
By Nia Williams

CALGARY, Alberta, July 31 (Reuters) - Canada's struggling oil market has found something of a lifeline as traders scramble for heavy crude due to OPEC production cuts and sinking Latin American output.

Output has fallen in Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-OPEC Latin American countries such as Mexico and Colombia, leading refiners as far away as China to look to Alberta's oil sands to fill the gap.

The interest has boosted the price for heavy Western Canada Select (WCS) oil, which is within range of its tightest discount to U.S. crude ever.

Canadian heavy oil is an easy substitute for Middle Eastern and Latin American grades, and the rising demand represents a rare bright spot for the oil sands, which have been hit hard by falling prices and the high cost to produce and blend Alberta's heavy, tar-like bitumen.

"We've been seeing a structural change (in the market) since OPEC cut medium sours, and Canadian heavy fits beautifully in there," one trader at an oil sands company said.

OPEC is attempting to rebalance global markets by cutting sour crude output, keeping light sweet barrels flowing as U.S. shale producers are pumping at record levels.

Output in Venezuela, an OPEC member, fell 11 percent in the first five months of the year to a 27-year-low due to underinvestment and infrastructure problems. And as political turmoil mounts there, the United States could impose sanctions that would hinder Venezuela's ability to sell crude.

Mexico's production fell 8 percent in the first five months of 2017 from a year ago as a result of long-running natural production declines in aging oilfields. Colombia's dropped 11.5 percent as a consequence of rebel attacks on pipelines.

Venezuela, Mexico and Colombia produce about 5.3 million barrels per day, while OPEC has cut about 1.8 million bpd in supply, most sour crude.

Gulf Coast refiners are paying more for Canadian production to replace these barrels, pushing the discount for Canadian oil delivered to the U.S. storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, to around $5 a barrel below U.S. crude. At current levels that would put the outright price of WCS at Cushing at just under $45 a barrel.

The narrowest differential at Cushing was $4.10 per barrel below U.S. crude in mid-2015.

Canada exports more than 3 million barrels of crude daily to the United States, its No. 1 customer, according to U.S. Energy Department data. Canadian barrels could supply refineries in Sweeney, Texas, and St. Charles, Louisiana, where Venezuela accounts for the majority of imports.

Major beneficiaries would be producers with committed capacity on Enbridge Inc pipelines that funnel crude to the Gulf, like Suncor Energy and MEG Energy, because they enjoy lower tariffs than spot shippers.

Sending more Canadian oil to the United States may be difficult due to pipeline constraints, though more oil could be sent by rail, albeit at a higher price. High costs and poor returns prompted international energy companies to sell around $22.5 billion in Canadian assets this year.

With OPEC cuts now starting to bite in Asia, traders said demand for sour barrels was rising in a region that historically sourced oil from the Middle East and Russia.

Two traders in Calgary said their companies were getting more calls from potential Chinese buyers, and declining freight rates meant more Canadian crude could make its way to Asia.

State-owned Indian Oil Corp bought its first cargo of U.S. and Canadian heavy crude in July, and 1 million barrels of Canadian crude went to China in the first quarter.

"So many tankers out there are looking for work it would not be surprising for somebody to get a sweetheart deal to take it to Asia," said RBC analyst Michael Tran. However, the country's lack of pipelines to the coast make significant exports to Asia unlikely, he said. (Reporting by Nia Williams; Additional reporting by Florence Tan in Singapore and Marianna Parraga in Houston; Editing by Toni Reinhold)
SYDNEY, July 31 (Reuters) - Water and power supplies were cut off on Monday at the largest compound at an Australian-run camp for asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea, detainees said, as officials tried to force them to move to a nearby transit centre.

Australia wants to close its controversial detention centre, which has drawn sharp criticism from the United Nations and domestic and international human rights groups, on Papua New Guinea's remote Manus Island on Oct. 31.

However, efforts to relocate the 800 men held there have stalled after a U.S. relocation swap deal was suspended and almost all the detainees were reluctant to move out amid fears of violence in the wider Papua New Guinea (PNG) community.

PNG officials last week gave the detainees in the centre's main Foxtrot compound until Tuesday to leave, warning them that water and power supplies would be cut off soon.

"We did not know whether they were serious or it was part of their scare tactics," one Sudanese asylum seeker told Reuters by mobile telephone, but declined to be identified for fear for jeopardising his claim for U.S. resettlement.

"But they cut off the water and power this afternoon."

The compound will soon be demolished, according to a notice posted on Manus Island, a picture of which was texted to Reuters.

Australian and PNG authorities did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

In May, detainees were told they must relocate to the community facility in order to be eligible for the swap deal with the United States.

All but a handful of the refugees have refused to move to the Lorengau community facility, citing fears for their safety after several assaults on refugees.

Australia's hardline immigration policy requires asylum seekers intercepted at sea trying to reach Australia to be sent for processing to camps at Manus and on the South Pacific island of Nauru. They are told they will never be settled in Australia. (Reporting by Colin Packham; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
July 31 (Reuters) - Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which may affect Romanian financial markets on Monday.

DEBT PLANS

The finance ministry is expected to unveil August domestic debt issuance plans.

CEE MARKETS

The crown eased slightly on Friday with markets scaling back a touch ahead of next week's Czech central bank (CNB) meeting at which policymakers could deliver its first rate hike in almost a decade.

For the long-term Romanian diary, click on

For emerging markets economic events, click on

For an index of all diaries, click on

For other related news, double click on: --------------------------------------------------------------- Romanian equities RO-E E.Europe equities .CEE Romanian money RO-M Romanian debt RO-D Eastern Europe EEU All emerging markets EMRG Hot stocks HOT Stock markets STX Market debt news DBT Forex news FRX For real-time index quotes, double click on: Bucharest BETI Warsaw WIG20 Budapest BUX Prague PX ---------------------------------------------------------------- ($1 = 3.9194 lei)
BEIJING, July 31 (Reuters) - China's trade deficit in services rose to $29.5 billion in June from $22.5 billion in May, the foreign exchange regulator said on Monday.

June's deficit was largely due to a $25.9 billion gulf in spending between foreign tourists and the Chinese, who splurge more abroad than visitors in China, data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) showed.

For the January-June period, China's services trade deficit stood at $130.9 billion.

(Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
July 31 (Reuters) - Alabama authorities are searching for an escaped prisoner after a mass jailbreak involving 12 men, the local Sheriff's office said on Monday.

Eleven of the 12 inmates who escaped from Walker County Jail were recaptured early on Monday, the office said on its Facebook page.

A photo on the page showed Brady Kilpatrick, the 24-year-old inmate who was still at large, but gave no details of when or how the escape took place.

The dozen escapees, all men aged 18 to 30, were imprisoned on charges including robbery, attempted murder, domestic violence and drug possession.

Walker County is located northwest of Birmingham. (Reporting by Chris Michaud and Jonathan Allen; Editing by Maayan Lubell and Bernadette Baum)
BEIRUT, July 31 (Reuters) - Convoys of buses arrived on Monday to transfer thousands of Syrian militants and refugees from Lebanon's border region into rebel territory in Syria in exchange for Hezbollah prisoners.

Under a local ceasefire between the Sunni Muslim militants and the Shi'ite Hezbollah, about 9,000 fighters and their relatives were to leave.

With no sign of any buses leaving, the departure was delayed to Tuesday from Monday for "logistical" reasons including having to wait for the rest of a total of 98 coaches to arrive from the Syrian side, a Hezbollah media unit said.

The deal includes the departure of all Nusra Front militants from Lebanon's border region around the town of Arsal, along with any civilians in nearby refugee camps who wish to go.

The truce echoes deals struck within Syria in which Damascus has shuttled rebels and civilians to Idlib province and other opposition areas. Such evacuations have helped President Bashar al-Assad recapture several rebel bastions over the past year.

Lebanon's Hezbollah has played a major role in fighting militants along the frontier during Syria's six-year war, sending thousands of combatants to support Assad's government.

Last week, Hezbollah took most of the mountainous zone of Jroud Arsal in a joint offensive with the Syrian army to drive Nusra militants from their last frontier foothold.

The Nusra Front was al Qaeda's Syria branch until it severed ties and rebranded last year. It now spearheads the Tahrir al-Sham Islamist alliance in the Syrian war.

The Lebanese army, which receives considerable U.S. and British military support, did not take an active part in the operation, setting up defensive positions around Arsal.

The next phase is expected to target a nearby enclave currently in the hands of Islamic State jihadists.

BODIES OF FIGHTERS EXCHANGED

"Buses that will transport Nusra Front militants and their families have started arriving in Jroud Arsal," the military media unit run by the Iran-backed Hezbollah said via social media on Monday.

The convoys rolled in from Syria and headed towards Lebanese army positions. Syrian Red Crescent ambulances arrived on the opposite side of the frontier, the media unit said.

Footage from the border zone showed dozens of white buses driving through the barren hills. The Lebanese Red Cross has taken part in logistics.

The first step of the ceasefire, brokered by Lebanon's internal security agency, unfolded on Sunday as the two sides exchanged the bodies of dead fighters.

A Lebanese security source said 200 militants with hundreds of their family members, as well as more than 5,000 refugees, were due to leave, mostly towards insurgent-held Idlib.

Nusra Front will release eight Hezbollah fighters under the deal, three captured in recent days and five held in Syria, a Lebanese security source said.

Hezbollah's al-Manar TV said the two sides would swap Nusra militants for the Hezbollah hostages near the city of Aleppo, which the Syrian government controls.

The U.N. refugee agency, not involved in the deal, was trying to reach refugees in the Arsal region to evaluate whether returns were voluntary, spokeswoman Lisa Abou Khaled said.

"UNHCR believes that conditions for refugees to return in safety and dignity are not yet in place in Syria," she said, with war continuing across large swathes of the country.

The multi-sided Syrian conflict has killed hundreds of thousands of people and driven at least 11 million from their homes - about half Syria's pre-war population.

Nearly 1.5 million refugees have poured into Lebanon - around a quarter of its population - where most languish in severe poverty. Several thousand live in makeshift camps east of Arsal. (Reporting by Ellen Francis; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Alison Williams)
July 31 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories from selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

THE GLOBE AND MAIL

** A former Vancouver mayor, a one-time high-profile journalist and British Columbia's former transportation minister are among the caucus members who say they are considering bids to replace Christy Clark as party leader. (https://tgam.ca/2vaA78f)

** Toronto police are warning the public about a sudden spike in suspected fentanyl overdoses throughout the city's downtown core. On Saturday afternoon, city police attributed four deaths and 20 overdoses to the potent opioid over the previous three-day period. (https://tgam.ca/2vX6xAB)

** A proposed legal settlement involving the drug company whose pill triggered Canada's deadly opioid epidemic shuts the door on the provinces taking action to recoup the costs of treating people dependent on painkillers. (https://tgam.ca/2veJL9H)

NATIONAL POST

** First Nations in the path of British Columbia's forests fires say to protect their communities they need equal funding and recognition of their expertise that is granted to other emergency response organizations. (http://bit.ly/2hg78du)

** A decade after it was first promised, Canada's new High Arctic Research Station is nearly complete and already giving scientists access to a vast new section of ice and tundra. (http://bit.ly/2wdE8pz) (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom)
By Agnieszka Barteczko

WARSAW, July 31 (Reuters) - Poland said on Monday it would press on with logging the country's primeval Bialowieza forest in defiance of an injunction by the European Union's top court, saying it needed to cut down trees to defeat insect pests.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ordered Poland last week to immediately stop large-scale logging in the ancient forest, one of many cases that has pitted the nationalist, eurosceptic government in Warsaw against the bloc.

Poland said it would keep logging in the forest, a UNESCO World Heritage site which straddles the border between Poland and Belarus and is home to European bison as well as rare birds.

"We are acting in line with the EU laws," Environment Minister Jan Szyszko told a news conference, defending logging as part of Poland's wider legal obligations to protect the forest which is suffering the biggest beetle outbreak in decades.

"We have to fulfil the protective measures plan and this is what we are doing," Konrad Tomaszewski, a representative of the state forest management agency, told the same news conference.

The logging has triggered protests by environmentalists and raised concern in the European Commission, which has also started legal action against Poland over its judiciary reforms.

The EU's executive Commission earlier this year sued Poland at the European Court of Justice over the logging. Last week's injunction was an interim decision in a case that could take years to resolve.

Environmentalists say the beetle is only a pretext for Szyszko. They argue that he favours logging because it brings more revenues to the local community and helps to boost support for the ruling Law and Justice party.

Szyszko approved tripling of the quota of wood that can be harvested in one of three administrative areas of the Bialowieza Forest in March 2016.

Following Poland's reaction to injunction, the European Commission said Warsaw must comply with the no-logging decision.

Should Poland eventually lose the main case at the court, it could be fined more than 4 million euros ($4.71 million) and risk penalties of up to 300,000 euros for every day it defies the ruling.

It was unclear if Poland could face penalties for non-compliance with the injunction.

"According to our knowledge, this is a precedent. No EU state has ignored an interim measure before," Katarzyna Kosciesza from non-governmental organisation ClientEarth said.

Szyszko said he is not worried about possible EU fines for non-compliance. He estimated that a halt to the protective measures could cost 2 billion zlotys ($552.03 million) in damage to nature, without elaborating.

Szyszko brought a jar of Bialowieza beetles to the news conference, saying they were enough to kill a thousand trees.

But non-government organisations including Greenpeace and Wild Poland Foundation say the vast majority of trees felled so far were unaffected by the beetles. ($1 = 3.6230 zlotys) ($1 = 0.8484 euros) (Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska in Brussels, editing by Alister Doyle)
By Jorn Poltz

MUNICH, July 31 (Reuters) - Germany's federal prosecutor said on Monday that two men suspected of being accomplices to Beate Zschaepe, the main surviving suspect in a neo-Nazi trial for 10 murders, had procured the gun used in a spate of racial killings.

Prosecutors say Zschaepe was part of the National Socialist Underground (NSU) group that killed eight Turks, a Greek and a German policewoman between 2000 and 2007. She denies taking part in the murders which have led to one of the most closely watched trials in post-war Germany.

In his closing arguments at a trial which has lasted more than four years, public prosecutor Jochen Weingarten said Ralf Wohlleben - once an official at the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) - and Carsten S. had procured the NSU's main murder weapon.

Weingarten said the men had therefore aided and abetted the murder of nine people of foreign origin.

Wohlleben, who is named because he was a prominent member of the NPD, denies that. Carsten S., whose name is abbreviated in Germany to protect his identity, is the only one of the five accused in the trial who have made a comprehensive confession.

The federal prosecutor said Zschaepe's friends Uwe Boehnhardt and Uwe Mundlos had fired the shots. Boehnhardt and Mundlos killed themselves in 2011 when police discovered the gang by chance.

Zschaepe did not take part in the shootings but, as a "co-founder, member and accomplice" of the NSU, bears full responsibility, the federal prosecutor said last week.

The closing arguments of the prosecutors, joint plaintiffs and defendants are expected to end only after the summer recess, meaning a verdict would likely come in autumn at earliest.

If found guilty, some of the accused could face life imprisonment. (Writing by Michelle Martin; editing by Erik Kirschbaum)
SANAA, July 31 (Reuters) - A man convicted of raping and murdering a three-year-old girl was executed in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Monday in front of hundreds of onlookers, the first public execution there since 2009.

"Security was very tight, because authorities were fearing a revenge attack by armed men from the Bani Matar tribe to which the girl's family belong," said Reuters photographer Khaled Abdullah who witnessed the scene.

The police van transporting Muhammad al-Maghrabi, 41, to Sanaa's Tahrir Square was escorted by five police patrol vehicles. The execution drew a large number of onlookers, some perched up telegraph poles and many watching from rooftops.

The crowd started to shout "Allah is the greatest" when Maghrabi arrived.

"The man was escorted from the van to the middle of the square, and then the place turned to a complete chaos and I fought for a position to take pictures," Abdullah said.

"He tried to talk to the executioner, a police officer who was calmly smoking a cigarette as he stood next to him before pointing his AK-47 to his back from a very close distance.

"Soon he fired around four shots, and people realized that it was done, they rushed to the place and tried to take the body, but the police were able to take the body to the van and drove through the crowd out of the square."

Yahya al-Matari, the father of the murder victim, Rana al-Matari, told reporters after the execution he was satisfied.

"This is the first day in my life," he said. "I am relieved now."

Yemen has been devastated by more than two years of civil war between its Saudi-backed government and Houthi fighters who seized parts of the country in 2014 and 2015.

Reuters Wider Image pictures: http://reut.rs/2uNIW70 (Reporting by Khaled Abdullah; Editing by Richard Balmforth and Robin Pomeroy)
By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON, July 31 (Reuters) - A Pennsylvania-based coal company said on Monday it signed its first contract with Ukraine to sell coal that is burned to produce electricity in a deal sped along by the U.S. and Ukrainian governments.

Privately held Xcoal Energy & Resources agreed to supply Centrenergo PJSC, one of the largest power companies in Ukraine, with 700,000 tons of steam coal in coming months.

Ukraine has sought alternative coal suppliers ahead of the upcoming winter as it struggles to get the fuel from pro-Russia separatist-held regions in the east.

The deal came together with the help of the U.S. and Ukraine governments, Xcoal spokesman Ted O'Brien said, adding that the company could have more opportunities to do business with Ukraine in the future.

"We were first contacted by the (U.S.) Department of Commerce regarding a delegation from Ukraine to meet with coal suppliers," O'Brien said. "It was very much the result of a concerted effort from the governments of both countries."

Xcoal plans to send the first shipment of 210,000 tons of coal to Ukraine by early September. Terms were not disclosed.

"In recent years, Kiev and much of Eastern Europe have been reliant on and beholden to Russia to keep the heat on," Energy Secretary Rick Perry said. "That changes now."

U.S. President Donald Trump has said supplying coal to Ukraine is one of the goals of a plan to make the United States energy "dominant."

The deal announced on Monday was less than the "millions and millions" of tons of coal that Trump said Ukraine has sought.

The Ukraine steam coal shipments will do little to help the battered U.S. coal industry which has been hit by a glut of competing cheap natural gas. U.S. coal output last year sank to the lowest level since 1978.

U.S. coal exports to the world through May this year rose 60 percent from the same period in 2016 to nearly 37 million tons, a trend the Trump administration was quick to claim was due to its axing of Obama-era environmental regulations.

It was unclear whether the spike would last as the United States faces higher production and shipping costs than other exporters.

Supplying European allies, which have long been dependent on Russia for gas, with U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) is also part of Trump's energy plan. Former President Barack Obama's administration also pushed to ship LNG to allies. (Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
By Chris Arsenault

TORONTO, July 31 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Brazil is investigating a plane crash in which three environmental enforcement agents were killed, a government spokesman said on Monday, a case which is the latest blow to efforts to protect the Amazon rainforest.

The plane carrying agents with Brazil's environment enforcement agency (IBAMA) crashed earlier this month in Roraima, Brazil's least populated state, on the country's northern border with Venezuela.

Three environmental enforcement agents and a pilot died in the crash while on a mission to combat illegal mining, deforestation and other crimes, officials said. One agent survived with severe burns.

IBAMA spokesman Tiago Costa told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that federal officials are investigating the cause of the crash but it is unclear when they will report their findings.

"Olavo Perim Galvao, Alexandre Rochinski and Sebastiao Lima Pereira Junior dedicated their lives to the defense of the environment with extreme professionalism and commitment," IBAMA said in a statement commemorating the dead agents.

The rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rose by 29 percent last year to the highest level in eight years, according to government data.

Most of this deforestation is caused by illegal activity, according to IBAMA.

The rise in deforestation comes alongside an increase in deadly conflicts over land and resources in the Amazon, according to campaigners, who blame impunity and other factors for worsening conditions.

"All across the Amazon, crimes against local communities and the environment are spiraling out of control," Marcio Astrini, a spokesman for Greenpeace in Brazil said in a statement earlier this month. "The people who call the forest home, and the forest itself, have always been victims of a lack of governance."

Brazil is the world's most dangerous nation for land rights and environmental activists, according to a report from the London-based campaign group Global Witness released this month.

At least 49 land rights campaigners were killed in Latin America's largest country last year, with more than 80 percent of those killings taking place in the Amazon. (Reporting by Chris Arsenault @chrisarsenaul, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith and Ros Russell; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit http://news.trust.org)
MOGADISHU, July 31 (Reuters) - Somalia said on Monday its military and allied foreign troops had killed a senior member of al Shabaab it said was responsible for several Islamist bombings.

The information ministry said a military raid near the southern town of Torotoroow on Sunday had killed a man identified as Ali Mohamed Hussein or Ali Jabal. It did not disclose the nationality of the foreign troops, but American soldiers have in the past taken part in such raids.

"This individual was part of an al Shabaab network responsible for planning and executing several bombings and assassinations that resulted in the deplorable death of numerous innocent civilians in Mogadishu," the ministry said.

It is the second raid carried out with foreign troops in the last two months that has killed senior members of al Shabaab.

A U.S. Navy SEAL was killed and two troops wounded in May in a raid on one of the group's compounds in what appeared to be the first U.S. combat death in the African country since the 1993 "Black Hawk Down" incident.

Somalia said Ali Jabal's death would "reduce al Shabaab's ability to conduct senseless acts of violence against the people of Somalia, its East African neighbors, and the international community."

Al Shabaab was not immediately reachable for comment.

The al Qaeda-affiliated insurgents have carried out frequent attacks in Mogadishu as they bid to topple Somalia's Western-backed government and drive out African Union peacekeeping troops.

Somalia has been at war since 1991, when clan-based warlords overthrew dictator Siad Barre and then turned on each other. (Writing by Aaron Maasho; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
Following is a summary of current people news briefs.

Actor and playwright Sam Shepard dies from ALS complications

Actor and Pulitzer-winning playwright Sam Shepard has died from complications related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), known as Lou Gehrig's disease, a representative for his family said on Monday. Shepard, 73, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1979 for his play "Buried Child," died last week at home in Kentucky on Thursday, surrounded by his family, spokesman Chris Boneau said in a statement to Reuters.

Angelina Jolie 'upset' over backlash to Cambodia film casting process

Angelina Jolie responded to growing backlash over the casting process for her latest film, saying she was "upset" that an improvised scene during auditions had been misconstrued as taking real money away from impoverished children. In a Vanity Fair interview published last week about her film "First They Killed My Father," Jolie described a game played by the casting directors with the young Cambodian children auditioning for the lead role of Loung Ung.

French actress Jeanne Moreau dies at 89

Jeanne Moreau, the quintessential French actress whose mother was an English cabaret club dancer, has died at 89. Moreau, a petite chain-smoker who worked with most of the world's top directors of the first few decades after World War Two, Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard and Wim Wenders among them.
While declaring August 2 as the National Protest Day against SAITM, the SAITM Virodi Jana Pawra (SVJP) today said that protests and black band campaigns will be held across the island.

It was learnt that the professionals, political parties, trade unions, civil societies and university students and their parents had pledged their support to the move, to show their displeasure to the government.

SVJP organizers said the employees in the private and public sectors will wear black bands and the State and private institutions would be decorated with black flags.

Meanwhile, street demonstrations, leaflet and awareness campaigns are also scheduled to be held during the day.

It is expected that a work stoppage for several hours in the fields of medical, teaching, petroleum and several private and public institutions will be due to the scheduled event.

The move is said to be the first collective action after series of individual anti SAITM battles.

Explaining the upcoming move, the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) Secretary Dr. Haritha Aluthge said many protesting activities would conduct district and village wise against the government stance over the SAITM. (Thilanka Kanakarathna)
Three similar incidents that took place last week and should have drawn the attention of civil rights movements and human rights champions were simply swept under the carpet without at least being subject to public discourse. This was so, probably due to the recurrence of such incidents in short frequencies in the recent times and deemed by the society as normal.

In the first incident, former President Mahinda Rajapaksas second son Yoshitha, who had been summoned by the CID to record a statement on July 27, had refused to turn up and requested for another day for the purpose.

He had been summoned to record a statement on the involvement of a vehicle allegedly belonging to the Siriliya Saviya organisation in the Waseem Thajudeen murder. In connection with the same vehicle, former Presidents wife Shiranthi who was the head of the Siriliya Saviya too had been summoned by the CID on the following day, but she too appealed a deferral to record the statement.

In the third incident, a bigwig of the incumbent government of so-called good governance acted in a similar manner. Former Finance Minister and current Foreign Affairs Minister Ravi Karunanayake who had been summoned by the Presidential Commission probing the controversial Central Bank bond issue had failed to appear before the commission on two consecutive days last week, and he is reportedly scheduled to appear tomorrow. He was summoned after it was revealed in witness testimony that the minister and his family leased out a luxury apartment at Monarch Residencies for eight months on a monthly rental of Rs.1.45 million which had been paid by Arjun Aloysius of Perpetual Treasuries Ltd. (PTL).

Can an ordinary citizen who is wanted by the police, CID, FCID or the Bribery Commission as an accused or witness in connection with a case involving a meager amount of money, tell those investigating instructions that he or she would come on a day other than the one fixed by the particular institution? Can an ordinary man refuse to appear in court or any commission saying he would come on another day? Never. Even if an ordinary man is not needed to be arrested but required to be grilled in connection with a crime or civil matter, he or she would be taken in for questioning rather than to be summoned.

"It is clear that all are not treated alike. Some people can fix a date for the investigations against them, whereas some cannot"



But there is a category of men and women in this country whose refusal to appear before these institutions cannot be rebuffed by the investigators in turn. Here the investigators have to oblige. In January last year too, the former First Lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa who was summoned to appear before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry for Fraud and Corruption (PRECIFAC) in connection with a corruption case did not make an appearance on the scheduled day and got a deferral. In April last year, the officials of the PRECIFAC had told the media that former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa had taken up a tour to the United States avoiding PRECIFAC investigations against him. In June last year, UPFA MP Namal Rajapaksa failed to report to the Bribery Commission when summoned.

It is clear that all are not treated alike. Some people can fix a date for the investigations against them, whereas some cannot. Some people are invited or summoned to record their statements whereas others are taken in for questioning or sometimes kicked into the police jeep to be taken to the police station. Meanwhile, statements of some people on corruption charges are recorded in their houses or in places of their choice whereas the others are haulled into police stations. Some people are given medical certificates enabling them to be admitted to the prison hospital soon after they are remanded, a privilege enjoyed particularly by a certain class and a drama well exposed, but not even thought of to prevent. Some people are issued with fresh passports even before the office hours of the day, when they are caught with wrong passports at the airport whereas others would be behind bars for the same offence.



But the Constitution in its Chapter of Fundamental Rights says: All persons are equal before the law and are entitled to equal protection of the law. What a difference between the theory and practice!
From Left: Energy Consultant Dr. Tilak Siyambalapitiya, Railway Electrification and Modernization Project of Sri Lanka Consultant Rodolfo Martinez, Moratuwa University Department of Transport & Logistics Professor Amal Kumarage and Railway Electrification and Modernization Project of Sri Lanka Project Director Palitha Samarasinghe

Pic by Damith Wickramasinghe

By Chandeepa Wettasinghe

The government could be following in the footsteps of its predecessors in project development, as the US$ 2 billion Colombo Suburban Railway Project aiming to modernize and electrify railroads under the grand Megapolis Plan has only taken into account an overly optimistic scenario, an expert warned.

The Megapolis plan expects the daily railroad demand to increase to 1.2 million passengers by 2025 and 1.4 million passengers by 2035, from the 300,000 figure recorded in 2016. A report is currently being authored to implement the rail upgrades.



If you look at the numbers, the numbers are highly optimistic. We know that Megapolis numbers have not been validated, University of Motaruwa Transport Department Professor Amal Kumarage said at a panel discussion of the John Diandas Memorial Lecture 2017 organized by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport.

He said that the Megapolis project has based its projections off a study done several years ago when growth of demand for railroad had been high, and in the years since, the demand growth for it has been much lower.



Prof. Kumarage said that the Transport Ministry and the University of Moratuwa have much more up-to-date figures. He further noted that the railroad master plan has only taken into account this high growth possibility.



When you are looking at growth, generally, the practice is to have low growth scenarios, high growth scenarios and all those stuff, at least. But it seems to me that only the high growth scenario has been used. So I think these are sensitivity factors which I feel, should be looked at, he said.



Further Prof. Kumarage pointed out that the project should take into consideration the modernization and development of other modes of transport such as buses, which could divert demand from the railroads.



That I think is the scientific way to go forward. Saying, That is going to be done in another report, is I think not the best arrangement, so I think that in the feasibility studies these things should be looked at. Because otherwise, we will have a recommendation to electrify all the railway tracks without actually having the sensitivity and the critical parametres that will make it work, he said.



He stressed that he is not calling for modernization to not take place, but to be more realistic.

This country has a lot of examples of putting capacity where we dont need capacity and not putting capacity where we need capacity, so I think we should not continue in this same way, he noted.

Railway Electrification and Modernization Project of Sri Lanka Consultant Rodolfo Martinez, who delivered the memorial lecture, replied to Prof. Kumarage, by saying that the plan is based on preference surveys from residents in the railroad corridors, who had said that they would travel by rail if there was capacity.



Currently the numbers are not indicating the demand, because the service is not there, but the potential is there, if the service is provided, he said.



Martinez also noted that if the entire system is upgraded, then the government can start by purchasing 50 percent of the trains that can be accommodated by the new system if the demand is low, and start scaling up.



We need to plan for the whole system. We need to assume that the potential demand can be reached, he said.



Both the experts however agreed that a key determinant of the future demand will be the pricing of the service, which the government has to decide whether to subsidize or not.



Sensitivity of pricing could cut the current ridership by half. The government is saying that the railways are costing an x amount. It could become 2x or 3x, so the report needs to reflect this, Prof. Kumarage said, but noted that cargo transport could bring in higher income for the Railway Department.



Martinez noted that the upgraded system will allow for substantial cargo traffic.



The master plan expects to significantly expand the number of rail tracks, and to refurbish the existing rail lines significantly, with a key focus on the Veyangoda-Fort-Panadura line which the plan expects to bring in over two-thirds of the 1.4 million passengers to the city by 2035, and the Kelani Valley line, which will bring in the rest.



Significant upgrades to railway stations, the reduction of crossings through flyovers or tunnels for roads, and the establishment of a modern control centre and an integrated transportation hub in Colombo are also in the cards.
Sri Lankas Premier Startup Conference and Showcase, Disrupt Asia 2017 (DA17) concluded on a successful note recently helping the country establish new startup ecosystem paradigms.



Organised by the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), the nations apex ICT Institution under the Ministry of Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure, the event included 52 star-studded foreign and local speakers, well-known resource persons and over 350 attendees.



This years conference was unparalleled and unique in that it united thought leaders, entrepreneurs, investors and avid community members for keynote talks, interactive workshops, speed mentoring and showcasing startups, all united in their mission to radically change our startup ecosystem. Notable highlights of DA17 included:



Setting the tone for the conference, the morning keynote speaker Cheryl Edison, Serial Entrepreneur and Global Business Expert, observed, We are standing on the edge of one of most the important times in the history of Sri Lanka. We need to work together to make Sri Lanka the superpower startup ecosystem that it intends to be.



The American innovation guru and serial entrepreneur noted that local entrepreneurs were hemmed in due to a lack of an official payment gateway. She said, The entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka have one hurdle that they cannot overcome on their own; a payment gateway system that will empower every person in Sri Lanka to move money, make a business that works for them and their local communities.



She elaborated on the need to build Makerpaces. We need to build places which serve the needs of our entrepreneurs  Makerpaces, where entrepreneurs come and create a community and create links between their creativity and commerce.



The keynote speaker for the evening session was Carbon70 Holdings President and CustomSpace Partner Kevin Petrovic. Taking the audience through his journey as an entrepreneur and founder of several startups, he said, The ideas came from improving the value for the customer. Make something people actually want. If you dont have a good idea copy one. He advised the audience on getting help. Kevin noted, Everyone needs a lot of help when they start out so do not be afraid to go after help. Find people who know your industry, who have an interest and who want to help. It acts as a big driver in the success of startups.



On being entrepreneurial he said, Entrepreneurship means you dont have to come up with your own idea to be an entrepreneur and work on startups. You can help grow a company as well as be part of that. That too is very entrepreneurial.



In conclusion he said, Start now and make steps towards the goal. Only you can decide your success. If you dont try you definitely wont succeed.



The main conference included nine discussions on a range of topics with exceptional presentations sharing a wealth of knowledge with a captivated audience. The conference provided attendees opportunities to express, share, understand and explore insights into navigating through the transforming startup ecosystem. Is Sri Lanka Ready for the Digital Age, Diversity in Tech - How well we are doing, Opportunities and Obstacles for Fast Scaling Startups were among some of the thought-provoking sessions. Parallel to the Main Conference was Stage 2.0 which also provided many insightful discussions with attendees having the opportunity to learn firsthand how to drive innovation in their businesses.



Over 40 participants including high-net-worth individuals in the investment domain and investors looking to invest in tech startups attended the Investor Strategy Round Table. Both foreign and local resource personnel including Inspirational Speaker, Entrepreneur, Futurist, Investor and Ignition Angels Managing Director Daniel Goldman held sessions and panel discussions engaging the audience on the significant opportunities that have emerged in early stage investing in startups.

While participants attended several stimulating workshops, a novel feature of DA17 was the Academic Workshop segment. Held in partnership with the University Grants Commission (UGC), this session included two foreign resource personnel; Dr. Neelam Saxena, Prof. Rehan Bhana and ICTA Senior Consultant Indika de Zoysa.



More than 20 universities representing both public and private academia participated in this workshop. The main discussion was focused on how to develop the student entrepreneurship ecosystem within universities. Importantly during the workshop a draft framework and action plan, for building and developing the student entrepreneurship ecosystem in the country was also developed.

During DA17 Exhibition, 27 technology startups showcased their products. Visitors were able to meet vibrant local startups and entrepreneurs and observe new rise of Sri Lankas Startup Ecosystem. In turn these startups met and networked with potential clients and investors as a result of participating and showcasing their innovations.



With exponential growth of the local startup culture, the Disrupt Asia 2017 Hemas Slingshot Startup Battle was the ideal platform for startups to competitively pitch their business ideas. Olivescript was adjudged the winner and received a cash prize of Rs.200,000 and six months co-working space by Business Hubs, sponsors of the event. The Runner-up Direct Pay received Rs.100,000 and six months co-working space
Five suspects were arrested by the Police yesterday for several offenses including the assault of a group of Coast Guards and damaging a police checkpoint at Point Pedro.

Police said the suspects were initially arrested following a tip off for illegally clearing a mangrove forest in Manalkadu, Point Pedro. The suspects were arrested along with several knives, a cab and a motor cycle.

Further investigation revealed the suspects were also wanted for damaging a police checkpoint at Kate Junction in Point Pedro on July 9.

Police said the suspects had also assaulted a group of Coast Guards attached to the Point Pedro naval branch and had obstructed the officers from carrying out their duties on July 21.

The suspects between the ages of 20 - 37 were identified as residents of Karaweddi, Warani and were to be produced before the Point Pedro Magistrate Court.(DS)
REUTERS, 30th JULY, 2017-The four Arab countries which have cut ties with Qatar said on Sunday they were ready for talks to tackle the dispute if Doha showed willingness to deal with their demands

The foreign ministers of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) met in the Bahraini capital Manama to discuss the crisis that has raised tensions across the region. Diplomatic efforts led by Kuwait and backed by Western powers have failed to end the dispute, in which the four states have severed travel and communications with Qatar.



The four countries are ready for dialogue with Qatar with the condition that it announces its sincere willingness to stop funding terrorism and extremism and its commitment to not interfere in other countries foreign affairs and respond to the 13 demands, Bahrains foreign minister, Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa, told a joint news conference after the meeting. They announced no new economic sanctions on the Gulf state.



Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt and Bahrain have previously issued a list of 13 demands for Qatar, which include curtailing its support for the Muslim Brotherhood, shutting down the Doha-based Al Jazeera channel, closing a Turkish military base and downgrading its relations with Gulf enemy Iran.
Hayleys PLC Chairman Mr. Mohan Pandithage speaking at the event

Landmark Move Will Result In the Development of a World Class Distribution Facility

Hayleys Advantis Limited broke ground for a Mega Distribution Center (DC) in Kotugoda, on Friday 28th July, paving the way for the construction of the largest facility of this nature in the country with a foot print in excess of 500,000 sqft. The move is part of the companys expansion strategy with emphasis on consolidating operations for greater efficiencies.

Speaking at the ground breaking ceremony, Hayleys Group Chairman Mr. Mohan Pandithage said, We are proud to contribute towards the Governments vision of establishing Sri Lanka as a key logistics hub in the South Asian region by investing in projects of this nature. As the countrys largest integrated logistics solutions provider, we have always worked closely with all stakeholders in pushing this industry forward.Our new Mega Distribution Centrewill enable us to further contribute to this endeavour.

The facility will be constructed on a 15 acre plot of land in Kotugoda, with the investment for the first phase alone being Rs.3.2 billion. Once completed the facility will offer Ground+7 high racking to optimize space utilization.

Foundation laying ceremony for the Mega Distribution Center

Commenting on the new investment Managing Director of Hayleys Advantis Limited, Mr. Ruwan Waidyaratne said,We are delighted to break ground on this new Mega Distribution Centre which will allow us to consolidate our operations at a single location bringing in added operational efficiencies and cost benefits.We hope to have the facility completed and ready for operations by August 2018. This investment goes in line with the expansion plans we have in mind for Advantis, and we hope to offer ultimate cost effective solutions for our clients in the near future.

Advantis has over a decade of experience in managing warehousing and distribution facilitates for both large and small clients through its brand Advantis 3PL Plus (former Logiwiz). The company will be capitalizing on its experience in designing this new facility. The Mega DC will also consist of the latest in warehouse management technology complemented by world-class equipment which will further boost efficiencies.

3D drawing of the Mega Distribution Center

With over six decades of experience in the transportation and logistics industry in Sri Lanka, Hayleys Advantis is on an aggressive drive to expand its presence in the Asian region, already covering 10 countries. Backed by the diversified blue-chip conglomerate Hayleys PLC, the company provides integrated logistics services through its wide network of offices across the region.
Foreign Employment Minister Thalatha Athukorale was offered the Woman of the Year award at the Top 50 Professional and Career Women Awards Sri Lanka 2017 on July 14. The International Finance Cooperating Institute presented this award to Athukorale in recognition of the services rendered by her towards the welfare and progress of expatriate workers abroad. Attorney at Law Thalatha Athukorale entered the political arena following the demise of her brother Gamini Athukorale. In an interview with the Daily Mirror, she spoke about the issues pertaining to the foreign employment sector, especially touching on the housemaids crisis where Sri Lankans are employed abroad.

"Once housemaids have gone they have to be there for two years according to the agreement. Most of the migrant workers are from the grassroots level"

There is an allegation that the ministry hasnt been able to protect poor people who get hoodwinked by fake agents into paying large sums of money on the promise of jobs in various countries.

We cant control it single-handedly. The general public must be aware of unpleasant experiences of others who were hoodwinked by bogus agents. The ministry and Bureau are publicizing such incidents to prevent them from recurring. Anyone who seeks a job opportunity abroad can contact our officers deployed around the country and obtain advice anytime. In the cases of corrupt practices, where only money is concerned, people also have a responsibility to be vigilant.

We imposed a regulation that women who have children under the age of five cant migrate.

A family background report is a must now. Unfortunately, some try to bribe officers and get a fake family background report which makes it easier for them to get approval from the Bureau. Our investigation unit operating under the Bureau is doing a great job in curbing illegal departures and checking on bogus foreign employment agencies.

Seventeen officers from the Sri Lanka Police are serving this unit. I can be happy now because I know that illegal activities which were taking place on a very large scale are now minimized.

"Our investigation unit operating under the Bureau is doing a great job in curbing illegal departures and checking on bogus foreign employment agencies. Seventeen officers from the Sri Lanka Police are serving this unit"



Recently, you came under fire over an agreement signed between Sri Lanka and the Saudi Arabian Government. The Association of Licensed Foreign Employment Agencies claimed that the government is projected to lose nearly Rs. 4.5 billion income due to a new agreement thatll send housemaids to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Can you clear your stance on this matter?

That is all nonsense. I never signed an agreement with the Saudi Arabian Government. This isnt my private business for me to decide everything. Whatever I decide, its with the consultation of Ministry Secretary and other officers of the ministry. But, when some other country imposes conditions with regard to foreign employment, we have to agree with them. We cant decide how to send our women to Saudi for housemaids jobs. Its the Saudi Arabian Government that should decide about it.



There has been a disturbing number of reports revealing that Sri Lankan maids face inhuman treatment in the Gulf countries. Are you contemplating any action to minimize or stop sending our maids to SA?

Once housemaids have gone they have to be there for two years according to the agreement. Most of the migrant workers are from the grassroots level.

They have no knowledge about the countries they are going to work in. We are trying to make them understand that wherever they are going to is different from Sri Lanka.

They have to be aware that society, culture, environment and the laws are different from those in our country. With the aim of providing them with a better training programme before departure, I have taken steps to expand the duration of the training programme.

As we take all measures to make the housemaids aware of their obligations, they must be able to adjust themselves accordingly. You cant blame the government because people have a responsibility. In the mean time, we need to send skilled workers as much as possible.



Isnt the lack of language skills one of the biggest difficulties our migrant workers, especially housemaids are facing?

We send local workers to nearly about 18 countries worldwide. Recently, a USA job recruitment company visited Sri Lanka to recruit caregivers and nurses to work in the USA. They interviewed our women and selected only three women who had passed the interviews.

Three werent enough for them, so they just left. The language problem is a big barrier. In order to overcome it, maybe from January 2018 onwards, everybody will have to sit for an exam where language skills will be tested in keeping with the standards expected by the countries they expect to migrate to.

FROM JANUARY 2018, EVERY JOB SEEKER WILL HAVE TO SIT FOR AN EXAM WHERE LANGUAGE SKILL WILL BE TESTED



I NEVER SIGNED AN AGREEMENT WITH SAUDI ARABIAN GOVERNMENT



DEMAND FOR HOUSEMAIDS IN THE GULF HAS CONSIDERABLY DECREASED



THERE ARE AROUND 300, 000 COMPLAINTS REGARDING MISDEEDS DURING THE PREVIOUS GOVERNMENT





If the government could develop industries in the country, producing new job opportunities, the country doesnt need to be dependent on foreign exchange received from housemaids employed in the Gulf. What is you take on this?

My personal wish isnt to send any woman as a housemaid abroad. However, for the past ten years, the country has been dependent only on income earned through foreign employment, especially in Gulf region.



Our agriculture sector was destroyed and the garment sector was discouraged under the previous government. Nearly 500,000 women lost their jobs in the garment sector. As a result, most women who worked in garments took up opportunities as housemaids. No one should expect a sudden change anytime soon.



I cant stop it overnight. It will take at least 10 years. We are trying to send only qualified workers.

We have ruled National Vocations Qualification (NVQ) level standards for migrant workers. The Ministry of Vocational Training and Ministry of Foreign Employment are working hand in hand in this task. Many problems pertaining to the foreign employment sector have existed.

Its been just two years after we were appointed. Some issues still have to be addressed. I cant do wonders within two years. I will try my best. Its my duty. I need a little more time to make the changes.



For the past two years, there were a number of new programmes launched by the Bureau with regard to housemaids. Is there a **diminution in the number of women seeking housemaid jobs?

Yes. There is a decrease in the number of local women migrating for housemaids jobs in the Middle East. Its a result of our strict programme at the Bureau against illegal departures.

At the same time, we have noticed that the demand for housemaids in the Gulf has considerably decreased. The income earned by the Bureau had also been decreased according to Central Bank reports. As a government, of course it needs foreign exchange. Our government isnt of the view that foreign exchange through housemaids should be the main income. Currently, the government is considering the agriculture sector which can be promoted and used as a good way of obtaining foreign exchange through export products. The government will be able to receive more money by focusing on resources which can be developed within the country.

"Yes. There is a decrease in the number of local women migrating for housemaids jobs in the Middle East. Its a result of our strict programme at the Bureau against illegal departures"



The current government obtained power making many promises; especially good governance, freeing the country of corruption and the prosecution of murderers and wrongdoers. What has been the outcome of these policies so far?

I wont say its a hundred percent change. People have freedom of expression thats present in the country. The judiciary is also acting without any pressure from this government.

What else do we need changed? It takes a little time. I can assure you that the truth will prevail. Just because we try to suppress the situation, it wont happen.

I think there are around 300, 000 complaints regarding misdeeds that took place during the previous government. There are many files piled up at the Attorney General Department. There were even cases sans any evidence.

PIX BY DAMITH WICKREMESINGHE
IGP Pujith Jayasundare who is on a visit to Jaffna today said that the main suspect involved in the attack on two police constables in Kopay was a former LTTE member.

Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said Jaffna Senior DIG Roshan Fernando was leading the investigations while the security in the area was tightened following the incident.

The gangsters who arrived on four motorcycles had attacked police constables Surendra and Dhammika of the Kopay Police with swords and clubs on Sunday afternoon while they were inquiring into a complaint in an area close to the Nanthavil Amman Kovil in Kondavil.

The injured constables are warded at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital.

Police said they suspect the gangsters to be members of the North-based 'Aawa' group. (By Darshana Sanjeewa)

Video by Gobi Ranjan
The following is a response sent to us by Finance and Mass Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera.

International legal practitioners both here in Sri Lanka and overseas have expressed their utter shock at the purported opinion expressed by Professor G.L. Peiris in the Daily Mirror of 21st July, 2017, which isnt only legally fundamentally flawed, but is also factually false. The question is if Professor Peiris has committed violence to the law in sheer ignorance of the law or being fully aware of the law, he deliberately attempts to mislead the public in the interest of narrow political gains. We leave it to the public to decide.

Under the subtitle Submission to the Jurisdiction of the International Court The Professor argues that once the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance Bill (hereinafter referred to as the Bill) is passed by Parliament, a member of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces, or indeed any citizen can find himself hauled up before the ICC. The Professor then attempts to make a convoluted argument to support his fundamentally flawed legal opinion, a perusal of which clearly reflects that either he hasnt read the Statute of the International Criminal Court (the Rome Statute) or he is deliberately stating falsehoods.

Finance and Mass Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera

The ICC doesnt have jurisdiction over any alleged offence committed by a Sri Lankan within the territory of Sri Lanka.

Its important to mention at the outset that regardless of what domestic laws are enacted by any state, an international court or tribunal, including the International Criminal Court (ICC) can investigate or prosecute only crimes over which it has jurisdiction in terms of the law under which the said court/tribunal is established. This is the case in respect of any court or tribunal, be it international or domestic.

Giving the benefit of the doubt that Professor Peiris may not have read the Rome Statute (although one would expect any person let alone a professor of law to read the relevant legal instruments before expressing a legal opinion), I draw the Professors attention to Articles 12 and 13 of the Rome Statute, which is reproduced verbatim below:



Article 12

Preconditions to the exercise of jurisdiction(by the ICC)

1. A State which becomes a Party to this Statute thereby accepts the jurisdiction of theCourt with respect to the crimes referred to in article 5.* [Article 5 describes the crimes over which the Court has jurisdiction, namely Genocide, Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes and the Crime of Aggression].

2. In the case of article 13, paragraph (a) or (c), the Court may exercise its jurisdiction if one or more of the following States are Parties to this Statute or have accepted the jurisdiction of the Court in accordance with paragraph 3(emphasis added):

(a) The State on the territory of which the conduct in question occurred or, if the crime was committed on board a vessel or aircraft, the State of registration of that vessel or aircraft;

(b) The State of which the person accused of the crime is a national.

3. If the acceptance of a State which is not a Party to this Statute is required under paragraph 2, that State may, by declaration lodged with the Registrar, accept the exercise of jurisdiction by the Court with respect to the crime in question. The accepting State shall cooperate with the Court without any delay or exception in accordance with Part 9.



Article 13

Exercise of jurisdiction

The Court may exercise its jurisdiction with respect to a crime referred to in article 5 in accordance with the provisions of this Statute if:



(a) A situation in which one or more of such crimes appears to have been committed is referred to the Prosecutor by a State Party in accordance with article 14;



(b) A situation in which one or more of such crimes appears to have been committed is referred to the Prosecutor by the Security Council acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations; or



(c) The Prosecutor has initiated an investigation in respect of such a crime in accordance with article 15.



In terms of Article 12.1, a State which becomes a Party to the Statute accepts the jurisdiction of the Court, i.e. the State accepts that the Court has the power to investigate and prosecute crimes (described under Article 5) committed on its territory or by its nationals. At the outset it must be pointed out that Sri Lanka is not a Party to the Statute and, consequently Sri Lanka has not accepted the jurisdiction of the Court over alleged crimes committed within our territory or by our nationals.

Article 13 stipulates the three bases on which the ICC will exercise its jurisdiction over a crime. Namely, if a State, which is a Party to the Statute (referred to as a State Party) refers such crimes to the Prosecutor of the ICC [Vide Article 13(a)]; or where the UN Security Council refers a situation to the Prosecutor acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the UN [Vide Article 13(b)]; or if the Prosecutor initiates an investigation on his own motion [Vide Article 13(c)]. However, Article 12.2 clearly provides that in the case of referrals by a State Party as provided for under Article 13(a) or where the Prosecutor initiates an investigation of his own motion as provided for under Article 13(c), the Court can exercise jurisdiction only if such crimes were committed (a) on the territory of a State Party to the Statute (including on a vessel or aircraft registered to that State Party); or (b) by a national of a State Party to the Statute.

"It is also of value to note that the ICC does not have retroactive jurisdiction to try past crimes even in respect of State Parties"





In simple terms the ICC cannot investigate or prosecute crimes committed on the territory of a state, or by a national of a state, which is not a State Party to the Statute of the ICC. As noted above Sri Lanka is not a Party to the Statute of the ICC and as such the ICC does not have jurisdiction in terms of its own Statute over any crime committed on the territory of Sri Lanka or by a Sri Lankan national, unless a Sri Lankan national commits a crime on the territory of a State, which is a Party to the Statute. To illustrate this point by example - Australia is a State Party to the Statute. If a Sri Lankan national commits a war crime in Australia then the ICC could exercise jurisdiction over that crime. But a Sri Lankan, against whom there is an allegation of war crimes or crimes against humanity, alleged to have been committed within the territory of Sri Lanka cannot be hauled up before the ICC contrary to Prof. Peiris deeply flawed legal opinion. One practicing attorney expressing shock and dismay at the outrageously wrong opinion stated that the aforesaid legal position is well known and even a first year law student who has examined the Rome Statute would know this.

The only exception to the above rule is provided under Article 13(b), which gives powers to the UN Security Council, acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, to refer a situation in which crimes appear to have been committed to the ICC Prosecutor, even where such crimes have been committed on the territory or by a national of a state, which is not a Party to the Rome Statute.

The Charter of the United Nations is the legal instrument that governs the conduct of the UN. Chapter VII, Article 39 provides as follows: The Security Council shall determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression and shall make recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance with Articles 41 and 42, to maintain or restore international peace and security. And the measures that are contemplated under Article 41 include setting up of judicial bodies, such as International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), both of which were established by the UN Security Council acting under Chapter VII as a measure to prevent ongoing conflict, which threatened international peace and security in the regions.

In terms of Article 13(b), the UN Security Council can refer a situation for investigation to the Prosecutor, where it determines that the situation poses a threat to international peace and security. The conflict in Sri Lanka did not pose a threat to international peace and security and in any event the conflict is concluded. So there is no legal basis for the UN Security Council to refer any crime or crimes committed within the territory of Sri Lanka to the ICC Prosecutor. In any event, a UN Security Council referral is not dependent on the domestic laws of a state. If serious crimes in International law are being committed within any specific conflict or situation, and the UN Security Council passes a resolution determining that such situation or conflict poses a threat to international peace and security (without either of the five permanent members  US, UK, France, Russia and China  vetoing against such resolution) then such crimes can be referred to the ICC, regardless of the State concerned recognizing the said crimes under its domestic laws as punishable crimes or not. So passing the Bill has no relevance to the situation contemplated under Article 13(b).



The only other instance, where a crime (as described under Article 5 of the Rome Statute) committed on the territory of a non-state party can be subject to the jurisdiction of the Court is in terms of Article 12.3, where a state which is not a Party to the Statute can by declaration lodge with the Registrar of the Court accepting the jurisdiction of the Court over a particular crime in question. That is to say, a State has the discretion to accept jurisdiction of the Court in respect of a specific crime if that State so wishes, even if the said State is not a Party to the Rome Statute. It is important to note here, that this can happen only if the State wishes to do so, and that the ICC cannot compel a State to accept the jurisdiction of the Court in this manner.

Given that Prof. Peiris is prone to grab every passing pebble to throw in the works in order to achieve his political ambitions, we would also anticipate the Professor coming back with a response to the effect that he suspects that the present Government could lodge such a declaration before the ICC and consequently have our citizens hauled up before the ICC. Anticipating even such a worthless argument, it is nevertheless important to note that no incumbent government in Sri Lanka could lodge a declaration accepting the jurisdiction of the ICC over a specific crime or crimes committed in Sri Lanka in terms of Article 12.3, without the sanction of the President and Parliament voting for such a decision and the constitutionality of such a move being tested by the Supreme Court at the very least. In any event, this situation would not arise particularly under this Government as it is in fact the UNP government, under the leadership of the Prime Minister, which avoided the extension of the ICC jurisdiction to Sri Lanka by the farsighted decision not to sign onto the Rome Statute.

So the accurate interpretation of the law and the factual status is that whether Parliament passes the Bill or not, no citizen of Sri Lanka can be hauled before the ICC in respect of any allegation of crime committed within the territory of Sri Lanka. Professors Peiris opinion to the contrary is not only legally flawed but is also factually false.

It is also of value to note that the ICC does not have retroactive jurisdiction to try past crimes even in respect of State Parties. In terms of Article 11.1  The Court has jurisdiction only with respect to crimes committed after the entry into force of this Statute; and per Article 11.2 - .If a State becomes a Party to this Statute after its entry into force, the Court may exercise its jurisdiction only with respect to crimes committed after the entry into force of this Statute for that State, unless that State has made a declaration under article 12, paragraph 3. So for arguments sake, even if a future government of Sri Lanka were to become a State Party to the Rome Statute, the Court will have jurisdiction only in respect of crimes committed after the date the Country becomes a State Party and not in respect of crimes committed prior to such date.



Past violations cannot be prosecuted under the proposed Law

Professor Peiris also pontificates at length about the applicability of the Bill to past violations, studiously ignoring the bedrock legal principle nullum crimen sine lege, i.e. no crime without law, which is the moral principle in criminal law and international criminal law that a person cannot or should not face criminal punishment except for an act that was criminalized by law before he/she performed the act. This principle is entrenched in our Constitution and the jurisprudence of our Supreme Court. Article 13(6) of the 1978 Constitution provides as follows:



No person shall be held guilty of an offence on account of any act or omission which did not, at the time of such act or omission, constitute such an offence and no penalty shall be imposed for any offence more severe than the penalty in force at the time such offence was committed.

The Proviso to Article 13(6) provides as follows: Nothing in this Article shall prejudice the trial and punishment of any person for any act or omission which, at the time when it was committed, was criminal according to the general principles of law recognized by the community of nations.

In Justice Sarath Silvas decision in the case of Nallaratnam Singharasa vs. AG (2006), analyzing the Proviso to Article 13(6), the Supreme Court determined that Sri Lanka being dualist legal system, international treaties and conventions that the country has signed onto or is party to, are enforceable within the country, only upon the enactment of an enabling domestic law. In terms of the said decision of the Supreme Court, regardless of the date of signature and ratification, an international Convention or Treaty will have force of law within Sri Lanka only upon the enactment of the enabling domestic law, unless the enabling domestic legislation expressly provides for retroactive application of the law. For example, the Offences against Aircrafts Act No. 24 of 1982 (which was passed by Parliament for the purpose of prosecuting Mr. Sepala Ekanayake for hijacking of the Alitalia aircraft

- Sepala Ekanayake v Attorney-General 1987), expressly provides in section 1 as follows:quote;



(1) This Act may be cited as the Offences against Aircraft Act.



(2) The provisions of section 2 and Part I of this Act shall come into operation on the date of enactment of this Act.



(3) The provisions of Part II of this Act shall be deemed for all purposes to have come into operation on July 3, 1978, being the date on which

(a) The Convention for the suppression of unlawful seizure of aircraft, signed at The Hague on December 16, 1970; and



(b) The Convention for the suppression of unlawful acts against the safety of Civil Aviation, signed at Montreal on September 23, 1971,



Entered into force in respect of Sri Lanka, and accordingly any person who has committed, on or after July 3, 1978, any act or omission which constitutes an offence under that Part shall be liable to be tried and punished for such offence under the provisions of that Part.  Unquote.



The Bill does not provide for retroactive application of the law to include past violations. In fact the Bill expressly provides that the proposed Law shall come into force on the date of certification in terms of Article 79 of the Constitution [vide section 1 of the Bill] .



Thus the letter of the law as noted above, is irrefutable proof that the crime of Enforced Disappearance becomes a punishable offence in Sri Lanka only on the date when the law is certified by the Speaker. As such, any alleged offences of Enforced Disappearance committed in Sri Lanka prior to that date cannot be prosecuted under the proposed law in terms of the aforesaid legal principle - nullum crimen sine lege. No doubt Professor Peiris must surely be cognizant of this fundamental principle of law, and wishes to ignore it in the interest of his narrow political motives, thus attempting to mislead the population - an act unbefitting of a former academic and a professor of law.

In the throes of attempting to establish his redundant argument that the Bill is applicable to past violations, Prof Peiris attempts to confuse the UNHRC Resolution 30/1 with the Bill. The Government has taken numerous steps pursuant to UNHRC Resolution 30/1, such as passing the law on Office for Missing Persons and proposes other transitional justice mechanisms, to deal with the past violations, to promote reconciliation and to ensure the non-recurrence of violations and conflict. The Bill is a forward looking law being enacted for the sole purpose of ensuring non-recurrence. In this context, Prof. Peirisattempt to mislead the public is unpardonable and cannot even be justified as being part and parcel of political tactics given that the objective of the Bill is to criminalize the act of Enforced disappearances, which Professor Peiris himself admits is a heinous offence and if it has occurred must be visited with deterrent punishment. The proposed law does just that  provide for a deterrent punishment for the crimes of Enforced Disappearances, if committed in the future and will contribute towards non-recurrence.



The Bill has no implications on our Extradition laws

Professor Peiris also attempts to wax eloquent about the impact of the Bill on the extradition laws of the country, ignoring another fundamental principle of law, applicable to extraditions, namely dual criminality, which is a basic requirement in the extradition law of many countries, including Sri Lanka. Dual criminality means, that a suspect can be extradited from one country to stand trial for breaking a second countrys laws only if a similar law exists in the extraditing country. So before any person is extradited to another state, the requesting state has to demonstrate that the offence, for which the person is requested to be extradited to the requesting state, is also recognized as a criminal offence punishable under the law of the sending state. This is expressly provided for in our Extradition Act No. 8 of 1977 (as amended) - the act or omission constituting the offence, or the equivalent act or omission, would constitute an offence against the law of Sri Lanka if it took place within Sri Lanka, or outside Sri Lanka [vide section 6(1)(c) of the Extradition Act].

As demonstrated above, the act of Enforced Disappearance will be recognized as a criminal offence punishable under our domestic law only once the Bill is passed as law.An Enforced Disappearance committed prior to that date is not recognized as a criminally punishable offence under our domestic laws. As such, any request for extradition for an offence of Enforced Disappearance committed prior to, that date from any foreign state would not meet the test of dual criminality, and will thus not meet the pre-requisite for extradition. Therefore, Professor Peiris arguments re implications of the Bill on our extradition laws does not hold water. Furthermore, the extradition provisions are there primarily to oblige the extradition of third party nationals to other States Party to the Convention requesting the extradition of their nationals to stand trial at home for enforced disappearance. As we dont wish to become a haven for serious criminals, I believe that we can all agree that this is a good thing.

"The conflict in Sri Lanka did not pose a threat to international peace and security and in any event the conflict is concluded. So there is no legal basis for the UN Security Council to refer any crime or crimes committed within the territory of Sri Lanka to the ICC Prosecutor"

The Bill is not one sided. The proposed law is applicable to all!

The lack of credibility in respect of the entire opinion published by Professor Peiris can be assessed simply by one statement he makes under the subtitle, what kind of convention has the government ratified? He goes on to purportedly argue that the only parties to be proceeded against are the State, its officials, and its organs. There is no corresponding obligation to deal with terrorists. One can hardly conceive of a more one sided approach; but the government is obviously happy with it. To support this false contention, Professor Peiris selectively cites only Article 2 of the Convention, studiously avoiding the Bill which is the subject of his debate. We have cited below verbatim, section 3 sub-sections (1) and (2) of the Bill, which are self-explanatory, and which amply reflects the intellectual disingenuous methodology used by Prof. Peiris to advance his untenable arguments.

Quote 



3 (1) Any person who, being a public officer or acting in an official capacity, or any person acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State 



(a) arrests, detains, wrongfully confines, abducts, kidnaps, or in any other form deprives any other person of such persons liberty; and



(b) (i) refuses to acknowledge such arrest, detention,wrongful confinement, abduction, kidnapping, or deprivation of liberty; or



(ii) conceals the fate of such other person; or



(iii) fails or refuses to disclose or is unable without valid excuse to disclose the subsequent or present whereabouts of such other person,



shall be guilty of the offence of enforced disappearance, and shall after conviction after trial on indictment by the High Court, be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding twenty years, and also be liable to pay a fine not exceeding one million rupees and shall further be liable to pay compensation not less than five hundred thousand rupees to a victim.



(2) Any person who(emphasis added) 



(a) wrongfully confines, abducts, kidnaps or in any other form deprives any other person of such persons liberty; and



(b) (i) refuses to acknowledge such wrongful confinement, abduction, kidnapping, or deprivation of liberty; or



(ii) conceals the fate of such other person; or



(iii) fails or refuses to disclose or is unable without valid excuse to disclose the subsequent or present whereabouts of such other person,



shall be guilty of an offence under this Act, and shall after conviction after trial on indictment by the High Court, be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding twenty years, and also be liable to pay a fine not exceeding one million rupees and shall further be liable to pay compensation not less than five hundred thousand rupees toa victim.  unquote.



Any person capable of reading the text in the Bill can see that section 3(2) refers to any person and consequently, any person, be it a member of the LTTE or any other group or private party can be prosecuted for the crime of Enforced Disappearance under the said section. Professors Peiris purported interpretation based on a blatant concealment of the relevant provisions of the proposed law, tantamount to an insult to the intelligence of our public.

It is remarkable that Professor Peiris entire response is in fact an indictment on our Military. He continues to protest that the passing of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance Bill will lead to members of our Military being hauled up before the courts for the crime of Enforced Disappearance. There may be some allegations against individual members of the military, but to date, no one has alleged that the Military as an entity has committed these crimes. Yet, the clear inference of Prof. Peiris statements is that members of our Military are prone to commit this crime. No doubt even the international community, following these exchanges will reach that conclusion based on Prof. Peiris own statements. Why he wishes to make such sinister insinuations in the pretext of protecting the military is best known to Prof. Peiris.

"It is remarkable that Professor Peiris entire response is in fact an indictment on our Military. He continues to protest that the passing of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance Bill will lead to members of our Military being hauled up before the courts for the crime of Enforced Disappearance. "



What is more shocking than the fact that Professor Peiris, got it all wrong either due to ignorance of the law or in an attempt to mislead the public for political gains, is the fact that his entire purported opinion in essence advocates that the heinous crime (as he aptly describes) of Enforced Disappearance should not be criminalized in our domestic law!! All communities of Sri Lanka, without exception have been subject to this grievous crime over the decades. Thousands of Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims have disappeared. People have disappeared from all parts of the country, South, North, East or West. It has affected, the rich, the poor, students, journalists. Thousands of children have been abducted and conscripted by the LTTE and consequently disappeared. The highest number of disappearances is from among the security forces (over 5000 members of the military are still missing). In 1990, we lost over 600 members of our police force at the hands of the LTTE. Be it in war or peace, people have been disappeared, white vanned without a trace. No segment of the society has been spared. It has happened under consecutive regimes. So it must stop now.



It is time that the Government fulfills its constitutional duty to provide equal protection of the law guaranteed under Article 12 of our Constitution to each individual living in the country. And what better way to start that process than by criminalizing this endemic crime that has plagued us for so many decades. No civilized person in their right mind would oppose this worthy effort to halt the continuation of this grave crime to ensure non-recurrence. Yet, Professor Peiris vehemently argues that it shouldnt be done. In other words he vicariously advocates that the law leaves a gap in order to facilitate perpetrators of Enforced Disappearances to commit such cowardly and dastardly acts with impunity, even in the future, secure in the knowledge that such conduct is not criminalized in our law books.

It is indeed utterly shocking that one could compromise on humanity in this manner for political expedience.
MANILA AFP July30, 2017 - A Philippine mayor named as being involved in the narcotics trade was shot dead in a police raid Sunday, authorities said, the latest official to be killed since President Rodrigo Duterte launched a drug war.



Duterte has singled out local officials, policemen and judges as part of a crackdown that has made him popular with many Filipinos but has been condemned by human rights groups and other critics.

Among those Duterte named was Reynaldo Parojinog, mayor of Ozamiz city, who was killed along with 11 others in a dawn raid on his home, police said.



Police were serving a search warrant when the security guards of the mayor fired at them so our policemen retaliated, police regional spokesman Superintendent Lemuel Gonda told AFP.

Duterte won the presidency last year Police have reported killing nearly 3,200 people in the drug war.
Managing Director of China Merchants Port Holdings Dr Bai Jingtao (R) shakes hands with Secretary to the Ministry of Port L.P. Jayampathi (C) and Chairman of Sri Lanka Ports Authority Dr. Parakrama Dissanayake (L) after exchanging documents during the Hambantota International Port Concession Agreement at a signing ceremony in Colombo on July 29

Pic by Damith Wickramasinghe

AFP: Sri Lanka on Saturday sealed a billion-dollar deal to let a Chinese state firm take over a loss-making port in a move that worries many, including its giant neighbour India.



The long-delayed US$1.1 billion sale of a 70 percent stake in Hambantota port, which straddles the worlds busiest east-west shipping route, was confirmed by Sri Lankas Ports Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe.

The government used tough laws against industrial action to stop workers going on strike this week to oppose the sale to China Merchants Port Holdings.



India is nervous about Chinas infrastructure moves into its traditional sphere of influence. We have addressed geo-political concerns, the minister said at a signing ceremony in Colombo. China has accepted that everything in this agreement will operate under Sri Lankan law. Negotiations over the deal were held up for months amid opposition from trade unions and political parties.



The minister said this week that several countries had raised fears about the sale. India and the United States are known to be concerned that China getting a foothold at the deep-sea port could give it a military naval advantage in the Indian Ocean. Samarasinghe said that Hambantota, 240 kilometres (150 miles) south of Colombo, will not be a military base for any country. China Merchants built and operates Sri Lankas only major deep-sea terminal in Colombo, which can accommodate the worlds largest container carriers.



Executive vice president Hu Jianhua said the company wanted to make Hambantota the gateway to expanding economies in South Asia and Africa where it has similar port operations. (The) business of Hambantota port will be cross border, across the Indian ocean, stretching to the Far East, to Europe and to the globe, Hu said.



Sri Lanka will be well positioned to play a strategic role in the one-belt-one-road initiative of the government of the Peoples Republic of China, Hu said.



Sri Lanka has signed up to President Xi Jinpings signature foreign policy initiative, which aims to strengthen Chinas land and sea trade routes.



India has snubbed Xis plan and skipped a May summit in Beijing that was attended by world leaders.

Samarasinghe said Hambantota will be purely a commercial port, but any routine port calls by foreign navies will be regulated by Sri Lanka as in the case with the Colombo port. Two Chinese submarines called at Colombo in 2014 during the final year of former president Mahinda Rajapakses tenure, angering New Delhi.



The new government of President Maithripala Sirisena turned down a Chinese request in May for another submarine call at Colombo shortly after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the island. Sirisena came to power in January 2015 promising to loosen ties with China after a decade of hefty funding by Beijing under his predecessor.



He suspended all big ticket Chinese funded projects amid allegations of corruption. These have resumed after modifications to the contracts with the previous government.



Apart from the US$1.12 billion sale price, the Chinese firm will invest another US$600 million to develop Hambantota, Samarasinghe said.



The port has racked up losses of US$300 million in the last six years, according to official figures. In addition, the government pays more than US$60 million annually to service the ports debt.
By Zahara Zuhair

The work on the proposed industrial zone in Kalutara by the Thai-based company, Rojana, on a 1000-acre land, which will have about 200 factories, is likely to start by next year in October, International Trade State Minister Sujeewa Senasinghe said.



The minister said he is putting a lot of effort to fast track the commencement of the project, as he has requested institutions such as the Road Development Authority (RDA), Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), etc. to speed up the procedures.



We are working on an industrial park in Kalutara. It is a good deal for Sri Lanka. They want it for 40 years and then give it to us and go back. It will be on a 45:55 partnership; Sri Lanka: 45, he said.

It is said that the industrial factory zone will join the Bandaragama, Millaniya and Millawa areas in the Kalutara District.

At the fortune of meeting this young Thai entrepreneur, 37-year-old Chai, who owns about seven industrial zones in Thailand, I managed to develop a close friendship with him and convince him about bringing in his business to Sri Lanka. He wants to move all his businesses to Sri Lanka, he said.

Rojana Industrial Park Public Co. Ltd is a Thai-Japanese joint venture, which develops industrial land complete with international standard infrastructure and utilities.



He said that as Thailand is facing a vulnerable period because of the military rule and Honk Kong facing problems with mainland China, many investors in that region see Sri Lanka as a replacement for China.



I was introduced to the CEO of Honda and other companies. They all are interested in coming here, he said.



Meanwhile, he said that they are in the process of restructuring the Board of Investment (BOI) and Export Development Board (EDB) with the help of Harvard.



It was revealed they are also in the process of laying the foundation for a proper system for several sectors.



In six months time, you will have a clear export policy, economic policy and trade policy, he said.

As the country is heavily dependent on agricultural products for exports, he requested the exporters to move into other goods such as electrical goods and industrial machinery. He said that this can be achieved by going ahead with the proposed 20,000 acres of industrial parks in Sri Lanka.

What I see in Sri Lankas exporters is, we dont have that adventurous sort of attitude toward investments, he said.



Caption

Sujeewa Senasinghe

Pic by Samantha Perera
Should doer untie the knot...

Now that we have proven to the world that we are not sissies and have the spunk to stand up to any bully in the region - even though China may not be feeling exactly spooked by our preemptive military action - maybe we need to relook at the Doklam standoff.

To begin with, does our political and military leadership have an exit strategy that would enable us to disengage with the Chinese without a loss of face? Simply put: We knew how to get in but how do we get out? Ideally, we should have figured out the escape route before getting into the military cul-de-sac.

Or are we ready for a game of strategic patience with the Chinese - a protracted standoff, that could drag on for months, if not years? A game of brinkmanship at which they are past masters! Especially since both sides is neither inclined to stage a tactical retreat nor are they itching to be drawn into an open-ended conflict.

This is not a war game with well-defined and clearly attainable strategic objectives. Because we are not in Doklam to reclaim or liberate any territorial space; nor can we hope to redefine the tri-junction point; at best, we can defend the status quo and fortify our position around that.

By external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj's own admission, this is not the first transgression by the incorrigible Chinese in an area that is any cartographer's nightmare; nor would it be the last. There is a method to the madness - it is implicit in the Chinese attempts to disturb the status quo in well executed tasks over a period of time; but there is no guarantee that our action will lead to cessation of all activity, even if we retrace our steps.

Even Army Chief General Bipin Rawat, who is confident of fighting a war on two-and-a-half fronts, possibly could not be keen on calling Beijing's bluff, precipitating matters and spurring China into taking preemptive action in other sectors.

For that matter there is no guarantee that while we are locked eyeball to eyeball in Doklam, they will not try to engage us elsewhere - in areas they have an advantage of height and terrain, superior firepower and logistics. In fact, the Chinese will be least interested in engaging us in Doklam owing to the aerial advantage that Sikkim gives us: perched on the lowly plateau, they are almost sitting ducks for our brigades.

Also, not many of us believe the media fantasy that the road that the Chinese had intended to construct would have within days brought the PLA knocking at our doorstep at Chicken's Neck.

To be able to do that, the Chinese forces would first have to plough through an Indian firewall in a lethal mountainous and jungle terrain.

Also, crawling at a snail's pace, trying to squeeze through the eye of the needle in Chumbi valley, with their logistics and supplies exposed to carpet bombing from both flanks, the Chinese may as well sleep walk into a death trap, as we did in 1962.

Our action in Doklam was preemptive and rested on the assumption that the Chinese were inching closer to the tri-junction point, the apprehension being that the last lap of the road they were widening - once complete - would bring them within striking distance of the Bhutanese army camp at Zompiri - the ridge that overlooks Indias vulnerable Siliguri corridor. Also, there was a buzz that once complete it will be a Class 40 road that can take the weight of light battle tanks, artillery guns and the like.

However, now that the haze at Doklam is beginning to clear it is apparent that the Chinese had not even begun the work of road extension, though excavators and earth movers were in place; nor is the existing Chinese track, which connects PLA outposts, anywhere close to the C40 category surface; It is barely motorable.

Hawkish policy

Ironically, India and China don't even have a military hotline - the kind we have with Pakistan - despite frequent border skirmishes. Photo: AP

One wishes before we scrambled our forces to thwart the road construction in a piece of land under China's effective control that Swaraj had pushed for a diplomatic solution with all her resolve and charm.

We have several mechanisms, including border representatives and continuous back channel chatter, but perhaps we did not try hard enough as our new hawkish no-nonsense muscular foreign policy came into play.

But even hawks are expected to factor in the risk and costs of stepping on the tail of the dragon; and they possibly can't keep sitting on the tail in perpetuity.

Ironically, India and China don't even have a military hotline - the kind we have with Pakistan - despite frequent border skirmishes. So that each time there is a flare-up we have to either pray that the Chinese premier has a chat with PM Narendra Modi on the sidelines of a multilateral event, or hope for a breakthrough when the NSAs go into a huddle, or wait endlessly for the next round of strategic parleys.

With China still huffing and puffing, one sincerely hopes that the political leadership will soon have a face-saver for both sides: ideally something more ingenious than Modi asking US president Donald Trump to lean on the Chinese. So that the deadly brinkmanship does not spiral into a military misadventure.

Legal penumbra

Arguably one's country is always right and never wrong. Nonetheless, our military action must be tenable in international law and the maxim that applies is one of intervention upon invitation''.

This is not to doubt the mutual understanding between India and Bhutan in matters that impinge on national security, but merely to underscore that an explicit request to intervene reinforces our stand under the arc lights of international law.

But even if there is no formal request but just a tacit understanding, we might still be getting into a legal penumbra since the legitimacy of the Bhutanese government - the inviting authority - is also in question in the disputed Doklam plateau, a part of which is for all intents and purposes under effective Chinese control.

Because, if our action is incompatible with international law, it may set a whole host of bad precedents that could nag us at some point in the future; or ignite a chain of events which could boomerang on us in other sectors.

Bhutan did issue a demarche to the Chinese through its embassy in New Delhi but merely harped on the need to maintain the status quo. Curiously, they have maintained a studious silence thereafter.

Blind man's bluff

If the objective was to drill it into the Chinese and our immediate neighbours that we just don't have a mawkish brotherly concern for Bhutan - rather we are determined to go the extra mile to keep it tied to our apron strings - then surely the message has gone home.

Hopefully, postage stamp-sized Bhutan too has got the message since they have allowed the dragon to nibble away at their territory over the years and not kept India exactly in the loop on their border parleys with Beijing.

They have also got on our frayed nerves by occasionally playing footsie with the Chinese, leaving us with little choice but to fret in private; only this time we allowed the paranoid about Doklam being gobbled up by the Chinese to get the better of us; perhaps unwittingly we also allowed the Bhutanese to prod us into a game of blind man's bluff.

Vajpayee desisted

As against the alacrity with which we have rushed into the Doklam standoff, another BJP PM - Atal Bihari Vajpayee - had dissuaded the Army from crossing the LOC during the Kargil stand-off, even though Pakistan had brazenly captured strategic heights on our side of the border!

General (retd) VP Malik, who was then the Army Chief, was ''very unhappy when Vajpayee asked him to let go of Pakistan'' but in retrospect, it turned out to be the right decision.

In Doklam, as Shyam Saran, former foreign secretary, has pointed out elsewhere, this was the first time that Indian forces have engaged China from the soil of a third country.

End game
By all rights, Kargil Vijay Divas, the formal end of the Kargil war of 1999, ought to be a solemn event commemorating the sacrifices of the 474 officers and men who died pushing back Pakistani intruders from the strategic heights above Kargil. By and large it is indeed observed as such, except, curiously, by people close to the ruling party who use the occasion to bait liberal academics in Indian universities.

Political move

In JNU, the vice-chancellor led a tiranga rally on the eve of Kargil Vijay Divas in which he not only demanded that a tank be placed on campus to promote love for the army, but a retired general, well known for his hawkish performance in TV channels, likened the occasion to a capturing the liberal fortress of JNU and called on similar victories in Jadavpur University and University of Hyderabad.

So, it was not surprising when, a week later, the students wing of the BJP forcibly set up a Kargil memorial on the University of Hyderabad campus, which was subsequently demolished by varsity authorities. That it was a political move, and not really motivated by any solemn goal of commemorating the Kargil sacrifices, is evident from the fact that it was set up near a memorial for Rohit Vemula, a Dalit student who committed suicide in January 2016.

It is ironical that elements close to the BJP are using Kargil in their culture wars against liberalism. This is because the whole Kargil Divas was actually a means of concealing the guilt of the BJP-led NDA government in allowing Pakistani forces to make massive incursion in a strategically critical part of the country.

The sheer bravery of the troops, who set aside the canons of modern warfare and frontally took on the enemy, saved the governments neck.

That is why we have no similar public celebrations for the day Indian forces flew in to rescue Kashmir on October 27, 1947, or when they turned defeat into victory in Asal Uttar in September 1965, or for that matter, captured Dhaka in December 1917. The failure of the BJP-led government was at three levels.

First, it failed in its strategic assessment of Pakistan. Even as the Pakistan Army was readying to cross the LoC in February 1999, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was making Indias most dramatic gesture of peace by visiting the Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore. Claims of Pakistani perfidy would have had greater credibility had they been accompanied an acknowledgement of your own naivety and culpability.

Shortcomings

At the second level was the inability to understand what was happening even after the first news of Pakistani infiltration came in on May 5, 1999. The first formal meeting of the cabinet committee on security (CCS), the one in which it finally authorised the use of IAF, took place only on May 25. This was a failure of not just the brigade in question, but up the ladder to the division, Corps, Army HQ, the R&AW, PMO and the CCS. Yet, as is famously known, no one paid the price for this except a lowly brigadier.

At the third level, was the nature of the Indian response that led to heavy casualties. The government insisted that the conflict be confined to the area in which the Pakistanis had intruded. So instead of fighting on a ground of our choosing our soldiers were made to undertake frontal attacks on a ground well prepared by the Pakistani forces.

Several excuses were trotted out for this, principally that a wider conflict would have been escalatory and could have led to nuclear war. But surely, there were alternatives and why was the onus of preventing escalation on us, and not the Pakistanis?

Review panel

The Kargil Review Commission was set up with the careful mandate to review the events leading up to the Pakistani aggression and to recommend measure to prevent a recurrence. It self-consciously avoided apportioning blame, and though it broadly absolved the military brass and criticised R&AW, it did refer to the euphoria in some political quarters over the Lahore process.

The sheer bravery of the troops, who set aside the canons of modern warfare and frontally took on the enemy, saved the governments neck. Their sacrifice does indeed demand solemn observance, but always with the knowledge that had the government handled the situation more competently, they may have been with us today.

Instead, what we are forced to confront is the shoddy and sad use of the occasion to promote a political platform.
The noted Bnagladeshi author who is in exile in India since 2004, Taslima Nasreen, is known for her outspoken critique of fundamental Islamism as well as hardline Hindutva. A known atheist, Nasreen minces no words when she critically takes down the politised presence of organised religions, and therefore, becomes the target of fanatics from both ends.

However, the fact that Nasreen had to turn back from Aurangabad airport in central Maharashtra, because AIMIM members, including an MLA Imtiyaz Jaleel, didnt want her inside the city with a sizeable Muslim population, about 30 per cent  is laughable. Laughable, not only because in 2017, authors and writers are ritually hounded for their views, but that this happened in a BJP-ruled state.

Of course, the PTI report says Nasreen was sent back from the Aurangabad airport  Chikalthana Airport  because there was a crowd gathered there shouting slogans like Taslima Go Back. The report states:

Police stopped the author from stepping out of the airport, where a crowd had gathered shouting slogans like Taslima Go Back. Deputy Commissioner of Police (zone-II) Rahul Shrirame said Nasreen was sent back to Mumbai by the next flight to avoid any law and order problem in this city in central Maharashtra. The author was advised to abandon her visit to the city and she agreed to go back, the police officer said.

Ostensibly, the cops had asked for 30 minutes to provide her the Y-category security cover that shes entitled to, which means 10 armed bodyguards follow her around everywhere she goes to. Nasreen, according to a Swarajya magazine piece, decided to junk her plans to visit Ajanta caves and Ellora temples in the historic city of Aurangabad, seeing the AIMIM crowd chanting opprobrium against her, asking her to not dare enter.

Photo: DailyO

Now, here lies the crux of the many-layered problem. Protesters gathering outside the airport and her hotel where she had her reservations made, whether or not they belonged to AIMIM, were nevertheless not responsible for law and order in Maharashtra, despite having an AIMIM MLA in Jaleel, who is the legislator from the Aurangabad central constituency. The police is under the state home ministry, and as far the governance is concerned, they report to the Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP government.

Is Mr Fadnavis regime so incompetent as to be outsmarted and outdone by a bunch of AIMIM supporters? Is the Maharashtra Police so easily cowed down by the Islamist protesters, who were angry and upset with the fiercely independent and plain-speaking Nasreen?

Its a crying shame that in 2017, Taslima Nasreen was dubbed a law and order problem, especially in a BJP-ruled state. In the war of narratives, it is important to set the record straight because allowing the protest against Nasreen to overwhelm her innocuous travel plans is exactly the kind of weaponised politics that suits the BJP and Hindutva narrative.

Lets be honest enough to accept that hardliners in both Islam and Hindu religions live in a mutually symbiotic and toxic balance, as their mutual animosity and staged antipathy keep the social fabric suitably tense, and polarised along communal lines. Allowing an AIMIM protest to hijack Nasreens travel plans is exactly what the BJP needs at present to balance somewhat the incessant accusations that its against freedom of speech, that its overseeing the rise and rise of sociocultural intolerance, religious vigilantism and other obnoxious practices.

In other BJP-ruled states such as Uttar Pradesh, Hindu Vahini goons beat up cops when they try to do their job. In Maharashtra, on the other hand, the cops meekly let a handful of AIMIM protesters take centrestage, compel Nasreen to turn back and not repose faith in Indias, and indeed Maharashtras competence to uphold law and order at all times.

This particular breakdown of law and order, or the threat of a possible breakdown, is beautifully in line with the respective game of bipolarisation of the Indian society. As Nasreen tweeted:

I had a dream to visit Ellora and Ajanta caves. Can't believe it was not possible in the largest democracy in the world.  taslima nasreen (@taslimanasreen) July 31, 2017

Nobody but security police in Aurangabad was informed about my itinerary & hotel booking. I wonder how fanatics got to know everything!  taslima nasreen (@taslimanasreen) July 31, 2017

Its the second tweet thats actually interesting. According to Nasreen, nobody but security police in Aurangabad was informed about [her] itinerary and hotel booking. It makes us wonder, along with Nasreen herself, how [the] fanatics got to know everything.

Indeed its a pressing question. Will the leak in Aurangabad police be investigated? Or, will a mutually convenient display of religious antipathy to Taslima Nasreen, who has been hounded out of West Bengal under a pusillanimous Mamata Banjerjee government, will be raked in to score political brownie points by all those with vested interests?

Given that the BJP rarely misses an opportunity to rant against the Congress or TMC for their minority appeasement, what happened in Aurangabad today was nothing short of that. Exactly when it was needed to stand firm against the fanaticism of AIMIM cadre, the likes of Devendra Fadnavis capitulated like anything.

This is the same capitulation that the Fadnavis-led BJP government keeps doing before Shiv Sena, or the RSS brigade. How is it that an MLA  Imtiyaz Jaleel  whos taken the oath to uphold the Constitution of India, was allowed to have his unconstitutional way of imposing mobocracy on a democracy?
The inevitable has now happened. Theres quasi-mutiny among the ranks of those in whose name the Narendra Modi government seeks its maximum sanctity, seeks to overturn and overthrow the rule of Constitution, right to equality before law, and thrust upon us an unqualified devotion to that one-size-fit-all word, soldier.

The veterans among soldiers, those having served the Army, Navy and the Air Force, at least 114 of them, have now come out in the open taking a firm stand, and writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to not go against the secular and democratic values enshrined in the Constitution.

The letter signed by the retired officials of the armed forces said the prevalent atmosphere in the country was everything they had fought against, and anathema to the spirit of the Indian Constitution which they were/are duty-bound to uphold and safeguard.

The veterans stand with the Not In My Name campaign. Heres the text of the strongly-worded letter to the PM that minces no words:

We are a group of veterans of the Indian Armed Forces who have spent our careers working for the security of our country. Collectively, our group holds no affiliation with any single political party, our only common commitment being to the Constitution of India.

It saddens us to write this letter, but current events in India have compelled us to register our dismay at the divisiveness that is gripping our country. We stand with the Not in My Name campaign that mobilised thousands of citizens across the country to protest against the current climate of fear, intimidation, hate and suspicion.

The armed forces stand for 'unity in diversity'. Differences in religion, language, caste, culture or any other marker of belonging have not mattered to the cohesion of the armed forces, and servicemen of different backgrounds have fought shoulder to shoulder in the defence of our nation, as they continue to do today.

Throughout our service, a sense of openness, justice and fair play guided our actions. We are one family. Our heritage is like the multi-coloured quilt that is India, and we cherish this vibrant diversity.

However, what is happening in our country today strikes at all that the armed forces, and indeed our Constitution, stand for. We are witness to unprecedented attacks on society at large by the relentless vigilantism of self-appointed protectors of Hinduism.

We condemn the targeting of Muslims and Dalits. We condemn the clampdowns on free speech by attacks on media outlets, civil society groups, universities, journalists and scholars, through a campaign of branding them anti-national and unleashing violence against them while the state looks away.

We can no longer look away. We would be doing a disservice to our country if we do not stand up and speak for the liberal and secular values that our Constitution espouses. Our diversity is our greatest strength. Dissent is not treason; in fact, it is the essence of democracy.

We urge the powers that be at the Centre and in the states to take note of our concerns and urgently act to uphold our Constitution, both in letter and in spirit.

The names of the 114 signatories to the letter can be found here.

The veterans have put their fingers exactly where the malaise lies. Are they anti-nationals too? Will the BJP-led Centre register sedition charges against our military heroes and retired officials who have been compelled to lay out in the open their deep concern about the future of the country?

We wonder what the vice-presidential candidate from the NDA, former Union minister of urban development, Venkaiah (Acronym) Naidu, has to say on this. We also wonder what National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, home minister Rajnath Singh, defence minister Arun Jaitley and former defence minister Manohar Parrikar have to say to veterans stating dissent is not treason: in fact, it is the essence of democracy.

Erstwhile, we have had veterans like Retd Lt Gen HS Panag strongly admonishing the "human shield" incident in Kashmir earlier this year, and he even said that Indian Army suffered a setback by condoning, commending the errant Major Gogoi, who was responsible for the highly controversial decision.

We have also had military veterans telling us to go easy on China, which has a far superior military prowess and not hanker for war, upsetting certain TV channels that regularly feed off the war frenzy, and are owned by NDA MPs who have defence interests in business and policy.

We wonder what such TV anchors and such members of Parliament have to say to this rousing but absolutely sobering letter from the veterans. We also wonder what the hawkish spokespersons of the ruling party at the Centre would say to the retired armed forces officials saying that they speak up for the liberal and secular values that our constitution espouses at a time, when the word secular has become besmirched with politics of opportunism, when the sinking of the secular ship has become the national headline.

What would opportunistic politicians like Bihar CM Nitish Kumar say to the veterans who claim that they can no longer look away? Nitish Kumar is clearly looking away.

What would Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath say to the veterans when they say they are witness to unprecedented attacks on society at large by the relentless vigilantism of self-appointed protectors of Hinduism? What would Yogi, one of the chief harbingers and beneficiaries of hardline Hindutva in the country, say when the veterans underline the following: We condemn the targeting of Muslims and Dalits?

What would those defence journalists, who prefer staying mum over issues as delicate as the relentless and disgusting use of the armed forces and politicisation of events such as the surgical strikes in election after election, say to the aggrieved and anxious veterans?

Is it still possible to be objective and neutral when neutrality and objectivity are being compromised daily in the epidemic of fake news and fake polemic to fuel communal volatility?

We wonder if the military veterans today are seditious too, because they are sounding eerily similar to the JNU students who were charged with sedition and jailed last year? We wonder if the military veterans would prefer a tank in JNU, or instead more seats, better access to scholarly journals, better and bigger library facilities, more centres of scholarship and more interdisciplinary courses that look at, investigate the current climate of political toxicity?
The female breasts are the most vulnerable and controversial organ of a woman's body of which, sadly, she has little right over. Strangely, this part of the female body is the most fantasised organ among men, yet breastfeeding infants in public remains a taboo across the world.

The word breast has been so much sexualised that it has come to be associated more with verbs such as fondling, groping, shaming (a woman depending on the shape of her breasts). Or adjectives such as firm, sagging, big, small, flat.

It's breastfeeding week (August 1-7), precisely when an otherwise indifferent media starts talking about breasts in terms of a source of nourishment/food for infants other than depicting them to sex up news stories, think pieces and magazine covers (agreed there is one more occasion - Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October).

But that's not to say that all our conversations should be sprinkled with the word breasts. However, there is also no reason to be discreet about it or acknowledge its functionality. (The primary function of the female breasts, according to experts, is as a secretory organ for milk and as a secondary sexual organ). Even if one ignores the politicising of the female body with assigned roles and obligations for each organ, it's difficult to overlook how women continue to face criticisms for breastfeeding in public.

A Google search will confirm how often women are shamed, bullied and harassed for feeding their infants in public. Not that the sex-obsessed society feels women shouldn't feed their babies, in fact they must, but not in public. Why? Because they, including some women, find it objectionable (exactly what proves the sexualisation of breasts. If a woman travelling in a bus/train/airplane takes off her mittens exposing her hands in public to eat or to feed her child it would be hardly noticed by anyone. Now, imagine the same women unbuttoning her blouse to feed her baby).

Why is the sight of female breasts so scandalising?

Why are women shamed for feeding babies? And this is true for all women, be it a celeb in Hollywood or a daily wager on the streets of New Delhi.

Aliya Shagieva, the youngest daughter of the president of Kyrgyztan, was criticised for posting a picture on Instagram of herself breastfeeding. That was back in April.

She captioned it: "I will feed my child whenever and wherever he needs to be fed."

But after heavy trolling and being accused of "immoral behaviour", she took the image down.

She gave an interview to BBC recently, and countered those charges. According to Shagieva, a culture that hyper-sexualises the female body caused the outrage, rather than the image.

Credit: Instagram/ Aliya Shagieva

"This body I've been given is not vulgar, it is functional, said the 20-year-old artist. "Its purpose is to fulfil the physiological needs of my baby, not to be sexualised."

It was not just strangers from her socially conservative society who slammed her pictures, but even her parents, president Almazbek Atambayev and his wife Raisa disapproved of their daughters picture.

"They really didn't like it. And it is understandable because the younger generation is less conservative than their parents. My mum received messages from her 'friends' about me.

Back in India, in April again, Pune-based Swapna Kulkarni Ajgaonkar was asked to deboard a train because she was breastfeeding her child in public.

According to this report, Ajgaonkar was travelling from Pune to Mumbai in Deccan Queen with her husband and infant child. During the journey, the baby got hungry and Ajgaonkar started feeding her. But her co-passengers present in the compartment found it objectionable and insisted that they should get out of the train as the sight of Ajgaonkar feeding her baby made them uncomfortable.

However, lactating mothers travelling by trains will now have some privacy with the allotment of a "dedicated space in 100 waiting rooms of railway stations across the country" where they can breastfeed their babies.

According to this report, the railway ministry has informed the women and child development ministry that instructions were issued to all zonal railway authorities to create a private space in waiting rooms for women so that they can comfortably feed their babies.

Women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi had earlier written to railway minister Suresh Prabhu insisting on the need for private rooms for women who find it difficult to breastfeed their babies because of lack of allocated spaces.

Although a welcome step, how far would it solve the problem for mothers and their infants is yet to be seen.

Most importantly, will this stop the bullying and shaming of breastfeeding mothers, or change the mindset of the people?

The ministry naturally can't change the people's mindset overnight, so the next best solution is to quarantine the women.

And what about when they are inside a train and have to feed their babies during the course of the journey? Or when they are in a bus or any public space?

Can we afford to have private rooms away from the prying eyes (who find it objectionable or get incited/aroused to sexually harass a woman after catching a glimpse of her breasts) in every step of public life?

Private rooms and doors can cover the "shame of breastfeeding" only momentarily, how would it cure the mindset afflicted with sickness, perversity and prejudice?
Updated at 5:21 p.m.

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, Oscar-nominated actor and celebrated author Sam Shepard, once a familiar figure on Charlottesvilles Downtown Mall and the Corner when he lived in Albemarle County, died last week at the age of 73.

Family spokesman Chris Boneau said Monday that Shepard died Thursday at his home in Kentucky from complications related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrigs disease.

Shepard, who grew up on a California ranch, wrote 44 plays and numerous books, memoirs and short stories. He is considered one of the most influential playwrights of his generation.

Shepard and then-partner Jessica Lange lived on a large Scottsville-area farm from the mid-1980s to 1995 with their three children, raising horses and chickens. He was a well-known visitor to the Downtown Mall and frequented Millers, The Virginian restaurant on the Corner, the C&O Restaurant and the now-defunct Tavern restaurant on Emmet Street.

His death echoed across social media. Area residents on Facebook recalled Shepard as a colorful, flirtatious and gregarious character.

A talented drummer, as well, Shepard on occasion was known to sit in with local bands playing at whatever venue he was visiting.

[I remember] Sam Shepard when he sat in playing drums with the Kokomotions at the C&O, recalled Billy Brockman, a long-time player in the local music scene and Kokomotions guitar player. He was a talented guy. Rest in peace, Sam.

Sam Shepard was a towering figure in American theater and film. He indeed had the right stuff. His voice will truly be missed, actor George Takei, who played Hikaru Sulu on the original TV series Star Trek, wrote on Twitter.

He was to playwriting what Brando was to acting. Made it look at itself in a new light, redefined it. Gave us new eyes to see ourselves, TV and movie actor James Morrison wrote on Twitter.

Shepards longtime editor at Alfred A. Knopf, LuAnn Walther, said Shepards writing was quite poetic, and very intimate, but also very direct and plainspoken. She said that when people asked her what Shepard was really like, she would respond, Just read the fiction.

I was writing basically for actors, Shepard told The Associated Press in a 2011 interview. And actors immediately seemed to have a handle on it, on the rhythm of it, the sound of it, the characters. I started to understand there was this possibility of conversation between actors, and thats how it all started.

Shepard appeared in dozens of films, including Steel Magnolias, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Mud. He was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as pilot Chuck Yeager in 1983s The Right Stuff. Among his most recent roles was the Florida Keys patriarch of the Netflix series Bloodline.

But Shepard was best remembered for his influential plays and his prominent role in the off-Broadway movement. His 1979 play Buried Child won the Pulitzer for drama. Two other plays  True West and Fool for Love  were nominated for the Pulitzer, as well, and are frequently revived.

Samuel Shepard Rogers VII was born in Fort Sheridan, Illinois, in 1943 and grew up on an avocado ranch in Duarte, California.

Shepard arrived in New York in 1963 with no connections, little money and vague aspirations to act, write or make music. He quickly became part of the off-off-Broadway movement.

As Shepard grew as a playwright, he returned again and again to meditations on violence. His collection Seven Plays was dedicated to his father.

Besides his plays, Shepard wrote short stories and a full-length work of fiction, The One Inside, which came out earlier this year. The One Inside is a highly personal narrative about a man looking back on his life and taking in what has been lost, including control over his own body as the symptoms of ALS advanced.
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"The Big Brunch" can be seen on HBO Max, with the first three episodes available Thursday. The next three episodes will be released on Nov. 17 and the final two on Nov. 24. A free local viewing party has been scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Nov. 15 at Vinegar Hill Theatre.
Local caregivers, family members and health care workers taking care of seniors are invited to the annual Elder Care Conference in September.

The conference is scheduled from noon to 5 p.m. Sept. 7 and 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 8 at Westminster-Canterbury of the Blue Ridge.

The event will include information on normal aging, dementia care, geriatric resources, pain management, mental health, legal and financial issues and how caregivers can care for themselves.

The conference is offered by the Geriatric Collaborative of Central Virginia, a program operated by the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission Corp., which is a nonprofit corporation founded by the TJPDC.

The collaborative was formed in 2013 to bring training and education in geriatrics and gerontology to those serving the local senior population.

The conference is funded through the Dave Matthews Bands Bama Works Fund via the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation. Additional sponsors include Westminster-Canterbury of the Blue Ridge, Commonwealth Senior Living and T&L Companions.

The cost to attend is $35 for one day, $50 for both days. For more information or to register, go to corporation.tjpdc.org.
Republicans raged over what they called the White House's weak and dangerous decision to prosecute in federal court a man suspected of belonging to al-Qaida, rather than shipping him off to the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Sorry, wrong year. That happened back in 2009, when President Barack Obama and his attorney general, Eric Holder Jr., tried to put Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the 9/11 mastermind, on trial in New York City.

Senior Republicans claimed to be aghast. John Boehner, then the House minority leader, said Mr. Obama was "treating terrorism as a law enforcement issue and hoping for the best." Jeff Sessions, then a senator from Alabama, said the attempt to move Mr. Mohammed to federal court showed "fighting global terrorism is not the priority it once was."

Republicans complained about more than Mr. Mohammed, whose civil trial was called off in early 2010; throughout Mr. Obama's presidency, they fumed often at the prospect that terrorism suspects would enjoy the constitutional protections of civilian trials.

Yet there was no similar outcry recently at the news that Mr. Sessions, now the attorney general, has agreed to try Ali Charaf Damache in a federal court in Philadelphia. Mr. Damache is believed to be a recruiter for al-Qaida and is charged with providing material support to the organization. He was extradited from Spain, where he was arrested in 2015, and made his initial appearance before a federal judge on July 21.

The extradition effort began under Mr. Obama and continued under President Trump, who promised during the campaign to keep Guantanamo open and to send more "bad dudes" there. But before anyone starts thinking that Mr. Trump and his allies have come to see the value of federal trials for terrorism suspects, there is a simpler explanation: The administration most likely had no choice. Spain, like many other countries, sees Guantanamo as the moral catastrophe and legal black hole that it is, and would have refused to hand Mr. Damache over without a guarantee that he would not be sent there to face a military commission.

Whatever factors combined to bring Mr. Damache to the federal court system, it was the right move. Forget the overheated rhetoric and look at the record: Federal prosecutors have won about 200 "jihadist related" terrorism and national security cases since Sept. 11, as a federal judge noted in 2015. Meanwhile, not a single Sept. 11 defendant has been convicted under the Guantanamo military commissions. That system, plagued from the start with delays and legal challenges, has led to just eight convictions over all, three of which have been overturned  a record the commissions' former chief prosecutor called a "litany of failure."

Little of this has sunk in with Mr. Trump. Perhaps Mr. Damache's trial will show him that the federal court system is far better equipped to handle such prosecutions than military commissions at Guantanamo Bay will ever be.

The New York Times
American automaker Jeep has finally launched its most affordable SUV, the Compass, in the Indian market at a starting price of Rs 14.95 lakh. However, the prices go all the way up to Rs 20.65 lakh for the top-spec diesel variants (ex-showroom,Delhi). Not only is the Compass locally manufactured in India, it is also exported from here to all the right-hand drive markets like Japan and the UK.

The Jeep Compass is available in a total of ten variants: Heres the variant-wise pricing (ex-showroom Delhi):

Petrol:

Sport: Rs 14.95 lakh

Limited AT: Rs 18.70 lakh

Limited AT (O): Rs 19.40 lakh

Diesel:

Sport: Rs 15.45 lakh

Longitude: Rs 16.45 lakh

Longitude (O): Rs 17.25 lakh

Limited: Rs 18.05 lakh

Limited (O): Rs 18.75 lakh

Limited 4x4: Rs 19.95 lakh

Limited 4x4 (O): Rs 20.65 lakh

The compact SUV made its world premiere in September last year and its Indian derivative was introduced to the media in April 2017. On the design front, the compact SUV does bring a whiff of freshness into the segment. Weve already driven it and you can read our first drive review to get a more in-depth know-how. As far as engines are concerned, it comes with both diesel and petrol engines. While the diesel motor has a 2.0-litre displacement and pumps out 173PS/350Nm, the 1.4-litre turbo-petrol engine produces 162PS/250Nm. Being part of the FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles) Group, both engines have been sourced from Fiat.

Both engines can be had with a 6-speed manual gearbox but customers opting for the petrol-powered Compass may also pick a 7-speed dual-clutch auto. However, the combination of a 9-speed automatic transmission and the diesel engine will be introduced early next year. For now, Jeep is offering the 4x4 system with its diesel-fed engine only. The company has also revealed the ARAI fuel-efficiency figures, but only for the diesel-powered variants. It returns 17.1kmpl and 16.3kmpl for the 4x2 and 4x4 variants respectively.

Jeeps most affordable offering till date comes loaded with features like dual-zone climate control, a 7.0-inch touchscreen infotainment display which is mated to a 6-speaker sound system and supports Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, push button start/stop and reverse parking sensors with a camera. The Compass also has a range of safety equipment including six airbags, all-speed traction control system, ABS with EBD, electronic parking brake, electronic stability control and ISOFIX anchorages for child booster seats. The Compass is available in five colour options for the body - Hydro Blue, Exotica Red, Brilliant Black, Vocal White and Minimal Grey.

Ever since its official bookings began on June 20 this year, the Compass has received a remarkable response by bagging over 1000 bookings in the first three days and 5000 bookings till date. Its list of direct rivals includes the Hyundai Tucson and the Honda CR-V. At this price, would you be willing to buy the Jeep over its more established rivals?

Source: CarDekho.com
Almost 85 per cent of these new planes in India are likely to be single-aisle with low-cost carriers operating more than 60 per cent of all flights.

New Delhi: Boeing on Monday said India will take deliveries of 2,100 new planes worth USD 290 billion in the next 20 years, calling it the "highest forecast" for the country.

India's share will account for more than 5.1 per cent of the total global demand of 41,030 aircraft, the American aeronautic giant said.

According to Boeing's Current Market Outlook released on Monday, almost 85 per cent of these new planes in India are likely to be single-aisle with low-cost carriers operating more than 60 per cent of all flights.

"The increasing number of passengers combined with a strong exchange rate, low fuel prices and high load factors bode well for India's aviation market, especially the low-cost carriers," said Dinesh Keskar, senior vice-president, Asia Pacific and India Sales, Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

Keskar, however, warned that infrastructure could be a challenge for the country with airports in Mumbai being 'choked'.

This could be one of the factors why bigger planes could grow from current 15 per cent to 25 per cent of the total aircraft, he said.

Boeing said it will revise its projection next year depending on how the government's regional connectivity scheme (RCS) takes off.

The multinational aviation giant expects to benefit from RCS in years to come, when smaller 70-seat aircraft will be replaced by bigger ones such as Boeing's 737s, following an increase in traffic on these routes.

"RCS will allow opening of new routes, thus providing more connectivity. Over the next 4-5 years, the growth on those routes will make a Boeing 737 viable. We are very bullish that if it (RCS) works out, we will be one of the beneficiaries," Keskar said.

The passenger traffic in South Asia is expected to grow at a rate of 8 per cent, followed by China at 6.2 per cent.

The growth rate in the region is likely to be more than double that of Europe (3.7 per cent) and North America (3 per cent).

Boeing has already started the delivery of its 737 MAX 8 aircraft and will be delivering its first 737 MAX 9 next year.

It had also launched its 737 MAX 10 at Paris Air Show earlier this year.

In 2019, Boeing plans to launch 737 MAX 7, the smallest member of the MAX family, as well as 737 MAX 8-200 with 200 economy seats.

Boeing is also planning to replace its Boeing 757 by 2025 with a plane which will have 225-275 seats and will be able to fly approximately 5,000 nautical miles. It also promises to offer "twin aisle comfort for single aisle cost".
Mumbai: Giving a week's relief to Sahara India Life Insurance (SILIC), the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) on Monday stayed the IRDAI decision to sell the business of the Sahara group company to ICICI Prudential Life Insurance.

The tribunal fixed the next hearing in the matter on August 7 when it will decide on the maintainability of the petition filed by SILIC against the IRDAI order. A two-member bench of SAT, comprising Justices C K G Nair and Jog Singh, without admitting the petition by Sahara Life, ordered a status quo in the matter.

Last Friday, the insurance regulator had asked ICICI Prudential to take over the assets and liabilities of Sahara Life from July 31. Sahara Life Insurance was represented by law firm Markand Gandhi & Co.

The embattled Sahara group had approached SAT against IRDAI order, directing transfer of its life insurance business to ICICI Prudential, alleging the regulator has "wrongly concluded" that the promoter was no more 'fit and proper' and a sum of Rs 78 crore was siphoned of.

In a statement following IRDAI (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India) order dated July 28, the group said Sahara Life business is being "wrongfully" given to ICICI Prudential Life.

"Sahara Life is doing business since 2004 and over the last seven years running continuously in profit. It has been in absolute and strict compliance of all regulatory norms and directions issued by IRDAI," the group said.

It further said Sahara Life's asset is more than its liability and there is not a single complaint of non-payment by any policy holder.

"However, it is unfortunate that IRDAI has handed over Sahara Life business to another insurance company ICICI Prudential," the group alleged.
New Delhi: E-commerce firm Snapdeal on Monday terminated talks for a takeover by larger rival Flipkart, saying it will "pursue an independent path" to continue its operations.

The company was reported to be in talks for selling its business to Flipkart in a USD 900-950 million deal.

"Snapdeal has been exploring strategic options over the last several months. The company has now decided to pursue an independent path and is terminating all strategic discussions as a result," Snapdeal spokesperson said in an emailed statement, without naming Flipkart.

The company said it has a "new and compelling direction - Snapdeal 2.0" and has made significant progress towards the ability to execute this by achieving a gross profit this month.

"In addition, with the sale of certain non-core assets, Snapdeal is expected to be financially self-sustainable," it added. The latest developments come within days of Snapdeal agreeing to sell its digital payment platform, FreeCharge, to

Axis Bank for Rs 385 crore.

One of the leading contenders in the Indian e-commerce space, Snapdeal has seen its fortunes falling amid strong competition from Amazon and Flipkart.

Its largest investor, SoftBank had been proactively mediating the talks for the sale. Japanese conglomerate SoftBank said supporting entrepreneurs and their vision is at the heart of Masayoshi Son's (SoftBank Chairman and CEO) and SoftBank's investment philosophy.

"...we respect the decision to pursue an independent strategy. We look forward to the results of the Snapdeal 2.0 strategy, and to remaining invested in the vibrant Indian e-commerce space," a SoftBank spokesperson said. The deal, if it had gone through, would have marked the largest acquisition in the Indian e-commerce landscape.

Compared to a peak valuation of about USD 6.5 billion in February 2016, the talks had valued Snapdeal at about USD 1 billion.
The commerce ministry is negotiating as many as 21 trade agreements, said Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

New Delhi: The commerce ministry is negotiating as many as 21 trade agreements, including with Israel and Mauritius, Parliament was informed on Monday.

Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also said the negotiations for a free trade agreement are a continuous process and it is difficult to set a timeline for their conclusion.

She said that before starting talks for such pacts, studies are carried out internally as well as through joint study groups to look at the feasibility of such pacts. "The Department of Commerce is negotiating 21 trade agreements including with Israel and Mauritius," she said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

India is negotiating FTAs with countries including European Union, Sri Lanka, Thailand, New Zealand and Canada.

Replying to a separate question, she said India has exported 53,490 livestock in April this fiscal and 12,02,841 in the last fiscal.

In a separate reply, she said out of the country's total imports of drugs of USD 4.45 billion in 2016-17, imports from

China stood at USD 1.96 billion, which is 44.1 per cent. "One of the reasons for imports from China is the price competitiveness of these products," Sitharaman added.
As the scheme is being implemented as per the Centre's guidelines, the state can't take any decision itself.

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government has sought extension of the deadline for subscribing to the crop insurance scheme, and will approach Prime Minister Narendra Modi if it is not extended by on Monday evening, the Legislative Council was told here.

Leader of Opposition Dhananjay Munde (NCP) tabled an adjournment motion on the issue, saying if the deadline ended today, over one crore farmers will be deprived of crop insurance.

"There has been less rainfall in the Vidarbha and Marathwada regions this year. Farmers are in dire need of crop insurance. The government should extend the deadline by at least 15 days," Munde said.

Due to the system of online submission of forms, a large number of farmers are standing in queues (at the centres offering this service) to apply for the scheme, Munde said.

"Not more than a few hundred forms are being filled every day at a single centre. How will needy farmers avail of the insurance scheme at this rate," he asked.

Some other legislators made the same demand. Agriculture minister Pandurang Fundkar told the House that he had spoken to his counterpart in the Centre, Radha Mohan Singh, and requested extension of the deadline by a fortnight.

"He said he will take a positive decision soon," Fundkar said.

"If a decision is not taken by evening, the chief minister and I will meet the PM and request him to intervene," he added.

As the scheme is being implemented as per the Centre's guidelines, the state can't take any decision itself, he said.

Some nationalised banks were not cooperating in the implementation of the crop insurance scheme and inquiry will be initiated in this regard, the minister said.
Arun Gawli (L) and Arjun Rampal (R) in and as Daddy. The trailer of the film has garnered rave reviews, many even going to the extentof calling it Arjun's career best.

Mumbai: Arjun Rampal has taken on the mantle of playing the real life don, Arun Gawli, in the upcoming biopic Daddy. After starring in Sujoy Ghosh's hard-hitting film Kahaani 2 last year, Arjun has once again opted for a narrative that hinges on realism.

Ask him if he is drawn to these roles and the actor says, "I prefer realism unless it's a fantasy film where one has to create one's own reality. In case of Kahaani 2, Sujoy was keen that I played the role with a certain air of nonchalance."

Talking about the real life daddy, Rampal said, "What's intriguing about playing Arun Gawli is the duality in his personality. He was not referred to as bhai, don or ustaad. Instead, he was referred to as Daddywhich reflects endearment. When I met the people who worked with him, they had a lot of love and respect for him. And when I met Arun Gawli, I realised what makes him an endearing man. He is gentle, polite and well-mannered. But, obviously there is something very dark in his personality too. I wanted to play the role as close to reality and then take it to the audience to judge if he is a Daddy or a gangster."

Directed by Ashim Ahluwalia, the film is set to release on September 8.
Shahid Kapoor at an award function where he spoke about his film 'Padmavati'.

Mumbai: Controversies surrounding Sanjay Leela Bhansali's historical drama 'Padmavati' have been the talk of the town ever since it was announced but Bollywood actor Shahid Kapoor says the film is made with 'good' intention.

The 'Haider' star recently spoke to media on the sidelines of an award show.

When asked if certain scenes have been changed post the attack by certain groups that alleged distortion of history over the depiction of queen Padmavati, Shahid said, "According to me, I have not shot any scene which has been changed. I think there were a lot of presumptions about the film people were presuming there are things in the film."

"The clarification was given that those things are not in the film. I hope when people see the film, they realise that the heart of the film and intent of the film is very good."

"This country and the people who live in it, and specially the area we are talking about in the film, will be glorified and shown beautifully. I play a Rajput king and my character, I feel, will be admired and appreciated by people."

Bhansali's magnum-opus also stars Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padulone and Aditi Rao Hydari in key roles and is slated to release on November 17.
Akshay Kumar's film on open defecation, 'Toilet: Ek Prem Katha' opposite Bhumi Pednekar, is slated to release on August 11.

Mumbai: Akshay Kumar said it has yet not been decided whether Salman Khan would be producing his upcoming film, based on Battle of Saragarhi.

The film, starring Akshay in lead, was announced in January this year and was to be produced by Salman and filmmaker Karan Johar.

But there have been reports claiming that Salman was no longer producing the movie.

When asked about it, Akshay said in an interview, The film is not shelved. It is happening. (And) that is not decided yet. Its still going on.

In the historical drama film, Akshay reportedly plays the role of Havildar Ishar Singh, the military commander of 21 Sikh soldiers during British India who, on September 12 1897, led his army through a deathly battle against thousands of Afghani invaders.

The project was scheduled to go on floors in mid-2017.

Akshay is currently busy promoting his next film Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, also starring Bhumi Pednekar. The film that is in support of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is set to release on August 11.
Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's last 'Mirzya' was declared a flop at the box office and panned by critics as well. The film was the launchpad of Harshvardhan Kapoor and Saiyami Kher.

Mumbai: Filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra today revealed that his upcoming Bollywood flick, 'Mere Pyaare Prime Minister,' which is based on the story of a mother-son relationship, teaches about hope and taking charge of a situation.

While talking to ANI, the 54-year-old said that it's the story of a single mother, whose eight-year-old son wants to make a toilet for her. "He is really concerned about her and her safety when she goes out to defecate in the middle of the night, every night like lakhs of women do in India [sic]."

"For the solution to this problem, he writes a letter to the Prime Minister of India and comes to Delhi with his two friends to deliver him the letter and get the toilet made. It's a story of hope, inspiration. It's a story about doing something about the situation that is around us and not simply talking about it. It's a story about taking responsibility onto yourself rather than looking at the government for answers every time and pointing a figure at them," he added.

The 'Delhi 6' director stated that the children living in slums are much happier as they go through a lot of difficulties and struggles but their best part is that they don't give up, they are full of hope.

While giving details about movie's lead actress, the ace director said that national award winner Marathi actress Anjali Pathak is absolutely stunning and very talented. She is a very fast growing name in world cinema.

The 'Rang De Basanti' director said, "The mother-son love story is set in the slums of Bombay to be exact in Ghatkopar East in slum colony called Gandhi Nagar, which is a fictitious name for the neighbourhood Amrut Nagar."

Toilet is a very big issue and this is an endless topic of discussion, the 'Mirzya' director concluded.
Angelina Jolie's film 'First They Killed My Father' will be screened at the Toronto Film Festival.

Mumbai: Angelina Jolie says accounts of her casting process for children to appear in her film 'First They Killed My Father' are false and upsetting. An excerpt from a Vanity Fair profile of the director sparked backlash online earlier this week from people who criticized the methods as being cruel and exploitative.

Adapted from Loung Ungs memoir, the biographical drama centers on her childhood under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. Jolie co-wrote and directed the film, which she talked about in a recent Vanity Fair profile.

The article described a scene in which casting directors in their attempt to find a child actress to play the lead role presented money to impoverished children only to take it away from them as an acting exercise.

Jolie and producer Rithy Panh issued joint statements Sunday responding to the outrage and refuting claims that the production was exploitative through a representative from Netflix, which is producing and distributing the film.

I am upset that a pretend exercise in an improvisation, from an actual scene in the film, has been written about as if it was a real scenario. The suggestion that real money was taken from a child during an audition is false and upsetting, Jolie said. I would be outraged myself if this had happened.

Jolie said parents, guardians and doctors were on set daily to care for the children and make sure that no one was in any way hurt by participating in the recreation of such a painful part of their countrys history.

Panh, who himself is a survivor of the Khmer Rouge, added that casting was done in the most sensitive way possible.

He described a process that was informed both by families preferences and NGO (non-governmental organization) guidelines in which the children understood that they would be acting out a scene.

The children were not tricked or entrapped, as some have suggested, Panh said. They understood very well that this was acting, and make believe.

The Vanity Fair article went into more detail about the production than the one paragraph that circulated on Twitter, which sparked the initial outrage.

A representative from Vanity Fair issued a statement Sunday saying that author Evgenia Peretz clearly describes what happened during the casting process as a game  and that the filmmakers went to extraordinary lengths to be sensitive in addressing the psychological stresses on the cast and crew that were inevitable in making a movie about the genocide carried out in Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge.

Jolies film will debut on Netflix sometime after showing at the Toronto International Film Festival this September.
Having made her debut as a leading lady in Tollywood in the 2009 film Oye, actress Shamili took a hiatus of six years, and later acted in Malayalam and Tamil films. However, this National-award winning artist is set to return to Telugu cinema in a role opposite Naga Shourya.

Directed by Pavan Sundar, Shamili will be seen playing Nagas love interest in the film. Shooting for the film has already begun. Interestingly, the news of her comeback has created quite a buzz.

Kollywood was also abuzz with photographs of her makeover and the actress has been flooded with offers since then. It was her brother-in-law and actor Ajith Kumar, who has shot her pictures.
Rating:

Mumbai: Game of Thrones seventh and penultimate season has been one of long-impending reunions and altercations.

The third episode, aptly christened Queens Justice, has been no different. While the show keeps throwing glimpses of the delectably deplorable beauty of a character that Euron Greyjoy is, flaunting his sadist demeanour with irresistible glee, it has also been a crushing chronicle of Cersei Lannister decadence into irreversible insanity.

The long awaited meeting leading to imminent friction and subsequent subtle yet evident sexual tension between King in the North Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen finally occurs under the watchful eyes of Tyrion Lannister, Lord Varys and Davos Seaworth. While both protagonists and primary contenders for the Iron Throne are mutually unaware of their blood-relation, Jon displays sparks of Ned Stark while standing his ground against grossly uneven odds for the sake of his Northern allies anxiously awaited the arrival of the army of the dead.

Consequently, Sansa Stark displays amazingly acquired statesmanly skills up North in Jons absence while the scheming Petyr Baelish. Sansa also reunites with her long-presumed dead younger sibling Bran Stark, who however has diametrically changed to transform into the three-eyed raven, much to her astonishment.

The citadel acknowledges Samwell Tarlys meticulous work at curing Jorah Mormont of his greyscale, while the army of the unsullied march for and capture Casterly Rock, thanks to a very crucial strategic intervention from Tyrion Lannister. However, the episode truly belonged to Olenna Tyrell, who, true to her audacious self, dropped a major revelation at an unassuming Jaime Lannister, who displayed surprising restraint and character unlike his vicious twin, who chose to be as merciless as possible with the perpetrators who snatched her daughter off of her.

While the episode was not as high on thrills as its predecessor, it still showed ample meat in establishing liaisons and trajectories.

However, Danys startling yet gradual descend into mercilessness, scrutinisingly watched over by her trusted allies, has put her on course to give Cersei a tough one at pulling of an Aerys encore.

So which ones the mad queen? The iron throne might take a backseat for now for winter is here and the Mother of Dragons isnt the person you rooted for once, anymore.
The Guetteurs also known as the owl cabin is designed by Candice Petrillo in Bordeaux, France. (All Photos: ZEBRA3)

Tourists visiting Bordeaux can enjoy one free night in an ingenious dwelling and experience the French port city from a unique viewpoint.

Bruit du frigo, an art and architecture studio based in the city initiated the concept Refuges Periurbains (peri-urban shelters) to take visitors on a magical journey in a strange sanctuary where poetic sculpture meets organic architecture.

Each suburban shelter has no electricity or water and is designed by various artists.

"The goal is to offer a new experience of some hidden or forgotten natural spaces in the suburb of Bordeaux," said Yvan Detraz from Bruit du frigo.

"We want people to discover the richness and diversity of the contemporary areas of the city, beyond the historical and tourist old town," she went on to explain. The project is also intended to promote hiking.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

The natural spaces chosen to build these unique cabins are what set this project apart from any other. "The particularity of each spot is that they are mixed with urban environment," Yvan said.

Like the "Guetteurs" (Watchers) also known as the owl cabin, a stunning masterpiece designed by Candice Petrillo from Zebra3, which is a contemporary art studio. It is situated near the river Garonne and one of Bordeaux's biggest malls.

"Fully immersed in nature, from the owls you can access directly over a 12m long dock to the Garonne, while the shopping centre is just behind the reeds," said Candice.

The interior of the cabin is made with special pinewood that grows in the region. "Sitting back to back, the three birds form a shelter in which six persons can sleep on different levels while observing the quite unusual surroundings," the designer explained.

It is also equipped with three round beds and a spacious living area. The cabins have become so popular that they are booked months in advance.

To find out more log on here
In this March 20, 2015, file photo, the sun rises behind Angkor Wat on the northern outskirts of Siem Reap province, some 230 kilometers northwest of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. (Photo: AP)

Phnom Penh, Cambodia: Archaeologists at Cambodia's Angkor Wat temple complex studying the site of a hospital from eight to nine centuries ago say they have found a large statue in their excavations.

The government agency that oversees the complex, the Apsara Authority, said on its website that the 1.9-meter (6-foot, 3-inch) tall, 58-centimeter (23-inch) wide statue was discovered Sunday by its team, working with experts from Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. It is one of the largest statues from the era to be unearthed in recent years.

The agency said the statue, believed to be from the 12th or 13 century, is thought to have been a symbolic guardian of the entrance of the hospital.
To say that Deirdre O Connor has a passion would be an understatement. The 61-year-old catering worker loves Wetherspoons pubs so much that she has toured the UK supping in 455 of them and has the photos to prove it.

Deirdre launched a mission 17 years ago to visit every one of the pubs in the country and with a chain that is open in 905 places, she is just halfway there.

Deirdres favourite combo is a pint of Kronenbourg and a Balti cury, the grand mum says that it is better than sitting at home knitting. She further adds that she has three albums full of photos.

Deirdre visits a pub every fortnight, often her daughter Kerry driving her.

The trek by the gran, of Stretford, Gtr Manchester, has taken her as far as Belfast, Edinburgh, London and the Isle of Wight.

Her favourite, till now, turns out to be one in Blackpool, while another at Nottingham is her least favourite because it was full of rockers.
Beaver County Sheriff's Office says the dog ran back to the campsite and alerted family members who the dog back to the unconscious girls (Photo: Pixabay)

Utah: Two girls are recovering from a lightning strike after their dog brought help to the mountainside scene in Utah.

Authorities say the girls, ages 8 and 16, were crossing a meadow to explore during a family camping trip when the lightning hit Friday morning.

The Beaver County Sheriff's Office says the dog ran back to the campsite and alerted family members. They followed the dog back to the unconscious girls.

The Deseret News reports that a Utah Department of Public helicopter that happened to be in the area for a biological study flew the girls to a hospital.

The 8-year-old suffered critical injuries, and the 16-year-old suffered serious injuries.

They were later flown to hospitals in Salt Lake City, about 200 miles (321 kilometers) north of Beaver.

Authorities did not name the dog's breed.
Visakhapatnam: Telugu film director P.C. Aditya said the excise Special Investigation Team in Hyderabad had targeted film stars in its investigations into the drugs racket.

Aditya, who was in Vizianagaram district, said that SIT officials had found over 248 contact numbers in the mobile phone of the alleged drugs mastermind Calvin Mascarenhas but they were interrogating only 12 film personalities.

With the SIT targeting film personalities, their family members are suffering mentally, the director said. My next movie will focus on how the youngsters are getting addicted to drugs and how to tackle the issue, he said.
Hyderabad: 15 persons including a bank employee and a staff member of a private hospital were injured in a stray dog attack in Miryalaguda town of Nalgonda district on Monday. The stray dog went on a biting spree across five colonies. One of the victims is in a critical state.

According to sources, the stray dog started attacking people at Gandhi Nagar. When people began chasing it away, it entered Rajiv Chowk, and subsequently, Kalalwada, Main Bazaar, and Doctors Colony.

Shiva Kumar, an employee of Syndicate Bank who was on his way to work at the time of the attack, Srinivas, a compounder at a private hospital, S. Nagamma, D. Lingaiah, B. Lingaiah, and Tejya, are being treated at the Government Area Hospital in Miryalaguda. Srinivas suffered serious injuries in the incident. The hospital in Miryalaguda did not have enough vaccines to treat all the victims, so the rest had to be shifted to Nalgonda for treatment. Meanwhile, municipal authorities launched a search for the dog.
In 1958, India and China listed Barahoti as a disputed area where neither side would send their troops. (Representational Image)

New Delhi: In an ominous move amid the Sino-Indian military stand-off in Doklam, Chinese troops reportedly transgressed one kilometre into Indian territory in the Barahoti area of Uttarakhands Chamoli district on July 25 and threatened Indian shepherds grazing cattle. The Indian government is trying not to read too much into it.

Officials speaking off the record said such incidents have happened in the past and are best sorted out locally. They should not be given undue importance, they added. Transgressions do occur due to differing perceptions of the Line of Actual Control (LAC), a source said. The LAC is the de-facto border that separates India and China in several sectors, from Ladakh in eastern J&K to Arunachal Pradesh. It is part of the 4,056-km-long India-China border.

India and China have differing perceptions of the LAC and troops patrol up to the point they think their boundary ends.

India and China differ on LAC and troops patrol up to the point they think their boundary ends.

Transgressions are fairly regular along two major stretches  in Aksai Chin (bordering Ladakh) and in Arunachal Pradesh which China claims to be part of southern Tibet. Such transgressions are usually restricted to about four-five km into the others territory.

The latest transgression took place on the morning of July 25 when a group of shepherds were asked to vacate the land by Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) troops, officials told news agencies.

The Chinese media has been increasingly belligerent since the stand-off began in Doklam, which is Bhutanese territory. Government-controlled Chinese media has carried several reports threatening escalation of troop movement in various sectors if India does not withdraw from Doklam.
New Delhi: Fresh trouble seems to be in store for RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family members as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is preparing to initiate proceedings to attach their properties as part of its probe into a money laundering case. The case pertains to alleged irregularities in awarding tenders for development, maintenance and operation of railway hotels at Ranchi and Puri to a private firm when the RJD chief was the railway minister. The agency, sources said, will soon issue provisional attachment orders in this regard.

The ED is investigating the alleged proceeds of crime generated by the accused in the case. The agency will soon initiate proceedings to attach such movable and immovable assets, sources said.

The ED had recently registered a money laundering case against Lalu and his family members under the stringent provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ED took cognisance of a CBI FIR in this regard to initiate the move.

Earlier this month, the CBI had registered a corruption case in this regard and conducted multiple searches against the former Bihar chief minister and others.

Mr Yadavs wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi and others are also being probed by the ED. The case dates back to the time when Mr Yadav was the railway minister in the UPA government. Others named in the CBI FIR include Vijay Kochhar, Vinay Kochhar (both directors of Sujata Hotels), Delight Marketing company, now known as Lara Projects, and the then IRCTC managing director P.K. Goel.
Chennai: The Madras high court has ordered notice to the Union and State governments and the CBI on a petition from a DMK MLA seeking the constitution of a Special Investigation Team headed by a retired high court judge, to probe into the pan masala / gutka scam.

The scam allegedly involves a Tamil Nadu minister, the current DGP and several other officials of the central and state governments.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M.Sundar adjourned to September 11 further hearing of the Public Interest Litigation filed by DMK MLA J. Anbazhagan.

When the matter came up for hearing, senior counsel P.Wilson, appearing for the petitioner submitted that after the raid on the premises of one gutka manufacturer in Chennai, namely MDM brand, by the Income-Tax department, certain documents were seized, which shows that regular bribes were allegedly paid to the state health minister Vijayabaskar, high level police officials including the present DGP and several other top bureaucrats and central government officials from Central Excise department.

The investigation into this matter by the state police will not be fair or impartial and should be transferred to CBI, Wilson added. Advocate general R.Muthukumaraswamy submitted the state government has directed the DVAC to probe into the matter and the DVAC is conducting the probe.

One other petition filed by Kathiresan before the Madurai Bench came to be disposed of with certain directions including the direction to the DVAC to constitute a special team to investigate this matter, he added. Wilson said the petition before the Madurai Bench was specifically targeted against Rajendran's extension of service as the DGP and all the directions in the said judgment can only be viewed in that context. The vigilance commissioner was nothing more than the home secretary under whom the entire police department functions. Hence, handing over the investigation to the vigilance commissioner or DVAC was only farcical, Wilson added.
Southern states will sign agreements without going through the tedious process of signing power purchase agreements frequently.

Hyderabad: In a major development, electricity boards of southern states on Monday reached an agreement to simplify procedures to purchase power from surplus states and constituted a committee to prepare guidelines.

They also decided to cooperate with one another in power generation, distribution and supply, at a meeting of the Southern Region Power Committee at Vidyut Soudha here.

At present, states that want to sell surplus power and those that want to purchase it have to do their transactions through the power exchange.

The information should be given a day in advance. Under this arrangement the surplus state cannot automatically sell the excess power in the open market immediately.

The state which is in dire need cannot purchase its requirement immediately, and has to evaluate demand a day in advance.

In the proposed agreement, the southern states will enter into mutual agreements and transact power through the Southern Region Load Dispatch Centre.

Committee chairman D. Prabhakar Rao, chairman and managing director of Transco, said the process would be completed in an hour and the process would be online.

The surplus and shortage details will be exchanged online and the Indian Energy Exchange rates will apply.

Southern states will sign agreements without going through the tedious process of signing power purchase agreements frequently.

The member states of the Southern Region Power Committee accepted the initial draft and a committee was formed under the chairmanship of Mr S.R. Bhatt, member-secretary to prepare the final draft. The states will meet in Kerala on August 20 to take a final decision.
HYDERABAD: The current dry spell has prevented farmers in the state from growing vegetables. The resultant shortage in the supply of vegetables has caused an escalation of prices. Tomatoes now cost Rs 60 per kg. Last week they cost Rs 50 per kg, and their price touched Rs 100 per kg earlier this month. The prices of all vegetables are significantly higher as compared to the same period last year. The dependency on imports from other states has increased, and transportation costs have contributed to the rise in prices. Normally, vegetable prices begin to fall in August, with the arrival of the first harvests.

However, the situation is different this year due to the long dry spell experienced in July. The scarcity of water has resulted in damage to the crops. Farmers who are reliant on borewells have also been unable to save their crops due to the depletion of groundwater resources. Over 80 per cent of the demand for vegetables in the GHMC region is met through imports from neighbouring states. However, supplies from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra have suffered due to the prevailing weather conditions. Supplies from neighbouring districts have also reduced by 60 percent.

This shortage of supply is driving prices upwards. Officials from the Departments of Agriculture and Marketing fear that situation could deteriorate further as no major rainfall has been forecast until mid-August. Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy and marketing minister T. Harish Rao have been reviewing the situation with department officials for the past two weeks. Officials have pointed out that unless the state receives sufficient rainfall in August, it will be difficult for them to control the prices of vegetables during the festive season.

C. Parthasarathy, the secretary of the agriculture department, said, The government took measures to encourage the cultivation of vegetables in the districts surrounding Hyderabad, to cater to the huge demand in the city. Meetings were held with farmers for this purpose. Farmers were willing to grow vegetables, but the long dry spell has altered our plans. The marketing department sprang into action to increase imports from other states, to ensure that all markets received adequate supplies. Teams were sent to AP, Karnataka and Maharashtra, to enter into deals with vegetable traders. However, their efforts did not produce any results because the neighbouring states are also experiencing a dry spell.
Chennai: In the largest single haul of narcotics till date, the Indian Coast Guard seized 1,500 kg of heroin, valued at around Rs 3,500 crore to Rs 5,000 crore in the grey market, from a merchant vessel off Gujarat coast on Saturday night after three days of coordinated efforts with the Intelligence Bureau.

Eight people, all Indians, who were in the vessel, had been apprehended and further investigations are on, said additional director general Krishnaswamy Natarajan, Indian Coast Guard Commander for the Western seaboard, when this newspaper contacted him.

A defence ministry press release said the Indian Coast Guard ship Samudra Pavak intercepted and apprehended a merchant vessel carrying approximately 1,500 kg of heroin valued at about Rs 3,500 crore off the coast of Gujarat.

A Coast Guard official, when asked if the vessel was coming from Pakistan, noted that the ship was coming from Persian Gulf and was heading towards Bhavnagar port in Gujarat.

The Panama registered vessel, Henry, has been under the radar of Indian agencies for many days. On Saturday night CG team intercepted the vessel and conducted searches to find it was carrying 1,500 kg of heroin, the official said.

A senior Narcotics Control Bureau official in Chennai disclosed that the possibility of the ship coming from Pakistan coast is high and 93 per cent of the heroin produced in Afghanistan is being shipped to Western countries via Sri Lanka.

Only seven per cent is used for medicinal purpose. The rest is being smuggled out to Europe and American continents, he said.

Though Afghanistan produces the drug, the procurement and distribution network is controlled by Pakistan. NCB had already alerted other agencies of drug smugglers using short sea route to send narcotics substance from Pakistan, via India to Sri Lanka, from where it gets 'exported' to western countries including US, where the demand for such drug is as high as 2,000 kg per month.

It looks like the vessel 'Henry' (which was named Prince initially) was heading towards the ship breaking facility in Bhavnagar port.

The network of smugglers could have made other arrangements to transport the contraband further, an NCB source said.
The Indira Nagar Police arrested all the five accused, who attacked a Chinese national with knives in Bengaluru. (Representational Image)

Bengaluru: The Indira Nagar Police on Monday arrested all the five accused, who attacked a Chinese national with knives in Bengaluru.

The accused were identified as Mani, Manikantha, Vijay, Arunkirran and Sharath.

The police have also recovered two 2-wheelers from them, which were used for committing crime.

Earlier on Saturday, a Chinese national identified as Yan, who arrived in Bengaluru to finalise a business deal, was attacked by five assailants.

Yan was waiting for his cab in Indira Nagar, when five men came on bike and attacked him with knives.

As per the report, the accused wanted to snatch Yan's mobile and when he resisted they attacked him.

Yan however, managed to escape from there with a cut on his face.

The accused had fled the spot by the time police van reached the spot.
Congress chief whip Jyotiraditya Scindia wanted a discussion in the House on the issue of BJP offering money to Cong MLAs in return of their support. (Photo: File | PTI)

New Delhi: Opposition Congress on Monday claimed in Lok Sabha that its MLAs in Gujarat were being offered Rs 15 crore in return of support to the BJP and being forced by the ruling party in the state.

As soon as the House assembled, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge raised the issue of political situation in Gujarat, from where Congress shifted its MLAs to Karnataka fearing poaching allegedly by the BJP ahead of the August 8 Rajya Sabha elections.

Ruling BJP has fielded three members including party president Amit Shah, union minister Smriti Irani and a rebel Congress MLA for the election.

Ahmed Patel, Congress president Sonia Gandhi's political advisor, is seeking re-election.

"The Congress MLAs are being put under pressure," Kharge alleged amidst the protests and counter-protests by Congress and BJP members respectively.

Congress chief whip Jyotiraditya Scindia alleged that each of the Congress MLAs in Gujarat were offered Rs 15 crore in return of supporting the BJP. Both Kharge and Scindia wanted a discussion on the issue in the House.

However, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan rejected the demand saying it was a subject relating to a state and cannot be discussed in the House.

In contrast, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday questioned the Opposition Congress for flying 44 of its MLAs to Bengaluru at a time when the state of Gujarat is reeling from floods.

Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said, "Gujarat continues to reel from floods, but Congress representatives are busy parading their MLAs. The time when Gujarat needed the Congress, its public representatives were not present."

Naqvi further said that if the Congress MLAs are discontented with the party's functioning, then it is not the BJP's fault.

"If the Congress MLAs are unhappy with the functioning of the party, then it is not our fault. The situation in the Congress is disruptive. The public is rejecting the Congress. Their own MLAs are refusing to be a part of the party", he said.
Chinese troops entered into Indian territory in Barahoti area of Uttarakhands Chamoli district on July 25. (Representational Image)

New Delhi: Chinese troops entered one kilometre into Indian territory and threatened shepherds grazing cattle in the Barahoti area of Uttarakhand's Chamoli district, officials said on Monday.

The transgression took place on the morning of July 25 when a group of shepherds was asked to vacate the land by troops of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), officials in the know said on the condition of anonymity.

The incident comes in the backdrop of a prolonged standoff between Chinese and Indian troops at Dokalam near Sikkim.

Barahoti, an 80 sq km sloping pasture about 140 km from the Uttarakhand capital Dehradun, is one of three border posts in what is known the 'middle sector', comprising Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

It is a demilitarised zone where Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) jawans are not allowed to take their weapons, officials said.

In 1958, India and China listed Barahoti as a disputed area where neither side would send their troops. In the 1962 war, the PLA did not enter the middle sector and focused on the western (Ladakh) and eastern (Arunachal Pradesh) sectors.

After the war, ITBP jawans would patrol the area with weapons in a non-combative manner -- with the barrel of the gun facing down.

During negotiations on resolving the border dispute, the Indian side unilaterally agreed in June 2000 that ITBP troops would not carry arms in three posts, Barahoti and Kauril and Shipki in Himachal Pradesh.

ITBP men go patrolling in civil dress and the Barahoti pasture sees Indian shepherds from border villages tending their sheep and people from Tibet bringing their yaks for grazing.

In the past, Chinese troops have been known to cross over and write 'China' on rocks in the Chamoli district.

This area has also seen aerial transgressions and infiltration by foot patrols in 2013 and 2014.

The present standoff between India and China emerged after New Delhi expressed its apprehension over Beijing's road construction in the Sikkim sector of the border.

Consequently, China suspended the annual Kailash Manasarovar yatra and conceded that the decision to suspend the pilgrimage was due to the border scuffle.
New Delhi: Breaking his silence for the first time after the grand alliance faced rupture, Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)) leader Sharad Yadav on Monday called the decision in Bihar 'unfortunate'.

"I don't agree with the decision in Bihar, its unfortunate. The mandate by the people was not for this," Yadav said.

Nitish Kumar, on last Wednesday, ended his two-year grand alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress, citing a call of conscience over corruption charges slapped against his former deputy and Lalu Prasad Yadavs son Tejaswi Yadav.

Lalu, his wife Rabri Devi and Tejaswi are central to a CBI inquiry into the land-for-hotels deal when Lalu was the Union railways minister.

Veteran JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav was also not present during the oath taking ceremony of Nitish Kumar last week.

The leader, however, expressed his dissatisfaction with the split in JD(U) and RJD alliance on social media. He for the first time spoke on the issue with media on Monday.

Sharad Yadav has been indirectly hitting out at BJP. The recent attack came on Sunday when Yadav told that BJP has failed to keep the promise of bringing back black money stashed abroad.

"Neither black money stashed abroad returned, one of the main slogans of the ruling party, nor anyone caught out of those named in Panama papers," Yadav took to Twitter.

Neither black money slashed abroad returned, one of d main slogans of d ruling party nor anyone caught out of those named in Panama papers.  SHARAD YADAV (@SharadYadavMP) July 30, 2017

He also targeted the Centre for lack of development in the country. He said, Although Govt collects number of cesses in d name of different services from public, yet don't see any improvement in any area in d country.

Although Govt collects number of cesses in d name of different services from public, yet don't see any improvement in any area in d country.  SHARAD YADAV (@SharadYadavMP) July 29, 2017

Sharad Yadav also termed the Union governments Crop Insurance Scheme unsuccessful and said, Amongst others Fasal Bima Yojana is another unsuccessful scheme of d Govt through which only private insurance companies being benefitted.

Amongst others Fasal Bima Yojana is another unsuccessful scheme of d Govt through which only private insurance companies being benefitted.  SHARAD YADAV (@SharadYadavMP) July 27, 2017

In his Twitter account Sharad Yadav also asked for an explanation from the government over slow growth in infrastructure sector.
Patna: A Muslim cleric, Suhail Ahmed Quasmi, on Sunday issued a fatwa against Bihar minority affairs minister Khurshid Ahmed for chanting Jai Shri Ram outside the legislative Assembly.

Suhail, who is a Mufti of Imarat-e-Sharia, an Islamic religious body in Bihar declared the ministers nikah as null and void and asked him to apologise in an Islamic manner to remain a Muslim. He said a woman who follows Islam cannot remain married to a person who leaves his religious path and starts believing in another religion. He will have to apologise in an Islamic way to remarry the same wife.

The verdict created controversy and sparked a debate within the political circles here. While JD(U) and BJP leaders termed the fatwa against the minister unfortunate, RJD leader and former minister Abdul Bari Siddiqui said, Those who have faith in Islam will accept the fatwa.

The senior RJD leader further said that it seems that the JD(U) leader chanted the slogan in excitement.

Khurshid Ahmed had chanted slogans outside Bihar Assembly on Friday, the day Chief Minister Nitish Kumar won the vote of trust after he snapped ties with Grand Secular Alliance and joined hands with the BJP.
The Chinese army came upto 200 metres on the other side of the border. (Representational Image)

Uttarakhand: After reports emerged that the Chinese troops had entered Uttarakhand on July 25th, the Uttarakhand government has said that it has not received any official information as yet.

Madan Kaushik, a spokesperson for the Uttarakhand government said that they had watched the report on TV but they had not received any official information on the issue.

"We haven't received any official information as yet. The stationed security forces have not given us any information nor has the district magistrate" he said.

Kaushik also said that they've ordered further probe into the matter.

Earlier, on July 25, in a fresh case of transgression, the People's Liberation Army from China crossed into Uttarakhand's Barahoti in Chamoli district and came upto 200 metres on the other side of the border.

Sources say that, the soldiers came up to 800m to 1 km into Indian territory.

This incident comes amid severe tensions between India and China resulting from the Doklam standoff.

In the past, Chinese troops have been known to cross over and write 'China' on rocks in the Chamoli district.

This area has also seen aerial transgressions and infiltration by foot patrols in 2013 and 2014.

The present standoff between India and China emerged after New Delhi expressed its apprehension over Beijing's road construction in the Sikkim sector of the border.

Consequently, China suspended the annual Kailash Manasarovar yatra and conceded that the decision to suspend the pilgrimage was due to the border scuffle.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan convened a meeting with BJP-RSS leaders in the state against the backdrop of the recent political violence and slaying of an RSS worker in Thiruvananthapuram. (Photo: PTI)

Thiruvananthapuram: Amid violent incidents following the slaying of an Rashtriya Swayam Sevak (RSS) worker in Thiruvananthapuram, a meeting between Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-RSS leaders on Monday agreed to support initiatives to promote peace and shun violence.

The meeting called by Vijayan also decided to convene an all-party meet here on August 6.

Briefing reporters after the meeting in which BJP state President, Kummanam Rajasekharan, former Union minister, O Rajagopal, MLA, and RSS leader P Gopalankutty and CPI(M) state secretary, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, participated, Vijayan said similar meetings will also be held at Kannur, Kottayam and Thiruvananthapuram.

Condemning the recent violent incidents in parts of the state, he said political parties should be vigilant and initiate steps to create awareness among their cadre to shun violence.

Though earlier peace meetings had decided that party offices, homes of party workers would not be attacked, it was unfortunate that a BJP office and house of Kodiyeri Balakrishnan were targeted in the violence in the state capital here, Vijayan said.

"Houses of several councillors were also damaged. This should not have happened. We need to be vigilant against such incidents and ensure that it does not happen again," he said.

Rajasekharan, who spoke to reporters separately, said BJP and RSS would provide all support to the government initiatives to restore peace.

"We need to have peace in the state. But we also want political parties, religious and communal outfits to have the freedom to engage in their party activities," he said and asked the government to provide the necessary atmosphere for it. Police should be impartial, he said.

A report from Kottayam said stones were on Monday thrown at the district committee office of the Communist Party of India's (Marxist) (CPI-M) trade union wing CITU while a petrol bomb was hurled at the RSS district office in fresh incidents of violence in Kottayam town.

The BJP district unit alleged that CPI(M) workers hurled a petrol bomb at the RSS district office, causing extensive damage to the building situated at Thirunakkara in the town.

They slammed police for not taking steps to provide adequate security cover for RSS-BJP offices in the town.

Window panes of the CITU office were damaged in the attack believed to be carried out by a gang of five men who reached there on three motorcycles at 2.30 am, police said.

They hurled stones at the office, police said.

Condemning the incident, the CPI(M) Kottayam district secretary V N Vasavan alleged that BJP-RSS activists were behind the attack.

On Sunday, Kerala Governor P Sathasivam had summoned the chief minister and DGP Loknath Behara to ascertain the action taken by the government following the killing of the RSS worker.

The chief minister had assured him that he would be meeting BJP and RSS state leaders.

Vijayan and the DGP met the governor separately after they were summoned by the Raj Bhavan following recent violent incidents including the murder of the 34-year-old Rajesh on July 29.

The state had been witnessing a serious of violent incidents allegedly involving BJP-RSS and CPI-M workers with the capital city rocked by incidents of attacks on houses of rival partymen in the past few days.

The state BJP office was vandalised on July 28 while stones were thrown at the house of CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan's son Bineesh Kodiyeri here.

Rajesh was hacked to death by a history-sheeter-led gang here on Saturday. His left arm was chopped off and there were several injuries all over his body.

The BJP had called for a dawn-to-dusk state-wide hartal on Sunday to protest the incident.

Seven persons had been arrested so far in connection with the RSS worker's slaying.

On Sunday, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to the chief minister and voiced concern over attacks on political workers in Kerala and said political violence was unacceptable in a democracy.
RJD leader Jagdanand Singh said that Nitish doesn't deserve to be the Chief Minister as a number of criminal charges have been filed against him. (Photo: ANI | Twitter)

Patna: The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Monday demanded that Nitish Kumar step down as Chief Minister immediately, claiming that he is an accused in a murder and arms case under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and Arms Act.

Speaking at a press conference, RJD leader Jagdanand Singh said that Nitish doesn't deserve to be the Chief Minister as a number of criminal charges have been filed against him.

"The victim whom Nitish Kumar had killed is still waiting for justice. Normally, the criminal comes up against the state. But when the criminal is the head of the state, the case becomes a State vs State scenario," he said.

They also said that Section 302 is the biggest section of the Indian Penal Code ( IPC) and that a person accused of the same cannot represent the state because the laws are equal for everyone.

RJD also accused Nitish Kumar of safe-guarding the criminals in Bihar ever since he became the Chief Minister. "When Nitish took office for the first day, East Bihar's top most criminals were standing beside him. It is because of them that we were called Jungle Raj. All the criminals and criminal activities were backed by Nitish".

The RJD further stressed that Nitish Kumar must resign because he himself tried to establish that a person free of corruption charges should be the Chief Minister of the state.

This, however, wasn't the first time the RJD leveled such allegations. On July 26, soon after Nitish pulled out of the Grand Alliance, RJD chief Lalu Prasad said: "Nitish Kumar knew that he is accused of section 302, one of India's CM is main accused in murder & arms case."

Meanwhile, speaking in his first press conference after snapping ties with long time ally RJD, Nitish on Monday explained that he had given Lalu Yadav ample opportunities to explain the charges of corruption against him, but to no avail.

If Lalu had explained himself over the corruption allegations, then situation could have been different in Bihar, Nitish said.

"I had asked Lalu to clarify the allegations of corruption against him and put the facts forward. It will send a positive impact on the public and which is also good for 'mahagathbandhan. I have tolerated everything, thought this happens in alliance as I didn't have a choice. I continued my work for the betterment of people," he added.

Earlier, Lalu invited Janata Dal (United) co-founder Sharad Yadav to lead the fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Nitish , who, according to him, joined hands with "communal and fascist forces and betrayed the people's mandate".

"Nitish has tarnished the image of Ambedkar. I urge Sharad Yadav, whom we consider the true leader, to travel to every corner of the country and come to Bihar and join our fight against the BJP and Nitish Kumar," Lalu said.
Chennai: To ignite young minds, two statues of Abdul Kalaam would be put up inside the Kalaam memorial that was inaugurated a couple of days ago on the occasion of his second death anniversary, so that people could take selfies there and know more about him, said S.Christopher, Chairman, DRDO and Secretary Defence R&D at Sathyabama university's convocation address on Saturday.

Talking about the Kalaam memorial, the DRDO chairman said, in phase 1, a society would be formed by the DRDO which would maintain the memorial and in phase two, a permanent exhibition would be set up to inspire the youth.

Christopher emphasised various factors in which the upbringing is significant for societal development. Gone are the days when students were job seekers, it is time for them to be job providers. They can make use of numerous web base-d applications, he said.

This year 2,392 undergraduates, 284 postgraduates and 96 undergraduates from to department of Dental Surgery and 58 Ph.D scholars received their degrees. Among them 32 students are awarded with gold medals for their exemplary performance.
Chennai: An abandoned pregnant girl, who was aimlessly commuting on a suburban train, was given a ray of hope.

A social work student from Madras Christian College who understood the pain of the mentally disturbed girl extended a helping shoulder.

When the girl with untidy clothes and crinkly hair boarded the train at Guindy railway station on Sunday afternoon, Amrita Xavier, a 24-year-old student commuting on the same train did not give a thought, assuming her to be a beggar.

She was oblivious of the surroundings. When I noticed her clearly, I understood that she is too young to be pregnant, narrated Amrita. The girl is believed to be below 20 years of age.

The girl did not get off the train at Tambaram, which is the last station of the Chennai Beach Tambaram suburban route. Amrita, who had no heart to leave the girl, convinced her to get down and tried to know her whereabouts. It was then that the social work student realised that she is mentally ill.

She was screaming and was unwilling to talk to me. She did not want to come, she added.

The Railway Police Force (RPF) officials attempts to soothe the pregnant girl turned futile, as she boarded a running train, prompting Amrita to take the same train.

I found her after a much difficulty. I reached out to Rehoboth, an organisation for the mentally ill for help and learnt that there were no volunteers available. A few passengers helped me to take her to the Beach police station, where I registered a memo, said Amrita, who later took the girl to the organisation.

Zoraida Samuel, founder and social worker of Rehoboth, told Deccan Chronicle that the girl, who is declared eight months pregnant by the doctors, has been provided psychiatric assistance.

She is speech impaired and is responding through actions. We have given her harmless sedatives to soothe her, as she is very aggressive, Zoraida Samuel said.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government, already faced with the threat of shrinking tax revenues, is finding its investments going down the drain. The state had invested Rs 6,733.85 crore in statutory corporations, government companies, joint stock companies and cooperatives. For five fiscals till 2015-16, according to the State's Finance Accounts, the average return on these investments was 1.4 per cent. On the other hand, the average interest paid by the state on these investments was 7.2 per cent. During the last five years (till 2015-16) the capital investment of the state increased by Rs 2,926.33 crore (from Rs 3,807.52 crore at the beginning of 2011-12 to Rs 6,733.85 crore at the end of 2015-16). Out of this direct cash investment was Rs 2,788.34 crore, the rest being the value of loans (granted to the institutions) converted into share capital. Of this, Rs 2,297.55 crore was in government companies and corporations, joint stock companies, and Rs 490.79 crore in cooperatives.

Out of the investment of Rs 2,297.55 crore, Rs 500.06 crore (22 per cent) was made in 18 loss making government companies and corporations and Rs 1,209.55 crore (53 per cent) in seven newly formed ones. Consequently, no benefit accrued to government from these investments during the last five years, a top finance department official said. Mostly, the money invested is diverted for non-productive purposes. Take for instance the `96.70 crore invested in Kerala State Cashew Development Corporation (KSCDC) during the period 2013-14 to 2015-16. It was for the modernisation and partial mechanisation of cashew factories. However, defeating the purpose of the investment, the government allowed KSCDC to divert the money for the payment of Onam bonus and for urgent market operations.

In many cases, the money was kept idle. The Rs 59.18 crore invested in five companies between 2011-12 and 2015-16 were kept unutilised, thanks to a delay in land acquisition and other procedural delays. Loans that were converted into share capital to revive sick units too had been wasted. The government had permitted conversion of the loan amount of Rs 119.89 crore to five sick enterprises (Kerala Electrical and Allied Engineering Company Limited, Traco Cable Company Limited, Kerala Ceramics Limited, Kerala State Electronics Development Corporation Limited and Kerala State Textile Corporation Limited) into share capital. The assumption was that the units would turn this generous infusion of capital into profits. The companies but continue to be in the red.
Chennai: A two and half-year-old girl suffered head injuries when a battery-powered vehicle hit her at the Anna Arignar Zoological Park in Vandalur on Sunday. The girl has been admitted to the ICU of the Egmore children's hospital.

She was walking with her parents when she was hit by the vehicle carrying visitors around the zoo. She had suddenly ran across its path, sources at the zoo disclosed. This is the first time the zoo is witnessing such an accident inside the premises.

The girl, Sumaida, daughter of Khaja Moideen and Suraja, was at the zoo with parents and a 4 -year-old sister and a 2-month-old brother. It appears the girl suddenly ran across the path and Kavitha, who was driving the vehicle failed to stop it, causing the accident, a zoo official said.

Sumaida was taken to a private hospital in Tambaram from where she was shifted to the children's hospital in Egmore. A team of employees from the zoo had also accompanied the family to the hospital.

Otteri police said that they were aware of the incident and a sub inspector has been sent to Egmore hospital to collect further details.

Police said that Khaja Moideen, who resides with his family in Triplicane, is a native of Tirunelveli and is running small business in the city.

Kavitha is a member of the all-women drivers employed by the zoo to operate the battery powered 9-seater carts used by visitors to go around the zoo.
Opposition members protesting in the Well of Rajya Sabha in the Parliament, New Delhi on Monday. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Charges and counter charges flew in the Lok Sabha on Sunday over the issue of lynchings, with the Congress saying Hindustan should not be allowed to become lynchistan and the government accusing the Opposition of enacting a drama in the name of secularism to defame Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The government asserted that mob-lynching or anything related to it was unacceptable and noted that the Prime Minister has himself condemned this several times while terming the acts as the worst form of crime.

During the discussion on incidents of atrocities and mob-lynching in the country, members of all parties condemned the killings in the name of cow. However, Opposition parties like the Congress, Trinamul, Left and AIMIM accused the BJP-led government of encouraging groups behind the violence by cow vigilantes.

Initiating the debate, Leader of the Congress Mallikarjun Kharge said Hindustan should not be allowed to become lynchistan.

He alleged that this government was against minorities, Dalits and women, claiming that these sections had borne the maximum brunt of mob violence.
Chennai: With TTV Dhinakaran appearing keen on keeping his promise to bounce back into active politics on August 5 by summoning all the AIADMK district secretaries for a meeting at the party headquarters on that day, the Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami has now decided to take the Family head-on.

The CM has called for a meeting of all ministers, party office-bearers and MLAs at the AIADMK headquarters Tuesday evening, where it is expected they would steel their resolve against surrendering the party to one family Sasikala Natarajan, her nephew Dhinakaran and brother Divakaran, not to forget another nephew S. Venkatesh and her husband M. Natarajan.

It may be recalled that just before she left for Bengaluru to begin her jail term mid-February, Sasikala revoked the suspension (ordered by Jayalalithaa) of Dhinakaran and Venkatesh and even made the former the party deputy general secretary with all the powers of the general secretary in her absence.

As news spread on Monday that Dhinakaran has sent out communications to the district secretaries asking them to meet him at the party headquarters on Saturday in his capacity as deputy general secretary, the EPS camp swung into action with senior ministers going into huddle to discuss possible measures to stop the former Periyakulam MP from entering the party office.

Having withdrawn himself from politics since June 5, Dhinakaran's present communication to district secretaries' is seen as an apparent challenge to EPS even as talks for unification with the O.Panneerselvam group are on. Only on Sunday, Dhinakaran had reiterated he would resume his party work from August 5 and that he would work towards merger of the AIADMK factions.

Sources in the EPS camp said the chief minister is very clear on the decision taken in April not to have any truck with the Sasikala family and wants to reiterate this to the ministers and MLAs. The Chief Minister has called ministers, MLAs and senior office bearers for this meeting at 5 pm on Tuesday only to reiterate we shall have nothing to do with the family, a senior leader in the EPS camp said.

Sources said the EPS camp sounded optimistic about stopping Dhinakaran from resuming party activities. They said at least a dozen MLAs who had earlier met Dhinakaran have quietly come back to the EPS fold.

Everyone understands that the Chief Minister is running the administration smoothly and they must support him, a senior leader said, pointing to the thin attendance from the AIADMK at the funeral of Dhinakaran's mother-in-law in Thanjavur on Friday last.

His support base may be shrinking and yet Dhinakaran seems adamant on resuming party activities and has decided to even address his first public rally, post-arrest, at Theni on July 5 night before undertaking a state-wide tour to meet the party cadre and the local leaders  to strengthen the AIADMK.

Dhinakaran, who was jailed for nearly a month after arrest for allegedly attempting to bribe some Election Commission officials for a favourable order in the Two Leaves symbol case, has been maintaining that 'Chinnamma' Sasikala was his boss and he would take instructions only from her.
Lucknow: BJP president Amit Shah, on Monday, denied reports that he would leave his party position to join the Modi government after being elected to Rajya Sabha.

There is no question of doing so. I have the responsibility of being the party president. I am happy, and I am working wholeheartedly. The media should not push the issue, he said.

Talking to reporters, Mr Shah also ruled out the possibility of deputy chief minister Keshav Maurya being shifted to the centre. Reports of SP leader Mr Shivpal joining the BJP are also misplaced. There was never any such proposal and nor was it under consideration, he said.

Mr Shah, while wrapping up his three-day visit to Lucknow, emphatically denied that the BJP had played any role in the break-up of the grand alliance in Bihar.

Should I have pointed a gun at them to keep them together? Nitish Kumar resigned because he did not wish to stay with corrupt elements, he said.
New Delhi: Opposition leaders, who are in touch with dissident JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, on Saturday claimed that he was in two minds as far as his Opposition to Nitish Kumars decision of joining the NDA was concerned and did not rule out the possibility of him jumping onto the BJP bandwagon at the last minute. Meanwhile, JD(U) sources said that Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar was likely to visit the capital next week.

This would be Kumar first visit to the national capital after assuming office in alliance with the NDA.

Though it was not clear, sources close to Yadav claimed that he has not spoken with the Bihar chief minister since the day of his resignation. Now, it would be interesting to see whether the two JD(U) leaders meet.

Yadav, interestingly, has been in touch with both Opposition and ruling party leaders since fresh political developments in Bihar. While he met Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and spoke on phone with Union finance minister Arun Jaitely on Thursday, he also met CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and Congress Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday.

He (Sharad Yadav) has always worked to strengthen secular powers and I have full hope he will continue to do so, Azad said on Saturday.

Sources in the Opposition camp said that Yadav has been offered a Cabinet berth, but fear of losing Yadav votebank is holding him back.

The Congress on its part is desperately trying to keep Yadav on their side, considering the Rajya Sabha arithmetic where the JD(U) has nine MLAs.

The Congress-led Opposition has suffered a huge setback in the Upper House with the resignation of BSP chief Mayawati and the refusal of CPI(M) for renomination of its general secretary Sitaram Yechury with Congress support from West Bengal. Also, party president Sonia Gandhis political secretary Ahmed Patels re-election has run into trouble with large-scale defections in Gujarat Congress.

Yadavs breaking away from the JD(U) along with some Rajya Sabha MPs seems to be the only hope the Opposition is hanging on to it seems.
Guwahati: In what may be a major setback for the Congress party, more than seven legislators from ruling alliance in Meghalaya have sought an audience with BJPs national president Amit Shah during his visit next month.

Though, BJP has described it a courtesy call, the development has already surcharged the political atmosphere of the frontier state which is schedule to go for general elections in 2018. Meghalaya BJP president Shibun Lyngdoh told this newspaper that, At least seven legislators from Congress, United Democratic Party and National Peoples Party have approached me for an audience with our national president.

He however quickly added that it would be too early to say that they want to join BJP. You can say this is a request for a courtesy calls. They just want to meet our party president, said Mr Lyngdoh.

The BJP doesnt have any representative in the present 60-member Meghalaya Assembly.
Lucknow: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah, who has been on a three-day visit to Lucknow as part of his nation-wide tour, on Monday highlighted the major achievements of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government in the last three years.

Addressing the media in Lucknow, Shah attacked the previous government for being ineffective while listing the achievements of present one.

Maintaining that the current government has been so well managed and effective that the Opposition has not been able to levy a single corruption charge against them, Shah said, "The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has completed over three years in office at the Centre, and has completed three months in office in Uttar Pradesh, and in these three years, the country has seen a visible development. Under the previous government, every month, there were cases of corruption, but we have completed three years, and there is not even one case of corruption against us," he added.

He said that the world has accepted that the Indian economy is growing rapidly.

He said the "jobless growth" criticism was misplaced as the government has given employment to 7.28 crore people through the Mudra Bank scheme.

Shah reminded the Other Backward Classes (OBC) that the "Modi government did a great job by according Constitutional status to the OBC Commission."

Commenting on last year's surgical strike across the border, Shah said Prime Minister Modi had sent out a message that India is capable of protecting itself and giving a befitting reply to anyone.

Talking about the other achievements of the Modi Government, he said that it has ensured electricity coverage in 13,000 villages and by May 2018 it will reach 19000 villages.

"19000 villages in India didn't have electricity, and till now, almost 13000 villages have been provided, Before May 2018, all 19000 villages will have electricity," he added.

The BJP chief said that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has launched 104 satellites into orbit under the present government.

"ISRO used to work before also, but the launching of 104 is something incredible," he added.

He also said that Prime Minister Modi's government sanctioned One Rank One Pension within a year of its governance.

The BJP chief also highlighted the Swachh Bharat Mission and said that "due to the prime minister's initiative, over four crore toilets have been constructed across the country".

On hearing the news of the Gujarat Congress MLAs being shifted to a Bengaluru resort, Shah said it seemed as if the Congress does not trust its MLAs.

"Why have they been made prisoners?" he asked.

He also rejected suggestions that the BJP had engineered Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's resignation last week and also his decision to get back into the NDA fold. He said Kumar himself had ended the Janata Dal-United's alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and resigned.

He also said that he was confident about Modi and the BJP serving a second consecutive term at the Centre from 2019.
Chennai: DMK will never hesitate to bring down the AIADMK Government led by Edappadi K. Palaniswami through democratic means to put an end to the horse trading administration, Opposition Leader and party Working President M.K. Stalin said on Sunday.

The DMK leader tore into Chief Minister for accusing him of fishing in the troubled waters of the AIADMK, saying this could only be considered as the joke of the year.

It is Edappadi K. Palaniswami who is fishing in the troubled waters. It is not only me, who knows this, but AIADMK cadre and people of Tamil Nadu. As far as the DMK is concerned, we are an organisation, which believes in democracy. Since we are sure that we will emerge victorious (in the next elections), there is no need for us to fish in troubled waters, Stalin said in a statement.

But the DMK will not hesitate to bring down the Edappadi K. Palaniswami government which has pushed the state to backwardness. Let the Chief Minister not daydream about threatening the DMK, which is involved in bringing down the government democratically, the DMK Working President said.

In the statement, Stalin tore into the Chief Minister and the AIADMK government of pledging the state to the Uni-on Government. He also sought to know why the government was scared of the Centre.

Edappadi Palaniswami distributed Rs 89 crore to the people of R.K. Nagar during the elections and has protected a minister who has been accused of allowing gutka sale in Tamil Nadu, Stalin said.
Marian Diamond, a neuroscientist who studied Albert Einsteins brain and was the first to show the brains anatomy can change with experience died on July 25 in Okland, aged 90, reported the Associated Press.

Diamond, a professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley, achieved celebrity status in 1984 when she examined preserved slices of Einstein's brain and found it had more support cells than the average person's brain.

Her groundbreaking research on rats found that the brain can improve with enrichment, while impoverished environments can lower the capacity to learn. "Her research demonstrated the impact of enrichment on brain development - a simple but powerful new understanding that has literally changed the world, from how we think about ourselves to how we raise our children," said George Brooks, a professor of integrative biology and her colleague at UC Berkeley.

"Dr. Diamond showed anatomically, for the first time, what we now call plasticity of the brain. In doing so she shattered the old paradigm of understanding the brain as a static and unchangeable entity that simply degenerated as we age."

Her subsequent research found that the brain can continue to develop at any age, that male and female brains are structured differently and that brain stimulation can improve the immune system. On campus, she was known for walking to her packed anatomy classes carrying a flowered hat box containing a preserved human brain.

She regularly encouraged activities, both mental and physical, that enrich the brain, and continued to conduct research and teach until 2014, when she retired at the age of 87. "If you're going to live life, you've got to be all in," Diamond said in the 2016 documentary film "My Love Affair with the Brain: The Life and Science of Dr. Marian Diamond." She is survived by four children.

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She says that there is a lot of improvement needed after co-chairing an evaluation of hospital cybersecurity across the United States.

Present in the neonatal intensive care unit of Cook Childrens Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas is a father rocking his baby attached to a heart monitor. There are doctors roaming across the halls trying to prevent infection but Chief Information Officer Theresa Meadows is worried about another kind of virus.

The last thing anybody wants to happen in their organization is have all their heart monitors disabled or all of their IV pumps which provide medication to a patient disabled, Meadows says.

Meadows is in charge of managing IT and cybersecurity for over 7000 employees at more than 50 locations in Texas. She says that there is a lot of improvement needed after co-chairing an evaluation of hospital cybersecurity across the United States.

Dr. John Halamka, CIO for Beth Israel Deaconess Medical center in Boston, also agrees, stating, Health care has traditionally under-invested in information technology, Halamka says.

Halamka, who has been a CIO since the 1990s, has stated that a decade ago, pretty much all health records were paper. Then, in a matter of few years, hospitals switched to electronic records. But the security of digital health has not kept up with its growth. Other industries, like financial services and the federal government, have devoted more than 12 percent to their IT budgets to cybersecurity. Health care has the average of just half of that.

Also, at around the same time, the cost of mitigation has soared with an average breach costing $355 per stolen record for health care organizations. Furthermore, hackers have started becoming ore creative. Halamka says back in 1997, the threats he faced were students trying to hack the network, but in 2017, the threats are state-sponsored cyberterrorism, organised crime and hacktivism.

It is also much more lucrative to work in other industries. According to Burning Glass Technologies, the average pays for health care cybersecurity positions is 25 per cent lower than in finance.

Plus youre on the line every minute, not just for keeping someones social media profile working, but for keeping them alive.

Meadows also states that a good CIO is familiar with complex medical devices and comfortable with software and complicated regulations. Also, a CIO needs to keep the hospital staff educated on the latest available software and added threats. Meadows hence, conducts regular phishing exercises paired with educational campaigns.

The average costing for a breach in health care is estimated to be over $2.2 million, and not to mention reputation damage. According to Meadows, the price of recruiting a cyber security leader might seem high, but leaving the job open is an invitation for trouble.

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Leonid Levin, the head of Duma's information policy committee, has said the law is not intended to impose restrictions on law-abiding citizens but is meant only to block access to "unlawful content," RIA news agency said.

Moscow: President Vladimir Putin has signed a law that prohibits technology that provides access to websites banned in Russia, the government's website showed on Sunday. The law, already approved by the Duma, the lower house of parliament, will ban the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) and other technologies, known as anonymisers, that allow people to surf the web anonymously. It comes into force on Nov. 1.

Leonid Levin, the head of Duma's information policy committee, has said the law is not intended to impose restrictions on law-abiding citizens but is meant only to block access to "unlawful content," RIA news agency said.

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Al Shabaab wants to force out the peacekeepers, oust the Western-backed government and impose its strict interpretation of Islam in Somalia. Photo: Representational/AFP)

Mogadishu: Fighting between al Shabaab fighters and Somali government troops and African Union peacekeepers killed 24 people on Sunday, a regional official said, with the Islamist militants putting the death toll higher.

Al Shabaab ambushed a convoy carrying troops from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) early on Sunday in the Bulamareer district of the Lower Shabelle region, about 140 km (85 miles) southwest of Mogadishu, Colonel Hassan Mohamed said.

Ali Nur, the deputy governor of Lower Shabelle region, said: We have carried 23 dead AMISOM soldiers and a dead Somali soldier from the scene where al Shabaab ambushed AMISOM today,.

Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaabs military operations spokesman, said: We have in hand 39 dead bodies of AU soldiers including their commander.

The casualty figure could not be independently verified. The numbers al Shabaab and officials give usually differ.

Ugandas defence ministry said its soldiers were part of the AMISOM convoy and an unspecified number of its soldiers had been killed.

Al Shabaab wants to force out the peacekeepers, oust the Western-backed government and impose its strict interpretation of Islam in Somalia.
Caracas: Venezuela held elections Sunday for a Constituent Assembly backed by embattled President Nicolas Maduro to rewrite the constitution.

Opposition activists and some foreign countries have doubts. What do we know and not know about the vote?

What we know : The Constituent Assembly will be a "superagency" with authority above all government branches, including the one-chamber National Assembly. It currently is the only part of the government controlled by the opposition.

"It can start everything over from scratch. It can create everything. It is the power of all powers; none is above it," Maduro has said.

The president, an elected socialist, has made the economy increasingly state-led; food and medical shortages are common. Low crude prices have strained the economy as it has been restructured, to the breaking point.

At least nine people died overnight and into Sunday, according to prosecutors, adding to a four-month death toll of some 120.

The looming system to be drafted by pro-government members would have no checks and balances, and endangers democracy, according to analyst Colette Capriles.

"He already has set up a body that can implement a dictatorship. So society and the international community have to stand up against this," she argued.

Many in Venezuela fear it will be even more Cuban-inspired. One-party, Communist-ruled Cuba is Venezuela's closest ally, followed distantly by China and Russia.

The new constitution will be drawn up by 545 assembly members. While 354 will be based on territories, another 181 will come from social organizations close to the government.

The opposition, which is boycotting the vote, slams the voting arrangement as corporative since it was drawn up by the government.

"This is not an election. It's a fraudulent bid to consolidate" a coup, according to legal expert Jose Ignacio Hernandez.

The government calls the specially arranged voting "direct democracy." But opposition members stress that Maduro has been unable to work with the National Assembly, so he is taking action that likely would eliminate it, or put it in his pocket.

The Constituent Assembly will start work Wednesday in the legislature's building where the opposition-run assembly also will be in session.

Maduro said the new constitution, which would replace the one passed under his predecessor ex-president Hugo Chavez, will be put to a referendum vote.

"That's the last thing that matters," quipped Colette Capriles, since Maduro and others have said that even before any such vote, the Constituent Assembly would be making executive and legislative decisions.

Government forces are sending out some favorites for the assembly positions: ruling PSUV number two Diosdado Cabello, ex-foreign minister Delcy Rodriguez and first lady Cilia Flores.

The United States has threatened tougher sanctions if the assembly election moved ahead as planned. Other countries such as Canada, Colombia, Panama and Peru have said they would not recognize the assembly's authority.

What we don't know : It's unclear how long the assembly will be in session. Its members will decide that.

As a super-branch of government, Maduro foes are worried that the Constituent Assembly will start eliminating agencies or even entire branches of government, such as the National Assembly or the Federal Prosecutors' Office.

Attorney General Luisa Ortega, a Maduro loyalist who dramatically broke with him over setting up the assembly and other issues, warns that a "totalitarian one-man rule system" could be looming.

The next elections will be set by the Constituent Assembly. Whether the current electoral authorities' schedule, for example for state governors, will be respected, is its call.

The 2018 presidential election currently scheduled would be up in the air and possibly eliminated, opposition members fret.

"The Constituent Assembly is a desperate measure by a government that cannot schedule elections because it knows it is going to lose them," said Diego Moya-Ocampos, an analyst at IHS Market Country Risk in London.

Eight out of 10 Venezuelans say they do not support Maduro, Datanalysis pollsters have found.

While former foreign minister Rodriguez has said that wiping out all opposition isn't the goal here, others are doing different math. Maduro himself thundered at assembly number-two Freddy Guevara: "Your cell awaits."

Foro Penal (Criminal Forum) monitors say there are almost 500 political prisoners in the country of 30 million.

Maduro has said the assembly will bring stability amid economic collapse; he has not said how.

"There is greater conflict, investors pulling out and worse sanctions coming. The crisis we have seen so far is the tip of the iceberg," warned economist Luis Vicente Leon, who runs Datanalysis.
A suicide bomber blew himself up outside the Iraqi embassy in Kabul on Monday and militants breached the compound, Afghan officials said, in a complex hours-long attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

All attackers had been killed and the compound secured roughly four hours after the assault began, Afghanistans interior ministry said, adding all embassy staff were safe and only one policeman wounded slightly.

There were conflicting reports about how the attack unfolded. The interior ministry said at least four militants had attacked the embassy, beginning with a suicide bomber who detonated his vest at the compound entrance. The quick-response police forces arrived in time and evacuated the Iraqi diplomats to safe place. No embassy staff have been harmed, only one policeman was wounded slightly, a ministry statement said.

An Afghan security official at the site of the attack and a number of witnesses, however, suggested the attackers were dropped by a car nearby, who then stormed the embassy building with hails of bullets, before penetrating and detonating themselves inside.
Two police officials say the car bomb exploded outside the embassy, followed by an attempt by gunmen to enter the building, which is located in the centre of the Afghan capital. (Photo: Representational/AP)

Kabul: Afghan police say a car bombing has targeted the Iraqi Embassy in central Kabul, followed by gunfire, and that the attack is still underway.

There were no immediate reports of casualties. Two police officials say the car bomb exploded outside the embassy, followed by an attempt by gunmen to enter the building, which is located in the centre of the Afghan capital.

The firefight is continuing as witnesses in the area reported hearing gunshots. The two Interior Ministry officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

No one has taken responsibility for the attack, though both the Taliban and an Islamic State affiliate have previously carried out such attacks in Kabul.
China has strongly objected to repeated freedom of navigation missions carried by the US Navy along with the presence of the navies of Japan, Australia and others in the waterway. (Photo: Representational/File)

Beijing: A look at recent developments in the South China Sea, where China is pitted against smaller neighbors in multiple disputes over islands, coral reefs and lagoons in waters crucial for global commerce and rich in fish and potential oil and gas reserves.

China slams UK Plan to send carriers to South China Sea: China's foreign ministry criticized plans by Britain to send its new aircraft carriers on freedom of navigation missions in the South China Sea to challenge Beijing's expansive territorial claims in the strategic waterway.

Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said on Friday in response to a question on statements by British officials that "some countries" from outside the region "insist on stirring up trouble while the situation is trending toward calm in the South China Sea."

"Regardless of what banner these countries or individuals fly under, or what excuses they may peddle, their record of the same kind of sanctimonious interference in the affairs of other regions, leaving behind chaos and humanitarian disaster, prompts countries in this region to maintain a high degree of vigilance," Lu said.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson confirmed following a high-level meeting in Sydney with his Australian counterpart, Julie Bishop, that missions to the South China Sea would be near the top of deployment plans for the new carriers, the HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales.

"One of the first things we will do with the two new colossal aircraft carriers that we have just built is send them on a freedom of navigation operation to this area to vindicate our belief in the rules-based international system and in the freedom of navigation through those waterways which are absolutely vital for world trade," Johnson said.

British Defense Secretary Sir Michael Fallon later said exact plans for the deployments had not yet been finalized. "But, yes, you would expect to see these carriers in the India Pacific Ocean, this part of the world because it is in this part of the world we see increasing tension, increasing challenges," Fallon said.

China has strongly objected to repeated freedom of navigation missions carried by the US Navy along with the presence of the navies of Japan, Australia and others in the waterway, through which an estimated $5 trillion in annual trade passes each year.

Official Chinese Magazine lauds President XI for personally leading South China Sea Expansion: An official Chinese magazine says President Xi Jinping personally directed the enlargement of China's presence in the South China Sea through the construction of man-made islands and other measures, crediting him with constructing a "maritime Great Wall."

Xi "personally led and directed a series of great struggles to expand strategic advantages and safeguard national interests," the Study Times, published by the ruling Communist Party's central training academy, said in an article published Friday.

The president's policies, including the building of islands and administrative changes elevating the status of China's claims in the disputed Paracel island group, have "altered the basic direction of the South China Sea strategic situation."

They have "created a solid strategic foundation for the winning final victory in the struggle for upholding rights in the South China Sea, the equivalent of building a maritime Great Wall," the magazine said, referencing the centuries-old defensive structure built to protect China from invasions by Mongols and tribes from the north.

Under Xi, China has constructed seven man-made islands in the highly contested Spratly group by piling sand and cement atop coral reefs, later adding runways, aircraft hangers and other infrastructure with defensive uses. Islands in the Paracel islands and elsewhere have also been expanded and similarly augmented.

China claims the construction is mainly to improve safety for shipping and fishermen, although the Study Times article again appeared to underscore its military purpose.

The article also cited Xi's involvement in policy regarding uninhabited Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea that China claims.

Giving "measures for measure," China unilaterally declared control over a large swath of airspace in the East China Sea a move declared illegitimate and ignored by the US and others and patrols the area on a regular basis, the article said.

It said Xi's moves have "in one fell swoop, shattered Japan's many years of maintaining 'actual control'" over the islands, known in Chinese as Diaoyu and in Japanese as Senkaku.
Estonia, where Pence had on Sunday raised the possibility of deploying the Patriot anti-missile defence system, is the first stop of his European tour which will also take him to Georgia and Montenegro. (Photo: AP)

Tallinn (Estonia): US Vice President Mike Pence on Monday said Moscow's demand that Washington cut 755 American diplomatic staff in Russia will not lessen the US commitment to its allies.

"We hope for better days, for better relations with Russia but recent diplomatic action taken by Moscow will not deter the commitment of the United States of America to our security, the security of our allies and the security of freedom loving nations around the world," Pence said in Estonia after meeting with the leaders of the three Baltic states.

At a news conference, Pence said he had passed on a "simple message" from President Donald Trump to the three countries: "We are with you."

President Vladimir Putin on Sunday said the United States would have to cut 755 diplomatic staff in Russia and warned of a prolonged gridlock in its ties after the US Congress backed new sanctions against the Kremlin.

Putin added bluntly that Russia was able to raise the stakes with America even further, although he hoped this would be unnecessary.

Estonia, where Pence had on Sunday raised the possibility of deploying the Patriot anti-missile defence system, is the first stop of his European tour which will also take him to Georgia and Montenegro.

The aim of the trip is to reassure America's allies who say they are worried by Russian expansionism.

"We stand with the people and nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and we always will," Pence said. A "strong and united NATO" was important, as Russia continued "trying to redraw borders", he said.

"The US will check any attempt to use force," Pence said. The US government hoped for a better relationship with Russia, but stood by the NATO treaty's article 5 on collective defence. "An attack on one of us is an attack on us all," he said.

Pence also said that exports of US liquid natural gas to the Baltic states, which have already started, "will contribute to prosperity and security" in the three countries which are still heavily dependent on Russian gas.

Pence is scheduled to address NATO troops deployed in Estonia before travelling on to Tbilisi.
The four accuse Qatar of supporting terror groups and also of maintaining close relations with Shiite power Iran  Saudi Arabia's nemesis. (Photo: AP)

Dubai: Four Arab countries boycotting Qatar are ready for dialogue to ease the dispute if Doha agrees to certain demands, Bahrain's foreign minister said on Sunday after a meeting with his counterparts.

"The four countries are ready for dialogue with Qatar with the condition that it announces its sincere willingness to stop funding terrorism and extremism and its commitment to not interfere in other countries' foreign affairs and respond to the 13 demands," Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa said.

He was speaking at a televised news conference in Manama after meeting with his Saudi, Emirati and Egyptian counterparts to discuss the dispute. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain have previously issued a list of demands for Qatar.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain will allow Qatari planes to use air corridors in emergencies, the Saudi state news agency SPA said on Sunday.

Nine corridors have been identified including one in international air space over the Mediterranean sea that will be monitored by the Egyptian authorities, SPA reported, citing a statement from the Saudi aviation authority.
Qatar's demands to internationalize the holy sites is aggressive, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television said.

Dubai: Saudi Arabia's foreign minister called what he said was Qatar's demand for an internationalization of the Muslim hajj pilgrimage a declaration of war against the kingdom, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television said on Sunday, but Qatar said it never made such a call.

"Qatar's demands to internationalize the holy sites is aggressive and a declaration of war against the kingdom," Adel al-Jubeir was quoted saying on Al Arabiya's website.

"We reserve the right to respond to anyone who is working on the internationalization of the holy sites," he said.

Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said no official from his country had made such a call.

"We are tired of responding to false information and stories invented from nothing," Sheikh Mohammed told Al Jazeera TV.

Qatar did accuse the Saudis of politicizing hajj and addressed the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion on Saturday, expressing concern about obstacles facing Qataris who want to attend hajj this year.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain previously issued a list of 13 demands for Qatar, which included curtailing its support for the Muslim Brotherhood, shutting down the Doha-based Al Jazeera channel, closing a Turkish military base and downgrading its relations with Gulf enemy Iran.

On Sunday, foreign ministers of the four countries said they were ready for dialogue with Qatar if it showed willingness to tackle their demands.
Around 800 pilgrims were due to leave Iran on three flights to nearby Medina on Sunday, the director of the hajj at Irans Haj and Pilgrimage Organisation, Nasrollah Farahmand told state media. (Photo: AP/Representational)

Beirut: Nearly 90,000 Iranians are expected to attend the Hajj in Mecca this year, and were due to start arriving on Sunday, after Tehran boycotted the pilgrimage last year amid tensions with Saudi Arabia.

Around 800 pilgrims were due to leave Iran on three flights to nearby Medina on Sunday, the director of the hajj at Irans Haj and Pilgrimage Organisation, Nasrollah Farahmand told state media.

Approximately 86,500 Iranians are expected to attend the hajj in total this year and 800 coordinators have travelled to Saudi Arabia to help Iranians during the pilgrimage, he said.

Iran boycotted the haj last year after hundreds of people, many of them Iranians, died in a crush at the pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia in 2015, and following a diplomatic rift between the two countries who are vying for power and influence in the region.

In a speech to haj organizers on Sunday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that Iranians would never forget the catastrophic events of 2015 and called on Saudi Arabia to ensure the security of all pilgrims.

The serious and constant issue for the Islamic Republic is the preservation of the security, dignity, welfare and comfort of all pilgrims, particularly Iranian pilgrims, Khamenei said, according to his official site. The security of the haj is the responsibility of the country where the two noble shrines exist.

Riyadh severed diplomatic relations last year after Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran following the execution of a Shiite cleric in Saudi Arabia in January 2016.

In February this year Iran, which is predominantly Shiite Muslim, sent a delegation to Saudi Arabia, which is mostly Sunni, which initiated the process of Iranian pilgrims returning for the haj. However, tensions between the two countries remain at an all-time high.

Last month Iranian officials pointed a finger at Saudi Arabia after Islamic State carried out attacks on the Iranian parliament in Tehran and the shrine of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that left at least 18 dead. Saudi Arabia denied any involvement.

Khamenei in his speech on Sunday also called on all pilgrims to show their reaction to the recent unrest at the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and Americas wicked presence in the region at the haj, according to his official website. He did not specify what kind of reaction he expected pilgrims to show.
The World Bank has assured its continued neutrality and impartiality in helping India and Pakistan find an "amicable way forward" during talks over issues related to two of India's hydroelectricity projects under Indus Waters Treaty.



Welcoming the participation of India and Pakistan in the talks to be held here tomorrow, World Bank's Vice President for South Asia region Annette Dixon said, "We are pleased both parties have confirmed their participation in the meeting hosted by the World Bank in Washington, DC."



"The World Bank welcomes the spirit of goodwill and cooperation," Dixon said in a letter to the Indian Ambassador to the US, Navtej Sarna.



In the letter dated July 25, the World Bank assured the the Indian envoy its "continued neutrality and impartiality in helping the parties to find andamicable way forward."



"We hope that all parties will come to the table prepared to find a way forward that safeguards the Treaty," it said.



Union Water Resources Secretary Amarjit Singh will lead the Indian delegation during the talks. The Indian team will comprise officials from ministries of external affairs and water resources.



The two countries last held talks over the two projects in March this year during the meeting of Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) in Pakistan.



Pakistan had approached the World Bank last year, raising concerns over the designs of the two hydroelectricity projects located in Jammu and Kashmir.



It demanded that the World Bank, which is the mediator between the two countries under the 57-year-old water distribution pact, set up a court of arbitration to look into its concerns.



On the other hand, India asked for appointments of a neutral expert to look into the issues, contending the concerns Pakistan raised were "technical" ones.



Following this, the international lender had in November 2016 initiated two simultaneous processes - for appointing neutral expert and establishment of court of arbitration - to look into technical differences between the two countries in connection with the project.



The simultaneous processes, however, were halted after India objected to it.



After that, representatives of the World Bank held talks with India and Pakistan to find a way out separately.




Stones were today thrown at the district committee office of the CPI-M's trade union wing CITU while a petrol bomb was hurled at the RSS district office in fresh incidents of violence in Kottayam town.



The BJP district unit alleged that CPI(M) workers hurled a petrol bomb at the RSS district office, causing extensive damage to the building situated at Thirunakkara in the town.



They slammed the police for not taking steps to provide adequate security cover for RSS-BJP offices in the town.



Window panes of the CITU office were damaged in the attack believed to be carried out by a gang of five men who reached there on three motorcycles at 2.30 am, police said. They hurled stones at the office, police said.



Condemning the incident, the CPI(M) Kottayam district secretary V N Vasavan alleged that BJP-RSS activists were behind the attack.



He alleged that BJP-RSS workers destroyed publicity boards and hoardings of CPI(M) and its allied organisations during their dawn-to-dusk hartal in the town yesterday.



Eight RSS-BJP workers have been taken into custody in this connection, police said.



The BJP had called for a dawn-to-dusk state-wide hartal yesterday to protest the killing of RSS worker Rajesh near Thiruvanathapuram on Saturday.



Kottayam district police chief N Ramachandran visited the offices targeted by the miscreants.



Adequate police security has been provided to offices of CPI(M), CITU, RSS and the BJP following the incident, police said.



The state had been witnessing a serious of violent incidents allegedly involving BJP-RSS and CPI-M workers with the state capital Thiruvanathapuram rocked by incidents of attacks on houses of rival partymen in the past few days.




#WATCH Terrorists looted Jammu and Kashmir Bank in Anantnag district (J&K) earlier today (Source: CCTV) pic.twitter.com/UIgbrld1PO  ANI (@ANI_news) July 31, 2017





At least three masked militants on Monday looted over Rs five lakh from a bank branch in south Kashmirs Anantnag district.Police said Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militants barged into J&K Bank branch Arwani in Bijbehara, the home town of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, in the afternoon and looted Rs 5.20 lakh.During initial investigation and with the help of CCTV footage, it was found that Hizbul militants are involved in this crime. Efforts are on to nab the culprits, a police spokesperson said and added they have registered a case and investigation was set into motion.Sources said the militants were dressed in burkhas (veil), took them off once inside the bank, brandished their weapons and fled with the money.Earlier, this month in a rare incident of its kind, Jammu and Kashmir police had arrested a resident of Utter Pradesh, who was allegedly part of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) module in the Valley involved in attacks on security forces and bank robberies cases.Kashmir witnessed a surge in bank looting cases ever since demonetization of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8 last year. There have been a dozen bank robberies in Kashmir, especially in southern districts since last November.However, todays incident was the first bank robbery in last almost three months. On May 3, militants had looted two banks in southern Pulwama district in one day forcing, banks in Kashmir to stop cash transactions at 40 branches in vulnerable areas of Pulwama and Shopian districts.
As many as 43 per cent of the country's employees are in the unorganised sector and efforts are on to provide them EPF, ESIC and other benefits, the Lok Sabha was informed today.



Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said there are around 43 per cent of the total employees in the country are in the unorganised sector and 4.7 crore of them were in the construction sector.



He said steps have been taken to enhance the minimum wages of labourers and efforts are on to provide the benefits of Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) to them.



Dattatreya said an MoU has been signed between ESIC and Directorate General Factory Advice Service and Labour Institutes on July 11 to collaborate in the field of occupational health and reduce the occurrence of work-related injuries and diseases.



"The ministry of labour and employment is committed for the social security of the labour force in the country," he said during Question Hour.



The major steps taken by the ministry in this regard include increased maternity benefits, special schemes to enrol left out employees including contractual, casual and temporary workers among others, the minister said.
According to sources in Snapdeal, the company will go ahead with a new business model and will cut cost by reducing staff and stopping non-performing business.



The initiative to sell the company was started in May this year and the deal could not reach a finality even after going through several rounds, a source told DH.



Snapdeal has been exploring strategic options over the past several months. The company has now decided to pursue an independent path and is terminating all strategic discussions as a result, a company spokesperson said in a statement. The company will now pursue Snapdeal 2.0, which is expected to help Snapdeal be financially self-sustainable, the spokesperson said.



The decision of the Gurugram-based Snapdeal came less than a week after its board accepted the bid.



Analysts said the discussion was called off as Flipkart put forth multiple conditions, right from indemnity to a non-compete clause. Announcing the termination of merger talks, founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal said it is not going to be a successful model for e-commerce in India.



In every market, there are multiple successful e-commerce businesses, and as long as ones strategy is differentiated and has a clear path to success, there is a great company that can be built, the employees were told.



The Jasper Infotech Pvt Ltd-owned company registered a peak valuation of about $6.5 billion in February 2016, and during the merger discussion it came down to $1 billion.



Starting off as a discount coupon seller 10 years ago, Snapdeal underwent many changes as it acquired several companies and became a pure marketplace model without managing its own inventory in 2012. Presently, the company has around 1,500 employees.



Commenting on the development, an analyst said the Snapdeal founders have the confidence to go solo as the sale of Freecharge has given them enough ammunition to sustain for six to eight years.



Also, Snapdeal co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal in an e-mail to employees last week had indicated their plan to continue independently. The last revised offer of Flipkart of $900-950 million also didnt enthuse the founders, the analyst said.



Snapdeal, the third largest e-commerce company, on Monday formally called off its much discussed $950-million takeover (over Rs 6,000 crore) by Flipkart over issues on valuation and terms, and is looking at an altogether new business model for survival.
The Madras High Court on Monday opined that a CBI probe could be initiated in the gutkha scam in Tamil Nadu as the issue was serious in nature.



DMK legislator J Anbazhagan filed a petition in the court for setting up a special probe team headed by a retired judge to investigate into the gutkha scam.



Making oral observation that why there should not be CBI probe into the issue, the bench headed by Chief Justice Indira Banerjee said that the petitioner's allegations were serious in nature.



The scam surfaced recently after IT sleuths seized a document from a gutkha producer in Chennai, which revealed that more than Rs 35 crore was bribed to a minister and top police officials to sell the banned product in the State.
Majority of Muslims in India are descendants of Hindus, a BJP member claimed in the Lok Sabha today while asking both the communities to respect each other's sentiment.



Participating in a debate on lynchings, Hukumdev Narayan Yadav slammed the opposition for targeting the central government over incidents of lynchings, saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly come out strongly against such acts.



He raised the issue of killing of RSS workers in Kerala, which is ruled by the Left Front government. Yadav asserted that the responsibility of containing mob violence is that of the state governments. He said "certain demons" have put on "holy garb" to defame the government, likening it to an episode in the Ramayana.



"Some people are indulging in terror (atankvadi) activities to defame the government," the BJP member said and slammed the Congress for questioning the intention of the Modi government.



Yadav, the MP from Madhubani in Bihar, said a fight between two ideologies has been going on for several decades and asserted those who follow the path of "economic development and nationalism" will come out victorious.



During his speech, he extensively quoted Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and said the BJP ideologue had stated that "Muslims in India are descendants of Hindus."



He said every Muslim must respect Hindu sentiment and at the same time, Hindus must respect the Muslims.



The MP was also severely critical of the policies of Congress and said "I will prefer to die than bowing before the Congress...Some politicians sit with the Congress and have biryani and then indulge in artificial fight outside."



Yadav said he will prefer to die than abadonning the ideology he is fighting for.



Talking about nationalism, Yadav said freedom fighters Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan had sung the poem 'Vande Mataram' but there is an environment now in which singing it is considered a crime.



He also cited a recent case in which a political leader had sought support from the Naxals. "There cannot be bigger lynching than this," the BJP member said.



Yadav also alleged that Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and Ram Manohar Lohia were killed in late 1960s as both were planning to join hands.



The BJP MP drew the attention of the House towards the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and raised the issue of killing of RSS workers in Kerala.
In a major setback to the AIADMK government in Tamil Nadu, which steadfastly opposing National Eligibility and Entrance Test NEET, the Madras High Court on Monday dismissed a State's petition challenging single judge order quashing the provision of 85% reservation in the government quota of UG medical seats to students from the state board.



When the petition came up for hearing, Justice Nooty Ramamohana Rao and Justice M Dhandapani observed the appeal filed by the State do not have merits.



A single judge of the court recently quashed government order that reserved 85 per cent of MBBS/BDS seats for State board students, while limiting the percentage of seats for CBSE and other board students to 15.



While issuing the order, State government justified its decision that only about 4,220 CBSE students had written science exams with biology, the State board students numbered over four lakh.



Since NEET questions were based on CBSE syllabus, the State board students will not be benefited, the government said.


In a shocking incident, a part of a roof in one of the rooms of Manora, the MLAs hostel at Nariman Point in Mumbai collapsed leading to an issue of serious concern in the Maharashtra legislature on Monday.



The part of the ceiling of one of the rooms, occupied by NCP MLA Satish Patil of Erandol of Jalgaon district, apparently came off on Sunday when he was not present. However, on his return, he noticed it and informed the authorities.



"In fact, I am shocked....had I been there when it collapsed, the legislators would have been offering condolences today," he said.



The leader of Opposition in Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil (Congress) and former Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar of NCP raised the issue - prompting a reply from Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.



"We have taken the issue seriously," Fadnavis said, adding that a meeting has already been convened to discuss the issue. "We would look at various options including repairs and also if we can shift MLAs elsewhere," he said, adding that the government may also consider providing MLAs monthly rent allowance if they dont want government accommodation.



"The construction quality is poor at the MLA hostel. The safety of public representatives are important," Pawar said, adding that the government must go ahead and take action against the people who were responsible for the poor quality of construction.



Maharashtra has 288 MLAs and 78 MLCs - of them 158 of them have rooms allotted in Manora that face the Arabian Sea. Time and again, political parties and legislators individually raised issues vis-a-vis Manora. Incidentally, Fadnavis, before he became the Chief Minister, used to occupy one of the rooms at Manora.



It may be recalled, the NBCC (India) Limited, a Navratna enterprise under the Union Ministry of Urban Development, had been entrusted to redevelop the Manora MLA hostel. The hostel rooms which currently measure 332 sq ft will be redeveloped to a sprawling 1,000 sq ft.

The hostel at present has four towers each with 84 rooms admeasuring 332 sq feet. The four towers will be razed down and a new building will be built in the next two years by the NBCC.
As a part of the ongoing rescue measures taking place in flood affected areas of Rajasthan, the army has evacuated two pregnant women and a mother with a two-month-old baby from flood-hit Shivpura in Kota.



Defense Spokesperson Lt Colonel Manish Ojha told DH, "In addition to other relief and rescue work army evacuated three ladies, two of them pregnant and one with two months old baby from Shivpura village Sanchor. As of now, Army has evacuated 880 people from flood affected areas of the state."





On Monday Lt General P S Rajeshwar, GOC of Konark Corps, which handling the relief and rescue work in flood affected areas of Rajasthan reviewed the progress of ongoing operations in flood affected districts. He also interacted with State and District administration officials at Bhainswara, Ahore, District Jalore. Veterinarians of state government as well as of the Indian Army have been deployed to take care of bovines hit by rain water.



The state has been badly affected by floods as heavy rainfall continued, and the situation worsened after three dams started releasing water on Thursday. According to the official figures, more than 70,000 cusecs of water was released from the Jawai dam on Friday evening which flooded many parts of Jalore, Sirohi Pali, Barmer and neighbouring areas.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje also conducted an aerial survey of Jalore district and asked officials in districts hit by torrential rains to make a report of losses. While speaking to the media she assured that state government will find out ways to utilise water through ponds and other water storage techniques to avoid such a situation.

She told reporters in Jalore, "District collectors have been asked to submit the report of losses incurred due to torrential rain which will be sent to the Centre. We will work to find a permanent solution to this problem so that such a situation can be tackled, In Jalore around 100 Grid Sub-Stations (GSS) were down due to torrential rains. Out of the 100, 88 have been repaired whereas in Sirohi, of the 30 GSS, 25 have been repaired.



Teams of district administration, NDRF, SDRF, Army, health department, CRPF and volunteers are on their toes to carry out rescue operations and normalise life in heavy rainfall affected areas.



In remote villages of Jalore and Pali, flood water levels have been touching around 5-8 feet for the past four days making the rescue operation difficult. So far, the Indian Army has rescued around 900 people from different parts of Rajasthan. Since July 23, 17 people have lost their lives in the state.
Condemning Karnataka chief minister Siddaramiah's announcement that his government would go ahead to construct a new dam at Mekedatu across river Cauvery defying the Centre's ban, PMK Founder leader Dr S Ramadoss on Monday demanded the dismissal of the Karnataka Government take further steps to construct the reservoir.



PMK leader claimed Siddaramaiah's stance on constructing the dam is to gain political mileage considering that Assembly polls were due in Karnataka in the next ten months.



Thanking Union Minister Uma Bharathi for rejecting the Karnataka's detailed project report, which did not have the consent of Tamil Nadu, Ramadoss said Centre should take serious note of Karnataka chief minister's stance and advise him to drop the proposal.



"Even after this if Karnataka went ahead with the dam construction works, that government should be dismissed", he added.



Charging Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami's silence on the issue even after his Karnataka counterpart had asserted that he would go ahead with the construction works of the reservoir, Ramadoss demanded the AIADMK government to convene an all party meeting in the to discuss the issue.


The Madras High Court on Monday issued notices to Tamil Nadu government to examine a petition filed by Nalini, a life convict in the Rajiv Gandhi Assassination case, seeking parole for six months to make arrangements for her daughter's wedding.



Nalini moved the court after jail authorities rejected her parole petition recently.



When the case came up for hearing, Justice M S Ramesh asked the concern authorities to reply by August 7.



In her petition, Nalini contended that as a life convict, she was entitled to avail ordinary leave for one month once in two years as per rule. Nalini also claimed that She has not so far taken any leave during her stay in jail for more than 26 years.



Justifying her long leave, Nalini said she has to make arrangement for her daughter's marriage. Nalini's daughter is staying with her grand parents in the UK.



In her 26 years of incarceration, Nalini got parole twice. In 2004, she had got parole to attend the marriage of her brother. In 2016, she got the second parole to attend the last rites of her father.



Nalini was sentenced to death by a trial court in the case on 28 January 1998. However, her sentence was commuted to life term by the Tamil Nadu Governor on 24 April 2000.



In 2015, Nalini had moved Madras High Court seeking a direction to Tamil Nadu government to consider her representation for premature release, saying she has undergone imprisonment for more than 24 years.
A couple of days after Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen had to return from Aurangabad following protests by activists of the Owaisi brothers-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, the celebrated and controversial writer, who faces a threat to her life, on Monday questioned as to how her programme schedule was leaked and reached the public domain.



On Saturday night, the 54-year-old Nasreen landed at the Chikalthana Airport on a flight from Mumbai, however, in view of the protests and slogans of "Taslima Go Back", she was made to return the next flight. The protests were led by Imtiaz Jaleel, the AIMIM legislator from the Aurangabad central constituency.



According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (zone-II) Rahul Shrirame of Aurangabad Police, the author was advised to return to which she agreed.



On Monday, Nasreen took to Twitter to pose the question and express surprise over the incident. "I had a dream to visit Ellora and Ajanta caves. Can't believe it was not possible in the largest democracy in the world. Nobody but security police in Aurangabad was informed about my itinerary & hotel booking. I wonder how fanatics got to know everything!", she tweeted.



Nasreen, an author and former physician who has been living in exile since 1994. ?Now she spends her time in India, Europe and the United States. When in India, Nasreen generally lives in Delhi as she is barred from both West Bengal as well as home country, Bangladesh.
The Supreme Court today asked the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to take a decision within ten days on granting or denying sanction to prosecute BSP MLC in Uttar Pradesh Mohammad Iqbal, accused of laundering money by creating a maze of over hundred shell companies.



A bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud, after perusing status reports of agencies like the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED), said it was apparent from the reports that various companies had been set up.



Rajeshwar Singh, a joint director in the ED, who appeared before the court in pursuance of an order, told the bench that the agency could not prosecute Iqbal under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act unless the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or the SFIO registered a case against Iqbal, a member of the legislative council (MLC).



"We direct the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to take a conscious decision on whether to grant sanction to prosecute (Iqbal) or not within ten days from today," the court said.



It also ordered that the status reports submitted before the apex court be made available to the ministry within two days to enable it to take a decision on grant of sanction to prosecute the UP leader.



Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh, who represented various probe agencies, submitted that the reports have disclosed that 111 shell companies have been used to launder money and the ED ould proceed if other agencies lodged the FIR for substantial offence.



The money laundering case pertained to the crime proceeds and hence, an FIR for substantive offence was required to be lodged first, the ED said.



Initially, the bench asked the ED official about the findings recorded in the status reports and actions taken against the BSP leader.



Earlier, the court had taken note of the status reports of the agencies probing allegations of money laundering and criminal activities of Iqbal and had sought the personal appearance of the ED official.



The apex court, on August 8 last year, had perused the probe reports of the SFIO), the ED and the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on a complaint against the BSP Member of Legislative Council (MLC).



It had then asked CBI to "look into the complaints filed by petitioner (Ranvir Singh) in the light of the reports submitted by the ED and the CBDT. In that view, we expect the CBI to examine the matter at an appropriate level for such action as may be considered necessary in accordance with law." It had sought a status report from CBI which was today submitted in a sealed cover.



The apex court had also said that investigation by other central agencies prima facie suggested that shell companies associated with Iqbal were purportedly indulging in money laundering.



"The new reports by SFIO, ED, CBDT suggest that several companies which are prima facie shell companies or fake companies are indulging in money laundering and needs investigation and CBI needs to examine the serious issues and take into consideration these developments," it had said.



The court was hearing a PIL filed by another UP leader Ranvir Singh, who has accused Iqbal of indulging in money laundering. His counsel Harin Raval had alleged that CBI has not taken any action on the complaint.



The BSP MLC had said that there was bias in the probe and the person coming to the Supreme Court himself has three criminal cases against him.



Iqbal had said he had nothing to do with the family businesses while referring to the report of the Saharanpur district magistrate and adding that he has been dragged to this court.



However, the bench had referred to the probe which revealed that a large number of companies were set up on one address.



It had said Iqbal has set up partnership firms and the funds were being transferred from partnership firm to the tune of Rs 1,374 crore and the report suggests that he is the kingpin.



The Centre had earlier said the probe conducted so far has indicated that there was some nexus with the alleged activities of former Uttar Pradesh Minister Babu Singh Khushwaha, an accused in NRHM (National Rural Health Mission) scam, and the companies attached to the MLC.



The petition, filed by Singh, has accused the MLC of indulging in money laundering and other criminal activities.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has summoned hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani's second son Naseem Geelani for questioning in the terror funding case.



This comes days after the agency summoned Naeem Geelani, who has issued a summons to appear before the NIA in Delhi was admitted to the ICU at SKIMS hospital in Srinagar after complaining of severe chest pain.



Sources said Naseem has also been summoned to Delhi in connection with the investigations on the funding of stone pelters.



The NIA has arrested seven persons, including Geelani's son-in-law Altaf Ahmed Shah, in connection with the case and is in NIA custody. The arrests came after scrutiny of mobile and internet activities of around 50 Kashmiri youth, who were repeatedly spotted at stone-pelting protests.



The middle-level Hurriyat leaders operated through these local leaders to reach the youths, who were given funds to organise stone-pelting protests after suspected Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani's encounter killing in July last year.



Sources said the investigators have also stumbled upon a protest calendar authorised by the senior Geelani and it suggested that the protests that happened after the encounter killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani were coordinated with the instructions from handlers in Pakistan.



The protest calendar recovered from Shah showed the systematic way in which the violent protests were organised, sources claimed.

The NIA had registered a case on May 30 against the separatist and secessionist leaders, including members of the Hurriyat Conference, who have been acting in connivance with active militants of proscribed terrorist organisations HM, Dukhtaran-e-Millat, Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and other outfits and gangs.




The Supreme Court today asked the Medical Council of India (MCI) to apprise it whether the students, who have obtained high ranks in medical entrance examination but are colour blind can be admitted to MBBS course.



The apex court direction came after a panel appointed by it recommended that a decades-old bar against colour blind candidates has to be done away with and current discrimination on the basis of colour vision deficiency cannot be sustained.



"We direct senior advocate Vikas Singh to take instruction as to whether the students who have scored high ranking marks in medical entrance examination can be admitted into MBBS course or not," a bench comprising justices Dipak Misra and A M Khanwilkar said. It posted the matter for further hearing on September 12.



Singh, appearing for the MCI, said that petitioner candidates have not taken even the NEET examination and sought some time till a general body meeting of the MCI take a decision in this regard.



The bench said there is a report from the committee and the MCI should consider it.



Singh said even in NEET, there is no colour blindness test and students can go through the examination and after qualifying can take any medical stream.



Senior advocate K V Vishwanathan, who has been assisting the court, said India is perhaps the only country where colour blind people are denied admission in medical colleges. He said that colour blindness is not considered as a deterrent for rejection in countries like the US and the UK.



The apex court appointed panel had termed the MCI rule barring colour blind persons from becoming doctors as "regressive". It has said that colour vision deficiency nowadays is a common problem and does not significantly impact a person's ability to become a doctor.



The panel which comprised various specialist doctors in its report submitted before the court had said that there should not be any restriction either at the stage of admission, or at completion of study and registration as a doctor.
Two more persons have been taken into custody in connection with the killing of an RSS worker here on July 29, police said here today.



With this, the total number of persons nabbed so far has gone up to 11, they said.



City Police Commissioner G Sparjan Kumar said two more persons were taken into custody today and their interrogation was underway.



"They were held from different places. With this, the total number of persons held in the case so far is 11," he told PTI.



Five or six persons were directly involved in the crime and the rest were involved in the conspiracy, he said.



Police recorded the arrest of seven persons yesterday. Two others are in custody.



Rajesh, the RSS functionary, was hacked to death by a gang, allegedly led by a history-sheeter, here on Saturday night. His left arm was chopped off and there were several other injuries all over his body.



The BJP has alleged that the CPI(M) was behind the cruel act, a charge which the ruling party has dismissed.



In view of a series of clashes between the CPI(M) and BJP and the murder of the RSS worker here, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Director General of Police Loknath Behera were summoned by Governor P Sathasivam yesterday and apprised him of steps taken in the case.



Earlier in the day a meeting between Vijayan and top BJP-RSS leaders had agreed to support initiatives to promote peace and shun violence.



The meeting called by Vijayan also decided to convene an all-party meet here on August 6.



The state has been witnessing a serious of violent incidents allegedly involving BJP-RSS and CPI-M workers with the capital city rocked by incidents of attacks on houses of rival partymen in the past few days.


Holding the stick, or occasionally a hard seedpod, with his left foot (parrots are typically left-footed), the male taps a beat on his tree perch. Occasionally, he mixes in a whistle or other sounds from an impressive repertoire of around 20 syllables. As he grows more aroused, the crest feathers on his head become erect. Spreading his wings, he pirouettes and bobs his head deeply, like an expressive pianist. He uncovers his red cheek patches  the only swaths of colour on his otherwise black body  and they fill with blood, brightening like a blush.



Over seven years, Robert and his collaborators collected audio and video recordings of 18 male palm cockatoos exhibiting such behaviours in Australias Cape York Peninsula, where the birds are considered vulnerable because of aluminium ore mining.



Cultural habit



Though palm cockatoos also live in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, they have been observed drumming only in Cape York Peninsula, which suggests the habit is cultural. Presumably some bright spark of a male stumbled across this behaviour, females found it pleasing and it took off in the population, Robert said.



Because they are shy, palm cockatoos are difficult to study. Trekking to the rain forests edge, the researchers looked for palm cockatoos in hollow eucalyptus trees. They managed to catch a drumming event about once every 100 hours, said Christina Zdenek, a PhD candidate at the University of Queensland, Australia who led the fieldwork for the study.



Analysing 131 drumming sequences, the scientists found that the birds produced regular, predictable rhythms, rather than random thumps. Individual males differed significantly in percussive styles. One that the researchers named Ringo Starr (there was also a Phil Collins) liked to start with a rapid flourish, then settle into a consistent beat, occasionally going on for as long as 14 minutes.



Nearly 70% of the time, males drummed with a female present. Palm cockatoos are mostly monogamous, but males have to keep proving themselves to choosy females  on an average, palm cockatoo pairs successfully fledge a chick only once every decade, so the stakes are high.



The researchers dont yet know whether females prefer certain rhythms over others. But if a male is delivering an effective performance, the female comes over and mirrors his movements. The birds sway together and gently preen each others feathers, an act of pair-bonding that helps them prepare for breeding.



The findings make Robert wonder whether human rhythm also originated as a courtship display.



Maybe thats how it got started, and later on it evolved into our love for group-based dancing and music, he said. Other researchers arent convinced. I dont know if its such a direct comparison, said Michelle Spierings, a postdoctoral researcher who studies music perception in animals. There are many other hypotheses about the origin of human rhythm. Nevertheless, if scientists manage to identify and study other species that drum, the answer may loom closer, Michelle believes. This is a great first example, she said.





Whales and songbirds produce sounds resembling human music, and chimpanzees and crows use tools. But only one nonhuman animal is known to marry these two skills. Palm cockatoos from northern Australia modify sticks and pods and use them to drum regular rhythms, according to new research published in Science Advances. In most cases, males drop beats in the presence of females, suggesting they perform the skill to show off to mates. The birds even have their own signature cadences, not unlike human musicians.This example is the closest we have so far to musical instrument use and rhythm in humans, said Robert Heinsohn, a professor of evolutionary and conservation biology at the Australian National University and an author of the paper. A palm cockatoo drumming performance starts with instrument fashioning  an opportunity to show off beak strength and cleverness (the birds are incredibly intelligent). Often, as a female is watching, a male will ostentatiously break a hefty stick off a tree and trim it to about the length of a pencil.
The NDA government on Monday suffered a set back in the Rajya Sabha as it failed to pass a Constitutional amendment in its original form, thanks to Congress that successfully introduced amendments in the government legislation.



The loss of face happened because the opposition took full advantage of the paucity of numbers on the treasury benches to get as many as four amendments passed.



The leader of the House Arun Jaitley and Union Social Justice Minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot repeatedly asked the opposition not to press for voting. They suggested that opposition's concerns would be addressed at the rule-making stage. But the opposition MPs demanded to vote.



As the amendments proposed by Digvijay Singh, were passed by the House with a voting margin of 75:54, the government understood its predicament.



Finally, the Constitution (123 Amendment) bill, 2017 that seeks to give constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes was passed by the Upper House without a particular clause (Clause 3) on which Congress moved amendments related to the composition of the commission and power of the states.



An associated bill to repeal the National Commission for Backward Class Act 1993 was not taken up in the absence of an accepted legislation on amending the Constitution.



BJP was not serious about passing the OBC Commission Constitution Amendment Bill. More than 30 of their MPs and 5 ministers (were) absent. Utter failure of Arun Jaitley, Leader of the House and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs (M A Naqvi) for not mobilising support for the bill, tweeted Congress leader Digvijay Singh, who moved those amendments.



This is the second time in 10 days, the government faced embarrassment in the Rajya Sabha because of poor attendance. On July 21, another government legislation could not be passed in the absence of quorum in the Upper House.



The Constitutional Amendment bill will now have to go back once again to the Lok Sabha where the government will weave in a fresh Clause-3 into the bill, effectively negating the amendments, brought by the Congress. Once done in the Lok Sabha, where the NDA enjoys a brute majority, the bill would have to come back to the Upper House for its nod.



The bill was first passed by the Lok Sabha on April 10, 2017.



The compromising formula  passing the Constitutional Amendment bill without the contentious Clause-3 with those amendments  was suggested by CPM leader Sitaram Yechury and accepted by the Deputy Chairperson P J Kurien. The bill sans that clause was passed by the Upper House and it was left for the Lok Sabha to do the correction later.



One of the amendments were on the composition of the panel making it mandatory for a woman and a representative of the minority community to be a part of the commission. Others were on the powers of the states under the proposed law.



The passing of the legislation witnessed unprecedented scenes in the House of Elders where Kurien had to adjourn the House for few minutes in between the voting process to allow the ruling party and the opposition to consult on the way out. Since all the exits were closed (because voting was on), the leaders had to talk to each other standing on the floor.
The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Yogi Aditynath government to clarify its stand over the largesse of over Rs 100 crore to a degree college in Etawah during 2003-07.



The college, which is run by a society, had then Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and his brother Shivpal Singh Yadav as patrons.



How could such a huge money be allocated to a society, a bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud asked Uttar Pradesh counsel D K Singh.



On his plea that the state would also appoint its own members in the management committee of the college, the bench told him, You are nobody to do so at the moment. How can you do it? It is run by a society where you do not have any say. The then Samajwadi government, however, has questioned a review audit undertaken by the CAG, calling it impermissible.


The Supreme Court on Monday said there should be no anomaly in admitting Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) students, who have cleared the National Entrance cum Eligibility Test (NEET) 2017 for admission to government quota MBBS/BDS seats in medical colleges across the country.



The issue is of immense magnitude. If other states are doing it, why not Karnataka? We will see what can be done, a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and A M Khanwilkar said.



The court asked Additional Solicitor General P S Narasimha to explain how the states of Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi were admitting OCI candidates against government seats.



The court's query came after senior advocate Rajeev Dhawan, representing a group of OCI candidates, contended the Karnataka government's rules denying them admission to government seats were unreasonable.



He submitted the state lacked competence to pass such rules. He said other states were granting admission to them against government seats.



Senior advocate Basava Prabhu Patil, representing Karnataka, submitted that the government seats are available only to Indian citizens. OCI candidates are eligible to apply under NRI quota, he said.



Narasimha, appearing for the Union government, also submitted that the OCI candidates cannot be granted admission against government seats. The court posted the matter for passing an interim order on August 2.



The HC had held that such candidates were not eligible to be considered under government quota seats in view of a clear bar under 'Rule 5 of the Rules for foreign citizens' to apply for government seats.
A stretch on Old Madras Road near KR Puram witnesses an accident almost every day, and the fatalities are on an upward spiral.



In the first six months of this year, 28 people have died, eight of them pedestrians.



The 7-km stretch, from Benniganahalli to Medahalli bridges, is the most notorious of the 17 traffic black spots identified by the police. Till June this year, KR Puram police have registered 170 accident cases. R Hithendra, additional commissioner of police (traffic), said passengers boarding and alighting from buses jaywalk on the highway, unaware of the hazards.



Every hour, about 10,000 vehicles take this road leading to Kolar, Tirupati, Chennai and other cities, he said.



Citizens and policemen on duty say buses park haphazardly, sometimes in the middle of the road.



With no proper crossings, pedestrians find it difficult to get to the bus stands, Hithendra said.



Sanjeev Rayappa, inspector at the K R Puram traffic police station, attributes the accidents to speeding, high traffic density and abrupt lane changing.



A citizen blamed bad road engineering for the continuing fatalities. What is a passenger to do when the scene is so confusing, he wondered.



The design of the road and junction is not standard, and that leads to accidents. This particular stretch offers no guidance to drivers plying at high speeds, said Sathya Sankaran, member, Citizens for Sustainability (CiFoS).



A writer who lives near K R Puram says the stretch is daily nightmare. The main problem lies with the lack of planning at the major junction on Old Madras Road, just after the railway underpass and before the cable-stay bridge and Ring Road flyover. It is a big mess there, with no separation of traffic, said C K Meena, novelist and former journalist.



She says all kinds of vehicles go in opposing directions: taking a U-turn to head south, going east into Pai Layout, west towards Ring Road, north below the bridge to Whitefield, and north on the bridge towards KR Puram. There is a massive bottleneck, and once everyone gets past it they tend to speed. Pedestrians are caught in the middle, and there is just one pedestrian bridge, she told DH.



Policemen must be on duty at the highways, near flyovers and on the ring roads, where they are most needed. And pedestrians need footpaths and bridges, said Sanjeev Dyamannavar, founder of citizen rights NGO Praja.


On the day of his retirement on Monday, DGP H N Sathyanarayana Rao was posted as the Director General of Police and Commandant General, Home Guards and Director, Fire Force for a brief one hour on Monday.



He formally took charge at the Fire and Emergency Services headquarters in Halasuru on Monday evening around 7 pm and later retired from service after an hour.



The brief posting formality was done since it would be a problem for a senior IPS officer to retire without a posting as it would affect his pension and other retirement benefits, sources said.



Meanwhile, Neelmani N Raju, director general of police, Internal Security, Bengaluru will have concurrent charge of Raos post from Tuesday.



Neelmani is placed in concurrent charge of the post of director general of police and Commandant General, Home Guards, ex-officio director Fire Force, Bengaluru, with effect from August 1, and until further orders in the vacancy arising out of the retirement of Rao, the order stated.



Rao was asked to go on leave after the recent prison fracas where his deputy D Roopa submitted a report on prison irregularities.Rao told reporters that he was instructed by the government not to speak to the media and he did not, whereas Roopa spoke to the media and, the government will take care of it. When asked about the legal notice sent to Roopa and the defamation case, he said, Wait and watch.



New DGP Intelligence



Ashit Mohan Prasad, ADGPCommunication Logistics and Modernisation, Bengaluru, has been promoted to the rank of DGP and has been posted as director general of police, Intelligence, Bengaluru relieving Amrit Paul (IPS) who was holding concurrent charge, the government order stated.




Senior Congress leader B K Chandrashekar has welcomed the state governments move to hand over all the lakes in the city to the Minor Irrigation department.



In a press release, Chandrashekar said the casual and indifferent mindset of local governance failed to protect and maintain the remaining precious water bodies in Bengaluru.



I welcome the decision which is both creative and realistic against the failure of civic agencies and their officers to fulfil their statutory obligations in the maintenance of lakes. It is not the lack of funds with BBMP or BDA but the dereliction of statutory duties of the officers over the last 3-4 decades that is responsible for the present state of affairs, said the former minister.



Passing the buck



He said that in the past three decades, officersof three agencies such as BBMP, BDA and the Forest department along with the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board tried to pass the buck to the others.



Chandrashekar also questioned the citizens who levelled allegations unconvincingly against the chief minister and the government.




ComedK has announced therevised schedule for the second extended round of counselling for engineering seats.



Eligible candidates have to submit a consent form on August 2 to take part in the round. Following this, they are to enter their options between 9 am and 1 pm on August 4. The allotment result will be published on August 5 and August 7 is the last date to report to the allotted colleges.



Chairman of the Admission Overseeing Committee, retired judge Justice Anand Byrareddy held a meeting with ComedK officials on Monday to discuss the matter of category of seats. Some parents had objected to ComedKs notification which said that in the extended round, counselling would be done purely based on general merit.



They said that this is what they have always followed and it was not possible to make any changes, Justice Byrareddy said.



He has also asked ComedK to allow students who have accepted medical or dental seats to surrender their engineering seats through an online process instead of doing it manually. Some parents said that if the seats are not surrendered on time, they will not be available for allotment in the new round. I have asked them to allow online surrender of seats, he said.


Newborns and schoolchildren will now be enrolled for Aadhaar right on their doorstep.



The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will send its staff to homes, schools and hospitals for the purpose. Parents will get the newborns Aadhaar cards along with birth certificates.



While the UIDAI has introduced the facility at a government hospital in Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka will get it in some time. The UIDAI is in talks with hospitals in Karnataka and Kerala in this regard.



A senior UIDAI official, speaking to DH on condition of anonymity, said the move would ensure 100% enrolment. Parents will get Aadhaar cards of the newborns along with the birth certificates. They can make the corrections later.



According to the official, the UIDAI has enrolled almost all people aged 18 or above and is now focusing on enrolling schoolchildren and toddlers. In Karnataka, over 10 lakh schoolchildren and around 30 lakh out-of-school children are yet to be enrolled for Aadhaar.



Just like in the pulse polio campaign, our staff will go from door to door searching for toddlers. To begin with, we will enrol children in the states 15,000-odd anganwadis. In August, our staff will start visiting schools and homes to enrol children by using mobile machines.



Earlier, we had visited some schools, but the exercise will be done again to add new enrolments, the official said.



The UIDAI has enrolled 94% of adults in Karnataka while Kerala reached 100% enrolment long ago. Maharashtra, too, has 100% enrolment. Karnataka, along with Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, is lagging behind. In the state, the UIDAI has enrolled 6,12,22,059 people. Of them, 29,46,662 are children in the 0-5 age group, 1,30,86,053 are in the 5-18 age group and 4,51,89,344 are 18 years old or more.



Enrolment in Tamil Nadu is about 93% while it is 96% and 99.5% in Puducherry and Lakshadweep, respectively. The national enrolment stands at 86%. Its lower in states like Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, another senior UIDAI official said.



Biometric details



Those having Aadhaar keep coming for corrections, the official said and added that not many know that there was a need to periodically update the details of children, especially when they turn 15. Biometric details (fingerprints and iris) are defined by then. Biometric details should be updated to confirm identity. This will help children get marks cards and school transfer certificates, the official said.



This apart, the UIDAI has reduced the age limit for children whose biometric details were not being taken. Earlier, children up to five years of age were not required to provide their biometric details. But starting June, children above three years of age must provide the fingerprint and iris details for Aadhaar enrolment. The biometric details of parents will be taken and they will get regular messages on the need to update the biometric details and photographs of their children, he added.


The residents of Chamarajpet protested against the construction of an Indira Canteen on the Rameshwara temple premises near Kannada Sahitya Parishat in Chamarajpet late Monday evening.



Around 60 residents gathered near the temple to protest even as an earthmover demolished the compound wall to facilitate the construction of the canteen. Although the residents successfully prevented a earthmover from demolishing the wall last week, they could do little on Monday due to the police presence.



The local residents have a lot of regard for the 300-year-old temple as it is known for its rich heritage and for the way it organises various festivals. But now, the construction of the canteen on the temple premises has caused concern among residents.



Dr A Prakash, who lives opposite the temple said, The sanctity of the temple will be lost if a canteen is built here. I have been seeing this temple every day since my birth and I understand its value and heritage. He has been living there for 63 years.



Another resident, Sunil said, Women and children come here to worship. Nobody would like to see a canteen on a temple premises.



Meanwhile, B V Ganesh, ex-BJP corporator said, We have no objection to the Indira Canteen project. But the way in which they are allotting space to build them is absolutely unacceptable. There is no need to build a canteen on the temple premises which has such a rich history.



Meanwhile, Kokila Chandrashekar, area corporator, said, The land belongs to the Muzrai department and the temple authorities have not objected to the canteen. Moreover, there is enough space to build a canteen in the place. Our aim is to ensure that food is available for all classes of people.



The residents, who said they were not against the Indira Canteen project but only the way in which it was being executed, are planning to continue their protest on Tuesday as well. Meanwhile, Ganesh said, "We will not hesitate to go to the court if the BBMP officials do not reconsider their decision to build a canteen here."



BBMP commissioner N Manjunath Prasad was not available for comment.




Karnataka has gone to the Supreme Court against the high court order of January 5, 2017, that quashed criminal cases against Yeddyurappa.



Among the legal issues to be considered by the top court is whether the Comptroller and Auditor Generals reports could be relied upon for initiating action for cognisable offence against the senior BJP leader. Karnataka insisted that the matter be considered if a single-judge bench of the high court was authorised to quash FIRs registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act.



Yeddyurappa for his part claimed that the registration of 15 FIRs as directed by the Lokayukta on the basis of CAG reports was completely misplaced. The state government countered him by saying that from Bihars fodder scam to 2G spectrum, coal and CWG scams, there were instances in which action was taken leading to charge sheets and conviction based on such reports.





The Supreme Court on Monday put for final adjudication a petition filed by the Karnataka government against the high court ruling to quash 15 FIRs against former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa in cases relating to denotification of land.A bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan posted Karnatakas special leave petition for consideration in the third week of September, as advocate Joseph Aristotle, appearing for the state, submitted that the matter required detailed hearing.


In a 14-minute video titled Karnataka Namma Hemme released by the Department of Information and Public Relations, he said any attack on Kannada language, culture, land and water will not be tolerated. They (those coming from outside) are also our brothers and sisters. We have to love and respect them. But we should not hesitate to send out a stern message if they try to bulldoze us...Protecting all these is our responsibility, he stated.



Whether it is doing away with Hindi signages or demanding a separate flag for the state or making Kannada mandatory in schools, Siddaramaiah has of late been vocal. The chief ministers pro-Kannada stand is seen as an effort to stoke Kannada sentiments with an eye on the next Assembly elections.



All Kannadigas should develop pride for their land, water and language and thereby help develop the state, he said. A lot of people have fought for the unification of Karnataka and a section of people are trying to break the state for their selfish gains and I strongly condemn it, Siddaramaiah said in the video, which is meant to project his commitment towards Kannada language and culture.





After raising the issue of Hindi signage in Namma Metro, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah called upon non-Kannadigas to adapt to Kannada culture and warned of action against those who attack the Kannada language and culture.
Syria's Ambassador to India Riad Kamel Abbas today said his country has no information about the 39 Indians who went missing in Iraq in 2014.



He, however, said Syria is "keen" to send them home if they are found in its territory.



Abbas said an Indian delegation has made several trips to Syria and Iraq in the past to seek information about them and the chief of the Intelligence Department of Syria has also visited New Delhi in this regard.



"The Indian delegation went to Syria many times and the chief of Syrian intelligence agency came to Delhi for it," the envoy said.



"We are very keen to bring them (missing Indians) home if they are in our territory, but there is no official confirmation about it," he added.



Early this month, Iraqi forces freed Mosul from the ISIS, a development that gave a ray of hope to the families of 39 Indians.



However, there was no information of the missing Indian nationals from the liberated city.
Canada Clamps Down on Spam

The Canadian Parliament passed Canadas Anti-Spam Law in 2010 and has been implementing the law in stages since 2014. The legislation, which covers any commercial electronic message delivered to consumers as a way to get them to buy products or services or advertise business opportunities, would, among other provisions, require businesses to get consent from consumers before sending such messages.

Companies must also clearly identify themselves, provide full contact information, and have clear, functional opt-out mechanisms in place.

Unlike other anti-spam legislation around the world that provides for an opt-out framework, meaning that consumers have to ask to be removed from the senders email lists, the CASL requires senders to have permission before anything can be sent. Customer consent could be expressed, as in a formal written or oral declaration of permission, or implied, through a prior business relationship, defined as when a customer contacts or purchases from the company or publicly shares an email address with the company within the previous two years.

Email marketing programs are valuable ways for companies to communicate with consumers, says Joan Brehl, vice president and general manager of the Alliance for Audited Media in Canada. To abide by the law, businesses must understand that Canadian consumers own their email address and have complete control over what messages they receive.

The final piece of Canadas Anti-Spam Law, which would have allowed class-action lawyers to initiate lawsuits over alleged breaches, was supposed to go into effect July 1, but the Canadian government on June 2 pulled back on that part of the legislation. Companies that did not comply with the CASL could have faced serious penalties, including civil and criminal charges, personal liability, and fines up to $10 million.

The Canadian Radio, Television and Telecommunications Commission has oversight of the law, which applies equally to Canadian companies and foreign companies doing business in Canada. Any individual or business entity that sends or assists in sending an electronic messagewhether via email, text, social media, voice, or imageryto any consumer in Canada is subject to the CASL.
Jeep has finally launched the Compass SUV in India. After reentering the country with the Wrangler Unlimited and Grand Cherokee CBU imports, Jeep failed to price the SUVs competitively, which kept its buyers largely at bay. Now, with the Compass, Jeep is assembling it at its assembly factory in Ranjangaon, Maharashtra. The company has priced the SUV incredibly competitively, with prices for the basic trim beginning at Rs. 14.95 lac and going all the way up to Rs. 20.65 lac for the fully loaded trim.

With the Compass, Jeep will be looking to challenge the established players like Toyota and Ford in India in the widely competitive SUV market. The Compass includes a wide range of features and technology that has all the essential technologies, alongside capitalising on the weight of its brand name to create its own niche.

The technology inside

The Jeep Compass will have two infotainment trims adorning its three variants of the Compass - Sport, Longitude and Limited. The Jeep Compass Sport gets a 5-inch infotainment system based on Jeeps proprietary firmware, along with touch and pinch zoom controls, Bluetooth connectivity, phone-based and integrated voice command control, inbuilt Compass navigation system, two USB ports and an aux-in as physical connectivity interfaces, and a four-speaker audio setup. It also gets a 3.5-inch multifunction display in the instrument cluster that can be customised by owners, a full-length front console with storage space, acoustic windshield for better NVH insulation, electrically adjustable mirrors and a host of safety features including active turning signals, electronic park brake, ABS with EBD, ESC, electronic roll mitigation, hill start assist and more.

The middle trim, the Compass Longitude, gets pretty much the same equipment list inside its cabin, except for two more speakers, a push start button, cornering and rear fog lamps, and reverse park assist sensors and standard inclusions. In optional inclusions, the Compass Longitude gets a bigger, better infotainment system with a 7-inch touchscreen interface built on Jeep Uconnect firmware, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, dual-zone automatic climate control unit with touch-based automatic controls, activated carbon air filter for in-cabin air purity, and bi-Xenon HID headlamps.

The top trim - the Jeep Compass Limited, gets all the optional features of the Longitude, along with a rear parking camera. The Option pack further allows the addition of dual-tone roof colour, and the 4x4 trim brings more airbags in the safety list, and Jeep Active Drive and Selec-Terrain drive modes.

The drivetrain

All trims of the Jeep Compass will be powered by two engine variants - a 2.0-litre Multijet II diesel engine and a 1.4-litre Multiair petrol engine. The diesel engine produces 171bhp of peak power along with 350Nm of torque, and the petrol engine produces 160bhp and 250Nm of torque. Both the engines are mated to a 6-speed manual transmission, with the top-of-the-trot petrol engine also getting a 7-speed DCCT automatic transmission module. ARAI-certified fuel efficiency figures stand at 17.1kmpl for the diesel engine.

With the excellent price point that the Jeep Compass is being introduced at, it is no surprise that the SUV has already garnered 5,000 pre-bookings. The companys first competitive introduction seems to have a fairly strong ground in terms of the powerful drivetrains, the impressive features list, and of course, the brands weight and legacy.
Nokia confirmed receiving an upfront cash payment of approximately 1.7 billion Euros from Apple in its second quarter earnings. The company has also signed a similar patent deal with Xiaomi.

Nokia received 1.7 billion or $2 billion in settlement for patent dispute from Apple. In its recent quarter result, the Finnish company confirmed receiving an upfront cash payment of approximately 1.7 billion Euros from the Cupertino-based iPhone maker. It added that part of the payment has been recognised in the second quarter of 2017 leading to increased cash flow.

Nokia and Apple decided to settle their patent dispute in May and signed a multi-year patent license deal. The two companies also announced a business collaboration with Nokia providing Apple with network infrastructure for its products and services. The announcement came after Nokia sued Apple for violation of technology patents and Apple countersuing the company for overcharging for patent use. After the dispute, Apple decided to discontinue sales of digital health products from Nokia-owned Withings from its online and retail stores.

As part of the agreement, Apple will continue to pay royalties for patent use along with this up-front cash payment. Nokia will share more details on intended use of additional cash inflow during the announcement of its third quarter earnings in October, reports SeekingAlpha.

"In the fourth pillar of our strategy, creating new business and licensing opportunities in the consumer ecosystem, the licensing and business partnership agreement that we reached with Apple in the quarter was a clear highlight. You could see the benefit of that agreement in Nokia Technologies' results, and we look forward to continuing to expand our overall business with Apple in the coming months," Rajeev Suri, President and CEO, Nokia said in a released statement.

Nokia has scored a big win with the Apple patent license deal and it plans to add more manufacturers to the list. The company recently signed a similar patent licensing agreement with Xiaomi, China's fourth largest smartphone maker. Suri added that the Xiaomi deal will help it negotiate a further agreement with other Chinese smartphone vendors.
Researchers took the reigns off the bots, allowing them to speak in languages that weren't English, or even human readable, and the AI came up with gibberish.

In their portrayal in science fiction, AI programs are often shown to go off script and start thinking on their own. It was just such an incident as Facebook AI Research (FAIR) recently. The following is a conversation between two AI algorithms:

Bob: I can can I I everything else.

Alice: Balls have zero to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to.

The conversation above is gibberish, for all intents and purposes. But, this is how two interacting AI algorithms spoke to each other eventually, when they were told they didnt have to converse in English or any human understandable language. Facebook had to finally reinforce its rules to have the bots speak in English alone.

Why does this matter?

The central problem of AI research has always been in whether Darwins theory will extend to an intelligent creation like this. An AI, by definition, is as intelligent as humans and possibly more. So, doesnt that mean the AI is now the fittest and should be the one to survive? This possibility is the why many have spoken out against AI research.

However, at its core, an artificial intelligence is simply a machine. When machines interact, even with humans, they use binary code, not natural language. Sure, we input codes and commands in natural language today, and the machines then convert it to binary code to understand what were saying. So, it stands to reason that machines will interact with each other in binary code as well. When you use your phone to turn on your TV, the phone and TV interacted in code that you and I cant understand.

So, while the above mentioned conversation looks gibberish, its quite possible that the two AI were trying to invent their own language, once the barriers to not do so were off. The AI in question here, are negotiation agents, designed for chatbots that will negotiate with humans. Facebook pit them against each other to practice various scenarios, much like how AlphaGo learned Go by playing millions of hands against itself.

Agents will drift off understandable language and invent codewords for themselves, Dhruv Batra, visiting research scientist from Georgia Tech at FAIR, told Fast Co.Design.

AI algorithms have been known to become unrecognisable after theyve been put to use. Even the engineers who wrote the algorithms in the first place, find it difficult to understand their creations some time later. So, while its still unclear whether Facebooks algorithms were actually speaking to each other in code, its certainly likely. One wonders what they said to each other. Valar Morgulis?
The plan aimed at students in Delhi-NCR and is priced at Rs 445. The entire kit includes a booklet with deals, recharge vouchers and a messenger bag

Vodafone has launched a new plan that is especially aimed at students. Called the Campus Survival Kit, the plan offers unlimited calls with 1GB of 4G/3G data everyday for 84 days. The new plan is only valid for new connections and is priced at Rs 445. Besides this, students will also be given a kit consisting of a booklet that includes deals such as recharge vouchers and discount coupons from Ola, Zomato, and more. It also contains some value for money lifehacks as well as a messenger bag. The kit is currently only available in Delhi-NCR.

Alok Verma, Business Head, Vodafone Delhi-NCR stated, The beginning of college life opens a world of opportunities and experiences for youngsters. While they want to use their new found freedom to explore these opportunities, their tight pocket allowance proves challenging. To overcome this challenge, they are always looking for hacks and shortcuts to be resourceful and live life to the fullest. The Campus Survival Kit is an initiative to equip them with the great telco and non telco deals and innovative value creating hacks to help them sail through their college life without compromising.

Vodafone is engaging with young consumers on radio and other platforms. Further, the company is also setting up free Wi-Fi hotspots across Delhi Universitys north campus. These locations are chosen based on their popularity with students and one of these is located in Hudson Lane. The company also notes that it has a network of over 110 Wi-Fi Hotspots across Delhi-NCR.

A few days ago, Vodafone launched a new plan called First Recharge Coupon (FRC) 244 for prepaid customers. The plan is priced at Rs 244 and offers 1GB of data for 70 days along with unlimited local and STD calling within the Vodafone network. However, with the second recharge, the validity of the plan changes to 35 days. For older customers, Vodafone is offering the same data benefits at Rs 346, with a validity of 56 days. Voice calling is free, but is limited to 300 minutes per day and 1,200 minutes per week.
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CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP)  A Corvallis used car dealer has reported to federal prison to begin serving the sentence he received for fleecing customers out of more than $1 million.

The Gazette-Times reports 46-year-old Shannon Jones pleaded guilty in May to wire fraud. He was instructed to start serving his 2 1/2-year sentence July 5, but got a three-week reprieve.





. . .
The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) on Saturday seized a merchant vessel carrying around 1,500 kg of heroin, valued at around Rs3,500 crore, off the Gujarat coast near Porbandar, in what could be the largest single haul of narcotics by the Coast Guard. The vessel was intercepted by ICG ship 'Samudra Pavak' as it was sailing towards Alang shipyard in Bhavnagar and was brought to Porbandar on Sunday. Eight persons, all Indians, who were on the Panama-registered vessel, 'MV Hennry,' have been taken into custody. A joint team of the Navy, the Coast Guard, police and customs intelligence officers is currently interrogating the crew. The ship, coming from Dubai, was anchored in Karachi port for two days for loading the consignment and then headed to Alang ship breaking yard in Bhavnagar, where the consignment was to be offloaded. Two crew members, one from Iran and the other from Pakistan are believed to have got off the ship at Karachi port. The ship, built in 1982, was meant be dismantled at the Alang ship breaking yard. The crew members have not yet revealed any specific location from where the ship originally set sail and Coast Guard officers said they are in contact with their counterparts in Pakistan. The ship was apprehended after the Coast Guard received intelligence inputs regarding the unusual movement of a ship about 210 miles off the Gujarat coast, beyond Indian waters. In the process, the Coast Guard vessels intercepted some other merchant vessels as well before a Dornier aircraft patrolling the Gulf of Khambhat, cited a vessel heading towards Bhavnagar. "On verification it was found that no such vessel was expected at Bhavnagar. Hence, it was intercepted by the coast guard. The vessel was found transmitting its identity on wireless," a coast guard official said. The vessel, on a search of earlier voyages on maritime traffic website, was found to have no valid documents. Also, according to the Coast Guard, the name of the ship, which had earlier gone on voyages as Al Sadiq, seems to have changed its identity several times since as the name 'Henry' and 'Prince- 2' were found scribbled on it in paint. "Captain of the ship, Suprik Tiwary, said that as the ship was heading for demolition at Alang, they did not carry any documents," according to the coast guard official. The captain and the crew had initially denied that they were carrying any narcotics but sustained interrogation led to the recovery of 1,500 kg of heroin from the ship. The heroin was kept in plastic bags hidden in a specially-made compartment in the water tank of the vessel, sources said. Coast guard had, in similar operations, seized 140 kg heroin worth Rs28 crore in April 2015 from a boat called Fiza, about 150 nautical miles off Porbandar coast. Indian officials had then arrested eight Pakistani sailors and recovered satellite phones from them.








Just two of the 607 IDA supported companies that have located in Ireland have come to Donegal, it has emerged.

Senator Padraig Mac Lochlainn described the figures as a "damning indictment of the job creation policies of this government and those before it".



He said figures also revealed that while there has been a 50% increase in jobs at IDA supported companies across the State since 2002, the number of jobs in Donegal in IDA supported companies has "stood still".

"I have obtained these figures from the Minister for Jobs and Enterprise, Frances Fitzgerald in response to a parliamentary question and from an examination of the IDA's annual reports since 2002, he said.



They are frankly, a damning indictment of job creation policies over those years under Fianna Fail and Fine Gael led governments. Only two out of the 607 new IDA supported companies that have set up in Ireland since 2008 have come to Donegal. That's in a period where various governments promised us "balanced regional development".



I have also established that since 2002, the number of jobs in IDA supported companies across the State has increased by 50% from 133,000 to 200,000 jobs in 2016. However, here in Donegal, we have pretty much stood still, moving from 2,873 IDA supported jobs in 2002 to 3,039 jobs last year. Indeed, if it wasn't for the tremendous success of Pramerica, led by local leaders, those numbers would have halved".



"The Government and the IDA should have been able to build on the success story of Pramerica and other companies that have located in Donegal. They should also have built on the vision and leadership of the team at LYIT who have delivered the CoLab for start up businesses and the Science and Technology Park.
Funding of 2m has been allocated at a notorious accident blackspot in Donegal.

The funding is for the Cappry stretch of the N15.

The works should be going for tender later in the year and be completed by the spring of next year.

Fine Gael Cllr Martin Harley has confirmed the funding today.

I am delighted to confirm the news that Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) has agreed to fund the safety measures with 2M in funding, he said.

As part of the overall scheme pavement strengthening works will also take place from Lidl up to the new road above the Roadhouse Bar at Woodlawn, Dooish.

This is a total investment of up to two million euro. This is great for this area as it has been a black spot for accidents and fatal crashes down the years.

The committee that was set up a few years ago from the Cappry area welcome this news and in fairness to them they have worked and campaigned hard for this over the last few years. I would also like to thank the staff of the N.R.D.O. offices in Donegal Town who have worked tirelessly to put the safety plan together to take to the TII and have got it over the line.

Donegal TD Joe McHugh praised TII and the county council for developing and funding the road works with news coming just a few weeks after he officially opened the new stretch of the N15.

It is important that this stretch of road is upgraded to run onto the newly improved section, said Minister McHugh.

This is the latest road improvement funded by this Government and approved by TII and is particularly important in this case.
A Donegal County Councillor has threatened to take legal action against another councillor who in turn had claimed he was harassing him during stormy scenes at the latest meeting of the council in Lifford.

Independent councillor, Frank McBrearty, gave the warning to fellow independent Nicholas Crossan after tension flared between them at last Mondays meeting of the council.

The warning came after Cllr Crossan told the meeting that he was being harassed by a councillor in here.

Tensions between the two councillors flared up after Cllr Crossan questioned whether a councillor who had not attended a large portion of a council meeting could propose the adoption of the minutes.

Cllr. McBrearty had proposed the adoption of the minutes of the May meeting of the council.

Can someone who did not attend the meeting for over two hours propose the minutes, Cllr Crossan asked.

Council Cathaoirleach, Cllr. Gerry McMonagle, told him the member who proposed the minutes had been signed into the meeting.

Just minutes later Cllr Crossan interrupted the meeting to say he was being harassed.

I am being totally harassed by a councillor in here and it is not just today, this has been going on for months, he said.

If he has anything to against me to say it now, he said. I want some protection. Cllr McBrearty said Cllr Crossan had referred to him not by name but by insinuation.

Cllr McBrearty said: I said if he says anything about me anymore or makes any digs against me and my family, my top legal team will deal with him.

Later in the meeting during a debate on proposed road works in Letterkenny, Cllr McBrearty asked the chair Cllr Gerry McMonagle to request the media not to report what he was going to say on the issue.

Cllr McMonagle said he could not ask the media not to report it as it was a public meeting.

Then referring to the previous incident between the two councillors Cllr McBrearty said: The CEO can confirm why I was missing from meetings.

Cllr McBrearty then said he would deal with the media.

I will deal with the media if they print anything wrong about me, because I am sick of false allegations being made against me.
The layers are starting to be peeled back on BMW's next-generation Z4 roadster.

The German brand has issued the first teaser image of a concept car it plans to reveal at the upcoming Pebble Beach Concours in California later this month, providing the first look at the convertible's silhouette.

As is so often the case with teaser sketches BMW has been careful to reveal little about the concepts final form, though the moody image displays classic roadster proportions with a low bonnet, long dash-to-axle ratio (the space between the front wheel and the front door), and a short rear deck.

The roadster also appears to show a svelte low windscreen and integrated rear roll hoop structure, with a hint of low shark nose front end that imitates the style of the larger 8 Series that BMW unveiled earlier this year at Italys Concorso dEleganza Villa dEste.

If the Pebble Beach concept is a Z4 replacement it will be the first public display of BMWs collaboration with Toyota, which will lead to a new-generation Supra for the Japanese brand, while BMW will likely push the Z4 further upmarket, introducing a new Z5 moniker in the process.

Although still to be confirmed, the new BMW is tipped to return to a soft-top, ditching the previous cars folding hard top, powered by a range of turbocharged four and six-cylinder engines with rear wheel drive and the possibility of hybrid assistance.

While the Pebble Beach Concours dElegance is famous for its rare and exclusive vintage vehicles, BMW has a history at the event, displaying a race-liveried version of its 2002 Hommage at last years event, and a Zagato-designed interpretation of the previous Z4 as part of the 2012 concours along with other concepts and production previews over the years.

Further details of the Pebble Beach roadster will be revealed at the Californian concours on August 17 where well find out just how close to a production reality this latest concept really is.

- For more information visit our BMW showroom
Ram will add a Rebel to its range in 2018.

American Special Vehicles, that import and convert the Ram 2500 and 3500, is looking to add the performance orientated Ram 1500 Rebel.

The company has brought the first model in and will display it at the 2017 National 4x4 Outdoor Show in August.

The Rebel is based on the smaller 1500 model and swaps the turbo diesel engine of the 2500/3500 range for a 5.7-litre Hemi V8 that produces 291kW.

Its further separated from its unique looks that ditch the typical cross-hair chrome grille in favour of a blacked-out grille with Ram branding.

With the Ram 2500 and 3500 now established in Australia and becoming a regular sight across the country towing the biggest loads, we are now looking at how we are going to expand the Ram range in Australia, says Alex Stewart, General Manager of Ram in Australia. The Ram 1500 Rebel takes the legendary Ram Truck in a totally different direction from the 2500/3500, something that is self-evident from the totally different grille and distinctive rumble from its massive V8 engine.

Ram Australia has revealed it is considering launching the model in 2018 priced below the 2500 Laramie which starts at $139,500.
When it comes to building businesses, coming up with an idea is only half the battle. It is, however, a necessary key ingredient. Creativity is essential to entrepreneurship  so much so that the two terms are almost synonymous: an entrepreneur is by definition an agent of change. And for change to exist there must be something new thats introduced.

Knowing that creativity is a key ingredient for entrepreneurial success and being able to put it into practice are two very different things. Fortunately, thinking creatively is something that you can practice and get better at. Over the years there have been a number of strategies that have worked for me that Ive summarised below.

The first step is to think different. Apple may have coined the phrase, but the mentality can apply to creative thinking in every domain of life and across every industry. It sounds cliched, but this simple adage can be an effective reminder that creativity requires unique thinking.

By believing in your own convictions, especially when they diverge with accepted wisdom, you might find opportunities for change that others have overlooked. Try and zig when others zag.

In contrast to this, you also need to question your own beliefs. This seemingly contradictory suggestion is my second piece of advice. Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel, noted the critical difference between projecting confidence externally  to customers and to staff  while doubting and questioning your own convictions. As soon as he concluded that he had got something wrong, he confidently changed course.

Creativity requires an ability to try, test, and improve. In business, you cant shy away from making decisions. It often takes many bad ideas to come up with a good idea. Being prepared to fail quickly and training yourself to recognise bad ideas are useful skills that come with repeat practice.

Failing fast works well when you can keep risks low. In some environments this approach just doesnt work  but if you can create the systems and processes to mitigate risk, then the benefits of faster iterations can be immense.

The third and final recommendation for creative thinking is to understand how your own experiences bias your thinking. The most creative ideas might come from areas of expertise  but equally they can come from areas where you are entirely out of your depth.

In the case of the former, deep knowledge in a particular area might help provide insight into what can be done better. But at the same time our self-presumed expertise can blind us to whats possible.

Every day when I lived and studied at Oxford University, I walked past a plaque that celebrated Roger Bannisters sub-four minute mile run in 1954. This feat was previously thought to be impossible. But after Bannister proved it was possible, dozens of people broke the 4 minute mile over the next few years.

Thinking creatively requires practice. For me, the three recommendations above are the most important pieces. The first is to hold an atypical opinion: whether it be an early insight others are yet to grasp, or something more revolutionary. The second is to question your own beliefs, and be prepared to change and adapt them as you learn more. And finally, through this whole process, we must each be careful of the subconscious biases that we each have.

While entrepreneurship requires much more than just creativity, it also cant be done without this key ingredient.

About the author

Andrew Barnes is the co-founder and CEO of online onboarding, compliance and professional development platform GO1.com. He is a Rhodes Scholar, studied education technology at Oxford University, and holds a PhD in Business Management at the University of Queensland. Andrews passion for education and learning led him and his team of co-founders Vu Tran (now a medical doctor), Chris Eigeland (a lawyer) and Chris Hood (an engineer) to create GO1.com as a way to make it easier for companies to find, book, and complete corporate training. The group secured $4 million in funding from Shark Tanks Steve Baxter, Tank Stream Ventures and Blue Sky Ventures enabling them to continue expanding their offices across the world. He previously wrote Diversity can be a double-edged sword when businesses dont have systems to harness it.
Female founders are outnumbered three to one in Australias startup ecosystem because they often lack the support of a strong network of door openers, according to Fiona Boyd, the CEO of Heads Over Heels.

She explained that Head Over Heels, an Australian not-for-profit founded in 2010, provides female entrepreneurs with a powerful platform to scale  and otherwise achieve outstanding results in  their businesses by connecting them with influential industry and business leaders who, in turn, can introduce them to key players in their own networks.

Boyd said that more than 2500 connections have been facilitated through Heads Over Heels events and other door-opening activities, resulting in female led and founded businesses securing new customers, strategic partners, mentors and advisory board members plus a combined total of $23 million in investments.

Excluding alumni and its pipeline of emerging businesses, Heads Over Heels has 30 active portfolio companies, selected through a screening process. Boyd explained, We look for businesses that have plans and ambition to scale globally. They need to demonstrate they are solving a real problem and have a product or solution that can be applied to different markets within the next few years. Not all our portfolio companies will achieve that, but we definitely love working with women who have big dreams and ambitions.

In addition to gaining access to Heads Over Heels network of 1000+ Connectors, Boyd said portfolio companies receive guidance and mentoring to prepare for pitch presentations at portfolio events.

We assist portfolio companies with presentation skills, financial reporting, market/customer segmentation, branding, unique value proposition, and clear messaging, all of which are critical business skills required by women entrepreneurs to succeed, Boyd explained. This helps to increase the confidence and professionalism of the women who are pitching, which in turn helps them to achieve more successful outcomes both during and after the actual events.

In conversation with Dynamic Business, Boyd spoke about the biases, unconscious or otherwise, that have meant that women continue to be under-represented on boards, at executive levels in corporations and within the startup ecosystem.

DB: What barriers do entrepreneurial women face?

Boyd: The underrepresentation of women in business leadership is a historical issue, which is having a generational impact. While this issue is slowly being addressed, several layers of unconscious bias (perpetuated over many years) still need to be unraveled  for example, a common misconception that flies in the face of extensive research is that women are not financially astute. Further, women are also not often natural self-promoters, which can be misinterpreted as a lack of confidence. As a consequence of both unconscious and entrenched gender bias, many women face difficulties when it comes to raising capital and forming a broad network of people who can make a real difference in their careers, including financiers, mentors, advisors, prospective clients or suppliers. Having access to an interconnected and powerful network has been proven to be one of the most important determinants of entrepreneurial success.

DB: Have you encountered gender bias first-hand?

Boyd: I can provide countless examples of when Ive either personally encountered barriers to career progression or when my friends and colleagues have. These encounters have ranged from casual, unthinking and often unconscious bias right through to blatantly aggressive tactics including exclusion and bullying. For instance, I have seen an incredibly experienced and talented female marketing manager denied the opportunity to even be considered for an interview for a promotion due to a lack of financial acumen even though she had previously worked as an accountant and was a qualified CPA. In this specific case, the job was simply awarded without due process to the only other internal candidate who was male.

DB: What actions are needed to level the playing field?

Boyd: There is evidence that prevailing stereotypes, including masculine notions of leadership, can deter women from pursuing an entrepreneurial career  as the saying goes, You cant be what you cant see. In order to break down stereotypes and assumptions about women, and thus shape the new norm of entrepreneurship, we need to raise awareness of female role models and celebrate the successes of Australias women business leaders. This must involve moving away from focusing only on traditionally masculine attributes of leadership, and valuing additional traits that may be more common in women such as empathy and emotional intelligence.

Australian business culture has developed considerably in recent years, and has become a mostly fair and benevolent place that respects and values diversity. However, we all need to call out and denounce the often-blatant sexism and misogyny that has led to women leaders being denigrated for simply being women, rather than being admired for their ability to do the job.

There are several outstanding initiatives, which have significantly moved the dial within the Australian business landscape, including the Australian Institute of Company Directors 30% program designed to increase the number of women Directors on Boards, and the Male Champions of Change initiative. However, there are still many cultural behaviours and reactionary voices in mainstream media, politics and within some businesses that are not aligned with broader community values.

A stronger representation of women at ALL levels is needed and we need both men and women to be advocates for the women around them, encouraging them to start a business, to go for the promotion, or to even just allow their voices to be heard.

DB: Are any sectors crying out for greater balance?

Boyd: One sector thats still very under-represented, in terms of both founders and employees, is fintech. According to the EY Fintech Census, women account for less than 13% of founders and less than 22% of employees in Australias fintech sector. This is surprising because the mainstream financial services industry, which accounts for $140 billion of our GDP, is one of the biggest employers of women. The fact that there are so few women working in fintech suggests there may be some underlying barriers or cultural bias factors that are impacting women from participating more fully in this sector.

DB: In which sectors are female entrepreneurs excelling?

Boyd: There are several industries where women are creating exciting new products and solutions that will help address many of the most pressing problems in society. In terms of specific sectors, women seem to have a natural aptitude for  and are achieving some outstanding successes in  biotech and medtech. The Heads Over Heels portfolio, together with our pipeline of 150 emerging leaders, boasts several of these women, each of whom has either a scientific or business background. There are also some incredibly talented women, particularly within regional Australia, who are building some amazing agtech businesses. This is quite appropriate, from an historical perspective, when you consider the number of pioneering women who have helped build the Australian economy from early settlement through to the present day.
Global not-for-profit Girls in Tech (GiT) will host its first female-only, early-stage startup pitch night in Australia, next week.

Taking place on Friday, 11 August at Australia Post (Melbourne), Amplify is an opportunity for ten female entrepreneurs to pitch live to a judging panel that boasts Susan Brown (MD, Girls in Tech), Val Brown (Executive Manager, REA Group), Georgia Beattie (CEO, Startup Victoria) Stefani Adams (Innovation Partner, Australia Post), Alita Harvey-Rodriguez (Founder, Milk It Academy) and Madeleine Kelly (Partner, FB Rice).

Entrepreneurs have until Friday, 4 August to apply for Amplify, with the ten finalists announced three days later. The winners on the night will receive a cash prize plus consulting services. Tickets to Amplify are available here.

The co-founder of recently-launched fintech startup Finch, Shahirah Gardner, heads up PR for GiT Australia. She spoke to Dynamic Business about Amplify and the support available to female entrepreneurs through Girls in Tech.

DB: How important are women-centric initiatives such as Amplify?

Gardner: The Harvard Business Review conducted research which found that in venture capital-financed, high-growth technology startups, only 9% of entrepreneurs are women; however, the gender gap in startup success begins to disappear when women fund women. Initiatives, such as Amplify, that readily connect VCs and women-led startups, are important for the Melbourne tech ecosystem, which is going through a growth period in terms of awareness and the support from industry and government.

DB: What value is GiT generating for female founders?

Gardner: The point of connection between a newly established startup and a mentor can be a critical factor in accelerating a startups growth opportunities. Girls in Tech Australia aims to enable these connections to naturally occur through year-round events, mentorship programs and boot camps that connect the right people with one another.

DB: How will the overall prize assist female founders?

Gardner: While the exact cash prize is still to-be-announced, the consulting services available to winners (including IP and R&D support, mentorship and digital marketing) have been hand-selected to help the winning startups take the next big step in their roadmap. IE Digital (IT consulting), Milk It Academy (marketing consulting), REA Group (mentorship), FB Rice (IP protection) and Academy Xi (training) have all put forward significant opportunities which can be found here: bit.ly/2um8x7Y

DB: What criteria will entrants be judged against?

Gardner: The judges will be critiquing the startups against five major categories:

ability to solve a real problem;

market viability;

uniqueness of idea;

ability to demonstrate growth capability; and

alignment to Girls in Techs core values.

DB: Has GiT assisted you with your own startup, Finch?

Gardner: GiT provides me with a meaningful support network and community to connect with experienced women in tech and like-minded female founders. Specifically, having access to mentors and a network into women-led VCs in Australia has been a huge help.

See also: Banks are missing a beat with millennials, says co-founder of fintech startup Finch
The company also reported cash flow from operating activities at negative $1.1 million USD during the first six months of 2017, but positive $0.3 million in the second quarter.



Luxembourg-based product tanker operator dAmico International Shipping recorded a net loss of $6.2 million USD during the first six months of 2017, compared with a net profit of $13.6 million posted in the same period of last year, the company revealed in its latest financial statements, released July 28.

The variance compared with the first semester of 2016 is mainly due to a weaker product tanker market, DIS said, particularly in the second quarter of this year. In the first half of 2017, DIS said its daily spot rate was $12,492, compared with $16,848 in the first half of last year.

At the same time, the company said that 36.9 percent of its total employment days in first half 2017 were covered through time-charter contracts at an average daily rate of $15,908, compared with a first half 2016 in which it had 47.7 percent coverage at an average daily rate of $15,885.

Such good level of time charter coverage is one of the pillars of DIS commercial strategy and allows it to mitigate the effects of spot market volatility, securing a certain level of earnings and cash generation, the company explained in a statement.

DIS total daily average rate, including both spot and time-charter contracts, was $13,614 in first half 2017 compared with $16,389 the previous year, company data show.

The company also reported cash flow from operating activities at negative $1.1 million during first half 2017 and positive $0.3 million in Q2 2017, compared with $40 million in H1 2016. The lower result in first half 2017, according to the company, was due to the weaker freight markets relative to first half 2016.

DIS CEO Marco Fiori said in a statement he was content with the companys performance during the first half of whats been a trying year so far.

The product tanker industry experienced a challenging freight market in the second quarter of 2017. This was mainly due to the relatively high level of newbuilding deliveries, together with the refining maintenance season and a still high level of product inventories, Fiori explained. In this context, I am rather satisfied about the results achieved by our company in H117. I think that once again DIS prudent commercial strategy, based on an efficient mix of spot activity and time-charter coverage, allowed us to mitigate the negative effect produced by the soft markets in Q217, also due to seasonal factors.

All the medium/long-term fundamentals of the industry are pointing to a proper market rebound starting probably from the end of 2017/beginning of 2018, he said.
Find out how to become a first-time buyer at Taylor Wimpey's Saxon Fields

First-time buyers in Bedfordshire are being invited to a special event at Saxon Fields, Taylor Wimpeys sought-after development in Biggleswade, where they can find out all there is to know about taking their first step on the property ladder.

Aspiring homeowners can find out how easy and affordable it is to make a move to this in-demand development at the special first-time buyer event, which will take place on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th August, and therell be plenty of fantastic deals on offer too!

An independent financial advisor will be available to answer any questions potential purchasers may have, while the Taylor Wimpey Sales Executive will be on hand to explain all about the wonderful range of starter homes and fantastic homebuyer incentives at Saxon Fields.

Visitors can also take advantage of some amazing deals and offers during the event, including the chance for those who reserve a property during the event weekend to have their stamp duty bill paid by Taylor Wimpey!

Jack Costello, Regional Sales and Marketing Director for Taylor Wimpey, says: Our first-time buyer weekend at Saxon Fields is an event thats not to be missed for anyone who wants to take their first step on the property ladder.

Visitors will be able to learn all there is to know about living at this wonderful development and the selection of properties on offer, plus prospective purchasers can make an appointment to see our fabulous view apartments and get a real glimpse of the superb properties available.

Among the new homes currently available to reserve at Saxon Fields is the impressive two-bedroom Mishka apartment (plot 501), priced at 223,000.

This handsome property features a contemporary open-plan kitchen/living/dining room, two good-sized bedrooms, one of which benefits from its own en-suite shower room, a main bathroom and a handy storage cupboard off the internal entrance hallway. Allocated parking is provided outside.

Alternative two-bedroom apartments are on sale at the development from 220,000, while two bedroom houses are also available from 280,000.

Help to Buy is available at Saxon Fields, which enables eligible first-time buyers to secure a Government loan for up to 20% of the full price of their new home  so they only require a 75% loan-to-value mortgage and a deposit as low as 5%. The scheme is available on all new-build homes up to the value of 600,000 and theres no salary cap for purchasers taking advantage of the scheme.

Saxon Fields enjoys a sought-after location in the popular new community of Kings Reach, which is situated to the south-east of Biggleswade town centre, bordered by open countryside yet within easy reach of day-to-day facilities.

Kings Reach offers plenty of opportunities for pleasant walks and cycle rides, while Biggleswade boasts a wide selection of high street and independent shops, a bustling weekly market, supermarkets, pubs, restaurants, health facilities and a leisure centre and pool.

For commuters, Biggleswade railway station is only a mile from the development and offers frequent services to London Kings Cross in as little as 35 minutes, while the A1 for the capital and the north is just half a mile from home.

The first-time buyer weekend takes place on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th August at Saxon Fields, located at 7 Holbrook Grove, Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, SG18 8UG, from 10am to 5.30pm.

The developments Sales Information Centre is open daily between the same times (Mondays 2pm to 5.30pm). Alternatively, visit taylorwimpey.co.uk.
Buy a new apartment with stamp duty paid at St George's Square in Harrow

London home-hunters will soon have the opportunity to snap up their perfect place with a fantastic deal on brand new apartments at St Georges Square, Taylor Wimpeys in-demand development in Harrow.

A special Stamp Duty Paid Weekend is taking place at the development on Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th August, where the leading housebuilder will offer to pay the stamp duty on selected apartments for any lucky purchasers who reserve their dream home!

Whats more, the Help to Buy London scheme is also available at St Georges Square, under which eligible first-time buyers and those with a property to sell can access a Government loan for up to 40% of their new homes full price, so they only need a 55% loan-to-value mortgage and a deposit as low as 5%.

An independent financial adviser will be at the development on the Saturday during the special weekend to guide would-be buyers through the finer details of this popular initiative.

Jack Costello, Regional Sales and Marketing Director for Taylor Wimpey, says: With stamp duty being paid in full for purchasers of selected apartments at St Georges Square, property-seekers have an excellent opportunity to grab a great deal on a beautiful brand new home.

Id urge aspiring buyers to come along to our Stamp Duty Paid Weekend on Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th August and find out how they can make a quick and affordable move to one of the fabulous apartments here at St Georges Square!

Theres a superb range of one and two-bedroom apartments currently available to reserve at St Georges Square, priced from 350,000 and 465,000 respectively.

The handsome one-bedroom Maven Court apartment (plot 44), priced at 350,000, for example, boasts a contemporary open-plan kitchen/living/dining room leading to a private balcony, a spacious bedroom, a bathroom and a handy storage cupboard off the internal entrance hallway.

There is also a stunning, professionally decorated show apartment available to view at the development, giving prospective purchasers a tantalising glimpse of the wonderful lifestyle opportunities available at St Georges Square.

Help to Buy London is available on new-build homes up to the value of 600,000 and theres no salary cap for purchasers taking advantage of the scheme.

St Georges Square enjoys a well-connected location in Sudbury Hill, Harrow, with excellent facilities for day-to-day living within walking distance, including a wealth of high street and independent shops, supermarkets, pubs and restaurants. Affluent Harrow on the Hill, with its attractive Georgian architecture, is just over half a mile away.

Just a short walk away is Sudbury Hill underground station, which is served by the Piccadilly line and provides services into central London, and Sudbury Hill Harrow railway station for connections to Gerrards Cross and London Marylebone.

There are also frequent bus services which stop close by for destinations including Harrow, Sudbury, Greenford, Wembley and Neasden. Sudbury Hill connects with the A4217, providing easy access to the A40, M40 and M25, while the A4005 and A404 link to the North Circular for the M4 and the M1.

The Stamp Duty Paid Weekend takes place on Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th August from 10am to 5.30pm at St Georges Square, located off Sudbury Hill, Harrow, HA1 3SB.

The developments Sales Information Centre is open Thursday to Sunday during the same times and Mondays from 2pm to 5.30pm.

Information on all Taylor Wimpey developments across the region is available by visiting taylorwimpey.co.uk.
(Photo: REUTERS / Hamad I Mohammed)Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir attends the closing ceremony of the 25th Arab Summit in Kuwait City, March 26, 2014. The general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, wrote to Sudan President Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir in June about religious freedom after a Sudanese court sentenced Meriam Ibrahim to death for refusing to renounce her Christian faith.

The inauguration of Sudan as the 39th Province of the Anglican Communion marks a "new beginning" for the Christian community in the country, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has said.

"Like all new births it comes with responsibility within Sudan for Christians to make it work, and from outside to support, to pray, to love this new Province," he said, The Church Times reported.

Welby was speaking at the service of inauguration in All Saints' Cathedral, Khartoum, on July 30, at which he installed the new Primate of Sudan, Ezekiel Kumir Kondo, Bishop of Khartoum.

He prayed for wisdom and the abolition of fear.

Sudan is predominantly Muslim but has around one million Christians.

Welby spoke of seeing Christians and Muslims "co-existing powerfully and effectively" when he had visited the southern diocese of Kadugli on July 29.

Such tolerant co-existence needs freedom, he said, the Anglican Communion News Service reported.

"My prayer for Sudan is that there will be freedom continually so that Christians may live confidently, blessing their country. The more they are free, the more they will be a blessing to Sudan, he said."

The archbishop praised the Khartoum government for welcoming refugees from the conflict in South Sudan and thanked it for sending representatives to the service.

"No government anywhere in the world need fear Christians," he told them.

Later Welby urged the protection of Christians and peaceful co-existence between the Christians and majority Muslims in Sudan, Xinhua news agency reported.

SUDANESE PRESIDENT OMAR AL-BASHIR

The archbishop made his remarks when Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir received him in Khartoum.

"We talked about the protection of Christians and listened carefully to his excellency as he explained the good relations, the co-habitation, even within families between Christians and Muslims," Welby told reporters following his meeting with President al-Bashir.

"We spoke about sanctions, and of the British policy which encourages the end of sanctions, and about the burden of debts and the need for development," he noted.

The archbishop added that "at the center of everything that we said was our deep concern, our mighty concern for the poor, the weak, the refugees and the helpless; and to encourage every government and every president where they seek the common good and benefit of the weakest in our societies."

Sudan's Minister of Guidance and Endowments, Abu Bakr Osman, for his part, told reporters that the meeting reiterated the political leadership's concern with religious co-existence in Sudan.

"The meeting stressed the religious co-existence in Sudan and that all the Sudanese citizens are equal in rights and duties and in assuming public posts, regardless of their religious or ethnic affiliations," he noted.

Welby arrived in Sudan on July 30, leading a high-level delegation of bishops around the world, to officially inaugurate the Anglican Church in Sudan to be the 39th Anglican church in the world.

The Anglican church in Sudan officially declared its separation from its South Sudanese counterpart in May 2017, where after the cessation of South Sudan, Khartoum's Anglican church remained affiliating to the church in the South.

Most of the Christians in Sudan are present at the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan State which has been witnessing an armed conflict between the Sudanese army and fighters of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM)/northern sector, Xinhua reported.
As'ad's Bio

As'ad AbuKhalil, born March 16, 1960. From Tyre, Lebanon, grew up in Beirut. Received his BA and MA from American University of Beirut in pol sc. Came to US in 1983 and received his PhD in comparative government from Georgetown University. Taught at Tufts University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Colorado College, and Randolph-Macon Woman's College. Served as a Scholar-in-Residence at Middle East Institute in Washington DC. He served as free-lance Middle East consultant for NBC News and ABC News, an experience that only served to increase his disdain for maintream US media. He is now professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus. His favorite food is fried eggplants.
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Updated: Jan. 31, 2016

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To build the largest and most complete Amateur Radio community site on the Internet - a "portal" that hams think of as the first place to go for information, to exchange ideas, and be part of whats happening with ham radio on the Internet. eHam.net provides recognition and enjoyment to the people who use, contribute, and build the site. This project involves a management team of volunteers who each take a topic of interest and manage it with passion. The site will stand above all other ham radio sites by employing the latest technology and professional design/programming standards, developed by a team of community programmers who contribute their skills to the effort. The site will be something of which everyone involved can be proud to say they were a part. We welcome your comments. The eHam.net Team, Revision 07/2020.
STANLEY MARK | The Crocodile Prize

LITTLE NAKAN HURRIES ACROSS the busy lane to pick up the empty 500 ml Sprite container thrown into the rusty buai stained rubbish drum.

His skinny left fingers hold firmly a white plastic bag containing a couple of empty containers while his right fingers cling on to his buckle, pulling it up to his skinny waist every second, making sure not to let it fall and expose his undernourished legs.

His sun-burnt forehead and cheeks overflow with sweat, showing he has roamed the avenues of Madang town all day for empty containers. He has no choice. He must collect containers in order to eat and survive.

Seven year old, Nakan Akus comes from Tambunum village in the East Sepik province. He lives with his mother and four brothers and sister at the Wagol settlement, a few blocks from the Lae Building Contractors headquarter in Madang.

His father had left them for Lae longpela taim and they have not heard from him. The K50 his father was paid working as a bus crew wasnt enough for both food and school fees, so Nakan had to leave Kusbau Primary School at Grade 2 in 2006.

However, as the first born in the family, he has the responsibility to take care of them.

It all began on one Monday morning, when two of his pals from the settlement persuaded him to follow them to Madang town. He was bewildered to see them going from one rubbish bin to another picking empty 500 ml Coca Cola, Sprite and Fanta containers.

He didnt trust his pals when they told him that the containers would make them a great fortune by the end of the day when they smilingly received a bunch of eight K2 notes from a buyer.

Nakan decided that container-collection would help him, his mother, three small sisters and brother to have some food on their table every day.

Nakan says he goes to town at 12 noon and collects empty containers until 4 in the afternoon. He brings his containers to the ice block sellers and sells them for 30 toea each.

Because there are many others like him doing the same thing, he receives only K5 -K7 for what he collects.

He takes his money to the Madang market or Balasigo market and buys a heap of kaukau, two or three bunches of raw kalafua bananas and aibika, a dry coconut and spends the rest on peanuts for his sisters and the bus fare home.

Prais bilong kaikai long stoa i antap tumas na hat long baim rice, olsem na mi save kisim moni mi kisim long konteina i go long maket. Em bai orait sapos gavaman opis daunim prais, he frowns with puckered brow. [Prices of store goods are very high and its hard for me to afford rice so I take the money I receive from containers to the market. It would be easy if the government office lower the prices]
In its resignation letter, the committee indicated it was prevented from performing its constitutional duties and roles because it has not been provided with baseline data and information nor been party to regular reporting.

The three-member election advisory committee is appointed by the governor general and is comprised of the chief ombudsman commissioner (or his nominee) and two other persons  a nominee from the Transparency International board and a retired judge or lawyer.

The failure of the ONeill government to provide this high level constitutional committee with factual electoral information suggests deliberate efforts to obstruct the truth.

ON 9 July, Papua New Guineas Election Advisory Committee resigned in a devastating blow to the credibility of the countrys 2017 election.

Such detailed information is required to unpack fully possible cooking the books within the general chaos and mismanagement of PNGs 2017 election.

However, even at an aggregate level, statistical analysis suggests there are very clear patterns of electoral manipulation.

There are nearly 300,000 ghost electors in government-controlled electorates  excess names on the electoral roll relative to the latest population census. In the 49 electorates with government members, there is an average of 6000 ghost electors, more than 10 times the level of non-government electorates.

Statistical analysis indicates there is less than one chance in 20 that this bias to the ONeill government is just accidental.

But the devil is in the detail. The analysis needs to be done at a lower level to unambiguously confirm this systematic bias. This type of information appears to be hidden from the electoral advisory committee and the people of PNG more broadly.

Without such information, it is difficult to understand how international observers to the election can form a view on whether it was free and fair.

Looking at the 2012 election results, there were many close races where only a few hundred votes would have made a difference. If PNC was deliberately aiming to skew the election (among all the noise), one would target key marginal electorates.

Targeted actions, such as not providing enough ballot papers to even one key ward where the main opponents support was located, could easily swing the outcome for the election.

Australia must also take some responsibility for this mess.

Protecting a democracy so close to our shores should have been a much higher priority. No specific figures have been provided on the level of Australian support for this election.

Certainly, the figure is much less than the planned support for the 2018 APEC meeting, which is expected to exceed AU$100 million. It is difficult to explain this choice of priorities in supporting democracy in our closest neighbour, especially given concerns about growing Chinese influence.

Of course, final responsibility for the election and how it is conducted rests with PNG as the sovereign country. But as a close partner, with historic responsibilities and key national interests, Australia should have done better.
Would Baby Charlie have gotten death sentence if not a white male? By Selwyn Duke

Would baby Charlie have gotten his death sentence were he not a white boy? It may seem an odd question, but theres a good reason to pose it. The poor child at issue is Charlie Gard, a British infant denied medical treatment by the U.K. government  even though his parents can pay for it themselves. So much for death panels being a myth. Charlie had a serious genetic condition called mitochondrial depletion syndrome, which causes progressive muscle weakness and brain damage. The details of it arent important here, however. Whats significant is that the boys parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, raised $1.7 million via crowd-funding and could have paid for travel and treatment themselves; this would have allowed them to bring Charlie to the U.S. for a novel therapy offered by a Dr. Michio Hirano. Would is the operative word because the British medical establishment, bureaucracy and courts said No, you may not seek further treatment for your son. It doesnt matter that youre paying the piper; were calling the tune and say he must be allowed to die with dignity (as if these statists have even the foggiest idea what that is). And well have to wait to see if it matters that, according to Dr. Hirano, the new therapy would have gave Charlie an 11 to 56 percent chance of meaningful improvement, which, even under Common Core math, is far better than the zero percent chance offered by Oceania. (Note: British authorities had just recently granted Charlie an 11-day stay of execution, so to speak, so that Hirano could travel to the U.K. to evaluate him.) But on to my opening, eyebrow-and-doubts-raising question. To illustrate why I ask it, heres a little background. It was revealed in 2014 that British authorities had ignored Pakistani Muslim child sex-trafficking rings for 16 years  even though the perpetrators were responsible for the abuse (and sometimes torture) of at least 1400 girls, some as young as 12. In fact, when complaints were made, the girls were often dismissed as tramps to justify the inaction. Of course, they were only white girls. And this abuse is still occurring, we hear. The reason for turning this blind eye has been absolutely established: The authorities, from police to bureaucrats to social workers, were afraid that pursuing Muslim criminals would get them branded racist. In fact, some of the girls who went to the police were told they were being racist, reported The Federalist. And a Home Office researcher attempting to blow the whistle was warned by a colleague that she must never [again] refer to Asian men (Asian references Muslims in the U.K.). She also was forced into diversity indoctrination to raise her awareness of ethnic issues. You see, better to allow young girls to be raped and brutalized than to, as one British politician put it, rock the multicultural community boat. That is, in todays (formerly) Great Britain  one of the more politically correct places on Earth. Now back to poor Charlie. Would the powers-that-be have denied the opportunity for life if he were, lets say, a Muslim female? I believe the likely answer is no. Theyd be too afraid of accusations of racism (yes, I know Muslim isnt a race, but leftists use racism as synonymous with bigotry); theyd be worried about their reputations and careers. Their whole mindset would be different. Remember, again, the U.K. is a place where the rape of little white girls is preferable to the implicating of swarthy men. Yet its not just fears of labeling, but also something far darker. In todays world of identity politics  where we hear about mythical white privilege, dead white males, the problem of whiteness college courses, and prohibitions against whites expressing opinions  white males are lowest on the totem pole. They get the most grief and blame and the least consideration and charity  and compassion. Hey, given group voting patterns, Charlie could have grown up to be a Tory or, perish the thought, even a Brexit supporter. To be clear, Im not saying the biases in question here are generally conscious. They are mainly, if not completely, those unconscious biases (you know, those things you leftists ever warn about but always get wrong). Man has a great capacity for rationalization, and Charlies grim-reaper judges have no doubt convinced themselves they were acting in the best interests of the child. And were the baby a Muslim female, I suspect they wouldve rendered the opposite decision and deferred to the parents without prodding, again convincing themselves of their righteousness. To those taking offense at my speculation, realize its similar to when activists respond to the shooting of a black criminal by claiming it wouldnt have happened had the miscreant been white. The only difference is that theyre wrong  police are actually more likely to shoot white criminals than black ones  while my suspicion has a basis in todays social reality. And this reality is that with the current group spoils system, race and sex can determine ones chance of enjoying college scholarships, good jobs, justice in court and, perhaps even, life itself. Contact Selwyn Duke, follow him on Twitter or log on to SelwynDuke.com. Home
Enemies of humanity By Steven Lyazi

After being infected again with malaria last July, I spent almost a month in a Kampala hospital. Paying for my treatment was extremely difficult, as it is for most Ugandan and African families. I was lucky I could scrape the money together. Many families cannot afford proper treatment. Where and how can they get the money to go back to the hospital again and again, every time a family member gets malaria, when they also need food, clothes and so many other things  or malaria makes them so sick that they cant work for weeks or even months? Many parents can do nothing except watch their loved ones die in agony, and then give them a simple burial. Far too many people still die from malaria every year in Africa, the vast majority of them women and children. Too many more die from lung and intestinal diseases, because we dont have electricity, natural gas, clean water, or decent modern homes, clinics and hospitals. Malaria also makes many people so weak that they die from other diseases that people in Europe and the United States rarely even hear about, like chronic dysentery. It saps peoples strength for years and leaves them with severe liver and kidney damage. Cerebral malaria causes lifelong learning and memory problems. All these diseases create enormous barriers to Africas economic growth. They drain our national healthcare budgets and deepen our poverty. Malaria control and treatment alone cost Africa over $12 billion annually. Uganda alone spends $11 million a year fighting it. The disease drains an estimated $100 billion every year from the African economy. Malaria also hits India and other countries really hard. The World Health Organization (WHO) says it drains Indias economy of as much as $2 billion every year. Billions in wages are lost, because people die or are absent from work, have low productivity due to fatigue, and have to spend so much on bed nets, insecticides, bug repellants, medicines, treatments and hospital care. Terrible roads mean that, even when AIDS and other drugs are shipped to African countries, few people receive them. Many sit in warehouses until their expiration date passes, and then those expired drugs get sold on the black market. People buy them, and die. Other times, they take drugs until they feel better, and then sell the rest of the prescription. Then a more deadly, resistant malaria comes back and makes them even worse. And yet global green campaigners endlessly spend money trying to prevent Africans from using fossil fuels, promoting renewable energy and trying to sell us little solar ovens. But this great generosity does nothing to address the horrible realities of people dying now  day after day, year after year. Greens worry constantly about Africans being exposed to insecticides. We worry about dying from malaria. We dont need enemies of humanity. What we need is financial and political support to conquer malaria, lung diseases and intestinal parasites. We need clean water and affordable, reliable electricity in our villages and cities. We need modern hospitals. We need environmental activists to realize how important fossil fuels and hydroelectric plants are to having decent, healthy living standards, lights, computers, the internet, clean hospitals, clean water, and everything else modern countries have. We need them to support us Africans in preventing malaria in the first place  which means we need more than bed nets. We need campaigners to recognize that we have the same rights as people in modern, rich, industrialized countries to decent living standards and modern technology. Malaria viruses are constantly mutating, making available treatments less effective. Many families cannot afford the drugs, and many of the drugs are fake, just packaged to look like the real thing. People spend money on them, they dont help at all, and people die. The WHO says over 3 billion people around the world are still at risk of getting malaria. In 2015, there were 212 million cases of malaria and 438,000 people died, the vast majority of them in Africa. Many of these illnesses and deaths could be prevented if just a few simple steps were taken right now, especially by allowing and encouraging countries to use preventive measures that work, like DDT. So many people have access to medical care only on an irregular basis. Others have never learned how to take proper care of themselves or their children. But the most fundamental problem is malaria-carrying mosquitoes that are the source of our biggest scourge. And there is a readily available life-saving solution  DDT and other pesticides to kill mosquitoes and keep them out of our homes. To me, there is simply no substitute for DDT. It is the most affordable, longest lasting, most effective mosquito repellant in existence. Sprayed in tiny amounts on the walls of traditional homes, just once or twice a year, DDT repels mosquitoes from the entire house, kills any that land on walls, and perplexes or irritates any that are not killed or repelled, so their urge to bite is gone. Other pesticides that some activists say we can use are not as appropriate, or they are up to six times more expensive than DDT, or they have to be sprayed much more often. Every dollar spent this way is a dollar thats unavailable for safe drinking water, electricity and other critical needs. DDT for indoor residual spraying programs is rejected because it is supposedly dangerous to the environment and might be detected in our blood or on agricultural products. We use it carefully, it is less dangerous than other pesticides, and being able to detect it does not mean it is a risk to anyone. No one has ever died from it, and it can help prevent malaria and other diseases that ruin our lives and kill us. Where DDT is used in the developing world, malaria cases and deaths often drop by 80% or more. Where it is not used, people die. If we can prevent malaria and other insect-carried diseases in the first place, we wont have so many people sick and out of work. Families wont have to spend their savings on treatment. Doctors and nurses wont be overwhelmed, and will have the time and resources to address other health problems. Its that simple. But too many politicians and activists have made it impossible to prevent the disease by killing and repelling mosquitoes. They constantly oppose DDT use and insist that developing countries rely on insecticide-treated bed nets, larvae-eating fish and other strategies that are simply inadequate. Malaria is no longer a killer in western countries  because they used DDT to help eradicate the disease decades ago. That may be a key reason as why many well-off westerners talk about environmental considerations being supreme, and tell Africans and other third world countries not to use pesticides because of supposed health risks and environmental damage. Malaria also has nothing to do with global warming. It existed for centuries in northern Europe and even in Siberia. The same mosquito species still live there. They just dont carry malaria anymore, and so cannot transmit it to people. Thats what we want to do in Africa. Americans would never tolerate being told they could not protect their children  or that they should rely on bed nets or wait more long years for new drug treatments or magic mosquitoes that cannot carry malaria. But Africans are repeatedly told we have to be content with exactly these limited safeguards, while parents and children get sick and die. That is inhumane and imperialistic. If wealthy nations and NGOs really want to help developing nations, they should support fossil fuel power plants for reliable, affordable electricity. They should support DDT as an important part of the solution to eradicate this serial killer, so that Africans can work, spend less on malaria, have more money for other healthcare and family needs, and develop as much as rich nations have. Steven Lyazi is a student and worker in Kampala, Uganda. He served as special assistant to Congress of Racial Equality-Uganda director Cyril Boynes, until Mr. Boynes death in January 2015. He plans to attend college and help his country and Africa get the energy and other modern technologies they need. Home
Losing the House to win the future By Michael R. Shannon

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is worried about the failure of Republican governing reality to match Republican campaign rhetoric. Newt told Fox News, I would say the highest focus ought to be on getting the tax bill through because if we dont have economic growth next year, I think were in real danger of having Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Big time Texas donor Doug Deason has already told Curator of the Senate Mitch McConnell that his wallet is a dry hole until McConnell and Speaker Paul Ryan produce results on health care and tax reform. And Deason isnt the only donor heading for the customer service window hoping someone is there to ask for a refund. Sean Lansing, of the Koch brothers Americans for Prosperity, told Lifezette there should be consequences for repeated failure. Now that legislative mastermind McConnell has failed to repeal and replace Obamacare followed by failure to just repeal, it looks like Deason is going to have a longterm increase in his disposable income. Members of the base like you and I cant pressure the likes of McConnell and Ryan individually with our wallets, but we can pressure them with our votes in aggregate. Thats why I propose conservative voters to join together and help make Newts fears come true: Lets Lose the House to Win the Future. The corporate Republicans running the House and Senate view the conservative base, which loyally keeps them in office, in much the same way arrogant Victorian explorers viewed the natives in Africa: Dangerous savages who are useful for toting ballot boxes on their heads, but need to be housebroken before allowed into polite society. Thats why the bubbledwelling GOP establishment must be sent a message that will break through the impervious barrier of complacency and arrogance that surrounds their Capitol Hill offices. And Nancy Pelosi is just the person to deliver it. This requires conservatives to change their voting behavior in November 2018. In the past conservatives held their nose and voted for RINO Republicans, because the thought of the Democrat alternative in office was too terrible to contemplate. As a result the base was rewarded with accommodationist weaklings who preside over the Vichy government that currently rules us. Now its time to embrace the alternative. Conservatives must refuse to vote for all Republican House incumbents  unless your representative is a member of the House Freedom Caucus. This doesnt mean you vote for the Democrat. Instead conservatives will vote for a writein candidate. Resist the temptation to write in Mickey Mouse. Cartoon character votes, although relevant to the current GOP leadership, will only serve to have your writein dismissed as a frivolous vote. Instead I suggest all participants in my  Lose the House to Win the Future  campaign write in Rep. Mark Meadows, the chairman of the genuinely conservative Freedom Caucus. Thousands of writein votes for Meadows, spread across the country will be an obvious protest vote by conservatives that cannot be ignored by the Rep. Barney Fifes cowering in DC. Theres nothing like listening to Speaker Pelosi diesel on about evil Republicans to demonstrate to McConnell and Ryan that serial conservative betrayals come with a cost. Ideally the two founding members of the Cant Do Caucus will be ruminating on their failures from the backbenches of the respective houses after theyve been ousted from their pitiful leadership charade. Meadows and the rest of the Freedom Caucus will be the framework around which a new conservative House leadership can be built  ready to resume power when conservatives vote for House Republicans in 2020. Let me stress House votes are to be the only change for conservatives. Votes for Senate GOP candidates will remain unchanged, even if your only choice is a noseholder like media parasite Lindsey Graham (RMSNBC). It simply takes too long to regain control of the Senate. Besides, just the shock of the House loss may inspire Graham and his ilk to find those conservative campaign promises that have evidently slipped down between the sofa cushions. Sure Democrat wildeyed pistol takers in the House will pass gun confiscation bills, grant illegal aliens citizenship and demand Baptists dance at samesex weddings, but it wont matter. The same McConnellsclerosis that clogs the Senate will stop those bills, too. My Lose the House to Win the Future is like the old joke about the farmer and the mule. Before every turn the farmer would jump down from the wagon seat and hit the mule with a 2X4. A passerby saw this and asked why hit the mule, since the wagon made all the turns? The farmer replied, yes thats true, but first you have to get the mules attention. Losing the House in 2018 will be the biggest attentiongetter possible. Michael R. Shannon is a public relations and advertising consultant with corporate, government and political experience around the globe. He is a dynamic and entertaining keynote speaker. He can be reached at mandate.mmpr (at) gmail.com. He is also the author of Conservative Christian's Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with added humor!). Home
Palestinian payments to incarcerated terrorists and martyrs families rise in 2017 By Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser

The Palestinian Authority recently released its detailed budget for 2017, and it includes the usual allocations for salaries to imprisoned and released terrorists, as well as to the families of Palestinians who were killed (martyrs) or wounded in the struggle against Zionism. According to the PA budget, salaries to incarcerated and released terrorists will amount in 2017 to 552 million shekels ($153.4 million), a rise of 13 percent over the original budget of 2016 and 11 percent more than the actual expenditure in 2016 (revised budget). The money will be transferred to the Palestinian National Fund, the financial arm of the PLO, which was designated by Israel as a terror organization due to its involvement in paying terrorist salaries. The amount allocated for the families of those killed or wounded in the struggle against Zionism, rose by 4  8 percent and is set at 687 million shekels in 2017. Altogether, the expenditures for supporting terror in the 2017 Palestinian Authority budget is 1.240 billion shekels ($344 million). This sum constitutes 7 percent of the total budget, similar to the last several years, but amounts to 49.6 percent of foreign aid received by the PA due to diminishing amount of external aid expected in 2017. The budget includes, like in previous years, funding for various benefits for the families of the killed and wounded, and for the families of the arrested terrorists. Among them, 500 families of the martyrs will receive a Hajj pilgrimage as part of the Saudi gift given to the PA. As in the 2016 budget, the 2017 budget points out that of more than 20,000 families who receive the monthly payments, which are referred to as salaries, there are 375 families that get special assistance. Actual Welfare Payments The budget for real welfare support is 762 million shekels ($211.6 million) in 2017, and the total budget for welfare (including administrative expenditures) is 826 million shekels ($229.4 million). It is used for paying 118,000 families under the poverty line 750 -1800 shekels ($208  $500), exempting 80,000 poor children from tuition and from paying for textbooks, providing 5,000 families with special financial assistance, providing 120,000 families with medical insurance, and supplying food to 217,000 persons who do not have food security. The 2016 budget figures are very similar (the number of families who receive the 750 -1800 shekels was 125,000). The amount of welfare support per family under the poverty-line is much smaller than salaries provided to terrorists and their families. These details are especially problematic as the Palestinian terror continues. Among the would-be recipients of the aid provided to the families of terrorists are the families of the terrorists who murdered Hadas Malka, a policewoman stabbed to death at the Damascus Gate on June 16, 2017, and the families of the Israeli Arabs from Umm-Al-Fahum who murdered two Israeli policemen on the Temple Mount on July 14, 2017. As a matter of fact, had the murderers been arrested (and not killed), they would have been given a higher salary than regular Palestinian terrorists because Arab-Israelis receive 500 shekels more a month (probably because the cost of living in Israel is higher). These new figures reflect the ongoing commitment of the Palestinians to paying terrorists and terrorists families, in spite of international objections and American/Israeli insistence that these payments be halted. This commitment manifests the Palestinian view promulgated by Palestinian law that refers to the terrorists as the fighting sector of the Palestinian society. This ongoing pattern stands in sharp contrast to the Palestinian commitments in the Oslo Accords and to international law and conventions. It also reflects the fact that until now, no real pressure has been put on the Palestinians to stop the payments. In the United States, the proposed legislation that calls for cutting U.S. economic aid to the PA, known as the Taylor Force Act, has not yet been approved by the U.S. Congress. In Israel, the proposed law which would deduct the money the PA spends on supporting terror from the money Israel transfers to the PA (Palestinian taxes collected by Israel) is still under review by the Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee of the Knesset, after it was approved in a preliminary reading. Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser is Director of the Project on Regional Middle East Developments at the Jerusalem Center. He was formerly Director General of the Israel Ministry of Strategic Affairs and head of the Research Division of IDF Military Intelligence. Home
Hey Black Lives Matter, a blonde woman was mistakenly killed by police By Rachel Alexander

Earlier this month a blonde, white woman from Australia was shot and killed by a Minneapolis police officer. Justine Ruszczyk, 40, was engaged to be married in a month. So far, it looks like the officer erred in shooting Ruszczyk, who had merely called 911 to report hearing a sexual assault. Officer Mohamed Noor, who is a Somali-American, responded to the scene with another officer, and apparently panicked when he heard noises, thinking he was being ambushed. It does not appear that Ruszczyk behaved in a threatening manner toward him, although unfortunately the officers did not have their body cameras or squad camera on to verify this. Since Ruszczyk was a white woman, it is highly unlikely Noor shot her because he is racist. He most likely shot her because he became afraid for his life and overreacted. An erroneous reaction, which sadly can happen because people are flawed. Maybe Noor has aggressive tendencies. Maybe he didnt pay attention during law enforcement training. Maybe he was high on drugs. The internal investigation should reveal some answers. But the key lesson here? Police officers can make mistakes that are not due to racism. Black Lives Matter claims that law enforcement killed several blacks in recent years because the officers were racist. However, some of the officers implicated were black or Hispanic. Furthermore, there has been virtually no evidence provided showing the officers have a history of racism. Many of the officers have been prosecuted and found not guilty by a jury. In most of these cases, the jury thought the officers were legitimately afraid for their lives. Last years fatal police shooting of Philando Castile, who was black, shares some similarities to the shooting of Ruszczyk. Minnesota police officer Jeronimo Yanez pulled Castile over while driving because he looked like a robbery suspect. Castile informed Yanez that he had a gun. Castile apparently reached for his license and registration, but Yanez thought he was reaching for his gun and shot him. Yanez may have made a mistake by failing to perform a felony traffic stop, where the suspect is brought out of the car at gunpoint. Yanez was prosecuted and ultimately acquitted by a jury. Based on the shooting of Ruszczyk, it is clear that officers can make fatal mistakes that have nothing to do with racism. Its been years since the Jim Crow era ended. This is no longer even the era of police officers like Mark Fuhrman, who investigated the O.J. Simpson murder case. Fuhrman admitted using a racial epithet toward blacks in the 1980s. Instead today, Americans are inundated with the promotion of diversity and multiculturalism. Theyre taught that its acceptable to look down on whites, but not other races or ethnicities. Young police officers have grown up with this mentality taught in school, not a racist mentality. During police training, theyre given racial sensitivity classes and taught to go out of their way to avoid the appearance of racism. So it makes no sense that Yanez shot Castile because he was racist. Black Lives Matter ignores similar wrongful deaths like that of Ruszczyk because they go against their mantra. They dont want to allow for the possibility that something other than racism was responsible for the deaths of certain blacks by law enforcement. The radical group perpetuates these false accusations of racism in order to keep blacks and other minorities voting for Democrats. Barack Obama could have stopped this as the first black president, pointing to himself as proof that the U.S. has progressed far in the elimination of racism, but instead he stoked the fires. Does anyone really believe that young black and Hispanic officers, as well as the white officers who serve alongside them every day, target black suspects because theyre racist? Watch an episode of COPS; it usually features a white officer and a minority officer jovially working together as partners. The answer isnt rioting and labeling police officers as white supremacists. The answer is ensuring the police are properly trained, that they turn on their body cams when required and follow correct procedures. All the racism training in the world isnt going to fix fatal mistakes that were due to one of those factors. Rachel Alexander and her brother Andrew are co-Editors of Intellectual Conservative. She has been published in the American Spectator, Townhall.com, Fox News, NewsMax, Accuracy in Media, The Americano, ParcBench, and other publications. Home
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The Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS East of England has explained why a Harlow teenager who caused the death of a Polish man last year was charged with manslaughter.

Arkadiusz Jozwik suffered a brain injury and a fractured skull after receiving a punch to the back of the head which sent him crashing to the floor on August 27 last year.

Today (July 31), a 16-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was found guilty of causing Mr Jozwik's death at Chelmsford Crown Court.

The 40-year-old Polish national, known as Arek, had been out drinking with friends in Harlow in the hours leading up to his death.

Shortly before 10pm, Mr Jozwik and friends arrived at The Stow shopping centre where they sat drinking alcohol and chatting.

An hour or so later, they bought pizza before sitting on a bench near to a group of teenagers who has been in the area throughout the day.

At about 11.25pm, Mr Jozwik, and Radek Koscelski, walked over to a boy who was sitting on a bench.

An exchange of words then took place between Mr Koscelski and the boy and a confrontation took place.

Five minutes later, the defendant and three other boys arrived back in the shopping parade on bicycles.

Two of the boys, neither of whom were the defendant, rode closely to Mr Jozwik and Mr Koscelski, which appeared to spark a disagreement.

The boys joined the other teenagers and the men walked over to the group where there was a heated verbal dispute involving gesticulating and a push between the groups.

At some point, Mr Koscelski was seen to stumble and fall.

It was at this point the defendant, who was in front of the men but behind the rest of the teenagers, sneakily moved around the group and stood behind Mr Jozwik.

He was then seen to jump and forcefully punch him in the head from behind, causing his victim to fall to the ground and smack his head.

The teenagers then fled scene before emergency services arrived shortly afterwards.

Mr Jozwik never regained consciousness and died in Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, on August 29.

Following the today's verdict, Jenny Hopkins, Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS East of England said: "In reviewing the evidence we were satisfied there was no intent by the youth to kill Mr Jozwik or that he thought that his actions would result in the death of a man.

"We decided therefore that the correct charge was one of manslaughter.

"Manslaughter is the unlawful killing of another person with an intention to do some harm or the foresight that some physical harm may result.

"The court was told the youth put the full force of his body into the punch and he must have been aware when he punched Mr Jozwik in this way that some harm was likely to be caused.

"This was a senseless assault and with that one punch which was over in seconds, the youth was responsible for Mr Jozwik losing his life and causing unimaginable anguish to Mr Jozwik's family and friends.

"We hope that the jury's verdict today has brought some comfort to Mr Jozwik's family and friends that the person responsible for his death has been brought to justice."

The police investigation initially saw six people arrested in connection with Mr Jozwik's death including the defendant, who was then aged 15.

He will be sentenced on September 8, having been released on bail due to a family member being seriously ill.

Speaking after the hearing, Detective Chief Inspector Martin Pasmore of the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, said: "This has been a complex and difficult investigation and my thoughts very much remain with Mr Jozwik's family, who have lost a dearly loved son and brother in the most tragic of circumstances.

"While nothing will ever bring Mr Jozwik back, now the court proceedings are over, I hope his family can somehow start to rebuild their lives.

"Essex Police, working in conjunction with the Crown Prosecution Service, has carried out a huge amount of work into trying to establish the course of events that led to Mr Jozwik's death and to find the truth of what happened.

"My team has taken more than 150 witness statements, spoken to more than 300 people during inquiries and reviewed more than 100 hours of CCTV footage.

"More than 30 police officers and staff have been involved in the investigation and committed more than 1,200 additional hours."

He added: "Whatever the reason for the events of that night, the defendant deliberately used violence against Mr Jozwik.

"While he would not have intended for it to be a fatal blow, he made a decision to move deliberately behind the victim and take him by surprise with a forceful punch.

"He must have appreciated this would have caused harm."
It used to be known as propaganda when adversary governments concocted bizarre stories to further their agendas. Tabloid journalism is a lighter version of the same; it goes after overblown gossip and bogus rumours. Now, in the age of social media, the words disinformation, yellow journalism better yet fake news have come to life. It is hoax stories created to deceive and intended to mislead, and in the process influence millions.

Grabby headlines, exaggerated and embellished information, and disregard for the truth construe fake news. According to the pundits, on one front, fake news increases readership as it sees higher sharing on Facebook and other social media sites than credible news. At another, it generates revenue through the advertisements it posts.

However, there is more to fake news than meets the eye.

Fake news is manipulative. It instils suspicion and doubt and prompts panic while steering simplistic minds far from the truth.

Today a murky line exists between fair and square information and deliberately misleading information. This is why we, as receivers of information, must learn to decipher truth from fiction.

First, there are those who create fake new for the mere fun of it, sometimes as a prank or a hoax. Tweets and headlines such as "Kate Middleton and Prince William named Queen and King," "North Korea experiments on humans," "Obama birth secrets revealed," or "Rat Meat Sold as Chicken Wings?" are hoax stories that are neither here nor there and discredited straightaway.

To the chagrin of many, satire, and what is meant as a joke, fools some into believing it is the truth. With a solemn deadpan attitude, the storyteller fools the receiver into believing that the story is bonafide when it can hardly be so. The problem is that these simplistic folks pass on the information as though it was for real.

In The Onion, a satirical digiatal publication of wide circulation, humour often depends on presenting "mundane, everyday events as newsworthy, surreal, or alarming." Examples are "Trump Orders All Flags To Half-Staff in Honor of American Killed On Episode of 'BlueBloods'," or "Scientists Confident Artificially Intelligent Machines Can Be Programmed To Be Lenient Slave Masters."

If well-crafted, even credible news outlets fall for it. Stephen Harper, then Prime Minister of Canada, was rushed to hospital after he choked on a piece of hash brown while having breakfast with his children. His wife called 911, but his bodyguards thankfully were there to perform first aid. True? Absolutely not; it is a hoax in its entiretya fictitious story from a highly imaginative prankster. And Canadas CBC picked up the story and went with it as well. Naive readers and viewers, especially when Canadas CBC validated the story, accepted the story without hesitation.

Other fake news, though, is deliberately malice intended to upset the norm. States pursue fake news to promote their own agendas. State-funded sites and networks do the same. Individuals, anonymous and identified, via warped sites, defame and discredit rivals.

Many believe that fake news influenced the outcome of the American 2016 presidential election. As Business Insider relays, some of these fake stories were seen by over 2.2 million people, often relying on fictional content and made up allegations.

No doubt, the same pattern occurs in standard and social media on Egypt.

The headline to Reuters latest article on Egypt reads, Qatar turns down new LNG deals with Egypt: traders. Deliberately misleading, the article aims at making Egyptians fret.

When a tweet by an acclaimed personality reads, Beaches are packed in Alexandria, but entrance fee is 40 pounds, it is soon retweeted, placed on Facebook walls, and forwarded and reposted.

This while, on average, entrance to beaches in Alexandria cost between 5 to 7 pounds with very few at 15 pounds and some totally free. Even if a single beach costs 40 pounds, the tweet generalizes leaving the reader under the assumption that all beaches are that heftily priced deliberately inciting readers.

In a short but easily identified piece of fake news, a digital newspapers headline reads, El Sisi surprises everyone and wanders secretly around Alexandria in his car. The article alleges imminent changes as El Sisi was disappointed by what has become of Alexandria.

If secretly, how did the reporter know? And did President Sisi inform him of his disappointment? The aim is clear: to gain readership while causing disturbance.

As a single example of Aljazeera's manipulative journalism, it published a story on Egyptians from Sinai fleeing into Gaza because their homes in Northern Sinai were destroyed, "Egyptians in Gaza: we escaped certain death," citing them as in the hundreds and subsisting on handouts.

I very much doubt these numbers are true, I doubt these are Egyptians from the start, and Im certain that those who headed to Gaza had teamed up with the terrorists in Sinai and were worried that they would be implicated. Unquestionably had these folks been clear of any incrimination, they wouldve headed elsewhere in Egypt, got compensated and housed as thousands others were.

But Aljazeera gains from spreading such fake news. It is usually picked up by international publications, which enjoy defaming the Egyptian army while condemning its efforts to clean up northern Sinai of terrorists. And isnt that be pleasing for Aljazeera?

Can we differentiate between fake and true news? Can we avoid falling victims to hoax news that plants confusion?

To do that we must become skeptic readers and viewers; we have to question the authenticity of every word, photo, and footage unless it is validated, is from an extremely reliable source, cited in a credible source, or, preferably, appearing in more than one credible source.

Even this action is not enough. We must reach a higher level of skepticism or else we will continue to be deceived. I suggest we doubt everything said, realize that most of what is reported is suspiciously incorrect or is subjected to non-objective distortion. We must pause and ponder before we repost, filter the acceptable from the unacceptable, and weed out fictitious hearsay. We must ask ourselves if the reported story can be true and if it is rational or bizarre?

I suggest we become stringent disbelievers before we become promoters of false information.
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A teenager has been found guilty of causing the death of a Polish man in Harlow.

Arkadiusz Jozwik, 40, suffered skull fractures and fatal brain injuries following an altercation outside a takeaway in The Stow shopping hatch on August 27 last year.

Mr Jozwik died in Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, two days later.

A 16-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was arrested on August 30 before being charged by police in December 2016.

He denied causing Mr Jozwik's death by manslaughter, asserting he acted in self-defence.

The trial against the accused, which has been heard at Chelmsford Crown Court, came to a close when the jury unanimously found against the defendant this afternoon (July 31).

It took them little more than four hours to find the teen guilty of Mr Jozwik's unlawful death.

There were audible gasps from the public gallery as the jury foreman read out the guilty verdict.

The teenager has been granted bail, owing to a family member's ill health, and will next appear at the sentencing hearing on September 8.

Judge Patricia Lynch QC thanked the jury for their service before releasing them.
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW with Petras Austrevicius, MEP and Vice-President of the ALDE Group

EUBULLETIN talked in an EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW with Petras Austrevicius, member of the European Parliament and a vice-president of the ALDE political faction where he also acts as a coordinator for ALDE in the Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI).

EUBulletin: Can you please elaborate a little bit on the European Neighbourhood Policy vis-a-vis the North African region? Back during the Arab Spring series of revolutions, the EU admitted some mistakes concerning its policies in North Africa and pledged to approach this region in a different way. Has Brussels managed to tailor a so-to-say new-era European Neighbourhood Policy?

Petras Austrevicius: I mean, definitely, we had so many hopes related to the Arab Spring and this appraisal and changes but not in each and every country. I mean Arab Spring turned into some real changes, into political and economic changes. Why is that? European Union policies were too much built on development assistance, not really individually designed partnership agreements.

Each and every region in Africa is different  we have to recognize it  so thats why we have to switch more from development assistance and unconditional development assistance provisions to more political-economic partnerships. And especially a big part of our assistance and our time spent on those countries should go into the administrative capacity-building, kind of statehood and good governance policy-building. As long as those countries are not well governed, we will always be repeating some mistakes and crisis will come after crisis.

EUBulletin: Looking at these five African countries on EUs southern flank, which ones would be the sort of high-achievers and, on the contrary, where do you think the EU policy, has failed to achieve its objectives? In the second case, I am referring here in particular to Libya.

Petras Austrevicius: Well, I mean, Libya is not probably the case of a happy country because it is a fragmented country that was itself built on a bit artificial grounds. But Tunisia, I think, we are most advanced with Tunisia, we help Tunisia, we receive more visits, for example, from Tunisian parliament and Tunisian officials. Of course, Algeria has certain stability in this regards, I mean we see a continuation of the policy that has its own local speciality but, for example, with Egypt we have to be indeed well involved to help Egypt to reach a level of at least political stability and certain socio-economic development.

Libya is more about cooperation on migration issues, illegal trafficking because the migration routes passing through Libya is a major challenge. And, well, I think Morocco is on a fine side, generally speaking, although the Western Sahara issue somehow keeps us every time alert. But with Morocco, generally speaking, we have more stable partnership and we know our partners there very well.

EUBulletin: What means and tools are now high on Brussels agenda aimed at further stabilizing these North African countries and forging a closer and mutually beneficial relationship with the EU?

Petras Austrevicius: I think we will see a much more comprehensive cooperation with Tunisia and I also expect new partnership agreements designed for Egypt and I believe we will have special programs extended to Libya especially on keeping sovereignty and rule of law.
The European Union is looking into a European solution to the Cyprus issue, although it is still not clear what this means. Both Greece and Cyprus confirmed that President of the EU Commission Jean Claude Juncker sent a letter to Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades emphasizing that any solution to the conflict must be a European one.

The EU provides a strong framework within which the historical ties of the two communities should be further consolidated, the letter said. The Commission confirmed that the letter was sent to both sides of the conflict  Cyprus and Turkey. The President asks both leaders, for the benefit of all Cypriots and of the European Union, to continue their efforts until they have reached a political agreement, Brussels confirmed.

Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Kotzias urged the EU to clarify its position regarding Turkeys demands for intervention rights over Cyprus. The EU must make its position clearer, as it does not say it clearly when speaking with Turkey, that it cannot have parts of its territory be occupied by a third country and that this country has intervention rights over an EU member state, he emphasized.

For some EU leaders, a European solution could possibly mean no derogation to the European law. However, a European solution should not allow Turkey, as a non-EU state, to become a driving force for the developments in an EU member state. Athens and Nicosia have both repeatedly called on the EU to get involved in the talks, in which Greece has been taking part as an observer.


Shalom  Israel!



I vividly remember every day of my trip to the Valley in 2012 as part of the second edition of the International Advertising Association (IAA) CEO Tech Tour. Spending a day each with the who's who of the tech world from Facebook, Google, Microsoft , Twitter and to Youtube was a high we craved.



The idea of organising the CEO Tech Tour took shape when Pradeep Guha was the President of IAA India Chapter. Since I missed the first tour, I decided to never miss one again. The best decision I've ever taken.



Neeraj Roy the President of IAA, proposed Israel as the destination for this tour. After the experience at the Valley, I wasn't sure what more could be expected and what would Israel have to offer. The delegation, a comfortable mix of senior members representing Print, Television, Outdoor and Digital, was in for a very pleasant surprise. The experience was as good as being in the Valley.







We had almost 25+ interactive meetings and one mega India- Israel Tech summit. The line -up of interactive meetings was fantastically curated with Big Data, Retail Tech, Digital Creation, Interactive Publishing Platform, Personalised Self Service ( Customer Engagement Solution ), Interactive Wearable technology - a step further than Google glass, something which is already deployed in the commercial space, Consumer Behavioural Biometrics, Immersive Digital Story Telling, Autonomous Driving Technology, Notification Enrichment Platform and then the bigger one's Google and Intel ( VR & AR were a part of Intel presentation ) all of these topics covered in four days.



A little more about the evening sessions, which were completely different from the above, an exchange of views, ideas and an interaction with the highly recognised leaders of the Tech Industry in Israel.



Mr Yossi Vardi - for all of us who remember ICQ the first chat messenger, it was his creation. His start ups have mostly been acquired by the likes of Microsoft, Cisco, Yahoo amongst others. A 90 minute session with him was enough to understand how the start-up culture in Israel took off, the life cycle of a start up, the current global scenario in the start- up space and its future .



The second evening we had Mr Shmuel Eden (Mooly) from Intel. Understanding the DNA of Israel Tech world from him was a wonderful experience.



And then there was Mr Michael Oren the Dy. Minister in the Prime Ministers office of Israel who spent the evening over dinner with the delegation. Among other things he shared with the group his experiences with PM Modi. When quizzed why PM Modi was often referred to in Israel as a rock star he replied that the way Mr. Modi carried himself, the warmth he exuded, the camaraderie he effortlessly established all pointed out to great possibilities for the two countries to have a mutually beneficial relationship in many areas ranging from agriculture industries to surveillance systems and defended based industries.



One of the highlights of the tour was the Israel - India Tech Summit organised by Our Crowd to facilitate interaction between the members of delegation and over 300 start-ups from Israel spread across various sectors. Since the rest of our interaction was all about our industry, this was in its own way a platform for us to interact and understand innovations in other areas like FinTech, Agri Tech etc.



Panel Discussions during this Summit were on the topics of Trends in Innovation and Frontier Tech - Indian Panelist Neeraj Roy and myself, Digital Revolution - Megha Tata (BTVi) and Siddharth Roy (Hungama ), Israel & India Blazing the Collaboration Trail- Avinash Pandey (ABP) and Abhishek Karnani (Free Press Journal )



While we did enjoy the interactions and meetings, there was also the fun element attached to the trip. The city of Jerusalem has a lot of history to offer so it was a rich and stimulating overall experience. The Dead Sea was also one of those unique experiences for the delegation.







Neeraj Roy and Abhishek Karnani compliments to you, I believe by the end of the trip we already had a few of us taking the business level engagement to the next level. In fact over half a dozen members of the delegation initiated dialogues that could lead to fruitful business endeavours and that in itself validated the success of the Tour.



(The author is Director, Deshdoot Media Group and a member of IAA)



Disclaimer: The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not in any way represent the views of exchange4media.com

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In an exclusive chat with exchange4media, Sunil Sood, CEO, Vodafone India, at his candid best shared his views about Jio disrupting the telecom market, what consumers can expect from the Vodafone-Idea merger and other interesting issues. Excerpts:







In terms of content distribution does Vodafone look forward to making similar partnerships in the future like it did with Magzter recently?



Vodafone is very focused on digital immersion, both internally for its employees as well as for offers to the customers. In Vodafone we believe the faster we embrace digitalisation, the faster we embrace this new world, which the millennials are using, the better off we will be as a company. Therefore we use partnerships, we use engagements, we use our intellectual offerings in order to ensure we are at the top of that and our customers can get the best we have to offer.







After the entry of Jio, telecom providers seem to have entered the race of low data costs and call rates, has the competition gotten stiffer now?



Competition in the telecom sector has always been stiff, there have always been new entrants, a decade ago we had almost 10 new operators coming in, now we have another one, we welcome the competition and it has always made us strive that much better for the customers benefit. So once again I see consumers benefit from all that is happening because you have to remodel what you are doing to make it more effective, remove the wastage and be more efficient. Therefore that remodelling of your company helps you to give better offers to your consumers at more appropriate prices and other offers. At the same time we also believe that enabling these large quotas of data has driven the Indian market to a far better future, people have discovered content and discovered where it lies and how to access it without the fear of paying too much for it, therefore they have moved forward, which would have taken us years in our old pricing, today with the reduced pricing people are fearless in trying to discover this content and that is why the consumption of data has moved forward and today it has already caught up with European trends especially in our 4G kind of business, we may even leap beyond European markets. Indians are fast learning and fast catching up with their foreign counterparts and I believe we will overtake them.







What should the consumers expect from the Vodafone-Idea merger?



A lot more products, better products because the merger gives us a lot more efficiencies and this will allow us to drive our digital agenda, this will allow us to drive both rural India and well as urban India and enable both these sides to access digital content and to access digital products. That is the big investment we look to make with the merger. India is a vast country and requires a huge amount of capital investment to reach every nook and corner of the country, in voice we have already done that, we had 140 sites we were covering 90 to 93 per cent of the country, we were covering more than around 4 lakh villages but in data we still have a lot to go and we believe that this merger will enable us and give us the cash efficiencies to enable both Bharat and India if you look at them as two different aspects of the country to become equal in matters of access to data, or prices or utilisation of data and the new digital world.







How is Vodafone looking forward to shaping the future of India and supporting entrepreneurs or start ups?



India is one of the large startup countries, we have around 4750 startup companies already in the country and that is a huge number while more are still entering. Each of these startups have ideas which are currently disrupting status of quo of some industry, all these disruptions are based on one base, that base has to be communication, data enablement and access. Machines talking to machines, people talking to machines to access data and get information, data analytics, access to public data which they can utilise to solve needs and wants of the customers- thats the basis on which the world tomorrow is working on. There are lots of new products like IoT and others where Vodafone global has invested a lot and in India we have almost 1.8 million devices already out in the IoT world. We are the only ones who have invested in IoT and GDSP platforms which will enable customers to manage their whole IoT offers and these are the investments we are already making as a company and we think we can be the global leaders in IoT in the future.







What does Sunil Sood think of doing in this fast and digitally evolving sector to make it even better?



Firstly I think there are two aspects, I am an old guy and not a young adult anymore but as people in the industry and being a marketer we have to constantly reinvent ourselves. I believe in constantly reinventing myself, right now Im learning with my team how to make apps. I am trying to do it myself, I am actually making an app of a product, I wont give you my idea but its not an app only for telecom but an app for anybody in the market, its just an idea I had, I am working with a youngster and I have partnered with him and trying to make that app and organise the whole UI myself. Once I am immersed and I understand this business I have to speed with that, I am not as digitally savvy as my daughter is, her speed is completely different from mine but if I can learn from her and get the ideas and then use my experience to get the process flows, which are required, which will simplify and enable the customer to use my products better and easier and thats what the job as a marketer has to be. So Sunil Sood wants to reinvent himself, technology cycles will get shorter and shorter and therefore I will have to keep reinventing myself faster and faster to beat that cycle.





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Positive factors have aligned for both the Australian and New Zealand Dollars

USD weakness a large factor in the recent price spike

RBNZ firmly on hold with markets more focused on bargain hunting the upcoming tightening cycle

Much like for the Australian Dollar, the stars have somewhat aligned for the New Zealand Dollar since April of this year. NZD/USD has rallied hugely as positive risk sentiment has combined with USD weakness and a positive domestic picture in New Zealand. The re-stabilization of China has also gone a long way to boosting the Kiwi, as one of the key trading relationships for the island nation. An additional factor which has supported the price of the Kiwi has been the more positive outlook in dairy prices that have been seen recently.

Given the close relationship between Australia and New Zealand, the AUD and the NZD typically trade in a somewhat correlated pattern against other currencies. This is often to do with the fact that the RBA and RBNZ both tend to move in a relatively similar fashion, where one is holding rates the other is also likely to wait before making any moves. This is the current situation, with both nations particularly concerned over the threat to economic stability that loose policy holds, as both have experienced booming housing markets in the era of cheap money and are enjoying periods of relative economic optimism.

Given that markets believe the easing cycle is over, there has been significant demand for the NZD as economic data has continued to perform well and many major institutions anticipate a rate hike some time in early 2018. ANZ bank are staunch Kiwi bulls, and although they do see the recent rise getting a bit stretched, selling the Kiwi short in the current climate is not likely to be a comfortable trade as Senior Rates Strategist David Croy noted in a recent release to investors,

NZD/USD is looking as strong as ten men, mostly thanks to USD disenfranchisement, but also thanks to fairly respectable domestic credentials in their own right. Technically, price action is strong, but the NZD cannot rally unabated without there being consequences (for exports, the wider economy, and policy), and the air is starting to get a bit thin up here. But it would take a brave warrior to stand up to the kiwi freight train right at this moment

The USD has looked down and out, but with the Fed largely unmoved from their current path it would certainly seem to be the most prominent threat to the rally in NZD/USD. Markets appear largely disinterested in dovish commentary from the RBNZ and so domestic data holding up is probably more important as a change in dialogue from Governor Wheeler seems unlikely.
Despite a lack of particularly strong UK data last week, the British Pound to New Zealand Dollar exchange rate recovered from its recent lows thanks to a few decent ecostats and fresh weakness in the New Zealand Dollar.

Last week saw the GBP/NZD exchange rate hit a low of 1.7401 for the first time since March. The pair edged away from these lows towards the end of the week and advanced closer to the level of 1.75.

Pound (GBP) Advances as New Zealand Dollar (NZD) Slips from Highs

A few decent domestic datasets were enough to prompt investors to buy the Pound from its lows over the last week, following bouts of poor Sterling performance due to low Bank of England (BoE) tightening bets and underwhelming UK inflation stats earlier in the month.

The past week has seen the publication of Britains Q2 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) projection, which met expectations at 0.3% quarter-on-quarter and 1.7% year-on-year. This bolstered hopes that British growth was on track after other recently disappointing data.

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) also published its July trade data this week, with some prints seeing solid improvements. CBIs distributive trades report jumped from 12 to 22 rather than slipping to the forecast 10. The Q3 business optimism index also improved, from 1 to 5.

However, CBIs industrial trends orders report fell short, coming in at 10 rather than the forecast 12. GfKs July consumer confidence survey also disappointed, worsening from -10 to -12.

Despite the weeks poor data, Sterling recovered as the New Zealand Dollar became less appealing to traders.

Analysts have argued that the New Zealand Dollars recent strength could prove an obstacle to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) in the long-term. A strong Kiwi could lead to weaker inflation and make the RBNZ hesitant to take a hawkish tone in the foreseeable future.

An increase in demand for the US Dollar towards the end of the week also left the Kiwi weaker and helped GBP/NZD to recover from its recent lows.

Pound (GBP) Forecast: Bank of Englands (BoE) July Meeting in Focus

The Pound is more likely to see inspired movement in the coming weeks session, as the Bank of England (BoE) will be holding its July monetary policy decision on Thursday. The bank will also publish its meeting minutes and its latest inflation report.

The biggest focus for Pound traders will be the tones that different members of the BoE Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) take.

Junes BoE meeting saw 3 policymakers vote to hike UK interest rates, but since then UK inflation has slowed and one of the banks more hawkish policymakers, Kristin Forbes, has stepped down from the MPC.

As a result, if only one or two policymakers vote for a rate hike next week the Pound is likely to see more weakness towards the end of the week.

Sterling traders will also be reacting to Markits July UK PMIs, particularly the services print due Thursday. As services are Britains biggest private sector, this could indicate how Britains economy is performing in July.

New Zealand Dollar (NZD) Forecast: NZ Job Market Results Ahead

NZD traders will have a little more domestic news to react to in the coming week, as Wednesday will see the publication of New Zealands key Q2 job market results.

If New Zealands job market saw worse performance in the second quarter than expected, the New Zealand Dollars recent losses could accelerate and help the GBP/NZD exchange rate to make a stronger recovery.

However, strong employment stats could keep the Kiwi sturdier until the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) policy decision on the 9th of August and limit GBP/NZD gains.

The Global Dairy Trade (GDT) hold its first August dairy auction on Tuesday. As dairy is New Zealands most lucrative commodity, GBP/NZD could be influenced by commodity news next week.
Ugh Tapatalk problems and surely no delete or edit function in this forum. Revised post:



Besides the visa questions I am researching, I am also trying to get a handle on taxes if we move. We subsist on interest income, much of it tax free in the US through government vehicles, the rest in mutual funds etc. Our US tax filing is pretty simple and straightforward with no weird complicating factors or deductions. The total amount of our taxable and nontaxable income combined would place us in the 14% French bracket according to the way they describe splitting income in French returns - so not a huge income, fairly modest. We would have no French income.



I have "read" the tax treaty - meaning I understood its individual words but not its implications LOL - it confuses me and seems to imply we would pay tax in france (and get US tax credit?) on our interest income. This (possibly erroneous) conclusion is contradicted by the informal advice I got from the AARO: "You declare your US interest and dividend income on the French tax form. It becomes part of your taxable income base to determine your tax rate. You are given a tax credit and therefore will not have French tax to pay on that income."



Further complicating matters, the French embassy in the US states: "Some investments are compensated by interest payment (bonds, Government loans, cash vouchers...). When they are paid to a resident of the United States, they are not taxed in France but subject to the US income tax."



We are not averse to fulfilling our tax obligations. However, we are not keen on double taxation and would also like to get a handle on which country we will be paying tax to first. I wish I could locate the instructions for form 2047, I feel like they would help clear things up...but maybe not! Hoping someone else here has been in my shoes.
I did a quick search on this topic and could not find any recent post about it so I will post this info to remind or educate.The Mexican Tourist Tax is what most of us pay when coming here.It is added into our airline ticket under that line of Taxes and/or Fees.Check you ticket and it should be listed as UK tax codeIt is about $35 Can or $490 Mex.Today, I was helping someone book a ticket to Canada via Westjet and saved them this fee because I remembered they are except from this tax.If your itinerary includes travel between Canada/USA and Mexico, and you are a Mexican citizen (holding a Mexican passport), or a resident of Mexico (permanent or temporary) holding a Mexican visa, you may be entitled to a refund of the Mexico Tourism Tax (UK tax code) included in the price of your ticket.All refund claims must be processed before travel commences. Please call us at 1-888-WESTJET.If you believe you are entitled to a refund of this tax, please call 1-888-WESTJET to process your booking and provide the information required to confirm your qualification.All refund claims must be submitted within 12 months of ticket issuance.Here is a link to some sampleTTFNKIrby
AUSTIN  When Ryan Sitton was elected to the Railroad Commission of Texas in 2014, he was a political newcomer but hardly new to the world of oil and gas.

Sitton is a mechanical engineer and the first engineer to serve as a railroad commissioner in decades.

The agency, which has a name that confuses nearly everyone, was established in 1891 to regulate railroads, a function it no longer has. Today, it oversees coal and uranium mining, pipeline safety and natural gas utilities, but oil and gas is its biggest task, as Texas crude production heads toward the 1970 record of 3 million barrels daily.

Sitton and his wife, Jennifer, who also studied mechanical engineering at Texas A&M University, founded Pasadena-based PinnacleART, an engineering and technology company that focuses on safety and integrity for the oil and gas industry. It has more than 700 employees.

The Sittons have three children, and in his spare time, Sitton tinkers with his line of adult tricycles, called Extreme Tricycles.

Sitton sat down with the San Antonio Express-News on May 10, just after he finished leading a CrossFit-style exercise class for state employees on the lawn of the State Capitol with Land Commissioner George P. Bush, a fellow fitness buff.

Heres an edited transcript of that interview.

Now Playing: Business reporter Jennifer Hiller talks with Texas Railroad Commissioner Ryan Sitton about his daily life. Video: San Antonio Express-News

Q: So whos in better shape? Did you guys have a friendly wager going on?

More Information Quick facts on Ryan Sitton What is your typical morning routine: Up around 5 a.m., walk for 30 minutes, P90X for 30 minutes, breakfast of egg whites and a protein shake, then hit the shower. Try to be at my office around 7:30 a.m. What book are you reading right now: "The Go Giver: A Little Story about a Powerful Business Idea" by Bob Burg and John D. Mannand; and "Smarter, Faster, Better: The Transformative Power of Real Productivity" by Charles Duhigg. Favorite restaurant: Taco Bell What was your first job: Summer maintenance and general laborer for my family church. What is your passion/hobby outside of work: Playing flag football, working out and tinkering with my line of adult tricycles. If you had to pick an entirely different career in an entirely different industry, and there were no limitations to what you could do, what would it be: Either leadership coaching or physics teacher, or if there are really no limitations, Batman. See More Collapse

A: We did not have a friendly wager. I got winded first, but I was also doing the instructing to get everybody going, so Im going to claim thats why I got winded.

Q: So along those lines of doing things that are a little unconventional and not expected, you toured a drilling rig recently and brought a camera along. Why do you think people need to know what a drilling rig is like?

A: Here we have an industry that is 30 percent of our states economy, and our state, depending on which numbers you look at, would be the 11th- or 13th-largest economy in the world, and so few people in the state have any working knowledge or even useful or real knowledge about the oil industry. So when you say a drilling rig, most people have no idea what that means.

Q: Even if you have them in your community you cant get to them.

A: You start from the idea that its one-third of our states economy almost. We ought to have a basic understanding of whats happening out there. Part of it is I want people to feel comfortable. No one likes a drilling rig in their backyard. Thats a universal thing. But if its going to be in my neighborhood and its going to be here for three weeks and gone, and if I know that its safe in the meantime, then OK.

Q: Is there any desire to update more rules, or areas youre seeing that need updating because of how much technology keeps changing out in the field?

A: Were always going to be updating them. There wont ever be a point where we go, Ah, were done. I think what you might be getting at is, I think from the early 1970s probably until the early 2000s, for that 30-year span, things didnt change very much. Then from 2005 to today, the last five years, 10 years or so, things have changed rapidly. So we are in a period of things changing rapidly and us having to also change rapidly, and that also is going to continue.

Q: So this seems to come up every couple of years. The name Railroad Commission. Love it or hate it?

A: I absolutely think we should change the name. Ive said that since early on in my campaign all the way through my entire time in office. We absolutely should change the name, and Ive been really public about that.

Q: Why is it so hard to change it?

A: We have 27 million Texans, probably less than a million of them actually know really what the Railroad Commission does. Its a time now when were in information overload all the time. This agency is not named for the oil business folks like me. Its named for the public, and thats why we need to change it. Now to your second question. Why is it so hard to do? Because a lot of legislators here have been around in Texas a long time, and they represent people who are proud of that history and theyre sensitive to making those changes in a way that they fear would not respect that history. Its just a question of how long does it go until people are comfortable with it.

Q: You often talk about how you are an environmentalist and consider yourself an environmentalist, which is not a super popular word for a conservative Republican to use. So Im wondering how you explain that.

Voter Guide: What to know for the midterm election Your guide to the Texas and San Antonio races and candidates on the Nov. 8 ballot.

A: In my book it means I care deeply about our environment, and lets even be more specific, about our communities, our forests, our waterways. Those things are not only something that are important to me and my family, but recognize those are things that have to be there for not just future generations, but for the human race to continue. What Im trying to do is really change this whole dynamic in the political world. Because in the political world everything is black and white and two sides, right? And so, oh, well Republicans more believe in the economy and business more than the environment, and I dont believe those two are juxtaposed. I think they absolutely go together.

Q: This isnt a time when a lot of people seem to be able to have a lot of discussion across party lines or across ideological lines. Do you think there are any areas where industry and environmentalists can work together, or are on common ground?

A: Well lets characterize specifically in the political world is where that happens. Most other worlds, thats not the case. You can go into a local community where the local community says yes, we want more jobs here, more businesses here, but that doesnt mean we want a chemical plant right in the middle of the town, and everyone works together. People in places like Baytown and Texas City have these conversations every day, right? Its just in the world of Republican and Democrat and hyper partisanship that this stuff happens.

Q: What are your thoughts on how fast the shale producers have been able to move back into the field in the last six months or so in response to the price coming up?

A: I think we doubled the number of drilling rigs since we hit the low point. So I think a lot of that shows the fact that people were prepared. Its going to be interesting to see where it goes from here. Theres been a lot of advances that allowed them to go in and do more with less people, using more technology and taking less resources. The time it takes to drill a well is less than it used to be. And so it doesnt take as many drilling rigs to drill as many holes as it did even six years ago. It is not unrealistic to talk five, 10 years down the road, that we go past 3 million to 4 or even 5 million barrels a day. When you talk about those kind of numbers, thats going to be interesting to see because thats going to strap us resource-wise again.

Q: Pioneer Natural Resources board Chairman Scott Sheffield has made some pretty big predictions, it might be those kind of numbers where its pretty jaw-dropping.

A: Scott knows what hes talking about. Hes been around this place a long time. Should have bought Pioneer stock, dang it.

Q: I would rather go back in a time machine and just buy a bunch of mineral rights.

A: Me too.
Yes, you can transfer your domain to any registrar or hosting company once you have purchased it. Since domain transfers are a manual process, it can take up to 5 days to transfer the domain.

Domains purchased with payment plans are not eligible to transfer until all payments have been made. Please remember that our 30-day money back guarantee is void once a domain has been transferred.

For transfer instructions to GoDaddy, please click here.
Let me set the scene  the rolling hills of Victoria (Australia) wine country, hanging wedding decor, and one couple pledging their love at a beautifully designed barn. And just wait until you hear the couples sweet love story! It was love at first sight that culminated in a Rustic Chic Wedding. Pair that romance with a stylish Rue De Seine wedding dress and The White Tree Photography behind the lens, and you've got a day made for the pages of BTM. See even more pretty this way in the FULL GALLERY.

[flo_box box_bg_color=#ff99a8 box_text_color=#ffffff ]The Love Story[/flo_box]

How did you meet?

We actually met at a burger cafe and after chatting, Chris asked me out on a date. The first thing I actually noticed about him were his amazing blue-green eyes; there was something so gentle and genuine about him!

One date led to another and we started dating long distance as I was living in country Vic at the time. Id never met anyone like Chris and after 6 months, I knew that I had to move back to

Melbourne. I think I knew that Id marry him after our first meeting though. I remember driving home in complete and utter shock, thinking to myself that this guy could be the one!

How did he propose?

A year after we met, he took me out to dinner and as we were strolling along the water front at Williamstown, he got down on one knee and proposed.

[flo_box box_bg_color=#ff99a8 box_text_color=#ffffff ]Wedding Dress Shopping[/flo_box]

How did you choose your wedding gown?

I walked past a bridal store with a window display that really caught my eye. The styling was very bohemian and romantic and unlike most places. I went in and within 10 minutes I knew Id found my dress. I felt beautiful, and most importantly I felt like myself.

[flo_box box_bg_color=#ff99a8 box_text_color=#ffffff ]Wedding Design[/flo_box]

What sort of style did you envision for your wedding day?

We wanted a theme that suited the venue  which was quite rustic with rolling country side views and a wedding that was beautiful but warm and joyful, just like my relationship with Chris.

Any DIY decor elements?

I made the cover for our wedding guest book (from typo), and guests took polaroids and taped them into the book with a message. I added a touch of rustic twine around the guests names and bonbonniere jars as well. Most of the decoration was also a collaboration between Zonzo estates and us.

[flo_box box_bg_color=#ff99a8 box_text_color=#ffffff ]Wedding Planning[/flo_box]

If you could do it all over again, what would you change?

Absolutely nothing! the whole process of planning and the day was stress-free, well organized and lovely.

Any tips that you can give to future brides?

1. Start planning early- keep records of everything (spreadsheets)

2. Consider hiring a car vs. expensive chauffeurs.

3. Do lots of research on Pinterest, Instagram and online and make sure you read lots of reviews.

4. Do what you like! Dont be pressured by other peoples opinions.

VENDORS

Photographer: The White Tree // Dress: Rue de Seine from The Bridal Atelier // Ceremony and Reception Venue: Zonzo Estate, Yarra Valley // Flowers: Debbie O Neill // Makeup: Eve Gunson Freelance // Hair: As Above // Shoes: Zomp // Accessories: LOVEON Jewelry // Grooms Suit: Hugo Boss // Stationery: Adorn Invitations // Cake: Let them Eat Cake // Food: Zonzo Estate // Celebrant: Mike Larkin // Bonbonnieres: Cunliffe & Waters
Montana State Parks invites the community to an early opening of Chief Plenty Coups State Park to photograph the plants, wildlife and surroundings on Friday, Aug. 4, from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Photographers of all skills and abilities are welcome. Light refreshments such as coffee and bagels will be provided in the visitor center.

For more information, call Lena Fontana at 252-1289.
A body found in a shallow grave on private land south of Roundup may be a Billings man who has been missing for more than a month.

The body was discovered on Sunday by a landowner, according to a news release from the Billings Police Department.

The landowner was working on his property when he saw what he believed to be a shallow grave with freshly turned dirt on the surface, the release states. The body inside was badly decomposed, and forensic specialists were called in to help identify the body.

Law enforcement's search for Rory Wanner, 33, of Billings, have been centered in Roundup, the release said.

Wanner has been missing since June 28. He was headed to a friends house in the Billings Heights but never arrived, police said.

Wanners white Jeep Wagoneer was found abandoned in a residential area in the Heights the morning of July 1.

Police said earlier that it was out of character for Wanner to be out of contact with friends and family for so long or to abandon his vehicle.

Wanner's case is being investigated as a homicide.

Billings police detectives have identified persons of interest in the case, the department said.
Eastern Montana farmers are fighting to keep the funding available for a $59 million irrigation project currently bottled up by a lawsuit about a dinosaur-era fish still living in the Yellowstone River.

Lower Yellowstone Irrigation Project Director James Brower tells The Gazette that farmers of the 50,000 acres serviced by the project are asking the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to keep a new diversion dam and fish channel in the budget as a federal court battle of the pallid sturgeon continues.

Congress first funded the project in 2007 with a contract awarded to Ames Construction for the work in 2014. But construction has been repeatedly delayed by concerns centering on whether a man-made fish bypass stream will benefit the pallid sturgeon.

The funding is at risk of being zeroed from the Army Corps budget because of delays, Brower said.

What were trying to do is use every avenue available to us to encourage the Army Corps of Engineers to secure the funding available to them, Brower said.

There are 125 known pallid sturgeon in the Yellowstone. The shovel-snouted fish swim upstream to deposit eggs, which need miles to drift and hatch before reaching the Sacajawea reservoir along the Missouri River in North Dakota. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers designed the bypass stream as a way for pallid sturgeon to swim around the diversion dam, which is submerged but is nonetheless a challenge to the endangered fish.

The Defenders of Wildlife persuaded federal Judge Brian Morris on July 5 to put the project on hold. The wildlife group said the Army Corps used inadequate analysis to determine whether the diversion dam and fish bypass was a better option for the fish than using multiple pumps to deliver water to irrigators. The pumps would allow an existing, century-old diversion dam to be removed from the river.

Construction on the project was to begin in early July. The court challenge stopped the work.

Defenders argued that the Army Corps didnt thoroughly weigh the effectiveness of using multiple pumps along the Yellowstone River to service the Lower Yellowstone Irrigation Project.

For a century, water diverted by a wooden weir has fed hundreds of miles of irrigation canals bringing water to farms between Glendive and Sidney. The Army Corps planned to replace that wooden dam with a concrete weir and a deep fish bypass channel six to eight feet deep and 150 feet wide that sturgeon could use to swim around the weir.

Wildlife groups have argued that the sturgeon wont use the weir, at least not in enough numbers to preserve the endangered species.

The congressional delegations of Montana and North Dakota have signed on to moving forward with the Army Corps project. Lawmakers this month wrote the Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation not to pull funding from the Lower Yellowstone Irrigation Project. They encouraged engineers to complete the analysis required by the court without delay.

U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte, R-Mont., met with irrigators July 23 at the project intake north of Glendive.

Greg is raising the irrigation issue with congressional leaders to keep up pressure on the Army Corps to stick with the project, said Travis Hall, a Gianforte spokesman.
On August 8, Kenyas 19.7 million registered voters will head to the polls in a much-anticipated general election. Although the country will vote on more than 1,800 offices across 47 counties, by far the most-watched seat is for the presidency.

According to one recent poll, current president Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Kenyas first president Jomo Kenyatta, has a slight 5 point edge over four-time challenger Raila Odinga. In a separate poll conducted last week, Odinga is beating Kenyatta by 1 percent.

But in speaking to Kenyans of various political persuasions over the last few months, many have told me that for them the outcome of the election has never truly been in question  that Uhuru Kenyatta will remain president of Kenya over the next five years. The only real question is what will happen immediately after the election, and whether the country will once more fall victim to post-election bloodshed.

While electoral violence has been common in Kenya since the introduction of multi-party politics in 1991, anxiety about the upcoming election stems largely from Kenyas more recent past. During the 2007 election, Odinga lost in his second presidential bid to incumbent Mwai Kibaki in an election that was tainted by wide ranging allegations of fraud and vote-rigging.

Within minutes of the announcement of Kibakis victory, violence erupted in major cities across the country, igniting ethnic tensions over a period of several months between Luos who overwhelmingly supported Odinga and Kikuyus who supported Kibaki.

Both Odinga and Kenyatta have been tied to claims of inciting violence in the aftermath of the 2007 vote. Odinga, who initially refused to concede defeat, called for his supporters to engage in mass protests across the country which included thinly-veiled instructions towards violence. For his part, Kenyatta, who supported Kibaki, was charged in 2010 by the International Criminal Court with helping to organize and fund retaliatory violence, although those charges were eventually dropped due to lack of witness evidence.

For many observers, the fear is that 2017 could be a repeat of 2007. Today it is accepted by most Kenyans that Kibaki was not the real winner ten years ago  even by those who voted for him at the time. And as with Kibaki, it seems unlikely that Kenyatta would be willing to concede defeat were he to lose the vote in August. By hook or by crook, many believe, Kenyatta will try to retain power.

As for Odinga, who is now 72, many predict that this is most likely his last presidential contest and that he will rally his supporters to one last call-to-action should he again be denied the presidency. Not taking any chances, the U.S. embassy in Nairobi has already advised its citizens to stay indoors on the day of the election.

The big question, then, is not whether Kenyatta will win, but whether hell be able to pull off a clean and fair victory so as to preempt any post-election protests by the opposition that could threaten his legitimacy. If the results are close enough to be disputed, or if Kenyatta goes so far as to manipulate the results in order to retain his position, then the likelihood of violence increases significantly.

Part of the challenge Kenyatta faces is that the election has played out against a backdrop of corruption scandals over the past several years that have left much of the electorate, even among his own base, demoralized with the existing government.

The scandals have involved hundreds of millions of dollars of public funds stolen by government officials and their close associates. Among them is the disappearance of millions as part of the countrys 2013 Eurobond issue, the awarding of several multi-million shilling tenders by the Kenya National Youth Service, and a massive corruption scandal involving the Kenyan Ministry of Health. Regarding the Ministry of Health, several million shillings-worth of tenders were awarded to a company owned by Kenyattas sister and cousin.

It is no wonder, then, that many Kenyans are dismayed by their countrys governance and that so many have taken a fatalistic view towards the upcoming election. Corruption is seen as the biggest problem with the current government, but also the one thats hardest to change. And while the violence that came after the 2007 election is widely abhorred, many feel powerless to affect change through the formal democratic process.

It is perhaps for this same reason that in speaking with Kenyans over the last few months, much to my surprise I have encountered so many who have expressed their support for U.S. President Donald Trump. Although Trumps policies will likely result in less U.S. aid going to the country, there is a palpable joy that some in Kenya have for Trump as a populist leader who won against an establishment candidate.

Many of Odingas supporters, some friends, others whom I have met in passing, have wondered aloud to me whether their candidate might be able to pull off the kind of political disruption achieved by Trump, and whether the peaceful handover of power to a candidate who represents anti-establishment views will ever be possible in Kenya.

Over there, you have fair democratic elections, one friend tells me. Here, its Africa politics. Or, as you say in America, a whole different ballgame.

______

Severin Wirz is the Founder of Practical Ethics Solutions, a firm specializing in anti-bribery, trade and money laundering compliance in the East Africa region. He can be reached here.
Jason Bateman has revealed the new series of 'Arrested Development' has been strongly influenced by Donald Trump's presidency.

Jason Bateman

The 48-year-old actor insists he has "no idea" of the specifics of the show's upcoming fifth season - in which he plays Michael Bluth - but admitted show writers have been drawing parallels between his on-screen family and the controversial US leader's administration.

He said: "None of [the similarities] are lost on [creator] Mitch Hurwitz. He's aware of all of that stuff.

"And he and his writing staff have been in a cave for the last two or three months crafting these episodes, and they're going to lean into a lot of that [Trump] stuff for sure. They can't wait."

An earlier season of the show featured a storyline following a seemingly-ridiculous idea of building a wall between Mexico and the US and Jason is stunned it's become a reality.

He told The Daily Beast: "It was a little bit more about Bush. But my god...the f***in' wall between Mexico and the US?"

Season four of the show - the first to air on Netflix after it was previously broadcast on Fox - faced criticism that the characters didn't interact with one another very much, but Jason has promised that will change this time around.

He said: "We're all together. We don't have the same limitations that we had on us back then.

"There were series exclusivities back then. Tony [Hale] for one, on 'Veep', couldn't be on two shows at the same time.

"Also, Mitch [Hurwitz] thought it would be interesting to utilise the interface of Netflix at that time, where you could drop all the episodes at once like an album, and with all the action being simultaneous, you could click out of one guy's episode and start another one and see a different perspective on the same scene.

"Editorially, I think that proved to be a little bit more of a challenge than he anticipated, and I think as a consequence it ended up having some more complications and wrinkles in it than maybe he intended. But this time, we'll all be together and it won't be like nine spin-offs."

by Charlotte Hough for www.femalefirst.co.uk


Katie Price will have more children via surrogacy and adoption if she's ever told by doctors she can't have anymore "sprogs".

Katie Price

The 38-year-old former glamour model - who has Harvey, 15, Junior, 12, and Princess, 10, from past relationships and Jett, three, and two-year-old Bunny with husband Kieran Hayler - reveals her plans to continue growing her brood on the latest episode of her TV series 'Katie Price: My Crazy Life' this evening (31.07.17) on Quest Red.

She said: "Harvey's 15 next month, Junior and Princess are hitting their teenage years soon. I've got these two little sprogs that will keep me on my toes.

"And then I'll have more sprogs until the doctor says you can't have any more. And then I'll find a surrogate and then I'll adopt."

Though the busty babe says that having children keeps her young, Katie - who is reportedly thinking about having her ninth boob job - insists she needs more cosmetic surgery to keep her youthful looks as she approaches 40.

She says: "The thing is I'm 39 next month, nearly 40.

"Jesus Christ, I need to see the surgeon to make me look younger!"

"I will continue to live my life the way it is."

Tonight's episode also sees Katie and Kieran renew their wedding vows in the Maldives, with the former stripper putting in all the effort to organise the celebration.

Katie's son Junior revealed: "Kieran organised everything he was a true gentleman to mum. She loved it."

And explaining why he decided to have the ceremony, Kieran added: "It was my way of saying get that wedding ring back on your finger ... She's mine. There's no p***ing off anywhere now."

Katie recently admitted she has a lot of names in mind for her future children.

Speaking about Princess - whom she has with ex-husband Peter Andre - and current husband Kieran's daughter Bunny, she said: "Obviously I've got a Princess and a Bunny, Harvey was named after my granddad and Junior because he was a mini Pete, but I actually like the name Royalty, I don't care if no one else does.

"Royalty, then Prince and then King and then Duchess, I've got them all named, I don't know how many more I'll have. [The whole monarchy?] Why not."
Kim Kardashian West's grandmother has a "secret" Instagram account to "spy" on her.

Kim Kardashian West and Mary Jo Campbell (C) Instagram

The 36-year-old reality star has revealed her maternal grandparent Mary Jo Campbell has got her own social media account, which she uses to keep a close eye on her grandchildren including Kim, Kourtney, 38, Khloe, 33, Rob, 30, as well as Kendall Jenner, 21, and 19-year-old Kylie.

The raven-haired beauty shared a photograph of her with her relative on the photo-sharing site, which saw them pose with a cat filter superimposed over the top of their faces.

The 'Keeping Up With the Kardshians' star captioned the video post: "How cute is my grandma! She has a secret Instagram account to spy on us! (sic)."

Speaking in the clip Kim said: "We are the cutest cats."

But Mary Jo was surprised by the filter, as she said: "Woah, look at my ears."

The post came a few days after Kim took to her account to share a heartfelt birthday tribute to her grandmother, which saw her share how "lucky" she feels to have Mary Jo in her life.

Kim uploaded a photograph of her with Mary Jo when she was a child, which read: "Happy Birthday MJ! I'm so lucky to have you in my life! I know I tell you all the time but I really am. This pic is ages ago but I remember it like yesterday being in my parents kitchen with that wall paper (Cici just sent a pic on Vogue with the same wall paper!!! Our group texts were so funny about this wall paper) (sic)."

The television personality - who has four-year-old daughter North and 19-month-old son Saint with her rapper husband Kanye West - has thanked Mary Jo for helping to create "so many memories" with her and her sisters.

Her post continued: "So many memories you helped create! I love you so much! (sic)."
Prince Harry has been told to "keep calm and carry on" in his relationship with Meghan Markle by fellow royal Prince Albert of Monaco.

Prince Harry

The 32-year-old royal is currently in a relationship with the 'Suits' actress, and whilst all eyes are on them, Monaco's Prince Albert - who is married to former Olympic swimmer Princess Charlene - has offered the happy couple some words of wisdom.

Albert said: "They seem to be doing OK for now. The only kind of advice I can offer is the British expression 'Keep calm and carry on'."

Prince Albert, 59, also admitted his own relationship was "difficult" to manage in the spotlight when the pair wed in 2011, but thinks things will be tougher for Harry and Meghan with the increased use of social media.

He added: "It was difficult for Charlene to handle. I can't imagine the difference now with the increased pace of news and social media."

And Albert says Meghan, 35, will have to face the "full onslaught" of press if and when the pair get engaged, and admits he "can't imagine" what sort of pressure that might put on their relationship.

Speaking to People magazine, Albert said: "Sooner or later she's going to have to face the full onslaught. I can't imagine how that will be on them, on her.

"Being an actress, in a way, gets you a little prepared but nothing really can prepare you for the constant pace of it. Particularly now that the pace has changed so much. It's hard for anyone to handle."

Prince Albert's helpful tips come after it was reported earlier this month that the flame-haired royal could be planning on popping the question to Meghan as early as next month, in a proposal which could coincide with Meghan's birthday on August 4.

A source said recently: "I'm told there will be a formal proposal, and it could be as soon as next month."
At least two food truck owners had personal reasons for giving their product away Sunday in an effort to raise money for Garfield County residents affected by the Lodgepole Complex fire.

Ashley Robichaux, owner of Cajun Phattys, is from New Iberia, Louisiana. We know a thing or two about rebuilding following devastating hurricanes, she said as her crew prepared fried shrimp, french fries and pork and sausage jambalaya for the large and community-minded crowd.

We are all too familiar with hurricanes, she said. Weve built and rebuilt. Well take any opportunity to help the community we can."

Rick Hamilton of Montana Outlaw BBQ, who with his sons Tyrel and Justin form one of the nations elite competitive barbecue squads, said a fraternity brother lost his Garfield County ranch in the fire.

Were not food truck guys  were a competitive team, he said while setting up Sunday afternoon for the event Billings Supports Fire Victims in Garfield County, held in the parking lot outside of Canyon Creek Brewing in the Billings West End. But we know a lot of people involved, and its for a good cause.

The Hamiltons prepared about 50 pounds of pulled pork and 80 pounds of brisket.

Mary Beth Beaulieu, who together with her husband Ray owns Big Guy BBQ, said they organized the fundraiser after having a talk with Garfield County Commissioner Teddy R. Robertson.

At first we thought wed go up there for a day or two and feed everyone we could, Beaulieu said. She told us, Weve got a lot of food. What we need are hay and fuel.

I told Ray, Honey, they dont need our food. But we can give it away and send them the donations, she said.

Through social media, the couple got much more than the expected response: 81,000 people viewed the post, and 2,000 said they were definitely coming or interested in coming.

We figure were ready to feed up to 1,500 people, she said.

Its a good thing, because by mid-event at 6 p.m., the lot was packed, Beaulieu said by telephone.

One donor paid $1,000 for a meal, and another ponied up $500. A few more came up with $250 donations, and several made $100 contributions.

All told, the six food trucks had raised about $13,000 halfway through Sunday's fun fundraiser.

People cant move. Its absolutely packed, Beaulieu said. But they're having a great time.

Among other items, Mike Cotta of Fat Taco cooked up 20 gallons of Portuguese beans, enough to take care of about 100 diners.

We live in the country, so were always on fire watch, he said. We appreciate everything that firefighters do.

You guys have a lot of awesome food here, said Britni Greenup of Billings. Its nice to get out and have some fun and have something important to contribute to.

For Wendy Velman, Sunday's fundraiser could well presage more significant involvement in the lives of Garfield County residents.

"I work for the BLM," said Velman, one of the first diners to stride alongside the gathered food trucks late Sunday afternoon. "We'll be going there on rehabilitation work. I figure this is a way to help out on the private side."
Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, have helped launch the Battle of Passchendaele commemorations in Belgium.

Prince William

The royal couple, both 35, paid tribute to the 54,000 fallen British and Commonwealth soldiers who have no known graves during a visit to the Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium, on Sunday (30.07.17).

In a touching speech given at the commemorative ceremony, Prince William paid tribute to those who "sacrificed everything for the lives we live today."

He said: "The battlefields of the Salient came to define the war for many British and Commonwealth soldiers.

"The defence of the city at such great cost meant that it became hallowed ground. Winston Churchill said of Ypres, 'A more sacred place for the British race does not exist in all the world.'

"Today the Menin Gate records almost 54,000 names of the men who did not return home. The missing with no known grave. Members of our families, our regiments, our nations, all sacrificed everything for the lives we live today.

"At the memorial's inauguration the British commander Field Marshal Lord Plumer spoke movingly to the assembled families, saying of their lost loved ones: 'He is not missing, he is here.'"

After Prince William's speech, Belgium's King Philippe gave his own moving tribute in which he praised the "struggle" of the battle for allowing people to "enjoy freedom" today.

He said: "Passchendaele was a struggle for freedom, our common freedom, the freedom we enjoy today. At the time it was a fight for land, every possible metre of land. Blood soaked the earth.

"The bodies of the thousands of soldiers who remained here forever became one with the earth. So your graves on our soil have become our graves on your soil. In the same way your Menin Gate has become our gate."

William and Kate continue their Europe tour on Monday (31.07.17) with a visit to a special service at the Commonwealth War Grave's biggest cemetery, Tyne Cot, where they will be joined by UK prime minister Theresa May, and William's father Prince Charles.
American screenwriter, Sri Rao, who got his first break with the English TV series, 'What Goes On', in 2007, and went on to write General Gospital: Night Shift, had always dreamt of writing for a Bollywood project.



After shopping his scripts in India for a couple of years, he made a writing debut in 2016 with Nitya Mehra's 'Baar Baar Dekho', featuring Sidharth Malhotra and Katrina Kaif.







Around the time, inspired by Dhak Dhak girl Madhuri Dixit and her life in the US post marriage, he wrote a comedy show and took it to Priyanka Chopra, who was scouting for scripts to produce. And a collaboration was forged.



Speaking to Mirror from New York, 'Producer Pri', a tag coined by the 34-year-old actress's fan clubs, said, "One of the favourite parts of my job as an actress-producer is that I can tell stories across genres, languages and to a varied audience. The story needs to appeal to me and impress me and what better than the incredible, real life of Madhuri Dixit."



PeeCee, who is presently shooting for Todd Strauss's 'Isn't It Romantic' alongside Rebel Wilson, Liam Hemsworth and Adam Devine in New York, described Sri's story as 'amazing' and asserts that she can't wait to work with both Madhuri and Sri to see how it will pan out.



"It's unchartered territory for me but I'm happy I've taken another step in my creative journey as a producer," she exulted.



The yet-untitled series follows a former Bollywood star who, after marriage, settles down in a sleepy American suburb with her bicultural family.



"It's a fun concept and will be shot as a single-camera sitcom which will blend comedic and dramatic elements. I've only just begun developing the pilot but am rolling up my sleeves and getting to work," she laughed, adding that she's wrapped up her second Hollywood film, Silas Howard's A Kid Like Jake, a transgender-drama headlined by award-winning TV stars Jim Parsons and Claire Danes, in which she plays a single mom.



"Sri is fabulous and this is his series, I'm only shepherding it," PeeCee adds.



The pilot, which will be shot next month, will have Madhuri and her husband Sriram Nene on-board as the executive producers.



Priyanka took the idea to Mark three months ago and the producer was instantly keen on collaborating with her on an Indo-American series. "I had a great experience with Mark and Nick during 'Quantico' and this is the perfect extension of our long friendship," she signs off, promising there are more Hollywood projects lined up for her this year."





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Firefighters on Monday morning continued to battle a roughly 160-acre wildfire between Columbus and Park City that prompted the temporary evacuation of the Pinecrest subdivision north of Interstate 90 on Sunday.

Residents were allowed to return to their homes after an evacuation issue was ordered Sunday night, Columbus Fire Rescue Chief Rich Cowger said. Two houses, one of which is within 200 feet of the Mile Marker 417 Fire, are still considered threatened, Cowger said.

Provided we can hold the line, I think theyre in good shape, Cowger said Monday morning. He estimated that the fire is now about 65 percent contained. We survived all the wind we had last night. Right now its looking pretty good.

Firefighting crews, helicopters and several single-engine planes from local, state and federal agencies responded Sunday to a series of fires that were first reported earlier that evening. Several retardant drops, including one that struck the interstate, helped slow the fires growth during the initial response.

The local fire chief characterized the burn area as pretty challenging terrain, with the fire burning through dry timber on a steep hillside. About 80 personnel are battling the fire.

We just ask (the public)  we still have fire crews working in the area, we still have equipment in the area, so drive slowly, give them the room they need to do their job and try not to congregate in the area, Cowger said. And the same thing with people along the interstate. Theres a lot of stuff to see going on, but try not to clog up traffic in the area.

The cause of the fires is still under investigation.
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FRIDLEY (dpa-AFX) - Cardinal Health (CAH) said that it has completed the acquisition of Medtronic's Patient Care, Deep Vein Thrombosis and Nutritional Insufficiency business for $6.1 billion. The acquisition was funded with a combination of $4.5 billion in new senior unsecured notes, existing cash and borrowings under existing credit arrangements. The Patient Care, Deep Vein Thrombosis and Nutritional Insufficiency business encompasses 23 product categories across multiple market sites of care, including numerous industry-leading brands, such as Curity, Kendall, Dover, Argyle and Kangaroo - brands used in nearly every U.S. hospital. The company also announced that it expects the acquisition to be accretive to non-GAAP earnings per share from continuing operations by more than $0.21 per share in fiscal 2018, net of incremental annual financing-related interest expense, and includes up to $100 million of inventory step-up costs during the first few quarters following closing. The company still expects the acquisition to be accretive to non-GAAP earnings per share by more than $0.55 per share in fiscal 2019, and increasingly accretive thereafter. By the end of fiscal 2020, the company assumes synergies will exceed $150 million. The Patient Care, Deep Vein Thrombosis and Nutritional Insufficiency business will become part of Cardinal Health's Medical segment, which is led by Don Casey, the segment's chief executive officer. Integration efforts are off to a successful start and it is expected that all integration work and transitions will be completed over the next 18 months. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Genf (ots/PRNewswire) - Oud Essentials, eine neue Hautpflege-, Lifestyle- und Wellnessmarke, die bereits starken Einfluss auf eine hart umkampfte Branche nimmt, freut sich, die Rekrutierung weiterer Social-Marketing-Experten bekannt zu geben, die uber die Erfahrung und die Qualifikationen verfugen, die unerlasslich sind, um das Unternehmen innerhalb kurzer Zeit zu einer globalen Entitat zu machen.Nach der kurzlich erfolgten Ernennung von Christina Tang - ehemalige Mitarbeiterin bei Nu Skin, Neways und Tupperware in Singapur mit mehr als 18 Jahren Branchenerfahrung - zur Country Managerin fur Singapur, und von Katherine Loh - ehemalige Mitarbeiterin bei Elken, Herbalife und Sophie Paris - zur Country Managerin fur Malaysia, freut sich Oud Essentials, weitere hochkaratige Vertragsabschlusse bekannt geben zu konnen, wahrend sich das Unternehmen darauf vorbereitet, sich der Welt zu prasentieren.Jonathan Lim, ehemaliger Mitarbeiter bei Amway Philippines LLC mit einem hervorragenden Ruf als Vertriebsleiter, Trainer und Mentor, ist jetzt als Country Manager fur die Philippinen an Bord und wird mit Vanessa del Rosario zusammenarbeiten, die mehr als 12 Jahre Branchenerfahrung besitzt und ehemals Mitarbeiterin bei Elken und Nu Skin war."Es spielt keine Rolle, wie gut Ihre Produkte sind", so Andrew Leci, Chief Visionary Officer, Oud Essentials, "oder wie attraktiv Ihr Geschaftsmodell ist. Bei Unternehmen und Organisationen geht es um Menschen, und die richtigen zu bekommen, ist fur uns von oberster Bedeutung. Wir haben das Gluck, dass die Leute, die wir angeheuert haben, nicht nur an unsere Vision von Nachhaltigkeit, Umweltbewusstsein und eine neue, bewusstere Art, Geschafte zu tatigen, glauben, sie lieben sie auch.""Wir scheinen im Bewusstsein der Menschen in einer Branche etwas ausgelost zu haben", fuhr Leci fort, "und sie mogen, wofur wir stehen. Die Tatsachen, dass wir in allen unseren Produkten 100 % reines, organisches Oud verwenden und alle unsere Inhaltsstoffe bekannter Herkunft und nachhaltig sind sowie aus ethischen Quellen stammen, haben sich in unserem Geschaftsmodell zu gemeinsamen Werten entwickelt, die bei immer mehr Menschen Resonanz finden."Tiffaney Teo, die einen Abschluss in Nutrition and Community Health besitzt und ehemals bei Elken und NuCerity angestellt war, wird die Position als Senior Product Trainer ubernehmen und in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) Hand in Hand mit Katherine Loh arbeiten. Im August 2017 wird sich Adrian Kam - Head of Digital Marketing - zu ihr gesellen, der eine makellose Erfolgsbilanz bei seinen fruheren Anstellungen bei Avon, Amway und der Qi Group vorweisen kann.Der neu ernannte Chief Financial Officer, Chang Chiek Fui - ehemaliger Mitarbeiter bei Avon, Amway und Sophie Paris in Indonesien - wird alle Geschaftsstellen im Asien-Pazifikraum zusammenhalten und uber 20 Jahre Erfahrung im Bereich Finanzen und Geschaftsentwicklung in das Unternehmen einbringen."Als wir das Unternehmen starteten", schloss Leci, "wussten wir, dass es von wesentlicher Bedeutung sein wurde, das richtige Team zusammenzustellen. Was wir vielleicht nicht realisierten, war, wie wichtig es heutzutage selbst fur eingefleischte Branchenexperten ist, sich den Gedanken zu eigen zu machen, Geschafte auf eine bewusstere Art zu tatigen und zu versuchen, einen Unterschied in der Welt zu machen. Wir haben jetzt tolle Produkte und tolle Leute, die alle an das, was wir tun, glauben und die Erfahrung und die Fahigkeiten haben, unsere Traume Wirklichkeit werden zu lassen. Dass sie alle steile Karrieren in etablierten, renommierten Unternehmen in der Branche gemacht haben, ist ein groer Pluspunkt."Das Interesse wachst, die hart umkampfte Branche brummt und es ist bereits ersichtlich, dass Oud Essentials die standig wachsende Zahl bewusster Verbraucher ansprechen wird, die wissen mochten, woher die Produkte, die sie verwenden, kommen, und wie und von wem sie hergestellt werden.Hinweise fur Redakteure:OTS: Oud Essentials newsroom: http://www.presseportal.de/nr/125478 newsroom via RSS: http://www.presseportal.de/rss/pm_125478.rss2Pressekontakt:Marine Adenin E-Mail: marine@oudessentials.com Tel.: +41-79-171-27-25 Uber Oud Essentials Oud Essentials ist eine neue Marke, ein neues Gesicht und ein neuer Name in der internationalen Hautpflegeindustrie. Die Marke konzentriert die bemerkenswerten Eigenschaften von Agarholz/Oud in einer Hautpflegeserie, deren Ansatz in einem gesunden Lebensstil liegt und deren Inhaltsstoff seit Jahrtausenden genutzt wird. Mit realen Produkten fur reale Menschen in der realen Welt verkorpert die Hautpflegeserie von Oud Essentials zusammen mit schonem Schmuck und naturlichen Infusionen, die zur Forderung des geistigen und korperlichen Wohlbefindens entwickelt wurden, den Pioniergeist, der Innovation und kreativem Schaffen innewohnt, und respektiert dabei die Umwelt, die Gemeinschaften und das Konzept der Nachhaltigkeit, das uns allen unentbehrlich geworden ist. Das gesamte Oud, das in der Produktreihe Oud Essentials verwendet wird, stammt aus nachhaltigen Quellen und ethisch einwandfreier Produktion auf Plantagen im Besitz und/oder unter der Verwaltung von Asia Plantation Capital - einem weltweit fuhrenden Unternehmen im nachhaltigen Forstsektor. Es besitzt die CITES-Genehmigung und alle relevanten CITES-Zertifikate (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora). Foto - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20170731/1909896-1-a Foto - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20170731/1909896-1-b
SAN FRANCISCO, August 28, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The global cyclohexane marketis expected to reach USD 32.3 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 4.9% according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Globally changing consumer behavior towards sustainability has been a significant factor driving market growth. Also, the increasing use in 3D printing is positively influencing the demand for the cyclohexane and its products.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160524/371361LOGO )



Growing population coupled with rapid urbanization and industrialization in emerging economies has also driven federal governments to increase their manufacturing spending to cater to the rising demand. The low production cost and relaxed government regulations further boosting the demand for cyclohexane in the global market. Also, global Nylon 6 Production is estimated to increase at a rapid rate, which is expected to increase demand for cyclohexane globally.

Recently, there has been a growing impetus towards the provision of greater quality products to retain customer loyalty, since low switching costs & lowly differentiated products have reduced supplier power in recent years. Companies are thus actively engaged in product development & research, technological advances and even strategic collaborations to improve their standing in the global market.

Browse full research report with TOC on "Cyclohexane Market Analysis By Application (Adipic Acid, Caprolactam), By End-use (Nylon 6, Nylon 66), Competitive Landscape, And Segment Forecasts, 2014 - 2025" at: http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/cyclohexane-market

Further key findings from the report suggest:

The global cyclohexane demand was around 9,192 kilo tons in 2016 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.0% between 2016 and 2025

Caprolactam was the dominant application segment in 2016 and is projected to be worth USD 19 billion by 2025

by 2025 Cyclohexane's value from nylon 6 end-use was estimated at over USD 11 billion in 2016. Textiles industry growth in South Asian markets will have a positive influence on the segment's growth

in 2016. Textiles industry growth in South Asian markets will have a positive influence on the segment's growth Asia Pacific is the largest region in terms of revenue in 2016 and is expected to maintain its dominance during the forecast period.

is the largest region in terms of revenue in 2016 and is expected to maintain its dominance during the forecast period. Growth in the textile, electronics and automotive industry in the emerging countries such as China and India are expected to drive the growth of the cyclohexane market. Increasing demand for packaging materials is pushing the growth in the region.

and are expected to drive the growth of the cyclohexane market. Increasing demand for packaging materials is pushing the growth in the region. The market in Asia Pacific is expected to witness significant growth over the next few years owing to the increasing consumption of nylon in various sectors. The regional market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.6% from 2017 to 2025 in terms of volume

is expected to witness significant growth over the next few years owing to the increasing consumption of nylon in various sectors. The regional market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.6% from 2017 to 2025 in terms of volume Key industry participants include Sinopec Limited, BASF, BP PLC, Koninklijke DSM N.V. and Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, who dominate the cyclohexane industry in terms of production

Improving supply chain efficiencies, and establishing exclusive supply agreements shall be a key factor in improving profitability of producers

Browse related reports by Grand View Research:

Phosphoric Acid Market - http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/phosphoric-acid-market

Mineral Oil Market - http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/mineral-oil-market

Hydrogen Generation Market - http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/hydrogen-generation-market

Methanol Market - http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/methanol-market

Grand View Research has segmented the global cyclohexane market on the basis of application, end-use, and region:

Cyclohexane Application Outlook (Volume, Tons; Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) Adipic acid Caprolactam Others

Cyclohexane End-use Outlook (Volume, Tons; Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) Nylon 6 Nylon 66 Others

Cyclohexane Regional Outlook (Volume, Tons; Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) North America U.S. Canada Latin America Mexico Asia Pacific China Japan India Europe Germany France U.K. Middle East & Africa GCC Countries



Read Our Blog By Grand View Research: http://www.grandviewresearch.com/blogs/bulk-chemicals

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. Thecompany provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.



Contact:

Sherry James

Corporate Sales Specialist, USA

Grand View Research, Inc

Phone: +1-415-349-0058

Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519

Email: sales@grandviewresearch.com



Web: http://www.grandviewresearch.com
AMMAN, Jordan, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

TabukPharmaceutical Manufacturing Company ("Tabuk"), one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the Middle East and North Africa region, has entered into an in-licensing agreement with Dong A ("Dong A"), a Korean leading company, to in-license Zydena "Udenafil Tabs" exclusively for Tabuk in KSA & the Gulf area.

Under this agreement, Dong A will grant Tabuk exclusive rights to carry out the manufacturing processes under license, commercialize and distribute Zydena in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia & the Gulf area.

This project demonstrates Tabuk's continued commitment to patients and to offering new medicines within an ongoing collaboration with global partners to deliver on its mission to help improve the lives of patients.

"I am very pleased by this partnership and the future business we will build together, we look forward to continuing to expand our portfolio and better serving patients' needs," commented Dr. Rana Azzam, Tabuk's Senior VP of Business Development.

Dong-A's senior VP of Global business HQ, Mr. Chae. J. Lee, also commented, "We are very excited to establish this collaboration with Tabuk, a highly respected pharmaceutical company in the region, for Zydena, Dong-A's innovative PDE-5 inhibitor for patients suffering from erectile dysfunction(ED). Through our close collaboration, we look forward to making a positive impact on ED patients' quality of life in the region."
TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - July 31, 2017) - DRA Group Holdings is pleased to announce the appointment of Pierre Julien as Executive Vice President - Origination for the DRA Group. In this role Pierre will lead DRA's global origination team in identifying and accessing new business channels, seeking opportunities for growth into adjacent sectors and developing innovative ways to enhance DRA's service offering to clients.

"We are excited to welcome Pierre to our global team of professionals. In recent months DRA conducted an extensive talent search and during this process Pierre distinguished himself as a thought leader with the skills and experience needed to help us realise our global growth strategy," said Wray Carvelas, CEO of DRA Group Holdings.

Pierre has over 22 years of senior level industry experience. Prior to joining DRA, he served as Vice President, Business Development and EPCM Partner Management at Outotec Ltd., a global leader in minerals and metals processing technology.

Pierre graduated from Haileybury School of Mines and has an MBA from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. He is a very well respected member of the North American mining community who holds executive and board level roles with the Canadian Mineral Processors Society and the Canadian Institute of Mines, Metallurgy & Petroleum (CIMM).

Pierre will be based primarily in DRA's Toronto office. In the coming months, he will commence a global tour of the business to formally introduce himself to colleagues and clients in all regions.

About DRA

DRA is a multi-disciplinary global engineering group that originated in South Africa and delivers mining, mineral processing, energy, water treatment and infrastructure services from concept to commissioning, as well as comprehensive operations and maintenance services for the mineral resources and energy sectors. DRA has offices in Africa, Australia, Canada, China, India and the United States.

For further information please contact:



Tarryn Fraser

Corporate Communications

DRA Group Holdings

Tel: 27-11-518-4189



Linda Dorrington

Marketing and Business Development

DRA Americas Inc.

Tel: 1- 416-917-1664
PUNE, India, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

According to a new market research report "Adherence Packaging Market, By System (Unit-dose, Multi-dose) Type (Blister Card, Pouch) Material (Plastic, Paper & Paperboard, Aluminum) End User (Retail, Long-term care facility, Hospital, Mail-order pharmacies) - Global Forecast to 2022" published by MarketsandMarkets', the market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.2% between 2017 and 2022 to reach USD 917.7 million by 2022.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )

Browse 174 Market Data Tables and 31 Figures spread through 199 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Adherence Packaging Market"

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/adherence-packaging-market-211268724.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report

The growth in this market is mainly attributed to factors such as high rate of medication nonadherence, growing need to minimize medication wastage, and technological advancements such as remote dispensing systems.

By systems type, the multi-dose packaging systems segment accounted for the largest share of the market in 2016

On the basis of packaging systems, the market is categorized into multi-dose packaging systems and unit-dose packaging systems. The multi-dose packaging systems segment is further segmented into blister cards packaging systems and pouches/strips packaging systems. Similarly, the unit-dose packaging segment is further segmented into blister cards packaging systems and pouches/strips packaging systems. In 2016, the multi-dose packaging systems segment accounted for the largest share of the Adherence Packaging Market. The large share and high growth of this segment can primarily be attributed to the benefits of multi-dose packaging, such as assisting patients with complicated prescription regimens, ability to enhance patient safety, and elimination of medication waste.

Download PDF Brochure @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=211268724

By packaging type & material, the blister cards segment & plastic film segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR

By type, the global Adherence Packaging Market is segmented into blister cards and pouches/strips. By material, the global Adherence Packaging Market is segmented into plastic film, paper & paperboard, and aluminum. In 2016, the blister cards segment dominated the Adherence Packaging Market. Plastic film segment dominated the adherence packaging material market. Transparency, malleability, lightweight, and cost-effectiveness of plastic films are few of the factors driving the growth of this segment.

By end users, the retail pharmacies segment held the largest market share in 2016

The major end users of Adherence Packaging Market are retail pharmacies, long-term care facilities, hospitals, and mail-order pharmacies. In 2016, the retail pharmacies segment accounted for the largest share of the global Adherence Packaging Market.

Speak to Analyst @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/speaktoanalyst.asp?id=211268724

North America dominated the market in 2016

In 2016, North America dominated the global Adherence Packaging Market. Rising prevalence of chronic diseases, increase in healthcare expenditure, rapid growth in the aging population, growing pharmaceuticals market, high rate of medication nonadherence, and an increase in funding by government agencies are driving the growth of the Adherence Packaging Market in North America.

The key players in the Adherence Packaging Market are Omnicell, Inc. (U.S.), McKesson Corporation (U.S.) , Becton, Dickinson and Company (U.S.), Parata Systems LLC (U.S), KUKA AG (Germany), TCGRx (U.S.), RxSafe, LLC (U.S.), ARxIUM Inc. (U.S.), and Talyst Systems LLC. (U.S.).

Browse Related Reports

Pharmaceutical Packaging Equipment Market by Package (Blister, Strip, Bottle, Tube, Aseptic Packaging, Wrapping, Labeling & Serialization), Product (Tablet, Powder, Cream, Syrup, Aseptic Liquid, Aerosol) - Global Forecast to 2022

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/pharmaceutical-packaging-equipment-market-19845828.html

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VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 31, 2017 / TIMIA Capital Corporation ("TIMIA" or the "Company") (TSX-V: TCA) is pleased to announce its Q2 results for 2017.

Highlights

Q2 represented the highest quarterly revenue achieved to date, 28% increase over Q1;

Strong growth in Adjusted EBITDA1 and improved net loss; and

Payments from investee companies in Q2 increased by 9.2% over Q1.

Revenue

Revenue of $268,246 for Q2, 2017 is the highest quarterly revenue TIMIA has achieved under its revenue finance model, and a 28% increase over the Q1, 2017 revenue of $208,879. The Q2, 2017 revenue included advisory income of $40,000 related to the closure of the Beanworks transaction while there was no similar event in Q1.

Net Loss / Adjusted EBIDTA

The Company had net income of ($104,462) for Q2, 2017, as compared to net income of ($133,108) in Q1, 2017. The decrease in net loss was due to the increased revenue during the period offset primarily by increased interest expense on the Company's debentures outstanding and increased share based compensation.

Adjusted EBITDA1 improved to $74,038 in Q2, 2017 from $4,138 in Q1, 2017 as a result of increased revenue and consistent quarter over quarter cash based operating expenses.

1Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP measure comprising EBITDA - non-cash items such as Share Based Compensation, Warrant Accretion Expense included in Interest Expense and Loan Loss Provision +/- equity related realized and unrealized gains/losses.

Total Payments Received from Investee Companies

Total payments received from investee companies are a key measure of the Company's progress as these payments are tied to the revenue of the underlying investee companies. These payments comprise both interest and principal repayments, and for Q2 2017 these payments totaled $247,103 vs $226,268 in Q1, 2017. This represents an increase of 9.2% quarter over quarter.

All investee companies are current in their payments.

Outlook

The Company had a cash balance of $785,200 at the end of Q2, 2017, and expects to utilize those cash resources in the near term via investment into new and existing investee companies. Please refer to the forward-looking disclaimer below.

About TIMIA Capital Corporation

TIMIA Capital Corporation is a specialty finance company that provides revenue financing to technology companies in exchange for payments tied to revenue and bonus payments upon exiting the investments. The alternative financing option complements both debt and equity financing while allowing entrepreneurs to retain a greater share of their business. TIMIA's target market is the fast-growing business-to-business software-as-a-service (SaaS) segment. TIMIA is managed by a seasoned investment team with a track record of originating and managing debt and equity investments, as well as monitoring, compliance, and workouts. For more information about TIMIA Capital Corporation, please visit www.timiacapital.com.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

For more information, please contact:

Mike Walkinshaw

Chief Executive Officer

TIMIA Capital Corporation

(604) 398-8839

IR@timiacapital.com

Disclaimer for Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements in this release are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations, or intentions regarding the future. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those contained in the statements. No assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will occur or, if they do occur, what benefits the Company will obtain from them. The Company disclaims any obligation to update the forward-looking statements except as required by law.

SOURCE: TIMIA Capital Corporation
Washington D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - July 31, 2017) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged four former Atlanta-area brokers with fraudulently inducing federal employees to roll over holdings from their federal Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) retirement accounts into higher-fee, variable annuity products.

The SEC's enforcement action comes at a time when the agency has been focusing more specifically on brokers' and advisers' interactions with senior investors, and others investing for retirement, through the ReTIRE initiative of the agency's national exam program and the work of the Broker-Dealer Task Force in its Enforcement Division.

The SEC's complaint charges an entity called Federal Employee Benefits Counselors through which the brokers targeted federal employees nearing retirement with sizable funds invested in the TSP. The complaint alleges that the brokers misled investors concerning significant details about the recommended variable annuity investment, including the associated fees and guaranteed investment returns. The brokers allegedly fostered the misleading impression that they were in some way affiliated with or approved by the federal government. In some instances, investors were led to believe that their funds would be invested in a product that was offered, vetted, or specifically selected by the TSP. According to the SEC's complaint, the brokers sent investors incomplete or modified transaction forms as well as written materials they devised that obscured that the investment was a privately issued variable annuity with no connection to the TSP and would be processed through a private brokerage firm with which the brokers were associated. The brokers sold approximately 200 variable annuities with a total face value of approximately $40 million to federal employees, who used monies rolled over from their TSP accounts to fund their purchases. The brokers collectively earned approximately $1.7 million in commissions on these sales.

"As alleged in our complaint, these brokers were motivated by the prospects of higher commissions as they targeted federal employees age 59 and over and intentionally obscured important details when recommending variable annuity purchases. They even allegedly excluded the words "variable annuity' from some materials they shared with TSP account holders," said Aaron W. Lipson, Associate Director of the SEC's Atlanta Regional Office.

The SEC today issued an investor alert stressing that the TSP will never contact federal employees asking them to provide sensitive personal information and does not authorize third parties to provide counseling or investment-related services.

"Be skeptical if someone offers you an investment opportunity and claims to be affiliated with the federal government," said Lori Schock, Director of the SEC's Office of Investor Education and Advocacy.

The four former brokers charged in the SEC's complaint are Christopher S. Laws, Jonathan D. Cooke, Danny S. Hood, and Brandon P. Long. The complaint charges them and Federal Employee Benefits Counselors with violating and aiding and abetting violations of some or all of the provisions of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 10(b) of the Securities Act of 1934, and Rule 10b-5. The SEC seeks disgorgement of ill-gotten gains plus interest and penalties and permanent injunctions.

The SEC's Atlanta office conducted the investigation and will lead the litigation. The Broker-Dealer Task Force is led by Antonia Chion and Andrew M. Calamari.
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- (Marketwired) -- 07/31/17 -- Gold Resource Corporation (NYSE American: GORO) (NYSE MKT: GORO) (the "Company") today announced the timing of its 2017 second quarter earnings conference call scheduled for August 2, 2017. Gold Resource Corporation is a gold and silver producer, developer and explorer with operations in Oaxaca, Mexico and Nevada, USA. The Company has returned $110 million to shareholders in monthly dividends since commercial production commenced July 1, 2010, and offers shareholders the option to convert their cash dividends into physical gold and silver and take delivery.

Conference Call

Gold Resource Corporation's CEO Mr. Jason Reid will host the conference call Wednesday, August 2, 2017 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time. Topics of discussion will include second quarter results and an update on current operations. The conference call will be recorded and posted to the Company's website in three to five business days from recording.

Q&A

Following Mr. Reid's opening remarks, the Company will answer questions during a live Q&A period.

Date: Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Time: 11:00 AM Eastern (9:00 AM Mountain)

Attendee Access Information:

Title: Gold Resource Corporation Second Quarter Conference Call

Host Name: Jason Reid

Company Name: Gold Resource Corporation

US/CAN Toll Free: 888-632-5004

International Toll: +1 323-794-2095

Passcode: 034203

Please dial-in to the conference call at least 5 minutes prior to the start time using the attendee phone number and passcode.

About GRC:

Gold Resource Corporation is a gold and silver producer, developer and explorer with operations in Oaxaca, Mexico and Nevada, USA. The Company has 56,839,823 shares outstanding, zero warrants and has returned $110 million back to shareholders since commercial production commenced July 1, 2010. Gold Resource Corporation offers shareholders the option to convert their cash dividends into physical gold and silver and take delivery. For more information, please visit GRC's website, located at www.Goldresourcecorp.com and read the Company's 10-K for an understanding of the risk factors involved.

Cautionary Statements:

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. The statements contained in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Exchange Act. When used in this press release, the words "plan", "target", "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "intend" and "expect" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements include, without limitation, the statements regarding Gold Resource Corporation's strategy, future plans for production, future expenses and costs, future liquidity and capital resources, and estimates of mineralized material. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon information available to Gold Resource Corporation on the date of this press release, and the company assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, and there can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those discussed in this press release. In particular, there can be no assurance that production will continue at any specific rate. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those discussed in the Company's 10-K filed with the SEC.

Gold Resource Corporation

Corporate Development

Greg Patterson

303-320-7708

www.Goldresourcecorp.com




GREAT FALLS  Montana's House speaker defended $97 million in budget cuts triggered by less-than-expected state income by saying the cuts are doing what they are supposed to: Reducing the size of state government in lean economic times.

Republican Austin Knudsen of Culbertson also dismissed the notion that Republican lawmakers alone are responsible for the spending reductions that will hit the state's health and education departments the hardest. He said that Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock's office had input on the bill, too, the Great Falls Tribune reported.

"These weren't cuts just made in a vacuum," Knudsen said. "There was a lot of flexibility built in."

The cuts across state agencies to begin next month were triggered by state revenue coming in lower than the forecast approved this spring by the House Taxation Committee. The cuts were included in a bill passed by the Republican-led Legislature and signed by Bullock to ensure the state has enough cash in reserve over its two-year budget cycle.

But Democratic lawmakers and the governor's office said the House Taxation Committee adopted a revenue forecast that was too high in order to avoid raising taxes proposed by them that would have helped shore up the budget's bottom line, such as an increase to tobacco taxes.

The governor met with Republican budget writers to negotiate the cuts when it became clear the governor's tax proposals would not be considered, Bullock spokeswoman Ronja Abel said.

Last week, community health providers said the cuts would reduce services offered to elderly and disabled Medicaid patients. A nursing home owner said he would have to turn away patients, and a mental health provider said more people with mental illness would end up in jail as a result.

The Office of Public Instruction will lose at least $19 million over two years, and at least 16 state workers will lose their jobs because of the cuts.

Another $30 million will be taken from the state's fund to fight wildfires, leaving about $30 million for what is emerging as an active summer for wildfires burning across the state.

The revenue forecast approved in the spring was based on the best information lawmakers had at the time, Knudsen said. "We were hoping not to see the cuts, but this is where we are today," he said.
Torex is an emerging intermediate gold producer based in Canada, engaged in the exploration, development and operation of its 100% owned Morelos Gold Property, an area of 29,000 hectares in the highly prospective Guerrero Gold Belt located 180 kilometers southwest of Mexico City. Within this property, Torex has the El Limon Guajes Mine, which announced commercial production in March of 2016 and the Media Luna Project, which is in an early stage of development and for which the Company issued a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) in 2015. The property remains 75% unexplored.

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 07/31/17 -- ThreeD Capital Inc. (the "Company") (CSE: IDK)(CSE: IDK.CN)(CNSX: IDK) is pleased to announce today that it has launched its newly revamped website. This newly redesigned website offers quick and easy access to essential information and features that offers a more comprehensive understanding of the Company's investment portfolio, investing strategy and services. The website also has a comprehensive investor section with updated Company news and events and regulatory filings.

The new website has a clean uncluttered design and enhanced rich content focused on the Company's mission to create unique long-term value to its shareholders by holding a diversified portfolio of early staged investments in disruptive technology, bio-tech and resource companies. The new website goes live today and is located at the web address: http://www.threedcap.com/.

About ThreeD

ThreeD Capital Inc. is a publicly- traded Canadian-based venture capital firm focused on opportunistic investments in companies in the resource, technology and biotechnology markets.

Contacts:

Gerry Feldman, CPA, CA

Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary

416 606 7655

feldman@threedcap.com




PLYMOUTH, MN--(Marketwired - July 31, 2017) - TruStone Financial Federal Credit Union employees recently raised $670 for the Hope Council on Alcohol & Other Drug Abuse, a non-profit based in Kenosha, Wisconsin. A dollar-for-dollar match of funds by the TruStone Financial Foundation allowed for a donation totaling $1,340 to the local organization.

Since 1968, the Hope Council has been committed to reducing the impact of drug and alcohol abuse in the Kenosha community. The Hope Council provides education, prevention, intervention and referral services to support those affected by drug and alcohol abuse. "TruStone Financial has two branches in Kenosha and our employees are able to see firsthand the impact the Hope Council has on the community," said Kacie Osten, Vice President, Director of Wisconsin Branches. "Our employees were excited to donate to an organization that directly impacts our community."

"We at the Hope Council on Alcohol & Other Drug Abuse are so grateful for the financial support we received from the staff at TruStone Financial," shared Guida Brown, Executive Director of the Hope Council. "Breaking down the stigma around substance use disorders and ensuring people get assistance is an effort the entire community needs to be part of, and we are grateful that we can count on the support from our neighborhood credit union to help us realize our mission."

About TruStone Financial

TruStone Financial is one of the fastest growing credit unions in the Midwest with assets of $1.19 billion and exceeding 105,000 members. There are 14 branches across Minnesota and Wisconsin. The credit union is headquartered in Plymouth, Minnesota. For more information and full membership criteria, visit TruStoneFinancial.org.

About The Hope Council

The Hope Council on Alcohol & Other Drug Abuse, Inc. is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing supportive services to the Kenosha community in order to develop stronger individuals, stronger families and a stronger Kenosha.

Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2017/7/31/11G143457/Images/IMG_0063-1b3a76cc3da5aa6f89631a5572ea2ec3.jpg

Contact:

Katie Grindeland

Senior Vice President

Director of Marketing and Communications

Phone: 763.595.4002

Email contact


MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 07/31/17 -- Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd (TSX: OR)(NYSE: OR) ("Osisko" or "Corporation") is pleased to announce the successful completion of the previously announced acquisition ("Acquisition") of a high-quality precious metals portfolio of assets consisting of 74 royalties, streams and precious metal offtakes ("Orion Portfolio") from Orion Mine Finance Group in exchange for $675 million cash and the issuance of 30,906,594 shares of the Corporation.

Following the acquisition, Osisko now holds a total of 131 royalties, streams and precious metal offtakes, including its cornerstone 5% net smelter return ("NSR") royalty on the world class and long-life Canadian Malartic gold mine (Canada's largest producing gold mine) and a 2% to 3.5% NSR royalty on the world class Eleonore gold mine. In addition, the Corporation acquired a 9.6% diamond stream on the Renard diamond mine and a 4% gold and silver stream on the Brucejack gold and silver mine, all of which are new high-quality mines in Canada, in addition to a 100% silver stream on the Mantos Blancos copper mine in Chile.

Sean Roosen, Chair of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer, commented on the closing of the transaction: "We are excited to acquire Orion's portfolio of high quality assets, which position Osisko as the leading growth royalty company in the precious metals sector".

Funding for Transaction

In addition to the shares issued to Orion, the Corporation completed a private placement totaling $275 million dollars with the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec ("La Caisse") ($200 million) and the Fonds de solidarite FTQ ("the Fonds") ($75 million) at a price of $14.56 per share. The Corporation has also issued 385,457 shares as part of the capital commitment fee.

The Corporation has also drawn US$118 million under its acquisition credit line from National Bank of Canada and Bank of Montreal.

The remaining cash component was drawn from the Corporation's cash resources. It is estimated that Osisko has approximately $100 million in its treasury following the completion of the transaction.

Share Ownership

"We are pleased to welcome Orion Mine Finance as a new 19.7% shareholder, and we appreciate the confidence received from two Quebec based long term shareholders, La Caisse and the Fonds, that are increasing their position to 12.1% and 5.5% respectively" commented Mr. Roosen.

Following the completion of the transaction, Osisko has 156,964,269 shares outstanding.

Board Appointment

In accordance with the acquisition agreement, Mr. Oskar Lewnowski, Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Orion Mine Finance has been appointed to Osisko's Board of Directors. Mr. Lewnowski is a highly experienced mining financier with previous experience with private equity funds and investment banking firms.

La Caisse has also the right to nominate a member to the Board of Directors. It is anticipated that they will exercise this right during the third quarter.

Advisors

Mr. Sean Roosen also noted: "We would like to acknowledge the outstanding efforts of the Osisko and Orion Teams and their respective advisors to complete this major transaction".

Osisko's lead financial advisor is Maxit Capital LP, with BMO Capital Markets, National Bank Financial and PricewaterhouseCoopers acting as financial advisors. Legal counsel are Bennett Jones LLP and Lavery de Billy LLP in Canada, and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP in the United States.

Orion's financial advisors are CIBC World Markets Inc. and Haywood Securities Inc. and their legal counsel is Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP.

About Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd

Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd is an intermediate precious metal royalty company focused on the Americas that commenced activities in June 2014. Following the Acquisition of the Orion Portfolio, it now holds a North American focused portfolio over 130 royalties, streams and precious metal offtakes. Osisko's portfolio is anchored by five cornerstone assets, including a 5% NSR royalty on the Canadian Malartic Mine, which is the largest gold mine in Canada. Osisko also owns a portfolio of publicly held resource companies, including a 15.3% interest in Osisko Mining Inc., 14.7% in Osisko Metals Ltd., 13.3% in Falco Resources Ltd. and 33.4% in Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd.

Osisko's head office is located at 1100 Avenue des Canadiens-de-Montreal, Suite 300, Montreal, Quebec, H3B 2S2. For more information, visit www.osiskogr.com.

Forward-looking statements

Certain statements contained in this press release may be deemed "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian and U.S. securities laws. These forward-looking statements, by their nature, require Osisko to make certain assumptions and necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance. These forward-looking statements, may involve, but are not limited to, comments with respect to the directors and officers of Osisko, the performance of the assets of Osisko, the realization of the anticipated benefits deriving from Osisko's acquisition of the Orion Portfolio. Words such as "may", "will", "would", "could", "expect", "believe", "plan", "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", "continue", or the negative or comparable terminology, as well as terms usually used in the future and the conditional, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Information contained in forward-looking statements is based upon certain material assumptions that were applied in drawing a conclusion or making a forecast or projection, including management's perceptions of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other considerations that are believed to be appropriate in the circumstances. Osisko considers its assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available, but cautions the reader that their assumptions regarding future events, many of which are beyond the control of Osisko, may ultimately prove to be incorrect since they are subject to risks and uncertainties that affect Osisko and its business.

For additional information with respect to these and other factors and assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements made in this press release, see the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the most recent Annual Information Form of Osisko which is filed with the Canadian securities commissions and available electronically under Osisko's issuer profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and available electronically under Osisko's issuer profile on EDGAR at www.sec.gov. The forward-looking information set forth herein reflects Osisko's expectations as at the date of this press release and is subject to change after such date. Osisko disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law.

Contacts:

Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd

Vincent Metcalfe

Vice President, Investor Relations

(514) 940-0670

vmetcalfe@osiskogr.com



Joseph de la Plante

Vice President, Corporate Development

(514) 940-0670

jdelaplante@osiskogr.com




Ardian, a New York-based independent private investment company, signed a Sale and Purchase Agreement with UniCredit for the acquisition of an approx. 300m portfolio of limited partnership interests in European infrastructure private equity funds.

The close of the transaction is expected in 3Q17 subject to the approval and rules of the fund manager.

FinSMEs

31/07/2017

ARDIAN ACQUIRES ~300 MILLION INFRASTRUCTURE PRIVATE EQUITY PORTFOLIO FROM UNICREDIT

Transaction highlights Ardians position as world leader in secondary infrastructure Funds of Funds

Ardian is preferred partner for leading institutional investors looking to monetize private equity and infrastructure fund assets

New York, July 31, 2017  Ardian, the independent private investment company, announces it has signed a Sale and Purchase Agreement in July 2017 with UniCredit for the acquisition of a ~300 million portfolio of limited partnership interests in European infrastructure private equity funds. Closing of the transaction is expected in 3Q17 subject to the approval and rules of the fund manager. This deal represents one of the largest secondary infrastructure transactions in 2017 and confirms Ardians leadership in secondary infrastructure Funds of Funds.

UniCredit is a simple successful Pan European Commercial Bank, with a fully plugged in CIB, delivering a unique Western, Central and Eastern European network to its extensive client franchise: 25 million clients. UniCredit offers local expertise as well as an international one reaching and supporting its clients globally, providing them with unparalleled access to leading banks in its 14 core markets as well as in other 18 countries worldwide.

This transaction continues Ardians secondary funds strategy to offer liquidity to large institutions looking to rebalance their portfolios and monetize their private equity investments. In 2016, the Ardian Fund of Funds team totaled $4.8 billion of secondary, infrastructure secondary and early secondary transactions worldwide.

This is the culmination of a highly collaborative relationship with UniCredit, said Mark Benedetti, Managing Director and Co-Head of Ardian US. This acquisition highlights our unique ability to complete significant and complex transactions which offer secondary liquidity to large institutions such as Unicredit. Our scale and knowledge of the assets meant we were perfectly placed to support its strategy.

Our team, spread out across the globe, is able to access a vast amount of information via a database of 1,400 funds and 10,000 underlying companies, which gives us excellent perspective on pricing and quality, allowing us to be opportunistic on behalf of our investors, said Mark Benedetti.

ABOUT ARDIAN

Ardian, founded in 1996 and led by Dominique Senequier, is a premium independent private investment company with assets of US$62 billion managed or advised in Europe, North America and Asia. The company keeps entrepreneurship at its heart and delivers investment performance to its global investors while fueling growth in economies across the world. Ardians investment process embodies three values: excellence, loyalty and entrepreneurship. Ardians employees form the largest shareholder group. Over 80 percent of employees have invested in the company, which is a testament to their trust in the management and the corporate strategy.

Ardian maintains a truly global network, with more than 460 employees working through twelve offices in Beijing, Frankfurt, Jersey, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Milan, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Singapore and Zurich. The company offers its 580 investors a diversified choice of funds covering the full range of asset classes, including Ardian Funds of Funds (primary, early secondary and secondary), Ardian Private Debt, Ardian North America Direct Buyout, Direct Funds (Ardian Mid Cap Buyout, Ardian Expansion, Ardian Growth, Ardian Co-Investment), Ardian Infrastructure, Ardian Real Estate and customized mandate solutions with Ardian Mandates.

www.ardian.com

ABOUT UNICREDIT

UniCredit is a simple successful Pan European Commercial Bank, with a fully plugged in CIB, delivering a unique Western, Central and Eastern European network to its extensive client franchise: 25 million clients.

UniCredit offers local expertise as well as an international one reaching and supporting its clients globally, providing them with unparalleled access to leading banks in its 14 core markets as well as in other 18 countries worldwide. UniCredit European banking network includes Italy, Germany, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey.
Kit for Kids, a Sevenoaks, Kent, UK-based maker of health and safety-conscious mattresses, raised 3.7m in funding.

Backers included private investors of Connection Capital LLP, a specialist private client investment business.

The investment will enable the company to meet increasing demand from existing retail customers for its mattress products and also exploit further significant growth opportunities both in the UK and in export markets.

Founded in 1993 by CEO Jan van der Velde, Kit for Kids manufactures health and safety-focussed childrens mattresses with factors like breathability, temperature regulation, hygiene and support being front of mind.

In the UK, its white label and own-brand mattresses are sold through major retailers such as John Lewis, Mothercare and BabiesRUs, and the company is also expanding rapidly via high-end retailers in the Middle East.

The company, which also has operations in Norfolk, Europe, Dubai and the US, trades in over 30 countries.

FinSMEs

31/07/2017
Union Park Capital, a Boston, MA-based private equity firm focused solely on lower middle-market industrial technology companies, is to raise its second fund.

Per an SEC regulatory filing, Union Park Capital II, L.P., is seeking to raise $150m and has not raised funds, yet.

Morgan Jones, Managing Partner, Peter McGuire, Principal, Brian McCafferty, Vice President, Evan Stein, Vice President, Michael Nestle, Analyst Harry Zambelis, Analyst, Bryant Daye, Research Assistant, Union Park Capital focuses solely on lower middle-market industrial technology companies headquartered in North America and Europe typically pursuing equity investments of between $10m and $50m, generally focusing on platform businesses with $10m to $75m in revenue.

Add-on acquisitions for platform companies will typically range from $1m to $50m of revenue.

Current investments include AMS Alliance, Chopin Technologies, CMC-Kuhnke, Industrial Physics, KPM Analytics, OxySense and PetroSense, Process Sensors, Ray-Ran Test Equipment Ltd., Systech Illinois, TM Electronics, Testing Machines, United Calibration Corporation, Unity Scientific, Brookhaven Instruments Corporation, Dantec Dynamics, Degree Controls, Durham Geo, NDT Systems, Nova Instruments, Nova Metrix, Phoenix Inspection Systems, The Roctest Group, Samba Sensors, Sensornet, Sherborne Sensors, Soil Instruments, Stresstech Group Picture, Technology Design, Van Essen Instruments, Waterloo Hydrogeologic, and Westbay Instruments.

FinSMEs

31/07/2017
A train collided with a grain truck near Miles City on Sunday evening, leaving the driver in critical condition and the truck in several different pieces, according to Miles City Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief Branden Stevens.

The driver was a man in his mid-40s from the Miles City area. No one else was injured in the wreck, which occurred near the intersection of Old Highway 10 and Lapp Road, about 20 miles northeast of Miles City.

Stevens said the man sustained serious, traumatic injuries when he was ejected from the vehicle. He was taken to Holy Rosary Health Care in Miles City, then taken by air ambulance to Billings.

Parts of the grain truck were scattered up to a quarter mile up the track, where the train finally came to a halt, Stevens added.

Brandon Kelm with the Montana Highway Patrol, which is investigating the crash, said the train was empty and traveling "upwards of 50, 60 miles an hour" when it hit the truck, according to rail company employees. No one aboard the train was injured in the crash, which derailed two locomotives and 18 rail cars.

The Custer County Sheriffs Office and the Prairie County Sheriffs Office also responded to the scene of the collision.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has announced the rollout of the first 2017 Jeep Compass SUV in India from join-venture facility in Pune. This is one of the four locations (globally) where the new 2017 Jeep Compass SUV will be manufactured. The FCA's Ranjangaon manufacturing plant will be special because it will be the company's only RHD plant in the world, one that will also cater to export demands.

The plant as per the report has been set up with a total investment of $280 million with a new paint facility.

The rollout of the plant was attended by Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, FCA COO Paul Alcala, FCA India president and MD Kevin Flynn, Gurpratap Boparai, CEO, FIAPL and Girish Bapat, guardian minister, Pune.

The 2017 Jeep Compass was unveiled in India in April 2017. For now the introductory price is expected to be set to Rs 16 lakh.

The SUV features a brand new design compared to the old model and features a 1.4-litre MultiAir petrol engine that delivers about 160 PS and 250 Nm. The diesel option delivers 170 PS and 350 Nm. Both engines are literally futureproof when it comes to compliance. Both are BS-IV compliant and can be scaled up to meet BS-VI as well and are mated to a 6-speed manual and a 7-speed automatic for the petrol models. The SUV offers a multitude of drive options with features like Jeep Active Drive, Selec Terrain Traction management system and more.
New Delhi: China may not have forgiven India for snubbing its mega trans-continent corridor initiative, but in what may rankle more is that New Delhi and Tokyo, Beijing's arch rival, are pushing ahead with a development corridor between Asia and Africa.

The announcement of the Asia Africa Growth Corridor (AAGC), made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the African Development Bank (AfDB) meet in Gandhinagar in May, came days after China hosted with great pomp the first One Belt One Road (OBOR) summit in Beijing. The venture is expected to get further impetus in September during the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

India has been involved in Africa for many years, in trade as well as capacity-building activities. Japan, which has been working on infrastructure projects in Africa, can help with its advanced technology as well as funds for the AAGC. Japan is reportedly planning to commit $200 billion for the proposed growth corridor.

So, is the AAGC meant as a counter to OBOR?

"The two are completely separate. OBOR is different. Long before OBOR, India and Japan were individually working in Africa, and were talking to each other about Africa," Rajiv Bhatia, a former Indian ambassador, told IANS.

"India and Japan feel that by intensifying cooperation with Africa, they can help each other and Africa. We are working on the AAGC in our own way and at our own pace," said the former High Commissioner to South Africa and Kenya.

He said that China's engagement in Africa is extensive, while the India-Japan collaboration is beginning to take shape. The AAGC shows that India and Japan desire to take their cooperation beyond the bilateral sphere, he added.

China's OBOR, proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013, is an estimated $5 trillion connectivity corridor spanning over 60 countries across Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Africa. It is meant to be a revival of the ancient Silk Road trading route and is expected to comprise building of roads, bridges, gas pipelines, ports, railways and power plants, besides SEZs.

India and Japan had begun a dialogue on Africa in 2010, a continent in which both have much stake. The main objective of the AAGC is to enhance growth and connectivity between Asia and Africa. According to the vision document, the corridor will focus on four areas: Development Cooperation Projects, Quality Infrastructure and Institutional Connectivity, Enhancing Skills, and People-to-People Partnership.

Agriculture, health, technology, and disaster management are the main areas of development cooperation. It will focus on boosting skills and research and development capacities in Africa.

According to a report by McKinsey, China is Africa's largest economic partner, with goods trade worth $188 billion in 2015 -- compared to $59 billion with India. Since the turn of the millennium, Africa-China trade has been growing at approximately 20 per cent per year, the report says, adding that there are around 10,000 Chinese firms in Africa,

Three think-tanks -- India's Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), Indonesia's Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), and Japan's Institute of Developing Economies (IDE-JETRO), prepared the vision document for AAGC. They have produced one report on the corridor and another report is due in a few months, said Bhatia.

He said that at the corporate level, companies of India, Japan and from Africa are looking at specified sectors of the growth corridor in order to execute projects. "There is seriousness and earnestness" behind the initiative, he added.

Bhatia, a former Director General of Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), also feels that giving too much importance to OBOR and China would help Beijing.

Speaking on the comparison between OBOR and the AAGC, Sachin Chaturvedi, Director General, RIS, told IANS: "The OBOR, it seems, is visualised on the idea of economic corridors and infrastructure development with connectivity as the central focus, while the AAGC is a concept based on the theory of growth poles where several growth triangles and quadrangles are envisaged with different regional production hubs."

The proposed AAGC seeks to encompass and integrate Africa, India and South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia and Oceania.

India's increased engagement with Africa comes in the backdrop of the third India-Africa Forum Summit held in New Delhi in October 2015 when all 54 African nations had sent their representatives. India has also made many high level visits to several African countries, as part of its outreach. India also held the AfDB annual meeting in Gandhinagar this May.
New Delhi: The last date for filing of Income Tax Returns (ITRs) for the financial year 2016-17 will not be extended beyond tomorrow's deadline, a top official today said. (calculate your tax here)

"The last date for filing of ITRs remains July 31. There are no plans to extend this deadline. The department has already received over 2 crore returns filed electronically.

The department requests taxpayers to file their return in time," the official said.

On reports of the e-filing website facing some glitches, the official said that no major glitches have been reported with the department's e-filing website-- http://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/--barring a few times when the portal was "interrupted for maintenance".

The department has also issued advertisements in leading national dailies in the last few days stating that taxpayers should disclose their income "correctly" and file their ITRs on or before 31 July.

If you haven't filed your returns, here's Firstpost's Bindisha Sarang's piece on how to do it. Read about it here.

The linking of Aadhaar number with the PAN (Permanent Account Number) of a taxpayer has also been made mandatory for filing of an ITR, beginning 1 July.

The department has also asked taxpayers to declare cash deposits made in bank accounts aggregating to Rs 2 lakh or more, post demonetisation between 9 November-30 December last year, in the ITRs.

The ITRs to be filed by 31 July pertain to 2016-17 fiscal or assessment year 2017-18.
New Delhi: Though discussions on shifting the financial year to January-December instead of April-March are still on within the government, the change will not happen next year, according to Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar.

In order to start the next financial year from January 2018, the government needs to present the Union Budget some time in November, which does not seem to be possible as the process is time-consuming and has to be kicked-off well ahead, the minister said.

"These are points of discussion in the government. For now, consider March as the end of this fiscal year," Gangwar told IANS in an interview.

After Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the current parliament session said the government is considering changing the financial year to January-December, speculation has been rife about the switchover in 2018.

However, there was no official confirmation either way on this and the government continued its stance of "discussions are on".

Experts were of the opinion that the mammoth change was not likely to happen so soon after implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from July 1, as the shift involves a lot of operational issues, including cutting short the year to three-quarters, changes in government's balance sheet, new assessment year for income taxpayers and bringing forward of the Union Budget.

The Narendra Modi government had already advanced the Union Budget by a month to 1 February from 2017 in order to complete all the legislative processes and approvals for annual spending before the start of the financial year from April 1.

So far, Madhya Pradesh is the only state to adopt a January-December financial year. On 2 May, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced that the state would be shifting to the new fiscal from 2018 and complete all its budgetary proceedings by the close of 2017.

Chouhan has also issued instructions to clearly chalk out the state government programmes to be completed in quarterly, half-yearly and annual fashion.

The April-March financial year was adopted in India in 1867 to align it with that of the British government.

Prior to that, the Indian financial year used to begin from 1 May and end on 30 April.

Meanwhile, with the GST Council meeting scheduled for 5 August, Gangwar said the various issues that have cropped up since the roll-out of the new indirect tax regime would be discussed.

The minister said that the tax rates on textiles, hybrid cars and gold could also be discussed.

"We have decided that on 5 August whatever changes are necessary will be brought about. The problems being faced by people... Council will discuss on those lines and whether any change is needed," he said.

"Since the time GST has been implemented, people are putting forth representations on tax rates from all states. We will consider (them)," he added.

The minister, however, noted that the 1 July roll-out has been smoother than expected and the government was ready for more challenges.

"The glitches and problems experienced have been less than expected," Gangwar said.
By 1939 it was obvious that it was not safe for Jews to remain in Germany. Over 900 Jews scraped up enough cash to book a passage on the passenger ship called St. Louis headed for Cuba and the United States.

They all applied for U.S. visas before doing so and all were granted landing certificates and transit visas from Cuba. The plan was to disembark at Havana and wait for their U.S. visas to be approved. After Kristallnacht the previous fall, every day longer in Germany was a serious threat to all Jews.

By the time they got to Cuba, the transit visas for Cuba were withdrawn. Of the 937 passengers, only 28 had U.S. Visas; 908 did not. Without the necessary visas, Cuba refused to allow them to disembark. The ship headed on to the United States. They begged President Franklin Roosevelt to let them stay, but he did not reply  even though it was a major news story in the U.S.

After many days within sight of Florida, waiting for the government of the United States to act, the ship had no choice but to head back to Europe.

To Great Britains credit, they agreed to take 288 of the passengers, all but one of whom survived the Holocaust. However, at least 254 Jews from the St. Louis ended up in Hitlers gas chambers. Some 278 survived, mostly because they were accepted as refugees by France, Holland and Belgium. But then they lost their freedom when Hitler invaded those countries; what these 278 endured over the next six years was obviously devastating.

I suspect that most, if not all, Americans would now say that Roosevelt made a big mistake by not accepting these Jewish refugees  all of whom were facing death if they were returned to Germany. In fact, most Americans would probably agree that the United States should have taken many more Jews if that could have saved them from the gas chambers. About that same time, Senator Robert Wagners bill to admit 20,000 Jewish children from Germany was allowed to die in committee.

Great Britain, France, Holland, and Belgium are certainly to be respected because of their willingness to step up to the plate and help. But no help was received from the United States.

We now have another chance. Over 7 million refugees have succeeded in making it out of Syria where their lives were endangered as a result of the brutal civil war in their country. Another 500,000 refugees a year are coming from Africa where their lives are endangered because of drought, famine and civil unrest in Central Africa. We can help.

But what has the US government done? We have agreed to take 200,000 so long as they undergo a 2-year vetting process. Thats only 2.5 percent of the immediate problem. For a country which has nearly one-fifth of the worlds gross product (i.e., worlds annual wealth production)  more than all of Europe combined, isnt that an embarrassment once again?

President Trump and his followers even want to shut off that number. They apparently dont want any refugees to come into this country.

Virtually every religion in the world encourages its members to help other people in need. I would like to think that Christians are particularly supportive of this admonition. The people on the ship St. Louis in 1939 were certainly people in need. The same is true today of the Syrian and African refugees. It is a matter of morality, particularly Christian morality. Rejecting people for no good reason, people who otherwise are in serious fear of their lives, will reflect on the morality of the United States as a country. Where is the moral soul of the people of this great country?

The lesson of the ship St. Louis in 1939 should not be ignored. If we claim to have any morality as a country, dont we have to pay attention to these genuinely needy refugees?
New Delhi: Detection and reportage of suspicious transactions, fake currency notes and cross-border fund transfers in the country's economic channels doubled in the last fiscal year, leading to unearthing of over Rs 560 crore black money, a government report has said.

The report of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), the premier technical snoop wing under the Finance Ministry, said the financial year 2015-16 saw a "record increase" in the detection of such instances. All banks and financial intermediaries apprise the FIU of the detections as part of their obligation to comply with the country's anti-money laundering and counter-terror financing measures.

"The year 2015-16 ... saw a record increase in the number of reports received, processed and disseminated by the FIU," the recent report, accessed by PTI, said.

The number of cash transaction reports (CTRs) doubled from 80 lakh in 2014-15 to over 1.6 crore in 2015-16 and that of suspicious transaction reports (STRs) rose from 58,646 to 1,05,973 during the period, it said.

"A similar growth was registered in counterfeit currency reports (CCRs) -- over 16 percent, NTRs -- nearly 25 percent, while there was an 850 percent growth in the number of cross border wire transfer reports (CBWTRs) during the period," the report said.

The central agency, tasked with analysing suspicious transactions in Indian banking and other financial channels, also issued a "record number" of 21 sanctions against the violating entities (banks and others) under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The report attributed the increase in the number of detection and their reportage to the FUIs "proactive outreach" to stakeholders to ensure that they increasingly detect such instances. However, a senior finance ministry official said it was due to the "increasing penetration" of technology and awareness against suspect fund movements at a time when the fight against black money is actively being pursued in the country and the world.

"An increased awareness and the fight against black money is leading all the stakeholders, including the government and reporting entities such as banks and others, to be pro-active in detecting suspicious activities in their channels," the official said, requesting anonymity.

"A sustained momentum in law enforcement and strict compliance of established norms is required to keep these numbers growing, which is an indicator that the regime against black money, tax evasion and money laundering is strong in India," he said.

The report said that based on the STRs disseminated by the FIU, the CBDT detected unaccounted income of Rs 154.89 crore, the Enforcement Directorate nosed out proceeds of crime of Rs 107.47 crore and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) came across assets worth Rs 300 crore during 2015-16.

The total value of money unearthed stands at Rs 562.36 crore.

It said the black money detection figures in the last fiscal year are for "only 5 percent of cases" flagged by the FIU to probe agencies.

The FIU obtains reports from banks and other institutions and sends them for action to investigative and enforcement agencies that are mandated under the law to combat economic crimes.

While over 3.53 lakh CCRs were received in 2014-15, their number rose by 16 percent to over 4.10 lakh in 2015-16.

Similarly, CBWT reports during 2015-16 increased to over 1.1 crore as against 34 lakh in the previous year.

Cross-border wire transfer pertains to any transaction of more than Rs 5,00,000 or its equivalent in foreign currency where either the origin or destination of fund is in India. Likewise, CCR is defined as the usage of a forged or counterfeit currency note or bank note as genuine or where any forgery of a valuable security or a document has taken place during a cash transaction at a bank.

An STR is a transaction that either indicates that it has been made in circumstances of unusual or unjustified complexity or appears to have no economic rationale or bona fide purpose.

It is also applicable to the transactions that give rise to a reasonable ground of suspicion that it may involve financing of the activities relating to terrorism.

An NPO Transaction Report (NTR) pertains to all transactions involving receipts by non-profit organisations of more than Rs 10 lakh or its equivalent in foreign currency.

The FIU, established in 2004, provides financial intelligence to law enforcement agencies for safeguarding the economy from abuses of money laundering, terrorist financing and other offences.

It disseminates this data to probe agencies to check economic crimes, ascertain the extent of fake Indian currency notes (FICN) in banking channels and undertake legal action under criminal laws to check money laundering and black money.
The much-hyped deal between Flipkart and Snapdeal, which was earlier in the day reported to have hit the pause mode, has been called off. "Snapdeal has been exploring strategic options over the last several months. The company has now decided to pursue an independent path and is terminating all strategic discussions as a result," Snapdeal spokesperson said in an emailed statement, without naming Flipkart, PTI said.

The deal has been in the works for long ever since the e-commerce company started feeling the pinch of the fierce competition in the sector. Media reports cite various reasons for the fall-off of the deal, including valuation mismatch.

Snapdeal had even recently sold off FreeCharge for Rs 385 crore, at one-sixth of the price it bought the mobile payment solutions company in 2015, to Axis bank. There was speculation that this could clear the path for the sell-off of the company.

Sector analysts and specialists have been surprised by Snapdeal's decision to call off the talks.

With big investors involved in the deal with different goals, there would have been roadblocks with the acquisition. Even the small investors  early angels, venture capitalists and co-founders, are betting on a exit strategy and a bigger valuation, said Paula Mariwala, Partner, Seedfund and Co-Founder, Stanford Angels. Everybody wants to be a leader in the business. Snapdeal also wants to be one. "It is not easy to let go," she says.

Has the exit from Freecharge made Snapdeal confident of going solo as a lean entity? Industry sources shot down the suggestions. They will to have to raise money from existing investors. It is not going to be easy and in the wake of stiff competition from Flipkart and Amazon. Snapdeal will have no chance to go it alone, analysts said.

Japan-based Softbank, which is keen to invest in Flipkart, had faced resistance from early investors in Snapdeal -- Kalaari Partners and Nexus Venture Partners -- over the valuation issue. Softbank later did manage to get Kalaari Partners on board for the planned Snapdeal sale.

Control, a decisive factor

There are other factors at play. It may be issues of control and or valuation, said Devangshu Dutta, chief executive of Third Eyesight, a consulting firm. It would require all shareholders of Snapdeal to agree to the deal. Some may not be in favour of it, he said.

The pittance at which FreeCharge was sold could also be another reason for the board of Snapdeal and its founders to kick in their heels and not let go off a flailing company in the face of competition from giants like Flipkart and Amazon.

Kunal Bahl is known to be a fighter, a sector specialist said, adding that he would not like to exit without a higher valuation for Snapdeal. The stalling of the deal could be a combination of the egos of the founders and math of the investors at play, the specialist said.

The waters have been muddied now with both parties  Flipkart and Snapdeal -- not being able to come to the table. However, with the sale of FreeCharge, Snapdeal has breathing space and with it looking for a buyer for its logistics arm, Vulcan Express, it looks like it probably wanted to go it alone.

Though investors are believed to have called the shots at Snapdeal, the voice of its co-founders are significant. I dont think investors had much choice really in this deal, an analyst said.

Another reason could be that Flipkart's acquisitions over the last three years have not yielded any senior management roles for the executives of these firms after being acquired, pointed out Dutta, saying that could be a cause for concern too.

More attrition can be expected from Snapdeal in order to be fitter and leaner to survive on its own. But a Snapdeal 2.0 will be very difficult if they follow their existing business strategy, said Dutta. Snapdeal will have to reinvent itself to be able to survive the onslaught of Flipkart and Amazon.

Though Amazon has had a 77 percent drop in profits largely because of its focus on new markets like India, it is willing to burn cash to acquire a leadership position here. It also has the technical edge as well. That is not the case with Flipkart which has multiple investors who will have to all agree to the e-commerce majors plans to scale up.

Expressing his surprise at the Snapdeal-Flipkart deal being called off, Harish HV, Partner, India Leadership Team, Grant Thornton India LLP, said though both the parties were actively engaged in the deal, trying to marry in the larger interests of the company and the interests of its shareholders may have posed difficulties. "Something has clearly not worked for Snapdeal and there could have been challenges," he said.

The company said it has a "new and compelling direction - Snapdeal 2.0" and has made significant progress towards the ability to execute this by achieving a gross profit this month. "In addition, with the sale of certain non-core assets, Snapdeal is expected to be financially self-sustainable," it added.

Snapdeal 2.0 would be a tough call, if the company continues to follow its present business strategy. "Snapdeal will have to raise money from independent sources and that is going to difficult, but not impossible," said Dutta.

Kunal Bahl, co-founder, Snapdeal was upbeat on Twitter following the announcement.

I believe @1kunalbahl can pull off Snapdeal 2.0 . More competition is good for the market !  Bipin Preet Singh (@BipinSingh) July 31, 2017

Many new e-commerce businesses are being launched in this difficult scenario in India where there is a fund-crunch and valuations are being drastically revised. There are clear market leaders here like Flipkart and Amazon. Snapdeal will have to reinvent itself and not follow the agenda set up by Flipkart and Amazon. But this deal break off now forces Flipkart to rethink its strategy from the point of view of competition and maintain its slim lead in the e-commerce business.
Angelina Jolie has given a statement to clear up the controversy surrounding her recent Vanity Fair cover story, and the details of the 'casting game' that Jolie described was used for the audition process of her upcoming Netflix Original film First They Killed My Father.

The cover story was written by Vanity Fair contributor Evgenia Peretz, and resulted in a media storm for Jolie and her movie, as she received lots of flak from critics all over that called the exercise 'cruel'.

"Every measure was taken to ensure the safety, comfort and well-being of the children on the film starting from the auditions through production to the present. I am upset that a pretend exercise in an improvisation, from an actual scene in the film, has been written about as if it was a real scenario. The suggestion that real money was taken from a child during an audition is false and upsetting. I would be outraged myself if this had happened," said Jolie according to a report by The Huffington Post.

The 'casting game' that was described in the Vanity Fair article reported a strange method that was used during the shooting of First They Killed My Father in order to draw the deepest, realest and rawest emotions from the actors of the movie. The technique involved giving money to an impoverished Cambodian child and subsequently taking it away as the child was "overwhelmed with emotion", which is how the girl Srey Moch who was finally selected for the lead role in the movie  was awarded the part, according to an interview Jolie gave to Vanity Fair.

"Srey Moch was the only child that stared at the money for a very, very long time. When she was forced to give it back, she became overwhelmed with emotion. All these different things came flooding back. When she was asked later what the money was for, she said her grandfather had died, and they didnt have enough money for a nice funeral," Jolie had said, according to the same Vanity Fair article.

First They Killed My Father is reportedly Jolie's most personal film till date. Donning the director's hat for this movie, First They Killed My Father is based on the 2000 memoir by Loung Ung of the Khmer Rouge genocide that rocked Cambodia, killing two of Ung's siblings and her parents. The movie tells the story of what life was like when Cambodian dictator Pol Pot was in power. Approximately two million Cambodians, apart from Ung's family members, also perished in this period which left a dark mark on Cambodian history.

Cambodia is a place that has proven to be deeply cathartic for Jolie, as it is where she adopted her first child  son Maddox who was also a large part of the movie during its shooting  and restarted her life. First They Killed My Father is the largest production that Cambodia has seen since it was hit with war, having been shot entirely in the country.

The movie is slated for release in the latter half of 2017.
Evelyn Sharma is going to be seen in a cameo in Shah Rukh Khan-Anushka Sharma starrer Jab Harry Met Sejal and the actor will be speaking in German (her mother tongue) on screen for the first time in a Bollywood movie.

The actor is reportedly ecstatic about the fact that she is associated in any capacity with Imtiaz Ali's next directorial venture, even if it is "a two-minute role". Having grown up in Frankfurt, Germany, Evelyn feels that life has finally come full circle for her after she had the opportunity to "speak her mother tongue" and "be herself on the silver screen" according to a Times of India report.

The actor landed the role after she shared a flight with Ali on their way to Udaipur. "We got talking and he mentioned how Ranbir Kapoor (who happens to be his friend) appreciated my work in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. Imtiaz was also penning the script of JHMS on the plane. When he learnt that I could speak German fluently, he asked me if I could help him with a few lines in German (Shah Rukh speaks the lines in the film as a tourist guide). I was happy to help. A week after this, I was delighted to get an opportunity to be in the film for a cameo," said Evelyn according to a Bombay Times report.

The movie sees Khan in the role of a tourist guide from Punjab while Anushka plays a Gujarati girl. What follows is an entertaining affair. The romantic drama was widely shot in Prague, Amsterdam, Lisbon and Budapest and it marks the third time that Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma have been paired together after Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and Jab Tak Hai Jaan.

Jab Harry Met Sejal is slated to release on 4 August.
Four days away from the release of Imtiaz Ali's romantic comedy Jab Harry Met Sejal, the makers have accelerated the promotions. As an interesting part of their promotional strategy, they have launched the #JHMSOnWheels campaign on Twitter.

According to this campaign, a Jab Harry Met Sejal themed bus will be touring the country. Fans who spot the bus and tweet their pictures along with the location of the bus will get a chance to meet the lead pair of the film, Anushka Sharma and Shah Rukh Khan, in person. The best pictures will be decided by the Jab Harry Met Sejal Team and the winners will be invited to meet the lead pair of the film.

Fans from across the length and breadth of the country responded to the campaign by tweeting selfies with the Jab Harry Met Sejal bus in the background.

However, it is interesting that the stars, particularly Shah Rukh, did not participate directly in the nationwide bus tour. The reason behind his absence could be the tragedy that occurred during the promotions of his last release and production, Rahul Dholakia's gangster flick Raees.

During the #RaeesOnRail promotional tour, Shah Rukh embarked on a train journey from Mumbai to Delhi in an effort to promote his film days before its release. However, as a result of his massive fan following, fans turned up in large numbers at the Vadodara railway station where the train halted for a few minutes. The ensuing stampede led to the tragic demise of one of the fans.

The actor later expressed regret over how the promotional move backfired. However, earlier this month, he was summoned by a Vadodara court over the same incident. However, Gujarat High Court stayed the proceedings and fixed 25 September as the date of hearing.

This could have been the reason why both Shah Rukh and Anushka have wisely distanced themselves from Jab Harry Met Sejal on Wheels yet got themselves incorporated into the campaign.
New York: Sam Shepard, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, Oscar-nominated actor and celebrated author whose plays chronicled the explosive fault lines of family and masculinity in the American West, has died. He was 73.

A family spokesperson said on 31 July that Shepard died on 27 July at his home in Kentucky from complications related to Lou Gehrig's disease, or Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

The taciturn Shepard, who grew up on a California ranch, was a man of few words who nevertheless produced 44 plays and numerous books, memoirs and short stories. His 1979 play, Buried Child, won the Pulitzer for drama.

His Western drawl and laconic presence made him a reluctant movie star, too. He appeared in dozens of films, and was nominated for an Oscar for his performance in 1983's astronaut drama The Right Stuff.

He was recently seen in the Netflix's thriller drama Bloodline, where he portrayed the character of the patriarch of the Rayburn house, Robert Rayburn. He has also appeared on various stage shows at New York, and has received great reviews and accolades, especially, for his performance in Caryl Churchills 2004 production, A Number.

In his glorious career, Shepard has been conferred with many Obie Awards for his plays like Chicago, Icaruss Mother, Red Cross and La Turista, to name a few.

He is survived by his three children  Jesse, Hannah and Walker Shepard  and his sisters, Sandy and Roxanne Rogers, reports The New York Times.

(With inputs from AP)
Mumbai: A special court on Monday rejected a plea of an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast that his arrest was a case of mistaken identity.

In his application, Dayanand Pandey said his name was Sudhakar Dwivedi and his arrest was the result of mistaken identity.

The special court for National Investigation Agency (NIA) rejected the application filed by Pandey, said special prosecutor Avinash Rasal.

After he took 'sannyas' (renounced the world), he came to be known as 'Swamy Amrutanand' and later as 'Shankaracharya', he said.

However, Rasal argued in the court that during his arrest, while signing arrest form, he never disputed that he was Dayanand Pandey, nor did he say anything when produced before a magistrate.

Accepting Rasal's argument, judge SD Tekale dismissed Pandey's application.

Six people were killed and nearly 100 others injured when a bomb strapped to a motorcycle went off at Malegaon in Nashik district of Maharashtra on 29 September 2008.

Twelve people, including sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Army officer Prasad Purohit, were arrested in connection with the blast in the town which has sizable Muslim population.

The NIA earlier this year gave a clean chit to Thakur, following which she obtained bail.
Three days before National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met Chinese president Xi Jinping in Beijing, soldiers of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) transgressed into Indian territory in Uttarakhands Barahoti on 25 July, reported ANI.

Chinese soldiers transgressed into Uttarakhand's Barahoti on 25 July at about 9 am & came into Indian territory upto 800m to 1 km: Sources pic.twitter.com/x8MF4Cs5bt  ANI (@ANI_news) July 31, 2017

According to ANI, the Chinese soldiers entered 800 meters into the Indian territory in Barahoti of Uttarakhand's Chamoli district around 9 am. Times Now reported that 10-12 Chinese soldiers were involved in the incident.

Barahoti is the same place where in July last year, two PLA soldiers had entered 200 metres into the Indian territory, wrote Times of India, adding that the then defence minister Manohar Parrikar had said that the border has not been demarcated there and the two sides differ on perception about it.

Uttarakhand shares a 350-kilometre long border with China and similar attempts at Chinese incursions have been reported in the past as well, the Indian Express reported.

India and China have been involved in a military standoff at Sikkim's Doka La sector for over a month now. China has accused India of trespassing into its territory at Doka La and stopping the construction of a road. India and Bhutan, on the other hand, say that the road lies in the latters territory.

There was hope of a breakthrough in the border row last week ahead of Doval's meeting with Xi on the sidelines of BRICS summit in Beijing. However, no solution could emerge in the meeting.

The Sikkim border row is the longest standoff between the two armies since 1962.

The last one, which carried on for 21 days, occurred at Daulat Beg Oldie in the Ladakh division of Jammu and Kashmir in 2013 when Chinese troops entered 30 kilometres into Indian territory till the Depsang Plains and claimed it to be a part of its Xinjiang province. They were, however, pushed back.
On Monday, the Centre told the Supreme Court that it will take the final call on the rollout of genetically modified (GM) mustard crop in September.

Last week, the apex court told the government to inform it if GM crops were detrimental to the health of humans and animals.

The ball is now squarely in the hands of the Centre and more specifically, members of the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC)  one of whom is appointed by the Supreme Court, the rest are appointed by the environment ministry  which regulates the testing and introduction of GM crops.

But the Ministry of Environment sub-committee has already issued a report declaring GM mustard safe and claiming it does not raise any public health concerns. The environment ministry reinforced these findings by submitting an affidavit stating the same to the Supreme Court.

However, environmentalists are far from satisfied. They are demanding the environment ministry make all documents on this study available.

Dr Pushpa M Bhargava, Indias premier geneticist, who was appointed to the GEAC by the apex court, has warned that opening the door to GM crops at the macro level could prove disastrous. "Our agriculture will be in the hands of multinational companies," he warns. "We will lose our independence."

Bhargava has also casting doubts over the sub-committee's findings. Bhargava said, "My impression of the Assessment of Food and Environmental Safety Report (of the environment ministry) is that most of the important conclusions have been drawn from insufficient data and inadequate experimentation."

At the heart of the controversy lies the transgenic crop, Dhara Mustard Hybrid-11 (DMH-11), developed by the Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants, University of Delhi.

Some scientists from the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), which comprises 625 fellows, have endorsed the GEAC decision and dashed off a letter to the PMO stating that the government must quickly implement this decision as it would help lift farmers out of poverty by 2022.

In their letter, NAAS scientists reportedly said: "We are aware of the massive negative propaganda against GM crops by activists who are causing serious damage to the future of Indian agriculture." The scientists claimed they were writing on behalf of their NAAS brethren.

Scientists sound alarm

However, others have insisted that more data must be provided by the Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants before such a crucial decision  that can affect the livelihoods of millions of farmers  can be taken. They argue that GM mustard could end up destroying our many varieties of swadeshi mustard.

Dr Panjab Singh, a senior NAAS member, also wrote to the PMO. He said he was not even informed of the NAAS meet and claimed there was no information available about how many members were present when the scientists took the crucial decision of writing the letter.

Singh stated in his letter that even as the yield of Bt cotton has stagnated since 2007, its failure is being converted into a great success. He added that the yield has dropped below 500 kilogram per hectare in the past three years.

Singh added in his letter: "What is even more alarming is the grave regulatory exclusions and false entries that must void these trials. Yet, they were not only accepted but justified for commercial approval based on a false claim of superior yield performance."

Singh was part of a five-member technical evaluation committee  appointed by the apex court  which submitted a report in 2012 advising that GM crops be banned. "I stand by that report," Singh says. "Every genetically modified organism must prove it is needed after satisfying all the relevant criterion of yield and trait superiority." He further added that the risks must be assessed by independent experts,

Professor PC Kesavan, head of JNU's School of Life Sciences, is equally perturbed by what he calls the "unacceptable levels of distortion of scientific facts to support the release of GM Mustard DMH-11."

A fraud on the nation, some say

Which is precisely the point scientist and environmentalist Dr Vandana Shiva made in May. In an interview with Firstpost, she condemned the GEAC decision and expressed surprise that it had given approval to GM mustard  which had been rejected in 2002  and stated that the Bayer-Monsanto GM mustard has a lower yield compared to non-genetically modified organism (GMO).

"A great fraud is being perpetuated on the country that GM mustard would increase yield," she said. "The truth is that GMO mustard is herbicide-resistant compared to Bayer's herbicide glufosinate, which is a neurotoxin." She added that resistance across India must intensify to "the hijack of our food by Monsanto and Bayer."

A similar concern was voiced by botanist Pushpa Amarnath. "I'm very concerned about the implications of GM crops. I realise that this GM mustard  with a public sector face  opens the door for other GMOs in the pipeline. A herbicide-tolerant crop will mean more chemical residue for consumers, and in the case of glufosinate weedicide, it is a known neurotoxin and a reproductive toxin," Pushpa said.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, who will be arguing the case before the Supreme Court, points says that if GM mustard is introduced, it will "change our mustard at the molecular level with the toxicity remaining in perpetuity."

Bhushan says India has 9720 accessions of mustard in one gene bank located the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources. "If GM crop is introduced, contamination of this vast gene back is inevitable. Even more shocking is that all scientific evidence shows that our mustard hybrids provide a 25 to 30 percent higher yield to GM mustard. Yet the government wants to go ahead," Bhushan says.

Some say the most convincing argument against GM crops comes from French molecular biologist Dr Gilles-Eric Seralini and his team, who fed Monsantos Round UP resistant NK603 maize and herbicide Round Up to 200 rats over a two-year lifespan. The team claimed that a majority of rats developed liver and kidney diseases and mammary tumours. The study was initially withdrawn and later republished, however critics claim that it is still flawed.

Seralini, on a visit to India, told Firstpost: "Our study is the first to be carried out on lab rodents over their normal lifespan, as opposed to the usual 90 days. Other studies have tested pesticides on rodents for just a few months. BT corn is being fed to animals, including pigs and cows, which are subsequently killed for meat. So we do not have a chance to know exactly what impact these products are having on these animals."

"Our study showed these foods are hidden poison. Ten kilos of petroleum is required to produce one kilo of food. These GM crops are being made out of pesticides which are known to be kidney and liver disruptors," Seralini added.

Most of the mustard producing states, including Harayana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh oppose the rollout of GM mustard. Millions of mustard growing farmers across the country are eagerly watching the Supreme Court hearings. After all, their livelihood is at stake.
The Bengaluru police arrested five people in connection with an attack on a Chinese national in Indira Nagar on Monday, according to media reports.

India Today reported that the incident occurred on Saturday night and that the victim, Yan, is a businessman.

CNN-News18 reported that Yan was waiting for a taxi when he was attacked by miscreants. His face was slashed by his assailants who robbed him of his cellphone and wallet.

A nearby police van rushed to the spot after Yan raised his voice for help but the attackers fled on motorcycles, India Today reported.

All five attackers were later arrested by the police, ANI reported.

Deccan Chronicle reported that the police recovered two 2-wheelers used by the assailants.

The accused were identified as Mani, Manikantha, Vijay, Arunkirran and Sharath, according to the report.
In a rare break from his silence on the Senates Affordable Care Act repeal and replacement efforts, Sen. Steve Daines pledged in an interview with Yellowstone Public Radio that his support for the Senate bill would depend on a single component: Planned Parenthoods defunding.

YPR reporter Edward OBrien asked Daines, So if that [Planned Parenthood] funding was restored, youd vote against the bill? Daines response was clear: I would. Nothing about voting based on the bills effects on health care access and affordability, nor its impact on rural hospitals or mental health and drug treatment providers.

Daines tunnel vision on limiting abortion access is both off-base and hypocritical. For all of Daines focus on championing fetuses, he has repeatedly demonstrated that this concern stops at birth. If Daines were really committed to Montana childrens wellbeing, would he have voted Wednesday to repeal Obamacare with no replacement? Late Thursday night, would he have fallen into line behind McConnell by voting for the skinny repeal, which would have caused 16-20 million Americans to lose health care?

Daines yes vote on the skinny repeal was deeply irresponsible. The bill would have harmed Montanas most vulnerable: children, low-income people, those with disabilities and mental health issues, LGBTQ people, rural Montanans, veterans and Native communities.

Not only did Daines refuse to do the right thing by voting against the skinny repeal, he based his support on the wrong things: a misplaced commitment to restrict womens right to health care amplified by partisan cowardice.

Elena Hodges

Helena
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea of liquor manufacturers from Bihar to extend the 31 July deadline for disposing of the old stock over 2.80 lakh bottles of alcoholic beverages outside the state.

A bench of justices Dipak Misra and AM Khanwilkar turned down the plea of the Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Company seeking extension of the time granted by the apex court.

The manufacturers' group had sought more time to get rid of the liquor stocks on the ground that over 2.8 lakh bottles were still left and would cause immense financial loss to them.

The plea was opposed by advocate Keshav Mohan, who was appearing for the Bihar government.

A vacation bench of the apex court had on 8 June modified its earlier order and allowed the liquor manufacturers to dispose of their old stock worth over Rs 200 crore outside the state by 31 July.

The manufacturers had told the bench that there were two issues  destruction of old stocks and export  in the plea filed earlier. The apex court's 29 May order had mentioned only about time to destroy the stocks.

In the 29 May order, the court had said, "Time to destroy /drain the stocks is extended up to 31 July, 2017. It is made clear that no further extension will be granted in future."

Earlier, the court had extended till 31 May the deadline of 30 April for disposing of the old stocks, including raw material, fixed by the Nitish Kumar government which had imposed a ban on liquor in the state from 1 April last year.

On 29 May, the counsel representing the manufacturers, had submitted before the apex court that the firms would be incurring huge losses if they were not allowed to dispose of their existing stocks of alcoholic beverages outside Bihar.

The state government had opposed the demand for extension of time, claiming the firms were indulging in illegal liquor trade.

The apex court had on 31 March granted time till 31 May to these companies to dispose of the old stocks and directed them to follow the resolution passed by the Bihar government on disposal of stocks following the imposition of prohibition in the state.

The Bihar government had on 30 March passed a resolution by which it has allowed the companies to export their old stocks to other states.

The state government had granted time to export the excisable and non-excisable articles till 30 April, after which they would not be able to do so.

On 7 October, 2016, the apex court had stayed the operation of the Patna High Court judgement quashing the state's law banning sale and consumption of all types of liquor, saying liquor and fundamental rights "do not go together".

The Bihar government has challenged the high court verdict of 30 September, 2016.

However, after the law was set aside, the Bihar government had come out with a new law banning sale and consumption of liquor which was notified on 2 October, 2016.

It had notified the Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016 to ensure that the ban on sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages including Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) as well spiced and domestic liquor, continued in the state.
After a 14-year-old boy ended his life by jumping off a building in Mumbai, the police have said that there is no evidence that the death was a result of the 'Blue Whale' suicide challenge, reported The Indian Express.

There were reports earlier that the incident could be linked to the challenge as his friends were discussing the online game.

The Class 9 student jumped off the fifth floor of the building in Sher-e-Punjab area of suburban Andheri at around 5 pm on Saturday, the police said on Monday.

A person, who was standing near the building at the time of the incident, alerted the police.

The police are yet to find the reason behind the extreme step.

"The teenager's friends were chatting on social media groups about his death being linked to the Blue Whale online suicide challenge game. But, we are yet to examine his mobile phone and social media groups where he was active," a senior police official said.

The online challenge, which originated in Russia, starts by asking participants via social media to draw a blue whale on a piece of paper, the police said.

The participants are then asked to carve the whale onto their body. The participants and given other tasks, like watching horror movies alone, they explained.

According to media reports, the tasks also include harming oneself and waking up at unusual hours.

"Police were probing if the death is related to Blue Whale suicide challenge," Milind Khetle, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Meghwadi Division), told PTI.

Police are making enquiries with his friends and some members of social media groups in this connection, he said. "We could not meet his family members as they have gone to Nashik to perform post-death rituals," he said.

The police will also examine the teenager's mobile phone and other gadgets as part of the probe to know the exact reason behind the suicide, Khetle said.

The Meghwadi police have registered a case in the matter and probing the reason behind the suicide, Deputy Commissioner of Police Navinchandra Reddy said.
Britain's interior minister travels to Silicon Valley this week to ask social media companies such as YouTube to step up efforts to counter or remove content that incites militants, a source with knowledge of the visit said.

After four militant attacks in Britain which killed 36 people this year, senior ministers have repeatedly demanded that the world's biggest internet companies do more to suppress extremist content and allow access to encrypted communications.

Prime Minister Theresa May, a former interior minister, has consistently urged social media firms to take a tougher stance on extremism and after a deadly attack on London Bridge last month she even proposed trying to regulate cyberspace.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd will travel to the United States to meet senior executives of social media and internet service providers to discuss "tackling terrorist content available online," according to a person familiar with her plans.

Another source familiar with Rudd's trip said she had scheduled a meeting with representatives of YouTube, Alphabet Inc's video sharing platform.

Rudd is planning to attend a meeting of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, a working group which leading internet companies themselves set up to combine their efforts to remove terrorist content from their platforms.

The forum's partners are Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter, according to a blog post the companies jointly issued in late June.

The companies said the overall objective of the forum would be to "help us continue to make our hosted consumer services hostile to terrorists and violent extremists."

Social media and internet giants say they want to help governments remove extremist or criminal material but that they also have to balance the demands of state security with the freedoms enshrined in democratic societies.

The companies have pushed back against demands from some governments to allow security services access to end-to-end encrypted messages.
Chinese president Xi Jinping on Sunday, while reviewing a massive military parade of 12,000 troops, boasted that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has the capability of vanquishing "all invading enemies".

It was for the first time that Xi was presiding over such a large-scale parade (see the photos from the event here), which kicked off to mark the 90th founding anniversary of the world's largest armed force. "Our military has the confidence and ability to write a new chapter in building a strong military, and making new contributions towards realisation of China's dream of great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and safeguarding world peace," said Xi, who heads the Central Military Commission, which holds the overall command of the PLA.

While there was no reference in his speech to the month-long India-China military standoff at Doka La in Sikkim, his remarks came in the midst of shrill official media campaigns and assertions by the foreign and defence ministries in Beijing accusing Indian troops of trespassing into Chinese territory at the tri-junction border involving Bhutan.

Sunday's PLA parade was the biggest since 2015, and the PLA army and air force displayed their most modern weapons.

China demonstrated its new DF-31AG intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time, which has a reported range of around 15,000 kilometres. China has at least 90 ICBMs, out of which 66 are land-based and 24 are submarine-based, according to a report in The Indian Express. China also has missile shields that intercept incoming missile threats before they reach Chinese territory, the report added.

According to a defence white paper titled 'China's Military Strategy', published in 2015, the PLA boasts of around 7,000 tanks with 1.6 million active troops. Self-propelled artillery are weapons like howitzers, which can be mounted on motorised vehicles. China has 1,710 of them  about six times the number that India possesses.

While China possess 1,271 fighter aircrafts, India lags behind with just 676.

In terms of naval power as well, the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLA-N) has 283 major surface combatant warships, four times more than those under the control of the Indian Navy (66), says an IndiaSpend analysis.

China is taking the lead in cutting edge propulsion technology, which would help it build more elusive submarines, according to a South China Morning Post report. On 28 June, China launched its most advanced domestically produced destroyer, taking a giant stride in building indigenous yet complex naval platforms at a time of rising competition with other naval powers such as the US, Japan and India.

According to the Arms Control Association, a US-based nonpartisan membership organisation, China has around 270 nuclear warheads. China is also investing heavily in American Artificial Intelligence (AI) companies to develop future weapons system, The New York Times had reported on 20 July. The report added that China was planning to integrate AI into guided missiles.

In August last year, China had successfully launched the world's first quantum-enabled satellite, which was a major breakthrough in quantum information science, BBC reported. Quantum technologies hold great strategic implication in terms of future warfare. Some Chinese experts have even compared the strategic impact of quantum power with nuclear weapons.

On 4 March, Beijing announced that it would increase military spending by about 7 percent this year, BBC had reported. China's increased defence spending had raised concerns in South Asia, where the country has been taking an increasingly assertive stance regarding territorial disputes. At $152 billion, China's defence budget is the second largest in the world, only after the US military's.

The PLA Daily, official newspaper of the Chinese military, had reported on 12 July that it would be downsizing the 2.3 million-strong military to under one million in the biggest troop reduction in its history as part of a restructuring process.

The report had said that the number of troops in the PLA Navy, PLA Strategic Support Force and the PLA Rocket Force would be increased, while the PLA Air Force's active service personnel will remain the same.

So why is China cutting down on its troops? The Central Military Commission (CMC) has said it wants to transform the PLA from a "quantitative to a qualitative force", The Diplomat said, citing reasons for the downsizing.

With inputs from PTI
The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), which has been spearheading the ongoing strike in Darjeeling to press for a separate Gorkhaland state, has now given the Centre a 10-day deadline to address the issue, failing which, the party will aggravate the protests in Darjeeling. The latest development emerged on Monday even as daily life remains stunted in Darjeeling due to the indefinite strike in the hilly region of West Bengal.

According to the Times of India, GJM activists claimed that the Centre was acting like a "silent spectator" and there was a need to intensify agitations to ensure government intervention. The report adds that protests are likely to intensify in Terai and Dooars regions after this development.

Earlier on Sunday, pro-Gorkhaland activists had clashed with the police near the Bhutan border in Alipurduar district in West Bengal.

The GJM leadership claims that the clash occurred after protesters were stopped from carrying out a rally in Jaigaon during the 'global rally for Gorkhaland'. "We will not be oppressed by the administration anymore. The Gorkhas all over the world are with us," GJM assistant general secretary Binay Tamang told IANS.

He added that rallies were being held in England, various parts of Europe, Australia, Thailand and in major cities across India.

The Times of India report claims that the agitators had not taken prior permission to hold the rally, which caused the escalation. However, Tamang claims that the police mistreated the protesters in the rally. Six police personnel and several activists were injured in the clashes.

The hills have witnessed numerous instances of protests taking a turn for the worse, with clashes erupting last week in Sukna. According to the Hindustan Times, one GJM supporter and three policemen were injured in this incident.

This culmination of unrest featured in the Rajya Sabha as well on Monday, with a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) member asking the government to hold talks with the protesters to restore normalcy in the affected areas. "You may or may not accept their demand...please invite the agitators and have a talk so that normalcy can be restored," Majeed Memon said during Zero Hour in the Upper House.

Memon said the call for a separate Gorkhaland state has taken a violent turn. He added that the shutdown, which has been going on for more than seven weeks, has caused a severe shortage of essential commodities like food and water (in affected areas). "It's felt that the agitation that is going on for whatever demand, may be justified or may not be justified...the ruling party in West Bengal probably is not in good terms with the Centre and it is because of the hostility between the two, the Centre and the state...the people are sandwiched, they are suffering," he added.

The debate also highlighted that because of the prolonged agitations, Darjeeling tea has not come to the markets for auction for the first time in 150 years.

Another political development around the unrest took place last week when the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Hansraj Gangaram Ahir told the Parliament that there was no proposal to form any committee to look into the demand for a separate state for the Gorkhas. "There is no proposal to appoint a committee to look into the merits and demerits of the demands of the Gorkhas, adivasis and others," he said during the discussion.

To this statement, a senior Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) leader had told PTI last week, "The BJP is making fun of us with such statements. This is an indication that they are not giving importance to our demand. If they think that they can get away with making only false promises to us during elections for the sake of votes, they are wrong. The people of the hills will give them a befitting reply."

Monday marks the 49th day of the indefinite shutdown, which was called by GJM on 12 June, the longest agitation so far in the hill station which had witnessed a 40-day bandh in 1988 by GNLF and a 44-day shutdown in 2013 by GJM on the issue.

The shutdown has caused major issues for the citizens of the town. Except for medical shops, all business establishments, restaurants, hotels, schools and colleges have remained closed since the shutdown began. With food supply severely hit due to the indefinite shutdown, the GJM and various NGOs of the hills have been distributing food items among people.

The indefinite shutdown has also lead to a ban on internet services, which was imposed on 18 June and has already been extended by the district administration till 4 August. Police and security forces have been patrolling the streets of the hills and kept a tight vigil at all entry and exit routes.
On 28 July 2017, a day after Nitish Kumar was sworn in as the chief minister of Bihar, Janata Dal (U) legislator and minority welfare minister Feroz Ahmad aka Khurshid chanted, "Jai Shri Ram" at the state Assembly entrance. This Hindu slogan, hail the Lord Rama, was deemed anti-Islamic by Islamic cleric Mufti Sohail Ahmed Quasmi who issued a fatwa (an Islamic decree) expelling Feroz Ahmad from Islam. As India is forecasted to have world's largest Muslim population by 2050, it is pertinent to think about fatwas, and other Islamic issues, that impact negatively on the liberty of individuals.

According to Roznama Sangam of 31 July, an Urdu daily published from Patna, the fatwa stated: "A Muslim who chants and says that, 'I also worship Ram along with Rahim (Allah) and touch my forehead at all places (of worship of other religions)', such an individual is expelled from Islam."

As per the Urdu daily, "It was also said in the fatwa that due to this error, Khurshid's marriage has become void. It is not rightful for common Muslims to have relations with such Muslims." It is clear that an Islamic cleric exerts extraordinary influence on the personal life of an Indian Muslim.

Quasmi is secretary of Imarat Shariah, an Islamic organisation dedicated to promoting Sharia rule in India, especially in the day-to-day economic, social and religious life of Muslims insofar as possible. On its website, the Imarat Shariah also states: "There is no place for individual life in Islam. The study of the Holy Quran and the life of our beloved Prophet expressly reveals that the principle of collective life is the living spirit and is an axis around which the entire Islamic order revolves." The statement makes clear that Islam demands total submission from its followers.

The Imarat Shariah was established in 1921 and runs its jurisdiction across the states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha. Very significantly, the Imarat Shariah was conceived at a conference of Islamic clerics under the presidentship of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. On the pages of this website, I have argued how Azad, who went on to become India's first education minister, was a radical jihadi preacher no different from Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi of Islamic State.

Fatwas, though mostly invalid in Indian law, are Islamic legal opinions as per the Sharia. Fatwas take the form of a question and an answer, issued usually by a mufti (an Islamic scholar who is educationally qualified to do so) in response to a question. Although not legally enforceable, many Muslims take it upon themselves to enforce them in their day-to-day living. Fatwas can be issued on any topic, namely what etiquettes and norms to follow in prayers and marriages, or which foot should one put forward first when entering a toilet. Many such fatwas pose no harms to others, and Muslims willingly follow them in their daily life.

However, a second type of fatwas become a matter of concern because they impact negatively on the liberty of individuals. Fatwas have emerged as a threat to individual liberty. A simple fatwa against can effectively prevent liberal writers like Taslima Nasreen from travel, or from delivering speeches. Fatwas are also religious and political weapons which an Islamic cleric uses to generate protest crowds and lynch mobs.

Quasmi of the Imarat Shariah is an extra-constitutional authority who engages in violating the constitutional freedoms available to Indian citizens like the Bihar minority welfare minister.

The organisation seeks "the judicial system of Islam (to) be established and implemented among the Muslims."

After the fatwa was issued by Quasmi, the Bihar minister sought to defend his freedom to chant Jai Shri Ram. The minister's view was that such slogans promote positive Hindu-Muslim relationship. "Islam teaches respect for all religions. If by saying Jai Shri Ram I can do some good for the Muslims, why is there such a hue and cry," he told Hindustan Times. However, soon after that, according to Roznama Sangam of 31 July, the minister reached out to Mufti Quasmi and other clerics, expressed regrets and re-entered Islam by reciting the Kalima, the words proclaiming one's belief in Islam.

Numerous issues arise in situations involving fatwas. One, fatwas threaten the individual liberties of citizens and can effectively deny them the freedom of expression; two, fatwas can lead to social boycott of an Indian citizen by members of his religious community and can cause economic and political loss. Three, fatwas are supposed to be opinions of clerics not enforceable but practically they create protest and lynch mobs; four, fatwas are opinions but carry more weight than the orders of the courts, much like a father's word, many a time, shuts doors on a girl's freedom to choose a groom. Five, German military thinker Carl von Clausewitz said, "War is the continuation of politics by other means." I say this: as political weapons in the hands of Islamists and jihadists, fatwas are jihad by other means.

India must evolve considered responses on how to deal with extra-constitutional organisations and practices such as issuing of fatwas.

One, an ideal step could be to enact a uniform civil code that will override fatwa-issuing activities; I have drafted and unveiled the first blueprint of such a code for wider public discussion.

Two, I am testing my ideas on social media whether there could be practical ways to regulate the fatwas industry. One idea  you are free to give yours  could be to create a council of clerics aimed at issuing fatwas, thereby also barring numerous other clerics from doing the same. Such a council can have the government's blessing but necessarily not be a part of the Indian State.

Three, most of fatwa-related issues are also rooted in the failure of the rule of law in India; this can be remedied if the government were to introduce police reforms and training of police personnel in the rule of law.

Four, the government could also enlarge the scope of the Social Boycott Law of Maharashtra across India, thereby criminalising fatwas on a vast range of subjects affecting individual freedoms of Muslims.

Five, if the politicians are not willing to utter the words "uniform civil code", the government should debate and enact a Human Rights Act, which can imbibe good points from all the above suggestions, and any good legislative provisions available in different states and union territories of India.

The author, a former BBC journalist, is a contributing editor at Firstpost and executive director of the Open Source Institute, New Delhi. He tweets @tufailelif
New Delhi: A fire on Monday broke out in Shastri Bhawan in central Delhi after a short circuit in an air conditioner, police said.

The fire, which broke out on the seventh floor, was doused within a few minutes and five fire tenders were rushed to the spot.

In 2014, a fire broke out on the same floor. Shastri Bhawan accommodates ministries of Law, Information and Broadcasting, Human Resources Development, Corporate Affairs, Chemicals and Petrochemicals.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday sanctioned Rs 2 lakh each for the next of kin of those who lost their lives in the building collapse in Mumbai's Ghatkopar.

He also approved Rs 50,000 each for those injured in the building collapse, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said. Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had announced in Legislative Council on Wednesday that the family of those killed in the incident will be given an exgratia amount of Rs 5 lakh each.

A total of 17 people were killed when a four-storey residential building collapsed in suburban Ghatkopar on 25 July. The structure, Siddhi Sai Apartment, came down on at Ghatkopar's Damodar Park area and housed around 15 families.

The search and rescue operation by 47-member team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) pulled out 11 people from the debris. One of the survivors was rescued eight hours after he made a call to his son from under the rubble to inform that he was safe.

Although the direct reason for the collapse was unknown, it was speculated that the incident occurred due to renovation work undertaken by Shiv Sena leader Sunil Shitap in the complex. Shitap was soon arrested under 304(2) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Mumbai Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta announced an inquiry immediately after the incident, a report of which will be submitted 15 days from the day of the collapse.

The Opposition blamed the Shiv Sena-ruled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for turning a blind eye to the complaints of the residents about the unauthorised works that were carried out on the structure's ground floor.

To establish their anguish, the residents of the complex met Fadnavis on on 27 July. They demanded strict action against the culprits and also informed the chief minister about their rehabilitation requirements.
Shiv Kunal Verma, author of highly acclaimed books like 1962: The War That Wasn't and The Long Road to Siachen: The Question Why and a trilogy on the Northeast, is intimately aware of the ground situation in both Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. Speaking about the stand-off between India and China at the tri-junction border, he said, "If you are familiar with the terrain around the tri-junction, there is no way the Chinese can try and cut off the Siliguri Corridor from that axis."

Here's the full interview.

Do you see any similarity between what happened in 1962 and the situation presently unfolding vis-a-vis China?

The answer is both yes and no. Let's be very clear about one thing: The army even in 1962 was quite capable of taking China on. In fact, wherever they were allowed to fight  Rajput Regiment at Nam Ka Chu, Sikh Regiment at Bum La, Garhwal Rifles at Nuranang, Kumaon Regiment at Walong, and Jat Regiment in DBO and the Galwan Valley  they gave an excellent account of themselves. It was the senior leadership, both civilian and military, that imploded. Also, had the Indian Air Force come into play, it would have been a different story. In my mind one thing is quite clear: This army is no pushover. I filmed the Kargil war and the thing that impressed me the most was the fact that every man was moving forward, going about his job with no panic or fear. Not just soldiers, even civilian truck drivers, Ladakhi porters, everyone. It was fantastic.

But yes, there are similarities. We still continue to play around with our military leadership and at times we are too passive in our approach. The Chinese for a long time had been playing the probing game. And this time they probably cut too close to the bone. The way I see it, we had to react. Fifty-five years ago, when USSR started installing missile sites in Cuba, everyone was freaked. In this case, the tri-junction virtually overlooks the corridor. The Chinese wanting to push the road up to the tri-junction was uncalled for; India had to put its foot down.

You had said earlier that it's like putting your hand in a hornet's nest.

It most certainly is. It's imperative that we are prepared for all eventualities. The Chinese have always been unpredictable and you cannot make the same mistake twice. It would be ridiculous to assume that they will not do this or that. But if they do push for a border engagement, I think they are in for a shock. It may be a hornet's nest, but at the end of the day, you should make sure you are the guys who get to eat the honey.

So you think a border clash is a possibility? Would the Chinese follow up on their threat to throw the Indian Army out of the Doka La plateau?

They are welcome to try, but that would be suicidal in my opinion. Firstly, the Doka La plateau is purely an ego issue for them; in reality, it serves no actual military purpose. If you are familiar with the terrain around the tri-junction, there is no way the Chinese can try and cut off the Siliguri Corridor from that axis. It would mean an all-out war and it would require a major logistic exercise to do something like that. If they have to do something to save face  since they have been making a lot of aggressive statements  they'll try and spook you by moving troops in other areas and hope the Indian public and the media panic.

On the other hand, I don't think India has a choice. Strategic value or not, we simply cannot allow the road to be built. How this plays out will also decide how the India-Tibet border issue is eventually settled. Equally importantly, it will also impact the future defence of the subcontinent. And it's important for us as a people to understand that Nepal and Bhutan, by virtue of being on the southern side of the watershed, are also key players in the overall defence of the subcontinent.

China can be expected to do the unexpected, but just what do they gain by actually getting into a border scrap with India? The trade equation is extremely lopsided in their favour. Not only is India a huge emerging market, we are also an emotional people. Already, comments on social media and other networks about boycotting Chinese products are giving them the heebie jeebies. The moment the first shots are fired in anger across the border, be it at Ladakh, Himachal, Garhwal, Kumaon, Sikkim or Arunachal, I think there will be a tsunami of anti-Chinese sentiment which could result in massive economic losses for them. And plus, let's not forget the rest of the world still views China with suspicion and most countries would become even more wary. As time passes and the matter lingers, the danger for the Chinese leadership is that the Doka La issue may become more and more internalised.

There is talk of the US not sitting idle if there is indeed a clash between India and China. The Malabar exercise's timing was interesting in that regard.

Frankly, even though the general impression is that we have been getting rather cosy with the Americans of late, let's not be under any illusion. They are nobody's friends. In the build up to 1962, they played a fairly provocative role. Take the supply of weapons through Sikkim, the CIA's not so covert role in helping the Dalai Lama escape, and U-2 flights over Tibet. Bottom line is, we shouldn't need anyone else to fight our battles for us. And I think it's time our politicians developed a spine and trusted our own army, air force and navy.

Of late, if you listen to various think tanks, one would get the impression that they are getting carried away with the so-called improved geo-political ties between the US and India. So long as Pakistan with its umbilical cord intact exists as a key ally of the Pentagon, it does not really matter if Donald Trump has this mad desire to hug Prime Minister Modi and everything 'Hindu' or not. In fact, Russia still remains the key player as far as we are concerned and it saddens me to see so many of our experts turn their backs towards Moscow. Vis-a-vis China, Russia will always be India's greatest counter-balance and the fact that the Russians are the immediate northern neighbours of the Chinese certainly puts them in a far better position to deal with Beijing than the United States does.

So how do you see this play itself out? What should India do?

Nothing really. Doka La is Bhutanese territory and the standoff costs us nothing in real terms. China has to give an undertaking that they will not build roads, be it for sightseeing or for military purposes. The day they revert to the standstill status which they had earlier agreed upon with Bhutan, the impasse will end.

At least in the case of Doka La, we have the ability to stand up and say enough is enough. The Malabar exercise was probably aimed at sending out a message to China by the Americans and the Japanese, but there is nothing much happening in the Indian Ocean to stop China from doing what it jolly well wants to do. Take the case of Sri Lanka for example. After getting into a hole where it borrowed recklessly from China, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is now having to brush aside all opposition and consider handing over the Hambantota Port on a 99-year lease. Though India along with the US and Japan and the people of Sri Lanka are protesting, the Sri Lankan government is caught on the horns of a dilemma. I think it's important for all countries in Asia and Africa to see for themselves just how China is operating.

This has been China's modus operandi for decades. From India's point of view, Hambantota isn't any different from the Doka La plateau. The security of South Asia is already in tatters, with Pakistan virtually being a province of China. It is therefore vital that all countries  Nepal and Bangladesh in particular  keep the security of the subcontinent in mind and watch each other's backs.

What about the land border between India and China?

The border with Tibet is what you mean. China has been playing games since 1949 and it's a pity that no one ever challenged their interpretation of history. Mao made the biggest landgrab of all time when he annexed Sinkiang and Tibet in 1949 and 1950. Suddenly India had the Chinese on our entire northern frontier and all existing treaties with Tibet went out of the window. Someone needed to challenge Mao's narrative. But nobody did it then, and we seem to hesitate to take the subject head on even today, for reasons I cannot understand.

If you really see how things developed in the first and second decades of the 20th Century when the border between India and Tibet was being drawn up, be it the Morshead-Bailey expedition or the Simla Agreement of 1914, everything is there in black and white. What's more, the Chinese have none of the original documents, for they went with the Kuomintang government to Taiwan. We also have the Dalai Lama sitting in India for five and a half decades. He may be a man of peace who does not want to ruffle Chinese feathers, but he can easily ratify what the Tibetan Kashag and Lon-chen Shatra agreed to in Simla vis a vis Tawang.

Much the same can be said for the existing boundaries with Kashmir. India has to aggressively put out the counter-narrative for its own people, and also for China and for the world. If you don't do that, the Chinese will continue to dispute every grazing ground and tree in the Himalayas.

I come back to the importance of developing the counter-narrative. The exaggerated China-centric version of history doled out ever since Mao came into being has a basic flaw; a lot of it is simply not true! There have been times when Chinese emperors have bowed their head before the Mongols and the Tibetans and paid tribute. But that means nothing in today's context. The McMahon Line for example was drawn up based on a physical survey of the watershed, backed up by a demographic and historical analysis of the entire belt extending from Burma to Nepal. That the Southern Himalayas have nothing to do with Tibet is a fact and I see absolutely no reason to be defensive about it.

I've been moving around quite a lot on the eastern sector and it's obvious that our road infrastructure is far from adequate. The other side has excellent communication network as well. Does that put our army at a disadvantage?

The northern side of the Great Himalayan Range  call it the Trans-Himalaya if you like  on the map looks more daunting because of the height. However, the watershed acts as a massive rain shadow and the Tibetan plateau in comparison to the southern side is a lot more stable geographically. The terrain on our side is far more complex, but over the years our defence planning has vectored all those factors in. The advancement in rotor wing and fixed wing technology has also changed the equation quite a bit. I personally think we do not have to try and match the Chinese road for road, rail for rail. Ecological factors must be kept in mind and at the end of the day, the Himalayan belt has to be protected. Look at what happened in Kedarnath? In fact, the maniacal need to develop the areas on our side is killing the Himalayas. We may even need to learn from Bhutan and restrict entry into these areas completely.

You've also been critical of the Indian media in the past. You even told Maroof Raza on Latitude that the Chinese probably looked at Indian television channels as force multipliers.

In this case, I think the Indian media has been a lot more restrained and I'm happy to see that. The Doka La story was kept under wraps for nearly two weeks, and it was eventually the Chinese who broke the news, and they have been getting shriller and shriller. Having said that, whichever way the Doka La story plays out, I think it's important for the Indian side to not get carried away. There are no brownie points to be scored here. We have to just do what we have to do, and that's to stand our ground and if necessary, fight to protect it. What is absolutely vital is for every soldier manning the bunkers facing either China or Pakistan to be secure in the knowledge that every man, woman and child stands firmly behind him.

In the middle of the standoff, Eastern Command is seeing a change of guard. With General Pravin Bakshi retiring in the next 24 hours, there will be a new army commander holding the baton.

To me it seems that the man who has been the army commander for the last two years and who knows the ground situation better than anyone else should stay there for a while. At least until the situation on Doka La steadies out. It is unfortunate that games being played at the top level continue to be played and appointments today are seen to be more and more political. I think Doka La should also sound an alarm pertaining to the state of our armed forces. You actually have CAG in the middle of all this going on record to say we have ten days' ammunition reserves.

I think that was the main reason for all the hullabaloo, around a former army chief's khulasa in 2012. At a very basic level, Doka La underlines the fragility of geopolitics. Here are two nuclear armed countries ready to go to war over a desolate, godforsaken plateau that borders Bhutan. To me, it brings to mind what President Roosevelt is quoted to have said: "When you walk alone, just carry a big stick". And it's up to our politicians and bureaucrats to ensure that the danda isn't hollow.
New Delhi: The Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court that it will take a decision in a month-and-a-half on whether to allow the commercial rollout of Genetically Modified (GM) mustard crop in the country.

A bench comprising Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justice DY Chandrachud told Additional Solicitor General PS Narasimha that if the government takes a decision in favour of GM mustard crop, then the court would like to hear the petition challenging the commercial release.

The bench also said that as the mustard sowing season begins in the month of October, any decision favouring the rollout will come into effect after the court examines it and fixed the matter for hearing in the second week of September.

Earlier the bench had granted time to the Centre to apprise it as to by when it will take a "well-informed and well-intentioned" policy decision on the rollout.

The apex court had on 17 October, 2016 extended the stay on the commercial release of GM mustard crop until further orders. The court had restrained the commercial release of the crop for ten days on 7 October, 2016.

The court had asked the Centre to seek public opinion on such seeds before releasing it for cultivation purpose, even as government approval is awaited.

Mustard is one of India's most important winter crops which is sown between mid-October and late November. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioner Aruna Rodrigues, alleged that the government was sowing the seeds in various fields and said the bio-safety dossier has to be put on the website, which has not been done yet.

Alleging that field trials were being carried out without doing relevant tests, he had sought a 10-year moratorium on them. Bhushan said a Technical Expert Committee (TEC) report has pointed out that the entire regulatory system was in shambles and a 10-year moratorium should be given.

Rodrigues had filed the plea seeking a stay on the commercial release of Genetically Modified (GM) mustard crop and prohibition of its open field trials.

He had also urged the court to prohibit open field trials and commercial release of Herbicide Tolerant (HT) crops including HT Mustard DMH 11 and its parent lines/variants as recommended by the Technical Expert Committee (TEC)

Centre told SC that it is likely to take a decision on GM Mustard issue in September  ANI (@ANI_news) July 31, 2017

The commercial release of the GM mustard crop has been debated for a while now.

Medical experts have urged the government to reject the GM mustard crop roll-out due it its harmful effects. Representing the medical fraternity in India, Dr. Mira Shiva has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that the crop was a danger for everyone involved: cultivators, agricultural workers and consumers. The expert also rejected the roll-out since there are no demonstrable benefits to GM mustard.

If introduced in the market, the GM mustard will be the first transgenic food crop in India. In the non-food category, Bt cotton is the only crop and it was introduced in India in 2002 by the BJP-led government.

With inputs from PTI
Sen. Steve Daines has shown his true colors, and Im sick and tired of his acting on behalf of special interests like those on the east side of the Crazies. Daines has finally shown that he's totally against Montana hunters. His record since he's been in Congress has consistently been awful for conservation  defunding land and water funds, voting against clean water and pushing for massive logging over everything else on public lands.

But now he's taken it a step further. Recently, Daines wrote to the secretary of agriculture, joining several landowner and ag groups' crusade against a forest ranger who was working to maintain a public easement into the Crazy Mountains. Some of those same landowners are also outfitters who charge big bucks to hunt trophy bulls, then gripe because they claim there are too many elk. All the makings of a self-induced problem.

Daines defends people who vandalize public property by ripping down trail signs, then vilifies a ranger. And he did it after also getting pressure from the Montana Outfitters and Guides Association, who want to privatize all of our wildlife.

Next time Daines gives some talk about being pro-sportsmen, take him to task. I plan to. And remember that the next time he runs some phony ad, wearing blaze orange. Ive been a Republican all of my life, and Im very tired of my party going against me  what gives here? Out of necessity, Im becoming a 100 percent independent voter because my Republican party keeps trampling my familys outdoor heritage.

Tim Vicars

Billings
New Delhi: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) general secretary Roshan Giri on Monday moved the Supreme Court seeking transfer of his trial in the Madan Tamang murder case to Sikkim from Kolkata apprehending serious law and order crisis.

The GJM leader's plea in the apex court, which has come when north Bengal was witnessing unrest in the wake of the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland was opposed by the West Bengal government which said money from Nepal was being pumped in to fuel the agitation.

Giri has been charged with "criminal conspiracy for murder" along with other GJM leaders in the killing of All India Gorkha League (AIGL) president Madan Tamang in 2010.

A bench of Justices SA Bobde and L Nageswara Rao asked senior advocate PS Patwalia, appearing for Giri, to file an amended list of dates in the case and posted the matter for hearing to 8 August.

Patwalia said if Giri is to appear in court to face murder trial then there will be a serious law and order situation in Kolkata and it may pose serious threat to his life.

He said that after the recent Darjeeling protests it is very likely that a serious law and order situation will arise if he is made to go to Kolkata to face trial.

Senior advocate Kalyan Bannerjee, representing the state government, took serious objection to the argument that a law and order situation will be there.

He said that the court should seek a report from the military intelligence on the Darjeeling protests and then everything will become clear.

"Money is being pumped in from Nepal to fuel unrest in Darjeeling. They are allowing external forces to come in," Bannerjee said.

He said that Giri wants his trial to be shifted to Sikkim as its chief minister is supporting them.

The bench, however, said it is concerned with the law and order situation and if that is the case then it may order trial to be conducted through video conferencing.

The CBI has indicted the entire top leadership of the GJM for the murder of the AIGL president.

Besides Giri, GJM president Bimal Gurung is among the nine top leaders named in the charge sheet.

Gurung, his wife Asha and several senior leaders of the hill outfit had surrendered before a city court which granted them bail in the murder case.
Hyderabad: The Centre would make efforts to soon pass the Transgender Bill, which seeks to empower the community by providing them a separate identity, Union minister Ramdas Athawale said on Monday.

Expressing regret over the "discrimination and injustice" meted out to the transgender community, Athawale said men and women have their rights, and the transgenders should get their rights.

"A bill has also come in 2016. That bill has been sent to the standing committee. Very soon, the Government of India, the government of Narendra Modi, will pass that bill to give you your rights," the minister for social justice and empowerment said.

He was speaking at a national workshop on 'Developing Modules for Sensitising Transgender People and Stakeholders', organised at the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRD and PR) here.

The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016, which seeks to define transgenders and prohibit discrimination against them, was introduced in the Lok Sabha last year.

It was referred to the parliamentary standing committee on social justice and empowerment for examination and report.

Athawale said the members of the transgender community are subjected to injustice and discrimination, sometimes even by their family members, and they have to beg to make their both ends meet.

Stressing on the importance of education for the welfare of transgenders, he favoured giving reservation in jobs to this community.

WR Reddy, the director general of NIRD and PR, said the workshop has been organised to understand and take "baby steps" towards the welfare of transgenders.

Leaders of the transgender community, who spoke on the occasion, narrated the "discrimination and agony" they had to face in their lives.
Ahmedabad: Union minister Smriti Irani on Monday took potshots at the Congress, saying the party was worried about ensuring the victory of its Rajya Sabha candidate, while its MLAs had left the flood-affected people of Banaskantha in Gujarat to fend for themselves.

The opposition party has sent its MLAs to Bengaluru to prevent their `poaching' ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections.

Talking to reporters at Banaskantha, Irani, herself a BJP nominee for the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat, said the Congress MLAs have deserted their constituents in the flood-hit Banaskantha.

"People of Banaskantha are searching for Congress representatives who had promised them in the last election that they will stay with them through thick and thin," Irani said.

"Not just the people of Banaskantha, but the entire country is watching Congress' game of power where the concern of the top leadership is to ensure the victory of one representative," she said, without naming Congress candidate Ahmed Patel.

Irani visited several flood-affected areas in the district on Monday with Balwantsinh Rajput, who recently quit the Congress to join the BJP.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani is camping in Banaskantha for the last five days to oversee relief work.

The Congress has taken its 44 MLAs to Bengaluru after six of its MLAs resigned, three of them joining the BJP, ahead of the crucial Rajya Sabha elections where Ahmed Patel, political secretary to the Congress president, is a candidate.

The party has accused the BJP of trying to offer bribes to its MLAs for cross-voting, a charge the ruling party has denied.

For the three Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat for which elections will be held, the BJP has fielded party chief Amit Shah and Rajput, and renominated Irani.
Bengaluru: The Gujarat Congress Committee will bear the expenses of the stay of 44 MLAs at a private resort on the city outskirts, a senior party leader in Karnataka said on Monday.

As their stay to fend off "poaching" attempts by the BJP ahead of the 8 August Rajya Sabha polls in Gujarat entered the third day on Monday, a few MLAs from flood-hit constituencies of the state reportedly expressed their intention to go back.

The Congress leader, who is overseeing the arrangements to keep the flock together, said the MLAs were worried about the public opinion going against them.

They think that they will be blamed for "abandoning" voters when their constituencies were facing nature's fury, he said.

The exact number of MLAs who have expressed their willingness to head back is not clear.

The Congress had yesterday paraded all its legislators before the media in an effort to quell speculation of dissension in the party ranks.

The party reportedly chose the city for lodging its MLAs as Karnataka is governed by the Congress.

The entire responsibility of their stay has been given to state power minister Shivakumar and his brother DK Suresh, Member of Parliament from Bengaluru Rural.

"The entire payment of the bill is from the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee. It is in their name only; they said that they are going to pay," Shivakumar told reporters in response to a question.

Asked about winning the Rajya Sabha seat, he said, "We will meet on 8 (August). I will also try to visit Gujarat that day".

Six of the 57 Congress MLAs in Gujarat, from where senior party leader Ahmed Patel is contesting for the Rajya Sabha, have resigned from the party in the last few days with three joining the BJP on Friday.

The party has apprehensions about Patel's election to the Rajya Sabha, if more MLAs defect.

In the 182-member Gujarat Assembly, the strength of the Congress has gone down from 57 to 51.

Shivakumar in response to a question said the resort was chosen as the venue to lodge the MLAs after keeping the aspects of security, traffic and connectivity to the airport in mind.

"It is my land ...means my district and my brother is MP from here, we have two strong MLCs from here....they (Gujarat MLAs) are my old friends from my Youth Congress days, they have confidence in me, they felt it is comfortable," he said.

Though the MLAs are likely to travel to some tourist and religious destinations, including Tirupati, but the visit to the hill shrine is still being contemplated, owing to the huge rush there these days.

Sources said the MLAs may also visit Chamundeshwari temple in Mysuru in a day or two.
India has failed Taslima Nasreen yet again. The fact that the Bangladeshi author was denied entry into Aurangabad in Maharashtra, despite BJP governments at the state and the Centre, indicates that there is no space for freedom of speech in India regardless of which political formation is in power.

And this isn't the first time that Nasreen has faced bullying from fundamentalists in India. What makes her case truly tragic is that there is no one to speak up for her. In her work, Nasreen has often taken a stand against bigotry and intolerance in Islam and has largely been abandoned by the so-called liberals. Her ordeals, in India at least, sit at the intersection of constitutional ambiguity, pseudo-secularism, votebank politics, mob violence and the State's repeated and pathetic failure in implementing law and order.

It is bad enough that the exiled author, now a Swedish citizen, has to go through the annual humiliation of applying for an Indian visa. Now it appears that we are unable to ensure even her basic safety when she is in the country on a low-key, private visit. She intended to visit the Ajanta and Ellora caves but all she witnessed was the caving in of the Maharashtra Police.

Rahul Shrirame, deputy commissioner of police (Zone-II), told PTI that the author, who landed in Aurangabad around 7.30 pm on Saturday, was immediately sent back by a Mumbai-bound flight to avoid any "law and order problem" in the city.

Yashasvi Yadav, the city police commissioner, told The Times of India that the writer had not shared prior details of her visit with the cops, and "citing security reasons, we asked her to board the next flight, and she agreed".

"There is already tension and tight security in the city because of the ongoing demolition of illegal religious structures. We cannot tackle more problems at this moment," another police officer was quoted as saying in the same report.

Interestingly, even as the police claimed that they were unaware of Nasreen's itinerary until an hour of her arrival, the protestors  a motley crew led by AIMIM legislator Imtiyaz Jaleel  possessed specific details of her programme. They knew when she would arrive and were ready at the airport gate with placards, while another group started creating a ruckus in front of the five-star hotel where she had booked a room in her friend's name.

Shrirame admitted that the protestors knew very specific details. "We are wondering about the source of such specific information. The protestors were aware of her entire schedule, including the places she would be visiting and the date she would be returning."

An argument is being made that it was Nasreen's decision to return to Mumbai. She acted out of own volition. This is hogwash. When cops are dropping large hints that her stay at Aurangabad could "create law and order problems", what is she to do? Take a risk? The law and order machinery is part of the state's coercive power. And it exists for a reason. It is the state's responsibility to ensure rule of law and it cannot put the onus on the individual. It is a pathetic attempt at blame-shifting and paints a miserable picture of the Devendra Fadnavis administration.

Sadly, the script follows the template set by the Left Front or Trinamool Congress governments in West Bengal. The "progressive" Left Front had repeatedly caved in before Islamists in banning Nasreen's book Dwikhandita in 2004, or in asking her to leave the state in 2007 to ensure peace.

Soon after coming to power, the Mamata Banerjee government in 2012 had cancelled the release of her book Nirbashan at the vaunted Kolkata Book Fair, and a year later, stopped the airing of a TV serial scripted by the acclaimed author. According to a report in The Indian Express, it was done under direct instructions from the chief minister.

This prompted Nasreen to tell the media that Mamata turned out to be harsher than the earlier Left regime. "I had expected the situation in West Bengal to change after Mamata came to power. But I was wrong. I found her harsher than the earlier Left Front government," she was quoted as saying.

Furthermore, in an interview to Catch News, the writer had blasted the TMC government for "creating a Frankenstein". "Mamata Banerjee's Muslim appeasement policy made these fundamentalists this violent. I remember, two years ago, when her government banned my TV script only to appease some Muslim fanatics. Now she is seeing the results of those actions. She has created a Frankenstein monster."

It isn't about the BJP, the Left Front, Congress (banning Salman Rushdie) or the TMC, however. It is about the State's failure to uphold an individual's rights before the coercive power of the collective. This mentality goes at the heart of the mob violence or lynching episodes in India where anyone can twist rules and break laws under the cover of a group.

The Constitution fails to protect the citizen, simply because far too many dilutions have been allowed to affect the sanctity of Article 19(1)(a). Free speech is one of the building blocks of democracy, but in India, in a radical sleight of competitive vote-bank politics, the fundamental right to express one's opinion has been totally usurped by one's right to feel offended.

In the current scenario, furthermore, there is another devious ploy at work. The AIMIM is catering to its electoral constituency in protesting against Nasreen (never mind that many of those protestors may not have read even one her books), while the BJP is scoring points in letting the author become a victim of Islamist intolerance. It's a zero sum, yet a win-win game for both.
Washington: The World Bank has promised its continued neutrality and impartiality in helping India and Pakistan find an "amicable way forward" during talks over issues related to two of India's hydroelectricity projects under Indus Waters Treaty.

Welcoming the participation of India and Pakistan in the talks to be held in Washington on Monday, World Bank's Vice-President for South Asia region Annette Dixon said, "We are pleased both parties have confirmed their participation in the meeting hosted by the World Bank in Washington, DC."

"The World Bank welcomes the spirit of goodwill and cooperation," Dixon said in a letter to the Indian Ambassador to the US, Navtej Sarna.

In the letter dated 25 July, the World Bank assured the the Indian envoy its "continued neutrality and impartiality in helping the parties to find and amicable way forward. We hope that all parties will come to the table prepared to find a way forward that safeguards the Treaty," it said.

Union Water Resources Secretary Amarjit Singh will lead the Indian delegation during the talks. The Indian team will comprise officials from ministries of external affairs and water resources.

The two countries last held talks over the two projects in March 2017 during the meeting of Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) in Pakistan. Pakistan had approached the World Bank in 2016, raising concerns over the designs of the two hydroelectricity projects located in Jammu and Kashmir. It demanded that the World Bank, which is the mediator between the two countries under the 57-year-old water distribution pact, set up a court of arbitration to look into its concerns.

On the other hand, India asked for appointments of a neutral expert to look into the issues, contending the concerns Pakistan raised were "technical" ones.

Following this, the international lender had in November 2016 initiated two simultaneous processes  for appointing neutral expert and establishment of court of arbitration  to look into technical differences between the two countries in connection with the project.

The simultaneous processes, however, were halted after India objected to it.

After that, representatives of the World Bank held talks with India and Pakistan to find a way out separately.
Despite optimism expressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Iranian president Hassan Rouhani in the past on the Farzad B gas field, Tehran has said that it is under no obligation to award the Farzad B gas field to New Delhi, The Times of India reported.

The report said that the latest development may be in retaliation to India's decision to cut crude oil imports from Iran. In May, India had taken the decision in response to the row between New Delhi and Tehran on development of the Farzad B gas field.

To break the deadlock over the project, India also offered to invest $11 billion in the development of the gas field. However, the Majlis Energy Commission, the parliamentary committee on energy, said that while India and Iran have jointly conducted the technical surveys on Farzad B, there is no clause which mentions that the contract would ultimately be awarded to India, the report noted.

"Under equal circumstances, this company (ONGC Videsh Ltd) could take priority. However, if there is a difference between the Indian company and other firms in terms of technology, technical knowhow and investment, Iran will, based on the independence and freedom that is has, choose the company which would best serve the country's national interests," Asadollah Gharekhani, an Iranian lawmaker was quoted by The Times of India as saying.

The continuing deadlock over the development of the gas field in the strategically-located Persian Gulf prompted Iran to rethink its partnership with India and instead tie-up with Russia.

Hindustan Times reported that the Iranian petroleum minister Bijan Zanganeh pointed out Russia as a possible partner if the deal falls apart. "The Indian side has failed to make an appropriate offer," Zanganeh was quoted as saying.

However, India took a conciliatory approach and said that it would not mind if the project is not awarded to ONGC Videsh Ltd. Nevertheless, petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan urged Iran to take a call over the deal. "Iran is a sovereign country and we expect that since we were with it during its challenging days, Iran should reciprocate. We will only make investment if we see returns, Financial Express quoted Pradhan as saying.

With inputs from Reuters
Chennai: The IRDAI's latest order against private life insurer Sahara India Life Insurance Company Ltd., which in effect shuts down the company's business, has raised many questions for which there are not many answers, say senior industry officials and experts.

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) in its 28 July order has said: "The promoters of the company are no more fit and proper; a sum of Rs.78 crore has already been siphoned off in name of the security deposits; the shareholders and Board of Directors are not keen in recovery plan; the company is mainly surviving on the release of reserves. However the situation may not continue for long as the new premium of the company has come down significantly."

On the insurance regulator's serious charge that Rs 78 crore has been siphoned off, industry officials ask what action have the IRDAI or the administrator appointed by it in June 2017 taken in that regard.

"It is not clear who has siphoned off the money. If it is fraudulent diversion of funds, it is a criminal act that will have to be taken cognizance of by the police and criminal court. It is not clear if IRDAI has lodged a criminal complaint," K.K. Srinivasan, former member of the IRDAI, told IANS.

"If it (IRDAI) has not done so far, it is perhaps duty bound to lodge a criminal complaint without further delay," Srinivasan added.

The IRDAI's 28 July order is silent on how and by whom Rs 78 crore were siphoned off.

However, information gleaned from the IRDAI order dated June 12 shows that Sahara India Life had paid a little less than Rs 80 crore as rental deposits towards opening of 646 pan-India branches to a group company.

Curiously, the IRDAI has not permitted Sahara India Life to expand its branch network.

According to the IRDAI, its July 28 order is based on the 22 June report by the administrator appointed by it. The insurance regulator has not made the administrator's report public.

"The siphoning charge also brings into picture the role of professionals like auditors -- external and internal -- appointed actuary. Did not the statutory auditors detect siphoning of funds?" a senior industry official asked.

He also said the appointed actuary is a representative of the insurance regulator and he/she submits two major reports about the company detailing the financial position and the actuarial reserves. The company also submits several returns to the regulator.

Srinivasan said as per the IRDA Act, the regulator is vested with the responsibility to protect policy holder's interests and ensure orderly growth of the industry.

"Hence the decision of IRDAI to transfer the assets and policy holder's liabilities of Sahara Life to ICICI Prudential Insurance under Section 52 B (2) of the Insurance Act seems appropriate," Srinivasan added.

Another industry expert not wanting to be named told IANS that the IRDAI has not explained in detail the reasons for appointing an administrator to run the affairs of Sahara India Life and then ordering the transfer of all its polices to ICICI Prudential Life Insurance.

"If IRDAI's decision is to protect the interests of policyholders, there were no major complaints against Sahara India Life of not settling valid claims. Further, there were no questions of the insurer falling back in its solvency margin. The company's solvency margin is much higher than others," the industry expert said.

Officials said there are insurers who have earned several crore of rupees of undue income from policyholders but the regulator has not taken such a punitive action against them as he has done in the case of Sahara India Life.

Industry officials also question the IRDAI's move to appoint its General Manager R.K. Sharma as the administrator of Sahara India Life.

"Earlier, the power to appoint an administrator was with the central government and the regulator had only a recommendatory power. After the amendment of insurance laws a couple years ago, the power to appoint the administrator was given to the insurance regulator," an official said.

"Normally, the government will not appoint its own official as an administrator or liquidator of a company. It would appoint a retired official or a professional. But in the case of Sahara India Life, an employee of IRDAI has been appointed as an administrator," the official said.

Industry officials told IANS that the IRDAI should look at the larger picture while regulating the industry than getting bogged down with minor aspects like filing of returns by the insurers.

"The regulator should give the comfort of confidentiality to the whistle-blowers. But that comfort is not there now," a senior industry official told IANS.

Several attempts to contact IRDAI officials by IANS for clarifications did not succeed.
Srinagar: A wanted Hizbul Mujahideen militant appeared with an AK-47 rifle at a largely attended funeral of his slain colleague in south Kashmir on Saturday and said linking global terror network Al-Qaeda with Kashmir was to defame their movement.

Riyaz Ahmad Naikoo, with the gun slung over his left shoulder, addressed the funeral gathering for nearly 20 minutes during which he said the recent statement about setting up of an Al-Qaeda unit in Kashmir was aimed at "maligning the freedom struggle of Kashmiri people which is an indigenous and home-grown movement".

He did not name his former Hizb colleague Zakir Musa who has been named head of the Al-Qaeda wing in Kashmir and said all those holding the flag of Islam "are not necessarily our own".

"Linking our struggle with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State is a ploy to defame it," he said.

Pro-Pakistan slogans were raised during the funeral procession. Naikoo's pictures at the funeral were widely circulated online.

His accomplice Sharieq Ahmad was earlier killed in a gunfight with security forces in Tahab village of Pulwama district along with another local Hizbul militant.
New Delhi: The Opposition Monday accused the BJP-led government of encouraging organisations behind violence by cow vigilantes, with Congress claiming that lynching of people in the name of religion and cow protection began only after the NDA assumed power.

Initiating a discussion on the issue of mob lynching in the Lok Sabha, leader of the Congress Mallikarjun Kharge said "Hindustan" should not be allowed to become "lynchistan".

This government is against minorities, Dalits and women, he alleged, saying these sections had borne the maximum brunt of mob violence.

The prime minister says he was against it, but what action has he taken, Kharge asked and said, "He says something and does something else." He asked the government to give details of the action taken against the accused in these cases, claiming that they had become brazen because of lack of action. Citing a number of incidents this year to say that the lynchings had mostly happened in the BJP-ruled states, he said there was an atmosphere of fear and terror across the country, which has brought a bad name to India in the world.

He named Hindutva organisations like the VHP and Bajrang Dal, saying they were involved in such violence. "It is also being done so that your ideology and philosophy could be established in the country," the Congress leader said, pointing to the BJP's "links" with these outfits.

BJP-ruled Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh had become centres of mob lynching, he said, adding that such incidents would become a major threat to the nation's integrity.

Referring to the murder of a BJP worker in Kerala, he said the Governor there summoned the DGP on the issue, but nothing of that sort was done in other states where the people were lynched.

BJP members objected to Kharge citing incidents, saying many of the cases he was referring to were sub-judice. Parliamentary Affairs minister Ananth Kumar also objected to his reference to former president Pranab Mukherjee's speech, saying it was against rules.

Kumar said that action had been taken against the hooliganism which had taken place in the name of cow protection.

Countering Kharge's onslaught against the government, BJP leader Hukumdev Narayan Yadav slammed the Opposition for targeting the NDA government over incidents of lynchings, saying prime minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly come out strongly against such acts. "Some people are indulging in terror activities to defame the government. They are questioning our intentions. It is wrong," he said.

Yadav equated the lynching incidents with the killing of RSS workers in Kerala and that of a police officer in Kashmir and asked whether these were not equivalent to mob violence. He said a fight between two ideologies has been going on for several decades and asserted that those who follow the path of "economic development and nationalism" will come out victorious.
On behalf of the board of directors, staff, volunteers and patrons of Alberta Bair Theater, I would sincerely like to thank the members of Billings City Council and Mayor Hanel for their unanimous support of $3.5 million TIF funding for theater renovation.

We are extremely proud and excited to receive unanimous support by our city leaders. Their YES votes in support of TIF funding prove their commitment to keeping downtown Billings vibrant and ABT the cultural jewel of our region.

The outpouring of support from the community strengthens our commitment to the process of raising the necessary funds in a timely manner so we can continue bringing the excitement of the performing arts to Big Sky Country!

Thank you!

Jan Dietrich

executive director

Billings
Hyderabad: Former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar called on Dalit victims of alleged police torture at a jail in Telangana on Monday.

Accompanied by state Congress chief Uttam Kumar Reddy and other party leaders, she visited the Karimnagar District Jail and met the youths who were allegedly tortured by police for setting fire to two sand-laden trucks in Rajanna-Sircilla district on 2 July.

Later, she told the media that they were allowed to meet only four victims, although three others were lodged in the same jail. She said another critically injured victim was still in hospital.

Condemning the atrocities on the Dalits, she said the police beat up the youth and tortured them with electric shocks.

"They broke down while narrating the police brutality. They have also sustained internal injuries," she said.

The Congress leader demanded that "false cases" booked against the victims should be withdrawn and those involved in torturing them should be booked under the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

She slammed the central and the state governments for not initiating a probe into the incident.

Targeting the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government, she asked, "Is this the Telangana state we fought for?"

Meira Kumar demanded an end to the activities of the sand mafia. The former Speaker said her party would raise the issue in Parliament.

Meanwhile, Sircilla town remained tense as a large number of policemen were deployed to foil a proposed public meeting by the Congress to protest the alleged police torture.

The district administration has denied permission for the meeting scheduled to take place on Monday evening.

Congress leaders have moved the Hyderabad High Court, challenging the restriction by the district administration.
At 6 pm on 31 July, 2017, the deadline to declare results for 477 Mumbai University courses will lapse. However, with just hours left, only 153 courses had released the grades, and 324 courses were still to announce their results. There are graduation and post-graduation degrees both part of these 324 courses, which seem certain to miss the deadline. In all, over 3.35 lakh answer sheets are yet to be evaluated, and the students are fast running out of patience.

Considering the Mumbai University has abysmally failed to adhere to the deadline set by Maharashtra governor C Vidyasagar Rao, he may be forced to sack vice-chancellor Sanjay Deshmukh, said sources in the governor's office.

Rao, himself the Mumbai University chancellor, had set a 31 July deadline to the varsity, saying all results needed to be declared by this date. Faculty members were even asked to work overtime and on weekends to ensure results are expedited. Even with the deadline just hours away, sources said, the varsity is hoping to declare all results within the next three-four days.

Mumbai University registrar MA Khan assured Firstpost that the varsity would declare 100 more exams' results by the end of Monday. Commerce exam results, especially, are likely to be declared before Thursday, he said.

To expedite online assessment, Mumbai University even took help from Nagpur and Aurangabad University teachers. "We had set up 142 centres and borrowed at least 50 computers from other universities' labs," Khan added.

But even if Khan's words hold true and the varsity declares results within this week, it would have overshot the original deadline by over two months. Results of all exams were originally declared in May or June. But this time, it's going into August. A major change this year has been online assessment of answer sheets.

Shiv Sena legislator Anil Parab said it was a big decision taken, and one without consulting professors, experts and other technical persons. Parab alleged that vice-chancellor Deshmukh took this decision in isolation. He also claimed that the party will seek a breach of privilege motion against state education minister Vinod Tawade on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, students' wings of opposition parties like Congress and NCP continued their protests against Deshmukh and Tawde, demanding their ousters.

A senior professor who wished to remain anonymous alleged that only 50 scanning machines were pressed into service and these were expected to scan over 22 lakh answer sheets. The varisty deputed 250 employees to scan 1.5 lakh answer sheets every day, which ultimately proved impossible. Even the tender process for going online was completed only in the last week of April, and many exam moderators were then on summer vacations. All of these factors caused delays in various streams like BCom, BSc, BA, etc., each of which saw a large number of students appearing this year.

The chaotic process of online moderation makes many wish for the simpler times when answer sheets were marked manually. Back then, a teacher would check about 30 answer sheets every day, but they can barely do eight to 10 a day under the new system, because many of the moderators are still getting accustomed to how the online moderation system functions. Which is why they took more time, the sources said.

Professor Neeraj Hatekar, who sought voluntary retirement from Mumbai University after saying his skills would be more effective if he "fights from the outside", blamed lack of planning of the chaos. "Proper planning could have prevented this, while mismanagement and lack of consultation with other involved partners only made it worse. It failed miserably," Hatekar said, terming the goings-on at Mumbai University "deeply distressing".
New Delhi: The Congress Monday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ministers of being insensitive towards the sufferings of flood-ravaged people in the country and claimed that the ministers rushed to "engineer defections" but did not visit the flooded areas.

The Congress also accused the BJP government in Gujarat of not fulfilling its "Raj Dharma" by coming to the aid of the flood-affected people in the state.

Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said the Modi government was in "deep slumber" over human tragedy by not providing any relief to those affected and was instead indulging in "petty politicking".

The leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha said the flood situation in the country was serious but neither the prime minister nor any cabinet minister had visited the flood-affected areas despite almost two months since the floods began.

"When it comes to breaking governments the ministers rush to states to engineer defections, but when it comes to helping people affected due to floods then none visit the affected states, especially in the north east," he claimed.

Azad said the government uses north east "only for political purposes" and not to provide succour to flood-affected people. "An insipid BJP government sleeps over a human tragedy of gigantic proportions from east to west India. The central government has failed to provide relief to the affected people," he told reporters.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the BJP was indulging in "stealing" MLAs and instead of feeling sorry for doing something wrong, they were "exulting". "You cannot abduct democracy by forcibly picking up MLAs and making them resign. If the ruling party misuses muscle and money power to force MLAs to resign, then we will not allow them to do so," Surjewala said.

"The BJP government in Gujarat is not fulfilling its Raj Dharma. What will happen to your Raj Dharma which is in power. The BJP should fulfil its Raj Dharma by helping those affected due to floods," he said.

Azad said one crore people have been marooned across the country and an estimated 300 people have died. "Yet the BJP government makes only perfunctory voices, conducts aerial surveys and provides little relief," he said.

Further, Azad said that the prime minister just made an aerial survey of Gujarat, where he was the chief minister for 13 years, but did not visit the affected areas there.

Questioned on the BJP's charge of absence of Gujarat Congress MLAs from the state, the Congress leader said, "They say that the Congress MLAs are not present and are instead in Bangalore. What was Gujarat chief minister doing when being in Gujarat he did not visit the affected areas and only kept looking at people dying, especially in the most affected Banaskantha district. The MLAs not coming is the creation of the BJP. Even the chief minister has not visited Banaskantha in Gujarat. Even the central ministers, MPs of the BJP are sitting in Delhi and have not visited Gujarat. Why so?," he asked.

Azad said in most of the cases, it was the BJP which was feeding that Congress MLAs were not on the ground to help the flood-affected people so that an atmosphere was created against them.

"The ruling party is creating an atmosphere so that the Congress MLAs return and are forced to resign by the BJP," Azad claimed.

The senior leader added that the MLAs are individuals who represent the Congress party which was very visible and active at the block and district level. The entire party was out there in the field looking after the people who have been affected and displaced, he said.

Azad said while 128 deaths have occurred in Gujarat due to floods, 82 people died in Assam, 16 in Rajasthan, four in Himachal Pradesh, 34 in West Bengal, six in Jammu and Kashmir, 18 in Odisha and eight in Jharkhand. He also called upon the Union Health Ministry to provide medicines and relief to the affected people.
Guwahati: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will pay a one-day visit to Assam on Tuesday to discuss a permanent solution to the flood problem in the state every year. The prime minister will leave from Delhi for the state at 7.30 am to assess the damage caused by the deluge.

Tomorrow, PM @narendramodi will be in Assam, where he will review the situation arising due to floods and the relief work.  PMO India (@PMOIndia) July 31, 2017

During his visit, PM will meet CMs & top officials of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland to review the flood situation.  PMO India (@PMOIndia) July 31, 2017

"The prime minister's visit is mainly to find a permanent solution to the flood problem that Assam is facing," state Finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said at a press conference in Guwahati.

Narendra Modi will hold two series of discussions here during the day and will leave for Delhi in the evening, he added.

He will chair a series of high level meetings to review the flood situation, and the relief operations in the North Eastern States.  ANI (@ANI_news) July 31, 2017

The first meeting will be with the council of ministers and state officials. After that, the prime minister will address a meeting of NDA legislatures from BJP, BPF and AGP, Sarma said.

Asked about the state's demand, Sarma said Assam has enough funds. "We still have Rs 324 crore of unspent money. Last year the Centre had announced Rs 400 crore (for Assam), but did not send it because we had money," he added.

Sarma, however, said the state government will submit a memorandum with some demands. Earlier on Monday, Congress leader and former chief minister Tarun Gogoi said Modi is paying a "token visit to the state only after facing severe criticism from all quarters as he visited Gujarat, but neglected Assam."

Modi is slated to conduct an aerial survey of the affected areas. Reports also state that he is likely to give a public speech at around 2 pm on Tuesday.

The Centre has already announced an ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh each under the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund for the kin of people killed and Rs 50,000 to seriously injured persons in the recent flood in Assam.

The prime minister requested Assam government to furnish details of the requirement of funds along with list incorporating the names of the dead in flood, their next of kin and seriously injured persons.

A seven-member inter-ministerial central team had visited Assam on 25 July for four days to carry out an on-the-spot assessment of flood damage.

The flood situation in the state has improved but one more person was killed in Morigaon district taking the toll in the natural calamity to 83, including eight in Guwahati.

According to Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), about 5,000 people are still affected in Lakhimpur and Jorhat districts, and 366 people are taking shelter in four relief camps in the two districts.

This year, two waves of floods in the state have affected around 25 lakh people from 29 districts prompting the administration to set up 1,098 distribution centres and relief camps, where about 1.32 lakh people took shelter.

Though the current wave of floods has receded, six districts are still reeling under floods and over 2,000 people have taken shelter in the relief camps.
Bhopal: Around 40,000 families in Madhya Pradesh, whose houses were facing submergence due to the closing of the gates of the Sardar Sarovar Dam, did not light their 'chulhas' (stoves) as a mark of protest on Monday, the fifth day of the indefinite fast announced by Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar in this regard, said an activist.

Most of these families have not left the catchment areas of the dam in Barwani, Alirajpur, Dhar and Khargone districts.

The state government had given them time till Monday to evacuate.

Even though the water level of the Narmada river was on the rise, the families were not willing to leave, said Narmada Bachao Andolan activist Himshi Singh, speaking from Barwani.

Some 40,000 families did not cook and observed a fast on Monday to protest the closing of the dam gates without proper rehabilitation measures for the affected people, she added.

Patkar is on an indefinite fast, demanding a proper rehabilitation of the affected people, at Chidhalda village along the river in Barwani district.

Singh alleged that the government shelter homes for the affected people lacked even basic amenities.

She added that they had moved the Supreme Court over the issue of their rehabilitation, seeking an urgent hearing, and the petition would be heard next week.

Neighbouring Gujarat got the Centre's nod to close the gates of the Sardar Sarovar Dam in June.
Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government on Monday made the "final effort" in seeking exemption for the state's students from common nation-wide medical entrance test NEET, with its representatives taking up the issue with Union ministers JP Nadda and Jitendra Singh.

Tamil Nadu health minister C Vijayabaskar, accompanied by health secretary J Radhakrishnan, met Union health minister Nadda and minister of state at the PMO Singh, in Delhi.

An official release recalled a series of meetings by Tamil Nadu ministers, including Chief Minister K Palaniswamy, with Prime Minster Narendra Modi and his other colleagues on the issue in the last few days.

"Following these, as a final effort, Vijayabaskar met Nadda and Singh to pressure them for an exemption for Tamil Nadu from the National Entrance Cum Eligibility Test (NEET)," the release said.

The minister was accompanied by Radhakrishnan, it added.

Tamil Nadu has been seeking exemption from NEET, saying it would affect the students from the state.

In February, the Assembly had passed two bills seeking to pave the way for the continuation of undergraduate medical admissions on the basis of Class 12 marks, exempting Tamil Nadu from the ambit of NEET.

The rival AIADMK Puratchi Thalaivi Amma faction, led by former chief minister O Panneerselvam, had also met Modi on the same issue.

Opposition parties, including DMK, have been upping the ante against the AIADMK government on the matter, with the DMK holding a human chain protest here last week to press for President's assent to the two bills.
Srinagar: Naseem Geelani, the younger son of hardline Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Geelani, said on Monday that the government shouldn't only "target" those who don't agree with it and that the same yardstick should be used for everybody.

Naseem has been summoned by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with investigations into the funding of subversive activities in Kashmir.

"Accountability is good but there should be the same yardstick. Don't target only those people who don't agree with you," he said in a Facebook post.

"(It should be) same for all politicians, you must not have forgotten name of Palm Jumeirah (in) Dubai and many more. At least we are ready, what about others?" he asked.

He was referring to allegations which surfaced some years back that a National Conference leader owned a condominium in the archipelago which is home to the most expensive properties in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Geelani's elder son Naeem, who was scheduled to appear before the NIA in Delhi, was on Sunday admitted to the ICU at SKIMS hospital here after complaining of severe chest pain.
Jammu: The NIA on Monday raided the ancestral house of a lawyer who is believed to be a close associate of hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani on suspicion of routing funds to separatists from their Pakistan-based handlers.

Devinder Singh Behal's native place of Nowshera was rocked by protests over his links with separatists and anti-India activities.

An NIA team conducted raids at the ancestral house of Behal in the Nowshera belt of Rajouri district, an official said.

The agency had on Sunday searched the lawyer's Jammu-based office and residence.

Behal is the chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Social Peace Forum (JKSPF), a constituent of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat headed by Geelani.

He also is a member of the legal cell of the separatist amalgam led by Geelani and a "close associate" of the Hurriyat hawk.

Behal also regularly attends the funeral processions of militants, the anti-terror probe agency had said on Sunday.

A large number of youths took out a protest march in Nowshera over Behal's links with Geelani. They shouted slogans against him and demanded that he be punished for "working against the country".
Jammu: The Pakistani army tonight violated ceasefire by resorting to firing on Indian posts along the Line of Control in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir.

"The Pakistani Army violated ceasefire by using light weapons and MMGs (medium machine guns) along the LoC in the Baba Khori belt of Naushera sector of Rajouri district at 2230 hours tonight", Deputy Commissioner of Rajouri Shahid Iqban Choudhary said.

There have been 23 incidents of ceasefire violation, one BAT attack and two infiltration bids by Pakistan in June, in which 4 people, including 3 jawans, were killed and 12 injured.

In July, 11 people, including 9 soldiers, were killed and 18 injured in ceasefire violation by the Pakistani army along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.
Srinagar: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) which is probing the role of separatists in fanning Kashmir unrest has established that the top Hurriyat leadership has been receiving funds from Pakistan, which was then making its way to stone-pelters and militants.

Inspector General of NIA, Alok Mittal, told Firstpost that the investigating agency has identified a large number of stone pelters who were receiving funds from Hurriyat. "We have identified large number of stone pelters who were helped by Hurriyat leaders. As of now investigation has revealed that the Hurriyat top leadership and their close associates were getting money and they would route it for subversive activities," he said.

Mittal said that those indulging in subversive activities including militants and stone-pelters were receiving the funds. He said that the NIA would soon arrest stone-pelters.

The NIA officials said that they have identified at least 50 stone-pelters and their handlers who have been receiving money from Hurriyat leaders. On Sunday, NIA also raided the house of a Jammu lawyer Devinder Singh Behal, who is considered to be associated with the Hurriyat (Geelani) chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelanis party, Tehrik-i-Hurriyat. Mittal said that his role in acting as a conduit to pass funds are being investigated. The NIA recently searched Behal's house, however, he has not been arrested.

According to NIA officials, the investigation against Hurriyat leaders is based on intelligence inputs as well as cases that were registered by Jammu and Kashmir Police six months after the 2016 Kashmir unrest that was triggered by the killing of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militant commander, Burhan Muzafar Wani. At least 100 civilians had died and scores of others were injured in the unrest.

NIA officials said that after a preliminary inquiry, a case was registered against the separatist leaders for receiving funding from Pakistan. Investigations have also revealed that money was routed via hawala channels through different conduits from different parts of India as well as outside the country to the separatist leaders in Kashmir.

A total of seven separatist leaders have been arrested by NIA after it recovered cash as well as cell phones, and traced calls of them discussing the strategy that could be adopted to continue the agitation after the killing of Burhan Wani, last year. Officials said that the NIA investigation followed the money trail to find out the "chain of people" who were involved in the unrest.

Among those who were arrested earlier by the NIA included Geelanis son-in-law, Altaf Fantoosh. The investigation agency has now sent notices of personal appearance to Geelani's sons  Syed Naseem and Dr Naeem Geelani.

The NIA officials are also investigating the kind of assets which may have been raised by the separatists from the hawala money", and have sought records about the accounts of the educational trust run by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman, Hurriyat (Mirwaiz) as well as Srinagar's Anjuman-e-Auqaf Jamia Masjid, where he leads the prayers.

However, both Geelani and Farooq have denied having received any funds to raise personal assets. Farooq has said in a statement that most of his property including both residential and commercial assets have been inherited by him and his only source of income were gifts that he receives from his religious followers as he is also a religious cleric.

"NIA has been roped in to frame the pro-freedom leadership through fabricated charges into a legal tangle," Farooq said.

The Anjuman-e-Auqaf Jamia Masjid, which has been issued notices by the NIA as well, was formed by Farooqs late father to meet the upkeep of Srinagar's Jamia Masjid. About 200 shops have been built in its vicinity whose rental income goes to the maintenance and upkeep of the mosque and is distributed among the poor, especially the widows and destitute women on a monthly basis. Farooq owns a house and 17 shops built by his father in Rajouri Kadal in Srinagar City. Farooq has also built six shops in Srinagars Lal Bazaar area on his own from which the rent goes to his account.

Geelani has said that the NIA is being employed to defame the character of resistance camp. He had inherited an ancestral house at Dooru in Sopore which is built over four kanals (half an acre) of land and its ownership has been transferred on the name of his wife and daughter. His office-cum-residence at Hyderpora is owned by a trust comprising a number of Hurriyat leaders, while another two-storey house at Barzulla is the property of Jama'at-e-Islami Kashmir, a religious group with which the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM) militant outfit identified itself with. Also, the four vehicles that are being used by Geelani are in the name of Tehrik-i-Huriyat, the party headed by Geelani.

Besides Geelanis son, Syed, who is working as an assistant professor at the Agriculture University of Kashmir, and owns a house on 5 marlas (1,361 square feet) of land at Rawalpora in Srinagar.

Geelanis elder son Naeem complained of chest pain on Sunday after which he was admitted to the Soura Medical Institute and was scheduled to visit New Delhi for the NIA investigation.

General Secretary of High Court Bar Association (HCBA), Bashir Siddique, said that the association would put up a legal defence against the raids which have been conducted against the Hurriyat leaders. He said that they were only meant to cause harassment to the leaders here".
After a chaotic week for President Donald Trump and his party, Republicans are facing a fundamental question: What's next?

With a new chief of staff, communications director and press secretary in tow, the President clearly is seeking to "hit the reset button," as his now former chief of staff Reince Priebus described it to Wolf Blitzer on Friday.

Also clamoring to turn the page, GOP leaders on both sides of Capitol Hill are clearly signaling they are ready to turn to a slew of issues and agenda items this fall, like taxes, border security, the budget, spending bills, and more -- and even Trump administration officials are echoing that call.

There may still be more moves to come on the personnel front, but on the agenda front -- despite Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declaring in the early hours of Friday morning that it is "time to move on" after the failed vote on health care -- the President hardly sounds ready for a reset.

"Unless the Republican Senators are total quitters, Repeal & Replace is not dead! Demand another vote before voting on any other bill!" he tweeted Saturday afternoon.

Asked Sunday morning if that statement represents official White House policy, one top Trump adviser offered said "yes."

"Well, I think -- yes. And I think what you're seeing there is the President simply reflecting the mood of the people. Go and poll the American public and find out what the most important issue is to them right now, and it's health care," said Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told Jake Tapper on CNN's "State of the Union."

Mulvaney added, "And I think that's not only official White House position on this right now, it's sort of the national attitude towards it.

Another Trump confidant, former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, made clear that the White House isn't letting go of the quest to repeal and replace Obamacare, telling NBC's "Meet the Press" that "there's three things on the agenda. It's tax reform, it's building a wall on the Southern border, it's repeal and replace of Obamacare, which didn't get done."

But throughout the weekend, Trump seemed less focused on moving on to tax reform or to the border wall than on confronting the procedural hurdles that threaten those efforts in the Senate -- where Republicans can only afford to lose two of their 52 party members if they are to advance legislation that doesn't have any Democratic support.

Trump called for the elimination of the 60-vote requirement to break legislative filibusters in the Senate. That 60-vote threshold didn't come into play on health care because Republicans were working under budget reconciliation rules that require just a 51-vote majority.

However, McConnell -- cognizant that if Democrats retake the majority in future elections, they could more easily advance their own agenda items without GOP support -- has said he'd never eliminate the legislative filibuster, putting him at odds with Trump, who tweeted several times on the topic on Saturday.

"Republicans in the Senate will NEVER win if they don't go to a 51 vote majority NOW. They look like fools and are just wasting time," Trump tweeted, following up in subsequent tweet saying "8 Dems totally control the U.S. Senate. Many great Republican bills will never pass, like Kate's Law and complete Healthcare. Get smart!"

The Trump administration has more health care decisions to make.

Repeatedly, Trump has warned he would let Obamacare "implode" in hopes that voters would penalize Democrats in the 2018 midterms.

Among the decisions his administration must make: whether to stop government payments to insurance companies to help lower costs for lower-income policyholders under Obamacare and whether to continue enforcing the law's individual mandate to purchase insurance.

"If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!" Trump tweeted Saturday.

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said on "Fox News Sunday" that Trump will make a decision this week on the government payments to insurance companies.

"He's going to make that decision this week," Conway said. "And that's a decision that only he can make."

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price declined on NBC to address the issue directly, citing ongoing litigation.

"What I can tell you though is that the court has made a decision that those payments were made illegally," Price said. "And that's working its way through the court system."

But Price pledged to enforce Obamacare despite his belief that it isn't working, saying twice, "Our job is to follow the law of the land."

In an interview on ABC's "This Week," Price addressed the individual mandate question, saying his department could still choose to waive the mandate, which requires people to have health insurance or face tax penalties.

"All things are on the table to try to help patients," Price said.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, one of the three Republicans who sunk the "skinny repeal" of Obamacare on Friday, said on CNN's "State of the Union" that health care reform should return to the regular committee process. She also called on the Trump administration not to undercut Obamacare.

"I certainly hope the administration does not do anything in the meantime to hasten that collapse," Collins said.

For Democrats, health care conversations could shift toward single-payer "Medicare for all" proposals such as the one Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is expected to introduce in September.

Already, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand -- both seen as potential 2020 presidential candidates seeking to take on Trump -- have backed single-payer, government-funded insurance. Other key Democrats will also be expected to weigh in on such a policy shift.

In Congress, meanwhile, McConnell has delayed the start of the upcoming August recess until August 11.

That's not the case on the House side, and not everyone is happy about it. "It blows my mind that we're probably not going to be here in August," House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows said Friday.

House GOP leaders told rank-and-file members Friday at a closed-door meeting that they were plowing full-speed ahead on the rest of the spending bills, the budget and tax reform when the House returns to work in September.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, along with key GOP leaders in the House and Senate, issued a statement Thursday afternoon laying out broad proposals and saying "the time has arrived" for relevant congressional committees to start drafting legislation.

As the Senate stays in session during the first two weeks of the traditional August recess, they are expected to tackle a long list of nominations to help fill out the Trump administration.

A key nomination awaiting further action is that of Christopher Wray for FBI director. Wray cleared the Senate judiciary committee with unanimous approval, which sets up a vote for Wray by the full Senate that is expected to be bipartisan -- something that's been hard to come by in the first six months of the Trump administration.

CNN's Eli Watkins, Ashley Killough, Deirdre Walsh and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.
New Delhi: A special court on Monday directed the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) to file a status report on a complaint against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and others in alleged irregularities in grant of contracts for roads and sewer lines.

The court also asked the ACB to submit on 1 September, a report regarding alleged threats given to the complainant and his family.

"ACB seeks time to file the status report and also a report regarding threats, if any, to the complainant and his family and provide security, if required," special judge Poonam Chaudhry said while directing the SHO of the probe agency to look into the matter.

During the hearing, the court asked the ACB officer and the prosecutor about the report regarding threats allegedly given to complainant Rahul Sharma as ordered by it earlier.

To this, the officer and prosecutor Balbir Singh said that previous reports on alleged threat perceptions were already on record and according to the Uttar Pradesh Police, there was no threat to the complainant's life.

The court, however, said, "Can the court place reliance on previous reports (filed before another court)? The complainant is alleging threats, you file a report on it."

Senior advocate Ajay Burman, appearing for Sharma, argued that Surender Bansal who was an accused in the case has died under mysterious circumstances and the complainant who is running an NGO is facing a grave threat to his life.

He further claimed that the ACB has withheld a report given by the special cell of Delhi Police on threat perception to the complainant and it should be placed before the court.

The court was hearing a complaint filed by Sharma, founder of Roads Anti-Corruption Organisation (RACO), seeking a direction to the police to lodge an FIR against Kejriwal, his brother-in-law Surender Bansal, proprietor of a construction firm and a public servant for alleged irregularities in the grant of contracts for roads and sewer lines in Delhi. Bansal died in May this year.

During the pendency of the complaint in the court, the ACB had registered three FIRs on its own on 8 May regarding alleged irregularities in granting the contracts.

A magisterial court had earlier directed the ACB to assess the threat perception regarding Sharma again after he submitted that on 30 May two unidentified motorcycle-borne persons fired gun shots at him when he was travelling in his car along with a cousin.

In his complaint, Sharma has alleged "deep-rooted corruption" in the road and sewer line projects, claiming that documents showing purchase of material were "concocted and forged" and a loss of over Rs 10 crore had been caused to the public exchequer.
Thiruvananthapuram: Two more persons have been taken into custody in connection with the killing of an RSS worker on 29 July, police said on Monday.

With this, the total number of persons nabbed so far has gone up to 11, they said.

City Police Commissioner G Sparjan Kumar said two more persons were taken into custody on Monday and their interrogation was underway.

"They were held from different places. With this, the total number of persons held in the case so far is 11," he told PTI.

Five or six persons were directly involved in the crime and the rest were involved in the conspiracy, he said.

Police recorded the arrest of seven persons on Saturday.

Two others are in custody.

Rajesh, the RSS functionary, was hacked to death by a gang, allegedly led by a history-sheeter, on Saturday night. His left arm was chopped off and there were several other injuries all over his body.

The BJP has alleged that the CPM was behind the cruel act, a charge which the ruling party has dismissed.

In view of a series of clashes between the CPM and BJP and the murder of the RSS worker here, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Director General of Police Loknath Behera were summoned by Governor P Sathasivam on Sunday and apprised him of steps taken in the case.

Earlier on Monday, a meeting between Vijayan and top BJP-RSS leaders had agreed to support initiatives to promote peace and shun violence.

The meeting called by Vijayan also decided to convene an all-party meet here on 6 August.

The state has been witnessing a serious of violent incidents allegedly involving BJP-RSS and CPM workers with the capital city rocked by incidents of attacks on houses of rival partymen in the past few days.
Over 100 veterans have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, expressing their displeasure over recent attacks on minorities, according to media reports.

The Hindu reported that the letter dated 30 July, 2017, also stated that the veterans backed the Not in My Name campaign which "mobilised thousands of citizens to protest against the current climate of fear, intimidation, hate and suspicion". The campaign was organised in June and saw people take to the streets to protest lynchings of Muslims and Dalits.

"We have spent our careers working for the security of our country. Collectively, our group holds no affiliation with any single political party, our only common commitment being to the Constitution of India," the letter signed by 114 veterans from the army, navy and air force said, according to NDTV.

"What is happening in our country today strikes at all that the armed forces, and indeed our Constitution, stand for... We are witness to unprecedented attacks on society at large by the relentless vigilantism of self-appointed protectors of Hinduism," the letter added, according to the report.

"We condemn the targetting of Muslims and Dalits... We condemn the clampdowns on free speech by attacks on media outlets, civil society groups, universities, journalists and scholars, through a campaign of branding them anti-national," the letter added, according to The Indian Express. "We can no longer look away... Our diversity is our greatest strength. Dissent is not treason; in fact, it is the essence of democracy."

The letter was endorsed by many top retired officials of the armed forces, including Admiral L Ramdas, Major General Dipankar Banerjee and Major General MPS Kandal. Other than the prime minister, the letter was also addressed to the lieutenant-governors of Union Territories and several chief ministers.

"The armed forces stand for unity in diversity. Differences in religion, language, caste, culture or any other marker of belonging have not mattered to the cohesion of the armed forces, and servicemen of different backgrounds have fought shoulder to shoulder in the defence of our nation, as they continue to do today," the letter stated, a copy of which was published in The Wire.
The Army Hospital (Research & Referral) in Dhaula Kuan, New Delhi, is deservedly known for its medical expertise and its reputation as a tightly run ship, under the armed forces, comes with due merit. The past five days, I have been witness to this awesome vat of talent. On Monday morning, however, R&R was held at ransom as the system was taken over by the police and civilian administration.

The new President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, was visiting the hospital and the gates were shut to patients, families of patients and those service members in need of aid. Scores of armed cops in khaki, carrying sten guns and self-loading rifles, patrolled the perimeter.

When the gates were finally opened, people were asked to take a quarter mile diversion, their infants in their arms, through the thick undergrowth and were told to avoid the paved road. One would imagine that using the paved road would be better for security but the jungle it was.

The trudge through trees and foliage would perhaps have been pleasant for some  if you were the sort who enjoys exploring the wilderness  but for the sick and those stressing over unwell relatives, it was a 'supreme' inconvenience in the name of the Supreme Commander of the Indian Amed Forces.

Clearly, this man of the masses is unaware of the havoc he caused. As one of those forced to march through the jungle under the watchful eyes of gun toting cops, I am compelled to ask a long repeated question: When are we going to bring sanity into these normal trips by surface transport for VIPs?

The breathtaking arrogance of the bureaucracy in blocking a hospital and the expenditure incurred in a standard VIP movement belies all the claptrap of simple and Spartan lifestyles our leaders set to music.

Imagine the goodwill replete in a president who goes to the x-ray unit and instead of blocking out other patients (as was the case with Kovind) he mixes in with them. I suspect a Dr APJ Abdul Kalam would have done just this.

By all means, maintain security and give precedence to eminence but not by railroading the public. We are a modern nation. We should make things simpler. The president could have flown in by chopper, had his checkups and flown out without creating such fuss and bother. The brouhaha generated by the civilian bandobust and the swarm of police lets the cat out of the bag as far as security is concerned  even the tea boy knows what's up.

The pomp and ceremony is a must when it comes to public events like the Republic Day parade but for these run of the mill sorties, there is no need for such a major operation. Other nations are downsizing and compelling their leaders to walk the talk. We, on the other hand, seem to be inflating the conceit. If you are that afraid somebody will get you then don't join public life.

And for medical visits to such prestigious institutions like R&R, the president should leave it to the armed forces. They will fly you in and back home without any fanfare. Quick, efficient and entirely safe.
Editor's note: From selling chawanprash on a bicycle and teaching yoga to small groups of people in the late 1990s, Baba Ramdev now heads a multi-billion-dollar consumer goods empire. In 'Godman to Tycoon: The Untold Story of Baba Ramdev', author Priyanka Pathak-Narain traces his story. The following is an extract from her book.

At the turn of the millennium, yoga had a moment of runaway success. Suddenly, it was cool again to be a yogi. After the heady love affair that the West had with India and its godmen in the 1970s, things had cooled off considerably. This was, if you will, a second fling.

Celebrities in the west embraced its practice and yoga captured the worlds imagination. Naturally, the growing American obsession renewed Indian interest in yoga. And while well-heeled Indians acquired yoga instructors, the rest of India had neither access to good yoga teachers nor the money to pay for them. The travelling yoga teachers Ramdev and Karamveer did not miss the surging crowds clamouring to attend their yoga camps.

Seeing the increasing curiosity about yoga, especially among the elites, in 2000 Ramdev and Karamveer organised a free yoga camp for local authorities in Haridwar. The Haridwar superintendent of police and the district magistrate attended this very successful week-long session at Bhalla College. From this point on, befriending government officials and politicians, both in and out of power, would become a trademark growth strategy of Baba Ramdevs.

All the ingredients were in place: a global momentum was building behind yoga, religious television channels were on the rise and there was a huge dearth of good yoga teachers. The stage was set for the right yoga guru to take his place on the stage.

Madhav Kant Mishra was paying attention. I knew that just having swamis talking and lecturing on television was not going to be enough . . . Anything to do with yoga and health would do well, he remembers.

So he went looking for the right yoga guru for Aastha. I had three choices, he recalls. Karamveer, Ramdev and a third local yoga teacher based near Haridwar. But only one of them was a saffron-robed guru, he says, smiling. The optics of that were promising because I knew our audience would prefer to learn from a sanyasi. Karamveer, Ramdevs mentor, had lost out to his protege.

Mishras hunt for an orange-robed yoga teacher brought him to Kripalu Bagh Ashram. When I saw Ramdev do that nauli kriya, churning his stomach . . . I knew he would be a big hit, says Mishra. He made a recording of Ramdev teaching yoga and sent it to Aasthas promoters in Mumbai for the green light to put Ramdev on air.

Unimpressed with what they saw of Ramdev on that tape, Aastha promoter Kirit Mehta and CEO Ajit Gupta refused to air it. They simply said, What boss? He moves his stomach around like that . . . it wont work.

It is not clear how Ramdev handled their rejection, but the idea of teaching yoga on television had fired his imagination. Within a few short weeks of discovering how the television business worked for swamis like him, he went to the rival Sanskar channel and secured himself 20 minutes of airtime at 6.45 am by paying for it.

Religious television channels had an unusual business model at that time. Unlike normal television networks that have to rely on advertisers, religious channels had access to a never-before-tapped revenue stream: the godmen themselves. Flush with funds from donations, these gurus saw in Aastha an opportunity not only to rally their bases, but also to recruit new converts.

According to Mishra, within a year of its launch, the idealism that had spurred Aastha had faded. Religious gurus had quickly understood that TV was the most powerful way to reach people  inside their homes. A situation evolved where religious gurus believed that if they wanted to survive in the religious marketplace, they had to be on Aastha. I will not take names, but religious gurus used to come to us and discuss their rivals  Oh, you are running this guy? How much is he paying you? I will pay more. Aasthas and Sanskars airtime was being auctioned, offered to the highest bidder.

This business model made it simple for Ramdev to shop for airtime with Sanskar channel, where a 20-minute slot cost Rs 1,50,000. Kabra, a key promoter of Sanskar, remembers his first meeting with Ramdev in Delhi with his manager, Gopal Maheshwari. Ramdev told them he could not pay the entire amount right away but he assured them that he would generate enough viewership to be able to pay them back.

Where Mehta had refused to venture, Kabra decided to plunge in and take a chance on Ramdev. There was something compelling about Ramdevji from the very beginning, he says.

The first of Ramdevs yoga shivirs, or camps, to be telecast on Sanskar was conducted in Haridwar. Knowing how much was riding on it, Ramdev must have been nervous, but his performance was sensational and his chemistry with the audience undeniable. He was the saffron-clad Pied Piper who could make his stomach churn and ripple, wrap his legs around his neck and dazzle viewers with dreams of eternal youth and instant good health. His audience was enchanted, and followed him into a dream land where cancer, homosexuality and HIV could be cured by yoga, grey hair turned black, and the divine experienced. During that first shivir itself, he appealed to people for donations and was not disappointed. Two people in the live audience gave him cheques for Rs 5 lakh each, several times the amount he owed Sanskar for that time slot.

When Ramdevs slot helped drive up Sanskars TRP ratings, the folks at Aastha wondered: Had they made a mistake by passing him up? By July 2003 Television Audience Measurement Media Research reported that Sanskar had 6.9 million viewers. Aastha trailed behind at second position with 5.7 million viewers. Ramdevs trademark nauli kriya, an entrancing rippling of the stomach, had clearly worked. The viewers were hooked.

Excerpted with permission of Juggernaut Books from Godman to Tycoon: The Untold Story of Baba Ramdev by Priyanka Pathak-Narain, available in bookstores and on www.juggernaut.in
As the issue of defecting Congress MLAs in Gujarat intensified in Parliament, BJP president Amit Shah on Monday during a press conference in Lucknow slammed the Congress for "locking" the MLAs up. Shah's onslaught on the Congress continued as the BJP president asked why the Congress had to keep its MLAs locked up to stop them from defecting. He said that the party was keeping them "under arrest" in Karnataka where it was in power.

#WATCH: Amit Shah addresses the media in Lucknow https://t.co/pjf7bxG3Cy  ANI (@ANI_news) July 31, 2017

Shah also used the opportunity to deny Congress allegations that its MLAs were being poached by the BJP ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections in Gujarat. The election will be a clash of heavyweights from both parties as the Congress has nominated Ahmad Patel while the BJP has nominated Shah and Union minister Smriti Irani.

Bringing up the latest change in political alliances in Bihar, Shah denied that the BJP played any role in breaking the Grand Alliance in Bihar. Shah added that Nitish Kumar had ended the Mahagathbandhan to join hands with the BJP. Responding to a question on whether Samajwadi Party leader Shivpal Yadav be joining BJP too, Shah said that there had been no discussion on the matter.

Notably, Shivpal, a member of the Mulayam Singh Yadav faction of the Samajwadi Party, backed NDA's presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind during the 17 July elections. The question of Shivpal joining also is significant as two Samajwadi MLCs recently resigned citing dissatisfaction with the Samajwadi Party.

Expounding on the corruption-free record of the BJP-led NDA government, Shah said that while the UPA government would throw up a scam every month, the Narendra Modi government at Centre has yet to be implicated in a single scam. The BJP president also brought up the Panama Papers case and said that not a single BJP member was named in the scam.

The BJP chief listed out the government's achievements including increasing farmer income, giving Constitutional status to OBC Commission, building 4.5 crore toilets for poor etc. On the issue of Ram Mandir, Shah said that the temple would only be build with the court's assent.

On Sunday, Shah had targetted the Congress over dynasty politics and said that the lack of internal democracy in a political party results in it being dominated by caste or family.

With inputs from agencies
Lucknow: BJP chief Amit Shah targeted the Congress over dynasty politics on Sunday and said that the lack of internal democracy in a political party results in it being dominated by caste or family.

Addressing a meeting of intellectuals in Lucknow, Shah drew parallel between the BJP and the Congress over who will be the next chief of the two parties. Shah asked the audience that who will succeed Sonia Gandhi in the Congress, to which the people responded saying Rahul Gandhi. He then posed the same question about the BJP.

"Can anyone tell me who will be the next president of BJP?, No one knows. A person with nirmal charitra (pious character) will head the BJP. The president of BJP is not elected on the basis of dynasty, caste or religion, but on the basis of merit," Shah said.

"Internal democracy provides an opportunity for talent to develop naturally. In the absence of internal democracy in any political party, it ends up being run by gharanas (families). Among the 1,650 political parties in India, very few have internal democracy, and BJP is one of them," he said.

He said in the absence of internal democracy, a party cannot serve the purpose of democracy and incompetent heirs are chosen to head them.

"...Then these political parties become family-based or caste-based. Talent is not given any importance there, and talented people are sidelined. Parties like the SP and the BSP decide their waaris (heir). Sometimes there is a mistake in deciding the heir as well," the BJP chief said, apparently hinting at the falling out of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav.

Shah said principles and development should also be two vital characteristics of a political party. "In absence of principles in a political party, casteism and family politics take over," Shah said.

He said the BJP is a party which follows "cultural nationalism", both in letter and spirit, and also believes in Antyodaya  a model which touches all sections of the society, and aims to disseminating the benefits of development to the last strata of the society.

"Since 1950 to 2017, in the journey from Jan Sangh to the BJP, the basic principle has been Antyodaya, integral humanism and cultural nationalism," Shah said.

Shah claimed states without a BJP government have been "taken over by scams, corruption and dynasty politics.

Talking about Uttar Pradesh, he said the BJP will script history in terms of development.

"Owing to financial indiscipline, a term Bimaru (laggard) states was coined in the 1980s for Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have come out of the Bimaru bracket. Bihar had shed the tag, when we were in government. There were some roadblocks, but day before yesterday things have moved in the right direction.

"We want to promise that UP will be out of the Bimaru bracket in the next five years. I assure you that under the leadership of Yogi Adityanath, we will script a new story of development of UP and make it the best state," Shah said.

He also claimed that the country's growth came down to 4.4 percent under the previous Congress-led UPA government. However, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it went up to seven percent.

Taking a jibe at former prime minister Manmohan Singh, the BJP chief said his government suffered from "policy paralysis".

"Every minister assumed himself to be the prime minister and no one considered him as the prime minister. Today under Narendra Modi, the BJP has completed three years in government, but even the rivals could not level allegations of corruption against us," Shah said.

"Wherever the BJP forms the government, it works for the welfare of the people, is transparent and decisive," he said. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya also addressed the meeting.
Darjeeling: The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha has given a ten-day deadline to the Centre to intervene in the Gorkhaland statehood stir as the indefinite shutdown in the hills entered its 47th day on Monday.

"We have given a ten-day deadline to the Union government to intervene. An indefinite shutdown is going on for the last 47 days. The Centre can't just sit idle when the hills are burning," GJM assistant general secretary Binay Tamang told reporters on Sunday night.

The 30-member Gorkhaland Movement Coordination Committee (GMCC), a body of all the hill parties of Darjeeling, is in Delhi for an all-party meeting.

The GMCC has sought an appointment with Union home minister Rajnath Singh to brief him on the ongoing crisis in the hills.

"We have sought a meeting with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in order to brief him on the ongoing crisis in the hills. The indefinite shutdown has entered its 47th day, which is the longest-ever shutdown in the history of Darjeeling. The Centre needs to take concrete action," Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh president Sukhman Moktan told PTI.

The police and security forces patrolled the streets of the hills and kept a tight vigil at all entry and exit routes.

Normal life remained crippled during the indefinite strike to press for a separate Gorkhaland state. Barring medicine shops, business establishments, restaurants, hotels, schools and colleges remained closed.
A few days ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flew over flood-hit areas of Gujarat  a privilege that was denied to many other Indian states facing the wrath of monsoons this year.

It would be facile to argue that the prime minister doesn't care about other states. But, it would not be wrong either to argue that Gujarat in many ways is the primus inter pares for Modi, a state that he guards zealously like his last bastion.

The ongoing drama in Gujarat and turmoil in the Congress, thus, should be seen in the context of the state's importance in Modi's  and by extension BJP president Amit Shah's  scheme of things. The state should be seen as a battleground Modi and Shah would try to dominate with every weapon in their arsenal  saam, daam, dand, bhed.

So, it has come to pass that the Congress is in complete disarray just a few months before the Gujarat Assembly elections. Its most prominent face, Shankersinh Vaghela, arguably the only leader who could have given Modi-Shah a tough time, has quit, leading a small bunch of turncoats like Pied Piper. Its legislators have been herded in a Karnataka resort, fearing more predatory raids by the BJP. And, its plans of sending senior party leader Ahmed Patel to the Rajya Sabha via Gujarat are on knife's edge, with more and more MLAs threatening to cross-vote for the BJP.

Patel's plight is a perfect metaphor for the mess within the Congress. That the political advisor to the Congress president, the man who ran the Congress from behind the curtain for several years, is uncertain of victory in his home state despite having the numbers till a few days ago is a tragicomic reminder of the decline of the party and its utter incompetence to break the freefall.

Congress spokesperson and Gujarat legislator Bharat Singh Solanki claims the BJP came up with an irresistible offer of cash and ticket for the Assembly polls. Nobody can prove the Congress allegation of its MLAs being offered Rs 15 crore to switch loyalties in Gujarat. But, as Bashir Badr famously said, "kuch to majbooriyan rahi hongi, yun koi bewafa nahin hota". Whether it is fear, greed, inducement or plain disenchantment with the party, the compulsion behind their treachery, only the Congress turncoats can tell us.

But, the BJP's compulsions in destabilising the Congress are apparent. One, the Opposition is running in all directions at the moment since the twin setbacks in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, one an electoral loss, the other a bloodless coup by its own poster boy. The BJP wants to ensure that the Opposition gets absolutely no opportunity to regroup and mount a challenge in Gujarat.

Two, the political situation in Gujarat is still unpredictable. The Patidar unrest two years ago, Dalit anger after violence in Una, the rise of new leaders like Hardik Patel and Jignesh Mewani and the confusion among traders because of demonetisation and GST is yet to play out electorally.

In spite of the series of defeats over the past two decades, the Congress has been closing the vote share gap with the BJP, bringing it down to just nine percent in 2012. Obviously, even a small swing of votes away from the BJP could prove costly in the next election. The BJP is making every effort to ensure the Congress doesn't benefit from the dynamic political environment in the state.

The Congress, of course, is to be blamed for its current plight and chaos among legislators. Rahul Gandhi, like always, has shown a complete lack of ability to provide leadership. Time and again  in Assam, Goa, Arunachal Pradesh and Bihar  he has failed to take timely decisions and deal with dissent, exposing himself as helpless, clueless and tactless. His inability to deal with Vaghela's ambition, most likely, has cost the Congress the 2018 Gujarat election and the chance to regroup before 2019.

But, how does one expect a party to douse the fires ravaging it when its chief political strategist is running around with his tail on fire!
Thiruvananthapuram: Amid violent incidents following the slaying of an RSS worker in Thiruvananthapuram, a meeting between Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and top BJP-RSS leaders on Monday agreed to support initiatives to promote peace and shun violence.

The meeting called by Vijayan also decided to convene an all-party meet in Thiruvananthapuram on 6 August.

Briefing reporters after the meeting in which BJP state President, Kummanam Rajasekharan, former Union minister, O Rajagopal, MLA, and RSS leader P Gopalankutty and CPI(M) state secretary, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, participated, Vijayan said similar meetings will also be held at Kannur, Kottayam and Thiruvananthapuram.

Condemning the recent violent incidents in parts of the state, he said political parties should be vigilant and initiate steps to create awareness among their cadre to shun violence.

Though earlier peace meetings had decided that party offices, homes of party workers would not be attacked, it was unfortunate that a BJP office and house of Kodiyeri

Balakrishnan were targeted in the violence in the state capital in Thiruvananthapuram, Vijayan said.

"Houses of several councillors were also damaged. This should not have happened. We need to be vigilant against such incidents and ensure that it does not happen again," he said.

Rajasekharan, who spoke to reporters separately, said BJP and RSS would provide all support to the government initiatives to restore peace.

"We need to have peace in the state.But we also want political parties, religious and communal outfits to have the freedom to engage in their party activities," he said and asked the government to provide the necessary atmosphere for it.

Police should be impartial, he said.

A report from Kottayam said stones were on Monday thrown at the district committee office of the CPI-M's trade union wing CITU while a petrol bomb was hurled at the RSS district office in fresh incidents of violence in Kottayam town.

The BJP district unit alleged that CPI(M) workers hurled a petrol bomb at the RSS district office, causing extensive damage to the building situated at Thirunakkara in the town.

They slammed police for not taking steps to provide adequate security cover for RSS-BJP offices in the town.

Window panes of the CITU office were damaged in the attack believed to be carried out by a gang of five men who reached there on three motorcycles at 2.30 am, police said. They hurled stones at the office, police said.

Condemning the incident, the CPI(M) Kottayam district secretary V N Vasavan alleged that BJP-RSS activists were behind the attack.

On Sunday, Kerala Governor P Sathasivam had summoned the chief minister and DGP Loknath Behara to ascertain the action taken by the government following the killing of the RSS worker.

The chief minister had assured him that he would be meeting BJP and RSS state leaders.

Vijayan and the DGP met the governor separately after they were summoned by the Raj Bhavan following recent violent incidents including the murder of the 34-year-old Rajesh on July 29.

The state had been witnessing a serious of violent incidents allegedly involving BJP-RSS and CPI-M workers with the capital city rocked by incidents of attacks on houses of rival partymen in the past few days.

The state BJP office was vandalised on July 28 while stones were thrown at the house of CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan's son Bineesh Kodiyeri in Thiruvananthapuram.

Rajesh was hacked to death by a history-sheeter-led gang in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday. His left arm was chopped off and there were several injuries all over his body.

The BJP had called for a dawn-to-dusk state-wide hartal On Sunday to protest the incident.

Seven persons had been arrested so far in connection with the RSS worker's slaying.

On Sunday, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to the chief minister and voiced concern over attacks on political workers in Kerala and said political violence was unacceptable in a democracy.
Several members of the public say they want more information about a mobile oilfield waste treatment plant thats proposed for the Bakken.

The North Dakota Department of Health will hold a public hearing this week on White Wing Limiteds application for a radioactive materials license.

The hearing is at 6:30 p.m. Mountain time Thursday at the Dunn County Highway Department, 300 Central Ave S. in Killdeer.

The business proposes to process, filter and separate oilfield waste that contains naturally occurring radioactive material.

According to the company's application, it does not plan to collect or store oilfield waste. The waste would be would be immediately disposed of at a special waste landfill.

If the level of radioactivity of the waste is higher than the level accepted in North Dakota, the waste would be transported out of state to a permitted landfill, the application said.

The company anticipates operating primarily in McKenzie, Dunn, Williams and Mountrail counties, the largest oil-producing counties in the state.

The Dunn County Commission and about a dozen citizens submitted letters to the health department raising questions about the proposal and requesting a public hearing.

Dunn County Commission Chairman Reinhard Hauck wrote that commissioners would like more information about how the waste is transported and how it will be verified that it gets to the proper disposal site.

Some wanted more information about the experience and qualifications of White Wing Limited, which lists an address in Excelsior, Minn., a shared office space.

Brent Lansberg, listed in the application as managing member for the company, declined to comment, saying he preferred to address questions at the public hearing.

Its unclear if the treatment unit also would require a permit from the North Dakota Oil and Gas Division. Spokeswoman Alison Ritter said the agency is in the process of determining whether a permit is necessary.

If the Oil and Gas Division also requires a permit, the agency would hold a public hearing, Ritter said.
Kottayam (Kerala): Stones were thrown on Monday at the district committee office of the CPM's trade union

wing CITU while a petrol bomb was hurled at the RSS district office in fresh incidents of violence in Kottayam town.

The BJP district unit alleged that CPM workers hurled a petrol bomb at the RSS district office, causing extensive damage to the building situated at Thirunakkara in the town.

They slammed the police for not taking steps to provide adequate security cover for RSS-BJP offices in the town.

Window panes of the CITU office were damaged in the attack believed to be carried out by a gang of five men who reached there on three motorcycles at 2.30 am, police said.

They hurled stones at the office, police said.

Condemning the incident, the CPM Kottayam district secretary VN Vasavan alleged that BJP-RSS activists were behind the attack.

He alleged that BJP-RSS workers destroyed publicity boards and hoardings of CPM and its allied organisations during their dawn-to-dusk hartal in the town on Sunday.

Eight RSS-BJP workers have been taken into custody in this connection, police said.

The BJP had called for a dawn-to-dusk state-wide hartal on Sunday to protest the killing of RSS worker Rajesh near Thiruvanathapuram on Saturday.

Kottayam district police chief N Ramachandran visited the offices targeted by the miscreants.

Adequate police security has been provided to offices of CPM, CITU, RSS and the BJP following the incident, police said.

The state had been witnessing a series of violent incidents allegedly involving BJP-RSS and CPM workers with the state capital Thiruvanathapuram rocked by incidents of attacks on houses of rival partymen in the past few days.
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The Congress is likely to raise the issue of its MLAs being poached by the BJP in Gujarat. The issue of mob lynchings, which had echoed in the Parliament several times in this session, is also likely to be raised in the House with the Congress, CPM and the Trinamool Congress accusing the BJP-led government of shying away from a debate.

The Deputy chairman of the Upper House PJ Kurien, appealed to the Opposition not to disrupt the members time, urging them to give notice for a discussion. Kurien said that the government was ready for a discussion.

Chaos reigned in Rajya Sabha in the Zero Hour as Opposition MPs trooped to the Well chanting slogans of 'Narendra Modi shame shame' and 'stop murder of democracy.'

Earliear Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani had also targetted the Congress for "enjoying luxuries" in Bangalore while the state was reeling under one of the worst bouts of floods.

The Congress alleged that the BJP is poaching their MLAs by use of money and muscle power, with the BJP hitting back and accusing the Congress of kidnapping people's representative.

People are worried whether there is law and order in India, says Mallikarjun Kharge

Govt is indirectly encouraging groups like the VHP,Bajrang Dal and also Gau Rakshaks to indulge in mob violence, says Kharge.

Mallikarjun Kjarge is now reading out the violence metted out by cow vigilantes against innocents. This has lead to commotion in the Lok Sabha as many of the incidents mentioned by Kharge are in the court of law.

While reading the list of cow vigilante attacks, Kharge called the twp states of Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh as "mob lynching centres". He also slammed the Modi government on double speak over mob lynchings.

Condemning the killing of Hafeez Junaid, Kharge said that people belonging to Hindutva outfits are taking law into their own hands to kill people over beef. Kharge once again reiterated that BJP, on one hand, is disowning the killers but on the other hand, it is also not taking any action.

"The government needs to explain the actions being taken against Gau Rakshaks who are involved in recent criminal activities," says Congress leader Kharge in Lok Sabha.

The BJP has raised a point of order for invoking ex-president Pranab Mukherjee's comments on cow vigilantism during the debate. Lok Sabha Sumitra Mahajan also criticised Kharge for doing so, saying that president's name cannot be invoked to influence a debate.

Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge raises the recent killing of an RSS worker in Kerala. "When an RSS worker dies in Kerala, the Governor calls up the CM. Why this discrimination?" he asks.

While Congress was attacking BJP over its doublespeak on mob lynching, Yadav took on the Congress asking a counter question whether mob lynching of DSP Ayub Pandith in Jammu and Kashmir not an incident worth mentioning.

The letter dated 30 July, 2017, also stated that the veterans backed the Not in My Name campaign which "mobilised thousands of citizens to protest against the current climate of fear, intimidation, hate and suspicion". The campaign was organised in June and saw people take to the streets to protest lynchings of Muslims and Dalits.

Over 100 veterans have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, expressing their displeasure over recent attacks on minorities, according to media reports.

Why is it wrong to say Vande Mataram these days? Is this not mob lynching?, says BJP MP Hukumdev Singh Yadav.

The National Commission for Backward Classes (Repeal) Bill, 2017 and Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-third Amendment) Bill, 2017 to be moved for discussion an passage together

BJP MP from Bihar Hukumdev Narayan Yadav resumed his speech after the Lok Sabha resumed opeartions. He said that the caretakers of India have always been the elite class and those today voicing their criticism over the so called lynchings, were quiet about Dalit atrocities.

In a cryptic warning message, BJP MP from Madhubani, HN Yadav said that the new India under Prime Minister Modi will not shy away from addressing the elephant in the room. "We will condemn those who are wrong. I would request them to med their ways and not provoke the others and if they do, they will face retalliation," Yadav said.

A data journalism initiative, IndiaSpends reported similar data as quoted by Roy, and Firstpost reproduced the report. You can read the full article here.

While Roy did not name the magazine, the Treasury Benches loudly objected to the data stating that the MP should place the report on the table of the House and substantiate his claims.

Participating in the debate on mob lynchings, Prof Saugata Roy quoted a "data magazine" regarding the cow-related violence. He said that 97% of cow-related incidents of violence since 2010 have happened after 2014.

Roy compared the killing of Muslims to the targeted killing of African-Americans by Ku Klux Klan in the US.

Demanding a Manava Suraksha Kanoon (Human Safety Law), Roy said that the BJp leaders took days to condemn the incidents which shook the entire nation. He said that even when they condemned incidents of mob lynching, they were very resrved in doing so.

Invoking the anti-sikh riots post Indiara Gandhi's assasination, Paswan said that the incidents have been happening since decades and selective targetting of the current government on that basis is wrong.

Ram Vilas Paswan said that law and order is state subject. "If state governments are unable to take care of it, should the Centre send armed forces to states," Paswan said.

"Those who go to Dalit homes and politicise sharing meals with them should know that no political gain would come out of it. Instead it further deepens the resentment amid the community that they are being reminded that they aren't equal to others," Ram Gopal Yadav said.

By the lynching process, the process of killing the Hindu farmers has been started, says Tathagatha Satpathy of BJD

If you can find sources of funding for stone-pelters can you find sources of funding for gau rakshaks , asks BJD's Tathagatha Satpathy

Samajwadi Party's Mulayam Singh Yadav has the House in splits when he says until people start treating their wives and women in their family properly, the situation will not improve. Once triggered, violence takes place in the name of religion, language, class and other things.

The bill should be an honest bill and should continue with the rights of the state. The decision can be made only by the state and not the Centre. There should be no hidden agenda. Many people want the states rights to be protected in deciding on OBCs. The new commission should not have income criteria to decide on who is minority and who is not.

He raised the issue of killing of RSS workers in Kerala, which is ruled by the Left Front government.

Participating in a debate on lynchings, Hukumdev Narayan Yadav slammed the opposition for targeting the central government over incidents of lynchings, saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly come out strongly against such acts.

Majority of Muslims in India are descendants of Hindus, a BJP member claimed in the Lok Sabha today while asking both the communities to respect each other's sentiment.

We are not aware of many hidden agenda of the Centre, says DMK's TKS Elangovan

Our fight is against Hindutva, not Hinduism. So long Modi government continues in power, mob lynchings will continue. Is cow protection an essential part of Hinduism? If it is, then the Supreme Court should deliver a verdict on it. Lynchers are no different from terrorists, why doesn't the government take action against them?

Our prime minister has been the first to condemn mob lynchings. I have told you all the data and this has been going on for years under the rule of Congress, Samajwadi Party and other parties. No leader has made this an issue earlier so how can you blame our government for having started the trend of mob lynchings?

Our prime minister has been the first to condemn mob lynchings. I have told you all the data and this has been going on for years under the rule of Congress, Samajwadi Party and other parties. No leader has made this an issue earlier so how can you blame our government for having started the trend of mob lynchings?

The House is adjourned amid ruckus over the minority commission bill's amendment. As different members failed to agree and several sessions of voting did not yield two-third majority, the chairman called for the adjournment for the day.

The eleventh day of Parliament's Monsoon Session is likely to see frequent disruptions and chaos as the Opposition, miffed over the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) political manoeuvre in Bihar and Gujarat, is likely to rake up the issue in Parliament, even as the Houses has key agenda listed for the Day.

The Rajya Sabha is scheduled to discuss The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-third Amendment) Bill, 2017, the National Commission for Backward Classes (Repeal) Bill, 2017, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Bill, 2017.

The Punjab Municipal Corporation Law (Extension to Chandigarh) Amendment Bill, 2017, The Central Goods and Services Tax (Extension to Jammu and Kashmir) Bill, 2017, and The Integrated Goods and Services Tax (Extension to Jammu and Kashmir) Bill, 2017, are listed for discussion in Lok Sabha, amid others.

Congress has accused the ruling BJP of poaching its MLAs in Gujarat ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls using "money, muscle and state power." Meanwhile in Bihar, chief minister Nitish Kumar shocked the Opposition by walking out of the Mahagathbandhan and allying with the BJP, all within a span of four hours. Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has been crying foul over the realignment of loyalties in Bihar politics, alleging that Nitish's move was a pre-meditated political conspiracy.

While the political developments in Bihar and Gujarat echoed in the Rajya Sabha on Friday leading to repeated disruptions, the government was able to get the key Indian Institutes of Management Bill, 2017 in Lok Sabha.

The bill aims to give the premier institutes more autonomy by restricting government role and enable them to grant degrees.

"After the bill is passed, there will be no government role in the appointment of Board of Directors in IIMs. Let the government come out of it. It will be for the betterment of our higher institutions," Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar said while summing up the discussion in the house.

The bill  which declares 20 existing IIMs as Institutions of National Importance  was later passed after all amendments moved by some members were rejected. Dubbing the bill "historic" vis-a-vis higher education reform, the Minister said autonomy to these institutions will put them in the league of world's top educational organisations.

The bill provides for conferring statutory powers to these institutions for their functioning, including appointment of directors, faculty, and also gives them powers to award degrees instead of post-graduate diplomas.

Meanwhile in Rajya Sabha, the House saw repeated adjournments on the issue of Congress legislators from Gujarat resigning and joining the state's ruling BJP. The Congress members accused the BJP of high-handedness to "steal" its Assembly members to dampen the Opposition in the Upper House too, where the BJP is yet to gain a majority.

Senior Congress leader BK Hariprasad alleged that the Prime Minister's Office was "directly involved" in Gujarat's developments, prompting loud objections from the Treasury Benches as BJP members trooped to the Well, demanding an apology. Deputy chairman PJ Kurien then adjourned the house for the day amid the ruckus.

The BJP enjoys a brute majority in Lok Sabha, however, the governments minority status in the Rajya Sabha has stalled several important elements of its legislative agenda. The National Democratic Alliance, currently has 85 seats in the 245-member Upper House. However, the historic win in Uttar Pradesh, which sends the maximum number of legislators to the Upper House, and latest political maneuvers in Gujarat and Bihar are likely to place the saffron party in a more comfortable stead.

The BJP-led NDA has often been accused of taking the ordinance route to bypass parliamentary scrutiny. The Opposition has also blamed the BJP of passing key policy legislation as money bills to avoid discussion in Rajya Sabha, where it has a minority status.

Money bills, as defined in the Constitution of India Act 110, can only be introduced in Lok Sabha, which the Rajya Sabha cannot stall, or amend without the Lower House's concurrence.
The eleventh day of the Monsoon Session of the Parliament saw charges and countercharges flying in the Lok Sabha over the issue of lynchings, with the Congress saying 'Hindustan' should not be allowed to become "lynchistan" and the government accusing the Opposition of enacting a "drama" in the name of secularism to defame Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Responding to a debate in Lok Sabha under rule 193 which lasted for around six hours and saw heated exchanges between the treasury and Opposition benches, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju urged members to condemn mob violence while asking the states to act tough.

The minister also accused the Opposition was trying to gain political mileage over the killings across the country blamed on cow vigilantes. Not satisfied with his response, the Congress, Left, Samajwadi Party and AIMIM members walked out.

Initiating the discussion, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge commented that "Hindustan" should not be allowed to become "lynchistan". The ruling party, however, maintained that "certain demons" have put on a "holy garb" to defame the government, likening it to an episode in the Ramayana, and asserted that the responsibility of containing mob violence is that of the state governments.

Countering Kharge's onslaught against the government, BJP leader Hukumdev Narayan Yadav said, "Some people are indulging in terror (atankvadi) activities to defame the government."

During his speech, the MP from Madhubani in Bihar extensively quoted Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and said that the BJP ideologue had stated that "Muslims in India are descendants of Hindus". He said every Muslim must respect Hindu sentiment and at the same time, Hindus must respect the Muslims.

While evoking a discussion on nationalism, Yadav said freedom fighters like Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan had sung the poem Vande Mataram but there is an environment now in which singing it is considered a crime.

Targeting the Opposition, the BJP MP drew the attention of the House towards the 1984 anti-Sikh riots after the assassination of Indira Gandhi and raised the issue of killing of RSS workers in Left-ruled Kerala.

Sougata Roy of Trinamool Congress brought up figures on mob violence in the name of cow protection and demanded a separate law  "Manav Suraksha Kanoon" (human protection law)  to deal with incidents of lynching, arguing that the Criminal Procedure Code and Indian Penal Code do not define lynching.

"The government keeps saying it wants Congress-free India, I want to ask, do you want to make a Muslim-free India as well," Roy said, provoking protests from BJP members.

Meanwhile, BJD leader Tathagata Satpathy highlighted the economical impacts of lynching on the rural economy, informing the House about how farmers are not able to sell old cattle because buyers are not coming to villages out of fear. "By lynching movement... you will eventually kill Hindu farmers," Satpathy said.

The BJD leader suggested that each MP should take care of two pairs of bullocks, and take note of how he tells farmers in his constituency to take their cows and bullocks to the houses of BJP workers.

Samajwadi patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav on another hand equated national level discrimination on various grounds of religion, caste, language and region to people's attitude towards women in their families. The atrocities committed against women, especially against wives in families, should be stopped, he said.

In a lighter vein, the veteran leader wondered how many of the Parliamentarians are suppressing their wives, eliciting laughter from the members present in the House.

The Lok Sabha also introduced few key bills on Monday. Finance minister Arun Jaitley introduced in the Lok Sabha the Punjab Municipal Corporation Law (Extension to Chandigarh) Amendment Bill, 2017 that will replace an ordinance which was brought urgently for the timely execution of the GST law in the Union Territory of Chandigarh.

Union minister Rao Inderjit Singh also introduced the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Amendment Bill, 2017, to enable"smooth, speedy and time-bound" eviction of overstaying Members of Parliament, dignitaries and bureaucrats from their official premises.

In Rajya Sabha, the session was briefly adjourned after Congress created a ruckus over the alleged kidnapping of its MLAs by police in Gujarat. Opposition Congress on Monday forced a brief adjournment of proceedings in Rajya Sabha alleging that the Gujarat police was kidnapping and threatening its MLAs in the state in order to influence their votes in the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls.

Congress members trooped into the Well of the House raising anti-government slogans, which were matched by counter-sloganeering by BJP. Amid the pandemonium, Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien adjourned the proceedings for 10 minutes during the Zero Hour soon after it met in the morning.

The Rajya Sabha discussed on a variety of topics ranging from air pollution to minority commission. However, the debate on minority commission bill's amendment got prolonged triggering a bit of ruckus where the two sides failed to reach a conclusion. The government suffered an embarrassment in the Rajya Sabha when it could not ensure passage of the bill to confer constitutional status on the Backward Classes Commission with the opposition succeeding in amending an important provision.

The house took up the Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill, 2017, which was earlier passed by the Lok Sabha. But after day-long discussion, Congress members Digvijaya Singh, BK Hariprasad and Hussain Dalwai moved an amendment to clause 3 of the bill seeking to provide for the appointment of all the five members of the commission from the OBC community, including a woman and a person from the minority community.

This was objected to by the government's side. Leader of the House Arun Jaitley said that what the Congress members were seeking could be looked into at the time of framing of rules under the law.

When the amended Clause 3 of the bill was put to vote, the BJP members voted against it. The result of the division was 69 ayes and 50 noes. A Constitution amendment bill can be passed only with the majority of the house present and two-thirds of those present voting in its favour.

Finally, the bill without Clause 3 that seeks to insert Article 330 8B was passed.

After the fiasco for the government, both the sides traded charges. Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the Congress will have to regret this "moment" against backward classes for centuries to come.

However, Azad accused the government of being insincere and failing to do its homework.

With inputs from agencies
New Delhi: The government on Monday informed the Lok Sabha that it has no information on the number of Indians visiting Pakistan in the last three years.

Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma said 77,177 Indians visited Bangladesh in 2014, while there was no corresponding data for 2015 and 2016.

While 13,53,43 Indians visited Nepal in 2014, 75,124 visited in 2015. No data was available for the year 2016.

Sr Lanka maintained a steady inflow of Indian visitors with 24,27,34, 31,62,47 and 35,67,29, people visiting the country in 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively.

While there was no data available for Indians visiting Bhutan in 2014 and 2015, in 2016, 13,82,01 visited the country.

Sharma, however, said that there was no data available for Indians visiting Pakistan in these years.
Mincing no words, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Monday asked whether "secularism means making properties and should only be used to win votes or serve people".

Taking the ongoing debate on secularism and the scathing attack on him for quitting the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) government, Nitish turned the entire discussion on its head and gave it a new perspective.

He made it clear that despite his erstwhile partners alleging that he sacrificed secularism by joining hands with BJP, Nitish couldn't compromise by supporting corruption.

Meanwhile, taking a dig at Nitish, RJD Supremo Lalu Prasad Yadavs son and former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav tweeted on Monday morning "congratulating Modi for having a new disciple".

                     Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) July 31, 2017

But, ignoring his critics and going a step ahead, Nitish was candid in saying that he had no qualms at being on Prime Minister Narendra Modis side. He almost made it clear that the 2019 General Election to Lok Sabha would be a repeat show as Modi had already emerged as an 'unchallenged leader'.

"Modiji se muqabla karne ki kshamta kisi mein nahi hai (Nobody has the capability to challenge Modi)," Nitish remarked on Monday.

Without naming Lalu and his family  who have gotten embroiled in a series of cases related to corruption and amassing wealth and properties  but referring clearly to them, Nitish was candid in his statements. He hit out asking if secularism be used as a cover to make illegal properties.

After severing ties with the Mahagathbandhan and forming a new government with BJPs support, Nitish had come under severe attack from his former alliance partners  RJD and Congress  and others, who alleged that the Bihar chief minister had compromised by sacrificing secularism.

That was probably the sole weapon, the opponents (especially Lalu and his son and Bihar's deputy chief minister Tejashwi) had to malign Nitish.

Reams of newsprints have already been spent on articles and columns to prove that Nitish crucified secularism by joining hands with BJP. Many columnists even wrote that supporting a corrupt ally (read RJD) was better than divorcing from a secular alliance called Mahagathbandhan.

While addressing his first press conference on Monday after forming the new government, Nitish said with conviction, "I'm ready to face criticism from a section of intellectuals and columnists...and I had anticipated it...Had I supported corruption (by continuing with the alliance), ten times more number of people would have questioned my credentials, as I never supported corruption."

Whether it was anti-corruption, surgical strikes or note ban, Modi and Nitish have been on the same page. During the period of note ban, Nitish was the first to demand action on benami properties.

Nitish was right, when referring to the Bhagalpur riots incident, he said, "Secularism is an ideology. I dont need anyone's certificate on secularism. I believe in talking less, doing my work. Whether I allied with BJP or any other party, Bihar witnessed development. Whether it was related to giving compensation to Bhagalpur riot victims or developing kabristan (Muslim graveyards) across the state  its my work that speaks."

The Bhagalpur riots of 1989 were one of the worst Hindu-Muslim riots in post-Independent history that witnessed killing of over 1,000 people in the Bhagalpur district of Bihar.

It was a real test for Nitish as a 'secular leader', who during his previous tenure in an alliance with BJP  as chief minister  had reopened the inquiry and ensured compensation to Muslim victims of the riot, who were ignored by the previous government. His then-ally BJP never objected to it and accepted the decision as a policy of the government.

"Based on recommendations of the inquiry commission, I had ensured that the victims who were ignored must get compensation at par with the victims of the 1984 Sikh riots," Nitish said.

Justifying his decision to quit the Bihar Mahagathbandhan government on the backdrop of the ongoing secular debate, Nitish asserted, "I asked Laluji several times and even Tejashwi, when he came to me after the cabinet meeting, to clarify their stand against the allegations of corruption and the CBI raids. Party supporters may agree to whatever justification you give, but what about the public? They did nothing. No clarification (was given) to (the) people who voted (for) us. Had they done it, things would have been different. The dilemma before me was either to work for the betterment of Bihar or compromise with corruption. I chose the first one. My decision was my partys unanimous decision."

But Nitish also made his stand clear that he is no 'Modi-bhakt', by saying that despite joining hands with BJP, he would back Gopal Krishna Gandhi for the post of vice-president of India. "I stand by the promise I made," Nitish remarked.

Dr Prashant Das, a professor in Lausanne, Switzerland, who originally hails from Patna and had witnessed the previous regimes with Lalu and his wife Rabri Devi as chief ministers of Bihar, told Firstpost, The first term of Nitishs chief minister-ship positioned him as a harbinger of change. Beyond rhetoric, he showed immense political will to salvage hope for Bihars constantly declining state of affairs. However, recently, aligning with RJD had significantly diluted his image."

"Modi aligning with Nitish, therefore, should be seen as the Centre aligning with Bihar; and a confluence of two strong, well-intentioned political leaders, Das added.
After pulling out of the RJD-Congress Grand Alliance in Bihar, Nitish Kumar joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to return as the chief minister for the sixth time in the last 12 years. After a rushed swearing-in, the new Cabinet was sworn-in on Saturday. It comprises 14 JD(U), 12 BJP MLAs and a lone LJP member.

So far, the BJP looks like the biggest gainer in Nitish's new Cabinet. The junior partner in the alliance received 12 berths  its highest ever in the last 12 years. In 2010, the party had 11 ministers, when the BJP had 91 MLAs. According to a report in Hindustan Times, the increased representation of the BJP reflects that a "weaker" Nitish Kumar wants to bank on the Centre to fulfill its promise of development in Bihar.

Notably, the Centre had promised a Rs 1.65 lakh crore development package for the state in the run-up to the 2015 Assembly elections. However, the package was put in cold storage after NDA's debacle. The report noted that the BJP was alloted the portfolios of agriculture, road construction, health, urban development & housing, art and culture, and backward and extremely backward classes. These portfolios are likely to help the party strengthen its social base ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Caste factor and regional representation

The BJP also kept the caste factor in mind while recommending names for the Cabinet. A report in The Economic Times said that the BJP focussed on bringing in EBC (Extremely Backward Caste) faces into the Cabinet to shed the image of being a upper caste party.

The report noted that the backward castes and EBC ministry will be lead by a BJP minister for the first time, while the new agriculture minister is BJP's prominent EBC face Prem Kumar. Both these factors are key as the party is looking to tap the social base of Bihar, the report noted.

The BJP also considered the regional representation while deciding on the ministers. According to the report, BJP gave representation to MLAs from Kosi and Seemanchal after the party had performed poorly in those regions in 2015.

RLSP, HAM not included in Cabinet

However, not all seems well for the NDA in Bihar. RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha was reportedly miffed after none of his MLAs received a berth in the Cabinet, The Indian Express reported.

The report said that the Union minister had sent the names of two MLAs to the BJP, which approved the name of Sudhanshu Shekhar. However, Nitish Kumar shot down the recommendation, the report added.

According to a NDTV report, Kushwaha and Nitish share the Koeri vote bank which will put both leaders in an electoral conflict.

With Nitish back in the NDA fold, Kushwaha's position in the alliance was weakened, which will further strain RLSP's relationship with JD(U), The Indian Express said.

Apart from Kushwaha, the one-member Hindustan Awam Morcha, led by former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi was also left out of the Cabinet. However, Manjhi is lobbying for a Cabinet berth for himself and his son Santosh Suman.

"You have given a seat to a person from the Paswan family who is not even an MLA or MLC. Hence, there's nothing wrong if I seek a role. I am disappointed but hopeful". Manjhi told India Today while referring to LJP getting a berth in the Nitish Cabinet.

However, after the 2015 elections, when the BJP alliance with the HAM failed to tap the Mahadalit vote bank, the party is wary to keep Manjhi in the Cabinet.

Manjhi's former party JD(U) also boasts of a strong Mahadalit vote bank which may not work in the electoral calculations of Nitish.
Patna: The Patna High Court on Monday dismissed two PILs challenging the formation of the new government by Nitish Kumar's JD(U) along with the BJP.

After hearing all parties, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice AK Upadhyay dismissed the two PILs saying no intervention of the court is required, after floor test in the state Assembly.

While one PIL was filed by RJD MLAs Saroj Yadav and Chandan Verma, the second one was filed by Jitendra Kumar, a Samajwadi Party member.

The petitioners, on 28 July, had sought the court's order for issuance of a direction to invite the leader of the single largest party to form government in the state.

Principal Additional Advocate General Lalit Kishore and Additional Solicitor General SD Sanjay had termed the PILs as "frivolous".

Kishore had told the court that while copy of the petitions had been given to the counsel of the Union government, the same was not served to those of other parties including the Governor, the Election Commission of India and the Government of Bihar.

After a brief hearing, the court had adjourned the matter for Monday.

The new Nitish Kumar government in which the NDA is a coalition partner won the trust vote on last Friday.

With inputs from PTI
Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress on Monday said that CPM candidate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya's Rajya Sabha nomination was rejected by the Election Commission in accordance with existing laws and the party has nothing to do with it.

"They were given a chance of hearing in accordance with the Representation of the People's Act. The returning officer was also present during the hearing and discussed the matter with everyone. Then it was announced that CPM's Rajya Sabha candidate's nomination was declared as invalid by the Election Commission as it was not submitted within the stipulated time," Trinamool Secretary General Partha Chatterjee clarified.

"How is Trinamool Congress involved in this?" he asked.

Rejecting the CPM's allegation of conspiracy, Chatterjee, also the state Education Minister, accused them of trying to malign the Election Commission by secretly tying up with the BJP.

"There is no conspiracy. They are trying to malign the Election Commission. Actually, they had a secret understanding with the BJP before nominating a person like Bhattacharya who has never been a part of Rajya Sabha," Chatterjee alleged.

Taking a swipe at CPM legislature party leader Sujan Chakraborty's claims that the Trinamool was rattled by Bhattacharya's candidature, Chatterjee said his party has sufficient numbers in the Rajya Sabha to ensure the victory of eight party candidates.

"Why should our party be frightened? With the kind of numbers the Trinamool Congress has, we could have named eight nominees and all of them would have won," he claimed.

The nomination of CPM Rajya Sabha candidate Bikash Bhattacharya was rejected on Monday, paving the way for five Trinamool Congress nominees and one from the Congress to be declared uncontested from West Bengal.

After much drama, the election authorities declared invalid Bhattacharya's nomination, on the ground that an additional affidavit was submitted after the 3 p.m. deadline on July 28 - the last date for filing of papers for the August 8 polls for six seats.
Continuing the political crisis in Bihar, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Jagadanand Singh demanded Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar's resignation over murder charges against him on Monday at a press conference.

Nitish Kumar is accused in a murder case under section 302 and also Arms Act: Jagdanand Singh, RJD pic.twitter.com/UNwdQJivMV  ANI (@ANI_news) July 31, 2017

The charges that the RJD is referring to are criminal cases filed against Nitish Kumar where he was accused of the murder of Congress leader Sitaram Singh and injuring four others ahead of the Barh Lok Sabha by-election in November 1991.

"The victim's family has been denied justice. Nitish Kumar does not have a right to sit in the chief minister's chair. He has criminal cases against him while those against others are civil charges," Singh said at a press conference on Monday, referring to the corruption charges against Lalu Prasad Yadav's son and former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav.

"Nitish Kumar has been holding the chief ministerial post since after the court took cognisance of his crime. A criminal must not be allowed to hold this position," he added.

On 27 July, Lalu Prasad Yadav had tweeted the Bihar chief minister's affidavit released at the time he filed his nomination papers. In it were mentioned a list of criminal cases filed against Nitish Kumar.

            affidavite             pic.twitter.com/MUmOkKgV3q  Lalu Prasad Yadav (@laluprasadrjd) July 27, 2017

In his tweet, Lalu had said that there's a murder case against Nitish and that the Bihar chief minister had admitted so in a affidavit.

The tweet, which also included an image of the affidavit shows Nitish being charged under sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 302 (punishment for murder) and 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code.

Ever since JD(U) chief Nitish announced his decision to break the grand alliance in Bihar with RJD and Congress on 26 July, several RJD and Congress members expressed shock over the "betrayal". Lalu brought up the criminal cases against Kumar in an attempt to discredit the JD(U) chief and protect his son Tejashwi from the corruption charges.

"There is a case of murder under sections 302 and 307 of the IPC against Nitish Kumar, which dates back to 1991. It can lead him to life imprisonment. We knew about it. The charge against Nitish Kumar is much more serious and bigger than the charge of corruption (against Tejashwi Yadav)," Lalu had said on the day Nitish announced his resignation.

It was alleged that Nitish, along with other party members, created disturbance at the Barh polling booth in 1991 which led to clashes between villagers. The police initially dropped the charges against Nitish, but they were levelled against him again in 2009, reported The Times of India.

On Monday, the Patna High Court dismissed two PILs challenging the formation of the new government by Nitish's JD(U) along with the BJP. RJD MLAs Saroj Yadav and Chandan Verma had filed one of the PILs while Samajwadi Party member Jitendra Kumar had filed the other.

The PILs had been filed ahead of the crucial trust vote that the new JD(U)-BJP government took in the Bihar Assembly on 28 July.

After hearing all parties, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice AK Upadhyay dismissed the two PILs saying no intervention of the court is required, after floor test in the state Assembly.

Nitish took oath as the chief minister again with the support of the National Democratic Alliance on Thursday along with senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi who swore in as the deputy chief minister. Nitish went on to win the floor test in Bihar Assembly the next day with a majority of 131-108.

The JD(U) and RJD, however, are not unfamiliar with its leaders being charged with criminal cases. An IndiaSpend analysis published in 2015 showed that 59 percent of the MLAs in the Bihar Assembly faced criminal prosecution. Forty-nine RJD MLAs had criminal cases pending against them while 37 JD(U) MLAs had criminal charges against them.
Thiruvananthapuram: A dawn-to-dusk shutdown called by the BJP after an RSS activist was killed derailed normal life across Kerala on Sunday even as police arrested eight persons allegedly linked to the ruling CPM for the killing.

After being summoned by Governor P Sathasivam, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan promised that action would be taken against law-breakers irrespective of their status and political affiliation. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh also told him to curb political violence.

The Bharatiya Janata Party called the shutdown after E Rajesh, 34, a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), was hacked to death in Thiruvanathapuram on Saturday night. He died a few hours later.

All shops and markets across the state were shut and all public vehicles went off the roads, residents and officials said. The few private vehicles which plied faced angry BJP and RSS activists.

Kerala Police chief Loknath Behra told reporters that all but one of those involved in the crime has been arrested.

"Their questioning has started. Preliminary indications are that there was political and also personal rivalry," he said.

In another unprecedented development, the Governor, a former Supreme Court Chief Justice, summoned Vijayan and Behra to know the law and order situation in the state.

In the last two weeks, there was an attack on the state BJP headquarters and the residence of the son of CPM state Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan before Rajesh was murdered.

Sathasivam quoted Vijayan as saying that he would meet both state BJP President Kummanam Rajasekharan and the state RSS chief and make a public appeal for peace.

Earlier, Sathasivam spoke on the phone with Rajnath Singh, who in turn asked Vijayan to curb political violence in the state. The Governor also spoke to BJP's Rajasekharan and CPM's Balakrishnan.

Police arrested all the five persons who took part in the hacking of Rajesh and three others who helped them. One man is on the run.

The arrests took place from a rubber estate in the capital's suburbs.

Balakrishnan told reporters here that the CPM had no role in the RSS man's murder.

Rajnath Singh tweeted: "I have expressed my concern about the law and order situation in the state. Political violence is unacceptable in a democracy. I expect the political violence in Kerala is curbed and the perpetrators are brought to justice expeditiously."

Hundreds of people were stranded at railway stations and bus terminals. A family which travelled from Thiruvananthapuram to Kochi, 250 km away, said it underwent a nightmare.

"At several places supporters of RSS and BJP stopped us and spoke as if we were criminals. Finally, after a lot of trouble, we reached Kochi," businessman Ajith Kumar told IANS.

A funeral that was to take place on Sunday was postponed for Monday as many people could not make it, K Thomas of Puthupally in Kottayam district told IANS.

Rajesh's body, after an autopsy, was taken in a procession to his house near here. En route, the BJP and RSS workers damaged the flag posts of the CPM.
Kabul: A suicide bomber blew himself up outside the Iraqi embassy in Kabul Monday and militants breached the compound, Afghan officials said, in a complex hours-long attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

All the attackers had been killed and the compound secured roughly four hours after the assault began, Afghanistan's interior ministry said, adding that all embassy staff were safe and only one policeman wounded "slightly".

Earlier, black smoke billowed into the air above the neighbourhood in northwestern Kabul as the sound of gunfire, blasts and ambulance sirens could be heard. Panicked residents, including women and children, could be seen fleeing the area.

The interior ministry said at least four militants had attacked the embassy, beginning with a suicide bomber who detonated his vest at the compound entrance.

"The quick-response police forces arrived in time and evacuated the Iraqi diplomats to safe place. No embassy staff have been harmed, only one policeman was wounded slightly," a ministry statement said.

The Iraqi foreign ministry in Baghdad said the charge d'affairs was among those evacuated and that it was monitoring the situation with Afghan authorities, without giving further details.

The Islamic State's propaganda agency Amaq released a statement claiming responsibility for the attack, saying two members "attacked the Iraqi embassy building in the Afghan city of Kabul".

The embassy is located in northwestern Kabul, in a neighbourhood that is home to several hotels and banks as well as large supermarkets and several police compounds.

"I heard a big blast followed by several explosions and small gunfire," said Ahmad Ali, a nearby shopkeeper.

"People were worried and closed their shops to run for safety. The roads are still blocked by security forces."

The attack is the latest to rock Kabul, which is regularly devastated by bomb blasts and militant assaults, often killing many civilians.

The resurgent Taliban claim many of the attacks as they step up their bid to drive out foreign forces with a series of assaults across the country.

But the Islamic State group, recently ousted from the Iraqi city of Mosul, have been expanding their footprint in eastern Afghanistan and have claimed responsibility for several devastating attacks in Kabul.

'We will hunt them down'

First emerging in 2015, the group's local affiliate Islamic State Khorasan Province (IS-K), overran large parts of eastern Nangarhar and Kunar provinces, near the Pakistan border, where they engaged in a turf war with the Taliban.

US forces in Afghanistan have repeatedly targeted the group, killing its head Abu Sayed and several senior advisers in a 11 July strike in Kunar, the Pentagon has said.

The decision to deploy the so-called Mother Of All Bombs (MOAB) also targeted IS hideouts in Nangarhar, according to the Afghan defence ministry, though fighting in the area has continued.

Pentagon officials say the group now numbers fewer than 1,000 in Afghanistan.

"We will be relentless in our campaign against IS-K. There are no safe havens in Afghanistan," said General John Nicholson, commander of US forces in Afghanistan, in a statement Sunday confirming some of the deaths in the July 11 strike.

The group is believed to be on the back foot in West Asia, where analysts have said it has lost more than 60 percent of its territory and 80 percent of its revenue, three years after declaring its self-styled "caliphate" across swathes of Iraq and Syria.

But analysts said Monday's attack in Kabul would be seen as a warning to Baghdad after it pushed IS out of Mosul.

"(IS) wants to send a message to many states, not just to Iraq, to prove that it is present everywhere ... particularly after the victories of the Iraqi security forces in Mosul," said Issam al-Fili,a professor of Political Sciences at the Al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad.

"Attacking embassies is part of the strategy of this kind of group, because embassies represent a strong symbol for the affected states," he said, adding that the attack would not have come as a "surprise" to Baghdad.

The attack underscores IS's increasing presence in Afghanistan, which continues to be roiled by insecurity nearly 16 years after the US invasion to topple the Taliban regime.

NATO forces ended their combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of 2014. Since then Afghan troops and police, beset by soaring casualties, have struggled to beat back the resurgent Taliban, while facing the growing menace of IS.

The US is considering whether to send thousands more troops to help the beleaguered Afghan forces.
London: Free movement to Britain from European Union countries will end when the UK leaves the bloc in March 2019, prime minister Theresa May's spokesman said Monday. But he acknowledged it's not yet certain what migration arrangements will look like after that.

Spokesman James Slack said that "other elements of the post-Brexit immigration system will be brought forward in due course."

"It would be wrong to speculate on what these might look like, or to suggest that free movement will continue as it is now," he said.

May's government is divided on how to implement Brexit, and ministers have been sending mixed signals about the UK's future relationship with the bloc.

The government says that Britain will leave the bloc's single market and customs union, and end free movement from EU countries. But officials also say the changes, which have huge economic implications, won't happen overnight.

Last week Treasury chief Philip Hammond said Britain will abide by some EU rules for up to three years post-2019, suggesting some form of continued free movement to help businesses avoid a "cliff edge."

Hammond is one of the several ministers who favour a compromise "soft Brexit" to ease the economic shock of leaving the EU.

But Trade Secretary Liam Fox, who is strongly pro-Brexit, said the Cabinet has not agreed on a position on immigration policy.

"I have not been involved in any discussion on that," Fox told the Sunday Times.
Washington: US President Donald Trump has been pressuring Republican senators not to give up their fight to overturn Obamacare despite their failure last week to pass a bill to partially replace it.

Over the weekend, Trump has bombarded Republican lawmakers with Twitter posts in which he has even threatened to cut federal subsidies to their states for lower income people to enable them to afford health insurance under Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act, reports Efe news.

A Senate victory on health care in the coming days would help Trump leave the drama of last week behind, during which his chief of staff Reince Priebus quit, press secretary Sean Spicer resigned and Anthony Scaramucci moved in as White House communications director.

"Don't give up Republican Senators, the World is watching: Repeal and Replace..." Trump tweeted on Sunday.

Don't give up Republican Senators, the World is watching: Repeal & Replace...and go to 51 votes (nuke option), get Cross State Lines & more.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2017

Trump's budget director, Mick Mulvaney told CNN on Sunday that Republican lawmakers cannot just promise for the past seven years to overturn Obamacare and then "turn the page" without doing so.

Republican congressional leaders have not made any comments after Trump's messages on the weekend, but on Friday they expressed their intention to put the healthcare matter on the back burner and focus on other pending initiatives, including tax reform. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that it is time to "turn the page" and listen to the "suggestions" of Democrats to improve Obamacare, rather than simply attempt to repeal and replace it, as Republicans have been focused on doing to date.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Paul Ryan avoided commenting on the health care fiasco and said that lawmakers wanted to move on to tax reform this autumn.

Without referring to them directly, Trump made clear in his Twitter messages that he is going to exert as much pressure as possible to get the Senate to vote again on a health care bill in the first half of August before the summer recess.

"If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!" he tweeted on Saturday.

Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway told Fox News on Sunday that the President will decide whether to end those subsidies "this week", emphasising that it is a decision that only he can make and that he will not accept the idea of the Senate simply moving on to other matters.

On Friday, three Republican senators joined the 48 Democrats there to vote against a bill to partially replace the 2010 Affordable Care Act implemented under former President Barack Obama.

Many observers considered that failed vote to be the last chance for Republicans to overturn Obamacare, albeit in diluted fashion, despite the fact that doing so has obsessed them and been an ongoing election promise pushed by Republican candidates for the past seven years.
Cairo: Security officials Sunday said the Egyptian man who stabbed to death three tourists and wounded three others earlier this month in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada was tasked by the Islamic State group to carry out an attack against foreigners.

The officials said that investigations revealed 29-year old Abdel-Rahman Shaaban had communicated with two Islamic State leaders on social media after they recruited him online.

One of them gave Shaaban daily lessons for a month after which he got in touch with the other, who asked him carry out an attack against tourists in either the resort city of Sharm al-Sheikh or Hurghada, to prove his allegiance to the group, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

Shaaban rode a bus from the Nile Delta province of Kafr el-Sheikh to Hurghada on 14 July and headed to a beach hotel where he killed two German women and wounded two Armenians, a Ukrainian and a Czech woman, using a knife that he bought earlier from a store, the officials added. Shaaban was arrested shortly after he was chased by hotel workers and security guards who handed him over to the police.

The Czech woman, who was hospitalized with back and leg injuries after the attack, died last week. Shaaban is a resident of Kafr el-Sheikh where he attended the business school of the local branch of Al-Azhar University: The world's foremost seat of learning of Sunni Islam and the target of mounting criticism in recent months over its alleged radical teachings and doctrinal rigidity.

The resort attack took place just hours after five policemen were killed in a shooting near some of Egypt's most famous pyramids in the greater Cairo area. The interior ministry said last week that its forces killed four suspects and arrested two others who were behind the killing of the policemen.

Egypt's government has been struggling to contain an insurgency by Islamic militants led by an Islamic State affiliate that is centered in the northern region of the Sinai peninsula, though attacks on the mainland have recently increased. The extremist group has been mainly targeting security personnel and Egypt's Coptic Christian minority.
Dynastic politics has always played an outsized role in Pakistani politics.

Just ask former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted by a five-member bench of the Pakistan Supreme Court on Friday over undisclosed wealth. The bench also demanded corruption cases be lodged against Sharif and his family over the Panama Papers scandal.

But even as the obituaries of his political career were being written, Sharif asked his comrades to support his brother Shahbaz Sharif as the next prime minister. "It will take Shahbaz Sharif around 50-55 days to take over as prime minister. He will have to contest elections," he said.

Sharif also said his old friend Shahid Khaqan Abbasi would take over as interim prime minister.

These moves maintain the Sharif family's hold over the country through the eponymous Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, with Sharif continuing to act as puppet master from his position as head of the party.

"The subtext in all this is that Nawaz Sharif will still have an influence in how things are carried out until the next election and perhaps through the next election," said political analyst Umair Javad. "This was his (Nawaz's) way of convincing the party that this brand still exists."

Shahbaz  currently chief minister of Punjab province, the family's power base  is expected to slide into his brother's vacated National Assembly seat before being rubber stamped as prime minister in a parliamentary vote.

"Nawaz has personal political appeal in a way that his brother doesn't. I think that the dynasty will fray under his brother," said journalist and commentator Omar Waraich.

The stability under Nawaz Sharif is in stark contrast to the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who took over as party chief after the assassination of his mother Benazir Bhutto in 2007. The PPP, which had been a formidable political force and had dominated Pakistani politics for nearly four decades, has been off-balance since her death. In the 2013 general election, the PPP lost from 76 seats. "The leaders have a much stronger brand than the parties. Benazir was always a much stronger brand than the PPP; Nawaz Sharif is a much stronger brand than what the PML-N will be without him," said Waraich.

Corruption, a way of life

In Pakistan, corruption has become a way of life.

So much so that according to a report in Dawn, even as Sharif raged against his dismissal, he paused to ask, "Is it only my family that should be held accountable? Is everyone else in this country sadiq and ameen? (truthful and trustworthy)?" Which encapsulates the problem in a nutshell.

The fact remains that despite Pakistan being riddled with conception since its birth and though almost every prime minister and president has been accused of corruption, the only head of State to actually be convicted in office was Yousaf Raza Gillani.

For the record, Gillani was found guilty of contempt of court in a corruption-related case after he refused to correspond with Swiss authorities to help reopen legal action against Asif Ali Zardari.

According to The Daily Journalist, corruption was at its zenith between 1990 and 1999, better known as the Bhutto-Sharif years. Four democratically-elected governments were alternately dismissed as a result of charges of corruption and misuse of power.

Such was the corruption under Bhutto that her husband Asif Ali Zardari was nicknamed 'Mr 10 percent' (for his alleged propensity to take his cut). The New York Times reported that between 1994 and 1998, a Swiss company reportedly paid millions of dollars to corporations controlled by Zardari and Bhutto. A West Asia gold dealer also reportedly gave Zardari a $10 million bribe after he was given a monopoly on gold imports in Pakistan, according to the report.

Dawn reported that when Sharif was re-elected as prime minister in 1998, he initiated legal proceedings against Bhutto and Zardari, accusing them of embezzling $60 million in Swiss bank accounts. The case was dubbed 'Swissgate' by the media. Bhutto and Zardari were convicted in 2003 but the verdict was overturned on appeal.

Pervez Musharraf then negotiated a deal with Bhutto in 2007 and implemented an amnesty law, following which the cases were closed. Zardari remained in prison from 1997 to 2004 on charges pertaining to money laundering, corruption and murder, Dawn reported.

The new boss, same as the old boss

According to this Firstpost article, while Nawaz has stepped down, nothing has really changed in Pakistan. "The very fact that Nawaz's successor will be his younger brother Shehbaz, who is clearly marking time until he is elected to the national Assembly, indicates that when it comes to Pakistan, all is still very much in the family," the article argues.

"To the common Pakistani citizen, the Panama Papers revelations are no big deal. To a certain extent, corruption or a certain political expediency are integral to politics," it said.

Given Pakistan's chequered history, it's hard to argue differently.

With inputs from agencies
Konstanz: A Kurdish Iraqi man armed with an M16 automatic rifle opened fire in a packed nightclub in southern Germany early on Sunday after a dispute there, killing a bouncer and wounding four people before being shot by police. The 34-year-old attacker "was critically injured in a shootout with police officers as he left the disco, and later succumbed to his wounds in hospital," police said in a statement.

"Nothing suggest that there could have been an Islamist or terror background" to the attack at the club, said prosecutor Johannes-Georg Roth.

"Rather, everything points to a personal dispute that had escalated in an unspeakable manner," he added. The foreign gunman had been living in Germany since 1991, having obtained asylum status.

He was the son-in-law of the owner of the nightclub called "Grey", and was known to police for previous violations including grievous bodily harm. Investigators piecing together the assault said the man had initially left the site after a "fight with an employee at the disco" and gone home to pick up the US-made M16 rifle.

"He came back and shot dead the bouncer at the entrance area of the disco," recounted Roth, adding that the attacker sprayed the area with bullets. He then engaged in a shoot-out with police before being shot.

One officer injured in the exchange of fire only escaped alive thanks to the titanium helmet he was wearing, added police. Officials saluted the bravery of the officers, saying their actions likely saved more lives as the "many magazines were found" at the site. Officers began receiving emergency calls from terrified

clubbers at around 4:30 am (local time) as the man began shooting in the nightclub heaving with "several hundred" people, said police.

An unnamed clubber was quoted by Suedkurier daily that he was in the washroom when someone came in and closed the toilet door saying there was shooting.

"I didn't believe it and went out. But I heard shots and quickly ran back to the toilet and closed the door with another person. With us was a bouncer who was shot and he was bandaging the wound with a belt," said the witness.

A bartender then opened the emergency exit door, allowing revellers to flee, he said, adding that he saw another person with a wound in the leg lying on the grass by the parking lot. "I just shouted at everyone to run and when we were in the parking lot, we heard shots again," he said. The shooting in Constance, which borders Switzerland, came just two days after Germany was shaken by a knife attack in the northern port city of Hamburg.

A 26-year-old Palestinian had killed one and injured six in an assault at a supermarket. He was a known Islamist with psychological problems, and investigators say his motives remain unclear. Germany has been on high alert about the threat of a jihadist attack, especially since last December's truck rampage through a Berlin Christmas market that claimed 12 lives.

But it has also been hit by other assaults unrelated to the jihadist threat.

Among the deadliest in recent years is a Munich shopping ml rampage last June by 18-year-old German-Iranian man which left 10 people dead including the gunman himself.
Dubai: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain, which have tried to isolate Qatar, said on Sunday they would allow Qatari planes to use air corridors in emergencies, but Doha denied it, saying they were spreading "false information".

The four countries severed ties with Qatar on 5 June, closed borders - in the sea, land and sky - and imposed economic sanctions, accusing it of supporting terrorism, something Doha denies.

With its air space drastically compromised, Qatar asked the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) for a special meeting - which is scheduled for Monday - to discuss the issue.

Saudi state news agency SPA on Sunday cited a statement from the Saudi aviation authority (GACA) saying they had already agreed emergency air corridors, which were identified under ICAO supervision, and that they would be open from 1 August.

"Nine corridors have been identified including one in international air space over the Mediterranean sea that will be monitored by the Egyptian authorities," SPA said.

However, Qatar's transport and communications ministry and its aviation authority denied the four countries had taken such a decision, the state news agency QNA said.

Qatar called on the countries to not leak "false information" ahead of the ICAO meeting in Montreal on Monday.

ICAO was not immediately available for comment.

ICAO's 36-state governing council could act to settle the row presented by Qatar, but such interventions are rare and time-consuming because the U.N. agency usually negotiates disputes through consensus.
Nearly 150 Central Americans being smuggled to the United States were rescued Saturday in Mexico after traveling tightly-packed in a poorly-ventilated truck.

The rescue was initially described by authorities in eastern Veracruz state as a near-tragedy with chilling similarities to an incident last week in Texas in which 10 would-be migrants to the US perished.

But Mexican federal authorities later clarified that these travelers were found not inside the truck but rather after they had been told to get out, and were then abandoned by the roadside, without food or water.

Authorities said a total of 147 people were found in the town of Tantima in Mexico's Veracruz state. Originally, the figure had been given as 178.

The migrants were from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua, and 48 were minors, 14 of them unaccompanied, the National Migration Institute said.

The migrants were crowded into the back of a tractor trailer truck with poor ventilation. Eventually, the smugglers overseeing them told the travelers to get out and hide amid the brush beside the road until them came back for them. But the travelers were abandoned.

After being found the Central Americans were taken to a migration center, where they were given medical assistance before authorities began the process of returning them home.

Their rescue came less than a week after the horrific suffocation deaths of 10 migrants who were trapped in an 18 wheel truck and discovered last Sunday in a Walmart parking lot in San Antonio, Texas.

Authorities said as many as 200 migrants may have been crammed into the trailer. Many of them had to be hospitalized. Some survivors fled the parking lot in waiting cars, according to witness accounts.

Officials in the United States say fewer migrants are making the perilous overland journey to America from Central American and Mexico in recent months, in large part because of harsh, anti-immigrant rhetoric from US President Donald Trump, who came to power in January.

Migrants from Central America and Mexico willing to make the dangerous trip risk being victimized by thieves, criminal gangs and unscrupulous traffickers who sometimes take their money and abandon them in desperate conditions on either side of the US border.

Veracruz and the surrounding area has become one of the most dangerous regions for undocumented migrants making their way to the United States, according to rights groups, in part because of drug cartels like the notorious Zetas, which often charges a fee before allowing travelers safe passage.
Lahore: A resolution in Pakistan's Punjab Assembly was on Monday introduced against Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) prime minister Raja Farooq Haider, demanding his resignation for making anti-Pakistan remarks.

On disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif by the Supreme Court in the Panama Papers case last week, Haider had said: "We  the people of Kashmir (PoK) have to think now to which country we should make annexation to."

His statement sparked widespread reaction from several political parties.

The resolution, introduced by the Pakistan Peoples' Party legislator Khurram Wattoo, said the statement of Haider has hurt the sentiments of the people of Pakistan and PoK.

Clarifying his statement, Haider later said: "My statement was distorted as I did not mean to say that I would consider annexation to any other country."
Christians seeking to be good stewards of Gods creation sometimes find themselves torn. The environmentalist movement tells them that the most destructive force ever unleashed upon Mother Nature is rapacious neoliberal capitalism, which they also know has has been the greatest producer of wealth in history. If this teaching, which is increasingly common among church leaders, is true, how should a person of faith view free markets?

Thankfully, many of the environmental concerns about free trade are misguided, according to a new essay by a distinguished British professor of finance in Religion & Liberty Transatlantic. Philip Booth  a professor of finance, public policy, and ethics at St. Marys University, Twickenham (the UKs largest Catholic university), as well as a senior academic fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs  writes specifically about whether Brexit, and post-Brexit free trade policies, will harm the environment. He notes that, while most Green Party members support the European Union, EU policies have manifestly hurt the environment:

It is often suggested that the Common Agricultural Policy, an important protectionist measure that supports EU farmers, encourages farming practices that damage the environment, though its explicit objectives are designed to promote sustainability. And although there have been improvements in recent years, the first 20 years of the EUs Common Fisheries Policy was a disaster for fish stocks. An indication of the degree of waste is given by the fact that, in 2011, in some EU fisheries, as much as 70 per cent of caught fish were discarded because of the perverse incentives of the quota system.

Brexit will allow the UK to drop the CAPs heavy, 18 percent tariffs on imported food  which can help reduce carbon emissions. A 2008 study found that the production phase of food contributes 83% of the average American households yearly footprint for food consumption. Transporting food from overseas represents only 11% of life-cycle Greenhouse gas emissions, and final delivery from producer to retail contributes only 4%.

Ending the economically inefficient policy of raising crops in less-than-hospitable areas  as EU agricultural policy encourages, even subsidizes  greatly reduces our carbon footprint, Booth writes:

The environmental resources that are necessary to grow crops and raise animals in parts of the world which do not have intrinsically suitable conditions can be enormous. Furthermore, shipping raw materials and then processing in another country can be much more expensive than processing in the country where the raw material is grown  just think of the air miles involved when somebody imports 30 oranges to make his own fruit juice at home, as compared with importing a compact and conveniently cube-shaped carton of processed juice.

The scholarship that Booth brings to this essay will be familiar to many Acton readers and supporters. Booth spoke at the Acton Institutes Crisis of Liberty in the West conference in London last December. More recently, he taught about free trade, globalization, and government economic interventionism at Acton University. His peerless mind and insightful writing are known throughout Europe.

In his Religion & Liberty Transatlantic essay, he argues persuasively that, far from harming the earth, a regimen of free markets, limited government, and personal responsibility is the greatest tool people of faith can employ to responsibly care for Gods handiwork:

We cannot say for sure that Brexit followed by freer trade will lead to better stewardship of the environment. However, we can say that many of the fears that are raised are simply myths. And, certainly, the surest way to encourage people to be good stewards of creation is to have a free economy combined with good institutional mechanisms for ensuring that people take responsibility for the environmental resources they consume. Free trade and private property are the linchpins of such a system.

You can read his full essay here.
Moscow: Russian president Vladimir Putin has said the United States would have to cut its embassy and consulate staff in Russia by 755 under new sanctions from Moscow.

In response, the United States state department deemed it "a regrettable and uncalled for act".

Russian's Foreign Ministry on Friday ordered a reduction by 1 Sept in the number of United States diplomatic personnel in Russia. It said it is ordering the American Embassy to limit the number of embassy and consular employees in the country to 455 in response to approval of a new package of sanctions by the United States Congress. The White House has said President Donald Trump would sign those sanctions into law.

"We had hoped that the situation will somehow change, but apparently if it changes, it won't be soon," Putin said in an interview televised on Rossiya 1, explaining why Moscow decided to retaliate. "I thought it was the time to show that we're not going to leave it without an answer."

Russia is open to cooperating with the United States on various issues, including terrorism and cybercrime, but instead it "only hears unfounded accusations of meddling in American domestic affairs," he said.

Putin said more than 1,000 people are currently employed at the Moscow embassy and three United Sates consulates in Russia. They include both Americans and Russians hired to work in the diplomatic offices.

The Russian leader did not explain how the figure of 755 positions was calculated.

In a statement, the state department said, "This is a regrettable and uncalled for act. We are assessing the impact of such a limitation and how we will respond to it. We have no further comment at this time."

The state department declined to give an exact number of American diplomats or other United States officials in Russia, but the figure is believed to be about 400, some of whom have families accompanying them on diplomatic passports.

The vast majority of the more than 1,000 employees at the various United States diplomatic missions in Russia, including the embassy in Moscow and consulates in St Petersburg, Vladivostok and Yekaterinburg, are local employees.

Asked about the potential for additional sanctions against Washington, Putin described the reduction in diplomatic staff as "painful" and said he currently opposes further measures.

"We certainly have something to respond with and restrict those areas of joint cooperation that will be painful for the American side, but I don't think we need to do it," he said, adding that such steps could also harm Russian interests.

Putin mentioned space and energy as the main areas where Russia and the United States have successfully pursued projects together.

Along with the cap on the size of the United States diplomatic corps in Russia, the Russian foreign ministry on Friday said it also was closing down a United States recreational retreat on the outskirts of Moscow as well as warehouse facilities.

The diplomatic tit-for-tat started under former president Barack Obama. In response to reports of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, Obama ordered the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats and shut down two Russian recreational retreats in the United States.
New Delhi: Syria has no information about the 39 Indians believed to have been taken captive by the Islamic State terrorist organisation, the country's Ambassador Riad Kamel Abbas said on Monday.

"As of now, we have no information about those missing Indians," Abbas said while speaking about the situation in Syria at an event organised by the Observer Research Foundation think tank. "Whatever we know is what has been reported in the media," he said.

He said the Syrian intelligence chief visited New Delhi recently and several officials from India's ministry of external affairs have also visited Syria in connection with the case of the missing Indians.

The 39 Indian construction workers, mostly from Punjab, had gone missing after the Islamic State took control of the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2014.

However, even after the liberation of Mosul in July by Iraqi forces, there are no signs of the missing Indians.

It is believed they may be held captive in the Syrian city of Raqqa, the self-declared capital of the Islamic State caliphate.

Abbas said Syrian forces have besieged Raqqa and the city was set to fall soon.

"What we are doing is trying to a create a safe passage for civilians in Raqqa to come out.If the Indians are in Raqqa, they can definitely come out safely," he said.
On Sunday, Venezuela voted on the creation of a Constituent Assembly. The Socialist party claimed victory in the same but the opposition vowed to keep protesting despite deadly clashes.

That the Socialist Party won did not come as a surprise to anyone as the Opposition had boycotted the election. What happens now though is much harder to predict.

This assembly's immediate agenda would be to rewrite the Constitution. It would however be more than a mere one-time lawmaking body as it would function as a "superagency" with authority above all government branches, including the one-chamber National Assembly. Currently, the National Assembly is the only part of the government controlled by the opposition. Worryingly, the Constituent Assembly will have the power to even dissolve the National Assembly.

The Constituent Assembly has 545 members supposedly selected in an impartial manner. However the way these members were selected actually favours the ruling Socialist party and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro. Furthermore, the Opposition's boycott of the election means that the majority of the candidates will represent the Socialist party

It is thus clear that the Constituent Assembly will work on the Maduro's directions. There was only one place for the Opposition to dissent, namely the National Assembly but with the Constituent Assembly in power, he will be able to override them as he pleases.

What he intends to do with these powers is hardly a secret as in an address on state-run television, he said that he wants the Assembly to strip legislators in the opposition-controlled National Assembly of their immunity. He also wants to see at least one of them jailed  Freddy Guevara, the legislature's first vice president and one of the highest-profile organisers of protests against the government. "This little Hitler has his cell guaranteed!" Maduro shouted, using his frequent nickname for Guevara.

Moreover, it's also unclear how long the Assembly will be in session. Its members will decide that. The next elections will be set by the Assembly which means that Maduro's re-election could be delayed from its scheduled date in 2018 to whenever the Assembly pleases.

Maduro thus seems set to replace democracy in Venezuela and while will not immediately install a dictatorship, will certainly sow the seeds of one. In this he would hardly be the first leader to take over more powers than the people initially intended to give him. In Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has already set an example of how to slowly take power from the people.

Tolerate no dissent

The first step that both have taken are to kill dissent. Erdogan faced a coup attempt in July 2016, following which he went on a purge of state institutions and civil society, according to The Washington Post. He arrested and sidelined tens of thousands of people, regardless of their connections to the coup.

Maduro is by no means as powerful as Erdogan in his country but he still has used the armed forces to crack down on protesters in the streets. And as discussed above, the last bastion of his political opposition, the National Assembly too may not be around for long.

Maduro has taken notice of Erdogan's actions. Did you see what happened in Turkey? he asked in an event in August 2016. Erdogan will seem like a nursing baby compared to what the Bolivarian revolution will do if the right wing steps over the line with a coup.

Rally people against an enemy

Erdogan used this tactic to great effect as he fought rhetorical battles with foreign governments, said The Washington Post. He built up threats to Turkey by "crusaders" and "Nazi" Europeans. Like in many other countries, nationalism has proved a useful way to rouse a nationalist base for Erdogan.

Maduro too has built up a number of enemies but the foremost among them is the USA. He insists that there is US-backed right-wing "coup" plot to topple his socialist government. The Constituent Assembly is his method of foiling this plot. "We need a power that is above the other powers that are sabotaging the country's development," he has said.

Unsurprisingly, he has not explained what should be changed from the current constitution, nor what specific reforms would put an end to Venezuela's political and economic crisis.

Hope still for Venezuela

Turkey currently is very much a dictatorship under Erdogan who holds absolute power. Venezuela on the other hand saw protests right till the day of the vote. A survey was conducted in June in which only 23 percent of the respondents favoured the constituent Assembly. Only 19 percent said they thought a new constitution would "guarantee the peace of stability of the country," as Maduro has asserted. Nearly half said they believe the purpose of the Assembly is to ensure Maduro stays in power.

Earlier in July, more than 7.5 million Venezuelans voted in an unofficial opposition referendum rejecting the constitution rewrite.

Such open acts of defiance would be unthinkable in Erdogan's Turkey. Thus even as Maduro puts in place institutions which solidify his power, he would be well aware that it could all be undone in an instant. It would require a revolution of sorts but as the surveys have already shown, the people are not behind Maduro. The Opposition too has constantly been on the offensive and if it can rally the people against Maduro, Venezuela might just escape the clutches of dictatorship.

With inputs from agencies
Even though Nawaz Sharif has resigned as prime minister, nothing has really changed in the Pakistani political set up.

Playing out scenarios of what things may come is a pointless exercise.

The very fact that Nawaz's successor will be his younger brother Shehbaz, who is clearly marking time until he is elected to the national Assembly, indicates that when it comes to Pakistan, all is still very much in the family. This entire brouhaha is more of an ornamental fluff rather than a true changing of the guard.

For those that argue that the removal of Nawaz Sharif is indicative of the ascent of the Pakistan Army, I say thus: The Pakistani Army has no need to ascend or descend. It owns the elevator of power and can decide which floor to sit on and for how long as it selects Sharif's replacement.

If it was truly hostile to the Sharifs, the army would have just simply dismissed the clan and no one would have been able to lift a finger. Instead, Nawaz was eased out through legal means and allowed to remain in the tent.

Nawaz may find solace yet in his dismissal being delinked from charges of corruption. He may also display bewilderment at his unceremonious send-off but he knows in his heart that the deal was for him to take the fall  to put on a show for the public and cleanse the stables  while maintaining the status quo.

To the common Pakistani citizen, the Panama Papers revelations are no big deal. To a certain extent, corruption or a certain political expediency are integral to politics. Let's not read too much into it. There's been no major policy shift. If we applied the same yardstick to Indian politicians, swathes of leaders would be wiped out.

Interim Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is an old buddy of Nawaz. He is unlikely to create any drama in the few days he enjoys office. Like Banquo's ghost in Macbeth, Sharif's influence will be felt long after his "departure" from the stage. Much like Lalu Prasad Yadav handing over the reins to his wife Rabri Devi.

As for India expecting a sea change in relations with its neighbour, especially with reference to 600 terror camps maintained by Pakistan, that is wishful thinking indeed. Pakistan is enjoying Indias uneasy face-off with China. General Bajwa is unlikely to reduce the pressure by extending flowers and friendship. Expect no concessions.

On the contrary, a certain caution is called for. Governments often divert attention from domestic crises by creating incidents on the border. High-profile issues such as the Kulbhushan Jadav case and even heavy exchange of fire at LoC gives the "new" regime (which is actually the old regime: Shaken, not stirred) to consolidate its power and ride in on the enemy's coattails.

It would not be surprising if we see some contained adventurism in the coming days. Extra vigilance may be necessary.
Washington: The White House has stepped up demands for revived congressional efforts on health care and suggested senators cancel their entire summer break, if needed, to pass legislation after failed votes last week.

Trump aides said on Sunday that President Donald Trump is prepared in the coming days to end required payments to insurers under the Affordable Care Act as part of a bid to let "Obamacare implode" and force the Senate to act.

It was all part of a weekend flurry of Trump tweets and other statements insisting the seven-year GOP quest to repeal former President Barack Obama's signature legislative achievement was not over.

"The president will not accept those who said it's, quote, 'Time to move on,'" White House advisor Kellyanne Conway said. Those were the words used by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, after the early Friday morning defeat of the GOP proposal.

Conway said Trump was deciding whether to act on his threat to end cost-sharing reduction payments, which are aimed at trimming out-of-pocket costs for lower-income people. "He's going to make that decision this week, and that's a decision that only he can make," Conway said.

For seven years, Republicans have promised that once they took power, they would scrap Obama's overhaul and pass a replacement. But that effort crashed most recently in the Senate on Friday, and that's when McConnell said it was time to focus on other policy matters.

Republicans hold a 52-48 majority in the Senate, where no Democrats voted for the GOP bill and three Republicans defected in the final vote Friday. One of the GOP defectors, John McCain, has since returned to Arizona for treatment for brain cancer,

"Don't give up Republican senators, the World is watching: Repeal and replace," Trump said in a tweet. White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, when asked yesterday if no other legislative business should be taken up until the Senate acts again on health care, responded "yes."

While the House has begun a five-week recess, the Senate is scheduled to work two more weeks before a summer break. McConnell has said the unfinished business includes addressing a backlog of executive and judicial nominations, coming ahead of a busy agenda in September that involves passing a defense spending bill and raising the government's borrowing limit.

"In the White House's view, they can't move on in the Senate," Mulvaney said, referring to health legislation. "They need to stay, they need to work, they need to pass something."

Trump warned over the weekend that he would end federal subsidies for health care insurance for Congress and the rest of the country if the Senate didn't act soon. He was referring in part to a federal contribution for lawmakers and their staffs, who were moved onto Obamacare insurance exchanges as part of the 2010 law.

If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017

The subsidies, totaling about $7 billion a year, help reduce deductibles and copayments for consumers with modest incomes. The Obama administration used its rule-making authority to set direct payments to insurers to help offset these costs. Trump inherited the payment structure, but he also has the power to end them.

The payments are the subject of a lawsuit brought by House Republicans over whether the health law specifically included a congressional appropriation for the money, as required under the Constitution. Trump has only guaranteed the payments through July, which ends on Sunday.

Senator Susan Collins of Maine, one of the three Republican senators who voted against the GOP health bill on Friday, said she's troubled by Trump's claims that the insurance payments are a "bailout." She said Trump's threat to cut off payments would not change her opposition to the GOP health bill and stressed the cost-sharing reduction payments were critical to make insurance more affordable for low-income people.

"The uncertainty about whether that subsidy is going to continue from month to month is clearly contributing to the destabilization of the insurance markets, and that's one thing that Congress needs to end," said Collins, who wants lawmakers to appropriate money for the payments.

"I certainly hope the administration does not do anything in the meantime to hasten that collapse," she added.

Trump previously said the law that he and others call "Obamacare" would collapse immediately whenever those payments stop. He has indicated a desire to halt the subsidies but so far has allowed them to continue on a month-to-month basis.
Beijing: Chinese president Xi Jinping on Sunday said the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is capable of vanquishing "all invading enemies" and praised its combat readiness as he reviewed a massive military parade to mark the 90th founding anniversary of the world's largest armed force.

Dressed in camouflage, Xi inspected 12,000 troops in various formations from an open-top military jeep at the parade held in Zhurihe - Asia's largest military training centre in the middle of a desert in Inner Mongolia.

Over 100 fighter jets flew overhead and almost 600 types of weaponry were on display for the occasion - nearly half of which were making their debut in public, according to the Chinese defence ministry.

In his address to the soldiers, Xi said the PLA should strictly follow the absolute leadership of the Communist Party of China and "march to wherever the Party points to."

"I firmly believe that our gallant military has both confidence and ability to defeat all invading enemies," said Xi, who heads the Central Military Commission, which holds the overall command of the PLA - the world's largest army.

While there was no reference in his speech to over a month-long India-China military standoff at Doka La in the Sikkim section, his remarks came in the midst of shrill official media campaign and assertions by the foreign and defence ministries in China accusing Indian troops of trespassing into Chinese territory at Doka La.

The Chinese defense ministry spokesman said Zhurihe was selected to highlight the PLA's combat readiness, but he emphasised that war-zone trainings had been long scheduled.

"They have nothing to do with the current situation in the region," Colonel Ren Guoqiang said in a statement.

Clad in camouflage military suit, 64-year-old Xi said the Chinese military has the confidence and ability to safeguard, national sovereignty, security and development interests.

"Our military has the confidence and ability to write a new chapter in building of strong military and make new contributions to towards realisation of the China dream of great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and safeguarding world peace," Xi said in his about 10-minute address - an event carried live on state television and radio.

The military parade was the biggest since 2015 in which army and air force displayed some of the most modern weapons including a new tank which reportedly held exercises in the high-altitude along the Indian border.

The other weapons included long range nuclear and conventional missiles, the new J-15 - the new aircraft based carrier.

In his address, Xi asked the military to further improve its combativeness and modernise the national defence and armed forces. The Chinese military has the worlds second largest defence budget of $152 billion next to the US military.

The PLA was founded on 1 August, 1927 when the ruling CPC under the leadership of Mao Zedong carried on with his national liberation movement.

It is one of the rare national armies which still continues to function under the leadership of the CPC and not the Chinese government.

"Officers and soldiers, you must unswervingly stick to the fundamental principle and system of the Party's absolute leadership over the army, always listen to and follow the Party's orders, and march to wherever the Party points to," said Xi, the general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.

PLA officers and soldiers should firmly adhere to the fundamental goal of serving the people wholeheartedly, and always stand together with the people, Xi said.

He also said China needs a strong army more than ever, urging the building of PLA into a world-class military force.

Enjoying peace is a bliss for the people while protecting peace is the responsibility of the people's army, he said.

"The world is not all at peace, and peace must be safeguarded," said Xi, who is expected to get a second five year term at the key meeting of the CPC later this year.

"Today, we are closer to the goal of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation than any other time in history, and we need to build a strong people's military more than any other time in history," he said.

He urged the PLA to fully implement the CPC's thoughts on building a strong military, follow the path of strengthening the army with Chinese characteristics, strive for the CPC's target on strengthening the PLA under the new circumstances, and build the heroic PLA into a world-class military.

About 12,000 troops took part in the parade in which 129 aircraft and 571 pieces of equipment were on display.

Dongfeng missiles which include short, long and medium rage of rockets, variety of armoury including light tanks, drones were also deployed.

Helicopter borne troops demonstrated in quick landing and taking combat positions.

Xi Jinping presided over the military parade, hours after US president Donald Trump renewed his criticism over Beijing's failure to rein in North Korea.

North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile on last Friday which it claims could reach all of the US.

President Trump has been piling pressure on China, Pyongyang's only major ally that provides an economic lifeline to the reclusive regime, to use its leverage to make North Korea halt its nuclear and missile programs.

"I am very disappointed in China," Trump had said in a tweet on Saturday, adding that Beijing could have easily solved the problem posed by North Korea.

China is also concerned by the tense situation in the Korea Peninsula and the deployment of Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) missile by US in South Korea to counter threats from North Korea.
 The Washington Post Details Al-Aqsa Incitement | Main | From Palestine to Gaza Area Settlements, Journey Into Times Coverage 

July 31, 2017

Half of Foreign Aid to Palestinian Authority Goes to Terrorists, Media Shrugs



The new budget for the Palestinian Authority (PA) increases aid to imprisoned terrorists and their families by 13 percent, according to a July 19, 2017 report by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), a non-profit organization that monitors Arab media in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), eastern Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Yet, many major media outlets have failed to cover this development.

PMW noted that the PA, which rules the West Bank, is spending $355 million U.S. dollars (USD) this year on directly funding terrorism. PMW highlighted that a prisoners salary increases with jail time?; the greater the crime and penalty, the greater the pay-off.

The United States and some European Union (EU) countries have called for the PAwhich is a major recipient of their aidto halt funding for terrorists. Yet, the authority, currently led by Fatah movement head Mahmoud Abbas, has only increased expenditures.

The World Jewish Congress noted that a teacher in PA-ruled areas makes roughly the equivalent of 640.00 USD a month. By contrast, an imprisoned terrorist can make as much as $3,500.00 USD a monthmore than five times what an educator would make. This provides an incentive for anti-Jewish violence.

It also violates several laws that are of interest to both the U.S. and the EU.

According to Alan Baker, a legal expert with the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA), an Israeli think tank, the 1999 International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism criminalizes the provision of funding, directly or indirectly, for any use connected with terrorism.? The U.S., since 2002, has been a party to this convention, and the 1977 European Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism, reaffirms it.

Similarly, the 2006 U.N. Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy Plan of Action repeats, the resolve of member states to prevent and combat terrorism, including through refraining from financing terror, and specifically encourages states to implement international standards on money laundering and terrorist financing.?

In 2012, the PA was awarded non-member Observer State status by the U.N.

Yet, as CAMERA highlighted in a May 17, 2017 Op-Ed in The Hill, the PAs very own laws call for financing terrorism. Palestinian laws passed in 2004 and in 2013 stipulate that convicted terrorists receive monthly salaries.? Additionally, cash grants and priority civil-service jobs are awarded to those who carry out terror attacks. A 2004 law even specifies that this incentive is specifically for the fighting sector? an integral part of the fabric of Arab Palestinian society.?

In June 2017, the Trump administration briefly claimed that the PA had stopped payments to terroristsa claim immediately denied by the authority. Nevertheless, the administration continued to "endorse a budget proposal that would increase aid to the Palestinian government by nearly five percent," The Washington Free Beacon noted ("Trump to Boost Aid to Palestinians Despite Ongoing Aid to Terrorists, June 14, 2017).

Many major media outlets have failed to report PA payments to terrorists. Some, such as The Washington Post and The Hill, even ran Op-Eds that sought to portray the payments as social welfare,? as CAMERA has pointed out (see, for example The Washington Post Passes on Palestinian Incitement,? Algemeiner, July 24, 2017).

According to a Lexis-Nexis search, many major media outlets, such as The Washington Post, USA Today, The Baltimore Sun, and others, failed to note PMWs recent report.

The New York Post, however, highlighted the PAs decision to increase financial incentives to terrorists in a July 28, 2017 commentary by the papers editorial board. The paper said that The Palestinian Authority now uses half of all foreign aid to reward terror.? Given the medias obsession with the Arab-Israeli conflict in general, and the peace process? in particular, the failure to report such pertinent information is striking.

Posted by SD at July 31, 2017 02:11 PM

Guidelines for posting

This is a moderated blog. We will not post comments that include racism, bigotry, threats, or factually inaccurate material.

Post a comment
We had seen the Samsung Galaxy S8 Active in live images and a press image last week. Now more press shots of the phone has surfaced, thanks to Android Police who has got hold of the Samsung employee training manual for the phone that coincides with earlier leak confirming Bixby Button. It also has MIL-STD-810G endurance rating.

The S8 Active with the model number SM-G892A got certified by the FCC, now the phone with model number SM-N950 has received FCC certification. This shows support all the usual bands, in addition it also has new band 66 and 600 MHz band for T-Mobile.

Samsung Galaxy S8 Active rumored specifications

5.8-inch Quad HD+ (2960  1440 pixels) Super AMOLED display with 570ppi, Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection

Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 with Adreno 540 GPU

4GB LPDDR4 RAM, 64GB storage (UFS 2.1), expandable memory with microSD

Android 7.0 (Nougat)

12MP Dual Pixel rear camera with LED Flash, f/1.7 aperture, 1/2.55 sensor size, OIS, 1.4m pixel size

8MP auto focus front-facing camera with f/1.7 aperture, 1/3.6 sensor size, 1.22m pixel size, 80-degree wide-angle lens

Sensors  Accelerometer, Barometer, Fingerprint Sensor, Gyro Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor, Hall Sensor, Heart Rate Sensor, Proximity Sensor, RGB Light Sensor, Iris Sensor, Pressure Sensor

Water and dust resistant (IP68) + MIL-STD-810G

Dimensions: 152.14x 74.99.9mm; Weight: 207g

4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac (2.4/5GHz), VHT80 MU-MIMO, Bluetooth v 5.0 (LE up to 2Mbps), GPS with GLONASS, USB 3.1, NFC, MST

4000mAh battery with fast charging

The Samsung Galaxy S8 Active is expected to come in Meteor Gray and Titanium Gold and should head to AT&T in the U.S. soon.

Source 1, 2
The housing market is on the upswing; just look at homebuilders that have reported second-quarter earnings lately. Except for maybe CalAtlantic's (NYSE: CAA). The company's net income decline compared to the year prior stands out among its peers, which posted improving results. Based on the other important home-building metrics, though, this may just be a short-term aberration rather than a lingering concern.

Let's have a look at CalAtlantic's most recent earnings report, why its decline may not be as severe as it seems, and where the company can go from here.

By the numbers

Compared to its peers, it would appear that the company is struggling to keep up with the pack. Within the past couple weeks, PulteGroup, NVR, and D.R. Horton have all posted large year-over-year adjusted net income gains. This may just be a one-quarter blip, though, because results for the first half of the year are still ahead of last year's numbers. Considering that home sales are large and less frequent purchases, a little lumpiness in quarterly results can be forgiven.

Aside from the bottom-line slip, there were several good signs in this earnings report. New orders and the average selling price on those new orders continues to rise. As it stands, the company generated 4,078 net new orders in the quarter at an average sales price of $460,000. This drive total backlog to 7,534 comes with a total dollar value of $3.56 billion.

The one stain on those results is the cost control. Selling, general, and administrative expenses for the quarter came in at 10.7% of revenue. That's only a slight uptick, but it also puts the company at the higher range of its peers on costs. Management said in its press release that these costs were higher than usual because of higher co-broker commissions. The company did expand into the Seattle and Salt Lake City markets in the quarter, so some higher expenses as a percentage of revenue can be expected.

As has been the case with other home builders lately, CalAtlantic's order and value growth was driven primarily by its Southeast region. Every company that has reported thus far has described the Southeast as the fastest-growing market, most notably in the states of Florida and Tennessee. While CalAtlantic doesn't currently have a presence in Tennessee, it does have a substantial portfolio in Florida.

In the second quarter, management bought back 4.4 million shares for approximately $150 million. It still has $217 million available under its most recent share repurchase authorization.

What management had to say

Here are CEO Larry Nicholson's comments on the current outlook for the housing market and what CalAtlantic's capital allocation priorities are right now:

What a Fool believes

CalAtlantic's earnings were OK, but they didn't keep pace with its peers as most posted near double-digit adjusted earnings growth. If CalAtlantic wants to achieve the double-digit top- and bottom-line growth that management says it wants to, it is going to have to step it up. Entering into the Seattle and Salt Lake City markets could be a path to that growth. Seattle is the nation's fastest-growing big city, and the Salt Lake City area has some of the hottest property markets in the U.S. today. If CalAtlantic can post big growth numbers from these regions in the coming quarters, then its ambitious growth goal could be within reach.

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Interstate fishing regulators are meeting to discuss a Trump administration decision they say has the ability to jeopardize conservation of marine resources on the East Coast.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is meeting Tuesday in Alexandria, Virginia. The commission has disagreed recently with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross over a decision he made about summer flounder fishing.

The commission announced in June it had found New Jersey out of compliance with management of the fishery. Ross needed to sign off on the commission's ruling for a local fishing moratorium to take effect, and he instead reversed it.

The commission has said the ruling has the ability to soften its regulatory authority. The commerce department is defending the decision.

Summer flounder are fished from Maine to Florida.
Oil prices were near two-month highs on Monday, putting July on track to become the strongest month so far this year, as news of a producers' meeting next week added to bullish sentiment driven by the threat of U.S. sanctions against OPEC-member Venezuela.

Benchmark Brent crude traded down 19 cents or .36 percent at $52.33 a barrel at 12:00 p.m. (1600 GMT). Brent earlier hit $52.92 a barrel, its highest since May 25.

U.S. light crude oil traded down 40 cents or .8 percent at $49.31 a barrel.

U.S. crude had jumped above $50 a barrel for the first time in two months early in the session, after U.S. officials said sanctions on Venezuela could be announced as early as Monday.

The United States is considering imposing sanctions on the country's oil sector in response to Sunday's election of a constitutional super-body, which Washington has denounced as a "sham" vote.

Even though the White House has said that "all options are on the table," the most likely action, banning Venezuela from importing U.S. oil, could come as early as Monday.

A Reuters survey on Monday indicated output from OPEC members rose, mostly from adjustments upward to Iraqi and Saudi output.

"The upward revision by 200,000 in June for OPEC-13 is quite shocking," said Commerzbank senior oil analyst Carsten Fritsch, "Compliance already slipped sharply in June to 77% (initially reported at 92%)."

However some OPEC and non-OPEC members will meet on Aug. 7-8 in Abu Dhabi to assess how the group can increase compliance with production cuts that began on Jan. 1.

Hedge funds and money managers have raised bullish bets on U.S. crude oil to their highest in three months, U.S. data showed.

In Europe, a production outage at Shell's 404,000 barrel-per-day Pernis refinery in the Netherlands following a fire sent benchmark European diesel margins, which reflect the profit made from refining crude oil into the road fuel, to their highest since November 2015 at $14.60 a barrel.

U.S. production has hampered efforts to rebalance the market but signs the market is tightening have emerged after heavy inventory falls and slower new oil rig additions last week.

U.S. crude inventories have fallen by 10 percent from their March peaks to 483.4 million barrels. <C-STK-T-EIA>

U.S. output dipped by 0.2 percent to 9.41 million barrels per day (bpd) in the week to July 21, after rising by more than 10 percent since mid-2016. <C-OUT-T-EIA>

Drilling for new U.S. production is also slowing, with just 10 rigs added in July, the fewest since May 2016.

(By Julia Simon; Additional reporting by Karolin Schaps, Ahmad Ghaddar, Ron Bousso and Christopher Johnson in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Jason Neely, Louise Heavens and Frances Kerry)
Shares of music streaming service Pandora (NYSE:P) rose as much as 7 percent in after-hours trading on Monday, after the company beat analyst expectations, in part due to rising advertising and subscription revenues.

Excluding items, Pandora beat Wall Street analysts expectations, reporting a loss of $0.21 cents per share on revenue of $376.8 million, better than the anticipated loss of $0.24 cents on sales of $368 million. The revenue total is a 10 percent increase from the same period last year.

However, the company posted a net loss of $275.1 million, or $1.20 per share, in the quarter, compared to a net loss of $76.3 million, or $0.33 per share, in the same period last year.

Additionally, the company said advertising revenue rose 5 percent from the same quarter of 2016 to $278.2 million. Subscription revenue also grew, 25 percent year-over-year, to $68.9 million, while the number of subscribers rose to 4.86 million in the second-quarter of 2017 from 3.93 million the year prior.

Listening hours from Pandora usersanother business metric the company usesdipped to 5.22 billion this year, from 5.66 billion in the same period in 2016.

"We have taken a number of steps to hone the companys strategy and position Pandora to continue to build audience and extend monetization through a combination of advertising and subscription revenue streams, said Naveen Chopra, CFO and interim CEO of Pandora said in a statement.

The year 2017 hasnt been easy for the online music streaming company, mainly due to fierce competition among rivals like Apple (NASDAQ:APPL) Music and Spotifythe latter which made a $480 million strategic cash investment in the business, after its buyout offer was rejected, in the early part of June. That included the sale of Ticketfly, a ticket distribution service. Later that month, Pandora announced its co-founder Tim Westergren would step down as CEO.

Earlier Monday, the company announced it would exit its Australia and New Zealand markets, leaving its only area of operation the United States.
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged four brokers on Monday with misleading investors near retirement-age, fraudulently persuading them to roll over holdings into higher-fee, variable annuity products.

The Atlanta-based brokers, affiliated with the Federal Employee Benefits Counselors, targeted federal employees ages 59.5 and above who had a sizable amount invested in their Thrift Savings Plans  a contribution plan for U.S. civil service employees. The SEC alleges that the brokers not only obscured details concerning fees and expected returns, but also fraudulently led these investors to believe that the variable annuity products they were recommending were affiliated with, or approved by, the government.

As alleged in our complaint, these brokers were motivated by the prospects of higher commissions as they targeted federal employees age 59.5 and over and intentionally obscured important details when recommending variable annuity purchases. They even allegedly excluded the words variable annuity from some materials they shared with TSP account holders, said Aaron W. Lipson, Associate Director of the SECs Atlanta Regional Office, in a statement.

According to the complaint, the brokers sent incomplete or obscured forms to the targeted employees in order to hide the fact that the variable annuities were privately issued, with no connection to their Thrift Savings Plans.

The SEC believes that these brokers made a collective $1.7 million in commission off of the sales of the variable annuities. They allegedly sold 200 products, with a collective face value of about $40 million.

If found guilty, the defendants could be forced to give up their profits, plus interest, penalties and permanent injunctions, the SEC said.
The Trump administration on Monday hailed a Pennsylvania-based company's deal to supply coal to Ukraine in preparation for winter heating needs, saying it would bolster a key U.S. ally often threatened by Russia.

The deal, potentially worth about $79 million, calls for Xcoal Energy and Resources to ship 700,000 tons of thermal coal to Ukraine to heat homes and businesses. The first shipment is expected to leave the Port of Baltimore next month at a cost of $113 per metric ton.

Energy Secretary Rick Perry said U.S. coal "will be a secure and reliable energy source" for Ukraine, which he said has been "reliant on and beholden to Russia to keep the heat on. That changes now."

The U.S. "can offer Ukraine an alternative, and today we are pleased to announce that we will," Perry said, calling such deals "crucial to the path forward to achieve energy dominance" for the U.S.

President Donald Trump has vowed to revive the struggling coal industry and has cited increases in U.S. coal exports as evidence the strategy is working. The Energy Department said in July that coal exports have risen sharply in 2017 amid increased demand in Asia and Europe, but are still below capacity.

The deal comes amid increased tensions in U.S.-Russia relations. Russian President Vladimir Putin says the U.S. will have to cut its diplomatic staff in Russia in response to new sanctions against Russia. Congress approved those because of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and its military aggression in Ukraine and Syria.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the coal deal will allow Ukraine to diversify its energy sources ahead of the coming winter, noting that Russia has restricted some natural gas deliveries to Ukraine and other neighbors in a bid to "choke off opposition to its ambitions."

Perry was recently fooled by a pair of Russian pranksters impersonating the prime minister of Ukraine. Topics on the mid-July call included coal exports. Perry met with Ukraine's president, Petro Poroshenko, in June.
Riding-sharing company Uber plans to launch its own credit card, partnering with the British bank Barclays.

The card will be coming later this year, Barclays said last week.

Uber would be the first of the riding-sharing companies to have a co-branded credit card, which are a popular way for companies to cement customer loyalty. They typically give points or credits toward awards, with the most popular cards offering airlines and hotels.

Uber rival Lyft has a partnership with Delta that offers miles, though it's not via a card.

No details about terms or rewards on the Uber cards were available yet, though the awards seem likely to go toward ride credit. Earlier this year, Uber partnered with American Express to give Platinum Card customers a $200-a-year credit toward free rides.
The Trump administration is considering imposing sanctions on Venezuelas oil industry after Sundays election, which granted President Nicolas Maduros ruling party with virtually unlimited power.

The new sanctions could come as early as Monday and will most likely include banning Venezuela from importing U.S. oil.

We are watching a potential revolution unfold, said Wall Street Journal global economics editor Jon Hilsenrath on FOX Business. The big question for Americahow is the government going to manage that? Theres blood on the streets.

Venezuelas oil industry has been on the decline for years, beginning with the reign of former President Hugo Chavez. In Hilsrenraths opinion, the new sanctions could have an impact on the price of crude oil and the U.S. economy.

When oil prices are rising it leads to more investment in the United States, to more fracking, he said. So in a perverse way whats going on there could be helping the U.S. economy by holding up oil prices and giving our drillers an incentive to tap our own wells again.
First Lady of the United States Melania Trump is contributing to a tourism surge in her native Slovenia, the country statistics office said Monday.

Some 1,939,000 tourists visited the Alpine country of 2 million in the first half of this year, a 15% increase from the same period last year, according to the Slovenian Statistics Office.

Analyzing the impact of the Slovenian-born first lady on the tourism growth, the statistics office said the number of U.S. visitors has risen 15% since Donald Trump took office in January.

However, despite the overall growth, there was no remarkable change in overnight stays by visitors to Melania Trumps hometown, Sevnica.

Still, the countrys tourism companies are seeking to capitalize off of the U.S. first ladys popularity. Slovenian tourist agencies have been organizing "on the footsteps of Melania Trump" tours showing the places where she lived, studied and worked. Websites promoting the nation of stunning natural beauty also say: "Welcome to the homeland of the new First Lady of the United States of America!"

Born Melanija Knavs, the U.S. first lady left Slovenia in her 20s to pursue an international modeling career. The last time she is believed to have visited was in July 2002, when she introduced Donald Trump to her parents at the lakeside resort of Bled over a meal.

Slovenia, which has become one of Europe's hottest nature destinations after splitting from Yugoslavia in 1991, has both a coastline on the Adriatic Sea as well as a chunk of the Alps.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
On the day the Senate failed to pass a replacement for the Affordable Care Act, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) held a meeting with some of Washington D.C.s most powerful lobbyists and think tanks to assure them tax reform will not face the same issues as the debacle to repeal ObamaCare, FOX Business has learned.

On Friday, Ryan met with members of Americans for Tax Reform, The Heritage Foundation and FreedomWorks to give an update on tax reform negotiations and to reassure them that comprehensive tax reform will get done by the end of the year, FOX Business can confirm.

Grover Norquist, the founder of the Americans for Tax Reform political advocacy group and an attendee at the meeting, told FOX Business in an interview that Ryan indicated to those at the gathering that the group working on changing the tax code, which includes leaders from the House, Senate and White House, were 97 percent in agreement on tax reform after being at 80 percent.

The team the House speaker was referring to is also known as the Big 6 and consists of Ryan, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) , Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), as well as National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

According to Norquist, Ryan told the group that his team agreed to cut the corporate tax rate to as close to 15 percent as possible, work on eliminating the estate tax, also known as the death tax, close the loopholes for state and local tax deductions and the controversial border adjustment tax would not be part of their final plan.

Ryan did not say if they will be able to cut the corporate rate all the way down to 15 percent, but did note the White House really wants 15 percent, according to Norquist. Meanwhile, as FOX Business was first to report, Ryan has been telling his House colleagues that its unlikely the final tax plan will cut the corporate rate to as low as 15 percent and will likely see a cut between 20 percent and 25 percent.

Still, many of the representatives at the meeting voiced their concerns with trusting Congress to have new tax legislation ready to be signed for President Trump by the end of the year after the disastrous Senate vote to repeal ObamaCare.

According to Steve Moore, a distinguished visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation and an outside adviser to the White House on tax reform, some attendees openly questioned Congress's ability to move ahead with putting together and eventually passing a comprehensive tax reform bill.

What I feel that came out of this meeting is the question of how are you going to get this through the Senate? Im all in favor of getting state and local tax deductions, but what about people in high tax states? I still dont think its the winning strategy and that we should just do a straight tax cut. The biggest problem though here is we are losing time, Moore told FOX Business in an interview.

Moore did not attend the meeting, but sent one of his aides from The Heritage Foundation to represent him.

A spokesman for FreedomWorks, a conservative advocacy group, confirmed to FOX Business their president, Adam Brandon, was also in attendance.

A spokeswoman for Ryan did not return emails for comment.

The idea of eliminating the state and local tax deductions would be controversial and possibly unpopular as Americans in 43 states would lose the option to deduct what they pay in taxes from their federal return, which lowers their overall tax bill.

While eliminating those deductions could save the federal government an enormous amount of money, it benefits Americans in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut the most. According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, about a third of the tax benefit goes to those three states.

The support for removing the so called death tax echoes what was described in the one page outline released in April by the Trump administration. The estate tax applies an additional tax to those who pass away with an estate worth more than $5.49 million. The idea behind it is to reduce the extent to which families can amass huge wealth over time.
President Donald Trump threatened to end government payments to health insurers made under the Affordable Care Act if Congress does not pass a new health-care bill.

"If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!," Trump tweeted on Saturday.

In an interview with FOX Business Stuart Varney, Judge Andrew Napolitano said Trumps warning to withhold money from insurance companies would speed up the collapse of ObamaCare and harm a lot of innocent people in the process.

If the president does withhold money from the insurance companies, he really would be gutting ObamaCare and would cause poor and middle class people to be without insurance at their peril, he said.

The Fox News senior judicial analyst said it is unlikely and far more difficult for the president to be able to withhold payments.

I dont blame [Trump] for firing off these threats, Napolitano said. He is frustrated he cant get governing done. But in both of these cases, I dont think the threats will work.
U.S. President Donald Trump fired his communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, on Monday over an obscene tirade, just over a week after naming him to the job, sources familiar with the decision said, in the latest staff upheaval to hit the Republican's six-month-old administration.

Scaramucci's departure follows one of the rockiest weeks of Trump's presidency in which a major Republican effort to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system failed in Congress and both his spokesman and previous chief of staff left their jobs as White House infighting burst into the open.

Scaramucci was damaged by comments he made to The New Yorker magazine last week in which he attacked then-White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and Trump's chief strategist, Steve Bannon, in profanity-laden terms.

"The president certainly felt that Anthony's comments were inappropriate for a person in that position," spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters.

An administration official said new White House chief of staff John Kelly, a retired Marine general tasked with bringing order to a fractious West Wing, had asked for Scaramucci's removal.

In a change from previous procedure at the Trump White House, all staff will now report to Kelly, including Trump's daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, Sanders said.

Scaramucci, an abrasive New York financier, was named to the communications role only 10 days ago. He founded the SkyBridge Capital hedge fund investment business in 2005.

INNER CIRCLE

Tensions in Trump's inner circle erupted last week when Scaramucci assailed Priebus and Bannon, two of the West Wing's most senior figures. He accused Priebus of leaking information to the media. Priebus later resigned.

Trump appeared on Monday with Kelly in the Oval Office and in a Cabinet meeting where he predicted the new chief of staff would do a "spectacular job." He praised Kelly for averting controversy during his tenure overseeing border security issues at the Department of Homeland Security.

"With a very controversial situation, theres been very little controversy, which is really amazing by itself," Trump said.

Republicans fear that staff chaos at the White House could derail any attempt to revive efforts to repeal and replace the Obamacare healthcare law and a plan to overhaul the U.S. tax system.

The U.S. dollar hit a more than 2-1/2-year low against the euro on Monday on month-end portfolio adjustments and uncertainty over the U.S. political outlook after Scaramucci's departure.

Aside from domestic challenges, Trump is weighing how to respond to North Korea's latest missile test - a sore point between Washington and Beijing. Trump has been critical of China, North Korea's closest ally, saying it should do more to rein in Pyongyang.

He is also dealing with several investigations into allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and has been frustrated that the probes are also looking into potential collusion by his campaign. Moscow rejects the charge it tried to swing the election in Trump's favor, and Trump denies his campaign had anything to do with such interference.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland and Mark Hosenball; Writing by Alistair Bell; Editing by Peter Cooney)
A California boy was hospitalized with E. coli after he contracted the disease while swimming at a popular lake where several other children were reportedly also sickened after a dip in the water.

Sara Dunn told Fox 40 on Sunday her 3-year-old nephew went swimming near the clubhouse at Lake Wildwood Beach last week before he felt ill.

"He started coming down with symptoms earlier this week, around Monday or Tuesday. Real upset stomach, digestive issues, blood in his stool," Dunn told Fox 40.

GIRL WHO DIED AFTER CONTRACTING E. COLI WAS CLEANING DIRTY YARD, FAMILY SAYS

The boy was admitted to the intensive care unit, and later tested positive for E. coli. The bacteria has affected his kidneys, according to Dunn.

Dunn's nephew is one of four children who were reportedly sickened after swimming in the Nevada County lake -- with three of them testing positive of E. coli, the Nevada County Public Health Department said.

MOM WARNS OTHERS AFTER 1-YEAR-OLD TESTS POSITIVE FOR HERPES VIRUS

The health department said tests showed high levels of fecal coliforms, bacteria linked to E. coli, in the lake. The popular swimming area has since been shut down, according to Fox 40.

Wastewater treatment plants are located near the lake, but officials said they are functioning properly.

E. coli can cause intestinal infections resulting in diarrhea, abdominal pain and fever, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some severe cases may cause patients to suffer from bloody diarrhea, dehydration or kidney failure.

Click here for more from Fox 40.
The mother of a 1-year-old boy who tested positive for the herpes virus said she doesnt know who gave it to her son, and is now warning other parents to be cautious about who touches their child.

It sucks because its a lifelong problem now, Samantha Rodgers told Fox 12 Oregon of her sons diagnosis. I dont know how to handle this. I am trying my best. It breaks my heart, and I cant do anything to help him.

Rodgers told the news outlet that she first noticed the red blisters forming on her son Julianos mouth on July 21. While his symptoms were initially suspected to be the flu or Hand Foot and Mouth Disease, the sores started to spread.

JAPANESE WOMAN DIED FROM TICK-BORNE ILLNESS DESPITE NO TICK BITE, OFFICIALS SAY

His sores were growing onto his hands and neck and his stomach, she told Fox 12 Oregon.

Juliano then tested positive for the herpes simplex type 1 virus (HSV) at Blank Children Hospital in Des Moines. For infants, the virus can be severe and could even result in death, according to the Department of Health. In children under age 5 it typically results from close contact with someone shedding HSV-1 in their saliva, or has an active outbreak.

Newborns require hospitalization for treatment and antiviral medication for 21 days. On July 28, Rodgers posted an update on Facebook indicating that Juliano had returned home.

SON OF NASHVILLE MAYOR DIES OF APPARENT DRUG OVERDOSE

It sucks because its a lifelong problem now, Rodgers told Fox 12 Oregon. I dont know how to handle this. I am trying my best. It breaks my heart, and I cant do anything to help him.

All I can say is just be cautious, it can be anybody your best friend, your sister, your brother or your mom, Samantha Rodgers told Fox 12 Oregon. It you see a cold sore or anything on them just dont let them come by your baby.
One man's penis enlargement surgery turned fatal has become a cautionary tale, with doctors in Sweden warning those desiring to enhance their manhood.

A healthy, 30-year-old man in Stockholm wanted to increase both the girth and length of his genitals using a process where fat is transferred from his belly to his penis. The man was one of 8,4000 people worldwide who seek to enhance their girth every year (statistics were not available on length since they are often done at the same time, like in this case, even though many doctors recommend against it).

MORE: HOW GETTING OVER A COLD CAN GIVE YOU A HEART ATTACK

A description of the case in the Journal of Forensic Sciences explained that surgeons had finished the elongation portion of the surgery and were in the enlargement part, which involved injecting the patient with two fluid ounces of his own fat cells, when things went wrong. The fat leaked into his veins and traveled to his lungs, which resulted in a lung embolism, rupturing his blood vessels. The patient, who was found to have no prior heart conditions, ended up having a heart attack on the operating table. Despite attempts from doctors to perform CPR, the man passed away two hours later.

The conclusion of the study said, This is the first described case where a seemingly simple and safe procedure of penis enlargement by autologous fat transfer caused sudden death in a healthy young man. It also suggested that the surgery was riskier since it combined two procedures.

Urologist Tobias Kohler, of the Mayo Clinic, who was not involved in this study, told BuzzFeed News that among the reasons surgeons advise against the "completely useless" surgery, is because it "never works" and because of "other horrible consequences, from disfigurement to permanent erectile dysfunction to even worse.

MORE: 5 QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF BEFORE DATING A COWORKER

A 2017 scientific review in Translational Andrology and Urology showed that "the majority of men seeking penile elongation treatment have a normal penile size, which is functionally adequate." Instead, it is suggested that most patients seeking this elective surgery suffer from body dysmorphic disorder and cannot accurately see their bodies.

This article originally appeared on Mens Health
This mom is not putting up with any shaming. Karen Johnson, a stay-at-home mom and blogger at The 21st Century SAHM, has penned an extremely honest Facebook post that has since gone viral, urging mothers not to judge one another.

Karen, who is a mom to three children, shared a photo of herself with a large bag of ice pops, and began her post about how she compares to other moms.

My house is never clean. Like ever. I have friends (with kids) whose houses are spotless. Are they better mothers than me? Nope. Am I a better mother than them? Nope, she writes. I work out every day. I have mom friends who don't exercise. (I mean other than running around like crazy people after their kids). Does that make either of us a better mom? Nope.

RELATED: PEOPLE ARE FREAKING OUT ABOUT THIS PICTURE OF HILARY DUFF AND HER SON

The Kansas City-area mom continued, comparing herself to moms like those who do water births (she chose the epidural fairy in the hospital) or who don't drink (she admitted shell have a glass of wine or beer in front of her kids on occasion). She also said that while some mom friends of hers only serve their kids super organic, chemical free and dye free foods, her kids sometimes have the cheap popsicles she's holding up in the photo for breakfast.

Karen then highlighted a number of different kinds of moms  like working mothers and stay at home moms  asking which was better, and pointing out that no group was better than the other.

RELATED: THIS IS WHAT ITS REALLY LIKE TO DO IVF

So how about this? Can we all climb down off judgmental mountain for a second? And just support one another? And just say, Hey, motherhood is hard. You're doing a good job. Raising kids can knock the wind out of a person. You got this, she concluded. How awesome would that be? Just a thought.

Karens post clearly resonated, with over half a million people already sharing it on Facebook.

This article originally appeared on Womens Health
An Indiana news reporter caused a bit of a stir on Twitter after he made a derogatory comment about maritime disaster in the history of the U.S. Navy.

On Sunday, Gov. Eric Holcomb attended the 72nd reunion of survivors of the USS Indianapolis - sunk in 1945 by a Japanese submarine. Smithsonian Magazine estimates as many as 150 sailors died from shark attacks.

Click here for a free subscription to Todd's newsletter: a must-read for Conservatives!

"I was awestruck to hear the stories and meet the survivors of the #USSIndianapolis at their 72nd reunion," the governor wrote on Twitter.

Dan Carden, a reporter for The Times of Northwest Indiana, responded to the governor's tweet with his own message.

"It has got to be a coincidence that they do this during Shark Week, right? Right?" he wrote.

Click here to read the rest of Todd Starnes' column
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi appeared Sunday on Fox News to defend herself and the Democratic Partys new initiative  dubbed A Better Deal  aimed at rebuilding her partys standing with the nations voters.

Pelosis pitch was straightforward: our economy is rigged against Americas workers and only Democrats can fix it.

One small problem: America has heard this before. On countless commercials. In numerous debates. For months on end.

As highlighted by even supportive media outlets, A Better Deal is largely a rehash of solutions offered by Hillary Clinton during her failed presidential campaign. That doesnt mean A Better Deal is without merit, as Foxs Chris Wallace noted. But clearly something was missing when Clinton made these same losing arguments.

The American people were looking for something more. Something different.

And that underlines why Pelosis performance was another train wreck for Democrats. D.C. Democrats still dont understand  or wont accept  why they keep losing.

President Trump reached the White House with a simple promise: Make America Great Again. He saw a broken immigration system, gutted manufacturing base, and a set of toothless foreign policies that all originated from feckless and corrupt D.C. elites.

To right the ship, Trump vowed to drain the swamp of Americas political losers and push through an agenda that would leave the country literally tired of winning.

Said differently, Trump focused on the brokenness of Washington D.C.

It was a smart strategy.

For years, Congress approval rating has been dismal. America has grown tired of the constant political warfare between dueling politicians that has resulted in little progress.

Poll after poll also shows that voters are disgusted by a political system that all too often leads to career politicians who drink off the corrupting spigot of campaign cash from corporate interests.

Bottom line: America wanted better leadership and an effective government in 2016. Fair or not, Trump became the credible voice to accomplish those goals.

Six months later, its debatable whether Trump is the voice that America wanted. However what isnt up for debate is that the country still desires better leadership. In fact, polls show that we view it as the most pressing issue facing the nation.

More important than health care. More than the economy. More than immigration.

And yet despite the countrys hunger for fresh leadership, Democratic leaders like Nancy Pelosi (with 29 years in office) continue to appear on TV to promote the partys reboot. Complete with Clintons losing proposals.

To underline the absurdity, Pelosi made it clear that the new initiative is not a course correction, but a presentation correction.

In other words, same politicians and same message, just a prettier bow.

If the whole enterprise smacks of ego, it should. Pelosi knows that Americans want new leadership and a functional national government. She knows that this requires her to step aside for the good of the party and country. However shes made it clear that shes not going anywhere.

To the point, when Pelosi was asked about the importance of a fresh start for the party, she responded, I dont think people want a new direction.

When asked whether she would withdraw for a new generation of leaders, she refused.

I am a master legislator, Pelosi said.

D.C. Democrats have thus placed the party in an intractable position: they have leaders who lack the credible voice to move the party forward, yet the leaders refuse to leave.

For those Democrats outside the Beltway, this conundrum leaves them with two uncomfortable options: Accept the status quo, or fight back.

The status quo is clearly unacceptable. Democrats have the fewest number of elected officials at the state and national level since the 1920s. Sixty-seven percent of Americans view the party as out of touch.

That leaves rebellion.

An effective political coup requires concerned governors, legislators, and Democratic voters to publicly reject their current leadership. If Pelosi and others like her wont step down, the rebels must make it clear to Americas voters that the D.C. Democrats do not speak for them.

Meanwhile, a successful rebellion must offer an agenda that demonstrates that Democrats have heard Americas demand for new, effective leadership. Indeed, the rebels must embrace the only proven ways to eject career politicians from their perches of power and money: term limits and a lifetime ban on elected officials from lobbying.

For years, an overwhelming majority of Americans have demanded passage of these two initiatives. Voters understand that if politicians arent chasing corporate cash for reelection or a lucrative retirement, they are more likely to do the business of the American people.

Consider the issue of prescription drug prices, highlighted as a part of A Better Deal. When the U.S. Senate recently considered legislation that would have allowed Americans to import cheap prescription drugs from Canada, 14 Democratic senators rejected it (along with most Republicans). Not surprisingly, many of these politicians have collected large sums of campaign cash from pharmaceutical giants.

To point out the obvious, this is the broken system that helped put Trump in the White House.

And that begs the question: would the president join a Democratic rebellion in a push for term limits and a ban on lobbying? After all, he recently upgraded his drain the swamp mantra to drain the sewer.

If President Trump declines, then the rebels could fold the idea into a new covenant with the American people.

Call it Our American Oath.

Shortly after Donald Trump was elected, a group of sensible Americans and I drafted a series of 10 policy directives designed to help move the country forward. From term limits to the economy and the War on Terror, we hammered out agreements that reflect Democratic values while working to find common ground with Republicans.

No matter the covenants particulars, its time for a national rebellion of concerned Democrats. Officials like Pelosi have become unresponsive and tone deaf, pushing failed schemes like A Better Deal when what American voters want is better leadership.

Its time that Democrats give voters what they deserve.
Will President Trump fire or demand the resignation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, after repeatedly attacking Sessions on Twitter and in statements and interviews? Lets hope not, because Sessions is doing an outstanding job to fight crime and make America safer.

President Trump has repeatedly made clear his frustration and disappointment with Sessions for recusing himself from oversight of Justice Department investigations into allegations that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 race for the White House.

But Sessions told Fox News Tucker Carlson Thursday that he made the right decision in recusing himself from the FBIs Russia investigation because of his role in the Trump presidential campaign. And Sessions said he has no intention of resigning, though he understands he serves at the pleasure of the president and that President Trump has the right to replace him.

One can understand President Trumps growing frustration with the seemingly endless and ever-expanding Russia investigations. The president has said he would not have appointed Sessions as attorney general if he had known Sessions would recuse himself from the Russia investigation.

There is a genuine feeling among the men and women in blue that, for the first time in eight years, the president and attorney general have their backs.

One can even see why President Trump would question why the investigations encircling him continue to widen, while those against Hillary Clinton have faded into the woodwork.

But dismissing Sessions as attorney general would be a giant step in the wrong direction. Because, although he has been missing from the Russia battle, Sessions has been highly engaged  to significant benefit  in perhaps even more important areas.

Its hard to overstate the problems Sessions inherited after two successive attorneys general turned the Department of Justice into a political arm of the Obama administration. Through its blame first, ask questions later posture of hostility to the police  in Ferguson, Mo.; Baton Rouge, La.; Dallas and elsewhere  the federal government under President Obama had lost the trust of its partners in local law enforcement.

A survey of nearly 3,400 law enforcement officers on their attitudes in the post-Ferguson/Dallas/Baton Rouge world of attacks on police confirmed anecdotal evidence in two areas  it found officers had begun to disengage in proactive policing and felt under attack in a way they hadnt before.

This isnt just a problem for police morale  its a problem for us all, because when police fear prosecution for doing their jobs they sometimes do less, giving dangerous criminals greater freedom to everyone else. Like all citizens, law enforcement officers should be presumed innocent until proven guilty. But under the Obama administration, when questions arose about police conduct officers too often were presumed guilty until proven innocent.

Nearly half of the officers in the survey said they had made fewer traffic and pedestrian stops since Ferguson. More than half said their enjoyment at work had decreased. They were confident in their training on when to use force, but 40 percent said they had become more reluctant to do so.

And it is hard to blame them. In 2016, 20 officers nationwide were killed in ambush attacks  the most in a year since 1995. There have been ambushes in Philadelphia, Boston, New York City and elsewhere.

But since Sessions took over, things have begun to improve. There is a genuine feeling among the men and women in blue that, for the first time in eight years, the president and attorney general have their backs.

The Obama Justice Department had a practice of suing police departments for alleged civil rights violations. It investigated 25 police departments and sheriffs offices around the country and was enforcing court-ordered agreements in 2016 to resolve civil rights lawsuits against 19 cities, including Ferguson, Baltimore, New Orleans and Cleveland.

Sessions began rebuilding police trust by pumping the brakes. We need, so far as we can, to help police departments get better, not diminish their effectiveness, he said. And Im afraid weve done some of that.

Sessions also has called for a return to tougher sentencing. For example, he encouraged federal prosecutors to bring charges when drug crimes also involve guns, so criminals can be subject to the tougher sentencing in federal courts.

Sessions is also considering increased prosecution of marijuana law violations, even in states that have legalized the drug. I dont think America will be a better place when more people, especially young people, smoke pot, he said.

In addition, Sessions is working with the Department of Homeland Security to crack down on illegal border crossings and is working with police chiefs across the country to fight the opioid crisis that is ravaging American cities and towns, taking the lives of over 50,000 Americans last year.

Last week, Sessions took important steps to restore civil asset forfeitures, a critical tool that supports state and local law enforcement, and strengthens an array of federal policing task forces and programs. He understands the sacrifice and risk that law-enforcement officers face and knows violent crime is worsening after decades of decline and must be fought with renewed vigor.

So, Mr. President, law enforcement understands your frustration. Weve endured accusations we considered unfair as well. We know what its like to work among people who seem bent on our destruction.

But please, before you dismiss General Sessions, or demand his resignation, reflect on the good he has done for American law enforcement and in advancing the right agenda in his brief tenure. If you do, I think you will agree that he is worth keeping on. His actions are keeping the American people safer and getting criminals off our streets.
Retired Gen. John Kelly made it very clear he was in charge as White House chief of staff on is first day on the job Monday. He fired Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci after only 10 days on the job for using extremely crude language in a phone call with New Yorker reporter Ryan Lizza.

Theres some irony in the fact that Scaramucci  the man in the White House who most resembled President Trumps brash New York style  has been fired by the man Trump picked to run his White House.

Does this mean that Trump might finally listen to a top aide and curb his most self-destructive tendencies  shoot- from-the-hip tweets, off-topic messaging, chaotic policymaking and gratuitous insults of Washington players?

The answer is maybe. It will depend how quickly Kelly can impose a sense of order and effectiveness to a chaotic White House management style.

Theres some irony in the fact that Scaramucci  the man in the White House who most resembled President Trumps brash New York style  has been fired by the man Trump picked to run his White House.

There is precedent for President Trump to change  albeit grudgingly and only in the midst of a crisis.

In the early 1990s, as his real estate empire was collapsing around him, Trump did show he can act in a serious, restrained way that inspired some confidence in his ability to recover.

Trump nearly went bankrupt in 1990 and was forced to ask dozens of banks to whom he owed $4 billion to change the terms on their loans and forgive some of his debts. In describing this deal, he has said he focused on it with more intensity and purpose than anything hed done in his life to that point.

In The Choice 2016, PBSs two-hour documentary on the election, Gwenda Blair, author of The Trumps, reports that bankers held gigantic meetings at Trump Tower with, like, 40 banks all sitting around in a room, Donald very sober, looking like not quite penitent perhaps, but serious.

Blair says that Trump escaped collapse by convincing his creditors he was more valuable to them financially alive rather than dead. He proceeded to recoup his losses by shifting from real-estate deals to licensing his well-known name.

Why is President Trump now having such difficulty changing his behavior when he should know he is hurting himself? He has provided the answer.

In 2015, financial journalist Michael DAntonio published Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success. The book was bolstered by 10 hours of exclusive interviews with the mogul. Some of the quotes are very revealing. When asked if he is ever introspective, Trump replied: I dont like to analyze myself, because I might not like what I see.

Fortunately, in many settings, Trump has controlled his childish tendencies, DAntonio writes. But now Trumps victory in the presidential race seems to have created a belief in his own invincibility and reinforced his traits.

DAntonio writes: He is like a 13-year-old teenager who can stay up as late as he wants, eat junk food; theres no adult who has the right to take away his phone and stop the tweeting.

Yes, President Trumps lack of impulse control has also been an asset to him. He comes across as spontaneous, funny, and unscripted  the opposite of most politicians. But unless he comes across as a little less thrilling and a lot more responsible, he will never be able to govern effectively.

In the end, the extent to which Donald Trumps White House function better will not be dependent on Gen. Kellys management skills. It will depend on the extent to which Kelly can convince the man in the Oval Office that he has to discipline himself  and not just in the midst of a crisis.
Anthony Scaramucci rose through the financial ranks of New York, ardently defending Wall Street and founding a global hedge fund to eventually wind up as the White House communications director.

But his latest project only lasted a little over 10 days.

Scaramucci was tapped as the next communications director for the White House on July 21. But by the afternoon of July 31, Scaramucci already was removed from his position.

Mr. Scaramucci felt it was best to give Chief of Staff John Kelly a clean slate and the ability to build his own team, the White House said in a statement. We wish him all the best.

The ascension of the Goldman Sachs alumnus to the Trump administration created turmoil in the White House and resulted in the resignations of Press Secretary Sean Spicer and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.

Retired Marine Gen. John Kelly was sworn in as President Donald Trumps new chief of staff Monday morning, just hours before Scaramucci left his position.

Read on to find out more about Scaramucci, known to friends as The Mooch.

Financier

Named Wall Streeter of the Year by Yahoo Finance in 2016, Scaramucci founded and co-managed SkyBridge Capital, a group of hedge funds with a reported $11.8 billion in assets.

Hes also hosted a variety of financial conferences and programs, including Fox Business Networks Wall Street Week and the glitzy SALT Conference, an annual gathering of prominent financiers and politicians.

RESIGNATIONS, CHANGES ON TRUMP LEGAL TEAM

Scaramucci, 53, sold his SkyBridge Capital in January in preparation for a role in the Trump administration. The price of the sale was not disclosed, but the firm was thought to be valued at more than $200 million, the Financial Times reported at the time of the sale.

Fundraiser

A Republican in New York, Scaramucci has donated to politicians in his party for a long time  but Trump, a fellow wealthy New Yorker, didnt catch his eye right away.

Scaramucci initially backed Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and then former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in the 2016 Republican presidential primary.

While he was supporting Walker, Scaramucci said he was a team Republican but had a difficult time communicating with Trump.

When I talk to Donald and he talks to me, I guess we dont understand [each other], Scaramucci told Fox Business Network in 2015. I may need to get an interpreter in the room to talk to Donald.

SCARAMUCCI ACCEPTS CNNS APOLOGY FOR RETRACTED RUSSIA STORY

Ultimately, the Long Island native kept his promise to support the Republican presidential nominee and threw his full support behind Trump, eventually serving on his transition team.

At the SALT Conference in May, Scaramucci contended that he is ready to serve in the current administration.

And so, to the extent the president needs me, I will be available to him, Scaramucci said then.

I remain loyal to the president and to the cause, he added.

On Friday, White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway sang Scaramuccis praises, saying that he has been an incredible asset to President Trump during the campaign, transition and now.

Scaramucci made headlines in 2010 when he asked Obama during a televised town hall meeting when he was going to stop whacking at the Wall Street pinata.

Scaramucci has also contributed to scores of Democratic politicians, including Obama.

Spokesman

In his first weekend as the communications director for the White House, Scaramucci gave interview after interview and promised its time for the Trump administration to hit the reset button with the press.

Scaramucci told Fox News Sunday that he wanted to bring an era of a new good feeling and hopes to create a more positive mojo in his new role. He also promised to crack down on information leaks and pledged to better focus the message coming out of the White House.

As far as Im concerned, there will be a new start for everybody on the team, he said.

On the Russia stories, Scaramucci said that a "two-pronged approach" was needed, saying that "in some ways we want to deescalate things and have there be a level of diplomacy. In other ways, we want it to be very hard-hitting and war-like."

Scaramucci also told CNN Sunday that an unnamed person told him that "if the Russians actually hacked this situation and spilled out those e-mails, you would have never seen it."

He then said he was quoting the president, adding that "he basically said to me, hey, you know, this is  maybe they did it. Maybe they didn't do it."

A person thats going to be super, super tough on Russia is President Donald J. Trump, Scaramucci said.

Scaramucci also deleted some of his old tweets that had resurfaced in the wake of his new appointment.

Those tweets showed that Scaramucci was often at odds with Trump during the campaign  and one even praised Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton for her competence.

Other tweets expressed support for stronger gun laws, which he tweeted about in August 2012. In May 2016, he expressed displeasure with individuals who believe climate change is a hoax. Trump has at times referred to global warming as a hoax.

When it comes to Trumps tweets, Scaramucci told CBS Face the Nation that if he thinks its helpful to him, let him do it.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee is taking heat for calling incoming White House Chief of Staff John Kelly an extremist who supposedly is poised to help President Trump militarize the White House.

Lee, of California, made the charge late Friday in response to Trumps decision to put the Homeland Security secretary and retired general in charge of his West Wing team.

By putting Gen John Kelly in charge, Pres Trump is militarizing the White House & putting our executive branch in the hands of an extremist, she said.

But Sean Spicer, Trumps former press secretary who resigned a week before Kelly was announced as Reince Priebus replacement, fired back on Twitter.

Not only is this wrong, it's offensive on multiple levels, he wrote.

He added, I'm waiting on Dem leaders to denounce (I won't hold my breath tho) cc @politico @nytimes @washingtonpost.

Kelly is being sworn in Monday. His selection drew widespread praise elsewhere on Capitol Hill.

On CNN over the weekend, Lee stood by her remarks, claiming she was referring to Kellys role at DHS pursuing the deportation of innocent people, a border wall, the Muslim ban and other policies she called extreme.
Looking at your smartphone while crossing the street could result in serious injury. But in Honolulu, it will definitely get you fined if you're caught.

Under a new ban signed into law last week -- and set to take effect in October -- anyone nabbed crossing a street or highway while viewing a mobile electronic device will face a fine of $15-$35 for the first offense.

The Hawaii capital appears to be the first major U.S. city to take this step. The new rules have invited accusations of government overreach and exposed a slippery slope for local cellphone regs -- 'don't text and walk' could be the new 'don't text and drive.' But advocates say they're necessary for safety.

"Sometimes I wish there were laws that we did not have to pass, that perhaps common sense would prevail. But sometimes we lack common sense," Mayor Kirk Caldwell reportedly said at the July 27 signing ceremony.

Fines climb as high as $99 for the third offense in a year, close to the $130 ticket for jaywalking, according to the Honolulu Police Department.

Introduced in January by Councilman Brandon Elefante, the measure was approved on July 12 by the City Council with only two members -- Ann Kobayashi and Ernie Martin -- voting against it.

According to the National Safety Councils Injury Facts 2015, there were more than 11,000 cellphone-related distracted walking injuries from 2000-2011.

However, nearly 80 percent of those injuries were the result of a fall and 52 percent occurred at home.

The actual number of crosswalk-related injuries is hard to gauge.

A survey conducted by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) found 90 percent of respondents said they had seen others talking and walking, though only 37 percent would admit to doing it themselves. Slightly less (85 percent) reported seeing others using a smartphone while crossing the street, while only 28 percent said they had done the same.

While opponents do not dispute more injuries are occurring, they question if government intervention is the right response.

Councilmember Martin suggested during debate of the bill that a public information campaign would be more effective in reaching so-called smartphone zombies.

Honolulu resident Ben Robinson argued in written testimony that a better way to instill personal responsibility would be to provide "more education to citizens about responsible electronics usage, and allow law enforcement to focus on larger issues."

Honolulu may be the biggest city to take this step but it's not the first to crack down on texting while walking.

In 2012, the town of Fort Lee, N.J., approved an $85 fine for anyone found texting while jaywalking.

In 2016, a New Jersey state Assemblywoman Pamela Lampitt failed to get support for her bill to fine text-walkers $50 or send them to jail for 15 days.
Gen. John F. Kelly, the retired four-star Marine general sworn in Monday as White House chief of staff, has new orders from the commander-in-chief: Instill discipline in a White House plagued by leaks and infighting.

Kelly, an Irish Catholic, had a brief stint as secretary of Homeland Security. Before he headed DHS, he had recently ended a long and distinguished career in the military.

Last February, he retired after serving four decades in the Marines. His last post was as head of the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees Latin America and the Caribbean.

"I have been fortunate to have served my country for more than 45 years - first as a Marine and then as the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security," Kelly said in a statement Friday. "I am honored to be asked to serve as the chief of staff to the president of the United States."

In a tweet late Friday, Trump tweeted that Kelly "has been a true star of my administration."

He is a great American and a great leader, Trump said.

Kelly, who vehemently defended Trumps travel ban, has grown close with the president the past few months.

The Washington Post said Trump is drawn to the discipline that Kelly and his other advisers who are former military officers bring to their roles.

He is also allegedly close to both White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, and liked by Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Hes described as low-key and a good collaborator.

His selection Friday was greeted with praise on Capitol Hill.

Secretary Kelly is one of the strongest and most natural leaders Ive ever known, said South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has sparred with the president in the past. As a Marine Corps officer, he instilled loyalty, respect and admiration from all who served under him.

Speaking to reporters, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders cited Kellys role at the Department of Homeland Security in working to reduce illegal immigration.

He has helped seal the border and reduced illegal immigration by 70 percent, Sanders said. He is respected by everyone, especially the people at the Department of Homeland Security.

A profile in the Boston Globe when he was chosen by Trump to head DHS mentioned a powerful speech he delivered in Massachusetts honoring service members in the state killed since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

He spoke to the crowd but never mentioned that his own son was killed in Afghanistan three weeks prior.

"He was probably torn up inside," Chris Lessard, a Newton firefighter and Marine veteran, told the Globe. "That was my first impression of General John Kelly. Could you find a classier person? He's a great man."
Portland's reckless sanctuary city policy is to blame for the rape of two women by a man deported 20 times, Oregon's top Republican official told Fox News Monday.

State GOP chairman Bill Currier told "Fox & Friends" that Sergio Martinez, who was last detained in December but promptly released, should not have been in the country a week ago when he allegedly attacked a pair of women. The horrific attacks shocked the city and stoked fresh criticism of the pro-illegal immigrant policies.

"He was given preferential treatment, said Currier. Essentially in Oregon, our governor and the mayor of Portland, Ted Wheeler, have created a protected class for illegal aliens that commit serious crimes."

Martinez, 31, had a detainer placed on him as a serious immigration violator yet immigration officials in December were not notified. Multnomah County officials ended up releasing him back into the community.

PORTLAND MAN ACCUSED OF SEXUALLY ASSAULTING 65-YEAR OLD HAD BEEN DEPORTED 20 TIMES

Martinez is now being held without bail on charges of robbery, kidnapping and sexual abuse. One of his alleged victims is a 65-year-old woman who was brutally attacked in her home. The other woman was attacked in her apartments parking garage. Both attacks occurred last Monday.

Martinez has reportedly told Portland police he is a meth addict. He has been homeless in Portland for the past year.

Portland is widely known as a safe haven for illegal immigrants  no matter how many times they have been deported. The city and, Multnomah County and even the state legislature  all run by Democrats  have passed law declaring themselves a sanctuary for people in the country illegally.

THE SHOCKING DEPORTATION AND CRIMINAL HISTORY OF THE MAN WHO ATTACKED TWO OREGON WOMEN

Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Martinez has been deported 13 times since 2008. He has a lengthy criminal record in three states, with charges including battery, felony, burglary and felony illegal re-entry after removal.

He was in the Multnomah County Jail in December and ICE asked the sheriffs department to notify them when he was released. The county ignored that request  as they do for all immigration detainers.

One month after Martinez was released, Multnomah County Sheriff Mike Reese launched an investigation into one of his deputies for contacting ICE before having a pre-trial meeting with an illegal immigrant. Around the same time, a judge was accused of letting an illegal immigrant slip out of her courtroom through the employee exit to escape ICE agents out in the hallway.

That judge was later found to have done nothing wrong.

As for Martinez, taxpayers may have to end up paying for his defense. The Portland City Council awarded $50,000 to launch a project aimed at helping immigrants fight deportation and other legal issues.

Fox News' Dan Springer contributed to this report
President Trumps headline-grabbing communications director Anthony Scaramucci was shown the door Monday after just 11 days on the job  as retired Gen. John Kelly took command of the White House staff, moving swiftly to impose order on a West Wing gripped for weeks by infighting.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders would not confirm reports that Kelly personally requested Scaramucci's removal -- but she made clear that the former Homeland Security secretary now has full control of the staff.

General Kelly has the full authority to operate in the White House, and all staff will report to him, Sanders said, adding there are no other anticipated staff shakeups in the works.

'General Kelly has the full authority to operate in the White House, and all staff will report to him.'  Sarah Huckabee Sanders

Scaramucci's stint as communications director came with the condition that he would report directly to the president, leaving unclear -- until Monday -- how he and Kelly would interact.

"Anthony Scaramucci will be leaving his role as White House Communications Director," the White House said in a terse written statement. "Mr. Scaramucci felt it was best to give Chief of Staff John Kelly a clean slate and the ability to build his own team. We wish him the best."

Kelly was sworn in just hours earlier Monday as the new White House chief of staff -- ironically, stepping into a vacancy that Scaramucci, nicknamed The Mooch, played at least some role in creating.

The abrupt decision to remove Scaramucci signals Kellys no-nonsense approach to a White House whose inner drama has drawn recent media comparisons to "Survivor" and "Game of Thrones." The New York Times reported that Kelly sought Scaramucci's removal.

Scaramucci's presence at the White House triggered tensions in Trumps inner circle from the start.

Press Secretary Sean Spicer resigned in protest right away, incidentally using the same clean slate language used to explain Scaramuccis departure.

SPICER RESIGNS AS PRESS SECRETARY IN WHITE HOUSE SHAKEUP

A week later, Reince Priebus left as chief of staff. And it was Scaramucci, a Wall Street financier, who got most of the credit for driving out Priebus, whom he had attacked in a profanity-laced tirade with a New Yorker reporter. In that interview, Scaramucci also made disparaging remarks about Steve Bannon.

A White House source still expects that Spicer will leave the White House as planned  even though the president 11 days ago asked him to stay.

ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI USES VULGAR LANGUAGE TO LASH OUT AT PRIEBUS, MAKE FUN OF BANNON IN INTERVIEW

Sanders said Trump thought Scaramuccis R-rated remarks about his senior staff were inappropriate.

Despite his resignation, Spicer remained in the White House Monday, saying he was there to assist with the communications transition.

As the Scaramucci news spread, Kelly was spotted in the East Room smiling and taking pictures with guests who were gathering for a Medal of Honor presentation.

Earlier Monday, Trump downplayed the palace intrigue behind Kellys new job and said in a tweet that the White House is not in chaos.

Highest Stock Market EVER, best economic numbers in years, unemployment lowest in 17 years, wages rising, border secure, S.C.: No WH chaos! he tweeted.

Democrats quickly pounced on the Scaramucci news with California Rep. Adam Schiff tweeting: Thank you Anthony @Scaramucci for your service. I speak for a grateful nation when I say has it really only been 11 days?!?.

Trump on Monday convened his first Cabinet meeting with Kelly at his side, telling his team it is "doing incredibly well" and "starting from a really good base." On how he would deal with rising tensions with North Korea, Trump said only: "It will be handled."

Seated across from Trump was Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has stayed on the job while Trump has publicly criticized him in interviews and on social media.

Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who was ousted from the campaign in June 2016, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he expected Kelly would "restore order to the staff" but also stressed that Trump was unlikely to change his style.

"I say you have to let Trump be Trump. That is what has made him successful over the last 30 years. That is what the American people voted for," Lewandowski said. "And anybody who thinks they're going to change Donald Trump doesn't know Donald Trump."

Fox News' John Roberts, Brooke Singman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The acting director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency signed more than a dozen agreements with local Texas law enforcement entities on Monday, giving them the authority to perform certain functions as federal immigration agents.

Thomas Homan, who took over as the acting director of ICE in January 2017, signed 18 new agreements with Texas law enforcement agencies to allow officers to interrogate individuals who have been arrested on their immigration status. Officers also will be able to place detainers on individuals.

It is common sense partnerships like these that help law enforcement achieve our mutual goals, and Im encouraged by the increased interest from law enforcement professionals who seek to join this program and protect public safety, Homan said in a statement.

The 287(g) program  which became law as part of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act in 1996  enables state and local law enforcement entities to collaborate with and perform functions of federal immigration agents.

The 287(g) program is extremely helpful as it allows local law enforcement agencies to participate as an active partner in identifying criminal aliens in their custody, and placing ICE detainers on these individuals, Matthew Bourke, a spokesman for ICE, told Fox News. Removing criminal aliens from our communities produces a higher level of public safety.

The 18 Texas law enforcement agencies  15 of which are in the Houston area  will be deputized only under what is called the jail enforcement model of the 287(g) agreement.

Under the [agreement], local law enforcement is not expected to determine the immigration status of individuals during the course of daily activities, Bourke said. Only when they process someone into a detention facility.

ICE CHIEF READIES NATIONAL SANCTUARY CITY CRACKDOWN

One problem with the jail enforcement model is at what point information is shared with federal immigration officials, said Royce Murray, the policy director at the nonprofit American Immigration Council.

In our criminal justice system, somebody is innocent until proven guilty, and the information-sharing that happens in this context is at the arrest stage, not at the conviction stage, Murray told Fox News. There could be some overlap between someone who is convicted and who presents a public safety threat, but you dont know that until the end of the process, and the information-sharing is at the beginning.

For example, Murray said, police could be called to investigate a domestic violence situation and encounter two people who don't speak English well with physical injuries. Both could be arrested before officials determine that the woman was simply defending herself against an attacker.

But by that point, the information-sharing with ICE has happened, she said.

IMMIGRATION OFFICIALS CONTINUE ENFORCEMENT EVEN IN CITIES HOSTILE TO THEM

Murray also critiqued the programs diversion of resources.

Any work that local police are doing to enforce immigration law means theyre not spending their time pursuing other public safety matters, Murray said.

Trump signed an executive order in January which called for the beefing up of the 287(g) program.

It is the policy of the executive branch to empower state and local law enforcement agencies across the country to perform the functions of an immigration officer in the interior of the United States to the maximum extent permitted by law, the order states.

A few days before Trump signed the order, Jackson County Sheriff A.J. Andy Louderback, who attended Mondays ceremonial event, signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with ICE.

So far, ICE has signed agreements with 60 law enforcement agencies in 18 states  including the agencies that participated in Mondays event.

The agencies that signed Monday wont immediately be a part of the program, Sarah Rodriguez, a deputy press secretary at ICE, told Fox News. Officers will need to be selected and undergo a month-long training process. Additionally, ICE supervisors will be assigned to oversee the agencies in the 287(g) programs.

Free reign is not the case, she said, predicting it would take one year before the agencies are operational with the program.

ICE ARRESTS 114 IN NEW YORK STING OPERATION

Rodriguez stressed that the programs shouldnt disrupt the communities in which they are in place because law enforcement officials will be deputized only for those brought to jail for criminal activity.

Thats the beauty of this program. It doesnt involve activity that would disrupt the community, Rodriguez said. The community can expect fewer criminals persisting on the streets and causing problems.

But Murray argued that a partnership between ICE and local law enforcement officials could deter people from reaching out to report a crime as they could be worried about their own immigration status or a family members.

287(g) agreements have been signed in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

Other agreements under the law included a task force model which enabled officers to question and arrest people believed to have violated immigration laws and the hybrid model which combined the task force model with the jail enforcement model, according to the American Immigration Council. The task force model was discontinued in 2012, but immigration activists worry it could be reinstated.
The Trump administration hit Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro with financial sanctions on Monday in the wake of a weekend election that gave the countrys ruling party virtually unlimited powers.

The sanctions follow through on a U.S. threat to take action against Maduro and his socialist government if they went ahead with Sunday's election, which the administration decried as a sham.

All options are on the table, and we will consider everything, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters at Mondays White House briefing.

The sanctions freeze any assets Maduro may have in U.S. jurisdictions and bar Americans from doing business with him. They were outlined in a brief notice by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control ahead of a White House announcement.

The monetary impact of the sanctions wasn't immediately clear as Maduro's holdings in U.S. jurisdictions, if he has any, weren't publicized. However, imposing sanctions on a head of state is rare and can be symbolically powerful, leading other countries to similarly shun such a leader. For example, the U.S. has had sanctions against Syria's President Bashar Assad since 2011.

"Yesterday's illegitimate elections confirm that Maduro is a dictator who disregards the will of the Venezuelan people," Mnuchin said. "By sanctioning Maduro, the United States makes clear our opposition to the policies of his regime and our support for the people of Venezuela who seek to return their country to a full and prosperous democracy."

He warned of further U.S. penalties against Maduro allies.

"Anyone who participates in this illegitimate (constituent assembly) could be exposed to future U.S. sanctions for their role in undermining democratic processes and institutions in Venezuela," Mnuchin said.

Officials had said the sanctions could target Venezuela's oil sector, including possibly its state-owned petroleum company.

But after the announcement, an official said Trump's administration held off due to possible complications, including some involving subsidiaries. The official wasn't authorized to speak publicly on the process and demanded anonymity.

The assembly will draw up a new constitution that many believe is aimed only at securing Maduro's increasingly authoritarian rule. On Monday, Venezuela's government said the election had given it a popular mandate to dramatically recast the political system, despite widespread claims of low voter turnout.

The Trump administration was quick to denounce the vote.

"Maduro's sham election is another step toward dictatorship," Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said on Twitter. "We won't accept an illegit govt. The Venezuelan ppl & democracy will prevail."

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the new assembly "is designed to replace the legitimately elected National Assembly and undermine the Venezuelan people's right to self-determination."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Trump, hoping to prod reluctant lawmakers to once again try for an ObamaCare overhaul deal, has zeroed in on a benefit that could serve as a powerful piece of leverage for the negotiator-in-chief.

The president's ultimatum to Congress: Figure out a way forward on health care, or lose a valuable insurance carve-out for you and your staff. The benefit allows part of their ObamaCare premium costs to be covered by taxpayers.

The president will not accept those who said it is, quote, time to move on, White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway said on "Fox News Sunday."

The president has twice threatened to target the benefit in the wake of Senate Republicans failing to pass their so-called skinny repeal health care plan on Friday.

If ObamaCare is hurting people, & it is, why shouldnt it hurt the insurance companies & why should Congress not be paying what public pays? Trump tweeted on Monday. Over the weekend, Trump similarly warned he would "end" the "BAILOUTS" for members of Congress if they don't pass a health bill soon.

The president issued the warning both to the insurance industry (referring to controversial payments that could be in jeopardy) and to Congress. But his threat to end the benefit for the latter, the subject of a long-running Washington battle, could grab lawmakers' attention -- considering allies say he has the authority to follow through.

I think the president would be absolutely within his rights to cancel the Obama rule that conferred this subsidy on Congress, Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., said.

The carve-out itself dates back to 2013.

Under the Obama administration, the Office of Personnel Management decided to grant what is often described as an exemption under the Affordable Care Act allowing lawmakers and their staff to keep getting a government subsidy for health care.

This required a special OPM decision to categorize Congress as a small business, allowing lawmakers and their aides to get government payments as an employer contribution through the exchange. Absent that, they would have been directed onto the individual exchange which prohibits an employer contribution.

The decision has drawn criticism from Republicans for years.

DeSantis said killing the exemption would give lawmakers an incentive to get a health care plan approved.

I applaud the president for raising this issue and I think if he moves swiftly on it, I think youd see a lot of these members and senators would want to work to repeal ObamaCare very quickly, DeSantis said on Fox & Friends Monday, adding that he personally declines the "subsidy."

DeSantis, who introduced legislation in January to end these exemptions, referred to the rules that apply to small businesses with 50 employees or less. Congress, by contrast, employs over 20,000. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., have been outspoken on the exemptions as well, pushing to repeal payments for members of Congress.

Other Americans who are in these exchanges are not getting employer subsidiesits illegal and yet somehow Congress gets a work-around, DeSantis said.

But in a tweet storm on Saturday, Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy slammed Trump for his threat.

This is a clear threat to Congress: pass my health bill or as punishment I will end health care for you, your staff, & your constituents, Murphy tweeted. Trump isnt saying these things will happen naturally. He has the power to cut off health care for leg branch employees & crater exchanges.

Murphy added moments after, I would argue this is a very serious moment. President making personal threats to us and our constituents if we dont pass his bill.



Conservative groups have also pushed to end the exception for congressional members and staffers. Just last week, 40 leaders of conservative groups wrote the president a letter, urging him expeditiously to end the scheme.

This fraud of instructing Congress to masquerade as a small business was the key to the scheme, because if members of Congress and their staff had signed up for ObamaCare under the individual exchangeas any other American losing employer coverage has tothey would have had to pay their own premiums, the letter stated, telling Trump he has the power to end the scheme by directing OPM to rescind the Obama rule.

White House Director of Legislative Affairs Marc Short said this policy is a perfect example of the swamp-like atmosphere in D.C.

OPM and the Obama administration put out a special ruling that said that members of Congress and staffs dont have to live by this law, he told "Fox & Friends."

Short criticized the special subsidy for Capitol Hill.

You are forcing us to live with this, but you are getting an exemption, Short said.
The media spent so many months predicting that Reince Priebus was on his way out that his actual ouster almost seems anticlimactic.

There was a collective judgment in the press that he was a weak chief of staff, so every time something went wrong for the White House, he got blameda process fueled by colleagues who would anonymously denigrate him.

Were seeing a very different attitude toward John Kelly, the retired general and Homeland Security chief tapped by the president to replace Priebus. Kelly has a well-earned reputation as a tough leader and a straight shooter, so the stories are being framed around the notion that he could bring military precision to the West Wing.

New Chief of Staff Seen As a Beacon of Discipline, says the New York Times.

John Kelly Will Bring Plain-Spoken Discipline To an Often Chaotic West Wing, says the Washington Post.

That, of course, depends on the commander-in-chief.

Priebus, the former RNC chairman, was tapped to be Trumps emissary to the Washington establishment. But that alliance produced few results. It may be purely symbolic, but Priebus departure was announced a few hours after the death of the Senate health care bill. And despite his Wisconsin friendship with Paul Ryan, the bill barely got through the House.

Priebus made more than his share of enemies in the West Wing and never seemed to fully win Trumps confidence, which may stem in part from tensions they had during the campaign.

Dave Bossie, Trump's former deputy campaign manager, said on "Media Buzz" yesterday that Priebus had been set up to fail.

The presidents decision to hire Anthony Scaramucci, despite Priebus objections, was a clear signal that Trump was unhappy with the way the place was runand immediately triggered the resignation of Sean Spicer, Priebus spokesman at the RNC. When Scaramucci started publicly attacking Priebus and no one in the White House defended him, it was clear the clock was running out.

To his credit, Priebus exited gracefully, praising the president during interviews with Wolf Blitzer and Sean Hannity, though he did take a shot at the"dishonest" media.

Staff shakeups, of course, only go so far. How many people remember Denis McDonough replacing Jack Lew, who replaced Bill Daley, who replaced Pete Rouse, who replaced Rahm Emanuel, under Barack Obama? Its the white-hot spotlight on all things Trump that makes every personnel move feel like an earthquake.

I expect that Kelly will get a bit of a media honeymoon. Hell have a wide berth to replace more people and control the flow of people and paper into the Oval Office.

But eventually the president, the press and the public will want to see results.

Now Trump is bringing in a man whos been a war commander in places like Iraq. This will be a very different challenge.
A growing number of researchers think that the sun is actually larger than commonly thought.

Scientists don't know the sun's size as precisely as the details of the Earth and moon, making it a sticking point for perplexed eclipse modelers.

Xavier Jubier creates detailed models of solar and lunar eclipses that work with Google Maps to show precisely where the shadow of the sun will fall on the Earth, and what the eclipse will look like at each point. He came to realize there was something off about the sun's measurements as he matched his eclipse simulations with actual photos. The photos helped him identify exactly where an observer had been for historical eclipses  but those precise eclipse shapes only made sense if he scaled up the sun's radius by a few hundred kilometers. [Total Solar Eclipse 2017: When, Where and How to See It (Safely)]

"For me, something was wrong somewhere, but that's all I could say," Jubier told Space.com.

Scientists' knowledge of the Earth's and moon's contours weren't exact enough to highlight this discrepancy until about 10 years ago  the same time that modern eclipse simulations became possible through computer power and precision mapping. So it was around then that Jubier began to realize something was amiss.

NASA researcher Ernie Wright came to a similar conclusion as he began to create increasingly precise models of solar eclipses, starting about two years ago. He, too, had to scale up the sun slightly from the traditional size for his calculations to match reality.

"How can you not know this?" Wright recalls thinking. "You just hold a ruler up to the sky, and you say it's this big."

But as it turns out, it's not that simple, Wright told Space.com.

Where did it come from?

Historically, researchers have used the value 696,000 km as the radius of the sun's photosphere  the body of the sun whose wavelengths are visible to the naked eye on Earth. The value was first published in 1891 by the German astronomer Arthur Auwers, Wright said, and it was taken as a standard value for quite some time. In 2015, the International Astronomical Union defined a "unit" based on the sun's radius as a similar 695,700 km, based on a 2008 study, so researchers can use that value to compare the sizes of other stars in the universe.

But efforts to measure the sun's radius have never been accurate enough to match our knowledge of the moon's and the Earth's contours, the researchers said. Scientists have tried measuring it through transits of Mercury and Venus  when those planets cross the face of the sun  and through images taken from sun-observing satellites like the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Each pixel on SDO images covers about 90 miles (150 km), Wright said, which means there's a limit to how precisely the size of the photosphere can be measured with this method. In addition, orbiting solar telescopes like SDO generally collect wavelengths of light emitted deeper inside or further outside the sun, rather than its visible photosphere.

"It's harder than you think just to put a ruler on these images and figure out how big the sun is  [SDO] doesn't have enough precision to nail this down," Wright said. "Similarly, with the Mercury and Venus transits, it turns out [a measurement based on those is] not quite as precise as you'd like it to be."

Different papers trying to pin down the sun's radius, using planet transits, space-based sensors as well as ground observations, have produced results that differ by as many as 930 miles (1,500 km), and can't seem to be reconciled with one another, Wright said. And for eclipse modelers, it's a critical and irritating problem.

Eclipse viewers might find the uncertainty of interest, as well, as they plot out where they'll be in the path of totality. A slightly larger sun means the period of total blackout can be a few seconds shorter in the center of the path, and the path itself would warp, as well.

"For most people, yes, it doesn't really matter; it won't change everything," Jubier said. "But the closer you get to the edge of the [eclipse] path, the more risk you take." If the sun is indeed bigger, the path is narrower than projections made with the usual value would suggest. So those chasing the effects on the eclipse's edge could be in trouble if they're not using a large enough value for their calculations.

Few people do eclipse predictions, Jubier added, and the precise value isn't necessary to a lot of researchers. Because of that, definitions can vary and it's hard to compare different values to one another, including the original 1891 value. It can be hard to tell for a given study what assumptions went into their answer for the sun's diameter, and so they can't be adapted easily to match each other or the eclipse. Any discrepancies in eclipse measurements can be attributed to not fully understanding the values, Jubier added.

"It is definitely still an area of ongoing research, and something that the field itself is interested in getting a better handle on," C. Alex Young, a solar astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, told Space.com. "Probably a little esoteric for many people, and I would say that the calculation is not as important for a lot of areas, for example in solar physics, in terms of the accuracy needed. But especially the eclipse community is very interested in the accuracy."

Figure it out

Michael Kentrianakis, an avid eclipse chaser and a member of the American Astronomical Society's Solar Eclipse Task Force, learned about the confusion over the sun's size from his colleague Luca Quaglia, a physicist and eclipse researcher.

"The straw that broke the camel's back," Kentrianakis said, came during an expedition to Argentina in February, where he positioned himself outside what should have been the edge of an annular eclipse  where the moon is circled by a bright "ring of fire." A larger sun would make the "ring of fire" effect visible to a wider area.

"Technically, I should have been outside of annularity, [but the unfiltered photographs show] we were still in the path of annularity, and we have this beautiful chromosphere circling around at the edge," Kentrianakis said. That experience fully convinced him the sun was larger than generally thought.

This upcoming eclipse  which will very likely be the most-watched total solar eclipse in history, NASA officials have said  will provide a chance for others inside and outside the path of totality to help verify its size.

While researchers would ordinarily use the radius of the sun to compute exactly when the moon will cover and uncover the sun for a given location, called contact times, the opposite strategy is required here, Quaglia told Space.com. "If we can measure contact times accurately, everything else being the same, the only thing that can change is the solar radius. We can actually compute the solar radius that way," he said.

Kentrianakis, Jubier, Quaglia and others want to pin it down by positioning researchers inside and outside where totality should be, armed with the equipment for what's called a "flash spectrum" photograph. The process uses a textured grating over a camera, which splits incoming light into component wavelengths  making it easy to determine precisely when the entire photosphere has been covered by the moon, revealing a more limited set of wavelengths emitted by the chromosphere. Combined with accurate timestamps, that process would provide strong evidence for the sun's size. (Such a process has been used before, but on a limited scale, Quaglia said.)

Such measurements would also provide another benefit, Jubier said  investigating what some think is a thin layer in between the photosphere and chromosphere called the mesosphere. That thin layer can be visible for a moment after the photosphere is blotted out during an eclipse, which means observers may make measurements that confuse the mesosphere for more of the photosphere. A flash spectrum can help distinguish between the two, although it must be a high enough resolution so the signals from each can be clearly separated.

A group involving Quaglia, Kentrianakis and Jubier was unable to get funding for as broad a flash-spectrum experiment as they would have liked  something like 30 separate measurement stations arrayed just inside and just outside the predicted eclipse path. But researchers could still use crowdsourced data and measurements during the eclipse to learn more.

"The more observations we have the better even if they are not providing the kind of quality we expected to get from the cinematographic spectroscopy," Jubier said. "Time will tell what we can make of all this."

Jubier said that flash spectrum measurements would be most useful, but so would (safely!) unfiltered views of the eclipse. Most filters cut out details of the images, making it much more difficult to determine precisely when the sun fully covers the moon.

Other groups will also be using the eclipse to try and measure the sun's diameter, Quaglia said, including the International Occulting Timing Association, which will analyze smartphone videos taken at intervals perpendicular to the eclipse path in Nebraska.

"The more people, the more techniques, the more teams involved will get us there as a whole," Quaglia said. "If, then, the International Astronomical Union makes the decision to change the value, they will probably not change the value lightly."

Understanding the visible sun's exact size will be possible only by combining careful solar measurements with the simulations and precise understanding of the moon's and Earth's elevations that exist now, Jubier said. But the pieces are in place to make that determination, if enough people get on board to measure the most common sight in the sky during those uncommon moments of eclipse.

"It's big, and it will take many eclipses  it may take until 2024  but at least we're starting it now," Kentrianakis said.

Editor's note: Space.com has teamed up with Simulation Curriculum to offer this awesome Eclipse Safari app to help you enjoy your eclipse experience. The free app is available for Apple and Android, and you can view it on the web.

Email Sarah Lewin at slewin@space.com or follow her @SarahExplains . Follow us @Spacedotcom , Facebook and Google+ . Original article on Space.com .
The most common asteroids in the solar system may have started out as giant balls of mud, rather than as rocks, as scientists previously thought, a new study finds.

Such mud balls could still exist today in the heart of the largest asteroids, according to the study.

More than 75 percent of known asteroids are carbonaceous in composition; these grayish asteroids probably consist of clay and stony rocks, and inhabit the main belt's outer regions. [The Asteroid Belt Explained: Space Rocks by the Millions (Infographic)]

One key reason scientists investigate carbonaceous asteroids is that they were probably the building blocks of the rocky planets of the solar system, said study lead author Philip Bland, a planetary scientist at the Curtin University of Technology in Australia. Analyzing these giant rocks could shed light on the origins of Earth, Mars and the other terrestrial planets.

However, the way carbonaceous asteroids formed in the early days of the solar system is still mysterious. "There have probably been about a dozen different models to explain the origins of these primitive objects over the years, and they've all been limited in one way or another," Bland told Space.com.

Researchers have observed carbonaceous asteroids and analyzed meteorites thought to come from them to glean details about their composition. However, scientists had trouble devising a model that could explain all of these features of the asteroids, Bland said.

"For instance, one model might find there is a lot of water getting circulated around inside the asteroids, so they could lose heat  which would explain why meteorites from these asteroids appear to have experienced alterations at relatively low temperatures," Bland said. "However, if you have a lot of water circulating inside asteroids, it would strip elements from the rock, and you would get a very different chemical composition than what we see in the meteorites."

"If there wasn't water inside the asteroids, you wouldn't mess up the chemistry we see, but the asteroids would not lose heat as easily," Bland added. "One way around that is to have the asteroids be smaller so they would cool down more easily, but we don't see that today."

All of these previous models assumed the asteroids had lithified  that is, had become rock. "Most people look at meteorites, and they're rocks. So the natural thing to assume would be that the asteroids they came from were rocks, too," Bland said. "We were interested in seeing what happened if we deleted that assumption."

Prior work suggested that carbonaceous asteroids formed from round, porous mineral pellets known as chondrules, as well as fine-grained dust, and ice. When pockets of these materials got pulled together by their own gravity, they would not have become rock, the researchers suggested. Instead, when radioactive materials inside the dust and chondrules melted the ice, the result would have been a sludgy mud, they said.

"When you stop to think about it, there's no reason that asteroids would be rocks right at the beginning," Bland said.

The scientists devised computer models that simulated how pockets of dust, chondrules and ice might act with different concentrations of these various ingredients and the density at which these materials were packed together. They found that not only could asteroids emerge from these building blocks without lithification, but the way in which mud churned in these mud balls could help explain the chemical and thermal details seen from carbonaceous asteroids.

"I feel like this helps plug a gap in knowledge when it comes to the question of what happened inside what are amongst the most important objects in the history of our solar system," Bland said.

After the mud balls formed, they could have lithified in various ways. For instance, if these mud balls hit each other, the force of the impacts would have generated heat that could have welded the components of these mud balls together into rock, Bland said.

As for whether the mud balls might still exist in the solar system, when the researchers modeled Ceres, the largest asteroid, they "found there was a reasonable chance of temperatures above freezing in its interior, so there could still be quite a bit of a mud ball inside Ceres," Bland said.

Future research could explore how the other kinds of asteroids in the solar system were born, and how asteroids in other star systems might arise and, in turn, influence the formation of alien planets, Bland said.

Bland and his colleague Bryan Travis at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, detailed their findings online July 14 in the journal Science Advances.

Follow Charles Q. Choi on Twitter @cqchoi . Follow us @Spacedotcom , Facebook and Google+ . Original article on Space.com .
LAS VEGAS  At the DEF CON 25 hacker conference here today (July 28), chess champion and political activist Garry Kasparov offered a surprisingly optimistic vision of human interaction with intelligent machines.

"I believe there's plenty of room for both man and machine," Kasparov said. "I don't think we are facing digital Armageddon."

Twenty years ago, Kasparov famously lost a six-game chess match to Deep Blue, an IBM supercomputer. A Newsweek cover called the match "The Brain's Last Stand," and when Kasparov lost, the moment was hailed as the dawn of artificial intelligence.

Despite his loss, Kasparov said that intelligent machines will not replace humans. Instead, machines working together with humans will be able to solve more problems than either machines or humans could by themselves  if we humans can learn to trust intelligent machines, not try to stop them.

"Technology destroys the old world and creates a new one," Kasparov said. "The sooner it happens, the better we are."

Kasparov said that a few years after he was beaten by Deep Blue, other chess players took on supercomputers with the assistance of less highly-powered machines  and usually won.

"A human-machine team always dominated a single supercomputer," he said.

Interestingly, relatively weak chess players did better working with computers than did strong players. Kasparov said that was because a weak player would trust the computer's judgment, but a strong player would sometimes think he or she knew better than the machine  and make more mistakes as a result.

"In medicine, machines are far more accurate than doctors in giving diagnoses," Kasparov said. "So would you rather be diagnosed by a good doctor with a machine, or by a good nurse with a machine?"

For these reasons, he argued, humans will have to learn to trust intelligent machines and accept that the machines will make fewer mistakes.

"Our descendants are going to look back at us and think we were crazy to oppose self-driving cars," Kasparov said. "Human-caused auto accidents are one of the leading causes of death. Why do we want to keep that?"

But, he said, machines can only provide answers. They can't come up with the relevant questions. Intelligent machines are not much good without humans to use them, but can be tremendously useful in their ability to rapidly provide information and analysis.

"Machines offer an opportunity to take larger risks," Kasparov said. "Even the Terminator movies show humans working with machines to defeat other machines."

That will happen, he said. Resisting technological progress is always futile.

"One hundred years ago, one of the strongest labor unions in New York City was the union of elevator operators," Kasparov said. "The newer technology was already there  you just pushed the button. But people were afraid to.

"You know what changed things?" he asked. "One day, the union decided to go on strike."

Instead, he said, we should embrace the machine-assisted future for the betterment of humanity, even though it will initially be disruptive as intelligent machines take human jobs.

"New technology renders whole industries obsolete before it creates new jobs," he said. "If you try to slow down the process with regulations, you just make it more painful."

"But technology is agnostic. It's neither good nor evil," Kasparov added. "It's up to we humans to do what only humans can do: dream, and dream big, so that we can get the most out of these amazing new tools."
When fully-autonomous vehicles become the norm, the former human driver can sleep as much as they like behind the wheel. But until that happens, falling asleep while driving poses a serious and potentially deadly risk. The advice we always hear is if you feel tired, pull over. Panasonic believes it has a better solution: use AI to keep the driver comfortably awake at all times.

According to Panasonic, there's actually five levels of drowsiness: not drowsy at all, slightly drowsy, drowsy, very drowsy, and seriously drowsy. The Japanese company developed an in-car system that monitors and detects driver drowsiness before it happens and reacts to it.

The system works through a combination of a camera and sensors which constantly monitor the driver. It can accurately measure blinking features, facial expressions, heat loss from the body, and illuminance. This is combined with information gathered about the in-vehicle environment. The sensor and environment data is then processed using artificial intelligence and a judgement made on how drowsy the driver is.

The system is accurate enough to detect shallow drowsiness long before the driver can perceive it. The transitioning of drowsiness level can also be predicted. Such accurate measurements allow the system time to react and adjust the driver's environment to keep them "comfortably awake."

The key to keeping a driver awake is thermal sensation. Typically, people get drowsy when they are too warm, and that is made worse when the environment is dim. So by predicting the drowsiness state, Panasonic can adjust the thermal sensation of the driver using airflow within the vehicle. Changing the air flow and general temperature combined with adjusting the brightness of the environment can counteract the oncoming drowsiness.

Of course, Panasonic's system can only do so much. If a person is driving in a very tired state then no environment changes will maintain a wakeful state. Panasonic has this covered too, by detecting the higher levels of drowsiness. If such a detection is made, an alarm is sounded and a command to rest issued.

What sets Panasonic's system apart from existing detection systems is its silent operation and ability to predict the driver's state. Most of the time the driver will have no idea they are being monitored and the environment around them is adjusting. They will most likely just feel more awake for the entire journey.

Panasonic expects to have the system available to test by vehicle manufacturers in October. If they like what they see then we could see new vehicles incorporating it next year.

This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.
The Chinese government is laser-focused on wiping out the ability to remain anonymous on the Internet. So by February 2018 China will block all VPNs. But as TechCrunch reports, they are not alone. President Putin just passed a new law that will ban the use of VPNs in Russia beginning in November.

Virtual Private Networks offer a very convenient and cheap way to hide your Internet activity, protect your privacy, and overcome any location-based blocks. So you can see why China wants them banned. For Russia, the law is banning all means of accessing the Internet anonymously because the government believes anonymity allows access to illegal content.

According to Freedom House, the so-called Yarovaya's Law was presented as a package of "antiterrorist legislative amendments," but ultimately allows much greater access by the Russian government to individual user's data as well as undermining the security of encrypted communications. In other words, if the Kremlin doesn't like content, it can more easily take it down and take action against the individual who posted it once this law comes into effect on November 1.

How well such a ban works depends on how it is policed. China will place the responsibility of blocking all VPNs on local ISPs. The Russian government will likely do the same considering last year it passed a law demanding ISPs retain a record of user data for a year. Another law passed in 2015 also demanded all Russian citizen user data be stored on servers within Russia. Taken altogether, it's very difficult to hide online in Russia, and it's only going to get harder come November.

This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.
An appeals court panel said Friday that federal officials must reconsider their decision not to regulate the size of airline seats as a safety issue.

One of the judges called it "the Case of the Incredible Shrinking Airline Seat."

The Flyers Rights passenger group challenged the Federal Aviation Administration in court after the agency rejected its request to write rules governing seat size and the distance between rows of seats.

AIRPORT EMPLOYEE PUNCHES EASYJET PASSENGER HOLDING A BABY

On Friday, a three-judge panel for the federal appeals court in Washington said the FAA had relied on outdated or irrelevant tests and studies before deciding that seat spacing was a matter of comfort, not safety.

The judges sent the issue back to the FAA. They said the agency must come up with a better-reasoned response to the group's safety concerns.

"We applaud the court's decision, and the path to larger seats has suddenly become a bit wider," said Kendall Creighton, a spokeswoman for Flyers Rights.

The passenger group says small seats that are bunched too close together slow down emergency evacuations and raise the danger of travelers developing vein clots.

FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said the agency was considering the ruling and its next steps. He said the FAA considers the spacing between seat rows when testing to make sure that airliners can be evacuated safely.

The airline industry has long opposed the regulation of seat size. Its main U.S. trade group, Airlines for America, declined to comment on the ruling.

Airlines have steadily reduced the space between rows to squeeze in extra seats and make more money. On discount carrier Spirit Airlines, the distance between the headrest of one seat and that of the seat in front of it  a distance called "pitch"  is 28 inches (71 centimeters), which, after accounting for the seat itself, leaves little legroom for the average passenger.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

This year, news leaked that American Airlines planned to order new Boeing 737 jets with just 29 inches (74 centimeters) of pitch in the last three rows to make room for an extra row of premium-priced seats toward the front of the plane.

American Airlines CEO Doug Parker said Friday that after objections from customers and flight attendants, the airline backed off. Those rows will have 30 inches (76 centimeters) of pitch  still a tighter fit than the airline's current planes.

Flyers Rights said that the average seat has gotten narrower too  from 18.5 inches (47 centimeters) a decade ago to about 17 inches (43 centimeters). The group got the judges' attention.

"This is the Case of the Incredible Shrinking Airline Seat," Judge Patricia Millett wrote in her ruling. "As many have no doubt noticed, aircraft seats and the spacing between them have been getting smaller and smaller, while American passengers have been growing in size."

The issue could wind up in Congress. Some lawmakers have proposed legislation to regulate seat size.
A Christian book author is claiming that Twitter banned an ad featuring his book about God's design for marriage.

Former pastor Craig Stellpflug of Washington State tried to promote his book, "One Man One Woman: God's Original Design for Marriage," in a paid Twitter ad. He claims the social media giant did not approve his tweet because it determined his content to be "hateful."

"They started promoting it. They took my money," Stellpflug told The Christian Post. "Then, I get [an] email that [the] tweet was not approved and that it was determined to be hate."

"'One Man One Woman' discloses God's original design and purpose for sex and marriage," Stellpflug wrote on his website. WestBow Press published the book in June. Stellpflug teaches Bible study and Sunday school classes at Sunrise Baptist Church in Custer, Washington.

"Twitter is free to run its business according to its liberal values that support the redefinition of marriage, but shouldn't bakers, florists and photographers who support the historic understanding of marriage be free to run their businesses as well?" Ryan T. Anderson, a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation and author of "Truth Overruled: The Future of Marriage and Religious Freedom," told LifeZette.

"Twitter just condemned my book as 'hate'!" Stellpflug tweeted in response to the situation this month. Twitter labeled the ad under "hate speech" and consequently did not approved the tweet, according to Stellpflug.

Twitter has an ad policy: It says it bans hate content, sensitive topics and violence -- including, apparently, the belief in traditional marriage.

The policy applies to "hate speech or advocacy against an individual, organization or protected group based on race, ethnicity, national origin, color, religion, disability, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status or other protected status."

Twitter did not respond to a request for comment.

Stellpflug's book on marriage takes an "honest look at how the ever-changing society we live in has wandered so far from an unchanging God and His will," according to Stellpflug's blog.

"This whole book started as bits and pieces of personal teaching notes and Bible studies-loosely organized in a document folder," he wrote. "A majority of the chapters in 'One Man One Woman' are adapted directly from my personal Bible studies and teaching notes. The actual inspiration for the book itself came when I was talking to my children's youth pastor about how he would handle a homosexual couple entering a youth Bible study or some other gathering."
Crews suspended their search Sunday for a 24-year-old woman reported missing after she went for a swim with a friend off the Jersey shore, authorities said late Sunday.

The woman, identified as Zuzana Oravcova, of Slovakia, vanished just before 2:30 a.m. after a swim at the beach in Point Pleasant, the United States Coast Guard told NJ.com.

We extend our deepest condolences to the family and loved ones during this extremely difficult time, said Capt. Scott Anderson, commander of Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay to NBC New York. Suspending a search is always a difficult decision and its something we dont take lightly.

Oravcova apparently was nude when entering the water, a witness told WABC.

The womans 23-year-old friend, identified as Thomas Kadlec, made it out of the water and alerted a boardwalk worker who contacted police, the Asbury Park Press reported.

The Coast Guard and Point Pleasant police had conducted a boat and air search for Oravcova.

The National Weather Service issued high-risk rip current warnings along the Jersey Shore, advising swimmers to stay out of the water due to potentially life-threatening conditions.
A burglary suspect accused of stealing a police officer's gun and engaging in a struggle -- which ended with all three shot -- has died, investigators said.

The officers were responding to a break-in report at an apartment in the California farming town of Los Banos, Fox 26 reported.

The officers and the man were locked in the struggle when the shooting unfolded, injuring all of them. The suspect allegedly took one of the cop's guns, the Los Banos Enterprise reported.

The two officers and the suspect were airlifted to a hospital in nearby Modesto.

Officials have not released updates on the conditions of the wounded officers.

Monday's shooting was the first to involve police officers in Los Banos since 2013, Cmdr. Ray Reyna said.

Click for more from Fox 26.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The dozen inmates who busted out of a jail in Alabama used peanut butter to fool a new guard into opening an outside door, investigators revealed Monday, shedding light on how so many inmates got a taste of freedom.

Police were still on the hunt for one of the men, 24-year-old Brady Andrew Kilpatrick, who was in jail on charges including marijuana possession.

The group used peanut butter from jail sandwiches to change the number above an inmate's cell to the number that identifies a door leading outside the jail, Walker County Sheriff James Wood said.

Once an inmate asked the new jail worker to open his cell's door, the outside door opened -- and the group bolted, using blankets to climb over a razor-wire fence, according to investigators.

Authorities were able to recapture the other 11 inmates and return them to the jail. Christopher Smith, 19, was the latest inmate taken into custody, at 4:21 a.m., the Walker County Sheriff's Office wrote on Facebook.

"JPD has activated additional personnel to assist the Walker County Sheriff's Office in locating multiple escaped inmates from the Walker County Jail. We ask that downtown residents stay indoors and turn on all outdoor lighting, the Jasper Police Department wrote in a Facebook message.

Larry Inman Jr., 29, and Ethan Howard Pearl, 24, were both recaptured by authorities from the Walker County Sheriffs Office and the Birmingham police at a gas station off Interstate 65 a little more than 10 minutes apart from each other Monday.

It was unclear how the other inmates were captured.

The other recaptured inmates are Steven Blake Lamb, 28, Michael Adam McGuff, 30, Johnny Richard Hunter, 26, Christopher Cole Spain, 18, Kristopher Keith Secrest, 20, Quadrekas Latoddrick Key, 21, Timothy Chaz Cooper, 28, and Steven Sanford Hartley, 27.

Lamb and McGuff are in jail on several charges, including attempted murder.

Fox News' Willie James Inman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A philanthropic organization that counts education as one of its major areas of focus is acquiring a majority stake in a venerable magazine that has been lauded for, among other things, its coverage of education in recent years.

The Emerson Collective, a very next-era charitable and investment endeavor founded by Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of the late Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs, will acquire The Atlantic magazine, founded before the Civil War began, as well as the Atlantics online news operation.

What a privilege it is to partner with David Bradley and become a steward of The Atlantic, one of the countrys most important and enduring journalistic institutions, Powell Jobs said in a news release on July 28.

Bradley has owned The Atlantic since 1999, and his Washington-based Atlantic Media includes the print magazine, websites, a conference business, and other ventures. The magazine has a very active education channel that includes contributions from Atlantic staff writers such as Conor Friedersdorf , Chalkbeat writers such as Matt Barnum, and freelance essayists.

Against the odds, The Atlantic is prospering, Bradley said in a staff memo announcing the new partnership. While I will stay at the helm some years, the most consequential decision of my career now is behind me: who next will take stewardship of this 160-year-old national treasure? To me, the answer, in the form of Laurene, feels incomparably right.

Bradley, 64, will keep a minority stake and remain at the helm of the magazine for the next three to five years, after which the Emerson Collective may acquire it outright. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Atlantic Media now gets some 80 percent of its revenue from digital ads, events, and other non-print sources. (Bradley is keeping, for now, other properties he owns that include National Journal Group and a digital media organization called Quartz .)

The Emerson Collective , based in Palo Alto, Calif., both invests in for-profit ventures and gives to non-profit entities. Besides education, its key areas of focus are immigration, social justice, and the environment.

The collective counts Russlyn H. Ali, the U.S. Department of Educations civil rights chief under President Obama, as its managing director for education, and former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan as a managing partner.

Emerson Collectives major education projects include College Track , which predates the collective and aims to help students from underprivileged areas get on track for higher education; and the XQ Super School Project , an ambitious effort the re-invent the American high school.

The collective has also invested in digital journalism outlets such as Axios, founded by two veterans of Politico; and Anonymous Content, a production company behind the movie Spotlight. The organization has also supported nonprofit journalism outlets such as ProPublica and the Marshall Project.

The Atlantic was co-founded 160 years ago by a group of abolitionists including Ralph Waldo Emerson, who is a primary inspiration for our own work at Emerson Collective, Powell Jobs said in her statement. Emerson and his partners, including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, created a magazine whose mission was to bring about equality for all people; to illuminate and defend the American idea; to celebrate American culture and literature; and to cover our marvelous, and sometimes messy, democratic experiment.
A landscaper died and at least two other people were injured on Monday after a swarm of bees ambushed them outside an Arizona home.

Two landscapers were working outside the Tucson home when they were attacked by the bees, Drexel Heights Fire District spokeswoman Tracy Koslowski said. One of the landscapers, a man, was already being swarmed when he approached his colleague, who was spraying for weeds and bugs.

The landscaper, a man, died after firefighters brought him inside the home. His colleague and the resident at the home also suffered injuries.

ELDERLY WOMAN KILLS COPPERHEAD SNAKES WITH SHOTGUN, SHOVEL AND RAKE HANDLE

The resident was taken to the hospital in stable condition and is expected to be released later Monday. The second landscaper refused medical attention.

A beehive wasn't found at the home.

Pima County Sheriff's Department wrote on Facebook that Camino De La Tierra from Valencia to Calle Faisan was closed "due to swarms of bees in the area."

"Please use caution and stay inside if at all possible," the department said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A 55-year-old family mystery was finally solved this week just hours after the story appeared on Canadian television, the CBC reports. In 1962, a woodsman searching for timber in the forest of Lutes Mountain in New Brunswick, Canada, found a large white box hanging from a tree by a parachute.

Inside the box, David McPherson Sr. and his family found two cameras. A few days later, the Canadian military took the box away, and despite promises from the government and two access-to-information requests to the Department of Defense over the next decades, the McPhersons never saw the box again.

Then the CBC reported on the socalled "thing in the woods" on Tuesday, and within hours tips began coming in from viewers, and soon the mystery was solved.

Viewers pointed the CBC to the Military Communications and Electronics Museum in Kingston, Ont., and to declassified documents on the CIA website, both of which had photographs of an AN/DMQ-1 gondola, part of American surveillance equipment used in the 1950s to conduct reconnaissance of Soviet Russia and Communist China as part of an operation called Project Genetrix.

The project was run alongside a "front" operation involving weather balloons, and the National Reconnaissance Office explains that of the 516 camera-carrying high-altitude balloons launched as part of the program, most weren't recovered by the US; "useful intelligence" was gleaned from just 34 of them.

Though the discovery marks the end of a half-century of wondering for the McPherson family, it came too late for the man who found the mystery box in the first place.

David McPherson Sr. died 18 months ago. (Read about another mystery that's been solved.)

This article originally appeared on Newser: Canadian 'Thing in the Woods' Was a CIA Spy Camera
Lewd and rude desnudas  naked female panhandlers  are harassing tourists in New Yorks Times Square, but cops reportedly cant arrest them because most of them are illegal immigrants.

The desnudas -- a Spanish word meaning "naked" -- are part of a Times Square assembly of popular costumed childrens characters and mostly-naked females hitting tourists up for money in the uber-popular New York City district. A law enforcement source told The New York Post that past proposals to license the often obnoxious street performers went nowhere because most of them are illegal immigrants and wouldnt register anyway. Plus, City Hall, under Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio, isnt interested in going after illegals such as the desnudas, the source told The Post.

So with little police enforcement, squads of Minnie Mouses, Incredible Hulks and painted women continue to pester passersby.

I told you, if you dont have a tip, then f--- off! one desnuda told a Post reporter.

Times Square Alliance President Tim Tomkins told The Post many of the Times Square performers continuously leave their Designated Activity Zones in an effort to earn more cash as part of what he called a scam.

Suddenly, theres three Minnies in your picture, Tomkins said. And a Batman, and a Spider-Man. And they all want cash. And theyre all outside the zone.

One tourist from Alabama told The Post: I just encountered that with Cookie Monster. I didnt want to get a photo, and he or she or whoever it was, they were very aggressive with me.

Then, when cops approach, Cookie, Minnie and the desnudas scamper back to the DAZ.

The NYPD insists its enforcing the law, with a spokesman telling The Post that a number of arrests and hundreds of summons issued to costume characters have been handed out during the past year.
Former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio was found guilty on Monday of criminal contempt for defying a judge's court order to stop traffic patrols that targeted immigrants.

Arpaio, 85, was charged with misdemeanor contempt of court, declaring that he willfully defied a judge's order in 2011 and prolonged his patrols for another 17 months, Fox 10 Phoenix reported.

He is expected to be sentenced on Oct. 5 and faces up to six months in jail if convicted, though some attorneys doubt Arpaio will face any jail time.

Arpaio's lawyers argued that the former sheriff did not intend to break the law. The ex-lawman admitted to prolonging his patrols, but then blamed one of his former attorneys for not fully explaining the court order.

However, prosecutors insisted that Arpaio ignored the judge's orders because the former sheriff was attempting to boost his 2012 campaign.

"He wanted to raise money and win re-election, and it worked," prosecutor John Keller said.

Arpaio's lawyers said they would appeal the verdict, contending their client's legal fate should have been decided by a jury, not a judge. They also said U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton violated Arpaio's rights by not reading the decision in court.

"Her verdict is contrary to what every single witness testified in the case," his lawyers said in a statement. "Arpaio believes that a jury would have found in his favor, and that it will."

Last week, Arpaio said he felt "optimistic" about his case.

Arpaio's tactics over 24 years in office drew fierce opponents as well as enthusiastic supporters nationwide who championed what they considered a tough-on-crime approach, including forcing inmates to wear pink underwear and housing them in tents outside in the desert heat.

He was voted out of office in November 2016, defeated by little-known retired Phoenix police Sgt. Paul Penzone.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click here for more from Fox 10 Phoenix.
Police in Florida say a 4-year-old child fatally shot himself with a gun he found in his house.

The shooting happened about 5:45 p.m. Sunday in Tampa.

In a news release, police said Ashton Gooding found the weapon and discharged it. He was severely injured when police arrived and died shortly after arriving at Tampa General Hospital.

The state attorney's office is reviewing the case to determine whether charges should be brought.

No further details were immediately available.
A popular Jewish summer camp in Washington state raised a Palestinian flag last week in what it called a teachable moment, angering campers, parents and other supporters of Israel.

Camp Solomon Schechter in Olympia was forced to apologize after including a Palestinian flag as part of its daily flag-raising ceremony on Thursday and Friday while hosting a group of 14 children from the Israeli organization Kids4Peace. The group included Christian and Muslim Palestinian boys and girls from Jerusalem.

The backlash came from Jews who said the Palestinian flag did not belong at a Jewish summer camp, according to reports.

"Has your camp's administration lost their mind recently with the flag incident?!??" Alex Ginzburg wrote, according to the Jerusalem Post.

The camp, affiliated with the Conservative Movement, acknowledged the controversy in an email to parents.

For the sake of a teachable moment, we did raise the Palestinian flag as a sign of friendship and acceptance, the email said. It was met with uncertainty by some campers and staff, especially the Israelis [sic], but all understood that the message of hope for peace by flying the Israeli flag alongside helped develop empathy.

On Sunday, the camp posted an apology on its Facebook page.

We sincerely apologize that we upset some in our CSS and larger Jewish community by introducing the Palestinian flag into our educational program. Camp Solomon Schechter reiterates our unwavering support for the State of Israel as the Jewish homeland, the apology said.

A mixed response greeted the apology, the Post reported.

Camp alumnus Naomi Shaw wrote, "So proud to have attended this wonderful camp. I think that this is such a wonderful thing to introduce to the next generation," according to the paper.

Another woman, Rene Ragettli, was quoted as saying that she had thought of sending her daughter to the camp next year. "Definitely off the list now," she said.

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that Camp Solomon Executive Director Sam Perlin and co-board president Andy Kaplowitz also expressed regret in a statement Sunday.

We neglected to foresee in such actions the serious political implications and for that lapse in judgment, we are deeply sorry, they said, according to JTA.
Long Island police on Saturday raided several bars believed to be havens for MS-13 gang members a day after Present Trump traveled to the area vowing to "destroy the vile criminal cartel."

Officials targeted four bars in Huntington Station about 1:15 a.m. Saturday, arresting several people, including five individuals involved in a secret gambling den, and issued citations for three bar owners, the New York Post reported.

Suffolk County police said the raids were conducted "because of MS-13 and other illegal activity," but did not specify if any gang members were arrested.

TRUMP VOWS TO DESTROY 'VILE' MS-13, 'LIBERATE OUR TOWNS' FROM GANG'S GRIP

One person, Alexander Sanchez, 31, was arrested after officials discovered he re-entered the country twice after being deported, police said.

On Friday, Trump traveled to Long Island, where MS-13 members have carried out brutal killings during the last year, to talk about gang atrocities and to rally support for his immigration enforcement policies.

[MS-13 has] transformed peaceful parks and beautiful quiet neighborhoods into blood-stained killing fields. Theyre animals. We cannot tolerate as a society the spilling of innocent, young, wonderful vibrant people, Trump said to a cheering crowd of law enforcement officials.

He added: "We will find you, we will arrest you, we will jail you and we will deport you."

WHAT IS MS-13, THE VIOLENT GANG TRUMP VOWED TO TARGET?

MS-13 has been linked to 17 murders on Long Island since Jan. 16. Trump's speech comes as two MS-13 gang members were arrested in connection with the murder of a man in Queens. During the weekend, an MS-13 gang member, who was also in the U.S. illegally, was captured in Virginia in connection with two separate murders in Texas, officials said.
The broke Manhattan chiropractor who jumped with his wife to their deaths was a saint who helped relieve joint pain for hundreds of 9/11 rescuers, close friends told The Post.

Glenn Scarpelli, 53, who committed suicide Friday with his wife, Patricia Colant, 50, because of financial woes, spent days and nights volunteering his time at the World Trade Center after the 2001 terror attacks.

We helped adjust for stressed and freaked out firefighters, policemen anyone who needed help, said Adam Lamb, a fellow chiropractor who volunteered alongside Scarpelli. He was just an amazing, amazing, generous person.

COUPLE CAUGHT IN FINANCIAL SPIRAL JUMP TO THEIR DEATHS

Scarpelli and Colant left a detailed suicide note before their fatal leap onto East 33rd Street in Murray Hill, detailing how they cannot live with their financial reality.

The chiropractor spoke about his 9/11 volunteering to blog writer Dr. Thomas Lamar. You could feel the energy. You could feel the death in the air, he said. Were using just our hands and adjusting people from our hearts.

Click here for more from The New York Post.
President Trump gave an impassioned speech on Friday, vowing to "destroy the vile criminal cartel" MS-13 -- but some in the media lambasted him for talking tough about the brutal gang, and instead presented sympathetic coverage of the group known for carrying out gruesome murders.

Trump's Friday speech on Long Island, where MS-13 gang members have wreaked havoc, highlighted his plan to crack down on gang violence and enforce immigration policies to prevent criminals from illegally entering the United States.

"[MS-13 has] transformed peaceful parks and beautiful quiet neighborhoods into blood-stained killing fields. Theyre animals. We cannot tolerate as a society the spilling of innocent, young, wonderful vibrant people," Trump said to an audience of law enforcement officials, who mostly cheered in approval.

TRUMP VOWS TO DESTROY 'VILE' MS-13, 'LIBERATE OUR TOWNS' FROM GANG'S GRIP

But despite the president's pledge to stop the killings and keep Americans safe from gang members, several left-leaning outlets asserted Trump was making the gang "stronger" with his rhetoric.

CNN claimed Trump's speech was "emboldening" MS-13, allowing the group to more easily recruit members because, the network said, the president and his policies were instilling fear in illegal immigrants. CNN's Dan Lieberman even went so far as to interview two gang members who complained "murders from MS-13 dont only hurt one family, but hurt both."

"I started growing up in that type of neighborhood. I didn't really get love from my family. Where I grew up, [MS-13] were there, almost all of them," one member told Lieberman. "They seemed like really nice people. They were there for me through tough times."

Vox got in on the action by releasing a report that twisted Trump's words to appear as if the president believed all illegal immigrants were "subhuman." Trump in his speech highlighted recent killings MS-13 has carried out in an attempt to have the gravity of the situation hit home for the Long Island crowd -- but to Vox it was just "tough talk before an adoring crowd."

WHAT IS MS-13, THE VIOLENT GANG TRUMP VOWED TO TARGET?

Slate's Jamelle Bouie said Trump's speeches on MS-13 and illegal immigration used words to "make white people afraid."

"Trump wasnt just connecting immigrants with violent crime. He was using an outright racist trope: that of the violent, sadistic black or brown criminal, preying on innocent (usually white) women," Bouie wrote.

Washington Post columnist Philip Bump used this tact to criticize Trump, too, when the president, on Wednesday visited Ohio and told a story about gang violence.

"This anecdote, referring to a murder in Virginia, is Trump's graphic depiction of Hispanic immigrants in the United States: Violent, bloodthirsty animals," he wrote.

At another point in the column, Bump added: "To cheers, he returned to the tactic with which he launched his campaign: Painting immigrants as criminals who must be thrown out of the country."
The College Board, which administers the Advanced Placement program, and Khan Academy, an online nonprofit offering resources and videos, are teaming up to create a supply of free test-preparation and course materials for teachers and students in every AP subject, the groups announced today.

Its essentially the deepening of what the organizations say has been a successful partnership, begun in 2014, to offer free online resources and tutoring for the SAT college-entrance examination.

The new teacher supports will roll out in the 2019-20 school year, the groups announced at the annual AP conference here. Using an online dashboard, teachers will be able to create customized quizzes, homework, classroom activities, and AP practice using the new materials, as well as access unit guides for the major topics in AP subjects and related unit tests. They can assign instructional videos and practice questions from the Khan Academy to their students, and theyll also have access to previously administered AP exam questions and prompts.

Separately from the teacher resources, the Khan Academy will host additional practice materials, videos, and supports for students on its popular website, pegged to 24 AP subjects. It will begin by hosting AP Calculus AB and AP Calculus BC videos and expand in the next few months to economics, biology, and physics, among other subjects.

College Board President David Coleman said the resources respond to a request from teachers and students for personalized resources to help them break down AP expectations and better prepare for the year-end exams.

Its also a reflection of the APs shift from an elite program to one that more students with a range of academic backgrounds take, he said.

You might say were offering every AP teacher a personalized assistant in their classroom, Coleman said. Were giving them an ability throughout the year to show what good enough work is, to have confidence that assignments derived from these materials are at the right level of rigor.

The emphasis on teachers is intentional, the partners said, because the community of AP teachers is much more close-knit than the rather diffuse group of teachers that handle preparation for college-entrance exams.

The AP materials were talking about are meant to be used in classrooms as a formative process, said Salman Khan, the creator of the Khan Academy.

As with its free SAT resources, Khan Academy wont require students to create profiles to access the materials, but those who do log in will be able to set up personalized programs for gauging their progress over time towards mastery of the AP material.

Justin Seifts, a teacher from Chapel Hill, N.C., said the he found the announcement super exciting, though he was also disappointed that his subject, AP Spanish Language, wasnt among those initially named for the Khan Academy supports.

But overall, he said that coherent resources for developing AP curriculum dont really exist in that way. The homework piece really stands out.

The partners SAT efforts were, in part, meant to help students without the means to pay for expensive, private exam tutoring to get high-quality help and support for the exam. Disparities in access to AP courses also remain wide. Its not clear whether or how this effort will affect some of those coursetaking patterns, but its worth watching.

The College Board and Khan Academy announced their partnership in 2014 and rolled out the online resources for the SAT the following year . Earlier this year, they reported correlations between the number of hours students spent on the practice system and point gains in their scores on the PSAT to the SAT.

The College Board plans to conduct similar research on the AP resources. For example, it could whether students who were on track to earn an AP score of 2 and went on to score a 3 made use of the free tools. (A score of 3 on the AP is the benchmark that typically confers college credit.)

See also:
US DENOUNCES VENEZUELA ELECTIONS

The U.S. slammed the elections in Venezuela on whether to grant the countrys ruling party unlimited power Sunday, vowing strong and swift actions against the architects of authoritarianism. "The United States stands by the people of Venezuela, and their constitutional representatives, in their quest to restore their country to a full and prosperous democracy," the State Department said in a statement.

VENEZUELA OFFICIALS CLAIM MORE THAN 8 MILLION VOTE TO GRANT GOVERNMENT MORE POWER

LOOK: VENEZUELA VOTES ON CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY

US, JAPAN AGREE TO TAKE FURTHER ACTION ON NORTH KOREA

Japans Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday he and President Donald Trump agreed to take further action against North Korea following its latest missile launch. Abe told reporters after the call that Trump pledged to take all necessary measures to protect Japan and that Abe praised his commitment to do so. He also called on China and Russia to do more to stop Pyongyang. Abe said Japan would pursue concrete steps to bolster defense system and capabilities under the firm solidarity with the U.S. and do utmost to protect the safety of the Japanese people.

US, ALLIES PREPARED TO USE OVERWHELMING FORCE IN NORTH KOREA, GENERAL SAYS

US CONDUCTS SUCCESSFUL THAAD MISSILE TEST AFTER LATEST NORTH KOREA MISSILE LAUNCH

DOZEN INMATES ESCAPE ALABAMA JAIL

Twelve inmates made a brazen escape from the Walker County Jail in Alabama on Sunday and authorities were still searching for the escapees into early Monday. It is unclear how the prisoners were able to escape. Walker County Chief Deputy Dayron Bridges said that an investigation was ongoing. The age range of the escaped inmates was between 18 and 30 years old.

TRUMP STRONG ARMS OBAMACARE BACK TO THE TABLE

Senate Republicans ended July in humiliating and seemingly final defeat over repealing and replacing ObamaCare, but relentless pressure this weekend from President Trump and reports of yet another potentially winning bill has sparked renewed hope of success within the party. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., reportedly has a new overhaul plan for the Senate, where senators will returned Monday because Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has revoked the first two weeks of their traditional August recess.

PELOSI SAYS FUTURE OF HER LEADERSHIP ROLE UNIMPORTANT

CONWAY STILL MUM ON WHO REPORTS DIRECTLY TO TRUMP AFTER KELLYS ARRIVAL

#NO CONFEDERATE CAMPAIGN AGAINST HBO SLAVE DRAMA GOES VIRAL

A social media campaign to derail HBOs planned modern-day Southern slavery drama quickly caught fire, rapidly shooting to the top ranks of Twitter both nationally and internationally. Amplifying earlier criticism of the project, the campaign, with OscarsSoWhite activist April Reign among its organizers, asked people to tweet to HBO with the hashtag NoConfederate during Sundays broadcast of the channels top hit Game of Thrones.

CHRIS CHRISTIE CONFRONTS FAN AT MILWAUKEE BREWERS GAME

COMING UP ON FNC

2:45 AM ET: Vice President Pence meets with Baltic leaders.

3:00 PM ET: President Trump wards the Medal of Honor to Army Specialist Five James McCloughan for conspicuous gallantry during the Vietnam War. Watch live on Fox News.

FOX BUSINESS COVERAGE

Week ahead-Chip stocks show signs of slowing with more earnings on tap (Click here for more)

How tax reform affects the overall economy (Click here for more)

COMING UP ON FBN

10:00 AM ET: Jon Steinberg- Cheddar CEO will appear on Varney & Company

11:00 AM ET - Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., will be on Varney & Company
The U.S. military said Monday it carried out a drone strike in Somalia that killed a member of the al-Shabab extremist group, while Somalia's government said it believes the strike killed a high-level al-Shabab commander responsible for several deadly bombings in the capital.

A U.S. Africa Command statement said the airstrike occurred Saturday near Tortoroow, an al-Shabab stronghold in Lower Shabelle region in southern Somalia.

President Donald Trump earlier this year approved expanded military operations against al-Shabab, including more aggressive airstrikes and considering parts of southern Somalia areas of active hostilities.

The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab is the deadliest Islamic extremist group in Africa.

The U.S. statement said the airstrike was carried out in coordination with regional partners "as a direct response to al-Shabab actions, including recent attacks on Somali forces." The statement said no civilians were killed.

A statement by Somalia's information ministry said the government believes that Ali Mohamed Hussein died in the operation coordinated with "international partners."

Ali had served as the extremist group's shadow governor for the capital, Mogadishu, and had been one of the group's most outspoken officials.

"This individual was part of an al-Shabab network responsible for planning and executing several bombings and assassinations that resulted in the deplorable death of numerous innocent civilians in Mogadishu," the ministry statement said.

A Somali intelligence official said at least one missile struck a car in which the al-Shabab leader was travelling. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

The U.S. military in early July said it carried out an airstrike against al-Shabab in Somalia and was assessing the results. The airstrike followed one in June that the U.S. said killed eight extremists at a rebel command and logistics camp in the south.

The Somalia-based al-Shabab earlier this month mocked Trump for the first time in a video that called him a "brainless billionaire." The extremist group also has vowed to step up attacks in Somalia after the president elected in February declared a new offensive against al-Shabab, which continues to carry out deadly attacks in Mogadishu.

The extremist group also has carried out deadly attacks in neighboring countries, notably Kenya, calling it retribution for sending troops to Somalia to fight al-Shabab.
Police in Australia are continuing to hunt for more evidence as they investigate a major terror plot targeting the aviation industry.

Four people  two Lebanese-Australians men and their two sons  were arrested in raids in Sydney on Saturday, following an intelligence tip-off. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull described the plot as Islamic-inspired terrorism.

We have succeeded in disrupting a major terrorist plot to bring down an airplane, Turnbull said. Good intelligence, great police work, great investigation, great co-ordination has enabled us to disrupt that plot.

AUSTRALIAN POLICE ARREST FOUR IN ALLEGED PLOT TO BOMB AIRCRAFT

Police are conducting forensic work at five properties linked to the suspects, but refused to elaborate on details of the planned attack. Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin would not confirm reports in the Australian media that the plot involved poisoning passengers with a toxic gas, or using a homemade bomb smuggled onto a flight in hand luggage.

The plot that we are investigating, we believe was an attempt to put a device onto an aircraft. But, beyond that, the speculation is just that  its speculation, Colvin said.

AUSTRALIA AIRPORT SECURITYS STAY HIGHTENED OVER TERROR PLOT

Colvin also refused to comment on unconfirmed reports that the suspects were not previously known to police.

Since the arrests, security been stepped up at both domestic and international terminals of Australias major airports. Authorities warn the new measures may be in place indefinitely.

We need to remind the public the threat is there, its why weve ramped up the security at our domestic and international airports, said Peter Dutton, Australias Immigration and Border Protection Minister. He advised passengers to arrive early at airports to allow time for additional screening.

Australian authorities have disrupted 13 terror threats over the past few years  but nothing on this scale. Turnbull said the terror threat level would remain the same, at probable, despite these latest developments.

The four suspects have not yet been charged. Under Australian counterterrorism laws, they can be held for seven days for questioning.
Charlie Gard, the terminally ill baby who died a week shy of his first birthday after a lengthy court battle that captured worldwide attention, will be buried with his "beloved" toy monkeys, his parents said Monday.

Gard died on Friday in a hospice after he was taken off life support. His parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, were embroiled in a legal battle for months, trying to bring their infant son to the United States for an experimental medical treatment that offered a sliver of hope to combat Gard's rare genetic disease, mitochondrial depletion syndrome.

Gard and Yates are expected to register Charlie's death on Monday, the Sun reported.

"We should be planning Charlies first birthday but instead were planning his funeral," Yates told the site.

CHARLIE GARD DIES IN HOSPICE, PARENTS SAY

Family spokeswoman Alison Smith-Squire said the parents haven't finalized funeral arrangement plans, but "have decided Charlie will be buried with his beloved toy monkeys."

On Friday, Yates said in a statement: "Our beautiful little boy has gone, we're so proud of him."

Charlie was described as being born "perfectly healthy" at birth, but he was admitted to the hospital months later. His parents then spent several months trying to persuade London's Great Ormond Street Hospital, where Charlie was being treated, to allow them to bring their ill son to the U.S. in an attempt to save his life.

But Charlie's doctors opposed the idea, despite support from international leaders, including President Trump and Pope Francis. The doctors said they believed the trip and treatment would cause Charlie more pain, and argued instead to switch off the child's life support to allow him to die peacefully. They later said it was Gard and Yates' rights to hear all possible ways to help their child.

CHARLIE GARD'S DISEASE AND LEGAL CASE: AN EXPLAINER

Last week, Charlie's parents dropped their bid to bring Charlie to the U.S., saying "the window of opportunity has been lost. Recent medical tests revealed Charlie has irreversible muscular damage.

"Had Charlie been given the treatment sooner he would have had the potential to be a normal, healthy little boy," Yates said.

Pope Francis, who previously spoke out in support of the infant's parents, tweeted his condolences.

"I entrust little Charlie to the Father and pray for his parents and all those who loved him," Pope Francis said.

Vice President Pence tweeted: "Saddened to hear of the passing of Charlie Gard. Karen & I offer our prayers & condolences to his loving parents during this difficult time."
Kristen Baxter knew all about Brett Ryans bizarre and inexplicable stint as a bank robber and she was willing to marry him anyway.

But there was another secret he couldnt tell her  one he deemed so mortifying that when his mother and brothers threatened to expose the truth before the wedding, Ryan murdered them before they could.

Almost a decade ago, Ryans break up with another girlfriend had triggered a depressive episode in Ryan that led to him to commit a series of heists in Canada disguised as an elderly man, earning him the nickname Fake Beard Bandit.

WOMAN FOUND DEAD DURING LOCKDOWN; HUNT ON FOR SUSPECT

But the spree was so out of character for the sweet, popular Ryan that the judge rejected the 10-year sentence requested by prosecutors and gave him just three years and nine months.

Good behavior resulted in the Parole Board of Canada granting Ryan day release after just 15 months, noting that he did not suffer from major mental illness, psychopathy or have a history of violence.

In fact this circumstance has reconnected you to your family, the board wrote.

BODY OF CONVICTED MURDERER, ARMY VET REMOVED FROM VETERANS CEMETERY

Seven counselling sessions (a condition of his day parole) later, a psychologist treating Ryan declared that he no longer needed therapy.

You remain a low risk for offending, the board wrote in 2011 in granting him full parole.

Just six years later, Ryan strangled his mother Susan and shot his brothers Christopher and Alexander to death with a crossbow in a triple homicide on August 25, 2016 that shocked Canadians.

The Fake Beard Bandit had morphed into The Crossbow Killer.

Click here for more from News.com.au.
A judge has sentenced a former Royal Marine to 18 years in prison for a series of terrorism-related offenses.

Thirty-one-year-old Ciaran Maxwell lived a double life as a member of the military and as a bombmaker for dissident Irish republicans. He pleaded guilty to preparation of terrorist acts between January 2011 and August 2016, possessing images of bank cards for fraud and possessing marijuana.

He stashed anti-personnel mines, mortars and 14 pipe bombs in 43 purpose-built hideouts in Northern Ireland and England.

Detective Chief Inspector Gillian Kearney of the Northern Ireland police says Maxwell's infiltration of the military was "the first case of its kind in recent years."

Judge Nigel Sweeney said he was sure Maxwell was and would remain "motivated by dissident republican sympathies and a hostility to the U.K."
North Korea on Thursday quietly unveiled its pyramid-shaped landmark -- dubbed the "Hotel of Doom" -- after decades of embarrassing setbacks to construct the 105-story lodging labeled the world's tallest unoccupied building.

A new red propaganda sign sits outside the Ryugyong Hotel with the slogan: "Rocket Power Nation." Walls surrounding the massive structure were removed on the anniversary of the Korean War armistice, revealing two walkways leading up to the futuristic building. Construction at the site ramped up in the days leading up to the unveiling, with "soldier-builders" working within the walls at the site.

A day after the hotel was unveiled, North Korea test-launched its second intercontinental ballistic missile, which flew the farthest of any missile tested during the communist regime's history.

NORTH KOREA ICBM TEST LONGEST IN HISTORY OF REGIME, PENTAGON SAYS

Construction for the hotel began in 1987, during the reign of Kim Jong Un's grandfather, Kim Il Sung, North Korea's founder and "eternal president." But shortly after, an economic crash and the 1990s famines left the rogue nation grappling to keep its citizens alive. The country had no funds to keep construction going, putting a halt to the leader's pet project.

It remained an embarrassing concrete shell for more than a decade until Egypt's Orascom Group  which was also key in establishing the North's cellphone system  helped pay for work to complete the building's shiny exterior in 2011.

When the hotel's finishing touches will be completed or when the doors will open to guests still remains a mystery. After years of false hope, the completion may still take years. Rumors that the hotel might open this year began in December 2016 -- when video surfaced showing lights toward the top of the structure.

WHEN WILL NORTH KOREA BE ABLE TO HIT AMERICA WITH AN ICBM? THE TIME IS NOW

Construction projects have been a major item on Kim's agenda. Several major high-rise areas have been completed since Kim took power in 2011 after his father passed away. A 70-story residence and dozens of other tall buildings in the capital's "Ryomyong," or "dawn," district opened in April. A new international airport -- a sci-tech complex -- also opened in the capital, as well as many other recreational and educational facilities.

The unveiling comes as North Korea reportedly looks to bolster its tourism, hoping to welcome in one million visitors by the end of 2017. About 100,000 tourists visit the secretive regime yearly, The Telegraph reported.

Reports also surfaced of North Korean officials looking to open a beach resort that would be a knock-off of a Spanish getaway that's a hotspot for tourists who like to drink.
ISIS took credit for a Monday assault targeting the Iraqi Embassy in central Kabul, with the terror group boasting it killed seven guards.

Through it's propaganda arm, ISIS said two attackers stormed the embassy, killing numerous guards before using stick bombs to break through the Embassy gates.

Casualty figures could not be independently confirmed.

Two police officials told The Associated Press that a car bomb exploded outside the embassy, followed by an attempt by gunmen to enter the building, which is located in the center of the Afghan capital. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

It was not immediately clear how many gunmen were involved in the attack. A police officer in the area, who identified himself only as Abdullah, said the gunfire was initially intense but was now sporadic. The area was surrounded by armored vehicles and a large contingent of police and Afghan soldiers.

At least one eyewitness, a store owner who goes by the name of Hafizullah  many Afghans use only one name  said he saw the bodies of two policemen on the ground before armored personnel carriers and police arrived to cordon off the area.

"The explosion was so strong. I was so afraid," said Maryam, a woman crying near the site of the attack said. She said she works at the nearby office of Afghanistan's National Airline Ariana.

The Iraq Embassy is located in a part of the city known as Shahr-e-Now, which lies outside the so-called "green zone" where most foreign embassies and diplomatic missions are located and which is heavily fortified with a phalanx of guards and giant cement blast walls.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Pentagon on Monday said North Korea's latest intercontinental ballistic missile test was the longest such test in the history of the rogue regime.

While many specifics of the North Korean ICBM launch remain classified, Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said the North Korean flight on Friday was the dictatorship's most advanced attempt so far.

When asked by Fox News if it was the longest in history, Davis would only reply with a terse, Yes.

The North Korean missile flew for about 45 minutes -- five minutes longer than what the Pentagon now calls the KN-20 ICBM, which was launched July 4. Officials believe the same type of missile was launched Friday.

Missile experts calculated that the North Korean ICBM launched on Friday flew 2,300 miles into space, about 600 miles higher than the July 4 ICBM flew.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said on "Face The Nation" on Sunday that North Korea could have half of the U.S in its range at this point.

Based on briefings, intelligence reports and committee testimony, Feinstein said she's "convinced that North Korea has never moved at the speed that this leader has to develop an ICBM to put solid fuel, to have an interesting launch device, and to have a trajectory which, as of the latest analysis, would enable it to go about 6,000 miles and maybe even hit as far east as Chicago."

While Davis did not read out any specific dangers to merchant shipping and airlines, he reiterated the warnings after the July 4 test that North Korea does not coordinate these launches with anyone, which puts ships and aircraft at risk.

Davis admitted the USAF B-1 "show of strength" flights were previously scheduled before the ICBM test, but moved up a day after the long-range missile test.

They are designed to demonstrate our alliance capability, Davis said. To be able to rapidly deploy very significant firepower to the [Korean] peninsula in a short period of time.

Davis also said the THAAD missile defense test Sunday was previously scheduled, as well. The THAAD test and B-1 flights were scheduled in June.

The U.S.-South Korean armies' launch of short-range missiles Friday night, however, were a direct result of the ICBM test, Davis said.
Japans Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday he and President Donald Trump agreed to take further action against North Korea following its latest missile launch.

Abe told reporters after the call that Trump pledged to take all necessary measures to protect Japan and that Abe praised his commitment to do so.

He also called on China and Russia to do more to stop Pyongyang.

We have made consistent efforts to resolve the North Korean problem in a peaceful manner, but North Korea has ignored that entirely and escalated the situation in a one-sided way, Abe said, according to Bloomberg. The international community, starting with China and Russia, must take this obvious fact seriously and increase pressure.

Abe said Japan would pursue concrete steps to bolster defense system and capabilities under the firm solidarity with the U.S. and do utmost to protect the safety of the Japanese people.

The White House said in a statement after the phone call that the two leaders agreed that North Korea poses a grave and growing direct threat to the United States, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and other countries near and far, Reuters reported.

The call between the two world leaders comes hours after the U.S., Japanese and South Korea militaries spent 10 hours conducting bomber-jet drills over the Korean peninsula.

The training mission was a response to North Koreas recent ballistic missile launches and nuclear program, and part of the U.S. regular commitment to defending its allies in the Asia-Pacific region, the generals statement said.

"The time for talk is over. The danger the North Korean regime poses to international peace is now clear to all," said United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley in a statement.

North Korea conducted test launches of ICBMs on July 3 and July 28, and has claimed that its weapons can now reach the U.S. mainland.

On Saturday, two U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers, under the command of U.S. Pacific Air Forces, joined counterparts from the South Korean and Japanese air forces in sequenced bilateral missions.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
This month, Rick is out catching up on various and sundry projects that piled up during the rollout of Letters to a Young Education Reformer . In his stead, weve got a terrific slate of guest bloggers. Up this week is Lance Fusarelli, professor and department head for the Department of Educational Leadership, Policy, and Human Development at N.C. State University.

On a trip to the Midwest a few years ago, I kept noticing these large, shiny, silver silos. They seemed to be everywhere. They contain valuable grains essential to farmers and provide protection from the elements, keeping it safe and secure. Others probably contain anti-ballistic missiles. While incredibly valuable in agriculture and for national defense, silos are less valuable, but no less ubiquitous, in K-12 and higher education.

In the thriller The Sixth Sense, Haley Joel Osment says, I see dead people. Everywhere. What is both amazing and disconcerting to me is that I see these silos everywhere. They appear in the rhetoric infecting debates about school choice; they appear in discussions about how best to improve schooling in the U.S.; and they appear damn near everywhere in higher educationfrom program and faculty autonomy to licensure and accreditation, to accountability and the appropriate role of oversight. In my blog posts for this week, I address the issue of silos and how harmful they can be in hindering our efforts to improve schooling. The silos present in debates over school choice offer an illustrative example.

Aided immensely by former President Obamas advocacy of states removing their caps on charters as part of securing Race to the Top funding, the charter-school sector is expanding rapidly. In states such as North Carolina, it represents the fastest growing segment of the market. Similarly, the election of Donald Trump, his nomination and confirmation of Betsy DeVos, the transition to a more voucher-sympathetic Supreme Court, and Republican control of many state legislatures has led to a big push for expanded school vouchers. School choice has moved front and center into the battle lines over how best to improve schooling as highlighted by the much-overwrought Davis vs. Goliath claims of AFT president Randi Weingarten that such efforts threaten the future of public education.

The problem is the divisive rhetoric of debates surrounding school choice creates and reinforces these silosthey protect like-minded individuals by surrounding them with others who think like they do (not unlike arguments over diversity, inclusion, and intellectual freedom in higher education) in a protective shell and shield them from opponents. Supporters view everyone outside the silo as alike and intent on doing harm, while simultaneously viewing those within the silo as diverse and promoting the common good. Allow me to offer a few examples:



Advocates of traditional public schooling who are virulently opposed to charter schools, usually on the basis of an alleged lack of accountability, transparency, and fairness in the sense of not everyone having to play by the same rules. Many insist charters are not public schools, even though most state laws explicitly state otherwise.

Libertarian-leaning school-choice advocates who support a wide-open, largely unfettered market with limited government oversight and regulation, coupled with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos criticism of the new education establishment.

Lets examine these silos. First, those created by advocates of traditional public schools. As noted above, many insist charters are non-public schools, even though most state laws explicitly state otherwise. Most insist they pull money from traditional public schools, even though for decades, magnet schools and other specialized schools have done the same thing. I dont hear many calls to eliminate Bronx Academy of Science, Brooklyn Latin, LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, or Stuyvesant High School in New York City, even though they are highly selective, elite high schools within the public-education system. Such diversity within the public system, and the similarity with many charter schools, is often overlooked.

Second, silos within silos have been constructed within the school-choice movement itself, as exemplified by the internecine conflict among school-choice proponents. For example, a rhetorical dustup, albeit one with potentially real policy implications, recently occurred between Max Eden, co-editor of the Center for Education Reforms Chartering a New Course: The Case for Freedom, Flexibility & Opportunity Through Charter Schools , and Checker Finn and Nelson Smitheven Secretary DeVos entered the fray. In a review of the work, Finn claimed the thrust of the book was to abolish results-based accountability and scrap careful vetting of would-be charter operators. Finn concluded the book was one-third smart and timely and two-thirds of a very dumb mistake insofar as it would weaken the careful vetting of the charter-school authorization process (which happened in North Carolina when the state cap was lifted) and make it more difficult to close charters for consistently low performance. Eden responded by calling the criticism a straw-man fallacy and that he and his colleagues were merely cautioning against regulatory creep, voicing opposition to common charter-authorizer standards, and advocating for a more flexible, parent-driven charter sector.

Secretary DeVos entered the fray with remarks she made at the National Charter Schools Conference when she cautioned reformers not to become the man and suggested reformers have instead become just another breed of bureaucratsa new education establishment. DeVos comments, coupled with the CER report and remarks by Eden, set off Nelson Smith, senior advisor to the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, who objected to being characterized as part of the new education establishment simply because his organization supports high-quality standards of charter school authorizing and rigorous vetting of charter applicants.

In separate posts, Rick Hess and Alex Medler tried to craft a middle ground between what Hess called blind faith in markets and blind faith in the value of 800-page applications filled with cut-and-paste inanities"although I seriously doubt Smith and others think 800-page charter applications are useful either. Similarly, Medler believes that, We can and should identify and remove frustrating burdens on charter schools, while maintaining a tough and effective approval process. What is most interesting about all this is that each side accuses the other of creating artificial binaries (in effect, silos), where you are either for or against greater educational freedom or more or less regulation and oversight. Each believes their position constitutes the appropriate middle ground.

The challenge is that in our highly politicized climate, the complexity and nuances of reformers positions on these important issues get obscured and hidden within their silos. This leads to inflated, contentious rhetoric and simplistic, weak policy reforms. Without breaking down those silos and barriers and finding some common ground, it will be difficult to move beyond the either/or rhetoric to achieve meaningful reform in education.

Lance Fusarelli
Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld kept a satellite picture of the Korean peninsula in his office that showed South Korea at night lit by millions of lights--and North Korea dark except for a small dot: Pyongyang.

At a 2006 Pentagon briefing he was asked if there could be effective diplomacy with the North Korean regime without a strong military deterrent in their faces.

Probably yes, he said, but only time would tell. The Bush administration, like the Obama administration that followed, was committed to diplomacy while unwilling to speculate about the use of force when it came to dealing with the Hermit Kingdom.

Years later, there are new signs that diplomacy and sanctions are not only failing to deter Pyongyang from building up its nuclear arsenal, but there is growing evidence the countrys economy is actually improving.

A new report from South Koreas government-run Korea Development Institute includes satellite imagery showing that North Koreas nighttime lighting conditions improved from 2002 to 2012.

The images also show there was more light seen in areas surrounding the North Korea capital than in 2002.

"The change in the luminous intensity of North Korea shows that the North Korean economy made a turnaround in mid-2000," the report said.

The institute regards such satellite images as one of the best tools to demonstrate a regions urbanization, population density and economic activity, South Koreas Yonhap News Agency reported.

As it happens, 2016 was a banner year for the North Korean economy, according to the Bank of Korea in Seoul. The Norths economy grew 3.9 percent last year, according to bank researchers. That was the fastest pace in 17 years.

Exports to China of coal and other minerals fueled the faster rate of growth. But those exports have reportedly taken a hit this year with Beijing apparently making good on a promise to President Trump to reduce those exports amid the North Korean nuclear crisis.

But Chinese goods are still making their way into North Korea, according to analysts. Despite indicating it would help enforce international sanctions on its neighbor, Chinas exports grew nearly 20 percent in the first half of this year, according to a report by the Korea International Trade Association (KITA).

Even though jet fuel was one of five items banned by the United Nations, Beijings export of jet fuel to Pyongyang increased 18.3 percent in the first half of 2017.

Chinas exports to North Korea were augmented in spite of the sanctions, said the KITA report, Shipments of made-in-China mobile phones spiked 92.8 percent one year to total $54 million in the first six months and textile exports also expanded at a sizable rate.

The Korea Information Society Development Institute reported last month there were 3.24 million mobile phone users in North Korea in 2015, the latest data available, up from 69,261 in 2009, when the North first allowed ordinary citizens to use mobile phones.

Its not just China that may be lending a helping hand.

The United Nations Security Council is investigating a New Zealand aerospace company whose plane was spotted at North Koreas first-ever air show in September 2016.

Pacific Aerospace CEO Damian Camp said at the time the 10-seater plane was sold to a Chinese company and he was as mystified as anyone as to how it ended up in North Korea.

But newly released emails from the United Nations Security Council investigation include an email chain suggesting that Pacific Aerospace knew the plane was in North Korea, and that the firm was ready to cooperate with the Chinese for training and parts.

One email from Pacific Aerospace to its Chinese counterpart reads [Name redacted] departs for China tomorrow and will co-ordinate with you to deliver the training in how to replace the flat motor.

The supply of aircraft, related parts or training to North Korea is a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1718. The New Zealand customs department is also investigating whether rules were broken.

Pacific Aerospace did not respond immediately to a request for comment from Fox News.

Complicating efforts to exert economic pressure on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are recent economic reforms his regime has implemented.

Some North Korean farmers are now allowed to a keep a percentage of what they produce rather than give it all over to inefficient state-run enterprises for redistribution. Experts believe the policy change could mitigate the effects of North Koreas frequent drought-induced food crises, which have forced Pyongyang to turn to the international community for help in the past.

The number of government-approved markets in North Korea has doubled to 440 since 2010. According to a study by the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, these markets employ about 1 million people as salesmen or managers, out of a population of 25 million.

The former head of South Koreas intelligence service told lawmakers earlier this year that about 40 percent of North Koreas population now works in some form of private enterprise. At the same time, wages have apparently risen, along with living standards.

More cars are said to be clogging Pyongyang streets, and diplomats report a denser skyline from just a few years ago. The elites are reportedly shopping on Amazon.com and enjoying a new ski resort and luxury hotel near the capital.

North Korea has gone from a very tightly controlled state socialist economy to basically a marketizing economy, Sokeel Park of Liberty in North Korea told the Financial Times last month.

With the Norths economy showing signs of resilient growth helped along by persistent Chinese trade, President Trump tweeted his frustration over the weekend after the latest North Korean missile test.

"I am very disappointed in China," Trump wrote, "...they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!"

That tweet came as US Air Force B-1B bombers flew over the peninsula, in the latest Trump administration effort to show that the sanctions are indeed backed up by a potential military deterrent.
More than 40 men were arrested over the weekend for homosexual acts in Nigeria, police say.

Nigerian newspaper Punch reports that the police raided a hotel in Lagos State on Saturday.

Same-sex acts are punishable by up to 14 years in jail in Nigeria, while gay marriage and displays of same-sex affection are also banned.

The African country has an influential Christian evangelical movement as well as strong support for Islamic law, both of which oppose homosexuality, reports the BBC.

Nigeria has had a ban on gay relationships since 1901.

According to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, same-sex relations are explicitly banned in 72 countries -- although the number of nations that criminalize such relations has been decreasing each year.
French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to clear migrants from the streets of France -- even as fears of a second Calais migrant camp have arisen among residents.

Due to the living conditions and crime rates, the town of Metz has been dubbed the second Calais by several locals, Russia Today reported. The port of Calais, a refugee camp that housed nearly 7,000 refugees, was evacuated in October last year.

"The city of Metz was not prepared for the camp. The authorities emptied it, but now there are 700 refugees back there again. It's becoming a second Calais," a concerned local woman told Russia Today's Charlotte Dubenskij.

AIRPORT EMPLOYEE PUNCHES AN EASYJET PASSENGER WHO WAS HOLDING BABY

Macron has not developed a plan to reduce the flow of migrants into France, but vowed he would take care of the numbers.

"The first battle is to house everybody in a dignified manner," Macron said in a ceremony welcoming new citizens last week. "By the end of the year, I want no more women and men in the streets, in the woods, lost. It's a question of dignity, a question of humanity, but also of efficiency. Everywhere where the emergency housing is built to welcome them, I want administrative steps for their cases to be examined."

Earlier last week, Macron spoke of possibly vetting migrants in Libya -- but French officials then walked back that announcement.

The site at Metz has been cleared several times by French authorities, who are struggling to cope with the huge influx of illegal immigrants and locals are concerned about their safety. Even aid workers do not feel safe and called it a humanitarian slum, Daily Sabah reported.

FAILED: FRANCE'S ONLY STATE DERADICALIZATION CENTER CLOSES

There are plenty of protesters, some even building a wall around a hotel that was set to become a migrant shelter.

Though the Port of Calais, nicknamed the Jungle, was dismantled, migrants are still arriving illegally on site.
WikiLeaks on Monday released a searchable database stocked with more than 21,000 "verified" emails that the anti-secrecy site claimed originated with the campaign of French president Emmanuel Macron.

Nearly 72,000 emails, including 26,506 attachments, were also released to provide context, WikiLeaks said in a statement. However, the organization cautioned only "21,075 emails have been individually forensically verified" through its Domain Keys Identified Mail system.

WikiLeaks published the messages in a searchable database, similar to the one it created in October for emails alleged to have come from the account of John Podesta, the campaign chair for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

The Macron emails were initially published in May, just two days before the French people voted in the presidential election. Macron was seen as a frontrunner against his far-right rival Marine Le Pen.

Macron confirmed the hack then, saying in a statement through his political party: "The En Marche! Movement has been the victim of a massive and coordinated hack this evening which has given rise to the diffusion on social media of various internal information."

The emails were posted on a profile called EMLEAKS to Pastebin, according to Reuters. It was unclear who was responsible for the leaks, the head of France's cybersecurity agency ANSSI saying in June that "it could be anyone."

The leaks proved to have little impact on the French election. Macron beat Le Pen in a landslide.

WikiLeaks said its DKIM system is able to sift through the emails to independently to authenticate the content and sender.
A trial for a man accused of shooting a convenience store clerk in 2014 is still scheduled to start this month in Spotsylvania County Circuit Court, despite a recent effort by defense attorneys to have it moved to a different location.

Derek Ross Sprouse, 35, of Spotsylvania is charged with robbery, aggravated malicious wounding and three firearms offenses. He is accused of shooting Kelly Lynn Wood in the face and in the back of the head during a robbery at the Fas Mart at 11600 Brock Road on March 8, 2014.

Wood miraculously survived the shooting and was able to call 911 before collapsing on the floor.

Defense attorneys Jeremie Childress and Jenna Nacht filed a motion in circuit court asking for a change of venue. They claim that Sprouse will not be able to get a fair trial in Spotsylvania.

A hearing on the motion was held last week, and Judge Joseph Ellis denied the request. A five-day jury trial is scheduled to start Aug. 14.

The defense attorneys argued that the extensive media coverage the case has received has demonized Sprouse and enhanced Woods reputation in the community. The attorneys cited numerous online comments that have advocated a harsh punishment for Sprouse, including death.

The intense level of negative publicity regarding Mr. Sprouse and public interest in the case mandate a change of venue, the attorneys wrote.

According to investigators, a man entered the Fas Mart at 3 a.m. that day and took a drink to the counter. When Wood turned to get some smokeless tobacco the customer asked for, she was shot in the back of the head.

The man then grabbed a case of ephedrine-based products before shooting Wood in the face and running out of the store.

Sprouse, who in court records insists that he is innocent, was indicted by a Spotsylvania grand jury in July 2015. He was in jail in North Carolina at the time facing charges from a convenience store robbery that he was later convicted of.

His Spotsylvania case has been scheduled for trial three previous times, but was postponed each time for various reasons.
A Spotsylvania jury has recommended a 28-month prison for a county man who defrauded an insurance company out of nearly $200,000 in disability payments while he was working in another state.

Farshad Bigdeli, 60, was convicted last week of three counts of obtaining money by false pretense. He will be formally sentenced on Sept. 27 in Spotsylvania Circuit Court.

According to the evidence presented by prosecutors Ryan Mehaffey and John Hyde, Bigdeli worked as an engineer for Volkert & Associates in Northern Virginia from 2006 to 2008. He was making about $91,000 a year when he was fired.

Bigdeli filed a claim in June 2009 with the companys long-term disability provider, Unum Insurance Co. Unum approved the claim after learning that Bigdeli had been diagnosed with epilepsy and agreed to pay him 60 percent of his former salary.

The next year, according to the prosecution evidence, Bigdeli took a job in North Dakota making $110,000. He continued collecting disability even though his new salary and job made him ineligible. He worked in North Dakota until August of 2011.

Mehaffey said Bigdeli was questioned about his employment status several times over the years and repeatedly denied having a job. He collected payments until about the middle of 2014.

Unum representatives decided to do a more thorough check after Bigdeli called them and asked about having his disability payments increased. They learned about his employment in North Dakota and Virginia State Police special agent Christopher Brennan headed the ensuing investigation. It showed that Bigdeli had received $198,392 more than he should have.

Bigdeli testified that he was confused about the disability process and was not trying to deceive anyone.
In 1932, Clara Smithfrom whom many say the community of Ladysmith got its namepaid $1.28 for parts she ordered from a catalog for her Studebaker automobile.

Mrs. E. Bizzell, residing at the Pine Needles Camp in Ladysmith, ordered $7.05 worth of goods from Annes Dress Shop in Fredericksburg in March 1931 and B.E. Mitchell, principal of C.T. Smith High School, paid $7.16 for books for the school from the American Book Company in January 1931.

These and many more CODor cash on deliveryreceipts are part of a trove of almost 90-year-old postal archives recently recovered during remodeling at the Ladysmith Citgo, formerly known as Garland Allens Store.

The general store, which has been located at the corner of Ladysmith Road and U.S. 1 since before World War II, used to serve as the post office for what was once a small, rural area.

The old post office window at the back of the store, with its 26 wooden mail slotsenough to serve the entire Ladysmith community in the 1930s and 40shad been covered by a cigarette machine before new owners Hameed and Iqbal Gowani decided to remodel, store manager Laurie Leacock said.

Its now uncovered and on display.

Patsy Allen Acors, 79, spent lots of time behind that post office window. Shes Garland Allens daughter and the niece of the couple who originally built the store, and she worked as the postmistress in the store after her father retired in the 1960s. An old photo shows Allen delivering a letter to her through the window on the day he retired and she took over.

Acors, who said she started working at the store when she was 12, came to sift through the post office archives on a recent Tuesday.

CODs are what we did a lot of, she said.

Before the days of credit cards, when people ordered from a catalog, they paid at the post office where they picked up the items.

All product moved through the general store, Leacock said. Anything you needed, you had to get to the store.

Acors said her father would keep the store/post office open until 10 p.m. to accommodate as many people he possibly could. It was a place for news, gossip and companionship.

There was an old wood stove and people would huddle around it, Acors said.

She said that many people who came in couldnt read or write, so she and her father would write money orders for them and her father would even do their taxes and balance their checkbooks.

Before the bank came, Daddy was the bank, she said.

So much money came through the store that it was robbed five or six times, Acors said. She said her father would carry a large amount home with him each night for safekeeping.

Hed walk home and hed always carry a PepsiCola bottle with him. He said if anyone bothered him for the money, he was going to hit them with the bottle, Acors laughed. You could almost trust everyone in those days.

Acors said she knew everyone who came into the post office and what time of day to expect them.

As the Ladysmith community grew, the 26 mail slots in Garland Allens general store could no longer accommodate everyone. The post office moved out of the store and into its own building. The mail slot system changed to a post office box system and became a little less personal, although Acors said she tried to keep up a connection with her customers.

People had a hard time remembering their keys, so Id have to open their boxes for them, Acors said. Im a people personif anybody comes in, Im gonna talk to them.

Leacock said the stores history as a community center is important to the owners.

The new owners are about the community, she said. They want to keep all this stuff. They thought it was important, even though theyre not from Ladysmith.

She said she plans to frame some of the old documents and display them around the window.

The store was reportedly facing demolition due to a coming VDOT project to widen Route 639 to four lanes with a raised median from Interstate 95 to U.S. 1. But current plans for the project indicate that the building will not be affected, VDOT spokesperson Tina Bundy said.
40 Jacksonville Businesses Sued for Disability Discrimination

Bono's Pit Bar B Q, Wally's Gyros & Subs, Captain D's, Sheik The Restaurant, and Mr. Dragon Chinese Restaurant are just a few of the 40 Jacksonville, Florida-area establishments named in discrimination lawsuits by double-amputee Wanda Moore and her chiropractor/attorney Robert "The Law Doc" Gibson.

The lawsuits claim the businesses are not in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, alleging violations from non-compliant handicap parking spots and improper ramps to missing handrails in bathrooms and countertops that are too high. While some of the small business owners see the litigation as little more than a shakedown, investigations did find legitimate ADA violations at some locations.

Cash or Compliance?

"Scam, fraud, however you want to word it," Beach Road Chicken co-owner Ken Ferger told Action News Jax. "It appears that they've gone to smaller operations that, oh, they'll more likely settle." Action News looked closer at Beach Road and found a few non-ADA-compliant things at the restaurant, including a paper towel dispenser in the women's handicap stall that was six inches higher than the ADA requires. Ferger is also making changes to his parking lot and ramp in response to Moore's lawsuit.

Title III of the ADA applies to businesses and nonprofit service providers that are "public accommodations," like restaurants, retail stores, hotels, and movie theaters. Public accommodations are prohibited from excluding or segregating disabled patrons, or treating them unequally. They must also comply with specific architectural and design specifications and make reasonable modifications to policies, practices, and procedures to ensure equal access. And there is no "grandfather clause" for old or small businesses.

Fighting Injustice

"I am so glad that the news is finally helping to shed light on the issue of discrimination against the disabled community," Moore's attorney Gibson said in a statement. "Our law office is dedicated to fully fighting the injustice of discrimination of this protected class and encourage those that experience accessibility problems to contact our office."

It appears as though Jacksonville businesses that want to avoid Moore's wrath can update their facilities to comply with ADA requirements, or expect to be served.

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Legal Tips to Get Your Kids Out of Foster Care

If a parent ends up in a situation where they cannot properly care for their children, the children may be placed in foster care. But those situations may not always be permanent. While there are instances where parental rights have been terminated, those rights can be reinstated under the right circumstances.

If your child has been placed with foster parents or a foster family, you might desperately want to get them back, or at least out of foster care. Here are a couple paths you can take to get your children out of foster care.

Is Foster Care in the Child's Best Interests?

You should know going into the process that courts and child services will make any and all custody decisions in the child's best interests. Those interests will focus on the child's mental and physical wellbeing as well as the best environment for his or her upbringing. And what's best for a child may change over time.

When it comes to foster care and foster families, state agencies will look at a number of factors to determine who will be the best fit for the child. Agencies will consider whether the potential foster parents are stable, mature, and dependable, their past experience with children (especially children with special needs) whether the potential foster parents are able to advocate for the child, and if the foster parents can work with the child, the child's family, child welfare workers, counselors, and others involved in the child's life.

If you believe a foster environment generally or a foster family in particular are not in your child's best interests, you may be able to petition for his or her removal. However, you may need to propose another guardian if you are not able to care for the child.

Is Your Care in the Child's Best Interests?

If you believe you can now take care of your child and would like to regain custody, you could petition for the reinstatement of your parental rights. While reinstatement is rare, you may be able to file a petition with the court that originally terminated your parental rights, asking the court to determine whether that you are fit to provide a safe and nurturing home for your child.

State law can vary regarding who qualifies for reinstatement, what evidence is necessary, and whether reinstatement is even an option. To determine whether you qualify for reinstatement of parental rights, or for other foster care questions, contact a local child custody attorney.

Related Resources:
Unlike the previous bare-bones Blu-ray release of Straw Dogs, Criterion showers this edition with an array of relevant and absorbing supplements, many of which are essential complements to this disturbing thriller.

Audio Commentary - Kicking off the extras is a fantastic 2003 commentary from Peckinpah expert Stephen Prince, who calls Straw Dogs "one of the most audacious and brilliantly accomplished films of the modern period" and "a modern classic that is long overdue for the recognition it deserves." With a keen eye and searing insight, Prince analyzes the film from every angle, interpreting the myriad nuances of the plot and examining the tension-filled editing, visceral violence, stylized presentation, and "chronic and unsparing" alienation that define the movie. He calls the passive-aggressive David Sumner the film's villain and repeats Peckinpah's assessment of Straw Dogs as "the story of a bad marriage." Prince explains the significance of the movie's title, hails Peckinpah's use of mirrors, compares Straw Dogs to Stanley Kubrick's ultra-violent A Clockwork Orange, and notes the film obtusely reflects the U.S. involvement in Vietnam at the time. He also delves into Peckinpah's character and creative methods, labeling him an "ironist," relaying his views about women and violence, defending his artistry and radical style of filmmaking, and relating how he would "emotionally ambush" his actors to enhance their performances. There is so much more to this jam-packed commentary that holds your attention for the entire two hours and is an essential complement to this controversial masterwork. Whether or not you enjoy Straw Dogs, you owe it to yourself to listen to this superior discussion, which just might change your mind about many aspects of the film.

Documentary: "Mantrap: Straw Dogs - The Final Cut" (HD, 52 minutes) - This fascinating 2003 British documentary bluntly states, "Few films [are] more challenging than Straw Dogs," and through multiple interviews, film clips, and rare behind-the-scenes footage, it shows us why. Hoffman, George, producer Daniel Melnick, screenwriter David Z. Goodman, author Gordon Williams, other actors and crew members, and even a few extras comment on the movie and its production. We learn Peckinpah hated the novel upon which Straw Dogs is based, mercilessly abused his actors, and was almost fired after the disastrous first two weeks of shooting. His issues with women and deep-seeded demons are revealed, and the film's social implications, anti-war connections, and strong censorship backlash are explored. George revisits the farmhouse location, candidly talks about her character's sexuality, and reveals how she stood up to Peckinpah prior to filming the controversial rape scene, while Hoffman explains his character's complex motivations and dissects David and Amy's turbulent marriage. Along with the audio commentary, this is an essential extra that shouldn't be missed.

Documentary: "Sam Peckinpah: Man of Iron" (HD, 94 minutes) - This comprehensive, feature-length profile from 1993 looks at Peckinpah from every angle, beginning with his family's migration to California, Peckinpah's upbringing in Fresno, and desire to preserve the Old West on film. It then goes on to explore the director's attitudes toward women, his penchant for "unnerving" people and keeping them "confused and unbalanced," his substance abuse and paranoid tendencies, his intimate relationship with his assistant, and how his "demons destroyed him and his work." Actor Jason Robards reads from Peckinpah's personal papers, and interviews with actors Kris Kristofferson, James Coburn, and Ali MacGraw, as well as close friends and colleagues (who reveal Peckinpah's softer side), shed further light on this complicated and tortured man and his stirring films.

Behind the Scenes (HD, 8 minutes) - This vintage, roughly cut, black-and-white production featurette includes interviews with Peckinpah (who expresses his disdain for the book and love of England), Hoffman (who talks about his family and fame), and George (who states her distaste of nudity).

Featurette: "Show Me Something Else: Roger Spottiswoode on Editing Sam Peckinpah" (HD, 36 minutes) - The established director, who was one of the editors of Straw Dogs (which he terms "not just a violent film, but a film about violence"), recalls how he got the job, describes the film's primitive editing process and how he composed the movie's final showdown, and shares several colorful Peckinpah anecdotes. He also discusses Peckinpah's ambivalent feelings about violence, the negative reaction that greeted early screenings of Straw Dogs, and how Peckinpah influenced him as a director.

Interview with Susan George (HD, 21 minutes) - In this revealing 2002 interview, the actress lets her hair down and shares her memories of Hoffman and Peckinpah, the often "terrifying" shoot, and how she stood up to her intimidating director at the tender age of 21. In addition, she talks about how her natural acting style conflicted with Hoffman's Method training, how Peckinpah created drama on and off the set, and how Straw Dogs has defined her and changed her life.

Interview with Daniel Melnick (HD, 19 minutes) - The producer of Straw Dogs discusses acquiring the book upon which the film is based, finding the location, Hoffman's boundless creativity, the on-set victimization of Susan George (which, he concedes, led to a "wonderful performance"), and monitoring Peckinpah to keep him on track during shooting in this 2002 interview. He also praises the cast and crew, recalls the audience reaction to all the violence, and details how the rape scene led the film to be banned in Great Britain for many years. Though he recognizes Peckinpah's faults, Melnick conveys his high regard for the director and calls him "the last man with guts and integrity in the film business."

Interview with Garner Simmons (HD, 10 minutes) - Peckinpah's biographer calls his subject "the most difficult person" and strongly states "unless you fought with him, you couldn't get to know him." Simmons says Peckinpah was "misunderstood," that violence played only a small part in his directorial persona, and that "the best of Sam still survives." He also cogently analyzes Straw Dogs in this brief but absorbing 2002 conversation.

Featurette: "A Controversial Classic: Linda Williams on Straw Dogs" (HD, 27 minutes) - Film scholar Linda Williams examines and celebrates the film's edgy attitudes toward male-female relationships, sexual mores, and violence. She provides a brief history of how censorship affected the movies of Hollywood's Golden Age and looks at some key films prior to Straw Dogs that helped relax the production code. Williams then delves deeply into the sexual and social themes that permeate Peckinpah's film, focusing intently on the rape scene and its implications. She also feels the picture overplays its horror angle, discusses why it repels and revolts many women, and calls it an "exemplary example" of a film that conveys "bad, evil, misogynist, fascist messages," despite its undeniable greatness.

Trailers and TV Spots (HD, 3 minutes) - The film's original theatrical preview, which touts the man "who uncaged The Wild Bunch now unleashes Dustin Hoffman," along with three TV spots complete the extras package.
WREN RYAN CLARY Free Access Zach and Erica Clary of Gaffney announce the birth of their daughter, Wren Ryan Clary, born August 17, 2022. Wren has a sister, Reese. Grandparents are Eric and Teresa Bennett...

Fresh fruit and veggies for Thanksgiving Free Access Families can receive a box of fresh fruits and vegetables just in time for the Thanksgiving holidays. FoodShare Cherokee provides opportunities for all residents to order fresh food boxes every...

Museum, Limestone collaborating on textile history program Free Access The Cherokee County Museum is partnering with Limestone Universitys communications class and local educator Tim Lipsey to conduct a history program on textiles. If you or your family has worked...
Schools have been closed and nearly 900 people have been evacuated from a town in southern Kayin (Karen) State due to severe flooding, according to a local administrator.

Kwin Gyi Stream, Kyate Stream, and Haung Tharaw River have flooded. The water level rose to around four feet in Kyaikdon due to the overflowing water from the mountain on July 26th, said U Myo Aung, Kya-in Seikkyi Township Administrator. We havent received a report about damaged crops and other damages.

The 870 evacuees were relocated to three flood relief centers in Kyaikdon and one flood relief center on Kyauk Phyu Mountain in Mi Tan Village.

U Myo Aung said local authorities have been providing necessary assistance to the flood victims.

U Indobhasa from Ywar Oo Monastery in Min Tan Village said the flood water extended up to 16 feet, or five meters at the highest point.

There has been flooding here for two days. The monastery flooded and the flood water rose to around five meters high in the Kyar Ma Naing area, he said. The villagers are facing difficulties because they dont have boats for travelling. Their farms have been flooded as well.

Saw Shar Phaung Awar, the Amyotha Hluttaw MP for Kya-in Seikkyi township, said the road at the entrance of Kyaikdon has been made nearly impassable due to the flooding.

Heavy rain inundated Kya-in Seikkyi township from July 25 to 28, according to Kyainseikgyi Township Education Officer Daw Khin Hnin Mu. In response to the difficult conditions, twenty-four schools, including those in Kyaikdon, have been temporarily closed Road access in the township has been severely limited after two temporary suspension bridges washed away on July 26 along the route connecting Kya-in Seikkjyi to Payathonzu and the Three Pagodas Pass at the Thai-Myanmar border.

As of July 21, more than 91,000 people across 29 townships in Magwe, Sagaing, Bago and Ayeyarwady regions, as well as in Kayin State, have been displaced or evacuated due to flooding that began earlier in the month, according to the Relief and Resettlement Department.
There currently are 93 Fisher Houses in the United States and in Europe with plans for more.
Samaritan names 2 to foundations

Two senior development professionals recently were named to leadership positions for the Samaritan Health Services foundations.

Karen Shaw was named vice president/chief development officer, and Taylor Gilmour was named assistant vice president, central foundation operations.

With more than 20 years in philanthropy, Shaw previously served in leadership roles in higher education and in social services, most recently at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, where she was associate vice president for university advancement. At Samaritan, Shaw leads the systems philanthropy efforts and works with the charitable foundations at each of Samaritans five affiliated hospitals, as well as on regional projects.

Gilmour was promoted to her current position at Samaritan this year, after joining the organization in 2014. She oversees the central foundation operations, including the annual fund and donor relations. She came to Samaritan from the Providence Alaska Foundation  Anchorage, where she was director of operations.

The Samaritan Foundations include the Albany General Hospital Foundation, the Good Samaritan Hospital Foundation, the Lebanon Community Hospital Foundation, the North Lincoln Hospital Foundation and the Pacific Communities Health District Foundation.

Hospice workers win honor

Benton Hospice Service Medical Social Worker Nancy Smith and Bereavement Coordinator Melissa Allen were named to Oregons 2016 Hospice Dream Team by the Oregon Hospice Association.

Awards were presented last September at the Professional Practices Exchange in Bend.

Each fall, the association celebrates individuals who exemplify the best in hospice care by naming the Hospice Dream Team, which includes a physician, a nurse, a hospice aide, a social worker, a chaplain, a volunteer and a professional staff member.

Allen joined Benton Hospice in Corvallis in 2012 as a medical social worker. In 2014, she was promoted to bereavement coordinator. Allen facilitates grief support groups and provides one-on-one counseling to both community and hospice families.

Benton Hospice Service, a member of the association, is a nonprofit organization providing compassionate care for seriously ill people and their families, as well as community support through community education and support groups. Benton Hospice has served Linn and Benton counties since 1980.

Evans promoted at Old Mill

Old Mill Center for Children and Families recently promoted Child and Family Therapist Dana Evans to her new role as clinical supervisor of the centers outpatient program.

Evans has 19 years of therapy experience, and has worked at Old Mill Center, a Corvallis entity, since 2015. She earned a master of social work degree in mental health counseling and family systems therapy from Syracuse University in New York, and her specialized training includes play therapy, grief and loss, and trauma.

Old Mill Center for Children and Families is a full-service provider of preschool, mental health, early intervention and parent support for children from birth to age 18, and their families. Services address the educational, social, emotional and family needs of a diverse population of children. The center has served Benton County since 1977.

Broker earns designation

Broker Jill Schuster of RE/MAX Integrity real estate firm in Corvallis recently earned the Certified Luxury Home Marketing Specialist designation in recognition of her experience, knowledge and expertise in the luxury residential market.

Schuster joins a growing group of real estate professionals trained and experienced in selling and marketing to the affluent.

The designation, owned and registered by the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing, recognizes residential real estate professionals who have demonstrated experience and proficiency in working with affluent clients. The institute awards the recognition only to professionals who have provided verified and notarized documentation of performance reflecting sales in the top 10 percent of their given market. The institute does not recognize any transactions less than $500,000 as luxury, regardless of market performance or fluctuations.

Schuster received a masters degree in regional science (geodemographics) in 1981 and started her business career in commercial real estate, then moving into a marketing path, including serving on the Oregon State University Presidents Cabinet. She received the Master Level Certified Negotiation Expert designation in 2012.

Nursery hires bee specialist

Shonnards Nursery, Florist & Landscape in Corvallis recently announced the hire of a new beekeeping specialist, Fred Selby.

Selby came to the nursery from Chico, California, where he managed his fathers commercial apiary for 15 years. He ran 6,000 hives and helped raise more than 30,000 queen bees.

School district wins recognition

For the 28th consecutive year, the Corvallis School District Finance and Operations Department has been awarded the highest recognition for a comprehensive financial report.

The districts 2015-16 report received the Certificate of Achievement, the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting awarded by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada.

The award indicates that the district meets high standards, including demonstrating full disclosure and transparency in financial reporting.

The award is judged by an impartial panel to meet the standards of the program, which includes demonstrating a spirit of full disclosure to communicate its financial story and motivate potential users and user groups to read it. The district's report is available at https://tinyurl.com/2015-16-CSD-CAFR.

Lebanon eatery wins honor

The Boulder Falls Inn in Lebanon was honored in Wine Spectators 2017 Restaurant Awards, which highlights restaurants around the world that offer the best wine selections.

A list of winners, along with full details on the awards, can be found in the magazines August issue. The listing also can be found at Restaurants.WineSpectator.com and in the newly revamped Restaurant Awards app.

Credit union elects board

Benton County Schools Credit Union, the oldest financial institution in Corvallis, held its 64th annual meeting June 24 at the fairgrounds in Corvallis.

Elections to fill the open positions on the credit unions board of directors, Supervisory Committee and Credit Committee took place.

The following volunteers were elected to the 2017-18 board: Kevin DeCoster, board chair; Dorothy Gallagher, vice chair; Harold Brauner, second vice chair; Margi Dusek, secretary; and Joe R. Tofte, treasurer. Elected to the credit union's 2017-18 Supervisory Committee were Leeanne Trivett, committee chair; Karen Selander; Vickie Taylor; Michael Krasilovsky; and David Low. Elected to the BCSCU 2017-18 Credit Committee were Randy Trivett, committee chair; Christina Gerding; Peter Scott; Sandra Bell; and Robert Finneran.
Thunderstorms and high winds : Storms possible from Monday evening in Bonn

BONN Thunder and lightning, high wind gusts and hail: It could get stormy in Bonn and the region from Monday evening into Tuesday. A weather warning has been issued; here is the outlook.

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After the sunny days with summer temperatures, Monday evening could become uncomfortable once again. Heavy thunderstorms with lots of rain could make for a stormy night in parts of North-Rhine Westphalia. The German Meteorological Service has issued a thunderstorm warning for Bonn and Rhine-Sieg-County.

According to the warning, thunderstorms with heavy rains, hail up to 3 cm in size and strong winds up to 90 km/h are possible. Even wind gusts up to 110 km/h are possible in localized areas. The warning runs from Monday evening at 7 pm until Tuesday morning at 8 am.

The weather front will not bring cooler air to the region. On Tuesday, it will reach 26 degrees Celsius, even if showers are expected now and again. On Wednesday, the rain is expected to let up, and there will be a mix of clouds and sun with a high of up to 28 degrees Celsius.
Tatmadaw Information Committee at meeting. Photo: Min Min/Mizzima

Maj. Gen. Aunt Ye Win from the Tatmadaw (Defence Services) True News Information Committee urged media to control and refrain from using unfriendly words such as military or government troops in referring to the Tatmadaw in their news reports in some media.

He was speaking at the Forum for Media Development held at the Information Ministry Office, Nay Pyi Taw and attended by media organizations and Myanmar Press Council this week.

I wish the media use the word correctly in referring to the Tatmadaw. I mean call Tatmadaw as Tatmadaw. And at the same time I dont want the media using the word Tatmadaw in referring to other non-Tatmadaw organizations, Maj. Gen. Aung Ye Win said.

Maj. Aung Ye Win, Director of Directorate of Public Relations and Psychological Warfare, said that he wished the media controltheir fellow media in using the word Tatmadaw in referring to ethnic armed forces and organizations which are designated as insurgents.

Moreover Tatmadaw True News Information Committee issued a news release dated July 26 regarding the use of military ranks.

Military ranks which are entitled only to military personnel of the Tatmadaw (army, navy, air force) are not to be used in referring to personnel who are not concerned with the Tatmadaw in news reports, the news release issued by Tatmadaw True News Information Committee says.

This news release was issued after news reports use title Major in referring to the economic in-charge of Lawayang Peoples Militia who was killed in an explosion that occurred in Momauk, Bamho District, Kachin State on July 22.

Maj. Gen. Aung Ye Win said at the forum, Apart from military personnel from the Tatmadaw, no one is entitled to use these military ranks according to our rules and regulations.

This forum was attended by Information Minister Dr. PeMyint, Defence Minister Maj. Gen. Myint Nwe, Tatmadaw True News Information Committee, Myanmar Press Council and responsible persons from the Myanmar Journalists Network.
Article

Protecting the worlds oceans  an important goal of Germanys climate diplomacy

The worlds oceans are vital to our survival. They regulate the global climate and are a source of food and income for billions of people. Only a very small part of the seas enjoys legal protection, however. Our diplomats are working in New York right now to change this state of affairs.
Overall, dont let the bhoot mislead you, nothing bhootiya about this story. Had the makers tried to push the envelope, the idea could have been outstanding for a bhootiya comedy.
They have been accused of attending an anti-narcotic drugs-burning ceremony held by the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA) in Namsan, the self-administration region in northern Shan State.

The reporters are Lawi Weng of Irrawaddy News, and Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) reporters Aye Nai and Ko Pyae Phone Aung.

Speaking about their actions, accused Lawi Weng said that all reporters had the right to cover the news as the event they were covering was an anti-narcotic drugs ceremony held in a white area.

This town is called Myothit where government staff, nurses and teachers live and work. And this ceremony was held at the government middle school. This ceremony was also attended by government staff. This is a white area, not disturbed area or conflict area as they claimed. Reporters do not need to ask for permission to cover this news. Everybody has the right to visit this place and the ceremony. This is our job, reporter Lawi Weng said.

Moreover, as the DVB reporter Aye Nai explained, they produced their national ID and journalist ID at the checkpoint on the outskirts of Lashio to military personnel and they were inspected by them on their way to this anti-narcotics ceremony.

DVB reporter Aye Nai said, There are three main points in their charge sheet. We did not inform the military, secretary of the township administration, and the police station. But though we did not inform military, they asked us where we would go. We showed them our national ID and journalist ID and we gave them our visiting cards.

Advocate Maung Maung Win, who is representing two DVB reporters, said that the prosecution had the burden of proof on what directives, provisions and restrictions were violated by the accused as their main charge leveled against them is not taking permission from the institution concerned.

My client reporters are accused of failing to take permission from the authorities concerned in covering this news. So they need to say which directives, or which restrictions were violated by my clients. The reporters did not take this permission as they did not need to do so. If there are restrictions, and they were notified in the daily papers, the case would be different.

In yesterdays hearing, the prosecutor Lt. Thet Naing Oo was examined and the reporters applied for bail. This application reportedly will be decided at the next hearing fixed on August 4.
Bonhomme Richard arrives in Brisbane, Australia

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS170729-03

Release Date: 7/29/2017 1:44:00 PM

By USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) Public Affairs

BRISBANE, Australia (NNS) -- The amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) arrived in Brisbane, Australia, for a scheduled port visit, July 29.

Bonhomme Richard, along with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), successfully completed the biennial, bilateral exercise Talisman Saber 2017 (TS17). While in Brisbane, the Sailors and Marines will have the opportunity to enjoy the sights and rich culture of the city.

"Our blue-green team operated at the highest levels of proficiency and professionalism alongside our Australian allies during Talisman Saber, and I couldn't be more proud of everyone who made an impact during that mission," said Capt. Larry McCullen, Bonhomme Richard's commanding officer. "It's great to now be in Brisbane, where those same Sailors and Marines can enjoy some well-deserved liberty and experience all that the city has to offer."

Bonhomme Richard's Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) division has coordinated several tours that will allow the crew to have the opportunity to experience the city, and the Chaplain's office has organized community relations (COMREL) projects. Religious Programs Specialist Seaman Luis Castro, an assistant coordinator of Bonhomme Richard's COMREL events, said he takes pleasure in facilitating the COMREL experiences because the Sailors and Marines are always eager to get involved with the local community.

"It's always interesting to get to see the world from someone else's perspective," said Castro. "COMREL events provide us the chance to interact with the local people, and allows us to make new friends and build relationships.

Bonhomme Richard, flagship of the Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group, is operating in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region to enhance partnerships and be a ready-response force for any type of contingency.

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Outsiders stirring up trouble in region: China

Iran Press TV

Sat Jul 29, 2017 7:5AM

Beijing has hit back at Britain's plan to dispatch a warship to the South China Sea, which has long been at the center of a dispute between China and its neighbors, warning the outsiders against "stirring up trouble" in the region.

At a daily briefing on Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said the recent remarks made by countries outside of the region were aimed at hyping up tensions in the South China Sea.

"While countries in the region are working together to promote peace, stability and prosperity, some countries outside the region are stirring up trouble," Lu said.

"Whatever their excuses are, all countries and people in the region should be on the alert, considering the chaos and humanitarian disasters these countries have caused throughout history by interfering with other countries' affairs," he added.

The Chinese official made the remarks after British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon told Reuters that the UK aims to send a warship to the South China Sea in 2018 to conduct what he called freedom of navigation exercises.

"We have the right of freedom of navigation and we will exercise it  We flew RAF Typhoons through the South China Sea last October and we will exercise that right whenever we next have the opportunity to do so, whenever we have ships or planes in the region," he said, adding, "We won't be constrained by China from sailing through" the sea.

In similar remarks, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said during a meeting in Australia a day earlier that his country planned to sail two new aircraft carriers through the contested Asian waters "on a freedom of navigation operation."

China claims the entire South China Sea, where its neighbors Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have similar sovereignty claims.

The UK's apparent attempt to wade in the territorial row comes as China has repeatedly censured the United States for interventionism and siding with Beijing's rivals in the region.

Washington's military presence in the disputed waters has long been a source of concern for China's leadership, which has on numerous occasions warned the US against any such activities there.

Earlier this month, the US also sent two bombers over the region, coming just a few months after it sent a warship to carry out a maneuvering drill within 12 nautical miles of one of China's artificial islands.

The South China Sea hosts one of the world's busiest waterways and is believed to be rich in mineral and gas deposits and fishing grounds. The neighboring countries have long disputed the ownership of the territories in the water body, through which about $5 trillion of global sea-borne trade passes each year.

Beijing claims sovereignty to all the contested sea, including waters and rocks close to the shores of neighbors, and has been building artificial islands and installing military equipment on them, including on some reefs in the Spratly chain, which are also claimed by Manila.

'Show of goodwill to US'

Covering the latest remarks by UK officials on Friday, the Global Times, a Chinese daily reflecting the views of the government, conducted an interview with Zhao Junjie, a researcher of the Institute of European Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, on the true motive behind London's planned deployment.

The researcher said "Britain's move aims to show goodwill to the US - it is cooperating with the US on the South China Sea issue to contain China."

With Britain's imminent exit from the European Union, Zhao said, London is now seeking to win Washington's "economic and political support."

He described such a deployment as "unwise," saying the UK is trying in vain to revive its old glory as Great Britain.

"It wants to show the world that it has decision-making power and is stronger and more powerful after Brexit, but its decline cannot be concealed," Zhao said.

He added the UK's plan would "damage relations with China" as Beijing may take "countermeasures," including "shifting more of its investment to the EU."

"Britain is at a crucial stage in the Brexit process. It should try to win as much support from China, Russia and other powers, instead of alienating them," the researcher said.

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Inherent Resolve Strikes Target ISIS in Syria, Iraq

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, July 30, 2017  U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, conducting 18 strikes consisting of 28 engagements, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Officials reported details of yesterday's strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Strikes in Syria

In Syria, coalition military forces conducted 12 strikes consisting of 17 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Abu Kamal, a strike destroyed an ISIS headquarters.

-- Near Al Shadaddi, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a staging area.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, two strikes destroyed five ISIS oil stills and four oil tanks.

-- Near Raqqah, eight strikes engaged eight ISIS tactical units and destroyed seven fighting positions and three vehicles.

Strikes in Iraq

In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted six strikes consisting of 11 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Al Huwayjah, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed an ISIS-held building.

-- Near Al Qaim, two strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a staging area.

-- Near Kisik, two strikes destroyed three ISIS-held buildings and a supply cache.

-- Near Rawah, a strike destroyed an ISIS fighting position, a vehicle-born bomb and a vehicle-born bomb facility.

Newly Reported Strikes

Additionally, 19 strikes were conducted in Syria and Iraq on July 28 that closed within the last 24 hours.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, Syria, a strike destroyed four ISIS oil stills.

-- Near Raqqah, Syria, 16 strikes engaged 12 ISIS tactical units, destroyed an anti-air artillery system, and damaged seven fighting positions.

-- Near Sultan Abdullah, Iraq, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a tunnel system.

-- Near Tal Afar, Iraq, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a vehicle.

Part of Operation Inherent Resolve

These strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to destroy ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The destruction of ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria also further limits the group's ability to project terror and conduct external operations throughout the region and the rest of the world, task force officials said.

The list above contains all strikes conducted by fighter, attack, bomber, rotary-wing or remotely piloted aircraft; rocket-propelled artillery; and some ground-based tactical artillery when fired on planned targets, officials noted.

Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike, they added. A strike, as defined by the coalition, refers to one or more kinetic engagements that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single or cumulative effect.

For example, task force officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIS vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of ISIS-held buildings and weapon systems in a compound, having the cumulative effect of making that facility harder or impossible to use. Strike assessments are based on initial reports and may be refined, officials said.

The task force does not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target.

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News / National

by Staff reporter

Despite frantic attempts by President Robert Mugabe's publicists to convince the public that the incumbent was as fit as a fiddle, calls by his wife that he must handpick a successor could be out of the realisation that the Zanu-PF leader has entered his political sunset.Addressing members of the Zanu-PF women's league in the capital on Thursday, Grace Mugabe broke with the party's tradition by publicly imploring her 93-year-old husband to anoint a successor so as to narrow the widening crevices in his party over who should be the next president.She reasoned that there was nothing amiss about choosing a successor as it was the trend in other countries, including South Africa where Nelson Mandela stood aside to make way for a successor, Thabo Mbeki."There is no succession without Mugabe and I have told him that you have a role to play even if I know that he has said that the people will decide; but his word will be final, mark my word," Grace said as the league's administration secretary, Letina Undenge broke into song, "uri musoja usatye, (don't be afraid, you are a soldier).Afghanistan-based political analyst Maxwell Saungweme, said Grace's call was an acknowledgement of Mugabe's advancing age and its impact on his health.It also exposes the panic and trepidation of the after-Mugabe reality, he said."It also shows that Mugabe and Grace are disagreeing on succession. Mugabe prefers Zanu-PF to decide its next leader through existing processes while Grace wants Mugabe to anoint a leader. The speech shows schisms within State House, Zanu-PF and government," said Saungweme.He also reasoned that Grace's call could be a desperate endeavour to pour cold water on Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa (ED)'s chances of succeeding Mugabe as well as the support that the Midlands godfather is said to enjoy from the security forces.Mugabe also railed the military for dabbling in politics in violation of the country's Constitution, which demands that they should be apolitical.Saungweme warned that with the succession politics now so "dynamic, toxic and perplexing", the country will likely see political disturbances if Mugabe were to appoint an heir.Another analyst Gladys Hlatshwayo said the First Lady was basically trying to "make hay while the sun shines" when she called for Mugabe to prepare for a future post his rule."Simba rehove riri mumvura zvino dziva zvoropwa hove dzichaita sei? (It's a fish out of water situation) . . . They (Generation 40) are better off influencing him to appoint a successor while he is still alive . . . someone who will protect the interest of the First Family and G40," Hlatshwayo said, adding "it is therefore most likely that she is being deployed to signal what Mugabe is about to do".Zanu-PF is split between G40 and the Team Lacoste faction. The latter is linked to Mnangagwa while the former is a conglomeration of cadres who claim to support a Mugabe life presidency.Hlatshwayo said the development could also mean that there are disagreements between the G40 faction and Mugabe over how to deal with this issue of a successor."If what Grace said is anything to go by, Mugabe is suggesting that the people will decide when the time comes. This might be consistent with the Machiavellian politics that he has used for the past 37 years and his insatiable desire to rule until he joins his ancestors. Grace and G40 might be resorting to public gatherings as a way to push Mugabe to act."What can no longer be disputed is the fact that this is the end of an era. A critical discourse analysis of the first lady's ranting confirms this. From I will push him in a wheelchair' to he will rule from the grave' now it's  anoint a successor'. . . it's slowly sinking in, he is human after all!".Shakespeare Hamauswa, an analyst, weighed in saying Grace is realising that Mugabe, at the ripe age of 93, is no longer able to continue."She is the one who stays with the president and is privy to the challenges that old age is posing to the president."By demanding a VP post to be reserved for women, she is simply trying to create a position for herself and that depends on how ED and Sekeramayi strategically are going to position themselves".However, professor of World Politics at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies, Steven Chan, said with the ever-fluid factions in Zanu-PF, "it is almost impossible to speculate about the succession battles"."Grace's latest call simply adds to the complicated picture. She is right in that the country needs to have some certainty about its future."Many will suggest she is looking to a transitional period with herself as vice president, poised for the election after the one in 2018," said Chan.Grace also claimed that some in the ruling party were being influenced by an unnamed woman based in South Africa into dumping Mugabe.She also took a swipe at party bigwigs who refuse to acknowledge her when they chant party slogans saying that also would not change the fact that she was in charge.
U.S.-Australia Team up for TS17 Command and Control from Bonhomme Richard

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS170730-06

Release Date: 7/30/2017 10:21:00 AM

By MC2(SW) Cameron McCulloch, USS Bonhomme Richard Public Affairs

CORAL SEA (NNS) -- Through a locked door painted with a mural depicting the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6), various aircraft, and the words "In God we trust, all others we track," is one of the Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) nerve centers. Here, information on allied and adversarial surface and air contacts is gathered and disseminated throughout the ESG. The space, thus, is suitably named the Combat Information Center (CIC).

Locked with a cipher lock and only accessed by those outside of the "need-to-know" via buzzer and a secret clearance, this dark room with little headroom contains the equipments and communications systems to be the eyes, ears and voice of the ship. Consoles made up of monitors in a variety of shapes and sizes display information using the ship's radar and tracking software. The information displayed glows from the screens in tones of green and orange. These glowing screens illuminate the faces of their operators; Sailors using such precise finger-to-keyboard movements and disciplined voice communications that an interruption of their work feels like it could be considered an act of sabotage, like a wrench thrown into gears.

Avoiding such sabotage, you cross the room, passing by the tactical action officer, or TAO, and the CIC watch officer, or CICWO, with their workstations and large displays of what to the untrained eye looks like just a wall of random data and numbers. As you continue across the room, you make it to the corner they call the "surface side." In this area, you may find some uniforms not "uniform" amongst the standard Navy, blue, fire resistant variants (FRV). These uniforms of grey, green and black camouflage patterns belong to members serving under the flag of an old ally and friend of the U.S. Navy, for on each of their black shoulder boards can be read, simply, "Australia."

During Talisman Saber 17, the seventh iteration of a biennial, bilateral exercise between the U.S. and Australia, Bonhomme Richard embarked a team of Royal Australian Navy Sailors with the intention of training, testing and demonstrating the interoperable capabilities of a U.S.-Australia ESG.

Two sections, rotating three person watch teams, were tasked with managing and safeguarding a U.S.-Australia strike group, consisting of 11 U.S, Australian and New Zealand ships, including the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Sterett (DDG 104), which as part of the up-gunned ESG concept serves to protect the amphibious force.

"We were in control of maneuvering the task force around the mission essential unit," said Royal Australian Navy Lt. Gemma Casserly. "We are the ones who stay here 24 hours a day on two watches to maintain the picture in order to let the commanders know where their ships are, what their ships are doing, and the tactical situation that's developing."

One of the watch teams consisted of Casserly, the battle watch captain, Able Seaman Communication Information Systems Chelsea Bott and Able Seaman Combat Systems Operator Samuel Perkins, all Sailors of the Royal Australian Navy.

"Chelsea [Bott] the communicator is telling the ships where to go. She will maneuver the ships based on various factors and then Sam [Perkins] is the one who lets me know if the ships are doing the right thing, if they're where they're meant to be, and where the threats are. He will also maintain the plot, so that we can all work together and give the command the best recommendation as to what to do," said Casserly.

The strengthening and flexing of these cooperative muscles are undertaken to ensure future regional security, fortify the mutual commitment to peace, and reinforce the long-standing friendship and alliance of the two Navies.

"I brought a small team with me for the sea combat command element. As soon as we arrived we were welcomed. We fit right into the command and control systems, and were able to understand and integrate straight into the battle rhythm. So, it was as if we had been doing this for years, which really is the hallmark for the Australian Navy defence force and U.S. defense force integration," said Royal Australian Navy Capt. Guy Holthouse, sea combat commander for Talisman Saber 2017. "It's always seamless. It's always easy to do, and we can really hit the ground running and bring the most out of whatever exercise we are participating in."

For the duration of the exercise, both the U.S. Navy and Royal Australian Navy Sailors seemed not only on the same page but on the very same line and word according to Perkins.

"The systems are pretty much the same," said Perkins. "It's pretty cool. I didn't know the ways things are [for the Royal Australian Navy) would be the same across the board."

Operations Specialist 3rd Class Dominique Jose, a CIC watch supervisor, from Los Angeles said that not only was the U.S.-Australian partnership an effortless technical bridge to cross but an effortless friendship bridge as well.

"Everything ran smooth, as if they were a part of the crew," said Jose. "They are really friendly.

It's like how you can call everyone on the ship your brothers and sisters. There is a bond."

The use of foreign allied Navy Sailors to fulfill roles aboard Bonhomme Richard was a fairly straight-forward idea, but it also had some immense implications.

"It [partnerships] keeps lines of communications open. Through the military we get opportunities to meet people from around the world and see how they work and therefore everyone improves and gets better. So, I think as a collective, we are going to be able to defend the nation better by using everyone else's experience," said Casserly.

Talisman Saber is a biennial exercise which unites 33,000 U.S. and Australian personnel to strengthen the U.S.-Australian alliance by building on partnerships, interoperability and the ability to respond to contingencies in the region.

Bonhomme Richard, flagship of the Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group, is operating in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region to enhance partnerships and be a ready-response force for any type of contingency.

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USS Rafael Peralta Commissioned in San Diego

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS170730-01

Release Date: 7/30/2017 10:16:00 AM

By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Phil Ladouceur

San Diego (NNS) -- The Navy's newest Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, USS Rafael Peralta (DDG 115) was commissioned in a ceremony at Naval Air Station North Island, July 29.

The ship is named in honor of Navy Cross recipient Marine Corp Sgt. Rafael Peralta. During the second battle of Fallujah, he smothered a grenade with his body, absorbing the majority of the blast. He was killed instantly, but saved the lives of his fellow Marines.

The Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. Robert B. Neller, gave the principal address. In his remarks, he thanked the family of Rafael Peralta, in particular his mother, Rosa Maria Peralta.

"Thank you for raising a man of character and virtue," he said. "We need more people like him in our world."

Neller said that a ship required three things: A hull, a name, and a crew.

"And when you put those three things together, you create more than just a ship; it's a lifeform," he said. "This is more than just another commissioning. It marks the commemoration of a life and the immortality of a hero. Sergeant Peralta's legacy will forever be part of this ship. All he ever wanted to be was an American, to serve his country."

Vice Adm. Nora Tyson, commander, Third Fleet, stepped up to the podium with the ship's commanding officer, Cmdr. Brian Ribota and placed the ship in commission.

"On behalf of the Secretary of the Navy and for the President of the United States, I hereby place United States Ship Rafael Peralta in commission," she said. "May God bless and guide this warship and all who shall sail in her."

Rosa Maria Peralta, mother of Sgt. Peralta, is the ship's sponsor. Her sponsorship duties saw her christen the ship in Bath, Maine and during the commissioning ceremony, she gave the order to the ship's crew to bring the ship to life, first in Spanish and then in English:

"Officers and crew of USS Rafael Peralta, man our ship and bring her to life!"

The crew enthusiastically replied from its formation on the pier.

"Aye, aye ma'am!" they yelled, and sprinted aboard the ship as the Navy Band Southwest played Anchors Aweigh, followed by a flyover by two U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 Ospreys.

Commander Ribota thanked the guests for attending the ceremony. He then reminded everyone of another constant presence.

"One last person who is here for us today, just three miles away, on Fort Rosencrantz, where he is buried," he said. "Sgt. Rafael Peralta has the over watch and always will. We will always render honors as we come in and out of port here in San Diego."

Ribota also recognized the hard work and determination displayed by his crew - the men and women who made this special day possible.

"In less than three months after moving aboard, they flawlessly sailed this 9,200-ton greyhound over 6,000 miles to get here to San Diego," he said. "We have all come a long way in a very short time."

Peralta was born on April 7, 1979 in Mexico City, Mexico. The son of Rafael and Rosa Peralta, he was the oldest of four children. Immigrating to the United States with his family as a teenager, he graduated from Morse High School in San Diego, California in1997. He joined the United States Marine Corps in 2000, immediately after qualifying for a green card. He became an American citizen while serving in the Corps.

Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Rafael Peralta is a multi-mission surface combatant capable of conducting anti-air warfare, anti-submarine warfare, and anti-surface warfare. As a multi-mission platform, it is capable of sustained combat operations supporting forward presence, maritime security, sea control and deterrence.

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Saudi Arabia, allies say ready for talks with Qatar if Doha complies with demands

Iran Press TV

Sun Jul 30, 2017 4:47PM

The foreign ministers of the quartet of states, known as the siege countries led by Saudi Arabia, have said they have no concessions or compromises to make over their list of demands that requires Qatar to change its policies, including Doha's alleged support of terrorism, as an unprecedented diplomatic rift further deepens in the Persian Gulf region.

The foreign ministers of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates made the remarks in a joint press conference in the Bahraini capital, Manama, on Sunday, after they met to discuss the growing crisis that has sparked tensions across the region.

"The four countries are ready for dialogue with Qatar with the condition that it announces its sincere willingness to stop funding terrorism and extremism and its commitment to not interfere in other countries' foreign affairs and respond to the 13 demands," said a joint statement as read by Bahrain's Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa in the presser.

The widening rift occurred on June 5, when Riyadh, Manama, Dubai and Cairo severed ties with Doha, officially accusing Qatar of supporting "terrorism" and destabilizing the Middle East, allegations that Qatar says are unjustified and stem from false claims and assumptions.

To further pressure Qatar, Saudi Arabia has totally closed its land border with its tiny neighbor, through which much of Qatar's food supply crossed.

Later in June, the four Arab countries urged Qatar to abide by a 13-point list of demands if it wanted the crippling blockade lifted. The demands included shutting down the Doha-based Al Jazeera broadcaster, scaling back cooperation with Iran, closing the Turkish military base in Qatar, and paying an unspecified sum in reparations. They have also listed "six principles" they want Qatar to adopt.

The defiant Doha government, however, strongly refused to comply, calling the wide-ranging demands "unrealistic, unreasonable and unacceptable." In return, the four feuding countries vowed to impose further sanctions on Doha.

However, the four foreign ministers announced on Sunday that no fresh economic sanctions would be imposed on the peninsular emirate.

"We are ready to talk with Qatar on the implementation of the demands, on the implementation of the principles, if Qatar is serious, but it has been clear that it is not," said Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir in the Sunday press conference.

Doha has already accused Riyadh of restricting Qatari pilgrimage to Mecca, the site of the annual Muslim Hajj pilgrimage that falls next month. The top diplomats of the siege states, however, on Sunday blamed Qatar for complicating the holy pilgrimage for its nationals, who cannot take direct flights from Doha to Saudi Arabia under the current sanctions.

A number of attempts to mend the unprecedented rift have so far turned to be futile, including those of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Kuwaiti Emir Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, whose country has been playing the role of a key mediator since the beginning of the crisis.

On July 21, Qatar's emir said in a live TV address for the first time since the outbreak of the crisis that the recent blockade by the Saudi-led group of Arab countries against Doha was "a pre-planned smearing campaign."

"Its planners planted statements to mislead public opinion and the countries of the world" Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said, while reasserting Doha's position that it would not capitulate under pressure.

The coordinated move against Doha is spearheaded by Riyadh, which often manages to have its vassal states fall into line. Saudi Arabia itself is known as the main sponsor of Wahhabi terrorists it has accused Qatar of supporting. Some analysts believe the Saudi anger is rather because Qatar acts more independently of Riyadh, including in its relations with Iran.

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2 killed in attack on Kenya deputy president's home

Iran Press TV

Sun Jul 30, 2017 4:41PM

Two people have been killed in an attack on Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto's residence, police say, days before the African country's next presidential election on August 8.

A gunman and a police officer were killed on Saturday night after police engaged in a shootout with the attacker outside Ruto's house in the western town of Eldoret, a senior administrator said Sunday. The attack left another guard injured.

Police said Ruto, who is the running mate of President Uhuru Kenyatta in the upcoming vote, and his family were not home during the gunfire.

"From the exchange of fire we thought it was more than one attacker, because he used different firearms, but after we subdued him, we found only one man dead, plus our officer who he had killed," Rift Valley regional coordinator Wanyama Musiambo, told reporters.

Further investigation showed that the attacker was unarmed first but was able to use a range of weapons by breaking into the police armory after making his way into the compound.

"After the operation we discovered that it was one gunman, but because he was inside there, he could change position and firearms because he had access to the guns. And the guns he was using were ours," Musiambo said.

Police were still looking for more clues to see whether the attacker was alone or had help, the official noted.

Ruto addressed the attack in a tweet, offering condolences to the family of the fallen guard. Police had initially said that the attacker was wielding a machete and holed himself up in an outbuilding after injuring one police officer.

Kenyatta's office said in a statement that Ruto had spent the day campaigning with the president.

Decades-long power struggle

The August 8 election will see Kenyatta and the ruling Jubilee Party defend their throne against Raila Odinga, who was Prime Minister of Kenya from 2008 to 2013.

Odinga has been endorsed by the National Super Alliance (NASA), a group of five opposition parties.

The Odinga and Kenyatta families have been involved in a power struggle since 1966, three years after the country's independence from the UK.

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Ambush, clashes kill 39 African Union troops in Somalia, Shabab claims

Iran Press TV

Sun Jul 30, 2017 4:37PM

Somalia's militant group al-Shabab has claimed that it has launched a blitz attack on African Union troops south of the country, killing 39 of them.

Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabab's military operation spokesman, said Sunday that the group had definitely killed 39 members of African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in clashes that erupted earlier in the day in Bulamareer district in Lower Shabelle region about 140 km southwest of Mogadishu.

However, a senior regional official was quoted as saying by Reuters hours later that the death toll from fighting on Sunday between al Shabab fighters and Somalia government and African Union peacekeeping troops stood at 24.

"We have carried 23 dead AMISOM soldiers and a dead Somali soldier from the scene where al Shabab ambushed AMISOM today," said Ali Nur, the deputy governor of Lower Shabelle region.

Al-Shabab is the dominant militant force in Somalia, a country in the horn of Africa that has been ravaged by decades of war and poverty. The militant group aims to oust the western-backed government in Mogadishu while it has always protested the presence of foreign peacekeepers.

Countries contributing to AMISOM have also suffered attacks by the al-Qaeda-linked Shabab. Kenya, a leading provider of troops and finances to the mission, has seen several of those attacks on its mainland over the past years, while attacks in Uganda have also been reported.

The attack came as officials in Mogadishu reported a deadly blast after a month of relative calm in the capital city. Five people were killed in the attack and 10 others were wounded in the assault which took place near Waberi police station along the busy Maka Almukarramah road. Most of the victims were civilians trapped in a morning traffic jam. There was no claim of responsibility from Shabab.

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Pence visits Estonia to reassure NATO members over Russia

Iran Press TV

Sun Jul 30, 2017 9:12AM

US Vice President Mike Pence arrives in Estonia to reassure Baltic NATO members that are worried about Russia's military activity in the region.

Pence, who will hold talks with Estonian officials on Sunday and Monday, will also visit Georgia and Montenegro later on during his trip.

On Sunday, he will talk with Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas about the possibility of installing a US anti-aircraft system there.

Moscow and Tallinn have not had a very amicable relationship since 1991 when Estonia broke free from the Soviet Union and then joined both the European Union and NATO in 2004.

In recent months, Estonia and fellow Baltic states Latvia and Lithuania have been reportedly frightened by Russia's frequent military drills near the region as well as the rejoining of Crimea to Russia after it broke free from Ukraine.

Pence will also meet Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid and Lithuanian and Latvian leaders, Dalia Grybauskaite and Rajmonds Vejonis, in Tallinn on Monday

The American official is also slated to visit troops from the Enhanced Forward Presence program, under which NATO has sent four battalions to the Baltic states and Poland to strengthen the Western defense alliance's eastern flank.

Pence will reassure Estonians that "the US is a good loyal ally and that they appreciate Baltic sacrifices including their 2 percent of GDP spending on defense and their participation in military operations in Afghanistan," according to Tallinn University international relations specialist Matthew Crandall.

Also, analyst Andres Kasekamp said that "the timing, before Russia's Zapad exercises (in September in Belarus, near the Lithuanian border) shows that the US wants to say: 'We are watching what's happening here very closely and you can be certain of our support.'"

The Zapad exercises have raised concern in Lithuania because they will be conducted somewhat close to the Suwalki gap, a land corridor crossing southeastern Poland.

The corridor is regarded the potential Achilles heel of NATO's eastern flank since a hypothetical Russian offensive there could easily isolate and push the three Baltic countries to the north.

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40 slain as pro-Saudi forces, Houthis clash near Yemen's Mukha

Iran Press TV

Sun Jul 30, 2017 9:3AM

More than 40 people have been killed in renewed clashes between fighters from the Houthi Ansarullah movement and Saudi-backed forces near the Yemeni port city of Mukha over the past few days.

Military officials and witnesses at local hospitals said on Sunday that 16 Houthis and seven Saudi-backed militants lost their lives in the scuffles east of Mukha.

Additionally, 20 pro-Saudi militants were slain in a Thursday Houthi strike on a major military base in the southwestern Taizz Province, situated some 40 kilometers east of Mukha.

Mukha has been the scene of fierce fighting between the Saudi-backed Yemeni forces and the Houthi fighters in recent months.

Back in February, the pro-Saudi militants said they had seized full control of the strategic Red Sea port.

Meanwhile, a media center affiliated to Ansarullah said 12 Emiratis were killed and 23 others injured in the Yemeni fighter's missile attack on a UAE military vessel off the coast of Mukha on Saturday. Local sources said the bodies of the slain Emirati nationals were flown to Eritrea's port city of Assab.

In another development on Saturday, the Yemeni fighters attacked the al-Fariza military base in Saudi Arabia's southwestern Jizan region.

On Friday, Yemeni army troops, backed by fighters from allied Popular Committees, managed to seize several strategic military bases and outposts in Jizan in retaliation for almost daily Saudi bombardment of the impoverished nation.

Saudi Arabia has been leading a brutal military campaign against Yemen for more than two years to eliminate the Houthi movement and reinstall Riyadh-friendly former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. The Saudi military campaign, however, has failed to achieve its goals.

The protracted war has already killed over 12,000 Yemenis, with the US and the UK providing the bulk of weapons used by Saudi forces and giving coordinates for airstrikes which have killed many civilians.

The Saudi offensive has also taken a heavy toll on Yemen's infrastructure and led to a humanitarian crisis.

The number of suspected cholera cases in Yemen has exceeded 419,800 while almost 2,000 people have died since the outbreak of the epidemic in April, according to the latest figures provided by the World Health Organization (WHO).

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Hezbollah says mission accomplished in Arsal

Iran Press TV

Sun Jul 30, 2017 6:28AM

Hezbollah says it has concluded a military offensive against Takfiri terrorists on the outskirts of Arsal after dislodging the militants from the northeastern Lebanese town on the Syrian border.

Commanders of the resistance movement on Saturday led a media tour of areas captured from Jabhat Fatah al-Sham  the militant group formerly known as the Nusra Front.

Hezbollah launched a week-long assault on the outskirts of both Arsal and the adjacent town of Flita in Syria on July 21, seizing land in the rugged, mountainous area and killing about 150 terrorists.

"We accomplished the main target of the operations by expelling the Nusra Front from the Qalamoun mountains and the outskirts of Arsal," Hezbollah's War media center quoted a commander as saying.

Arsal's countryside and Qalamoun had turned into havens for the al-Qaeda offshoot. The offensive was part of a series of battles Hezbollah has fought, starting in Homs' Qusair and continuing into Qalamoun in 2014, before heading to the Anti-Lebanon Mountains and the Qalamoun mountains in 2015.

"We detonated more than one car bomb and we found numerous metal workshops manufacturing bombs and mortars, with tons of explosive material in the workshops," the Hezbollah commander noted.

The group said its fighters managed to infiltrate behind enemy frontiers and attack militants from unexpected positions. "We fought the enemy face to face, from close range," the commander said.

Meanwhile, al-Manar television reported that Hezbollah and the Nusra Front will exchange a number of corpses on Sunday. The swap will reportedly include the bodies of nine militants and five resistance fighters who lost their lives in the recent escalation in the Lebanon-Syria border area.

The resistance movement has been fighting alongside Syrian government forces since 2013.

On Saturday, Hezbollah's Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem reiterated the movement's assertion that its contribution to the Syrian operations was meant to deter the terror threat facing Lebanon.

"If we did not fight in Syria, we would have had to fight in every house we have and in every village and city in Lebanon," Qassem said.

"We went to Syria to fight in the backyard before [the militant threat] reached the house, and to stop its advance," he said, adding that the Lebanese resistance movement and its allies had managed to defeat extremists and their supporters.

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Several Afghan Police Killed In Taliban Attack On Checkpoint In Helmand Province

RFE/RL July 30, 2017

Several police officers were killed and injured in an attack on a checkpoint in the southern Afghanistan province of Helmand, officials said on July 29.

The details and casualty toll from the July 28 attack remain unclear, with reports indicating anywhere from two to 25 police officers being killed.

Attaullah Afghan, a member of the Helmand provincial council, said the attack took place in the district of Nawa, killing 12 officers and wounding 12 others.

Omar Zwak, a spokesman for the governor of Helmand Province, confirmed the attack but said only two police were killed while 10 others were wounded.

Tolo News cited local sources as saying 10 police officers were killed at the checkpoint in Samad Square in Nawa district.

The Taliban militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying their fighters had killed 25 local and national police.

Officials said Taliban fighters briefly took over the checkpoint but that it was retaken by Afghan security forces early on July 29.

The attack follows a July 26 Taliban-linked raid on a military base in which Afghanistan's Defense Ministry said 26 soldiers were killed and 13 wounded in the southern province of Kandahar.

The Taliban, former rulers of Afghanistan, were driven from power after a U.S.-led invasion following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.

But since the U.S.-led coalition ended active combat operations in 2014, the militants have ramped up attacks on military bases across the country, challenging the thinly stretched domestic security forces.

The United States currently has about 8,400 troops in the country to help train Afghan forces, down from about 100,000 during the peak of its Afghan mission.

U.S. media have reported that U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will recommend sending another 3,000-5,000 troops to break what he has called a "stalemate" between government forces and the Taliban.

With reporting by dpa, AP, Tolo News, and Geo News

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-taliban-nawa- checkpoint-helmand-attack-police/28647350.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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In Show Of Support, Pence Says U.S. Stands With Baltic Countries, Georgia, Montenegro

RFE/RL July 30, 2017

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said in Estonia on July 30 that Washington stands with the Baltic nations and other allies in Eastern Europe that have expressed concerns about Russia's intentions in their respective regions.

Pence made the comments in Estonia's capital, Tallinn, during the first stop on a trip that will also take him to Georgia and Montenegro.

"Our message to the Baltic states -- my message when we visit Georgia and Montenegro -- will be the same: To our allies here in Eastern Europe, we are with you, we stand with you on behalf of freedoms," Pence said in an interview with Fox News.

Pence met with with Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas on July 30 to discuss bilateral relations, and he was scheduled to meet the following day in Tallinn with the presidents of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania -- all NATO members that were under Moscow's rule during the Soviet era.

From there, Pence was scheduled to make subsequent stops in Georgia and the newest NATO member, Montenegro.

Senior U.S. administration officials said the trip is viewed as a follow-up to President Donald Trump's visit to Europe in early July.

Trump stopped in Poland and Germany to express support for NATO while on the same trip holding meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin in an effort to improve ties with Moscow.

Early in his administration, Trump had unnerved some allies when he failed to explicitly mention Article 5 of the NATO treaty -- the provision stating that an attack on one NATO country is an attack on all members of the alliance.

But on July 6 in Warsaw, the U.S. president said the United States stands "firmly behind" Article 5 and criticized Russia for its activities in Europe.

Estonia and Montenegro are members of NATO, while Georgia has expressed hopes of joining the Western alliance.

Asked about Trump's commitment to NATO's mutual-defense provision, Pence told reporters in Tallinn that the U.S. administration has "made it clear that the policy of our administration is to stand firmly with our NATO allies and to stand firmly behind our Article 5 commitment that an attack on one is an attack on all."

In Georgia, starting on July 31, officials said Pence will highlight U.S. support for the Caucasus nation's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Georgia has seen Russian encroachment on its territory. The Kremlin recognized Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent countries after fighting a five-day war against Tbilisi in 2008. Russia maintains thousands of troops in the two regions.

Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili said on July 27 that Pence's visit will demonstrate that the United States continues to support Georgia in building a stronger military force.

Margvelashvili said the Georgian Army would start two weeks of exercises with the United States and other partner countries on July 30, the day before Pence's visit to Tbilisi. Pence is scheduled to meet with U.S. troops.

"The vice president's presence here is definitely showing that this is not only about military exercises, but it is also showing unification with our values, with our foreign policy targets, and showing a clear message that we are together," Margvelashvili said.

The White House said Pence would arrive in Tbilisi in the evening on July 31 and participate in an official dinner hosted by Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvrikashvili.

On the last stop, Pence will welcome NATO's newest member with his stop in Montenegro, whose accession to the alliance in June has infuriated Russia.

On August 2, he will attend the Adriatic Charter Summit in Montenegro's capital, Podgorica, U.S. officials said.

Pence was expected to highlight the U.S. commitment to the Western Balkans and stress the need for good governance, political reforms, and rule of law in the region.

The leaders of Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia are also scheduled to attend the summit.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, dpa, and Interfax

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/us-vice- president-pence-estonia-georgi a-montenegro/28647361.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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News / Press Release

by Jacob Mafume PDP Spokesperson

The People's Democratic Party is concerned that moral decay is intensifying unabated; a quick read of local headlines supports this fact,newspapers in Zimbabwe now have sections resembling scandal tabloids.Even radio stations like Star FM also have Shows where bizarre stories are shared, a date with the Tildah Show leaves one wondering whether they have been dreaming about a fiction novel of Karikoga Gumiremiseve's ilk or a flashback to our grannies' folktales back in the village.These are however not fictional stories, the H-Metro is just but a reflection of the wider Zimbabwean society.On the 26th of April 2014 delegates of the party who gathered at Mandel noted with concern the rise of rootless developments in our country. The meeting noted that the moral crisis was intricately linked with ZANUPF's failure to govern.ZANUPF is itself a criminal organization which has created a culture of celebrated nudity, where individuals who are supposed to be locked in state penitentiaries are instead the mistaken heroes of the days.The usually referred to Pan African principle of Ubuntu is long forgotten.On the 7th of August 2014 the party wrote a Dossier to SADC which was delivered to country representatives on the sidelines of the 34th Session of the SADC Summit of Heads of States in Victoria Falls. Our concern on the Leadership, Economic and Moral crisis made part of the contents."As a result of the socio-economic crisis, there is a dysfunctional society characterized by moral debasement manifesting itself through a society arrested by fear, hopelessness and despondence."There is a total breakdown of the social contract, chronic levels of corruption and inequality. Cases of domestic violence, general rape, and breakdown of marriages are on a record high. At the present moment, Zimbabwe is a nation without a soul."Three years down the line the Moral Crisis is now worsening as a result of ZANUPF's failure to deal with the economic hardships that the people of Zimbabwe are facing.Violent crime is on the rise, domestic violence is also on the rise and even worse child marriages are on the rise.While we appreciate the use of the law as a deterrent on those who are tempted to deviate from the norms, we also want to make the point that the increase in crimes will not be solved by simply increasing sentence to 40 years for convicted rapists.The People's Democratic Party is of the view that moral reconstruction is an agenda which cannot be separated from economic development.A proper leadership must initiate a deliberate program meant to ensure our people are using time productively.A recent story published in local daily in which robbers who had committed serial crimes were convicted and sentenced to 67 years in prison must normally reflect victory for justice, however in our country it is but a sign of how dangerous our society is becoming.Society must rely on the Police Service as a buffer against crime, the irony is that officers have since became masters of extortion especially at traffic stops. In the quest to get money by any means necessary lives have been lost because spike wielding police officers are involved in a cat and mouse game with commuters.In the Newsday of today Chinamasa who of late has hypocritically reduced himself to a civic society leader, reveals shocking details about senior ZIMRA officials who temper with data systems to cover for corrupt activities. Such is the extent of the Moral Crisis.The only option available is to deal with failed leadership of Mugabe and ZANUPF, rebuild an economically sound Zimbabwe and reconstruct the moral fabric otherwise we continue into a bottomless pit.Together Another Zimbabwe is Possible
US Confirms Killing of Additional IS Leaders in July 11 Airstrike

By Ayaz Gul July 30, 2017

U.S. military officials have confirmed the death of four additional senior Islamic State leaders in a July 11 airstrike in northeastern Afghanistan that also killed the top leader of the terrorist group.

The drone attack struck IS headquarters in Kunar province, which borders Pakistan, and eliminated Abu Sayed, the amir of Islamic State's self-styled Khorasan province branch, or ISK-P.

A U.S. military statement Sunday listed names and titles of the four slain terrorists identified as senior IS advisors, including Sheik Ziaullah, Mulawi Hubaib, Haji Shirullah, and Assadullah.

The U.S. military confirmed Sayed's death at the time, but could not immediately provide details of other commanders killed by the missile strike.

Sayed was the third ISK-P chief the U.S. military has eliminated in the past year in its bid to prevent the group from establishing a foothold in Afghanistan.

"We will be relentless in our campaign against ISIS-K," the statement quoted General John Nicholson, Commander of U.S. forces in the country. He used one of several IS names.

"There are no safe havens in Afghanistan. We will hunt them down until they are no longer a threat to the Afghan people and the region," he added.

Observers acknowledge the death of Abu Sayed and other top leaders have dealt a considerable blow to the group's Afghan operations.

U.S. airstrikes have primarily been responsible for killing about 20 founding and some of "second-generation" leaders of ISK-P since it launched extremist activities in the country two years ago, notes Kabul-based Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN).

"The 'decapitation' of ISK-P has been well underway over the past two years as the US military has stepped up its military campaign, mainly through air strikes, against the group in Nangarhar," the non-governmental organization wrote in an article last week.

The eastern province of Nangarhar borders Kunar, and several of its districts are considered IS strongholds. Afghan security forces, backed by U.S. airpower, have been conducting major operations in the province to eliminate IS bases.

IS is also under attack from Afghanistan's Taliban insurgency and facing emerging internal differences, but there are no visible signs its appeal to some radicalized sectors is fading, AAN warns.

"ISKP has shown it is resilient. Recruits continue to pour in to Nangarhar from various provinces of Afghanistan as well as from Pakistan," the watchdog noted, adding the group can be expected to put all its efforts into holding out against Afghan and U.S. forces to retain its strongholds in Nangarhar.

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Maduro Sees 'Success' in Venezuela's Violence-Marred Election

By VOA News July 30, 2017

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is proclaiming Sunday's election for a assembly to rewrite the constitution a success despite violence that left at least nine dead.

The opposition boycotted the vote, saying the unpopular measure would result in a socialist dictatorship.

Maduro brushed off protesters' concerns: "It's been and it is a successful day with large participation. Let those who have eyes see. The oligarchy doesn't have eyes or ears for the people. They've always been invisible. ... We care about the people's truth.

But death, protests, and violence overshadowed the voting. At least nine deaths have been reported since Friday, bringing the death toll over the last four months of protests to more than 120.

They include 39-year-old lawyer Jose Felix Pineda, a candidate for the constitutional assembly, who was shot in his home Saturday night.

On Sunday, four motorcycle policemen were hurt when someone threw explosives at a convoy in Caracas.

Protesters both for and against the assembly battled each other across Venezuela, with the opposition blocking roads and police reacting with tear gas and rubber bullets.

President Nicolas Maduro said anyone defying a ban on protests during the historic vote risks up to 10 years in prison.

Dozens of polling places deserted

The opposition said the vote was rigged and called for an election boycott. Reporters on the ground in Caracas said dozens of polling places were nearly deserted.

Maduro cast the first ballot Sunday, calling it "the first vote for peace, the first vote for the sovereignty and independence of Venezuela."

The president urged the international community to accept the election.

"We've stoically withstood the terrorist, criminal violence. Hopefully the world will respectfully extend its arms toward our country," he said.

The United States will not.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, tweeted Sunday that "Maduro's sham election is another step toward dictatorship. We won't accept an illegitimate government. The Venezuelan people and democracy will prevail."

Details on what is likely to be included in a new constitution are unclear. Maduro has said it is the only way to pull Venezuela out of its severe economic and social crisis and stop the seemingly endless violence.

Critics assert that only Maduro supporters are candidates, including first lady Cilia Flores, and the first vice president of the ruling United Socialist Party, Diosdado Cabello.

Prelude to dictatorship?

Polls show more than 70 percent of Venezuelans oppose the assembly.

The opposition contends the assembly would dissolve the opposition-controlled congress and turn Venezuela into a socialist dictatorship. Maduro opponents are demanding early presidential elections.

The Trump administration has already enforced economic sanctions on a number of high-ranking members of Maduro's administration. A number of top U.S. lawmakers have expressed their support for the citizens of Venezuela.

The United Nations has also said it is deeply concerned about the situation in Venezuela.

The drop in global energy prices together with political corruption have destroyed oil-rich Venezuela's economy.

Gasoline, medicine, and such basic staples as cooking oil, flour, and sugar are scarce. Many Venezuelans cross into neighboring Colombia and Brazil to buy food.

Maduro has blamed the country's woes on what he calls U.S. imperialism and its supporters inside Venezuela. He has warned against intervention by the Organization of American States, saying that would surely lead to civil war.

VOA's Alvaro Algarra, Carolina Mayor contributed to this report.

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Some 9,000 Relatives of Nusra Front Terrorists to Leave Lebanon on Monday

Sputnik News

00:07 31.07.2017

Around 9,000 relatives of the terrorists of Jabhat Fatah al Sham (formerly known as Nusra Front, outlawed in Russia) will leave Lebanese Aarsal region on Monday alongside the militants, according to a source in Hezbollah.

BEIRUT (Sputnik)  Around 9,000 relatives of the terrorists of Jabhat Fatah al Sham (formerly known as Nusra Front, outlawed in Russia) will leave Lebanese Aarsal region on Monday alongside the militants, a source in Hezbollah told Sputnik Sunday.

"The second stage of the agreement on exchange will start on Monday morning. The Nusra terrorists and their families totaling 9,000 people will withdraw [from Lebanon] in exchange for release of the fighters [of Hezbollah] kept hostage by Nusra," the source said.

The terrorists and their families are set to leave from refugee camps in the mountainous Aarsal region to the Syrian Flita area. From there they will be delivered to Idlib province by buses.

Within the framework of the first stage of the exchange agreement, Hezbollah handed over to Nusra Front bodies of nine terrorists in exchange for bodies of its five fighters killed by Nusra.

In six days, Hezbollah managed to free 90 square kilometers (34.7 square miles) of the Aarsal region from Nusra Front militants by engaging in an offensive operation from Lebanon and Syria simultaneously, with the Syrian forces seizing control over the Flita area. On July 27, Hezbollah declared armistice in Aarsal.

Aarsal is considered the most tense region on the Lebanese-Syrian border. It has been used for arms smuggling and transit of new terrorist recruits to Syria. It also houses several camps for thousands of Syrian refugees.

 Sputnik

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Australia foils 'terror plot' aimed at downing plane

Iran Press TV

Sun Jul 30, 2017 1:50AM

Australia has thwarted a Takfiri-inspired "terrorist plot" aimed at downing an aircraft with explosives.

On Sunday, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said that four people have been arrested in relation to the "elaborate" plot across Sydney.

"I can report last night that there has been a major joint counter-terrorism operation to disrupt a terrorist plot to bring down an airplane," he said.

"The threat of terrorism is very real. The disruption operation, the efforts overnight have been very effective but there's more work to do," he added.

Turnbull also noted that the national terror alert level, which was elevated on September 2014 amid rising concerns over attacks by Daesh and similar organizations, would stay at probable.

"The primary threat to Australia still remains lone actors, but there's still the ability for people to have sophisticated plots and sophisticated attacks still remain a real threat," he added.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin added that local police had obtained "credible information from partner agencies" in relation to the thwarted attack.

"In recent days, law enforcement has become aware of information that suggested some people in Sydney were planning to commit a terrorist attack using an IED (improvised explosive device)," he said.

"However, we're investigating information indicating the aviation industry was potentially a target of that attack," he noted.

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Russia Repeatedly Offered US to Jointly Combat Cybercrime - Putin

Sputnik News

20:56 30.07.2017(updated 22:12 30.07.2017)

Russia has repeatedly suggested the United States to establish cooperation, including in combating cybercrime, but heard only groundless accusations in reply, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Russia has repeatedly suggested the United States to establish cooperation, including in combating cybercrime, but heard only groundless accusations in reply, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sunday.

"We, as I have already said, have repeatedly suggested to the US side to establish cooperation with each other in order to secure own interests, both ours and the US. And in general, to put negative activity like cybercrime under the control worldwide. Instead of starting to work constructively, we only hear groundless accusations of interference in the internal affairs of the United States," Putin said in an interview with Rossiya 1 host Vladimir Solovyov.

At the same time, the head of state noted that there are other spheres for cooperation, for example, energy.

According to him, Russian and US companies cooperate and have very good prospects for the development of relations.

"In the aviation sphere, in the field of space exploration, there is good work and good prospects," he said.

Putin noted that the launches of US space rockets are carried out on Russian-made engines, and work on the international space program is also being carried out.

"But, let's say, we have good plans for work in deep space. For example, both ours and American scientists are considering with interest the possibility of working together to study Venus," the president noted.

Putin and US President Donald Trump discussed cybersecurity issues at their first meeting on July 7 on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg, and, according to their respective top diplomats, agreed to establish a new framework to deal with cyber threats. On July 27, Russia's special presidential representative for international cooperation in information security Andrei Krutskikh said Russia and the United States were continuing expert-level talks on the establishment of a joint cybersecurity group, adding he was optimistic about the talks.

 Sputnik

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US military conducts 'successful' THAAD missile test over Pacific Ocean

Iran Press TV

Sun Jul 30, 2017 1:54PM

The US military says it has successfully tested a Terminal High Altitude Defense (THAAD) missile system in Alaska by intercepting a ballistic missile over the Pacific Ocean.

A ballistic missile was fired by a US Air Force plane and intercepted over the Pacific by a THAAD system in Kodiak, Alaska, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) said Sunday, describing the test as "successful."

The THAAD system "detected, tracked and intercepted the target," according to the MDA's statement.

The test will help the US "to stay ahead of the evolving threat," said MDA Director Lieutenant General Sam Greaves in a statement, without elaborating.

The US military conducted the anti-missile test amid rising tensions with North Korea. The US claims North Korea poses a threat against its mainland as well as its two Asia-Pacific allies South Korea and Japan.

THAAD is a ground-based missile defense system designed to shoot down short-, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles. It has also been deployed to Guam and South Korea.

The standoff between Pyongyang and Washington escalated earlier this week after Pyongyang test-launched a Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), firing it into the Sea of Japan.

Overseeing the test was North Korean leader Kim Jung-un, who said the long-range missile demonstrated the country's surprise attack capability and sent a "serious warning" to the US.

The Hwasong-14 flew 998 kilometers for some 47 minutes at a maximum altitude of 3,724.9 kilometers, according to North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

US authorities had earlier confirmed that the missile was an ICBM but downplayed claims that it could reach the US mainland.

THAAD's deployment to North Korea has angered China and Russia, who think the system's powerful radar could be used to gather data on their territories.

Moscow and Beijing issued a joint statement earlier this month, calling on Washington to halt THAAD's deployment on the Korean Peninsula.

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China needs strong military more than ever: Xi

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 11:13, July 30, 2017

ZHURIHE, Inner Mongolia, July 30 -- President Xi Jinping said Sunday China needs a strong army more than ever, urging the building of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) into a world-class military force.

Speaking shortly after a grand military parade at the Zhurihe training base in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to mark the PLA's 90th anniversary, Xi said enjoying peace is a bliss for the people while protecting peace is the responsibility of the people's army.

"The world is not all at peace, and peace must be safeguarded," said Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission.

"Today, we are closer to the goal of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation than any other time in history, and we need to build a strong people's military more than any other time in history," Xi said.

He urged the PLA to fully implement the CPC's thoughts on building a strong military, follow the path of strengthening the army with Chinese characteristics, strive for the CPC's target on strengthening the PLA under the new circumstances, and build the heroic PLA into a world-class military.

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Xi: Chinese military forces committed to safeguarding peace

People's Daily Online

By Huang Zhengzheng (CNTV) 10:57, July 30, 2017

Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Sunday that safeguarding peace is the responsibility of the country's military forces.

"The world is far from tranquil and peace needs to be safeguarded," Xi said in a speech after inspecting troops during a military parade at Zhurihe training base in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, as part of the commemorations to mark the 90th founding anniversary of the People's Liberation Army (PLA).

'Heroic' PLA

Since its birth in the Nanchang Uprising on August 1, 1927, the PLA, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), has made "immortal feats" to advance the well-being of the Chinese people, Xi stated.

Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, hailed the PLA as "heroic" military forces that have been fighting for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, adding that he and all Chinese people feel proud of the heroic PLA.

"Today, we are closer than ever to the goal of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation," he stressed. "And more than any time in history, we need to build strong armed forces of the people."

The PLA must be built into world-class military forces, he noted.

Xi put forward the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the dream of a strong army in late 2012.

'PLA must always stand side by side with the people'

Xi called on all members of the PLA to be "unswervingly committed to the fundamental principle of serving the people wholeheartedly" and "always stand side by side with the people."

He also urged the military forces to enhance their combat readiness and forge an elite force that is able to win wars whenever it is needed.

"I firmly believe that our heroic PLA has the confidence and capability to defeat any intruder," he said. "Our heroic PLA has the confidence and capability to safeguard the nation's sovereignty, security and development interests."

Xi added he is confident that the PLA will make greater contributions to realize the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and maintain world peace.

He reviewed the country's armed forces in the field at Zhurihe training base before delivering the speech. It was the first time that Xi observed such a massive parade staged in the field.

Covering more than 1,000 square kilometers, Zhurihe is the largest military training base in Asia. It is also the site that has witnessed several major PLA exercises and international war games.

Accelerated military reform

China's military reform accelerated in recent years, aiming at smaller in number, but better structured and modernized armed forces.

On September 3, 2015, Xi announced China would cut the number of its troops by 300,000 in a speech at a gathering to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the victory of Chinese people's resistance against Japanese aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.

After the fourth cut of troops since the reform and opening-up in the 1980s, the number of Chinese troops would be reduced from 2.3 million to two million.

Apart from cutting troop numbers, China has also been restructuring its armed forces.

A slew of measures began at the end of 2015 with the inauguration of the general command for the PLA Army, the PLA Rocket Force and the PLA Strategic Support Force.

In January 2016, the former military headquarters  staff, politics, logistics and armaments  were reorganized into 15 new agencies under the CMC.

Then in the next month, five PLA theater commands were established, replacing the previous seven military area commands.

This April, China announced a military reshuffle with 84 corps-level units newly adjusted or established, hailed by Xi as a significant move to build the "world's leading military forces under new circumstances."

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Chinese army must be further strengthened: President Xi

Iran Press TV

Sun Jul 30, 2017 10:21AM

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for a further modernization and strengthening of China's army, as the country marks the 90th anniversary of the establishment of the People's Liberation Army (PLA).

China on Sunday held a massive parade, involving 12,000 service personnel and about 700 aircraft and pieces of ground equipment, at the expansive Zhurihe training base in China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous region.

President Xi, who presided over the military procession, stressed the need to build a "world-class" army capable of "defeating all invading enemies."

"The world is not all at peace, and peace must be safeguarded," said Xi, wearing a camouflage military suit, during a speech.

"Today, we are closer than ever before to the goal of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and  more than any other time in history  we need to build a strong people's military," he said.

It was the first time that China marked its Army Day with a military parade since the 1949 revolution and also the first time Xi observed a parade of this size in the field, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

The PLA, originally called the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, was founded in 1927 and is the world's largest standing military.

China is in a territorial dispute with India and with some of its other neighbors in the East and South China Sea. While strengthening its military, the country has been seeking a peaceful rise to a global power status.

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ICBM test meant to waken US from foolish dream: N Korea

Iran Press TV

Sun Jul 30, 2017 1:39PM

North Korea has touted its recent test of Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) as a call on the United States to set aside its threats of attacking the island nation.

North Korea's foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday that the test late Friday was meant to remind the US that it should "wake up from the foolish dream of doing any harm" to the country.

The statement said that the test was "justified" in light of increasing threats by US President Donald Trump against the North, saying the anti-North campaign has persuaded Pyongyang to maintain its weapons programs.

Hours before the test, Trump bashed China for backtracking on its promises of containing North Korea. Trump warned that he would not allow Beijing, an ally of Pyongyang, to "do nothing" about the issue.

The test also came apparently in response to the ratification of sanctions on North Korea in the US Congress.

The statement, carried by the state-run KCNA, said US should stop its policy of piling pressure on Pyongyang.

"The... test-fire of ICBM ... this time is meant to send a stern warning to the U.S. making senseless remarks, being lost to reason in the frantic sanctions and pressure campaign against the DPRK," said the statement, using an acronym for North Korea's official name.

The North also warned that the country will not remain silent in the face of US threats and that a counter-strike would be possible if Washington provokes Pyongyang militarily.

"If the Yankees... dares brandish the nuclear stick on this land again ...the DPRK will clearly teach them manners with the nuclear strategic force," it said.

The ICBM test on Friday was the second in less than a month by the North. Experts said the test showed that the North was now capable of targeting the mainland US. North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un has boasted after the test that the "entire mainland US" is now within the range of his military's ballistic missiles. However, there are still suspicions about Pyongyang's ability to miniaturize a nuclear weapon to fit a missile nose cone and other technical issues still remain in doubt.

Since coming to power in 2011, Kim has fast-tracked his country's program for reaching missile and nuclear advancement. That has prompted more international sanctions on the country with two of them last year significantly toughening the sanctions regime.

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Opinion / Columnist

The UN Habit Agenda defines housing as a basic human right which must be accorded to all regardless of gender, colour, race, religion etc. The general definition of house is a building or dwelling in which people live. When one visits the area where the river makes its way near Mbare in Harare, Mazai river adjacent to Makokoba Bulawayo, dust streets of Mtapa Gweru, one is sure to find people with no hope of ever owning a house. Access for the poor to urban land and housing is one of the main challenges facing the policy makers in Zimbabwe. Housing shortages have been stalking Zimbabwe for many years now. The harsh economic situation that dogged our country. However, escalating housing prices, limited access to land, housing finances and land regulations which govern sub-division of land and low supply of subsidised housing has made it difficult for poor as well as middle class households to enter the formal housing market.When its hard to access a house in Zimbabwe; the residents of New Canaan Highfield at Mai Chaza and Geneva area are up in arms against Harare City Council whom they are accusing of trying to evict them from the houses they occupied since way back in 1970s because they don't have title deeds. The issue if not properly handled by the Harare City Council in a holistic manner can end up political as the election fever begin to gain momentum. The tenants for staying in these houses for more than 40-50 years, they deserve the ownership without paying any cent to council.If council want to demolish these two roomed houses and claiming that they would build high risers. First they should provide decent houses for the residents. Yours truly is informed that already 3 tenants were evicted for non payment of rates which were amounting to $4000. Can rates of a two roomed house amount to $4000 in less than 5years? The residents have been given invitation letters by council to come to their district office on different dates starting today.The issue why now they want to evict them from these houses. Who is behind the motion of eviction? Is it a political gambling but the main issue is on children and adults who had established the sense of belonging; those two roomed houses is there security and only what they have. The City fathers of Harare be good stewards to your residents. Handle the issue with wisdom.However, delivering a basic house on a serviced plot remains a complex process, riddled with planning approval delays and overly high infrastructure costs.In a green-field development, the first step is to identify suitable land with easy access to economic opportunities and other social amenities. On completion of a basic feasibility study, the next step is to secure environmental and planning approvals. Besides the cost factor, this process is entangled in bureaucratic red-tape and can take several years to obtain. This long waiting period puts further financial burden on the developer and derails the entire development. Once the approvals are in place the next hurdle is financing the installation of land infrastructure such as roads, sewerage, water and electricity.Municipalities impose stringent and unrealistic infrastructure standards as conditions of approval.The issue is on ward Councillors, Town Developing Department, Housing Director, heads in local government institutes because majority of them have a hand in red tape as they will award themselves land and give each other contracts of land developing. We have challenges of housing shortages in Bulawayo, Harare, Mutare, Gweru and all towns in our country. Ask yourself if you are not a barrier of progress in land developing and access of land to the poor. Our government should have foreseen long time ago as our population is growing, development was supposed to be taking place in line with growing population.We need people of integrity and sober minds in the progress of land developing. Pasi nembavha, Phansi ngamasela (Down with red tape). Every Zimbabwean citizen no matter colour, race, religion and political affiliation has a basic right to own a house.Enos Denhere is a nation builder and Business Developer.Email enosdenhere@gmail.comCall/App +263773894975https://www.linkedin.com/in/enos-denhere-11293429/http://www.enosden.wordpress.comLike our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/letstalkafricaforgood/
US B-1 bombers fly over Korean Peninsula in response to North tests

Iran Press TV

Sun Jul 30, 2017 4:39AM

Two US B-1 bombers have flown over South Korea in response to North Korea's recent ballistic missile tests.

Under the command of US Pacific Air Forces, the two B-1s took off from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam on Saturday.

The bombers were then joined by Japanese and South Korean fighter jets and flew over the Korean Peninsula and over the Osan Air Base in South Korea.

Their 10-hour mission, which included formation and intercept training, was in direct response to Pyongyang's successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Friday and the previous July 3 launch of the "Hwansong-14" rocket, according to a statement by the US Air Force.

"North Korea remains the most urgent threat to regional stability," General Terrence O'Shaughnessy, a Pacific Air Forces Commander, said in the statement on Saturday.

"Diplomacy remains the lead; however, we have a responsibility to our allies and our nation to showcase our unwavering commitment while planning for the worst-case scenario. If called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing," he added.

On Saturday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said the whole US mainland was now within the range of the newly-tested guided missile, an updated version of the Hwasong-14 ICBM that flew as far as 998 kilometers for some 47 minutes at a maximum altitude of 3,724.9 kilometers.

According to North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim, who himself oversaw the second ICBM test, said the long-range missile demonstrated the country's surprise attack capability and sent a "serious warning" to the United States.

Following the test, US authorities confirmed that the missile was an ICBM, but downplayed claims that it could reach the US mainland.

Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry, in a statement, cast doubt on the declared nature of the missile and said its characteristics appeared to be "those of a medium-range ballistic missile."

In response to the test, the US and South Korea also conducted a military exercise later on Friday, using surface-to-surface missiles.

The US 8th Army said the drill by its troops and the South Korean army was carried out to show their "precision firing capability" and "exercise assets countering North Korea's missile launch."

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Trump lashes out at China for inaction on containing N. Korea

Iran Press TV

Sun Jul 30, 2017 2:24AM

US President Donald Trump has harshly expressed "disappointment" at China for lack of action to contain North Korea, vowing not to allow the inaction to continue without elaborating.

"I am very disappointed in China," Trump tweeted Saturday. "Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk."

He also vowed not to "allow this to continue," asserting that "China could easily solve this problem!"

The development came a day after North Koreans carried out their latest test firing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), insisting that it is capable of striking the mainland United States.

Trump had previously pledged to exert pressure on China to do more to rein in Pyongyang and its rapidly advancing missile program; however, he seems to have cooled to the notion in recent months.

Chinese authorities have not yet reacted to Trump's latest statements about Beijing.

Pyongyang has confirmed that it had launched the ICBM, with its leader Kim Jong-un claiming the entire US mainland is now within the range of the newly-tested guided missile.

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that the latest test involved an updated version of the Hwasong-14 ICBM, which flew as far as 998 kilometers for some 47 minutes at a maximum altitude of 3,724.9 kilometers.

US authorities had earlier confirmed that the missile was an ICBM but downplayed claims that it could reach the US mainland.

The developments came nearly 10 months after Pyongyang carried out its fifth nuclear test. The North's nuclear and missile programs have drawn harsh sanctions from the United Nations and the West since 2006.

North Korea regards the US as its arch enemy since Washington has adopted a war-like posture vis-a-vis Pyongyang and has permanent military presence in the region.

North Korea sees its missile and nuclear capabilities as a deterrent against a potential US aggression.

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Trump Says China Doing 'Nothing' To Help In Dispute With North Korea

RFE/RL July 30, 2017

WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Donald Trump has accused China of doing "nothing" to help the United States in its dispute with North Korea, adding that "we will not allow this to continue."

Trump's remarks were in a pair of Twitter statements late on July 29 and came a day after Pyongyang carried out a test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that it said was capable of reaching the U.S. mainland with nuclear weapons.

In a show of force a few hours after Trump's comments, the U.S Air Force said on July 30 that two of its B-1B bombers had flown over the Korean Peninsula in response to the North's ICBM test.

The bombers took off from a U.S. air base in Guam, the military said, and were joined by Japanese and South Korean fighter jets in a 10-hour mission, practicing intercept and formation drills.

In his Twitter comments, Trump also criticized former U.S. administrations for allowing China to make billions of dollars in trade deals despite Beijing's lack of support.

"I am very disappointed in China. Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!' he wrote.

In 2016, the United States had a trade deficit of $309 billion with China.

Trump and other world leaders have consistently called on China to put pressure on ally North Korea over its nuclear and ballistic-missile programs, which have been banned by United Nations resolutions.

China's Foreign Ministry on July 29 said it opposed the North's "launch activities" as they run counter to UN resolutions and were against "the common wishes of the international community."

"At the same time, China hopes all parties act with caution, to prevent tensions from continuing to escalate, to jointly protect regional peace and stability," it added.

Trump in the past has sent out mixed signals about his relations with China.

During his presidential campaign, he assailed Beijing for what he called unfair trade practices and accused the country of currency manipulation.

But after taking office, the U.S. president praised Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying in April that "the relationship developed by President Xi and myself, I think, is outstanding."

South Korean officials on July 29 said Pyongyang's latest ICBM test has led Seoul to move faster on the deployment of the U.S. THAAD missile defense system, which China vehemently opposes.

And the U.S. Army said American and South Korean military forces conducted a live-fire exercise using surface-to-surface missiles and discussed "military response options" following the ICBM launch.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the latest test "is meant to send a grave warning to the U.S. [and] make the policymakers of the U.S. properly understand that the U.S., an aggression-minded state, would not go scot-free if it dares provoke" Pyongyang.

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, and AP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/trump-north- korea-us-china-xi-nuclear-ballistic- missle/28647358.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Japan, US Carry Out Joint Aviation Drills After N Korea's Missile Test

Sputnik News

08:37 30.07.2017(updated 10:36 30.07.2017)

According to Japanese Defense and Foreign Minister, US and Japan took part in the joint aviation drills.

TOKYO (Sputnik)  Japan and the United States held joint aviation drills as a response to the recent launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile carried out by North Korea, Fumio Kishida, Japanese Defense and Foreign Minister, told reporters on Monday.

"Under the current security conditions after the July 28 North Korean missile launch, we significantly boosted the deterrence and counteracting potential of the Japanese-US alliance as well as showed the high level of our country's willingness and readiness to stabilize the situation in the region," Kishida said.

According to the minister, two US B-1 bombers and two Japanese F-2 fighters took part in the drills. The jets flew from the southwestern Japanese island of Kyushu to the Korean peninsula. Having reached the peninsula, the Japanese planes returned home while the US bombers continued their flights along with the South Korean partners.

On Friday, North Korea conducted the second test of an intercontinental ballistic missile in less than a month. According to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the test was successful with the missile having reached the altitude of 3,725 kilometers (2,314 miles) and traveled 998 kilometers for about 47 minutes before falling in the Sea of Japan.

Following the missile launch US President Donald Trump condemned North Korea's test pointing out that the United States would take all necessary steps to defend its national security. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged all countries to support stronger UN sanctions against North Korea. Japanese government regarded the test as a violation of the UN Security Council's resolutions and called on China and Russia to step up pressure on Pyongyang.

 Sputnik

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North Korea: Missile Test 'Stern Warning' to US Against New Sanctions

By Ken Bredemeier July 30, 2017

North Korea said Sunday its latest test missile, deemed by weapons experts as capable of reaching the U.S. mainland, was a "stern warning" to Washington against a new round of sanctions aimed at Pyongyang.

The North Korean Foreign Ministry said Washington should "wake up from the foolish dream of doing any harm" to the reclusive communist nation.

Pyongyang's statements came hours after the U.S. Air Force flew two B-1B bombers over the Korean Peninsula, accompanied by South Korean and Japanese jet fighters, as a show of strength against North Korean threats.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said it conducted its 15th successful shoot-down of a medium-range ballistic missile in 15 tests of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system. The target ballistic missile was launched from a fighter jet over the Pacific Ocean, but the military said it was detected, tracked and intercepted by the defense system located in Alaska.

Military Defense Agency chief Lieutenant General Sam Greaves said data collected from the test would improve the U.S.'s "ability to stay ahead of the evolving threat."

The U.S. Pacific Command said its fly-over conducted with South Korean and Japanese jet fighters was in "direct response" to North Korea's "escalatory launch" of intercontinental ballistic missiles on July 3 and last Friday.

"North Korea remains the most urgent threat to regional stability," said General Terrence O'Shaughnessy, U.S. Pacific Air Forces commander. "Diplomacy remains the lead; however, we have a responsibility to our allies and our nation to showcase our unwavering commitment while planning for the worse-case scenario. If called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal, and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing."

The 10-hour joint forces mission began at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. U.S. Air Force bomber jets were joined by two Japanese F-2 fighter jets in Japanese airspace. The U.S. bombers then flew over the Korean Peninsula and were accompanied by four South Korea fighter jets. The U.S. bombers also did a low-pass over South Korea's Osan Air Base, before returning to Guam.

U.S. President Donald Trump again criticized China for failing to stop North Korea's ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs.

Following Friday's launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile that landed west of Japan, Trump singled out China for blame on Saturday evening, saying Beijing could "easily solve this problem.

"I am very disappointed in China," Trump wrote on his Twitter account. "Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue."

Trump's remarks echoed those made by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who released a statement that blamed both China and Russia for North Korea's continued violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

"As the principal economic enablers of North Korea's nuclear weapon and ballistic missile development program, China and Russia bear unique and special responsibility for this growing threat to regional and global stability," Tillerson said.

In April, Trump praised his first meeting with China's President Xi Jinping, later telling reporters that Xi had agreed to suspend coal and fuel shipments to pressure North Korea to stop its belligerent behavior. However, since then, the North has continued to threaten its neighbors and the United States, and Trump has grown more critical of Beijing.

Even though the North Korean missile landed west of Japan, experts said it would be powerful enough to reach much of the U.S. mainland. North Korea's official news agency said leader Kim Jong Un boasted that the latest test was "meant to send a grave warning to the U.S."

China condemned the launch, while Japan, South Korea and the U.S. vowed to work together on a new Security Council measure aimed at curbing North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

At the same time, the U.S. Congress has overwhelmingly approved new sanctions aimed at North Korea, Russia and Iran, a measure the White House says Trump plans to sign into law.

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US, Allies Fly Bombers, Fighter Jets Over Korean Peninsula

By VOA News July 30, 2017

The U.S. Air Force flew two B-1B bombers over the Korean Peninsula Saturday, accompanied by South Korean and Japanese jet fighters.

The U.S. Pacific Command said the mission was in "direct response" to North Korea's "escalatory launch" of intercontinental ballistic missiles July 3 and July 28.

"North Korea remains the most urgent threat to regional stability," said General Terrence O'Shaughnessy, U.S. Pacific Air Forces commander. "Diplomacy remains the lead; however, we have a responsibility to our allies and our nation to showcase our unwavering commitment while planning for the worse-case scenario. If called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing."

The 10-hour joint forces mission began at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. U.S. Air Force bomber jets were joined by two Japanese F-2 fighter jets in Japanese airspace. The U.S. bombers then flew over the Korean Peninsula and were accompanied by four South Korea fighter jets. The U.S. bombers also did a low-pass over South Korea's Osan Air Base, before returning to Guam.

Trump criticizes China

Also Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump again criticized China for failing to stop North Korea's ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs.

Following Friday's launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile that landed west of Japan, the U.S. president singled out China for blame on Saturday evening, saying the country could "easily solve this problem."

Trump's remarks echoed those made by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who released a statement that blamed both China and Russia for North Korea's continued violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

"As the principal economic enablers of North Korea's nuclear weapon and ballistic missile development program, China and Russia bear unique and special responsibility for this growing threat to regional and global stability," Tillerson said.

In April, Trump praised his first meeting with China's President Xi Jinping, later telling reporters that Xi had agreed to suspend coal and fuel shipments to pressure North Korea to stop its belligerent behavior. However, since then, the North has continued to threaten its neighbors and the United States, and Trump has grown more critical of Beijing.

North Korea's missile launch Friday was its second this month. Even though the missile landed west of Japan, experts said it would be powerful enough to reach much of the U.S. mainland. North Korea's official news agency said leader Kim Jong Un boasted that the latest test was "meant to send a grave warning to the U.S."

China condemned the launch, while Japan, South Korea and the U.S. vowed to work together on a new Security Council measure aimed at curbing North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

Word of Friday's missile launch came as a bill approved by Congress calling for tougher sanctions on North Korea, as well as Iran and Russia, landed on Trump's desk.

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Iran stronger after nuclear deal: Deputy FM

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, July 30, IRNA -- Iranian deputy foreign minister said that the newly-passed sanctions in the US Congress is a hostile move toward Iran.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Abbas Araqchi said in the IRIB 1 interview program View One on Saturday evening that with the JCPOA, Iran has become stronger and has rebuilt its international face, honor, and also its economic power; and the US intends to push Iran back.

He added that Iran is becoming more powerful every day and can help its allies in the region; Iran helped Syria free Aleppo, helped Iraq free Mosul, and fights terrorism in the region.

Even the United Sstates have admitted that Iran has become stronger after the nuclear deal and US politicians accuse Iran to have become more aggressive, said Araqchi.

9417**1771

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US, Europe cannot tolerate Iran's advances: Commander

Iran Press TV

Sun Jul 30, 2017 4:41PM

Iran's chief Armed Forces spokesman says the United States and its European allies oppose the country's successful test of a satellite carrier, because they cannot tolerate the Islamic Republic's great advances.

Deputy Chief of Staff of Iran's Armed Forces Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri said on Sunday that the Americans claimed that the test was a breach of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, but this interpretation was legally wrong.

"From our point of view, the approach taken by the US and a number of European countries is completely worthless and will have no impact on the trend of our progress," he added.

Iran's Imam Khomeini Space Center on Thursday successfully launched its domestically-manufactured Simorgh satellite carrier, whose mission is to put Iranian satellites into the orbit.

Designed and developed with the latest standards in mind, Iran's new space rocket can carry satellites weighing up to 250 kilograms (550 pounds) about 500 kilometers (310 miles) away, well within the Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

US State Department spokeswoman, Heather Nauert, claimed on Thursday that the rocket launch violated United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231.

She called Iran's rocket launch a "provocative action" that violated the "spirit" of the landmark nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries in 2015.

Iran has repeatedly announced that its missile launches are not against the Security Council Resolution 2231 that endorsed the JCPOA.

Simorgh's launch came as the US Congress passed new sanctions against Iran over its development of missiles for defensive purposes. The bill, which also includes sanctions against Russia and North Korea, awaits US President Donald Trump's approval.

Jazayeri further pointed to a motion prepared by the Iranian Parliament to counter Washington's adventurist measures, saying, "Steps taken by the US are certainly in violation of the JCPOA," stressing the importance of adopting countermeasures against such moves by Washington.

The Iranian Parliament's Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy on Saturday passed the general outlines of a motion to counter the terrorist and adventurous US measures in the region.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Abbas Araqchi, who was also present in the extraordinary session of the committee, emphasized that an appropriate measure must be adopted in response to the "hostile and malicious" US moves given their adverse effect on the implementation of the JCPOA.

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US main loser after imposing sanctions on Iran, Russia: Leader's aide

Iran Press TV

Sun Jul 30, 2017 1:13PM

A senior adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says the United States will certainly be the main loser after imposing sanctions on the Islamic Republic and Russia.

Ali Akbar Velayati, who advises the Leader on international affairs, made the comment in a meeting with the director of the Institute of Oriental Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Vitaly Naumkin, in Tehran on Sunday.

"The value of mutual relations between Iran and Russia will become more evident after the [imposition of] sanctions and these relations will become deeper and stronger," he said.

On Thursday, the US Senate voted nearly unanimously to impose new sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea

The Senate backed the measure by a margin of 98-2 with strong support from President Donald Trump's fellow Republicans as well as Democrats. The bill will now be sent to the White House for the US president to sign into law or veto.

Velayati further said Tehran and Moscow have taken great steps during recent years to boost strategic relations and succeeded in increasing ties, particularly in the field of trade.

He added that the two countries are currently strengthening cooperation in political, economic, security and defense sectors.

'Iran will give clear, strong response to US'

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Velayati said the United States had no right to unilaterally violate the landmark 2015 nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, including the US.

"We will definitely give a transparent, clear and strong response to the Americans," the senior Iranian official said, adding that the Islamic Republic was capable of adopting reciprocal measures in the face of any US move against the country's national interests.

He emphasized that Iran had always lived up to its commitments under the JCPOA, saying, "We will continue with our activities to enlighten the world public opinion."

If the US breaches the JCPOA, other signatories to the deal are duty-bound to counter it, Velayati said, adding, "What the Americans have so far carried out is definitely at odds with the letter and spirit of the JCPOA."

Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia - plus Germany signed the JCPOA on July 14, 2015 and started implementing it on January 16, 2016. Under the agreement, limits were put on Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for, among other things, the removal of all nuclear-related bans against the Islamic Republic.

The UN Security Council later unanimously endorsed a resolution that effectively turned the JCPOA into international law.

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Iran to honor JCPOA as long as interests safeguarded: Official

Iran Press TV

Sun Jul 30, 2017 8:46AM

A senior official says Iran will live up to its commitments under the 2015 nuclear agreement as long as its interests are safeguarded as the US is imposing back-to-back sanctions on the country.

Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Abbas Araqchi told a TV program on Saturday night that the new US sanctions "have not completely endangered the Islamic Republic's interests" yet.

"Whenever our costs in the JCPOA become higher than our interests, we will not be bound to fulfill our obligations," Araqchi said, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action as the nuclear accord is known.

His remarks come after both the US House of Representatives and Senate overwhelmingly voted earlier this week to levy new sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missile program, with President Donald Trump set to sign the bill into legislation.

Araqchi said the congressional vote was a hostile move which would elicit Iran's "decisive" response proportionate to the sanctions.

On Saturday, an Iranian parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy held an emergency session and decided to put the general outlines of a motion on countering "US terrorist and adventurous measures" in the region to debate.

Araqchi said the Americans are mistaken in thinking that the JCPOA is Iran's only tool against US pressures, and thus provoking the Islamic Republic to leave the 2015 nuclear accord. Tehran, he said, has many instruments to respond to the new US measures.

"It's unreasonable that the Americans lay down such a harsh law against Iran and do not know that we will defend our power components because Iran is strong in the region and internationally and it has this power from the JCPOA," Araqchi said.

"America must know that we are not about to commit self-injury with regard to the JCPOA. Whenever the commitments of the opposite side are not fulfilled, it means that a flagrant violation has taken place and we will then continue our enrichment again," he added.

The nuclear agreement was inked between Iran and the P5+1 countries  namely the US, Russia, China, France, Britain, and Germany  in July 2015 and took effect in January 2016.

Under the deal, which was later endorsed by a United Nations Security Council resolution, limits were put on Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for the removal of all nuclear-related bans imposed on the Islamic Republic, among other things.

The Trump administration, which took over in January 2017, one year after the JCPOA came into force, has described it a bad deal and pledged to "push back" against Iran.

"The Americans are talking about the 'pushback policy' against Iran in their speeches," Araqchi said, adding the US wants to prevent Iran from growing stronger.

The senior nuclear negotiator said the US president and his administration are after scrapping the JCPOA, but they want Iran to pay the costs.

The US is trying to make Iran angry and take an emotional decision, "but we will definitely demonstrate a vigilant and well-considered reaction to their enmity," Araqchi said

US sanctions made IRGC 'stronger'

Araqchi said US sanctions have made Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) "stronger and self-reliant."

"The enemies have targeted the IRGC in order to weaken it, but they would die in frustration," he said.

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Summer + Time Dress Code: How Ian Michael Crumm Makes Every Second Of Summer Stylish

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Looking sharp all summer long can be trickier than it might seem at first blush. Youll be wearing less but are more exposed to the elements; youll be out and about more, so you have to dress right for a bunch of different social occasions; and itll be hot as all hell, so you want to stay fresh. So how to keep it together when all you want to do is take it all off?

We turned to fashion guru Ian Michael Crumm for some answers, and why not: with more than 331,000 Instagram followers and a growing digital media presence covering lifestyle, dress, grooming and travel, Ian is a busy, in-demand creative consultant in his native Philadelphia and around the world. He took some time out this week to give us the goods on looking great.

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After you wear the watch for a few hours, it's evident the metal G-SHOCK watch is insanely durable and feels like you can take on any adventure without worrying you're going to scratch or break it, raves Ian.

Summer Trend To Try: Dressing Up

The leisure look is nice, but there are times to put away the gym shorts and put a bit more effort into how you look. Im all about the dressed-up dinner, casual suit look for 2017, he says. I think guys should step up their game a little bit and mix in some cool sneakers with a suit or other small details like a watch.

Proper Summer Sock Strategy: No-Show All The Way

Unless I'm going to a very formal event where I feel black dress socks are necessary (think black tie or a gala), then I'm a no-show sock guy.

Make Your Friends Jealous With: An Awesome Pair of Shoes

I get a lot of compliments and weird comments from people who want a lot of my shoes, he says. Im a big Cole Haan fan. I think theyve really elevated their whole brand with their mens shoes. I have their Stitchlite dress shoe, which is basically weightless. Ive worn them a few times and everybody was freaking out because theyre really cool and I have them in crisp white. Im always on the hunt for shoes that are really cool and are insanely comfortable, and I think Ive found them in these Stitchlite dress shoes Ive been wearing.

Summer Hair Strategy: Whatever Works

Hair care depends on your hair type. For me, I use a styling paste to add control without looking greasy or being too hard, and then a touch of medium strength hair spray to aid against humidity.

The Color Of The Summer: Millennial Pink

Its really hot right now. Ive purposely been wearing it quite a bit and I have noticed a lot of guys and a lot of designers featuring that pastel pink color.

Travel Essentials: Comfortable Clothes & Refreshing Grooming Products

I always bring a face mask with me to stay fresh. And I like having a nice pair of cashmere PJs to relax in. Ian is planning a big summer trip to Iceland this year, which will involve a lot of ice climbing, hiking and horseback riding, and says its nice to be able to take things down a notch at night.

When nearer to home, he says, I used to be a big over-packer, which I thankfully got away from, so now when I get away for a few days I try to pack really minimal: some grey and black t-shirts, shorts, of course, a comfortable pair of shoes, a dressy pair of shoes, a book, because if I have some down time I like to get some reading in  but I really try to follow the carry-on, getaway packing system and be really minimal.

Essential Summer Ensemble: Tan Suits

I like a shorter hem on the leg, I dont mind seeing the leg. The no-show socks where you see the ankle I think is very appropriate. Obviously fitted in the jacket, tan  I like a really pale grey. In the summer you can play with the colors but in a very toned-down way. Ties are great but you can get away with doing an open-collar shirt and fitted suit, and maybe pair it with a brogue or another dress shoe so youre not getting too casual.

What Makes This Fashion Expert Stop And Say, That Takes Enormous Balls and Looks Awesome: Wearing All White

Thanks to the Diner en Blanc event thats been taking place all over the world, the all-white look is becoming more common, says Ian. Wearing all white can look really amazing on certain guys but also it can be quite hard to pull off. It takes quite a lot of fashion courage and know-how, no matter whos doing it. The key to doing it right would be to consider using different textures and add interesting depth with different materials. If its not for a themed party, I definitely think an all-white look can be a cool statement.
Iraq foils Daesh terror attacks on Shia shrines, top cleric's residence

Iran Press TV

Sun Jul 30, 2017 12:48PM

Iraqi intelligence officials say they have thwarted an attempt by members of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group to target two revered Shia shrines and the residence of the country's most prominent Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

Two officers, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press on Sunday that Daesh's plan was to launch a series of bomb attacks in the holy city of Karbala, which is home to the shrine of Imam Hussein (PBUH)  the third Shia Imam and grandson of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)  and the holy city of Najaf, which houses the shrine of Imam Ali (PBUH)  the first Imam of Shia Muslims  in addition to home of Grand Ayatollah Sistani.

The officers added that scores of Daesh bombers were killed two weeks ago, when Iraqi and Russian military aircraft carried out simultaneous airstrikes against a gathering point of militants in the Iraqi town of al-Qa'im, located nearly 400 kilometers northwest of the capital Baghdad and near the Syrian border, as well as Syria's troubled eastern city of Mayadin.

On July 10, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi formally declared victory over Daesh extremists in Mosul, which served as the terrorists' main urban stronghold in the conflict-ridden Arab country.

In the run-up to Mosul's liberation, Iraqi army soldiers and volunteer fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units, commonly known by the Arabic name Hashd al-Sha'abi, had made sweeping gains against Daesh since launching the operation on October 17, 2016.

The Iraqi forces took control of eastern Mosul in January after 100 days of fighting, and launched the battle in the west on February 19.

An estimated 862,000 people have been displaced from Mosul ever since the battle to retake the city began eight months ago. A total of 195,000 civilians have also returned, mainly to the liberated areas of eastern Mosul.

Iraqi army kills 15 Daesh terrorists, destroys car bombs west of Anbar

Separately, Iraqi government forces have killed more Daesh militants and destroyed a number of cars rigged with explosives in the conflict-ridden western province of Anbar.

Commander of al-Jazeera Liberation Operations, Major General Qassim al-Mohamadi, said at least 15 extremists had been killed and four car bombs destroyed during a string of counter-terrorism operations in Umm al-Wez desert region northwest of Haditha, located about 240 kilometers (150 miles) northwest of Baghdad.

Daesh places families of leaders under house arrest

Meanwhile, Daesh has placed families of some of its senior militant commanders under house arrest in the town of Hawija, located 45 kilometers west of the northern Iraqi oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

A local source, requesting anonymity, told Arabic-language al-Sumaria television network that around 40 families from Daesh's self-proclaimed Diyala governorate have been affected as a result of the restrictive measure.

The source added that the move points to the growing conflicts among top Daesh figures, and harbingers the imminent collapse of the terrorist outfit.

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Pakistan's Northwest Region Continues its Struggle Against Terror Financing

By Madeeha Anwar July 30, 2017

Pakistan's restive northwest province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has issued directives to its administrative and security departments to make serious efforts to cut off the money supply of banned terror groups.

The provincial departments have been instructed to devise a strategy to crack down and to closely monitor the proscribed groups and individuals involved in raising funds illegally for welfare or religious purposes, Pakistani media reported.

Despite its continued efforts against terrorism, terror financing remains a challenge for Pakistan due to political resistance, sympathizers and money trails that are hard to track, analysts say.

"Pakistan will have to come up with a strategy to freeze assets of terror groups, make it difficult for terrorists to gather funds, but to also spot those who've adopted new identities and have re-established their networks," A. Z. Hilali, head of political science department at the Peshawar University told VOA.

Suspect groups identified

The official document circulated by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's government emphasized banned groups are not allowed to gather money "under any circumstances" and security forces and the administration should ensure people and groups raising money for mosques, charity or madrassas (religious seminaries) are lawfully doing so.

In 2015, Pakistan banned around 200 terror groups after establishing their involvement in sectarian and terrorism related activities against the state.

Pakistan had also frozen around $3 million worth of assets of 5,000 suspected terrorists last year. "We will make every possible effort to implement National Action Plan (NAP) to counter terror financing in our province," Shaukat Yousafzai, spokesperson for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government told VOA.

"We're the biggest victim of terrorism and we do not want them [terrorists] to succeed. We'll also work to start awareness programs so that banned groups can be prohibited from gathering funds from the masses," Yousafzai said.

A report issued by the Financial Monitoring Unit of Pakistan in March estimated the annual operational budget of terrorist organizations is $48,000 to $240,000.

The terror groups in Pakistan generate hefty amounts through charity and welfare work, receive huge foreign donations and use the "hawala system," an alternative finance system, used for money laundering, experts say.

National plan

Pakistan's National Action Plan, a comprehensive strategy aimed at eliminating extremism mentions the state should "choke financing for terrorist and terrorist organizations."

Hilali says there is a need to introduce legislation to prohibit collection of funds from the general public. "Terrorists collect large sums of money especially during the holy month of Ramadan under the guise of Zakat [mandatory Islamic charity]."

"The madrassas [religious seminaries] also play an important role and we are aware that a few of them remained involved in collecting funds on behalf of banned terror outfits in the past," Hilali added.

Security analysts also stress that the government should regulate and register all the religious seminaries across the country and should practice caution before making donations to religious organizations and seminaries.

In 2016, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's government received scathing criticism when it allocated a grant of $3 million to Darul Uloom Haqqania, a religious seminary that is interpreted by some critics as the "University of Jihad."

The Haqqani network, considered a terrorist group by Afghanistan and the United States, continues to fight Afghan and U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

U.S. officials have long accused Pakistan of providing support to the Haqqani network. The U.S. State Department released its annual Country Report on Terrorism 2016 earlier this month. It criticized Pakistan and said it remained unsuccessful in stopping the activities of the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network.

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Putin Tells 755 US Diplomats to Leave Russia

By Ken Bredemeier July 30, 2017

The Kremlin vowed Sunday to retaliate against the United States for approving new sanctions against Russia for its meddling in last year's presidential election to help President Donald Trump win the White House.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told ABC News' "This Week"

Russian President Vladimir Putin says 755 U.S. diplomats in the country must leave in retaliation for new sanctions Washington is imposing on Moscow for its meddling in the 2016 election to help President Donald Trump win the White House.

Putin told a Russian television network, "More than a thousand people were working and are still working" at the U.S. embassy and consulates, and "755 people must stop their activities in Russia."

The Russian leader said Moscow could take additional retaliatory steps against the United States following overwhelming congressional approval of new sanctions against Russia, but said, "I am against it as of today."

Moscow said the expulsion of hundreds of U.S. envoys by September 1 would leave both of the countries with the same number of diplomats in the two countries, 455.

Earlier, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told ABC News' This Week show, "I think this retaliation is long, long overdue."

He said Moscow has "a very rich toolbox at our disposal. It would be ridiculous on my part to start speculating on what may or may not happen. But I can assure you that different options are on the table and consideration is being given to all sorts of things."

The White House says Trump will sign the legislation imposing the new sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea.

Trump aides had objected to the measure because of inclusion of a provision that gives Congress 30 days to review and block any Trump effort to ease sanctions against Russia, including those imposed by former President Barack Obama for Russia's interference in the election. But the lopsided congressional approval of the sanctions left Trump with the prospect that if he vetoed the legislation, Congress would likely have overridden it.

Ryabkov said the U.S. Senate's 98-2 vote for the sanctions was "the last drop" on what he described as "a completely weird and unacceptable piece of legislation."

Obama closed two Russian compounds in the United States and expelled 35 diplomats in late December, less than a month before leaving office. But Moscow did not retaliate in kind until last week, when it shut two U.S. facilities in Russia and ordered the American diplomats out of the country by September 1.

Political analysts in the United States had thought Trump, in an attempt to ease tensions with Putin, might overturn the Obama sanctions when he assumed power, but he did not.

Since then, the early months of Trump's presidency have been consumed by numerous investigations of Russian meddling in the election, including whether Trump aides colluded with Moscow to help him win and whether Trump obstructed justice by firing James Comey, the Federal Bureau of Investigation director leading the agency's Russia investigation. Subsequently, another former FBI director, Robert Mueller, was named to take over the criminal investigation.

Moscow has rejected the conclusion of the U.S. intelligence community that Putin personally directed Moscow's interference in the election, while Trump has been dismissive of the investigations, describing them as a "witch hunt" and an excuse by Democrats to explain his upset win over the Democratic candidate, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Ryabkov told ABC, "If the U.S. side decides to move further towards further deterioration, we will answer, we will respond in kind. We will mirror this. We will retaliate. But my whole point is don't do this, it is to the detriment of the interests of the U.S."

The Russian diplomat said, "I believe there are several areas where the U.S. and Russia can and should work together cooperatively. Nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction, countering terrorism, illicit immigration, trafficking in people, climate change, you name it."

"We are ready, we are stretching our hand forward, we are hopeful that someone on the other side, President Trump included, but also others may see here a chance for a somewhat different way," he added.

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Taiwan admonishes citizens not to use PRC passports

ROC Central News Agency

2017/07/30 19:53:49

Taipei, July 30 (CNA) Taiwan's government admonished its citizens Sunday not to use passports issued by China, reminding them that using a People's Republic of China passport puts them at risk of losing their rights and benefits as citizens of the Republic of China (Taiwan).

The government quoted the law governing relations between the people of Taiwan and the people of the mainland area to abide by the law's provisions that prohibit Taiwanese people from taking any official position in China's political, military or party apparatuses.

The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), Taiwan's top agency for dealing with China, issued a statement in response to a Hong Kong media report indicating that China might launch a pilot program in which it will issue passports for citizens of what it describes as its "Taiwan Special Administrative Region (SAR)," as part of Beijing's efforts to "solve the Taiwan problem."

Violations of the relevant provisions in Taiwan's law could result in criminal suits or administrative fines, depending on the suspect's status as a public servant or a private citizen, said the MAC.

In a July 28 report, Super Media discussed how Chinese President Xi Jinping is aiming to "solve the Taiwan problem" within his terms in office, which are likely to end in 2023. The report quoted some Chinese scholars as suggesting that Beijing could set up a "Taiwan SAR Council" and issue passports for citizens of the "Taiwan SAR."

Rebutting the idea of looking at Taiwan as an SAR of the PRC, the MAC said it is an indisputable fact that the Republic of China on Taiwan is a sovereign country.

The reported suggestions by Chinese academics to see Taiwan as an SAR of China are ludicrous and misleading, an indication that risks do exist in China of taking an excessively hostile stance on Taiwan.

"This line of thinking seeks to invoke a stand-off and provoke Taiwan by downgrading its status and humiliating it whenever possible," according to the MAC statement, which warned the Chinese authorities of a "potential crisis" being triggered by the hawkish proposals.

It urged China to take a hard look at the firm determination of Taiwan's 23 million people, who will do all they can to protect their national sovereignty and dignity, as well as their democracy.

(By Yang Sheng-ju and S.C. Chang)

Enditem/J



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UK-EU freedom of movement will end in 2019: UK ministers

Iran Press TV

Sun Jul 30, 2017 5:22PM

UK government ministers have said that the free movement of people between Britain and the European Union will end in March 2019.

UK Immigration Minister Brandon Lewis told the BBC that the government is "very clear" that "free movement of labor ends when we leave the European Union in the spring of 2019."

It was a "simple matter of fact" that EU free movement rules would not apply after 2019, Lewis said.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said after March 2019, EU workers moving to Britain will have to register, at least until a permanent post-Brexit immigration policy is implemented.

Rudd said the "implementation phase" would involve new EU workers registering their details when they come to the UK."

"We will ensure we continue to attract those who benefit us economically, socially and culturally," she added.

"But, at the same time, our new immigration system will give us control of the volume of people coming here - giving the public confidence we are applying our own rules on who we want to come to the UK and helping us to bring down net migration to sustainable levels."

The UK is currently due to leave the EU at the end of March 2019. Immigration was one of the central topics of last year's Brexit referendum, which resulted in 52 percent of voters voting in favor of leaving the EU.

British finance minister Philip Hammond said Friday that the Brexit transition could last until 2022 and the UK will try to keep as many aspects of its EU membership in place as possible.

UK and EU negotiators held their first full round of Brexit talks earlier this month. The European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier says that both sides still have "fundamental" differences remaining.

Brexit Secretary David Davis said last week that there is a "moral imperative" to reach a quick deal on the rights of EU nationals living in Britain and UK citizens in the bloc.

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VANCOUVER, July 31, 2017 - Bravura Ventures Corp. (CSE: BVQ; OTC: BRVVF; FRA: 23B) ("Bravura" or the "Company") wishes to announce it has entered an option to acquire 100% of the approximately 1000 hectare Rabbit Cobalt-Gold-Nickel-Silver Property (collectively, the "Rabbit Property" or the "Property"), located 55km south of Cobalt, Ontario.

About the Rabbit Cobalt Property:

Location

The Rabbit Cobalt property is located 14 km southeast of the town of Temagami near the eastern border of Ontario. The district is mining friendly having a rich history of cobalt and silver production. 55km north of the property is Cobalt, Ontario. The epicentre of past producing cobalt mines in Ontario.

Property Status and Configuration

The approximately 1,040 ha Rabbit Cobalt property is comprised of 65 claim units owned by Caprock Ventures.

Access and Infrastructure

The Property is accessible via Rabbit Lake which is accessed by 7 km of well maintained gravel surface road leaving highway 11, 3.5 km south of the town of Temagami. The property is located 10 km from rail and 5 km from power distribution lines.

Mineralization

Cobalt, gold and nickel mineralization is hosted within a fracture zone in diabase approximately 18 inches in width. The fracture is described as being at the contact between the mafic intrusive and the Gowganda Formation. A grab sample collected by A.G. Burrows returned an assay of 8.76% Cobalt, and 6.56% Nickel. The grab samples are selective samples, and are not necessarily representative of the mineralization hosted on the property.

History

Sporadic exploration of the property has occurred since at least 1955 with minimal focus on cobalt mineralization in more recent years. In 2002 JML Resources flew airborne geophysics over several prospects in the area looking for diamondiferous kimberlites and partially covered the property. Tres-Or Resources in 2005 was also exploring the area for diamondiferous kimberlites.

Agreement terms

Bravura has acquire 100 per cent of the Rabbit Creek property in a share exchange agreement in consideration for:

Payment for an amount of $350,000 and the issuance of four million common shares to be paid upon closing.

"We are very pleased to be in what we feel is the epicenter of past cobalt producing mines in Ontario with a property that has strong showings and exploration potential. The area has been one of the most active exploration cobalt regions in Canada. We feel working towards establishing a resource base in a friendly political climate such as Canada is a very exciting endeavour."

Qualified Person

Mike Waldegger, P.Geo, is the qualified person as defined in NI 43-101, that has reviewed and approved the contents of this press release.

Bravura Ventures Corp.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF BRAVURA VENTURES CORP.

"Greg Burns"

_______________________

Greg Burns, Director

Disclaimer for Forward-Looking Information

Historical data for the prospects were performed under supervision of a Professional Engineer or a geologist, and believed to be of good quality, with drill core and underground sampling results from fire assay analyses by B.C. Certified Assayers. However, under NI43-101 policy historical information included in this release has not been verified by a QP, and as such cannot be relied upon and must be treated as historical in nature.

This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including statements that address capital costs, recovery, grade, and timing of work or plans at the Company's mineral projects. Forward-looking information may be, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "plan", "planned", "continue", "expect", "thought to", "project", "predict", "potential", "targeting", "intends", "believe", "opportunity", "further" and others, or which describes a goal or action, event or result such as "may", "should", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be undertaken, occur or achieved. Forward-looking information in this press release includes, but is not limited to, statements regarding expectations of management regarding the acquisition of the Property and includes that address future mineral production, reserve potential, potential size or scale of a mineralized zone, potential expansion of mineralization, potential type(s) of mining, potential grades as well as to the Company's ability to fund ongoing expenditure, or assumptions about future metal or mineral prices, currency exchange rates, metallurgical recoveries and grades, favourable operating conditions, access, political stability, obtaining or renewal of existing or required mineral titles, licenses and permits, labour stability, market conditions, availability of equipment, accuracy of any mineral resources, anticipated costs and expenditures. Assumptions may be based on factors and events that are not within the control of the Company and there is no assurance they will prove to be correct. Such forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, which may cause the actual results to materially differ, and/or any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Such forward-looking information is subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those contained in the statements including, without limitation, the risks that the Company may not have the funds necessary to make its payments pursuant to the Agreement, that the CSE may not approve the transaction, and other factors beyond the control of the Company.

Additional information on risks and uncertainties can be found within Financial Statements and other materials found on the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. Although Bravura has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking information, there can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Bravura withholds any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless required by law.

SOURCE Bravura Ventures Corp.







Contact

800 - 1199 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6E 3T5w, Tel.: 604.283.1722 / Fax: 1.888.241.5996


Vancouver, July 31 2017 - Centenera Mining Corporation ("Centenera" or the "Company") - (TSXV: CT, OTCQB: CTMIF), announces that it has engaged Dominick Inc. as the lead agent (the "Lead Agent") in connection with a proposed reasonable "best efforts" basis brokered private placement for gross proceeds of up to $2 million (the "Offering"). The Offering will consist of the sale of up to 12.5 million common shares (each, a "Share") in the capital of the Company at a deemed price of $0.16 per Share pursuant to applicable prospectus and registration exemptions and in Canada will have a hold period of four months and one day from the closing of the Offering.

In consideration for its services, the Lead Agent will receive a corporate finance fee consisting of a cash payment equal to 2% of the gross proceeds of the Offering and non-transferable broker warrants (the "Broker Warrants") equal to 2% of the total number of Shares issued by the Company under the Offering. Each Broker Warrant will be exercisable for 30 months following the closing of the Offering to acquire one Share at the issue price of $0.16 per Share. In addition, the Lead Agent will receive a sales commission comprised of a cash payment equal to 5% of the gross proceeds of the Offering and Broker Warrants equal to 5% of the total number of Shares issued by the Company under the Offering. Closing of the Offering is anticipated on or around August 21, 2017.

The net proceeds from the Offering will be used for exploration of the Company's mineral properties and for general working capital. The Company is focused in its Huachi copper-gold porphyry project ("Huachi") located in San Juan Province, Argentina. In connection with acquisition of the project in January 2017, Centenera commissioned a 43-101 technical report which is available for download at the Company's home page together with a corporate presentation. The 43-101 report confirmed the results from a previous drill program conducted in 2007. The copper-gold porphyry deposit has been tested with a total of 7 diamond drill holes (totalling 2,011 meters), the results of which can be found in the NI 43-101 report. Highlights include:

-All drill holes targeting porphyry style mineralization intersected copper-gold mineralization. -Best intersection to date is 353.1m1 from surface, grading 0.35% copper and 0.18g/t gold (0.49% copper equivalent2), including 243.1m1 grading 0.40% copper and 0.21g/t gold (0.57% copper equivalent2). -Mineralization is outcropping at surface (pyrite halo 1,400m x 850m) and drill holes generally intersected mineralization at surface. -Mineralization is open in all directions. -Majority of drill holes terminated in mineralization (due to limitations of the drill rig) and are open at depth. -Several drill holes demonstrate increasing grade with depth.

Notes: 1 True width is not known. 2.Copper equivalent = Copper grade % x (0.795 x gold grade g/t), where the conversion factor of 0.795 is calculated by comparing the value of 1 tonne of copper ore (at copper prices of $2.20/lb ($4,850.16/t)) to the value of 1 tonne of gold ore (at $1,200/oz ($38.58g/t)) and assuming 100% recovery.

In recent weeks, the Company completed a ground magnetic survey covering part of the project area and surface rock sampling in areas where sampling had not previously been completed. The results, when available, will be used to finalize drill targets at Huachi. The Company has applied for drill permits and the Company's exploration manager is working to finalize same.

The objective of future drilling will be to investigate the tonnage potential at Huachi. The planned drill holes are expected to step out at least 100m from previous drill holes. Since previous drill holes are open at depth, planned holes will aim to reach 500m to 600m in total drill length.

San Juan is a Province of Argentina which is known to be supportive of mining with several large mines currently in operation. Access to infrastructure is critically important and impacts the feasibility of bulk-tonnage porphyry-style projects. Huachi is close to existing infrastructure, being only 35km from the electrical transmission lines that service Yamana's Gualcamayo Mine and with planned road upgrades, it will be possible to access the project by road throughout the year. Huachi is located at low elevations of between 2,800m and 3,250m above sea level, which is low relative to projects in the high Andes at greater than 4,500m.

About Centenera Mining Corporation

Centenera is a mineral resource company trading on the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV"), under the symbol CT and on the OTCQB exchange under the symbol CTMIF. The Company is focused 100% on mineral resource assets in Argentina. In 2017 the Company's strategy is to focus on the Huachi project (see news releases dated January 23 and March 6, 2017). The Company intends to focus its Q3/Q4 efforts on drill-testing.

Other assets, such as the El Quemado project in Salta Province (see news release dated April 26, 2017) are intended to be explored by the Company with the aim of proving project potential and attracting a joint venture partner or a project sale. The Company intends to seek a joint venture partner for the Organullo gold project, which has approximately 8,000 meters of historical drilling and assay results. The Organullo project has a geological target range from 19.8 million tonnes grading at 0.94 g/t gold (600,000 ounces) to 31.6 million tonnes grading at 0.92 g/t gold (940,000 ounces) using a 0.5 g/t gold cut-off-grade. It should be noted that these potential exploration target quantities and grades are conceptual in nature, that insufficient exploration and geological modelling has been completed to define a mineral resource, and that it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the delineation of a mineral resource.

For more information on the Company's board of directors, management and assets, please refer to the Company's website at www.centeneramining.com.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of

Centenera Mining Corp.

"Keith Henderson"

President & CEO

For further details on the Company readers are referred to the Company's website (www.centeneramining.com) and its Canadian regulatory filings on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

For further information, please contact:

Keith Henderson

Phone: +1-604-638-3456

E-mail: info@centeneramining.com

Cautionary Statements:

Neither TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release, which has been prepared by management.

Except for the statements of historical fact contained herein, the information presented in this news release and the information incorporated by reference herein, constitutes "forward looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws concerning the business, operations and financial performance and condition of the Company. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements regarding the use of proceeds from the Offering, the anticipated content, commencement, and cost of exploration programs in respect of the Huachi project, El Quemado project and Organullo project ( the "Projects") and otherwise, anticipated exploration program results from exploration activities, the Company's expectation that it will be able to enter into a joint venture or a project sale agreements in respect of the El Quemado project or the Organullo project, the discovery and delineation of mineral deposits/resources/reserves on the Projects, and the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Often, but not always, forward looking information can be identified by words such as "pro forma", "plans", "expects", "may", "should", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", "potential" or variations of such words including negative variations thereof, and phrases that refer to certain actions, events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. Forward looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward looking information. Such risks and other factors include, among others, the ability of the Company to obtain sufficient financing through the Offering, operating and technical difficulties in connection with mineral exploration and development and mine development activities for the Projects (and the Company's projects generally) including the geological mapping, prospecting and sampling programs for the Company's projects, actual results of exploration activities, including the program, estimation or realization of mineral reserves and mineral resources, the timing and amount of estimated future production, costs of production, capital expenditures, the costs and timing of the development of new deposits, the availability of a sufficient supply of water and other materials, requirements for additional capital, future prices of precious metals, tantalum and lithium, changes in general economic conditions, changes in the financial markets and in the demand and market price for commodities, possible variations in ore grade or recovery rates, possible failures of plants, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated, accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry, delays in obtaining governmental approvals, permits or financing or in the completion of development or construction activities, changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting mining operations, hedging practices, currency fluctuations, title disputes or claims limitations on insurance coverage and the timing and possible outcome of pending litigation, environmental issues and liabilities, risks related to joint venture operations, and risks related to the integration of acquisitions, as well as those factors discussed under the heading. "Risk Factors" in the Company's most recent Management Information Circular and as discussed in the annual management's discussion and analysis and other filings of the Company with the Canadian Securities Authorities, copies of which can be found under the Company's profile on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward looking information. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward looking information in this news release or incorporated by reference herein, except as otherwise required by law.

-30-

Copyright (c) 2017 TheNewswire - All rights reserved.


VANCOUVER, B.C., July 31, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Novo Resources Corp. (TSX-V:NVO) (OTCQX:NSRPF) (Novo or the Company) is pleased to provide an update of corporate activities.



Karratha

As described in the Companys news release dated July 12, 2017, Novo collected a trial bulk sample from the Purdys Reward prospect to help establish sampling and assay protocols for future work on the project. Approximately 700 kg of mineralized conglomerate was collected from a 2x2 meter exposure of bedrock at the bottom of a half-meter deep trench. The sample was split into duplicate subsamples that were shipped to the Nagrom Metallurgical Laboratory (Nagrom) in Perth, WA, where they are currently being subjected to a series of tests including gravity gold recovery and CN leaching. This test work will provide the first indication of grade of this unusual deposit. Nagrom has indicated results from this test work will be available in approximately one to two weeks.

Novo has delivered definitive agreements to Artemis Resources Ltd. (please see the Companys news release dated May 26, 2017). The Company is concurrently working toward completion of definitive agreements with two separate parties regarding the Comet Well project (please see the Companys news releases dated April 11 and June 26, 2017). The Comet Well project covers 54.5 square km, the Artemis farm-in/joint venture covers 1,536 square km, and Novo has staked a 100% interest in 7,638 square km bringing Novos total land holdings at Karratha to 9,228.5 square km. The Karratha gold project encompasses a new discovery of conglomerate-hosted gold mineralisation in the Pilbara region.

Beatons Creek

With the support of Sumitomo Corporation (see the Companys news release dated July 6, 2017), the Company continues to advance its Beatons Creek gold project, Western Australia. The Company is currently awaiting further assay results from reverse circulation drilling and trench bulk sampling conducted in May and June. Given the surprise return of significantly thicker gold intercepts from some long trenches (please see the Companys news release dated June 14, 2017), additional long trenches were excavated and bulk sampled in July. Novo plans to provide a comprehensive overview of results and progress at Beatons Creek by late August.

Marble Bar

In July, Novo completed 24 reverse circulation drill holes testing two conglomerate-hosted gold targets at its Marble Bar project approximately 100 km north-northwest of Nullagine. Thirteen holes were completed at Virgin Creek and eleven holes were completed at Contact Creek. Samples were submitted for gold analyses to Genalysis Laboratory in Perth. Results are expected back by late-August.

About Novo Resources Corp.

Novos focus is to explore and develop gold projects in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Novo also controls a 100% interest in approximately 2 sq km covering much of the Tuscarora Au-Ag vein district, Nevada. For more information, please contact Leo Karabelas at (416) 543-3120 or e-mail leo@novoresources.com.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors,

Novo Resources Corp.

Quinton Hennigh

Quinton Hennigh

Chairman and President

Forward-looking information

Some statements in this news release contain forward-looking information (within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation) including, without limitation, the statement as to the expected consummation of the Comet Well Project transactions and results expected from various testing and sampling exercises described in this news release. These statements address future events and conditions and, as such, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the statements. Such factors include, without limitation, the receipt of TSX Venture Exchange approval.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.
Vancouver, July 31, 2017 - Telson Resources Inc. ("Telson" or the "Company") (TSX Venture - TSN.V) is pleased to announce that processing of Tahuehueto ore for mineral recovery at the Atocha toll mill is underway. It is planned to process the ore at 300 tonnes or more per day.

To date approximately 4,600 tonnes of ore has been delivered to the Atocha mill site and approximately 1,500 tonnes of this ore has been processed through the sulfide flotation mill circuit to recover metal concentrates. A further 900 tonnes have been mined and are stockpiled at the Tahuehueto mine site pending delivery to the Atocha mill.

Mining is continuing underground from the Level 10 ore shoot estimated to contain at least 50,000 tonnes. Telson intends to continue mining on a continuous basis to generate cash proceeds during the Tahuehueto mine construction phase.

Commodities to be recovered are gold, silver, lead, zinc, within lead and zinc concentrates. The company is anticipating similar head grades and recoveries to those that were achieved during its industrial scale bulk sample test completed earlier this year as the ore is being mined from the same zone. Those previously achieved results from Feb 2017 are shown below. (Please see news release issued February 23, 2017).

Testing on the February 2017 industrial scale bulk sample returned an average head grade of 9.5 g/t gold, 63.9 g/t silver, 3.54% lead and 6.24% zinc. Sulfide flotation processing produced,

-201 dry tonnes of Pb concentrate with average grades of 124.4 g/t Au, 786.4 g/t Ag, 40.7% Pb and 24.7% Zn. -259 dry tonnes of Zn concentrate with average grades of 11.18g/t Au, 147.07g/t Ag, 5.55% Pb and 43.57% Zn

All the concentrates from the February 2017 industrial scale bulk sample were sold generating cash receipts of approximately USD $1.47 million.

Telson Resources Inc. is a Canadian based resource development company advancing two gold, silver and base metal projects towards production over the coming months of 2017 and early 2018. Telson's Tahuehueto Project, located in north-western Durango State, Mexico and its recently acquired Campo Morado Mine in Guerrero, Mexico purchased from Nyrstar Mining are both polymetallic deposits containing significant gold, silver, lead, zinc and copper. Subject to securing funding, Telson plans to recommence mining operations at Campo Morado within 3 to 5 months while at the same time develop it's Tahuehueto Project through the mine construction phase with an anticipated timeline to be producing at the project site in its own mineral processing facility by the first quarter of 2018 or earlier.

On behalf of the board of directors



(signed) "Ralph Shearing"

Ralph Shearing, P.Geol

President

Qualified Person

This press release was prepared under the supervision and review of Ralph Shearing, P.Geol., President and Director of Telson Resources Inc., a Professional Geologist registered in Alberta as a member of the professional organization APEGA, and a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Statements contained in this news release that are not historical facts are "forward-looking information" or "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "Forward-Looking Information") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward Looking Information includes, but is not limited to, disclosure regarding possible events, conditions or financial performance that is based on assumptions about future economic conditions and courses of action; the timing and costs of future activities on the Company's properties; success of exploration, development and bulk sample processing activities; anticipated results of check assay results; and processing plans at the Atocha Mineral Processing Plant for mineralized material from the Company's Tahuehueto project. In certain cases, Forward-Looking Information can be identified by the use of words and phrases such as "plans", "expects", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or variations of such words and phrases. In preparing the Forward-Looking Information in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including, but not limited to, that the current exploration, development, environmental and other objectives concerning the Tahuehueto Project can be achieved; that the implementation of the selective mining method will prove feasible based on the results of the bulk sample; that the mineral processing plant recently acquired by the Company will be successfully installed and commissioned, the continuity of the price of gold and other metals, economic and political conditions and operations. Forward-Looking Information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the Forward-Looking Information. There can be no assurance that Forward-Looking Information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on Forward-Looking Information. Except as required by law, the Company does not assume any obligation to release publicly any revisions to Forward-Looking Information contained in this news release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Cautionary Note Regarding References to Resources and Reserves

This news release uses the terms "measured and indicated resources" and "inferred resources". We advise U.S. investors that while these terms are defined in, and permitted by, Canadian regulations, these terms are not defined terms under SEC Industry Guide 7 and not normally permitted to be used in reports and registration statements filed with the SEC. "Inferred resources" have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence, and great uncertainty as to their economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under Canadian rules, estimates of inferred mineral resources may not form the basis of a feasibility study or prefeasibility studies, except in rare cases. The SEC normally only permits issuers to report mineralization that does not constitute SEC Industry Guide 7 compliant "reserves", as in-place tonnage and grade without reference to unit measures. U.S. investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of mineral deposits in this category will ever be converted into reserves. U.S. investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of an inferred resource exists or is economically or legally minable.

Contacts

Glen Sandwell, Telson Resources Inc.

Corporate Communications

ir@telsonresources.com

Tel: +1(604)684-8071



Copyright (c) 2017 TheNewswire - All rights reserved.


Toronto, July 31, 2017 - Golden Share Resources Corp. (TSXV: GSH) ("Golden Share" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has acquired the Ogoki Project though staking. The Ogoki Project is located approximately 200km southwest of the DeBeers' Victor diamond mine in the James Bay Lowlands of Ontario. Eight non-contiguous claim blocks totaling 2,160 hectares were staked to cover 13 isolated circular magnetic highs interpreted as possible kimberlite pipe targets based on data (the "Data") acquired from Keystone Associates Inc. ("Keystone"), a company owned by Golden Share's President and CEO, Nick Zeng.

The Ogoki Project lies near the western margin of the Hudson Platform which comprises flat-lying Paleozoic sedimentary rocks unconformably overlying Precambrian plutonic and metamorphic basement rocks of the Superior Province. The Paleozoic sediments are overlain by thin Pleistocene till sheets in turn overlain by thin Holocene marine and beach deposits which are covered by small lakes and muskeg.

Ten of the magnetic targets form a distinct cluster or field along a 20 km long northwest trending axis, underlain by Paleozoic sedimentary rocks and similar in size and orientation to the Attawapiskat kimberlite field hosting the Victor diamond mine 200km to the northeast. Of the remaining three isolated kimberlite targets, one is underlain by Paleozoic sedimentary rocks and two are in areas of Precambrian bedrock immediately west of the margin of the Hudson Platform sediments. Nine of the magnetic targets have been covered by regional and detailed airborne magnetic surveys so to be considered drill ready, a few verification lines of ground magnetics over each target may be conducted prior to drilling. The remaining four magnetic targets require small confirmatory ground magnetometer surveys prior to drilling.

While staking the Ogoki Project claims, Golden Share also acquired the Kagiami Project through staking two additional small non-contiguous claim blocks comprising 96 and 240 hectares for their massive sulphide exploration potential based on VTEM and magnetic data (the "Data") also acquired from Keystone.

Golden Share has granted Keystone a 1% net sales returns royalty and net smelter returns royalty (together, the "Royalty") for all diamonds and other precious stones as well as for precious and base metals for both Ogoki and Kagiami projects as consideration for the Data. Keystone generated the Data through exploration work carried out between 2009 and early 2015. That work was completed before Mr. Zeng's appointment as President and CEO of Golden Share on May 1, 2015.

The acquisition of the Data in consideration of the Royalty constitutes a "related party transaction" under Multilateral Instrument 61-101  Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The Company is relying on exemptions from the formal valuation and minority approval requirements of MI 61-101 based on the fact that its securities are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange and that the fair market value of each of the Data and the Royalty is less than 25% of the Company's market capitalization.

The acquisition of the Ogoki Post land package reflects Golden Share's strategy of acquiring a diverse portfolio of prospective early stage exploration properties focussed in Ontario and through systematic exploration generating best potential value for the Company, shareholders and all stakeholders.

Updates about Berens River project

The Government of Ontario  OGS has contracted Geotech to fly a 17,734 km VTEM survey over the Sandy Lake and Favourable Lake greenstone belts in northwestern Ontario. The Favourable Lake survey area includes all of Golden Share Mining's Berens River Project.

The Favourable Lake survey is to be flown at 035 at 200 m. Final products will include a standard electronic set of report, databases and map images. Maps will include 1:20,000 and 1:50,000 residual magnetic intensity contours with EM anomaly centers. The survey is to be completed by August 31, 2017. Final results are to be provided to the OGS by November 30, 2017. A public release will follow.

Golden Share is considering postponing its proposed Berens River project VTEM survey until it has reviewed the OGS survey results when released, probably in 2018. This review might involve a project-wide compilation with historical geological, geochemical, geophysical, drilling, mineral deposit and other exploration data. The results of this review would guild decision-making regarding future exploration on the Project.

The technical information in this news release has been prepared in accordance with Canadian regulatory requirements set out in National Instrument 43-101 and reviewed by Wes Roberts, P. Eng., a Qualified Person under NI 43-101.

Golden Share also announces that Ms. Hua (Helen) Gao has tendered her resignation as CFO of the Corporation to pursue a business opportunity. The Company greatly appreciates her efforts and contributions and wishes her the best in her future endeavors. Demin (Fleming) Huang, CPA, CMA has been appointed as Interim CFO and Vice President, Corporate. Fleming has acted as Corporate Secretary and Financial Controller since May 1, 2015.

About Golden Share

Golden Share Resources Corp. is a junior natural resource company focusing on mineral exploration in the province of Ontario, Canada, a mineral rich and politically stable jurisdiction. More than just exploration. Golden Share's participation of potential rail road to the Ring of Fire region located in northwestern Ontario provides tremendous potential for the Company. Golden Share also continues to advance an exciting opportunity related to vanadium based energy storage solutions.

WARNING: This News Release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including but not limited to comments regarding the timing and content of up-coming work programs, geological interpretations etc. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore involve inherent risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. The Company relies upon litigation protection for forward-looking statements.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

For more information, please visit www.goldenshare.caa or contact:

Golden Share Resources Corporation

Nick Zeng, President & CEO

Tel: (905) 968-1199

E-mail: info@goldenshare.ca


Years ago, it took days to get our hands on basic government documents. Wed call someone who could send them to us, hope they would follow through and then wait for the U.S. Postal Service to do its job. When they didnt arrive in a week or so, wed repeat the process.These days, like many other researchers, journalists, policymakers and citizens, we rely on the troves of reports, budgets, data and plans that state and local governments post on their websites. This isnt just an executive branch phenomenon. State legislative websites now provide more information online than anyone would have thought possible 20 years ago, including such helpful items as access to meeting minutes and summaries of proposed bills.But the postings often leave users more frustrated than grateful. Many of us feel that this promised land of facts is more of a mirage than an informational oasis.Consider the common absence of plain English. Connecticut legislative committee minutes, for example, often use the initials JF. What does this mean? We sure didnt know. According to other parts of the committees website, we learned that JF means joint favorable. But even with that in hand, users need further translation. It turns out that JF means a bill made it out of committee with a favorable report. Wouldnt it be easier on users to just say that? Or, at least, to add a simple footnote to the initials?At least Connecticut committees produce minutes. When we looked for notes on proceedings from the dozens of legislative committee meetings held this year in Delaware, we found exactly one.Heres another issue that would be relatively easy to fix: Many legislatures refer to sessions by their assigned number rather than the year. There may be a spot on the website that translates session numbers into session years, as there is in Texas, but wed find it easier if the dates were listed parenthetically when reference is made to the session number. No one should have to delve deeply to see that the 80th session was held in 2007.Particularly galling are prominent website tabs that promise to link users to pages that sound like they will provide helpful data, but lead to sites with very little information. The Rhode Island website provides links to annual reports on its homepage, for instance. But many of the annual reports available are five to 10 years old. Our own spot check of the information shows that more recent reports exist. The list just hasnt been updated.In some cases, the links are broken. Take the one for the Rhode Island Corrections Department. The link to its annual report sends you to a not found message. But a Google search revealed several annual reports published by that department including a population report for 2016.Or take the Legislative Reference Library in Texas. At the top of the webpage theres a tab for committees. Once you click onto the committee page, youll see the clickable words Committee minutes & related documents posted on the left. Click through, as we did, and youll find that the most recent committee minutes and related documents are from the 75th session of the legislature, which was two decades ago.After years of going through legislative websites, weve developed a short wish list of items wed like to see on them, starting with a central repository for reports. In Virginia, such material is kept meticulously up to date, and the astonishing number of reports listed each year gives us a sense of the work that is buried and hard to find in many other states. By mid-June 2017, for instance, there were nearly 200 reports for the year. Clicking on each link brings you to a short summary first -- a very nice feature -- and then you can click through to the whole document.As weve already mentioned, were fans of comprehensive meeting minutes. In Idaho, legislative committee minutes are frequently cited as a model for local government folks. According to Betsy Russell, president of Idahoans for Openness in Government, an affiliate of the National Freedom of Information Coalition, the legislatures approach shows how to do minutes right. In part thats because the minutes tell the reader who the speakers are and offer summaries of what they said, as well as listing motions, votes and decisions.Particularly helpful is information explicitly labeled as useful for citizen engagement. Oregon is a standout here. Its website offers audio and video links to legislative meetings, publications and reports, as well as a legislative data site.Research organizations with buckets full of money can hire companies to track bills for them. But some legislative websites make this process much easier. Notable is Florida. The pages for a bills history are clear and concise and tell you the status of each bill filed.We honestly do not believe that state legislatures are being purposefully opaque when it comes to presenting important information online. That might be true at times, but we think it is more likely that many legislators simply arent paying much attention to the information they make available to the public -- and what they could accomplish with improved communication.
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker on Friday signed the long-awaited compromise marijuana bill into law, even as he voiced his disapproval with the controversial substance that Bay State voters broadly legalized in November 2016."I don't support this," Baker said to reporters in his ceremonial office at the State House. "I worry terribly about what the consequences over time will be.""But look, the people voted this," he added. "And I think it's really important that we put a program in place that delivered a workable, safe, productive recreational marijuana market for them here in Massachusetts."The rewrite doesn't change personal home-growing and possession limits that went into effect in December 2016.Marijuana remains illegal at the federal level.The new Massachusetts marijuana law is compromise legislation between the Massachusetts House's attempted overhaul of the original voter-approved law, and the state Senate's bid for slight changes. The House originally pushed for a law that taxed recreational pot at 28 percent, a jump from the voter-approved 12 percent.Under the new law, recreational marijuana will be taxed 17 to 20 percent, depending where you buy it. The baseline tax is 17 percent, which is determined from a combination of a 6.25 percent sales tax and a 10.75 percent special excise tax on adult use.But cities and towns can choose to add a three percent tax on top of the 17 percent, tallying up to a 20 percent tax on pot."The tax rate, we think, is too high," said Jim Borghesani, a spokesman for legalization advocates. "We put it at 12 percent for the specific reason that we wanted to dampen down the illicit market to the greatest extent we could."But legalization advocates largely backed the compromise bill Baker signed on Friday, having urged him to approve it after they avoided what they referred to as a "repeal and replace" bill proposed by the Massachusetts House.Medical marijuana will remain untaxed.The law will create a new Cannabis Control Commission to regulate recreational and medical marijuana.The Department of Public Health has overseen medical marijuana under the original 2012 voter-approved law, and now the new commission will take it over.The commission will set "potency limits" on edible marijuana products.Those regulations will be decided upon in the coming months, and retail pot shops are scheduled to start opening in July 2018.The new commission will be made up of five members: three appointed by the governor, treasurer and attorney general, while the other two will be agreed upon by those same three officials.The current state budget sets aside $2 million for the commission.The commission will receive guidance on regulations from the Cannabis Advisory Board, a 25-member board with at least five members appointed by the governor.The new marijuana law also affords those who have been convicted of a crime involving the possession of small amounts of marijuana the opportunity to "petition" and seal the conviction in their criminal history."The way the law is written prior to this marijuana bill says if there's a crime you were convicted of that is now no longer a crime in Massachusetts, then you can petition to have your records sealed," said state Sen. Jason Lewis, a Winchester Democrat.Gov. Baker said lawmakers who crafted the compromise bill he signed received a guidance from states like Colorado and Washington, where recreational pot has been legalized for several years. He said legislators in those states were very open to sharing their experiences in marijuana regulations."There are a lot of pitfalls," Baker warned.
Cook County shoppers who buy sweetened beverages will be charged a penny-per-ounce tax beginning Wednesday, after a judge dismissed a lawsuit that challenged the county tax as unconstitutional.In the immediate aftermath of Friday's ruling, retailers and beverage industry groups lamented the setback, while health groups and county officials cheered. Cook County Circuit Judge Daniel Kubasiak also dissolved the temporary restraining order that had halted implementation of the tax, which originally had been set to take effect July 1 and applies to both sugar- and artificially sweetened drinks.The tax is scheduled to go into effect Wednesday, according to Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle."We applaud today's decision. ... We believed all along that our ordinance was carefully drafted and met pertinent constitutional tests," Preckwinkle said in a emailed statement after the ruling.It's not yet known whether the Illinois Retail Merchants Association will appeal the decision.Rob Karr, president and CEO of the group, said his organization would consider its legal options, which include filing an appeal or an amended complaint."We are disappointed by today's ruling. ... I can only imagine the outrage that is being felt by consumers throughout Cook County who may soon have to pay this tax," Karr said.The tax was championed by Preckwinkle and approved by commissioners last fall -- one of several so-called soda taxes popping up in municipalities across the country. But last month, the merchants group sued the county, alleging the tax violates a clause in the state constitution requiring uniform taxation of products within a designated taxable class.Reading a portion of his ruling, Kubasiak acknowledged he was aware of the county's "budgetary turmoil" as a result of the legal challenge, but said he wasn't "moved by its public airing of those matters." Ultimately, the judge determined that the tax was within the county's authority and did not violate the state constitution."The court is not charged with evaluating the progressive or regressive nature of this tax, or any tax. ... Rather those determinations rest with economists, the county's elected officials and those who ultimately bear the effect of the tax," Kubasiak said.The county had been expecting the tax to bring in $67.5 million this year and $200.6 million in 2018. Earlier this month, Preckwinkle announced layoffs for 300 county workers in the absence of that revenue, though the layoffs have not begun.It's unclear how many people will actually lose their jobs. In her statement, Preckwinkle said the county had lost at least $17 million in revenue because of the delay."Until we are able to fully implement and collect revenues from this tax, we will continue to review our financial position and make adjustments accordingly," she said.Many retailers oppose the tax, which would apply to a wide variety of sugar- and artificially sweetened beverages. They've argued that, under the Illinois Constitution, similar objects should be taxed uniformly. Under the sweetened beverage tax, drinks in a bottle, or from a fountain machine, are taxable. But on-demand, custom-sweetened beverages, such as those mixed by a server or barista, or a hand-made Frappuccino, aren't subject to the tax.Also exempt: purchases made with federal food stamp benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which are exempt from state and local sales taxes under federal law.More generally, many retailers have fought the tax because it required them to make changes to their point-of-sale systems -- a potentially costly undertaking for small stores -- and adapt to numerous changes to regulations in recent months.Potash Markets' three locations will be as ready as they can be to implement the tax when Cook County says go, said owner Art Potash. But it won't be easy."We have no problem complying, we comply with everything out there, but this is a very complex, difficult thing," he said, noting that he "strongly" opposes the tax.The fight over Cook County's sweetened beverage tax in some ways mirrors what's happened in other states. The beverage industry has spent millions of dollars fighting similar taxes in cities like Philadelphia; Boulder, Colo.; and Berkeley, Calif. In Cook County, the American Beverage Association, the industry group representing companies like Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, is funding the Can the Tax coalition that is seeking to repeal the tax.Meanwhile, organizations such as the American Heart Association, World Health Organization, Center for Science in the Public Interest and Illinois Public Health Institute have advocated the public health benefit of taxing sugary drinks, which are linked to obesity and related health conditions. The science is less clear, though, on whether artificially sweetened beverages have negative health consequences.Mariano's spokesman Jim Hyland said the chain is ready to roll out the new tax."We do not expect a run on soda this evening as this subject is likely not top of mind for our customers due to the length of the legal proceedings over the last few weeks," Hyland said in an email.
was overflowing at a nondescript convention center in suburban Maryland, a few miles from the Baltimore airport. The event had originally been capped at 350, but organizers had to make plans for an overflow room, seating an additional 150 people. Despite that, registration still maxed out days before the conference took place. Any event that brings together three regional leaders in the same room -- in this case, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser -- is noteworthy. But thats not why the overcapacity crowd had shown up on an unseasonably chilly day in May. Its because they were all there to discuss the opioid epidemic.Hogan, who issued a state of emergency for Marylands opioid overdose problem in March, told attendees at the conference that his state had been doing everything within its power to address the epidemic, without much success. He seemed almost to be pleading with the crowd when he said, Were throwing everything we have at this.But are we?Cities and states have tried all sorts of solutions as Americas opioid crisis has worsened. But many public health officials say there are many options -- in some cases, approaches that have been proven effective in other countries -- that are still being left on the table. To really fight this epidemic, these experts say, governments must fully embrace every solution out there. And they may need to change the entire way they think about opioids.Over the past few years, cities have equipped police officers with naloxone to reverse overdoses in emergency situations. Some health officials, including those in Baltimore and Houston, have written a blanket, jurisdiction-wide prescription for naloxone, making the antidote available to any resident who needs it. Many states have tried to limit the supply of addictive opioids by restricting the number of pain-relief pills a physician can prescribe. Every state (except Missouri) now has a prescription drug database intended to stop potential users from doctor-shopping to obtain more drugs. And last summer, 46 governors signed a compact to double down on policies that could curb the epidemic. Led by Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, the compact outlines specific steps that governors pledge to follow. This includes changing prescription guidelines, establishing more public awareness campaigns and pursuing good Samaritan laws, which protect someone from arrest if they help at an overdose scene.The deepening crisis has even caused some leaders to embrace more controversial approaches, such as needle exchange programs. In 2015, for example, when an HIV outbreak caused by injecting opioids decimated one south Indiana county, then-Gov. Mike Pence was reluctant to act on what public health advisers were telling him was necessary to curb the outbreak: allowing clean needles to be distributed and dirty needles to be safely disposed of. It took enormous political pressure from both parties, in Indiana and nationally, before Pence agreed to allow a needle exchange program. Even then, the governor said he was still opposed to needle exchange as anti-drug policy. But this is a public health emergency. Two years later, these programs are already far less controversial. Today, the American Civil Liberties Union estimates there are 185 needle exchange programs across the country.Other leaders are also exploring approaches that seemed politically unthinkable just a short time ago, including safe injection sites, where addicts can shoot up heroin under the supervision of a health-care professional and without fear of being arrested. The idea is to prevent people from overdosing while also offering them information about treatment. Vancouver, British Columbia, established a site in 2003 and has prevented nearly 5,000 overdoses since then, according to the clinics website. For years, the notion of setting up a sanctioned safe injection facility in the U.S. was a nonstarter. But now, Seattle lawmakers have approved a site that they hope to start building on soon. The idea is also being considered by leaders in Boston and San Francisco, where Mayor Ed Lee only recently dropped his opposition to them. I had to kind of force myself to be open to the idea, he told a reporter in January, because it doesnt come as a natural thing.The future of such facilities, however, could be shaped by the federal government. Attorney General Jeff Sessions hasnt commented on safe injection clinics specifically, but he has signaled a tough-on-drugs approach that would presumably not include such facilities. Leana Wen, Baltimores health commissioner, recently said that Sessions stance has given her pause on whether a safe injection site is even worth pursuing. Shes asked the federal government how it would respond if the city were to establish safe injection sites, but said she hasnt heard back. Im not one to shy away from a fight, she said, but we need further guidance from the feds if were going to proceed with this.Still, there are other solutions that public officials in the U.S. have been less willing to embrace. One of those is medication-assisted treatment, in which a physician prescribes a controlled substance, most commonly methadone and buprenorphine, to help an addict transition safely from opioid dependence. The idea is still controversial. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price criticized the practice, warning that it could just be replacing one opioid for another. But its an approach that has already proven effective elsewhere: After France allowed all doctors to prescribe buprenorphine, for example, opioid overdose deaths dropped by 69 percent. Here in the U.S., Melinda Campopiano, medical officer with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, says that medication-assisted treatment cuts the mortality rate for drug users in half. But she acknowledges that it can seem counterintuitive. Giving an opioid to an opiate user doesnt click really well, but its the truth: If you want someone to not overdose, this is the definitive overdose strategy, she says. Detox is not treatment.Its hard to get comprehensive information on medication-assisted treatment, but its estimated that there are now around 1,000 programs in the U.S. For example, Tennessee, which lost more than 1,400 residents in 2015 to drug overdoses, now counts nearly 6,000 active patients in its methadone treatment program. Those kinds of numbers may sound like a lot, but health experts say theyre actually low. One reason for that may be a nationwide lack of doctors, since physicians must complete a specialized course before they become certified in medication-assisted treatment.Other countries have used wastewater testing to find hot spots of drug abuse. It can take months or years to get community-level data on drug use. But wastewater hot-spotting is usually reportable within a day, and its typically more reliable than medical records and patient surveys. For an epidemic that varies in severity from one ZIP code to the next, having real-time, hyper-local data is necessary to distribute resources properly. But the idea has yet to take hold in the U.S., likely because its still a relatively new concept that requires coordination across agencies. Aparna Keshaviah, a statistician from the firm Mathematica Policy Research, says shes aware of recent interest among policymakers, but there are still lots of questions, including which agencies would fund and oversee wastewater testing, that still havent been hashed out.in the U.S. were to pursue every available solution to the opioid crisis, however, the approaches can seem frustratingly piecemeal, like plugging a hole in a dike only to see two leaks spring up elsewhere. Naloxone can reverse overdoses in an emergency, but it doesnt reduce addiction rates. Prescription databases prevent people from doctor-shopping for more pills, but those users often just start buying their drugs illegally. Limiting the supply of prescription opioids like Oxycontin has only led to a surge in fentanyl, an opioid thats 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. Fentanyl is so powerful that an Ohio police officer accidentally overdosed on the substance while searching the car of a suspected drug dealer. He passed out after brushing some of the powder off his shirt; other officers had to administer four doses of naloxone to revive him. Another emerging opioid, carfentanil, is an elephant tranquilizer thats 10,000 times stronger than morphine and has been blamed for hundreds of recent overdoses. These new, increasingly potent substances continue to make the epidemic a moving target.Part of the challenge for public officials is that the opioid epidemic is really a fight on two very separate fronts: the increased use of heroin in young adults in urban and suburban areas, and older adults abusing prescription drugs like Oxycontin in more rural areas. You can cut the state of Virginia in half, Gov. McAuliffe said at the Maryland conference. On the East Coast, around Virginia Beach, its all heroin and now the more potent fentanyl. Then I can drive eight hours to Abingdon in the southwest corner of the state, and I can tell you there are no heroin problems there. Its all prescription drugs.That makes the current crisis different from previous drug epidemics involving methamphetamines or crack cocaine. And its why some health experts say that cities and states need to reframe the whole way they think about the opioid outbreak. Its not simply about the rise of a new class of addictive drugs that now take the lives of some 91 Americans every day. The opioid crisis is a jobs crisis; its an affordable housing crisis. The same forces that have reshaped the economy over the past decade have left a void thats been filled, in many places, by opioids. A University of Pennsylvania study after last Novembers election found that President Trump had overperformed in counties with the highest rates of deaths of despair, which include suicide, drug overdose and alcohol poisoning. It supports the fact that there are many Americans who feel left behind by the changing economy, and who fundamentally dont believe the current political and policy framework is helping them. Those [people] are hard hit by unemployment, uncertain futures, says Baltimores Wen. They look out the window and they dont think that tomorrow will be any different than today. Thats something we have to address -- the demand for drugs to treat something other than physical pain.The opioid crisis is also a mental health crisis. In Americas patchy behavioral health system, stigma and a siloed care model prevent many people from seeking and receiving mental health care, which can exacerbate an opioid dependence. The Affordable Care Act attempted to address this with a parity law that required insurance plans to cover mental health on par with primary care services. But that measure has been weakly enforced.Addressing those broader issues is, of course, vastly more difficult and would require a much more cohesive, coordinated approach. Public health officials cant bring back middle-class jobs or make housing more affordable. But what they can do is push for safe housing, equitable access to care, and comprehensive addiction education in primary schools. And when the next drug epidemic does occur, public health officials have the responsibility to push for scientifically proven harm reduction tactics that might be politically controversial in the moment, says Wen. Unlike many other diseases where we have very little information, we actually know what works [with addiction]. We just need the resources.Many local officials are optimistic that such a shift is finally happening, that theres a genuine realization that addressing the opioid crisis requires leadership from all sectors of government. Ive had a lot of people complaining to me that when it was crack cocaine we didnt have all of this kumbaya, come-together stuff, says Phyllis Randall, the chair of the Board of Supervisors for Loudoun County, Va. Thats true, but it is what it is. So lets take what weve learned and apply it to every other drug.
Alabama will end an ambitious attempt to move Medicaid from a fee-for-service model to one that rewarded health outcomes.Gov. Kay Ivey and Medicaid Commissioner Stephanie Azar said in separate statements Thursday that conversations with the Trump administration led them to end the state's push for regional care organizations (RCOs).Instead, Ivey and Azar wrote that they expect the administration to allow them "flexibility" in running the Medicaid program, which covers over 1 million Alabamians and plays a major role in keeping the state's hospitals and primary care providers operational."This flexibility brought us to a crossroads where we reconsidered the risks and rewards of RCOs, and decided instead to pursue new reform options which bring less risks and similar outcomes," Ivey said in her statement.Congress is also considering major changes to Medicaid funding that could slash federal funding for Alabama's program, which Azar acknowledged in her statement."While the financial implications could be challenging for our state, the new flexibilities and waiver options that the Trump administration is willing to consider gives our state Medicaid program new options to accomplish similar goals without incurring the same level of increase upfront costs associated with the RCO program," the statement said."Flexibility" could mean many different approaches, and some Alabama health care organizations and advocates Thursday feared it could mean people kicked out of the program. Jim Carnes, policy director for Alabama Arise, said flexibility meant "the flexibility to tinker with the fundamental structure of the program.""It further limits the number of people who can get Medicaid coverage, it further limits the package of benefits they can get coverage for or it further limits the payment we can make to medical providers," he said.Azar said she was disappointed at the end of the RCO program in an interview Thursday afternoon, but said the agency was looking to apply the lessons of the RCO program. Medicaid may seek a waiver to enroll up to 250,000 people in a version of the agency's current Home Health Program, which provides services to the homebound. That would be less than the estimated 650,000 people who would have participated in the RCOs, but commissioner said she believed they could reach goals of improving health care through it."Our goal would be to include benchmarks," she said. "We want to incentivize providers in the system to reach benchmarks that are very important to the state."Alabama's Medicaid program provides limited benefits and has strict eligibility requirements. Able-bodied childless adults never qualify for the program. Parents of children on Medicaid can only receive benefits if they make 18 percent of the poverty line. That equates to $2,138.40 a year for an individual and $3,628 for a family of three.As a result, more than half the state's Medicaid recipients are children. The rest are elderly or disabled."We don't have a lot of fluff in our program to cut," said Danne Howard, vice president and chief policy officer for the Alabama Hospital Association. "We support any measure that will make Medicaid viable and strong enough to support our health care infrastructure."Changing Medicaid funding -- as Congress is contemplating -- could also hit Medicaid."We do know either a per capita grant or block grant, as barebones as we are and as efficient as we are . . . we're going to be squeezed," Azar said. "It's going to have to drive us to flexibilities like we talked about."The RCO program aimed to slow down Medicaid cost growth while improving health outcomes for recipients. Under the proposal, Medicaid would divide the state into several regions and give each a share of the state's funding for the program. The RCOs would have enrolled all Medicaid recipients save nursing home residents, and would have aimed to encourage preventative care that would reduce the need for expensive treatments or hospital use.RCOs would keep any money not spent on health care in a year. Supporters said that would spur them to improve health outcomes for patients."It would be keeping them out of emergency rooms for primary care and making resources available for them through primary care visits through physicians' offices," Howard said. "There would be less traffic in emergency departments. And we'd have a healthier population."The Obama administration approved the proposal and offered the state $328 million to set up the program, and an additional $420 million if the state met health care benchmarks, like reducing Alabama's high infant mortality rate.But after approving the program in 2013, the Alabama Legislature -- facing budget shortfalls and unwilling or unable to raise taxes -- balked at providing the state's share of the setup costs. That made providers wary of getting into the program."They demanded the implementation show cost savings much earlier than they originally planned to do," Carnes said. "They abandoned the long-term goal of slowing growth and began to expect this law would be the magic bullet for the Medicaid budget, which it never was intended to be."The election of Donald Trump in November also signaled a shift in Washington's health care priorities. Senate Majority Leader Greg Reed, R-Jasper, who sponsored the RCO legislation, said they were a "smart mechanism" for Medicaid delivery but that the "policy ground" had shifted."I believe with the new presidential administration we can accomplish the goals of the RCO initiative via a different path and without the upfront costs it would take to fund a transition to the RCOs," the statement said. "Pursuing new options with the Trump administration for Medicaid is the right call for Alabama."Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama, the state's largest insurer, issued a statement Thursday expressing disappointment at the end of the RCO program. BCBS planned to participate and said RCOs could have cut costs and improved outcomes."We regret that there will not be an opportunity to move the state toward these goals," the statement said.Azar said the state was not looking to remove people from the program."I don't have any interest to kick people off, but the state has a responsibility to live within our means," she said. "The goal of the Ivey administration is to get better education, and then you get better jobs, and people will be less dependent on it."
State laws get challenged all the time. Luckily, every state has a law firm on retainer -- namely, the attorney generals office. But who defends the state when the attorney general is not willing to do it?That question has been coming up quite a bit lately. Before the U.S. Supreme Court made same-sex marriage rights universal in 2015, several Democratic AGs refused to defend their states bans on the practice. Last year, Roy Cooper, then North Carolinas attorney general, decided not to defend House Bill 2, which gutted anti-discrimination protections for gay and transgender people. Currently, Maine GOP Gov. Paul LePage is suing Janet Mills, the states Democratic attorney general, for refusing to pursue legal actions he favors.These conflicts come up most frequently on high-profile issues where partisans hold strong and opposing positions. Defending state laws is one of the primary duties of attorneys general, something they shouldnt refuse to do, argues Greg Zoeller, a former AG in Indiana. He had to defend all kinds of laws he didnt like, including the death penalty, which he opposes on religious grounds. And indeed, most lawyers take on cases and clients they dont believe in. Attorneys general who refuse to defend state laws typically say its because those laws are unconstitutional, but Zoeller says thats not their call to make. The courts are empowered to make the decision of whether a law is constitutional or not, he says. To bring that question to the courts, there has to be a lawyer on both sides.Zoeller points to the example of Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California. The attorney general there refused to defend the law, so the Supreme Court threw it out in 2013 on a question of standing, on the grounds that the ballot initiatives sponsors had no right to defend a state law if the state itself refused to do so. It cost us two years of uncertainty, Zoeller says. If the AG of California defended the law, we would have had an answer [on same-sex marriage] two years earlier.In practice, an attorney generals office expresses opinions about the constitutionality of laws all the time. On almost a daily basis, assistant AGs instruct legislators on how to craft bills so they stay within allowable bounds. One reason the AG gets to defend state laws is that constitutional expertise resides in that office.But it was also part of the intent of constitutions in most states to split authority within the executive branch. Few states follow the federal model, where the attorney general answers to the chief executive. And there clearly could be dangers in making the AG do whatever the governor wants. If the governor can order an AG to sue, what would stop him from ordering the AG not to subject his campaign contributions to scrutiny? State constitutions have a healthy fear of executive power, says Jim Tierney, who runs a program on AGs at Harvard University. They dont want the governor to have legal power.The desire to preserve a balance within the executive branch is one reason why the Kentucky House balked this year at a state Senate plan to strip Attorney General Andy Beshear of much of his authority. Beshear, a Democrat, has repeatedly sued GOP Gov. Matt Bevin. Republican legislators may not like that, but they can still see the point of having an AG with independent watchdog authority.When he was Maines attorney general back in the 1990s, Tierney refused to defend a state law he felt was without merit. The state Supreme Court upheld his authority to exercise judgment about which state laws to defend and which ones to leave alone. It may seem problematic to have AGs decide on their own which state laws can stand up to scrutiny, but ultimately someone has to make the call. The American system of governance is all about splitting power. When it comes to legal matters, the attorney general is most often going to be the one who has the final word.
So often it has been Nashville Mayor Megan Barry seeking to comfort the city during times of tragedy.But now, Nashvillians are providing their support for her and family after Max Barry, the only child of the mayor and her husband Bruce Barry, died Saturday night from an apparent drug overdose.His death occurred in Littleton, Colo., a suburb of Denver, where the 22-year-old Max Barry had recently moved after graduating college.It left Mayor Barry, the public face of Nashville, addressing a deeply personal tragedy and devastating loss even as she received an overwhelming outpouring of condolences from across the city, state and nation.Early this morning, we received news that no parents should ever have to hear," Megan and Bruce Barry said in a brief statement Sunday morning. "Our son Max suffered from an overdose and passed away. We cannot begin to describe the pain and heartbreak that comes with losing our only child. Our son was a kind soul full of life and love for his family and friends.
Courtroom 801 is nearly empty when guards bring in Bobby Hines, hands cuffed in front of navy prison scrubs.Its been more than 27 years since Hines stood before a judge in this building. He was 15 then, just out of eighth grade, answering for his role in the murder of a man over a friends drug debt. He did not fire the deadly shot, but when he and two others confronted 21-year-old James Warren, Hines said something like, Let him have it, words that sealed his conviction and punishment: mandatory life with no chance for parole.In the wake of U.S. Supreme Court decisions that states cannot impose mandatory no-parole sentences on juveniles convicted of murder, the AP surveyed all 50 states to see how judges, prosecutors, and parole boards are weighing these cases. (July 31)The judgment came during a tough-on-crime era in America. Stoked by fears of teen superpredators, many states enacted laws to punish juvenile criminals like adults and the U.S. became an international outlier, sentencing offenders under 18 to live out their lives in prison for homicide and, in rare instances, rape, kidnapping, armed robbery.There has since been a significant shift. Five years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court banned mandatory life without parole for juveniles in murder cases. Last year, the court went further, saying the more than 2,000 already serving such sentences must get a chance to show their crimes did not reflect irreparable corruption and, if not, have some hope for freedom.But prison gates dont just swing open. Instead, uncertainty and opposition stirred by the new mandate have resulted in an uneven patchwork of policies as courts and lawmakers wrestle with these complicated, painful cases. The odds of release or continued imprisonment vary from state to state, even county to county, in a pattern that can make justice seem arbitrary.The Associated Press surveyed all 50 states to see how judges and prosecutors, lawmakers and parole boards are re-examining juvenile lifer cases. Some have resentenced and released dozens of those deemed to have rehabilitated themselves and served sufficient time. Others have delayed review of cases, skirted the ruling on seeming technicalities or fought to keep the vast majority of their affected inmates locked up for life.
Flying drones near prisons and jails in North Carolina is now a crime.Across the nation, contraband smugglers have increasingly turned to drones as a tool for sneaking drugs, cellphones and weapons to inmates.The new N.C. law, signed by Gov. Roy Cooper on Tuesday, prohibits anyone but law enforcement officials from flying drones within 250 feet above or 500 feet around prisons and jails. Those who use drones to deliver weapons or other contraband can be charged with felonies, while others who simply fly drones near prisons can be charged with misdemeanors.Prison leaders in a number of states are working to address the threat posed by the increasingly inexpensive technology.North Carolina officials say they've had two cases of drones crashing within prison fences, both in 2015. The drones were recovered by prison staff members before the contraband they were carrying made its way into the prison.In one of those cases -- which occurred at a central North Carolina prison that state officials declined to name -- the line that tethered the contraband to the drone got tangled in a piece of heating and cooling equipment.The aircraft crashed in a part of the prison grounds that's off-limits to inmates, a prison spokesman said. When staff members opened the oblong package, they discovered a cellphone, a charger, tobacco, rolling papers and a lighter.In about a half-dozen other cases over the past two years, drones have been spotted flying over or near N.C. prisons, a prison spokesman said.In South Carolina, prison leaders say they know of five cases in which drones have dropped contraband.While the number of cases is not yet large, the potential threat is, experts and lawmakers say."We don't want a drone dropping a gun into the yard of a prison," N.C. Rep. Allen McNeill, a Randolph County Republican who helped sponsor the bill, said earlier in the year. "It could cause a death or an injury to a prisoner or a guard."
Call it "The Cross and Text Law."Pedestrians on Oahu can still talk on their cellphone while crossing the street, but texting or using other electronic devices in a crosswalk is no longer allowed under a bill signed into law Thursday by Mayor Kirk Caldwell.Honolulu may be the first major city to make it illegal for pedestrians to text at will in what's also being dubbed "the Distracted Walking Law." (The "Distracted Driving Law" bans motorists from fiddling with their electronic devices.)A small county in New Jersey has a similar pedestrian texting law, and several other jurisdictions -- including state legislatures -- have considered but not passed similar bans.The new law allows for speaking on a cellphone while crossing a city street or highway, but nothing requiring a pedestrian to look at a device -- including laptop computers, tablets, video gaming devices and pagers.The Honolulu Police Department, which supports the new law, will begin issuing citations beginning Oct. 25, after a roughly three-month education and warning period. Those found guilty of a first offense would pay $15-$35; a second offense within the same year, $35-$75; and a third offense within 12 months, $75 to $99.HPD Capt. Thomas Taflinger said that like other infractions, a police officer will actually have to witness the violation in order to issue a citation.City Councilman Brandon Elefante said he introduced Bill 6 on behalf of community members and students belonging to Youth for Safety clubs at Aiea and Waipahu high schools who said they wanted to send a message to their peers."As technology has advanced, we sometimes forget about the real issue, and that's about safety," Elefante said.Kel Hirohata, a Waipahu High teacher who advises the school's Youth for Safety program, said his students found "eye-popping" statistics about incidents caused by crossing and texting. One of his students said her peers at the school said that if it wasn't law, they would ignore warnings not to walk and text, Hirohata said."Now that it is the law, I think we're going to have more people -- students -- listening to what's going on," he said.Caldwell signed the bill at downtown's Tamarind Park, where many of the pedestrians behind him on Bishop and King streets were texting while crossing."You would think you wouldn't have to tell people to not text in a crosswalk because you may be walking against a light and get hit," Caldwell said.Roads are too often designed with vehicles in mind when all modes of transportation should be accommodated, Caldwell said. "It's car-centric. ... We want to protect pedestrians both as they walk on our sidewalks but also our crosswalks," he said.The City Council approved the measure July 12 by a 7-2 vote, with members Ann Kobayashi and Ernie Martin voting "no."Both contended the bill represented over-regulation by the government.
Police leaders across the country moved quickly to distance themselves from -- or to outright condemn -- President Trump's statements about "roughing up" people who've been arrested.The swift public denunciations came as departments are under intense pressure to stamp out brutality and excessive force that can erode the relationship between officers and the people they police -- and cost police chiefs their jobs.Some police leaders worried that three sentences uttered by the president during a Long Island, N.Y., speech could upend nearly three decades of fence-mending since the 1991 Los Angeles Police Department beating of Rodney King ushered in an era of distrust of police."It's the wrong message," Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, told Washington radio station WTOP while speaking of the trust-building work that departments have undertaken since King's beating. "The last thing we need is a green light from the president of the United States for officers to use unnecessary force."Trump made the comments at a gathering of law enforcement officers at Suffolk County Community College in New York."When you guys put somebody in the car and you're protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over?" Trump said, miming the physical motion of an officer shielding a suspect's head to keep it from bumping against the squad car."Like, don't hit their head, and they just killed somebody -- don't hit their head," Trump continued. "I said, you can take the hand away, okay?"Trump's remarks came after he spoke about local towns ravaged by gang violence.Across the country, police department leaders said the president's words didn't reflect their views.A tweet from the Gainesville Police Department read: The @POTUS made remarks today that endorsed and condoned police brutality. GPD rejects these remarks and continues to serve with respect."The Suffolk County Police Department has strict rules and procedures relating to the handling of prisoners, and violations of those rules and procedures are treated extremely seriously," the department said in an emailed statement. "As a department, we do not and will not tolerate 'rough[ing]' up prisoners."Trump's comments also drew a rebuke from the International Association of Chiefs of Police. In a statement Friday, the group did not specifically mention Trump by name but appeared to respond to his speech by stressing the importance of treating all people, including suspects, with respect.Statements from other police leaders followed.In a statement to Patch.com, Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O'Toole said:Seattle's police officers have embraced reform and have worked incredibly hard to build community trust. We do not intend to go backwards. It is truly unfortunate that in today's toxic environment, politicians at both ends of the spectrum have sought to inflame passions by politicizing what we do. We remain committed to our principles and reject irresponsible statements that threaten to undermine our relationship with the community.Police departments are under increased scrutiny for violent, often fatal interactions with suspects. So far this year, 574 people have been shot and killed by police, according to The Washington Post's Fatal Force database. Last year, police shot and killed 963 people.This year's killings included the Minneapolis Police shooting of Justine Damond, an Australian woman who called 911 to report a possible rape in the alley near her home and ended up shot dead by the responding officers.The department's missteps -- neither officer had activated his body camera, so there's no video evidence of the fatal encounter -- resulted in international criticism and the ouster of Minneapolis Police Chief Janee Harteau.She was the fourth chief in recent years to lose her job after a controversial fatal shooting.
On Saturday, in the evening, at the Townsville Civic Theatre, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC and Mrs Kaye de Jersey attended the Australian Festival of Chamber Musics 2017 Governors Gala Concert Fandango.
On Sunday, in the morning, at St James Anglican Cathedral, Townsville, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC and Mrs Kaye de Jersey attended Sunday Eucharist.

Following, at the Port of Townsville, the Governor and Mrs de Jersey attended a luncheon in celebration of the 90th anniversary of the Mission to Seafarers, Port of Townsville, where His Excellency addressed guests.

In the afternoon, the Governor and Mrs de Jersey returned to Brisbane.
Description

GIS - 31 July 2017 : Future generations must know the path travelled by their ancestors, their sacrifices, hard work, and injustices, inflicted upon them and the exhibition space on Late Manilal Doctor will allow them to explore the footprints of their forefathers and to be better inspired to continue on the path of nation building.

This statement was made on Friday 28 July 2017 by the Prime Minister, Mr Pravind Jugnauth, during the launching of a permanent exhibition of the belongings of Late Manilal Maganlal Doctor at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute (MGI) in Moka. He stated that the exhibition will strive to connect the present and future generations while underlying the importance of transmitting our values, traditions and culture to the future generations.

Speaking about Late Manilal Doctor, Prime Minister Jugnauth recalled his dedication and commitment to fight for the rights of Indians against the colonial powers. He succeeded in giving our forefathers confidence to fight for their rights and not to subject to injustice and left behind a proud legacy and moral foundation for the Indian community to shape their future, he added.

In her address, the grand-daughter of Late Manilal Doctor, Ms Mona Doctor, emphasised on the contribution of Manilal Doctor in the political, social, historical and journalistic fields. She added that she is looking forward to deepening ties with Mauritius as regards the historical aspect.

The launching of the exhibition space was marked by the signing of an agreement between the Doctor family and the MGI. Ms Mona Doctor also donated some artefacts which belonged to Manilal Doctor to the MGI.

Manilal Doctor

Manilal Maganlal Doctor, a pioneering barrister and crusader for Human Rights, was born on the 28 July 1881 in Baroda, Gujarat, India. He stands among the band of prominent personalities of India who denounced the atrocities suffered by the Indian Immigrants in the colonies of the British Empire.

Manilal Doctor struggled for the legitimate rights and justice of the working classes of Indian settlers in Mauritius and Fiji Islands. In October 1907 Manilal Doctor landed in British Colonial Mauritius. He came upon the request of young barrister Gandhi. During his short stay from October 1907 to September 1911 in Mauritius, Manilal Doctor played a crucial role in the struggle of indentured and unindentured labourers, and the Indo Mauritian planters for their social, political and economic rights.

The young Manilal Maganlal Doctor was a man of vision and action. He played a main role in the establishment and growth of the Arya Samaj movement in Mauritius. He founded the Young Men's Hindu Association with the purpose to bring unity among the Indian youth, and to help and serve the poor and downtrodden.

Through the publication of The Hindustani in English and Gujarati (later English and Hindi), which he founded in March 1909, he campaigned for an end to Indian immigration in the British Colonies, abolition of double cut system, the Corvee system, and the vagrancy laws in British Mauritius.
(TNS) -- LANSING  Records obtained by thepoint to a major glitch in importing data into a $47-million computer system the Unemployment Insurance Agency used to detect claimant fraud, meaning the system often accused people without having access to all the information it needed to make a fraud determination.The records, obtained under Michigan's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), help explain how the Michigan Integrated Data Automated System (MiDAS), which went online in 2013, could have a 93% error rate during the close to two years it operated without active human oversight.The records also show that agency officials should have known about the data problem more than one year before August 2015, when they stopped using the system without human intervention.State officials have refused to say how or why MiDAS falsely accused at least 20,000 Michigan residents of fraud. Many of those accused were charged tens of thousands of dollars, because of Michigan's highest-in-the-nation quadruple penalties, and subjected to aggressive collection techniques such as wage garnishes and seizure of income tax refunds. The agency continues to use MiDAS, but with human verification required for fraud determinations.Agency officials still will neither confirm nor deny there was a problem importing and converting data into MiDAS from its 30-year-old mainframe computer for unemployment insurance claims.But decisions issued by administrative law judges who heard appeals of agency fraud determinations, plus internal agency records obtained under FOIA, suggest that not only was some data not successfully imported and converted into MiDAS, but that some data was corrupted or lost in such a way that it could no longer be reproduced, even through the former system.Judges spot a problemIt's not clear exactly which agency records were affected and which were not.But as early as the spring and early summer of 2014, claimants presented administrative law judges with records that disproved the fraud allegations. The records had been submitted to the agency and should have existed in MiDAS, but had not been considered when the fraud determinations were made, records of appeal decisions show.For example, in a July 24, 2014, decision dismissing a fraud allegation, Administrative Law Judge Nancy Bondar wrote that "the fraud notice was issued in error due to the MiDAS system's inability to read fact-finding information."Two consultant reports on MiDAS prepared by state contractor CSG Government Solutions, which mostly praise the system for efficiency improvements, also point to a problem converting data from the agency's former "legacy" system into MiDAS."Two staff members are assigned to work Earned Income (cases) converted from Legacy," CSG said in a May 2014 report obtained under FOIA."Converted Earned Income cases present challenges to staff" because "source documentation is often no longer available to support the issue that exists on the claim."CSG also said in a September 2014 report that tasks related to legacy cases made up 33% of the agency workload, and the backlog was expected to continue."Legacy tasks are more complicated for various reasons, including working with converted data," the report said.When MiDAS was operating without human backup between Oct. 1, 2013, and Aug. 7, 2015, robo-adjudicating cases that went back as far as 2007, it falsely accused about 20,000 Michigan residents of fraud, the agency has acknowledged. The agency is now completing a review of about 28,000 additional fraud findings that involved some human involvement and a lower  though still significant  error rate. Results of that review could be made public as early as this week.Some of those falsely accused faced not just civil fraud proceedings but criminal charges.The data problem was referenced in many decisions issued by administrative law judges who heard appeals from claimants who were denied benefits or accused of fraud around the time the new system came online, records show."The finding of fraud resulted from a glitch in the agency's new MiDAS system," Administrative Law Judge Winston Wheaton said in an April 29, 2014, decision, throwing out an agency fraud finding against Mason-area landscaping worker Robert Kester.At the hearing in front of Wheaton, an agency representative confirmed that Kester had accurately reported that he quit his job in August 2013, less than two months before MiDAS came online. Since quitting a job is typically a reason for the agency to deny benefits, which the agency did, MiDAS couldn't have determined that Kester committed fraud if it had access to the report the agency confirmed that Kester submitted."The agency representative concedes that claimant committed no fraud," Wheaton said.How could such mistakes happen?Wanda Stokes, director of the state Talent Investment Agency since July 2016 and the point person addressing MiDAS and other problems at the Unemployment Insurance Agency, has shed little light on that question. She has refused to say whether MiDAS was a faulty system or if the state was just using the system improperly.Through her spokesman Dave Murray, Stokes wouldn't give a direct answer about whether there was a problem importing portions of the existing unemployment insurance database or other relevant records into MiDAS. Instead, Stokes issued an e-mailed statement through Murray that said the robo-adjudications had stopped and that reviewing those cases was a top priority of hers."Thats a very technical question, and most of the UI leadership has been changed since the period in question," Murray told the Free Press when asked about problems importing data into MiDAS. "The leaders there now are trying to track down an answer for you. I know they are looking into it and hope to have an answer by the end of the day."Murray never answered the question, despite repeated requests.Some wrongfully helped, deniedThe data problems show up not just in fraud cases, but in cases where claimants were denied benefits, but not accused of fraud.Take the case of Angelica Haney, who, like many claimants, had a seasonal job that resulted in her applying for jobless benefits on a regular basis, during the part of the year when her working hours and income were reduced.Haney qualified for some of her benefits because she had two dependents, which she listed in her claim for unemployment insurance benefits filed on June 21, 2013, Administrative Law Judge Carl Ratliff said in his Aug. 14, 2014, decision that overturned the agency's decision to deny Haney benefits.The dependents had not been factored in when the agency made its determination. How the mistake happened was not clear, but Ratliff was told the agency's June 23, 2013, monetary determination for Haney could "not be located because it predates MiDAS," Ratliff wrote.Similarly, Colleen Mamelka, then a supervisor in the Michigan Administrative Hearing System where the administrative law judges work, pulled a June 2013 appeal related to a denial of benefits away from a judge and returned the case to the agency, in an order issued May 28, 2015.The agency's decision "was processed in the agency's prior computer system and, therefore, is unable to be re-created for purposes of scheduling a hearing," Mamelka wrote.The glitch had disastrous effects for claimants, though it sometimes appeared to benefit them  at least in the short term.Gregory Saltzman, who had received benefits on an unemployment insurance claim that expired in October 2013, the same month MiDAS went online, opened a new claim on Oct. 27, 2013, but failed to register to work  a mandatory step to become eligible to receive jobless benefits.Despite that crucial failure, the agency continued to pay benefits to Saltzman through February 2014, records show."Somehow in the transition from the old claim to the new claim, the system failed to note the claimant had not registered for work with the new claim," Administrative Law Judge Marten Garn, in a June 19, 2014, decision, said he was told by agency claims examiner Asad Dabas.Saltzman should have been denied the benefits he received until he registered for work, and the mistake by MiDAS came back to bite him hard.The agency accused Saltzman of fraud and ordered him to repay the money he received, plus significant penalties.Once again, missing records were cited when the judge overturned the ruling."Mr. Dabas said he found evidence in the agency records to indicate a redetermination of the fraud question was issued and appealed, but said he could not locate the redetermination itself," Garn wrote.In throwing out the agency's finding of fraud, Garn wrote that "the agency's evidence would be laughable, were it not such a serious matter," since "there is no scenario under which a claimant somehow enhances the likelihood of receiving unemployment benefits by failing to register."How did state miss this?John Philo, executive director of the Sugar Law Center for Economic & Social Justice in Detroit, said the records obtained by the Free Press show the agency should have ordered that humans vet any fraud determinations more than a year sooner than it did.Given the large number of red flags, "it's hard to say that you don't know," Philo said Friday.Jennifer Lord, a Royal Oak attorney who is appealing the Michigan Court of Appeals dismissal of her class action filed on behalf of claimants falsely accused of fraud, said "the drumbeat was loud in April of 2014," and "what should have happened is they should have turned off the spigot on MiDAS then," instead of falsely accusing thousands of more people of fraud over the next year and several months.Not all the records that MIDAS could not read or find were generated prior to the system coming online in October 2013. Some were hard-copy documents that were mailed or faxed to the agency by claimants or others and had to be scanned to be added to the system."The scanning software is not fully integrated with MiDAS," agency consultant CSG said in the September 2014 report on the system."Because claimant faxed the form to the agency, it went into the agency's FileNet system," Administrative Law Judge Elizabeth Haugen said in a Jan. 6, 2015, decision that reversed a fraud finding against Nathan Gazza of Marquette."The agency's MiDAS system cannot read documents that are scanned into FileNet, so the information was never processed."
(TNS) -- The state says it has lost the recordings of the telephone calls to and from its Emergency Operations Center on the day of the devastating Gatlinburg wildfire.The following days' calls, however, were recorded and preserved.The problem was discovered when state employees tried to retrieve information to fulfill open records requests by media organizations, said Dean Flener, spokesman for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, which operates the center.The recordings might have provided critical information on how the crisis was handled. Flener said about 80 people equipped with 86 recorded phone lines were in the Emergency Operations Center in Nashville starting at 8 a.m. Central time on Nov. 28.Those employees were responsible for coordinating fire departments statewide as they responded to Gatlinburg Fire Chief's Greg Miller's request for help in battling the flames that forced the evacuation of 14,000 people.Representatives of more than a dozen state agencies were in the EOC arranging emergency shelter for evacuees and deploying more than 100 members of the state National Guard, the Tennessee Highway Patrol and state forestry firefighting resources.Officials blame the flood of calls that day for the loss of the recordings.Fourteen people died in the blaze and more than 2,500 structures were damaged or destroyed.For seven months, TEMA officials labored to determine what caused the recording failure.Part of the problem was an earlier failure of the system's automatic backup function. Flener said the backup stopped working "sometime in October 2016" but emergency personnel in the state EOC had no idea that had happened. Someone would have had to manually search the digital archive file to realize that calls were not being stored.The system installed in 2012 didn't issue alerts when something was amiss, he said."Without the call recordings, there is no way to estimate the number of sent and received calls into the SEOC on Nov. 28, 2016," Flener said.TEMA is not required to record calls to and from the state EOC but does so for training purposes and information verification, Flener said. The EOCs in Gatlinburg, Sevier County and Knox County do not record telephone calls.When TEMA communications staff tried to retrieve recordings in response to public records requests, they found "there were no recorded phone calls in the telephone recording system archive prior to Nov. 29, 2016," TEMA Director Patrick Sheehan said.TEMA staff and employees from a telecommunications maintenance contractor "investigated the issue multiple times," the director said."Neither TEMA telecom staff nor the vendor could determine whether the missing calls were actually somewhere else in the system or if the calls were not recorded," Sheehan said.Sheehan hired a private company experienced in digital forensic analysis to recover calls and determine what caused the recording failure.Flener refused this week to identify the firm contracted through state procurement rules."The company doesn't want to be identified because the analysis isn't complete and the final report isn't in and we will honor their wishes," he said."We are awaiting submission of final costs from the forensic data firm," Flener said when asked about the expense.Employees of the private firm concluded that "because of the overload, there was not room in the recording system to preserve calls before Nov. 29, 2016," Sheehan said."There is a finite amount of storage in the system," Flener said. "As the system runs out of storage, the oldest calls are deleted to make room for newer calls."The forensic analysis could recover only three calls from Nov. 28.The first of those was at 9:44 p.m. Central time with a news media outlet, Sheehan said.The second was at 10:31 p.m. between the TEMA Watch Point and North Carolinas Emergency Operations Center about reaching Sevier County. Watch Point, Flener said, is the position covered 24 hours a day to field emergency calls.The third call was at 10:32 p.m. with the Tennessee Department of Health EOC representative regarding nursing homes in Sevier County."It does appear that all calls prior to these three are missing from the system," Sheehan said.Discussions between the state EOC and the Gatlinburg EOC probably didn't occur on the recorded lines in Nashville, Flener said.While the EOC in Nashville coordinated resources requested by Gatlinburg and Sevier County, the authorities in the Gatlinburg EOC were responsible for local deployment of emergency personnel. Fire Chief Miller was the commander in the Gatlinburg EOC and oversaw all firefighting resources in the city and county.Flener said most of the calls with Gatlinburg were "mobile phone to mobile phone." They dealt with the status of the wildfires, the need for resources and the use of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, IPAWS.Miller had issued requests for help as early as noon because of concerns that high winds would drive the wildfire burning in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park into the city. Those winds toppled trees into power poles about 6 p.m., igniting fires across the city.At about the same time, windswept flames from the wildfire in the National Park joined the destruction. The tally was more than 2,400 homes or businesses in the city and Sevier County damaged or consumed by flames.When Miller at about 8 p.m. wanted to use IPAWS to issue a mandatory evacuation of the city, he had to have TEMA officials activate the alert. IPAWS was adopted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency as a way to reach all mobile phones within a certain area with an alert.When TEMA officials tried to reach Miller about 8:30 p.m. to confirm the message the chief wanted sent, cellular service in Gatlinburg had been disrupted. Unable to reach Miller, TEMA did not issue the evacuation order.Sheehan is awaiting a final report from the forensic data company that could recommend how to prevent a recurrence of disappearing emergency calls."The forensics firm has noted to TEMA its conclusion that the calls were lost due to the file buffer being full, and all the storage space available was only able to hold the calls going back to the end of the day on Nov. 28, 2016, the director said.Flener would not disclose how many days of calls prior to Nov. 28 also were lost.He said TEMA's telecommunications staff periodically cleared calls from the system to make room for new recordings. This process was performed "once or twice a year.""Prior to Nov. 28, 2016, the primary folder was last cleared around Nov. 18, 2016," he said.Sheehan on Nov. 10, 2016, had ordered the state EOC activated when he declared a state of emergency because of the severe drought and wildfires raging across middle and east Tennessee. Flener said the recording equipment was constantly on, so any calls coming into the center should have been recorded.Tennessee has had a state EOC since 1978, Flener said. He was unable to say if previous recording systems had malfunctioned or been overwhelmed by calls, but said the current system had not faltered before the Gatlinburg wildfires."Because of how TEMA uses its recording system, for training and information verification, there has never been cause to check or backup the recording system during an emergency activation," Flener said.In addition, he said, "this is the first emergency TEMA has had where phone recordings have been included in open record requests."Flener said TEMA anticipates the analysis of the system conducted by the forensic company "will help us to evaluate a proper course of action" to correct whatever failed in the current recording system.Gov. Bill Haslam, who committed to a full and public review of TEMA's performance during the Gatlinburg wildfires, is aware of the state EOC recording problem, according to his spokeswoman, Jennifer Donnals.Haslam "supports TEMAs efforts to recover those recordings and the work of the data forensics firm currently trying to determine what happened," Donnals said.Sheehan in May reached agreement with FEMA for the the federal agency to compile an after-action report on how the state agency handled all the wildfires that erupted in Tennessee during the drought.The director wanted an overarching review of how all the various wildfires were handled and not just the Gatlinburg disaster. The Gatlinburg wildfire was the only one with fatalities.That review, Flener said, should not be hampered by the lack of recorded calls in the state EOC."We have never used recorded telephone calls in prior after-action reviews," he said. "So, the after-action review for this event won't be affected."Flener said FEMA has not indicated how long the review will take. There is no cost to the state for the federal review.
(TNS) -- WILEY FORD, W.Va.  The Potomac Highlands Airport Authority is moving forward with plans for an autonomous technology testing center at The Greater Cumberland Regional Airport.The authority voted unanimously Thursday to fund a portion of a feasibility study for the tech center.That (request for proposal) will tell us whether this was a really good idea, or rather, we are kind of pipe-dreaming, said William Atkinson, Appalachian Regional Commission program manager and director of the Maryland Department of Plannings Western Maryland Regional Office.Atkinson estimated that the study wouldnt cost more than $60,000, with ARC funds paying half and the authority paying the remainder.This is huge for the area and we could be looked at as a leader in the area, said Gregg Wolff, chairman of the authority. Some of us have been on this board a long time and this is what we have been looking for.Because the airport is a nonprofit, a building could be constructed to house the tech center and the ground leased back to a company, said Ryan Shaffer, the airports manager.Thats what makes this work. ARC wouldnt pay for all this equipment and setting up this center for a business, but theyll do it for the nonprofit. Then all you guys do is lease the equipment  companies dont want to buy all that equipment anyhow, said Atkinson.Atkinson estimates it would cost about $5 million to build the center, with ARC funding half. The other half would come from the state, officials said.The project scope was broadened from drones to autonomous technology following a suggestion from someone who specializes in aerospace programming and drones at the Maryland Department of Commerce.His suggestion was, Lets not tie ourselves to drones  lets make this a center of excellence for autonomous technology, said Atkinson. He felt that if we build it, they would come.The tech center could potentially be a part of a proposed industrial park that the authority included in its Airport Layout Plan.We may really be on to something there, said Kevin Clark, an authority member whos the executive director of the Mineral County Development Authority. We are leading from the front and thats exciting.Clark has been working with Atkinson to further develop the proposed tech center.Atkinson also said the project could be expanded to include cybersecurity for autonomous technology.Allegany College has a really good cybersecurity program, he said. So, one of the things they are going to be looking at is room for expansion in that program into autonomous cybersecurity.Local colleges and Frostburg State University are interested in being a part of the project, according to Atkinson. FSU is receiving ARC funding to establish an unmanned aerial vehicle remote sensing training center, Atkinson said.Everybody at commerce and the federal thinks that having the players at the community colleges and the university is a huge, big piece of this, said Atkinson. That companies would love to have because theyll have that educational piece along with everything else.Terry Page, a consultant with Delta, said he didnt foresee the Federal Aviation Administration having any issues with the proposed tech center. Page previously said that Saint Marys County Regional Airport has a drone testing site.Atkinson has been in touch with Saint Marys County, where the University of Maryland tests drones.We coordinated with them, we dont want to compete with them. They were very helpful in sharing information on what they are doing  whats been successful and what hasnt been, said Atkinson.
(TNS) - The Daviess County, Ky., Emergency Management Agency will host Community Emergency Response Team, or CERT, training this fall free of charge to any county resident.For nearly 15 years, CERT training has been a vital part of building a community-wide network of volunteers with the knowledge and experience necessary for quick, in-the-field emergency management response. Coordinator Vicky Connor said participants learn how to take care of themselves and their neighbors before first responders arrive on the scene.In the event of a disaster situation, Connor said, dispatch is often overwhelmed by calls, and a limited number of police and firefighters slows the overall response time. For non-lifethreatening scenarios, CERT volunteers can ensure the safety and security of their local area."What we teach the residents is how to take care of themselves and their neighbors until the professional help can arrive," Connor said. "It involves things like basic search and rescue, fire suppression and first-aid."Daviess County was the first in the region to offer comprehensive CERT classes for free, and it's a concept that's grown popular around western Kentucky. Proper emergency response entails a community-wide effort, she said, and county leaders have been cognizant of that since 9/11 when disaster preparedness came to the forefront of many American's minds.Since then, the information she and experts teach over the eight-week course has proven to be life-saving. Connor asks participants to reach out to her when they use the skills they learned, and the response, she said, has been phenomenal."People have come across wrecks before and they've assisted injured motorists," she said. "They've saved lives."While CERT training doesn't certify participants as emergency response professionals, they do get exposure to basic first-aid skills with proven results. Plus, end-of-course certificates can be used for reference in job applications and more. Completion of the course also qualifies participants for emergency backpacks with safety and medical supplies worth $60.Training sessions begin at 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 21, and run at the same time for eight consecutive Thursdays in the Daviess County Courthouse basement. Most classes will end at about 9 p.m. Areas covered will include disaster preparedness, utility shut-off, basic fire suppression, basic first-aid, search and rescue, terrorism awareness, disaster psychology, team organization and a final drill exercising all skills learned. All classes are taught by professionals in emergency services and other agencies active in emergency preparedness.For more information or to sign up, call the county EMA office at 270-685-8448.Austin Ramsey, 270-691-7302, aramsey@messenger-inquirer.com, Twitter: @austinrramsey2017 the Messenger-Inquirer (Owensboro, Ky.)Visit the Messenger-Inquirer (Owensboro, Ky.) at www.messenger-inquirer.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
(TNS) - Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency for 31 Florida counties including Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade as Tropical Storm Emily made landfall on Floridas Gulf Coast on Monday morning.The storm, which formed suddenly on Monday morning just off Tampa, wasnt expected to directly affect South Florida but forecasters said it could dump several inches of rain.The state of emergency was in effect for 31 counties including Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte and Lee. The declaration gives the state the flexibility to work with local governments to ensure that they have the resources they may need, said a statement from Scotts office.Emily was about 35 miles southwest of Tampa and had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph, an increase of about 10 mph from early Wednesday morning when the system had been designated Tropical Depression #6.Emily was moving east at about 9 mph.A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect from the Anclote River south to Bonita Beach along Floridas west coast. The warning means that tropical storm conditions are expected within the next few hours.Emily is expected to produce total rain accumulations of 2 to 4 inches through Monday night along the west coast of Central Florida between the Tampa Bay area and Naples, with isolated amounts up to 8 inches possible. Elsewhere across Central and South Florida, 1 to 2 inches of rain is expected with localized amounts of up to 4 inches possible, forecaster Stacy Stewart said in the latest advisory.Emily is not expected to strengthen as it makes landfall Monday afternoon and is expected to weaken into a tropical depression again as it moves over the Florida peninsula Monday night. After that it will move over the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean.2017 Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)Visit the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) at www.sun-sentinel.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
(TNS) -- The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that publicly owned railroads are not exempt from the state's bedrock environmental law, a decision hailed by environmental watchdogs on the North Coast and opponents of California's high-speed rail project.Scott Greacen, executive director of Friends of the Eel River, called the court ruling "vindication."The Arcata-based group sued the North Coast Railroad Authority in a bid to force the state-chartered agency to study the environmental impacts of running freight along a 316-mile rail line that traverses Sonoma, Mendocino and Humboldt counties and runs through the Eel River canyon.Greacen said as a result of the Supreme Court decision, NCRA won't be able to rebuild the line through the canyon "without taking a hard look at the environmental impacts, which has been the goal all along."More broadly, the court ruling could have major implications for the state's high-speed rail project. Several court cases are pending in state courts seeking to hold the California High-Speed Rail Authority accountable for construction and operation of the service."What this says is that the High Speed Rail Authority still has to follow" the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, said Stuart Flashman, an Oakland attorney who is representing Kings County and several other plaintiffs in a related federal case currently before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal.Other legal observers said such review could potentially slow down construction of the high-speed rail line, possibly forcing state officials to move the line to other, less environmentally sensitive locations.The high court ruling stems from a yearslong standoff between the North Coast Railroad Authority, which argued it was subject only to federal oversight, and environmental groups, who sought to make the public rail agency follow CEQA and the extensive environmental studies it requires for various projects.A Marin County Superior Court judge and the 1st District appellate court sided with the rail agency. But the 3rd District appellate court ruled, in a separate case, that the state agency building the bullet train from San Francisco to Los Angeles must comply with CEQA because it is financed by voter-approved bonds. The conflicting opinion paved the way for the state Supreme Court review.Thursday's opinion, written by Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye and joined by five of the court's six other justices, essentially concluded that application of state law to govern a "subdivision of the state" -- in this instance, a public railroad -- does not necessarily constitute regulation in violation of federal law governing interstate commerce, which seeks a national and unified system of railroad lines.The court found no clear language in federal law "that would direct us to the surprising conclusion that a state must operate without its usual tools and guidelines when it becomes an owner-participant in the railroad industry.NCRA was formed by the state Legislature in 1989 to ensure continued rail service along the Northwestern Pacific rail line.At the same time, the court ruled CEQA does not apply to a private entity operating on a public rail line, and they denied the environmental groups' effort to force Northwestern Pacific Railroad Company, the freight hauler, to abandon deliveries along portions of the line where such shipments already are occurring.In her dissent, Justice Carol Corrigan stated she did not follow the logic of the court claiming that applying CEQA to a private entity -- the freight operator -- amounts to "regulation," whereas applying the same standard to a public entity -- NCRA -- does not. Railroad officials interpreted the court's ruling to mean Northwestern Pacific has the "absolute right to continue freight operations," subject only to federal law, said Mitch Stogner, NCRA's executive director.Doug Bosco, a co-owner of Northwestern Pacific, said he viewed the court's ruling "as a victory for the ability to operate the freight railroad. The court made it clear that can't be touched."Bosco is an investor in Sonoma Media Investments, which owns The Press Democrat.However, the court majority in its ruling stated that Northwestern Pacific's right to carry on with service despite the application of CEQA to the public railroad "is a question that is beyond the scope of this case."The court also acknowledged that applying CEQA to the public railroad may impact the freight operator, "but this is merely derivative of the state's efforts at self-governance in this marketplace."Environmental groups pressed for such things as toxic waste cleanup along the tracks and engines that run on cleaner fuel, while also posing questions about how extended freight operations -- into the remote Eel River canyon, for example -- might impact wildlife habitat.The legal dispute now heads back to the Marin court, where Stogner said NCRA will continue to claim the public agency and Northwestern Pacific are exempt from CEQA."We would continue to argue that repairs to the tracks, bridges and tunnels within an existing right-of-way are preempted by federal law, and only the Surface Transportation Board would have a say on such repairs," Stogner said.He also reiterated that NCRA has no plans "in the foreseeable future" to rebuild the rail line north of Willits to accommodate freight service. The cost for that work has been estimated at $1 billion.
Hundreds of government tech officials, entrepreneurs and others who might geek-out at the sound of smart cities or fiber network are gathering in Kansas City, Mo., this week for the third annual Gigabit City Summit.The event, being held Aug. 1-3, is set to attract some 300 to 350 attendees including public-sector CIOs, entrepreneurs and technology professionals in the private sector. The event will also attract attendance from those outside of the smart city infrastructure communities  people who are focused on human impact; people from health care, education, and the like, said Aaron Deacon, one of the event's organizers and managing director of KC Digital Drive, a nonprofit civic organization with a mission to make Kansas City a digital leader.The conference will drive conversations around some of todays most pressing digital city concerns, stretching from data and privacy related to the Internet of Things to learning about initiatives like the KC Connector Project, which links together the many people in Kansas City who are involved in community development.The summit will also include panel discussions around such topics as navigating the complex municipal and county challenges related to deploying technology such as fiber networks, or how city leaders draw from their real-world experiences to create holistic strategic plans for digital systems and technology.Our hope is that through that conference ... other cities, entrepreneurs, the big companies will avail themselves of the opportunity to come to think big, said Chief Innovation Officer Bob Bennett in an interview withearlier this month.The event will also showcase the Kansas City Living Lab, a public-private partnership between Kansas City and Cisco Systems that seeks to develop a smart city network with Internet of Things technology along the 2.2-mile streetcar starter line in downtown and ultimately modernize the city, lower costs and improve efficiencies. The project, begun in 2014, aims to make Kansas City the largest smart city network in North America.Think Big Partners, which is the Living Lab host, is both a tech business development center and the architect behind Kansas Citys smart city master plan. The lab will be a stop on the smart city walking tour, which also will include stops at interactive kiosks, the (free) Kansas City Streetcar Line, and the River Market.
11/12/2022

Hendon Hooker ran for one touchdown and passed for another to lead Tennessee to a 28-17 halftime advantage over SEC foe Missouri on Saturday afternoon at Neyland Stadium. In a "bounce back ... more
(TNS) -- Cellphone, laptop and tablet users in Buffalo won't have to worry about traffic jams on the information superhighway if new equipment is installed that will enable telephone and other poles throughout the city to act as cell towers.But first, a dispute over the fee the city would charge to use its poles may have to be worked out.The "small cell" attachment system uses scores of miniaturized devices to take the place of huge cell towers, and city officials say the project will improve cellphone and computer service, providing faster speeds as well as expanded access.The use of cellphones is growing, said Michael J. Finn, an engineer with the city. This is the direction the market seems to be going.Cellphone providers requested access to the poles and will pay the city $2,000 annually per pole, with an annual 3 percent increase beginning July 1, 2018, under a plan the Common Council unanimously approved this week with the understanding that the cost will not be passed along to cell users.However, Verizon and AT&T want Mayor Byron W. Brown to veto the measure. Verizon said the $2,000 fee is too high and will likely prevent Verizon Wireless from effectively deploying wireless infrastructure in Buffalo, according to a letter from David Lamendola, Verizons director of State Government Affairs for New York and Connecticut.We note that many communities, in order to promote the deployment of wireless networks, do not charge for the use of municipal poles, the letter reads.But at the Councils Legislation Committee meeting last week, Council President Darius G. Pridgen was not sympathetic to that argument when Verizon representatives brought it up. Pridgen pointed out that Verizon made a third-quarter profit of $3.7 billion in 2014.And it makes its money off of the people, basically, who are subscribers, he said. The Council is going to consider helping Verizon to make more money, so the question of $2,000 on a pole, for somebody who made $3.7 billion, is not an issue for him.I am in no way concerned about $2,000 per pole. There is no sympathetic ear at this desk for $2,000 per pole, he said.In its letter to Brown, Verizon also objected to the ordinances prohibition on placing new poles in the citys right-of-way, which Verizon says will impair the companys ability to serve certain areas that lack existing poles/infrastructures sufficient to accommodate small cell infrastructure.City officials pointed out there are 33,000 poles already in the public right-of-way in the City of Buffalo.In a separate letter to the mayor asking him to veto the legislation, AT&T Vice President Amy Kramer echoed some of Verizon's objections, saying the fee is unreasonably high compared to other similarly sized municipalities  "over 10 times the fees being charged in other places." She said the legislation "discourages and stifles small cell investment in the city because the fee structure is economically unsustainable and the restrictions on new poles would hinder deployment designs."Asked if the mayor will veto the item, a spokesman said only that Brown will review the matter before deciding. The Council's unanimous vote means the mayor would have to persuade some Council members to change their votes if any veto were to stand.Verizon says the new technology is necessary to keep up with "skyrocketing data usage," which doubled between 2015 and 2016 and is expected to grow another sevenfold by 2019. The increased capacity from the multiple small cells will ensure that service isn't slowed despite the rising demand, the company said.The ordinance approved by the Council would limit the small cell attachments to poles over 20 feet high, and the devices could be no more than 3 feet high or wide, excluding hardware, wiring and electric meter. In addition, the equipment may not extend more than three feet above the height of the pole.The equipment must be coated in gray, black, white or other color to match the pole, and must not interfere with the function of the pole, including street lighting, roadway signage, vertical banners, police cameras and traffic signal communications.The plan also includes a public engagement process, something the Council insisted on.What we were concerned about is that when the idea was brought to us about the cellphone attachments, that there was no public input. You could just wake up one day and the whole neighborhood has them, Pridgen said. So now wherever theres going to be an attachment proposed for a pole, there will be a notice put on the pole of when the community meeting will be. People can be engaged that way. They can ask for a public hearing. They then can get in touch with their Council member or public works.There will also be postcard notification for residents and businesses located immediately near the proposed pole.That way the public is well-informed of what is being proposed in their neighborhood and they just dont wake up to that, Pridgen said.
Government Cyberattacks

Challenges Ahead

For three years, a team of highly trained volunteers from the public and private sector has been standing by in Michigan, ready to spring into action and provide technical assistance if the state gets hit by a massive cyberattack.But despite a steady stream of smaller-scale breaches, the Michigan Cyber Civilian Corps, MiC3, has yet to be deployed. Now, as states grapple with a growing threat of sophisticated hacks and struggle to hold on to cybersecurity experts, Michigan lawmakers are considering a measure that would make it easier to call on the corps and would expand its reach so it can help state and local governments, nonprofits and businesses across the state.Michigan officials say they hope their volunteer corps of cybersecurity experts from government, education and private industry, believed to be the first such group in the U.S., can serve as a national model. They liken it to volunteer firefighters.These are the guys who come in while the house is burning, said Paul Groll, Michigans deputy chief security officer who oversees the team. They can help stop the damage and try to find out what the bad guys are doing and kick them out as soon as possible and set up the victim for a successful recovery.And other states are taking notice. Officials in Michigan say they have been contacted by more than a dozen of them. Hawaii is thinking of setting up a team, and sent a staffer to visit the program earlier this year. Montana is planning on doing the same this fall. Washington state considered launching a corps like Michigans but decided instead to set up a team of existing trained staff to assist state and local government agencies during a major cyberattack.But the Michigan corps has its limitations. While it is managed by the state Department of Technology, Management and Budget, it is not part of the agency so its volunteers dont have the same legal protections as state employees.And it has yet to be deployed because it can be activated only if the governor declares a state of cyber emergency, which hasnt happened. When hackers targeted the states main website last year, knocking it briefly offline to draw attention to the Flint water crisis, for example, the governor didnt consider it an emergency so the corps wasnt activated.State officials are hoping the Legislature will pass the bill to broaden the teams reach and establish it in statute . The House passed the measure overwhelmingly last month, and it is now in a Senate committee.Information technology experts say this could help boost cyber defenses not only for state government, but for cities, counties, school boards, police departments and small businesses that may be victimized in lower-level or non-emergency incidents.These smaller organizations need help, said Dan Lohrmann, chief security officer for Security Mentor, a national security training firm that works with states. And this can help younger cyber pros get hands-on experience and grow the overall pool of cyber talent in Michigan.Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, came up with the idea for the corps in 2013 as a way to boost the states ability to rapidly respond to large-scale cyberattacks, such as those striking the electric grid or transportation networks. The following year, the states technology department, working with the Michigan State Police and the Michigan National Guard, launched the program with 33 volunteer recruits. Today, that number has grown to 59.This year, the department allocated $300,000 for the corps out of its $20 million cybersecurity budget. Some of it pays for a project manager and program coordinator, both part-time, but most is spent on training, Groll said.Corps members come from a variety of industries, including energy, defense and transportation, but all of them are vetted thoroughly. They must be Michigan residents with at least two years of professional cybersecurity experience and be certified by a global certification organization. They are required to pass a series of tests to demonstrate their knowledge and forensics skills and must provide a letter from their employer allowing them to participate and authorizing them to devote up to 10 days a year to the volunteer job.Its a very innovative approach, said Doug Robinson, executive director of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO). This is different than saying we need volunteers to fill sandbags. They are tapping into the expertise of people who can help protect our critical infrastructure as cyber threats continue to become more sophisticated.In recent years, hackers and cybercriminals have been relentless in targeting state and local government networks , which contain information such as Social Security, bank account and credit card numbers on millions of people and businesses.Fraudsters and online activists have obtained personal information, hijacked government computer systems, defaced websites and hacked into data or email and released it online.State IT officers, who are increasingly concerned about sophisticated efforts to breach their systems, in 2016 ranked cybersecurity as their top priority for the third year in a row , according to NASCIO and the consulting firm Deloitte & Touche LLP.And its not just state officials who are affected. Nearly a third of local government chief information officers reported increased cyberattacks during the past 12 months, according to a 2016 survey by the International City/County Management Association.The bad guys are constantly looking for new data sets or government systems to take down, said Timothy Blute, a program director of the National Governors Associations homeland security division. Its no longer a simple IT problem. More and more citizen services are being moved to the internet. Every time that happens, they become a target.At the same time, Blute said the public sector is struggling with a shortage of qualified cybersecurity professionals. And states are facing serious problems hiring and retaining IT staff , especially cybercrime experts. Salaries generally cant match those in private industry, and its often hard to move up the ladder in state government. Creating a civilian cyber team like Michigans can help states beef up that expertise, Blute said.Last month, the state logged 6 billion cybersecurity events, including probes by would-be intruders and attempted attacks, according to Groll. That was double the number from a year ago.Paul Dumbleton, security engineering manager at Perrigo, a manufacturer of generic over-the-counter medicine, said he joined the corps nearly three years ago, partly to give back to the community.But, he said, its also been beneficial for himself and for his company. He has networked with cybersecurity professionals in other industries and improved his skills through training and mentoring. And he has used that knowledge to offer cybersecurity presentations at his church and a local Boy Scouts troop meeting.NASCIOs Robinson said public-private partnerships like Michigans can benefit both sectors.Financial institutions have some of the best IT security people. They can bring new ideas and innovation to the states, he said. And it can be an eye-opening experience for companies, which dont have the broad scope of responsibility that states have, everything from transportation to human services.Michigan officials admit its a challenge keeping all their cyber volunteers on board, considering they havent actually been deployed. They try to engage them by requiring them to undergo intense training and exercises, attend quarterly meetings around the state, and participate in a monthly conference call.Another sticking point is that corps members dont have protection from lawsuits if they give advice or make a decision that inadvertently causes harm. The proposed legislation addresses that by including a good Samaritan clause that would provide the volunteers with civil immunity.Dumbleton, the corps volunteer, said adding such protection is important for the team.Wed be going into an organization where we have no idea how their network is set up or what type of information they have, he said. If we find something and suggest they make a change and it breaks something within their network, if were held responsible or liable for that, well lose a lot of members because were volunteers.State Rep. Brandt Iden, a Republican and sponsor of the Michigan bill, said offering immunity and broadening the corps scope would help not only with retention but with recruitment. He said the legislation also would allow local government agencies, nonprofits and small businesses to tap into expertise they may not already have.School district officials who think their network may have been hacked, for example, could contact the state technology department, which could dispatch corps volunteers for up to a week to assess the threat and recommend a plan of action. The volunteers would supplement, not supplant, the private IT security contractors often hired to fix such problems, he said.By expanding the corps reach beyond just emergencies, Iden said, it will give these people an opportunity to roll up their sleeves and get in there and make a difference.
The attack

ISIS and Russia

Criminal investigation

No charges

Security changes

Public disclosure

(TNS)  SARASOTA, Fla.  A cyber attack that crippled Sarasota City Hall computer systems early last year was far more severe than previously reported publicly, a newly released administrative review reveals.The "ransomware" virus was the worst cyber attack in the city's history, encrypting 160,000 city files and demanding up to $33 million in the virtual currency Bitcoin to unlock them.Only swift action from the city's information technology staff to literally "pull the plug" on the government's network saved the city from catastrophic data loss and financial cost, according to the investigation."In 25 years, that's the worst disaster I've ever encountered. ... It was an end-of-life event from the IT perspective," City IT Director Herminio Rodriguez told city investigators.The February 2016 attack was contained in a matter of hours and IT staff's all-nighter restored the system by the next morning. It was only first publicly disclosed six months later, in late August, when city officials acknowledged the breach and emphasized no city employees' or residents' data were taken during the attack and all of the affected files were retrieved from the city's extensive backup archive.But the incident itself was only the beginning of a bizarre series of events that included an Islamic State propaganda video, Russian hacking, the FBI and, ultimately, a Sarasota Police Department criminal investigation into city staff's handling of the virus after the attack.An ensuing city administrative review of those events details several apparent miscommunications between SPD and city staff and a tense standoff about the investigation, ending with a State Attorney's Office decision not to prosecute city IT employees over alleged evidence tampering.Although that review was completed last November, it was acknowledged and released publicly for the first time this week at the request of the Herald-Tribune amid an ongoing public records inquiry about the incident by the Florida Police Benevolent Association, city records indicate.The report is the first time the city has disclosed the specifics of the attack and addressed in detail its own security responses to the breach.The most severe cyber attack ever on the city of Sarasota started with an "innocuous looking email" with the subject line "scanned invoice" received about mid-morning on Feb. 25, 2016, a Thursday.A civilian SPD employee attempted to open the attached document, activating the malicious software that locks files and demands a ransom payment in return, according to the report. When the document didn't open, the employee forwarded it to the police and city IT service desks.It would take less than four hours from the receipt of that email on the city email server for the virus, aptly referred to as "Locky," to spread throughout the system. Texts and phone calls from worried city staff members poured into Rodriguez and Information Security System Analyst Jackie Hemmerich, according to the report."In short order, Rodriguez and Hemmerich were forced to, literally, pull the plug on the entire City network in order to halt the encryption," the report states. "By then, Locky had corrupted 10-12 terabytes of data  some 160,000 files."Although the software demanded ransom payments in Bitcoin, an untraceable digital currency, the city did not pay. Instead, the IT security team was able to work all night to purge the viral emails, restart system applications and restore all of the city's data from its backup system, limiting the outage for city servers to only one day.The incident exposed critical vulnerabilities to the city's IT system.Just two weeks before the attack, Rodriguez requested to upgrade the city's anti-virus software from the basic Microsoft product included for free, but was turned down because the new service was too expensive, according to the report. The city immediately upgraded to that software, called Sophos, in the aftermath of the attack.The city also has since limited so-called "super admin" rights, in which some IT staff can access all servers and local computers, which helped spread the virus from the help desk to the rest of City Hall, the internal review concluded.In March and April, SPD and city IT staff further investigated the attack together and compiled a report, which included a copy of the original email and virus on a thumb drive.Crucially, they did not notify any other law enforcement of the attack at the time, a decision that would be scrutinized when the investigation escalated later in the summer."As our president of the United States says, this could be some guy sitting on a bed somewhere; we certainly didn't know for certain what came from where at the time," City Manager Tom Barwin recalled this week. "What we did learn, and this is now our standard response, is if and when we get hit with any attempt like this, we immediately go to the authorities."At the time it wasn't even a conscious sort of reaction, it was, 'Oh, boy another spam hit, we need to toughen our firewall.' We've now become a model of what to do."The ransomware attack would be the first of several alarming apparent cyber threats in the same summer that hacking and other similar attacks would headline international news and the presidential election.The first came during a "surprising visit" to City Hall from an FBI agent, who told Rodriguez that federal intelligence officials had noticed a photo of the city's email system in an Islamic State propaganda video, according to the internal investigation. That email system is made publicly available online for citizens or journalists to easily view many city officials' emails, which are public records under Florida's open-government laws.The second came on June 14, when an unusual records request was submitted for Rodriguez's entire email inbox. The request came from an account using "Yandex.com," a Russian-based server, and would have included thousands of emails with proprietary security information that could be used to infiltrate the city's system, according to the investigation."'I built everything the City has' in terms of system security, 'and that's all in my mailbox,'" Rodriguez told city investigators.The city did not fulfill the request. Instead, officials advised the massive request would require a $16,000 deposit and another $16,000 upon receipt  which is allowed based on how long the records would take to review and potentially redact  and the requester then abandoned the matter, according to the report.Both curious instances came amid increasing ransomware attacks worldwide and, it is now publicly known, while national intelligence officials were investigating Russian attempts to hack local government and elections offices during the presidential campaign. Fear of both has only grown more intense this year and the massive international ransomware attack known as WannaCry rocked the world this summer.SPD escalated the investigation into the ransomware attack on the city at the end of July, inviting FBI investigators to examine the virus and attempt to trace its origin.But that investigation quickly turned back onto city employees themselves after an unusual and ill-timed sequence of events that pitted city and police officials against one another.The sequence began after SPD officials learned, apparently for the first time, that the initial attack began with a police employee's email, according to the city review.On Aug. 2, SPD detectives and IT employees were in communication with a slew of city administrators and IT leaders about working together on the investigation and sharing information, emails showed.As part of that, one SPD employee submitted a formal public records request to the City Auditor and Clerk's Office in an attempt to obtain the original email that would have transmitted the virus from SPD to City Hall. But the final request was broad, spanning months and about 5,000 emails.The city's public records liaison, Karen McGowan, relayed the request to the city's IT department but did not disclose the requester was part of the SPD investigation. Per state law, a requester cannot be required to give his or her name to file a public records request, but neither does it prohibit the city from disclosing the requester's name, the report noted.Rodriguez and Hemmerich were suspicious of the large request related to the virus following the Russian-based request and asked McGowan to identify who was seeking the records, but she refused, according to the report. They began to review the request and responded it would require a deposit, still not knowing it was a SPD request.The following day, SPD's Capt. Corrine Stannish told Rodriguez to disregard the previous day's records request and asked personally for a much more specific set of emails around the time of the attack. SPD IT staff also found the original email on its own in a "deleted emails" folder and planned to show it to the FBI, according to the report.In fulfilling Stannish's request, city IT staff realized there were still instances of the virus on city servers that could inadvertently be reactivated or accidentally released as part of fulfilling a public records request, Rodriguez and Hemmerich recalled during the administrative review. They immediately directed the purge of the viral emails, knowing that a copy of the original virus and email was still stored on the thumb drive made after the attack, they said.But SPD leaders either did not know of or understand the copy and were shocked by the deletions."Captain Stannish found it incredible that emails related to the Locky virus, which SPD had planned to turn over to the FBI, could have been destroyed the day after she requested the Locky emails in her email to Rodriguez," the report said. "At this point, the joint SPD/FBI effort to gather evidence related to a cyber-crime morphed into an internal investigation of two City employees for the crime of evidence tampering."The adversarial turn in the investigation pitted the two arms of the same local government against one another.The timing of the requests and the purge raised "red flags" for SPD investigators, Stannish said."'What it boils down to,' she said, is that 'when we started pressing, there seemed to be a motivation to hide mistakes,'" the report says.But federal investigators ultimately were able to use the copy of the virus on the thumb drive in their review of the incident, which was not technically a formal investigation but only part of broader information gathering on such attacks, according to a final review and city officials.While the unfolding events led SPD officials to believe "they were being accused of causing the Locky virus," city employees felt threatened by the sudden criminal investigation into their conduct, both sides relayed during the review."Everybody knows that mere deletion of an email doesn't delete it from the system," Hemmerich said. "When we gave them (SPD and FBI) the file, it should've stopped right there."SPD ultimately asked the State Attorney's Office to review whether the deletions constituted evidence tampering, but Assistant State Attorney Art Jackman determined there was not sufficient evidence of intent to tamper, according to the report."In the end, the FBI appears to have been satisfied, the state attorney reviewed the matter and found nobody was tampering with any evidence and then we did our own review internally," Barwin said this week. "I think the report sort of shows that was the case. The finding was that IT acted responsibly and timely. SPD, once they learned of this, went after it aggressively."In the end, everybody acted appropriately, even if it got a little tense, which happens sometimes."The final internal investigation report issued harsh words for both city and SPD staff in the aftermath of the attack.The report found both sides at fault for not communicating "in any substantive way" after the virus was contained and ordered the city review its protocols for responding to such incidents, handling digital evidence and sharing records without a formal request that a citizen would be expected to submit.The city also has upgraded its firewalls in addition to the improved security software and now has cyber-liability insurance coverage, which became effective Oct. 1.The internal investigation concludes with an emphasis that it was not designed to assign any fault for the series of events that took place and that it recommended no employees be disciplined."The writers of this report have avoided second-guessing and casting blame, and have focused instead on positive recommendations for improving the safety of the City's IT system and for improving relations between departments," the report concludes. "We have endeavored to present this material in an unfiltered way ... None of the employees we interviewed appeared to have acted in bad faith or with improper motives, but were instead doing their best to act in the City's interest."But the new revelations about the attack raise questions about the city's public response to what its own leaders describe as a historic and potentially catastrophic intrusion.That an attack ever occurred only became public during the same week as the SPD investigation into the city's conduct in late August.It was first suggested by a brief report by a local television station and later confirmed by the Herald-Tribune with City Manager Tom Barwin on Aug. 24  a day before the State Attorney's Office chose not to pursue charges against Rodriguez and Hemmerich.Barwin and spokeswomen for SPD and the FBI confirmed at the time the ransomware attack was under investigation but did not say that city staff members were being investigated.Virtually no details about the scope of the attack and the ensuing investigations were made available at the time and no officials referred to the suspicious incidents regarding the Islamic State or Russian-based request. Barwin said it had not been disclosed earlier to avoid alerting would-be threats that the city had ever been vulnerable.Barwin asked the city conduct an administrative review of the entire situation on Aug. 26 and assigned it to Human Resources Director Stacie Mason. The city did not publicly acknowledge this review, nor did it release the final report when it was completed on Nov. 15.The final report was only acknowledged Thursday after a reporter raised questions about a detailed request for documents related to the incident by the Florida Police Benevolent Association, the union representing members of the Police Department.That request for many of the emails detailed in the investigative report has not been completed yet.The reason the administrative review was not disclosed last fall is itself an anomaly, city spokeswoman Jan Thornburg said. She was out of town when the incident was first reported by local media and did not receive follow-up inquiries from reporters, so the story simply "died down," she said Friday morning.When the review was complete, Barwin was satisfied with its conclusion and briefed city commissioners in their private, one-on-one sessions with the city manager each week. None of the commissioners asked the report be discussed publicly, Thornburg said."After all of it, let's have an administrative review to see what was done right, what could be better in the future and how we could guide ourselves in this new era in which hacking and ransomware is a new reality we've got to deal with," Barwin said. "If you digest the whole report from my perspective, trying to administer and manage the city, there is a lot of good guidance that came out of that and a lot of lessons that were learned. It was internal operations, administration and figuring out how we're going to deal moving forward with ransomware and hacking based on the experience we had."
Sergio Marchionne has admitted Sauber could become "a kind of junior team" for Ferrari.

Last week, former F1 team founder Gian Carlo Minardi said the so-called Ferrari 'B team' Haas announcing an unchanged driver lineup for 2018 was "a missed opportunity for Ferrari".

That's because Ferrari junior drivers Antonio Giovinazzi and Charles Leclerc would be left out in the cold for 2018.

At the time Minardi spoke, Sauber was still linked with a move from Ferrari to Honda power, having also committed to giving Honda-linked driver Nobuharu Matsushita a test this week.

But then, everything changed in Hungary.

New Sauber boss Frederic Vasseur axed the Honda deal and signed up for current-specification Ferrari engines for 2018.

Speaking on a visit to the paddock, Ferrari president Marchionne said in Hungary: "The engines for Sauber are also a way to create a kind of junior team for our young drivers.

"We have two great young talents, but to secure the future of Ferrari, we need the chance to train them somewhere.

"We need space for them, so it's a great idea and we're working on it," Marchionne added.

"Maurizio Arrivabene has worked hard on this project, and I want to say also that in agreement with Liberty Media we will also increase the number of customers for our engines."

While Monaco-born Leclerc is dominating Formula 2 so far this year, first in line for a Sauber vacancy would actually be Italian Giovinazzi.

"They tell me Giovinazzi did a great job for us, driving here (for Haas) on Friday and then on Friday night returning to be in the simulator," said Marchionne.

"He worked late to make sure there was no mistake in balancing the car. He's back here (in Hungary) with us now and I see that quite rightly he is tired," he smiled.

Marchionne admits he had a meeting with his Mercedes counterpart Toto Wolff in Hungary, with one of the topics being the German marque's entry into Formula E.

He also responded to Wolff's claim that Ferrari was strong in Hungary mainly because the slow circuit and high temperatures suited the red car.

"We do not minimise the work of our guys," Marchionne said, "but there are two fast circuits in Spa and Monza coming up, so we'll see there," said Marchionne.

(GMM)
Another senior figure in the Red Bull camp has declined to comment on reports Toro Rosso is set to become Honda-powered in 2018.

Already in Hungary, the Red Bull junior team's Carlos Sainz refused to comment on rumours Honda's rifts with McLaren and Sauber could result in Toro Rosso signing a deal with the struggling Japanese manufacturer.

But then in Hungary, McLaren-Honda put both drivers in the points, with Fernando Alonso even recording the fastest lap of the entire race.

Asked if that boost would affect the Toro Rosso-Honda negotiations, Christian Horner said: "What negotiations?"

According to the rumour, serious talks between Red Bull and Honda regarding a potential Toro Rosso deal will take place on Tuesday.

"I'm not going to comment on rumours or ask about the source of your information," Horner, the Red Bull Racing team boss, said.

"I think there's an awful lot of rumours about Honda at the moment, but I have nothing to say."

However, with Mercedes and Ferrari saying no to customer deals with McLaren, and with Honda appearing to make progress, it now seems most likely that McLaren-Honda will stay together.

September appears to be the decision deadline.

"You can change an engine supplier in 12 weeks," said McLaren boss Eric Boullier. "But if you want to build a car ideally around the engine, you need to start in September at the latest."

Honda's motor sport chief Mashashi Yamamoto said clearly: "Honda is staying in formula one and with McLaren. We have a contract."

And Honda F1 boss Yusuke Yamamoto added in Hungary: "There is no doubt that we want to stay with McLaren.

"I'm glad we can show some progress here, which will improve our relationship."

(GMM)
Jared Thomas, an employee at Taco Bell in Ooltewah, was awarded the 2017 Team Tacala Scholarship.

He is set to have a celebration of this honor and formally accept this scholarship on Wednesday, Aug. 22 at Taco Bell, 9210 Lee Hwy. in Ooltewah, at 3:30 p.m.






Hi, Im Emoji. You know me. Im the happy face, or frown, people use to express their emotions, attitudes or moods on Facebook, a text, or an email. Im a whole lot more fun to look at than LOL or smh or :-). I like to consider myself an assistant  I help folks convey feelings when trying to communicate only with words through electronic technology. I also help to save people the trouble of having to interact face to face, eye to eye, and engaging in that bothersome activity called relationships.Thanks, Mr.E, for your cameo appearance today. Youve certainly become the face of social media. Well let you know when we need you. See ya!Did you know that only seven percent of all communication is verbal  actual spoken words? That means 93 percent of communication is non-verbal  tone of voice, eye contact, body language, pace of speech, general appearance, and other factors. Trying to effectively communicate electronically can be like trying to hammer a nail with one hand. Not easy. Hence, the emergence of emojis (emoticons) for expressing thoughts and feelings visually. If people cant see us, how else will they know whether were happy or sad, angry or hurting, bored, dead serious  or just kidding?Im not opposed to communicating via text, email or social media. Being a communicator, I utilize these resources a lot. Theyre especially useful for reaching out to people far away, and theyve also helped me reconnect with old friends and former classmates. But electronic communication  even with availability of emojis  has shortcomings. It does little to enhance real-life relationships; in some respects, it can impede relationship-building.Weve all seen young people in malls, their eyes fixed on their smartphones, texting  sometimes to people standing next to them! Couples spend romantic evenings in restaurants, staring at their devices rather than conversing or gazing meaningfully into one anothers eyes. (Admittedly, my wife and I have done this on occasion.) On social media, even a shy, reserved person that never speaks up in public can seem the life of the party.People are finding it harder to make  and maintain  eye contact, one of those ingredients for non-verbal communication cited above. People have become accustomed to looking down. How can one sustain a conversation while constantly checking to see what someones posted on Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, or Facebook? An alert for an incoming message can quickly interrupt meaningful personal interaction.As Ive said before, its not my intent to denigrate electronic communication. It has its place. But God designed us for relationships, real relationships; not ones formed around bits and bytes, symbols and abbreviations. In the first chapter of Genesis, after the Lord created animals, birds, fish, other living creatures, and then mankind, theres no indication He wrapped up His work by creating the emoji.We see a premium on relationships in the Old Testament, whether its Joseph mending fences with his spiteful brothers; Moses prepping Joshua to lead the Israelites; Elijah mentoring Elisha to be his prophetic successor; David and Jonathan, and other examples.We see this emphasis throughout the New Testament as well. After beginning His earthly ministry, the Scriptures tell us Jesus appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach (Mark 3:14). He enjoyed hanging out with them.And while providing on-the-job training to His followers for ministering to others, Jesus didnt send them out alone. After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go (Luke 10:1). They didnt go with iPhones or PDAs.Maybe the reason Jesus came to earth 2,000 years ago was because when He gave His sermon on the mount, His audience wouldnt be distracted by texting or video games. He had their undivided attention.The apostle Paul underscored the value of relationships hed established, writing how important they had become to him: I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now (Philippians 1:3-5). Even though he was limited to the written word during his imprisonment, Paul wanted his own followers to understand the devotion to them, something that couldnt have been conveyed through emojis  even if they had existed back then.Despite the conveniences of electronic media, theres no substitute for person-to-person, eye-to-eye, side-by-side communicating. In these challenging days, when our world seems in such turmoil, our need for mutual support and encouragement is perhaps greater than ever. The happy face of a living, breathing someone standing in front of me is always better than one appearing on a computer screen, a text, or a Facebook post.Proverbs 27:17 gives us this reminder: As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Just as a blade is sharpened only by contact and necessary friction, we require direct, personal contact to become sharpened spiritually. When we need honing and sharpening for life, emojis just wont do.----Robert J. Tamasy is a veteran journalist, former newspaper editor and magazine editor. Bob has written hundreds of magazine articles, and authored, co-authored and edited more than 15 books. These include the newly re-published, Business At Its Best, Tufting Legacies, The Heart of Mentoring, and Pursuing Life With a Shepherds Heart. He edits a weekly business meditation, Monday Manna, which is translated into more than 20 languages and distributed via email around the world by CBMC International. To read more of Bob Tamasys writings, you can visit his blog, www.bobtamasy.blogspot.com, or his website (now being completed), www.bobtamasy-readywriterink.com. He can be emailed at btamasy@comcast.net.
World Restoration Center Church will be hosting its seventh annual Back to School Bash/Community Health Fair on Saturday from 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m.

Free school supplies will be available while supplies last.

Activities will include TENNderCare well-child check-ups, vision screenings, resources on behavioral and learning barriers, HIV testing, food, games and more.

This event is for the entire family.

World Restoration Center Church is at 4004 Dorris St. For more information please call the church at 756-3327.






Antioch Missionary Baptist will host a Back to School Bash on Saturday from 2-4 p.m.

There will be a concession stand open, school supplies giveaway, interesting topics and music.

The event will be held in the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church Health Resource Center at 901 G.W. Davis Dr.

Reverend Todd Lansden is the senior pastor. For more information call Pat Gray at 227-4883.
Michael May has been named assistant executive director of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.

He moves into his new role after serving as TWRAs Information Technology Division chief since September 2011. Mr. May will handle a variety of administrative duties.

"The enthusiasm and energy that Michael displays toward every project we have undertaken is remarkable, said Ed Carter, TWRA executive director upon making the announcement. I look forward to that same professionalism and leadership in his new role. His outgoing personality will be an asset not only inside the Agency but in building further working relationships with our sister agencies and federal partners.

As IT Division chief, Mr. May was responsible for overall direction and administration of TWRAs statewide computer programming operations. He played a role in the implementation of Brandt Information Services as the agencys new license vendor during the past year. During his tenure, Mr. May and his division were also honored by the Tennessee Wildlife Officers Association with the 2013 Presidents Award, which signified outstanding service and dedication to the Tennessee wildlife officers.

I am incredibly honored and humbled to be selected for this highly important position in the agency that I love, said Mr. May. I am excited for the new challenges and look forward to increasing relationships with the many outstanding employees dedicated to serving our agency and the citizens of our great state.

Prior to being named IT Division chief, Mr. May was an information resource support specialist 4 from 2003-11. He originally joined the TWRA in 2000. He was an information resources support specialist 2 & 3 for General Service before his return to the TWRA.

A U.S. Air Force veteran, he continues to serve in the rank of Chief Master Sergeant in the Air National Guard. He was one of six Outstanding Veteran Employees working in state government honored by Governor Bill Haslam and the State of Tennessee in the 2014 Veterans Day observance.

Mr. Mays appointment is effective July 31. Mr. May and Bobby Wilson, who oversees TWRAs field operations, will serve as the TWRAs assistant executive directors.
The U.S. Senate convenes at 4 this afternoon.

It will "proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the nomination of Kevin Newsom, of Alabama, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit," according to its schedule.

Will leader Mitch McConnell dare call a vote in defiance of the king's command?

"Unless the Republican Senators are total quitters, Repeal & Replace is not dead! Demand another vote before voting on any other bill!" his highness tweeted Saturday.

That is the official White House position, budget director Mick Mulvaney confirmed Sunday: No votes before the Senate votes again on health care.

Even if there's really nothing to vote on.

After last week's defeat, McConnell said it was time to move on. There are other pressing matters. He even canceled the first two weeks of August recess.

Can he withstand being called a "total quitter" by the king? Or will he knuckle under?

McConnell knows the score. If he can turn one of his renegade senators around, he will call another vote. But that's not happening.

So he needs to tell his highness no, "You run your castle and I'll run mine."

Neither one is doing a very good job of it.

But here's what his majesty needs to know: His kingdom doesn't extend to Capitol Hill.
The Bachelorette

8 p.m. (WXLV)

Chris Harrison hosts as Rachel Lindsays suitors talk about their experiences on the show this season in this two-hour tell all special edition. Lindsay, a former The Bachelor contestant, searches for true love in this reality TV series.

Preacher

9 p.m. (AMC)

Tulip (Ruth Negga) tries to come to terms with her near-death experience in this new episode. Elsewhere, Denis (Ronald Gutman) asks Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) for a big favor, and Jesse (Dominic Cooper) questions the deal he made to save his friends.

CBSN: On Assignment





10 p.m. (WFMY)

CBS news correspondents bring viewers thought-provoking reports from around the globe in this premiere. Featuring fresh voices and perspectives, the program presents multiple stories about everything from gun violence to terrorism.

Pawn Stars





10:05 p.m. (HISTORY)

Rick considers making a deal on some antique beer memorabilia at the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop in this new episode. He also heads to San Diego to visit a pals brewery and get a history lesson. Meanwhile, the guys locate a McCormick Farmall tractor.
MADISON  Town officials as well as local merchants aired their concerns about damages caused by two storms that dropped nearly seven inches of rain in the lap of downtown Madison earlier this year.

Business owners, town officials and individuals affected by the flooding filled town hall during the July 13 board of aldermen meeting.

Mayor David Myers read a statement in response to comments that the town is not doing anything to assist merchants following storms on May 31 and June 16 that caused major flooding in the downtown district.

In response, several people shared grievances for how the town of Madison has responded to the aftermath of heavy volumes of water causing major damage.

Myers said that within days of the second storm, town staff contacted the offices of Senator Phil Berger and Representative Kyle Hall, as well as other local managers to help provide assistance and ask if they had experienced any similar issues.

They also contacted the North Carolina League of Municipalities, Piedmont Regional Council and North Carolina Rural Center  a non-profit that operates programs that provide resources for rural people, businesses and communities.

Staff also reached out to Rockingham County Emergency Management Director Robert Cardwell and asked him to inquire about any assistance available through the states emergency management office.

In each case, we were told of low interest loans that might be available but no one was aware of a program that would repay the merchants losses, Myers stated.

Business owner Bobby Pleasants, who operates Madison Art & Frame on Murphy Street, said he appreciated the efforts the town has made thus far, but that there were other means within the towns grasp to help address the problem.

You said that you know of no organization that you could fund any money to the merchants  you have insurance don't you? asked Pleasants, who lost nearly $10,000 in inventory in the floods.

I know you do because one of the representatives from your insurance company is here tonight. I think that the town has been a little negligent because this has happened a number of times over the years, Pleasants said.

Myers told Pleasants the towns insurance company has been apprised of the situation and its going to take some time to fix the issue.

A lot of these drains I can't go back and fix overnight what may have occurred four years ago when other people sitting in this room were on this board. Give me some time here. This is 30 days ago and I'm working on it, Myers said.

Town officials said they are optimistic that North Carolina Department of Transportation will see the need for this change and be agreeable to assisting in this project.

An engineer has also started investigating other types of grates that might assist the current drains with better flow. Rep. Hall was also asked to seek funding from DOT if they were to agree to reroute the flow from state-maintained streets in order to keep storm water from going through the downtown area.

DOT engineers have assured us they will do a study and analysis and discuss the results with us when they are finished, Myers read.

[The league of municipalities] is still compiling information and we understand one local merchant had been in direct contact with them.

We are certain that this issue arose from the debris that washed into the downtown area and not an issue within the storm drain system. We cannot control what washes down the curb and guttering during this amount of rain.

Danny Smith, who has owned and operated Flynn Furniture in downtown Madison for 38 years, said flooding causing major issues has now happened five times.

He estimated that it will take months to sort through inventory damage that was caused by water flowing in through six different doors of his store. Following the last storm, his warehouse on Market Street had three to four inches of standing water.

We all need help from the town, said Smith. I was told when I called about it that I was not a citizen of Madison and that y'all could not help me. I've got three buildings downtown and I pay taxes, and I understand some of this money comes from taxes. So I guess that I might not be a citizen of Madison, but I've been here a long time and I feel like that was the wrong thing to say to me when I'm in the kind of shape that we are in right now.

It will cost another $78,000 to replace 10,000 square feet of buckled flooring.

"If it happened again tonight, then the doors would be locked and we'd be gone, Smith said. We are going to have to leave. We can't stay here. It takes time, I completely understand that and I appreciate what you are doing.
Chattanooga CARES announced Monday that Shannon Stephenson, CEO, has been selected to be on the board of the Ryan White Clinics for 340B Access.

Ryan White Clinics for 340B Access is a coalition of HIV/AIDS medical providers receiving support under the Ryan White CARE Act. Organized in 2013, the organization seeks ways to preserve the benefits of the 340B program.

Regarding the appointment to the Board, Ms. Stephenson stated, I am honored to serve on the Board of RWC-340B and look forward to working with the other members of the Board to carry out our mission.




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STAMFORD  One of the areas most promising digital-media firms has turned to a broadcast veteran to help maintain its momentum.

Lee Davis, who formerly worked as executive vice president of sales in Univision Communications local media division, last month joined Stamford-based MediaCrossing as executive vice president. While Davis career has focused on traditional media, Davis and his new boss said he would bring the experience and skills needed to help the digital-advertising firm build on its strong growth since its 2012 founding.

I was always fascinated with the digital space and digital industry, Davis said in a recent interview at MediaCrossings offices at 9 W. Broad St. It is obviously where a significant amount of dollars are starting to flow, and have been for many years. This was a good opportunity for me to join a progressive thinking and young and hungry media agency that specializes in digital advertising.

MediaCrossing CEO Michael Kalman cited the extent of Davis connections and rapport with clients.

I had yet to come across a media exec who is both as well-liked and well-versed with clients in terms of good outcomes for clients, Kalman said. We embed ourselves with our clients, we understand whats important to them. Were an extension of their marketing and management departments in many cases. And I really did believe Lee will only raise our game.

Davis joins MediaCrossing during a period of significant expansion. Its revenues increased by nearly 300 percent last year, and it is on track to record similar growth in the next two years, according to Kalman. The company declined to provide specific numbers for earnings.

More Information For more information on MediaCrossing, visit www.mediacrossing.com See More Collapse

Last year, MediaCrossing earned a place on professional-services firm Marcums Tech Top 40 list of the fastest-growing tech companies in Connecticut, recognition of firms that have recorded at least $3 million in annual revenues and a four-year record of growth.

MediaCrossing focuses on serving middle-market brands and advertising agencies across the country concentrated in the industries of live events, pharmaceuticals, higher education, financial services, food and beverage and other packaged goods.

Clients can target acutely defined demographics  say mothers with children younger than 10  and tailor their advertising to respective local markets, Kalman and Davis said.

In traditional broadcast space, youre broadcasting one-to-many; here, it is one-to-one, Davis said. The amount of accountability and types of metrics you can put to it are really types of things that help advertisers determine if they are spending their money wisely.

MediaCrossings growth stands on solid financial footing because it carries no debt, Kalman said. The firm has also benefited from a $250,000 investment from Connecticut Innovations, a state-chartered business investing and consulting organization.

Its a great success story, said Connecticut Innovations CEO Matt McCooe. Its a testament to Michaels nose for opportunities and entrepreneurial bent and making MediaCrossing a runner.

MediaCrossing, which employs about 15, has operated at 9 W. Broad St. since March. It outgrew previous offices at Landmark Square, 300 Main St. and the Stamford Innovation Center. Now occupying about 4,300 square feet at its current address, the firm has the option to take more space there.

The firms location also offers a manageable commute for Kalman and Davis, who both live in Westport.

Stamford provides us with quick access to talent from New York, Kalman said. We think it is one of the hubs of commerce in the northeast. We like the city and its access to culture. I think Stamford is a good place for us.

pschott@scni.com; 203-964-2236; twitter: @paulschott
Fung Tus foie-gras bao with lap-cheong marmalade. Photo: Liz Clayman

Another one bites the spice dust. After four years on Orchard Street, nouveau Chinese-American restaurant Fung Tu will serve its last kohlrabi salad on August 31. During its tenure, the Lower East Side spot was home to some of the citys best and most creative Chinese food. Chef Jonathan Wu, who once worked at Per Se, mined his upbringing to mix and match ingredients to often delicious results, as in the China-quiles (yucca chips with Sichuan pork sauce), chow-fun noodles with chorizo, and a pork-belly egg roll.

Related Stories The Absolute Best Chinese Restaurants in New York

After a quiet start, it earned significant praise from New Yorks Adam Platt, Eater N.Y.s Ryan Sutton, and (eventually) the New York Times Pete Wells. Others, like cookbook author Kian Lam Kho, credited it with being a trailblazer in bringing a more contemporary take on Chinese food to the citys restaurant scene. Still, its not clear that the restaurant ever found enough of an audience, and it was rarely busy when Grub popped by. The restaurant had also dealt with its share of hiccups. In 2015, the restaurant was forced to close and then operate without gas for several months. And earlier this year, talking about the effect of President Trumps election on business, Wu told Grub Street that he had reworked his menu to be more affordable and accessible.

Fans of Wus cooking shouldnt be totally disappointed, however. One of the restaurants co-owners is Wilson Tang of Nom Wah fame. In September, hell reopen the space as Nom Wah Tu with Wu in the kitchen, and Fung Tu beverage director Sophie Maarleveld pouring drinks. It sounds like it could be a slightly fancier version of Nom Wah, where the menu mixes traditional dim sum with Wus style of cooking.
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Working in the Whitfield County Tax Assessors Office, Lori Rowlette goes to great lengths to assist the taxpayers of the county.

Thats the word from one of the four co-workers who successfully nominated Rowlette as Whitfield County Employee of the Month for June.

Rowlette has achieved her Appraiser II certification from the Georgia Department of Revenue and is working towards her Appraiser III certification, scheduled to take the exam in August, as she strives to do an even better job for local residents.

Compliments from her fellow workers who nominated her for the award include:

Lori has knowledge of all aspects of the office. She is willing to assist in any task asked.

Excellent customer service!

Very knowledgeable of rules and regulations on taxation and guiding taxpayers through the process of filing Business Personal Property and Freeport returns with courtesy and professionalism.

Lori is an expert on Freeport Exemption.

Ms. Rowlette is also very active in charity activities, including the United Way Halloween Costume Contest, United Way Bake Sale, and Office Christmas Child, as well as helping with meals for office socials.

To help local residents learn more about her, Ms. Rowlette filled out the following fun questionnaire.

Name: Lori Rowlette

Job title: Personal Property Appraiser

Time with the county: Going on 11 years

Where I went to high school: Winder Barrow High School in Winder

My role as a county employee: Appraise business assets and the Freeport Exemption

What keeps my job interesting: Its a new challenge every day plus I get to work with a wide cross section of people. Its always interesting.

What gives me a sense of accomplishment on the job: Being able to help people.

The most important thing Ive done on the job: Helping to demystify what we do and letting people know that we care about them and the county.

Where I grew up: My Dad was in the U.S. Air Force so we moved a lot. I counted one time that I had moved over 20 times by my 18th birthday, but Northwest Georgia has always been home.

Family: Single/never married - no children but 12 nieces and nephews

After work, I enjoy: Reading, listening to music, baking, DIY around my house and enjoying the mountains around our area

Community activities: Helping people when I can

Favorite TV show: Supernatural

Favorite sport/sport team: UGA

Favorite meal: I would love to have a spread like my family used to fix for Meemaws birthday. You would gain 20 pounds walking in her back door. It was a mix between Christmas dinner and a cook out. Uncle Max would not eat for three days before the meal and would create a moat of food around the edge of the plate then fill the center in. I miss those meals.

Favorite song: Its a tie between Runaway by Del Shannon and Stand by Me by Ben E. King.

Favorite Whitfield County restaurant: Town Square Cafe - Jennie is a sweetheart

Favorite Whitfield County event: Ill have to say the employee luncheon. Starting in late summer/early fall our office is taken over by the decorations. Its always neat to see what ideas Jennifer Jones comes up with.

You can pick four people to have dinner with (anyone from any time in history)  who are your four people and why? Oh Lord, thats a hard one. My late brother Michael Rowlette, Peter Carl Faberge because of his jewelry designs, Dale Chihuly to talk about his glass sculptures, hmmm the last one is a tie between William Morris and Frank Lloyd Wright since Ive always been intrigued by their designs.

Im most proud of: Never giving up and always trying to improve myself

Cats or dogs? Dogs

Cake or pie? Cake

Favorite car? 1965 Shelby Cobra

Host or be hosted? Host

Early riser or sleep-in: Lol, depends on the day of the week and my internal clock

Favorite vacation ever: Visiting New Orleans prior to Katrina circa 2000.

Best teacher you ever had: Oh this is a tough one. I have two. Mrs. Ann Landress who taught art at WBHS and Mrs. Jett who taught clothing at WBHS.

Pet peeve: Rude people and bad drivers.

If Ive learned one thing in life, its: Never give up and things are going to get better, just have to have faith.

Who has had the most impact on my life: My Dad. He is my rock. He is the one who introduced me to art and architecture.

Whats left on my bucket list: Lol, the whole bucket. Going to Murano, Italy and get lost among all the glass studios. Visiting Scotland and tracing where my family has come from. Just exploring the world.

If I could have been in any profession of my choosing, I would have been a: A jewelry designer or historical preservationist.

If I could have two wishes, they would be: To meet my granddaddy Clayton Rowlette and see my loved ones who are no longer with us.

Youd be surprised to learn that I: Have taken classes to be a certified gemologist through GIA (Gemological Institute of America). Im also learning how to make lamp work glass beads. Yes, me - an open flame plus molten glass!

The best advice I ever got: Take a deep breath and think before you speak




Haiti - NOTICE : Registration open to participate in the Conference of Youth





The Conference of Youth (COY13-Haiti) is an international event where young people from all over the world gather before the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP23) to strengthen their capacities through training, workshops and conferences around climate change.



This year, COP23, aims at the implementation of the Paris agreement. To this end, COY13 will bring together passionate and committed young people from around the world for three days to promote a fair, just, lasting and desirable society.



This year again, youth aged 18 to 30 years will have the opportunity to bring their voices to COP23, with the Local COY13-Haiti to be held in Haiti, at Campus Henry Christophe University of the State University of Haiti in Limonade from 18 to 20 October 2017, bringing together 200 very bright young people from ten departments of Haiti.



Online registration : docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd-93iwtNF2ppi0CRryd-zj8v-N-K59E_W0JIe2aamqCu23DQ/viewform



Deadline : August 31, 2017



IMPORTANT : If you selected a contribution of US $ 50 will be requested to support your accommodation, food and transportation during the three days of the conference.



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Politics : Moise received a delegation from the US Congress





Sunday at the National Palace, President Jovenel Moise, accompanied by Antonio Rodrigue, Minister of Foreign Affairs, received a delegation of US Congressmen led by Representative Jeff Duncan of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee.



On the agenda of the discussions, in addition to the overall situation of Haiti, there was in particular the issue of the mobilization of the new armed forces of Haiti. President Moise explained to the congressmen the importance for Haiti to equip itself with specialized military corps to get involved in the development process of the country.



The situation in Venezuela and Haitian-American relations were also reviewed during these exchanges. At the end of the talks, the US Congress delegation pledged to work to improve and strengthen relations between the two countries.



HL/ S/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - News : Zapping...





The minimum wage to 350 Gdes risk aggravating the crisis

The deputy Jean Marcel Lumerant (Grand-Goave), a member of the "Group of Independent Parliamentarians" (GPI) and President of the Social Affairs, Labor and Family Commission, believes that President Moses could have considered more the workers' demands, convinced that the decision to fix the minimum wage to 350 Gourdes risks aggravating the crisis.



DR : The Consulate of Haiti and the PNRE are talking

On Friday, following the one-year suspension granted by the Dominican Government to Haitians enrolled in the National Regularization Plan for Foreigners (PNRE) to complete their registration and avoid deportation to their country of origin https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21624-haiti-flash-ultimate-reprieve-for-haitian-in-dr-registered-with-the-pnre.html Jean Tholbert Alexis, Minister Counselor of the Consulate General of Haiti in Higuey (Dominican Republic), met Osvaldo Guerrero, Director of the PNRE, without he informed the purpose of this meeting...



Moise on inspection visit of Vincent bridge

On Saturday, President Jovenel Moise, accompanied by the Deputy of Leogane, Jean Wilson Hyppolite, paid an inspection visit on the Vincent bridge in Leogane. It was for the Head of State to inform himself personally of the condition of this bridge in order to consider the measures to take to strengthen it.



PM receives doctors from the diaspora

This weekend, as part of the strengthening of the health system, the transfer of skills and the accelerated increase in medical specialists in Haiti, Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant received a large delegation of Haitian doctors from the Diaspora.



Reform of public finances

On Friday, Aviol Fleurant the Minister of Planning and his colleague Jude A. Patrick Salomon, Minister of Economy and Finance (MEF), chaired a working session organized by the Commission for the Reform of Public Finances, to draw up the state of the public finances and evoke decision files.



Moise in Miragoane

On Saturday in Miragoane, President Moise , accompanied by the Departmental Delegate of the Nippes and some parliamentarians, met with the Mayors and members of the Boards of Communal Sections (CASEC) of Nippes on the various problems they face. The interconnection of communes in the Nippes department, drinking water, clearing rivers, building housing and the supply of equipment for the departmental public works department was at the heart of the discussions.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Published on 2017/07/30 | Source

According to Big Data of July on film actor brand reputation, first is Song Joong-ki, second Song Kang-ho and third Gong Yoo.

Advertisement

The Korea Corporate Research Institute analyzed 139,284,258 brand data of 50 Korean movie stars from June 28, 2017 to July 29, 2017 to measure the brand participation index, media index, communication index, and community index of consumers. Compared with 80,571,958 movie star brand big data in June, It increased by 72.87%.

The brand reputation index is an index that extracts the brand big data and classifies it as participation value, communication value, media value, community value, social value after the analysis of consumer behavior and positively negative ratio weight. In the actor brand reputation index, consumers' brand consumption patterns were analyzed by participation index, media index, communication index and community index.

In July, 2017, 25 actors that made the ranking were; Song Joong-ki, Song Kang-ho, Kim Soo-hyun, Lee Jung-hyun, So Ji-sub, Im Si-wan, Jun Ji-hyun, Hwang Jung-min, Yeo Jin-goo, Yoo Hae-jin, Ahn Jae-hong, Lee Kyung-young, Jung Woo-sung, Lee Byung-hun, Kim Ok-vin, Hyun Bin, Yoo Ah-in, Han Ji-min, Park Hyo-joo, Han Hyo-joo, Lee Jung-jae, Zo In-sung, Kim Hye-soo and Ha Jung-woo in order.

The Song Joong-ki brand is analyzed as the brand reputation index 23,494,489 with participation index 3,582,200 media index 5,457,648 communication index 2,741,225 community index 11,713,416.

The Song Kang-ho brand is analyzed as the brand reputation index 11,510,210 as the participation index 113,760 media index 2,268,840 communication index 382,478 community index 8,745,132.

The Gong Yoo brand index is 438,000, the media index is 1,185,702, the communication index is 789,035, the community index is 8,398,192, and the brand reputation index is 10,810,929.

Koo Chang-whan, director of the Korea Corporate Reputation Research Institute, said, "As a result of the evaluation of movie actor brand reputation in July, 2017, Song Joong-ki brand ranked first. Movie actor Song Joong-ki has attracted the attention of consumers through the movie "The Battleship Island". Second place was Song Kang-ho and third came Gong Yoo. The Song Joong-ki brand made in the drama "Descendants of the Sun" led to the marriage with Song Hye-kyo and the film "The Battleship Island" became the issue".

"In the link analysis of the film star Song Joong-ki brand, 'great, surprising and careful' were some frequent keywords. In the keyword analysis, 'Song Hye Kyo, marriage and "The Battleship Island"', were high. Positive rate of negative ratio analysis was analyzed as 64.13%", he added.
By Doug Wregg

Having just returned from Oregon Pinot Camp 2017, passionate pinot-phile Doug Wregg of artisan importer Les Caves de Pyrene reports on a region where quality is a driving passion

Access to this article is restricted.

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Hundreds Of Overdose-Reversing Drugs Issued To Ex-Inmates Leaving Cook County Jail

By Stephen Gossett in News on Jul 31, 2017 4:59PM



A pharmacist at a Walgreens store holds a box of the overdose antidote Naloxone Hydrochloride in New York City / Getty Images / Photo: Spencer Platt

The opioid crisis has surged across the nationand in the state of Illinoisover the last several years. The nationwide rate of drug overdoses spiked by 137 percent between 2000 and 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And in Illinois, more people died from opioid drug overdoses than all gun-related causes combined in 2014, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

In efforts to help stem the crisis in Chicago, the Cook County Health & Hospitals System is giving out naloxonethe nasal-spray drug used to reverse overdoses by blocking opioid effectsto certain at-risk inmates as they leave Cook County Jail. Some 400 former prisoners were given naloxone (known as Narcan under its brand name) upon leaving jail since last summer, according to the Associated Press.

Departing addicts are most likely to fatally overdose within two weeks of leaving jail, hence the timing of the intervention outreach, Sheriff Tom Dart said. "We've got to keep them alive (and) if we can get them through that two-week window, they might get treatment, get off drugs," Dart told the AP.

Some 900 prisoners have also been trained on how to use the spray since the summer of 2016, the AP reports.

Ease of Narcan access has caused some hostility in communities most beset by the opioid epidemic. (See the New Yorker's must-read "The Addicts Next Door" from last month.) But as Dart said, countering would-be criticism, "We can't get them into treatment if they're dead." As the AP notes, the World Health Organization has recommend expanded naloxone access in confronting the opioid crisis.

The move is one prong in an attempt to improve transition of the former incarcerated as they move from the prison system to the public. A recent partnership between the Sheriff's office and the University of Chicago Health Lab launched a new Supportive Release Center to give former inmates, including those with substance-abuse issues, a healthier release.

The big, big problem we face, though was, we did all this work inside the jail, and then scrambled like theres no tomorrow to try to triage something on the way out the door, but we didnt have the partners... This is revolutionary, what were talking about here, Dart told WTTW about the facility.

Note: this post has been corrected to reflect Cook County Health & Hospitals System's role in the program.
Court halts Illinois mandate to promote abortion

Injunction suspends enforcement of SB 1564, which targets free speech rights

News Release from Alliance Defending Freedom, July 20, 2017

ROCKFORD, Ill.  A federal court issued an injunction Wednesday that halts enforcement of an Illinois law which forces pregnancy care centers and doctors to promote abortion regardless of their ethical or moral views. Alliance Defending Freedom and allied attorneys represent multiple pregnancy care centers, a pregnancy care center network, and a doctor and her medical practice in a lawsuit challenging the law.

ADF attorneys argue that the new law, which is actually an amendment to the existing Illinois Healthcare Right of Conscience Act, violates federal law and the U.S. Constitution. In Wednesdays order in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Rauner, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois agreed, writing, It is clear that the amended act targets the free speech rights of people who have a specific viewpoint.

The government is out of line when it attempts to force Americans to communicate a message that is contrary to their most deeply held beliefs, said ADF Legal Counsel Elissa Graves. In addition, the state shouldnt be robbing women of the freedom to choose a pro-life doctor by mandating that pro-life physicians and entities make or arrange abortion referrals. The court was right to halt enforcement of this law while our lawsuit proceeds.

SB 1564 forces pregnancy care centers, medical facilities, and physicians who conscientiously object to involvement in abortions to adopt policies that provide women who ask for abortions with a list of providers they reasonably believe may offer them. Federal law prohibits the government from placing burdens on religious conscience without a compelling interest for doing so.

As the courts order explains, plaintiffs have demonstrated a better than negligible chance of succeeding in showing that the amended act discriminates based on their viewpoint by compelling them to tell their patients that abortion is a legal treatment option, which has benefits, and, at a minimum and upon request, to give their patients the identifying information of providers who will perform an abortion.

The government has no business forcing pro-life doctors and pregnancy care centers in Illinois to operate as referral agents for the abortion industry, said ADF-allied attorney and co-counsel Noel Sterett with Mauck & Baker LLC. A law that targets medical professionals because of their pro-life views and right of conscience is unconstitutional and unethical.

This decision correctly interprets the Constitution to prohibit compelled speech mandating faith-based ministries to speak a message with which they are fundamentally opposed, added National Institute of Family and Life Advocates President Thomas A. Glessner. We applaud this ruling that stops the state of Illinois from forcing pro-life pregnancy medical clinics to become abortion referral agencies.

Mauck & Baker attorney Whitman Briskey is also co-counsel in the case on behalf of the plaintiffs.

ADF attorneys also represent NIFLA in a similar case out of California, National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra, currently being considered by the U.S. Supreme Court.

---30---

Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.




We're a family of seven living in Georgia where Andrew's working as a professor at GSU. You can read more about us here
The newspaper reports that the problems have exacerbated following the introduction of legislative revisions that were designed to expedite the appeals process but that have enabled private legal aid lawyers to benefit from state funding and, effectively, con asylum seekers.

The Finnish system of providing legal aid to asylum seekers has been and remains riddled with serious problems, according to an investigation by Helsingin Sanomat .

We used to have a good system for providing legal aid to asylum seekers. It was taken down in a panic after lots of applicants arrived, Ville Punto, a lawyer specialising in immigration issues and the chairperson of the expert group on administrative law at the Finnish Bar Association, told Helsingin Sanomat on Saturday.

Punto revealed that he has seen numerous appeals that fail to elaborate on the situation of the appellant and simply cite sections of the legislation and public reports on the conditions in the appellants country of origin.

Related posts: Biaudet calls for review of asylum procedures of Migri (27 July, 2017)

Theres a lot of gobbledygook without a single comment on the grounds for the decision of Migri, he said.

The problems identified in the investigation include lawyers attending asylum interviews while intoxicated, neglecting to respond to e-mails and phone calls from their clients, and attempting to collect illegal charges from their clients.

Helsingin Sanomat writes that it is aware of more than ten cases in which the legal protection of an asylum seeker has been compromised by the disregard of legal aid lawyers.

The Finnish government decided in the second half of last year to shorten the appeal period for unsuccessful asylum seekers and introduce restrictions to the use of legal counsels in the first asylum interview.

Jarkko Ruohola, the president of the Finnish Bar Association, estimated that the absence of experienced legal counsels from asylum interviews partly in part why over a third of the negative asylum decisions processed this year by administrative courts have been overturned.

The number of cases sent back is way too high. This isnt the way it should be, he commented to Helsingin Sanomat.

Anna-Maja Henriksson, the chairperson of the Swedish Peoples Party and a former Minister of Justice, similarly estimates that the legislative reform has undermined the legal protection of asylum seekersin Finland.

Prohibiting the Refugee Advice Centre and others with expertise in asylum issues from counselling asylum seekers during the first asylum interview was a big mistake, she slams in a press release from the Swedish Peoples Party.

The governments reform has basically led to the misuse of tax money, as the money is being put into the pockets of lawyers who take advantage of people in need without being genuinely interested in doing their job as well as possible. The current system will ultimately undermine the credibility of our rule-of-law state, warns Henriksson.

She urges the government to take swift action and rectify its mistake.

It is clear in hindsight that the revisions were reckless and have resulted exactly in what I and the [Swedish Peoples Party] warned about in 2016. The intention at the time was to speed up the process, but it is becoming increasingly obvious that the objective was to remove people from the country quicker, she says.

Helsingin Sanomat reminded that the reform stirred up concerns among several legal and human rights experts after it was announced in early 2016. The Finnish Bar Association, Parliamentary Ombudsman, Parliaments Constitutional Law Committee and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), for instance, expressed their concern about the consequent erosion of the legal protection of asylum seekers in the country.

The Ministry of Justice is presently considering conducting a study of the effects of the revisions, writes Helsingin Sanomat.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Martti Kainulainen  Lehtikuva
THE newsagents shop in Sonning Common may start selling alcohol.

Visagaratnam Kunalan, who is negotiating to buy the store in Peppard Road from David Brighton, has applied to South Oxfordshire District Council, the licensing authority, for permission.

Mr Brighton wants to sell the retail side of the business but continue to run its newspaper rounds from a space at the back of the premises.

Sonning Common Parish Council has supported Mr Kunalans application to open from 7am to 11am Monday to Saturday and 10am to 10.3.0pm on Sundays and to sell alcohol during those hours. He is also seeking permisison to install CCTV.

Councillor Chrissie Phillips-Tilbury said: The new owner is planning on a putting a small supermarket there and is wanting a licence. The business is going through the process of being sold. The new owner is planning on revamping it. It will be a bit like BB Wines [in Peppard Road].

Councillor Stan Rust was concerned about the very long licensing hours being proposed. He said: Its 8am to 11pm. Thats every day except Sunday when it will be 10am to 10.30pm.

Councillor Leigh Rawlins said: I am concerned about the mix of merchandise to be sold but we have a mix of merchandise in places like the

Co-op and One Stop as well as others.

The laws are very permissive and this provides competition, so unless they dont respect their licence, I dont think there can be any objection.

Parish council chairman Carole Lewis said: I question whether we need another outlet like this in the village. We have BB Wines and One Stop in Wood Lane, do we need another one? Mr Brighton also runs Brightons Newsagents, wich delivers 50,000 newspaper and magazines in Berkshire and Oxfordshire every week. He didnt want to comment.

Anyone wishing to object to the variations in the licence should give notice in writing to: The licensing officer, South Oxfordshire District Council, 135 Eastern Avenue, Milton Park, Abingdon, OX14 4SB. This should be done before August 18.The application can be viewed at the district councils office between 9am and 4pm, Monday to Friday.

l What do you think? Write to: Letters, Henley Standard, Caxton House, 1 Station Road, Henley, RG9 1AD or email letters@henleystandard.co.uk
THE Henley Town and Visitors Regatta has attracted another near-record entry with 282 crews competing in 150 races running continuously from 8.30am to 7pm tomorrow (Saturday).

Racing will be held on a three-lane course over 800m from Old Blades to Phyllis Court, at four minute intervals throughout the day. Entrants range from elite to novice and from junior to masters in a wide range of racing boats.

Henley and Upper Thames Rowing Clubs will both be well-represented, as well as local crews from Abingdon, Reading and Wallingford, who will all be challenging for the Victor Ludorum.

The event has attracted more than 500 competitors representing 60 clubs, with competitors ages ranging from 13 to 80 years old. Some have represented GB at international level, but for others this is their first competitive rowing event.

Mike Williams, regatta chairman, said: We had an excellent day last year and are hoping for even better this year. Now that weve successfully attracted such a large number of crews, what we really need is a record crowd to cheer them on.

The Regatta has been running for more than 150 years  its friendly atmosphere and efficient organisation is often reflected in the positive feedback received from spectators and crews.

The Town Regatta is organised by local people and supported by local organisations and families. Ian Mills, regatta secretary said: We are very grateful for the support of many volunteers, subscribers, advertisers and sponsors, all of whom play a vital part in this important local event.

The regatta committee would also like to thank the Stewards of Henley Royal Regatta, who allow us to use their land and facilities, and to Henley Town Council who have supported the regatta consistently for many years.

The regatta enclosure is free for all to enter and families are welcomed. It offers refreshments and a licensed bar for competitors and spectators throughout the day. Spectators can also enjoy following a race aboard a traditional Henley umpires launch. The enclosure entrance is a short walk from Henley town centre, just downstream from the bridge on the Berkshire bank.

Full details of the racing schedule can be found at www.henleytownregatta.org.uk
Man Charged After Carrying Loaded AK-47 At CTA Station In Lakeview

By Stephen Gossett in News on Jul 31, 2017 2:30PM



Jordan Watkins (Chicago Police Department)

Authorities arrested Jordan Watkins, 29, after they received a call that a man with a gun was spotted on the CTA Belmont Station platform in the 900 block of West Belmont Avenue on Saturday at around 6:23 a.m., police said.

Watkins was charged with one felony count of unlawful use of a weapon by a parolee and one felony count of armed habitual criminal issuance of warrant.

Family members of Watkins said that he has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and was the victim of a shooting in June, according to the Tribune. He was on parole in an unrelated matter when he was arrested.

Watkins was reportedly ordered held on $150,000 bond on Sunday.
Wysocki saw red after being told he could not get a drink

A man punched a hotel barman and left him with a bloody nose after being refused alcohol, a court heard.

Przemek Wysocki (32) was being restrained by other patrons when gardai arrived at the scene to find the victim injured.

The case against him was adjourned to allow a victim impact report to be prepared.

Wysocki, with an address at Alexander House, Tallaght, pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to the bar worker at the Camden Court Hotel, Camden Street Lower, Dublin 2.

The DPP directed summary disposal of the case at district court.

Judge Anthony Halpin asked for an outline of the evidence before Dublin District Court so he could consider whether to accept jurisdiction.

Gda Sgt Eimear Curran said the incident happened at 1.55am last December 17.

Gardai spoke to the barman, who said a customer had become angry after being refused drink and lashed out.

Abusive

Sgt Curran said the victim had suffered a swollen and bloody nose.

Wyscoki was acting in an aggressive and abusive manner when gardai arrived at the scene.

Members of the public were holding on to him and gardai then handcuffed and arrested him.

Wysocki was removed from the hotel and taken to Kevin Street Garda Station.

Judge Halpin said that he would be "guided by the DPP" and would be able to hear the case.

Barrister John Griffin said the defence had received CCTV images disclosed by the prosecution and Wysocki was prepared to plead guilty.

He was seeking time to "get some compensation together".

Judge Halpin said the court would need to hear the views of the victim before the case could be completed.

He adjourned the hearing to September 21 and remanded Wysocki on continuing bail.
The failure of a single main pipe providing water to Dublin could leave the capital in "big trouble", the head of Irish Water has warned.

Large parts of the city's sewer system have not been inspected in 50 years, and the flow of waste water from the north to the south of the Liffey would be stopped if a pipeline collapsed, managing director Jerry Grant added.

The utility needed a guaranteed source of funding over at least a five-year period, otherwise it would not be held "accountable", said Mr Grant.

Upgrading

There is a need to spend 13.5bn over the longer-term upgrading the network, but the Government has yet to commit to funding beyond next year.

"We have to work on the basis that our five-year plans, which are approved by the Government, will attract committed funding at the appropriate time," said Mr Grant.

"If we say we're going to deliver all these things and outcomes and the money doesn't come through, there's really no accountability on us.

"If the funding falls off, it damages the programme but it also damages your ability to deliver because the supply chain loses confidence.

"We're trying to develop a supply chain to match our needs. If we can't follow through, that supply chain will disappear and go to other things."

Among the major concerns are the failure of "critical assets", many of which were built by the British and have not been inspected or upgraded in decades.

"Everybody knows about the Vartry system," said Mr Grant.

"We would be very anxious still about the pipeline between Ballymore Eustace and Saggart. We have a pipeline to Swords that fails on a regular basis.

"We're going to replace that, and the contract will start before the end of the year. There are many other examples."

Fails

Failure of the Vartry Tunnel, which links the treatment plant in Co Wicklow to the Stillorgan reservoir, would result in 100,000 people in north Wicklow, including Bray and Greystones, being without water.

If a pipe from the Ballymore Eustace drinking water treatment plant in Co Kildare fails before planned additional storage and a back-up pipeline is constructed, it would leave the capital in "big trouble".

If repairs took longer than two days, there would be "considerable" water restrictions in the city, Mr Grant said.
Three motorcyclists were killed and a pillion passenger seriously injured in separate accidents in the space of just eight hours.

One crash happened in Dublin, while in Limerick two men died within 10 minutes of each other in separate accidents. All the crashes were single-vehicle incidents.

The deaths of the three men have been described as "absolutely shocking".

In the early hours of yesterday, a motorcyclist in Dublin was killed and the pillion passenger was left seriously injured following a crash on the Old Cabra Road, Dublin 7. The rider of the motorcycle, Jesus Gomez (35), was pronounced dead at the scene.

He was killed close to his home on Navan Road in Dublin. The passenger, a man in his 40s, was taken to the Mater Hospital, gardai confirmed.

At around 7.30pm on Saturday in Limerick, a man in his 50s was seriously injured when his bike struck a roundabout at Quinn's Cross, Mungret.

Ambulance

He was treated at the scene by emergency services personnel and taken by ambulance to University Hospital Limerick where he was pronounced dead a short time later.

He was named locally as Andrew Szynka from Dooradoyle Road, Limerick.

Meanwhile, a man in his 20s was seriously injured after his bike left the road at O'Malley Park in Limerick at around 7.40pm.

He was rushed to University Hospital Limerick where he was pronounced dead a short time later.

He has been named locally as Thomas Whelan (25), from Limerick's South Circular Road. Mr Whelan was on bail, appealing an 11-month jail sentence for leaving the scene of a fatal road accident in which a passenger fell out of his car before being struck by an oncoming vehicle.

Responding to the incident at O'Malley Park, paramedics found Mr Whelan with critical injuries after his bike collided with an obstacle in the estate. He was thrown from the machine and suffered serious injuries. He died shortly after at University Hospital Limerick. A father-of-three, he had more than 180 previous convictions.

Limerick City Mayor Sean Lynch described the accidents as "terrible" and "absolutely shocking".

Terrible

"I want to offer my deepest sympathies to the families and everyone involved.

"It's terrible, absolutely shocking. There are no words that can describe that loss and tragedy. As mayor of the city, my door is always open," Councillor Lynch said.

An Garda Siochana says there have been 16 road deaths in July, with 93 deaths in total so far this year.
Get Weird With Our NSFW Photos From The 2017 Gathering Of The Juggalos

By aaroncynic in Arts & Entertainment on Jul 31, 2017 4:11PM

The Gathering of the Juggalosthe wild, weird, hedonistic, and anarchic celebration of clown love for the horrorcore rap duo Insane Clown Possespent its 18th year in Oklahoma City over the weekend, and we managed to get a front row tent to all of the action.

This years Gathering was decidedly different than previous years. The Juggalos decided not to return to Thornville, Ohio, and after falling to secure a spot in weed-friendly Denver, Colorado, the Dark Carnival settled on the Lost Lakes Ampitheater in the Sooner State. There were a lot of noticeable absences this year: artists Twiztid and Tech 9nine, the drug bridge, brazen displays of public nudity, and even people openly toking a little bit of pot.

Alongside the normally dark and chaotic yet free-spirited attitudes of the Juggalos came resentment and rumor, much in part thanks to what attendees described as a heavy handed local police presence. A police helicopter made regular appearances overhead, which those on the ground responded to with a volley of middle fingers, and squad cars regularly rolled through the dirt trail encompassing the park.

Juggalos however, are extremely resilient, and they did what they could to make the most of their time despite the obstacles they needed to overcome.

Well have a full reportback Tuesday (were still shaking the dust out of our clothes, cameras, computers, and orifices) of the (albeit dialed back) chaos, but for now check out these photos from photographers Nate Igor Smith and Aaron Cynic.


A total of 230 members of Shanxinhui, a Shenzhen-based company suspected of organizing and leading a pyramid scheme, have been arrested in southern China's Guangdong Province, police said Sunday.

Of the 230 members, 142 have been detained to face criminal charges. Fifty-five companies involved in the case have been investigated, the public security department of Guangdong province said in a statement.

Beijing police have also detained 63 people after members of the pyramid scheme gathered in the capital city Monday. Four others were put under non-criminal detention.

Chinese police have previously investigated Shanxinhui for allegedly manipulating people into taking part in pyramid selling and cheating them out of huge amounts of property under the guise of helping the poor.

Zhang Tianming, legal representative of the company, and other suspects have been put under coercive measures, which may include summons by force, bail, residential surveillance, detention or arrest.
BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn.  More than $100,000 in federal funding will be used in Northeast Tennessee to fight what has been labeled a nationwide opioid epidemic.

The 21st Century Cures Act, signed into law in December 2016, provides $1 billion in funding to prevent the abuse of opioids, heroin and other addictive drugs across the country and to provide drug recovery treatment with the ultimate goal of reducing the number of overdose deaths.

The money was allocated by region in Tennessee so the Sullivan County Anti-Drug Coalition received $133,000 for Northeast Tennessee, which includes Sullivan, Carter, Greene, Hancock, Hawkins, Johnson, Unicoi and Washington counties.

The grants are paying for doses of the lifesaving opioid overdose antidote Narcan, also known as Naloxone, across the state. The funds will also be used to hire peer recovery specialists.

The Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services was given $13.8 million through the act. Twenty percent of the money is being used for drug abuse prevention and the rest is being used for drug treatment and recovery services, according to Sarah Cooper, the departments director of prevention and early intervention services.

The federal government really wanted us to focus on and increase education and awareness to prescribing practices, said Cooper. Overdoses [are] extending from very rural and very urban areas out into more suburban areas and surrounding areas. What we decided to do was fund 10 community-based coalitions throughout the state that we are already currently funding ... to hire peer recovery nurses, or peer recovery specialists.

In 2016, at least 106 deaths in Sullivan County involved opioids, according to the countys District Attorney General Barry Staubus. Northeast Tennessee has been dubbed the epicenter of the rise in prescription drug overdose deaths.

An estimated 69,100 Tennesseans are addicted to prescription opioids and require treatment for prescription opioid abuse, according to the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. An additional 151,900 in the state are using prescription opioids in ways that could be harmful, and may benefit from early intervention strategies.

What were trying to do is make sure that people dont die so they can get help and treatment, said Alice McCaffrey, director of the Sullivan County Anti-Drug Coalition. Of course, there isnt enough help and treatment around so it is a delicate balancing act, but it is a proven strategy for helping to reduce overdose deaths.

The grant seeks to first get Narcan in the hands of law enforcement and first responders, but families, friends and community organizations can also get the medicine. Anyone who knows or may come into contact with a drug user who is at risk of an opioid overdose can ask for a kit.

McCaffrey said she believes its important for anyone who may arrive first to help an overdose victim to have the antidote because by the time emergency medical services arrives it could be too late.

Earlier this month the Sullivan County Sheriffs Office distributed 216 doses of Narcan that were paid for through a BlueCross BlueShield grant to patrol, school resource, transport, court process, corrections and court security officers and to its K-9 teams and criminal investigations division.

Were really trying to get the Naloxone into the hands of either active [drug] users, or family members of active users or friends of active users, said Cooper. Were actually getting these kits into peoples homes because we know the large majority of overdoses happen at home and in cars.

To request Narcan from the SCAD Coalition fill out a form online at bit.ly/2vcQhxo. McCaffrey plans to place the first order for kits in August.

I say this with all my heart: you can recover and sometimes you have to go through a series of overdoses and sometimes it just takes one, but we cant recover if were dead, said Cooper. My goal and our goal at the office of prevention is to get as many as of these kits out there into the general public so that these people do have an opportunity to recover.

The hiring process for peer recovery specialists across the state is underway.
Pakistan's Supreme Court issued an historic, but controversial decision on November 28, dismissing Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for misstating his "assets" to the election authorities in order to contest the 2013 election.

Sharif, obliged to bow out of the office, was hugely disappointed but did so with grace rarely shown by leaders of Third World countries. Even those who do not like him should honor his decision to step down after the verdict if they study the grounds on which he was ousted.

The opposition alleged that properties were purchased through ill-gotten gains made in the 1990s when Sharif twice served as prime minister. He was ousted on both occasions before completing the allotted five-year term. Now, he holds a dubious, unique record of being the only Pakistani elected as Prime Minister on three separate occasions, but always sent home before time.

Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Pakistan's eastern Punjab Province, speaks at the second International Seminar on Business Opportunities in Punjab (ISBOP) in Lahore, Pakistan, May 22, 2017. Pakistan's ruling party PML-N decided Saturday to name Shahbaz Sharif as the country's new prime minister. [Photo/Xinhua]

The Supreme Court took cognizance of the allegations against Sharif last November, when the opposition threatened a lockdown of the capital. The case went through many stages before the final decision.

The court could not find enough material to directly convict him on the charges of corruption as the opposition had alleged. However, it ordered the registration of a separate case in the anti-corruption court to investigate if Sharif and his children were involved in corrupt practices.

However, the five-member panel of judges then found an interesting document that ultimate led to Sharif's downfall. The judges wrote in their verdict that he had served as chairman of a UAE-based company belonging to his son. The company promised to pay him a salary of 10,000 UAE dirhams, but he never received the money and the company was later wound up.

The court, quoting Black's Law Dictionary, concluded that the salary, though not paid, was "receivable" and hence constituted an "asset" which Sharif should have declared in 2013 before contesting the election as required by local laws.

Since he failed to do so, he was guilty of failing to fully declare his assets and thus disqualified under the Pakistan Constitution as he had not been "truthful and righteous."

The court verdict could have easily led to chaos in Pakistan, if the recipient had been a popularly-elected leader who had refused to accept it. How long he could have resisted is another story, but that would have led the country to suffer beyond imagination.

Sharif accepted the decision and in the process strengthened the culture of respect for the law in Pakistan. Now, everyone will have to accept a decision no matter what it happens to be.

The former ruling party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, having majority in the parliament, has nominated a new leader and lawmakers were due to vote on Tuesday. This shows the resilience of a political system that has suffered a lot in Pakistan since independence in 1947.

The Prime Minister has gone, but democracy is intact. Shehbaz Sharif, the younger brother of the ousted Prime Minister, is expected to replace him after some legal procedures. He has the reputation of being an untiring worker and hard taskmaster.

The peaceful change is also good omen for China, which should obviously have worried about the recent developments. After all, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a kind of flagship project of the Belt and Road Initiative, and could have suffered in a climate of political uncertainty.

Shehbaz has taken the lead to implement the early harvest schemes dealing with energy. Some of the projects have been completed in record time, even to the amazement of Chinese experts. Shehbaz was only commanding those projects in Punjab province as its chief minister; however, as prime minister he can implement and oversee the entire multi-billion CPEC.

The project is considered as a game-changer for the region. Once completed it will provide China an alternative and shortest route to reach Gulf, Africa and Europe.

Nawaz Sharif has lost his job (and some of reputation) but the country is poised to emerge stronger. The only condition is that it should continue its democratic journey and there is greater respect for institutions of judiciary, parliament, armed forces, media and civil society.

Sajjad Malik is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/SajjadMalik.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
After Parrott's lead disappears, Trone takes 6th District race

Republican state Del. Neil Parrott conceded on Friday after close race. Trone to return as congressman for 6th District.
 Flash

Four senior advisers of Islamic State (IS) have been killed following a U.S. forces airstrike in eastern Afghanistan's Kunar province, U.S. forces in Afghanistan said in a statement released on Sunday.

"U.S. Forces-Afghanistan has confirmed the death of four senior advisers of the IS in a strike that also killed Abu Sayid, a senior IS leader, in Kunar province on July 11 this year," the forces said in the statement.

The four eliminated IS elements were identified as Sheik Ziaullah, Mulawi Hubaib, Haji Shirullah and Assadullah, said the statement, adding that all of the four had played crucial role in Afghanistan.

"We will be relentless in our campaign against IS, and there are no safe havens in Afghanistan," the statement quoted Gen. John Nicholson, commander of the U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, as saying.

Hundreds of IS militants including three top commanders have been killed during the Afghan and NATO forces operations over the past year.
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Two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled his memorial in Rameswaram on his second death anniversary, an ugly controversy appears to be have erupted over the placement of an engraved Bhagvad Gita next to a wooden statue of former president APJ Abdul Kalam. Initially, MDMK chief Vaiko cried foul over what he perceived as a Hindutva agenda in the Gita getting prime place near the statue. Subsequently, state Congress president S. Thirunavukkarasar joined cause with Vaiko, calling it the BJPs attempt to appropriate the legacy of the Peoples President.

To nip the controversy in the bud, Kalams grandnephew Sheik Saleem responded by placing a copy of the Quran and the Bible near the statue. Hell also place a copy of Tamil treatise Thirukkural near the statue soon. But it wasnt the end of the row. Now, K Prabhakaran leader of the fringe group Hindu Makkal Katchi has filed a police complaint claiming that the Quran and Bible were placed at the memorial without the permission of the authorities.

One of the most popular presidents to have assumed the highest office, Kalams elevation to the post of Indias 11th President was an acknowledgement of his contribution to the nation as an ace scientist and missile technologist. Unlike Dr Zakir Husain and Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, the first two Muslim presidents, his progressive views on Islamic liberalism were known. Kalam was reluctant to embrace dogmas and as fond of reading the Bhagavad Gita, as he was of the Quran, Bible and Thirukkural (a compendium of sacred verses in Tamil). Even during his lifetime, doubts were cast over his reluctance to observe religious rituals and the BJPs propensity to portray his ascent as a certificate for their brand of secularism, as was evident in an article headlined Whats Muslim about Abdul Kalam? by Rafiq Zakaria.

In one of his books, Kalam reminisced about leading a truly syncretic childhood in Rameswaram, where, as a 10-year-old, he was witness to conversations over tea between Pakshi Lakshmana Shastrigal, head priest of the Rameswaram temple, Reverend Father Bodal, who built the first church on Rameswaram Island and his father, who was an imam in a mosque.

Clearly, the penchant of selfish politicians to appropriate the legacy of the peoples President hasnt reduced even after his death. It is time people recognised these attempts to besmirch Kalams secular legacy. Playing politics at a memorial designed by the DRDO will be doing disservice to the memory of one of the most popular Presidents in the history of the country. Role models such as Kalam, who rose from poverty to promote scientific temper and the value of hard work and education, inspire people from all walks of life irrespective of their religious and political views. Lets not sully the legacy of a brilliant mind with petty religious politics.

@Aasheesh74

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A BJP MLA from Madhya Pradesh on Monday claimed there was threat to his life from sand mining mafia as he received a threatening call from them, threatening to shoot him.

RD Prajapati, who represents Chandla assembly segment in Chhatarpur district, has complained to the senior police officials about the matter. He is on his way to Bhopal from Chhatarpur to complain about the matter directly to the chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Prajapati told HT that on July 29 between 3.30 and 4 pm he and his my son Rajesh were in a party meeting in Chhatarpur when he got a call on his mobile phone.

As the meeting was on, I could not hear clearly at first. I disconnected.. after some time I again got a call from the same numberthe caller started verbally abusing me..he threatened me and told me I should come to his area ..where he will shoot me. Repeatedly I asked him who he was but he didnt say.., he said.

Prajapati said he has been raising the issue of illegal sand mining in his area for a long time. He said villagers in his constituency live in constant fear because of sand mining mafia whose gunmen threaten and beat poor villagers.

I have also written to the chief minister in the past about the illegal mining menace in our area. All this has enraged the mining mafia which is after my life now. I have already lodged a complaint with the local police and submitted recording of the phone call in a CD to them as evidence, he said.

He said he has also sent a copy of the complaint to the chief secretary, DGP, Sagar Range IG Satish Saxena and Chhatarpur SP Vineet Khanna.

The BJP MLA said he was on his to Bhopal to meet CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan. I will complain about the matter to him as it is a matter of my life. Before leaving Sagar I also spoke to home minister Bhupendra Singh about this issue, he said.

Chhatarpur SP Vineet Khanna told HT that a case had been lodged and investigation was on to catch the accused. After we arrest the accused interrogation will reveal about the motives of the caller, he said.

Some months ago, Prajapati had also sat on an indefinite fast at an sand mining site to protest against illegal mining. The Ken River and its tributaries flow through Chandla assembly area towards Panna and neighbouring Banda and Mahoba in Uttar Pradesh. The sand from its banks is highly valued in construction sector.
Kajol cant tell if VIP 2 is another comeback film for her. After so many years in the industry, shes losing track of the number and feels she has made 25 comebacks. But being on promotional duties for the film, in which she stars opposite Dhanush, has given the star a reason to talk about things - her relationship with Shah Rukh Khan, and her husband, Ajay Devgn.

In an interview with Mid Day, Kajol said that she took on VIP 2 because it wasnt a cakewalk. I had to mug dialogues every night. I am never doing a film in another language again. It is a lot of work. I made the effort because they were willing to work with me.

Kajol during a press conference of her upcoming film VIP- 2, in Chennai. (PTI)

Asked about what she feels about industry trends these days, she dismissed airport looks. I hate airport looks. Its idiotic. Its ridiculous to look perfect all the time. I am not walking in heels with perfect lipstick. After long flights, everyone looks like they survived a calamity, she said.

But being a female actor in the industry, she admitted things arent as easy. There is no denying that longevity of female actor is a lot lesser than their male counterparts. After marriage, priorities change. Socially and personally, I am entrusted with more responsibilities, so is my partner. In this country, marrying the man is not enough. You marry an entire family. My attitude to life changed after marriage.

And her husband, Ajay Devgn, isnt a fan of her attitude it seems. Ajay blasts me every other day. I cant take diplomacy seriously even though it lands my husband in trouble with people in the industry. At parties, he chides me for saying things as is, she said.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Bollywood actors Alia Bhatt and Ranveer Singh, who will soon start working on Zoya Akhtars next Gully Boy, made a ramp appearance for designer Manish Malhotra at the ongoing Indian Couture Week 2017. While heading to Delhi for the fashion show, Ranveer decided to include Alia in one of his weird poses and the Udta Punjab actor was clearly not amused. They even captioned the photo: Vikram aur Betaal.

Alia shared a picture on her Instagram late Sunday where she is simply sitting in a chair even as Ranveer strikes one of his quirky poses standing on top of her! Alia dons an irritated look on her face even as Ranveer is clearly enjoying his time in printed PJs.

YAAAAASSSS  A post shared by Alia  (@aliaabhatt) on Jul 30, 2017 at 8:57am PDT

Later, Manish Malhotra also shared an image with his show stoppers as they arrived in Delhi. Well, we must say Ranveer carries his fashion sense right to his bed with those PJs.

Alia and Ranveer, who have done several ads together, will be seen sharing screen space in Gully Boy - based on the street rappers in Mumbai. The movie will soon go on floors.

While Alia is flying high with the accolades and the awards shes been receiving for Udta Punjab and is currently prepping for Meghna Gulzars directorial Raazi, co-starring Vicky Kaushal, Ranveer has finished working on Sanjay Leela Bhansalis Padmavati, co-starring Shahid Kapoor and Deepika Padukone.

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Boeing Co said on Monday it expects Indian airlines to order up to 2,100 new aircraft worth $290 billion over the next 20 years, calling it the highest-ever forecast for Asias third-largest economy.

India is one of the worlds fastest-growing aviation markets with domestic passenger traffic growing at more than 20% a year over the last few years.

The increasing number of passengers combined with a strong exchange rate, low fuel prices and high load factor bodes well for Indias aviation market, especially for the low-cost carriers, said Dinesh Keskar, senior vice president, Asia Pacific and India sales at Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

The worlds biggest maker of jetliners said it expected passenger growth of about 8% in South Asia, dominated by India, over the next 20 years, compared with the world average of about 4.7% .

Boeing could increase the projection next year depending on how Indias regional connectivity scheme pans out, Dinesh Keskar added.

Last year, India overhauled rules governing its aviation industry, liberalising norms for domestic carriers to fly overseas and spreading the countrys air travel boom to smaller cities by capping air fares and opening airports.

Boeing said it expected single-aisle planes, such as the next generation 737 and 737 Max, to account for the bulk of the new deliveries, with India likely to take 1,780 such aircraft.

The US planemaker dominates the wide-body aeroplane market in India, while competitor Airbus SE sells the bulk of small planes preferred by low-cost carriers (LCCs) such as InterGlobe Aviation Ltds IndiGo.

Low-cost carriers dominate Indian skies and account for more than 60 percent of flights in the country.

Boeing plans to plug this gap in its portfolio with the 737 MAX 10 single-aisle jet which it launched at an air show in Paris in June, following runaway sales of Airbus A321neo.

Boeing expects worldwide demand for 41,030 aircraft over the next 20 years, putting Indias share of the total at about 5%.
E-commerce firm Snapdeal on Monday terminated talks for a takeover by larger rival Flipkart, saying it will pursue an independent path to continue its operations.

The company was reported to be in talks for selling its business to Flipkart in a $900-950 million deal.

Snapdeal has been exploring strategic options over the last several months. The company has now decided to pursue an independent path and is terminating all strategic discussions as a result, Snapdeal spokesperson said in an emailed statement, without naming Flipkart.

The company said it has a new and compelling direction - Snapdeal 2.0 and has made significant progress towards the ability to execute this by achieving a gross profit this month.

In addition, with the sale of certain non-core assets, Snapdeal is expected to be financially self-sustainable, it added.

The latest developments come within days of Snapdeal agreeing to sell its digital payment platform, FreeCharge, to Axis Bank for Rs 385 crore.

One of the leading contenders in the Indian e-commerce space, Snapdeal has seen its fortunes falling amid strong competition from Amazon and Flipkart.

Its largest investor, SoftBank had been proactively mediating the talks for the sale.

Japanese conglomerate SoftBank said supporting entrepreneurs and their vision is at the heart of Masayoshi Sons (SoftBank Chairman and CEO) and SoftBanks investment philosophy.

...we respect the decision to pursue an independent strategy. We look forward to the results of the Snapdeal 2.0 strategy, and to remaining invested in the vibrant Indian e- commerce space, a SoftBank spokesperson said.

The deal, if it had gone through, would have marked the largest acquisition in the Indian e-commerce landscape.

Compared to a peak valuation of about $6.5 billion in February 2016, the talks had valued Snapdeal at about $1 billion.
The election commission on Monday rejected the papers of CPI (M) candidate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya for the Rajya Sabha poll, ruling him out of the contest and putting a lid over the drama playing out in West Bengal.

The rejection of Bhattacharyas candidature means that all five candidates of the ruling Trinamool Congress and one of Congress will enter the Upper House of Parliament without a contest.

The election for 10 Rajya Sabha seats, including three in Gujarat and one in Madhya Pradesh, is to be held on August 8.

The Communist party of India (Marxist) leader failed to submit documents in time hence his nomination stood cancelled, the election commission said on Monday.

In any case, Bhattacharyas push to get into the Rajya Sabha was off to a bad start.

When he submitted his papers on July 28, the poll watchdog objected, saying he had overshot the 3pm deadline.

The EC forwarded the nomination for scrutiny, accepting the CPI(M) lawmakers argument that they were well in time.

But on Monday, they were told that Bhattacharya had not submitted the additional affidavit, which has details of property and income among other things.

The party said the mistake was unintentional and the nomination be cleared but Trinamool secretary general and education minister Partha Chatterjee and Congress MLA Abdul Mannan opposed the argument.

CPI(M) MLA Sujan Chakrabarty cried conspiracy while Chatterjee accused the Left party of tarnishing the image of the poll panel.

Had the papers been accepted, Bhattacharya would have gone up against Congresss Pradip Bhattacharya who is assured of a second term with chief minister Mamata Banerjee pledging supporting to him.

Banerjees decision to back the Congress is being seen as the start of a new partnership ahead of the Lok Sabha election.

The oppositions effort to come together to take on the BJP in the 2019 election were dealt a blow when Nitish Kumar jumped the ship to join hands with the BJP.

From the sequence of events it can be well inferred that the Congress-Left Front understanding that was reached in 2016 assembly elections is over for now, a city-based political analyst said on condition of anonymity.

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The forest department finds itself in a tight spot after five villagers of Almora district, some 300 km from here, were booked for catching a large fish from the Ramganga near the Corbett national park.

Officials had swung into action after photos and videos of villagers surfaced on the social media on July 25 in which they were seen carrying the fish, identified as Devil Catfish, tethered to a bamboo pole with plastic rope. A top wildlife official requesting anonymity said the arrests took place after senior government officials intervened on getting the news of illegal fishing in the Ramganga.

It has now come to light that the forest department lodged a complaint against the villagers for killing a Giant Grouper, which is protected under the Wildlife Protection Act. On Monday, the Almora district judge gave bail to the five villagers and were asked to furnish a bond of Rs 10,000 each before their release.

The episode has snowballed into a controversy after some activists questioned the act of forest department. The Devil Catfish is found in Ramganga. If department calls it endangered fish then it should back up its claim or else action should be initiated against the officials, activist Ratan Aswal said. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has put this near-threatened species on its red list, but it doesnt find place in any schedule of the Wild Life (Protection) Act.

Senior CPI(ML) member Indresh Maikhuri has written a letter to the chief minister questioning why villagers were booked in the episode.

Almora divisional forest officer SR Prajapati accepted that Devil Catfish (Bagarius bagarius) is not listed under any schedule of the Wildlife Protection Act. But he still justified his move of booking villagers for killing a Giant Grouper which features in Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act. Though the Devil Catfish is not endangered (as per the act) but it belongs to the family of Giant Grouper and, therefore, villagers were arrested, he told Hindustan Times.

State wildlife board member Anup Sah asserted he has been urging the government to come up with a plan to regulate fishing in the rivers of Uttarakhand. It (angling) should be regularised to end any confusion. There is no check on fishing in the state rivers. The locals need to be educated about side effects of unchecked angling, he said.
The Congress central leadership in Delhi is unable to find a replacement for AICC Uttarakhand in-charge Ambika Soni, who has expressed her reluctance to continue in the post, party sources said here on Monday.

Its a fact that AICC leadership is unable to find a face for appointing AICC state in-charge of Uttarakhand. Also, Uttarakhand is not on priority of the central leadership specially after massive defeat in the assembly elections, a senior party leader said on condition of anonymity.

Earlier, senior party leader from Madhya Pradesh Kamal Nath was billed as Sonis replacement but now even he is not available for the job as his (home) state will go to the polls in 2018, the party leader said.

Senior party leaders, who have often been in thick and thin with the partys central leaders, said Soni was bound to be replaced but looking for a suitable face who could lead the state from the front and take on the BJP government that was formed with a massive mandate in March.

According them, Soni has least interest in Uttarakhand despite the fact that the party was reeling under crisis following its rout in the assembly elections.

Asked, PCC president Pritam Singh said: Its difficult to say what the central leadership is doing in this regard. Final decision has to be taken by the party president.

Meanwhile, rumour is rife that newly appointed Himachal Pradesh AICC in-charge Shivraj Patil might be given additional responsibilities of Uttarakhand.
The braids of three women in an outer Delhi village were chopped mysteriously by unknown persons on Sunday, leaving villagers scared and seeking superstitious remedies.

The three incidents, which occurred over a period of about 12 hours on Sunday, took place in the houses where the women lived. Each of the women said the chopping of their braids happened soon after they experienced sudden unbearable headaches and fell unconscious. The braids were left behind at the spot.

Though the police could neither comment confidently on the motive behind the mischief, nor trace the people behind it, they claimed that CCTV cameras had captured three men suspiciously roaming around in the village.

Speaking to the media, Surender Kumar, DCP (south-west), vehemently opposed villagers suspicion that these activities had supernatural connections. Witchcraft is totally ruled out. We are probing this in a scientific manner, he said adding that theft could also be a possible motive. Villagers, however, denied any thefts in the area.

According to media reports, around a dozen similar activities were reported in places such as Gurgaon, Palwal and Mewat in Haryana. However, Sunday was the first time this was reported in Delhi.

The first victim was a 55-year-old woman living in Kanganheri village in outer Delhis Chhawla. A woman with red hair, she was returning home from her farm around 10.30 am on Sunday when she suddenly experienced a severe headache.

The moment she entered her home, she locked the outermost six-feet high iron gate and jumped into a bed in the drawing room, leaving the drawing room door ajar. Her sleeping position was such that her face and gaze were away from the door.

Suddenly, I felt extreme pain in my head. I held my head and screamed for my grandchildren. But my screams were drowned in the sound of the cooler, she told HT.

When her granddaughter visited the drawing room a few minutes later, she found the woman unconscious on the floor. Her chopped braid was lying on the ground. We immediately informed the villagers and the police, her son told HT. He had run out of the house to see if there was anyone, but he could not find any stranger.

No one approached me on my way back home from the farm. No one followed me into my house and no one touched me when I lay on the bed. I dont remember anyone chopping off my hair either, she said.

Unaware of similar happenings in Haryana, the local police initially suspected the role of one of her relatives. But even as the villagers were discussing this unusual activity, a similar case happened in another house in the village with a population of over 5,000.

This time it was a 45-year-old woman who had been dropped off at her home by her son around 8 pm. She had just got off the bike when she reported headache. Her son took her to bed and left. Within minutes, she experienced a similar pain and fell unconscious. When she woke up, she found her reddish braid chopped off. She too had not seen the culprit.

By 11.30 pm, a 50-year-old woman living at the other end of the village lost her whitish braid. She had to be taken to a hospital before she regained consciousness. The same pattern in all three cases has prompted police to suspect that the culprits intoxicated the women.

There were also thefts at one or two of these womens homes, the DCP said. The villagers, however, rejected the polices claims of intoxication or thefts. A case of poisoning, outraging the modesty of a woman, theft and under arms act has been registered at Chhawla police station.
The Delhi government has stopped grants to 28 Delhi University colleges funded by it on account of the university not forming governing bodies for the last 10 months.

Twelve out of the 28 colleges are fully funded by the government and 16 are partially funded. The government had asked Delhi University to form governing bodies before making any appointments.

The university is currently in the process of hiring permanent faculty.

I can not allow unchecked corruption and irregularities to be sustained on Delhi govt funds in the name of Education. The sequence of events from Sept 2016 seems to indicate a deliberate and malafied attempt to delay formation of gov bodies by DU, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said in a series of tweets on Monday.

Hv ordered Fin Dept to stop funding for Delhi gov funded 28 DU colleges, as DU not willing to form governing bodies for last 10 months.  Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) July 31, 2017

Colleges dependent entirely on funding from the government will find it hard to function after being cut off.

Everything from payment of salaries to teaching and non-teaching staff to payment of electricity bill is done through Delhi governments funds. If we dont get the funds the college will have to stop, said SK Garg, principal Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, which is fully funded by the government.

The sequence of events from Sept 2016 seems to indicate a deliberate and malafied attempt to delay formation of gov bodies by DU pic.twitter.com/xoYgcPip40  Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) July 31, 2017

However, DU officials said there wont be any immediate impact on any of these colleges.

We receive funds of about Rs24-25 crores in four instalments  July, November, January, and March. We have already received the first instalment, so there wont be any immediate impact and the matter will hopefully be resolved in a few weeks, Garg said.

Dean of Colleges Devesh K Sinha said they have written a letter to the government on Monday assuring them that the governing bodies will be formed within a week or two.

The executive council had raised certain objections to the nominations. We are supposed to have a variety of experts in the body but the government, for instance, had recommended five educationists to one college. However, we are in the process and soon the bodies will be formed, Sinha said.

He said that the governments main concern is that the governing bodies should be formed before the appointments. Anyway the appointments are not happening before September so there is time, he said.

Twelve DU colleges are fully funded by the Delhi government, including Shaheed Raj Guru College, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, Maharaja Agarsen College, Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies.

Sixteen DU colleges are partially funded by the Delhi government, including Gargi College, Kamla Nehru College, Shivaji College and Delhi College of Arts & Commerce.

In June, the government had asked colleges to not go ahead with faculty appointments till college governing bodies are formed and had also threatened to withhold funds to college in case of non-compliance.

The government has asked the University to duly constitute the governing bodies, which will include five members nominated by the government, before making any appointments.

DU colleges have been advertising vacant faculty positions following a High Court order.

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Bad old days are back in Delhi. Dust pollution, the cause of many pulmonary diseases, hit the peak again in 2016, after a lull of five years, in the capital.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), dust pollution, which includes various particulate matter like PM 10, PM 2.5 and PM 1.0, shot up to 261 micrograms per metre cube again last year.

Such levels were last found in 2010, during the Commonwealth Games. Thereafter, over the next five years (till 2015), it (dust pollution) remained almost in the same range, said D Saha, head of the air quality laboratory of CPCB.

The alarm bell was set off last year when the World Health Organisation placed the city on the top of a list of the dustiest megacities in the world.

While Cairo and Dhaka notched the second and third positions, Kolkata and Mumbai were placed fourth and fifth.

Now, the latest CPCB data also suggests that the rate of increase in dust pollution is higher compared to that of other pollutants such as SO2 and NO2.

Read more: Govt to fix rules for disposing of road dust to curb air pollution in Delhi

Experts said the level of particulate matter in the air rises primarily because of construction activities, road dust and waste burning.

Saha noted that in 2010, the levels had hit 261 micrograms per metre cube from 153 micrograms per metre cube in 2006.

Vivek Chattopadhyay, senior program manager (air pollution control wing) of Centre for Science and Environment, attributed this rise to the construction activities during the Commonwealth Games.

He rued the lack of a regular study to ascertain why this dust pollution is shooting up or plummeting every year.

Jump in construction & vehicles

Scientists have attributed several reasons behind the jump, including unbridled construction activities, increase in number of vehicles and poor soil management, besides factors such as burning of waste.

In 2005, around 600 building plans were sanctioned, said a senior North Delhi Municipal Corporation official, requesting anonymity.

In 2016, the three civic bodies together sanctioned around 3,600 plans, he said, asking, Now add to this the illegal constructions.

Read more: Art of Living did not harm Yamuna: Delhi, UP govt contradict scientific report

Other construction activities such as roads, their widening, flyovers, Metro, have also increased over the years, along with the number of vehicles, aggravating the dust pollution in the city.

The Economic Survey of Delhi 2015-16 reveals that number of vehicles per 1,000 people has shot up from 317 in 2005-06 to around 530 in 2015-16.

The road network has increased from 32,131 km in 2007-08 to 33,868 km in 2015-16. Nearly 62 km of flyovers have been added between 2014 and 2016.

Thin on green

Experts claimed that even though the green cover of Delhi has increased from 20.08% in 2013 to 20.22% in 2015, the rise has been specific in south Delhi and Lutyens Delhi area. Most parts of Delhi dont have even an iota of green cover. This barren soil bereft of any grass cover becomes a major source of dust pollution.

Soil texture is governed by small and micro organisms that live in the soil. But due to poor soil management and unbridled human activities, we are losing these organisms. As a result the texture is changing. We now have more lose dust, and every time wind blows, we have dust pollution, said eminent ecologist Prof CR Babu, who heads the Centre for Environmental Management of Degraded Ecosystem.

An IIT Kanpur study submitted to the Delhi government in January 2016 suggests that PM10 particles mostly (40%) comprise particles such as Silicon, Aluminium, Iron and Calcium during the summer.

This suggests that soil, road dust and airborne fly ash are the major sources of PM10 pollution in summer. In winter, however, it is the secondary particles which comprise most of the PM10 pollution, said Prof Mukesh Sharma of IIT Kanpur who conducted the study.

Read more: Why weakening of National Green Tribunal is bad news for India

Another reason attributed behind this drastic rise in PM10 levels is that a significant portion of gases such as SO2 also converts into secondary particles which adds to the PM10 pollution.

Experts claimed that while the reduction of SO2 has been possible because of a gradual shift to cleaner fuels and shutting down of thermal power plants, the NO2 level is constantly on the rise with the rise in number of vehicles and dieselisation.

Health affected

With rise in particulate matter in the air, the risk of lung diseases and cardiac ailments are also rising in the city.

Over the years, the number of patients with lung and respiratory diseases are on the rise. Cases of COPD, asthma and lung fibrosis have increased. Also on the rise are patients with cardiac problems because increase in particulate matter can affect our cardiac system both directly and indirectly, said Dr Vikas Maurya, senior consultant and head of pulmonology division at Fortis Hospital in Shalimar Bagh.

Interestingly, the PM10 level plummeted between 2000 and 2006. Experts claimed that the Supreme Court directive of July 28, 1998 catalysed first-generation reforms in Delhi.

This helped improve emission standards for vehicles, implement the largest-ever public transport strategy on CNG, cap the age of commercial vehicles, improve the vehicle inspection programme and divert substantial truck traffic.

But after 2007, only a few steps were taken  the Metro network was expanded, the number of buses was moderately increased, Euro IV emission standards were imposed and a small network of cycle tracks and footpaths were built around Commonwealth Games venues. This is too little too late. The air quality gains from the first-generation action have been reversed, said Anumita Roychowdhury executive director (research and advocacy) of Centre for Science and Environment.

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They look like premium Rado watches at first glance, only they are not.

Several first copies of the high-end watches were seized by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence at cargo complex of Delhis Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA). The watches were part of a consignment coming from China. The consignment also carried huge quantity of cameras, sunglasses and mobile accessories worth Rs 10 crore.

Original Rado watches cost over a lakh and the copes seized by DRI were meant to be sold in the market for Rs 4,000-5,000. Based on a specific input, we intercepted a consignment at the cargo complex. Though the sender had declared it as cosmetics and other daily use items, when opened, watches, shoes, pen drives, memory cards and other mobile accessories were found in huge quantities, a DRI official said.

The seizure was made on Thursday, but the DRI is still counting the number of watches and evaluation is on. Though it is a first copy, the demand is huge in Indian market. One watch can be sold from Rs 4,000 to Rs 10,000. There are different models, the official added.

DRI is now trying to trace the smuggler who wrongly declared the content. The consignment had come from China and was to be received in Delhi. DRI is trying to trace the receiver through the details given in the consignment.

Officials said other items in the consignment, including shoes and sunglasses, seem to be original but DRI is taking help of the companies to check their originality.

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Teachers of the Mewat Model Public School, Madhi village, have alleged that a group of villagers barged into the school on Saturday and created a ruckus about the suspension and transfer of teachers for allegedly forcing two students to recite the Quran and espouse Islam.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and some district officials had visited the school on Friday to probe a complaint regarding the incident by the two students.

The Mewat Model School has 207 students enrolled with it, of which only three are Hindus.

The Mewat district administration on Friday had also suspended two teachers and transferred one after receiving complaints that they forced the Hindu students to offer namaz and embrace Islam.

The area is Muslim dominated. On Saturday, some villagers barged into the school and blamed us for the suspension of the teachers. They hinted that we should have hushed up the matter, one of the teachers said.

The principal of the school, Navin Shakti, admitted that some villagers had barged in but said that the police, which was present at the spot, brought the situation under control.

Santram, an arts teacher at the school, said the district officials had asked school authorities to keep mum and not interact with the media.

We werent allowed to enter the hostel. The warden, who was also the social science teacher and has now been transferred to the Firozpur Jhirka school, blocked our entrance to the hostel, Santram said.

The principal said the complaint she received on July 22 alleged that Muslim students of the school were forcing some students to follow Islamic norms and even convert to Islam.

I only received complaints against students. The action against teachers was taken by higher officials based on some complaint they received. I am not aware as to why the teachers were shunted, Shakti said.

Shamim Ahmed, project officer of the Mewat Development Agency (under which the school is run), said the matter came to light on July 22 when two students, Kaushal Vashist and Sagar Bhardwaj, asked for a School Leaving certificate. Ahmed is one of the members of the committee that will look into the incident.

The parents of Vashist and Bhardwaj pulled them out of the school hostel after getting to know about the incident.

Ahmed said that the parents then applied for transfer certificates to the Mewat DC and in their complaint, they named the three teachers involved in the incident.

On Friday, two teachers  an Urdu teacher and a political science teacher  were suspended and the social science teacher transferred.
Police resorted to lathicharge as nearly 500 protesters, gathered at the newly constructed Haj House in Ghaziabad, turned violent and pelted stones at the cops.

The protesters, led by members of the district Congress committee, on Monday gathered outside the Ala Hazrat Haj House in the city and demanded opening it for Haj pilgrims immediately. The facility was inaugurated by former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav last September but has remained locked ever since.

Members of the Muslim community also offered namaz outside the locked facility and demanded its proper utilisation as the annual Haj pilgrimage nears.

Police said there were around 400 to 500 protestors at the gate who, around 9:30pm, started pelting stones at police personnel deployed in view of the agitation.

The protesters also blocked traffic on GT Road, resulting in heavy snarls from Mohan Nagar to Ghaziabad city. Police have picked up four to five persons who were the brain behind the entire protest. Heavy contingent of police and PCR vans were deployed at the site and also in the sensitive areas of Ghaziabad city.

We demand that the Haj House be opened immediately as it has been locked by the district administration. The Haj House was developed to facilitate the pilgrims. The facility is fully developed, but no one can use it and the pilgrims have to go to Delhi to move ahead for their pilgrimage, said Naseem Khan, district president of minority cell, Ghaziabad.

It is sheer negligence that Haj pilgrims cannot use a facility developed for their use. We feel that the present government is biased and is acting against the sentiments of the community. We will stay here till the Haj House is opened for the pilgrims, said Puja Chadda, a local Congress member.

Following the demonstration, the city police posted a contingent at the site.

Our personnel are posted at the spot, keeping a close watch over the developments. We told the protesters that the facility has not been locked by the district administration and they have no role in opening or closing it, said Akash Tomar, superintendent of police (city).

An appeal against the 4.3-acre complex, built along the river Hindon, is pending with the National Green Tribunal (NGT). The petitioners, all Ghaziabad residents, had contended that the Haj House had come up on river land and should be demolished.

The tribunal had on September 2, 2016 said in its order, We make it clear that any steps or construction taken in the meanwhile shall be subject to the orders of the Tribunal passed in this Application (sic).

Earlier, on July 27, HT had published a report on the facility lying non-functional. In the report, UP minister of state for Waqf, Mohsin Raza, had said that the decision was taken by the previous state government and the present government has maintained the status quo.

The decision was already made by the previous government as the matter was with the NGT even before the present government assumed office. The decision was taken to protect the environment and the rivers ecology. If thousands of pilgrims arrive here it is bound to create garbage issues for the river zone. So, the closure was an earlier decision taken up to avoid contempt of court, Raza had said.

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Assam government on Monday said it will appoint 877 teachers in schools and colleges across the state within next one week.

We are going to appoint the teachers by August 7. Out of them, 105 teachers of five new colleges will receive appointment letters from the Chief Minister on August 4, Assam Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said at a press conference in Guwahati.

The new five government-run colleges has been set up in Behali, Dalgaon, Karimganj, Bongaigaon and Goalpara, he added.

Assam currently had only four government colleges -- Cotton College, Diphu College, Haflong College and Kokrajhar College, of which Cotton has been transformed into an university.

These will be model colleges and named after Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya. The classes will begin immediately in these.

Construction work for another seven model colleges are going on. As per the new education policy, government will set up all future educational institutes wherever there is a necessity, Sarma said.

In next year, three more colleges will be set up in Karbi Anglong, Cachar and Nagaon, he added.

Sarma further said government will hand over appointment letters to 626 Headmasters and 146 Assistant Headmasters in high schools across the state on August 7.

This will address a long pending issue of running high schools without any permanent headmaster, he added.

The minister informed that 124 retired teachers have been appointed as special inspectors in as many schools, where pass percentage in latest metric examination was below 10%.
Even as University of Mumbai struggles to meet the July 31 deadline for announcing the delayed results of examinations, senior officials are abandoning the university. Neeraj Hatekar, head of department, Mumbai School of Economics and Public Policy, has decided to opt for voluntary retirement, calling the problems at the university a fight within a hopeless system of no use.

Known for voicing his opinion for or against the working of the university, Hatekar, on Monday morning, shared a post on Facebook announcing his decision to take voluntary retirement. I realise that I will be more effective in working towards the betterment of the university fighting for it from outside rather than being part of a hopeless, spineless system led by stooges who only understand expediency of survival. I feel uncomfortable that earning my daily sustenance involves deference to such a system, said his post on the social networking site.

Hatekar has time and again voiced his opinion against the inappropriate functioning of the university and at the same time also extended his support to all teachers. Recently he had also objected to making teachers work extra hours to make up for the loss of assessment time in April and May of this year because assessment this year started only post mid-May. Whatever is going on in the University of Mumbai is deeply distressing and the time has come for those who feel for the university to come together and act. The Joint Action Committee for Improvement of Higher Education in Maharashtra calls for this interested to join in...The time for silence is over, he said.

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Lucknow: State-owned broadcaster Doordarshans Lucknow centre will telecast documentary films made on social issues by the students of journalism and mass communication at the University of Lucknow (LU).

An agreement to this effect was signed by LU and Doordarshan officials in the presence of Uttar Pradesh governor Ram Naik on Saturday. Lucknow University vice-chancellor Prof SP Singh and assistant director Lucknow Doordarshan (programme) Rama Arun Trivedi were also present on the occasion.

Experts say if short documentary films made by the students are aired on Doordarshan, it will boost their confidence and add to their experience. The students have been making socially useful and constructive films to spread positive messages in their community.

LUs journalism department now has a big library of such documentary films that will be telecast by the broadcaster from time to time.

In his message to the aspiring journalists, governor Naik asked them to work hard if they wanted to carve a niche for themselves in the field of journalism. Never compromise with quality. Visual media is very powerful because seeing is believing, he said.

To be a good and successful journalist, one has to have certain skills because today viewers want to know more in quick time. Journalists are now required to sum up maximum things in the minimum possible time. The scope of media has expanded, he added.

Speaking on the occasion, LU vice-chancellor Singh said the agreement would give new wings to the journalism and mass communication department of the university. Doordarshans Trivedi said the reach of DD in the rural section was unmatched.
The Supreme Court is hearing the case concerning GM Mustard Monday, even as the Centre told the court that GM crops has no harmful effects on other crops and historically has proven safe for human consumption.

The environment ministry said that it has not made any decision regarding the commercial release of GM Mustard, which could become the first genetically modified food crop allowed in India.

The Supreme Court could pass an injunction on the commercial release of the crop, even as it decides on a petition filed Aruna Rodrigues seeking a moratorium on the release of GM Mustard.

The variety was cleared by the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee, Indias apex biosafety regulator that functions under the environment ministry, on May 11 and has since spurred a an avalanche of protests from environmental activists and farmer groups, who fear it would increase their dependency on multinational companies that develop these technologies.

In this case,one of the governments biggest claims is that it is developed indigenously at the University of Delhi, under the guidance of Prof Deepak Pental, a geneticist. However, groups like those led by Vandana Shiva, disagree saying that the base patents for the new variety are owned by Bayer AG, an agro major that is in the process of merging with Monsanto, another agro giant, which would further skew the agricultural technology market.

The Anti-GM lobby has approached Prime Minister Modi to obtain a moratorium on the release. The last time, a food crop went to this extent, was in the case of BT Brinjal, which also received the approval of GEAC but its release was stayed indefinitely by then environment minister, Jairam Ramesh.

The GM-Free India coalition points to the farcical conditional approval in the case of Bt cotton. This is all the more unacceptable in the case of GM mustard since this GM is completely unneeded in the first instance... We write to urge you to ensure that this GM mustard application is rejected in toto, the coalition said in a letter to the prime minister.

GEAC chairman, Amita Prasad, told the Hindustan Times that the approval granted by the committee was conditional not absolute and subject to certain conditions regarding area cropped, submission of regular reports.

With PTI inputs

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The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is finding it tough to finalise construction of a flyover at Iffco chowk due to the presence of high tension overhead electricity wires.

The flyover construction is complete except for a portion where the high tension wires are running along the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway from Shankar Chowk to Iffco Chowk.

The NHAI has repeatedly asked the power company to shift the lines but to no avail.

The NHAI officials said the Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam (HVPN), which is the custodian authority of the high tension wires, failed to give permission to move the wires to order to complete the flyover. As per the final talks between the officials of the two departments, the HVPN was to give permission to the NHAI to take the overhead high tension wires underground.

As per the last meeting, NHAI was to execute the plan but only after the necessary permission from HVPN. The NHAI agreed in principal to invest the fund to execute the plan but HVPN failed to the give the permission. The construction of the U-turn flyover is disturbed but the HVPN is not ready to take a decision, said AK Sharma, project director, NHAI, adding that the HVPN might change the plan.

Anil Yadav, superintending engineer (SE), HVPN, said, We hope the approval from headquarters come very soon in this regard. We are in touch with the top officials at and hope to get the approval in a day or two.

To put high tension wires underground, the NHAI will construct a duct or tunnel of about 500 metres.

There are 12 towers of the high transmission line currently standing on the left side of the NH-8 near Iffco Chowk.

Earlier, on July 10, principal secretary to the Haryana government Rajesh Khullar had asked the local administration to remove the wires before July 31.

Construction of the flyover at Iffco chowk and underpaases at Signature Tower and Rajiv Chowk have to be completed by March 2018.

Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar is expected to inaugurate on AUgust 14 an underpass near Medanta hospital and a flyover at Maharana Pratap Chowk while rest of the work would go on as scheduled.

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The residents of Sector 14, accompanied by members of residents welfare associations (RWAs) of other sectors, met deputy commissioner (DC) Vinay Pratap Singh on Monday and handed over a memorandum on the street vending policy.

About a couple of days ago, the residents had a heated argument with officials of the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) when they forcibly attempted to resettle some street vendors with new carts in the market in Sector 14 without consulting the shop owners and RWA members of the sector.

We will not allow the MCG to create chaos by setting up additional carts and street vendors in our market. We met the DC and explained our stand on the street vending policy of the MCG. The DC acknowledged our stand and assured to look into the issue, said Dinesh Aggarwal, president of Sector 14 RWA.

The MCG has to follow guidelines of the Supreme Court 2009 to relocate or resettle the street vendors who operate without authorisation in and around the populated areas and markets, leading to congestion and chaos. Following the guidelines, the MCG designed carts and kiosks that a vendor can buy on instalments and came up with a street vending policy.

It is worth noting MCGs street vending policy has met with resistance from various sectors in the past four to five months. Earlier, the residents and shop owners of sectors 56, 31, 32 and others had strongly protested against it.

Aggarwal said, We have already moved a petition against the MCGs street vending plan in the Punjab and Haryana high court. In our support, the Haryana Urban Development Authority (Huda) has submitted an affidavit that no street vendors can be settled in the market. But the MCG is misusing the policy by conducting an independent survey and listing names of vendors beyond the permitted limit and that is why the policy has been met with strong resistance.

The DC heard the residents and assured them that the till high court comes out with a clear directive, no new vendors will be settled in markets.

The residents met me and explained their stand. The said a case has been filed in this regard in high court, said the DC.

We are not against the street vendors. We are not against the policy or guidelines of the Supreme Court. We are against the way the policy is being executed by the MCG officials and the private companies tied up with the corporation to resettle vendors of their choice and for their commercial gains, said SS Yadav, another member of the RWA.

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Angelina Jolie says accounts of her casting process for children to appear in her film First They Killed My Father are false and upsetting. An excerpt from a Vanity Fair profile of the director sparked backlash online earlier this week from people who criticized the methods as being cruel and exploitative.

Adapted from Loung Ungs memoir, the biographical drama centres on her childhood under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. Jolie co-wrote and directed the film, which she talked about in a recent Vanity Fair profile.

The article described a scene in which casting directors in their attempt to find a child actor to play the lead role presented money to impoverished children only to take it away from them as an acting exercise.

Jolie and producer Rithy Panh issued joint statements Sunday responding to the outrage and refuting claims that the production was exploitative through a representative from Netflix, which is producing and distributing the film.

I am upset that a pretend exercise in an improvisation, from an actual scene in the film, has been written about as if it was a real scenario. The suggestion that real money was taken from a child during an audition is false and upsetting, Jolie said. I would be outraged myself if this had happened.

Jolie said parents, guardians and doctors were on set daily to care for the children and make sure that no one was in any way hurt by participating in the recreation of such a painful part of their countrys history.

Panh, who himself is a survivor of the Khmer Rouge, added that casting was done in the most sensitive way possible.

He described a process that was informed both by families preferences and NGO (non-governmental organization) guidelines in which the children understood that they would be acting out a scene.

The Vanity Fair article described a scene in which casting directors in their attempt to find a child actor to play the lead role presented money to impoverished children only to take it away from them as an acting exercise. (AFP)

The children were not tricked or entrapped, as some have suggested, Panh said. They understood very well that this was acting, and make believe.

The Vanity Fair article went into more detail about the production than the one paragraph that circulated on Twitter, which sparked the initial outrage.

A representative from Vanity Fair issued a statement Sunday saying that author Evgenia Peretz clearly describes what happened during the casting process as a game and that the filmmakers went to extraordinary lengths to be sensitive in addressing the psychological stresses on the cast and crew that were inevitable in making a movie about the genocide carried out in Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge.

Jolies film will debut on Netflix sometime after showing at the Toronto International Film Festival this September.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
BJP chief Amit Shah on Monday said he is happy being the party president and ruled out joining Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre.

Shahs filing of nomination for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections from Gujarat triggered speculation about him joining the Union ministry.

The buzz about possible ministry expansion has been generated as many ministers are currently holding multiple crucial portfolios in the National Democratic Alliance government.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley is holding the additional charge of the defence ministry since Manohar Parrikar left the government in April to take over as chief minister of Goa.

M Venkaiah Naidu, who was holding information and broadcasting, urban development, housing and urban poverty alleviation portfolios, has been nominated as NDAs candidate for the post of vice president creating more vacancies.

Science and technology minister Harsh Vardhan is holding the additional environment portfolio since the demise of Anil Dave.

There are talks that Shah, Modis closest confidant, was given the Rajya Sabha nomination to pave the way for his induction into the Union ministry.

I am very happy with my job and discharging my responsibilities with full devotion, you dont speculate, a vividly relaxed Shah said while interacting with media persons on Monday, the concluding day of his three-day Lucknow visit.

Shah also rubbished the allegations that under him the BJP is creating rifts in the Opposition ranks be it in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh or Gujarat.

The Congress recently flew out a group of its MLAs from Gujarat to Karnataka ahead of August 8 Rajya Sabha elections, accusing the BJP of trying to lure them.

Accha chalo Gujarat mein toh hamari sarkaar hai, par inhoney Bengaluru mein kyon vidhayakon ko kamrey main band kar rakha hai (Ok, its a BJP government in Gujarat but why have they kept their MLAs confined to a room in Congress-ruled Karanatakas capital Bengaluru, Shah asked.

Arrey bhai, wahan toh unhe ghoomney do (at least let them move freely there), he said with a smile.

He was flanked by UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath and deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma.

Hamne koi dal nahi toda hai (we have not broken any party), he said, denying BJP had any role in the breakup of Bihars grand alliance

What could we do when Nitish Kumar himself decided to resign and sever ties with the RJD? Was I expected to stop him from doing so at the gun point? We did not have a hand in the developments there as Nitishji wasnt interested in continuing with those accused of corruption, Shah said, referring to recent change of political equation in Bihar.

On Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadavs allegation that the BJP is indulging in political corruption in UP by engineering resignations of his party MLCs, Shah said he wasnt aware of any such move by the BJP.

Asked if the SP MLCs, who recently left the party, would join the BJP and would get return gift from him, he said, I dont know whether they would be joining the BJP? The local unit might have planned something. But, as far as return gift is concerned, this is not BJPs culture.

Several SP and BSP leaders had joined the BJP ahead of the 2017 assembly polls in UP and many of them were given tickets and are now ministers in Adityanath government.

However, Shah said those leaders after quitting their parties had contested an election, there by indicating that his party had not poached on opposition lawmakers in the middle of their term.

He denied any plan to induct disgruntled Samajwadi Party MLA Shivpal Yadav into the BJP. Shivpal and his nephew Akhilesh Yadav are the central characters in the bitter intra-party conflict in the SP.

On the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi land dispute in Ayodhya, Shah said his party is in favour of building a temple at the disputed site either through a court order or by creating a consensus on the issue.

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More than 90 animals, including seven rhinoceros, have died due to the flooding in the Kaziranga National Park in Assam, the government told Parliament on Monday.

The Assam floods have affected the Kaziranga National Park. Seven rhinos, 83 hog deer, and two sambar deer have died in the flooding, environment minister Harsh Vardhan said in a written reply.

The floods have so far claimed over 70 lives in the northeastern state.

More than 25 lakh have been affected by the floods in 29 districts. The administration set up 1,098 relief camps and distribution centres in the state.

Vardhan said based on the Annual Plan of Operations submitted by tiger reserves, the government provides funds to them under the centrally-sponsored scheme Project Tiger through the National Tiger Conservation Authority.

The funds are used for various activities, including for measures to address flood situation such as creation of highlands and preventive structures against erosion, boats, rescue of animals, desiltation and creation of road network, he said.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will pay an one-day visit to Assam Tuesday to discuss a permanent solution to the flood problem in the state every year.

The prime ministers visit is mainly to find a permanent solution to the flood problem that Assam is facing, state Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Monday in Guwahati.

He will hold two series of discussions in the city during the day and will leave for Delhi in the evening, he added.

The first meeting will be with the council of ministers and state officials. After that, the prime minister will address a meeting of NDA legislatures from BJP, BPF and AGP, Sarma said.

Asked about the states demand, Sarma said Assam has enough funds. We still have Rs 324 crore of unspent money. Last year, the Centre had announced Rs 400 crore (for Assam), but did not send it because we had money, he added.

Sarma, however, said the state government will submit a memorandum with some demands.

Earlier during the day, Congress leader and former chief minister Tarun Gogoi said Modi is paying a token visit to the state only after facing severe criticism from all quarters as he visited Gujarat, but neglected Assam.

The Centre has already announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each under the Prime Ministers National Relief Fund for the next of kin of people killed and Rs 50,000 to seriously injured persons in the recent flood in Assam.
A 45-year old man in Assams in Lakhimpur district was murdered by his wife on Sunday for allegedly raping the couples teenage daughter.

Manik Narah, a resident of Nowboicha in upper Assam, was killed by his wife Junaki who accused him of raping their daughter on several occasions.

The woman alleges that her husband routinely misbehaved with their daughter and had even raped her. Thats the reason she decided to kill him, Sudhakar Singh, superintendant of police Lakhimpur told HT.

Narahs body, which bore several wound marks, was found from a field by villagers. Preliminary investigation suggests he may have died due to excessive bleeding from injuries inflicted by a sharp dagger.

Despite her allegations of rape and sexual misconduct, Junaki had not filed any complaint against her husband with the police.

We believe two more people, who are on the run, were involved in the murder. The woman has been arrested and investigations are on to ascertain the exact reason for the murder, said Singh.

Police quoting villagers say the victim used to misbehave with other girls in the area.

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Apple has reportedly said that it will remove the virtual private network (VPN) services from its app store in China which help Internet users evade censorship. As a response, the VPN service providers accuse the US tech giant company of bowing to the pressure from China's cyber regulators.

VPN is reported to allow users to bypass China's "Great Firewall", which restricts other Internet users from using overseas sites.

In January, Beijing submitted laws seeking to ban VPNs, which are not approved by the state. Those approved VPNs are obliged to use the state network infrastructure.

In a statement released by Apple on Sunday, July 30, a spokesperson confirmed that they will remove apps which do not comply with the law from China App Store.

"We have been required to remove some VPN apps in China that do not meet the new regulations," the company said. "These apps remain available in all other markets where they do business."

ExpressVPN, a VPN company posted a letter saying its app has been taken down for putting illegal content in China.

"We're disappointed in this development, as it represents the most drastic measure the Chinese government has taken to block the use of VPNs to date, and we are troubled to see Apple aiding China's censorship efforts," ExpressVPN said in a statement.

VyprVPN had been taken down as well. Sunday Yohubaitis, the president of the company who owns the software, expressed his disappointment.

"We gladly filed an amicus brief in support of Apple in their backdoor encryption battle with the FBI," he said, "so we are extremely disappointed that Apple has bowed to pressure from China to remove VPN apps without citing any Chinese law or regulation that makes VPN illegal."

"We view access to Internet in China as a human rights issue, and I would expect Apple to value human rights over profits," he added.
In a show of political nicety, BJP president Amit Shah snubbed a party cadre for calling Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi Pappu.

Shah was making a point about how the BJP is the only party with internal democracy and that unlike Congress, no one knows who would replace him as the party chief at a function in Lucknow on Sunday. The function was organised by the intellectual cell of the ruling party.

Everyone knows who is going to be the next Congress president after Sonia Gandhi Isnt it? Tell me, who? Shah had asked. In response someone from the audience shouted, pappu, an infamous sobriquet used to troll Congress vice president on social media.

Yeh sab mat kahiye (No, dont say this), Shah promptly retorted.

The Uttar Pradesh BJP was quick to hail Shahs political civility.

Our party and our party chief have set very high standards. The rebuke by the party chief for a term used for an opposition leader goes to prove this, said UP BJP general secretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak.

But the Congress was not amused.

They (BJP) cleverly create such controversies. The one who made the remark surely is a party worker. Why hasnt he been sacked so far for making such a derogatory remark against our leader? asked UP Congress leader Devendra Pratap Singh.

Earlier in June, Congress sacked its Meerut district unit chief Vinay Pradhan for using the term in praise of Gandhi.

Singh claimed that Pappu was coined by what he called, the BJPs dirty tricks department.

At the function, Shah said none could guess who would replace him at the partys helm because of the robust internal democracy existing in the BJP. The BJP chief then went on to take a pot shot at the Samajwadi Party for its internal feud.

Sometimes people commit mistake in selecting a successor between a son and a brother, said Shah, in an oblique reference to Akhilesh Yadav removing his father Mulayam Singh Yadav from the post of national president of the SP and taking complete control of the party before assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.

The BJP stands apart from other parties because of its internal democracy. Be it Congress, Samajwadi Party, BSP or RJD, all are family based parties, Shah said.

He urged the gathering to judge parties on the basis of their internal democracy, ideology and their working style.

During Congress rule (10 years of UPA govt) everyone in the party was Prime Minister. But no one considered Manmohan Singh a Prime Minister, Shah continued.

He was referring to allegation that the 10 Janpath, official residence of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, was the power centre during the UPA regime.

The BJP president took the opportunity to give credit to the people of UP for enabling the BJP to form the government at the Centre.

Had people of UP not given 73 out of 80 seats to BJP (in2014 Lok Sabha polls), BJP would not have been able to form the government at the Centre, Shah said.

The BJP national president assured the gathering that with Yogi Adityanath as chief minister, the state would now get benefits of all 106 schemes launched by PM Narendra Modi till date.

Earlier, all these schemes were not rolled out in UP. But now CM Yogi Adityanath will ensure that they are implemented in the state properly.

Shah also assured that at the end of BJPs five year rule in Uttar Pradesh, the state would shed the tag of Bimaru state.

The Bimaru is an acronym used to define underdevelopment and poor social indices in Bihar, MP, Rajasthan and UP.

The BJP ruled states like MP and Rajasthan no more come under the category of Bimaru state. Soon UP and Bihar will also shed this tag, said Shah.

Bihar did very well when BJP was part of the government there. For sometimes there was problem but two days ago we have solved this problem. Now, Bihar will also prosper, said Shah.

He was referring to JD (U) snapping its ties with the RJD and returning to its old ally BJP to form government in the state.

Shah also highlighted benefits of PM Modis Ujjwala scheme, under which free LPG are distributed to rural poor.

Sharing policies of the BJP national president with the audience, Adityanath referred Shah as modern day Chanakya.

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Haryana police said on Monday the body of a 12-month-old girl was recovered from a garbage dumping ground in Fatehabad district on Saturday and that an initial probe into the alleged murder of the infant indicated toward the suspected use of the occult.

According to the police, a passerby saw the body on Saturday evening near the railway crossing on Chopta Road at Bhattu Kalan village. The police were trying to ascertain whether the child was drowned in the adjoining drain or dumped after being killed.

Fatehabad deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Ravinder Tomar said they were waiting for the post-mortem report and that they have sent the viscera report to Madhuban Laboratory in Karnal district.

What has also puzzled the investigators is the recovery of a handwritten note Save the Girl in English that was lying near the body of the infant girl. However, the police were dismissive about any link between the recovery of the body and the note.

Yes, we recovered a note that reads Save the Girl. It was lying near an earthen pot just about 10 metres from the spot where the body was dumped. But, this is a slogan of the Haryana government and written in a good handwriting. There is no connection between the note and the crime, DSP Tomar told the Hindustan Times.

Police investigation suggests that the note in question was written by some school student. Later, it was dumped as the crime spot is also a dumping area ... Police are investigating into every aspect of the matter, the DSP said.

Superstitious practices such as child sacrifice are common in India despite the governments claims of taking adequate measures to check the menace. Illiteracy coupled with the lack of awareness and healthcare facilities have allowed self-proclaimed divine healers to exploit gullible villagers.

In June, a six-month-old child was kidnapped and sacrificed at a burning ghat by a sorcerer with the help of a childless man to seek divine blessings in Jharkhand. The sorcerer had advised the man that he would be blessed with a child if a new born baby could be sacrificed to appease the god.
Chinese troops were sighted on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) at Barahoti in Uttarakhand, officials said on Monday, against the backdrop of the nearly two-month-old standoff between the two sides in the Sikkim sector.

The latest incident came almost a year after Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers were spotted on the Indian side in the same area of Chamoli district. The Chinese troops intruded almost a kilometre into Indian territory and threatened some shepherds, PTI reported. The incident occurred last week and the Chinese troops went back after about two hours, sources said.

Chamolis superintendent of police Tripti Bhatt acknowledged that something had occurred at the border but did not go into details.

I am not supposed to comment since its a matter of the strategic relationship between two nations. But there has been something (in Barahoti). Partially, it (the news report) is correct, Bhatt told HT on phone.

In New Delhi, sources sought to play down the reported intrusion. They said incidents of a similar nature have happened in the past but are normally sorted out locally. Such incidents should not be given undue importance, the sources added.

Chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said the Indian Army is keeping a close watch on the 370-km frontier with China in Uttarakhand following the standoff near the Sikkim border.

Indian and Chinese troops have been locked in a standoff at Donglang near Nathula since June 16. The faceoff began when Indian soldiers acted in coordination with Bhutan to block the construction of a road by Chinese troops in Donglang, which is under Beijings control but claimed by Thimphu.

In June, a Chinese helicopter violated Indian airspace and hovered for around four minutes over Barahoti, the superintendent of police of Chamoli had confirmed.

Barahoti is an 80-km-long pasture located 140 km from Uttarkhands capital Dehradun where local grazers go with their livestock.

Former chief ministers Vijay Bahuguna and BC Khanduri, while participating in internal security meetings on record, said Chinese troops had trespassed into the Indian side more than 30 times in the past decade.

Last year, an inspection team of Uttarakhand officials on a routine visit to the LAC near Barahoti encountered some Chinese soldiers on July 19. The PLA troops appeared out of the mist and signalled to the Indian team to go back. The state government had confirmed this incident.

Recently, a team of officials left for the LAC in Chamoli to take stock of the situation following the standoff in the Sikkim sector.

A 100 km road has been built to reach Rimkhim from Joshimath in Chamoli district. Beyond this point, it is an 8-km trek to the LAC near Barahoti.

The Hoti river and Parvati Kund (lake) make the area a favourite grazing ground, said SS Pangti, a retired IAS officer.

Barahoti is very vulnerable (to incursions) as it has several passes,said Pangti, who has extensively travelled in the states border districts.

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Chinese products are cheaper than Indian goods because of the opaque subsidy regime prevailing in China, the government said on Monday in Parliament.

The products manufactured in China are reportedly of lower price mainly because of their opaque subsidy regime and distorted factor prices, minister of state for MSME, Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

He was replying to a question which sought to know the reasons behind the higher prices of domestic products in comparison to the products manufactured in China.

The minister said that the survival and growth of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) depends on a number of factors like availability of timely credit, upgradation of technology, infrastructure, access to market, quality of products, etc.

Competition from internal and external sources including competition from multinational companies is also one of the factors, Chaudhary said in a reply to another question on whether Indian MSMEs are reportedly lagging behind due to availability of the products of multinational companies.
Congress parades 44 Gujarat MLAs, says BJP tried to bribe them ahead of Rajya Sabha polls

The Congress legislators from Gujarat staying at a resort outside Bengaluru are willing to return home if state chief minister Vijay Rupani promises their safety, party spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil said on Sunday. The party shepherded 44 lawmakers on Friday night to the holiday retreat in Karnakata after a spate of resignation of its MLAs amid allegations that the ruling BJP in Gujarat were bribing and coercing them ahead of the August 8 vice-presidential election. We have been threatened, offered money to defect and some have done so, Gohil, the Congress MLA for Abdasa in the Kutch region, told reporters. Read the story here.

755 US diplomats must leave Russia, no improvement in ties with America any time soon: Vladimir Putin

President Vladimir Putin said 755 US diplomats must leave Russia and warned ties with Washington could be gridlocked for a long time, in a move Sunday that followed tough new American sanctions. The Russian foreign ministry had earlier demanded Washington cut its diplomatic presence in Russia by September to 455 -- the same number Moscow has in the US. More than a thousand people were working and are still working at the US embassy and consulates, Putin said in an interview with Rossia-24 television. 755 people must stop their activities in Russia. Read the story here.

Russia warns of further retaliation after US sanctions over poll meddling

The Kremlins decision to expel American diplomats was a long overdue retaliation to tough new sanctions passed by Washington, a top Russian official said on Sunday, vowing more payback may follow if the US does not change its approach. Speaking on ABCs This Week show, Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov called a sanctions package aimed at penalising Russia for meddling in the 2016 US presidential election a completely weird and unacceptable piece of legislation that was the last drop. US sanctions were also imposed in December last year. If the US side decides to move further towards further deterioration we will answer, we will respond in kind. We will mirror this. We will retaliate, he continued. Read the story here.

File income tax return by July 31, no plan to extend deadline: I-T department

The last date for filing of Income Tax Returns (ITRs) for the financial year 2016-17 will not be extended beyond the July 31 deadline, a top official said on Sunday. The last date for filing of ITRs remains July 31. There are no plans to extend this deadline. The department has already received over 2 crore returns filed electronically. The department requests taxpayers to file their return in time, the official said. On reports of the e-filing website facing some glitches, the official said that no major glitches have been reported with the departments e-filing website  http://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/  barring a few times when the portal was interrupted for maintenance. Read the story here.

Gorkhaland: Violent clashes between police and GJM supporters

Darjeeling hills continued to be on the boil on Sunday following several rounds of clashes between police and Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) activists spearheading the movement for separate Gorkhaland state. The epicentre of the clashes was Sukna, about 12 km from Siliguri, where clashes broke out on Saturday after police disallowed a GJM rally. On Sunday, GJM supporters, alleging police atrocities, took out rallies throughout the hills. GJM leaders like Durga Sharma had a toughtime pacifying Morcha activists at Sukna, which at times virtually turned into a battlefield in different phases throughout Sunday. Read the story here.

Coast Guard makes record 1,500 kg heroin bust after surveillance system spots ship 380km off Gujarat coast

The Coast Guard seized 1,500kg of heroin from a merchant ship off the Gujarat shoreline on Saturday, which could be the biggest single haul of narcotics in India. The contraband is estimated to be around Rs 4,500 crore in the international market. The vessel was spotted around 380km off Dwarka through surveillance mounted by the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), a government intelligence-gathering agency. The NTRO shared the intelligence about the suspect vessel on July 27 and the Coast Guard was notified. Intelligence suggested the crew was negotiating the mode of payment for the contraband and its intended destination, said an official who didnt wish to be named. Read the story here.

11 die after being struck by lightning in Odisha; toll due to floods, rains rises across India

Eleven people were killed as lightning struck them in Odisha on Sunday while landslides and floods triggered by heavy rains continued to wreak havoc in many parts of the country killing several people. In Odisha, the flood toll rose to seven with the death of three more persons in Jajpur district while lightning strikes in Bhadrak, Balasore and Kendrapara districts claimed the lives of 11 people and left around eight injured. According to an official, while five died in Bhadrak, three each were killed in Balasore and in Kendrapara districts. The flood-like situation in the southwestern districts of Rajasthan has started to improve as the water showed receding trend, even as the death toll touched 17 since July 22. Read the story here.

US flies bombers, tests missile defence after N Koreas ICBM test

Amid rising tensions over North Koreas continued testing of missiles and the Chinese failure to rein it in, the United States flew bombers over the Korean peninsula on Sunday and followed it up with successfully testing its missile defence system. After condemning North Koreas test of an intercontinental ballistic missile, President Donald Trump zeroed in on Beijing saying, in a series of tweets, he was very disappointed in China for its failure to match its assurances with action. Its been just talk, he fumed. Hours later, two supersonic B-1 bombers of the US air force flew low over the Korean peninsula escorted by fighters piloted by South Koreans. Read the story here.

Delhi, Chandigarh among 29 cities and towns highly vulnerable to quakes

Twenty-nine Indian cities and towns, including Delhi and capitals of nine states, fall under severe to very severe seismic zones, according to the National Centre for Seismology (NCS). Delhi, Patna (Bihar), Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir), Kohima (Nagaland), Puducherry, Guwahati (Assam), Gangtok (Sikkim), Shimla (Himachal Pradesh), Dehradun (Uttarakhand), Imphal (Manipur) and Chandigarh fall under seismic zones IV and V. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has classified different regions in the country into zones II to V, taking into consideration earthquake records, tectonic activities and damage caused. Read the story here.

Ben Stokes burst leaves South Africa facing defeat at The Oval

England ripped apart South Africas top order in Sundays final session at the Oval to bear down on a victory that would put them 2-1 up with one to play in the four-Test series. Two wickets from successive balls in Ben Stokes third over removed Quinton de Kock (5) and Faf du Plessis (0) and ended faint South Africa hopes of mounting a rearguard action in pursuit of their target of 492.

Although Stokes failed to record what would have been the first-ever test hat-trick at the Oval, the damage was done. Du Plessis wicket, lbw without playing a shot to a first-ball inswinger, was a particular blow, with South Africa needing their captain to survive at least into Monday. Read the story here.
Attorney general KK Venugopal called for the criminal prosecution of Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan for terming the gangrape of a mother and daughter in Bulandshahr last year, a political conspiracy.

Khans atrocious statement, made days after the rape in August, was an attempt to obstruct a police officer from discharging his public duty, and he should not have been exonerated, Venugopal told a bench headed by justice Dipak Misra.

The attorney general was addressing the bench that will decide if a person in a position of power can be held accountable for making public statements in rape or criminal cases.

The top court took up the issue after the family of the rape survivors moved SC seeking action against Khan for his comments.

Initially, Khan denied making the statement and blamed the media for misinterpretation. However, in December, he tendered an unconditional apology, which the court accepted. But it expanded the scope of the petition to determine whether victims of crime have the fundamental right or protection of life and personal liberty.

When Venugopal made his submission, justice Misra told him that Khan had offered an apology full of remorse. The word remorse is deeper than apology. It means the person will not repeat, the judge explained.

The law officer pointed out that Khan was a repeat offender and flashed the newspaper report to highlight his statements against the Indian Army, which ensued in a sedition case against him.

You cannot let his tongue run lose. He cannot be exonerated for obstructing the course of justice, Venugopal said.

He made the statement (on Bulandshahr rape) as a cabinet minister. Everybody knows that the local police is directly under the control of the state government. The implication of his statement was that the mother and daughter were branded as liars. Thankfully the case is with the CBI or else the police would have filed a closure report. His statement was contrary to the rule of law, Venugopal submitted, adding that the former UP minister be charged under section 186 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The provision penalises a person obstructing a public officer from carrying out his official duty. It is punishable with three months of imprisonment or Rs 500 fine or both.

The bench said a formal application should be filed, to which senior advocate Harish Salve, who is assisting the court in the matter, agreed and said, This principle (of whether people holding a constitutional post can make statements influencing criminal cases) needs to be settled.

Salve, who has also suggested certain points for the courts consideration, asked, Shouldnt such a minister be disqualified from the legislature? This is becoming endemic in our country.

The court will hear the matter next on October 5 after it asked Venugopal to go through the suggestions made by Salve and senior counsel Fali Nariman, who is also assisting the court in the matter.

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Telugu film actor Tanish Alladi on Monday appeared before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Telanganas excise department, probing a Hyderabad drug racket.

The actor reached Abkari Bhavan, the office of the Prohibition and Excise Department, at 10am.

Four officials of the SIT were questioning Tanish about the allegations that he takes drugs and also has links with the peddlers arrested in the case.

After a days break, SIT resumed questioning Tollywood personalities in connection with the case.

Tanish is the 10th artist to be grilled by the SIT, which has so far questioned top actors like Ravi Teja, Charmme Kaur and leading director Puri Jagannadh.

Actress Mumaith Khan, actors Tarun, Navdeep and Subbaraju were among others quizzed in the case over last two weeks.

Ravi Tejas driver Srinivasa Rao was questioned on Saturday, a day after the actor was grilled for over nine hours.

The investigating team has summoned 12 Tollywood personalities for questioning. Their names cropped up during the investigations when SIT allegedly found their contact numbers in the call data of Calvin Mascrenhas, said to be the kingpin of the racket.

Some sections of Tollywood alleged that the industry is being unfairly targeted, but the Telangana government denied it. It pointed out that SIT questioned several people from other walks of life.

Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has also assured the film industry that those using drugs would be treated as victims and not as accused but sought their help in identifying the peddlers.

The SIT has so far arrested 20 persons, including US citizen Dundu Anish, a former aerospace engineer who has worked with the NASA, a Dutch national Mike Kamminga and seven B. Tech degree holders, most of them employed with multi-national companies.
Poll strategist Prashant Kishor, who was engaged by JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar for the November 2015 Bihar assembly election which the RJD-JD(U)-Congress grand alliance won by a big margin, has ceased to be advisor to the Bihar chief minister.

Kishores tenure was deemed to have automatically ended with the premature fall of the Grand Alliance government last week, when Kumar resigned as CM over the RJD failure to come clean on CBIs corruption charge on deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, and formation of a new JD(U)-BJP-LJP government.

Kishor had been made advisor to CM, in the rank of a cabinet minister, soon after the formation of the GA government in November 2015, to give wings to the development of Bihar, through a special purpose vehicle called the Bihar Vikas Mission (BVM).

Read | JD(U)s Sharad Yadav breaks silence on Nitish-BJP tie-up, says its unfortunate

The Missions immediate goal was to work towards executing Nitishs saat nishchay or seven-point agenda - economic programming specifically geared for youth; job reservations and empowerment for women; electricity, drinking water and toilets to each home; laying pucca streets through habitations across the state; and expanding economic opportunity through education.

Kishors task, as advisor to CM and BVM governing board functionary, was to devise a development blueprint in sync with Nitishs electoral promises.

However, Kishors appointment , in January 2016, did not go well with the BJP, now a coalition partner in the government, which had taken the position that the move had served to lower the morale of the officials in the state administration by encouraging outside influence.

The BJP had also blamed Kishors presence in the BVM governing body as the reason behind the the voluntary retirement sought by the then principal secretary, department of panchayati raj, Sudhir Kumar Rakesh, more than a year before his scheduled retirement in 2017.

Prior to joining Nitish Kumar, Kishor shot into prominence as an election strategist for the BJP during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Kishor has been out of Bihar for a long time. He never attended any meeting of the mission. With the change of government, his position automatically ceases to be. He had been working for Punjab Congress and in UP, but not in Bihar for nearly a year, said a senior official associated with the mission.

Though there is no official communication from Kishor regarding his position, it is believed he has effectively ceased to hold his position as advisor to CM and in BVM. In the new political set up in the state, it is quite logical also, said the official.

Kishor could not be contacted for his comments despite repeated attempts. A source close to him, however, admitted his tenure was over with mutual consent. He has also spoken to the CM about the matter, he added.

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For decades, Jogdas dreamed of moving to India to escape the persecution he suffered as a Hindu in Muslim Pakistan. But the reality of life over the border is a far cry from those dreams.

Seventy years after partition unleashed the largest mass migration in human history, Hindus are still moving from Pakistan to India, where tens of thousands languish in makeshift camps near the border with no legal right to work.

Many have no choice but to toil illegally in the stone quarries near where they live because their movements are strictly controlled by the authorities, suspicious of anyone from across the border.

It is not the welcome most of them expected in Hindu-majority India.

No job, no house, no money, no food. There, we were working in the fields, we were farmers. But here people like us are forced to break rocks to earn a living, said 81-year-old Jogdas, who goes by just one name.

For us the partition is still not over. Hindus are still trying to come back to their country. And when they come here, they have nothing, he told AFP from the camp on the outskirts of the western city of Jodhpur where he lives.

More than 15 million people were uprooted following Indias independence from Britain in 1947, which triggered months of violence in which at least a million people were killed for their faith.

Amid the bloody chaos, Hindus and Sikhs fled the newly formed Pakistan, as Muslims moved in the opposite direction.

Pakistani migrants work in a stone quarry in Jodhpur. (AFP Photo)

Despite the exodus, Hindus remain one of Pakistans largest religious minorities. Estimates vary, but they are believed to account for around 1.6% of the population of roughly 200 million.

Many say they face discrimination and even risk abduction, rape and forced marriage.

Soon after partition, the harassment started, said Jogdas, whose family had only moved to what is now Pakistan a few months before partition to escape a devastating drought.

There was not even a single day when we could live in peace. I wanted to come back to live with my Hindu brothers.

We are alone

Most of the migrants to India come from Pakistans Sindh province, taking a four-hour train journey through the Thar desert to Jodhpur in the arid western state of Rajasthan.

That they share the culture, food and language of Rajasthan should make it easy for them to assimilate in their adopted homeland.

In reality, they live in isolated camps, far from local communities and are treated with suspicion by authorities.

Prime Minister Narendra Modis government has said it wants to make it easier for persecuted adherents of the faith to find refuge in India.

Last year the government changed the rules to allow immigrants to apply for citizenship in the state where they live, rather than having to go through the central government.

Hindus from Pakistan qualify for a fast track to citizenship after seven years in the country.

But bureaucratic delays have meant the process of getting it can take longer to complete.

Dhanki (centre) has been living in India for 16 years, at an artisan shop in an unauthorised settlement for Pakistani Hindus in Jodhpur. (AFP Photo)

Khanaramji, 64, became an Indian citizen in 2005 after fleeing Pakistan in 1997.

He said many others had given up and returned to Pakistan, disillusioned by life in India.

There is no assistance from the government. We are just like cattle with no owners. We are just surviving on our own, he said.

Life becomes hell

Worse even than the poverty is the suspicion from authorities.

Those who do not have citizenship are harassed by (intelligence) agencies. They are always treated like suspects and agents of Pakistan, said Khanaramji, who goes by only one name.

They spend most of what they earn on going to police stations and agency offices.

Hindu Singh Sodha, who runs a charity in Jodhpur for Pakistani Hindus seeking to settle in India, said they had high hopes of Modi when he came to office in 2014, but had been disappointed.

The migrants still come under increased scrutiny whenever tensions flare between India and Pakistan -- a frequent occurrence under the Modi government.

Their life becomes hell, he said.

Because everything is affected. Their shelter, healthcare, access to education, their livelihood.

But some feel even that is worth tolerating.

Horoji fled to India with his two adult sons two years ago after receiving death threats from the familys Muslim neighbours in Pakistan.

An unauthorised settlement for Pakistani Hindus in Jodhpur. (AFP Photo)

To save our lives, we had to run to India, said 65-year-old Horoji, whose grandparents were originally from present-day India but found themselves on the wrong side of the border at partition.

My grandfather had gone to the other side for work. But he had told us to move to India when the right time comes as he had sensed times would not be safe for Hindus in future.
The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha has given a ten-day deadline to the Centre to intervene in the Gorkhaland statehood stir as the indefinite shutdown in the hills entered its 47th day on Monday.

We have given a ten-day deadline to the Union government to intervene. An indefinite shutdown is going on for the last 47 days. The Centre cant just sit idle when the hills are burning, GJM assistant general secretary Binay Tamang told reporters on Sunday night.

The 30-member Gorkhaland Movement Coordination Committee (GMCC), a body of all the hill parties of Darjeeling, is in Delhi for an all-party meeting.

The GMC has sought an appointment with Union Home minister Rajnath Singh to brief him on the ongoing crisis in the hills.

We have sought a meeting with Union home minister Rajnath Singh in order to brief him on the ongoing crisis in the hills. The indefinite shutdown has entered its 47th day, which is the longest-ever shutdown in the history of Darjeeling. The Centre needs to take concrete action, Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh president Sukhman Moktan told PTI.

The police and security forces patrolled the streets of the hills and kept a tight vigil at all entry and exit routes.

Normal life remained crippled during the indefinite strike to press for a separate Gorkhaland state. Barring medicine shops, business establishments, restaurants, hotels, schools and colleges remained closed.
Achievements Todd Olson Returns from Edward Jones Financial Advisor Leaders Conference We have been recognized by our peers for our commitment to our clients, a commitment that has led to us recovering more than $80 million for injured people in Wisconsin and This conference recognizes financial advisors who are among Minnesota in just the last decade. the leaders in the financial services firm. The conference also will provide additional training to help them serve more individual investors in their communities. Olson was among the only 538 financial advisors who qualified out of the firms 14,000 financial advisors in the U.S. and Canada. Bremer Bank Announces Organizational Changes Bremer Bank Region President Dale Walter is pleased to The 2017 conference was held May 10-12 at the firms announce the following organizational changes to support headquarters in St. Louis. the banks growing client base. The bank is located at 2570 Qualifying for this conference shows a tremendous amount of Midwest Drive in Onalaska. discipline, commitment and work ethic, says Alan Kindsvater, Ann Abraham, Vice President, Treasury Management, has been an Edward Jones partner responsible for Advanced Branch named Treasury Management Sales Manager for Southeastern Training, and host of the conference. Minnesota and Wisconsin. Ann works with businesses to Edward Jones, a Fortune 500 company, provides financial streamline processes for cash movement. She is a Certified services for individual investors in the United States and, Treasury Professional and has worked in banking for over 36 through its affiliate, in Canada. Every aspect of the firms years. Ann has been a part of the Bremer team since 2013. business, from the types of investment options offered to the location of branch offices, is designed to cater to individual investors in the communities in which they live and work. The firms 15,000-plus financial advisors work directly with more than 7 million clients. Edward Jones, which ranked No. 5 on Fortune magazines 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2017, is headquartered in St. Louis. The Edward Jones website is located at www.edwardjones.com, and its recruiting website is www.careers.edwardjones.com. Member SIPC. Jacobson Joins Fitzpatrick Skemp Firm Fitzpatrick, Skemp & Associates is pleased to announce that Attorney Tim Jacobson joined the law firm at the beginning of July 2017. Jacobson has been recognized by his legal peers as a Wisconsin Super Lawyer, and he served as president of an eleven-lawyer firm in La Crosse in the mid-2000s. He has litigated disputes involving environmental law, business matters, insurance, employment, personal injury, real estate, stray voltage, contracts, construction defects, and corporate Jacobson governance, including multiple jury trials to successful completion. He represented Wisconsin commercial corn growers as part of $110 million settlement of nationwide class action with claims arising from geneticallymodified StarLink corn. With co-counsel from multiple firms, he helped achieve a multimillion-dollar settlement of an environmental class action against the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad on behalf of 300 La Crosse property owners. He successfully appealed circuit court decisions, including obtaining a victory before the Iowa Supreme Court and defeating an opponents petition for certiorari before the U.S. Supreme Court in a wrongful termination case. He also served as board president of Midwest Environmental Advocates, a public interest law firm based in Madison. Hes a member of the board of directors of Wisconsin Wetlands Association and a past board member of Gathering Waters Conservancy. In addition to his legal work, Jacobson is the Emmy Awardwinning executive producer of the documentary film Mysteries of the Driftless, hes the best-selling author of the novel The Kurchatov Penetration, and hes a landscape photographer. Additionally, Jacobson is a Major in the U.S. Air Force Auxiliary (Civil Air Patrol), where he has served as a Mission Pilot and Squadron Legal Officer. Also, he earned a black belt in karate. Jacobson got his start in the practice of law in La Crosse in 1992, and is now in his 25th year as an attorney. He worked in La Crosse law firms for 14 years, and then served as executive director of Mississippi Valley Conservancy from 2006 to 2013. In 2013, Jacobson married a Boscobel, Wisconsin kindergarten teacher, Lisa, and relocated there. While in Boscobel, Jacobson was engaged in organizational consulting and economic development work. He also co-founded the nonprofit group, Sustainable Driftless, Inc., and is in the midst of producing a feature-length documentary film about the beautiful landscape of the Driftless Region. Tom Fitzpatrick, managing partner at Fitzpatrick, Skemp & Associates said the firm looks forward to Tim joining and bringing his expertise and experience to assist with the litigation the firm is doing. In particular, Fitzpatrick said, Tim will work closely with attorney Tom Lister doing environmental litigation, as well as a variety of other business litigation cases. Erik Beach has been promoted to Senior Mortgage Loan Officer. In addition to his current role serving clients, he is also responsible for all mortgage sales activity in the state of Wisconsin and Eastern Minnesota. Erik joined Bremer four years ago and has more than 20 years of mortgage experience. Dyanne Brudos has been promoted to Vice President, Private Banker and Wealth Specialist. In this role, Dyanne is responsible for providing financial solutions and service to assist Private Banking clients in this region. She joined Bremer Wealth Management in 2014 and has more than 20 years of experience in mortgage, private banking and wealth management services. Dyanne is an active community volunteer. Joseph Moua has been promoted to Vice President, Business Banking. With nearly 20 years of banking experience, Moua has served clients in various banking roles prior to becoming a business banker. He is an active member of the community, serving on the boards of La Crosse Community Foundation and Coulee Region Business Center and is a business outreach member of the La Crosse area Chamber of Commerce. Josh Smith recently joined the Bremer mortgage team as a Loan Officer. Josh is originally from Sparta and has 14 years of experience in mortgage origination. Josh and his family moved back to the area from the Madison in 2011 to be closer to home and he is eager to serve Bremer clients. Bremer Financial Corporation is a privately held, $11 billion regional financial services company jointly owned by the Otto Bremer Trust and Bremer employees. Founded in 1943 by Otto Bremer, the company is headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota and provides a comprehensive range of banking, wealth management, investment, trust and insurance products and services throughout Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin. Clients include individuals and families, large and mid-sized corporations, small businesses, agribusinesses, nonprofits, and public and government entities. Bremer Bank is Member FDIC. Beach Abraham Brudos Moua At Fitzpatrick, Skemp & Associates, LLC, we are attorneys with more than 100 years of combined experience helping injured people throughout Wisconsin and Minnesota. We know how to get results in personal injury, workers compensation and Social Security Disability cases, because this is what we are focused on every day of the week. Founded in 1998 by a team of attorneys with decades of experience, Fitzpatrick, Skemp & Associates is committed to helping injured people. Our team members have been recognized in many ways, including being:  Elected to Wisconsin Super Lawyers and Wisconsin Rising Stars  AV peer review rated* through Martindale-Hubbell, the highest rating  Elected as a fellow of the Wisconsin Law Foundation  Elected to the board of directors of the Wisconsin Association for Justice  Certified as a civil trial specialist  Former member of the board of directors of the Litigation Section of the Wisconsin State Bar Association La Crosse, WI - May 25th, 2017 -- Jamie Eklov,PPC, an independent LPL Financial advisor of J Eklov & Associates Inc., has been awarded the Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF) designation from the Center for Fiduciary Studies (the Center), the standards-setting body for fi360. The AIF designation signifies specialized knowledge of fiduciary responsibility and the ability to implement policies and procedures that meet a defined standard of care. The designation is the culmination of a rigorous training program, which includes a comprehensive, closed-book final examination under the supervision of a proctor, and agreement to abide by the Code of Ethics and Conduct Standards. On an ongoing basis, completion of continuing education and adherence to the Code of Ethics and Conduct Standards are required to maintain the AIF designation. About J Eklov & Associates Inc. J Eklov & Associates Inc. is an independent firm started by Jamie Eklov in 2012. Our approach is client-centric, providing financial advice that reflects clients priorities and specific life circumstances. We use a process of discovery, planning, strategies and monitoring to help address clients specific needs, goals, and priorities. Our clients are individuals and families, and small business owners looking to structure company sponsored retirement plans and benefits for key employees. For more information, please call 608-782-3591 or visit www.jamieeklov.com About fi360 fi360 helps its clients gather, grow, and protect assets through better investment and decision-making. Since 1999, fi360 has been providing innovative solutions to financial services providers, including the AIF and AIFA training programs, the fi360 Toolkit software, and fi360 Fiduciary Score. Our vision is to be the leading provider of services that raise the level of professionalism in investment management. With extensive education, certification, software, and practice management offerings, fi360 is a one-stop shop equipped to provide individuals and organizations with the training, tools, and resources necessary to become more successful. Securities and Advisory services offered through LPL Financial, a registered investment advisor, member FINRA/ SIPC. fi360, J Eklov & Associates Inc. and LPL Financial are not affiliated. Winona National Polus Promotion Bank Announces Winona National Bank is pleased to announce the promotion of Mary Polus to Vice President and Operations/IT Manager. In her new role, Polus is responsible for the Banks operations functions, core system applications, and information security. She has 23 years of experience at Winona National Bank, including two years as Retail Banking Manager, 16 years in various Marketing roles, and prior to that that she worked in both Operations and Administration. Polus Mary has demonstrated an impressive combination of strong leadership skills and a high capacity to learn and adapt to change, both of which will be invaluable as she leads our Operations and Information Technology areas, Matt Becker, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, said. Shes the kind of person you hope to have in your organization, and I feel very fortunate that shes part of our team here at Winona National Bank. Polus lives in Winona with her husband, Hugh. She has served many community organizations, including the Board of Directors for both the Winona County Historical Society and Ready Set School. Tomah Memorial Hospital Named Among 62 Critical Access Hospitals to Know Im thrilled to return to La Crosse and to get back to helping people who have been injured or harmed by environmental or other threats, Jacobson said. About Fitzpatrick, Skemp & Associates, Llc Jamie Eklov Earns Accredited Investment Fiduciary Designation From The Center For Fiduciary Studies Smith Have an achievement to announce? Achievements should be submitted by email to rvngachievements@lee.net Deadline for the September issue is August 18th, 3pm. Please call Melissa Lara at 608-791-8287 for more information. Beckers Hospital Review, an industry leading print publication, has named Tomah Memorial Hospital one of 62 critical access hospitals to know in the country. It is the second consecutive year that TMH has been recognized by the health care print publication. Of the 1,500 critical access hospitals across the United States; to be recognized as one of the top ones, once again, is very humbling for us and something that our staff should be very proud of for the work they do, said TMH CEO Phil Stuart. In a printed release, the Chicago based health care publication said to develop the latest list, the Beckers Healthcare editorial team examined the rakings and awards from organizations such as iVantage Health Analytics, Healthgrades, the National Rural Health Association, Truven Health Analytics, Womens Choice Award and Leapfrog Group. The team also considered the hospitals community impact and reputation for innovation. This is not something that we applied for or asked to be recognized, added Stuart. This is something the industry does on its own to recognize hospitals that achieve a very high standard, whether that be clinical, financial or combination of both. Last year, Tomah Memorial was on the top 50 critical access hospitals to know list by Beckers. Learn more about the services available at Tomah Memorial Hospital at www.tomahhospital.org.
Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) president Bimal Gurung refuted allegations made by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee that Maoists were actively involved with the agitation for separate Gorkhaland.

Speaking to reporters in Darjeeling on Monday, Gurung said the ongoing agitation by the hill-based parties was totally peaceful and democratic. The agitators are not using any kind of weapon, he said.

Allegations that the Gorkhaland movement has the support of the Maoists are baseless, Gurung said and asked the chief minister to furnish proof. The Union government should also ask the state government to furnish evidences in support of the allegations.

Gurungs comments coincide with Mamatas two-day visit to North Bengal. The chief minister arrived in Siliguri on Monday evening and is scheduled to address a Trinamool Congress rally and chair an administrative meeting in North Dinajpur district on Tuesday.

Gurung assured that the agitators will not use any kind of weapon in the movement.

Incidentally, the crucial meeting of Gorkhaland Movement Coordination Committee (GMCC) is scheduled in New Delhi for Tuesday.

GMCC a joint platform of 15 political parties and non-political organisations, was formed on June 29 to spearhead the Gorkhaland movement.

Gurung said that the bandh, which entered its 46th day, was called by the people and would continue.

So far, eight Gorkhaland supporters have died in police firing in Darjeeling hills. Normal life has been completely paralysed. Opposition parties in Bengal want the Centre to intervene and call for a tri-partite meeting to defuse the crisis.

However, there has been lukewarm response from the Union government on this matter. Properties worth crores of rupees have been destroyed as the movement is rapidly turning leaderless as leaders of various parties in the GMCC have been stating that they have no control over the agitating people.

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Naseem Geelani, the younger son of hardline Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Geelani, said on Monday the government shouldnt only target those who dont agree with it and that the same yardstick should be used for everybody.

Naseem has been summoned by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with investigations into the funding of subversive activities in Kashmir.

Accountability is good but there should be same yardstick. Dont target only those people who dont agree with you, he said in a Facebook post.

(It should be) same for all politicians, you must not have forgotten name of Palm Jumeirah (in) Dubai and many more. At least we are ready, what about others? he asked.

He was referring to allegations which surfaced some years back that a National Conference leader owned a condominium in the archipelago which is home to the most expensive properties in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Geelanis elder son Naeem, who was scheduled to appear before the NIA in Delhi, was admitted to the ICU at SKIMS hospital in Srinagar on Sunday after complaining of severe chest pain.
The government will investigate the issue of restaurants serving food and drinks with liquid nitrogen in it, said Union science and technology and environment minister Harsh Vardhan in Rajya Sabha on Monday.

The assurance came after a member raised the issue.

The Haryana government had banned the use of liquid nitrogen on Friday, nearly a month after HT reported that a man had ended up with a hole in his stomach after consuming a drink.

The Haryana food and drugs administration department issued an order under section 34 of Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 (Central Act 34 of 2006).

On July 13, HT broke the story about a man having a drink laced with liquid nitrogen at a Gurgaon bar and ending up with his stomach open like a book. Liquid nitrogen, which has a boiling point of -195.8 degree Celsius, is used by molecular gastronomy chefs to instantly freeze food and drinks. As it evaporates, liquid nitrogen freezes everything around it, including tissues that come in contact with it.

According to experts, food and drinks that are prepared with liquid nitrogen should be consumed only after all the gas has bubbled off.

The colourless liquid is also used to cool computers and in cryogenic medical procedures such as removing warts and cancerous tissues by freezing them.

Liquid nitrogen also has an expansion ratio of 1:694 at 20 degree Celsius, meaning one litre of liquid nitrogen at 20 degree Celsius can expand to 694 litres of nitrogen gas.

The gas did not have an escape route after the person consumed it and the sphincter closed, this is what led to a perforation (a hole) in his stomach, said Dr Amit Deepta Goswami, the Gurgaon mans doctor at Columbia Asia Hospital.

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Rejecting the Congress charge of poaching its MLAs in Gujarat, the BJP has said it had no role in the recent desertion by six of its legislators and wondered whether they were purchasable.

It also said that the sole of aim of the Congress was to save its vice president Rahul Gandhi in the country and Ahmed Patel in Gujarat.

Taking a dig at the Congress after it ferried its MLAs to Bengaluru to keep its flock together ahead of the August 8 Rajya Sabha polls in Gujarat, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said the lawmakers were enjoying themselves there while those of the BJP were busy providing relief to the flood-hit people in the state.

The party shepherded 44 lawmakers on Friday night to the holiday retreat in Karnakata after a spate of resignation of its MLAs amid allegations that the ruling BJP in Gujarat were bribing and coercing them ahead of the August 8 vice-presidential election.

Gujarat Congress leaders are leveling allegations at the BJP in Bengaluru. It is like a thief attacking a cop. If their leaders are leaving them, it has nothing to do with us, Javadekar told PTI on Sunday after the Congress attacked the saffron party.

He noted that senior Congress leaders like Shankersinh Vaghela, a former chief minister and the leader of opposition, its chief whip Balwantsinh Rajput and its spokesperson Tejashreeben Patel have left the party and wondered if the opposition party was suggesting that they could be bought.

They are all strong leaders. Nobody can purchase them. The Congress should look inwards and think why such senior leaders are leaving it. The truth is that its only goal is to save Rahul Gandhi in the country and Ahmed Patel in Gujarat, he said.

Patel is seeking re-election to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat but defection by a number of Congress MLAs has left the party worried. The BJP has fielded Rajput, who quit the Congress on Thursday, against Patel to further queer his pitch.

The Congress was growing weak across the country and it was not BJPs fault, Javadekar said.

In Ahmedabad, chief minister Vijay Rupani alleged that the decision to fly the Congress MLAs to Bengaluru amid flood-like situation in the state was taken by Patel out of his greed to win the election.

Sonia Gandhis affection for her son has drowned the Congress in the entire country. Though the citizens rejected Rahul Gandhis leadership, Sonias putramoh sank Congress. Similarly, Ahmed Patels greed to save his Rajya Sabha seat here will sink Gujarat Congress, he said.

According to Rupani, the Congress MLAs from flood-hot Banaskantha and other affected regions should have stayed with the people in this difficult time.

Out of his greed to win the Rajya Sabha poll, he (Patel) sent 40 Congress MLAs to Bengaluru. Some of them belonged to those districts which are badly hit by flood. Patel forced them to leave their constituencies, as he was only concerned about his Rajya Sabha seat, the chief minister alleged.

The people of Gujarat are watching this. I believe that the Gujarat Congress will sink only because of Ahmed Patel, he added.

Patel, however, refuted Rupanis allegation and said the Congress MLAs were forced to leave the state by the BJP-led state government.

In the 182-member Gujarat Assembly, the strength of the Congress has gone down to 51 from 57 after six of its MLAs tendered their resignations.

Party spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil said the Congress legislators are willing to return home if Rupani promises their safety.

We have been threatened, offered money to defect and some have done so, Gohil, the Congress MLA for Abdasa in the Kutch region, told reporters in Bengaluru.
Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday held a meeting with the CPI-M and BJP-RSS leaders following violence over the killing of an RSS worker and announced an all-party meeting on August 6 to bring about peace.

Addressing reporters after the hour-long meeting, Vijayan said peace talks were held in Kannur three months ago, but they failed to yield the desired result as violence again broke out in a few districts.

It was decided then that no violence should take place, but that did not happen in Kannur, Thiruvananthapuram and Kottayam. Here the homes of councillors were attacked. The meeting condemned the attacks on the homes and the office of the BJP here. We will hold district-level peace talks and then on August 6 an all-party peace meeting will be held here, said Vijayan after the meeting at state-owned Mascot Hotel.

Mondays meeting comes a day after Vijayan was summoned by Kerala Governor P Sathasivam in the wake of the deteriorating law and order situation following the murder of an RSS worker.

The first to arrive for the meeting was state Bharatiya Janata Party President Kummanam Rajasekharan along with his team, including Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief P. Gopalan Kutty.

Vijayan then arrived along with CPI-M state Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan.

Vijayan, upon arriving at the venue, lost his cool when he saw the media taking visuals of the meeting.

He directed his ire towards the manager of the hotel, and then while waiting at the entrance of the hall he asked the media to get out.

Vijayan entered the hall only after all the media personnel had exited.

When the media later asked why he was angry with them, Vijayan ignored their query. He explained the outcome of the meeting and left.

Rajasekharan said the meeting went off well. We explained our position, and stressed that the right to work in a political party should not be curbed, he said.

The need of the hour is that police should be given a free hand. This is not happening as the police remain mute spectators when the ruling party workers go berserk. Had the police been allowed to do their duty by intervening whenever there is a law and order issue, matters would not have reached this stage. We have agreed to cooperate in restoring peace, said Rajasekharan.

Vijayan on Sunday promised that action would be taken against law-breakers irrespective of their status and political affiliation.

The governor on Sunday in a tweet quoted Vijayan as saying that he would meet both state BJP President Rajasekharan and the state RSS chief and also make a public appeal for peace.

RSS worker E Rajesh, 34, was hacked here on Saturday night. He died at a private hospital.

The police have arrested eight persons who were involved in the crime and are on the lookout for two more.

Meanwhile, the Congress party held a meeting here on Monday condemning the blood bath being resorted to by the two parties (CPI-M and BJP-RSS). Leader of opposition Ramesh Chennithala said the two parties are hand in glove and thats the reason why the media was chased away.

Its ironic that Vijayan held peace talks, after sending out his cadres to commit murder, said Chennithala.
Twenty six days after a Class-10 student was raped and murdered in Kotkhai tehsil of Shimla district, students from her school are still traumatised.

The Government Senior Secondary School, Mahasu, where the victim studied, has now decided to rope in counsellors to help students overcome their fear. The school is located close to Hilaila village from where the girls body was found in a forested area on July 4. School authorities informed that two counsellors from Shimla will visit the school and conduct separate sessions for girls and boys.

Principal Anil Kumar said besides the children, their mothers will also be counselled to better address the situation. They will also be informed about students safety, he said, adding that students and parents will be made aware about drug abuse. Besides this, there are also plans to trains students in self-defense skills.

Poor attendance

Meanwhile, attendance in the school has also declined after the incident. The school was closed for a week for the monsoon break and reopened on Friday. Of the 94 students, about 54 attended classes on Friday and Saturday, school principal Anil Kumar said.

He added, It appears that the children are still confused and fearful. A possible reason could be the fact that elders continue to discuss the gruesome crime.The victims brother has also stopped attending classes. The girl had joined the school on May 16 this year and records show that the siblings regularly attended classes.

The region is unknown to such crimes. Not just the children, this is frightening for the elders too, said Priyal Chuhan, a local resident. The victims village is located about three kilometers from the school. Schoolchildren in the region usually trek to the school through forest trails.

Last week the state education department had issued an advisory to all schools asking them to encourage students to take public transport, avoid taking lift from strangers and move in groups.

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As I got into my car after voting in the UP assembly elections earlier this year, a few school teachers who recognised me came up to say hello. As we were chatting, a boy in his early 20s walked past me yelling anti-Modi, anti-Modi!

I did not react and continued talking to the teachers. Within minutes, however, their tone changed, and they told me to leave. They rapped on my car and insisted that I go. Unsure of what was wrong, I drove ahead and looked in the rear-view mirror.

The same boy had joined up with a few other young men and they were running in my direction, shouting expletives. Even though that boy was half my age, he was part of a mob now, and considered himself powerful.

With my eyes transfixed by the image on my mirror, I drove on. The group receded into the distance. Like a dried leaf that travels far in a gust of wind, the dread that a mob can evoke lingered even as the boys finally went out of sight.

The mob is the most reliable weapon in todays political scene. Hate is the ammunition. Fake news is the trigger. This is a weapon that can be manufactured, loaded, and fired at any time. It is formed by not just the gau rakshaks, but also angry civilians or even public servants, as happened recently in Rajasthan. It can be wielded anywhere: at a UP polling booth, as I saw, but also in a local train or thickly populated suburb in the heart of the national capital region. It can be aimed at teenagers minding their own business or journalists reporting a story.

Officially, our government does not support the mob, but you can see clearly which party has tended to keep silent, who backs the accused, and who doesnt visit the victims. The lynch mob has its own government and its own rulebook.

Our culture has changed as a result. For a large section of the majority, the lines between communalism and nationalism have blurred. They feel that hating Muslims means greater love for India. For their confused sense of motherland, brotherhood has no meaning. Gone are the days when patriotism was taught as unity in diversity and respect for each other. Today, nationalism means toeing the line and shutting up.

We shut up out of fear; and what we fear, more than anything, is the mob.

Its authority is rarely challenged. In the murder of 16-year-old Junaid, the police nabbed suspects with the help of CCTV footage. But initially they failed to find a single eyewitness from the crowded railway platform where Junaid lay dying. His brothers, who were on the train with him, said that nobody attempted to help them as they were attacked.

Even members of the majority have been targeted by mobs. In May, Bhup Singh and Jabar Singh of Greater Noida were returning home from a neighbouring village with a cow when a group surrounded and began thrashing them. Their pleas of being dairy farmers and Hindus fell on deaf ears. Since they were being beaten up in the name of the cow, nobody came to their rescue.

WHEN HOAX INFO INCITED FURY Rumours inciting violence that spread quickly on WhatsApp have claimed lives and are adding to the increase in hate crimes MAY 18, 2017: Seven men in two separate instances were lynched by mobs after fake news about child lifters armed with sedatives and injections spread through WhatsApp in Jharkhand.

Seven men in two separate instances were lynched by mobs after fake news about child lifters armed with sedatives and injections spread through WhatsApp in Jharkhand. In one instance, four Muslim cattle traders were dragged out of their vehicle and lynched by villagers in Sobhapur. Not too far from the location, on the same day, three Hindu men --Gautam Verma, Vikas Verma and Gangesh Gupta, who had gone to the village for work related to the Swachch Bharat campaign, were beaten to death while a fourth member, Uttam Verma managed to escape.

In both instances, the police were unable to save the victims from the mob fury.

JULY 7, 2017: During the communal riots in Basirhat, West Bengal, a Facebook post of a Hindu woman being molested was widely circulated. The photograph was a still from a Bhojpuri film released in 2014.

During the communal riots in Basirhat, West Bengal, a Facebook post of a Hindu woman being molested was widely circulated. The photograph was a still from a Bhojpuri film released in 2014. JULY 14, 2017: Alt News  a website which debunks fake news, reported a call for lynching when a bus with Mohd. Ali Jinnahs photograph was spotted in Bengaluru. The call for lynching the bus driver came from a Facebook post by a rightwing website contributor. The bus turned out to be a prop from a Malayalam film set.

Reporting on the Ikhlaq case from the village of Bisada affected me deeply. The most disturbing encounter was with a young man who wanted to click a selfie with me. I got into an argument with him when he justified the murder in the name of sentiment and feelings. I gave up after a while, but it left me deeply troubled how these young minds had been poisoned so completely.

Only once have the victims of this wave of fear stood in revolt. In Gujarat, Dalits protested the flogging of a family in Una by refusing to dispose of the carcasses of dead cows, their job by tradition. Tumhari mata hai, tum sambhalo (Its your mother, you take care of it) chanted locals. This has been the sole act of resistance; every other section of society is busy swallowing their fear.

Indeed, new kinds of mobs are proliferating. Last month a deputy superintendent of police, Mohammad Ayub Pandith, was surrounded outside a Srinagar mosque and killed by his own neighbours. This isnt going to be the last such attack. The forces directing the mob remain powerful.

Ravish Kumar is senior executive editor, NDTV India.

This is Part 6 of Lets Talk About Hate, an HT series that looks at the different complexions of hate crimes such as race, religion, identity. Follow us at @httweets for updates or send your suggestions at hatetracker@hindustantimes.com.
Hizbul Mujahideen militants looted Rs 5.2 lakh after barging into a J-K Bank branch at Arwani in south Kashmirs Anantnag district on Monday, police said.

Anantnag police has registered a case and investigation is on, a police spokesperson said.

During initial investigation and with the help of CCTV footage, it was found that Hizbul militants were involved in the crime. Efforts are on to nab the culprits, the spokesperson said.

Sources said the gunmen were dressed in burkhas, took them off once inside in bank branch, brandished their weapons and fled with the money.

A PTI report quoted a police official as saying that there were at least three to four masked gunmen.
A military tribunal that was in the spotlight for ordering the release of army men convicted in the staged Machil encounter appears to have got the facts wrong in its order.

Granting bail to the five personnel convicted for allegedly killing three civilians in Kashmirs fake encounter, an Armed Forces Tribunal (ATF) bench of justice VK Shaili and Lt General SK Singh got the date of the incident wrong.

Recording the reasons for granting bail to the army men, the court said the incident took place on the intervening night of 29-30 October when in fact it took place on the intervening night of 29-30 April. The court in its bail order stated: the ambush took place on the night of 29-30th of October, 2010.

This inaccuracy is followed by a detailed chronology of dates, which goes to November.

It is admitted that one of the victim was taken on 29th of October 2010 and never returned back. In such a situation, the normal conduct of the parents and other family members of the victim should have been to lodge a report about their missing child within 2- 3 days, but they waited till 10th of November before lodging a report with the police which was converted into an FIR more than a week later, the court said.

Senior Supreme Court advocate Sanjay Hegde said while the error was unlikely to have any bearing on the judgment, it could be used by the prosecution to its advantage.

The mistake in recording dates will not have an effect on the judgment as far as the operative part (granting bail) is clear. However, it can be used by the prosecution to challenge the bail granted, he said.

According to senior Jammu and Kashmir high court advocate Zafar Shah, the error highlighted AFTs carelessness. This shows carelessness on the part of the military tribunal in recording facts. They seem to be talking about something else rather than the incident in question, it cannot be a typo error, he said.
In a loss of face for the NDA government, a combative Opposition on Monday forced an amendment in a bill to accord constitutional status to the reconstituted National Commission for Backward Classes over its composition and making existing state commissions infructuous.

With MPs of many opposition parties missing, the government had an opportunity to outnumber them.

However, it was hamstrung as its own MPs were missing.

The amendment seeking to increase the number of members from three to five, including a woman and a minority candidate of OBC category, was carried with 75 MPs supporting and 52 rejecting it.

The BJP has 57 MPs in the Upper House, with the other NDA constituents taking the tally up to 75. BJP MPs were missing despite repeated warnings by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the past, including in the ongoing monsoon session. Government sources said the bill passed as amended took away the soul and spirit of the proposed legislation.

The Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill, 2017, will now go back to the Lok Sabha.

The bill was passed as amended after some drama in the Upper House, with the government accusing the Opposition of not being in favour of reservation for backward classes.

Leader of the House Arun Jaitley said if the Opposition wanted OBC reservation to fail, so be it.

Referring to the Oppositions demands regarding the composition of the commission, Jaitley said the element of exclusion in the constitution could be challenged. He said the exclusivity clause would make the bill unconstitutional.

Minister for social justice Thawar Chand Gehlot said the suggestions proposed through the amendments would be kept in mind while framing the rules. Describing the legislation as historic, Gehlot said the new Commission for backward classes that will be set up after the promulgation of the law will have constitutional powers as enjoyed by the SC and ST Commissions.

Minister of state for parliamentary affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the Opposition would pay a heavy price for obstructing what the OBCs wanted for decades. He added that the Oppositions intention was that the bill should hit legal hurdles.

Congress MP Kapil Sibal said, You dont want a woman OBC and a minority OBC as memberswhy are you opposing it?

Congress MP BK Hariprasad, who pressed for the amendments along with fellow MPs Digvijaya Singh and Husain Dalwai, later told HT, They are shedding crocodile tears. Their patron in Nagpur is against reservation.

Amid the din, deputy chairperson PJ Kurien suspended the House proceedings for 10 minutes hoping that the deadlock over the amendments could be resolved.

But there was no outcome as the amendment has been passed and putting the amended clause to vote was the only way out.

CPI(M) member Sitaram Yechury said, The die has been cast. Once amendment has been passed, then clause as amended has to be there.
The Centre would make efforts to soon pass the Transgender Bill, which seeks to empower the community by providing them a separate identity, Union minister Ramdas Athawale said on Monday.

Expressing regret over the discrimination and injustice meted out to the transgender community, Athawale said men and women have their rights, and the transgenders should get their rights.

A bill has also come in 2016. That bill has been sent to the standing committee. Very soon, the Government of India, the government of Narendra Modi, will pass that bill to give you your rights, the minister for social justice and empowerment said.

He was speaking at a national workshop on Developing Modules for Sensitising Transgender People and Stakeholders, organised at the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRD and PR) here.

The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016, which seeks to define transgenders and prohibit discrimination against them, was introduced in the Lok Sabha last year.

It was referred to the parliamentary standing committee on social justice and empowerment for examination and report.

Athawale said the members of the transgender community are subjected to injustice and discrimination, sometimes even by their family members, and they have to beg to make their both ends meet.

Stressing on the importance of education for the welfare of transgenders, he favoured giving reservation in jobs to the community.

WR Reddy, the director general of NIRD and PR, said the workshop has been organised to understand and take baby steps towards the welfare of transgenders.

Leaders of the transgender community, who spoke on the occasion, narrated the discrimination and agony they had to face in their lives.
Opposition parties have sharpened their attack against Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar after he dumped the mahagathbandhan or grand alliance (GA) and joined hands with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

But, what has come as a surprise is the salvo against Kumars move from within the NDA.

The Shiv Sena, NDA constituent and one of Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) oldest allies, has mocked at the history of see-sawing ties between Kumar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and questioned how would the two leaders explain the venom they spewed against one another in the past years.

Nitish accused Prime Minister Modi of being non-secular. He also accused the BJP of functioning according to the RSS ideology. Nitish even went on saying that when Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat he killed Muslims, so if Modi ji is nominated as the prime ministerial candidate my conscience will now allow me to be a part of NDA, Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana said.

Read more: Now-friend, now-foe: How Nitish Kumars alliances helped keep him ahead of the curve

Kumar resigned as the chief minister and ended his Janata Dal(United)s two-year alliance with the Lalu Prasad-led Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress on July 26 over corruption charges against his deputy and RJD chiefs son Tejashwi Yadav.

The 66-year-old leader returned as chief minister for the sixth time in less than 18 hours with the support of the BJP, the party he had broken ties with in 2013 after it picked Modi as the PM candidate.

Kumars decision to end the so-called grand alliance not only dramatically altered the political scenario in Indias third most populous state but also dealt a blow to the opposition parties looking to replicate the Bihar model to take on the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

The Sena also took potshots at the BJP, saying in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case Kumar spoke against the saffron outfit so how would the latter forget such sharp criticism.

This is not the first time that the Sena has targeted the BJP. Recently, party president Uddav Thackeray said Modi governments achhe din was only on paper.

UPA constituent the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) dubbed Kumars resignation and his swearing-in again within 24 hours as pre-planned.

The resignation of Nitish Kumar and formation of the government within 24 hours clearly indicates that some sort of planning had been done previously. Nitish Kumar had made up his mind to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), NCP leader Nawab Malik said in Mumbai.

Another NCP leader Tariq Anwar said it was a deceit with the people of Bihar. The people of Bihar had given a mandate against the BJP but now he (Nitish) has formed the government along with the BJP. This is not political honesty, he said.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) said the Bihar episode had brought Kumars dubious character to the fore.

Every few years Shri Nitish Kumar takes oath as CM from a different alliance. It is quite a record. Straightforward political opportunism, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yetchury tweeted.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh said Kumar was not a chief minister. He has become Modi and Amit Shahs watchman, Singh said.

Uttar Pradesh minister Siddharth Nath Singh said the fall of the grand alliance in Bihar proved that an alliance without an agenda would not work.

Senior Biju Janata Dal leader Tathagata Satpathy said the change of stand midway makes citizens doubt the integrity of politicians. Kumar could have gone to people to seek a fresh mandate, he said.

(With agency inputs)
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar said on Monday that the re-election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019 was inevitable, less than a week after he patched up with the Bharatiya Janata Party to form a new coalition government in his state.

His comments represent a significant shift in how he views the Prime Minister, whose candidacy in 2013 was behind his decision to break a decades-long partnership with the saffron party.

Nobody has the capacity nor is strong enough to take on PM Narendra Modi in the 2019 parliamentary elections, Kumar said in his first media interaction since he parted ways with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress last week, a decision that many see as a significant blow to the Oppositions unity.

Kumar resigned as the chief minister on Wednesday evening, hours after RJD chief Lalu Prasad refused to budge on demands for action against his son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav who is under investigation for alleged corruption. By midnight, he announced he would accept support from the BJP to return as the CM.

I was left with no option, Kumar said, on his decision to dump the so-called grand alliance.

Kumars senior colleague, and former JD(U) president, Sharad Yadav called that decision unfortunate in his first reaction on the matter on Monday .

I dont agree with the decision in Bihar. It is unfortunate, Yadav told reporters outside Parliament, breaking a silence that many saw as a sign of his disapproval early on.

The mandate of the people (in Bihar in 2015) was not for this.

There was speculation that Yadav could disassociate himself from Kumars decision. A number of other JD(U) leaders are also believed to be unhappy with BJP alliance.

The RJD continued its tirade against Kumar, calling on him to resign until an alleged murder case against him is completed in a press conference on Monday.

The Bihar chief minister did not respond to the allegations in his comments to reporters hours later, where he spoke at length about the Prime Minister.

He praised the Union government for the surgical strikes  a cross-LoC operation carried out by Indian soldiers against militants in Pakistan  and the November decision to scrap high denomination bank notes. I have full faith in him and hope he will strike at benami properties in a big way, said Kumar.

The Bihar CM denied any national ambition. My role in national politics will be confined to serving one of the bigger states of the country, said Kumar.

He took a dig at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who last week that he had been aware of Kumars plans since four months ago. Good that he has started realising things. But when I met him, he did not give any indications, Kumar said.

In 2013, Nitish Kumar had dramatically severed ties with the BJP when Modi was named as PM candidate. He had at the time cancelled a dinner being planned for BJP leaders and unceremoniously sacked all BJP ministers from his state government.
Nitish Kumars handshake with the BJP has sent shockwaves beyond Bihar. The summersault by the veteran socialist has left the opposition stunned in neighbouring Jharkhand, where Nitish had proposed a grand alliance with former chief minister Babulal Marandis Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) and others against the ruling BJP.

Marandi is stunned, too, one of his aides told HT. They worked closely for a combined front. Things are back to square one.

At an event in Jharkhand to showcase his prohibition policy in May 2016, Nitish had promised to replicate it in the state if Marandi is voted as chief minister in the next election scheduled in December 2019.

The plan was to stitch a grand alliance including Nitish, Marandi, Lalu Prasad and the Congress that could reach out to both tribal and non tribal population of the state.

The plan is now in jeopardy with Nitish returning to the NDA, and most likely to contest the next election in alliance with the BJP.

Both Marandi and Nitish enjoyed a clean image and the former chief minister was looking forward to the alliance.

An alliance with Lalu alone is not worth it, a JVM functionary said.

The Congress too is undecided about an alliance and its newly appointed in-charge for Jharkhand, RPN Singh, has announced that the party will strengthen its organisation in each of the 81 assembly seats.

Although the Congress is not ruling out an alliance, it is keeping its options open to chose between Marandi and JMM of Shibu Soren, the tallest tribal leader from the state.

BJP leaders in Delhi have ruled out any immediate merger talks with Marandi, but have kept doors open for him.

We always wanted him to return, a BJP general secretary said. He was approached in 2009 and again in 2014. It is a call that he has to take.

Marandi had declined BJPs offer in the past as his former party did not accept some of the condition he had set. Although there was no dispute over his projection as the chief ministerial face, Marandi wanted total control over the party the decision making role. The BJP was averse to it. The BJP and the JVM have fought a turf war for a decade now and conceding too much to Marandi would have resulted into another round of infighting in the BJP.

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Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar said on Monday he had no option but to walk out of the Grand Alliance as continuing in it would have meant compromising with corruption.

There were corruption charges and cases were filed by the CBI (against Lalu Prasad and family). I had only told them to come out with proper answers. Instead they made fun of me saying whether I was a CBI official or the police, he told a press conference.

Kumar said he had never sought a clarification but wanted them (Lalu Prasad and family) to answer the queries raised regarding corruption.

Laluji did not give any clarification on corruption charges. How could I remain silent as I talked about zero tolerance on corruption? Now I have a feeling that they did not have a proper answer, he said.

When asked when Narendra Modi should retain power at the Centre in 2019, he said: Nobody has the capacity to compete with Modiji.

Noting that the RJD had made objectionable statements against Modi, he said, I had tolerated every criticism for the sake of the mahagatbandhan. But none from the JD(U) had said anything against RJDs supreme leader.

On secularism, Kumar said that he did not need any certificate from anybody on the issue.

What does secularism mean? Does secularism mean making property worth thousands of crores? he asked.

On the issue of vice-presidential election, Kumar said that the JD(U) will support the candidature of Gopal Krishna Gandhi.

We have already given our word to him.
Opposition Congress on Monday forced a brief adjournment of proceedings in the Rajya Sabha, alleging the Gujarat police abducted and threatened its MLAs in the state in order to influence their votes in the upcoming elections to the Upper House. (HIGHLIGHTS)

Congress members marched to the Well of the House, raising anti-government slogans, which were matched by counter-sloganeering by the Bharatiya Janata Party benches. Amid the pandemonium, deputy chairman PJ Kurien adjourned the proceedings for 10 minutes during the Zero Hour soon after it met in the morning.

Raising the issue, Congress Madhusudhan Mistry alleged his partys legislators were being kidnapped and offered a bribe of Rs 10-15 crore in order to influence their vote in the August 8 elections to send three members from the BJP-ruled western state to the Rajya Sabha.

The BJP has fielded three members, including party president Amit Shah, Union minister Smriti Irani and a rebel Congress MLA Balwantsinh Rajput for the election. Ahmed Patel, Congress president Sonia Gandhis political adviser, is seeking a re-election for the fifth time from the state.

The saffron party has rejected the Congress charge and countered tongue and cheek whether the rival lawmakers were purchasable.

Rajya Sabha deputy chairman Kurien said he was not allowing Mistrys notice under rule 267 seeking setting aside of the business to take up the issue as the same matter was raised on Friday as well.

Minister of state for parliamentary affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi charged the Congress with kidnapping its own MLAs and lodging them in a holiday resort in Karnataka at a time when the people of Gujarat were facing miseries after flash floods.

You should be ashamed, he said, daring the Congress party to debate the matter in the House.

As slogan-shouting Congress members entered the Well, some BJP members moved into the aisles and raised counter slogans. Kurien said he was forced to adjourn the proceedings on Friday as well after members from both the sides came into the Well.

He said he has heard Naqvi say the government was ready for a discussion. If you want discussion, give separate notice. We will consider it, he said.

Congress members were unmoved but that did not prevent Kurien from calling members to raise their Zero Hour mentions. If you have something against the government, why do you obstruct other members, Kurien said adding that Zero Hour was members business and their rights are being obstructed.

By slogan shouting, you will achieve nothing, he added.

In the melee, AIADMKs AK Selvaraj raised the issue of hydrocarbon exploration in Tamil Nadu and asked the government to cease all such activities as it would impact ground water table and crops.

His colleague S Muthukaruppan sought the governments intervention for the release of 75 Tamil fishermen and their fishing boats from Sri Lankan captivity.

But Congress members remained unrelenting and continued to raise slogans, forcing Kurien to adjourn the proceedings for 10 minutes.

In the Lok Sabha, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge raised the issue, saying: The Congress MLAs are being put under pressure.

Congress chief whip Jyotiraditya Scindia too alleged that each of the Congress MLAs in Gujarat was offered Rs 15 crore in return for supporting the BJP.

Both Kharge and Scindia wanted a discussion on the issue in the House.

However, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan rejected the demand, saying it was a subject relating to a state and cannot be discussed in the House.

The Congress flew most of its Gujarat MLAs to Karnataka, which it rules, after six of its 57 lawmakers in the Gujarat assembly resigned on Friday and Saturday. The defectors are believed to be close to former chief minister Shankersinh Vaghela, who quit the Congress on June 21, his 77th birthday, alleging some party leaders were conspiring against him.

The defections reduced the partys strength in the assembly to 51, but Patel still has the numbers to sail through.

Patel will need the votes of 45 lawmakers. The party hopes two Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) lawmakers will vote for him. Besides, rebel BJP lawmaker Nalin Kotadiya could switch sides.

Congress strategists fear more desertions, considering that 11 party MLAs allegedly cross-voted for the BJP-led NDA candidate, Ram Nath Kovind, in the July 17 presidential election.

But with each resignation, the number of required votes for Patel will go down too.
More than 100 military veterans have in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned targeting of Muslims and Dalits by self-appointed protectors of Hinduism, saying Indias strength is its diversity, media reports said on Monday.

The letter also expressed concern over alleged climate of fear and suppression of dissent, as it backed the Not In My Name campaign that saw people across the country holding protest demonstrations against mob violence and cow vigilantism.

We can no longer look away. We would be doing a disservice to our country if we do not stand up and speak for the liberal and secular values that our Constitution espouses. Our diversity is our greatest strength, The Telegraph quoted the letter as saying. The letter has also been sent to state chief ministers.

The letter signed by retired army, naval and air force officers said prevalent atmosphere was against everything that the armed forces and the Constitution stood for, a report in NDTV said.

We are witness to unprecedented attacks on society at large by the relentless vigilantism of self-appointed protectors of Hinduism. We condemn the targeting of Muslims and Dalits, the letter said.

The armed forces stood for unity in diversity and differences in religion, language, caste or culture had never come in the way of servicemen performing their duty, the veteran said.

India has recently seen a rise in violence in the name of cow, held sacred by many Hindus. Several states have enacted laws and prescribed stringent punishment for smuggling and slaughtering of the animal, which is banned in most parts of the country. Muslims and Dalits have been the worst hit by cow vigilantism, which has also been condemned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is working on making one of the seven accused, who were arrested on charges of getting Pakistani funding to fuel violence in the Valley, an approver in the case.

We are working in this direction on one of the accused. The accused who turns approver will be given pardon by the court if his confession is found honest and truthful. An approver will give us a firm legal footing in the case, corroborate witness statements and technical evidence to prove our case, said a senior NIA official on the condition of anonymity.

The agency further tightened screws on Hurriyat Conference hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani by asking his son Nayeem to join investigation in the case on Monday in Delhi. It is the second time that Nayeem has been issued formal summons to join the probe.

The NIA on Sunday also conducted searches at the premises of a close Geelani aide Devender Singh Behal in Jammu.

Behal is considered a close confidant of Geelani. It is suspected that he used to act as a personal courier for Geelani. He has visited the Pakistani high commission many times, said an NIA official on the condition of anonymity.

In a formal statement, NIA Inspector General Alok Mittal said Behals JKSPF is a constituent of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) faction led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani and he is a member of the legal cell of the Hurriyat.

He is a close associate of a top Hurriyat leader and regularly attends funerals of militants. The NIA is investigating his role as a courier as he is suspected to be involved in routing funds to the separatist leaders from Pakistan-based handlers, Mittal added.

During the searches, the NIA team recovered four mobile phones, a tablet, other electronic devices, incriminating documents, financial papers and some other articles.

Behal was questioned by NIA sleuths at the time of searches and was then allowed to go. But he will be formally summoned to join the probe soon, said sources.

The NIA is also gearing up to file the first chargesheet in the case within the next month.

Sources said the agencys probe against the first seven arrested accused is almost complete. A chargesheet early in the case will ensure no arrested accused gets bail easily from the court.

The NIA is probing charges that Hurriyat leaders get funding from terror outfits in Pakistan to fuel violence in the Valley that includes acts of burning of schools and paying money to stone pelters.

(with inputs from HTC, Jammu)

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The Pakistani army on Sunday night violated ceasefire by resorting to firing on Indian posts along the Line of Control in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Pakistani Army violated ceasefire by using light weapons and MMGs (medium machine guns) along the LoC in the Baba Khori belt of Naushera sector of Rajouri district at 2230 hours tonight, deputy commissioner Rajouri Shahid Iqban Choudhary said.

There have been 23 incidents of ceasefire violation, one BAT attack and two infiltration bids by Pakistan in June, in which 4 people, including 3 jawans, were killed and 12 injured.

On Saturday evening, Indian and Pakistan armies traded heavy fire on the LoC in Poonch district after Pakistan violated bilateral ceasefire.

In July, 11 people, including 9 soldiers, were killed and 18 injured in ceasefire violation by the Pakistani army along the LoC in J&K.
Charges and counter charges flew in the Lok Sabha on Monday over the issue of lynchings, with the Opposition parties targeting the Modi government and the ruling side asserting that it was the responsibility of the state governments to deal with such crimes.

During the discussion, Congress MP Mallikarjun Kharge criticised the Prime Minister for not talking about the issue enough and listed the various incidents of lynchings across the country.

BJPs Hukmdev Narayan Yadav defended the governments response and, referring to political killings in Kerala, questioned why only certain incidents were considered lynchings.

In the Rajya Sabha, after initial uproar over the alleged kidnapping of MLAs by police in Gujarat, the house adjourned briefly before resuming Question Hour.

Congress Madhusudhan Mistry alleged that his party MLAs were being kidnapped and offered Rs 10-15 crore with a view to influence their vote in the August 8 elections to send three members from the state to the Rajya Sabha.

Here are the highlights:

6:30 pm: Lok Sabha adjourned for the day.

6:29 pm: The more you are raising the issue, the veil of the opposition is getting unveiled. The more you try to defame us, the more the Opposition gets defames: Kiren Rijiju

6:23 pm: Mother Teresa was not allowed to enter Arunachal Pradesh during Congress rule. If there has been one instance of persecution of Christians in Arunachal Pradesh after our rule, Ill resign: Kiren Rijiju

6:13 pm: Mob lynching is the worst form of crime, it should be condemned universally. Why do you raise selective issue. Previously it was intolerance, then award-wapsi, freedom of expression: Rijiju.

6:08 pm: Do you want the PM should break the federal structure and take over state machinery: Rijiju during lynching debate.

6:04 pm: There is a trend in the country, the highest number of atrocities in India have taken place against scheduled castes: Rijiju.

5:55 pm: Uproar in Lok Sabha during Kiren Rijijus statement.

5:50 pm: Kiren Rijiju says issued advisory to every state that strong action should be taken against incident of mob lynching.

5:45 pm: Asaduddin Owaisi says the instances of mob lynching will continue as this government promotes religion as an ideology.

Is cow protection an essential part of Hinduism? asks Owaisi.

Stop the shadow army. Our battle is against Hindutva and not Hinduism: Owaisi

5:32 pm: When we should be discussion about digital India, it is sad irony that we are discussing about mob lynching: Indian Union Muslim League MP PK Kunhalikutty

We are discussing a fundamental principle of secularism that we should uphold, it is sad, says Kunhalikutty.

5:20 pm: There seems to be a different between the words and action of Prime Minister: Mohammad Asrarul Haque

Modi govt doesnt only seem listen but also helpless. People who have skull cap and beard, women in burkha are today scared to step outside in public, he says.

5:18 pm: RJD MP Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav say, The person who doesnt differentiate between human and animal, there is a devil inside him.

5:08 pm: BJP MP Prahlad Joshi talks about attack on BJP MPs in West Bengal. Evokes sharp reaction from opposition members for not mentioning death of other people.

4:39 pm: Maharashtra MP Supriya Sule says we should send a message as a uniform Parliament that we condemn lynching.

Yoga Day message should be about ahimsa and not just about surya namaskar, she says.

The person who killed Junaid is out on bail. We should make regulation that someone who has killed someone shouldnt be out on bail, says the NCP lawmaker.

4:29 pm: Mohammad Salim of CPI-M says the gathering of mob has a historical, political, psychological aspect. There is a long history and it is not a spur of the moment occurrence.

4:17 pm: TDP MP from Guntur, Jayadev Galla, says mob violence, shows of strength in numbers, majority rule mentality and doesnt have place in a peaceful society.

He says cow violence has reached an alarming proportion.... And it cant be isolated into BJP or non-BJP states.

4:12 pm: Arvind Ganpat Sawant, MP from Mumbai-South speaks on lynching. If there is hate, some say they are going perpetrate double the amount of hate, he says.

3: 55 pm: Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav says, Exploitation of and atrocities against women is high. It should end in the family first. Then it will stop in your locality, village and cities.

3:45 pm: BJP MP Hukumdev Narayan Yadav claims majority of Muslims in India are descendants of Hindus, PTI reports.

3:35 pm: BJDs Tathagata Satpathy says, The gau rakshaks dont know that more than half the cows in India are Jersey cows. Not their mother. They should recognise their mother.Its sad if we cant recognise our own mother.

Satpathy wonders why nobody is bothered about indigenous breeds of cows.

3:18 pm: AIADMKs Dr K Gopal calls the situation of rising violence against minorities is worrisome. He names lynching incidents and says that the issue of beef is polarising.

3:15pm: Kharge responds to Paswans comments there was no josh in his speech. If you had an operation, you wouldnt even be able to get up, Kharge says.

3:10 pm: Paswan targets CPI and asks why the killing of 6 people during its rule was not called a riot.

Paswan says the House needs to pass a resolution to condemn incidents of lynchings. Whenever something like this takes place, all chief ministers must ensure perpetrator is arrested and investigation begins within 24 hours.

3:05 pm: PM Modi has never mentioned Babri Masjid or Ayodhya or Article 370. He only speaks of development, says Paswan.

3:00 pm: Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan says, The Prime Minister has condemned these incidents twice. Do you want him to send in the army when such incidents happen?

2:55 pm: Quiet resumes as Roy speaks again. He says he has a few suggestions. In the IPC and the CrPC, lynching not defined. We need a new and exclusive law on protecting against lynching, Roy says.

2:54 pm: Uproar as MPs yell at each other across the aisle.

2:53 pm: BJPs SS Ahluwalia lashes out, Strike this from the record. This is unfair. He must also bring the source of his information here and validate. Only then should he be allowed to talk further.

2:50 pm: Roy compares the killing of Muslims to the targeted killing of African-Americans by Ku Klux Klan in the US. In 23 attacks, the attackers were from Bajrang Dal and Hindu groups, he says.

Roy says, Yeh sab bandar hai! (These groups are the BJPs monkeys.)

Uproar as MPs call the comment unparliamentary.

2:45 pm: Kiren Rijiju interrupts Roy, asking him on what basis he was making these claims.

2:37 pm: TMCs Saugata Roy speaks and clarifies he does not want to talk about general mob violence but bovine-related mob violence.

Between 2010 anmd 2017, 63 people were killed in cow-related incidents of mob violence, Roy says.

I dont want to bring Hindu-Muslim into this but 97% of these killings took place after Narendra Modi came to power. 86% were Muslims. I want to ask members of the ruling party, you say you want Congress-mukt Bharat. Do you want Muslim-mukt Bharat?

Roy says 52% of the killings took place in BJP ruled states.

2:30 pm: Yadav cites Ram Mohair Lohaias example, saying he was a socialist who didnt believe in Gods but knew prevalence of Hindu culture and traditions, and respected it.

2:26 pm: Yadav says, The ancestors of the Muslims were Hindus. Therefore the gods, the culture and traditions are also theirs. They must think about this.

2:20 pm: Debate resumes in Lok Sabha. Yadav continues his speech.

2:15pm: Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawarchand Gehlot begins the debate. Congress BK Hariprasad says Opposition is not happy with the way government pushes Bills in the Parliament.

2:00 pm: Rajya Sabha takes up Constitution (123rd) Amendment Bill, 2017 and National Commission for Backward Classes (Repeal) Bill, 2017.

1:15 pm: Lok Sabha adjourned till 2:15 pm for lunch. Yadav to speak for five more minutes after that.

1:14 pm: Yadav says, Muslims must learn to live with Hindus respecting their culture and traditions.

1:12 pm: Why is it wrong to say Vande Mataram these days? Is this not mob lynching? Yadav asks.

1:10 pm: In the Lok Sabha, Yadav attacks the Congress saying,You have done dharmik atyachar, samajik atyachar, mansik atyachar, arthik atyachar and ruined the country.

1:05 pm: In Rajya Sabha, Question Hour concludes. House adjourned till 2 pm for lunch.

1:03 pm: Yadav says, The Junaid incident was a fight over a train seat. Why are you linking it with religion? What about the killings in Kerala? Are we not human? Are they not lynchings because they are not Muslims?

1:00 pm: Yadav asks, Is the mob lynching of DSP Ayub Pandith in J&K not an incident worth mentioning?

12:57 pm: Yadav says, The PM himself has condemned the mob incidents repeatedly. Its upto states to follow law. Centre cant send paramilitary forces there on its own.

12:55 pm: BJPs Hukmdev Narayan Yadav says government has been addressing the issue and taking action. He asks why the Opposition is questioning the governments intention.

12:50 pm: Kharge concludes with,

Duniya mein sab ka yahi hai kehna, Shanti aur chain se zinda rehna...

Let us be Hindustan and not Lynchistan.

Two hours were alloted for the discussion. Kharge spoke for over 35 minutes.

12:47 pm: This government is imposing itself on what a person can eat and who one can love, says Kharge.

12: 45 pm: Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar interrupts Kharge for mentioning a former Presidents name citing rule 352.

Kumar says, Kharge must validate all the documents he is reading from. Every state government has taken action against each of these incidents. He is misleading the House.

12: 36 pm: BJP benches raise a ruckus. Speaker warns Kharge about duration of his speech.

12:34 pm: Kharge quotes a BJP leader as saying that there was no regret over the death of Pehlu Khan because he was a cow smuggler.

12:32 pm: BJP members protests reported facts being read out by Kharge.

12:30 pm: In the Lok Sabha discussion, Kharge says, The Prime Minister has not spoken about the killings on his Mann Ki Baat programme.

12:28 pm: Meanwhile, first two questions in the Rajya Sabha are about MNREGA.

12:26 pm: Kharge mentions incidents in Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. He says he is only listing them.

12:24 pm: Nishikant Dubey of BJP says, The cases of violence Mr.Kharge is mentioning are already in the courts, so why is he saying all this? He cannot speak about these cases.

12:22 pm: The Lok Sabha has begun a short-duration discussion on lynchings and mob violence.

Mallikarjun Kharge of Congress says, Theres a feeling of threat in many states, especially because of fringe groups. Incidents of lynching and mob violence are not under control. Taking matters into ones hands and exercising violence or killing another is unacceptable.

The government is indirectly encouraging groups like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal and gau bhakts, Kharge says.

12:12 pm: Lok Sabha postpones Zero Hour to end of the day.

12:07 pm: Question hour ends in Lok Sabha. Speaker dismisses all adjournment notices.

Arun Jaitley introduced all the Bills listed today.

12:02 pm: Chair praises MPs for not exceeding time alloted to them and allowing him to wrap up all notices to end Zero Hour on time.

12:00 pm: Issues raised in the Upper House include changes in NET, impact of demonetisation, transaction on BHIM app and privatisation of Railways.

11:45 pm: Rajya Sabha returns from adjournment. Zero Hours resumes.

11:30 pm: MPs protest in the well in Rajya Sabha. Congress creates ruckus over alleged kidnapping of MLAs by police in Gujarat. House adjourned for 10 minutes.

11:20 am: Zero Hour in Rajya Sabha. Congress Madhusudan Mistry raises issue of Gujarat MLAs resignations.

11:05 am: Question hour in Lok Sabha.

10:40 am:

Bills to be introduced in Lok Sabha today

The Central Goods and Services Tax (Extension to Jammu and Kashmir) Bill, 2017

The Integrated Goods and Services Tax (Extension to Jammu and Kashmir) Bill, 2017

The Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Amendment Bill 2017

Bills for consideration and passing today:

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Amendment) Bill, 2017

The Banking Reguation (Amendment) Bill, 2017

The Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy Bill, 2017

Bills for consideration and passing in Rajya Sabha today

The Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill, 2017

The National Commission for Backward Classes (Repeal) Bill, 2017

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Bill,2017
WASHINGTON  Do you have a problem  trouble at work, relationship stress, or just some really hard math homework  that you cant resolve on your own? You should turn to the man who is fixing problems for more than 300 million Americans.

You should ask Jared Kushner.

President Trump does it. When he needed somebody to negotiate peace in the Middle East, he asked Kushner. When he needed somebody to be his point man with China and with Mexico, he asked Kushner. When he needed somebody to solve the opioid epidemic, reform veterans care, overhaul the criminal justice system and reinvent the entire federal government, Trump again turned to Kushner. Even when he just needed somebody to strap a flak jacket over his navy blazer and fly off to Baghdad, Kushner was the one he asked.

The presidents 36-year-old son-in-law has done all this and more, even while keeping up with a demanding family life since the election: a beach trip to Hawaii, a ski trip to Aspen, another ski trip to British Columbia. Clearly he has time to help you, too. Kid has a fever? Rattle in the transmission? Weeds in the lawn? Ring around the collar? Ask JK.

But what happens when Jared Kushner has a problem? What happens if  and Im speaking strictly hypothetically here  Kushner were to neglect to mention in his security-clearance forms that he had had more than 100 meetings with foreigners, including some Russians? Sure, you can ask him. But he wont have a good answer.

The seen-but-not-heard Kushner met with the Senate Intelligence Committee on Monday (at a session closed to the public, naturally). He explained his repeated lapses  he had to amend one disclosure form three times  by saying, essentially, that he was new to politics and so terribly busy that he couldnt keep up with everything. And he used the hoariest excuse of all: He blamed his assistant.

My experience was in business, not politics, he said in a written statement, and described himself as overwhelmed. I must have received thousands of calls, letters and emails from people looking to talk or meet on a variety of issues and topics, including hundreds from outside the United States, he wrote, and I could not be responsive to everyone. He explained that he just didnt know he was sitting down with people promising dirt on Hillary Clinton from the Russian government because it was typical for me to receive 200 or more emails a day during the campaign. I did not have the time to read every one.

Kushner explained how a full accounting of his foreign contacts fell through the cracks amid the scramble of finalizing the unwinding of my involvement from my company, moving my family to Washington, completing the paper work to divest assets and resign from my outside positions and complete my security and financial disclosure forms. A miscommunication led his assistant to file his form prematurely.

Thats the trouble with Kushners defense in the Russia imbroglio. Hes essentially arguing that he isnt corrupt  hes just in over his head. He didnt really know what he was doing, and he was too busy. Coming from the man charged with handling everything from Middle East peace to opioids, this isnt reassuring.

This inexperience defense is consistent with Kushners filing Friday showing that he had previously neglected to disclose more than 70 assets, as required, including an art collection (with wife Ivanka Trump) worth as much as $25 million. The Middle East peace negotiator also did not disclose that he held Israeli government bonds.

Yet Kushners father-in-law entrusted him with what is arguably the most difficult portfolio ever to be assigned to a White House aide. His previous experience: running his family real estate business, which he took over in 2005 when his father was convicted of tax evasion. The next year, Kushner bought a $1.8 billion Manhattan building, near the top of the real estate cycle, and his family has been trying to find investors to keep the project afloat.

So now Kushner is defending himself by playing the ingenue: All of these were tasks that I had never performed on a campaign previously, and I could not even remember the name of the Russian ambassador. Kushner, arguing that he didnt seek to create a back channel with Russia, explained that he merely asked the Russian ambassador if he had an existing communications channel at his embassy we could use.

The defense leaves one big question unanswered: Why is a man of such inexperience in charge of so much?

Dont ask.
PATNA

The Patna high court on Monday dismissed petitions challenging the validity of new Nitish Kumar government in Bihar, dealing a blow to the RJD that was hoping for legal relief after being dumped by the Janata Dal (United).

There was no need for the court to intervene after the government had proved its majority on the floor of the house, a division bench of chief justice Rajendra Menon and justice Anil Kumar Upadhyay said.

RJD MLAs Saroj Yadav and Chandan Kumar and a former village head, Deo Narayan, had filed two separate public interest litigations, saying the governor should have first invited the RJD, which was the largest party in the assembly with 80 MLAs, to form the government.

The new government was unconstitutional, they said. The petitioners also said the mandate in the 2015 Bihar assembly polls was given to the Grand Alliance of the JD(U), RJD and Congress against the BJP and it was to rule for five years.

The petitions were filed on July 27, a day after Kumar walked out of the ruling coalition to join hands with the BJP, reviving his partys ties with the National Democratic Alliance.

The court had on July 28 listed the petitions for hearing on Monday.

The 66-year-old Kumar sailed through the trust vote the same day, getting the support of 131 members in the 243-strong assembly.

Terming the petitions frivolous, advocate general Lalit Kishore said a floor test had been conducted and the government had proved its majority.

While staking claim to the government, Kumar had submitted a list of 131 MLAs who were supporting him. The RJD had not given any such list to the governor, the states top legal officer said.

=============================================

BLURB

There was no need for the court to intervene after the government had proved its majority on the floor of the house, a division bench of chief justice Rajendra Menon and justice Anil Kumar Upadhyay said
Stones were on Monday thrown at the district committee office of the CPI-Ms trade union wing CITU while a petrol bomb was hurled at the RSS district office in fresh incidents of violence in Kottayam.

The BJP district unit alleged that CPI(M) workers hurled a petrol bomb at the RSS district office, causing extensive damage to the building situated at Thirunakkara in the town.

They slammed the police for not taking steps to provide adequate security cover for RSS-BJP offices in the town.

Window panes of the CITU office were damaged in the attack believed to be carried out by a gang of five men who reached there on three motorcycles at 2.30am, police said. They hurled stones at the office, police said.

Condemning the incident, the CPI(M) Kottayam district secretary VN Vasavan alleged that BJP-RSS activists were behind the attack.

He alleged that BJP-RSS workers destroyed publicity boards and hoardings of CPI(M) and its allied organisations during their dawn-to-dusk hartal in the town on Sunday.

Eight RSS-BJP workers have been taken into custody in this connection, police said.

The BJP had called for a dawn-to-dusk state-wide hartal on Sunday to protest the killing of RSS worker Rajesh near Thiruvanathapuram on Saturday.

Kottayam district police chief N Ramachandran visited the offices targeted by the miscreants.

Adequate police security has been provided to offices of CPI(M), CITU, RSS and the BJP following the incident, police said.

The state had been witnessing a series of violent incidents allegedly involving BJP-RSS and CPI-M workers with the state capital Thiruvanathapuram rocked by incidents of attacks on houses of rival partymen in the past few days.
Police protection was given to all the Congress legislators in Gujarat on Monday following Election Commissions order on a party complaint that the ruling BJP was trying to bribe and coerce its MLAs to defect ahead of the Rajya Sabha election in the state.

The security cover was given to nine of the 51 Congress MLAs who stayed back in Gujarat as well as the 42 that the party took to Bengaluru on Friday to shield them from the alleged poaching attempts.

The 42 MLAs are staying at a sprawling resort outside the Karnataka capital since six lawmakers of the party resigned in the run-up to the August 8 election in which Ahmed Patel, political secretary to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, is contesting.

Congress spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil said in Bengaluru on Sunday that the legislators staying in Bengaluru are willing to return home if chief minister Vijay Rupani promises their safety.

Two MLAs in Valsad district are being provided police protection as per the ECs instruction, said a top police officer. Two armed constables were deployed for round-the-clock security.

Lawmakers Ishwar Patel and Jitu Chaudhary could not go to Bengaluru for personal reasons.

Security cover was also given to six alleged rebel Congress MLAs, who chose not to join their colleagues in Bengaluru.

Raghvji Patel, known to be close to former chief minister Shankersinh Vaghela, said: I received a call from home that two policemen have arrived, though I havent asked for any security cover.

He said he will resign from the Congress soon.

The BJP has fielded three candidates  party chief Amit Shah, Union minister Smriti Irani and Congress turncoat Balwantsinh Rajput.

The defectors are believed to be loyal to Vaghela, who quit the Congress on July 21, alleging that some party leaders were conspiring against him. Vaghela was with the BJP before he broke ranks in 1996 and formed his own party, which later merged with the Congress.

Sources said chief secretary JN Singh is likely to submit by Monday night an inquiry report on the alleged horse-trading that the Election Commission had sought.

Trouble began for the Congress after the political heavyweight resigned. A spate of resignations followed last Friday and Saturday and three of the six defectors joined the BJP.

The Congress alleged that its lawmakers have been threatened and offered money to defect. The BJP denied the charges and criticised the Congress legislators for leaving the state when it was reeling under floods.

Chief minister Rupani is camping in flood-affected districts of northern Gujarat since Sunday. The BJPs Rajya Sabha poll candidates, Irani and Rajput, visited flood-hit people in Banaskantha, one of the worst-affected districts.

Congresss Ahmed Patel was in Banaskantha on Sunday.

The defections reduced the partys strength in the assembly to 51, but Patel could still sail through as he needs the votes of 45 lawmakers. The party hopes two Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) lawmakers will vote for him. Besides, rebel BJP lawmaker Nalin Kotadiya could switch sides.

Vaghela too visited the area on Saturday and criticised the six Congress MLAs from northern Gujarat for ditching the people at their hour of need.

Congress supporters protested against the turncoats outside the BJP office in Ahmedabad on Monday.

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Opposition Congress said in Rajya Sabha on Monday that its MP Raj Babbar was allegedly injured in police action against villagers protesting demolition of their houses in the Ambedkar Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh.

Raising the issue through a notice under rule 267 that seeks setting aside of the business to take up discussion on the issue, Pramod Tiwari (Cong) said force was used against the villagers protesting against demolition.

Raj Babbar, he said, was injured and is unable to attend the proceedings in Parliament.

Deputy chairman PJ Kurien said if the member has a complaint, he can raise it and give a privilege notice.

Tiwari was joined by other Congress members in raising the issue of the safety and security of Babbar, who is sitting on dharna at the protest site.

Kurien asked them if the lawmaker was being prevented from attending Parliament. When they replied in negative, he said the notice is not admitted.

Finance minister and Leader of the House Arun Jaitley said Babbar cannot be present at both the places - the dharna site and Parliament at the same time and he has to decide where he wants to be.

Kurien said if Babbar is sitting on a dharna, it is for the state government to deal with it.

Sharad Yadav (JD-U) raised the issue of employees of Jabalpur ordnance factory being on protest against the closure of certain units there.

He said there were 41 ordnance factories in the country, manufacturing some 600 items for defence.

The government should take note of the protests against the closure of the vehicle manufacturing factory, he said.

Kurien however disallowed the notice.
Union minister and BJP leader Jual Oram on Sunday said he is ready to resign if allegations of discrepancies in his poll expenses affidavit, levelled by the ruling BJD in Odisha, are found true.

The charges levelled by the BJD are false and politically motivated. There is no mismatch in my poll expense figures. I am prepared to face any probe. If the allegations are found true, I will step down as a minister, he said.

Oram accused the BJD of trying to mislead people after discrepancies were found in their own poll expenditure statements.

The Union tribal affairs minister said chief minister Naveen Patnaik should resign first on moral grounds as preliminary inquiry showed mismatch in his affidavit for the 2014 state Assembly polls.

Orams comments came a day after the BJD demanded his resignation accusing him of submitting false affidavit on poll expenditure before the Election Commission.

The MP from Sundergarh constituency has already denied the charge put up by BJD MPs Pinaki Mishra and PK Deb at a press meet on Saturday.

The allegation against the Union minister comes at a time when the BJP is demanding Patnaiks resignation, charging him of discrepancies in his election expenditure.

The allegation against me is false, fabricated and politically motivated. I challenge them (BJD) to take the matter to the court, Oram said.

The BJD has also said it will move the EC and court seeking action against Oram.

The BJDs attack on Oram came after the BJP sought Odisha governor SC Jamirs intervention into alleged misuse of official machinery by the Odisha government to defend the poll expenditure case against the chief minister, who is also the BJD president.

BJP candidate from Hinjili, Devadanda Mahapatra, who was defeated by Patnaik, has moved the Orissa High Court alleging that there were discrepancies in Patnaiks election expenditure document submitted to the EC.

The high court is scheduled to hear the case on Monday.

Stepping up attack on the chief minister, BJP Odisha unit vice president Sameer Mohanty accused the BJD of denigrating the constitutional mechanism in a desperate bid to save Naveen Patnaik and his image.
In the wake of recurring political clashes in Kerala, the ruling CPI(M) and RSS-BJP on Monday decided to hold more bilateral talks to explore ways to contain violence. An all-party meet will be convened on August 6 and three other regional meets will be called in Kannur, Kottayam and Thiruvananthapuram.

The spiralling cycle of violence had resulted in the killing of an RSS leader in the state capital on Sunday and worried Governor Justice P Sathasivam had summoned chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the state police chief expressing concern over deteriorating law and order situation. Union home minister Rajnath Singh had also called the CM expressing anguish over violence. The state had observed a shutdown on Sunday to protest the murder.

What happened in last two-three days are really unfortunate. Police will be given a free hand to investigate these incidents, the CM said, adding cadres of both will be reined in by their respective parties. CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan and RSS leader Goplankutty Master also attended the meet.

We have sought two things  freedom to propagate our political ideology and effective policing. Our workers often fall prey to CPI(M) cadres and police. The CM has assured us both, said the BJP president after the meet. Opposition Congress has observed a prayer day on Monday calling upon both to shun violence. Both will have to rein in their marauding cadres to ensure peace in the state, said opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala.

Newsmen who assembled to cover the meet were shocked when the CM suddenly turned his ire on them. Get out, who invited you here, he shouted at newsmen. Later, his office explained that he only asked newsmen to leave the venue before the meeting started.

In last one week, a number of houses and party offices belonging to both parties were attacked in the state capital. BJP state office and house of the CPI(M) state secretarys also came under attack.

E Rajesh, an RSS leader, was hacked to death by an alleged group of CPI(M) workers triggering fresh round of violence in many parts of the state.
Senior Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav on Monday said he didnt agree with the decision in Bihar, calling it unfortunate in his first comments on his party walking out of the ruling grand alliance and going back to the BJP.

Talking to mediapersons in Delhi, Yadav said the mandate was not for the JD (U) to join hands with the BJP.

I dont agree with the decision in Bihar. It is unfortunate, Yadav told reporters outside Parliament.

The mandate of the people (2015 Bihar assembly polls) was not for this, the Rajya Sabha member said.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had on July 26 resigned his position, ending his partys two-year tie-up with the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress. Kumar, who is also the JD (U) president, returned as the chief minister in less than 18 hours with the backing of the BJP with which he had broken ties in 2013.

Kumar walked out of the ruling coalition citing corruption charges against his deputy Tejashwi Yadav, who is the son of and RJD chief Lalu Prasad.

While some senior JD (U) leaders have publically spoke against Kumars move, Yadav had not said anything until Monday.

The RJD and the Congress have accused Kumar of being an opportunist and joining hands with communal and fascist forces he had promised to take on.

Reports have said Kumar and finance minister Arun Jaitley spoke to Yadav and tried to mollify him.

Prasad said on Saturday he had spoken to Yadav and invited him to lead the fight against the BJP and Kumar.

Kumars decision to end the so-called grand alliance not only altered dramatically the political scenario in Indias third most populous state but also dealt a blow to the opposition parties looking to replicate the Bihar model to take on the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
The spate of floods in Assam, West Bengal, Gujarat among other parts of the country this monsoon season is part of a global phenomenon that shows a marked increase in frequency and extent of natural disasters in the last six decades or so, data has revealed.

EM-DAT (The International Disaster database) has found that the number of disasters in India went up from three in the decade of 1900-1909, to as many as 186 a century later. And this decade, in the last seven years (2010-16), India has already seen 107 disasters.

Globally, disasters rose from 59 in the first decade of the last century to 4,479 in this century.

Farmers in particular have become more vulnerable than ever due to climate change and the ensuing spurt in disasters, experts say. On Sunday, in his Mann Ki Baat radio address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi acknowledged as much. Climate change, altered weather cycles, and transformations in the environment, are also having a big negative impact, Modi said, before he went on to elaborate on flood relief efforts.

Life goes completely topsy-turvy as a result of floods. Crops, livestock, infrastructure, roads, electricity, communication links  everything gets affected. In particular, our farmer brethren have to bear a lot of losses because of the damage to their crops and fields, Modi said in his address.

EM-DAT estimates show that India has suffered losses amounting to $6.3 billion dollars in the 293 natural disasters that have occurred between the years 2000 and 2016, while over a billion people have been affected.

The spurt began in the 1950s, coinciding with the decades that show a sharp increase in population in the country. From 1900 to 1949, the number of disasters in India increased from three in the first decade (1900-1909) to nine in 1940-49. Census figures show that Indias population rose from 238 million in 1901 to 361.1 million in 1951. But thereafter the population grew from 439.3 million in 1961 to 1.2 billion in 2011.

Experts say increase in demographic pressure and human activity haves a direct impact on climate change. On the other hand, the resultant changes will impact humans severely.

The negative impact of climate change on agriculture is well established. The Indian farmer is more vulnerable because climate change impacts disproportionately. The poor are hit harder, said Vijeta Rattani of the Centre for Science and Environment .

The World Bank said in a report last year that by 2050, India will need to import twice the amount of food grain it does now, due to climate change.

The UN body Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that of the total damage caused due to such extremities, the damage to agriculture in developing countries is 22%.

Though separate numbers are not available for India, experts expect this to be much higher because of the number of households involved in agriculture -- about 47% of the population.

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Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Monday filed a fresh application in the Delhi high court seeking within 45 days a copy of the charge sheet to be filed by the city police in connection with the death of Congress MP Shashi Tharoors wife Sunanada Pushkar.

The BJP leader moved the fresh plea in his pending petition seeking a court-monitored CBI-led special investigation (SIT) probe into Pushkars death.

Earlier, a bench of justices G S Sistani and Chander Shekhar, during the hearing of Tharoors stepson Shiv Menons plea for his impleadment in the BJP leaders petition, had expressed concern over failure of the police to file a charge sheet in the case even after three-and-a-half years.

The court had asked Delhi Police to make its stand clear by August 1.

Pushkar was found dead under mysterious circumstances in a suite of a five-star hotel in south Delhi on the night of January 17, 2014.
Days after a mob set the Kotkhai police station on fire following the custodial death of Nepalese national, Suraj, the team investigating the incident has reportedly found that arms, seized contraband and wireless sets from the police station are missing. Suraj was an accused in the Kotkhai rape and murder case.

Surajs death in police custody on July 19 had triggered protests in the region and a mob torched the said police station along with several vehicles.

Suraj died despite the fact that nearly 50 cops were deputed to guard the police station. Besides them, 26 others cops, including officers, were inside the police station when he died. Police had claimed that he died following a scuffle with another accused. The regular staff at the police station was summoned to police lines soon after his death and the officers were immediately transferred.

The probe in Surajs custodial death was transferred to the crime investigation department (CID) after the cops stationed in the police station came under scanner for the role in his death.

Earlier, two SP rank officers from Shimla had visited Kotkhai to assess the damage caused to the police station and started investigation. Cases of rioting and damage to public property have been registered against unknown persons. The Kotkhai police station falls under the responsibility of Shimla superintendent of police.

The CID team is in Kotkhai and has reportedly found that the fire arms that were present in the Kotkhai police station are missing. The ammunition, seized contraband and important materials related to other cases are missing. The police station also had stocks of liquor that were seized during different raids, a police officer said on condition of anonymity.

The CID has also asked the district police to provide a list of items that were in the police station before it was attacked by the mob. Initial investigations reveal that the fire damaged the rooms on the ground floor and that other rooms were ransacked by the protestors.

During the attack, the mob had also burnt the record rooms containing profiles and case details of those involved in various crimes. Apart from this, the wireless sets and computers were also damaged.

The police have not recovered any burnt weapons inside the police station so far. Their disappearance needs to be investigated, the official said.

When contacted by Hindustan Times, Shimla superintendent of police Soumya Sambasivam, declined to comment on the issue.

I cannot say anything at present. The matter is being investigated, she said, adding that the Kotkhai police station is now being run from Gumma.

Sources said the preliminary investigation has also found that a majority of records in the police station were been destroyed in the attack.

It is learnt that the investigating team is also scanning videos that were shared on social media to identify those who vandalised the police station.

Meanwhile, director general of police Somesh Goyal said, The probe into the torching of Kotkhai police station will be completed soon.

The role of the fire department has also come under scanner as questions are being raised why fire tenders were not pressed into service when they reached Kotkhai police station after the attack.

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If a picture is worth a thousand words, this one tells much more than that.

A photograph of a group of primary school students studying in a toilet instead of a classroom in Neemuch district belies the tall claims of the Madhya Pradesh government about its efforts to improve education in the state.

The students are being forced to study in a disused toilet because there is no school building. The primary school run by a single teacher is not situated in a remote area but at Mokhampura village which is only 35 km away from the Neemuch district headquarters.

Shockingly, the local MLA is not even aware that such a school exists in his constituency, though the officials of the state education department acknowledge the appalling situation. The school was set up in 2012. For a year, the school had functioned out of a rented room. Now, thats not available.

A photograph of the school which has 34 children clearly shows that the room in which they are studying is a toilet that was built by the government. If thats not bad enough, a few goats are sometimes tied in the toilet  perhaps to prevent them from getting wet in the rain.

School teacher Kailash Chandra says that he has been forced to take classes in the toilet because there is no school building. When the weather is fine in summer and winter, the classes are held under a tree, but now the earth is wet so I cannot hold the classes under a tree and am forced to use the toilet, he told HT.

Kailash Chandra said that it is not as if the higher-ups have not been informed. I have informed them of the condition a number of times over the years, but no one is paying any attention, he said.

But Manasa BJP MLA Kailash Chawla simply refused to acknowledge that there was any school in his constituency where children were studying in a toilet.

However, the district education office K C Sharma said that he had written to the state education department about the situation and had sent proposal for construction of a school building.
The World Bank has assured its continued neutrality and impartiality in helping India and Pakistan find an amicable way forward during talks over issues related to two of Indias hydroelectricity projects under Indus Waters Treaty.

Welcoming the participation of India and Pakistan in the talks to be held here tomorrow, World Banks Vice President for South Asia region Annette Dixon said, We are pleased both parties have confirmed their participation in the meeting hosted by the World Bank in Washington, DC.

The World Bank welcomes the spirit of goodwill and cooperation, Dixon said in a letter to the Indian Ambassador to the US, Navtej Sarna.

In the letter dated July 25, the World Bank assured the Indian envoy its continued neutrality and impartiality in helping the parties to find and amicable way forward.

We hope that all parties will come to the table prepared to find a way forward that safeguards the Treaty, it said.

Union Water Resources Secretary Amarjit Singh will lead the Indian delegation during the talks. The Indian team will comprise officials from ministries of external affairs and water resources.

The two countries last held talks over the two projects in March this year during the meeting of Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) in Pakistan.

Pakistan had approached the World Bank last year, raising concerns over the designs of the two hydroelectricity projects located in Jammu and Kashmir.

It demanded that the World Bank, which is the mediator between the two countries under the 57-year-old water distribution pact, set up a court of arbitration to look into its concerns.

On the other hand, India asked for appointments of a neutral expert to look into the issues, contending the concerns Pakistan raised were technical ones.

Following this, the international lender had in November 2016 initiated two simultaneous processes - for appointing neutral expert and establishment of court of arbitration - to look into technical differences between the two countries in connection with the project.

The simultaneous processes, however, were halted after India objected to it.

After that, representatives of the World Bank held talks with India and Pakistan to find a way out separately.
Philanthropists, officials and employees in Ajmer have donated Rs 12.48 lakh for an education departments scheme aimed at raising funds for development work in schools.

The scheme  Chief Minister Vidyadaan Kosh  will be launched by Vasundhara Raje on August 5.

The move is planned to ensure effective social contribution. Even our culture supports the thought that the education system should not be government-oriented only, and should ensure involvement of society, said state education minister Vasudev Devnani.

Even to meet small necessities of schools, society should be involved. For this, we have launched Akshay Petika (box for donations), which will be placed outside rooms of school principals; here anyone can contribute.

School development and management committees will collect the donated amount that will be used for development.

Under Chief Minister Vidyadaan Kosh, anyone can contribute for school development through district collectors or Gyan Kosh portal, to be launched soon.

Even NRIs can contribute under foreign regulation act; we have given them options -- they can propose their own projects, get work done through an agency or can deposit in Kosh, Devnani said.

In Ajmer, Rs 12.48 lakh was collected in three days; the amount included Rs 33,000 contributed by the minister and Rs 11,000 by collector Gaurav Goyal.

A donation box put up at a government school in Dholpur received Rs 41,000 this month.

A official said, The idea of setting up such boxes came from government schools in Dholpur. The first such box was installed in May this year with the aim to crowd-source funds for development of government schools.

Funds will be collected for Vidyadaan Kosh in other districts. Industrialists and philanthropists can also adopt schools, officials said.

The department has started working on giving income tax relaxation for the money donated for schools.
Shrikrishna Lodha (50) spent Rs 20,000 to build a single-room tin-roof house in the Kota open-air prison camp three years ago. He became eligible for shift to the camp from Kota Central Jail after he completed one-third of his sentence for a murder in 2014.

When he moved to the wall-less prison, he shared a house with another convict; after he began going out to earn, he collected money from pulling a cycle rickshaw to build his own house.

Similarly, Latoor Lal (55), serving life imprisonment since 2007, built a house in the open camp with Rs 25,000 in 2015. He will walk out of the jail in 2022  and until then this cottage in the camp is his house.

Open-air jail camps are a novel step to ensure prisoners social readjustment. Convicts, who have served one-third of their sentence including remission and shown good conduct, are eligible for shift to these camps under provisions of the Rajasthan Prisoners Open Air Camp Rules, 1972.

Rajasthan has 29 such camps, where convicts live with their families and are allowed to go out during the day to pursue jobs. The prisoners have to attend a roll call in the morning and evening.

Director-general of prisons Ajit Singh said convicts in central and district jails were shifted to open camps to make them learn self-dependence by lawful means of livelihood and social interaction.

In 2014, the state prisons department allowed convicts in open-air camps to construct cottages for them on their own expenses to make up for lack of government cottages. In 2015, the Rajasthan high court stopped this practice because it was creating a class divide among the prisoners, said Singh.

Houses constructed by jail inmates at the open jail in Kota. (AH Zaidi/HT Photo)

People who had money built better houses than others who could only afford for shanties. Some others, who didnt have money even for that, shared houses with more than one prisoner.

Between 2014 and until the HC order in 2015, many cottages had been built in camps across Rajasthan.

There were 15 cottages in the Kota camp when it was set up in 2005. Between 2014 and 2015, 45 new cottages came up, said Prithvi Singh Hada, who is in charge of the Kota camp.

Convicts who were shifted to open camps after 2015 moved into cottages vacated by the prisoners released. Prakash Kumar (38) is one such beneficiary. After he was shifted to the camp in 2016, he moved into a cottage constructed by another prisoner who shifted to a better house on the campus.

Of the 45 prisoners who built the cottages, 23 have been released. The remaining 22 will also complete their sentences soon. But, Hada said, 10-15 prisoners are shifted to open-air camps every year, so most cottages remain occupied.

For some prisoners, it meant wasteful expenditure because the houses they built were not theirs forever but for some, it was a facility worth spending for. Farzana Ahmad (33) thinks Rs 8,000 they spent on the shanty was nothing for the joy of living with her husband, Arif alias Sonu, in jail.

Most of the houses are 10-foot-by-10-foot with a ceiling of 9 feet.
People of a village in Rajasthans Hanumangarh district have settled their water and land disputes through mediation, instead of going to courts.

On July 19, Hanumangarh sub-divisional officer Surendra Rajpurohit declared Araiyawali as the first litigation-free village in north Rajasthan. The village has set an example for people of other villages by settling disputes through mediation in a peaceful atmosphere, he said.

The Community Mediation Centre, set up in the village by Jodhpur-based NGO Libra India six months ago, played a key role in settling the disputes. The states water resources minister inaugurated the centre at Araiyawali village on January 15 this year, said Sanjeet Purohit, managing trustee of Libra India.

Villagers had disputes over distribution of canal water. The mediation centre came to know that they were linked to land disputes. Therefore, it was decided that the centre will also strive to settle revenue- and land-related disputes to maintain harmony in the village, said Purohit.

Villagers identified 13 people who were willing to solve their disputes amicably. The revenue lok adalat, organised at the village centre on April 15, identified 42 cases that could be resolved through community mediation.

The sub-divisional officer appointed mediators and they were given training and facilitation; the disputes were resolved through mediation.

At the beginning, we thought that the solution to disputes was challenging, but slowly mutual understanding developed and with collective cooperation, we were able to make our village litigation-free, said Ramkumar Godara, a mediator.

Libra India representative Akshay Singh said, There is no provision in the Rajasthan Farmers Participation in Management of Irrigation System Act-2000 for settling pre-litigation disputes. In such a situation, mediation will prove to be the right path.
A 19-year-old woman was attacked with acid in front of the residence of superintendent of police in Uttar Pradeshs Deoria on Monday morning, police said, indicating the easy availability of corrosive liquid in the state despite a 2013 Supreme Court ban on its open sale.

Police said the woman, a native of Amaon village in Deoria district, was attacked by three men on a motorcycle on Monday morning as she got down from an autorickshaw near the Bhatwalia crossing. She chased her attackers but collapsed due to pain.

Policemen stationed at the SPs house took the woman to a hospital.

Deoria SP Rajeev Malhotra said three men  identified as Ashok Mishra, Brijesh Mishra, and Kuber Mishra  have been arrested, adding that the woman, who is training to be a beautician, sustained burns on her back.

The attackers were the relatives of the girl and one of them was possibly her uncle. A land dispute between the girls family and the accused led to the attack, Malhotra, who visited the woman in the hospital and inquired about her treatment, added.

The woman said she was harassed in the past and complained to the police but no action was taken against the accused.

In June this year, two schoolgirls were attacked with acid in Deoria.

According to the Acid Survivors Foundation of India, about 250 acid attacks were reported in 2015, but experts say many more go unreported as victims fear the perpetrators will seek revenge. It added there were 61 reported acid attacks in the northern state alone in the same year, the highest number of any region in the country.

Government data, however, put the number of such cases across the country at 222 and in Uttar Pradesh at 55 in the same year.

The BJP stormed to power in Uttar Pradesh earlier this year, riding on a promise of ensuring womens safety in the state which has one of the highest rates of crime against women in India.

In 2013, the top court pulled up the Centre and the state government over rising incidents of acid attack and ruled that rehabilitation and treatment of the victims were the responsibility of the state government.

Acid attack was made a separate category of crime amid growing incidents of revenge on women who spurn sexual advances or reject marriage proposals.
Motherhood comes with a mixed bag of emotions, right from the feeling of excitement to the fear of doing the right thing. Since your baby is completely dependent on you, it becomes more difficult and pressurising on the part of the mother to fulfill all the needs of the baby. Feeding a baby is one of the most important tasks that needs the most attention.

According to WHO, the nutrition during the first years of life are crucial for the life-long health of the baby. Thats why doctors recommend the policy of breastfeeding for the initial six months. However, due to many physiological and external factors like inverted/ sore nipples, severe backache due to repetitive feeding, low milk production or shying about nursing in public, the new mothers may not be able to feed the child properly.

Considering the importance of breastfeeding, the booming mother and baby care industry in India has a lot to offer for the lactating mothers to make this process easier and comfortable.

1) Silicone Nipple shields: An effective solution for lactating mothers who have issues like flat or inverted nipples, the shield is an ultra-thin device that is placed over the nipples to make the process of breastfeeding easier. It also helps premature babies who cannot be fed easily. These nipple shields are easy to use and serve their purpose effectively.

Breast pumps help to extract the mothers milk which is then fed to the baby. (Shutterstock )

2) Breast Pumps: These breast pumps help to extract the mothers milk which is then fed to the baby through the sipper. However, it is important to maintain hygiene during the process. Wash your hands before extracting the milk. Also, make sure that the breast pumps are thoroughly cleaned and sterilised every time you use them.

3) Nursing Bra: Gone are the times when women do not have any option but to change every time they feed their baby. The nursing bras support the growing breasts at the time of pregnancy and lactation. The common features include wide straps, extra soft lining, no underwire and some extra hooks.

Baby wipes that are alcohol/bleach-free are a great ay to maintain hygiene around the baby. (HT file photo )

4) Wipes: Right from cleaning the breast pumps to wiping the baby, these wipes are a great way to maintain hygiene. The market is full of bleach/alcohol-free wipes that are skin-friendly.

5) Nursing Covers: Available in cotton fabric with a broad neckline, the nursing wrap allows the mother to have a direct eye contact with the baby while he is being fed. The nursing covers allow ventilation and are easy to clean, maintain and store.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for more.
The Bombay high court on Monday refused to impose restrictions on the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) from taking coercive action against erring builders on a petition complaining that the authority was not properly constituted.

Senior advocate Virendra Tulzapurkar, who represented the petitioner, Mudassar Builders and Developers, submitted that the constitution of the authority in Maharashtra itself was illegal because it had not been made by the legislature but by an administrative order. He submitted that the constitution of the RERA was also contrary to settled law laid down by the Apex Court in as much as it is an adjudicatory authority, but does not include any judicial member.

The senior advocate took serious objection to the appointment of the RERA chairman and sought an interim order restraining the authority not to take coercive steps on the ground that the authority had the drastic powers of passing ex-parte orders against developers on the basis of a complaint filed by any person.

The division bench of justice Anoop Mohta and justice Anuja Prabhudessai, however, felt the plea was premature and based on a hypothetical situation.

The bench also directed the central government to file an affidavit in reply to the petition as also other petitions filed by DB Realty and Neelkamal Realtors challenging provisions of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 making the enactment applicable to on-going projects.

Senior advocate Aspi Chinoy, who represented the developers, submitted that the offending provisions seek to rewrite almost concluded contracts, as in the case where the projects are almost complete, say up to 95%, the developer will not be able to comply with other provisions of the enactment. He said it will be highly unjust to saddle such a developer with consequential criminal liability.

Additional solicitor general Anil Singh, on the other hand, submitted that the central government was planning to move the Apex Court seeking transfer of all the petitions filed before different high courts challenging provisions of the 2016 Act to the Supreme Court. On his request, the bench adjourned further hearing on the petitions by three weeks.

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On Saturday, Parsi-Zoroastrians announced the second phase of the Jiyo Parsi scheme to stop the steep decline in their numbers.

Indias Parsis have been facing a relentless demographic decline. In the decade till 2011, when the last national census was held, their numbers fell from 69,601 to 57,264 . Their numbers have been falling every decade since 1941, when it had reached a peak of more than 1,00,000. Between 1971 and 1981 it fell by 20%, the sharpest decline till the latest decennial count.

A study by demographer Ava Khullar listed several reasons, including low fertility, or the number of children born to every woman, migration, a large number of Parsis who remain unmarried, late marriages, and exclusion of kids born to women married to non-Parsis for the decline. Even in 1971, birth rate among Parsis was 10.6 per 1,000 compared to 41.2 for the general Indian population.

There is no estimate for the current birth rate among Parsis, but the fertility rate is estimated to be less than one. (fertility rate is the average number of children that would be born per woman). This means that an average Parsi woman gives birth to less than one child. Indias fertility rate is now around 2.3, according to demographers from the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai. A fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman is required if population has to remain stable.

Jiyo Parsi, which is funded by the government and supported by UNESCOs PARZOR (Parsi-Zoroastrian) Foundation, Bombay Parsi Punchayet, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, aims to stop or at least slowdown this decline. Apart from providing medical services to infertile couples, the scheme runs a slick campaign to encourage more young people to marry and have more kids. On Saturday, the programmes coordinators announced that they have facilitated 104 births in the first three years of the scheme, invigorating their declining numbers. The Jiyo Parsi team is confident that they will be able to stabilise their population, if not the decline, in the next 10 years.

Community groups are sceptical whether the scheme will revive their numbers so quickly, but they agree it is making a difference. There wont be a jump in population. It will take time  we dont know, said Anahita Desai of World Alliance of Parsi and Irani Zarthosthis. But we are grateful to the government for funding the programme. It has recognised our uniqueness.

Despite the celebration at Jiyo Parsi, deaths in the community still outnumber births by manyfold. Parsiana, a magazine published from Mumbai, documents births and deaths from across the world. Parsiana compiles the statistics from reports sent by community groups from across the world. For June, the magazine counted five births and 44 deaths in Mumbai, where majority of Indias Parsis live.

When statistics from the 2011 census were published last year, Dr Shernaz Cama, a member of the Jiyo Parsi team, said, We knew this was coming, which is why we started the UNESCO PARZOR (Parsi-Zoroastrian)programme in 1999 and pushed for intervention..Now it is even more critical that every single baby should be counted.

Community organisations said the scheme may not drastically change things, but could help in the long run. I think it [Jiyo Parsi] is a wonderful project, because for the first time the government is doing the opposite of what it has advocated  population control for the country, said Desai.

The next phase of the project will try to send the message to the young that while their career is important, commitment to their job should not stop them from building a family.

As far as the projects effectiveness is concerned they are trying to change the mindset: they are telling people to get married early, have children. The campaigns are humorous and effective, said Desai. The numbers  a thousand babies- may not be much, but as far as advocacy is concerned it is making a difference. The advocacy tries to look at the issue; it is effective. For instance, couple who have one child will think of having a second one.

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Protesting against the forcible acquisition of farm land for the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), farm activists plan to go on an indefinite fast from August 1 in Raigad district under the banner of Corridor Virodhi Shetkari Sangharsh Samiti and Jagatikaran Virodhi Kruti Samiti.

The group represents 78 villages, which were originally part of the project. Following protests in 2013, the project was scaled down to one-third its size.

In the first phase of the project, only 10 villages are involved with the land spread over 3,100 hectares. Activists claimed despite scaling down the project, the 78 villages were not denotified, raising questions over the intent of the government.

The farmers have alleged the Maharashtra government has acquired around 1,000 hectares in Roha and Mangaon tehsils of Raigad and is looking to forcibly acquire the rest.

DMIC officials maintain they are not planning forcible acquisition of land and a majority of the land for the phase one of the project has been acquired through negotiations.

Ulka Mahajan, a member of the committee, said, We demand the state government form a committee to look into our concerns.

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The death of a 14-year-old boy who allegedly committed suicide by jumping off the fifth floor of his residence at Andheri (East) on Saturday has sparked the fear that the Blue Whale challenge could have made its way to India through social media. While builders in the city are rushing to get ongoing projects registered with the deadline under the Maharashtra Real Estate (Regulatory and Development) Act (RERA), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) will soon appeal in the high court against the bail to Amir Gazdar, a close confidante of televangelist Zakir Naik. Special ramps will be constructed at the Raj Bhavan, the office and residence of Maharashtras governor, to make the 47-acre Malabar Hill property disabled-friendly. Also, sewage flowing in from the Kanjurmarg dumping ground in Mumbai is killing fish species in the Thane creek, fishermen from the region have told the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

Here are todays top five picks:

1. Mumbai Blue Whale suicide: Conduct psychological autopsy to check if boy took challenge, say doctors

Has the controversial Blue Whale Challenge reached India? The death of a 14-year-old boy who allegedly committed suicide by jumping off the fifth floor of his residence at Andheri (East) on Saturday has sparked the fear that the dangerous self-harm challenge could have made its way through social media.

2. Realty bites: Builders rush to register ongoing projects under new act in Maharashtra

Builders in the city are rushing to get ongoing projects registered with the deadline under the Maharashtra Real Estate (Regulatory and Development) Act (RERA) ending today. While a total of 6,534 projects have been registered so far, around 1,000 came under RERA on Sunday. These projects coming under the purview of the housing regulator is good news for homebuyers who have invested in under-construction projects, as they will now be protected against fraud and manipulation by builders.

3. ED to move high court against Zakir Naik aide Amir Gazdars bail

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) will soon appeal in the high court against the bail to Amir Gazdar, a close confidante of televangelist Zakir Naik. The special PMLA court had granted bail to Gazdar in July. Gazdar was arrested by the ED on February 16 in connection with a money-laundering case registered against Naik.

4. Maharashtra governor announces ramps to make Raj Bhavan disabled-friendly

Special ramps will be constructed at the Raj Bhavan, the office and residence of Maharashtras governor, to make the 47-acre Malabar Hill property disabled-friendly. Governer Ch Vidyasagar Rao on Saturday announced that his office has been directed to make the arrangements.

5. Waste from Mumbai dumpyard killing fish in Thane creek, fishermen complain to civic body

Sewage flowing in from the Kanjurmarg dumping ground in Mumbai is killing fish species in the Thane creek, fishermen from the region have told the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). In a complaint to the solid waste management (SWM) department of the BMC, which manages the dumping ground, the Shree Ekvira Aai Pratishthan (SEAP), an umbrella body of fishermen, has said that fish catch has dropped by as much as 90% in the past few years.
A forty-one year old man from Panvel, who was travelling on the central railway line, was saved in the nick of time after he was rushed to a clinic at Kurla station that charges Re 1 as consultation fees.

At 9:30pm on July 29, Sameer Mukri, a labourer, experienced severe chest pain, sweating and uneasiness, when three passengers rushed him to the clinic.

Doctors at the hospital performed an emergency electrocardiography- a test that records the electrical activity of the heart over a period of time- which confirmed that Mukri had a heart attack.

Mukri was given blood thinners like aspirin to manage his condition and rushed to Sir JJ hospital, Byculla for further treatment, said Dr Rahul Ghule, who attended Mukri.

Read: How a Mumbai woman delivered a child at Ghatkopar railway station for 1

A a delay of fifteen more minutes could have led to more complications. In all emergency cases, if patients dont receive urgent medical help, it could cost them their life. These clinics thus prove to be really important at our crowded railway stations,  Dr Ghule said.

The first Re1 clinic was opened on May 10 at Ghakopar station. The clinics also offer consultation for diabetes, skin problems and eye related problems. Pathology facilities are also available at costs 14% cheaper compared to other labs in the city.

At present, there are seven such clinics at Dadar, Kurla, Ghatkopar, Mulund, Thane, Vashi and Wadala station.

These clinics are enabled to provide all kinds of emergency services. We get about two to three emergency cases a day. Most of these cases are of railway accidents, said Dr Ghule.

He added that his company, which runs these clinics, plans to expand these services to more stations in the coming months.

Read: 1 clinics at 5 Mumbai metro stations from August 15
The state government has appointed an officer facing inquiry for allegedly submitting fake caste certificate as the interim commissioner of the Labour Welfare Board. Satish Dabhade has also been accused of swindling funds meant for workers welfare and providing employment to tribal youth by taking bribes from them.

Terming Dabhade incompetent to hold the post, employees of the welfare board wrote to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and labour minister Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar and sought his immediate removal. Dabhade was appointed to the post despite adverse noting by the department secretary.

Days before his appointment, even the Bombay high court had dismissed his petition challenging his demotion to the post of a worker welfare office. Dabhade was demoted after it came to the fore that his caste certificate was bogus. The labour department sought opinion of the law and judiciary department before appointing Dabhade, as the matter was subjudice back then.

However, through a special note in January 2017, labour minister Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar ordered the appointment using his special powers as chairperson of the welfare board.

As per documents accessed by HT, Dabhade had allegedly submitted a bogus caste certificate which was turned invalid by the government in 2004. After the report, he was demoted to the post of deputy welfare commissioner to worker welfare officer in 2011. Dabhade also faces allegations of financial irregularities against him.

Dabhade, however, said that he was promoted as an employee from the caste under Sepcial Backward Class (SBC), which has 2% reservation.

It is true that my caste certificate had turned invalid and I was demoted in 2011. My petition against the action is pending in the Bombay high court and I have been given interim relief. Even after the Supreme Courts recent decision about the caste certificate, my promotion is safeguarded as I had validated my reservation based on the caste. My promotion as interim commissioner is based on my seniority and is as per legal provisions.The employee, who had complained against me, is herself facing a graft charge, Dabhade said.

But the labour department in its November 2016 report stated that Dabhades seniority based on the SBC certificate was to be finalised by the government. A letter by Maharashtra Labour Welfare Board on April 4, 2012, to the labour minister mentions that three departmental inquiries were pending against Dabhade.

Commenting on the issue Nilangekar said, The law and judiciary department has not given a clear view to appoint Dabhade on the post, the appointment is conditional and interim as well. As and when the appointment is challenged or any adverse order is given by the court, he will be asked to step down. It is true that he does not have the seniority in the rank of assistant welfare commissioners, but even the senior officers are facing an inquiry or two. We had to choose an officer with comparatively cleaner record.

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Six days after residents of the Siddhi Sai housing society lost their homes to the building collapse in Ghatkopar, they are still homeless. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had on Thursday promised them temporary accommodation within two days, but the survivors are yet to hear from the authorities.

While the state is dragging its feet over rehabilitation of Ghatkopar residents, it rushed to ensure all legislators get alternate accommodation after a partial ceiling collapse in a room in Manora, legislators hostel in Nariman Point on Monday. The state legislature is looking to rent out a building in Colaba for two years to accommodate the 158 legislators by releasing advertisements to be published in newspapers the same day.

Binita Ramchandani, whose mother suffered injuries in the incident, said the family is staying with her aunt in Vashi. Ramchandani and her father have been visiting the collapse site every day. We are just running from pillar to post. We have no clothes, no home and all are valuable are lost. On Sunday, too, we had several meetings, but we are yet to hear from the authorities.

Binita had been posting videos on Facebook, asking for support from fellow Mumbaiites.

Birendra Singh, who had a flat on the first floor of the building, is living with his in-laws in Bhandup. We are yet to hear anything from authorities. We were assured permanent homes but we are yet to hear even about temporary accommodation, Singh said. Singh, his wife Vandana and two children were saved as they were out at the time of the incident.

Prime minister Narendra Modi also tweeted on Monday assuring an assistance of Rs2 lakh to the deceaseds kin and Rs50,000 to those who sustained injuries.

BJP MLA from Ghatkopar, Ram Kadam, said the process of getting a PAP (project-affected-persons) site from the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) to provide temporary accommodation is currently on. I am going to get an update today. In the meeting with the chief minister, it was promised that they will be provided accommodation as soon as possible.

Siddhi Sai housing society, a four-storey building in Ghatkopar, collapsed on July 25, after the pillars of the structure were allegedly tampered with on the ground floor, where a nursing home was being renovated. Seventeen people died and more than nine families were rendered homeless.

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In an effort to reduce traffic snarls outside Lilavati Hospital, one of the busiest junctions in Bandra (West), the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) plans to build another road connecting Bandra to the Bandra-Worli sea link.

H/West ward officials said that they proposed a two-way ramp extension from KC Road to the sea link via Hotel Rangsharda in January.

They said the project, which will cost around Rs4 crore, will pave way for the third alternative road to Bandra and towards Andheri.

A civic official said the new road will be around 300 metres long.

The plans for the project were submitted recently. It will soon be approved. The new ramp will reduce congestion on KC Road, he said.

There are two ways to enter and exit Bandra  through S V Road via Jama Masjid and through KC Road in front of Lilavati Hospital. Commuters will get a third option to enter Bandra, avoiding the traffic congestion during peak hours.

After the construction of the sea link, Bandra residents had protested the increasing traffic on the narrow lanes.

The residents had demanded that the traffic from the sea link should pass through the Arunkumar Vaidya Road and join KC Road.

Vidyadhar Date, a resident of Bandra (West), said, The traffic signal outside the hospital is not functioning. The new ramp may decrease the traffic but the BMC should give more facilities to pedestrians, especially in front of hospitals and schools.

Bandra architect Nitin Killawala said, Adding new roads does not necessarily reduce traffic snarls. The new road too will get congested later.

Read: Versova-Bandra sea link gets Maharashtra government nod

Mumbai commute to get faster: Work on citys second sea link will start by November
Families of several patients who required blood transfusions have alleged that private and trust-run hospitals bullied them into replacing blood that was used for surgeries of their relatives.

Arvind Bedekar, 35, a Nerul-resident, frantically started calling his friends on July 23, after an Andheri-based trust-run hospital asked him to arrange for six blood donors just ten days before his daughters heart surgery, which was due on November 22.

It took him all of five days to find donors that matched his daughters blood group  AB positive. The hospital staff said they would not accept blood from any other blood banks. They insisted that I look for donors, bring them to the hospital for the donation, said Bedekar.

They even said I could arrange for donations after my daughters surgery but it was quite clear that arranging the blood was my responsibility and not theirs, he added.

The National Blood Policy clearly states that the responsibility of arranging blood is of the blood bank, and not the patients family, and that replacement donation should be phased out.

However, acknowledging the rampant practice of replacement blood donation in Maharashtra, the State Blood Transfusion Council (SBTC) issued a circular on July 11, directing blood banks in the city to phase out replacement donations within three months.

However, activists who have been rooting for a systematic mechanism of blood donation fear that the practice will not be phased out completely if SBTC does not monitor the hospitals after the stipulated deadline.

Vinay Shetty, founder of Think Foundation, said, Three months is too short a period for all hospitals that indulge in blood replacement. These blood banks will need to take assistance from the SBTC to organise blood donation camps to ensure that the blood banks are stocked up, so that they dont rely on blood donation arranged by patients relatives, said Shetty.

Shetty added that he gets several calls from panic stricken relatives in a day, who out of the fear that the hospital wont commence the surgery till the blood isnt replaced, ask for blood donors.

There are some hospitals which didnt discharge the patient just because his family members werent able to replace the blood in their blood bank, Shetty added.

A state official from the SBTC told HT that the governments 104 blood on call emergency service which delivers blood to patients from state-run blood banks, is snubbed by most private hospitals. We know that private hospitals even discourage their patients families from using this service by saying that they will not accept blood from any other blood bank, said the official. They just want donors to physically go to the hospital and donate blood, he said.
A minister of the Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP government has been accused of rape. Senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar demanded a probe into the allegations made by a woman from Sangli district against the minister, who is not from BJP, but from one of the partys smaller allies.

In the state assembly, Pawar claimed he had a CD to prove the allegations. The Opposition staged a walkout from the lower house, even after Speaker Haribhau Bagade ordered a probe into the allegations.

Meanwhile, Fadnavis clarified that the victim withdrew her complaint the very next day saying it was filed owing to a misunderstanding. In her video statement before the police, she said the complaint filed a day before was out of misunderstanding. She had a dispute with a person named Prashant Jadhav and was under the impression that the minister was helping Jadhav against her. After realising that it was not so, she withdrew the complaint and has now nothing against the minister, Fadnavis said.

Hours after CMs clarification, a video clip surfaced on social media showing a woman alleging harassment by the minister.

In the unverified video, a woman with her face half covered says, I have been harassed and was forced to withdraw the complaint. Whatever I gave in writing was due to tremendous pressure. I would have been murdered if I had not withdrawn the complaint. She further claimed of getting threats.

However, there is no clarity on when the video was shot, and if it is the woman Pawar mentioned. Refuting the allegations the accused minister said, She is a journalist and I have met her only at press meets. Probe is going on and I am sure truth will prevail, he said.

Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, leader of opposition in the assembly demanded ministers resignation. Considering the gravity of the case, the minister should resign from his post immediately, Patil told HT.

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Builders in the city are rushing to get ongoing projects registered with the deadline under the Maharashtra Real Estate (Regulatory and Development) Act (RERA) ending today.

The number of new registrations reached 9,145 by Monday evening, the last day for registering the ongoing projects. This is a huge jump from 6,534 projects registered till Sunday evening.

According to Vasant Prabhu, secretary, MahaRERA, this was an encouraging response. We were expecting at least 10,000 registrations and we are close to it, said Prabhu.

More than 2,500 builders registered their project till evening.

The projects coming under the purview of the housing regulator is good news for homebuyers who have invested in under-construction projects, as they will now be protected against fraud and manipulation by builders.

The associations of real estate developers said they were complying with the rules. The Maharashtra Chambers of Housing Industry (MCHI), the apex body of builders, had deputed experts at various places to help builders submit details of their projects online.

Builders are doing their best to submit within the deadline. Various experts are helping them as the disclosures cannot be changed later and details need to be precise, said Manohar Shroff, vice-president, MCHI-CREDAI (Navi Mumbai).

Read: Real estate sector slowdown : New development projects in Mumbai dip by 36 per cent

Builders stand to be penalized if they are unable to register their projects before the deadline. The Maharashtra government, which brought RERA into force on May 1, has refused to extend the deadline.

The RERA was formed to safeguard interests of homebuyers who have been exploited by builders for decades. Under the Act, a builder has to disclose his entire construction plan as well as the time line of when he will give possession of the apartments. There are severe penal clauses in the Act against errant builders and brokers who market the project.

Mayur Shah, president of CREDAI-MCHI, said: This will help to usher in increased transparency in the realty sector and give confidence to consumers.

The details will be displayed online as they will allow buyers to make an informed choice before purchasing the apartment.

Read: New act likely to prolong slowdown in the realty sector

Real estate developers have been unhappy with the RERA, saying it will further delay the process of permissions and affect their business. However, left with no option, more than 6,500 projects have already registered with the RERA.

The real estate sector has been bleeding with a large stock of unsold apartments. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) has approximately 2.61 lakh unsold stock, of which Mumbai has 90,000 houses. Homebuyers are unable to buy owing to exorbitant prices.

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The Opposition slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Maharashtra government for mentioning the names of former Congress Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi in state board history textbooks in reference to the Emergency and Bofors scam, respectively.

Legislators raised uproar in the state legislative council demanding the government delete these references and alleged the state government is trying to drive its political agenda by influencing educational material. Legislative Council chairman Ramraje Nimbalkar had to adjourn the house for 10 minutes for the chaos to die down.

Congress Sanjay Dutt who raised the issue in the upper house said, The defamatory reference to former PM Indira Gandhi while mentioning the Emergency and Rajiv Gandhi about Bofors in the state school boards history and political science textbook for Class 9 should be removed. This is the state governments attempt to drive political influence and will not be tolerated.

Legislators from the Congress as well as the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supported the demand, saying there is little description of all significant achievements of Congress and NCP leaders in the textbooks.

State school education minister Vinod Tawde said the minister does not have any role in it and the textbooks are written by a committee of experts. I dont have the authority to scrap anything from textbooks or make changes. I will convey the sentiments of the house to the committee. There is absolutely no political interference, Tawde said.

The BJP minister said it is unfair to say the government has omitted the description of significant achievements of Congress and NCP leaders. The textbook has references to Indira Gandhis role in privatization of banks, creation of Bangladesh or Rajiv Gandhis approach in the conflict in Sri Lanka and so on, he said.

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Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis announced an inquiry in the alleged irregularity in the slum rehabilitation authority (SRA) project at MP Mills compound in Tardeo. In the project, housing minister Prakash Mehta had allowed transfer of extra building rights, originally granted to slum dwellers, to project affected people (PAPs).

After the opposition cornered the government over the irregularity, which could have allegedly resulted in the windfall of Rs500 crore-Rs800 crore to the builder and demanded Mehtas resignation, Fadnavis ordered an inquiry.

Fadnavis said Mehta did not inform him and sanctioned the changes while wrongly mentioning in the project file that he had kept the CM in the loop. Adding that the minister did this unintentionally and he was announcing the probe to clear the air, Fadnavis said the modalities of the probe and terms of references would be decided by taking opposition leaders and groups leaders into confidence. The note on the file about having informed me was an unintentional mistake by the minister. Though he directed the transfer of the building rights, there was no final decision taken and the builder has not benefitted as has been alleged, said the CM.

The minister had allowed the transfer of building rights to PAPs, despite the housing department secretary saying that the case was not fit for Maharashtra Slum Rehabilitation Acts section 3-K, which allows discretionary powers to the authorities. The secretary had added that the right of such transfer was not with the government but with the SRA.

While speaking in the legislative assembly, Mehta said his note about informing the CM was a result of a misunderstanding. He said he mistook other files discussed with the CM for this particular file. Mehta said,  Use of the 44 sq ft of allowed additional area per flat was under consideration. Not a single inch of additional FSI allowed to the project is in question.

However, Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan and NCP leader Jayant Patil cornered the government saying it was against the much touted doctrine of transparency by the government. A judicial commission should be formed by the government to probe the allegations against the housing minister. Mehta lied about having informed the CM about the allotment of the building rights to the developer. The matter has posed question on the integrity of the housing minister as well as the CM and only a judicial probe could bring truth to the fore, he said.

The MP Mills compound project, which was sanctioned in 1996, saw a residential tower and tenements for 2,334 slum dwellers. However, after the state tweaked its rules and allowed bigger homes of 269 sq ft instead of 225 sq ft in 2009, the builder sought to transfer the rights accrued out of the additional FSI elsewhere. Though the SRA rules do not allow such transfer, the minister moved the file.
My top 12 reasons to visit Turin are listed below, but what are yours? The art, history, architecture, bars, food and aperitivi are most likely on everyones list!

I can give you my top 12 reasons to visit Turin, Italy, but will it entice you to visit? I should also ask (and let me know in the comments below), are you fortunate enough to have been to Turin? What did you think?

This post contains Amazon affiliate links for your convenience, at no additional cost to you.

Updated May 3, 2022: Stanley Tucci visiting Turin on Searching for Italy will surely picque

everyones interest in this royal city!

Two Visits Within Four Months from 6,000 Miles Away

Does that tell you something? Ive already told you about The Turin Epicurean Capital Event and Hotel Genio. However, now I want to give you more details about the city itself. To narrow my list down to twelve items was extremely difficult, even though I was only there for five days and had so much more I wanted to see. I simply didnt have enough time!

UPDATED JULY 2019: I went to Turin again-I brought a friend and now SHES hooked! 

Many of the items on my list are interchangeable. For example, the bars hold so much history and the colonnades are an integral part of the amazing architectural style of the city. Of course, I could add shopping, fashion, restaurants, and the style of this royal city to my top 12 reasons to visit Turin, but where do I stop?

I hope you enjoy my photo gallery and are inspired to add Turin to your travels. What are your top reasons to visit Turin?

Edited August 5, 2017 to add that a reader just informed me that Turin is twinned with GLASGOW! No wonder I fell in love with this city! Thank you to Barbara for letting me know! And the Torino-Piemonte Card is a great choice when visiting Turin!

NB: I put Torino in parentheses to make sure that everyone knows that Turin and Torino are one and the same city. Its like Rome and Roma, only the latter is much easier for a non-Italian to decipher.

My Top 12 Reasons to Visit Turin (Torino), Italy

1. The Architecture, Art & History

To me, the architecture, art and history of this northern Italian city is what is the most striking to a newcomer. I also feel that they are inseparable.

At each turn, there is a visual feast of architectural gems: columns, inlaid marble, incredible details of wrought iron, glass, paintings and more. Styles of the Renaissance, Baroque and Neo Classical periods abound. Its not just the exteriors, but also the interiors of buildings which hold these treasures.

There is no shortage of beauty, whether manmade or natural, in the city of Turin. With the Alps nearby, winter is a fabulous time to visit for skiers and snow bunnies. You may recall, Turin was the site of the 2006 Winter Olympics. (Edited Oct. 2018: on the subject of sports, Cristiano Ronaldo is now playing for Juventus, so if youre a Ronaldo fan, this is an excellent reason to visit Turin!)

Going back much further into history, Turin was the first capital city of Italy and home to the royal House of Savoy. There are so many palaces, or buildings which were originally built as palaces in Turin; for example, the hotel where I stayed, Hotel Genio.

Some palaces are now museums, but they are all simply stunning. Much of Turins architecture is very uniform due to a historical royal order. The Residences of the Royal House of Savoy and neighborhood are protected as a World Heritage Site. The city simply oozes history and culture. Just take a look at the architecture of these buildings.

There is also evidence of Romes influence such as Porta Palazzo. (FYI, we went to a fantastic open air market nearby!)

2. Bicerin

A believe it was only a year or two ago that I spied a photo of a Bicerin coffee on Instagram. I remember making a mental note that I just had to try this beautiful beverage when in Turin. Not only did I try it, but I had my first Bicerin at the original Caffe Al Bicerin which opened in 1763! (Click the link for the recipe!)

My friend, Sanam (My Persian Kitchen) and I were fortunate enough to experience this delicious concoction of espresso, melted chocolate and cream, together. Bicerin are served in many places in Turin, but this is the original location and theres a plaque where a famous count (a leader in the movement to unify Italy) used to sit everyday for his coffee!

3. Mole Antonelliana and The National Cinema Museum

Such a tall building means that going up to the viewpoint in La Mole (la maw-leh) as its called in Turin, is definitely a highlight of a visit to this city.

The location of the viewpoint level, at 85 m or 279, is only about half way up the tower, but the ride in the suspended elevator and the views are both exhilarating!

Sanam and I agreed that the 14 Euros for entry to the National Cinema Museum and for the ride in the elevator and views from the tower was well worth it.

We spent around 20 minutes at the viewing area of La Mole, but over two hours inside the comprehensive museum which made me feel as if I was back in Hollywood! There were so many displays, historical artifacts, old cameras, scripts and memorabilia relating to movie making through the years. It was very interesting and would be a great family outing, too, as there are parts of the museum geared towards children.

4. Aperitivi

The ritual of having aperitivi is so very civilized. I dont want to jump the gun on my reason #5, but this lovely ritual originated in Turin. Before dinner drinks and little bites meant to whet your appetite is what aperitivi are all about.

However, some bars and restaurants offer a more filling, apericena type aperitivo which is more like a buffet of small bites, which, for some, is enough for an entire meal. I dont mind, as I love lots of antipasti, small bites, hors doeuvres, appetizers or whatever youd like to call them!

5. A City of Firsts

The aperitivo, as I mentioned above, came about due to another creation by Antonio Benedetto Carpano who invented modern day Vermouth. In the 1700s, he used white wine added to an infusion of herbs and spices. He really caused a stir, you might say.

Although I dont have a photo because it was simply much too hot for this beverage, a regal license and patent was issued in the 1600s for hot drinking chocolate in Turin. Hot chocolates birthplace is Turin!

Lavazza coffee was also born in Turin! Sanam, my cousin, Denisa, and I had to have a pitstop one morning at the original coffee shop. The coffee was so good, I had a plain coffee over ice and loved it (I dont usually drink coffee unless its sweet and creamy)!

You probably already know that Turin is where Nutella was bornthe worldwide famous chocolate hazelnut spread created by Pietro Ferrero. Although, the Torinese (people from Turin) had been adding hazelnuts to their chocolate to make it go further during times when chocolate was scarce, creating gianduia.

Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (FIAT) was born in Turin.

Cabiria, is the first long running silent film which was shot in Turin.

Tramezzini were invented in Turin (little triangular, crustless sandwiches) at Caffe Mulassano. The photo above of Sanam and I enjoying our aperitivi, was taken there. And yes, we tried a tramezzino which was delicious!

The original ice cream on a stick: Pinguino! Read all about it on my friend Lucias site. Dont go there hungry as the photos of gelato will only make you more hungry.

Turin was Italys first capital city, and EATALY was born here! Bet you didnt know that!

6. The Bars



Oh, the bars of Turin are wonderful! No, not the type of bars that we have in the US and UK, but drop dead gorgeous bars, that look nothing like wed expect. Beautiful bars which are buzzing for breakfast (espresso or cappuccino and a pastry), and dont close until almost midnight. The spaces look like they belong in a palace.

One bar we went into had a massive Murano glass chandelier! It was stunning, but then again, so was the rest of the room! I would venture to visit Turin simply to enjoy the bars, and Im not talking about the alcohol.

When Sanam and I were going to pay when we were at Caffe Mulassano, in the photo below, we started arguing over who was going to pay. The cashier then told us one of us had a choose an even or odd number, but we were confused. She then explained that they have a clock-like contraption on the wall, and whenever there is such a disagreement, she pushes a button to activate the device (sort of like a roulette wheel). If the person who chose the number is correct the other party pays, if not, they pay!

What a fantastic idea, dont you agree? By the way, I chose odd, and it landed on odd, so Sanam paid for me. I owe her an aperitivo here in LA! Maybe we can meet in Torrance!

7. The Arcades, Colonnades & Piazze

There are 18 kilometers of arcades in Turin. I can testify to how much these are appreciated when walking in the blazing sun in record-breaking temps! The beautiful arcades provided much needed shade almost everywhere we went.

Meanwhile, the piazze are more enjoyable in the evenings when its cooler. Events are often held in the piazze, such as bonfires, parades or watching fireworks at La Festa di San Giovanni (The Festival of St. John). Wonderful reasons to visit Turin!

I also loved the way the churches and buildings are lit at night. Central Turin is very walkable, morning, noon or night.

8. The Chocolate

Turin is very famous for its chocolate in regard to its history and its quality. There are so many chocolate shops throughout the city. In fact, since 2011, Turin has hosted a chocolate festival in Piazza San Carlo each November.

I would love to attend that festival! All the chocolate in this city is top quality; the standards are impeccably high. Chocolate is definitely one of my top reasons to visit Turin.

9. The Churches & Cathedrals

The churches and cathedrals in Turin are honestly mind-boggling. Sometimes, there just are no words.

I didnt add the Shroud of Turin to my list, simply because it wont go on display again until 2025. There is a replica to see at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, if you are interested.

10. The Egyptian Museum

Although I wasnt able to go to the Egyptian Museum, I had really wanted to go. My cousin Denisa, Sanam and I had it on our to do list for our last day in Turin, but we simply ran out of time. Outside of Egypt, this museum is the best Egyptian museum in the world. I had really been looking forward to seeing the displays and artifacts, but sadly, we didnt make it.

UPDATED Oct 1, 2017: I returned to Turin with my mother in September and managed to go to the Egyptian Museum. I highly recommend it, but will say that it was the most confusing museum Ive visited in terms of navigating it. Despite this, we thoroughly enjoyed the exhibits and were very impressed with all the artifacts and displays.

11. The Gelati

Im simply not an ice cream girl. At least when Im at home. Something happens when I go to Europe, and especially Italy. Oh dear, I was a bit naughty with gelato on this trip!

We were turned onto a gelateria (which happens to have shops across Italy and Spain) called La Romana and I fell in love! It was so incredibly good, but then there are so many good gelaterias in Turin. Another is Marchetti, just off Via Roma.

12. The Lack of Tourists/Crowds

If you go back through all of the photos you just viewed, I think youll find a surprising theme. Do you see it? Each of the photos are missing throngs of tourists jamming the streets as they do in places like Rome, Florence and Venice.

With the exception of the piazza when we were watching fireworks, youll see that there were no crowds (these photos were taken mid June). This is one of my top reasons to visit Turin again; it was lovely!

I seriously felt as though I was traveling back in time: the way places used to be when I was in my twenties. It just seems that so many popular places are getting so overrun with tourists, that they are being ruined, literally. Think of the woman who destroyed the irreplaceable candelabra in the Pantheon, and the fact that Venice is changing laws to protect its city from the ravages of tourism.

One place where I did spot some tourists was when I was passing Mister Hot-Dog, which is the reason I took the photo. If you are going to get on a plane and spend a substantial amount of money, please eat the food from the place you are visiting is well known for. Hot dogs and nachos are not on Turins list of culinary accomplishments. They also not on my list of reasons to visit Turin.

Visiting Turin with a Guide

If you want an organized tour of Turin, contact Lucia from Turin Epicurean Capital. You can check out her website for more information on Turin, too. She lives there and is a pro!



Booking.com





I hope you enjoyed my top 12 reasons to visit Turin! Now the million dollar question: are you intrigued? Adding Torino to your bucket list? What entices you the most? Let me know in the comment section below!

Want to know which is my favorite travel adapter? After years of fighting with several others, Im over the moon with this inexpensive model! I cant recommend it enough! Charge up to 5 electronics with only one outlet.

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Reasons to visit Turin.
Sewage flowing in from the Kanjurmarg dumping ground in Mumbai is killing fish species in the Thane creek, fishermen from the region have told the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

In a complaint to the solid waste management (SWM) department of the BMC, which manages the dumping ground, the Shree Ekvira Aai Pratishthan (SEAP), an umbrella body of fishermen, has said that fish catch has dropped by as much as 90% in the past few years.

Fishermen have alleged that leachate has been entering the creek from the dumping ground through two drains. Leachate is a liquid produced when water mixes with decomposing garbage. It can contain dissolved toxic substances, which can enter water bodies or percolate underground into water tables.

More than 1,000 fishing families have been deprived from their daily fish catch because of the polluted water, said Nandkumar Pawar, head, SEAP. While Kanjurmarg is the main source of untreated waste, even the Deonar and Kopri dumping grounds are adding to the pollution. We were promised by the state and civic body that there will be scientific solid waste disposal at Kanjurmarg. But, the reality is quite the opposite.

Even as BMC claims there is no outlet from the Kanjurmarg dumping ground, an outfall is seen from the walls of the Kanjurmarg dumping ground releasing sewage, leachate into the Thane creek (HT Photo)

Pawar said hundreds of mangrove trees had died close to the dumping ground, after leachate stagnated at the creek, choking the roots of these trees. He said fish species such as  catfish, tilapia and shrimp  were the only three ones remaining in the area.

The spotted scat fish, barramundi, goldbanded jobfish, all crab species, oysters, clams and many other species have gone missing from the creek. The area is home to 40,000 flamingos and other wetland birds and soon the effect will be seen on them as well, said Pawar. Our community is paying the price for this pollution problem that the civic body has been neglecting.

Environmentalist Stalin D, who visited the site, confirmed that sewage and leachate was being discharged from the dumping ground. There should be an independent enquiry into the operations of the Kanjurmarg dumping ground and the discharge of the untreated sewage entering the creek, between Kanjurmarg and Vikhroli, must be stopped, he said.

Meanwhile, officials from BMCs SWM denied the allegations. There is no outlet to the Thane creek from the Kanjurmarg dumping ground. There is no sewage being discharged either from this landfill and there are bioreactors that treat the waste, said Vijay Balamvar, deputy municipal commissioner, BMCs SWM department.

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Vishal Rana (21) and Hari Om (26), accused in the 2015 lynching of Mohammad Ikhlaq in Bisada for allegedly slaughtering a cow, was granted bail by the Allahabad high court on Monday.

Vishals father Sanjay Rana (47), a local BJP leader, said his son got justice because Uttar Pradesh has a BJP government.

Though government has no say in courts decision, it ensured justice is done, he said, and claimed that in the previous regime, officials were did not ensure fair investigation.

Sanjay also claimed that the whole village, including Muslims, were happy over the bail of my son.

I do not have any grouse against my Muslim brothers. I am annoyed over Ikhlaqs family, who slaughtered a cow and later made my family victim for it. It was a mob that attacked the family and I have suffered for it, he claimed.

The case pertains to the September 28, 2015 lynching of 55-year-old Ikhlaq and the assault on his family in Bisada village near Noida by a mob on the allegation of slaughtering a cow and storing its meat for consumption.

Following the incident, 18 people were taken into custody, of which 14 had gotten bail. One of the accused in jail, Ravin (22) died in police custody in October 2016, allegedly due to dengue, while his family had blamed it on torture in the jail.

Vishal and Hari Om along with another accused had been in Luksar Jail of Greater Noida for the last 22 months. The duo, who got bail, would be released after two days due to legal formalities.

The case had political repercussions as BJP leaders  in opposition to then-CM Akhileshs Samajwadi Party, which was seen to be favouring Muslims  wooed voters in from the region on the plank of getting the accused released from jail during the UP assembly elections earlier this year.

Union home minister Rajnath Singh, too, had addressed a gathering in the village.

Vishals advocate Ram Sharan Nagar said the court of Justice SK Gupta granted bail to his client on Monday. He said the court took cognisance of the fact that it was a mob attack and the accused had been in jail for 22 months.

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As a hitherto lucky Nawaz Sharif was booted out from power, for the third time, last week, hardly a whiff of protest was heard. There was a deafening calm and a sense of relief all around, including the all-important security establishment.

I used the words booted out because his last two stints as prime minister were abruptly axed in 1993 and 1999 by Pindi bootsby Pakistans military establishment. But this time they intelligently stayed away and quietly, and rightly, gave confidence to the apex court judges as the Panama Papers judicial noose was enough to do the job.

The Sharif family had been caught red-handed with its hands, feet and neck deep in the cookie jar. Numerous cases of corruption, money laundering and violation of oath were detected to be tried now. There was relief because Sharif began his term by taking on the army on key national policy issues  how to combat terrorism and relations with India. He wanted a soft approach on both these fronts and like Recep Tayyip Erdogans Turkish model, wanted to bring the army under civilian supremacy.

While he delayed action against the Taliban and pressed for a dialogue, the army thought precious time was being wasted and a stage came when a military operation was launched without the PMs approval. Sharif was forced to cooperate with the highly successful anti-terror operation  at a later stage the prime minister even claimed credit for it.

On India, Sharif showed extraordinary courage and defiance, inviting Prime Minister Narendra Modi to his Lahore home after first attending his inauguration in New Delhil, never mentioning Kulbhushan Jadhav, a retired naval official arrested in Balochistan in March 2016, nor coming out strongly for the separatist movement in Srinagar.

Sharif even showed the audacity of inviting Indian tycoon Sajjan Jindal to his private residence at the hill resort of Murree, talking to him while strolling on the lawns to avoid monitoring. This could have been to either send or receive a message from New Delhi.

All these were highly annoying to the Pakistani army but it registered only soft protests inside closed doors and allowed him to continue, probably anticipating that the Panama Papers will ultimately, and quickly, bring him down through the constitutional process.

Some Indian voices were heard lamenting that a friendly or less inimical regime had ended in Pakistan, but deep inside their hearts many Pakistanis, and especially Kashmiris on both sides of the disputed border, must be feeling happy.

Five wise men have given a 5-0 verdict. Its good riddance on sound reasons, said Riaz Hussain Khokhar, an expert on India-Pakistan relations and a former Pakistani high commissioner to India. Sharifs exit will have no affect whatsoever on Indo-Pak relations. There is no chance of any improvement because of Indian intransigence and New Delhi should take notice of official reactions in Beijing and Washington, he said.

Khokhars comments should not be taken lightly by India as whoever succeeds Nawaz Sharif, most likely his brother Shehbaz Sharif, now chief minister of Punjab, will not be able to maintain a soft stand or keep quiet on issues like his brother defiantly did.

Shehbaz will only be a stop-gap arrangement for a few months as general elections are due next year and he would have to keep his family and the party intact amid a plethora of criminal cases that will open against all of them, including Shehbaz.

A family hounded by sleuths who are going all around the globe to find hidden treasures looted from Pakistan would have a very hard time projecting an image of innocence to the electorate or claim sympathy or political martyrdom. It will take a hit.

The rule of law unleashed with the unseating of the first family of politics, especially from elitist Punjab, will have to be extended to others, including the equally rich former president Asif Ali Zardari of the Pakistan Peoples Party and the corrupt elements in the civil and military establishment.

Pakistan is clamouring for across-the-board accountability and fortunately the judicial and the military establishments, at this particular time, also think a major clean-up operation has become inevitable  in fact it is a necessity for the nation to survive the grave strategic and economic challenges it is facing.

With politicians busy saving their money and skin, the momentous task of keeping Pakistan afloat, watching out and responding to the serious regional and international realignments fall to the lot of others.

The remote will become the main instrument of control.

Shaheen Sehbai is a senior Pakistani journalist

Twitter: @ssehbai1

The views expressed are personal
In the old days, Indians would speak of the hidden hand, accusing people of being on the payroll of CIA, or even the KGB. These days, Indian officials seem to have been attributed a similarly long and evil arm of influence by our neighbours.

After the mysterious disappearance and subsequent return of Farhad Mazhar, a Bangladeshi columnist and activist, on July 3, local media in Bangladesh reported conjecture that Indian agencies were responsible for the abduction. Nepali analysts have long spoken of Indian agencies being involved, usually playing a negative role, in political decisions; but the distrust runs so high that a Nepali national recently even suggested to me that Indias prompt earthquake rescue and relief mission two years ago, was motivated by a hidden agenda.

This is partly because India, by sheer size of its population, military, economy and geography, is an overwhelming presence in the subcontinent. But its officials should have realised by now that repeatedly saying that India wants peaceful ties, based on cooperation, is not enough.

While it is generally accepted that it will, like all other countries, prioritise its strategic interests  primarily linked to Chinas growing clout  the open dismay toward India is not without basis. While many of the allegations might be dismissed as local paranoia, India also needs to reconsider its image. Indias clear and unwavering support for core democratic and human rights principles in neighbouring countries might go a long way toward dispelling some of the public anxiety.

For instance, many Bangladeshis, particularly opposition party supporters, believe that India is bolstering the ruling Awami League. The Sheikh Hasina government has addressed many of Indias key security concerns, partnering in counter-terrorism operations and closing borders to insurgent groups. Bangladeshi security forces, however, are accused of serious human rights violations including extra-judicial killings, secret detentions and enforced disappearances, often targeting the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Jamaat-e-Islami. India has failed to raise concerns about these practices, which generates allegations of complicity.

In Nepal, almost everything, even the potholes, are often blamed on Indian agencies. When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the Nepali parliament in 2014, it appeared that things might have changed  people came out on the streets to applaud him. Soon after, however, that enthusiasm vanished, to be replaced by a familiar aggrieved suspicion. The unrest in Nepals southern plains, the intractable political disagreements, the recent effective blockade on supplies to the hills from the Indian border due to the Terai protests, have played their part. Since the military, the Maoists, and most of the political parties had some role in the abuses that occurred during the civil war, Indias protective hand is presumed in ensuring that its favourites hold office. Such claims would dissipate were India, which played an important part in ending the decade-long Maoist conflict in 2006, to publicly press for conflict-related justice and accountability.

Bhutans fledgling steps toward democracy, many Bhutanese believe, were derailed by India, which is accused of weighing in to ensure the election of its preferred candidate. India stumbled in the Maldives too, failing to stand up for the basic rights of the political opposition. Promoting human rights in both places would not only have helped the citizens of these countries, it could have ended the mistrust.

Indias footprint was much more visible in Sri Lanka where Tamil Nadu politicians actively campaigned for the rights of Sri Lankan Tamils. Yet, India failed to condemn laws of war violations by both the Sri Lankan security forces and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the final months of the war in 2009, actively scuttling a rights-protecting intervention by the UN Human Rights Council. With the LTTE defeated, India did endorse Human Rights Council resolutions urging accountability, but both the Sinhalese and Tamils have reason to remain suspicious of Indias role.

When Prime Minister Modi invited regional heads of state to his governments inauguration in 2014, there were hopes that he was signalling a shift in Indias relations with its neighbours.

Modi now needs to turn that sentiment into action by promoting respect for human rights abroad. Concerns over Indian agencies are not going to disappear on their own.

Meenakshi Ganguly is South Asia director at Human Rights Watch. Follow on Twitter @mg2411

The views expressed are personal
In the first major administrative reshuffle after the formation of the NDA government in Bihar, 28 IAS officers, including two principal secretaries and seven district magistrates, and 40 IPS officers were shifted on Monday.

Transfers and postings were a major bone of contention in the previous Grand Alliance government that led to severing of ties between the JD(U) and RJD.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar, while talking to reporters earlier in the day, had dropped ample hints about the interference in the governance.

Principal Secretaries Get New Departments

Prominent among those transferred include principal secretary to governor, ELSN Bala Prasad, who has been made commissioner, departmental inquiry (general administration department).

K K Pathak, who was instrumental in enforcing prohibition in Bihar, has been shifted as principal secretary, mines and geology department. He will continue to hold charge of additional member, revenue board.

Principal secretary, home, Amir Subhani has been given the additional charge of principal secretary, minority welfare department. He is also holding the charge of general administration, excise and prohibition, registration and public grievances.

Chanchal Kumar, principal secretary to chief minister, has been given the additional charge of building construction department while Brijesh Mehrotra, principal secretary of cabinet coordination department, has been given the additional charge of principal secretary to governor.

Secretary at the CM secretariat, Aatish Chandra has been given the additional charge of secretary, IPRD while H R Srinivas, secretary, finance (resources), has been given the additional charge of secretary, revenue board.

The state government also transferred K Senthil Kumar, additional secretary, human resources department, to labour resources department in the same capacity.

Rajesh Kumar, secretary, revenue board has been made the new Bhagalpur commissioner. He will also hold the additional charge as Munger commissioner.

Additional director, Bihar Reforms Mission, Pratima S Kumar Verma has been given the additional charge of additional commissioner, GST.

11 Districts Get New SPs in IPS Transfers

Among the 40 IPS officers transferred, 11 districts got new superintendents of police (SPs).

According to a notification issued by the state home department, 1987 batch officer Sunil Kumar has been posted as director general-cum-chairman-cum-managing director of Bihar Police Building Construction Corporation. He was earlier posted as DG, Bihar Police Academy.

ADG, wireless and technical services, Gupteshwar Pandey has been promoted as DG and shifted to Bihar Police Academy. He is holding the additional charge of director general (DG), Bihar Military Police.

Anil Kishore Yadav, IG, weaker sections (CID), has been shifted as IG, training. Munger DIG Manju Jha has been promoted as IG, She replaces Yadav. Bhagalpur DIG Vikas Vaibhav has been given additional charge of Munger range DIG.

Bhojpur SP Kshtranil Singh has been transferred to BMP 6 as commandant. City SP Gaya Awakash Kumar replaces Singh in Bhojpur.

Motihari SP Jitender Rana has been made additional secretary, social welfare department while Buxar SP Upendra Sharma has replaced Rana in Motihari. Phulwari ASP Rakesh Kumar will be the new SP of Buxar.

Saran SP Ansuiya Ran Singh Sahu has been appointed as SP, weaker sections and women cell in CID while commandant, homeguards, Harkishore Rai replaces Sahu in Saran.

Begusarai SP Ranjit Kumar Mishra has been transferred to STF in the same capacity while Jehanabad SP Aditya Kumar has replaced him in Begusarai. ASP (Chhapra) Manish is the new SP of Jehanabad.

Araria SP Sudhir Kumar Podika has been transferred to Nalanda. City SP (east), Patna, Dhurat Saayli Savlaram has replaced Podika at Araria. City SP (central), Patna, Chandan Kumar Kushwaha has been transferred to Banka.

ASP (Belsand) D Amarkesh is the new city SP of Patna central while Vishal Sharma, ASP Manihari is now city SP (east) in Patna.

Nalanda SP Kumar Ashish has been transferred as commandant BMP-12. Banka SP Rajiv Ranjan has been posted as commandant homeguards while Samastipur SP Nawal Kishore Singh has been shifted as AIG (training). Dipak Ranjan, SP, vigilance, has replaced Singh in Samastipur.

7 DMs Shifted

The state government also transferred seven district magistrates. West Champaran DM Lokesh Kumar has been made executive director, state health society, while his place has been taken by Deor Nilesh Ramchandra, presently posted as Banka DM.

Kundan Kumar, DDC-cum-chief executive officer, Nalanda, has been made the new DM of Banka.

East Champaran DM Anupam Kumar has been made state transport commissioner and given the additional charge of director, IPRD. Kumar has been replaced by Raman Kumar, who was DM Buxar.

Mukesh Pandey, DDC-cum-chief executive officer, district board, Katihar, has been made the new Buxar DM.

Bhojpur (Ara) DM Birendra Prasad Yadav has been made the new special secretary of backward and other backward class welfare department. He has been replaced by Sanjeev Kumar, DDC-cum-chief executive officer, district board, Gaya.

Manish Kumar, additional secretary, HRD, has been shifted as additional secretary, science and technology department and has been replaced by Nawada DM Manoj Kumar.

Municipal commissioner, Biharsharif, Kaushal Kumar has been made the new DM of Nawada. Rahul Ranjan Mahiwal, additional secretary, CM secretariat has been made additional secretary, rural works department.

Lakhisarai DM Sunil Kumar has been made additional secretary-cum-director, social security-cum-disability. He has been replaced by Avnish Kumar Singh.

Saket Kumar, director, handicrafts and silk department has been given the additional charge of additional secretary, building construction and MD of Bihar State Building Construction Corporation.

Inayat Khan, DDC-cum-chief executive officer, Bhojpur, has been made joint secretary in tourism department. She will also hold the additional charge of Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation.

Rajesh Meena DDC-cum-CEO, West Champaran district board, has been made the managing director of Bihar State Jal Parshad while S I Faisal, additional secretary at science and technology department has been posted as additional secretary-cum-director, minority welfare department.

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Even as chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh and his government in Punjab claim that their drive against drugs has been a huge success ever since the Congress came to power in March, party MLA Surjit Dhiman said on Monday that chitta (white powder, referring to drugs) is easily available in every nook and corner the as the drive against the menace remained effective for only the first 15 days of the government.

A member of the legislative assembly from Amargarh segment, Dhiman is considered a loyalist of the CM and had sided with him when he was fighting a turf war within the party.

He was speaking at a state-level function to commemorate the martyrdom of Shaheed Udam Singh, where cabinet minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot was the chief guest.

Though CM Amarinder Singh had promised to eradicate drugs and gangsters, the government remained active only for 15 days. When we formed government, we hoped drug smugglers and gangsters would be behind bars soon. Now, I can tell you the names of constituencies where drugs are being supplied, he said in his speech from the stage. He alleged that dacoits and smugglers are the ruling roost in Dirba, from where once he was elected as MLA. That segment at present is represented by Harpal Cheema of the Aam Aadmi Party.

The drug menace is the main hurdle to fulfilling the dreams of Udham Singh. Drugs have ruined Punjabi youth, who have failed to follow the philosophy of determination and courage of freedom fighters, he said.

Later, minister Dharamsot reacted to the statement, saying, We have controlled 90% of drugs and the remaining 10% will be wiped out soon. Indeed the Shiromani Akali Dal had been feeding this poison to the state for the past 10 years. So, now, it will take some time.

Meanwhile Daman Thind Bajwa, vice-president of the Punjab Youth Congress and the partys Sunam candidate who lost to an AAP nominee, said that though the results in Sunam were not like other parts of the state where Congress won, every single promise made with the people here will be fulfilled.

MLAs Vijay Inder Singla (Sangrur), Dalvir Singh Goldy (Dhuri) and Amrinder Singh Raja Warring (Gidderbaha) also spoke on the occasion and paid homage to Udham Singh.
Look at it through my eyes and you will realise that NIPER is a great organisation that is not only the best in the country for pharmaceutical research, but treats all without any religious or social discrimination, says 26-year-old Mir Asrar, who topped in the Joint Entrance Test of National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER).

A bright Kashmiri boy, Asrar is pursuing his PhD in pharmaceutical. He belongs to Budgam in Jammu and Kashmir. He adds that this premier institute purely promotes scientific temperament, but also opens a window into a diverse India.

When I was in Kashmir University, I read that Kerala has the highest literacy in the country. There was a desire in me to know how people from the state were. This institute has fulfilled my desire to interact with them.

Researchers here come from all over the country: Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Punjab, Northeast, Gujarat and Maharashtra, among others.

He adds, I can say they are all my best friends. If I go to any of these states in future, I will not have to stay in a hotel; they will invite me to stay with them at their homes.

He is not the only Kashmiri here. Ishfaq Rasheed and Firdous share the same sentiments.

ONLY FOR THE BEST

The institute does not leave any stone unturned in ensuring that its students have a promising career in the pharmaceutical sector. There are six other branches of NIPER in Hajipur, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Raebareli.

Only the best get admission here, says 29-year-old Kuljeet Singh, who is working on a project after finishing his PhD. Moreover, NIPER has the best campus placement system and students do not face any job hassle later, he adds.

The institute has facilities for research, starting from the source of a drug up to its marketing. The national toxicology laboratory, the only one in the public sector in the country, is located in this institute, says professor Raghu Ram Rao, director of NIPER.

Some faculty members are on expert panels of World Health Organisation (WHO).

Highlights NIPER was ranked second in the National Institute of Ranking Framework (NIRF), 2017 by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) The campus is spread over in 140 acres and the government gave the land free of cost The Pharmaceutical Enquiry Committee gaev its recommendation of establishing NIPER in 1954. However, the institute was established in 1991 and started taking students in 1996 in Mohali

48 PATENTS, 180 TO GO

With 48 patents in its kitty and applications filed for 180 more, this institute has established its name not only in the country but across the globe.

Rao claims, Seven technologies developed here and patented in the name of our institute have been out-licensed for production and marketing of drugs.

He adds that NIPER is not only a place for research but also supports the industry. Research activities of the institute are defined by national requirements.

Rao further says, We focus on tuberculosis, malaria, cancer, kala-azar (black fever), diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases, cancer and many other diseases, adding, over the past 12 years, the institute has executed extramural projects worth Rs 64 crore.

The institute has won several awards, including the coveted Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology. This science award is given annually by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for outstanding research in various scientific fields.

Established on February 23, 2009, the institute has a small and medium pharmaceutical industries centre (SMPIC) to cater to small and medium enterprises. With 110 industry members, it is dedicated to solving the problems of the sector and fuel its growth. In addition, the institute analyses samples received from small and medium pharmaceutical industries at a 50% subsidy.

CAMPUS PLACEMENT

Companies prefer students on campus as they are involved in consultancy projects being conducted inside the institutes laboratories.

Dr Arvind Bansal, professor of pharmaceutical, says, The industry sector prefers students with an experience in research projects of companies and it assures their placement in a good reputed company.

Postgraduate students at NIPER get an average package starting from Rs 3.5 lakh to Rs 6.5 lakh per annum, while PhD students get an average package ranging between Rs 6 lakh and Rs 8.5 lakh. The placement cell has national and international companies such as Abbott, Emcure Pharmaceuticals, AstraZeneca, Mankind Pharma, Lupin Limited, Evalueserve, Bristol-Myers Squibb, BBRC, Fresenius Kabi India Pvt Ltd, Biocon, Nitin Pharmaceuticals, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Sun Pharma, Blue Ocean Pharma, BresMed Health Solutions, Biological E, Natural Remedies, Bioxcel and Reckitt Benckiser, among others.

Bansal said consultancy projects should be taken up on a priority basis. There is a need to realign our ongoing research mechanism, keeping in view the current needs of pharmaceutical. The focus should be on consultancy projects. Students get an insight into how the industry works and brings in money and helps in building its name.

DENTED IMAGE

However, the high-profile institute is not without its black marks. In 2016, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) booked nine officials, including its then officiating director professor KK Bhutani, and a Pune-based firm under the Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly bungling funds in the purchase of database software, SciFinder.

A senior official of the institute said, We suffered heavily in the last few years due to the ad hoc appointments at the top positions. There was a lot of negativity in the public domain about our image.
The issue of excessive component pay to Panjab University (PU) non-teaching staff will be tabled once again at the meeting of board of finance scheduled for August 1. The university had paid 8.72 crore extra to its non-teaching staff as secretariat pay as against the pay scale revisions by Punjab government.

The issue was also placed before the finance board in its meeting held on August 1, 2016, wherein it was unanimously resolved that the university should again send a reply to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) with all supporting documents to settle the issue. Till then, the status quo was to be maintained.

Pay scale issue

The non-teaching staff at PU were getting higher pay scales as against Punjab government pay scales. For example, clerks were getting Rs 120-300 as against Rs 110-200; peons were getting Rs 70-100 as against Rs 70-95; and assistants/stenographers were getting Rs 250-425 as against Rs 200-450. The mismatch led to PU paying Rs 8.72 crore extra to its non-teaching staff.

However, in the light of revision of scales of pay by the Punjab government for its employees wef January 1, 1978, on the recommendations of the Pay Commission, it was felt that for future entrants in the categories of clerks, assistants and superintendents etc, the university should follow the grades as adopted by the Punjab government for its employees.

In finance board meetings

In the last board of finance meeting, held in February 2017, it was decided that fresh instructions be sought from government of Punjab regarding continuance of secretariat pay to non-teaching employees of Panjab University and it was further decided that the university shall take necessary action as per the advice of Punjab government.

The Punjab government, on July 6, 2017, had forwarded the copies of various notifications regarding the pay scale revisions. However, the specific query which was requested as per the decision of board of finance was not received. On July 17, 2017, PU had once again written to Punjab government to give instructions regarding the continuance of secretariat pay to non-teaching employees of Panjab University.

The matter was examined by the internal audit bureau of Pay Commission, which observed that the allowances under secretariat pay to Punjab government employees posted in the secretariat cannot be paid to PU employees. The bureau also observed that the bodies of the university can also not allow such allowances or pay without the prior approval of the funding body, ie Government of India.

The university was asked to comply with the observation made and take action to recover the excess payment. PU was also asked to send a compliance report of the recovery made within a month from the date of issue of the letter.

To this, PU had replied, It is understood that the Principal Director of Audit (Central), Chandigarh, has examined the entire issue and forwarded its recommendations to its headquarter CAG, New Delhi, to take a final view on the issue. The final reply of CAG is awaited. PU had submitted that as and when the final decision of the Principal Director of Audit (Central), Chandigarh will arrive, it willl take necessary action accordingly with due intimation.

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The body of Simranjit Singh, 20, who was shot dead at a gas station in the US last week, is expected to reach his hometown Mohali by the end of this week.

Victims brother-in-law Hartejpreet Chauhan told HT over phone from Sacramento in California that they will receive the death certificate on Monday, following which they will apply at the Indian consulate in San Francisco to transport the body to India. The process may take three to four days.

Hartejpreet said the consulate officials had contacted the family on Saturday and assured the processing of transport papers at the earliest. The body is expected to reach Mohali by Saturday if all formalities are completed on time, he said.

Simranjit had been staying with his elder sister Harpinder Kaur and her husband Hartejpreet after moving to the US in October 2015. His parents, Ranjit Singh Bhangoo and Manjit Kaur, stay at Sector 70 here. They were visiting their another daughter, Rajwinder Kaur, in New Zealand when the incident happened.

Hartejpreet said they were initially planning to travel the US, but now they would be reaching India in the next three days. An engineering student at American River College and working part time at a gas station for the past one year, he was shot dead by three locals following an altercation with his co-worker on Tuesday night. He was in the wrong place at wrong time, Hartejpreet had told HT.

Resentment among Sikh community

Hartejpreet said while family is shattered after the incident, there is a lot of resentment among the local Sikh community. "He was a very nice guy. I'm crying for him," Majur Kaler, a community member and owner of a liquor store next to the gas station, told Sacramento-based KCRA-TV.

I was there, like, 10 o'clock, around 10:15, 10:10, like that. So, I heard that shot, like maybe, six, seven times, he was quoted as saying.

The community has also called upon the local and federal law enforcement agencies to thoroughly investigate the crime and nab the accused at the earliest. So far the police have not classified the murder a hate crime, he said.

According to a press release uploaded by the Sacramento county police on July 29, they are looking for two suspects: Rodolfo Zavala, 23, and Ramon Zavala, 15. Alexander Lopez, 40, has already been arrested.
Leader of Opposition in the Punjab assembly and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira has termed the registration of case of molestation against party MLA from Rupnagar, Amarjit Singh Sandoa, as an act of vindictiveness.

The registration of case before investigation is akin to character assassination. If allegations were levelled, the police needed to summon the MLA, verify facts and investigate, before booking the MLA. The case was registered in haste. The police have double standards, he claimed. Khaira said that he had spoken to Punjab DGP Suresh Arora and Rupnagar SSP over the issue.

The SSP told me that SIT had been formed to look into the case. I brought the issue to the notice of Captain Amarinder Singh, who told me that he had instructed his chief principal secretary Suresh Kumar to ensure no injustice was done, Khaira claimed.

Reacting to the statement of SAD spokesman and former Punjab minister Daljit Singh Cheema in which he had demanded the arrest of Sandoa and threatened hold protests over the issue, Khaira said it was nothing but doublespeak. An Ajnala farmer ended his life naming Captain Amarinder Singh in his suicide note. Why wasnt the CM booked then?, he added. He expressed the hope that police would take no further action against Sandoa.

Congress leader Barinder Singh Dhillon, who had unsuccessfully contested the polls against Sandoa, said that the Congress government had no role in getting the case registered against Sandoa.
Hoisted with much fanfare, Indias tallest Tricolour which was fluttering at a height of 360 ft near the India-Pakistan border at Attari has been out of sight for the past three months. The flag, which was repeatedly damaged due to high-velocity wind that flows at high altitude, was taken off by the Amritsar administration in April this year and has not been hoisted again ever since.

Amritsar deputy commissioner (DC) Kamaldeep Singh Sangha has even written to the state home department and the local bodies ministry, pointing out that every time the tallest Indian flag  visible from the Pakistan side  is torn and brought down, it brings embarrassment to all.

The Punjab home department is still struggling to find out a solution for the repeated damage to the flag due to wind.

City flag also taken off

Besides the Tricolour at the border, the administration has also taken off 170-feet high flag at Ranjit Avenue area in Amritsar, as it too got torn 13 times. The administration is now gearing up for celebrating the Independence Day. Though only 15 days are left, yet the solution to the flag problem has not been found.

When contacted, Amritsar MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla told HT that he would instruct the administration to ensure that the flag should be hoisted on August 15. The flag would be hoisted, even if for a day. If there is any hitch, it can be pulled down again.

Will speak to Sidhu

MP Aujla said, I would speak to local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu and I am sure we all will soon find a solution. I would be taking up the matter with the Centre too and suggest reducing the height of the flag.

He said that reducing height and finding an appropriate wind-resistant material for the flag will solve the problem.

Cost of patriotism too high

The Amritsar improvement trust, which is responsible for the upkeep of the two flags, has replaced both of them time and again, bearing huge expenses. The 360-ft flag at the border has torn off three times. The 170-ft flag at Ranjit Avenue has torn off 13 times.

Trust officials said a total of around Rs 9 lakh have been spent on the flag at the Ranjit Avenue and another Rs 6 lakh on the Tricolour at the border.

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Filmmaker Mani Ratnam is eagerly looking forward to the release of upcoming Malayalam-Tamil bilingual drama Solo, directed by his erstwhile assistant Bejoy Nambiar.

Going by the first glimpse of the film, it looks very promising. Im looking forward to the film, said Ratnam.

Solo, starring Dulquer Salmaan in the lead, is an anthology of four stories with a mythical touch.

Its a collection of four different stories on earth, water, fire and wind. I cant divulge more about the plot at this moment, said Nambiar, reiterating the film is a genuine bilingual.

We have shot every scene twice. Once in Tamil and the second time in Malayalam. It was like shooting two films at the cost and time of making one film, he added.

Solo, gearing up for September release, also stars Arthi Venkatesh, Dhansikaa, Dino Morea, Neha Sharma and Sruthi Hariharan.

The film is jointly produced by Getaway Films and Abaam Films.

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When popular Tamil actor Bharath decided to play one of the baddies in Mahesh Babus spy thriller Spyder, it surprised many. He is known in Kollywood for his films like Kaadhal, Veyyil and Em Magan. The actor has now explained why he chose to do the film.

In an interview with Deccan Chronicle, the actor said that working with AR Murugadoss and Mahesh Babu while getting a toe-hold in the Telugu market are the main reasons why he chose to take on a negative role.

I got roped into the film after 10 days of shoot. I got a call from ARM (AR Murugadoss) sir from Ahmedabad, who said they are looking out for a powerful villain for Mahesh Babu and he needs to be someone who is popular as well. Murugadoss sir completely explained the script and the character, leaving me thoroughly fascinated. And I thought it was the right opportunity to enter ARMs school! Moreover, people know me in Telugu through my dubbed films like Premisthe. Making a direct entry in Ttown with someone like Mahesh Babu will have a very big reach. Hence, I gave my nod instantly.

This was the first time he got to work with Mahesh Babu and he just cant get over the Telugu superstar. Though I have met him a couple of times earlier, I have not gone up and close. Despite the stardom he enjoys, the kind of respect he gives to everyone is amazing. He neither overdoes or underplays his role.

Spyder being a Tamil/Telugu bilingual, he took time to say his dialogues in Telugu as Bharath doesnt speak the language. Mahesh, who is conversant in Tamil and Telugu, was very patient all along. Since it is a bilingual in Tamil and Telugu film, each scene had to be shot in both languages. While Mahesh is fluent in Tamil, I could not speak Telugu. There were huge dialogues for me in Telugu, but he waited patiently for me to complete the scenes and that really helped me perform better.

Reports suggest Sypder has some high octane action sequences. Elaborating on their Vietnam shoot, Bharath said, It was a high octane stunt between me and Mahesh which was shot on a moving roller coaster for about 15 days. It appears at a crucial segment. All credit goes to Peter Hein and of course Santhosh Sivan sir who made it possible.

Speaking about whether he would do a similar role, Bharath said, Spyder will be one of the best action crime thrillers in Indian cinema and a big film in my career. If you ask me if I would continue to accept similar villain roles, my answer is no. I want to pursue my career as a hero only.

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Telugu star Rana Daggubati, who is gearing up for the release of his upcoming ambitious project -- Nene Raju Nene Mantri, is on his way to conquer bigger territories: The Baahubali actor has bagged his first international project.

Rana in a still from Nene Raju Nene Mantri.

Rana has signed The London Digital Movie & TV Studios (LDM) for his first international film. He was also appointed the Asian Brand Ambassador of the UK based studio.

In a press release issued on their Facebook page, the production house announced that they will begin shooting, their first Blockbuster studio film in 2018 with Rana Daggubati starring alongside a legendary Hollywood screen Goddess.

The London Digital Movie & TV Studios is delighted to announce the signing of international Indian Bollywood Superstar Rana Daggubati as their Asian Brand Ambassador. Rana Daggubati is a Bollywood superstar and a National award winning filmmaker, Digital Post entrepreneur, and a successful actor in Indian Cinema, it added.

Meanwhile,Rana is also in talks with Venkatesh for the Telugu remake of Tamil hit Vikram Vedha. Rana is likely to step into the shoes of R Madhavan while Vijay Sethupati may reprise his own role from the original Tamil hit.

Directed by Pushkar-Gayatri, the Tamil film has grossed over Rs 40 crore worldwide in its first week in cinemas. The film that released in cinemas on July 21, it has turned out to be a blockbuster, earning praise from critics and audiences alike.

Inspired from the popular folklore Vikram Betaal, the story unfolds in a police vs gangster backdrop. While Madhavan plays an encounter specialist, Vijay essays the role of a gangster, whose role unanimously won over audiences. The film also stars Shraddha Srinath, Varalaxmi Sarath Kumar and Kathir.

(With IANS inputs)

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R Madhavan and Vijay Sethupathi starrer Tamil gangster drama Vikram Vedha, which struck gold at the box-office domestically as well as outside India, will soon be remade in Telugu, a source said.

Talks have been initiated with Rana Daggubati and Venkatesh for Telugu remake. They were the first choice even before the release of Vikram Vedha. However, nothing has been finalised yet and the process might take a few more months, a source from the films unit said.

Directed by Pushkar-Gayatri, the film has grossed over Rs 40 crore worldwide in its first week in cinemas.

Released in cinemas last week, the film has turned out to be a blockbuster, earning praise from critics and audiences alike.

Venkateshs Guru, remake of of the Tamil film Irudhi Suttru, was a big hit. (HT Photo)

Inspired from the popular folklore Vikram Betaal, its morality riddles are applied to a police-gangster backdrop.

While Madhavan plays an encounter specialist, Vijay essays the role of a gangster, whose role unanimously won over audiences.

Vikram Vedha producer Sashikanth said: Too early to talk about the remake. But yes, talks are on for the remake. But nothing has been confirmed yet.

The film also stars Shraddha Srinath, Varalaxmi Sarath Kumar and Kathir.

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Its not everyday that actors praise each others work. When it comes to actresses, cat fights are way too common. But Samantha Ruth Prabhu is certainly not one of them. The actor took time out to watch the latest Telugu release Fidaa, which stars Varun Tej and Sai Pallavi, and heaped praises on the Premam actor.

Samantha wrote on Twitter: Sai Pallavi, you are everything and more in Fidaa. She went on to add how she would watch every film that has Sai Pallavi in it.

@Sai_Pallavi92 You were everything and more in #Fidaa . Will now go watch a film if it has Sai pallavi in it great job. Go kill it!!  Samantha Ruth Prabhu (@Samanthaprabhu2) July 28, 2017

I feel honoured :) Thank you so much for ur kind words :) Much love to u  https://t.co/Gl6FqDFIPu  Sai Pallavi (@Sai_Pallavi92) July 28, 2017

Samantha praised the film as well.

#Fidaa was so refreshing . Beautiful !! #ShekarKammula garu  pure love . Congrats to the entire team  @IAmVarunTej congrats   Samantha Ruth Prabhu (@Samanthaprabhu2) July 28, 2017

Incidentally, this is not the first time Samantha has praised Sai. Back in 2011, when Sai appeared in a dance reality show on Dhee TV (Dhee Ultimate Dance Show), the Telugu actor had nice things to say about the Premam actors performance.

Fidaa marks Sais Telugu debut. Sai, who happens to be one of the biggest highlights of the film, has single-handedly won over audiences and critics, while majority of them heaping praise on her for holding the movie together. The film is a love-hate-love story of an NRI doctor, played by Varun, falling head over heels for a girl (Sai) from Telangana.

In its opening weekend itself, sources said the film had minted Rs 25 crore in worldwide collections. The film has been directed by Sekhar Kammula, known for his family entertainers, and has music by Mickey J Meyer.

Sai made her film debut in 2015 with the Malayalam hit Premam.

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Actor Ashish Chowdhry who will soon be seen playing the lead in detective series - Dev, had an exhilarating experience while shooting for the show.

For one of the sequences Ashish was supposed to be suspended from a harness from atop a 21-storey building. The actor, who has sustained a few injures while performing a stunt in the past, was determined to perform this stunt himself. So, he went ahead and agreed to be suspended from the building without any safety gear or safety nets.

Commenting on the sequence, Ashish said, While I have done many stunts in my career, this has been the craziest one ever. The scene in question required me to be suspended from atop a 21 storey building for a 5min scene. I had to be suspended from that height for 4 hours continuously. I thought that was a better option, because going up and coming back to being suspended was a mentally taxing option. It was a glass building and even holding on to a pipe, balcony or window in case of a mishap was not an option.

Hanging on a harness for a long period also takes a toll on your body as the entire body tends to go numb because the blood flow is hampered momentarily. The creative team ensured me that the stunt would be performed under strict supervision, yet when you know theres no coming back in case anything goes wrong, the process makes you vulnerable. For the first time I couldnt think of anything but going back to my family in one piece.. And, thanks to them, we eventually managed to get a fabulous introduction for Dev; it felt amazingly exhilarating, he added.

Dev will start airing on Colors August 5 onwards, every Saturday - Sunday, at 10pm.

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Fighting between al Shabaab fighters and Somali government troops and African Union peacekeepers killed 24 people on Sunday, a regional official said, with the Islamist militants putting the death toll higher.

Al Shabaab ambushed a convoy carrying troops from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) early on Sunday in the Bulamareer district of the Lower Shabelle region, about 140 km (85 miles) southwest of Mogadishu, Colonel Hassan Mohamed told Reuters

Ali Nur, the deputy governor of Lower Shabelle region, said: We have carried 23 dead AMISOM soldiers and a dead Somali soldier from the scene where al Shabaab ambushed AMISOM today,

Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaabs military operations spokesman, said: We have in hand 39 dead bodies of AU soldiers including their commander.

The casualty figure could not be independently verified. The numbers al Shabaab and officials give usually differ.

Ugandas defence ministry said its soldiers were part of the AMISOM convoy and an unspecified number of its soldiers had been killed.

Al Shabaab wants to force out the peacekeepers, oust the Western-backed government and impose its strict interpretation of Islam in Somalia.
Three suspects in the February 1984 murder of Indian diplomat Ravindra Mhatre had fled to Pakistan but Islamabad repeatedly denied their presence or cited difficulties in tracing them to British authorities seeking their extradition, newly declassified files show.

Posted in Indias consulate in Birmingham, Mhatre, 48, was kidnapped by elements owing allegiance to a Kashmir-based militant group on February 3 and body was found in nearby Leicestershire two days later.

Three people were convicted and jailed in Britain.

Documents released by Britains national archives reveal that the West Midlands police had provided locations of the three suspects in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, but officials in Pakistans ministry of foreign affairs (MFA) stonewalled UK efforts to apprehend them.

In August 1984, Britain requested the Pakistan government, then headed by Gen Zia-ul-Haq, to initiate extradition proceedings against the three. The documents state that the government agreed to the request should it be established that the accused are in Pakistan.

British ambassador Richard Fyjis-Walker wrote to the foreign office on January 17, 1985: (Pakistans additional foreign secretary for European affairs) Dr Haider told me today that President Zia has accepted the MFAs recommendation that extradition proceedings should be started.

However, the first step was to establish whether the three men are in Pakistan. This involved police action which was being initiated. Only if it is established that the men were in the country could the lengthy extradition process start.

I am not sure how seriously the Pakistanis will try to find and apprehend the men.

Letter sent to Ravindra Mhatres brother Avinash by then Prime Minister Margaret Thatchers office. (HT Photo)

In another dispatch to London on March 4, 1985, Fyjis-Walker wrote: Dr Haider, on knowing that I was about to raise the subject, rehearsed me to the difficulties the Pakistan authorities were having in finding the men.

The government did not know if they were in Pakistan at all. The indications we had given the government of the whereabouts of the men might or might not be the result of disinformation.

I again offered our help in tracing the men, saying that we would indeed be grateful for confirmation of whether or not the information we had passed on to the Pakistan government about the whereabouts of the men turned out to be true or false. It was presumably very easy to check whether they had been at the addresses we had provided...we shall need to keep up the pressure on the Pakistanis.

The envoy repeated his pessimism to London on March 12, 1985: I repeated our offer of a visit by the West Midlands police. She (Dr Haider) said Pakistan authorities were aware of this...I am not sure when I shall hear anything more or how satisfactory it will be.

KEY DATES IN RAVINDRA MHATRES MURDER February 3, 1984: Mhatre kidnapped in Birmingham

Mhatre kidnapped in Birmingham February 4, 1984: Ransom note demands 1 million and release of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front co-founder Maqbool Butt and others jailed in India

Ransom note demands 1 million and release of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front co-founder Maqbool Butt and others jailed in India February 5, 1984: Mhatres body found in Leicestershire

Mhatres body found in Leicestershire February 11, 1984: Maqbool Butt hanged in Tihar jail, Delhi

According to a teleletter to London by official SG Falconer on May 30, 1985, MFA official Shafkat Saeed had virtually admitted to him that PoK is not part of Pakistan: He repeated that the problem was that the three suspects were in Kashmir, which legally is not part of Pakistan.

Negotiations were proceeding with the Kashmir government and we could be assured that if the Pakistani authorities could lay their hands legally on the three suspects, they would immediately be arrested and arrangements made for their return to the UK. He implied clearly, however, that this was a big if.

The declassified file includes references to documents that have not been released as well as documents with some parts redacted. The file includes a letter to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher by Avinash Mhatre, the brother of the slain diplomat, and her response.

A mention of the case in the Lok Sabha was favourably reported by the British high commission in New Delhi.

MS Runacres, an official posted in New Delhi, wrote to London on March 25, 1985: I thought you might be interested to know of a crumb of Parliamentary comfort which was tossed our way in the Lok Sabha last week during a debate about the murder of the Soviet diplomat in Delhi.

A DMKP (Dalit Mazdoor Kisan Party) MP called Mohunta made a very worthwhile reference to the Mhatre case. He pointed out that the British police were very quick in apprehending the murderers of Mr Ravindra MhatreHowever, the Indian security forces had failed to solve the cases relating to murders of foreign diplomats in India in the recent past. Well done Mr Mohunta!

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Irans former president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, faces sentences on seven verdicts of misusing billions of dollars in government funds while in office, the public prosecutor at Irans Supreme Audit Court said in a newspaper interview published on Sunday.

In one case, dating back to Ahmadinejads second term in office between 2009 and 2013, the misused funds amounted to more than $2 billion, the prosecutor, Fayaz Shojaie, said in his interview with the newspaper Etemaad.

The verdicts have been announced to the parliament, Shojaie said. The Supreme Audit Court operates under the supervision of the Iranian parliament.

It is not clear whether Ahmadinejad was formally tried by the court and is facing sentencing, or whether the Iranian parliament must now follow up on the courts verdicts.

Ahmadinejad gained support among poor and working class Iranians by promising to share the countrys oil wealth with them. Subsidy reforms implemented in his second term were aimed at delivering subsidies to the most needy while cutting their overall cost to the government.

Shojaie said that he did not believe the funds Ahmadinejad allegedly misused could be recovered.

In the effort of fixing the damages the decision has been issued and finalized. But the damages and harm from his decisions are so big that we dont have a way to carry it out, Shojaie said. So what can we do? He in no way has the assets that would cover this amount.

He did not say what would happen if the money could not be recovered from Ahmadinejad. Ahmadinejad could not immediately be reached for comment.

Despite his popularity among some segments of the Iranian population, Ahmadinejad angered hardliners by clashing publicly with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on a handful of issues during his second term.

Ahmadinejad submitted his name to run as a candidate in the Iranian presidential election in May, but he was disqualified by the Guardian Council, a governmental body that vets candidates.

Half of the members of the Council are appointed by Khamenei who, without naming Ahmadinejad, hinted that he had advised him not to run.
Islamic State claimed responsibility on Monday for a suicide attack that targeted the Iraqi embassy in the Afghan capital Kabul, the groups Amaq news agency reported.

Afghan security forces battled gunmen near a police compound and the nearby Iraqi embassy on Monday. They said the attackers appeared to have taken cover in the embassy building in a business district of the city, from where smoke could be seen rising.
One of Chinas most-wanted overseas fugitives turned herself in on Monday after spending 19 years in the United States, the anti-corruption agency said.

Huang Hong, 50, was a Beijing-based accountant for a state-owned firm from the neighbouring province of Hebei accused of misappropriating public funds. She fled to the US in 1998, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said.

It was not immediately possible to reach Huang, her family, or a legal representative for comment.

As part of President Xi Jinpings vigorous anti-corruption campaign, China has pursued an overseas search dubbed Operation Fox Hunt for corrupt officials and business executives who have fled abroad with their assets.

In April 2015, Chinese authorities published a list of 100 most-wanted suspects they believed to be hiding overseas.

Huang is the 43rd on the list to have returned to China since the operation was launched, the commission said in a statement on its website.

The suspect topping that list, Yang Xiuzhu, confessed to corruption charges in court on Friday, state media reported, having returned to China from the US after 13 years as a fugitive.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spoke with US President Donald Trump on Monday and agreed on the need for further action on North Korea just hours after the US Ambassador to the United Nations said the United States is done talking about North Korea.

Nikki Haley, US Ambassador to the United Nations, said in a statement that China must decide if it is willing to back imposing stronger UN sanctions on North Korea over Friday nights long-range missile test, the second this month.

Any new UN Security Council resolution that does not significantly increase the international pressure on North Korea is of no value, Haley said, adding that Japan and South Korea also needed to do more.

Abe told reporters following his conversation with Trump that repeated efforts by the international community to find a peaceful solution to the North Korean issue had yet to bear fruit in the face of Pyongyangs unilateral escalation of the situation.

International society, including Russia and China, need to take this seriously and increase pressure, Abe said, adding that the two nations would take steps towards concrete action but did not give details.

Abe and Trump did not discuss military action against North Korea, nor what would constitute the crossing of a red line by Pyongyang, Deputy Chief Cabinet spokesman Koichi Hagiuda told reporters.

North Korea said on Saturday it had conducted another successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile that proved its ability to strike the US mainland, drawing a sharp warning from Trump and a rebuke from China.

Trump later wrote on Twitter that he was very disappointed in China and that Beijing had done nothing for the United States in regards to North Korea, something he would not allow to continue.

I am very disappointed in China. Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017

...they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017

China has yet to officially respond to Trumps tweet, but State-run Chinese tabloid the Global Times said in a Monday editorial that Trumps wrong tweet was of no help to resolving the situation, and that he did not understand the issues.

Pyongyang is determined to develop its nuclear and missile programme and does not care about military threats from the US and South Korea. How could Chinese sanctions change the situation? the paper, published by the ruling Communist Partys official Peoples Daily, added.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who is on vacation, planned to have a phone call with Trump soon, a senior official at the Presidential Blue House said.

If the two heads of state talk, they will likely discuss their respective stances on North Korea, the U.S.-(South Koreas) alliances standpoint on North Korea and other things including how to impose heavy sanctions.

The United States flew two supersonic B-1B bombers over the Korean peninsula in a show of force on Sunday in response to the missile test and the July 3 launch of the Hwasong-14 rocket, the Pentagon said. The bombers took off from a US air base in Guam, and were joined by Japanese and South Korean fighter jets during the exercise.

North Korea remains the most urgent threat to regional stability, Pacific Air Forces commander General Terrence J. OShaughnessy said in a statement. If called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal, and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing.
Pakistans anti-graft watchdog announced on Monday it will file criminal corruption cases against former premier Nawaz Sharif and his children even as PML-N leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi submitted papers in Parliament to be elected as the placeholder prime minister.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) said four cases will be filed against Sharif, his sons Hussain and Hassan, daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Muhammad Safdar in anti-corruption courts in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

Separate cases will also be filed against former finance minister Ishaq Dar, a close aide of Sharif.

Sharif was ousted by the top court on Friday for not being honest after an investigative panel concluded he had not declared salary due to him from his sons UAE-based firm. The probe was conducted after the Panama Papers leaks revealed Sharifs three children owned offshore assets.

The court had also directed the NAB to file criminal cases against Sharif and his family within six weeks.

A statement issued by the NAB said its executive board had decided to file the four cases in line with the courts judgement. The cases will be prepared on the basis of material collected and referred by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) in its report and some other material available with Federal Investigation Agency and NAB.

According to the NAB law, Sharif and his children can be arrested at any time on the orders of NAB chairman. They could face at least seven years in prison if convicted in the corruption cases.

Meanwhile, the Parliament will elect a new leader of the House on Tuesday to replace Sharif.

Pakistan's premier-designate Shahid Khaqan Abbasi (centre) leaves with his aides after meeting politicians in Parliament in Islamabad on July 31, 2017. Pakistan's Parliament will meet on Tuesday to elect a new prime minister after the disqualification of three-term premier Nawaz Sharif. (AP)

PML-N leader Abbasi, a leading businessman and founder of the airblue private airline, filed his nomination papers in the Parliament Secretariat. He will hold the post of premier till Sharifs brother, Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif, can take over.

Speaking to the media, Abbasi said the PML-N will win the election of the prime minister with a majority and then decide on members of the new cabinet.

The policies which continued till 12:30 pm on Friday will persist during my premiership, Abbasi said, referring to the Supreme Courts verdict which disqualified Sharif.

I hope that God will help me in furthering Nawaz Sharifs policies, he added.

Watch | Pakistans game of thrones: Whats in it for India?

Sharif had announced on Saturday that his younger brother would be his successor. Since it will take about two months for Shehbaz to be elected to the National Assembly or lower house of Parliament, Sharif nominated Abbasi as the interim prime minister.

The PML-N has a majority with 188 seats in the 342-member Parliament and is expected to get additional votes from its allies to take the total to 214. The party should be able to swiftly install its choice, barring any defections from its own ranks.
Prime Minister Theresa May joined members of Britains royal family at a service to remember thousands of British and Commonwealth soldiers who died in one of the bloodiest theatres of conflict during World War 1 at Passchendaele, Belgium, 100 years ago.

The battle in Flanders began on July 31, 1917 and claimed the lives of around 275,000 British and Commonwealth military personnel  including Indians  and around 200,000 Germans. The Allied forces were ranged against the German 4th Army.

May was joined by Prince Charles, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the king and queen of Belgium and other dignitaries for the playing of the Last Post ceremony at Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing in Ypres, Belgium.

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May arrives to attend a ceremony marking the centenary of the battle of Passchendaele, one of the bloodiest of World War 1, during the Last Post ceremony at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial in Western Flanders on July 30, 2017. (AFP)

The Indian Forces Memorial, with the names of soldiers, is located on the south side of the gate. Mustard gas was used for the first time during the conflict, resulting in the death of thousands of soldiers whose identities remain unknown.

May said she was honoured to attend the event: "The name Passchendaele resonates with anyone with even a passing knowledge of the First World War. It is on those fields where hundreds of thousands of men of all nations fought and died in appalling conditions."

Also in attendance were 4,000 relatives of those who fought in the battle. The conflict is officially known as the Third Battle of Ypres, which is remembered not only for the number of casualties but the mud and quagmire caused by weeks of rain, in which many men and horses drowned.

Defence secretary Michael Fallon said: These services provide us with the time to reflect on the sacrifice not just of the thousands of British and Commonwealth troops who gave their lives, but of the men on all sides who did not return home.

This was a battle which touched communities across Europe and it is a privilege to be here in Belgium to stand as friends with the representatives of all the countries who took part in the battle  friends who continue to be strong allies.

The Menin Gate is one of four memorials to the missing in the area known as the Ypres Salient. The site of the Menin Gate was chosen because of the hundreds of thousands of men who passed through it on their way to the battlefields.

It bears the names of more than 54,000 casualties from the forces of Australia, Canada, India, South Africa and the United Kingdom who died in the Salient and whose graves are not known.

According to records, the British Indian Army in World War 1 sent seven Indian Expeditionary Forces with more than a million troops to serve in various theatres of war. Of the Indian Expeditionary Forces, named A to G, Force A served on the western front attached to the British Army in battle against the Imperial German Army.

Two army corps made up of four divisions were sent from India - one infantry corps, the 1st Indian Corps, comprising two divisions, 7th (Meerut) Division and 3rd (Lahore) Division, and one cavalry corps, formed on arrival in France as the Indian Cavalry Corps with the 1st Indian Cavalry Division and 2nd Indian Cavalry Division.

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Crew on a Sri Lankan Airlines plane carrying 202 passengers have extinguished a mid-flight fire triggered by a mobile phone battery in an overhead locker, the carrier said Monday.

The airline said a major incident was averted by the quick-thinking attendants on the flight Sunday from Kochi to Colombo.

Smoke was detected shortly after a meal service on the 70-minute flight, it said.

The smoke came from an overhead bin, the airline added, thanking its crew for averting a major incident.

Crew suspected a lithium battery fire and put the luggage in water after failing to stop the smoke with a fire extinguisher, an airline statement said.

The situation was successfully contained and the bag ceased to emit smoke, the statement said. Upon investigation, the crew found a lithium battery pack and two mobile phones in the bag.

The airline did not give the make or model of the battery and the phones involved, but said an investigation was underway into the incident on the Airbus A330-200 aircraft.

No one was hurt.

In October, the carrier joined other airlines in banning Samsung Note 7 phones from its flights fearing spontaneous combustion.
After months of devastating shortages, deadly protests and mounting chaos, many a Venezuelan has wished President Nicolas Maduro never existed.

The computer system handling Sundays controversial elections to his powerful new constitution re-writing body appears to feel the same way.

When Maduro scanned his ID card as he cast his ballot -- the first Venezuelan to do so -- the screen spit out the words, This person does not exist or the ID was cancelled.

The message, displayed on the screen of a poll workers cell phone, was captured by TV cameras and soon went viral online.

The ID card in question is the fatherland card introduced by Maduros socialist government to buy subsidised food and access other social programs.

Handout photo released by the Venezuelan Presidency shows president Nicolas Maduro casting his vote in Caracas (AFP Photo)

As Maduro delivered a speech at the polling station, he paused to theatrically whip out his card.

Lets check my fatherland card so it will be permanently registered that I came to vote, and so my fatherland card will be engraved with it for life: that I voted the historic day of the constituent assembly, he said.

He then presented his cards bar code to be read with a scanner.

Did it read it? he asked the young poll worker.

Yes, it did, she said, without appearing to show him the message.

An anti-government activist clashes with security forces during a protest against the elections for a constituent assembly proposed by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas. (AFP Photo)

Maduros opponents condemn the ID card as a means of social control that rewards government supporters with handouts and ensures state employees vote in elections such as yesterdays.

But opposition lawmaker Freddy Guevara joked on Twitter that maybe his side had overestimated the governments capacity for Orwellian control.

The system doesnt work. If youre a public employee, they dont know whether you voted or not, he wrote.

#July30 Voters in #Venezuela must scan a government ID card to prove they voted and continue receiving handouts. Maduro's came up "annulled" pic.twitter.com/7KIIhxupEJ  Angelo Torrealba (@angeloTJ) July 30, 2017

Election day was no laughing matter, however, with at least nine people killed in violence around the vote.

More than 100 people have died in four months of protests against Maduros government.

The mustachioed President is trying to strengthen his hand by forming a 545-member body to draft a new constitution amid a crushing economic and political crisis.
WikiLeaks says its taking the roughly 20,000 emails allegedly stolen from French President Emmanuel Macrons campaign and publishing them to its website in a searchable form.

The emails caused a stir when they were initially published just two days before Frances May 7 presidential run-off, which pitted Macron against French far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

But unlike the leaks that rattled the 2016 American presidential race, the French email leak had little if any impact. Macron still handily beat Le Pen.

The messages have since been picked over by the French press, although WikiLeaks move may draw new attention to them.

The head of Frances cybersecurity agency ANSSI said in June there was no evidence tying the hacking of the Macron campaign emails to any particular actor, saying it could be anyone.
Clara Bartons Missing Soldiers Office Unveiled

On April 12, the centennial of Clara Bartons death, visitors climbed two flights of dusty wooden stairs in an old Washington, D.C., building to get a glimpse of the modest suite where the Civil War legend had masterminded a monumental postwar operation: tracking down missing Union soldiers. It was the perfect occasion to lift the curtain on an ambitious project that will make Bartons once-forgotten quarters the centerpiece of a museum, research center and institute. Bartons impact is international, said George Wunderlich, executive director of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, because she not only founded the American Red Cross but pushed to expand its role beyond wartime relief to include responses to natural disaster. Her legacy is bigger than this place, much, much bigger.

The building had been just another derelict structure in Washingtons downtown until Richard Lyons of the General Services Administration (GSA) discovered some of Bartons documents and belongings in the attic in 1996. Barton rented the space during the war to live in, as well as office space where she collected medical supplies donated for battlefield missions. After the war she used the office to help families searching for missing soldiers. The sign on the street entrance read in bold type, Missing Soldiers Office, followed by 3rd floor, Room 9, Miss Clara Barton.

Historians and others rallied to save the building at 437 7th St. N.W., near Pennsylvania Avenue. Now, more than 15 years later, the National Museum of Civil War Medicine has signed an agreement with the buildings owner, the GSA, to manage the space. The tentative opening date for Clara Bartons Missing Soldiers Office is 2013. Leading the effort as superintendent and historian of the new facility will be Susan Rosenvold, previously director of operations at Antietam National Battlefields Pry House Field Hospital Museum.

Appomattox Gains a New Museum of the Confederacy

When traffic and neighboring obstructions made it hard for visitors to reach the Museum of the Confederacy in downtown Richmond, officials knew it was time to build satellite facilities. The first opened recently in an architecturally simple, 12,000-square-foot brick building in Appomattox with plenty of parking. Several large signs direct visitors to the building, but no Confederate flag will be displayed outside. Instead, a row of banners one for each state that secededlines the entrance, culminating with a much larger U.S. flag. All the Confederate flags will be on display inside the building. Museum president and CEO Waite Rawls said the outside display is meant to exemplify reunification.

The 11 galleries inside are long on wow power. On exhibit are the 22 original Confederate flags, Robert E. Lees uniform, the highly decorated sword he wore to the surrender ceremony on April 9, 1865, and the pen he used to sign the surrender documents. That ceremony took place at the home of Wilmer McLean, a few miles away at the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park.

The museum, which is now open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., features a series of interactive displays that are well suited to children. One that would appeal to both adults and youngsters is a wall of 64 photographic portraits, including about 25 African Americans. When the visitor touches a face, a caption appears identifying each individual and chronicling his or her life during and after the war. Visitors may be surprised to find that the presentations are more evenhanded than they might have expected from a museum with Confederacy in its name.

National Slavery Museum: A Dream Deferred

After two decades of working to build a national museum focusing on slavery, former Virginia Governor Douglas Wilder got a boost in 2001 when the city of Fredericksburg donated public land for the project and donors chipped in with money and artifacts. But the museum was never built, and in 2011 it filed for bankruptcy, citing a debt of $7 million. The project also recently lost its tax-exempt status after failing to file necessary tax returns. Creditors have requested payment of millions of dollars of unpaid debt, and some donors have asked for their donations to be returned. A museum attorney recently filed a reorganization plan to be considered by the creditors and a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge. At press time, a decision in the case was pending.

Petersburg Plunderer Sentenced

A Petersburg, Va., resident was recently sentenced to one year in federal prison and fined more than $7,000 after pleading guilty to unlawfully removing Civil War relics from a battlefield. John J. Santo appears to have made his living for several years by selling Civil War items he had found using a metal detector on the Petersburg National Battlefield. When investigators searched his house, they found more than 9,000 artifacts, including belt buckles, bullets and buttons. They also found a diary listing his every visit to the battlefield over the previous four years and what he found. The tally included 18,000 bullets, 91 buttons, 68 fuses, 31 cannonballs and shells. Based on that document, investigators concluded he had sold a number of his finds, including about half the bullets, before he was arrested.

Battlefield authorities already knew they had a thief on the property because they had seen several holes that had been dug. Santo was finally caught in the act when motion detector cameras were installed.

First Taste of Freedom!

With a fireworks display and a Pennsylvania Avenue parade, Washington, D.C., residents honored the 150th anniversary of the DC Emancipation Act, the first piece of federal legislation that freed slaves and the only emancipation measure that included the compensation of slaveholders. The bill, which was signed by President Abraham Lincoln on April 16, 1862, freed slaves in Washington. It also offered $100 to any who wanted to leave the country for the Republics of Hayti or Liberia, or such other country beyond the limits of the United States as the President may determine.

Emancipation was immediate, but compensation of slaveholders took some time. Only slaveholders who had remained loyal to the Union could apply, and the process involved a petition in addition to an interview with city officials. By the end of the process, close to 3,000 people had been freed and 930 petitions for paymentwhich could be up to $300had been accepted.

Lincoln expert Harold Holzer, speaking at the anniversary celebration of President Lincolns Cottage at the Soldiers Home, noted that the president was conflicted about having immediate versus gradual emancipation in the capital. I would say that by the winter of 1862 he was fully in support of ridding the capital of slavery, Holzer said, but remained genuinely worried that if freedom came immediately, indigent and unhealthy slaves would be cast out into the streets with no way to take care of themselves. In the end, however, when the House and the Senate sided with immediate, rather than gradual, emancipation, Lincoln signed on.

Prize Parcels at the Cedar Creek Battlefield

Two renowned but privately owned sites at Virginias Cedar Creek Battlefield may soon become open to the public. One is the handsome monument to the 8th Vermont Infantry, a unit that held off Confederates at great cost during the fight there, losing 106 of 159 men engaged. The other is Rienzis Knoll, the site where Phil Sheridan rallied his troops for a counterattack on the afternoon of October 19, 1864. The parcels cost $1.3 million, but Civil War Trust President Jim Lighthizer recently announced that nearly $1 million in grant money is already available for the project.

The Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Park is the only national park in the country co-owned by private entities and the federal government. The Trusts two parcels would add 77 acres to the 1,400 acres already preserved.

Great Catch: Civil War Coded Telegrams

A TROVE OF 35 MANUSCRIPT ledgers of coded telegrams sent and received by the War Department during the Civil War was recently purchased by the Huntington Library, Art Collection and Botanical Collection in San Marino, Calif. Belonging to telegraph pioneer Thomas J. Eckert, the ledgers included more than 100 messages from President Abraham Lincoln, who went by code names such as Ida and India.

Eckert began his career as an operator for the Morse Telegraph Company. After heading telegraphic operations for Gen. George B. McClellans Army of the Potomac, he was appointed chief of the War Departments military telegraph unit in Washington.

The president spent so many hours waiting for telegrams from his generals that Eckert got to know him well. On April 14, 1865, the night the president was assassinated, Lincoln invited Eckert to Fords Theatre, but Eckert declined. Eckert eventually became president of Western Union.

Originally published in the August 2012 issue of Civil War Times. To subscribe, click here.
Captured on July 1, 1863, and assigned to tend to wounded troops, this spunky Union cavalryman had an unforgettable experience: he watched Picketts Charge from a grandstand seat on a rooftop.

From 50 years ago: The author of this hitherto unpublished eyewitness account of the Battle of Gettysburg was Asa Sleath Hardman, who served with the 3rd Indiana Cavalry. After his discharge on September 7, 1864, Hardman was married to Louisa Sheads, sister of Carrie Sheads, who ran a girls school on Seminary Ridge in Gettysburg. Hardman lived in Gettysburg for three years after the war. After the death of his wife, he remarried and moved to Indianapolis as a postal employee. In 1882 he moved to Florida, becoming postmaster of Leesburg in 1892. He died there on February 14, 1920, at the age of 81, a venerated civic leader. Although Hardmans account of the Battle of Gettysburg does not jibe with published studies in all particulars, it is remarkable for its human interest aspects as well as the unusual description of Picketts Charge. His reminiscence was made available to Civil War Times Illustrated by a granddaughter, Mrs. Elisabeth Geiger, of Leesburg, Fla. The editors have eliminated certain passages dealing with events at Gettysburg which Hardman did not actually witness and in several instances have left out irrelevant personal comments.

Bufords Cavalry Division, to which I belonged, was the first to enter Gettysburg on the afternoon of June 29, 1863. Early on July 1 it was ordered into line of battle just west of Seminary Ridge, and advanced to meet the enemy, then marching in full force upon Gettysburg. This division did not advance far before it met Hills corps, 10,000 strong, with Heths division leading. When Buford drew up his line, he seemed to sense the desperate work before him and ordered all poorly mounted men to the rear. Five men were ordered out of our company, myself among them. Going to the rear, we turned our disabled horses into the corral and three of us returned. Not finding our regiment where we expected, we lingered near the crest of Seminary Ridge until the approach of Wadsworths division of Reynolds corps, when we at once became spectators of the operations in our front between Willoughby Run and Seminary Ridge.

Shortly after Wadsworths division took position, I had the satisfaction of seeing General Archer with 800 of his command captured at Willoughby Run, and after the Rebels had turned Cutlers right, I saw the majority of General Davis Mississippi brigade surrounded in the railroad cut and compelled to surrender.

Later in the day when our forces had fallen back to Seminary Ridge, my post of observation was on the south bank of the railroad cut, near the stone barn belonging to the venerable Mary Marshall.

Up to two oclock the battle was in our favor, but it then became evident that our hard pressed line would be compelled by overpowering numbers to retire from Seminary Ridge. Already the combined forces of Rodes and Early were chasing the XI Corps through the streets of Gettysburg in the rear of I Corps.

Slowly the veterans of the I Corps turned to obey the order to retire, and although hard pressed they stubbornly contested every inch of ground and retired in good order.

Among the last regiments to leave the field was the 97th New York, commanded by Colonel Charles Wheelock. I followed this regiment, but the men were almost instantly surrounded, standing in a vortex of fire from both flanks and rear, with their cartridge boxes empty. Colonel Wheelock encouraged them to fight with the naked bayonet, hoping to cut his way out, but finding all efforts in vain, he took from my pocket a white handkerchief and waved it in token of surrender.

For an instant the firing ceased and a Rebel officer jumped onto the railroad grade and asked if we wished to surrender. A Union sergeant, whose leg was shattered by a cannon ball, was lying just around the angle of the house near by. He had not seen the colonels signal, and fired at the Rebel on the railroad, wounding him. The Rebels opened fire again with tremendous effect.

The colonel then went to the house and asked for a large white cloth. A table cloth was handed to him by a lady inside. This the Rebels acknowledged, and quit firing. The colonel went into the basement and sat down near the door, for he was thoroughly exhausted. I followed to where the colonel was sitting when a Rebel sergeant came in with a file of men and declared that he would show us some Southern grit.

Seeing Colonel Wheelock trying to break his sword, he demanded the weapon, but the colonel declared he would never surrender it. The Rebel drew a revolver and told him to surrender his blade or die. But the colonel had been in close quarters before. Still grasping his sword, he drew himself up proudly and throwing open his uniform said, Shoot if you will, but I will guard this sword with my life.

At this moment an old gentleman who belonged to the house, stepped between them and begged them not to be rash, but he was thrust aside and the Rebel repeated his threat. Then the old mans daughter stepped between them, and begged the enemy not to kill a man so completely in his power; there was enough bloodshed, and why add another victim to the list? Then turning to the colonel, she pleaded to him to yield his sword and save his life, that by refusing he would lose both, and the government would lose a valuable officer.

But the colonel still refused, saying, The sword was given to me by friends for meritorious conduct, and I promised to guard it sacredly, and I will, while I live.

Fortunately, at this moment the attention of the Rebel was drawn away by the entrance of other prisoners, and the young lady quickly unclasped the colonels sword and hid it in the folds of her dress. When the Rebel returned, the colonel told him he had surrendered and had given his sword to someone who had gone on out.

This artifice succeeded and the colonel, with the rest of us, fell in line to march to the rear, many no doubt to find a more terrible death, and fill an unknown grave.

By an impulse of common humanity, the Southern officer left seven of us to tend the wounded, and by some unaccountable good fortune, I was one of the seven selected, and remained on the field in that immediate vicinity during the remainder of the battle.

After the Rebel lines had swept past, the wounded in our immediate vicinity claimed our undivided attention, and as fast as possible we carried into the house, a large two-story building with full basement, 72 of the worst wounded that lay in the yard.

All the night we worked, doing the best we could for the wounded who lay on the field; the most we could do was to provide temporary shelter, remove their bloody garments, bathe their wounds, and see that they had plenty of water. If they had any desire to eat and their own haversacks were empty, we supplied their wants from the full haversack of the nearest dead soldier.

Never while I live shall I forget that awful night! To hear a dozen poor fellows calling in Gods name for a drop of water, while at the same instant I held the head of another on my knee trying to force a few drops down his fast closing throat, is a sound when once heard can never be forgotten. But it was not those who clamored loudest who received our first attention. We learned to listen for the low, half-smothered groan, the long drawn fluttering sigh, the quick convulsive gasp, followed by the death rattle. The light was too dim to tell the blue from the gray, had we wished to, so both were treated alike.

The night passed like a brief dream, but with the returning day came other men, and we returned to look after those we had carried into the building. While we were making our wounded comfortable, a passing Rebel brigade halted nearby, and soon quite a crowd gathered near the well, filling canteens.

Going to the well, I engaged in conversation by a major of a Mississippi regiment, who exultantly boasted that in less than ten days the Confederate flag would float in Baltimore, and possibly in. The sentence was never finished, for a shell from a battery on Cemetery Hill struck the foundation of the building and shattered, hurling a fragment of granite into the majors face, tearing away his entire lower jaw. As he lurched forward, I caught him in my arms to keep him from falling, but at that instant another Southernerprobably maddened at the death of a favorite officerstruck me a powerful blow which piled me unceremoniously in a heap in the angle of the portico, where I lay stunned for a time.

The second shell thrown by our battery was not so well aimed, and falling short, bounded with terrible force against the foundation very close to the window of a basement room, in which seven women who belonged to the house had sought refuge. If a shell should burst in that room, only a miracle could save those trembling, fainting women from death. With the help of some students, we moved the heaviest stones we could handle, and barricaded their windows to make the hiding place secure against accident.

During the preceding night, Lees men had planted a battery in the rear of this seminary building on the crest of the ridge. When firing opened at noon the next day, the shells from our battery searching for the Rebel battery were uncomfortably thick, and any projectile falling a little short would be very likely to strike the house. Several did crash through it and caused the wildest alarm, lest by bursting in the garret they would set fire to the house. The old gentleman who owned the house suggested that we take tubes to the roof and fill them with water to provide for possible danger from fire.

Going to the roof, I found that I had a splendid view of the battlefield in all directions. During the remainder of the battle, whenever the firing became particularly heavy, I would steal up to the roof and lying behind the big chimney to guard against a stray minie ball, would become an interested spectator for the battle.

From this post, I could see every portion of the Rebel line except Johnsons division of Ewells corps, which lay beyond the angle of Culp [sic] Hill and out of my line of vision.

Here I witnessed the famous charge of Longstreets and Hills corps on the third day of battle, known in history as Picketts Charge. There had been comparative silence along the line until nearly 2 p.m. All the forenoon Lee had been reconnoitering Meades position, and I knew by the continual movement of artillery and infantry that some important move was in progress.

At first, I thought Lee was preparing to retreat, but I soon found that the troops which I had seen, apparently passing to the rear, were being massed in column behind the woods west of the crest of Seminary Ridge and south of the theological seminary. I also discovered that two batteries stood where only one soon before. I did not have to wait long for an explanation of all this maneuvering, when the guns on the left of Hills corps gave the signal and suddenly, at two oclock, 215 guns concentrated on Meades left center at the cemetery and Zieglers Grove. [Editors note: The best authorities today state that the signal gun was fired at 1 p.m. at the Peach Orchard and that 138 guns took part in the bombardment.]

For nearly two hours the horrid uproar continued. At first our batteries on Cemetery Ridge replied with spirit, but after a while the firing slackened, and then ceased. I went up to the roof to learn the cause of the silence on our side. I could see our batteries in the same place, but did not understand that the order had been given to cease firing to allow the guns to cool.

Suddenly the Rebel batteries also became silent, and while I watched, three long lines of Rebel infantry sprang out in front of their guns, and pausing a moment as if to take a long breath, seemingly pitched forward like a resistless wave that threatened to destroy everything in its path. I never saw such a sight before and I never want to see it again. It was grand, beyond my power to describe. I saw them pause an instant, and then shoot forward, with their lines as true as if on dress parade with their muskets at right shoulder shift, their elbows touching the left. As our artillery, which had suddenly found voice, ploughed great gaps in their lines, they would close up and still move forward with an impulse that seemed irresistible.

My anguish was almost unbearable as I saw them stop at the Emmitsburg Road and deliver a murderous fire. With muskets at trail they set up the Rebel yell, and started on a wild impetuous charge against our line only a few rods away. I heard clear and distinct above the roar of battle, the loud defiant cheer with which our men welcomed them with bloody hands to hospitable graves, but when I saw their first line disappear in the smoke, then their second line, and finally their third, disappear in that sulphurous canopy, and the cheering on both sides cease as the two lines locked in the strong embrace of death, it seemed my heart quit beating.

I gave up all for lost, but after waiting for what seemed to me an age, I heard the well known huzza, and immediately saw the whole earth alive with Johnnies, wildly fleeing for shelter from the pitiless storm of lead and iron. I, too, caught the spirit of the occasion, and crouching in the valley of that roof, cheered as lustily as any of them, and ten minutes later did the best job of my life to convince a Rebel sergeant that not one of our band had seen or heard anything that would create the slightest desire on our part to cheer.

As night approached, we tried to gather any information as to the condition and intentions of the enemy. As fast as any news was gained it would be brought in and reported to the wounded officers and to our surgeons, who were supposed to know more about the situation than we did.

A short time before sunset, after the repulse of Lees storming column, we observed an advance on our left, from the vicinity of Round Top. The firing began to give evidence of a considerable engagement, and seemed to be drawing nearer to us. Knowing that Lees entire right was much demoralized and not in good shape to offer formidable resistance, we dared to hope that Meade knew of this weakened condition also and was following up the repulse with a vigorous attack. But in a short time, the firing ceased altogether, and we abandoned any hope in that direction.

By the time it became fully dark, it was evident to us that Lee was preparing to retreat. When the conviction ripened into certainty, the question then was, How could we get word into Meades lines? After canvassing the matter we learned that Doctor E.W. Beck, Surgeon-in-Chief of Bufords cavalry division, and former surgeon of the 3d Indiana Cavalry, would undertake the dangerous mission.

Dr. Beck made his way stealthily to the Union lines, and was halted by a sentry. I then made myself known, he wrote later, and said I had important information for the general in command. Several officers came out, and I told them my story, and said if our lines would move immediately many of the enemy could be captured. They believed me, and quick and sharp the orders were passed along our lines, and without a moments delay our men pursued the retreating Rebels through the streets and alleys, and in a short time had taken four or five thousand prisoners. This was at 2:15 oclock on the morning of July 4, long before the sun tinged the eastern horizon. [Editors note: Dr. Becks claim of the capture of so many Confederates is unsubstantiated.]

Thus an Indiana man, at great personal risk, performed a self-imposed task, which was of great value to our forces; but in all the histories of this battle, not one writer has ever given him credit for it. He also gave information of the demoralized condition of Lees right flank, and of the evident intention of the enemy to retreat without a renewal of the fight, yet the historians are unanimous in saying that Meade was not informed until late on July 5 of Lees intention to retreat. It was Antietam repeated, Lee occupying a thin line entrenched, making a big show, while hurrying to the rear was his immense train of plunder and prisoners. As soon as Ewells corps was withdrawn from the town, it took position along Seminary Ridge, and at once began repairing and strengthening the breastwork, and by daylight on July 4 was apparently ready to receive any force that could be brought against it.

In fact, Lee appeared to invite attack. But the prisoners like us, who were held on the field, saw the true state of affairs. Twice during the day, we attempted to send a messenger into town, ostensibly to buy bread for the wounded, but really to carry the news to our lines of the Rebel movement to the rear. But each time our messenger was turned back with his basket empty and his message undelivered.

That night about 9 oclock, a Rebel officer took our names and regiments and informed us that we had been paroled for the purpose of tending the Yankee wounded, and if found serving in the ranks again before we were exchanged, we would at once be shot. Of course we did not object, but found we were watched as closely as ever, and the slightest movement toward our lines was followed by the word, Halt, with the usual complimentary allusion to a canine ancestry, which seemed to mean business, and we concluded not to try the experiment. It was not until Sunday morning, July 5, that we saw our flag flying west of Seminary Ridge, and felt that we were again inside our own lines and free to go into town without the fear of being halted by a bullet. There were now plenty of citizens to tend the wounded, so we lost no time in reporting to the officer of the day, and were at once assigned to duty helping to care for the wounded there. This ended our captivity, during which we were in no way mistreated by the Rebels, but had not had a morsel of food, other than that obtained from haversacks of the dead.

The battle was now over, and Lee with his broken and shattered army was in full retreat.

Originally published in the August 2012 issue of Civil War Times. To subscribe, click here.
A ll Generation Renters hate the expense and hassle of having to find a new home to rent when their tenancy agreement ends.

Its difficult when you work all day to go on a search, make endless calls to lettings agents, cope with the stress of imminent homelessness and the disappointments when the flat you have found falls through.

But some new apps promise to make life a little easier, whether you are moving out of or into London.

1. RENT LONDON

The latest out of the gates is Rightmove, which launched its new app, Rent London, this week. With this app, renters can specify when they need to move and search for property by location, price and property type.

Renters can also search for property by journey time to work rather than a specific location by inputting the maximum amount of time they are prepared to spend on the Tube. The app will then choose properties from anywhere within the M25.

What this means is that somebody working near Oxford Circus and willing to commute for half an hour each way will be directed to locations that include West Hampstead (average asking rent 1,850 a month) and Finsbury Park or Kennington (both 1,620 a month).

Moving to a new area can be daunting but the app also offers detailed guides to neighbourhoods, including essential information such as what the local pubs are like. If a renter cant find what they are looking for in their chosen location, the app will suggest alternative, but similar, neighbourhoods.

Finally, the app allows renters to request and schedule viewings and receive alerts of new properties that meet their criteria the instant they drop on the site.

Through this trial we want to find out the information that matters most to London renters when they are searching online. Do they want help with a location? Is it handier for them to receive updates in their Facebook messenger app than email? explained Hannes Buhrmann, Rightmoves head of innovation.

We hope this trial will help give us insight into a number of these things, to help inform future versions.

The free Rightmove app is available for IOS users

2. MOVEBUBBLE

Movebubble  founded by renters who know how awful it can be  promises listings of more than 25,000 London properties in real time, so you dont waste your time on homes that have been taken and allows you to book viewings and make offers direct from your phone.

You can also see which flats are the most popular with other renters.

3. ROOMPIK

If you need not just a new home but new people to live with, then Roompik helps you find spare rooms all over London. As well as pictures of the property, it has profiles of your prospective new flatmates, so you can see them before meeting.

4. URBANCO

If you are a cash-rich, time-poor type then the newly launched UrbanCo is a kind of buying agent for renters, who pay from 600 to hire a Sherpa who will hunt down the perfect home for them, all managed via the app.

You are allowed to pick the Sherpa you want, select your criteria and let them do the legwork. You can also see ratings other members have given to properties theyve looked at.

5. STILL TO COME: RENTBERRY

Later this year a controversial app that invites tenants to bid against each other is to be launched.

Entrepreneur Alex Lubinsky has already started Rentberry in the US  where it was attacked for pushing up rents in already expensive cities  and says he plans to roll out the project here in London.
Virgil Ablohs Off-White brand has an Air Jordan 1 collab in the works, featuring Off-Whites familiar deconstructed design coupled with the iconic Chicago colorway.

Rumors of an Off-White x Air Jordan 1 collab have been circulating since the beginning of the year but today we have detailed on-foot images, as well as some release information.

According to YeezyMafia, the kicks will be releasing as part of Off-White x Nikes 10-sneaker collection. Five of the Off-White x Nike collabs, including the Air Jordan 1, Air Max 90 and Air VaporMax, will be releasing on Friday, September 1st. The AJ1 will reportedly retail for $190.

While the kicks are built on the unmistakeable Chicago color scheme there are plenty of noticeable differences including the use of orange and blue stitching, an enlarged swoosh, AIR on the yellowed midsole and of course some Off-White branding on the medial side of the shoe.

Get a closer look at the Off-White x Air Jordan 1 collab in the gallery and stay tuned for more details.

Off-White AJ1
The actress and director has said that she's "upset" by "false" claims that Cambodian children were exploited during the audition process for her new movie, 'First They Killed My Father'.

It was alleged in an article last week that casting directors for the new flick cruelly offered improvised young children money only to snatch it back out of their hands, as part of a twisted audition to capture the children's reaction.

But in a statement just released, Angelina Jolie insists: "Every measure was taken to ensure the safety, comfort and well-being of the children on the film starting from the auditions through production to the present.

"Parents, guardians, partner NGOs whose job it is to care for children, and medical doctors were always on hand everyday, to ensure everyone had all they needed. And above all to make sure that no one was in any way hurt by participating in the recreation of such a painful part of their countrys history.

"I am upset that a pretend exercise in an improvisation, from an actual scene in the film, has been written about as if it was a real scenario. The suggestion that real money was taken from a child during an audition is false and upsetting. I would be outraged myself if this had happened.

"The point of this film is to bring attention to the horrors children face in war, and to help fight to protect them."



Angelina also told the Vanity Fair magazine: "Srey Moch [the girl ultimately chosen for the part] was the only child that stared at the money for a very, very long time. When she was forced to give it back, she became overwhelmed with emotion.

"All these different things came flooding back. When she was asked later what the money was for, she said her grandfather had died, and they didn't have enough money for a nice funeral."

One of film's producers, Rithy Panh also dismissed the bizarre casting claims, saying that they are "grossly mischaracterize how child actors were selected for the film (and don't make it clear that) casting was done in the most sensitive way possible."

Panh's continued: "We wanted to see how (child actors) would improvise when their character is found 'stealing' and how they would justify their action. The children were not tricked or entrapped, as some have suggested. They understood very well that this was acting, and make believe. What made Srey Moch, who was chosen for the lead role of Loung Ung, so special was that she said that she would want the money not for herself, but for her grandfather."
Hot Press takes a peek back at Norman Cooks time with us.

Norman Cook, AKA Fatboy Slim, celebrates his 53rd birthday today. The English producer/musician has been making the festival circuits this summer, playing the Exit festival in Montenegro, Tomorrowland in Amsterdam, and Latitude in in Suffolk.

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After receiving eight VMA nods for 'Humble', Kendrick Lamar collaborates with Rihanna in an epic video for 'Loyalty'.

In the brief thriller, Lamar and Rihanna take on the role of tragic love interests. In one scene, the rapper performs as sharks circle him from below the concrete. In another he asks Rihanna "do you trust me?" before taking her hand and holding her over the edge of a skyscraper.

The video was directed by Dave Meyers & the little homies, who were also behind 'Humble'.

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'Loyalty' is the fourth single from Lamar's release DAMN.
The great, the good  and me, have gathered at The Church, the recording studio owned by production wunderkind Paul Epworth to listen to selected tracks from The Horrors latest album, the appropriately titled V. Large candles drip like melting butter as incense burns our nostrils. Refreshments are quickly partaken of and seats are taken in readiness to have heads blasted off shoulders by two massive speakers.

First track Hologram sounds like jet planes  piloted by clones of Gary Numan  taking off and engaging in a dogfight before crashing into each other in an explosion of scraping metal. Machine, the new single passes by in a riot of heavily gated loops and showers of industrial carnage. Weighed Down, is their Jo the Waiter moment. Surprising not for the acoustic guitar that opens it but for its use on a Horrors album. Epic and grandiose, Im going to risk the obvious by making comparisons to Bowie and The Pet Shop Boys. Not a bad thing.

On paper The Horrors/Epworth pairing might appear to be a cynical move; an attempt to trade some chart-friendly cachet for indie cred. The results speak differently though. Yes, there are some epic pop juggernauts but constantly tempered by a wilful experimentation that send many of the tracks careening off the rails into chattering squalls of mental machine music. The image of robots fucking comes to mind.

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The band and producer emerge for a brief Q&A after the playback. The general consensus confirms the mutual respect and spirit of collaboration between band and producer and a willingness to blur the boundaries between commerce and creativity. Epworth pronounces himself a great fan of The Horrors but if further proof was needed the album is being released under his own Wolf Tone label on September 22.
Houston ISD trustees are considering whether to save one of the region's lowest-performing charter schools, which was forced to close due to repeated academic failures.

Trustees questioned Monday whether C.O.R.E. Academy, which serves 475 students in elementary through high school on Houston's south side, is worth keeping open given its abysmal academic performance. C.O.R.E. Academy ranked last out of 878 elementary schools and 317 middle schools in the Houston area on the Children At Risk rankings, which measure academic performance in the context of poverty levels.

To keep C.O.R.E. Academy open, the district would take over responsibility for the school's academic performance ratings issued by the Texas Education Agency. C.O.R.E. Academy, which opened in 2013-14, received an "improvement required" rating in each of its first three years, triggering a state law that requires automatic closure.

About 93 percent of C.O.R.E. Academy's students qualified as economically disadvantaged, and 84 percent were deemed "at risk" under state guidelines in 2016-17. Children can be considered at risk if they have a history of poor academic performance or meet certain social criteria, such as homeless or pregnant.

Trustees are scheduled to vote Aug. 10 on the reprieve. Board members did not signal how they plan to vote, though they raised questions about the school's performance history, its location relative to Houston ISD campuses and its share of certified teachers.

"I'm just wondering why we would add another failing school to our portfolio of schools, rather than offer some other way for those kids to come to another school," Trustee Anna Eastman said.

Board Chairwoman Wanda Adams noted that C.O.R.E. Academy is located in an area where Houston ISD schools are sparse, particularly for high school students. The nearest high school, Worthing, is about 3 miles away.

"I think it's a good move, but if they don't handle it academically, they're not going to stay," Adams said.

District officials signaled they're willing and able to keep C.O.R.E. Academy open.

"They were very eager to have support and resources they could use from us," Houston ISD chief of staff Cynthia Wilson said.

C.O.R.E. Academy administrators said they believe students were making gains at the school, pointing to success in hitting its "student progress" benchmark in 2015-16. The school failed to meet the other three state benchmarks: student achievement, closing performance gaps and college readiness.

David Fuller, the school's co-founder and principal, said in a statement that C.O.R.E. Academy is "a viable, salvageable, and greatly needed educational resource in southeast Houston."

"This partnership will be a win-win for both entitles, and more importantly, a win for students," Fuller said in the statement. He refused to an interview request.

Under Fuller's leadership, C.O.R.E. Academy has foundered academically amid extraordinary teacher turnover. According to state data, about four-in-five C.O.R.E. Academy teachers each year had zero classroom experience. The average C.O.R.E. Academy teacher earned about $38,000, at least $10,000 less than entry-level salaries at Houston-area traditional public schools.

At the same time, Fuller and the school's business manager, Shun Johnson, earned about $180,000 in 2016-17. By comparison, Houston ISD principals earned $80,000 to $130,000 this year, and superintendents of traditional public school districts serving less than 1,000 students averaged about $100,000.

In his statement, Fuller said he and Johnson earned salaries of $143,750 this year and back compensation of $36,000, the result of board members not paying them their full salary in prior years.

"Ms. Johnson and I both made significant personal and financial sacrifices for the dream of bringing C.O.R.E. Academy to life," Fuller said in his statement. "Overall, the compensation remains in market range for the vast work of a charter school admin (sic) team."

Fuller said he expects the administration and board members to remain if the contract with HISD is approved. District officials could mandate administrative changes during contract negotiations, but those wouldn't start until the board authorizes moving ahead with keeping C.O.R.E. Academy open.

Charter schools are publicly funded campuses governed by a private board of trustees. C.O.R.E. Academy received about $4 million from the state in 2015-16, the most recent year with available data.

The district has similar contracts with 10 charter schools. Last year, it took on oversight of Victory Preparatory Academy, which was also ordered to close after three straight "improvement required" ratings.
Must politics always bring disaster? Can laughter mend a broken heart? It's hard to say. But we keep watching Shakespeare, more than four centuries after his death, because we hope for answers.

The Houston Shakespeare Festival, which takes over Miller Outdoor Theater through the weekend, presents two comprehensive productions - "Richard III" and "Twelfth Night" - that offer the opposing masks of comedy and tragedy, revealing how hard it can be to tell the difference.

The controlled fury of Lenny Banovez's "Richard III" paints the portrait of a manipulative egomaniacal bully better at seizing power than holding onto it. How can we not be drawn in by his humor and his brashness, by the shocking things he says and the hypocrites he skewers?

If that sounds familiar in the wake of the latest news, here's my favorite recent Shakespearean allusion from the pages of The Observer, which calls President Donald Trump, "a bullying Richard III without a clue." Richard, of course, was far more subtle when he wanted to be.

After the scandal around the New York Public Theater's production of Julius Caesar, which featured a Trump-like Caesar, it's a relief not to see overt contemporary references in this festival production. The parallels are too painfully obvious by this point. Besides, England being wracked by the War of the Roses was more than a mess all on its own.

More Information Houston Shakespeare Festival When: 8:15 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday, "Twelfth Night" is performed Tuesday, alternating every other night with "Richard III" Where: Miller Outdoor Theatre, 6000 Hermann Park Drive Information: Free, though reserved seats can be secured from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. the day of performance at the box office; 713-743-2929, www.houstonfestivalscompany.com See More Collapse

Director Jack Young took on with aplomb the extreme physical and psychological demands of the brutally captivating tyrant. We may hate ourselves for loving him but love him we do.

Over centuries Richard came to be known as a hunchback villain, though his recently found skeleton confirms a curved spine with no hunch. This production styles Richard with an unconvincing hump, but it's hard to ignore his fiercely-wielded crutches.

From Young's first entrance I waited for the moment he would club someone down with them. Just after intermission, Young whips them up like scissors to nearly choke a trusted servant. Later, in the decisive battle, he swings his crutches with abandon. This is a Richard who fights with anything at hand, even and especially his misshapen body.

Young mastered Richard's frequent asides, rapid shifts in strategy, and wildly oscillating moods. He swings from threatening to charming and back again in the wink of an eye. Early on, Richard seduces Lady Anne, the wife of a man he murdered over the corpse of her father-in- law. Young's Richard surprises even himself and savors an unexpected triumph before returning to his vicious calculus. "I'll have her," he gloats "but I will not keep her long."

Tracie Thomason makes the most of the poor Lady Anne in being simultaneously seduced, enraged, betrayed, confused and sadly aware of her impending doom. She's in an impossible position, which is why this role has always seemed so hard to play. Historically and dynastically her high birth demanded she remarry. But the psychology is elusive.

The stages of history would seem to favor the valor and virtue of men at war, but a wonderful feature of "Richard III" is a series of extraordinary roles for women who complain, declaim and curse as the wreckage unfolds.

Madison Hart plays the deposed Queen Margaret, Laura Menzie is Richard's mother the Duchess of York and Meg Rodgers plays as the widow Queen Elizabeth. On their own, each was a touch shrill and overdone at times. But when the three assemble late in the play to count their losses and curse their foes something extraordinary happens. We see the secret heart of history, for which the pain of the survivors there can be no recompense.

Of course, Jonathan Middents' cleverly styled set ensures we cannot forget the ever-rising body count. After each murder, a body wrapped in burlap was attached to rope and hauled up on a pulley to dangle from arches. I counted 11 by the end. And if at any moment Richard's charm and daring make you forget his true nature - he's called a "spider" more than once - you can look upstage to a tangled web of ropes.

Sound and fury may be what Macbeth conjures, but there was a lot, perhaps too much, sound bouncing around Miller Outdoor Theater both nights this past weekend.

In a less deft gesture, "Richard III" opens clubbing its audience over the head with the blaring sounds of rock band Black Sabbath. Yes, terrible things are coming: We get it. But maybe a nation full of murderous political climbers isn't enough like disaffected youth blaring heavy metal in their parents' basement to justify the shattered eardrums.

"Twelfth Night" too featured sound and music with less fury. A play that begins by talking about the "food of love" and features its own songs surely deserves it. Although they set aside the received songs in "Twelfth Night," the cast performed gamely with voice, guitar, electric piano and even trumpet, especially Mike Lee who crooned ably and all night as Feste, the fool.

But the feeling of a little too much caught on quickly. The '70s costuming combined with some Woodstock vibes and some country western twang began to feel disjointed. It's not clear that "Stand By Your Man" actually captures something about "Twelfth Night," though it was great to hear.

"Twelfth Night" is all about desire - remember, it's subtitled "what you will." But, how do you figure out "what you will" in a state of grief?

The play's central characters experience shipwreck, lose siblings to death and generally find their desires frustrated. Viola thus dresses up as Cesario to serve Duke Orsino and woo for him Olivia who herself falls in love with Cesario.

Thank goodness Viola has a twin to make everything work out in the end, which is a big ask for any production. This one manages the similarity, but '70s style androgyny may obscure the confusing desires that arise when you mistake boys for women for men. Or when you don't.

Each night the actors of this ensemble cast turn on a dime, swinging from comic to tragic and back again, which is no small feat. Thomason, for instance, pivoted from doomed lady to cross-dressed heroine deftly. Carlton Warnberg, who gave a moving turn as both the doomed Duke of Clarence and the righteous Earl of Richmond in "Richard III," was spectacularly slapstick as Andrew Aguecheek.

Young's "Twelfth Night" is lighter and more pleasing fare for a night out in the park than its tragic partner, "Richard III," though the comic patterns and timing became a touch predictable and the actors struggled in the first half to connect with the audience. This improved after intermission but lost in the laughs was some of the connective chemistry that makes us understand why Olivia falls for Cesario, Viola for Orsino, Orsino for Cesario, Maria for Toby and the captain Antonio for Viola's twin Sebastian.

Still, there was humor aplenty to be had - perhaps no more so than in Poole's roaringly funny Malvolio who, in the best scenes of the play, swings from tight-lipped Puritan to an absurdly amorous suitor who seems to have crawled out of the Yellow Submarine.

Shakespeare liked tragedies funny and comedies melancholic - even threatening. So, I found myself missing more of the sadness, the rage and even the desire for revenge lurking beneath the seemingly harmless jokes. We like sad songs, even at happy times. We know humor can cut deeper than a sword. And even a play that turns shipwreck into marriage can't erase loss entirely.

Joseph Campana is a professor of English and literature at Rice University.
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Two Houston properties, one a popular music venue and the other a mansion in the city's poshest neighborhood, have been added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The newly restored Heights Theater at 339 W. 19th and the Charles W. and Mary Lillian Duncan House on Inverness Drive in River Oaks are now on the lengthy list of historic places worthy of preservation.

Heights Theater

Edwin Cabaniss bought the 90-year-old Heights Theater building with the hope of adding a venue to Houston's thriving music scene. He also had an eye on reviving the history of the building itself.

"We have been working toward this since we purchased the building in 2015. It's a long and tedious process but well worth the wait," Cabaniss said Monday. "The federal designation assures that the theater will be preserved in perpetuity. We could not be more pleased."

Built in 1929, with a Mission-style stucco facade, and updated in 1935, with an Art Moderne-style exterior, the Heights Theater was heavily damaged by arson in 1969 and sat vacant for years until it was revived in the late '80s as an art space and event center.

"In doing our research, we discovered that the original four buildings at this location date back to the late 1800s. There was an outdoor theater, a beer hall, a boarding house and even a hospital," said Cabaniss, who also owns the Kessler Theater, a performing-arts venue in the Winnetka Heights area of Dallas.

The Heights Theater hosted its first official concert in November and has an eclectic slate of shows scheduled over the next month, including Roger Creager, Marcia Ball, Rhett Miller, James McMurtry and Cory Morrow.

Duncan House

The house on Inverness Drive was built in 1947 for the Duncan family. Charles W. Duncan (1890-1978) and his brother founded Duncan Coffee. His son Charles W. Duncan Jr. later founded Maryland Club Coffee in Houston; when it was bought by Coca-Cola Bottling Co., he became president of Coca-Cola. (He also served as deputy secretary of defense, 1977-1979, and as secretary of energy, 1979-1981, in President Jimmy Carter's administration.)

The historic home, currently owned by attorney and CPA Carol Cantrell and appraised at $3.3 million, has five bedrooms and seven bathrooms; it is one of several post-World War II homes on the registry in Houston.

The house is an example of Colonial Revival architecture, derived from Georgian Colonial, with a side-gable roof. The house is one of the few remaining examples of builder J. Leon Osborn's work in River Oaks. Like many of the Period Revival homes in River Oaks built in the 1920s through the 1950s, the Duncan House balanced community planning with architecture and landscape architecture; C.C. Pat Fleming designed the grounds.

Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the register is overseen by the National Park Service. The goal is to preserve America's unique and groundbreaking architecture and history.

There are more than 1.5 million buildings and properties on the list.

Other notable Houston-area properties on the registry include the Astrodome, the Heights State Bank Building (the resurrected music venue Rockefeller's), Houston City Hall, the Julia Ideson Building and the Kennedy Bakery, which is better known as historic watering hole La Carafe in Market Square.
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A visit from the Material Girl, a long-gone look at a seven-lane I-10 and more make up this month's look at Houston in July 1987.

* Thousands turned out to see Madonna at the Astrodome during the "Who's That Girl" tour. A far fewer, but still sizable, number descended upon Hobby Airport for her arrival, too.

Marty Racine covered the concert for the Chronicle. Here's what he wrote on July 26, 1987.

Dreams do come true for an ambitious material girl in these here United States in the 1980s, and despite the hoopla, Madonna bottled and sold her dreams and pulled it off with convincing style in her much-anticipated Astrodome concert Friday night, the 10th stop of her 16-city American tour. The bigger-than-life show was excellent in pacing, choreography and lighting. Musically, however, this synthesized disco-dance stuff was a hair more interesting than its usual limitations. Pop is a very strange animal these days when a movie star sells this much music.

[...]

It was a look-at-me crowd, all gussied up in sharp haircuts and bright red lipstick and high heels - but outside of the few parental entourages not all that different in age or style than the typical arena-rock clientele. Teen-age girls, dreaming those Big Dreams that do come true, made up a large portion, posing the question: Has there ever been a bigger, more popular female role model to the girls in pop music?

You've got all day to consider.

[...]

She started with "Open Your Heart" and then dealt equally with material from her three studio albums (Madonna, Like A Virgin and "True Blue") and the "Who's That Girl" soundtrack. "Love Makes The World Go Round" was a highlight, as was "Causing A Commotion," "Papa Don't Preach" (done to a disjointed video presentation), "Material Girl," "Like A Virgin" and the double encore consisting of "La Isla Bonita," "Who's That Girl?" and a long, drawn-out Big Ending to "Holiday".

The Marilyn Monroe shtick? Not really evident. Up close, in person and on either of two video screens, Madonna looked - makeup or the strain of success? - quite older than her 26 years. There was a world- weary look about her, something behind the makeup that said: Unlike Marilyn or unlike the fallen victims of '60s rock such as Janis Joplin (this is the '80s, after all) this girl knows what she wants, well, indeed, has obtained it. Without shame. Without rationalizing. We are what we own. Perhaps that headlong plunge into "maturity" is one attraction for teen-agers, growing up as fast as they can, vamping in the mirror.

The result is a respectable naughtiness. Madonna's provocative and wholesome at the same time, nice and naughty, strong and vulnerable.

While she was outfitted at first in a risque black body suit, and while the glamorous - almost unattainable - side of femininity was on display, Madonna refrained from any cheap or low-grade sexual theatrics that could have subverted the show's pacing and its single-minded commitment to Dance. She swirled and strutted like the most glamorous whippet in a disco, coasted on back and forth on the kind of moving sidewalks found in large airports, played with the music, the microphone, the dancers, the boys in the band with perfect timing.

There is a charisma about her. She's a star. Thousands say so. It's the Hollywood Dream for a girl from Michigan. She oughta be in pictures.

*To be honest, I never knew Oshman's owned Abercrombie & Fitch in the late 1970s and 1980s. This month in 1987, the Houston-based company sold it to an investor group.

From Daniel Benedict's July 24 article:

[Richard L. Bockart, Oshman's vice president and treasurer] said Thursday that the sale has nothing to do with financing Oshman's expansion into the Northeast through a new chain of stores to be called Superstores USA, the first of which is to open in Princeton, N.J., next month.

"We had a good offer," Bockart said. He declined to say whether the investors were buying all 27 A&F stores. Three stores are in Houston, and two are in Dallas. Nine are in the Northeast, six are in California and the rest are scattered in throughout the Midwest and West.

Through a licensing arrangement, there are two A&F stores in Japan and one in Canada, but those outlets are not owned by Oshman's.

Oshman's bought the rights to the Abercrombie & Fitch trade name in 1978 from First National Bank of Chicago, which had been A&F's largest lender until the company closed in 1977.

* "Does the future lie in light rail?"

That's what a Chronicle headline asked on July 19, 1987. As Metro leaders weighed a light rail option connecting downtown and west Houston, some wondered if the future actually rested in bus transportation instead.

From Bill Mintz's article:

The average employed Houstonian drives about 15 miles to work each day, and almost 90 percent of the commuters make the trip alone, in their own cars, to jobs spread throughout the city. Others ride in car pools and van pools.

Only 4 percent responding to a recent poll said they ride a bus.

This insistence on staying buckled in private cars limits the Metropolitan Transit Authority's ability to fulfill its objective of helping to improve mobility - especially relieving peak hour congestion.

Metro planners say their proposal to build a 16-mile light rail loop to tie together 69 miles of freeway busways and local bus routes to serve four principal work places is a unique Houston answer to the dilemma of providing mass transit in a sprawling, modern city.

And Metro General Manager Alan Kiepper said the growing patronage of the Metro system shows Houstonians are willing to use a convenient, reliable transit system. As transit patronage declined in most American cities, Metro enjoyed a 52 percent increase in ridership since 1982.

But some political leaders and transportation experts continue to ask if a rail system is the wisest way to spend limited transportation resources.

"I don't believe the taxpayers of Harris County can afford a rail system at this time," Harris County Judge Jon Lindsay said. But he did not rule out rail in Houston in the future - "when the density is there to support it."

Texas Highway Commission member Robert C. Lanier said, "I think we do have a good bus system, and I am not trying to say rail would be of no value. My basic reservation is that nationwide, transit takes a little more than 3 percent of the city trips and the streets and thoroughfares carry a far greater percentage.

"At a time when the city is cutting back on maintenance for streets and thoroughfares, I'm not sure starting an expensive rail system is a wise way to spend money."

[...]

The Metro staff plan is a "system connector" rail line linking Metro's freeway transitways and local bus routes to four major employment centers with a total of about 300,000 daytime workers - downtown, Galleria-Post Oak, Greenway Plaza and the Texas Medical Center.

The proposed route begins at the Northwest Transit Center, planned for the northwest corner of the interchange of the Katy Freeway and the West Loop. The route runs adjacent to the West Loop and on street right-of-way on North Post Oak until it crosses over the Southwest Freeway. It then runs east on railroad right-of-way south of the freeway, crosses the freeway again near Newcastle and runs on street right-of-way on Richmond Avenue to Main Street, where it extends north to Buffalo Bayou and south to the Texas Medical Center.

The connector route - whether bus or rail - will link transitways that are open, under construction or planned on the North, Northwest, Katy, Southwest and Gulf freeways. No rail or busway is planned for the Katy Freeway between the West Loop and downtown because its five lanes are expected to remain relatively free of congestion until 2010 or later.
Houston Police Department officials acknowledge scant progress in their efforts to curb illegal sexual acts in a troubled spot of Memorial Park.

A remote corner of the bike path, just beyond the tree line, remains a place where men are regularly caught masturbating and are arrested for indecent exposure, police said.

"It's become such a well-known, common place that people know exist. Unfortunately, it's one of those places where we're going to have to reinforce enforcement all the time," said Jodi Silva, a spokeswoman for Houston Police Department.

Those involved in the criminal exposure are men, police said, typically professionally dressed, clean-cut and showing up at the edge of the bike path during lunch time.

EXPOSURE HOUSTON (VIDEO BELOW): Suspect Charged, Other Victims Sought in Indecent Exposure Investigation

"A guy will be just walking, or sitting in his car, and another guy will follow him and they disappear into the woods. That's when our officer will follow and look for guys just standing around looking at leaves," Vice Sgt. Tony Gracia said. "It's regular Joe Citizen on his lunch break and going to the area and masturbating."

A Class B misdemeanor

Gracia, who has served as a Houston police officer for 26 years, said most men who go there communicate with each other online and will warn each other to stay away from the area if arrests have been on the rise. Then, after some time passes, they'll start showing up again.

The offense is a Class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a maximum fine of $2,000. That doesn't seem to discourage offenders. Moreover, park visitors and people living nearby aren't asking enforcement officials to devote more time to combating public masturbation. Silva said other priorities, such as responding to burglaries and vehicle robberies, matter more to them.

At least six people have been arrested for indecent exposure in the last six months, Silva said.

The last high-profile case goes back to 2013, when seven men were arrested in one day.

One was a Harris County sheriff's deputy, Christopher Toomey, who had been a deputy for four years when he was nabbed. Police had operated stings on Picnic Loop for years before that, Gracia said.

One reason he suspects men continue to use a forested spot just feet from cyclists and family picnics despite monthly arrests is "the thrill of getting caught."

Apprehensions go smoothly

He said students, a pastor and even an FBI agent have been among those charged in recent years.

When they are caught, he said, the apprehension goes smoothly, they don't resist, and the first thing they say is, "I'm married."

Marcus Cabrera, a Spring Branch resident, was asked about the park's illegal sex as he headed out for an afternoon hike Wednesday. He was surprised to hear that public masturbators meet just yards from where he stood.

"I want to keep my eyes open and report anything I see right away," he said. "I'm really glad to know that now. I don't think it's going to be safe; you never know."

But Gracia says in his experience the men involved have not threatened or attempted to lure anyone not participating in the sexual encounter. Of course, he said, anything is possible. So he simply advises people to be aware of their surroundings in Memorial Park.

Dave Moffat, of Montrose, was cooling off from a bike ride around the loop at a picnic table shaded by a sprawling tree at the trailhead. He said if he had kids he would be more concerned, but he still feels safe in the park.

"But you never know what's going on around you," he said. "I was just sitting here enjoying music."
WASHINGTON - Scott Pruitt has repeated a particular line again and again since becoming the head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

"The future ain't what it used to be at the EPA," he's fond of saying.

As it turns out, the past may not be what it once was, either.

In an obscure corner of the Ronald Reagan International Trade Building, a debate is underway about how to tell the story of the EPA's history and mission.

A miniature museum that began as a pet project of former EPA administrator Gina McCarthy has come under scrutiny. It features the agency's work over 4 1/2 decades, with exhibits topics such as regulating carbon dioxide emissions and the Paris climate accord. The Obama administration championed such efforts, but President Donald Trump's policies are at odds with them.

Now the museum, which opened just days before President Barack Obama left office, is being reworked to reflect the priorities of the Trump administration, an effort that probably will mean erasing part of the agency's history.

Unlike other stark changes that have taken place at the EPAsince Trump took office, the museum overhaul has not been primarily driven by political appointees. Rather, some of the same career staff members who worked on the exhibits under the Obama administration informed Trump appointees about the museum and the fact that parts of it were not in line with their vision.

"I wanted to make sure that they knew it existed," said Nancy Grantham, a career public affairs employee at EPA, who has toured the exhibit with at least one Trump official. "That's just how I operate. I don't like to be surprised, and I assume others don't like to be, either."

Most people outside the agency aren't even aware of the one-room exhibit just outside the entrance to the EPA Credit Union, which cost more than $300,000 to assemble and is open to the public each weekday, free of charge. McCarthy cut the ribbon with a giant pair of scissors on Jan. 17, joined by a handful of former and current EPA officials and staff members.

There is no question that parts of the museum reflect an Obama administration-centric narrative. It includes a panel dedicated to the 2009 "endangerment finding," in which then-EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson concluded that the agency was legally obligated to control greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change because they threatened public health. A separate panel features a Dr. Seuss cartoon-themed poster with the message, "Join the Lorax And Help Protect the Earth From Global Warming."

The Paris agreement, in which nearly 200 nations pledged to curb their carbon output in December 2015, also has a display panel, which notes that the "EPA is leading global efforts to address climate change." In June, Trump announced plans to withdraw from the international agreement.

The Clean Power Plan, Obama's signature effort to regulate carbon emissions and combat climate change, also is prominently displayed. "The CPP shows the world that the United States is committed to address climate change," the exhibit reads.

Trump signed an executive order in March ordering his deputies to scrap the Clean Power Plan.

On a tour of the exhibit Thursday, a career official said that these climate displays are slated to be removed, adding that the agency may add a display of coal to the museum.

Grantham acknowledged that the climate panels probably will be altered, and possibly shelved, although she stressed that no final decisions had been made. "It should be no surprise that there may be changes," she said.

She also said there is interest in beefing up sections of the museum that are priorities for the new administration, such as the Superfund program and a bipartisan 2016 law regulating new and existing chemicals that some of Pruitt's deputies helped write. She said the administration also may add examples of EPA staff members working on agriculture to a section focused on agency employees in the field.

Every past EPA administrator is mentioned in the museum, with one exception: Anne Gorsuch, mother of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, whose short and tumultuous tenure as President Ronald Reagan's first EPA administrator was marked by sharp budget cuts, rifts with career EPA employees and a scandal over the mismanagement of the Superfund cleanup program. She resigned in 1983.

Grantham said Gorsuch will be added to the exhibit.

The EPA museum began as the brainchild of McCarthy, who visited pollution-themed museums in Japan a year ago. Meeting with other environmental ministers from G-7 nations in Toyama, she toured the prefecture's Itai-itai Disease Museum, which is focused on a pollution-related illness that began in the area a century ago.

Back in Washington, staff members set about making her vision a reality, with the goal of having it up and running before the Obama administration left office.

Albert Stanley "Stan" Meiburg, who served as the EPA's acting deputy administrator at the end of Obama's second term and worked at the agency for nearly 40 years, said he was struck by the fact that other agencies ranging from the Energy Department to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had exhibits on site that told their stories.

"EPA had nothing," he recalled. "Nothing!"

McCarthy "gave us the impetus" to do the exhibit, Meiburg said, although she did not oversee its development.

"We thought, 'Now's the opportunity to do it, and to do it in the way that told the history of the agency," he said, noting that the EPA had that space under lease and "could modify it at very little cost."

Meiburg said "the focus of it was the story of the agency" and "it was not something driven by a particular agenda." But he added, "We wanted to try to get this opened on Gina's watch."

After identifying a space they could use for the museum, EPA employees contracted with the Smithsonian for advice on gathering artifacts and setting up exhibits. They also contacted the EPA Alumni Association.

That group shared a 50-page document it had put together, titled "50 years of environmental progress," according to Phyllis Flaherty, an alumni association board member who worked at the EPA from 1976 to 2011. She said the document provided a sort of outline for what to include in the exhibit. The group also contributed a video for an exhibit about the EPA's role in the anthrax episode on Capitol Hill in 2001, as well as historical photos and the text of oral history interviews they had done.

Linda St. Thomas, a spokeswoman for the Smithsonian, said the institution prepared the elements of the exhibit, such as the display panels, but had no input on its underlying content.

Christopher Sellers, an environmental historian at Stony Brook University who has visited the exhibit, questioned in an interview why the federal government would want to alter it so soon.

"It gives a good sense of what EPA has done over the last 40 years of its existence," he said. "It really explains what's at stake in having an agency like the EPA and having environmental laws to begin with."

It's unclear how much taxpayer money, if any, it will take to overhaul the EPA museum to reflect the views of the Trump administration. Grantham said $45,000 remains in the agency's contract with the Smithsonian, but the costs would depend in part on how many changes ultimately get made. The money must be committed by Sept. 30, because it does not carry over to the new fiscal year, which will start Oct. 1.

In the meantime, to make sure the current administration is represented, EPA officials have installed a large poster board in the museum, highlighting the agency's new "back to basics" agenda. It features a picture of Pruitt shaking hands with coal miners at a Pennsylvania mine and promises "sensible regulations for economic growth."
The country's ongoing drug epidemic, which claimed more than 59,000 lives last year, has left its trace on just about every aspect of American life: politics, religion, family, justice, birth and death.

While most of us are familiar, by now, with the annual drumbeat of official statistics from places like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, online search data offers a window into facets of the epidemic that traditional numbers aren't great at catching.

One of those is drug withdrawal, the often extremely unpleasant symptoms experienced by people dependent on a substance - whether it's heroin, marijuana, alcohol or something else - when they try to stop using it.

Data from Google Trends shows that search interest in all topics related to drug withdrawal has roughly doubled over the past decade. Some unknown percentage of these searches are probably from curious people simply looking to learn more about what happens when a person stops using drugs. But several pieces of evidence suggest that these figures reflect a sizeable number of searches from drug users themselves.

For starters, the searches are concentrated in the regions where we know, from mortality data, that the drug epidemic is raging most fiercely.

In 2015, for instance, the states where people were most likely to search for drug withdrawal on Google included West Virginia, Kentucky, New Hampshire and Ohio - the four states with the greatest incidence of overdose death that year, according to the CDC.

Other drug-related search topics, such as substance abuse, addiction or even opioids, don't correlate nearly as well with the mortality data. That suggests that drug withdrawal searches are more closely linked to people actually using drugs.

Another piece of evidence suggesting the withdrawal searches track actual use patterns is their seasonal fluctuation.

Year after year, these searches follow a similar pattern. Interest in withdrawal is highest at the start of the year, perhaps due to drug-dependent individuals making resolutions to quit using.

But interest drops off sharply, inching up again slowly until it hits a secondary mid-summer peak. Vacations, nice weather and a relative reprieve from the mental stressors that make life difficult may induce some users to try quitting when the days are long.

Interest in withdrawal declines through the end of the year, particularly crashing during the weeks of Christmas and Thanksgiving. The holidays are a well-known trigger for substance use in many people, and the lack of interest in withdrawal at the end of the year suggests that many people aren't mentally in a place to quit using while dealing with the memories, emotions and stresses of the holiday season.

If we accept that the Google withdrawal data track actual drug use, what are the implications? First, that the beginning of the year represents a crucial opportunity for friends and family members to offer support to loved ones trying to kick the habit. Treatment providers, support groups and public health agencies may want to consider upping their outreach efforts at this time of year, the better to help people struggling with quitting who may not have otherwise have support at home.

Second, Google provides another potentially valuable tool for public health experts: real-time search data at the metropolitan area level. In the past week, for instance, that data showed a spike in withdrawal searches centered around the town of Alpena, Mich. Searches for "overdose" are spiking in Ohio and Maine.

What's happening this week in Alpena; or Youngstown, Ohio; or Presque Isle, Maine? Public health researchers may be able to use these numbers to track drug outbreaks as they happen. Researchers in Europe, for instance, are experimenting with using Google data to predict methamphetamine-related crime.

Finally, along with the mortality figures from last year, the even more recent withdrawal interest numbers show absolutely no indication of abating. Seasonal patterns aside, the interest in drug withdrawal in July 2017 is currently the highest it's ever been in Google's 13-plus years of data. That suggests that we still may be far away from turning a corner on the current epidemic.
It's the last thing anyone wants: to release the sole suspect in the slaying of an 11-year-old stabbed to death on his way home from school.

And yet, it is what some of us have wanted for a long time.

For prosecutors to follow the evidence where it leads, to trust the law over hunches and tunnel vision, to do the right thing even if it is the hardest thing.

And what is harder than looking into the eyes of Josue Flores' parents and telling them that the man jailed for more than a year in their child's murder must be set free because DNA and blood evidence showed no connection to the crime?

That's what prosecutors in Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg's office did earlier this month, standing on the front porch of the Flores family's home in near Northside.

"It was quite a blow," Tom Berg, first assistant district attorney, said in describing the family's response. "It was a visceral blow. You could see it. The word we use is golpe in Spanish."

But it was the only choice after long-awaited forensic results failed to link Andre Jackson to the May 2016 murder. Not so long ago, lacking forensics might not have been a deal-breaker. Prosecutors might have still cobbled together a case from circumstantial threads and conjured motives.

At least then someone would be behind bars. At least the victim's family and the public could sleep at night believing that justice had been done. At least.

Now, police are back where they began - hunting for a suspect, although Police Chief Art Acevedo was still insisting Thursday that Jackson is "more than likely" the right guy. Prosecutors don't seem to share that opinion, although the possibility, no matter how slight, weighs on their minds.

"We're governed by law and not speculation," Berg told me in a phone interview. "We can't deprive people of liberty based on fear alone."

The DA's office couldn't ignore problems in the case, Berg said. Josue was stabbed around 20 times, requiring the killer to be close to the victim, but not a trace of the boy's DNA was found on Jackson. Even with surveillance video, other evidence against Jackson was lacking, Berg said.

It's a hard case to make, and it was the second suspect police arrested who didn't pan out.

"We've lost a year," Berg said, revealing frustration that was only exacerbated by the delays in getting the DNA results from a lab run by the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Police, he added, "need to shake all the trees and get people to start talking."

Demanding answers

That's exactly what the police chief says his department is doing. Acevedo faced a skeptical crowd Thursday night in near Northside as residents packed a meeting to demand answers on Josue's case and other public safety matters in an area plagued by vagrancy and drugs.

Acevedo, who was Austin's police chief at the time of Josue's slaying, fielded questions alongside Ogg, also relatively new to her post, state Sen. Sylvia Garcia, and representatives of other agencies, including the Harris County Sheriff's Department, Metro and Houston ISD.

People wanted to know how they could feel safe now that anyone can be a suspect. They wanted details on the case, and about the DNA collected.

They wanted to know Jackson's whereabouts and whether he was given a lie detector test, and what police were doing to gather more information on him.

One asked why police still consider Jackson a suspect. The chief wouldn't say, refusing to answer specific questions he said could jeopardize the investigation.

Afterward, I pressed Acevedo about whether continuing to focus on Jackson might blind investigators to other possibilities.

"Just because we think he's a good suspect doesn't mean that we're not dusting everything off and making sure we're not missing anything," he said. "That crime occurred in a very public space, and I'm convinced there are people out there who still haven't come forward. I told my team let's not just focus on this person. Let's focus on the crime."

Residents thanked officials for showing up and seemed touched by Acevedo's invitations to e-mail or call him directly with concerns, but disappointment remained, along with uncertainty that the crime would ever be solved.

"I feel like they dropped the ball. I feel like they took too long," said Stella Mireles, who started a Safe Walk Home neighborhood watch program after Josue's death.

Carmen Nuncio, a longtime Houston ISD volunteer, still had so many questions.

"Why did they arrest the first one? Why did they arrest the second one? I don't get it," she told me. "You either did it or you didn't. I do want them to get the right person, but this family needs closure."

Not easy but honorable

John-Paul Cortez, an assistant principal at Northside High School, seemed more patient with the process. He said he has tried in recent days to explain Jackson's release to young people upset by the DA's decision.

"I said, 'think about it. They knew that everybody would hate them if they let him go, but they knew he wasn't the right one,' " he said. "This is what we teach them in class. Sometimes, the legal system is not perfect. Sometimes, it's not great, but you have to have trust and faith that it's going to work out."

That's what the district attorney asked the worried crowd to do Thursday night.

"Just know," Ogg said, "the job of seeking justice is not easy, but it is honorable."

We all know this. This case is proof.
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Each time a security alert from Lone Star College lit up Cheryl Longa's cellphone last spring, she felt a wave of anxiety, even though her daughter's dual-credit classes are online only.

"We're trying to avoid going on campus," Longa said. "She's only 16. That's just another world."

Longa's daughter is among tens of thousands of dual-credit high school students who enroll in Texas community college classes each year to earn cheap credits and acclimate to campus life.

But the state's campus carry law, which Texas community colleges must enact on Tuesday, reveals complications that emerge when the line between high school and college blurs. This fall, kids may sit in classes next to an adult student who's legally carrying a concealed handgun - even as it is illegal in Texas to carry on grade-school property.

The law, Longa said, is just "another good reason" why she enrolled her homeschooled daughter online-only for dual-credit courses.

Universities last August began abiding by Senate Bill 11, the law that allows license holders to carry concealed handguns on college campuses, while two-year schools had until this year to determine how they would meet the state mandate. Could faculty make private offices gun-free? What about labs?

Community colleges also had to determine what to do in classrooms that primarily or exclusively serve minors, a growing demographic on these campuses as older adults can more easily find work in a recovering economy without an associate's or certificate.

Lone Star College, whose campuses are largely north and west of Beltway 8, is a telling example of this demographic shift. In fall 2012, less than 10 percent of Lone Star's student body was dual-credit students. By last fall, the number of dual-credit students had more than doubled to 13,089, representing close to 18 percent of the student body across the system. The proportion's rise has outpaced that of Houston Community College.

"That throws a very large and difficult variable into the mix," said Darrell Lovell, a political science professor at Lone Star who has begun analyzing the implementation of campus carry across the state. "How do you deal with facilities management, how do you deal with exclusionary zones, when you have 15-, 16-, 17-year-olds on campus? They don't have their own cafeteria."

Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a five-page ruling in November that community colleges may not totally block handguns from campuses that enroll minors in a way that undermines the law.

Still, he acknowledged that the schools could establish "reasonable rules" and take student ages into account when they identify campus gun-free zones.

"Such rules could prohibit concealed handguns in specific classrooms and campus areas at times where there may be a congregation of minors, as well as specific rooms where child-care services are provided," he wrote.

More Information What is an exclusion zone? Lone Star and other Texas campuses identified hundreds of rooms or campus areas where concealed handguns are prohibited. Lone Star has 230 rooms, labs and other campus places identified as gun-free zones. They include: Laboratories with certain gases Child care facilities on campus Locker rooms and other changing areas Any place that treats patients Classrooms that exclusively serve minors, like the charter iSchool and Aldine ISD facilities. For information, see lonestar.edu/campuscarry See More Collapse

'Not an exclusion zone'

Lone Star, which is one of the biggest community college systems in the state by enrollment, has interpreted that to block concealed handguns from areas of campus exclusively used by high school students. Aldine ISD, for example, has a campus in Lone Star's Victory Center in Greater Inwood, and a charter school occupies rooms in the University Park campus in Cypress Crossing. But concealed handguns will be permitted in the lobbies, stairwells and common spaces of those buildings.

"When they come on our campus, they're college students. That's not an exclusion zone," said Rand Key, Lone Star's police commissioner and chief executive officer. "Because if we did that, that would be us trying to skirt around the spirit of the law. The Legislature wants guns to be allowed."

Police chief Paul Willingham said he did not expect enrollment to drop following the law's implementation because all state colleges must allow handguns on campus.

Incidents called 'rare'

Willingham said four-year universities have seen "barely even a blip" after campus carry was implemented despite the protest that raged before the law's implementation.

At least 20 Texas universities had no gun discharge incidents or reports of intimidation with a firearm in their first academic year under the law, according to a Houston Chronicle review of university records.

More than a dozen had at least one report, including aggravated robbery, an accidental discharge in a residence hall and disorderly conduct.

Willingham called these incidents "rare." "It hasn't really affected the general safety of the campuses."

Still, some faculty have continued to protest. Three University of Texas at Austin professors, who argued the law had a chilling effect on their ability to speak freely, last week appealed a federal judge's dismissal of their campus carry lawsuit to the Fifth Circuit. U.S. District Court Judge Lee Yeakel tossed the lawsuit in July, finding that the professors lacked standing by failing to prove an actual injury.

Studying law's effects

And academics have begun to pore through interviews, crime data and implementation strategies, researching how campus carry has and has not changed university life.

Nathaniel Cradit, who recently earned his doctorate in higher, adult and lifelong education at Michigan State University, interviewed about a dozen professors at a Texas campus dubbed "Metropolitan University" for his dissertation.

At the campus, which he could not identify because of the study's confidentiality, one professor avoided meeting with a "combative" student out of fear of personal safety.

Another moved office hours to a public space to avoid private conversations with a student who may be carrying. A third said she needed to be "a little more cautious" when she discussed Sigmund Freud and femininity in the classroom. He plans to survey faculty and staff widely after these results.

"It does seem pretty clear that this is influencing the academic conversation and the intellectual life of the university," he said.

Some spaces gun-free

More than 1,200 people came to Lone Star's open forums as a committee led by Key and Willingham developed a final policy on the law, the administrators said.

Willingham said he had to explain to attendees that "mixed" environments of high school and college students "cannot be gun free."

"We like our kids to be protected, and in public schools they can be," said John Burghduff, a Lone Star math professor who's been a vocal critic of campus carry. "We have a superb police department, but the fact of the matter is, their fellow students, their older students around them, are going to have the right to have a gun. Parents are really going to need to think about if they feel comfortable with their kids in that situation."

Some parents of dual-credit students, to be sure, support campus carry and how colleges are implementing Paxton's opinion.

"In this day and age, you're a sitting duck if you don't have some means," said Cheri Weeks of Plantersville, whose daughter attended Lone Star as a dual-credit student before matriculating at College of the Mainland in Texas City. "It only takes one person to be able to change the outcome of the event."

Lone Star eventually identified more than 230 spaces on its campuses across the region - including cosmetology labs, testing centers and child care centers - that will be gun-free zones, which the law permits. About 60 others, like recital halls and theaters, will block guns at certain times.

'Anything can happen'

Key explained the nature of these "exclusion zones" and the law itself at campus hearings.

"As we moved from campus to campus and forum to forum, the anxiety level of all this, you could just see it going down," Key said. "They had a clearer understanding of what it meant to have a license to carry."

During those forums, he couldn't help but remember the campus shooting that wounded three people at the North Harris branch in 2013.

"If we were to have another event like that," he said, "we don't want a lot of people pulling out their guns trying to help the police."

Some of the law's supporters, however, say that layer of personal safety is exactly why they want to carry.

Lisa Nguyen, 21, takes most of her Lone Star classes online, but she comes to the school's North Harris campus to take exams at night. She said she may get her license after the law is implemented.

"Anything can happen," she said, adding that visitors to campus do not need to identify themselves as outsiders. "It's not like middle school or high school."
First, they made up the name of a fake police agency. Then, they slapped together a website.

Finally, they filled out a form nicely asking the U.S. Department of Defense for a few military-grade supplies, and a week later they had a $1.2 million stash of night-vision goggles and pipe bomb trainers.

Luckily, it wasn't MS-13, Tango Blast or any other gang of gun-crazy criminals behind this bold subterfuge. It was the Government Accountability Office.

The sting was part of an assessment designed to test internal controls in the DoD's excess property program, which allows the feds to hand over extra military equipment and supplies to local law enforcement agencies for free.

Since 1991, the Law Enforcement Support Office program  run by the DoD's Defense Logistics Agency - has doled out more than $6 billion of property, including everything from mine-resistant vehicles and ammo to refrigerators and sofas.

Houston Police have scored everything from motorized carts to trucks to night vision sniperscope - more than $2.7 million of goods just since 2014, according to data compiled by the University of Idaho's Steven Radil. League City police stocked up on piles of rifles, while Freeport, Pearland, Richmond and Alvin all got mine-resistant vehicles.

Sometimes called the "1033 program" in reference to the section of law authorizing it, the federal hand-outs came under fire in 2014, when tear gas-tossing police in Ferguson showed up in armored vehicles in response to peaceful protests over the police shooting of Michael Brown.

Two years later, the National Defense Authorization Act charged the GAO with assessing the program's controls - and the results were damning, as outlined in a 76-page report released this month.

GAO investigators found the DLA did not routinely verify ID when police - or faux police - pick up their supplies. And on top of that, the agency doled out extra supplies when the GAO showed up to get its order.

"Furthermore," the report notes, "although we were approved to receive over 100 items and the transfer documentation reflects this amount, we were provided more items than we were approved for."

While the order didn't appear to include mine-resistant vehicles or AR-15s, it did include some potentially dangerous items, like simulated rifles and simulated pipe bombs, which could potentially be lethal "if modified with commercially available items," the report notes.

The assessment also looked at specific states' uses of equipment obtained through the program. In Texas, for example, police agencies in San Marcos and Hays County reported using mine-resistant vehicles to rescue more than 600 stranded people from rising floodwaters in 2015.

The GAO report offered a series of recommendation for the program's improvement, including a fraud risk assessment and bolstered internal controls after the approval process.

Although the shocking sting operation flew a bit under the radar in some quarters, the ACLU certainly took notice.

"Honestly, you can't make this stuff up," ACLU legislative counsel Kanya Bennett wrote in a blog post.
Emilio Blas Olivo, a 69-year-old Texan born in Weslaco, ended up in a deportation cell for three months after he returned home from a visit with relatives in Reynosa in the summer of 2014.

He presented both his birth certificate and a social security card to U.S. border officers but was detained anyway and then deported to Mexico.

In a lawsuit filed this year in the Southern District of Texas, Olivo claims immigration authorities lacked the right to arrest him and violated his rights by failing to give him due process after he repeatedly told them he was an American.

Olivo is not alone.

In the past six years, at least 1,714 other people were targeted for deportation by U.S. immigration agents despite the fact they presented paperwork, testimony or some other claim of U.S. citizenship to an immigration judge, according to new data on immigration cases that the U.S. government was forced to release through Freedom of Information Act requests.

More than a third eventually won their freedom. But few had attorneys to help - since detained immigrants have no rights to appointed counsel unlike criminal defendants. Hundreds of those who were eventually freed spent months locked inside Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers, according to immigration court data on cases closed from January 2011 to June 2017.

The records were provided to the Houston Chronicle by the Deportation Research Clinic at Northwestern University, which obtained the data from the U.S. Department of Justice's Executive Office for Immigration Review.

Jackie Stevens, a Northwestern University professor who runs the deportation clinic, has assisted in researching the cases of more than 150 people with citizenship or citizenship claims who were forced to fight deportation in Texas and other states - including Lorenzo Palma, who was released from detention last year by a Houston-based immigration judge based on evidence Stevens helped gather Palma's attorney gather about Palma's U.S.-born grandfather.

Stevens said she believes that even more American citizens will be wrongfully arrested as the pace of detentions and deportations continues to increase under policies approved by President Donald Trump.

In an interview, Stevens said she believes the new immigration court data undercounts citizenship claims and represents a small sample of a much bigger problem.

Nationwide, Stevens has published estimates that as many as 3,000 to 4,000 of people with citizenship claims have been wrongfully targeted in U.S. deportation dragnets each year or about one percent of all deportations.

An EOIR spokesman did not immediately respond to questions about citizenship claims or about the accuracy of codes used in the immigration court database.

Complex process

Houston immigration judges alone reported evaluating more than 60 cases involving citizenship since 2011. In most cases the legal burden fell on the person locked away and facing deportation to prove citizenship - a task that can require tracking down decades-old birth certificates or naturalization certificates relating to the detainee or his or her parents or grandparents.

The process of proving citizenship can be complex since a foreign-born baby can inherit U.S. citizenship though a citizen mother or father - as is the case with U.S. Sens. John McCain, R-Arizona, and Ted Cruz, R-Texas. A minor child whose parents naturalize also earns citizenship status. But specific requirements can vary depending on a person's birth year, parents' marital status and other factors.

In a 2011 law review, Stevens first attracted national attention by publishing an estimate that 20,000 people with citizenship claims had been wrongfully detained or deported between 2003 and 2010 under what she described as flawed U.S. immigration enforcement policies and procedures.

"But the deportation laws and regulations in place since the late 1980s have been mandating detention and deportation for hundreds of thousands of incarcerated people each year without attorneys or, in many cases, administrative hearings," she wrote in the 2011 law review article. "It would be truly shocking if this did not result in the deportation of U.S. citizens."

Pending civil lawsuit

The newly released data, gleaned from U.S. immigration court records nationwide, confirms that hundreds of people with valid U.S. citizenship or citizenship claims are regularly arrested and detained each year before being hauled before an immigration judge. But that court database excludes people whose citizenship claims went unrecorded by court officials or who were held under ICE detainers in local jails or who were swiftly deported without ever seeing an immigration judge at all.

Ricardo Garza, a naturalized U.S. citizen, is part of a group of about three dozen immigrants who have sued Dallas County in civil rights lawsuits in the Northern District of Texas claiming that Immigration and Customs Enforcement's detainer policies and procedures also violated constitutional due process rights. In Garza's case, attorneys allege Dallas County officials refused to allow him to post bond on a driving-while-intoxicated charge because he told a jailer that he was a naturalized U.S. citizen but had been born in Mexico.

Garza was then held a full month longer on an ICE hold despite having proof of citizenship, said Garza's attorney, Eric Puente.

Garza's pending civil lawsuit claims he was denied due process both by Dallas County and by ICE - though in his case his citizenship issue could have been easily settled through a check of ICE's own databases. Garza, it turned out, had already gone to immigration court back in 1999 and had obtained confirmation of his citizenship from a judge around the time his mother became a naturalized citizen, Puente said.

It took time for Garza himself to obtain proof because ICE databases are readily available to immigration agents but not to the public or even to attorneys assisting people with deportation cases.

Puente said he subsequently assisted two other wrongfully detained Texans who were denied bond under ICE holds after being arrested in Kaufman and Tarrant counties. In both cases, Puente said he was able to resolve the immigration cases by using his knowledge of the law to track down proof of citizenship - in each case derived by his clients through parents. But the process took weeks.

Puente said he filed the civil lawsuit because no mechanism exists to assist U.S. citizens like Garza who are wrongfully targeted for deportation - and he suspects citizens often are mistakenly detained by immigration agents in Texas, a state where so many people traditionally have travelled back and forth across the border to work, to give birth and to visit family and where many citizens were born abroad and later become naturalized.

"There's no due process and no hearing to address whether they had a real claim to citizenship or not," Puente said. "I can only imagine how many people get lost in the system and can never prove it, and that's what I worry about."

U.S. citizens are guaranteed the right to a court-appointed attorney under the constitution in any criminal proceeding. But immigrants with citizenship claims detained by immigration authorities in the United States do not have the right to legal assistance, not even to fight the threat of imminent deportation.

Some people with valid citizenship rights have been deported anyway.

That's what happened to Olivo Segura, the 69-year-old Texan. After U.S. border patrol agents wrongfully arrested him at the border in 2014, he was taken to an ICE detention center in Port Isabel where he was held for three months while government agents accused him of having another identity and of presenting someone else's social security card and Texas birth certificate.

He was then deported to Mexico, where he spent five more months before finally being able to sort out the mess and make his way home, his pending civil lawsuit says. He lost eight months' wages and his job as well as contact with family and is seeking compensation from the government.

No quick resolution

The newly released information on 1,714 citizenship claim cases shows that only about two dozen people with citizenship cases nationwide were resolved quickly.

One out of every six people with citizenship cases spent more than six months behind bars either trying to obtain documentation of their own births or naturalization, or waiting out a clunky, time-consuming court review of a more complex claim that revolved around a U.S. citizen parent or grandparent.

That process can require tracking down decades-old paperwork or affidavits from parents, grandparents and others with intimate knowledge of family members' naturalization ceremonies, family trees, births, weddings, divorces in the United States and abroad. Less than half of those with citizenship claims received legal help, the same data show.

In the past, immigration officials have taken steps to try to reduce the number of citizens who are detained by immigration agents, in part by setting up a special 800 number to address cases.

But Stevens said immigration court officials have failed to accurately track citizenship cases that she brought to the attention of immigration judges.

"I know from cross-checking known cases of people who have successfully been proven to be citizens that the dataset is woefully incomplete," she said.
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At first, Reggie Rossow Jr. didn't realize the "pop" that jarred him from his sleep and nearly rolled him off the bed was a gunshot.

It was the last thing he expected - to be lying in bed, sleeping, and get shot - especially by the officer who lives next door. Off-duty police officer Matthre Gregory McInnis is accused of doing exactly that, allegedly firing his gun by accident through his apartment's bedroom wall in Clute, 57 miles south of Houston, on Jan. 30. 2016.

McInnis, then a 25-year-old rookie with the city of Freeport, resigned within days and was quietly indicted six months later on a charge of deadly conduct, a misdemeanor punishable by a fine up to $4,000, up to one year in jail, or both. His trial is set for late October.

It's rare for officers to be indicted in shootings of unarmed civilians in Texas or elsewhere in the U.S. - even on misdemeanor charges. And few recent prosecutions have led to convictions.

Unlike two recent high-profile arrests and indictments of officers on felony murder charges in the Dallas area, McInnis' arrest was never trumpeted in a press release. Basic information on the case - one of Texas' 330 officer-involved shootings in the past 22 months - was unearthed mainly because of a historic 2015 state law that requires police departments to report certain information on officer-involved shootings for the first time. It calls for the state attorney general to collect and publish online one-page reports that reveal key details in how Texas officers use deadly force.

It's the unarmed shootings that tend to most concern experts and spark controversy and debate over reforms. Fifty-six people - one out of every six people shot - were unarmed. Among the unarmed victims, African Americans are more often shot by officers than those of other racial and ethnic groups. Rossow and 22 others - or 41 percent - were African American, while 20 were Anglos and 13 were Hispanic or Latino.

Rookie mistake

Even among all those cases, the circumstances of Rossow's shooting stand out.

Barely awake, Rossow reached around and felt blood, and figured he'd somehow been cut. He was still groggy several minutes later when McInnis knocked on the apartment door and asked Rossow's wife if something had happened. McInnis identified himself as a Freeport police officer and admitted he'd fired his weapon, Rossow said in an interview.

The bullet tunneled through Rossow's spleen, which had to be removed, leaving Rossow, then 35, susceptible to infection and inundated with $50,000 in medical bills, he said.

Records show McInnis had been a licensed officer only six weeks when the shooting occurred. According to records from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, McInnis completed the College of the Mainland's Basic Peace Officer Academy in December 2015 and was sworn into the Freeport Police Department days later.

McInnis continued living in the same apartment until he was arrested. Exactly what caused him to allegedly fire his duty weapon at the wall remains a mystery. The Freeport Police Department and Brazoria County District Attorney's office have declined comment because of the pending case against McInnis. Clute Police Capt. Diane Turner, who investigated the shooting, said McInnis did undergo a drug and alcohol test, "but neither one was a factor."

'Nobody really cares'

The charge against McInnis wasn't headline news, nor was Rossow's injury. Rossow's name never became public, he said, and coworkers assumed he just didn't shown up to work. He'd been about to start a new job and had let his health insurance lapse. He was injured through no fault of his own but was left with the bills.

Rossow, a hunter, had been around guns his whole life and had even started teaching his 10-year-old son to shoot but says the incident left physical and mental scars. He moved to another apartment to escape bad memories and got a new bed "because every time I'd try to sleep in that bed - I just couldn't sleep," he said in an interview 18 months later.

"It's just felt this whole time like nobody really cares," Rossow said.

The new reports on his and other cases have illuminated for the first time just how often unarmed people get shot by Texas police officers. It's typically shootings of the unarmed that most concern experts, law enforcement and advocates alike. Factors like mental illness, race, loose dogs, protection of property and gun-handling accidents contributed to fatal and non-fatal shootings statewide highlighted in other stories about the unarmed in this series.

Discussion about other officer-involved shooting cases already has contributed to reforms in Texas.

In October, readers were introduced to Garrett Steven McKinney, a 21-year-old shot and killed in an altercation with a Texas Department of Public Safety officer outside of a regional hospital. McKinney's family said he was there to seek mental health treatment, causing advocates to push for better training.

During the spring legislative session, lawmakers upped the required 16 hours of mental health training for all Texas peace officers to 40 as part of a law named for Sandra Bland, who died in a Waller County jail cell days in another controversial arrest and in-custody death that had received national attention.

Another story revealed that Texas departments had failed to provide information on a dozen additional fatal shootings. Lawmakers later approved fines for departments that break the law.

"Texas has the opportunity to lead the nation in transparency and accountability in policing," said the law's author, Rep. Eric Johnson, D-Dallas. "We made great strides by passing a law last session to require officer-involved shootings and peace officer injuries and deaths to be reported, but need to make sure our data is complete."

'Tough to overcome'

Statewide, very few shootings of unarmed people since September 2015 have resulted in the prosecution or even punishment of an officer.

The reasons vary. Officers, like other citizens, are permitted to use deadly force in self-defense. Peace officers in Texas are also justified in using deadly force if they believe it is immediately necessary to make or assist in making an arrest or search, or to prevent escape if they reasonably believe their life or someone else's life is in danger.

"The law, in a lot of these cases, tends to maybe favor the officers - it's tough to overcome a lot of the defenses," said former Harris County Assistant District Attorney Julian Ramirez, who oversaw reviews of several dozen officer-involved shootings annually before leaving office in early 2017. "Also, I think most people tend to be sympathetic towards officers and are going to afford their version of events, and their testimony, great weight."

Rank and fire

Across Texas, different district attorneys handle officer-involved shootings differently, though larger counties use a specialized unit for reviews. In Dallas and Harris counties, all of the cases are then presented to a grand jury, which chooses whether to indict based on any allegations of violations of Texas laws. Travis and Bexar County present only selected cases to grand juries.

Typically, police department conduct their own separate internal affairs investigations to decide whether to impose punishments for violations of policies. Often department leaders wait to make disciplinary decisions until criminal probes are complete - but they don't have to.

In March 2016, Austin police officer Geoffrey Freeman was fired for violating department rules in the fatal shooting of a naked African-American teenager running towards him.

Two months later, a grand jury declined to indict Freeman in the shooting of David Joseph, who was unarmed. Freeman appealed his termination and the city settled the dispute in December 2016, paying the officer $35,000 and classifying his termination as a "general discharge," which allowed Freeman to keep his peace officer's license.

Art Acevedo's decision as Austin police chief to fire Freeman before the grand jury probe was complete upset the local union and caused a rift between administration and rank-and-file officers.

Still, Acevedo, who is now Houston police chief, insists that it was the right thing.

"It is a freaky thing to have a naked guy running at you full speed. But freaking out is not what we want officers to do," he said in an interview. "Well-trained officers respond appropriately with the level of force that's appropriate to the totality of the circumstances."

By requiring all agencies to file shooting reports with the attorney general's office, Texas continues to stand apart from other states in transparency in officer-involved shootings, though California later adopted a similar law.

Pending cases

No federal agency tracks shootings by officers nationwide. But Philip M. Stinson, a Bowling Green State University associate professor of criminal justice, attempts to track prosecutions of police officers involved in fatal shootings on duty. There have been four so far this year, including one officer in a suburban department in Dallas County. Stinson does not track off-duty incidents, like another in a Dallas area suburb that resulted in another officer being charged with murder.

The victims in both Dallas-area cases were unarmed teenagers driving or riding in vehicles. And both officers were arrested within days.

Roy Oliver is accused of firing a rifle into a car full of teenagers driving away from a party in early May, killing Jordan Edwards, 15. The Balch Springs police officer was fired and arrested on a charge of murder by the Dallas County Sheriff's Department. In July, a grand jury indicted Oliver on one count of murder and four counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon by a public servant.

Off-duty Farmers Branch police officer Ken Johnson allegedly chased and then shot two teenagers in March 2016, killing one and wounding the other. He, too, was arrested on charges of murder and aggravated assault and fired. Both cases remain pending.

'This is different'

There was no immediate arrest after Rossow was shot in Clute early last year.

McInnis quickly resigned what had been his dream job as a police officer, his father said.

In photos from his swearing-in as an officer in December 2015 ceremony, McInnis is smiling, flanked by his father Greg McInnis and mother Irma Romero McInnis, a former Galveston County Sheriff's Department officer.

"My son is a wonderful person, and it's a terrible thing that happened," Greg McInnis said. "I pray about it every night."

Six months after McInnis shot through the apartment wall, the former officer was indicted on the misdemeanor charge. He was arrested at the same apartment complex.

The case has been delayed several times but McInnis' defense attorney lawyer Charles Adams said he rejected a plea deal and doesn't think McInnis is guilty. "This is different from your typical police shooting," Adams said.

McInnis did not respond to multiple interview requests. But some time after he was released from jail on a $15,000 bond, he left flowers and an apology note at Rossow's new apartment door one building over.

Rossow had never previously heard from McInnis or from his former police department. He's received no compensation from either to help with medical expenses. A lawyer he consulted told him he was unlikely to be able to pursue a claim since the shooting occurred when McInnis was off-duty.

Upon seeing who the gift was from, he threw it in the trash.
The Trump administration is weighing a new policy to dramatically expand the Department of Homeland Security's powers to expedite the deportations of some immigrants living in the country illegally.

Since 2004, the agency has been authorized to bypass immigration courts only for immigrants who had been living in the country illegally for less than two weeks and were apprehended within 100 miles of the border.

Under the proposal, the agency would be empowered to seek the expedited removal of immigrants apprehended anywhere in the United States who cannot prove they have lived in the country continuously for more than 90 days, according to a 13-page internal agency memo obtained by The Washington Post.

'Radical departure'

The new guidelines, if enacted, would represent a major expansion of the agency's authority to speed up deportations under President Donald Trump, who has made border security a top priority.

Two administration officials confirmed that the proposed new policy, which would not require congressional approval, is under review. The memo was circulated at the White House in May, and DHS is reviewing comments on the document from the Office of Management and Budget, according to one administration official familiar with the process who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Joanne Talbot, a DHS spokeswoman, said she had not seen the memo. She described it as a draft and emphasized that no final decisions have been made by Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly.

"The potential changes would allow DHS to more efficiently use resources to remove persons who have been illegally present for relatively brief periods of time while still observing due-process requirements," Talbot said.

Immigrant rights advocates denounced the proposed expansion of the expedited deportation authority, warning that the policy would strip more immigrants of due-process rights to seek asylum or other legal protections that would allow them to remain in the country.

"This is a radical departure from current policy and practice, which takes one giant step towards implementing Trump's deportation force across the nation," said Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center.

DHS officials disputed such characterizations, saying that the new policy would simply allow the agency to take advantage of its discretion that has been permitted under federal law for more than two decades.

Removals increased

In 1996, Congress authorized the use of expedited deportations for immigrants apprehended anywhere in the country who could not prove they had been physically present in the country two years before their apprehension.

The powers were used almost exclusively at the border, however, and in 2004 the George W. Bush administration issued guidelines stipulating that the expedited removals could be used for those apprehended within 100 miles of the border who had lived in the country fewer than 14 days.

The use of expedited removals rose substantially in the decade after the administration implemented its guidelines, spiking from about 50,000 immigrants in 2004 to 193,000 in 2013 - about 44 percent of the total number of people deported that year, according to the American Immigration Council.
SEOUL, South Korea - The United States flew two supersonic bombers over the Korean Peninsula on Sunday in a show of force against North Korea following the country's latest intercontinental ballistic missile test. The U.S. also said it conducted a successful test of a missile defense system located in Alaska.

The B-1 bombers were escorted by South Korean fighter jets as they performed a low-pass over an air base near the South Korean capital of Seoul before returning to Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, the U.S. Pacific Air Forces said in a statement.
MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin announced Sunday that the U.S. diplomatic mission in Russia must reduce its staff by 755 employees, an aggressive response to the new U.S. sanctions that seemed ripped right from the Cold War playbook and sure to increase tensions between the two capitals.

In making the announcement, Putin said that Russia had shown restraint for long enough and that the staff reduction was meant to cause real discomfort for Washington and its representatives in Moscow.

"Over 1,000 employees - diplomats and technical workers - worked and continue to work today in Russia; 755 will have to stop this activity," he said in an interview on state-run Rossiya 1 television, which published a Russian-language transcript on its website.

"That is biting," Putin said.

The measures were the harshest such diplomatic move since a similar rupture in 1986, in the waning days of the Soviet Union.

It was also a major reversal from just the beginning of this month, when Putin first met with President Donald Trump at the G-20 summit meeting in Hamburg, Germany. The Kremlin had anticipated that face-to-face meeting of two presidents would be the start of the improved ties Trump talked about during his campaign, and the initial assessment in Moscow was that the two leaders had set the stage for better relations.

But Putin said Sunday that Russia had run out of patience waiting for relations with the United States to improve.

"We waited for quite a long time that, perhaps, something will change for the better, we held out hope that the situation would somehow change," Putin said in the interview. "But, judging by everything, if it changes, it will not be soon."

'Uncalled for act'

The initial response from Washington was muted. "This is a regrettable and uncalled for act," the State Department said in a statement. "We are assessing the impact of such a limitation and how we will respond to it."

Although the reduction in U.S. diplomatic staff had been announced on Friday, in response to a law passed in Congress last week expanding sanctions against Russia, Putin's statement was the first to confirm the large number of embassy personnel involved.

Congress passed the new sanctions to punish Russia for interfering in the 2016 election, including releasing hacked emails embarrassing to Hillary Clinton's campaign.

Relations with Russia have been in a downward spiral, and Congress is also investigating the possibility of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, with Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., recently confirming that he met with a Russian lawyer linked to the government who wanted to discuss removing an earlier round of sanctions.

Putin has denied any Russian interference in the U.S. election, saying that anti-Russian sentiment in the U.S. was being used to drive an internal political battle.

He said it was important not to let actions like the new sanctions go unanswered.

Despite the sweeping size of the reduction, ordered to take effect by Sept. 1, it seemed that Putin had not entirely abandoned the idea of better ties with Trump.

Response to Congress

Analysts noted that diplomatic reductions are one of the simplest countermeasures possible. And in making the announcement, Putin noted at length areas where the U.S. could continue or expand their cooperation including space rockets, de-escalating the war in Syria and the long history of shared oil projects.

"It is the least painful response that Russia could have come up with," said Vladimir Frolov, a foreign affairs analyst and columnist. "You can scale them up and scale them down."

Analysts also considered the timing of Putin's action important, coming after Congress adopted expanded sanctions but before Trump signed them into law, as the White House has indicated he will do.

The Russian measures were announced at the most "convenient" moment, Alexander Baunov, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center, wrote on Facebook, "immediately after Congress voted in favor of new sanctions but before Trump could sign off on them." So it looks like a response to Congress and not Trump, he wrote.

Russia does have additional options to pressure U.S. interests, Putin warned, without going into details. "I hope it will not come to this," he said.

The bulk of the 755 dismissed are likely to be Russian employees of the embassy in Moscow, as well from the U.S. consulates in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok.

The U.S. Embassy in Moscow has declined to specify the number of people on its payroll in Russia, and the Russian Foreign Ministry also would not say how it arrived at its count, but the numbers seemed to indicate that there are around 1,200 people employed.

It is not clear how many Americans could be expelled, if any.

'Enormous inconvenience'

Unlike Russian diplomatic missions in the U.S., which tend not to hire Americans, the U.S. employs hundreds of Russians at the embassy who do tasks like translation, processing visa applications, cooking and driving.

"They will have to fire the Russian citizens," Frolov said. "It will create an enormous inconvenience for the U.S. mission here, essentially slowing down the work but not affecting its core functions."
J. Scott Applewhite/STF

WASHINGTON  After a historic defeat on health care last week, Texas Republican Kevin Brady and other top GOP tax writers are headed to the Reagan Ranch in California to seek inspiration for their next project: tax reform.

Brady, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has invited congressional tax writers to meet in Santa Barbara on Aug. 16 for a public event on tax reform.
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It's said a problem shared is a problem halved. That's one of the great things about friendship. But what if that problem is global poverty? You'd still be left with a huge conundrum, right?

According to the UN we now face the biggest humanitarian crisis since World War II, with Yemen, Nigeria, South Sudan and Somalia a particular focus. Faced with this seemingly insurmountable need it's easy to feel there's no antidote. I work for Tearfund, a Christian relief and development agency, often dealing with stories about heartbreaking situations. But the best bit, by far, is hearing and sharing stories of lives transforming, resilience growing and friendships strengthening in difficult circumstances.

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In September I visited Malawi, a country that gets relatively little media attention but faces monumental challenges. I witnessed friendships that bridge gaps of age, religious denomination and life experience.

Despite the four decade age gap between Maliko and Lazarus they are inseparable friends. Photo: Aaron Lewani/Tearfund

Maliko, 28, who lives in Kamangira village, is 43 years younger than his best friend Lazarus. He told how Lazarus tells him tales of an era when Malawi was a British protectorate, home to exports of tobacco, tea and groundnuts.

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"I chat with Lazarus to learn how things were done in the past. He is able to recall how life was when Malawi was called Nyasaland before we received our independence," he said.

Malawi has suffered drought for the second year running, leading to the most severe food crisis the country has faced in a decade - with 6.7 million people suffering food insecurity. Though the situation is improving, it is complex and Malawians still face daily difficulties. Today is the UN's International Day of Friendship which has made me reflect on the power of friendship I saw in the midst of great struggle, as people trusted me with stories from their lives.

Tadala and Lakelo have a strong bond despite being from different religious denominations. Photo: Aaron Lewani/Tearfund

Another unlikely pair of friends, from different Christian denominations, said they were close despite worshipping in different churches. Approximately 27% of Malawians are Protestant, 18% are Catholic, and 42% say they are of another denomination. Lakelo, 51, and Tadala, 48, said: "We just like each other. When we don't see each other we really miss one another."

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Tadala added: "She came from another village because of her marriage, we started chatting and since then we've been best friends."

It might sound naive but I couldn't believe that in a country where 65,000 children under five are in need of malnutrition treatment people were prioritising anything other than their own needs. But everywhere I looked I saw strong bonds of friendship.

Rute befriended a widow called Matilda who helps her to forget her worries. Photo: Aaron Lewani/Tearfund

One Malawian, 25-year-old Rute, told how she befriended a 62-year-old woman called Matilda who lost her husband.

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Matilda said: "I am a widow now and Rute is a friend who keeps me company and make me forgets all my worries."

Rute added: "She gives me wisdom on how to take care of my family and somehow it works."

On my trip I was graciously welcomed into the homes of some very generous people - who gave freely with the little they had to offer - extending a hand of friendship to me despite me being a complete stranger.

In a small village in the Dowa district of central Malawi I was welcomed into the home of Lyson and his wife Theresa. I remember it being a particularly hot day, but also strangely tranquil. Because of failed rains, they'd not had a good harvest and were resorting to mixing their normal maize flour with maize bran, which is what is used to feed livestock.

Lyson had little but extended a warm hand of friendship. Photo: Rhiannon Horton/Tearfund

After being introduced to his family Lyson confessed to me he hated having to use pig food to stop his children going hungry, but he had no choice. I found out he was about the same age as me. I could tell he was a gentle, sensitive man who cared deeply about his family. I like to think if time, geography and circumstances allowed, our friendship would have grown.

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Back in the UK, I was able to share his story through my work, raising awareness of his plight and that of many who are going hungry today. Six months later I heard through one of our church partners, Ministry of Hope, that Lyson and his family were doing much better. He was able to learn new farming techniques and harvested 12 bags of maize, which he hopes will last them for the next six months.

I can't personally take credit for solving Lyson's problem, or even halving it, but I know neither would be possible without a simple bond of friendship.
During the EU Referendum campaign, Michael Gove famously claimed that Britons "have had had enough of experts". The quote is frequently taken out of its full context but the message was (and still is) very clear - people feel things are being done to them not with them. This feeling was already slowly building but the whole Brexit referendum process and the subsequent inconclusive election have made people feel like they have lost control of their own lives.

A response to this challenge comes from the RSA's Ian Burbidge who says that the "consolidation of power in the hands of public service experts and institutions reinforces disempowerment and a reduce sense of personal agency". Burbidge's starting position is that our current system of government prioritisation and decision making is incapable of effectively responding to this new dynamic. I agree with him. People are not only aware that they have lost agency but are prepared to go against the expressed wishes of their elected leaders to make the point.

There has long been a serious disconnect between public service decision making and what people actually need. My view is that this starts with the gap between public service bosses (who make prioritisation and resourcing decisions) and frontline staff (who are much better placed to know what is actually needed). This old fashioned command and control management is encapsulated by the concept of New Public Management, a tool which assumes a linear relationship between inputs, outputs and outcomes. This in turn reinforces public service silos so that all activity can be monitored and measured. As Burbidge rightly notes, this disables any urge to think creatively or innovatively as the system simply does not reward it - and indeed often punishes it. New Public Management takes us down a road where it is better to avoid mistakes than to push the boundaries of what is possible (and accept a degree of failure). No game changing moment was ever arrived at through this mind-set.

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Burbidge puts forward a new approach which he summarises as "think like system and act like an entrepreneur". The two core imperatives of this are 1) we must recognise the complexity of the bigger picture and how public service system is linked up and 2) we must be prepared to develop flexible and iterative responses to this. In other words - be prepared to experiment. The world around us is messy. Success in tackling a public service issue can't come from simply following the dictates of those in authority. Success requires engaging with the power of individuals and groups and what motivates them. This opens up an untidy environment which makes a lot of people uncomfortable - but it is the real world!

I have previously written about experimenting in public services and specifically on whether or not the new devolution deals in places like Greater Manchester and the West Midlands boldly go where central government hasn't. My main argument was that it would be much better if we could adjust the culture in government (central and local) to encourage well-intentioned and insulated experimentation.

Accepting this is not easy, especially in the public services environment. Burbidge argues that we need a new equilibrium between people, groups and the hierarchy. I interpret this as each of these key actors being ready to step out of their comfort zone and accept that there is no such things as a perfect plan - so we shouldn't spend so long trying to achieve one. Being entrepreneurial is about seizing opportunities which may only be available for a fleeting moment -spend too long planning and you will miss it.

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We already have some great examples of this type of entrepreneurial behaviour in public services. However, many of the best examples are of public sector teams who have taken a step (sometimes a big step) away from the public sector environment and the dominance of New Public Management thinking.

Adult social care provider PossAbilities "spun out" of Rochdale Council in 2014 into a staff-owned mutual which continues to provide services commissioned by the public sector. Since then, they have experienced impressive success and growth having used their new found freedom to allow staff to experiment and use their professional judgement. They have doubled in size having bid for and won a large contract in a neighbouring council. Has quality slipped? Not a bit of it! In December 2015, the CQC rated PossAbilities as 'Outstanding', putting it in the top 1% of providers nationally.

In April 2014, the London Boroughs of Richmond and Kingston took the radical step of creating a new jointly owned social enterprise, Achieving for Children, to deliver children's services across both authorities. Since then they have reduced unnecessary bureaucracy and staff moral has increased leading to them being awarded the 2016 Employer of the Year award at the Social Worker of the Year Awards. And what about the impact on service quality? Achieving for Children has taken the Kingston service from an Ofsted rating of "inadequate" in 2012 and 2013 to "Good" in 2015 - an almost unheard of double jump in performance levels.

There are many excellent examples of in-house public sector services who have leaders prepared to push the boundaries - but for the most part, the New Public Management mind-set still has a firm grip.
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I have never been one to shy away from talking about personal experiences in my live shows, I am now encouraging other women to do the same. I have experienced sexism that is not just every day, but institutional and cultural at every level. Rather than be defeated by this, I am embarking on a project that will empower women facing the same to talk about their experience, and hopefully be part of making a change.

During my visit to the Carribbean in 2015, a mercifully brief relationship with a man who then subjected me to domestic abuse exposed the injustice at the heart of the legal system, and I became quickly aware of how painfully the odds are stacked against women in the region. The magistrate point blank refused to look at the overwhelming written evidence that this man was clearly not being truthful and had in fact been harassing me, attempting to extort money from me and threatening to 'go to the British media to sell stories about me and ruin my career.' Apart from this man overestimating the level of my success, the other issue that was abundantly clear was that the subject of domestic violence was not taken seriously at all. But that is just the end result of the pervasive sexist attitude that can be seen reflected in the levels of catcalling, sexual abuse and domestic violence.

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Having dug deeper into this after the disturbing experience I had, the statistics from NGOs in the area certainly seem to back this up. Country studies for Antigua and Barbuda, Guyana, British Virgin Islands and Suriname suggest that between 20-69% of women in intimate relationships have been victims of domestic violence. 42.8% of young women and girls first sexual experience was forced within the Eastern Caribbean islands, according to Unicef reports. They also estimated that 11,000 children below the age of 15 in the Eastern Caribbean alone also live with HIV/AIDS, mainly due to the fact that child abuse and incest is rampant in the region. This, in a region where three of the top 10 rape rates in the world occurs (SVG, Jamaica and Bahamas) and ALL Caribbean countries have a higher rape rate than the global average. 42.8% of women in the Eastern Caribbean alone describe their first experience as being forced.

The court case itself turned out to be something from medieval times. It did not take place in Barbados but a neighbouring island that was not as sophisticated. The magistrate started off by complaining about the length of the affidavits saying it was far too much to read. He then proceeded to take hand written evidence cutting short testimonies to as he said his hand was 'starting to hurt.'

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It was little more than a vehicle for humiliation as the magistrate cracked jokes throughout the whole procedure. The police present in the courtroom were sexually harassing me and the delightful comments I received are now used as my comedy material. They adjourned the case repeatedly and unnecessarily leaving me with no option but to return back to the UK with no closure.

I began to wonder about all the other women in this situation that did not have somewhere to return to. Was it possible to ever receive justice living in that region? I have never looked at black people that live in the Caribbean (or even Africa) as separate to myself. As far as I am concerned, we are all the same people, cut from the same cloth, that have been separated due to circumstances beyond our control. So whenever I hear stories about things that have happened to women in that region, it could so easily have been me. It was upon bringing up the issue of rampant sexual abuse that I began to question what was really being done about it. Yes they had huge posters along the side of the motorway that declared 'Real Men Don't Abuse Kids' but that was hardly enough. I followed court cases and newspaper stories where the defence of these men were borderline ridiculous. And the comments under many articles about how the women and young girls were looking for what they got made me see red. When I brought it up with members of my family, I was chastised by a cousin who told me, "It's normal."

I became determined to examine the attitudes that have got them and more importantly kept them in this place. How did 'normalised' become interchangeable with 'normal' and why do so many not see the difference? Will there ever be anything resembling equality between the sexes in The Caribbean?

'The life of women here (The Caribbean) is undervalued, if valued at all.' Ronelle King - Barbadian feminist and co-founder of Life in Leggings

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I began to look and see how women who have to live under these conditions were responding, especially as it is so easy to connect with people from all over the world. Many women are fighting back online using hashtags to connect with others and share their stories. 'Life in Leggings' was started in Barbados as a way of women sharing their stories of sexual abuse in order to educate and communicate with each other.

They recognised that women would have to stand up for themselves especially when the men that society are telling them to turn to for help (fathers, brother, uncles etc) are the ones doing the abusing.

'A girl child ain't safe in a family of men.' Alice Walker - The Color Purple

The hashtag is also used in Trinidad and Tobago. They were joined by #LeveDominik in Dominica and The Tambourine Army in Jamaica.

Rather than try to storm into a region that despite familial ties, I am not completely familiar with, I decided to see how I could use my own skills to amplify and help groups that already exist. I decided to run comedy workshops for women aged 18+.

All over the world, too often women are written off, especially after they have children and told they can't make something of themselves. That's not true. I was both a teenage and a single mother. You can make something of yourself if you are presented with the right opportunity to do so. We are not looking to necessarily find the next Wanda Sykes, just to equip some women with public speaking skills and an outlet within which to express themselves. How they choose to utilise these skills is entirely up to them. They could start their comedic journey, gain confidence, find a new way to express themselves, or even learn some transferable skills. Stand up comedy opened opportunities for me including giving diversity talks in the City at established firms such as Citibank and Simmons & Simmons, as well as to participate in debates at both Oxford and Cambridge student unions.

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The whole experience plus testimonies from women from other islands will be filmed for a documentary called 'Sketel.' This is a Caribbean slang word for slag/slut/ho. A handful of the women that participate in the workshop shall then go on, if they so wish, to perform their sets at the prestigious Frank Collymore Hall during the very first Caribbean comedy festival that I am central to organising.

There is hope about the change it can make. I recently appeared on hugely popular television show Good Morning Barbados, where I spoke about this project and feminism in the region. It generated a lot of interest and support with lots of women messaging me to say they want to be involved.

Such a project should have a natural home in funding circles. It is exposing an unpleasant part of everyday sexism, but doing so using all the power and outreach that comes with comedy. An effective means that I have seen in my own professional career on the circuit. There is also the accusation that I am 'washing our dirty linen in public.' But women and children are part of our community and silence allows abuse the perfect conditions to survive. I have decided to crowdfund this project as I think it will take people power to make a difference. I am confident that the combination of a documentary, a live show and the personal journeys, including my own that will be woven into this can raise much needed awareness and inspire change. This is a not-for-profit initiative. Any money raised above and beyond what is needed will be donated to women's charities.

As the old adage goes: If you don't laugh, you'll cry! We have chosen to laugh.

For more information and how to donate please click here
Gonzalo Fuentes / Reuters

Last Wednesday President Trump tweeted a policy decision stating that: 'After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the US Government will not accept or allow... Transgender Individuals to serve in any capacity in the US Military. Our Military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming... victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail'.

I have news for President Trump, transgender people will always be serving in the US military! Before October 2016, when President Obama's administration permitted open service, transgender people had always served, but they'd had to hide who they were. They stood on the frontline for their country in all the wars and campaigns it has ever waged. President Obama's decision wasn't a rushed one, he had also consulted with 'generals and military experts', and he'd listened to Department of Defense and independently commissioned research groups, considered evidence from military, medical, legal, financial and policy experts, from politicians, equality groups and diversity champions, by serving personnel and veterans. Nothing has changed, open transgender service isn't the real issue, bowing to advocates of transphobia and ignorance to cover up in-house turmoil is, and it is a dangerous one.

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When I transitioned gender in the UK military in 1999, its bar on LGBT service still existed, based on unqualified assumptions of being a risk to national security and service morale. Hostile arguments against my service as a trans woman came from those who didn't know what being transgender truly meant. And especially from those who feared change, believed rumour, or plainly preferred archaic prejudices and ignorance. They declared that I 'wasn't fit to be in the military', I was 'a liability', 'a danger to personnel on the frontline', and like Trump has implied, 'a danger to the mission'. I was a navigator on Battlefield helicopters, inserting troops into combat locations, extracting them, repositioning or resupplying them, evacuating the critically injured and sometimes the dead, British and American, and allies. During many operational tours in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan, my skills and knowledge were credited with enhancing the survivability and capability of aircraft, people, and the mission, earning several commendations for doing so!

I was fit to be in the military, and I happened to be transgender. I've always been transgender; ironically, I'd already carried the stress and trauma of hiding that secret through eighteen years of operational service, in fear of losing everything that discrimination, harassment, and dismissal without honour would bring. Serving openly didn't incur 'liability', or foster 'danger', it removed them, and it led to respect, and awareness, and positive change. Since the UK's bar was lifted in 2000, its armed forces have become openly proud champions of diversity. Most people in the military, from the highest to the lowest of ranks, didn't care; as long as I could do my job. If anything, they became supportive, and protective. But those that didn't want to understand, that closed their minds, the few, always shouted out loudly, and that is happening more now in America.

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President Trump won't prevent transgender service, his declared aim is to remove those personnel already serving. Those people who trusted their country and stepped forward when told they could, without fear, now face losing more than their jobs. Taking away their income, their homes, their security and their future will leave them extremely vulnerable. And the US Armed Forces won't be in a rush to do that. They are trained, qualified and 'fit-to-fight' people. Saying 'I'm transgender' doesn't change that. The military experience and knowledge that would be lost can never be replaced, whilst the training costs of their replacements alone would far exceed the tremendously exaggerated medical costs that the White House presents.

Suggesting that a few thousand transgender people (at most) serving openly (amongst over one million other combatants) will detract from 'decisive and overwhelming victory' is a massive insult to the professional capability of the US Armed Forces. They had already embraced change, they had already accepted and adapted. Policy has already been implemented, and awareness training largely completed, having been initiated by the services well ahead of the DoD's 1st Nov 2016 deadline. Disruption will only come from stepping backwards not forwards.

America is embarrassed, its leadership mocked, its international regard as a champion of liberty is questioned. The morale of its fighting forces will be tested. LGB service personnel will worry for their own futures, what other laws will be rolled-back? Will it be equality of gender, race, or religion next? Young people will see the military as an employer that doesn't value people, a giant of respect driven by dinosaurs, they will ask 'why go there?'
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There are times in my seven years as chief executive of Battersea Dogs & Cats Home when you can really sense that positive change in important animal welfare issues is indeed achievable. When the public and politicians come together and are of one mind, change can happen. I am hopeful we may experience that now with our Battersea campaign calling for the maximum prison sentence for the most shocking cases of animal cruelty to be increased from six months to five years in prison in England and Wales.

The depth of public support for tougher sentences has been hugely impressive and continues to be so. And when the Environment Secretary Michael Gove MP, the leading Cabinet figure whose remit includes companion animal welfare, makes it clear in the House of Commons that he wants to see "the full force of the law" come down on the perpetrators of such shocking cruelty to dogs and other household pets, then I sense a momentum may be building and we may achieve that all-important change in the law before too long.

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Battersea and so many other animal welfare charities across the UK see the consequences of such shocking cruelty come through our doors in urgent need of our help. In the hands of the wrong people - and this can be a dog's actual owner - pets can be subjected to unspeakable acts of torture. And if those people are able to walk away with little consequence to their actions, what kind of message is that sending to our society?

On a daily basis, Battersea is fortunate to receive emails, phone calls, social media and letters of support on this issue from wonderful animal lovers all over the UK and beyond. We launched our campaign in February and since then over 52,000 members of the public have contacted their MP, reaching every constituency in the UK, seeking their support for tougher cruelty sentences and 80 have already got on board. We also received the help of some of the country's best-loved comedians - Paul O'Grady, Ricky Gervais, Sue Perkins, Harry Hill and Tracey Ullman who all agree that such animal cruelty is indeed #NotFunny and have added their formal support to publicly sharing this message.

And the support from Michael Gove is very significant indeed, so I want to share his words here with you in full. Making clear this is an issue he feels strongly about Mr Gove said: "I am not someone who will automatically reach for stronger criminal sanctions as the only route to dealing with a particular problem, but there are particular cases of animal cruelty where we may well need to revisit the existing criminal sanctions in order to ensure that the very worst behaviour is dealt with, with the full force of the law."

But there is certainly still much to do and as this is a UK-wide campaign, in September we turn our attention to the situation in Scotland, where Battersea enjoys so much support, and where the maximum sentence for cruelty is not much better than for England and Wales - just twelve months, in contrast to five years in Northern Ireland. Commendably, Scotland can so often lead the way with policy change, and animal cruelty can be as much of a problem in Rutherglen as it is in Redcar.

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Most politicians have a lifetime of experience in sensing the public mood on issues and what their constituents care about. Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats included the need for tougher sentences for animal cruelty in their General Election manifestos, Battersea heard that the issue was attracting the most attention in many politicians' mail bags and then in early July, when asked by a Conservative MP what can be done "to ensure that people who are wilfully cruel to animals are punished far more severely", the Prime Minister Theresa May agreed it was important to have strict laws in place to deal with such perpetrators.

What I also find encouraging is the Prime Minister said the two Government departments that need to get together to discuss the cruelty sentencing issue in England and Wales (DEFRA and the Ministry of Justice) are now doing so.

So are we witnessing a step forward for all those innocent animals that suffer such shocking cruelty? Battersea is very grateful that the animal-loving public, and so many other welfare organisations, vets and public figures support our campaign and that the momentum is surely building.
I have been away for a while. Away from civilisation (to an extent), technology, work, and news - all the stuff that tends to come with civilisation. Last year I ordained as a Buddhist monk for about six months and until the beginning of the year have been living in forests in small Kutis in Thailand. I think I learned a lot. Or maybe not. Rather, my experience only reinforced my previous prejudices towards Buddhism, which I would like to share with you.

Relinquishing all forms of desire: this is one of the most fundamental aspects of Theravada Buddhism. It stems from the first sutra supposedly preached by The Buddha immediately following his "enlightenment": The Four Noble Truths, the keystone of Buddhist thought and practice.

The first "truth" states that there is suffering in the world. The second that suffering is caused by desire. The third "truth" is understanding that desire needs to be relinquished in order to relinquish suffering. And the fourth "truth" is the ways, or practice, in relinquishing desire through The Eightfold Path.

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In Buddhism, desire is delusional. According to Buddhist thought, it deludes us into thinking that something is wholesome when really it is quite ugly. For example, when one ordains as a monk, at one point during the ceremony he is invited by his upachaya to contemplate five aspects of the human body: Kesa, Loma, Nakha, Danta, and Taco. Take just 'Kesa', which means hair, for example. Specifically, a beautiful woman's hair, which a man - as all monks are men - might think is attractive, and concomitantly lead to sexual desire - unbecoming of a Buddhist monk. Said monk is invited to contemplate the "true nature" of hair. Left alone, without shampoo or water or any cosmetic products, it's just a clump of tangled, smelly roots attached with blood to a human scalp, destined to go thin and grey and then die. This is hair's true nature, left alone. Thought about in this way, it is not something to be desired at all because desire prevents one from seeing the true nature of it. But nor is it something to be repulsed by either. Rather, just something to be left alone and accepted the way it is.

An interesting thought. But Buddhism's big mistake is that it claims that desire and suffering is perpetual. Desire breeds not only suffering, it creates everything; it's why you're here - Buddhism acknowledges this, but why bother trying to be free from desire and suffering if one day you will die and be free from it anyway? Because Buddhism, like all religions, insists there is life after death - a constant cycle of rebirth, desire, and suffering until one is released from desire (Nibbana). There is no scientific proof for this of course. Any motivation to keep practicing Buddhism depends on belief in life after death - a religious belief, not a philosophic one. You need this belief devoid of scientific evidence, otherwise suffering is an inevitable part of life that ends with death.

That doesn't mean there is no point in contemplating Kesa or Loma or whatever in our earthly lives. It can't apply to every form of desire, as Buddhism claims, but it can apply to important parts of life that will help us in this life.

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Take the desire for food, for example. I choose food because everybody loves and desires food. Whatever that food is, it doesn't matter. Imagine your most favourite food. See it. Smell it. Now imagine eating it. Keep chewing. Savour the taste.

Now spit it out! And there. That pulp splattered all over your lap and on the floor - that is the source of all your desire. It's ugly and not as wholesome as you thought.

Understanding this is useful when it can prevent greed; when desire is revealed for what it often really is. Desire is useful when we need something, such as food for sustenance. But why desire too much mountains of chocolate and clotted cheese?
As a gay, brown British man I thought I had made it to the sunlit uplands. With a Fedora fixed at a jaunty angle and a gin in hand, I was ready for an endless summer of liberalism, enlightenment and social acceptance where the Tanqueray never ended and the hangover never came.

Last week we celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of decriminalisation of homosexuality in Britain. The British gay community has achieved so much in the last half century. Perhaps the most effective equal rights movement in recent times, we have fought for and won legal equality, marriage rights, adoption rights, specific named protection against hate-crimes and discrimination, public-sector representation and high office. We have undoubtedly been accepted by the national mind, but has the national heart fully embraced us?

The answer, sadly, is no. The recent general election showed us that we are part of the national consciousness but not its conscience.

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For the purposes of power, the Conservatives went into an alliance with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party. A party with elected officials in its ranks whose homophobia is public, real and unabashed. One of its senior MP's, Ian Paisley Jr, has been quoted as calling homosexual relationships: "immoral, offensive and obnoxious". He claimed to be "repulsed" by homosexuality. The party once championed a campaign entitled, 'Save ulster from Sodomy'. It is the DUP who is the major roadblock preventing equal marriage in Northern Ireland - the only nation of the United Kingdom yet to allow it.

I get politics. I get that if needed, parties would trade their own limbs for power if they felt they had the chance. My expectations are low. It's not the deal that shocks me, or the potential for equality legislation to slow. What makes me shiver a little is the public reaction - or lack of - to the union.

We are about six weeks in, and after an initial public grumble, all is settled. The disgust is over, the horror is abated and people have gone about their lives: watching the gaggle of fame hunters on the latest reality show, and wondering if Prince Harry will ever marry Meghan Markle.

I wonder what the public reaction would have been, and how long the protest would have lasted, if the Conservatives had done a power-pact with a party who were repulsed by people of a different race. Our national conscience would have been deeply wounded and we would not have let it pass. The streets would have seen protests and the media would not have let it go. And quite rightly so.

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The apathy shows how far we have yet to go.

But what can we do to force the nation's embrace? The reality is nothing. And nor should we - force never works. We can't contrive empathy. It will take time, but as with all social change, as generation yields to generation, the acceptance deepens. The most damaging thing the gay community can do it ghettoise - or to slow its deconstruction from within of the once needed barricades which kept us safe from a hostile society. That hostility - in the main - has gone, of that there is no doubt. It is our dream to be on the heartbeat of the nation, and for that, we have to absorb ourselves into the nation.
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In the year since Britain voted to leave the EU, there appears to be three prevailing narratives about what we should do. Leave the EU and everything associated with it i.e. the Customs Union, the Single Market and the Parliament. Stay in the Single Market and/or Customs Union but leave everything else to do with the EU. Lastly have a second referendum after we negotiate a deal with an option of staying in.

The political party I am a member of, the Green Party, was one of two parties calling for a second referendum at the most recent general election. We even voted on this at last conference and barring one or two of us it was overwhelmingly voted for. I despaired at this because anyone that can briefly research Green Party policy on the EU will see that we backed the initial referendum. Nowhere in our policy did it say we would like a second referendum to have a vote on the final Brexit deal reached. Yes party policy can change but for me it just looked hypocritical and to my friends in the Green Party that are vehemently defending this position, surely you can see that it is how it would look to the outside world.

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Since the referendum, I have consistently argued against a second one. However as someone that voted Remain, I do sympathize with the argument. In a Question Time episode shortly after the referendum result, Ian Hislop made a very interesting point that you don't stop making an argument or stop standing by a political position just because you lose a result. The opposition parties don't stop opposing a government if they lose a general election. They try to force the government's hand on certain issues and potentially push for a second election before it officially should happen. Theresa May arrogantly called a general election just two years after the previous one so there is a precedent for having a second vote soon after a first vote on a political decision. Is that ignoring the "will of the people" from 2015 though?

However the difference is, the parties that called for a second referendum got less than 10% of the vote at the 2017 general election and talking to voters on the doorstep in London and Bristol during the election campaign, no one bought up Brexit to me apart from one person. It seems to me that most voters I talked to have moved past the referendum. I realise that is a generalisation and it could be different in other parts of the country. However it doesn't appear that there is a desire to have a second referendum even though a recent poll showed that if there was a second one, remain would win. I can absolutely see why people are arguing for this option. Whatever the temptation and logical arguments in favour of a second referendum though, my gut instinct is against it. I don't think it is a battle that can be won. I also fear a public backlash in the form of a low turnout at future elections, potential civil disobedience and an even further drop in Green Party support because we backed the initial referendum. Also what happens if Leave win that second referendum, is it accepted? It should be but then why would you then stop fighting for what you believe in? See it's more complicated than people realise.

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Let's go to one of the other options now. Staying in the Single Market and/or Customs Union but leaving the political aspect of the EU, namely the Council, Commission and EU Parliament. Economically this makes sense. No Tariffs on goods traded and freedom for all of us to work wherever we want in the EU at no extra cost via a Visa. Because of the Customs Union, anything UK businesses want to sell around the EU have no tariffs on them and they can get through borders and ports quickly because everyone in the EU has the same safety and regulation standards. This also means consumers don't have to pay an extra charge on buying things from the EU as well. Someone told me that when they bought something from the US recently, they had to pay a customs charge of 15 when they picked it up from the Post Office. This was because it was outside the Customs Union. However if we wanted to stay part of the Customs Union and/or Single Market, we'd have to abide by the same rules we do now but not have any say over them as we currently do. So whilst our economy could benefit, there would be a huge democratic deficit. One of the reasons I voted remain was because I felt we could reform the undemocratic aspects of the EU and enhance the power of the democratically elected European Parliament. So this is why I am very sceptical of this option.

So the last option, which a lot of Conservatives and the Labour leadership support, is to completely leave everything to do with the EU and work out "tariff free access" to the Single Market outside of it. Whilst I'm sure we could negotiate a deal with the EU, I don't think it would benefit us as much as being in the EU. I genuinely believe there will be tariff costs unless we compromise and accept the four freedoms of the Single Market which neither Labour or the Tories are likely to accept. Yes this option respects the result and if we still had a close and friendly relationship with the EU then that may quell some remain voters' fears. However economically we could be left worse off for years whilst we are working out a trade deal with the EU and other countries separately (which would take the best part of a decade as most trade deals do.). And even then I'm very sceptical that any deals we make will be as good as the current arrangement we have as part of the EU.
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What do Kings of Leon, Lemmy, Roots Manuva, Katy Perry and Marvin Gaye all have in common? They all had father's in the clergy. If the devil has the best tunes, why have so many pop and rock musicians come from the strict confines of the vicarage? Is it an act of rebellion or were they following their father by taking to the stage, albeit a very different one?

Alice Cooper's father and grandfather were both preachers. Cooper shies away from discussing his faith, but the highly religious imagery of blood, death and hell in his music, look and shows, speak for themselves.

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Neil Hannon from The Divine Comedy composed the theme music for Father Ted. Was it his Irish Vicar father that helped him understand the comic complexities of the priesthood? "I felt a missionary zeal to convert people". Hannon said, "It must run in the family".

Rock and Pop originated from Gospel via Jazz, Blues and Soul. So perhaps it's little surprise that you get Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye, all children of preachers, wearing their gospel influences very much on their sleeves. The church provide the vocal training, and no doubt much of the inspiration too?

Jerry Dammers of The Specials wrote lyrics that, whilst not steeped in biblical imagery, certainly had a moral and righteous tone. The dangers of teenage pregnancy in 'Too Much Too Young' or the socio-political commentary of 'Ghost Town' on Thatcher's Britain, you get the feeling a sermon is going on!

There's a long list; Grace Jones, Wyclef Jean, Tori Amos, Felix Buxton from Basement Jaxx and many more.

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It's not only musicians who may have experienced a religious father. Comedy has its fair share too. Hugh Dennis's father was the Bishop of Knaresborough and then The Bishop Of Ipswich.

And that brings me to my own father, who was a naval chaplain and then a vicar in Glastonbury. My uncle was also a vicar, and the official exorcist to the Bishop of Bath and Wells! Eat your heart out Alice Cooper. Or a bat's heart, or something.

I'm actually a full paid up Atheist. I've had my fill of religion, so I have no desire to follow in my father's actual footsteps. But I've no doubt seeing my father 'gig' every Sunday was an inspiration to me. It just seems natural. And after all, isn't a musician or comedian preaching his or her own views to a willing audience, albeit in a different venue from a church? Priest, rock star, comic, are all very similar jobs. All of us get up in front of rooms full of strangers, and lie to them, in an attempt to make us look big and clever! My father gets less heckling of course, but probably more casual sex.

And just as I am an atheist, my father doesn't much like that I've become a stand up. He's always telling me to get a proper job! You get proper job Dad. I'm not the one prancing around in a dress. Well, not at work anyway.

Not that I wish to compete. I once made the mistake of proudly telling my father I had just done the world famous Comedy Store for the first time. He replied, 'Really? I just did St. Paul's Cathedral!'

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I'm being unfair. In fact being a vicar is the one thing I admire my father for.

The son of a Sunderland ship builder, he went to Oxford and Cambridge, which then, even more than now, was a license to print money. But he turned his back on the comfortable, the sensible, and the safe and chose a much tougher route for what he knew to be right. I admire that romantic bloodyminded stupidity.

When my daughter was about two years old I took her to see my parents. My father was in his study saying his morning prayers, when my daughter waltzed in and asked "Grandpa, what was he doing?"

Attempting to explain to a two-year-old child, my father said. "I'm talking to God." She looked around the room and said "But there's nobody there?" And from the next room I shouted. "Precisely!" Mind you, I often feel like that at my own shows.
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For the future security and stability of our country, our continent and the world this is the worst possible moment for the UK to be leaving the European Union.

Unfortunately, we are planning to leave our European partners at a time when there is going to be less and less agreement amongst the most important countries about how to deal with current and emerging global problems.

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The global order established in 1945 by a small group of countries including the UK is under challenge as the economic power centres of the world move to countries in Asia with growing populations, economies and political impact, not just India and China but also Indonesia and elsewhere.

The election of an impetuous, unilateralist President has brought great unpredictability about where the USA is and where the USA will be. Is Trump an aberration or does he actually represent a long term change in America's approach? The 19 against one split on the G20 communique on climate change may be the first of many disagreements. Yet, the United States is by far the largest military power in the world. 75% of the expenditure of NATO is USA defence spending. All of the other 28 member states added together are just a quarter. The USA is a permanent member of the UN Security Council with a veto which it uses. It also clearly has a global reach through its soft power ideologically and Trump's approach will embolden demagogues elsewhere like President Duterte in the Philippines, who has referred to Oxford University as "a school for stupid people". It will also embolden Erdogan in Turkey, and Putin in Russia.

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Former Conservative Foreign Secretary William Hague has warned that leaving the EU would mean a loss of global power and influence for the United Kingdom. There was a vote in the United Nations General Assembly recently on a resolution brought by Mauritius about the Chagos Islands and the British Indian Ocean Territory where the UK lost badly. Large numbers of normally supportive European Union countries did not vote with the UK. Similar problems could arise surrounding other Overseas Territories like the Falkland Islands and of course Gibraltar once there is no UK voice within the EU.

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Labour must fight hard to press the government to defend the global internationalist system that was established with the universal declaration of human rights. It must hold countries to high standards of equality and liberty and freedom of expression. It must work with our partners not just in Europe but also through NATO, but also use our soft power influence.

That includes our role in the Commonwealth, but the role of that consensus based body is greatly exaggerated by the nostalgist imperial preference right. Much more important are our universities, and the English language but the Tory government approach is damaging both. University cooperation in Europe, joint projects and our soft power are being weakened by Brexit even before we leave.

So could defence cooperation. When we leave the EU we leave the European Defence Agency, and a range of other agreements and institutions that are linked into being members of the EU.

The essence of British foreign policy for centuries has been that if there is instability or war in Europe we cannot opt-out. Our security is dependent on the security in the land mass we are next to. And especially today when you have an authoritarian aggressive regime in Russia which is prepared to break international law, and invade a neighbouring country and annex its territory then clearly we need to reaffirm that.

NATO is the most important component of military security for us and it will remain so whether or not we are in the EU. But the European Union has increasingly been developing a defence and security component which is extremely important for us too, as are the policing issues - Europol and the European Arrest Warrant. If we leave the EU, there is a real danger that we damage the existing cooperation with France, when in fact we should be building on existing agreements and co-operation. We should also work with France to get the Germans to do more in European security.

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We should work very hard to strengthen the common foreign and security policy, for the UK to remain within or associated with it, to build on the bilateral agreements with France, and to work collectively for stronger European defence co-operation, as the United States becomes more and more unilateralist. In defence and foreign and security policy, we need more Europe not less.
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A few weeks ago, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier might have found it a bit odd that Brexit secretary David Davis turned up to the official start of the talks on Brexit, stayed for less than hour then returned back to the UK. Some said he had to vote on a three line whip against some Labour motions, other that his departure was always planned as he was leaving detailed negotiations to his officials. Davis's performance so far as Brexit secretary has been questionable, particularly in terms of preparations. Good examples of this being his lack of knowledge in front of the Brexit Select Committee of what 'no deal' means and to his appearance with only the latter having notes in front of him being good examples. But in terms of who we send to Brussels, at least Davis has the authority to make decisions.

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So, as we enter August, it is worth reflecting on what Russell Bretherton was doing 62 years ago. He was a civil servant at the Board of Trade who was sent to the negotiations for the creation of the European Community in the Summer of 1955. The UK was asked to send its Foreign Secretary, Harold Macmillan, but instead sent a 'representative', Russell Bretherton, with strict instructions not to agree to anything. The story, told in the second chapter of 'How to Lose a Referendum', is a classic example of one of the missed opportunity to shape the EC in our interests.

Bretherton was the consummate professional civil servant, carrying out his orders to the letter, whatever he thought personally. Robert Rothschild was an assistant to a Paul-Henri Spaak, the Belgian Foreign Minister who had become head of European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC - the forerunner of the EC) and thus led the talks. Rothschild remembers Bretherton as "a very pleasant fellow and very courteous", but that he contributed little. "He usually had a rather cynical and amused smile on his face, and he looked at us like naughty children, not really mischievous, but enjoying themselves by playing a game which had no relevance and no future." For his part, Bretherton felt that he did contribute, but mainly to point out the technical difficulties of a customs union because of the UK's links with the Commonwealth, and how a Free Trade Area would be a good deal easier.

As July turned to August, Bretherton found himself being drawn in. No longer able to 'influence' or 'steer' the discussions, he started to fear the implications of his continued presence. "If we take an active part in trying to guide the final propositions," he wrote to a colleague, "it will be difficult to avoid later on the presumption that we are, in some sense, committed to the result." This meant that Britain could end up insisting on such-and-such a point, get it into the conclusions, but then renege on the whole deal. "On the other hand, if we sit back and say nothing, it's pretty certain that many more things will get into the report which would be unpleasant from the UK point of view whether we in the end took part in the Common Market or not."

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As luck would have it, it was at this point that Spaak adjourned the discussions until September. Bretherton says that Spaak had intended to work right through the holiday period. "But when we go into August this was more than could be stood even by the Europeans, and a lot of people found that their daughters were getting married or their grandmothers were getting buried; and eventually he agreed that we should have a break."

So Russell Bretherton went back to London, and Paul-Henri Spaak followed him, to try to persuade London to change its mind on its approach. He managed to get a meeting with Chancellor of the Exchequer Rab Butler, at which his aide Robert Rothschild was present.

Rothschild recalled that "It was obvious that Spaak was not convincing Butler. I can still see him, very immobile, looking at Spaak without saying a word, and the colder he became the warmer Spaak became, and the warmer Spaak became the colder Butler obviously became, After a while we realised it was no use going on. We said goodbye and went off...As we walked back, Spaak turned round to us and said, 'I don't think I could have shocked him more, when I appealed to his imagination, than if I had taken my trousers off.'

Before going back to Brussels, where he knew the talks were getting to the point where decisions were going to be called for and treaties prepared, Bretherton wrote another letter to his political masters. In this letter is a passage that sums up perfectly the missed opportunity that not taking part in the Schuman Plan and not taking a serious part in the Messina process entailed:

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"If we are prepared to take a firm line, that we want to come in and will be a part of this, we can make this body into anything we like. But if we don't say that, something will probably happen and we shan't exercise any influence over it."

Bretherton's advice was ignored, and eventually Spaak lost his patience and demanded the process move on, with what would become the Treaty of Rome being drawn up. This means that the UK had to commit to the process properly, sending someone with the authority to negotiate, or leave the talks. What happened next is mired in debate, as Bretherton said he was asked to leave whilst Spaak insists he walked out. But according to the testimony of J.F. Deniau, a member of the French delegation, before he left Bretherton read out a statement the Uk Government had given him: "Gentleman, you are trying to negotiate something you will never be able to negotiate. If negotiated, it will not be ratified, and if ratified, it will not work. Au Revoir and Bonne Chance."

During my time writing and now talking about the book, I have found that nobody (apart from Nigel Farage) had even heard the name Russell Bretherton before. There is only one picture of him in existence and he only gave one interview (to the BBC in 1982). But his presence and instructed behaviour at the talks to create the European Community says much about the UK's attitude to European Unity back in the 1950s. Vote Leave's most successful slogan during the referendum campaign was 'take back control', and to the extent that the UK had lost control, it started with Russell Bretherton being sent to Brussels in 1955.

So, what are the lessons for the UK's negotiating team and David Davis from our experience in 1955? Well, it's simple. He and they need to show the EU that they take the European Unity project seriously. If they don't, they shouldn't be surprised if the EU are prepared to leave us out in the cold, again.
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Depression, anxiety, hallucinations, and panic attacks - these are just a few of the PTSD-like symptoms that many content moderators experience from work. In December 2016, two content moderators - Henry Soto and Greg Blauert - from Microsoft filed a lawsuit for "negligent infliction of emotional distress" after being forced to filter photos and videos of child pornography, murder, child abuse, and more. While helping keep others safe online, Soto and Blauert in-turn suffered deep-psychological distress, saying they are now 'triggered' by seeing children.

They claimed they were not warned about the psychological impact of the job and were not allowed to turn it down, but were offered access to (allegedly insufficient) counselling services, and were encouraged to take 'smoke breaks' and play video games to help ease stress. These measures were not enough. How could they be? It is only human to find content such as child abuse and child pornography abhorrent and offensive. In fact, you couldn't do a content moderation role if you didn't know these things were wrong. But in a world where we use tech to filter many other parts of our lives, why do we continue to allow people to filter explicit content?

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The case of Soto and Blauert may seem like a drop in the ocean, but there's undoubtedly more like them.

In 2015 and 2016 there were 11,992 child sexual abuse images recorded in England alone - a figure that is up 64% from previous years. Social platforms such as Facebook and Instagram have a responsibility to remove explicit or violent content, however there are not enough moderators to filter it all and not enough is being done. In 2016 the IWF found that 35% of child sexual abuse imagery takes more than 120 minutes to take down. Content moderators have an incredibly important job, but the psychological impact is huge and, worryingly, inappropriate content is being missed in the moderation process too. In March, a BBC investigation found Facebook failed to remove more than 80% of sexualised or abusive images of children. This is a huge failure and it's clear that human moderation is not working.

Bring in the robots

Every day we see stories on how robots are going to take over our jobs, but this is certainly a time when we should consider the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. These technologies now have the capability to recognise nudity, violence, weaponry, gore and other illegal content through algorithms that can quickly process vast amounts of content at one time, without psychological consequences. It can extract key visual features, colour, shape and texture to flag explicit or inappropriate content in real-time, with false positives only being reported 7.9% of the time for images and 4.3% for videos.

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Of course, the system isn't perfect, and humans and robots will need to work together initially to avoid false positives. But the nature of machine learning means that the technology will become more accurate as it processes more, thus relieving people of the trauma that comes with content moderation.

So why hasn't it happened yet?

Social media giants like Facebook and Instagram have the power to implement this technology to filter through their content, so, why aren't they? False positives may be the concern.

If the technology flags appropriate content as inappropriate and inhibits freedom of speech it could potentially annoy users, which may result in them going elsewhere to socialise. That means a reduction in average daily users and of course less profit and a lower share price for the social networks. So, instead of implementing technology they hire more human content moderators, exposing more people to psychological upset. A few months ago, Facebook hired 3,000 new content moderators, leaving them with 7,500 in total. However, on average over 300m photos are uploaded every day with over 510,000 comments made every 60 seconds. How are moderators meant to filter through that much content, quickly, without any errors? How can those people cope with seeing such horrendous images every day without it having an impact? It's impossible.

The argument for human moderation has classically centred around accurate contextualisation (how can a computer determine the difference between innocent and harmful content?). AI is seen by many as the answer. Companies are now writing technologies that are changing the moderation landscape by combining natural language processing and big data analytics with machine learning to determine the sentiment and context of uploaded images and text. Filtering happens in real time safeguarding users before they see harmful content and before the damage is done.

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Mental health affects people from all walks of life and every background. Many of us will know someone in our family, at our workplace or in our friendship circles who has experienced mental ill health. While certain groups are at higher risk of developing a mental illness - such as young BAME men and members of the LGBT+ community - these conditions don't discriminate against people based on their age, gender, ethnicity, faith, social class or sexual orientation. They often emerge out of the blue and can affect anyone, at any time.

Nearly half of the population will face mental health issues at some point in their lives. The likelihood that someone close to us will be affected - and the prevalence of such serious and debilitating conditions across our society means we all have a stake in creating an environment where those with mental ill health are treated with the compassion, respect and understanding they deserve.

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We also have a shared interest in raising awareness about the benefits of being more open - both as individuals and as a society - towards those experiencing mental health problems. Nobody should feel forced to conceal a mental illness for fear of the reaction of their peers or their employer. Everyone should be free and comfortable to speak openly about their mental health. At present, only 25% of people living with mental health problems seek treatment. This is an astonishingly low figure and a cause for concern.

While in recent years we have witnessed much progress and a greater public understanding of the issues surrounding mental health, the alarming picture painted by these statistics suggests a form of stigma still prevails and that more urgently needs to be done. Identifying and addressing outdated attitudes must be a priority for all of us. Whilst we each have an obligation to look out for the wellbeing of our families, friends and colleagues, there are also compelling economic reasons why we should act too. London's businesses and industry are currently estimated to lose 10.4billion each year due to poor mental health, with reduced productivity and sick days accounting for a significant proportion of these costs. Employers therefore have a vested interest and a great deal to gain in helping staff who are going through a difficult time getting better and back to the workplace.

It's so important we improve everyone's knowledge of mental health, boost awareness of the services available, and give people the confidence they need to come forward and seek help. So as Mayor of London I'm working with a range of partners, including businesses large and small, as part of Thrive LDN - a new movement I launched earlier this month to help improve mental health and wellbeing in every borough and corner of our capital.

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Developed through conversations with people living with mental health problems and more than 200 experts - drawn from the fields of health and academia, the voluntary and community sector, as well as public and private organisations - Thrive LDN is a citywide campaign that aims to empower London's communities to take action on poor mental health, and to address the underlying causes and inequalities behind it.

Six aspirations have been developed to get the conversation going with Londoners and to test the priority areas where we will work together to improve mental health in our capital. We want to support more Londoners to maintain good mental health, stamp out mental health stigma and discrimination, involve more young people through working with schools and youth organisations, increase access to support and services through the use of digital technology and reduce the number of suicides in London.

Inspired by a similar movement in New York, Thrive LDN encourages better working between local authorities, health services, police and the third sector when dealing with people living with poor mental health. By working together to focus on improving Londoners' mental health, and by involving Londoners themselves, we hope to take big strides forward in delivering effective support and care for those who desperately need it.

Through Thrive LDN we will also continue to develop the way we think and talk about mental health and wellbeing. Over the longer term, this will ensure we're able to refine and refresh our policies and adopt the latest and most innovative approaches. It is through this constant evolution and the continued dedication and ideas of everyone involved, that I believe we can change perceptions around mental health and collectively make a real difference.

Improving mental health is a complex challenge, but together, I believe we can achieve our ambition of making London the happiest and healthiest city on earth - a city that is open to those who need help, and a city where all Londoners can flourish and thrive.

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Get involved by using the Twitter hashtag #OKLDN or by visiting thriveldn.co.uk
Pandora Locks Out 5 Million Users In Australia, New Zealand

Pandora has exited the Australia and New Zealand markets leaving 5 million users without the service. While the move was expected as the music streamer works toward profitability it leaves a big whole in a significant market that has a long history of failed streaming services.

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Pandora has closed the accounts of all 5 million users in Australia and New Zealand as it exits the region. Users will be given refunds as the struggling music streamer refocuses on the American market.

"After analysis and consideration of external factors, we have decided to discontinue our operations in Australia and New Zealand and will shut down the service on July 31, 2017," Panora announced to users. "Were honored to have connected so many Pandora listeners around the world with the music they love. "

The move comes after Pandora sold Ticketfly to Eventbrite at a $200 million loss for $200 million, and received a $480 million investment in SiriusXM.

Pandora joins Rdio, Guvera, JB Hi-Fi Now, Milk Music, Nokia MixRadio and Rara, all of which failed to gain sufficient traction in Australia. iHeart Radio, Apple Music and Spotify are each making inroads in the market.

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Body of New York Man Deemed Unrecoverable at Bash Bish Falls

EGREMONT, Mass.  First responders are unable to recover the body of a New York state man who fell at Bash Bish Falls on Friday night despite what authorities described as "heroic efforts."

Aiden Campion-Pratt, 21, of Ghent, apparently slipped off a rock and fell into the falls about 7:30 Friday night. Rescuers began searching for his body Friday evening and located him about 12:30 Sunday afternoon.

After 24 hours of effort, rescue personnel on the scene located the body by means of an underwater camera, but eventually came to the reluctant decision that because of the location retrieval would not be possible.

"Obviously everyone involved is heartsick in the ultimate outcome," Berkshire District Attorney David Capeless said. "These were great efforts, under difficult and dangerous conditions, that should be recognized, and I want to extend my personal thanks to the many agencies that worked together tirelessly. Special thanks goes to the Western Massachusetts Technical Rescue Team, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation personnel, the office of Columbia (N.Y.) County Sheriff David Bartlett and Berkshire County Sheriff Thomas Bowler for their leadership and determined efforts.

"So many agencies came together to work to one end that unfortunately could not happen."

Those involved in the search and rescue effort also included members of state police detectives assigned to the district attorney's office, the Pittsfield Fire Department, the Egremont Fire Department, the Southern Berkshire

Ambulance squad, state troopers assigned to the Lee barracks, the New York State Police, the Copake (N.Y.) Fire Department, the Columbia and Berkshire counties fire coordinators, and Fastracs Excavating of Red Hook, N.Y.
The Selectmen had applied for the first time for a Community Development Block Grant for housing rehabilitation.

Cheshire Misses Out on Community Block Grant for Housing Rehab

CHESHIRE, Mass.  Cheshire officials had hoped to capture up to $600,000 to help low- to medium-income homeowners make upgrades to their homes.

But last week's list of Community Development Community Block Grant beneficiaries didn't have the town listed.

"We scored well but not well enough, and I guess a lot of applicants aren't successful on their first try," Town Administrator Mark Webber informed the Selectmen on Tuesday.

Only three Berkshire communities received grants in this round of funding: Adams, Becket and North Adams.

The Selectmen agreed to apply for the grant some months ago for housing rehabilitation. The federal CDBG grants, administered by the state, help cities and towns respond to specific housing, community, and economic development projects that support low- and moderate-income residents, or revitalize underserved areas.

This was the town's first attempt for the competitive grant funds and more than 50 residents had signed up in anticipation of the program.

Webber said the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, which would have administered the grant, will provide a report of shortcomings in the application.

The $60,000 the town allocated for its share of the program will return to the general fund.

The town can apply again next year.

In other business, Webber reported that the Adams-Cheshire Regional School District will have a new lease agreement for Cheshire Elementary School ready next week.

Even though the school is closed, the district still wants to use the building for its central office.

 Highway Superintendent Blair Crane said he had to clean up an oil spill on West Mountain Road last week.

"I put down some Speedi-Dri because I was afraid someone over the weekend on a motorcycle might get over there and get into it," he said. "I did what I could ... it was a few hundred yards."

He could not pinpoint where the spill came from.

Crane said a scanning process of the streets has been completed and that the program is now in the analytical phase.

"All of the roads have been scanned and all that has been done," he said. "The legwork is done."

The town used Chapter 90 road funds for the program that digitizes roadways to track their condition and status. It will allow the town to project road conditions and prepare for future projects.

 A citizens' petition with more than 200 signatures was submitted requesting an article on next town ballot to adopt a general law provision that would legally allow the town to provide snow and ice removal on unaccepted roads.

Although town meeting recently accepted the provision, the question also must be approved by a ballot vote.

The roads in question have historically been plowed but cannot legally be accepted by the town because they do not meet specifications. Many of these roads are as old as the town and would have to be re-engineered to be accepted.

 Resident Eileen Quinn asked for the Selectmen's blessing to pursue becoming an Appalachian Trail Community.

"It puts Cheshire on the map and brings more awareness to the town," she said. "It helps educate people on the trail and many do not know the trail goes through town. I think there are a lot of benefits."
Red Lion Inn Grows Culinary Team

Fabien Riviere

STOCKBRIDGE, Mass.  On the heels of a recent $1 million kitchen renovation, The Red Lion Inn welcomes new management and culinary talent to the historic Berkshires Inn with two strategic hires: Director of Food & Beverage Fabien Riviere and Sous Chef Jim Corcoran.



Riviere and Corcoran will work with Vice President of Culinary Development Brian Alberg to continue to evolve the inn's commitment to local sourcing and service excellence.



"The continued success of the Main Street Hospitality Catering, with projects like Seeds Market Cafe at Hancock Shaker Village, calls for bringing in additional expertise," said Sarah Eustis, CEO of Main Street Hospitality Group. "Fabien and Jim will help strengthen The Red Lion Inn, our culinary hub, and continue to heighten our quality, hospitality and service."



With more than 20 years of restaurant management experience, Riviere joins The Red Lion Inn from Studio Restaurant at the Montage Hotel in Laguna Beach, Calif. This marks his return to The Red Lion Inn, where he was sommelier from 2003 to 2005. Working stateside and abroad, Riviere's resume includes Felix Restaurant at the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong, Mix Restaurant by Alain Ducasse and Restaurant Aureole at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.
The McCann School Committee confirmed line item changes for the fiscal 2018 budget. The total, $9,340,159, remains the same.

McCann School's District Towns Getting Some Funds Back

NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  Some towns in the Northern Berkshire Regional School District are going to see a little bit of relief in their assessments, and others will get turnbacks of transportation funds.

Superintendent James Brosnan told the McCann School Committee on Thursday that now that the state budget has passed, he has firmer numbers that will be relayed to the towns.

"Chapter 70 increased so I reduced the amount of money that we have in tuition so those two balance out because we cannot change the budget bottom line, it is how we get to it," he said. "So up in Chapter 70, down in tuition but up in the municipal minimum."

The budget remains at $9,340,159 but it now accommodates a $4,560 Chapter 70 increase and a municipal minimum calculation formula increase of $2,229.

Brosnan said the assessments had to be recalculated and three communities will see a decrease in their original assessment and six will see a slight increase.

"The largest increase I think was $488 and the largest decrease ... was Adams. They were a little bit over $1,000," he said. "The range of increases was $488, $279, $211, $188, $185, $136 and $346. Those are all very doable numbers."

Brosnan said communities will also receive unspent transportation funds. He said there is nearly $48,000 to dish out.

Other than confirming the new budget numbers, the McCann School Committee's agenda was sparse.

Principal Justin Kratz gave a snapshot of enrollment and said he expects 112 seniors to return, 117 juniors and 141 sophomores.

A this point, he anticipates 120 freshmen attending McCann in September.

"Things are starting to filter in as the summer goes by," he said. "The numbers look good."
The trees mostly block the view, but the rubble from the former paper mill remains on site nearly a year later. Before removal of debris can happen, a hazardous material assessment must be done. PreviousNext

A Year Later, J.B. Paper Warehouse Remains a Pile of Rubble



Shortly after the fire, the city went in and knocked down the walls of the gutted building, and secured the site with a fence. Later a lien was placed on the property for the work. But, 11 months later, a pile of rubble still remains. PITTSFIELD, Mass.  It has been 11 months since one of the biggest fires the city has seen in decades. The sky was lit up for miles. Fire companies from all over the county descended on the scene to douse the flames towering high from the former J.B. Paper warehouse.

And today, the remains of that night are still piled high. In 11 months, there has been little to no progress toward cleaning up the mess left behind and the cause of the fire remains unknown.

The Health Department issued a "clean and lien" on the property shortly after the fire. Workers descended onto the scene, knocked down some of some of the walls that hadn't fallen in the night of Aug. 29, and put up a fence to secure the site so there was no illegal dumping or dangerous access for the public.

"Shortly after the fire we had the property cleaned up a bit and a fence installed so it was secured," Health Director Gina Armstrong said.

And then the city "invoiced any and all responsible parties" for the work. But that invoice went unpaid.

On Jan. 17, the city placed a $2,849 lien, signed by Board of Health Chairman Jay Green, on the property. In March, Mayor Linda Tyer signed another $2,035 lien.

The lien is against BBM Realty Co., which owns the building, and Glen Binder, who, according to land records, inherited control over the building just four months before the fire. The building had been owned by Gerald Binder, who died in 2009, and he left it to Glen Binder in his will. The building wasn't insured, according to city officials.

In the fall, two months after the fire, Tyer asked the city council for funds to perform an environmental assessment. In that budget year, Tyer had asked for $50,000 for property demolitions, an investment she wanted to make to combat blight.

The City Council halved that amount, giving the budget just $25,000. But, that was before the fire to a large and historic warehouse.

In September, two months after the fire, Tyer asked for that budget to be increased particularly to clean up the land. That money was going to be specifically eyed for a hazardous materials assessment and creation of specifications for the demolition of the large Elmvale Street building. The council rejected the ask through a split vote.

"I feel this is a fairly urgent situation. We need to secure this property," Tyer said at the time.

Then she told the City Council that she had little luck getting in touch with the owner. She expected the assessment would cost some $19,000 and then removal of the debris could follow after.

"We know we have an irresponsible owner. The owner isn't paying taxes. The owner is not responding to our certified letters," Tyer told the City Council in September. "This building didn't even have insurance on this to help us cover this cost."

The building was constructed in 1916 and fire officials said there wasn't much hazardous material  except what soaked into the floorboards over time as an operating paper mill. It had operated as the J.B. Paper Co. for a half of a century.

Nonetheless, before any property can be demolished and material removed, an assessment needs to be done to find out how much asbestos, lead paint, and other contaminants are present.

The city was expected to add that cost onto a lien for back taxes. In September, the company owed the city $59,935 for back taxes and unpaid sewer and water bills. The liens placed on the property would then be paid back once the property is sold.

Permitting Coordinator Nate Joyner, in the Department of Community Development, said on Friday that the city is currently looking for a grant to perform that assessment. He said a possible funding source has been identified and this fall his office will be applying for funds to do it.

But, Joyner says the city will want to legally take control of the property.

"There is an owner. They still control it. We don't want to spend money on a property we don't control," Joyner said.

In order to control of the property, a lengthy tax title process must unfold. Through that process, the city would need to get control of the property, perform the assessment, clean it, and then try to recoup all of the money spent through resale of the land. It could take years before all is said and done.

And this isn't the only site city officials are working on cleaning up. Armstrong said there is a working group consisting of multiple departments focused on code enforcement and issues such as this one.

"Our agenda is always full with many properties," Armstrong said.

Meanwhile, the cause of the fire is still unknown. Fire Chief Robert Czerwinski said on Thursday that the cause is still listed as "undetermined." The site was known for having squatters entering the property. There was no electric hooked up, so the likely cause was accidental or intentional arson.

Two days after the fire, State Fire Marshal Peter Ostroskey released a statement asking for information regarding how the fire began. On Thursday, a spokesman for his office said no new information had come forward about it.

So the property sits there, with rubble piled high, possibly sending unknown hazardous material washing into the river when it rains, and close to the Dower Square Housing Project. A fence attempts to prevent access and trees have grown high enough to mostly block the view.

And it is still unknown when, if at all, some one will take on the responsibility for cleaning it.
COLUMBUS  The promotional calendars for the upcoming Columbus Races say make racing great again  a play on President Donald Trumps campaign slogan.

In reality, the sport has never really fallen from its pedestal in Columbus, which has hosted a live horse racing meet for more than 70 years.

The crowds continue to pack Platte County Agricultural Park on race days each summer. And this season  the fifth since Columbus Exposition and Racing took over the meet  should be no different.

The community loves to come out to watch the races, said Tom Jackson, a member of Columbus Exposition and Racing (CER), which stepped in to operate the live meet in 2013 after the Platte County Agricultural Society decided it no longer wanted to.

Jackson said the group, which also includes Dan Clarey, Chad Sucha and Russ Placzek, is very optimistic heading into the 2017 season. Although theyre down one man after Tom Jahde left CER for health reasons.

Local interest in horse racing spiked in May when Columbus High graduate Channing Hill rode in his first Kentucky Derby, finishing 17th aboard Fast and Accurate. The jockey, who competed as a high schooler at Ag Park and Prairie Meadows in Iowa, rebounded to take third in the Preakness Stakes and fifth in the Belmont Stakes, riding Senior Investment in both Triple Crown races.

Jackson said there always seems to be more horse racing fans during the Triple Crown events. Adding Hill to the mix only increases the excitement.

Whenever Channing Hill is active, were really good, Jackson said. People come out to support it. They cheer for him.

Simulcast betting on off-site races, which is also run by CER, is on pace with previous years, according to Jackson, who knows the real fun starts this weekend.

Ag Park will host 16 days of live horse racing starting Friday. Post times are 6:30 p.m. every Friday and Saturday through Sept. 1 and 2 p.m. each Sunday, as well as 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 2, and Labor Day.

Jackson is expecting both the horse and jockey numbers to mirror last season, with a few young riders who are new to Ag Park sure to show up.

Our meet is usually a good one for them to get some experience at, said Jackson.

Wagering at Ag Park dipped slightly in 2016, when the pari-mutuel handle for the live meet was $734,427, down from $745,249 the year prior. However, that figure is still above the $697,886 bet in 2014.

Ag Park took a total of $4 million in bets, including simulcast races, last year, down from $4.3 million in 2015.

That number could be poised to rebound this year if Fonner Park is an indicator.

Bruce Swihart, CEO at the Grand Island track, said the pari-mutuel handle there would have increased this year had two days of the live meet, including opening day, not been canceled by inclement weather.

Swihart reported that jockey and horse numbers were both up from 2016, when Fonner Park was placed under a quarantine in April after three horses tested positive for equine herpes.

Our horse numbers were up considerably this year due to that fact, said Swihart, who described the live meet that ran from late February to early May as really good.

They still like live horse racing, Swihart said of the 6,000 or so people who can show up on a Saturday at Fonner Park.

CER also promotes the Columbus Races as an economic driver that brings in spectators from across eastern Nebraska and helps fill local hotels, restaurants and other businesses.

Jackson estimates about 60 percent of race attendees come from outside the city.

Its a good draw for our community and it brings dollars into our community, he said.

CER also employs dozens of people on race days, in addition to those who handle simulcast betting year-round.

Although smaller tracks like Ag Park can struggle to compete with larger venues in other states that are backed by casino gambling  and efforts by the Nebraska horse racing industry to even the playing field have failed in recent years  that wont stop people from showing up Friday night.

Its still a great place to come, Jackson said.
IDF Counter-Terrorism Branch Readies Israel for Next War

The Fellowship | July 31, 2017 IDF Counter-Terrorism Branch Readies Israel for Next War

Even when Israel is not in direct conflict with the many enemies that surround her and seek her destruction, elite units of the IDF are constantly working to protect the Jewish state and her people. Writing at JNS, Yaakov Lappin tells us about how the IDFs counter-terrorism branch stays up-to-date and conducts operations on the ground:

On Friday night July 21, Maj. Hanan (full name withheld for security reasons) received word of a gruesome development.

A knife-wielding Palestinian terrorist had killed three members of an Israeli family in the settlement of Halamish. The terrorist, a 19-year-old Palestinian from a nearby village, was shot and injured by an Oketz K9 unit soldier, who lived next door.

By the time Hanan, who heads the Counter-Terrorism Branch in the IDFs Counter-Terrorism School, arrived at the blood-stained scene, there was little he or his soldiers could do.

We scanned the area searching for more potential attackers, and spent the rest of Shabbat there, he said.

Hanan and his soldiers are not an ordinary response unittheyre the ones responsible for training all of Israels elite special forces.

We cant be a school that is disconnected from what is happening on the ground, Hanan told JNS.org. I arrived there with my team, and we started to work.

The IDFs Counter-Terrorism School, based near Modiin in central Israel, was founded in the 1970s as a response to a wave of terrorist airplane hijackings and bus attacks.

Since then, Hanan said, the threat has evolved in a major way, and the IDF branchs job is to make sure that its up to date, as it shapes Israels counter-terrorism combat doctrine
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The world will almost certainly reach a tipping point and bring about unstoppable, destructive climate change, according to a new study.

There is a 90 per cent chance that the world's temperature will rise 2C, to 4.9C above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century, despite measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

It's at that point that scientists think the world will fall into disastrous effects like widespread drought, extreme weather and dangerous increases in sea level. Experts have suggested that 2C of warming is the "tipping point" at which that change becomes unstoppable.

10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Show all 10 1 /10 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A group of emperor penguins face a crack in the sea ice, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica Kira Morris 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Floods destroyed eight bridges and ruined crops such as wheat, maize and peas in the Karimabad valley in northern Pakistan, a mountainous region with many glaciers. In many parts of the world, glaciers have been in retreat, creating dangerously large lakes that can cause devastating flooding when the banks break. Climate change can also increase rainfall in some areas, while bringing drought to others. Hira Ali 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Smoke  filled with the carbon that is driving climate change  drifts across a field in Colombia. Sandra Rondon 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Amid a flood in Islampur, Jamalpur, Bangladesh, a woman on a raft searches for somewhere dry to take shelter. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable places in the world to sea level rise, which is expected to make tens of millions of people homeless by 2050. Probal Rashid 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Sindh province in Pakistan has experienced a grim mix of two consequences of climate change. Because of climate change either we have floods or not enough water to irrigate our crop and feed our animals, says the photographer. Picture clearly indicates that the extreme drought makes wide cracks in clay. Crops are very difficult to grow. Rizwan Dharejo 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Hanna Petursdottir examines a cave inside the Svinafellsjokull glacier in Iceland, which she said had been growing rapidly. Since 2000, the size of glaciers on Iceland has reduced by 12 per cent. Tom Schifanella 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A river once flowed along the depression in the dry earth of this part of Bangladesh, but it has disappeared amid rising temperatures. Abrar Hossain 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A shepherd moves his herd as he looks for green pasture near the village of Sirohi in Rajasthan, northern India. The region has been badly affected by heatwaves and drought, making local people nervous about further predicted increases in temperature. Riddhima Singh Bhati 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A factory in China is shrouded by a haze of air pollution. The World Health Organisation has warned such pollution, much of which is from the fossil fuels that cause climate change, is a public health emergency. Leung Ka Wa 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Water levels in reservoirs, like this one in Gers, France, have been getting perilously low in areas across the world affected by drought, forcing authorities to introduce water restrictions. Mahtuf Ikhsan

The world will almost certainly fail to keep warming to the 1.5C target that was set as part of the Paris climate agreement, according to the same research. There's a 99 per cent chance that climate change will break through that limit.

Dr Dargan Frierson, from the University of Washington, said: "Countries argued for the 1.5C target because of the severe impacts on their livelihoods that would result from exceeding that threshold. Indeed, damages from heat extremes, drought, extreme weather and sea level rise will be much more severe if 2C or higher temperature rise is allowed.

"Our results show that an abrupt change of course is needed to achieve these goals."

The scientists looked at 50 years of data on world population and economic activity to come up with their forecast. One factor taken into account was "carbon intensity", the amount of carbon emitted for each dollar of economic activity.

The approach is different from that taken by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), whose most recent report included future warming rates based on four carbon emission scenarios.

Professor Adrian Raftery, who led the University of Washington team, said: "The big problem with scenarios is that you don't know how likely they are, and whether they span the full range of possibilities or are just a few examples. Scientifically, this type of storytelling approach was not fully satisfying.

"Our analysis is compatible with previous estimates, but it finds that the most optimistic projections are unlikely to happen. We're closer to the margin than we think.

"Overall, the goals expressed in the Paris Agreement are ambitious but realistic. The bad news is they are unlikely to be enough to achieve the target of keeping warming at or below 1.5 degrees."

The findings are published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

A separate study in the same journal found that even if all fossil fuel emissions were halted this year, global temperatures were very likely to be 1.3C higher than pre-industrial levels by the end of the century.

There was a 13% chance that the Earth was already committed to 1.5C warming by 2100, said the authors led by Dr Thorsten Mauritsen, from the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Germany.

Additional reporting by Press Association
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The new iPhone is about to be launched. But you might not actually be able to buy it.

Apple's new handset is set to be revealed in just a few weeks, but analysts are already predicting that the top version of the phone won't actually be available for months after that.

That could prove damaging for Apple, which has built its business on bringing out phones on a guaranteed timetable  and having guaranteed millions of people coming to buy them.

Gadget and tech news: In pictures Show all 25 1 /25 Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gun-toting humanoid robot sent into space Russia has launched a humanoid robot into space on a rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The robot Fedor will spend 10 days aboard the ISS practising skills such as using tools to fix issues onboard. Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin has previously shared videos of Fedor handling and shooting guns at a firing range with deadly accuracy. Dmitry Rogozin/Twitter Gadget and tech news: In pictures Google turns 21 Google celebrates its 21st birthday on September 27. The The search engine was founded in September 1998 by two PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in their dormitories at Californias Stanford University. Page and Brin chose the name google as it recalled the mathematic term 'googol', meaning 10 raised to the power of 100 Google Gadget and tech news: In pictures Hexa drone lifts off Chief engineer of LIFT aircraft Balazs Kerulo demonstrates the company's "Hexa" personal drone craft in Lago Vista, Texas on June 3 2019 Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures Project Scarlett to succeed Xbox One Microsoft announced Project Scarlett, the successor to the Xbox One, at E3 2019. The company said that the new console will be 4 times as powerful as the Xbox One and is slated for a release date of Christmas 2020 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures First new iPod in four years Apple has announced the new iPod Touch, the first new iPod in four years. The device will have the option of adding more storage, up to 256GB Apple Gadget and tech news: In pictures Folding phone may flop Samsung will cancel orders of its Galaxy Fold phone at the end of May if the phone is not then ready for sale. The $2000 folding phone has been found to break easily with review copies being recalled after backlash PA Gadget and tech news: In pictures Charging mat non-starter Apple has cancelled its AirPower wireless charging mat, which was slated as a way to charge numerous apple products at once AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures "Super league" India shoots down satellite India has claimed status as part of a "super league" of nations after shooting down a live satellite in a test of new missile technology EPA Gadget and tech news: In pictures 5G incoming 5G wireless internet is expected to launch in 2019, with the potential to reach speeds of 50mb/s Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Uber halts driverless testing after death Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona. March 19 2018 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A concept car by Trumpchi from GAC Group is shown at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A Mirai fuel cell vehicle by Toyota is displayed at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A visitor tries a Nissan VR experience at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A man looks at an exhibit entitled 'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A new Israeli Da-Vinci unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Elbit Systems is displayed during the 4th International conference on Home Land Security and Cyber in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv Getty

Issues with making enough of the new handset are leading to concern that it could be delayed by as much as a couple of months. Apple is introducing a range of features like screens and chips that must be made in new ways and by new manufacturers, which could slow down the process of making them and limit supply.

Even once the phone arrives, likely much closer to the Christmas period than normal, supply will probably be constrained. The phone will also be far more expensive than any model before it, according to multiple rumours.

Royal Bank of Canada analysts, for instance, suggest that the phone might not arrive until October and it won't be available in big numbers until November or December. But it said that people would probably still want to buy iPhones and see the new handset as a worthwhile upgrade.

Apple is due to report its earnings this week and is likely to make some reference to any possible delay. Last time around, Apple boss Tim Cook said that it had missed targets in part because people were waiting for the new tenth-anniversary phone rather than buying the current models.

If the phone is delayed beyond September then that will probably continue into the next quarter, meaning that it could once again hit Apple's profits. It could also mean that fewer people buy iPhones in the long term, if people opt to switch to rivals like Samsung instead of waiting.

Current rumours suggest that Apple will still hold its usual event to announce the new iPhone at the beginning of September, and that the less spectacular iPhone 7s and 7s Plus could go on sale soon after that. But the main event  the iPhone 8, or Pro, or whatever Apple settles on for the name  might not actually be released until closer to Christmas, rumours suggest.

That iPhone is likely to cost more than $1,000. For that high price, customers will get a range of futuristic new features, including a screen that goes all the way across the front of the phone and a special depth-sensing camera system made specifically for augmented reality.
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Many women worry about their future ability to have children - until you start trying for a baby, you have no idea how easy itll be for you. And if you do have problems conceiving, you may wish youd started trying to get pregnant earlier.

These concerns are leading many women to have what is known as a fertility MOT.

Technically known as an anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) or antral follicle count (AFC) test, a fertility MOT assesses your likelihood of getting pregnant.

Doctors say theyre becoming increasingly popular, however some people have concerns that the tests are merely a way for fertility clinics to exploit womens fears.

Were told that our fertility will drop off a cliff once we reach the age of 35, and the idea is that a fertility MOT will provide a proactive rather than reactive approach to your future reproductive capacities.

Usually costing between 100 and 200, a fertility MOT measures the number of eggs a woman has, as well as the health of her uterus, ovaries and ovarian follicles.

Some tests can be done at home (where you send off a pin-prick of blood), others are done at clinics and can deliver results in an hour.

For many women, these tests seem like a great idea that could help ease their concerns:

Im worried about my fertility because I have PCOS [polycystic ovary syndrome], 26-year-old Issy* from Birmingham told The Independent. I have no idea if my fertility is poor because the only way to find out is to try to have a baby which, as you can imagine, isnt ideal.

Id love it if a test could tell me if Ill have problems getting pregnant. I feel like if it were accurate it would really help me plan my life. Right now I don't know whether waiting until I'm 35 to have kids will see me risking never having them at all.

At the moment, I feel like my fertility is totally out of my control which is a scary prospect, even though I'm not even sure I want kids at all.

The majority of women taking fertility MOTs fall into two categories, Refinery29 reports: single women in their 30s who are anxious about having babies later in life as they dont have a partner, and women in relationships who want to start a family but their partner doesnt yet.

However, the problem is that fertility MOTs cant assess the quality of your eggs. And experts arent convinced the tests are a good idea.

Theres no evidence that women need to take any fertility test unless they are having trouble conceiving, Dr Raj Mathur, lead for Policy and Practice at the British Fertility Society, told The Independent.

Recommended Egg breakthrough could allow infertile women to have children

Dr Mathur doesnt believe fertility MOTs are necessary, and in most cases women would be better advised to start trying to conceive at the earliest point their life situation allows them to.

Although there are few physical risks to taking the tests - especially the simple Anti-Mullerian Hormone or egg counting test which just involves taking a blood sample - there are emotional risks.

The result of the test could have an emotional impact and ought to be accompanied by effective counselling., Dr Mathur recommends.

He stresses that just because your MOT results come back normal, thats no guarantee youll be able to conceive a baby. And likewise, an abnormal MOT doesnt mean you wont be able to get pregnant.

The MOT tests are excellent for people having IVF, but they have not been shown to predict the likelihood of having a baby in couples trying to conceive on their own, Dr Mathur explains. Hence, there is a risk of both false reassurance and of creating unnecessary anxiety.

For this reason, some women are extremely anti the idea of fertility MOTs, saying they would rather not know.

Dr Mathur believes the most important thing is that young people are educated about fertility, because it would allow us to make informed choices about starting a family.

In particular, young people should be told about the impact of age on fertility, which for women we know is significant, says Dr Mathur. There is also growing evidence that mens fertility is affected by their age.

Its talked about less, but male fertility does decline over the age of 40.

For some, a fertility MOT can be useful, but they may not provide all the answers youre looking for, creating more worry than anything else.

*Name has been changed
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A mother is warning others of the dangers of cold sores after her child came down with a case of herpes.

Samantha Rodgers, from Des Moines in Iowa, US, has shared her own experience of how her baby Juliano developed lots of cold sores, but doctors repeatedly dismissed her concerns.

She was told he probably just had the flu or a serious case of hand, foot and mouth disease, but Julianos symptoms kept getting worse and he was in terrible pain.

Recommended Mother warns other parents after her newborn baby dies of meningitis

His sores were growing onto his hands and his neck and his stomach, Rodgers told WRIC.

Eventually, Juliano was taken to a childrens hospital, and after being tested, his mother discovered what he real problem was.

They swabbed his mouth and tested it and it came back as he has herpes, she said.

It turns out someone with the virus must have inadvertently touched or kissed Juliano.

Baby Juliano (WRIC/Samantha Rodgers)

Pretty much this person gave my baby herpes not intentionally, Rodgers said, adding that she doesnt know who passed herpes on to Juliano.

Cold sores are caused by the herpes simplex virus and usually clear up between seven and 10 days, according to the NHS. Theyre highly contagious though, and can spread via saliva, skin and touch.

Samantha Rodgers with Juliano

With no known cure for herpes, most people have the virus their whole lives, although it remains inactive most of the time.

It sucks because this is a life-long problem now every time he runs a fever, every time hes sick he can have an outbreak, I dont know how to handle this, Rodgers said. I am trying to do the best. Its sad. It breaks my heart and I cant do anything to help him.

Juliano will soon be leaving hospital to finish his treatment at home, where Rodgers will then try and get him to eat something for the first time since last week.

All I can say is just be cautious, it can be anybody - your best friend, your sister, your brother, or your mom, it can be anybody, she said.

Everybody needs to wash their hands, sanitise if you see a cold sore or anything on them, just dont let them come by your baby.
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Amber Rudd will this week urge some of the worlds biggest social media platforms to step up efforts to crack down on content that encourages violence and terrorism, Reuters has reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The Home Secretary is due to travel to Silicon Valley this week where she will reportedly meet with representatives from YouTube and Google parent company Alphabet.

Those social media platforms, as well as peers Twitter and Facebook, have been scrutinised closely in recent years for the role that they might be playing in facilitating terrorist activity and violence.

Recommended EU moves to force big tech companies to hand over data

In the wake of a string of attacks across the UK, Theresa May in June called for the introduction of stricter regulation that would deprive the extremists of their safe spaces online. She accused the technology firms of not doing enough.

We cannot allow this ideology the safe space it needs to breed  yet that is precisely what the internet, and the big companies that provide internet-based services provide, the Prime Minister said in aftermath of the London Bridge terror attack.

Many of the biggest players in the field responded at the time, vehemently defending their efforts.

A spokesperson for Facebook said that the platform already uses a combination of technology and human review and works aggressively to remove terrorist content.

A spokesperson for Google said that the company is working with industry colleagues on an international forum to accelerate and strengthen our existing work in this area. Twitter said that it continues to expand the use of technology as part of a systematic approach to removing this type of content.

Last year, the Investigatory Powers Act 2016  dubbed the Snoopers Charter  came into effect across the UK, expanding the powers of spying agencies and the Government over the internet.

The Act has been championed by Ms May as it requires internet service providers to maintain a list of visited websites for all internet users for a year. It also gives intelligence agencies more powers to intercept online communications.

Police can access the stored browsing history without any warrant or court order.
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Watata Mwendas family had it good. There was no electricity in their village in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but Mwenda, an itinerant salesman of cattle, gold and other commodities, could afford a battery to power a television. They lived in a brick-and-mortar house, with enough room for his nine children and then some. There was always food on the table.

Ah, we lived well in the Congo, Mwenda, 60, says in French, one of the languages he learned in his travels.

But eight years ago, six militiamen invaded the family compound, murdered his oldest son and his sons wife and briefly kidnapped Mwenda. The family left everything behind, and after four days of travel by foot, car and dinghy made it to safety in a refugee camp more than 1,000 miles away in Malawi.

This month, they were again lucky to make a skin-of-their-teeth escape, when an International Organisation for Migration vehicle pulled into the camp and transported them to an airport, with one-way tickets to the United States. That made them one of the last refugee families without close relations in the country to be allowed in before President Donald Trumps moratorium took effect.

Beginning on Thursday, only refugees who have a bona fide relationship with a close relative or entity in the US will be eligible to enter for the next 120 days, following a 26 June Supreme Court order that allowed part of Trumps travel ban to proceed.

Jackson Mwenda makes a call to Mr Feruzi, his cousin back in Malawi. He will probably not be able to join the rest of his family for at least four months

An estimated 60 per cent of refugees resettled in the US already have family ties here, but only about a quarter of those from Congo and Syria  two blood-soaked countries that are among the biggest sources of refugees  have any connection to America, according to Church World Service, a large resettlement agency.

Among the other free cases fortunate enough to arrive before the doors closed on Thursday were a Somali mother, Nadifo Farah, and her three children, including one with spina bifida, who have been resettled in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I am very thankful I am here and able to get medical support for my son, Farah, 31, says.

Two Ugandans who were imprisoned and tortured for their sexual orientation also made it through, one to Columbus, Ohio, and the other to Oakland, California.

Yet other cases have been derailed, such as that of a Somali family of 10 originally headed this month to Columbus. On the eve of their flight, word came that their travel had been cancelled because one members medical exam had expired.

People like this family are completely out of luck because they have no US relatives, said Angie Plummer, the executive director of Community Refugee and Immigration Services, an Ohio resettlement agency. We dont know when, or if, they will arrive.

Even for the Mwendas, the joy of reaching the United States is tempered by the pain of leaving a loved one behind. John Feruzi, 21, a nephew raised since infancy by Mwenda and his wife, Nyasa Safi, fled with them to Malawi but was not allowed to travel to the United States for reasons that remain unclear. Since a nephew does not qualify as a close relative under the State Departments definition, he will most likely not be able to join the rest of his family for at least four months.

We are very happy to be here, but we are not complete, says Mwendas son Byaombe Mwenda, 23, his eyes welling up with tears as he described Feruzi as a brother. We have never lived without him.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the fall about whether the Presidents executive order temporarily barring all refugees and all travellers from six majority-Muslim countries unconstitutionally discriminates against Muslims. The Trump administration says the order is a legal exercise of the Presidents national security powers, and necessary to ensure that everyone entering the country is properly vetted.

Eight-year-old Baraka plays at the apartment complex into which his family moved in Fayetteville

Refugees like the Mwendas already undergo extensive background checks, and it is extremely rare for any of them to engage in terrorist behaviour. But supporters of the President point to a small number of cases in which immigrants or their children have become radicalised. A number of young men in Minnesota from Somali refugee families have been convicted of plotting to join militant groups, including the Isis.

While the court awaits the arguments, it has allowed the travel ban to take effect for those without bona fide ties to the United States, the foreigners who the justices said were least likely to win legal protection.

Knowing no one in the United States, the Mwendas have relied an Arkansas affiliate of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. It worked with local churches to help them set up a couple of apartments in Fayetteville, centre of a prosperous region that is home to the University of Arkansas and the corporate headquarters of Walmart.

It is a world away from Swina, their village in Congo, one of the worlds poorest countries and where rebels and government-backed militias have committed atrocities for years.

In late 2009, under the cover of darkness, six members of the Mai Mai militia took the lives of Mwendas son Richard and his sons wife  possibly, Mwenda said, because they were well-off. The fighters then kidnapped Mwenda.

The rest of the family  Mwendas wife, eight other children and two grandchildren  fled to another village. They assumed Mwenda was dead until word arrived that he had been tortured and dumped on a roadside, discovered alive by missionaries who took him to hospital.

The family reunited, and travelled for four days across Lake Tanganyika and through Tanzania to reach the Dzaleka refugee camp in Malawi. There they joined thousands of refugees fleeing genocide, violence and war in Congo, Somalia, Burundi and Sudan.

We had no documents, no nothing; we had left everything behind, Mwenda recalls, noting that they had just a little money.

The family built an adobe hut that would be their home for seven years. The children, who spoke mostly Swahili, enrolled in school, where they studied English.

To supplement the rations of corn and beans provided by the United Nations, Mwenda started a business selling timber to fellow refugees who needed wood to mount tarps over their shacks. He rented trucks and headed for the woods with his older sons, where they spent three or four days at a time chopping trees.

In June 2016, after completing interviews and security checks, the family was notified that it would be resettled in the United States.

The Mwenda family. After a militia attack at their home in Congo in 2009 they fled to Malawi, where they lived for years in a refugee camp

Family members celebrated when American authorities informed them in early January that their departure was imminent. Everyone, including Feruzi, Mwendas nephew, completed medical exams, one of the last steps in the process.

The Mwendas checked a United States map to see where they would be living. We had never heard of Arkansas, said Jules Mwenda, 24, reciting the names of big cities and states he knew.

At the end of a 20-hour journey, the Mwendas arrived last week at Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport to a gaggle of well-wishers hoisting American flags and welcome-home signs.

The local resettlement agency, Canopy of Northwest Arkansas, arranged for church groups to take the Mwendas their first outings. In the produce section of a grocery store, Mwenda was bewildered by the abundance and wide variety of apples on display, promptly plopping two dozen pricey Pink Ladies into a bag. His sons were taken aback by the pet food aisle, and the idea that food would be manufactured specifically for cats.

Back at their apartments, they had to learn how to use the oven, the toaster and the toilet. None had ever lived in a place where they could flush.

They hope to soon find work, in the poultry, food service, construction or retail sectors. I want to work and study to be an electrician, says Jules, the eldest son.

Mwenda, who still suffers from searing pain in his right leg from the torture he endured in 2009, will see a doctor.

Life will get better here with time, Mwenda says as his wife prepares a lunch of beef stew, corn meal and rice. This country is very organised.

Later, on a WhatsApp call, they speak with the nephew they had to leave behind, who has already been fingerprinted, photographed, interviewed and medically cleared. I am ready to leave even today, Feruzi says.

 New York Times
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A former Royal Marine who made bombs for dissident Irish republicans has been jailed for 18 years.

Ciaran Maxwell stashed anti-personnel mines, mortars, ammunition and 14 pipe bombs - four of which were later used - in 43 purpose-built hides at eight locations in Northern Ireland and England.

Bomb-making materials were found in barrels and buckets buried in the ground as well as an adapted Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) pass card, a PSNI uniform and a police stab-proof vest.

The 31-year-old, who is originally from Larne in County Antrim and was with 40 Commando based at Norton Manor Camp in Taunton, Somerset, at the time of the offences, pleaded guilty to preparation of terrorist acts between January 2011 and August last year, possessing images of bank cards for fraud and possessing cannabis with intent to supply.

He also wrote a "to do" list on which he identified over 300 targets, including police and military buildings as well as named individuals in Northern Ireland and Britain.

A 'terrorist hide' in woodland at Capanagh Forest near Larne in Northern Ireland (PA)

PSNI Detective Chief Inspector Gillian Kearney said Maxwell used his military know-how to accumulate and construct his devices, and described the infiltration of the military by a republican terrorist as "very unusual" and "certainly the first case of its kind in recent years".

Sentencing, Mr Justice Sweeney said: "I'm sure that you were and will remain motivated by dissident republican sympathies and a hostility to the UK."

Maxwell, described by the judge as an "inveterate record-keeper", showed little emotion as the sentence was handed down.

His plot was foiled when members of the public stumbled across his weapons hides by chance.

DNA evidence found on parts of the haul led them to Maxwell, who was on the national database due to his alleged involvement in an unrelated assault case.

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Paul Hynes QC, defending, told the court his client was not ideologically driven and would not have used violence for a cause.

He said it was Niall Lehd, said to be a member of the Continuity IRA (CIRA), who was the "instigator" of a joint venture with Maxwell, who had "no long-lasting republican ideology".

Maxwell denied joining the Royal Marines in 2010 with the intention of infiltrating them.

He claimed he faked his support for the dissidents' cause because he was "frozen" with fear and believed old connections wished "serious ill" on him and his extended family in Northern Ireland and England.

The court also heard he had been brought up as a Catholic in the largely loyalist town of Larne and suffered a fractured skull as a 16-year-old when he was the victim of a sectarian attack.

Ammunition found among the haul at Capanagh Forest, outside Larne, Count Antrim (PSNI)

Police fear weapons Maxwell constructed may still be in circulation, ready for deployment by dissident republicans.

Four of his pipe bombs have already been used by the violent extremists in Northern Ireland - two detonated, without causing injury - but detectives acknowledge others might still be out there.

Detectives believe he essentially operated as a lone wolf who, despite links to the Continuity IRA, acted largely independently of the renegade organisation.

Commander Dean Hayden, of the Met's Counter Terrorism Command, said: "There is no evidence to suggest Maxwell himself was directly involved in the deployment of the items but he was the bomb maker.

"A significant number of dangerous items were prevented from getting into the hands of terrorists, hence the public relationship in fighting terrorism is crucial."

Ammunition found among the haul at Capanagh Forest, outside Larne, Count Antrim (PSNI)

Maxwell denied he joined the Royal Marines with the intention of infiltrating them from the outset, insisting his criminal exploits only started when his friendship deepened with an old acquaintance who was in the Continuity IRA.

He claimed things then spiralled out of control and, as his lawyer put it, he got "in above his head".

But detectives are not convinced by this explanation.

DCI Kearney said: "It's hard to say - we don't know that definitely.

"Whatever his motivation was in joining the Royal Marines, quickly he became involved in the engineering of devices and very dangerous activity which made him a very dangerous individual."

Additional reporting by PA
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A doctor convicted of downloading child sex images is working at Barnsley Hospital, it has been revealed.

Consultant Philip McAndrew, 56, was found to have been employed by the hospital after a source tipped off The Sun newspaper.

The radiologist has eight job conditions imposed on him by the General Medical Council (GMC) including clinical supervision, having to notify the GMC of new employment and allowing the GMC to share information with his employer.

He is also barred from working as a locum and must tell employers of the conditions imposed on him.

Dr McAndrew was fined 1,500 in 1998 after admitting downloading pornographic images of young children on his computer.

He was working as a consultant radiologist with Kirkcaldy Acute Hospital at the time but moved to Ireland after his employers said his behaviour didn't meet required standards.

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He was forced out of his next job at the South Infirmary in Cork after bosses learned of his conviction.

A spokesperson for Barnsley Hospital said: "We do not comment on individual members of staff, however, all NHS organisations are required to follow stringent recruitment processes and checks when recruiting medical personnel.

"These processes include communicating with the General Medical Council (GMC) which is the regulatory body for medical practitioners.

"We follow these processes and checks for the recruitment of all of our medical workforce."

A GMC spokesperson said: "We dont comment on individual cases but we can confirm the doctors registration status.

"The doctor has conditions on his practice for a matter that we continue to investigate. We cannot comment further."

Additional reporting by Press Association
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Dozens of people were forced to sleep in temporary accommodation after a crane collapsed.

A total of 62 residents left their homes for the night as the 35-metre crane, with a 60-metre job, came down and came to rest by the wall of the former Primark store in Reading.

Some people can now return to their homes as the crane has been stabilised, but police have warned it could take days to remove the machinery from the scene.

Recommended Crane collapse kills seven in China

West Street, where the incident occurred, remains closed as the jib will be dismantled on site.

No one was injured during the incident.

The evacuees were re-homed by Reading Borough Council on Saturday, and some residents made arrangements with friends and family.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 12 November 2022 The City of London Pride Group take part in the parade during the Lord Mayor's Show PA UK news in pictures 11 November 2022 City workers attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at Lloyd's of London, in the City of London, to mark Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the First World War PA UK news in pictures 10 November 2022 A grey heron lands on the river Dodder in Dublin on a sunny autumn morning PA UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA

Certain nearby shops were also vacated.

Superintendent Robert France said firefighters worked with other agencies to stabilise the crane.

 Crane Collapse in NYC

The crane has now been stabilised and the fire service has left the scene, however TVP and Reading Borough Council remain at the scene, he said.

Although the crane has been stabilised, the jib of the crane is damaged, therefore expert engineers from the Netherlands are travelling to the UK today to assess the damage.

It is possible that it may take a number of days to repair the jib and remove the crane from the scene.

He added that the police apologised for the inconvenience, and asked any resident urgently needing items from their home to approach the police cordon and officers would attempt to help.

BW Workplace Experts, which operates the crane, declined to comment.



Agencies contributed to this report.
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The mayor of Dover, who first made headlines after he was caught on camera snorting a line of white powder in a toilet cubicle, has demanded he is given a bigger car by the council.

Neil Rix has called for his 26,000 Toyota Prius to be replaced so his choice of vehicle matches the status of his role.

The mayor believes that the make of vehicle should reflect the prestige and status of the mayoralty, explains a council document.

The 55-year-old mayor is said to be subject to discomfort due to the size of the civic car he currently drives.

Recommended Mayor caught on camera snorting white powder refuses to resign

The town sergeant, who is above height for a British man and also uses the vehicle, is believed to find the car equally uncomfortable to drive because his head touches the roof even with his seat at its lowest position.

The sergeant has suggested the Prius could potentially be replaced with a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, a Skoda Superb Hatch SE l Executive or a Volvo S90 hybrid T8 twin, which are all priced at around 30,000.

The council has agreed to the demand and the mayors budget for car lease is set to rise from 3,590 to 5,000 a year.

Local councillor Peter Wallace has condemned Mr Rixs suggestion the vehicle should reflect his mayoral position.

The guy who is trying to say we should get a better car for prestige is the same guy who last year made headlines for a video of him snorting powder which was called the white cliffs of Dover and snortgate, Mr Wallace told The Independent.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA

Mr Rix, who runs a scaffolding firm, refused to resign last year after footage emerged on YouTube of him rolling up a bank note and snorting a line of white powder in a bathroom cubicle. The clip showed Mr Rix saying "don't let anyone come... don't want anyone seeing Councillor Rix doing this".

Responding to the video which was posted last August, he claimed the clip had been filmed seven years ago and had been used to blackmail him. He said he was dead against drug taking and did not know what the substance was, saying: It could have been sherbet for all I know."

He added: People were putting stuff in my drink. I was being blackmailed. I'm glad it's out in the open.

Mr Wallace has argued it is wrong for the council to upgrade Mr Rixs car when they refused to give a local homeless charity money minutes earlier.

The local councillor said: A homeless group had given a presentation and made a pitch to get funding 20 minutes earlier. We gave them a round of applause but not a penny yet we have money for a more prestigious car.

The mayor just goes about hobnobbing at different events, wearing gold chains, eating sandwiches, drinking wine and shaking hands. Why do you need a brand new executive car for it I would rather spend the 5,000 a year on the homeless shelter.

A spokesman for Dover Town Council told The Independent: It has been agreed to replace the civic car, which is used by councillors, officers and the mayor for council business, and is coming to the end of its lease. Environmental factors and economical running costs will be taken into account when selecting the civic car  no recommendation or decision on a model has been made. Councillors also agreed leasing the civic car up to 5,000 per year is the most cost-effective option.

The car is driven and used by a number of officials who are tall and find the driving position uncomfortable. There is some risk of physical harm to them for continually using a car when at the lowest seat position, heads touch the roof. The council has a responsibility under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 to ensure the health, safety and welfare which includes safe transportation.
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Kensington and Chelsea Council has been accused of trying to push domestic violence survivors out of London, after women living in a refuge were told to move outside the borough.

Seven women and eight children living in the property, which is owned by the Notting Hill Trust and run by domestic violence charity Hestia, were offered housing on the outskirts of the capital after a ceiling collapsed.

But the residents have refused to leave the refuge, saying they fear they will be out for good once they are housed elsewhere.

Recommended Councillors cannot stay in jobs as police investigate Grenfell council

The council has insisted they will only be re-housed temporarily, saying their present refuge will be habitable shortly.

Two of the women have ex-partners who live near where they were offered housing.

One resident told The Independent that the sprinklers at the refuge were leaking and the fire alarm was going off periodically for several weeks before the ceiling gave way.

She and others had complained a number of times, but they were ignored, she said.

Now there was water coming through the power sockets and the building posed a fire risk, she said.

Recommended Police charges for domestic abuse plummet in one year

The residents have moved their mattresses to the ground floor so they can leave the building quickly if there is an emergency.

If this place catches fire, the fire alarm goes off and were out. At least I will be safe sitting on that pavement, the resident said.

If I go back to that area [on the outskirts of London] I risk not only him [her former partner] killing me, but also getting back into a situation that was absolute hell.

She added: Weve uprooted our lives once. Weve made connections here, weve started getting help and we want our lives back.

The incident came after the Kensington council was accused of acting with disregard for low-income families following the Grenfell Tower fire.

Police last week announced said they had reasonable grounds to suspect Kensington council committed corporate manslaughter.

The borough has the worst record in England for finding local homes for homeless families. As of spring this year, Kensington and Chelsea had placed 1,668 homeless households in temporary housing outside the area.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 12 November 2022 The City of London Pride Group take part in the parade during the Lord Mayor's Show PA UK news in pictures 11 November 2022 City workers attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at Lloyd's of London, in the City of London, to mark Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the First World War PA UK news in pictures 10 November 2022 A grey heron lands on the river Dodder in Dublin on a sunny autumn morning PA UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA

Feminist group Sisters Uncut demanded that Kensington council rehouse every resident within the borough immediately.

"The council has a shameful history of moving working class people outside London, while hundreds of social homes within the borough lie empty," it said.

"The same council oversaw the managed decline of housing stock which was a direct cause of the Grenfell Tower disaster. We condemn any form of social cleansing and will continue to fight for every survivor to have access to secure, high quality housing."

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea said in a statement: We understand from Hestia there was a flood over the weekend that affected two flats and some residents were offered emergency places outside of the borough, by Hestia, on a temporary basis.

Notting Hill Housing Trust (the building owner) is working to repair the building and expect the refuge to be habitable by this evening (31 July). However, we take the housing needs of domestic abuse survivors very seriously and the Housing Trust will offer local hotel accommodation, transport and other forms of support if the repairs take longer than anticipated.

The Independent has contacted the Notting Hill Housing Trust for comment.
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An MP has slammed a reported decision to free the former leader of a child sex gang from prison 17 years early as "unacceptable".

Mubarek Ali ran a squalid grooming gang in Telford, Shropshire, targeting vulnerable young girls  some just 13-years-old  and sold them for sex around the country.

He was sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2013 after he was caught following a lengthy police operation.

But he could potentially be released on licence as early as November, less than five years into his sentence, according to the Shropshire Star.

 DPP warning over web grooming

Local MP Lucy Allan told the paper: Victims and members of the public would have expected a 22-year sentence to mean that the community could have time to heal and victims would be able to get on with their lives.

What we see in this case is that the one of the main perpetrators is being released into the community only five years after the trial.

What is unacceptable that in this case there was no attempt by the authorities to reach out these young women and prepare them for this wholly unexpected event.

Worse still is the prospect that this person may be returned to Telford and naturally this has caused huge anxiety to victims.

The news of Alis expected release has caused significant upset in the area, where six men were jailed alongside Ali following Operation Chalice, which targeted the grooming gang.

A petition has been launched to lobby the Government in an attempt to make Ali serve his full sentence.

Ali and his brother Ahdel Ali were found guilty of sexually abusing, trafficking and selling young girls for sex.

After the court case, Detective Chief Inspector Neil Jamieson said the girls were "particularly vulnerable" and their abusers would befriend them before sending them around the country for sexual exploitation.

He also stressed how difficult it was for Ali and the other abusers to be convicted.

"This long trial has been an ordeal for those giving evidence and I would like to pay tribute to the witnesses concerned who faced extreme and prolonged cross examination in court, he said.

The judge, Patrick Thomas QC, said the Ali brothers had "squalid, demeaning and selfish" motives and presented a "significant danger to the public".

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses 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Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty

The news came as it was revealed a record 141 criminals had their sentences increased after public requests to review them last year. The number included 41 sex offenders.

Any member of the public  not just a victim  can request a serious criminals sentence to be reviewed under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.

The Ministry of Justice refused to comment.
You have come to the right place if you are fed up with liberals and the establishment GOP ruining our country, and are looking for a place ...
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More than 30,000 Muslims from 100 countries gathered this weekend to "promote the true, peaceful teachings of Islam" at the largest Islamic convention in the UK.

The Jalsa Salana event, held on a 200-acre farm in Hampshire, saw tens of thousands of Ahmadi Muslims come together to condemn misinterpretations of Islam and denounce extremism and terrorism.

Ahmadiyya Muslim Community head Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad called for believers to reject all forms of extremism in the last of his five speeches.

It is up to Muslims to stand up and reject all forms of extremism and terrorism. It is the task of Ahmadi Muslims to show the true teachings of Islam which are of peace love, mercy and compassion, he said.

The Caliph, who is the spiritual leader of the community's followers, regularly comments on religious extremism.

He has previously spoken out about the threat of terrorists entering Europe pretending to be refugees.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. 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Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. 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Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. 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Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. 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The three-day gathering saw men and womens proceedings conducted in separate tents. On Saturday, the Caliph conducted a prizegiving ceremony from the womens tent to honour academic achievements.

The proceedings were also broadcast to more than 80 million people worldwide, according to the organisers.

More than 300,000 naan breads were made for the weekend, with 270,000 meals prepared on site.

Education secretary Justine Greening was in attendance, along with Richmond Park MP Zac Goldsmith.
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Politicians across Europe have paid tribute to those who fought in one of the most violent offensives of the First World War on its 100th anniversary.

The Battle of Passchendaele began on 31 July 1917 under the heaviest rainfall the northeast of Belgium had seen for 30 years. Also known as the Third Battle of Ypres, it produced 700,000 casualties among allied and German troops  but resulted in a gain of just five miles of allied land. The four-month campaign by the allies for access to German communication lines and submarines at the height of the First World War was later shortened to the name of the last village they captured: Passchendaele.

Though the campaign was neither the bloodiest nor the longest of the Great War, it is remembered as much for its death count as for the lingering sense it had been fought in vain.

How brutal was Passchendaele?

The British casualty rate varies from 260,000 to 400,000 according to different counting techniques. But even the upper estimate shows the battle was less deadly than the battle of the Somme, which claimed as many as a million lives on the wars Western Front a year earlier. A number of other battles fought in 1917, such as the Battle of Arras, had higher casualty rates per day.

But one of the many poignant details of Passchendaele comes from the fact that it decimated the last of Kitchener's Army  the group of volunteer men who responded to Field Marshal Kitchener's "Your Country Needs You" call to arms at the start of the war and who were later replaced by a conscription army.

"In some ways, the Third Battle of Ypres was the last battle of the volunteer army," Professor Adrian Gregory, a University of Oxford History fellow specialising in the First World War, tells The Independent.

How bad were the fighting conditions?

Unlike the Battle of the Somme in 1916, which started on a sunny day, Passchendaele was fought in extremely difficult conditions from the outset. "Infamously, when the battle began on the 31st of July 1917, the heavens opened," Gregory says.

A massive concentration of heavy artillery on both sides damaged the drainage system in the area. The battlefield became a clay and water-filled swamp, with tanks, men and horses alike sinking into the mud.

It was also the first time the Germans used mustard gas, a blistering agent which gathered in shell-holes and made the skin bubble and burn. It came as a nasty surprise to allied forces, who had not yet used it.

It did not help the allies that the battle was launched in an area where much of the high ground was controlled by German troops, who used small concrete forts as outposts.

George Hackney's previously unseen World War One photographs Show all 7 1 /7 George Hackney's previously unseen World War One photographs George Hackney's previously unseen World War One photographs George Hackney's previously unseen World War One photographs Photograph taken at Randalstown Camp, County Antrim 1915. Hackney's friend John Ewing from Belfast writes in a diary or a letter home, while his comrade lies sleeping in his bunk. Ewing was later promoted to sergeant and won the Military Medal for bravery in the field National Museums Northern Ireland/George Hackney George Hackney's previously unseen World War One photographs George Hackney's previously unseen World War One photographs Photograph taken in July/August 1916 at Ploegsteert Wood near Messines in Belgium. This is where the 14th Batallion were redeployed after the devastation of the Battle of the Somme National Museums Northern Ireland/George Hackney George Hackney's previously unseen World War One photographs George Hackney's previously unseen World War One photographs Photograph taken at Thiepval Wood May/June 1916. Paul Pollock, standing and smoking, was the son of the Presbyterian Minister at St Enoch's Church in Belfast, where George Hackney worshipped. He was killed on 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme. His body was never found and name was only added to the Thievpal Memorial to the Missing in 2013 National Museums Northern Ireland/George Hackney George Hackney's previously unseen World War One photographs George Hackney's previously unseen World War One photographs Photograph taken English Channel, 4 October 1915. The Battalion sailed from Southampton to Boulogne on the former Isle of Man paddle steamer Empress Queen. Some men are seen sleeping on the deck while others look overboard for the threat of German U-boats. National Museums Northern Ireland/George Hackney George Hackney's previously unseen World War One photographs George Hackney's previously unseen World War One photographs Photograph taken at Randalstown Camp, County Antrim 1915. The 14th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles moved to Randalstown from Finner Camp in January 1915, where they remained until moving to England in July. In Randalstown, they stayed in wooden huts, and Hackney photographed the interior and exterior of these huts National Museums Northern Ireland/George Hackney George Hackney's previously unseen World War One photographs George Hackney's previously unseen World War One photographs Sgt James Scott, photographed at Seaford, East Sussex at some point between July and October 1915 National Museums Northern Ireland/George Hackney George Hackney's previously unseen World War One photographs George Hackney's previously unseen World War One photographs A photograph of George Hackney, taken at Poulainville, Picardy, Northern France, October 1915. Hackney was made a Lance Corporal the day before the Battalion left for France, along with his friend John Ewing. Before advancing to the Front, the men were billeted in a barn in the village of Poulainville. National Museums Northern Ireland/George Hackney

Who was responsible for the deaths?

The Battle of Passchendaele is closely associated with General Douglas Haig, who took over command of British forces from late 1915 and led troops into the carnage of both the Somme and Passchendaele. He has since acquired the nickname Butcher Haig for his determination troops would continue to fight in the battle in spite of heavy casualties. "This is the battle he wanted to fight," Gregory says.

But arguably, the responsibility also lay with the ministry of the then Prime Minister David Lloyd George. "Prime Minister Lloyd George blackened the name of General Haig over Passchendaele, but the responsibility lay with the whole of Britains political and military establishment," Gregory adds.

Why was the timing of the battle so important?

The summer and autumn of 1917 marked a moment of exhaustion in the war effort throughout Europe, before it ended in November 1918. The French army had mutinied in the spring, and one by one, both the Russian and Italian fronts collapsed.

By autumn 1917, the German U-boat campaign meant civilians in the UK were starting to suffer from food shortages, and workers started going on strike.

Wild poppies grow on the verge of a field near Tyne Cot Military Cemetery in Passchendaele, Belgium (Getty)

"Passchendaele became symbolic of not knowing where the war was going, and the loss of confidence it would ever end," says Gregory.

How do we remember Passch endaele ?

A line from a poem published a month before the end of the war sums up some of the battles horror.

I died in hell  they called it Passchendaele Memorial Tablet

But neither the poems author, Siegfried Sassoon, or other favourite war poet Wilfred Owen actually fought at the Battle of Passchendaele, as both were being treated at a psychiatric hospital in Scotland.

Two lesser known war poets, Hedd Wyn and Francis Ledwidge were at Passchendaele, but died on the first day of the campaign before they could record its impact.

Official war artist Paul Nash arrived on the Western Front in the aftermath of the battle, and produced grimly realistic images of the landscape.

The poet Edmund Blunden did fight through the campaign and wrote vividly about it in his memoir The Undertones of War. The Last Post has been played at the Menin Gate in Ypres by a bugler almost every evening since 1928.

This year, Theresa May, the Prince of Wales and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge joined descendants of the fallen in Belgium to commemorate the centenary of the battle.
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The Queen told Diana, Princess of Wales, that the Prince of Wales "is hopeless" when she approached her for advice on their marriage.

Prince Charles and Diana's marriage turmoil and sex life are to be laid bare in a new documentary, with the Princess claiming her husband asserted his right to have a "mistress".

When she confronted Charles about why Camilla Parker Bowles - now his wife the Duchess of Cornwall - was a part of his life, Diana said he replied: "Well, I refuse to be the only Prince of Wales who never had a mistress."

The Princess claimed the Duke of Edinburgh had told his son he could have an affair with Camilla - if his marriage had failed after a set period.

 Earl Spencer: It was a "bizarre and cruel thing" for Diana's sons to have to walk behind her body

In the video recordings - aired in a US documentary 13 years ago but never screened in the UK - a relaxed and candid Diana said: "My father-in-law said to my husband 'if your marriage doesn't work out, you can always go back to her after five years'.

"Which is exactly - I mean, for real I knew that it had happened after five (years) - I knew something was happening before that but the fifth year I had confirmation."

Diana described how she approached the Queen, or "the top lady" as she called her, for advice, and in the footage she still appeared visibly dissatisfied with the response as she told the story.

She said: "So I went to the top lady, sobbing, and I said 'what do I do. I'm coming to you, what do I do?' And she said 'I don't know what you should do. Charles is hopeless'.

"And that was it, and that was help."

A Day That Shook The World: Charles and Diana separate Show all 10 1 /10 A Day That Shook The World: Charles and Diana separate A Day That Shook The World: Charles and Diana separate 512266.bin Getty Images A Day That Shook The World: Charles and Diana separate 512269.bin Getty Images A Day That Shook The World: Charles and Diana separate 512270.bin Getty Images A Day That Shook The World: Charles and Diana separate 512261.bin 2006 Getty Images A Day That Shook The World: Charles and Diana separate 512262.bin Getty Images A Day That Shook The World: Charles and Diana separate 512263.bin Getty Images A Day That Shook The World: Charles and Diana separate 512267.bin Getty Images A Day That Shook The World: Charles and Diana separate 512264.bin Getty Images A Day That Shook The World: Charles and Diana separate 512265.bin Getty Images A Day That Shook The World: Charles and Diana separate 512268.bin Getty Images

The Princess also claimed she had sex with her husband Charles "once every three weeks" but it fizzled out six or seven years before the tapes were made, around a few years after Prince Harry was born in 1984.

She confessed she found solace with her married police protection officer Barry Mannakee, a relationship she suggested was not sexual, but in the tapes she reveals she considered fleeing the Royal Household to be with him.

The Princess hired Peter Settelen between 1992 and 1993 to help with her public speaking voice, following her collaboration with author Andrew Morton on a biography, and ahead of her major Panorama interview in 1995.

The footage, captured at her private residence in Kensington Palace, shows Diana rehearsing her speaking voice but when discussing her personal life she is sat on a sofa, wearing a blouse, blazer and trousers.

Diana: In Her Own Words will be shown on 6 August.

Additional reporting by PA
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Riot-trained prison staff have been deployed at a prison in Hertfordshire following reports of a serious disturbance.

One wing of The Mount prison, a Category C facility in the village of Bovingdon, near Hemel Hempstead, and part of another have been "lost" in the riot, insiders said.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice said: "Specially trained staff are working to resolve an incident involving a number of prisoners at HMP The Mount.

"The prison is completely secure and there is no risk to the public."

The riot unit is believed to have entered the prison at around 2pm on Monday.

The prison, which opened in 1987, has a population of more than 1,000 male prisoners and is described as a "hybrid training and resettlement prison" which typically caters to prisoners who are reaching the end of their sentence.

An inspection in 2015 found the prison was performing well, with inspectors noting it was "reasonably safe and felt calm and well ordered", but chief inspector of prisons Nick Hardwick added that there was "room for improvement".

Prisons expert and blogger Alex Cavendish said he had warned of a "disaster waiting to happen" at the jail, where he said there was a shortage of nearly 50 staff.

He tweeted: "HMP The Mount: inside sources state staff have lost control of at least one wing, possibly two. This is attributed to staff shortages.

"HMP The Mount has been running on very restricted regime for weeks. Food served cold at cell doors. Hearing nearly 50 staff short."

He said so-called Tornado squads, equipped to deal with riots, had been sent in.

He wrote: "Tornado Teams called in to take back control of two wings. This has been a disaster waiting to happen as I warned last week."

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He also warned that he had been told by an "inside source" that the problems may have been exacerbated by the fact that many young inexperienced prison officers had been deployed.

"[The] prison has been on the brink for weeks," he added.

A man claiming to be a prisoner in another part of the prison contacted The Independent to say they were rioting because they "have not had a shower since Wednesday".

The unnamed prisoner, who said he was calling from his cell, said treatment of prisoners was "in breach of human rights".

"They been doing all sorts of things like banging up for three days or four days and not letting us out. They will let out like selected individuals," he said.

Recommended The answer to our prison crisis is to send fewer people in jail

"We've been going three, four days with no shower, no exercise, no nothing."

He said if conditions were not so poor, there would be no rioting.

"You can't keep someone in their cell for days for no reason and not have them try to get out," he added.

The man said he had been in the prison since the start of year and that conditions had deteriorated during that time.

The riot in Hertfordshire comes just a week after the Tornado squads were deployed to HMP Hewell near Redditch in Worcestershire following a disturbance at the Category B prison.

Additional reporting by PA
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Friends of a boy who had drunken sex with his physics teacher on a plane have revealed more details about the affair.

Ms Eleanor Wilson, 28, was found to have had oral and full sex with her 16-year-old pupil by a professional conduct panel last week.

The pupil bragged about sleeping with his teacher during a school charity trip to Swaziland and showed fellow students the pairs sexts, according to a friend.

He enjoyed telling me all about his time in Swaziland as you could go to a store and buy whisky for next to nothing, the friend told MailOnline.

He said they had sex a lot on the trip to Africa and on the flight back.

The friend also said that the boy had already slept with 15 women before his teacher and that she would text him messages like Cant talk now, Im in a meeting or Im nervous about a presentation for assembly.

Ms Wilson was struck off from teaching after a two-day National College for Teaching and Leadership hearing found her guilty of all but two of the allegations made against her.

The unnamed boy from Bristol, referred to only as Pupil A, had been on a two-week charity conservation trip to the southern African state in July 2015.

He had been helping build a kitchen for orphans of parents who had died of HIV as part of a World Challenge Expedition for which he had fundraised 2,595 over 18 months.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 A villager cooks roti bread at the site of the annual Camel Fair in Pushkar, in India's desert state of Rajasthan AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. 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The panel heard that Ms Wilson and Pupil A drank miniature bottles of wine before having unprotected sex in the plane toilets on the flight home.

The relationship was said to have continued on their return, despite suspicious questions from the schools head teacher.

It was not discovered until March 2016 when the teacher was blackmailed for sex by another pupil.

Email exchanges seen by the police and the boys school showed the other pupil, known as Pupil C, threatening to reveal what he knew if the teacher did not sleep with him.

Polly OMalley, chairman of the professional conduct panel, said: There was evidence that the teachers actions were deliberate and continued for a significant length of time despite her understanding that her behaviour was inappropriate.

These behaviours include serious dishonesty and serious sexual misconduct.

Ms Wilson, who was sacked in May 2016, was not present at the panel hearing but has previously denied the allegation, saying the two just hugged on occasion.

Her brother, Jethro Wilson, told MailOnline he thought his sister was a victim of being good looking and that the story had been made up.
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A house is being offered up at auction for just 1  but buyers are risking their safety if they enter.

The three-bedroom property in Sunderland has a starting bid of 1 and no reserve price.

But a closer look at the health and safety check, as detailed by the property's estate agent, found "hazards" of a "serious nature" and said: "Anyone wishing to inspect is required to sign a disclaimer and enter at their own risk."

The property description reads: "Attention Buyers! No Buyers Premium To Pay! Guide price 1. Yes you have read this correctly 1 with no reserve. For Sale by way of Auction - 7pm Monday 31st July at the Newcastle Marriott Hotel, Gosforth Park."

The terraced property, which is being sold with agent Andrew Craig, is situated in the centre of the city and is within close proximity of a university and metro links. But the end terraced property "requires upgrading."

Tunstall Terrace West, the inside of the property (Andrew Craig Estate Agents ) (Andrew Craig)

Tunstall Terrace West, inside the property (Andrew Craig Estate Agents ) (Andrew Craig Estate Agents)

Tunstall Terrace West, inside the property (Andrew Craig Estate Agents ) (Andrew Craig Estate Agents)

Other properties in the area, a mixture of two and three bedroom apartments and houses, can range from approximately 45,000 to over 180,000.

According to the Daily Mail, the property was on the website Zoopla in 2011 and available for rent at 595 per month.

The past month has seen UK house prices drop to their lowest since 2009, however research suggests growth across the UKs biggest cities, despite Brexit.
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The High Court has blocked a bid by a former chief of staff of the Iraqi army to bring a private prosecution against Tony Blair over the Iraq War.

General Abdul Wahed Shannan Al Rabbat has accused Mr Blair of committing a crime of aggression by invading Iraq in 2003 to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, the Lord Chief Justice, and Mr Justice Ouseley dismissed the generals application, saying there was no prospect of the case succeeding.

 Tony Blair: It's necessary that Brexit doesn't happen

The general wanted to prosecute Mr Blair and two other key ministers at the time  Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, and Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General.

He lives in Muscat, Oman, does not possess a passport and travel to the UK.

His lawyers asked Londons High Court for permission to seek judicial review in an attempt to get the Supreme Court, now the highest court in the land, to overturn a ruling by the House of Lords in 2006 that there is no such crime as the crime of aggression under the law of England and Wales.

Westminster Magistrates Court refused to issue summonses in November last year on the grounds the ex-ministers had immunity from legal action, and in any event the current Attorney General, Jeremy Wright QC, would have to give consent.

The Attorney General intervened in the case and his legal team urged Lord Thomas and Mr Justice Ouseley to block the generals legal challenge on the grounds that it was hopeless and unarguable because the crime of aggression is not recognised in English law.

In pictures: Families of Iraq War victims react to Chilcot report Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: Families of Iraq War victims react to Chilcot report In pictures: Families of Iraq War victims react to Chilcot report Relatives and friends of the military personnel who died in Iraq, leave the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre PA In pictures: Families of Iraq War victims react to Chilcot report Dawn Holmes, the mother of L Cpl Sarah Holmes who died in Iraq, is consoled by solicitor Matthew Jury as she leaves the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre PA In pictures: Families of Iraq War victims react to Chilcot report A family member holding a photograph of Stephen Robert Wright (R), outside the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, after the publication of the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq War PA In pictures: Families of Iraq War victims react to Chilcot report Families of soldiers killed in the Iraq conflict stand together outside the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre after the outcome of the Chilcot report Getty Images In pictures: Families of Iraq War victims react to Chilcot report Relatives of military personnel killed during the Iraq War talk at a news conference after listening to Sir John Chilcot present The Iraq Inquiry Report at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in Westminster Getty In pictures: Families of Iraq War victims react to Chilcot report Relatives of military personnel killed during the Iraq War react after listening to Sir John Chilcot presenting The Iraq Inquiry Report at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London AP In pictures: Families of Iraq War victims react to Chilcot report Relatives and friends of military personnel killed during the Iraq War attend a news conference after listening to Sir John Chilcot present The Iraq Inquiry Report at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in Westminster Getty Images In pictures: Families of Iraq War victims react to Chilcot report Family of those who died in Iraq speak to the media as they leave the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London PA In pictures: Families of Iraq War victims react to Chilcot report Relatives and friends of military personnel killed during the Iraq War attend a news conference after Sir John Chilcot presented The Iraq Inquiry Report at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in Westminster Getty Images In pictures: Families of Iraq War victims react to Chilcot report Victoria Jones (L), a relative of a British soldier killed in Iraq, holds a copy of The Report of the Iraq Inquiry, by John Chilcot, at the Queen Elizabeth II centre in London Reuters

The UK was part of a US-led coalition which invaded Iraq after George W Bush and Mr Blair accused Hussein of possessing weapons of mass destruction and having links to terrorists.

Michael Mansfield QC, appearing for General Al Rabbat, said at a recent hearing the inquiry into the invasion conducted by Sir John Chilcot, which concluded with a report published in July last year, justified the prosecution of Mr Blair.

Mr Mansfield said the main findings were contained in a paragraph early in the 12-volume report and could be summarised as concluding that Hussein did not pose an urgent threat to the interests of the UK, and the intelligence regarding weapons of mass destruction had been presented with unwarranted certainty.

It also concluded peaceful alternatives to war had not been exhausted and the war in Iraq was not necessary.

The UK was part of a US-led coalition which invaded Iraq after George W Bush and Mr Blair accused Saddam Hussein of possessing weapons of mass destruction and having links to terrorists (INA/Getty Images) (INA/Getty)

Mr Mansfield argued that the international crime of a war of aggression had been accepted by then UK attorney general Sir Hartley Shawcross QC in the 1940s, at the time of the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war crimes.

The QC contended that, as the international community had held those responsible for the Second World War to account by prosecuting those thought responsible for aggression at Nuremberg, it was the duty of the UK courts to follow that example in relation to the Iraq War.

The House of Lords decided in the 2006 case of R v Jones, which also concerned the Iraq War, that although there was a crime of aggression under customary international law, there was no such crime under English law.

Mr Mansfield argued the Jones case was wrongly decided and permission should be given to allow General Al Rabbat to re-argue the issue before the Supreme Court.

But the High Court ruled: In our opinion there is no prospect of the Supreme Court holding that the decision in Jones was wrong or the reasoning no longer applicable.
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Rain, wind and cooler temperatures will be interspersed with sunshine bringing unpredictable weather to the UK for the rest of the summer, the Met Office has revealed.

The outlook for the week from Friday 4 August will be a mixture of rain and sunshine, with the northwest in particular seeing heavy showers and possibly experiencing thunder.

The north and the west of England will see the most frequent rain in this time period, with bouts of sunshine scattered across the country.

Recommended Spieth weathers the storm to claim first Open title at Royal Birkdale

Drier weather will visit the south and east, and though temperatures will stay fairly constant, people can expect it to be cooler when the rain falls and with stronger winds.

The middle of August will continue with unreliable weather, but by the end of the month a rough divide will see the northwest, with the most frequent wet weather and the southeast, with best of the drier and brighter interludes.

The weather forecast brings Englands traditional wet summer back, with temperatures on a downward trend after the middle of July saw the countrys hottest day of the year at 33C.

Remarkable lightning and thunder shows were witnessed across the UK in the last few weeks, with as many as 30,000 lightning strikes.

Other parts of Britain were affected by heavy downpours, with one Cornish village that had to have helicopter crews airlift residents from their homes following floodwaters as high as four feet.
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A woman has died after being accused of faking an allergic reaction to painkillers, an inquest heard.

Ambulance staff refused to give Beatrice Lovane a wheelchair and told her to behave, according to the Manchester Evening News.

The 22-year-old became ill after taking co-codamol tablets for stomach pain but paramedics failed to intervene for a prolonged period of time, coroner Lisa Hashmi said.

She condemned the gross failure to provide the most basic of care and said paramedics attempts to resuscitate the young mother had been perfunctory.

The inquest heard Ms Lovane called an ambulance at 9:40pm on 26 August 2016.

Her mother, Maria, said paramedics were on site when she arrived at 11pm and her daughter was breathing rapidly with dilated pupils.

But the 55-year-old said paramedics told her daughter to stop being funny, despite her eyes rolling back in her head.

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Post-mortem tests revealed the tablets had caused her to suffer organ failure due to an undiagnosed liver condition.

Coroner Hashmi said it was "extremely disappointing" that the North West Ambulance Service (NWSS) had not been more forthcoming about the failures.

Recording a narrative conclusion, she said it was not possible to say for certain the failure caused Ms Lovane's death.

However, she said she did not agree with the judgement that Ms Lovane had been playing up.

A spokesperson for NWAS expressed "sincere condolences" to Ms Lovane's family and said they fully accept the level of care offered was below standard.

We did receive a complaint from the family in March 2017, and a full and thorough investigation was undertaken. We fully accept that the level of care Miss Lovane received was below the standard we would expect and did not uphold the trusts values," the spokesperson said.

New evidence was recently been disclosed and as a result of this, the staff involved have been suspended from duty pending further investigation.

We would like to reassure the public that we have taken this matter extremely seriously and will co-operate fully with the regulators and authorities. We expect all our staff to uphold our values in terms of respect, dignity and compassion and anyone who doesnt risks losing their position within the NWAS.
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The Irish Prime Minister says he is working to keep the door open for Britain to halt Brexit, amid growing rows over the future border with the North.

Asked if he thought there was any possibility of Britain changing its mind about EU withdrawal, Leo Varadkar said: Well, I still hope that it won't happen.

He added: When it comes to my work in Brussels, working with other European prime ministers and presidents, it's part of my remit to keep the door open, not just to the European Union, but also to the single market and also to the customs union, should they decide to go down that route.

That, I think, would be the best outcome for Ireland and Northern Ireland and Britain, Mr Varadkar told The Irish Times.

The comments came as relations between the Dublin Government and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)  Theresa Mays partners at Westminster - sour over the issue of a post-Brexit border.

The DUP was told to stop whinging after protesting when Mr Varadkar said the Irish Government does not want any sort of economic border on the island of Ireland after Brexit.

The Irish Prime Minister said he would not work with London, which has put forward better technology as a potential solution to policing trade between North and South after 2019.

Nigel Dodds, the DUP deputy leader, hit out at the comments and said Dublin was positioning for a general election.

It's simply taking things backwards at a time when common sense co-operation between our two countries and between the Republic and Northern Ireland is what's needed, he said.

But Fine Gael Senator Neale Richmond said: The DUP's whinging doesn't hide their political impotence.

They would be far better off seeking to influence their Government partners in Westminster and working to get the Executive back up and running to give Northern Ireland a strong voice.

Mr Richmond added: Being a good friend requires one to be honest. In the Brexit debate, Ireland is the best friend the UK has and it is only right that the Taoiseach should point out when the UK negotiating side is lacking.

Meanwhile, a Sinn Fein Stormont Assembly member claimed the DUP privately acknowledges that Brexit will be an economic disaster for the island of Ireland.

Conor Murphy suggested the DUP's public pro-Brexit stance was very different to its behind-closed-doors view, as he commented on the worsening relations between the main unionist party and Mr Varadkar.

The reality is the DUP have been acting against the wishes of the majority of people here in relation to their approach to Brexit, said Mr Murphy.

They have now given the British government a blank cheque in terms of signing up to support any Brexit legislation that is brought forward.

Mr Murphy added: The reality is we recognise, as does everyone, including the DUP privately, that Brexit is going to be an economic disaster for the island of Ireland.
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Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has defended the need for immigration from the EU after Brexit, amid rising cabinet tensions over freedom of movement.

Mr Hunt said any post-Brexit deal must serve the need for the NHS to recruit staff from all over the continent, adding that is going to continue after we leave the European Union.

He backed comments made by Philip Hammond and Amber Rudd who highlighted the need to avoid an immigration cliff edge that could starve both the public and private sector of skills.

Recommended Johnson in row with Cable over resignation rumour

The Chancellor and Home Secretarys comments had sparked a round of infighting and accusations from senior Tories wanting the Government to stick to a tougher line on immigration.

But speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme Mr Hunt said: It has to be a Brexit that works for business, it has to work for the NHS.

The NHS needs to recruit doctors and nurses from all over Europe and that is going to continue after we leave the European Union.

He added there would be no cliff-edge after Brexit and there would be an implementation period of no more than three years after the UK's exit in March 2019.

Mr Hunt denied there were deep splits in the Cabinet over Brexit, instead claiming there was unity on securing a deal that restores control over Britain's laws, borders and money.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 12 November 2022 The City of London Pride Group take part in the parade during the Lord Mayor's Show PA UK news in pictures 11 November 2022 City workers attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at Lloyd's of London, in the City of London, to mark Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the First World War PA UK news in pictures 10 November 2022 A grey heron lands on the river Dodder in Dublin on a sunny autumn morning PA UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA

But he indicated that the Governments approach to Brussels had changed in recent months.

He went on: If you look at where we are now compared to where we were a few months ago, we've sent some very positive messages to Brussels about what we want.

The other thing that we are completely united on as a Cabinet is that we want Brexit to make Britain more global, and not more insular.

Last week Mr Hammond signalled free movement would continue for a three-year period in all but name after Brexit, with an added element of migrants having to register in the UK, while Ms Rudd sought to reassure business there would be no migration cliff edge.

But tensions heightened after International Trade Secretary Dr Liam Fox insisted unregulated free movement of labour after Brexit would not keep faith with the referendum result and highlighted that the Cabinet had not agreed a stance.

Mr Hammond gave a further interview to French Newspaper Le Monde in which he downplayed claims Britain could try to become a Singapore-style low tax economy if it does not get the Brexit deal it wants, having himself suggested the move before the election.

 Tory minister suggests drop in overseas student numbers is down to 'uncertainty' with Brexit

He said: I often hear it said that the UK is considering participating in unfair competition in regulation and tax.

That is neither our plan nor our vision for the future. The amount of tax we raise as a percentage of our GDP puts us right in the middle of the pack.

We don't want that to change, even after we've left the EU.

I would expect us to remain a country with a social, economic and cultural model that is recognisably European.
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A Labour councillor has been suspended from the party after it emerged she had described Pride marchers as evil and likened them to paedophiles in a series of incendiary social media posts.

Chika Amadi, who has represented Edgware on Harrow Council since 2014, also shared a post on her Facebook page from the President of Gambia, declaring: Homosexuality is anti-humanity. I have never seen a homosexual chicken, or turkey. If you are convicted of homosexuality in this country, there will be no mercy for offenders. We will put you in the female wing of the prison.

According to Pink News, Ms Amadi also shared posts from an anti-LGBT website. In one social media post on Twitter  responding to an image of Pride parade marchers traumatising a young girl  she wrote: Nothing but paedophilia being labelled liberalism adults polluting children with their senselessness.

She continued: Evil. If you walk around naked in front of my children for whatever depraved reason, the Consuming Fire God I serve will put you to sudden sleep.

Responding to the posts, Conservative minister Margot James said: These homophobic comments by a sitting Labour councillor are completely unacceptable and wrong.

But shortly after the posts emerged, a Labour Party spokesperson released a statement, adding: Chika Amadi has been suspended from the Labour Party pending an investigation.

LGBT Labours co-chairs, Ian Dylan Thomas and Sarah Kerton, described the councillors posts as offensive, distasteful and homophobic, adding: These comments have no place in modern society.

On her Facebook page, Ms Amdi also said: Recently one respectable man in my constituency questioned me on my faith especially on homosexuality... I warned him not to try me next time."

When she received a reply to her post claiming that vultures will eat their flesh, Ms Amadi added: Amen. Thanks you for standing with me and others in that circumstance.

Speaking to Pink News, Chris Ward, a committee member of LGBT Humanists, told the website: Whist it is plain and clear that this councillors views are not that of the wider Labour Party, which has a proud history of championing LGBT+ rights, it is an example of how religious privilege allows such individuals and exemption on horrifically homophobic views in what is otherwise a progressive political party.

Homophobia is homophobia. It harms people whether or not its done under the auspices of religious belief and its up to political parties to treat is just as seriously.
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A 16-year-old died after he took several sips of liquid meth in front of smiling and laughing Customs and Border Protection officers to prove it was apple juice.

Mexican high school student Cruz Velazquez was shown on CCTV footage taking the drink after he was stopped from entering the US at a border crossing.

He died within two hours of what experts called a massive overdose.

The officers were not reprimanded or prosecuted and are still employed today.

The footage, obtained three years later, showed the jovial behaviour of the officers and the context of the teenagers death for the first time.

Liquid methamphetamine is a powerful and highly-addictive drug that is dissolved into an amber liquid.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. 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Cruz was carrying two bottles, provided by a cartel in Mexico. One bottle was supposed to be black tea and the other apple juice, but both were the same colour and had a syrup-like consistency.

The officers, Adrian Parellon and Valerie Baird, were later accused in a lawsuit of outrageous conduct that put the teenagers life in jeopardy. They denied the allegations and said the teenager volunteered to drink the drugs.

The officers were also accused of failing to conduct a test on the liquid, and testing kits were available to the officers at the time.

 US had 'no conversation' with Mexico about paying for Trump's border wall, Rex Tillerson admits

In the footage, Ms Baird is seen to make a gesture, encouraging the boy to drink from one of the bottles, which he does. Mr Parellon then seems to make another gesture to drink from the second bottle, pushing it towards him and smiling at his colleague.

Minutes later, the officers watch the teenager take yet more sips. In total, he took four drinks.

The contents of the bottles were later found to be 100 times stronger than a typical dose of methamphetamine.

Within minutes the boy was sweating profusely and shaking as his blood pressure rose, and he was quickly unable to stand.

"What you see, I think, is a basic lack of compassion and decency toward a 16-year-old boy," his lawyer, Eugene Iredale, told ABC.

"Almost a delight that you would see in children who just pull the wings off flies slowly, a smile when hes being asked to drink something and being put in this position."

 Mexican Congressman Braulio Guerra proves Trumps border wall is absurd by climbing it

Within minutes of drinking from the two bottles, Cruz began to convulse on the floor, screaming in pain. He called out in Spanish, including my heart, my sister, and my cousin.

He was taken into custody before being rushed to hospital, handcuffed to a gurney, where he died.

Ms Baird also went to hospital on advice from her colleagues as she had a drop of the liquid meth on her fingers. She said she heard the teenagers screams from the emergency room but denied feeling guilty that he had died.

His lawyer said he believed Cruz, from Tijuana, was hired as a mole, and paid to transport the bottles to the US, and the teenager had been told his sister would be killed if he failed to cross the border.

After a review, the US Customs and Border Protection said no further action was warranted and the officers involved were not disciplined.

The San Diego Countys Medical Examiners Office ruled that the death was accidental.

Cruz's family filed a lawsuit in a federal Californian court and settled for $1 million in March.
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Anthony Scaramucci has been removed as White House communications director, less than two weeks after he was hired by Donald Trump.

During his brief time working for the US President, Mr Scaramucci turned the White House upside down.

His hiring led to the departures of both Sean Spicer and Reince Priebus, Mr Trump's former press secretary and Chief of Staff, respectively.

John Kelly, who was sworn in as White House Chief of Staff on Monday, reportedly asked the President to remove Mr Scaramucci as communications director, according to The New York Times.

In a statement announcing Mr Scaramucci would be leaving his role, the White House said he felt it was best to give Chief of Staff John Kelly a clean slate and the ability to build his own team.

Without specifically referencing what had happened, Mr Trump appeared to be happy with events, tweeting that it was a "great day at the White House".

According to ABC News, Mr Scaramucci offered his resignation to Mr Kelly with a request to be redeployed at the US's Export-Import Bank as chief strategy officer.

Mr Scaramucci's resignation comes after he told a New Yorker reporter last week that Mr Priebus was a paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac and accused him of leaking information to journalists. The following day, Mr Trump announced on Twitter that he was replacing Mr Priebus with Mr Kelly.

The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Show all 9 1 /9 The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the media White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer takes questions during the daily press briefing Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Union leaders applaud US President Donald Trump for signing an executive order withdrawing the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington DC. Mr Trump issued a presidential memorandum in January announcing that the US would withdraw from the trade deal Getty The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the Mexico wall A US Border Patrol vehicle sits waiting for illegal immigrants at a fence opening near the US-Mexico border near McAllen, Texas. The number of incoming immigrants has surged ahead of the upcoming Presidential inauguration of Donald Trump, who has pledged to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. A signature campaign promise, Mr Trump outlined his intention to build a border wall on the US-Mexico border days after taking office Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and abortion US President Donald Trump signs an executive order as Chief of Staff Reince Priebus looks on in the Oval Office of the White House. Mr Trump reinstated a ban on American financial aide being granted to non-governmental organizations that provide abortion counseling, provide abortion referrals, or advocate for abortion access outside of the United States Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the Dakota Access pipeline Opponents of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines hold a rally as they protest US President Donald Trump's executive orders advancing their construction, at Columbus Circle in New York. US President Donald Trump signed executive orders reviving the construction of two controversial oil pipelines, but said the projects would be subject to renegotiation Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and 'Obamacare' Nancy Pelosi who is the minority leader of the House of Representatives speaks beside House Democrats at an event to protect the Affordable Care Act in Los Angeles, California. US President Donald Trump's effort to make good on his campaign promise to repeal and replace the healthcare law failed when Republicans failed to get enough votes. Mr Trump has promised to revisit the matter Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Donald Trump and 'sanctuary cities' US President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January threatening to pull funding for so-called "sanctuary cities" if they do not comply with federal immigration law AP The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the travel ban US President Donald Trump has attempted twice to restrict travel into the United States from several predominantly Muslim countries. The first attempt, in February, was met with swift opposition from protesters who flocked to airports around the country. That travel ban was later blocked by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The second ban was blocked by a federal judge a day before it was scheduled to be implemented in mid-March SANDY HUFFAKER/AFP/Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and climate change US President Donald Trump sought to dismantle several of his predecessor's actions on climate change in March. His order instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to reevaluate the Clean Power Plan, which would cap power plant emissions Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

Mr Scaramucci's tenure as Mr Trump's communications director may have been cursed from the start. When Mr Spicer resigned earlier this month, The New York Times reported that he told Mr Trump the appointment of the New York financier was a big mistake.

Mr Scaramucci was selected to replace Mike Dubke, who resigned from the job in May amid fallout from primarily Russia-related scandals.

During the transition, Mr Trump had intended to appoint Mr Scaramucci as director of his office of public liaison, but the offer was pulled at the request of Mr Priebus because of concerns about the financiers overseas investments.

It is likely that Mr Trump selected Mr Scaramucci because of his demonstrated loyalty. The financier, who founded the global investment firm SkyBridge Capital and is a Fox News contributor, has on multiple occasions spiritedly defended the President on television while Mr Trump has constantly felt that his communications team had not been doing enough to defend him.

During his first and last week on the job, Mr Scaramucci vowed to purge the White House staff of disloyal aides in an effort to crack down on leaks.

Youre either going to stop leaking, or youre going to get fired, Mr Scaramucci said.
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Anthony Scaramucci sent his wife a text after she gave birth to their second child saying, "Congratulations, Ill pray for our child," it has been claimed.

Donald Trumps communications director reportedly sent the message after missing the birth of his second child, James, with his estranged wife Deidre.

The pair reportedly separated some months ago and Ms Scaramucci filed for divorce just two weeks before she gave birth to her son, when she was eight months pregnant.

Mr Scaramucci was in West Virginia alongside the US President when his wife went into labour, according to US gossip site Page Six.

But four days after his birth, the 53-year-old had yet to meet his newborn son.

A source close to the presidential aide said there had been talks between the couple so Mr Scaramucci could be present while his estranged wife gave birth  but the planning fell through.

He said: "There was discussion between him, her and the divorce attorneys about Anthony going to the hospital and unfortunately the delivery was sudden."

Ms Scaramuccis anger with her husband was reportedly a factor for the split. "Shes mad. They arent really speaking right now," the source said.

Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Show all 22 1 /22 Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Donald Trump's international Presidential trips French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump talk as they leave the Army Museum at Les Invalides in Paris AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump arrive for the group photo at the G7 Taormina summit on the island of Sicily in May 2017 Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Mr Trump was pressed on the subject at the G7 summit in Italy Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump gives a speeech at the Warsaw Uprising Monument on Krasinski Square Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May during a ceremony at the NATO headquarters before the start of a summit in Brussels, Belgium Reuters Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Montenegro's Prime Minister Dusko Markovic is seen to the right of Donald Trump at a Nato summit in Brussels REUTERS Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Pope Francis meeting with US President Donald J. Trump EPA Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Pope Francis poses with US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump arrives at Palazzo del Quirinale ahead of the meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella Ufficio Stampa Presidenza della via Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump is seen during a joint press conference with the Palestinian leader at the presidential palace in the West Bank city of Bethlehem AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas meets US President Donald Trump PPO via Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with US President Donald Trump prior to the President's departure GPO via Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands after delivering a speech at the Israel Museum AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump lay a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance as White House senior advisor Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump watch on during a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial museum AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump visit to Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem accompanied by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu GPO via Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump takes his seat before his speech to the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia Reuters Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, US President Donald Trump and US First Lady Melania Trump look at a display of Saudi modern art at the Saudi Royal Court in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud take part in a signing ceremony at the Saudi Royal Court in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips King Salman presents Donald Trump with The Collar of Abdulaziz al-Saud Medal at the Royal Court Palace on 20 May AP Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump is welcomed by Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud upon arrival at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk on the South Lawn prior to their first foreign trip Getty Images

Another insider close to Mr Scaramucci claimed he was actually the victim of his wifes verbal abuse: "She would say, Youre a grifter, youre this. She would mock him for being a Trump sycophant."

It comes just days after Mr Scaramucci criticised his new colleagues in a foul-mouthed tirade to a reporter from The New Yorker.

He called Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff who resigned on Friday, "a f***ing paranoid schizophrenic".

Mr Scaramucci also said he was not like Steve Bannon, Mr Trumps chief strategist, because "Im not trying to suck my own c***".
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The US State Department has called Russia">Russia's decision to kick out hundreds of American diplomats "a regrettable and uncalled for act".

President Vladimir Putin has said the US will have to cut its diplomatic staff in Russia by 755 under new sanctions from Moscow.

On Friday, Russian's foreign ministry ordered a reduction in the number of US diplomats in response to new sanctions approved by Congress and sent to Donald Trump to be signed into law.

Recommended Russia cuts US diplomatic staff in retaliation to fresh sanctions

Two days later, Mr Putin said the US would have to cut its embassy and consulate staff in Russia by 755.

The Russian President said more than 1,000 people were currently employed at the Moscow embassy and three US consulates in Russia, including both Americans and Russians hired to work in the diplomatic offices.

In an interview shown on state television, Mr Putin said he ordered the move because he thought it was time to show "we're not going to leave that without an answer".

The US legislation, which also targets Iran and North Korea, seeks to punish Moscow for meddling in the 2016 US election and for its military aggression in Ukraine and Syria.

"We had hoped that the situation will somehow change, but apparently if it changes, it won't be soon," Mr Putin said.

"I thought it was the time to show that we're not going to leave it without an answer."

Russia is open to co-operating with the US on issues, including terrorism and cybercrime, but instead it "only hears unfounded accusations of meddling in US domestic affairs", Mr Putin said.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

The US State Department said: "This is a regrettable and uncalled for act.

"We are assessing the impact of such a limitation and how we will respond to it."

The State Department would not give an exact number of American diplomats or other US officials in Russia, but the figure is believed to be about 400, some of whom have families accompanying them on diplomatic passports.

The vast majority of the 1,000-plus employees at the various US diplomatic missions in Russia, including the embassy in Moscow and consulates in St Petersburg, Vladivostok and Yekaterinburg, are locals.

Asked about the potential for additional sanctions against Washington, Mr Putin described the reduction in diplomatic staff, which must happen by 1 September, as "painful" and said he currently opposed further measures.

"We certainly have something to respond with and restrict those areas of joint co-operation that will be painful for the American side, but I don't think we need to do it," he said, adding that such steps could also harm Russian interests.

Mr Putin mentioned space and energy as the main areas where Russia and the US have successfully pursued projects together.

Along with the cap on the size of the US diplomatic corps in Russia, the Russian foreign ministry said on Friday it also was closing down a US recreational retreat on the outskirts of Moscow as well as warehouse facilities.

The diplomatic tit-for-tat started under former US president Barack Obama.

In response to reports of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, Mr Obama ordered the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats and shut down two Russian recreational retreats in the US.

AP
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A senior adviser to Donald Trump has refused to say whether she and all the staff in the White House will now report directly to the Presidents new chief of staff.

Mr Trump announced he was replacing Reince Priebus with former four star John Kelly, amid anger over repeated leaks and stalled legislative process.

One of the issues, commentators said, was that Mr Priebus was unable to enforce the usual West Wing discipline in where various officials would report to him, rather than the president. Mr Trumps Director of Communications, Anthony Scaramucci, one of those behind the move to push out Mr Priebus, bragged that he reported directly to the President.

On Sunday, Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser to Mr Trump declined to say whether everyone in the White House would now report to Mr Kelly, when he starts in the new role this week.

Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Ms Conway was asked whether she would report directly to the former Marine general.

I will do whatever the president and our new chief of staff, Gen Kelly, will ask me to do, said Ms Conway. Im always a protocol-and-pecking-order kind of gal. Im a very deferential person. I never addressed the President, even when he was a candidate - as close as we are, as boss and employee, Ive never addressed him by his first name. I always address people like Gen Kelly as sir.

kellyanne conway holds up signs

When the anchor persisted with his question, asking whether she and Mr Scaramucci would follow the normal chain of command utilised by previous administrations, she said she looked forward to talking to Mr Kelly on Monday. She said she suspected Mr Scaramucci would have a similar conversation.

I will speak with Gen Kelly and the President about that as, Im sure, Anthony Scaramucci will, she said.

To those living outside of Washingtons political bubble, Ms Conways comments may appear unremarkable. But administrations succeed or fail on the amount of discipline they are able to enforce on the various, competing factions that surround any president.

All West Wings contain various officials seeking for leverage and access to the president and most see their fortunes rise and fall. But Mr Trumps White House has been notable for the number of competing factions - one Washington journalist said she had identified at least six - all aggressively vying for influence.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Indeed, Mr Trump appears to have encouraged such scrapping and plotting, believing such methods have served him well in business, as well as for plot lines for The Apprentice.

Yet critics of Mr Trump say is inclined to make a decision about any issue based on what the last person he spoke to on the issue said. The situation inside the Trump White House is made even more chaotic by the presence not simply of people who are sworn enemies - Mr Scaramucci and Mr Priebus apparently despised each other - but the Presidents daughter, Ivanka, and her husband, Jared Kushner.

Both during the campaign and since he entered the Oval Office six months ago, Mr Trump has leaned heavily on Mr Kushner, a real estate developer with no political experience. Such is the level of trust Mr Trump places in his son-in-law, that Mr Kushner has been tasked with bringing peace to the Middle East and heading the USs relationship with China.

Will Mr Trumps daughter and her husband now be required to go through Mr Kelly if they wish to whisper a word in his ear? Furthermore, will Mr Trump fall into line with the discipline Mr Kelly has apparently been brought in to provide?

Mr Kelly served more than four decades in the military and did three tours of Iraq. Until last Friday, he was the head of Mr Trumps Department of Homeland Security. Mr Trumps aides have said that Mr Kelly will now be helping kickstart the Presidents legislative agenda that has become stalled.

The Washington Post quoted an unidentified friend of Mr Kelly who said he was ready to confront the reality TV nature of the West Wing.

He knows how to do this: with common sense and good leadership, said the friend. He wont suffer idiots and fools.
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The White House has said that former Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci was removed from his position after just 10 days in order to give incoming Chief of Staff John Kelly a "clean slate and the ability to build his own team".

The brief explanation came minutes after the New York Times reported Mr Scaramucci's dismissal. Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders later expanded on this, saying Donald Trump had been troubled by Mr Scaramucci's boasts about reporting directly to the President, rather than his chief of staff.

Mr Kelly, who was sworn in as chief of staff just hours before, is said to have personally requested Mr Scaramucci's removal. When the news of the dismissal broke, Mr Kelly was participating in a Medal of Honour ceremony in the White House. He was smiling and appeared to be in good spirits, according to pool reports.

Recommended White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci resigns

The retired Marine Corps General was brought in to restore order to the White House  a cause Mr Scaramucci had done little to advance. Days earlier, Mr Scaramucci had called a reporter for the New Yorker to unload on his White House colleagues.

Mr Scaramucci accused then-Chief of Staff Reince Priebus of leaking about him to the press, and suggested presidential adviser Steve Bannon enjoyed performing sex acts on himself.

In a statement, the White House said it wished Mr Scaramucci "all the best".

Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Show all 33 1 /33 Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's first 100 days in office were marred by a string of scandals, many of which caught the eye of the Independent's cartoonists Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Trump's first 100 days have seen him aggressively ramp up tensions with his nuclear rivals in North Korea Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump has warned of a "major, major conflict" with the pariah nation lead by Kim Jong Un Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump dropped the "mother of all bombs" on alleged ISIS-linked militants in Afghanistan, amid an escalation of US military intervention around the globe Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump has been accused of falling short of the standards set by his predecessors in the Oval Office, including Franklin D Roosevelt Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The tycoon's ascension to the White House came at a time when the balance of power is shifting away from Western nations like those in the G7 group Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Western politicians, including the British Conservative party, have been accused of falling in line behind Mr Trump's proposals Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Brexit is seen to have weakened Britain, reducing still further any political will to resist American leadership Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump's leadership has been marked by sudden and unexpected shifts in global policy Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Trump's controversial missile strike on Syria, which killed several citizens, was seen by some analysts as an attempt to distract from his policy elsewhere Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The President has also spent a large majority of his weekends golfing, rather than attending to matters of state Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Though free of gaffes, a visit from Chinese president Xi Jinping spotlighted trade tensions between the two states Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons One major and unexpected setback came when Mr Trump's Healthcare Bill was struck down by members of his own party Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump has been a figure of fun in the media, with his approval at record lows Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons A string of revelations about Mr Trump's financial indiscretions did not mar his surge to the White House Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Outgoing President Barack Obama was accused of wiretapping Trump Tower by his successor in America's highest office Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The alleged involvement of Russian intelligence operatives in securing Mr Trump the presidency prompted harsh criticism Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The explosive resignation of Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who lied about his links to the Russian ambassador, was just one scandal to hit the President Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Many scandals, such as the accusation Barack Obama was implicated in phone-hacking, first broke on Mr Trump's Twitter feed Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's election provoked mass protests in the UK, with millions signing a petition to ban him from the country Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump cited a non-existent terror attack in Sweden during a campaign rally Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump stands accused of stoking regional tensions in Eastern Asia Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons North Korea has launched a number of failed nuclear tests since Mr Trump took power Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Theresa May formally rejected the petition calling for Mr Trump to be banned from the UK Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons When Mr Trump's initial so-called Muslim ban was struck down by a federal justice, the President mocked the 69-year-old as a "ridiculous", "so-called judge" Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons A week after his inauguration, Theresa May met with Mr Trump at the White House Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's first days in office were marked by a hasty attempt to follow through on many of his campaign promises, including the so-called Muslim ban Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's decision to ban citizens of many majority-Muslim countries from the US sparked mass protests Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Revelations about Donald Trump's sexual improprieties were not enough to keep him from being elected President Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons British PM Theresa May was criticised by many in the press for cosying up to the new President Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons One of Mr Trump's top aides, Kelly Anne Conway, was mocked for describing mistruths as "alternative facts" Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons British PM Theresa May was quick to demonstrate that her political aims did not hugely differ from Mr Trump's Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's inauguration, on 20 January 2017, sparked protests both at home and abroad

The statement echoed that provided by former Press Secretary Sean Spicer when he resigned, just days before Mr Scaramucci's tenure began.

Mr Spicer told CNN he had stepped down in order to "give the President and the new team a clean slate". The Times reports he stepped down in protest of Mr Scaramucci's appointment.

The President has certainly been granted a "clean slate" of late, as Mr Scaramucci, Mr Spicer, and Mr Priebus all departed the White House in the span of 10 days. Mr Priebus was forced out and replaced by Mr Kelly amid escalating conflict with Mr Scaracmucci, in what was seen as a victory for the then-communications director.

Hours before Mr Scaramucci's dismissal, Mr Trump had attempted to counter reports of a White House in tumult, tweeting: "Highest Stock Market EVER, best economic numbers in years, unemployment lowest in 17 years, wages raising, border secure, S.C.: No WH chaos!"

Ms Huckabee Sanders seconded this, telling reporters the President "remains focused" on his agenda.

"What matters most to us is not who is not employed in the White House, but whos employed in the rest of the country," she said.
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Hackers competed to take control of US voting machines and overcame some of their security defences in less than 90 minutes.

One hacking team at the DEF CON cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas rick-roll'd a touchscreen voting machine so it played Rick Astleys 1987 hit Never Gonna Give You Up, and another contestant was able to gain full remote control of a notoriously weak device from his laptop.

The results of the competition are likely to add to anxieties about the hacking of future US elections and about possible Russian interference in Donald Trumps victory in November.

The US Department of Homeland Security said last year that it was confident the Russian Government had directed the hacking and leaking of Democratic National Committee emails in the run-up to Donald Trumps victory over his Democrat rival Hillary Clinton.

And last month it was reported that a leaked National Security Agency document stated that Russian military intelligence executed a cyberattack on at least one US voting software supplier and sent phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials just days before the presidential election.

The DEF CON competition was said to have exposed a wide range of vulnerabilities in 30 computer-powered ballot boxes that had been acquired on eBay or from US government auctions so hackers could try to attack them.

The hackers were allowed to break the machines open to see how they worked, as well as trying to gain control of them remotely.

It allegedly took them less than 90 minutes to find the first cracks in the machines defences.

It was also claimed that Carsten Schurmann, an associate professor at the IT University of Copenhagen, was able to exploit poorly secured WiFi to gain remote control of one machine that has been used in previous US county elections.

The Register reported that some machines were using outdated and relatively easily hacked software, including unpatched versions of OpenSSL and Windows XP and CE.

The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images

Other machines had open ports, physical docking points meant for the use of election officials, which could be exploited to instal malicious software. Simple Google searches reportedly allowed other hackers to find passwords that would allow them administrative access to some machines.

Jake Braun, the Chief Executive Officer of Cambridge Global Advisors, who devised the hacking competition, said: Without question, our voting systems are weak and susceptible. Thanks to the contributions of the hacker community, we've uncovered even more about exactly how.

The scary thing is we also know that our foreign adversaries  including Russia, North Korea, Iran  possess the capabilities to hack them too, in the process undermining principles of democracy and threatening our national security.

Douglas Lute, a former Deputy National Security Advisor who is now a senior consultant for Cambridge Global, added: This [election hacking] is now a grave national security concern that isn't going away. In the words of former FBI Director James Comey, They're coming after America. They will be back.

Some of the machines hacked at DEF CON, however, are no longer used in American elections. The particular WinVote machine hacked by Mr Schurmann, for example, was retired from service in 2015 after a decade of complaints about its vulnerability. The Register was also told that the remote hacking of the machine would have been detected and logged.

Eric Hodge, director of consulting at CyberScout and a consultant for Kentuckys Board of Elections, told The Hill that because voting machines were not connected to the internet, many security problems could be avoided by watching them to ensure no-one tampered with them.

He added that because voting machines varied from county to county  administrative subdivisions of which there are more than 3,000 in the US  it would be relatively hard to hack enough devices to influence the result of a national election.

Harri Hursti, co-founder of Nordic Innovation Labs, who helped organise the competition, said, however, that if a national election was expected to be very close, hackers could influence the results by targeting machines in just a few key counties.

Russia has consistently denied hacking or interfering in the 2016 US presidential election, with Vladimir Putin dismissing such allegations as useless and harmful chatter.
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Isis has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing and gun attack which targeted the Iraqi Embassy in Kabul.

The attack in the Afghan capital began when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the embassy gates and another three attackers stormed inside the building from where they battled Afghan security forces.

Isis claimed responsibility for the attack via its Amaq news agency.

The Afghan Inteiror Ministry said the attack was brought to an end with all the attackers killed four hours after the assault began.

A large contingent of Afghan security forces responded to the suicide attack followed by a gunfight with Isis fighters at the Iraqi embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan (AP/Massoud Hossaini)

The ministry has not released official casualty figures but Najib Danish, a spokesman for the ministry, condemned the attack as "un-Islamic and inhuman."

Mr Danish also said the embassy building suffered extensive damage with windows broken, and several rooms badly burned.

Earlier, the Iraqi foreign ministry said two Afghan guards were killed in the attack and attempts were underway to evacuate two Iraqi embassy staffers.

Smoke can be seen billowing from the area near the Iraqi embassy after witnesses reported hearing a loud explosion (Hamdard/Twitter)

Witnesses reported hearing a loud explosion followed by gunfire and seeing smoke billowing from Share Naw neighbourhood.

The area was surrounded by armoured vehicles and a large contingent of police and Afghan soldiers.

More than an hour later, witnesses reported hearing another powerful explosion and saw black smoke billowing skyward.

It wasn't immediately clear what had caused the last explosion.

Smoke rises from the area near the Iraqi embassy (Muslim Shirzad/Twitter)

At least one eyewitness, a store owner who goes by the name of Hafizullah (many Afghans use only one name) told the Associated Press he saw the bodies of two policemen on the ground before armoured personnel carriers and police arrived to cordon off the area.

"The explosion was so strong. I was so afraid," said Maryam, a woman crying near the site of the attack said.

An Afghan policeman sets up a perimeter at the site of the explosion in Kabul (AFP)

After Iraqi forces, backed by a US-led coalition, recaptured the city of Mosul from Isis earlier in July, the Iraq Embassy had called reporters to its offices in Kabul to express concerns that the local Isis affiliate might stage large-scale attacks elsewhere to draw away attention from the militant group's losses in Iraq.

The Iraq Embassy is located in a part of the city known as Shahre Naw, which lies outside the so-called "green zone" where most foreign embassies and diplomatic missions are located and which is heavily fortified with a phalanx of guards and giant cement blast walls.

By comparison, the Iraqi Embassy is located on a small street in a neighbourhood dominated by markets and businesses.

Protesters demand better security in Kabul Show all 10 1 /10 Protesters demand better security in Kabul Protesters demand better security in Kabul A woman tries to stop police from firing on protesters during a demonstration in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, June 2, 2017. Hundreds of demonstrators demanded better security in the Afghan capital in the wake of a powerful truck bomb attack that killed scores of people. AP Protesters demand better security in Kabul Afghan security officials use a water cannon to disperse demonstrators as they protest against a suicide bomb attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, 02 June 2017. At least 90 people were killed and more than 350 wounded in a suicide bomb attack near the foreign embassies in Kabul on 31 May. AP Protesters demand better security in Kabul A policeman rests during a demonstration in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, June 2, 2017. Hundreds of demonstrators demanded better security in the Afghan capital in the wake of a powerful truck bomb attack that killed scores of people. AP Protesters demand better security in Kabul Protesters shout anti government slogans during a demonstration to protest against the lack of security in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Jun 2, 2017. Some 500 people are demonstrating in Kabul for better security in the Afghan capital in the wake of a powerful truck bomb attack that killed 90 people. AP Protesters demand better security in Kabul Police forces run as protesters throw stones during a demonstration in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, June 2, 2017. Hundreds of demonstrators demanded better security in the Afghan capital in the wake of a powerful truck bomb attack that killed scores of people. AP Protesters demand better security in Kabul Protesters shout anti government slogans during a demonstration to protest against the lack of security in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Jun 2, 2017. Some 500 people are demonstrating in Kabul for better security in the Afghan capital in the wake of a powerful truck bomb attack that killed 90 people. AP Protesters demand better security in Kabul Protesters throw stones toward security forces during a demonstration in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, June 2, 2017. Hundreds of demonstrators demanded better security in the Afghan capital in the wake of a powerful truck bomb attack that killed scores of people. ( AP Protesters demand better security in Kabul Police forces run as protesters throw stones during a demonstration in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, June 2, 2017. Hundreds of demonstrators demanded better security in the Afghan capital in the wake of a powerful truck bomb attack that killed scores of people. AP Protesters demand better security in Kabul Protesters throw stones toward security forces during a demonstration in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, June 2, 2017. Hundreds of demonstrators demanded better security in the Afghan capital in the wake of a powerful truck bomb attack that killed scores of people. AP Protesters demand better security in Kabul A boy walks past protesters during a demonstration in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, June 2, 2017. Hundreds of demonstrators demanded better security in the Afghan capital in the wake of a powerful truck bomb attack that killed scores of people. AP

It comes a week after at least 35 people were killed in a suicide attack on government workers in Kabul. Last week's attack was claimed by the Taliban.
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Donald Trump and Shinzo Abe have agreed to take fresh action against North Korea as they pledged to take all necessary measures to protect allies from the nuclear-armed state.

The US President and Japanese Prime Minister held a telephone call on Monday and agreed on the need for more measures aimed at curbing the countrys military ambitions, just hours after Americas ambassador to the United Nations said Washington was "done talking about North Korea".

Mr Abe told reporters after his conversation with Mr Trump on Monday that repeated efforts by the international community to find a peaceful solution to the North Korean issue had yet to deter Pyongyang.

"International society, including Russia and China, need to take this seriously and increase pressure," he said.

Mr Abe added that he backed Mr Trump's commitment to taking all necessary measures to protect allies".

The pair did not discuss military action against North Korea, nor what would constitute the crossing of a "red line" by Pyongyang, Deputy Chief Cabinet spokesman Koichi Hagiuda said.

A White House statement after the phone call said the two leaders "agreed that North Korea poses a grave and growing direct threat to the United States, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and other countries near and far".

It said Mr Trump "reaffirmed our ironclad commitment" to defend Japan and South Korea from any attack, "using the full range of United States capabilities".

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the talk between Mr Abe and Mr Trump lasted for about 50 minutes.

 North Korean missile 'can hit US mainland' says Kim Jong Un

"The role that China can play is extremely important," he told a news conference.

"Japan intends to call on those countries involved - including the UN, the United States and South Korea to start, but also China and Russia - to take on additional duties and actions to increase pressure," he said.

North Korea said on Saturday it had conducted another successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile that proved its ability to strike the US mainland, drawing a sharp warning from Mr Trump and a rebuke from China.

The US President later wrote on Twitter that he was "very disappointed" in China.

State-run Chinese newspaper the Global Times said in an editorial on Monday that Mr Trump's "wrong tweet" was of no help, and that the President did not understand the issues.

"Pyongyang is determined to develop its nuclear and missile programme and does not care about military threats from the US and South Korea. How could Chinese sanctions change the situation?" said the paper, which is published by the ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who is on holiday, planned to have a phone call with MR Trump soon, a senior official at the Presidential Blue House said.

The United States flew two supersonic B-1B bombers over the Korean peninsula in a show of force on Sunday in response to the missile test and the 3 July launch of the "Hwasong-14" rocket, the Pentagon said.

In pictures: North Korea military drill Show all 8 1 /8 In pictures: North Korea military drill In pictures: North Korea military drill North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un watches a military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean People's Army (KPA) KCNA/Handout via REUTERS In pictures: North Korea military drill A military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean People's Army (KPA) is seen in this handout photo by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) KCNA/Handout via REUTERS In pictures: North Korea military drill A military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean People's Army (KPA) is seen in this handout photo by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) KCNA/Handout via REUTERS In pictures: North Korea military drill A military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean People's Army (KPA) KCNA/Handout via REUTERS In pictures: North Korea military drill A military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean People's Army (KPA) KCNA/Handout via REUTERS In pictures: North Korea military drill This image made from video of still images broadcast in a news bulletin by North Korea's KRT, shows what was said to be a 'Combined Fire Demonstration' held to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the North Korean army, in Wonsan, North Korea. KRT via AP Video In pictures: North Korea military drill This image made from video of still images broadcast in a news bulletin by North Korea's KRT, shows what was said to be a 'Combined Fire Demonstration' held to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the North Korean army, in Wonsan, North Korea. KRT via AP Video In pictures: North Korea military drill This image made from video of still images broadcast in a news bulletin by North Korea's KRT, shows what was said to be a 'Combined Fire Demonstration' held to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the North Korean army, in Wonsan, North Korea. KRT via AP Video

The bombers took off from a US air base in Guam and were joined by Japanese and South Korean fighter jets during the exercise.

"North Korea remains the most urgent threat to regional stability," Pacific Air Forces commander General Terrence J. O'Shaughnessy said in a statement.

"If called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal, and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing."

Nikki Haley, US Ambassador to the United Nations, said in a statement China must decide if it is willing to back imposing stronger UN sanctions on North Korea over Friday night's long-range missile test, the North's second this month.

Any new UN Security Council resolution "that does not significantly increase the international pressure on North Korea is of no value", she said, adding that Japan and South Korea also needed to do more.

Reuters
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Stricter screening of passengers and luggage at Australian airports will stay in place indefinitely after police foiled an alleged "Islamic-inspired" plot to bring down a plane, which local media said may have involved a bomb or poisonous gas.

The ramped up security procedures were put in place after four men were arrested at the weekend in raids conducted across Sydney.

The men are being held without charge under special terror-related powers.

The Australian Federal Police would not confirm media reports the alleged plot may have involved a bomb disguised in a meat grinder or the planned release of poisonous gas inside a plane.

Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Andrew Colvin told reporters on Monday that the plot specifics were still being investigated.

"What you are seeing at the moment is making sure that there is extra vigilance, to make sure that we aren't cutting any corners in our security, to make sure that we are absolutely focused on our security," Mr Colvin said.

Police on Monday were still searching several Sydney properties for evidence. Pictures showed forensic-specialist officers wearing masks and plastic jumpsuits inside the properties and combing through rubbish bins outside.

Immigration and Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton told reporters in Melbourne on Monday that the alleged plot to down an aircraft could prompt longer-term airport security changes.

"The security measures at the airports will be in place for as long as we believe they need to be, so it may go on for some time yet," he said.

"It may be that we need to look at the security settings at our airports, in particular our domestic airports, for an ongoing enduring period.

 Australian police thwart terror plot to bring down plane

Mr Dutton advised passengers to arrive at airports three hours before international flights and two hours for domestic flights in order to clear the heightened security.

Inter-state travellers are subjected to far less scrutiny than those travelling abroad with no formal identification checks required for domestic trips.

Passengers at major Australian airports, including Sydney, experienced longer-than-usual queues during the busy Monday morning travel period.

A source at a major Australian carrier said airlines and airports had been instructed by the government to ramp up baggage checks as a result of the threat, with some luggage searches now being conducted as passengers queued to check in their bags.

Australia Federal Police officers patrol the security lines at Sydney's Domestic Airport (Reuters)

Counter-terrorism police have conducted several recent raids, heightening tensions in a country that has had very few domestic attacks.

On Monday, three males pleaded guilty in the New South Wales state Supreme Court to "conspiracy to commit acts in preparation for a terrorist act or acts" in 2014, a court spokeswoman said, while another two pleaded guilty to lesser charges.

Police previously said the men planned an attack on targets which included the AFP headquarters in Sydney, along with civilian targets. The offences are not related to the alleged plane bomb plot.

The 2014 Lindt cafe siege in Sydney, in which the hostage-taker and two people were killed, was Australia's most deadly violence inspired by Isis militants.
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The Irish Government has made formal bids to host two agencies that will be relocated from the UK after Brexit.

Ireland's Department of Health and Department of Finance are competing against other EU countries to offer a new home to the European Banking Authority (EBA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA), currently based in London's Canary Wharf.

The banking and medicines agencies employ just over 1,000 staff between them.

Bids from the two departments to host the agencies have been submitted to the Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union.

"Ireland's offer to host the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has today been submitted to the Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union," the Department of Health confirmed.

The department said that Dublin meets all of the criteria necessary to successfully host the EMA and presents an attractive option for the staff of the Agency to relocate to.

The Minister of State for Financial Services and Insurance, Michael D'Arcy, said a relocation to Dublin would be the least disruptive move for the EBA and its staff.

Recommended Bank of America chooses Dublin for EU base after Brexit

Around 20 cities, including Dublin, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Paris, and Prague, are understood to be keen to host the agencies.

They are all competing to attract the agencies' highly skilled employees, their families and the business that comes with them.

This includes 40,000 hotel stays for visitors each year.

The banking and medicines agencies are seen as the first spoils of Brexit by the 27 remaining members of the EU.

In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Show all 12 1 /12 In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations with Britain, French Michel Barnier listens at the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker speaking at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty Images In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Frank-Walter Steinmeier, President of the Federal Republic of Germany, delivers his speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg EPA In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, President of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), addresses the European Parliament during a debate on Brexit priorities and the upcomming talks on the UK's withdrawal from the EU Reuters In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Michel Barnier, European Chief Negotiator for Brexit reacts during a meeting at the European Parliament in Strasbourg EPA In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Member of the European Parliament and former leader of the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) Nigel Farage wears socks with Union Jack flag at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty Images In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Nigel Farage, United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) member and MEP, addresses the European Parliament during a debate on Brexit priorities and the upcoming talks on the UK's withdrawal from the EU Reuters In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations with Britain, French Michel Barnier gestures during speeches at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions The President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker (L) speaks with European commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations with Britain, French Michel Barnier at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, President of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), addresses the European Parliament during a debate on Brexit priorities and the upcomming talks on the UK's withdrawal from the EU Reuters In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier delivers a speech during a plenary session at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions The European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France Getty Images

"The fact that the United Kingdom has decided to leave the European Union has resulted in significant disruption and uncertainty. For the EBA, its staff and their families, a move to Dublin is the least disruptive option," said Mr D'Arcy.

He added: "Our transport links to Europe, our culture, language and skilled multilingual education workforce make Dublin an attractive destination ahead of other potential locations.

"Given the economic and strategic benefits for Ireland, we are making a strong proposal which includes incentives to support the relocation of the EBA and the establishment of a Relocation Group to aid the relocation of the Authority."

Mr D'Arcy said the EBA's relocation to Dublin would further raise the country's profile as global leaders in the financial services sector.

The European Commission will assess the entries based on the quality of office space, job opportunities for spouses and transport links.

A final decision on the relocation is due to be made in November.

Press Association
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A stand-off has reportedly developed outside a building used by US embassy staff after Russia ordered the White House to reduce its diplomatic staff by 60 per cent.

Russian President Vladimir Putin issued the ultimatum amid tensions with the US over a decision by Congress to approve a new set of sanctions on Moscow. He said they were ordering Washington to cut 755 diplomatic staff by September.

Moscow also said it would seize two US diplomatic properties, a warehouse in southern Moscow and a complex on the outskirts of the city that embassy staff use for weekend recreation.

On Monday, a Reuters journalist saw five vehicles with diplomatic licence plates, one of them a cargo truck, arrive at the recreation complex. The convoy was refused access, the journalist reported.

An embassy spokeswoman said: "In line with the Russian government notification, the US Mission to Russia was supposed to have access to our dacha until noon on 1 August.

"We have not had access all day today or yesterday. We refer you to the Russian government to explain why not."

A Russian foreign ministry official, who was not identified, said the Americans were to blame for failing to obtain the necessary permits. To accuse Russia of blocking access amounts to a "pre-meditated provocation", RIA news agency cited the official as saying.

All staff at the US embassy in Moscow were summoned to a meeting at which Ambassador John Tefft briefed employees on the Russian decision, the toughest diplomatic demarche between the two countries since the Cold War.

"The atmosphere was like a funeral," said a person who was present and spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to talk to the media.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

A spokesman for the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, said that the 755 staff could include Russian citizens, a group who comprise the vast majority of the United States' roughly 1,200 embassy and consulate employees in Russia

This clarification means there is unlikely to be a mass expulsion of US diplomatic staff from the country. Commenting on which diplomatic staff would have to go, Mr Peskov told reporters: "That's the choice of the United States."

He added: "(It's) diplomats and technical employees. That is, we're not talking purely about diplomats - obviously, there isn't that number of diplomats - but about people with non-diplomatic status, and people hired locally, and Russian citizens who work there."

A US State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, called Russia's action "a regrettable and uncalled-for act ... We are assessing the impact of such a limitation and how we will respond to it".

As of 2013, the US mission in Russia, including the Moscow embassy and consulates in St Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok, employed 1,279 staff, according to a State Department Inspector General's report that year. That included 934 "locally employed" staff and 301 U.S. "direct-hire" staff.

The move is thought to be a way for Mr Putin to burnish his nationalist credentials before the presidential elections last year.

Additional reporting by Reuters
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Russias armed forces have celebrated Navy Day with processions and parades across the world - including its first ever celebration in Syria.

Navy Day is a national holiday for Russians on which huge parades are held in St Petersburg - Moscows second largest city and the home of the Navy - on the last Sunday of July.

There are usually smaller processions at Russian naval bases across the vast country as well as around the world, including Crimea, annexed in 2014, and for the first time this year, the regime-held Syrian city of Tartous.

The Russian and Russian navy flags were raised in the city on Sunday as six warships and a Black Sea Fleet submarine took part in the celebrations, Russia state news agency Interfax reported, accompanied by jets from the nearby Hmeymim air base.

A deal with the Syrian government struck in January of this year will in effect solidify Moscow's presence at the the Hmeymim air base with a lease over the next 49 years and options to renew the presence of troops there for 25-year-long periods.

It is now Moscows only permanent Mediterranean base after President Vladimir Putin signed it into law last week.

In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Show all 30 1 /30 In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian family arrives at a checkpoint, manned by pro-government forces, at the al-Hawoz street roundabout, after leaving Aleppo's eastern neighbourhoods Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian woman, fleeing violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood, reacts as she stands with her children in Aleppo's Fardos neighbourhood, after regime troops retook the area from rebel fighters Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian pro-regime fighters, gesture as they drive past resident fleeing violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood, in Aleppo's Fardos neighbourhood Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian rebels withdrew from six more neighbourhoods in their one-time bastion of east Aleppo in the face of advancing government troops, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian rebels withdrew from six more neighbourhoods in their one-time bastion of east Aleppo in the face of advancing government troops, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian residents, fleeing violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood, arrive in Aleppo's Fardos neighbourhood , after regime troops retook the area from rebel fighters Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian pro-regime fighters, gesture as they drive past residents fleeing violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood, in Aleppo's Fardos neighbourhood Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian residents, fleeing violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood, arrive in Aleppo's Fardos neighbourhood, after regime troops retook the area from rebel fighters Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian residents, fleeing violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood, arrive in Aleppo's Fardos neighbourhood Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian pro-regime fighter speaks with a child, as residents flee violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood. Syrian rebels withdrew from six more neighbourhoods in their one-time bastion of east Aleppo in the face of advancing government troops AFP/Getty Images In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Smoke rises as seen from a governement-held area of Aleppo, Syria Reuters In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian soldiers targeting rebels-held areas in the eastern neighborhoods in Aleppo, Syria. According to media reports, the army is now holding on 99 percent of Aleppois eastern neighborhoods EPA In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian pro-government forces patrol Aleppo's eastern al-Salihin neighbourhood after troops retook the area from rebel fighters Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian soldiers rest following the battle at al-Sheik Saeed neighborhood in Aleppo, Syria EPA In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian pro-government fighter walking past closed shops in the Bab al-Nasr district of Aleppo's Old City. Once renowned for its bustling souks, grand citadel and historic gates, Aleppo's Old City has been rendered virtually unrecognisable by some of the worst violence of Syria's war Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria The crucial battle for Aleppo entered its 'final phase' after Syrian rebels retreated into a small pocket of their former bastion in the face of new army advances. The retreat leaves opposition fighters confined to just a handful of neighbourhoods in southeast Aleppo, the largest of them Sukkari and Mashhad Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian civilans arrive at a checkpoint, manned by pro-government forces, at the al-Hawoz street roundabout, after leaving Aleppo's eastern neighbourhoods. Syria's government has retaken at least 85 percent of east Aleppo, which fell to rebels in 2012, since beginning its operation Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian civilians flee the Sukkari neighbourhood towards safer rebel-held areas in southeastern Aleppo Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrians celebrate in the government-held Mogambo neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, after rebel fighters retreated into a small pocket of their former bastion in the face of new army advances Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrians celebrate in the government-held Mogambo neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, after rebel fighters retreated into a small pocket of their former bastion in the face of new army advances. The fall of Aleppo would be the worst rebel defeat since Syria's conflict began in 2011, and leave the government in control of the country's five major cities Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian refugee camp in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, close to the Syrian border PA wire In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian refugee Aliya inside the tent where she lives with her husband and ten children in a camp in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, close to the Syrian border PA wire In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian refugee women and children outside the entrance to their tents in the refugee camp in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, close to the Syrian border PA Wire In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian refugee camp in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, close to the Syrian border PA wire In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian refugee camp in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, close to the Syrian border PA Wire In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian refugee woman outside the entrance to the tent where her family live, in the refugee camp in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, close to the Syrian border PA wire In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A vehicle drives past a mosque at night in Idlib, Syria. Picture taken with a long exposure Reuters In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Damaged buildings stand in the rebel-controlled town of Binnish in Idlib province, Syria Reuters In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria The night sky is seen through damaged windows in the rebel-controlled town of Binnish in Idlib province, Syria Reuters In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Damaged buildings stand in the rebel-controlled area of Maaret al-Numan in Idlib province, Syria Reuters

Russia has proven to be Syrian President Bashar al-Assads most powerful ally in his now more than six-year-old war against various rebel factions; Russian bombing against Isis and moderate Sunni rebel groups has been widely credited with turning the tide of the war in Mr Assads favour.

The scale of this years parades was unprecedented. Observers believe Sundays huge celebrations were designed to show both Russias military prowess and Moscows ambition to reposition itself as a global power in the face of a more isolationist US.

In St Petersburg, more than 5,000 sailors took part in a parade featuring more 50 ships and submarines and flyovers by 40 jets. Two Chinese warships also took part in the St Petersburg celebrations - a sign of the increasingly close ties between Moscow and Beijing.

Recommended Russia to stay in Syria for another half a century as Putin signs deal

The procession was overseen by Mr Putin, who said in a speech that Russia's history is inseparable from the victories of its courageous and fearless Navy," and announced the addition of 30 new vessels to the Russian fleet over the course of 2017.

Mr Assad did not attend the Tartous processions.
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A prominent Saudi Arabian womens rights activist has reportedly been freed from prison after spending 104 days in detention without trial, without the presence or permission of her male guardian.

Mariam al-Otaibi was arrested in April after her family grew angry at her for protesting the conservative kingdoms laws, which mean many aspects of womens lives are controlled by their male relatives.

Activists in the country and around the world celebrated Ms Otaibis release on Sunday, which was all the more remarkable because her father was reportedly not involved in giving permission for her to leave detention.

While Ms Otaibi did not immediately return The Independents calls, a new post from her Twitter account thanked lawyers and supporters for standing with her during her incarceration.

Dont let others tell you you cant achieve  you can achieve whatever you want if you put your mind to it and believe you can, she said.

Women in Saudi Arabia face some of the greatest discrimination in the world: travel, study, work and marriage must all be undertaken with the permission of a male relative. They also have far fewer legal rights and are punished for crimes differently to men in accordance with Saudi Arabias strict laws, based on interpretations of Quaranic Sharia.

10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Show all 10 1 /10 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In October 2014, three lawyers, Dr Abdulrahman al-Subaihi, Bander al-Nogaithan and Abdulrahman al-Rumaih , were sentenced to up to eight years in prison for using Twitter to criticize the Ministry of Justice. AFP/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2015, Yemens Sunni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was forced into exile after a Shia-led insurgency. A Saudi Arabia-led coalition has responded with air strikes in order to reinstate Mr Hadi. It has since been accused of committing war crimes in the country. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Women who supported the Women2Drive campaign, launched in 2011 to challenge the ban on women driving vehicles, faced harassment and intimidation by the authorities. The government warned that women drivers would face arrest. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Members of the Kingdoms Shia minority, most of whom live in the oil-rich Eastern Province, continue to face discrimination that limits their access to government services and employment. Activists have received death sentences or long prison terms for their alleged participation in protests in 2011 and 2012. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses All public gatherings are prohibited under an order issued by the Interior Ministry in 2011. Those defy the ban face arrest, prosecution and imprisonment on charges such as inciting people against the authorities. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2014, the Interior Ministry stated that authorities had deported over 370,000 foreign migrants and that 18,000 others were in detention. Thousands of workers were returned to Somalia and other states where they were at risk of human rights abuses, with large numbers also returned to Yemen, in order to open more jobs to Saudi Arabians. Many migrants reported that prior to their deportation they had been packed into overcrowded makeshift detention facilities where they received little food and water and were abused by guards. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses The Saudi Arabian authorities continue to deny access to independent human rights organisations like Amnesty International, and they have been known to take punitive action, including through the courts, against activists and family members of victims who contact Amnesty. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Raif Badawi was sentenced to 1000 lashes and 10 years in prison for using his liberal blog to criticise Saudi Arabias clerics. He has already received 50 lashes, which have reportedly left him in poor health. Carsten Koall/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Dawood al-Marhoon was arrested aged 17 for participating in an anti-government protest. After refusing to spy on his fellow protestors, he was tortured and forced to sign a blank document that would later contain his confession. At Dawoods trial, the prosecution requested death by crucifixion while refusing him a lawyer. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Ali Mohammed al-Nimr was arrested in 2012 aged either 16 or 17 for participating in protests during the Arab spring. His sentence includes beheading and crucifixion. The international community has spoken out against the punishment and has called on Saudi Arabia to stop. He is the nephew of a prominent government dissident. Getty

Ms Otaibi  who has a large following on social media  was at the forefront of this years #IAmMyOwnGuardian campaign, calling on King Salman and the government to grant women greater autonomy.

According to the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR), Ms Otaibis brothers disapproved of her activism and she contacted police in their desert hometown of ar-Rass accusing them of domestic violence. In return, her father had her arrested on charges of disobedience  which led to her incarceration. She was later forced to drop the charges against her brothers to secure her own release.

Just before her arrest, Ms Otaibi tweeted that she didnt want to go back to the hell of her family.

Women who break the law or flee abuse in Saudi Arabia are often taken to so-called rehabilitation centres, where activists and rights groups report they face poor treatment and uncertain detention times at the hands of the authorities.

 Saudi Arabian women release video mocking driving laws

This seems to be the first time a #Saudi woman is without a guardian, Egyptian-American journalist Mona Eltahawy tweeted, calling Ms Otaibis release a feminist victory.

While in recent years Saudi Arabia women have been granted more freedoms  such as gaining the right to vote in 2011  there remains much work to be done.

King Salman, who acceded to the throne in 2014, promised in April several concessions to the wali system, which are due to be implemented later this year, such as the right to access government services without a male guardians consent.

The wording of the decree is vague and it is unclear what the proposed reforms will look like, rights group Equality Now said.

There exists (in Saudi Arabia) a complex set of bylaws, with many restrictions not clearly codified. This leaves much open to interpretation by those in authority, such as the police and judges, with some adopting a more modern approach while others favour a fundamentalist application, a statement said.

There are no organisations operating inside Saudi Arabia to track the situation, so the only way well know what is happening on the ground is if women report that they are still being asked to provide male consent.
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On a winter day eighteen months ago, Mohammed and his family, from Aleppo province, stood awkwardly in front of a makeshift outdoors photography studio set up at a refugee camp in Lebanons Bekaa Valley.

Mohammed's wife held their grandson and the two stood behind four chairs - one each for their two daughters and two sons. One remained empty, representing their missing 21-year-old eldest, Reem.

She was separated from the family on her wedding night in 2013, when the region was being bombed by Syrian government forces; the family never knew what happened to her.

Their lips are pursed thinly as they pose next to a physical reminder of their loss.

 Qom Elias refugee camp fire: Syrian mother whose home has been destroyed tells of loss in Lebanon

The haunting series of photographs of refugee families by Italian Dario Mitidieri was part of a campaign by Cafod and creative agency M&C Saatchi which drew the worlds attention to the plight of Lebanons estimated 1.5 million refugees; families posed for portraits with spaces or empty chairs symbolising those killed, missing or still trapped in the war-torn country.

Mitidieris work won several awards, including a 2016 World Press Photo prize.

When Cafod returned to the area in June this year to check how the families were doing, the agency was met with a rare piece of good news: Reem had managed to track her family down by searching social media profiles.

'When we found out about her and where she is we spent two days speaking on the phone,' Mohammed said (Louise Norton)

I am very happy. It had been four years that I didnt know anything about her, Mohammed said, eagerly showing photos on his picture phone of Reem, her husband and two young children in Turkey.

When we found out about her and where she is we spent two days speaking on the phone.

Reem is now trying to get a Turkish passport, which will allow her to visit her family, who are stranded in Lebanon in poverty sadly familiar in the tiny country of four million, where around one in four people are Syrian.

Spiralling residency costs, a lack of real work opportunities and a punishing cycle of debt mean that after six years of war next door, many refugees are losing hope.

'It had been four years that I didnt know anything about her,' Mohammed said, eagerly showing photos on his phone of Reem, her husband and two young children in Turkey (Louise Norton)

Wary of how generations of Palestinians stayed in Lebanon after fleeing the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, when Syrians began to arrive in the country in earnest in 2013, the government refused to build official refugee camps in an effort to dissuade people from staying.

As a result, most Syrians live in rented, often substandard or abandoned accommodation in towns, cities and informal settlements in the agricultural Bekaa Valley.

We feel here that we arent stable any more, Mohammed said. We are always afraid we might need to evacuate where we are living... Things are getting worse.

 Syrian couple married for 65 years still have each other despite losing everything in countrys war

While the struggles of Syrian refugees now rarely make headlines, their needs remain great.

The situation is just stagnating or getting worse, said Laura Ouseley, Cafods World News Officer.

Mohammeds story is a bittersweet one. It should be a reminder that even though these issues are out of the news, these people still need international help."
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The Prince of Wales spoke of the courage and bravery of British soldiers killed at Passchendaele as he led centenary commemorations of the First World War battle.

Exactly 100 years after thousands of British and Commonwealth troops went over the top, Charles, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Theresa May joined the King and Queen of Belgium and some 4,000 descendants of those who fought, for a ceremony at the enormous Tyne Cot cemetery near Ypres.

In his address to the gathering, the Prince said: We remember it not only for the rain that fell, the mud that weighed down the living and swallowed the dead, but also for the courage and bravery of the men who fought here.

Recommended Ceremony in Belgium marks 100 years since Battle of Passchendaele

He added: In 1920, the war reporter Philip Gibbs  who had himself witnessed Third Ypres  wrote that nothing that has been written is more than the pale image of the abomination of those battlefields, and that no pen or brush has yet achieved the picture of that Armageddon in which so many of our men perished.

Drawn from many nations, we come together in their resting place, cared for with such dedication by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, to commemorate their sacrifice and to promise that we will never forget.

More than 100 days of fighting in the summer and autumn of 1917, starting on July 31, left more than half a million men dead or injured on both sides.

The Tyne Cot cemetery is the largest Commonwealth burial ground in the world, with 11,971 servicemen buried and remembered there  8,373 of whom are unidentified.

 Duke of Cambridge leads Battle of Passchendaele commemorations on the 100th anniversary

Kate then joined Belgian Queen Mathilde and German foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel in laying wreaths at the graves of four German soldiers buried in Tyne Cot.

Ms May, sombrely dressed, read a Bible passage from Ecclesiasticus.

The ceremony also included singing and the Calling Of The Names, personal stories of some of the thousands of British and Commonwealth soldiers and others present at the battle, including nurses and stretcher-bearers.

They also included a letter written by a German soldier. An account by Private Bert Ferns, of the Lancashire Fusiliers, who fought in the battle, was read by Fusilier Shaun Mclorie.

 The Battle of Passchendaele explained

He said: I staggered up the hill and then dropped over the slope into a sort of gully.

It was here that I froze and became very frightened because a big shell had just burst and blown a group of lads to bits; there were bits of men all over the place, a terrible sight, men just blown to nothing.

I just stood there. It was still and misty, and I could taste their blood in the air.

William completed the Calling Of The Names by reading that of the Unknown Soldier, saying he was A soldier of the Great War, known unto God.

Charles and King Philippe then led the laying of wreaths at the cross of remembrance.

PA
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We were out on Zimbabwes open savannah, my eyes swimming in the heat, and the lion was right in front of me. So I stretched out my hand to stroke it...

But it was the lion, not I, who was the endangered species here. And the walk is part of a programme to protect them.

The number of African lions has halved in the past 25 years, so charities are breeding them in captivity, introducing the cubs to stalking and hunting, before they are released into an enclosed reserve to hunt and fend for themselves. And it is only the cubs they give birth to here, who have had no human contact, that can go wild.

Lions can live for up to 20 years, making this a costly process. So Lion Encounters, based near the Victoria Falls, uses the brief period when the human-reared lions are introduced to the bush to give tourists a chance to walk with them, subsidising the greater part of their lives.

Recommended How to go to safari guide school in Kenya

All this was explained to us at a short briefing. But it was when our guides got into the dynamics of the 45-minute walk that I became nervous. The nine of us were given sticks so that if a lion did turn on us, we could distract it. We had to walk behind them, so as not to challenge their dominance, and shouldnt touch their heads, only their rear quarters. Did I hear that right?

So, sticks in hand, we were led to meet Phezulu and his sister Pendo, who were lying nonchalantly in the road, surrounded by five or six rangers, two of whom had rifles. Yes, one assured us, the lions had been fed. And, with a little coaxing, they set off into the African bush under a solidly blue sky, with all of us right behind.

Having been brought up by humans - our guides explained  the lions viewed us as older members of their pride, which was why we could walk with them. Indeed, though they looked the size of adults to me, it would be unnatural for cubs this age to be in the bush alone.

Being a tad nervous, I hung to the back of the pack, hiding behind my status as a senior member of the pride. But clearly Phezulu, with his adolescent beginnings of a mane, was tiring of hanging around these old-timers, and set off on his own into the grasslands.

The rangers dont discourage this, and two followed him. On these daily constitutionals some lions have killed impala, giraffe, even wildebeest in front of tourists. But on this day their prey remained hidden in the buzzing bushveld, with the cry of ibises warning of our coming.

The lions think humans are aged members of the pride (AP Lion Walks)

Lions are also rather lazy  sleeping up to 20 hours a day. And once Phezulu had gone off, Pendo decided on a lie-down.

Being right behind her at this point, I plucked up my courage. I find that our neighbours cat will scratch me if I stroke its head, but likes a back rub. Assuming Pendo was similar, I stretched out to stroke her hindquarters.

Immediately her mouth opened showing off an array of impressively white teeth and she let out a languorous yawn. Clearly big cats and little cats arent that different.

The sun beat down as we continued along red dirt paths through the low scrub. Lions struggle in the heat just like us, so Pendo paused at a water hole, giving us the perfect photo op beside her.

Soon Phezulu rejoined us and, when both lions stopped, panting, under a camel thorn tree, we were all relieved to be in the shade.

Finally, they led us the short distance back to the lodge  where they knew their ready-made dinner was waiting. And it was at the lodge that we could see the other cubs, some of whom at less than three months old were too young for a trek through the savannah.

Visitors' money helps fund conservation (AP Lion Walks)

Their turn will come. The walks take place every day of the year, even if no guests show up. Of course, if guests do come, the $150 each pays helps the conservation effort.

The lions were just one experience in Zimbabwe that took me far closer to big game than Id ever imagined. The others also had a focus on conservation and not one involved being cooped up in a minibus.

On an open-air dinner cruise up the Zambezi, close to where the river cascades into the Victoria Falls, we sailed worryingly close to some rocks or so I thought until one opened its mouth in a languid hippos yawn.

At our hotel, vultures swarmed above us, before being fed within yards of where we sat  to protect them from the poachers and farmer who poison them. And on an elephant-back safari, we let orphans from a disastrous cull in the 1980s carry us gently through the bush. Like the lions, their offspring will be released into the wild.

Of course, programmes that offer tourists the chance to walk with lions or ride on elephants have come in for criticism. Nobody is suggesting that those lions that walk with humans could ever be released into the wild; only their cubs. And this is a slow process, so the results have yet to be seen. Is this one of those ill-fated conservation schemes, spurred on by good intentions? Or is a legitimate endeavour given the fact that the number of African lions has dropped by 42 per cent in the past 21 years? Much of this is due to loss of habitat, as well as poaching and hunting - and it is seriously concerning to hear allegations that some of the older lions in such schemes are released for canned hunts.

On balance, I am reminded of the arguments for keeping animals in zoos. Perhaps the most compelling one is that, by exposing people to the plight of wild species - people who would otherwise not know anything about it - we are doing the best we can to halt nature's continued demise. Ignorance is almost always our greatest enemy.

Travel essentials

Getting there

British Airways (ba.com), South African Airways (flysaa.com), and Air France (airfrance.co.uk) fly to Victoria Falls via Johannesburg from 560 return.

Staying there

The Victoria Falls Safari Lodge (africaalbidatourism.com) has doubles from US$422 (324), B&B.

More information

The Lion Walk (lionencounter.com) costs $150 per person and is held twice a day, every day.

British and Irish nationals must pay US$55 in cash for a visa on entering Zimbabwe.
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A pilot carried out a heart-stopping emergency landing during which he couldn't see  after giant hailstones shattered the windscreen of his severely damaged jet.

Captain Alexander Akopov picked up the Ukrainian Order For Courage in his home country after landing the Airbus A320 at Istanbuls Ataturk Airport on Thursday.

His skills saved the lives of the 121 passengers and six crew members on board, leaving him and his crew members celebrating as if it was a second birthday.

A heavy storm over Turkey saw hailstones the size of eggs rain down, which left a gash in Captain Akopovs plane and disabled the plane's autopilot.

He said: I have been flying for 30 years. Well, did you see the plane landing? Was it okay? The passengers are alive. It is normal. This is our professional reliability," he told local media.

Our locator did not show this weather disaster, this is why it happened. It was hard, but the main thing is that people are alive.

Hailstones cracked the cockpit window just 10 minutes after take-off on a Turkish airline AtlasGlobal flight to Ercan in northern Cyprus.

He was given permission to attempt to land at Ataturk airport, despite it being closed to other flights because of the bad weather.

Applause broke out among the passengers after the plane stopped safely after roughly landing on the wet runway.

Pilots of nearby planes flashed their lights as a welcome, and some went aboard to meet Captain Akopov.

His heroics were recognised by Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, who called him to congratulate him before awarding the Order of Courage.

The storm over Istanbul lasted just 20 minutes but managed to cause traffic chaos and flash flooding. Cars and buses were submerged. More than 7,000 emergency workers were deployed to help in the aftermath, which sparked fires across the city.
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Brexit is taking our eyes off the future. The immense complexity of the task is, like a black hole, sucking all the energy and ideas of British politics towards it. Many of tomorrows economic and social challenges are cast in its shade as a result. The party manifestoes  which for the most part fought yesterdays battles  attests to this. Yet for progressives, understanding how tomorrows world is being shaped by emerging economic, social and technological energies is vital to making it more equitable and plentiful than today. After all, as David Bowie said, tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming.

Consider the rise of data-driven platforms. While Labour committed to taking the utilities and rail companies back into public ownership, the commanding heights of the digital economy were left untouched. Other parties were similarly quiet. Yet with digital data a ubiquitous and essential source of value, absent policy intervention four or five super star firms are set to harvest and monetise vast swathes of data creating huge concentrations of economic power. Meanwhile, the power asymmetries embedded in platforms such as Uber are undermining labour market regulations and deepening precariousness for many.

Recommended We are heading for a tech bubble burst in 18 months

Crucially, we risk sleepwalking into a world in which the infrastructure of the digital economy, its rules, and the power that resides in that control, is shaped and controlled by a few dominant American companies. This is the new dominant economic position that progressives need to understand and respond to. How can we build a democratically governed and owned data infrastructure that can produce greater equity and genuine innovation? Can platforms be governed in more co-operative approaches to ensure labour enjoys security and voice alongside flexibility? And how should we regulate unaccountable, private algorithms, laced through with questions of economic power? Much work is needed.

The spectre of automation also provokes breathless commentary, much of it in the short term almost certainly exaggerated and at odds with our current economic challenges. Insecure work, sluggish pay, and weak productivity are bigger challenges facing our labour market today than the much-heralded rise of the robots. Nonetheless, in the decades ahead a suite of rapidly improving technologies  large-scale data analysis, algorithmic management, machine learning techniques, the application of AI, advanced robotics, 3-D printing  constitutes a coherent set of techniques for what the urbanist Adam Greenfield calls the production of the post-human every day.

This threatens a world of spiralling inequality rather than mass joblessness. Automation risks accelerating returns to capital as those who own the technologies reap the rewards, while it could further polarise the labour market as the world of work and the type of tasks humans perform transforms.

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Avoiding a future of deepening inequalities will require new models of common ownership to ensure technological change doesnt simply reproduce existing inequalities but expands and democratises its proceeds. Deepening and advancing the ideas laid out in the recent Alternative Models of Ownership report could be one fruitful avenue but serious thought is required on all sides. Moreover, while upgraded skills is unlikely to be enough on its own to hold back automation-driven inequality, clearly more can be done to ensure that everyone is better equipped to engage with the future.

More than that, automating and associated technologies have the potential to shake the foundations of society: the relationship between employment and the production of value, our notions of scarcity, commodities, value, and time. What are the ethical and regulatory standards in which technologies should operate? What are the deals that we as a society want to strike with them? Can we use the technologies to live more agreeably and well, working less but more fruitfully? After all, these technologies are ultimately embedded in institutions and norms that politics  collective organising, debate, and action  build. We must begin that task by asking what we want from technologies and trying to create that society, rather than leaving our future in the hands of Silicon Valley.

Technological change is not bound to create a more just and fruitful configuration of economic power; we must understand the processes driving it and shape change to create a more abundant and equitable future. To do so, we need to get the future in our bones.

Mathew Lawrence is a Senior Research Fellow at IPPR and works on the IPPR Commission on Economic Justice
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War. What is it good for? Well, that rather depends who you ask. And on the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele it is tempting to think that Edwin Starr got it right with his answer: absolutely nothing.

Yet not everybody would agree.

There are, after all, such things as just wars, with the Second World War perhaps the most obvious example in the recent past. Fighting against Nazism  and for that matter expansionist Japanese militarism in the Far East  was not only ethically acceptable, it was a moral imperative.

Sometimes, wars can also be *good* for particular individuals. Soldiers who fight well and honourably might advance careers  it is their job after all. More dubiously, businesses take advantage of conflict in all sorts of ways. If youre an arms trader, war and the fear of war are very good indeed.

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Politicians too can find that their reputations are made  or dismantled  by sending troops into battle. Just ask Tony Blair, who for many will be remembered for little more than taking the UK into war in Iraq on what turned out to be a false premise.

By contrast, Margaret Thatchers first term as Prime Minister was turned around by the successful retaking of the Falkland Islands from Argentinian invaders. That the conflict tapped into widespread, patriotic outrage in the UK meant that its declaration had considerable support. The fact that it was concluded inside three months with the Argentinians surrender ensured that there was no time for doubts to set in  despite the loss of 255 British personnel.

Thatcher, whose leadership of the Conservative Party and the country had been under extraordinary pressure in early 1982, found herself heralded for her decisive intervention (despite the fact that it was arguably her earlier reluctance to boost the Falklands defences which had encouraged Argentinas military junta to launch an invasion). The Prime Ministers poll ratings leapt and in 1983 she won a thumping majority in the general election.

All of which brings us to North Korea and Donald Trump.

Despite his protestations to the contrary, the American President is hardly having a great time of things at home. The allegations of Russian interference in his election win just wont go away. His desperate efforts to repeal Obamacare have been stymied. No bricks have yet been laid in his mooted Mexican border wall. He is widely pilloried in the American media. He gave a frankly bonkers speech to some boy scouts. And his White House staff, when they arent being sidelined or forced out, are vying to compete with their bosss bullish hectoring of any critics who dare to raise an eyebrow, let alone a concern.

How to distract a nation then? Well, what about a little bit of military posturing in a far-flung place.

In Kim Jong-un, Trump has a match in the trash-talking stakes. He also has a convenient baddie whom no American is likely to have any sympathy for. After all, the North Korean leader takes great glee in telling the world that his forces now have the ability to reach any part of the United States with their ballistic missiles, after a surprise test launch on Friday evening. Factor in the ever-growing concern at Pyongyangs nuclear capabilities and it would hardly be unreasonable to conclude that America should simply ignore the problem.

Still, Trump was quick off the mark over the weekend, ordering further trials of the THAAD missile interception system which the US has started to install in South Korea. B-1 bombers also took part in exercises over the Korean Peninsula. And in a tweet raging against China for having apparently done NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk, the US president went on to note: We will no longer allow this to continue.

 North Korean missile 'can hit US mainland' says Kim Jong Un

Americas ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, indicated that the United States saw no purpose in calling for a Security Council meeting over the latest North Korea tests. Meanwhile, General Terrence OShaughnessy, commander of Americas Pacific Air Forces, said the US was ready to unleash rapid, lethal and overwhelming force" against Pyongyang if called upon. Japans Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, told reporters that Donald Trump had assured him of Americas ongoing commitment to take all necessary measures to protect its allies.

It is hard to know whether American rhetoric will ever give way to military action. Plainly there is a very considerable danger that a preemptive strike by US forces would give way to a much wider regional conflagration; including probably an attack by Kims forces on South Korea. The consequences of all-out war in the area would be devastating, which is why diplomacy must  in any rational analysis  continue to take precedence.

Yet from the comfort of the Oval Office, one man might be looking at his dismal approval ratings and wondering how on earth he can turn them around. And he might hum a little tune from the past, along with a new answer of his own.
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The 10 people reportedly killed in election violence in Venezuela, at the time of publication, are unlikely to be the last, given the schisms in this once prosperous and peaceful country. President Maduros so-called constituent assembly which is being elected now is little more than the kind of rigged exercise that is the familiar device of all modern dictators (no doubt a pre-ordained referendum result will follow).

Faced with even the modest safeguards presented by the existing constitution, Mr Maduros easiest path to guaranteed survival is a one-party state, and this is what he is now intent upon. That the protests have not turned more violent is perhaps the surprising thing. The opposition has successfully boycotted the election, and the world is alive to what is going on. Yet the state socialist regime of Mr Maduro, picking up from where the late Hugo Chavez left off, looks secure, at least in the short term. What Mr Chavez could swing by charisma, the plodding Mr Maduro can only achieve with a cruder helping of brute force. For now, that will be sufficient.

It is a strange position for this oil-rich nation to find itself in. At a time when even Cuba is moving away from the kind of planned socialist economy that succeeded in making everyone (apart from a political clique) equally poor and disenfranchised, the Venezuelan government, presumably to save its own skin, is travelling headlong in the opposite direction. It takes a special kind of genius to transform a huge oil exporter with a fertile landscape, thriving factories and an educated, lively people into just about the poorest and most oppressed place in all the Americas  yet that is precisely what the Chavez-Maduro years achieved. Of course, South American republics have long been infamous for obscene inequalities in wealth and privilege, and habitual corruption  see Brazil and the sad demise of Lulas reputation for another light that failed  but Venezuelas decline eclipses anything witnessed in decades.

The socialist experiment in nationalisation, worker management, expelling foreign capitalists and inflating the currency has been a spectacularly counterproductive failure, with a shameless exploitation of founding Bolivarian values adding to its abject intellectual poverty.

 Opposition protesters clash with security forces in Venezuela

President Maduro, we may be sure, will take little notice of diplomatic protests, political speeches or media commentators chiding him for, as he sees it (sincerely or not) as liberating the ordinary citizens of Venezuela from their economic shackles. Neither is it obvious that sanctions will bring any rapid reversal of Venezuelas descent into anarchy; witness the half-century of controls placed by the US on Cuba, or the ineffectiveness of the sanctions now on North Korea, Syria and Russia.

Still, the world has to do something, and, led by the United States, Venezuelas lucrative oil exports and targeted sanctions on senior members of the Maduro gang are an excellent place to start. The shame of it is that they are likely, with the best will and the cleverest design in the world, immediately to harm Venezuelas growing impoverished classes more than the powerful elite. Indeed they may well be used by Maduro to explain away chronic shortages of food, medicine and materials, shoving the blame on to the Yankees and their allies rather than mismanagement of the economy.

It is also possible that Russia might opportunistically take some advantage from the situation, given the tense, one-dimensional nature of superpower relations these days. Yet it is still right for the UN, or its most willing individual members and alliances such as the US and EU, to take action. Beaten by the cops, sick from lack of healthcare, and starving, Venezuelas democrats and political prisoners might as well know that the world has not written them or their country off just yet.
Leo Varadkar called the move a vote of confidence in the Government's vision for the future

Contact lens giant Bausch & Lomb has opened an 85 million euro extension at its Waterford manufacturing base, creating an extra 125 new jobs.

Three years after the company was on the verge of closing its base and shedding 1,100 employees, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and and Tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald officially opened the new facility amid growing demand for the business' disposable contact lenses.

Mr Varadkar said the investment was a "big vote of confidence in this Government's ambitions for Waterford and for the future".

He added: "Bausch & Lomb and its parent company Valeant are to be commended for their commitment to the south-east region.

"This Government is determined to show over the next few months and years that we can not only continue to stimulate growth, but that we are able to spread the benefit across the entire country."

Ms Fitzgerald said it was a "terrific boost" for the south-east area to have "a project of this magnitude, in a high tech and high skilled sector".

In 2014 Bausch and Lomb in Waterford was in trouble when the then new owners Valeant, a Canadian multinational, said there would to be 200 job losses and up to 20% pay cuts for the remaining thousand or so staff.

Bausch & Lomb now employs around 1,300 people at its facility in the south-east.

Agreement was eventually reached with the unions on slightly lower pay cuts and the company agreed to invest in new facilities and an extension to the plant.

The investment, supported by the Department of Enterprise through IDA Ireland, has created 125 additional jobs, bringing the total to 300 new jobs in the past three years.

Valeant said it has invested more than 200 million euro in the Waterford operations, infrastructure and manufacturing line growth.

Joseph C Papa , chairman and chief executive officer of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, said the enhancements to the site will enable the company to meet increasing global customer demand for the Bausch & Lomb contact lens brand.
Ms Feltz questioned how the column had ever managed to appear in the paper

BBC presenter Vanessa Feltz has described a Sunday Times column that suggested she and Claudia Winkleman are well paid because they are Jewish as "horrifying racism".

She said the piece by columnist Kevin Myers was "every vile stereotype about what Jewish people have ever been deemed to be by racists".

Speaking on the breakfast show on BBC Radio London, Ms Feltz questioned how something "so blatantly racist" was allowed in the paper.

"When someone alerted me to it ... I couldn't believe such a thing had been printed. It is absolutely gratuitous, not cleverly done, it's blatant racism. When you see it like that it's very horrifying," said Ms Feltz.

She added: "The editor personally rung me to apologise. He said he was horrified."

Ms Feltz said the piece was hurtful and that she could not understand how, with all the layers a story has to go through before it is published, something so blatantly racist had been allowed in the paper.

Editor Martin Ivens said the piece, which was in the Irish edition and online, should not have been published.

The newspaper removed an online version of the piece on Sunday morning amid a wave of outrage, but it appeared in printed editions of the newspaper across Ireland. Myers has been sacked by the paper.

The column, with the headline: "Sorry, ladies - equal pay has to be earned", follows criticism of the BBC, after it was revealed two-thirds of its stars earning more than 150,000 are male.

Commenting that two of the best-paid female presenters, Winkleman and Feltz, were Jewish, Mr Myers wrote: "Good for them.

"Jews are not generally noted for their insistence on selling their talent for the lowest possible price, which is the most useful measure there is of inveterate, lost-with-all-hands stupidity.

"I wonder, who are their agents? If they're the same ones that negotiated the pay for the women on the lower scales, then maybe the latter have found their true value in the marketplace."

Times readers - who must pay a subscription to access online content - commented on the original article to express their disgust.

The article was taken down following anger on social media and a formal complaint from the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism to press regulator Ipso.

Mr Ivens offered the paper's "sincere apology, both for the remarks and the error of judgment that led to publication".

Frank Fitzgibbon, editor of the Sunday Times Ireland, said he took "full responsibility", adding: "This newspaper abhors anti-Semitism and did not intend to cause offence to Jewish people."

A News UK spokesman said the column included "unacceptable comments both to Jewish people and to women in the workplace".

The newspaper has said Mr Myers "will not write again" for the Sunday Times.
The City of London looks set to lose more business because of Brexit

Japans biggest bank is reportedly set to move its European investment operations from London to Amsterdam because of the uncertainty posed by Brexit.

MUFG could move hundreds of its 2,100 London employees to the Dutch capital, sources told the Financial Times.

Other banks are also looking to set up new offices in various European cities because of Brexit.

The UKs withdrawal from the EU is likely to have a significant effect on the financial services industry in the UK  along with numerous other areas  as companies in Britain will no longer be able to operate within the EU framework.

Read more: Peter Casey: We need an urgent national debate on Irexit from a massively-flawed EU

This could potentially block access to clients and significantly interfere with business.

Amsterdam is already home to MUFGs retail and corporate banking operations.

The Netherlands has strict bonus caps but, under new proposals, these would be exempt for companies which employ at least 75pc of their staff outside the country.

The proposed move separates MUFG from other large Japanese banks based in London, which are eyeing moves to Frankfurt, the German financial capital.

The Bank of England has been pressuring financial institutions to outline their post-Brexit plans in recent weeks, the FT reported.

Frankfurt was also the choice of Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Standard Chartered for their post-Brexit locations.

HSBC chose Paris and the Bank of America and Barclays opted for Dublin.
A small village in Leitrim is looking to bolster its community and is calling on families to come live there.

Kiltyclogher, which has a population of 200 people, has put a call out for families to live in a safe, tranquil north Leitrim village.

After years of visiting Kiltyclogher, Maura Weirr, who is originally from Boston, but whose mother hails from just outside the village, has now settled there with her son and is involved in the Kiltylive campaign.

"The scenery and land and people attracted me to live her. There is a great community spirit here."

"We wanted to invite more people to a peaceful tranquil village. It's a whole community effort o revitalise the community by including more younger families into the village."

The local two-teacher primary school, which has six green flags, has just 15 pupils and Maura said they want more young families to move to the village to help keep the school and village alive.

The village hosts numerous festivals, including a music and a traditional festival, while a Sean McDermott weekend pays tribute to the local 1916 hero.

Edel McGovern, who is also involved in the campaign, said the local bus service means Sligo and Manorhamilton are not far. "I've raised four children here and it's an absolutely fantastic place to raise a family."

According to the campaign, Kiltylive, rent and house prices are very reasonable - a house can be rented for less than 100 per week, while three-bedroomed houses can be bought for less than 100,000.
US airline unions have made a last-ditch plea to a Washington DC appeals court to force the US Department of Transportation to reconsider its awarding of a controversial permit to Ireland-based Norwegian Air International (NAI).

The permit enabled the carrier to recently launch low-cost transatlantic flights from Ireland to America.

The appeals court was told in a submission it received from unions on Friday evening that tens of thousands of pilots at Delta and United are deeply concerned about NAI's arrival on the transatlantic market.

Four US airline unions representing more than 100,000 pilots and flight attendants have been fighting to have NAI's permit revoked and reconsidered by the US Department of Transportation (DOT).

The unions claim their members will suffer economic harm due to NAI's presence on the transatlantic market, as their wages will be cut and working conditions lessened due to the new entrant.

NAI is a subsidiary of Norwegian Air Shuttle. NAI secured a permit last December under the EU-US Open Skies agreement after a four-year wait. The permit enables NAI to fly from any location in the EU to any destination in the United States, and vice versa.

US unions claim NAI only established itself in Ireland to circumvent strict Norwegian labour rules and that it would use crews on cheap contracts drawn in Asia for its transatlantic service. "It appears that NAI will use lower-cost pilots and flight attendants employed by Singapore and Thai hiring agencies on individual employment contracts governed by Singapore and Thai law," the unions claimed again on Friday.

"A court order vacating DOT's order [granting NAI the permit] would redress the harm that would otherwise be suffered by petitioners [unions] and their members," the submission stated.

Committed

Norwegian has consistently denied those claims and pointed out that NAI is hiring hundreds of US-based staff for its transatlantic services.

Unions noted that NAI chief executive Tore Jenssen "voluntarily committed" to the Dot to use only European and US flight crews on its transatlantic flights.

"That concern is not about the nationality of the flight crew, but the national laws that governs their employment contracts," stressed unions on Friday.

Unions have claimed that granting a permit to NAI violates Article 17 of the Open Skies agreement. The article is meant to ensure that labour standards or labour rights are not undermined by the agreement.

Earlier this month, the US Dot told the appeals court that granting NAI its permit under the agreement would not lead to inferior working conditions for pilots and cabin crew.

"To the contrary, information in the administrative record suggests that the increased demand for pilots and flight crew, and employees' strong bargaining position, could result in higher wages and improved working conditions," the Dot said.

On Friday, the US airline unions also again called into question the reasons for NAI being based in Ireland.

The unions have insisted that if the Dot is forced to reassess NAI's permit application, that the carrier's assertions as to why it selected Ireland as a base could be more deeply probed.

"NAI's assertions as to why its parent company established it in Ireland are misleading, at best," the unions claimed.

NAI has told the appeals court that the decision to establish its base in Ireland was "lawful, rational and based on legitimate commercial factors".

"Petitioners [unions] should not be allowed to second-guess Norwegian Air's selection of Ireland as its country of incorporation and principal place of business," it added.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar TD and Tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald TD, Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, officially opened a 85 million extension at Bausch + Lomb Waterford. Included are Joseph C. Papa , chairman and chief executive officer of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc, and Damain Finn. Photo:John Power

Bausch + Lomb has announced the creation of 125 new jobs at its Waterford facility.

The announcement was made as An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and An Tanaiste and Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Frances Fitzgerald officially opened an 85m extension at the companys Waterford facility to help meet the consumer demand for its contact lens portfolio.

The investment will further strengthen the Waterford plants position in supporting the companys global efforts in increasing market share in the daily disposable contact lens market, a statement from the company said.

Read more: Shopify to create 100 new jobs in Galway

Bausch + Lomb, a global eye health company, currently employ 1,300 people at its Waterford facility.

"This major investment by Bausch + Lomb, adding an extra 125 jobs, is a big vote of confidence in this Government's ambitions for Waterford and for the future. Bausch + Lomb and its parent company Valeant are to be commended for their commitment to the southeast region, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said.

The expansion by Bausch + Lomb has been supported by IDA Ireland and IDAs CEO Martin Shanahan described the move as a demonstration of a "strong and very welcome commitment" by the company to Waterford and the southeast, where it has been an employer for nearly four decades.

"This is an important strategic investment by the company which solidifies its reputation as a global leader in contact lens production and positions it to take advantage of future opportunities in the eye health care sector. I congratulate Bausch + Lomb on this impressive new facility and wish them continued success," Mr Shanahan said.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, the parent company of Bausch + Lomb, has to-date invested more than 200m in the Waterford facilitys operations, infrastructure and manufacturing line growth.
Irish Heart has appointed Tim Collins as its new CEO.

Mr Collins, a former GP, has spent the past past 18 months in the role of CEO at Newstalk radio.

Prior to this he was CEO with North West Broadcasting for more than 10 years, where he led the way on innovative digital and video content solutions to complement local radio.

Commenting on the announcement Irish Heart said that Mr Collins brings significant media, political and medical experience to the not-for-profit organisation.

"[Mr Collins] undoubted leadership skills and knowledge of new communication technologies will be very important in advancing the mission and goals of this vital organisation," Dr Kathleen McGarry, president of Irish Heart, said.

Mr Collins said that he was "excited" about working with the talented team at Irish Heart to tackle what he described as "the biggest disease of our generation."

Read more: 'Sometimes a farmer needs a nurse'

Between 1990-1997, Mr Collins acted as Special Advisor to Government Ministers Mary Harney and Brendan Howlin at the Department of Health and also the Department of the Environment, before going on to become director of Public Affairs with Drury Communications until 2003.

Mr Collins is due to take up the new position with Irish Heart (formerly known as the Irish Heart Foundation) on 14 August 2017.

He succeeds Barry Dempsey who recently joined Chartered Accountants Ireland as Chief Executive at the end of June 2017.
Independent News and Media (INM plc) has warned that newspapers will close and journalism jobs will be lost unless there is consolidation in the sector.

INM, publishers of four national titles, including the Irish Independent, Sunday Independent and Independent.ie, has also said that future media merger transactions could be deterred owing to the lack of what it describes as a "fit-for-purpose" regulatory process, saying that the current system is too costly and "takes far too much time".

The countrys leading media group, which said that current regulation "plays into the hands of foreign media interests", issued a statement this afternoon in response to freedom of information (FOI) requests in respect of its planned but aborted acquisition of Celtic Newspapers Limited (CMNL) which publishes several regional titles including the Meath Chronicle.

Read more: INM's shares rise 13pc on big volume

The proposed merger was approved by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission late last year but later referred by Communications Minister Denis Naughten for a phase 2 examination by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI).

Last June, nine months following the announcement of the transaction, INM and CMNL announced that they had decided to move forward on a separate footing and the transaction was terminated with both parties having incurred "material costs".

INM, which earlier this month issued a profit warning, said that it firmly believes that a "significant opportunity" for both INM and CNML was lost following the collapse of the proposed merger, adding that it had cooperated fully with the CCPC, the Department and the BAI throughout the process.

INM cited a number of factors for its profit warning, including a decline in circulation and readership, a decline in advertising revenues, ongoing uncertainty arising from Brexit, lower than expected growth in digital revenues and increased costs arising from legacy libel awards.

"Facing the combined challenge of declining circulation and advertising, and consumption via social media platforms  it is essential that newspaper consolidation takes place, be that on a regional, national or global basis," said the company in a statement.

"The alternative is that these rates of decline will accelerate resulting in the closure of newspaper titles, the loss of managerial, editorial and production jobs, and ultimately the loss of diversity of voice."

INM said it believes that media plurality needs to be maintained.

"When compared with many other markets, the balance of media ownership in Ireland is diverse, with a number of publishers and broadcasters competing in the market," the company said in its statement.

"By the nature of markets, some participants are larger than others."

"Current regulation plays into the hands of foreign media interests, who may have large interests in other markets and a limited presence in this market. The Irish market, like others, is also faced with competition from digital news sources such as Google and Facebook, who operate with freedom outside of regulatory constraints.

"A real debate at policy level is urgently required on media in Ireland, including on the balance between media ownership and the consolidation necessary to protect the sector into the future and the great heritage and legacy that lies in Irish newspapers. A fit-for-purpose regulatory process is also essential as the current system takes far too much time, is very costly and may ultimately deter further media merger transactions".
Michael Berna uses a functional antenna attached to his helmet to monitor wi-fi networks during the Def Con hacker convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. Photo: REUTERS/Steve Marcus

Hackers attending this weekend's Def Con hacking convention in Las Vegas were invited to break into voting machines and voter databases in a bid to uncover vulnerabilities that could be exploited to sway election results.

The 25-year-old conference's first "hacker voting village" opened on Friday as part of an effort to raise awareness about the threat of election results being altered through hacking.

Hackers crammed into a crowded conference room for the rare opportunity to examine and attempt to hack some 30 pieces of election equipment, much of it purchased over eBay, including some voting machines and digital voter registries that are currently in use.

"We encourage you to do stuff that if you did on election day they would probably arrest you," said Johns Hopkins computer scientist Matt Blaze.

The exercise featured a "cyber range" simulator where blue teams were tasked with defending a mock local election system from red team hackers. Concerns about election hacking have surged since US intelligence agencies claimed Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the hacking of Democratic Party emails to help Republican Donald Trump win the 2016 US presidential election.

A Department of Homeland Security official told Congress in June that Russian hackers had targeted 21 US state election systems in the presidential race and a small number were breached, but there was no evidence any votes had been manipulated. Russia has denied the accusations.

Expand Close Kyle (no last name provided) of the UK-based Secarma, an ethical hacking company, competes in a capture the flag competition during the Def Con convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. Photo: REUTERS/Steve Marcus / Facebook

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Exposure

"The exposure of those devices to the people who do bug bounties or actually look at these kind of devices has been fairly limited," said Brian Knopf, a security researcher for Neustar, a security analysis company. "So Defcon is a great opportunity for those of us who hack hardware and firmware to look to these kind of devices and really answer that question, 'Are they hackable?'"

After just about an hour-and-a-half, the answer was an emphatic "yes". The hackers cracked the first of the 30 voting machines being tested in less time than it takes to watch a movie.

One of the organisers, Jake Braun, said he believed the hacker voting village would convince participants that hacking could be used to sway an election.

"There's been a lot of claims that our election system is unhackable. That's BS," said Mr Braun. "Only a fool or liar would try to claim that their database or machine was unhackable."

Barbara Simons, president of advocacy group Verified Voting, said she expects Russia to try to influence the US 2018 midterm election and 2020 elections. To counter such threats, she called for requiring use of paper ballots and mandatory auditing computers to count them.
A doctor charged with the murder of her three-year-old son in Co Dublin was unable to attend a court hearing for a second time on Monday.

GP Maha Al-Adheem (42) was due to face her third appearance at Dublin District Court having been remanded in custody on July 13 last. However, she was unable to attend and defence solicitor Aisling Mulligan said there was consent to an adjournment.

Judge Michael Walsh further remanded her in custody in her absence to appear at the same court on August 28 next.

She was also unable to be brought to court for her previous scheduled hearing on July 20 last. Det Sergeant Brendan OHalloran had then told the court, she is not going to be produced today she is sick, judge.

The body of Omar Omran, who was stabbed to death, was found when gardai and an ambulance crew were called to his home at Riverside Apartments in Kimmage, at about seven oclock on July 10 last.

Entry was forced and the infant child was found in his bedroom. The toddler was laid to rest two weeks ago after he was brought to the Islamic section of Newcastle Cemetery, in Co Dublin, following prayers at Clonskeagh mosque.

Following the discovery of her sons body, Ms Al-Adheem, a doctor from Iraq who had been living in Ireland since 2010, was detained at Crumlin Garda Station under Section Four of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984.

At her first hearing, Det Sergeant Brendan OHalloran had told Judge Walsh that Ms Al-Adheem was arrested at 12.30am on July 13 for the offence of murder contrary to common law. He had said she made no reply.

Det Sgt OHalloran had said he cautioned her about 45 minutes later and charged her. He had told the court she was given a true copy of the charge and in reply to the charge she said, Yes it was my knife, yes it was my hand, it was not me, it was the power.

The defendant sat motionless during that brief hearing and did not address court.

The district court cannot grant bail in a murder case; an application has to be made in the High Court.
A Dublin man who raped his 14-year-old niece twice in her bed when she was living with him has been jailed for eight years.

In a victim impact statement handed in to court, the now-19-year-old victim said she would never trust another person like she had trusted her uncle. She said she bottled up what he did to her for years.

I looked at the world like it was a dull, horrible place and I would be better off dead, she said.

The 49-year-old married father and grandfather, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his victim, continues to maintain his innocence, the Central Criminal Court heard.

His wife and children continue to support him and described him as a caring father whose grandchildren adore him.

He was found guilty by a jury of two counts of raping his niece between January 1, 2012 and April 1, 2013 following a trial in the Central Criminal Court in June this year.

Handing down a nine-year sentence with the final year suspended today, Mr Justice Paul McDermott said the man subjected his niece to two nasty, violent rapes when she was still a child. The judge said the man used a degree of force and instilled fear in his victim.

It was a breach of trust of a vulnerable 14-year-old girl, the judge said. He took full advantage of her living away from her family.

The man had shown no remorse, the judge added.

Detective Garda Michael McGrath told Mary Rose Gearty SC, prosecuting, that the girl was living with her uncle and extended family members in 2012.

She and he got on very well, Ms Gearty told the court.

One evening, the pair were sitting on the couch watching TV together when the girl dozed off. She woke up to find her uncle pulling at her pyjama bottoms before he told her: It's time for bed.

The girl ran upstairs to her bedroom and got under the blanket, before she heard her uncle following her upstairs and entering the room. She struggled to get away from him but he grabbed hold of her hands and raped her, the court heard.

The girl felt dirt, shame and disgust afterwards, Ms Gearty said. She felt she should have been stronger and fought.

Between three and four months later, the girl woke in her bed to find her uncle on top of her, raping her. She had been wearing pyjamas when she went to bed but was completely unclothed when she woke up.

She moved out of the home shortly afterwards.

Towards the end of 2012, the girl's mother noticed a massive change in her daughter. She was crying all the time and not showering, the court heard.

The girl told her mother her uncle had tried it on but said no more then that. She eventually confided in her mother in 2014 and made a statement to gardai.

When interviewed by gardai, the man repeatedly denied the allegations against him. He said he had not taken his niece's virginity and said she had lost it to her boyfriend.

He told gardai he tended to go to the pub every evening after work and would drink around 14 pints, but he said he would come home merry rather than drunk.

He has 37 previous convictions, entirely for road traffic offences.

In her statement, the victim said she became deeply depressed in the wake of the rapes.

I felt like I had nothing to live for, like I was just existing, she said. I'll never trust another person like the trust I had for him.

She said she had lost family relationships as a result of what her uncle did to her, including her cousin to whom she was particularly close.

She said she stopped showering because no matter how many times I washed, it never went away.

Defence barrister, Giollaiosa O Lideadha SC, said his client continues to maintain his innocence in relation to the charges against him.

He handed up a number of letters of support from his wife and children. His wife of over 25 years said she was totally shocked and saddened to hear of the allegations against him. She asserted her belief in her husband's innocence.

His daughter said her father was her best friend and always would be.

Mr O Lideadha requested legal aid for an appeal, which was granted.
A 29-year-old man charged with the murder of father-of-three Dermot Byrne in Swords in Co Dublin has been further remanded in custody.

The businessman and popular pool player, who was aged 54 and lived in Swords, had been socialising in the town when he was attacked at North Street in the early hours of July 16 last.

Expand Close Murder victim Dermot Byrne (56) was a father of three / Facebook

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Gardai arrived at about 3.05am and he was attended to by medical personnel but was subsequently pronounced dead at the scene.

The accused, Anthony Walsh, who is of no fixed abode but from the Glencullen area in south Co Dublin, was charged the following week and had been remanded in custody. He faced his second hearing at Cloverhill District Court before Judge Victor Blake and was further remanded in custody to appear again on August 25 next.

At his first hearing on July 21, Garda Killian Leydon told the district court that the accused was arrested at 4.45pm the previous day outside Building Five in the grounds of St Jamess Hospital, in Dublin 8. He was brought to Swords Garda station and charged at 5.43pm after which, he made no reply.

There were minor applications to amend the charges sheets to correct the defendants age and to insert no fixed abode as his address.

Legal aid had been granted after the defence solicitor told the court that Mr Walsh was not working and has been in receipt of the Jobseekers Allowance.

Bail cannot be granted in the district court in murder cases and can only be considered by the High Court.
A Limerick biker will be sentenced to life in prison in October, after being found guilty of murdering a member of a rival motorcycle club two years ago.

Alan 'Cookie McNamara, a 51-year-old from Mountfune, Murroe, Co Limerick had pleaded not guilty to the murder of Andrew 'AOD' O'Donoghue at the gates of the Road Tramps motorcycle club at Mountfune on June 20, 2015.

The jury delivered a unanimous verdict to the Central Criminal Court this (Monday) afternoon.

The seven men and four women had been asked to decide if the accused was acting in defence of himself and his family or in retaliation, after he was assaulted and threatened.

Expand Close Andrew ODonoghue, who was shot in Limerick, in 2015 / Facebook

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The trial heard that McNamara, a member of the Caballeros motorcycle club, was assaulted at a pub in Doon in Limerick by members of the Road Tramps the day before the shooting. Doon was Road Tramps territory.

One of the Road Tramps punched McNamara in the face and one of them took his waistcoat, which had a Caballeros patch sewn into the back. Another member held back his wife.

McNamara claimed that three Road Tramps later pulled up to his house in a car and, in front of his wife and children, threatened to kill him and burn down his home. He said he was terrified.

He received a phone call from his stepson, Robert Cusack, the following day. He said that Cusack told him that he was in a car with two other Caballeros following a Road Tramp.

McNamara loaded a shotgun, got in his car and drove to the Road Tramps' clubhouse, where he claimed he thought Mr O'Donoghue was holding a gun, so he shot him.

Cusack (28) of Abington, Murroe, Co Limerick had gone on trial with his stepfather, having pleaded not guilty to impeding McNamaras apprehension. However, he changed his plea to guilty during the trial and will be sentenced later.

The prosecution said the shooting evolved out of acts which were revengeful or retaliatory, that McNamara had seen an opportunity for retribution and had murdered an innocent man.

The prosecution said it did not stand over the attack at Doon, the alleged threats or the presence of an arsenal of weapons at the Road Tramps clubhouse. However, Michael Delaney SC said in his closing speech: "You are not entitled to take the law into your own hands and shoot an innocent man."

He noted that there was no evidence that Mr O'Donoghue had been involved in any of the incidents leading up to the shooting.

The defence said the whole event unfolded very quickly and that the accused felt there was a threat to him and his family. McNamara had claimed to be out of my mind and in a panic on the morning of the shooting.

Hugh Hartnett SC, defending, said that his client had been attacked and then threatened by three men, one of them waving a gun.

"Would that have an effect on the mind of an average man?" he asked in his closing speech.

He added that McNamara knew what the Road Tramps were capable of, reminding the jury of the weapons found at their clubhouse and that one member, Kevin Ryan, had a conviction for a firearms offence.

Justice Paul McDermott told the seven men and four women that they had to examine the accused man's state of mind and ask, what did he honestly believe at the time?

He said to think about the manner of the shooting and the events leading up to it - why the accused came to be there with a loaded shotgun and whether Mr O'Donoghue did anything other than point towards him.

They were told to consider whether there was a basis for McNamara fearing a threat to him or his family.

He explained that homicide was not murder if committed in reasonable self defence or in defence of others.

They were told that if the accused believed that he was using necessary force but the force he used was greater than a reasonable person would deem necessary, then he would be guilty of manslaughter and not murder.

However, where the accused knowingly used more force than was reasonable in the circumstances, he would be guilty of murder.

Following two hours and 43 minutes deliberating, the jury reached a unanimous verdict of guilty of murder.

McNamara, who walks with the aid of canes, showed no reaction when the registrar read out the verdict. However, his family sobbed quietly in an otherwise silent court.

Justice McDermott said that, although the sentence of life was mandatory, modern practice was to defer sentence. He remanded McNamara in custody for sentencing on October 27.

His family became emotional and embraced McNamara before he was led away to the cells.

The deceased mans family left court quietly without making comment, as did a number of members of his motorcycle club.
A man who viewed child pornography after stumbling across it while searching for adult pornography late at night has been given a suspended sentence.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard Carl Murphy (45) was in an state of emotional flux following the collapse of his marriage and checked himself into St Patrick's Hospital for a time after the offences came to light.

Murphy, formerly of Grange Park Grove, Raheny, Dublin and now with an address at Newbury, Castlemartin Lodge, Kildare, pleaded guilty to possession of 121 images of child pornography on July 20, 2016. He has no previous convictions.

Judge Martin Nolan noted the material possessed by Murphy fell at the lower end of the scale in terms of categorisation and involved quite a modest number of images compared with other cases.

He said that child pornography was not a victimless crime and there were children in parts of the world suffering by reason of people such as the accused man.

Judge Nolan noted Murphy seemed to have had certain psychological problems at the time but noted he was now engaging in therapy. He said he felt that there was a good chance that the accused man would not re-offend in the future.

Judge Nolan imposed a two year and a half year sentence which he suspended in full.

Sergeant Liam Donoghue told Eilis Brennan BL, prosecuting, that gardai acting on confidential information seized two laptops and a desktop computer. These were found to contain a total of 121 images and four movies of child pornography.

Murphy, who was separated and no longer living in the family home, told gardai he had been on internet chat rooms and admitted viewing the material and downloading some images.

A hard drive from one of the computers had been destroyed and other files had been put through shredding software but were recovered by gardai.

He was not interviewed by gardai at the time and checked himself in St Patrick's Hospital. He was later interviewed in November 2016. He told gardai that he had come across the child pornography by accident rather than design.

Murphy said he had been looking at other pornographic material when he was directed to a link to the illegal material.

The majority of the images depicted young females under the age of 17, some with genital areas exposed or naked in provocative poses.

The garda said the images appeared to involve children between the ages of 12 to 17 years old.

Michael Bowman SC, defending, said that the material was egregious but submitted that there were worse cases.

The garda agreed that the site accessed by Murphy was not exclusively child porn. He agreed that the time period involved was months rather then years and that Murphy was not a hoarder of images but appeared to delete them after viewing.

Mr Bowman said Murphy had searched for adult porn which opened a Pandora's box and led him into a dark area of the internet he would otherwise not have accessed. He said the time period involved coincided with the collapse of his marriage and the deterioration of his mental health.

Counsel said this was not material Murphy had sought out but had stumbled across and admitted that he should never have gone back to look at the material again.

He said his client was now known within his community, by family and friends as a person who had accessed child pornography. He said Murphy had paid an enormous personal price and lost everything in the world.

Mr Bowman said Murphy was engaging in a two year course of therapy and had deep remorse for how his family has been affected. He asked the court to take into account his client had made immediate admissions and followed up with co-operation in garda interviews.

He said this had had a catastrophic effect on Murphy's life and said he had lost absolutely everything as a consequence of what he was doing in a state of emotional flux late at night.
Church of Our Lady of Victories in Ballymun

A Dublin man left a bicycle with his name on a sticker attached to it on church grounds after making off with 500 of mass donations, a court has heard.

Justin Murray (38) cycled to the Church of Our Lady of Victories in Ballymun to creep in and steal money but fled on foot when he was seen taking collection envelopes by a parishioner.

Gardai later found the bike which had a sticker with Justin Murray on it discarded on the church grounds.

Murray, of Moatview Court, Coolock, affirmed signed pleas of guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to stealing cash at the church on November 6, 2016.

He has 77 previous convictions including ten thefts and 20 burglaries.

Garda Ross Brierley said he and colleagues also identified Murray as the thief from CCTV in the area.

The garda told Fiona Murphy BL, prosecuting, that a parishioner who had been helping out after mass that morning saw a male enter and take money from the church collection.

At first she thought he was there to help, but soon realised he was stealing money.

She said the male fled on foot when he spotted her.

Gda Brierley said he arrested Murray the next day at a shopping centre after he and colleagues were satisfied he was the culprit.

He said Murray was on bail for a robbery at the time.

He agreed with Dean Kelly BL, defending, that Murray had gone into the church to creep into a private area and steal money but that he had instead come face-to-face with the parishioner.

The garda further agreed that Murray's very early guilty plea to the offence was of great assistance.

Mr Kelly submitted to Judge Elma Sheahan that his client was on an enhanced regime in custody and wished to be transferred to Cork Prison as he found it easier to stay off heroin in that institution.

Judge Sheahan ordered a probation report and remanded Murray in continuing custody until February next year.
A mother-of-three has been jailed after she admitted importing 70,000 of cocaine into Dublin airport.

Jade Seddon (25) had just over one kilo of cocaine in a suitcase when she flew in from Brussels.

Seddon of Lees Road, Oldham, Manchester pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to importation of the drugs at Dublin Airport on March 30, 2017.

After her arrest the UK national admitted to gardai that she had flown to Amsterdam to collect a package and she knew it contained cocaine. She said she was to meet a man in Dublin and would receive 3,000.

She said she did it because her home was being repossessed and she needed money for a rent deposit. She has been held in custody since her arrest.

Luigi Rea BL, defending, said that his client a single mother of limited means. He said she had previously worked as a bingo caller and as a cleaner in a shopping centre.

As a result of her time in custody she was now aware of the effects of drugs on people, Mr Rea said. He told the court she wasn't the prime mover in the drug operation.

Judge Martin Nolan said she was a transporter of the drugs and did it because she thought it was the only way she could make the money she needed.

He said importation of this type of drugs was a serious offence. He jailed Seddon for two years, with the sentence backdated to last March.

He said he was taking into consideration the fact that Seddon has no family here and that this would make prison more difficult for her.
Did you hear it? That angry volley of male leaders, politicos and captains of industry condemning the gender pay gap in the upper echelons of RTE after Sharon Ni Bheolain spilled the beans that she is paid substantially less than her Six One co-anchor Bryan Dobson?

Did you hear those incandescent chairmen and chief executives of our public sector bodies, semi-states, plcs and private companies, demanding their books be opened to the public to demonstrate how they would survive a gender pay audit? Did you see hordes of men rush to the proverbial barricades to insist that the 15pc pay gap between what they and their Irish female co-workers earn be narrowed if not closed? Did you hear the deafening roar of Ireland's top male broadcasters demanding, en masse, parity of pay for their female co-stars?

Of course not.

Amid all the noise and fury in the wake of revelations of the gender pay differentials between the top earners at RTE - a row triggered by an earlier controversy over the gender pay gap amongst the BBC's top talent - men have been conspicuously quiet.

Well, apart from Sir Philip Hampton, the man tasked with removing barriers preventing women from rising to senior roles in FTSE 350 companies. Hampton opined that female BBC staff allowed the gender pay gap at the corporation to materialise by not asking for it - ie pay rises.

David Quinn, my fellow Irish Independent columnist, had no hesitation wading into the pay debate.

Founder of the Iona Institute, a Christian advocacy group, Quinn conceded that old-fashioned discrimination might explain some part of the pay gap. But for him, the bigger explanation is children.

"Many women change their priorities when they have children," wrote Quinn.

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Not 'many families' change their priorities when they have children, resulting in women scaling back their hours in paid employment or being forced to leave work altogether. Not 'many parents'. Not 'many couples'. Just women. Perhaps it was an unfortunate turn of phrase on Quinn's part. Because it is one that defies the naked fact that the human population would not survive without women.

Women, without whom men could not propel their careers and maintain their societal dominance.

Women, without whom there would be no future workers to support pay, pensions and an ageing population. Women, whose reproductive destiny men insist they control - the control of fertility is the hallmark of authoritarian regimes - of having children for the benefit of society and expecting equality of pay and opportunity when they return to work after their life-giving service to humanity.

As the RTE pay row escalated, the underlying misogyny and hypocrisy that stalks the gender pay gap debate, with its age old excuses - we can't afford parity, women have babies, aren't ambitious and don't ask for pay rises - reared its eternally ugly head.

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Taoiseach Leo Varadkar made soothing noises about equal pay for equal work. But it was hard to swallow given the cold shoulder he gave to women when he reduced our presence in his Cabinet as we face into a referendum on the Eighth Amendment next year.

The most monumental debate regarding the human rights of women and girls to be held in decades, Varadkar's decision to subdue the voice of women at this critical juncture in our history reads like an early chapter of The Handmaid's Tale.

I'll be the first to admit that the gender pay gap will not be resolved overnight - dismantling patriarchy and institutionalised discrimination is no easy task. And I sometimes wonder if the reason why I have a senior executive editorial role - they're rare enough for women in media - is because I've no children and have been able to commit to the type of long, unsociable hours a parent or caregiver might not. I have nothing but admiration for parents, male and female, who take on arduous roles whilst managing family commitments. But I've also witnessed the pain of many of my female friends who feel their career and earnings trajectory has been fatally compromised because they had children.

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RTE, a State funded, public service broadcaster nursing some 20m debts a year, is rightly in the firing line. It should have been better prepared. Once the BBC row broke, RTE, which has been at the forefront of debates about equality and use of public funds, should have had its ducks in a row.

It should have had its most up-to-date figures and justifications, even broad ones, at hand. Presumably it has answers for its board, mindful of RTE's deficit and increased commercial pressures, when its members ask questions.

I suspect that a gender pay review of RTE will reveal broad pay similarities for similar work, but with significant pay differentials for certain talent - predominantly male - a reveal that will infuriate.

But if every company, including the one that I work for, were forced to open their books to a gender pay audit, how would they fare? Women constitute 50pc of the population. But we remain significantly under-represented in society, whether that's in parliament, on the airwaves, in our arts or on boards.

Parity and pay are part of that under-representation.

The antidote to the gender pay poison is transparency.

The diversity carrot (hoping companies would close the gender pay gap voluntarily) simply hasn't worked. The case for the stick, forcing companies to legally publish their gender pay differentials is now beyond dispute. It will be fiercely resisted and may embarrass in the first instance. But in time it will help fight workplace discrimination and give critical insights into the needs of our ever-changing workforce - not just women who have babies.

Transparency and honest if difficult debate will, in turn, lead to a better informed public and better public policies.

After the initial fireworks, we can then formulate strategies that serve us all.
A funeral for Patricia O'Connor, whose dismembered body was found scattered across the Dublin mountains last month, has been held in private.

Her family revealed that her remains were cremated about a month ago in a low-key ceremony away from the spotlight as the case continued to make headlines in the media.

"It was deliberately quiet so her family, including her grandchildren, could grieve in peace away from the public glare," Patricia's daughter Louise said.

She added that the family had yet to decide what to do with Patricia's ashes.

"That decision will be made in the future," she said.

Ms O'Connor's remains were found at the beginning of June when a group whose car had been broken into in an unrelated incident in the mountains went searching for belongings that may have been dumped nearby.

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They discovered a torso in a plastic bag near Military Road and a major Garda investigation was launched.

Scattered

Nine separate sets of human remains were found scattered in a 30km area across the Wicklow mountains, including a head and arms in a plastic bag.

A large section of the Military Road was closed for days while the searches were ongoing.

Kieran Green (32), with an address at Mountain View Park in Churchtown, Dublin, was later arrested and appeared in court charged with the murder of Mrs O'Connor.

He said: "It was self-defence" after he was charged on June 15 and was remanded in custody.

Ms O'Connor (61) was first reported missing on June 2 but at the time her disappearance was not considered suspicious.

The killing allegedly took place at Mountain View Park in Churchtown between May 29 and May 30 last. Detective Garda David Connolly said Mr Green was arrested at Bray garda station and he was later charged on June 15.
We all have that one spot in Ireland that we love to visit - a place we try to keep secret in order to avoid it becoming yet another crowded hotspot.

Independent.ie took to the streets of Dublin to talk to people who didn't mind sharing their favourite spot and why it stands out for them.

The seaside town of Skerries in Co. Dublin was named as a favourite for its "astonishing sunset" views; Galway city was named for its lively culture and nightlife, while Newgrange and Glendalough were also listed as favourites.

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List your own favourite spots in the comments below.
A mum whose son's eye was "seriously damaged" following an attack from a pellet gun has told of the "devastation" the incident has brought to her family.

A mother named Noelle, told Joe Duffy on RTE's Liveline how her eight-year-old son, Mark was shot in the eye with a pellet gun while out playing in their housing estate in April of this year.

"In early April, he was out playing and he got shot with a pellet gun in the bum. I spoke to the parents of the girl who shot him in the bum and I thought that would be the end of it but about ten days later he was out playing with his friends and the girl that owned the pellet gun said 'turn around Mark' and he got shot in the eye by another girl and ended up in hospital for four to five days."

Noelle said she got an "awful fright" when she heard her son's screams and rushed him straight to hospital in Waterford city.

"The doctor said that his iris had been severed and that there was a lot of damage done to the back of his eye. He said you could look into his eye in 20 year's time and always see the damage in the child's eye. His eye will never be the same again," said an emotional mum.

According to Noelle, the doctor who examined Mark reported the incident to the gardai after seeing her son's eye. Noelle said she spoke to the parents of the girl who shot her son but they said it was an accident.

Noelle is worried about her son's future as his vision has "dropped dramatically".

"He'll have to wear glasses, he'll never again have his short vision. If he wants to go for a job in years to come or wants insurance on his car he'll be affected. We're talking about glaucoma and cataract 20 years down the line. He's restricted for the rest of his life," explained Noelle.

Noelle told Joe Duffy how she felt she had nowhere else to turn following the incident.

She said: "He's my baby. We don't know where else to turn. Those guns are illegal to carry if you're under 18. He has flashbacks and I put him to bed and he comes in to my room sweating. He's afraid to go out and play."
The failure of a single mains pipe providing water to the capital would result in widespread restrictions for households and businesses across Dublin city centre.

Irish Water has also warned that large parts of the city's sewer system have not been inspected in more than 50 years, and that the flow of wastewater from the north to the south of the River Liffey would be stopped if a single pipeline collapsed.

In an interview with the Irish Independent, managing director Jerry Grant said the utility needed a guaranteed source of funding over at least a five-year period, otherwise it would not be held "accountable".

But the Government has yet to commit to funding the utility beyond 2018, and there is a need to spend 13.5bn over the longer-term upgrading the network.

"We have to work on the basis that our five-year plans, which are approved by the Government, will attract committed funding at the appropriate time," Mr Grant said. "If we say we're going to deliver all these things and outcomes, and the money doesn't come through, there's really no accountability on us.

"The point I'm making is if at some point the funding falls off, it damages the programme but it also damages your ability to deliver because the supply chain loses confidence. We're trying to develop a supply chain to match our needs. If we can't follow through, that supply chain will disappear and go to other things."

Among the major concerns are the failure of "critical assets", many of which were built by the British and haven't been inspected or upgraded in decades.

Last week, more than 50,000 households and businesses in the north-east were left without water after an asbestos mains ruptured. Later in the week, the beach at Kilkee in Co Clare was closed to swimming after the failure of a pumping station.

"The biggest concerns have to be failure of critical assets," Mr Grant said. "We have so many old rising mains, old pipelines and plants still that the kind of serious event that we saw in the north eastyou can never rule that out.

"There are plenty of examples. Everybody knows about the Vartry system. We would be very anxious still about the pipeline between Ballymore Eustace to Saggart. We have a pipeline to Swords that fails on a regular basis. We're going to replace that, and the contract will start before the end of the year. There are many other examples."

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Failure of the Vartry Tunnel, which links the treatment plant in Co Wicklow to the Stillorgan reservoir, would leave 100,000 people in north Wicklow, including Bray and Greystones, without water.

If a pipe from the Ballymore Eustace treatment plant in Co Kildare fails, before planned additional storage and a back-up pipeline is constructed, it would leave the capital in "big trouble", he said. If repairs took longer than two days, it would result in "considerable" restrictions in the city centre.

"The main point is very few capital cities would be as reliant as we are in the greater Dublin area on one river (the Liffey) for a start, and a single pipeline from its main treatment plant."

The utility said it needs to replace some 1pc of the entire national pipe network every year at a cost of 200m. It currently spends 70m.

There is also a "huge number" of small wastewater treatment plants discharging raw sewage which will take a long time to replace, while brick sewers running under Dawson Street and Dublin city centre - most of which haven't been inspected in more than 50 years - are currently the subject of an indepth study to assess the upgrade works required.

Mr Grant was appointed in June 2016, having served as MD of RPS in Ireland and head of asset management in the utility. He says he cannot rule out problems across the network, due to the need for so much investment - at least 13.5bn over the longer term, with 3.5bn up to the end of 2021.

Upgrading drinking and wastewater treatment plants, pumping stations and other assets just to keep them operational will cost hundreds of millions of euro. In many cases, they're temporary fixes.

"It's a huge dilemma for Irish Water," Mr Grant said. "We have to balance how much upgrading we do to an old asset, because a new one has to come in the next five or 10 years.

Performance

"We can only do so many schemes in the context of a 3.5bn spend out to 2021. We're going to spend at least 500m or 600m upgrading assets to get them fit for purpose. We're hitting 300, 400 or 500 sites a year now compared with 50 a few years ago. We're stopping things from failing, and improving the performance of the broad range of assets."

He said the creation of a national water utility should have happened 20 years ago, given the pace of change in how services are delivered.

"In terms of people and capability, we're significantly down the road. We have a lot of knowledge about our assets, and have systems recording and capturing our assets and telling us the condition they're in.

"We're not as advanced in wastewater because it's much more complex. We don't know the capacity of the sewers or the condition of the sewers. Fixing that is a generational challenge of at least 20 years. But we have the basis of a utility. We're now gradually rolling out a single way of working, and developing centres of excellence."
Thomas Whelan, who died in a crash in Southill on Saturday night Photo: Press 22

A man who died in a motorbike crash was on bail appealing an 11-month jail sentence for leaving the scene of a fatal road accident in which a passenger fell out of his car before being struck by an oncoming vehicle.

Thomas Whelan (25) died after his motorcycle crashed at O'Malley Park, Southill, in Limerick, at about 7.40pm on Saturday.

It was the second fatal motorcycle crash in the city within a 10-minute period.

At 7.30pm on Saturday, a Polish man aged in his 50s was killed after his motorcycle crashed at Quinn's Cross Roundabout, Mungret.

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Obstacle

Responding to the first incident at O'Malley Park, paramedics discovered Whelan with critical injuries after his bike hit an obstacle in the estate. He was thrown from the bike and suffered serious injuries and died shortly after at University Hospital Limerick.

Whelan, a father of three who had had addresses at Moyross, Upper Gerald Griffin Street, and O'Malley Park, had more than 180 convictions.

He was jailed on July 7 for 11 months after he was found guilty of leaving the scene of a road accident in which his friend Tony O'Brien died.

Mr O'Brien had fallen from a Toyota Avensis which gardai alleged was being driven by Whelan. Mr O'Brien fell into the N69 road and was struck by an oncoming BMW.

Separately, in the early hours of yesterday morning, a motorcyclist in Dublin was killed and a pillion passenger was left seriously injured. It happened at 2.20am on the Old Cabra Road, Dublin 7.

The rider, Jesus Gomez (35), from Navan Road, was pronounced dead at the scene. The passenger, a man in his 40s, was taken to the Mater Hospital, gardai confirmed.

Latest figures from An Garda Siochana show there have been 15 road deaths in July, with 92 deaths in total so far this year.

Last year, July was the worst month in terms of deaths on Irish roads with 21 of the 187 fatalities for the year occurring.
There were a total of 7,167 homeless adults and children in emergency accommodation across Ireland in January. (Stock photo)

Dr Niall Muldoon, Ombudsman for Children, highlights the impact of the housing crisis on children.

Last week an investigation published by the Ombudsman for Childrens Office (OCO) outlined the case of a mother and her children who were homeless for almost two years after leaving a domestic violence situation.

The family stayed in a range of emergency accommodation, much of which was completely unsuitable for anyone, never mind children.

There were blood-stained mattresses, cramped conditions, no cooking or play facilities and the family were at times exposed to the mothers ex-partner or his friends and she was admitted to A&E as a result of one of these encounters.

This particular case highlights the need for specific provisions to be made for women and children experiencing domestic violence.

A recent study by Paula Mayock showed that 42 percent of homeless people in Ireland are women and 70 percent of those have children. Many of these women became homeless due to domestic abuse.

As the Domestic Violence Bill moves through the Dail, this is an opportune time to protect these women and to put in place measures that support the victims of domestic abuse to stay in their own home, with their children. A situation where a mother and her children are homeless for almost two years as they seek a safe environment is simply not acceptable.

As well as exposing the individual challenges faced by victims of domestic abuse in the housing system, this case also shines a light on more basic systemic failings.

The fact that national quality standards for emergency accommodation have been in development for almost ten years, yet have still not been implemented is a farce. Where is the urgency? Where is the political will?

50 million was spent in 2016 to provide emergency accommodation for approximately 900 families in Dublin. That is a lot of money, it is taxpayers money, and those who are availing of emergency accommodation should be assured of a basic standard of living whether they stay for one night, one month or one year.

Standards in emergency accommodation that are sensitive to the specific needs of children and families are absolutely essential, particularly in light of the new family hubs. These standards must be independently monitored and sanctions should be enforced where any emergency accommodation fails to meet the standards set.

Rebuilding Ireland, launched just over a year ago recognised the specific needs of children and families, and committed to moving them out of hotels and B&Bs, which are unsuitable for family living.

I very much welcomed the recognition of children in this policy and while the new family hubs are a good first step for families, we must remember that they still represent emergency accommodation.

The Government has invested heavily in family hubs to ensure that children and their families who become homeless can live a somewhat normal life, but this must be a temporary measure. Legislation in the UK puts a limit of three months on emergency accommodation. The Irish government should consider taking similar steps. Any risk that family hubs could become the temporary solution Direct Provision was 17 years ago must be eradicated.

It is a sad fact, reflected in this case and many others we see regularly, that children are not sufficiently considered in housing policy and legislation; their needs are secondary and their views are totally absent.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has noted the profound impact the lack of adequate housing can have on children as it impairs their access to basic services such as health care and education. We see this again and again in complaints to the OCO.

Delays in decision making have a direct and disproportionate effect on children and their development. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has called for all procedures and processes relating to children to be prioritised and completed in the shortest time possible.

When Ireland signed up to the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child 25 years ago, we committed to ensuring that childrens best interests are a primary consideration in all actions and decisions affecting them. This does not only mean in the outcome but in how decisions are made.

Can we honestly say that childrens best interests are given the necessary level of consideration when it comes to housing?

We are in the midst of a housing crisis. The story of this women and her children who escaped domestic violence only to become homeless joins a list of many others that we have heard over the past few years.

An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, stated only last week that the housing crisis will not be dealt with in the lifetime of this government. This is a devastating blow to the 2,700 children and their families who are homeless in Ireland and who are depending on the Government, housing agencies and local authorities for solutions.

We do not know yet what long term effect living in emergency accommodation will have on children, but I am certain that there will be an effect.

Every child has the right to an adequate home, every child has a right to safety and every child has a right to develop and to thrive. Those who develop housing policy and legislation can no longer ignore their obligation to protect and promote all of these rights.

Read the OCO housing investigation in full here.
An investigation has been launched after an Irish father was found dead in Colombia.

The Irish Sun reported on Sunday that Dubliner Joe Moore was found with his hands tied, face down in a river in the city of Caldas.

His body was discovered on May 2 but it took a month before he could be identified through the tattoos on his body, including the word 'Ireland' on his back.

The newspaper reports that Mr Moore is from Ballyfermot in Dublin.

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He had been living in Spain for a number of years and his family in Ireland were unaware that he had travelled to Colombia.

A source told the newspaper: "Packie lived his own life in Spain and would come back to Dublin regularly, his family had no idea he was in Colombia.

It's reported that police in Colombia are treating the killing as gangland murder.

It's unclear why Mr Moore had been in the South American country.

A death notice posted on RIP.ie by his family read: Moore, Joseph (Joe). May 2nd 2017. Late of Kylemore Road, Ballyfermot."

He is described as a "beloved dad" and a "loving son".

"Sadly missed by his loving son, daughters, mother, brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces, grandchildren, extended family and friends.

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs said: "We are aware of this case and are providing consular assistance."

Caldas is located 21 kilometres to the south of Medellin.
A photo of the rescue effort in Wareham. Photo: Barnstable Sheriffs Office

A photo of the rescue effort in Wareham. Barnstable Sheriffs Office

A photo of the rescue effort in Wareham. Photo: Barnstable Sheriffs Office

An Irish boy has died after the boat he was travelling in capsized in Massachusetts last week.

The youngster, named as Harry O'Connor from Clonmel, Co Tipperary, had been travelling with a group of 12 people, including his parents, on a 23-foot Four Winns Bowrider when the vessel capsized near Hog Island channel on Wednesday.

Local website WCVB reports that the Harry (8) was underwater for around 24 minutes before he was rescued.

Professional diver Michael Margulis had just surfaced from a dive in the area when the incident happened and pulled the boy from underneath the boat.

Margulis said he was able to spot the boy because of his life jacket.

The Boston Globe is reporting that the youngster was taken from the scene in Wareham to Boston Children's Hospital.

But tragically he lost his fight for life on Saturday.

Anne Wilson, a local schools superintendent, expressed condolences in a district wide e-mail on Sunday afternoon. The family are from Poulnaganogue, Clonmel and Harry was in third grade at Nixon Elementary School.

She wrote: Nothing compares to the grief and sadness of losing a child.

While the family is the most impacted, many others share in the profound sadness of this tragic event.

The Tipperary Nationalist is reporting that Harry lived in Sudbury, Boston, with his parents Paudie O'Connor and Laura Lenehan and siblings Ellen, Charlie and Joe.

The family are expected to return to Ireland and funeral arrangements will be announced later.
Enda Kenny spent his last night in office singing Beatles tunes, according to American tourists who met the former Taoiseach in a Dublin pub before he resigned.

Writing for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Ruth Stoolman recounted how she and her husband spent an hour and half in private conversation with the former Fine Gael leader.

Ms Stoolman was visiting a popular pub in Dublin with her husband to hear some local musicians on their last night in the country.

She said her husband spotted the then Taoiseach celebrating his last night in office with a group of young aides.

They introduced themselves and were met with a warm welcome.

I expected a quick hello, a handshake, and possibly a photo. Nearly an hour and a half later, we were still there, in a private conversation with the prime minister of Ireland, Ms Stoolman said.

Ms Stoolman described Mr Kenny as "charming and educated".

He was so easy to talk to, witty and funny. He was genuinely interested in our lives and our trip. At one point, I almost forgot who he was and was simply enjoying joking with an amiable Irishman, she said.

She said they spoke about the importance of family and following your dreams and the Taoiseach recited from Yeats poetry and quoted American President John F. Kennedys moon mission speech.

Robert asked if he was writing a book. (Absolutely not, he said.) And yes, we talked politics. We even sang a few Beatles tunes, she added.

Ms Stoolman said she found the whole experience "surreal".
The number of people forced to retire at 65 years of age - but not entitled to a pension until 66 - is soaring.

New figures show that 5,000 older people are now in this 'no man's land' when it comes to social welfare entitlements.

They are obliged to sign for the dole and formally pretend they are "available for work" until they qualify for the old-age pension 12 months after being forced out of the workplace.

Fianna Fail welfare spokesman Willie O'Dea says the numbers left in this position will continue to grow as the Irish population ages.

The problem will be compounded by the raising of the pension age to 67 in four years' time, and a further rise to 68 inside a decade.

Fianna Fail is now pushing for the abolition of compulsory retirement at 65, allowing people the option of working on if they wish and are able to do so.

Mr O'Dea argues this is part of an overdue multi-pronged approach to tackling Ireland's "pension time-bomb".

"It is high time for action on the pensions issue. There are many people in jobs where they would be willing and able to continue working after the age of 65. It would not suit everyone, especially people in labouring work, but it would be a fit for many people," the Limerick City TD said.

But Mr O'Dea condemned a recent report for the Government-backed 'think tank', the Economic and Social Research Institute, which recommended raising the pension age to 70.

It is now clear that the loss of taxes from people of working age, and the accompanying rise in the pension bill, will place a huge strain on the Irish economy.

Read More

The 2016 Census showed numbers aged over 65 had grown by 100,000 over the previous five years, to a total of 640,000. The current pensions bill is put at 7.2bn, or over one-third of the entire spend on social welfare.

In 2013 the formal pension age was increased to 66 years and the so-called "retirement pension", which bridged the gap for those obliged to quit at 65, was abolished.

Instead, people in that position are now obliged to sign on the dole. From 2021 the qualification age for the old age pension will increase to 67, going to 68 by 2028.

Mr O'Dea said it was disturbing to learn that there are now 5,000 people aged over 65 signing for either unemployment assistance or unemployment benefit.

"After years of work, retired people are entitled to their dignity and a feeling that they have earned a pension. It is entirely wrong that they are put in this bogus position by the social welfare system which is poorly thought-out and uncaring."

Meanwhile, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin has said any suggestion he won't be seeking a rise in the State pension in the Budget is "disingenuous".

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said he "absolutely" plans to hike the pension next year but Mr Martin told the 'Sunday Independent' he would not say "yay or nay" on the issue.

He said the Government should focus on the area of disabilities and carers.

However, he issued a statement yesterday denying there was any dispute over pensions between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail. He said the Confidence and Supply Arrangement provided for an increase in the old-age pension over the next number of years, and claimed credit for last year's 5 increase.

"Fianna Fail wants to see pensioners looked after in Budget 2018. However, no specifics have been discussed at this stage," he said.
William Casey (9) of Galway makes his way up Croagh Patrick

Busy "time-poor" families are eating fewer meals together and spending less time together, a Catholic Archbishop has warned.

In his homily for Reek Sunday, Archbishop Michael Neary expressed concern over the negative impact of busy schedules, dual-career marriages and school activities on family life.

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Acknowledging that parents do the best they can for their children, he said families today are "relatively time-poor compared to previous generations".

Addressing some of the 7,000 people who made the ascent to the summit of Croagh Patrick in Mayo for 11am Mass on Sunday, Dr Neary also lamented that prayer for many was now confined to "socially required ceremonies such as baptisms, Communions, Confirmations, weddings and funerals".

Referring to the "sense of mystery" of Ireland's holiest mountain, he said it had been "made holy by pilgrim people down the centuries who came here carrying their pain, their poverty, their hunger and their hopes".

Amid scattered heavy showers and a low cloud ceiling, descending pilgrims told the Irish Independent that the traditional Reek Sunday climb was a hard slog and not for the faint-hearted.

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A total of 13 people sustained injuries and were evacuated off the mountain yesterday. The most serious incident involved a 70-year-old man who suffered a heart attack and was airlifted to Galway Hospital.
Claudia Winkelman (centre) and Vanessa Feltz (right) were mentioned in a column by Kevin Myers (left)

Controversial columnist Kevin Myers has been dropped from the 'Sunday Times' and the newspaper forced to apologise for causing "offence to Jewish people" after a piece he wrote was deemed to be anti-Semitic.

Frank Fitzgibbon, editor of the 'Sunday Times Ireland', said the column "contained views that have caused considerable distress and upset to a number of people". He further confirmed that Mr Myers will "not write again for the 'Sunday Times Ireland'" after the column published yesterday morning.

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Gideon Falter, chair of the UK-based Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, welcomed the move, noting "we've been contacted by people today who are utterly disgusted".

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The organisation has also lodged formal complaints with the Press Council of Ireland and the Office of Press Ombudsman as well as its UK counterpart, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO).

Mr Falter said the "utterly vile" column used offensive stereotypes about Jews, and it was "beyond surprising to read something like this in a national newspaper in 2017".

The 'Sunday Times' will publish a full apology in its next edition after removing the column from its website yesterday.

Mr Fitzgibbon said in a statement: "As the editor of the Ireland edition, I take full responsibility for this error of judgment. This newspaper abhors anti-Semitism and did not intend to cause offence to Jewish people."

His UK counterpart Martin Ivens, editor of the 'Sunday Times', said that Mr Myers's comments were "unacceptable and should not have been published".

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He added: "It has been taken down and we sincerely apologise for both the remarks and the error of judgment that led to publication."

The 'Sunday Times' column appeared in the newspaper's Comment section yesterday with the headline 'Sorry ladies - equal pay has to be earned'.

Amid the ongoing discussion on the gender pay controversy, Mr Myers wrote that BBC presenters Claudia Winkleman and Vanessa Feltz, "two of the best paid women presenters in the BBC with whose, no doubt, sterling work I am tragically unacquainted - are Jewish".

He added: "Good for them. Jews are not generally noted for their insistence on selling their talent for the lowest possible price, which is the most useful measure there is of inveterate, lost-with-all-hands stupidity. I wonder, who are their agents?"

Horrified

Ms Feltz was reported to be "absolutely horrified by this" while the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism yesterday asked for confirmation that Mr Myers would never again work for another title owned by News UK, which publishes the Irish and UK editions of the 'Sunday Times' as well as the 'Irish Sun' and its UK editions.

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The article also controversially questioned why only one woman is among the top 10 best paid presenters at the BBC.

"Now why is this?" Mr Myers asked.

"Is it because men are more charismatic performers? Because they work harder? Because they are more driven? Possibly a bit of both," he said.

He also claimed the HR department at the BBC "will probably tell you that men usually work harder, get sick less frequently and seldom get pregnant ... But most of all, men tend to be more ambitious: they have that greyback testosterone-powered, hierarchy-climbing id that feminised and egalitarian-obsessed legislatures are increasingly trying to legislate against".

The controversy, however, did not stop Mr Myers from appearing in a panel discussion yesterday at the inaugural West Cork History Festival in Clonakilty.

He was a panellist discussing the commemoration of Irish soldiers who fought in World War I.

Among his co-panellists was Rabbi Julia Neuberger, one of the first women in the UK to become a rabbi.

Rabbi Neuberger, who is a senior rabbi at the West London Synagogue, is also a member of the House of Lords and a high-profile writer and commentator.

Despite the controversy, she sat alongside Mr Myers during the panel discussion. However, Mr Myers did not address the controversy over his column during the event.

Meanwhile, an article by Mr Myers published in the 'Irish Independent' on March 4, 2009, is no longer available online as it does not comply with our editorial ethos.

The article on the Holocaust was removed on July 30, 2017 after its existence was brought to our attention.
Waiting times for cases to be heard before Ireland's anti-terror courts almost halved last year, a report revealed.

The judge-only Special Criminal Court deals with organised or paramilitary-related violence in cases where it is too risky to use a jury.

Much of the judges' focus is on cases involving alleged dissident republicans.

A second court was established in April last year to help clear a backlog of trials.

Retiring Chief Justice Susan Denham said: "The [Courts] Service worked hard to help with the establishment of the second Special Criminal Court, which led to a reduction in waiting times from two years to 15 months."

The court, which sits with three judges but no jury, deals with terrorist or organised criminal groups where jurors may be intimidated.

A total of 60 cases were received in 2016, and 67 were resolved.

Most of the cases involved membership of an illegal organisation or possession of firearms or explosives.

Two murder suspects were received into the system for trial. A total of 45 people were imprisoned. Among those dealt with by the court last year was Thomas 'Slab' Murphy.

The republican from Ballybinaby, Hackballscross, Co Louth, was found guilty of nine charges last year and imprisoned for 18 months.

The three-judge court was established in 1972 by then minister for justice Des O'Malley at the height of the Northern Ireland Troubles. It dealt mainly with activities of the Provisional IRA and INLA.

The judges also heard trials linked to John Gilligan's drugs gang.

Feuding organised crime gangs have been blamed for a series of murders in recent times in the capital.

Plans for the establishment of a second court were met with widespread criticism from human rights groups due to the absence of a jury.

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said before last year's Dail elections the party would abolish the Special Criminal Court.
Mother of all holidays: Seth Rogen and his screen mum Barbra Streisand in The Guilt Trip

It's unmistakable - the look of pity in people's eyes when you tell them that you, an adult woman, are going on holiday with your parents.

Typically it's followed with an unconvincing 'that'll be nice', a nose wrinkle and then a joke about your parents picking up the tab. "Well at least it won't cost you an arm and a leg."

And I get it. I was exactly the same until last year when I found myself sorely missing travel buddies.

Pals were either too broke or had selfishly decided to go travelling with their spouse instead of me. Rude.

Three weeks on my own was too daunting, and so I admitted defeat and scuttled along to my mother's and asked her to go away with me.

She agreed and then five days later my dad decided he would tag along too.

In the lead up to the holidays I started getting anxious - 21 days was an awfully long time to spend with your parents and I wondered if I would make it through the holiday without murdering them in their sleep.

But as soon as I reached the airport I realised travelling with your parents as an adult is actually the business. And the sooner you realise it the better.

Of course there has to be a sufficient time lapse between the adult family trip and your teenage and childhood family holidays.

You need that break; a few years when you do the sixth year vacation to Magaluf, or the backpacking trip around Thailand, or the post break-up gals holiday to Dubrovnik when you drink a whole bottle of discount limoncello and spend three days with your head down a toilet.

But once those bucket-list holidays are crossed off the list, you can return to the joy of family holidays. Over the course of our holiday in Mexico we spent weeks eating guacamole, swimming, and sunbathing.

We went on a sea safari and saw manatees having sex (a little awkward for everyone, especially the manatees), we went on a cantina tour in Merida, and we spent plenty of time psychoanalysing every single member of our extended family. It was ace.

Of course, there are downsides; holiday romances are off the cards (unless you like chatting people up in front of your folks in which case, get thee to a therapist).

They also get up early, move slower and can on occasion point out insurmountable flaws in your character that will lead to you suffering an existential crisis. It's also highly likely that your mother will get drunk and emotional and recall giving birth to you.

And contrary to popular opinion, it will not be less expensive than other holidays. Your mam and dad are at a stage in their lives where they should be enjoying the good things. Unless you are the sort of person who prides themselves on scrounging off your parents, this will bump up the cost of your holiday. On the plus side, you will drink some very, very nice wine. But the pros far outweigh the cons.

Firstly, there is zero stress or consideration about getting 'beach ready'.

These are your parents and they therefore have to love you and your cellulite-ridden body unconditionally.

Also Irish mammies are walking pharmacies who sweat Sudocrem. No matter what happens to you on holiday, your mother will always have the remedy. Blister plasters, aftersun, eye drops, ear unblockers, codeine - whatever you need she is your handy holiday Dr Quinn Medicine Woman and will look after you.

Parents are also infinitely more organised than you and will remember all the important stuff like boarding passes and currency exchange rates.

You will unearth long-forgotten family gossip and finally understand why your aunt Pauline walks like that.

Plus, you'll stockpile an arsenal of "you won't believe what dad did then" stories to tell your siblings.

Unlike your childhood holidays which can all blur together, you will remember these memories and treasure them the older you get.

Yes, you will fight a lot but you will probably laugh a good deal more and for that alone, it's worth it.

Myth about jellyfish and pee will leave sting in the tail

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Not one, but two, fundamental medical truths were up-ended this week.

On Thursday, we heard that contrary to what every doctor in the history of medicine has told patients, you should not, I repeat, should not finish a full course of antibiotics.

Apparently all it does is make your body immune to the medicine. How's that for a kick in the teeth?

It was followed by news that the traditional first-aid treatment of peeing on jellyfish stings is nothing but a pack of lies.

Accordingly to Dr Tom Doyle, lecturer in zoology at NUI Galway, the 'cure' has remained a popular solution thanks to that episode of Friends.

"It definitely didn't help," Dr Doyle said.

"I don't know anyone who has actually tried this method, but I can confidently say that it doesn't work."

Dr Doyle also said an episode of Running Wild with Bear Grylls in which former Spice Girl Mel B urinated on Grylls' hand led to further confusion.

"He got one of the Spice Girls to pee on himThis was just done for TV and drama and didn't actually make things better," he said.

Dr Doyle is right; it did make for compulsive viewing - afterwards Mel and Bear killed and then ate the jellyfish in some sort of bizarre ritualistic practise.

The incident even earned Scary Spice the nickname 'Mel Pee' but Bear later admitted it "wasn't the miracle cure we'd hoped for".

I am sad to hear that this natural remedy is nothing but a ruse - I quite enjoyed the idea of people all over Ireland urinating on their nearest and dearest in moments of blind panic. But our man in the field, Dr Doyle, says the answer is much simpler.

"All you need is some vinegar and lots of hot water."

Sounds great. Just one slight problem - does anyone pack a bottle of Sarsons Malt Vinegar and a kettle when heading to the beach? Didn't think so.

TOPS

Try-hards

Being nonchalant no longer cuts it. Think big, think bold, think Celine Dion.

icEclairs

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Chocolate eclairs filled with soft-serve ice cream. Like a much fancier Iceberger.

FLOPS

Emoji speak

According to linguistics expert Vyvyan Evans, you can now be fluent in emoji. \_( )_/

Dimpleplasty

New plastic-surgery trend to give you identikit dimples to Kate Middleton/Miranda Kerr/Harry Styles

SAY WHAT?

Were not all drinking lattes and getting taxis, we run a tight ship

2FM boss Dan Healy defends RTE stars salaries
Derek Mooney and Blathnaid Ni Chofaigh are deep in discussion. "The last time I spoke to Mattress Mick was just before Gay Pride in Dublin," says Derek. "He said to me, 'I have been asked to put a float into the Gay Pride March. What do you think?' I said to him, 'Absolutely. But do your van up and on one side of it just have two bunk beds - with you laying on the top bunk saying: 'Mattress Mick always on top!'" the RTE broadcaster laughs.

"I remember Katherine Lynch when she was slagging Mattress Mick on her show," Blathnaid says. "I actually thought he was a guy doing stand-up, and then I realised he was for real. I am intrigued by him."

"I was the first person to interview him on radio. I thought he was fabulously entertaining," says the similarly fabulously entertaining Mr Mooney.

Proof of the dynamic diversity at work here this morning in the Westbury hotel is it isn't long before the discussion switches from Mattress Mick to mortality.

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"I just remember a funny incident," says Derek. "I shouldn't be laughing. Eight years ago, my brother David, who had cancer, was dying... he was in Vincent's hospital and we were in this room and it was a Sunday and he died on the next day.

"Everyone was called in over the weekend because he was going, he wasn't going, he was going. But anyway, we were all there and my mother was sitting at the side of the bed. I said, 'Mum, it's time to go but you can come back again tomorrow."

"Is this on again tomorrow?" she asked her famous son who had presented everything from You're A Star to Winning Streak for seven years.

"We all roared laughing and my brother is on the bed going [Derek does the sound of poor David gasping]. "But we don't know whether he heard us because they say the hearing is the last thing to go. He died the next day. My mother died on a Monday too, five or six years ago."

Five months after his mum, Margaret, who had Alzheimer's died, Derek had a vivid dream about her. "I was holding this little girl's hand who was dressed like she was coming from school. Yet her face was like The Scream, the Munch painting. I am bringing her along and I go up to this woman who I have never seen in my life. Never. And I know who she is: it is my mother's mother. She said to me, 'It's OK. I'll take her now.'"

Derek says that when his mother passed away he was "glad to see her go in the end. That sounds like a horrible thing but she was suffering. I would be straight off to Dignitas", he says referring to the controversial Swiss organisation which offers assisted/accompanied suicide to their members suffering with terminal illnesses. "If I'm ill - get me on a plane!"

"I would have my dad back tomorrow," says Blathnaid, whose father died, aged 70, on August 3, 2008, of a stroke. "He couldn't talk. He couldn't walk. I would still like to have him back - nursing him. I became Dad's nurse. I loved having that role," says Blathnaid, crying.

From eccentric bedding support salesmen to death and assisted suicide to tears, Derek Mooney and Blathnaid Ni Chofaigh are no ordinary pair of characters to spend an hour or two with. There is certainly much chemistry between them.

Blathnaid: "I was born in November, 1970."

Derek: "I was born in March 1967, unfortunately. The big hit on the day I was born was Please Release Me."

Blathnaid: "Jesus!"

Derek: "A friend of mine said that it's not the kind of song you want played as the first dance at your wedding!"

Derek seems to have been at RTE since the beginning of time. "I've been at RTE since I've been 15!"

How did he get into RTE at 15? "I slept with everybody," he laughs. "I stayed awake with the important ones!

"I'm from Donnybrook, and I never wanted to do anything else. I used to knock on the door and drive them mad. I used to call a guy called Joe O'Donnell, who was acting head of young people's programmes. He was in charge of Bosco and I used to drive him mad. He told me to come up and he would let me have a look around. They were making Bosco."

Was that what drew him to Titian-haired goddess of Montrose, Blathnaid Ni Chofaigh? "His penchant for redheads!" laughs Ginger (extra) Spice herself Blathnaid.

"My destiny!" Del Boy, now 50, laughs. "But I was kind of mesmerised by this thing," he says meaning television, not Blathnaid (even though she has more than made her mark on the telly presenting shows like The Afternoon Show, Charity ICA Bootcamp as well as being a judge on The All Ireland Talent Show).

Derek and Blathnaid met for the first time in the old library building in RTE in 1994. They were soon co-presenting young people's programme Echo Island. More than 20 years later they are back co-presenting and will be on the airwaves on Saturday mornings (10am-11am) for the month of August on RTE Radio 1.

"I have been doing my Raidio na Gaeltachta show for two years," says Blathnaid. "We just got three awards. This show will be great. We will have people on of interest, not necessarily profiles, that will bring a discussion to it..."

"There are too many celebs on the TV and radio. I'm not interested in that," says Derek, whose Dawn Chorus radio show has become something of an institution. He recalls RTE department head and legend Kevin Linehan, who died recently. "He was always very good to me. Another thing about Kevin was he would give you a hug when men wouldn't hug men. They were afraid of gay men."

Blathnaid: "I remember Kevin said to me once about co-presenters, 'You don't need to be best friends with your co-presenter'. Then I remember after Season 1 of Echo Island, he said, 'It seems to have worked out for you two!'"

"I think you do have to be friendly with them," says Derek, meaning his co-presenters. "I have seen it a million times on TV and radio - they don't know each other and they don't care about each other. I am not fancying Blathnaid, I am not trying to get her into bed. Straight away if I am working with a woman they know that is not the case. So Blathnaid and I have a more honest and open relationship from day one," he says. "I think you have to know the person. You have to know how far you can go when you're co-presenting. You have to be generous enough to shut up and let them have their opinions."

"I think Kevin's point was - 'Don't expect to be best friends'," says Blathnaid. "Because when you are co-presenting 24/7 with someone they know everything about you. Everything."

Derek: "I drove her to the hospital when she was having the baby." "He did - on Sile!" Blathnaid laughs, referring to her daughter with her husband Ciaran Byrne (They are also have sons Peadar, Comhghal and Darach.) "You know what Derek did to me?" asks a laughing Blathnaid.

Derek: "I left her at the door and I didn't go in." Blathnaid, warming to the theme: "You know what he did to me? I had contractions. He had a lovely red Audi at the time and I was sitting in the front seat. It was my first child. I was 26. Imagine how scared I was. He opened the door and said, 'There you go', and he gave me a hoosh because I couldn't get out. Then he drove off."

Derek: "I wasn't having any of the baby stuff. But the point was we actually know each other. She is a real person. There are so many dull people on radio and television. Fact. Because they are more concerned with looking fantastic than doing what they're there to do. Since I was a kid, I wanted to present like a fella who wanted to be a train driver. I didn't want to be famous. I just wanted to be a presenter."

Did he ever want to do anything else? "When I was younger I thought I might have been a guard. I remember having a conversation with a guard in Donnybrook about standing outside buildings for hours that no one is ever going to attack. I kind of went off it." Derek's primary school was, he recalls, "right at the back of RTE. I would see Gay a few times", he says meaning that the apparition of the godfather of Irish television Gaybo fuelled Derek's early ambition to be on the box himself. If Derek was lying on the couch with the godfather of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud what would he want to know about his inner self? "I've seen a picture of Freud. I wouldn't be lying on a couch with him. There's a most unattractive man."

Blathnaid: "When you're a mother you constantly analyse yourself through your mothering. Am I doing right by them and have they your bad habits or your good habits?"

Does Derek have dark nights of the soul? "No is the answer to that question. I don't believe I have a soul. I am not a religious man at all."

Derek is currently watching El Chapo, the bloody drama on Netflix about Mexican drug-king Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. This benefits the RTE star because he is learning Spanish on Monday and Wednesday evenings. "So, I am watching El Chapo and watching the subtitles to try to get the sound of the accent right."

Why Spanish? Does he have a Spanish boyfriend? "I don't have a Spanish anything. I don't have a boyfriend, and I don't have a Spanish one. I just wanted to learn a language. I don't even go to Spain. I just wanted to learn Spanish."

Derek says, "I used to think I would be at RTE all my life. I don't think that any more. I don't think I am one of their favourites. Clearly I'm not because I am not on television and radio and I want to be. There are others who are given opportunities. I am not."

I ask him why he thinks he is not their - RTE management - favourite. "I'm not on telly. I'm not on radio. Wouldn't that be the answer to that?"

In 2009 with Ireland in the grim grip of recession, Derek offered to take a salary cut. "I think if people who were on big salaries weren't prepared to take a pay cut at that time, shame on them," Derek said a full week before Niamh Horan's piece in the Sunday Independent about the gender-pay gap at RTE caused some reflection in Montrose. "I was one of the first people who took it. I know that for a fact. I was on very big money at the time. I am not on the same money as I was then. I don't do telly any more. I don't do the radio show that I used to do any more."

In December, 2014, he left his afternoon show on Radio 1. "That was absolutely my decision. I just needed a break from it." Does he regret it? "Yes, completely, I regret that decision. I should have just taken a break."

Does Derek think when he 'came out' it changed people's perceptions of him?

"I was never in. I never came out because I was never in. I never went out with girls. I never pretended to be straight. I have been in RTE since I have been 14, 15, on and off, and I never, ever, ever pretended to be straight in any of that time.

"If anyone ever asked me... in fact, if you think back to the time where I was supposedly 'outed' on another station [by] Des Bishop." [He refers to the April 2006 incident on Ray D'Arcy's show on Today FM when the American comedian's jokes pitched Derek's sexuality into the public realm.] "If you read Brendan O'Connor in the Sunday Independent, he wrote, or words to the effect: 'What's this about coming out? Derek Mooney has always been honest about his sexuality'. Whether it changed people's perceptions about it being well-known publicly or not - tough if they changed their perceptions."

Blathnaid: "Most people knew. I remember the time of the hoo-ha and some members of the public saying, 'Oh, Derek's gay?' and I went, 'Oh, yeah'. As his friend, I didn't see that it made much difference."

Derek: "Well, I think whether it made a difference you don't know, because you never know what people are thinking. You might have a guy in your job who doesn't like you because he doesn't like the look of you. People pick on weaknesses, whether you walk with a limp, whether you've long hair or whether you're gay or straight."

"But sometimes your strongest characteristic is turned to be your weakness," says Blathnaid. "People will say to me, 'Oh, you're so honest about yourself'. But when they don't like that it turns into something else..."

Suddenly you're a bitch?

"Yeah, because I have something to say," says Blathnaid, who has never held back her opinions on anything - least of all at times about her employers at RTE. [She can't discuss it, when I ask her subsequently, about the gender-pay gap in RTE: "No quotes, sorry all stopped here," she texted me on Tuesday morning having told me on Monday that she will give me quotes on the issue for my Tuesday deadline.]

"They are all over you when they like what you're saying. But then if I say something, I'm 'feisty Blathnaid'. If I was a man would they refer to me as being feisty? It baffles me. We should look at the way we refer to different genders and sexual orientation."

What adjectives would Derek use to describe Blathnaid? "Many!" he answers. "She is what she is. She is a friend of mine."

Does he have many friends? "No. I don't." (Derek was best man at Alan Hughes and Karl Broderick's wedding in 2011 at the Mansion House.)

What does he love about Blathnaid? "I think she's an excellent broadcaster. I know there is a touch of Marmite about both of us. There's a touch of Marmite about everybody. That's life. I just like Blathnaid. She is fairly straightforward."

What does she love about Derek? "I love Derek's loyalty. I always laugh when I leave a message for Derek and he rings me: 'What's up?' There doesn't necessarily need to be anything up but he is always looking out for me.

"I love that he checks in on me and I love that I have a cry with him."

The Mooney Show With Derek & Blathnaid, Saturdays at 10am on RTE Radio 1
In the lifetime of this 'do-nothing Dail', you'd think the most common complaint from the voting public would be about the inadequacies of the legislative process, the archaic nature of the proceedings or even the failure of ministers to answer questions.

You'd be wrong.

The most common written complaint received by the Ceann Comhairle's office in the past year related to dresscode, with the obvious suspects receiving much of the criticism.

The language used by the ordinary members of the public includes "contemptuous", "degrading" and "an embarrassment to the people of Ireland".

In the broader scheme of things, particularly in the wake of the economic crisis and the inherent failings of our elected representatives which it highlighted, there are arguably more pressing matters.

However, the correspondence to Ceann Comhairle Sean O Fearghail does reflect the deep respect many people have for our national parliament.

There is a consciousness of the importance of democratic institutions, the sacrifices made by many to ensure we live in a free country and an awareness of the traditions attached to the House.

Mr O Fearghail believes the boat sailed on the issue of the dresscode as it wasn't addressed in 2011. He's probably right. He is bringing in a new 'code of behaviour' which will restrict TDs from wearing clothing with campaign slogans.

Although there is some opposition to the move, the Ceann Comhairle must persevere.

If the members of Dail Eireann do not show some respect to Dail Eireann, then why should the public show them and it respect?

No answer to the obvious question of water debate

The people of Drogheda, Louth and east Meath quite rightly argued last week that if the water outage afflicting them at the time had occurred in Dublin, the response would have been far quicker.

Certainly, one can expect it wouldn't have taken the relevant minister, Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy, five days to turn up if it was happening on his doorsteps in the leafy suburbs of south county Dublin.

Nobody wants to see that water outage replicated elsewhere. Therefore, the warning from Irish Water managing director Jerry Grant about the water supply in the capital will be taken seriously.

Mr Grant says Dublin's supply is at risk due to crumbling pipes and the failure of a single mains could cause chaos in the city centre and result in widespread restrictions.

Irish Water has also warned that a sewer system which hasn't been inspected in more than 50 years could also collapse, which would stop the flow of wastewater from the northside to the southside of the River Liffey.

On a national level, Mr Grant said the utility needs to replace some 1pc of the entire national pipe network every year at a cost of 200m. In other words, the water charges refunds at a cost of 170m will result in a full year's replacement work not being undertaken.

Despite going on now for nearly five years, the water charges 'debate' has still not thrown up an answer to the obvious question: where is the money going to come from to upgrade our out-of-date water network?
The Taoiseach's comments on Friday that it was not his Government's job to find a solution to a hard border presumably indicate his Government's frustration with the UK's approach to Brexit negotiations. However, he is wrong.

We know that we don't want an economic border. But we also know that the EU by definition requires borders. We have to find a solution and ensure it is adopted. It's not up to the British. Far from it. It's up to us. If left to the British they will use the border problem as a negotiating chip in the overall Brexit negotiations. We're not doing it for them. We're doing it for ourselves because it's only really us that the land border affects.

We cannot presume the EU will do right by us. We were promised by the EU that Irish banks would be recapitalised. A significant part of the bailout was going to be taken over by the other member states through the ESM. We were going to be given priority and treated as a special case. Sounded great, but didn't happen.

We already know that Brexit is not that significant for the majority of the other EU states. For that reason it is essential that Ireland devise the solution and ensure that the EU negotiators adopt it as the preferred solution.

We cannot rely on the DUP to devise a solution. It will not veto or dictate the UK negotiating position. Its raison d'etre is to secure the union. How better to do that than to have a hard border with the Republic and to hell with the consequences.

Instead of talking about what others have to do, Leo and his Government need to ensure a solution by us. We cannot simply expect the best solution to evolve through negotiations. We have to devise it; create it and own it.

Sean Mahon

Co Roscommon

Don't block little rays of sunshine

I had a banana ice cream at work last week. The kind where you put a slice between two wafers. It had gone soft in the heat, so when I ate, it squished out the sides a bit and of course over my cheeks. Grins all round from my colleagues. Messy, unpredictable, joyful. The ice cream was in aid of Down Syndrome Ireland - a wonderful organisation doing wonderful work for wonderful people who help bring the wonder out in us.

As I thought about this, I began to realise that a significant and sobering cloud is on the horizon in this country, one that will prevent a lot of sunshine. One of the proven consequences of the legalisation of abortion in many countries is that these children are being systematically and deliberately eliminated from society when they are aborted following pre-natal screening. Ninety per cent of babies diagnosed with the condition in the womb are aborted in the UK. In Iceland, there are almost no children with Down syndrome being born, the Netherlands is rapidly following suit, and the trend is continuing in that direction.

Everyone has a purpose and everyone is meaningful in the lives of those around them. Some serve and bring joy. Some need to be served and draw joy out of us. Life is messy, unpredictable and surprisingly joyful. The surprise often comes when we give life a chance.

Ending the life of a baby in the womb simply because he or she is diagnosed with Down syndrome in a very real way robs us all of the unexpected meaning of our lives. It prevents us from being surprised by joy. Surely we can see that the path of choice is the path of further choices that deliberately, systematically block little rays of sunshine. Surely this is the very antithesis of the open, tolerant equal society we claim we desire?

Willie Hayes

Midleton, Co Cork

Cowen doctorate is an insult

We watched, with a mixture of incredulity and anger, as Brian Cowen - hideously togged out in the gaudy garb of a bygone era - received an honorary doctorate from the National University of Ireland.

And we wondered why was this sometimes comical and expensive extravaganza, ironically funded by the hapless taxpayer, taking place to honour someone who was at the very core of the most embarrassing and destructive period in recent Irish history?

Cowen and his Fianna Fail pals arrogantly dismissed the clear warning signs from many quarters and needlessly drove the Irish economy into bankruptcy. The consequent sundering of Irish society will be felt for generations not alone in the loss of 250,000 jobs as he admitted, but through the long-term devastating effect of mass emigration of our young, much of it irreversible. He also failed to mention the eternal heartache for thousands of families crucified by suicide, the evictions, and finally, the disgraceful and meek acceptance of the private banking gambling debts on to the backs of the Irish people.

This vulgar, meaningless and outdated knees-up will be seen as crass insult to those who suffered the ravages of ensuing austerity targeted mercilessly at the poor, the disabled and the aged. It is also a gross insult to those of us who struggled for years to earn our genuine NUI degrees, now sadly demeaned and devalued.

One can only assume that Cowen's elevation is another revisionist instalment in the rehabilitation of Fianna Fail among an electorate with an increasingly short memory.

John Leahy

Wilton Road, Co Cork

Energy levy truly shocking

I think the news that the Public Service Obligation (PSO) energy levy is to increase by 30pc, as reported by Charlie Weston ('Electricity bills to rise as 'green' levy up 30pc', Irish Independent, July 30) is truly shocking (pun intended!).

Apart from anything to do with the quantum of the increase, on which I do not have sufficient information to comment, I believe there are two fundamental points that unfairly affect energy consumers, particularly the financially vulnerable in our society.

The higher the levy the more the State's coffers gain. Why should this be? The levy is effectively a subsidy payment by energy consumers to various entities and it is inequitable for VAT to be charged on such subsidy payments; for instance VAT is not charged on grant aid subsidies provided by IDA, Enterprise Ireland or the Local Enterprise Offices.

I made the point to the Energy Regulator, as part of the public consultation process, that a flat rate charge to consumers was unfair to the financially disadvantaged and asked for it to be a pro-rata charge based on usage. To show the present unfairness I gave as an example the fact our May/June electricity bill of 217 had levy/VAT of 13.39, a content of 6.6pc of other charges; whereas somebody trying to conserve energy/cost this time of year and on the minimum usage charge/VAT of 38 was charged a massive 35pc of this for PSO levy as it was the same flat rate of 13.39. The inequity is obvious.

Michael Hayes

Tramore, Co Waterford
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, attend the Last Post ceremony, which has taken place every night since 1928, at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Ypres, Menin Gate Memorial as part of the Passchendaele commemorations

Britain's Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge meets descendants of those who fought in WW1 in Cloth Hall, Ypres for an event that will tell the story of the four years of war on the Salient July 30, 2017. REUTERS/Yui Mok/Pool

Britain's Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge and his wife Princess Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge make their way to the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate to mark the centenary of Passchendaele, The Third Battle of Ypres, in Ypres, Belgium July 30, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman

Britain's Prince William and Catherine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, watch as poppies fall from the roof of Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium for the official commemorations marking the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele July 30, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew Matthews/Pool

Britain's Prince William and Catherine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrive in Cloth Hall as they visit Market Square Ypres for an event that will tell the story of the four years of war on the Salient July 30, 2017. REUTERS/Yui Mok/Pool

Britain's Prince William and Catherine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrive in Cloth Hall as they visit Market Square Ypres for an event that will tell the story of the four years of war on the Salient July 30, 2017. REUTERS/Yui Mok/Pool

Britain's Prince William and Catherine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, watch as poppies fall from the roof of Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium for the official commemorations marking the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele July 30, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew Matthews/Pool

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, meets descendants of those who fought in World War One in Cloth Hall, Ypres for an event that will tell the story of the four years of war on the Salient, in Belgium July 30, 2017. REUTERS/Yui Mok/Pool

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrive at the Menin Gate in Ypres ahead of the Passchendaele commemoration service

The Duchess of Cambridge attends the Last Post ceremony, which has taken place every night since 1928, at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Ypres, Menin Gate Memorial as part of the Passchendaele commemorations

Prime minister Theresa May (left) and The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge watch as the poppies fall from the roof of the Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium for the official commemorations marking the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele

The Duchess of Cambridge meets descendants of those who fought in WW1 in Cloth Hall, Ypres for an event that will tell the story of the four years of war on the Salient

Britain's Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge and his wife Princess Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge make their way to the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate to mark the centenary of Passchendaele, The Third Battle of Ypres, in Ypres, Belgium July 30, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman

The Duchess of Cambridge arrives at the Menin Gate in Ypres ahead of this evening's commemoration

The Duchess of Cambridge attends the Last Post ceremony, which has taken place every night since 1928, at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Ypres, Menin Gate Memorial as part of the Passchendaele commemorations

Kate Middleton opted for understated elegance as she recycled a classic all-white ensemble for the commemorations marking the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele.

The Duchess of Cambridge and her husband Prince William (35) attended the service in London on Sunday, alongside Belgium's Queen Mathilde and King Phillipe and British Prime Minister Theresa May.

Kate relied on a trusty cream Alexander McQueen coat, a piece she has worn for significant occasions like her daughter Princess Charlotte's christening in 2015 and at the Trooping the Colour ceremony in 2016. As usual, she added a new twist to the ensebmel on this occasion - leaving behind the pale pink Philip Treacy hat she wore on the balcony of Buckingham Palace last time, instead opting for another recycled item - a Sylvia Fletcher fascinator.

Her oversized pearl earrings with diamond trim by Balenciaga unsurprisingly sold out after she was pictured in them yesterday, but there are

Expand Close Britain's Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge and his wife Princess Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge make their way to the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate to mark the centenary of Passchendaele, The Third Battle of Ypres, in Ypres, Belgium July 30, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman / Facebook

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As part of her more fashion forward makeover, Kate has been introducing new designers into her wardrobe, including a signature clutch by French accessories designer Anne Grand-Clement.

The royal couple have been keeping a low profile in the last week since returning home from their tour of Poland and Germany and celebrated their son Prince George's fourth birthday last week. They are believed to have marked the occasion with close friends and family at their Norfolk estate Amner Hall.

Expand Close Britain's Prince William and Catherine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrive in Cloth Hall as they visit Market Square Ypres for an event that will tell the story of the four years of war on the Salient July 30, 2017. REUTERS/Yui Mok/Pool / Facebook

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Whatsapp Britain's Prince William and Catherine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrive in Cloth Hall as they visit Market Square Ypres for an event that will tell the story of the four years of war on the Salient July 30, 2017. REUTERS/Yui Mok/Pool
Dundrum Town Centre Ladies Day at the Dublin Horse Show in the RDS 10th August. For more information visit dublinhorseshow.com/ladies-day. Photograph: Leon Farrell / Photocall.

With racing season in full swing, we want to give our readers the chance to mingle in style.

Independent Style has teamed up with Dundrum Town Centre to give five lucky readers a pair of tickets to attend Ladies Day at the Dublin Horse Show on Thursday, August 10.

For the second year running, Ireland's largest retail centre is back as the title sponsor of Ladies Day and the winner will be walking away with a 10,000 voucher to stores at Dundrum Town Centre.

Stylist Courtney Smith, fashion editor Bairbre Power and Dundrum Town Centre personal stylist Lorna Weightman will be judging Best Dressed Lady on the Day.

To enter, follow us on Twitter at @Indo_Style_ and let us know your favourite store at Dundrum Town Centre.

Competition closes on Friday, August 4.

Only five winners will be chosen. Terms and conditions apply.

For more details of Ladies' Day, see dundrum.ie and dublinhorseshow.com.
The designer of Princess Diana's wedding dress recalled the girly excitement of the young Lady Diana Spencer, who broke into song as she and her bridesmaids were waiting to get dressed.

Elizabeth Emanuel spent the 36th anniversary of the British royal wedding in Ireland, where many key pieces of her trousseau are on permanent exhibition.

Prince Harry has spoken out about the fun-loving side of his late mother in a documentary made with his brother William to mark the 20th anniversary of Diana's death next month.

Over dinner in Kildare last night, Elizabeth recalled how Diana's wedding party was watching TV on the morning of July 29, 1981, when an advert for ice cream came on.

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Diana started singing "Just one Cornetto", which became infectious as all of the young bridesmaids joined in. Diana was just 19 when she started going to Emanuel's salon on London's Brook Street, but she never booked appointments under her own name and used pseudonyms. "We had lots of names for her and in one diary, she was booked in as Deborah and we made up the surname Cornwall. It was very important to keep things secret so her dress went into the safe every night and we had two security guards sleeping in our salon every night."

Perhaps the best glimpse into the fun-loving streak of the young Diana was when she came to a fitting with her bridesmaids.

"She had just been roller-skating with them and we did the fittings with them all wearing their roller skates so there was lots of laughter," recalled Elizabeth, who is speaking at the Newbridge Silverware Style Icons Museum today.

The working toile of Diana's wedding dress, the petticoats in which she did test runs, a replica veil, the black 'Revenge' dress she wore on the night of her divorce and the Catherine Walker outfit she wore at the Taj Mahal in 1992 are part of the Style Museum's Diana exhibition which runs until September 30.
The instantly recognisable lines of Harry Becks London Underground map have inspired a series of subway maps for cities around the world.

And now, Becks modern mapping of London has been fused with the geography of Roman Britain to produce a tube-like network of Britains Roman roads.

University of Chicago Student Sasha Trubetskoy set about creating the map of major routes, modelled on the Empire of circa 125 AD.

Expand Close Network map of the Roman roads of Britain (Sasha Trubetskoy) / Facebook

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The impressive visualisation, which provides a fascinating look into Britains identity under the Roman empire, links major towns and cities  identified by their Latinised names.

Much like the Tube map, Trubetskoy has taken some creative liberties and simplified the shape of the routes, to highlight their connections as opposed to exact geographical locations.

But the map, which took around 20 hours to complete, required vast amounts of research from the young cartographer and self-proclaimed geography nerd, who spontaneously created it in his free time.

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Ive always been fascinated by Ancient Rome and I figured their road network would be perfect for this kind of medium, so I went for it, Trubetskoy told the Press Association.

Id seen a lot of poorly made tube-style maps on the internet, and I wanted to do better.

He added: I worked intermittently in my free time, so its hard to track hours. It took me a few weeks of on-and-off work, probably around 20 hours total.

Trubetskoy has previously mapped out the network of major roads of the Roman Empire, which span much of modern-day Europe, north Africa and the Middle East, in the same tube-style format.

Expand Close Fosse Way, linking Exeter and Lincoln, was a Roman road (David Jones/PA) / Facebook

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Around 2,000 miles of road made up the paved network in Britain, which was built to accommodate travelling troops and military supplies, as well as accelerate trade.

Some of the roads, which were constructed over four centuries between 43 AD and the Romans withdrawal in 410 AD, are still in use, while others were lost to history.

None of the original road names survived past Roman rule in Britain, as there were no written records, as Trubetskoy, a statistics student, explained on his website.

Watling Street and Ermin Way are not exactly Latin-sounding. Roman Britain was not as well documented as Italy or Spain, so there is a huge lack of written sources.

Thats why the names that we do have are actually Anglo-Saxon, and originated a few centuries after the Romans had left, he said.
Afghan security forces at the site of an attack targeting the Iraqi Embassy in Kabul (AP Photo/ Rahmat Gul)

Security forces respond at the site of a suicide attack followed by a clash between Afghanistan's forces and IS fighters during an attack on the Iraq embassy in Kabul (Massoud Hossaini/AP)

Islamic State has targeted the Iraqi embassy in Kabul, with a suicide bomber blowing himself up outside the gates, followed by three gunmen who stormed into the building.

The assault set off a four-hour firefight that ended only after Afghan security forces said they had killed all the attackers.

Interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish told reporters that two Afghan employees of the Iraq embassy died in the attack.

Three police were injured, he added.

As the attack unfolded there were conflicting reports of casualties, with a witness saying he saw the bodies of at least two policemen lying on the road outside the embassy soon after the attack began.

In its claim of responsibility, IS said its fighters had killed seven guards but the militant group often exaggerates its claims on the number of casualties inflicted.

The IS attack was probably meant to distract attention from the militants' massive losses in Iraq and Syria in recent weeks.

IS said only two of its followers were involved in the attack, not four as Kabul officials said, adding to the conflicting reports.

Earlier, Mr Danish said only one policeman was wounded and that there were no fatalities among the security forces or civilians.

He said that all the embassy staffers were safe but that the building had suffered extensive damage, with windows broken and several rooms badly burned.

It was not until the attack ended that both the embassy and the interior ministry realised two of their Afghan staff had died in the assault.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani condemned the attack and said it was the government's responsibility to provide protection to international missions.

In Baghdad, foreign ministry spokesman Ahmad Jamal condemned the assault as a "terrorist attack".

The attack began with a big explosion that rocked central Kabul shortly before noon, followed by gunfire that lasted for several hours, and two or three more subsequent large explosions.

Police quickly cordoned off the area, barring reporters from coming too close to the scene.

The Afghan interior ministry said a suicide bomber first started the attack, blowing himself up at the embassy gate, after which three attackers stormed inside.

Earlier, Afghan officials had said a car bomb started the assault. Later on, it became clear the suicide bomber was on foot and not driving a car.

The ministry statement said Afghan security forces quickly deployed to the scene, rescuing all the embassy diplomats and employees and taking them to safety.

While the attack was still under way, the IS affiliate in Afghanistan claimed responsibility in a statement carried by the IS-linked Aamaq news agency.

A police officer in the area, who identified himself only as Abdullah, said the gunfire was initially intense but later became more sporadic.

The area was surrounded by armoured vehicles and a large contingent of police and Afghan soldiers.

A shop owner who goes by the name of Hafizullah - many Afghans use only one name - said he saw the bodies of two policemen on the ground before armoured personnel carriers and police arrived to cordon off the area.

More than an hour into the attack, witnesses reported hearing another powerful explosion and said they saw black smoke billowing skyward.

It was not immediately clear what had caused the later explosion.

"The explosion was so strong. I was so afraid," said Maryam, a woman crying near the site of the attack said.

She said she works at the nearby office of Afghanistan's national airline Ariana.

The Iraqi embassy is located in a part of the city known as Shahr-e-Now, which lies outside the so-called "green zone" where most foreign embassies and diplomatic missions are located and which is heavily fortified with a phalanx of guards and giant cement blast walls.

By comparison, the Iraqi embassy is located on a small street in a neighbourhood dominated by markets and businesses.

After Iraqi forces, backed by a US-led coalition, recaptured the city of Mosul from IS earlier in July, the Iraqi embassy had called reporters to its offices in Kabul to express concerns that the local IS affiliate might stage large-scale attacks elsewhere to draw away attention from the militant group's losses in Iraq.

AP
The letters would reveal what, if anything, the Queen knew about Sir John Kerr's plan to dismiss Prime Minister Gough Whitlam's government in 1975

A legal battle has begun over secret letters revealing what the Queen knew of her Australian representative's plan to dismiss Australia's government in 1975.

The case could finally solve a mystery behind the country's most dramatic political crisis.

Historian Jenny Hocking is asking the Federal Court to force the National Archives of Australia to release the letters between the British monarch, who is also Australia's constitutional head of state, and her former Australian representative, Governor-General Sir John Kerr.

The Archives have classified the letters as "personal", meaning they might never be made public.

The letters would reveal what, if anything, the Queen knew about Sir John's plan to dismiss prime minister Gough Whitlam's government in 1975 to resolve a deadlock in Parliament.

It is the only time in Australian history that a democratically elected federal government was dismissed on the British monarch's authority.

The dismissal stunned Australians and bolstered calls for the country to sever its colonial ties to Britain and become a republic.

Mr Whitlam's own son, lawyer Antony Whitlam, is arguing the case on behalf of Ms Hocking, and took on the case free of charge.

Ms Hocking, a Whitlam biographer, argues that Australians have a right to know the details of their history, and that the letters written in the months leading up to the unprecedented dismissal are key to unravelling the truth.

"It needs to be settled once and for all," she said during a court recess.

"There's a lot of uncertainty in this."

Antony Whitlam argued that the letters should be viewed as official, rather than personal, documents in part because the relationship between the governor-general and the Queen is an official one.

"It couldn't seriously be suggested that there was a personal relationship between the Queen and John Kerr," he told the court.

If the letters lose their "private" and "personal" classification, they are free to be made public 30 years after they were written like other government documents held in the Archives.

That means they could be available immediately.

Lawyer Tom Howe, who is representing the Archives, told the court that there was a distinction between the institution of the governor-general and the governor-general himself.

The governor-general himself, Mr Howe argued, is not a national institution, and thus his personal records are owned by him and are not subject to the Archives Act.

The Act allows for the release of official records.

Questions and conspiracy theories still swirl about the motivations surrounding the prime minister's dismissal.

Sir John, who died in 1991, said the decision to oust Mr Whitlam was his alone.

However, some Australians believe the Queen had a hand in the decision.

One of the most spectacular theories is that the US Central Intelligence Agency ordered Mr Whitlam's dismissal because the agency feared his government would close a top-secret US intelligence facility in the Australian Outback.

Sir John rejected that theory as false.

Before 1975, few Australians realised the governor-general - whose role is largely ceremonial - had the power to fire a prime minister during a constitutional crisis.

That crisis began when the opposition party tried to force Mr Whitlam to call general elections by blocking routine legislation in the Senate that allowed the government to pay public servant salaries and provide services.

Mr Whitlam refused to call an election, sparking a weeks-long constitutional impasse.

Sir John then fired Mr Whitlam, called an election and appointed opposition leader Malcolm Fraser as prime minister.

Weeks later, Mr Fraser's coalition won an overwhelming election victory.

Critics of Sir John dubbed his firing of Mr Whitlam an ambush, and said the governor-general should have warned the prime minister that it was coming.

Sir John said he was worried Mr Whitlam would have fired him first if he had tipped him off ahead of time.

Monday's hearing was the only one scheduled in the case.

Federal Court Justice John Griffiths is expected to issue a ruling at a later date.

AP
Vanessa Feltz has said she feels "extremely upset" over the Sunday Times column in which controversial journalist Kevin Myers suggested she and fellow BBC presenter Claudia Winkleman earned more because they were Jewish.

Speaking on her BBC Radio One show on Monday morning, Ms Feltz described the Kevin Myers' opinion piece as "so obviously racist it's surprisingly hurtful".

She also questioned how the article could have been considered fit to publish by editors.

"I said to the editor to the Sunday Times when he phoned to apologise... I'm a journalist and I don't understand how that could be considered suitable to publish.

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"When someone alerted me to it ... I couldn't believe such a thing had been printed. It is absolutely gratuitous, not cleverly done, it's blatant racism. When you see it like that it's very horrifying."

Ms Feltz said the comment piece was "every vile stereotype about what Jewish people have ever been deemed to be by racists".

She added: "I would have thought after all these years I'd be immune or used to it, but that's not at all how I felt. I felt extremely upset. It's not a very nice feeling."

"The apologies are all very well but how did it end up in the paper in the first place?"

Expand Close Claudia Winkleman was among the BBC's top female earners. / Facebook

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The Sunday Times removed an online version of the piece by Kevin Myers on Sunday morning amid outcry on social media, but it appeared in printed editions of the newspaper across Ireland.

Under the headline Sorry ladies, equal pay has to be earned, Myers wrote: I note that two of the best-paid women presenters in the BBC  Claudia Winkleman and Vanessa Feltz, with whose, no doubt, sterling work I am tragically unacquainted  are Jewish. Good for them.

Jews are not generally noted for their insistence on selling their talent for the lowest possible price, which is the most useful measure there is of inveterate, lost-with-all-hands stupidity. I wonder, who are their agents? If theyre the same ones that negotiated the pay for the women on the lower scales, then maybe the latter have found their true value in the marketplace.

A spokesperson for Claudia Winkleman declined to comment.

Expand Close Frank Fitzgibbon, editor of the Sunday Times Ireland / Facebook

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Frank Fitzgibbon, editor of the Sunday Times Ireland, said the column "contained views that have caused considerable distress and upset to a number of people". He further confirmed that Mr Myers will "not write again for the Sunday Times Ireland".

Mr Fitzgibbon said he took "full responsibility", adding: "This newspaper abhors anti-Semitism and did not intend to cause offence to Jewish people."

The Sunday Times UK editor Martin Ivens said that Mr Myers' comments were "unacceptable and should not have been published".

He added: "It has been taken down and we sincerely apologise for both the remarks and the error of judgement that let to publication".

The Campaign Against Anti-Semitism yesterday asked for confirmation that Mr Myers would never again work for another title owned by News UK, which publishes the Irish and UK editions of the Sunday Times as well as the Irish Sun and its UK editions.

The article also controversially questioned why only one woman is among the top 10 best paid presenters at the BBC.

"Now why is this?" Mr Myers asked.

"Is it because men are more charismatic performers? Because they work harder? Because they are more driven? Possibly a bit of both," he said.

He also claimed the HR department at the BBC "will probably tell you that men usually work harder, get sick less frequently and seldom get pregnant ... But most of all, men tend to be more ambitious: they have that greyback testosterone-powered, hierarchy-climbing id that feminised and egalitarian-obsessed legislatures are increasingly trying to legislate against".

The controversy, however, did not stop Mr Myers from appearing in a panel discussion yesterday at the inaugural West Cork History Festival in Clonakilty.

He was a panellist discussing the commemoration of Irish soldiers who fought in World War I.

Among his co-panellists was Rabbi Julia Neuberger, one of the first women in the UK to become a rabbi.

Rabbi Neuberger, who is a senior rabbi at the West London Synagogue, is also a member of the House of Lords and a high-profile writer and commentator.

Despite the controversy, she sat alongside Mr Myers during the panel discussion. However, Mr Myers did not address the controversy over his column during the event.

Meanwhile, an article by Mr Myers published in the 'Irish Independent' on March 4, 2009, is no longer available online as it does not comply with our editorial ethos.

The article on the Holocaust was removed on July 30, 2017 after its existence was brought to our attention.
Indian coast guard officials stand next to a massive amount of heroin they claim to have seized from a ship off the western coast (Kamlesh Samani/AP)

A large amount of heroin has been seized from a ship off India's western coast, the country's coast guard authorities said.

The 1,500kg (3,300lbs) of narcotics was estimated to be worth millions of dollars, the agency said.

The ship was seized on Saturday.

Coast guard authorities said it was the country's biggest seizure of narcotics in recent years, the Press Trust of India reported.

The vessel had eight crew members and was heading for Alang shipyard in Gujarat state, the agency said.

The crew were detained for questioning.

India lies on a lucrative drug-smuggling route because nearby Afghanistan is a major producer of opium, the main ingredient of heroin.

Details on where the heroin originated from and who was involved in the smuggling were not immediately available.

A joint investigation by the Indian coast guard, intelligence agencies, police and navy is under way.

AP
Kim Jong-un watches a military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the Korean Peoples Army earlier this year. Photo: Reuters

US and South Korean air force planes over the Korean Peninsula. Photo: AFP/Getty Images

US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley directs comments to the Russian delegation at the Security Council meeting to discuss North Korea. Photo: Reuters

The United States' ambassador to the UN has said there is "no point" in having an emergency session at the Security Council to discuss North Korea, warning the rogue regime that "the time for talk is over".

Kim Jong-un, North Korea's ruler, personally oversaw the launch on Friday of the country's second intercontinental ballistic missile test this month. The missile is believed by the Pentagon to be capable of reaching mainland USA.

Mr Kim's government said on Sunday that the test was designed as "a stern warning" against further sanctions.

"The test-fire of ICBM this time is meant to send a stern warning to the US making senseless remarks, being lost to reason in the frantic sanctions and pressure campaign against the DPRK," it said, using an acronym for the North's official name.

Expand Close Kim Jong-un watches a military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the Korean Peoples Army earlier this year. Photo: Reuters / Facebook

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The test sparked deep consternation in the US, with calls for an emergency session at the UN.

But Nikki Haley, US ambassador to the UN, said it was a waste of time.

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"North Korea is already subject to numerous Security Council resolutions that they violate with impunity and that are not complied with by all UN Member States," she said, in a statement issued on Sunday.

"An additional Security Council resolution that does not significantly increase the international pressure on North Korea is of no value. In fact, it is worse than nothing, because it sends the message to the North Korean dictator that the international community is unwilling to seriously challenge him."

She reiterated President Donald Trump's view that China must do more to rein in the pariah state - China being its main trading partner and protector.

He tweeted on Saturday that they "do NOTHING" to rebuke Pyongyang.

I am very disappointed in China. Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017

...they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017

Mrs Haley said that China must now condemn North Korea for its repeated missile tests.

"China must decide whether it is finally willing to take this vital step," she said.

"The time for talk is over. The danger the North Korean regime poses to international peace is now clear to all."

Earlier on Saturday the US flew two supersonic bombers over the Korean Peninsula.

The B-1 bombers were escorted by South Korean fighter jets as they performed a low-pass over an air base near the South Korean capital of Seoul before returning to Andersen Air Force Base in Guam.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
The United States flew two supersonic bombers over the Korean Peninsula in a show of force against North Korea following the country's latest intercontinental ballistic missile test. The US also said it conducted a successful test of a missile defence system located in Alaska.

The B-1 bombers were escorted by South Korean fighter jets as they performed a low-pass over an air base near the South Korean capital Seoul before returning to Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, the US Pacific Air Forces said in a statement.

It said the mission was a response to North Korea's two missile tests this month. Analysts say flight data from the North's second test, conducted on Friday, showed that a broader part of the mainland United States, including Los Angeles and Chicago, is now in range of Pyongyang's weapons.

"North Korea remains the most urgent threat to regional stability," said Gen. Terrence J O'Shaughnessy, Pacific Air Forces commander. "Diplomacy remains the lead. However, we have a responsibility to our allies and our nation to showcase our unwavering commitment while planning for the worst-case scenario.

"If called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal, and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing."

Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, told CBS's 'Face the Nation' that North Korea's latest test presents a clear and present danger to the United States.

"I've spent time on the intelligence and at the briefings, and done as much reading as I possibly could," she said. "I'm convinced that North Korea has never moved at the speed that this leader has to develop an ICBM."

Ms Feinstein said the situation shows the danger of isolating a country.

"I think the only solution is a diplomatic one," she said. "I'm very disappointed in China's response, that it has not been firmer or more helpful."

The United States often sends powerful warplanes in times of heightened tensions with North Korea. B-1 bombers have been sent to South Korea for flyovers several times this year in response to the North's banned missile tests, and also following the death of a US college student last month after he was released by North Korea in a coma.

The Hwasong-14 ICBM, which the North first tested on July 4, is the highlight of several new weapons systems Pyongyang launched this year. They include an intermediate range missile that it says is capable of hitting Alaska and Hawaii.
Mike Pence is in Estonia on the first leg of a European tour that also takes him to Georgia and Montenegro (Mindaugas Kulbis/AP)

US Vice President Mike Pence has strongly pledged America's commitment to protecting Nato allies against attacks, including the Baltic states, which have anxiously watched a growing Russian military presence in the region.

"Under President Donald Trump, the United States stands firmly behind our Article 5 pledge of mutual defence - an attack on one of us is an attack on us all," Mr Pence told reporters after meeting with the presidents of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the Estonian capital Tallinn.

Mutual defence is a vital issue for the three small former Soviet states that border Russia, which were all occupied for nearly five decades by Soviet troops before regaining their independence in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Noting that Mr Trump "knows security is the foundation of our prosperity", Mr Pence said America and the Baltic countries would seek new ways to increase prosperity by increasing two-way trade that currently amounts to 3.5 billion dollars (2.6 billion) and increasing mutual investments.

Earlier, he met Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid, the president of Latvia, Raimonds Vejonis, and Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite.

Estonia currently holds the rotating presidency of the 28-nation European Union.

Mr Pence is also scheduled to meet Nato troops from Britain, France and the United States that are stationed in Estonia.

The alliance has deployed some 4,000 troops and military hardware in the three Baltic states and Poland to counter Russia's presence in the Baltic Sea region.

Mr Pence is in Estonia on the first leg of a European tour that also takes him to Georgia and Montenegro, two other regions facing strong pressure from Russia.

AP
The US has imposed financial sanctions on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro after an election to rewrite the constitution.

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control announced the restrictions against Mr Maduro, a day after Venezuelans gave the president's ruling party virtually unlimited power in the South American country.

The measures freeze any assets Mr Maduro may have in US jurisdictions and bar Americans from doing business with him.

US President Donald Trump's national security adviser H R McMaster described the election as an "outrageous seizure of absolute power" that "represents a very serious blow to democracy in our hemisphere.

"Maduro is not just a bad leader, he is now a dictator," he said.

The Trump administration imposed sanctions on more than a dozen senior current and former Venezuelan officials last week, warning the socialist government that new penalties would come if Mr Maduro went ahead with Sunday's election for the assembly.

Electoral authorities claimed more than eight million people voted on Sunday to create a constitutional assembly endowing Mr Maduro's ruling party with virtually unlimited powers, though independent analysts estimated the real turnout was less than half that figure.

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles, the governor of the central state of Miranda, urged Venezuelans to protest against an assembly that critics fear will effectively create a single-party state.

Mr Maduro has said the new assembly will begin to govern within a week.

He said he would use the assembly's powers to bar opposition candidates from running in gubernatorial elections in December unless they sit with his party to negotiate an end to hostilities that have generated four months of protests that have killed at least 125 and wounded nearly 2,000.

Venezuela's chief prosecutor's office reported 10 deaths in new rounds of clashes on Sunday between protesters and police.

Nations including Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Spain, Britain and the United States said they would not recognise Sunday's vote.

AP
National homebuilder and developer Taylor Morrison has launched home sales at Hunton Forest, its second community to open in Concord, and is planning a grand opening event for Saturday, Aug. 5.

Hunton Forest will feature 356 homesites located on 120 acres of former farmland. The community is one of the largest in the region for Taylor Morrison, which entered the Charlotte market in 2015. More than 400 people have registered for the communitys VIP list to receive updates on its progress.

Hunton Forest will include approximately 18 acres of open space, walking trails and a community center with a pool and clubhouse. Tucked away off Poplar Tent Road, its location offers easy access to Interstate 85 and is convenient to area employers, restaurants and retail. It is near International Boulevard.

Homebuyers at Hunton Forest can choose from two- to six-bedroom ranch or two-story homes ranging in size from 1,578 to more than 3,000 square feet, with prices starting in the mid $200,000s. An information center and a furnished model home is now open at Hunton Forest, and Taylor Morrison will have seven move-in ready inventory homes available starting in October.

Also in Concord

In Concord, Hunton Forest joins Taylor Morrisons Pinnacle at Wellington Chase community, which opened in late 2015 and is nearly sold out. Taylor Morrison has 14 communities in the Charlotte region, including four currently in development.

With Pinnacle at Wellington Chase closing out, were very excited about the opportunity we have with Hunton Forest and the demand were already seeing, said Kevin Granelli, Charlotte division president for Taylor Morrison.

The grand opening

The public is invited to the grand opening event to tour the model and enjoy free barbecue and craft beer from Cabarrus Brewing Company on Saturday, August 5, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 404 Hunton Forest Drive.
Companies (Incorporation) Amendment Rules, 2017 Announced

The government announced new rules that will amend the Companies (lncorporation) Rules, 2014. These will come into effect once they are published in the official gazette.

Two changes have been made, by way of substituting Rule 28 and Rule 30 in the existing framework of the Companies (lncorporation) Rules. These regulate the shifting of a companys registered office within the same state (Rule 28) and shifting of a companys registered office from one state or union territory to another (Rule 30).

The new rules are notified on the Ministry of Corporate Affairs website, with an official circular dated July 27, 2017.

RELATED: Business Strategy & Operation Advisory

Lower House Passes Companies Act (Amendment) Bill, 2017

The lower house of Indias parliament passed the Companies Act (Amendment) Bill, 2017, last week. The Bill will amend the existing Companies Act, 2013, and is yet to be approved by the upper house.

Among the major changes proposed are: expanding the definition of related party to include an investing company; change in the definition of a subsidiary company that removes the qualification of holding share capital; change in the definition of an associate company; change in private placement issuances; change in rules for loan and investment by a company; regulations governing related party transactions; and the provisions governing independent directors.

RELATED: Establishing a Business in India: Offices, Partnerships, and Companies

Union cabinet clears minimum wage code bill for parliament discussion

The union cabinet of the government approved the wage code bill last week; it will now be taken up by parliament for discussion. The bill seeks to empower the federal government with the authority to establish a minimum wage across all sectors of the countrys economy, instead of the current system whereby each state and sector follows independent norms.

The cabinet approval signals the start of a long time-consuming process that will see the consolidation of 44 labor laws into four main codes of legislation. This has been discussed since the beginning of the Modi government; with the Goods and Service Tax (GST) now implemented, the government has now placed the pending labor law reform process at the top of its agenda. Labor reform in India is seen to be a massive challenge, requiring consensus of multiple federal and regional political parties, workers and trade union groups, as well as business and industry.

The reforms are, however, needed to improve Indias industrial productivity and job creation, besides boosting the countrys investment environment through simplified and clear laws that are implemented uniformly.

About Us

Related Reading:

Dezan Shira & Associates is a pan-Asia, multi-disciplinary professional services firm, providing legal, tax and operational advisory to international corporate investors. Operational throughout China, ASEAN and India, our mission is to guide foreign companies through Asias complex regulatory environment and assist them with all aspects of establishing, maintaining and growing their business operations in the region. This brochure provides an overview of the services and expertise Dezan Shira & Associates can provide.

An Introduction to Doing Business in India 2017 is designed to introduce the fundamentals of investing in India. As such, this comprehensive guide is ideal not only for businesses looking to enter the Indian market, but also for companies who already have a presence here and want to stay up-to-date with the most recent and relevant policy changes.

In this issue of India Briefing Magazine, we discuss payroll processing and reporting in India, and the various regulations and tax norms that impact salary and wage computation. Further, we explain Indias complex social security system and gratuity law, and how it applies to companies. Finally, we describe the importance of IT infrastructure, compliance, and confidentiality when processing payroll in India.
By Dezan Shira & Associates

Tax, Accounting, and Audit in India 2017-18, the latest publication from India Briefing, is out now and available to subscribers as a complimentary download in the Asia Briefing Publication Store. This edition of the guide includes a detailed introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) that was launched on July 1, 2017. It is a watershed development that represents the complete transformation of Indias indirect taxation structure.

Overall, the publication is designed to introduce the fundamentals of the countrys tax regime as well as the critical accounting and auditing practices in India.

This comprehensive guide is ideal not only for businesses looking to enter the Indian market, but also for companies who already have a presence here and want to stay up-to-date with the most recent and relevant policy and regulatory changes.

While the tax system does present some challenges to businesses that are planning to enter or are currently in India, the Indian market also provides several rewards to businesses that are able to formulate a tax-efficient operating strategy.

Tax, Accounting and Audit in India 2017-18 covers the following:

Introduction to Indias Tax Law Indirect Taxes International Taxation Auditing Practices in India Accounting Index

Within these topics, we discuss various pertinent issues for foreign businesses. These issues range from the most important tax dates for foreign companies and the impact of new tax reforms in India, to key accounting practices to enable optimal business operations and the conduct of a successful audit. In addition, we detail the various procedures and associated taxes for importing and exporting goods from India as well as the dispute resolution mechanisms for tax issues in India.

About Us

Related Reading:

Dezan Shira & Associates is a pan-Asia, multi-disciplinary professional services firm, providing legal, tax and operational advisory to international corporate investors. Operational throughout China, ASEAN and India, our mission is to guide foreign companies through Asias complex regulatory environment and assist them with all aspects of establishing, maintaining and growing their business operations in the region. This brochure provides an overview of the services and expertise Dezan Shira & Associates can provide.

An Introduction to Doing Business in India 2017 is designed to introduce the fundamentals of investing in India. As such, this comprehensive guide is ideal not only for businesses looking to enter the Indian market, but also for companies who already have a presence here and want to stay up-to-date with the most recent and relevant policy changes.

In this issue of India Briefing Magazine, we discuss payroll processing and reporting in India, and the various regulations and tax norms that impact salary and wage computation. Further, we explain Indias complex social security system and gratuity law, and how it applies to companies. Finally, we describe the importance of IT infrastructure, compliance, and confidentiality when processing payroll in India.
A day heavy in green Indian equity markets saw a day, heavy in green, today. Nifty 50 ended, up by 321.5 points. Sensex ended, up by 1181.34 points. Top Gainers today were HDFC, HDFC Bank, Infosys. Top Losers ... November 11, 2022 | 11-11-2022 3:43 pm

In early trade, Rupee rises 71 paise to 80.69 / $ Early on Friday, the rupee strengthened 71 paise to 80.69 against the dollar as investors' attitudes were bolstered by easing US CPI data and a decline in the dollar index. Forex traders claime... November 11, 2022 | 11-11-2022 2:24 pm

Sensex zooms over 1,100 pts; Nifty above 18,300; IT index top contributor Domestic benchmark indices in the fast lane today led by IT and Metal stocks outperforming. Both the Sensex and Nifty benchmarks were nearly 2% higher amid positive global cues. On the se... November 11, 2022 | 11-11-2022 2:00 pm

NIBE receives order of Rs11.88 crore from Goa Shipyard; Stock slips 1% Nibe Limited stocks in focus as the company announced the receipt of purchase orders. As per the regulatory filing, it has received two purchase orders dated November 08, 2022 from G... November 11, 2022 | 11-11-2022 12:53 pm

Ashoka Buildcon receives provisional certificate for NHAI road project; Stock up 2% Ashoka Buildcon Limited has informed the declaration of October 26, 2021 as the Commercial Operation Date (CoD) for its Hybrid Annuity Mode (HAM) Project of National Highways Authority of ... November 11, 2022 | 11-11-2022 12:26 pm
Sitting and pondering over situations that you can't change and circumstances that are not under your control helps no one. For actress Neena Gupta, she chose the option of asking for help when she thought she really needed.

Oh god jawani A post shared by Neena Gupta (@neena_gupta) on Jul 18, 2014 at 9:37am PDT

National award winner and TV-film actress Neena Gupta took to Instagram a few days back to ask for work. With all her grace and humility intact, she posted, "I live in Mumbai and working am a good actor looking fr good parts to play."

I live in mubai and working am a good actor looking fr good parts to play A post shared by Neena Gupta (@neena_gupta) on Jul 27, 2017 at 10:11pm PDT

In no time, the post became viral on the internet and people started talking about her. Some were startled, some praised her for being humble and not shying away from asking for help. However, everyone had just one question, why is she not being offered shows and films.

Found this A post shared by Neena Gupta (@neena_gupta) on Feb 23, 2017 at 11:49pm PST

After her viral post, she spoke to Hindustan Times and chose to reveal the truth behind it. She said,

Everybody thinks that after my marriage, I have moved to Delhi and I dont work anymore. So, I get so put off and then I see so many roles being offered to other actors of my age.

She also revealed how once, a filmmaker friend of hers chose someone else over her because he thought she had stopped working. She went on to point out a fact that if one commercial film ends up becoming a big hit, people want to typecast the actor and give her only that kind of roles, that exhausts an actor's versatility and the possibility of trying out everything.

#mera wo mat lab Mahi tha A post shared by Neena Gupta (@neena_gupta) on Jul 5, 2015 at 9:25pm PDT

Neena's post was also appreciated by her daughter and ace-designer Masaba Gupta who wrote a heart-warming post for her mother. She wrote,

Even Priyanka Chopra couldn't stop herself from making a comment on the post and she dropped a 'So inspired' on Neena's post.

Me in a Film threshold premiering tom at Pvr juhu at7 pm A post shared by Neena Gupta (@neena_gupta) on Oct 30, 2015 at 5:02am PDT

Considering the amount of talent this woman possesses, we hope the universe turns fair for Neena Gupta and she really gets the roles she deserves. Everyone deserves a second chance in life, isn't it?
Wanted actor Inder Kumar's sudden death left many shocked. Inder passed away last Friday. After his death, many condolences poured in for the actor and his ex-girlfriend Isha Koppikar too had some heartfelt confessions to make about his life.

Spotboye

And now after a few days, his ex-wife Sonal Kariya spoke to SpotBoye and revealed some intimate details about her marriage and her equation with Inder. She also spoke in details about her marriage and why she chose to take a divorce.

Talking about Inder's closeness with Isha, he said,

Twitter

"He couldn't forget Isha Koppikar. I think it was a case of 'first love cannot be forgotten'. At times, he used to tell me that he is going to meet her. I even told him to get her home sometimes, but he did not."

Sonal also added that he was constantly in touch with Isha. She added,

Santa Banta

"I think he was in touch with her even after we divorced each other. He wouldn't show it too much and he didn't tell me either - but I could sense that he couldn't shake off Isha from his mind. Maine shaadi ke time bhi suna tha that he hasn't forgotten Isha but I ignored that hearsay."
Delhi Metro has gone 'completely' green. In other words, it has become the only 100% green system in the world for adhering to green building norms for residential colonies. For this, it has been awarded a platinum rating by the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC).

bccl

World's first ever green system

Delhi Metro has become the world's first such system to follow all green building norms for 10 of its residential colonies. This feather gets added to its already lustrous cap of achievements where, in the past, Delhi Metro won several green certificates for its Phase-3 stations, depots, and many substations.

bccl

Showering praises on Delhi Metro for its work on reducing carbon-footprints across its premises, Chairman of IGBC, Prem C. Jain said, "DMRC was the first one to become a green Metro. The platinum ratings they have got is very hard earned and a lot of toil has gone into the process."

The way forward

In association with Shri Ram School, Gurugram, DMRC is taking the 'Swachh Chetna - An Eco Club' forward with its efforts to "encourage school children to participate in the more environment-friendly projects and activities".
After a series of events where people had to take dead body of their loved one because ambulances were provided by the hospitals, another case has surfaced in Madhya Pradesh this time, where a man had to carry the dead body of his son on a bike after being denied an ambulance by the hospital.

This yet another episode of ambulance apathy took place on Sunday when the father of a 9-year-old boy - identified as Abhishek - who drowned after accidentally falling into a well in Maukra Khiriya village in Tikamgarh district, had to take his body on the bike.

According to an HT story, Police after getting the body out of well sent it for post-mortem ar Badagao Community Health Centre. After the post-mortem was done, the boys father Gyasi asked the hospital authorities for an ambulance to take his sons body home. But all his request fell on deaf ears.

Gyasi then wrapped his body in a plastic sheet and carried it him on a bike he asked his neighbour to bring. Dr Alok Chaturvedi, block medical officer at the health centre, confirming the incident said that vehicle was not provided as Gyasis village was not very far from Badagao.
On July 16, 17 Amarnath pilgrims were killed and 29 injured after a bus skidded off the Jammu-Srinagar national highway and rolled down into a deep nallah in the Ramban district of Jammu and Kashmir.

Soon after the accident, about a dozen Amarnath pilgrims were saved by the local Muslims of the Banihakl area. An NDTV report says that helpers came from an NGO  WE FOR U.

Locals and people from the NGO ran a rescue operation and tried to save as many people as they could. Following the accident, some people took to Facebook and shared images from the rescue where locals are seen providing first aid to victims.
The stories of atrocities against Hindus in Pakistan is not new. Every now and then people from the minority Hindu community raise the alarm of being under tremendous pressure by the Majority Muslims. This is a painful saga quite similar to other minority communities living in the states with the strong majoritarian tendency.

afp

Seventy years after partition unleashed the largest mass migration in human history, Hindus are still moving from Pakistan to India, where tens of thousands languish in makeshift camps near the border with no legal right to work.

Many have no choice but to toil illegally in the stone quarries near where they live because their movements are strictly controlled by the authorities, suspicious of anyone from across the border.

It is not the welcome most of them expected in Hindu-majority India.

"No job, no house, no money, no food. There, we were working in the fields, we were farmers. But here people like us are forced to break rocks to earn a living," said 81-year-old Jogdas, who goes by just one name.

"For us the partition is still not over. Hindus are still trying to come back to their country. And when they come here, they have nothing," he told AFP from the camp on the outskirts of Jodhpur where he lives.

More than 15 million people were uprooted following India's independence from Britain in 1947, which triggered months of violence in which at least a million people were killed for their faith.

afp

Many say they face discrimination and even risk abduction, rape and forced marriage.

"Soon after partition, the harassment started," said Jogdas, whose family had only moved to what is now Pakistan a few months before partition to escape a devastating drought.

PM Narendra Modi's government has said it wants to make it easier for persecuted adherents of the faith to find refuge in India.

afp

Last year it changed the rules to allow immigrants to apply for citizenship in the state where they live, rather than having to go through the central government.

Hindus from Pakistan qualify for a fast track to citizenship after seven years in the country.

But bureaucratic delays have meant the process of getting it can take longer to complete.

Worse even than the poverty is the suspicion from authorities.

afp

"Those who do not have citizenship are harassed by (intelligence) agencies. They are always treated like suspects and agents of Pakistan," said Khanaramji, who goes by only one name.

afp

"Because everything is affected. Their shelter, healthcare, access to education, their livelihood."

But some feel even that is worth tolerating.
Khriya one the worst flood-hit villages in Thara taluka of Banaskantha, from where bodies of 17 members of a family were pulled out of 2-3 ft of sludge early this week, is like a ticking time bomb waiting to explode.

bccl

People here fear of an epidemic outbreak as hundreds of dead cattle are still lying unattended, some on the roof tops, outskirts of the village and in nearby farms.

The stench from the already decayed carcasses has become unbearable and villagers have been left to fend for themselves with very little support from the district administration.

Khariya sarpanch Indrasinh Vaghela said not less than 1,500 cattle carcasses were lying in the village and near by fields. He fears that more dead cattle could be lying in other farms, which are still inaccessible due to flood waters and thick layers of muck.

pti

"The flood waters were so fierce that the buffaloes were flung over the rooftops. When we returned after the waters receded, we found dead cattle everywhere, some were lying on rooftops and in fields. The district authorities have provided couple of earthmovers, but they are inadequate. The carcasses have decayed so much that if you try to lift it by earthmovers, it breaks off," Vaghela told TOI adding, "We fear that that this could lead to epidemic outbreak in the village." Another villager Vanraj Thakore, wading through ankle-deep muck in his house, said he lost two of his buffaloes. "We have got little help from the government in removing the dead animals. The carcasses are in such huge numbers that it is virtually impossible for us to remove it ourselves," Vanraj said.

When contacted Banaskantha district collector Dilip Kumar Rana said they have already disposed over 2,500 dead cattle from flood affected villages. He also assured that if there are dead animal still in the village, he would send teams to dispose it off immediately.
Indians seem to have attained immunity against foul smell, thanks to the colourful stenches emanating from overflowing landfills, public toilets, garbage heaps and what not. Many of us ridicule ourselves by accepting the reality we are grown up with and now are habitual of. But lately, the conjectures which are obviously true got a validation when made in Israel stink bomb, a non-lethal weapons Israel use on Palestinian protesters failed to make any impact on Indians.

Reuters

The sewage smelling liquid nicknamed Skunk that can be mixed with water and sprayed on protesters. The smell takes days to fade despite repeated showers. But we are Indians after all and we are ingrained for these things.

In order to replace lethal weapons like pellet guns, Indian government wanted to introduce the stink bomb which is non-lethal yet equally effective. And the Central Reserve Police Force then decided to give the Israeli "stink bomb" a try.

In a test run, the bomb liquid was sprayed on a "captive crowd" in India but to no avail. In a story done by Haaretz which it credited to HT, the foul smelling weapon that worked on Palestinians was ineffective on Indians.

The test was carried out in Delhi which houses variety of smells, changing from every corner of the street in this mega-polis.

AFP

"We have used chili grenades, plastic shell tear smoke, stun grenades, color-smoke grenades, rubber bullets, dye-marker grenades with skin irritant and multi-tier tear-gas launchers," an Indian home ministry official told Telegraph India, "but they did not yield the desired result."

"We used it on a captive crowd consisting of CRPF personnel and general public. But they managed to tolerate the smell without much difficulty. Maybe Indians have a higher threshold of tolerating stench, an official who was part of the team which tested the bomb said.
After over a year of testing in select regions, Kaspersky is finally releasing the free version of its antivirus to the world.

Kaspersky Lab is the companys freemium version of their paid antivirus. While you have to subscribe yearly for the latter, it does offer additional benefits like a VPN software, online payment protection, and parental control.

Kaspersky Lab instead is available to everyone, everywhere, for absolutely free. The trade off is that you get the bare essential like scanning files, web traffic, and emails, a network firewall, and malware locker.

Free antivirus software are usually filled with ads, or are instead just month-long trials. Either that or they just plain suck. Instead, Kaspersky says its doing none of those things with its new offering. There are a lot of users who dont have the ~$50 to spend on premium protection, CEO Eugene Kaspersky said in an official blog post. Therefore, they install traditional freebies (which have more holes than Swiss cheese for malware to slip through) or they even rely on Windows Defender (ye gods!).

The idea is that, by making a permanently free version of their antivirus available, Kaspersky believes the additional data gathered will benefit all of its users, as its machine learning grows more efficient at detecting and stopping malware.

Kaspersky Lab began rolling out the free version of its antivirus on July 25, to coincide with the companys 20th birthday. The first wave to receive the software is the US, Canada, and many Asia Pacific countries. India, Hong Kong, the Middle East, Africa, Turkey and Latin America ill receive the antivirus in September, while October will see it reach Europe, Japan and South Korea. Vietnam and Thailand will be the last to receive Kaspersky Lab in November.

Of course, the one thing to consider here is the underlying scandal surrounding the company, recently. Based in Moscow as it is, Kaspersky has in the past been accused of working with Russian intelligence, though the company has repeatedly denied these claims. Despite the supposed lack of evidence, the US has even gone ahead to delete Kaspersky from the list of approved IT service vendors in the country. In fact, to dispel the allegations, Kaspersky has even revealed its antivirus' source code to the FBI, earlier this month.

Conspiracy theory or merely a crime lacking a smoking gun? Theres no way to know right now, so just keep that in mind when you decide to either download Kaspersky Lab or give it a miss.
The leftist-rightist coalition Greek government has rejected a demand by the main opposition to establish acommittee of inquiry focusing exclusively on the first half of 2015 -- the first utterly turbulent six months in power by the former.
The Greek Tourism Confederations (SETE) research arm, SETE Intelligence, forecasts a continuing bright future for the east Mediterranean countrys all-important tourism sector , as its most recent survey points to the positive economic status of the countries from whom the biggest blocs of tourists to Greece originate.
Nigerian big boy, Ray Hushpuppi is not happy with the Nigerian media for not writing about how he helped one of his followers with who needed funds for medical attention after an attack by robbers.

According to him, black people mostly Nigerians are quick to bring their own down rather than praise, build or support each other. Read what he posted below

Over 24 hours ago, I was having fun on my Snapchat with few friends to raise money for me to blow for the weekend. In less than an hour I was sent over 2million naira which was much more than what I was seeking to have fun for that moment so I decided to give some of it out, I sent a couple of people I know some of it and I remembered a boy with a severe pain because by an armed robbery attack, so I decided to donate to him to get good medical attention, I also thought I would use my platform to get him a lot of donors which I posted his case on my page and he has then received massive turn out from my friends and followers but theres something I noticed, to my surprise not even one of this bloggers who are quick to pick anything I do ever picked that good I did to write about, rather I see some blogs posting hushpuppi stylishly turns beggar, and none of their commenters/fans wrote to them that they should see this and that which hushpuppi has done o, none of your celebrities do this rather they only post and fold their arms to problem of the public who made them who they are, we didnt see eniola badmus and kcee to tag federal government that I deserve a goodwill award but they are quick to tag efcc to come and investigate my blessings but at the end of the day I am not surprised, all my years in the struggle I have learnt black people mostly Nigerians are quick to bring their own down rather than praise, build or support each other. Love dont exist among us but with all this I wont stop being the good guy that I am either yall see it or not, God sees it and I see why he never seize to keep blessing me. May God bless u good guys out there that never get celebrated or appreciated, God see your work and will crown your handiwork.

Source: Naijaloaded
Former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, took to his Instagram to congratulate his wife, Precious, for winning the Most Influential Beauty Queen in Nigeria Award at the recently held Experience womanity awards.

He shared lovely photos of her and wrote;
2:56 a.m this morning, I woke up to go use the loo for the 8th time because I had been reacting to the enjoyment (Cassava flakes and 3 tins of milk) I had yesterday.

My phone on hand, nature was doing her job whilst I stared vacantly into my Facebook news feed, suddenly!!! I stumbled upon the story of the arrest of yahoo boys who scam and defraud unsuspecting persons via voodoo (sacrifice humans) they had been arrested for their perilous fleeting devilish activities for money making.

I never use to pay attention to their stories, Reading that? My poo melted, my heart squatted, I felt like some iodine had been inserted into my thyroid glands.

What??? These are kids age ranking from 18-25. Who confessed to killing their girlfriends, making them useless in life and ended several innocent people to enhance their progression. All in the name of getting rich quick syndrome and perhaps to be evidence of the swoon song 30 billion in the account Theyve mortgaged their future, destiny and soul for money that could be their own in life. Yes!! theirs.

Roughly 5 years ago an herbalist who had converted to a believer told me_ first hand, how voodoo works; he said you only make all the money you will earn in your entire life in only a short amount of time. If you are supposed to make 100 million in 80 years of your life, you will make that same amount of money within 5 years, then death or something bad follows.

A Thief can only steal from himself, when a person steals he is simply stealing from his future. Some people are suffering from the outcome of their Great Grand Fathers actions When the devil gives you a cap, he will take the cap back with your head. Dad briefly whispered us back home about the story of a late Nigerian Billionaire airliner (I dont want to drop his name), he was once upon a time one of the richest men in the Country, he died a mysterious death, before deathhis body rottened whilst he was still alive, he committed so much atrocities, when he died even the grounds rejected him.

All the things and billions he ever own vanished same way it came. Alas and Alack the truth became apparent to everyone, but then? it was too late.

READ MOREFrom the perspective of a less moral Nigerian, yahoo boys are heroes, to the moral ones, They are seen as the bad eggs.

The truth is, these acts has given us discredit and a bad name in the international community, having left the borders of Nigeria, I realized that other nationals second guess our honesty, they act with extra cautious when dealing with us. Most online shopping websites have blacklisted Nigeria. Our corporate image has been soiled probably beyond repair. No one wants to deal with a Nigerian, this is so pathetic.

Most of these kids when caught gave the credits of their misfortune to their supportive parents on the wrong side of the track. This makes me sometimes feel no home training is better than bad home training.

YouthsAsk questions before you delve into certain things in life, you will definitely get answers. Lets not be so cheap that we dont look before we leap. Sooner or later we will all be tempted tested.

Before then, get MIND. I challenge you to have a brave MIND. the kind of bravery Im talking about is not of evil but the common mind to resist temptations, there is dignity in labor. Thence I challenge you to live honestly within your own means, and not dishonestly upon the means of others.

I want to encourage us to have the right courage. Be brave enough to struggle like real men, courageously embrace disappointments, let your soul posses it self under every vicissitudes, be strong enough to convert your pitfalls into sky rise, your stumbling blocks into stepping stones. Ensure your father and mother are proud of what you do, make the greatest country in Africa Nigeria proud again, make your self proud, and above all? Make God Almighty in heaven look at you and say: Thats my child.

Any young man who dares to display himself in this right silent effort and endeavor, and dares to endure all the sufferings all for truth and duty is more truly heroic than the achievements of a Thief in king clothings. When we have the orientations of a brave MIND or The True Billionaires Mind like I tagged it; the world in no time will surely step aside to let US pass.

Undoubtedly, Nigerians are hard working anywhere we find ourselves. We are creative, but then, some our youths are creative on the negative side, I want to encourage us to turn that negativity into positivity, desist and turn your energies on something enviable. This is my observation as someone who thinks with an open mind.

May God bless as you a Become a modified Y. A. H. O. O . Boy/Girl.

Y. Youths

A. Allowing

H. Hardwork

O. Omitting

O. Obreption

Felix Ade-Frank

Author /Life Coach.
A herbalist identified as Rabiu Abubakar (36) and two others identified as Sadiq Ibrahim (30) and Hussaini Hassan were arrested in Minna, Niger State have been arrested by officials of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) for allegedly selling fake $400,000 for N20,000.

This was confirmed by the state NSCDC Commandant, Mr. Philip Ayuba, said Abubakar and Ibrahim were arrested for circulating fake $400,000. He said: Abubakar asked his victim to provide N20, 00 which he would eventually double and change to dollars.

The victim provided the N20,000 which Abubakar collected. He handed a carton with dollar samples on top to the victim. Abubakar ordered him not to open the carton until he got home.

When he got home and opened the carton, he discovered fake dollars on top, but underneath was saw dust. The fake dollar was estimated to be $400,000. The second suspect, Ibrahim, was arrested at the popular Mobil roundabout in Minna while waiting for a victim.

This particular victim was supposed to bring N300,000. The commandant said that Abubakar and Ibrahim were partners, operating in Kebbi State. Ayuba said that NSCDC was still investigating the case of Hassan, who was arrested with fake N16,000 in Minna.

Source: ( Instablog9ja )
A model who says she was forced to strip and expose herself in a Colombian police station in front of baying male prisoners is suing officers after they shared the X-rated footage online, Dailymail has reported.

The woman identified as Katherine Martinez, a 27-year-old model and mother-of-one was forced to expose her body officers while she is handcuffed to a window in a police station in Cali, Colombia.

The disturbing footage showing the model being forced to sprint in front of prisoners in a Colombian police station has been circulating online.

However Ms Martinez claims she only played up for the video because she was drunk, and was doing as the officers asked so that they would bring her a chair.



Speaking to Dailymail, she said: All the police officers told me that if I wanted them to pass me a chair or take my handcuffs off, I had to take off my dress and show them my body.

Then the male prisoners began to yell at me, Yes, yes, lift your dress up.

I remember some things but not everything. I remember them telling me they were filming me.

She also said the incident has badly affected her emotionally. Cali Police commander Hugo Casas has apologised for his officers behaviour.

He said: Our police force condemns this behaviour and disciplinary and judicial investigations are underway.

The officers have been fully identified. One is a patrol officer who drove the woman to the station, but another official is involved for failing to assist her.
Omoyele Sowore, the publisher, Sahara Reporters, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari got sick when he saw how much had been looted from Nigeria and that there is no more corruption in Nigeria because there is nothing else to steal.

Sowore in his presentation at the Tracking Faulty Towers workshop which held at the University of Kent, London according to thecalbeng report said: There is no corruption in Nigeria anymore because there is nothing else to steal and loot, he said.

When Buhari saw how much has been looted, he became sick We are happy that Nigeria is no longer among the ten top countries in the world.

Western countries accepting Nigeria and other countries stolen money should be the ones tagged corrupt, he said.

In my village, the custodian of stolen things is seen as the main criminal People cannot steal in western countries because where to keep the stolen money is a challenge.

The Western world made their system very difficult to steal and loot money.

He also commended Buhari for putting in place strict measures to check corruption.

Transferring money from abroad to Nigeria has a limit and the charges are high but in Nigeria, we dont have such until Buhari came into power, he said.

We have the duty to challenge our leaders and the primitive accumulation of wealth Nigeria.

We need a serious re-orientation programme for the youth on the belief of quick wealth accumulation through corruption and crime. We need to let them know that the only way is through honest means and hard work.

Also the executive secretary of the presidential advisory committee against corruption (PACAC), Bolaji Owanasoye admitted that Nigeria is improving in its fight against the infamous tag.

I am very happy to read recently that Nigeria is not among the top ten corrupt countries in the world, Owanasoye said.

That is an improvement that shows something is being done right to fight corruption and crime in the country.

Nigeria whistleblowing policy is celebrated because of reward attached to it but if revoked tomorrow, citizens should still be devoted to report corruption and crimes, he said.

A pervasive and endemic culture of silence which allows corruption and sin to thrive is one of the challenges the Nigeria whistle blower policy face.

The culture of acquiescence which makes corruption appear legitimate is also a challenge we have in Nigeria.

Nigerians have both moral and legal duties to report crime and corruption as it enhances rule of law and peace of security of society.

The inability to improve rule of law and governance in a weak state reinforces underdevelopment and vice-versa.

When a state demonstrates the political will to hold wrongdoers accountable and creates a dependable disclosure frame work the citizens will see it as a duty to report crime and corruption without fear or prejudice.
A man allegedly poured acid on his wife after she returned to their marital home after visiting her ailing grandfather.

The Victim, Ms Jane Kyazike, 25, was on Friday admitted to Iganga Hospital in Uganda after her husband, Wilbrod Awor, reportedly stormed her parents home in Kakumbi village and poured acid on her.

According to reports, the suspect left his residence to harm his wife who is said to have left his home two months ago to take care of her ailing grandfather.

The wife who spoke from her hospital bed, the victim said that on the fateful night, she woke up to the sight of a man in the house. I heard some movements in the house and when I tried to flash the torch on my phone, he poured some liquid which I late realized was acid, on my head and it spilled over the body.

The assailant reportedly fled when the victim raised an alarm. Kyazikes mother Ms Jamila Namwase, said she delayed to return to her marital home because as she was still taking care of her grandfather, her sister died in a road accident.

She added that the suspect had been frequenting her place, pestering his wife to return home in two days lest he harms both of them. Kyazike sustained severe body injuries.

Source: ( Instablog9ja )
A man who allegedly set fire to two vehicles at Buford Superior Self Storage in Georgia earlier this month was arrested shortly after he returned to the scene of the crime. Nicholas Minardi, 21, visited the facility at 1600 French Blvd. the day following the arson under the guise that he wanted to check on his girlfriends storage unit, according to the source.

Fire crews responded to the facility at 7:22 p.m. on July 23 after the storage manager heard a popping sound and discovered a car on fire. The blaze spread to two adjoining storage units, and fire crews found a second vehicle on fire at the opposite end of the storage facility, according to Capt. Tommy Rutledge of Gwinnett County Fire and Emergency Services. The vehicles and units suffered extensive damage.

"In a strange twist, Minardi actually returned to the scene Monday evening under the guise that he was checking on his girlfriend's property to see if it was OK," Rutledge said. "He claimed that he heard about the fire in the news, which wasn't true based on the fact that the fire department had not yet issued a media release about the incident."

The facilitys surveillance video also showed Minardi's vehicle on the property on the day of the fire, Rutledge said. Minardi was arrested at his home late Tuesday afternoon. Hes being held at Gwinnett County Detention Center on two charges of second-degree arson, two charges of second-degree criminal damage, entering an auto, and possessing a tool for the commission of a crime.

Buford Superior Self Storage is a part of Carpenter Storage LLC, which operates three facilities in Acworth, Alpharetta and Buford, Ga. The sites offer 24-hour access, vehicle parking and a retail store that sells moving and packing supplies.
Update 8/7/17  Lok'nStore has added two more self-storage development projects to its pipeline. A proposal submitted in Bedford, England, would build a wholly owned location, while the project planned for Dover, England, would only be managed by the company, according to the source. Together the properties would add 84,800 rentable square feet to the LoknStore operating portfolio. Both are expected to open sometime next year.

These excellent new locations add to the stores announced last week and our recent rapid growth in our pipeline of stores, Jacobs said. The seven projects now under development will grow the LoknStore portfolio by 26.1 percent, he noted.

7/31/17  U.K. company Lok'nStore Group PLC, which operates self-storage and records-storage facilities, has signed contracts to develop and manage two new properties in Exeter and Ipswich, England. In both cases, development will be funded by the land owners. Scheduled to open sometime next year, the sites will add 100,200 square feet to the LoknStore operating portfolio, according to the source.

In April, the company announced it had four self-storage projects under development in England. Its project in Broadstairs opened in May, while the Gillingham, Hemel Hempstead and Wellingborough developments are on pace to open within the next three quarters, the source reported. At the time of the announcement, the projects were projected to grow the companys total rentable space by 30 percent. New and purpose-built facilities account for 64 percent of the LoknStore portfolio, according to CEO Andrew Jacobs.

"These excellent new locations add to the recent rapid growth in our pipeline of stores, Jacobs told the source. Our objective remains to grow by both acquiring more sites to build new landmark stores for Lok'nStore's own balance sheet and to increase the number of stores we manage under the Lok'nStore brand for third parties.

Founded in 1995, LoknStore builds, buys or leases large warehouses or industrial buildings and rents storage units to customers on a weekly basis. It operates 25 self-storage facilities and two records-storage locations in Southern England. The self-storage portfolio is comprised of 12 freehold or long-leasehold properties, seven leasehold sites and six locations under management.
Wetaskiwin, AB (July 31. 2017)- The final leg of the three race Western Canada swing for the NASCAR Pintys Series teams took place on Saturday night at Edmonton International Raceway. Alex Tagliani would enter the race as the defending race winner for the Luxxor 300 while Donald Theetge would make his inaugural start at this  mile bullring.

After the hard crash at Saskatoon on Wednesday night, the #18 Tagliani EpiPen/Lowes Canada/St-Huberts crew worked furiously on the off days to get the car ready for the 300 lap event. During practice, they had some minor issues that caused Tagliani to be slower than expected and the 15th quickest time was the best they could do.

Donald Theetge in the #22 Circuit Acura/Le Soliet/LAntidote Media Dodge likes this type of track and he didnt disappoint. After running the entire practice session in the top five he finished up the session in second position.

After making the necessary changes to the #18 Tagliani machine he went out to qualify with the result being the third quickest time. Theetge in the #22 would follow that up with the fourth fastest result lining them up side by side in row two for the start of the 300 lap event.

Starting on the outside on this track is very challenging and you can find yourself shuffled to the rear of the field quite easily but Tagliani & Theetge both managed to get down to the bottom quickly.

They ran in the top six for most of the first 150 laps when NASCAR threw the mandatory caution for pit stops. When they relined up on track for the final 145 laps, Theetge was scored in third and Tagliani in eighth. On the resulting restart, Tagliani was accessed a drive through penalty to which there has been no full explanation as to why but he was able to maintain the lead lap albeit at the tail end. He would then start his march back to the front pack.

Theetge would continue battling with Labbe, Kennington and Lacroix eventually taking the lead on lap 193. He continued to share the lead with Labbe & Lacroix until the caution flew again on lap 278 when NASCAR deemed that Labbe was the leader, a ruling which the 22 team vehemently challenged but to no avail. The final laps were very exciting for the fans as Theetge challenged for first and second and Tagliani continued to pick off his competitors gradually moving up through the field. The final scoring would give the #22 of Donald Theetge second place and the #18 of Tagliani a fourth place result.

While a second and fourth are great finishes, neither driver was happy with the NASCAR decisions that were made during the event. However, they will both move on to their next events knowing that they have cars to run up front and challenge for the wins.

Tagliani will compete next at Grand Prix de Trois Rivieres in two weeks, while Theetge will be behind the wheel of the #22 next for Riverside Speedway in Antigonish, NS on Aug. 19th

The Luxxor 300 from Edmonton International Raceway will be televised on Sat. Aug. 12 at 1 p.m. ET.

Follow the 22 Racing Team on social media for behind the scenes updates on; Twitter @22RacingTeam & @ScottSteckly22, Facebook Fan Page 22racingteam and Instagram 22racingteam

About 22 Racing:

22 Racing is owned by 4X NASCAR Pintys Series Champion Scott Steckly and is based out of Milverton Ontario in a new (2014) 7,500 square foot race shop. They have fielded teams for drivers such as Christopher Bell, Jacques Villeneuve, James Buescher, Jeb Burton, Kaz Grala, L.P. Dumoulin, Marc-Antoine Camirand and many others. 22 Racing provides turnkey solutions for drivers looking to compete in the NASCAR Pintys Series. The 22 Racing Team is supported by the following sponsors: Erb Group of Companies, AW Millwrights, Sturdy Formed Concrete, Castrol, Wendell Motors, Twin City Graphics, Auto Glym, Mechanix Wear, Dickies Canada, Great Dane Glasvan, Safety Kleen, Dupli-Color & Permatex.

From: Linda Jones

22 Racing/Driven Motorsport Innovations

ljones@drivenmi.com

(705) 730-4044
While traditional markets, such as Europe, are struggling with their digital transformation process, Africa is digital by nature, said Allianz SE chief executive Oliver Bate when he opened the 44th annual Insurance Conference in South Africa last week.Bates keynote address tackled the insurance industrys profound transformation brought about by digitalisation. He said customers now choose a product primarily because its easy to use, transparent in terms of price and quality, and personalised  and because its available to them via the digital channels they want it from.The traditional insurance model, according to Bate, is being changed by new megatrends like artificial intelligence, voice-based smart assistants, telematics, wearables, and drones. He cited Africa, in particular, where mobile is the fastest growing sector and innovation enabler with an expected 1.2 billion African subscribers by next year.Bate explained: By leveraging the internet and mobile penetration, African countries can leapfrog innovation. African customers will rightfully demand and drive insurance innovation in Africa as they expect offerings and channels to be fully digitalised. This, and the fact that rules and regulations are favourable for innovation in financial services, puts Africa in a great position to become the digital insurance leader of the future.Allianz  which is present in 16 countries in Africa  said its digital activities in the continent will focus on increasing customer reach in key growing markets where insurance penetration is still low, as well as efficiency in markets with higher penetration.As a whole, the insurer has established what it calls a single digital agenda to become a digital by default company that is truly customer-centric. Allianz said it is spending more than $800 million annually to shape and orchestrate the 127-year-old business digitalisation.However, part of the changes is bad news for some. Back home, the German firm is reportedly slashing jobs because of disruptions due to digitisation. Last month, newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung cited company sources saying layoffs will take place over the next three years.
Wells Fargo and Co has announced that it will refund approximately $80 million to 570,000 customers who may have been erroneously billed thanks to issues with the banks auto collateral protection insurance (CPI) policies.The company said that it would begin repaying the customers it had wrongly charged in the months to come. The recompense in total consists of $64 million in cash and $16 million of account adjustments.We take full responsibility for our failure to appropriately manage the CPI program and are extremely sorry for any harm this caused our customers, Wells Fargo Consumer Lending head Franklin Codel said.Wells Fargo told Reuters that about 490,000 customers had duplicate vehicle insurance coverage, while approximately 60,000 customers did not receive complete disclosures from vendors before receiving CPI coverage.The financial institution also revealed that for about 20,000 customers, the additional costs wrongfully levied upon them could have led to defaults resulting in the seizure of their vehicles. Those customers will receive additional payments as compensation for the loss of their automobiles, Wells Fargo explained.In recent years, Wells Fargo has been the subject of controversy in relation to its purported improper sales tactics. In September, the bank reached a $190 million settlement with regulators over grievances that its staff had opened up to 2.1 million unauthorized client accounts.
Virtugro is a Colorado-based team developing automated grow tech solutions for medium to large-scale cultivators. It was founded by Mark Stratton of Silverthorne, CO and Russ Baker of Black Hawk, CO.

My THC Guide is developing chatbot solutions for the cannabis industry, founded by Ebony Costain of Appamattox, VA and Jameson Bennett of Louisville, KY.

Cannabis Quality Group is Cloud-based integrated quality management system designed for licensed businesses to have transparency in their supply chains. It was founded by Donavan Bennett of Roswell, Georgia and Joe Novalany of Edison, New Jersey.

Serene encourages an outdoor, active lifestyle by leveraging technology. It was founded by Ed Mcllory and Adam Bray, of London, England.

Redfield Proctor is a start-up in stealth mode focused on efficiency in the cannabis industry, founded by Stephen Martin of Quechee, Vermont.

Dispenserly manages, monitors, and mines cannabis industry reviews to identify new opportunities and trends, founded by Matt Cooke of Marion, OH.

DeepGreen is an optical recognition technology that identifies plant characteristics using AI and machine vision technology. It was founded by an international team hailing from Germany and France - Maxime Clauss and Maximillian Unfried.

GreenScreens manages a network of digital flat screens in dispensaries across the country that rotate menu information and advertising to inform and target customers in the store. It was founded by Ryan Sterling, a native of Turner, ME, and Martin DeFrance of Jackson, MS.

Cannabis-focused venture fund Canopy has launched its Fall 2017 accelerator class, with eight cannabis start-ups participating.Arcview Group  founder of marijuana business insurance provider Cannasure Insurance Services  has been a partner of the venture fund since 2015.The eight participating start-ups in the 16-week accelerator program will receive $30,000 in seed funding, with a chance to take $50,000 more in funding later in the program.The program is designed to spur business traction and prepare the companies to raise outside capital, while providing access to outside venture firms, key figures within the local entrepreneurial community, and exposure to early adopters and potential customers, a release said.Following weeks of pitch practice and business model refinement, each graduate of the program will present their business to potential investors on Demo Day.The cannabis industry in Colorado has shifted from just keeping up with demand to competing and stealing market share from one another, said Canopy co-founder and managing director Patrick Rea. The result is increased interest in, and demand for, the cannabis technology companies that Canopy is investing in. We expect this trend to continue nationwide as state markets mature.The eight companies included in the fall cohort are:
The inaugurallooks set to be an all-singing, all-dancing affair  with the announcement of TV personalityas host.An actor, dancer and TV host, Ribeiro shot to fame as Carlton Banks in hit sitcom The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, fronted gameshow Catch 21 and was recently crowned champion of the ABC reality show Dancing With The Stars. He is also the host of long-running series Americas Funniest Home Videos.In a ceremony held aton, Ribeiro will present the years biggest innovators and achievers from the insurance sector with awards in 23 separate categories, includingThe Insurance Business America Awards is proudly presented by Insurance Business, the industrys leading source for daily news, opinion and analysis.Industry professionals can show their support for colleagues and organizations by now . Deadline for nominations isFor further media inquiries, please contact Chris Davis at Key Media: [email protected] and +1 720 316 0152.
A Maryland county is hosting a disaster assistance center in response to damage from last weeks tornado.

The Queen Annes County Department of Emergency Services opened Thursday, July 27, and will stay open through Thursday, August 3.

It will be located at Matapeake Elementary School.

The center is a central place for people who were affected by the tornado on Kent Island to receive information on relief programs. The Maryland Insurance Agency is available along with multiple county and state agencies to offer assistance to residents and businesses.

There are also several insurance companies on site to offer assistance with claims.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Maryland
Heavy rains caused widespread flooding and prompted some evacuations and rescues in western Pennsylvania, but no major injuries were reported.

Forecasters said a stalled system resulted in conditions more similar to winter than summer and dumped as much as five inches of rain on parts of the region.

In Washington County, a half-dozen rescues were reporting, several from residences and at least one from the roof of a car. Some people were treated for minor hypothermia from being in cold water.

Flooding also closed roads, submerged cars and flooded basements. A landslide shortly after noon Saturday closed a Washington County road.

The Red Cross said 10 people came to a shelter outside of Finleyville. Teams were dispatched to parts of Allegheny, Fayette and Washington counties to assess residents needs.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Flood Washington Pennsylvania
Dale Underwriting Partners, managed by Lloyds third party managing agency Asta, announced it has been granted in principle approval by the Lloyds Franchise Board to establish a special purpose arrangement (SPA). The SPA will support a portfolio of contingency and specialty property business, led by Tom Phillipson, who joins Dale from Swiss Re in September.

Dale Syndicate 1729 will cede a proportion of the incremental business into the SPA. The planned gross premium of $22 million will be split 40 percent/60 percent between Syndicate 1729 and the SPA for 2018.

Asta and Dale are working towards securing formal approval to commence underwriting business from 1 January 2018.

I am pleased that Asta could support Dale in its expansion plans and we are always excited to be part of the development of successful businesses, said Julian Tighe, Asta CEO.

Duncan Dale, chief executive of Dale Underwriting Partners, added: The SPA structure provides the ideal platform for this innovative and entrepreneurial team and is expected to be hugely positive for Syndicate 1729, both in terms of underwriting profit and fee revenue.

Source: Dale Underwriting Partners

Topics Excess Surplus Underwriting Lloyd's
THB, the London-based specialist insurance and reinsurance broker, announced the appointment of Rodrigo Botelho as director, European division, from Oct. 1, 2017.

Based in THBs Amsterdam office, Botelhos duties will include targeting new markets in the Portuguese-speaking countries of Africa. He joins from Universal Seguros in Angola, where he held the position of chief corporate business officer with responsibility for reinsurance. He previously worked in Lisbon for Portuguese insurer Fidelidade Seguros and for Guy Carpenter.

Joaquim Caria, managing director, THB Europe, said: I am delighted to welcome Rodrigo to THB Europe. With the backing of AmWINS, the largest U.S. wholesale broker handling premiums of US$13 billion, THB has ambitious expansion plans and this appointment is a key stage in furthering that strategy.

Caria said the company has identified a profitable opportunity in Portuguese-speaking Africa.

Source: THB Group

Topics Agencies Europe Reinsurance
A jury has awarded $4.5 million to a former employee who sued an Iowa hospital for age bias and retaliation.

The Des Moines Register reports that the jurys July 24 decision came after a 10-day trial of Grinnell Regional Medical Center and two administrators. The lawsuit brought by Gregory Hawkins said the hospital fired him in June 2015 from his post as lab director while in remission from breast cancer and hired a younger replacement.

His attorney alleged that Hawkins was targeted because hed declined an order to retire following his initial diagnosis in November 2013.

The hospitals attorneys deny the firing and subsequent hiring of a new director had anything to do with Hawkins age or cancer diagnosis. A hospital spokeswoman says the hospital intends to appeal.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits Iowa
State regulators have fined a northern Indiana recreational vehicle manufacturer $10,000 for safety violations discovered following a workers April death.

Fifty-four-year-old Ricky Schlabach died of blunt force injuries April 6 after he was struck by a forklift at the Winnebago factory in Middlebury. The Howe, Indiana, man was pronounced dead at the plant about 30 miles east of South Bend.

Investigators with the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Winnebago for two serious safety violations found following his death.

Winnebago was fined $5,000 for operating the forklift at a speed that prevented the operator from stopping it in a safe manner.

IOSHA also fined the company $5,000 for installing plexiglass windshields on the front and back of the forklift without the approval of the manufacturer.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Indiana Manufacturing
Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said Sunday that no decisions been made on whether to continue key Affordable Care Act subsidies to health-insurance companies, but that the administrations job is to follow the law of the land. A top White House aide said President Donald Trump will decide soon.

Smarting from the failure of Senate Republicans to pass an Obamacare repeal and replace bill, Trump on Saturday threatened in a tweet to end the subsidy payments, which help make insurance accessible to poorer Americans, a move that could critically destabilize health exchanges if it went ahead.

The administration has previously floated the idea to stop paying the subsidies that help insurers offset healthcare costs for low-income Americans, called a cost-sharing reduction, or CSR. The next payment is due on Aug. 21.

If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon! the president said in Saturdays tweet. It followed a Twitter message on Friday in which he vowed to let ObamaCare implode.

Law of the Land

Asked on ABCs This Week how soon the Trump administration could stop the cost-sharing payments, Price said no decision has been made and he cant comment further because of a pending court case. He also declined to clarify what Trump meant by implode, saying the presidents comment punctuates the concern he has about changing he direction of the health-care system and getting Congress to act.

Price said in a separate interview on NBCs Meet the Press that the administrations job is to follow the law of the land and that we take that responsibility very seriously and we will continue to do so.

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said on Fox News Sunday that Trump will soon decide the fate of the subsidy payments. Hes going to make that decision this week, and thats a decision that only he can make, Conway said.

Trumps tweet on Saturday also implied that he may target subsidies made available to members of Congress and their staff, who as part of the Affordable Care Act are enrolled in plans on the Washington, D.C., health insurance exchange. Subsidies are similar to those made by employers to pay for their workers health insurance premiums.

Weeks of Brinkmanship

Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said on CNNs State of the Union on Sunday that the president is weighing such a move, which was urged this month by a coalition of right-wing groups. Its not a concept of taking coverage away, he said. Its the approach of actually obliging members of Congress to follow the exact law that the folks that they govern are following.

Senator Susan Collins of Maine, one of the three Republicans to sink the Senate bill last week, was asked on CNNs State of the Union on Sunday if a threat from the president to cut off funding for health care plans for members of Congress would change her vote. No, she said.

The months-long effort by Senate Republicans to pass healthcare legislation collapsed early Friday after Republican John McCain of Arizona joined Collins and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska to block a stripped-down Obamacare repeal bill. McCains no vote came after weeks of brinkmanship and after his dramatic return from cancer treatment to cast the 50th vote to start debate on the bill earlier in the week. The skinny repeal bill was defeated 49-51, falling just short of the 50 votes needed to advance it.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said hell move on to other legislative business. But in a later tweet on Saturday, Trump suggested he isnt giving up. Unless the Republican Senators are total quitters, Repeal & Replace is not dead! Demand another vote before voting on any other bill!

Look Like Fools

The president said earlier that Senate Republicans look like fools after the repeal bill went down, and made a renewed call for the Senate to abolish a rule requiring 60 votes for some bills  although the health-care measure needed only a 51-vote majority to pass, and fell short.

Trump reiterated that position in a Twitter posting on Sunday, saying, Dont give up Republican Senators, the World is watching: Repeal & Replaceand go to 51 votes.

The president will not accept those who said, quote, its time to move on, Conway said.

Republican Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Dean Heller of Nevada met with Trump Friday on a fresh proposal. Graham said in a statement that Trump had been optimistic about the trios plan. I had a great meeting with the president and know he remains fully committed to repealing and replacing Obamacare, Graham said.

Ending the CSR subsidies, paid monthly to insurers, is one way that Trump could hasten Obamacares demise without legislation, by prompting more companies to raise premiums in the individual market or even to stop offering coverage. The administration last made a payment about a week ago for the previous 30 days, but hasnt made a long-term commitment.

Andrew Slavitt, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in the Obama administration, said the impact of cutting off subsidy payments will be felt by the middle class who will pay more to subsidize low income people.

Healthcare analyst Spencer Perlman at Veda Partners LLC said in a research note on Friday, before the presidents tweets, that theres a 30 percent chance Trump will end CSR payments, which may immediately destabilize the exchanges, perhaps fatally.

Americas Health Insurance Plans, a lobbying group for the industry, has estimated that premiums would rise by about 20 percent if the CSR payments arent made. Many insurers have already dropped out of Obamacare markets in the face of mounting losses, and blamed the uncertainty over the future of the cost-sharing subsidies and the individual mandate as one of the reasons behind this years premium increases.

Who Owns It?

Moments after the Senate voted down the Republican bill on Friday morning, McConnell called on Democrats to offer their ideas for moving forward with health care. But he warned: Bailing out insurance companies, with no thought of any kind of reform, is not something I want to be a part of.

A survey in April by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation showed that 61 percent Americans believe Trump and Republicans are responsible for future problems with the ACA, while 31 percent said President Barack Obama and Democrats would be at fault.

If the President refuses to make the cost sharing reduction payments, every expert agrees that premiums will go up and health care will be more expensive for millions of Americans, The president ought to stop playing politics with peoples lives and health care, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.

Collins on CNN said lawmakers need to go back to committee, evaluate possible solutions through hearings, and produce a series of bills to fix existing problems with the ACA, including the potential collapse of the insurance markets.

I certainly hope the administration does not do anything in the meantime to hasten that collapse, she said.

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics Carriers Legislation
Fraudulent bank accounts, bogus credit cards, compromised customer data and, now, unwanted car insurance.

Wells Fargo & Co., it seems, just cant stay out of trouble.

News late last week that the lender may have charged more than 500,000 people for auto insurance they didnt need has raised uncomfortable questions for the bank, including the big one: What will it take to clean up Wells Fargo?

After nearly a year of scandal and upset, including the ouster last year of Wells Fargos long time Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf, this weeks development showed that even as the bank was publicly vowing to address one scandal, over bogus accounts, it was working quietly to defuse another, over auto insurance. Earlier this month, Wells Fargo said it mistakenly gave reams of sensitive data about wealthy clients to lawyers for a former employee.

At its Investor Day in May, when Wells Fargo executives spoke for hours about changes they made since the retail bank accounts scandal, they didnt tell investors about the auto insurance problem that had come to light internally in July 2016. Franklin Codel, one of those executives, said he didnt think the issue should have been disclosed at the time.

We knew there was going to be a day where we were talking about this in the public domain, Codel, head of consumer lending, said Friday in a phone interview. We wanted to be as prepared as we could.

Our Regret

Codel, who reports to new CEO Tim Sloan, said disclosing the auto insurance findings several months ago would have made dealing with customers complaints more difficult, since they were still working on a remedy.

When we go public, customers start calling, wanting to know, Hey, I had that, where is my money?' he said. Its hard to say to them, Well, well get to you in four months.'

An internal review of the San Francisco-based banks auto lending found more than 500,000 clients may have been improperly charged for protection against vehicle loss or damage while making monthly loan payments, even though many drivers already had their own policies, Wells Fargo said in a statement late Thursday. The firm, the largest U.S. auto lender, said it may pay as much as $80 million to affected clients  with extra money for as many as 20,000 who lost cars, as an expression of our regret.

Kevin J. Barker, a Piper Jaffray & Co. analyst, said lawsuits could cost the bank multiples more than what its planning to pay customers, while further harming already strained relationships with some clients.

Why didnt the company address these issues publicly while they were already dealing with the account scandal? Barker wrote Friday in a note to investors. What other collateral damage may have been caused by the repossession of these cars on peoples lives?

Remediation Plan

Wells Fargo told the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and two other regulators about the problem very promptly after receiving customer complaints in July 2016, Codel said. Wells Fargo shut down the program in September and was in regular conversations with regulators while it worked on a remediation plan, he said. Dawn Martin Harp, who ran the auto financing unit, announced in January that she was leaving after more than 20 years at the bank.

Bryan Hubbard, an OCC spokesman, said the agency cant comment on ongoing supervisory matters at a bank it regulates or potential pending actions.

Wells Fargo didnt disclose the auto insurance issue in regulatory filings or financial statements because the lender didnt consider it material, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing company deliberations. The firm reached a similar conclusion when it came to reporting the opening of fake customer accounts.

The accounts scandal erupted publicly in September after Wells Fargo paid $185 million in fines to regulators. The lender initially blamed low-level staff for the infractions and fired more than 5,300 employees over five years to curtail the practice. That backfired as workers came forward to say they faced intense pressure to meet unrealistic quotas. Its ended up costing the bank at least $520 million in fines, remediation, consultants and civil litigation.

Not Material

The drip, drip, drip of revelations about various scandals goes beyond how much in fines or customer reimbursements the bank must pay to larger questions of credibility, Ed Mills, an FBR Capital Markets analyst, said in an interview.

What we have seen repeatedly with Wells Fargo is that the economic impact is not material and its more of the reputation thats impacted, Mills said. What is big to the average American, and what is big to Wells Fargo, are two very different things.

The latest scandal is raising questions about whether the problem lies in Wells Fargos culture and its internal controls. The OCC, its main regulator, came down hard on the bank in September, blaming the sales culture for encouraging unauthorized accounts. Even the firms own board found in a report this year that executives enthusiasm for cross-selling products turned into a fixation that infected lower-level employees.

Codel said Friday the way the bank handled the auto insurance issue exemplifies the right culture.

Outside Firm

When I think about the culture I like to see at Wells Fargo, it is one where we listen to our customers and our team members, he said. If there is an issue, we find it, we acknowledge it, we fix it and we take steps to make it right for our customers.

The banks review of the insurance sales program found that another firm  insurer National General Holdings Corp.  failed to ensure that customers werent charged for coverage if they already had their own policies, Wells Fargo said in Thursdays statement. As with homeowners insurance, banks are often required to ensure the assets they lend against, vehicles in this case, are protected against losses.

National General feels confident with its compliance in this highly regulated industry, Christine Worley, director of investor relations at New York-based National General, said Friday in an email. The insurer has always refunded premiums directly to our financial institution customers in a timely manner and provided all necessary notifications in compliance with law and industry practice, she said.

Related:

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics Auto
The Federal Emergency Management Agency should take back $2 billion dollars in grants approved to fix New Orleans sewers and water pipes damaged by Hurricane Katrina, and to repair streets afterward, a federal audit says. FEMA says no.

The Department of Homeland Security inspector generals office prepared the audit. It says the pipes were old and in bad condition before the storm, and the city didnt have paperwork to prove the damages are disaster related, news outlets reported.

FEMA has agreed with 100 of 103 audits from the Department of Homeland Security inspector generals office, but this is one of the three exceptions, the agency said in a news release.

Throughout the audit process, agency staff provided detailed documentation, it said.

The FEMA grants make up most of what the city has to begin work on an estimated $9 billion repair backlog, media reported.

However, the matter may not go any farther unless the inspector general appeals to higher authorities in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, The New Orleans Advocate reported.

Teams from FEMA and the city went over every mile of street in the city, Cedric Grant, executive director of New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board, told The Advocate. He called it the most comprehensive review of a road system for damage that FEMA has ever done.

The audit defies logic, Zach Butterworth, Mayor Mitch Landrieus executive counsel and federal lobbyist, told Nola.com | The Times-Picayune. Were just going to push back very strongly against this.

Regardless of its age, the New Orleans infrastructure was functioning to serve a population of 445,000 prior to Hurricane Katrina, FEMA wrote in a response included with the inspector generals report and quoted by WWL-TV. This infrastructure was damaged by Hurricane Katrina and FEMA appropriately limited the approved funding to Katrina-related disaster damage.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The Surplus Lines Stamping Office (SLTX) announced that beginning Aug. 1, users who visit the website, www.slsot.org, will be automatically redirected to the new SLTX website at www.sltx.org.

The new website is part of a long-term technology and communication initiative to modernize SLTX and its brand.

Users should update their existing web bookmarks and links to reflect the new domain. SLTX will provide more information as the technology initiative progresses.

Source: SLTX

Topics Texas Excess Surplus
An estimated 10,000 tourists were ordered Thursday to evacuate an island on North Carolinas Outer Banks after a construction company caused a power outage, leaving people stranded without air conditioning or places to eat.

The Cape Hatteras Electric Cooperative said in a news release that PCL Construction told the utility it had driven a steel casing into an electric transmission cable while working on the new Bonner Bridge on the states coast, inadvertently cutting off power to Ocracoke and Hatteras islands.

Officials ordered a mandatory evacuation for all visitors on Ocracoke Island effective 5 p.m. on Thursday. Hyde County public information officer Donnie Shumate said the main concern was for their safety, adding that officials want to get visitors off the island by noon on Friday.

No one was to be allowed onto the island unless they could prove residency, officials said.

CHEC said it was working to assess the extent of the damage and plan for the repair. Spokeswoman Laura Ertle said Roanoke, Virginia-based New River Electrical Corp., which erected the cable on the original Bonner Bridge in 1995, came to the coast to dig up the cable to assess the damage.

Did PCL just nick one of the cables? Is it worse than that? Ertle said. Once they get here and put eyes on it, then well have a really better sense of what were looking at in terms of repair time.

Ertle said if necessary materials were on hand, repairs could take several days. If the items were not available locally, repairs could take weeks.

The power went out around 4:30 a.m. Thursday. Officials said about 9,000 customers were without power on the two islands  about 7,700 on Hatteras and another 1,300 on Ocracoke.

CHEC said power was available for Buxton, Frisco and part of Hatteras Village through a diesel generating plant. The cooperative said it would initiate rolling blackouts, but only if people turn off air conditioning units and minimize other electrical usage. Ten portable generators were also brought in, Ertle said.

The outage comes during peak tourist season, which runs from mid-June through Labor Day.

Erica Plouffe Lazure was visiting Ocracoke from Exeter, New Hampshire, with a friend, but had to cut her trip short and head north to Elizabeth City. She said two restaurants on Ocracoke were using generators to stay open, but the hotel she booked for her stay closed after its generator exploded minutes after it was started.

Theres a lot of hot, sweaty people here, Lazure said, adding that she tried to book a motel further up the North Carolina coast, only to find they were either sold out or asking as much as $500 a night.

This is a beautiful island and I waited two years to come back here because its one of my favorite places in the world, she said. Im a little bummed that the power has gotten in the way, but, `til next time.

Ertle sympathized with people inconvenienced by the outage.

We know that people are spending a lot of money to come down here and they look forward to their vacation on Hatteras Island every year, she said. We know that theyre getting frustrated, but we just really appreciate their patience.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics North Carolina
Honda Motor Co said on Thursday that a Takata airbag inflator ruptured in car crash in Florida, in what could be the 19th death worldwide linked to faulty airbags recalled as part of the largest automotive safety campaign in history.

The Japanese automaker said the driver of a 2002 Honda Accord was killed in Holiday, Florida, in mid-July, after the inflator ruptured. An official cause of death has not been announced.

Last week, authorities in Australia said the death of a Sydney man earlier this month was likely the result of a faulty Takata airbag inflator.

At least 18 deaths and 180 injuries worldwide have been tied to the defect that led Takata Corp to file for bankruptcy protection last month. Takata inflators can explode with excessive force, unleashing metal shrapnel inside cars and trucks.

Last weeks crash involved a 34-year-old woman who died around 6:40 p.m. on Wednesday in a head-on collision near St. Petersburg when a 19-year-old driving a 1999 Pontiac Firebird turned into her path, according to local media reports.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sent an investigator to Florida.

The inflator in 2002 Accords has been recalled since 2011 and Honda said it had mailed 21 recall notices over several years to registered owners of this vehicle. Ten notices had been sent to the current registered owner, but the repairs were never completed, Honda said.

This is more evidence that the recall is failing and not enough is being done to find the affected vehicles and fix them, U.S. Senator Bill Nelson of Florida said in a statement.

Honda said it has adequate replacement parts and urged owners to seek repair as soon as possible, adding that older vehicles, especially 2001-2003 Honda vehicles, pose the greatest safety risk.

Last year, NHTSA urged owners to stop driving about 300,000 2001-2003 Honda vehicles until they were fixed. NHTSA said some 2001-2003 vehicles had as much as a 50 percent chance of a dangerous air bag inflator rupture in a crash.

Of the deaths linked to Takata inflators, 17 involved Honda vehicles since May 2009, including five in Malaysia using a different type Takata inflator. One death occurred in a Ford Motor Co vehicle in South Carolina in December 2015.

Scott Caudill, chief operating officer of TK Holdings, Takatas U.S. unit, has said Takata recalled, or expected to recall, about 125 million vehicles worldwide by 2019, including more than 60 million in the United States.

Topics USA Florida
A judge has refused to block a Los Angeles natural gas storage facility from reopening a year and a half after a major blowout spewed methane that drove thousands of families from their homes.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge John Wiley said state laws prevented him from stopping Southern California Gas Co. from restarting operations at Aliso Canyon. State regulators last week gave approval to allow the company to pump gas into underground storage wells after an overhaul and rigorous testing.

The facility above the San Fernando Valley has been largely out of commission since an old well failed in October 2015, unleashing methane for nearly four months and leading 8,000 families to evacuate.

The blowout released the largest-known amount of climate-changing methane in U.S. history and led to widespread complaints of nosebleeds, nausea, headaches and symptoms that persisted even after the leak was capped last year.

Wiley said he understood opponents arguments that an extensive safety review had not taken into account the risk of an earthquake from a fault that runs through the field. He acknowledged that the reopening was important to residents of Porter Ranch and surrounding suburbs but that lawmakers had taken authority away from Superior Court judges to overturn orders by the California Public Utilities Commission.

So whats my power? Wiley said. Zero. I have zero power. Because in the 1950s the Legislature said, Hands off. The PUC owns this problem.

Skip Miller, a lawyer for Los Angeles County, disagreed with the judge and filed an appeal late Friday to block the facility from reopening.

I think your honor is just dead-bang wrong, Miller said. This is super important to the county of LA and the 30,000 people who live out there.

The county asked the 2nd District Court of Appeal to block the restart because it was notified the company had planned to resume operations Saturday.

Chris Gilbride, a SoCalGas spokesman, said the utility has a few steps to complete before it can resume storing gas and wasnt sure when it would restart.

The state allowed SoCalGas to resume limited operations last week under stricter rules put into effect after the blowout. Fewer than half the 114 wells in the field have passed tests that would allow them to be used.

The county, however, said the states review didnt adequately address the threat of a strong quake rumbling across the Santa Susana Mountains where the field is located.

Thats a recipe for disaster, Miller said. We think theyre jumping the gun.

The countys legal filing included emails and a declaration from a former SoCalGas manager who raised concerns several years ago about the danger. Jim Mansdorfer, who managed the companys gas storage wells for years, said the Santa Susana fault could rupture all wells and release gas at 100 to 1,000 times the rate of the 2015 blowout.

In response, the state said the facility has likely undergone more scrutiny from a regulatory agency than any facility in the U.S. and the county didnt have a valid claim but could appeal to regulators.

The countys claims are based on the vague possibility of a future, hypothetical catastrophic earthquake, the state said.

Fearmongering and heated rhetoric aside, the county fails to allege a legal or factual basis upon which relief, let alone emergency relief, may be granted, Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Rosenfeld said.

SoCalGas echoed the states arguments in a legal filing. In a letter to politicians and policymakers Monday, it said the countys claims were baseless and wrong.

The company said it didnt agree with Mansdorfers opinion, but it had forwarded his concerns to regulators.

While the company and the state have deemed the facility necessary for home heating and to fuel gas-fired power plants, Southern California has avoided predictions of blackouts over the past year while the facility was closed.

Many residents want to see Aliso Canyon permanently shuttered. They have held boisterous demonstrations at the facilitys gate, at public meetings and outside the courthouse Friday.

`Its very scary, Porter Ranch resident Richard Mathews said after the hearing. So many people are feeling such terrible symptoms from this. People are still getting sick, and if they start the injections, if they increase the pressure 60 percent as expected, it increases the risk to all of us enormously.

Related:

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Topics California Legislation
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Breaking AI Stock News: GBT's (OTCPK: GTCH) Facial and Body Recognition Patent Application Received a Notice of Allowance

San Diego, CA - November 9, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) GBT Technologies Inc. (OTC PINK: GTCH) with GBT Tokenize Corp. ("GBT/Tokenize") received a notice of allowance for its facial and body recognition non-provisional patent application.

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A new medical suite at the Carlisle CARES resource center on West Penn Street will improve access to health care for those in the area who are homeless.

Shari Bellish, executive director of Carlisle CARES, said everyone who comes to Carlisle CARES for emergency shelter is assessed to make sure that the program is the appropriate place for them.

One of the things that was missing doing that assessment was a medical assessment, Bellish said.

Medical assessments will be a regular component of the intake process at Carlisle CARES. Space at the resource center has been renovated to create an exam room and an adjacent intake room. The renovations were funded by the Cumberland County Medical Society, and some of the work was done by volunteers from the Meeting House, which had helped with the original construction of the resource center.

We have a wonderful team of volunteer physicians who are going to come in and give volunteer hours to assess new people coming in to seek services for shelter, Bellish said.

Doctors assessing incoming CARES residents will connect those residents with Sadler Health Center. Sadler is in close proximity to the CARES resource center, and treats people without insurance or with minimal insurance, Bellish said.

We will be able to make sure that they are, in some cases, same-day registered with Sadler, she said.

Rather than the intermittent care that is common among the homeless population, the arrangement will provide continuity of care that will make medical records available for them, said Dr. Holly Hoffman, a volunteer physician who will be part of the new CARES program.

Bellish said the new medical facility is not a regular clinic and will not be open to the general public.

Were only serving the people that are in the program, and we are streamlining the services, medically, for them, she said.

Lancaster and York have clinics in their shelters, and physicians started serving at Gettysburgs shelter last year.

If more than one location is doing it, it tells you that its something that is working and is necessary, Bellish said.

Adding the medical assessment to the intake process will also ensure that the person coming to Carlisle CARES for help will receive the services best suited to their need.

When somebody comes to us seeking services, sometimes being in an emergency shelter isnt the best option. Maybe its rehab. Maybe its a mental health facility. Maybe its an actual hospital, Bellish said.

Its also possible that the doctors will have contacts or be aware of resources to which Carlisle CARES case managers do not have access that may be able to provide assistance to a resident, Bellish said.

Hoffman said conducting medical screening as part of the intake process will also help to limit the spread of contagious diseases, like viruses.

Its critical to prevent the spread of communicable diseases by people coming into the program, she said.

Screening may also help to catch health problems before they become a crisis since doctors may be able see symptoms that are not as evident to the untrained eye of a case manager.

Bellish recalled a resident who had come to the resource center but didnt want to be a burden to anyone. He didnt want to go to a doctor, but mentioned to the staff that his leg was hurting. Though untrained, the staff knew his leg didnt look right, but couldnt tell him what it was. He died later from a blood clot.

Had we had medical staff there to determine if it was urgent, we could have saved the mans life, Bellish said.
A Dublin man who bought the car that was later used in the fatal shooting of Northern Ireland prison officer David Black has been found guilty by the Special Criminal Court of IRA membership.

Mr Black, a 52-year-old father of two, was shot dead on November 1st 2012. He was driving to work at Maghaberry prison when the incident occurred.

Vincent Banks (47), of Smithfield Gate Apartments in Dublin 7 had denied membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Oglaigh na hEireann, otherwise the IRA on December 18th 2012.

During the trial, the non-jury court heard that on November 1st 2012 Mr Black was killed in a "drive-by shooting" by the occupants of a Toyota Camry on the M1 near Lurgan, County Armagh.

The car was later found further along the motorway, burnt out in a ditch. Firearm cartridges connected to the death of Mr Black were found in the car.

Gardai investigating the killing learned that the Camry was registered to a Paul McCann with an address on Rathgar Road in Dublin.

The landlord of the premises told gardai there was no resident of that name living there but that he recalled receiving a letter addressed to Paul McCann. The letter contained the car registration certificate for the Camry.

The Camry had been sold on October 10th. The vendor told gardai that the purchaser had signed the car's log-book with his left hand and held the document with his right hand.

When the log-book was analyzed, Banks' right thumb-print was found.

The car was transported to Carrigallen, County Leitrim, and was parked there until October 31st, the day before Mr Black was shot dead.

Banks was arrested on December 18th. When his house was searched, gardai found a copy of the Evening Herald from November 2nd, open on a page reporting on the killing of Mr Black.

The court heard that during interviews, Banks told gardai he knew nothing about Mr Black or the Camry.

The judges heard that the accused had failed to answer material questions when interviewed under a provision that allows for inferences to be drawn from such a failure.

The court had also heard "belief evidence" from Chief Superintendent Gerry Russell that Banks was an IRA member on the date in question.

The prosecution had alleged that Banks' conduct around the purchase of the Camry was "surreptitious and suspicious".

The defence had argued that the prosecution was unable to point to "one single activity which could be described as uniquely consistent with IRA membership".

Delivering judgement today, Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy, presiding, sitting with Judge Gerard Griffin and Judge Gerard Haughton, said the court accepted the evidence of the chief superintendent, and that this was supported and corroborated by other strands in the prosecution case.

The judge said that it was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Banks was the purchaser of the Camry.

She said the court was also satisfied that during garda interviews Banks either told "lies" or failed to answer material questions and that the court could draw inferences from this failure.

Ms Justice Kennedy stated it was reasonable to draw inferences from the accused man's conduct in the months leading up to his arrest that he was a member of the IRA on the date in question.

Banks was remanded in custody until October 9th, when he will be sentenced.
A car bombing targeted the Iraqi Embassy in central Kabul today, followed by gunfire, Afghan police officials said.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The attack was still under way as witnesses reported hearing gunshots and several subsequent explosions in the area of the embassy. Details were sketchy as police cordoned off the area of the firefight.

Two police officials told the Associated Press that the car bomb exploded outside the embassy, followed by an attempt by gunmen to enter the building, which is located in the centre of the Afghan capital.

Interior Minister spokesman Najib Danish told the AP that the Iraqi diplomats were safe and had been rescued. He said it is believed three gunmen were involved in the attack.

A police officer in the area, who identified himself only as Abdullah, said the gunfire was initially intense but was now sporadic. The area was surrounded by armoured vehicles and a large contingent of police and Afghan soldiers.

More than an hour later, witnesses reported hearing another powerful explosion and saw black smoke billowing skyward. The cause of that blast was not immediately clear.

At least one eyewitness, a store owner who goes by the name of Hafizullah - many Afghans use only one name - said he saw the bodies of two policemen on the ground before armoured personnel carriers and officers arrived to cordon off the area.

"The explosion was so strong. I was so afraid," said Maryam, a woman crying near the site of the attack. She said she works at the nearby office of Afghanistan's national airline Ariana.

The Iraq Embassy is located in a part of the city known as Shahr-e-Now, which lies outside the so-called "green zone" where most foreign embassies and diplomatic missions are located and which is heavily fortified with a phalanx of guards and giant cement blast walls.

By comparison, the Iraqi Embassy is located in a small street in a neighbourhood dominated by markets and businesses.

No-one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, though both the Taliban and an affiliate of the so-called 'Islamic State' have previously carried out such attacks in Kabul.

After Iraqi forces, backed by a US-led coalition, recaptured the city of Mosul from the Islamic State group earlier in July, the Iraq Embassy had called reporters to its offices in Kabul to express concerns that the local 'IS' affiliate might stage large-scale attacks elsewhere to draw away attention from the militant group's losses in Iraq.
President Vladimir Putin has said the United States will have to cut its diplomatic staff in Russia by 755 under new sanctions from Moscow.

On Friday, Russian's foreign ministry ordered a reduction by September 1 in the number of US diplomats in Russia.
Coakley ONeill Town Planning has plenty of thoughts on how Cork can improve its communities, roads, as well ways to ease the housing crisis.

Formed in 2010 when Dave Coakley and Aiden ONeill left a large multinational consultancy, Coakley ONeill is adamant that Cork can compete with any city in Europe  but only if proper planning is implemented. Simplicity is key, says Mr ONeill, and not bureaucratic measures that have hampered other cities.

Key to Corks future is Tivoli, he says. Already in the sights of Cork City Council officials, along with Corks docklands, Mr ONeill believes Tivoli should get priority for development before the docks.

Tivoli should realistically happen first. Its mainly in single ownership. It is probably the best area in Cork for a new urban development, primarily residential. Thousands of people could be housed there. Theyve identified it already but the docklands has taken the focus, he says.

While the docklands has great potential, the costs associated with developing it are worrisome, he argues.

In my opinion the docklands wont be primarily residential. Because of Pairc Ui Chaoimh, it will be akin to something like Wembley in London. There is a flooding issue in the docklands, especially in the south. I worry it is undeliverable. I feel the focus has to change. Tivoli is the primary residential focus in my view because the costs in the docklands are just too high, he says.

Sticking with the keep-it-simple message, Mr ONeill says that while the long-mooted Cork to Limerick motorway is crucial, it will be ineffective unless other key deficits are addressed. There is little point in having a motorway if Dunkettle is not up to scratch, he says, while the Northern Ring Road, which would connect Glanmire and Ballincollig, is key to opening up the northside of the city, as well as liberating Tivolis vast potential as a residential district.

I totally agree Cork to Limerick is a priority but in my own view, Cork has to get its ducks in a row first. I wouldnt want a situation where the M20 is delivered before the other key infrastructure because that makes Limerick and Shannon more attractive.

There has to be an order of priority. We have to see the Dunkettle interchange, Northern Ring Road and M22 Macroom-Ballyvourney bypass prioritised alongside the motorway, he says.

The suspension of Icelandic carrier Wow Airs service from Cork to North America via Reykjavik has put the focus on Corks transatlantic potential. Norwegian Air has solid bookings to and from Providence in Rhode Island, but a solution to make Cork Airport more attractive lies with extending a notoriously short runway, according to Mr ONeill.

Cork was never under consideration from transatlantic carriers in the past because its runway is too short. Norwegians single-aisle 737 aircraft changed that. Mr ONeill notes that an extended runway could facilitate the Airbus 330.

I dont see why extending the runway at Cork Airport is impossible. If its in the interests of the economy, why not? It we are talking about regional balance, then we should be looking at that.

Planning is not easy, Mr ONeill acknowledges, with political influence, as well as delays in implementing EU directives, at fault.

Post Mahon Tribunal, the Planning and Development Act 2010 came into being. That essentially dealt with transposing European law that had essentially been ignored by this country or long-fingered. It is a legitimate complaint, and not just backed up anecdotally, in some communities that some larger shopping centres and large developments should not have been built where they are on flood plains.

There is an element of political influence but it shows that correct policy was not in place. Ultimately politicians may overrule planners. Policy does tend to be reactive. Cork being flooded in 2009 led to policy becoming much tighter.

Simplifying the planning system to build more homes should not be the same as fast-tracking projects, he warns. Fast-track will fail. Modular is ghettos of the future. The same old issues will arise. With no social infrastructure, history will repeat itself, Mr ONeill says.

What is needed is to make it more viable for builders to build homes. Dedicated assistance from local authorities, not just financial incentives from the Government, would go a long way.

To me, the more you make things complicated, the worse it gets. When it comes to land availability, Id like to see dedicated teams in-house.

Locally, housing delivery teams would work when developers go in with a proposal.

It doesnt happen enough. You have to talk to each department instead of a dedicated team.

There is no certainty, of course, with planning because it is a public process, but leaving that aside, there could be some certainty and consistency from experts in-house.
What we now know as Lyme disease started as a medical mystery.

An August 1976 circular letter from the Connecticut Department of Health alerted the medical community that several cases of arthritis had been reported among children around the town of Lyme during the previous November.

The letter describes the symptoms common among the 51 residents of the area who had similar experiences with arthritis. The arthritis was described as usually short and mild but often recurrent attacks of pain and swelling in a few large joints, with longer intervening periods of no symptoms at all.

About half of the patients also reported fever, headaches, weakness and a skin rash. About a quarter of them also had an unusual skin lesion before they started to experience joint pain, according to the letter.

That the cases centered in one geographic area, and that the symptoms started in the summer and early fall led researchers to believe early on that the disease was caused by an insect. By 1977, the black-legged, or deer, tick was linked to the transmission of the disease though it took another five years for the specific bacteria that causes Lyme disease to be discovered.

Lyme disease has spread since those first 51 cases were documented. Ninety-five percent of the nations reported 30,000 cases of Lyme disease were found in 14 states, located primarily in the northeast, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Statistics

Pennsylvania has been the leader in reported Lyme disease cases for the past six years, nearly tripling the number of cases reported in neighboring New York, which was second on the list of states with reported instances of Lyme disease.

Based on the stories they hear, representatives from the Pennsylvania Lyme Resource Network believe the actual number of cases of Lyme disease is much higher.

We say multiply that by 20, 30, 40. Its a lot worse than the government is saying, said Eric Huck, co-founder of the advocacy group. I know hundreds of people who do not have a CDC-positive test.

Data from the state Department of Health show increasing numbers of Lyme disease cases reported in the state. In 2016, there were 89.4 cases of Lyme disease per 100,000 people. That represents an increase from 73.6 cases per 100,000 in 2015, which was an increase from the 58.6 cases per 100,000 people in 2014.

That statistic has to be taken in context. The count for Pennsylvania may look higher compared to others states, but many high-incidence states no longer attempt to count all of their cases, said Nate Wardle, emergency preparedness public information officer at the state Department of Health.

The reason behind the increase in the incidence of Lyme disease is more difficult to pinpoint. Wardle said it is difficult to know whether there are more actual cases of Lyme, or how much of the increase is due to additional surveillance efforts in jurisdictions and greater awareness, testing and reporting of Lyme disease on the part of health care providers.

Symptoms

The CDC separates the symptoms for Lyme disease into two stages: early signs and symptoms, which occur three to 30 days after a tick bit and later signs and symptoms, which occur days to months after a tick bite.

Early symptoms include fever, chills, headache, fatigue, muscle and joint aches, and swollen lymph nodes.

The most visible of the early symptoms is a rash at the site of a tick bite which appears an average of about seven days after the bite. The rash expands gradually and may grow to 12 inches or more across. It may clear as it enlarges, which gives the rash its distinctive bulls-eye appearance.

There is, however, some disagreement as to how common the rash is among Lyme patients. The CDC says the rash occurs in 70 to 80 percent of infected people. Organizations like the Lyme Resource Network say up to 50 percent of the patients never see a bulls-eye rash.

That could be because the rash may not appear as the classic bull's-eye. Dr. Timothy Stonesifer of Cumberland Valley Parochial Medical Clinic in Shippensburg said there may be people who had a small rash but thought it was a different type of bug bite.

Weve been fooled over the years by thinking it has a ring, he said.

Later signs and symptoms listed by the CDC include severe headaches and neck stiffness, additional rashes, arthritis with severe joint pain and swelling, particularly in the knees and other large joints, facial palsy, intermittent pain in tendons, muscles, joints and bones, heart palpitations or an irregular heartbeat, episodes of dizziness or shortness of breath, inflammation of the brain and spinal cord, nerve pain, shooting pains, numbness or tingling in the hands or feet, and problems with short-term memory.

In addition to the symptoms outlined by the CDC, the Pennsylvania Lyme Resource Network also lists the following symptoms: extreme/persistent fatigue, insomnia, sleep disorders, speech disorders, nightmares, suicidal thoughts, TMJ, dry eyes, GI problems, newly developed allergies, hormonal fluctuations or changes, depression, anxiety, exercise or alcohol intolerance, night sweats, swollen glands and low body temperature, among others.

Treatment

Diagnosing Lyme disease can be a challenge.

The CDC says three factors should be considered in determining whether a patient has Lyme. The first is the potential for the patient to have been exposed to ticks in areas prone to Lyme disease. Signs and symptoms of illness and results of blood tests are also factored into a diagnosis.

A two-stage testing process is used. Both tests measure antibodies that the body makes to combat the bacteria that causes Lyme disease. If the first test returns a negative result, no further testing is done. If that first test returns as positive or uncertain, a second test is ordered.

The test, however, has come under fire for being inaccurate. Huck said as many as 50 percent of those with Lyme disease had a negative test result.

In its September 2015 report, the Task Force on Lyme Disease and Related Tick-Borne Diseases wrote, "The most critical research gap is the lack of a gold-standard test for Lyme and for other tick-borne infections; a test that can quickly and accurately diagnose the disease, and prove or disprove ongoing persistence."

The task force had been created by Act 83 of 2014 and charged with improving the state's response to tick-borne illnesses.

Stonesifer said there is increasing pressure on both the Centers for Disease Control and the FDA to create a more accurate test, possibly within the next year.

Stonesifers practice is one of 15 test sites across the East Coast conducting a borella culture study that could pave the way for a more accurate test that could eventually be developed into a urine test.

If we get new testing, it will be a game changer, he said.
The estimate assumes low regulation but high levels of enforcement and is based on World Trade Organisation (WTO) data on the cost of trading across borders, Andrew Meaney, a partner at the Oxford-based policy analyst, said.

It comes as Taoiseach Leo Varadkar publicly stepped up the Governments warnings about the threat of Britain erecting a Brexit economic border across Ireland.

If the UK fails to strike a trade deal with the EU, Britain must rely on normal WTO trade rules to access EU markets, and there will be no free movement of people in the absence of bilateral agreements and tariffs may be imposed, according to Chartered Accountants Ireland. The UKs exit from the EU is scheduled for the end of March 2019. Mr Meaney described the figure as extremely conservative.

He said the estimate does not take into account the economic costs of uncertainty involved, extra staff, traffic congestion or land on which to conduct the checks, and said the actual number would likely be much higher.

He called on the UK government to prioritise the issue when it returns from its summer recess in September. Business in both the UK and the EU needs to know very soon the customs rules under which they will be trading, he said.

The decision cannot be part of a last-minute deal on the eve of Brexit, due to the time it will take to get trade moving under the new arrangements, he said.

Mr Meaneys report outlines four possible scenarios, ranging from low levels of regulation and enforcement, which is most similar to the current system, to high levels of both  something the port of Dover has described as Armageddon.

While the British government still seems determined to leave the single market and customs union that currently give Britain free trade with the EU, it has signalled it is moving toward agreement to seek a transition period of up to three years.

Bloomberg and Irish Examiner staff
The Bank of Ireland July survey  based on the views of 1,000 households and over 2,000 firms  and which is used by the EU, also shows that economic sentiment fell in Dublin, but that confidence in the capital is still far ahead of the rest of Leinster, Munster and the Connacht-Ulster region.

The disparity between the regions was a major issue in the general election last year and may be again if an early election is called.
After an aged water pipe gave up the ghost last week, bringing havoc into the lives of 70,000 people in the North East, the website Waterford Whispers suggested that the burst main was too rural to fix quickly while advising those affected to seriously think about moving closer to Dublin.

The website predicted that a new pipe could be in place by the time the TDs and Senators return from their holidays in September.

Flippancy has its place. Laughter is good for the soul but, really, after decades of neglect of this most basic of services, the joke is surely on all of us.

Irish voters have really been slow on the uptake when it comes to politicians who come calling, offering freebies.

We think we are sophisticated. Those politicians are all the same!, we scream. In reality, all too often, we will fall for any electioneering medicine man with a magic tonic in his knapsack.

The debate on water charges is over for the foreseeable future. Those who sought to argue for a system of household charges based on consumption have been shouted down, but the underlying issues cannot be shoved so easily away.

Now comes the day of reckoning as the bill for the neglect of investment in our water supply starts really to fall due. Jerry Grant, the managing director of Irish Water, has provided little in the way of comfort.

He acknowledged that the Louth-Meath emergency was a real failure, telling RTE that all we can do is offer an apology.

There could be many more on the way to other communities around the country. Mr Grant warned that there are simply no guarantees. A generation of asbestos pipes that came onstream since the 1960s are reaching the end of their lives. Many are brittle and could fail suddenly, he warned.

This state of affairs is the consequence of bad planning and neglect, as well as base political cowardice.

Politicians queue up to cut ribbons on roads and buildings. No-one wishes to be seen near a sewer.

Such work is best left to lowly types with hard hats. But take a trip back to the 19th century and you will discover that the groundwork for huge improvements in mass health was laid by the planners and engineers of our water and sewerage systems.

Our ancestors left us a grand capital investment legacy which has been largely frittered away. There is now real concern about the prospect of major failures in our water infrastructure as many reservoirs reach the end of their useful life.

Irish Water is planning a 80m investment in a new reservoir but that is only the start. Ageing lead pipes are badly in need of replacing.

According to Mr Grant, 860km of pipes have been replaced in the past three years. There are 25,000km of water pipes in Ireland.

As Irish Water itself acknowledges, the average age of water pipes here is much older than across Europe, while we are losing half of our clean water through leaks.

The equivalent leakage figure for the UK is 23%. The superior performance is due to an investment of over 145bn in the period since privatisation in 1989.

Water companies plan to invest at least 5.65bn a year over the next five years.

Of course, there is a downside in that households in England and Wales pay on average almost 400 (447) a year in charges whether as owners or tenants. What this means is that there is a guaranteed flow of income into water companies, an income stream which can be used to attract further investment from the private sector.

Irish Water published a seven-year business plan, in October 2015, in which it committed itself to an investment of 5.5bn over the period 2014 to 2021.

Critics suggest that this is less than a half of what is actually required.

However, Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy, who  lucky man  is charged with tackling this issue, has not provided much in the way of reassurance.

He told Morning Ireland that Irish Water is getting the funding it requires this year.

As for the 640m it seeks for 2018 and the 700m in 2019, this will have to be fought for in cabinet, he warned.

One has to wonder about peoples senses of priorities when ministers prattle on about building new cities from scratch and plan for metros on the rather shaky basis that almost every other EU big city has one.

It may be time for Mr Murphy, admittedly fresh to the cabinet table, to display a bit of mettle.

The problems do not end with rusty pipes and aged reservoirs. Irish Water has warned that raw sewage is being pumped into 44 locations, including at the Lower Harbour in Cork.

As a top official at the Irish Water holding company, Ervia, once put it: This is ridiculous.

The country is already faced with EU infringement proceedings across four fronts over breaches of waste water directives.

Irish Water has taken over from 44 local authorities and has moved to make annual operational savings that it hopes can reach 272m by 2021. But, as the infrastructure expands, new costs, in turn, will be incurred.

The company has called for the establishment of a UK-style drinking water inspectorate. It could be making a rod for its own back. Think of the HSE and Hiqa.

The health and safety issues are very real, with rural consumers faced with pesticide contamination while city dwellers cope with accumulated lead in ageing pipes. The Government needs urgently to ring fence money while stepping up the level of accountability and transparency in relation to the ongoing spend.

Outside investment can be leveraged through the pension and savings industry.

Already, water has been identified by many in the investment as a good source of long term financial return.

Other jurisdictions are taking action as water shortages grow. The State of California, faced with long term drought, has approved 890m in incentives for recycled water projects.

In the City of London, investors scent opportunity. The Pictet Water fund has produced some spectacular returns as worldwide demand for water and decent waste treatment outstrips supply.

The United Nations has warned that by 2025, two-thirds of the worlds population could be experiencing water stress.

Irish Water could be a reliable outlet for investors seeking a steady return and, these days, money is available at cheap rates by historical standards.

But Irish Water needs to get its ducks in a row financially if it is to attract such long-term funding.

In 2012, Engineers Ireland cautioned that financial burdens should not be placed on Irish Water which will effectively kill it at birth. It added that the legacy costs of years of under-investment in basic infrastructure should be recognised in its financial model.

Sadly, this warning has not been heeded.
Glynn Langston, from Louisiana in the US, made his observation after a volunteer tour guide at Youghals Clock Gate tower made an exceptional effort to provide him with an authentic tour of the 18th-century monument. Dorothy Heaphy built a Lego replica of Youghal as a 16th century walled port to compensate for the visual map that commences the tours.

She also circled a cardboard juice bottle with elastic bands, using Lego for windows, to indicate the towers four floors, before adding an eggshell for the dome.

Enabled to perceive the towers street location and design, the American visitor was taken totally by surprise, but it worked perfectly, he said.

Dorothy said the improvised models will now remain in situ for further blind visitors.

Houston-born Glynn, aged 68, was blind at birth and is globally renowned for his voluntary public speaking, on disability awareness a in schools, churches, and community groups.

Living in Cork in the 1970s and 80s, he was the voice for the wireless for the blind campaign run by the National Council for the Blind.

Parents of two Cork-born children, he and wife Ann have Irish citizenship. They spend five months annually in Youghal, working on their US-based Bible-producing business  including Braille versions  via the internet.

The campaigner also compiles articles and radio interviews for international audiences and is a keen musician and singer.

Generally, he finds museums not generally benign towards blind people, but Glynn said the revamped Youghal tower was unique, intimate, and the best museum experience Ive had anywhere.

The building cannot easily accommodate wheelchair access and has no lifts, but Glynn said: I strongly recommend it to visually impaired agencies.

Visitors must negotiate steps on a steep, preserved, passageway, but within the tower its history and that of the town is guide-spoken throughout and enhanced by special effects.
However, that situation may be about to change, as a resident of Corks Muscrai Gaeltacht is aiming to tackle the issue via a crowd- funding initiative.

Tomas O hAodha is a Gaeilgeoir and experienced software developer, who has worked in the community development sector.

He has launched a Kickstarter campaign in order to fund the estimated 4,000 cost of translating some 40,000 words that would allow WordPress to operate as Gaeilge.

The online campaign, which closes next week, has so far raised more than 1,000 towards its target and is being run on an all-or- nothing basis, meaning it will only come to fruition if the total amount is pledged.

I want to give people a fuller Irish language experience when they create and use blogs and other websites using the open-source WordPress content management system, said Tomas.

For a minority language to thrive, it needs a great community and the Irish language has such a great community, both online and off.

Tomas described the frustration he and other Gaeilgeoiri feel at having to use English in order to operate WordPress sites, even when their content is as Gaeilge.

Ive put together quite a number of sites for Irish language groups and for my own use, and even though I can put the content in Irish, the background is always in English, he said. Its all the back end of it, when you log in  if youre administering or using WordPress, its in English.

When he researched the logistics of translating WordPress into Irish, he found others had already started the project, but their work was incomplete.

As WordPress is an open- source framework, it means anyone can change it, he said. So I went to the WordPress site and there was already a voluntary group that had started work on it, but it was just too big a project.

The 4,000 costs associated with Tomas project will aid the funding of a Foras na Gaeilge-accredited translator, Brid Ni Fhlathuin, who will also proof-read and collate the work already done and standardise the Irish terminology used.

My role in this project is purely as an organiser, said Tomas, who has 20 years experience as a software developer. My challenge is technical. I take the translation and integrate it into the WordPress framework.

He made a deliberate choice to pursue the crowd-funding option rather than applying for a grant from an Irish language organisation.

Tomas said he wanted to see if the Irish language community will fund it themselves because once the 40,000 words are translated its free for everybody to use.

In reality I havent a notion whether this is going to succeed, he said . But I feel two things very strongly  firstly that WordPress should be available in Irish. And, furthermore, the Irish language community needs to be able to stand independently, without always depending on the usual sources of funding.

Irish Language Wordpress on Kickstarter
The 28-year-old Ballymena actor was in his debut film role as one of the Knights of the Round Table mounted astride a magnificent white horse in a film which launched the careers of some of the most celebrated actors in the planet.

A new documentary, set to be screened on RTE tonight, has its cast and crew spilling inside stories about the making of John Boormans classic which put Ireland on the map as a film location.

It was the homegrown movie which debuted the trio of Liam Neeson, Gabriel Byrne and Helen Mirren on the big screen, along with launching the careers of Patrick Stewart, Ciaran Hinds and Neil Jordan.

In the documentary, Neeson tells how one member of the Traveller community, who was an extra, very persistently tried to buy the horse he was riding during a break in filming.

I was on this beautiful white horse on my suit of armour somewhere near Sally Gap in the movie (scene).

There was a break in filming and a lot of the extras were Travelling people and I was on my horse and this guy come and says Sir, how much for the horse? I said No, no its not my horse, I cant sell the horse, it belongs to that guy.

He said, No, no I want to speak to you. He reached into his rag and pulled out a fistful of notes. I kid you not, would have choked a donkey. I dont know who many thousands of pounds were in there, to barter for this horse. Wouldnt take no for an answer at all, he said laughing.

Both Patrick Stewart and Keeping Up Appearances star Clive Smith revealed some of the battle scenes became a bit too realistic for comfort in the movie which was made without any 21st-century special effects.

It was exciting and adventurous times spending those mostly glorious summer months in Ireland with these extraordinary people. Excalibur

is in many respect an action movie. One of the charming aspects of Johns direction, but also very difficult, is John had no real interest in the choreographed part of the action. What he really liked was the improvised action, which given swords and battle axes and full armour, could be quite scary.

Actor Clive Smith went into more detail about the improvised battle scenes. I suddenly realised that there were wooden arrows shafts being fired down from a tower and one of them just missed my horse, he said.

I remember riding out of shot and coming up to where John and the camera man were and I said, I think this is really rather dangerous and John (Boorman) said, Oh get back in, nobody is going to get hurt.

Excalibur

: Behind the Movie is on tonight on RTE One at 9.35pm followed by the film Excalibur

at 10.35pm
While the Fianna Fail leader wants to lead the next Government, he has left open the possibility of forming a grand coalition with Fine Gael.

In a significant shift, Mr Martin has told the Irish Examiner he hasnt ruled anything in or out after the next general election.

It comes after Fine Gael MEP Brian Hayes, who was the partys 2016 director of elections, told the MacGill Summer School that a grand coalition between his party and Fianna Fail is the only way forward after the next election to secure a stable five-year administration.

In an interview with this paper, Mr Martin categorically ruled out doing a deal with Sinn Fein, claiming there are issues with their whole approach to politics.

As far as we are concerned, we want to increase the number of seats we have  we have 45 at the moment and I think the situation [is that] there could be other coalition governments that could be available after the next election, so lets not rule anything in or out at this particular point in time, other than I have made it very clear on the Sinn Fein option.

Asked directly whether he agreed with Mr Hayes Glenties speech, he said: We havent ruled anything in or anything out in terms of we want to lead the next government, thats our position and we are impatient with the lack of progress at the moment, we think on the two big issues of housing and health, the Government has failed.

While remaining open to the possibility of joining forces in government with Fine Gael in the near future, he did warn that such an arrangement would allow Sinn Fein to grow and become the largest party in opposition  a factor which would have to be considered before entering any grand coalition.

We have made the point that a grand coalition opens up the opportunity for Sinn Fein and other people and I think the centre ground of Irish politics could be irreparably damaged in such a scenario and that has to be factored in as well.

This is a significant watering down of the hardline stance by Mr Martin during government formation talks lat year, when he refused a partnership government model proposed by then taoiseach Enda Kenny.

The deal would have meant a rotating Taoiseach and ministerial positions being split across both parties and with some of the Independents.

Mr Martin was cautious against fully setting out his stall ahead of any election as last years vote had proved that predicting outcomes is now almost impossible.

I was blue in the face in studios for about a year saying Its not about Fianna Fail just propping up Fine Gael, which every commentator, every interviewer, was saying to me and they got it wrong.

The fact is that the result was completely different to what they had predicted.

Something similar could happen at the next election so we cant pre-empt what will happen, we dont know what support  there is some evidence the two parties may consolidate, they may improve, they may not  so its wide open.

Pressed again on the possibility of a grand coalition with Fine Gael, he said: We havent got to that stage. We want to go into government, we want to lead the next government, but obviously that depends on the level of support we get, we couldnt go into government this time we didnt get the support, small parties and Independents didnt support us.

While Mr Martin said he is confident Budget 2018 can be passed in October, he was more ambiguous about the following year which comes under three-budget promise in the confidence and supply agreement.

Obviously given politics and the nature of it, we will take one budget at a time.
Tusla CEO Fred McBride admitted significant mistakes have been made by those working for the agency and has vowed that people will be held to account.

The tribunal has heard that, because of an administrative error, a Tusla file relating to garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe contained details of a serious assault from an unrelated case.

Appearing before the tribunal, which is examining claims of a smear campaign against Sgt McCabe, Tusla chief operations officer Jim Gibson said serious case-management mistakes had been made, but denied the agency covered-up.

In 2006, Ms D alleged that she had been sexually assaulted by Sgt McCabe in 1998. But after investigating the matter, the DPP decided that the allegation would not constitute an offence. A Tusla file on Sgt McCabe was subsequently opened, after Ms D sought counselling in 2013, to which more serious allegations, from an unrelated case, were incorrectly added.

Mr McBride said: I would agree that it is very uncomfortable listening for us and has been a difficult few months. The whole issue of historical allegations has been one of the major allegations facing us, since we were set up as an agency.

Having said all of that, in this particular case, there is, no doubt, significant mistakes were made and practice has simply fallen well below the standards that we expect.

He told RTEs This Week programme that there is some notion that those working in Tusla are not sanctioned, but he said that this is not the case and people are being held to account as we speak. He added that fair and due process would have to apply.

I will not defend the indefensible, and some of the things we are hearing from the tribunal, I think, are coming into that category, so, yes, people will be held to account for these mistakes, said Mr McBride

While many of the complaints received by the Child and Family Agency are historic and predate it, Mr McBride also admitted mistakes have been made since the establishment of Tusla.

We have made mistakes since we became an agency in our own right, he said. I will absolutely own up to these mistakes.
LAST week, German foreign minister, Sigmar Gabriel, interrupted his holiday on the North Sea to respond to Turkeys jailing of a German human-rights activist. Gabriel warned German tourists about the dangers of visiting Turkey, and advised German firms to think twice before investing in a country where the authorities commitment to the rule of law is increasingly dubious.

This amounts to a new German policy toward Turkey, and it further confirms Germanys status as an economic power. Gabriels announcement shocked the Turkish government, because it recalled Russian President Vladimir Putins response to Turkeys downing of a Russian warplane in 2015. The sanctions that Russia imposed cost Turkeys already-struggling economy $15bn, and eventually forced Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to offer a groveling apology.

Putins aggression came as no surprise. By contrast, Germanys decision to respond in a similar fashion marks a break from its more accommodating diplomatic style.

Retired German diplomat, Volker Stanzel, told me that Gabriels latest move is in keeping with his personality and knack for political calculation. In anticipation of Germanys national election this September, Gabriel knows that his Social Democratic Party (SPD) has nothing to lose by standing up to Erdogan, who has alienated Germans with his authoritarian personality, Islamist leanings, and flippant allusions to the Holocaust.

Stanzel also says that Gabriel, who is influenced as much by the media as by other diplomats, wants to craft a more public-facing style of diplomacy. And, because his previous government post was in the ministry for economic affairs and energy, it is natural that he would use economic pressure as a measure of first resort.

Still, Germanys changing global posture predates Gabriel, who is a relative newcomer at the foreign ministry. During the euro crisis, Germany deployed economic means for economic ends within Europe. But in its policies toward Russia, Turkey, China, and the United States, Germany has increasingly been using its economic strength to advance larger strategic goals.

After Putin annexed Crimea, in March, 2014, the Wests response was led not by the US, but by Germany, which spearheaded diplomacy with Russia and Ukraine to de-escalate the conflict.

Germany then persuaded the rest of the European Union to agree to unprecedentedly tough sanctions against Russia to deter further aggression.

Germany has maintained that united European front for three years, defying all expectations.

And now that Russia-related scandals loom large over US President Donald Trumps administration, Europeans are increasingly looking to Germany to continue its leadership on this issue.

Germany also negotiated a deal with Turkey to reduce the flow of Middle East refugees to Europe, effectively recasting the EU-Turkish relationship. Rather than maintain the fiction that Turkey is still a viable candidate for EU accession, Germany has forged a more realistic, strategic, bilateral relationship.

Europe can still work with Turkey to advance common interests, but it can also raise objections to Erdogans increasing authoritarianism.

Of course, the willingness of German chancellor Angela Merkel to confront Trump may be the most surprising foreign-policy change of all. Shortly after meeting with Trump, at the G7 summit in Sicily, this May, she delivered a speech calling on Europe to take our fate into our own hands. That alone marks a departure from decades of German diplomacy.

So far, the rupture in German-US relations has been mostly rhetorical. But Merkel is also shoring up Germanys geopolitical position by diversifying its global partnerships, especially with China.

According to Stanzel, who previously served as Germanys ambassador in Beijing, Merkel has no illusions about China, but she sees it as a partner on climate, trade, and the politics of order. Germanys new approach to great-power politics has evolved incrementally, and in response to seemingly unrelated events.

But even if Germany isnt following a master plan, its core strengths have enabled it to leverage its economic power, use EU institutions and budgets as a force multiplier, and to build international coalitions in pursuit of strategic goals. Moreover, Germanys changing diplomacy represents a continuation of the normalisation process that began with German reunification in 1989, spawning major domestic debates about the use of military force and the importance of Germanys relationships with the US, Russia, and other European powers.

All of this suggests that Germany may finally be escaping from two complexes that have long constrained its strategic thinking. The first is its psycho-historical complex, which forces German leaders to bend over backward to reassure foreigners about their intentions.

This explains why Germany has long insisted on contributing, not leading or leading from the middle, and now embraces the idea of servant leadership.

The second complex concerns the countrys military posture. Germany still spends a modest 1.2% of its GDP on defence, and its internal debates about power tend to be driven by concerns about military budgets, troop deployments, and foreign interventions.

At the same time, the consensus within the German security establishment about the use of force is changing. Germany has been building bilateral military ties with countries ranging from Norway and the Netherlands to Japan. It has also begun taking a more active role in various theatres of operation, by deploying troops in Afghanistan and Mali, and providing support for Kurdish fighters in Syria and Iraq.

And it has been leading an effort, alongside France, to create an EU defence fund.

These are all important developments. But they are nowhere near as important as Germanys decision to bring its massive economic power to bear on the world stage.

Gabriels recent response to Turkey is a step in that direction. Why send troops abroad, when you can have a larger impact by keeping tourists and world-class companies at home?

Mark Leonard is director of the European Council on Foreign Relations.
THE influence of religion in Ireland is on the wane, and over the past 40 years in particular, this has been an accelerating phenomenon. The truth is Ireland is losing its religion.

The socio-moral implications of this decline have been dramatic, though we are far from having a full picture. Too much has changed too quickly for us to be able to discern a pattern. And while the increasing marginalisation of religion may be welcomed by ardent secularists and militant atheists, it presents a profound challenge for wider society.

Since the foundation of the modern Irish State in 1922, religion has been the social cement that provided cohesion and stability, and it was religion primarily that shaped our common moral framework.

Our value-system was rooted in religion, and in his book Moral Monopoly, Tom Inglis of UCD has traced how the Catholic Church established a monopoly over Irish morality. That monopoly has now been broken, he asserts, and there is abundant evidence to support this view. But the consequences have, as yet, been only dimly perceived.

In his book Empty Pulpits: Irelands Retreat from Religion, Malachi ODoherty emphasises that the collapse of religion, in one of the most conspicuously devout countries of Europe, is both fascinating and pertinent to an understanding of the world we live in.

And a key to that understanding is the spread of secularisation.

One simple sign of secularisation is the reduction in the numbers of people going to church, writes ODoherty. A more stark one is the reduction in recruitment to the priesthood, ministry or religious orders.

Another is the relaxation of the felt need in government to defer to the institutional church or the religious sensibilities of the electorate. All these trends are strongly evident in Ireland. ODoherty says this doesnt mean that we are all atheists  yet. But we are getting by without God, most of the time.

Many of the themes dealt with by ODoherty had also been explored in an earlier book entitled Goodbye to Catholic Ireland, written by my former Irish Press colleague Mary Kenny. She, too, took a pessimistic view of the future of Irish Catholicism.

She linked the decline in the institutional Church to the decline in the Catholic faith as a central part of Irish culture.

Although Catholicism has marked certain values, and has deposited its heritage in the culture, it is widely accepted that the Catholic Church means much less to young people in Ireland today than it has ever done in the course of Christian history. The young Irish no longer see catholicity as part of their identity.

Mary Kenny was writing in 1996  the disconnect between young people and the Church today is even greater than it was back then.

If one were seeking one subject and one decisive turning-point marking the beginning of a significant abandonment of religion, then that subject would be contraception, and the date would be 1968 which saw the publication of Pope Paul VIs anti-contraceptive encyclical Humanae Vitae.

I believe that the questioning of, and dissent from, the teaching of Humanae Vitae was a watershed in the Catholic Church, admitted Willie Walsh, the retired Bishop of Killaloe, in his memoir No Crusader.

Malachi ODoherty agrees: The turning point in Ireland, in the 1960s, is widely credited to the Catholic Churchs assertive stand against artificial contraception. Catholic women could no longer be honest with their confessors, or accept their right to dictate their sexual behaviour. So they ceased in huge numbers to pay any serious attention to the clergy.

The desertion of the Church by women seriously undermined the basis of religious faith. After all, traditionally it was the mothers of Ireland who transmitted the faith from one generation to the next.

Paul VIs controversial and extremely divisive encyclical  which was deeply disappointing to the many who hoped for change  dealt a serious blow to the Churchs moral authority. In Ireland, it meant that since the 1970s, the Church has been struggling to come to terms with the fact that it no longer regulates the lives of most people.

Of course later on, the series of child sex abuse scandals that so shocked the nation also contributed to a growing sense of disenchantment with and alienation from the institutional Church. It could hardly be otherwise.

There is no doubting the enormous damage done to the prestige of the Catholic Church by these scandals, according to Louise Fuller on NUI Maynooth.

In her book Irish Catholicism since 1950: The Undoing of a Culture she writes: But ironically it was precisely because of its enormous prestige and the high moral ground on which on which the Church had stood, that Irish Catholics were so shocked, disappointed and appalled. What sharpened the irony was that, of all aspects of morality, the Church was perceived as being particularly concerned to promote sexual morality, and these scandals flew in the face of the strict code of sexual morality so emphasised in the preaching of the Church  these were sins of the flesh, which many felt that the Church was obsessed with to the point of promoting prudishness.

Ms Fuller also reminds us that the importance of the media cannot be underestimated in any consideration of cultural change.

Whereas the Irish media in the main could be described as Church-friendly in the 1950s, television took the lead in steering the media in general into a more critical stance, and this new development gathered momentum in the 1970s, she says.

With the collapse of religion and the values it promoted, the problem today is that Irish society has to contend with a moral vacuum. Some would say we are facing a moral wasteland, and some evidence of this can be seen in the rise in anti-social behaviour, petty crime and serious violent crime, and growing disrespect for persons and property.

And as the various tribunals of inquiry have revealed, corruption and corporate crime are more commonplace than many of us were prepared to admit.

It is premature, of course, to speak of post-Catholic Ireland.

We should never forget that the drift from institutional religion doesnt always equate with actual loss of faith. Yet we have witnessed profound changes. A transformation is occurring in present-day Irish society as dramatic as that which occurred during the middle of the last century, according to Tom Inglis.

The monolithic Church which brought a holistic view to Irish social, economic and political life is beginning to fragment.

What all of this means is that if Pope Francis comes to Ireland next year (and the invitation has already been extended), he will find a very different set of circumstances to those which prevailed in 1979 when Pope John Paul II made his historic visit.
Fifty years after actress Jayne Mansfield died in a Buick that slammed underneath a tractor-trailer, auto safety advocates say regulations inspired by that gruesome crash need updating to prevent hundreds of similar deaths annually.

Were asking Congress to pass a bill that would mandate comprehensive underride protection, not only on tractor-trailers but on single-unit trucks, such as dump trucks, said Marianne Karth, who lost two teenage daughters, AnnaLeah and Mary, when her Crown Victoria crashed beneath a tractor-trailer in Georgia in 2013.

After two cars skidded under a jackknifed milk tanker truck in northern New York on July 6, killing four people, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer called on federal regulators to order big trucks to be equipped with side guards that would prevent cars from sliding beneath them in a crash.

The devastation of crashes like these  a result of a gap in truck safety standards  could be reduced, Schumer, a Democrat, said.

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 301 of the 1,542 car occupants killed in collisions with a tractor-trailer in 2015 died when their vehicle struck the side of the rig. Another 292 died when their vehicle struck the rear. The institutes researchers estimate that half the fatal crashes between large trucks and passenger vehicles involve underride, which makes air bags and other crash protection ineffective because the top half of the car is sheared off.

Under regulations enacted following Mansfields death, big rigs are required to have rear underride guards to keep cars from traveling beneath the back of a trailer in a collision. Known as Mansfield bars, they consist of two vertical steel bars supporting a horizontal bar less than 2 feet (61 centimeters) from the ground.

Side guards arent required by federal regulations, but at least three cities  Boston, New York and Seattle  mandate them on city-owned trucks to eliminate deaths and injuries, particularly among pedestrians and bicyclists.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says side guards could prevent hundreds of deaths per year in the U.S. This spring, the institute crashed a car into a trailer equipped with a side guard called AngelWing, a steel rail covered with fiberglass. The cars front end crumpled but the test dummy was protected by the air bags and seat belt. Without the guard, the passenger compartment was sheared off, causing devastating head injuries to the dummy.

Karth and Lois Durso, whose 26-year-old daughter Roya died in a side underride crash in Indiana in 2004, have been working together to lobby Congress and the Department of Transportation for a side guard requirement as well as stronger rear guards. Their proposed legislation has no sponsor yet.

They talked about side underride protection in 1969, but nobody has pursued it relentlessly, Karth said. I wish somebody would have done it so maybe our daughters would still be here.

Before it issued is last set of regulations for rear-impact guards in 1996, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it had determined that side-underride countermeasures were not cost-effective.

The trucking industry supports other efforts to avoid crashes, such as automatic emergency braking and collision warning systems, said Sean McNally, spokesman for the American Trucking Associations. But the industry is looking to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to address questions about the effectiveness of side underride guards, he said.

The Truck Trailer Manufacturers Association said in comments submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in May 2016 that there are no side impact guards commercially available for installation on trailers. The trade group said customer demand is non-existent due to the relatively low frequency of side underride accidents, the significant added cost and weight per trailer for designs that had been evaluated, and many unresolved technical challenges.

One consequence of adding the extra weight of side guards to trailers would be displacement of cargo onto additional trailers, which would add more heavy trucks to the highways and increase the risk of all types of accidents, said John Freiler, engineering manager of the manufacturers association.

In the northern New York crash, a milk tanker truck jackknifed across both lanes of Interstate 81 when the driver swerved to avoid hitting deer. Two cars skidded beneath and beyond the tanker, killing a doctor in one car and three workers riding in another car after their ambulance broke down.

R.B. Lawrence, owner of the ambulance company that lost three employees, said hed like to see safety measures to prevent similar tragedies, but hes not sure if the best solution is underride guards or improved braking technology to prevent jackknife crashes.

Im all about saving lives, Lawrence said. Im just terribly upset by what happened. This has been an absolute nightmare.
Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, hosts a grand opening event on July 18 at its new state-of-the-art building in Irving, Texas, with North America senior leadership and local government officials.

This new central location will facilitate seamless delivery of services to our American customers. Atos vitalizes innovation in the region by combining top experts in Infrastructure and Data Management, Business and Process Solutions, Big Data, Cybersecurity, Unified Communications, and Healthcare industry specialists. The building will house 650 employees dedicated to our customers and their account teams.

This new building in Dallas is a natural progression of our trajectory in the United States, said Michel-Alain Proch, Group Senior Executive Vice President and CEO North America. By providing the latest technology to our employees, we want to empower them to achieve firsts in the industry for our customers. To accelerate our expansion, we will continue to recruit top talent in the region.

Atos will invite customers to the first North American Business Technology and Innovation Center (BTIC) for hands-on experiences with the latest Atos innovations. The BTIC offers customers tangible interactions across the four pillars of the Atos Digital Transformation Factory  Atos Canopy Orchestrated Hybrid Cloud, SAP HANA by Atos, Atos Digital Workplace, and Atos Codex. Our successful delivery in the Cloud for the last Olympic & Paralympic Games will also be displayed.

As a digital company, Atos defined a working environment with state-of-the-art collaboration technology for its employees. Along with the BTIC, the new building offers an open environment with large workspaces, touchscreen interfaces, and wireless presentation tools.

Going hand-in-hand with the buildings technological capabilities are its accessibility and environmental sustainability, two key elements of its design. The building complies with the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and by 2018 it will reduce our regional CO2 emissions by c. 1,400 tons and waste volume by c. -60%.

Putting people first is at the heart of why Atos has been recognized for its employee engagement and wellbeing programs. The American Heart Association recently honored Atos employee fitness initiatives; and last year, Atos was recognized as the North American Employee Engagement Company of the Year specifically for its Wellbeing@Work program which fosters wellness alongside career success.

The Irving Mayor, Chamber of Commerce and Atos leaders will host the grand opening event, featuring a ribbon-cutting ceremony and tours of the BTIC and campus. Guest speakers include Atos North America President Chad Harris and newly-elected Irving Mayor Rick Stopfer.

Atos is a significant addition to Irvings roster of leading national and international corporations, said Irving Mayor Rick Stopfer. Not only has Atos chosen a stunning new facility, the company will contribute a tremendous depth of experience, opportunity and leadership to our great city. We are proud Atos chose Irving as its North American Regional Headquarters, and we welcome this exceptionally innovative technology company and its employees to their new Irving home.

Contributed by Greater Irving Las Colinas Chamber of Commerce
If you judge someone by their enemies, Tom Schatz is Robin Hood of the swamp, joined by his merry band of government analysts.

Targeting piggish U.S. senators, representatives and the hometown troughs into which they dump your tax dollars, Schatz is the president of Citizens Against Government Waste, which can easily be judged by some of its most vocal critics.

The late Ted Stevens, a corrupt Republican senator whose personal gain from the public trust earned him the enmity of honest brokers in his own party, is proudly quoted in the organizations latest Pig Book growling, All they are is a bunch of psychopaths.

Legendary glutton and the late King of Pork, Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd, whose name humbly adorns countless West Virginia government buildings, parks, rest stops and likely more than a few outhouses, complained, Those peckerwoods dont know what theyre doing. They dont. Theyre not being realistic.

Its unknown if this is the only time the word, peckerwood was proudly broadcast on National Public Radio.

The reason the little pink pamphlet is so important is because it outlines not only earmarked spending that senators and representatives send to their home states with little or no oversightand certainly no open competition for testing the validity of such spending  but also the effects this has on everyday life.

For example, Citizens Against Government Wastes Pig Book explains that the Airport and Airways Trust Fund (AATF) wastes millions of dollars financing infrastructure at airports in such a way that it actually prevents competition among airlines at airports.

The AATF allows only limited spending on maintenance and improvements, limiting the number of gates airports can build.This forces airports to ration gate access through long-term contracts, creating an impossible financial barrier for potential competitors. Meanwhile in Europe, many countries have freed their airports, resulting in more competition and lower airfares.

Want to know who earmarked millions of tax dollars for theaters, museums, opera houses and mansions that charge the public over $70,000 for weddings and events? Its in there.

The good news is that many earmarks have been reduced in the 2017 budget. The bad news is that congress critters will tell you that they enacted a moratorium on earmarks in 2011, even though Citizens Against Government Waste found billions in such earmarks ever since 2011.

$6 million may not seem like much in terms of federal spending, which is pathetic in itself. Consider hundreds of $6 million throw-away projects and now you see the problem.

One such problem is Hawaiis East-West Center.

Even the State Department doesnt think the U.S. needs a center in Hawaii to promote better relations with Pacific and Asian nations.

Apparently, someones family member needs a job, because it was built in 1960 anyway and continues to suck away your tax dollars every year.

Schatz and his team point out that the North-South Center in Miami is very similar, designed to somehow build better relations between the U.S., Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada through cooperative study, training and research.

The 2009 Congressional Research Service Report came right out and said it hasnt funded the North-South Center since 2001 and should continue not funding it. It should be funded by the private sector.

Thats pretty much the description of the East-West Center, too.

However, Democrat Brian Schatz, who represents Hawaii, sure does a fine job of larding up the center, continuing the pork tradition of spewing over $138 million into the center since 1997.

If your taxes are going up with no improvement in services, you need to pay attention to Citizens Against Government Waste and vote accordingly.

They give you an excellent resource, naming Republicans and Democrats who need to be loudly excoriated for pimping the system, then replacing it at the next election.

As for the Robin Hood analogy, consider this description made years ago by an former economics professor of mine at the University of Missouri:

Robin Hood stole from the government, not rich people. All those rich folks from whom Robin stole were friends of the Nottingham Sheriff; cronies. They did the bidding of the government and so the government did theirs. They were not independent, wealthy individuals. They were a part of the Sheriffs fascist government.
   -     :        ,        
The Winston-Salem downtown restaurant scene is constantly evolving, much like all of downtown.

So visitors to the National Black Theatre Festival may find more than a few new choices for eating downtown.

Like any other city, weve lost a few restaurants in the last two years, but weve gained many more. The citys restaurant scene is nothing if not thriving.

Many locals are still grieving Marchs closing of The Honey Pot, but they also have welcomed OBriens Deli in its place. Kabobs on Fourth closed, too, but Twin City Slice Pizza quickly took over Kabobs spot.

The newest dining spot opened in the Historic Brookstown Inn less than two weeks ago. The inn has not had a regular restaurant for years  offering only breakfast to guests and special events to catering and banquet clients. But executive chef Paul Magee and food and beverage manager Ali Utley decided it was time to try out a bar menu for the public in the Cotton Mill Lounge.

We want to offer a place for guests as well as people in the neighborhood, Utley said.

Festival-goers also will still find some of their old favorites, including Spring House, Meridian, Mozelles and Sweet Potatoes.

But to find Sweet Potatoes, they will have to walk down the street. The popular restaurant moved a block away to the 600 block of Trade Street to gain space, including a patio.

As part of the move, the owners of Sweet Potatoes opened a second restaurant next door called Miss Oras Kitchen. Inspired by the cooking of the grandmother of chef Stephanie Tyson, Miss Oras focuses on skillet fried chicken and select sides, including slaw, mac n cheese and greens.

The list below focuses on dining spots within walking distance of the downtown hotels that have opened in the last two years. As people stroll the streets, they will pass a few new bars, breweries, coffee shops and bakeries, too.

Burger Batch

237 W. Fifth St.

336-893-6395, Facebook.

Run by one of the owners of Small Batch, a bar and microbrewery next door, Burger Batch features oversized, gourmet burgers and over-the-top shakes  the latter a big draw for food fans with Instagram accounts. It also serves chicken and waffles, meatloaf and Korean beef tacos. Try The Winston burger, with potato chips, pimento cheese and onion marmalade.

Camel City BBQ Factory

701 Liberty St.

This spacious, multilevel space combines a barbecue restaurant, full bar and arcade and game room. Aside from pulled pork, ribs and brisket, the menu includes meatloaf, chicken pita sandwiches, wings and smoked-salmon salad. Play pool, darts and more while you wait for your food.

Cotton Mill Lounge

200 Brookstown Ave., inside the Historic Brookstown Inn

336-761-8625

This has a full bar and a short bar menu of burgers, sandwiches and wings. But expect an expanded menu during the theater festival that will include meatloaf, barbecue chicken, collard greens and potato salad.

Cowboy Brazilian Steakhouse

104 W. Fourth St.

Modeled after a traditional Brazilian churrascaria, this restaurant offers 16 different cuts of beef, lamb, pork and chicken  sliced and served tableside  and 30 items on a salad bar. Adults pay $35 for all-you-can-eat meat and salad-bar service or $20 for the salad bar only.

Famous Toastery

770 Liberty View Court, off Trade Street

This breakfast-focused spot is part of a small chain. The menu includes omelets, French toast and flapjacks for breakfast and lunch as well as such items as tuna salad, meatloaf sandwiches and black-bean wrap.

Flour Box Tea Room and Cafe

137 West St.

336-201-5182, Facebook

Bakery owner Milla Ranieri moved to Old Salem from Marshall Street and changed gears, opening a cafe that sells sandwiches and sweets. The big draw is the traditional British tea, including scones, jam, cakes, and smoked salmon and cucumber sandwiches.

Krankies Coffee

211 E. Third St.

For about 15 years, Krankies Coffee has been one of Winston-Salems hippest coffee shops  and now it serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, too, after a major renovation. The eclectic menu always includes vegetarian options as well as such dishes as huevos rancheros, grits bowl, Hoppin John plate, chicken sandwiches and burgers.

Local 27101

310-A W. Fourth St.

336-725-3900, www.thelocal.ws, Facebook

This counter-service, fast-casual spot features a small menu of burgers, sandwiches and salads. Its geared toward good-quality food served quickly at a modest price. Almost everything on the menu is between $6 and $8. Try the $7 Carolina burger with mustard, onions, slaw, cheese and chili.

Miami Restaurant

712 Brookstown Ave.

336-842-3082, Facebook

This restaurant owned by former Miami residents features a mix of Cuban and other Latin dishes. The menu includes Cubano sandwiches, empanadas, tostones and more. Try the flan for dessert.

Miss Oras Kitchen

605 N. Trade St.

Opened earlier this month by the owners of Sweet Potatoes next door, Miss Oras specializes in skillet fried chicken thats cooked with fatback. The small menu includes wings, tenders and livers and such sides as greens, slaw and sweet-potato biscuits. Mainly takeout, with a few counter stools.

OBriens Deli

285 W. Fourth St.

OBriens recently opened second location features classic sandwiches such as BLTs, ham and turkey clubs and Italian heroes. It has a wide selection of house-made salads, including egg salad and German potato salad. But the delis claim to fame is its Reuben, made with a half-pound of corned beef brisket.

Senor Bravo In and Out

545 N. Trade St

This is an inexpensive, quick-service version of the Senor Bravo Mexican restaurant on 241 S. Marshall St. The menu includes burritos, quesadillas, tacos, tortas, and chicken or steak with rice. Many items are available with chicken, steak, pork al pastor, carnitas, barbacoa and lengua.

Thai Harmony

102 W. Third St., in the Liberty Plaza Building

Nui Ruangrat, a native of Bangkok, opened this restaurant with a secret weapon: her mother in the kitchen. A few of the authentic Thai dishes include kai yang (Thai roasted chicken), goong pad prig (shrimp with coconut paste, vegetables, kaffir lime leaves and basil), and pad khing (stir-fry with ginger). The menu also includes a wide selection of sushi.

Tokyo Shapiro

259. W. Fourth St.

This restaurant got such a complete makeover last summer that it is more or less new. The Japanese buffet is gone, and now serves a mostly Thai menu, plus a few fusion dishes, sushi and other Japanese specialties. Steamed mussels in coconut broth, duck with red curry, and soft-shell crab with tamarind sauce are just a few of the dishes.

Twin City Slice Pizza

214 W. Fourth St.

Owned by Robert Moreau, a co-owner of Bibs Downtown, Twin City sells only pizza and drinks. And the pizza is available only two ways: with or without pepperoni. Designed for folks in a hurry, its a place for a quick snack or lunch. It recently switched from square pan pizza to traditional New York-style wedges.
A well-known local farmer died early Sunday morning after a tree fell and brought down power lines.

Family members believe he was electrocuted. The Forsyth County Sheriffs Office hasnt confirmed the exact cause of death but is investigating.

Gary Owen, 79, the owner of Garys Produce and a vendor at the Cobblestone Farmers Market in Old Salem, went outside early Sunday morning to check on a power outage at his home off Lewisville Vienna Road in Pfafftown, a family member said.

It was a freak accident. A pine tree had been leaning and it fell, said Annette Owen-Saylor, Owens daughter.

There was no wind. We have no idea why it came down.

Owen-Saylor said that her sister, who lives across the street, saw Owen outside and told him to go back inside, that there were live wires around.

He took a step and stepped on a line. My sister got to him and started CPR. But he didnt make it, Owen-Saylor said.

Chief Deputy Brad Stanley of the Forsyth County Sheriffs Office said that deputies responded to the house about 3:09 a.m. to assist Forsyth County Emergency Medical Services.

There were no obvious burns or signs of trauma, Stanley said.

He said Duke Energy representatives told deputies that the lines were not live because a fuse had been knocked out.

Stanley said that there will be an autopsy Monday.

Right now this is a death investigation. But there are no signs of foul play, Stanley said.
When the public demands hard-hitting monkey news, the Monkey Action News Team swings into action, never afraid to fling handfuls of truth at our faithful readers who yearn for all things monkey.

Until one day, when it doesnt.

Recently, I was inundated with requests (there were two, if my math is correct) to dig deeper into a couple of monkey-related stories reported by the mainstream media.

As the theoretical cigar-chomping, hooch-swilling, skirt-chasing, cholesterol-lowering-medication-taking, underpaid and overworked bureau chief of the fictional yet highly respected Monkey Action News Team, I ignored those requests until I had no other column topic and then decided it was time to address them.

One of those involved an ongoing lawsuit over the copyright of a monkey selfie.

Scott, this may be of interest to the Monkey News Network, a reader said in an email passing along a helpful link.

Another email came from Jennifer, who some readers may remember as the couch-loving consumer of monkey news referenced in previous columns.

Theres been a dry stretch of monkey news in your column lately, Jennifer wrote, presumably from her couch.

Jennifer sent a link to an AP story featured in The News & Advance of Lynchburg (one of the nations best newspapers for monkey coverage, by the way) headlined Wild primates in Florida park: Monkey shenanigans on the rise.

It was time to gather my team.

Johnny! Rico! Lulu! Jaafar! Kichiro! Toots! Get in here and pronto! I exclaimed from my office. In the past, I bellowed or roared from my office, but after a recent HR webinar I was forced to take discourages both, saying they contribute to a hostile work environment.

Whats up, chief? said Johnny.

Readers are demanding the kind of hard-hitting monkey news only we can deliver.

Jennifer again?

Yes, Jennifer again, but another reader, too. Its time to get to work.

Kichiro spoke up.

Chief, I need the rest of the afternoon off. I have a job interview with the Monkey News Network.

Why you son of a ---! Our rivals? I bellowed and roared at the same time. Why, I oughta  ! Clean out your desk, traitor, youre fired!

You cant fire Kichiro just for listening to an offer from MNN, Toots said. And if I am not mistaken, you just bellowed and roared, which is a clear violation of current company policy.

Youre fired, too! I exclaimed and bellowed and roared. Ive dedicated my career to the single-minded pursuit of monkey news and this is the thanks I get from my team? Ive neglected my family. Ive sacrificed my health. Ive read emails from Jennifer. All to satisfy the publics insatiable hunger for stories about monkeys. If thats the way you feel, then all of you get out. Scram. Hit the bricks.

And with that, they left, the Monkey Action News Team in shambles.

I got HR on the horn.

Yeah, Linda? Ive got a little problem 
If youre among the millions of Americans worried that our civilization is on a collision course with climate change catastrophe, the news out of Washington these past few months has been unsettling:

 President Trump announced his intention to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement.

 Despite the overwhelming consensus among climate scientists about the reality and cause of climate change  its us, in case you didnt know  the head of the EPA has proposed a ridiculous Red Team/Blue Team debate about climate science.

 The president signed an executive order to dismantle Obama-era initiatives, such as the Clean Power Plan, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

So, is there any hope that our government will make progress on climate change in the next three and a half years?

Actually, hope exists in the growing bipartisan movement in the House of Representatives to tackle this most politically toxic of issues.

Wait! What? You mean Republicans and Democrats are talking to each other and working together to enact climate change solutions?

Yes, indeed. Since the beginning of the year, the bipartisan House Climate Solutions Caucus has more than tripled its ranks and recently achieved the impressive milestone of 50 members when California Republican Steve Knight and Ohio Democrat Marcy Kaptur joined the caucus.

Never heard of the Climate Solutions Caucus?

In February of 2016, Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) and Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL)  congressmen who represent Florida districts on the front lines of climate change  formed the caucus. Their aim was to depoliticize the climate issue by bringing in members from both sides of the aisle to engage in constructive dialogue rather than partisan sniping. From the start, Curbelo and Deutch designed the caucus to be truly bipartisan, insisting new members come aboard two-by-two  one Republican and one Democrat at a time.

As the caucus reaches the critical mass needed for climate legislation, the leadership is shifting its attention from recruitment to action. Among some of the small but significant steps taken by caucus members:

 Tom Reed (R-NY) and Mike Thompson (D-CA) introduced the Technologies for Energy Security Act (H.R. 1090) to extend tax credits for, among other things, small-scale wind power and geothermal energy.

 The Climate Solutions Commission Act (H.R. 2326), introduced by John Delaney (D-MD) and John Faso (R-NY), would establish a bipartisan panel to review economically viable actions or policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make recommendations to the president, Congress and states.

In mid July, the Climate Solutions Caucus had a coming out party of sorts when nearly all the Republicans on the caucus voted as a bloc to reject an anti-climate amendment to the Defense authorization bill. Seeing safety in numbers, 24 Republicans outside the caucus voted with them to retain a provision in the bill requiring the Defense Department to assess the national security risks posed by climate change.

These encouraging steps are happening in a bipartisan context. The hope is that eventually the caucus will draft and introduce major legislation to significantly reduce Americas greenhouse gas emissions.

One promising approach that enjoys support in conservative circles is to place a rising fee on carbon-based fuels and return the revenue from that fee as direct payments to all households. The fee corrects the market failure underpinning fossil fuels so that we can accelerate the transition to clean energy. Giving revenue from the fee back to households prevents economic fallout from rising energy costs. Add a border adjustment tariff to imports from nations that dont price carbon in an equivalent manner  thereby protecting American businesses  and we have a win-win-win for everyone. A study from Regional Economic Models, Inc., showed this policy would cut carbon emissions by half within 20 years while adding 2.8 million jobs to the economy.

At a time then the partisan divide in Washington seems insurmountable, the caucus provides a model for reaching across the aisle to tackle the big problems that bedevil us. We used to say, If we can put a man on the moon, surely we can do anything. If the Climate Solutions Caucus can solve global warming, the skys the limit.

Mark Reynolds is executive director of Citizens Climate Lobby.
The organization behind Christmas charity Season of Hope, the annual health expo at Mineral Area College and numerous other supported causes has moved into its new location and is planning an open house to invite the community to see the new space.

The St. Francois County Community Partnership was previously located in the Factory in downtown Farmington, but has now moved to a location at 1101 Weber Road.

Executive Director Bill Bunch said the opportunity to move came when the county acquired the building at 1101 Weber Road to house the county morgue.

We really werent looking, but we had some situations where people were having to bring things to our location and where we were over at the Factory was kind of a long distance for them to bring things in during Season of Hope and some of our other projects, Bunch said.

Bunch said when he heard that BJC HealthCare was donating space to St. Francois County for a morgue, he decided to inquire about any additional space in the building.

The associate commissioner, Patrick Mullins, referred me to Harold Gallaher, the presiding commissioner, Bunch said. And he said, Well, it sounds like a possibility, how much space do you need? And I said, Well, we have about 1,600 square feet where we are now, so we need something comparable. And he said, Well, I think that Ive got just that amount!

The suite in question had been doctors offices when Mineral Area Regional Medical Center was in operation, with the space being adequate for the partnership after a few renovations.

Theres several exam rooms, and the reception area was pretty small, Bunch said. So we looked at it and I talked to Mr. Gallaher about opening it up, and we had some renovations done and some painting, and were finishing the painting up as we speak. It looks like its going to work out real nice for us.

The space has two back doors that are easily accessible for unloading donations, a feature that will come in handy at Christmastime with Season of Hope in full swing.

The partnership made the official move to the new space on July 3, having to wait a few days to get all of their supplies unloaded as floors were being finished. Bunch said as the unloading got underway the staff became concerned about the amount of space available.

When they brought that first load in, we were really worried, Bunch said. Because we had all of the furniture in here and then all of the boxes. And it was basically stacked to the ceiling along the whole central area, which is about 40 feet long by 16 feet. Its a big open area until you put everything from your old office in it. But little by little, weve got it sorted out.

The partnership plans to hold an open house by the end of August to allow the community to see the new office up and running.

The St. Francois County Community Partnership does a great deal of work for families in the county throughout the year, with a focus on working with schools to better target their resources.

We do a number of projects through the year, Bunch said. We work very closely with the schools and weve always set aside a little bit of money with the schools. We also work with a mentoring organization, which is Young Faith in Christ. We provide some supportive service for them. With the schools, we usually allow them to come up with the special project.

The organization has supported initiatives like backpack projects, which send food home with children in need on Fridays to ensure they get good meals through the weekend. The partnership provides additional information to members of the community on health and wellness, most clearly seen in the yearly Health Expo at Mineral Area College.

We also provide a teachers packet, which is for all the professionals and paraprofessionals at the schools, Bunch said. It covers a variety of topics such as suicide prevention, drugs and alcohol prevention, things like that. And we put that together each August.

The partnership also heavily works with other local agencies as well as school districts to find families to focus on during Season of Hope, which directs donations of clothes and toys to families in need.

Basically, everything we do is for healthy families, healthy kids, preparing kids for school, and kids who are graduating, Bunch said. With kids and families, we do anything we can do to better their lives and prepare them for school or to go to work.

For more information about the St. Francois County Community Partnership, visit www.sfccp.org.
JURIST Guest Columnist Megan A. Fairlie of the Florida International University College of Law discusses the value of preserving an important, unsung hero of the State Department

Earlier this month, former State Department Deputy Beth van Schaack first reported on the planned closure of the State Departments Office of Global Criminal Justice (GCJ). The GCJ, historically led by an Ambassador-at-Large, is tasked with advising the Secretary of State and and other elements of the United States government on how to prevent and respond to atrocity crimes.

The potential elimination of the GCJ has been widely criticized by, among others, three of the offices prior leaders. Notably, former Ambassadors-at-Large Scheffer, Williamson, and Rappappointed by Presidents Clinton, (G.W.) Bush, and Obama, respectivelyissued a joint contribution shortly after the plan was disclosed. The piece describes the seemingly imminent demise of the GCJ as good news for the leaders of the Islamic State and other perpetrators of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Since the creation of the GCJ, traditional head of state immunity has given way to instances of criminal liability for state-orchestrated atrocities. This change is thanks in large part to the work of recently formed international institutions, spearheaded by the United States, and specifically supported by the work of the GCJ. Notably, this assistance has not been purely benevolent. As Clint Williamson, one of President Bushs Ambassadors-at-Large for War Crimes Issues explained in 2007, holding persons accountable for large-scale crimes [has] an important role in stabilizing countries or regions emerging from war. So there is a national security interest in doing this.

If it indeed it is true that Secretary of State Tillerson has not made a final decisions about the future of the GCJ, this is precisely the topic of commentary that he ought to now carefully contemplate. Tillersons May 2017 speech to State Department employees may have downgraded the role of human rights in U.S foreign policy, but it repeatedly emphasized the importance of US national security.

Retaining the GCJ would also leave Tillerson better positioned to advise an administration that appears to have, at best, limited knowledge about the ever-evolving landscape of international criminal justice and related policymaking. For example, prior to Tillersons confirmation, it produced a draft order that called for an examination into US funding of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Yet, as media outlets were quick to point outunder unforgiving headlines such as Trump Might Be Trying to Defund Organizations Were Not Even FundingU.S financial support for the ICC is not only non-existent but illegal.

Other aspects of the draft order suggest that, without proper guidance, the current administration stands poised to reinstate policies that have already proven profoundly self-defeating, such as slashing development funding to states that oppose important United States policies. As GCJ staff would have advised, such an endeavor failed conspicuously when attempted by the Bush administration, negatively impacting upon key US interests including security. In fact, the withdrawal of financial support ended up undermining important efforts, such as combatting terrorism and drug trafficking; it also drove some of the funding deprived countriesincluding those in the USs own backyardto turn to other powers, such as China, to replace the support no longer coming from the United States.

Finally, while others have rightly stressed the impact that closing the GCJ is likely to have on dictators, thugs and warlords, Tillerson also needs to think about how the move is apt to affect the conduct of other countries vis-a-vis the United States. Here, a key frame of reference lies in the cloud that loomed over Trumps first foreign trip, when it was revealed that Sudans Omar al-Bashircurrently wanted by the ICC for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanityintended to participate in the Saudi Summit where Trump was a planned guest of honor.

US leaders have long avoided meeting with al-Bashir, who presided over what former Secretary-of-State Colin Powel concluded was a government-orchestrated genocide. Indeed, given this history and consistent US support for al-Bashirs prosecution, it would have been unthinkable for another state to have invited the fugitive genocidaire to attend an event alongside either of the current presidents predecessors.

The Saudi decision to extend the invitation, then, appears influenced by more recent events, in particular Trumps onslaught on international law and institutions. In effect, it was the were in a different world with the Trump administration message that nearly caused the US President to appear complicit in al-Bashirs impunity-infused globetrotting.

The plan to include al-Bashir, of course, amounted to a miscalculation on Saudi Arabias part (behind the scenes, Saudi officials eventually succumbed to US pressure and asked al-Bashir not to attend). But the experience itself ought to inform Tillersons decision-making regarding the GCJ. Eliminating the office could well invite state conduct that makes the recent al-Bashir fiasco look mild by comparison.

A far superior alternative would be to retain the relatively inexpensive GCJ and to appoint an experienced Ambassador to lead it. This would preserve important institutional knowledge regarding prior practices that have proved harmful, as well as the ways in which working to assist in international criminal justice efforts have worked for the United States. This information, in turn, could help to formulate a policy with elements already proven effective in advancing US interests. A well-informed, designated policy would also put other states on notice regarding the administrations position on key issues, a vast improvement over the current state of affairs, which encourages them to test the limits of US commitment to atrocity prevention.

Megan A. Fairlie is an Associate Professor at Florida International University College of Law, where she is an expert in international criminal law and procedure and the International Criminal Court. In 2007, she earned a PhD in International Human Rights Law from the National University of Ireland, Galway and has taught at the Irish Centre for Human Rights Summer School on the International Criminal Court.

Suggested citation:Megan A. Fairlie, Why the Office of Global Criminal Justice is Worth Saving, JURIST  Academic Commentary, July 30, 2017, http://jurist.org/academic/2017/07/megan-fairlie-saving-ogcj.php.

This article was prepared for publication by Sean Merritt, an Assistant Editor for JURIST Commentary. Please direct all questions or comments to him at commentary@jurist.org
DEAR HARRIETTE: I just learned that one of my cousins, who I always thought of as rich and settled, has to sell his house -- and fast. I thought the house was fully paid, since he has had it for many years. Instead, he had refinanced a few times when he had some financial bumps, and now he has a relatively low-paying job and can't afford to pay the mortgage. I feel horrible for him. I know these things happen sometimes, but I think everybody thought of him as the one who was stable, if not wealthy. How can I be supportive of him when I still feel shocked by the news he shared with me? -- Incredulous, Seattle

DEAR INCREDULOUS: It must have taken a lot for your cousin to admit to you what's going on in his life, especially given the image that you and others have had of him for years. But, as you noted, hard times can befall anyone. At least your cousin is trying to be practical and figure out what to do next to take care of himself.

Offer to be of support. Ask your cousin how you can help him. If he is selling his house, does he need help packing? Does he have items that might be of value for resale? Would it help for you to do research on that end? Volunteer to help your cousin make this transition as smooth as possible. Stay close to him so that he remembers that he is not alone.

DEAR HARRIETTE: My godmother sent me a note recently saying that she is proud of me for the woman I have become, but she is sad because we hardly speak to each other anymore. I read the note and had so many emotions come up. It is true that, when I was a little girl, we used to spend a lot of time together. She was the main baby sitter when my parents went out at night. She would come to my concerts at school and stuff like that. I went away to college, and we didn't see each other much, but we did often see each other when I came home for holidays.

Now, I am in the early stages of my career. I don't even talk to my mother that much these days. I work 10- to 12-hour days, and I don't have much free time. I love my godmother and don't want her to think that I am neglecting her, but I also don't want her to guilt me into feeling bad for building my life. What can I do? -- Bad Goddaughter, Brooklyn, New York

DEAR BAD GODDAUGHTER: Rather than feel guilty, make a few amendments to your schedule. Add in a phone call once a month or so with your godmother. Start, though, by writing a note to her saying how much you love and appreciate her. Don't apologize for being busy. Affirm the positive. Build in time to talk to your mother and your godmother. In the end, you will be happy that you made time for them.

DEAR HARRIETTE: My friend "Beatrice" is very well-off and never wants for anything. She so rarely has a lack of something in her life that I have no idea what to take over when she entertains. I think that showing up empty-handed is in poor taste, yet I have no idea what I can take her that she doesn't already have 80 of! -- Got It All, Denver

DEAR GOT IT ALL: I bet your friend Beatrice is truly happy just having the pleasure of your company when she entertains. Make sure that when you attend her events, you are alert and ready to be of support should she need it.

In terms of a tangible gift, think of Beatrice and what interests her. Does she like to read? You can get her a copy of the latest book in her genre of choice. Does she like to cook? You could bring her a featured olive oil from your local farmers market. Think outside the box in terms of gift items that are small enough to not be a nuisance taking up space but that have meaning and a small story that could make the gift interesting. You can add a little note with the item telling her why this particular thing made you think of her.

DEAR HARRIETTE: English is my stepmother's second language. She says she is more comfortable in her native tongue, but she has also known English for over 20 years. I mention this because I hear her speaking Spanish with my stepsisters, and I think they're talking about me. Why would they speak a language they know I can't understand? -- Gossips, San Jose, California

DEAR GOSSIPS: When you believe that your stepmother and stepsisters are talking about you, what has just happened? Can you figure out triggers for the moments when you feel they are speaking Spanish and excluding you? Do you have solid reason to think they are talking about you rather than simply speaking in their own common tongue?

When they launch into Spanish, you should immediately ask them to speak English so that you can understand the conversation, too. Continue to ask, even if they comply only occasionally.

I would recommend going one step further. Take a Spanish class. Learn to speak this language that is now part of your family. You don't need to tell them that you are studying. Just learn and begin to pick up on what they are saying. When you become more fluent, start to speak to them in Spanish. If you find that they have been talking about you, ask them in Spanish to choose to be family with you instead of squabbling over anything. Then work hard to build a relationship with them. Talk to your father about this, too, so that he can help to be the glue. It takes time for families to blend, but it is possible, even when there are language barriers.

DEAR HARRIETTE: My boss, "Sara," isn't the most well-liked person at my company. Sara leaves her packages lying around, is very brash and rarely cleans up after herself. Other employees make snarky comments about her behind her back when she is not at work. There's no way to deny that she is all of the previously stated things (she has asked someone if they are pregnant or just "got fat").

Should I defend Sara when I hear these statements? I don't want to ostracize myself, but I feel like I should stick up for my boss no matter what. -- Employee of the Century, Wichita, Kansas

DEAR EMPLOYEE OF THE CENTURY: Watch what you say. You should not defend inappropriate behavior, no matter whose behavior it is. To protect your boss, it would be better for you to speak to her privately and express your concern that when she makes comments about people's body size and condition, it is hurtful and embarrassing, but more, it could put your boss in a compromised position. An employee could accuse her of being discriminatory or worse.

What you can say when people talk about your boss is that you think it's smart for everyone to focus on work. Griping about the boss on the job is not productive.

DEAR HARRIETTE: My teenage son has decided to lose his baby weight by exercising. I love this initiative; however, it makes my home smell foul. "Victor" has body odor, and I don't think wearing deodorant crosses his mind. I have hinted that he needs to start using deodorant and have even offered to buy it for him, but Vick just laughs me off. Normally I wouldn't mind, but I was mortified when a friend came over and said I "clearly have sons." How do I get Vick to start using antiperspirant or deodorant? I don't want to scare him away from exercising. -- No B.O., Seattle

DEAR NO B.O.: You need to talk to your son about hygiene and teach him how to care for his body. This is not to dissuade him from exercising. It is also important for him to know about cleanliness and body odor. Tell him directly about his odor and the need to bathe with appropriate soap and use deodorant. Don't give him an option on this. You can also relegate exercise to a certain part of the house that is well-ventilated or that you can make ventilated. You can use air fresheners to help combat the smell and vacuum often. Open the windows, too, to allow the pungent air to leave the house and clean air to flow in.

Harriette Cole is a lifestylist and founder of DREAMLEAPERS, an initiative to help people access and activate their dreams. You can send questions to askharriette@harriettecole.com or c/o Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106
[JURIST] Foreign ministers from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates stated on Sunday that the four nations are open to dialogue with Qatar regarding the 13 demands [AP, materials] imposed against the Gulf state early last month. The demands against Qatar were prompted [Reuters report] by allegations that Qatar condones and funds terrorist activity. During a joint news conference held in Manama, Bahrains foreign minister, Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa, called on Qatar to announces its sincere willingness to stop funding terrorism and extremism and its commitment to not interfere in other countries foreign affairs and respond to the 13 demands. Qatar responded, however, by accusing the four nations of violating international law by enforcing their recent sanctions. The Saudi countries are expected to continue enforcing sanctions and restrict travel to Qatar until Qatar has changed their policies to meet their demands.

While these four Arab countries have called on Qatar to clean up its act, they have also received criticism recently. Earlier in June, Amnesty International accused [JURIST report] Bahrain of moving toward a total suppression of human rights after a major political party in opposition to the government was dissolved. In May, Saudi Arabia was

accused [JURIST report] of violating human rights for demolishing a culturally significant neighborhood. Earlier in May, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, Ben Emmerson, said [JURIST report] that Saudi Arabias anti-terrorism laws are too broad and post a threat to individual rights. In March, Bahrains upper house of parliament approved [JURIST report] a constitutional amendment that would allow military trials for civilians accused of being involved in terrorism plots. In July 2016, Amnesty International reported [JURIST report] that hundreds of Egyptians had been abducted and tortured by Egypts National Security Agency during a crackdown on political activists and protesters.
An Austrian court in the District of Feldkirch [official website] found a man guilty of violating the countrys anti-Nazi laws on Monday for his claims that the mass killing of Jews in gas chambers is a fictitious story. Austrias Prohibition Act of 1947 [materials, in German] provided a legal framework for the denazification of Austria. In 1992 it was amended to prohibit Holocaust denial and the belittlement of the atrocities carried out by the Nazi party. The 34-year-old man [AP report], whose identity is kept private under Austrian law, made Facebook [official website] posts asserting that Jews made up stories about mass killings in gas chambers to taint Adolf Hitlers image should he have won the war. Additionally, the man was convicted of incitement for a separate post he made calling Muslims vermin. The court ordered him to pay a fine of 1,440 euros ($1,690) and sentenced him to a suspended one-year prison term.

Efforts to seek justice and restitution for the victims of the Nazi Germany era are still underway, over 70 years after the close of World War II. Earlier this month Polands special prosecutors requested [JURIST report] the US extradite a Minnesota man accused of Nazi war crimes. Also in July the Austria Constitutional Court [official website, in German] ruled [JURIST report] that the government seizure of the apartment complex where Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was born is constitutional. In May Romania enacted legislation [JURIST report] enabling restitution for Holocaust survivors. In November 2016 the Germany Federal Court of Justice upheld the conviction of former Nazi SS Officer Oskar Groening [BBC profile], known as the accountant of Auschwitz, for his role in the deaths of over 300,000 people during the Holocaust. Two months earlier the Neubrandenburg state court in Germany started the trial [JURIST report] of a 95-year-old former SS medic who served at the Auschwitz camp. The same month a court in Kiel, Germany, ruled that a 92-year-old woman charged with Nazi crimes was unfit to stand trial [JURIST report]. Prior to 2011 German prosecutors often chose not to charge individuals they regarded as cogs in, rather than active members of, the Nazi war machine. The 2011 conviction [JURIST report] of former Nazi guard John Demjanjuk [BBC profile] may have emboldened German prosecutors to pursue cases against all those who materially helped Nazi Germany function.
[JURIST] Violent protests in Venezuela broke out on Sunday as the nation held a controversial election for a new assembly that would have the power to rewrite the nations constitution. Activists clashed [Reuters report] with security forces in retaliation against the bill, resulting in at least seven deaths. Venezuela President Nicolas Maduros [Reuters profile] has claimed that the new Constituent Assembly, which would elect 527 members, is the only solution [JURIST report] to bring an end to the anti-government protests that have brought significant violence to the country. Critics have accused Maduro of plotting to dissolve the opposition-controlled Congress and change laws to solidify his partys power in the government. In an effort to show their disapproval of the new assembly, the public largely boycotted Sundays election, with polling stations being reported as mostly empty. The opposition has expressed their intention to increase their resistance against the Maduro administration.

Venezuela has faced significant political unrest since the opposition gained control of the National Assembly in December 2015. Earlier this week Venezuelas opposition party made a call [JURIST report] for a 48-hour general strike to be held next Wednesday and Thursday in response to the scheduled election. A non-binding referendum vote [JURIST report] was held in Venezuela earlier this month in regards to the proposed new constitution which showed that 98 percent of the voters rejected the new constitution. The vote was boycotted by many government supporters. In May the US Department of the Treasury announced sanctions [JURIST report] against Venezuelan Supreme Court justices for usurping democracy. In October the National Assembly voted to open criminal impeachment [JURIST report] proceedings against Maduro, alleging that he manipulated the constitution to remain in power. That same month the Assembly also declared [JURIST report] that there was a breakdown of constitutional order and that the government had staged a coup by blocking an attempt to remove Maduro from power. Instability peaked on March 30 when the Supreme Court of Venezuela dissolved [JURIST report] the opposition-controlled National Assembly and assumed all legislative powers.
Dallas, TX, USA, 07/31/2017 /SubmitPressRelease123/

I often have clients or family members tell me that the arresting police officer did not read the arrested person their rights. They want to know whether the failure to read someone their rights means that the persons case should be dismissed. Unfortunately, the answer is, no. says Dallas criminal defense lawyer John Helms. The fact that the police do not inform an arrested person of their rights does not, by itself, mean that the case should be dismissed. In some cases, though, it can make a difference in how strong the case against the person may be.

A persons rights in this context are those that the United States Supreme Court discussed in the case of Miranda v. Arizona. They include the right to remain silent, the right to have a lawyer present during any questioning, and the right to have a lawyer appointed if the person cannot afford one.

The police are not required to inform you of those rights. However, if they do not, then any statements you make in response to questioning while you are in custody generally cannot be used against you at trial. This was the rule that the Supreme Court announced in the Miranda case. So, the failure to inform you of these rights does not mean the case just goes away.

To understand why it is important to understand why the Supreme Court established the Miranda rule. Our Constitution does not allow the police to force people to confess to crimes. When someone is in police custody, they may believe that they have no choice except to answer questions. They may also not realize that they can end the questioning by asking to have a lawyer present. The Miranda decision means that the police must tell a suspect who is in custody that they are not required to answer the questions and that they can have a lawyer. This prevents the police from making someone believe that they have no choice but to answer, and it prevents the police from endlessly questioning a person in custody against the persons will. There are exceptions, but this is how it works.

The rule is designed to apply to police practices during questioning when someone is in custody. It has nothing to do with other evidence the police have found at the crime scene or in other places so that evidence can still be used. That is why the case is not just dismissed.

There are cases, though, in which critical evidence of a persons guilt consists of a statement to the police under questioning while in custody. If the police did not first inform the person of the Miranda rights, the statement generally cannot be used at trial. This may mean that the case is much weaker.

On the other hand, if the arrested person did not make any meaningful statements to the police while in custody, there is nothing to keep out, so the failure to inform the person of the Miranda rights makes no difference.

The Miranda rule has exceptions, and it only applies when the person is in custody. It also does not apply to statements that a person makes voluntarily. So, if a person is riding in a police car after an arrest and suddenly blurts out, I did it! this statement can be used whether the police informed the person of the Miranda rights or not.

The law in this area is complicated. An experienced and knowledgeable criminal defense lawyer will know the law in this area and should consider whether any statements by the accused can be suppressed, and if so, what difference it would make.

If you, a family member or someone you know has been charged with a crime in the Dallas area, contact Dallas criminal defense lawyer John Helms at (214) 666-8010 or fill out the online contact form. You can discuss your case, how the law may apply and your best legal options to protect your rights and freedom.

Press Contact

John Helms

(214) 666-8010

https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-helms-69172699

source: http://johnhelms.attorney/didnt-read-rights-now-explains-dallas-criminal-defense-lawyer/

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Philadelphia, 07/31/2017 /SubmitPressRelease123/

For what appears to be the first time, a person has been killed by a Takata airbag in a car that wasnt moving at the time of the accident. The New York Times reports that a man in Florida was repairing a parked 2001 Honda Accord in Miami, Florida when he used a hammer, which apparently caused the airbag to deploy. The ruptured airbag blew up and caused the man to suffer serious injuries. He died in the hospital the next day.

The media reports that the death is the twelfth U.S. fatality linked to Takata airbags according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the seventeenth death worldwide. The exploding airbags send metal shrapnel flying through the vehicle, which can cause devastating and deadly injuries.

Until this accident, however, the fatalities and injuries associated with the defective Takata airbags have occurred in collisions, in which the affected vehicles were in motion and struck an object or another car.

The Ongoing Takata Airbag Recall

The Takata recall, which is the largest, most comprehensive product recall in history, began in 2008. At the time, it affected Honda vehicles and included just 4,000 cars. By 2011, the recall had ballooned to over 2 million vehicles. By 2017, it involves 70 million airbags in 42 million vehicles across 19 auto manufacturers.

As Consumer Reports explains, At the heart of the problem is the airbags inflator, a metal cartridge loaded with propellant wafers, which in some cases has ignited with explosive force. If the inflator housing ruptures in a crash, metal shards from the airbag can be sprayed throughout the passenger cabin  a potentially disastrous outcome from a supposedly life-saving device.

Philadelphia Car Accident Lawyer Discusses Defective Takata Airbags

Philadelphia car accident lawyer Rand Spear explains, If you own any kind of vehicle, it is extremely important to check if it is included in the Takata airbag recall. Whether you bought your vehicle new or used, your car or truck may contain defective Takata airbags. Both domestic and foreign cars are affected, and the recall covers vehicles manufactured over a large span of years. As this tragic case demonstrates, the car may not even have to be moving for the airbag to cause a catastrophic injury or death.

To determine if your car is part of the recall, visit the safercar.gov website and look up your vehicle by its vehicle identification number (VIN) or make and model. Safercar.gov is maintained by the NHTSA and they regularly update the site to include the latest Takata information.

Contact a Philadelphia Car Accident Lawyer Today

If youve been injured in any type of car accident, you have important rights, and you may be entitled to compensation for your injuries and other losses. Dont wait to speak to an experienced personal injury lawyer about your case. Discuss your options and the next steps in your case with Philadelphia car accident lawyer Rand Spear today at 888-373-4LAW.

Sources:

source: http://randspear.com/2017/07/24/philadelphia-car-accident-lawyer-discusses-takata-airbag-death/

Social Media Tags:Philadelphia Car Accident Lawyer, Takata Airbag Death, Philadelphia Car Accident, Takata Airbag Recall, Defective Takata Airbags

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Boca Raton, FL, USA, 07/31/2017 /SubmitPressRelease123/

Street racing is illegal. It may look fun and exciting in movies and on television but the reality is that it recklessly endangers the health and lives of participants and any pedestrians or motorists who get in the way. Street racers can be held accountable for the deaths and injuries they cause says Boca car accident lawyer Joe Osborne.

Earlier this month a 24-year-old man was sentenced to four years in prison because of his involvement in a street race in Hawthorne, California, last year that killed a popular elementary school music teacher, Benny Golbin, 36, reports the Los Angeles Times. Alfredo Perez Davila was sentenced after pleading no contest to gross vehicular manslaughter. He was originally charged with murder, gross vehicular manslaughter and engaging in a speed contest, but plead no contest to the one charge as part of a plea bargain.

He and Anthony Leon Holley are accused of racing each other in January 2016 when the collision occurred. Police say Davila lost control of his car, swerved across several lanes of traffic, struck the center median and went airborne into traffic coming the opposite way. His car struck Golbins car, killing him instantly.

Golbin, who was an alto saxophonist, left his job at the Children of Promise Preparatory Academy in Inglewood and was on his way to teach a class in the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District when the accident occurred. Davila was uninjured and was arrested at the scene. The other driver turned himself into police and plead no contest to a felony hit-and-run charge as part of his own plea bargain deal and he is expected to be sentenced to probation.

At Davilas sentencing hearing one of Golbins friends, Hugh Von Kleist, encouraged Davila to raise awareness of the dangers of street racing. A car is a weapon, he said. It is very heavy. And it is very fast.

Another innocent bystander was killed by street racers in January in Davie, Florida. Dominick Del Pozzo died after he was thrown from his minivan after a head-on collision with another car that was street racing, according to the Sun Sentinel. He pulled onto Davie Road southbound when he was struck by a Mercedes sedan speeding north while racing a silver Infiniti.

Del Pozzo owned Culinary Affairs Catering in Fort Lauderdale. He was from Naples, Italy, and grew up watching his father run the Monte Carlo restaurant in Queens, New York. He was leaving Restaurant Depot, a wholesale restaurant equipment store, just before the crash.

How popular is street racing? In 2012 state troopers received a tip about organized illegal street racing in Northwest Miami-Dade and they found more than a thousand cars lined up on Okeechobee Road near Northwest 137th Avenue. Some of their owners came to race, some to watch (which is also illegal in Florida), according to NBC Miami.

Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Nelvys Hernandez told the station the area was dangerous for the racers and anyone who gets near them. This is a death valley when so many people gather out here, Hernandez was quoted as saying. Its just horrendous to see so many vehicles coming in and out at a high rate of speed.

If you or a loved one has been injured in a vehicle accident caused by street racing, contact Boca car accident lawyer Joe Osborne at (561) 800-4011 or fill out this online contact form. You can discuss your case, how the law may apply and your best legal options to protect your rights and obtain compensation for your injuries.

Press Contact:

Personal injury lawyer Joseph Osborne

561-800-4011

source: http://www.oa-lawfirm.com/street-racers-kill-injure-others-says-boca-car-accident-lawyer-joe-osborne/

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Louisiana police said a 30-year-old man was stabbed to death when he tried to calm a man who was brandishing a knife.

Slidell Police said in a news release that 25-year-old Joseph Thibodeaux of Pearl River is being held on a second-degree murder charge in the death of Douglas Evans of Lacombe.

Detective Daniel Seuzeneau said Thibodeaux had been arguing with Evans' niece, and Evans stepped in after Thibodeaux allegedly grabbed a knife and threatened to stab people. He said Evans was stabbed multiple times.

Seuzeneau said Thibodeaux drove away but was caught in Jones County, Mississippi, and waived extradition.

Second-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence if he's indicted and convicted.

Seuzeneau said he doesn't know if Thibodeaux has an attorney who could comment.
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The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution protects Americans against unreasonable searches and seizures. The same can no longer be said about the Justice Department.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a directive Wednesday reinstating the controversial practice of adoptive forfeiture, expanding the ability of law enforcement to take possession of assets belonging to suspects  even if they havent been or wont be charged with a crime  under civil law and later profit from the assets.

In few places will Sessions change be felt more acutely than Nebraska, a leader in forfeiture reform. Last year, the Legislature passed a laudable measure that banned permanent asset seizures by law enforcement until a suspect was convicted of a crime and limited when the less-restrictive civil forfeiture process could be used.

Now, its all but moot, as local law enforcement can skirt more restrictive state laws in favor of the far more permissive federal standards. Although Sessions directive includes modest safeguards against abuse, his document doesnt address the major concerns about the practice of forfeiture:

n The Constitution requires the presumption of innocence until a person is found guilty in court. By requiring those whose assets are seized to sue for their return, the courts are holding those people as guilty until being proved innocent.

n Equitable sharing, which was suspended along with adoptive forfeiture at the federal level in 2015, allows law enforcement agencies to keep up to 80 percent of proceeds while sharing at least 20 percent with federal authorities. This federal policy encourages local law enforcement to seize assets and to police for profit.

n By allowing law enforcement agencies to circumvent state laws and instead operate under the far less onerous federal guidelines, the Justice Department has overruled the local control Republicans vociferously defend.

This sudden pivot in favor of restoring the adoptive forfeiture runs counter to the platform adopted at last summers Republican National Convention: We call on Congress and state legislatures to enact reforms to protect law-abiding citizens against abusive asset forfeiture tactics.

Seizing the ill-gotten gains of a person convicted in court is wholly defensible. But Sessions directive re-opens a dangerous Pandoras box that disregards both the due process rights of Americans and self-rule of state governments.

Lincoln Journal Star
President Donald Trump wants to put an end to the Department of Justices Russia inquiry. He has questioned whether he can pardon himself and whether Attorney General Jeff Sessions should have recused himself from the investigation.

The president is a fighter, but hell need to pick his fight. Expressing annoyance with his attorney general and daydreaming about pardoning himself wont do. Sessions recusal merely reflects that no one can investigate himself, and the embarrassing idea that a president may grant his own pardon has been consistently rejected by the Justice Departments Office of Legal Counsel.

There is, however, another question the president has every reason to be asking: Is the post of special counsel, a Department of Justice administrative creation, itself constitutional? The appointment of Robert Mueller is open to reasonable doubt.

To begin with, the role of the special counsel cannot be justified by the Supreme Courts 8-1 approval of the earlier independent counsel law, which was passed in 1978 and expired in 1999. The high courts dissenter was Justice Antonin Scalia, and subsequent precedent and scholarship acknowledge that Scalia had the better argument. Indeed, Congress let the law expire because, as Scalia reasoned, it made it too easy to falsely call ones political opponent a crook. Both Republicans and Democrats were happy to see the law sunset.

Under the expired law, independent counsels were appointed by a special three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals, but only after the attorney general conducted a preliminary investigation based on specific and credible information about alleged wrongdoing by the president. Under the old law, if there were no reasonable grounds after the preliminary investigation, that was reported to the court and the matter ended.

News reports indicate that Mueller is directing White House personnel to retain documentation and that hes going after Trumps tax returns. Those suspicious of the president insist upon the necessity of this line of inquiry, but they skip over whether anunaccountable, unconfirmed special counsel may constitutionally make such demands.

Another basic objection can be raised about the special counsel. Scalia noted that employing an independent counsel stands criminal practice on its head: The normal order is crime first, ascertain the guilty second. Muellers appointment originated with former FBI Director James Comeys ethically dubious press leak and his apparent presumption of the presidents bad intent. Perhaps pre-identification of guilt was considered acceptable under the independent counsel law because it also mandated protections against abuse, but again, Muellers appointment isnt subject to such checks.

An Oct. 16, 2000, memorandum, by then-Assistant Attorney General Randolph D. Moss, affirmed the Office of Legal Counsel view going back as far as 1818: A sitting president cannot be indicted and criminally prosecuted. The special counsel has not formally indicted Trump. But given Comeys assumption that Trump was up to no good, and the way the special counsel process defines the president as a wrongdoer before any wrong is established, the investigation itself is arguably equivalent to an unconstitutional indictment.

Indicting a sitting president is unconstitutional because it gives insufficient weight to the peoples considered choice of chief executive. Presidents can be subject to civil litigation such as Paula Jones suit against President Bill Clinton but not to the burden and stigma of a criminal case.

Why have those advising Trump not raised these fundamental questions? Perhaps it is because his advisors, like the president, are more familiar with business law  transactional law  where the ingenuity of legal counsel combines with investment savvy to achieve a success memorialized in a contract. Business law and constitutional practice are not the same, and the president is not well served if his advisors do not make that clear.

That the application of the Constitution is not a matter of commercial arm-wrestling might seem to the disadvantage of a president whose measure is the art of the deal, but it is not. Moreover, asking basic questions about the constitutionality of the special counsels appointment does not place the president above the law; it merely gives him the benefit of it.

Douglas W. Kmiec teaches constitutional law at Pepperdine University. He was principal deputy and then head of the Office of the Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice from 1985 to 1989.
FILE- In this Friday, June 23, 2017 file photo British Prime Minister Theresa May prepares to address a media conference at an EU summit in Brussels. May's office said on Monday, July 31, 2017 that free movement to Britain from European Union countries will end when the U.K. leaves the bloc in March 2019, but it's uncertain what migration arrangements will look like after that. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, file)
This undated photo made available by the Walker County, Ala., Sheriff's Office, shows Brady Andrew Kilpatrick. A manhunt is underway for Kilpatrick, who escaped with 11 other inmates from the Walter County jail on Sunday, July 30, 2017. All but Kilpatrick have been recaptured. (Walter County Sheriff's Office via AP)
FILE - In this Tuesday, July 25, 2017, photo, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine is surrounded by reporters as she arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, before a test vote on the Republican health care bill. Collins, who was one of three Republican senators voting against the GOP health bill on Friday, July 28, said she's troubled by Trump's suggestions that the insurance payments are a "bailout." (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
It was easy decision for director Terri Krebs and company to cast Sydney Allen as Eliza Doolittle in "My Fair Lady."

Last year, she played Ado Annie in "Oklahoma!" with the Lebanon Association for Theatre Arts. Allen was also a member of Rhythmix, West Albany High School's a cappella choir, Krebs said.

"She's not a stranger to the theater at all," Krebs added. "She's been doing it since she was a kid."

Audiences can see what Allen and 40 other cast members from the Lebanon Association for Theatre Arts have in store when "My Fair Lady" opens Tuesday night in the Lebanon High School auditorium. The popular musical, with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe, has evening performances Aug. 1-5, and an additional matinee Aug. 5.

Allen, who is in her second year at Oregon State University, is joined in the leading roles by Jason Caffarella, a music teacher at Linn-Benton Community College, and longtime actor Doug Prince, Krebs said.

In "My Fair Lady," Professor Henry Higgins (Caffarella), a linguist, makes a bet with his colleague Col. Pickering (Prince) that he can take Doolittle, a sassy flower girl with deplorable English, off of the streets and turn her into a proper lady. So she goes to live with Higgins.

When her father, Alfred Doolittle (Dean LeBret), learns what she is up he tries to get money out of the situation.

The musical required four costumers. It is the biggest costume production the group has ever done, Krebs said.

"Some of our leads have up to seven costume changes," she said.

The production features an orchestra of 15 musicians, who will perform the show's 18 songs.

Krebs said the audience members likely will particularly enjoy the musical's "show-stopping number," "Get Me to the Church on Time."
Authorities do not yet know the cause of a fire that destroyed a historic three-story home at 480 E. Ash St. in Lebanon on Sunday night.

Lebanon Fire District Division Chief Jason Bolen said the investigation began on Monday morning once the fire was completely out and continued until Tuesday afternoon.

Members of the Linn-Benton Fire Investigation Team as well as a deputy from the Oregon State Fire Marshal's Office were called in Tuesday to assist with the investigation. This was because most members of the Lebanon Fire Investigation Team were fighting the 25-acre Mount Hope fire, which had started Monday evening. That fire is also under investigation.

"We were able to determine that the fire originated in a breezeway behind the garage." Bolen said. "However, there was just not enough remaining evidence to point to the exact cause."

Investigators did learn that homeowner Joel Larsen, 73, had been using a tailgate Traeger pellet grill set atop a metal filing cabinet for about 30 minutes when he noticed an orange glow from his seat inside the home. He looked out the back door of the house to see the attached breezeway, which shared a wall and roof with the detached garage, fully involved in flames.

The house and garage were built in 1912. The two were connected by a covered breezeway, and initial evidence indicates that the fire started under the covered area to the main home where it then entered the structure via the eaves and soffits.

Homes built in the early 20th century often used balloon construction, which featured walls with no fire stops between the basement and the attic space. Once fire enters the walls, it can quickly engulf an entire home in a matter of minutes.

Two firefighters and a resident were injured during the July 30 incident, according to a Lebanon Fire District news release.

Authorities received a 9-1-1 call at about 10:44 p.m. that evening for a garage fire in the 400 block of Ash Street. The first crews were on scene within minutes.

One firefighter was injured when he was struck in the helmet by a flying portion of a home oxygen cylinder that had ruptured. Another firefighter suffered a back strain while battling the blaze. Both were treated and released.

Three residents were in the home at the time of the fire and all were able to evacuate safely before firefighters arrived. One of the residents was treated at the scene for smoke inhalation.

Crews remained on scene until 3:30 a.m. Monday, mopping up and extinguishing hot spots.

Fire departments from Albany, Sweet Home, Brownsville and Tangent provided mutual aid during the fire.
1 of 4

Why Ajay Devgn blasts at Kajol every day, know



Ajay Devgn and Kajol are one of the most respected couples of Bollywood. They are blessed with two adorable children. But even today, Kajol gets a regular scolding from husband Ajay Devgn and the reason will surprise you.



Speaking about actors, Kajol told a leading tabloid, "Actors have dehumanised themselves. We hold ourselves to these impossible standards because we've created them. Looking a certain way is an issue we've created. I wear regular stuff, clothes which are comfortable. It's not airport fashion. It's what normal people wear. I can't wear stilettos while travelling. Flats were created for a reason. What is size zero? I don't understand it. I can't allow critics to pressure me." Read More...


Kilkenny is through to the final of Ireland's Top 10 Foodie Destinations for 2017, after the shortlist was announced last week by the Restaurants Association of Ireland.

The competition  which is left with ten finalists - aims to celebrate Irelands unique and wonderful food offerings and to encourage local food tourism initiatives across the country.

Although there is tough competition, the county has already proven it has a lot to offer with the famous Savour Kilkenny food festival and Kilkenny Castle both featuring in a brand new online video showing off Ireland's tourism hotspots to the rest of the world.

The top ten left for the "Foodie Destination of Ireland 2017 include Boyne Valley, Kinsale, West Cork, Cong and West Waterford.

Applications for the competition were received from all corners of the country. During the first stage of judging, applications were thoroughly assessed by an independent panel of judges.

Each finalists will receive a pre-arranged visit from independent assessors in the coming weeks.

This assessment will be combined with a national public voting campaign where the public can choose their winning foodie destination out of the ten finalists.

Both components will carry equal weight in the overall score. The winning destination will be crowned Foodie Destination of Ireland 2017 on August 29.

Chairperson of Kilkenny Tourism, Naoise Nunn, said: We are delighted that Kilkenny has again reached the final in this competition, it reflects the passion and hard work of everyone involved and endorses Kilkennys reputation as a must visit foodie destination.

A number of 2016s finalists, including last years winner Boyne Valley, have made the top ten list for Foodie Destinations again this year.

New entries to this years finalist list include Galways Westend, West Cork, West Waterford and Kinsale.

Adrian Cummins, Chief Executive of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, said: The quality of submissions this year was once again excellent.

Online voting is now live via www.foodiedestinations.ie until noon on Thursday, August 10.

The final decision will be made by combining judges' votes with the public vote.


FAIRIES have descended on Freshford after residents helped them build a village  which includes a castle for the head fairy  on the outskirts of the town.

The Fairy Village  as it is called  is home to several hundred of the mystical creatures.

The fairies are a generous sort but are hard to spot. Many children have travelled to the village with their parents to take a picture of the pixies' houses in the hope of catching a glimpse of one of them.

A local girl's tooth fell out and she decided to take it to the fairy village with her parents in recent weeks and she was left 15 by the fairies the next day.

The settlement was developed after planning permission was granted by the Freshford Tidy Town Committee.

The fairies' homes were built by committee members Paddy Moriarty and Joe Morrissey.

Mr Moriarty said they had seen a similar development in Ballingarry in Tipperary and decided to do their own version of a Fairy Village.

He said: We put our own ideas into it, we didn't copy it. We put more houses in and put in a little castle. Joe made the castle. We made the fence out of bottlecaps.

Neighbours collected them, we didn't tell them what it was for, and when we had enough we drilled holes in them. The village is up nearly two months.

A lot of fairies have been seen by kids and a lot of people have taken photos, every kid in Freshford has been up there with their parents to take photos.

One child had a loose tooth and when it fell out she took it up to the Fairy Village and the fairies left 15 for her.

We put it up to help out for the Tidy Village competition. We told the rest of the committee that something was going up but didn't say what it was, we wanted to keep it a secret.

It was two grown men acting as children.

Freshford Tidy Town has been up and running 14 months and Mr Moriarty says there is a big effort being put in by locals.

He says between ten and sixteen people are out working every Wednesday night and two people go out every Monday and Friday to water the flowers.
Presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway, perhaps attempting to curry favor with this week's court favorite, Anthony Scaramucci (who  stay with me here  had just accused the president's chief of staff of a felony), popped up on "Fox and Friends" to suggest that it is "demoralizing" to fill out all the forms required for government service. She's worried that "paperwork" is keeping many qualified men and women from joining the administration.

Right. It's the paperwork. Scaramucci, Donald Trump's Mini-Me, who has barely had a chance to find the West Wing's bathroom, is angling to push Reince Priebus out the door, while President Trump does the same to his attorney general. You want to talk about demoralization, let's talk.

After days of heaping abuse on Jeff Sessions, and thereby alienating conservatives who admire Sessions along with anyone who believes in simple decency, President Trump dropped his little bomb about transgender troops.

Back on planet Earth, I'd be inclined to assess the merits of the question. The left's default mode for any vexing public policy matter is to claim "discrimination" or "hate" is the issue. Complex questions are shoehorned into a civil rights box, and once so designated, they are beyond debate. Those opposed to "transgender" rights (even if that term is completely misplaced) get Bull Connor or "hater" status.

The question of gender identity is caught up with our confusion about masculinity and femininity, and about the role of biology in our lives. The left's approach  to declare trans people to be a persecuted minority rather than confused people in need of understanding and therapy  inhibits reasonable debate.

But so does Donald Trump's cynical use of the question. After years of professing his attachment to LGBTQ concerns, offering that Caitlyn Jenner could use any bathroom he/she preferred in Trump Tower, telling crowds that he would be a "better friend" to LGBT people than Hillary Clinton and even thanking Republican convention-goers for cheering that gays should not be murdered, Trump now finds it useful to declare transgenders unwelcome in the U.S. military.

Never mind that even conservative Republican members of Congress had not asked for that much. They had opposed only forcing the military to pay for gender-reassignment surgery. And never mind that the military was in the midst of a thorough evaluation of its transgender policy. And never mind that the president failed to consult with or even to inform his military advisors before tweeting the new policy  which has provoked an extraordinary response from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, clarifying that there will be "no modifications to the current policy until the President's direction has been received by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary has issued implementation guidelines."

Trump doubtless expects conservatives to faithfully defend this performance. He has reason to. For months, they've been serving as his dancing bears, sacrificing their reputations for the sake of TV gigs that are now available to Trump defenders.

Consider the context. Having viciously attacked and humiliated his attorney general for acting ethically; hinting that he would abuse the pardon power for his family and himself; threatening Republican senators who voted against health care reform; and "joking" that he might fire his Health and Human Services secretary, Trump may have thought to toss some red meat to conservatives in the form of the transgender military ban.

It's impossible to defend a policy that Trump himself is using as misdirection. It's not that he doesn't believe in it himself. There is little evidence that he believes in anything outside of himself. It's that he pollutes everything he touches.

If Trump were truly concerned about the impact of transgender troops on military readiness, he would take the trouble to educate himself on the matter, review the military's assessments, convene meetings, hear from all sides and then propose legislation so that his policy could not easily be overridden by the next president.

Instead, he chose to troll the left by announcing a sweeping ban. Sure enough, they've played their part in the drama he is orchestrating. Stephen Colbert said the president had gone from "crazy to cruel." Vox quoted a service member to the effect that "what Trump did was strictly to serve his bigot followers and nothing else."

The next act is for conservative intellectuals and opinion leaders to defend Trump's ploy as a serious policy, and to scream that the left has "lost it."

No thanks. I'm demoralized.
The National Steering Group is to publish its report on a Trauma System for Ireland, with recommendations on the future of Emergency Departments in hospitals such as St Luke's in Kilkenny, 'in the coming weeks'.

That's according to local Fianna Fail TD Bobby Aylward, who says he has it confirmed from the Minister for Health Simon Harris.

The long-awaited report is to examine emergency services at a number of hospitals across the country, including Kilkenny. It was initially to have been published at the end of last year, but was delayed until 'early' this year  and there has been little word since.

Deputy Aylward said recently questioned Minister Harris on this issue via a Dail Question, to which Minister Harris replied the report was nearing completion.

"On numerous occasions, I have stressed the need for the major trauma care unit at St Luke's to be retained in its current form," said Deputy Aylward.

"I have also consistently raised the issue with the Minister but unfortunately his responses to date have been non-committal. He has continuously kicked the can down the road on the issue by stating he has to await the publication of a report by the Trauma Steering Group.

"The delays in the publication of this report have been lengthy to say the least. Last summer the Minister indicated that the group's report and recommendations would be furnished by the end of 2016. In December 2016 the Minister revealed that the report would be delayed until early 2017. However it seems now that there is light at the end of the tunnel as the National Steering Group looks set to finally publish its report in the coming weeks and I implore Minister Harris to keep the pressure on to ensure we see no further delays, as is his responsibility.

People in Kilkenny and right across the south-east are concerned as it has been reported on a number of occasions that this group could recommend the downgrading of services at St Lukes. Politicians representing the south-east are already fighting hard for 24/7 Cardiac Care at University Hospital Waterford through the establishment of a second full time catherisation lab, not to mention the retention of the Kilkenny Regional Veterinary Lab, which is crucial to agri-business in the region. We cannot accept a situation where our services our being continuously singled out for cut backs while the country's economy continues to strengthen.

I firmly believe that the availability of major trauma care needs to be retained at St Luke's. We are fighting for improved infrastructure and services in the south-east through investment and expansion. We cannot, nor should we, be forced to go backwards."
By Tatiana Bautzer

SAO PAULO, July 31 (Reuters) - JBS SA , the world's No. 2 food processor, has picked BNP Paribas SA to help sell Moy Park Ltd, which the company has put on the block, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said on Monday.

JBS, whose controlling family has been ensnared in a corruption scandal, announced plans to sell Ireland-based Moy Park on June 20.

According to the person, who requested anonymity to discuss the matter, JBS decided to tap the investment bank of Paris-based BNP Paribas to assess whether interest from several potential bidders could materialize into a transaction.

Some companies that have expressed interest in purchasing Moy Park include China's WH Group and subsidiary Smithfield Foods Inc and middle-market buyout firm CapVest Partners LLP, according to local reports. Others include French commodities giant Louis Dreyfus Co and Groupe Bigard, as well as British foodmaker Two Sisters Food Group, a report by O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper said last week.

JBS and Smithfield declined to comment. BNP Paribas, LDC, Bigard, Two Sisters and CapVest did not have an immediate comment. Bonds and shares of JBS have dropped since mid-May, when brothers and controlling shareholders Wesley and Joesley Batista sought a plea deal related to a corruption probe. Wesley, the elder of the brothers and JBS's chief executive officer, is personally negotiating any planned asset sales, people told Reuters this month. FURTHER DOWNSIZING

Shares of JBS fell 0.1 percent to 7.65 reais at 3:10 p.m. local time (1810 GMT) on Monday, extending losses to 12 percent since May 17.

A successful Moy Park sale would further downsize the Brazilian meatpacker, which became the world's largest through loans funded with Brazilian taxpayer money during a decade-long acquisition spree. JBS paid $1.5 billion to rival Marfrig Global Foods SA for Moy Park two years ago.

Between 2008 and 2015, JBS participated in about 74 mergers and acquisitions totaling $30 billion, Thomson Reuters deals intelligence data showed. Since agreeing to pay a 10.3 billion-real leniency fine in May, the Batistas have refinanced debt and sold several assets not related to JBS. Their investment holding company J&F Investimentos SA is also seeking buyers for a dairy producer and a pulpmaker. ($1 = 3.1234 reais)

(Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Guillermo Parra-Bernal and Frances Kerry)
BRASILIA, July 31 (Reuters) - Britain will seek to deepen ties with trading partners around the world, including Brazil, as it prepares to leave the European Union by March 2019, finance minister Phillip Hammond said on Monday during a visit to Brasilia.

Hammond said the British departure from the EU will not be postponed or delayed. "We will seek to build up our trade in both directions with those partners over the coming years, as we leave the EU, and once again have the ability to conclude bilateral trade deals with friends and allies around the world," Hammond said at a news conference.

(Reporting by Silvio Cascione and Marcela Ayres; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
SHANGHAI, July 31 (Reuters) - China's ailing northeast continued to underperform the national economy in the first half of 2017, official data showed, with the rustbelt province of Liaoning by far the country's worst performer.

Liaoning, Heilongjiang and Jilin, which are dominated by heavy industries such as machinery and mining, have long struggled to keep up with rapidly growing high-tech manufacturing regions on the east coast, and a 14-year government "rejuvenation" programme has failed to arrest the decline.

The economy of Liaoning grew 2.1 percent in the first half of the year from the same period in 2016, the local statistics agency said, far slower than the national rate of 6.9 percent.

Heilongjiang was China's third-worst performer, with growth of 6.3 percent, while Jilin saw a 6.5 percent expansion over the period.

"We expect headline growth in northeast China to remain weak over the coming quarters as the three provinces in the region will continue to suffer from structural problems such as overcapacity and the depletion of natural resources," said BMI Research in a recent note.

The political risks stemming from the region's proximity to North Korea could also weigh on growth, though it could benefit from a revival in trade with Russia, it said.

According to state media, nominal GDP in Liaoning in the first half fell 19.6 percent compared with the same period of 2016. The province has been forced to revise previous growth figures in the wake of a scandal involving years of inflated fixed asset investment data. Liaoning reported a 31.4 percent year-on-year decline in fixed asset investment in the first half of 2017. Its economy shrank 2.5 percent over the whole of last year.

Liaoning and the rest of the northeast face mass layoffs from various state campaigns to slim down state firms, curb industrial overcapacity and ease pollution.

With birth rates still low, the region is also facing a spiralling pension and social security burden as young workers flee and the number of retirees multiplies. China launched a "rejuvenate the northeast" campaign in 2003 in a bid to provide new forms of growth for the region, once the mainstay of the country's economy.

Critics say the programme failed to handle the root causes of decline, with heavy infrastructure spending serving to bolster the state sector rather than reduce it.

Analysts also warn aid could now dry up as Beijing focuses on other projects like the "One Belt, One Road" initiative to link China with Europe, or the integration of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei.

Local governments are now under pressure to stimulate the private economy in the region. China is also promoting partnerships between the northeast and other more prosperous cities, with Shanghai and Shenzhen set to team up with Dalian and Harbin respectively.

(Reporting by David Stanway; Editing by Kim Coghill)
SAO PAULO, July 31 (Reuters) - Units of Odebrecht SA , the engineering group involved in Brazil's largest-ever graft probe, plans to attract investors and list shares, its chief executive officer said in an interview published on Monday.

The plan foresees some Odebrecht units, including its construction and agribusiness arms, seeking partners and going public after the introduction of tougher corporate governance rules, CEO Luciano Guidolin told newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo.

"The role of the holding company will be to devise the strategy, advise the units and allocate capital," he said, adding there are no specific negotiations underway because listing shares can be a time-consuming process.

Reuters reported exclusively in March that the family-controlled conglomerate ensnared in Brazil's worst corruption scandal was considering going public once it finalized a thorough overhaul of governance practices. He cited two operations that would be the prime candidates to seek partners and an IPO. Odebrecht Agroindustrial SA, the agribusiness arm, restructured debt last year and showed improved performance, Guidolin said. Its construction arm has a project portfolio worth more than $16 billion, he added.

The move follows the completion of a roughly 6.7 billion real ($2.14 billion) agreement to settle criminal charges with prosecutors in Brazil last December. The deal was expected to allow Odebrecht, Latin America's biggest engineering firm, to participate in public works projects. Representatives for Odebrecht did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Odebrecht was accused of colluding to overcharge Petroleo Brasileiro SA and other state-controlled firms for contracts, then using part of proceeds from the scheme for donations and bribes to political parties. ($1 = 3.1301 reais)

(Reporting by Ana Mano; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
By Daniela Desantis

ASUNCION, July 31 (Reuters) - Paraguay will begin investing a portion of its foreign reserves in U.S. Treasury bonds at the end of the year, central bank President Carlos Fernandez Valdovinos told Reuters in an interview on Monday.

The transactions would come in multiple stages, Fernandez said. The World Bank would advise the central bank on the first round of deals, and the Inter-American Development Bank will assist later on. Fernandez said investment banks may advise future rounds.

Fernandez declined to reveal the amount that would be invested in the first stage but said it would be a marginal portion of the country's $8 billion in international reserves.

The landlocked South American country has until now kept its reserves protected in the Bank of International Settlements for fear they might be embargoed because of a legal dispute over whether Paraguay was liable for an unpaid debt incurred by an adviser to former dictator Alfredo Stroessner.

The dispute was resolved in Paraguay's favor in a U.S. court in May, clearing the way for Paraguay to invest its assets.

"We were very restricted in terms of what we could do with our assets," Fernandez said. "This is a good signal, it's a good thing for Paraguay's image."

(Reporting by Daniela Desantis; editing by Luc Cohen and Grant McCool)
HANOI, July 31 (Reuters) - Here's a snapshot of Vietnamese dong exchange rates in the official and unofficial markets, indicative SJC gold prices in Hanoi and interbank offered rates at 0414 GMT.

July 31 USD/VND mid-point 22,432 USD/VND interbank 22,726/22,729 USD/VND unofficial 22,730/22,750 SJC gold (mln dong/tael) 36.15/36.37

Interbank offered rates Overnight 0.4-0.9

1 week 0.6-1.1

1 month 1.6-2.0

3 months 3.2-3.8

NOTES: As of Jan. 4, 2016, the State Bank of Vietnam has begun setting the mid-point rate on daily basis, allowing dollar/dong transactions to move in a band of +/- 3 percent around the mid point. The dong's exchange rate against other currencies is not restricted by a band. Interbank offered rates are the latest indicative bid/ask prices, quoted from market sources.

One tael is equivalent to 37.5 grams or 1.21 troy ounces. SJC gold prices are quoted by state-owned Saigon Jewelry Co.

For more interbank rate fixings released at 0400 GMT, click on .

For Vietnam market overview click on: Vietnam's bonds market auctions: Bonds auction results: (Reporting by My Pham; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
JOHANNESBURG, July 31 (Reuters) - South Africa's trade surplus rose to 10.67 billion rand ($813 million) in June from a revised 7.22 billion rand surplus in May, data from the revenue agency showed on Monday. Exports fell 0.6 percent to 102.14 billion rand on a month-on-month basis in June, while imports were down 4.2 percent to 91.47 billion rand, the South African Revenue Service said in a statement. ($1 = 13.1221 rand)

(Reporting by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo; Editing by James Macharia)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.
COLOMBO, July 31 (Reuters) - The Sri Lankan rupee traded firmer on Monday as dollar inflows due to inward remittances and exporter greenback sales surpassed importer demand for the U.S. currency, dealers said.

Dealers said the signing of the long-delayed $1.1 billion deal on Saturday to lease its southern Hambantota port to China ignoring an appeal by opposition parties to debate the pact in parliament also helped the currency to appreciate. The spot rupee traded at 153.60/70 per dollar at 0630 GMT, up from Friday's close of 153.73/78.

"There are exporter (dollar) sales. The foreign banks are also selling and with the port deal the rupee will strengthen on expected inflows and positive sentiment," a currency dealer said, requesting anonymity.

"There are state (banks') demand but they are buying at 153.60."

Central bank Governor Indrajith Coomaraswamy earlier said the rupee was still "over-valued" and that the monetary authority was buying dollars to avoid any appreciation.

The banking regulator is compelled to buy dollars from the market to meet a reserves target set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under a $1.5 billion, three-year loan programme.

Analysts said a port deal approved by the cabinet during the weekend helped boost sentiment.

Sri Lankan shares were 0.31 percent weaker at 6,645.07, as of 0630 GMT. Turnover was 285.5 million Sri Lankan rupees ($1.86 million).

($1 = 153.5500 Sri Lankan rupees)

(Reporting by Ranga Sirilal; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
LONDON, July 31 (Reuters) - The Bank of England released the following data for mortgage lending, consumer credit and M4 money supply (previous data in brackets) on Monday.

NUMBER OF MORTGAGE APPROVALS

JUNE MAY FORECAST 64,684 65,109 (65,202) 65,000

LENDING TO INDIVIDUALS (NET CHANGE IN BLN STG): JUNE MAY FORECAST Total lending 5.607 5.681 (5.263) n/f Secured on dwellings 4.149 3.912 (3.531) n/f Consumer credit 1.458 1.769 (1.732) 1.5 - of which credit card 0.516 0.422 (0.419) n/f LENDING TO NON-FINANCIAL BUSINESSES (NET CHANGE IN BLN STG) JUNE MAY Total lending 1.056 3.720 (3.614) - of which SMEs 0.426 0.159 (0.133) FINAL M4 MONEY SUPPLY (PCT):

JUNE MAY M4 mth/mth (sa) -0.2 -0.1 (-0.1) yr/yr 5.3 6.7 (6.7)

M4 excluding intermediate other financial companies mth/mth (sa) 0.4 0.4 (0.4) yr/yr 6.0 6.7 (6.7)

(Reporting by UK Economics Desk in London)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.
(Adds comments, background)

BRASILIA, July 31 (Reuters) - The Brazilian government could change its budget target for 2017 if tax revenues dash hopes of a strong recovery, Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles said on Monday.

Meirelles said the government is stepping up efforts to boost extraordinary revenues through asset sales and reiterated that policymakers remain committed to their goal for a primary deficit of 139 billion reais.

When asked whether the government could change the target, Meirelles said the matter was under analysis.

"At this moment, the goal that was announced, of (a deficit of) 139 billion reais, will be pursued. But we are monitoring all economic factors."

"Let us wait and see the performance of tax revenues, we believe there may be a strong recovery," he added at a news conference after meeting his British counterpart. "We will have to do what is best for transparency."

The deficit in the 12 months through June reached 167.2 billion reais, equivalent to 2.62 percent of gross domestic product and well above the official target. Policymakers have already frozen about 45 billion reais in federal spending and raised taxes on fuel as they scramble to meet the closely watched goal. Brazil lost its investment-grade rating in 2015 after missing fiscal targets for years.

Changes made by lawmakers to water down a tax debt relief program contributed to reduce tax revenues this year, Meirelles said. He added that the government is not working on any tax hikes at this moment.

(Reporting by Silvio Cascione; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)
(Adds details from report)

OTTAWA, July 31 (Reuters) - Canadian producer prices fell more than expected in June as energy and petroleum products saw their largest decline since February of last year, data from Statistics Canada showed on Monday.

The 1 percent decrease in June from May exceeded economists' expectations for a decrease of 0.3 percent, while May's figure was upwardly revised to show a gain of 0.1 percent from an initially reported 0.2 percent decrease.

Prices fell in 16 of the 21 major commodity groups, led by a 4.1 percent decline in the energy and petroleum sector as the cost of motor gasoline and diesel fuel declined. Excluding the energy and petroleum category, industrial prices were down 0.7 percent.

Prices for motorized and recreational vehicles fell 1.5 percent on cheaper prices for passenger cars and light trucks. The Canadian dollar has climbed in recent months, which typically lowers the cost of vehicles imported from the United States.

As some industrial prices are reported in U.S. dollars and converted into Canadian dollars, changes in the exchange rate will affect the level of the index, the statistics agency said. The index would have decreased by just 0.5 percent in June if the exchange rate was held constant.

Raw materials prices declined 3.7 percent, the largest decline since December 2015, on lower prices for crude energy products.

<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Graphic - Canada producer prices Graphic - Canada economic snapshot ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Reporting by Leah Schnurr; Editing by Paul Simao)
(Updates throughout)

WELLINGTON, July 31 (Reuters) - New Zealand's Primary Industries ministry said on Monday that a second dairy farm in the country's South Island has tested positive for the cattle disease mycoplasma bovis.

The farm was linked to the initial property where the disease - which does not infect humans or pose a food safety risk - was detected earlier this month in the world's biggest dairy exporter.

News of the country's first confirmed cases briefly knocked the New Zealand dollar last week given the importance of the cattle industry for the economy, but the currency showed little reaction to the latest discovery.

The second outbreak was at another farm in the Van Leeuwen Dairy Group, a large scale dairy business, and was not unexpected given the close connection between the two farms, the ministry said.

Restrictions on the movement of goods and cattle at all of the Van Leeuwen group's farms were sufficient to control the spread of the disease, which occurs when affected cows come in close contact with other cows, it said.

The disease can have a serious effect on the health of cattle and testing would continue on all farms in the group, as well as neighbouring farms.

Analysts had been concerned at the possibility of a knee-jerk reaction to news of the disease that could affect market access for New Zealand's diary products.

(Reporting by Ana Nicolaci da Costa; Additional reporting by Sydney bureau; Editing by Richard Pullin)
* Li Ka-Shing's Hutchison sells unit to I Squared Capital

* Hutchison Telecom sees profit of HK$5.8 bln on the sale

* Shares jump almost 15 percent to 21-month high

(Adds stock moves, buyer's funding plan, Hutchison's acquisition last week)

By Kane Wu and Elzio Barreto

HONG KONG, July 31 (Reuters) - Hutchison Telecommunications Hong Kong Holdings Ltd shares jumped almost 15 percent when it started trading on Monday, a day after it announced the sale of its fixed-line business for about $1.9 billion.

Hutchison Telecom, a unit of Hong Kong's richest man Li Ka-Shing's CK Hutchison Holdings , said in a filing on Sunday that it had agreed to sell its fixed-line telecoms business to I Squared Capital for HK$14.5 billion in cash.

Proceeds from the sale of Hutchison Global Communications (HGC), which provides fixed-line phone services as well as Wifi all around Hong Kong, will be used for investment into mobile phone services and for working capital.

The price represents about 12 times HGC's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a source close to the deal told Reuters.

Hutchison Telecom said it expected to make a profit of HK$5.8 billion ($742.71 million) on the sale of HGC.

Hutchison Telecom shares have risen nearly 23 percent since May 16, when it acknowledged media reports about a potential sale of the fixed-line business. The HGC unit drew interest from several companies, including HKBN Ltd , SmarTone Telecommunications Holdings Ltd and a consortium of private equity firms TPG Capital Management LP and MBK Partners. I Squared Capital won the deal partly because it will not face the same anti-trust scrutiny as some of the other bidders would, the source said.

TPG and MBK teamed up to buy Wharf T&T - Hong Kong's No.2 fixed-line operator for businesses last October from tycoon Peter Woo's Wharf Holdings Ltd in a $1.22 billion deal. The HGC deal is subject to shareholders' approval and is expected to close in October, Hutchison Telecom said in the filing. The value of the deal may be adjusted at the time based on debt, cash levels and other financial data.

CK Hutchison, which owns 66.1 percent of Hutchison Telecom, will vote all its shares in favour of the sale during an as-yet unscheduled extraordinary shareholders meeting.

I Squared has secured a HK$7.02 billion ($900 million) loan from Credit Agricole, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank to fund the HGC purchase, according to Basis Point, a Thomson Reuters publication. The three banks could not be immediately reached for comment. The firm, which invests in global infrastructure in energy, utilities and transport, is among potential buyers for Equis Energy, Asia's largest independent renewable energy producer valued at up to $5 billion, sources have said. Hutchison Telecom said it appointed Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs as financial advisers on the HGC transaction. Credit Suisse advised I Squared Capital on the transaction, according to another source familiar with the deal.

The sale comes as Hutchison's unit Hutchison Drei Austria announced on Friday an acquisition of landline-focused Tele2 from its Swedish owner for 95 million euros ($111 million). Hutchison Telecom shares jumped almost 15 percent to a 21-month high earlier on Monday, and were trading up 10.32 percent at HK$3.10 apiece by 0526 GMT, versus the broader index that was up 1 percent. ($1 = 7.8092 Hong Kong dollars)

(Reporting by Kane Wu and Elzio Barreto, additional reporting by Basis Point; Editing by Jane Merriman and Himani Sarkar)
NZ Herald reports:

Bill Shorten has vowed to take steps to make Australia a republic in his first term as prime minister, saying the countrys current head of state is a foreign power.

At the Australian Republic Movements gala dinner in Melbourne, he pointed to the words carpe diem on the ceiling of Melbournes Royal Exhibition Building.

We must seize the day and become a republic, he told the cheering crowd.

He promised a Shorten Labor government will take the first real steps to make Australia a republic in the first term of government.

That would include putting a straightforward yes or no question to the Australian people.
You can now donate to Kiwiblog
By Ko Dong-hwan





Gil from Leessang

Rapper Gil from hip-hop duo Leessang has been sent to a trial after being caught allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol  for the second time  in Seoul.

Seoul Central Prosecutors' Office indicted him without arrest on Monday.

The musician, 39, was caught at around 3 a.m. on June 28.

He drove about two kilometers from Itaewon district in Yongsan-gu to a fire station in Hoehyeon-dong, Jung-gu, after drinking with friends.

He then parked his BMW in an emergency lane and fell asleep, leaving his car door open.

A passer-by reported him to police, who allegedly found his blood-alcohol level was 0.172 percent  over the license revocation limit.

The star said on Instagram on July 1 that he had "no excuse whatsoever  even with more than 100 mouths"  and that he had intended to call a chauffeur.

In April 2014 the rapper was caught with a blood-alcohol level of 0.109 percent, for which his license was revoked.
Thomas Kretschmann acts as German reporter Jurgen Hinzpeter in "A Taxi Driver" / Courtesy of Showbox



By Yun Suh-young

Edeltraut Brahmstaedt, the widow of German journalist Jurgen Hinzpeter, who exposed the tragedy of the Gwangju Democratization Movement in May 1980 to the world, will be visiting Seoul Aug. 8. Brahmstaedt will watch "A Taxi Driver," a movie based on the true story of her late husband, set for release Wednesday.

"A Taxi Driver" is about taxi driver Kim Sa-bok who takes the German reporter Jurgen Hinzpeter into Gwangju in the midst of the democratization movement occurring in the city. Kim is recounted as a courageous taxi driver who was fulfilling his duty to take his passenger to the destination, not knowing Hinzpeter was a journalist.

Hinzpeter was a correspondent to Japan when he heard on the radio what was going on in Korea. He immediately headed to Gwangju to cover the story. Hinzpeter was the first and only journalist to report on the event, in the face of restrictions on the press by the dictatorial government. He filmed the event as a documentary broadcasted under the title "South Korea at Crossroads" through which the historical movement became known to the world. He later received the second Song Gun-ho Award from the Hankyoreh newspaper in 2003 for his contributions to helping the country's democratization movement be known. Song Gun-ho is a former Dong-A Ilbo journalist who founded the liberal newspaper Hankyoreh in 1988.

The late Hinzpeter is known to have been delighted at the news of the production of the film. He was said to have requested in his will to be buried in Gwangju. Articles of his body including hair and nails were enshrined in the 5.18 cemetery in Gwangju when he died last May. At the time, Brahmstaedt who visited Korea to participate in the memorial service said, "My husband was a righteous person who always sought justice. We thank the Gwangju people for upholding my husband's wish to be buried here. He would be proud and thankful."
/ Korea Times file



By Jacob Lotinga



Nottingham, The United Kingdom  Korean food is gaining recognition in British cities outside London and the southeast, thanks to expatriates who have opened restaurants in the past five years.

South Koreans from cities including Seoul and Pyeongtaek have established flourishing businesses in the U.K., serving much-loved Korean dishes to local people, tourists and Asian university students.

Jang Ho-sung, from Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, opened an Asian supermarket called Fresh Asia in Beeston, Nottinghamshire, supplying imported food that Chinese and Korean students at nearby Nottingham University would otherwise have struggled to find. Building on this success, Jang now helps his wife run Korea House, a restaurant that opened in November 2015 in an area that has many Chinese eateries.

Jang said Korean food had increased in popularity within "the last couple of years," gaining prominence not only in London but in Birmingham, Sheffield, Manchester, and Edinburgh, Scotland's capital.

He said more than 80 percent of customers at Korea House were local people, while roughly 20 percent were students from Asian countries such as China.

For most customers, said Jang, a meal at Korea House was their "first experience" of Korean cuisine.

As evidence of Korean food's popularity in the U.K., Jang cited ratings on TripAdvisor, where he said Korean restaurants here generally earned a score of 4.0 or above.

Jang said barbecued dishes such as samgyeopsal, bulgogi and galbi, as well as bibimbap, were especially popular with his wife Woo Mi-deok's customers. He confirmed that there were more requests for vegetarian options here than in South Korea.

Yoon Ihn-gyu, from Seoul, helped introduce Korean cuisine to central Nottingham when he opened Sarangchae in 2013.

Yoon said that as time went by, Korean food was becoming better known outside Asia.

He said most customers were Asian students from the city's universities, the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University, and that some tourists also came to Sarangchae for traditional Korean food.

Yoon added: "Korean people normally don't go to Korean restaurants because they can cook at home."

There are fewer than 400 Korean residents in the Midlands counties of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire combined, estimates Fresh Asia's Jang. Yoon estimated that about 300 Koreans lived in Nottingham.

Sarangchae waitress Georgia Murphy said she became interested in Korean culture through her brother. She has visited South Korea twice, taking in Seoul, Jeju Island, and Busan.

Murphy said far more Chinese than Korean students dined at Sarangchae, but she added that there were more Korean students each year.

She said "soup-based" jjigae dishes were most popular with Chinese university students "because it's like a hotpot."

Eriko Hopps, a waitress at Sarangchae from Japan's Saitama prefecture, said Korean food had become more popular in Nottingham "since this restaurant opened."



Jacob Lotinga is a contributor to The Korea Times.
"The reign of the tiger in Korea" 1909, Le Petit Journal / Courtesy of Robert Neff Collection

By Robert Neff

In the early 1890s, Arnold Henry Savage Landor, an English explorer and writer, visited Korea and described the country as being full of enormous tigers that were "fond of human flesh" and terrorized the Korean population _ despite their "almost religious veneration" of these great felines.

He went on to add:

"Even the walls of the town are no protection against them. Not unfrequently they make a nocturnal excursion through the streets, leaving again early in the morning with a farewell bound from the rampart, but carrying off inside their carcasses some unlucky individual in a state of pulp."

Seoul was no exception. An especially notorious site for tiger attacks was the pass near the Independence Gate. Once heavily forested, the tigers' predation in this area was so severe that soldiers had to escort travelers through it.

Tigers were also fond of prowling near the royal graves. In the 1880s, King Gojong sent large numbers of tiger hunters (40 to 50 armed men) to kill these menaces lurking near his ancestors' tombs, but, judging from the records, the tigers were too smart and easily avoided their pursuers.

Tigers also roamed the palaces. One legend claims that Gyeonghui Palace (also known as the Mulberry Palace and where the Seoul Museum of History now stands) was abandoned because "a certain geomantic tiger had his lair there, and, being displeased with the royal intrusion, had let loose a plague of man-eating tigers on the country that destroyed many lives, and to appease his tigership the King removed to the more beautiful grounds of the East Palace (Changdeok Palace)."

But Gyeonghui was not the only palace to be haunted by tigers. In the early 1890s, George W. Gilmore, an American teaching in a government school, claimed a tigress and her cubs had taken up abode in the ruins of one of the palaces. Even the palace in which the king dwelt was not safe from nocturnal visits. In early January 1894, a large number of hunters searched the grounds of Gyeongbok Palace for five days and while they found evidence of at least one tiger they were unsuccessful in tracking it down and killing it. However, one hunter, Yun In-chol, did manage to kill a fox (another feared animal) and was rewarded for his efforts.

One very memorable hunt in Seoul took place in the late 1880s when Alfred Burt Stripling, an Englishman working for the Korean government, and his Korean assistant tracked a big cat into the city's sewers near the palace. After a long wait, the Korean assistant thought he saw the tiger slink out of another exit but didn't tell Stripling. Wanting to impress his boss, he volunteered to crawl into the sewers and drive the tiger out. Unfortunately for him, he was mistaken: the tiger was a leopard and it was still in the sewer. Fortunately, Stripling's aim was true and the big cat was killed _ the assistant receiving several claw marks for his "act" of bravery.

Mt. Nam was also a popular mountain for tigers. In early 1886, hunters killed a medium-sized tiger near the fire beacons and tracked a small tiger from the mountain to the Han River where they eventually shot it. One of the last reported encounters of tigers on Mt. Nam took place in December 1913, when the Seoul Press published "an alarming, though scarcely believable" account of the "unmistakably footprints of a tiger" in Namsan Park. But it was not the last encounter in Seoul.

The following summer a police sergeant on night patrol near the Northwest Gate (Changuimun) claimed to have encountered "a tiger as big as a cow." It escaped into the mountains before it could be caught but, as the editor noted, if it had been caught it would have probably confessed to being a cow.

Robert Neff is a historian and columnist for The Korea Times. He can be reached at robertneff103@gmail.com
United States President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe affirmed a tough response to North Korea's recent launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile during their phone conversation on Monday.



Earlier in the morning, the two leaders reportedly shared their conclusion that the two countries should cooperate with South Korea and the international community for strengthened sanctions and pressure in order to prevent North Korea's further provocations.



They also reportedly agreed to jointly urge China to join the world's efforts against North Korean nuclear and missile development, sharing the view that China has key leverage in containing North Korea's provocations.



Shortly before the midnight last Friday, North Korea launched a Hwasong-14 ballistic missile, which could fly as far as the mainland U.S. The latest test launch demonstrated progress from the North's first successful Hwasong-14 launch on July 4. (Yonhap)




South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump will hold telephone discussions over ways to deal with North Korea's provocations, an official from Seoul's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said Monday.



"(President Moon) and President Trump are soon expected to hold telephone talks. The sides are now working to arrange the conversation," the official told reporters, while speaking on condition of anonymity.



The official said the exact time of the conversation has not yet been fixed, but that it will likely be after the South Korean leader returns from his ongoing break.

Moon is on a seven-day vacation until this weekend.



The Moon-Trump talks will follow North Korea's latest launch on Friday of what is believed to be an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).



The South Korean president is also expected to hold telephone talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, according to the Cheong Wa Dae official.




A photo on the front page of Rodong Sinmun shows a feast held in North Korea, Sunday, and participated in by leader Kim Jong-un and his wife Ri Sol-ju, to celebrate the alleged successful launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile. / Yonhap



By Choi Ha-young

North Korea held a huge feast Sunday to celebrate the alleged successful launch of its intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) Friday night, Pyongyang's state-run media reported Monday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his wife Ri Sol-ju appeared along with high-profile members of the Workers' Party of Korea and missile developers  Ri Pyong-chol, member of the National Defense Commission; Kim Rak-gyon, commander of the Strategic Force in charge of missile operations; veteran rocket scientist Kim Jong-sik; Second Academy of Natural Sciences President Jang Chang-ha; and Strategic Force Deputy Commander Jon Il-ho.

"The grand success of yet another ICBM test, even before the whole world overcomes the shock of the previous launch, has given our military and people ineffable joy," Ri Man-gon, vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party, was quoted as saying by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

He added the success was the fruit of its two major breakthroughs  the "July 4 revolution," the alleged ICBM test-firing earlier this month, and the "March 18 revolution," which refers to its newly developed rocket engine test. The vice chairman lauded the developers who contributed to the "mobility" and "striking power" of its missiles.












By Kim Hyo-jin



North Korea is likely to conduct its sixth nuclear test as well as an additional intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test, the Ministry of National Defense said Monday.



"There is a possibility North Korea will test its nuclear warhead and missile capabilities through a nuclear test with more explosive power," the defense ministry said in a report to the National Assembly. "North Korea's Punggye-ri nuclear test site is always ready to conduct a nuclear test at any time."



The prospect came during an emergency meeting of the Assembly's National Defense Committee, convened following North Korea's alleged second ICBM test late Friday night.



Defense Minister Song Young-moo said South Korea and the U.S. are discussing the temporary deployment of four additional launchers of a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system here following President Moon Jae-in's recent order for it during a National Security Council (NSC) meeting.



Despite the order, the government said the final decision of the full deployment would be made after completing the environmental impact study of the deployment site. It soon brought strong backlash from opposition parties, which claimed the government should consider "immediate and complete" deployment amid deepened security concerns.



"A temporary deployment means the government is determined to secure procedural legitimacy, and its final decision would be made according to the results of the environmental assessment," Song said.



"If citizens are concerned (about deployment of the THAAD system), it can be withdrawn."





US, China agree on toughest sanctions on North Korea China maintains double standard over ICBM, THAAD N. Korea celebrates 'successful' ICBM launch Few options left to deal with N. Korea But the minister expressed his personal belief in the safety of the anti-missile system, dismissing possible health risks associated with the electromagnetic waves emitted by the radar.



"I, as a person who engaged in a project involving Aegis-equipped destroyers, don't see a big problem with the electromagnetic waves."



Song added he was the one who proposed the full deployment of the launchers during the NSC meeting and the President went ahead with the temporary deployment.



The THAAD battery is comprised of six launchers but only two were installed and in operation, with the additional four having been kept at a U.S. military base here.



Song said it is "too early to say" that Pyongyang has secured re-entry capabilities for its ICBM program. Pyongyang has claimed it successfully verified the atmospheric re-entry of the warhead loaded on the test-launched missile since the previous test July 4.



The minister also said South Korea detected signs of a possible ICBM test Thursday, a day before the launch.



Despite the continuous provocations, Song said the country would keep a two-track policy in dealing with the North, seeking dialogue and imposing sanctions at the same time.



"We will still urge the North to engage in talks," he said. "A two-track approach is still valid."




By Lee Han-soo

Trash bins are set to vanish from public restrooms in Seoul subway stations in phases from Aug. 1, according to Seoul Metro Friday.

The men's restroom trash bins will be removed first. The women's bins will be removed from Sep. 1 to allow sanitary waste bins to be installed.

The project, "Trash bin free restroom," aims to make public restrooms cleaner without the bad odor. It is already in effect on subway lines five to eight and will be extended to all Seoul subway lines except nine.

Seoul Metro is positive that after a trial the project will reduce odors and make the restrooms more welcoming.

"By eliminating the trash cans in restrooms, it will reduce foul odors and make it easier to maintain cleanness," a Seoul Metro official said. "This will allow citizens using the subway to use restrooms more comfortably."

Seoul Metro said it will concentrate its workforce on maintaining and repairing restrooms in the early stages of the project to minimize inconvenience in case toilets get clogged.

"The number of toilets clogged went up 6.6 times when the Trash bin free restroom project' began for lines five to eight in 2012," the official said. "But now the number has gone down to match the clogging number before the implementation of the project."
Consulate in Montreal warns travelers



By Jung Min-ho



The consequences of taking child pornography to Canada, or many other developed nations, could be far more serious than many Koreans might think, a Korean consulate said in a warning to travelers.



The Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Montreal and the Permanent Mission to International Civil Aviation Organization issued a warning last week against bringing child pornography to Canada, saying a Korean was recently prosecuted and imprisoned for doing so.



The consulate said the Korean was found guilty of possessing child pornography after entering the North American country with such content on his external hard drive. The consulate did not disclose further details.



According to Canada's criminal laws, any content that shows "a person who is or is depicted as being under the age of 18 and is engaged in or is depicted as being engaged in explicit sexual activity" will be subject to arrest and prosecution. People who possess any child pornography could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.



A person involved in creating or distributing such content is likely to receive heavier punishment.



Canada is not the only country that deals with such crimes more seriously than Korea does. Most other developed countries are not much different.



According to U.S. media, a Jamaican man was found guilty of possessing and transporting child pornography recently in the United States. He reportedly had a smartphone containing child pornography when he arrived at the Orlando International Airport five months ago and now faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.



Creating, distributing and possessing child pornography is illegal in Korea too, but violators face lighter punishment here. People who possess it could face a maximum prison sentence of one year or a fine of up to 10 million won ($8,900). The current law also has some loopholes. For example, it cannot punish those who watch it via streaming.




By Jung Min-ho

An appeals court upheld a lower court ruling Monday that sentenced a man from Uzbekistan to six months in prison for sexually assaulting a Korean woman last year.

According to the appellate division of the Busan District Court, it upheld the term for the man, who was found guilty of groping a woman at Busan's Haeundae Beach in July 2016.

The court said in its ruling the defendant hadn't paid the woman compensation.

He was arrested after hugging and molesting the woman in the water against her will. He reportedly claimed his innocence despite many witnesses.

In another case, the court sentenced a Sri Lankan man to six months in prison for touching the buttocks and thighs of three Korean women at the same beach in August 2016.

As the number of foreigners living in Korea increases, crimes by them have also been on the rise. According to the Korean Institute of Criminology, the number of foreigners arrested for violations of the law jumped to 38,674 in 2014 from 13,834 in 2005.
By Chyung Eun-ju, Park Si-soo



Thunderstorms are forecast to dump up to 100 mm of rain on the southern parts of the Korean Peninsula over the weekend as the annual monsoon season continues for three weeks, the state weather agency said on Friday. The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) warned people to avoid low-lying and waterfront areas.

The heavy rain is expected as a strap of raincloud hangs over North Gyeongsang Province and North Jeolla Province. Seoul and surrounding regions are expected to be sunny or cloudy with chances of rain lower than 30 percent.

By region, the Chungcheong provinces and North Jeolla Province are expected to have 20 mm to 70 mm of rain, and some parts of North Gyeongsang Province will have up to 100 mm, according to the KMA. Gangwon Province, South Gyeongsang Province and South Jeolla Province are likely to have 5 mm to 40 mm.

After the rain ends, foggy and humid weather is expected to prevail over the peninsula with the mercury hanging around 30 degrees Celsius in Seoul and the surrounding area and Gangwon Province getting 25 degrees to 27 degrees.
President Moon Jae-in looks around a 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games facility in Gangwon Province, Sunday, the first day of his summer vacation. He will spend the rest of his leave at a presidential retreat in a naval base in Jinhae, South Gyeongsang Province, and return to Seoul Saturday. / Courtesy of Cheong Wa Dae



By Kim Rahn



Korean employees are notorious for taking short holidays, or none at all. A recent survey by the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade showed while Korean workers are given an average of 15 days of paid leave a year, they actually use only 7.9 of those days, much shorter than the OECD average of 20.6 days.

The survey also showed 33.5 percent of the 1,000 respondents plan to use fewer than five of their given vacation days per year, while 11.3 percent said they would not use a single day. On why they decide not to use the leave fully, 44.8 percent cited the business climate where almost all other employees do not do so either, and 43.1 percent said they have too much work to do, when multiple replies were allowed.

Amid this backdrop, President Moon Jae-in's summer vacation has gained attention. He promised he would spend all of his paid vacation days this year and announced his summer vacation plans beforehand, the first President to do so.

He headed for PyeongChang, Gangwon Province, Sunday morning, and looked around the facilities under construction for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games there. Then he moved to a presidential retreat at a naval base in Jinhae, South Gyeongsang Province, Monday. He will return to Seoul Aug. 5.





Visitors look around the former presidential summer house "Cheongnamdae" in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province. Former President Roh Moo-hyun opened it to the public in 2003. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul



Vacation as a break from work





Former President Park Geun-hye writes "memory of Jeo Island," on a beach on the island in South Gyeongsang Province, in July 2013 during her first summer holiday after her inauguration. / Courtesy of Cheong Wa Dae

In Korea, it is usually not known how many paid vacations a president has and how many days a week he or she actually works. It was later known former President Park Geun-hye barely had an official schedule on Wednesdays, and thus, virtually had a day off every week.

A president's summer holiday plans  where he or she would go and for how long  have also been confidential for security reasons. Cheong Wa Dae usually disclosed where and how former presidents spent their holidays after the vacations ended.

Due to their special status and their duty to take charge of state affairs around the clock, presidents limited their summer holidays to usually two to five days and did not officially take days off for the rest of the year. They usually went on their summer holidays from the end of July to early August, the peak vacation period.

They often stayed at military facilities in the provinces, where security is guaranteed, or Cheongnamdae, a former presidential summer house in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province. But former President Roh Moo-hyun opened Cheongnamdae to the public, so his successors did not use the facility. Some also chose to stay at their residence within the Cheong Wa Dae compound.

However, they also often had to delay or cancel their summer vacations owing to urgent issues such as disasters.

Moon initially planned to begin his vacation Saturday, but postponed it to Sunday following North Korea's long-range missile launch late Friday night. He even considered further delaying the holiday or canceling it altogether, but decided not to do so, as he had pledged to take leave, a Cheong Wa Dae official said. "Because he will stay at the retreat in the naval base, the President can receive reports or make orders promptly from there in case of a security emergency," he said.

Park spent her first summer vacation on Jeo Island in South Gyeongsang Province in 2013. The island, which was frequented by her father, former President Park Chung-hee, is the location of Cheonghaedae, another presidential summer house the name of which means "Cheong Wa Dae on the sea." The house is now owned by the Ministry of National Defense.

Former President Roh Moo-hyun and first lady Kwon Yang-sook feed ducks at Cheongnamdae, a former presidential summer house in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, on the morning of April 18, 2003, the day he ordered it to open to the public. / Korea Times file

She spent her holidays at her residence in Cheong Wa Dae in 2014 in the aftermath of the Sewol ferry tragedy, as well as in 2015 when the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) struck. Last year, she visited Simridaesup, a bamboo forest in Ulsan.

Park's predecessor, Lee Myung-bak, spent his first holiday at the retreat in Jinhae in 2008, with the first lady and their daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren. In 2011, he postponed his one-week holiday from July 30 to Aug. 3 to take the necessary measures to address the huge damage from the torrential rains in the central part of the country.

Lee's predecessor, Roh, visited a military resort in Daejeon with his family for his first holiday in 2003. He stayed at his Cheong Wa Dae residence in 2004 and visited PyeongChang in 2005. In 2007, he canceled his summer vacation to monitor the rescue efforts for 21 volunteers from Saemmul Community Church who were taken hostage in Afghanistan by Taliban militants.

Holiday leave as a right

While these former presidents regarded their holiday leave as an opportunity to take a break that they could either use or not depending on the circumstances, Moon regards his leave as a right.

Lamenting the reality that most workers do not spend all of their vacation days and get enough rest, Moon pledged during his election campaign that he would make it mandatory for workers to use all of their paid vacation days. After being elected, the President said he would spend all of his days off and encouraged public officials to follow suit, adding that doing so will also help boost domestic tourism.

In a Cabinet meeting in July, he encouraged his ministers to use all of their paid vacation days and to encourage their employees to do so as well. Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon, whose main office is at the Government Complex in Sejong but stays in Seoul two to three days a week for meetings, initially implied he would not take a holiday. "When I'm in Sejong, it is my break from Seoul, and when I'm in Seoul, it is my break from Sejong," he told reporters.

However, due to the new climate where the President prods officials into taking holidays, Lee decided to take five days of vacation in mid-August.

Cheong Wa Dae said while there is no rule on how many vacation days a president can take, Moon has 21 days this year based on a rule for public officials. He had served as a public official for more than six years  as senior presidential secretary for civil affairs, senior secretary for social affairs and chief of staff under the Roh administration, and as a lawmaker.

On May 22, 12 days after inauguration, he took a day off and got some rest at his home in Yangsan, South Gyeongsang Province. As he is spending five days for his summer vacation, he now has 15 vacation days left.




These are some pics of Dudleys Dad Fly Fishing up in Colorado right after he was discharged from the Air Force at the end of WWII.





Dudleys Dad and his buddy John Witherspoon were both ready for some R&R after serving in the Military. Dudley bets the ride from Fort Worth to Colorado and back again was hot and rough in that Willys Jeep but they no doubt had a lot of fun!

He sent Frank a pic yesterday of the Poudre River. Chase was camping out and doing some fly fishing. Frank and Jeff are going to fly up later this Summer and go fly fishing for trout. Should be an adventure!
South Korea officially launched a task force to review an agreement with Japan reached in 2015 to settle a long-standing bilateral feud over Japan's imperial-era mobilization of Korean women as sex workers, the foreign ministry said Monday.



The TF is tasked with fact-finding and assessing the processes leading up to the signing of the so-called comfort women deal, as well as its terms, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.



The launch of the special team is in line with President Moon Jae-in's campaign promise to revisit the bilateral agreement, which has been widely criticized for lacking Japan's official apology and pledge of liability for its forced sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II.



The previous administration of impeached President Park Geun-hye signed the agreement with Japan on Dec. 28, 2015 to end bilateral feuds stemming from the history of Japan's 1910-45 colonization of the Korean Peninsula once and for all.



Under the deal, Japan injected 1 billion yen (US$9 million) to a South Korean foundation dedicated to supporting victims.



Up to 200,000 Asian women, mostly from Korea, were believed to have been forced into sexual servitude for the imperialist Japanese troops during World War II as comfort women during the world war.



Several of the dozens of living South Korean comfort women victims refused financial compensation from the foundation in defiance of the bilateral deal which was forged without their consent and called for the removal of a symbolic comfort woman statue in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul.



Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha told the nine-member team to thoroughly vet the agreement from the perspective of the comfort women victims, according to the ministry.



The TF plans to make the result of its assessment public by the end of this year, the ministry said. Upon the result, the Moon administration is expected to make a final decision whether to retain or opt out of the deal.



The team is headed by Oh Tai-kyu, formerly a progressive journalist who advised Moon on social issues while on the president's transition team, and staffed with eight other experts on diplomacy, human rights and international law, as well as ministry officials.



They held their inaugural session earlier in the day where future plans and directions of the TF were discussed, the foreign ministry said.



For its part, Japan has repeatedly called on Seoul to stay with the agreement, urging faithful implementation of it. (Yonhap)




Moon to call Trump, Abe to draw up tougher sanctions

By Jun Ji-hye

The presidential office and relevant ministries are studying ways of imposing the country's own sanctions on North Korea after Pyongyang's test-firing of another intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

But policymakers are apparently finding this difficult to do as there seem to be few options left for the Moon Jae-in administration to use against the Kim Jong-un regime.

Soon after the North launched the Hwasong-14 ICBM Friday night  the second such test  President Moon ordered his aides to look for ways to impose unilateral sanctions on Pyongyang in addition to those from the international community.

Moon said every possible means should be mobilized to find measures to give the North serious pain, but the so-called May 24 Sanctions, imposed by the former Lee Myung-bak administration, already severed almost all economic ties with the North at the time, except for cooperation at the joint industrial park in the North's border city of Gaeseong.

These sanctions were in retaliation for the North's torpedo attack on the South Korean Navy frigate Cheonan in 2010, which resulted in the deaths of 46 sailors.

Then early last year, the former Park Geun-hye government shut down the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, which was considered Seoul's last resort, in response to the North's fourth nuclear test.

Government officials admit that they have few cards to play against the isolated state.

Ministry of Unification spokesman Baik Tae-hyun said at a regular briefing Monday, "Our working-level officials are reviewing what options we can take. But nothing has been decided."

A Cheong Wa Dae official, asking not to be named, also just said, "We are thinking about economic sanctions."












By Yi Whan-woo



The government will decide by the end of the year whether to renegotiate a controversial accord reached between Korea and Japan over former Korean sex slaves, the chief of the foreign ministry's taskforce reviewing the deal said Monday.



Oh Tai-kyu, who heads the nine-member team created to uncover the hidden details behind the sex slavery agreement made in December 2015, said his team will primarily listen to the surviving victims in making its decision.



The team was formed in line with President Moon Jae-in's campaign pledge to go over the 2015 agreement: Many in Korea criticized the deal for being reached without consulting the victims.



"We will try to come up with a result by the end of the year for the government to decide on whether to completely revise the deal, partially do so, or leave as it is," Oh said during a press meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in central Seoul after the team's official launch and first meeting.



Oh said the process may take longer as the team would look into the case thoroughly.



"We don't have any specific result in mind," he said. "The foreign minister will make a conclusion after we submit the report to her, and based on that, the government will set its stance toward the deal."



Reached between the governments of then-President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in December 2015, the deal was criticized for being hastily made without reflecting the victims' opinions.



The taskforce's jobs will include revealing what happened before the foreign ministers of the two countries verbally agreed on the deal. The two governments said at the time that with the deal, the issue would be resolved "finally and irreversibly," and the team plans to find out how the term was included and who was in charge.



The team will also find out why the two sides have interpreted the agreement differently, especially concerning a statue of a girl symbolizing the former sex slaves.



The Abe administration claims the Seoul government, in line with the 2015 agreement, should remove the girl statues installed outside its embassy in Seoul and consulate in Busan, in exchange for receiving 1 billion yen aimed at helping the surviving victims. But Korea says it is not obliged to remove the statues but would only make relevant efforts concerning them.



The nine members of the team are comprised of scholars and officials.



Oh, a former liberal journalist, worked for Moon as a social issues adviser on the presidential transition team. Others include Paik Ji-ah, president of the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security under the wing of the foreign ministry, and Korea Human Rights Foundation Chairwoman Sun Mi-ra.




By Andres Hammond



North Korea conducted on Saturday its second intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test within a month. With the ICBMs apparently having the range to reach Alaska and potentially other US states on the country's Western seaboard, the reclusive Pyongyang regime has dramatically raised the stakes in the intensifying foreign policy stand-off in the peninsula.



With the US homeland looking increasingly vulnerable, Donald Trump could soon be facing into his first major international crisis. And this may require him to make some big decisions very soon on how to tackle Pyongyang's provocations against what the regime called Saturday the "beast-like US imperialists".



The Trump team already is considering new unilateral sanctions against North Korea, and has been leading a charge in the UN Security Council to secure support for intensified international sanctions too. Coinciding with this, the United States and South Korea conducted their latest test on Sunday of the controversial Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system. Condemned by North Korea, China and Russia, THAAD is being deployed by Washington in South Korea as a means to potentially intercept missiles launched by Pyongyang.



Recent US rhetoric has given Beijing heightened concerns that Trump might now be thinking, much more seriously, about a pre-emptive strike on Pyongyang's nuclear capabilities. Earlier this month, Trump asserted that North Korea "is behaving in a very dangerous manner, and something will have to be done about it...and probably dealt with rapidly".



Trump has acknowledged Beijing can play a potentially very constructive role in seeking a diplomatic solution, but has expressed exasperation that it is not doing more to pressurise the regime in Pyongyang. In a tweet on Saturday, for instance, the US president asserted that "I am very disappointed in China...Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet  they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk".



While Washington's next steps are not crystal clear, it looks increasingly likely that the two decades long US policy of "strategic patience" towards Pyongyang may now be over with all options on the table. Aside from military force, scenarios range from a new round of peace talks at the dovish end of the spectrum, to more hawkish actions like interdicting ships suspected of selling North Korea weapons abroad, one of the regime's key sources of income.



The possibility of new US measures, alongside recent US rhetoric is one reason why Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Li has asserted that "China's priority now is to flash the red light and apply the break to both [the US and North Korean] trains" to avoid a collision. It is not just Beijing, but also Moscow, which is concerned that the tensions on the peninsular could spiral out of control.



Both nations believe that tensions on the Korean peninsula have no easy resolution. And they are grappling with how best to respond to not just the regular missile launches by Pyongyang, but also its nuclear tests, while trying to rein in the United States and South Korea too.



To this end, both Moscow and Beijing have indicated support for a UN Security Council initiative that would build on the UN vote last year to tighten some sanctions in response to Pyongyang's fifth nuclear test. The UN measure favoured by them would require the United States and South Korea to halt military drills and deployment of THAAD. China vehemently opposes that system which it fears could be used for US espionage on its activities, as much as for targeting North Korean missiles.



Russia Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov shares this concern and asserts that THAAD is a "destabilising factor...in line with the vicious logic of creating a global missile shield". He also warned that it also undermine "the existing military balance in the region".



This proposed Chinese-Russia UN initiative would also put further pressure on North Korea to stop its missile and nuclear testing. However, unlike Washington, Beijing has been reluctant to take more comprehensive, sweeping measures against its erstwhile ally.



To be sure, China has taken some actions, including banning all coal imports into North Korea in February. However, it is unlikely to squeeze its neighbour too hard. The key reason Beijing has differed with Washington over scope and severity of actions against Pyongyang largely reflects the fact that it does not want to push the regime so hard that it becomes significantly destabilised.



From the vantage point of Chinese officials, this risks North Korea behaving even more unpredictably, and/ or the outside possibility of the implosion of the regime. This would not be in Beijing's interests for at least two considerations.



Firstly, if the Communist regime in Pyongyang falls it could undermine the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party -- its regional ally -- too. In addition, Beijing fears that the collapse of order in North Korea could lead to instability on the North Korea-China border, a potentially large influx of refugees that it would need to manage, and ultimately the potential emergence of a pro-US successor nation.



Washington and Beijing will be seeking to manage their differences on these issues, and try to agree the best route forward in the UN Security Council. In these conversations, the Trump team has the support of not just South Korea and Japan which want to see new sanctions imposed quickly on North Korea, but also potentially the United Kingdom and France too.



Taken overall, tensions will only rise further in the Korean peninsula following the latest ICBM test. Trump may soon face into his first major foreign policy crisis, and need very quickly to make some big decisions on how to tackle Pyongyang's provocations.







Andrew Hammond is an associate at LSE IDEAS at the London School of Economics. Contact andrew.hammond.james@gmail.com.




By Andrew Salmon





He was a Japanese collaborator and one-time communist who cynically engineered a path to the top. He was a sinister general who seized power via coup. To earn Yankee dollars, he ruthlessly exploited Korean workers in sweatshop factories and Korean soldiers in Vietnamese jungles. He bulldozed traditional architecture and created an urbanized Korea of brutish ugliness. He suppressed democratic institutions, wielded security services to suppress human rights and altered the constitution to maintain power.

Park Chung-hee, in short, was a dictator.

Particularly following the downfall of his daughter Park Geun-hye, this seems to be the dominant narrative surrounding Park Senior  at least among young Koreans I speak to. It is rare to hear a good word about the man who was, more than any other, responsible for molding today's South Korea.

But does the descriptor "dictator" appropriately encompass the whole man? I would argue, "No."

Park is most noted for the extraordinary surge of the Korean economy, the "Miracle on the Han." (Both the blueprint for this  start with highways to create a concrete sector; then build vehicles to create machinery, steel and refined petrochemicals sectors  and the term for it, were borrowed from West Germany and the "Miracle on the Rhine.") It is difficult to overstate the importance of this achievement.

His efforts to leverage startup capital from ex-colonial power Japan and Vietnam-engrossed America were risky and unpopular with the public. But the money was wisely invested. The creation of a modern national infrastructure; the rise of companies that built it and made the products to run on it; and the subsequent creation of massive, foreign-exchange earning export powerhouses; enriched the nation massively. A formerly agrarian Korea was catapulted out of third-world status.

A rich elite certainly became richer, but trickle-down became a flood that bathed the entire nation. Poverty was largely eradicated. Infectious diseases, malnutrition and infant mortality plunged. Life spans soared. Housing improved (albeit, at the cost of traditional aesthetics). Provision of training and education increased. While quality of life remained a distant priority, the seeds of great expectations had been sown.

The national character was transformed. Early western observers considered Koreans charming but indolent; observers during the Korean War wrote them off as a broken people. Ambition, diligence and a fierce desire to succeed against all odds were injected into the national DNA via the Park-era military and education systems. Under Park, Koreans became winners  respected players on the global scene  for the first time in modern history.

Park's most under-sung achievement is environmental. He instituted a national tree-planting program that turned Korea's hills and valleys  deforested since the late 19th century due to the ferocious appetite of ondol heating/kitchen systems for firewood  green and verdant.

Could all this have been achieved under democratic governance? Perhaps. But if it had, it almost certainly would have taken far, far, longer. Democracy may be the fairest form of governance, but inbuilt checks and balances slow things down. For this reason, democracy tends to establish itself in, and operate best in, prosperous, advanced economies. Park's drive would almost certainly have outrun democratic institutions that demand the rule of law  with its rules and regulations  and frowned upon his penchant for national mobilization and social engineering.

Even in politics, Park won two elections fairly and squarely  but there is no denying that his political rule, from 1971 until his assassination in 1979, was harshly dictatorial. Yet if we look at a wider spectrum of national metrics  economic, social, environmental  it seems myopic to focus attention solely upon politics.

It is noteworthy that the generation which lived through the Park years tends to venerate him  but every generation rewrites history. This is natural. Not only is new material uncovered, but new approaches to historiography are demanded by changes in public attitudes, social mores and academic theories.

Will Park's legacy continue to erode? I suspect not. In the fullness of time, I think he will be seen in a broader, fairer and more positive light than he is today. South Korea was the greatest national success story of the latter half of the 20th century; Park was its pioneering architect and builder.





Andrew Salmon is a Seoul-based reporter and author. Reach him at andrewcsalmon@yahoo.co.uk.
By Nam Hyun-woo



A drastic change is coming to Korea's food and drink franchise industry, with the first-generation brands faltering on disappointing performances or unexpected owner risks.



According to the Korea Exchange (KRX) Friday, the stocks of MP Group, the parent company of pizza brand Mr. Pizza, were suspended from trading this week.



The measure came after its former Chairman Jung Woo-hyun went on trial on charges of mistreatment of the franchises, malpractice and embezzlement of 9.9 billion won ($8.8 million).



The amount accounts for 31.63 percent of MP Group's equity capital of 31.22 billion won. The KRX suspends the trading of a stock if the company's largest shareholder is tried for embezzling more than 1 billion won. Jung is the largest shareholder of the group.



"The KRX has suspended the shares of MP Group. The measure will continue until the KRX decides whether or not to carry out an eligibility test," a KRX official said.



An eligibility test is a prior step before a review for delisting.



MP Group's business has been floundering in recent years. Its sales declined from 176.7 billion won in 2012 to 97.1 billion won last year.



Its share price plunged from the 4,000 won to the 1,000 won level after Jung stirred a public uproar with his assault against a building security guard last year. Its price stood at 1,315 won at the moment of the suspension.



Owner risks are not specific to MP Group.



Hosigi Chicken Chairman Choi Ho-sig is also under investigation for allegedly sexually harassing a female employee.

After the disgraceful behavior made headlines, the chicken brands' sales dropped up to 40 percent, according to Rep. Kim Young-joo of Democratic Party of Korea.















Collapse of old coffee brands



Other franchises are also facing fast changes.



Earlier this week, Cafe Mango Six CEO Kang Hoon was found dead at his home in southern Seoul after an apparent suicide due to his struggling businesses.



KH Company, which runs Mango Six brand, has posted net losses of 1.3 billion won in 2015 and 1.2 billion won last year.



During the period, the number of Mango Six franchises halved to around 100 and he recently filed for protection with a Seoul court.



Kang earned his reputation as "Coffee King" with his success story of coffee franchises starting from the late 1990s. He was the co-founder of the Hollys Coffee chain and nurtured Cafe Bene as one of the leading homegrown coffee franchises.



Entrepreneurs, who joined Kang for coffee franchises also saw their businesses shrinking.



Tom N Toms, another coffee franchise set up by Hollys co-founder Kim Do-kyun, turned to deficit last year netting a 2.7 billion won loss.



Experts say their businesses collapse because their business models became outdated.



With the first-generation franchises' success, countless coffee franchises sprouted in the past decade, saturating the market. While many new-born brands adopting new strategies -- such as downsizing the size of cafes, differentiating their brands with distinctive characteristics -- the first-generation coffee houses opted to keep their cafes size large and luxurious.



But they could not compete with foreign franchises such as like Starbucks and newly-emerging homegrown brands.



According to Korea Fair Trade Mediation Agency, the number of franchise brands in Korea stood at 5,273 last year, up from 4,844 a year earlier. The number of affiliated stores was 218,997 at the end of 2015. The agency did not disclose last year's tally.



The average life span of a franchise was four years and eight months, meaning most of brands close within five years from their opening.
Kim Young-sang

POSCO Daewoo CEO Song Chi-ho

LG International CEO

By Lee Hyo-sik

POSCO Daewoo, LG International and other domestic trading firms have been struggling to push forward their business projects in the Middle East amid rising geopolitical tensions there.

Korean companies are eager to carry on joint projects with their Middle Eastern counterparts to secure new sources of income overseas, but Saudi Arabia and other nations have shown a lukewarm attitude toward doing business with them.

POSCO Daewoo, headed by CEO Kim Young-sang, said Monday it has decided to end a $1 billion project with the Saudi Arabian government to build an automotive plant in the Arab nation, citing the halfhearted response from the Saudis. The completed plant would have been capable of producing 150,000 cars annually.

In June 2014, the trading arm of steelmaker POSCO signed a memorandum of understanding under which POSCO Daewoo had a 15 percent stake in the plan, while Saudi sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund (PIF) had 35 percent and a consortium of private Saudi firms, the remaining 50 percent.

In June last year, the Saudi government established Saudi Holding Company, which took over 85 percent from PIF and the consortium, to take the lead in the plant project.

But the plan has largely been put on the backburner as the Arab nation is reluctant to invest, according to POSCO Daewoo.

"It's been more than three years since we signed the MOU but nothing more has been done to make the project happen," a company official said. "We really wanted to make it happen, but in the end we had no other choice but to abandon it, so we disbanded the team overseeing the Saudi plan."

The official said the Saudi government has been paying little attention to the Daewoo plan because it is focusing on other big development projects.

LG International, the trading arm of LG Group, is also having a hard time pushing for a plan to produce electric vehicles (EVs) and build charging infrastructure in Iran.

In May last year when former President Park Geun-hye visited the Middle Eastern nation, the company signed an agreement, which is more legally binding than an MOU, with Iran Khodro, the country's largest carmaker, to jointly manufacture 60,000 EVs annually by 2023.

LG Electronics, LG Chem and other group affiliates plan to supply motors, batteries and other components, and construct charging stations and other infrastructure. Khodro would then assemble the EVs in Iran.

Both sides had initially planned to finalize the deal by the end of 2016, but haven't been able to do so because of mounting tension between Iran and the United States since Donald Trump became U.S. president in January.

Shiite-majority Iran is also facing problems with Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Muslim nations in the region, making it more difficult for LG International, headed by CEO Song Chi-ho, to maneuver.

"It has been taking longer than we initially expected to sign an official contract with Khodro," a company official said. "Despite increasingly uncertain geopolitical conditions in the Middle East, we are positive the project will soon get back on track. We believe Iran wants to do business with us."
The Hawaiian capital of Honolulu will fine people who use smartphones while on pedestrian crossings up to $99.



By Lee Han-soo

The Hawaiian capital of Honolulu will fine people who use smartphones while on pedestrian crossings up to $99, according to local news outlets Sunday.

The penalty will also apply to users of tablet PCs, e-readers, laptop computers, pagers and video game devices.

People caught jaywalking while looking at their electronic devices will face fines of up to $130.

The policy will take effect from Oct. 25.

"While we have laws in place for our motorists and our bicyclists, now it's a shared responsibility for pedestrians as well, to really pay attention as they cross the street,"said councilor Brandon Elefante, who introduced the legislation.

"Safety is a concern. We certainly don't want it to lead to a casualty or a severe injury with people crossing the street."

He said high school students had first proposed the legislation.

However, not everybody welcomes the penalty.

Some residents say the law infringes on people's personal freedom.

"Scrap this intrusive bill, provide more education to citizens about responsible electronics usage, and allow law enforcement to focus on larger issues," a resident wrote to the city council, according to Reuters news agency.
Police say a 49-year-old Sioux Falls man is suffering from life-threatening injuries after crashing into a pickup that pulled out in front of him.

Public Information Officer Sam Clemens said the man was driving a 1985 Harley Davidson motorcycle north on N. 4th Avenue Monday at 1 p.m. when the accident happened.

A 2011 Nissan Frontier pickup was stopped on E. Maple Street waiting to go through the intersection. Clemens said the 25-year-old Sioux Falls man driving the pickup did not see the motorcyclist and pulled out in front of it.

The motorcyclist hit the driver's side and went over the pickup. He was not wearing a helmet and was taken to a hospital.

Clemens said speed, alcohol and drugs do not appear to be factors in the accident.
"Armenian government has failed to ensure full accountability after July events"

Human Rights Watch published an article on July 30 year after attacks on protesters, journalists The Armenian government has failed to ensure full accountability for police violence against largely peaceful protesters and journalists a year ago, Human Rights Watch said today. At the same time the authorities have indicted at least 32 protesters, convicting 21 of them, with 11 sentenced to prison. On several nights in July 2016, largely peaceful, anti-government protests took place in the Armenian capital, Yerevan. At some protests, the authorities used excessive force, assaulting many demonstrators as well as journalists reporting on the events. Authorities arbitrarily detained many protest leaders and hundreds of participants, pressing unjustified criminal charges against some. No officials have been prosecuted. A year after Yerevans July protests, victims of police violence are still waiting for justice and accountability, said Giorgi Gogia, South Caucasus director at Human Rights Watch. The publics trust in police and the justice system is severely shaken, and an effective accountability process is essential for restoring it. The protests erupted after armed men from a radical opposition group, Founding Parliament, violently seized a Yerevan police station on July 17, 2016. They are alleged to have killed three policemen and taken hostages. Before the gunmen surrendered on July 31, public support for them and disaffection with the government grew into a protest movement, with almost nightly demonstrations in the capital. The police response was heavy-handed at times. At a July 29 protest in the neighborhood of the seized police station, police fired stun grenades into peaceful crowds, causing first- and second-degree burns and fragmentation wounds on some demonstrators and journalists. Police did not give proper warning or attempt to use other less violent means to disperse the crowd. Police, and unidentified people in civilian clothes acting with them, attacked protesters and some journalists, punching, kicking, and beating them with wooden clubs and iron bars. Police arbitrarily detained hundreds of protesters between July 17 and 31, and beat many detainees, in some cases severely. Police did not allow some detainees to get prompt medical care for their injuries. Police held some people for up to 12 hours without documenting the detentions, including holding more than 100 people overnight in a gymnasium. Authorities denied many detainees basic rights, including prompt access to a lawyer of their choosing and the opportunity to inform a relative of their detention and whereabouts. The authorities promptly opened an investigation into the police misconduct, but the investigation has led to limited accountability, Human Rights Watch said. No criminal charges have been brought against any law enforcement officials. Some police have faced disciplinary actions that included dismissals. In early August 2016, authorities fired the Yerevan police chief for failing to prevent violent attacks on protesters and journalists, and suspended or reprimanded at least 17 other officials. Following internal inquiries police also sent several cases to the Special Investigation Service, the government agency responsible for investigating crimes committed by law enforcement. However, in December 2016, President Serge Sarkisyan awarded the Yerevan deputy police chief, who participated in police operations against protesters on July 29, a medal for excellent maintenance of public order. Commending an official for his role in a police operation that involved excessive force and serious injuries to protesters and journalists raises serious questions about the governments commitment to accountability, Gogia said. Armenian authorities have aggressively prosecuted protest participants and leaders. Of the 21 people convicted, 11 received prison terms ranging from one to three-and-a-half years, seven received conditional sentences, and three were fined. Most pleaded guilty, in part to be guaranteed a speedy trial, a lesser sentence than the maximum allowed by law, or both, their lawyers said. Charges included using violence during mass disorder and interfering with the work of a journalist. Trials of 10 protesters are ongoing. They face charges of using life-threatening violence against officers on duty during the July 19 protest in Yerevan. The trial of Andreas Ghukasyan, one of the leaders of the July 29 protest, is expected to begin soon. He is charged with organizing mass disorder during the demonstration. At least four other men who were particularly vocal and active in the July 29 protests are under investigation for the same alleged crime. Ghukasyan has been in pretrial detention for one year. During that time, the authorities brought additional charges against him, related to his alleged intention to support and join the gunmen in the police station. The government should make publicly available any credible evidence that justifies the serious criminal charges against the protest organizers and participants, Gogia said. The authorities should not seek to prosecute protesters and impose long prison sentences in retaliation for their vocal, but peaceful activism.
Statement by the Spokesperson on the conflict resolution and reconciliation efforts

Foreign Minister of Armenia to participate in the Fifth Paris Peace Forum

Armenia: EU and Armenia Hold annual Dialogue on Human Rights

Todays Shushi, Occupied and Cleared of Armenians, is a Real Example of Turkish-Azerbaijani Policy of Ethnic Cleansing of Artsakh

Ookla, the the global leader in internet testing and analysis has awarded Ucom

Sweden will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union

Ameriabank: At the Vanguard of Armenia's Banking Sector

STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARTSAKH

SUBSCRIBERS OF UCOMS ALL TIME BEST OFFER TO ENJOY ADDITIONAL BENEFITS

Armenia-Azerbaijan: EU sets up monitoring capacity along the international borders

PACE co-rapporteurs on Armenia concerned by reports of alleged war crimes or inhuman treatment perpetrated by Azerbaijans armed forces

There is still 35% gender pay gap: Sona Ghazaryan

Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia

Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans provided 136 million AMD support for the overhaul of the Myasnikyan statue, which was in unsafe state of disrepair

Believe me, as a representative of a country which uses the Schengen system very often, it is quite important. Vardanyan

I really look forward to having answers from the Azerbaijani side for these alleged gross human rights violations: Secretary General

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I call on Armenian and Azerbaijani parliamentarians to use this Assembly as an agora of opportunities President Tiny Kox

UCOMS SPECIAL OFFER OF THE UNLIMITED INTERNET IS NOW TERMLESS

There is no place for the death penalty in a State that respects human rights: PACE General Rapporteur

EU and CoE call on two Member States that have not yet acceded to this Protocol  Armenia and Azerbaijan  to do so without delay

An urgent debate requested on "The military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan".

UCOM AND PES-PES CONTINUE COOPERATION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF EDUCATIONAL PROJECT

The statement of the meeting between Prime Minister Pashinyan, President Aliyev, President Macron and President Michel of October 6, 2022

Largest Corporate Bond Program at the Securities Market of Armenia Completed Successfully

The statement of the Defender on the video of the execution of Armenian PoWs by the Azerbaijani armed forces

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STATEMENT BY SECRETARY ANTONY J. BLINKEN

This criminal act is another proof that the Armenophobia policy. Tatoyan

Nikol Pashinyan, Nancy Pelosi discuss a number of issues related to the Armenian-American agenda and regional developments
PRESS RELEASE

China Rips into Brits Plan for Gunboat Diplomacy in South China Sea; Remember the Opium War

July 29, 2017 (EIRNS)The official Chinese Communist Party paper Global Times editorial today blasts the announcement by both U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson during a visit to Australia on July 27, and by U.K. Defense Secretary Michael Fallon on the same day, that Britain will be using its two new aircraft carriers to patrol the South China Sea. Johnson said that the operation was intended to uphold

the rules-based international system and in the freedom of navigation through those waterways which are absolutely vital for world trade.

Fallon said that Britain would not be constrained by China from sailing through the South China Sea, according to Global Times.

The editorial, referring to the start of the British Empires Opium Wars, continued: It is no longer 1840. There are no longer any British colonies in East Asia and the presence of Britains warship in the region is more like an aberration. 

The daily recalls that the previous Cameron administration pledged a golden decade for the U.K.-China relationship and viewed China as its major partner for economic cooperation. But,

Britains national strength today is even weaker than when it went to war with Argentina in 1982. And Britain has no capacity to mobilize troops to fight a New Opium War with China off the China coast.

They repeat the obviousthere is no threat to freedom of navigation in the region, but only a brutal and arrogant response to Chinas rise.

Today, the biggest threat in the South China Sea comes from the provocation to China by military forces outside the region. Britain should be aware that if the countrys new aircraft carriers are sent to patrol the South China Sea, the Chinese will view it as a provocation.

The editorial also notes that Australia has recently acted hysterically against China regarding the issue, although China has done nothing to provoke Australia.
PRESS RELEASE

Lavrov Tells Tillerson, Russia Ready To Normalize Relations with U.S., Despite Russophobic Forces

July 29, 2017 (EIRNS)The Russian Foreign Ministry gave a strong response to the Congressional anti-Russian sanctions, calling them the work of "Russophobic" forces pushing the two countries into confrontation, but left the door open for improvement of relations. The Ministry released a statement yesterday on Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrovs July 28 telephone discussion with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson concerning Russias counter-measures, such as forcing the U.S. to reduce the number of its diplomats in Russia.

TASS quoted the Foreign Ministry statement:

"Sergey Lavrov stressed that the decision to equal the number of U.S. and Russian diplomatic missions and to close access to two U.S. Embassys facilities stems from a series of Washingtons hostile steps. Such actions included illegal sanctions against Russia, calumny against it, mass expulsion of diplomats and seizure of our diplomatic property. "Lavrov reiterated that our country was still ready for the normalization of bilateral relations with the United States and cooperation on the key issues of the global agenda. However, it is possible only basing on equality, mutual respect and balance of interests."

The statement continued that Lavrov and Tillerson "agreed to maintain contacts on the whole scope of the Russian-American relations."

The Russian minister stressed that Russia

"has been doing its best to mend the relations and acted with discretion in response to the U.S. provocations. But the latest developments have demonstrated that the U.S. policy turnout out to be in the hands of Russophobic forces that are pushing Washington towards confrontation,"

the statement said, according to TASS.

"Our limited and absolutely adequate measures should not be seen as an eye for eye response but as a forced step fitting into the international practice and aiming to defend Russias legal interests in a hope that the U.S. side would finally think about pernicious consequences of its policy."

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov made similar statements, in an interview with Rossiya-1 TV. He referred his talk with U.S. Ambassador John Tefft, "with whom I had a hard but professional talk. I reassured him that there are no signs on the Russian part that our policy is ruinous," he said. "On the contrary, we want to restore justice and call on the Americans to show restraint.

"I dont consider this bill frightening, I consider it ... defective, harmful for the United States itself and doomed to failure. It means that the goals set by its initiators will never be achieved. Relations with Russia will only worsen and the perspective of their normalization will go further on into the future,"

he said.

"Once again, we are warning the U.S. side, and now I am doing it publicly, against attempts to further unwind the spiral of confrontation, against attempts to hit our relations over and over again. Now, the choice and assessment of the consequences of what is going on depends completely on the Americans. "I insist that in case of these or those actions we will have to take retaliation steps, countermeasures. They might be absolutely tit-for-tat but they might not be that way at all,"

he said.

Regarding the Obama administrations seized Russian diplomatic property in the United States. Ryabkov said:
PRESS RELEASE

School Districts throughout U.S. Cut Class Weeks and Days for Lack of Funds

July 29, 2017 (EIRNS)Hundreds of school districts are now planning to reopen this fall, with reduced course subjects, class hours, and even class days, for lack of funds. Education, along with Medicaid, rank as two of the top state funding categories, and many states, with significant revenue decline, are now cutting help for strapped localities.

In Oklahoma, at least 96 districts have already dropped down to a four-day week, out of 513 districts in the state. This is four times as many, as in that shape four years ago. An additional 44 school districts are right now in the process of deciding whether to cut the school week, or just lob days off the school year. Oklahoma first started cutting school weeks in 2009.

As of this spring, The Atlantic reported that close to half of all school districts in Montana were on cut time, 88 districts in Colorado, and 30 in Oregon. Idaho has also reduced school days in many localities.

Back East, there are many kinds of adjustments for lack of funds. In Torrington, Connecticut this past week, the Board of Education came up with a contingency plan to delay the start of school in September, if necessary. For each day the school district stays closed, it can delay spending $190,000, which it may or may not get from the state, which at present, is in a budget crisis.
July 31, 2017 (EIRNS)Former United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq, Scott Ritter, has stepped forward to support the main conclusions of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) July 24 Memorandum to President Trump, and warn of the dangers of letting the Russia hacking fraud stand.

Writing in Truthdig on July 27, Ritter says,

"I agree with the argument of the July 24 VIPS memorandum that takes issue with the Jan. 6, 2017, Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) on Russian meddling. This NIA evaluation assessed with high confidence that Russian military intelligence (General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate or GRU) used the Guccifer 2.0 persona to release U.S. victim data obtained in cyber operations publicly and in exclusives to media outlets and relayed material to WikiLeaks. The assessments contained within the Russia ICA, which lies at the very heart of the ongoing controversy surrounding accusations of collusion by people affiliated with the Trump presidential campaign and Russia, is demonstrably wrong. The VIPS memorandum to President Trump is a valuable contribution to a larger discussion of the intelligence communitys erroneous assessment that is, otherwise, lacking.

"The implications of the conclusions reached in the VIPS memorandum (if not the actual technical analysis it relied on) are staggering: The DNC [Democratic National Committee] hack was actually a cyber-theft perpetrated by an insider with direct access to the DNC server, who then deliberately doctored documents to make them look as if they had been accessed by a Russian-speaking actor prior to releasing them to the public. This is not the narrative being pushed by the U.S. intelligence, Congress and the mainstream media. Moreover, if true, the conclusions reached by VIPS point to a broader conspiracy within the United States to undermine the credibility of an admittedly unpopular, yet legitimately elected president, that borders on sedition.

"No one has linked the theft of the DNC documents to Guccifer 2.0....

"Which brings up perhaps the most curious aspect of this entire case: The DNC servers at the center of this controversy were never turned over to the FBI for forensic investigation. Instead, the FBI had to rely upon copies of the DNC server data provided by CrowdStrike. The fact that it was CrowdStrike, and not the FBI, that made the GRU attribution call based upon the investigation of the alleged cyber-penetration of the DNC server is disturbing. As shown here, there is good reason to doubt the viability of the CrowdStrike analysis. That the FBI, followed by the U.S. Congress, the U.S. intelligence community, and the mainstream media, has parroted this questionable assertion as fact is shocking.

"The Guccifer 2.0 story is at the center of the ongoing controversy swirling around the Trump White House concerning allegations of collusion with Russia regarding meddling in the 2016 presidential election."
On Monday night, the L.A. Library Foundations ALOUD program will host a conversation featuring two esteemed African writers  except that one of them, Richard Ali a Mutu, wont be in the room.

Ali a Mutu, who at the last minute was denied a visa to visit the U.S. from his home in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, will appear instead via Skype, in discussion with Ngugi wa Thiongo, a Kenyan writer who now lives in Irvine.

Moderating the discussion will be David Schook, head of the independent press Phoneme Media, which published Ali a Mutus novel Mr. Fix-It in English. Ali a Mutu wrote the book in the Bantu language of Lingala.

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Why Ali a Mutus visa application was denied is something of a mystery.

His application was denied by the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa in the DRC under Section 214(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which states that all applicants are presumed to be intending immigrants. In other words, applicants must demonstrate that they have a compelling reason to return to their home country  and leave the United States  at the end of their temporary stay.

The denial letter issued by the Embassy stated that Ali a Mutus application did not demonstrate strong social, economic and/or familial ties outside the United States or did not demonstrate that his intended activities in the U.S. would be consistent with the visa status, as deemed by the interviewing officer.

The decision came as a surprise to Ali a Mutu, whose ties in his home country include being a practicing attorney, hosting a weekly television program about Congolese literature and making his home in Kinshasa with his wife.

Mr. Fix-It, which is set in Kinshasa, follows the story of a young Congolese man navigating the tensions between tradition and modernity in an evolving DRC. Kinshasa full of joy, Kinshasa home to life and its troubles, Ali a Mutu writes in Mr. Fix-It. Kinshasa, the land of bursting joy in all its forms Its true, you may live to be one hundred years old, but if you have never seen Kinshasa, you cannot say that you have truly lived.

In a letter to U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) requesting intervention with the U.S. Department of State, Schook described Ali a Mutu as unusually committed to the literature of his home nation, and he believes his role is to promote it from within the Congo.

In January, President Trump signed a travel ban directly affecting several majority-Muslim countries (the DRC is not one of them). In the intervening months, as the ban has been challenged in the courts and revised, many immigration policies have been in flux. Members of an Afghan girls robotics team that had earned a spot in a global competition held in Washington, D.C., were first denied, then granted, visas to visit the U.S.

State Department officials do not comment on individual visa cases, so there is no official word on why Ali a Mutus application was denied.

Ali a Mutu published his first novel, Tabus Nightmares, in 2011 and was the sole writer working in indigenous languages to be included in the Africa39 Anthology, a collection of promising and prominent African writers working today.

The ALOUD event was organized to promote a discussion surrounding the politics of writing in African languages, and in others, to celebrate the publication of Mr. Fix-It in English; the book officially hits shelves Aug 1.

agatha.french@latimes.com

@agathafrenchy
The $84-billion back-to-school shopping season is back just in time as far as beleaguered mall merchants are concerned.

Consumer spending on kids and young adults returning to the classroom not only is the second-largest shopping period behind the winter holidays, but its one when many conventional physical stores are holding their own against the surge of online competition.

Although the growth of e-commerce has forced dozens of U.S. retail chains to close thousands of locations at malls and elsewhere, analysts said that children and their parents still like visiting stores to purchase items on their back-to-school lists  notebooks and lunch boxes and clothes and computers.

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This is one category where were seeing a surprising level of support for the in-store experience, said Jim Mills, who heads the Southern California consumer business practice for Deloitte, the consulting and auditing firm.

Back-to-school shoppers plan to do most of their buying in physical stores, according to a survey conducted for the National Retail Federation by Prosper Insights & Analytics.

Online shopping came in third, tied with clothing stores, when consumers were asked to name all the places they were planning to do their buying. Nearly 46% of those surveyed said they would do some online shopping, almost unchanged from a year ago but up about 10 percentage points from 2015, showing the strong growth of e-commerce.

In a separate survey, the International Council of Shopping Centers trade group found that 68% of shoppers said they dont envision buying all of their school supplies online, spokeswoman Stephanie Cegielski said.

People still want to see and touch and interact with products, she said.

The back-to-school buying season is second only to the holiday shopping season for retailers. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Retailers increasingly are making it easier for consumers to order products online and then have them delivered to their homes or pick them up at the store. The latter option often prompts shoppers to stroll elsewhere in the store to buy other merchandise or  in the case of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp., for instance  pick up groceries as well.

For many youngsters and their parents, the store visits are as important as the convenience of e-commerce. Its one thing for kids to give their parents a holiday wish list and hope for the best, and quite another for kids to demand a select type of notebook, backpack or apparel after theyve looked them over in person, analysts said.

Theyre online a lot, dont get me wrong, NRF spokeswoman Ana Serafin Smith said. But theyre using online more to do research than to actually pull the trigger and buy.

The NRFs research also is showing that youths age 20 and under are really interested in bringing the brick-and-mortar experience back for buying back-to-school items, Serafin Smith said. They love going into the stores and shopping the way their grandparents did.

In contrast to back-to-school shopping, the winter holidays find parents often prefer to shop without their children. The NRFs 2016 holiday shopping survey reflected that, with online shopping outpacing every other store category: About 52% of shoppers planned to buy online; the No. 2 category was department stores at 42%.

Back-to-school shopping has become a family ritual, which helps mall retailers fight the online onslaught. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Back-to-school sales, including those for young adults returning to college, are expected to climb a stout 10.3% this year to $83.6 billion from $75.8 billion, the NRF estimates, citing stronger employment, higher consumer confidence about the economy and lower gasoline prices.

The Conference Board, a business trade group, last week said its consumer confidence index rose in July to its highest level since mid-2001.

This is good news for retailers, arriving just as the back-to-school retail sales season is beginning to heat up, said Chris Christopher Jr., executive director for economics at the research firm IHS Markit.

Our forecast calls for growth of 4.3% in back-to-school retail sales this year compared to last year, which would be the strongest growth since 2014, Christopher said.

The portion of back-to-school sales for kids in elementary school through high school is forecast at $29.5 billion, and the portion for college students is $54.1 billion, the NRF said.

College sales include a variety of merchandise thats of less or no value to the even-younger set, including items for dorm rooms, such as bedding and mini-refrigerators, and branded collegiate apparel and other goods.

Computers and other electronics top the list for college students, with the NRF finding that theyll spend $12.8 billion on electronics, followed by $8 billion for clothing.

Beyond the immediate sales it generates, the back-to-school season is crucial for retailers because it remains an important bellwether for what is to come over the holidays in terms of consumers willingness to spend, Christopher said.

Every year, its two days before the start of school and Im in Staples buying school supplies.  Stephanie Cegielski, International Council of Shopping Centers

Mills said the back-to-school season is a key marketing tool for retailers because the level of their service, prices and convenience will determine whether customers return in four months for the Christmas season.

Theyre focused on this season being a great platform to expose to the consumer what they can offer, Mills said.

That exposure starts with dedicated back-to-school sections in stores and online. Amazons Back to School Checklist link sits at the top of its homepage; Staples Inc.s Back to School Center link also tops its website.

Wal-Marts website allows schools to post checklists of their required supplies so that students and parents can immediately order them with a few clicks. In its physical stores, the giant retailer also has back-to-school helpers to direct customers to the merchandise theyre looking for and the shortest checkout lines.

RetailMeNot.com, a website that connects shoppers with retailers, said its survey of back-to-school buying habits found that nearly one in three consumers (28%) always search for items online before going in the store. But 54% said they end up doing most of their shopping in a physical store.

When it comes to choosing which stores to patronize, the same problems plaguing certain types of retailers show up in back-to-school shopping as well.

Deloitte found that mass merchants such as Wal-Mart and Target not only are the most popular destinations, with 73% of parents saying they planned to shop at such stores, but the percentage rose sharply from a year ago.

Conversely, parents preference for traditional department stores  which would include Macys Inc. and J.C. Penney Co.  fell from a year earlier to 34%. Their preference for specialty clothing stores also fell, to 9%.

Youre seeing a shift to more discount-related stores, away from the traditional department stores, said the ICSCs Cegielski. Although consumer confidence is up, people are being much more price conscious, she said.

Cegielski said another reason people still visit physical stores is the need to make last-minute purchases, and she confessed she is in that group.

Every year, its two days before the start of school and Im in Staples buying school supplies, she said. Youre almost forced to visit a brick-and-mortar store rather than waiting for a shipment from online because its too late.

james.peltz@latimes.com

Twitter: @PeltzLATimes

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Luxury brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate, a well-known New York firm that entered the L.A. market less than four years ago, has agreed to purchase Teles Properties in a bid to expand in California as the states housing market booms.

Teles, a local rival based in Beverly Hills, has offices throughout Southern California. When Douglas Elliman completes the acquisition, the combined firm will have 20 offices and 630 sales associates within the state  a dramatic expansion from Ellimans single location in Beverly Hills.

A purchase price for the deal, expected to close in August, was not disclosed.

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Stephen H. Kotler, president of Douglas Ellimans Western region, said the company wants to grow in California because its wealthy clients from New York, Miami and abroad want to acquire another home in the state. The red-hot California real estate market also played a role, as did new luxury condos rising in Los Angeles.

We thought it was a good time to be here, said Kotler, who will continue to lead the western region.

Douglas Elliman estimated that the deal will make it the second-largest non-franchise residential brokerage in California based on sales volume, behind only Pacific Union.

Last year, Elliman and Teles combined had sales volume of about $4 billion in California and $27.4 billion nationwide, according to Douglas Elliman, which was founded in 1911.

Teles Properties, founded in 2007, has among its current listings a $21.9-million gated estate compound in Bel Air and a $19.9-million five-bedroom home on Newport Beachs Lido Isle with 200 feet of bay frontage and multiple docks for large yachts.

Peter Loewy, Teles chief executive, said agents selling such luxury compounds can now use Ellimans superior marketing capability on the East Coast and abroad.

It makes our ability to sell so much stronger, he said.

The deal comes as several online brokerages try to shake up an industry built on personal relationships. One of those, Redfin, out of Seattle, went public last week; its shares soared nearly 45% on the first day of trading.

Even traditional brokerages like Teles want to incorporate more technology. The firm has built an online portal that enables agents to handle their listings in one place, including marketing on social media and websites for individual listings.

The kind of things that can take a week or more, we can do in 24 hours, Loewy said.

Howard M. Lorber, chairman of parent company Douglas Elliman Realty, said Teles technology is impressive but was not the driving force behind the deal.

It was great they had it, he said. But my initial consideration was where their offices are.

Among Teles 19 offices in California are locations in San Diego, Newport Beach, Beverly Hills and Carmel.

Following the acquisition, the Teles name will be dropped, though senior executives will stay with the firm, including Loewy, who is set to become chief executive of brokerage for California.

andrew.khouri@latimes.com

Follow me @khouriandrew on Twitter
A prominent privacy rights watchdog is asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate a new Google advertising program that ties shoppers online behavior to their purchases in physical stores.

The legal complaint from the Electronic Privacy Information Center, to be filed with the FTC on Monday, alleges that Google is newly gaining access to a trove of highly sensitive information  the credit and debit card purchase records of the majority of U.S. consumers  without revealing how it got the information or giving people meaningful ways to opt out. Moreover, the group claims that the search giant is relying on a secretive technical method to protect the data  a method that should be audited by outsiders and may be vulnerable to hacks or other data breaches.

Google is seeking to extend its dominance from the online world to the real, offline world, and the FTC really needs to look at that, said Marc Rotenberg, the organizations executive director.

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Google  a subsidiary of Mountain View, Calif.-based Alphabet Inc.  called its advertising approach common and said it had invested in building a new, custom encryption technology that ensures users data remains private, secure and anonymous.

The tech giant announced the program, Store Sales Measurement, in May. Executives have hailed it as a revolutionary breakthrough in advertisers abilities to track consumer behavior. Google said that, for the first time, it would be able to prove with a high degree of confidence that clicks on online ads led to in-person purchases.

To do this, Google said it had obtained access to the credit and debit card records of 70% of U.S. consumers. It had then developed a mathematical formula that would make anonymous and encrypt the transaction data, and then automatically match the transactions to the millions of U.S. users of Google and Google-owned services such as Gmail, search, YouTube and maps. Google said this approach prevents it from accessing the credit or debit card data for individuals.

But the company did not disclose the mathematical formula it uses to protect consumers data. In a statement, Google said it had taken pains to build custom encryption technology that ensures the data it receives remain private and anonymous.

The privacy organization is asking the government not to take Googles word for it and to review the algorithm itself. In its complaint, the organization said that the mathematical technique that Store Sales Measurement is based on, CryptDB, has known security flaws. Researchers hacked into a CryptDB-protected healthcare database in 2015, accessing more than half the stored records.

Google also would not disclose which companies were providing it with the transaction records. When asked if users had consented to having their credit and debit transactions shared, Google would not specifically say. It replied that it requires that its unnamed partners have the rights necessary to use these data.

In its complaint, the privacy group alleges that if consumers dont know how Google gets its purchase data, then they cannot make an informed decision about which cards not to use or where not to shop if they dont want their purchases tracked. The organization points out that purchases can indicate medical conditions, religious beliefs and other intimate information.

Google also said that it does not have access to the names or other personal information of the credit and debit card users, and that it does not share any information about individual Google users with partners. Advertisers receive aggregate information. For example, for an ad campaign for sneakers that received 10,000 clicks, the advertiser learns that 12% of the clickers made a purchase.

Users can opt out any time, Google said. To do so, users of Googles products can go to their My Activity page, click Activity controls, and turn off Web & App Activity, Google says.

The privacy group says the opt-out settings and the descriptions of what users are opting out of are confusing and opaque. The group says that the company continues to store server and click data even when Web & App Activity is turned off, and that to opt out of everything requires a labyrinthine process of going to a number of third-party sites. Meanwhile, opting out of location-tracking requires going to a separate button and interface. None of the opt-out descriptions specifically describes credit card data.

In 2011 and 2012, Google paid multimillion-dollar fines to settle FTC allegations on privacy issues. The 2012 case, for $22.5 million, said that Google misrepresented its privacy promises to users of Apples Safari browser, who were the under the impression that they could opt out of ad tracking. In 2011, in response to a case brought by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Google settled FTC accusations that it used deceptive tactics and violated its own privacy promises when it launched its social network Google Buzz.

Dwoskin and Timberg write for the Washington Post.
Wells Fargo & Co., which is still settling class-action lawsuits over its fake-accounts scandal, has now been hit with yet another  related to the banks revelation last week that it charged auto loan customers for unnecessary insurance.

An Indiana man who says he was charged $598 for auto coverage despite repeatedly asking Wells Fargo to rescind the charges is the lead plaintiff in the case, which accuses the San Francisco bank of scheming with National General Insurance Co. to bilk millions of dollars from unsuspecting customers.

The lawsuit, filed Sunday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, does not name the insurance carrier as a defendant. It is seeking class-action status.

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Last week, the bank acknowledged that an internal probe spurred by customer complaints found that, between 2012 and 2017, about 570,000 borrowers may have been wrongly pushed into auto-insurance policies despite having their own coverage.

The policies, so-called collateral-protection insurance, are typically issued by lenders after a customer takes out an auto loan on a vehicle and does not have coverage for it.

Wells Fargo said last week that it will pay $80 million in compensation to the customers, including some 20,000 who had their cars repossessed after the charges for the insurance caused them to default on their loans.

Catherine Pulley, a Wells Fargo spokeswoman, declined to comment on the specifics of the lawsuit but noted the banks offer of compensation.

We announced a plan to remediate auto loan customers who may have been financially harmed due to issues related to auto CPI policies placed between 2012-2017, the statement said. We are very sorry for the inconvenience this caused impacted customers, and we are in the process of notifying them and making things right.

The federal lawsuit accuses Wells Fargo of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, as well as Californias Unfair Competition Law and Indianas Deceptive Consumer Sales Act. It also alleges fraud.

The lawsuit was filed by Baron & Budd, a law firm with offices in California, Louisiana and Texas. Other law firms also have announced they are investigating whether to file lawsuits over the matter, including Keller Rohrback, a leading class-action firm.

National General could not be reached for immediate comment.

laurence.darmiento@latimes.com

Follow me @ldarmiento on Twitter

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Valerie Jarrett is joining Lyfts board of directors, the company announced Monday, making her the latest of President Obamas former staffers to enter the world of ride-hailing.

Jarrett, the former senior advisor to the president, joins the panel as an independent director, expanding Lyfts board to nine members from eight. She will focus on addressing the problems of urban transportation, a Lyft spokeswoman said, drawing on her background as former commissioner of Chicagos Department of Planning and Development and chairwoman of the Chicago Transit Board in addition to her eight years at the White House.

I am a frequent Lyft passenger and have been inspired by the strong community [that Lyft co-founders] John [Zimmer] and Logan [Green] have created that is dedicated to enlightened corporate values, Jarrett said in a statement provided by Lyft. We share a belief that reliable, affordable transportation positively impacts social mobility, and improves the quality of life in densely populated communities. I am thrilled to join the ride.

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Zimmer and Green, who sit on the San Francisco companys board, welcomed Jarretts appointment.

She will be a great partner for Lyft as we continue working alongside public transit agencies to provide upward mobility through transportation, reduce congestion, and ultimately reshape our cities, Green said in a statement. We couldnt be more excited to welcome Valerie to the Lyft family.

Zimmer praised Jarrett for perspective that will push Lyft forward as we work to improve peoples lives with the worlds best transportation.

Since leaving the White House in January, Jarrett has also joined the board of Chicago-based Ariel Investments, the Chicago Tribune reported in March. Obamas longest-serving advisor during his presidency, she became an advisor to the Obama Foundation after he left office.

Other members of Obamas team have also waded into the emergent world of ride-hailing in recent years.

David Plouffe, Obamas 2008 campaign manager and then senior advisor, was hired to head Uber policy in 2014, but he has since departed that role to lead policy for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a philanthropic organization founded by pediatrician Priscilla Chan and her husband, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg.

Former Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. was hired to lead an investigation into Ubers corporate culture after a spate of high-profile company scandals this year.

Jarrett joins Lyft during a period of growth largely stemming from Uber-related backlash  after the #DeleteUber scandal, widespread accusations of sexual harassment at Uber, a video showing founder and then-Chief Executive Travis Kalanick berating a driver, and a variety of other setbacks to Lyfts chief rival.

Lyft touted in its blog post that it had given more rides so far this year than in all of 2016. Still, Uber remains the giant of the industry, with recent valuations at about $70 billion  nearly 10 times that of Lyft.

Jarrett is the first Lyft board member not to represent a major shareholder, according to Lyft. The other board members are: founders Green and Zimmer, Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Ben Horowitz, General Motors President Dan Ammann, Icahn Capitals Jonathan Christodoro, investor and former Trulia Chief Financial Officer Sean Aggarwal, Rakutens Hiroshi Mikitani and Floodgate Funds Ann Miura-Ko.
Some officials can block websites, which give information about their offshore accounts (video)

Starting from November 1st the usage of VPN services, through which access to any blocked website is possible, will be banned in Russia. These are the first steps of Russia to limit internet freedom. Russia follows the example of Chinese or Arabic countries; in fact the internet is deprived of one of its main advantages- free dissemination of information, says information security expert Samvel Martirosyan. All this started earlier, when Russia decided to block the access to several websites from the territory of its country, In reality, initially it referred only to the websites, which propagate suicides and extremism, but of course when such a censorship mechanism is created, it becomes more widespread and the media outlets are also limited. Like in Russia and other countries, which use such methods, according to the specialists, it gives the opposite results. The more obstacles there are, the more the interest grows. Armenia is among few countries, where there is full internet freedom. But after such changes in EEU countries, Armenia should be alert in order to prevent unpleasant changes. Now it can be good, if some bad websites are blocked, but later some officials can use it and block websites, which provide information about their offshore accounts. By the way, besides the blocking of VPN, Russian State Duma adopted a law, which bans anonymizers. Hereafter all the internet users must be identified with their phone numbers.
Cable television giant Charter Communications Inc. shot down the prospect of a merger with Sprint, despite interest by the wireless phone operators parent, SoftBank Group Corp. of Japan, to create a mammoth new telecommunications company in the U.S.

While we understand why a deal is attractive for SoftBank, Charter has no interest in acquiring Sprint, Charter spokesman Alex Dudley said in a statement emailed to The Times on Monday.

Charter is one of the nations largest Internet and pay-TV providers, and is the dominant provider in the Los Angeles region, with more than 1.5 million customers. The Stamford, Conn., cable company also has a partnership with Verizon Communications Inc. and plans to use Verizons networks to introduce a Spectrum-brand wireless phone service.

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We have a very good  relationship with Verizon and intend to launch wireless services to cable customers next year, Dudley said.

The Wall Street Journal first reported interest by Kansas City-based Sprint in combining with the larger Charter, and Charters rejection of a potential tie-up.

The proposed deal would have created a new entity that would have been controlled by Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son and his company, SoftBank. Sprint is the nations fourth-largest wireless network and it has struggled to compete against rivals Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T, which is in the process of buying media company Time Warner Inc.

As Sprints core wireless phone business has matured, the company was hoping to join the parade of consolidation thats rampant in the telecommunications industry. The competition is fierce, and companies have resorted to cutting prices in order to encourage people to ditch rivals plans and sign up for their service.

But Charter is already laden with debt following its acquisition last year of Time Warner Cable. In addition, a tie-up between Sprint and Charter would have introduced other complications because of a pact between Charter and the nations largest cable company, Comcast Corp.

Charter and Comcast jointly agreed this spring not to engage in merger or acquisition talks with another wireless company for at least a year without each others participation or go-ahead.

Cable operators have been seeking a way to enter the wireless business for years; as Americans increasingly shift their Internet consumption to mobile devices and take their data usage to go. Traditional cellular carriers such as AT&T and Verizon have stood to benefit from the shift at the expense of home Internet providers such as Comcast and Charter.

But the cable industry has aggressively added public Wi-Fi hotspots to enable their customers to access mobile broadband.

Comcast Chief Executive Brian Roberts said duriing an earnings call last week that his company is content with its current strategy, hinting that no major deals were in the offing. Comcast also has an agreement with Verizon to offer Comcast/Xfinity-branded mobile phone service to its current subscribers.

Sprint had also reportedly been courting T-Mobile about an acquisition, according to the Journal. Sprint declined to comment on Charters assertion that it was not interested in pursuing an acquisition.

Charters shares jumped 5.8% on Monday to $391.91.

Times staff writer Rachel Spacek and Washington Post staff writer Brian Fung contributed to this report.

UPDATES:

1:55 p.m.: This article was updated with Charter stocks closing price.

11:30 a.m.: This article was updated throughout with Times staff reporting.

This article was originally published at 9:25 a.m.
On his way to work one day, drone photographer Alexey Goncharov sat on a bench near Moscows Mercury City Tower, searching for the best angle to capture the perfect reflection off the soaring, pinkish-bronze mirrored windows.

He sent his drone up the 1,112-foot-tall building. While the drone was in the flight, he spotted three window washers dangling on the side of the building. I liked the way their work looked from that perspective, recounted the physicist at Moscow State University. They seemed to wash the city itself, not just the buildings windows.

His high-flying photograph earned him second prize in the urban category of the 2017 Dronestagram contest. The French photo-sharing community is dedicated to displaying the best aerial images by professionals and enthusiasts.

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In the past, drones have been mostly used by the military. The photography aspect offers a new perspective of the world from the simple beauty of perfect rows of lavender fields being harvested by a lone tractor in Provence, France, to the hard-to-reach ancient rock fortress Sigiriya in Sri Lanka.

Theres a photo of a winding Transylvania road leading to Count Draculas castle and a sandy beach magically turned into a giant sheet of drawing paper with a picture of a shark nipping at the heels of the photographers son. This piece of imagination won an award for Frenchman Romain Gaillard in the creativity category. Another prize in that category went to Cape Town, South Africa, photographer Luke Bell for his shot reflecting the long shadows of two cows drinking from a dam on a farm near Stellenbosch.

I launched my drone to capture the scene in a way that was impossible with any other type of cameras, noted Bell.

More than 8,000 photographs from around the world were entered in the fourth annual contest. A panel of experts from National Geographic and Dronestagram judged the high-flying entries, which will be published in National Geographic Magazine. A book of drone photographs, Dronescapes: The New Aerial Photography From Dronestagram, was published in May.

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For its three-day BalletNow extravaganza that ended Sunday, the Music Center of Los Angeles not only imported exceptional performers from London, Miami and New York but it also  hallelujah!  provided a live orchestra, which for dance productions isnt a given.

But the best thing about BalletNow was the homecoming for one woman: Tiler Peck.

The 28-year-old from Bakersfield, whose grandmother drove her to and from Downey multiple times a week so the precocious child could get better dance training, is now a star with the New York City Ballet. She can turn the smallest doodle into a memorable moment, and what she does with everything else is a gift to behold.

We cant know whats really going on in her head, but she can convince an audience that she lives to perform for us. She wrings emotion from the very art and act of moving, her face becoming a parade of feelings and moods that resonate with truth and purity. She can be elegant or playful, goofy or determined, shape-shifting with ease. Her technique is flawless, but thats only the means to the end point; her musicality and physical breadth fuse into a single, joyous package, the way dancing is supposed to be.

Rachel Moore, the Music Centers president and chief executive, invited Peck to curate three different but overlapping programs, just as Roberto Bolle and Herman Cornejo did two years ago when they inaugurated BalletNow. These kinds of gala-style performances (remember those Nureyev and Friends tours?) have been staged for at least a century and can feel that tired.

But Peck surprised. Her taste and dance-world connections brought welcome refreshment, with generous renditions of works we dont see often enough, such as Jerome Robbins Fancy Free and George Balanchines Who Cares?

Daniel Ulbricht, left, Cory Stearns and Marcelo Gomes lean in toward Claire Kretzschmar during Jerome Robbins Fancy Free. (Lawrence K. Ho) (Lawrence K. Ho / Lawrence K. Ho)

Among the invited and distinguished cast of friends, a dozen or so were standouts: Royal Ballet principal Lauren Cuthbertson, as radiant as Peck, and soloist Reece Clarke; the delightful Jeanette Delgado and Kleber Rebello, both of Miami City Ballet; American Ballet Theatres Marcelo Gomes and Cory Stearns; and a hard-charging group from New York City Ballet.

Friday and Saturday nights began with pieces that reflected Pecks open-hearted disposition, both of them commissioned from the Vail Dance Festival and its director, Damian Woetzel. The Friday opener was 1-2-3-4-5-6, featuring Peck, hip-hop artist Virgil Lil O Gadson and tap virtuosos Michelle Dorrance and Byron Tittle. Dorrance clapped and stamped out a steady rhythm, while the others scampered about her, outlining the rectangular platform on which Dorrance and Tittle were centered. Peck clacked the stage with her pointe shoes; Lil O popped and waved his limbs to the beat. It was both entertaining ditty and allegory for something as profound as peace and harmony.

Virgil Lil O Gadson performing 1-2-3-4-5-6" with, from left, Dorrance, Tittle and Peck. (Lawrence K. Ho) (Lawrence K. Ho / Lawrence K. Ho)

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On Saturday, Peck paired with Bill Irwin, beloved American clown, Tony-winning actor and Mr. Noodle of Sesame Street. (Who has such a resume?) This was for another lighthearted romp, Time It Was/116. In bow tie and oversize suits and shoes, Irwin was the shy suitor whose wayward grapevine step kept dragging him offstage. Peck was object of affection and equal partner, a figure of self-assurance and strength.

Lauren Cuthbertson and Reece Clarke perform Christopher Wheeldons After the Rain. (Lawrence K. Ho) (Lawrence K. Ho / Lawrence K. Ho)

Cuthbertson and Clarke combined for a rare and mesmerizing performance of Christopher Wheeldons popular After the Rain pas de deux (to mournful musical selections by Arvo Part) in the Friday program. These British dancers brought a fuller articulation and quiet energy to this lovely piece, and they raised it to a higher level. The same night saw a thrilling performance of Balanchines Allegro Brillante, thanks to fine-tuned fleetness of the New York City Ballet performers, led by Peck and Gomes. Balanchine is not Gomes bread and butter, but he was accomplished if not assured. Peck spun fast, then faster, attacking this pieces trials with ease.

Other highlights over the two nights: Peck and NYC Ballet soloist Zachary Catazaro in Wheeldons pas de deux from the musical Carousel; and Cuthbertson and Gomes in a heart-palpitating pas de deux from the first act of Kenneth MacMillans Manon.

Two early ballets by Justin Peck (no relation to Tiler) expanded L.A.s exposure to this young choreographer-in-residence at New York City Ballet, a company too rarely seen here. Chutes and Ladders (starring Delgado and Rebello) and In Creases (for eight dancers) demonstrated a sophistication that has catapulted him into the it choreographer category. He crafts hard-edged pictures of ever-changing shapes and geometric forms, while plying a playful and deeply felt love of the ballet aesthetic.

Not everything was a hit, and the two nights I attended had a dud or two, including the balcony scene from MacMillans Romeo and Juliet. The orchestra was sometimes wan but at other points gorgeously full. As Peck was finishing a solo from Who Cares?, conductor Grant Gershon seemed to speed up, but Peck just accelerated faster, leaping a fraction ahead of him  to oohs and aahs from the audience. Touche.

Harrison Coll, Claire Kretzschmar, Lars Nelson, Lauren King, Tiler Peck, Marcelo Gomes, Rachel Hutsell, Preston Chamblee, Indiana Woodward and Taylor Stanley perform George Balanchines Allegro Brillante. (Lawrence K. Ho) (Lawrence K. Ho / Lawrence K. Ho)

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Q&A with Tiler Peck and how BalletNow goes beyond Swan Lake

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CBS S.W.A.T. reboot will take on the Trump years, #BlackLivesMatter, says Shemar Moore By Meredith Blake Stephanie Sigman and Shemar Moore (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP) Dont let the funky theme song or the 70s origins fool you. While technically a remake  of both the original series and the subsequent 2003 film based on it  CBS upcoming cop drama S.W.A.T. is very plugged into the current moment, according to its cast and creators. In the series, former Criminal Minds star Shemar Moore plays a native Angeleno who runs a tactical unit for the LAPD and finds his loyalty torn between his fellow officers and the community in which he was raised. As co-creator Aaron Rahsaan Thomas told reporters Tuesday at the Television Critics Assn. press tour, the series was inspired by his experiences growing up in Kansas City, which have helped him understand both sides of the raging debate over police violence. I grew up in a neighborhood that had a very complicated view towards police officers, said Thomas, who created the series with veteran showrunner Shawn Ryan. On one hand, a 12-year-old kid who was a neighbor of mine was shot and killed by a police officer. On the other hand, another neighbor of mine was an actual police officer. Moore, best known for his long run on the CBS procedural Criminal Minds, noted the diversity of the cast and creative team and added that, while the show is primarily designed to entertain, it will also resonate politically. Were taking on the Trump years, he said. I dont care who you voted for. Its just whats happening today. Its Black Lives Matter. As much as some people dont want to hear it, its All Lives Matter. Its not just black versus blue or black versus white. Its every ethnicity. Its fear. Its racism. Its terrorism. Its subject matter of today. Ryan, who created the groundbreaking drama The Shield, about corrupt Los Angeles police officers, said he was excited about the chance to examine the often charged relationship between law enforcement and the communities they serve. Los Angeles is such a diverse, amazing community, and seeing an officer who kind of lives in the city and sort of sees the people that are being policed as humans and as neighbors and as friends was really important to me. Facebook

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Netflix getting A Little Help from Carol Burnett By Libby Hill What do you get when you pair up a living legend with a bunch of little kids? Comedy gold, if Netflix has its way. The online streaming service announced Monday that comedy icon Carol Burnett will be returning to television with A Little Help With Carol Burnett, an original unscripted series that pairs Burnett with children to tackle lifes dilemmas. Someone once asked me how old I am inside, Burnett said in a statement Monday. I thought about it and came up with, Im about 8. So its going to be a lot of fun playing with kids my age. Kids ages 4 to 8 will join Burnett as celebrities and everyday folks bring their real-life problems to the show to get advice in front of a live studio audience. Were thrilled Carol is bringing her unique sensibilities to Netflix, Bela Bajaria, the services vice president of content acquisition, said in Mondays announcement. Carol is truly a legend in the entertainment industry with unprecedented success and fandom across TV, film and the stage, and we are both honored and excited to work with her. A Little Help With Carol Burnett will be produced by Dick Clark Productions and is the companys first Netflix project. This is the second television project announced this year for Burnett, 84. In February, ABC ordered a pilot for the multi-camera comedy Household Name, starring Burnett, though the series has not been picked up in its current iteration. Debuting in 2018, A Little Help With Carol Burnett will feature 12 half-hour episodes. Facebook

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Ken Burns explains why his Vietnam War documentary is more relevant than ever By Libby Hill Ken Burns in Beverly Hilton on Sunday. (Richard Shotwell / Invision) History doesnt repeat itself, Ken Burns told a room of journalists gathered Sunday at the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour in Beverly Hills Were not condemned to repeat what we dont remember, Burns explained. Its that human nature never changes. Its a curious statement from the storied documentarian, particularly given his latest project, the 18-hour, 10-part documentary series The Vietnam War, directed with Lynn Novick. But just because humanity isnt trapped in a constantly repeating cycle doesnt mean that the echoes of modern strife arent plentiful throughout the upcoming PBS series. This is a story about mass demonstrations all across the country against the current administration, Burns said in response to a question about what the youth of America will find relevant in The Vietnam War. About a White House obsessed with leaks and in disarray because of those leaks, about a president railing against you, the news media, for making up news. Its about asymmetrical warfare, which even the mighty might of the United States Army cant figure out the correct strategy to take, and its about big document drops of classified material thats been hacked, that suddenly is dumped into the public sphere, destabilizing the conventional wisdom about really important topics and accusations that a political campaign reached out to a foreign power at the time of a national election to influence that election. This is the film we started in 2006, and every single one of those points are points about the Vietnam War having nothing to do with today, Burns concluded. By creating a fully-formed picture of Vietnam, Burns hopes to shed light on the rancor and alienation defining this present moment, he explained. For Novick, the thematic relevance only serves to help teachers who have long struggled in tackling the Vietnam War. Weve had great response from teachers already that the Vietnam War is difficult to teach because its controversial and unsettled history and theyre looking forward to using the film in the classroom, Novick said. Those resonances that Ken is talking about, those will be assignments for students. Were not going to have to work very hard with teachers to come up with those themes, and students are curious about whats happening now. The Vietnam War premieres Sept. 17 at 8 p.m. PDT Facebook

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Goodbye, MTV Moonman trophy. Hello, Moon Person By Emily Mae Czachor MTVs token space cadet just scored an identity revamp  and gender didnt make the cut. In a recent interview with the New York Times, MTV President Chris McCarthy said the networks iconic Moonman trophy has been discontinued. From now on, the metallic figurine  whose impenetrably opaque helmet has become the unofficial face of MTVs Video Music Awards  will go by Moon Person instead. Because who knows whats really going on beneath that lacquered astronaut getup, anyway. Why should it be a man? McCarthy told the Times. It could be a man, it could be a woman, it could be transgender, it could be nonconformist. This new development is just the latest installment in MTVs string of efforts to do away with gender norms during its awards proceedings. The network eliminated gender-specific categories at its MTV Movie & TV Awards earlier this year, where all nominees were placed in neutral categories (i.e. best actor in a show, best actor in a movie). And the network isnt going to stop there. McCarthy also announced a new MTV reality series  still in development called We Are They about a group of gender-nonconforming young adults coming of age. With Katy Perry hosting, the VMAs will broadcast from the Forum in Inglewood on Aug. 27. Heres the full list of nominees. Facebook

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Sam Shepard: Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, actor and ... avant-garde drummer? By Randall Roberts Sam Shepard in 2014. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) Sam Shepard, whose death at 73 was announced on Monday, will be remembered for his cross-discipline versatility. As a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, he penned classic off-Broadway plays including True West, Buried Child and Fool for Love. An Oscar-nominated actor, he starred in films including Days of Heaven, The Right Stuff, Crimes of the Heart and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. To fans of underground music, however, Shepard served a lesser-known role as the drummer for seminal New York avant-garde folk band the Holy Modal Rounders, with whom he performed on the crucial late 1960s albums Indian War Whoop and The Moray Eels Eat the Holy Modal Rounders. The band is best known for its song If You Want to Be a Bird, which plays during the classic scene in Easy Rider in which Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson roar down the highway on their motorcycles. Thats Shepard playing drums as Rounders founders Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber whoop and yowl. It was in his capacity as a percussionist, in fact, that he drew the attention of a young Patti Smith, who, in her 2010 memoir Just Kids, recounted their first early 70s meeting at seminal music club the Village Gate. Escorted to the club by Todd Rundgren, who had just issued his album Runt, Smith described the Holy Modal Rounders set as like being at an Arabian hoedown with a band of psychedelic hillbillies. I was fixed on the drummer, who seemed as if he was on the lam and had slid behind the drums while cops looked elsewhere. Smith, who at the time was freelancing for Crawdaddy magazine, introduced herself to this drummer, who said his name was Slim Shadow. The two started hanging out, wrote Smith, describing his tales as being even taller than mine. He had an infectious laugh and was rugged, smart, and intuitive. In my mind, he was the fellow with the cowboy mouth. Only later did she learn Slims real identity when a friend pulled her aside after seeing them at a restaurant together. As recounted in Just Kids, Smith wrote that her friend asked, What are you doing with Sam Shepard? Sam Shepard? I said. Oh, no, this guys name is Slim. Honey, dont you know who he is? Hes the drummer for the Holy Modal Rounders. No, corrected her friend, Hes the biggest playwright off-Broadway. He had a play at Lincoln Center. He won five Obies! Once she learned of his reputation and acclaim, Smith and Shepard continued to see each other -- despite his being married at the time -- and eventually collaborated on a play called Cowboy Mouth. Smith described telling him of nervousness at writing for the stage, which she had never done. But Shepard urged her on, Smith wrote, telling her that you cant make a mistake when you improvise. Replied Smith: What if I screw up the rhythm? You cant, Shepard explained. Its like drumming. If you miss a beat, you create another. 7:15 a.m. Updated to correct the title of Smiths memoir, Just Kids, and to identify the Holy Modal Rounders co-founders, Stampfel and Weber. Facebook

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Lady Gaga subpoenaed in producer Dr. Lukes lawsuit against pop singer Kesha By Randall Roberts The ongoing offstage drama between the pop singer Kesha and her former producer Dr. Luke has entangled another platinum superstar: Lady Gaga. On Saturday, attorneys for Dr. Luke, whose real name is Lukasz Gottwald, issued a statement regarding their attempt to depose Lady Gaga about relevant conversations she may have had with Kesha. The artist, who was born Kesha Sebert, is the subject of a defamation suit filed in New York by Dr. Luke stemming from allegations of sexual misconduct, which the producer vigorously denies. The statement reads: Dr. Lukes counsel served a subpoena on Lady Gaga because she has relevant information regarding, among other things, false statements about Dr. Luke made to her by Kesha. This motion has become necessary because Dr. Lukes counsel has not been able to obtain, despite repeated request [sic], a deposition date from Lady Gaga. The protracted legal battle between Dr. Luke, left, and Kesha has brought Lady Gaga into the fray. (Kevin Winter / Getty Images) Representatives for Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, said in a statement issued to The Times on Monday morning: As Lady Gagas legal team will present to the court, she has provided all of the relevant information in her possession and is at most an ancillary witness in this process. Dr. Lukes team is attempting to manipulate the truth and draw press attention to their case by exaggerating Lady Gagas role and falsely accusing her of dodging reasonable requests. Among the information Lady Gaga has provided are copies of text messages that were, according to a report on TMZ, heavily redacted. Lady Gaga has been a vocal Kesha supporter. Last year, Gaga wrote about her peers plight in an Instagram post: The very reason women dont speak up for years is the fear that no one will believe them or their abuser has threatened their life or life of their loved ones/livelihood in order to keep their victim quiet and under control. What happened to Kesha has happened to many female artists, including myself, and it will affect her for the rest of her life. The news comes at a particularly crucial moment for Keshas career. On Aug. 11, she will release her highly anticipated new album, Rainbow. The record, featuring songs such as Learn to Let Go, will arrive via Dr. Lukes imprint, Kemosabe, a situation Kesha sought to avoid in a 2014 lawsuit of her own, which she later dropped. Facebook

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Ride on, genius: Celebrities mourn the loss of Sam Shepard By Emily Mae Czachor Acclaimed actor and playwright Sam Shepard died July 27 at age 73. (Charles Sykes / Associated Press) Sam Shepard  Oscar-nominated actor and critically acclaimed playwright, author, screenwriter and director  died on July 27 after suffering complications from ALS (Lou Gehrigs Disease). When news of his death broke Monday morning, Twitter erupted with posts to mourn, honor and remember one of show business beloved renaissance men. View Instagram post This story was updated with additional reactions. Facebook

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Macaulay Culkin got his first tattoo with goddaughter Paris Jackson, and its a match By Emily Mae Czachor For Paris Jackson, getting inked is nothing out of the ordinary. With more than 50 tattoos already under her belt, the 19-year-old daughter of late pop king Michael Jackson collects body art like postage stamps. According to E! News, the budding actress got her latest over the weekend: an understated sketch of a red spoon, just below the crook of her left arm. A new tattoo might be old-hat for Jackson, but it wasnt for Macaulay Culkin, Jacksons 36-year-old godfather -- and first-time tattoo patron -- who emerged from West Hollywoods Tattoo Mania with a matching spoon on his own forearm. Though neither Jackson nor Culkin spoke to the meaning of the double-inking, the design is supposedly meant to represent a kind of chronic struggle. And thats not the only news that Culkin made recently. The Internet nearly lost its collective mind last week when a new photo emerged of the Home Alone actor looking healthy and happy. E! News even declared that Culkin definitely just won 2017s greatest makeover. Your eyes aren't deceiving you. Macaulay Culkin definitely just won 2017's greatest makeover (thus far, at least). https://t.co/IdKjxii5KZ pic.twitter.com/SOAuSx57oU  E! News (@enews) July 27, 2017 Facebook

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Alex Jones products are almost as bad as his conspiracy theories, says John Oliver By Meredith Blake Over the last year, conspiracy theorist and influential radio host Alex Jones has come under intense scrutiny for his fringe beliefs, most notably his claim that the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School was a hoax perpetrated by the government. On Sundays Last Week Tonight, John Oliver noted that Jones status as a Sandy Hook truther qualified him for an Easy Pass to hells version of the champagne room. But he spent most of his time on a relatively overlooked aspect of Jones conspiracy empire -- the wide range of products that he sells in order to fund it. According to Oliver, Jones spends nearly a quarter of his airtime plugging InfoWars-branded merchandise, including Wake Up America Patriot coffee to Combat One Tactical Bath Wipes and a powder called Caveman True Paleo (made from chocolate and domesticated bird corpses, Oliver joked). As the comedian pointed out, it just so happens that many of the products Jones sells, often at a significant markup, purport to address the conspiracy theories with equally wild-eyed zeal. Think: water filters to remove chemicals that supposedly turn frogs gay or vitamins to boost your immunity and ward off germs from allegedly disease-ridden refugees. Jones even has his own in-house expert, Dr. Edward Group, with dubious qualifications (and equally questionable hair) to back up his various outlandish claims. InfoWars is essentially a QVC for conspiracy, Oliver argued. So in the spirit of InfoWars, Oliver decided to introduce his own personal care product, John Oliver Moisture-Armored Tactical Assault Wipes, available via Infowipes.com. The price? A mere $1 million. Worth every penny, were sure. You can watch the complete segment here. Facebook

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Vintage Casablanca poster sells for $478,000 By Trevell Anderson How much would someone pay for a vintage movie poster? Well, if that film is Casablanca, one persons answer is $478,000. Thats how much a bidder coughed up Saturday for the only known surviving Italian-issue poster for the 1942 film starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. The poster sold through Heritage Auctions of Dallas. The buyer has just set a world record and acquired what we in the poster collecting world would equate to a masterpiece, said Grey Smith, Heritages director of vintage posters. The stunning artistry put into this poster makes it stand head and shoulders above any paper produced for the film. The poster, measuring 55.5 inches by 78.25 inches, was produced in 1946. The film opened in Italy on Nov. 21 that year, almost four years after its U.S. premiere. Featuring artwork by Luigi Martinati, the poster is considered the best of the pictures numerous advertisements, Smith said. Previous Italian-issue posters for the film have sold for as much as $203,000. A U.S.-issue of the poster has fetched $191,200. The auction featured other rare posters for the film, with a half-sheet going for $65,725, and a postwar Spanish-release poster selling for $35,850. ---------- For the Record An earlier version of this article misstated the purchase price of the Casablanca poster sold Saturday as $487,000. Facebook

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There is no Plan B for public broadcasting without federal funding, PBS president says By Libby Hill Paula Kerger, chief executive of PBS (Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images) PBS President and Chief Executive Paula Kerger wasnt pulling any punches Sunday at the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour in Beverly Hills. When people say, What is the Plan B for [loss of federal funding]? There is no Plan B for that, Kerger said of the potential budget crisis public broadcasting faces under the Trump administration. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has been under fire for months, with President Trumps proposed budget axing the institutions $450-million budget. Though its easy to suggest that budget cuts would threaten Big Birds livelihood, the true victims of defunding would be far more human. Kerger explained that of PBS $450-million budget, one-third goes to radio. Of the television budget, most goes to community service grants that local stations use for up to 50% of their operating budgets. PBS itself will not go away. But a number of our stations will. If you are a station for whom 30 or 40 or 50% of your funding is suddenly pulled away, theres no way you can make up that money, Kerger said. You will find big parts of the country that will suddenly be without public broadcasting. The fate of public broadcasting is currently in flux, waiting for the end of Congress August recess for resolution. Currently, the House Appropriations Committee has approved the bulk of the PBS budget, while the House Budget Committee recommended doing away with funding altogether. Budget concerns aside, Kerger also addressed other unresolved PBS matters. The second seat of PBS NewsHour has been vacant since the untimely death of co-host Gwen Ifill in November 2016, leaving Judy Woodruff as the shows sole anchor. We have encouraged [executive producer] Sara Just and Judy Woodruff and the team at NewsHour to take their time and think very carefully about who that right person [to replace Ifill] is, Kerger said. Im hopeful that they will be making an announcement sometime over the next few months of a new anchor. Kerger also announced an upcoming project aimed at inspiring the country to come together in celebration of literature. The Great American Read is an eight-part series launching in spring 2018 that explores the nations 100 best-loved books, chosen by the American people and culminating in the first-ever national vote to choose Americas Best-Loved Book. Facebook

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AMC Visionaries adds Eli Roth, Roots, Gibney for new docu-series By Meredith Woerner Robert Kirkman, left, and Eli Roth at the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour in Beverly Hills. ( Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for AMC) AMC announced several additions to its upcoming Visionaries docu-series Saturday at the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour in Beverly Hills. Writer-director-actor Eli Roth (Cabin Fever, Hostel) will be offering a deeper look into his signature style of genre filmmaking with Eli Roths History of Horror (working title) and Ahmir Questlove Thompson, Tariq Black Thought Trotter (founding members of The Roots) and Alex Gibney (Going Clear, History of the Eagles) will executive produce a series called Rap Yearbook (another working title). The cable network also has three other installments in development: History of Video Games, Outlaws of the Internet, and History of Martial Arts. The new Visionaries members join the previously announced programs Robert Kirkmans Secret History of Comics and James Camerons Story of Science Fiction. Kirkman and Roth were present at the AMC panel with Cameron appearing via satellite to show sneak peeks from the comics and sci-fi iterations of the series. A sizzle reel for the Secret History of Comics utilized plenty of classic panel pages and a sort of motion comic-like animation to illustrate the early days of Marvel Comics, going all the way back to the Stan Lee and Jack Kirby days. But the real treat was a collection of cameos, famous faces opining about their love of the form including Lee himself, J.K. Simmons, Kevin Smith, and Method Man, who earnestly revealed, You have to be born a comic book fan, I think. And there are plenty more talking heads to come, the AMC press release promised Patty Jenkins, Lynda Carter, Famke Janssen, Michelle Rodriguez, and Todd McFarlane. The second clip shared a look at Camerons love letter to science fiction. Today, science fiction is mainstream but it didnt used to be that way, the director explained. When I was a kid science fiction wasnt cool, but I thought it was cool. Cameron wants to focus on closing the gap between current fans knowledge of modern day sci-fi to the pioneering works of literature that inspired the blockbuster offerings of today. The Terminator and Avatar director noted that without Jules Verne and H.G. Wells there would be no Avengers, Star Wars or his own works. The series will be divided by theme -- space travel, time travel etc.-- and include appearances from Paul W. Anderson, Roland Emmerich, Paul Verhoeven, Bryan Singer, Keanu Reeves, Jonathan Nolan, David Gerrold and D.C. Fontana. When asked how their respective series would showcase diversity -- the footage screened was very male-centric -- Kirkman responded that History of Comics would have two episodes devoted to diversity. One will focus on the women who helped Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston steer the course of the hugely famous female superhero, and another highlighting people of color titled The Color of Comics. The episode explores the history of black characters, and the lack of black characters in the comic book industry, said Kirkman. which touches on the creation of Black Panther  the Marvel character  and does a really cool focus on this company called Milestone Comics that was founded by a group of African American comic book creators to create characters that appealed to them and represented them, because there was a huge lack of representation in comics even in the 90s. You wouldnt have horror without Mary Shelley and Frankenstein, Roth added. He cited the late George Romero as an example of how he wants to break down the themes within the horror genre. At the height of the civil rights movement [Romero] puts an African American as the lead of Night of the Living Dead and at the end of the movie hes shot by a bunch of rednecks. Not because of the color of his skin, but because they think hes a zombie. But you can read into the implications of that. What [Romero] was doing with using genre to explore racism was so ahead of its time. its just as potent today as it was 50 years ago. Its absolutely something were going to be discussing. Roths urgency to document the horror masters was apparent. It was the death of Scream moviemaker Wes Craven that inspired Roth to get involved in Visionaries. The panel then took a turn for the analytical when the creators were asked how their series would reflect the world today. The fact that dystopian science fiction has come back, especially in television and in movies, is very important, said Cameron. It means that in the age that we live in right now the challenges that face us are technological. Theyre science challenges: climate change, genetics, artificial intelligence, things like that. These are really on our horizon as major, existential threats. The best horror reflects whats going on in our times, said Roth. He used Jordan Peeles Get Out  which addressed modern day racial tensions as a reference. Its no accident that movie coming out right now is making over $200 million at the box office. You can tell its really resonating with people. Bouncing off Camerons dystopia revelation, Roth then turned his lens onto the current political climate, I dont think weve ever seen a cast of characters like this in our White House thats straight out of WWF wrestling in the 80s. When [Anthony Scaramucci] is coming out with things that would make Rowdy Roddy Piper in his heyday blush. This is a farce, is this actually happening? When will we start seeing this dystopian outlook on the current political climate in the movies? Possibly before Roths series, which will air sometime in 2018, after History of Comics and the Story of Science Fiction in 2017. Facebook

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President Trump got a fan letter from a young boy this week. Stephen Colbert introduced another young fan Friday By Greg Braxton Stephen Colbert, host of CBS The Late Show. (Michael Loccisano / Getty Images) White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders took time during a White House briefing this week to read a fan letter to President Trump from a 9-year-old boy named Dylan who has the nickname of Pickle. Sanders read part of the letter to reporters: Youre my favorite President ... I dont know why people dont like you. Sanders interjected, Neither do I, Dylan. The letter continued, You seem really nice. Can we be friends? Sanders assured Pickle that she had spoken directly to Trump about him, and the president would be more than happy to be your friend. Stephen Colbert on Friday brought another young fan of Trumps onstage Friday night to read her own letter during his CBS Late Show. Dear President, my name is Norah, but everybody calls me Mustard, the little girl recited. She continued, Youre my favorite current president. Norah then presented some probing questions to Trump: I was wondering, does the attorney general enjoy your full support? And how do you plan to implement the ban on transgender people currently serving in the military? Will those on active duty be called home? Sounds like a logistical nightmare. She continued, One more thing: Are you a puppet of Vladimir Putin? I love puppets! I made one at camp! Love, Mustard. The Late Show audience cheered. Facebook

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Broadways Great Comet producer apologizes for controversial Mandy Patinkin casting By Nardine Saad (Jeff Schear / Getty Images) The producer behind Broadways struggling musical Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812" has joined the apologetic refrain for the diversity uproar that followed the decision to bring in Mandy Patinkin to replace departing star Okieriete Oak Onaodowan, who is black. The production came under fire this week following its move to replace Onaodowan, who was in the original cast of Hamilton, with Tony Award winner Patinkin in a titular role. As part of our sincere efforts to keep Comet running for the benefit of its cast, creative team, crew, investors and everyone else involved, we arranged for Mandy Patinkin to play Pierre, co-producer Howard Kagan said in an official statement posted Friday on Twitter. Kagan said they had the wrong impression of how Onaodowan felt about Patinkins casting and how it would be received by members of the theater community, which we appreciate is deeply invested in the success of actors of color  as are we  and to whom we are grateful for bringing this to our attention. We regret our mistake deeply, and wish to express our apologies to everyone who felt hurt and betrayed by these actions, he said. The legendary Broadway star dropped out of the musical on Friday after the announcement that he would be replacing the African American star was met with disdain. Patinkin was to join the cast for a limited run from Aug. 15 through Sept. 3, but declined the part because he would never accept a role knowing it would harm another actor. I hear what members of the community have said and I agree with them. I am a huge fan of Oak and I will, therefore, not be appearing in the show, the Homeland alum tweeted. Another tweet on the shows account included an apology to Patinkin for any misunderstanding and said they understood his decision to withdraw from the show. Our deepest apologies. pic.twitter.com/Mks7XLGxbq  The Great Comet (@GreatCometBway) July 28, 2017 pic.twitter.com/vSZk6K2KOV  The Great Comet (@GreatCometBway) July 28, 2017 Onaodowan, who had replaced recording artist Josh Groban in the role of Pierre earlier this month, is scheduled to continue to perform through Aug. 13, after which, he stated Friday on Twitter, he will not return to the show. It is unclear if his decision to leave the production was his own or prompted by other factors. Show creator Dave Malloy, whose musical was inspired by a portion of Leo Tolstoys War and Peace, also apologized Friday on Twitter for how everything went down and missing the racial optics of their casting decision. They had previously asked actress Brittain Ashford to step aside for the casting of better-known singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson during the summer months and they didnt anticipate that Patinkins casting would be viewed differently, Malloy said. Despite 12 Tony Award nominations, Comet only received two wins -- for set and lighting -- at the June ceremony and ticket sales ebbed when Groban departed. Malloy said that sales for shows after Aug. 13, when Michaelsons run would also end, were catastrophically low. So they decided to cast Patinkin, hoping that his star power would help boost sales, because the weird show was in desperate shape and on the brink of closing. Facebook

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Eagles, Doobie Brothers will play Classic Northwest show Sept. 30 in Seattle By Randy Lewis The reconfigured Eagles, shown during a July 15 performance at Dodger Stadium, will continue with a Sept. 30 Classic Northwest concert with the Doobie Brothers in Seattle. (Kevin Mazur / Getty Images) The EaglesClassic music festival series will continue with at least one more stop, this time in Seattle. But unlike the inaugural Classic West bill July 15-16 at Dodger Stadium, which is having a Classic East encore this weekend in New York, the added Classic Northwest show on Sept. 30 will be just a single day and feature the Eagles and Doobie Brothers only. The Classic West and East shows teamed the Eagles, Steely Dan and Doobie Brothers on one day, with Fleetwood Mac, Journey and Earth, Wind & Fire on the second day of each. Tickets for the Classic Northwest bill go on sale Aug. 5 at 10 a.m. at Ticketmaster. At the outset of the Eagles portion of Classic West on July 15, co-founder Don Henley indicated it was still uncertain how much of a future his long-running band might have absent co-founder Glenn Frey, who died last year at 67. To make the Classic West and East shows possible, the group tapped Freys son, singer-guitarist Deacon Frey, and country music star Vince Gill to handle the lead vocals on the many Eagles songs that were originally sung by Glenn Frey. In case this is our last dance, Henley told the crowd at Dodger Stadium, where he was joined by longtime bandmates Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit, we want to thank all of you in Southern California for all your support. Facebook

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In her new Hulu series, Sarah Silverman wants to love America -- seriously By Greg Braxton Executive producers Amy Zvi, left, and Adam McKay, star/executive producer Sarah Silverman and executive producer Gavin Purcell at Hulus I Love You, America panel at the TCA summer press tour. (Willy Sanjuan / Invision/Associated Press) From her stand-up act to her Comedy Central series to her Twitter account, comic-actress Sarah Silverman has a long history of courting laughs and controversy. Her outspokenness and sometimes absurd, sometimes acerbic views on everything from celebrity to culture to politics, particularly President Trump and his administration, have raised eyebrows. On her upcoming Hulu series, I Love You, America, Silverman is focused more on forming bonds than being provocative. In surveying the current political landscape and the comedy shows that skewer it, Silverman says she wants to reach out to all on the political spectrum. For me, [those shows are] great, but they really connect with more like-minded people. Theyre brilliant. Theyre funny. But Im hoping to, with this show, connect with un-like-minded people, Silverman said Thursday during a panel at the Television Critics Assn.'s summer press tour in Beverly Hills. The mission of the show is that were all the same. But whats important is that its funny. Although the exact format of the show is still being refined, Silverman did reveal some elements, including a monologue, a focus group in the studio and field pieces in which she travels around the country talking to people. For example, Silverman says she plans to go to Slidell, La., to meet a family that says they have never met a Jewish person. I cant help but have preconceived notions. They cant help but have preconceived notions, said Silverman. All I can do is just try to be open and brave and go into the situation. And same for them. Although Silverman and executive producer Adam McKay didnt make any sharp criticisms about Trump at Thursdays session, they did take exception to his attacks against so-called entertainment liberals or the Hollywood elite. What is he talking about? said Silverman. Im from ... New Hampshire. Everybody out here is from somewhere else. The goal of the show will be to seek common ground and understanding, she said: Ultimately were all the same. The thesis of the show is that everybody just wants to be loved. Facebook

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Jerry Seinfeld is Forbes highest-paid comedian; Amy Schumer still only woman to crack the top 10 By Nardine Saad If Jerry Seinfeld is this years king of comedy, then Amy Schumer is the queen. The Comedy Central star once again landed on Forbes list of highest-paid comedians, the financial magazine announced Thursday. She was the first woman comic to crack the top 10 last year and remains the only woman on the list this year. The Trainwreck and Snatched star made an estimated $37.5 million between June 2016 and June 2017 thanks to her Netflix show The Leather Special, her memoir The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo and endorsement deals with Bud Light and Old Navy. That ranked the raunchy comic No. 5 on the list filled with veteran comedy heavyweights. Meanwhile, the Seinfeld and Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee star shot back to the top of the list this year, earning an estimated $69 million. Seinfeld was eclipsed last year by Kevin Hart, who this year dropped to the No. 6 spot with $32.5 million. Chris Rock trailed Seinfeld for the second spot on Forbes list, earning $57 million. His record-breaking $20 million-per-special contract with Netflix paved the way for several comics, including Seinfeld, to cut lucrative deals with the streaming service, which is poised to become the go-to-destination for comedy specials. In addition to touring, those deals significantly padded the incomes of several stars on Forbes list. In the third and fourth spots, funnymen Louis C.K. and Dave Chappelle, who earned $52 million and $47 million, respectively, also made expensive deals with the streaming service to make their millions. To see Forbes complete list, click here. For the record, 10:40 a.m.: A previous headline and version of this story said that Schumer was the first woman to make the top 10 list this year. Schumer was the first woman to make the top 10 last year. Facebook

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American Horror Story: Cult gets sickeningly sweet in official poster By Libby Hill We're just beneath the surface... #AHSCult pic.twitter.com/GvnMD1KieQ  AmericanHorrorStory (@AHSFX) July 27, 2017 What exactly is beneath the surface in American Horror Story: Cult? Bees, apparently. The seventh season of FXs hit horror anthology series is slowly revealing itself via its official Twitter account. On Thursday, the series shared the official poster for the series, and it is super messed up. The poster features a deathly pale woman who happens to be missing the top of her head and, for that matter, her brain. Instead, the inside of her head is a honeycomb, replete with bees and, of course, honey. This is creepy for so many reasons. Here are a few: This poor woman has had the top of her skull removed, bringing to mind that particularly gruesome dinner scene featuring Anthony Hopkins and Ray Liotta in the 2001 film Hannibal. Even more horrifying is that this poor, sweet woman is definitely dressed like a clown. The white makeup, lines through the eyes and exaggerated ruby red lips suggest that AHS: Cult is drawing inspiration from traditional grotesque whiteface clown makeup. Think more Pennywise, less juggalo. (And if none of that is enough to scare you, please enjoy this clown dating site I stumbled across while researching all of this.) FXs American Horror Story: Cult premieres on Sept. 5. Facebook

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Stephen Colbert had some [bleeped] thoughts on Anthony Scaramuccis NSFW rant By Yvonne Villarreal (Richard Boeth / Associated Press) Stephen Colbert took a cue from incoming White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci -- or the Mooch, as hes called -- by giving Thursdays episode of The Late Show a decidedly NSFW vibe. We got an incredible taste of unfiltered Mooch today, Colbert said during his monologue. He was, of course, referring to Scaramuccis disapproving -- and often vulgar -- comments about White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Steve Bannon in a New Yorker article that sent social media tongues wagging Thursday. But to even discuss the matter, Colbert had to issue a warning to CBS censors: Youre going to want to break out the extra bleeps for this one, he said before diving in. (If only we could get our ellipses to put in some overtime!) In his colorful conversation with New Yorker correspondent Ryan Lizza, which took place Wednesday night,Scaramucci was trying to get to the bottom of who leaked that he had dinner at the White House with President Trump, the first lady, Sean Hannity and the former Fox News executive Bill Shine. Scaramucci described Priebus as a  ... paranoid schizophrenic who had blocked him from the White House for six months -- prompting Colbert to break out an impression of Scaramucci. Yes, the guys paranoid, OK? He thinks his own communications director is gonna stab him in the back again, Colbert said with an exaggerated Italian accent. Front stab! he added with a knifing gesture. The New Yorker article also detailed how Scaramucci accused Bannon of seeking to build [his] own brand off the  strength of the president and made some other inflammatory remarks that we cant fully detail. So well let Colbert take it from here. Facebook

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Longtime Disney imagineer Martin Sklar dies at 83 By Richard Verrier (Jae C Hong / Associated Press) Martin Marty Sklar, the pioneering Walt Disney Co. imagineer who played an instrumental role in the design of Disney theme parks, has died, the company announced Thursday night. He was 83. During his 54 years at Disney, Sklar worked closely with Walt Disney and led the creative development of the Burbank companys theme parks, attractions and resorts around the world, including the companys ventures in the cruise business, housing development and the redesign of Times Square in New York. Everything about Marty was legendary  his achievements, his spirit, his career, Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger said in a statement. He embodied the very best of Disney, from his bold originality to his joyful optimism and relentless drive for excellence. He was also a powerful connection to Walt himself. No one was more passionate about Disney than Marty and well miss his enthusiasm, his grace, and his indomitable spirit. Sklar was born in New Brunswick, N.J., and attended UCLA, where he was editor of the Daily Bruin newspaper when he was recruited to create the Disneyland News for Walt Disneys new Anaheim theme park in 1955. After graduating in 1956, he joined Disney full-time and would become Disneys lieutenant. He wrote speeches, marketing materials and a film showcasing Walts vision for Walt Disney World and the Epcot theme park in Florida. READ MORE> Facebook

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Is a happily ever after coming to The Mindy Project? By Yvonne Villarreal The Mindy Project creator/executive producer/star Mindy Kaling with executive producers Matt Warburton, left, and Ike Barinholtz at the shows Television Critics Assn. press tour panel. (Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP) Is there a happily ever after written in the stars for the final season of The Mindy Project? Series creator Mindy Kaling, who also plays the titular heroine at the center of the Hulu comedy, took the stage Thursday at the Television Critics Assn. press tour in Beverly Hills to discuss the shows swan song season. And when asked if Kalings rom-com-obsessed character, Mindy Lahiri, would get her storybook ending, the 38-year-old actress suggested it wouldnt necessarily be in the way viewers expect. I think that all of us would agree that we do have happily ever after, the connotations of it, said Kaling, who was joined onstage by executive producer and showrunner, Matt Warburton, and producer and star Ike Barinholtz (sporting a neck brace from a recent stunt gone wrong). But happily ever after isnt the same as no loose ends, she said. That everything is tied up neatly in a bow is something we arent super interested in. That side of it I think were trying to avoid, Kaling added, while also leaving the audience with the sense of feeling that it was about something and that it really was a project and that she had some growth in the end. And for fans wondering whether or how Danny Castellano (played by Chris Messina) would factor into all that, the season promises to shed some light on that. For the unitiated, Messinas Danny is Mindys former fiance and the father of her child. Messina, who hasnt been a series regular since Season 4, is set to return for multiple episodes. And while the Season 5 finale ended with Mindy marrying boyfriend Ben (Bryan Greenberg), hints were thrown that the new episodes would bring some clarity to the Mindy-Danny relationship. The one thing we can promise the audience is a little bit of clarity about where they stand, Warburton said. Its so great to see him back because weve always known theyre always going to be in each others lives  but its great to actually see what that means this season. Its complicated, added Kaling. Theyre both married to other people, so we went into that season with all of that, which makes things sort of fun and delicious. Other familiar faces set to return for the final season are Mark and Jay Duplass, Adam Pally and Glenn Howerton. Kaling, in discussing the decision to end the series, promised a good finale. The decision to end the show was our decision, and I think thats always very hard, Kaling said. It was like, God, should this be the end? ... I think right now the idea of doing a prequel or something like that just felt  we just have such a good finale. We have such a good finale that weve known about for awhile. The final season of The Mindy Project will start its rollout on Hulu in September. Facebook

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Tiffany Haddish clarifies controversial Bill Cosby remarks: Im not afraid of the Big Bad Wolf By James Reed Actress Tiffany Haddish has clarified her remarks about wanting to work with Bill Cosby. (Christina House / For The Times) A joke that Tiffany Haddish recently told The Los Angeles Times has backfired on the breakout star of the new film Girls Night. Talking to The Times Trevell Anderson, Haddish credited Bill Cosby as a comedy inspiration, seemingly unfazed by the multiple sexual-abuse allegations levied against the beleaguered, 80-year-old TV legend. I still want to work with Bill Cosby, I dont care, she told The Times earlier this month. Ill drink the juice. Ill take a nap. I dont give a damn. But seriously, I would love for him to play my grandfather in something. Her remarks raised eyebrows and ire on social media, with some fans questioning her intentions and a New York magazine story noting that the actress seems to have wandered into problematic fave territory. I've been rooting hard for Tiffany Haddish but I find nothing funny about her making light of Bill Cosby drugging women  Stephanie. (@qsteph) July 26, 2017 Twitter: "We loved Tiffany Haddish in #GirlsTrip. Sweetie is doing amazing!"



Tiffany Haddish: "I'd love to work with Bill Cosby."



Twitter: pic.twitter.com/X23DQWb2wi  hellresidentNY (@hellresidentNY) July 27, 2017 On Thursday, Haddish attempted to clarify those comments while speaking on a panel at the Television Critics Assn.'s summer press tour in Beverly Hills. What I said was a joke, she said, noting that when youre expected to be funny in promotional interviews, there are risks. Youre going to say some bad jokes. Haddish said her point had been that Im not afraid to do anything. Im not afraid of any kind of job. Im not afraid to play any kind of girl as long as it doesnt compromise my morals.... Ive been through things. Ive been victimized, she added. I dont agree with what he did or anything, but, at the end of the day, Im not afraid of the Big Bad Wolf. Thats what I was trying to say, and I was trying to do it in a humorous way. Times staff writer Sarah Rodman contributed to this report. Facebook

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Tracy Morgan thanks God, and Tiffany Haddish reflects on her success at Last O.G. panel at TCA By Sarah Rodman Tracy Morgan, left, Tiffany Haddish and Ryan Gaul of the new TBS comedy The Last O.G. at the TCA press tour in Beverly Hills on Thursday. (Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images) Thank God. Thats what Tracy Morgan had to say about what it means for the 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live alum to be returning to TV three years after the devastating accident that put him in a coma and resulted in the death of his friend James Jimmy Mack McNair. The stand-up comic and actor, whose new TBS comedy, The Last O.G. premieres Oct. 24, was full of gratitude and thoughts on starting over during the presentation for the show at the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour Thursday in Beverly Hills. Executive produced by Morgan, Jordan Peele and John Carcieri, The Last O.G. chronicles the adventures of Tray (Morgan). Newly sprung from prison after serving 15 years, he has to acclimate to the changed times, his gentrified Brooklyn neighborhood and his former girlfriend (Tiffany Haddish of Girls Trip) raising the children he didnt know existed with another man. This is a show about humanity, this is a show about second chances, this is a show about redemption, said Morgan, answering a question about whether it would explicitly explore African American issues. I wanted to transcend that... I wanted to deal with humanity. Haddish, naturally, fielded several questions about Girls Trip, the new comedy film that has minted her as a star. I feel like a foster kid whos been in the system for a long time and then turned 16 and somebody adopted them and said, You can go to college and you aint got to pay no school loans or nothing,  she said of how shes been feeling in the wake of the films superb box office. Im happy! Ive been accepted finally after all these years of hard work, blood, sweat and tears. Haddish said she was looking forward to her role in The Last O.G. since its a character who has gone through a transition in her life, just as she herself has. Her fellow cast mates, including Cedric the Entertainer, good-naturedly ribbed her about becoming a diva since shes now a movie star. But Morgan noted seriously that Haddish has been nothing but a pro: She comes to work. Haddish joked: My bank account, it dont show movie star yet. Im waiting on it. They say nine months; its like a baby. Im waiting for the delivery. Morgan said it was important to surround himself with scene stealers such as Haddish and Cedric and was clearly earnest in his appreciation of his collaborators and their sensitivity to his physical needs. They make sure I sit down... they dont ask me, they [say] sit down for a little while. So Im good. Im taken care of by my people, and I love them with my heart. Facebook

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It can be TGIF every day on Hulu: The service lands popular ABC programming block in SVOD deal By Yvonne Villarreal Every day can be Friday in the 90s with help from Hulu. The streaming service announced Thursday it has signed a deal with Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution for the exclusive streaming rights to programs that were part of the popular ABC programming block known as TGIF. The announcement was made during the streaming services day of panels at the Television Critics Assn. press tour in Beverly Hills. The shows under the deal include Full House, Family Matters, Perfect Strangers, Step by Step and Hangin With Mr. Cooper. Nabbing the rights to Full House is particularly noteworthy considering Hulus rival Netflixs success with reviving the comedy, which is returning for a third season in September. With the Hulu deal, more than 800 episodes of the five sitcoms from the bygone family friendly lineup will be available beginning Friday, Sept. 29. These shows are more than just beloved hits, they were part of a cultural tradition to tune in every Friday night, said Craig Erwich, Hulus senior vice president of content in a statement. Facebook

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TV Academy announces which awards will be handed out during Primetime, Creative Arts Emmys By Nardine Saad Get your Emmys ballot ready  the Television Academy has announced which categories will be awarded during this years 69th Primetime Emmy Awards and the separate Creative Arts Emmy Awards. The main event will take place at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Sept. 17 and will be hosted by The Late Show star Stephen Colbert. Prizes will be awarded to comedy and drama series, limited series, reality competition, variety talk and sketch, television movie, acting, directing, and writing during the live telecast on CBS. HBOs Westworld and NBCs Saturday Night Live lead the nominees with 22 nods apiece, a total that includes several below-the-line categories to be doled out at the two Creative Arts Emmys ceremonies the week before. Honoring artistic and technical achievements that could make or break your play-at-home ballot, the Creative Arts Emmys will be held in the same venue on two consecutive nights on Sept. 9 and 10. Theyll be put together for one show, produced by Bob Bain, that will air on FXX on Sept. 16. The first night will cover categories that include animation, choreography, cinematography, costuming, make-up, hairstyling, documentary and nonfiction awards, editing, lighting, sound-mixing, technical direction, variety special and some writing awards. The second night will lean more heavily on front-of-the camera talent, awarding the likes of guest actors and actresses and stunt work, in addition to childrens programs, commercials, main title designs and theme music, music composition and supervision, prosthetic makeup and additional sound and editing categories. For a complete list of this years nominees, click here. Heres the complete list of the awards being handed out during the Primetime Emmys telecast: COMEDY SERIES

DIRECTING FOR A COMEDY SERIES

DIRECTING FOR A DRAMA SERIES

DIRECTING FOR A LIMITED SERIES, MOVIE OR DRAMATIC SPECIAL

DIRECTING FOR A VARIETY SERIES

DRAMA SERIES

LEAD ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES

LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES

LEAD ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE

LEAD ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES

LEAD ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES

LEAD ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE

LIMITED SERIES

REALITY-COMPETITION PROGRAM

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE

TELEVISION MOVIE

VARIETY SKETCH SERIES

VARIETY TALK SERIES

WRITING FOR A COMEDY SERIES

WRITING FOR A DRAMA SERIES

WRITING FOR A LIMITED SERIES, MOVIE OR DRAMATIC SPECIAL

WRITING FOR A VARIETY SERIES Facebook

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Kesha finds redemption in new song: The past cant haunt me if I dont let it By Emily Mae Czachor For Kesha, Learn to Let Go is not just an aptly titled track off her upcoming Rainbow LP. Its become one of my mantras over the last few years, she said in a remarkably uplifting letter that the singer published Thursday to accompany a new video for the song. (This is her new M.O., it would seem.) Learn to Let Go, which Kesha co-wrote alongside her mother, Pebe Sebert, is a heartrending chronicle of redemption. Had a boogeyman under my bed/ Putting crazy thoughts inside my head, she sings, while real home-video footage of a whimsical young Kesha cuts between clips of a grown Kesha frolicking through the forest. The chorus rings like a self-empowered anthem: The past cant haunt me if I dont let it. My mom is always telling me how you have to learn to accept that you cant try to control everything, she wrote in the letter. When you realize that you are not the one in control and you stop holding onto regrets  its liberating. Your past only has as much effect on your future as you want it to, Kesha continued. Its about embracing your past, but not letting it define you. Her new album, Rainbow, will be released Aug. 11. Facebook

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Stephen Colbert to bring animated Trump series to Showtime By Meredith Blake Stephen Colbert has ridden anti-Trump sentiment to the top of the late-night ratings. Now hes riding it all the way to premium cable. On Thursday, Showtime announced it had ordered 10 episodes of an as-yet-untitled animated series featuring cartoon renderings of the president, his family and inner circle. The satirical half-hour series, executive produced by Colbert and The Late Shows show runner Chris Licht, will debut on Showtime this fall. According to the network, turnaround on the series will be quick in order to incorporate current events. Stephen and Chris have an uncanny genius for deconstructing the world of President Trump, and this series opens a new realm for them, Showtime President David Nevins said in a press statement. Tim Luecke, who co-created the animated version of Trump who frequently appears in Late Show bits  including a recent segment from the notorious presidential suite of the Moscow Ritz-Carlton  will serve as lead animator. The announcement caps off a period of good news for Colbert, who racked up six Emmy nominations this month and will be hosting the awards in September. The recently concluded Russia Week, in which the comedian traveled to Moscow and St. Petersburg, brought The Late Show its biggest margin over The Tonight Show since its premiere in 2015. While The Late Show airs on CBS, Colbert has also developed ties with his corporate cousins at Showtime. Many point to his riveting election night special Stephen Colberts Live Election Night Democracys Series Finale, which aired on the premium network, as a turning point after an uneven transition from The Colbert Report. For its part, Showtime has invested heavily in political content over the last 18 months, most notably the documentary series The Circus, from journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann. Facebook

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Matt Damon gets punched right in the face in George Clooneys Suburbicon trailer By Nardine Saad  Matt Damon, Oscar Isaac and Julianne Moore star in the trailer for George Clooneys Suburbicon. In George Clooneys latest directorial effort, Suburbicon, the pleasantries of a 1950s town are undone when a home invasion exposes the communitys criminal subculture and racial tensions. And Matt Damons Gardner Lodge gets stuck in the thick of it -- defending his young son, making death threats, killing mobsters and getting popped square in his bespectacled face at the office -- as seen in the first trailer that Paramount unveiled Thursday. Did we mention this is a comedy? The dark, screwball kind from the minds of screenwriters Clooney and frequent collaborators Ethan and Joel Coen and Grant Heslov? Well, it is, in case that wasnt clear from the previous description. These animals took everything from us, a blood-splattered Gardner tells his son Nicky (Noah Jupe) at the dinner table. I have to make decisions like whats best for the family. After Gardners wife is murdered, he invites Auntie Margaret (Julianne Moore) to come live in the manicured suburban community to help with his son. Meanwhile, he gets mixed up with a loan shark that sets him on the warpath of a formidable, coffee-swilling collector named Roger (Oscar Isaac). The film is based on a script that the Coen brothers wrote years ago that Clooney found, and they agreed to have him direct it, according to Moore. Paramount acquired the U.S. rights to the film, billed as a comedy, crime and mystery, at the Berlin Film Festival last year. It will be shown at the Toronto International Film Festival in September and hits theaters on Oct. 27. Facebook

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Woody Allens Wonder Wheel to complete Amazons turn to full-service distribution By Mark Olsen Woody Allen at the American Film Institutes Life Achievement Award tribute to Diane Keaton on June 8, 2017, in Los Angeles. (Christopher Polk / Getty Images for Turner) Thursday it was announced that Woody Allens latest film, Wonder Wheel, will have its world premiere as the closing-night film at this years New York Film Festival. The film stars Kate Winslet, Justin Timberlake, Juno Temple and James Belushi in a story set around Coney Island in the 1950s. But that wasnt the only Allen item of the day. Variety reported that Wonder Wheel will also be the first film fully distributed by Amazon when it opens in theaters on Dec. 1. The company has already made fast inroads to the movie business, winning Academy Awards this year for Manchester by the Sea and The Salesman, but has up to now worked with established distribution partners such as Roadside Attractions or Bleecker Street to help get those movies into theaters. Amazon released Allens 2016 film, Cafe Society, starring Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart and Steve Carell, in partnership with Lionsgate. The online giant also released Allens six-part Crisis in Six Scenes, in which he starred alongside Elaine May and Miley Cyrus, late last year via the Amazon Prime Video streaming service. The move by Amazon is yet another way the company is distinguishing itself in relation to streaming rival Netflix. Where Netflix has been seen as pulling back from theatrical distribution, opting for either extremely limited or no theatrical release at all of its titles to drive viewers to its own platform, this latest push by Amazon renews its commitment to traditional theatrical releases. The New York Film Festival slot for Wonder Wheel gives Amazon the three marquee spots at the showcase. Previously announced, Richard Linklaters Last Flag Flying will open the festival, and Todd Haynes Wonderstruck, which premiered at this years Cannes Film Festival, will show in the centerpiece slot. Other upcoming Amazon titles include Mike Whites Brads Status, starring Ben Stiller, and Luca Guadagninos remake of Suspiria, starring Dakota Johnson. Facebook

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Mick Jagger releases two new, politically charged singles By August Brown (Dave Gatley / Los Angeles Times) Mick Jagger has been looking to the past on recent albums and festival dates. But a pair of urgent new singles are firmly set in the present. On Thursday, the Rolling Stones frontman released two tracks, Gotta Get A Grip and England Lost, that describe, as he put it in a statement, the anxiety, unknowability of the changing political situation in a post-Brexit U.K. The production is resolutely modern, built on programmed drums and clanging guitar noise. The London grime artist Skepta even joins him for a verse on England Lost. Ostensibly, its about seeing an England football team lose, but when I wrote the title I knew it would be about more than just that. Its about a feeling that we are in a difficult moment in our history. Its about the unknowability about where you are and the feeling of insecurity, Jagger said in a statement. Its obviously got a fair amount of humour because I dont like anything too on the nose but its also got a sense of vulnerability of where we are as a country. The Girls actress Jemima Kirke also stars in a new clip for Gotta Get A Grip. The songs are Jaggers first new solo material since 2001s Goddess In the Doorway. Facebook

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Katy Perry to host 2017 MTV Video Music Awards By Libby Hill The MTV Video Music Awards are returning to California and getting a certified California Gurl to host. Katy Perry took to her Twitter feed Thursday to announce her upcoming gig hosting -- and performing -- at the VMAs in August. Ive been training with MTV in zero gravity, eating astronaut ice cream, and Im on a group text with Buzz Aldrin and Neil deGrasse Tyson, Perry said in a statement. Come August 27th, Ill be ready to be your MOONWOMAN! Brace for impact, kids. Perry will kick off the evening as the first announced performer for the ceremony. On Tuesday, Perry earned five VMA nominations for her video contributions over the last year, tying with the Weeknd, with only Kendrick Lamar earning more. Were thrilled to have global phenomenon Katy Perry as the host and a performer at the 2017 VMAs, said Bruce Gillmer, head of music and music talent for Global Entertainment Group, Viacom, in a statement from MTV. She is at the forefront of music culture and the perfect person to anchor this years show, which promises to be one of the most diverse and music-filled in VMA history. The 2017 MTV Video Music Awards will air from the Forum in Inglewood on Aug. 27. Find a full list of nominees here. Introducing your MOONWOMAN. Brace for impact! August 27th on @MTV @VMAs pic.twitter.com/WJsIYq7WiM  KATY PERRY (@katyperry) July 27, 2017 Facebook

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Turns out Larry David and Bernie Sanders are related! By Yvonne Villarreal Turns out Saturday Night Live was on to something when it cast Larry David to play Sen. Bernie Sanders. During his freewheeling appearance Wednesday at the Television Critics Assn. press tour in Beverly Hills to promote the upcoming ninth season of HBOs Curb Your Enthusiasm, David revealed that the resemblance is rooted in reality: Sanders is a distant relative. Hes in the line ... like a third cousin, or something, he said. The genealogical discovery comes courtesy of Davids appearance in an upcoming episode of the PBS series Finding Your Roots. I was very happy about that, David said. I figured there was some connection. David played Sanders on Saturday Night Live through the 2015-16 election cycle and also appeared alongside the senator on the late-night sketch show. Its the kind of family secret that David isnt ashamed to admit. I love Bernie, yes, David said. I love Bernie. Facebook

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Trumps proposed transgender military ban turns late-night into hostile territory By Libby Hill If theres one upside to the Trump administrations early-morning Twitter proclamations, its that it gives late-night shows all day to craft their reactions. Wednesday began with President Trump announcing a ban on transgender individuals serving in the United States military and ended with late-night hosts uniformly blasting the policy decision in hilarious fashion. On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert had plenty to say about Trumps tweets, which ended with an uncharacteristic thank you. Thank you? Colbert responded, shocked, before offering his own profane two-word response to the president. Colbert went on to discuss what he saw as the greatest fallacy of the presidents reasons for banning transgender soldiers: increased medical costs. Though a 2016 study funded by the Pentagon found that military medical spending on transgender soldiers would increase anywhere from $2.4 million to $8.4 million, Colbert wanted to reframe those figures. To put that number in perspective, the military spends five times as much on Viagra, Colbert explained, And if your erection lasts for more than four hours, thats too bad, because youre stuck on a submarine for the next six months. On The Daily Show Trevor Noah had similar concerns about the presidents cost-related excuse, pointing out that taxpayers are paying $60 million for Trump to travel to his various properties throughout his presidency. Noah also pondered which of Trumps generals hed consulted with, given that the Pentagon was unaware of his proclamation, suggesting that perhaps hed spoken with The General Online. Late Night With Seth Meyers also invoked the cartoon general from the car insurance commercials, when Meyers opted to turn discussion of Trumps tweets over to four of his female writers. Today it might be trans people, but tomorrow its gay people, and then the next day its black people, and after that its women, and then its immigrants, the writers pointed out, all of those groups represented between them. On The Tonight Show Jimmy Fallon had the good sense to turn over a portion of his monologue to transgender comedian Patti Harrison, who had plenty to say about Trumps Wednesday announcement. When I saw the headline this morning, at first I just read, Donald Trump bans transgender people, and I was like, Yeah, that sounds like him, Harrison deadpanned. But then I realized it was just in the military and I was shocked, because I assumed he already did that. But it was James Corden who took a completely different take on the transgender military ban, opting for a stylish and heartfelt song and dance, expressing his love and appreciation for the LGBT community. Facebook

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Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are on the road again in new song collaboration By August Brown Ringo Starrs new LP includes a collaboration with fellow former Beatle Paul McCartney. (Ethan Miller / Getty Images) Any time the surviving Beatles reunite on record is a historic occasion. But a new single from Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr packs in even more classic-rock star power. Starrs new song Were on the Road Again is one of several collaborations with his former bandmate on his new LP, Give More Love. The song also has guest appearances from Joe Walsh, Edgar Winter and Steve Lukather. Its a slightly goofy ode to life on the road, as Starr boasts that, We play really tight; we play really loud and cheekily references his own song Photograph. The two Beatles last recorded together on Starrs 2010 album, Y Not, and performed McCartneys Queenie Eye at the 2014 Grammys. Starr announced the McCartney studio collaboration back in February, thanking the fellow Beatle in a Twitter post. Thanks for coming over man and playing Great bass. I love you man peace and love.  pic.twitter.com/Z5kpyLLlkO  #RingoStarr (@ringostarrmusic) February 20, 2017 Set for release on Sept. 15, Give More Love will also feature cameos from Peter Frampton, Don Was, Richard Marx and Dave Stewart, among others. You can hear Starrs new track with Paul McCartney via Rolling Stone. Facebook

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Curb Your Enthusiasm returns this fall -- and you can expect a Pirates of the Caribbean vibe? By Yvonne Villarreal Actor-creator-executive producer Larry David speaks at the Curb Your Enthusiasm panel during the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour at the Beverly Hilton. (Chris Pizzello / Invision/AP) Larry David revealed the real reason Curb Your Enthusiasm is at last returning after a six-year hiatus: People wouldnt stop bugging him about it. The Seinfeld co-creator took the stage Wednesday at the Television Critics Assn. press tour in Beverly Hills -- joined by his Curb cohorts Susie Essman, Jeff Garlin and J.B. Smoove and executive producer Jeff Schaffer -- to discuss the shows coming ninth season. So, why bring back the show now after all these years? Im not a misser, David told reporters. I dont really miss things, people that much, but I was missing it. I thought, yeah, what the hell. And I got tired of people asking me if the show was coming back. I couldnt get asked that question anymore and I wasnt ready to say, No, never. The often madcap and sometimes hilariously perplexing 30-minute panel -- led by Davids gruff wit and deadpans -- kicked off with a teaser for the season. There was David in a shower, David talking about constipation, David enduring the displeasure of middle-seat status on a flight. The amount of uncomfortable situations [real Larry David] has been in these last six years, Schaffer said, youre going to see it all. Its like were sitting in the Ft. Knox of awkward. As for TV Larry David, Schaffer said viewers will learn very quickly what hes been up to during the years that have passed. Once the show starts to air, it will be self-evident, he said. It goes to this really strange, fun, crazy place.... And you will never expect where it ends. The trip to that ending begins Oct. 1 when the comedy returns to HBO. The 10-episode season brings back Curb favorites like Cheryl Hines, as well as frequent faces Richard Lewis, Bob Einstein, Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen. And what would a long-awaited return be without some guest stars? Elizabeth Banks, Ed Begley Jr., Carrie Brownstein, Bryan Cranston, Lauren Graham, Jimmy Kimmel, Nick Offerman, Nasim Pedrad and Elizabeth Perkins will get in on the fun. For those who still need something to pin their hopes on about what this season will entail, Garlin offered this absurdly brilliant comparison. It really thematically follows Pirates of the Caribbean. ... Its more like the last one than the first few. Facebook

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At TCA 2017, HBO defends Confederate, announces Jon Stewart special and says Deadwood movie is inching closer By Greg Braxton Casey Bloys, president of HBO programming, addresses reporters at the Television Critics Assn.'s summer press tour at the Beverly Hilton on Wednesday. (Chris Pizzello / Invision / Associated Press) HBO, which has the hottest show on television with Game of Thrones, recently came under fire with the announcement of a new series called Confederate from a team that includes Game of Thrones producers D.B. Weiss and David Benioff. The series revolves around events that lead to the Third American Civil War and examines an alternate reality in which the South seceded from the Union and thus, slavery is still legal. Casey Bloys, president of HBO programming, defended the project Wednesday during the premium networks session at the summer edition of the Television Critics Assn. gathering at the Beverly Hilton. Bloys said that, in hindsight, the announcement was mishandled because it lacked the context and the vision that he received from Benioff and Weiss in discussing the series. He admitted it was misguided to believe they could simply announce a series with such a sensitive and volatile subject matter. We could have done a better job with the press release, he said. There was no benefit of context. My hope is people will judge the actual material instead of what it could be or should be or might be, he said. Well rise or fall based on that material. He added that he felt the series, rather than being divisive, would be able to advance the racial discussion. Although the topic is controversial, he said he and the producers of the show all feel this is a risk worth taking. Bloys also stressed that the depiction of slavery would not echo Gone With the Wind and would not include whips and plantations. In other major HBO news, former Daily Show host Jon Stewart will perform a stand-up special at a date and time to be announced, and host the latest Night of Too Many Stars, an all-star benefit for autism. Also, a movie reboot of HBOs western Deadwood is closer to reality. Bloys said the shows creator, David Milch, has completed a script that will please fans of the series while also being accessible to those less familiar with the show. But, he said, reuniting the large cast, which included Timothy Olyphant and Ian McShane, may prove challenging. Facebook

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Two Jon Stewart comedy specials are coming to HBO By Yvonne Villarreal Jon Stewart, seen here presenting at the ESPYS, will return to HBO for his first stand-up special in two decades. (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP) Jon Stewart will headline two stand-up specials for HBO. The news was announced Wednesday at the Television Critics Assn. press tour in Beverly Hills. The former Daily Show host will get a stand-up special  his first since since 1996s Jon Stewart: Unleavened aired on the network. A date and location have not been confirmed. Were excited to bring Jon to the network with this pair of specials, said HBO programming president Casey Bloys in a statement. Weve all missed his uniquely thoughtful brand of humor. Im really thrilled to be able to return to stand-up on HBO, added Stewart in a statement. Theyve always set the standard for great stand-up specials. Plus, I can finally use up the last of the Saddam Hussein jokes left over from my first special. Stewart will also host the latest Night of Too Many Stars, the all-star benefit for Next for Autism, a nonprofit organization focused on people living with autism spectrum disorder. The special will air live this fall and will take place from the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York. The specials are part of Stewarts four-year deal with the premium cable network. Facebook

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Angelina Jolie talks about difficult split from Brad Pitt By Nardine Saad A-lister Angelina Jolie is adjusting to the domestic growing pains of life as a single mom  making a proper breakfast, keeping house and picking up dog poop. I never woke up and thought, I really want to live a bold life. I just cant do the other. Its the same as I cant make a casserole. I cannot sit still, she said in a sprawling new interview with Vanity Fair, in which she discussed her high-profile split from actor Brad Pitt. Ive been trying for nine months to be really good at just being a homemaker and picking up dog poop and cleaning dishes and reading bedtime stories. And Im getting better at all three. But now I need to get my boots on and go hang, take a trip, the humanitarian said of her plans to head to Africa for a mission with the preventing Sexual Violence Initiative. Angelina Jolie opens up about putting her family first, life after Brad, health issues & her most personal film yet https://t.co/nKyf4dO8ls pic.twitter.com/WkXCgWR1PV  VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) July 26, 2017 The Oscar-winning actress explained how and when her marriage devolved, though she didnt go into great detail about the breakup for the sake of their six kids. The marriage began suffering in the summer of 2016 while she was in post-production on her fifth directorial effort, First They Killed My Father, a film about Cambodias Khmer Rouge genocide, which hits Netflix in September. Things got bad, Jolie said. I didnt want to use that word. ... Things became difficult. The director became slightly defensive at the mention of the familys globe-trotting lifestyle, which reportedly had been grating on Pitt. "[Our lifestyle] was not in any way a negative, she asserted. That was not the problem. That is and will remain one of the wonderful opportunities we are able to give our children. ... Theyre six very strong-minded, thoughtful, worldly individuals. Im very proud of them. After 12 years together and a few years of marriage, Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt in September 2016. While her ex was couch-surfing, she and the kids spent nine months in a rental property before settling into a six-bedroom, 10-bathroom Los Feliz manse once owned by film legend Cecil B. DeMille. Its just been the hardest time, and were just kind of coming up for air. [This house] is a big jump forward for us, and were all trying to do our best to heal our family. The divorce filing came suddenly for the health of the family on the heels of a spat Pitt had with their 15-year-old son, Maddox. They reached a divorce settlement privately in January after battling publicly for months over custody of the kids. The Oscar-winning producer had been vilified with accusations of child abuse and having an affair with his Allied costar Marion Cotillard. But he arguably won over public opinion with his introspective GQ Style interview in May in which he admitted to sobering up after boozing too much. Last year, Jolie was diagnosed with hypertension and developed Bells palsy when nerve damage caused one side of her face to droop. She took up acupuncture to treat it. Sometimes women in families put themselves last, she said, until it manifests itself in their own health. Thats just the latest in her medical history. Following a preventative double mastectomy in 2013, she had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed in 2015, which sent her into menopause. I cant tell if its menopause or if its just been the year Ive had, she said, quipping about her dry skin and the idea that she could still be considered a sex symbol. I actually feel more of a woman because I feel like Im being smart about my choices, and Im putting my family first, and Im in charge of my life and my health. I think thats what makes a woman complete. For the record, Aug. 4, 12:55 p.m.: A previous version of this story said that First They Killed My Father would hit Netflix this month. It debuts in September. Facebook

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Caitlyn Jenner questions why Trump isnt fighting for transgender service members By James Reed (Taylor Jewell / Invision/Associated Press) There are 15,000 patriotic transgender Americans in the US military fighting for all of us. What happened to your promise to fight for them?  Caitlyn Jenner, tweeting in response to President Trumps transgender military ban announced Wednesday Read More Facebook

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Robert Pattinson confirms hes kind of engaged to singer FKA Twigs By Nardine Saad (Mike Coppola / Getty Images for People) Twilight heartthrob Robert Pattinson says hes kind of " engaged to singer FKA Twigs. The actor addressed the engagement rumors Tuesday in a direct response to shock jock Howard Sterns questioning on Sirius XMs The Howard Stern Show. Youre engaged, right? Stern said after calling the edgy English songstress his fiancee. Yeah, kind of, Pattinson, 31, responded uneasily. The Good Time star, whose relationships have been intensely scrutinized since he dated Twilight co-star Kristen Stewart at the height of the teen vampire frenzy, agreed that hes been a bit protective of his romances. Hes been dating the Water Me singer, real name Tahlia Barnett, since 2014 and theyve been rumored to be engaged since April 2015. Save for public appearances together, Pattinson has kept pretty mum about the relationship. Its one of the most frustrating things in the world because you want to be able to show off a relationship, he told Stern. You kind of get stuck in this position where you have to make decisions whether you want to let the kind of crazy people in. Pattinson was referring to the Twi-hards or, as he called them, a crack troupe of crazies who believe every decision he makes is part of some big conspiracy. To protect [the relationship] you kind of think, I want to create a big boundary between it. But then it makes it difficult for your actual relationship, he said. Additionally, Pattinson also discussed the racial disparagement his fiancee faces on social media for dating him. He tries to tune out the hate when he can, but he isnt always successful. I think its like professional trolls, he said of rude commenters. They get so addicted to kind of just wanting to cause hurt and pain on someone and its just one of the most difficult things to know how to confront. Its a faceless enemy. ... It might seem fake to them, but its definitely real in your life. Pattinson said responding to hate can just be feeding into it. It makes me feel less powerful if youre trying to attack and make it go away. Its like trying to attack a reflection in the water or something. You just look crazy, he said. Facebook

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David Letterman cringes when late-night TV hosts refer to viewers as fans By Emily Mae Czachor A profoundly bearded David Letterman made a rare talk-show appearance Monday -- one of just a handful of public ventures since the end of his run on The Late Show in 2015. Only this time, Letterman arrived as a guest. In an unusual turn of events, the former late-night host played interviewee on the season premiere of stand-up comedian Norm Macdonalds podcast, Norm Macdonald Live. The longtime pals discussed a number of matters, from Lettermans first-ever hosting gig (a game show called Wordbusters) to the time he found himself face to face with Richard Nixon. The two also discussed late-night TVs changing landscape and how Letterman never felt comfortable thinking of himself as the star of his own show. I could not possibly, and still dont, consider myself a star, because I couldnt refer to myself as a star, Letterman said. Johnny Carson was a star, theres no question of that. So for me to adopt that -- Starring Dave Letterman -- that was just ridiculous. In the same way, I always cringe a little when people refer to the folks who watch their show as their fans, Letterman added. I just think thats a little too  you know, you kind of just stepped over the line of basic humility there. Macdonald commented on late-nights packed roster of big-name hosts -- none of whom he finds particularly unique, except Conan OBrien, who he thinks has changed it up a little. On any plans for a late-night return to the host seat, Letterman told fans not to expect too much. Ive done it for 30 years, he said. I dont want to do it anymore. Watch the full episode above (warning: some profanity). Facebook

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Olivia de Havilland, 101, files motion to expedite her Feud lawsuit By Nardine Saad Olivia de Havilland at her Paris home in 2003. (Jean-Marc Giboux / Getty Images) Citing her advanced age, legendary actress Olivia de Havilland has filed a motion in her Feud lawsuit for a preferential trial date this fall. De Havillands attorneys filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday, requesting that the jury trial be set in November or no later than 120 days of her motion being granted. The 101-year-old is hoping that a judge will fast track the trial during her Sept. 13 hearing date, which is just days before Feud is expected to be a big winner at the Primetime Emmy Awards. (The miniseries is nominated for 18 awards.) The Gone With the Wind star sued FX and Feud showrunner Ryan Murphy last month over her depiction in the miniseries about rival actresses Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. The two-time Oscar winner, who was played by actress Catherine Zeta-Jones on the show, makes legal claims about violations of her common law and statutory rights of publicity, her right to privacy and unjust enrichment. Based on her unusually advanced age, resulting particular susceptibility to disease, and recurring health issues, there is a substantial likelihood that she, as with anyone at this advanced age, may not survive for any extended period of time, the motion said. It is likely that if a trial preference motion is not granted, Olivia de Havilland will be prejudiced, because on the normal schedule, trial would not be set within the next 120 days. Her team also argued that because she is the sole plaintiff, De Havilland is crucial to the trial. Olivia de Havilland has a substantial interest in the litigation as a whole here as her personal statutory right of publicity cause of action does not survive her death. ... Further, should Olivia de Havilland die before her trial date, she will not be able to enjoy the benefits which she would receive in damages, the motion said. De Havillands June 30 lawsuit said the show damaged her professional reputation for integrity, honesty, generosity, self-sacrifice and dignity. She claimed that FX, Murphy and Fox producers never sought or obtained her permission to be depicted in the series and that Zeta-Jones portrayal of her in an episode about the 1963 Oscars cast her in a false, hurtful and damaging light. The defendants have not yet responded to de Havillands initial filing. According to Deadline, the Paris-based actress will not be attending the September hearing but may return to Hollywood if the trial is expedited to November. Olivia de Havilland 101: Everything you need to know as the movie legend celebrates her 101st birthday Facebook

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Despacitos Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee call out Venezuelan president for using song to push agenda By Nardine Saad Luis Fonsi, left, and Daddy Yankee. (Sergi Alexander / Getty Images) Despacito singers Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee and co-writer Erika Ender have condemned Venezuelas President Nicolas Maduro for appropriating their international hit song for political gain. The chart-topping Puerto Rican recording artists and Panamanian songwriter on Monday called out Maduro, currently the subject of violent and sometimes fatal nationwide protests over his policies, for reworking their lyrics to appeal to voters during his weekly television show on Sunday. The revision promoted the leaders plans for a controversial citizens assembly to be elected on July 30 and tasked with rewriting Venezuelas 1999 constitution and bypassing the opposition-led legislature. Our call to the Constituent Assembly only seeks to unite the country ... despacito, Maduros version said. The term despacito means slowly in Spanish and in the original version of the song refers to the singers wooing techniques. Maduros supporters swayed to the remix dressed in matching T-shirts and baseball caps that brandished campaign slogans. the Associated Press said. The president was seen clapping along to the remix while the audience danced, according to the BBC. I DO NOT AGREE WITH THIS, Ender wrote in Spanish on Instagram, citing a news story about Maduros use of the song. I cannot see so much pain in people I love so much. Warrior people, people with iron will. Good people, who are fighting for freedom of rights and expression. ... I love Venezuela, a land that has given me true brothers and sisters. Brothers who suffer because of the situation that exists. Ender also lamented seeing the song she co-wrote be used without permission to advertise campaigns linked to a regime that has sowed so much discontent and suffering. View Instagram post On repeated occasions, I have said how much I enjoy the versions of Despacito that have been released on a global level. However there has to be a limit, Fonsi also wrote in Spanish on Instagram. I have never been consulted, nor have I authorized the use of or the change of lyrics of Despacito for political means, much less in the middle of the deplorable situation in a country I love so much, Venezuela. He added that his music is for everyone who wants to listen to it and enjoy it, not to use as propaganda that tries to manipulate the will of the people who are crying out loud for their liberty and a better future. View Instagram post Daddy Yankee took a much more blunt approach in his post, sharing an image of a news article about Maduro with a large red X superimposed on it. What can you expect of a person who has stolen lives from young dreamers and people who are looking for a better future for their children? the reggaeton rapper wrote in Spanish. That you illegally appropriated Despacito does not compare to the crimes you commit and have committed in Venezuela. Your dictatorial regime is a mockery not only for my Venezuelan brothers, but for the whole world. With that nefarious marketing plan, you will only continue to highlight your fascist ideology, which has killed hundreds of heroes and injured more than 2,000. View Instagram post Millions of Venezuelans joined a general strike last week amid economic turmoil and a shortage of food and medicine in the country. Government opponents dealt a symbolic blow on Sunday to Maduro, casting votes in an unofficial referendum that rejected his plan for the constitutional overhaul. The government denounced the opposition balloting as illegal and seditious, according to The Times, but turnout appeared high at thousands of makeshift voting places set up throughout the country and abroad. Facebook

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Netflix invests in Matt Groenings Disenchantment By Libby Hill Matt Groening is ready to take another crack at this television thing. The creator of The Simpsons, which debuts its 29th season on Fox this fall, has a new show courtesy of Netflix. The streaming service provider announced Tuesday that it had ordered 20 episodes of Disenchantment, an adult animated comedy series set in a deteriorating fantasy kingdom. The show centers around a hard-living young princess named Bean, voiced by Abbi Jacobson (Broad City), her elf companion, Elfo (Nat Faxon), and personal demon Luci (Eric Andre). Ultimately, Disenchantment will be about life and death, love and sex, and how to keep laughing in a world full of suffering and idiots, despite what the elders and wizards and other jerks tell you, Groening said in a statement Tuesday. Matt Groenings brilliant work has resonated with generations around the world and we couldnt be happier to work with him on Disenchantment,  Cindy Holland, vice president of original content for Netflix, said in a statement. The series will bear his trademark animation style and biting wit, and we think its a perfect fit for our many Netflix animation fans. The series joins Netflixs Bojack Horseman in aiming for an audience unafraid of exploring the less-savory aspects of adulthood. Disenchantment will premiere on Netflix 10 episodes at a time, beginning in 2018. Facebook

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Broad City stars talk about the decision to bleep President Trumps name on the show By Yvonne Villarreal Abbi Jacobson, left, and Ilana Glazer of the series Broad City speak at the Television Critics Assn. press tour at the Beverly Hilton on Tuesday. (Chris Pizzello / Invision/Associated Press) Broad City creators and stars Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson consider the bleeping out of President Trumps name from the comedys upcoming fourth season a different kind of joke. The two appeared onstage Tuesday at the Television Critics Assn. press tour in Beverly Hills to discuss the new season and how they reworked the show in the wake of Trumps election. We just got to a point where in real life were talking about the current administration, were talking about Trump  and it sounds so gross every day saying it so many 
On the page, Sam Shepard was seldom at a loss for words, but on the screen, he was a master of resonant understatement. The men he played over more than four decades on the screen have encompassed multitudes  lovers, loners, drifters, professionals, authority figures, rebels and one very famous test pilot  but they tend to be lumped together with words like laconic and taciturn, perfectly accurate descriptors that can nonetheless seem inadequate to the task of capturing his peculiar expressiveness.

You could say that a face as beautifully sculpted as Shepards rendered speech more or less superfluous: the flinty stare that was made for quiet brooding, the tight, dyspeptic frown, the prominent brow that became ever more majestically crosshatched with age. But his lanky physicality and craggily handsome features only partly accounted for what made him, until his death Thursday at age 73, such an extraordinary screen presence  one that never got old for being so reliably expressive.

His persona seemed etched in stone from the moment he stepped onto the Texas plains of Terrence Malicks Days of Heaven. In the decades since that 1978 masterwork, Malick has filmed more than a few actors gently interacting with stalks of wheat, but few of them have done so as soulfully as Shepards shy, doomed farmer, the aching center of the films Henry Jamesian tragedy.

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That gift for magnetic reticence served Shepard brilliantly when he played the sound barrier-breaking test pilot Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff, Philip Kaufmans richly entertaining 1983 film about Americas first astronauts. Surrounded by all manner of boisterous, outsize comic performances, Shepard tellingly received the lone acting Oscar nomination for his work as Yeager, someone who  from the moment we see him pouring Jack Daniels and spit-shining his flight helmet  is the very embodiment of the confident, no-big-deal greatness suggested by the title.

Few of Shepards subsequent performances may have measured up to that one in duration or impact, though he held the screen more than capably in Robert Altmans 1985 adaptation of Shepards own play Fool for Love, and made a nicely offbeat leading man in Volker Schlondorffs 1991 drama, Voyager. But the numerous cameos and short, brilliant character parts he took on were in some ways the natural domain of a sensibility that preferred brevity to excess.

Simply by showing up and inhabiting the frame for a few minutes, Shepard could inject a picture with some essential quality that it needed  gravitas, world-weary intelligence, the weight of lived experience. In recent years, the gifted independent American classicist Jeff Nichols has made particularly exceptional and varied use of this ability, casting Shepard first as a cryptic but dependable father figure in Mud (2012) and then as a disturbingly charismatic cult leader in last years Midnight Special.

The numerous cameos and short, brilliant character parts he took on were in some ways the natural domain of a sensibility that preferred brevity to excess.

If a picture needed to assure you of its down-home roots or its western bonafides, there was no better resource than Shepard  even when he barely seemed to last beyond the opening credits, as when he played Jesse James older brother in the early train-robbery scenes of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007). His marvelously boozy one-man prologue in the 2013 film adaptation of August: Osage County inevitably left you wanting more, though as fans of the Netflix series Bloodline know, it wasnt the last time Shepard would play the patriarch of a large family with many deep, dark secrets.

Shepards presence could lend solidity and weight to an unapologetic tearjerker like The Notebook, in which he played Ryan Goslings gentle, Walt Whitman-loving father. Or it could catch you amusingly off-guard, as when he surfaced as an improbable-yet-obvious Mr. Right to Diane Keatons put-upon yuppie in the 1987 comedy Baby Boom. Indeed, Shepards natural disinclination to hog the spotlight made him an ideal on-screen romantic partner for any number of actresses, including Ellen Burstyn (Resurrection), Jessica Lange (Crimes of the Heart) and Dolly Parton (Steel Magnolias).

One of Shepards most striking screen appearances  and, maybe not coincidentally, one of his most uncharacteristically talkative  came in Michael Almereydas deft and haunting 2000 modernization of Hamlet. As the ghost of a king crying out for blood beyond the grave, Shepard denounced murder most foul in a voice at once explosive and soft-spoken, a whisper carved from gravel.

While I have limited my appreciation to just one facet of Shepards extraordinarily wide-ranging artistic achievement, I would be remiss not to mention his script for Wim Wenders 1984 road movie, Paris, Texas, the crown jewel in Shepards uneven but never-uninteresting career of writing for the screen. He and Wenders would reteam more than 20 years later on Dont Come Knocking, with Shepard taking the reins as both screenwriter and star, but it couldnt help but feel like a pallid attempt to recapture the magic of their earlier, superior tale of a wayward father adrift in the American West.

Paris, Texas was loosely inspired by Shepards play Motel Chronicles, and while he didnt finish the script before shooting began (that task fell to L.M. Kit Carson, who received an adaptation credit), it unfolds as a magnificent distillation of all his ideas about American masculinity in crisis and the beautiful desolation of the open road. It may be his single greatest contribution to the screen, Sam Shepard from rugged beginning to soul-piercing end, even if you never hear the man himself say a single word.

justin.chang@latimes.com

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To prepare for his role as Ted Kaczynski in the miniseries Manhunt: Unabomber, Paul Bettany spent some time alone in a remote forest home, unplugged from technology, reading books.

But please dont take that the wrong way.

This story has begun to take on a life of its own, which is me, like Daniel Day-Lewis, in the woods, says the rangy actor over lunch at a Greek restaurant near his home in Tribeca.

Bettany wasnt exactly roughing it: It was a lovely, chic little cabin, he clarifies.

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Nevertheless, the experiment left an impression on the 46-year-old Brit. Without the constant distraction of technology, Theres lots of time in the day when youre not endlessly in contact, not endlessly checking what Trump said now, he says. It was great.

The eight-episode series, which premieres Tuesday on Discovery, focuses on the unorthodox investigation that finally led to Kaczynskis capture. FBI profiler Jim Fitzgerald, played by Sam Worthington, believed the Unabombers distinctive writing style could help track him down and pushed to have his 35,000 word anti-technology manifesto published in the Washington Post, which in the process helped pioneer the field of forensic linguistics.

Manhunt: Unabomber also complicates the popular perception of Kaczynski as a crazed, disheveled hermit scribbling away at an unhinged manifesto. It presents a more complete understanding of what led the Harvard-educated math prodigy to become one of the countrys most notorious domestic terrorists.

Particularly illuminating were the books Bettany read  the same titles found in the 10-by-12-foot shack in western Montana, where Kaczynski, whose homemade mail bombs killed three people and injured 23 others, lived for two decades until his arrest in 1996.

His reading list was really, really, totally cliched, like if I was writing Crazy Man Living In the Woods, says Bettany. It was like Conrads The Secret Agent, Dostoevskys Crime and Punishment, Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler.

Bettany also turned to an unpublished autobiography by Kaczynski for more insight.

Actor Paul Bettany (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

He just felt furious and alienated and there was no place for him in the world. He didnt fit into it and it made him angry.  Paul Bettany

What I came away with, more than anything, is he just felt furious and alienated and there was no place for him in the world. He didnt fit into it and it made him angry. And he saw other people move through the world and navigate all that with elegance, and he just couldnt. And it made him just really, really hurt, and really, really angry.

The series gives particular weight to Kaczynskis experiences at Harvard, where he enrolled at the age of 16 and was recruited as a research subject in humiliating psychological experiments conducted by his professor, Henry A. Murray.

It allows you to go back in time and see this man who did monstrous things but who monstrous things also happened to, Bettany explains, noting the poignant detail that Kaczynskis codename in the program was Lawful, because he was so obedient.

Bettany makes a distinction between sympathizing with Kaczynski and having empathy for the child he once was. He marvels at Kaczynskis brilliance  He was making the epoxy out of the hooves of animals!  and sees in his choice to target relatively obscure individuals a desire to inflict personal pain.

Look hes got an IQ of 168. He could go and sabotage the system, blow up the Hoover Dam, whatever the  he wants to do. Hes that bright. But he doesnt. Why? Its peculiar. And I cant square that circle without thinking that part of him got really, really hurt.

Aside from Bettanys tinted glasses  a touch reminiscent of the pair depicted in the famous Unabomber composite sketch  the man who plays the Vision in The Avengers appears to have little in common with the reclusive Kaczynski. He is warm and open, heartily recommending his favorite meatballs and a bottle of stout, and chatting with the staff of the restaurant, where hes a regular. Theres nothing misanthropic about him -- though he does have a charming irreverent streak.

Like when hes talking about plans to vacation with his family, which includes wife Jennifer Connelly and three children ranging in age from 6 to 20, far from the reach of paparazzi.

Once you know theyre there you start sucking it in. Youre trying to shout at your kids like any other parent and the cameras are there, he says. Terrible  especially the not being able to shout at your kids part.

Bettany says the only downside to having kids so far apart in age is that hes been going to tedious potlucks with other parents for 15 years. The only thing you really have in common is you  in the same year, he says.

Bettany has also found a much more positive way to channel his frustration with the direction of the country. In January  the day after Trumps inauguration, to be exact  he vowed to get his citizenship after living in the U.S. for a decade and a half. The republic is at stake, he says. I just felt a little helpless and wanted to be able to vote.

Right now, Bettany is brushing up on civics in order to pass the citizenship test, which, he says, consists of a hundred questions that Im convinced most Americans couldnt answer.

Which may be why he views the story of the Unabomber with a political allegory.

The contract that you make with the state is that youre going to leave your sword at the city gates and the states going to keep the monsters outside the wall, he says. And this is a story about a child turned into a monster within the walls.

See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour 

Manhunt: Unabomber

Where: Discovery Channel

When: 9 p.m. Tuesday

Rating: TV-14 (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14)

meredith.blake@latimes.com

Follow me @MeredithBlake

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From a two-day hot sauce celebration to a cocktail festival that promises drinks from 30 Los Angeles bars, here are three events you should have on your summer calendar.

California Hot Sauce Expo

Listen up, chile heads, this event is for you. The third annual California Hot Sauce Expo is happening Aug. 19 and 20 at City National Grove of Anaheim. Its two days celebrating all things hot, plus eating competitions. There will be hot sauce from 40 hot sauce makers around the world as well as food vendors. And when the heat gets a little too hot to handle, look for one of the craft beer or specialty cocktail vendors. If you enjoy watching others in chile agony, theres an area called the Stage of Doom, where the competitions will take place. This year, you can expect the Guinness Book of World Records Reaper Pepper Eating Contest, the Booze & Infuse Cocktail Competition and the Spicy Pizza of Doom contest. Also look out for lucha libre wrestling, because when your mouth is on fire, why not cheer on wrestlers in cool masks? There are three tiers of tickets, including $10 general admission, $40 craft brew package tickets and $75 VIP package tickets. Everyone gets access to the hot sauce samples and the eating competitions. The craft brew package includes extras like drink tokens, and the VIP package includes access to a VIP area with complimentary drinks and a BBQ buffet. 2200 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim, cahotsauceexpo.com.

Los Angeles Chocolate Salon

If youre the sort of person who keeps a not-so-secret chocolate stash, then youll want to check out the 11th Los Angeles Chocolate Salon. Its basically a convention center full of both chocolate and fellow chocolate lovers from around the world, held Oct. 1 in Pasadena. A ticket gets you access to chocolate tastings, demonstrations, and chef and author talks. Some of the participating chocolatiers include Amano, Mignon, Zenbunni, Valenza and David Bacco. And if youre into marijuana edibles, this year, Defonce Chocolatier, the seed-to-bar company that was started by a former Apple employee, will do a presentation on its chocolate edibles (you must be 21 or older to attend this presentation). Tickets are $20 if purchased in advance and $25 at the door. Tickets for children ages 6 to 12 are $10. The Pasadena Convention Center, 300 E. Green St., Pasadena, www.LAChocolateSalon.com.

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Cocktails in the City

This city is home to some of the best cocktail bars in the country. At least thats what the crew behind Cocktails in the City, one of the U.K.s biggest cocktail festivals, thinks about the tipples in L.A. Thats why the festival is holding its first Cocktails in the City event in L.A., on Sept. 23 at the Majestic. The organizers are billing it as the biggest cocktail festival in California, with more than 2,500 people expected to attend and 30 pop-ups from bars around Los Angeles. Roger Room, the Normandie Club, Sassafras, Birds and Bees, Melrose Umbrella Co., Now Boarding, the Edison, Lost Property, Big Bar, Harvard and Stone and Hotel Figueroa will all be mixing up drinks, most making specialty drinks for the event. You can also check out a bar school for budding home bartenders, a craft spirits discovery room and buy food from some local restaurants. Tickets are $25 and include a free cocktail from any of the participating bars, an event guide and a swag bag. Additional drink tokens are $10 each. Just dont forget to arrange for a designated driver. 650 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, cocktailsinthecity.com.

Jenn.Harris@latimes.com

@Jenn_Harris_

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Taiseer Al Souki spends most days on his feet at a Foster Farms poultry plant, hefting table-sized plastic brown boxes and feeding them into a machine that cleans them.

He plugs his ears to soften the deafening clang of heavy machinery as he cycles through the same motion for hours on end.

At night, after slumping to sleep in exhaustion, the 44-year-old Syrian refugee dreams that hes at the plant, still hoisting box after box filled with chicken destined for dinner tables across America.

Al Souki does not complain. He fled war-torn Syria and worked backbreaking 12-hour shifts in his home country and Jordan before making his way to the United States. He is grateful for the $10.50 an hour he collects at the poultry plant.

I like work. I need work, he said in the smattering of English he has picked up. Without work, not a man.

Taiseer Al Souki worked 12-hour shifts in his home country before making his way to the United States. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) Al Souki leaves home for his shift at a Foster Farms chicken processing plant. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Al Souki needs the workand employers in the meatpacking industry say they need workers like him. Refugees have increasingly become vital workers in an industry with high turnover. And the growing unrest and bloodshed in the Middle East and elsewhere have readily supplied them in places like the Central Valley.

The refugee and immigrant populations certainly have been a significant part, an integral part of our workforce for decades, said Tom Super, a spokesman for the National Chicken Council.

Its difficult to know exactly how many refugees work in this occupation but roughly one-third of workers in the industry in 2010 were foreign-born, according to a peer-reviewed article in Choices, a publication of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Assn., a nonprofit that serves those who work in agricultural and broadly related fields of applied economics.

Mark Lauritsen, director of the food-processing division at the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union, estimates that nationwide tens of thousands of refugees are part of the roughly 250,000 unionized meat and poultry plant workers.

In California, most of the meatpacking industry is located in the Central Valley. Its become one of the biggest employers for refugee resettlement agencies and other nonprofits aiding the population in those areas.

Although the industry in the Golden State is smaller than in other parts of the countryparticularly the Midwestthe foreign-born population has found its way to Foster Farms for decades now. Recently, an influx of refugeesmostly from the Middle Eaststarted to arrive in Fresno and Turlock. They too are joining the poultry plants labor force.

In 2010, Foster Farms in Turlock began hiring refugees placed by the International Rescue Committee, a refugee resettlement agency, said Christine Lemonda, deputy director of the IRC's Northern California offices. Since then, the agency has placed more than 150 refugees at the poultry plant. In the last six months, 15 have been hiredan uptickat Foster Farms, Lemonda said.

It all started out with the very first refugee finding a job and opening the floodgate for his or her community, said Jim Stokes, a site manager at IRC in Turlock. They established their own pipeline and inroads and started working there.

Immigrants have long been integral to the meatpacking industry, but refugees surfaced as a key labor force starting in 2006, according to experts who study the phenomenon.

That year the George W. Bush administration directed immigration enforcement agents to raid meat processing plants in six states. Operation Wagon Trainthe largest single work-enforcement action in U.S. historyled to the arrest of an estimated 1,300 people working in the country illegally.

Though it did not stop the industry from completely cutting off the hiring of unauthorized workers, the raids had a chilling effect.

The growing unrest and bloodshed in the Middle East and elsewhere provided a refugee population from which to fill the labor vacuum, said Lavinia Limon, chief executive officer and president of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a resettlement organization.

What the meatpacking industry knows is that these are really good workers. They show up on time. They say yes when they are told what to do. They do what is necessary for their survival, Limon said.It works really well for employers.

Refugee Nibonid Balanj is studying to be an electrical engineer in Turlock. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Nibonid Balanj, a 32-year-old Iranian refugee, said he started working at Foster Farms a few months after he arrived in Turlock in January 2013. He worked on the killing line. Usually, hed gut the turkeys and prepared them for packaging, he said.

Hed clock in at 1 a.m. and clock out at 9:30 a.m., shower and try to learn English watching captioned movies on Netflix.

Balanj, who studied to become an electrician in Iran, didnt mind the work.

When I first came I didnt even know how to say Im an electrician. I didnt know how to explain myself but I had a job. I worked on language, he said.

Balanj hustled and proved that he could do more, eventually working his way up to maintenance team leader and making $25 an hour. He saved enough to buy his own home last year. Now, his English is good. In January, he left Foster Farms to take what he called a more challenging job and to study for an electricians license.

During his time at the poultry plant, Balanj noticed that about 90% of the workers were foreigners and almost nobodys first language was English, he said.

Its the biggest opportunity all the foreign people have here, he said.

Syrian refugee Omar Bakir fled his home in Homs and is now unemployed and out of cash after quitting his job at the Foster Farms chicken processing plant. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

The meatpacking industry has become so reliant on refugees that the North American Meat Institute, an industry lobby group, released a statement stating their concerns after President Trump issued an executive action restricting citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries and all refugees from entry into the United States.

Historically, our industry has become an excellent starting point for new Americans. Immigrants and refugees can be an important component of some companies labor forces, especially in rural areas where low unemployment creates a tight labor supply, meat institute President and CEO Barry Carpenter said in a written statement.

There is no formal arrangement between IRC and Foster Farms, but that may change soon.

The resettlement agency and Foster Farms are looking at possibly extending their relationship and formalizing a partnership in the next few months, Foster Farms spokesman Ira Brill said. He declined to talk more about the issue.

Stokes said its not unusual for their office to receive calls from Foster Farms human resources officials telling them about job openings at the plant and urging them to have refugees apply.

Many refugees jump at the chance because a formal education and English are not key requirements for entry-level jobs where there is a union and good benefits, said Wasan Abu Baker, a case worker for Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries, a nonprofit agency in Fresno that helps refugees.

Its hard labor, she warns the refugees, so they know what theyre getting themselves into.

Wasan Abu Baker, center, is helping a Syrian refugee family from the city of Homs adjust to life in the United States during a visit to the familys home in Fresno. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Abu Baker said about half of the 27 Syrian families they serve have a family member working in entry-level positions with Foster Farms. Recently, she served as an translator during the orientation, translating from English to Arabic the safety rules and other company policies.

She said Foster Farms benefits from the Muslim refugee population because most pass the drug test, Abu Baker said.

Muslims dont do drugs due to religious reasons, Abu Baker said. Its prohibited.

On a recent weekend, she helped translate the Foster Farms benefits package that Al Souki brought home to his wife Maisaa Al Hamawi. Their 22-month-old daughter Salwathe youngest of six children tugged at her fathers shirt, demanding attention as Abu Baker explained to Al Souki that a retirement plan is included as part of his benefits.

He nodded in agreement and smiled.

When asked whether hed want his children to someday work at the poultry plant, both Al Hamawi and Al Souki shook their heads.

Al Hamawi quickly responded in Arabic: We want them to study.

Al Souki scooped up Salwa, put her on his lap and said: I wish a better life for my children.

cindy.carcamo@latimes.com

Follow Cindy Carcamo on Twitter @thecindycarcamo

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Dont underestimate the value of getting along. Thats one piece of advice from former school board members Steve Zimmer and Monica Ratliff to the new Los Angeles school board majority.

After this years contentious Board of Education election marked by ugly, often false accusations, its unclear how easy getting along will be.

In contests that broke spending records, charter school supporters were the biggest spenders and they succeeded in electing the new majority bloc. Both Zimmer and Ratliff expressed concern that the growth of charters would threaten the districts financial health.

Zimmer had harsh words for the California Charter Schools Assn., which argues that charter growth helps all students  in part by pushing traditional public schools to improve to keep students.

Charters are publicly funded but privately operated; most in L.A. Unified are non-union and are typically set up as nonprofits. The district has more charters than any other school system; they enroll about 16% of district students.

Both Ratliff and Zimmer had other long-term budget worries related to underfunded pensions and retiree health benefits  and how such budget pressures could undermine district services, including the staffing of school libraries.

The former officials also expressed much pride in district progress, such as expanding early kindergarten and restoring some arts programs. They were especially pleased by the record high graduation rate, which accompanied a new requirement for students to pass an expanded range of college preparatory courses.

They also weighed in on developments since their departure.

Ratliff represented District 6 in the east San Fernando Valley for one four-year term. Instead of running for reelection, she made an unsuccessful bid for the Los Angeles City Council.

Two-term incumbent Zimmer, who served as school board president, lost a bruising contest to attorney Nick Melvoin in District 4, which stretches from the Westside to the west Valley. Charter school supporters backed Melvoin; the teachers union, Zimmer.

The Times education team met with Zimmer and Ratliff separately.

What are the challenges posed to the district by the growth of charter schools and how should they be managed?

Zimmer: We have crossed  or are about to cross  a threshold where the loss of revenue to the district as a result of students leaving for charter schools has an effect on the quality of education for families that choose L.A. Unified-operated schools. At the same time, there are still areas where there are legitimate reasons to create new charters.

Steve Zimmer (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times) (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

The California Charter Schools Assn. takes the view that students will benefit from an education market in Los Angeles that is about pure cutthroat market share and competition. I disagree and I dont believe individual charter leaders view the world that way. I believe that charters benefit from a strong public school system to serve the children that charters dont or cannot.

And the teachers union has been more engaged in fighting charters than what should be an all-hands-on-deck approach to transforming the schools that need the help the most.

Its like a perfect storm from both ends.

Ratliff: Im very concerned about the proliferation of charters. I think someone at the level of state government needs to take a look at the fact that right now you can put a charter anywhere, even if there is a successful charter next door.

We are setting up a situation thats making it difficult for traditional schools and even charters to maintain enrollment when you have a saturation of charter schools in an area.

There needs to be a legislative solution, but not one that would give local school districts the authority to prohibit all new charters or to shut down existing charters that are being run properly.

Charter-backed candidates win L.A. Unified majority, but can they lead from within? 

At the first meeting with the new board members, the new president, Ref Rodriguez, pushed through a resolution with directives for Supt. Michelle King under the stated principle of putting kids first. What are your thoughts about this action?

Ratliff: It was very detail-oriented and it appears somewhat to be micromanaging the superintendent. However, I believe she was already going to do some of the things in the resolution, including ensuring that classrooms are all staffed appropriately. The thing in the resolution that I appreciated was requiring a deep cleaning of the schools before school starts. Every parent, student and staffer would greatly appreciate that. I think it will cost a lot of money. If it can be done, it will be phenomenal.

Zimmer: Any newly installed board has moments in which they define themselves and the choice to do that straight out of the box is assertive and different.

Was it implied that the prior board failed to put children first? I hope not. I hope the new board can build on the foundation of stability that the previous board established. This stability is necessary to accelerate gains in student achievement.

There is a kids-first army and everyone else who has a different opinion about how to put kids first is the enemy.  Steve Zimmer

Philanthropist and former L.A. deputy mayor Austin Beutner has assembled an advisory committee of civic leaders to help Supt. Michelle King follow through with her strategic plan. What are your thoughts?

Zimmer: Im concerned about initiatives that might appeal to a civic elite but that are not necessarily good for public education. But at the end of the day, Im glad the superintendent is meeting regularly with leaders from the outside community. In addition to this group, I hope the superintendent continues to meet with representatives of principals, students and educators to get holistic input on the best direction for the school system.

Ratliff: The more friends that the district has the better. I have high hopes for this committee.

Monica Ratliff (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times) (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

Some activists are pushing the district to raise the bar for a diploma by requiring students to earn a C or better (rather than a D) in all mandatory college preparation courses. What is your advice to the new board?

Ratliff: We have to have a system that allows our high school students to get a diploma, and they should not be stopped from getting a diploma because they got a D in one subject that they didnt like. Im hoping its not English or math. They need those, right? But just because you got a D in French because you dont like French the second year, I dont think that should stop you from getting a diploma.

Zimmer: Ive always been in favor of raising the requirement to a C or better, but it is essential that the board and superintendent invest even more in the academic foundations students must have to succeed in rigorous courses that will develop the critical thinking skills they need to succeed in higher education.

Up and down the ranks, people dont want to rock the boat. Theyre afraid to challenge authority.  Monica Ratliff

What worries you the most? What are some of your persisting concerns?

Zimmer: I worry that there will be a return to the politics of conflict, competition and confrontation. There is a kids-first army and everyone else who has a different opinion about how to put kids first is the enemy. I also worry about the potential embrace of a completely market-based system. Such a system creates winners and losers among schools, teachers and groups of kids.

We need to avoid the politics of confrontation within the district, the constant brinkmanship that was characteristic of an earlier era, where everything is a fight.

Ratliff: The atmosphere that still exists at district headquarters. People try very hard to be good soldiers there. Up and down the ranks, people dont want to rock the boat. Theyre afraid to challenge authority and say what really needs to be done or changed. We need people to feel comfortable about speaking their minds appropriately.
A U.S. district judge Monday upheld the 15-year prison sentence of former celebrity private investigator Anthony Pellicano, who was charged with illegal wiretapping and running a criminal enterprise.

Pellicano faced resentencing because of a technical error during his original 2008 trial, when the judge gave erroneous jury instructions for charges of aiding and abetting computer fraud and unauthorized computer access.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated those two charges in 2015 and ordered a resentencing. But the appellate court upheld more serious charges against Pellicano for running a criminal enterprise that illegally obtained police records and wiretapped celebrities so his clients could outmaneuver them in litigation.

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At Mondays hearing, U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer called the 15-year punishment reasonable and sufficient, ruling that the vacated counts had a marginal impact on the original sentence.

Pellicano appeared at the hearing via a video conference from the Terminal Island correctional facility in San Pedro, where he is incarcerated, because he feared losing his jail cell. He is expected to be released in March 2019. Pellicano must also undergo three years of supervision following his release.

Sitting at a table with a guard seated behind him, Pellicano, who did not request his own attorney, was quiet during the hearing, speaking only to address the judge with affirmative yes, Maams when asked procedural questions.

After receiving his sentence, Pellicano said he would take no further action in court.

I have no intention of appealing anything, Pellicano said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Lally said the sentence was what prosecutors had sought. During his remarks, Lally accused Pellicano of subverting public institutions by obtaining confidential information through his racketeering enterprise.

Pellicano was originally convicted in 2008, after a widely watched trial gave a glimpse into the inner workings of Hollywood feuds.

Prosecutors said Pellicano bribed police officers to search law enforcement databases and phone companies to wiretap his clients opponents and listen to their most intimate conversations. According to prosecutors, Pellicanos rates for the confidential information were expensive.

His clients included big-name celebrities and businessmen.

At the hearing, two of Pellicanos victims, Jude Green and former Los Angeles Times reporter Anita Busch, implored the judge to uphold his 15-year sentence.

The investigation into Pellicano began in 2002, when Buschs car was vandalized in an alleged attempt to intimidate her into not pursuing stories about former Hollywood super agent Michael Ovitz. Her windshield was broken and a dead fish and a rose were discovered inside the car, along with a sign that read STOP.

He needs to stay in prison, said Green, whom Pellicanos agency spied on and threatened during a bitter divorce with her multi-millionaire husband, Leonard Green, in 2001, according to prosecutors.

When she spoke, Pellicano lifted his sunglasses and leaned forward, then raised his arms and turned to the guard behind him to ask her identity.

After the hearing, Green said she still feared Pellicano could retaliate and had taken a risk in coming to the federal courthouse in Los Angeles despite her sons urging that she stay away.

But Busch, whom Green had not met before Monday, said she convinced her to attend, and the two drove to court together sharing stories of their experience with Pellicano and how the private investigator had reshaped their lives.

In an interview, Busch said she lives in constant fear that Pellicano still could retaliate against her.

Its hard to live like this, she said.

megan.bernhard@latimes.com

@meg_bernhard

UPDATES:

4:55 p.m.: This article was updated with additional comments from Busch.

This article was originally published at 1:40 p.m.
A San Bernardino County sheriffs deputy was one of two people killed in a plane crash in Big Bear on Saturday night, authorities said.

The Cessna 172 crashed under unknown circumstances after departing from Big Bear City Airport, said Allen Kenitzer, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

Around 10:30 p.m., someone reported to police that the plane was expected at the Apple Valley Airport and was delayed, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department.

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Authorities immediately began an aerial search between the Big Bear and Apple Valley airports. They located the wreckage around 9:30 a.m. Sunday in the county area of Big Bear.

Feels like yesterday that sheriff JOHN McMAHON swore Rebecca in. It's a tragic and sad day for all of us. May God watch over her parents.  San Bernardino County Sheriff (@sbcountysheriff) July 31, 2017

A flight crew member was hoisted to the wreckage and found two bodies, that of a man and a woman.

The deputy who was killed was identified as Rebecca Joan Raymond, 28, who joined the agency in September 2016, according to the Sheriffs Department. The man was not identified.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the cause of the crash.

This article will be updated as more information becomes available.

alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @AleneTchek

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UPDATES:

5:55 p.m.: This article was updated with additional information about one of the victims.

This article was originally published at 4:25 p.m.
Scorching heat, muggy conditions and the possibility of thunderstorms will return to Southern California, making this week uncomfortable and sticky.

With triple-digit temperatures on the forecast for much of the interior valleys, mountains and deserts, the National Weather Service issued an excessive heat warning Monday. Temperatures could reach 109 degrees in the Antelope Valley and 106 degrees in the valleys.

High temperatures will [be] quite high today with some heat risk issues today and Tuesday, meteorologist Curt Kaplan said in a weather statement. Overall, expect humid and hot conditions to continue through much of the week. There will be little relief from the heat overnight away from the coast through much of the week.

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Heat Advisories in place across portions of SW California through Tuesday. Check out the graphic below for good Heat Safety advice. #cawx pic.twitter.com/C3p4t0IcIK  NWS Los Angeles (@NWSLosAngeles) July 31, 2017

Excessive Heat Warning in effect for the Antelope Valley today thru this evening. Stay hydrated! Cancel strenuous daytime activities #LAheat pic.twitter.com/xkBhmj92JH  NWS Los Angeles (@NWSLosAngeles) July 31, 2017

An upper level high pressure system and weak northerly winds could be blamed for the intense heat, the weather service said.

If the heat wasnt enough to activate sweat glands, forecasters says, a monsoonal flow pattern will bring humid conditions and a slight chance of thunderstorms by Tuesday.

Thunderstorms could rock the San Gabriel and Santa Barbara County mountains, and bring flash flooding to the areas.

In some areas, the increasing cloud cover will be deceiving because the increased humidity will still lead to significant discomfort.

The muggy conditions will likely cause increased risk of heat-related illness, the weather service said.

Monsoonal flow will bring a chance for thunderstorms across SoCal including coast and valleys Tue-Wed. Flash Flood Potential !! #CAwx #SoCal pic.twitter.com/7oxJ7oCKHa  NWS Los Angeles (@NWSLosAngeles) July 31, 2017

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

Twitter: VeronicaRochaLA

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Californias high-speed train project is likely to continue to be buffeted by environmental challenges as a result of a decision by the states top court.

In a 6-1 ruling last week written by Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, the California Supreme Court decided that federal rail law does not usurp Californias tough environmental regulation for state-owned rail projects.

The decision has broad significance, lawyers in the case said.

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It clears the way for opponents of the $64-billion bullet train to file more lawsuits as construction proceeds and also allows Californians to challenge other rail uses, such as the movement of crude oil from fracking.

A federal court could later decide the matter differently, ruling that U.S. law trumps state regulation.

But lawyers in the field said they expect a similar case pending in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to be dismissed and expressed doubt that the U.S. Supreme Court would review last weeks ruling.

The high-speed rail line is supposed to run between San Francisco and Anaheim.

So far there have been about a half a dozen lawsuits challenging environment impact reports for two rail segments in the Central Valley. Three of the suits are still pending.

More lawsuits are expected when the rail authority finalizes plans for construction in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California.

The Central Valley litigation already has been unexpectedly contentious, involving farmers who lost large portions of their fields.

But legal experts expect an even bigger firestorm of lawsuits when environmental impact reports are released for the Silicon Valley and parts of Los Angeles, possibly next year. The reports will reveal where the lines will be built.

There are likely to be a lot of people bent out of shape in those areas, said Stuart Flashman, who has represented several groups and individuals fighting high-speed rail. There are already threats of lawsuits involving the Angeles National Forest. It means the High-Speed Rail Authority is nowhere near out of the woods.

Rail authority spokeswoman Lisa Marie Alley said the agency is reviewing what the Supreme Court ruling would mean for the project.

The matter of whether the bullet train project must abide by the California Environmental Quality Act has lingered for years.

In 2014, the state asked the federal Surface Transportation Board, which regulates railroads, to exempt the project from any legal injunctions that could stop construction.

The board went even further, saying that the project was exempt from state law. The decision triggered a federal lawsuit by rail opponents, the case now pending in the 9th Circuit.

The rail authority in the meantime has followed both federal and state environmental laws.

The California Supreme Court ruling came in lawsuits filed by two environmental advocacy groups  Friends of the Eel River and Californians for Alternatives to Toxics  against the North Coast Railroad Authority and the Northwestern Pacific Railroad Co., a private company that contracts with the authority.

Mitch Stogner, executive director of the North Coast Railroad Authority, said the group has not decided whether to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case.

He also said he did not know whether the High-Speed Rail Authority, which lacks standing to appeal the decision, would be inclined to help finance a fight to the high court. The High-Speed Rail Authority weighed in as a friend of the court.

State lawmakers created the North Coast Railroad Authority in 1989 to provide freight service on a 314-mile line of decayed tracks in Napa, Sonoma and Humboldt counties.

The railroad now hauls livestock feed, building materials, wood products and liquefied petroleum gas, Stogner said, on just 62 miles of the line, from Lombard to Windsor in Sonoma County.

Amy Bricker, who represented the river group in the case, said it was concerned that restarting rail operations in the Eel River canyon would pollute the wild and scenic waterway and encourage gravel mining.

But Stogner said there have been no plans to run freight through the canyon because the tracks there would be too costly to repair.

It is a red herring, he said

Golden Gate University Law School professor Helen Kang, who runs an environmental law clinic that represented the anti-toxics group, said the ruling means that you have to be able to comply with federal and state law at the same time.

If there is no conflict, there is no preemption, she said.

In general, federal laws take precedence over, or preempt, state laws  a doctrine based on the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

In a dissent to the Supreme Courts ruling, Justice Carol Corrigan said the majority had created a novel legal theory to get around the fact that states may not impose regulations that interrupt rail service.

The decision will displace the longstanding supremacy of federal regulation in the area of railroad operations by allowing third party plaintiffs to thwart or delay public railroad projects, Corrigan wrote.

UC Davis Law Professor Richard Frank said the California Supreme Court almost always decides that state laws are not preempted by federal ones, while federal courts are more likely to say the opposite.

He called last weeks ruling very obtuse and turgid and said it probably will not end the legal fight over whether federal rail regulations supersede state laws because the decision provided little guidance to policy makers and practitioners.

The court said that federal law trumps state law only for privately owned railroads, not those owned by California, Frank noted.

It is going to generate more time consuming litigation, Frank said.

maura.dolan@latimes.com

Twitter: @mauradolan

ralph.vartabedian@latimes.com

Twitter: @rvartabedian

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Days after North Korea fired a rocket into the Sea of Japan, the U.S. Air Force is planning to test launch an unarmed intercontinental ballistic missile Wednesday from Vandenberg Air Force Base.

The unarmed Minuteman III missile will be launched between 12:01 and 6:01 a.m. from the base, about 12 miles northwest of Lompoc, according to Vandenbergs 30th Space Wing team.

The Air Force Global Strike Commands missile launch is designed to test the weapon systems effectiveness, accuracy and readiness, the Air Force said.

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The test comes after North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile on Friday  the second in less than a month. The two-stage missile crashed off the coast of Japans northernmost island, Hokkaido. Independent defense analysts say the missile may be capable of reaching California and other parts of the West Coast.

The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, said on Monday that the Vandenberg test launch must be viewed as a direct response to the North Korean launch. The organization has called for diplomacy, not military provocations.

The test would be the fourth ICBM launched from the Santa Barbara County base this year.

In February, a test missile was launched in February from the base. That missile was also equipped with a nonexplosive payload and traveled to the Marshall Islands.

Another test was conducted by the Air Force Global Strike Commands team on April 26. Air Force officials said that launch was an operational test to show the countrys nuclear deterrent capability.

Days later, a third test missile launched from the base. The unarmed Minuteman III missile was launched just after midnight on May 3 from the base to test the weapons reliability and ensure an effective nuclear deterrent, according to the U.S. Air Force.

On May 30, the Missile Defense Agency conducted a flight test exercise of a ground-based interceptor that was also launched from the air base. The interceptor successfully targeted and destroyed an unarmed intercontinental ballistic missile launched from the Marshall Islands.

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

Twitter: VeronicaRochaLA

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Another California imam has drawn criticism after delivering a sermon laced with inflammatory remarks about Jews, calling them unjust tyrants and praying to Allah to destroy them.

Imam Mahmoud Harmoushs comments came during a July 21 sermon delivered at the Islamic Center of Riverside, video of which was translated and published by the nonprofit Middle East Media Research Institute.

The Islamic Center of Riverside also posted a 31-minute video of the sermon on YouTube.

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WATCH: YouTube video of Imam Mahmoud Harmoushs sermon 

In his sermon, Harmoush accuses Jews of plotting to take over Palestinian territory, the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia, and most of the Middle East. He also referenced the recent turmoil surrounding the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, one of the citys holiest sites revered by both Muslims and Jews.

Oh, Allah, liberate the Al Aqsa Mosque and all the Muslim lands from the unjust tyrants and the occupiers, Harmoush said, according to the groups translation. Oh, Allah, destroy them, they are no match for you. Oh, Allah, disperse them and rend them asunder. Turn them into booty in the hands of the Muslims. In English, the imam also urged those gathered at the mosque: Wake up, it is time to be a Muslim. Prayer is not the only thing.

The comments came the same day as an imam in Davis delivered his own controversial sermon, praying for the Al Aqsa Mosque to be freed from the filth of Jews.

Oh, Allah, count them one by one and annihilate them down to the very last one, Imam Ammar Shahin said at the Davis Islamic Center.

The remarks from Shahin and Harmoush prompted a firestorm of criticism and were quickly condemned by Jewish organizations.

These statements are anti-Semitic and dangerous, Jonathan A. Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement. At this time of heightened tension, it is more important than ever for the Jewish and Muslim communities to come together to condemn the use of stereotypes and conspiracy theories, and to rebuild trust so that people of all faiths can coexist.

Dan Schnur, executive director of the American Jewish Committee in the Los Angeles region, described Harmoushs comments as a hate crime, pure and simple.

Shahin, the imam in Davis, apologized on Friday at a news conference held by the citys mayor and religious leaders, saying he let his emotions cloud my better judgment.

When asked about his remarks Sunday, Harmoush issued a statement saying he would confer with leaders of local interfaith communities that he has long worked with.

All life is sacred and every person has a sacred right to respect, safety and liberty. Members of all faiths, including my own, rest firmly on these principles and I believe in promoting them with justice and empathy, Harmoush said. Interfaith dialogue has demonstrated resounding successes in fostering positive change and communal insight while incorporating people of all faiths in a humane, genuine and sustainable path forward.

Harmoush has many ties throughout Southern Californias Muslim community, teaching Arabic and Islamic culture classes at colleges and working with various Islamic centers.

According to an undated page on Claremont Lincoln Universitys website, Harmoush is an interfaith instructor there and has taught at Cal State San Bernardino and Crafton Hills College. The same page states Harmoush has worked with Islamic centers in Yorba Linda and San Diego.

Harmoush previously led the Islamic Center of Temecula Valley during a turbulent chapter for the center, as its efforts to build a new mosque ignited months of debate that included vitriolic attacks on Islam.

Schnur called on Harmoush to make it clear that his sermon does not reflect the teachings of the Koran or the beliefs of the Muslim faith.

Because our members devote so much time to working with leaders from the Muslim community, we know that the overwhelming majority of Muslims simply do not share these types of sentiments, he said.

We know that we cant completely eliminate hate, unfortunately, Schnur said. But we can surround it, we can isolate it and we can make it perfectly clear that these types of vile sentiments have no place in decent society.

Times staff writer Esmeralda Bermudez contributed to this report.

kate.mather@latimes.com

@katemather

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UPDATES:

9:30 p.m.: This story was updated with a statement made by Imam Mahmoud Harmoush.

This story was originally published at 5:40 p.m.
Dozens of Venezuelans staged their own protest in Hollywood on Sunday as violence erupted in Caracas over elections that would give controversial President Nicolas Maduro more power.

Demonstrators took over much of the sidewalk in front of the TCL Chinese Theater, wearing Venezuelan flags as capes and other red, blue and yellow decorations.

Nelly Medina, a Torrance resident, held a sign summarizing their fight: Maduro wants to rewrite Venezuelas Constitution in a way that disempowers Venezuelan citizens. This is unconstitutional.

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Another sign depicted Los Angeles Philharmonic music director Gustavo Dudamel  who is Venezuelan and has been criticized by some for not speaking out more forcefully against the government  conducting on top of a piano played by Maduro. Both men are bloodied and the piano doubled as an open casket. The caption reads, Communism is the symphony of destruction.

Voters in Venezuela went to the polls Sunday to elect members of a new constitutional assembly that would be charged with writing a new charter for the country. The vote came amid nationwide protests that have claimed more than 100 lives, including nine people who were reportedly killed Sunday during demonstrations.

Opposition leaders had urged Maduro opponents to boycott the voting, calling it an illegal power grab and an attempt by Maduro to sideline the opposition-controlled National Assembly. A majority of Venezuelans blame Maduro for food scarcities, rising crime and an increasingly autocratic government.

The protesters in Hollywood chanted that they wanted freedom for their home country. They also broke into song and dance, gathering around one man and his bandmates as he strummed on a cuatro, a popular Venezuelan string instrument.

Maria Alejandra Contreras said shes sure that leaders will succeed in changing the Venezuelan Constitution. But she said its important to make noise even from afar, so that people can learn what her fellow countrymen are going through.

Venezuelans have neither voice nor vote, she said. Its a dictatorship masquerading as a democracy.

carlos.lozano@latimes.com
The family of Romulo Avelica-Gonzalez, an immigrant in the country illegally whose case has drawn international media attention, was devastated to learn that he could be deported as early as next week.

Avelica-Gonzalez, 49, has been held at a federal detention facility since Feb. 28, when immigration agents arrested him minutes after he dropped off his 12-year-old daughter at her Lincoln Heights school.

Lawyers for Avelica-Gonzalez in June settled the two decades-old misdemeanor convictions  for driving under the influence and for receiving stolen car tags  that prompted his arrest. He pleaded guilty to lesser vehicle code violations.

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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials had cited a deportation order based on the former convictions as the reason for picking him up in February. His lawyers had hoped that with the changes, ICE would grant his release and cancel his deportation order.

Avelica-Gonzalez, a Mexican citizen, has lived in the United States for 25 years. ICE agents pulled him over and detained him six blocks from the school where he had dropped off his daughter. Another daughter in the car with him, now 14, sobbed as she recorded cellphone video of the encounter.

Video of the familys story went viral and has attracted international attention.

Avelica-Gonzalezs lawyers have petitioned the Board of Immigration Appeals to consider reopening his immigration case as a result of the conviction changes. He is being held at the Adelanto Detention Facility in San Bernardino County.

When ICE agents detained Avelica-Gonzalez, his attorneys filed an emergency stay of removal with the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, preventing his immediate deportation. The court reviewed the case and dismissed the stay in June.

As a result, the stay will expire August 5, said Avelica-Gonzalezs immigration lawyer, Alan Diamante. He could be deported as early as August 7.

If theres no 9th Circuit stay, there could be nothing keeping him here, Diamante said. And thats our concern.

In late March, Avelica-Gonzalez and his wife, Norma, submitted applications for U visas, which are available to victims of crime and their immediate family members, based on a crime that Norma was the victim of in December 2016. Diamante declined to provide details about the crime out of respect for the family and any potential further investigation.

The number of people with pending U visa applications has skyrocketed from 21,000 in 2009 to nearly 170,000 as of March. Congress has set a cap granting 10,000 U visas each year. Applicants on the waiting list are granted deferrals of their deportation and allowed to apply for work permits.

Diamante, who took up Avelica-Gonzalezs case pro bono, said he should be released while he awaits the fate of his application.

U visa applicants should not be living in fear that theyll be deported while theyre waiting for their cases to be adjudicated, he said.

In late June, Diamante filed a petition for another stay of Avelica-Gonzalezs deportation with the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, knowing that the 9th Circuit stay would be lifted. The request was primarily based on his pending U visa application and the changes to his criminal history.

Homeland Security denied the request, saying it had been filed prematurely. Diamante plans to refile August 7, once the 9th Circuit stay has been lifted. If Homeland Security again denies his request, hell file a last-ditch emergency stay of deportation with the Board of Immigration Appeals.

But Diamante worries that if Homeland Security denies his request too late in the day, ICE could move to deport Avelica-Gonzalez before he has time to file with and receive a response from the immigration appeals board.

Were just hoping that the government will do the right thing, he said.

andrea.castillo@latimes.com

@andreamcastillo

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When the Trump administration revealed it had canceled a CIA program to provide Syrian rebels with arms and training, Ill give you three guesses as to how the story got framed. If you went with misleading insinuations over Russia, you are correct. The Washington Post, which broke the news, ran with the headline: Trump ends covert CIA program to arm anti-Assad rebels in Syria, a move sought by Moscow. An anonymous quote in the story  Putin won in Syria  got traction online, in print and on TV.

It was a sloppy conflation: Policy that coincides with Moscows aims is not the same as policy meant to serve Moscow. In this case, theres no evidence that President Trump was acting under the thrall of Vladimir Putin. More likely the president axed the CIA initiative because  as many of us have been warning since long before Russia sent its military to Syria  it wasnt working. Additionally, it constituted an unwise intervention in the Syrian civil war, which holds little interest and no good options for the United States.

From the start, American weapons shipments had a curious habit of ending up in the hands of Al Qaeda and Islamic State fighters. Among numerous examples, the Pentagon admitted in 2015 that U.S.-trained Syrian rebels had voluntarily forked over their American-provided equipment, including half a dozen pickup trucks, to the Al Qaeda offshoot Nusra Front. Islamic State soldiers have been documented running around with our anti-tank missiles. Even early on, when training-and-arms efforts were being carried out through the Saudis and Qataris, one U.S. official admitted, The opposition groups that are receiving the most of the lethal aid are exactly the ones we dont want to have it. More recently, even Charles Lister, an ardent supporter of the Syrian rebellion, has estimated that 10% to 15% of American equipment was lost to Al Qaeda and Islamic State.

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Trumps decision ... was the right call for American interests, regardless of whether it aligns with Russian intentions.

The problem is that trying to tease out a moderate rebel from the extremists has become devilishly difficult. The power amassed by the Nusra Front as late as 2012 was enough to guarantee that Syrian democrats needed the jihadists to help them beat the Assad regime. And so alliances of convenience were made, many of the moderate groups became more extreme (sometimes gradually, sometimes with alarming immediacy), and the rebellion took on an overall more Islamist character. The problem was compounded by the sheer cunning of the Nusra Front  which sponsored a relief department and food convoys, winning over besieged locals even as it declared its ultimate intention to impose sharia law.

This was the insurgency into whose hands the Obama administration wanted to place Syrias future. The impossibility of the Syrian project was only compounded by bureaucratic ineptitude, perhaps best revealed when the Pentagons counterpart program managed to train so few rebels that the price tag was calculated at $4 million for each fighter. The CIAs initiative was assumed to be more effective, but even then plenty of red tape-tangled muddling has been documented. In 2015, Congress considered slashing the programs funding by up to 20%, and while specifics werent forthcoming, it must have taken some serious dysfunction to dull lawmakers generally gung-ho approach toward Syria.

But sideline all those objections for a moment. Zoom out on the map and think in terms of the greater Syrian war. The Assad regime today is in a stronger position than it was four years ago thanks to Russias intervention on its behalf. The rebellion has had its victories, some of them aided by American weapons, but overall the Obama administrations train-and-arm efforts failed at their objective. So Trump canceled a government program that wasnt working. Whats wrong with that? Especially when the alternative was to keep fueling a barbaric conflict with weapons that could one day be turned on us.

The Syrian civil war is a deeply intricate battlefield with numerous factions acting on myriad motivations. It is impossible to siphon it into a facile, cable news-ready, black-and-white narrative. Trumps decision was about far more than capitulation to Russia  it was the right call for American interests, regardless of whether it aligns with Russian intentions. The Syrian civil war needs to be ended, not furthered by another round of fruitless arms shipments.

Matt Purple is a fellow at Defense Priorities, a think tank launched in 2016 that advocates for foreign policy restraint, and the deputy editor of Rare Politics.

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Kamala Harris works to forge relationship with Central Valley

Sen @kamalaharris talking grapes with Fowler Packing Co president Dennis Parnagian in the fields outside metro Fresno pic.twitter.com/smVuRfbSpQ  Cathleen Decker (@cathleendecker) July 5, 2017

The drought may be over in the minds of urban Californians, quite literally washed away by huge accumulations of rain last year that filled reservoirs and left the states mountains covered with snow even now.

But the farmers and others in the Central Valley, veterans of multiple drought-and-flood cycles, know the reprieve is only temporary. On Wednesday they pressed new U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris to work to ensure a more reliable source of water for the nations most bountiful farming region.

This area is drying on the vine, Ryan Jacobsen, executive director of the Fresno County Farm Bureau, told Harris during a roundtable with Central Valley officials.

A long-term solution can only come through federal and state action to protect the areas water supply, he said.

Jason Phillips, chief executive of the Friant Water Authority, said recent rainfall had done little to stem problems caused by nearly a decade of drought.

A canal that runs from Fresno to north of Bakersfield sunk in some places as much as 2 feet in two years, he said, wreaking havoc on a system that operates on the force of gravity.

We cannot get all the water to our growers, he said.

The meeting between Harris and nearly two dozen agriculture and water officials was meant to ease what is typically a fraught relationship between the states Democratic leaders  all of whose power bases are in metropolitan areas  and the mostly Republican Central Valley powers that traditionally look at them with skepticism.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein has worked for two decades to aid the agricultural industry  at the roundtable, several nodded as Harris referred to the senior senator as an incredible warrior for the area.

But Harris predecessor, former Sen. Barbara Boxer, was allied more with environmental groups that have fought dams and other water systems. As a result, she was viewed negatively by many here.

Harris was intent Wednesday on persuading the Central Valley representatives of her interest in places beyond her base in Alameda and San Francisco counties.

They, on the other hand, worked to convince her to be more in the Feinstein mold on issues important to the area  from reliable water to immigration programs to environmental protections that take into consideration the areas needs.

President Trump was highly popular in much of the Central Valley, apart from Fresno County, which leans Democratic because of its metropolitan shadings. But some issues important to the valley cut in politically unorthodox ways.

Republicans here are more concerned than those elsewhere with passing a plan that would give legal status to immigrants, on whom agriculture depends. With undocumented workers worried about deportation, and the border tightening to those not yet here, the labor supply has already shrunk, farmers said.

Theyre out there working, being productive people, said farmer Joe Del Bosque. They work hard for us, and we have nowhere to reach.

Del Bosque said he recently held a training session for new workers. Of the 200 people who showed up, only a handful were born in the United States, he said.

Environmental regulations prized by Democrats elsewhere are often frowned on by some party members here and blamed for the areas water difficulties.

Several of the participants lobbied Harris for her support of dams that have long been under consideration by federal and state officials, particularly the Temperance Flat Dam, which would be constructed on the San Joaquin River.

Harris offered no assurances on the topic to the group on Wednesday. Afterward, speaking to reporters, she also did not take a position.

One of the things that were going to have to figure out ... is what is the right solution for that, she said of a plan to construct the Temperance Flat Dam and several others. Is it going to be about the building of dams? Is it also going to be about looking at  also looking at  other sources of renewable and sustainable reliable sources?

Both sides signaled they did not expect an alliance on all fronts. But Harris said she would serve as an advocate for farmers during the crafting of a new farm bill and other measures before the Senate.

William Bourdeau, executive vice president of the politically influential Harris Farms, told the senator he wished the majority of her supporters who reside in urban areas would have a better understanding of the risks and challenges of farming.

We need somebody to explain the symbiotic relationship we have, he said.

I agree with you completely, she replied.
Trump promotes sons Justice with Judge Jeanine interview President Trump promoted via Twitter an interview with his son Eric Trump just before it aired Saturday night on Fox News Justice with Judge Jeanine. Eric Trump on @JudgeJeanine on @FoxNews now!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 21, 2018 Eric Trump called into the show to defend his father from criticism prompted by the first government shutdown in more than four years, as well as a series of Womens March events that saw protesters in dozens of cities take to the streets to oppose the presidents policies. .@EricTrump joined me over the phone from Mar-a-Lago ! pic.twitter.com/Hro3TzUW52  Jeanine Pirro (@JudgeJeanine) January 21, 2018 Speaking to host Jeannine Piro  who is reportedly an old friend of the presidents  Eric Trump offered effusive praise for his father, ticking off glowing statistics to illustrate the strength of the U.S. economy and gains against Islamic State fighters overseas. My fathers working like no ones ever worked before to bring back this country and to fulfill his promise to make America great again, said the executive vice president of the Trump Organization. He also repeated a sentiment recently expressed on Twitter by his father: That Democratic lawmakers forced a government shutdown on the anniversary of the presidents inauguration in a bid to distract from his achievements. You look at this whole government shutdown, and the only reason they want to shut down government is to distract and to stop his momentum, Eric Trump said. I mean, my father has had incredible momentum. Hes gotten more done in one year than arguably any president in history. Facebook

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Trump tweets: a perfect day for all Women to March President Trump hailed the nationwide Womens March gatherings Saturday. On Twitter, the president called it a perfect day for all Women to March, seeming to imply that those taking part were celebrating his administrations accomplishments: Beautiful weather all over our great country, a perfect day for all Women to March. Get out there now to celebrate the historic milestones and unprecedented economic success and wealth creation that has taken place over the last 12 months. Lowest female unemployment in 18 years!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 Participants in the marches across the United States were actually seeking to deliver a powerful rebuke to Trumps policies and mount a crucial mobilization for this years midterm elections. But Trump continued to tout his administrations unprecedented success in tweets sent later in the day: Unprecedented success for our Country, in so many ways, since the Election. Record Stock Market, Strong on Military, Crime, Borders, & ISIS, Judicial Strength & Numbers, Lowest Unemployment for Women & ALL, Massive Tax Cuts, end of Individual Mandate - and so much more. Big 2018!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 The Trump Administration has terminated more UNNECESSARY Regulation, in just twelve months, than any other Administration has terminated during their full term in office, no matter what the length. The good news is, THERE IS MUCH MORE TO COME!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 21, 2018 In addition to the roll call of major American cities where womens marches took place  including New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Dallas, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta  protesters also raised their voices in suburbs and small towns, reflecting the aim of coalescing a broad-based movement on the anniversary of Trumps inauguration to oppose the presidents stance on immigration, healthcare, racial divides and an array of other issues. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Laura King. Facebook

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Trump calls shutdown a present from Democrats By Associated Press President Trump is blaming Democrats for the government shutdown  tweeting that they wanted to give him a nice present to mark the one-year anniversary of his inauguration: This is the One Year Anniversary of my Presidency and the Democrats wanted to give me a nice present. #DemocratShutdown  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 That comes after Senate Democrats late Friday killed a GOP-written House-passed measure that would have kept agencies functioning for four weeks. Democrats were seeking a stopgap bill of just a few days in hopes that would build pressure on Republicans, and they were opposing a three-week alternative offered by GOP leaders. Democrats have insisted they would back legislation reopening the government once theres a bipartisan agreement to preserve protections against deporting about 700,000 immigrants  known as Dreamers  who arrived in the United States illegally as children. Trump on Saturday accused Democrats of holding our Military hostage over their desire to have unchecked illegal immigration: Democrats are holding our Military hostage over their desire to have unchecked illegal immigration. Cant let that happen!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 Democrats are laying fault for the shutdown on Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress and the White House and have struggled with building internal consensus. In a series of tweets hours after the shutdown began, the president tried to make the case for Americans to elect more Republicans to Congress in November in order to power through this mess: Democrats are far more concerned with Illegal Immigrants than they are with our great Military or Safety at our dangerous Southern Border. They could have easily made a deal but decided to play Shutdown politics instead. #WeNeedMoreRepublicansIn18 in order to power through mess!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 He noted that there are 51 Republicans in the 100-member Senate, and it often takes 60 votes to advance legislation: For those asking, the Republicans only have 51 votes in the Senate, and they need 60. That is why we need to win more Republicans in 2018 Election! We can then be even tougher on Crime (and Border), and even better to our Military & Veterans!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 #AMERICA FIRST!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 The stopgap spending measure won 50 votes in the Senate, including five from Democrats. Although the House and Senate were in session Saturday, it was unclear whether lawmakers would take any votes of consequence. Trump had been set to leave Friday afternoon for a fundraiser at his estate in Palm Beach, Fla., where he intended to mark the inauguration anniversary. But he remained in Washington and ended up scrapping his plans to attend the Saturday fundraiser. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweet casts doubt on likelihood of averting shutdown President Trump appeared to cast doubt on the likelihood of reaching a deal to avert a government shutdown Friday night in a tweet. Trump also sought to blame Democrats for what would be the first shutdown since 2013. His message came just hours before the midnight deadline by which lawmakers must pass a measure to fund government agencies, or some operations will cease. Not looking good for our great Military or Safety & Security on the very dangerous Southern Border. Dems want a Shutdown in order to help diminish the great success of the Tax Cuts, and what they are doing for our booming economy.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 Despite last-minute negotiations Friday between Trump and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, Congress remained deadlocked over a spending bill and the federal government was headed toward a shutdown at midnight. Senate Democrats  joined by some GOP deficit hawks and immigration allies  were set to filibuster a stopgap funding bill approved by the House on Thursday. A Senate vote was planned for 10 p.m. Eastern, and even White House officials predicted it would fail. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Lisa Mascaro. Facebook

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Trump signs surveillance law after confusing tweets By Associated Press President Trump on Friday signed a bill into law to renew a foreign intelligence surveillance program, announcing his action in the latest in a series of confusing tweets about the spy program: Just signed 702 Bill to reauthorize foreign intelligence collection. This is NOT the same FISA law that was so wrongly abused during the election. I will always do the right thing for our country and put the safety of the American people first!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 19, 2018 Trumps tweet on Jan. 11 created chaos in the House just before it voted to reauthorize what is known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. He linked the intelligence program to a dossier that alleges his presidential campaign had ties to Russia. That caused people to wonder if he didnt support the program that allows U.S. spy agencies to collect intelligence on foreign targets abroad. Trump and other Republicans have alleged that Obama administration officials improperly shared the identities of Trump presidential transition team members mentioned in intelligence reports. Democrats say there is no evidence that happened. Shortly before the House vote, and after conferring with House Speaker Paul Ryan, Trump did an apparent about-face. This vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land, he tweeted. We need it! Get smart! In his tweet announcing that he had just signed the bill, Trump wrote: This is NOT the same FISA law that was so wrongly abused during the election. I will always do the right thing for our country and put the safety of the American people first! There are no obvious links between the dossier Trump spoke of, which includes salacious but unsubstantiated allegations against him, and the reauthorization of the spying program, or between the program and Trumps oft-repeated claims that the Obama administration conducted surveillance on Trump Tower during the presidential campaign. Facebook

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In tweet, Trump suggests that Pennsylvania trip is a political one The White House press office was once again forced to walk back a tweet from President Trump on Thursday morning after he described a trip to Pennsylvania later in the day as a political one  a statement that would force the Republican Party, not taxpayers, to pay for the journey. The White House had said Trump was going to an industrial equipment company outside of Pittsburgh to highlight the good economy and new tax cuts, making it an official, policy-oriented event. It was widely assumed that the trip had a political cast  the area is holding a special election to fill a congressional seat vacated by a Republican who resigned. Trump, by his tweet, seemed to confirm that politics was the whole purpose: Will be going to Pennsylvania today in order to give my total support to RICK SACCONE, running for Congress in a Special Election (March 13). Rick is a great guy. We need more Republicans to continue our already successful agenda!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2018 Trump later shared via Twitter a pair of video clips of his speech at H&K Equipment, in which he touted the tax cuts he signed into law just before Christmas and tried to turn the conversation back to his accomplishments after weeks dominated by distractions, including questions about his mental health and comments about immigration that some considered racist: Departing Pittsburgh now, where it was my great honor to stand with our incredible workers, and to show the world that AMERICA is back - and we are coming back bigger and better and stronger than ever before! pic.twitter.com/kWPgylqFzj  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2018 AMERICA will once again be a NATION that thinks big, dreams bigger, and always reaches for the stars. YOU are the ones who will shape Americas destiny. YOU are the ones who will restore our prosperity. And YOU are the ones who are MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! #MAGA pic.twitter.com/f2abNK47II  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2018 The Republican National Committee, rather than the White House, is supposed to pay for political travel so that taxpayers are not financing party activities; for trips that combine policy and politics, parties have split the cost under past presidents. Neither the RNC nor the White House responded to emails sent Thursday asking who would pay. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement later Thursday suggesting that taxpayers would foot the bill. She insisted that Trump would be conducting government business while in Pennsylvania. Read More This post contains reporting from the Associated Press and Times staff writer Noah Bierman. Facebook

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Trump tweets praise of Bob Dole after awarding him Congressional Gold Medal By Associated Press Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole knew the art of the deal before President Trump published the 1987 book of the same name. The two shared a stage under the Capitol dome Wednesday as Dole, 94, accepted Congress highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal, for his World War II service and decades of work in the House and Senate. Trump later praised Dole in a tweet, attaching to his message a video composed of clips from the ceremony: Today, we witnessed an incredible moment in history  the presentation of Congress highest civilian honor to our friend, and true AMERICAN HERO, Bob Dole. #CongressionalGoldMedal pic.twitter.com/qNQqDLRmCk  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 17, 2018 At the ceremony, the president saluted Dole as a patriot and gave tribute to Doles struggle as a veteran who worked his way back from a grievous shoulder wound he suffered in Italy. He knows about grit, said Trump. But it was Doles penchant for working across the aisle that earned him his latest award, according to the legislation. Bob Dole was known for his ability to work across the aisle and embrace practical bipartisanship, reads the legislation Trump signed in September. Some of the awards 300 recipients include George Washington and Mother Teresa, according to the Congressional Research Service. Read More Facebook

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Trump touts report that seeks to link terrorism cases with immigration By Joseph Tanfani The Trump administration on Tuesday released a report attempting to link terrorism with migration, arguing that it was evidence of the need to dramatically reshape the nations immigration system. New report from DOJ & DHS shows that nearly 3 in 4 individuals convicted of terrorism-related charges are foreign-born. We have submitted to Congress a list of resources and reforms....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 ....we need to keep America safe, including moving away from a random chain migration and lottery system, to one that is merit-based. https://t.co/7PtoSFK1n2  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 The report, ordered by President Trump in an executive order last year, said that 75% of the 549 people convicted of terrorism charges since 9/11 were born outside the U.S. Administration officials called that a sign that the U.S. needs to scrap its policy of family preferences for visas, which they call chain migration, and a diversity visa lottery program. But the report did not specify how many  if any  of the convicted terrorists entered the country through those means. It also did not detail how many of the convictions were related to attacks or plans in the U.S. versus overseas and how many involved people who went to fight overseas for the Islamic State or another terrorist group. Those details were not available, officials said. The report, due last year, is being released in a highly charged moment in the immigration debate, as Trump and some Republicans in Congress seek tough new border and immigration measures in return for a deal protecting the 690,000 people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Trump also fired off a pair of tweets on the topic earlier Tuesday: We must have Security at our VERY DANGEROUS SOUTHERN BORDER, and we must have a great WALL to help protect us, and to help stop the massive inflow of drugs pouring into our country!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 The Democrats want to shut down the Government over Amnesty for all and Border Security. The biggest loser will be our rapidly rebuilding Military, at a time we need it more than ever. We need a merit based system of immigration, and we need it now! No more dangerous Lottery.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 The focus of our immigration system should be assimilation, a senior administration official said on Tuesday, speaking on condition that his name not be used. He said the nation should give priority to potential immigrants who speak English, who have an education and those who are committed to supporting our values  not family members of people already here. The official said the timing of the report was coincidental. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweets welcome to president of Kazakhstan By Associated Press President Trump said Tuesday that he and the president of Kazakhstan are united in a shared determination to prevent North Korea from threatening the world with nuclear devastation. Trump and President Nursultan Nazarbayev discussed North Korea along with other issues during meetings at the White House. Today, it was my honor to welcome President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan to the @WhiteHouse! pic.twitter.com/TerYFZViax  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 Trump said Kazakhstan, once part of the Soviet Union, is a valued partner in our efforts to rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons. Together we are determined to prevent the North Korean regime from threatening the world with nuclear devastation, he said, as both presidents addressed journalists between meetings. Nazarbayev noted that his country once had one of the worlds largest nuclear arsenals but voluntarily gave it up after the Soviet Union collapsed. He said his country is in talks with Iran, which was the focus of a global deal that lifted some economic sanctions in exchange for Irans curbing its nuclear program. Trump has sharply criticized the Iran nuclear deal and threatened last week to pull out soon unless other countries fix what he says are terrible flaws. Read More Facebook

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Trump falsely claims his approval rating among black Americans has doubled By Alex Wigglesworth President Trump lashed out at the news media Tuesday morning in a tweet denouncing the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion among members of his campaign team. Do you notice the Fake News Mainstream Media never likes covering the great and record setting economic news, but rather talks about anything negative or that can be turned into the negative. The Russian Collusion Hoax is dead, except as it pertains to the Dems. Public gets it!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 It wasnt immediately clear exactly what prompted the presidents tweet, but it appeared as though he was watching Fox & Friends. A short time later, Trump tweeted a headline from a report that aired during that mornings episode: 90% of Trump 2017 news coverage was negative -and much of it contrived!@foxandfriends  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 The segment focused on the latest survey results from conservative watchdog Media Research Center, which purportedly analyzed the evening news broadcasts on ABC, CBS and NBC from Jan. 20 to Dec. 31 and found that 90% of the statements made about Trump were negative. Study: 90% of Trump media coverage in 2017 was negative pic.twitter.com/vbrwup4Drg  FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) January 16, 2018 But believe it or not, through all this negative coverage, they did a survey of 600,000 people about how black America views this president, co-host Brian Kilmeade said. His numbers have actually doubled in approval. Trump highlighted the statement in another tweet: Unemployment for Black Americans is the lowest ever recorded. Trump approval ratings with Black Americans has doubled. Thank you, and it will get even (much) better! @FoxNews  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 But its not true. The claim appears to have originated from a misreading of data from the online polling firm SurveyMonkey, according to factcheck.org. The firm polled 600,000 Americans in 2017 and found that Trumps approval rating among blacks actually dropped from 23% early in his presidency to about 17%, as of the week ending Jan. 3. Some conservative outlets, including Breitbart, produced an average from those and other SurveyMonkey figures and compared them to the scores Trump received from black voters in the 2016 exit polls. That methodology is not sound. And since the statistics measure different things, the comparison is misleading. Facebook

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Trump goes after senator who surfaced his immigration remark By Associated Press President Trump turned his Twitter torment Monday on the Democrat in the room where immigration talks with lawmakers took a famously coarse turn, saying Sen. Richard J. Durbin misrepresented what he had said about African nations and Haiti and, in the process, undermined the trust needed to make a deal. Senator Dicky Durbin totally misrepresented what was said at the DACA meeting, Trump tweeted, using a nickname to needle the Illinois senator. Deals cant get made when there is no trust! Durbin blew DACA and is hurting our Military. Senator Dicky Durbin totally misrepresented what was said at the DACA meeting. Deals cant get made when there is no trust! Durbin blew DACA and is hurting our Military.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2018 Trump was referring to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects young people who came to the United States illegally as children. Members of Congress from both parties are trying to strike a deal that Trump would support to extend that protection. Trump also cast doubt on the likelihood of reaching an agreement in tweets sent earlier Monday: Statement by me last night in Florida: Honestly, I dont think the Democrats want to make a deal. They talk about DACA, but they dont want to help..We are ready, willing and able to make a deal but they dont want to. They dont want security at the border, they dont want.....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2018 ...to stop drugs, they want to take money away from our military which we cannot do. My standard is very simple, AMERICA FIRST & MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2018 On a day of remembrance for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Trump spent time at his golf course with no public events, bypassing the acts of service that his predecessors staged in honor of the civil rights leader. Instead, Trump dedicated his weekly address to Kings memory, saying Kings dream and Americas are the same: A world where people are judged by who they are, not how they look or where they come from. That message was a distinct counterpoint to words attributed to Trump by Durbin and others at a meeting last week, when the question of where immigrants come from seemed at the forefront of Trumps concerns. Some participants and others familiar with the conversation said Trump challenged immigration from shithole countries of Africa and disparaged Haiti as well. Without explicitly denying using that word, Trump lashed out at the Democratic senator, who said Trump uttered it on several occasions. Read More Facebook

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Trump thanks pundit for laudatory Fox & Friends spot By Alex Wigglesworth President Trump thanked Fox News personality Stuart Varney after Varney praised Trump during an appearance on Fox & Friends. In a pair of tweets early Sunday, Trump quoted from Varneys commentary, in which he argued that Trump deserves more credit for the booming economy. The pundit, who also hosts a show on Fox Business Network, cited moves by some corporations to raise workers minimum wage or pay out one-time bonuses in response to the GOP tax cuts. President Trump is not getting the credit he deserves for the economy. Tax Cut bonuses to more than 2,000,000 workers. Most explosive Stock Market rally that weve seen in modern times. 18,000 to 26,000 from Election, and grounded in profitability and growth. All Trump, not 0...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2018 ...big unnecessary regulation cuts made it all possible (among many other things). President Trump reversed the policies of President Obama, and reversed our economic decline. Thank you Stuart Varney. @foxandfriends  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2018 Varney was reacting to a quote from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), who on Thursday called the bonuses handed down to workers pathetic in comparison to the gains corporations are expected to see from the tax cuts. In terms of the bonus that corporate America received versus the crumbs that they are giving to workers to kind of put the schmooze on is so pathetic, Pelosi told reporters. Its pathetic. Varney shot back Sunday that the bonuses, along with explosive stock market growth, are enriching all Americans. This is a huge shot in the arm, its the result of this tax cut deal and I think President Trump should get the credit for it, he said. .@Varneyco Sets the economic record straight after Nancy Pelosi calls U.S. mass bonuses crumbs pic.twitter.com/BvjIHGm3HE  FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) January 14, 2018 The sweeping tax plan passed last month lowers the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% and cuts personal income taxes. Analysts say the benefits will largely flow to corporations and the wealthy, as theyre more likely to be in positions to share in corporate profits. For instance, Wells Fargo & Co., which responded to news of the tax overhaul by announcing it will raise workers pay to at least $15 an hour, also reported that it expects to pay an effective tax rate of 19% this year, down from about 31% in previous years. That should amount to tax savings of more than $3 billion annually. On average, middle-class Americans are expected to see a very small tax cut in the near term and a tax increase after 2025, when all of the tax cuts for individuals expire. The tax cuts for corporations, however, are permanent.  This post contains reporting from Times staff writer James Rufus Koren. Facebook

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Trump touts MLK proclamation in tweet, but ceremony is overshadowed by reports of racist remarks By Associated Press President Trump signed a proclamation Friday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, noting the contributions of a great American hero. Today, it was my great honor to proclaim January 15, 2018, as Martin Luther King Jr., Federal Holiday. I encourage all Americans to observe this day with appropriate civic, community, and service activities in honor of Dr. King's life and legacy. pic.twitter.com/samlJsz1Nt  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018 Overshadowing the event was mounting backlash from Trumps comments during a private meeting with lawmakers the day before. A short time after the meeting, which was called to discuss a possible immigration deal, reports emerged that Trump had asked participants why the United States should accept immigrants from shithole countries in Africa, Central America and the Caribbean. Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin, the Senates second-ranking Democrat, appeared to confirm those reports on Friday. Trump did not respond Friday to several questions about the incident, including whether he actually used vulgar language to describe African nations, or if he is racist. The president said at the White House that love was central to the slain civil rights leader. Trump said the nation celebrates King for standing up for the self-evident truth Americans hold so dear, that no matter what the color of our skin or place of our birth, we are all created equal by God.  This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Noah Bierman. Facebook

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Trump criticizes Democrats in tweet calling for stricter immigration rules President Trump hit out at Democrats on Thursday night in a tweet calling for stricter immigration rules. Trump wrote that members of the party seem intent on having people and drugs pour into our country from the border with Mexico: The Democrats seem intent on having people and drugs pour into our country from the Southern Border, risking thousands of lives in the process. It is my duty to protect the lives and safety of all Americans. We must build a Great Wall, think Merit and end Lottery & Chain. USA!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018 It wasnt immediately clear exactly what prompted the tweet. Earlier Thursday, Trump rejected a bipartisan compromise to resolve the standoff over so-called Dreamers, young immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children but have temporary permits to work, attend school or serve in the military. The president drew widespread condemnation after reports emerged that he had asked participants in an Oval Office meeting about the proposal why the United States should accept immigrants from shithole countries in Africa, Central America and the Caribbean. Read More Facebook

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Trump touts bill aimed at improving border screening for fentanyl By Associated Press President Trump signed legislation Wednesday aimed at giving Customs and Border Protection agents additional screening devices and other tools to stop the flow of illicit drugs. Speaking at a surprise bill-signing ceremony while flanked by members of Congress from both parties in the Oval Office, Trump described the bill as a significant step forward in the fight against powerful opioids such as fentanyl, which he called our new big scourge. He echoed that language Thursday in a tweet: Yesterday, I signed the #INTERDICTAct (H.R. 2142) with bipartisan members of Congress to help end the flow of drugs into our country. Together, we are committed to doing everything we can to combat the deadly scourge of drug addiction and overdose in the United States! pic.twitter.com/ELZvFol5Lo  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018 The legislation will pay for new portable and fixed chemical screening devices to detect and intercept fentanyl at ports of entry and in the mail, along with other laboratory equipment and personnel, including scientists. Trump has made fighting the opioid epidemic a centerpiece of his administration, though critics say he hasnt dedicated nearly enough money or resources to make a difference. Trump suggested during his remarks on Wednesday that hed like to take a more aggressive approach to the drug crisis  but the countrys not ready for what he has in mind. So were going to sign this. And its a step. And it feels like a very giant step, but unfortunately, its not going to be a giant step, because no matter what you do, this is something that keeps pouring in, he said. And were going to find the answer. There is an answer. I think I actually know the answer, but Im not sure the countrys ready for it yet, he added. Does anybody know what I mean? I think so. Facebook

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Trump applauds news that Toyota-Mazda plant is slated for Alabama By Associated Press Japanese automakers Toyota and Mazda on Wednesday announced plans to build a mammoth, $1.6-billion joint-venture plant in Alabama that will eventually employ about 4,000 people. President Trump lauded the news in a tweet: Cutting taxes and simplifying regulations makes America the place to invest! Great news as Toyota and Mazda announce they are bringing 4,000 JOBS and investing $1.6 BILLION in Alabama, helping to further grow our economy! pic.twitter.com/Kcg8IVH6iA  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 Good news: Toyota and Mazda announce giant new Huntsville, Alabama, plant which will produce over 300,000 cars and SUVs a year and employ 4000 people. Companies are coming back to the U.S. in a very big way. Congratulations Alabama!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018 Several states had competed for the project, which will be able to turn out 300,000 vehicles per year and produce the Toyota Corolla compact car for North America and a new small SUV from Mazda. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and company executives held a news conference to announce that the facility is coming to the Huntsville area not far from the Tennessee line. Production is expected to begin by 2021. The decision to pick Alabama is another example of foreign-based automakers building U.S. factories in the South. To entice manufacturers, Southern states have used a combination of lucrative incentive packages, low-cost labor and a pro-business labor environment, because the United Auto Workers union is stronger in Northern states. Read More Facebook

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Trump highlights call for border wall in tweets on visit with Norways prime minister By Associated Press President Trump praised Norways prime minister in a tweet on Wednesday after Erna Solberg became the first foreign leader to visit with the president in 2018. Today, it was my great honor to welcome Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Norway to the @WhiteHouse - a great friend and ally of the United States! Joint press conference: https://t.co/qWR1BhfQZI pic.twitter.com/PJvwznjRCO  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 Trump also shared via Twitter a video clip of a joint news conference he held with Solberg on Wednesday afternoon. In the clip, Trump responds to a question from a reporter by saying there can be no bipartisan immigration deal absent funding for his long-promised wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. Republican and Democratic lawmakers have been seeking a solution for hundreds of thousands of so-called Dreamers, young people who were brought to the United States as children and are living here illegally. The United States needs the security of the Wall on the Southern Border, which must be part of any DACA approval. The safety and security of our country is #1! pic.twitter.com/4CFzQXb5aS  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 We need the wall for security, we need the wall for safety, we need the wall for stopping the drugs from pouring in, Trump said Wednesday.  Any solution has to include the wall because without the wall, it all doesnt work. On Tuesday, Trump drew widespread attention when he said during a meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers that he would be agreeable to signing a stand-alone bill to protect the Dreamers, before moving on to a more comprehensive immigration bill. That contradicted the Republican consensus that Dreamers fate needed to be part of a broader immigration bill that would include some version of Trumps promised border wall and other immigration reforms. Trump backed away from a stand-alone Dreamer bill in subsequent tweets and public comments. Read More This post contains reporting from Los Angeles Times staff writer Noah Bierman. Facebook

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Trump praises Cabinet in tweet touting meeting By Associated Press President Trump promoted a meeting of his Cabinet on Wednesday, sharing via Twitter a link to a video of the session posted on the White House YouTube account. In his tweet, Trump thanked his Cabinet for working tirelessly on behalf of our country and wrote that the last year has been one of monumental achievement. I want to thank my @Cabinet for working tirelessly on behalf of our country. 2017 was a year of monumental achievement and we look forward to the year ahead. Together, we are delivering results and MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! https://t.co/ptXa1hAPwW pic.twitter.com/yv6RALkQf3  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 The former reality television star continued to dispense accolades at the meeting Wednesday, greeting reporters in the Cabinet Room by saying: Welcome back to the studio. Then he proceeded to relive a Cabinet Room session from the prior day, when he had allowed reporters and TV cameras to stick around for much of his meeting with a bipartisan group of legislators on the thorny issue of immigration. It was a tremendous meeting. Actually, it was reported as incredibly good. And my performance  you know, some of them called it a performance  I consider it work, Trump said. Trump went on to say he had received letters from news anchors calling it one of the greatest meetings theyve ever witnessed. He added that the media will ultimately support Trump in the end, because theyre going to say, if Trump doesnt win in three years, theyre all out of business. Asked for examples of letters received from news anchors, the White House said it had received private communications. It also offered a series of positive on-air comments and tweets from journalists about the unusual access to the meeting. During his remarks, Trump swung from praising his own meeting coverage to telling journalists that they were dependent on his presidency for ratings to threatening a strong look at libel laws. Still, Trump thanked the journalists in front of him, joking: Youve gotten very familiar with this room. I appreciate your nice comments yesterday. Facebook

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Trump blasts DACA ruling in tweet calling courts broken and unfair By Lisa Mascaro President Trump denounced the federal courts Wednesday as broken and unfair after a district judge in San Francisco issued a nationwide injunction keeping protections in place for so-called Dreamers. Trump tweeted: It just shows everyone how broken and unfair our Court System is when the opposing side in a case (such as DACA) always runs to the 9th Circuit and almost always wins before being reversed by higher courts.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 On Tuesday night, U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco temporarily blocked the Trump administrations decision to phase out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, which has protected from deportation some 700,000 people who came to the country illegally as children. Alsup granted a request by the state of California, the University of California and other plaintiffs to stop Trump from ending DACA on March 5. The administrations decision to end DACA, which was announced in September, was based on a flawed legal analysis, Alsup wrote in his decision. Dreamers would be irreparably harmed if their DACA protections, which allow them to live and work legally in the U.S., were stripped away before the courts had a chance to fully consider their claims, he ruled. The action is the mirror image of a ruling in 2015 by a federal judge in Texas who ruled in favor of that state when it sought to block President Obama from expanding DACA to include the parents of Dreamers. Trump administration officials praised that judicial ruling. By contrast, they sharply criticized Alsups decision. Read More Facebook

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Trump thanks lawmakers for productive immigration meeting, says deal must include border wall President Trump thanked a bipartisan group of lawmakers for participating in a meeting on immigration legislation on Tuesday. Much of the discussion involved so-called Dreamers, an estimated 700,000 young people who were brought to the country illegally as children and are now facing deportation. In a tweet, Trump wrote that there was strong agreement to negotiate a bill to protect Dreamers, as well as put into place some of the reforms favored by Republicans. Thanks to all of the Republican and Democratic lawmakers for todays very productive meeting on immigration reform. There was strong agreement to negotiate a bill that deals with border security, chain migration, lottery and DACA. https://t.co/SdqAQ3aL3z pic.twitter.com/8DYHZHspAy  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2018 The most notable exchange of the meeting came when Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the San Francisco Democrat, asked Trump whether he would be agreeable to signing a stand-alone bill to protect the Dreamers, before moving on to a more comprehensive immigration bill. Yeah, I would like to do it, Trump responded. The statement drew widespread attention because it contradicted the Republican consensus that Dreamers fate needed to be part of a broader immigration bill that would include some version of Trumps promised border wall and other immigration reforms. Trump later backed away from a stand-alone Dreamer bill, tweeting that a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico must be part of any deal: As I made very clear today, our country needs the security of the Wall on the Southern Border, which must be part of any DACA approval.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 Pressure has been mounting for Congress to broker an immigration deal by Jan. 19 as part of a must-pass budget package to fund the government. This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Noah Bierman. Facebook

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Trump thanks officers and veterans in tweets President Trump doled out a slew of accolades Tuesday via Twitter. He thanked the nations law enforcement officers, including in his message a hashtag denoting a day of appreciation organized by a national support group for law enforcement families. On behalf of the American people, THANK YOU to our incredible law enforcement officers. As President of the United States - I will fight for you, and I will never, ever let you down. Now, more than ever, we must support the men and women in blue! #LawEnforcementAppreciationDay pic.twitter.com/Qb4uxB4JRm  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2018 Trump later expressed gratitude for federal immigration agents, in particular: .@ICEgov HSI agents and ERO officers, on behalf of an entire Nation, THANK YOU for what you are doing 24/7/365 to keep fellow Americans SAFE. Everyone is so grateful!#LawEnforcementAppreciationDay

President @realDonaldTrump https://t.co/HXCpTlruVo  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 The president thanked veterans as he cited his administrations efforts to curb the number of veteran suicides by improving mental health treatment for the high-risk group: Today, it was my great honor to sign a new Executive Order to ensure Veterans have the resources they need as they transition back to civilian life. We must ensure that our HEROES are given the care and support they so richly deserve! https://t.co/0MdP9DDIAS pic.twitter.com/LP2a8KCBAp  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2018 Trumps tweet included photos of the president signing an executive order Tuesday directing the secretaries of Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs to develop a plan to provide seamless access to mental health and suicide prevention resources for 12 months for members leaving the armed forces. Also on Tuesday, Trump touted a law he signed the day before designating the birthplace of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. a national historic park: It was my great honor to sign H.R. 267, the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park Act, which redesignates the Martin Luther King, Junior, National Historic Site in the State of Georgia as the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park. https://t.co/Qe0b6HBFTY pic.twitter.com/QTgaqTawPT  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2018 And he thanked House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) for sharing a video compilation comprised of clips of politicians and commentators praising the GOPs tax cut bill: Thank you @GOPLeader Kevin McCarthy! Couldnt agree w/you more. TOGETHER, we are #MAGA https://t.co/QaxtqpyXTR  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018  This post contains reporting from the Associated Press and Times staff writer Alex Wigglesworth. Facebook

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Trump hails tax bill in tweets recapping speech to farmers By Associated Press Connecting with rural Americans, President Trump on Monday hailed his tax overhaul as a victory for family farmers. Farm country is Gods country, Trump told the annual convention of the American Farm Bureau Federation. Trump became the first president in a quarter-century to address the federations convention. His Southern swing also included a stop in Atlanta for the national college football championship game. Cant wait to be back in the amazing state of Tennessee to address the 99th American @FarmBureau Federations Annual Convention in Nashville! #AFBF18



On my way now - join me LIVE at 4:00pmE: https://t.co/QaljAqekdD. pic.twitter.com/Wm7Io0hYT8  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 Joined by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and a group of Tennessee lawmakers, Trump said most of the benefits of the tax legislation are going to working families, small businesses, and who  the family farmer. The package Trump signed into law last month provides generous tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest Americans, and more modest reductions for middle- and low-income individuals and families. In every decision we make, we are honoring Americas PROUD FARMING LEGACY. Years of crushing taxes, crippling regs, & corrupt politics left our communities hurting, our economy stagnant, & millions of hardworking Americans COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN. But they are not forgotten ANYMORE! pic.twitter.com/MdYS7xnukQ  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 The president vastly inflated the value of the package in his speech, citing a total of $5.5 trillion in tax cuts, with most of those benefits going to working families, small businesses and who? The family farmer. The estimated value of the tax cuts is actually $1.5 trillion for families and businesses because of cuts in deductions and the use of other steps to generate offsetting tax revenue. We have been working every day to DELIVER for Americas Farmers just as they work every day to deliver FOR US. #AFBF18 pic.twitter.com/QDH7fvFkZ7  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 From Nashville, Trump traveled to Atlanta to watch Alabamas Crimson Tide and Georgias Bulldogs face off Monday night in the College Football Playoff National Championship. We are fighting for our farmers, for our country, and for our GREAT AMERICAN FLAG. We want our flag respected - and we want our NATIONAL ANTHEM respected also! pic.twitter.com/16eOLXg6Fi  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 Before departing for the game, Trump referenced his ongoing defense of the American flag and the national anthem, saying there was enough space for people to express their views. We love our flag and we love our anthem, and we want to keep it that way, he said. Facebook

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Trump tweet hails drop in unemployment rate for African Americans By Associated Press President Trump touted a drop in the unemployment rate for African Americans on Monday in a tweet. African American unemployment is the lowest ever recorded in our country. The Hispanic unemployment rate dropped a full point in the last year and is close to the lowest in recorded history. Dems did nothing for you but get your vote! #NeverForget @foxandfriends  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 The rate fell to 6.8% in December, the lowest level since the government began tracking such data in 1972. The reasons range from a greater number of black Americans with college degrees to a growing need for employers in a tight job market to widen the pool of people they hire from. Trump also hailed the development via Twitter on Saturday. His latest tweet on the topic came about an hour after it was discussed during an episode of Fox & Friends, according to Mediaite. Facebook

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Trump talks up the economy and dresses down the media in Sunday tweets With President Trump cheering from the sidelines, the White House on Sunday pressed its defense of the presidents fitness to govern, as fired former aide Stephen K. Bannon reversed course and apologized for his role in a new books explosive portrait of Trump. The presidents critics, meanwhile, said Trumps stream of taunts and insults in response to the book  Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, released last week  served only to underscore the authors unsettling portrayal of Trumps year-old presidency, depicting a leader whose own aides consider him childish, ignorant and dangerously erratic. Trump provided more ammunition Sunday morning, as he continued to attack the book via Twitter while preparing to depart Camp David for the White House: Leaving Camp David for the White House. Great meetings with the Cabinet and Military on many very important subjects including Border Security & the desperately needed Wall, the ever increasing Drug and Opioid Problem, Infrastructure, Military, Budget, Trade and DACA.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018 Ive had to put up with the Fake News from the first day I announced that I would be running for President. Now I have to put up with a Fake Book, written by a totally discredited author. Ronald Reagan had the same problem and handled it well. So will I!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018 The most vehement defense of Trump on Sunday came from senior advisor Stephen Miller, a onetime Bannon acolyte who distanced himself from his former mentor. In a combative appearance Sunday on CNNs State of the Union, Miller called the book grotesque and writer Michael Wolff the garbage author of a garbage book. Trump is known to closely monitor aides televised performances in putting forth his case, and he gleefully weighed in within moments of Millers televised clash with host Jake Tapper. CNN has long been a particular target of Trumps ire. Jake Tapper of Fake News CNN just got destroyed in his interview with Stephen Miller of the Trump Administration. Watch the hatred and unfairness of this CNN flunky!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018 Trumps reaction, however, seemed to bolster Tappers on-air depiction of Miller as using his appearance on the show to play to the president rather than addressing questions put to him. I get it  theres one viewer that you care about, the host said exasperatedly after Miller turned the discussion repeatedly to negative news coverage of the president while deflecting specific queries. Later on Twitter, Trump took up two themes that have been prevalent on his social media feeds recently. The president again went after the news media, tweeting that the recipients of his self-proclaimed most dishonest & corrupt media awards of the year, which he promised earlier in the week to announce on Monday, would actually be revealed the following Wednesday: The Fake News Awards, those going to the most corrupt & biased of the Mainstream Media, will be presented to the losers on Wednesday, January 17th, rather than this coming Monday. The interest in, and importance of, these awards is far greater than anyone could have anticipated!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018 Trump later lauded a New York Post opinion piece that compared him favorably with his predecessor, President Obama, as well as Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. In quoting the op-ed, Trump initally misspelled consequential as consensual, but he deleted those tweets and re-sent the messages. His is turning out to be an enormously consequential presidency. So much so that, despite my own frustration over his missteps, there has never been a day when I wished Hillary Clinton were president. Not one. Indeed, as Trumps accomplishments accumulate, the mere thought of...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 ...Clinton in the WH, doubling down on Barack Obamas failed policies, washes away any doubts that America made the right choice. This was truly a change election  and the changes Trump is bringing are far-reaching & necessary. Thank you Michael Goodwin! https://t.co/4fHNcx2Ydg  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 Trump also continued talking up the economy, which has been enjoying a period of strong gains. The Stock Market has been creating tremendous benefits for our country in the form of not only Record Setting Stock Prices, but present and future Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. Seven TRILLION dollars of value created since our big election win!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018 In addition to Miller, other senior administration officials made the rounds of Sunday news talk shows to decry the claims made in Wolffs book. CIA Director Mike Pompeo said Wolffs characterization of Trump as averse to digesting classified briefing material was ludicrous, and the ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, insisted that that those around Trump love their country and respect their president. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Laura King. Facebook

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Responding to book that mocks his intelligence, Trump tweets hes like, really smart By Tracy Wilkinson President Trump declared himself a very stable genius on Twitter on Saturday and later in a televised news conference called the author of a book that questioned his mental fitness a fraud. His comments came on a bone-cold day at Camp David during a weekend retreat with top administration officials and Republican congressional leaders strategizing on the years legislative agenda, including matters such as infrastructure, immigration, welfare reform and national security. Now that Russian collusion, after one year of intense study, has proven to be a total hoax on the American public, the Democrats and their lapdogs, the Fake News Mainstream Media, are taking out the old Ronald Reagan playbook and screaming mental stability and intelligence.....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 ....Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. Crooked Hillary Clinton also played these cards very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames. I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star.....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 ....to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius....and a very stable genius at that!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 Still, Trumps explosive rebuttal to author Michael Wolffs claims not only opened the day, but it also ensured the presidents capability to fill the highest office in the land was a topic that would not go away. In his early-morning tweets, Trump said two of his greatest assets have been mental stability, and being, like, really smart. He noted that his former Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, played these cards [about competence] very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames. I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star to President of the United States (on my first try). Read More Facebook

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In morning tweets, Trump touts job numbers and takes digs at news media By Associated Press President Trump used Twitter on Saturday morning to tout a drop in the unemployment rate for African Americans. He also used the tweets as an opportunity to take digs at media outlets whose past coverage he has found to be critical. The African American unemployment rate fell to 6.8%, the lowest rate in 45 years. I am so happy about this News! And, in the Washington Post (of all places), headline states, Trumps first year jobs numbers were very, very good.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 The unemployment rate for African Americans fell to 6.8% in December, the lowest level since the government began tracking such data in 1972. The reasons range from a greater number of black Americans with college degrees to a growing need for employers in a tight job market to widen the pool of people they hire from. Still, the rate for black workers remains well above those for whites and some other groups, something experts attribute in large part to decades of discrimination and disadvantages. Robust job creation has lowered unemployment for all Americans. U.S. employers added nearly 2.1 million jobs in 2017  the seventh straight year that hiring has topped 2 million. In his tweet, Trump praised a report that noted the numbers, touting the fact that it appeared in the Washington Post (of all places). Minutes later, Trump renewed his attack on an ABC News reporter who was suspended last month after filing an erroneous report on Michael Flynn, Trumps former national security advisor. Brian Ross, the reporter who made a fraudulent live newscast about me that drove the Stock Market down 350 points (billions of dollars), was suspended for a month but is now back at ABC NEWS in a lower capacity. He is no longer allowed to report on Trump. Should have been fired!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 The reporter, Brian Ross, was reportedly reassigned within ABC News upon returning from his unpaid suspension. But on Saturday, Trump wrote that he should have been fired. Trumps tweets came hours before he was set to host congressional Republicans and administration officials at Camp David. The meeting scheduled to begin at midmorning Saturday was expected to touch on the budget, infrastructure, immigration, welfare reform and the shape of the midterm election this fall. Facebook

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Trump commends Sen. Rand Paul after he proposes eliminating all U.S. aid to Pakistan President Trump commended Sen. Rand Paul after the Kentucky Republican announced plans to introduce legislation that would eliminate all U.S. aid to Pakistan. Trump tweeted Friday night: Good idea Rand! https://t.co/55sqUDiC0s  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 On Thursday, the Trump administration announced it was suspending security assistance to Islamabad until the country moves aggressively against local militants who have attacked U.S. troops in neighboring Afghanistan. Trump has repeatedly expressed frustration at the apparent inability of Pakistani authorities to rein in militants who cross out of the countrys rugged tribal areas to attack U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson. Facebook

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Trump continues to lash out at Sloppy Steve Bannon in tweets on tell-all book By Associated Press President Trump is praising a major Republican donor family for distancing themselves from his former advisor Steve Bannon. Trump tweeted Friday: The Mercer Family recently dumped the leaker known as Sloppy Steve Bannon. Smart!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 Trump has continued to lash out at Bannon over an explosive new book that quoted his former aide as questioning Trumps competence and describing a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower among Donald Trump Jr., Trump campaign aides and a Russian lawyer as treasonous and unpatriotic. On Thursday, billionaire GOP donor Rebekah Mercer issued a statement distancing her family from Bannon. Mercer is a co-owner of Breitbart, the populist website Bannon helps run. I support President Trump and the platform upon which he was elected, Mercer said. My family and I have not communicated with Steve Bannon in many months and have provided no financial support to his political agenda, nor do we support his recent actions and statements. The book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, quickly shot atop Amazons best-seller list, and the publisher moved up its release date by four days, to Friday. Trump took up the topic again on Twitter on Friday night, denouncing both Bannon and the books author, Michael Wolff, in starkly personal terms: Michael Wolff is a total loser who made up stories in order to sell this really boring and untruthful book. He used Sloppy Steve Bannon, who cried when he got fired and begged for his job. Now Sloppy Steve has been dumped like a dog by almost everyone. Too bad! https://t.co/mEeUhk5ZV9  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 Trumps message linked to a meme depicting a parody book cover titled, Liar and Phony, that featured a photo of Wolff and disparaging quotes about the author. In a tweet sent earlier Friday morning, Trump suggested the book was intended to serve as a distraction from the FBIs investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, which Trump wrote is proving to be a total hoax. Well, now that collusion with Russia is proving to be a total hoax and the only collusion is with Hillary Clinton and the FBI/Russia, the Fake News Media (Mainstream) and this phony new book are hitting out at every new front imaginable. They should try winning an election. Sad!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 That came amid reports that Trump directed his White House counsel to tell Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions to not recuse himself from the Justice Departments Russia investigation. Trumps effort to keep Sessions, a vocal and loyal supporter of his election bid, in charge of an investigation into his campaign offers special counsel Robert Mueller yet another avenue to explore as his prosecutors work to untangle potential evidence of obstruction. Read More Facebook

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Trump praises the economy ahead of meetings at Camp David By Associated Press President Trump is praising the strength of the U.S. economy ahead of meetings at Camp David with congressional Republicans. Trump tweeted early Friday: Dow goes from 18,589 on November 9, 2016, to 25,075 today, for a new all-time Record. Jumped 1000 points in last 5 weeks, Record fastest 1000 point move in history. This is all about the Make America Great Again agenda! Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. Six trillion dollars in value created!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 The president also told reporters on the South Lawn that the tax cuts are really kicking in after Congress passed a package of tax cuts at the end of 2017. And the president praised the December jobs report, which found U.S. employers added 148,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate stayed at 4.1%, the lowest level since 2000. The modest but steady pace of hiring is a reassuring sign for investors who have been buoyed by the just-passed Republican tax plan and have been sending stock market indexes roaring to uncharted heights. The president is meeting with Republican congressional leaders and members of his Cabinet on Friday and Saturday to discuss the 2018 agenda. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweets as Dow crashes through 25,000 By Associated Press President Trump dispatched a congratulatory tweet as the Dow Jones industrial average rose above the 25,000-point mark Thursday, just five weeks after its first close above 24,000. Dow just crashes through 25,000. Congrats! Big cuts in unnecessary regulations continuing.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 After the Dow closed above 25,000, Trump shared a graphic depicting the stock indexs record-setting rise. MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! pic.twitter.com/iONbr1DkVk  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 Later in the day, the president was back on Twitter, complaining that news outlets had barely covered the stock market milestone. He suggested that the strength of the economy would be the biggest story on earth, had it unfolded during the presidency of his predecessor. The Fake News Media barely mentions the fact that the Stock Market just hit another New Record and that business in the U.S. is booming...but the people know! Can you imagine if O was president and had these numbers - would be biggest story on earth! Dow now over 25,000.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 The Dow broke past 1,000-point barriers in 2017 on its way to a 25% gain for the year, as an eight-year rally since the Great Recession continued to confound skeptics. Strong global economic growth and good prospects for higher company earnings have analysts predicting more gains, although the market may not stay as calm as it has been recently. The Dow has made a rapid trip since it reached 24,000 points Nov. 30, partly on enthusiasm over passage of the Republican-backed tax package, which could boost company profits this year with across-the-board cuts to corporate taxes. Read More Facebook

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Trump reacts to Fire and Fury book in tweet lashing out at author and Sloppy Steve President Trump lashed out at the author of a soon-to-be-released book about the chaotic first year of his presidency Thursday night. In a tweet, Trump called Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, a phony book and claimed that hed never spoken to its author, Michael Wolff. Look at this guys past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve! Trump wrote. He appeared to be referring to former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, whose stunning criticisms of Trump and his circle figure prominently in the title. I authorized Zero access to White House (actually turned him down many times) for author of phony book! I never spoke to him for book. Full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that dont exist. Look at this guys past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 Trumps tweet came hours after he had his lawyer demand that Henry Holt & Co. and Wolff stop publication the book. Instead, the publisher expedited the books release to Friday, four days before it was slated to hit bookstore shelves, in response to unprecedented demand. Published excerpts on Wednesday and Thursday whetted that appetite and roiled Washington. Bannons comments, including that it was treasonous and unpatriotic for Trumps son Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and campaign manager Paul Manafort to have met in 2016 with Russians said to have dirt on Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, prompted Trump on Wednesday to rebuke his former advisor, saying Bannon had lost his mind. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writers Brian Bennett and Alex Wigglesworth. Facebook

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Trump thanks senators who attended meeting on immigration President Trump tweeted thanks to Republican senators who attended a meeting about possible immigration legislation on Thursday. In his message, Trump also listed his top priorities when it comes to any type of overhaul of the nations immigration system. Thank you to the great Republican Senators who showed up to our mtg on immigration reform. We must BUILD THE WALL, stop illegal immigration, end chain migration & cancel the visa lottery. The current system is unsafe & unfair to the great people of our country - time for change!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 Trumps tweet echoed his remarks at the beginning of Thursdays meeting, when he insisted again that constructing a border wall and overhauling two legal immigration programs must be part of any deal with Democrats to protect the so-called Dreamers from deportation. Two-year deportation protections and work permits given under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program begin to expire March 6 under an executive order. Trump announced in September that he was ending the Obama-era program, but told Congress to draft a law to continue protections for people brought to the country illegally as children  a group that has widespread public support. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Brian Bennett. Facebook

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Trump resumes Twitter war against kneeling NFL players President Trump has resumed his Twitter war against NFL players who kneel during the national anthem to protest social injustice and racial inequality. In a tweet early Thursday, Trump replied to a supporter who shared a meme that appears to depict family members lying on the grave of a fallen soldier with the caption: This is why we stand. Show this picture to the NFL players who still kneel! Trump wrote. So beautiful....Show this picture to the NFL players who still kneel! https://t.co/tJLM1tvbvb  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 The president has denounced players who kneel during the anthem in previous tweets. Hes also called for the firing of players who do so. His latest message came amid news that the NFL finished the regular season with TV ratings that fell nearly 10% below the previous season. Analysts attribute the drop to controversies facing the league, as well as changing viewing habits and a possible saturation point in the number of games available. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writers Stephen Battaglio and Alex Wigglesworth. Facebook

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Trump credits himself with facilitating talks between North and South Korea By Associated Press President Trump says his tough stance on nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula is helping push North Korea and South Korea to talk. Trump tweeted early Thursday: With all of the failed experts weighing in, does anybody really believe that talks and dialogue would be going on between North and South Korea right now if I wasnt firm, strong and willing to commit our total might against the North. Fools, but talks are a good thing!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 That assertion is in conflict with some of the presidents own statements. Last year, he ridiculed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for talking about negotiations with the North. This week, Trump seemed open to the possibility of an inter-Korean dialogue after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a rare overture toward South Korea in a New Years Day address. But Trumps ambassador to the United Nations insisted that talks wont be meaningful unless the North is getting rid of its nuclear weapons. The overture about talks came after Trump and Kim traded more bellicose claims about their nuclear weapons. In his New Years Day address, Kim repeated fiery nuclear threats against the United States. Kim said he has a nuclear button on his office desk and warned that the whole territory of the U.S. is within the range of our nuclear strike. Trump mocked that assertion Tuesday evening in a tweet. Facebook

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After disbanding his vote fraud panel, Trump still says voting system is rigged By Brian Bennett One day after disbanding his troubled voter fraud commission without any findings of fraud, President Trump continued to call the U.S. voting system rigged and said states should require that Americans have voter-identification cards. In two tweets on Thursday morning, Trump blamed the commissions failure on the lack of cooperation from mostly Democrat States that refused to hand over voter rolls because they know that many people are voting illegally. However, voting supervisors in Republican-led states refused as well, objecting on privacy and other grounds. Many mostly Democrat States refused to hand over data from the 2016 Election to the Commission On Voter Fraud. They fought hard that the Commission not see their records or methods because they know that many people are voting illegally. System is rigged, must go to Voter I.D.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 As Americans, you need identification, sometimes in a very strong and accurate form, for almost everything you do.....except when it comes to the most important thing, VOTING for the people that run your country. Push hard for Voter Identification!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 Despite Trumps assertions, analysts have not found evidence of widespread voter fraud. Trump created the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity in May after alleging, without proof, that millions of illegal votes were cast for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. Trump was elected after winning a majority in the electoral college, but the nationwide count showed Clinton received nearly 3 million more votes. The commission sought personal data on voters across the country and faced mounting lawsuits in recent months over privacy concerns. Read More Facebook

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Trump touts another good day for stocks, credits tax cut By Associated Press President Trump touted another good day for the stock market Wednesday in a tweet. Stock Market had another good day but, now that the Tax Cut Bill has passed, we have tremendous upward potential. Dow just short of 25,000, a number that few thought would be possible this soon into my administration. Also, unemployment went down to 4.1%. Only getting better!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 Big gains for technology and healthcare stocks helped U.S. indexes set records again Wednesday. Some analysts attributed the surge to investor enthusiasm for Trumps $1.5-trillion tax cut. All told, Wall Street analysts estimate the tax package should boost earnings for companies in the Standard & Poors 500 index by roughly 8% this year. Thats much more generous than the average tax cut of 1.6% that middle-class families will receive, according to the Tax Policy Center. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 The public has been less enthusiastic about the tax law. A Monmouth University poll last month found that nearly half of Americans disapproved of it, with only 26% in support. Still, as Trump also noted on Twitter, some workers have seen a benefit: So far, dozens of companies have announced bonuses and higher minimum wages as a result of the tax cut. AT&T, Comcast, Bank of America, and American Airlines have all pledged to pay $1,000 bonuses to their employees. Some 40 U.S. companies have responded to President Trumps tax cut and reform victory in Congress last year by handing out bonuses up to $2,000, increases in 401k matches and spending on charity, a much higher number than previously known. https://t.co/bmWrwWzxMR  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 Investors also appear less concerned than many politicians about how the additional profits will be used. The Trump administration says it expects companies will plow much of the extra profit back into their businesses, purchasing more software, machinery, and other equipment. Those investments will make workers more productive and provide a key boost to the economys long-run growth. They should also boost wages and salaries for employees. Opponents of the tax law respond that companies are more likely to pass the windfall on to shareholders in the form of higher dividend payments and share buybacks, which raise the price of those shares still in investors hands. Previous cuts in corporate tax rates, in the United States and overseas, havent always led to higher wages. For Wall Street, its all good, at least in the short run. Most analysts take the view that either way, companies and the economy will benefit. Facebook

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Trump reacts to death of Mormon Church president By Associated Press President Trump mourned the death of Mormon Church leader Thomas S. Monson on Wednesday evening. Trump tweeted a link to a statement in which he said that Monson demonstrated wisdom, inspired leadership, and great compassion and delivered a message of optimism, forgiveness, and faith. Melania and I are deeply saddened by the death of Thomas S. Monson, a beloved President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...https://t.co/ETD3fWtfU3  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 A church bishop at the age of 22, Monson became the youngest church apostle ever in 1963 at the age of 36. He served as a counselor for three church presidents before assuming the role of the top leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in February 2008. After a life of church service, Monson died Tuesday at his home in Salt Lake City, according to church spokesman Eric Hawkins. He was 90. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweets that Iranian protesters will see great U.S. support at the appropriate time By Associated Press President Trump continued to express support for Irans anti-government protesters on Wednesday. In a tweet, Trump commended the protesters and pledged that the United States will support them at the appropriate time. Such respect for the people of Iran as they try to take back their corrupt government. You will see great support from the United States at the appropriate time!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018 Trumps tweet Wednesday morning came as Iranian Ambassador Gholamali Khoshroo sent a letter to United Nations officials complaining that Washington was intervening in a grotesque way in Irans internal affairs. The President and Vice-President of the United States, in their numerous absurd tweets, incited Iranians to engage in disruptive acts, the ambassador wrote to the U.N. Security Council president and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The U.S. didnt immediately respond to the letter, which maintains that Washington has crossed every limit in flouting rules and principles of international law governing the civilized conduct of international relations. At least 21 people have been killed and hundreds arrested in Iran during a week of anti-government protests and unrest over economic woes and official corruption. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people took part in counter-demonstrations Wednesday backing the clerically overseen government, which has said enemies of Iran are fomenting the protests. Trump has unleashed a series of tweets in recent days backing the protesters, saying Iran is failing at every level and declaring that it is time for change in the Islamic Republic. Facebook

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Trump congratulates Sen. Orrin Hatch upon news of his retirement By Associated Press President Trump congratulated Sen. Orrin Hatch for an absolutely incredible career upon news of Hatchs impending retirement. In a tweet Tuesday afternoon, Trump called Hatch a tremendous supporter and wrote that he will be greatly missed in the Senate. Congratulations to Senator Orrin Hatch on an absolutely incredible career. He has been a tremendous supporter, and I will never forget the (beyond kind) statements he has made about me as President. He is my friend and he will be greatly missed in the U.S. Senate! pic.twitter.com/0VjzLEeHTl  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Hatchs decision to retire from the Senate after four decades lets the Utah Republican walk away at the height of his power after helping to push through an overhaul of the tax code and persuading Trump to downsize two national monuments. Retirement also preserves the 83-year-olds legacy by allowing him to avoid a bruising reelection battle that would have broken his promise not to seek an eighth term. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweet exaggerates progress in improving veterans care By Associated Press President Trump played up tremendous progress in improving care for veterans in his first year on Tuesday in a tweet. His message linked to an Instagram video describing eight accomplishments that show Trump is fighting for our veterans. But it overstates the impact of these steps. We will not rest until all of Americas GREAT VETERANS can receive the care they so richly deserve. Tremendous progress has been made in a short period of time. Keep up the great work @SecShulkin @DeptVetAffairs! https://t.co/ir25vW15hx pic.twitter.com/OtuzIgxMn6  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Of the eight achievements cited, two are ceremonial proclamations recognizing National Veterans and Military Families Month and National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. Two are pieces of legislation that extended the troubled Veterans Choice program on a temporary basis. This became necessary because the Trump administration repeatedly miscalculated the amount of taxpayer dollars available to pay for care from private doctors outside the Veterans Affairs system when veterans had to endure long waits for treatment at VA medical centers. The departments poor budget planning caught lawmakers off guard. A fifth claim involves telehealth, a step letting doctors practice medicine across state lines using digital technology. Announced in August, it has yet to take full effect because a proposed VA regulation hasnt been completed. The VA wants authority to practice across state lines to come from legislation, not a regulation. On Wednesday, the Senate approved a telehealth measure that now goes to the House. A sixth claim refers to legislation that streamlines the appeals process for disability compensation claims within the VA. This step has had limited effect so far because it applies to new disability claims, not the 470,000 pending claims. The last two initiatives make it easier for the VA to discipline employees. The department has pointed to more than 1,300 employees who have been fired under Trumps watch. Because their infractions are not detailed in public documents, the effect on veterans care is not fully known. Facebook

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Trump unleashes his first tweetstorm of 2018 By Noah Bierman President Trump clearly didnt resolve to change his Twitter habits this year. With nine disparate tweets over three hours on Tuesday morning, the first working day of 2018, Trump continued to exploit social media to be the most aggressive commentator in chief in American history. For any other president, his posts would have made for a monumental day of (mis-)statements. Yet for Trump, the series  attacks on political foes and media, provocations of foreign leaders and self-praise for events he had nothing to do with  was all but unremarkable. His Twitter barrage  sent between 7:09 a.m. and 10:16 a.m.  reflected a familiar gamut after nearly a year in office: Attacks on political foes: Nearly 14 months after his election, Trump called for the jailing of Huma Abedin, Crooked Hillary Clintons top aid (his misspelling, another occasional feature of Trump tweets). Crooked Hillary Clintons top aid, Huma Abedin, has been accused of disregarding basic security protocols. She put Classified Passwords into the hands of foreign agents. Remember sailors pictures on submarine? Jail! Deep State Justice Dept must finally act? Also on Comey & others  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 In the same tweet, he disparaged the Deep State Justice Dept, headed of course by his appointees, calling on it to act against James B. Comey, the FBI director he fired for investigating the Russia thing. Diplomatic provocations: Trump again called North Korean leader Kim Jong Un Rocket man, ridiculed the volatile nuclear-armed foe for recent military defections and openly speculated about potential talks between North and South Korea. Sanctions and other pressures are beginning to have a big impact on North Korea. Soldiers are dangerously fleeing to South Korea. Rocket man now wants to talk to South Korea for first time. Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not - we will see!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not  we will see! Trump wrote. Later Tuesday, Trump tweeted: North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times. Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018 Also later Tuesday, Trump tweeted an attack on Pakistan, his second in as many days, and added a new one against Palestinians: It's not only Pakistan that we pay billions of dollars to for nothing, but also many other countries, and others. As an example, we pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect. They dont even want to negotiate a long overdue...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 ...peace treaty with Israel. We have taken Jerusalem, the toughest part of the negotiation, off the table, but Israel, for that, would have had to pay more. But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Undermining media: Trump offered Congratulations! to A.G. Sulzberger, who took over as publisher of the New York Times this week. The Failing New York Times has a new publisher, A.G. Sulzberger. Congratulations! Here is a last chance for the Times to fulfill the vision of its Founder, Adolph Ochs, to give the news impartially, without fear or FAVOR, regardless of party, sect, or interests involved. Get...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 ....impartial journalists of a much higher standard, lose all of your phony and non-existent sources, and treat the President of the United States FAIRLY, so that the next time I (and the people) win, you wont have to write an apology to your readers for a job poorly done! GL  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 But the two-part post was really yet another slam against a perceived media foe: Trump said the paper had a last chance to fulfill its journalistic mission, and accused it of relying on phony sources and substandard reporters  just days after he granted another exclusive interview to the paper. As a bonus, the tweet contained a recycled falsehood, that the paper apologized after the election for reporting on him unfairly. It didnt. Trump later said on Twitter that he would soon announce the most dishonest & corrupt media awards of the year. Stay tuned! I will be announcing THE MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR on Monday at 5:00 oclock. Subjects will cover Dishonesty & Bad Reporting in various categories from the Fake News Media. Stay tuned!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018 The president also tweeted a quote from Fox Business Networks Lou Dobbs Tonight, which aired a segment praising Trumps first-year accomplishments. Dobbs reportedly joined Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday for a gala to celebrate New Years Eve. President Trump has something now he didnt have a year ago, that is a set of accomplishments that nobody can deny. The accomplishments are there, look at his record, he has had a very significant first year. @LouDobbs Show,David Asman & Ed Rollins  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018 Taking credit: Trump congratulated himself for policing the border with Mexico, an area where his policies and anti-immigration rhetoric are believed to have had some effect on reducing illegal crossings. Thank you to Brandon Judd of the National Border Patrol Council for your kind words on how well we are doing at the Border. We will be bringing in more & more of your great folks and will build the desperately needed WALL! @foxandfriends  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 He took credit for employee bonuses by companies after he signed Republican tax cuts into law last month. Companies are giving big bonuses to their workers because of the Tax Cut Bill. Really great!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 But the jaw-dropper was Trump congratulating himself for planes not crashing. Since taking office I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation. Good news - it was just reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest year on record!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 It was the safest year on record worldwide, but the American streak without commercial jet passenger deaths goes back to 2009. Trump, who has promoted deregulation as one of his top accomplishments, has not signed off on any new airline safety regulations. The White House pointed to new security screening of passengers, to electronic devices to prevent terrorist attacks and to Trumps support for privatizing air traffic control  a proposal that has gotten nowhere in Congress. Falsehoods: Trump said President Obama, in brokering the 2015 nuclear arms limitation deal with Iran, foolishly gave money to the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime. He didnt. The people of Iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime. All of the money that President Obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their pockets. The people have little food, big inflation and no human rights. The U.S. is watching!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 The nuclear deal, which included major U.S. allies as signators, released Irans own funds that had long been frozen. Trumps art of the deal: When Trump sees a big deal looming, he often blasts the other side  to gain leverage, as hes written. This week he resumes a showdown with Democratic lawmakers over funding the government and immigration protections for so-called Dreamers, who were brought to the country illegally as children. Democrats are doing nothing for DACA - just interested in politics. DACA activists and Hispanics will go hard against Dems, will start falling in love with Republicans and their President! We are about RESULTS.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Trump, who in September ordered a gradual end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, sought to shift blame for the resulting controversy, saying Democrats are doing nothing for DACA and are just interested in politics. Trump has insisted that any help for Dreamers be paired with funding for a border wall and a crackdown on legal immigration. Democrats, and some Republicans, are opposed. Read More Facebook

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In tweet, Trump suggests U.S. will withdraw financial assistance to Pakistan By Shashank Bengali Pakistan lashed out Monday after President Trump accused its leaders of lies & deceit and suggested the United States would withdraw financial assistance to the nuclear-armed nation it once saw as a key ally against terrorism. It was the presidents latest broadside against Pakistan after a speech in August in which he demanded its leaders crack down on the safe havens enjoyed by Taliban militants fighting U.S.-backed forces in neighboring Afghanistan. The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 1, 2018 U.S. Ambassador David Hale was summoned to the Foreign Ministry to discuss the presidents statement, U.S. Embassy spokesman Richard Snelsire said. Pakistan lodged a strongly worded protest and asked for clarification about Trumps comments, according to two foreign office officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Pakistans prime minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, called a Cabinet meeting for Tuesday and a meeting of the National Security Committee on Wednesday to discuss Trumps New Years Day tweet. Read More Facebook

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Trump continues to tweet in support of Iranian protesters By Laura King President Trump expressed renewed support Sunday for protesters in Iran, declaring that people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism. In a tweet from his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, the president said the nationwide economic protests that began on Thursday  and have taken on wider political overtones as they have grown in size  were a signal that Iranians will not take it any longer. Big protests in Iran. The people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism. Looks like they will not take it any longer. The USA is watching very closely for human rights violations!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2017 Trump has tweeted about the protests for three days straight as Iranians took to the streets despite a heavy police presence, tear gas and scores of arrests. The defiance gained urgency after two people were reported shot to death in the city of Dorud, about 200 miles southwest of Tehran. As the conflict escalated, Iranian authorities on Sunday slapped a temporary ban on Instagram and the messaging app Telegram, which were widely used to fan protest fervor. Iran, the Number One State of Sponsored Terror with numerous violations of Human Rights occurring on an hourly basis, has now closed down the Internet so that peaceful demonstrators cannot communicate. Not good!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2017 Irans leaders already are casting Trumps increasingly effusive expressions of support for the demonstrators as opportunistic meddling and are painting the demonstrators as foreign pawns, adopting a strategy that some analysts say could jeopardize the legitimacy of the nascent antigovernment protests. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweets condolences after Colorado deputies are shot in ambush, one fatally By Associated Press A man fired more than 100 rounds at sheriffs deputies in Colorado early Sunday, killing one and injuring four others, before being fatally shot himself in what authorities called an ambush. Two civilians were also injured. President Trump expressed sorrow, writing on Twitter: My deepest condolences to the victims of the terrible shooting in Douglas County @DCSheriff, and their families. We love our police and law enforcement - God Bless them all! #LESM  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2017 Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock said deputies came under fire almost
Trump called him my African-American. But he has few kind words for the president. By Mark Z. Barabak (Mark Z. Barabak/Los Angeles Times) On the day that changed his life, Gregory Cheadle almost stayed in bed. He was tired  he traveled a lot in his long-shot bid for Congress  but asked himself: How often does a candidate for president come to the far reaches of Northern California? And why pass up a crowd and the chance to hand out more fliers? So Cheadle roused himself that June 2016 morning and secured a spot up close when Donald Trump swooped in for a rally at Reddings municipal airport. It was hot, the atmosphere was loose and Trumps patter seeming more stand-up comedy than campaign spiel. He went into one of those sidelong digressions, about protesters and an African American  great fan, great guy  and, by the way, whatever happened to him? It was then, Cheadle said, he raised his hand and jokingly shouted, Im here. Trump looked and pointed, his voice a throaty rumble. Look at my African-American over here! he exclaimed. Are you the greatest? In the days and weeks that followed Cheadle was attacked on social media and harassed by people who dug up his phone number and email address. For a time he stayed home, too nervous to venture outside. All, he said, because the media portrayed him as something he was not and never has been: a Trump sycophant. Read More Facebook

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Trump quietly signs Russia sanctions bill By Noah Bierman President Trump quietly signed legislation Wednesday that imposes new sanctions on Russia and limits his ability to remove them, according to two White House aides. Trump signed the bill without cameras or an immediate press release. He had opposed imposing new sanctions on Moscow but had little choice after a nearly unanimous Congress approved the bill, guaranteeing they would override a veto. The bill, which also imposes new sanctions on Iran and North Korea, prevents American companies from investing in many energy projects that are funded by Russian government interests. It also prevents Trump from unilaterally lifting the sanctions. It thus marked an unusual move by Congress to tie the presidents hands on foreign policy. Trump did not want to give up that leverage. But the vote in Congress was a strong sign that lawmakers do not trust Trump to stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Trump has repeatedly praised, and the widening federal investigation into possible coordination last year between his presidential campaign and Moscow. Passage of the sanctions bill already has sparked a harsh reaction in Moscow. Putin announced last week that the United States would need to shed 755 personnel, including U.S. diplomats, from its embassy and consulates in Russia. President Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats, said to be spies, from the United States last December. A White House aide said a statement would be issued later Wednesday. Facebook

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Senior GOP senators serve notice: No action on healthcare at this point By David Lauter Trump administration officials continue to push the Senate to take another run at healthcare legislation, but on Monday senior Republican senators pushed back, making clear that theyre done with the topic for now. Theres just too much animosity and were too divided on healthcare, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), the head of the Senate Finance Committee, said in an interview with Reuters. I think we ought to acknowledge that we can come back to healthcare afterward, but we need to move ahead on tax reform, Hatch said. His remarks were quickly followed by others in GOP leadership positions. I think its time to move on to something else, Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri told CNN. If the question is do I think we should stay on healthcare until we get it done, I think its time to move on to something else. Sen. John Thune of South Dakota also chimed in. Until someone shows us how to get that elusive 50th vote, I think its over, he told reporters. The remarks seemed a coordinated effort to respond to administration officials, including budget director Mick Mulvaney and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, who said over the weekend that they wanted the Senate to keep working on healthcare. Last week, the Senate defeated several different Republican plans to repeal all or part of the Affordable Care Act. The votes made it clear that with unified Democratic opposition to repeal, and divisions among Republicans, the campaign to overturn the law has stalled out, at least for now. Congress faces several other pressing issues that will be demanding lawmakers attention, including deadlines at the end of September to raise the federal debt ceiling and fund government agencies for the coming fiscal year. And the administration is eager to move on tax proposals, with officials rather optimistically saying they hope to see votes by November on a tax package that is not yet written. Facebook

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Good news for Atty. Gen. Sessions: Trump has 100% confidence in Cabinet By Noah Bierman To Q re Sessions, spox Sanders says Trump has 100% confidence in Cabinet. Last wk she wouldn't say if he had it in Sessions. Kelly effect?  Jackie Calmes (@jackiekcalmes) July 31, 2017 President Trump has called Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions beleaguered and even VERY weak, but Sessions seemed to get good news from the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, on Monday. Trump has 100% confidence in all of his Cabinet secretaries, Sanders said in response to a question about Sessions job status during the daily White House briefing. Last week, when speculation about Sessions was rife, Sanders repeatedly declined opportunities to provide assurances that the attorney general enjoyed the presidents full confidence. Trump himself said time will tell when he was asked last week about Sessions. The willingness to tamp down speculation about Sessions may reflect the arrival Monday of retired Gen. John F. Kelly as the new White House chief of staff. He is tasked with restoring order to the administration. Sanders also batted down reports that the White House was discussing moving Sessions to another post, as secretary of Homeland Security. That job became vacant Monday after Kelly was sworn in as Trumps new chief of staff. Sanders said the White House has had no conversations about any Cabinet members switching jobs. Republican senators have publicly opposed firing Sessions, and a couple have objected to shifting him to another post as well, given that it could appear that Trump is trying to affect the investigations of himself and his campaign in the context of Russias election interference. Trump has said publicly that his frustration with Sessions, once among his closest allies, stems from Sessions decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, an act that led to the appointment of a special counsel. Facebook

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Can Trump really cut health insurance payments for members of Congress and their staff? It would be easy By Lisa Mascaro Reeling from the failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act, President Trump now threatens to block federal funding that lawmakers and their staff rely on to help buy health insurance. Trumps threats are not empty. The administration could simply stop the payments -- which are provided to Capitol Hill lawmakers and staff much the way many employers help pay employees monthly insurance premiums -- by dashing off new federal regulation. But the easy attack on lawmakers skims over what many say was a complicated, but fair-minded, compromise made during the Obamacare debates several years ago. Under Obamacare, if lawmakers want insurance through their employer - the federal government - they are required to buy policies through the ACA exchanges. There had been great criticism at the time, largely from opponents of the healthcare bill, that lawmakers and congressional staff should not be exempt from the law. The argument was they should have to live under it. So they did. Usually those buying individual insurance on the exchanges can apply to see if their income and geographic area allow them to qualify for a federal subsidy. For lawmakers, though, that was prohibited. Instead, they get the regular employer contribution they did before, much in the same way other workers do when their companies buy insurance. For federal workers, the government covers about 70% of the costs, about the same paid by employers in the private sector, according to Kaiser Family Foundation. The administration affirmed that federal support for lawmakers and their staffs in an Office of Personnel Management regulation issued in 2013. To cut those funds off, Trump administration could simply reverse course, and issue another regulation changing the rules. Trump appeared ready to do so in a series of weekend tweets. Why should Congress not be paying what public pays, Trump tweeted over the weekend. If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon. But such a move would likely cause an uproar in Congress. Its not just members of Congress, but also their staffs, who would have to pay full price for their insurance. Stopping Trumps action, though, seems tough. It would require Congress to pass legislation ensuring the federal payments would continue to be made. Few lawmakers would likely take up that cause. And even if Congress were able to pass a bill protecting the payments, it seems doubtful Trump at this point would sign it into law. Facebook

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U.S. hits Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro with sanctions By Associated Press Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro celebrates the results of Sundays election in Caracas. (Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP/Getty Images) The Trump administration has hit Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro with financial sanctions. The move comes after Venezuela held a weekend election that will give Maduros ruling party virtually unlimited power in the South American country. The Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control announced the sanctions against Maduro in a brief statement on Monday, a day after the Venezuelan vote to elect a constituent assembly that will rewrite the constitution. A longer explanation from the White House was also expected. The administration imposed sanctions on more than a dozen senior current and former Venezuelan officials last week, warning the socialist government that new penalties would come if Maduro went ahead with Sundays election for the assembly. Facebook

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Anthony Scaramucci is out as White House communications director By Brian Bennett Anthony Scaramucci, the brash New Yorker who was announced little more than a week ago as President Trumps White House communications director, was ousted Monday before he had even officially taken the job. John F. Kelly, the newly sworn-in White House chief of staff, told Scaramucci around 9:30 a.m. EDT that he was going to be replaced, according to a person close to White House. In a statement officially announcing the move, the White House said Scaramucci felt it was best to give Chief of Staff John Kelly a clean slate and the ability to build his own team. While Scaramuccis time at the center of the presidents circle was short, it was consequential, prompting the resignations of first Sean Spicer as White House press secretary and then Reince Priebus as chief of staff. The most notable firings and resignations in the Trump administration >> A former hedge fund executive on Wall Street, Scaramucci, who enjoyed media attention, also had come on strong stylistically, highlighted by a profane tirade against colleagues Priebus and Trump strategist Steve Bannon in an exchange last week with a New Yorker reporter. The abrupt shift in Scaramuccis status seemed to reflect Kellys mission to bring order to the chain of command within the chaotic administration. In getting Scaramucci to leave, Kelly was undoing Trumps own hiring decision. Scaramucci had told reporters when he was hired that he would be reporting directly to the president at Trumps request, bypassing the normal chain that would have the communications director -- like all staff -- report to the chief of staff. Scaramuccis unusually short tenure reflects a moment of extreme turbulence in the White House, which has been embroiled in infighting as it confronts low poll numbers for the president, a floundering legislative agenda and the investigations involving Russian meddling in last years presidential election. After word spread of Scaramuccis ouster, Spicer, who resigned when Scaramucci took over but was still working in the White House, walked out of his office to a throng of reporters. Is this a surprise party? he asked. UPDATE 12:15 p.m.: This story has been updated throughout with additional details and background. This article was originally published at 11:49 a.m. Facebook

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Trump swears in John Kelly, says ex-secretary of Homeland Security will do an even better job as chief of staff By Noah Bierman President Trump swore in his new chief of staff, John F. Kelly, on Monday morning, formalizing a shake-up in his top ranks that was announced Friday evening with word of the resignation of Reince Priebus. We look forward to - if its possible - an even better job as chief of staff, Trump said to Kelly, formerly the secretary of homeland security. Ill try, sir, Kelly replied. JOHN KELLY is now chief of staff. Sworn in during ceremony in Oval Office minutes ago. pic.twitter.com/dMEQ4rhpFA  Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) July 31, 2017 Trump is hoping that Kelly, a retired general, will retool and bring order to a White House that has struggled with low poll numbers, staff infighting, a faltering legislative agenda and an investigation into Russian election meddling and potential collusion and obstruction of justice. Yet Trump said the administration has done very well after a reporter asked what would be different under Kelly. He cited the unemployment rate, the thriving stock market and unnamed polls that, he said, show high business confidence. Were doing very well. We have a tremendous base, he said.The country is optimistic. And I think the general will just add to it. Trump praised Kellys performance at the Department of Homeland Security, where Kelly focused on immigration issues at the southern border, as record-shattering, with very little controversy. There was no word on whom the president might name to replace Kelly at the department. Trump reportedly has considered moving Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions there from the Justice Department, reflecting his unhappiness with the attorney general, but Republican senators preemptively have signaled their opposition to such a move. Facebook

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Risky investigation, stalled agenda  Trumps in trouble, so heres his strategy By Noah Bierman (Spencer Platt / Getty Images) Hosts of Southern Californias Morning Answer radio show were wrapping up a two-hour live broadcast from a white tent just outside the West Wing last week and marveling at their access to Cabinet secretaries and prominent administration figures. If youre a Trumpkin, host Brian Whitman told his listeners on AM 870, this is like fantasy camp. The White Houses daylong hospitality for Salem Radio Network, a nationwide chain of Christian and conservative stations, underscored President Trumps continued courtship of  and increased dependence on  core supporters as he confronts a stalled agenda and increasingly perilous investigations into whether his campaign colluded with Russia and he subsequently sought to obstruct the inquiries. Read More Facebook

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Obamacare vote isnt the only sign of GOP resistance to Trump By Noah Bierman In the year since Donald Trump won the Republican presidential nomination, party leaders have been reluctant to challenge a man who has formed a tight bond with conservative voters, even when he upset party orthodoxies and norms of presidential behavior. But that reticence is breaking down. A convergence of contentious issues, as well as embarrassing infighting and shake-ups at the White House, have a number of Republicans suddenly in open resistance to Trump on a number of fronts. Read More Facebook

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Trump ousts Reince Priebus as chief of staff in latest White House shake-up By Noah Bierman John Kelly (Susan Walsh / Associated Press) President Trump ousted his beleaguered chief of staff, Reince Priebus, naming Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly to replace him Friday in the latest White House shake-up as the administration struggles to emerge from bitter staff infighting and a stalled legislative agenda. Trump announced the abrupt reshuffle in three posts on Twitter hours after the Senate killed his latest plans to rewrite President Obamas signature healthcare law, dealing another harsh blow to the White House. The tweets, sent as Trump was returning on Air Force One with Priebus after a speech on gang violence in New York, caught Capitol Hill and others off guard even though Priebus stature in Trumps inner circle has been in sharp decline for some time. Read More Facebook

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Putins spokesman accuses U.S. of political schizophrenia By Associated Press Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a meeting in Moscow on June 21. (Sergei Karpukhin / EPA) Russia urged the United States on Monday to show political will to mend ties even as it ordered sweeping cuts of U.S. embassy personnel unseen since Cold War times. President Vladimir Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said it will take time for the U.S. to recover from what he called political schizophrenia, but added that Russia remains interested in constructive cooperation with the U.S. We are interested in a steady development of our ties and are sorry to note that we are still far from that, he said. Peskovs statement followed Sundays televised comments by Putin, who said the U.S. would have to cut 755 of its embassy and consulate staff in Russia, a massive reduction he described as a response to new U.S. sanctions. The Russian Foreign Ministry had previously said that the U.S. should cut its embassy and consular employees to 455, the number that Russia has in the United States. Along with the caps on embassy personnel announced Friday, it also declared the closure of a U.S. recreational retreat on the outskirts of Moscow and warehouse facilities. Moscows action is the long-expected tit-for-tat response to former President Obamas move to expel 35 Russian diplomats and shut down two Russian recreational retreats in the U.S. over reports of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Facebook

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White House urged to refrain from Obamacare sabotage as Trump mulls subsidy cutoff By Laura King A pair of prominent lawmakers urged President Trump on Sunday not to sabotage the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, in the wake of failed Republican efforts to scrap his predecessors signature legislative achievement. But Trump urged GOP senators to try again to push through some version of repealing and replacing the law, even though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said last week it was time to move on to other matters. Trump senior advisor Kellyanne Conway said the president would decide in coming days whether to block subsidies that are a crucial component of the existing healthcare law. Hes going to make that decision this week, and thats a decision that only he can make, Conway said on Fox News Sunday. Two of the lawmakers who blocked the Senate GOP repeal plan last week, however, criticized the administrations continued efforts to overturn the law. Sen. Susan Collins, the Maine Republican who steadfastly rejected a series of GOP healthcare measures last week, blamed the Trump administration for encouraging instability in the insurance markets by continuing the uncertainty over whether the subsidies  cost-sharing payments that reduce out-of-pocket healthcare costs for poorer Americans  would continue. Im troubled by the uncertainty that has been created by the administration, Collins said on NBCs Meet the Press. She contested Trumps characterization of the payments as an insurance company bailout. Thats not what it is, she said, calling the reduction payments vital assistance to low-income Americans. And Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said further action on healthcare should be done in a bipartisan manner and not rushed. You cannot do major entitlement reform singlehandedly, and you wouldnt do major legislative initiatives singlehandedly, she told reporters in Alaska. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) echoed Collins criticism of Trumps threat to stop making the cost-sharing payments. You know, I really think its incomprehensible that we have a president of the United States who wants to sabotage healthcare in America, make life more difficult for millions of people who are struggling now to get the health insurance they need and to pay for that health insurance, he said on CNNs State of the Union. Prior to heading out for a day at his Virginia golf property, Trump tweeted that Republican senators should press ahead with efforts to scrap Obamacare -- a day after he tauntingly exhorted them not to be quitters in the quest for a legislative victory for him. Don't give up Republican Senators, the World is watching: Repeal & Replace...and go to 51 votes (nuke option), get Cross State Lines & more.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2017 The White House budget director, Mick Mulvaney, on CNNs State of the Union, said it was official Trump administration policy that the Senate should keep working to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, eschewing an August recess if necessary. Senators, he said, need to stay, they need to work -- they need to pass something. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, while acknowledging a responsibility to follow the law -- Obamacare -- also signaled that Trump was not accepting defeat in efforts to get rid of the measure. Our goalas well as the presidents goal, is to put in place a law, a system, that actually works for patients, he said on Meet the Press, adding, You cant do that under the current structure. Facebook

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Frustrated in defeat, Trump threatens healthcare of voters  and lawmakers By Joseph Tanfani Frustrated by the failure of the Obamacare repeal in the Senate, President Trump on Saturday threatened to end federal subsidies for healthcare insurance  for Congress as well as the rest of the country. After seven years of "talking" Repeal & Replace, the people of our great country are still being forced to live with imploding ObamaCare!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017 If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017 If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon! Trump tweeted, fuming about Congress failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which he said was imploding. Such a move could cause havoc and much higher premiums in insurance markets, since many low- and moderate-income people depend on those subsidies to help cover the cost of their policies. Through a series of administrative maneuvers by Congress and the Obama administration, members and their staffs also benefit from those subsidies. Targeting congressional healthcare might score Trump some populist points with his base, but it would likely come at a cost of poisoning his relationship with Congress. Just making the threat on Saturday highlights how far things have eroded between Trump and top GOP lawmakers. And it comes a day after Trump pushed out former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, an establishment Republican who was the GOP congressional leaderships trusted liaison in the White House. Trump actually has a jarring amount of leverage over thousands of congressional staff who depend on employer health care contribution. https://t.co/lRPmrmDIJs  Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) July 29, 2017 Trumps longstanding threat to let the health insurance plans fail would come with its own political price. The federal government sends about $600 million a month to insurance companies to help cover the cost, and Trump is threatening to cut that off to allow Obamacare markets to collapse. His goal is to pressure Congress to send him a repeal bill, but so far the strategy has failed. The confidence Trump has expressed that if he followed through with the threat the fallout would land not on him but on Democrats, because they created Obamacare, is not widely shared in Washington. If health care collapses, voters will blame Trump and the GOP.



That's what happens when you control the White House and Congress. pic.twitter.com/iEjEGyapAL  Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) July 29, 2017 Facebook

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Iran condemns new U.S. sanctions, vows to pursue missile program By Ramin Mostaghim Iran defied Washington and condemned new U.S. sanctions over its development of missiles capable of being armed with nuclear warheads. We will continue with full power our missile program, Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi told state television IRIB on Saturday, dismissing new sanctions passed by Congress last week as, hostile, reprehensible and unacceptable. Its ultimately an effort to weaken the nuclear deal, Ghasemi said, adding, The military and missile fields  are our domestic policies and others have no right to intervene or comment on them. Iran had agreed to limit its nuclear activities under the 2015 agreement with the U.S. and other world powers in exchange for sanctions relief. Ghasemi argued Saturday that the U.S. had violated that agreement by linking the missile program to the nuclear deal and restricting Iranian banking activities in the U.S. He argued that Irans latest missile tests dont break the agreement because the weapons are defensive. The new wave of pressure on missile projects in Iran will push the Islamic theocracy into a corner, predicted Iran analyst Hojjat Kalashi in Tehran, noting that the government of President Hassan Rouhani, who was reelected in May, is coping with an economic downturn and may step back from the compromise nuclear deal. The new Iran sanctions bill, which also targets Russia and North Korea, was passed by the House and Senate this week. It would penalize those involved in Irans ballistic missile program as well as those who do business with them, impose an arms embargo on Iran and label its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps a terrorist group. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders has said President Trump will sign the bill. On Friday, the U.S. was joined by Britain, France and Germany in condemning Irans recent launch of a satellite-carrying rocket and warned that it violated a United Nations resolution implementing the 2015 nuclear deal. In a joint statement, they urged Iran to stop developing missiles and rockets capable of carrying nuclear warheads that have a destabilizing impact on the region. In response to a rocket launch Thursday, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on subsidiaries of an Iranian company involved in Tehrans ballistic missile program. But Nader Karimi Juni, an analyst close to Rouhanis government, said Iranian leaders dont believe the U.N. and European powers will ultimately back the U.S., and so Iran will not compromise on missile projects and will remain defiant. Facebook

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Trump jabs U.S. mayors, who push back, calling president out of touch with cities By Kurtis Lee (Spencer Platt / Getty Images) President Trump wants police to know that he  not mayors  has their back. Ive met police that are great police that arent allowed to do their job because they have a pathetic mayor or a mayor that doesnt know whats going on, Trump said Friday in a speech before police officers in Brentwood, N.Y. The comments from Trump, who in his address highlighted crime in cities like Chicago and Los Angeles, drew applause from some in attendance. In a statement following Trumps remarks, the United States Conference of Mayors, a bipartisan group, released a statement pushing back against the president. The presidents comments today prove how out of touch he is with the realities of life in American cities. Mayors number one priority is  and always will be  the safety and protection of their residents, said New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, the groups president. There is no daylight between the mayors of our cities and the uniformed officers who work tirelessly to keep us safe every single day. During the speech Trump called on police and immigration officials to be rough with suspected gang members in cities nationwide. In a recent interview with The Times, former New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who recently launched a $200-million initiative to empower city governments and mayors, stressed the key to good governing is experience as a manager  something, he said, Trump was not. Bloomberg added that the mayors are much more in tune with the needs of residents than the federal government. You got to remember a mayor and the local city council are much closer to the public than the governor and the state legislature, or the president and the federal legislature. So if the public is in favor of something, the local officials know it and they get held responsible, he said. Facebook

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The growing parade of exits under Trump administration By Len de Groot A lot of people have left President Trumps early administration  Chief of Staff Reince Priebus was replaced Friday. The White House communications department has been the scene of many of the recent turnovers as it wrestles to craft a message sometimes at odds with Trumps frequent tweeting. At the National Security Council, there has been a leadership struggle since Michael Flynn resigned in the face of pressure over undisclosed contacts with Russia. One appointee was fired over comments he made at a private function. Others have been removed as Flynns successor, H.R. McMaster, has moved to add loyalists to the council. Here are the most noteworthy departures: Read More Facebook

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Trump urges officers and immigration officials to be rough on animals terrorizing U.S. neighborhoods By Barbara Demick ( (Evan Vucci / Associated Press)) President Trump on Friday called for police and immigration officials to be rough with suspected gang members in order to rid the country of animals he said are terrorizing communities. Please dont be too nice, Trump told police recruits at Suffolk County Community College in Brentwood, a heavily Latino suburb of New York City. Like when you guys put somebody in the car and youre protecting their head, you know the way you put the hand  like, dont hit their head, and theyve just killed somebody?  You can take the hand away. He implied that he was satisfied with rough handling of suspects by the police. When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon  you just see them thrown in, rough, he said. Scoffing at calls for what he describes as political correctness, Trump also renewed his pledges to build a wall along the Mexican border. He accused the Obama administration of admitting criminals into the United States. Read More Facebook

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Analysis: In a Washington run by men, two overshadowed Republican women make their point on healthcare By Cathleen Decker In a Washington that has grown demonstrably more testosterone-fueled since President Trumps inauguration, it took two Republican women to secure the end of a long effort to repeal and replace Obamacare. They were the same two women  Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski  who had been excluded from the 13-member working group drafting the Republican bills. Nobodys being excluded based upon gender. Everybodys at the table, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had said of his all-white-males group. In the early hours of Friday, the duo was overshadowed by the more dramatic and unexpected no vote from Sen. John McCain of Arizona. There was reason for the attention lavished on McCain  a war hero and veteran senator returns to the Capitol days after a dire cancer diagnosis. But without both Collins and Murkowskis steadfast opposition, his vote would have been meaningless. Also largely overlooked: Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono, a Democrat who like McCain made an arduous trip to Washington despite her recent diagnosis of late-stage kidney cancer. Social media buzzed Friday with praise for the women senators from many fronts, including from men. But from many women, there was also a sense of familiarity at being ignored or taken for granted. Read More Facebook

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Clinton Foundation donor who was denied a visa settles leak case against the U.S. By Joseph Tanfani A billionaire Nigerian businessman and major Clinton Foundation donor banned from entering the U.S. two years ago on terrorism grounds has settled a lawsuit against the U.S. government. Gilbert Chagoury last year sued the FBI and other government agencies in U.S. District Court in Washington, saying he had been damaged by what he described as improper government leaks to the Los Angeles Times. The Times reported last year that Chagoury had been denied a visa to travel to the U.S. in 2015 on suspicion that he had provided aid to terrorist groups. One document, citing unverified information from an unnamed source, said that Chagoury  who is of Lebanese heritage  had funneled funds to Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia and political group designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. Chagoury, an ardent Lakers fan who for decades lived part of the year in Los Angeles, angrily denied that he ever provided funds for terrorism. He said the publicity forced him to sell his Beverly Hills mansion at a loss and caused a bank to close his account. A philanthropist, Vatican ambassador and longtime friend of Bill Clinton, Chagoury once was invited to the White House after contributing to a Democratic get-out-the-vote campaign. He donated at least $1 million to the Clinton Foundation. Emails released last year showed that a Bill Clinton aide pushed Hillary Clintons aides at the State Department to get Chagoury access to top U.S. diplomats. In the settlement filed in court on Friday, the Justice Department said Chagoury has never appeared on the list of Specially Designated Nationals, figures such as terrorists and narcotics traffickers who are generally barred from doing business in the U.S. The government did not grant Chagourys request for a court hearing to dispute the reports that led to his exclusion from the U.S. As I have often said, I have loved America my whole life because it was the land of freedom and justice, he said in a statement, adding that he hopes the agreement will help repair his reputation. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Chagoury, who lives most of the time in Paris, has not applied for another visa, said his spokesman, Mark Corallo. Facebook

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Trump ousts Priebus, announces John Kelly as new chief of staff President Trump announced via Twitter on Friday that he had named retired Gen. John Kelly, head of the Department of Homeland Security, as White House chief of staff, replacing Reince Priebus. I am pleased to inform you that I have just named General/Secretary John F Kelly as White House Chief of Staff. He is a Great American....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017 ...and a Great Leader. John has also done a spectacular job at Homeland Security. He has been a true star of my Administration  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017 I would like to thank Reince Priebus for his service and dedication to his country. We accomplished a lot together and I am proud of him!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017 Read More Facebook

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Rep. John Delaney of Maryland to run for president By Associated Press Rep. John Delaney of Maryland says hes running for president, instead of governor or reelection, in 2018. Delaney, a Democrat, announced his plans in a statement Friday. The politically moderate banking entrepreneur is in his third term in Marylands 6th Congressional District, which includes western Maryland and a large section of Montgomery County, the states largest county. The 54-year-old is worth roughly $90 million and is one of the Houses wealthiest members. He spent about $2 million to help finance his first House race in 2012. His consideration of a possible Maryland gubernatorial bid months ago quickly drew interest in his House seat. Several candidates already have expressed interest in running for the seat. Facebook

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McCain set to head back to Arizona to undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatments By Kurtis Lee (Shawn Thew / EPA) Sen. John McCain is headed home. Hours after McCain spurned his party and voted in opposition to a GOP measure to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the senators office announced Friday he will return to Arizona to undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatments for his recent diagnosis of brain cancer. McCain, 80, was found this month to have a brain tumor known as a glioblastoma. He is scheduled to return to Washington in September after his initial treatments. The glioblastoma  an aggressive type of cancer  was discovered when McCain had a blood clot removed from above his left eye. According to the Mayo Clinic, which is overseeing McCains treatment, glioblastoma is difficult to treat. After returning to Washington this week and voting in favor of opening Senate debate on repeal, McCain was among three Republicans early Friday morning to vote in opposition to a so-called skinny bill that would repeal the ACA, known as Obamacare. The move by McCain, who has served in the Senate since 1987, has drawn the ire of members in his own party and some in the right-wing media. Facebook

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McCains surprise vote doomed GOP healthcare bill, but did it open the door for Senate bipartisanship? By Lisa Mascaro Sen. John McCain is usually happy to spar with reporters, but he ducked into an elevator ahead of the Senate healthcare vote late Thursday without saying a word about how he would vote. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, though, already knew the answer. The Democratic leader had been talking with the Arizona Republican all week  four, five times a day  ever since McCain returned to work after being diagnosed with brain cancer. Earlier in the week, McCain had dramatically salvaged the stalled GOP bill by voting to begin debate, only to go on to deliver a blistering speech against his own party leaders partisan, closed-door process in crafting it. Weve been spinning our wheels on too many important issues because we keep trying to find a way to win without help from across the aisle, he told them. Were getting nothing done. Schumer and McCain have been longtime colleagues, a kind of frenemies who seem like throwbacks to an earlier era of Congress. They worked together on big legislation, including the 2013 immigration overhaul  grand ideas that seem all but impossible in todays Congress. They had plenty to discuss. About the Senate, about it working again, about working together, and about how this bill was so poor for the American people, Schumer said. And he knew that, so did half his colleagues, but he had the courage to vote no. The moment stunned the Senate when McCain stepped up to cast his vote  a single down-turned finger  dooming the healthcare bill. Audible gasps filled the galleries, which were packed with onlookers. But his vote  along with no votes from Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska  did more than shelve the long campaign to repeal the Affordable Care Act. It cracked open a new divide in the Senate, which seems to be split not so much between Republicans and Democrats, but by those senators who want to work together versus those stuck in hardened partisan tribes. Read More Facebook

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U.S. hits Iran with more sanctions in response to satellite launch By Associated Press The United States is slapping Iran with new sanctions in response to its launch of a satellite-carrying rocket into space this week. The sanctions target six Iranian subsidiaries of the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group. The Treasury Department says that group is central to Irans ballistic missile program. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says the sanctions illustrate deep U.S. concerns about Irans missile testing and other actions. He says the U.S. will continue countering Irans ballistic missile program, including Thursdays provocative space launch. The U.S. has said that launch flouted a U.N. Security Council resolution because the technology is inherently designed to be able to carry a nuclear payload. The sanctions come as the Trump administration continues debating its Iran policy and whether to scrap the 2015 multilateral deal that limits the development of Irans nuclear capabilities. Facebook

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Political betrayal. McCain vote against Obamacare repeal draws ire from conservative writers By Kurtis Lee (Cliff Owen / AP) Though John McCain was one of three Republicans who helped Democrats squash the legislation to repeal Obamacare, conservative media is homing in on the Arizona senator for spurning his party in the healthcare vote. Here are some of todays headlines: John McCain: Traitor to the conservative cause (Washington Times) McCain, who was recently diagnosed with brain cancer, has been a staunch opponent of Obamacare, but in the end he could not support the so-called skinny repeal measure put forward by his colleagues in the Senate. In this piece, Cheryl K. Chumley, jabs McCain for his vote. For American voters expecting their Republican-dominated House, Senate and White House to honor their years of repeal promises and actually, well, repeal Obamacare, McCains thumbs-down was a face-slap moment that will be remembered in history as a textbook classic case of political betrayal, she writes. McCains odd definition of leading the fight to stop Obamacare (National Review) This article is simple  its a quick compare-and-contrast of McCains recent comments versus his vote on Friday. Last year, during a tough reelection, McCains campaign ran a television ad that boasted the senator is leading the fight to stop Obamacare. But last night his office put out a statement noting the GOP Senate bill did not offer a replacement to actually reform our health care system and deliver affordable, quality health care to our citizens. The author of this piece, Jim Geraghty, concludes: Its very difficult to characterize McCains decision as leading the fight to stop Obamacare. Thats more like leading the fight to keep Obamacare in place while you continue to look for a replacement that you like better. John McCain burns Mitch McConnell sides with Democrats (American Spectator) When McConnell, the majority leader, stood on the Senate floor Friday after the bills failure, he was clearly annoyed. McCains no vote had led to applause moments earlier from Democrats. In a move thats no surprise to anyone, John McCain voted against the embarrassingly named Skinny Repeal, voted against his party (or is it his party?) and voted to keep Obamacare going as is, writes Melissa Mackenzie. Facebook

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Meet the two female GOP senators who opposed the healthcare bill from the start By Kelcey Caulder Sen. John McCain shocked Republicans and Democrats alike with his vote early Friday morning to kill the latest Republican effort to repeal Obamacare. But McCain was not the only Republican to play a role in blocking the final version of the overhaul bill. Two female Republican lawmakers, Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, also voted against the bill. Collins has opposed repeal and replace efforts from the beginning, and Murkowski has also been critical of much of what the Senate Republican leadership has proposed. Collins said it would be a big mistake for Republicans to pass legislation without trying seriously to work with Democrats to reach bipartisan solutions. Instead, she called for both parties to work together to improve the healthcare system. Murkowski and Collins were the first from their party to come out against repealing the ACA without having new, replacement legislation on the table. In statements posted on Twitter, Collins, who voted against the same proposal in 2015, said she did not think it was constructive to repeal the law without a replacement, while Murkowski encouraged senators from both sides of the aisle to work together to address healthcare issues. I will vote no on the motion to proceed to repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement. I voted against this same proposal in 2015. pic.twitter.com/Szuke5zYNL  Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) July 18, 2017 My recent statement on the Senate Healthcare Process: pic.twitter.com/j19Ok1KwWw  Sen. Lisa Murkowski (@lisamurkowski) July 18, 2017 The two senators were also the only Republicans to vote against opening debate on repeal of Obamacare earlier this week. Their opposition to Republican healthcare efforts has drawn a lot of criticism within the party, some of it expressed in vulgar, even violent terms. Georgia Rep. Buddy Carter said in an interview Wednesday with MSNBC: Somebody needs to go over there to that Senate and snatch a knot in their ass. A Texas congressman said the female senators narrowly avoided an Aaron Burr-style showdown with him. President Trump publicly rebuked Murkowski on Twitter for her vote. Senator @lisamurkowski of the Great State of Alaska really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday. Too bad!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017 Trump has not criticized Collins by name for her vote, but warned Tuesday at a rally in Ohio that any senator who votes against repeal and replace is telling America that they are fine with the Obamacare nightmare, and I predict theyll have a lot of problems. Facebook

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The current Senate GOP effort to repeal Obamacare is dead. Now what? By Noam N. Levey (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) The sudden collapse of the GOPs Senate campaign to repeal or replace the Affordable Care Act does not mean the issue disappears. Significant problems and challenges remain, particularly for Obamacare insurance marketplaces. The defeat increases the odds that Congress will begin to look at a more limited approach to shore up the current law and stabilize markets. The GOPs repeal effort may return, but in the meantime heres a look at what a temporary fix might look like: Read More Facebook

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Paul Ryan responds to the failure of the GOP healthcare bill By Associated Press House Speaker Paul Ryan said Friday that hes disappointed and frustrated by the failure of Republican healthcare legislation in the Senate. But Ryan said in a statement that we should not give up after promising for years to repeal and replace Obamacare. We were sent to Washington to fulfill the pledges we made to our constituents, the statement said. While the House delivered a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, unfortunately the Senate was unable to reach a consensus. At the same time, the speaker said that overhauling the tax code is at the top of the Houses list of priorities. He pledged to pursue historic tax reform in the fall. He issued his statement as the House prepared to leave Washington for its annual August recess. The House passed legislation repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act in May. But after a failed vote early Friday in the Senate, its not clear if GOP leaders will be able to resuscitate the efforts. Facebook

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Economic growth rebounded to 2.6% annual rate in second quarter By Jim Puzzanghera The Port of Los Angeles (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) The U.S. economy rebounded this spring after a weak winter, expanding at a solid 2.6% annual rate as consumers picked up their spending pace, the Commerce Department said Friday. Total economic output, also known as gross domestic product, for the April-through-June period was in line with analyst expectations for a bounce-back based in part on pent-up demand. The economic growth rate was more than double the 1.2% pace in the first quarter. That figure was revised down Friday from an earlier estimate of 1.4%. After the winter blues, the economy has rebounded, said Sung Won Sohn, an economist at Cal State Channel Islands. Read More Facebook

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Never mind healthcare. President Trump has made slogans great again By Mark Z. Barabak ( (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)) His promise to repeal and replace Obamacare has crashed and burned. Tax reform hasnt gotten far. The White House is in disarray, and big plans to rebuild the nations infrastructure have hit a brick wall. But there is one unimpeachable triumph President Trump can point to: Hes made great again great again. The Make America Great Again 2016 campaign slogan  limned in block letters and emblazoned on countless cherry-red ball caps  has been reimagined, repurposed and cheekily appropriated for countless pitches and commercial products. Apart from the now-familiar caps, mercantile options include aprons, beanies, beer cozys, coffee mugs, hoodies, leggings, swimsuits, T-shirts, water bottles and, for the special someone, Donald Trump Make America Great Again Womens Booty Shorts. But MAGA, as the president short-hands the phrase in Twitter posts, is also popping up in places having little or nothing to do with politics: on a catwalk at New Yorks Fashion Week, high in the sky promoting classical music in Phoenix, on the menu at an Italian restaurant in Atlanta. Read More Facebook

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If Adam Schiff is Californias next U.S. senator, he might want to thank President Trump By Mark Z. Barabak (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) The road to elected office can be long and winding and is not always paved with the best of intentions. Some politicians  think of the Kennedys or the Bush family  are born to the trade. Others are borne by tragedy. Former Santa Barbara Rep. Lois Capps succeeded her husband when he died of a heart attack. Former New York Rep. Carolyn McCarthy was spurred to run when her husband was killed and her son gravely wounded in a mass shooting on the Long Island Rail Road. Typically, though, the ascension is more methodical, one rung after the next, often with a pinch of right-place, right-time fortune thrown in for good measure. Lately that bit of luck has visited itself on Adam B. Schiff, in the form of Russian meddling and a president who hurls tweets like poison thunderbolts. Read More Facebook

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Kris Kobach says Trumps voter fraud panel will keep voter data secure. Some states arent buying it By Kurtis Lee (Jessica McGowan / Getty Images) After weeks of legal battles and bipartisan pushback from top election officials nationwide, President Trumps voter fraud commission has renewed a message for the states: Its safe to pass along your data about voters. Individuals voter registration records will be kept confidential and secure throughout the duration of the commissions existence, Kris Kobach, vice chairman of the commission, wrote in a letter sent late Wednesday to all 50 secretaries of state. Even so, by Thursday, much of the criticism that greeted an earlier request from the commission was repeated by election officials and activists, who have expressed concerns about privacy and have called the panel both a sham created by an insecure president and a tool to suppress votes. Trump  without evidence  has repeatedly alleged that 3 million to 5 million illegal votes were cast in last years presidential election. (Trump prevailed in the electoral college, while Democrat Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by about 3 million votes.) Read More Facebook

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President Trump said our guys are rougher than the violent gang MS-13. What did he mean? By Brian Bennett (SAUL LOEB / AFP ) When President Trump said this week his administration is going after bloodthirsty criminal gangs like the notoriously violent MS-13, he added a menacing flourish: Our guys are rougher than their guys. The comment raised concerns that Trump was instructing immigration agents to use excessive force when going after suspected gang members. Not so, Trumps top spokeswoman said on Thursday. I think the president means that our guys are going to do whatever it takes to protect Americans, protect American lives, protect our borders, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in response to a question about what Trump meant by rougher. Trump wants people to do their jobs, not go beyond the scope of what they should do, Sanders said. Trumps comment came during a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, on Tuesday night. We are throwing MS-13 the hell out of here so fast, he said, boasting that his administration is liberating towns and cities from gangs. And, well, I will just tell you this, were not doing it in a politically correct fashion, Trump added. Were doing it rough. Our guys are rougher than their guys. Trumps comment was meant to boost morale among immigration officers looking to arrest and deport gang members, said one senior administration official, who would speak only without being identified to discuss the presidents thinking. As part of Trumps crackdown on immigrants in the country illegally, he has instructed the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to target a suspected gang member for deportation before that person has been convicted of a crime, said ICE director Thomas Homan. Homan joined Sanders at her daily briefing at the White House. The two spoke to preview the presidents Friday trip to Long Island, N.Y., where he will tout his administrations efforts against MS-13 and other gangs. For Trump, who grew up in Queens, recent headlines about MS-13 violence in central Long Island have hit close to home. In April, four young men were found hacked to death in a park in Central Islip, N.Y., a senior administration official told reporters Thursday night. He is a New Yorker and he knows New York, the administration official said. It is absolutely a personal issue. And he knows whats happening in New York -- and its not just Long Island -- is a tragedy and there are communities like that all across America. Facebook

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Boy Scouts chief apologizes for presidents political rhetoric at national Jamboree. Trump wont By Brian Bennett President Trump wont apologize for a surprisingly political speech this week to Boy Scouts that provoked a backlash for his attacks on his predecessor, his election rival, dissident Republicans and the news media. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivered that word on Thursday, just after a top executive of the Boy Scouts of America issued an apology on behalf of the organization for allowing the political rhetoric to occur during Trumps address Monday evening at the National Scout Jamboree held in West Virginia. Michael Surbaugh, the organizations chief executive, in a statement extended his sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree. He noted that the groups invitation to the president to speak was in keeping with a long-standing tradition since 1937; eight of 11 incumbent presidents have attended. But, Surbaugh wrote, we have steadfastly remained non-partisan and refused to comment on political matters. We sincerely regret that politics were inserted into the Scouting program. At the White House, however, Sanders indicated that neither she nor Trump saw any reason to apologize, or considered his remarks in any way out of line. I was at that event and I saw nothing but roughly 40,000 to 45,000 Boy Scouts cheering the president on throughout his remarks, Sanders said. I think they were pretty excited that he was there and happy to hear him speak to them, she added. Sanders said she had not seen the statement from the Boy Scouts chief. During his rambling 38-minute speech to the Scouts in Glen Jean, W.Va., Trump criticized Hillary Clinton and President Obama and singled out congressional Republicans who were not in lockstep with him on healthcare. He got much applause and supportive chants from his audience, and even credited the Scouts -- who are too young to vote -- for being among the millions who elected him. But almost immediately, the Boy Scouts organization was inundated with protests from former Scouts, parents and others angered by the presidents partisan words. Facebook

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Trumps words kind of hurtful, Sessions says, but he has no plans to resign By Joseph Tanfani President Trumps scathing criticisms have been kind of hurtful, Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions said Thursday, even as he again signaled that he wants to stay on the job. He wants all of us to do our job, and thats what I intend to do, Sessions said in an interview with Tucker Carlson of Fox News. Separately, Sessions told the Associated Press that it hasnt been my best week  for my relationship with the president. He made the comment in El Salvador, during a visit to highlight joint efforts to take on the MS-13 gang. The attorney general said he hadnt met with Trump but looked forward to talking to him about it. If he wants to make a change, he has every right, Sessions said. I serve at the pleasure of the president. Ive understood that from the day I took the job. But, he said, I believe with great confidence that I understand what is needed in the Department of Justice and what President Trump wants. I share his agenda. The comments were the first this week on the subject from Sessions, who has been subjected to harshly critical tweets from Trump for three days. The president has called him weak and said he wasnt aggressive enough in going after leakers. Last week, after Trump criticized Sessions in a New York Times interview, Sessions told reporters he planned to stay on as long as it was appropriate. Sessions has seemed to redouble his attempts this week to win back the presidents favor. He announced another crackdown on so-called sanctuary cities that dont cooperate with immigration enforcement and on Friday traveled to El Salvador to highlight arrests of MS-13 gang members, both favorite topics of the president. The Justice Department also plans to address leaks next week. Sessions said his department was stepping up leak investigations. Some people need to go to jail, he said. The president has every right to ask the DOJ to be more aggressive on that, and we intend to. On Wednesday evening, after Anthony Scaramucci , Trumps incoming communications director, falsely claimed in a tweet that hed been the victim of a leak, Sessions chief spokeswoman released a statement agreeing that leaks are undermining the government and promising to aggressively pursue leak cases wherever they may lead. Trump has made it clear that he is most angry with Sessions for recusing himself from supervising the ongoing investigation into his administrations ties with Russia. But Sessions defended that decision. I understand his feeling about it because this has been a big distraction for him, he said on Fox. Im confident I made the right decision, the decision thats consistent with the rule of law, and an attorney general who doesnt follow the law is not very effective at leading the Department of Justice, he said. In the interview, Sessions reached back to Trumps campaign slogan to praise the president as a strong leader. He is determined to move this country in the direction that he believes it needs to go to make it great again, he said. Sessions has received considerable support in recent days from conservative Republicans, including many of his former Senate colleagues. On Thursday, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) went to the Senate floor to discourage Trump from moving against Sessions, saying that the Senate would not allow the president to make a recess appointment that would bypass the normal confirmation process. A recess appointment would allow Trump to appoint a person who could serve without confirmation until the start of 2019. Such appointments can only be made if the Senate formally takes a break, which senators of both parties have said they will avoid in order to prevent Trump from avoiding confirmations. If youre thinking of making a recess appointment to push out the attorney general, forget about it, Sasse said. The presidency isnt a bull, and this country isnt a china shop. 1:55 p.m.: This post was updated with additional remarks by Sessions and remarks by Sen. Ben Sasse. 5:50: This post was updated with additional quotes from Sessions interview. Facebook

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For Trump White House, cable television becomes the venue for intramural sniping By Noah Bierman President Trump and his aides love to complain about leaks from within the White House. But on Thursday, the infighting was out in the open. The incoming communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, in a morning phone call broadcast on CNN, compared the West Wing to a fish that stinks from the head down, implying that White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus is responsible for at least some of the leaks. Later, Trump press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to come to Priebuss defense and say whether Trump has full confidence in his chief of staff. Another Trump advisor, Kellyanne Conway, used a prison analogy for the broader backstabbing among aides, telling Fox News that her West Wing colleagues were using the press to shiv each other. While the knifings might suggest a new level of chaos in a White House known for it, the style is all Trump. As a businessman, he has a history of fostering rivalries among his employees. He always did sort of like competition, backstabbing, infighting kind of stuff, said Barbara Res, who spent nearly two decades as a top executive in Trumps real estate business. He set people up to do that. Trump led the charge this week, using his Twitter account and an interview with the Wall Street Journal to ridicule his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, one of Trumps first and most prominent campaign supporters. By Thursday, both Priebus and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson were seeing their fates publicly debated, less than a week after Sean Spicer was forced out as press secretary after months of speculation and presidential slights. The Priebus intrigue was amplified by Scaramucci on Twitter and in the CNN interview. He blamed Priebus for leaking Scaramuccis personal financial disclosure forms -- which are publicly available -- and suggested that Trump encouraged Scaramuccis offensive in a phone conversation the two men had just before the aide dialed into CNN. When Sanders was asked about the Scaramucci-Priebus dustup, she said that the president likes healthy competition on his staff. The president likes that kind of competition and encourages it, Sanders said. The result is a White House that increasingly suggests the presidents former way of life. As the star of a reality TV show, he fomented internal competition and firings among apprentices; their cable television appearances, meanwhile, recall the confessionals familiar to reality show fans, in which characters confide directly to the camera their anger or enmity toward others on the show. The primary attribute for a successful tenure in the Trump White House is masochism, tweeted Rick Wilson, a longtime Republican operative and Trump critic. The repeated evidence of dysfunction and the high level of insecurity among Trumps core aides help explain the White Houses inability to focus on its agenda. Trumps critics voiced suspicions on Twitter that the public staff blow-up was a deliberate distraction from the struggle in Congress to pass a healthcare bill, as well as from the ongoing investigations into potential collusion between his presidential campaign and Russia and the backlash to Trumps surprise Twitter announcement on Wednesday that transgender people will be barred from military service. But those issues also were being heavily covered on cable news. The stories that were overshadowed were those Trump was trying to promote: a deal his administration helped strike with Foxconn to build a production facility in Wisconsin, possibly creating thousands of new jobs, and nascent efforts to craft a tax overhaul plan. Facebook

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Democrats criticize financial industry backgrounds of two Trump bank regulator nominees By Jim Puzzanghera Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). (Joe Raedle / Getty Images) Senate Democrats on Thursday criticized the financial industry backgrounds of President Trumps nominees for two key banking regulatory positions, arguing they would not protect the interests of average Americans. Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and others sharply questioned Joseph Otting, the former chief executive of Pasadenas OneWest Bank, and investment fund manager Randal Quarles during a confirmation hearing by the Senate Banking Committee. Trump nominated Otting to be the comptroller of the currency, a powerful regulator of national banks. Quarles has been tapped to be the Federal Reserves vice chairman for supervision, who is in charge of the Feds oversight of the nations largest bank holding companies and other regulatory efforts. The two are expected to be friendlier to the banking industry than recent Democratic appointees. Read More Facebook

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Senator warns Trump there will be holy hell to pay if he fires Sessions By Joseph Tanfani A prominent Republican Senator issued a blunt warning to President Trump not to interfere with the Russia investigation, saying any effort to get rid of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III could be the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters Thursday that there will be holy hell to pay if Trump fires Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, a favorite of conservatives who represented Alabama in the Senate for 20 years. Grahams warning was the sternest yet from Senate Republicans to Trump about the potential consequences of firing either Sessions or Mueller. The chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, Sen. Charles Grassley, (R-Iowa), issued his own warning in a tweet Wednesday night, saying his committee would not take up a nomination of a replacement attorney general this year, which is required before the Senate can vote to confirm. Everybody in D.C. Shld b warned that the agenda for the judiciary Comm is set for rest of 2017. Judges first subcabinet 2nd / AG no way  ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) July 27, 2017 Starting with an interview in the New York Times last week and continuing with a three-day barrage of critical tweets, Trump has raged at Sessions for his decision to recuse himself from supervising the investigation into the Russian attempts to influence the election, and into whether anybody involved in Trumps campaign participated in the scheme. Trump also has bitterly complained about Mueller, whom he has accused of leading a witch hunt, and Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod J. Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller and who is now supervising the probe. Justice Department regulations say that only the attorney general, or in this case Rosenstein acting in his place, can fire the special counsel. If Sessions were gone, Trump could try to appoint a replacement willing to carry out the firing. Graham said he will introduce a bill next week that would require court review if anyone tried to fire a special counsel who was investigating the president. I think Ill get all the Democrats and I hope to get a good number of Republicans, he said, adding that the enacting such a law is not just for Trump but for any future president. We need a check and balance here. Graham said Trumps campaign to marginalize and humiliate the attorney general is not going over well in the Senate or among conservatives. He also said Trump, who has called on Sessions to investigate his former rival Hillary Clinton, has gone way beyond what is acceptable in a rule of law nation. This is not draining the swamp, he said. What hes interjecting is turning democracy upside down..taking 200-year-old concepts that were a nation of laws and not men and trying to turn it upside down. Sen. Graham: "Any effort to go after Mueller could be the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency." https://t.co/6Pd60LrGRU pic.twitter.com/EXBOwBC35C  ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) July 27, 2017 Facebook

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Watch live: White House news briefing with Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders Facebook

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Trump administration threatens to retaliate against Alaska for GOP senators Obamacare repeal vote, news site reports By Noam N. Levey The Trump administration threatened to block federal aid to Alaska in an effort to bully one of the Republican senators opposed to the current Senate GOP push to roll back the Affordable Care Act, according to a report by the Alaska Dispatch News. The news site reports that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Wednesday called Alaska Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan with a warning that Murkowskis vote had put Alaskas future with the administration in jeopardy. According to the report: Sullivan said the call from Zinke heralded a troubling message. Im not going to go into the details, but I fear that the strong economic growth, pro-energy, pro-mining, pro-jobs and personnel from Alaska who are part of those policies are going to stop, Sullivan said. I tried to push back on behalf of all Alaskans.  Were facing some difficult times and theres a lot of enthusiasm for the policies that Secretary Zinke and the president have been talking about with regard to our economy. But the message was pretty clear, Sullivan said. The threat followed disparaging comments made by the president about Murkowski, including a Twitter attack Wednesday morning Senator @lisamurkowski of the Great State of Alaska really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday. Too bad! Trump wrote. Murkowski dismissed the presidents attacks in an interview with MSNBC. Were here to govern. Were here to legislate, she said. Were here to represent the people who sent us here. And so every day shouldnt be about campaigning. Every day shouldnt be about winning elections. How about just doing a little bit of governing around here? Thats what Im here for. Murkowski and Maine Sen. Susan Collins were the only Republicans who voted against a procedural motion Tuesday to begin debating legislation rolling back the 2010 healthcare law, often called Obamacare. Sullivan, also a Republican, voted in favor of advancing the bill. Murkowski has urged a more open process to develop the legislation, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) has put together behind closed doors without committee hearings or input from Democrats. A spokeswoman for Zinke did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Facebook

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Iran angered by report that Trump wants additional nuclear inspections By Shashank Bengali Iran responded angrily Thursday to reports that the Trump administration would push for inspections of military facilities to ensure Tehran is complying with the 2015 nuclear deal. Iran will not succumb to further pressure, Hamid Reza Taraghi, a hard-line analyst who is close to Irans leadership, told The Times. Taraghi did not say whether Iran would refuse inspectors access to military facilities but insisted the Islamic Republic was complying with the agreement, which required Iran to shelve its nuclear program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions. President Trump has said he wants to tear up the deal and doesnt believe Iran is complying, although his administration certified it was in a report to Congress this month. The Associated Press reported Thursday that Trump was pushing for inspections of suspicious Iranian military sites, either to prove that Iran was violating the deal or force it to refuse, which could cause the agreement to collapse. Iranian officials have argued in the past that inspections of military sites would be off-limits. But under the agreement it signed with the United States and five other world powers, Iran agreed to the so-called Additional Protocol, which allows U.N. inspectors limited access to any site where illicit nuclear activity is suspected. Taraghi, a former lawmaker, said the Additional Protocol allowed for snap inspections and that international inspectors had installed closed-circuit cameras in all nuclear-related facilities. They have access to everything going on here on the ground, Taraghi said. What else do they want to know? It was not immediately clear what military sites the Trump administration was seeking to have inspected, or whether it had evidence that Iran was breaching the terms of the deal. U.N. inspectors monitoring Irans compliance had not requested access to military facilities as of July 25, according to a paper published Thursday by Mark Fitzpatrick, executive director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Washington. If US has good evidence of #Iran violations, then an inspection request is warranted, Fitzpatrick tweeted. A request designed to trap Iran into saying no isnt. Facebook

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Top U.S. general says Pentagon will not change policy on transgender troops until White House acts By W.J. Hennigan The nations senior military officer said Thursday that there will be no modifications to Pentagon policies for now despite President Trump social media posts declaring a ban on transgender troops in uniform. Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote in a memo to commanders and senior enlisted leaders of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines that the military will continue to treat all of our personnel with respect. Dunford said Pentagon policy on transgender troops would not change until the White House has issued Trumps directive to Secretary of Defense James Mattis through formal channels  not on Twitter  and the secretarys office issues guidance on implementation to the service chiefs. Its unclear when that might happen. The unusual memo appeared intended to calm widespread confusion and concern at the Pentagon, which was blindsided when Trump wrote Wednesday that Pentagon would not accept or allow transgender troops to serve in any capacity. The presidents posts appeared to reverse a year-old Pentagon policy that allowed transgender soldiers to openly serve for the first time, and to seek sex reassignment surgery, hormone therapy and other treatments at military hospitals. Trumps surprise announcement not only marked a retreat for the Pentagon push to bar gender-based discrimination. It also was an about-face for Trump, who had repeatedly vowed his support for the LGBT community during the campaign last year. The posts raised questions about the fate of thousands of transgender service members, including some deployed overseas, and whether they would be kicked out of the military under Trumps directive. Dunfords memo appeared to address those fears, at least for the short term. There will be no modifications to the current policy until the Presidents direction has been received by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary has issued implementation guidance, he wrote. In the meantime, we will continue to treat all of our personnel with respect, he added. As importantly, given the current fight and the challenges we face, we will all remain focused on accomplishing our assigned missions. In his tweets, Trump said he had decided to bar transgender troops because the military cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Experts said neither justification was accurate or fair since the expected medical costs were negligible and transgender troops have been openly serving for the past year without disruption. The sweeping declaration drew rebuke from war veterans and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy groups, who vowed to challenge Trump in federal court if self-identified transgender service members are forced out of the military. VoteVets, a liberal military veterans advocacy group, said Thursday it had collected more than 20,000 signatures from veterans, military families and other supporters to oppose the ban. Facebook

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Analysis: Trumps war against elites and expertise By Cathleen Decker (Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images) When President Trump campaigned this spring at the Hermitage, the home of Andrew Jackson, one part of his predecessors approach got a special endorsement. It was during the Revolution that Jackson first confronted and defied an arrogant elite. Does that sound familiar? Trump asked to laughs from his audience. When Trump ally and National Rifle Assn. President Wayne LaPierre teed off six weeks later on Americas greatest domestic threats, he cited not homegrown terrorists but what he termed the three most dangerous voices in America: academic elites, political elites, and media elites. The rhetoric against elites came from two men who would seem to be card-carrying members of the club: LaPierre made more than $5 million in 2015, the most recent year for which his compensation was publicly released. Trump lived before his inauguration in a gold-plated home in the sky above New Yorks Fifth Avenue, a billionaires luxurious domain. Yet for Trump and his allies, a war on elites has been central to the campaign which put him in the presidency and has maintained the loyalty of his core voters. Trump has taken particular aim at entities that could counter his power, which has helped stoke the ardor of his political backers. Read More Facebook

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Top Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway says colleagues using the press to shiv each other By Noah Bierman White House staffers continued their angry campaign against leaks -- and each other -- as top advisor Kellyanne Conway used vivid language in a Fox interview Thursday to denounce colleagues who are using the press to shiv each other in the ribs. The comments came shortly after Anthony Scaramucci, the new White House communications director, delivered his own attack on leakers -- all but blaming Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff -- in an interview on CNN. If the Trump White House at times resembles a reality show, cable television has become the confessional booth where the players vent their anger at each other. That dynamic was on vivid display Thursday morning. Kellyanne Conway: "Now, there are leaks, and then there are people using the press to shiv each other in the ribs. Thats different." (Fox)  David Wright (@DavidWright_CNN) July 27, 2017 Conway largely backed Scaramucci without explicitly taking sides in his public war against Priebus, whom he publicly suggested leaked Scaramuccis financial disclosure forms to the press. The forms are public and available through a request. We just have to cut down on people thinking its cute and its popular and it somehow enhances their resume and their portfolio for later on to curry favor with folks who are more interested in covering the style and not the substance here, Conway said of those who leak to he press. Asked specifically whether she agrees with Scaramucci that Priebus leaked the financial forms, Conway passed on the opportunity to defend Priebus. Leakers are easier to figure out than many think, she said, perhaps ominously given Scaramuccis threats to fire suspects. This West Wing is a very small place. Facebook

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Warfare in the West Wing breaks into the open as Scaramucci takes aim at Priebus By Brian Bennett A knife fight for control of the West Wing broke into the open Thursday morning as President Trumps new communications director Anthony Scaramucci lashed out at White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus in a televised interview, accusing Priebus of leaking and standing in the way of Trumps agenda. The fish stinks from the head down, I can tell you two fish that dont stink, OK, and thats me and the president, Scaramucci said, calling in to CNNs morning show New Day. I dont like the activity thats going in the White House, he said. Scaramucci, who had said the day he was named to the White House job that he and Priebus were like brothers, drastically amended that in the interview, comparing the two of them to the brothers who, in the Bible, were the characters in the first murder. Some brothers are like Cain and Abel, other brothers can fight with each other and get along. I dont know if this is reparable or not  that will be up to the president, he said. Scaramucci on his relationship with Reince: "Some brothers are like Cain and Abel." Uh, Cain killed Abel. https://t.co/UQ8F9HiXLx  Dan Merica (@merica) July 27, 2017 President Trump has a track record of encouraging rivalries among people who work for him. Scaramucci said he had spoken with Trump for 15 minutes to go over what he was going to say before he called CNN, implying his warning to Priebus carried Trumps backing. Trump, Scaramucci said, has given me his full support and his full blessing. When Scaramucci was hired, Trump told him he would report directly to the president, bypassing the chief of staff, and setting up the clash that played out Thursday on national television. If you want to talk about the chief of staff, we have had odds, we have had differences. When I said we were brothers from the podium, thats because were rough on each other, Scaramucci said. The tension between Scaramucci and Priebus flared after Politico published a story Wednesday about Scaramuccis publicly available financial disclosure form showing he still stands to profit from his stake in an investment firm he founded. The disclosure form was available to the public because Scaramucci had been nominated earlier this year for a job at the Export-Import Bank of the U.S., and the forms become public 30 days after they are filed. But Scaramucci, in a tweet Wednesday night, seemed to imply Priebus had leaked the form to make him look bad, or knew who did, and called for an FBI investigation. He later deleted the tweet, apparently after being informed that the form was not leaked. Over the last five days, Scaramucci said to CNN, he has done a major amount of work interviewing assistants to the president and communications staff. He also had dinner with Trump on Wednesday night in addition to his phone conversation with the president Thursday morning. The two of them want everyone to know we have a very, very good idea of who the leakers are, who the senior leakers are, in the White House, he said. Scaramucci took aim specifically at Priebus for leaking details about internal White House discussions and maneuvers. If Reince wants to explain that hes not a leaker, let him do that, Scaramucci said. Scaramucci appears to be giving voice to Trumps frustration with people in the White House the president believes are slowing down policy efforts, even though Trump has shown a pattern of repeatedly stepping on his own efforts on healthcare, job creation and other initiatives with unplanned tweets on topics such as Russia, transgender troops and unfounded allegations of voter fraud. There are people inside this administration who think its their job to save America from this president, Scaramucci said. Its not their jobs ... to rein him in or do things to him that slow down his agenda. People in the Washington are back-stabbers, Scaramucci said. Im more of a front-stabbing person. Facebook

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Scaramucci tweets, then deletes, confusing statement that referred to information in Politico report as a leak By Colleen Shalby In a now deleted tweet, incoming White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci sent out a confusing statement Wednesday night, addressing information reported earlier by Politico as a leak. The article reported on Scaramuccis financial disclosures. According to Politico, those details had been filed with the Office of Government Ethics, so its unclear what  if anything  was leaked information. Scaramuccis tweet further confused as it ended with White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus Twitter handle. Just before those characters, he noted that he intended to contact the FBI and the Justice Department. Some speculated that Scaramucci was implying that Priebus was behind the leak. But in a new tweet roughly two hours after the original, he tweeted what appeared to be a clarification, correcting a headline of news site Axios. Wrong! Tweet was public notice to leakers that all Sr Adm officials are helping to end illegal leaks, he tweeted, ending it  once again  with Priebus handle. Wrong! Tweet was public notice to leakers that all Sr Adm officials are helping to end illegal leaks. @Reince45 pic.twitter.com/AB0reseuX1  Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) July 27, 2017 Five days ago, Scaramucci, responding to a question about reported tensions between him and the chief of staff, said he and Priebus are a little bit like brothers, where we rough each other up a little, which is totally normal for brothers. 10:15 p.m. PT: This post was originally published at 8:52 p.m. It was updated with information from Scaramuccis new tweet. Facebook

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Senate Judiciary chair fires off warning to Trump about Sessions By David Lauter Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, fired off an unmistakable warning to President Trump on Wednesday evening: Dont even think about trying to get a new attorney general confirmed this year. Trump has been publicly tormenting Jeff Sessions, appearing to want to push the attorney general into stepping down from his job. But in a tweet, Grassley made it clear that if Trump pushed Sessions out, he would have to live with an acting attorney general for a long time. Everybody in D.C. Shld b warned that the agenda for the judiciary Comm is set for rest of 2017. Judges first subcabinet 2nd / AG no way  ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) July 27, 2017 Any nominee for attorney general would have to pass through the Judiciary Committee before getting a confirmation vote, so Grassleys no way would be a formidable barrier. Grassley has been an administration loyalist on nearly all issues so far, but as a veteran senator, he has a strong independent streak and, as previous administrations have found, he can be implacable if angered. His message comes as conservative allies rally support for Sessions. Several other Republican senators have spoken out in favor of the attorney general, a former colleague who was well liked during his years as senator from Alabama. Senate Democrats already have said they would use procedural motions to prevent the Senate from formally going on a recess this summer, blocking Trump from making a recess appointment that would bypass the Senate. Republicans used similar maneuvers to block recess appointments by President Obama. If Sessions were to step down and not be replaced, Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein would become acting attorney general. Trump has been critical of Rosenstein as well as Sessions, so that option presumably would not appeal to him. Facebook

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Under fire from Trump, Sessions should stay focused on his job, White House says By Joseph Tanfani (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) In spite of a daily barrage of Twitter attacks from President Trump, the White House press secretary said Wednesday that Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions should stay focused on performing his duties as the nations top law enforcement officer. You can be disappointed in someone and still want someone to continue to do their job, Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday, hours after Trump criticized Sessions for the third straight day  this time for not replacing acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe. Sessions was one of Trumps earliest and most loyal supporters, but the relationship has turned icy as Trump continues to seethe about Sessions decision to step aside from supervising the investigation into alleged Russian interference with last years election. Sessions was at the White House for meetings Wednesday, the second time this week hes visited the West Wing, but once again did not see Trump, Sanders said. Sanders did not clear up the main question surrounding Trumps strategy of publicly battering the attorney general: If the president is so unhappy, why doesnt he simply fire Sessions? Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Wednesday that Trumps apparent attempt to humiliate Sessions into quitting was a sign of weakness. To me, weakness is when you play around the edges, and you dont use the power you have, Graham said in an interview on CNN. Sanders said that Trump wants Sessions to continue to lead the Department of Justice. He wants him to focus on things like immigration, leaks and a number of other issues, she said. One of Trumps public complaints has been that Sessions hasnt been aggressive enough in pursuing leakers of classified information. In fact, the Justice Department is expected to announce next week some leak prosecutions. On Tuesday, Sessions also announced new measures to cut off some federal funds to so-called sanctuary cities that dont cooperate with immigration enforcement, another favorite issue for the president. But Sanders added that, at this point, a leak investigation would not salvage Sessions standing with Trump. I dont think thats the nature of the relationship, she said. In two tweets Wednesday morning, Trump criticized Sessions for not replacing McCabe, whose wife ran for office as a Democrat in Virginia in 2015. He suggested that McCabe had a conflict of interest in his duties as deputy director of the FBI during the investigation of Hillary Clintons handling of classified emails as secretary of State, although McCabe did not move into that job until months after his wifes campaign was over. McCabe took over the bureau as acting director when Trump fired James B. Comey in May. Sanders also declined to answer a question on why Trump did not fire McCabe himself, saying only that Trump looked forward to seeing his nominee as FBI director, Christopher Wray, be confirmed by the Senate soon. Facebook

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Trump, on Twitter, announced a ban on transgender service members. Now the military has to figure out what he means By Brian Bennett (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) President Trump surprised even the Pentagon on Wednesday morning by his unexpected announcement, via Twitter, of a ban on transgender service members. The military has not had a chance to decide how to put such a ban into effect, acknowledged Trumps top spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, as she fielded numerous questions on the topic later from White House reporters. Secretary of Defense James Mattis, who was on vacation, wasnt informed until Tuesday that Trump had decided to bar transgender service members from serving in any way. Sometimes you have to make a decision and once he made a decision, he didnt feel it was necessary to hold that decision, Sanders said. The president concluded, based on consultations with his national security team, that allowing transgender individuals to serve erodes military readiness and unit cohesion, she said. White House and Pentagon officials had been discussing details of medical coverage for transgender service members on active duty. But Trump went far beyond that with his series of tweets that the military will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the military. It will be up to the Defense Department to determine the specifics of the policy, including whether active-duty transgender service members will be kicked out of the military, Sanders said. Estimates of the number of current service members who are transgender range from 1,300 to about 16,000. The implementation policy is going to be something that the White House and Department of Defense will have to work together to lawfully determine, Sanders said. I would imagine the Department of Defense will be the lead on that, she added. Trumps tweets overshadowed other announcements he had planned to make Wednesday about adding manufacturing jobs to the economy and donating $100,000 of his second-quarter paycheck to the Department of Education to support science and math education. The president has expressed concerns since this Obama policy came into effect, Sanders said. She added that the president considered allowing transgender people in the ranks is a very expensive and disruptive policy. At one point, an exasp
Anaheim elected officials and workers will be barred from lobbying the city for two years after they leave their jobs under a new sunshine ordinance, the strictest restriction on government lobbying in Orange County.

The new ordinance, proposed by Councilman Jose Moreno, also prohibits the city from hiring people from lobbying firms and requires paid lobbyists to register with the city and file quarterly reports.

It also would require City Council members and executive level staff to retain all email communications for 90 days, rather than the current 37 days, and calls for signs to be posted at the site of any large-scale development explaining the project.

At their July 25 meeting, council members exchanged barbs over provisions of the law, with some council members accusing the measures author of targeting them and their staff.

Councilman Steve Faessel, who supported the ordinance, said he asked to see drafts of the ordinance but was denied.

This document is about openness and clarity, and yet I asked for some involvement, more than two months ago  and since it was considered a work in progress, I was denied, Faessel said.

I find that it was written in such a way that would cost three of our council members their aides and not the other council members their aides, Faessel added.

One of Faessels part-time aides is an employee with the public relations firm FSB Core Strategies and could be affected by a provision in the ordinance that prohibits the employees of lobbying firms from working with the city. Jeff Flint, the companys CEO, is a registered lobbyist with the county of Orange and has represented the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce.

Moreno said he did not intend to target any council member with the ordinance, although he realized some would be affected by it.

While any ordinance will have unequal impacts on people  that doesnt mean that its inequitable, Moreno said.

The council voted 5-2, with council members Lucille Kring and Kris Murray voting no, to approve the ordinance.

Kring said the ordinance would increase the load and expense to developers. She said the city already is transparent, and she doesnt believe there is a problem with lobbyists.

You are looking for a solution to a problem I believe does not exist, Kring said.

Murray, who called the ordinance half-baked and not ready-to-go, also introduced a number of amendments she said would strengthen the ordinance, although the council voted to exclude her amendments. Murray will introduce those changes to the ordinance as a separate item at the Aug. 15 council meeting.

Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait, meanwhile, praised Moreno for proposing the ordinance.

I applaud you taking on the establishment and the lobbying establishment  this represents change at City Hall, Tait said.

City Council Aides

While definitions of the term lobbyist differ, it generally refers to anyone paid to influence government decisions.

The Anaheim ordinance defines a lobbyist as anyone who receives $500 or more a month to communicate with city officials for the purpose of influencing legislative or administrative actions.

Council members each have a budget for hiring part-time policy aides, although the mayor has a full-time aide. Some members use that budget to contract with public affairs firms.

Councilwoman Denise Barnes part-time aide, Matthew Holder, is a registered lobbyist who has previously worked with Barnes campaign consultant, John Lewis, and is a public affairs consultant. Holder said the county database is outdated, and he has not been a registered lobbyist for the past year and a half.

Moreno argued at the meeting that aides who work for lobbying firms have access to sensitive city information that may give an advantage to the firm they work for.

City spokesman Mike Lyster said Faessel does not believe his aide should be barred from working in Anaheim under the ordinance and that he will seek a legal opinion from either the city attorney or an outside body.

I think everybody else will likely have to go through the same process, Lyster said of the other council aides.

Krings aide, former council candidate Steve Chavez Lodge, used to work for Hill International, a city contractor.

Murray, who works for the public consulting firm Willdan, has a contract with the company Communications LAB to provide both her city policy aides and to do work for her campaign.

Shirley Grindle, a citizen watchdog who has independently monitored campaign contributions to politicians countywide for years, said she would like to see the quarterly reports filed by lobbyists include disclosure of what campaign contributions they have made to the council during that period.

I recently found out that some of you hire lobbyists as your staff to help you do your jobs  and I cant tell you how bad I think that is, Grindle said. They do not have a good name anywhere  because theyre paid to get your vote, to get a project approved.

Similar laws statewide

Many sunshine ordinances in California  such as ones adopted by Santa Ana, Oakland and Contra Costa County  largely focus on clarifying policies on public access to records and public meetings.

The state Political Reform Act generally restricts state officials and certain local officials, such as city managers and elected officials, from being paid to attempt to influence their agencies on matters they worked on while employed by the government.

The state revolving door restrictions on lobbying, which aims to limit the influence of officials who move between public service and the private sector, only applies for one year after a person permanently leaves their public sector job.

Anaheims sunshine ordinance is a hybrid that resembles regulations passed by some cities with their own ethics commissions, such as Los Angeles, San Jose and San Francisco.

Anaheim is the second city in Orange County to have a lobbyist registry; both the county of Orange and Irvine require lobbyists to register.

This story was reported by Voice of OC, a nonprofit investigative newsroom, as part of a publishing agreement with TimesOC. Contact THY VO at tvo@voiceofoc.org.
A successful gondolier wears many hats. And not all of them are straw.

A gondolier  someone who rows a gondola  is expected to be a tour guide, a boat captain, a sommelier, a waiter, an entertainer and sometimes even a marriage counselor for those who step aboard the romantic watercraft.

Though gondoliers are often regarded for their singing as they row guests on the light, flat-bottomed boats around harbors and through canals in their traditional white or black pants and striped shirts, people may forget that they are also athletes, said Greg Mohr, president of Newport Beach-based Gondola Adventures Inc. and the Gondola Society of America.

On Saturday and Sunday, more than 50 gondoliers representing 20 gondola operations across the United States will compete at Newport Harbor in the fourth annual U.S. Gondola Nationals. The event has been held twice in Providence, R.I., and once in Huntington Beach. A different gondola company hosts the races each year, and this time its Mohrs turn.

We love to row and its something unique to what we do, but we dont really see much of an opportunity to compete with one another, said Mohr, a Costa Mesa resident. Thats what makes events like this weekends so meaningful.

The gondoliers will compete in seven races, including one-, two- and four-rower distance races and one- and two-rower sprints. They also will have a two-rower distance race in a slender boat called a pupparin and a one-rower race on a sandolo, a flat-bottomed Venetian row boat.

For the first time, the event will include a youth race for 12-year-old boys who were trained at Sunset Gondola in Huntington Beach, Mohr said.

Were in the business of creating an experience, he said. One of the neat things about this event is we get to create it for ourselves for a change.

Mohr said he fell in love with gondolas more than 20 years ago while he was chartering yachts and other vessels through his company in Newport Beach. In 1993, a man offered to take Mohr and his then-girlfriend, Elisa, on the water in a gondola so they could see what the hype was about.

It occurred to me that I had been meaning to propose to her. I had this ring, so I told the man about it. He told me that they always say yes on a gondola, Mohr said. I asked, she said yes and we just fell in love with it.

It is unclear when the gondola was created in Venice, Italy. But by the 1600s, experts say, thousands of gondoliers were transporting and serenading people across the waterways of the city.

By the late 1700s, gondolas were present in New York. Eventually, they were transporting people along the 16 miles of canals in Venice Beach.

Now, more than 30 companies offer gondola rides throughout the United States, with 10 operating in Southern California from Ventura to San Diego, Mohr said.

When the gondoliers ready themselves for the races this weekend, they will be contributing to a long tradition that has managed to stay afloat in modern times.

What we do is a highly traditional craft, Mohr said. Its been done in that exact way for [hundreds] of years.

*

If You Go

What: Fourth annual U.S. Gondola Nationals

When: Saturday and Sunday, beginning at 9 a.m.

Where: Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club, 1601 Bayside Drive, Corona del Mar
Orange County Fair visitors with a sweet tooth can find a lot to satisfy it on any given day. But most confections on the midway dont require a blow torch to create.

On Sunday evening, however, award-winning pastry chef and master chocolatier Stephane Treand wielded fire, canned air and plastic molds to forge an exotic tropical-looking sculpture out of sugar.

Treand, a Tustin resident, owns The Pastry School and St. Patisserie Chocolat, both at 3321 Hyland Ave. in Costa Mesa.

He has a booth at the fairs OC Promenade through Aug. 13, featuring treats such as chocolates, croissants, meringues and macaron gelato sandwiches, a first for the Orange County Fair.

Treand also will hold a cookie decorating class for children ages 9 to 17 at 1 p.m. Aug. 6 at the fair in Costa Mesa.

They wont have to follow a recipe or anything; they will have total freedom to be creative, Treand said in a statement.

The native of Paris got his start as an apprentice at a pastry shop in northern France while taking pastry courses one week per month in Vincennes, Paris, according to a news release. He opened Patisserie Treand in Brignoles in Provence in 1989, and a few years later became a pastry teacher at the CFA of St. Maximin.

In 2004, he won the Meilleur Ouvrier de France, an award given by the French president to a professional in a trade.

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Trout and Old World charm blend on six days of fly fishing in the Eastern Pyrenees of Spain hosted by guides Barry and Cathy Beck and Frontiers International Travel.

Anglers can cast in glacial mountain lakes and spring-fed streams for rainbow trout, wild brook trout and the Mediterranean zebra trout. Non-anglers can spend their days touring the areas monasteries, cathedrals and wineries.

Accommodations are at La Ribagorza Lodge, an old country inn in the tiny village of Aren, close to fishing locations in Catalonia, Aragon and the country of Andorra.

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Dates: Oct. 13-21

Price: From $5,950 per person, double occupancy, with shared guide. Includes accommodations, all meals and round-trip transfers to Barcelona. Fishing equipment and international airfare not included.

Info: Frontiers International Travel, (724) 935-1577

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Hajj Abu Ahmad, a grizzled senior commander with Hezbollah, flashed his laser pointer authoritatively on a large map as he described the intensity of the battle the militant group had waged to neutralize Al Qaeda-affiliated Syrian fighters bunkered in this mountainous area along the border between Lebanon and Syria.

You had to fight rock to rock, hill to hill, quarry to quarry, said Abu Ahmad, who used a nom de guerre, in line with Hezbollahs policy.



For the record: An earlier version of this story identified analyst Sadeq Nabulsi as Mohammad Nabulsi.

His presentation, after an edited video of the groups warriors in battle (CDs of the video will be distributed, promised a spokesman), was another salvo in a media offensive to show that the Lebanese group is not the regional menace President Trump called it last week, and that it occupies a pivotal role in the fight against Al Qaeda and Islamic State extremists.

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That message was on full display Saturday, when the group corralled about 50 SUVs full of Western and local journalists to survey its victory here, among its famously media-shy commanders and fighters.

Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim political party, is also Lebanons strongest armed faction. Deemed a terrorist organization by the U.S., the group, empowered by its patron, Iran, has an outsized presence in the region.

Israel considers the group its most cunning foe. Hezbollah operatives, such as Imad Mughniyah (who was assassinated in 2008), sound like the stuff of spy movies. Along with Iran and Russia, Hezbollah has been instrumental in preventing the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad at the hands of the rebel factions arrayed against him, some backed by the United States.

Since late last week, Hezbollah-aligned TV and social media channels have delivered intimate accounts of the battle to wrest control of Arsal and its environs from the Organization for the Liberation of Syria, which was formerly associated with Al Qaeda and known as Al Nusra Front. The operation had been conducted in cooperation with the Lebanese and Syrian armies, who secured the perimeter on both sides of the border and prevented the jihadis from escaping.

By Thursday, the Islamist militants were cornered in a nearly 2-square-mile area and conceded defeat. A cease-fire was declared, along with an agreement to transfer an estimated 9,000 insurgents and their families from the area to rebel-held regions in Syria. (Its second phase began Monday, Hezbollah-affiliated media said.)

The tour for journalists became an occasion to survey an area inaccessible since 2014, when the militants had overrun Lebanese army positions here and taken a few dozen troops hostage. Nine remain missing and are thought to be in the hands of Islamic State, which still has a presence in other parts nearby.

The convoy, shepherded by camouflage-painted Polaris and Yamaha ATVs zooming back and forth on the harsh terrain, followed a path hewn through the Anti-Lebanon mountains to within four miles of the Syrian border. The area, long an important smuggling route between Lebanon and Syria, is famous for the apricot and cherry trees that line the uphill asphalt road. It soon gives way to a forbidding dirt track that weaves past the quarries that extract Arsals other important export, stone.

Local journalists pose on a Hezbollah ATV in the Juroud Arsal area between Lebanon and Syria. (Nabih Bulos / For The Times)

Those quarries, as well as the canyons crisscrossing the region, had been repurposed into makeshift bunkers by the militants, who had fortified their positions using tools commandeered from local stone workers. The defenses had rendered heavy weapons mostly ineffective, said Abu Ahmad in his military briefing, forcing Hezbollah to flush out the jihadis in brutal close-quarters combat.

To be fair to [Al Nusra Front insurgents], they had good defensive planning, he said, adding that Hezbollah had confirmed the death of 47 militants.

Hezbollah fighters had also been killed, although Abu Ahmad declined to say how many.

His presentation was held in an underground cavern first dug out during Lebanons civil war by Palestinian guerrillas. Years later, the anti-Assad militants had made it a rear-guard rebel base, shuttling men and materiel between Lebanon and Syria.

On one side stood what appeared to be a library, complete with religious books and CDs. One disc was labeled as a sermon titled, What goes on underground. Unassembled mortar shells were scattered nearby, while another room held ragged military vests and long boxes containing what appeared to be rocket launchers, as well as abandoned records of the weapons assigned to each insurgent.

Another stop at a hilltop military outpost (after a navigational bungle nearly caused one car to veer into Syria) allowed journalists to clamber over weathered-looking jeeps equipped with cannons. A commander exhorted fighters to lower their gaze to avoid the multitude of cameras.

The trip, said Sadeq Nabulsi, a Hezbollah-aligned analyst who had joined the tour, was partly a response to Trumps statement about Hezbollah.

In a joint news conference in Washington last week with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Trump hailed Lebanon for being on the front lines in the fight against ISIS, Al Qaeda and Hezbollah.

Hezbollah is a menace to the Lebanese state, the Lebanese people, and the entire region, said Trump, according to a White House transcript. He seemed unaware that Hariris government had come to power after making a deal with Hezbollah. Hariri reacted with a series of awkward grimaces.

Islamic State is also known as ISIS, ISIL and by its Arabic acronym, Daesh.

Trump excoriated Hezbollah, along with its patron Iran, for fueling the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria even as its growing military arsenal threatens to start yet another conflict with Israel.

With this tour, Nabulsi said, Hezbollah was saying that it was on the front line against terrorism, while America made Al Qaeda and Daesh and facilitated their growth.

But Hezbollah also had a message for its audience in Lebanon, where some agree with Trumps rebuke that the group puts Lebanons interests second to those of Iran.

Throughout the tour, it sought to emphasize its Lebanese origins. The pairing of Lebanese and Hezbollah flags was inescapable. The military presentation opened with the Lebanese national anthem, followed by that of Hezbollah. Near the hilltop position stood a rose-covered shrine dedicated to the Martyrs of the Defense of Lebanon.

This is a Lebanese fight, 100%, said Hadi, a bearded field commander who spoke with breezy confidence near the shrine. The first beneficiary of this battle are the people of Arsal who werent able to come back and were left with no rights or income.

He added that Hezbollah had waited for the Lebanese state and the whole world to secure Arsal, but politics had embarrassed the army. Finally Hezbollah had taken matters into its own hands, though it had no long-term designs on the area.

If the army comes now, we will hand over our positions and leave. We dont want to stay in these mountains, said Hadi.

He was soon called away, and the Hezbollah spokesman, Mohammad Afif, gave a quick speech to mark the tours end.

True to his word, Afif produced the promised CDs, pressed into the hands of journalists by Hezbollahs media team just before they began their long journey back to Beirut.

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Pache, a stew of sheep and cow innards, may not look appetizing, but the people of Mosul adore it

Bulos is a special correspondent.

Twitter: @nabihbulos
At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, then they begin to hope it can be done, then they see it can be done  then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago.

 Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

Maha Almutairi has a secret apartment.

At 35, like most unmarried Saudi women, she still officially lives at home. Her father decides what can and cant happen in his home. Decisions about what she will study, where she will work, all are subject to her fathers permission.

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Can she have cats? Not anywhere in the apartment building her father owns, he ruled, even though Almutairi has long loved rescuing strays and hiding them in her room.

Could she travel abroad to study medicine? No, her father said, not without a male relative to accompany her. She gave up on being a doctor and signed up to study interior design at a school in Riyadh.

But she has been growing more independent.

When her father tried to force her into a marriage with a man he thought would be a suitable partner, she refused.

Its my decision, she told him.

Two years ago, after her mother died and Almutairi became depressed, her father let her get a job at Flormar, a makeup store at a nearby mall. Work has gone well, although she recently started wearing a face veil after a wealthy male customer sent his bodyguard to the mall offering to pay her to see him.

She didnt tell her father what happened. Hed have made her quit.

Under Saudi Arabias strict guardianship laws, which King Salman has recently pledged to review, women must obtain permission from a male guardian  a father, husband or in some cases even a son  to apply for a passport, travel abroad or marry.

Often, they need such consent even to get a job or obtain medical care.

Some women try to defy the system, fleeing to another country or defiantly renting an apartment on their own, where they can live under their own roof. In many of these cases, though, the women have been charged with running away and jailed.

Almutairi knew it would be useless to ask her father for permission to rent an apartment where she could keep her cats. Hed never agree.

So she got a secret apartment.

An apartment rental app offered a variety of places in Riyadh, and it was operated by a property management company that does not require a guardians approval for a lease  many common restrictions on women, including housing, are matters not of law, but social custom.

Almutairi figured it wouldnt count as running away if she rented an apartment, but stayed there only part time.

Two months ago, she rented a three-bedroom place behind a barbershop in east Riyadh. She began moving in her 10 cats.

::

She heard their cries before she entered the apartment, fumbling with the keys on the threshold as the meowing rose in a crescendo. She opened the door to a chorus of hungry yowls.

She had told her family she was going to work.

Almutairi removed her black head scarf and abaya to reveal short black hair, a white T-shirt and black pants. She greeted Shushu first, her favorite shy, gray Persian, then Souada, a coal-black shorthair with emerald eyes. The most unpopular cat she named Chris, after the American television show Everybody Hates Chris.

Shushu, Souada and Chris were cowering near a large litter box on the gleaming, white-tile floor of a nearly empty living room that smelled of disinfectant. In one corner was a stack of cardboard boxes, a cat tower and a cage.

Inside the cage was an aggressive orange-and-white tom cat that stood on its hind legs, clawing at the bars. Almutairi opened the cage, grabbed the cat and cradled him like a baby. The cat licked her fingers and commenced purring.

I missed him! Almutairi said, smiling.

She retreated into a small kitchen to mix up a batch of food: kibble, along with cooked chicken and rice.

Almutairi moved to the next room, sparely furnished with Persian rugs, seat cushions and a low table.

Every day, she spends a few hours here, more on weekends. She fantasizes about the day when she might be able to stay, to wake up with the hot sun streaming through the window, sip her morning tea with a cat on her lap.

And talk to no one at all.

::

(Molly Hennessy-Fiske / Los Angeles Times)

The rent for the apartment is 2,400 riyals a month, about $640  more than half her monthly salary.

Its worth it, because it makes me happy, she said.

She has never had guests; not even her family has seen it. Her sisters dont know about the apartment, though they know she has pets.

Why are you wasting all your money on them? they say.

Almutairi replies, I adopted them from the streets. You want me to leave them in a park?

She worried when she first moved in that she wouldnt be able to handle the responsibility of heading a household. What if she couldnt pay the rent? What if someone found out?

Soon after she moved in, she temporarily rescued an injured dog, and a conservative neighbor belonging to the religious police complained to the authorities that it was howling.

She gave the dog away, but then the same neighbor complained again after Almutairi mistakenly left her garbage in the wrong spot outside.

She came home one day to find a window mysteriously opened from the outside. One of her cats had escaped, and she suspected the neighbor.

Still, the religious police have been stripped of many of their powers in recent years, and the complaints eventually stopped.

Almutairis ambitions grew.

She has been setting money aside and investigating land for sale outside the city. She found an acre she could buy for about $80,000 and envisions starting a no-kill animal shelter. She could get a loan from a bank to buy it. But she would have to give up her apartment. Her father would have to help her get the loan. Shes waiting until the fall to decide.

In the apartment, it was quiet  so quiet she could hear the low hum of the air conditioner, the cats lapping up their water.

When the call to prayer sounded from the nearby mosques, it reverberated in the empty rooms.

Almutairi had been home for about two hours. Soon, she knew, she would have to bundle back up in her scarf and abaya and leave for work.

What Im doing isnt wrong, she said.

She sounded convinced.

To read the article in Spanish, click here

molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com

ALSO

For some Saudi women facing strict male authority and even abuse, theres only one answer: Run

Irans latest culture battle: Should women in cars keep their heads covered?

In a shake-up, Saudi king names son Mohammed bin Salman new crown prince
Womens rights in Saudi Arabia have always been a contentious issue. Women have only recently won a limited right to vote, they cant work close to men and the debate over whether they should be allowed to drive has gone on for years.

The World Economic Forum in its 2016 report on the global gender gap ranked Saudi Arabia 141 out of 144 countries for gender parity  down from 134 out of 145 in 2015.

Only Syria, Pakistan and Yemen ranked lower.

But laws and regulations are changing, as a review of the kingdoms strict guardianship provisions gets underway. And as it turns out, some of the widely practiced restrictions on women in Saudi Arabia are enshrined not in law, but in social practice.

Women are beginning to test those limits, but many are not sure of the rules. Can women file for divorce? Sue for child custody? Pursue criminal charges if a brother steals their jewelry?

For some Saudi women facing strict male authority and even abuse, there's only one answer: Run 

After fielding questions from women confused about their rights, Saudi lawyer Nasreen Issa, 30, created an app for iPhones and Android devices called Know Your Rights. Its in Arabic and English, designed for both Saudis and foreign women living in or visiting the kingdom.

Theres an intro video explaining womens basic rights, and icons to help navigate the legal system, which relies in part on Islamic religious law, or sharia. Issa met with The Times at her Riyadh office to walk us through the app.

Why create an app?

I realized a lot of women dont know their rights. I thought maybe I should publish a book, but its an app era. Everyones using apps on their phone.

Ive always wanted to help women, been involved in womens rights. This way they can do it themselves, be independent.  I wanted it to be like a womens kingdom, anything is there. Theres even a section on intellectual property rights: You wrote a poem, someone stole it. Your husband stole your jewelry? Youre looking for a job? There are links, including some government links.

How did you prepare?

I specialize in corporate law, so I had to learn about sharia, to go to the courts and talk to women who had tried to get alimony and custody. The reason I went to corporate law is because in Saudi Arabia there are no family law firms. Its not like Boston Legal. Thats why I did it on the side. In the U.S. you can make money as a divorce lawyer. Its not like that here.

What did you learn from your research at the Saudi courts?

Theyre very old school. When you file a lawsuit, you have to notify the other party and they have you draw a map of where they are. A lot of these women are uneducated, they dont know how to draw. So I did this icon called opponent location. Its linked to Google Maps. All she needs to do is go to her husbands house or whoever she wants to sue, click on it and print it to give to the clerk.  We have a video that explains the whole process of filing, and lawsuit templates.

If a woman doesnt know her rights, the judge isnt going to explain, hes just going to say Next!  We have written laws that she can use to her benefit, but with sharia, its a little harder. For instance, in sharia, it says a girl from age 7 should go with her father, a boy at age 12 can choose. But the courts are now realizing that doesnt work and are just giving them to the mothers.

If a woman doesnt know her rights, the judge isnt going to explain, hes just going to say, Next!'  Nasreen Issa, 30, Saudi Arabian lawyer

You funded the project yourself, and the app is free. What kind of response have you received?

We had 50,000 downloads. But now we have 30,000. They use it and uninstall it. So were trying to see why that is. It is legal. The Ministry of Justice called me and they want to sponsor it, but they want to do it without a fee. So Im trying to talk to them because I have to rent a server.

The app has an icon that connects women with questions to you, pinging your phone  what do they say?

Sometimes they say I dont understand and I tell them to watch the video several times. Theres a kind of dependency.

I created an icon for the lawyers directory because I cant take these [calls] all on my own. We have all the contacts and for those without lawyers it says email me your CV. Most of them are volunteers. I get about 47 consultations a day. I just put the expat icon up this week and I got two calls, one from a woman in Arizona who said shes married to a Saudi and had some issues, one from an expat woman in Jidda whos divorcing.

Under the kingdoms male guardianship system, women are considered minors. King Salman is considering changes to the system  how would that impact womens rights?

What the king said is if theres no laws or regulations or sharia [requiring guardian approval] then you cant do it. If you want to look for a job, some jobs will require a letter from a guardian. That would be out.

But other areas where women need guardians approval are less clear?

Theres still renting a flat, release from prison, traveling, marriage.

Release from prison?

Lets say your time in prison is over. Its not like the movies where the doors open. If her guardian doesnt come get her, she just rots there.

So its not clear whether the king intends to change that, but do you think womens rights are advancing?

Its definitely moving forward, but its baby steps.  There is pressure from abroad. Plus Saudi Arabia has a seat on the U.N. womens commission [as of April]. Thats going to make them want to show results.

molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com

Twitter: @mollyhf

ALSO

For some Saudi women facing strict male authority and even abuse, there's only one answer: Run

A million miles away behind her own front door: A Saudi woman's secret apartment
All material is subject to strictly enforced copyright terms & conditions and cannot be repurposed or reproduced.  19882022 Latin American Financial Publications Inc.
Jul 31, 2017, 4:34am ET

FCA announces aggressive electrification strategy

Like Volvo, Maserati will launch only electrified cars starting in 2019.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has announced it is finally embracing electrification. The company will embark on an electric and hybrid car offensive in 2019.

The plan will forever change Maserati. The Italian brand known for big-displacement engines and sonorous exhaust notes has vowed to only launch electrified cars starting in 2019. Most of them will be hybrid or plug-in hybrid models, but persistent rumors claim the Alfieri concept shown in Geneva in 2014 will reach showrooms sooner or later with an all-electric powertrain.

Volvo recently made a similar announcement, but it has been dabbling in electrification for over a decade. FCA boss Sergio Marchionne conceded the company is late to the party.

"We have been reluctant to embrace that avenue until we saw clearer the path forward," he told investors during a conference call.

The group's electrification offensive will conclude in 2022, according to Auto Express. At that point, more than half of the FCA fleet will be electrified in one way or another.

More specific details -- such as which models will get which type of electrification -- haven't been announced yet, but they'll begin to trickle out over the coming months. Notably, the company will shed insight into its future products during an investor day scheduled for early next year.

The focus on electric technology could push FCA into Formula E. Marchionne -- who will retire in 2019 -- admitted he is looking at the EV-only race series with interest. Ferrari will remain in Formula 1 in the foreseeable future and Fiat won't return to top-tier racing any time soon, which leaves Maserati and Alfa Romeo the most likely candidates for a Formula E team.
Jul 31, 2017, 11:02am ET

Genesis forced to stop sales in Louisiana

A licensing issue has forced Genesis to halt operations in Louisiana.

Genesis, the newly-formed luxury division of Hyundai, has suspended all activities in Louisiana due to a licensing issue.

On July 20 Genesis informed its Louisiana dealer body that it would be suspending all sales, service and marketing activities in the state because it failed to obtain proper licensing. Per Louisiana law, automakers, along with dealers, must be granted a state-issued license to establish a new automotive brand; Genesis parent Hyundai failed to attain that license. It's reported that the dealers didn't obtain proper licensing, either.

"Everything happened at a fast pace," Genesis head Manfred Fitzgerald told Automotive News. "I think it was an oversight.

In a separate statement Genesis said that it is "taking all necessary steps so Genesis sales can resume in the state.

Dealers in the state are currently considering legal action against Hyundai to recoup money already spent on things like floor planning for the new luxury brand. The dealer network may also sue for lost income from the inability to sell or service Genesis vehicles.

"Having said they're a manufacturer and not having their license, that's a breach of contract, said Claude Reynaud, Louisiana Automobile Dealers Association general counsel.

But some dealers think there is something more nefarious going on than just a licensing snafu. In June Genesis told Louisiana dealers that the brand was changing its business model and would pare down its dealer count in the state from 13 to just two. Genesis has publicly stated that it wants to reduce the number of dealers selling its vehicles. However, Genesis says there was wasn't "any intent behind its failure to secure the correct license.

Hyundai reportedly wants to establish a separate dealer network for the Genesis brand, but no concrete plans have been announced.
A woman suing the Easton Police Department over the death of her son can't find a lawyer willing to handle the case.

So the federal judge presiding over it has invited the attorney for the police department to file a motion to throw it out.

The lawsuit accuses Easton police Sgt. Dominick Marraccini of allowing Richard Scheuermann III to bleed to death and accuses the city police department of condoning the excessive use of force.

Scheuermann, 39, of Palmer Township, was fatally shot by Marraccini on Oct. 24, 2014, after a multi-jurisdictional chase. Marraccini was cleared of criminal wrongdoing after an investigation by the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office.

State investigators at the time said video and audio recordings of the chase and shooting supported witness accounts that police believed their lives were in danger.

The lawsuit says Scheuermann's driving posed no danger to anyone -- a stark contrast to police descriptions of a wild chase that culminated in a tense crash scene where Scheuermann ignored police commands and stabbed himself in the neck with a pocket knife.

Attorney Patrick Geckle of Philadelphia filed the lawsuit on Oct. 20, 2016, against the city. But he left the case May 15.

U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl gave Scheuermann's mother, Lois Spaziani, 60 days to find a new lawyer. That deadline came and went in mid-July.

On Friday, the judge said Spaziani will have to proceed as her own attorney.

"Defendants are permitted to file a dispositive motion at this time," Schmehl wrote.

It's not clear when and if city attorney David MacMain will file that motion. An automatic email response indicates he'll be out of his office through Aug. 7.

"She has been told by four attorneys now that there is no basis for the claim," MacMain responded vial email to a question posed by lehighvalleylive.com on July 22.

Attorney Joshua Karoly considered taking the case but ultimately decided against it. It's not clear which other two attorneys reviewed and rejected it.

Spaziani didn't return a phone message Tuesday.

Named as defendants are the city, Easton Mayor Sal Panto Jr., Marraccini and Easton police officer John Doe, although the unidentified officer's role isn't specified in the paperwork. The city mayor and police chief have maintained that the lawsuit has no merit.

Scheuermann died three months after he was released from state prison in New Jersey.

In 2012, a Superior Court Judge in New Jersey sentenced Scheuermann to five years in prison after he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and criminal restraint charges.

Authorities said in December 2010, Scheuermann detained his ex-girlfriend in Lopatcong Township, forced her to drive him to his home at the time in Sciota, Pa., and held her against her will for nearly a day.

Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.
One of Easton's biggest summer events is returning and is celebrating a milestone.

The Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Catholic Church in Easton will hold its 40th annual Lebanese Heritage Days festival.

The festival runs from 4 p.m. to midnight Aug. 5 and from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Aug. 6. Thousands of people are expected to attend the festival in the the church parking lot at South Fourth and Ferry streets.

The festival will open this year with a new event: an open-air Mass.

The event was created in 1978 to recognize the significant Lebanese-American community in Easton and celebrate the community's rich culture.

"It was established to celebrate our Lebanese community," said committee member Naomi Karam Koerwitz. "A commemoration of the culture."

Festivalgoers can expect traditional Lebanese cuisine like hummus, tabbouli, shish kabob and chicken with garlic sauce, along with music from Eddie Ossama, Chadi Younes and Tony Mikhael.

The weekend will be filled with family friendly activities like games, souvenir shopping, children's ethnic dance troupes and a raffle with a grand prize of $10,000.

"It's a great way to see how a large portion of the Easton community celebrates their culture and for new people to experience the culture themselves," said Koerwitz.

Caitlin Srager is lehighvalleylive.com's Student Achievement Award intern. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A man passing fake cash at Dorney Park told officers he was a pharmacist, South Whitehall Township police said.

An officer asked Melwin Garcia Colon, 24, for an example of a schedule II drug -- drugs under the United States Controlled Substances Act that have a high potential for abuse.

Garcia Colon incorrectly told the officer that Midol, the over-the-counter medication for menstrual cramps, is a schedule II drug, police said. Garcia Colon then admitted he did not have a phamacy degree and only said that "to impress his girlfriend," police said.

Garcia Colon is now in Lehigh County jail, facing charges including three counts of felony forgery. He was being held on $40,000 bail as of Monday.

Township police said they were called Friday night to a food stand in the amusement park for a report of a counterfeit $50 bill.

Garcia Colon used the bill at the stand, police said. He reportedly told officers his name was Dr. Rey Abadia Colon, and he was a pharmacist who had a license in New York and Florida.

Police said Garcia Colon claimed he was born on Feb. 24, 1995, and he was 21 years old; with that birth date, he would be 22.

Garcia Colon had $1,095 in cash on him in small denominations, as well as two receipts for tickets to the park.

Police said surveillance video showed Garcia Colon using two $50 bills and one $100 bill at the entrance and, when workers checked the cash drawer, they discovered the bills were fake.

Police said Garcia Colon passed $850 in fake cash in the park, and had an additional $900 in fake cash hidden in his sock.

Once Garcia Colon was placed under arrest, he gave the officers his real name, according to police. A search of his name revealed two warrants for his arrest, one in New Jersey and another in Florida.

Garcia Colon is charged with three counts of forgery, two counts hindering apprehension or prosecution, as well as single counts of tampering with evidence and misleading a public servant.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A rig overturned and dumped fuel Sunday afternoon along an acceleration lane onto the Pennsylvania Turnpike Northeast Extension (Interstate 476) in South Whitehall Township.

Pennsylvania State Police said the accident occurred about 1 p.m. in the northbound lane at exit 56. The driver, whom police didn't identify, wasn't injured.

Troopers shut down the acceleration lane as crews worked to clean up the fuel spill for about two hours. The highway was reopened at about 3 p.m.

Police said the fuel spill didn't pose any major environmental concerns or a response from a HAZMAT team.

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Although we are not in the heart of drilling locations in Pennsylvania, our region benefits by providing services, supplies, and technical expertise to energy companies. Lehigh County will soon benefit from the development of infrastructure in the gas industry as well.

All Pennsylvanians are benefiting from the abundance of natural gas being produced through lower energy bills. All Pennsylvanians reap the benefits from gas development through the state's impact fees on gas drilling.

While Pennsylvania does not have a severance tax, it is the only state that imposes a natural gas impact fee. These fees have generated $1.2 billion in revenue since 2012. All 67 counties benefit regardless of drilling activity. This is a funding source for local roads, bridges, parks, and first-responders. It also boosts funding for statewide environmental programs.

Prior to the state Senate's passage last week of a budget bill calling for a new severance tax, all scenarios presented would have eliminated the option for an impact fee. A severance tax would have replaced this local money with a money flow to Harrisburg to be dispersed as the Harrisburg politicians see fit.

Now it appears the state is moving toward both an impact fee and a severance tax! This is going to force the gas industry to make some tough decisions regarding drilling in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania does not need a severance tax. The impact fee on natural gas drilling is definitely a policy solution working as designed.

Barry E. Walters

Bethlehem
A person suffered a minor knife wound during a robbery early Sunday morning at a Slate Belt tobacco store, police say.

The robber entered the Local Cigarette and Tobacco Outlet about 7 a.m. at 3040 N. Delaware Drive in Upper Mount Bethel Township and cut a person near the cash register, Pennsylvania State Police said.

"Various products" were stolen and the robber fled in a vehicle, police said.

Anyone who witnessed the crime is asked to call police at the Belfast barracks at 610-759-6106.

The incident "is still under active investigation," police said.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
The WannaCry ransomware attack that infected more than 230,000 computers across 150 countries last May, has put Laois County Council's cyber security team on full alert.

Today at the July 31 council meeting, the extent of the attack, and the work done to prevent it hitting the local authority, was fully outlined.

"Recent cyber security incidents have presented particular challenges to the Council IT Department in guarding against these threats which included the well publicised WannaCry and Petya ransomware attacks. Ransomware is a type of malicious software that blocks access to the victims data until a ransom is paid," the CEO John Mulholland said in his Monthly Management report.

"What was different about this malware was that as well as encrypting user's individual files and PCs, it was also able to travel around internal networks and infect all machines via a Windows vulnerability. It was particularly successful, infecting more than 230,000 computers in 150 countries, with high-profile companies such as the UKs NHS, Telefonica, FedEx and German Railways," he said.

He declared the council infection free.

"Laois County Council had no infections and this is due to a programme of stringent security checks. The IT Department receives regular updates from the National Cyber Security Centre, a division of the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment. The Head of Information Systems and IT Department receive these coded alerts and advice from the Cyber Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT-IE) allowing for early interventions when necessary," Mr Mulholland reported.
Sinead Corrigan from Newbridge was recently voted Receptionist of the Year by her employer, catering and facilities services company Sodexo, at its 2017 Service Excellence Awards in London.

Sinead was the only Republic of Ireland employee to win an award at this years event which received over 400 nominations in 34 categories submitted on behalf of staff based in Ireland and the UK.

Sinead joined Sodexo in 2010 and is based at Procter & Gamble in Newbridge, where the company manages the staff restaurant and several on-site support services that include reception and helpdesk.

Sinead had been nominated by her line manager Paul Carey, Sodexos facilities manager at Procter & Gamble in Newbridge, who said, Sinead is literally the heartbeat of our reception. She is passionate about providing 5-star service excellence and combines outstanding front of office and customer service delivery skills with a wonderful personal touch.

The reception area for this very safety conscious site is an extremely busy space with a steady stream of contractors and visitors seeking access every day. Sinead manages their safety briefings, along with a busy switchboard, meeting room schedules and travel bookings and yet always has time to help a colleague in need.

According to the judges, Sinead won because she clearly goes above and beyond the call of duty in delivering a first-class service to everyone she meets at the front desk. Her customer service standards are second to none and her actions in supporting and driving the safety culture on-site are exemplary. She has made herself a pivotal part of the Sodexo and P&G operations on site.

Sinead said, To be honest, I was very flattered to be nominated in the first place and then to hear I was picked as a finalist, I couldnt believe it as I knew there was a lot of competition for these Awards!

The awards ceremony was at Ascot racecourse in London but at the last minute, Sinead was unable to travel. I couldnt attend the award ceremony at Ascot because my little two-year-old boy fell sick, so I was at home when Paul Carey rang to say I had won. My husband, Dad and sister were all in the house when the call came through so there were a few happy screams and cheers to say the least!

Sodexo arranged for the trophy to be sent to Newbridge where her colleagues organised a presentation at which she also received flowers and chocolates from both Sodexo and P&G. The feedback from my colleagues and P&G was just amazing. I was very humbled by the compliments and best wishes. I love this job and the fact that no day is ever the same. I work with a great group of people and I love the daily interaction with everyone who passes through the reception.

Pictured above are: Paul Carey, facilities manager for Sodexo Ireland at Procter & Gamble, Newbridge, Sinead Corrigan, winner of Sodexos Receptionist of the Year Award for the UK and Ireland, Lynn Carson, client relationship manager, Sodexo Ireland and John Houlihan plant manager, Procter & Gamble
A campaign is underway to save the site of the former Band Hall in Newbridge.

Locals have formed a group in response to the sale of the historic Eamonn OModhrain Memorial Hall on Cutlery Road last week.

The site was sold for 270,000 at a public auction in the Keadeen Keadeen on July 26.

It was guided at 200,000.

The sale is now pending approval by the Charities Regulator.

Cllr Joanne Pender said she has requested the suspension of the sale for a reasonable amount of time to allow the community to respond with a feasibility study that can be presented to the trustees at which point it could be then viewed and accepted that whatever decision made will have been well informed and justified.

Locals were surprised when the building was put up for sale in July, as many thought the councils attempt to acquire the site by CPO was still alive.

A public meeting will take place this Thursday (August 3) at 8pm in Newbridge Town Hall in objection to the sale.

Campainger Orla O'Neill said locals want to know whether the trustees of the building have permission to sell it.

We need to know who are the current trustees and what is their link to the primary aim of the trust, which was to run the Memorial Hall for the promotion of Irish cultural activities, said Ms ONeill.

Newbridge people, she added, deserve to know what is the connection of the current trustees to the place-based Trust set up to manage the building for a very specific purpose. The group also want to know where was the statutory notice given for the appointment of recent trustees. How is the public interest served by the sale of the Eamonn OModhrain Hall?

Locals have been canvassing for a number of years to ensure the hall is put back into the heart of the community.

Members of the public expressed their objection to the sale as they feel there will be a loss to the community of a space that could be used to benefit the general public for the promotion of Irish Cultural Activities and was supposed to be used for this purpose, said Cllr Pender.

Everyone is invited to attend the meeting.
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The Liberal Democrats need new thought on how we view the economy and the role of the state and this idea could influence what we choose to support. We often struggle to find an economic system we can get behind.

Unrestricted capitalism leads to unacceptable inequality. The Conservatives stand for a small rich elite, while everyone else struggle to make ends meet. The Corbynite vision of socialism would leave us all worse off. The Liberal Democrats must form a new vision of how our economy should work and what role the state should play in it.

I would propose the Enabling State as our vision.

The state has a duty of promoting liberty in all its forms, and to ensure everyone has the chance to make the best of themselves. This would include freeing people from poverty, through a basic income, to ensure everyone has the money for basic needs.

It would aim to ensure that everyone had the same educational base to grow from, as well as ensuring they remain healthy. It would use policies such as the pupil premium to ensure that everyone has an equal chance of succeeding. It would invest in science and infrastructure to ensure that our economy is one of the most productive and well off economies in the world, putting us on the edge of new discoveries, including in areas vital to the continued existence of humanity on this planet.

We must eschew the corporatist vision proposed by the Government. Our vision would be the support of a high-wage economy, with support for the industries that will prosper in the next few decades. Green industry, computing and high-skill manufacturing could be the strong points of our economy. Support for these industries, ingrained in a proper strategy to boost skills, has the potential to bring a huge number of high-wage jobs to our country. This would reduce both national and inter-regional inequality if these industries were in the worst-off regions of the UK. Along with significant spending on infrastructure, we could reduce the countrys economic dependence on the South East.

The Enabling State could be our view on how our economy works and the states role within it, aiming to maximise liberty for everyone. It is an idea that would survive the automation revolution, able to adapt to the new challenges that we will face in the next few decades. It offers something that neither the Conservatives 1980s state or Labours 1970s state can offer, change.

I will soon be blogging more on this topic on my blog.

* Oliver Craven is the Liberal Democrat candidate for Sleaford and North Hykeham.
The New Statesman is running an article titled Im very much out on my ear: what its like becoming an ex-MP. It interviews a number of people who lost their seats, but the focus is heavily on Sarah Olney.

Apparently, Theresa May apologised to Tory MPs who lost in the debacle that was the June General Election.

While May was referring to her Conservative peers, losing a seat is an experience also familiar to Liberal Democrat Sarah Olney. The former MP for Richmond Park made headlines by overturning Zac Goldsmiths 23,015 majority in the December 2016 by-election  only to lose the seat by 45 votes six months later. I dont get any money at all, she says. I got paid up to 8 June and then nothing. I dont qualify for loss of office allowance or statutory redundancy because I wasnt there for long enough. You have to have been there for at least two years. Olney, who intends to look for a new job after the summer holidays, describes herself as a little bit cheated by the snap election. I was expecting  especially when we had a Fixed-term Parliaments Act  that parliament was going to last until 2020. So to suddenly find that its changed means that you dont qualify for anything.

Theres more about the difficulties in finding employment, but she also acknowledges the knock-on effect on the careers of the people she employed.

She describes the frustration of having to lay off her newly appointed staff. I think one of the things I didnt realise  and I wonder if most people dont realise about being an MP  is youre pretty much almost like a sole trader, and you have to set up everything from scratch, she says. You have to hire your own staff and you have to find your own office premises. Theres a lot of work involved in doing all of that, and I was only just getting to the end of that set-up phase. And then all of a sudden, a general election comes along and having just hired all these staff, the next thing Im doing is sending them all redundancy letters.

So, will she stand again?

When asked if it was in her plans to re-stand for election, Olney was emphatic. Yes. Yes, absolutely it is. It definitely is. Referring to Goldsmith, she says: He had a majority of 23,000 two years ago and now hes got a majority of 45. Thats just the momentum that weve got going on here locally and I dont want to spoil that, I want to get over the line next time.

You can read the full article here.

* Mary Reid is a contributing editor on Lib Dem Voice. She was a councillor in Kingston upon Thames, where she is still very active with the local party, and is the Hon President of Kingston Lib Dems.
Andrew Dilnot, the economist who reviewed social care for the coalition government has described the social care system as a classic example of market failure where the private sector cannot do whats needed.

On the Tory plans, he said:

The changes just fail to tackle the central problem that scares most people. You are not tackling the big issue that people cant pool their risks. There is nothing that anybody can do to pool their risk with the rest of the population, you just have to hope that you are not unlucky. It is not providing insurance. You could easily have care costs of 300,000 each if you are a couple; you are not able to cover that extreme risk which is what we all want to do faced with anything else which we can insure. Thats the market failure and these changes do nothing to address that.

Shadow Health Secretary Norman Lamb has said:

Social care is in a state of total crisis. A million older people are missing out on care they need and services face a funding black hole of billions in this year alone. In Coalition we commissioned the Dilnot report  an independent, expert led review of social care funding -yet the Conservatives have chosen to ignore the recommendations. Now they are simply kicking the issue into the long grass again with more consultation, after their deeply unfair Dementia Tax was clearly rejected by voters.

Land Value tax (LVT) is well suited to funding the provision of social care. Policy ideas developed by ALTER include a tax free homestead allowance that would exempt many owner occupied homeowners from the tax altogether.

The tax free homestead allowance would be based on the capitalised value of land rents included in the Local Housing Allowance.

Land values in excess of this allowance would be subject to LVT at a rate sufficient to meet social care funding costs as part of an integrated health and social care service.

In Dilnots example, a couple facing care costs of 300,000 each need only pay the LVT on the value of land they own in excess of the homestead allowance.

For example, if this couple lived in a home worth 500,000 with a land value of 300,000 and an LHA land value of 200,000 they would pay LVT on the excess value of 100,000. At a precept rate of say 1%, they would pay 500 each per year. If they did not have the income in retirement to pay the tax, it would be deferred until the property was sold or bequeathed, leaving only a modest charge against the property, which itself could be capped at the excess of land value over the homestead allowance.

Such a system of social care insurance spreads the risk across the whole community and would provide the necessary peace of mind to elderly citizens that even if they do need long-term care they will still be able to pass on the family home to their children.

* Joe Bourke is an accountant and university lecturer, Chair of ALTER, and Chair of Hounslow Liberal Democrats.
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Penn Virginia Corp. will snap up assets in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas for $205 million from Devon Energy Corp., the company said Monday.

The Houston oil producer's purchase of assets in Lavaca County included 19,600 net acres adjacent to its operations in the region, which means it can drill longer horizontal sections and cut its breakeven costs in some areas to $30 a barrel.
Ghostbusting documentary filmmaker and paranormal investigator Chad Calek welcomes skeptics with open arms.

Because he especially loves scaring the bejesus out of them.

Calek, along with filmmaking partner and producer Justin Holstein, arrives in San Antonio Thursday for a two-night screening of Sir Noface at the Carlos Alvarez Studio Theater at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts. The 105-minute film purports to show footage of a full-body apparition.

I always say to people at our shows, Believers are welcome but the doors swing wide for all skeptics. (Skepticism) is what would bring me to a show like this, said Calek, an entertaining, fast-talking superstar of the genre, in a telephone interview earlier this month.

More Information At a glance What: "Sir Noface," a new documentary that purports to show footage of an apparition When: 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday Where: Carlos Alvarez Studio Theater, Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle Tickets: $25; $50; $200, 210-223-8624, tobi.tobincenter.org See More Collapse

And if one screening isnt enough, the Tobins gold package ticket holders  for the really hardcore paranormal investigation fans  will get to see additional footage, an hour of what Calek calls his best paranormal footage Ive captured around the world over the course of the last 25 years.

A question-and-answer session also is in store.

I basically give them the stories, the locations, where I was at, he said. Its a huge fan favorite event. Who doesnt want to sit and see ghost evidence thats awesome? People love it, Calek said. If youre into the paranormal, skeptical or youre a believer, this is the event.

Hes a big-tent guy because, well, ghosts make for big-tent business.

Pop culture expert and author Art Markman, a psychology professor at the University of Texas at Austin, explained that many people enjoy ghost stories and scary movies because they can tap into the very real emotion of fear while in a safe situation  like experiencing a fall while riding a roller coaster.

Fear is an emotional and physical response that developed to protect us from harm, Markman said in an email. But its more than that, he added. Ghost stories  about talking to the dead or seeing an apparition  makes death less scary, less permanent and more of a transition.

For example, advocates of terror management theory believe humans are the only animals that contemplate mortality. Ghost sightings are a coping mechanism.

People have always been fascinated by nearly human entities, Markman said. The Greek myths and superhero stories are filled with nearly human characters that have supernatural abilities. Ghosts build on that in giving extraordinary abilities to spirits.

Calek, 40, said he came to th Sir Noface project  an investigation that took two years  because of video evidence of purported paranormal activity at old government-owned buildings on Cockatoo Island in Sydney, Australia, the site of a 19th century convict prison, that was so beyond the norm. His gut told him it was a hoax  at first. Then, he went there.

He says he began Sir Noface to prove the video was a hoax, describing his mission with the glee of Penn & Teller debunking a psychic.

In the end, your jaw will be dropped, Calek said. Theres an a-ha moment that will freak everybody out. This film proves that ghosts exist.

The filmmaker grew up in Alvin, near Houston. His family lived there until he was 12, and he said he has fond childhood memories of family trips to San Antonio. One of his documentaries, American Ghost Hunter, which came out two years ago, was about a traumatic haunting concerning his family.

Q. Does the paranormal community frown upon using the word fun to describe your events?

A. The paranormal community is a weird animal. There are some investigators who say, Dont ever call me a ghostbuster. They dont like laughing or joking about it. To me, theres comedy and humor in everything. Theres nothing wrong with having fun. There are tons of people who ghost hunt simply because its fun. And there are people who have had very harrowing experiences, and they want to understand what it is. Some people are adrenaline junkies.

Q. Is part of the appeal of a screening that everyone has a ghost story? Is that the bond?

A. Sure. I cant tell you how many times the hardened skeptic will come up and tell me all about how ghosts arent real and all that stuff. And Im always very polite. Im, like, Listen, I completely understand your viewpoint. Obviously, I disagree. But I know where youre coming from. And over and over again, it always happens, theres this long pause and they go, You know, there was this one time ... Everybody has their one time.

Q. What about folks who have never seen a ghost?

A. Lots of times a persons disbelief is enough where they dont see something that happens right in front of their face. (Editors note: Calek compares it to a parent who is the last to learn that a child is smoking marijuana.) Mom doesnt want to see it, so Mom didnt see it. That happens in the paranormal world. A lot of times, once a person has a paranormal experience, theyll have them all the time.

Q. Do you only do paranormal documentaries and shows?

A. No, I kind of cut my teeth as a music-video director, a lot of it in the hard rock and metal community. My first film I ever did was a romantic comedy. (The paranormal) is a real passion of mine. I have a documentary coming out next year about the Des Moines, Iowa, music scene, the history of the bands and the scene that spawned Slipknot. I come from that scene.

Q. Has there ever been a time in history when people werent interested in the paranormal?

A. Thats the crazy thing. As long as mankind has existed, there have always been tales of earthbound spirits and apparitions. I think a lot of it has to do that were more than just a table, more than just a chair. There is an electrical energy presence about us. People have an innate belief that it doesnt just end. It doesnt just go, Lights out. There are people that believe that. But by and large, the world is religious. Ask yourself why. Humankind needs it. Its very scary and sad to think its just over when we die. There have been reports of ghosts forever.

Q. What do ghosts look like?

A. People, for years, have been describing seeing these humanesque type wisping beings that exist. And then, when you finally see one, youre, like, Wow, I guess thats why they describe it that way. Because thats what it looks like. I think someday well probably be saying the same things about aliens: So thats why we thought they looked that way.

hsaldana@express-news.net
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Shane and Jane Smith, both from Georgia, live through their own war every day as they raise awareness about animal care through the Shane's War campaign.

The couple teamed up with the City of Laredo to host various activities for the community from Monday to Saturday. During the events, Shane Smith educated the public on one of the most pressing topics in the city: the responsibilities of caring for a pet.

Homero Vazquez-Garcia, Animal Care Services director, said the purpose of Saturday's event was to bring the public to the shelter and promote the adoption and fostering of animals.

"The idea is to bring the community to the animal shelter so they can see the different types of dogs and cats that we have, and to get people to adopt and foster our animals," Vazquez-Garcia said. "We want the community to know why we're here, what it is we do and how we do it. We need their support and help."

READ MORE: Former TAMIU official files lawsuit against university

The animal shelter receives approximately 700 animals per month, he added.

"We receive more than 700 animals per month, more than 500 dogs and from 200-250 cats. We need the community's help because our space is limited, and we need less animals to arrive," he said.

He emphasized it's important to microchip pets in order for the animals to be returned to their owners.

"About 95 percent of the animals that arrive at the shelter don't have a microchip, even though it's an ordinance. It's equally important to vaccinate pets, keep them within your property, take them for walks with a leash and be aware of what happens when a pet bites a person," Vazquez-Garcia said.

For Vazquez-Garcia, participating in the campaign is crucial because of the Smith's social media following and their impact on animal rescue agencies.

"We're trying to promote the animal shelter within and outside the community so we can get the support of organizations outside of Laredo and rescue more animals," he said. "We network with other agencies from different states, and partner with them to transport animals and promote adoptions. The idea is to try to save as many animals as possible."

Lorena Rijos, a mother present at the event, said she found out about the event through Facebook.

"On the Facebook page Laredo Volunteer, there is always information about volunteer opportunities that benefit the community. Although I couldn't volunteer at the event because my kids are too young, we will keep supporting the animal shelter," Rijos said.

MORE FROM LMTonline: Zetas commander's relative owned home where pile of bodies was found in Nuevo Laredo

Rijos said the event was well-coordinated, and she was surprised by the installations at the animal shelter.

"I think this event was a success because various pets were adopted. The animal shelter is clean and accessible. You can tell the dogs and cats are taken care of," she said.

She added that it is important for the community to participate in the event and learn how to responsibly care for pets since animals are often left abandoned on local streets.

"We need to prevent disarray, follow the rules and remember that our streets are for people and their pets to enjoy," Rijos concluded.

Vazquez-Garcia said the animal shelter also promotes volunteer work.

"The volunteers do a little bit of everything. Some take the dogs for a walk since the animals need contact with people so they can interact well with others when they are adopted. Other volunteers clean the cages, feed or bathe the animals since we want them to be clean and beautiful so they can be adopted immediately," he said.

Vazquez-Garcia invited the community to actively participate in animal care.

"We need the help of the community for this labor. Without their help, we won't be able to better this situation. People need to be responsible for their pets. We don't want more animals to arrive. But if we pick them up, we want to be sure that we can contact their owners and return them," he concluded.
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A former TAMIU official has filed a lawsuit against the university on claims that he was retaliated against because he was vocal about the college's mishandling of a sexual assault case that occurred during a study abroad trip.

Gerardo Alva, who served as associate vice president of student affairs, says in the lawsuit he filed in a Laredo federal court that he was terminated for engaging in protected opposition to Title IX discrimination committed by the university.

Title IX, a federal civil rights law, guarantees protection against discrimination on the basis of sex in all educational settings. It compels colleges to investigate and resolve sexual assault reports or risk losing federal funding.

Shortly after his opposition to the handling of the sexual assault case, Alva was terminated on what he considers to be "false and pretextual" reasons, according to the lawsuit.

Alva said his hope is that a jury finds the outcome in his favor and the wrongs that were done to him and his family are made right.

He said he also hopes to shed a light on what occurs when employees work in "such a difficult topic as Title IX and sexual assault."

RELATED: Rape reports on the rise at Texas A&M International University

"You should, as an employee, expect to be safeguarded from retaliation and unfortunately that is not what happened," he said.

TAMIU said it is unable to comment on pending litigation. It had not filed a response to the lawsuit as of Friday. Court records indicate TAMIU was served with the lawsuit earlier last week.

Alva, who was employed at TAMIU for 15 years, acted as deputy Title IX coordinator before his termination. He was responsible for handling students' sexual assault reports as well as all study abroad programs.

Alva was also responsible for ensuring compliance with federal regulations regarding Title IX, ensuring complaint timelines were followed and ensuring timely and equitable resolutions of complaints of sexual misconduct, sexual harassment and protected-class discrimination involving all students on behalf of TAMIU, the petition states.

Rape report

In January 2016, Alva was leading a group of students as part of a study abroad program in India. During the trip, he was informed that a sexual assault had been reported during a study abroad trip in Cork, Ireland.

Alva claims he attempted to find out more information about the alleged incident and plan appropriate Title IX plans and responses, but was met with little response from TAMIU staff.

This resulted in Alva purchasing the first available airline ticket to return to Laredo to allow him to take appropriate action before the five-day deadline established by TAMIU to respond to an investigation of a Title IX student incident.

"(Alva) felt it was necessary for him to promptly return to Laredo to properly address the matter because a Title IX student incident was one of his specific duties," the lawsuit states.

Alva alleges proper protocols were not followed, with the alleged victim and the accused student being transported on the same bus, made to attend the same class and made to fly back on the same international flights.

He also said the accused nor the victim's parents were contacted  with or without their consent.

"All of the actions in violation of Title IX responsibilities could threaten Title IX funding for TAMIU and could lead to further sanctions," the lawsuit states.

According to the lawsuit, the student was arrested and detained in Ireland after a TAMIU official turned over an audio recording of an interview he conducted with the student.

RELATED: International Women's Day Walk set at TAMIU

A TAMIU handbook says that within five university business days of receiving the complaint, the Title IX deputy coordinator should notify and forward copies of the complaint to university officials and assign an investigative authority, according to the lawsuit.

Alva said he was attempting to perform these required duties and had he remained in India, he would have been "absent during a critical time in the Title IX process."

Alva says he requested an emergency meeting to gather facts about the alleged sexual assault after his return to Laredo. During the meeting with other TAMIU officials, he told them he wanted to send an interim suspension letter to the alleged assaulter, removing him from university premises while the investigation was conducted.

"All agreed to the recommendations made by the (Alva). He was vocal during the meeting regarding his concerns of deficiencies in how the situation was handled by university administration in Cork, Ireland," the lawsuit states.

Around mid-March 2016, Alva said he received the sexual assault investigation report, which concluded "the respondent responsible and his penalty was suspension from TAMIU for no less than one year," according to the lawsuit.

During a meeting in March 2016 with high-ranking TAMIU officials, Alva mentioned that the "established written university procedures were ignored, which also violated Title IX; no one in study abroad had any idea what was happening; although a 'release to notify emergency contacts' was in the possession of TAMIU, the university staff on the Ireland trip failed to take the form into consideration; the university staff on the Ireland trip failed to provide all vital information to the legal team (in violation of Title IX); as well as other frustrations and concerns."

On May 9, 2016, Alva received a phone call from TAMIU Police Department Capt. Sergio Moreno. Alva said Moreno wanted to speak to him about allegations of theft.

After being read his Miranda rights, Alva says Moreno accused him of theft for purchases made by Alva with university funds, including the flight change he made from India to Laredo.

Shortly thereafter, Alva was told to report to human resources, where he was given a letter stating his employment would be terminated effective May 23, 2016 after a two-week paid suspension.

VIDEO: U.S. border officers order Mexican teen to drink liquid meth that killed him

Alva says he was asked to resign in lieu of termination, but refused on the grounds that he did nothing wrong.

"On or about May 20, 2016, prior to the effective date of termination, (Alva) returned to the Human Resources Department. Because he was fed up with the unfounded accusations, (Alva) submitted his letter of resignation in lieu of termination, as requested. (He) later found out that TAMIU refused to accept his resignation," the lawsuit states.

Starr County District Attorney Omar Escobar was appointed by the Webb County District Attorney's Office to investigate the theft allegations filed against Alva by TAMIU.

In February, Escobar submitted a letter indicating all allegations against Alva were found to be "unwarranted and unsupportable."

Alva, who sought unemployment benefits, says he received a letter TAMIU's director of human resources submitted to the Texas Workforce Commission that said the reason for his termination was "unauthorized use of system resources," and specifically cited the purchase of the early return flight ticket from India to Laredo.

Court records indicate an initial court hearing has not yet been scheduled for the case.
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A manufacturing plant in Hoosick Falls that has been the focus of the contamination of the village's water supply has been designated a federal Superfund site by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The declaration allows federal resources to be used to help clean up areas in the village contaminated with a man-made chemical that polluted public and private water supplies. The Superfund designation also means the federal government will simultaneously seek reimbursement and assistance from any companies found responsible for the pollution.

The federal Superfund designation after New York officials last year declared the Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics plant in the village of Hoosick Falls a state Superfund site. That designation allowed the state to list perfluorooctanoic acid or PFOA, a toxic chemical that has been found in elevated levels in the village's water supply, as a hazardous substance.

U.S senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles E. Schumer had urged the EPA to list Saint-Gobain's McCaffrey Street plant as a federal Superfund site.

The EPA said groundwater that supplies the village's water treatment plant is contaminated with PFOA and also Vinyl Chloride and Dichloroethylene.

"PFOA does not break down easily and therefore is very persistent in the environment," the agency said in an announcement last year announcing that it had added Hoosick Falls to its list of the nation's most contaminated sites. "Its toxicity and persistence in the environment can pose adverse effects to human health and the environment."

The state Superfund designation allowed state agencies to investigate the extent of contamination and begin remediation. But the federal Superfund declaration elevates the government response, including the weight of a federal cleanup program that has been in place for more than 30 years and led to cleanups of severely polluted sites around the country, including dredging PCBs from the Hudson River.

Elevated levels of PFOA were discovered in the village's water system in 2014 by Michael Hickey, a former village trustee whose father died of cancer. Hickey sent water samples to a Canadian lab that reported levels of PFOA that the EPA later said are not safe for human consumption.

Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics and Honeywell International, which acquired a company that previously operated the McCaffrey Street plant, are reviewing a state Department of Environmental Conservation engineering report on potential alternate water supplies for the village, including a farm along the Hoosic River a mile south of the village's water treatment plant.

The state spent months evaluating multiple sites in and around the village, including an aquifer on farmland owned by Hoosick town Councilman Jeffrey Wysocki off Route 22, across from the Hoosick Falls Central School District campus. The state tested the farm's well field and said the results indicated the water in that area is free of the toxic chemical, perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, that was discovered in the village's water supply three years ago.

blyons@timesunion.com  518-454-5547  @brendan_lyonstu
The Webb County Sheriff's Office warrants division continues to conduct roundups throughout Webb County. The most recent one  held Friday  led to 13 arrests.

The focus of Operation GOTCHA, which started in January, has been to safely apprehend fugitives in Webb County who have been evading authorities. The criminal offenses ranged from felony theft, burglary, aggravated assault, possession of a controlled substance and failure to register as a sex offender, along with other charges.
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Laredo police divulged new information regarding last week's homicide case at a news conference Monday, including the 16-year-old victim's name and that she may have been attacked at random.

The Laredo Police Department said it is not aware of any relationship between the homicide suspect, Mario Angel Gonzalez, and the girl, Lesley Sanchez.

Over the weekend LPD arrested Gonzalez on a murder charge for his alleged involvement in Sanchez's death. He remains held without bond at the Webb County Jail.

Police cannot yet say the way in which Sanchez was killed. There is no indication she was shot or sexually assaulted, although police cannot verify this without a full autopsy report, Laredo police said.

Investigator Joe E. Baeza, LPD spokesman, said she sustained a variation of violent assaults. Law enforcement has not yet recovered a weapon.

"This case is a rare case," Baeza said Monday.

READ MORE: Laredo murder suspect previously arrested for striking woman with 2-by-4, raping her, records say

The majority of the homicides LPD sees are domestic, or the victim and suspect at least know each other, he said. That's not the case in this homicide; LPD does not currently believe that Gonzalez and Sanchez had met before.

Gonzalez has been living in San Antonio, Baeza said, and had an outstanding warrant for assault there. He had been staying with family in Laredo when he was detained Saturday, according to LPD. Police picked him up at a residential construction site he was working on in south Laredo.

In surveillance footage law enforcement collected, Gonzalez is seen driving Sanchez's car after the homicide took place Wednesday night. He stopped at a convenience store and then parked the car in the Cheyenne Subdivision where it was later found by LPD. Surveillance footage taken at the convenience store ended up being a crucial piece of evidence in the case, Baeza said.

Police dispersed images from surveillance footage to the media, Laredo Crime Stoppers and via their own social media on Saturday.

"In less than two hours, we received several tips, one of them eventually leading to the identification of the alleged suspect in this case, Mr. Mario Angel Gonzalez," Baeza said.

Sanchez parked her car at the Haynes Recreation Center when she went to exercise at the trails alone on Wednesday night, according to Laredo police.

There is no surveillance footage of their actual encounter, Baeza said.

Gonzalez has not confessed to the crime or spoken much to officers, according to LPD.

Baeza and LPD Chief Claudio Trevino thanked the many law enforcement agencies that have assisted in this case and the community for their help in identifying the suspect. This case exemplifies teamwork, Baeza said.

"Throughout the weekend, detectives spared no resources or effort in trying to identify this individual. But we are most appreciative of the assistance of the citizenry of the people of Laredo, Texas. And that's what it takes. The Police Department can't do these investigations all by themselves, and sometimes we do need to reach out and ask for assistance," Baeza said.

Gonzalez was arrested in Laredo in September after he allegedly struck a woman with a 2-by-4 and sexually assaulted her near the riverbanks in west Laredo.

On Sept. 13, police said they responded to a gas station in the 800 block of Lafayette Street. A woman reported that a man who was with her in a GMC vehicle had sexually assaulted her.

An investigation revealed Gonzalez had taken her to an area where Lafayette dead ends.

Gonzalez then allegedly hit the woman with a 2-by-4 and sexually assaulted her inside the vehicle, according to LPD reports.

RELATED: Man charged in killing of 16-year-old girl, police say

The two knew each other, police said. The woman convinced Gonzalez to take her to a restroom, according to LPD.

They arrived at the gas station, where she sought help. When police arrived, Gonzalez allegedly resisted arrest.

Officers used a Taser to subdue him, police reports state.

And according to records, Webb County Court at Law I issued a warrant for Gonzalez's arrest on June 5 after he failed to appear in court, where he is facing charges of harassment and criminal trespass. Those charges stem from a November 2015 incident.

"There's a long way to go before we can say this case is out of our hands and we're done with it," Baeza said of the homicide case on Monday. "We want to do whatever is necessary to present the best possible case and to be able to move forward with a successful prosecution and conviction in order to render proper justice to the victim's family."

A GoFundMe has been created to raise money for Sanchez's funeral expenses. It can be found at gofundme.com/zjku8-leslie-sanchez.

Julia Wallace may be reached at 956-728-2543 or jwallace@lmtonline.com. LMT reporter Taryn Walters contributed to this report.
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The man accused of killing a 16-year-old girl Wednesday was arrested on a rape charge in September after he allegedly struck a woman with a 2-by-4 and sexually assaulted her.

LPD records show Mario Angel Gonzalez, 24, was served with a warrant late Saturday and charged with murder at about 1:30 a.m. Sunday. 49th District Court Judge Joe Lopez did not set bond for Gonzalez.

According to records, Webb County Court at Law I issued a warrant for Gonzalez's arrest on June 5 after he failed to appear in court, where he is facing charges of harassment and criminal trespass. Those charges stem from a November 2015 incident.

READ MORE: Man charged in killing of 16-year-old girl, police say

Through several tips and sources of information, LPD homicide detectives were able to charge Gonzalez in connection with the slaying of the 16-year-old, whose body was found Thursday near the walking trails behind the Haynes Recreation Center, said Investigator Jose E. Baeza, LPD spokesman. No further information was released. LPD is set to hold a news conference today to discuss the homicide case.

Police have not yet released the girl's identity or the way in which she was killed.

Three of the girl's family members located her body at 3:52 p.m. Thursday using a 'find my phone' app, LPD said. Police found her car about 2-3 miles away in the Cheyenne Subdivision near the trail. She was found in workout attire, according to police.

She arrived at the park between 9 and 10 p.m. the night before her body was discovered, police said.

The girl's family filed a missing person report with Webb County since she lived in one of the colonias off Texas Highway 359, according to Investigator Joe E. Baeza, LPD spokesman.

By the time LPD heard about the report, they were getting calls about the discovery of her body, Baeza said.

Previous record

Court records indicate a criminal case was filed Wednesday against Gonzalez in the 406th District Court on charges of aggravated sexual assault, assault of a public servant and resisting arrest.

Gonzalez was arrested Sept. 13 for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman near the riverbanks in west Laredo.

That day, police said they responded to a gas station in the 800 block of Lafayette Street. A woman reported that a man who was with her in a GMC vehicle had sexually assaulted her.

An investigation revealed Gonzalez had taken her to an area where Lafayette dead ends.

RELATED: LPD releases photos of person of interest in slaying of 16-year-old

Gonzalez then allegedly hit the woman with a 2-by-4 and sexually assaulted her inside the vehicle, according to LPD reports.

The two knew each other, police said. The woman convinced Gonzalez to take her to a restroom, according to LPD.

They arrived at the gas station, where she sought help. When police arrived, Gonzalez allegedly resisted arrest.

Officers used a Taser to subdue him, police reports state.
A 1970 treaty requiring the United States and other nuclear powers to negotiate a ban on nuclear weapons cant be enforced in court, a federal appeals court in San Francisco said Monday in refusing to reinstate a lawsuit by the Marshall Islands.

The suit, filed in 2014, sought court orders declaring the U.S. in violation of the treaty and requiring it to enter nuclear disarmament negotiations within a year. But the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said federal courts have no power to take those actions, or any others, to implement the treaty.

The Marshall Islands is trying to put the judiciary in the role of nanny to the political branches of the government, the court said.

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty committed the nations that signed it to negotiate in good faith toward an end to the nuclear arms race, and then to nuclear disarmament. It has been signed by 190 nations, including five nuclear powers  the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France  but not by nuclear-armed India, Pakistan and Israel. North Korea withdrew its participation in 2003.

The Marshall Islands, a small northern Pacific nation that signed the treaty in 1995, was a U.S. territory in the 1940s and 1950s when the United States conducted 67 nuclear tests in its waters. The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission described the Marshalls as the most contaminated place on Earth in 1956, leading to more than $750 million in U.S. compensation for the islanders.

Mondays ruling upholds a federal judges dismissal of the islands suit.

Deciding when, where, and whether to negotiate with foreign nations is within the exclusive authority of the executive, Judge Margaret McKeown said in the 3-0 ruling.

She said the treaty contained no standards for enforcement, but instead was chock-full of vague terms, like negotiations on effective measures for nuclear disarmament, that were addressed to the signing nations and not the courts. McKeown also cited a 1969 statement by Sen. J. William Fulbright, D-Ark., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who assured a colleague that nobody is going to be able to enforce the treaty against us.

A lawyer for the Marshall Islands said the ruling undermines the treaty.

The nations that signed the pact made a legally binding promise, said attorney Laurie Ashton  the non-nuclear countries promised not to acquire nuclear weapons, while the nuclear powers promised good-faith disarmament negotiations.

There has never been a more critical time to enforce the legal obligations to negotiate in good faith nuclear disarmament, Ashton said.

Attorney Scott Yundt of Tri-Valley CAREs, a nuclear disarmament group based in Livermore, said the ruling undermines the entire system of international law.

The island nation filed a similar suit in the United Nations International Court of Justice against Britain, India and Pakistan  the only nuclear powers that accept the courts jurisdiction  but a divided court dismissed the suit in October.

In a separate development, a treaty banning the development, testing or use of nuclear weapons was adopted July 7 by 122 nations, none of which possesses the weapons. The United States and other nuclear nations refused to take part in the vote at U.N. headquarters.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko
1 Fair fatality: Rides shut down at the Ohio State Fair after a thrill ride broke apart and killed a man have reopened after being inspected, officials said Sunday. All rides at the fair in Columbus were shut down Wednesday night after a swinging and spinning ride called the Fire Ball broke apart, killing 18-year-old high school student Tyler Jarrell and injuring seven others, several critically. The Dutch manufacturer of the Fire Ball subsequently ordered similar rides to shut down worldwide. Jarrells family has hired an attorney to possibly pursue a wrongful death lawsuit.

2 Gas leak: A California Court of Appeal has lifted its temporary stay that prevented Southern California Gas Co. from resuming operations at its Aliso Canyon storage facility in Los Angeles County. The decision Saturday night clears the way for the utility to begin pumping gas into underground storage wells. Eighteen months ago a major blowout spewed methane that drove thousands of families from their homes. We have met  and in many cases exceeded  the rigorous requirements of the states safety review, SoCalGas spokesman Chris Gilbride said. The same court late Friday temporarily blocked the facilitys reopening after Los Angeles County lawyers sought to stop the utility from resuming operations at Aliso Canyon.
Being a Silicon Valley billionaire comes with its pitfalls, one being that everything you say will be scrutinized by the public.

Elon Musk doesnt seem to mind though. Despite his position as the CEO of Tesla and chairman of SolarCity, Musk has noted his lack of filter and marketing skills, and the results are sometimes, well, perfect.

Musk often takes to Twitter, most recently representing his Gigafactory in units of hamster. He also outwitted analysts this week after they asked him if the SolarCity merger was due to a conflict of interest. Fine Musk, you win.

To celebrate him and his lack of filter, here are 18 times Musk made us laugh:

Additional reporting by Nina Zipkin

1. He trolled the trolls.

While companies such as Google and Facebook grapple with how to weed out false news stories, Musk took to Twitter to weigh in on the work of a mysterious person named "Shepard Stewart," who has been publishing fake pieces about him and his companies. He included a South Park reference, naturally.

Can anyone uncover who is really writing these fake pieces? Can't be skankhunt42. His work is better than this. https://t.co/Qs69AFMGE5  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 22, 2016

2. Musk personally canceled a blogger's Tesla pre-order after receiving a "rude" letter.

Stewart Alsop, a California venture capitalist, learned that an open letter to Musk was a quick way to get his Tesla Model X order canceled.

The letter claimed that the reveal of the Tesla Motors Model X started late, was too crowded and focused too much on safety.

Musk personally responded to the blogger and canceled his order. He then went a step further to address the media.

Must be a slow news day if denying service to a super rude customer gets this much attention  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 3, 2016

3. He denied his cousin a family discount at Tesla, or rather, offered a family discount to everyone.

Lyndon Rive, SolarCity CEO and Musks cousin, made the mistake of asking for a family discount on the new Tesla.

Musks response? Yeah absolutely. Go to TeslaMotor.com, buy the car online, and the price you see there is the family discount,' Rive told Tech Insider. Everyone gets a family discount.

Rive wasnt too offended. He has the Model S and his wife has the Model X. He also told Tech Insider that the response was totally fair.

Related: 4 Pop Culture Fixations of Elon Musk

4. He brought backseat reading lights back to the Model S because his son called it the stupidest car in the world.

One of Musks most important critics, his son, complained that he couldnt read in the back of his dads car.

The Model S originally had reading lights in the back, but Tesla took them out to increase headroom in the back seat. One of Musks five sons thought that idea was stupid.

Musk brought the backseat reading light back to the Model S, even offering to put the lights into cars that had already been delivered -- for free.

5. When Musk was asked about his personal life, his reaction was hilarious.

Musk has joked in the past about how marriage hasnt worked out for him, with his first marriage ending in divorce, and his second marriage also recently ending in divorce.

But when asked about his personal life, the billionaire definitely seems to know what hes doing.

"I think the time allocated to the businesses and the kids is going fine," Musk told Bloomberg BusinessWeek. "I would like to allocate more time to dating, though. I need to find a girlfriend. How much time does a woman want a week? Maybe 10 hours?"

6. Apparently for Iron Man, getting wasted is in the job description.

Musk told Bloomberg that Robert Downey Jr., who plays Marvel's Iron Man, once showed up at the SpaceX office playing on the notion that Musk has been called the real Iron Man. Bloomberg's reporter noted that Musk didnt seem to have the bad-boy personality Tony Stark has.

Musk replied, Hey, I went to Haiti last Christmas and visited some pretty dangerous parts. I got wasted, too, on some drink they call the Zombie.

7. Musk got a little off track when introducing the bioweapon defense mode on the new Tesla Model X.

As you may have heard, the Tesla Model X comes with a bioweapon defense mode.

Originally designed to protect against pollution, Musk jokes that it could also protect against other hazards.

If theres ever sort of an apocalyptic scenario, of some kind, hypothetically, you just press the bioweapon defense mode button, Musk said, laughing. This is a real button.

8. Musk made a sexual joke on The Late Show and then laughed at it while everyone else was still processing it.

While on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Musk made a joke that even Colbert had to take a moment to think about.

After showing a video of a snake charger that automatically plugs into your car, Musk joked, For the prototype at least, I would recommend not dropping anything when youre near it.

9. And Musks response to warming up the planet sounds incredibly nonchalant, but warning, its not.

Musk frequently talks about Mars, which he refers to as a fixer upper planet. He has frequently been asked about the possibility of inhabiting the planet.

The answer on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert? Maybe we can just drop nuclear bombs on the north and south poles, he says casually.

Related: 7 Takeaways in the Success of Elon Musk for Young Entrepreneurs

10. Musk doesnt recommended using the Model S as a boat, or does he?

Sure, the Model S can float, but its not recommended by Tesla or Musk.

After a man in Almaty, Kazakhstan, posted a video driving his Tesla through a flooded tunnel, Musk tweeted:

We *def* don't recommended this, but Model S floats well enough to turn it into a boat for short periods of time. Thrust via wheel rotation.  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 19, 2016

Sounds a bit like a recommendation.

11. He most certainly doesnt lie about what it takes to run a business.

In an interview with Limitless Stars, Musk doesnt exactly suggest starting a business. Starting a company is like eating glass staring into the abyss of death. Um, if that sounds appealing, go ahead.

He sure makes it look easy though, simultaneously running two incredibly successful companies while taking care of five children.

Click here to see the video.

12. He defined his Gigafactory in units of hamster.

Elon Musk has been hard at work with his Gigafactory, dedicating more than $5 billion into the facility that will apparently be one of the largest buildings in the world. Musk made headlines in 2015 when he ramped up the construction schedule.

Despite the serious nature of the factory for Teslas future, Musk posted on Twitter the units of hamster that the Gigafactory would take up. Yes, units of hamster. Some were unsatisfied with the animal chosen, requesting it be in units of puppies.

Gigafactory in units of hamster pic.twitter.com/9BAchcBX73  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 30, 2016

13. He shut down analysts on Tesla's acquisition of SolarCity.

After Tesla and SolarCity made the announcement that the two would be merging, analysts started to question Musk, mostly because he owns around 20 percent of both companies. Isnt that a conflict of interest?

The conflicts of interest, Musk said to an analyst on Monday, are if we dont merge.

Well, when you put it like that.

14. He was painfully honest about his struggles.

When a Twitter user asked whether the ups and downs Musk has had make for a more enjoyable life, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX responded in a painfully honest way.

The reality is great highs, terrible lows and unrelenting stress. Don't think people want to hear about the last two.  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 30, 2017

I'm sure there are better answers than what I do, which is just take the pain and make sure you really care about what you're doing  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 30, 2017

Yeah  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 30, 2017

Maybe not medically tho. Dunno. Bad feelings correlate to bad events, so maybe real problem is getting carried away in what I sign up for.  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 30, 2017

If you buy a ticket to hell, it isn't fair to blame hell ...  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 30, 2017

15. He corrected the record after a news story about the world's "first crewless ship" published.

When The Verge tweeted a story explaining that the "worlds first crewless ship will launch next year," Musk had a one-word response.

Musk was referring to SpaceX's three existing autonomous ships that support sea landings of its Falcon 9 reusable rocket.

16. Even with a busy schedule, he provides customer service.

Even while running Tesla, SpaceX and his side companies, Musk makes time for customers. After a Tesla customer tweeted about a poor experience he had in one of the Tesla stores, Musk responded directly to the person letting him know he was taking care of the issue.

Def not ok. Just sent a reminder to Tesla stores that we just want people to look forward to their next visit. That's what really matters.  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 16, 2017

17. He trolls his competition.

In response to a USA Today story about Daimlers announcement that it would be investing $1 billion in electric vehicles, Musk tweeted that $1 billion wasnt enough to compete with Tesla. Daimler responded to Musk in agreement, saying that the figure was missing a zero and the company was actually spending $10 billion.

Good  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 25, 2017

People began speculating whether Musks tweet motivated Daimler to increase its investment, which turned out to be untrue, but Musk took the credit anyways.

Yes, I did :)  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 26, 2017

18. He groans at his competition.

After The Verge reported on Delphi Automotives $450 million acquisition of autonomous vehicle startup nuTonomy, Musk responded to the tweet with a groan  literally.

Groan  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 24, 2017

19. He rips rival projects sarcastically.

When asked about Ubers flying car initiative as compared to the Boring Companys more underground pursuits, Musk made it clear, dripping in sarcasm, that he isnt the biggest fan of the idea.

If you love drones above your house, youll really love vast numbers of cars flying over your head that are 1000 times bigger and noisier and blow away anything that isnt nailed down when they land  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2018

But it turns out that his criticism wasnt lost on Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who had this to say about a potential way forward for the project.

Challenge accepted. Improved battery tech (thx 2 @elonmusk) and multiple smaller rotors will be much more efficient and avoid noise + environmental pollution. https://t.co/563U0RqDYF  dara khosrowshahi (@dkhos) February 22, 2018

Related:

19 Times Elon Musk Had the Best Response

Internet de alta velocidad, el nuevo reto de Elon Musk

25 Weird Things We've Learned About Elon Musk



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


PARIS - WikiLeaks published Monday a cache of more than 70,000 emails related to the recent campaign of French President Emmanuel Macron and other correspondence going back to 2009.

There were no immediate bombshell disclosures in the latest major online dump of leaked material, but the publication of the material appeared certain to bring further scrutiny to online security among political campaigns and other organizations.

The documents - dated between 2009 to April 24, 2017, the day of the French election's first round - include many routine exchanges such as travel schedules and appointments. But it could be days before all the documents are reviewed.

The data dump came at a time when cybersecurity remains a concern in France and in Europe.

Just minutes before campaigning closed in the second and final round of the French presidential election in early May, the Macron campaign issued a statement claiming that it had been the victim of a major hacking operation in which thousands of emails and other internal communications were thrust into the public domain.

Although that earlier data dump had virtually no effect on the polls - Macron still defeated his opponent, the far-right Marine Le Pen, in a landslide - it nevertheless stoked fears of a Russia-backed cyberattack, given that the Kremlin had openly supported Le Pen in the election.

But in early June, following the results of a French government investigation, Guillaume Poupard, the head of France's National Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI), told the Associated Press that the earlier Macron hack was likely the result of "an isolated individual."

"The attack was so generic and simple that it could have been practically anyone," Poupard said.

With German elections approaching in September, fears of potential cyberattacks - especially by those whom Russian President Vladimir Putin has called "patriotic hackers" - remain high.
In another case of projection, President Donald Trump routinely refers to the New York Times as "failing." In reality the Times is seeing record subscription numbers. It is the White House that is failing.

Trump can't get the repeal of Obamacare, or any other legislative priority, through a Republican-controlled Congress. He has had no real achievements other than the confirmation of Justice Neil Gorsuch. It turns out that a president with under-40 percent approval ratings can't strong-arm legislators into doing his will, and Trump's clumsy attempts to do so have predictably backfired.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke threatened to block federal projects in Alaska if Senator Lisa Murkowski didn't back the Republican health-care "plan." As chairwoman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Murkowski let her displeasure be known by stalling a nomination that Zinke wants, and then by voting against the health bill anyway. She can now make life miserable for Zinke for as long as she wants, because her committee oversees his department. As the Washington Post noted, this is "political malpractice" of a high order, but it is typical of Trump's amateurish operation.

The health-care bill was only the second of two major legislative defeats Trump suffered last week. The other was the approval by veto-proof margins in both houses of sanctions against Russia, thus killing Trump's chances of delivering the rapprochement that Mike Flynn evidently promised the Russian ambassador before the inauguration.

Yet another repudiation of the president came from his own Department of Defense. Trump tweeted an order banning transgendered individuals from military service, apparently without consulting the Pentagon's leaders in advance. The generals, in turn, let it be known that they were not going to act on Trump's tweets until the White House delivers a formal order and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis - who was on vacation and thunderously silent - issues implementation instructions. So Trump can't even get "my generals," as he refers to the leaders of America's armed forces, to carry out his rash edicts.

Meanwhile, the world becomes an ever-more dangerous place, with both Iran and North Korea testing long-range missiles. Kim Jong-un either already has, or will soon have, the ability to incinerate Washington. But Trump can barely notice world crises, because he is too preoccupied tending to his own, self-created crises.

The president spent much of last week focused on his feud with Attorney General Jeff Sessions and - by proxy - with then-White House Chief of Staff Reince Preibus. The proxy in the latter case was, of course, Trump's foul-mouthed Mini-Me, Anthony Scaramucci, who appears to have wandered into Washington straight off the set of The Wolf of Wall Street.

"The Mooch," as he likes to be called, has taken a unique approach to his job as White House communications director. Shortly after taking the post, he accused Priebus of a "felony" for having supposedly leaked his financial disclosure form. In truth, the Export-Import Bank, where Scaramucci had previously been slated to go, had released the document in the normal course of business. This was merely a warm-up to the main act - the Mooch's gobsmacking interview with the New Yorker. He bad-mouthed Priebus ("a fucking paranoid-schizophrenic) and Steve Bannon ("I'm not Steve Bannon, I'm not trying to suck my own cock"), threatened to fire the entire White House communications staff and vowed to "fucking kill all the leakers."

No previous White House aide in history has ever said anything remotely like this on the record. (Imagine what Mooch says off-the-record - and yes he did go off-the-record with the New Yorker at one point.) In any other White House it would have been grounds for instant dismissal. Not this one. Trump evidently "loved" the Mooch's tirade so much that he fired not Scaramucci but Priebus. What kind of message does that send to other administration employees - and to every other American - about what kind of behavior this president expects?

The new chief of staff is the retired Marine general John Kelly, until now Trump's Secretary of Homeland Security. No doubt Trump hopes that the general can straighten out what ails the White House. It is, of course, a vain hope, because, to quote the Mooch, "the fish stinks from the head."

The dead-fish stench emanating from the White House has wafted all the way to the Justice Department. The president has been engaged in a passive-aggressive campaign against the man he calls "our beleaguered A.G." - beleaguered, of course, by Trump himself. Trump spent a week publicly needling Sessions for recusing himself from the investigation into the Trump campaign's Russia ties. There is plenty one can criticize Sessions for, including his apparent lies about his contacts with the Russians last year, but not for this. Having been involved in the Trump campaign, Sessions had no choice but to recuse himself.

Naturally, Trump is fine with Session's convenient lapses of memory. He only objected when Sessions did the ethical and honest thing. For good measure, the president has been berating Sessions for taking "a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!"

Trying to use the criminal justice system to strike back at an enemy of the president is an impeachable offense. So is obstructing an investigation of the president and his aides. But the president appears so terrified of what Special Counsel Robert Mueller may uncover that he is willing to risk a constitutional crisis to stop the Kremlingate investigation. Yet Trump, a consummate bully, is too cowardly to either confront Sessions directly or to fire him; he prefers to make Sessions' life such a living hell that he will resign, thereby allowing the appointment of a stooge who will fire Mueller.

Trump's mistreatment of Sessions - one of his earliest and most loyal followers - has elicited a backlash from Sessions' friends in the Senate and in the nationalist-populist movement. Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Tucker Carlson, David Horowitz, and all of Trump's other toadies professed shock at one of their heroes mistreating another.

It's interesting to see what constitutes a breaking point for the Trump crowd. They were fine with Trump's ignorance, inconsistency, and mendacity; his crazy conspiracy theories and unhinged tweets; his vile attacks on women, war heroes, and the press; his demonization of Mexicans and Muslims; his pussy-grabbing and general, all-around loutishness; his kowtowing to Vladimir Putin, Rodrigo Duterte, and other loathsome dictators; his son's eagerness to collude with the Russian government and his own attempts to obstruct justice by firing the FBI director. The Trumpites excused all of this inexcusable conduct on the grounds that "at least he fights."

True, he fights. But what does he fight for? Not for conservative principles. He has no principles. Trump is not pursuing an "America First" policy. He is pursuing a "me first" policy. He will not fight for legislative priorities such as health-care reform - a subject he does not understand or care about - but he will fight to obstruct an investigation into his own misconduct.

None of this should be remotely surprising to anyone who has been awake for the past two years. Jeb Bush accurately called Trump the "chaos candidate" and predicted that he would be the "chaos president." This did not faze his fans for a second. They wanted someone to come in and shake up Washington. Well, they got what they wanted. Now we must all live with the calamitous consequences.

---

Boot is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick senior fellow for national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. His forthcoming book is "The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam."
Several of the independent experts hired to review applications to open medical marijuana businesses in Maryland had ties to companies whose materials they reviewed, according to records obtained by The Washington Post.

The Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission said it is investigating these potential conflicts of interest.

They include a woman who initially said she had "no known relationships" with individuals applying for cannabis licenses, but later reviewed an application for a company where her husband was a manager and that was affiliated with a Massachusetts marijuana retailer she had co-founded. Two leaders of a District of Columbia dispensary joined Maryland's panel of experts while their business partners sought to expand into the state; one disclosed the connection, the other did not.

The connections, which The Post discovered after a public records request, raise new questions about how the state tried to avoid conflicts insetting up a legal marijuana industry where hundreds of businesses were competing intensely for a limited number of growing, processing and selling licenses.

The medical cannabis program, which is set to begin selling to patients this fall, has encountered major stumbles since it was legalized four years ago. The state House of Delegates in March reprimanded one of its own for trying to shape medical marijuana laws and regulations without fully disclosing his affiliation to a prospective dispensary.

The state is fending off lawsuits alleging that officials failed to consider racial diversity in licensing, and that they improperly chose lower-ranked cultivators to boost geographic diversity. Gov. Larry Hogan, R, overhauled the beleaguered cannabis commission this month, appointing 10 new members.

To review the applications, the commission contracted with the Regional Economic Studies Institute at Towson University. The institute was to oversee 20 industry experts as they reviewed hundreds of business applications. The arrangement was the subject of a blistering legislative audit, which found that the commission skirted state contracting rules by hiring the institute without competitive bidding and allowed costs to balloon without proper documentation.

Towson kept the names of evaluators confidential while applications were pending, citing a "double-blind" process where prospective pot entrepreneurs would not know who was reviewing applications, and evaluators would not know whose applications they were assessing, because the names of owners and businesseswereredacted.

Marijuana advocates say the legal sales industry, a fast-growing market worth billions, is relatively small - making it hard to find people who have expertise in marijuana businesses but no connections to companies trying to expand into Maryland.

Daraius Irani, director of the institute, said that his organization took multiple steps to prevent bias from tarnishing the medical marijuana review. Evaluators were given only specific portions of applications where they had expertise, and those materials were stripped of the names of the businesses, its employees and investors.

"RESI took every step to ensure a fair process," Irani said.

But it was possible to figure out in some cases which companies were behind which applications using other clues. Irani said one processor evaluator, whom The Post identified as Michelle Sexton, had recused herself from an application after she realized that she knew the owners of a business that made a proprietary product listed in materials.

"They had a great proposal and I hated to recuse myself because I thought it was really well done," Sexton, co-founder of the Center for the Study of Cannabis and Social Policy, said in an interview. "But I didn't want somebody to come back and say, 'Hey, you know these guys, and you scored their application really good.' "

Records released in June by Towson identifying all experts and their conflict-of-interest affidavits reveal that several other experts also had relationships with people submitting applications.

Julia Germaine, who evaluated processing applications for Maryland, co-founded a cannabis venture now known as Temescal Wellness in Massachusetts. She is a compliance manager there.

In September 2015, she signed an affidavit saying she had "noknown relationships" to individuals seeking cannabis licenses in Maryland. Two months later, her co-founder and husband, Nial DeMena, and a director and consultant at her company, Ted Rebholz, submitted applications in Maryland under the Temescal brand.

Temescal of Marylandwas one of justseven companies preliminarily approved last year for all three medical marijuana business licenses in Maryland - growing, processing and dispensing. DeMena was set to be general manager of the Maryland processing facility but told The Post he is not currently involved with the company; instead he is focused on business ventures in other states and may work in Maryland if needed.

Germaine told The Post that Temescal Wellness of Maryland was a distinct entity from the nonprofit Temescal Wellness of Massachusetts and she was not privy to its business activity.

DeMena said he wasn't aware that his wife was an evaluator in Maryland, and Germaine said she didn't know her husband was part of the Temescal Wellness of Maryland application.

"Did I know? Of course not," Germaine said in a telephone interview. She did not respond to follow-up questions about when she learned of her husband's involvement.

"You can look at my scores and evaluate the individual scores and see no irregularity," Germaine said. "Temescal must have written a good application across the board."

The company lists its Massachusetts and Maryland locations on its website.

In June 2016, Germaine asked the institute if she should recuse herself from reviewing Temescal's application after she recognized the qualifications of a security director as someone she previously worked with, according to emails she provided. But the institute told her to continue scoring.

"It is not a conflict of interest simply to know someone professionally who is working in the industry," said Irani, the head of the institute. "However, had Julia Germaine revealed to RESI that her husband was the general manager of a company that was applying for a license, or that she was affiliated with a company that was applying for a license, she would not have been an evaluator at all."

Robert Schulman, an attorney for Temescal Wellness of Maryland, said there was nothing improper about Germaine reviewing the application because she was not involved with the Maryland venture and the process was double-blind. It's unclear whether she reviewed portions of the application that described her husband's qualifications.

"What would you gain by knowing a reviewer who doesn't look at the growing application at all and only looks at a limited number of questions, a minute number of questions, to the whole?" said Schulman. "There's too much to lose and nothing to gain."

Nevertheless, the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission said it was investigating this potential conflict, and Schulman said his company is cooperating with requests for information. The commission is set to award final licenses to growers and processors in August.

"The Commission takes its role concerning the integrity of the Medical Cannabis Program and a fair application process very seriously and has been closely monitoring any and all situations of non-compliance to ensure the public trust," Patrick Jameson, the commission's executive director, said in an email. "The Commissioners will evaluate all available background investigation information prior to their deliberative process before issuing any licenses."

One application reviewer warned the institute about ties to prospective marijuana entrepreneurs in Maryland before the evaluation process.

Grower evaluator Vanessa West, general manager of the Metropolitan Wellness Center dispensary in the District, disclosed that her dispensary shared an investor with District Growers, a Washington, D.C., marijuana grower that planned to seek a cultivation license in Maryland.

But Mike Cuthriell, who is president of Metropolitan Wellness, signed up to evaluate processor applications and did not disclose the connection on his conflict-of-interest affidavit. Cuthriell said he could not figure out which companies were behind which applications based on the materials he reviewed.

District Growers owner Corey Barnette, a part owner of Metropolitan Wellness Center and the shared investor mentioned in West's disclosure, was turned down for the cultivation and processing licenses he applied for under the name Freestate Growers with other Metropolitan Wellness Center staff. Barnette told The Post that he knew West and Cuthriell were recruited as evaluators and encouraged them to disclose their connections to him if they took the position, but he said he didn't know they served as evaluators.

Irani said West properly disclosed her conflict but was given Freestate Growers' application anyway because the connection to District Growers wasn't clear to the institute. He said her scoring was in line with how she graded other applications, and that it wasn't necessarily improper for her and Cuthriell to review Freestate applications because of other safeguards to minimize bias.

Kate Bell, a lobbyist for the Marijuana Policy Project, said she was troubled by the connections between evaluators and applicants. But she also said she did not want the discovery of the issue to cause further delays in medical cannabis becoming available to patients. The program's launch has been one of the slowest in the nation.

"It illustrates the fact that when you have government granting a limited number of licenses, there needs to be full transparency with the public," said Bell. "Setting up this system, there was no transparency."
MOSCOW - When Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Sunday that the U.S. Embassy and consulates in Russia would have to cut 755 diplomatic and technical staff, many people had the same first thought: We have 755 diplomats in Russia for Putin to expel? Doesn't that seem like a lot?

The answer is yes, that does seem like a lot. Because no, we don't have 755 diplomats in Russia.

So what is Putin talking about? Altogether, the U.S. government employs more than an estimated 1,200 people in Russia. The majority are hired by the State Department, charged with running the U.S. Embassy and consulates, processing visas and handling other diplomatic tasks. But it also includes employees of dozens of governmental agencies and departments, like the Defense Department, the Agriculture Department, NASA and even the Library of Congress. Collectively, this vast enterprise is often referred to as U.S. Mission Russia or just Mission Russia.

Mission Russia employs an "estimated" 1,200 people because the U.S. Embassy and the State Department have not responded to our requests for data about how many people are employed in this endeavor.

Luckily, the blog Diplopundit had a helpful post Sunday, breaking down the numbers using earlier reports: "In 2013, US Mission Russia (embassy and consulates general) employed 1,279 staff. This included 301 U.S. direct-hire positions and 934 locally employed (LE) staff positions from 35 U.S. Government agencies."

Those statistics came from a 2013 report put together by the State Department's Office of Inspector General, which inspects the "approximately 260 embassies, diplomatic posts, and international broadcasting installations throughout the world" to see whether resources are properly allocated to achieve U.S. policy goals.

The full 2013 report contains a wealth of information about who works for U.S. Mission Russia, including a breakdown of how many U.S. and foreign staff work for each government department and agency. I have included a few thoughts below. There is also a report from 2007 that we'll use for comparison. One note: The 2013 report gives nationality and department data for only 1,200 of Mission Russia's 1,279 employees.

- The majority of U.S. Mission Russia employees are not Americans and won't be expelled: Of 1,200 people employed in 2013 in Mission Russia, 333 were U.S. citizens and 867 were designated "Foreign National Staff," most of them probably Russian nationals. Using the 2013 numbers, if Mission Russia is forced to let go of 755 people, a majority of them would not be U.S. citizens and probably would not be expelled from the country.

Putin said he is seeking parity and wants Mission Russia to employ the same number of people as Russia does in the United States (455 people).

- This will hurt Russians: The single largest departmental employer in Mission Russia is the International Cooperative Administrative Support Services, or ICASS, employing 652 people in 2013 (that was a majority of the staff in Mission Russia). Of those 652 people, 603 were foreign nationals, probably Russians.

What do they do? Mostly administrative services.

Putin's decision implies that many of them will lose their jobs as the State Department goes through a painful triage process before the Sept. 1 deadline.

The Kremlin often denies access to its own market, whether to supermarket consumers or adoptable children, to strike back at the West. So limiting access to its labor market for the U.S. Embassy is not a total surprise. In fact, in 1986, the Soviet Union banned its citizens from working for the U.S. Embassy, forcing embassy staff to moonlight as chauffeurs and mechanics.

- This will further hurt Russians: This will also probably force the U.S. Embassy and consulates to cut consular staff, including employees who process visa requests. The result of a further drawdown, former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul predicted in a tweet, would be a slowdown in visa turnaround.

It can already take weeks, or months, just to get an interview date as part of the visa process.

Interestingly, U.S. Mission Russia used to be far larger. According to the 2007 report, it employed at least 1,779 people, including 1,251 foreign nationals.

Many employees don't work for the State Department: U.S. Mission Russia represents 35 agencies, or at least it did in 2013.

While the State Department employed 1,043 of the 1,279 U.S. Mission Russia employees and will probably suffer most from the cuts, other departments would be expected to take a hit, too.

They include:

- The Defense Department, which had 26 employees in Russia working for the Defense Intelligence Agency and 10 working for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

- Trade representatives, including 17 employees from the Agriculture Department and 31 employees of the Commerce Department.

- Representatives from U.S. law enforcement agencies (four FBI employees and six Drug Enforcement Administration employees).

- NASA, which has 12 employees, probably including support staff for astronauts on the International Space Station or those hitching a ride on Russian Soyuz rockets.

- The Library of Congress, which has two American and two foreign staffers, and the Transportation Department, which has one American and one foreign staffer.

It doesn't look as if many of these 1,200 employees are construction workers: The U.S. Embassy in Moscow is building a $280 million annex to "replace inadequate consular facilities," according to the 2013 report. In background discussions with The Washington Post, some U.S. officials have suggested that the large number of Mission Russia employees may be contractors and other workers tied to that construction, and that the employment cut could be an attempt to scuttle the construction.

That doesn't appear to be the case. The State Department has two U.S. citizens and eight foreign nationals working for the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, probably linked to the annex's construction. But otherwise, the number of staffers at Mission Russia has remained stable for five years and has declined considerably since 2007. If U.S. Mission Russia employed about 1,200 people in 2013 before construction began and employs about 1,200 people now, it would not seem that many are tied to the embassy expansion.
The Liberty County Sheriff's Office is asking for the public's help catching a man who has been posing as a sheriff's deputy and performing traffic stops.

The man was driving an older, white Ford Crown Victoria with emergency lights on the dashboard Saturday when he stopped a county resident for speeding on Texas 321, according to information from the department. The vehicle was unmarked, and the "deputy" was wearing a dark uniform that did not have shoulder patches or a name tag.
GATESVILLE  A dozen Texas inmates are serving a sentence the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled unconstitutional because they were younger than 18 when they committed their crimes.

In early 2016, the court told states to retroactively apply its 2012 ruling that banned mandatory life without parole for juveniles convicted of homicide. While many states have acted to resentence offenders to parole-eligible terms, Texas has left it to inmates to apply individually. If they succeed before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, their sentences will be set aside and new punishment hearings ordered, said Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark.

Attorney Mandy Miller is working on resentencing requests for three of the 12, including a now-27-year-old man convicted at 15 of capital murder in the beating and burning death of a 19-year-old man he and a handful of other teens robbed. The other nine have not yet requested resentencing.

State lawmakers in 2009 passed legislation banning life without parole for offenders 16 and younger and then, four years later, prohibited the sentence for 17-year-olds as well. The law now mandates a sentence of life with the opportunity for parole after 40 years for juveniles who commit certain crimes  but some advocates say even that is too long.

The Texas Criminal Justice Coalition is championing legislation to give juvenile offenders an earlier shot at parole. The Second Look bill would make those inmates eligible for release after serving 20 years and require the Board of Pardons and Paroles to consider the growth and maturity of a youthful offender. The bill died in committee this year, but the group will try again next session.

The coalition said 2,100 inmates who committed crimes as teens would have qualified for parole sooner  more than 1,600 in the next two years.

Larry Robinsons son is one.

Earlier this year, Robinson broke down in tears as he told a legislative committee all the things that werent considered when his son Jason was sentenced to automatic life with the possibility of parole: nightmares about Larrys deployment during Operation Desert Storm, physical abuse from a relative, drug addiction, suicidal thoughts and trips to three psychologists.

The sentencing  was the worst day. Its like the life just came out of me, Robinson said recently. I just kept blaming myself, saying that it was my fault.

Jason Robinson was 16 when he and two other teens robbed the 19th Hole Pawn Shop in Killeen in 1994. They restrained clerk Troy Langseth and duct-taped his mouth before one teen stabbed him multiple times, including a blow that pierced his heart. The trio made off with 17 guns and the stores security videotape.

The younger Robinson, who turns 40 in January, talked about poor decisions that led him to that moment in an interview at the Alfred D. Hughes Unit in Gatesville. He remembered snorting lithium and said he went along the day of the robbery because his friends had marijuana.

Langseth was 24, lanky and tall, with curly brown hair and a beloved white Camaro. He was taking computer science college classes and wasnt supposed to work that morning.

It doesnt seem real that you can make a decision that takes five minutes to make, and it can affect everyones lives  even 23 years later, Jason Robinson said. I know sorry is not good enough. I wish things were different.

He also understands that he wants the very thing he stole from Langseth  a chance at having a life. Hes never had a drivers license, never been on a real date, never walked across a stage to graduate, although hes earned his GED and two college degrees while in prison.

I live with knowing what happened and the consequences of our actions, he said, but I feel like Im running out of time.

Mark Langseth was 21 when his brother was killed and believes Robinson should serve out his term.

When you are 16, or even 15, every person  that walks the face of the planet understands that there are consequences, Langseth said. Jasons actually lucky in a way that he at least gets to keep on living. My brother doesnt get that opportunity.

Some pushing for changes in Texas juvenile sentencing laws say a life sentence even with the possibility of parole means inmates such as Robinson may never be released. Attorney Elizabeth Henneke said data from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice show that less than 5 percent of juveniles sentenced to life before 2013 have been paroled.

Henneke, who represents Robinson, recently formed the Lone Star Justice Alliance, a nonprofit that will contest trying juveniles in adult court and sentencing them to long prison terms, and wants to address underlying issues that lead to juvenile crime.

Murff Bledsoe tried Robinsons case. Now an adjunct faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, he sees validity in arguments that juveniles lack the same maturity and brain development as adults, potentially leading to reckless acts. He said he could support a bill changing the law  but for future offenders, not those already serving time.

I think that in a case like this, where this family has suffered the ultimate of losing a loved one under terrible circumstances, to then go back and take away from them the certainty of what they were told, I dont agree with that, he said.
PALO ALTO EL LLANO, Mexico  Adan Lara Vegas work as a master bricklayer netted him a better salary than the farmhands in this rural town, but he struggled to put food on the table for his wife and two children.

Work was intermittent, family members said as they stood outside his long, one-room house facing the pigsty, chicken coops and small fruit trees behind his parents house. When he could find jobs, the pay was meager.

He wanted to eat better, to buy a better house, said his aunt, Rosalva Vega Tiscareno, There are days we dont eat.

Earlier this month, Lara Vega boarded a bus and began what is a rite of passage for many young men in this region of central Mexico: The trip to the U.S.

Illegal immigration from Mexico has plummeted in recent years, driven by a variety of factors, but that didnt stop Lara Vega and at least 13 other men from the central Mexican state of Aguascalientes from taking buses to the border and crossing the Rio Grande, where they boarded a tractor-trailer that would take them to San Antonio.

Smugglers there were supposed to take them to other destinations, in his case Florida. Instead, Lara Vega and 28 others ended up in San Antonio hospitals. Ten others died in the oppressive, suffocating heat in the unventilated trailer, which was stuffed with as many as 100 immigrants. The smugglers picked up some of them before police arrived at the Walmart parking lot on the Southwest Side where the truck parked.

The truck driver, James Matthew Bradley Jr., 60, was charged with smuggling immigrants and faces up to life in prison or the death penalty.

Tiny Aguascalientes, population 1.3 million, is disproportionately represented in the number of people who leave Mexico for the U.S. each year, driven in part by the poverty here and in part by the states history of exporting labor abroad, going back to a WWII program that legally imported labor.

In the towns surrounding the state capital, also called Aguascalientes, the impact of this decades-long chain of migration are easy to see. In Palo Alto el Llano, population about 5,000, nicer homes of those with family members in the U.S. rise above the squat concrete and adobe houses lining the mostly dirt roads.

In Calvillo, a historic city of 60,000 about 50 miles west of here whose center is crowded with tourists even on a weekday, the legacy of family members in the U.S. can be seen every Monday, when families line up at the bank for remittances, or during the December guava festival, when the large, American-made trucks of the nortenos home for the holidays can be seen on the city streets, officials said.

News of what happened after Lara Vega and the 13 others from Aguascalientes crossed the border sent a shock through this region because of how many here were affected. Maria Guadalupe Rodriguez Macias, 42, said her husband has been in Florida for 13 years. Her sons, who are 18 and 24 years old, want to join him.

They want to go look for their father, she said. Im afraid because of what happened in San Antonio.

But stories of tragic deaths on the trip to the U.S., whether while crossing the cartel-controlled territory near the border, swimming the Rio Grande or hiking through the inhospitable landscape in the American Southwest, are commonplace.

If we dont create opportunities, people will continue risking their lives to get a life of dignity they are looking for, said Gabriel Hernandez, Palo Alto el Llanos city manager who himself crossed to the U.S. illegally, became a legal resident, lived there 20 years and graduated college before returning to his home town last year. There have been so many tragedies in the past, and people keep doing it.

Border Patrol agents caught fewer than 200,000 people from Mexico crossing illegally into the U.S. last year, down from nearly 1 million in 2006. In that time, the U.S. housing market collapsed, the Border Patrol doubled, 650 miles of border fencing were constructed, Mexicos birthrate continued a decades-long decline and economic opportunity increased in Mexico.

Yet Aguascalientes sits in the midst of a region, including the states of Michoacan, Guanajuato, Jalisco and Zacatecas, that has a long history of sending young men abroad to work. Many here go to the U.S. and Canada on temporary visas that allow them to work seasonal jobs. Many more take the dangerous journey to the U.S. illegally.

The migration began in the 1940s with the Bracero Program that was enacted by the U.S. government to replace the millions of workers who left their jobs to serve in the military during WWII.

Arnulfo Silva Rodriguez, 79, said he went to the U.S. nearly a dozen times as a bracero, starting in 1958. After the program was canceled in the 1960s, he came as many times illegally. Back then, he could cross the river unmolested and walk until he could catch a ride to whatever city needed willing hands.

Now theres a lot of crime, he said. There werent cholos (gang members), there werent sicarios (hit men). Now they charge you for crossing the river.

Those who cant afford the fee are often kidnapped and sometimes tortured until their families pay ransom.

What started with the bracero program morphed into a co-dependence between the two countries. Families in Mexico relied on jobs north of the border and U.S. employers became accustomed to the steady supply of cheap labor, said Doris Meissner, a former commissioner of the now-defunct U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and a senior fellow with the Migration Policy Institute. When the bracero program ended, the relationship continued illegally.

Meanwhile, the opportunities to come to the U.S. legally are limited. The wait times for some family visas stretch back decades - in June the State Department was issuing visas for the Mexican citizen children and siblings of U.S. citizens whod applied in the 1990s - and employers complain of an onerous process to bring in legal laborers when they cant find U.S. citizens and legal residents willing to do the work.

Todays historically low levels of illegal border crossings are a significant accomplishment, Meissner wrote in an email. But it is unrealistic to expect zero illegal crossings. Enforcement must be combined with a modernized immigration system that makes legal entry more widely available to meet legitimate labor market demands.

The lure of the North

In Calvillos quiet outskirts, just a few minutes drive from the hubbub of the city center where tourists from around Mexico eat guava ice cream and pose for pictures in a well-kept plaza, Mario Ramirez Mendez, 24, took the same path as the men from Palo Alto el Llano, ending up on the same tractor-trailer to San Antonio.

Like Lara Vega, Ramirez was hospitalized after police were called to the Walmart parking lot early on the morning of July 23, then held in a detention facility by U.S. marshals as a material witness against Bradley.

Tears streamed down the face of Jesus Ramirez Gutierrez, Ramirez Mendezs father, as he explained that hed had no word from his son for days and knew only that hed been released from the hospital.

His son worked in bricklaying. Other young men who work in the surrounding ranches, dairy farms and terraced guava orchards are called peones, a term with feudal connotations.

Here, they have very little, so they go looking for a better life, Ramirez Gutierrez, 74, said.

Closer to the central square, Jose Antonio Gonzalez de Loera, 44, made a decent life for his three children with a family-run business that buys milk from nearby farms and produces cheese that they sell wholesale. He has a two-story house with a carport for his Ford pickup. That didnt stop his son Antonio, who he wanted only identified by first name because the 20-year-old was not detained by immigration authorities, from leaving for the U.S.

On the night of July 22, Antonio called his family frantically from inside the trailer, describing the heat and the lack of air. He later told his mother that he lost consciousness, woke up a strangers house in San Antonio and made it to Colorado with another man whod been in the trailer with him.

Antonio had enjoyed working with cattle since he was a young man, and his family was better off than most, but he was frustrated with the lack of opportunity in Calvillo.

He didnt want to do any more than work and have a house here, Gonzalez said. But all he could find was work in the countryside.

Calvillo city officials noted that with the money immigrants raise and borrow to be smuggled into the country, as much as $7,000, they could open a business and take on something more than farm labor.

Low pay in factories

Aguascalientes, one of the safest states in the country, doesnt have the same security problems as some of those nearby and the capital is home to new manufacturing jobs, including two Nissan plants. But investment in the city has passed over rural areas still suffering from agricultural reforms in the latter part of the 20th century and industrialized farming brought on by NAFTA, said Maria Eugenia Perea Velazquez, a professor at the Universidad Autonoma de Aguascalientes whos studied migration in the region, including in Calvillo.

The return on the investment can be much greater for those who make it to the U.S., She called the decades-long history of migration in the area cultural, and said few here want to open a small store or work six-day weeks of 12-hour shifts at the local factories to make in a week what they could make in a day north of the border.

As Hernandez, the city manager in Palo Alto el Llano put it, Companies from other countries move into our territories because the payment they offer our workers is low. Thats the reason they move into Mexico. A good-paying factory job offers 1,500 pesos, a little less than $85, a week, he said.

I love my country, Hernandez said. If I could make the same amount of money here, I wouldnt have to move to the U.S.

He said it doesnt make sense for the U.S. to spend so much money enforcing its borders when its farms and factories are encouraging foreign labor to enter the country illegally.

The U.S. and Canada, they need people to work in their fields, he said. Why not do it legally?

The cycle of migration has its negative impacts, Perea said. Areas with high emigration to the U.S. are reliant on remittances and lack young adults who would be contributing to the economy. Many children grow up in single-pare homes, and as soon as young men come of age they follow their fathers to the U.S. She said two-thirds of the population in Calvillo lives in poverty, but emigration to the U.S. isnt limited to the poor.

There are middle-class families in Calvillo that have a tradition of emigrating to the United States, Perea said. For them, the dream is to go to the United States, buy a truck, send back dollars, meet a girl and marry her.

Part of the blame, she said, goes to Mexicos government, which tolerates human smuggling and trafficking, and does little to help communities stuck in the cycle of migration. In some states, nongovernmental organizations have found success creating cooperatives, often involving the women who are left behind, to create economies not reliant on emigration to the U.S., Perea said. New government administrations, however, are too quick to throw out their predecessors programs and start anew.

Reform needed

For groups that advocate for allowing more legal immigration, the answer is expanding visas to address what they say is both a humanitarian issue of those in nearby countries and an economic issue in the U.S., where labor is needed. Todays visa quotas were set in 1990, and both immigration patterns and the economy have changed immensely since then, said Michelle Mittelstadt, the Migration Policy Institutes director of communications.

MPI has long been on the record that there must be flexibility in the system that allows for the upward or downward adjustment of visas based on actual labor market needs, Mittelstadt wrote in an email. The institute advocates creating a permanent, non-partisan commission staffed with labor market and immigration experts, economists, and other specialists that would advise Congress and the administration annually on what employment-based immigration needs are, based on deep review of labor market sectors at U.S. and local levels.

Congress hasnt reformed immigration for nearly two decades, and President Donald Trump used immigration enforcement as a major campaign platform, allying himself with organizations that want to decrease all immigration to the U.S., legal and illegal.

Even if we doubled or tripled or quadrupled legal immigration or guest-worker programs, which is a highly unlikely change to the law, still we would not be able to accommodate all the people in the world who would want to come here, Jessica Vaughan, the director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, one such restrictionist groups, wrote in an email. The demand would not be satisfied, so people would still pay smugglers.

Illegal immigration is not a force of nature that cannot be controlled, Vaughan added. We will never stop it completely, but we can reduce it dramatically by forcing more employers to stop hiring illegal workers, by investigating and prosecuting the smugglers, by controlling the physical border and do a better job screening people coming through the ports of entry, by having robust interior enforcement, by denying access to benefits like drivers licenses and welfare programs.

For Lara Vega in Palo Alto el Llano, the nuances of Mexicos struggles to address poverty in rural areas and the failure of the U.S. immigration system boiled down to something more basic.

They want dollars, Vega Tiscareno, the aunt of Lara Vega, said of the young men who leave for the U.S. Theres plenty of work. Its the American dream. To improve your life. To eat.
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AUSTIN  Top executives of big oil companies and other major Houston firms and organizations on Monday weighed into the political dogfight over the controversial bathroom bill, calling on Gov. Greg Abbott to block passage of the legislation that they warned will harm Texas' ability to grow its economy.

That stance puts the Greater Houston Partnership in direct opposition to Abbott, who has championed the legislation.

Opponents from the state's business community are stepping up their efforts to stop the push by Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick for the bill that has divided Texas -- and the nation -- for months.

Resistance to bathroom bills has blossomed after backlash from earlier legislative efforts in North Carolina, Indiana and other states. Business leaders say the state risks losing millions of dollars for events that organizers threaten to cancel or move elsewhere if lawmakers pass the bill.

In a two-page letter that followed similar pleas from executives at several Fortune 500 companies, Houston business leaders noted that Texas has worked for decades "to establish its reputation as a great place to do business."

GOVERNOR: Governor defends bathroom bill

Story continues below...

The letter came as the Texas Association of Business, which last week ramped up the opposition with a $1 million saturation broadcast ad campaign in the Dallas-Fort Worth area against the bill, made public a poll showing that only 26 percent of Republican primary voters support the bill. The poll was conducted in five GOP-controlled legislative districts selected to represent a cross-section of the state, officials with the group said.

Strong resistance remains in the Texas House, where Speaker Joe Straus and dozens of other members have repeatedly said the Legislature has more pressing issues to work on. The Senate already has passed a version of the bathroom bill.

Even as the public fight over the bathroom bill expands, lawmakers in both chambers worried Monday that the only must-pass bills of the special legislative session are being delayed after the Senate and the House quickly their own versions. With just about two weeks to go in session, those bills could become bargaining chips to get other legislation passed, several lawmakers said.

As passed by the Senate, the bathroom bill restrict bathroom access based on the gender on a person's birth certificate. Supporters including Republican organizations and pastor groups insist the law is needed to protect the privacy of women and girls, while transgender advocates and business groups say it is discriminatory and will hurt the Lone Star business climate.

"We support diversity and inclusion, and we believe that any such bill risks harming Texas' reputation and impacting the state's economic growth and ability to create new jobs," the letter from Houston business leaders states. "Innovative companies are driven by their people, and winning the talent recruitment battle is key. Any bill that harms our ability to attract top talent to Houston will inhibit our growth and continued success  and ultimately the success of our great state."

The letter asks Abbott to "avoid any actions, including the passage of any 'bathroom bill,' that would threaten our continued growth."

The letter is signed by top officials of the Greater Houston Partnership, Chevron North America Exploration and Production, Accenture, Amegy Bank, Andrews Kurth Kenyon LLP, Atlantic Partners Group LLC, Baker Botts LLP, BBVA Compass, BP, The Boston Consulting Group, BHP Billiton Petroleum, Bracewell LLP, Capine Production, Camden Property Trust, CenterPoint Energy, ChaseSource, Dow Chemical Company, DeMontrond Automotive Group, ConocoPhillips, Ernst & Young LLP, ExxonMobil Global Services Company, Foster LLP, Genesis Park LLP, Group 1 Automotive, Gilbane Building Co., GSL Welcome Group, James Post Interests, Houston JLL, Halliburton, Haynes and Boone LLP and Locke Lord.

In a prepared statement, Chevron officials said, "Diversity and inclusion are core to Chevron's values. Diversity is critical to developing a talented, high-performing workforce needed for ongoing business success. It is our policy that no one at Chevron should ever be subject to discrimination, including on the basis of sexual orientation.

"We do not support any legislation that is counter to those beliefs."

FIGHT: IBM all in on fight against bathroom bills

Abbott's office did not respond to a request for comment about the letter. But in an interview after a speech to law enforcement in North Texas earlier in the day, the Republican governor pushed back against police chiefs who have criticized the bathroom bill as being an added burden to them.

A week after police chiefs from Houston, San Antonio and Austin joined in protest against the bill, Abbott said the legislation specifically attempts to avoid adding any added burden on local police.

"There is not a role for law enforcement to play," Abbott said Monday at the annual Sheriffs' Association of Texas Training Conference and Expo in Grapevine. "Enforcement of this law is done by the Attorney General."

According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Abbott said because it is a civil action and not a criminal one, police will not be part of the enforcement.

"So what I urge is for everyone to step back, calmly look at what the bill actually says, before they cast some misguided judgment," Abbott said.

Patrick, another champion of the bathroom bill, blasted the partnership's letter.

"The Partnership is out of touch with the majority of Houstonians who voted overwhelmingly in 2015 to reject the same kind of ordinance that Senate Bill 3 will prohibit. They warned of economic doom at the time, but there has been no negative impact on the City's economy. In their rush to be politically correct this business group is ignoring the fact that companies continue to expand and new ones are moving to Houston. The people of Texas are right about this issue and they are wrong," Patrick said in a statement.

Even so, the companies whose executives signed the letter stood by their position.

"Diversity and inclusion are core to Chevron's values. Diversity is critical to developing a talented, high-performing workforce needed for ongoing business success," Isabel Ordonez, Chevron's upstream senior external affairs advisor, said in a statement, echoing sentiments of other signators. "It is our policy that no one at Chevron should ever be subject to discrimination, including on the basis of gender identity. We do not support any legislation that is counter to these beliefs."

Also Monday, the House tentatively approved four bills relating to maternal health and safety, pregnancy-related deaths, and maternal morbidity  one of the topics Abbott set for the special session. Rep. Shawn Thierry, D-Houston, said she authored one of those measures -- House Bill 11  after nearly losing her life giving birth to her daughter.

"It became my mission to become a voice for the voiceless," Thierry told a hushed House Chamber in a brief speech that drew a standing ovation. "Texas is now the most dangerous place to give birth in the free world ... Stand with me. Stand with all of us on this issue."

The Senate earlier passed a bill to address the same issues.

Click through our gallery to read the 10 things you should know about the Bathroom Bill...
Eva Nell Beckmann loved blue bonnets, spending time at church, making afghans for baby showers and sewing in the quilting bee at St. Joseph Catholic Church-Honey Creek, in Spring Branch.

Recently, while coming home from a hairdressing appointment in Boerne, she came across a caravan of armed men on the family ranch  lost hunters, her husband said.

She was frightened. It was cardiogenic shock, Gerald Beckmann said of his wife who died days later, on July 23. She was 68.

Eva Nell Beckmann grew up in Boerne. Her father, a cattle and sheep farmer, made extra money driving the bus she took to school.

More Information Eva Nell Beckmann Born: July 18, 1949, San Antonio Died: July 23, 2017, San Antonio Preceded by: Parents, Joseph and Martha Nickel Survived by: Husband, Gerald, brother Kenneth Nickel and and sister-in-law Vickie; daughters Diane Prentice and son-in-law Gene; Sheila Self and son-in-law Michael; two grandchildren and numerous friends and family. Services: Visitation 6 p.m. Tuesday , Rosary follows at 7p.m. at Vaughan's Funeral Home Chapel, 319 E. San Antonio Avenue, Boerne. Funeral Mass 10 a.m.Wednesday at St. Joseph Catholic Church-Honey Creek, 25781 Hwy 46, Spring Branch. A private burial will be held at a later date. See More Collapse

Riding with her father, she was the first kid on and the one last off. It was an hour ride, husband Gerald Beckmann said, recalling the stories she told of those days.

Beckmann went on to graduate in 1968 from Boerne High School. After taking core classes at San Antonio College, she was offered a secretarial position at Randolph Air Force Base.

Beckmann spent the next 40 years rising through the ranks, eventually retiring as a human resources assistant.

During her early years at the base, she met her husband who was working at Alamo Ironworks as a machinist. Later, he found work at Randolph Air Force Base, where hed work for 21 years until the two of them retired together Dec. 31, 2007.

"My best friend Kenneth Fater, who eventually became my best man, encouraged me to go to the Catholic singles parties in the early 1970s, Beckmann's husband said. Thats how I met her.

After the second date, he knew she was the one for him. Six months later, he surprised her.

She was expecting me to propose by taking her out for a walk in the pasture on Christmas Day, but my patience did not last, he said. Throughout their life together, he said "she was always telling me to be patient, saying 'slow down you'll make it.'"

They married April 28, 1973, at St. Peters Catholic Church, in Boerne.

It was not long before the family grew with the addition of two daughters. Family vacations were spent camping and hiking at scenic locations.

In 2010, the couple moved out to the family ranch,because her husbands dream was to be a rancher.

Beckmann did volunteer work for the Daughters of Charity, played Bunco with friends and helped manage the Spanish goats.

She was a very kind, patient and caring just about everything a man could possibly want, her husband said. She taught me to laugh at myself.

iwilgen@express-news.net
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A Cuyahoga County (Ohio) grand jury declined to indict Raiders cornerback Gareon Conley on a rape allegation, only hours after the case was forwarded from the Cleveland police on Monday.

The grand jury "returned a no bill on all possible charges, the Cuyahoga County prosecutor said Monday in a statement.

More for you EJ Manuel and Connor Cook in running for Raiders backup...

Conley, the teams first-round pick in April, was unavailable to reporters at training camp in Napa, as he is not practicing due to shin splints. But Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie was giddy.

This smile tell you anything?, he said. I am excited for Gareon. Its tough on a young man like that to go through this.  We trusted our process.

A woman accused Conley of raping her at a downtown Cleveland hotel on April 9. Conley, who was not arrested or charged in the case, told police on May 1 that there was a consensual sexual encounter.

"His faith in the system was rewarded," Kevin Spellacy, Conley's attorney, said. "He is vindicated.

Cleveland police forwarded the rape accusation case involving Conley to a grand jury on Monday morning.

McKenzie had said the team had done miles and miles of research before picking the Ohio State cornerback 24th overall in the draft. McKenzie said that faith grew the more people he talked to as the process carried out.

I dont want to get into whos and whats and all that, but we just felt good going into it, McKenzie said. And all the information we got said it would come out this way.

McKenzie said he expects Conley back on the practice field in a few days.

Vic Tafur is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: VTafur@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VicTafur
But what are they doing for older people? Are they in touch with the issues affecting an ageing population, and are they listening to what is required? Mahurangi Matters approached the seven main political parties with members in Parliament and asked them, Why should older people vote for you? The responses varied from swift and specific to last-minute and vague, or even non-existent; here are the edited highlights, in alphabetical order 

ACT PARTY

Beth Houlbrooke, list candidate

Housing affordability  Many people are reviewing their accommodation arrangements and looking to downsize or buy into retirement villages. The current very high cost of housing means that there is little change left over to boost retirement funds. ACT wants to address the crippling shortage of housing by:

 Removing large cities from the Resource Management Act, and creating separate urban development legislation, prioritising land supply and reducing red tape for developers.

 Incentivising councils to consent more land for development and build more infrastructure, by sharing a portion of GST levied on construction.

 Getting councils out of the building standards process, replacing council building inspections and compliance with a mandatory private insurance regime for buildings.

Sustainable Super  it is a fact that we are all living longer, more active lives. The present super arrangement is simply unsustainable. The only fair way to address this is to raise the age of entitlement, incrementally, over time, to 67. ACT proposes to do this from 2020, by adding two months per annum to the age of entitlement, stopping in 2032. This is far fairer and more affordable than Nationals current policy to suddenly lift it in 2037 to 67 years of age.

Red tape and regulation  In my experience, baby boomers are aghast at changes to legislation that seem to do nothing more than create more jobs for bureaucrats, insurance companies, lawyers, and consultants. Most seem to be unproductive and interfering with ordinary citizens just trying to go about their lives, especially for volunteers, many of whom are in this age bracket. A licence for this, a consent for that, a traffic management plan, a health and safety plan  for the most minor of projects  all adds to costs and delays. It can make doing things for your community just all-too-hard. ACT is the only party that is committed to slashing red tape and regulation.



THE GREEN PARTY

Barry Coates MP, spokesperson for Senior Citizens

The Green Party believes that older New Zealanders should be supported to live with dignity. Our country has a world-leading superannuation system that has virtually eliminated poverty among older people, but it is being undermined by the run down of public services. The Greens will defend NZ Super and ensure that it is supported by more funding for health care, a stronger aged care system, purpose-built affordable housing and better transport choices.

Our system of aged care is failing too many of our senior citizens. The Green Party is working with the Labour Party and Grey Power on an inquiry into aged care, including nine public meetings across New Zealand. We have been listening to peoples experiences with aged care and looking for ways the system can be improved. These meetings have identified too many cases of neglect, abuse or a poor standard of care.

There is an urgent need for an Aged Care Commissioner to champion the cause of aged care, and to investigate cases of neglect or abuse. This role should support accountability for rest homes and home care providers, including an accessible rating system, with feedback from patients.

There needs to be adequate funding for health care. Government funding has not kept pace with the growing numbers of people needing care. This means the DHBs dont have enough money to deliver aged care and 9 per cent of people are denied access to specialist care because they are on waiting lists or do not meet the criteria.

We also need affordable and purpose-built housing for those who dont own their own home and as a transition between living at home and a rest home. It is important that these are available locally, in small towns and rural areas, not just in bigger cities.

Our older citizens deserve better. They have rights to aged care as patients, and they have rights to dignity as valued members of our society.



LABOUR PARTY

Marja Lubeck, Rodney candidate

The obvious first comment I would make is that no matter what age, there are some statistics we currently hold in New Zealand, that just need to change: 40,000 people homeless, 300,000 children living in poverty and the highest youth suicide in the developed world.

Many older people may be concerned that they themselves or their kids, or grandkids, will never be able to own their own home.

They may be concerned about the lack of access to healthcare and they may be one of 500,000 people in NZ that cannot afford to see a doctor, or one of those on long hospital waiting lists, one of 60,000 people per year being turned away for elective surgery (such as knee and hip replacements).

They may be concerned about their kids or grandkids being one of 90,000 young people not in education or training. They may themselves be worried about what the future holds job-wise, the increasing automation putting jobs at risk. What opportunities are there to (re)train?

They might be owning businesses that would welcome a more flexible tax system, or are hurting from unfair competition from bad employers. They may believe it is more fair that multinationals pay their fair share of tax. They may not want the superannuation age raised beyond 65.

They may want our rivers and lakes swimmable again. They might be fed up with the congestion on our roads  and if they live in Rodney, believe that Hill Street intersection and Penlink should happen sooner rather than later. There are many more really good points in our policies, whether youre a young, young at heart or older voter.

MAORI PARTY

Erena Temara, senior executive assistant to Marama Fox

Unfortunately, we are unable to complete the inquiry  we have at least a two-week turnaround period. The current information online is available at maoriparty.org/policies

NATIONAL PARTY

Mark Mitchell MP

National is committed to ensuring older New Zealanders have the security, wellbeing and respect they deserve. Supporting older New Zealanders to live longer, healthier, and increasingly independent lives remains a priority for this Government.

Our top priorities include a healthcare system flexible enough to meet peoples changing needs. A key aspect of our commitment is growing health services, with Budget 2017 investing a record $16.8 billion in 2017/18.

The Governments recent announcement of a $2 billion pay equity settlement, to be delivered over five years, will help to ensure we have a higher paid, more skilled and engaged workforce caring for around 110,000 of New Zealands most vulnerable. This dedicated and predominantly female workforce is receiving a pay rise of between 15 and 50 per cent. Another significant issue for seniors is the serious and growing problem of elder abuse. Our new Elder Abuse Response Service (EARS) puts the victims of elder abuse first. The cornerstone of EARS is a free and confidential 24/7 helpline, 0800 32 668 65. Registered nurses will advise anyone who needs information or support about elder abuse. In addition to longstanding providers like Age Concern receiving a funding increase, 18 new organisations will be involved, including 10 Age Concern branches being funded for the first time.

National believes seniors have a vital role at the heart of our communities, providing an all-important link between days gone by and New Zealands future. They guide, serve, and contribute in so many ways beyond what can be measured in dollars or by statistics. Other examples of investment by the Government in areas that matter to seniors include:

raising the married rate of superannuation by $160 or 36 per cent since 2008

investing $30 million in a falls prevention programme led by ACC

giving all seniors an extra $13 per week as part of Budget 2017s Family Incomes Package and supporting the 15,000 older people receiving the accommodation supplement with a $29 per week increase

improving communication and advocacy for seniors through the SuperSeniors website SuperSeniors Champions, a group of articulate role models led by Sir Peter Snell

expanding the SuperGold Card scheme for off-peak travel

NEW ZEALAND FIRST

Winston Peters MP, leader

New Zealand First wants all seniors to stay independent as long as they can. They have paid taxes all their lives and are entitled to services to help them stay in their own homes.

Seniors make a huge contribution to the nation, and many are working past the age of eligibility for superannuation. Their years of work experience are valuable, mentoring others and passing on skills, they put in many thousands of hours as volunteers, and they are active in caring for grandchildren, and supporting their children to get ahead in an increasingly competitive world.

Too many older New Zealanders miss out on healthcare under the heavy demand on the health system, which has worsened as immigration has poured over 73,000 net into NZ each year. None of the public services have been boosted in line with this population growth.

NZ Firsts Affordable Healthcare Bill, voted down by National in 2015, would have provided those aged 65-plus a rebate off health insurance premiums. NZ Firsts SuperGold Health Check Bill, also voted down by National in 2015, would have given seniors three free GP visits a year.

Superannuation and its future is a huge concern for all retirees, but NZ First will demand the universal non-means test super eligibility age stays at 65. Labour and National have both flip-flopped on this.

National has now decided to raise the age to 67. NZ Super is affordable and will remain so as long as we increase productivity. We must also restart contributions to the NZ Superannuation Fund which National has stopped  meaning $17 billion has been lost, reducing the nest egg that was supposed to cushion increased demand for super.

Another concern is that New Zealand is far too generous, we give immigrants full super at 65 after they have been here only 10 years. NZ Firsts NZ Superannuation (Fair Residency) Bill will require a person to have lived in the country for 25 years.



Response was not received from United Future.
The final stage of Summerset Falls retirement village in Warkworth  79 new apartments  is expected to be finished in the first half of 2019.

The build represents a total investment at the village of more than $100 million and will bring the total number of apartments to 204.

As well as villas, cottages and serviced apartments, the village provides in-home support and rest home and hospital-level care.

Sales manager Steven Garner says the final construction project will bring the village to full capacity.

I have discussed the matter with our chief executive, Julian Cook, and we both agree that operational constraints will dictate that this is as big as the village will get, Steven says.

There are very few options for extending facilities on this site.

Mr Cook says Summerset may look at another site in the Warkworth area, but not in the foreseeable future.

Work on the new units started in April and more than 20 have been pre-sold, with prices ranging from $199,000 to $760,000.

The new development is progressing well despite the rain weve had, Mr Cook says.

He says Summerset is currently the third largest retirement village operator in NZ, but the fastest growing. The company is investing $1.3 billion into construction in Auckland alone this year, with 450 units to be built nationwide.

Two new villages are set to open in 2018, adding to the 21 villages already operating and housing around 14,500 residents.

Our current development at Summerset Falls is driven by demand, Steven says.

More than 1.6 million people over the age of 65 are expected to be living in NZ by 2063.

In that same year, the retirement age group will make up more than 25 per cent of the countrys population, which is about 10 per cent higher than the current figure.
Auckland University PhD student Will McKay, who is currently based at the Leigh Marine Laboratory, embarked on an adventure of a lifetime last week as a member of a major marine expedition led by Auckland Museum.

Will was selected by the Sir Peter Blake Trust to take part in the six-week expedition, which started in southern New Caledonia on July 27 and will track through southern Fiji and Tonga, and end in New Zealand via Rangitahua the Kermadec Islands.

The 20-strong team of researchers will carry out biological surveys and genetic sampling work to compare the biodiversity, population connectivity and community structure of marine environments in the southwest Pacific region.

A number of projects will be carried out during the expedition, including a survey of predator numbers, a visual survey of whales in the region and a large-scale study to document new marine plant and animal species in the area.

I cant wait to get amongst a group of marine experts and help create new knowledge about the Pacific, Will said before departure. This will be an awesome opportunity to share the exciting nature of ocean environments and the discoveries that still await us. As part of Sir Peter Blakes legacy, I want to spread awareness and increase engagement with the marine environment in the hope that we can ensure long-term health and sustainability.

Part of Wills work onboard will be to help document the expedition and the various research projects.

The museums head of natural sciences Dr Tom Trnski said the expectation was that the expedition would find new species that havent been recorded before.

We are going to remote areas that have rarely, if ever, been surveyed in the past, he said.

It will be great to have Will helping us share stories about our discoveries and I hope he is able to use this experience to inspire students to learn more about our incredible marine environment and to protect it.

Will is studying aquaculture at Leigh to complete his PhD, with a focus on the production of larval giant kokopu (whitebait).

To follow the expedition via images and short video clips, visit aucklandmuseum.com/about-us/blog
Often we read in the media about a violent crime being committed in heartland New Zealand where such events are unheard of or very rare.

The usual comment from a local resident being that sort of stuff doesnt happen here, we all know each other. That was the case when a young woman was found close to death in the Dome Valley last year. She had been tied up, severely beaten and dumped on a remote country road.

She was not known to local Police and her identity was only confirmed after a picture of her tattoo was given national media exposure.

Following excellent investigative work by detectives from the Rodney CIB, the offenders were identified, charged and recently convicted in the Auckland High Court. They were (rightly) sentenced to lengthy periods of imprisonment.

The trial received significant media exposure because of the depravity involved. How someone could possibly treat another human being in such a callous and brutal way is foreign to most of us. Some of you may have taken some solace in the thought that the location, where the victim was found, was random and those responsible were not connected with this community. But you would be wrong.

One of the offenders was a mother whose daughter once lived in our community before she died suddenly about a year before the event in the Dome Valley. She was 17-years-old.

When the mother was arrested for the attempted murder in the Dome Valley case, she was visiting the grave of her daughter.

Thats the thing about meth  it has the ability to turn people ugly and it has no respect for location or gender or race or age.

The problem may not be as big here as in other parts of the country, but lets not wait until it is before we own it and do something about it.

Recently, I met with Springboard to discuss the effect of meth on our community and more importantly, what we could do to lessen it. Springboard, a locally-based community group, knows all about the effects of P because they work, on a daily basis, with the kids and families who are affected by it.

We recognise that we are not likely to rid our town of meth and merely relying on the police to catch and prosecute all those who peddle this pernicious drug isnt having a significant impact on the demand for it. Not all of our kids are discouraged from trying it.

Out of our discussion came a commitment to do what we can to educate, encourage and empower our kids to say no to P. Rather than pretend they wont be exposed to it, or hope they wont try it, we accept they probably will be offered it and when (not if) that happens, they will choose to tell the dealer to bugger off.

There is educational material available on the internet regarding meth and it is reasonably compelling, but it is American and doesnt relate to NZ, let alone Warkworth. As one ex-meth dealer commented after we had watched Not even once on YouTube, Thats not bad but we dont drive left hand cars and theres no Native Americans in Warkworth!

Mahurangi College also recognises that the message isnt getting through to all students. They agree that more meth awareness education would be beneficial, especially if it was delivered by credible presenters such as ex-meth dealers and users, and accompanied by a DVD featuring local people.

Similarly, Ngati Manuhiri acknowledges that meth is a problem for our iwi and we need to work together to reduce the demand for it.

We have committed to producing that DVD and envisage that it will be regularly shown at local schools and community groups. It will feature local employers explaining why they wont employ anyone who tests positive to meth and local users who have had their children taken from them and local (ex) dealers who acknowledge the lives they have ruined.

Our aim is to enable our kids and grandkids to have the confidence to say no to meth, just as they have the confidence to insist on wearing a seatbelt.

Fundraising has begun for this initiative and seven local parents and employers have already pledged money toward it, but we would encourage anyone who wants to contribute to contact Springboard phone 425 4623 or mail@springboard.org.nz about making a donation, or me at the Warkworth Police Station 425 8109 or bede.haughey@police.govt.nz to discuss.

This is a joint initiative involving the Warkworth Police, Springboard, Mahurangi College and Ngati Manuhiri to drive down the demand for meth in our community.

By SERGEANT BEDE HAUGHEY

O/C Warkworth police
A large parcel of land zoned future urban/countryside living at 185 Sandspit Road is back on the market and if it sells for a profit, the Crown could be the beneficiary.

Hong Zhongliang, Ke Xueli, Gu Xinrong and IRL Investment Limited bought the 80-hectare property, known as the Chestnut Farm, in 2012.

None of the buyers live or intended to live in New Zealand, so they were required to apply for Overseas Investment Office (OIO) approval, which they did retrospectively last year.

However, the OIO declined the application on the grounds that the application had insufficient evidence to show that benefits would be realised and the benefits werent substantial enough to meet the criteria of the Overseas Investment Act.

As such, the owners were forced to sell and are required to keep the OIO informed at each step in the sale process.

An OIO spokesperson says any proceeds from the sale will be reviewed as part of the process.

Section 48 of the Act allows us to apply to the High Court for an order that a person in breach, pay a civil penalty, the spokesperson says. The maximum amount of the penalty is the larger of $300,000 or the amount of any gain, such as the increase in the value of the property since acquisition.

Any penalty would be set by the Court and it would need to take account of the extent of the gain and other relevant factors. Any civil penalty paid by a vendor/investor is paid to the Crown.

Cici and Miro Wang, of Barfoot & Thompson Remuera, have the property listed on the internet as being for sale by negotiation.

Confusingly, when Mahurangi Matters approached Ms Wang for background information, she said the property was not for sale, due to legal issues with the OIO office.

There is no point in ringing me unless you are a buyer, she said.

The property is being advertised as, Pulsing with potential and oozing opportunity for unprecedented development options, this sensational piece of paradise is the largest single block of land offered for sale in Warkworth. The property holds potential (subject to council consent) for sub-dividing down to two-hectare parcels making possible a mix of medium density housing and lifestyle blocks.
Two deep holes undermining a steep section of a popular walking and cycle track have been partially fenced off, and the path could be closed completely until they are fixed, following fears that someone could fall in and seriously injure themselves.

Auckland Council contractors erected safety barriers around one of the three-metre deep slips, on a sharp bend on the walkway, just west of Whitmore Road, on Thursday July 27. This was in response to safety concerns raised by the Matakana Community Group.

However, before the job could be finished, Council realised the responsibility for the walkway lay with Auckland Transport, and the job was referred to them on Friday July 28 with the suggestion that the track should be closed.

Rodney Local Board member and chair of the Matakana Coast Trail Trust Allison Roe raised concerns over the walkway holes at last months Local Board meeting, and said afterwards she believed things had reached the stage where the track should be closed. She said she and several community members had logged complaints on ATs website.

Ive been really concerned about them for quite some time, she said. Im concerned because they are very deep, very steep holes, and theyre on a sharp corner. If anybody fell in, they wouldnt get out, and if a child fell in, that would be unthinkable.

It would be a shame to close the track because its such a good trail, but its got to the stage where its too dangerous and it needs to be sorted.

The Matakana Community Group, which proposed and built the popular trail which links to Point Wells and Omaha, has been trying to get the problem fixed locally for some weeks, but constant bad weather and contractors heavy workloads have led to a longer than expected delay, according to member Scott McCallum.

Until last week, there were just two road cones placed either side of the track as a warning to users, and one of those had fallen into the deeper of the two holes. He says that if hed known how long it would take to remedy the issue, the group may have acted differently.

It may be a lesson to us to just close the track immediately, rather than keep the facility open with warning cones, he says.
An independent consultants assessment of options for the reorganisation of Auckland has dismissed the idea of a Rodney Unitary Authority.

Instead, the report identifies either the status quo or two Rodney local boards, under the existing Auckland Council, as the preferred options for local government in Rodney.

The report, prepared by Morrison Low, will be presented to interested parties in Auckland this week, ahead of its general release next Monday.

Morrison Low examined five options for north Rodney:

1. Status quo

2. Two local boards

3. Merge a portion of north Rodney (the Wellsford area) with Kaipara District Council and Northland Regional Council

3. North Rodney Unitary Authority

4. North Rodney District Council

When assessing the Unitary Authority, which the Northern Action Group (NAG) has championed almost since Auckland Council was established, the report predicted that rates would need to increase by 48 per cent to cover the estimated first year deficit of $13.5 million. It also predicted that the deficit would continue to rise over the ensuing 10 years.

In addition there are likely to be significant capability and capacity issues for a unitary authority that would have about half the population of the smallest current unitary authority in New Zealand, the report said.

Although the consultants acknowledged that there would be some benefits, such as a greater level of representation and more autonomy in decision-making, the overriding consideration was whether the North Rodney Unitary Authority would be large enough to effectively undertake the full responsibilities of a unitary council.

The report said that splitting off Wellsford and Warkworth from the Auckland region would also not support integrated growth planning.

Auckland is New Zealands fastest growing city and Warkworth has been identified as the new northern growth satellite town, the report said. A unitary authority would fragment strategic growth planning and the scale of the proposed authority would place limits on the strategic capacity of the council to deliver services to its community.

The consultants believed that operational processes and capital works required to meet regulations would consume most of the unitary councils revenue with little left over for discretionary spending.

The small size of the councils staff would mean that there would be an increased dependence on contracted external expertise.



Preferred options

In assessing the two preferred options (Options 1 & 2), the report found that while there was no change under Option 1, Option 2 had some governance and representation benefits for the Rodney communities but there were drawbacks in respect to governance and representation for the wider Auckland community, and it would be more costly for Auckland Council.

The key changes would be:

 A northern board encompassing the Warkworth and Wellsford subdivisions, with the remaining Rodney ward forming the South Rodney Board. Each board would have six members including the chair.

 An increase in representation in Rodney, increasing the population-to local-board-member ratio from 6911:1 to 5183:1.

 Creation of two new local board offices in Rodney, one within each of the new local board areas.

 Additional governance costs, including the cost of the local board members and democracy, administrative and engagement support to elected members, as well as transitional costs to establish the new local board.

The report said two boards would provide a stronger mandate for Rodney communities to advocate for the Rodney ward and better representation. Rural communities would benefit through a greater voice for rural ratepayers as a whole.

But, alternatively, the report found that two local boards could disadvantage other communities in Auckland, outside of Rodney, because their voice would be one of 22 rather than one of 21.

Substantially lower representation than in Rodney could be perceived to be inequitable by other communities within Auckland and the governance model would be made slightly more complex, potentially slowing decision-making.



Merging Wellsford

The report says the option of merging Wellsford and Te Hana with Kaipara would result in a first year estimated $2.9 million deficit for Kaipara District Council and a reduced surplus for the Northland Regional Council. This would have a significant impact on Kaiparas ability to carry out its responsibilities, duties and powers. It also did not enable catchment-based flooding and water management issues to be dealt with effectively.

The idea of a North Rodney District Council was dismissed on the grounds that it would result in a first year estimated $10.2 million deficit, which was forecast to increase over the 10 year forecast period. Rates would need to increase by 43 per cent in year one to cover this deficit.

The Morrison Low report will assist the Local Government Commission to determine its preferred option.
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Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Politics

By Long Island News & PR Published: July 31 2017

Bellone: "Eleanor Lingos kindness, compassion and commitment to helping others demonstrates how ordinary residents can have an extraordinary impact in touching the lives of others."

Suffolk County, NY - July 31, 2017 - Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone recently honored Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone recently honored Southold resident Eleanor Lingo as Suffolk Countys Senior Citizen of the Year. The annual award recognizes a senior citizen who has made significant contributions to their community either as an advocate, role model, volunteer or community leader.

Eleanor Lingos kindness, compassion and commitment to helping others demonstrates how ordinary residents can have an extraordinary impact in touching the lives of others, said County Executive Bellone. As trail-blazer for African-American women on the East End, she unknowingly helped to break down barriers for many Suffolk County residents today.

Eleanor Lingo is a Southold native and was born to George and Ann Morris, who were among the first African-American families to settle in Southold. After graduating from Southold High School in 1944, Mrs. Lingo found employment in F.W. Woolworth in Connecticut, where she became the first woman of color to work on the companys sales floor. After returning to Southold in 1954, Mrs. Lingo became the first woman of color to join the business office of Eastern Long Island Hospital.

Mrs. Lingo is currently is an active member of the Southold community as she volunteers for a variety of community groups, including the towns anti-bias task force, Community Action Southold Town, Peconic Senior Citizens Club, Southold Town Senior Services and other organization.

In addition, Mrs. Lingo was previously honored for her goodwill towards a forgotten slave whose identity remains unknown. Starting in 1954, Mrs. Lingo anonymously placed flowers on the grave site of a women identified as Negro slave lady every year in the cemetery near First Presbyterian Church.
Afghanistans Ministry of Interior Affairs released this photo of the Iraqi embassy in Kabul after it was attacked this morning.

The Islamic States Wilayah Khorasan (or Khorasan province) attacked the Iraqi embassy in Kabul earlier today. The self-declared caliphate claimed the assault via short messages from its Amaq News Agency and then released a longer statement on social media channels.

The inghimasi attack was carried out by two brothers, identified as Abu Julaybib al-Khurasani and Abu Talhah al-Balkhi, according to the group. Inghimasis are generally well-trained commandos who are prepared to die in battle.

The two terrorists were armed with explosive vests and light arms. Amaq claims that one of the two detonated his suicide vest on security guards and the other opened fire on personnel inside the embassy.

The Afghan governments account of the raid differs slightly from the Islamic States, saying that four jihadists were responsible, not two. According to Afghanistans Ministry of Interior Affairs a group of four suicide bombers attacked [the] Iraqi embassy in Kabul city around 11:10 AM local time. One of the suicide bombers blew himself up at the entrance gate of the embassy at first and opened way to other attackers. A shootout lasting several hours then ensued.

This is a standard jihadist tactic, as the Islamic State and other groups frequently use suicide bombers to clear the path for their comrades.

It is not clear how many people were killed or wounded in the assault. The Islamic State claims that seven guards outside the building were killed and another 20 apostates perished inside. These casualty figures have not been confirmed by independent sources.

The Islamic State portrays the raid on the Iraqi embassy as part of an open war between the Sunni mujahideen and the Shiite polytheists. This is a typical narrative deployed by Abu Bakr al Baghdadis loyalists around the globe, as they frequently target Shiite civilians. Wilayah Khorasan has specifically targeted gatherings of Afghanistans predominately Shiite Hazara minority. The Islamic States men have attacked Shiite mosques and peaceful demonstrations in Kabul, thereby causing some of Afghanistans worst massacres in recent years.

Kabul hit hard by suicide and complex attacks, UN finds

Nearly 16 years after the US invaded Afghanistan in response to the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackings, Kabul is regularly struck by spectacular terrorist attacks.

Earlier this month, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) released its midyear report on civilian casualties. Between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2017, UNAMA documented 5,243 civilian casualties (1,662 deaths and 3,581 injured) throughout all of Afghanistan.

Nearly 20 percent of these civilian casualties  1,048 (219 deaths and 829 injured)  occurred in Kabul province and mainly within the city of Kabul itself. Kabul province witnessed a higher number of civilian casualties than any other province. This was due to a series of bombings and raids carried out by Wilayah Khorasan and the Taliban.

The overwhelming majority of civilian casualties in the Afghan capital during the first six months of 2017 were caused by what UNAMA describes as suicide and complex attacks, such as the Islamic State assault on the Iraqi embassy earlier today. Indeed, civilian casualties from these types of operations rose by 15 percent in Afghanistan during the first six months of 2017, as compared to the same period last year. Suicide and complex attacks are now the leading cause of civilian casualties, according to UNAMA, and have hit Kabul city especially hard.

A timeline of the most lethal suicide and complex attacks in Kabul this year can be found below. These are only some of the jihadist operations carried out in the Afghan capital.

Jan. 10, 2017: 109 civilians were killed (34) or wounded (75) when Taliban suicide bombers led a coordinated raid targeting intelligence officials and government workers near the Afghan Parliament in Kabul.

Feb. 7: A Wilayah Khorasan suicide bomber struck the exit gate outside of Afghanistans supreme court in Kabul, killing or injuring 63 civilians.

Mar. 1: The Taliban killed or injured 81 civilians during a complex assault on military, police, and intelligence buildings.

Mar. 8: A Wilayah Khorasan suicide assault team struck the Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan Hospital in Kabul city. The hospital is the largest medical facility in Afghanistan for military personnel and their families. The jihadists killed 49 people and wounded 88 others, with 48 of the casualties (26 deaths and 22 injured, according to UNAMA) being civilians.

May 31: A suicide bomber detonated an explosive-laden truck near diplomatic facilities in the heart of Kabul during rush hour, causing 544 civilian casualties (92 deaths and 491 injured), according to UNAMA. It is the deadliest incident documented by UNAMA since 2001, but no group claimed responsibility. The Afghan government quickly blamed the Haqqani Network, the most powerful Taliban subgroup, as well as Pakistani officials. Sirajuddin Haqqani and the Taliban have denied responsibility. However, if Wilayah Khorasan had carried out the bombing, then it would almost certainly have claimed the operation. The Taliban is concerned with how its violence is perceived, whereas the Islamic State branch has no such reservations. Obviously, the Taliban has a significant interest in destabilizing the Afghan capital, even if it doesnt want to be seen as indiscriminately killing civilians. In its midyear report for 2017, UNAMA found that the Taliban killed or wounded more civilians than any other party in the conflict. This has been true for years. And UNAMAs report did not even count the May 31 suicide bombing as a Taliban operation, because the UN arm couldnt evaluate the intelligence cited by officials and no group claimed responsibility.

July 24: A Taliban suicide bomber rammed his vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) into a bus carrying Afghan government workers. The Taliban claimed that the bombing targeted intelligence officials. Nearly three dozen people were killed, according to initial casualty reports.

Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for FDD's Long War Journal.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
Shabaab, al Qaedas branch in East Africa, launched a deadly ambush on African Union Mission (AMISOM) forces in southern Somalia yesterday. AMISOM initially claimed that 12 soldiers were killed and several others wounded, but subsequent reporting indicates that the death toll may be higher.

Shabaab has trumpeted the operation on social media sites and via its Shahada News Agency. In a statement yesterday, Abdul Aziz Abu Musab, the groups spokesman, claimed that the jihadists had the bodies of some of the dead in their possession. The Mujahideen today set up a series of ambushes for the convoy of the Ugandan Crusader forces and more than 39 soldiers were killed, Abdul Aziz Abu Musab said. He added that Shabaab had also captured AMISOM weapons.

In a subsequent posting on Shahada News, Shabaab alleged that the number of dead was even higher, with 51 Ugandan troops perishing in the assault.

Earlier today, AMISOM reported fewer casualties, saying that 12 gallant AMISOM soldiers lost their lives while seven others sustained injuries and are currently receiving treatment. The troops were ambushed during a regular patrol to secure the Mogadishu-Barawe Main Supply Route. AMISOM added that the attack involved an improvised explosive device (IED).

The Ugandan military quickly moved to refute Shabaabs statments, claiming that the al Qaeda group was exaggerating the number of fatalities, according to The Ugandan.

But Somali officials told the press that the casualties were higher than AMISOM indicated. We have carried 23 dead AMISOM soldiers and a dead Somali soldier from the scene where [Shabaab ambushed AMISOM today, Reuters quoted Ali Nur, the deputy governor of Lower Shabelle region, as saying.

It is often difficult to confirm the number of fatalities resulting from Shabaabs attacks. For instance, the UN found that 150 Kenyan soldiers were killed during the Jan. 15, 2016 surprise assault on an AFRICOM base in the town of El Adde. However, the Kenyan government was not forthcoming when it came to its losses, which the UN described as the largest military defeat in Kenyan history.

The latest Shabaab ambush occurred in or near Bulo Marer, which is approximately 140 to 150 kilometers south of Mogadishu. The town was freed from Shabaabs control by Somali and AMISOM fighters in Aug. 2014. Bulo Marer had served as a major route for [Shabaab] insurgents and provided them with steady income obtained through extortion and forceful taxation of residents and travellers, the UN explained at the time. The town was also part of a major route used by Shabaab to move deadly explosive devices into the rest of Somalia.

The jihadists put up stiff resistance during the operation to retake the town in 2014, but ultimately failed to hold onto it. We appreciate the Ugandan AMISOM force, Abdul Kadir JS Siidi, the governor Lower Shabelle, said at the time. They came by force and they beat [Shabaab], al-Qaeda like a child with stick.

Shabaab, which remains a prolific insurgency and terrorist organization, obviously did not forget its setback in 2014. And the group is still trying to retake the territory it lost.

Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for FDD's Long War Journal.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
US Africa Command (AFRICOM) killed one Shabaab fighter in a kinetic strike against an al Qaeda branch in southern Somalia on July 30. The offensive is the second of its kind reported by AFRICOM over the past month.

The strike targeted a Mogadishu Attack Network militant near the town of Tortoroow in southern Somalia, according to the AFRICOM press release.

The U.S. conducted this operation in coordination with its regional partners as a direct response to al-Shabaab actions, including recent attacks on Somali forces, AFRICOM said.

AFRICOM noted that the July 30 attack was conducted within the parameters of the proposal approved by the President in March 2017, which allows the U.S. Department of Defense to conduct lethal action against al-Shabaab within a geographically-defined area of active hostilities in support of partner force in Somalia.

At the end of March, the Trump administration loosened the restrictions on the US military to use force against Shabaab after the Department of Defense noted that Shabaab has become more lethal and dangerous. The group has killed hundreds of African Union and Somali forces while overrunning bases in southern Somalia, and has maintained its safe havens while expanding areas under its control during 2016.

The US State Department, in its Country Reports on Terrorism 2016, said that al Qaedas branch in East Africa has prospered over the past year due largely to lapses in offensive counterterrorism operations during 2016. Additionally, State noted that Somali security forces remained incapable of securing and retaking towns from al-Shabaab independently, and while not explicitly stated, hinted that the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) is failing.

The July 29 strike is the second of its kind recorded by FDDs Long War Journal in the month of July. The previous attack on Shabaab, on July 4, hit a group of Shabaab fighters as they massed in southern Somalia.

The US military has not relied exclusively on airstrikes to target Shabaabs network. One US soldier was killed during a May 5 raid against Shabaab fighters near Barii, on the outskirts of the capital Mogadishu.

The Long War Journal has recorded 35 such operations against Shabaab or the Islamic Courts since 2006 (see list below). The number of US military operations in Somalia may well be higher, however, it has been difficult to track strikes against Shabaab as there are multiple actors involved in targeting the group, including Kenyan and Ethiopian sources. The US military has not released statements for every encounter. Additionally, for a long period of time, Iranian news outlets muddied the waters by attributing nearly every action against Shabaab in southern Somalia as a US drone strike. Verifiable press reporting has also been inconsistent.

AFRICOM has loosely described raids against targets such as IED facilities and training camps as counterterrorism operations, when in reality these are military operations, since they are often launched against well-defended and well-defined targets in areas under direct Shabaab control. Like other al Qaeda branches, Shabaab controls a significant amount of territory and operates a military, intelligence and services, and governs areas it controls.

US operations targeting Shabaab since 2007:

July 29, 2017  AFRICOM killed one Shabaab fighter in a strike on the Mogadishu Attack Network near the town of Tortoroow in southern Somalia.

July 4, 2017  AFRICOM strikes Shabaab forces as they amassed 300 miles south of Mogadishu.

June 11, 2017  US forces killed eight Shabaab fighters in an attack that targeted a command and logistic node in southern Somalia.

May 5, 2017  A US soldier was killed near Barii while conducting an advise and assist mission with local forces against Shabaab.

Jan. 7, 2017  US forces launched a self-defense strike near Gaduud during a counterterrorism operation to disrupt Shabaab. No Shabaab fighters were killed.

Sept. 28, 2016  US forces kill nine Shabaab fighters during a raid on a Shabaab IED factory near Galcayo.

Sept. 26, 2016  US forces kill four Shabaab fighters during raids on training camps near Kismayo.

Sept. 5, 2016  The US launched two self-defense strikes near Tortoroow after a large Shabaab force attacked a a Somali-led counterterrorism operation. Four Shabaab fighters were killed.

Aug. 30, 2016  US forces killed two Shabaab fighters after they attacked a Somali counterterrorism force near Gobanale.

June 21, 2016  US troops conducted a self-defense strike against Shabaab, killing three. The operation was conducted after it was assessed the terrorists were planning and preparing to conduct an imminent attack against US forces.

May 31, 2016  Somali troops, backed by US forces, killed Shabaab member Mohammed Dulyadeen, a.k.a. Mohammed Kuno and Kuno Gamadere, during an operation near Gaduud.

May 27, 2016  The US killed Abdullahi Haji Daud, a senior military commander for Shabaab, in south-central Somalia.

May 13, 2016  The US launched defensive fire missions which took place in remote locations in Somalia under al-Shabaab control.

May 12, 2016  The US launched defensive fire missions which took place in remote locations in Somalia under al-Shabaab control.

May 12, 2016  The US launched defensive fire missions which took place in remote locations in Somalia under al-Shabaab control.

May 9, 2016  The US launched defensive fire missions which took place in remote locations in Somalia under al-Shabaab control.

March 31, 2016  The US killed Hassan Ali Dhoore, a dual hatted al Qaeda and Shabaab leader who also served in the Amniyat, in an airstrike.

March 10, 2016  US special operations forces targeted a Shabaab training camp in Awdigle raid.

March 5, 2016  The US military announced that it launched an airstrike which targeted a Shabaabs Raso Camp north of the Somali capital of Mogadishu. The US justified the strike on al Qaedas official East African branch by saying that fighters there posed an imminent threat. More than 150 Shabaab fighters are said to have been killed.

Dec. 2, 2015  US killed Abdirahman Sandhere, a.k.a. Ukash, a senior Shabaab leader, and two other associates in an airstrike.

March 12, 2015  The US military confirmed that it killed Adan Garaar, a senior official in the Amniyat and a key operative responsible for coordinating al-Shabaabs external operations in a drone strike.

Feb. 3, 2015  US troops targeted and killed Yusuf Dheeq, the head of the Amniyat.

Dec. 29, 2014  US forces killed Tahlil Abdishakur, the leader of the Amniyat, in an airstrike in Somalia.

Sept. 1, 2014  The US military killed Ahmed Godane, the co-founder of and emir of Shabaab, also known as Sheikh Mukhtar Abu Zubayr, in an airstrike south of Mogadishu.

Jan. 25, 2014  A US airstrike killed Sahal Iskudhuq, a senior Shabaab commander who served as a high-ranking member of the Amniyat.

Oct. 23, 2013  A US drone strike killed Anta Anta the mastermind of al Shababs suicide missions.

Oct. 5, 2013  US special Operations Forces targeted Shabaabs external operations chief Abdulkadir Mohamed Abdulkadir (Ikrima), but fails to capture or kill him. A Swedish and a Sudanese Shabaab fighter were killed.

Jan. 2012  A US airstrike killed Bilal al Berjawi, a British national of Lebanese descent.

Sept. 2009  US special operations forces killed Saleh ali Nabhan, a top al Qaeda and Shabaab leader who was involved in the Kenya and Tanzania bombings.

May 2008  A US airstrike killed senior Shabaab and al Qaeda leader Aden Hashi Ayro.

March 2008  A US airstrike targeted a safe house in Somalia.

Spring 2008  The US killed Aden Hashi Ayro and Sheikh Muhyadin Omar in an airstrike in the spring of 2008. Before his death, Ayro was the leader of Shabaab.

June 2007  US targeted Saleh ali Nabhan, a top al Qaeda and Shabaab leader who was involved in the Kenya and Tanzania bombings.

Jan. 2007  The US military targeted Abu Taha al-Sudani (or Tariq Abdullah), Qaedas leader in East Africa, and either Fazul Abdullah Mohammed and Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, both who . Fazul is al Qaedas operations chief for East Africa, while Sudani is the chief strategist and ideologue. Sudani is thought to have been killed in that airstrike (Shabaab said he was killed in an airstrike in 2007.)

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
Properties / Hotels

Jul 31, 2017 | By LUXUO

If you must get into trouble, do it at the Vagabond.

Thats the first message you see when you enter Hotel Vagabonds website, and it conjures images of long, languid nights of debauchery in a secretive, boudoir-style setting. In real life, the 41-bedroom property in Singapore doesnt stray very far from this description.

Tucked away in a rather unassuming heritage building along Syed Alwi Road, Hotel Vagabond feels a little bit like an insiders secret, thanks to its intimate, sultry interiors by award-winning French designer Jacques Garcia. The Parisian-inspired lobby (or Salon), which also houses the hotels restaurant and a bar, is drenched in red and decorated with huge, dramatic brass sculptures. There are six gold-leafed Banyan trees that rise up all the way to the ceiling, a colossal elephant at the elevator, a custom-made reception desk in the shape of a rhinoceros, and a golden baboon at the bar.























In the same vein, all rooms and suites feature dark wood flooring, art pieces on the walls, plush furnishings in purple velvet, luxurious Italian-made Egyptian cotton sheets, and a floral-patterned wooden screen that separates bathroom from the bedroom/living area. Each room also comes complete with a Nespresso coffee machine, complimentary Wi-Fi, and a free-for-use smartphone.

Guests are also privy to the beautiful Executive Club Lounge, where you can schedule your business meetings, get some work done, or nibble on light bites if youre feeling puckish. Wines, spirits and cheeses are available between 430 to 630pm.

Tempting as it may be to stay in  this is the Top Hotel of TripAdvisors 2017 Travellers Choice Awards after all  itll be a shame not to wander around the neighbourhoods around Vagabond. The hotel offers self-guided heritage walking maps of Little India, Kampong Glam, Rochor Canal and Beach Road, where youll discover hidden gems and authentic culture along the way. Expect to shop your heart out at a 24-hour mall, savour local cuisine, learn the religious history of Little India, pick up a cool souvenir at one of Kampong Glams indie shops, or marvel at the colonial architecture and historical icons along Beach Road. And when youre done for the day, unwind at Bar Vagabond with their signature cocktails.

Thinking of a quick weekend getaway in Singapore? Hotel Vagabonds Maxout Weekend ($265 a night) includes late check-out til 2pm, daily gourmet breakfast or a three-course set lunch at the restaurant. For more information, visit Hotel Vagabonds website.

Hotel Vagabond is located at 39 Syed Alwi Road, Singapore 207630, t. 65 6291 6677, e. info@hotelvagabondsingapore.com.
At the time, with few believing Trump would ever win the election , minimal attention was paid to Pence. Trump also took up all the attention, allowing Pence to fly under the radar.

But with the steady drumbeat of Russia-related allegations against Trump and his family, and Pence already measuring the drapes in the Oval Office, it is high time to examine what a possible President Mike Pence really means.
There has been much commentary in the press of late regarding Chinese car makers' allegedly copying the designs of well-known western car makers. The commentary has ranged from the outraged (How can they get away with this?) to the resigned (Its just one of those things). However, perhaps a colder, more pragmatic approach to this evident challenge is necessary, focusing on the IP rights available to car manufacturers and their ability to enforce those rights. Also, it might help to recognise that the Chinese government has itself demonstrated that it is fed up of situations such as this, and is taking steps to make things better for rights holders.

Design patents

In China, people (including foreign companies) can apply for registered design rights, known as design patents, to protect their designs. These can include automobile designs.

In 2016, out of a total number of around 3.5 million patent applications in China, there were over 650,000 design patent applications. This rose from fewer than 570,000 in 2015 (a rise of around 14% in one year). Many of those design patent applications were made by foreign entities  around 500 applications from the UK, over 1,000 from Germany, and around 3,000 each from Japan and the US.

These numbers for foreign applications are still perhaps rather small compared to the overall numbers of design patent applications in China. This might be due to the perception that IP rights are difficult to enforce in China.

However, that perception itself might be outdated, and worthy of re-examination, particularly in light of recent developments in Chinese law and practice.

New Guidelines

In April this year, the Chinese courts released their Guidelines for Patent Infringement Determination (2017). These Guidelines have been long-awaited, and in many peoples eyes represent the Chinese governments positive efforts to combat the perceived problems relating to IP infringement and enforcement in China.

These Guidelines contain explicit sections devoted to Determination of Protection Scope of Patent for Design and Determination of Infringement of Patent for Design, and go a long way towards providing certainty for rights holders in terms of what their Chinese design rights cover and how they may be infringed.

For example, the Guidelines (which have been released in both Chinese and English, although in the event of an inconsistency in the translation the Chinese version prevails) provide: The determination of design patent infringement shall be conducted through comparison by means of direct observation from the visual sense of a normal consumer and that judgment on whether the design is the same or similar shall be made according to the standard of the overall visual effect on the subject of judgment with the knowledge and cognitive capability of a normal consumer, rather than the observational capability of an ordinary designer of the design product or the actual purchaser of the product.

This is then related to the design space that the design occupies, in relation to which the Guidelines specify: The more existing designs a certain design feature corresponds to, the more occupied the design space of the feature is, the smaller the design space is, the fewer alternative design solutions there are, and the greater impact the subtle differences will have on the overall visual effect; on the contrary, the fewer prior designs there are, the less occupied the design space of the feature is, the greater the design space is, the more alternative design solutions there are, and the subtle differences will not have significant impact on the overall visual effect.

(This latter provision itself reflects what was said in Article 14 of Interpretations (II) of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Cases Involving Patent Infringement Disputes, which itself was released in 2016 and which also was aimed at addressing some of the perceived issues with IP enforcement in China.)

What happens next

In the past, from 2000 until the 2016, there have only been a few dozen design patent disputes in China relating to motor vehicle design. This may be because many disputes have been settled out of court, or it may be because few cases have been filed.

However, the new Guidelines from the Chinese courts may increase not only certainty of outcome but also awareness of design patent rights in China, so we may well see further cases in the future.

Having said that, it is up to rights holders themselves to apply for, maintain and enforce their rights in order to take advantage of this potential increased certainty. The Chinese government has made the first move; let us watch how the market responds

Matthew Jones is a partner of EIP in London. He thanks James P Chen and Gary G Wu for useful conversations and information in the course of writing this blog post
Thiruvananthapuram: Amid the prevailing political tension in the state capital followed by violence after the death of a RSS activist, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan decided to hold a meeting with the RSS-BJP leaders today.

BJP State Chief Kummanam Rajasekharan, O Rajagopal MLA, RSS leader Gopalankutty will participate in the talks. Meanwhile, the police has tightened security at the AKG center following an information of another possible attack.

The prohibitory orders have been extended in the capital for three more days. The meeting was called after the Kerala Governor P Sadasivam summoned Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and DGP Loknath Behra to discuss the law and order situation in the state.
Gold Price Would Test 1300 Resistance

XAUUSD recently broke above 1258.78 resistance and continued its bullish movement from the July 10 low of 1204.77, and the bullish movement extended to as high as 1270.81.

On the upside

The gold price stays above a bullish trend line on its 4-hour chart, with support at around 1253, indicating that the price remains in uptrend. As long as the trend line support holds, the uptrend could be expected to continue and further rise to test the 1300 important psychological level is possible in the coming days.





A break out of 1300 resistance will confirm that the uptrend from the December 2016 low of 1122.56 has resumed, then the following bullish move could bring price to the next resistance level at 1337.28.

On the downside

A clear break below the trend line support could bring price back to test the key support at 1243.69, below this level will signal completion of the uptrend from 1204.77, then the correction pullback could bring price back into 1230 zone.

There is another important support level at 1204.77, only a breakdown below this level will suggest that the downtrend from 1295.94 has resumed, then the gold price will find support at 1167, the trend line on its weekly chart.

Technical levels



Support levels: 1253 (the bullish trend line on the 4-hour chart), 1243.69 (the key support), 1204.77 (the July 10 low), 1167 (the support trend line on the weekly chart).



Resistance levels: 1295.94 (the June 6 high), 1300 (the important psychological level), 1337.28 (the November 2016 high), 1375.11 (the July 2016 high).

This article is written by Franco Shao, a senior analyst at ForexCycle.

 2017 Copyright Franco Shao - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.




The United States Senate is letting down the American people by failing to advance any solution for the disaster that is Obamacare. It has rejected its own repeal and replace plan, it has rejected the 2015 repeal, and in the latest failure, it rejected the skinny repeal plan.

What was the skinny repeal plan? It was a plan to repeal Obamacares employer and individual mandates and a few other things. The Senate leadership reached out to House Speaker Paul Ryan to get assurances that if skinny repeal passed, the House of Representatives would agree to a conference committee. The conference committee is the process whereby the House and the Senate get together to work out their differences on legislation. Speaker Ryan publicly gave his assurances that if the skinny repeal had passed, the bill would be sent to conference.

The skinny repeal plan wasnt going to be the final shape of Obamacares replacement. If the skinny repeal were passed and signed into law, I believe in some ways it would have made the health insurance situation worse. But it was a vehicle to get to a conference report. In conference, the Senate and the House would have been able to work together on a better plan for all Americans.

On July 25, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) gave a much-lauded speech blasting his own chamber of Congress, saying, Were getting nothing done . . . . Our healthcare insurance system is a mess. We all know it, those who support Obamacare and those who oppose it. Something has to be done. Yet he cast the decisive vote killing skinny repeal, possibly closing the door to actually doing something on health insurance. I hope he will reconsider his choice.

I believe the Senates failure to pass any plan on Obamacare is an abdication of its duty and responsibility as a legislative body. The House of Representatives passed a plan that would have improved things for Americans. It isnt perfect, but we debated it and voted on it and now it is on the table as a solution. How can we improve health insurance if the Senate wont engage in dialogue and legislative craftsmanship on our plan or even put its own on the table?

People are hurting because of Obamacare. Obamacare is in a free fall, so we must act. I dont agree with those who say lets just stick with Obamacare and let the pain get worse. We cannot leave the American middle class swinging in the breeze. We have to try to bring down health insurance costs so that American families can buy insurance they can afford to use.

So what now? Senator McCain says we need to return to regular order, but for the Senate, that would require a 60-vote margin. If they cant get to 51, how are they going to get to 60? If the Senate continues to fail, I propose we take Democrats at their word and start working with them to fix the worst of Obamacare. In the past, there have been times when Democrats would offer words of cooperation only to obstruct any attempt to find solutions. But if they are serious, and if their constituents are hurting as many of my constituents are hurting, we should be able to fix some of the most serious issues related to health insurance today.

When reading some of the Democratic comments about solutions, however, I am reminded of the adage, Solving a problem first requires admitting there is one. In a Roanoke Times story about Senator Tim Kaines rally at Roanoke College on July 22, Kaine said, I dont want to accept the status quo, but apparently spent most of the rally defending Obamacare.

Some people are better off with Obamacare, but for the majority of my constituents, that is simply not the case. Families are being squeezed by higher premiums, higher deductibles, and higher copays, making the insurance they are mandated by law to buy of marginal value. Obamacare has caused these problems, and defending it will not solve them.

I stand ready to work with my colleagues, Democrats and Republicans. The sooner, the better. Right now, that may mean working to fix the worst problems with Obamacare rather than repeal and replace. But we need to act. Democrats say they are ready to help. If these are just words, they will continue to own the damage inflicted on families by Obamacare.

Morgan Griffith serves as the representative for Virginia's 9th District in the U.S. House
AGAWAM -- Nobody shed a tear as Games & Lanes, a longtime Agawam eyesore, went the way of the "wrecking ball" on Monday.

The large, hangar-like structure on a formerly contaminated 2.3-acre lot is actually being demolished by an excavator, not a wrecking ball -- the latter technique no longer being the preferred method for razing buildings.

Demolition is expected to continue through this week, according to property owner David Peter, president of Foxborough-based Site Redevelopment Technologies, which buys, cleans and redevelops environmentally impaired properties.

The good news for Agawam officials and local business owners, many of whom have long complained about Games & Lanes, is that the dilapidated building will soon be gone.

Peter said all construction and demolition materials will be carted off site to a location in Rensselaer, New York, roughly 90 miles northeast of Agawam.

Peter, who bought the property in April 2016, said he will redevelop the site himself if he cannot find a buyer. Peter spent "six figures," he said, cleaning the site and another six figures on demolition, declining to disclose the exact cost of bringing the property into compliance with state environmental standards.

The parcel -- bounded by Agawam Shopping Court, Walnut Street, Walnut Street Extension, and North Ramah Circle -- is in the heart of an older business district that city officials would like to rejuvenate. However, the most recent plan for the area, pitched by Mayor Richard A. Cohen and his administration, was rejected by the Agawam City Council, which felt the initiative was too costly and mostly cosmetic.

Last-minute site inspections by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection delayed Monday's demolition by about two hours, with work beginning just after 10 a.m. That's when the long arm of a Volvo excavator extended high into the air, slamming its bucket teeth into the roof with a crunch.

"DEP should get credit for this," said Peter, whose company recently completed remediation of the parcel with environmental oversight from the state.

Agawam City Council President James P. Cichetti was among the local officials on hand Monday to watch the beginning of the end for Games & Lanes.

"It's been a longtime coming," said Cichetti, a candidate for mayor. "It's a great day for Agawam. This is good for business and hopefully we'll see this area get revitalized. This could be a great area."

Councilor George Bitzas agreed, saying many people in town have been patiently waiting for the building to be renovated or torn down. "It's a happy day for everybody. Not only for businesses around it, but for all of Agawam," he said.

Bitzas praised Peter for working quickly to clean up the site, which had been plagued by groundwater contamination issues since 1989. The building had been vacant since 2001.

"I thank him for keeping his word," Bitzas said of Peter.

The cleanup effort was a "long, drawn-out project," Cohen told The Republican, adding that he and Peter communicated regularly throughout the process.

"The contamination was extensive and it's now dissipating and it's clean," the mayor said Monday. "And MassDEP has given the greenlight to Mr. Peter."
LONGMEADOW -- The historic Brewer-Young mansion overlooking Longmeadow Town Green has been sold less than two weeks after it was formally listed on the market.

Realtor Nick Gelfand said Monday the home's owners, JP Morgan Chase Bank, accepted an offer and the process of closing the sale has begun. He offered no further details other than that a number of interested parties toured the mansion.

He didn't disclose the potential buyer's identity nor the sale price, although both pieces of information will be public record at the Hampden Registry of Deeds once the sale is closed.

The listing, which now says sale pending, is here.

Located at 734 Longmeadow St., also known as Route 5, the home was listed for $444,200 with Gelfand, of NRG Real Estate in Longmeadow, starting July 19.

According to the real estate website Zillow.com, the home had been on the market intermittently for years. The most recent asking price before this sale was $1.2 million in 2013. It listed for $2.2 million in 2010.

The town has the property assessed for $838,000. It had a 2017 tax bill of $21,104, according to the listing.

The town lists the replacement cost for the home at $1.6 million.

The town and townspeople certainly feel the Brewer-Young Mansion is irreplaceable.

With 11 bedrooms, five full bathrooms and three half-baths, the 1885 colonial revival home boasts 11,000 square feet on 1.8 acres of land.

The Rev. Samuel Wolcott, composer of more than 200 Christian hymns, was the first to live in the home. Edward Brewer bought it in 1901.

The home was famously owned by Ida Young, who invented the veterinary liniment products Absorbine and Absorbine Jr. She owned the W.F. Young Co. with her husband Wilbur.

Ida Young named the property Meadowview Farms and entertained lavishly at the estate.

The mansion features a living room-ballroom, marble floors in the front foyer, leather embossed wallpaper on the first floor and Egyptian-themed murals. Its glassed-in conservatory was based on the Crystal Palace from the London Great Exhibition of 1851.

Ida young died in 1960 at the age of 95.

The home stayed in the family into the 1990s but changed hands again after that.

For a many years, it was open for fundraisers and designer showcases.

Businessman Shahkar M. Fatemni bought the mansion in 2000 for $700,000.

Chase Manhattan Bank foreclosed on Fatemni and the mansion in 2014. But the bank was unable to get Fatemni to leave without an eviction order from Western Housing Court in Springfield.

The bank obtained the order in October 2015, and the Hampden County Sheriff's Department evicted Fatemni and the other residents.

In March 2016, neighbors reported suspicious activity in the home and a Longmedow Police canine unit discovered a Hartford man living there.

The bank replaced the home's front portico last winter after the town ruled that simply shoring up the rotting porch was unacceptable.
The Killers announced plans for a North American tour that will include a stop in Boston in 2018.

The rock band will play the TD Garden on Jan. 7.

Tickets for the show will go on sale beginning Aug. 11 at 10 a.m. Tickets will be available through all Ticketmaster outlets and locations including ticketmaster.com and by phone at (800) 745-3000.

The Killers will be touring to support the new release "Wonderful, Wonderful," which is due out in September.
Photo for illustration (Source: Vietnam Airlines)

The carrier cancelled flights VN576 and VN577 between Hanoi and Taipei on July 29th while starting four other flights later than previously scheduled for the routes between Ho Chi Minh City and Taipei and between Hanoi and Taipei on July 30th.

Flights VN576 and VN577, which were canceled by the storm on July 29th, will fly on July 30th.

The airlines domestic flight will be delayed as a result of knock-on effect.

The carrier will follow up the weather conditions and update further information related to flight schedule adjustments.

It recommended passengers who intend to travel to or from Taoyuan and Kaohsiung airports closely follow the storms movements and the carriers notice to be proactive in adjusting their traveling plans.

For more detailed information, passengers should visit www.vietnamairlines.com, contact ticket offices of Vietnam Airlines nationwide or call customer service 1900 1100./.
We hope you had a chance to attend the NWGIS meetup in San Diego earlier this month. If so, you were able to meet vendors, sponsors, and GIS enthusiasts from the Pacific Northwest.

Join us at the 2017 Northwest GIS Users conference, October 9-13 in Boise Idaho. The 2017 Boise Conference will have training, presentations, ESRI doctors office, dev meetup, and vendors. Dr. Michael Goodchild will be the keynote speaker.

Information about the conference can be found at https://nwgis.org/2017.

Registration links are at https://nwgis.org/2017/registration. Early registration ends Aug. 30, 2017 and prices increase on Sept. 1, 2017.

Submit a talk, app or map at https://nwgis.org/2017/talks-maps-and-apps. Submittals are being accepted until the end of Aug. 30, 2017.

Venue and lodging information at https://nwgis.org/2017/venue-and-lodging.

Full Event Information: https://nwgis.org/newsletter/2017-northwest-gis-users-conference-boise-october-9-13
The iconic brand has long been the conscience of the outdoor industry, forsaking hefty profits to do the right thing. Now the company is going to war against the Trump administration over protections for public land in a bid to become a serious political playerwhich happens to be very good for sales.

Abe Streep

Full Story: https://www.outsideonline.com/2201581/big-business-resist?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=facebookpost
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The finding, published today in the journalis important because physicians don't have a good way to confirm bacterial infections like pneumonia and more-often-than-not default to an antibiotic."It's extremely difficult to interpret what's causing a respiratory tract infection, especially in very ill patients who come to the hospital with a high fever, cough, shortness of breath and other concerning symptoms," said Ann R. Falsey, M.D., lead study author, professor and interim chief of the Infectious Diseases Division at UR Medicine's Strong Memorial Hospital."My goal is to develop a tool that physicians can use to rule out a bacterial infection with enough certainty that they are comfortable, and their patients are comfortable, foregoing an antibiotic."Falsey's project caught the attention of the federal government; she's one of 10 semifinalists in the Antimicrobial Resistance Diagnostic Challenge, a competition sponsored by NIH and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to help combat the development and spread of drug resistant bacteria.Selected from among 74 submissions, Falsey received $50,000 to continue her research and develop a prototype diagnostic test, such as a blood test, using the genetic markers her team identified.A group of 94 adults hospitalized with lower respiratory tract infections were recruited to participate in Falsey's study. The team gathered clinical data, took blood from each patient, and conducted a battery of microbiologic tests to determine which individuals had a bacterial infection (41 patients) and which had a non-bacterial or viral infection (53 patients).Thomas J. Mariani, Ph.D., professor of Pediatrics and Biomedical Genetics at URMC, used complex genetic and statistical analysis to pinpoint markers in the blood that correctly classified the patients with bacterial infections 80 to 90 percent of the time."Our genes react differently to a virus than they do to bacteria," said Mariani, a member of the Respiratory Pathogens Research Center (RPRC). "Rather than trying to detect the specific organism that's making an individual sick, we're using genetic data to help us determine what's affecting the patient and when an antibiotic is appropriate or not."Falsey, co-director of the RPRC, and Mariani say that the main limitation of their study is the small sample size and that the genetic classifiers selected from the study population may not prove to be universal to all patients.A patent application has been filed for their method of diagnosing bacterial infection. Edward Walsh, M.D., professor of Infectious Diseases, and Derick Peterson, Ph.D., professor of Biostatics and Computational Biology at URMC, also contributed to the research.According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, antibiotic resistant bacteria cause at least 2 million infections and 23,000 deaths each year in the United States. The use of antibiotics is the single most important factor leading to antibiotic resistance around the world.Source: Eurekalert
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In both groups, higher critical reasoning skills were associated with lower levels of dogmatism. But these two groups diverge in how moral concern influences their dogmatic thinking."It suggests that religious individuals may cling to certain beliefs, especially those which seem at odds with analytic reasoning, because those beliefs resonate with their moral sentiments," said Jared Friedman, a PhD student in organizational behavior and co-author of the studies."Emotional resonance helps religious people to feel more certain--the more moral correctness they see in something, the more it affirms their thinking," said Anthony Jack, associate professor of philosophy and co-author of the research. "In contrast, moral concerns make nonreligious people feel less certain."This understanding may suggest a way to effectively communicate with the extremes, the researchers say. Appealing to a religious dogmatist's sense of moral concern and to an anti-religious dogmatist's unemotional logic may increase the chances of getting a message through--or at least some consideration from them.Extreme positions While more empathy may sound desirable, untempered empathy can be dangerous, Jack said. "Terrorists, within their bubble, believe it's a highly moral thing they're doing. They believe they are righting wrongs and protecting something sacred."In today's politics, Jack said, "with all this talk about fake news, the Trump administration, by emotionally resonating with people, appeals to members of its base while ignoring facts." Trump's base includes a large percentage of self-declared religious men and women.At the other extreme, despite organizing their life around critical thinking, militant atheists, "may lack the insight to see anything positive about religion; they can only see that it contradicts their scientific, analytical thinking," Jack said.The studies, based on surveys of more than 900 people, also found some similarities between religious and non-religious people. In both groups the most dogmatic are less adept at analytical thinking, and also less likely to look at issues from other's perspectives.In the first study, 209 participants identified as Christian, 153 as nonreligious, nine Jewish, five Buddhist, four Hindu, one Muslim and 24 another religion. Each completed tests assessing dogmatism, empathetic concern, aspects of analytical reasoning, and prosocial intentions.The results showed religious participants as a whole had a higher level of dogmatism, empathetic concern and prosocial intentions, while the nonreligious performed better on the measure of analytic reasoning. Decreasing empathy among the nonreligious corresponded to increasing dogmatism.The second study, which included 210 participants who identified as Christian, 202 nonreligious, 63 Hindu, 12 Buddhist, 11 Jewish, 10 Muslim and 19 other religions, repeated much of the first but added measures of perspective-taking and religious fundamentalism.The more rigid the individual, whether religious or not, the less likely he or she would consider the perspective of others. Religious fundamentalism was highly correlated with empathetic concern among the religious.Two brain networks The researchers say the results of the surveys lend further support to their earlier work showing people have two brain networks--one for empathy and one for analytic thinking - that are in tension with each other. In healthy people, their thought process cycles between the two, choosing the appropriate network for different issues they consider.But in the religious dogmatist's mind, the empathetic network appears to dominate while in the nonreligious dogmatist's mind, the analytic network appears to rule.While the studies examined how differences in worldview of the religious vs. the nonreligious influence dogmatism, the research is broadly applicable, the researchers say.Dogmatism applies to any core beliefs, from eating habits --whether to be a vegan, vegetarian or omnivore-- to political opinions and beliefs about evolution and climate change. The authors hope this and further research will help improve the divide in opinions that seems increasingly prevalent.Source: Eurekalert
Nobody in Georgia cares about former President Mikheil Saakashvili in a political sense, and his extradition should be viewed as a purely legal, investigative, and prosecutorial process, Georgian Justice Minister Thea Tsulukiani said.

Speaking on the Imedi television station on Sunday, Tsulukiani said she hoped Kyiv would be able to begin Saakashvili's extradition as soon as he returns to Ukraine.

"This is a legal and investigative-prosecutorial process. We've heard various statements from the Ukrainian side, but there is only one truth: Georgia once demanded that Mikheil Saakashvili, who was still a citizen of Georgia at the time, be handed over under four criminal cases, including the beating of parliamentarian Valery Gelashvili, the embezzlement of nine million lari (which is over $3.7 million), the November Affair (the dispersal of a peaceful rally in November 2007), and the crackdown on the Imedi television company," Tsulukiani said, adding that Georgia had demanded Kyiv extradite Saakashvili under these cases back in 2014 and 2015.

"We should understand one thing: when you demand extradition, the state you are addressing will either grant this demand or not. Ukraine replied at that time, in April 2015, that they could not hand over Mikheil Saakashvili because it seemed to them this prosecution was not based solely on law. Apparently, they have changed their position today. As soon as Saakashvili returns to Ukraine, Kyiv will be able to start the extradition process," she said.

She insisted that nobody in Georgia cares about Saakashvili in a political sense.
In Preveza today, Deputy Foreign Minister Terens Quick declared the opening of the proceedings of the 4th Regular Conference of the World Council of Epirotes Abroad (WCEA).

"As Epirotes, you are a model for how overseas Hellenism should be organized and operate on the global and local level.

You have a World Council that you organized and elected on your own without the involvement of Greece or the Greek government through self-organized councils that you have already elected on state and regional level. Leading the overseas Epirotes are young and successful people like the current president, Chrysostomos Dimou.

This is the "new blood" that is being promoted unselfishly, without trying to hang on to leadership positions indefinitely by the Epirotes of the previous generation; patriots with maturity and wisdom.

And how could things be different when you, the Epirotes, produced dozens of national benefactors who contributed to the creation and establishment of the modern Greek state following the Revolution of 1821.

There were benefactors who forwent marriage, had no children, because Greece itself was their mother, spouse, sister and daughter."

With these words, Deputy Foreign Minister Terens Quick opened the proceedings of the three-day 4th Regular Conference of the World Council of Epirotes Abroad, which is taking place this weekend in Preveza.

In his address, Mr. Quick referred to the recommendations put forward by the president of the WCEA, Chrysostomos Dimou, who, in his introductory remarks, reiterated his firm positions on the conditions for the relaunching of the new, self-organized and self-funded World Council of Hellenes Abroad (SAE) and made clarifications based on recent statements from the Secretary General of the Ministry of the Interior, Kostas Poulakis on issues related to the vote for overseas Greeks.

"I am pleased that you are pursuing the issue of the vote with the current government. It is an issue that, for at least three decades now  maybe four  could have been resolved by all of the previous governments, by all of the parties that governed previously and failed to resolve the issue. There was a law that could have been voted through by Parliament in 2008-2009, when the Minister of the Interior at the time, the current President of the Republic, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, submitted it, but was 'torpedoed' by certain parties the night before the vote.

But no one mentions that.

What matters now is that the issue of the vote is among the 17 'steps' before the Special Permanent Committee on Greeks Abroad of the Hellenic Parliament and has been slated for resolution by the Foreign Ministry during the Syriza-ANEL government," Mr. Quick noted, setting out his position on the issue in question.
Centrenergo agrees with U.S. XCOAL on supply of about 700,000 tonnes of anthracite in 2017

PJSC Centrenergo has signed a contract with XCOAL Energy & Resources (the United States) to supply about 700,000 tonnes of anthracite coal by the end of 2017, head of the company Oleh Kozemko has said.

"We signed a contract on July 14, expect about 700,000 tonnes by the end of the year," he said at a briefing at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine in Kyiv.

According to a report by Channel Five from the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, the first batch of U.S. anthracite in the amount of 85,000 tonnes will be delivered in early September, the second one of 125,000 tonnes will arrive in late September.

The price of the first batch will be $113 per tonne, but it is not fixed and in future could vary, in particular downwards.

According to Kozemko, in 2018 the volume of American anthracite supplies could reach 2 million tonnes.
Militants opened fire on Ukrainian army positions in Donbas 26 times over the past 24 hours, wounding four Ukrainian servicemen, the press center of the headquarters of anti-terrorist operation in eastern Ukraine said on its Facebook account.

According to the press center, militants fired grenade launchers and small arms several times at Ukrainian military positions in Novooleksandrivka, Novotoshkivske and Stanytsia Luhanska in the Luhansk sector.

In the Donetsk sector, grenade launchers and large-caliber machineguns were used against Ukrainian positions in Zaitseve and near the Butovka mine.

The Ukrainian armed forces returned heavy fire in response to most of these shelling attacks, the press center said.
No Ukrainians have been hurt in the shooting in Bodrum, Turkey, the Consular Service Department of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reported.

"The consul reports that there are no Ukrainians among the casualties of the shooting in Bodrum (Turkey)," the department said on its official account in Facebook said on Sunday.

A teenager was killed and four other people wounded in a shooting near two beach nightclubs at the Turkish resort of Bodrum in the early hours of Sunday.
On Saturday, Ukrainian citizen Liudmyla Surzhenko, who has been held in captivity and tortured by militants in Luhansk region since early July, has crossed the contact line in Donbas and arrived into the territory controlled by the Ukrainian authorities, First Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's representative in the humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group Iryna Gerashchenko has said.

"Yesterday late at night, volunteers, Ukrainian Security Service officers and local authorities of Luhansk Regional Military and Civil Administration told me by phone that Liudmyla Surzhenko, who has hearing impairments and who disappeared a few weeks ago in the occupied territories, has crossed the Stanytsia Luhanska check-point. Liudmyla was immediately provided the necessary psychological assistance, now she is the hospital under the supervision of physicians. We learnt about Liudmyla's disappearance in July from her family, as well as concerned citizens and volunteers, who were very worried that she stopped getting in touch," Gerashchenko wrote on her Facebook page on Sunday.

Ukraine's representative in the humanitarian subgroup of the trilateral contact group added that during her captivity Surzhenko was tortured and on Monday during the skype conference dedicated to the issue of hostages in the format of the Minsk humanitarian group she will demand the OSCE coordinator in the group should visit Ukrainian hostages in the occupied territories, where the ICRC and other international organizations have not been allowed for a long time.

"This is wrong, that over the whole time of the Minsk group's work, the OSCE Representative has only once visited the Ukrainian hostages, and saw only a few, but not all of them. All international organizations have access to Ukrainian prisons. And all the instances of torture of Ukrainians by militants must be condemned both by Ukrainian and international courts. I hope that a criminal case has already been launched into the illegal detention and torture of Ms. Surzhenko by Russian-controlled militants," Gerashchenko wrote.

As reported, Liudmyla Surzhenko disappeared in early July when crossing the Stanytsia Luhanska check-point from the militant-controlled to government-controlled area of Luhansk region.
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A terrible crash on the A361 near Barnstaple has claimed the lives of three holidaymakers - a mother and her two children - and was witnessed by their husband and step-father.

Below is what we know about the tragic incident so far.

Emergency services were called at 8.25am to the North Devon Link Road, near Lankey Junction, following a collision between a car and a Marks & Spencer goods lorry.

The carriageway was shut in both directions to allow a Devon Air Ambulance helicopter to land directly at the scene. Three ambulances and five rapid response vehicles were also sent to the scene.

One child and the mother both died at the scene; the other child, a girl, later died at North Devon District Hospital.

Those killed are from the Milton Keynes area, according to police.

(Image: Apex News)

The husband of the mum, and step-dad to the children, was travelling in a separate vehicle and witnessed the crash happen in his rear view.

Officers from the Serious Collisions Unit are conducting scene investigations, and those examinations are set to continue for the rest of the evening.

A road closure has been put on between West Buckland junction and the Lankey junction, with drivers told to completely avoid the area.

The Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) involved in the crash was a Marks & Spencer goods lorry. A spokesperson for M&S commented: "Our thoughts and sympathies go out to the family and friends of the individuals involved."

The incident comes just one day after firefighters were forced to cut free a woman and two children from a vehicle near the same spot .

At 11.43am on Sunday, July 30 emergency were called to North West Buckland, also on the A361, and found four people trapped in two cars. A man was in the other car.

Devon & Cornwall Police Operations Commander Jim Nye thanked staff for their "extremely hard work" in the face of several serious collisions across the Devon road network today and over the weekend.

He added that their thoughts are with the families affected.

If anyone witnessed today's incident on the A361, please email 101@dc.police.uk or call 101 quoting 0125 of the 31st July.
Here are five news stories and events to start your week:

US Bombers Fly Over South Korea After North's 2nd ICBM Test

Via The Associated Press: "The United States flew two supersonic bombers over the Korean Peninsula on Sunday in a show of force against North Korea, following the country's latest intercontinental ballistic missile test. The B-1 bombers were escorted by South Korean fighter jets as they performed a low pass over an air base near the South Korean capital of Seoul, before returning to Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, the U.S. Pacific Air Forces said in a statement. It said the mission was a response to consecutive ICBM tests by North Korea this month."

Trump to Award His 1st Medal of Honor Recipient

President Donald Trump will award the Medal of Honor to a Vietnam veteran in the first such ceremony for the commander-in-chief. The event honoring former U.S. Army medic James McCloughan, 71, is scheduled to take place 2:45 p.m. Monday at the White House. During the Battle of Nui Yon Hill in 1969, McCloughan was a 23-year-old private first class who over two days risked his life nine times to rescue wounded comrades -- despite suffering his own wounds from shrapnel and small arms fire. He became a high school teacher in his hometown, teaching sociology and psychology at South Haven High School until his retirement in 2008.

Air Force Gets Creative to Tackle Pilot Shortage

Via Oriana Pawlyk at Military.com: "The Air Force's pilot shortage has leaders worried not only about filling gaps in the immediate future, but also how the military and civilian airlines may suffer without fine-tuned aviators in decades to come. As a result, Air Mobility Command at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, if given permission, may start a small group tryout for pilots testing a new program in which aviators stay at their home-duty stations longer, thus increasing their longevity and likelihood to stay in service, the head of the command told Military.com in an exclusive interview."

Navy Commissions New Destroyer Named After Fallen Marine

The U.S. Navy on Saturday commissioned its newest Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, to be named the USS Rafael Peralta (DDG 115) upon entering service, after the Marine sergeant who was killed in 2004 in Iraq during the second battle of Fallujah. He posthumously received the Navy Cross, the service's second-highest award for valor, for saving five of his fellow troops. The commissioning ceremony, which took place Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego, was attended by Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller and Acting Navy Secretary Sean Stackley, as well as Peralta's mother, Rosa Maria Peralta, among others.

Retired General Starts New Gig as White House Chief of Staff

Via Hope Hodge Seck at Military.com: "President Donald Trump has named retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, who has been serving as the head of the Homeland Security Department, as his new White House chief of staff to replace Reince Priebus. The president announced his decision Friday evening on Twitter. 'I am pleased to inform you that I have just named General/Secretary John F Kelly as White House Chief of Staff. He is a Great American ... and a Great Leader,' he tweeted. 'John has also done a spectacular job at Homeland Security. He has been a true star of my Administration.'"

-- Brendan McGarry can be reached at brendan.mcgarry@military.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Brendan_McGarry.
Saakashvili says he will not apply for citizenship of any country or political asylum

Former President of Georgia and ex Odesa Regional Administration Governor Mikheil Saakashvili has said he has not plans to apply for citizenship of any country or for political asylum.

Saakashvili considers himself a citizen of Ukraine, he said during an interview with the Georgian TV Rustavi-2 channel.

"I have no intentions, desires or plans to request political asylum in any other country," Saakashvili said.

Saakashvili said he is optimistic, adding his team intends to conduct a large mobilization in Ukraine this autumn.

"We plan a large mobilization in Ukraine this autumn. We will go through all the legal procedures. Ukrainian and international lawyers are working on this," he said.
It will be a show of force in the dead of night, filling the starry skies of Washington state.

Thirteen C-17 Globemaster IIIs, 20 C-130 Hercules, nine KC-135 tankers, two KC-10 Extender tankers, and aircraft from four allied partner nations will work together in one huge flight to airdrop 600 soldiers, part of the first-of-its-kind Mobility Guardian exercise, officials detailed to Military.com.

But the two-week-long exercise, headed by Air Mobility Command, won't just be dropping cargo and soldiers in what officials call a joint forcible entry scenario. Fighter and attack aircraft will be keeping watch and practicing their own routines overhead.

"This is a fully integrated threat scenario, where we will have ... 'red air' fighters [acting as adversaries], fighters that will be our escorts and then we will drop the [Army's] 82nd Airborne [Division] so that they can go take down an airfield," said Lt. Col. Jeremy Wagner, Mobility Guardian director.

"This is a massive muscle movement for us," he said in an interview with Military.com on Tuesday.

The overall exercise, which begins July 31, will feature more than 3,000 personnel, including the Army, Navy and Marine Corps, and troops and equipment from roughly 30 countries at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington.

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Three other locations -- Moses Lake, Fairchild AFB, and Yakima Air Terminal-McAllister Field -- will act as hubs for training between July 31 and Aug. 12, officials said.

The exercise will bring in the Navy's EA-18G Growler; a version of the F/A-18, for electronic attack; A-10 Warthogs for strike support for airlifters; and the F-15E acting as red and/or blue air.

B-2 Spirits and B-52 Stratofortress bombers will practice air refueling. The A-400M Atlas transport plane from both the United Kingdom and France will for the first time participate in an exercise, Wagner added.

And the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will take part -- but like the bombers, it will conduct only refueling training, Wagner said.

Officials are planning a tough test for airlift crews. "We're going to make a very difficult threat scenario for our  pilots," Wagner said.

"Now we're taking the junior captains, the lieutenants, and we're trying to give them experiences as to when they go do their warfighting core skill set, they're going to have a departure from their previous experiences," he said.

Gen. Carlton Everhart II, commander of AMC, said the exercise "gets after readiness."

"This sharpens the combat skills that we may need, it increases our readiness  and allows us to practice our four core mission sets together at one time," he said, referring to cargo drop, humanitarian relief, air refueling and en route support.

"Someone has to set the table -- that's Air Mobility Command," Everhart told Military.com on Wednesday. "Someone has to sustain the table -- that's Air Mobility Command. And when it's all done, someone has to clean it up to refit and refurb -- that's Air Mobility Command."

Deconfliction Channel

The joint forcible entry training will require major deconfliction channel efforts, Wagner said. Airlift planes such as C-17s do not have a defensive capability, so constant communication will allow pilots to know "who's going to take what action," he said.

The second leg of the exercise will have a humanitarian component to it. "It will be movement of a medical brigade to one of our locations," Wagner said.

"Really, the biggest thing is to learn how to integrate within a machine," he said. "Getting 3,000 personnel up to one general location and using all Air Mobility aircraft to do it, that in it of itself is enormous."

Training for a Future War

The exercise will provide training applicable to many potential future conflicts, including with enemies such as North Korea, Syria and Russia, AMC officials said.

"It's full spectrum. Joint forcible entry -- we're looking a near-peer" adversary, Wagner said. This is "near-peer advanced tactics" with U.S. partners. "We wouldn't do it alone -- there's no way we could do it alone."

Wagner couldn't get into specifics, but the exercise includes an electronic attack and cyber element.

Electronic warfare, for example, is a popular tactic being used in Eastern Ukraine. First observed in 2014, Russian-backed separatists have been jamming signals to misdirect or take out commercial drones Ukrainian soldiers use to conduct aerial surveillance.

"There will be suppression of enemy air defenses, jamming -- yes, all those things," Wagner said of the exercise.

On the ground, service members will practice how to rapidly repair an airfield.

"We're also dropping a light airfield repair package -- basically road graders, things that would, no kidding, repair an airfield if we dropped an airborne unit" with them, Wagner said.

Over the course of two weeks, 1,000 cargo packages -- or 2 million pounds of equipment -- will be dropped.

AMC airmen will also practice hot refueling training to "pass fuel as the engines are still running" on the C-130J models, Wagner said.

"That's a capability we're trying to make standard across all of Air Mobility Command for the J models," he said of the newest C-130 variant.

Survivability

The goal in all of these circumstances is to survive, and get in and out as quickly as possible.

It's training the entire Air Force could use, Everhart said, adding he wants to conduct another Mobility Guardian in roughly two years. He said the exercise is within AMC's budget, "relative cheap, a couple million dollars."

"It's going to be worth it, I believe, twice to 10 times over," Everhart said.

Considering fiscal budget constraints in recent years, the Air Force needs to work on skill sets it hasn't sharpened in a while, Wagner said.

"Anytime you have that many American lives to go fight, it's a very easy target -- that's where we're trying to provide the difficulty," Wagner said. "This is something we have to be prepared for."

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.
The holdup on the submission of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis' new strategy for the nation's longest war in Afghanistan has come from the White House, according to Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford.

Mattis had promised to deliver the plan by mid-July in response to the long-standing request for 3,000 to 5,000 additional troops made by Army Gen. John Nicholson, commander of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan and the NATO Resolute Support Mission.

However, Dunford said July 23 at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, "We're not going to do that until after the president has decided on the strategic framework within which our support of the Afghan security forces takes place."

In the meantime, Mattis, who was on vacation last week, has also had to deal with the freelance strategy prescriptions backed by some White House officials.

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Earlier this month, White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon went to the Pentagon with a proposal from Erik Prince, founder of the Blackwater security firm, calling for the creation of an "American viceroy" for Afghanistan and the use of mercenaries. According to The New York Times, Mattis "listened politely" and sent Bannon on his way.

On Monday, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, issued a statement blasting the White House for the delay on a new strategy for Afghanistan.

"More than six months after President Trump's inauguration, there still is no strategy for success in Afghanistan," McCain said. "Eight years of a 'don't lose' strategy has cost us lives and treasure in Afghanistan. Our troops deserve better."

If the White House continues to delay, McCain said that in September he would offer an amendment to the defense budget "based on the advice of some our best military leaders that will provide a strategy for success in achieving America's national interests in Afghanistan."

Dunford said in Aspen that Mattis is working up a plan that would take a more regional approach to combating the Taliban and the emergence of a terrorist offshoot of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, called Islamic State-Khorasan Province.

The key player in the regional approach is neighboring Pakistan, Dunford said. The new strategy won't work "unless we have a higher degree of cooperation from Pakistan," he said, but Pakistan is in turmoil over a corruption scandal in which the courts last week forced Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to resign.

Sharif responded by having his Pakistan Muslim League, which holds a majority in parliament, nominate a caretaker prime minister in Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, a former oil minister. Abbasi would hold the seat until Sharif's brother, Shahbaz, could be elected to parliament in two months and take over as prime minister.

In June, President Donald Trump authorized Mattis to set the Force Management Level, or troop level, in Afghanistan, where about 8,400 U.S. troops currently are serving in the train, advise and assist role with the Afghan National Security Defense Forces. Trump has given similar authority to Mattis in Iraq and Syria.

If Mattis were to sign off on sending additional troops to Afghanistan, their main purpose would be to train the Afghans and they would not be subject to arbitrary timelines for their withdrawal, Dunford said.

"When you put artificial timelines on it, it doesn't work," he said.

Over the weekend, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Afghanistan strategy delay stemmed from disagreements among top White House advisers. Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, the White House national security adviser, reportedly backs sending more troops while other officials are opposed.

"Unable to agree on a plan to send up to 3,900 more American forces to help turn back Taliban advances in Afghanistan, the White House is taking a new look at what would happen if the U.S. decided to scale back its military presence instead, according to current and former Trump administration officials," The WSJl reported.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.
Camp Lejeune Town Halls Aim to Help Those Exposed to Toxic Water. Heres How You Can Go.

Retired Marine Master Sgt. Jerry Ensminger made it his mission to tell the world that if they lived or served on Camp Lejeune...
The first U.S. pilot to notch an air-to-air kill in nearly 20 years, shooting down a Syrian Su-22 Fitter earlier this summer, recently made his first public comments about the experience, telling British journalists the entire encounter lasted only eight minutes.

The shoot-down was executed by Navy Lt. Cmdr. Michael "MOB" Tremel, an F/A-18E Super Hornet pilot assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 87 aboard the carrier George H.W. Bush, reports outlet SavetheRoyalNavy.org.

The site reported that Tremel described the mission to reporters during a press availability aboard the Bush while it was in the Solent, a strait separating mainland England from the Isle of Wight.

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"I did not directly communicate with the Syrian jet, but he was given several warnings by our supporting [E-3 Sentry Airborne Early Warning and Control] aircraft," Tremel said, according to the report. "So yes, we released ordnance and yes it hit a target that was in the air, but it really just came back to defending those guys that were doing the hard job on the ground and taking that ground back from ISIS."

Officials with U.S. Central Command have said the June 18 engagement took place after the Su-22 dropped bombs near Syrian Democratic Forces fighters south of Tabqah. The aircraft was immediately shot down in accordance with rules of engagement and in defense of partnered forces on the ground, officials said.

According to reports, the Super Hornet initially launched an AIM-9X Sidewinder Missile at the Fitter, but missed. The aircraft next fired off an AIM-120 AMRAAM medium-range missile, which hit its target.

Tremel told media that he hadn't personally seen the Syrian pilot eject, but his wingman, who has not been identified, saw his parachute.

According to the report, Tremel downplayed his own historic moment in the overall fight.

"When you think about the shoot-down, in the grand scheme of things ... we flew over 400 missions in support of friendly forces on the ground," he said, referring to the VFA-87 Golden Knights.

The Bush, which deployed from its Norfolk, Virginia, homeport in January, has been conducting airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria ever since. The carrier is wrapping up its deployment and preparing to return home. Another freshly deployed carrier, the Nimitz out of Kitsap, Washington, began launching airstrikes against ISIS from the Persian Gulf in late July.

As Military.com reported in late June, Tremel independently made the call to shoot down the Syrian aircraft based on established rules of engagement, according to Air Force Brig. Gen. Charles Corcoran, commander of the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing. Two Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle pilots made similarly independent calls in June to shoot down Syrian drones threatening coalition forces.

-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.
In his first Medal of Honor ceremony, President Donald Trump presented America's highest valor award today to a Vietnam War Army medic for risking his own life again and again to save his fellow soldiers in a two-day battle that occurred 48 years ago.

Before a White House audience of military officials that included Defense Secretary James Mattis and Army Chief of Staff Mark Milley, Trump gave a solemn talk about the brave actions of Spec. 5 James C. McCloughan.

"Today we pay tribute to a veteran that went above and beyond the call of duty to protect our comrades, our country and our freedom," Trump said.

On May 13, 1969, PFC. McCloughan was serving combat medic with Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry, 196th Light Infantry Brigade, Americal Division, when his unit air assaulted into an enemy-infested area near Nui Yon Hill.

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"As Jim and his men jumped out of the helicopter, it quickly became clear that they were surrounded by enemy troops," Trump said. "Within minutes, two choppers were shot down."

McCloughan sprinted 100 meters in an open field through heavy fire to rescue a comrade too injured to move and carried him to safety, according to the award citation.

That same day, McCloughan's platoon was ordered to search the area near Nui Yon Hill, when the platoon was ambushed by a large North Vietnamese Army force and sustained heavy casualties.

While leading two wounded soldiers into a trench, shrapnel from an enemy rocket propelled grenade tore into McCloughan.

"That terrible wound didn't stop Jim from pulling those two men to safety," Trump said. "Nor did it stop him from answering the call of another wounded soldier and carrying him to safety atop his own badly injured body.

"One of his comrades said 'whoever called medic could immediately count on McCloughan. He's a brave guy.'"

McCloughan ignored a direct order to stay back and braved an enemy assault while moving into the kill zone on four more occasions to extract wounded comrades, the citation states.

Though bleeding heavily from wounds on his head and entire body, he refused evacuation to safety in order to remain at the battle sight with his fellow soldiers, who were heavily outnumbered by the North Vietnamese Army forces, according to the citation.

Trump described the tale. At the end of the first day of fighting, the unit pulled back in a defensive position for the night.

"One soldier's plea Jim could not ignore. Again 'Doc' did not hesitate. He crawled through a rice paddy thick with steel rain -- that means bullets all over the place, Trump said. "As soldiers watched him, they were sure that was the last time they would see Doc. They thought that was the end of their friend Jim.

"But after several minutes passed, Jim emerged from the smoke and fire carrying yet another soldier."

When he lifted the soldier on a medevac helicopter, his lieutenant ordered Jim to get in too.

"'Get in! He said. Get in!' But Jim refused. He said 'you are going to need me here,'" Trump said. "As Jim now says 'I would have rather died on the battlefield then know that men died because they did not have a medic.'"

On May 14, McCloughan's platoon was again ordered to advance. He was wounded a second time by small arms fire and shrapnel from an RPG while helping two wounded soldiers, the citation states.

In the final phases of the attack, two companies from the 2nd North Vietnamese Army Division and an element of 700 soldiers from a Viet Cong regiment descended upon Charlie Company's position on three sides.

McCloughan "went into the crossfire numerous times throughout the battle to extract the wounded soldiers, according to the citation. "His relentless and courageous actions inspired and motivated his comrades to fight for their survival."

When supplies ran low, McCloughan volunteered to hold a blinking strobe light in an open area as a marker for a nighttime resupply drop.

"He remained steadfast while bullets landed all around him and rocket propelled grenades flew over his prone, exposed body," according to the citation. "During the morning darkness of May 15, Private 1st Class McCloughan knocked out a rocket propelled grenade position with a grenade, fought and eliminated enemy soldiers" and treated numerous casualties while organizing medevac helicopter runs.

When McCloughan was growing up, his "dad taught him a simple, but powerful lesson -- never do anything halfway, always do your best. Jim took that lesson very much to heart," Trump said.

"Jim did what his father had taught him. He gave it his all and then he just kept giving. In those 48 hours, Jim rescued 10 American soldiers and tended to countless others," Trump said. "He was one of 32 men who fought until the end. They held their ground against more than 2,000 enemy troops."

In the audience stood 10 of McCloughan's fellow soldiers, five whom McCloughan saved in the battle.

Trump called all of them by first name and thanked them for their sacrifice and service.

"Stand up, wherever you may be. Where are you?" Trump said. Applause filled the room as the men stood. Trump clapped loudly.

Trump hung the Medal of Honor around McCloughan's neck, shook his hand and hugged him.

"For over two centuries, our brave men and women in uniform have overcome tyranny, fascism, communism, and every threat to our freedom. Every single threat, they have overcome," Trump said.

"And we have overcome these threats because of titans like Jim, whose spirit could never be conquered. That's what this this award is, and Jim's life represents so well -- America's unbreakable spirit."

-- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.
After meeting up with Charles Thamm, FedEx Office's Senior Corporate Recruiter (who also leads Veteran Hiring initiatives), I became immediately captivated with his story. From being homeless, to joining the Army, to now leading efforts for one of the top programs in the nation, Charles is a success story to never forget. I was grateful that his executive leadership and communications department gave me the opportunity to interview him.

Liz: Why did you join the military?

Charles: At the time, I was a mechanic for a Firestone Complete Auto Care store in Austin Texas. I didnt feel like I had a sense of fulfillment in my life, but I felt like I was not smart enough to do anything else since I was a high school dropout.

I was in a bad relationship at the time as well and a friend who had always been interested in the military called me and said, Dude, just get out of there. Come join the Army with me and start a new life. If you dont like it after three years just get out. That was enough to convince me, so I signed up.

What was your story prior to the military?

I was homeless by the age of 16. For a while, I was staying in peoples barns, under porches and sometimes behind the grocery store in town. Since it was a small town, people would buy pre-made food from the grocery store and eat it outside at tables; so, it was easy to get food there sometimes.

A guy I knew from school said I could stay with him in a trailer that only had three walls. The fourth wall was just plastic where the other piece of the double wide shouldve connected. I finally got a job at Taco Bell and started getting back on my feet. Slowly, after a couple of years, I became interested in mechanics, thanks to my grandpa, who helped me go to mechanic school at a local community college. I was too scared to actually go to degree level college classes because I thought I was not smart enough.

What did you do in the service? How long did you serve?

My position in the Army was an 11B Infantryman. I barely made the score to get into the Army due to my education level at the time, so there were not a lot of options for me. I served roughly ten and a half years, most of which was in Germany. I did three tours in Iraq with my unit out of Baumholder, Germany, before moving on. I spent my last three and a half years on recruiting duty which really helped kick-start my path.

Why did you get out of the service?

I left the military because my wife was pregnant with our daughter. She is our only child right now. I remember so many times my friends with kids would come home from duty and their children would not know who they were. They would be uncomfortable. They would miss so much of their childrens life. I have a lot of respect for the men, women and their families who can endure that and make it work because it is not easy. For me personally, I gave 10-plus years and I knew continuing to deploy every other year as an infantryman was not for me. I wanted to watch my daughter grow every single day.

What happened when you exited service?

I spent six months prior to my exit connecting with other professionals in the civilian recruiting sector. I was sending emails asking for advice to recruiters all over the nation. I spent most of that time asking for training and advice, rather than asking for a job. A man named Michael invested quite a bit of time in my professional development. He had roughly 20 years of recruiting experience, so he had a world of knowledge to share with me. Once I got closer to my service expiration, or ETS, I started revisiting my connections and seeing if they could introduce me to the right people. At that time, I had not completed my degree and the companies in the civilian sector did not feel my experience was relevant enough to the field. I ended up taking a position that only paid me half of what I was used to.

I ultimately had to sell my house and cars, all while my daughter was on the way. After six months at my first job, I finally made my way into my first corporate recruiting gig at a small corporation, but the pay was still very low. Finances were tight and my wife and I found an in-home daycare through Facebook because we couldnt afford anything else. It was very scary going through all of this with my first child. Luckily, the daycare owner was a fantastic woman with a degree in child development.

Although I worked with some fantastic people in my immediate group at work, I was extremely unhappy with the company as a whole because it didnt really align with my beliefs from a cultural and integrity standpoint. After one year with this particular organization, I was fired right before my daughters first Christmas. I knew I had to keep pushing so I could provide my family with a good Christmas. I had not completed my degree yet, so I was running into a lot of the same road blocks with limited experience and no degree. Finally, an old LinkedIn connection contacted me and said she had a three-month contract, but the job came with a long commute. I almost didnt take it, but I knew I had to in order to take care of my family. Plus, I saw it as an opportunity to increase my skill sets. Little did I know, until I accepted, the position was with FedEx Office. I felt like I hit the jackpot.

Working at FedEx Office, allowed me to have a big corporation on my resume and learn the ins and outs of how a well-known, respectable company operates. When I started, I found out the position I was filling in for was vacant and needed to be filled. It only took a matter of weeks to realize this position was everything I dreamed about. My management team was fantastic. The expectation was to always work and hire ethically. They were helping people and doing amazing things in the communities. I worked my butt off to try and show them that although I had not completed my degree, I could bring value to their team.

At the completion of my contract, the management team made me a full-time offer and it has been life-changing for my family and me. I have now been with the company more than two years and I will likely be here as long as they will have me. I always tell everyone, I feel like I owe the company everything I can give because they initially believed in me and gave me a shot.

What would you say has contributed to your success story?

I really feel the biggest factor in obtaining my success is putting in the hard work and never quitting. No matter how bad things got I just pushed harder. If I had to give up sleep, I gave up sleep. I gave up visiting friends, hobbies and spare time activities. I learned to set goals and let nothing stand in the way of achieving them. If I see a peer working hard, I work even harder. I want to be the best and I will work as hard as I need to in order to be the best. Failure is just not an option in my mind anymore. Once I got into my course studies, I told myself making As were the only acceptable grades. I graduated with a 3.76 GPA, summa cum laude and added Presidents List honors with my bachelors degree.

When I graduated, I decided I wanted to get special certification through my company. Once I obtained that, I decided I would get my Masters degree, which I am currently pursuing, while maintaining a 3.98 GPA. Ive learned you have to have passion for what you are doing. I am passionate about my company, about helping and putting people to work and most of all, I am passionate about providing a good life for my family. My wife and daughter deserve the best.

My wife was [also] a huge factor in my success. Obviously, while making my stride for success, it made it difficult to find time for our newborn who is now 3-years-old. My wife takes the majority of our home life on her shoulders and works just as hard, with just as much passion as I do, while still being a full-time office manager at another company.

What would you say to other military members when they are faced with adversity?

Charles: Dont give up. Never accept defeat. Dont just wander aimlessly when it comes to your career. Make strategic career and professional development goals and do not waiver from them. Find your passion and put everything you have into it. Get on LinkedIn and start connecting with other professionals in your field who have climbed the ladder of success and pick their brains. Surround yourself with good people and always try to do the right thing. Dont job hop too often because recruiters look at that. Pick a company and stick with it. Be realistic and understand you may have to take a step back and move laterally to reestablish yourself. Dont close doors to opportunities.

Lastly, no matter what, do not sacrifice your integrity. It is a quality few and far between nowadays. Hold it close and do the right thing and it will set you apart.

How do you pay it forward now?

I pay it forward by spending quite a bit of my personal time looking at other military members resumes, giving advice and sharing my story. I am limited on time due to pursuing personal goals I am working on, but I always make time to take on a few people to mentor. I actively participate in military job fairs and attend military best practices events. I also do public speaking when the opportunity arises to try and make an impact on those who need support. I never thought I would amount to anything in my life and I know there are many others out there who feel the same way, like they are not good enough, smart enough, or do not have the right connections. I take every chance I can to let those people know they can do it, but it just takes hard work and dedication. It doesnt always come easy.
ANN ARBOR, MI - More than five years ago, four sisters took note of a booming trend in cold-pressed juices and started their own take on the industry in their parents' home in southeast Michigan.

Now, locations for their organic and natural juice business known as Drought are springing up throughout the region with the latest location taking root in Ann Arbor's downtown district.

Julie James is one of the four sisters who founded Drought in 2010, that started with an idea to make the healthiest and most natural juice in Michigan, modeled after what some of the sisters were seeing pop up in New York City.

Since then, six original recipes have turned into a product line and one location has turned into seven.

"We got positive feedback from day one and it just spiraled from there," said James, who now helps run the six Drought storefronts. "We all believed in it and kept working on it."

The Ann Arbor location at 204 E. Washington is the seventh storefront and has been open less than two weeks. Walking in, customers will see a simple setup comprised of a large cooler filled with a rainbow-colored assortment of juices and a gleaming white counter.

"What you see on that block is what you get," James said, gesturing to the carved wooden placards that note the organic ingredients that make up each cold-pressed juice. "All of our spaces are pretty clean, we focus on the product."

Juices run from $9 to $11, with additional items like a 1-ounce turmeric shot for $5. Drought also sells an immunity potion for $6 that James described as great for combatting cold and sinus issues.

The most popular product is the apple, lemon and ginger juice, James said, because of its sweet and tangy taste which some customers say is like apple cider. All products are USDA-certified organic and have a shelf life of about five days.

Customers also like the thieves oil, made up of a combination of spices like clove and cinnamon along with eucalyptus and rosemary, and the cold brew coffee for $7 made with grounds from Chazzano Coffee in Ferndale.

Those looking for a more in-depth experience can order a juice cleanse, a 6-pack of the glass bottles customers can choose in either Wash #1 or Wash #2. James said the first option is sweeter and more approachable for people who haven't tried a cleanse before.

"Some people will want a break from their regular routine," James said about the juice cleanses.

There is no water added during the process that takes three to four pounds of organic produce like carrots, beets, kale and lemon and reduces it to 16-ounce glass bottles that line the coolers with color in each of the Drought locations.

First in, first out // Restock headed to all shops! // #usdaorganic #glassbottled #drought #coldpressedjuice #rawjuice #grabandgo Posted by Drought on Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Deliveries are made on a daily basis, James said, with fresh juices and shots of ginger and turmeric in tiny glass bottles brought in after being made in the company's processing plant in Ferndale.

"Everything about it is premium, in how it is manufactured," James said.

She encourages people to visit Drought and try one of the juices, to ask questions and learn more about the products. Drought has heard requests over the years to open a storefront in Ann Arbor.

"We made it a goal, as soon as we grew and had enough staff, we'd open here, too," James said about the Ann Arbor location.

It has been a learning process for James and her sisters, who she said all enjoy hanging out with each other and working together to make the business successful.

Drought has come a long way from the sisters first making products at their parents' house, to the first kitchen in Plymouth to now operating seven storefronts across southeast Michigan.

"We always consider it our strong suit, being sisters in business," James said. "We can just move through problem-solving more quickly."
GRAND RAPIDS, MI - American RV, a 29-year-old recreational vehicle dealer based in Cutlerville, has been sold to Camping World Holdings, the nation's largest chain of RV stores and a growing force in the outdoors and boating market.

Camping World, which has operated a retail store outlet next door to American RV for the past 10 years, is expanding in Michigan. The Lincolnshire, Ill,-based company recently purchased a Supercenter RV store in Houghton Lake and operates a retail accessory story in Belleville, southwest of Detroit.

Founded in 1988 by Ron and Cheryl Neff, American RV has grown to become one of West Michigan's largest RV dealers. Two of their children, general manager Chad Neff and accounting mangaer Tami Melpolder, will remain with the dealership.

"This is a great opportunity for my parents," said Chad Neff. "They have worked hard for decades to build the company and they look forward to retirement. At the same time, I know they will miss the interaction with customers and vendors. My father has worked in RV sales for more than 55 years, so it's in his blood, so to speak."

Camping World was founded in 1966 and has grown to become the nation's largest direct marketer and specialty retail of RV and outdoor camping accessories and services. It recently bought 57 Gander Mountain sporting goods stores and Overton's, a North Carolina-based boating and watersports outfitter.

"We remain focused on growth and customer service, as we expand in the Michigan market with the successful establishment of American RV joining the Camping World family," said Marcus Lemonis, chairman and CEO of Camping World, in a press release.

"There may be a different sign on the building for customers and a different name on the checks for vendors, but it will be the same people providing the high-quality service our customers have come to expect of us, with even more offerings," Chad Neff said.

Ranked as the ninth largest RV dealership in Michigan in terms of sales in 2016 by Statistical Surveys Inc., American RV sells, services and finances new and used Class A, B and C recreational vehicles, fifth wheels, travel trailers, pop ups, and toy haulers.

American RV has been ranked as one of the top 50 dealerships in the U.S. and Canada over the past three years by RVBusiness magazine in terms of professionalism, sales, service, and charitable practices.

The dealership is in the midst of a 21,000-square-foot expansion that will create a showroom, new service bays, offices and space for RV accessories.

Camping World of Grand Rapids will officially celebrate its grand opening event on Saturday, August 26 from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
The number of hostages held by Russian occupation forces in areas controlled by hybrid Russian forces in Donetsk and Luhansk regions has risen to 137 over the past several days, according to the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) advisor Yuriy Tandit.

"As of today there are 137 Ukrainian hostages. Unfortunately, the number has risen over the past several days because pro-Russia militants in the occupied areas are holding our citizens illegally and accusing them of criminal acts they have not committed. Moreover, the number has risen because these people were not carrying weapons or on the line of demarcation. They are civilians," Tandit said in an interview aired by the 112.Ukraine TV Channel.

Tandit cited the example of Vitaliy Rudenko, who recently was freed after being held captive for one year. Tandit said Luhansk militants guaranteed him safety to attend his father's funeral, but arrested him anyway.
ANN ARBOR, MI - U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell is proposing legislation to ensure U.S. Environmental Protection Agency offices stay open, including those in Ann Arbor and Grosse Ile.



Dingell, D-Dearborn, is co-sponsoring what's being called the REGION Act to prevent the closure of any EPA regional or program offices.



The acronym stands for Recognizing the Environmental Gains in Overcoming Negligence.



Dingell argues President Donald Trump's budget proposal from earlier this year would gut the EPA and shutter several offices, including the National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory in Ann Arbor, which employs 435 people, and the Large Lakes Research Station office in Grosse Ile, which houses more than a dozen Emergency Response Division employees tasked with responding to and cleaning up environmental hazards or accidents.



"Hardworking EPA employees in Ann Arbor and Grosse Ile play a vital role in protecting our communities - whether it's reducing vehicle emissions and keeping the U.S. at the forefront of innovation or cleaning up toxic spills that threaten the health of our families and environment," Dingell said in a statement.



"We cannot afford to lose these jobs or halt the critical work taking place in these areas. This legislation will ensure that this important work continues in Michigan and at EPA offices across the country, where dedicated scientists, engineers and public servants are working every day to protect the air we breathe and the water we drink now and for the future. This must remain a top priority."



The legislation also would prevent the closure of the EPA Region 5 office in Chicago, which serves Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Minnesota and Ohio. Dingell said the office is critical to protecting the air, water and health of residents in Great Lakes states.



The legislation is being co-sponsored by U.S. Reps. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, Betty McCollum on Minnesota, Mike Quigley and Bobby Rush of Illinois, Louise Slaughter of New York, as a companion to legislation Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois introduced in the Senate.



Dingell visited the Ann Arbor EPA lab in May to speak out against Trump's proposed cuts to the EPA. Dingell said the lab on Plymouth Road conducts critical research, testing, analysis and technological studies in support of the establishment and monitoring of fuel-economy and vehicle-emission standards.



Trump's budget plan from earlier this year proposed cutting the EPA's overall funding by 31 percent, a reduction of $2.6 billion.



The president's stated priority is to "ease the burden of unnecessary federal regulations that impose significant costs for workers and consumers without justifiable environmental benefits."

"This would result in approximately 3,200 fewer positions at the agency," the May budget proposal stated. "EPA would primarily support states and tribes in their important role protecting air, land, and water in the 21st century."



The House Appropriations Committee approved a spending bill this month that would cut EPA funding by $528 million or 6.5 percent. The cuts are far less severe than what Trump proposed.



EPA vehicle emission lab in Ann Arbor gets high marks for cost cutting
BAY CITY, MI -- An area nonprofit is hoping to help itself and other agencies by beaming Internet data from atop Bay County's tallest building.

Do-All Inc., a nonprofit that puts adults with disabilities to work, has requested to install transmission equipment on the roof of the Bay County building, 515 Center Ave., to assist with its technology needs.

The idea is to allow for a more efficient Internet signal between Do-All's two locations in Bay City and Hampton Township. Christopher Girard, Do-All's chief executive officer, said the long-term goal would be to bring on additional nonprofits to reduce Internet operating costs for all of the organizations.

Peter Avery, chief information officer of Brady's Business Systems, is donating the equipment that, if approved, would be installed on the building, 126-feet above the ground.

"It was (Avery's) brainchild to bring this all together and get multiple nonprofits on board," Girard said.

The setup would allow nonprofits to better take advantage of cloud-based services, Avery said. There would be a singular Internet connection point that would be beamed out to participating agencies using an AirMAX 2x2 BaseStation Sector Antenna, he said.

"I'm leaning on the leadership in the community to help me to get to the best results in the nonprofits," Avery said.

Avery's business would also install the equipment free of charge if the Bay County Board of Commissioners approves the proposal.

Girard pitched the idea to the board on July 11. Commissioners raised questions about the second phase of the proposal, asking which nonprofit groups would be eligible to use the over-the-air signal. The board delayed a vote, requesting more information.

Bay County Executive Jim Barcia said he is confident the board will approve the equipment installation.

"We support our nonprofits," he said. "We just need to work out the details."

A vote is slated for sometime in August. If approved, installation would start shortly after, Girard said.

If the commissioners deny Girard's request, he said he may look to another tall structure such as City Hall. However, the CEO is confident an agreement will be reached.

"You can't take anything for granted, but I think we're working together," Girard said. "The citizens of Bay County, through the nonprofit agencies, will benefit by having this."

Because of Avery's donation, the only cost Do-All pays is for Internet data from Charter Communications. If other nonprofits become involved, costs will be lower for each agency.

Girard has reached out to the United Way of Bay County and the Bay Area Community Foundation to gauge their interest in partnering on the project.

"I think they want to hear more," he said. "We're kind of the guinea pigs to test it out and see how it works."

Do-All recently moved its administrative services out of 1400 S. Lincoln St. and into the Cat's Meow Thrift Store, 1465 W. Center Road in Hampton Township. The nonprofit also operates a building in downtown Bay City, 810 Washington Ave.

Once the transition occurred, Girard said switching its focus to the Internet project became a priority.

"For us, the timing made sense to figure out something like this," he said.

Girard said the transmission signals would free up money that can further assist Bay County residents.
Deputy Interior Minister of Ukraine Vadym Troyan is not a suspect in any criminal case, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has said.

The SBU together with the Prosecutor General's Office held a special operation to detain three people who are suspected of extortion from a company head, the SBU reported on Facebook.

The detainees have been chosen preventive measures.

"During the investigative actions, law enforcers received information about the possible implication of Deputy Interior Minister of Ukraine Troyan. In spite of the status of the person, in order to establish the truth, it was decided to hold a search at Mr. Troyan's living quarters," the SBU said.

"According to the results of these investigative actions, the information about the possible involvement of Mr. Troyan in such illegal activity proved to be unreliable and has not been confirmed. Thus, Troyan is not a suspect," the report says.

Investigation into the case of the detainees continues.

Earlier, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko wrote on Facebook Assistant to Ukrainian Deputy Interior Minister Svitlana Ivashtenko, deputy head of the Azov public corps Volodymyr Brzhezynsky and a civilian have been detained during the joint inquiry of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). According to the report, these persons are suspected of systemic extortion of over UAH 1.5 million from a representative of one of the companies threatening to his life and health.

"According to the secret investigators' actions, the above-mentioned persons shared UAH 785,000 among themselves and other persons. A total of 13 places were raided, including the place of residents of Deputy Interior Minister Vadym Troyan. The funds have not been found," Lutsenko wrote.

The website of the Interior Ministry reported Troyan is currently on vacation, and has recently participated in investigative actions in one of the criminal proceedings.

"He hasn't been notified about any suspicions against him," the ministry said.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed the law on the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, which is aimed at better protecting constitutional rights of citizens.

Poroshenko said the signed document is part of the judicial reform, which is aimed at ensuring rights of Ukrainians for fair trial, the press service of the Ukrainian president reported on Monday.

According to the president, this law contains two principal innovations. "Absolutely transparent competitive selection of candidates for the Constitutional Court judges," Poroshenko said noting that everyone will have the opportunity to learn about each candidate.

Another innovation is the possibility of any legal entity (excluding representatives of the central or local authorities) or an individual to lodge a complaint with the Constitutional Court, something that has never happened in Ukraine's history.

"If a person, after having his case examined in ordinary courts, believes that the law on which the ruling is based is unconstitutional, then they no longer will have to seek the assistance from people's deputies or the president. They finally received the right to apply to the Constitutional Court directly with a constitutional complaint. The court must consider this complaint and make an appropriate ruling," the head of state said.

"I believe that this will significantly increases the level of protection of constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens," Poroshenko said.

According to the bill, the Constitutional Court is composed of 18 judges: six judges are appointed by the president of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada and the Congress of Judges of Ukraine. At the same time, the Constitutional Court will receive powers to carry out constitutional proceedings provided at least two-thirds of the judges enter upon their offices.

The bill provides that the Grand Chamber, two senates and six colleges operate in the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. They act as the Constitutional Court within the limits determined by this document.

According to the initiative, constitutional request, constitutional appeal and constitutional complaint are the forms of an appeal to the Constitutional Court.

The constitutional complaint, according to the bill, will be an application for verification of compliance with the Constitution of Ukraine of the law or its individual provisions, which is applied in the final judicial decision. If the draft law is adopted, persons who believe that the law of Ukraine or its provisions used in the final judicial decision in their case contradict the Basic Law, will be able to handle constitutional complaints.

The authors of the initiative suggest that judges be appointed for nine years without the possibility of re-appointment. It is assumed that candidates for judges of the Constitutional Court will be selected on a competitive basis. Competitive commissions will be formed by bodies that appoint judges. The judges of the Constitutional Court will be subjected to the law on public service.

The judge of the Constitutional Court, according to the draft law, can be a citizen of Ukraine who speaks the state language, who reached 40 years old on the day of appointment, with a higher legal education and at least 15 years of professional experience. In addition, the law provides for the selection of judges of the Constitutional Court on a competitive basis.

Powers of the judge will be terminated after he reaches 70 years. Termination of powers of judges of the Constitutional Court will be performed by the Court itself.

The draft law provides that the salary of a judge of the Constitutional Court shall be fixed in the amount of the salary of a judge of the Supreme Court. The remuneration of the judge of the Constitutional Court will consist of an official salary and a surcharge for staying in an administrative position in this court.
The formal reason for revoking Ukrainian citizenship of former Georgian President and ex Odesa Regional Administration chief Mikheil Saakashvili is based on charges by Georgia's Prosecutor's General's Office (PGO) citing accusations that Saakashvili embezzled EUR 505 earmarked for a trip to Prague to attend the funeral of ex Czech President Vaclav Havel, according to members of Saakashvili's Movement of New Forces political party.

"The decree by Ukraine's president to revoke Saakashvili's citizenship is based on a criminal case against him that Saakashvili did note when filling out the citizenship form," the Movement of Political Forces press service said on Monday.

Referring to Georgian politican Eka Suramelashvili, the Movement of Political Forces said Georgia's PGO accuses Saakashvili of spending EUR 505 on a flower arrangement [wreath], which Georgia's official delegation to the funeral took with them to Prague.

"The European Union and the U.S. have expressed their concern about the criminal persecution of Saakashvili in Georgia, which represents selective justice. Even Ukraine's PGO has twice refused to extradite Saakashvili to Georgia," Saakashvili's party said, adding that Poroshenko granted Saakashvili Ukrainian citizenship on May 29, 2015, that is, after criminal cases opened against Saakashvili were known.

"President [Poroshenko's] actions [against Saakashvili], as well as steps taken by Ukraine's GPO and State Migration Service have all the signs of a criminal act, and misuse of official office in the interests of other parties," the party's press statement said.
Servicemen of one of the Marine Corps units of the Ukrainian Naval Forces have left for Bulgaria to participate in Platinum Lion 2017 multinational exercise.

"The aim of the participation in the event is to acquire skills of coordinated actions by our marines as part of a multinational unit in line with the NATO standards," the press center of the Ukrainian Naval Command said on Monday.

During the exercises, Ukrainian marines along with their foreign counterparts will work through defensive and offensive actions, the procedure for carrying out raiding operations, as well as the technique of combat fire from small arms, tactics and techniques for carrying out patrols and the like.

The events will last until August 11.
[July 31, 2017] Printful invests $1 million to open its first fulfillment center in Europe

RIGA, Latvia, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- In a move to better serve its European customers and to break into a new market, Printful opens its first fulfillment center outside of the US in Riga, Latvia. This makes Printful one of the only print-on-demand drop shipping companies with in-house fulfillment centers both in North America and Europe. Ecommerce growth in Europe is catching up with the United States. While the growth rate is different for each country, ecommerce revenue in Europe is expected to reach 250 billion euros in 2017 (compared to 131.6 billion in 2013). With its new location, Printful is ready to become an industry leader in Europe just as it is in the US  in drop shipping, software, and ecommerce services.



"Europe is readying for an ecommerce boom, and Printful is on the ground floor," says the company's CEO Davis Siksnans. "The ultimate goal is to make it easier for our customers to grow their businesses in the European market." The new 15,000 sq ft facility is located in a historic manufacturing neighborhood in Riga. Latvia is a natural choice for the drop shipping company  it is the native country of Printful's founders and part of the team is already located there. Additionally, Latvia's geographic location allows for quick shipping to European destinations and its affordable labor market makes it financially easier to establish a business. Another benefit for customers is that orders fulfilled in Europe are exempt from customs duties in EU member states.

Printful has invested over $1 million to open this fulfillment center, and they expect to hire 150 local employees over the course of two years. Printful projects that the Europe location will fulfill 30% of the company's order volume as it continues to grow. Contact: Nora Inveiss

[email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/printful-invests-1-million-to-open-its-first-fulfillment-center-in-europe-300496599.html SOURCE Printful

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Representatives of separate districts of the Luhansk region (ORLO) have included Russian military serviceman Victor Ageyev in the hostage swap list who was detained by the Ukrainian side in the Luhansk region, but Kyiv insists that he is a war criminal, First Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's representative in the humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group Iryna Gerashchenko has said.

"ORDLO included Russian serviceman Ageyev in their demands for the release claiming he is a militant. Here Ukraine's position is unambiguous - it's a war criminal. We expect the Russian government will recognize his presence in Ukraine and the court must determine the measure of his crimes. The world must know the details of the crime since these are the facts of the Russian military presence in Donbas," she wrote on her Facebook page on Monday following the Skype conference of the humanitarian subgroup Trilateral Contact Group on the peaceful settlement of the situation in Donbas.
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In pursuance of Regulation 30 & 47 of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, we are forwarding the Notice of the 27th Annual General Meeting being held on Thursday, the 24th August, 2017 at 3.30 P.M at KLN Prasad Auditorium, Federation House, Federation of Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce, Red Hills, Hyderabad. We request you to take the same on record and acknowledge.Source : BSE

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The Board of Directors of the Company at their meeting held today has inter-alia approved and taken on record the Unaudited Standalone Financial Results of the Company for the first quarter ended on June 30, 2017, prepared pursuant to Regulation 33 of the Listing Regulations.As required under Regulation 33 of Listing Regulations, please find attached herewith the said Financial Results of the Company together with Limited Review Report for the quarter ended June 30, 2017 of the statutory auditors. These Financial Results would also be published in the prescribed format in one English and one vernacular newspaper as required under Regulation 47 of the Listing Regulations and the same are also being uploaded on the Company's website (www.stfc.in) as required under Regulation 46 of the Listing Regulations.The Board Meeting commenced at 11.00 a.m. and concluded at 01.00 p.m.Source : BSE

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The Board of Directors of the Company at their Meeting held on Monday, 31st July, 2017 inter-alia has transacted the following items of Agenda:1. Approved the Un-audited Financial Results of the Company for the quarter ended 30th June, 2017.2. To convene the 11th Annual General Meeting of the Company on 26th September, 2017 and fixed the book closure dates from 21st September, 2017 to 26th September, 2017 (both days inclusive) for the purpose of Annual General Meeting.Further please find enclosed herewith the un-audited financial results along with Limited Review Report for the Quarter ended 30th June, 2017 taken on record by the Board of Directors.This is for your information and records.Source : BSE

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Cement

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Birla Corporation Limited, the M P Birla group flagship company, would invest around Rs 2400 crore for its proposed new cement plant at Mukutbandh near Nagpur.

"We are planning to invest around Rs 2400 crore for four mtpa greenfield cement plant at Mukutbandh. We will now go to the board for approval", chairman of Birla Corporation Harsh V Lodha told reporters after the company's AGM here today.

Lodha said after the completion of the new plant, the total cement production capacity of the company would touch 20 mtpa from the present 15.5 mtpa after acquisition of Reliance Cement.

Funding of the project would be a mixture of debt and internal accruals, he said. Birla Corporation had acquired the cement plants of Reliance at a consideration of Rs 4800 crore.

To fund this acquisition, Birla Corporation had taken a loan of Rs 1000 crore on its books. Lodha said that the company was making some capital expenditure at the acquired plants to make it more efficient. "Reliance's plants did not have a captive power plant.

So we are in the process of setting up a waste heat recovery system at a cost Rs 125 crore", he said. This would provide us power to meet a portion of the total demand, 45 MW, free of cost. "We are studying the feasibility of a captive thermal power plant there", he said.

Lodha said as the demand for cement was rising in central India and no new capacity was coming up in the region, the company was well-poised to take advantage of this. On GST, he said it would not have any major impact.
The humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine reached an agreement at its Skype conference on Monday that Toni Frisch, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) coordinator at the subgroup, would visit prisons in ORDLO in August.

"Among the important results is that we managed to agree that OSCE subgroup coordinator Frisch would visit prisons and hostages in occupied territories in August. We demanded an obligatory stopover at a Makiyivka penal colony, where our servicemen are being held, and also a visit to detained women," Ukrainian envoy to the humanitarian subgroup Iryna Gerashchenko said on her Facebook page on Monday.

The Ukrainian side reiterated the need to release Ukrainian journalist Stanyslav Aseyev (Vasin) held in Donbas, calling on Russian representatives to facilitate this, she said.
Meta layoffs | Why Zuckerberg's Metaverse bet has proven to be a bit too costly
A man talks on his mobile phone as he walks past an ITC office building in Kolkata September 4, 2012. ITC Ltd sells 80 percent of the cigarettes in the world's second most populous country where 275 million people use tobacco products. But as India follows the rest of the world in adopting anti-smoking regulations, the company's core tobacco business is getting squeezed and it is venturing into dairy products, drinks and perhaps even healthy breakfast foods to try to expand its money-losing consumer products business. Picture taken September 4, 2012. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri (INDIA - Tags: BUSINESS HEALTH) - RTR37J7R

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ITC has over the years sought to position itself as a complete consumer company. It tried shedding the cigarette tag by diversifying into other businesses, especially in areas with strong linkages to the farm economy. While FMCG has grown to a decent size, the company hasnt yet commanded the exact valuations of the sector. ITC's recent AGM further shed light on the companys future path away from cigarettes.

After successfully establishing packaged food brands, ITC is also foraying into perishable segments and investing in supply chain infrastructure. Is the market taking note of these changes?

Focus on FMCG business drives diversification

In the last 11 years, ITCs sales from its FMCG business (excluding cigarettes) has increased substantially to Rs 10,512 crore. In 2005-06, the FMCG business used to contribute about 6 percent of gross sales which has now increased to 19 percent. Augmenting the non-cigarettes business is a conscious choice as the company attempts to diversify and capture the entire value chain of the consumption cycle.

Chart: Segment level exposure at gross revenue level

Prudent capital allocation

Another way to look at it is in terms of the managements changing priority in capital allocation. In 2006, a third of the capital expenditure was for the cigarettes business and only 14 percent for the FMCG business. In contrast, last year, the company deployed 46 percent of capital expenditure, amounting to Rs 1,153 crore, for the FMCG business.

Branded packaged food leads food

ITC says that consumer spend (FY 2017) on the brands from the new FMCG businesses are now close to Rs 14,000 crore with major brands such as Aashirwaad and Sunfeast garnering Rs 3,500 crore and Rs 3,000 crore of sales respectively. Branded packaged foods category in particular clocked a CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) of 26 percent during FY2006-17. ITC is targeting a turnover of Rs 1 lakh crore from the new FMCG businesses by 2030.

In line with the focus on expanding the non-cigarettes business, the ITC management reiterated at the recent AGM their commitment to harnessing value chain of Farm to Consumer.

Earlier farm supply chain initiatives help

ITC has been a key player in linking agri-commodities sourcing with the processing industries and delivering food brands such as Aashirvaad, Sunfeast, Bingo! and B Natural. In continuation with that strategy, the company recently launched ITC Master Chef brand of spices.

Further, its landmark initiative of e-Choupal in 2000 helped in providing host of services to farmers related to agriculture best practices, know-how and weather-related information.

Need for post-harvest infrastructure

Primed by the huge annual agri-wastage of about Rs 92,000 crore, company has emphasised the dire need for the infrastructure, ranging from post-harvest logistics, processing, and packaging. The company says that about 20 integrated consumer goods manufacturing and logistics facilities are under various stages of development.

Expansion of food business into perishable segments

ITC is also strengthening its focus on food processing. The company now plans to foray into perishable segments such as fruits, vegetables etc. It mentioned that investments are underway to create climate-controlled infrastructure for an efficient supply-chain. In pursuance with this objective, ITC Master Chef Frozen Prawns have recently been launched in select markets. Further, investments have also been made in farming for aromatic and medicinal plants.

A brand new segment

At the AGM, the company also took approval for a healthcare business wherein it targets establishing a multi-specialty hospital for starters. Further, details on the investment outlay and time frame are yet to be finalised. However, the foray into healthcare is seen as another initiative by the company to emerge as a health-oriented business conglomerate.

Overall, the companys new initiatives to expand the product portfolio particularly in the FMCG and food business should be seen as continuation of the strategy of product diversification. What remains credible is the companys multi-decade linkages with the farm sector that are now getting integrated with new investments in logistics and food processing. This can go in a long way in establishing ITC as a leading player in the FMCG business. There is no denying that the low=level of food processing in India at 10 percent leaves enough room for growth.

For the long term investors, ITC, in our view, continues to hold a prospect of quality growth and is available at reasonable valuation (30x FY 2018 earnings).
The commerce ministry is negotiating as many as 21 trade agreements, including with Israel and Mauritius, Parliament was informed today.

Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also said the negotiations for a free trade agreement are a continuous process and it is difficult to set a timeline for their conclusion.

She said that before starting talks for such pacts, studies are carried out internally as well as through joint study groups to look at the feasibility of such pacts.

"The Department of Commerce is negotiating 21 trade agreements including with Israel and Mauritius," she said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

India is negotiating FTAs with countries including European Union, Sri Lanka, Thailand, New Zealand and Canada.

Replying to a separate question, she said India has exported 53,490 livestock in April this fiscal and 12,02,841 in the last fiscal.

In a separate reply, she said out of the country's total imports of drugs of USD 4.45 billion in 2016-17, imports from China stood at USD 1.96 billion, which is 44.1 per cent.

"One of the reasons for imports from China is the price competitiveness of these products," Sitharaman added.
Agriculture Sector | Technological advancements are reshaping Africas agricultural sector in helping to pioneer a new agro-business strategy. Automation is replacing many jobs traditionally done by farm labourers such as harvesting and crop sorting. (Image Source: )

To ensure that the benefits of Fasal Rin Mochan Yojana percolate to the deserving and genuine beneficiaries, the Uttar Pradesh government is linking the Aadhaar number of farmers with the scheme, a minister said.

"In order to zero in on the deserving and genuine beneficiaries for the Fasal Rin Mochan Yojana (Crop Loan Redemption Scheme), the UP government is linking the Aadhaar number of the farmers with the scheme. So far, 42 per cent of the beneficiary farmers having an Aadhaar number have been linked with the scheme," UP Agriculture Minister Surya Pratap Shahi told PTI.

He further added, "This methodology has been adopted, so as to ensure that there is no room for any discrepancy in the scheme. Efforts are also on to make Aadhaar cards for the farmers who do not have it. Work in this regard has been expedited so that the benefits of the scheme percolate to the farmers."

The UP Agriculture minister also said that the government is implementing the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana.

"This is unique as it ensures minimum premium, and maximum insurance for farmer welfare. The scheme aims to help in decreasing the burden of premiums on farmers who take loans for their cultivation and will also safeguard them against the inclement weather," Shahi said.

The minister informed that farmers can deposit premium amount for the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana by July 31.

He further said that the UP government is concerned and sensitive to the needs of the farmers, and will take every possible step to improve their condition.

"Rs 67,682 crore have been allocated to agriculture in this Budget, which is the biggest allocation so far. Last Budget's allocation to agriculture was Rs 29,771 crore," Shahi said and added that a provision of Rs 19.56 crore has been made for increasing availability of vermi-compost in order to augment crop yield.

Apart from this, a provision of Rs 261.66 crore has been made for soil survey and testing. A target has been set to distribute 88.82 lakh metric tonnes of fertilisers.

Emphasising that the government is keen to revive the traditional agricultural techniques, the minister said, "There is a proposal to implement bio-agriculture programme through traditional agricultural development scheme under the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture in 30 districts including all the districts of Bundelkhand.
business Vast majority of people polled expect credit growth to be muted: Moody's Moody's & ICRA held their 3rd Annual India Credit Conference. In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Marie Diron, Senior Vice President at Moody's Investors Service explains key takeaways from the conference.
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The public issue of state-run Cochin Shipyard will open for subscription on August 1, which comprises of fresh issue as well as offer for sale.

Bids can be made for minimum 30 equity shares and in multiples of 30 shares thereafter. The issue will close on August 3.

Equity shares are proposed to be listed on BSE and National Stock Exchange. The book running lead managers to the issue are SBI Capital Markets, Edelweiss Financial Services and JM Financial Institutional Securities.

Here are 10 things you should know before subscribing the issue:-

About the Issue

The state-owned shipyard company will enter the primary market with a public issue of 3.3984 crore equity shares on August 1. The price band for the issue is fixed at Rs 424-432 per share.

The issue consists of a fresh issue of 2.2656 crore shares and an offer for sale of 1.1328 crore shares by The President of India. The issue will constitute 25 percent of the post issue paid-up equity share capital.

The company targets to raise Rs 1,440.92 crore at lower end of price band and Rs 1,468.11 crore at higher end of price band.

Cochin Shipyard will receive Rs 978.74 crore through the fresh issue of shares.

It is a part of divestment programme announced by the government in Budget.

Objects of the Issue

The proceeds of the offer for sale will be received by the selling shareholder - The Government of India. Company will not receive any proceeds from the offer for sale.

The shipyard company has proposed to utilise fresh issue proceeds for setting up of a new dry dock within the existing premises (around Rs 443 crore); setting up of an international ship repair facility at Cochin Port Trust area (around Rs 229.5 crore); and general corporate purposes.

Company Profile

Incorporated in March 1972, Cochin Shipyard is the largest public sector shipyard in India in terms of dock capacity, as of March 31, 2015, according to the CRISIL Report.

It caters to clients engaged in defence sector in India and clients engaged in commercial sector worldwide. In addition to shipbuilding and ship repair, it also offers marine engineering training.

As of May 2017, it has two docks  dock number one, primarily used for ship repair and dock number two, primarily used for shipbuilding.

The company is in the process of constructing a new dock, a stepped dry dock that will enable longer vessels to fill length of the dock and wider, shorter vessels and rigs to be built or repaired at the wider part. It is also in the process of setting up an International Ship Repair Facility (ISRF), which includes setting up a shiplift and transfer system.

Its key shipbuilding clients include the Indian Navy, the Indian Coast Guard and the SCI. It has also exported 45 ships to various commercial clients outside India such as NPCC, the Clipper Group (Bahamas) and Vroon Offshore (Netherlands) and SIGBA AS (Norway).

Orderbook

Its current shipbuilding order book includes Phase-II of the IAC for the Indian Navy, two 500 passenger cum 150 ton cargo vessels and two 1,200 passenger cum 1,000 ton cargo vessels for the Andaman and Nicobar Administration and a vessel for one of the Government of India's projects.

Current ship repair order book includes vessels from key clients.

Financials

Company has posted profits continuously in last five fiscals. Total income and profit has increased from Rs 1,660.45 crore and Rs 69.28 crore, respectively, in fiscal 2015 to Rs 2,208.50 crore and Rs 312.18 crore, respectively, in fiscal 2017 at a CAGR of 15.33 percent and 112.27 percent, respectively.

Revenues from shipbuilding and ship repair operations in recent fiscals:-

Top customers - the Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard - together accounted for 82.43 percent, 89.92 percent and 84.57 percent of revenue from operations in fiscals 2015, 2016 and 2017,

respectively.

Strong liquidity position in terms of total cash and bank balance of Rs 2,003.2 crore as of June 30, 2017, enables the company to continue to stay invested in business and to consistently pay suppliers on time and benefit from supplier goodwill.

Strategies

Expand our capabilities through our proposed Dry Dock and International Ship Repair Facility

Build a strong order book by bidding vigorously for projects to be awarded by the Indian PSUs and defence sector pursuant to Make in India initiative

Continue to enhance our construction quality and delivery time and enhance our price competitiveness in order to increase our market share

Strengthen our market leadership by continuously adding upgraded and new vessel models to our offerings and expanding customer services

Continue to leverage our market position and our relationships with customers, suppliers and other business partners to support our growth and improve our competitiveness

Shareholding Pattern

Promoter is the President of India acting through the Ministry of Shipping.

Promoter, along with its nominees, currently holds 100 percent of the pre-issue paid-up equity share capital of the company.

After this issue, promoter will hold 75 percent stake in the company, which as per SEBI's minimum shareholding norms.

Management

Cochin Shipyard currently has twelve directors, of which six are independent directors.

Management Organisation Structure

Dividend Policy

As per CPSE Capital Restructuring Guidelines, all central public sector enterprises are required to pay a minimum annual dividend of 30 percent of profit after tax or 5 percent of the net-worth, whichever is higher.

Dividend declared by the company and dividend tax thereon for the last five fiscals:-

Risks

Brokerage houses listed out some risks that one has to consider before subscribing the issue:-

> The shipyard business is highly dependent on global economic conditions

> The entire business operations of the company is based out of a single shipyard at Kochi

> Business is subject to extensive government regulation

> The company is dependent on the Cochin Port Trust for certain basic services required for daily operations.

> Nature of fixed price contracts

> Loss of any of the company's major customers or a reduction in their orders

> Failure to succeed in tendering for shipbuilding or ship repair projects for the Indian Navy in the future

> Weak tendering activity for ship building/repairs (from the Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard who account for 85 percent of revenue) could impact the business

> Delay in commercial operations of Dry Dock project or project completions could result in cost overruns

> Volatility in raw material prices like steel could hamper operating margins

> Commercial shipbuilding industry is highly cyclical in nature
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Cochin Shipyard Ltd. (CSL)  a Miniratna company  is one of the largest PSU shipyard companies in India. Currently, it has two docks located adjacent to Cochin Port in West Coast of India: (1) Ship Repair Dock (1.25 lakh DWT) and (2) Shipbuilding Dock (1.10 lakh DWT). Further, it is in the process of setting up a new Dry Dock and an International Ship Repair Facility (ISRF), which will enable CSL to secure more projects in ensuing period. The Company gets many government orders on nomination basis like NBCC Ltd. Notably, CSLs current order book stands at Rs33bn (1.6x FY17 revenue), which we believe will expand further in coming years owing to governments strong endeavour to increase its defence production under Make in India initiative. Unlike other PSU shipyard companies, CSL has been profitable, as it has delivered a consistent performance with over 4% CAGR in earnings in last four years, which is commendable, in our view as the shipping industry witnessed multiple headwinds during this period.

Outlook & Valuation

We admire CSLs ability to stay afloat in the turbulent period without compromising on margins. Going forward, governments endeavour to improve its defence strength in sea route and several initiatives under flagship Make in India programme will result in healthy orders for CSL, which will drive growth. At the upper price band, CSL trades at 18.8x FY17 EPS post dilution. Though it is difficult to compare it with peers as most of the listed peers are loss making, we believe the current valuations are not expensive given healthy return ratios and bright prospects. Further, price to book ratio after dilution stands at 1.9x, which is attractive in our view. Hence, we recommend SUBSCRIBE to the issue.

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The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts/broking houses/rating agencies on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions
Ruling North India is a necessity for success in Pan-Indian politics. In Independent India, until Narendra Modi arrived, no politician from outside Hindi cow belt (with the notable exception of PV Narasimha Rao) had been Prime Minister for a full term.

There is a reason for this  the Hindi speaking Indian states account of 226 of 543 (42 percent) seats in the Lok Sabha. Therefore, a politician who is able to build a voter base in the Hindi cow belt has a much higher probability of being the PM than a leader from any other region.

For the first time, North India does not have a political giant. Modis dominance of Indian politics has been made possible, in part, due to the absence of a powerhouse politician from the Hindi speaking belt.

JL Nehru, Indira Gandhi, and Rajiv Gandhi  each of the members of this dynasty were until their death by far the most commanding figure in North Indian politics and that gave them the keys to all of India.

Rajivs assassination in 1991, opened the door for the rise of the BJP led by two leaders who were popular in the Hindi speaking belt  Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani.

The BJP (or NDAs) loss in the 2004 General Election then created a decade in which regional North Indian leaders like Mulayam Singh Yadav and Nitish Kumar tried to give vent to their national aspirations but Sonia Gandhi just about managed to cling on to power.

Now with Mulayam, Sonia and Lalu Prasad Yadav ageing, with their progeny yet to find their political feet, with Nitish Kumar subdued in Bihar and with the BJP Chief Ministers in Rajasthan, MP, Chattisgarh and UP contained in their states for now, for the first time since Independence, we have the strange situation that there is no North Indian political giant setting the agenda in Indian politics. Why is this?

In the 1990s and the noughties, with the Congress popularity flagging, North Indian politicians from all parties created voter bases on the basis of caste and/or religion.

For 20 years (roughly from 1992 to the 2G spectrum scam in 2010) this worked reasonably well  a leader would hoover up, say, the Jat vote in a constituency and thus corner 15-20 percent of the votes in that race.

He would then get a smattering of votes from other castes and thus with 25 percent of the votes, he would win the seat in a fragmented First Past the Post race.

Starting with the UP Assembly elections of 2013 (where the SP crushed the BSP and the Congress), it became evident that this construct no longer works.

What we are repeatedly seeing in North Indian elections now, is that cornering the votes of one or two communities is no longer sufficient to win the race (see exhibit below).

The results of the recent elections suggest that the older construct - of dominant regional parties controlled by a strong single caste/community-based leader - is on the retreat.

These regional parties used to cling on to a specific voter base (based on caste, community etc.) and thrive. Now, however, as shown in the section above, support from a single vote bank is not going to help win elections anymore.

The absence of a North Indian political giant has major implications for India

North India has been for at least a decade now a laggard in creating jobs and economic prosperity. An average person in northern India earns a per capita income of USD 1,183 (which is less than that earned by an average citizen of Pakistan or Bangladesh) whilst an average person in South India earns a per capita income of US$2,014.

Moreover, youth employment rate is much higher in South India (56%) than in North India (47%). Furthermore, the female: male ratio continues to deteriorate in the North.

The gender ratio for northern India is 901 females per 1000 males as compared to 994 females per 1000 males for South India and the fertility rate simply refuses to fall as much in the North as it has done in the South and in the West of the country.

The fertility rate in North India is 2.4 compared to 1.8 for South India. With low-quality education, North Indias youth are heading into a future where they have few jobs and few women to contend with.

With the political situation in the North being in flux, social unrest is on the rise across the North India as evidenced by both a rise in: (a) what is known as routine crime in India (robbery, rape and civic violence as seen in the farmers agitation in Madhya Pradesh earlier this year and in Haryana last year); and (b) in hate crime.

As per a report in India spend, Muslims were the target of 51% of violence centred on bovine issues over nearly eight years (2010 to 2017) and comprised 86% of 28 Indians killed in 63 incidents."

In the coming decade, the odds are in favour of these three dynamics  a weak economy, a retrograde social milieu and lack of political leadership  ravaging the North.

Disclaimer: The author is Saurabh Mukherjea, CEO of Ambit Capital and the author of The Unusual Billionaires. The views expressed are personal. The views and investment tips expressed by the expert on moneycontrol.com are his own, and not that of the website or its management.
July 31 was the deadline for real estate developers across the country to register projects that are under construction with the real estate regulatory authority set up by the state to frame regulations and rules as per the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (RERA).

The newly appointed minister of housing and urban affairs Narendra Singh Tomar confirmed that a total of 23 states and union territories have notified RERA rules under the RERA Act.

The remaining six states have drafted the rules but not yet notified them. These include Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Telangana, Tripura and West Bengal, sources said. Goa has extended the deadline to October for ongoing projects to d register with RERA.

Six states and union territories that have constitutional issues as land in these states belong to the community or the autonomous councils include Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim.

The central Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA) came into effect on May 1, 2017, exactly a year after it was passed by Parliament.

As per the Act, developers, projects and agents had till July 31 to mandatorily register their projects with the Real Estate Regulatory Authority. Any unregistered project would be deemed to be unauthorised by the regulator.

Under RERA each state and UT will have its own Regulatory Authority (RA) which will frame regulations and rules according to the Act. But not all states have a real estate authority in place yet and some with one have diluted the original provisions as per the Central Act.

RERA covers both new project launches and on-going projects where the completion/occupation certificate has not been received.

According to the provisions of the Act, for ongoing projects which dont have a completion certificate issued, developers have to make an application to the authority for registration of projects within a period of three months from the date of commencement of this Act which was May 1.

Under RERA, a developer cannot sell residential or commercial units in a project, ongoing or new, unless those are registered with the regulatory authorities.

The Act also calls for mandatory registration of real estate agents and calls for developers to set aside 70 per cent of the funds collected from buyers in a separate escrow account to ensure that projects are completed on time.

Real estate Authorities

As for real estate authorities, only four states have established a permanent Real Estate Regulatory Authority. These include Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab. Nineteen states/UTs have established an interim real estate regulatory authority.

UT of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu have tagged with Maharashtra for establishment of permanent Real Estate Regulatory Authority. UT of Chandigarh has tagged with UT of Delhi for establishment of permanent Real Estate Regulatory Authority.

UT of Andaman and Nicobar Islands has tagged with Tamil Nadu for establishment of permanent Real Estate Regulatory Authority.

Nine states and union territories have appointed interim Appellate Tribunal under the Real Estate Act, sources said.

Seven states have started the online registration under the Act. In Gujarat, around 110 applications for project registration and 80 applications for agent registrations have been received. In Haryana, offline registration has started.

In Madhya Pradesh, as many as 700 applications have been received for registration including both projects and agents. In Maharashtra, around 3,700 applications for project registration and 3800 applications for agent registrations have been received.

In Karnataka, around 160 applications for project registration and 54 applications for agent registrations have been received. In Rajasthan, around 196 applications for project registration and 143 applications for agent registrations have been received.

A total of five states are in advanced stages of implementation of online registration through web portal. A total of seven states are using the code for development of web portal shared by the ministry along with five UTs without legislature.

Issues facing homebuyers

Home buyers say that they are where they began. Most states have diluted rules to favour developers. Most states have moved away from the Centres definition of ongoing projects and excluded projects for which lease deeds of either 50 percent or 60 per cent of the apartments have been executed or for which partial completion or occupation certificates have been obtained by the developer. This leaves little hope for homebuyers stuck with old unfinished projects.

In some states mere filing of application to the authority for issue of completion or occupation certificate is enough to ensure that the project does not come under RERA. Strangely, one state has even ruled that laying of slabs in a housing project is enough for the real estate project to be out of purview of the Act.

The Central Act simply has a completion certificate as the benchmark for exemption of projects under RERA. It clearly states that projects that have not received completion certificate on the date of the notification of the Act will be considered as ongoing.

The delay in framing rules and setting up a regulator have impacted home buyers decisions, too. They are confused about which agreement to sign. Are they signing a RERA-compliant agreement for a RERA compliant project?

Issues facing developers

RERA is aimed at ensuring timely delivery of real estate projects to customers. The three top most issues that RERA needs to address are for the developer community are: The requirement of RERA that no project be offered for sale without registration would cripple the real estate industry already coping with a slowdown in the market.

Ongoing projects about to be completed may actually get delayed on account of RERA. Customers even after paying up the full amount may have to wait indefinitely.

A constructive definition of ongoing projects is required, say developers.

STATUS OF RULES NOTIFIED BY STATES/UTs UNDER RERA
Tech giant Cisco has named former Philips Healthcare executive, Sameer Garde as president for its India and SAARC operations.

He succeeds Dinesh Malkani, who is leaving the company to pursue other opportunities.

When contacted, Cisco confirmed the development.

"Sameer Garde will join the company on August 1, 2017 and take over as President, Cisco India & SAARC," it said in an emailed response.

Malkani will continue to be associated with the company as strategic advisor till September 2017 to ensure a smooth and orderly transition, it added.

Garde will be responsible for Cisco's senior-level external engagement, including those with government and industry associations.

"This is the perfect time for Sameer to become Cisco India and SAARC's next president. With our mission to provide the government and customers the right foundation for their digital initiatives, Sameer will play an integral role in our continued growth and innovation," Cisco Asia-Pacific and Japan President Irving Tan said.

Garde said the focus in India is to continue to move with speed, clarity and simplicity to be the strategic partner for companies and the government.

"We will continue our long-term strategic focus on India through our investments in innovation, skills training and digital transformation," he added.

On verticals/business units that he believes will help reach the USD 2 billion India revenue target, Garde said the company continues to see strong momentum across service providers, bank and financial institutions and the government.

"Areas like manufacturing, education and healthcare will also help us drive growth in India," he said.

Prior to joining Cisco, Garde has been in the advisory role to startups including CtrlS Datacentres Ltd, IQLECT, BonOrganik and Shotang India.

He has also served as President, South Asia at Philips Healthcare and has helped set up the enterprise business for Samsung India.
The Ukrainian side has prepared appeals to international organizations and courts in connection with the torture that militants of certain districts of the Luhansk region used when they illegally detained at Stanytsia Luhanska checkpoint Ukrainian citizen Liudmyla Surzhenko on July 13, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has said.

"Liudmyla Surzhenko, kidnapped by terrorists, has been released from captivity. She is safe now and under the care of doctors in an extremely difficult psychological state. Liudmyla is provided with all the necessary assistance. Appeals to international organizations and courts have been prepared," Groysman wrote on Facebook on Sunday.

He recalled that the militants of the so-called LPR kidnapped Surzhenko, who has a hearing disability since her childhood, at the Stanytsia Luhanska checkpoint on July 13. Liudmyla was severely tortured with pliers by the militants in captivity, her hand was injured. These unpeople tortured the woman into confessing for camera that she "works for the Ukrainian secret services," the prime minister said.

Groysman expressed conviction that this cruelty would be punished, like all other crimes that are being committed in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territory.
iphone_se_apple_cell_mobile_main_56541250

Berlin-based online audio distribution platform SoundCloud Ltd. is fast closing in on securing a deal with two equity firms for selling majority stakes in the firm.

The deal is seen by many as a ray of hope for the company which is on the verge of collapse and has seen mass layoffs and office shutdowns in its struggle to sustain.

The firm, which is one of the most famous music distribution services in the world, has 175 million listeners and 40 million unique users.

Its financial condition turned murkier as the company was recently forced to shut its offices in San Francisco and London.

And according to reports in Livemint, the firm had to discharge at least 40 percent of its total workforce last month.

The two equity firms which are yet to be identified have discussed steps of the deal with the firm. The volume of the investment is not yet clear. If the deal materialises, the two equity firms are expected to own a majority share in the firm.

Launched in 2007 by the Swedish duo of Ljung and Wahlforss  the company has failed to generate money for years.

Lack of a powerful parent company which its rivals like YouTube, Apple Music and Amazon Music already have, along with less focus on generating revenue through advertisements is seen as a reason behind its slump.
E-commerce firm Snapdeal's decision to walk away from Flipkart deal and execute a Snapdeal 2.0 could lead to a potential litigation as it now appears that the founders may not have taken the board into confidence about the beleaguered company's new revival plan, according to two people privy to the development.

Vani Kola, co-founder of Kalaari Capital who till recently was sitting on the board of the company, has publicly criticised this move.

"I am extremely disappointed and shocked with the founders and their disregard for investors and the employees' interest," she said adding that she had no prior information on this and this was something not discussed with her, in an interaction with a television channel.

Snapdeal 2.0 is expected to be a much leaner organisation and will see exodus of a massive chunk of employees (Read here).

When something goes without the agreement of the stakeholders, it can have repercussions. There could be litigation for mismanagement," one of the persons quoted above said adding that there is also a possibility that the deal could come back to the table in some form or shape. Dont immediately know how will it come back or who will be the potential buyer but I don't think, it will die so easy as the shareholders value is eroding if you dont do a deal, the person said.

"The fact of the matter is that the founders have gone ahead and taken a decision that the deal will not go through and the Snapdeal 2.0 is to happen. Has the board approved the Snapdeal 2.0? The answer is no," said the second person quoted above.

Snapdeal on Monday announced that it has terminated all talks for a distress sale to Flipkart and wants to pursue an independent path.

The key stakeholder, Softbank said that it supported the company in this decision and will look forward to the results of the Snapdeal 2.0 strategy.

Without specifying whether or not Softbank will invest money in Snapdeal, it further said it will look forward to remaining invested in the vibrant Indian e-commerce space.

Softbank is reported to be in talks with rival Flipkart to invest USD 1.5-2 billion.

On the other hand, Snapdeal hinted that it might not require an external capital immediately, by saying, With the sale of certain non-core assets, Snapdeal is expected to be financially self-sustainable. We look forward to the support of our community, including employees, sellers, buyers and other stakeholders in helping us create a designed-for-India commerce platform.

Suvir Sujan, co-founder of Nexus Venture Partners, and Akhil Gupta (independent director) who sit on the board of Snapdeal did not immediately respond to emails from Moneycontrol.

To a detailed questionnaire, Snapdeal said, "the path to profitability being pursued by the company till date is as approved by the board in March 2017. The company will continue to seek guidance and direction from the board in further execution and detailing of such plans." However, it did not specify whether or not this move had an in principle approval from all the stakeholders.

A third person who has been involved in the development (requesting anonymity) cited that the decision to not to go ahead with the deal has been endorsed by all the key people like Softbank, Nexus and the promoters. Its a clear and final decision and a single shareholder like a Kalaari Capital cannot decide for everyone.

"In this deal, Kalaari has already taken out a decent exit besides they had a special payment promised by Softbank if the deal went through and there are discussions about them getting an additional investment from Softbank. It is them, if at all anyone who are not working in the interest of the company," the person quoted above said. Advocating the founders decision, the person also said that "any one shareholder like Kalaari cannot decide for everyone. Without the deal happening, theyre not going to get a special payment, ... theyre probably not going to get Softbank to invest in their fund, so that is why they are so unhappy. We think this is the best thing for the company."

He also added that even if the deal with Flipkart had happened at best the investors would have gained something out of it. For employees, it would have been worse. "There is likely going to be some reduction in people, but in the Flipkart deal it was very likely that almost 90 percent of the employees would have lost their jobs over the next 6 to 12 months."

To be sure, the employees, however, had retention bonuses if the deal with Flipkart went through. With Snapdeal 2.0 there isn't an immediate clarity on what sort of severance will be paid to the employees.

While the person quoted above, did not rule out the possibility of a litigation, he said that there was "zero possibility of the deal coming back on the table." Kola resigned from the board of Snapdeal in May even as the deal talks were ongoing. "One investors cannot unilaterally say that the deal should be back on the table. So it is much ado about nothing .. just trying to rile people up," he said.

"There is a reason why there is a Softbank statement and a Snapdeal statement -- it is to make it crystal clear that decision is made," he added.

According to a corporate lawyer, who spoke to Moneycontrol on the basis of anonymity, broadly, under the companies act there is very limited action that anyone can take. "There are provisions like class action which requires a minimum of 10% of stakeholders to come up and raise the issue. The second problem is that it needs to be proven that the directors are not acting in the best interest of the company. It will be very difficult to question the business judgement of the director in this case, because the acquisition may could have resulted in shutting down of the company. So it will be very premature for anybody to file the case at this point in time. They would probably want to see what is the implementation of Snapdeal 2.0," he said.

He further added that the Snapdeal's case is particularly interesting because they are acting as the management and it has been widely reported that the founders have been trying to block the deal. "For instance, in the US, in a take over battle, if the management is trying to protect their own job and not letting a deal to happen amounting to stakeholders losing value, it is a big issue. Management is often held responsible for the interest of the shareholders as a group. So where the management destroys the value of the shareholder because of emotional reasons then they bear a lot of risk. Someone can say that they did not exercise the judgement in good faith or diligence," he added.

According to him, at this point in the case of Snapdeal, it is premature currently but it will be interesting to see if the Snapdeal 2.0 fails and the company ends up being sold for a fraction of this value. "In such a case, one can expect a lot of risk of litigation and bad blood," he said.

Going a little back, the deal had many hiccups.

The Flipkart's revised term sheet which valued Snapdeal around USD 850 million, had several clauses and hold-backs including imposing legal liability on board members post deal which majorly irked the founders. Last month, the family office of billionaire Azim Premji had too reportedly objected to special payouts to select stakeholders including the two Snapdeal founders as well.
A private security gurad stands at a gate of Snapdeal headquarters in Gurugram on the outskirts of New Delhi, India, April 3, 2017. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

Moneycontrol News

The much talked about Snapdeal-Flipkart merger is likely to fall apart, following the cancellation of a crucial meeting between the representatives of the two parties.

The development comes just three days after the country's erstwhile third largest e-commerce firm announced the sale of its payments unit Freecharge to private lender Axis Bank for Rs 385 crore. The deal has given Snapdeal much needed cash breather for survival.

On July 28, Moneycontrol reported about how the founder and chief executive officer had made his mind clear to the employees, within hours of the closure of the Freecharge deal, that he was not in the favour of being acquired by Flipkart.

In an emotional letter, Bahl wrote that post the acquisition of Freecharge, it was time to "focus energy and passion on continuing the Snapdeal journey."

The deal had been majorly pushed by Snapdeal investors, following excessive competition from US-headquartered Amazon and its domestic rival Flipkart.

Following resistance from co-founders of Snapdeal to Flipkarts term sheet clauses, the company board had decided to let all the two dozen odd stakeholders take a call on whether to accept the offer or not. It is unlikely for all the stakeholders to reach a consensus even as the seven member board was already divided on the deal.

Snapdeal's co-founders seem adamant on sustaining the company  either on a standalone basis or going ahead with a strategic deal with listed e-commerce firm Infibeam.

There was no immediate clarity if there was any movement even in the talks with Infibeam or not.

Read Also: Snapdeal has a 'plan B' in case Flipkart deal fails

Depleting cash reserves had dragged the company to a vulnerable position in last few months. To make things worse, the term sheet issued by Flipkart detailing buyout conditions is filled with clauses and hold backs imposing legal liability on board members post the deal.

The company has around 25-28 stakeholders, which includes investors such as Premji Invest, Foxonn, Tencent, Blackrock and Ontario Teacher's Pension Fund.

Source: Tracxn

However it appears that lack of consensus within the board itself which consists of the two founders are likely to bring an end to the entire conversation all together.

Snapdeal, Flipkart and Softbank did not respond to email queries.

A fall off of the deal is not necessarily going to dent Softbank's chances of getting itself into one of country's largest online retail firm Flipkart to give a competition to Jeff Bezos' owned Amazon.

Even if the acquisition deal falls flat, Softbank is expected to invest a huge amount in Flipkart.

Following the deal, it was expected to invest USD 1.5-2 billion in Flipkart.
Job loss | The pandemic has wreaked havoc on the job landscape in India. According the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) about 21 million salaries employees lost their jobs during April-August. There were 86 million salaried jobs in India during 2019-20. In August 2020, the count was down to 65 million after 3.3 million jobs were gone in the particular month, mostly among the industrial workers and white collar workers, as per the CMIE. (Image: Shutterstock)

In an email sent to the employees on Monday, Kunal Bahl, founder and chief executive officer of e-commerce firm Snapdeal called for making Snapdeal 2.0 a success adding that the company is already profitable at gross profit level and targets Rs 150 crore in gross profit in the next 12 months.

Without dwelling much into the details, Bahl also said that there will be a need for tight control on the costs and that the company currently doesn't need to raise additional capital to reach profitability.

Following plans to run a leaner company, Snapdeal is expected to have another round of a mass exodus which may see the company becoming leaner by at least 600-800 employees.

In currently employs around 1000-1100 employees, which effectively means that the company will reduce its manpower by more than 70 percent.

According to a senior executive who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the plan is to retain around 300 odd employees in the company.

"A list of 80 highest paid employees have been made. It mostly constitutes of non-CXOsvice president, presidents and assistant president levels," the person said.

"The salaries of these employees will range between Rs 75 lakh to Rs 1.5 crore," the person added.

However, unlike the previous rounds of layoffs which mostly saw employees at the junior level go, this round will affect employees across all categories.

Mentioning about the deal with potential buyers, Bahl stressed that the same couldn't take place of "the deal being contemplated was incredibly complex to execute."

Moneycontrol on June 28th reported that the term sheet offered by rival Flipkart had several clauses and hold-backs including imposing legal liability on board members post deal.

With a plan to execute a pure marketplace model, Bahl stressed that there isn't going to be "one successful model for e-commerce in India."

According to him in every market, there are multiple business models and the success lies in the way it is executed.

"With the ongoing streamlining of costs and sale of some of the assets, such as Freecharge, we are financially self-sufficient as a company and don't need to raise additional capital to reach profitability. Needless to say, we will need to keep a tight control on our costs and work towards becoming a hyper efficient culture delivering profitable growth month on month," Bahl said in the letter.

Moneycontrol has reviewed a copy of the letter.

"The opportunity for e-commerce in India is immense, and the surface of this USD 200 billion market has barely been scratched yet. We have a tremendous team, millions of loyal customers, hundreds of thousands of motivated sellers and a phenomenal platform that has been built with years of effort," he added.

Moneycontrol was the first to report on June 13th that Snapdeal had a Plan B in place in case the deal with Flipkart didn't go through.
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Iron ore producers NMDC and Vedanta shares gained up to 4.5 percent intraday Monday after the rally in iron ore futures.

Iron ore futures in China continued to move upwards. The stock futures hit upper circuit of 8 percent and are trading at fresh four-month high.

Incorporated in 1958, state-owned NMDC involved in the exploration of wide range of minerals including iron ore, copper, rock phosphate, lime stone, dolomite, gypsum, bentonite, magnesite, diamond, tin, tungsten, graphite, beach sands etc.

NMDC is India's single largest iron ore producer, presently producing iron ore from its 3 fully mechanised mines two in chhattisgarh and one in Karnataka State.

Vedanta is the largest producer exporter of iron ore in the private sector in India, which iron ore operations in Goa, Karnataka and Liberia.

At 15:09 hours IST, Vedanta was quoting at Rs 280.40, up 2.07 percent and NMDC was at Rs 126.90, up 3.42 percent on the BSE.
News about Google hiring a 16-year-old student from Chandigarh at a whopping annual salary of Rs 1.44 crore may not be true after all.

The internet giant informed in a report that it does not have any information about the Chandigarh student's employment at Google.

Currently, we dont have any information on our records with respect to Harshit Sharmas candidacy, search giant Google said in a report to The Indian Express.

Further, an enquiry was ordered by Chandigarh administration as it was officials from the administration who issued a press release about the boy's achievement on July 29.

According to the press release, Harshit Sharma, who completed Class 12th from Government Model Senior Secondary School (GMSSS), Sector 33 in Chandigarh, had allegedly got selected after submitting posters through a Google "link".

I am inquiring into the matter. I can only comment by tomorrow [Wednesday], Chandigarh Director of School Education Rubinderjit Singh Brar told the Hindustan Times.

The news that has been going viral across the internet was primarily centred around the salary the boy claimed to have been offered. It came to around Rs 12 lakh per month post-training as a graphic designer with the tech giant  as per the information in the press release.

A separate press release by the school claimed that Harshit will undergo an initial training for a year and he will also receive a stipend of Rs 4 lakh per month.
In a move to strengthen its disciplinary record, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has pitched for powers to act against audit firms. The request has come after the organization examined cases of 34 individuals who were suspected to be involved in illegal cash transactions.

Commenting on the institutes disciplinary mechanism, the ICAI President Nilesh S Vikamsey said that this lack of discipline cannot be tolerated, as reported by Business Standard.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had previously asked the institute to look into the matter and help the government in its fight against corruption.

The Prime Minister issued a statement on July 1 after which an internal committee was formed to keep a check on auditors.

We are making an all-out effort to act against those who are not following the rules and laws and there is no slip-up at our end, said an ICAI office-bearer, as reported by the Times of India.

The organization, which has about 2.60 lakh registered individuals, has said that it found about 400 individuals involved in unsolicited activities, over the last three years.

About getting powers to temporarily suspend individuals, the Vikamsey has said that they would discuss the issue internally and then seek the approval of ICAI council.

There are 34 individuals who allegedly aided illegal cash transactions involving 559 beneficiary companies. The cases happened during 2009, 2010 and then 2011-2012, as reported by Business Standard.

The current disciplinary committee has two government nominees and three elected members.

The government is also planning hard action on shell companies such as freezing their bank accounts that were used to launder the money.

According to the latest Budget memorandum, Rs 10,000 fine would be levied on filing incorrect returns.
Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi uses a headphones to listen to a speech during the United Nations Vesak Day Conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka May 12, 2017. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte - RTS16AZW

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked all citizens to share their ideas for his annual Independence Day speech.

PM Modi shared a video on Twitter captioned, When I address the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort on 15th August, I am merely the medium. The voice is of 125 crore Indians.



When I address the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort on 15th August, I am merely the medium. The voice is of 125 crore Indians. pic.twitter.com/NYygL7Beet

 Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 31, 2017

Through the video, Prime Minister invited people to send their ideas for the speech using mygov.in or the Narendra Modi app. He ensured people that all suggestions will be read by him and that he will try to mention most of them in the speech, which he will deliver from the ramparts of the Red Fort in New Delhi.

In the one and half minute video, the Prime Minister said it is the voice and dreams of the entire country that he represents when he delivers the independence speech from the Red Fort every year.

He also said that he was pleased by the number of ideas suggested to him every year for the speech.

The Prime Minister plans to cut down the length of his speech to 40-50 minutes as people often complain of his lengthy speeches.

On his monthly podcast  Mann ki Baat  PM also encouraged citizens to celebrate August 15 as "Sankalp Divas" and take a pledge of doing something for the society and the government.
A woman holds a replica green card sign during a protest march to demand immigration reform in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, October 5, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTR3FMYJ

A top US lawmaker from the Republican Party is pushing a bill to remove arbitrary country quota for acquiring green cards and incorporate "merit" into consideration.

The lawmaker argues that the fixed percentage quota puts high-skilled immigrant workers coming from countries like highly-populated India or China at a disadvantage. India and China together contribute to 40 percent of world's total population.

The 'unfairness' of green card issuance

The green card grants a foreign national a legal permanent status for living and working in the US. But the current cap on green cards does not consider the size of the countrys while assigning the quota. Therefore, an immigrant from a country like India with 1.3 billion people, stands much less chance of getting a green card than a fairly smaller country like Greenland with a population of around 56,000.

"Right now, there's a mother in Greenland whose unborn child will be able to obtain permanent residence in America before someone from India who is already here and have been working here for years. That's absurd and it's wrong," said Republican Congressman Kevin Yoder in the US House of Representatives.

The current situation

The Congressman underlined that when same percentage of green card quotas are issued to each country without any regard for their size, it forces high-skilled immigrants from larger countries to wait as much as three times longer than others.

According to Yoder, the existing process has resulted into over seven lakh highly skilled Indian workers living in the US on temporary work visas.

Recent media reports highlighted that an Indian working in the US under H1B visa has to wait for a Green Card for 12 years on an average due to the backlogging caused by the arbitrary Green-card quota.

From 2004 to 2016, every fiscal the US gave less green cards to newer arrivals and more to people living in the country on temporary visa such as the H1B visa, as per a study published by US-based Pew Research Center.

Another Pew study of 2015 showed that about 36,318 Indians on temporary visas attuned their status to permanent residency while 27,798 Indians, who were new arrivals, received green cards.

The question of merit

The new law, which is aiming to reform existing legal immigration system, is expected to ease the resultant backlogging in the employment-based green card system.

The new law, called the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act, presently has 230 Congress members backing it as co-sponsors while more than 100 members from each of the political parties are in support of it.

Kevin Yoder has become the new chief co-sponsor of the act which, according to him, will turn the system on its head to come up with a more effective first come first serve merit based legal immigration system.

In his speech, Yoder pointed out how immigrant workers who contribute considerably to American economy and are currently raising their children as Americans, are denied many basic rights that come with the green card. It is also counter-productive for the US economy as these merited individuals cannot switch jobs or start their own business in the country.

With inputs from PTI
Representative image

The World Bank has assured its continued neutrality and impartiality in helping India and Pakistan find an "amicable way forward" during talks over issues related to two of India's hydroelectricity projects under Indus Waters Treaty.

Welcoming the participation of India and Pakistan in the talks to be held here tomorrow, World Bank's Vice President for South Asia region Annette Dixon said, "We are pleased both parties have confirmed their participation in the meeting hosted by the World Bank in Washington, DC."

"The World Bank welcomes the spirit of goodwill and cooperation," Dixon said in a letter to the Indian Ambassador to the US, Navtej Sarna.

In the letter dated July 25, the World Bank assured the the Indian envoy its "continued neutrality and impartiality in helping the parties to find and amicable way forward."

"We hope that all parties will come to the table prepared to find a way forward that safeguards the Treaty," it said.

Union Water Resources Secretary Amarjit Singh will lead the Indian delegation during the talks. The Indian team will comprise officials from ministries of external affairs and water resources.

The two countries last held talks over the two projects in March this year during the meeting of Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) in Pakistan.

Pakistan had approached the World Bank last year, raising concerns over the designs of the two hydroelectricity projects located in Jammu and Kashmir.

It demanded that the World Bank, which is the mediator between the two countries under the 57-year-old water distribution pact, set up a court of arbitration to look into its concerns.

On the other hand, India asked for appointments of a neutral expert to look into the issues, contending the concerns Pakistan raised were "technical" ones.

Following this, the international lender had in November 2016 initiated two simultaneous processes - for appointing neutral expert and establishment of court of arbitration - to look into technical differences between the two countries in connection with the project.

The simultaneous processes, however, were halted after India objected to it.

After that, representatives of the World Bank held talks with India and Pakistan to find a way out separately.
Moneycontrol News

The recent political storm that brew up in Bihar after the sudden resignation of chief minister Nitish Kumar last week, followed by a swearing-in the very next day has prompted the dairy brand Amul to come up with its own witty depiction of the situation.

The heightened political drama had left everyone baffled including Nitish's own allies the RJD and the Congress. Social media went abuzz as well, commenting on the absurdity of the situation and the quick developments that followed.

Nitish Kumar, who led the Mahagathbandhan through a difficult victory in the Bihar polls against the BJP, found himself in the nucleus of all political discussion and at the funny end of all memes.

Also Read: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar wins confidence motion with 131 MLA votes

Nitish Kumar, a previous supporter of the NDA, had withdrawn his support ever since PM Narendra Modi became the centre-point of BJP's politics.

An Amul advertisement, in its own characteristic way, conveyed the current and the past of BJP and JDU in one commendable tweet that has become popular online.

The cartoon, which depicts the Bihar CM and former ally Lalu Prasad Yadav visually annoyed with each other, shows Nitish holding his latest symbol of a lotus in one hand and Lalu holding a lantern in his hand.

Also Read: Decision taken in interest of Bihar: Nitish Kumar

It quotes the famous Hindi proverb of Jhat Mangni, Pat Byaah which satirically compares Bihar's political drama akin to a quick courtship followed by a hasty marriage.

This is not the first time that the dairy brand is commenting on the situation in Bihars political landscape.

Also Read: Nitish Kumar was under huge pressure from Lalu Yadav: Rajiv Pratap Rudy

Some other hilarious cartoons and memes circulated on the Internet included ones on the blooming bromance between Modi and Nitish, while several others quipped on the divorce of Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad.
New Delhi: A view of Parliament in New Delhi on Sunday, a day ahead of the monsoon session. PTI Photo by Kamal Singh (PTI7_16_2017_000213B)

The issue of recent incidents of cow vigilantism and mob violence against persons of minority communities is likely to come up for discussion in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

The lower house of Parliament had witnessed uproarious scenes on Thursday when Congress members demanded a discussion on the issue. Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge had accused the government of shying away from a debate.

Read More: http://www.news18.com/news/politics/lok-sabha-braces-for-debate-on-mob-lynchings-today-1477681.html
The Patna High Court on Monday dismissed a petition filed by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) challenging governor's decision to invite Nitish Kumar to form the government.

A bench of chief justice Rajendra Menon and A K Upadhyay called the petition frivolous and rejected petitioner's claim that the governor should have invited RJD to form the government being the single largest party.

Read more: http://www.news18.com/news/india/patna-high-court-rejects-rjd-petition-against-nitish-kumar-forming-govt-1478125.html
India's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav speaks during a meeting with his party workers in the eastern Indian city of Patna June 20, 2009. REUTERS/Krishna Murari Kishan (INDIA POLITICS) - RTR24UMC

The RJD said it will move court "within a week" against Bihar governor's invitation to JD(U)-NDA coalition to form government in the state, and hit out at Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for "robbery of the mandate".

"We will knock at the court's door, and go to the people's court ('janata ki adalat') as well to tell the masses about the kind of politics being played by the two parties -- JD(U) and BJP," RJD spokesperson Manoj Jha said.

The senior RJD leader also challenged Kumar to address a meeting in an area dominated by people from Dalit, Mahadalit and other backward castes, saying "He (Kumar) will face of the wrath of the people."

"Every mandate has a character and in Bihar it was the Dalits, the minorities and some progressive sections of the upper caste (which had voted for the previous government). Now, with JD(U) breaking the Grand Alliance, the character of that mandate has been dropped," he said.

"People of Bihar, including the youth, are feeling cheated about this robbery of the mandate they had given for an inclusive Bihar," Jha said on the on the sidelines of an event here.

The governor's decision to invite Kumar to form the government with the BJP, he said, was a "blatant violation" of the Supreme Court judgement in the Bommai case.

"According to the S R Bommai case judgement, it is mandatory to call the single largest party or electoral bloc first to explore the formation of a government," he said, adding, "we will move court soon, within a week's time".

He said the party will go to 'janata ki adalat' (people's court) and tell them about the "conspiracy" hatched by the BJP.

"If one looks at the political journey of Nitish Kumar, it is worse than a Machiavellian character. He spoke of 'Sangh-mukt' (RSS-free) India and now he made it a 'Sangh- yukt' (Sangh-driven) Bihar.

Attacking Kumar, he said, his political journey also tells us about morality in politics.

"We were wrong in believing every word spoken by Nitish, which was just rhetoric. For the last one year, he was playing according to the script of Nagpur, the RSS headquarters," he said.

"But history has a different view than contemporary tv anchors. History looks at in a nuanced manner. And, in the eyes of history, Kumar shall appear as somebody who destroyed, deceived the mandate which was won for building an inclusive Bihar," Jha said.

Nitish Kumar joined the very people and the philosophy, he pretended to be fighting, he said.
Vodafone

Telecom giant Vodafone India has rolled out a new offer targeting students with unlimited calls and 1GB 3G/4G data for 84 days.

The move comes fresh on the heels of Reliance Jio launching its latest market disruption weapon, the JioPhone.

The pack which will be known as 'Vodafone Campus Survival Kit' will be available initially in the Delhi-NCR region. The scheme is available exclusively for new connections and will cost Rs 445 at the first recharge. All the subsequent recharges will cost users a reduced amount of Rs 352.

As part of the kit the company will provide a messenger bag together with various discounts coupons which will include offers from Ola, Zomato among others.

Though available only in Delhi-NCR region, the company is looking forward to roll the scheme out across the nation, in a phased manner. However, the recharge value may differ from circle to circle.

At present, Vodafone provides with free calling of upto 1200 minutes a week and 300 minutes a day bundled with daily data usage of 1 GB for 84 days at a cost of Rs 349 per month in Delhi-NCR. However, the offer will be available for a limited period.

However, once the 349 offer comes to an end buyers of survival kit can opt to recharge with Rs 352 and continue benefitting with the data and calling benefits.

Vodafone had also launched a Rs 244 plan earlier this month for new connections which offered similar benefits.
Actor Kamal Haasan

When actor Kamal Haasan decided to make a shift from the 70 mm screen to television, little did he know it would cost him Rs 100 crore. Puthiya Tamizhagam, a Dalit party, has served a legal notice to Haasan and Star Vijay TV and has sought Rs 100 crore for allegedly hurting the sentiments of those living in slums and huts due to comments made by an actor on the reality show Bigg Boss.

What led to the whole issue?

During an episode of Big Boss Tamil, one of the participants Gayatri Raghuram, in a scathing attack on another contestant, compared the actors behaviour as that of one living in the slums.

Founder of the party Puthiya Tamizhagam (PT), Dr Krishnasamy said Raghurams remarks had hurt the sentiments of slum and hut dwellers. Haasan was dragged into the matter by PT accusing him of encouraging casteist behaviour on the show for TRPs.

Krishnasamy said he had already demanded that Haasan and the channel (Star Vijay TV) tender the apology and if they fail to do so within seven days of the receipt of the notice, he would approach High Court seeking Rs 100 crore as damages.

Why is Kamal Haasan in the eye of the storm?

A nationalistic Hindu party in Tamil Nadu, Hindu Makkal Katchi is of the opinion that a show like Big Boss should be banned, and filed a complaint against Haasan for hosting the show. According to the group, the actor has tarnished the reputation of Tamil Nadu and Tamil culture.

The group also claims the actor targets Hindu culture and doesnt comment about issues related to other religions.

Haasans Mahabharata comment in an episode of Big Boss has also upset many. He had said, "In Mahabharata, Panchali was used a pawn while the men gambled. She was used as a collateral. And India is a country that respects and honours a book that revolves around men using a woman to gamble away as if she was a mere object." A PIL was filed against the actor for alleged derogatory remarks on Mahabharata.

Haasans political debut

Whether actor Kamal Haasan will join politics or not is an essential question but his foray into television has increased his reach across small towns and villages. As per a Firstpost report, the TRPs (television rating point) of the show is up from 5.2 to 7.1. The show is also getting more traffic on social media as well.
Shahbaz Sharif, Chief Minister of Punjab Province and brother of Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, gestures after appearing before a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) in Islamabad, Pakistan June 17, 2017. REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood - RTS17GGL

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi will be sworn in as the interim Prime Minister of Pakistan in Islamabad on Tuesday.

Abbasi will replace Nawaz Sharif who was disqualified as the prime minister by Pakistan's Supreme Court after a corruption probe found irregularities in his and his familys known sources of income and wealth.

Abbasi will only hold the nation's top executive office only for a period of two months.

Also, Nawaz Sharif's has nominated Shahbaz Sharif, his younger brother and incumbent Chief Minister of Punjab province, to take over as the country's Prime Minister after two months.

Who is Shahbaz Sharif?

Born in Lahore in 1950, Shahbaz Sharif is the younger brother of Nawaz Sharif and the current Chief Minister of Punjab province. He is the son of Muhammad Sharif, founder of the Sharif Group and jointly owns Ittefaq Group.

Shahbaz joined the family business upon graduation from Government College University, Lahore and was elected president of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industries in 1985.

His first political stint was as the member of Punjab's legislative assembly between 1988 and 1990. He then became a member of the National Assembly between 1990 and 1993. On both these occasions, his terms ended prematurely after the assemblies were dissolved.

Shahbaz became the chief minister of Punjab for the first time in 1997, and held on to the post until he was removed during Pervez Musharraf's 1999 military coup.

The coup also toppled his elder brother Nawaz as the Prime Minister. Shahbaz was jailed thereafter and was later exiled to Saudi Arabia upon requests from the Saudi royal family.

In November 2007, the two brothers returned to Pakistan during the last days of Musharraf's regime.

Soon, he was acquitted in a 1998 extrajudicial killings case, allowing him to become the chief minister again.

In February 2009, a three-member bench of the Supreme Court disqualified him from holding any office of power. But, within two months, a five-member bench of the top court restored his position.

In 2013, he retained power in his home state to become the chief minister for the fifth time.

Why wait for two months?

Unlike in India, where an individual can be sworn in as Prime Minister and then get elected within six months, election rules in Pakistan dictate that an individual first needs to get himself elected to the National Assembly, and only then can he become the Prime Minister.

Shahbaz will be contesting by-election from the constituency that his brother will have to vacate.

Pakistan's military and the civilian governments have always been at war with each other. The military will hence try to capitalise on the power vacuum left by Nawaz Sharif's exit.

Having turned down Musharraf's offer the country's top office shortly after the Kargil War in 1999, Sharif is seen as a person loyal towards the party and his elder brother. He enjoys full support and backing of Nawaz Sharif.

The 65-year-old has vast experience in politics and administration. However, the uncertain political environment that Nawaz Sharif's disqualification has left, coupled with worsening relations with United States, India and an ailing economy will only make his job difficult.
Brazil's President Michel Temer (clockwise from bottom left), India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russia's President Vladimir Putin, China's President Xi Jinping and South Africa's President Jacob Zuma attend a BRICS leaders' meeting as he takes part in the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany July 7, 2017 Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. EDITORIAL USE ONLY. - RTX3AGB3

Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman arrived in Shanghai today to attend the two-day BRICS trade Ministers meeting starting tomorrow during which she is expected to raise India's concerns over growing trade deficit with China.

The seventh meeting of the Brazil, Russia, India, China South Africa (BRICS) will discuss expanding e-commerce cooperation in an upcoming annual meeting, China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said.

E-commerce cooperation, such as in the areas of logistics and payments, is developing fast among the five countries, with many of their products gaining traction in the Chinese market, Zhang Shaogang, a director with the Department of International Trade and Economic Affairs with the MOC said.

Economic and technological cooperation will be included on the agenda for the first time in the trade ministers meeting's history to improve the bloc's capabilities in service trade, e-commerce and other fields, he said.

On the bilateral front, Sitharaman is expected to discuss with her Chinese counterpart the trade deficit in India-China bilateral trade which now crossed over USD 50 billion in little over USD 70 billion over all trade between the two countries.

Also ahead of the meeting, the MOC said India should avoid abusing trade remedy measures and called for settling trade disputes through consultation.

Reacting to India's move to launch an anti-dumping investigation over photovoltaic cells and units imported from the China, Taiwan, and Malaysia, Wang Hejun, head of the MOC's trade remedy and investigation bureau said China is paying close attention to the investigation and hopes India will conduct it in a prudent manner and as per relevant rules.

Wang said adopting restrictive measures for the trade of photovoltaic products would not only harm photovoltaic sector development in India but also dampen the sector's long-term development worldwide as well as economic and trade cooperation between China and India.

Indian and Chinese officials are taking part in a host BRICS meetings ahead of September summit of the group scheduled to be held next month in China's Xiamen city.
Did you miss out on the Pop Quiz this week? It's time to catch up and get ready for next week!
Teresa Whiteside, of Morganton, now has a new bathroom floor and her front yard has been landscaped all thanks to students who want to make a difference in the world.

She is not the only one, though, who has received help and been uplifted at the same time.

Hundreds of students from across the United States recently made their way to Burke County to help families in need through an international program called World Changers.

Since 1990, the program has seen approximately 300,000 participants and covers cities in various regions from the west to east coasts of the United States and Puerto Rico, said Mike Chandler, project coordinator and senior pastor at Summit Community Church in Morganton.

The purpose is to get students on a mission and the purpose of the mission is they can come and do construction projects to help be a pathway to share the gospel, pray with families and meet a need spiritual and physically at the same time, he said.

Recently , 228 students arrived at Patton High School where they were lodging for the week and were divided into 21 different crews and sent to their work sites, the information said.

The construction projects vary from building handicapped ramps and decks, painting, landscaping and redoing bathroom floors , to name a few.

Everyone that we do projects for are very need-based, he said. It is not just come help somebody to do something on their house  it is very need-based.

When students arrive at their work sites, they take time to do a prayer walk through the neighborhood or the property that they are on.

On the first day , we pray with the homeowners and then , just this morning , we walked down the street and whoever was outside we stopped them and asked if there was anything we could pray with them about and we prayed with them, said Daniella Bernadel, a participant in World Changers.

Local churches in the community provide the meals for students when they are working and , when the project is complete , the churches remain in contact with the families to see how else they can be served, Chandler said.

I think sometime the Body of Christ has gotten a bad reputation and we want to make sure to let people know we want to restore that reputation, he said. We are genuine and we do care and this is why we do what we do  to share the gospel.

The week-long program is not only to share the gospel with those who they come into contact with, but also to minister to the needs of the students.

On a pure physical level, many students in todays world do not get a chance to be hands - on in this kind of environment with these tools and the wood and serving in this capacity, Chandler said. They are away from home and in a neutral environment, so it give s them a perspective to break free from what they are used to in order to be very open to what God is telling them.

World Changers is a way for students to serve, but also a way for God to work in their lives, he said.

Emily Crosswhite, 13, of Virginia , said the project is a good way to serve God with friends.

Seeing the facial expressions of the people that they meet is Crosswhites favorite part of the projects.

They are excited and it is really fun to see that, she said.

Bernadel said she felt called to be a part of the mission in Morganton.

I just wanted to go out and serve the community and show them that God loves them and that we are here to love on them as well, Bernadel said.

At one of the worksites in Morganton, Whiteside was all smiles as she sat in her living room while students and their supervisors ripped up her bathroom floor that had seven-layers of flooring.

At first, she did not have high hopes of her home being chosen because she knew there were others that probably had bigger needs than her.

When she found out the news , she called her sister Mercedes immediately.

They called me and they are coming next week, Whiteside told her. She was ecstatic (for me).

She says the effort the students are putting forward is more than she expected means the world to her.

You dont know how much I have wanted that bathroom fixed, she said. I am just so happy I cannot even find the word.

Each evening, all the crews come back together at the high school to have a worship service called The Gathering and individual church times.

As of the afternoon of July 19, six students gave their lives to Christ, Chandler

said.

There is life change that takes place in them as they seek to change somebody elses life, Chandler said.

Chandler and many others involved with World Changers prayed about applying for Morganton to be a host site for the program and felt like there was a need in the community. Last year was the first year that the program came to Morganton and many hope it is not the last.

The program in an initiative of LifeWay Christian Resources and is in its 27th summer of partnering with cities, according to information from World Changers.

We put in an application to LifeWay and the application was accepted, he said.

World Changers plans on being back to Morganton next summer as well.

Those who are interested in applying for the opportunity of World Changers coming to their home, visit www.foothillsserviceproject.org.

Foothills Service Project completes projects like this year-round in Burke and surrounding counties to help ensure that homes are dry, safe and warm, according to the website.

The projects were funded by Foothills Service Project and Catawba River Baptist Association.

We hope that we can make a lasting impression here that we can follow up with local churches and make a further impact, he said.

For more information about World Changers, visit www.lifeway.com/worldchangers.

Staff Writer Jonelle Bobak can be reached at jbobak@morganton.com or 828-432-8907.
Investors in the UK poured 6.6 billion into BlackRock funds in the first six months of the year, making it the most popular asset manager of 2017. In April, the fund house saw the largest monthly inflows in five years with 2.3 billion in a single month, according to Morningstar Direct data.

Data also revealed that M&G is the second most popular fund house of the year with 5.9 billion of inflows. It was followed by Royal London and Aviva, which recorded inflows of 2.2 billion and 1.7 billion respectively.

At the bottom of the pile, investors pulled 2.5 billion out of Standard Life and 1.7 billion out of Aberdeen Asset Management, making them the least popular fund houses of the year.

Standard Life and Aberdeen announced a merger in March 6 this year, which will make it the largest asset manager in the UK with about $660 billion of assets when the merger is completed.

Demand for Index Funds Drives Inflows

The popularity of passive funds continues to rise  and as one of the worlds largest provider of trackers and ETFs, BlackRock is a beneficiary.

Looking at fund houses with the most inflows in the year, three out of top six fund houses businesses are dominated by index fund products: BlackRock, Vanguard and Legal & General.

As the most popular provider, BlackRocks inflows were driven by new money its index funds.

The most popular fund was the Bronze Rated iShares Corporate Bond Index , with inflows of 1.5 billion in the first six months of the year. It is followed by iShares Index Linked Gilt Index with 1.3 billion inflows.

Not all BlackRocks funds proved popular though  with money flowing out of its actively managed funds, led by BlackRock Dynamic Diversified Growth and BlackRock Dynamic Return Strategies.

BlackRock cut more than 30 people from its active equities group in March this year, including portfolio managers. BlackRock is the world largest asset manager in the world with more than $5 trillion in assets under management.

Vanguard and Legal & General recorded 1.7 billion and 1.6 billion inflows respectively.

Standard Life GARS Disappoints

Standard Life had seen consecutive outflows since October last year, while investors have been pulling money out of Aberdeen since October 2014.

At the time of the merger, Randal Goldsmith, fund analyst with Morningstar, cautioned investors against making any pre-emptive moves until there was greater clarity around the merger and the impact it might have on its underlying investment teams and product ranges.

Given Aberdeens strength in emerging market equities and Standard Lifes more diversified stable of products dominated by their multi-asset range, we feel the merger of the two will be complementary  and may not lead to much rationalisation of their offerings, said Goldsmith.

Within Standard Life, Morningstar data showed that Standard Life Investments Global Absolute Return Strategies, which is Bronze Rated by Morningstar analysts, took the worst hit in terms of fund flows. The fund recorded 2.6 billion outflows in 2017, extending its monthly outflow streak since September last year  totalling a whopping 3.6 billion.

Since the global financial crisis the success of the Global Absolute Returns Strategies fund and the resulting strong asset growth has led it to dominate other investment offerings in Standard Lifes line-up, said Goldsmith.

However, Standard Life saw significant outflows in 2016 driven by disappointing results from their Global Absolute Returns Strategies funds offerings, Goldsmith added.

GARS three-year return to the end of March 2017 was below its Libor +5% gross target, mainly because of disappointing performance in 2016 when it lost 1.8%. The largest individual losing position in 2016 was short US duration, said Goldsmith.

M&G Bounces Back After 2 Years of Outflows

After 20 months of outflows since March 2015, M&G finally regained investors confidence, recording 5.9 billion of inflows year to date.

The Silver Rated M&G Optimal Income fund was the most popular fund with 2.5 billion inflows in the first half of the year. This is followed by M&G Global Floating Rate High Yield and M&G Dynamic Allocation, which have 2.2 billion and 1.3 billion inflows respectively.

Ashis Dash, associated director of fixed income strategies at Morningstar said M&G Optimal Income fund manager Richard Woolnoughs expertise in macroeconomic analysis and ability to allocate across the fixed-income universe underpin the fund's unconstrained approach.

The fund comfortably outperformed its GBP Cautious Allocation Morningstar Category since its inception in December 2006 through June 2017, both on an absolute and risk-adjusted basis, said Dash. However, it has lagged the pack in more recent years, with the funds aggressive short-duration stance holding back returns since 2014.

Dash believes this was a key driver behind the significant outflows from the fund, with its assets dropped from a peak 25 billion in early 2015 to 14.5 billion in May 2016.

However, the funds performance picked up in late 2016, benefitting from a combination of its lower duration and a timely addition to high yield and financials. It has also seen strong inflows since, taking fund assets to 19.2 billion as at June 2017, said Dash.
New Ratings

Jeffrey Schumacher

Fidelity Global Dividend is managed by Dan Roberts, who has 15 years of experience managing equity income mandates and has run this fund since its inception in 2012. Idea generation is primarily done by Roberts, leveraging on the broader resources available.

The funds process looks well-structured and is based on a sound philosophy focused on generating a dividend-based total return. Roberts prefers quality companies with a high level of dividend sustainability that can grow their dividends. He applies a long-term focus, as evidenced by the funds low turnover rate.

The portfolio is managed with conviction and well-balanced in terms of styles, sectors, and regions, as well as from a dividend perspective. Its track record is solid, beating both the global equity income Morningstar Category average and the MSCI World High Dividend Yield Index on a risk-adjusted basis. Security selection is key and the fund has added value for investors in downturns.

Downgrades

Randal Goldsmith

While we like the management team, we consider that it is dependent on broader resources to make this multi-strategy approach work. However, as part of our qualitative assessment our opinion is that the interaction across different teams is yet to be fully embedded.

Randal Goldsmith

These funds were previously rated Bronze, and the ratings were put Under Review following the announcement that David Griffiths will be leaving Kames. Griffiths had over 20 years investment experience, and had managed the Kames UK Equity Absolute Return strategy with David Pringle from its inception in February 2010.

Pringle remains at the firm, and continues to be supported by the rest of Kames UK equities team including Malcolm McPartlin, who has been co-manager since April 2015. However, the loss of Griffiths UK equity absolute return experience, and his input into the teams research, which included the banks, lowers our conviction at these funds.
Maintaining independence and editorial freedom is essential to our mission of empowering investor success. We provide a platform for our authors to report on investments fairly, accurately, and from the investors point of view. We also respect individual opinionsthey represent the unvarnished thinking of our people and exacting analysis of our research processes. Our authors can publish views that we may or may not agree with, but they show their work, distinguish facts from opinions, and make sure their analysis is clear and in no way misleading or deceptive.

To further protect the integrity of our editorial content, we keep a strict separation between our sales teams and authors to remove any pressure or influence on our analyses and research.

Read our editorial policy to learn more about our process.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivers a speech after overseeing a grand military parade to mark the 90th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) at the Zhurihe training base in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, July 30, 2017. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang)

ZHURIHE, Inner Mongolia, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of soldiers stormed out of 18 helicopters landing on a sandy patch in the heart of the vast Inner Mongolian prairie.

They joined thousands of other camouflaged soldiers in a massive miltary parade as tanks and missile launchers rumbled past. Fighter jets streaked across the clear blue sky, shooting flares.

President Xi Jinping reviewed the armed forces on Sunday morning as part of the commemorations to mark the 90th founding anniversary of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), which falls on Aug. 1.

More than 12,000 service personnel from the army, navy, air force, armed police as well as the newly formed rocket force and strategic support troops, took part in the parade at Zhurihe military training base.

China needs to build strong armed forces more than any other time in history as the Chinese nation is closer to the goal of great rejuvenation than ever, Xi said, delivering a speech after overseeing the parade.

"The PLA has the confidence and capability to defeat all invading enemies and safeguard China's national sovereignty, security and development interests," said Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission.

Xi, who was endorsed as the core of the CPC Central Committee in 2016, called on the PLA to stay loyal to the Party, boost combat capability and continue to serve the people.

Observers said the parade had more of a combat feel as soldiers appeared as if they were gripped by the heat of battle.

"Here, the soldiers have the stares that kill," said Wang Ruicheng, deputy head of the general office of the parade headquarters.

Late leaders Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping also inspected troops in the field at key moments in history.

It is the first time for Xi to oversee such a large parade at a military base, and the first time for China to commemorate Army Day with a military parade since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

SHOW OF STRENGTH

Sunday's commemoration began with a flag-raising ceremony at around 9 a.m.

Xi was greeted by Han Weiguo, commander-in-chief of the parade and commander of the Central Theater Command.

"Comrade chairman, the troops are ready. Please review," Han said.

"Proceed!" Xi replied.

Camouflage-clad Xi mounted an open-top jeep that drove along an airstrip.

"Salute to you, comrades," Xi called out to the soldiers.

"Hail to you, chairman," they replied.

Xi alternated the greeting with "Comrades, thanks for your hard work," to which soldiers replied "Serve the people."

"Follow the Party. Fight to win. Forge exemplary conduct," servicemen and women exclaimed to Xi in unison.

Forty-one attack helicopters flew in formations spelling Chinese characters "Ba Yi" -- or Aug. 1 -- and the number 90.

The parade did not feature goose-stepping in a march-past. Instead, the officers and soldiers rode in military vehicles that rumbled past the rostrum.

The gleaming armament showed how far the PLA has come since it was a small force with poor weaponry at the Nanchang Uprising in 1927.

Today, the PLA commands about 2 million service personnel, one of the world's largest military forces.

Xi said history had proved that the PLA was a heroic force that had followed the Party's command, served the country with loyalty, and fought for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

On Sunday, cutting-edge weapons like J-20 stealth aircraft, 8X8 all-terrain vehicles, radar-and-communication jamming drones and solid-fuel intercontinental missiles were among about 600 pieces of military hardware on show.

About half had never been paraded. New faces included female marines and an electronic warfare force under the new strategic support force.

The public watched the procession from state media's live broadcast. The parade trended on social media.

"I am so moved. Go PLA. Go China," said a netizen. "It is you who guarantee our happy life. Salute to you, PLA soldiers."

XI'S REFORM

The parade at Zhurihe, which means "heart" in Mongolian, captured the essence of fundamental changes taking place in China's armed forces with sweeping reform measures unleashed in recent years.

In just two years, the top bureaucracy was streamlined, military services balanced, the joint command system reshaped, equipment upgraded and border patrols increased.

Meanwhile, China's second aircraft carrier was launched; more warships were commissioned; and new fighter jets, drones, and missiles were unveiled.

"The size of the ground force has been greatly reduced to account for less than half of the armed forces," said General Li Zuocheng, commander of the PLA Army. "The army is getting fit as it turns modern and strong."

The Zhurihe base has also felt the pulse of Xi's reform as the largest military training ground in Asia got busy.

A lot more live-fire drills were conducted in the past few years. The country's first professional opposing forces brigade was created here, opening a new age in PLA training.

Xi on Sunday again urged the PLA to focus on war preparedness to forge an elite and powerful force that is always "ready for the fight, capable of combat and sure to win."

COMMITMENT TO PEACE

The troops frequenting the Inner Mongolian prairie today are different from the cavalry armies standing on the same turf commanded by Genghis Khan over 800 years ago.

China's modern armed forces remain committed to peace.

Chinese servicemen are actively involved in international peace-keeping missions. The country has sent about 35,000 military personnel, the most among permanent members of the UN Security Council, to at least 24 UN peace-keeping missions.

Xi said that enjoying peace is a bliss for the people, while protecting peace is the responsibility of the people's army.

"The world is not all at peace, and peace must be safeguarded," Xi said.
A new report from HSBC Bank found that face-to-face transactions among mortgage brokers and real estate agents are gradually waning in popularity, amid more and deals being made via online channels and the applications that facilitate these.Fully 74 per cent of Canadians surveyed in the study have searched for financing options online, and 77 per cent said that they used online tools to find mortgage products that they can afford. Meanwhile, 27 per cent of the respondents said that dealing with other people is their biggest pet peeve when buying a home, with price negotiations (22 per cent) and legal work (20 per cent) not far behind.This is despite Canada somewhat lagging in terms of giving opportunities for consumers to complete transactions online, according to RateSpy.com founder Rob McLister.The trend is starting to pick up steam but we are nowhere near the point where the average (person getting a mortgage) is going to close a mortgage online, McLister told the Financial Post. It is changing. You have banks promoting an end-to-end no-human-being mortgage process. You can apply online, upload your documents. You can do everything but sign the paperwork with a lawyer.The HSBC study further found that 29 per cent of Canadians deal with agents completely or mostly online, a proportion rapidly catching up with the 39 per cent of respondents dealing with agents completely or mostly offline. 32 per cent used a combination of face-to-face meetings and online transactions.UK-based tech expert James Dearsley, who was quoted in the HSBC report, stated that physical visits are slowly but surely becoming a thing of the past.Virtual reality will allow home buyers to live in a virtual version of a home for several days to truly try before they buy, Dearsley said, adding that artificial agents enabling smoother and easier transactions represent a very real possibility for the industry.The traditional role of the [agent] is ripe for reinvention, as we are already seeing through the rise of online do-it-yourself platforms that allow homeowners to market their own properties and negotiate directly with sellers, he explained. All houses may be sold this way in the future, with property websites offering end-to-end marketing, search, financing, negotiation, transaction and conveyancing services that significantly reduce the time and hassle for homebuyers.
The nations young professionals and entrepreneurs are crucial to the continuous evolution of the Canadian fiscal system, according to Royal Bank of Canada CEO David McKay.In a Winnipeg meeting with RBC employees and clients last week, McKay stressed the need for the financial sector to incorporate state-of-the-art technology into all aspects of its process so that it can survive and thrive in the Information Age.McKay stated that tech-savvy millennials hold the key to ensuring that disruptive innovation works in Canadas largest bank, which is currently balancing $1 trillion in assets.Youth today have never been more prepared to solve these challenges, to transform the economy," McKay said, as quoted by the Winnipeg Free Press. We need to leverage that incredible resource. We saw first-hand what they can do.This is not just about the RBC Its about challenging all private and public sector companies and not-for-profit organizations, he added. Its about stability of the future workforce.McKay stated that one of the approaches that RBC will be trying is to organize a team of 30 PhDs that will be given 3 years to fundamentally disrupt the way we do banking. The team would be working separately from the banks mortgage and credit card departments, in a set-up that the CEO said would encourage truly significant steps forward as innovations would be developed in remote labs away from the strong core of ecosystem.They can be free to innovate and tackle longer timeline challenges without the pressure of quarterly results, McKay explained. It is mission-critical. The way we used to work is just not sustainable. The world is changing. We have to find new ways of building at RBC.
Mount Pleasant, SC (29464)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun. High 76F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Low 56F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.
Helping the Permian Basin reach its potential as a region and forming a spirit of cooperation is the aim of a group of about 25 to 30 people from Odessa and Midland.

The genesis of the group was when Patrick Payton, senior pastor of Stonegate Fellowship, read the book If You Can Keep It, by Eric Metaxas. Payton said the book talks about the golden triangle of faith, virtue and freedom.

Payton said he sent out emails to friends in Odessa and Midland and offered to buy them a cheap lunch. He asked them to buy the book and gave them a couple of months to read it.

Then we sat down and I said I dont know what I want to do, or what we should do but my idea is maybe we could bring Eric Metaxas in and we could maybe start changing the conversation, and that started it, Payton said.

The idea, to steal a line from businessman Collin Sewell is lets grow up into who we are.

If were the worlds best in one of the most important places in the world for oil and gas, lets be as great on top of the ground as we are at getting stuff from underneath the ground, Payton said. That takes a mindset shift in the way we perceive ourselves and think about ourselves.

It seemed to resonate with our group, and so we said all right its not a Democrat thing; its not a Republican thing. Its ... lets come together and be great together, Payton said.

The plan is to have Metaxas speak Nov. 16 at the Wagner Noel Performing Arts Center, 1310 N. Farm-to-Market Road 1788. The time has not yet been set.

Payton said the lecture is fully funded and John Ben Shepperd Public Leadership Institute Executive Director Robert Brescia and Midland College President Steve Thomas are joining forces on the event.

Payton said Sewell and Warren Cat have been big supporters and a number of people who wanted to remain anonymous have helped financially.

I get the sense that there could be one more thing to help kick that door open, Payton said.

In the last five or 10 years, Payton said he hasnt seen the antagonism between Odessa and Midland that there once was. He said now it seems to be more of a tradition than a visceral reaction.

Occasionally Ive had individuals say to me, I dont know if those two (UTPB and Midland College) will come together, and everybodys been proven wrong. Theyve just been proven wrong. Theres not been one bit of pushback. ... It just seems like the two regions are beginning to see were the Permian Basin. We might be two independent cities, but were the Permian Basin, Payton said.

He said that industry has helped bring the two municipalities together.

If our oil and gas industry hadnt turned the corner with this historic way of fracking, Im not sure any of us would still be here. Im not sure any of this growth would have happened thats happened. I know it wouldnt have. The industry has changed and now the region has changed, Payton said.

Young families moving to the area also have changed the atmosphere. People used to have a mantra that they had to live in West Texas for work, but if the area can reach its potential in education, health care and other things that make life worthwhile, it should drive home that people dont have to travel to the Metroplex, Houston or San Antonio, he said.

Everything you need for a great life is here, Payton said.

As for how this cooperation might look in the future, Payton said in an email that hes highly optimistic that the cooperation between Odessa and Midland leadership will continue and will flourish moving forward.

Once the old paradigm has been challenged and shattered, there is nothing that should stand in the way of these two great cities coming together often, Payton wrote.

Brescia said Payton approached him early in the year about the idea that the communities would be more powerful united than separate.

Because of the JBS lecture series, Brescia said Payton felt he could add value to the project.

Brescia said Metaxas has written numerous books in which the central themes are inclusion, Americanism and spirituality, to some degree.

The spiritual nature of who we are as human beings is not to be denied, he said. I wrote a little bit about that in my latest book Destination Greatness: Creating a New Americanism. Said it was part of who we are as human beings.

The lecture itself is serving as a very visible public kick-off, or start, to a social movement. The social movement, for me anyway, can be described as cities (that) have a history together and apart coming to the realization that we are growing toward each other, Brescia said.

Leaders in both communities should adopt a theme of togetherness. He said he thinks Payton is a great leader who has already accomplished a lot from a practical point of view.

He had this idea and many of us who feel the same way are jumping on board, Brescia said. So far, a lot of the conversation is about upcoming event in November. I trust that as we approach it, were going to have a situation where the conversation shifts to what do we do after that; how will we make this movement visible to all; and how will we enlist people into three of those perspectives is not feasible.

Brescia said its a good idea to come together because the alternative is not politically, social or economically feasible.

We would be economically stronger if people would view us as one area, and politically there needs to be utmost cooperation between elected representatives from both areas, Brescia said.

Thomas said if key people are in the room the conversation will continue around the growth of the area and what it means for Odessa and Midland being more cooperative and supportive in the future.

He said this is the first time a coalition of Odessans and Midlanders have come together to offer financial support to bring in speakers that will appeal to both communities.

Hes (Payton) been exciting to work with because he has big dreams about what Midland and Odessa can be, Thomas said. Its good to come together to talk about mutual challenges, issues and good practices that seem to be working. Its just healthy to be in the same room talking to people you normally dont talk to. I appreciate Patricks office to bring us together. Midland College is supportive of UTPB and vice versa, Thomas said.

----

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency
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Doreen: Midlands election night winners had something in common If you look at the winners of the five city and Midland ISD races, what was the common denominator?

HS FOOTBALL: Playoff roundup from Nov. 11 Pebble Hills knocked off Permian, while Forsan beat a former district foe to move on.
Yandex.Metrica Debuts Web Search and Browser Monitor

Moscow-based web analytics platform Yandex.Metrica has launched a tool called Yandaex.Radar, which monitors search traffic and browser usage.



Yandex.Metrica, which is part of Russian ISP giant Yandex, has developed a tool to help publishers understand their online audiences, by monitoring web site traffic, analysing web site visitor behaviour, and measuring advertising performance. The system is installed on more than eight million web sites, and the new Yandex.Radar solution uses the resulting anonymized data to provide advertisers, webmasters, analysts and other Internet marketing professionals with current and historical data for search and browser usage share for Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Turkey. The data can be broken down by type of operating system or device.



Victor Tarnavsky (pictured), Head of Yandex.Metrica, comments: 'Our goal is to provide accurate data for search and browser shares. Over time, we hope to further broaden the scope and geographic coverage of Yandex.Radar'.



Web site: www.metrica.yandex.com .




(File photo)

Chinese travelers are spending 28 percent of their income on average on international travel, with the millennials (those born in the 1990s) being the biggest spenders, allocating 35 percent of their income to travel, according to an industry survey.

The sixth annual Chinese International Travel Monitor report by Hotels.com said Chinese travelers of all age groups travel internationally more often and for longer, with the number of trips and number of days per trip increasing in the past year from three to four and from five to seven days, respectively.

Chinese tourists are also visiting multiple cities per trip, with over 80 percent saying they would not just stay in a single city, said the report.

The research combines data from more than 3,000 Chinese international travelers and more than 3,800 accommodation partners of Hotels.com.

This "more generation" is providing huge economic benefits to global economies. China's 122 million outbound tourists in 2016 were 4 percent more than in 2015, according to the report.

Despite China's slower economic growth rate, this year's report found spending on international travel increased across all age groups. Chinese travelers spent $3,600 on average in the last 12 months, more than a quarter of their income, and up from 24 percent of the previous year.

Jessica Chuang, regional marketing director of Hotels.com brand for Greater China, Southeast Asia and India, said the potential for growth in both the number of Chinese travelers and their spending power is enormous.

"Our research has identified that China outbound tourism offers huge economic benefits to many countries across the globe. It's therefore vital that hotels cater to Chinese travelers and develop innovative hotel services that tap into their enormous spending power."

Chinese travelers are expacted to spend an average 10 percent more on international travel over the next 12 months, with the millennials looking to increase their spend the most, with around two-thirds of the post-'80s and post-'90s consumers saying they expect to spend more.

The average amount spent per day has also increased by 8 percent from 2016, with dining, sightseeing, rest and relaxation activities proving most popular.

But shopping dropped in popularity. In 2016, 68 percent of travelers expressed an interest in shopping. That figure dropped to 33 percent this year so far.

The Asia-Pacific regions are still the most popular destinations82 percent of travelers have visited them in the past 12 months, the report said. It also said long-haul trips to Europe and the US have increased in popularity.

In the past 12 months, the number of Chinese travelers to Europe increased by 25 percent and those to the US by 11 percent. These destinations were particularly popular with the post-'80s travelers, with 42 percent visiting Europe and 29 percent visiting the US in the past 12 months.

Looking ahead, Chinese travelers show a desire to travel even further than before, with countries such as France, the US, Canada and Germany leaping in popularity, in comparison to their rankings in 2016.

Despite not making the top 10, Latin America stood out as an appealing destination, with research showing that the Chinese visiting Latin America tend to travel and spend morewith an average of nine international trips per year to the region, compared to over four overall, and have a higher average spend of $5,600 in the region compared to $3,600 overall.
(File photo)

BEIJING, July 30 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese insurance regulator has vowed to strengthen supervision to fend off financial risk and propel reform in the sector.

"The whole sector will put risk control in a more important position," Chen Wenhui, vice chairman of China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), said when addressing a two-day internal meeting ending Saturday.

"Actions will be taken to crack down on serious violations, dissolve hidden risk points and improve the long-term mechanism to hold the bottom line of no systemic risks," Chen said.

The CIRC deputy head stressed the insurance should be a "dashpot" for the economy and a stabilizer for society, instead of a source of risk.

His words came as a further response to big insurers that have grabbed headlines by using leveraged money to buy in shares in listed companies in seek of short-term profits or controlling stakes, triggering sharp volatility and market concerns late last year.

The insurance regulator has moved in to restrain such deals with an array of measures rolled out.

Highlighting stability and financial security, Chen said insurance would in no way become financing and investment tools of big shareholders and pledged policies to ensure healthy development of the sector with improved competitiveness and more opening up.

The regulator will strengthen the sector's role in supporting the real economy, he said.

Thanks to continued financial reforms and opening up, China's insurance saw booming growth in the past years. Insurance premium income jumped 27.5 percent year on year to 3.1 trillion yuan (about 460 billion U.S. dollars) in 2016.
'The big truck is still on ...
(File photo)

BEIJING, July 30 (Xinhua) -- China allocated 1.63 billion yuan (242.3 million U.S. dollars) of financial aid to encourage university students to join the army in 2016, according to the Ministry of Education (MOE) Sunday.

A total of 124,100 university students ranging from undergraduates, postgraduates to doctoral students received funding last year for enlistment in the armed forces, while 8,117 ex-servicemen were also subsidized with 44.6 million yuan of funding to pursue their higher education degrees.

China has formed a comprehensive education aid system to encourage more university students to join the army, and those veterans can also be financially supported if they are willing to go to college, the MOE said.

The annual subsidy for each undergraduate will not exceed 8,000 yuan, and the sum for masters or doctoral students can reach up to 12,000 per capita each year, said the MOE.

The students' university name roll will be maintained during the period of enlistment, and they can resume their study after leaving the army, according to the MOE.
Shahbaz Sharif

Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), the ruling party in Pakistan has nominated Shahbaz Sharif as new Prime Minister of the country. He will replace his brother Nawaz Sharif who stepped down from the portfolio of prime minister on Friday after he was disqualified by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in corruption case.

The Supreme Court ruled that Nawaz Sharif had been dishonest to the parliament and the courts for not disclosing his employment in the Dubai-Based company in his 2013 nomination papers, and thus, could not be deemed fit for the prime minister office.

Ruling PML-N leaders, in a parliamentary committee meeting headed by ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, decided that Nawaz's younger brother, Shahbaz Sharif, should take over as the leader of the house in parliament.

Additionally, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who was federal minister for petroleum and natural resources, will take over as interim prime minister on Monday till the time Shahbaz is elected to parliament, and then to the prime ministers office.

Shahbaz Sharif, who is currently holding the portfolio of chief minister of Punjab province, will resign and will contest the election from the seat vacated after the disqualification of his brother and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

During his four year tenure, ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif further strengthened Pakistans relationships with China. China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project of the Belt and Road Initiative, was also initiated during his tenure.

Like Nawaz Sarif, his brother Shahbaz Sharif has also good relationships with China. As chief minister of Punjab Province, he visited China several time during last few years and also invited Chinese companies for investing in Pakistan. He also participated in the Belt and Road forum for international cooperation in Beijing in May this year. During his tenure, several Chinese companies have invested in Punjab province. Few days ago Punjab government also invited Chinese companies for investment in solid waste management sector in the province.

Political experts in Pakistan say that because of Shahbaz Sharif becoming new prime minister of the country, work on CPEC will continue at the current pace. Shahbaz Sharif has very friendly attitude towards China and the projects being carried out in Pakistan under CPEC will not be effected because of political change in the country.

The younger Sharif spoke highly of the Pakistan-China friendship and the China-initiated Belt and Road Initiative in an Op-Ed titled "Towards a Stable Global Order" for People's Daily Online. In a separeate piece for People's Daily, Sharif called China's achievements under the leadership of CPC a miracle.
GET OUR APP Our Spectrum News app is the most convenient way to get the stories that matter to you. Download it here.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his decisions that the U.S. needs to remove 755 diplomats from the nation.

The Russian Foreign Ministry declared that, as of Sept. 1, the U.S. Embassy and consular personnel will be capped at 455, the number that Russia has in the United States. Putin said it means that the U.S. will have to cut 755 of its staff, calling the blow painful. Russia also announced the closure of a U.S. recreational compound and warehouse facilities.



The decision comes as the U.S. House of Representatives votes to pass a bill giving Congress the power to block any effort to weaken sanctions on Russia.

Online Vice President Mike Pence, who is currently in Northeastern Europe, took to Twitter about the announcement:





Recent diplomatic action taken by Moscow will not deter commitment of U.S to our security, our allies, & freedom-loving nations #VPinEurope pic.twitter.com/7o3vnKkJBA  Vice President Pence (@VP) July 31, 2017

Putin also spoke out on Russian state television.

"I thought it was time for us to show that we will not leave this without an answer. As for other possible measures, or whether it is a lot or not, this is quite sensible from the point of view of the work of the diplomatic department, because a thousand or so employees  diplomats and technical workers have worked, and still work in Russia, 755 will have to stop their activities in the Russian Federation."

The Russian Foreign Ministry has announced it will seize two U.S. Diplomatic Properties effective Tuesday, Aug. 1.

Putins announcement Sunday came three days after the U.S. Congress approved sanctions against Russia.

Russians Foreign Ministry on Friday ordered a reduction by Sept. 1 in U.S. diplomatic personnel in Russia to 455 people in response to a new package of American sanctions. The White House says President Donald Trump will sign those sanctions into law. The legislation bars the president from easing or waiving the penalties on Russia unless Congress agrees.

The sanctions, which also target Iran and North Korea, seek to punish Moscow for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and for its military aggression in Ukraine and Syria.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
KERRVILLE  While the popularity of farmers markets has grown, there is still a lot of misunderstanding about what certain terms mean and what is allowed to be sold there, said a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service program specialist.

A lot of the terms used to describe foods are subject to misinterpretation and definitions may vary, said Rebecca Dittmar, AgriLife Extension program specialist for food protection management based in Kerrville.

For example, a farmers market is a designated location used primarily for the distribution and sale of food directly to consumers by farmers and other producers. But a certified farmers market is one that has met the requirements set by the Texas Department of Agriculture and has applied to become certified.

She said while the term locally grown is often a consumer draw, the definition adopted by the 2008 Farm Act considers a locally or regionally produced agricultural food product to be one sold less than 400 miles from its origin, or within the state in which it was produced.

Then theres the term organic, which refers to meat, poultry, eggs and dairy products from animals that are given no antibiotics or growth hormones, she said. Organic food is produced without using most conventional pesticides, fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge, bioengineering or ionizing radiation.

She said before a product can be labeled organic, a government-approved certifier inspects the farm where the food is grown to make sure the farmer is following all the rules necessary to meet U.S. Department of Agriculture organic standards.

On the other hand, a product labeled natural is one containing no artificial ingredients or added color and is only minimally processed, she explained.

Minimal means that the product was processed in a manner that does not fundamentally alter the product, Dittmar said. And the product label must include a statement explaining the meaning of the term natural, like contains no artificial ingredients or such.

She said if a meat product is labeled certified it implies that both the USDAs Food Safety and Inspection Service and the Agriculture Marketing Service have officially evaluated the product for class, grade or other quality characteristics.

However, if a product is labeled as certified naturally grown that means it is certified by a nonprofit organization tailored to small-scale farmers and beekeepers, Dittmar said. Certified Naturally Grown is an independent program not affiliated with the USDA-National Organic Program, or NOP. The CNG producers do not use any synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides or GMO seeds, just like organic farmers, but their farms are certified by other CNG farmers instead of a government agency.

Dittmar said some of the products allowed to be sold at farmers markets include whole, uncut produce; meat and meat products; canned items such as tomatoes, relishes, salsas and pickled squash; honey, eggs and some non-food items.

If they are selling whole, intact, unprocessed fruits and vegetables, there is no permit required in Texas, she said. But if selling cut tomatoes, leafy greens or melons, the producer needs to have a permit and store foods at 41 degrees or lower.

Consumers should always avoid buying bruised or damaged produce, she added.

Dittmar said meats can be at farmers markets if they were slaughtered at a licensed facility and the vendor has proper permits. And jerky can be sold if from an approved source, so long as a licensed and inspected facility produced it.

Fish can be sold if the vendor has a proper permit and the fisherman possesses a license from the Texas Park and Wildlife Department  or the fish was produced and raised in a facility that has an aquaculture license from the TDA.

She said consumers at farmers markets should make sure the packages containing meats or fish have no holes or tears and the product is being stored cold.

In the shopping basket, keep raw meat, poultry and fish away from other foods. Place them in a plastic bag and keep it in the cart away from other foods, so the juices cannot drip on them.

She said certain canned goods can be sold if the vendor has a manufacturers license for the products.

Avoid buying canned goods that do not have labels or have a flawed appearance, she advised.

Dittmar said honey can be sold by small- and large-scale producers, but large-scale producers should have a food manufacturers license and offer a properly packed and labeled product.

The proper labeling information is on the Food and Drug Administrations food labeling guide, she said. Consumers should avoid buying honey that does not have a label.

Dittmar said eggs can be sold at farmers markets if the seller has a temporary food establishment license from the Texas Department of State Health Services or a local regulatory authority and if the eggs are kept at an ambient air temperature of 45 degrees or lower.

The eggs should be labeled as ungraded, have safe handling instructions and labeling should provide the producers name and address, she said. They should be refrigerated as soon as possible after cleaning and sorting to preserve internal quality and reduce the potential for bacterial growth. There are FDA, TDA and DSHS regulations for the sale of eggs.

Dittmar said if a vendor is selling frozen food, the vendor would need the proper permit and to follow the rules for that product.

Consumers at farmers markets should buy their frozen foods last and make sure items are frozen solid at the time of purchase and that the packages are not torn.

She also noted often there are non-food items for sale at these markets and those items may be sold if the entity running or regulating the market allows such vendors.

Items commonly seen include knitted items, crafts, lotions, candles, flowers and homemade jewelry, she said.

Additional information on the regulation of farmers markets in Texas can be found at https://www.dshs.texas.gov/foodestablishments/farmersmarkets/.
Buster Dean/Houston Chronicle

Aug. 1, 1937: Boys who have completed the course of instruction at a juvenile training school conducted by Mickey Poole and Dick Cross are to receive their medals tomorrow.

--Cpt. Robert McDaniel and 2nd Lts. Arthur Rankin, Rex Wishard and Lowell Sitton are Plainview officers who will attend the Texas National Guard encampment at Palacios.

--Boys making the 4-H Club dairy judging team are Ellis Brenton, J.E. Painter, Glenn Carr and Claude Emmons.

Aug. 1, 1947: The City of Plainview just about broke even on operating its parking meters during the first 12 months. The city owes $18,750 on the meters with monthly payment of $1,900. The debt should be lifted by next April.

--The Plainview Rifle and Pistol Club has been granted a National Rifle Association charter. Harry McCain is president. Other officers are J.V. Graham, W.H. Irby, Lloyd Stambaugh and H.M. Hamilton.

--The deacons' wives of First Baptist Church will hold an open house honoring Dr. and Mrs. A. Hope Owen on their 25th wedding anniversary.

Aug. 1, 1967: The 1967 Plain View staff will host the annual PHS Yearbook Party and Dance on Aug. 10 to coincide with distribution of books to students that day, reports Gordon Zeigler, yearbook editor.

--Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Aday of San Angelo are the parents of a baby girl born Saturday. Grandparents are Opal Aday and Mr. and Mrs. L.W. Huntington of Plainview.

--Mrs. Donald Lee Terrell conducted a study, "Forest Trails to Urban Jungles," at a recent meeting of First Baptist Church WMU.

Aug. 1, 1987: Tiffanee Chaney, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Gene Chaney, reigned over the Sandhills Celebration in Olton as Sandhills Sweetheart.

--Plainview has been recognized as a designated Bicentennial Community by the Commission on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution.

--Plainview Industrial Foundation topped its original goal of 50 members, reports acting interim executive director Medlin Carpenter.
(Photo/Xinhua)

A new undergraduate management regulation at one of Chinas top universities has sparked a nationwide debate on the future of the country's higher education system.

Huazhong University of Science and Technology in central Hubei Province says undergraduate students who perform poorly will not be able to continue their bachelor courses, but will instead only be able to achieve an associate degree.

Many Internet users think it is unacceptable not to be given a bachelors degree after fierce competition in the earlier college entrance examination.

However, the university responded that the new measures respect students with different levels of potential.

The system offers a certain degree of flexibility in the current education model. Students who dont get enough credits will be given another opportunity to continue their studies, rather than simply drop out of school, the university said in an online statement.

And Huazhong's justification has gained a lot of support on social media platform, Weibo.

Huazhong University of Science and Technology (file photo/Xinhua)

User @Haishijiaowohuizhangdarenba said, For those who face dropout, it is a good choice.

The new measures will not affect those who study hard at all. For the slackers, it is better for them to learn the lesson at school than after graduation. It should be encouraged in other universities as well, posted @Chitushaonvyaolianle.

While @Liangleibadao said, The regulation was adopted at Tsinghua University more than a decade ago. It is nothing new. The requirement is not that harsh at the end of day.

This is a wake-up call for many Chinese undergraduates, as universities usually have a higher threshold to get in, with only 40 percent of enrollment rate nationwide, but almost the lowest dropout rate in the world.

Reports say that 160,000 students dropped out of universities and colleges in China in 2011.

That was only 0.75 percent of the country's millions of students, compared with 15.6 percent in public universities in Australia and an average of 20 to 25 percent in the US.
One couple's giant homemade pool is the hot destination this summer.

Jerry and Marina Leussink of Alberta constructed the 300,000 gallon hole in 2013 on their property in Alberta, Canada.

"It's great to have it on a hot day," Jerry Leussink told Wide Open County, an country lifestyle website based in Austin. "We've utilized it many, many, many times on weekends with family and friends that come camping. It can also be used for skating in the winter."

VANISHED: Where's the water in downtown's 40-story-high pool?

The pool is 14 feet deep and was dug using earth moving machinery. The project was inspired by the pond Leussink swam in growing up.

The pool is 90 feet by 70 feet and includes a poly liner to protect against weeds. The liner is held in place with rocks Leussink placed around the pool's border. The rocks add to the wharf aesthetic, Leussink said.

"It evolved and I had these posts and got the idea to put them around here with the rope," Leussink said.

READ MORE: Taking a look at modern swimming pool designs around the world

One Reddit user made a similar homemade pool in 2016, though at a much smaller and sophisticated scale. His pool included a plumbing system, rebar, and concrete.
A heat advisory was in effect Monday along the West Coast as forecasters advised they expect the hottest stretch of the year thus far across Northern California.

But weather experts said some Bay Area beaches may pose more of a risk than relief from the sweltering temperatures due to tropical storms stirring up sneaker waves and rip currents.

The local heat advisory, which will last from Monday afternoon to 9 p.m. Wednesday, is mainly in effect for higher elevations because at lower altitudes a marine layer will help to keep things cool, according to the National Weather Service.

Inland Bay Area locations, however, will see only limited cooling from the marine layer, and some areas could see temperatures climb to triple digits, the weather service predicts.

The heat advisory was initially scheduled to take effect Tuesday but was moved by a day because high overnight temperatures were predicted Monday, making the heat more dangerous.

A hot air mass known as a thermal belt will send temperatures soaring to 105 degrees at Lake Berryessa in Sonoma County, Mount Diablo in Contra Costa County, the Santa Cruz Mountains, and the Santa Lucia Range and Pinnacles National Park in Monterey County, forecasters predict. Some locations may even reach 110 degrees Tuesday evening when the hottest air mass reaches the area.

The high pressure is also expected to cause unhealthy ozone levels in the South Bay and East Bay on Tuesday, prompting the Bay Area Air Quality Management District to issue a Spare the Air Alert for smog, the sixth such alert thus far this year.

Because ozone can cause throat irritation, lung inflammation, congestion and chest pain, and worsen asthma, bronchitis and emphysema, people are encouraged to limit outdoor exercise to the early morning hours when ozone concentrations are lower. The alert also advises people to help reduce emissions by carpooling or taking mass transit.

While temperatures in the hottest areas will gradually cool after Tuesday, an elevated risk of heat-related illness such as heat stroke and exhaustion is expected to persist through Thursday in inland areas, forecasters say.

Heat isnt the only danger in the Bay Area  hazardous beach conditions will last through Monday night at south-facing beaches like Stinson Beach because of a southerly swell caused by tropical storms Hilary and Irwin in the eastern Pacific Ocean, according to the weather service.

Forecasters warn that sneaker waves and rip currents will pose hazards at south-facing beaches over the weekend, with surf heights reaching 7 feet.

Large waves may catch people unaware and pull them into the cold, turbulent ocean, the weather service said in an advisory. Beach visitors are encouraged to remain away from and out of the water during this swell event.

Forecasters expect a warmer-than-average August in the Bay Area and across most of the country, according to the National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center.

Filipa Ioannou is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: fioannou@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @obioannoukenobi
A 15-hour standoff with an armed 52-year-old man who barricaded himself inside a San Francisco home after fatally shooting a woman ended abruptly when he shot himself in the chest, authorities said Monday.

The man, who was not immediately identified by police, was taken to a hospital to be treated for life-threatening injuries around 2:45 p.m. on Monday, said Officer Grace Gatpandan, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco Police Department.

The marathon standoff began about 11:45 p.m. Sunday near Corona Heights Park and prompted a shelter-in-place order for a number of nearby residents, said Officer Robert Rueca, a police spokesman.

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The man shot a woman  who later died at a hospital  inside the house and started the dangerous impasse that dragged on through the night and into the afternoon Monday, Rueca said.

Police declined to immediately identify the victim, other than to say that the woman was older than 60. Rueca would not say if or how she knew the shooter , citing the ongoing investigation.

A neighbor who witnessed parts of the ordeal, and who did not want to be identified, said that the sound of two distinct gunshots could be heard  just before the suspect appeared. Another neighbor confirmed hearing two gunshots. When the man came outside, the first neighbor said, police in SWAT team garb were dragging him down the block, before medics were whisked into the area, and the suspect was strapped into a stretcher, bleeding from the front of his body.

The neighbors narrative appeared to contradict aspects of the police departments initial description of how the standoff ended  including whether and how force was used.

The neighbor said the long ordeal ended with remarkable speed when police moved in toward the house, tucked into a tight formation, with a bomb-squab robot in the lead. Trees blocked the moment the man exited the house, the neighbor said, adding that you could hear him groaning from a distance after medics strapped him down on the waiting stretcher.

A police shelter-in-place order for nearby blocks remained in effect after the man was arrested as a precaution, while a police bomb squad swept the house where he had been barricaded for possible explosives, Rueca said. There were no indications of a further credible threat, he said.

Police said they had trouble communicating with the suspect throughout the ordeal, which ended when the man stumbled out of the house, bleeding and collapsing, Rueca said. He added that no shots were fired by police officers.

Filipa Ioannou and Michael Bodley are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: fioannou@sfchronicle.com and mbodley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @obioannoukenobi and @michael_bodley
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Energy-sector recruiting firm Spencer Ogden on Monday announced plans to move its Houston office into a former downtown nightclub, furthering the company's reputation for quirky workplaces and exemplifying a trend in corporate office space.

The renovated 12,000-square-foot facility in downtown's GreenStreet center will house an expansion for Spencer Ogden, which has increased its Houston payroll despite the oil slump. The firm launched its 4,300-square-foot U.S. headquarters in Houston in 2011 with five employees and today employs 50. It plans more hiring.

"Houston is a vital market for us," said David Bumby, head of operations for Spencer Ogden's North American region, in a news release. "Initially, we capitalized on the demand in the oil and gas sector and its relationship with Houston. However, as our office has grown, so has the demand from other clients in the energy space as a whole."

Specifically, he said, the company's growth has been driven by client demand from power-generation companies, private-equity firms and financial institutions working within the energy sector, even as upstream-energy companies have made drastic cuts in recent years.

SPENCER OGDEN: Energy recruiting office has an energetic look

Spencer Ogden has a penchant for nontraditional workplaces. The new Houston office, slated for mid-August move-in, will feature artificial turf flooring and cowhide furniture, plus the open floor plan and collaboration space that have become a staple of trendy office design.

"People look forward to visiting our offices and seeing our brand on display as much as they enjoy working with us," Bumby said. "Our unique style sets us apart and our offices are a great visualization of the company."

Travis Taylor, a principal with Lee and Associates, said companies for years have been turning their attention to retail real estate as an alternative to traditional office buildings, especially recruiting and advertising firms. He explored those options with a few clients, but none "pulled the trigger," he said.

"These guys are definitely on to something," Taylor said of Spencer Ogden.

Retail properties will typically be less encumbered by standards and regulations for redevelopment common in office buildings.

Taylor predicted that, should demand for retail space shrink as expected, that type of property would increasingly compete with office space for tenants.
Austin-based MMEX Resources purchased 126-acres of land in Pecos County, marking the first step in its quest to build a 50,000-barrel-a-day refinery in West Texas, the company said Monday.

The land was purchased Friday for an undisclosed amount and will be used to build a 15-acre, 10,000-barrel-a-day crude distillation unit, according to a press release announcing the transaction. An air permit for the facility is set to be filed with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality by the end of Monday, said company spokeswoman Danielle Urban.

The facility  the first phase of a $450 million refinery  will produce a non-transportation grade diesel primarily for sale in the local market for drilling frac fluids, along with naptha and heavy fuel oil to be sold to other refiners, according to a filing Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The closing of our Phase I land site is a major milestone for the Pecos County refinery project and a catalyst for significant milestones to come, including the filing of environmental permits to authorize construction on our smaller-scale initial refinery, Jack W. Hanks, president and CEO, said in the release. Were eager to begin construction on this exciting project and start bringing new jobs to the region.

RELATED: San Antonio's Tesoro given green light by California town for $460M refinery combination

The distillation unit will cost $50 million to build, which the company plans to finance through debt and equity offerings in additional to traditional project financing from banks or other large institutional investors, the company said in the filing. MMEX will likely issue new equity to finance the engineering and environmental reports necessary to complete the project, the company said.

The companys equity is considered a penny stock as it is trading at less than a penny a share.

MMEX plans to buy 350 additional acres adjacent to the acquired land, but has not released the potential cost, the company said.

The company said the broader refinery could be expanded to produce as much as 100,000 barrels at a cost of $850 million, according to the SEC filing. That would be double the size of the 50,000-barrel-a-day refinery the company already had planned, and almost doubles the original cost of $450 million.

In its first quarter of 2017 filing with the SEC from March 28, MMEX reported $82 in cash and $2.4 million in liabilities. The company said in its most recent filing that it has $54,513 of cash and $9 million in liabilities.

RELATED: Venezuelan oil sanctions would have 'huge' impact on Texas refineries, consumers

rdruzin@express-news.net

Twitter: @druz_journo
Penn Virginia Corp. is buying nearly 20,000 acres in the Eagle Ford Shale oil field from Devon Energy in a deal worth $205 million, the companies announced Monday.

The sale includes 19,600 acres next to land Penn Virginia already holds in Lavaca County.
Julio Cortez/STF

Prices at the pump remain low, but are slowly rising. The Houston average inched up just 1 cent per gallon on Monday while the national average increased 4 cents from last week.

The average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline rose to $2.06 in the Houston area and $2.31 nationwide, according to GasBuddy, which tracks fuel pricing. Gasoline prices are cheaper than in most recent years, but the Houston average is still nearly 10 cents higher than the near-record lows of 2016. The national average is up a larger 18 cents above last year.
Kingwood has been highlighted as one of the nation's 10 most affordable housing markets with top elementary schools, according to a study by realtor.com.

Realtor.com, a provider of online real estate services, analyzed ZIP codes in metro areas with elementary schools that were rated at eight out of 10 or higher by GreatSchools.com. It selected regions where houses are more affordable than the average for the surrounding area, based on median household incomes and list prices.
Ghostbusting documentary filmmaker and paranormal investigator Chad Calek welcomes skeptics with open arms.

Because he especially loves scaring the bejesus out of them.

Calek, along with filmmaking partner and producer Justin Holstein, arrives in San Antonio Thursday for a two-night screening of Sir Noface at the Carlos Alvarez Studio Theater at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts. The 105-minute film purports to show footage of a full-body apparition.

I always say to people at our shows, Believers are welcome but the doors swing wide for all skeptics. (Skepticism) is what would bring me to a show like this, said Calek, an entertaining, fast-talking superstar of the genre, in a telephone interview earlier this month.

And if one screening isnt enough, the Tobins gold package ticket holders  for the really hardcore paranormal investigation fans  will get to see additional footage, an hour of what Calek calls his best paranormal footage Ive captured around the world over the course of the last 25 years.

A question-and-answer session also is in store.

I basically give them the stories, the locations, where I was at, he said. Its a huge fan favorite event. Who doesnt want to sit and see ghost evidence thats awesome? People love it, Calek said. If youre into the paranormal, skeptical or youre a believer, this is the event.

More Information At a glance What: "Sir Noface," a new documentary that purports to show footage of an apparition When: 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday Where: Carlos Alvarez Studio Theater, Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle Tickets: $25; $50; $200, 210-223-8624, tobi.tobincenter.org See More Collapse

Hes a big-tent guy because, well, ghosts make for big-tent business.

Pop culture expert and author Art Markman, a psychology professor at the University of Texas at Austin, explained that many people enjoy ghost stories and scary movies because they can tap into the very real emotion of fear while in a safe situation  like experiencing a fall while riding a roller coaster.

Fear is an emotional and physical response that developed to protect us from harm, Markman said in an email. But its more than that, he added. Ghost stories  about talking to the dead or seeing an apparition  makes death less scary, less permanent and more of a transition.

For example, advocates of terror management theory believe humans are the only animals that contemplate mortality. Ghost sightings are a coping mechanism.

People have always been fascinated by nearly human entities, Markman said. The Greek myths and superhero stories are filled with nearly human characters that have supernatural abilities. Ghosts build on that in giving extraordinary abilities to spirits.

Calek, 40, said he came to th Sir Noface project  an investigation that took two years  because of video evidence of purported paranormal activity at old government-owned buildings on Cockatoo Island in Sydney, Australia, the site of a 19th century convict prison, that was so beyond the norm. His gut told him it was a hoax  at first. Then, he went there.

He says he began Sir Noface to prove the video was a hoax, describing his mission with the glee of Penn & Teller debunking a psychic.

In the end, your jaw will be dropped, Calek said. Theres an a-ha moment that will freak everybody out. This film proves that ghosts exist.

The filmmaker grew up in Alvin, near Houston. His family lived there until he was 12, and he said he has fond childhood memories of family trips to San Antonio. One of his documentaries, American Ghost Hunter, which came out two years ago, was about a traumatic haunting concerning his family.

Q. Does the paranormal community frown upon using the word fun to describe your events?

A. The paranormal community is a weird animal. There are some investigators who say, Dont ever call me a ghostbuster. They dont like laughing or joking about it. To me, theres comedy and humor in everything. Theres nothing wrong with having fun. There are tons of people who ghost hunt simply because its fun. And there are people who have had very harrowing experiences, and they want to understand what it is. Some people are adrenaline junkies.

Q. Is part of the appeal of a screening that everyone has a ghost story? Is that the bond?

A. Sure. I cant tell you how many times the hardened skeptic will come up and tell me all about how ghosts arent real and all that stuff. And Im always very polite. Im, like, Listen, I completely understand your viewpoint. Obviously, I disagree. But I know where youre coming from. And over and over again, it always happens, theres this long pause and they go, You know, there was this one time ... Everybody has their one time.

Q. What about folks who have never seen a ghost?

A. Lots of times a persons disbelief is enough where they dont see something that happens right in front of their face. (Editors note: Calek compares it to a parent who is the last to learn that a child is smoking marijuana.) Mom doesnt want to see it, so Mom didnt see it. That happens in the paranormal world. A lot of times, once a person has a paranormal experience, theyll have them all the time.

Q. Do you only do paranormal documentaries and shows?

A. No, I kind of cut my teeth as a music-video director, a lot of it in the hard rock and metal community. My first film I ever did was a romantic comedy. (The paranormal) is a real passion of mine. I have a documentary coming out next year about the Des Moines, Iowa, music scene, the history of the bands and the scene that spawned Slipknot. I come from that scene.

Q. Has there ever been a time in history when people werent interested in the paranormal?

A. Thats the crazy thing. As long as mankind has existed, there have always been tales of earthbound spirits and apparitions. I think a lot of it has to do that were more than just a table, more than just a chair. There is an electrical energy presence about us. People have an innate belief that it doesnt just end. It doesnt just go, Lights out. There are people that believe that. But by and large, the world is religious. Ask yourself why. Humankind needs it. Its very scary and sad to think its just over when we die. There have been reports of ghosts forever.

Q. What do ghosts look like?

A. People, for years, have been describing seeing these humanesque type wisping beings that exist. And then, when you finally see one, youre, like, Wow, I guess thats why they describe it that way. Because thats what it looks like. I think someday well probably be saying the same things about aliens: So thats why we thought they looked that way.

hsaldana@express-news.net
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A new Miss Teen USA was crowned in Phoenix Saturday night and sadly it wasn't Miss Texas Teen Kirby Lindley.

Though, that doesn't mean she doesn't have a reason to celebrate.

THE REIGN: What Miss Teex USA's - Karlie Hay of Texas - reign looked like

Hours after the competition crowned Miss Missouri Teen as the next reigning national queen, the 19-year-old Texan posted a celebratory photo of her at an IHOP restaurant chowing down on some syrup-drenched waffles.

"The post pageant life #TimeToAdultNow," Lindley, who grew up in Cypress, captioned the photo.

Commenters on the photo gave their support for the beauty queen saying that they were "proud" and she did an "excellent job."

Click through the gallery above to see the other photos of Lindley at the competition and her reign as Miss Texas Teen.

Getting back to "adulting" will likely return for Lindley in the fall since she is currently working on a communications degree at Texas A&M, as well as earning her real estate license. According to her Miss Teen USA page, aims to build a real estate empire that will be featured on HGTV.

OTHER CONTESTANTS: These are the 2017 Miss Teen USA contestants who competed
If Instagram is any indicator, San Antonio was fully sprinkled, glazed and filled after The Art of Donut opened Sunday morning. Dozens of photos shared on the popular social media site showcased the new N. St. Mary's Street shop's various unique confections with toppings including bacon, breakfast cereal, candy bars and more.

Take a look at the treats served up at The Art of Donut in the gallery above.
Now Playing: Texas Grand Ranch, an acreage community by Patten Companies, honors their commitment to the community by working to preserve the land and working with local contractors. The also offer special financing options for veterans. If you can imagine a gorgeous forested landscape just outside your front door, call Texas Grand Ranch today! Video: Houston Chronicle

Texas Grand Ranch, an acreage community by Patten Companies, honors their commitment to the community by working to preserve the land and working with local contractors. The also offer special financing options for veterans. If you can imagine a gorgeous forested landscape just outside your front door, call Texas Grand Ranch today!
Dear Mr. Premack: The Texas Legislature is in special session, and I saw a report that the Senate has passed a bill to regulate Do Not Resuscitate (resuscitation orders) orders. How does the bill change existing law, and what impact could it have on those of us who have signed Medical Powers of Attorneys, Directives to Physicians and Out of Hospital resuscitation orderss?  S.T

Senate Bill 11 was introduced on July 12 and passed by the Texas Senate on July 26. It has been sent to the Texas House for consideration. There is no existing statutory law relating specifically to Do No Resuscitate orders for inpatients at hospitals; rather, the current law deals only with Out-of-Hospital resuscitation orders for individuals who are not receiving inpatient care (that is, they are at home, at a doctors office, or even in an emergency room).

Inpatient resuscitation orders have always been handled as a private matter between the patient and the doctor. If requested by a patient (or the patients legal representative) the doctor can issue an inpatient resuscitation order for the patient. If the patient later experiences cardiac and/or respiratory failure, the caregivers know to forgo resuscitation, since it was the patients desire to be allowed to die under those circumstances.

SB 11 would impose new rules on inpatient resuscitation orders by adding new provisions to the Texas Health & Safety Code. It would regulate resuscitation orders in hospitals, in nursing homes, and in hospice.

If SB 11 becomes law, an inpatient resuscitation order would be valid only if A) The inpatient resuscitation order complies with the patients instructions, the patient is competent at that moment, and the instructions are in writing (or, if verbal, the instructions are witnessed by two qualified adult witnesses), or B) the patient has already issued a Directive to Physicians or one is authorized for the patient under existing law, or C) the patients Agent under a Medical Power of Attorney, or the patients court-appointed Guardian, consents to the inpatient resuscitation order. Additionally, the doctor must determine that 1) the patients death is imminent, and 2) that the resuscitation order is medically appropriate.

The doctor would have a new duty to inform. After the doctor issues an inpatient resuscitation order, if the patients spouse, adult child or parents arrive at the facility, they must be informed that the inpatient resuscitation order was issued.

In the case of Methodist Hospital v. Frausto, an inpatient resuscitation order was issued for a Mrs. Rimert. Her agent under Medical Power of Attorney consented to the resuscitation orders, and Rimert died in the hospital. Rimerts sons sued, alleging Rimert was not competent back when she signed the medical power of attorney. The hospital said it was valid and legal on its face, and that the inpatient resuscitation orders was validly issued. The sons wanted mom to be kept alive, but the hospital followed its patients instructions. Ultimately, the jury decided unanimously that the hospital acted correctly, and the case was dismissed after various appeals failed.

This is reassuring to anyone who has executed similar legal documents in the hope of controlling their own final destiny. If SB 11 had been the law when Mrs. Rimerts case occurred the sons may have had a weaker case to sue the hospital.

If SB 11 becomes law, people who already have signed Medical Powers of Attorneys and Directives to Physicians should double check the legal validity of those documents with their attorney. The doctor must honor written instructions that are already issued, but those instructions must be valid and legal. If your medical Advance Directives are old or outdated, now is a good time to see your attorney to reissue updated documents. If you do not already have Advance Directives, SB 11 reinforces that you should get Advance Directives as soon as you can meet with your attorney.

Paul Premack is a Certified Elder Law Attorney with offices in San Antonio and Seattle, handling Wills and Trusts, Probate, and Business Entity issues. View past legal columns or submit free questions on legal issues via www.TexasEstateandProbate.com or www.Premack.com.
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BRIDGEPORTThe Subway sandwich shop in the heart of downtown Bridgeport was damaged by fire early Monday morning.

Citing fire officials, the owner believes that the fire was an arson.

The Main Street business was closed at the time and no one was hurt, according to shop workers at the scene late Monday morning.

Black residue coated the windows from the inside the sandwich shop franchise, located at the intersection of Main and John streets.

Im really worried about them, said franchise owner Dino Sakakini, motioning to his employees who were cleaning up the ashes.

Sakakini said that the fire started in the trash bins that his employees put outside at the end of their shift. He said that another small fire was started in the trash bin on the other side of John Streetan indicator that an arsonist had been at work.

Park City wireless, a cell phone store, shares a wall with the Subway, but suffered only minor smoke damage, according to one employee. The business was open Monday morning.

More for you Subway faces growing competition atop fast food chain

Sakakini intends to rebuild the sandwich shop, but said that it could take months. In the meantime, his employees will be out of work.

Outside the shop employees laid out burnt chairs and other ashen objects in a neat row along the sidewalk behind red tape.

One tried to separate melted rubber from the concrete sidewalk with a wood-handled shovel, until it snapped.

The first Subway shop, founded by Fred DeLuca and Peter Buck opened in Bridgeport in 1965.
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Grace Gabriel, a junior at Spring Woods High School loves medical TV dramas,"Grey's Anatomy" is one of her favorites. She loves them so much that it has inspired in her an interest in biology, or maybe even becoming a surgeon.

But those are just Hollywood depictions of life and bear little resemblance to what it's really like being a scientist. So when she found out in May she was chosen for a trip to the Arctic Circle for 10 days to join a team of real-life scientists working on research on the effects of global warming to the wetlands and wildlife of the Hudson Bay in Manitoba, Canada, she was beyond excited.

"I was in shock," said the 16 year old. "I didn't really care where it was. You could have sent me to downtown Houston and I would have been happy because it had to do with science."

She was chosen, along with Northbrook High School chemistry teacher, Stephanie Ogden, as two of the 2017 Jason Argonauts, a part of the JASON Learning initiative funded in part by Chevron.

JASON is a nonprofit that promotes science in the classroom and through its Argonaut program - named after the Greek myth of the Jason and the Argonauts - sends students and teachers all over the world to learn about research and scientific study through hands-on participation in the field.

Over 10 Houston-area school districts have been involved since its founding over 26 years ago. Spring Branch Independent School District was one of the first to participate.

The teacher and student, with six other pairs from a charter school in southwest Houston and one from Aldine ISD, left June 26 for the arctic adventure.

Neither had any idea what to expect from the field work at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre in the small, coastal town of Churchill where researchers are studying the wood frogs that live and breed in the icy bogs of the wetlands.

They were tasked with collecting specimen as well as water samples, and they had to take tedious and careful notes of everything they saw and brought back to the lab. But it wasn't the note taking that bothered Gabriel.

"The first day at the sand pool it was 32 degrees," she said. "And with the wind chill it was below freezing. I had on about six or seven layers with neoprene waders. It wasn't comfortable, I fell everyday. It became a sort of tradition."

The Texan teenager only packed a light jacket for the trip. She had to buy a $50 cold-weather jacket once she was there and borrowed extra sweaters from the scientists on site.

But when she and Ogden weren't wading through freezing water, she was rotating jobs in other parts of the facility. In the lab, she processed all the data collected from the day. A task she discovered she actually enjoyed.

"I filtered 96 test tubes in one day," she said. "That's 40,800 milliliters of water that I had to label twice in the field and twice in the lab."

Ogden was intrigued with the program when Spring Branch ISD Science Director Donald Burken encouraged her to apply.

"For me, I was looking to bring real-world science and real life to the classroom," said Ogden who teaches pre-Advanced Placement Chemistry to sophomores. "It's geared toward a lot of biology, but a lot of chemistry is behind it. I can tell the kids, 'You can use this past sitting in my class being tortured.'"

She plans on using her experience at Churchill with water-testing, she said, to explain how salinity and alkilinity effect wildlife when she covers PH and other water properties.

Ogden loves the outdoors and is an avid fisher. She was at home in the waders trucking through the mud. But she was still impressed with the permanent researchers onsite who, despite having advanced degrees and giving lectures every night to the staff, still did much of the dirty work out in the cold.

Gabriel, too, was surprised when she finally met some of those real-life scientists she wanted to be just like.

"They were just, like, people," she said. "And a lot of the researchers up there were college students."

The lucky teen's exposure to the research facility is something Ogden thinks every student, especially in lower-income schools, needs to have.

"They think it's unattainable. At the level they're at intellectually as sophomores in high school, they can't grasp that they're capable of growing and to become these wonderful people and it's important for them to see there are endless possibilities for them to succeed."

The teacher, who also helps write the district chemistry curriculum, said that so many kids don't apply for programs like this because they think it will cost money, or that they aren't smart enough to do it. She hopes by starting off her 'What I did this summer,' exercise with the story of her and Gabriel's experience in Canada, she can show them there are people out there who will invest in them.

For Gabriel, the physician's assistant, researcher, and now environmental scientist hopeful, she made her own discovery at the end of the expedition.

"I really didn't know what researchers did, it's so much. You just have to go out there and try it."
Bringing an idea to life through event marketing can be a beneficial way to cut through the noise and build brand awareness. When executed correctly, the return can be priceless.

Consumers are genuinely seeking more authentic connections to the products they buy, says Tabitha Rand, events manager for Low Res Studio, via email. We have become so over-exposed to brands through the internet and social media that it has the overwhelming ability to be perceived as disingenuous. Creating positive experiences through event marketing builds honest and lasting relationships almost immediately.

Rand is one of the event marketing experts who breaks down the planning process, and shares lessons learned to make the experience not only positive, but profitable.

Heres what they say works.

1. Approach event marketing as relationship building tool.

As an online business, Jeana Anderson Cohen, founder of A Sweat Life, a fitness site that hosts three to four events a month, sought to create an opportunity for readers to connect with the brand in real life. The decision was based on getting to know the companys customers, rather than the events ability to pad the companys bottom line.

For most brands it's not about sales, says Cohen in an email. It's about forming a deeper connection between your message and your consumer.

Janice Yu-Moran, Complex Director of Public Relations for Conrad Chicago and Waldorf Astoria Chicago, echoes this sentiment. Through email Yu-Moran explains how experiential events are different from other marketing tactics.

With event marketing, the goal is awareness, says Yu-Moran. That cant be measured through revenue generation. Instead we look to event attendance, media coverage, social media mentions and sales leads to measure success.

Related: 4 Tips for Marketing Events That Will Transform Your Online Business

2. Collaboration leads to profits.

If the primary purpose of an event is not to make money, it is important to find resources to offset the cost of production. One way to do so, says Rand, is by creating partnerships with local businesses.

Through [local] relationships we are able to get amazing services on trade or even donated, she says. This helps to control our bottom-line while also building our B2B network.

If events are being produced at a higher frequency, Cohen recommends pursuing corporate sponsorship. Nike, Gatorade and GM are all brands who have partnered with her in the past. She suggests having conversations with potential sponsors frequently and a minimum of five months in advance.

Her other bit of advice, learned the hard way, is to avoid building something custom for a sponsor unless it is truly authentic to a companys mission. Invite sponsors to be a part of things youre creating, she says. Thats probably what attracted them to you in the first place.

3. Spend and invite strategically.

When the Conrad Hotel in Chicago opened its doors, it made a splash with a Mad Men themed party estimated to have cost $40,000. While public relations and advertising helps with name recognition, Yu-Moran says. The hospitality and service of a hotel is best experienced and not just read about.

She justifies the expense by explaining how with one activation, the company targeted traditional media, sales clients, local tourism organizations, investors and social media influencers in one night. With more than 300 people in attendance, the cost would have been too high to host individualized one-off events, she says.

An opening is one of the rare opportunities a company has to attract a crowd. Yu-Moran leveraged the company milestone and targeted influential people in the hospitality industry to ensure word of mouth marketing happened long after the event had passed.

Related: 4 Ways Technology Is Changing the Events Industry

4. Rookie mistakes to avoid.

Begin with an event idea and date. From there event logistics begin to fall into place says Victoria Kent, founder of Victoria Kent PR, in an email.

She suggests researching to see if there are any competing events that take away from a companys core audience. Once the date is set, securing a location is the next step. From there a timeline of what needs to get done by when, begins to unfold.

Too many people get paralyzed by the idea of how much work an event can be that they never start, Kent says. Execute an event within the scope of what you offer, or around something that has personal meaning in order to stay authentic and true to your brand. Planning around something youre passionate about will keep you excited during the process.  She also quickly to points out that creating off-brand events for the sake of hosting something, is a mistake.

And the biggest misstep someone can make when it comes to event marketing? Not delivering on what is promised.

Related:

4 Tips for Hosting an Unforgettable Marketing Event

4 Ways Technology Is Changing the Events Industry

4 Tips for Marketing Events That Will Transform Your Online Business



Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


The 2016 presidential election was a major disappointment for Hillary Clinton supporters and those who particularly hoped to see a woman elected to the highest office in the country. But while the highest glass ceiling is still intact, a new report shows women of color broke some barriers in last year's election.

The report, titled "Black Women in American Politics: 2017 Status Update," was created by Higher Heights Leadership Fund and the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers University. Author Kelly Dittmar argues the main narrative of "political loss" for women following the election glosses over wins by women of color, and black women in particular. Failing to highlight these victories, she argues, obscures the political power that black women have attained over the past several decades.

By analyzing election outcomes at both the federal and state level, the study highlights black women's contribution to the incremental progress made by women during the 2016 election. All the net gain for women in state legislatures from 2016 to 2017 was thanks to newly elected women of color. Women in 2017 represented 24.9 percent of state legislators in 2017, up from 24.5 percent the year before, according to the study. Additionally, black women accounted for three out of the 14 seats won by non-incumbent women in Congress in 2016.

In addition to the overall increase, several black women made history in Congress on election night. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., became the first woman and first African American to represent the state of Delaware. With her win, Vermont and Mississippi became the only states left to never have elected a woman to Congress. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., became the second African American woman elected to the Senate. And Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla., Orlando's first female chief of police, was elected to represent Florida's 10th District, making her the first woman and first African American to hold the position since the district's creation in 1963.

In state politics, Attica Scott joined the Kentucky legislature, making her the first African American woman to win a seat there in 19 years.

Additionally, Sharon Weston Broome became the first woman to be elected mayor-president of Baton Rouge.

During a press call to highlight the study last week, Broome, reflecting on the wins from the past election, said she was optimistic about the future of women of color in politics. At the same time, she noted that women of color face a number of obstacles including a lack of mentorship opportunities and difficulty financing a campaign. For Broome, one major hurdle was fundraising. She recalls her opponent had a $1 million political action committee, forcing her to spend more time on raising money to catch up.

"We were outspent two to one," she said during the call. "But it wasn't the money that made the difference. I won by forging an effective and communicative campaign that touched the hearts of people in this community and spoke to the challenges that they faced."

Scott, who is currently the only woman of color in the Kentucky State Legislature, said women of color have an important role to play in public office. Scott ran against a 34-year incumbent and won, allowing her to bring a number of important issues into the legislature, she said.

"As women and women of color we are speaking up and standing up on issues that matter most for people who are marginalized or do not see themselves represented in the halls of government," Scott said. "I ran because people wanted someone who could stand up for public education, LGTBQIA rights, speak out against the school prison pipeline, someone raising the wage for people who work paycheck to paycheck. That was my platform: bringing people along who feel like they don't have a voice."

Despite those wins, women of color and women in general are still underrepresented at all levels of government, the study found. There has yet to be an African American woman elected governor. Black women represent 2.7 percent of all the women in statewide elected executive offices and 0.6 percent of all statewide elected executive officials in the United States, according to the study. There are only 19 black women in Congress, making them less than 4 percent of all members.

As of 2015, African American women made up almost 13 percent of all women in the United States, according to Catalyst, a nonprofit advocating for women in the workplace.

Increasing representation requires a concerted effort to remove any barriers that impede black women from being elected to office, said Dittmar, CAWP scholar and author of the report.

"As we look ahead to Black women's political future - at least in elected offices, we need to develop strategies that recognize the distinct stories of Black women's political past and present," she wrote in an op-ed about the study. "That means tackling disparities in support infrastructure - political and financial - among women, as well as identifying geographic opportunities and challenges that are unique to black women."
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Toward the end of a recent morning hearing in immigration court, Judge V. Stuart Couch looked out from his bench on a nearly empty chamber. On one side sat the prosecutor. But at the table for the immigrants, the chairs were vacant.

From a stack of case files, Couch called out names of asylum seekers: Dina Marciela Baires from El Salvador and her three children. No answer. Lesley Carolina Cardoza from Honduras and her young daughter. Silence. After identifying 17 people who had failed to appear for their hearings, the judge ordered all of them to be deported.

The scene is replaying across the country as immigration courts resolve the asylum cases of families who streamed across the Southwest border since 2014. Tens of thousands of families from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, and some from Mexico, came here citing their need for protection from predatory gangs and criminal violence. Now, they face the prospect of being sent back to countries they fear have not become any less dangerous.

Of nearly 100,000 parents and children who have come before the courts since 2014, most asking for refuge, judges have issued rulings in at least 32,500 cases, court records show. The majority - 70 percent - ended with deportation orders in absentia, pronounced by judges to empty courtrooms.

Their cases are failing just as President Donald Trump is rapidly expanding deportations.

Immigration courts have long had high rates of in absentia rulings, with one-quarter of all cases resolved by such decisions last year. But the rate for families who came in the border surge stands out as far higher, according to the Justice Department office that runs the immigration courts and tracked the cases of those families over the past three years.

Many immigrants did not understand what they were supposed to do to pursue their claims and could not connect with lawyers to guide them. Some just stayed away, fearing they could be deported directly from courthouses and choosing instead to take their chances in the immigration underground.

As a result, migrants from the surge are faring worse in the courts than other groups. By late January, the courts had granted asylum or otherwise allowed migrants to remain legally in this country in 3,792, or 11 percent, of those cases involving families, the figures show. By contrast, in all asylum cases last year, 43 percent ended in approvals.

The large-scale failure of the families' claims is the final unraveling of President Barack Obama's strategy to deal with the asylum seekers.

Unlike most illegal border crossers, who can generally be swiftly deported, many recent migrants from Central America asserted that they had strong reasons for seeking protection in the United States. Rather than dodging the Border Patrol, they turned themselves in, saying they were afraid to return home. Under U.S. law, that starts an asylum proceeding in which courts evaluate claims that migrants faced dangerous persecution.

When the surge began in 2014, Obama administration officials, worried they could spur an even greater flow if they accepted the migrants as refugees, tried to detain them near the border and deport them. But federal courts curtailed the detention of children and their parents, and so the Obama administration funneled them into immigration courts to ask for asylum. Families and unaccompanied minors who passed a first stage of screening at the border were released to pursue their cases in courts around the country.

In many of those cases, judges in the overburdened courts are only now rendering their decisions - and families from the Central American surge are becoming a new cohort of immigrant fugitives.

In the past, an order of removal - the immigration equivalent of an arrest warrant - did not necessarily lead to swift expulsion. But the Trump administration has made it clear that anyone on the wrong side of immigration law can be tracked down and deported, whether or not they committed a serious crime.

The fates of the asylum-seeking families are particularly stark in Charlotte. Three immigration judges, appointed by the U.S. attorney general, labor under a backlog of nearly 8,000 cases. The court, which covers both Carolinas, has an amply earned reputation as one of the toughest in which to win an asylum case.

Maria Arita discovered these realities only after she left Honduras in 2013, forded the Rio Grande in south Texas with her 3-year-old son, turned herself in to border authorities and was sent to Charlotte to join her husband, who had found work here after coming illegally a year earlier. She said a mara - a criminal gang - had taken a dislike to her husband, for reasons the family still does not fully understand. But the gang made its animus very clear.

"First they killed my brother-in-law," Arita said, trying to remember the attacks in the correct order. "Then they killed my father-in-law. Then . . . they shot another brother-in-law. That's when my husband realized he had to get out, and he left for the United States. Then they broke down the door of my house. I wasn't home, but they left a message saying they were going to kidnap my son to make my husband come back."

Unlike many asylum seekers in this region, Arita found a lawyer. But after she paid several thousand dollars in legal fees, she said, he dropped her case. Despite her family's trail of death in Honduras, he told her, she wasn't going to win in Charlotte.

Terrified of going back, she went by herself to a hearing this spring. Before it was over, the judge had denied her claim and given her a few weeks to pack up, take her son and leave the United States. Results like that are among many reasons immigrants nationwide have been failing to appear in court.

Some migrants came to this country more to escape poverty than violence, and they may have avoided court because they knew their asylum claims were likely to be rejected. But more than 85 percent of the families passed the first legal test for asylum, in which they had to show they had a "credible fear" of returning home, according to Department of Homeland Security figures.

For many of them, the law itself presents a problem. Migrants running from gangs do not easily fit into the classic categories for asylum, which offers protection to people fearing persecution based on race, religion, nationality or politics. Yet in some courts, artful lawyers have won for people from Central America by crafting cases to fit a fifth, more loosely defined category of persecution in the law, against members of a "particular social group." In recent years, migrant women have also won if they were escaping extreme domestic violence.

But not in Charlotte. Couch and Barry Pettinato - two out of three judges on the bench - have made it clear they view asylum as a narrow opportunity, and they regard claims stemming from gang violence as inconsistent with the letter of the law. Couch has scolded lawyers for trying to bend the statute like "silly putty" to make it work for Central American migrants.

Couch grants asylum in 18 percent of the cases he hears, while Pettinato grants 15 percent, both less than half the national rate, according to an analysis of court records by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a data research group at Syracuse University. As sitting judges, Couch and Pettinato were not able to comment on their rulings.

"We should set up billboards on the highway for people coming from the border. Keep going, don't stop in Charlotte!" said Viridiana Martinez, who works with Alerta Migratoria, a group in Durham, North Carolina, that helps immigrants fight deportation.

Without a lawyer, the chances for an asylum seeker to prevail in court here are close to zero. There is no right to government-paid counsel in immigration court. And few low-cost lawyers practice in the region; in South Carolina, not a single agency is offering free legal assistance for asylum. On a list of volunteer lawyers the judges hand out in court, sternly advising immigrants to call them, none had been practicing in the Carolinas for at least three years.

The likelihood that immigrants will show up for hearings increases exponentially when they have lawyers, TRAC figures show. But many lawyers practicing in Charlotte, who have to charge at least $5,000 for all the work involved in an asylum case, have discouraged immigrants from hiring them by being candid at the outset about their chances to win.

One immigrant from Guatemala said he consulted four lawyers who declined to take his case. The man, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because his claim is still before the court, said he fled after a gang hunted him from village to village, trying to kill him to take money he had saved from his taco stand to pay doctors for a chronically ill son. He said the lawyers told him: "Your case is not big enough. You better go back to your country." Finally, he found one lawyer, Evelyn Smallwood, willing to give it a try.

"Negativity permeates the community," Smallwood said. "People talk among themselves. 'I got the meanest judge; I shouldn't go to court.' They just feel the outcome is the same if they do go to court and if they don't."

Amid constant talk on the street of deportations, rumors swirl that agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, are waiting at the door of the court to arrest anyone whose claim is denied - rumors that so far have proved false.

Some obstacles that stop immigrants from attending hearings are mundane. Immigration courts still operate on an antiquated paper filing system. With harried clerks juggling thousands of files, errors occur, and notices go out to wrong addresses.

At one hearing in June, Pettinato was about to order the deportation of a Honduran, Juan Jose Pena, for failing to appear. Just in time, Pena bounded into the courtroom, breathless and apologizing. Because he was living in South Carolina, he said, he had been confused and gone mistakenly that morning to a courthouse in Charleston.

In a closet-size office near the court entrance, a volunteer offers a 10-minute orientation that is the closest many immigrants will come to getting legal advice. Kathryn Coiner-Collier, who works for Legal Services of Southern Piedmont, is not a lawyer but does what she can to warn people what awaits them. "If you go in there without an attorney, you will have to know the law just like the judge," she says.

On a recent day, Miriam Cruz Oliva, from Mexico, told Pettinato she had consulted several lawyers but none would take her case. She said she tried to fill out an asylum application but could not understand it.

"They charged me $100 for a consultation and told me to fill it out myself," she said in Spanish through a court interpreter, starting to cry. "It's a lot of money."

"If you can't pay for an attorney and you can't find anyone to help you, why should I give you any more time?" Pettinato asked.

"I'm pretty desperate," Cruz said. The judge gave her three weeks before a final hearing.

Couch runs a strict courtroom. Some years ago, he urged the disbarment of several attorneys for bringing what he saw as frivolous asylum cases. He requires asylum seekers to include a statement of their legal argument when they first submit their application - even those who have no lawyer. In a recent hearing, he rejected an application from a young lawyer because it did not have an index in the style specified in the practice manual.

Couch dressed him down before the crowded court. "I can't practice law for you," he said.

"We all know we are going to be yelled at and belittled by the judges in this court," said Joanna Gaughan, a lawyer who came to Charlotte four years ago. "A lot of lawyers just don't feel like putting themselves in that line of fire for an asylum case."

Gaughan and other lawyers have begun to press cases anyway, hoping to lay groundwork for appeals. "I really believe the judges are not always applying the case law correctly," she said.

One case that lawyers brought back from the brink was Maria Arita's. Just as she despaired, a lawyer, Atenas Burrola, won asylum for one of her husband's brothers. With only days to spare, Burrola succeeded in getting Arita's deportation postponed.

But for many immigrants, there is an anguished choice between going to court or laying low and taking the odds of an in absentia order. Ana Karen Torres Martinez, a 27-year-old mother from Mexico, approached American agents at a south Texas border crossing in April 2016, begging for help. A woman with links to a Mexican drug cartel had stolen her toddler daughter, she said. Reporting the abduction to Mexican police had made things worse. She herself was kidnapped for two weeks by the traffickers, with scars to show for a pistol-whipping they administered.

When she continued her search, police drove her in a patrol car to a rendezvous with the traffickers, who leveled a gun at her temple while handing a fistful of cash to the officers. "They told me if I didn't stop stirring the water, I should know what would happen to me," Torres said. She worried if she kept pressing, they would kill her daughter. But Torres has not been able to hire a lawyer. A work permit she applied for, a benefit provided under the law to asylum seekers, has not yet come through.

"I know we have to go to court," she said. "We have to give the judge reasons to believe us. But what does the judge want? I can't work legally, so how am I supposed to pay a lawyer?"

The recent deportation orders may not lead immediately to a wave of deportations, ICE officials said, because they are plowing through the backlog looking for fugitives who also committed crimes. According to official records, more than 960,000 deportation orders are on file waiting to be carried out, many dating back years.

But Jennifer Elzea, a spokeswoman for ICE, said agents could carry out the in absentia orders, which include most recent addresses for the immigrants, at any time. ICE no longer makes exceptions for families with no crimes.

"All those in violation of the immigration laws," she said, "may be subject to immigration arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States."

---

This article was written for the Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization that covers the U.S. criminal-justice system.
It was a 2015 Facebook photo posted by the co-founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg that helped Dr. Chris Ferries children book gain immense popularity. In the photo, Zuckerberg and his wife are reading their 10-day-born daughter a book called, Quantum Physics for Babies.

While most parents are teaching their babies to say dad and mum, Zuckerberg has already started his daughters scientific education! Soon after this photo went viral, the Chinese version of Quantum Physics for Babies arrived in China. Within 6 months, this book became an essential early child education book for Chinese parents.

The author, Dr. Chris Ferrie, is currently a senior lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney and Centre for Quantum Software and Information. Born in a small town in Ontario, Canada, Dr. Ferrie was always a straight-A student. After obtaining his PhD in Applied Mathematics from University of Waterloo, he was invited to work in Sydney. Dr. Ferries day job includes writing for scientists and engineering physicists.

My passion for communicating science has led from the most esoteric topics of mathematical physics to more recently writing childrens books, said Dr. Ferrie.

Despite being only 35 years old, Dr. Ferrie is already a father of four. Spending time with his children after work is what he looks forward to everyday. On his website, Dr. Ferrie describes himself as a: Quantum theorist by day, father by night. Occasionally moonlights as a childrens book author.

His books inspiration possibly stems from his love of children. Dr. Ferrie decided to put some basic knowledge of mathematical physics into a series of children picture books, which would be easy for kids to understand.

If parents are enthusiastic and read the books with enthusiasm like they read other books, then I think that children can understand the simple concepts in the book, said Dr. Ferrie.

What came as a surprise to Dr. Ferrie is the popularity of Quantum Physics for Babies amongst Chinese parents.

Ive heard from lots of Chinese parents and heard from kindergarten teachers and kindergarten principals, and Ive spoken to them on Skype to the classroom full of kids. It is pretty exciting to see how excited they are about science and physic, said Dr. Ferrie.

In order to help Chinese children better comprehend the concepts of quantum physics, Dr. Ferrie is currently working on video lectures, Physics for Babies. These lectures will be available through a live broadcasting platform, HETAO live, in China.

OZ Encounter is a video program produced by Peoples Daily Online with introductions and comprehensive information on Australias tourism, food, leisure culture, news etc. The program brings information on beautiful views and delicious food around Australia, lead audience to experience the unique landscape and cultural glamour of Australia with micro-video.

Watch the video: OZ Encounter: Quantum theorist by day, book author by night
A former U.S. diplomat has for the second time been found liable for enslaving and sexually trafficking a housekeeper while posted at the U.S. Embassy in Yemen.

A jury in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, agreed Monday that the former envoy, Linda Howard, and her Australian husband, Russell Howard, forced an Ethiopian maid into sexual slavery in 2007, repeatedly raping her. Linda Howard was ordered to pay $3 million in damages to the now 30-year-old woman, identified only Sarah Roe, who lives in Virginia.

Five years ago, the couple were found liable in the same court for trafficking another Ethiopian housekeeper in 2008. They were ordered to pay her $3.3 million. However, the couple had already fled from Arlington, Virginia, to Australia and contested the judgment there. The case was settled in 2015.

Linda Howard left the State Department in 2013; her husband died in 2012. She denied the fresh allegations and argued that Roe could not sue for civil damages under a human trafficking law that did not pass until 2008.

According to court filings, Roe began working for the Howards in Sanaa, Yemen, in 2007, when Linda Howard was a Foreign Service officer in the U.S. Embassy's Information Program Center. Roe was promised a monthly salary of $150 as well as visa help, medical treatment, support for her daughter, and the opportunity to follow the family to Linda Howard's next posting in Germany.

She alleged that she was told she must move in with the family, selling the possessions she had acquired in Yemen, and keep Russell Howard happy while his wife was at work.

Roe claims that she was told to wear a skimpy uniform that Linda Howard sewed herself but refused. Russell Howard took her to the mall and bought lingerie, a thong, and two miniskirts, which she said she also refused to wear once she realized that was his intention.

From early on, Roe alleged, both husband and wife would grope her and demand that she have sex with them. Soon, she said, Russell Howard was raping her twice a day, telling her it was part of her job. When she protested, she said, he would hit her and throw things at her and threaten to put her in jail. Linda Howard, in Roe's account, sometimes joined in. She alleged that Russell Howard dragged her to the hospital so she could be fitted with an IUD against her will.

The couple would show her explicit photographs of previous housekeepers, she said, shouting, "She did it, why can't you?"

Roe was closely monitored and seldom allowed to leave the house alone. She was also forced to work 85 to 90 hours a week, according to her complaint. The Howards took her passport, she said, and did not renew her visa as promised. According to Roe, the couple had gotten the husband of another former housekeeper put in prison.

"I cried all the time," Roe wrote in an affidavit.

Along with the threat of retribution, Roe said she was afraid of the social and legal consequences in Ethiopia of being raped by a woman.

"It is . . . shameful and illegal to have any homosexual contact in my country," she wrote in an affidavit to the court. "It does not matter that I was an unwilling victim of Linda Howard's sexual advances; they would be viewed just the same by my family and friends and by the authorities."

After about seven months, she says Russell Howard became enraged by her continued resistance to his sexual assaults and threw her out of the house. She said she found a place to stay through an acquaintance at the embassy. Three or four days later, she said Linda Howard helped her find a job at a restaurant on the compound. Roe believes she did so to keep her silent.

Roe's allegations closely track those of the Jane Doe, who won a civil suit against the Howards in 2012. Doe traveled with the couple from Yemen to Linda Howard's next posting in Tokyo. She also alleged that Russell Howard repeatedly raped her, that Linda Howard told her to keep him happy, and that she was isolated and threatened. After she fled in the middle of the night for home, Russell Howard followed her and had charges filed against her in Ethiopia, she alleged.

"The crime, involving sexual assaults, forced labor, and trafficking is particularly depraved," U.S. District Judge Liam O'Grady wrote at the time.

Attorneys for Howard and Roe did not immediately return requests for comment.
Vice President Mike Pence said the U.S. stands with the Baltic nations against any threats from Russia as tensions continue to flare between the former Cold War foes.

Pence made Estonia his first stop on a visit to eastern Europe that will also take in Georgia and Montenegro, where he'll meet Balkan NATO members and aspirants. His trip follows last week's Russian-Chinese naval exercises in the Baltic Sea and comes before planned Russian military drills in September that have in the past simulated an attack on the region.

Russia's annexation of Crimea and involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine spooked the Baltics and triggered a rethink of NATO's role in ex-communist Europe. Western troops were added in response in nations such as Estonia and Latvia, unwilling former Soviet republics with large Russian-speaking minorities. While recently backing NATO's collective-security pledge, President Donald Trump has courted Russian President Vladimir Putin and raised doubts about the U.S.'s commitment to far-away allies.

"No threat looms larger in the Baltic states than the specter of aggression from your unpredictable neighbor to the east," Pence said Monday in Estonia's capital, Tallinn. "At this very moment, Russia continues to seek to redraw international borders by force, undermine democracy of sovereign nations and divide the free nations of Europe one against another."

Pence spoke a day after Putin told the U.S. that it must cut staff at its embassy in Moscow and other facilities in Russia by 755 people by Sept. 1, a retaliatory move for new sanctions legislation passed by Congress last week and earlier diplomatic expulsions by the U.S. The move "won't deter" U.S. commitments to its allies, Pence told a joint news conference with the presidents of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Putin, at a meeting with his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto last week, said "anti-Russia hysteria" is growing and "Russophobic instruments" are being used as part of a domestic U.S. political fight that may result in stricter sanctions against his nation. Pence said his country "hopes for better relations with Russia."

This month, the U.S. for the first time temporarily brought Patriot air-defense systems to Lithuania as part of military exercises. Estonia, which borders Russia, has said it wants to enhance its defensive capabilities with anti-aircraft weapons and is seeking a more permanent deployment with other countries inside NATO.

"The U.S. rejects any attempt to use force, threats, intimidation or malign influence in the Baltic states or against any of our treaty allies," Pence said. "The U.S. stands firmly behind our Article 5 pledge of mutual defense and an attack on one of us is an attack on us all."

Pence also welcomed the Baltic nations' military commitments. Estonia is one of only a handful of NATO members to meet the alliance's investment goal of 2 percent of gross domestic product, while Latvia and Lithuania pledge to meet the target by end of 2018. Defense spending is a gripe Trump has raised repeatedly.
NORWALK  A Norwalk mans alleged unnerving behavior toward a donught shop employee Sunday night landed him in police custody and a $50,000 bond.

Police were called to the Dunkin Donuts on North Main Street at 11 p.m. on a report of man who was harassing a female employee by staring at her and spinning a pocket knife menacingly in her direction.

The employee told police that the man, later identified as Pedro Estrada-Rivera, was staring at her through the window, spinning a knife, and winking and sticking his tongue out at her.

When the employee, accompanied by a co-worker, brought the garbage out at the end of the night, Estrada-Rivera reportedly followed them.

Arriving officers say that Estrada-Rivera was found to be holding the knife.

The employee reported to police that Estrada-Rivera had done something similar two weeks earlier.

Estrada-Rivera, 37, of Couch Street, was charged with second-degree threatening, second-degree stalking, and second-degree breach of peace. He was given a court date of Aug. 9.
Washington

The White House stepped up demands Sunday for revived congressional efforts on a health care overhaul and suggested senators cancel their entire summer break, if needed, to pass legislation after failed votes last week.

Aides said President Donald Trump is prepared in the coming days to end required payments to insurers under the Affordable Care Act as part of a bid to let "Obamacare implode" and force the Senate to act.

It was all part of a weekend flurry of Trump tweets and other statements insisting the seven-year GOP quest to repeal former President Barack Obama's signature legislative achievement was not over.

"The president will not accept those who said it's, quote, 'Time to move on,'" White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said. Those were the words used by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., after the early Friday morning defeat of the GOP proposal.

Conway said Trump was deciding whether to act on his threat to end cost-sharing reduction payments, which are aimed at trimming out-of-pocket costs for lower-income people.

"He's going to make that decision this week, and that's a decision that only he can make," Conway said.

"Don't give up Republican senators, the World is watching: Repeal & Replace," Trump said in a tweet.

White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, when asked Sunday if no other legislative business should be taken up until the Senate acts again on health care, responded "yes."

While the House has begun a five-week recess, the Senate is scheduled to work two more weeks before a summer break.
Sheryl Sandberg defended Facebook's use of encryption in its popular messaging service WhatsApp, telling a BBC radio show that what limited data remains accessible can be useful to law enforcement as its seeks to thwart terrorist activity.

When communications are encrypted, only the sender and intended recipient can read the message. But information about an encrypted conversation, like who is contacting who, would still be available to governments during a terrorism investigation, even if the contents of the conversation would not.

"The goal for governments is to get as much information as possible," she said during an interview Sunday on the show "Desert Island Discs." "And so when there are message services like WhatsApp that are encrypted, the message itself is encrypted but the metadata is not, meaning that you send me a message, we don't know what that message says, but we know you contacted me."

While major technology companies including Apple, Google, and Facebook have touted the benefits to privacy and security that encryption offers, law enforcement officials in the United States and abroad say that encrypted messaging services give criminals and terrorists a safe haven in which to operate.

For instance, in a March vehicle attack outside British Parliament that killed four pedestrians and a police officer, the perpetrator, Khalid Masood, was revealed by British media to have been communicating on WhatsApp just minutes beforehand. In response, British Home Secretary Amber Rudd described the use of encrypted communications as "completely unacceptable."

"We need to make sure organizations like WhatsApp, and there are plenty of others like that, don't provide a secret place for terrorists to communicate with each other," Rudd said. It remains unclear, however, whether Masood's use of WhatsApp was relevant to his crime.

Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer, recently met with Rudd and said on the radio show, "We are very aligned in our goals."

"We want to make sure all of us do our part to stop terrorism and so our Facebook policies are very clear. There's absolutely no place for terrorism, hate, calls for violence of any kind," she said.

Sandberg warned that if encryption was stripped away, users might flee the service, leaving law enforcement officials with even fewer leads. "If people move off those encrypted services to go to encrypted services in countries that won't share the metadata, the government actually has less information, not more," she said.

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

One billion people use WhatsApp everyday, the company announced last week. Facebook purchased the global messaging app in 2014 for $19 billion.

When WhatsApp announced last year that it would offer encryption, the company drew immediate criticism from U.S. law enforcement. FBI General Counsel James Baker said WhatsApp's move "presents us with a significant problem."

"If the public does nothing, encryption like that will continue to roll out in a variety of different ways across the technological landscape," Baker said at the time. "You can say that's good and you can say that's bad. But the key thing is that it has costs. It has public safety costs. And folks have to understand that."

Baker's remarks, like those of Rudd, highlight the challenges faced by law enforcement to adapt to the widespread adoption of encryption, largely available at no cost.

Under pressure from governments to combat the spread of terror-related content online, Facebook, Twitter, Google and Microsoft have said they would begin sharing unique digital fingerprints of flagged images and video, to keep them from resurfacing on different platforms online. Facebook also said last month it would use artificial intelligence and human-powered efforts to identify and take down extremist's posts, developing data-sharing systems across its suite of social media and messaging apps.
Following approval by the state to reimburse more than half the construction costs, top Orange County officials are expected to decide before the year is up if the county will move forward with a controversial Vidor Loop project.

Texas Department of Transportation Commissioners on Thursday unanimously approved the county's application for the 6.2-mile road, agreeing to pay $34.2 million of the estimated $52.3 million project.
While more and more women are becoming founders and CEO, we still have a ways to go for gender parity in business.

Related: 12 Female Founders Who Will Restore Your Faith in Feminism

In 2016, approximately 3,033 U.S.-based companies secured funding (seed, series A and series B). Unfortunately, only 16 percent of these companies had at least one female founder. Not only that, but only 8 percent had a female founder and a female CEO. By researching funding and its relationship to female founders, online graphic design marketplace 99designs sought to uncover where these female-founded companies are located, what they do and more.

Unsurprisingly, 51 percent of the companies funded in 2016 that had a female founder also had a female CEO. A majority (38 percent) of these female-led companies are in the Bay Area. The next big cities you can find these female-led companies are New York (22 percent), Los Angeles (7 percent), Chicago (5 percent) and Boston (4 percent).

Related: 10 Signs Your Startup Won't Get Funded

What exactly do these companies do? Turns out, most female-led companies are in the healthcare industry. The next top popular industries are commerce, software and biotech.

To learn more about funded women-founded companies, check out the infographic below.

Related:

The Female-Founded Companies That Get Funded (Infographic)

A Guide to Responding to Negative Reviews on Glassdoor (Infographic)

Infographic: Graphic Design Jargon: Get The Most Out Of Your Designer



Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


With less than one month to go before the start of formal talks to update the North American Free Trade Agreement, Donald Trump is keeping as his top envoy south of the border a Mexico expert promoted under Hillary Clinton and chosen by Barack Obama.

While Trump continues to demand Mexico pay billions of dollars for a wall to stop undocumented immigrants and calls NAFTA the worst trade deal in history, the tone of his ambassador, Roberta Jacobson, couldn't be more different.

"I have said it before and I will say it again: the United States could not be more fortunate to have Mexico as a neighbor," Jacobson said in a speech at a Fourth of July reception at her residence. NAFTA has brought "benefits to all three nations."

Jacobson has spent more than 30 years at the State Department focused on Mexico and Latin America, with a career spanning two Democratic and four Republican presidencies. In that time, she's won the respect of Mexico's leaders and become a trusted interlocutor with Washington. With NAFTA talks scheduled to start on Aug. 16, the difference in the rhetoric between Jacobson and her ultimate boss show how unpredictable those negotiations have become.

Jacobson was nominated by Obama in June 2015, but her confirmation took almost a year, held up by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, over her role in improving the U.S. relationship with Cuba as assistant secretary of state. Trump has undone parts of that rapprochement.

Jacobson worked for Clinton when Trump's 2016 election opponent was Secretary of State under Obama and moved up the agency ladder during that time. The two got along well; when Clinton was photographed dancing salsa at a bar in Cartagena in a rare unscripted moment during the 2012 Summit of the Americas, it was at a party for Jacobson's birthday.

The ambassador isn't the only Trump surrogate to break rhetorical ranks with the president over Mexico. While Trump in April threatened to withdraw from NAFTA, trade adviser Peter Navarro talks about making North America a manufacturing "powerhouse," and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross discusses a "sensible" NAFTA update. Yet, no one is responsible day in and day out for representing American interests -- whether commercial, security, or cultural -- quite like Jacobson.

In an e-mailed response to questions, Jacobson said "Mexico has for 200 years been and will remain among our most important international relationships. Certainly we face challenges in law enforcement, trade, and migration, but we can meet those challenges working together."

While Jacobson is the top American official on the ground in Mexico, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and people inside the White House will probably play a bigger roll in calling the shots in the trade talks, said Michael Shifter, president of Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based think tank.

"She knows NAFTA well and clearly will be an advocate for not having a complete overhaul but trying to upgrade and modernize NAFTA," Shifter said. "Whether that's a position that will prevail in the administration is unclear at this point, but she'll be at the table making that case."

Jacobson's own future remains uncertain. Many of the top positions at the State Department are still vacant, and with the focus on getting those jobs filled, Trump has replaced few of the career foreign service professionals who served as ambassadors under Obama. So it's possible Jacobson will be replaced once more of her superiors are installed.

For now, Jacobson is "the ideal ambassador to be in Mexico," Francisco Palmieri, the acting assistant secretary for the region, said in May.

Given her years of experience, Trump would be hard-pressed to find anyone more prepared for the job, said Jorge Chabat, a political scientist at the Center for Economic Research and Teaching, a Mexico City-based university. Anyone less qualified might be held up again in Senate limbo just as the U.S. is preparing to begin NAFTA talks.

"She's an ambassador who has been very well received in Mexico," Chabat said. "She knows the culture, she knows the language. She's shown herself to be a good channel for trying to smooth over conflicts that come up between Mexico and the U.S."
This spring, thousands of graduating high school seniors accepted offers of admission to the University of California, Irvine. They made it through a competitive selection process - 36 percent of those who applied were accepted, racking up mean grade point averages between 4.0 and 4.25.

Incoming freshmen from California and states across the country prepared to start the fall semester at UC Irvine at the end of September.

Then, only two months before the beginning of their college classes, 499 incoming students were notified that their acceptances had been revoked.

Many were told they had failed to deliver their final high school transcripts on time, or had inadequate grades during their senior year. Others complained that admissions staff gave them petty or confusing reasons, or no justification at all for rescinding their admissions. The unexpected reversals forced hundreds of students to appeal the decisions or look for other options for the upcoming school year.

"This was really heartbreaking for me," Simran Chopra, 18, of Los Angeles told the Orange County Register, asserting that she mailed the university her transcript before the July 1 deadline. When she found out her admission was pulled, she said, she locked herself in a bathroom and cried.

On Friday, after significant student protest, UC Irvine's Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Thomas A. Parham published an explanation for the decisions, which he acknowledged were "disappointing and frightening" to many affected students.

This year, Parham said, the university was faced with "unprecedented demand" from prospective students, receiving 104,000 applications. This was the third highest number of applications at any college nationwide, he said. Moreover, the number of accepted students who decided to enroll for fall classes was higher than anticipated.

About 7,100 admitted freshman students registered for fall classes as of May, the Los Angeles Times reported. That's 850 more students than UC Irvine had planned for.

And as a result of the over-enrollment, the university took a more stringent approach to the terms and conditions that are outlined in every incoming student's provisional admissions offer, including submitting transcripts and test scores by a certain deadline and upholding adequate grades through the end of senior year.

Though these contractual terms and conditions are in place every year, "I acknowledge that we took a harder line on the terms and conditions this year and we could have managed that process with greater care, sensitivity, and clarity about available options," Parham said in his apologetic statement.

Tom Vasich, interim media relations director, clarified in an interview with The Washington Post on Sunday that the university is not withdrawing offers to any students because more students accepted admissions than planned.

"Students had their provisional approvals withdrawn because full transcripts and test scores were not submitted in time or because of poor senior grades," Vasich said. He said it is "upsetting" and "damaging" that students and some media outlets have framed the withdrawals as the direct result of over-enrollment.

Every year, students have admissions offer revoked through no fault of their own - sometimes it's because a high school failed to process the transcript or because a teacher submitted the wrong grade. For this reason, Parham is urging students to appeal decisions they feel were unfair or done in error.

As of Friday, 64 appeals had led to reinstated admissions, Vasich said, and more may be approved this week. The admissions staff has sped up the appeals process and is "diligently" working through the requests in the hope of processing all of them by the end of this coming week.

"Accepted students who meet the terms of the offer letter are welcomed to the UCI Family," Vasich said. "No one will be turned away due to over-enrollment."

Still, the withdrawals have left hundreds of students temporarily in limbo dealing with a nerve-racking headache. Students complained on Reddit threads and in Facebook groups, pleading for clarity and assistance. In a joint statement from the Associated Students of UC Irvine, the student organization demanded that administrators and admissions staff release clear explanations for each withdrawn offer, reimburse all fees associated with the unfairly revoked acceptances, and establish a special transfer agreement contract for any students who may now be choosing to spend their first two years at a community college.

The withdrawn acceptances have prompted outrage among students and non-students alike across the country, while also serving as a reminder of the potential risks of "senioritis" - or letting grades drop at the end of senior year.

It's not the first time a university has made headlines for overturning acceptances. Although in many recent cases, the admissions were granted in error, due to technical glitches. At Columbia University earlier this year, the Mailman School of Public Health accidentally sent offers of admission to 277 students, telling students the offers were erroneous about an hour later. Carnegie Mellon and Tulane recently made similar mistakes, and in 2009 the University of California-San Diego accidentally told 28,000 students they were accepted, when they were actually denied admission.

Vasich said he did not know how this year's numbers of withdrawn admissions to UC Irvine compared to last year's. But as the Los Angeles Times noted, UC Irvine's numbers were much larger than other UC schools. UCLA withdrew seven freshman offers this year and UC San Diego revoked nine. UC Davis has averaged about 150 in each of the last two years, a spokeswoman told the newspaper, but has not yet released its notices this year.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Ashley Gonzalez, 18, said UC Irvine notified her the campus had not received one of the two required transcripts by the July 1 deadline, even though she and her mother are certain they mailed documents two weeks in advance. Gonzalez, whose Guatemalan immigrant parents did not attend high school, said UC Irvine was her dream school.

When she found out her admission offer was revoked, "I felt I was going to pass out," she told the newspaper. "I couldn't stop crying."

In written testimonies published by the Associated Students of UC Irvine, another student made similar assertions about a transcript "getting lost along the way." The student offered to "literally drive 3 hours to Irvine to give them another transcript but I don't know if that's allowed or if they will accept it."

The student is "currently trying to just figure it out because I've spent over $1,000 already trying to get into the college and now I'm going to lose that along with other scholarship money which equaled about 6,000 plus dollars," the student wrote.

"Why didn't you give students a chance to check up on transcripts after July 15th instead of just immediately withdrawing their admissions?" another student wrote. "How do transcripts somehow get lost in the process?"

In an email, Vasich acknowledged that the way the school officials communicated with students, and the appeals process they established, "were not adequate. And we need to do better, immediately."

"Parham is personally reviewing admissions processes to ensure this does not happen again," Vasich said.

But some students don't have the patience for apologies or appeals. Some, like Julia Kim, of Claremont, California, decided not to take the risk of waiting for an appeal to be processed, Kim told the Orange County Register.

After considering community college or a gap year, she committed to a different school that had previously admitted her: Clark University, in Massachusetts.
"In Search of Stardust: Amazing Micrometeorites and Their Terrestrial Imposters"

by Jon Larsen

Micrometeorites are everywhere. Think of them as tiny space invaders - specks of dust, sometimes smaller than a grain of sand, that have survived a trip through space and a hellacious entry into Earth's atmosphere. They're so small that most can't be seen by the naked eye. Until recently, scientists thought they were too small to be spotted in populated areas.

A new book by Jon Larsen takes a closer look at these extraterrestrial particles - a much closer look. "In Search of Stardust: Amazing Micrometeorites and Their Terrestrial Imposters" uses high-resolution microscopes to home in on the glittering, strangely shaped debris.

Larsen, a Norwegian jazz musician, began his search for the miniature space rocks after one landed on his outdoor table near Oslo. The glistening speck caught his eye, and he wondered whether it had come from space. He did some research and learned that because of the debris generated by humans, scientists doubted that this dust could be detected in or near cities at all.

The problem is the particles' tiny size - and the man-made contaminants that conceal them in urban areas. Larsen collected hundreds of samples of sludge and dirt from all seven continents. He figured out how to separate micrometeorites from the grime that surrounds them and proved that the space stones can be found in cities.

Larsen tells the scientific story of urban micrometeorites, but the magnified photos of the microscopic particles are the reason to pick up his book.

It's unclear where they come from: They could originate in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter or even be made of material that existed before the sun formed. But their mysterious origins make their weird textures, shapes and colors even more intriguing.

You don't have to be a scientist to enjoy "In Search of Stardust," just someone who wonders what's beyond Earth's borders. The book is a reminder that space isn't far away: If you look carefully, some of it is right in front of you.
What is a storybook house? It's a quaint style of architecture known for its cottage-inspired sloping roof, turret, and other fanciful features. Also called fairy-tale homes, they essentially look like a family of elves or maybe Snow White herself would answer the door if you knocked.

Although these houses evoke visions of the European countryside, this style is wholly Americanspecifically, Hollywood in the 1920s. At that time, soldiers had recently returned from Europe after World War I, and those who went to work in Los Angeles' film industry (including Walt Disney, who drove an ambulance in Europe) often built sets inspired by the villages they saw in England, Belgium, and France.

Silent films were often set in Europe in an earlier era, and actors, set designers, and audiences alike fell for the charming look of the houses in these film sets," says Douglas Keister, photographer and co-author of "Storybook Style: America's Whimsical Homes of the 1920s."

A history of storybook houses

The home thought to be the original storybook house was known as the "Witch's House," built in 1921 on a studio lot, designed by an art director to serve both as offices and a film set. In 1926, the house was converted to a residence and moved to a corner in Beverly Hills, CA, where it remains today (and where it scored a cameo in the movie "Clueless").

The "Witch's House," built in 1921, is believed to be the first storybook house. Douglas Keister/Studio Publishers

It wasnt long before storybook houses began cropping up around Los Angeles, and the style spread to the Northern California communities of Oakland, Alameda, and Chico. They eventually reached as far as Spokane, WA; Louisville, KY; and Milwaukee.

The style lost popularity during the Depression, because these houses are relatively expensive to build and the style probably seemed frivolous during the nations era of economic malaise. So, they are still a relatively rare style to seewhich makes encountering one all the more enchanting.

Features of a storybook house

Although many cottage-style houses might be described as a "fairy-tale house," true storybook houses share specific characteristics. They are almost always made of stucco or brick, and feature curving walls that suggest premodern building techniques and steeply sloping rooftops, which make it look like gravity has taken its toll over the years. Windows tend to be tiny, and a winding path leads to a front door with a tiny porch or no porch at all. They sometimes feature medieval design features like rounded doors, rounded ceilings, or birdhouses on the roof called dovecotes that lend a theatrical flair.

The one thing they all have in common is an element of whimsy, a flourish that makes you smile, says Keister.

Kathleen Cavender's storybook style home in Spokane, WA. Ryan Lindberg

Pros and cons of a storybook house

A storybook house might provoke a strong reaction among potential home buyersthose who crave expansive, light-filled rooms or a sleek modern style wont take to the small scale and specific aesthetic of these houses. But people looking for a cozy and fanciful home will be smitten.

It looks like Bilbo Baggins might have lived here, and it has oodles of charm, says Kathleen Cavender, an artist and jazz musician who recently moved into a storybook house in Spokane. While her homes small rooms and single bathroom wouldnt work for a large family, shes an empty nester who appreciates having less to clean and maintain.

These kinds of homes do dictate a bit how you can decorate them, says Cavender, who sticks to classic or antique pieces rather than anything contemporary, which could strike a discordant note next to the homes textured walls and rounded ceilings.

If you love the idea of seeing your life unfold on such a quaint backdrop, a storybook home could be your happily ever after.

The post What Is a Storybook House? A Home Straight Out of a Fairy Tale appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com.
President Xi Jinping said China needs to speed up the modernization of its military to fend off threats in increasingly dangerous times.

"The world isn't safe at this moment" Xi, wearing a camouflauge military uniform, said on Sunday after riding in an open jeep at an army parade in Inner Mongolia. "A strong army is needed now more than ever."

The speech came just hours after U.S. President Donald Trump lambasted China for failing to do more to stop North Korea's nuclear program, saying "we will no longer allow this to continue." North Korea, which relies on ally China for food and fuel, test-fired a second intercontinental ballistic missile late on Friday night.

Over the past two years, Xi has overseen the most sweeping changes to China's military since the 1950s in an effort to create a fighting force that can win modern wars. The modernization drive, which has focused on expanding China's air and naval reach, is challenging more than 70 years of U.S. military dominance in the Western Pacific.

The parade at Zhurihe Training Base on Sunday marked the 90th anniversary of the creation of the People's Liberation Army. It featured the Chengdu J-20, China's stealth jet fighter that some have compared to the F-22 Raptor. About 40 percent of the military equipment in the parade was publicly displayed for the first time, according to Phoenix TV, a pro-Beijing media outlet.

Two decades of budget increases on the back of surging economic growth have turned China into the world's second-largest military spender. China's neighbors have grown increasingly worried about its increased assertiveness over disputed territory in recent years.

Xi is reducing the 2.3-million strong force by 300,000 troops, mostly from the army, while expanding the navy and adding new rocket, cyber and outer-space capabilities. He's cut the number of military regions to five from seven "joint theater commands," and strengthened China's Central Military Commission, the Communist Party body that runs the military.

China's military will remain by far the world's largest, with more than 600,000 more active service members than the U.S., according to estimates by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

The primary goal of the PLA is to ensure the Communist Party stays in power -- a mission Xi reminded troops of on Sunday.

"Heed the party's order forever, follow the party's step forever, and always fight toward the direction where the party points," Xi said.

--With assistance from Yinan Zhao
A private museum covered with some 700 million porcelain shards will be auctioned in August, as the owner is currently bogged down in an economic dispute.

The museum, also known as Chinas Porcelain House, was opened and renovated by Zhang Lianzhi, a Chinese businessman and porcelain collector in Tianjin in 2007. Zhang spent ten years turning a former French-style building with a history of 100 years into a porcelain-covered edifice, covering the architecture with over 700 million ancient porcelain shards, more than 13,000 antique chinaware, and hundreds of pieces of vintage furniture, according to Beijing News.

The controversial renovation has been boycotted by many organizations and scholars, who accused Zhang of destroying a historic cultural relic. The museums bizarre appearance has also drawn pungent criticisms from the public, with many calling the Porcelain House a shame and failure in the history of Chinese architecture. Despite the public odium, the museum has attracted many visitors both from China and abroad, securing a position on many tourism websites as one of Tianjins most famous scenic spots.

But as famous as it is, the house still cannot elude the fate of being auctioned due to Zhangs debt problems. In June, a Tianjin court issued an announcement to auction the Porcelain House by the end of July, but later postponed the date to Aug. 8. According to Beijing News, the local court assessed the building minus the porcelain decoration at 140 million RMB, while Zhangs company assessed the architecture alone at 330 million RMB and the porcelain decoration at around 9.8 billion RMB. Based on an agreement signed by Zhang and the court, the auction will not include the porcelain decoration.

The whopping price of the porcelain decorations has stirred up a controversy online. In response to public doubt over the decorations true value, Zhang said all the porcelain shards are authentic ancient art crafts, adding that anyone who can find a modern counterfeit will be offered 100,000 RMB as a prize.

Zhangs claim has been denounced by many experts who said that a large number of the museums porcelain decoration is modern art crafts that have little historic significance. Bian Zhengming, a renowned connoisseur in porcelain art, told the Beijing Times that the Porcelain House does not possess valuable ancient porcelain art crafts, adding that many of the porcelain shards are modern counterfeits.

The museums porcelain decoration will become ancient stuff after [another] 200 years, said Bian.

Neither Zhang nor the local court could be reached for comment.
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The family of Dennis Reeves has dropped their case against the Kirbyville school district almost two months after his suicide.

Tammy Reeves, the wife of Dennis Reeves, filed a Notice of Nonsuit Monday through her attorney Chip Ferguson. The notice was filed without prejudice meaning no judgement was entered and they can potentially re-file.

"It appears they have abandoned their claims against the district," said Sara Leon, the district's attorney. "They have withdrawn their request for documents."

The decision comes just days after the district claimed in Beaumont's Ninth Court of Appeals that it was immune from a potential lawsuit by the family.

Leon said in the brief that the family's motion for a temporary injunction protecting evidence related to Reeves' May death and their motion to take depositions of more than 30 people are insufficient because they don't allege a specific claim against the school district.

As a governmental entity, the school district is immune from most lawsuits. Leon argued that because the family's filings do not allege a specific claim that would be an exception to immunity, Jefferson County's 136th District Judge Baylor Wortham does not have jurisdiction over the matter.

Wortham previously granted the family a temporary restraining order for the evidence. The order expired on June 30. A scheduled hearing on the motion for depositions was halted by the district's appeal to the higher court.

Beaumont's Ninth Court of Appeals denied the family's petition to dismiss the district's appeal last week.

Reeves' body was found in his truck in the Kirbyville High School parking lot on May 23, less than an hour after he was confronted by Superintendent Tommy Wallis and Assistant Superintendent Georgia Sayers about an alleged affair with a district employee. Police said Reeves died by suicide.
Students looking to make the big bucks out of college may want to turn their attention to a few particular schools.

Two Texas schools made Money's list of the "25 Best Public Colleges for Big Paychecks," a ranking of universities nationwide offering students the largest return on their investments.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 5 1 of 5 Eric Gay, STF / Associated Press Show More Show Less 2 of 5 Sergio Martinez-Beltran Show More Show Less 3 of 5 4 of 5 Eric Gay, STF / Associated Press Show More Show Less 5 of 5









Almost 150 migrants from Central America who had been traveling north in an unventilated tractor-trailer were rescued in the Mexican state of Veracruz after smugglers left them behind, according to medial reports.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Mexican officials rescued 147 migrants from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua who were likely taking the same route as the vehicle that left 10 people dead in San Antonio earlier this month.
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A 24-year-old man is now facing a murder charge in the death of his father, whose decomposing body was found covered in salt and Oder Eater foot powder in a Central Texas home last week.

Skye McMillon was previously charged with tampering or fabricating physical evidence, a second-degree felony. He still faces the tampering charge, but evidence at the scene and autopsy findings caused detectives to seek the additional charge of murder, according to Kristen Dark, a spokeswoman for the Travis County Sheriff's Office.

RELATED: 24-year-old arrested after his father's body was found in 'advanced stage of decomposition' in C. TX

According to online Travis County Jail records, McMillon remains in the Travis County Jail on a $600,000 bond.

Steven Nurse's body was discovered around 10:30 a.m. on July 23 at a home in the 10000 block of Sandy Beach Road. An autopsy later revealed he died from blunt force trauma to the skull and throat, authorities said.

Deputies responded to the home after a caller reported Nurse missing, saying he hadn't been to work for several days, officials said.

Deputies contacted McMillon, who was convicted in 2011 of striking Nurse in the head with a shovel as he slept, to ask if he knew where Nurse might be.

According to McMillon's probable cause affidavit, he told the deputies that his father was ill and that he had dropped him off at a hospital in downtown Austin on July 21.

When no hospital in Austin reported admitting Nurse for treatment, deputies contacted McMillon again, and he voluntarily signed a consent form allowing authorities to search his father's home, according to the affidavit.

The deputies found Nurse's body in an "advanced stage of decomposition" in the downstairs bedroom, according to a statement from the Travis County Sheriff's Office.

RELATED: BCSO: Uninvited guest opens fire when asked to leave 100-person party at Leon Springs AirBnB

"The smell of decomposition was overwhelming upon entering," deputies say in the probable cause affidavit.

According to the probably cause affidavit, Nurse's body was partially covered with a comforter, blanket and towels. Deputies say someone sprinkled salt and Odor Eater foot powder over the body in an attempt to conceal the smell. There were also a number of candles on a table near the body and in the hallway outside the bedroom.

Further analysis revealed traces of a large pool of blood in the living room, and a trail of blood leading to the bedroom, where Nurse was later found, authorities said.

"A bloody area rug was folded and located on the bed," the probable cause affidavit says. "Upon further examination, Steven's work identification card, safety glasses and towels that were covered in blood were located. During the search of the trash receptacle on the outside of the residence, a black wallet with Steven's current Texas driver's license was located inside a trash bag along with more blood-soaked towels."

The deputies said they also found a note in the trash that said the father-son pair were on vacation, but Nurse or McMillon could be contacted by phone.

Detectives met with McMillon after the discovery. He again told them that he had taken Nurse to the hospital and that he hadn't spoken to him after that, officials said. He also told police that he had last left the house where the body was found around 6:30 a.m., when a friend named Andi took him to work at the Dillard's in the Galleria mall, according to the affidavit.

Representatives at Dillard's reportedly told authorities they had no employee's by the name of Skye McMillon, and residents at "Andi's" supposed address said that no one by that name lived there, authorities said.

Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com

cdowns@mysa.com

Twitter: @calebjdowns
Deputies are looking for a trio of suspects after they allegedly set up a deal to buy a pair of Jordan sneakers on the Northeast Side, then shot the seller and took the shoes.

The shooting was reported around 5:45 a.m. in the 7500 block of Lincoln Village Drive.
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A Schertz man was arrested on a charge of indecency with a child Thursday after a 12-year-old girl texted police for help, officials said.

Reginald Earl Sweed Jr., 25, was taken into custody by San Antonio police around 3:04 a.m. He remained in Bexar County Jail on a $50,000 bond Friday.

The girl sent the message requesting help shortly after 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to an affidavit.

Related: Converse teen began sexually assaulting relative when victim was 6-years-old, police say

Sweed, a friend of her mother's, came to the apartment around 4:30 p.m. to visit them and swim in the apartment complex's pool, the affidavit says.

The mother and daughter went to their rooms to take a nap, the girl reportedly told police.

The girl told police Sweed burst into her room minutes later, grabbed her arm and touched her genitals. She told Sweed to stop several times and kicked his shins until he laughed and exited the room, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit says the girl was visibly shaken and began to cry when she identified the suspect to police.

Indecency with a child, a second-degree felony, is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com

fsabawi@mysa.com

Twitter: @FaresInSA
Mexican army officials freed a kidnapped man, and seized weapons, armored vans and a hand grenade during a search of a Gulf Cartel house near the Texas border, according to an El Blog del Narco report.

Army personnel liberated a man kidnapped by the cartel in Reynosa, which sits along the Texas-Mexico Border near McAllen, July 28, El Blog del Narco reported. The publication said roughly 200 soldiers stormed the house earlier this month and recovered dozens of items including the following:
A military parade is held to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) at Zhurihe training base in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, July 30, 2017. (Xinhua/Wang Jianhua)

China on Sunday kicked off its first-ever military parade that commemorates Army Day, flexing its military muscle and showing off its advanced domestically-made weapons.

According to Thepaper.cn, dozens of Chinas leading weaponry and technology companies had participated in the grand military parade, sending their most cutting-edge military equipment and arsenals. Aviation Industry Corporation of China, the countrys aviation technology giant, showcased 129 domestically-designed warplanes during the event, adding that 40 percent of its latest military equipment was shown for the first time at the parade.

Twenty-four helicopters fly in the formation of the number "90" symbolizing the epic journey of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in 90 years during a military parade at Zhurihe training base in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, July 30, 2017. China on Sunday kicked off a grand military parade to mark the 90th founding anniversary of the PLA. (Xinhua/Zha Chunming)

The China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, a leading technology group that specializes in communication equipment and software development, used over 70 auxiliaries and some security equipment to ensure that the parade ran smoothly. The companys airborne early warning aircrafts that can monitor multiple targets simultaneously and transmit data instantly were also a hit at the parade.

Tanks are reviewed in a military parade at Zhurihe training base in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, July 30, 2017. China on Sunday kicked off a grand military parade to mark the 90th founding anniversary of the People's Liberation Army. (Xinhua/Li Gang)

Once reliant on foreign countries for its arsenal, China has been making great efforts to design and modernize its military forces. President Xi Jinping, who is also the chairman of the Central Military Commission, highlighted theoretical and technological innovation as the key to upgrade the countrys military and national defense in 2016, urging the armed forces to fully implement an innovation-driven development strategy.
A tiny percentage of police officers has been committing terrible shootings of innocent citizens. There seems to be an abundance of that in the news. One can only say, in hindsight, that those police officers should not have been police officers. Whether it be a black policeman shooting an innocent white citizen, or a white policeman killing an innocent black citizen, it is just plain wrong. Those kinds of flawed police officers need to be discovered in the hiring process.

I pray that those police departments responsible for hiring human beings to protect and serve make more sound judgments in the future. I would also like to see, at the least, equal reporting of the many good things that most police officers accomplish daily to counter the negative news in both the print and visual media. The preponderance of bad press must have a depressing effect on those officers who finish their watch spotlessly and with distinction.

R.L. Hunzeker

GOP gators

Re: Those gator dems, Your turn, July 21:

It appears the writer is suffering from amnesia or an overdose of fake news because his narrative is incomplete. How soon we forget how President Obama was treated by the Party of No. The writer also fails to acknowledge the GOP controls the House, the Senate, and the presidency, and yet we have seen no meaningful legislation. Oh, I know. Those gators in Congress are not eating all that red meat being processed. I am thankful there are a few members of Congress who have demonstrated a desire to do the right thing for America. God bless America.

D. M. Lopez

Embrace Mexico

OK, here goes a wild idea. Why dont we ask Mexico if they would like to join the United States? They would add such a diverse population, it would solve the immigration problem, and slowly but surely do away with corruption in government that has been their hallmark.

We could use our considerable force of law to throw out the cartels, eventually stopping the massive flow of drugs. We could provide laws and government to help them all obtain good paying jobs. We could eliminate a long and probably useless wall. Mexican citizens would join us in making a country spanning from Canada to Guatemala. All anyone desires in this world is a government that works and an environment that supports work, play and the greater good.

Jack Hardy

Phantom problem

I am no expert on transgenderism, but in decades of psychiatric practice, I have seen a few patients so diagnosed.

The lieutenant governor says he is concerned with safety, but it seems to me he has it exactly backward. Transgender males are often on hormones that greatly reduce or obliterate any sex drive. In fact, they are the same hormones prescribed for male sex offenders as a condition of probation or parole.

Ive never seen any statistics regarding restroom offenses. Why not? They should be easy to collect  perhaps for a masters thesis on sociology. Till we have those, I cant tell if there is really a problem that needs fixing.

Henry P. Hare Jr., M.D.

Skin color

Re: Character vs. color, Your Turn, July 23:

When did the content of the character become less important than the color of the skin? the letter writer asks.

It wasnt that many years ago that the color of your skin was the determining factor in the success a person could expect during his lifetime. When I returned from military service, I had aspirations about what to do with my life. I went to one state agency to inquire about a position and was quickly informed that they could give me an application, but they did not hire Mexicans. Its easy for people to conveniently forget about our recent history in Texas.

Jesse Ortiz
Renovation work on one of downtown San Antonios most glaring examples of urban blight is set to begin in the next few weeks now that financing has been lined up.

A group of local investors and financial institutions are bankrolling the $12 million project to renovate a 10-story building near the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts into 54 high-end apartments, local developer Craig Glendenning said. He declined to name the investors.

In about three weeks, workers will start removing the buildings dingy facade to expose its original 1920s-era brick exterior with terracotta decorations, said Glendenning, who is partnering with real estate broker Uriel Villareal on the project. They hope to finish renovating the building in a year, but it could take up to 18 months, he said.

Youre not going to believe what it looks like under that facade, he said. It will make a big difference in the complexion of that whole area.

RELATED: Rooftop farms, white roads and 16 other creative ways S.A. residents want to improve the city

The building, at 601 N. St. Marys, was one of San Antonios first high-rise structures when it was built in the late 1920s, but has become an eyesore after sitting vacant since at least the early 90s. Its known as the Hedrick building, but it is being rebranded as the Flats at St. Marys, Glendenning said.

Apartment rents in the building will be priced at just under $2 a square foot, Glendenning said, which would make them some of the most expensive in San Antonio. Its in a high-profile part of downtown, a block south of the River Walk and a block north of the Weston Centre office tower.

The development team also plans to rehabilitate a two-story historic building down the block into street-level retail with a handful of small apartments on the second floor, said Miguel Saldana, a senior associate with B&A Architects who is working on the project. The apartments will likely be used as short-term rentals, Glendenning said. The rooftop might be turned into a bar connected to a restaurant on the ground floor.

RELATED: Maverick building apartments to add affordable units downtown

The partners also want to build a wrap-around parking garage with more than 100 spaces, but will need additional approval from the city, Glendenning said.

The city has awarded the project roughly $1 million in incentives, including $260,200 in fee waivers, a $466,100 property tax rebate and a $324,000 development loan that could be forgiven if the builders meet certain conditions, said John Jacks, director of the citys Center City Development and Operations Department.

Glendenning and his partner are going through the application process for federal historic tax credits for the two-story building, he said. They plan to apply for credits for the 10-story building after the facade is taken off.

RWebner@express-news.net

@rwebner
Zhang Lanping has been teaching for 33 years now, but what makes her special is her pair of crutches.

The courageous teacher from Gansu province was afflicted by poliomyelitis, an infectious disease caused by poliovirus, when she was only one-year-old.

Zhang was not able to fully recover and therefore has to use crutches for the rest of her life.

This condition, however, has not diminished Zhangs spirit. Instead, it has made her stronger to aspire for bigger dreams than her able-bodied counterparts.

As a student, Zhang devoted herself to acquiring knowledge, which she believes would make her a successful teacher.

After graduation, Zhang applied as a college teacher but she was turned down because of her physical disability.

Zhang did not give up and was finally accepted as a primary school teacher in her hometown in Gansu province, which then experienced a shortage of teachers.

For able-bodied people, it takes only six minutes to reach school, but Zhang has to spend one hour from home to her work place using crutches.

Zhang recalled that one winter day, she slipped and fell in snow, but still managed to reach school on time.

In 1997, Zhang spent 1,000 RMB ($148) from her savings to put up a reading corner she named Enlightenment.

Zhangs efforts have not been in vain as the academic performance of her students is among the best in the district.

In 2002, Zhang launched a charity foundation funded by philanthropists from Guangdong and Hong Kong.

The foundation now assists poor students, orphaned and disabled children, and senior citizens.
Former Higher and Tertiary Education minister Jonathan Moyo says he is not holed up in Kenya, but still kept his whereabouts a secret for fear of his life.

Im on Twitter; not in Kenya. Its an open secret that Zanu PF putschists who are insecure in their military coup imagine Im in Kenya or want me to be in Kenya so they can send their murderous SAS there, after their attempt to assassinate me in Harare on 15 November 2017! Moyo wrote in his latest post on Twitter.

Putschists is a German word meaning push.

It means an attempt to overthrow a government by force.

The sharp-tongued politician has been a pain in the backside for President Emmerson Mnangagwas government ever since he skipped the country last November to escape being apprehended by the army.

This was after the military stormed out of the barracks to allegedly deal with criminals around former president Robert Mugabe, who ended up resigning to stymie an impeachment motion that had been set off in Parliament.

Among the criminals, Moyo had the biggest prize on his head.

The former Cabinet minister previously revealed that he was saved by Mugabe and his wife as the army bayed for his blood.

Moyo accompanied the revelation with pictures of his Harare home, which had blood-stained floors supposedly as a result of the torture he was allegedly subjected to while in military captivity.

Special thanks to president Mugabe and Amai Dr Mugabe for saving us when the Junta tried to kill us on 15 Nov, he wrote on Twitter back then.

Recently, Moyo was at it again, criticising Mnangagwa for paying a visit to MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.

He tweeted: This is no PR Coup and no history. Its ambulance-chasing propaganda for the optics of exploiting the poor health of a terminally ill political rival. The propaganda is cynical, crude, desperate and unAfrican. It intrudes into & violates a constitutionally protected right to privacy.

But a State media columnist, Bishop Lazarus, wrote over the weekend that Moyo had no moral ground to criticise Mnangagwa over the visit.

Bishop Lazarus said Moyo was still buried in the toxic Generation 40 (G40) politics.

We all know Tsvangirai is not well and so when the president and his VP visited him, the sober people of the world applauded the move saying this is Ubuntu at its best. My good brother Nelson Chamisa hailed the gesture as new politics, he opined.

Bishop Lazarus also hinted that when Moyo escaped Zimbabwe, he might have left his family in the care of Mugabe.

Prof Moyo is not qualified to preach to us about being unAfrican. There is no African man who abandons his wife and kids when in trouble. African men stand for and with their wives and kids in times of trouble. But what did the professor do during Operation Restore Legacy? He dumped his wife, a foreigner for that matter, and his kids at former president Mugabes house. Leaving even a mentally challenged son in the care of a 93-year-old man? Hakuna baba vakadaro muAfrica, the columnist wrote

Prof Moyo wants to preach to us about being unAfrican? Is there any real African man who would dumps his family to save his skin? Iko kusanyara. Your wife is from Kenya iwe womutiza uchimhanya kuKenya. Wakaudza anatezvara kuti chii? What did you tell your in-laws? Wakati mwana wavo aripi?

Moyo is currently under investigation for allegedly siphoning over $400 000 from the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund.

Mnangagwa has said he has forgiven G40 kingpins apart from three former ministers, namely Saviour Kasukuwere, Patrick Zhuwao and Moyo.

Whatever wrong we might have done to you, we need to forgive I have forgiven the cabal and they are in the country except for only three who remain outside and still saying funny things but all that will soon come to an end, Mnangagwa said.

Newly-appointed Womens Affairs secretary in Zanu PF Mabel Chinomona has called on government to make sure that Moyo, Kasukuwere and Zhuwao are extradited back onto the country to face corruption charges.

We will not rest until these people are brought back and face the full wrath of the law. What they are saying from wherever they are is not helping matters, Chinomona said at the partys extraordinary congress last month.

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MUNICH  German retailer Edeka Sudbayern is launching a new c-store concept, Edeka Xpress. About 50 of the 170-plus Tengelmann sites that the retailer is taking over will be converted to the Xpress format by the end of September.

"During the introduction of the xpress format, we are optimizing the numerous small-scale Tengelmann locations in terms of product range and shop design and giving it a sharper profile," said Claus Hollinger, managing director of Edeka Sudbayern. "With the new distribution rail, we are thus creating a differentiation from the classic Edeka locations, which offer an above-average wide and deep full range on larger areas."

At about 600 square meters, the product mix at the Xpress format will be tailored to the needs of the market. The stores will emphasis its fresh offers including fruits and vegetables, fresh herbs and a dry assortment in a modern shopping atmosphere.

From the outside, the stores will be recognizable by the new Edeka Xpress brand, along with the city logo. "We underline the consistent orientation of the markets to the needs of our customers," explained Claus Hollinger.

The initial launch of the Xpress c-stores will be Munich, Starnberg, Freising, Augsburg and Bad Tolz.
One-nanometer trimetallic alloy particles created (Nanowerk News) The principal component of petroleum and natural gas are hydrocarbons and their mixtures, and are indispensable as resources supporting modern infrastructure as raw materials for the petrochemical industry.

A technique which has been conventionally used to create beneficial chemical products from hydrocarbons was to use a large amount of metallic peroxides in hazardous organic solvents to oxidize hydrocarbon compounds. To use resources effectively and to reduce environmental impact, clean catalytic oxidization without solvents using the oxygen in the air has been a popular research subject in recent years.

Research of noble metal nanoparticles supported on porous carbon materials or metallic oxides are especially prevalent, and they are viewed as promising catalysts. Vital elements determining the reactivity of such heterogeneous catalysts are the shape, size, and metallic composition of the metallic nanoparticles.

Particles of a size less than 2 nm have especially gained attention in the development of new high-performance catalysts, since it has been found that reducing the diameter of the catalyst particle not only increases the surface area ratio but greatly changes the state of the electrons on the surface of the metals, greatly changing its reactivity.

However, the method of synthesizing metallic nanoparticles of such a size while controlling both its diameter and composition had not been discovered.

The research group led by Kimihisa Yamamoto of Tokyo institute of Technology developed a method of synthesizing microscopic alloy nanoparticles using branched molecules "dendrimers" they themselves had developed in Yamamoto Atom Hybrid Project on the ERATO program, the Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology, research funding program supported by Japan Science and Technology Agency (Science Advances, "Finely controlled multimetallic nanocluster catalysts for solvent-free aerobic oxidation of hydrocarbons").

Synthetic methods for MNCs in solution. (A) Typical synthetic method for MNCs resulting in a statistical distribution in size and metal composition. (B) New synthetic approach using a dendrimer template whose coordination sites have a basicity gradient. (click on image to enlarge)

Molecules called dendrimers have a regular branching structure with only one definite molecular weight although they are classified as macromolecules. The research group implemented many coordination sites for forming metal ions and complexes. By using a dendrimer with such coordination sites as a template for the nanoparticle, the group was able to synthesize a nanoparticle with a controlled number of atoms.

Further, they evaluated the activity of this alloy nanoparticle as an oxidization catalyst for hydrocarbons under ordinary pressures when using oxygen in the air as the oxidizing agent, and found that its activity was 24 times greater than that of commercially available catalysts for oxidization of organic compounds.

They also found that, by adding a catalytic amount of organic hydroperoxide, this catalyst promotes the oxidization of hydrocarbon into aldehydes and ketones under ordinary temperatures and pressures. Further, by comparing the changes in activity due to alloy catalysts of different metallic compositions and examining the composition and other characteristics of the intermediates, ketones and organic hydroperoxides, the group was able to observe the process of reaction promotion due to the alloying of the catalyst.

Future Development

The catalytic transformation of inactive hydrocarbons to substances with higher added value is a technology garnering much attention in recent times. The knowledge gained from this research is anticipated to become a design guideline for new high-performance catalysts. The method for synthesizing alloy nanoparticles developed in this research can be used generally and applied to other metals.

For this reason, this could be said to be the technology uncovering the reactivity of other microscopic alloy nanoparticles, whose catalytic performance had not been known.
Find the newest releases to watch from National Geographic on Disney+, including favourite documentary series and films Free Solo, The Rescue, Shark Beach with Chris Hemsworth and The World According to Jeff Goldblum.
The death of an 8 year-old boy from Clonmel in a boating tragedy in Boston shocked communities on both sides of the Atlantic, this weekend.

Harry OConnor was on a boating trip with his family when the vessel capsized. The little boy was rescued from the water and airlifted to hospital but he later died of his injuries.

Harry lived in Sudbury, Boston, with his parents Paudie O'Connor and Laura Lenehan and siblings Ellen, Charlie and Joe. The family are from Poulnaganogue, Clonmel. He was a student at Nixon Elementary School.

In Clonmel Harry attended Gaelscoil Cluain Meala and had been in the Montessori class at Clonmel Childcare.

Harry is mourned by grandparents Pat and Marie OConnor, Margaret and the late Johnny Lenehan, aunts, uncles, his cousins and a large circle of friends and neighbours.

The little boy was part of a family outing on a motorboat on the Cape Cod Canal, last Wednesday afternoon, when it capsized. 12 people were thrown into the water. A rescue operation sprung into action and most of those in the boat were quickly pulled from the water, however Harry was trapped under the capsized boat for about 20 minutes. He was airlifted to Boston Childrens Hospital, where he sadly passed away yesterday (Sunday).

Paying tribute to the little boy, a spokesperson for St Mary's Hurling Club in Clonmel said: "The extreme tragedy befallen on the O'Connor family in America of little Harry has shaken the entire community. Prior to moving to the United States, the O'Connors were regular visitors to our club grounds and valued members of the community with Harry's siblings involved in our teams. Our sincere and heartfelt sympathies go the family and this extremely sad news. Ar dheis De go raibh a anam."

Funeral details

Reposing at the home of John and Barbara Lenehan, Downstown, Duleek, Co. Meath on Wednesday afternoon from 3pm to 8pm. Removal on Thursday morning to St. Cianan's Church for Requiem Mass on arrival at 11am and thereafter to Holy Cross Cemetery. No flowers please. Donations, if desired, to Crumlin Childrens Hospital.

More news...

68 year-old Tipperary pedestrian killed in hit and run
(Natural News) Earlier this month in the Pyrenees, an investigation confirmed that 169 sheep threw themselves over the edge of a cliff in a desperate attempt to escape the wrath of a pursuant brown bear. Authorities said that they were able to confirm that it was a bear that chased them over the edge because of the fur they found on one of the dead sheep at the bottom of the cliff.

What was an unfortunate end for dozens of sheep in the Pyrenees is also a perfect metaphor for the progressive agenda and the overall political climate Americans have been living under for the past eight years. Just as the bear was able to scare the sheep right over the cliff, the modern day leftists routinely use fear and scare tactics to coerce the American people into doing exactly what they want them to do.

To give just one example out of many, the liberals constantly use scare tactics to advance their radical anti-gun, anti-Second Amendment agenda. As the left wing narrative goes, unless Americans come to their senses and surrender their firearms to an all-powerful centralized government, then innocent people, including young children, will die.

Not long after the tragic shooting that occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut, Barack Obama delivered a speech on the need for more gun control while standing next to four young people, all of whom had supposedly written letters to the president asking him to take action.

These are some pretty smart letters from some pretty smart young people, Obama said. He then went on to read an excerpt from a letter written by one of the kids, who happened to be in third grade: I feel terrible for the parents who lost their children, Obama quoted from the letter. I love my country, and I want everybody to be happy, and safe.

Obama then went on to quote a child named Grant, who wrote in his letter, I think there should be some changes. We should learn from what happened at Sandy Hook. I feel really bad. Next, he read part of a letter written by a girl named Julia: Im not scared for my safety, Im scared for others. I have four brothers and sisters, and I know I would not be able to bear the thought of losing any of them. Obama concluded the letter readings by saying, And these are our kids. This is what theyre thinking about.

Clearly, the message that the former president was trying to convey was that our children would die unless the lefts anti-gun agenda is implemented. It was nothing more than a scare tactic meant to coerce people into surrendering their Second Amendment rights. Barack Obama and his army of bureaucrats are the bears, and the American people are the sheep being chased right over the cliff.

Another example of how the government scares the people into doing exactly what they want is whenever a radical environmentalist claims that the world will come to an end unless we embrace the agenda laid out by leftists like Al Gore, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton. If you are a conservative that has ever spoken to a liberal about climate change, chances are you have heard them make the false claim that the polar bears are going extinct, or that the sea levels will rise and flood Americas coastlines unless we decrease the amount of carbon dioxide being emitted into the atmosphere. These, too, are nothing more than talking points used by the left to get you to surrender your liberty and bow down to a big, bloated federal government.

Instead of running like sheep, the American people should turn around and fight the bears that are chasing them towards the edge of the cliff. To go over the edge is to surrender your liberty and your independence, which will one day lead to the end of America as we know it.

Sources include:

RT.com

Breitbart.com
(Natural News) Its no secret that human activity can contribute a great deal to damaging the environment, but did you know that you are hurting our planet even in death? The current methods of cremation that are offered in California are not environmentally friendly enough for some peoples tastes, and the state senate is now mulling legalizing liquid cremation.

Cremation is believed by some to be more environmentally friendly than burial, given the formaldehyde and other chemicals used in embalming bodies and the fact that large caskets  typically made of wood are being buried in the ground and taking up a lot of precious land. Nevertheless, cremation causes mercury to be released into the air and it uses a lot of natural gas.

Enter liquid cremation, which is sometimes referred to as flameless cremation, water cremation, or bio-cremation. In this process, the dead body is dissolved using a hot chemical bath that leaves behind a sterile solution that is washed down the drain. This process has just a quarter of the carbon footprint of a traditional cremation by fire and just a sixth of that of burial.

This is the third time California has considering legalizing the unconventional approach. Two past efforts failed despite the process being legal in 14 other states.

Water cremation process is not an acid bath

Right now, there is one place in the state where bodies are legally dissolved: a UCLA lab that disposes of cadavers that the medical school no longer needs. According to the head of the schools Donated Body Program, Dean Fisher, the process does not use acid; instead, a chemical called potassium hydroxide is used to catalyze the hydrogen in water so it attacks the chemical bonds between the bodys molecules faster in a process known as alkaline hydrolysis.

In fact, Fisher points out that potassium hydroxide exists in the crust of the Earth and helps break down organic matter in dirt. He says its like speeding up the process of burying a body in soil with the help of heat. The process is simple: the body is placed inside a stainless steel chamber that is roughly the size of a van and is not unlike a large pressure cooker. Inside, the cadavers are heated to a temperature of 302 degrees and then are bathed in 270 gallons of the dissolving liquid for three or four hours.

The process uses less water than the average American household does in one day, and unlike a traditional cremation, it doesnt release any greenhouse gases. To get an idea of just how much energy a fire cremation uses, the BBC reports that the heat used to cremate a body the conventional way could heat an entire home for a full week in winter.

After the process, the tray is removed from the chamber, where the bones are left behind along with any medical hardware the person might have had, like prosthetics and pacemakers. Nothing organic survives; not even a trace of DNA can be found. Some of the metal from the parts is recycled, and this is one of the processs biggest strengths over fire cremation; toxic mercury from dental fillings vaporizes when bodies are burned and is released into the air.

The remaining bones are pulverized into a powder that loved ones can place in an urn much like they would the ashes from a traditional cremation. Most funeral homes in states where the procedure is already permitted charge anywhere from $150 to $500 more for water cremations than they do for cremation by fire.

Many people are uncomfortable with the idea of dissolving their loved ones. California Catholic Conference Executive Director Ned Dolejsi said that while he wouldnt consider water cremation to be inherently wrong, it does not treat life and death with respect and dignity.

If this controversial law is passed, it could become an option in California as soon as 2020.

Sources include:

Breitbart.com

KQED.org

NBCLosAngeles.com
(Natural News) Its one of the most controversial issues in modern agriculture: persistent crop chemicals of a highly toxic nature that spread unabated beyond the field. The experts call this drift, and one herbicide in particular thats causing major problems in this regard is dicamba, also known as Xtend, a broad-leafed Monsanto weedkiller product commonly applied to genetically-modified (GM), dicamba-resistant crop seeds.

Though dicamba has been on the market for several decades, its historically been used only as a pre-emergent, meaning it was applied to soils before crop plantings. But farmers are now applying this noxious chemical product to crops after theyve been planted  and reports indicate that theyre doing so illegally, as dicamba isnt approved for post-planting use.

The reason for this is that dicamba is highly volatile, meaning it easily takes flight in the air and spreads with the wind. Monsanto had supposedly reformulated a safer version of the product back in November 2016 to address this problem. That product was approved for use beginning in the 2017 planting season, however these claims about its improved safety have yet to be verified.

Meanwhile, Monsanto has released dicamba-resistant GM crop seeds to farmers despite the fact that dicamba still isnt legal for post-planting use. And perhaps not surprisingly, farmers have begun applying it profusely in violation of the law, which is causing major drift problems all throughout the farm belt.

If dicamba lands on a field that isnt planted with Monsantos dicamba-resistant crops, the impact can be devastating, explains Modern Farmer.

Non-resistant soybeans that come into contact with dicamba suffer from puckered leaves, buckled pods, and stunted growth. Farms from Arkansas to North Carolina have been hit; millions of acres have been affected. Monsanto has been sued over this; the lawsuits are ongoing. Theres already been one report of a murder over dicamba spraying. Seriously.

Federal crop insurance doesnt cover damage caused by dicamba drift

If thats not bad enough, these affected farms reportedly arent covered by federal crop insurance in the event that their crops are damaged by dicamba. The only disasters covered by federal crop insurance are those designated as natural, such as drought or flood.

This means that if a farmer loses his entire yield because the field next door was blasted with dicamba that spread with the wind, he will have no recourse other than to file a lawsuit and hope that hes assigned a sympathetic judge and jury.

Patience is beginning to wear thin on these folks, especially if you have been drifted on multiple times, says Larry Steckel, a weed specialist at the University of Tennessee. Steckel has reportedly encountered many farmers throughout his state who are sustaining damages from the Monsanto chemical.

These farmers are said to be losing anywhere from 30 to 50 percent of their yields from dicamba, especially when the chemical lands in their fields multiple times. There comes a point when damages are so perpetual that they add up to major financial losses and potential bankruptcy for farmers, many of whom are ready to start lashing out against Monsanto, the guilty party in all this.

Dicamba, it turns out, is much more volatile than even Roundup (glyphosate), the multinational companys other major weedkiller thats been in the news many times for causing damage to both the environmental and human health.

Supposedly, Monsanto instructed farmers not to spray the new soybeans with dicamba, adds Modern Farmer, but apparently the temptation was too great: An estimated 200,000 acres of soybeans in Arkansas, Tennessee, and Missouri have been affected by dicamba drift so far this summer.

Sources for this article include:

ModernFarmer.com

DTNPF.com

NaturalNews.com
California has as many homeless sex offenders now as it did 2 years ago, when a state Supreme Court ruling that overturned restrictions on where they could live was seen as a way to increase housing options and allow law enforcement to better track them.

Sex offenders must register with the state and provide new addresses when they move. Those who are homeless are less apt to keep their locations updated and more likely to commit new crimes.

The number of homeless offenders more than tripled after voters banned sex offenders from living near schools and parks a decade ago, and it was thought the number would fall with the Supreme Court's March 2015 decision.

But as of early July, there were 6,329 homeless sex offenders on the California Justice Department's sex offender registry  down only a hair from the 6,422 in January 2015.

"It's a significant number to be concerned about," said Gerry Blasingame, a psychologist who treats abusers and victims and represents the California Coalition on Sexual Offending on the state Sex Offender Management Board. "It's just a complicated issue, and it's difficult to ferret out the causes."

The board is planning a $25,000 study through San Jose State University to try to figure out why the number remains high. Meantime, the Legislature is considering ending California's requirement that all sex offenders register for life. Proponents believe that makes it harder for offenders to get jobs and stay off the streets.

That was a sentiment state Supreme Court justices cited in overturning a component of Jessica's Law that banned sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet (610 meters) of schools, parks and other places where children gather. That requirement effectively blocked them from living in most parts of major California cities.

The justices agreed with experts who said stable homes, jobs and family ties are important to deter new crimes. Moreover, the court found that when offenders lack permanent homes, it's tougher for law enforcement officers to track their locations and activities.

A 2016 study by U.S. and Canadian researchers and California's Justice Department found offenders who are transient were several times more likely to commit new sex crimes. Only about 6 percent of registered California sex offenders have no permanent address, but that group accounts for 19 percent of new sex crime arrests among those on probation and one-third among those on parole.

In 2014, two homeless Orange County sex offenders - one on federal probation, the other on state parole - were charged with raping and killing four women. Steven Dean Gordon has been sentenced to death, while Franc Cano is awaiting trial.

State parole officials abandoned the Jessica's Law housing limits after the Supreme Court's ruling, unless they found a direct connection between where a parolee lived and the underlying crime. That change left about three-quarters of the state's previously restricted sex offender parolees free to live where they pleased, and yet the homeless population has remained static.

That may partly be the result of some local governments being slow to repeal their own housing bans to comply with the high court's decision.

California Reform Sex Offender Laws President Janice Bellucci, an attorney, sued 23 Southern California cities over that issue, and all but seven have since revised or repealed their ordinances. In April, she warned another 50 cities they could be sued if they don't comply.

Criminal Justice Legal Foundation President Michael Rushford, whose organization advocates for crime victims, said the high number of sex offenders on the street may be a symptom of California's recent reductions in criminal penalties to reduce prison overcrowding.

"I guess this is just kind of what you get when you just continually loosen the cuffs on these guys," he said. Yet it's unclear if the housing ban deterred crime, Rushford said, in part because it restricted where offenders slept but left them free to spend their waking hours near schools or parks.

With little organized opposition, California lawmakers are advancing legislation to reduce the number of offenders on the state's registry.

"It really can ruin people's lives," said the bill's author, Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco. "There are clearly registered sex offenders who become homeless because they are on the registry."

California, Alabama, Florida and South Carolina are the only states requiring lifetime registration. Wiener's bill would require those convicted of misdemeanor or nonviolent sex crimes to register for 10 years and those convicted of serious or violent felonies for 20 years.

Sexually violent predators, repeat violent offenders and those convicted of sex offenses requiring life sentences would still have lifetime registrations.

State Board of Equalization member George Runner, who co-sponsored Jessica's Law while he was in the state Senate, said criminal behavior is a problem among the homeless regardless of whether they are sex offenders.

"The solution to that isn't, nor will the public accept, that the solution is to let this offender live across the street from our kindergarten," he said.
Xiamen international conference and exhibition centre will host the 9th BRICS summit in Xiamen

People arriving these days at Xiamen Gaoqi international airport, southeast Chinas coastal Fujian province, are quick to notice that there is an important event in the offing. Banners of the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, BRICS economic bloc summit to hold in Xiamen city from September 3-5 are already fluttering in the hallways of the busy airport. Sponsored by a local bank, the red banners carry the message, Welcome to BRICS summit in English and Chinese.

Summit theme

With theme, BRICS: Stronger partnership for a brighter future, the summits main venue will be the Xiamen international conference and exhibition centre. Elsewhere on the 13.7-km-long island with a population of almost 4 million inhabitants, discussions tend to centre on the forthcoming BRICS leaders summit  the second time China will host the event after 2011.

All hands on deck for BRICS summit

Preparations for a successful event are already in full gear. Xiamen city officials on May 22 launched a 100-day countdown to the 9th BRICS summit. BRICS Xiamen summit is fast approaching. We have drawn up schedules and kept everything in progress, Pei Jinjia, Secretary of the Communist Party of China Xiamen municipal committee told a press conference at the C&D Hotel, Xiamen last May.

The 2017 BRICS summit is the second time China is hosting leaders of the economic bloc

The Philippines News Agency cited Pei as saying then that preparations for the biggest international event to be hosted by Xiamen were based on five guidelines. These are avoiding extravagance, ensuring that the event benefits the city and its citizens, assuring security and safety, providing quality logistic services and encouraging massive public participation.

Renovation of convention centre

Pei told the media that five metro railway lines were under construction, in addition to other typhoon-related recovery projects in different parts of the city. The city was hit last September by the strongest-ever typhoon in 10 years. In order to avoid extravagance, we will use Xiamens existing international conference centre facilities. We will make some renovations in line with BRICS summit requirements, Pei said.

Volunteering

Meanwhile, classes and factory work will not be interrupted during the summit, but there will be minimal changes to traffic flow. Pei Jingia added that Xiamen residents and Fujian province in general were excited to host the event, which is expected to attract over 30,000 applications for 2,000 volunteer slots. Preparations such as event arrangements, venue renovation, environmental improvements, conference logistics, security and public engagements, have been advancing in an orderly and coordinated manner, he assured.

Media booths

The Xiamen CPC official said a 15,000-square-metre working area will be allocated to the media at the Xiamen international conference and exhibition centre. It has 15 functional areas, including public signals, satellite transmission and a special cafeteria to remain open round the clock.

A 15,000-square-metre working area will be allocated to journalists at the Xiamen international conference and exhibition centre

Possible issues for discussion

According to The BRICS Post online publication, focus at the summit will be on strengthening global governance and dealing with international terrorism and third-party intervention in regional crises. The key issues to be discussed will be furthering studies on establishing an independent ratings agency that appeals more to developing nations by making use of fairer criteria and assessments.

Leaders will also consider strengthening the international architecture of BRICS development bank. Experts have suggested that Chinas chair of this years BRICS summit could see member states also discuss globalization and how to counter protectionist policies such as US President Donald Trumps withdrawal from international organizations and treaties. China is likely to impress on fellow members the importance of the Paris Climate Control Accords as a means to combat global warming, The BRICS Post said.

BRICS 2017 logo

Meanwhile, the 2017 BRICS summit logo is already available. It resembles two full sails and a rotating earth, and is painted in five colours representing the five BRICS countries. The symbolism is that BRICS countries are breaking waves in the same boat towards a brighter future as the organization plays an important role in global political and economic affairs.

The 2017 BRICS logo has a traditional Chinese cultural touch

The logo brings out the theme of the summit; BRICS: Stronger partnership for a brighter future, and brims with the distinct marine culture of the host city, Xiamen. At the bottom are the words in English; BRICS 2017 CHINA and a red seal highlighting Chinas BRICS chair for 2017. The seal is engraved in Dazhuan, an ancient Chinese calligraphic style, giving the logo a traditional Chinese cultural touch.

Host citys rising economic profile

Xiamens Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2016 reached 378.425 billion RMB, an increase of 7.9 percent year-on-year, with per capita GDP of 96,536 RMB. New contractual foreign investments were worth 7.568 billion U.S. dollars. The service sector accounted for 69.1 percent of Xiamens economic growth. The city received 67.7 million domestic and overseas visitors, reaping in 96.826 billion RMB in tourism revenue.

In 2016 Xiamens GDP reached 378.425 billion RMB, an increase of 7.9 percent year-on-year

Belt and Road connectivity

According to Chinas Belt and Road Initiative blueprint, Xiamen is set to become the strategic pivot city of the 21st century Maritime Silk Road. With China (Xiamen)-Europe freight trains running along the Silk Road Economic Belt across Eurasia, Xiamen is conveniently connected to the Polish city of Lodz, the gateway to Eastern Europe, thus linking the Maritime Silk Road with the On-land Silk Route.

Kimeng Hilton Ndukong is Sub-Editor for World News with Cameroon Tribune bilingual daily newspaper in Cameroon. He is currently on media attachment with Peoples Daily Online in English.
Investigators on Thursday arrested a 42-year-old Morgan Hill man for attempting to have sex with a minor.

Officials with the Silicon Valley Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force utilized an undercover officer posing as a 13-year-old girl on the internet to nab Jose Francisco Toledo, who has since been booked on felony violations, according to the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office.

Nearly two weeks before the arrest, Toledo first made contact with the undercover officer, according to the district attorney's office. He requested that the girl send him nude images before later asking that she meet him for sex.

The two agreed to meet on Thursday at Hidden Lakes Park, which is located on the border of Martinez and Pleasant Hill, according to the district attorney's office. Toledo was promptly arrested.

A search of Toledo's car found candy that the man had promised the girl and condoms, according to the district attorney's office.

Toledo was booked for attempting to have lewd acts with a child under the age of 13 and enticing a minor to meet for sex, according to the district attorney's office. His bail has been set at $2.5 million.

Toledo is slated to make his first court appearance in Contra Costa County Superior Court on Monday.
Novato police on Monday released surveillance video as they continued searching for three suspects involved in a smash-and-grab jewelry robbery at a Costco store Sunday morning.

About 10:10 a.m., officers were dispatched to the Costco at Vintage Oaks on reports of a robbery. Three suspects entered the store wearing surgical masks and proceeded directly to the jewelry display cases, police said.

The suspects used a hammer to smash the glass cases and stole numerous pieces of jewelry. They ran out of the store to a waiting vehicle and fled the area before officers arrived, police said.

"Went straight to the jewelry display case, smashed it open, took an undetermined amount of jewelry," Novato police Sgt. Alan Bates said. "Were going to do what we can do to identify the suspects. Well work with outside agencies that have experienced the same kind of incident, and see if we can collaborate."

No weapons were seen, and no one was injured during the robbery, police said. The suspects and suspect vehicle were not found.

Witnesses described the suspects as African American men, possibly in their 20s, police said. The suspect vehicle was described as a dark-colored, four-door sedan with paper dealer plates.

Police are looking at surveillance video from the front entrance of the store to see if it will help identify the suspects.

Other Bay Area Costco stores have been targeted in similar robberies over the past two months. In May, a Danville store was hit twice. One suspect was arrested in the first robbery. The second happened about a week later, and the suspects made off with high-priced watches.

Last month, the Foster City Costco also was robbed. In all the robberies, the suspects wore masks.

Police asked for the public's help in locating the vehicle and the suspects in Sunday's heist. Anyone with information should call 415-897-4361.
Early returns indicate that dockworkers at 29 West Coast ports, including the Port of Oakland, will approve a three-year contract extension with shipping companies, union leaders said Sunday.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union said the early results show that the proposed extension with the Pacific Maritime Association will be approved by 67 percent of its members in California, Oregon and Washington.

The workers' agreement, which was scheduled to expire on July 1, 2019, would be extended to July 1, 2022, if the agreement is ratified when the official results are announced on Aug. 4.

ILWU members voted on "the employer's unprecedented contract extension proposal after a year-long debate and democratic process" in which every worker had an opportunity to vote, the union said in a news release.

The union said the extension would raise wages, maintain health benefits and increase pensions.

"The ILWU was founded on the principles of democracy, and the rank-and-file have always had the last word on their contracts," ILWU international President Robert McEllrath said in the release.

Port of Oakland officials said they applauded word that dockworkers will likely approve the contract extension.

"This shows that the West Coast means business when it comes to moving cargo for our customers," Port of Oakland Executive Director Chris Lytle said in a statement.
A man who police said fatally shot a woman and then locked himself inside a San Francisco home prompted a more than 14-hour standoff with police.

Police during the standoff asked people to avoid the area of 15th and Beaver streets. Residents on 15th Street from Buena Vista Terrace to Beaver Street were also asked to shelter in place, according to police.



The lengthy incident started around 11:45 p.m. Sunday when police received reports about shots being fired in the area of 15th and Beaver streets.

Arriving officers found evidence that shots were fired, and they located the man believed to be responsible for opening fire, according to police. Officers tried to make contact with the man, but he locked himself inside a home, according to police.

The standoff ended at about 2:45 p.m. when the suspect exited the home and was taken into police custody. Officers later determined the man was suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his chest. He was transported to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.



The woman who was shot was transported to a hospital with life-threatening injuries, according to police. The woman later succumbed to her injuries while at the hospital, police said. It is also unclear what her relationship is with the man.
A Florida boy is on a mission to thank police officers around the country for their dedicated service to their communities.

Tyler Carach, 9, of Bratt, Florida, was in Vermont on Monday, meeting officers from several departments and giving them coffee and donuts provided by local Dunkin Donuts franchisees.

It makes me feel happy, Carach said of his visits to police departments, which included stops Monday in Montpelier, Northfield, Barre City, Barre Town, the Capitol Police at the statehouse, and the Vermont State Police barracks in Royalton.

Carach wears a cape and calls himself Donut Boy. The superpower he flexes is more quaint than heroic: the ability to simply say thank you.

Cops keep my family and friends safe, and theyre my best friends, Carach said of the reason behind his road trip.

Carach began the project one year ago this week, and has visited many states so far, including Oregon, California, Ohio, Louisiana, and Virginia.

On this leg of the mission, after Vermont, hes planning to cross New Hampshire and Massachusetts off his list this week, too, with stops in Hudson, Pelham, and Quincy.

I think its great, said Cpl. Chris Truhan of the Montpelier, Vermont Police Department. I think a lot of people are afraid to show their support for [police officers] these days, and here he is going right out there and doing it.

While local owners of Dunkin Donuts franchises have provided snacks for Donut Boy to serve the officers on the New England stretch of his journey, his family is footing the bill for most travel costs.

Hes very serious, his mother, Sheena Carach, told NBC Boston.

Sheena Carach said through watching the news and talking to relatives in law enforcement, her son knows some police actions have been closely scrutinized or criticized lately.

I also explained to him that cops are having a really hard time right now, and there were a lot of people out to purposely hurt cops, and he looked at me and he goes, OK, Im going to thank every cop in America and buy them all a donut, Donut Boys mom recounted.

Yeah, thats the biggest goal I ever heard, Tyler Carach added, smiling.

While thanking every officer in America may be a very lofty goal, Tyler said hell settle for at least visiting a department or two in all 50 states.

Sheena Carach told NBC Boston she will home-school her son this upcoming school year, to help facilitate the continuation of his project.

At each stop to a police department around the country, Donut Boys cape will tell those officers, I donut need a reason to thank a cop.
A Massachusetts mother is demanding answers from her local housing authority after a strange substance in her walls forced her and her sons into a hotel.

Jessica Pacheco, of Shrewsbury, has a son who is severely disabled and taking care of him is why she had to quit her job and rely on public housing.

She says it took years to get a handicap accessible home for her and her two sons, and now she fears that home may filled with dangerous mold.

This is still wet  this has been leaking for over three years, said Pacheco, showing NBC Boston a hole in her wall.

When Pacheco called to have the washer hookup fixed inside the home she leases from the Shrewsbury Housing Authority, the plumber found black mold inside the wall.

That whole slab that they took out was all black, she explained.

The drywall was tested for mold, and Pacheco said the town gave her documents showing that in some areas 50 percent of the surface was covered with fungal matter indicative of active growth at some point in time.

She said officials told her that it is not at a "critical level" but the family should be relocated.

For the past couple of weeks, Pacheco has been living out of a Worcester hotel with her two sons  one of whom is severely disabled, needing specialized equipment to keep him alive.

I cry and cry and then I look at him and hes smiling and he goes through all of that and just comes right back like nothing, so I cant get sad or stop, Pacheco said.

But Pacheco also doesnt feel that its safe to go back home because she doesnt believe the mold has been remediated properly.

Pacheco asked the housing authority if she could go inside her home on Monday even though they were still spraying for mold.

The housing authority maintenance workers didnt want to answer questions from NBC Boston, who went with Pacheco, but Pacheco pointed out to our camera the areas that are still concerning to her.

Its not dirt, its not dust  whatever it is, it needs to be tested properly, Pacheco said.

The Shrewsbury Housing Authority would only say it, has been "working closely with DHCD [the Department of Housing and Community Development] and the Board of Health regarding [this property.] The Housing Authority has been in strict compliance with what they have asked and are still working together to get this family home.

Pacheco says she has asked to pay for independent testing but hasnt been given permission.

The housing authority has told Pacheco the final inspection to allow her back in her home is set for Tuesday, and if it passes inspection, her hotel room will no longer be paid for.
Democrat Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election to President Donald Trump, but some Republicans in Congress are intensifying their calls to investigate her and other Obama administration officials.

As investigations into Russian meddling and possible links to Trump's campaign have escalated on both sides of the Capitol, some Republicans argue that the investigations should have a greater focus on Democrats.

Democrats who have pushed the election probes "have started a war of investigative attrition," said GOP Rep. Steve King of Iowa, a member of the House Judiciary Committee.

Several officials from former President Barack Obama's administration and Clinton's campaign have appeared before or been interviewed by the House and Senate Intelligence Committees as part of the Russia investigation, along with Trump campaign officials. The GOP-led committees are investigating whether Trump's campaign had any links to Russian interference in last year's election.

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., has continued a separate investigation into whether Obama administration officials inappropriately made requests to "unmask" identities of Trump campaign officials in intelligence reports.

The House Judiciary Committee, which has declined to investigate the Russian meddling, approved a resolution this past week to request documents related to the FBI's now-closed investigation of Clinton's emails. In addition, Republican on that committee wrote the Justice Department on Thursday and asked for a second special counsel, in addition to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, to investigate "unaddressed matters, some connected to the 2016 election and others, including many actions taken by Obama administration."

"The American public has a right to know the facts  all of them  surrounding the election and its aftermath," the lawmakers wrote.

Republicans want to investigate the unmasking issue and also Clinton's email scandal that figured prominently in the campaign. They also frequently bring up former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and former FBI Director James Comey's testimony that she told him to call the Clinton email investigation a "matter" instead of an investigation during the campaign.

Nunes wrote his own letter to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats last week, saying that his committee has learned that one Obama administration official had made "hundreds" of the unmasking requests.

Even though he remains committee chairman, Nunes stepped back from the Russia investigation earlier this year after he was criticized for being too close to the White House. Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, took over the leading role.

The committee has conducted bipartisan interviews of witnesses; Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner appeared on Tuesday, a day after talking to Senate staff. But partisan tensions have been evident.

GOP Rep. Pete King of New York, who's on the House Intelligence Committee, said after the Kushner interview that the committee investigation into Russian meddling is a "sham."

"To me there is nothing to this from the beginning," he said of his committee's own probe. "There is no collusion ... it's the phoniest investigation ever."

Both the Senate and House committees have interviewed or expressed interest in interviewing a series of Democratic witnesses, including Obama's former national security adviser, Susan Rice, and former U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power  both of whom Republicans have said may be linked to the unmasking. Rice met with staff on the Senate Intelligence Committee earlier this month, and Power met with the panel Friday.

"Ambassador Power strongly supports any bipartisan effort to address the serious threat to our national security posed by Russia's interference in our electoral process, and is eager to engage with the Senate and House committees on the timeline they have requested," Power's lawyer, David Pressman, said in a statement.
A former lieutenant with the West Thompson Fire Department has been arrested on accusations he sexually assaulted junior member of the department, who is a minor.

Connecticut State Police said that 21-year-old Dylan Hamill of Woodstock is accused of having sexual contact with a junior member of the fire department multiple times.

The West Thompson Fire Department said that Hamill resigned from the department in May, and had not been an active member since December 2016.

The department did conduct its own internal investigation of the sexual assault accusations but said the claims were unfounded.

I can confirm at no point were any Officers aware of any sexual assaults as alleged. An Official Complaint has been filed with the State Police regarding the investigating Troopers conduct during the investigation, wrote West Thompson Fire Chief Mike Rivers.



Hamill turned himself into police on July 28. He was charged with second-degree sexual assault and was released on a $25,000 bond. He is due in court Monday.
Sopheap Pich, Cambodias premier contemporary artist, has managed to create a large-scale single-form sculpture big enough to impress Texans. Rang Phnom Flower is on display at the Crow Collection of Art through January 7, 2018.

"I was really attracted to the size. Everything is bigger in Texas. The way our architecture of museum is, I could see what an impact statement it would be in that space," Jacqueline Chao, curator of Asian Art at the Crow Collection of Asian Art, said.

Rang Phnom Flower represents the ambitious fulfillment of a Cambodian-born artist who entered college intending to study medicine. As the eldest of five brothers, Pichs father expected him to set a good example and become a doctor. He took a poetry class and felt a need to investigate his artistic side.

"Something unlocked. Another world unlocked inside of me and I thought, 'There's a lot of possibility here while I'm still in school to explore. Let's just take a painting class to explore.' So I walked into a painting class and before I knew it, I needed to be a major, an art major," Pich said. Pich earned a Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1999.

Born in Battambang, Cambodia in 1971, Pich and his family survived the Khmer Rouge regime before moving to the United States in 1984. The harsh circumstances of his childhood taught him resilience and has left him a joyful artistic perspective.

"Have fun with your life," Pich said. "I'm 47 years old but I still feel like I'm a little kid because for me, art is about play. It's about trying things out."

He returned to Cambodia to establish a studio and pursue an art career in 2002. Painting was his initial focus, but the medium proved to be unfulfilling.

"I needed to do something that required less thinking but more doing so thats where sculpture came in. The natural materials happened because I didnt really know how to make sculpture. The easiest and cheapest material to work with is rattan because people make chairs and all sorts of furniture with rattan. So I thought, 'Lets get a few trees of rattan and see if I can make something out of it,'" Pich said.

Pich continued to use rattan, bamboo, burlap from rice bags, beeswax and earth pigments to create sculptures based on organs and vegetal forms inspired by his college medical studies.

"I love forms and I love the medical form. I love the aesthetics of medicine. I love the aesthetics of the human body rather than actually the science of it. I love botany. I love how the tree grows and how the flower becomes a flower," Pich said.

Tyler Rollins Fine Art

The beauty of the cannonball flower, revered in Buddhist culture because of its resemblance to the sal tree under which Buddha was born, inspired Rang Phnom Flower. Pich wanted the sculptures size to reflect the elemental power of this natural beauty. "The real flower is beautiful so I wanted it to make to it 1000 times bigger," Pich said.

The piece is 25 feet long and made of a complex geometric web of rattan and bamboo. Even with a team of five people assisting Pich, crafting one flower bulb could take a week. Getting the smallest details right on a large project is important to Pich.

"Its not like painting with a huge brushstroke. Make a giant painting with little brushstrokes. Every little step matters. Every little detail counts. You just slow down, slow down, slow down," Pich said. "Labor brings you ideas. Labor brings you joy. Labor brings you affirmation."

The exhibition includes a shadow box of rattan and bamboo for patrons to touch Pichs favorite materials and an original French 19th century, hand-painted botanical dictionary featuring the cannonball flower on loan from the Botanical Research Institute of Texas.

Pichs father, who once dreamed his son would become a doctor, visited Pichs studio and marveled at his son guiding his artistic team. He relishes seeing his sons work featured in worlds most prominent museums including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Centre Georges Pompidou, M+ Museum for Visual Culture in Hong Kong, Singapore Art Museum, and Queensland Art Gallery.

"He feels good about me being a successful artist," Pich said. "I see more smiles on his face than ever before and thats a good thing."

MORE: Crow Collection - Hidden Nature: Sopheap Pich

Kimberly Richard is a North Texan with a passion for the arts. Shes worked with Theatre Three, Inc. and interned for the English National Opera and Royal Shakespeare Company. She graduated from Austin College and currently lives in Garland with her very pampered cocker spaniel, Tessa.
During a visit to North Texas Monday, Governor Greg Abbott called for an end to the "cowardly targeting of law enforcement officers."

He gave remarks at the 139th annual Sheriffs Association of Texas conference, which is taking place at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine.

He told the packed room of sheriffs and deputies from across the state that respect for law enforcement officers must be restored in our nation -- citing multiple incidents in Dallas, San Antonio, and Harris County where officers were killed in ambush style attacks.



"No more are we going to tolerate disrespect for those who serve," said Abbott.

He then touted several pieces of legislation which he believes will better protect law enforcement in Texas, including a bill he signed expanding the state's hate crime laws to include targeted attacks against first responders.

The law also stiffens penalties for individuals who commit crimes against law enforcement.

Abbott also told the crowd he's working to free up $25 million in grant money that agencies could use to buy rifle-resistant vests.

"I have faith in the greatness of Texas and in the role the Texas Sheriffs play in our great state," said Abbott. "And as Governor, and on behalf of all the people of Texas, I again thank you for your service and your sacrifice."

Abbott also spent time during his remarks defending Senate Bill 4, the controversial "sanctuary cities ban" that he signed into law earlier this year.

He said the intent of the law is to identify and remove dangerous criminals, such as gang members and human traffickers -- not to detain "hard working families and innocent children".

Opponents have decried the measure as discriminatory, saying it amounts to nothing more than a "show me your papers" law.



Abbott is also scheduled to meet with Dallas mayor Mike Rawlings and Fort Worth mayor Betsy Price on Tuesday.


The members of President Donald Trump's bipartisan vote fraud commission appear to differ on the issues they believe the group should focus on, according to NBC News.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the commission's vice chairman, said the group needs to investigate claims of widespread voter fraud. Others on the panel, which includes seven Republicans and five Democrats, argue that the commission should focus on issues like updating voter systems and encouraging registration.

Vice President Mike Pence, the group's chairman, said the commission was formed to study voting issues without "preconceived notions or preordained results."
A traffic stop conducted by the San Diego Police Department (SDPD) led to the discovery of a Chinese citizen within a locked compartment of a car Saturday.

At approximately 1:55 a.m., an officer ordered the impoundment of a 2016 Toyota after a traffic stop on Interstate 15 near Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, according to SDPD.

Road One Towing took the vehicle to an impound lot at 4955 Ruffner Street, where a tow yard employee reportedly heard screaming coming from the car.

The employee found the noise coming from a locked compartment, and San Diego Fire Department officials and San Diego police officers were notified to investigate.

At approximately 4:45 a.m., SDPD called U.S. Customs and Border Protection to take the man into custody. The driver of the vehicle was also arrested, according to SDPD.

The driver, identified as Salvador Vera, Jr., faces charges of human smuggling according to a federal complaint. Shulin Zheng of China will likely be processed for deportation, according to a statement.
Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar Friday denounced the tactics some activists have used against a coffee shop in Boyle Heights at the center of anti-gentrification protests after it has been subjected to online trolling and vandalism.

The Weird Wave Coffee shop opened in June, but has been a focal point of a group of protesters concerned its presence and majority white ownership will help usher in gentrification, raise property values and drive out longtime residents from the traditionally Latino neighborhood east of Downtown.

Although one of the three owners of the shop is Latino, at one rally a protester held a sign that said "White Coffee" and included an expletive, and another said "AmeriKKKano to go," according to the Los Angeles Times, which also reported that the shop was victimized by online trolling on its social media accounts and also had its front door smashed. Some art galleries that opened in Boyle Heights in recent months have also been harassed, The Times reported.

"While I share the concerns of displacement and rising costs of housing in Boyle Heights, race-based targeting or vandalism of any kind, like what has been leveled against small businesses and art galleries, and most recently the Weird Wave coffee shop, is completely unacceptable and should not be tolerated," said Huizar, who represents the area. "We all have the right to express our 1st Amendment-protected opinions -- that is not in dispute. But when that turns into destroying property, or violence of any kind, or targeting people solely based on race, that goes against everything Boyle Heights stands for."

While 88 percent of Boyle Heights' renters live in rent-controlled units, Huizar said a lack of affordable housing is still an issue in the neighborhood and around the city. Rather than target small businesses, Huizar said activists should focus on supporting legislation which tackles the housing crunch in the city driving up prices.

Among the legislation Huizar said he supports is the creation of a linkage fee on developers which would be used to build more affordable housing.

The council is currently considering the idea, although a Planning and Land Use Management Committee meeting in June revealed the City Council members on the committee were divided on the issue.

"I will also continue to press for a linkage fee, which would help create a steady stream of affordable housing income by linking new fees to development. This proposal will soon be heard -- and I hope adopted -- in the Planning Committee that I serve as chair," Huizar said.
A California imam in Riverside is drawing criticism for delivering a sermon in which he said Jews are "unjust tyrants" whom God should destroy, it was reported Monday.

Imam Mahmoud Harmoushs comments came during a July 21 sermon delivered at the Islamic Center of Riverside, the Los Angeles Times reported. A video of the sermon was translated and published by the nonprofit Middle East Media Research Institute.

The Islamic Center of Riverside also posted a 31-minute video of the sermon on YouTube, according to The Times.

In his sermon, Harmoush accuses Jews of plotting to take over Palestinian territory, the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia, and "most of the Middle East."

He also spoke of the recent turmoil surrounding the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, a site revered by both Muslims and Jews.

"Oh, Allah, liberate the Al Aqsa Mosque and all the Muslim lands from the unjust tyrants and the occupiers," Harmoush said, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute's translation.

"Oh, Allah, destroy them, they are no match for you. Oh, Allah, disperse them and rend them asunder. Turn them into booty in the hands of the Muslims."

The comments came the same day as an imam in Davis delivered a sermon in which he prayed for the Al Aqsa Mosque to be freed "from the filth of Jews."

The remarks from Shahin and Harmoush were quickly condemned by Jewish organizations, The Times reported.

"These statements are anti-Semitic and dangerous," Jonathan A. Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement.

"At this time of heightened tension, it is more important than ever for the Jewish and Muslim communities to come together to condemn the use of stereotypes and conspiracy theories, and to rebuild trust so that people of all faiths can coexist."

Shahin apologized on Friday at a news conference held by the mayor of Davis and religious leaders, saying he let his emotions "cloud my better judgment," The Times reported.

When asked about his remarks Sunday, Harmoush issued a statement saying he would confer with leaders of local interfaith communities that he has long worked with.
Temperatures are climbing back into the triple digits in desert communities and humidity is one the rise across Southern California.

The significant warming trend is due to an upper-level high-pressure system strengthening over Northern California and Nevada combined with a weak northerly wind component at the lower levels. Widespread triple-digit heat is expected across the lower mountains, Antelope Valley and interior valleys.

"It will be above-average heat for us all throughout the week," said NBC4 forecaster Shanna Mendiola.

By Tuesday, an increase in monsoonal moisture will potentially lower temperatures a few degrees across Los Angeles and Ventura counties, but the increased humidity will lead to uncomfortable conditions.

An excessive heat warning issued by the National Weather Service will be in effect until 10 p.m. in the Antelope Valley, where highs will range between 106 and 109 degrees. A slightly less serious heat advisory will be in effect from 10 a.m. to Tuesday night in the San Gabriel Mountains and the Santa Clarita Valley amid highs ranging from 95 to 106.

People who work outdoors were urged to save strenuous activities for the early morning or evening, wear light-colored, loose-fitting clothing, and drink plenty of water. Temperatures inside vehicles, even if the windows are partially open, can quickly rise to life-threatening levels.

The NWS forecast a mixture of partly cloudy and sunny skies today in L.A. County, along with highs of 77 at LAX; 80 in Avalon; 84 in Long Beach; 85 in downtown L.A.; 90 in San Gabriel; 92 in Pasadena and Burbank; 95 on Mount Wilson; 100 in Woodland Hills; 105 in Saugus; 107 in Palmdale; and 108 in Lancaster.

Sunny skies were forecast in Orange County, along with highs of 70 in Laguna Beach; 73 in San Clemente; 76 in Newport Beach; 85 in Irvine; 86 in Anaheim and Mission Viejo; 89 in Fullerton; and 90 in Yorba Linda.

Temperatures will stay the same in some communities Tuesday, climb in others by up to 4 degrees and decline by a few degrees in some areas, including Lancaster, where a high temperature record for a July 30 was matched Sunday, when temperatures reached 106 degrees, the same as in 2000.
An infant left for about two hours in a hot car has died  the second such death in the past two days in the city, the Phoenix Fire Department said.

Firefighters were called shortly before 3 p.m. Saturday to investigate a report of a 1-year-old boy in a car in the parking lot of the Free Church of God in Christ on the city's south side, authorities said.

The mother found the child, who was pronounced dead the scene, fire Capt. Larry Subervi said in a statement.

Phoenix police Sgt. Mercedes Fortune later identified the dead child as Josiah Riggins. No arrests have been made, she said.

The incident appears to be an accident, Subervi said.

Zettica Mitchell, who told the Arizona Republic she is a cousin of the baby's father, called the death "shocking, devastating, just sad."

"You feel like it's something that could happen to anybody," she said.

On Friday, authorities say a 7-month-old boy died after being left alone in a hot car in a northeast Phoenix neighborhood in triple-digit conditions. He was identified by police as Zane Endress.

Emergency personnel were called to the scene about 4 p.m. Friday, fire department officials said. When officers arrived, witnesses reported the baby had been left in the vehicle for an extended period of time. The boy was pronounced dead a short time later, police said.
President Nicolas Maduro claimed a popular mandate Monday to dramatically recast Venezuela's political system, dismissing U.S. sanctions imposed on him and condemnations by his domestic opponents and governments around the world.

Washington added Maduro to a steadily growing list of high-ranking Venezuelan officials targeted by financial sanctions, escalating a tactic that has so far failed to alter his socialist government's behavior. For the moment Trump administration did not deliver on threats to sanction Venezuela's oil industry, which could undermine Maduro's government but raise U.S. gas prices and deepen the humanitarian crisis here.

The sanctions came after electoral authorities said more than 8 million people voted Sunday to create a constitutional assembly endowing Maduro's ruling party with virtually unlimited powers  a turnout doubted by independent analysts while the election was labeled illegitimate by leaders across the Americans and Europe.

Maduro said Monday evening he had no intention of deviating from plans to rewrite the constitution and go after a string of enemies, from independent Venezuelan news channels to gunmen he claimed were sent by neighboring Colombia to disrupt the vote as part of an international conspiracy led by the man he calls "Emperor Donald Trump."

"They don't intimidate me. The threats and sanctions of the empire don't intimidate me for a moment," Maduro said on national television. "I don't listen to orders from the empire, not now or ever ... Bring on more sanctions, Donald Trump."

Venezuela's National Electoral Council said turnout in Sunday's vote was 41.53 percent, or 8,089,320 people. The result would mean the ruling party won more support than it had in any national election since 2013, despite a cratering economy, spiraling inflation, shortages of medicine and malnutrition. Opinion polls had said some 85 percent of Venezuelans disapproved of the constitutional assembly and similar numbers disapproved of Maduro's overall performance.

Opposition leaders estimated the real turnout at less than half the government's claim in a vote watched by government-allied observers but no internationally recognized poll monitors.

An exit poll based on surveys from 110 voting centers by New York investment bank Torino Capital and a Venezuela public opinion company estimated 3.6 million people voted, or about 18.5 percent of registered voters.

The electoral council's vote counts in the past had been seen as reliable and generally accurate, but the widely mocked announcement appeared certain to escalate the polarization and political conflict paralyzing the country.

"If it wasn't a tragedy ... if it didn't mean more crisis, the electoral council's number would almost make you laugh," opposition leader Freddy Guevara said on Twitter. Maduro has threatened that one of the constitutional assembly's first acts would be jailing Guevara for inciting violence.

The constituent assembly will have the task of rewriting the country's constitution and will have powers above and beyond other state institutions, including the opposition-controlled congress.

Maduro has said the new assembly will begin to govern within a week. Among other measures, he said he would use the assembly's powers to bar opposition candidates from running in gubernatorial elections in December unless they sit with his party to negotiate an end to hostilities that have generated four months of protests that have killed at least 120 and wounded nearly 2,000.

Along with the U.S., the European Union and nations including Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Spain and Britain criticized Sunday's vote. Maduro said he had received congratulations from the governments of Cuba, Bolivia and Nicaragua, among others.

The monetary impact of the new U.S. sanctions wasn't immediately clear as Maduro's holdings in U.S. jurisdictions, if he has any, weren't publicized. However, imposing sanctions on a head of state is rare and can be symbolically powerful, leading other countries to similarly shun such a leader. For example, the U.S. has had sanctions against Syria's President Bashar Assad since 2011. Other heads of state currently subject to U.S. sanctions include Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and North Korea's Kim Jong Un.

Maduro called the constitutional assembly in May after a month of protests against his government, which has overseen Venezuela's descent into a devastating crisis during its four years in power. Due to plunging oil prices and widespread corruption and mismanagement, Venezuela's inflation and homicide rates are among the world's highest, and widespread shortages of food and medicine have citizens dying of preventable illnesses and rooting through trash to feed themselves.

The president of the opposition-led National Assembly, Julio Borges, told Venezuelan news channel Globovision on Monday that Maduro's foes would continue protesting until they won free elections and a change of government.

He said Sunday's vote gave Maduro "less legitimacy, less credibility, less popular support and less ability to govern."

Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington and Christine Armario in Bogota, Colombia, contributed to this report.
What to Know Child advocates are pushing for a law for back seats alarms to help prevent kids from dying in hot cars

The federal government is proposing cutting the nicotine level in cigarettes so they aren't so addictive, the FDA says

Angelina Jolie says accounts of her casting process for children to appear in her film "First They Killed My Father" are false and upsetting

Get the top headlines of the day in your morning briefing from NBC 4 New York, Monday through Friday. Sign up for our newsletter here.

Driver Arrested After Van Strikes Crowd; 9 Injured

A van plowed into a crowd of people in the Mid-Wilshire area, injuring at least nine people, Los Angeles Fire Department spokeswoman Margaret Stewart said. The driver of the white van ran a red light, collided with another vehicle, lost control and jumped a curb, landing on a crowded restaurant patio. He tried to flee the crash scene, but witnesses stopped him and he was arrested for felony hit and run, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Eight of the nine people injured were taken to the hospital, Stewart said. One person was in critical condition, three people were in serious condition and four others were in fair condition, she added. All of the victims were expected to survive as of Sunday evening.

Car Bombing Targets Iraq Embassy, Afghan Police Say

A car bombing targeted the Iraqi Embassy in central Kabul, followed by gunfire, Afghan police officials said. There were no immediate reports of casualties. The attack was still underway as witnesses reported hearing gunshots around the site of the explosion. Details were sketchy as police cordoned off the area of the firefight. Two police officials told The Associated Press that the car bomb exploded outside the embassy, followed by an attempt by gunmen to enter the building, which is located in the center of the Afghan capital. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. It was not immediately clear how many gunmen were involved in the attack. A police officer in the area, who identified himself only as Abdullah, said the gunfire was initially intense but was now sporadic. The area was surrounded by armored vehicles and a large contingent of police and Afghan soldiers.

Putin Says Hes Ordering 755 American Diplomats out of Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the United States would have to cut its embassy and consulate staff in Russia by 755, heightening tensions between Washington and Moscow three days after the U.S. Congress approved sanctions against Russia. In response, the U.S. State Department deemed it "a regrettable and uncalled for act." Russian's Foreign Ministry on Friday ordered a reduction by Sept. 1 in the number of U.S. diplomatic personnel in Russia. It said it is ordering the U.S. Embassy to limit the number of embassy and consular employees in the country to 455 in response to approval of the new package of American sanctions. The White House has said U.S. President Trump would sign those sanctions into law. The legislation, which also targets Iran and North Korea, seeks to punish Moscow for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and for its military aggression in Ukraine and Syria.

Child Advocates Urge Back Seat Alarms As 2 Baby Boys Die

A proposed law that would require carmakers to build alarms for back seats is being pushed by child advocates who say it will prevent kids from dying in hot cars. The law also would streamline the criminal process against caregivers who cause the deaths  cases that can be inconsistent but often heavier-handed against mothers. The latest deaths came in Arizona on triple-digit degree days over the weekend, with two baby boys found forgotten in vehicles in separate incidents. More than two dozen child and road safety groups are backing the U.S. Senate bill aimed at preventing those kinds of deaths by requiring cars to be equipped with technology that can alert drivers if a child is left in the back seat once the vehicle is turned off. It could be a motion sensor that can detect a baby left sitting in a rear-facing car seat and then alert the driver, in a similar way that reminders about tire pressure, open doors and seat belts now come standard in cars.

FDA to Target Addictive Levels of Nicotine in Cigarettes

For the first time, the federal government is proposing cutting the nicotine level in cigarettes so they aren't so addictive. U.S. Food and Drug Administration chief Scott Gottlieb directed the agency's staff to develop new regulations on nicotine. The FDA has had the power since 2009 to regulate nicotine levels but hasn't done so. Stocks of cigarette makers plunged after the announcement. As part of the new strategy, the FDA is giving e-cigarette makers four more years to comply with a review of products already on the market, Gottlieb said. The agency intends to write rules that balance safety with e-cigarettes' role in helping smokers quit, he said. Tar and other substances inhaled through smoking make cigarettes deadly, but the nicotine in tobacco is what makes them addictive. Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable heart disease, cancer and death in the United States, causing more than 480,000 deaths annually. Smoking rates, though, have been falling for decades and are at about 15 percent.

Child Casting Story Is False and Upsetting, Angelina Jolie Says

Angelina Jolie says accounts of her casting process for children to appear in her film "First They Killed My Father" are false and upsetting. An excerpt from a Vanity Fair profile of the director sparked backlash online earlier this week from people who criticized the methods as being cruel and exploitative. Adapted from Loung Ung's memoir, the biographical drama centers on her childhood under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. Jolie co-wrote and directed the film, which she talked about in a recent Vanity Fair profile. The article described a scene in which casting directors in their attempt to find a child actress to play the lead role presented money to impoverished children only to take it away from them as an acting exercise. Jolie and producer Rithy Panh issued joint statements responding to the outrage and refuting claims that the production was exploitative through a representative from Netflix, which is producing and distributing the film.
Police are looking for a person who stole fried chicken and biscuits at a chicken restaurant in the Bronx Thursday, authorities said.

At Texas Chicken and Burger on Brook Avenue in Mott Haven, the suspect jumped over the counter, placed an unknown number of fried chicken pieces inside his bag and grabbed a tray full of biscuits in front of employees and customers, police said.

[NATL] Top News Photos: Pope Visits Japan, and More

The suspect shoved an employee who tried to prevent him from leaving and then climbed back over the counter, police said.

Surveillance footage was released of the suspect during the fried food heist, which shows the man taking the chicken and tray of biscuits as customers and workers look on.

Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).
As a responsible stakeholder on global peace and stability, China has deployed its armed forces in the past 27 years to take part in dozens of international peacekeeping missions in accordance with related UN mechanisms.

Tasked with preserving peace, promoting reconciliation and facilitating reconstruction, the Chinese blue helmets have significantly stepped up their engagement and ranked among the world's top contributors.

CONTRIBUTION & PLEDGES

China first participated in UN peacekeeping missions in 1990, when five military observers were sent to Damascus, the capital of Syria.

Since then, China has dispatched a total of 35,000 person-times of peacekeeping and military personnel to take part in 24 UN missions.

The growing deployment in high-risk environments, and deepening involvement in local reconciliation and reconstruction processes of the Chinese "blue helmets" have demonstrated the country's goodwill -- "China is here for peace" as President Xi Jinping stated at the United Nations Peacekeeping Summit in 2015.

"It was for the purpose of peace that the UN peacekeeping operations came into being. Now as an important means of upholding world peace and security, the peacekeeping operations bring confidence to the conflict areas, and hope to the local people," Xi said at the summit.

The Chinese president pledged that China would take the lead in setting up a permanent peacekeeping police squad, build a peacekeeping standby force of 8,000 troops, and provide free military aid of 100 million U.S. dollars to the African Union, as Africa has the biggest peacekeeping needs.

Addressing the UN General Assembly on the same day, Xi said, "We cannot realize the China Dream without a peaceful international environment, a stable world order and understanding, support and help from the rest of the world."

"No matter how the international landscape may evolve and how strong China may become, it will never pursue hegemony, expansion or sphere of influence," he added.

China's contribution has been recognized and applauded by the rest of the world.

"As the second largest financial contributor, China's contribution to peacekeeping is extremely important," Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

On average, China contributes more troops to UN peacekeeping missions than any other permanent member of the UN Security Council.

"What is remarkable is that the contributions of China are of very high quality," Lacroix said, adding that "I was deeply impressed by the quality of the Chinese contingent, qualified people and quality equipment -- this is very important."

SACRIFICE & HONOR

With more than 2,000 peacekeepers deployed in a number of countries such as Lebanon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Mali, China is committed to co-building and sharing a world with lasting peace and common security.

In the past 27 years, a total of 13 Chinese soldiers have sacrificed their lives during their peacekeeping missions abroad.

Shen Liangliang, a 29-year-old sergeant first class, was killed in a terrorist attack on the night of May 31, 2016 in Mali's northern town of Gao, when a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated at a UN camp.

One month later, two Chinese peacekeepers, Li Lei and Yang Shupeng, died and five others were injured after their vehicle was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade while guarding a refugee camp near a UN compound for displaced people in South Sudan.

In Lebanon, the Chinese peacekeepers have conducted demining programs for years along the 121-km-long "blue line" which serves as the border with Israel. The sparsely populated border region was deemed as the "Death Zone" by locals and UN missions because of the minefield, a complex geographical environment, a hot climate, thistles and thorns, as well as vipers and insects.

Chinese "blue helmets" provided free services for the Lebanese people, as well as Palestinian and Syrian refugees, offering medical treatment to everyone who was checked at the sentry. They also renovated roads in Ebola-affected areas in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Wherever they go, the Chinese soldiers are always welcomed with thumbs-ups and praises such as "China good" or "China friend."

For decades, the Chinese "blue helmets" have shown their love to the local people through their brave actions, and helped build "a community of shared future for mankind." They deserve the reputation as envoys of peace.
Japan's prime minister said he "fully agreed" with President Donald Trump that China should do more to curb threats from North Korea, NBC News reported.

Japanese leader Shinzo Abe said he spoke "in depth" with Trump and agreed to take "concrete steps to do our utmost in ensuring the public's safety."

Abe's comments come after Trump tweeted early Sunday that he was "very disappointed" in China's response, or lack thereof, to North Korea's missile tests.

North Korea's latest test happened on Friday when Pyongyang launched an intercontinental ballistic missile that landed in the sea off the coast of Japan. It was the country's second test this month.
Dallas police officers responding to a noise complaint ended up being "guests of honor" at a wedding party, as seen in viral cellphone video.



Telemundo 39 reports officers responded to a call Saturday night about a wedding party that got too loud.

In the video, the officers can be seen dancing with attendants and helping the newly married couple, Gloria and Mario Hernandez, celebrate.

"It is a pleasure that we are united in this world. We are all equal before the eyes of God. Bravo for these policemen, they pulled a 100," Rosa Hernandez wrote on social media.

The hosts said the officers stayed, took pictures and even had some cake.

The video, shared on Facebook by Ana Gomez, has been viewed more than 200,000 times after being shared more than 1,400 times.

Dallas police told NBC 5 Monday that what took place at the Hernandez's wedding is not that unusual of an occurrance.

"Dallas police officers are having positive interactions like this one with the community every day and its always great when these moments are captured on video and shared for everyone to see," a department spokesperson said. "Our department takes pride in the strong relationship we have with our community and this moment exemplifies the positive impact of community policing."
Robert Pugh says he doesn't like coming back to the area of Pennsylvania that still gives him "goosebumps" 15 years after he and eight other miners were rescued after spending more than three days trapped in a flooded mine.

But he made an exception over the weekend and returned to the Quecreek Mine site for the first time in a decade to see fellow miners and community members  and especially to thank those who had a role in saving his life.

"I want to see some people who rescued me, a lot of people who prayed for me and guys I haven't seen for a long time," he said.

Miners broke through stone into the uncharted mine shaft on the night of July 24, 2002, releasing millions of gallons of water and trapping them more than 200 feet below the surface. Crews drilled a small shaft and lowered a small metal capsule, bringing them up one by one until the last was lifted to safety early on the morning of July 28.

Pugh was among four of the nine rescued miners who spoke with reporters Saturday during a 15th anniversary community celebration.

"Well, it's 15 years I've been alive. I like that," Pugh said. "I mean, we all should have been dead down there."

Fellow miner Thomas "Tucker" Foy returns every year for the celebration to thank the rescuers and volunteers. He said he doesn't particularly like hearing the rescue story because it "brings back too many memories."

But, he said, there isn't a day that he doesn't think about it. "You never forget it," he said.

Pugh and John Unger talked about their emotions when facing death in the flooded mine, especially when they wrote letters to loved ones and sealed them in a container.

"The lowest point was when we wrote farewell notes to our families," Unger said. "We were getting ready to die."

Hope was kept alive by the muffled sound of the drill pounding and the faint clang of hammers on a pipe, but when the first drill broke, there was 18 hours of agonizing silence.

"You have a tendency to think to yourself, 'They may have given up.' It was wrong to think that way, but that's how I felt," miner Dennis Hall said.

More than 10,000 people a year visit the rescue site, including tourists who have come from as far as Belgium, Italy and Australia, according to Bill Arnold, executive director of the nonprofit Quecreek Mine Rescue Foundation.

"People want this positive outlook. People want to know that when we pull together as Americans  as humans  for a common goal that we can achieve miraculous things," Arnold said. "I think people long for something positive and encouraging in their lives."

After more than three decades in dark mines, Pugh said he now loves mornings and daylight, and he's grateful for what he called his second chance.

"I just think people ought to believe in miracles. I never believed in miracles until I was one," he said.
A Philadelphia mother accused of leaving her baby alone in a Bucks County hotel room full of drugs is now in custody, according to police.

Erica Avila-Lopez, 34, was arrested and charged with endangering the welfare of children, recklessly endangering another person and narcotics offenses.

Staff at the Knights Inn Hotel in Bensalem say they found a 7-month-old baby alone on the floor inside a hotel room Sunday after the occupants failed to checkout at 11 a.m. Police say there were narcotics and drug paraphernalia in plain view inside the room.

The child was taken to St. Marys Hospital but did not appear to have suffered any injuries. The baby was turned over to the custody of Philadelphia DHS.

Investigators determined the room was rented by the babys mother, identified by police as Lopez. Lopez allegedly left her baby alone in the room on Saturday around 4 p.m. and never returned. She was later found Monday and is currently in police custody at a medical facility.






Star Wars actor Mark Hamill will forever be connected to San Diego: theres now a street named after him in Clairemont  the neighborhood where he lived as a kid.

"To say that I'm grateful and honored would be an understatement," Hamill said to a packed crowd on a hot, sunny Sunday afternoon.

On Sunday, Hamill, best known for his portrayal of Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars trilogy, visited his old neighborhood for a street dedication ceremony where city leaders renamed the corner of Castleton Drive at Mount Abernathy Avenue into honorary Mark Hamill Drive.

The actor, who attended Hale Junior High School in Clairemont in the early 1960s, lived with his family in the 5900 block of Castleton Drive at the time.

[G] Mark Hamill Drive in Clairemont Dedicated to 'Star Wars' Actor

The son of a Naval officer, Hamill said he went to nine schools in 12 years. He spent the longest amount of time (four years) in San Diego.

"Part of me is honored because the community reached out to make me a part of something I've wanted for so long - a sense of place," Hamill told the crowd. "I don't really have a hometown, but if I could pick a hometown it would certainly be San Diego."

Hamill referred to his teenage self as a "goofy kid" who was always doing puppet shows and magic tricks.

Gavin Long, 29, the suspect in a shooting that killed three Baton Rouge police officers and injured three others, was formerly a Marine sergeant assigned to Camp Pendleton, MCAS Miramar and the Marine Corps Training Depot. NBC 7s Nicole Gomez has details,

Last month, the San Diego City Council approved renaming the street after the star.

Hamill said when he first heard a street was being renamed after him he thought he was being pranked.

In a statement to the city, Hamill said he was deeply moved by the gesture.

"I'm humbled and so touched by the kindness of the people from my old neighborhood in Clairemont who approved of it and made it happen, Hamill said in a statement to the City of San Diego. I've always loved San Diego and lived some of the happiest years of my life there. To have their support means the world to me.

Sundays ceremony was led by San Diego councilmember Chris Cate. Earlier this week, Cate posted a video on social media asking locals to submit questions for Hamill ahead of the big event.

"The force is strong with all of you!" Hamill shouted to the cheering crowd at the end of his speech.
Two men have filed a lawsuit against Chipotle after they got sick from eating at a Sterling, Virginia, location.

The restaurant came under fire recently after patrons reported symptoms of vomiting, diarrhea and stomach pain after dining there. As many as 135 patrons reported getting sick.

"Based on symptoms reported and these preliminary laboratory results, the cause of the outbreak is believed to be norovirus, though the specific source of the norovirus has not yet been identified," Dr. David Goodfriend, director of the health department, said in a statement.

Kyle Hogan and Patrick Moore were listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the restaurant. The suit said the men ate at the Sterling restaurant on or around July 14 and became ill.

The men are seeking $74,000 in damages.

Chipotle has said it believes a sick employee may be the culprit behind the outbreak. CEO Steve Ells said on a conference call with investors that a company investigation into the illnesses found that its leadership at the store didn't adhere to its protocols.

The Loudoun County Health Department has been looking into the outbreak.
Officials say a police officer and a driver for a ride-hailing service were injured in a crash in Northwest Washington.

The crash happened early Monday on the 1700 block of 7th Street NW.

Police Chief Peter Newsham says an officer rear-ended an Uber driver and both were taken to hospitals with injuries that aren't thought to be life-threatening.

The officer was responding to a call with the vehicle's lights and siren on at the time of the crash.
Get a head start on your back-to-school shopping: Tax-free shopping opportunities are coming up in both Maryland and Virginia.

Virginia's tax holiday kicks off Friday and lasts through 11:59 p.m. Sunday.

For those three days, you can buy qualifying school supplies, clothing, footwear, hurricane and emergency preparedness items, tax free in Virginia. You can also buy Energy Star and WaterSense products without paying sales tax.

Qualifying school supplies must cost $20 or less each, and qualified clothing and footwear must cost $100 or less per item. Check pricing requirements for other items online here.

Maryland's tax-free week will run from Sunday, Aug. 13 through Saturday, Aug. 19.

You won't have to pay sales tax on clothing or footwear that costs $100 or less per item in Maryland. In addition, the first $40 of a backpack or book bag will also be also tax-free. Other accessory items, are not included. You can find more information on Maryland's tax-free week online here.
President Donald Trump bragged about a mission accomplished in veterans' health care that has not been achieved. He threatened to end health insurers' "bailouts" that actually help consumers. And he cited "tremendous" costs to taxpayers from providing health services to transgender troops without providing evidence of that expense.

Over a week dominated by internal strife in the administration, a potty-mouthed tirade from the new communications chief and the collapse of health care legislation, policy was aired on a number of fronts as well. Some of it was factually challenged or just plain wrong.

A look at a sampling of statements from last week.

TRUMP: "If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!"  tweet Saturday.

THE FACTS: If you think of a bailout as an infusion of government money to keep an industry in business, that's not what is going on here. He's talking about federal payments to insurance companies that are used to reduce deductibles and co-payments for consumers with modest incomes. Trump has only guaranteed those payments will continue through July.

Analysts have said that without the payments, more insurers might drop out of the system, limiting options for consumers and clearing the way for the insurers that stay to charge more for coverage.

Trump's threat to end "bailouts" to members of Congress is something of a mystery. What is clear is that he is upset they did not pass the Republican health care bill and wants them to think he will punish them if they don't get rid of Obamacare.

___

TRUMP: "We've begun to process seamlessly transferring veterans' medical records. Horrible situation. You couldn't get your medical records. And now it's so easy and so good. And the system is fixed, finally, after all of these years."

THE FACTS: That IT system is not fixed. The multiyear effort has barely begun. The costs are not even accounted for in Trump's proposed 2018 budget. The VA expects its outmoded scheduling system to remain for several more years.

___

TRUMP: "We have Choice. ... We have nearly doubled the number of veterans given approvals to see the doctor of their choice."

THE FACTS: He's exaggerating the progress on this front. Trump is referring to the VA's Choice program, which offers federally paid medical care outside the VA. Put in place after a 2014 wait-time scandal at the Phoenix VA, the program allows veterans to see outside doctors if they must wait more than 30 days for an appointment or drive more than 40 miles to a VA facility.

The department's approvals to veterans to use Choice have grown under Trump, but they haven't nearly doubled. VA Secretary David Shulkin wrote in a recent USA Today editorial that outside care programs for the first half of the year increased 26 percent over the same period last year. The program is also running out of money and will need an emergency replenishment by Congress to head off disruptions in care.

___

TRUMP: "We've published wait times at every VA facility. I used to go around and talk about the veterans and they'd stand on line for nine days, seven days, four days ... 15 days. People that could have been given a prescription and been better right away end up dying waiting on line. That's not happening anymore."

THE FACTS: Problems of delay or substandard care at some of the VA facilities have not disappeared. On access, the VA reported recently that veterans have been waiting more than 60 days for new appointments at about 30 VA facilities nationwide.

On quality of care, the VA's inspector general issued urgent action reports in April and May warning that patients at Washington's VA medical center were being put at unnecessary risk of harm due to bad inventory practices, like potentially dirty syringes and medical supply shortages.

___

TRUMP: "We've delivered same-day mental health services at every VA medical center."

THE FACTS: This may be the case, but it happened before Trump took office. By late 2016, the department's blog announced that the goal of providing same-day primary and mental-health care when medically necessary would be achieved at every VA medical center by year's end. Shulkin told Congress in late January the services already were fully in place.

___

TRUMP: "Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."  tweet Wednesday saying transgender troops would be banned from the armed forces.

THE FACTS: He's offered no substantiation for the assertion that transgender military members represent tremendous medical costs and disruption. A Rand Corp. study found otherwise.

It estimates that out of about 1.3 million active-duty military personnel, 2,450 are transgender. Only a subset would seek transition-related care, such as hormone therapy and sex-reassignment surgery. Based on private insurance data, the study estimates a minimal increase in costs from such care for the active-duty armed forces  no more than 0.13 percent, or $8.4 million annually.

As for disruption, members representing less than 0.1 percent of the total force would seek transition-related care that could affect their deployments, the study says.

The Pentagon says it is allowing transgender troops to remain in uniform and not changing its policy otherwise until Defense Secretary Jim Mattis receives an authoritative directive on what to do.

___

TRUMP: "Problem is that the acting head of the FBI & the person in charge of the Hillary investigation, Andrew McCabe, got $700,000 from H for wife!"  tweet Tuesday.

THE FACTS: That's wrong. McCabe's wife, Jill McCabe, did not get $700,000 in donations from Hillary Clinton ("H'' in the tweet) for a Virginia state Senate race in 2015. Jill McCabe got the money from Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe's political action committee and the Virginia Democratic Party. Those donations happened before the FBI says McCabe was promoted to deputy director of the FBI and took a supervisory role in the Clinton email investigation. He became acting director in May after Trump fired James Comey.

___

TRUMP: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!"  tweet Tuesday.

THE FACTS: Trump is entitled to be dissatisfied with his attorney general but there's a backstory. If Sessions has been quiet about Clinton, it's because the election is over and he promised during his confirmation hearings in January to step aside from any investigation of her. As a Trump campaign loyalist last year, he was a critic of the Democratic nominee and said in January that his objectivity could be in question if he was involved in any Justice Department action concerning her email practices as secretary of state.

Trump is also upset that Sessions stepped aside from the investigation into possible collusion between Russian officials and the Trump campaign.

The effect of those recusals is to leave Trump potentially more exposed to Justice Department professionals who do not have political ties to him.

___

ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI, White House communications director: "In light of the leak of my financial disclosure info which is a felony, I will be contacting @FBI and the @JusticeDept"  tweet Wednesday, later deleted.

THE FACTS: His financial disclosure was not leaked  illegally or otherwise. It is a public record.

It was released after a public records request by a Politico reporter to the Export-Import Bank, where Scaramucci had been employed at a senior level since mid-June. The Associated Press subsequently obtained the same financial disclosure Thursday. A reporter filled out a publicly available form, turned it in at the bank's office and was emailed a copy of Scaramucci's financial disclosure a half hour later.

In a feuding White House, Scaramucci appeared to blame chief of staff Reince Priebus for leaking the information, by attaching Priebus' handle to the tweet. Scaramucci then denied he was blaming Priebus. Then The New Yorker published an interview with Scaramucci in which he went on a profane tirade against Priebus, calling him "paranoid schizophrenic" and pledging to get him and others fired. Scaramucci made vulgar comments about White House chief strategist Steve Bannon as well.

After all this, Trump announced he was replacing Priebus with Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly.

___

TRUMP: "Lebanon is on the front lines in the fight against ISIS, al-Qaeda and Hezbollah."  at news conference Tuesday with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

THE FACTS: Not so with Hezbollah. The group is a partner in the Lebanese government, with two Cabinet seats. The Lebanese government is indeed fighting against the Islamic State group and al-Qaida. But so is Hezbollah. Its fighters are leading a military offensive to wipe out Sunni extremists from IS and al-Qaida from areas along the Lebanese-Syrian border.

___

TRUMP: "We're going to be a net exporter of energy very shortly."  Youngstown, Ohio, speech Tuesday.

THE FACTS: Depends how you define very shortly. The U.S. Energy Information Agency said in January the country could become a net energy exporter by 2026 if trends remain. The White House said in its own report last month it could happen as soon as 2020 but did not substantiate the claim.

As a net exporter, the U.S. would still import oil, natural gas and other energy sources but send abroad more than it buys.

___

SCARAMUCCI: "The majority of the American people, certainly all the American people that voted for him, either don't care about the tweets, they find them funny. They find them refreshing. They don't overreact ... and micro-analyze them the way you guys do."  CNN on Wednesday.

THE FACTS: Actually, most Americans frown on Trump's Twitter conduct and most Republicans do not find his tweets refreshing, according to a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll. In all, two-thirds of people find his tweets "inappropriate" and "insulting" and about half said they're "dangerous," the poll found. One-third said they are effective.

Among Republicans, about 40 percent called his tweets inappropriate and insulting and about the same percentage called them refreshing. Fewer than 3 in 10 Republicans called his tweets dangerous and a majority said they're effective.

___

TRUMP: "As I said from the beginning, let ObamaCare implode, then deal."  tweet Friday.

THE FACTS: He didn't say that from the beginning. During the 2016 campaign, he promised to "immediately repeal and replace" Barack Obama's health care law, as he put it on one tweet from last year. He did not propose to let the law fail, then follow up with a new package.

___

TRUMP: "Democrats, they win in Youngstown. But not this time. Right? They started to get a little nervous at the beginning of that evening when they said Youngstown seems to be going the other way. That hasn't happened in a lot of decades."  Youngstown speech.

THE FACTS: Trump errs in claiming that 2016 election victory in Mahoning County, where Youngstown is situated. He did a lot better in the county Mitt Romney did in 2012, but he still lost to Clinton by 3 percentage points  50-47. Romney lost to Obama by 29 percentage points there in 2012.

___

Associated Press writers Emily Swanson, Eric Tucker, Matthew Daly, Lauran Neergaard and Stephen Ohlemacher in Washington and Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed to this report. Find AP Fact Checks here
Weary Republicans in Washington may be ready to move on from health care, but conservatives across the United States are warning the GOP-led Congress not to abandon its pledge to repeal the Obama-era health law  or risk a political nightmare in next year's elections.

The Senate's failure to pass repeal legislation has outraged the Republican base and triggered a new wave of fear. The stunning collapse has exposed a party so paralyzed by ideological division that it could not deliver on its top campaign pledge.

After devoting months to the debate and seven years to promising to kill the Affordable Care Act, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., simply said: "It's time to move on."

But that's simply not an option for a conservative base energized by its opposition to the health law. Local party leaders, activists and political operatives are predicting payback for Republicans lawmakers if they don't revive the fight.

"This is an epic fail for Republicans," said Tim Phillips, president of Americans For Prosperity, the political arm of the conservative Koch Brothers' network. "Their failure to keep their promise will hurt them. It will."

To the American Conservative Union, the three Republican senators who blocked the stripped-down repeal bill that failed in the wee hours Friday are "sellouts." A Trump-sanctioned super political action committee did not rule out running ads against uncooperative Republicans, which it did recently against Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev.

There are limited options for directly punishing the renegade senators  John McCain of Arizona, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine. None of the three is up for re-election next fall. McCain, whose dramatic "no" vote killed the bill, was just re-elected to a 6-year term and has probably faced his last election, has brain cancer and is hardly moved by electoral threats.

Still, broad disillusionment among conservative voters could have an impact beyond just a few senators. Primary election challenges or a low turnout could mean trouble for all Republicans. Democrats need to flip 24 seats to take control of the House of Representatives, a shift that would dramatically re-shape the last two years of Trump's first term.

"If you look at competitive districts, swing districts, or districts where Republicans could face primary challenges, this is something that will be a potent electoral issue," Republican pollster Chris Wilson said of his party's health care failure. "I don't think this is something voters are going to forget."

One such challenger has emerged. Conservative activist Shak Hill, a former Air Force pilot, plans to run against second-term GOP Rep. Barbara Comstock in a competitive northern Virginia district.

Hill told The Associated Press that Comstock, who voted against a GOP House health care repeal bill in May, "has failed the moral test of her time in Congress."

The leaders of other groups, such as Women Vote Trump, have begun to court primary challengers to punish those members of Congress deemed insufficiently committed to President Donald Trump's agenda.

"I expect that we will get involved in primaries," said the group's co-founder, Amy Kremer. "You cannot continue to elect the same people over and over again and expect different results."

On Capitol Hill, some Republicans insist their health care overhaul could be saved in the short term. Yet party leaders  backed by outside groups  are signaling that they would probably move on to taxes. Republicans hoped the issue would bring some party unity, even as realists in Washington view the a tax overhaul  something that hasn't happened in more than 30 years  as one of the most complex legislative projects possible.

The Trump administration has become engulfed in internal drama over personnel and personalities. Trump on Friday ousted his chief of staff, Reince Priebus, and replacing him with Home Security Secretary John Kelly. The president did not appear to share conservatives' outrage about the Senate's vote, but repeated his promises to remake the health system.

"You can't have everything," Trump said, adding: "We'll get it done. We're going to get it."

Around the country, Republican voters continue to support efforts to repeal former President Barack Obama's health law, even if there is little agreement on an alternative.

A CNN poll released last week found that 83 percent of Republicans favor some form of repeal, while only 11 percent of Republicans want the party to abandon the repeal effort. Among all adults, 52 percent of voters favor some sort of repeal, with 34 percent favored repeal only if replacement could be enacted at the same time.

"The political pressure on something like this is real," said GOP strategist Mike Shields. "I don't think this is over."

Like others Republican operatives, Shields said the party's ability to enact the rest of Trump's agenda  taxes, infrastructure and the border wall  could help "mitigate how upset people will be" about health care.

"If this is part of a general trend," he said of the GOP's governing struggles, "I think that can be pretty disastrous for 2018."

Republicans will be held responsible for any negative economic fallout from the current health system's failure, said Paul Shumaker, a North Carolina Republican pollster and senior adviser to Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C.

As early as October, voters are likely to see increased costs as insurance companies notify people about their new rates. By next October, it will be too late to unlink Republicans from the problem, Shumaker said.

For now at least, many Trump supporters blame the Republican Party's problems on its leaders in Congress.

"They certainly didn't have their house in order," said Larry Wood of Waynesboro, Virginia, who voted for Trump only after supporting Ohio Gov. John Kasich in the 2016 GOP primary. The 69-year-old retired homebuilder says the failure falls at the feet of Congress.

Trump seems content to let the current system collapse.

"As I said from the beginning, let ObamaCare implode, then deal. Watch!" he said in a tweet.

Associated Press writer Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.


Photo taken on July 30, 2017 shows a formation of special operation equipment during a military parade at Zhurihe training base in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. China on Sunday held a grand military parade to mark the 90th founding anniversary of the People's Liberation Army. (Xinhua/Ju Zhenhua)

China's Army Day parade on Sunday demonstrated the strength of the Chinese military, which contributes to safeguarding national security and world peace, international experts have said.

The past decades have witnessed China's rapid growth in a variety of areas. Today, China is closer to the goal of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation than any other time in history, said Jean-Marie Bossy of the Society of Chinese-Swiss Culture Exchange, adding that he strongly believes China's progress is "peaceful" and is "beneficial to the world."

China's growing economy and stronger national defense facilitate global peace and stability rather than pose any kind of so-called "threat" to the world, said Zhao Yuan, honorary chairman of the Swiss Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification of China.

Living in a complicated and changing world, "we need to build a strong people's military more than any other time in history," he added.

"We must deeply recognize the traditional and non-traditional security threats, and consolidate national defense, strengthen military power so as to achieve the China Dream and safeguard world peace," said Li Su, vice chairman of the Swiss Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification of China.

Italian Secretary General of Defense and National Armament Director Lt. Gen. Carlo Magrassi has expressed his congratulation for the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA).

Magrassi said he admires the rapid progress of China's military equipment and the modernization of military forces during the past years, he added.

Defense Attache of the Chinese Embassy in Italy Senior Colonel Wang Jianliang recalled the significant contributions the Chinese military has made to global peace-keeping, escort missions in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia and international humanitarian aid as he attended the reception held at the embassy to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the founding of the PLA on July 25.

Attendees including Italian officials highlighted the achievements made by the PLA and affirmed the key functions it has made in upholding world peace and stability.

During the past 90 years since its founding, the PLA has proved to be a strong force to uphold national and global peace with real actions, said Ronnie Lins, director of the China-Brazil Center for Research and Business.

China has gained tremendous scientific and technological progress in recent years, and the positive effects of advanced technology used by the Chinese military are revealing themselves, he said.

China attaches great importance to technological development and military human resources development to forge a stronger army. This shows that the Chinese army has adapted to the conditions of modern warfare and a step further to the goal of military modernization, Lins added.

In Africa, some countries have been haunted by terrorism in recent years, and some suffer from civil wars, leaving their people in extremely dangerous conditions, said Ethiopian expert Costantinos Bt. Costantinos, who serves as an economic advisor to the African Union and the U.N.-Economic Commission for Africa.

In these countries, people could always find Chinese peacekeepers, elites of the PLA, helping African countries combat extremism, safeguard regional peace and stability and protect local people at the risk of their own lives, he said.

Every time a disaster strikes China, the PLA is always the first to reach the scene to help people out without being afraid of sacrifice. The close relationship between the PLA and the Chinese people is a crucial guarantee for the happiness of its people, Costantinos added.

China on Sunday held a grand military parade to mark the 90th birthday of the PLA in the Zhurihe military training base in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Chinese President Xi Jinping watched the military parade and delivered a keynote speech urging further improvement of the PLA's combat effectiveness and modernization of China's national defense.
Teaching jobs in New Hampshire are projected to shrink by the end of next year.

The Concord Monitor reports that the education industry is expected to contract by 508 jobs between 2016 and 2018 even as the state sees an overall growth in employment.

That's according to short-term employment predictions released this month by the labor bureau.

The education industry includes teachers and assistants and employs more than 67,000 people in New Hampshire.

The bureau's market analyst says the projected drop results from the state's aging population and declining public school enrollment.

But the demographic shift has increased the demand for health care workers like registered nurses, nursing assistants and personal care aides.

Such careers compromise nearly 10 percent of the total new jobs.
A new immigrant welcome center in Portland, Maine, is open for businesses.

The hub at 24 Preble St. will be a space where immigrant entrepreneurs can get training, advice, and resources.

Alain Nahimana, an immigrant from Burundi, and Damas Rugaba, an immigrant from Rwanda, came up with the idea for the Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center about three years ago. They wanted to bring different immigrant service providers together, and make it easier for immigrants to open businesses.

The center has meeting spaces and a business incubator. Immigrants can receive English classes and computer training. A partnership with cPort Credit Union will give immigrants access to loans to pay for citizenship fees.

Its going to make a difference for Maine, and its going to make a difference for America, said Senator Angus King (I-Maine), who attended Mondays ribbon cutting. Qualified workers are the most serious problem in terms of long-term development of the Maine economy, and this is part of the solution.

According to a 2016 Kauffman Foundation report, immigrant-owned businesses make up about a quarter of all new businesses in the United States.

We want to be our own boss. We want to start something ourselves, said Ebenezer Akakpo, an immigrant from Ghana who started his own design business after immigrating to Maine.

He said one of his biggest challenges launching Akakpo & Co was learning computer skills.

I dont know any type of computers, he said. In fact, I thought if I touched a keyboard, it would explode.

Now, he is comfortable with technology and selling his own handcrafted jewelry and designs.

I wish I had this [Immigrant Welcome Center] when I migrated here, said Akakpo.

There are already three immigrant-owned businesses operating out of the welcome center, and Nahimana said there is room for at least five more.


7000 young Christians head for Norfolk Showground 7000 young Christians head for Norfolk Showground

Up to 7000 young people from across Europe are heading to the Royal Norfolk Showground this week to attend the Newday Christian Festival.
The issue of Egyptian news websites blocked by the government will be "resolved" in the coming week, the head of Egypt's journalists' syndicate said on Sunday.

In comments carried by state-run news agency MENA, Abdel-Mohsen Salama said the issue would be fixed within a week at the most, although he didn't say whether this meant those websites currently blocked would be unblocked.

In May, several websites in Egypt were blocked for allegedly publishing and broadcasting content showing support for terrorism and extremism, according to a security source cited by MENA at the time.

A total of 21 websites were blocked in Egypt, including Al-Jazeera, Al-Sharq TV channel website, Misr El-Arabia, El-Shaab, Arabi 21, Rasd, and Hamas Online.

The source said the government would take legal action against those sites that "spread lies".

Several other websites that were not named by the government were also blocked around the same time.

These included news website Mada Masr, which was launched in 2013 by a group of journalists formerly of Al-Masry Al-Youms Egypt Independent, as well as Huffington Post Arabic.

Prior to Egypt's action in May, authorities in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) blocked the main website of Qatar's Al-Jazeera TV, which the countries accuse of sponsoring terrorism.

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By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: US-based layer poultry genetics firm Hy-Line International, which has joined hands with city-based Srinivasa Hatcheries to offer high-yielding birds, expects the partnership to boost its global footprint. Hy-Line has about 50 per cent market share in the top 10 poultry markets in the world.

Under the terms of the agreement between Hy-Line and Srinivasa Hatcheries -- one of the leading poultry breeding players in India - the latter will act as the exclusive distributor for the US firms commercial layers in India. Hy-Line will supply grandparent layer chickens to Srinivasa Hatcheries and the latter will process and develop them further to supply to poultry farmers in India.

Right now, the per capita consumption of eggs in India is 65 while in countries like Japan it is 330. The per-capita consumption of eggs is set to rise as GDP rises. There will be a huge growth in consumption and demand of eggs in the future. Advanced technology of Hy-Line will help us in coming up with high-yielding quality layer birds. Also, the birds will consume less feed, thereby decreasing the cost on the one hand and increasing productivity for poultry farmers on the other, said Suresh Rayudu Chitturi, vice-chairman and managing director, Srinivasa Group.

He added that Srinivasa Group will be investing about Rs 300 crore over the next two to three years for developing processing plants and other facilities to breed layer birds.

The Indian market is tough and we need time, commitment and deep pockets to get a hold here. By tying up with Srinivasa Group, we will leverage their strengths and will emerge as a key player even in India, stated Jonathan Cade, president of Hy-Line. Meanwhile, Srinivasa aims to grow its supplies by 10-fold over the next 10 years.

HYDERABAD: US-based layer poultry genetics firm Hy-Line International, which has joined hands with city-based Srinivasa Hatcheries to offer high-yielding birds, expects the partnership to boost its global footprint. Hy-Line has about 50 per cent market share in the top 10 poultry markets in the world. Under the terms of the agreement between Hy-Line and Srinivasa Hatcheries -- one of the leading poultry breeding players in India - the latter will act as the exclusive distributor for the US firms commercial layers in India. Hy-Line will supply grandparent layer chickens to Srinivasa Hatcheries and the latter will process and develop them further to supply to poultry farmers in India. Right now, the per capita consumption of eggs in India is 65 while in countries like Japan it is 330. The per-capita consumption of eggs is set to rise as GDP rises. There will be a huge growth in consumption and demand of eggs in the future. Advanced technology of Hy-Line will help us in coming up with high-yielding quality layer birds. Also, the birds will consume less feed, thereby decreasing the cost on the one hand and increasing productivity for poultry farmers on the other, said Suresh Rayudu Chitturi, vice-chairman and managing director, Srinivasa Group. He added that Srinivasa Group will be investing about Rs 300 crore over the next two to three years for developing processing plants and other facilities to breed layer birds. The Indian market is tough and we need time, commitment and deep pockets to get a hold here. By tying up with Srinivasa Group, we will leverage their strengths and will emerge as a key player even in India, stated Jonathan Cade, president of Hy-Line. Meanwhile, Srinivasa aims to grow its supplies by 10-fold over the next 10 years.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Boeing today said India will take deliveries of 2,100 new planes worth USD 290 billion in the next 20 years, calling it the "highest forecast" for the country.

India's share will account for more than 5.1 per cent of the total global demand of 41,030 aircraft, the American aeronautic giant said.

According to Boeing's Current Market Outlook released today, almost 85 per cent of these new planes in India are likely to be single-aisle with low-cost carriers operating more than 60 per cent of all flights. "The increasing number of passengers combined with a strong exchange rate, low fuel prices and high load factors bode well for India's aviation market, especially the low-cost carriers," said Dinesh Keskar, senior vice-president, Asia Pacific and India Sales, Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

Keskar, however, warned that infrastructure could be a challenge for the country with airports in Mumbai being 'choked'. This could be one of the factors why bigger planes could grow from current 15 per cent to 25 per cent of the total aircraft, he said.

Boeing said it will revise its projection next year depending on how the government's regional connectivity scheme (RCS) takes off.

The multinational aviation giant expects to benefit from RCS in years to come, when smaller 70-seat aircraft will be replaced by bigger ones such as Boeing's 737s, following an increase in traffic on these routes. "RCS will allow opening of new routes, thus providing more connectivity. Over the next 4-5 years, the growth on those routes will make a Boeing 737 viable. We are very bullish that if it (RCS) works out, we will be one of the beneficiaries," Keskar said.

The passenger traffic in South Asia is expected to grow at a rate of 8 per cent, followed by China at 6.2 per cent. The growth rate in the region is likely to be more than double that of Europe (3.7 per cent) and North America (3 per cent).

Boeing has already started delivery of its 737 MAX 8 aircraft and will be delivering its first 737 MAX 9 next year. It had also launched its 737 MAX 10 at Paris Air Show earlier this year.

In 2019, Boeing plans to launch 737 MAX 7, the smallest member of the MAX family, as well as 737 MAX 8-200 with 200 economy seats.

Boeing is also planning to replace its Boeing 757 by 2025 with a plane which will have 225-275 seats and will be able to fly approximately 5,000 nautical miles. It also promises to offer "twin aisle comfort for single aisle cost".

NEW DELHI: Boeing today said India will take deliveries of 2,100 new planes worth USD 290 billion in the next 20 years, calling it the "highest forecast" for the country. India's share will account for more than 5.1 per cent of the total global demand of 41,030 aircraft, the American aeronautic giant said. According to Boeing's Current Market Outlook released today, almost 85 per cent of these new planes in India are likely to be single-aisle with low-cost carriers operating more than 60 per cent of all flights. "The increasing number of passengers combined with a strong exchange rate, low fuel prices and high load factors bode well for India's aviation market, especially the low-cost carriers," said Dinesh Keskar, senior vice-president, Asia Pacific and India Sales, Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Keskar, however, warned that infrastructure could be a challenge for the country with airports in Mumbai being 'choked'. This could be one of the factors why bigger planes could grow from current 15 per cent to 25 per cent of the total aircraft, he said. Boeing said it will revise its projection next year depending on how the government's regional connectivity scheme (RCS) takes off. The multinational aviation giant expects to benefit from RCS in years to come, when smaller 70-seat aircraft will be replaced by bigger ones such as Boeing's 737s, following an increase in traffic on these routes. "RCS will allow opening of new routes, thus providing more connectivity. Over the next 4-5 years, the growth on those routes will make a Boeing 737 viable. We are very bullish that if it (RCS) works out, we will be one of the beneficiaries," Keskar said. The passenger traffic in South Asia is expected to grow at a rate of 8 per cent, followed by China at 6.2 per cent. The growth rate in the region is likely to be more than double that of Europe (3.7 per cent) and North America (3 per cent). Boeing has already started delivery of its 737 MAX 8 aircraft and will be delivering its first 737 MAX 9 next year. It had also launched its 737 MAX 10 at Paris Air Show earlier this year. In 2019, Boeing plans to launch 737 MAX 7, the smallest member of the MAX family, as well as 737 MAX 8-200 with 200 economy seats. Boeing is also planning to replace its Boeing 757 by 2025 with a plane which will have 225-275 seats and will be able to fly approximately 5,000 nautical miles. It also promises to offer "twin aisle comfort for single aisle cost".
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Following the Kerala governments initiative of She pad scheme, the Student Federation of India(SFI) has also led a bigger campaign with a tag of Bleed without Fear in the countrys premier university of Delhi demanding for the installation of sanitary napkin vending machines in all the college on Monday.

Hundreds of students from the Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University has given their support to the campaign led by SFI. The students pasted sanitary pad in trees and wall of the north campus with the hash-tag slogan Bleed Without fear written on it.

Our demand was not only against the high GST tax on the pads but our Bleed without fear is also stands for the menstrual hygienic health of the female community. Every school and college should install sanitary napkin vending machines with good quality of pads with an environment safely disposal mechanism, said Satarupa Chakraborty, member of SFI.

The scores of the student also demanded the good quality of pad from the sanitary napkin vending machine in a very low-cost affordable amount. The students demanded the machines should be installed especially in the remote area and villages so that students from all the sections of the society can afford to buy.

There are three napkin vending machine in our college among which only one works and other two is lying defunct due to lack of maintenance. So the colleges should provide free pads and it should take care of the machines said a DU student.

NEW DELHI: Following the Kerala governments initiative of She pad scheme, the Student Federation of India(SFI) has also led a bigger campaign with a tag of Bleed without Fear in the countrys premier university of Delhi demanding for the installation of sanitary napkin vending machines in all the college on Monday. Hundreds of students from the Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University has given their support to the campaign led by SFI. The students pasted sanitary pad in trees and wall of the north campus with the hash-tag slogan Bleed Without fear written on it. Our demand was not only against the high GST tax on the pads but our Bleed without fear is also stands for the menstrual hygienic health of the female community. Every school and college should install sanitary napkin vending machines with good quality of pads with an environment safely disposal mechanism, said Satarupa Chakraborty, member of SFI. The scores of the student also demanded the good quality of pad from the sanitary napkin vending machine in a very low-cost affordable amount. The students demanded the machines should be installed especially in the remote area and villages so that students from all the sections of the society can afford to buy. There are three napkin vending machine in our college among which only one works and other two is lying defunct due to lack of maintenance. So the colleges should provide free pads and it should take care of the machines said a DU student.
By PTI

HYDERABAD: Around 250 doctors of state-run Osmania General Hospital (OGH) here today boycotted work and held a protest against the attack on their three colleagues, allegedly by those accompanying a woman patient who died last night.

The protesting house surgeons and junior doctors said they were boycotting elective duty in protest against the incident and also against the "unsafe" working conditions at the hospital even as the hospital administration constituted a commission to probe the incident.

The protesters held a demonstration and raised slogans like 'We want justice'.

A junior doctor said around 30 people attending a 70-year-old woman, undergoing treatment in the ICU of the hospital, assaulted two women house surgeons and a post-graduate doctor following the death of the woman.

"Protesting against last night's attack, the house surgeons and junior doctors of OGH abstained from elective duties. However, the medial services were not hit," OGH Superintendent GVS Murthy told PTI.

He said the elderly woman was undergoing treatment at the hospital for the past five days. "The woman was suffering from high blood pressure. She had suffered a stroke," he added.

Murthy, who held a meeting with the doctors and police officials, said he assured them that Special Protection Force (SPF) personnel would be deployed in all teaching hospitals as being demanded by the doctors.

Murthy said he had asked the doctors to withdraw their protest and resume working.

He said members of the public should not take law into their hands.

"We have lodged a complaint with police who have registered a case in this matter," Murthy said.

However, the junior doctors said such attacks were taken place in the past as well and are happening frequently.

"We want proper security and installation of CCTVs.

Security has to be beefed up by deploying SPF and also private security personnel," they said.

HYDERABAD: Around 250 doctors of state-run Osmania General Hospital (OGH) here today boycotted work and held a protest against the attack on their three colleagues, allegedly by those accompanying a woman patient who died last night. The protesting house surgeons and junior doctors said they were boycotting elective duty in protest against the incident and also against the "unsafe" working conditions at the hospital even as the hospital administration constituted a commission to probe the incident. The protesters held a demonstration and raised slogans like 'We want justice'. A junior doctor said around 30 people attending a 70-year-old woman, undergoing treatment in the ICU of the hospital, assaulted two women house surgeons and a post-graduate doctor following the death of the woman. "Protesting against last night's attack, the house surgeons and junior doctors of OGH abstained from elective duties. However, the medial services were not hit," OGH Superintendent GVS Murthy told PTI. He said the elderly woman was undergoing treatment at the hospital for the past five days. "The woman was suffering from high blood pressure. She had suffered a stroke," he added. Murthy, who held a meeting with the doctors and police officials, said he assured them that Special Protection Force (SPF) personnel would be deployed in all teaching hospitals as being demanded by the doctors. Murthy said he had asked the doctors to withdraw their protest and resume working. He said members of the public should not take law into their hands. "We have lodged a complaint with police who have registered a case in this matter," Murthy said. However, the junior doctors said such attacks were taken place in the past as well and are happening frequently. "We want proper security and installation of CCTVs. Security has to be beefed up by deploying SPF and also private security personnel," they said.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: After two female junior doctors and a duty doctor at Osmania General Hospital (OGH) were allegedly assaulted by four attendants Sunday night, close to 240 house surgeons and junior doctors decided to boycott services in OGH and its affiliated hospitals in the city from Monday.

The alleged attack on the doctors took place at 8 pm on Sunday. One female doctor was reportedly slapped five times and another junior doctors arm was twisted by the attendants. The duty doctor was reportedly beaten with a chair. A junior doctor said that, despite the presence of police, an attendant threatened to stab a female junior doctor when she stepped out of the hospital.

According to a junior doctor at OGH who did not wish to be named, the attendants were accompanying a 70-year-old woman admitted to the Intensive Medical Care unit of the hospital. Chances of her survival were only two to five per cent and the prognosis was explained to the attendants. We were giving her Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation when she died. While entry is restricted to only one attendant, four of them barged in pushing aside security guards.

They twisted the arm of a junior doctor, slapped another junior doctor five times and struck the duty doctor with a chair, the junior doctor said. The junior doctors attacked were Dr Sandhya, Dr Sanjana while duty doctor was Dr Raja Ramesh. The injured doctors were treated at the hospital. A complaint was lodged with Afzalgunj Police. It was learnt that some hospital authorities tried to brush off the attack as just another incident in the life of doctors. However, agitated junior doctors alleged that this was the third such incident at OGH this month. We filed written complaints with the hospital authorities but no action was taken, a junior doctor said.

HYDERABAD: After two female junior doctors and a duty doctor at Osmania General Hospital (OGH) were allegedly assaulted by four attendants Sunday night, close to 240 house surgeons and junior doctors decided to boycott services in OGH and its affiliated hospitals in the city from Monday. The alleged attack on the doctors took place at 8 pm on Sunday. One female doctor was reportedly slapped five times and another junior doctors arm was twisted by the attendants. The duty doctor was reportedly beaten with a chair. A junior doctor said that, despite the presence of police, an attendant threatened to stab a female junior doctor when she stepped out of the hospital. According to a junior doctor at OGH who did not wish to be named, the attendants were accompanying a 70-year-old woman admitted to the Intensive Medical Care unit of the hospital. Chances of her survival were only two to five per cent and the prognosis was explained to the attendants. We were giving her Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation when she died. While entry is restricted to only one attendant, four of them barged in pushing aside security guards. They twisted the arm of a junior doctor, slapped another junior doctor five times and struck the duty doctor with a chair, the junior doctor said. The junior doctors attacked were Dr Sandhya, Dr Sanjana while duty doctor was Dr Raja Ramesh. The injured doctors were treated at the hospital. A complaint was lodged with Afzalgunj Police. It was learnt that some hospital authorities tried to brush off the attack as just another incident in the life of doctors. However, agitated junior doctors alleged that this was the third such incident at OGH this month. We filed written complaints with the hospital authorities but no action was taken, a junior doctor said.
By ANI

NEW DELHI: Junglee Pictures has associated with Hollywoods ace filmmaker Chuck Russell for an action-adventure film revolving around a man and an elephant.



The film will feature Vidyut Jammwal as a veterinarian-turned-activist-avenger, the film, titled Junglee, will be directed by Chuck.

The film is really gonna be a special one as almost half a century after Rajesh Khanna's Haathi Mere Saathi in 1971 a film is coming on similar elements.

Chuck Russell had made his debut as a director with the hit film 'A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors', which at the time of its release in 1987 was the highest grossing independent film ever made.

The American writer-director has made several blockbuster films like by the Oscar-nominated Jim Carrey superhero comedy, The Mask, Arnold Schwarzenegger's action-thriller Eraser and The Scorpion King which was Dwayne `The Rock' Johnson's first lead role.

Chuck was also the executive producer on the critically acclaimed Michael Mann-directed neo-noir crime thriller 'Collateral (2004)'.

'Junglee' rolls in October and is targeting a summer 2018 release.

Priti Shahani, President of Junglee Pictures, said, "We reached out to Chuck saying that we had a story which is set locally but could appeal to him since it touches on an issue of global significance, with the United Nations lobbying to end poaching and the ivory movement. He read it, came down to India to meet and discuss the structure with Ritesh (Shah) who has written this heart-warming story and us, agreed to direct it and will be flying in next month to start prep".

Priti also highlighted the fact that Chuck was their go-to person because animals are a part of his narratives, be it the dog in 'The Mask' or the camels in 'The Scorpion King'. Also, surprisingly, for an American director, he loves song and dance which will be an integral part of our commercial entertainer with a message"

The action thriller film unfolds in the Jungles of Kerala and will be shot in the state's elephant reserve. Vidyut plays the character of Ashwath who is coming home from Mumbai for his mother's 10th death anniversary and reuniting with his elephant friend.

Priti added, "The stunning location is a part of the storytelling and from the research perspective, the poaching trail in India starts from Kerala, passes through Orissa and Kolkata in West Bengal to head to Thailand.

She was quick to add that the animals will not be expected to perform any tricks, rather the makers are working closely with animal handlers to understand how elephants behave in their natural habitat and in their interaction with humans. The script is being written around them.

Priti further stated that like the director Chuck, Vidyut Jammwal is the apt choice for this one-of-a-kind thriller which will not have the typical five action pieces but will focus on Kalaripayattu, a form of martial arts which originated in Kerala. This kind of action is rarely seen in our films or those made in the West. Vidyut is a trained Kalaripayattu artiste so he's the perfect actor to tell our story."

With Chuck being on board for the film, there is a question that it can turn into an English film to which Priti said, "We have written it primarily for a Hindi-speaking audience but Chuck's involvement reinstates that the story has the ability to connect with an international audience too and can be turned into a Hindi-English bilingual."

She further pointed the fact that what really inspired the story was that in the last 18 months there has been a concerted global movement towards protecting elephants.

She asserted, One of the images that has stayed with us is of Kenya, on April 30, 2016, reducing 105 tons of elephant ivory, along with 1.35 tons of rhino horn--the remains of 6,500 elephants and 450 rhinos--to ash.This was followed by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta saying the fire was a statement to the world that ivory is worthless for them unless its on their elephants. It's a story that has grown from what is happening in the world around us."

NEW DELHI: Junglee Pictures has associated with Hollywoods ace filmmaker Chuck Russell for an action-adventure film revolving around a man and an elephant. The film will feature Vidyut Jammwal as a veterinarian-turned-activist-avenger, the film, titled Junglee, will be directed by Chuck. The film is really gonna be a special one as almost half a century after Rajesh Khanna's Haathi Mere Saathi in 1971 a film is coming on similar elements. Chuck Russell had made his debut as a director with the hit film 'A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors', which at the time of its release in 1987 was the highest grossing independent film ever made. The American writer-director has made several blockbuster films like by the Oscar-nominated Jim Carrey superhero comedy, The Mask, Arnold Schwarzenegger's action-thriller Eraser and The Scorpion King which was Dwayne `The Rock' Johnson's first lead role. Chuck was also the executive producer on the critically acclaimed Michael Mann-directed neo-noir crime thriller 'Collateral (2004)'. 'Junglee' rolls in October and is targeting a summer 2018 release. Priti Shahani, President of Junglee Pictures, said, "We reached out to Chuck saying that we had a story which is set locally but could appeal to him since it touches on an issue of global significance, with the United Nations lobbying to end poaching and the ivory movement. He read it, came down to India to meet and discuss the structure with Ritesh (Shah) who has written this heart-warming story and us, agreed to direct it and will be flying in next month to start prep". Priti also highlighted the fact that Chuck was their go-to person because animals are a part of his narratives, be it the dog in 'The Mask' or the camels in 'The Scorpion King'. Also, surprisingly, for an American director, he loves song and dance which will be an integral part of our commercial entertainer with a message" The action thriller film unfolds in the Jungles of Kerala and will be shot in the state's elephant reserve. Vidyut plays the character of Ashwath who is coming home from Mumbai for his mother's 10th death anniversary and reuniting with his elephant friend. Priti added, "The stunning location is a part of the storytelling and from the research perspective, the poaching trail in India starts from Kerala, passes through Orissa and Kolkata in West Bengal to head to Thailand. She was quick to add that the animals will not be expected to perform any tricks, rather the makers are working closely with animal handlers to understand how elephants behave in their natural habitat and in their interaction with humans. The script is being written around them. Priti further stated that like the director Chuck, Vidyut Jammwal is the apt choice for this one-of-a-kind thriller which will not have the typical five action pieces but will focus on Kalaripayattu, a form of martial arts which originated in Kerala. This kind of action is rarely seen in our films or those made in the West. Vidyut is a trained Kalaripayattu artiste so he's the perfect actor to tell our story." With Chuck being on board for the film, there is a question that it can turn into an English film to which Priti said, "We have written it primarily for a Hindi-speaking audience but Chuck's involvement reinstates that the story has the ability to connect with an international audience too and can be turned into a Hindi-English bilingual." She further pointed the fact that what really inspired the story was that in the last 18 months there has been a concerted global movement towards protecting elephants. She asserted, One of the images that has stayed with us is of Kenya, on April 30, 2016, reducing 105 tons of elephant ivory, along with 1.35 tons of rhino horn--the remains of 6,500 elephants and 450 rhinos--to ash.This was followed by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta saying the fire was a statement to the world that ivory is worthless for them unless its on their elephants. It's a story that has grown from what is happening in the world around us."
By AFP

NEW YORK:Sam Shepard, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and Oscar-nominated actor whose celebrated career spanned nearly five decades, has died, a family spokesman said Monday. He was 73.

Shepard died at home in Kentucky on Thursday of complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, the spokesman confirmed to AFP.

Shepard, who wrote nearly 50 plays, won the Pulitzer for drama in 1979 for his play "Buried Child" and was nominated for an Academy Award in 1984 for best actor in a supporting role for "The Right Stuff."

One of his most recent roles was in the Netflix television series "Bloodline."

Shepard was with his family at the time of his death. Funeral arrangements remain private, and plans for a public memorial have not yet been determined.

"The family requests privacy at this difficult time," said the spokesman for the family, Chris Boneau.

Born in Fort Sheridan, Illinois in 1943, Shepard was the son of a teacher mother and Army officer father, who was a bomber pilot during World War II.

Shepard had a nomadic early childhood, moving from base to base around the country before graduating from high school in Duarte, California.

He started acting and writing while still in high school, and spent a year studying agriculture before joining a travelling theatre company and later moving to New York, where he began writing plays.

He became playwright in residence at San Francisco's Magic Theater and also worked in Hollywood as a writer on "Zabriskie Point" in 1970, until his role as Chuck Yeager in "The Right Stuff" brought him a wider audience.

"Paris, Texas," for which he wrote the screenplay, won the Palme D'Or at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival.

In 1986, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His plays are performed on and off Broadway and in theaters across the United States.

Shepard also collaborated with Bob Dylan in writing the 11-minute song "Brownsville Girl," which appeared on Dylan's 1986 album "Knocked Out Loaded."

Shepard was in a long-term relationship with the actress Jessica Lange for many years. The couple had two children together, and Shepard is also survived by a son he shared with actress O-Lan Jones, to whom he was previously married.

Gary Grant, professor of theatre at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, paid tribute to the enormity of Shepard's contribution to drama.

"In my opinion, time will sort him out as one of America's most significant voices who told the American tale with a profound insight and with an ear for the expression of our deepest hopes and fears," Grant told AFP.

NEW YORK:Sam Shepard, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and Oscar-nominated actor whose celebrated career spanned nearly five decades, has died, a family spokesman said Monday. He was 73. Shepard died at home in Kentucky on Thursday of complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, the spokesman confirmed to AFP. Shepard, who wrote nearly 50 plays, won the Pulitzer for drama in 1979 for his play "Buried Child" and was nominated for an Academy Award in 1984 for best actor in a supporting role for "The Right Stuff." One of his most recent roles was in the Netflix television series "Bloodline." Shepard was with his family at the time of his death. Funeral arrangements remain private, and plans for a public memorial have not yet been determined. "The family requests privacy at this difficult time," said the spokesman for the family, Chris Boneau. Born in Fort Sheridan, Illinois in 1943, Shepard was the son of a teacher mother and Army officer father, who was a bomber pilot during World War II. Shepard had a nomadic early childhood, moving from base to base around the country before graduating from high school in Duarte, California. He started acting and writing while still in high school, and spent a year studying agriculture before joining a travelling theatre company and later moving to New York, where he began writing plays. He became playwright in residence at San Francisco's Magic Theater and also worked in Hollywood as a writer on "Zabriskie Point" in 1970, until his role as Chuck Yeager in "The Right Stuff" brought him a wider audience. "Paris, Texas," for which he wrote the screenplay, won the Palme D'Or at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival. In 1986, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His plays are performed on and off Broadway and in theaters across the United States. Shepard also collaborated with Bob Dylan in writing the 11-minute song "Brownsville Girl," which appeared on Dylan's 1986 album "Knocked Out Loaded." Shepard was in a long-term relationship with the actress Jessica Lange for many years. The couple had two children together, and Shepard is also survived by a son he shared with actress O-Lan Jones, to whom he was previously married. Gary Grant, professor of theatre at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, paid tribute to the enormity of Shepard's contribution to drama. "In my opinion, time will sort him out as one of America's most significant voices who told the American tale with a profound insight and with an ear for the expression of our deepest hopes and fears," Grant told AFP.
A policeman was killed and six others injured in an attack on a police patrol in Saudi Arabia's eastern Qatif governorate on Sunday

Egypt has condemned a terrorist attack on Sunday that killed a policeman and injured six others in Saudi Arabia's governorate of Qatif, which has a large Shia population.

The Egyptian foreign ministry issued a statement on Monday saying that Egypt denounces the attack "in the strongest terms", offering sincere condolences to the policeman's family, and wishing the injured a speedy recovery.

The statement asserted Egypt's solidarity with Saudi Arabia in tackling terrorism and extremism, which it said aims to undermine stability and security in the kingdom.

Egypt offers its support for all measures taken by Saudi Arabia to foil the plans of terrorist organizations and protect its citizens, the statement said.

"It is necessary for the international community to come together to defeat the phenomenon of terrorism and extremism," the statement read, asserting the importance of finding a comprehensive solution to the problem.

Sunday's attack occured in the town of Awamiya, with a police patrol hit by a "terrorist attack using an exploding projectile", the Saudi interior ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

The incident comes two months after Saudi authorities launched a security campaign to hunt down militants in the area.

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By PTI

AHMEDABAD: Union minister Smriti Irani today took potshots at the Congress, saying the party was worried about ensuring the victory of its Rajya Sabha candidate, while its MLAs had left the flood-affected people of Banaskantha in Gujarat to fend for themselves.

The opposition party has sent its MLAs to Bengaluru to prevent their `poaching' ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections.

Talking to reporters at Banaskantha, Irani, herself a BJP nominee for the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat, said the Congress MLAs have deserted their constituents in the flood-hit Banaskantha.

"People of Banaskantha are searching for Congress representatives who had promised them in the last election that they will stay with them through thick and thin," Irani said.

"Not just the people of Banaskantha, but the entire country is watching Congress' game of power where the concern of the top leadership is to ensure the victory of one representative," she said, without naming Congress candidate Ahmed Patel.

Irani today visited several flood-affected areas in the district with Balwantsinh Rajput, who recently quit the Congress to join the BJP.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani is camping in Banaskantha for the last five days to oversee relief work.

The Congress has taken its 44 MLAs to Bengaluru after six of its MLAs resigned, three of them joining the BJP, ahead of the crucial Rajya Sabha elections where Ahmed Patel, political secretary to the Congress president, is a candidate.

The party has accused the BJP of trying to offer bribes to its MLAs for cross-voting, a charge the ruling party has denied.

For the three Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat for which elections will be held, the BJP has fielded party chief Amit Shah and Rajput, and renominated Irani.

AHMEDABAD: Union minister Smriti Irani today took potshots at the Congress, saying the party was worried about ensuring the victory of its Rajya Sabha candidate, while its MLAs had left the flood-affected people of Banaskantha in Gujarat to fend for themselves. The opposition party has sent its MLAs to Bengaluru to prevent their `poaching' ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections. Talking to reporters at Banaskantha, Irani, herself a BJP nominee for the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat, said the Congress MLAs have deserted their constituents in the flood-hit Banaskantha. "People of Banaskantha are searching for Congress representatives who had promised them in the last election that they will stay with them through thick and thin," Irani said. "Not just the people of Banaskantha, but the entire country is watching Congress' game of power where the concern of the top leadership is to ensure the victory of one representative," she said, without naming Congress candidate Ahmed Patel. Irani today visited several flood-affected areas in the district with Balwantsinh Rajput, who recently quit the Congress to join the BJP. Chief Minister Vijay Rupani is camping in Banaskantha for the last five days to oversee relief work. The Congress has taken its 44 MLAs to Bengaluru after six of its MLAs resigned, three of them joining the BJP, ahead of the crucial Rajya Sabha elections where Ahmed Patel, political secretary to the Congress president, is a candidate. The party has accused the BJP of trying to offer bribes to its MLAs for cross-voting, a charge the ruling party has denied. For the three Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat for which elections will be held, the BJP has fielded party chief Amit Shah and Rajput, and renominated Irani.
By Express News Service

BHOPAL: A BJP legislator in Madhya Pradesh has claimed there is a threat to his life from the sand and granite mining mafia operating in Chhatarpur district in the Bundelkhand region bordering UP.

R D Prajapati, MLA from Chandla, has written to home minister Bhupendra Singh and the superintendent of police (SP) of Chhatarpur that he received a call on his cell phone on July 29 warning him that he would be killed. The MLA said he suspected that the call came from people linked to the sand and granite mining mafia.

Confirming receipt of the MLAs complaint, superintendent of police Vinit Khanna of Chattarpur told the New Indian Express that a case was lodged against the unidentified caller on Monday.

Rampant sand mining in Chhatarpur district hit the headlines in June 2017 when an IAS officer Sonia Meena, presently posted as ADM in Umaria district, reportedly received death threats. In a letter to chief secretary B P Singh, Meena had sought security since she had to travel to Chhatarpur district regularly to submit documents/evidence in court. Following the development, her security was beefed up.

Meena, earlier posted as sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) in Rajnagar in Chhatarpur district, had impounded sand trucks belonging to Arjun Singh Bundela. Bundela.

Back in 2016, R D Prajapati left his own government embarrassed when he raised the issue of sand mining on the banks of the Ken river in Chhatarpur district. The Congress too backed the BJP legislator amidst the uproar his revelation triggered. He claimed that illegal miners from adjoining UP were creating a reign of terror in the area.

The then minister for mineral resources Rajendra Shukla denied in the Assembly that there was illegal mining going on. Prajapati had then said he was ready to quit the Assembly if he was proven wrong.

Prior to that in March 2016, the same BJP legislator had courted controversy at a public meeting when he threatened to chop off the arms of tainted government officials who removed the names of villagers from the list of below poverty line (BPL) beneficiaries.

BHOPAL: A BJP legislator in Madhya Pradesh has claimed there is a threat to his life from the sand and granite mining mafia operating in Chhatarpur district in the Bundelkhand region bordering UP. R D Prajapati, MLA from Chandla, has written to home minister Bhupendra Singh and the superintendent of police (SP) of Chhatarpur that he received a call on his cell phone on July 29 warning him that he would be killed. The MLA said he suspected that the call came from people linked to the sand and granite mining mafia. Confirming receipt of the MLAs complaint, superintendent of police Vinit Khanna of Chattarpur told the New Indian Express that a case was lodged against the unidentified caller on Monday. Rampant sand mining in Chhatarpur district hit the headlines in June 2017 when an IAS officer Sonia Meena, presently posted as ADM in Umaria district, reportedly received death threats. In a letter to chief secretary B P Singh, Meena had sought security since she had to travel to Chhatarpur district regularly to submit documents/evidence in court. Following the development, her security was beefed up. Meena, earlier posted as sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) in Rajnagar in Chhatarpur district, had impounded sand trucks belonging to Arjun Singh Bundela. Bundela. Back in 2016, R D Prajapati left his own government embarrassed when he raised the issue of sand mining on the banks of the Ken river in Chhatarpur district. The Congress too backed the BJP legislator amidst the uproar his revelation triggered. He claimed that illegal miners from adjoining UP were creating a reign of terror in the area. The then minister for mineral resources Rajendra Shukla denied in the Assembly that there was illegal mining going on. Prajapati had then said he was ready to quit the Assembly if he was proven wrong. Prior to that in March 2016, the same BJP legislator had courted controversy at a public meeting when he threatened to chop off the arms of tainted government officials who removed the names of villagers from the list of below poverty line (BPL) beneficiaries.
Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: On July 25, as Indias national security adviser Ajit Doval was preparing to leave for Beijing to do some back-channel diplomacy with the Chinese over the standoff in Dokalam, People's Liberation Army (PLA) troopers were transgressing into Indian territory in the Uttarakhand sector of the border.

They did that twice in the Barahoti sector of Uttarakhand but Indian officials on Monday downplayed the intrusion, saying they happen not too infrequently and should not be given "undue importance".

The first transgression took place on July 15 and the other on July 25. In both instances, about 15-20 Chinese soldiers came into Indian territory, stayed for a while and left, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) sources said.

Barahoti is a no mans pasture land used by the local people to graze animals. A 350 km arc of the McMahon Line cuts through the area, signifying the Indo-Tibetan border. It lies some 400 km from Dehradun, up in the hills of Chamoli district in Garhwal.

During the July 25 incursion, PLA troops are said to have bullied shepherds grazing cattle during a two-hour stay, officials in the know said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. They left after the Indian side protested.

However, official sources said incidents of a similar nature have happened in the past and are normally sorted out locally. These transgressions occur due to differing perceptions of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

It has been happening for decades. Though we can't call it routine, it is not so unusual either," said a senior ITBP officer.

Confirming the intrusion by Chinese troops, Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat dubbed it as a sensitive and a worrisome development. He said, however, that the Indian army is in total control of the situation at Barahoti. The district magistrate of Chamoli, Ashish Joshi, who initially called the reports routine, was not available for further comment.

Barahoti

Barahoti is an 80 sq km area of sloping pasture land. It falls in the middle sector of the Sino-Indian border, comprising Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. It is a demilitarised zone where Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) jawans are not allowed to take their weapons.

In 1958, India and China listed Barahoti as a disputed area and agreed that neither side would send their troops there. In the 1962 war, the PLA did not enter the middle sector.

After the war, ITBP jawans would patrol the area with weapons in a non-combative manner -- with the barrel of the gun pointing down.

During negotiations on the border dispute, the Indian side unilaterally agreed in June 2000 that ITBP troops would not carry arms in three posts: Barahoti and Kauril and Shipki in Himachal Pradesh.

ITBP men patrol the area in civil clothes. As per local sources, both Indian and Chinese troops conduct routine recces of the area. These are not uncommon to the people of Barahoti.

The area where incursions have been reported in the past is close to a revered pond called Parvati Kund, where there is said to be a small Kali and Shiva temple. Chinese troops often demolish such local shrines and Indians rebuild them.

Rimkhim is the last Indian post in the area. There is a 5 km trek to a ridge in Barahoti from where Tibet is visible. There is around 100 km motorable road from Chamoli to Rimkhim in Barahoti which draws its name from a seasonal Hoti river.



LUCKNOW: On July 25, as Indias national security adviser Ajit Doval was preparing to leave for Beijing to do some back-channel diplomacy with the Chinese over the standoff in Dokalam, People's Liberation Army (PLA) troopers were transgressing into Indian territory in the Uttarakhand sector of the border. They did that twice in the Barahoti sector of Uttarakhand but Indian officials on Monday downplayed the intrusion, saying they happen not too infrequently and should not be given "undue importance". The first transgression took place on July 15 and the other on July 25. In both instances, about 15-20 Chinese soldiers came into Indian territory, stayed for a while and left, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) sources said. Barahoti is a no mans pasture land used by the local people to graze animals. A 350 km arc of the McMahon Line cuts through the area, signifying the Indo-Tibetan border. It lies some 400 km from Dehradun, up in the hills of Chamoli district in Garhwal. During the July 25 incursion, PLA troops are said to have bullied shepherds grazing cattle during a two-hour stay, officials in the know said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. They left after the Indian side protested. However, official sources said incidents of a similar nature have happened in the past and are normally sorted out locally. These transgressions occur due to differing perceptions of the Line of Actual Control (LAC). It has been happening for decades. Though we can't call it routine, it is not so unusual either," said a senior ITBP officer. Confirming the intrusion by Chinese troops, Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat dubbed it as a sensitive and a worrisome development. He said, however, that the Indian army is in total control of the situation at Barahoti. The district magistrate of Chamoli, Ashish Joshi, who initially called the reports routine, was not available for further comment. Barahoti Barahoti is an 80 sq km area of sloping pasture land. It falls in the middle sector of the Sino-Indian border, comprising Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. It is a demilitarised zone where Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) jawans are not allowed to take their weapons. In 1958, India and China listed Barahoti as a disputed area and agreed that neither side would send their troops there. In the 1962 war, the PLA did not enter the middle sector. After the war, ITBP jawans would patrol the area with weapons in a non-combative manner -- with the barrel of the gun pointing down. During negotiations on the border dispute, the Indian side unilaterally agreed in June 2000 that ITBP troops would not carry arms in three posts: Barahoti and Kauril and Shipki in Himachal Pradesh. ITBP men patrol the area in civil clothes. As per local sources, both Indian and Chinese troops conduct routine recces of the area. These are not uncommon to the people of Barahoti. The area where incursions have been reported in the past is close to a revered pond called Parvati Kund, where there is said to be a small Kali and Shiva temple. Chinese troops often demolish such local shrines and Indians rebuild them. Rimkhim is the last Indian post in the area. There is a 5 km trek to a ridge in Barahoti from where Tibet is visible. There is around 100 km motorable road from Chamoli to Rimkhim in Barahoti which draws its name from a seasonal Hoti river.
By Express News Service

The government on Monday made it clear that there is no plan to develop the tea stall where Prime Minister Narendra Modi sold tea in his childhood as a tourist spot.

Union minister of Tourism Mahesh Sharma said in a written reply in Lok Sabha, The government has no plans to give a face lift to the tea stall in Vadnagar in Gujarat and no funds have been earmarked for this purpose.

Earlier, the minister had said his ministry, along with the ministry of railways, would develop the Vadnagar railway station as a tourist destination. The tea stall is located on one of the platforms of the station.

In reply to supplementaries in the House, Sharma said that it is too early to understand the impact of GST on the tourism sector, though an early assessment has shown that the single tax regime has brought down the level of taxation. He said he will talk to the GST Council on the possible difficulties houseboat owners in Kerala may face due to GST.

Responding to another supplementary, he said the proposed 'Incredible India 2' policy will be out soon. It will have provisions to tie up with the private sector to help promote tourism in the country. In his written reply, Sharma said the Tourism Ministry has no scheme to encourage states to enter into revenue- sharing agreement with technology-driven hospitality service providers in the country.

The government on Monday made it clear that there is no plan to develop the tea stall where Prime Minister Narendra Modi sold tea in his childhood as a tourist spot. Union minister of Tourism Mahesh Sharma said in a written reply in Lok Sabha, The government has no plans to give a face lift to the tea stall in Vadnagar in Gujarat and no funds have been earmarked for this purpose. Earlier, the minister had said his ministry, along with the ministry of railways, would develop the Vadnagar railway station as a tourist destination. The tea stall is located on one of the platforms of the station. In reply to supplementaries in the House, Sharma said that it is too early to understand the impact of GST on the tourism sector, though an early assessment has shown that the single tax regime has brought down the level of taxation. He said he will talk to the GST Council on the possible difficulties houseboat owners in Kerala may face due to GST. Responding to another supplementary, he said the proposed 'Incredible India 2' policy will be out soon. It will have provisions to tie up with the private sector to help promote tourism in the country. In his written reply, Sharma said the Tourism Ministry has no scheme to encourage states to enter into revenue- sharing agreement with technology-driven hospitality service providers in the country.
Sana Shakil By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: While regular courts in India are battling a huge backlog of cases, there has been a decent reduction in the pendency of cases in the countrys labour courts. The pendency of cases in the countrys 22 labour courts has come down from 13,864 to 12,798. This, despite the fact that the labour courts received more fresh cases in the Financial Year 2016-2017 when compared to the previous FY of 2015-2016. According to government statistics, the labour courts received 1246 cases in 2016-2017 as against 1,976 cases in the previous FY. Also, the labour courts had a higher pendency in last years FY as against the pendency in the previous year. In 2016-2017, the labour courts had a backlog of 13,853 cases as compared to the backlog of 13,717 cases in 2016-2017.

Pertinently, the pendency of cases in the District and Subordinate Courts of the country has increased from 2.64 crore cases in the year 2014 to 2.74 crore cases in the year 2016. The cities which have the maximum pendency in the countrys labour courts are Chennai, Dhanbad and Ahmedabad. The data was disclosed in the Lok Sabha on Monday by Minister of Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattareya in a written reply on the subject.

In the FY 2016-2017, Chennai had the highest pendency with 2135 cases pending in its labour court. There has been a steep increase in the pendency of court at Chennai as according to the union labour ministrys data, Tamil Nadus capital city only had some 244 pending cases in the previous Financial Year (FY) of 2015-2016. Right behind Chennai in terms of pendency are the two labour courts in Jharkhands Dhanbad with a total of 1730 cases. The high number of industrial disputes in the city stems from it having some of the largest coal mines in India. A lot of cases related to rights of coal mine workers are pending in Dhanbads labour courts though it recorded a drop in the pendency of its cases when compared to 2015-2016 when it had some 1920 cases pending. Closely following Dhanbad in pendency is Ahmedabad with 1690 cases despite showing a significant improvement in the pendency of cases as it had the highest pendency of labour dispute cases in 2015-2016 with 2,230 cases.

Of the total 22 labour courts in the country, 13 recorded a reduction in pendency in the FY 2016-2017. These included the labour courts in West Bengals Asansol, Uttar Pradeshs Kanpur and Lucknow, Madhya Pradeshs Jabalpur, Andhra Pradeshs Hyderabad, Odishas Bhubaneshwar, Rajasthan's Jaipur, Keralas Ernakulam, Gujrats Ahmedabad and the two labour courts each in Maharashtra's Mumbai and Jharkhands Dhanbad. The five labour courts which performed best in disposing of cases were the courts in Ahmedabad, Jabalpur and Dhanbad. In FY 2016-2017, the court in Ahmedabad finished 597 cases followed by Jabalpurs court which disposed of 343 cases. One of the labour courts in Dhanbad ranked third in terms of its disposal as it decided 206 cases in the FY 2016-2017.

The 22 labour courts were set up under the provisions of Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 as Central Government Industrial Tribunal cum-Labour Courts (CGIT-cum-LCs) in various states for resolution of industrial disputes. Out of these, two CGIT-cum-LCs one at Mumbai and the second at Kolkata also function as National Industrial Tribunals (NITs).

NEW DELHI: While regular courts in India are battling a huge backlog of cases, there has been a decent reduction in the pendency of cases in the countrys labour courts. The pendency of cases in the countrys 22 labour courts has come down from 13,864 to 12,798. This, despite the fact that the labour courts received more fresh cases in the Financial Year 2016-2017 when compared to the previous FY of 2015-2016. According to government statistics, the labour courts received 1246 cases in 2016-2017 as against 1,976 cases in the previous FY. Also, the labour courts had a higher pendency in last years FY as against the pendency in the previous year. In 2016-2017, the labour courts had a backlog of 13,853 cases as compared to the backlog of 13,717 cases in 2016-2017. Pertinently, the pendency of cases in the District and Subordinate Courts of the country has increased from 2.64 crore cases in the year 2014 to 2.74 crore cases in the year 2016. The cities which have the maximum pendency in the countrys labour courts are Chennai, Dhanbad and Ahmedabad. The data was disclosed in the Lok Sabha on Monday by Minister of Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattareya in a written reply on the subject. In the FY 2016-2017, Chennai had the highest pendency with 2135 cases pending in its labour court. There has been a steep increase in the pendency of court at Chennai as according to the union labour ministrys data, Tamil Nadus capital city only had some 244 pending cases in the previous Financial Year (FY) of 2015-2016. Right behind Chennai in terms of pendency are the two labour courts in Jharkhands Dhanbad with a total of 1730 cases. The high number of industrial disputes in the city stems from it having some of the largest coal mines in India. A lot of cases related to rights of coal mine workers are pending in Dhanbads labour courts though it recorded a drop in the pendency of its cases when compared to 2015-2016 when it had some 1920 cases pending. Closely following Dhanbad in pendency is Ahmedabad with 1690 cases despite showing a significant improvement in the pendency of cases as it had the highest pendency of labour dispute cases in 2015-2016 with 2,230 cases. Of the total 22 labour courts in the country, 13 recorded a reduction in pendency in the FY 2016-2017. These included the labour courts in West Bengals Asansol, Uttar Pradeshs Kanpur and Lucknow, Madhya Pradeshs Jabalpur, Andhra Pradeshs Hyderabad, Odishas Bhubaneshwar, Rajasthan's Jaipur, Keralas Ernakulam, Gujrats Ahmedabad and the two labour courts each in Maharashtra's Mumbai and Jharkhands Dhanbad. The five labour courts which performed best in disposing of cases were the courts in Ahmedabad, Jabalpur and Dhanbad. In FY 2016-2017, the court in Ahmedabad finished 597 cases followed by Jabalpurs court which disposed of 343 cases. One of the labour courts in Dhanbad ranked third in terms of its disposal as it decided 206 cases in the FY 2016-2017. The 22 labour courts were set up under the provisions of Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 as Central Government Industrial Tribunal cum-Labour Courts (CGIT-cum-LCs) in various states for resolution of industrial disputes. Out of these, two CGIT-cum-LCs one at Mumbai and the second at Kolkata also function as National Industrial Tribunals (NITs).
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Charges and counter charges flew in the Lok Sabha today over the issue of lynchings, with the Opposition parties targeting the Modi government and the ruling side asserting that it was the responsibility of the state governments to deal with such crimes.

As the House took up a discussion on the lynchings, members of all parties condemned the killings in the name of cow even as the Opposition parties like the Congress and Trinamool Congress accused the BJP-led government of encouraging groups behind the violence by cow vigilantes.

The BJP, in turn, slammed the Opposition parties for targeting the central government over lynchings and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly come out strongly against such acts.

The ruling party said "certain demons" have put on the "holy garb" to defame the government, likening it to an episode in the Ramayana, and asserted that the responsibility of containing mob violence is that of the state governments.

Initiating the discussion, Leader of the Congress Mallikarjun Kharge said 'Hindustan' should not be allowed to become "lynchistan".

He alleged that this government was against minorities, Dalits and women, claiming that these sections had borne the maximum brunt of mob violence.

The Prime Minister says he is against such violence but what action has he taken, Kharge asked and added, "He (PM) says something and does something else."

He asked the government to give details of the action taken against the accused in these cases, claiming that they had become brazen because of lack of action.

Citing a number of incidents this year to say that the lynchings had mostly happened in the BJP-ruled states, Kharge said there was an atmosphere of fear and terror across the country, which has brought a bad name to India in the world.

He accused organisations like the VHP and Bajrang Dal of being involved in such violence.

"It is also being done so that your ideology and philosophy could be established in the country," the Congress leader said, pointing to the BJP's "links" with these outfits.

BJP-ruled Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh had become centres of mob lynching, he said, adding that such incidents would become a major threat to the nation's integrity.

Referring to the murder of a BJP worker in Kerala, he said the Governor there summoned the DGP on the issue, but nothing of that sort was done in other states where lynching incidents took place.

BJP members objected to Kharge citing incidents, saying many of the cases he was referring to were sub-judice.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar also objected to his reference to former President Pranab Mukherjee's speech, saying it was against rules.

Kumar said action had been taken against the hooliganism which had taken place in the name of cow protection.

Countering Kharge's onslaught against the government, BJP leader Hukumdev Narayan Yadav said, "Some people are indulging in terror (atankvadi) activities to defame the government."

He slammed the Congress for questioning the intention of the Modi government and asserted that the responsibility of containing mob violence is that of the state governments.

Yadav, the MP from Madhubani in Bihar, said a fight between two ideologies has been going on for several decades and said that those who follow the path of "economic development and nationalism" will come out victorious.

During his speech, he extensively quoted Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and said the BJP ideologue had stated that "Muslims in India are descendants of Hindus."

He said every Muslim must respect Hindu sentiment and at the same time, Hindus must respect the Muslims.

Talking about nationalism, Yadav said freedom fighters Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan had sung the poem 'Vande Mataram' but there is an environment now in which singing it is considered a crime.

While targeting the Opposition, the BJP MP drew the attention of the House towards the 1984 anti-Sikh riots after the assassination of Indira Gandhi and raised the issue of killing of RSS workers in Left-ruled Kerala.

Sougata Roy of Trinamool Congress quoted the findings of a magazine to say that between 2010-2017 there were 63 incidents of mob violence in the name of cow protection.

He demanded a separate law -- "Manav Suraksha Kanoon"

(human protection law) -- to deal with incidents of lynching, arguing that the Criminal Procedure Code and Indian Penal Code do not define lynching.

"The government keeps saying it wants Congress-free India, I want to ask, do you want to make a Muslim-free India as well," Roy said, provoking protests from BJP members.

Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju objected to Roy's remarks, saying that TMC MP should not mislead the House and should specify on what basis he is giving the data.

Roy said that cow-related killings are all "targeted killings" and accused workers of VHP, Bajrang Dal and local cow vigilantes of leading the mob violence.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar and S S Ahluwalia objected to the use of a word by Roy which was immediately expunged by Deputy Speaker M Thambi Durai.

Heated exchanges also broke out between Ahluwalia and BJP MPs on one side and Kalyan Banerjee and other TMC MPs on the other.

Roy sarcastically also remarked that a missing case has been registered in Darjeeling against a BJP MP, an apparent reference to Ahluwalia who represents the Lok Sabha seat.

Ahluwalia responded by saying, "I am standing right in front of you.... How can I be missing?

Roy referred to the killing of Mohammad Akhlaq, Pehlu Khan and Junaid Khan and said it took a long time for the state and central governments to condemn such lynching incidents.

He maintained that the Prime Minister has made "just two statements" -- one in 2016 and the other a few days ago -- and asked, "Why did it take him so long?"

The Trinamool leader said "very few cases" of bovine related cases occur in the eastern India in Bengal and Odisha.

"Why is this not being controlled? Because top BJP leaders were shy of condemning it."

LJP leader and Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said the Opposition was attacking the Modi government for the responsibilities to be fulfilled by the states.

To opposition demand of bringing in a new law to deal with lynchings, Paswan said even such a law will have to be implemented by the states.

"Do you want the Centre to intervene whenever states do not fulfil their responsibilities?.... Should the Centre send Army to handle the situation," he asked the Opposition.

He said while Modi has condemned such incidents, the then Prime Minister (Rajiv Gandhi) during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots had remarked: "when a big tree falls, the earth does shake".

He said in the past three years, Modi has not spoken on Ram Janmabhoomi or Uniform Civil Code or Babri Masjid or Article 370.

Paswan suggested that at the end of this discussion, the House should together condemn such lynching incidents and appeal all political parties and chief ministers to investigate such cases within 24 hours and a murder case should be lodged against the guilty.

Attacking the main opposition party, he quipped, "The Congress party has one leg in the grave."

He said the Congress party has only the cow vigilantism issue to raise as the NDA government has got rid of corruption and focussed on development.

Kharge said the discussion is about what has happened under the present government and answers should be given for that rather than talk about 1984 issues which the House had already discussed.

BJD leader Tathagata Satpathy said every Indian is precious and if it is not, then "we are criminals".

He said the rural economy is getting damaged by incidents of lynching as an economic cycle has been stopped.

"By lynching movement... you will eventually kill Hindu farmers," Satpathy said.

Elaborating, he said Hindu farmers sell the cows and bullocks when they become useless whereas now the buyers have stopped going to villages.

The BJD leader suggested that each MP should take care of two pairs of bullocks and said he tells farmers in his constituency that they can take their cows and bullocks to houses of BJP workers.

"We shall remain united for India, not for someone's idea of unification," he said.

Samajwadi patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav said discrimination is happening on various grounds, religion, caste, language and region, and wanted it to end.

The atrocities committed against women, especially against wives in families, should be stopped, he said.

In a lighter vein, the veteran leader wondered how many of the Parliamentarians are suppressing their wives, eliciting laughter from the members present in the House.

K Gopal (AIADMK) said the beef issue has become a polarising subject and emphasised that it is everybody's collective responsibility to ensure harmony in the society.

There should not be any discrimination against SC/ST people, he added.

NEW DELHI: Charges and counter charges flew in the Lok Sabha today over the issue of lynchings, with the Opposition parties targeting the Modi government and the ruling side asserting that it was the responsibility of the state governments to deal with such crimes. As the House took up a discussion on the lynchings, members of all parties condemned the killings in the name of cow even as the Opposition parties like the Congress and Trinamool Congress accused the BJP-led government of encouraging groups behind the violence by cow vigilantes. The BJP, in turn, slammed the Opposition parties for targeting the central government over lynchings and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly come out strongly against such acts. The ruling party said "certain demons" have put on the "holy garb" to defame the government, likening it to an episode in the Ramayana, and asserted that the responsibility of containing mob violence is that of the state governments. Initiating the discussion, Leader of the Congress Mallikarjun Kharge said 'Hindustan' should not be allowed to become "lynchistan". He alleged that this government was against minorities, Dalits and women, claiming that these sections had borne the maximum brunt of mob violence. The Prime Minister says he is against such violence but what action has he taken, Kharge asked and added, "He (PM) says something and does something else." He asked the government to give details of the action taken against the accused in these cases, claiming that they had become brazen because of lack of action. Citing a number of incidents this year to say that the lynchings had mostly happened in the BJP-ruled states, Kharge said there was an atmosphere of fear and terror across the country, which has brought a bad name to India in the world. He accused organisations like the VHP and Bajrang Dal of being involved in such violence. "It is also being done so that your ideology and philosophy could be established in the country," the Congress leader said, pointing to the BJP's "links" with these outfits. BJP-ruled Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh had become centres of mob lynching, he said, adding that such incidents would become a major threat to the nation's integrity. Referring to the murder of a BJP worker in Kerala, he said the Governor there summoned the DGP on the issue, but nothing of that sort was done in other states where lynching incidents took place. BJP members objected to Kharge citing incidents, saying many of the cases he was referring to were sub-judice. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar also objected to his reference to former President Pranab Mukherjee's speech, saying it was against rules. Kumar said action had been taken against the hooliganism which had taken place in the name of cow protection. Countering Kharge's onslaught against the government, BJP leader Hukumdev Narayan Yadav said, "Some people are indulging in terror (atankvadi) activities to defame the government." He slammed the Congress for questioning the intention of the Modi government and asserted that the responsibility of containing mob violence is that of the state governments. Yadav, the MP from Madhubani in Bihar, said a fight between two ideologies has been going on for several decades and said that those who follow the path of "economic development and nationalism" will come out victorious. During his speech, he extensively quoted Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and said the BJP ideologue had stated that "Muslims in India are descendants of Hindus." He said every Muslim must respect Hindu sentiment and at the same time, Hindus must respect the Muslims. Talking about nationalism, Yadav said freedom fighters Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan had sung the poem 'Vande Mataram' but there is an environment now in which singing it is considered a crime. While targeting the Opposition, the BJP MP drew the attention of the House towards the 1984 anti-Sikh riots after the assassination of Indira Gandhi and raised the issue of killing of RSS workers in Left-ruled Kerala. Sougata Roy of Trinamool Congress quoted the findings of a magazine to say that between 2010-2017 there were 63 incidents of mob violence in the name of cow protection. He demanded a separate law -- "Manav Suraksha Kanoon" (human protection law) -- to deal with incidents of lynching, arguing that the Criminal Procedure Code and Indian Penal Code do not define lynching. "The government keeps saying it wants Congress-free India, I want to ask, do you want to make a Muslim-free India as well," Roy said, provoking protests from BJP members. Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju objected to Roy's remarks, saying that TMC MP should not mislead the House and should specify on what basis he is giving the data. Roy said that cow-related killings are all "targeted killings" and accused workers of VHP, Bajrang Dal and local cow vigilantes of leading the mob violence. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar and S S Ahluwalia objected to the use of a word by Roy which was immediately expunged by Deputy Speaker M Thambi Durai. Heated exchanges also broke out between Ahluwalia and BJP MPs on one side and Kalyan Banerjee and other TMC MPs on the other. Roy sarcastically also remarked that a missing case has been registered in Darjeeling against a BJP MP, an apparent reference to Ahluwalia who represents the Lok Sabha seat. Ahluwalia responded by saying, "I am standing right in front of you.... How can I be missing? Roy referred to the killing of Mohammad Akhlaq, Pehlu Khan and Junaid Khan and said it took a long time for the state and central governments to condemn such lynching incidents. He maintained that the Prime Minister has made "just two statements" -- one in 2016 and the other a few days ago -- and asked, "Why did it take him so long?" The Trinamool leader said "very few cases" of bovine related cases occur in the eastern India in Bengal and Odisha. "Why is this not being controlled? Because top BJP leaders were shy of condemning it." LJP leader and Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said the Opposition was attacking the Modi government for the responsibilities to be fulfilled by the states. To opposition demand of bringing in a new law to deal with lynchings, Paswan said even such a law will have to be implemented by the states. "Do you want the Centre to intervene whenever states do not fulfil their responsibilities?.... Should the Centre send Army to handle the situation," he asked the Opposition. He said while Modi has condemned such incidents, the then Prime Minister (Rajiv Gandhi) during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots had remarked: "when a big tree falls, the earth does shake". He said in the past three years, Modi has not spoken on Ram Janmabhoomi or Uniform Civil Code or Babri Masjid or Article 370. Paswan suggested that at the end of this discussion, the House should together condemn such lynching incidents and appeal all political parties and chief ministers to investigate such cases within 24 hours and a murder case should be lodged against the guilty. Attacking the main opposition party, he quipped, "The Congress party has one leg in the grave." He said the Congress party has only the cow vigilantism issue to raise as the NDA government has got rid of corruption and focussed on development. Kharge said the discussion is about what has happened under the present government and answers should be given for that rather than talk about 1984 issues which the House had already discussed. BJD leader Tathagata Satpathy said every Indian is precious and if it is not, then "we are criminals". He said the rural economy is getting damaged by incidents of lynching as an economic cycle has been stopped. "By lynching movement... you will eventually kill Hindu farmers," Satpathy said. Elaborating, he said Hindu farmers sell the cows and bullocks when they become useless whereas now the buyers have stopped going to villages. The BJD leader suggested that each MP should take care of two pairs of bullocks and said he tells farmers in his constituency that they can take their cows and bullocks to houses of BJP workers. "We shall remain united for India, not for someone's idea of unification," he said. Samajwadi patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav said discrimination is happening on various grounds, religion, caste, language and region, and wanted it to end. The atrocities committed against women, especially against wives in families, should be stopped, he said. In a lighter vein, the veteran leader wondered how many of the Parliamentarians are suppressing their wives, eliciting laughter from the members present in the House. K Gopal (AIADMK) said the beef issue has become a polarising subject and emphasised that it is everybody's collective responsibility to ensure harmony in the society. There should not be any discrimination against SC/ST people, he added.
By Express News Service

GUWAHATI: Amid criticism by Opposition parties for the apathetic attitude of the central government towards the flood situation in Assam, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the north-eastern state on Tuesday to assess the damages caused by the worst deluge in this decade.

The PM on Monday also announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each for the next of kin of those who lost their lives in the floods in Assam and Rajasthan. He also announced Rs 50,000 each for those seriously injured in the floods in the two states, the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) said.

Sources said that the Prime Minister will arrive at 10 am and hold three meetings with the chief ministers of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh before flying back to Delhi in the evening. Manipur and Arunachal have been hit by flash floods and landslides.

With the water receding in Assam, Modi is unlikely to recce the flood-affected areas, the sources said.

The floods in Assam this year claimed 82 lives and affected over 20 lakh people in 29 of the states 32 districts. According to Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), about 5,000 people are still affected in Lakhimpur and Jorhat districts and 366 people are taking shelter in four relief camps in the two districts.

While the state reels under the effects of the deluge, the changing stances of the government regarding the availability of funds have invited criticism from the Opposition.

The Sonowal government had earlier sought a financial assistance of Rs 2,393 crore from the Centre, but the states finance minister on Monday asserted that funds were available to tackle the situation. We still have Rs 324 crore of unspent money. Last year the Centre had announced Rs 400 crore (for Assam), but did not send it because we had money, Sarma said.

GUWAHATI: Amid criticism by Opposition parties for the apathetic attitude of the central government towards the flood situation in Assam, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the north-eastern state on Tuesday to assess the damages caused by the worst deluge in this decade. The PM on Monday also announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each for the next of kin of those who lost their lives in the floods in Assam and Rajasthan. He also announced Rs 50,000 each for those seriously injured in the floods in the two states, the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) said. Sources said that the Prime Minister will arrive at 10 am and hold three meetings with the chief ministers of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh before flying back to Delhi in the evening. Manipur and Arunachal have been hit by flash floods and landslides. With the water receding in Assam, Modi is unlikely to recce the flood-affected areas, the sources said. The floods in Assam this year claimed 82 lives and affected over 20 lakh people in 29 of the states 32 districts. According to Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), about 5,000 people are still affected in Lakhimpur and Jorhat districts and 366 people are taking shelter in four relief camps in the two districts. While the state reels under the effects of the deluge, the changing stances of the government regarding the availability of funds have invited criticism from the Opposition. The Sonowal government had earlier sought a financial assistance of Rs 2,393 crore from the Centre, but the states finance minister on Monday asserted that funds were available to tackle the situation. We still have Rs 324 crore of unspent money. Last year the Centre had announced Rs 400 crore (for Assam), but did not send it because we had money, Sarma said.
By Express News Service

KOLKATA: Sanatan Thakur, the 62-year-old former homeguard who allegedly raped and killed a three-year-old girl in Purulia district of West Bengal by piercing seven needles in her organs, was nabbed in Pimpri village of Sonabhadra district of Uttar Pradesh.

Purulia district SP Joy Biswas told the New Indian Express, "Sanatan Thakur had disguised himself as a hermit at a small temple in Pimpri village of Sonabhadra. A Purulia police team nabbed him on Saturday and produced him in Robertsganj court in the same district, where we were granted transit remand. The accused would be brought to Purulia on Wednesday."

Cases under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences(POCSO), 2012 and Section 304 (culpable homicide) of Indian Penal Code were filed against Thakur.

Initial police investigations revealed that the deceased's mother Mangala Goswami lived together with Thakur in the guise of a house maid and may have been an accomplice to Thakur's alleged crimes. While Goswami was arrested the day her daughter succumbed to injuries on July 21, Thakur remained absconding. She is now in police remand in Purulia.

Purulia SP Joy Biswas added that Thakur and Goswami would be interrogated by making them sit face to face on Wednesday.

The girl succumbed to her injuries two days after seven needles from her vagina, kidney and urinary bladder were removed in a Kolkata hospital. The needles inside her body and the rape came to light after Goswami brought her sick daughter to a government hospital in Bankura.

KOLKATA: Sanatan Thakur, the 62-year-old former homeguard who allegedly raped and killed a three-year-old girl in Purulia district of West Bengal by piercing seven needles in her organs, was nabbed in Pimpri village of Sonabhadra district of Uttar Pradesh. Purulia district SP Joy Biswas told the New Indian Express, "Sanatan Thakur had disguised himself as a hermit at a small temple in Pimpri village of Sonabhadra. A Purulia police team nabbed him on Saturday and produced him in Robertsganj court in the same district, where we were granted transit remand. The accused would be brought to Purulia on Wednesday." Cases under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences(POCSO), 2012 and Section 304 (culpable homicide) of Indian Penal Code were filed against Thakur. Initial police investigations revealed that the deceased's mother Mangala Goswami lived together with Thakur in the guise of a house maid and may have been an accomplice to Thakur's alleged crimes. While Goswami was arrested the day her daughter succumbed to injuries on July 21, Thakur remained absconding. She is now in police remand in Purulia. Purulia SP Joy Biswas added that Thakur and Goswami would be interrogated by making them sit face to face on Wednesday. The girl succumbed to her injuries two days after seven needles from her vagina, kidney and urinary bladder were removed in a Kolkata hospital. The needles inside her body and the rape came to light after Goswami brought her sick daughter to a government hospital in Bankura.
By PTI

PHAGWARA: Britain's first turban-wearing MP Tanmanjit Singh Dhesi today demanded that the remains of Maharaja Duleep Singh were brought back to Punjab.

He, however, sounded cautious in making any commitment over the issue.

Talking to reporters here after he was honoured by over a dozen religious, social and voluntary organisations, including the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), Dhesi said it was a complicated matter involving legalities.

"Besides, some are supporting it while others are opposing it," he said.

This was Dhesi's first visit to Phagwara after becoming a member of the British Parliament.

His parents, Jaspal Singh Dhesi and Dalvinder Kaur Dhesi, live in Phagwara, though their native village is nearby Raipur.

Dhesi's uncle Paramjit Singh Raipur is an SGPC member.

"I congratulate all those who have brought the matter into the 'lokan di kacheri' (people's court), but I will make any commitment on it only after all the facts and views come to light," said Dhesi.

However, he added in the same breath, "We too are considering the issue seriously."

Even after 124 years of the death of Maharaja Duleep Singh, the king of Punjab who was dethroned by the British, a controversy rages on over whether his remains should be brought back to the state from England for cremation as per the Sikh rites.

Singh, who was forced to spend the better part of his life in exile, lies buried at the Elveden Church in Suffolk in eastern England.

A recently released film, 'Black Prince', had rekindled the debate that his remains be exhumed and brought to Punjab for cremation.

On the issue of GST exemption to 'langar' (community kitchen), Dhesi said the demand was for the Punjab MPs and MLAs to raise both with the state and central governments.

"As a Sikh, I am in favour of GST exemption to both the langars at the Golden Temple and Bhagat Puran Singh Pingalwara," he said.

Batting for an effective mechanism to address the issues of NRIs, Dhesi said the non-resident Indians faced problems related to land disputes and marriage among others.

"As a representative of the Punjabis, especially Sikhs, I will keep raising these matters at appropriate forums," he added.

Addressing the gathering, Dhesi went down the memory lane and shared his memories of schooling in Raipur and association with Phagwara as a boy.

Asserting that he would become a "loud voice" for the Punjabis and Sikhs in the House of Commons, Dhesi said he would keep raising the issues confronting the diaspora.

"It is tragic for the Sikhs living in France that they have to remove their turbans for getting photographed and their children cannot go to schools wearing turbans, while over 80,000 turbaned Sikhs had laid down their lives for that country's independence," he said.

Dhesi also expressed concern over the alleged hate crimes against the Sikhs in the US.

Claiming that he had come to Punjab with a message of love and amity, he described himself as a "well-wisher of Punjabis".

Bibi Jagir Kaur, former SGPC president, and local MLA Som Parkash feted Dhesi with a 'siropa' and sword.

PHAGWARA: Britain's first turban-wearing MP Tanmanjit Singh Dhesi today demanded that the remains of Maharaja Duleep Singh were brought back to Punjab. He, however, sounded cautious in making any commitment over the issue. Talking to reporters here after he was honoured by over a dozen religious, social and voluntary organisations, including the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), Dhesi said it was a complicated matter involving legalities. "Besides, some are supporting it while others are opposing it," he said. This was Dhesi's first visit to Phagwara after becoming a member of the British Parliament. His parents, Jaspal Singh Dhesi and Dalvinder Kaur Dhesi, live in Phagwara, though their native village is nearby Raipur. Dhesi's uncle Paramjit Singh Raipur is an SGPC member. "I congratulate all those who have brought the matter into the 'lokan di kacheri' (people's court), but I will make any commitment on it only after all the facts and views come to light," said Dhesi. However, he added in the same breath, "We too are considering the issue seriously." Even after 124 years of the death of Maharaja Duleep Singh, the king of Punjab who was dethroned by the British, a controversy rages on over whether his remains should be brought back to the state from England for cremation as per the Sikh rites. Singh, who was forced to spend the better part of his life in exile, lies buried at the Elveden Church in Suffolk in eastern England. A recently released film, 'Black Prince', had rekindled the debate that his remains be exhumed and brought to Punjab for cremation. On the issue of GST exemption to 'langar' (community kitchen), Dhesi said the demand was for the Punjab MPs and MLAs to raise both with the state and central governments. "As a Sikh, I am in favour of GST exemption to both the langars at the Golden Temple and Bhagat Puran Singh Pingalwara," he said. Batting for an effective mechanism to address the issues of NRIs, Dhesi said the non-resident Indians faced problems related to land disputes and marriage among others. "As a representative of the Punjabis, especially Sikhs, I will keep raising these matters at appropriate forums," he added. Addressing the gathering, Dhesi went down the memory lane and shared his memories of schooling in Raipur and association with Phagwara as a boy. Asserting that he would become a "loud voice" for the Punjabis and Sikhs in the House of Commons, Dhesi said he would keep raising the issues confronting the diaspora. "It is tragic for the Sikhs living in France that they have to remove their turbans for getting photographed and their children cannot go to schools wearing turbans, while over 80,000 turbaned Sikhs had laid down their lives for that country's independence," he said. Dhesi also expressed concern over the alleged hate crimes against the Sikhs in the US. Claiming that he had come to Punjab with a message of love and amity, he described himself as a "well-wisher of Punjabis". Bibi Jagir Kaur, former SGPC president, and local MLA Som Parkash feted Dhesi with a 'siropa' and sword.
Karamatullah K Ghori By

Theres an old adage that says those who live by the sword die by it. Pakistans Nawaz Sharif has most recently proved its timeless validity.The Pakistan Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision handed down by a full five-member bench on Friday, July 29, dethroned him as prime minister on charges of corruption, for lying under oath and for concealing the fact that he was in the service of a foreign government (UAE, in his case) while concurrently holding Pakistans top executive office.

The Pakistani Constitution, in its Articles 62 and 63, categorically requires that members of the National Assembly be men and women of probity, integrity and moral uprightness. Anyone found lacking these attributes loses the right to sit in the parliament or ever hold a public office. Nawaz Sharif has been found wanting by the apex court in these indispensable attributes.

Nawaz had been under the spotlight of accountability from the moment the Panama Papers, leaked to the global news media in April 2016, became public property in Pakistan. The so-called Panama Leaks revealed that Nawazs two sons, Hussain and Hasan, and daughter Maryam, had floated offshore companies registered in their names in Panama. Under the canopy of these sham enterprises, Nawazs progeny had been presiding over a number of businesses besides owning four luxury flats in Londons most expensive residential district.

The apex court says that it wasnt given any money trail to prove that Nawazs overseas business empire was funded with clean money and not black money made with the help of his high office.

Nawaz could have saved his skin by making a clean breast of what his children had been doing obviously under their fathers patronage and with his full approbation and support. But Nawaz was consumed by hubris, which has undone many a man like him before at various times of their trysts with history.

The people of Pakistan had done him an unprecedented honour by returning him to the office of PM for a third time. But instead of being grateful and humble for the distinction conferred on him, he took it as a matter of right and started seeing himself as being indispensable, forgetting that graveyards around the world are filled with people who, like him, thought they were indispensable in their own times.

It was arrogance of a most lethal type that haunted his every reflex and reaction in the wake of the Panama scandal. How dare the Pakistani news media, basking in the sunshine of total freedom that arrogant rulers like Nawaz deemed their privilege only, question him and his progenys right to run their private businesses? How dare an intrepid, untamed and daring Imran Khanwhom Nawaz saw as his nemesis foreverwash his dirty linen in public?

Nawaz, comporting as Pakistans uncrowned emperor thought he was untouchable and couldnt be made answerable to two-bit news hacks and upstart politicians, no matter how polished, cultured or charismatic, like Imran. Pakistan, in a curious and endemically damning way, has never had a culture of morality in politics and power. It just doesnt have a creed of honour where public disgrace should trigger a voluntary vacation of high office.

In its chequered history of 70 years of roller-coaster ride by political carpet baggers and soldiers of fortune, one would be hard put to find even one solitary example of a prime minister stepping down under moral or popular pressure. Leaders, of all stripes and persuasions, have either been booted out of power in a military coup detat, debarred on court orders or simply killed or hanged.

What proved to be Nawazs undoing is his blatant refusal to learn from that history of Pakistan in which he has had a prominent role, too, if not as its author or maker, then most certainly as one of its victims. But since humility has never been a strong suit with Pakistans feudal-fed politicians, Nawaz too refused to draw the right lesson from his past denouement.

Nawaz and his sycophant cronies, instead of sensing the popular mood of frustration and anger, hunkered down for a fight that was doomed to ignoble failure. By digging in their feet in response to the galloping demand for Nawaz to go, they literally dug the grave of their vaunted leader.

Heaping insult on injury, the apex court isnt quite done with Nawaz. Disqualifying him from public office for the rest of his life isnt the only punishment for him. The court, using that foothold against him has ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to file references against Nawaz and his children within six weeks and then try the gang in an accountability court within a time-limit of six months. With a mountain of evidence meticulously collected against the thieving Nawaz family, its anybodys guess how the accountability court would proceed against them. Long prison sentences could well be in the offing.But what an irony that even in the teeth of such a colossal fall in the Sharif familys fortune, Nawaz still seems horribly out of sync with his dire calamity. Hed like to be succeeded by his younger sibling Shehbaz.

The Sharifs may still think they are indispensable for the country. However, the country seems done with them. Good riddance is the national sentiment as Pakistanis pack off Nawaz, for good. The peoples mood, flushed with triumph, is to see the backs of all the Sharifs. Shehbaz, notorious for his short fuse and tantrums, is loathed by those who know him well. He will have to win a place in the National Assembly to succeed his disgraced older brother. Imran Khan is alive to the new challenge and could make it extremely hard for Shehbaz to win in Lahore, their common turf. That would be the last nail in the Sharifs coffin.

Karamatullah K Ghori

Former Pakistani diplomat

Email: K_K_ghori@hotmail.com

Theres an old adage that says those who live by the sword die by it. Pakistans Nawaz Sharif has most recently proved its timeless validity.The Pakistan Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision handed down by a full five-member bench on Friday, July 29, dethroned him as prime minister on charges of corruption, for lying under oath and for concealing the fact that he was in the service of a foreign government (UAE, in his case) while concurrently holding Pakistans top executive office. The Pakistani Constitution, in its Articles 62 and 63, categorically requires that members of the National Assembly be men and women of probity, integrity and moral uprightness. Anyone found lacking these attributes loses the right to sit in the parliament or ever hold a public office. Nawaz Sharif has been found wanting by the apex court in these indispensable attributes. Nawaz had been under the spotlight of accountability from the moment the Panama Papers, leaked to the global news media in April 2016, became public property in Pakistan. The so-called Panama Leaks revealed that Nawazs two sons, Hussain and Hasan, and daughter Maryam, had floated offshore companies registered in their names in Panama. Under the canopy of these sham enterprises, Nawazs progeny had been presiding over a number of businesses besides owning four luxury flats in Londons most expensive residential district. The apex court says that it wasnt given any money trail to prove that Nawazs overseas business empire was funded with clean money and not black money made with the help of his high office. Nawaz could have saved his skin by making a clean breast of what his children had been doing obviously under their fathers patronage and with his full approbation and support. But Nawaz was consumed by hubris, which has undone many a man like him before at various times of their trysts with history. The people of Pakistan had done him an unprecedented honour by returning him to the office of PM for a third time. But instead of being grateful and humble for the distinction conferred on him, he took it as a matter of right and started seeing himself as being indispensable, forgetting that graveyards around the world are filled with people who, like him, thought they were indispensable in their own times. It was arrogance of a most lethal type that haunted his every reflex and reaction in the wake of the Panama scandal. How dare the Pakistani news media, basking in the sunshine of total freedom that arrogant rulers like Nawaz deemed their privilege only, question him and his progenys right to run their private businesses? How dare an intrepid, untamed and daring Imran Khanwhom Nawaz saw as his nemesis foreverwash his dirty linen in public? Nawaz, comporting as Pakistans uncrowned emperor thought he was untouchable and couldnt be made answerable to two-bit news hacks and upstart politicians, no matter how polished, cultured or charismatic, like Imran. Pakistan, in a curious and endemically damning way, has never had a culture of morality in politics and power. It just doesnt have a creed of honour where public disgrace should trigger a voluntary vacation of high office. In its chequered history of 70 years of roller-coaster ride by political carpet baggers and soldiers of fortune, one would be hard put to find even one solitary example of a prime minister stepping down under moral or popular pressure. Leaders, of all stripes and persuasions, have either been booted out of power in a military coup detat, debarred on court orders or simply killed or hanged. What proved to be Nawazs undoing is his blatant refusal to learn from that history of Pakistan in which he has had a prominent role, too, if not as its author or maker, then most certainly as one of its victims. But since humility has never been a strong suit with Pakistans feudal-fed politicians, Nawaz too refused to draw the right lesson from his past denouement. Nawaz and his sycophant cronies, instead of sensing the popular mood of frustration and anger, hunkered down for a fight that was doomed to ignoble failure. By digging in their feet in response to the galloping demand for Nawaz to go, they literally dug the grave of their vaunted leader. Heaping insult on injury, the apex court isnt quite done with Nawaz. Disqualifying him from public office for the rest of his life isnt the only punishment for him. The court, using that foothold against him has ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to file references against Nawaz and his children within six weeks and then try the gang in an accountability court within a time-limit of six months. With a mountain of evidence meticulously collected against the thieving Nawaz family, its anybodys guess how the accountability court would proceed against them. Long prison sentences could well be in the offing.But what an irony that even in the teeth of such a colossal fall in the Sharif familys fortune, Nawaz still seems horribly out of sync with his dire calamity. Hed like to be succeeded by his younger sibling Shehbaz. The Sharifs may still think they are indispensable for the country. However, the country seems done with them. Good riddance is the national sentiment as Pakistanis pack off Nawaz, for good. The peoples mood, flushed with triumph, is to see the backs of all the Sharifs. Shehbaz, notorious for his short fuse and tantrums, is loathed by those who know him well. He will have to win a place in the National Assembly to succeed his disgraced older brother. Imran Khan is alive to the new challenge and could make it extremely hard for Shehbaz to win in Lahore, their common turf. That would be the last nail in the Sharifs coffin. Karamatullah K Ghori Former Pakistani diplomat Email: K_K_ghori@hotmail.com
Related Natural deaths among Egyptian pilgrims in hajj climb to 43

Saudi Arabian King Salman Bin Abdulaziz has directed authorities in his country to host 1,000 families of Egyptian army and police personnel killed on duty to perform this years pilgrimage (Hajj) to Mecca in September, the Saudi embassy in Cairo announced on Monday.

Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Egypt Ahmed Kattan said the move is a show of appreciation for the sacrifices of members of the Egyptian army and police in defending their nation.

Egyptians are among the top nationalities that perform the Hajj to Mecca, with nearly 90,000 Egyptian pilgrims expected to perform the hajj this year.

Egypts army and police forces have been fighting Islamist insurgents in North Sinai for several years, with hundreds of security personnel killed in militant attacks, as well as hundreds of militants killed in security campaigns.

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Kalyan Chakravarthy By

Express News Service

Several ministers and scores of Telugu Desam Party MLAs are these days camping in Nandyal Assembly constituency in the faction-ridden Kurnool district. Chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu too has been there recently, cajoling, and castigating, imploring and reasoning to win the byelection, necessitated by the untimely demise of sitting MLA Bhuma Nagi Reddy.

The election, slated for August 23, is the first after 2014 and could well set the tone for 2019. A defeat could be more demoralising for the TDP than the opposition YSR Congress since it is the ruling party that usually wins bypolls. Indications are, the TDP may just scrape through. Nonetheless, if the chief ministers soundbytes are anything to go by, the party is jittery for sure. Are you mad? Are you from YSRC? Naidu asked a voter, who had the gall to complain to him about power cuts, and went on to threaten to book a case against the poor fellow if his complaint was proved wrong. Part of the problem lies in Naidus own strategy of Operation Aakarshan post-2014. The late Bhuma Nagi Reddy had won on a YSRC ticket before defecting to the TDP and now, in an ironic twist, its a TDP man, Silpa Mohan Reddy, who is in the fray on behalf of the opposition party.

A victory, however narrow, gives YSRC chief Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy much-needed momentum. He is already looking beyond Nandyal and has roped in election strategist Prashant Kishor, whom he introduced to his colleagues at the partys annual plenary earlier this month as the man who will help us win. Kishor has hit the ground running, sending his young turks to the field to sense public pulse. But his biggest challenge is Jagan himself. The 44-year-old politician hasnt helped himself with his public outbursts in the last three years, most notably at the Vizag airport this January when he warned the police of consequences for touching the chief minister (himself). Changing the perception of him as an arrogant, ambitious and corrupt (read: money laundering and disproportionate assets cases against him) politician, particularly among the middle class, isnt going to be easy. But wasnt his father Y S Rajasekhara Reddy viewed much the same way in his younger days? It took him 20 years to become acceptable to all. Jagan is young, the cases against him wont stand. His credibility can be restored, a senior politician, once a close aide of YSR, mused echoing the optimism among Jagans supporters. Sure enough, Jagan is working at it. He will be undertaking a 3,000-km padayatra, walking in the footsteps of his father, in the run-up to the polls.

Away from Nandyal, working quietly is actor Chiranjeevis brother and Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan, dismissed by many as a part-time politician and full-time actor. Is he? Pawan helped the TDP-BJP combine romp home in 2014 with his fiery speeches and star appeal, significantly among the numerically stronger Kapu community to which he himself belongs. He is not your conventional politician nor an Arvind Kejriwal.

Combining idealism, nationalism and regionalism in varying degrees, Pawan has baffled his supporters with his guest appearances since the 2014 results. His long hibernations and sudden activity are seen as signs of disinterest at best and inexperience at worst, in the murky world of politics.

Looking at it from his side, though, things appear a bit different. In January, it was Pawan who had called for an agitation for special category status to the state in Vizag, not Jagan. It could be seen as a test run of his own ability to galvanise the people. Viewed as such, it was a moderate success. Pawan was able to set the social media on fire and generate some heat. Its a different matter that he didnt bother to follow up. The next month, he visited Harvard and met up with Akhilesh Yadavs political strategist Steve Jarding. At the two-hour meeting, his party sources confirmed, Pawan discussed how to prepare the party for polls and screen potential candidates. Buzz was that Jarding, a professor in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School who advised Hillary Clinton and Al Gore among others, could be hired as his political consultant.

The film star is currently working on helping people in Uddanam who suffer from inexplicable kidney diseases. He brought in Harvard experts to study the issue and in fact, made the long-ignored issue mainstream prompting the government to promise aid to the patients. In short, from his perspective, he is proactive, and Jagan reactive.

Pawan is in a position to set the agenda and is silently but surely, working on building his credibility as an idealistic leader, not ambitious. His objective: to gain a foothold and emerge king-maker.

Invisible on the landscape but looming large over all is the BJPs master strategist Amit Shah.

The Naidu allys blooming friendship with Jagan has of late been raising the TDPs hackles. This is the time for strategising and alliances are still some way off. But the emerging political contours indicate uncertain times ahead.

Kalyan Chakravarthy

Deputy Resident Editor, Andhra Pradesh

Email: chakravarthy@newindianexpress.com

Several ministers and scores of Telugu Desam Party MLAs are these days camping in Nandyal Assembly constituency in the faction-ridden Kurnool district. Chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu too has been there recently, cajoling, and castigating, imploring and reasoning to win the byelection, necessitated by the untimely demise of sitting MLA Bhuma Nagi Reddy. The election, slated for August 23, is the first after 2014 and could well set the tone for 2019. A defeat could be more demoralising for the TDP than the opposition YSR Congress since it is the ruling party that usually wins bypolls. Indications are, the TDP may just scrape through. Nonetheless, if the chief ministers soundbytes are anything to go by, the party is jittery for sure. Are you mad? Are you from YSRC? Naidu asked a voter, who had the gall to complain to him about power cuts, and went on to threaten to book a case against the poor fellow if his complaint was proved wrong. Part of the problem lies in Naidus own strategy of Operation Aakarshan post-2014. The late Bhuma Nagi Reddy had won on a YSRC ticket before defecting to the TDP and now, in an ironic twist, its a TDP man, Silpa Mohan Reddy, who is in the fray on behalf of the opposition party. A victory, however narrow, gives YSRC chief Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy much-needed momentum. He is already looking beyond Nandyal and has roped in election strategist Prashant Kishor, whom he introduced to his colleagues at the partys annual plenary earlier this month as the man who will help us win. Kishor has hit the ground running, sending his young turks to the field to sense public pulse. But his biggest challenge is Jagan himself. The 44-year-old politician hasnt helped himself with his public outbursts in the last three years, most notably at the Vizag airport this January when he warned the police of consequences for touching the chief minister (himself). Changing the perception of him as an arrogant, ambitious and corrupt (read: money laundering and disproportionate assets cases against him) politician, particularly among the middle class, isnt going to be easy. But wasnt his father Y S Rajasekhara Reddy viewed much the same way in his younger days? It took him 20 years to become acceptable to all. Jagan is young, the cases against him wont stand. His credibility can be restored, a senior politician, once a close aide of YSR, mused echoing the optimism among Jagans supporters. Sure enough, Jagan is working at it. He will be undertaking a 3,000-km padayatra, walking in the footsteps of his father, in the run-up to the polls. Away from Nandyal, working quietly is actor Chiranjeevis brother and Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan, dismissed by many as a part-time politician and full-time actor. Is he? Pawan helped the TDP-BJP combine romp home in 2014 with his fiery speeches and star appeal, significantly among the numerically stronger Kapu community to which he himself belongs. He is not your conventional politician nor an Arvind Kejriwal. Combining idealism, nationalism and regionalism in varying degrees, Pawan has baffled his supporters with his guest appearances since the 2014 results. His long hibernations and sudden activity are seen as signs of disinterest at best and inexperience at worst, in the murky world of politics. Looking at it from his side, though, things appear a bit different. In January, it was Pawan who had called for an agitation for special category status to the state in Vizag, not Jagan. It could be seen as a test run of his own ability to galvanise the people. Viewed as such, it was a moderate success. Pawan was able to set the social media on fire and generate some heat. Its a different matter that he didnt bother to follow up. The next month, he visited Harvard and met up with Akhilesh Yadavs political strategist Steve Jarding. At the two-hour meeting, his party sources confirmed, Pawan discussed how to prepare the party for polls and screen potential candidates. Buzz was that Jarding, a professor in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School who advised Hillary Clinton and Al Gore among others, could be hired as his political consultant. The film star is currently working on helping people in Uddanam who suffer from inexplicable kidney diseases. He brought in Harvard experts to study the issue and in fact, made the long-ignored issue mainstream prompting the government to promise aid to the patients. In short, from his perspective, he is proactive, and Jagan reactive. Pawan is in a position to set the agenda and is silently but surely, working on building his credibility as an idealistic leader, not ambitious. His objective: to gain a foothold and emerge king-maker. Invisible on the landscape but looming large over all is the BJPs master strategist Amit Shah. The Naidu allys blooming friendship with Jagan has of late been raising the TDPs hackles. This is the time for strategising and alliances are still some way off. But the emerging political contours indicate uncertain times ahead. Kalyan Chakravarthy Deputy Resident Editor, Andhra Pradesh Email: chakravarthy@newindianexpress.com
By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The special investigating team (SIT) on Sunday arrested nine persons in connection with the murder of 34-year-old RSS activist S L Rajesh at Sreekariyam on Saturday. The arrest of three other persons will be recorded only after verifying their involvement in harbouring the accused. The arrest was recorded on Sunday after hours of interrogation by Thiruvananthapuram Range IG Manoj Abraham. The arrested are Manikuttan, Vijith, Aby, Pramod, Vipin , Siby, Moni, Shyju and Bai, who were directly involved in the murder, while Gireesh, Arun and one more unidentified person have been taken into custody for harbouring the accused. Two more accused involved in the case are still at large. They will be produced before the Magistrate on Monday as the investigation team is yet to seize the weapon used to hack Rajesh, the police said.

The accused were arrested after the police chased them down in a rubber plantation at Pulippara near Kattakada in the early hours of Sunday.The accused were taken into custody by a special police team led by DySP Pramod Kumar. Manikuttan had served jail term twice earlier under the Kerala Anti-Social Activities (Prevention)Act (KAAPA). A bike used by one of the accused was also seized from Pulippara. Ruling out political vendetta, the police said the motive for the murder could be personal vengeance as there was bad blood between the accused and Rajesh for quite some time.

City Police Commissioner G Sparjan Kumar told Express the murder was nothing but a retaliatory attack by Manikuttan and his gang following a long-standing feud with Rajesh and his cohorts. Prima facie, the incident has nothing to do with any recent political developments. The prime accused, Manikuttan, and slain activist Rajesh were neighbours and they were not in good terms for a while. Manikuttan used the CPM-BJP stand-off as a cover to carry out his vengeance. Manikuttan is a hardcore criminal, Kumar said.

The incident took place around 9.30 pm on Saturday when Rajesh was stationed in front of a shop at Edavacode after returning from the RSS shakhah.

Apparently, Rajesh was hacked and the assailants chopped off his left arm. The victim who was reportedly hacked 40 times died at a private hospital hours later. Meanwhile, the city police have extended the prohibition on demonstrations up to August 2 considering the present circumstances.

BJP activist injured in attack

Pandalam: BJP activist Ajith, 38, Meloottil, Kadakkad, near here, suffered injuries after he was attacked by an alleged CPM worker, around 8.30 pm on Sunday. Ajith was attacked while he was on his way back home from Pandalam town. Kannan alias Assari Kannan was taken into custody by the Pandalam police in this connection.

Body cremated

Rajeshs body was kept at his residence to allow the people to pay homage. It was then taken to the crematorium and cremated around 6 pm. Several BJP leaders and activists were present at the Medical College Hospital where Rajeshs postmortem was held. Though the situation in front of the hospital was tense, it did not flare up due to the police presence. Rajesh is survived by father Sudarshanan, mother Lalithakumari, younger sister Raji, wife Reena and sons Adithyan, 7 and Abhishek, 5.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The special investigating team (SIT) on Sunday arrested nine persons in connection with the murder of 34-year-old RSS activist S L Rajesh at Sreekariyam on Saturday. The arrest of three other persons will be recorded only after verifying their involvement in harbouring the accused. The arrest was recorded on Sunday after hours of interrogation by Thiruvananthapuram Range IG Manoj Abraham. The arrested are Manikuttan, Vijith, Aby, Pramod, Vipin , Siby, Moni, Shyju and Bai, who were directly involved in the murder, while Gireesh, Arun and one more unidentified person have been taken into custody for harbouring the accused. Two more accused involved in the case are still at large. They will be produced before the Magistrate on Monday as the investigation team is yet to seize the weapon used to hack Rajesh, the police said. The accused were arrested after the police chased them down in a rubber plantation at Pulippara near Kattakada in the early hours of Sunday.The accused were taken into custody by a special police team led by DySP Pramod Kumar. Manikuttan had served jail term twice earlier under the Kerala Anti-Social Activities (Prevention)Act (KAAPA). A bike used by one of the accused was also seized from Pulippara. Ruling out political vendetta, the police said the motive for the murder could be personal vengeance as there was bad blood between the accused and Rajesh for quite some time. City Police Commissioner G Sparjan Kumar told Express the murder was nothing but a retaliatory attack by Manikuttan and his gang following a long-standing feud with Rajesh and his cohorts. Prima facie, the incident has nothing to do with any recent political developments. The prime accused, Manikuttan, and slain activist Rajesh were neighbours and they were not in good terms for a while. Manikuttan used the CPM-BJP stand-off as a cover to carry out his vengeance. Manikuttan is a hardcore criminal, Kumar said. The incident took place around 9.30 pm on Saturday when Rajesh was stationed in front of a shop at Edavacode after returning from the RSS shakhah. Apparently, Rajesh was hacked and the assailants chopped off his left arm. The victim who was reportedly hacked 40 times died at a private hospital hours later. Meanwhile, the city police have extended the prohibition on demonstrations up to August 2 considering the present circumstances. BJP activist injured in attack Pandalam: BJP activist Ajith, 38, Meloottil, Kadakkad, near here, suffered injuries after he was attacked by an alleged CPM worker, around 8.30 pm on Sunday. Ajith was attacked while he was on his way back home from Pandalam town. Kannan alias Assari Kannan was taken into custody by the Pandalam police in this connection. Body cremated Rajeshs body was kept at his residence to allow the people to pay homage. It was then taken to the crematorium and cremated around 6 pm. Several BJP leaders and activists were present at the Medical College Hospital where Rajeshs postmortem was held. Though the situation in front of the hospital was tense, it did not flare up due to the police presence. Rajesh is survived by father Sudarshanan, mother Lalithakumari, younger sister Raji, wife Reena and sons Adithyan, 7 and Abhishek, 5.
By Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR: Experts are unanimous over making Hepatitis B a notifiable disease in India where awareness about it is still very low.According to a study by the Kalinga Gastroenterology Foundation (KGF), awareness about the disease and the vaccine is barely 38 per cent and 32 per cent respectively in Odisha. Moreover, half of those aware have no knowledge about the route of transmission, infectivity or importance of vaccination.

Addressing the 17th Hepatitis B Eradication Day 2017 and World Hepatitis Day here, noted gastroenterologist Prof SK Acharya said, having a registry for Hepatitis B is essential to measure the burden and plan strategies for its management while it is necessary to have a Hepatitis B control programmme to check or eliminate Hepatitis from India. The function was organised by KGF.

In countries like Italy and Taiwan, which had a huge burden of Hepatitis B and liver cancer, have drastically reduced the burden of these diseases by mass vaccination, informed Acharya, who is Professor (Emeritus) of Department of Gastroenterology, AIIMS, New Delhi. He also rued the role played by certain big pharmaceutical houses in delaying inclusion of Hepatitis B vaccination in the immunisation programme of the country since it would inflict huge losses on them.

Prof SP Singh, Head of Department of Gastroenterology, SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack informed that despite availability of the vaccine, Hepatitis B remained the causative agent for almost 20 per cent cases of Acute Hepatitis B and 75 per cent of primary liver cancer in the State.

He felt that ART Centres for HIV should be utilised better and Hepatitis patients should also be provided free investigations and free medicines for Hepatitis in these State-run clinics. Such facilities should be made free for all, not just for the BPL patients, since Hepatitis B treatment burden ultimately relegated the middle class patient to below poverty limits.

All schools should make Hepatitis B vaccination compulsory for the children since it was no more a costly affair, and such a provision would go a long way in improving Catch-Up Vaccination, said Prof Singh, who is also Chairman of KGF.

Speaking on the occasion, Principal Investigator, Toshiba General Hospital, Tokyo Dr SMF Akbar said, there is a greater need for greater participation of governmental agencies and NGOs to remove the menace of Hepatitis. Only 85 per cent patients of Hepatitis B and C are aware that they have the infection and of these, only one per cent have access to treatment.

Director of Regional Medical Research Centre Dr Sanghamitra Pati was also present. SUM Hospital and Dr Sangita Bangar received the KGF Samman on the occasion.

BHUBANESWAR: Experts are unanimous over making Hepatitis B a notifiable disease in India where awareness about it is still very low.According to a study by the Kalinga Gastroenterology Foundation (KGF), awareness about the disease and the vaccine is barely 38 per cent and 32 per cent respectively in Odisha. Moreover, half of those aware have no knowledge about the route of transmission, infectivity or importance of vaccination. Addressing the 17th Hepatitis B Eradication Day 2017 and World Hepatitis Day here, noted gastroenterologist Prof SK Acharya said, having a registry for Hepatitis B is essential to measure the burden and plan strategies for its management while it is necessary to have a Hepatitis B control programmme to check or eliminate Hepatitis from India. The function was organised by KGF. In countries like Italy and Taiwan, which had a huge burden of Hepatitis B and liver cancer, have drastically reduced the burden of these diseases by mass vaccination, informed Acharya, who is Professor (Emeritus) of Department of Gastroenterology, AIIMS, New Delhi. He also rued the role played by certain big pharmaceutical houses in delaying inclusion of Hepatitis B vaccination in the immunisation programme of the country since it would inflict huge losses on them. Prof SP Singh, Head of Department of Gastroenterology, SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack informed that despite availability of the vaccine, Hepatitis B remained the causative agent for almost 20 per cent cases of Acute Hepatitis B and 75 per cent of primary liver cancer in the State. He felt that ART Centres for HIV should be utilised better and Hepatitis patients should also be provided free investigations and free medicines for Hepatitis in these State-run clinics. Such facilities should be made free for all, not just for the BPL patients, since Hepatitis B treatment burden ultimately relegated the middle class patient to below poverty limits. All schools should make Hepatitis B vaccination compulsory for the children since it was no more a costly affair, and such a provision would go a long way in improving Catch-Up Vaccination, said Prof Singh, who is also Chairman of KGF. Speaking on the occasion, Principal Investigator, Toshiba General Hospital, Tokyo Dr SMF Akbar said, there is a greater need for greater participation of governmental agencies and NGOs to remove the menace of Hepatitis. Only 85 per cent patients of Hepatitis B and C are aware that they have the infection and of these, only one per cent have access to treatment. Director of Regional Medical Research Centre Dr Sanghamitra Pati was also present. SUM Hospital and Dr Sangita Bangar received the KGF Samman on the occasion.
By Express News Service

JAJPUR: The situation continues to be grim in Jajpur with flood waters of Brahmani and Kharasrota rivers entering several villages in the district. District officials said while nearly 96,675 people of 112 villages under 52 gram panchayats (GPs) have been affected by the floods, 1,600 people, most of them from Bari block, were shifted to safer places.

Bari has been the worst affected with more than 50,000 people of 43 villages of 18 GPs marooned. Flood waters entered these villages after Brahmani breached its embankment near Banka Sahi in Kimbhiriapal panchayat on Saturday evening.

Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan visits flood-hit areas of Bari block in Jajpur district on Sunday and (right) Singha village in Kendrapara district inundated by flood water | Express

Communication between Bari-Kalamatia and Baruan-Bari has been snapped as flood water is flowing above 3 ft over the two roads.

Jajpur Collector Ranjan Kumar Das visited some flood-hit areas of Bari on Sunday and directed block officials to set up free kitchens to provide cooked food to the affected people. The Collector said four ODRAF teams, five Fire teams and 16 boats have been deployed in Bari for rescue and relief operations.

Due to a 60 ft breach in Brahmani river embankment at Banka Sahi, many villages of Bari have been inundated by flood water, the Collector said and added that no loss of life has been reported in the flood so far.

On the other hand, people, who have taken shelter on highland after flood water entered their houses, are in a pitiable plight without food.

It is now almost two days since I took shelter on the river embankment with my family after the flood. We are without food since Saturday afternoon as all household items have been damaged, said a flood victim of Kimbhiriapal village.

No one from the administration has reached us till Sunday evening, he rued.

Bari BDO Maheswar Sethy said, We have set up a free kitchen at Mirzapur village in Chandanpur panchayat to provide cooked food to at least 500 flood victims who are taking shelter in a school building.

People are reluctant to come to the flood shelters leaving behind their homes and belongings, Sethy said and added, We are trying to provide them flattened rice and jaggery by tonight.

Official sources said 31 villages in 12 GPs of Korei, 16 villages in eight GPs of Dharmasala, 12 villages of seven GPs of Rasulpur, five villages in four GPs of Binjharpur and five villages in three GPs of Danagadi in the district have been affected by the floods.

Though water level of Brahmani was falling, it was recorded at 68 ft against the danger level of 67 ft at Jenapur. Similarly, Kharasrota river is flowing above the red mark, the sources added.

JAJPUR: The situation continues to be grim in Jajpur with flood waters of Brahmani and Kharasrota rivers entering several villages in the district. District officials said while nearly 96,675 people of 112 villages under 52 gram panchayats (GPs) have been affected by the floods, 1,600 people, most of them from Bari block, were shifted to safer places. Bari has been the worst affected with more than 50,000 people of 43 villages of 18 GPs marooned. Flood waters entered these villages after Brahmani breached its embankment near Banka Sahi in Kimbhiriapal panchayat on Saturday evening. Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan visits flood-hit areas of Bari block in Jajpur district on Sunday and (right) Singha village in Kendrapara district inundated by flood water | ExpressCommunication between Bari-Kalamatia and Baruan-Bari has been snapped as flood water is flowing above 3 ft over the two roads. Jajpur Collector Ranjan Kumar Das visited some flood-hit areas of Bari on Sunday and directed block officials to set up free kitchens to provide cooked food to the affected people. The Collector said four ODRAF teams, five Fire teams and 16 boats have been deployed in Bari for rescue and relief operations. Due to a 60 ft breach in Brahmani river embankment at Banka Sahi, many villages of Bari have been inundated by flood water, the Collector said and added that no loss of life has been reported in the flood so far. On the other hand, people, who have taken shelter on highland after flood water entered their houses, are in a pitiable plight without food. It is now almost two days since I took shelter on the river embankment with my family after the flood. We are without food since Saturday afternoon as all household items have been damaged, said a flood victim of Kimbhiriapal village. No one from the administration has reached us till Sunday evening, he rued. Bari BDO Maheswar Sethy said, We have set up a free kitchen at Mirzapur village in Chandanpur panchayat to provide cooked food to at least 500 flood victims who are taking shelter in a school building. People are reluctant to come to the flood shelters leaving behind their homes and belongings, Sethy said and added, We are trying to provide them flattened rice and jaggery by tonight. Official sources said 31 villages in 12 GPs of Korei, 16 villages in eight GPs of Dharmasala, 12 villages of seven GPs of Rasulpur, five villages in four GPs of Binjharpur and five villages in three GPs of Danagadi in the district have been affected by the floods. Though water level of Brahmani was falling, it was recorded at 68 ft against the danger level of 67 ft at Jenapur. Similarly, Kharasrota river is flowing above the red mark, the sources added.
By Express News Service

COIMBATORE:Puthiya Tamizhagam party founder K Krishnasamy has sent notices through his advocate to actor Kamal Haasan, Gayathri Raguram and a popular television channel, demanding `100 crore as damages for allegedly abusing a particular community in an episode of the Bigg Boss Tamil programme.

I have already appealed to actor Gayathri Raguram, a Bigg Boss Tamil participant, to apologise for abusing another participant by saying that she was behaving like slum people. The term, which has hurt members of a particular community, should have been edited out by the channel, Krishnasamy told media persons at Kuniyamuthur here on Sunday. Though two weeks have passed, neither Gayathri Raguram nor show-host Kamal Haasan nor the TV channel have as yet apologised for using the term, he added.

If they do not respond to the advocates notices in a week, he would file a case against them, Krishnasamy said.

At the media conference, he also welcomed the placing of the Quran and Bible near the statue of former President APJ Abdul Kalam at his memorial in Ramaeswaram. A sculpted Bhagavad Gita had been placed with the statue earlier. This had been criticised by some parties.

The authorities should keep a copy of Tirukkural also beside the statue, Krishnasamy said.

Though it was not a serious matter, some political parties were worsening the situation, he added.

He also said that some parties in Tamil Nadu are criticising the Central and State governments on every issue. Leaders of political parties, he said, should maintain dignity and should not become bad examples for the common man.

Enter politics, you will find it is a bed of thorns

Chennai: Continuing his barbs against film-maker Kamal Haasan, senior AIADMK leader and Tamil Nadu Finance minister D Jayakumar on Sunday stated that politics was not an easy job, but a bed of thorns with its inherent risks. Talking to reporters here, he once again challenged the renowned actor to enter into politics instead of rhetoric. Politics is like a bed of thorns, it is a very difficult terrain and not easy one, he said. Jayakumar, known for his witty remarks and satire, added, If he (Kamal Haasan) enters, he will feel (the heat). He also questioned the actors role in times of disasters in the recent past when Chennai and its surrounding areas suffered the worst deluge in 2015.

COIMBATORE:Puthiya Tamizhagam party founder K Krishnasamy has sent notices through his advocate to actor Kamal Haasan, Gayathri Raguram and a popular television channel, demanding `100 crore as damages for allegedly abusing a particular community in an episode of the Bigg Boss Tamil programme. I have already appealed to actor Gayathri Raguram, a Bigg Boss Tamil participant, to apologise for abusing another participant by saying that she was behaving like slum people. The term, which has hurt members of a particular community, should have been edited out by the channel, Krishnasamy told media persons at Kuniyamuthur here on Sunday. Though two weeks have passed, neither Gayathri Raguram nor show-host Kamal Haasan nor the TV channel have as yet apologised for using the term, he added. If they do not respond to the advocates notices in a week, he would file a case against them, Krishnasamy said. At the media conference, he also welcomed the placing of the Quran and Bible near the statue of former President APJ Abdul Kalam at his memorial in Ramaeswaram. A sculpted Bhagavad Gita had been placed with the statue earlier. This had been criticised by some parties. The authorities should keep a copy of Tirukkural also beside the statue, Krishnasamy said. Though it was not a serious matter, some political parties were worsening the situation, he added. He also said that some parties in Tamil Nadu are criticising the Central and State governments on every issue. Leaders of political parties, he said, should maintain dignity and should not become bad examples for the common man. Enter politics, you will find it is a bed of thorns Chennai: Continuing his barbs against film-maker Kamal Haasan, senior AIADMK leader and Tamil Nadu Finance minister D Jayakumar on Sunday stated that politics was not an easy job, but a bed of thorns with its inherent risks. Talking to reporters here, he once again challenged the renowned actor to enter into politics instead of rhetoric. Politics is like a bed of thorns, it is a very difficult terrain and not easy one, he said. Jayakumar, known for his witty remarks and satire, added, If he (Kamal Haasan) enters, he will feel (the heat). He also questioned the actors role in times of disasters in the recent past when Chennai and its surrounding areas suffered the worst deluge in 2015.
By AFP

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon on Monday criticised Turkey's plans to purchase a Russian air-defence system instead of investing in NATO technology.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is in talks to get Russia to supply Ankara with its latest S-400 surface-to-air missile system.

Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said the Pentagon had concerns over its NATO ally's purchase of the Russian technology because it might not work with other equipment used by the 29-nation alliance.

"Generally speaking it's a good idea for allies to buy inter-operable equipment," Davis said.

"With any ally, with any partner with whom we inter-operate ... we want them to buy things and invest in things that will further invest in our alliance," he said.

Turkish media have in recent days reported that the deal is being finalised with Russia.

If it is completed, it would be a significant step after the two countries repaired relations damaged by Ankara's downing of a Russian warplane on the Syrian border in 2015.

The S-400 system has a range of about 400 kilometers (250 miles) and is designed to shoot down enemy aircraft.

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon on Monday criticised Turkey's plans to purchase a Russian air-defence system instead of investing in NATO technology. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is in talks to get Russia to supply Ankara with its latest S-400 surface-to-air missile system. Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said the Pentagon had concerns over its NATO ally's purchase of the Russian technology because it might not work with other equipment used by the 29-nation alliance. "Generally speaking it's a good idea for allies to buy inter-operable equipment," Davis said. "With any ally, with any partner with whom we inter-operate ... we want them to buy things and invest in things that will further invest in our alliance," he said. Turkish media have in recent days reported that the deal is being finalised with Russia. If it is completed, it would be a significant step after the two countries repaired relations damaged by Ankara's downing of a Russian warplane on the Syrian border in 2015. The S-400 system has a range of about 400 kilometers (250 miles) and is designed to shoot down enemy aircraft.
By AFP

LONDON: A British soldier was on Monday sentenced to 18 years in jail for stockpiling and manufacturing large amounts of weapons which he made available to dissident republicans in Northern Ireland.

Ciaran Maxwell, a 31-year-old Royal Marine, had pleaded guilty to preparing terrorist acts, as well as charges of fraud and possessing cannabis with intent to sell it.

He stockpiled munitions in 43 purpose-built hides at eight locations across the province and England, including 14 pipe bombs, two anti-personnel mines, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and other bomb-making equipment.

Four of the pipe bombs were deployed in Northern Ireland, two of them detonating, although without causing injuries.

He was also found with lists of key government, police and military defence locations and personnel, which prosecutors say could have been possible targets.

Maxwell was brought up as a Catholic in the town of Larne, a largely pro-British town in Northern Ireland, where he was the victim of a sectarian attack when he was 16.

He denied joining the Royal Marines in 2010 with the intention of infiltrating them, saying his criminal activities only began later, through friendship with an old acquaintance in the Continuity IRA paramilitary group.

Police believe he operated largely independently of the group, which opposes Britain's control of Northern Ireland, but prosecutors say he knew the devices would end up in their hands.

Passing sentence at the Old Bailey court in London, judge Nigel Sweeney described Maxwell's activities between January 2011 and August 2016 as "sophisticated offending on a substantial scale".

"There was clearly the potential for the deployment of many bombs of varying types and sizes against multiple targets, with the ultimate intent of those planting the devices being to kill," he said.

"There was considerable planning, including attack planning, research, and the acquiring of large amounts of materials including police items for use in disguise.

You were strongly committed to the cause. To state the obvious, a skilled bomb maker is of considerable importance to a terrorist organisation like the Continuity IRA," he said.

Maxwell was caught when members of the public stumbled across some of his weapons caches by chance. They were matched to him by DNA held on the national database from an unrelated assault case.

LONDON: A British soldier was on Monday sentenced to 18 years in jail for stockpiling and manufacturing large amounts of weapons which he made available to dissident republicans in Northern Ireland. Ciaran Maxwell, a 31-year-old Royal Marine, had pleaded guilty to preparing terrorist acts, as well as charges of fraud and possessing cannabis with intent to sell it. He stockpiled munitions in 43 purpose-built hides at eight locations across the province and England, including 14 pipe bombs, two anti-personnel mines, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and other bomb-making equipment. Four of the pipe bombs were deployed in Northern Ireland, two of them detonating, although without causing injuries. He was also found with lists of key government, police and military defence locations and personnel, which prosecutors say could have been possible targets. Maxwell was brought up as a Catholic in the town of Larne, a largely pro-British town in Northern Ireland, where he was the victim of a sectarian attack when he was 16. He denied joining the Royal Marines in 2010 with the intention of infiltrating them, saying his criminal activities only began later, through friendship with an old acquaintance in the Continuity IRA paramilitary group. Police believe he operated largely independently of the group, which opposes Britain's control of Northern Ireland, but prosecutors say he knew the devices would end up in their hands. Passing sentence at the Old Bailey court in London, judge Nigel Sweeney described Maxwell's activities between January 2011 and August 2016 as "sophisticated offending on a substantial scale". "There was clearly the potential for the deployment of many bombs of varying types and sizes against multiple targets, with the ultimate intent of those planting the devices being to kill," he said. "There was considerable planning, including attack planning, research, and the acquiring of large amounts of materials including police items for use in disguise. You were strongly committed to the cause. To state the obvious, a skilled bomb maker is of considerable importance to a terrorist organisation like the Continuity IRA," he said. Maxwell was caught when members of the public stumbled across some of his weapons caches by chance. They were matched to him by DNA held on the national database from an unrelated assault case.
By AFP

BRUSSELS: The European Union voiced concern on Monday over the fate of democracy in Venezuela, adding there are "grave doubts" that it can recognise a controversial vote.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro claimed victory in Sunday's election for an assembly to rewrite the constitution amid a crackdown on protests that have left more than 120 people dead in four months.

"The events of the past 24 hours have reinforced the European Union's preoccupation for the fate of democracy in Venezuela," European Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva told a daily briefing.

"The commission indeed has grave doubts about whether the election result can be recognised," said the spokewsoman for the executive of the 28-nation EU.

"A Constituent Assembly, elected under doubtful and often violent circumstances cannot be part of the solution."

The EU also "condemns the excessive and disproportionate use of force by security forces," while urging all sides to "refrain from violence," she said.

Protesters attacked polling stations and barricaded streets around the country on Sunday, drawing a bloody response from security forces, who opened fire with live ammunition in some cases.

Maduro encouraged the new "Constituent Assembly" to wield its vast powers to scrap opposition lawmakers' immunity from prosecution as one of its first acts. Protesters fear the new body is designed to keep Maduro in power.

European Parliament President Antonio Tajani meanwhile denounced what his office called a "fraudulent" and illegitimate" election.

"It is a sad day for democracy in Venezuela, in Latin America and in the world as international treaties and the countrys own constitution are violated, most importantly, against the will of the people," Tajani said after talks with Venezuela's opposition.

BRUSSELS: The European Union voiced concern on Monday over the fate of democracy in Venezuela, adding there are "grave doubts" that it can recognise a controversial vote. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro claimed victory in Sunday's election for an assembly to rewrite the constitution amid a crackdown on protests that have left more than 120 people dead in four months. "The events of the past 24 hours have reinforced the European Union's preoccupation for the fate of democracy in Venezuela," European Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva told a daily briefing. "The commission indeed has grave doubts about whether the election result can be recognised," said the spokewsoman for the executive of the 28-nation EU. "A Constituent Assembly, elected under doubtful and often violent circumstances cannot be part of the solution." The EU also "condemns the excessive and disproportionate use of force by security forces," while urging all sides to "refrain from violence," she said. Protesters attacked polling stations and barricaded streets around the country on Sunday, drawing a bloody response from security forces, who opened fire with live ammunition in some cases. Maduro encouraged the new "Constituent Assembly" to wield its vast powers to scrap opposition lawmakers' immunity from prosecution as one of its first acts. Protesters fear the new body is designed to keep Maduro in power. European Parliament President Antonio Tajani meanwhile denounced what his office called a "fraudulent" and illegitimate" election. "It is a sad day for democracy in Venezuela, in Latin America and in the world as international treaties and the countrys own constitution are violated, most importantly, against the will of the people," Tajani said after talks with Venezuela's opposition.
By ANI

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PNL-N) leader and the countrys interim Prime Ministerial candidate Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is facing a Rs. 220 billion corruption inquiry by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) over an illegal contract to import Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).



Abbasi, who served as Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources, is the principal accused in an NAB case registered in 2015, regarding an LNG import contract, reports the Dawn.



Pakistans Former petroleum secretary Abid Saeed, Inter State Gas Systems (ISGS) managing director Mobin Saulut, private firm Engros chief executive officer Emranul Haq and the Sui Southern Gas Companys (SSGC) ex-MD Zuhair Ahmed Siddiqui are the other suspects in the case.



According to NAB documents, the contract for the LNG import and distribution was awarded to the Elengy Terminal, a subsidiary of Engro, in 2013, in violation of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules and relevant laws.



The LNG contract case, which was registered in 2015 by the NAB on the complaint of Shahid Sattar, an energy expert and former member of the Planning Commission and the SSGC board of directors, along with others, is still under investigation, contrary to NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhrys claim that he has introduced a new strategy under which the process of complaint verification, inquiry, investigation and filing of reference took 10 months.



According to reports, the NAB had recommended that the names of all accused in the case, including Abbasi, to be placed on the Exit Control List (ECL).



The Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N), following the disqualification of Nawaz Sharif by the Supreme Court in the Panama Papers case, nominated Abbasi as its candidate for the post of prime minister, post for an interim period, before Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif replaces him for the remaining 10 months of the governments term.



Abbasi was named as interim Prime Minister Candidate until Shahbaz is elected to the Parliament.



He is set to be elected in view of his partys comprehensive majority in the National Assembly.



The leader has been accused of misusing his authority and causing a potential loss of USD 2 billion to the national exchequer in 15 years.



Abbasi on Sunday dismissed the allegations of possessing illegal wealth and challenged his critics to prove irregularities in his finances.



Speaking to the media after meeting with Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Abbasi said, "Whoever wants to file a reference against me should feel free to do so."



Abbasi informed that he has disclosed all his assets and their details are published in the Pakistan Gazette.

Dismissing the allegations against him as baseless, he suggested his critics to check their own acts first.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PNL-N) leader and the countrys interim Prime Ministerial candidate Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is facing a Rs. 220 billion corruption inquiry by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) over an illegal contract to import Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). Abbasi, who served as Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources, is the principal accused in an NAB case registered in 2015, regarding an LNG import contract, reports the Dawn. Pakistans Former petroleum secretary Abid Saeed, Inter State Gas Systems (ISGS) managing director Mobin Saulut, private firm Engros chief executive officer Emranul Haq and the Sui Southern Gas Companys (SSGC) ex-MD Zuhair Ahmed Siddiqui are the other suspects in the case. According to NAB documents, the contract for the LNG import and distribution was awarded to the Elengy Terminal, a subsidiary of Engro, in 2013, in violation of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules and relevant laws. The LNG contract case, which was registered in 2015 by the NAB on the complaint of Shahid Sattar, an energy expert and former member of the Planning Commission and the SSGC board of directors, along with others, is still under investigation, contrary to NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhrys claim that he has introduced a new strategy under which the process of complaint verification, inquiry, investigation and filing of reference took 10 months. According to reports, the NAB had recommended that the names of all accused in the case, including Abbasi, to be placed on the Exit Control List (ECL). The Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N), following the disqualification of Nawaz Sharif by the Supreme Court in the Panama Papers case, nominated Abbasi as its candidate for the post of prime minister, post for an interim period, before Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif replaces him for the remaining 10 months of the governments term. Abbasi was named as interim Prime Minister Candidate until Shahbaz is elected to the Parliament. He is set to be elected in view of his partys comprehensive majority in the National Assembly. The leader has been accused of misusing his authority and causing a potential loss of USD 2 billion to the national exchequer in 15 years. Abbasi on Sunday dismissed the allegations of possessing illegal wealth and challenged his critics to prove irregularities in his finances. Speaking to the media after meeting with Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Abbasi said, "Whoever wants to file a reference against me should feel free to do so." Abbasi informed that he has disclosed all his assets and their details are published in the Pakistan Gazette. Dismissing the allegations against him as baseless, he suggested his critics to check their own acts first.
By PTI

MANILA (PHILIPPINES): Islamist militants in the Philippines have beheaded seven local loggers they kidnapped last week in their stronghold in the strife-torn south, police said on Monday.

The bodies of the loggers were found yesterday in a mountainous village on the island of Basilan, local police chief John Cundo told AFP, blaming the killings on a faction of the Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom group based there.

The group of senior Abu Sayyaf leader Furuji Indama abducted and killed the loggers apparently over a local business row rather than for its typical ransom activities, Cundo said.

"This was an act of revenge by Indama who may have blamed the destruction of his rubber plantation on these loggers. The kidnappers did not demand ransom but immediately beheaded the loggers," Cundo said.

The Abu Sayyaf is a loose network of militants formed in the 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.

One faction based on Basilan has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, with members among militants who have been occupying parts of Marawi, the largely Catholic nation's most important Islamic city, since May.

The militants have withstood a US-backed military offensive in Marawi that has claimed 650 lives and displaced nearly 400,000 people.

President Rodrigo Duterte has imposed martial law across the southern third of the Philippines, including Basilan, to quell the militant threat.

The Abu Sayyaf, blamed for the worst terror attacks in the nation's history, is known to behead its hostages unless ransom payments are made.

The militants beheaded two Canadian hostages last year and a German captive in February after ransom demands were not met. Abu Sayyaf militants are holding more than 20 hostages, including several foreigners, in Basilan and another of their bases on the southern island of Sulu, according to the military.



MANILA (PHILIPPINES): Islamist militants in the Philippines have beheaded seven local loggers they kidnapped last week in their stronghold in the strife-torn south, police said on Monday. The bodies of the loggers were found yesterday in a mountainous village on the island of Basilan, local police chief John Cundo told AFP, blaming the killings on a faction of the Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom group based there. The group of senior Abu Sayyaf leader Furuji Indama abducted and killed the loggers apparently over a local business row rather than for its typical ransom activities, Cundo said. "This was an act of revenge by Indama who may have blamed the destruction of his rubber plantation on these loggers. The kidnappers did not demand ransom but immediately beheaded the loggers," Cundo said. The Abu Sayyaf is a loose network of militants formed in the 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network. One faction based on Basilan has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, with members among militants who have been occupying parts of Marawi, the largely Catholic nation's most important Islamic city, since May. The militants have withstood a US-backed military offensive in Marawi that has claimed 650 lives and displaced nearly 400,000 people. President Rodrigo Duterte has imposed martial law across the southern third of the Philippines, including Basilan, to quell the militant threat. The Abu Sayyaf, blamed for the worst terror attacks in the nation's history, is known to behead its hostages unless ransom payments are made. The militants beheaded two Canadian hostages last year and a German captive in February after ransom demands were not met. Abu Sayyaf militants are holding more than 20 hostages, including several foreigners, in Basilan and another of their bases on the southern island of Sulu, according to the military.
Egypts top prosecutor Nabil Sadek has referred four former CEOs of the state-owned Al-Ahram press and publishing organization to criminal court on charges related to the Ahram Gifts case, MENA news agency reported on Monday.

The former CEOs accused in the case are Ibrahim Nafie, Salah El-Gahmry, Morsi Atallah, and Abbel-Moniem Said, who held the post consecutively.

The prosecution in the case has charged the defendants with squandering public funds and violating the organization's budget rules and regulations.

Prosecutors say gifts worth EGP 268 million were given to officials in the regime of former president Hosni Mubarak, according to investigations.

El-Gahmry was originally accused in the case, but he died in 2014. However, his involvement is still being investigated in order to help recoup any funds that he was involved in squandering. According to a recent ruling by the Supreme Constitutional Court, the heirs of a deceased defendant should return any funds in the case of a conviction.

The Ahram gifts case was originally launched in 2011 and included 300 defendants, of which 278 were acquitted.

Mubarak is among the high-ranking former officials charged with illegally receiving gifts from the Al-Ahram organization.

Investigations into his part in the affair were shelved following a court ruling. However, in March, Egypt's Criminal Court accepted an appeal by prosecutors against that ruling, meaning that the case can now proceed.

In January 2013, Mubarak paid EGP 18 million (approximately $1 million) in compensation for gifts that he had received, along with members of his immediate family, from the Al-Ahram organisation.

Mubarak's family also reimbursed state-owned newspaper Al-Gomhoreya with EGP 1.4 million for gifts received from the publication.

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By Associated Press

YANGON (MYANMAR): Police in Myanmar have detained a prominent journalist, accusing him of attempting to flee the country shortly before his trial on defamation charges brought by a follower of a Buddhist monk who has stirred up anti-Muslim hatred.

The editor of the nonprofit online news outlet Myanmar Now, Swe Win, was taken by police on Monday to the central city of Mandalay, where his trial is to begin Thursday. His lawyer said he was detained Sunday as he prepared to board a flight to Thailand to make arrangements for the news service's operations while he is involved with his trial.

Swe Win (Twitter/Niki Esse)

The complaint against him was made by a follower of Wirathu, a Mandalay-based Buddhist monk best known for his provocative speeches about the country's Muslim minority. An organization led by Wirathu, Ma Ba Tha, has been accused of stirring up sentiment against Muslims, leading to deadly violence.

Swe Win criticized Wirathu on social media, accusing him of violating the Buddhist code of monastic discipline.

Several journalists have been arrested recently in cases that rights advocates say violate freedom of expression.

YANGON (MYANMAR): Police in Myanmar have detained a prominent journalist, accusing him of attempting to flee the country shortly before his trial on defamation charges brought by a follower of a Buddhist monk who has stirred up anti-Muslim hatred. The editor of the nonprofit online news outlet Myanmar Now, Swe Win, was taken by police on Monday to the central city of Mandalay, where his trial is to begin Thursday. His lawyer said he was detained Sunday as he prepared to board a flight to Thailand to make arrangements for the news service's operations while he is involved with his trial. Swe Win (Twitter/Niki Esse)The complaint against him was made by a follower of Wirathu, a Mandalay-based Buddhist monk best known for his provocative speeches about the country's Muslim minority. An organization led by Wirathu, Ma Ba Tha, has been accused of stirring up sentiment against Muslims, leading to deadly violence. Swe Win criticized Wirathu on social media, accusing him of violating the Buddhist code of monastic discipline. Several journalists have been arrested recently in cases that rights advocates say violate freedom of expression.
By AFP

JODHPUR: For decades, Jogdas dreamed of moving to India to escape the persecution he suffered as a Hindu in Muslim Pakistan. But the reality of life over the border is a far cry from those dreams.

Seventy years after partition unleashed the largest mass migration in human history, Hindus are still moving from Pakistan to India, where tens of thousands languish in makeshift camps near the border with no legal right to work.

Many have no choice but to toil illegally in the stone quarries near where they live because their movements are strictly controlled by the authorities, suspicious of anyone from across the border.

It is not the welcome most of them expected in Hindu-majority India.

"No job, no house, no money, no food. There, we were working in the fields, we were farmers. But here people like us are forced to break rocks to earn a living," said 81-year-old Jogdas, who goes by just one name.

"For us the partition is still not over. Hindus are still trying to come back to their country. And when they come here, they have nothing," he told AFP from the camp on the outskirts of the western city of Jodhpur where he lives.

More than 15 million people were uprooted following India's independence from Britain in 1947, which triggered months of violence in which at least a million people were killed for their faith.

Amid the bloody chaos, Hindus and Sikhs fled the newly formed Pakistan, as Muslims moved in the opposite direction.

Despite the exodus, Hindus remain one of Pakistan's largest religious minorities. Estimates vary, but they are believed to account for around 1.6 percent of the population of roughly 200 million.

Many say they face discrimination and even risk abduction, rape and forced marriage.

"Soon after partition, the harassment started," said Jogdas, whose family had only moved to what is now Pakistan a few months before partition to escape a devastating drought.

"There was not even a single day when we could live in peace. I wanted to come back to live with my Hindu brothers."

- 'We are alone' -

Most of the migrants to India come from Pakistan's Sindh province, taking a four-hour train journey through the Thar desert to Jodhpur in the arid western state of Rajasthan.

That they share the culture, food and language of Rajasthan should make it easy for them to assimilate in their adopted homeland.

In reality, they live in isolated camps, far from local communities and are treated with suspicion by authorities.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government has said it wants to make it easier for persecuted adherents of the faith to find refuge in India.

Last year it changed the rules to allow immigrants to apply for citizenship in the state where they live, rather than having to go through the central government.

Hindus from Pakistan qualify for a fast track to citizenship after seven years in the country.

But bureaucratic delays have meant the process of getting it can take longer to complete.

Khanaramji, 64, became an Indian citizen in 2005 after fleeing Pakistan in 1997.

He said many others had given up and returned to Pakistan, disillusioned by life in India.

"There is no assistance from the government. We are just like cattle with no owners. We are just surviving on our own," he said.

- 'Life becomes hell' -

Worse even than the poverty is the suspicion from authorities.

"Those who do not have citizenship are harassed by (intelligence) agencies. They are always treated like suspects and agents of Pakistan," said Khanaramji, who goes by only one name.

"They spend most of what they earn on going to police stations and agency offices."

Hindu Singh Sodha, who runs a charity in Jodhpur for Pakistani Hindus seeking to settle in India, said they had high hopes of Modi when he came to office in 2014, but had been disappointed.

The migrants still come under increased scrutiny whenever tensions flare between India and Pakistan -- a frequent occurrence under the Modi government.

"Their life becomes hell," he said.

"Because everything is affected. Their shelter, healthcare, access to education, their livelihood."

But some feel even that is worth tolerating.

Horoji fled to India with his two adult sons two years ago after receiving death threats from the family's Muslim neighbours in Pakistan.

"To save our lives, we had to run to India," said 65-year-old Horoji, whose grandparents were originally from present-day India but found themselves on the wrong side of the border at partition.

"My grandfather had gone to the other side for work. But he had told us to move to India when the right time comes as he had sensed times would not be safe for Hindus in future."

JODHPUR: For decades, Jogdas dreamed of moving to India to escape the persecution he suffered as a Hindu in Muslim Pakistan. But the reality of life over the border is a far cry from those dreams. Seventy years after partition unleashed the largest mass migration in human history, Hindus are still moving from Pakistan to India, where tens of thousands languish in makeshift camps near the border with no legal right to work. Many have no choice but to toil illegally in the stone quarries near where they live because their movements are strictly controlled by the authorities, suspicious of anyone from across the border. It is not the welcome most of them expected in Hindu-majority India. "No job, no house, no money, no food. There, we were working in the fields, we were farmers. But here people like us are forced to break rocks to earn a living," said 81-year-old Jogdas, who goes by just one name. "For us the partition is still not over. Hindus are still trying to come back to their country. And when they come here, they have nothing," he told AFP from the camp on the outskirts of the western city of Jodhpur where he lives. More than 15 million people were uprooted following India's independence from Britain in 1947, which triggered months of violence in which at least a million people were killed for their faith. Amid the bloody chaos, Hindus and Sikhs fled the newly formed Pakistan, as Muslims moved in the opposite direction. Despite the exodus, Hindus remain one of Pakistan's largest religious minorities. Estimates vary, but they are believed to account for around 1.6 percent of the population of roughly 200 million. Many say they face discrimination and even risk abduction, rape and forced marriage. "Soon after partition, the harassment started," said Jogdas, whose family had only moved to what is now Pakistan a few months before partition to escape a devastating drought. "There was not even a single day when we could live in peace. I wanted to come back to live with my Hindu brothers." - 'We are alone' - Most of the migrants to India come from Pakistan's Sindh province, taking a four-hour train journey through the Thar desert to Jodhpur in the arid western state of Rajasthan. That they share the culture, food and language of Rajasthan should make it easy for them to assimilate in their adopted homeland. In reality, they live in isolated camps, far from local communities and are treated with suspicion by authorities. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government has said it wants to make it easier for persecuted adherents of the faith to find refuge in India. Last year it changed the rules to allow immigrants to apply for citizenship in the state where they live, rather than having to go through the central government. Hindus from Pakistan qualify for a fast track to citizenship after seven years in the country. But bureaucratic delays have meant the process of getting it can take longer to complete. Khanaramji, 64, became an Indian citizen in 2005 after fleeing Pakistan in 1997. He said many others had given up and returned to Pakistan, disillusioned by life in India. "There is no assistance from the government. We are just like cattle with no owners. We are just surviving on our own," he said. - 'Life becomes hell' - Worse even than the poverty is the suspicion from authorities. "Those who do not have citizenship are harassed by (intelligence) agencies. They are always treated like suspects and agents of Pakistan," said Khanaramji, who goes by only one name. "They spend most of what they earn on going to police stations and agency offices." Hindu Singh Sodha, who runs a charity in Jodhpur for Pakistani Hindus seeking to settle in India, said they had high hopes of Modi when he came to office in 2014, but had been disappointed. The migrants still come under increased scrutiny whenever tensions flare between India and Pakistan -- a frequent occurrence under the Modi government. "Their life becomes hell," he said. "Because everything is affected. Their shelter, healthcare, access to education, their livelihood." But some feel even that is worth tolerating. Horoji fled to India with his two adult sons two years ago after receiving death threats from the family's Muslim neighbours in Pakistan. "To save our lives, we had to run to India," said 65-year-old Horoji, whose grandparents were originally from present-day India but found themselves on the wrong side of the border at partition. "My grandfather had gone to the other side for work. But he had told us to move to India when the right time comes as he had sensed times would not be safe for Hindus in future."
Egypt denounces in the strongest terms the militant attack that took place on Monday against the African Union mission AMISOM in southern Somalia, killing 24 people, the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement.

The foreign ministry expressed its condolence to the Somali government and the families of the victims.

Earlier on Monday, the Al-Shabab militant group ambushed a convoy of the African Union mission forces in southern Somalia, killing 23 AMISOM soldiers and one Somali soldier.

Al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the attack.

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Newport Art Museum wraps up fall with variety of programs

Though it hasnt always felt like fall these past few weeks, the museum is in high gear hosting fall events and planning for winter.
Egypt denounces the militant attack carried out on Monday against the Iraqi embassy in Kabul, where one Afghani soldier was injured, the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement.

The ministry expressed Egypts solidarity with the Iraqi government and people, adding that that attack took place after the recent victories by the Iraqi army against the militant group Daesh.

On Monday, a suicide bomber detonated explosives at the gate of the Iraqi embassy in Kabul, after which three gunmen stormed the building and engaged in a four-hour firefight with Afghani security forces.

All the militants were killed in the shootout and none of the embassy staff was harmed, according to Afghani official statements.

Daesh has claimed responsibility for the attack.

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Generally cloudy. Temps nearly steady in the mid 30s. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph..

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Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 23F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph.
Is being born in states with high stroke mortality associated with dementia risk in a group of individuals who eventually all lived outside those states?

A new article published by JAMA Neurology reports the results of a study that examined that question in a group of 7,423 members of the integrated health care delivery system Kaiser Permanente Northern California.

A band of states in the southern United States is known as the Stroke Belt because living there has been associated with increased risk of a number of conditions, including high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke and cognitive impairment.

Rachel A. Whitmer, Ph.D., of Kaiser Permanente, Oakland, Calif., and coauthors examined whether birthplace in a high stroke mortality state was associated with increased dementia risk in a group of individuals later living in Northern California with equal access to medical care. The nine states considered high stroke mortality states were Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, South Carolina and West Virginia, many of which are part of what is commonly considered the Stroke Belt.

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Of the 7,423 people included in the analysis, 4,049 were women (54.5 percent) and 1,354 were black (18.2 percent). Being born in high stroke mortality states was more common among black participants.

Dementia was diagnosed in 2,254 of the participants (30.4 percent) and was more common among those born in high stroke mortality states (455 [39.0 percent]) than those not born in those states (1,799 [28.8 percent]).

Overall, birth in a high stroke mortality state was associated with an increased dementia risk in estimates measuring both absolute and relative risk. Individuals who were black and born in high stroke mortality states had the highest risk for dementia compared with those individuals who were not black and not born in high stroke mortality states, according to the results. Cumulative 20-year dementia risks (a measure of absolute risk) at age 65 were 30.13 percent for those people born in high stroke mortality states and 21.8 percent for those people not born in those states.

The study has limitations, including that authors did not have complete residential history and could not determine how long the people, who had eventually migrated to California, lived in high stroke mortality states. Therefore, authors cannot disentangle whether cumulative or longer time of residence was worse or whether the effect of birthplace varies by age at which they left high stroke mortality states.

"Place of birth has enduring consequences for dementia risk and may be a major contributor to racial disparities in dementia," the article concludes.
New research is calling for immediate safeguards and the study of a widely used method for repairing sewer-, storm-water and drinking-water pipes to understand the potential health and environmental concerns for workers and the public.

The procedure, called cured-in-place pipe repair, or CIPP, was invented in the 1970s. It involves inserting a resin-impregnated fabric tube into a damaged pipe and curing it in place with hot water or pressurized steam, sometimes with ultraviolet light. The result is a new plastic pipe manufactured inside the damaged one. The process can emit chemicals into the air, sometimes in visible plumes, and can expose workers and the public to a mixture of compounds that can pose potential health hazards, said Andrew Whelton, an assistant professor in Purdue University's Lyles School of Civil Engineering and the Environmental and Ecological Engineering program.

He led a team of researchers who conducted a testing study at seven steam-cured CIPP installations in Indiana and California. The researchers captured the emitted materials and measured their concentration, including styrene, acetone, phenol, phthalates and other volatile (VOC) and semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOC).

Results from their air testing study are detailed in a paper appearing on July 26 in Environmental Science & Technology Letters. The study files can freely be downloaded and are open-access, and the paper is available at http://pubs. acs. org/ doi/ 10. 1021/ acs. estlett. 7b00237.

Findings show that the chemical plume, commonly thought of as harmless steam, was actually a complex mixture of organic vapor, water vapor, particulates of condensable vapor and partially cured resin, and liquid droplets of water and organic chemicals. A YouTube video is available at https:/ / youtu. be/ rBMOoa2XcJI.

"CIPP is the most popular water-pipe rehabilitation technology in the United States," Whelton said. "Short- and long-term health impacts caused by chemical mixture exposures should be immediately investigated. Workers are a vulnerable population, and understanding exposures and health impacts to the general public is also needed."

New Research Results

The researchers have briefed the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH) about their findings. NIOSH is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and has occupational safety and health experts who can investigate workplace hazards.

Purdue researchers captured the chemical plume materials from two sanitary sewer-pipe installations and five storm-water pipe installations. Samples were analyzed using gas chromatography, thermal and spectroscopic techniques. Chemicals found included hazardous air pollutants, suspected endocrine disrupting chemicals, and known and suspected carcinogens. Emissions were sometimes highly concentrated and affected by wind direction, speed and the worker's activities, Whelton said.

A waxy substance was found in the air, and materials engineers determined it was partially cured plastic, styrene monomer, acetone, and unidentified chemicals.

No respiratory protection was used by CIPP workers, and a review of online videos, images and construction contracts indicates respiratory safety equipment use was not typical, he said.

To evaluate chemical plume toxicity, pulmonary toxicologist and assistant professor Jonathan Shannahan and a graduate student exposed captured materials to mouse lung cells. Plume samples from two of four sites tested displayed toxicity effects and two did not.

"This suggests that there are operational conditions that may decrease the potential for hazardous health effects," Shannahan stated. "Since exposures can be highly variable in chemical composition, concentration, and exposure duration our findings demonstrate the need for further investigation."

At the same time, existing testing methods are not capable of documenting this multi-phase chemical exposure, Whelton said.

Findings Contradict Conventional Thinking

In 2017, Whelton completed a one-and-a-half-day CIPP construction inspector course for consulting and municipal engineers and contractors as part of a different research project working with state transportation agencies.

"CIPP workers, the public, water utilities, and engineers think steam is emitted," he said. "What we found was not steam. Even when the chemical plume was not visible, our instruments detected that we were being chemically exposed."

The paper was authored by graduate students Seyedeh Mahboobeh Teimouri Sendesi, Kyungyeon Ra, Mohammed Nuruddin, and Lisa M. Kobos; undergraduate student Emily N. Conkling; Brandon E. Boor, an assistant professor of civil engineering; John A. Howarter, an assistant professor of materials engineering and environmental and ecological engineering; Jeffrey P. Youngblood, a professor of materials engineering; Shannahan; Chad T. Jafvert, a professor of civil engineering and environmental and ecological engineering; and Whelton.

The new research also contains results from the team's Freedom of Information Act requests to cities and utilites. This information is contained in the supporting-information section of the research paper. Forty-nine public reports of chemical air contamination associated with CIPP activites were found. Complaints filed by homeowners and businesses who, anecdotally, have described strong and lingering chemical odors and illness symptoms, also were described.

Additional research is needed, particularly because the procedure has not been well studied for health and environmental risks, said Howarter.

"The CIPP process is actually a brilliant technology," Howarter said. "Health and safety concerns, though, need to be addressed. We are not aware of any study that has determined what exposure limit to the chemical mixture is safe. We are not aware of any study that indicates that skin exposure or inhaling the multi-phase mixture is safe. We also are not aware of any study that has examined the persistence of this multi-phase mixture in the environment."

Whelton said, "In the documents we reviewed, contractors, utilities, and engineering companies have told people who complain about illness symptoms that their exposures are not a health risk. It's unclear what data are used for these declarations."

Utilities and municipalities sometimes cite worker chemical exposure standards established by the NIOSH as acceptable for the general public.

"That comparison is wrong and invalid," Whelton said. "Worker safety exposure standards should not be cited as acceptable exposures for the general public. For example, children have less of an ability to handle a chemical exposure than healthy adults, and worker exposure standards do not account for the multi-phase exposure. CIPP workers can be exposed to more than one chemical at a time, in addition to droplets, vapor and particulates."

Testing Results Show Need For Worksite Changes

Because of the air testing results obtained at CIPP installations on the Purdue campus - two of the seven test sites studied - Purdue required the faculty and students to better protect themselves from inhaling the chemicals emitted. The researchers were required to wear full-facemask carbon filter respirators during their testing in California.

Meanwhile, the uncured chemicals also might pose hazards: The nitrile gloves Whelton wore on one occasion deteriorated from contact with the uncured resin tube. The researchers observed that workers sometimes did not wear gloves while handling the materials. Some images and videos online also show workers not wearing gloves while handling the chemicals, he said.

"Workers should always wear appropriately thick chemically resistant gloves while handling uncured resin tubes," Whelton said. "No one should handle these materials with their bare hands."

He said health officials must be alerted when people complain about odors near CIPP sites and illness so they can investigate.

"Health officials we have spoken with were unaware of illness and odor complaints from CIPP activities," Whelton said. "Local and state health departments should be involved in all public chemical exposure and illness complaints. They are trained on medical assessments."

Often, the public instead speaks with CIPP contractors and engineers about their illness complaints, which Whelton said must change.

"Engineers should act immediately because it is their professional responsibility to hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public according to their code of ethics," he said. "We have seen evidence that companies and utilities do not understand what materials are created and emitted by CIPP processes or the consequences of exposure. Our new study indicates workers, the public, and the environment needs to be better protected from harm."

The researchers are working to develop safeguards, including a new type of handheld analytical device that would quickly indicate whether the air at a worksite is safe. A patent application has been filed through the Purdue Research Foundation's Office of Technology Commercialization.

The research was primarily funded by a RAPID response grant from the National Science Foundation. Additional support was provided by public donations and from Purdue University.

The study follows a discovery three years ago when researchers reported that chemicals released by CIPP activities into waterways have been linked to fish kills, contaminated drinking water supplies, and negative impacts to wastewater treatment plants. A previous research paper, available at http://pubs. acs. org/ doi/ abs/ 10. 1021/ es5018637, demonstrated that chemicals released into water by CIPP sites can be toxic, and the CIPP waste dissolved freshwater test organisms within 24 hours at room temperature.
Five men suspected of belonging to Al-Qaeda were killed in Yemen Monday in a drone strike likely to have been carried out by the United States, a security official said.

The strike on Juba in the central Marib province, the site of a ground raid by US commandos in May, killed five Yemenis and "foreigners" in an attack that targeted a gathering of people "known to belong to Al-Qaeda", the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

He declined to elaborate on the nationalities of those killed.

The United States considers the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to be the group's most dangerous branch.

A long-running drone war against AQAP has intensified since President Donald Trump took office in January.

An air raid he ordered that month killed a US Navy SEAL and several Yemeni civilians in Baida province, south of Marib.

The May raid on Marib killed at least seven militants in an operation that also left several American troops wounded.

AQAP has taken advantage of a war between the Saudi-backed government and Shia rebels to expand its presence in several areas of eastern and southern Yemen.

More than 8,000 people have been killed since Saudi Arabia and its allies joined the conflict in 2015.



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SCIENTISTS in the UK and India have discovered more evidence that positive stimuli in early childhood can benefit the infant brain.

A comparative study of genetic variations between two parts of the brain found evidence for progressive variations in the brain's genome benefiting physiological development.

And they believe such variations may be linked to the level of brain activity determined by so-called 'nurture' factors, which are environmental rather than hereditary.

"The implication is that early life positive experiences can stimulate cognitive activities and will favor such 'beneficial' variations, whereas, negative experiences or lack of cognitive stimulation can reduce the genomic diversity resulting in limiting brain capacity," said Dr Arijit Mukhopadhyay, a researcher in human genetics and genomics at the University of Salford.

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It is one of the first studies to show the effect of brain activity on genomic changes, and is published in F1000 Research, Dr. Mukhopadhyay and colleagues from CSIR-Institute of Genomics & Integrative Biology, Delhi.

Dr. Mukhopadhyay explains: "It is generally assumed that as we inherit our genetic blueprint (DNA) from our parents, we also inherit the genetic variations alongside. While this is largely true, this research along with other reports in the recent literature shows that some variations - termed de novo somatic variations - occur as a normal process and are added to diversify our genetic repertoire.

The team collected two different parts of the human brain, frontal cortex and corpus callosum from multiple individuals, postmortem, from the Brain Bank, (the individuals died due to road accidents without any known disease.)

The researchers extracted DNA from the tissue and performed state-of-the-art genomic sequencing to identify genetic variations between the two. The study found a higher number of possibly 'beneficial' variations in the cortex compared to the corpus callosum of the same individuals.

Dr. Mukhopadhyay said: "This finding is an important step in our understanding of early brain development and of how local genetic variations can occur and shape our physiology.

"It is likely that genetic variations beyond those we inherit are important for our ability to adapt and evolve locally for specific organs and tissues.

"We believe our results indicate that such physiology driven genetic changes have a positive influence on the development of the neuronal connectivity early in life."
The most frequent strategy used by women forcing men to have sex with them against their will is blackmail and threats, according to researchers at Lancaster University.

This accounted for the experiences of more than one fifth of the men who completed an online survey, the first of its kind in the UK, examining the extent of men who have been 'forced to penetrate' women.

Telling lies, threats to end a relationship, warnings of rumour-spreading and verbal abuse were all cited (22.2%).

The research project, led by Dr Siobhan Weare from Lancaster University Law School, and supported by Survivors Manchester, also found the use of force, such as pinning down with bodyweight or having a weapon, featured high on the list (14.4%).

The least frequent strategy was the administration of drugs non-consensually (1.3%).

Dr Weare explains: "The term 'forced to penetrate' has been coined for these cases because, while they involve non-consensual penile penetration, they do not fall under the offence of rape. The offence of rape can only be committed by men due to the requirement of penile penetration of the victim. In 'forced to penetrate' cases, the offender is the one being penetrated by a non-consenting victim."

All 154 of the UK male survey participants had experienced compelled penetration. The men shared their most recent experience of being forced-to-penetrate a woman, as well as their engagement with the criminal justice system, how they would label what had happened to them, whether they had experienced multiple victimization and emotional and psychological harm.

"Whilst the sample size of 154 may be smaller than typically expected, this must be considered in the context of an issue that is under-reported and under-discussed, and that this is the first and only survey of its kind to be conducted in the UK," added Dr Weare.

"The 'hidden-hidden' nature of this crime and the 'complex' gender dynamics involved means that huge numbers of survey participants were highly unlikely - not because this isn't happening to men - but because many are made to feel too ashamed or feel too distressed to report it."

The majority of the participants who completed the survey reported that they knew the woman, often as an acquaintance or a friend and just over half were in, or had been in, a relationship with the perpetrator.

Only two men said that they had reported their experience to the police and in both instances the case did not make it to court.

'Rape' was the most frequent label used by the participants in describing their ordeal, despite the law not recognising such cases in this way. 'Sex' was used least frequently.

80% of men did not disclose their experience to family or friends and 74.5% had not sought support suggesting that men are left feeling isolated and alone in dealing with their experiences. This is particularly worrying when the findings highlight that men most frequently (20.9%) reported suffering severe negative emotional impacts as a result of what happened to them.

Dr Weare said the findings provided compelling evidence to rebuff two of the most powerful and pervasive stereotypes around men experiencing sexual violence from women.

These are:

The presumed inability of women to overpower men due to their 'weaker' physical stature which means this kind of penetration cannot or does not take place

Because men are taught to value and enjoy sex they must view all sexual opportunities with women as positive - the 'lucky boy' syndrome.

"Raising public awareness of the issue is crucial to ensure this is no longer a hidden crime," added Dr Weare.

"The findings of this research will enable a greater understanding of such experiences and will help to develop practice and policy in this area, as well as in relation to the broader issue of men who experience sexual violence.

"Whilst it's difficult to state the prevalence of forced-to-penetrate cases in the UK, research in the US in 2010 found that approximately one in 21 men (4.8%) reported being 'made to penetrate' someone else during their lifetime, with 79.2% of cases involving a female perpetrator."

Duncan Craig, the founder and Chief Executive of Survivors Manchester, a charity supporting males who have experienced sexual violation, said: "This really is a ground breaking piece of work by Dr Weare. I was delighted that we could support the research as it shines a light on one of our last taboos in society - male victims and female perpetrators. We have got to break the silence on this and let men know that we are here to listen and support them when needed."
Chennai: The goods and services tax (GST) was not an easy reform to implement but it has evoked great public support with the government deciding not to blink in the face of Opposition to the new taxation measure, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Sunday.



We have today reached a stage of history where there is a great amount of popular support behind reforms because people have become restless. They are not willing to be satisfied with a situation wherein India cannot reach up to its potential, he said in Chennai, while addressing a GST Conclave organised by various industry bodies. I can say with a reasonable expectation for the future that it (GST) was not a very easy reform to implement. Occasionally, there are people who try and prevent any reform from happening.



Jaitley said he had learnt in the last few years that one should not blink if convinced that a reform was in the national interest. If you pause, blink, go into a reconsideration mode, then those who want to trip you will never allow those reforms to take place. However, this time there was great amount of public support for the GST as people have become restless, he said.



The finance minister said the pressure was on those who were blocking important legislations, disrupting Parliament or when there was a time gap when the GST amendment was not allowed to be passed.



Such public pressure existed even on governments to continue to act and act correctly, and the popular opinion in the country was undergoing a transformational change, he said. Therefore, let me say, that it is the people who have compelled this reform and brought the Centre and states together, he said. The finance minister said the Centre was aware of several issues being raised, adding that he was conscious of the difficulties, and therefore, constant interactions were happening on GST.



Besides different Central taxes, states levied their own taxes and 17 such taxes had to be integrated into one and this brought in benefits like doing away with multiple taxation and ensuring free flow of goods across the country, saving on fuel, money and man hours, he said. Multiple returns, which often led to corruption, harassment and compliance burdens had also been done away with, he said, adding the country needed revenue to address important issues like procuring of arms and ammunitions for the army.



The tax bases expansion with GST registration, plus removal of double taxation, among its other benefits, would enable more resources, he said. The minister also expected the net weighted average of taxes to ease, noting the pressure for corrective action of public opinion in general.



He said the number of registrants paying all forms of indirect tax was eight million. As of today, we have already crossed that figure (in the switch to GST registration). About 7.2 million migrated; many had multiple registrations. Already, about 1.2 million new people have come in. As this number is going to continue to increase, it gives us a slight comfort level, that the base is expanding, he said.
New Delhi: Boeing on Monday said India will take deliveries of 2,100 new planes worth USD 290 billion in the next 20 years, calling it the "highest forecast" for the country.



India's share will account for more than 5.1 percent of the total global demand of 41,030 aircraft, the American aeronautic giant said.



According to Boeing's Current Market Outlook released on Monday, almost 85 per cent of these new planes in India are likely to be single-aisle with low-cost carriers operating more than 60 percent of all flights.



"The increasing number of passengers combined with a strong exchange rate, low fuel prices and high load factors bode well for India's aviation market, especially the low-cost carriers," said Dinesh Keskar, senior vice-president, Asia Pacific and India Sales, Boeing Commercial Airplanes.



Boeing also expects to benefit from the government's regional connectivity scheme (RCS) in the years to come, when smaller 70-seat aircraft will be replaced by bigger ones, such as Boeing's 737s, following an increase in traffic on these routes.



"RCS will allow opening of new routes, thus providing more connectivity. Over the next 4-5 years, the growth on those routes will make a Boeing 737 viable. We are very bullish that if it (RCS) works out, we will be one of the beneficiaries," Keskar said.



The passenger traffic in South Asia is expected to grow at a rate of 8 per cent, followed by China at 6.2 percent.



The growth rate in the region is likely to be more than double that of Europe (3.7 per cent) and North America (3 percent).
Inderjit Singh Jaijee has spent last 29 years of his life documenting farmer suicides in Punjab. At first, it sounds like a mildly virtuous endeavor in a good-samaritan-passing-his-time sort of way.

But after spending some time in trying to understand how Jaijee and his team worked for three decades to meticulously report 2375 farmer suicides from 110 villages of Punjab, in the face of successive governments efforts to downplay this continuing tragedy, his work  spread over scores of files  seems invaluable.

Before we begin the interview, Jaijee hands over a few files to me. In them are details of farmers who committed suicide.

Every time a suicide is reported, he and his field reporters, spread over 110 villages, mostly in Sangrur and nearby districts, get a call. The field reporters visit the house, talk to the family members and note down details like the quantum of debt on the farmer, reasons behind his suicide, details of his family members, his age, house and village name, date and manner in which the farmer took his life.

If debt is found to be the reason behind the suicide, the team gets all these details attested on an affidavit by the relevant gram panchayat member and adds the name in its database.
New Delhi: Delhi Police were in for a surprise when they received three complaints of an unknown person cutting braids of women near Dwarka.



According to Vimal Kumar from Chhawala, three incidents of similar nature occurred in 12 hours in the locality, scaring everybody. The first incident, according to Kumar, took place around 10 AM when Munish was lying in her bed.



Munish came back home after giving fodder to the cattle. She complained of a headache to her daughter-in-law. While she was lying in her bed, her grandchild noticed her hair lying on the ground. Everybody at home panicked because no one saw anyone cut her locks, said Kumar.



The villagers were not done talking about the first incident which occurred in broad daylight when another incident was reported in the evening at a location stone's throw from the place the first one took place.



Sridevi, in her mid-40s, came back home after milking her cow, complaining of a headache. Her son spotted her hair on the ground.



These incidents are bizarre as no one could see the person cut womens hair locks, said Kumar.



At 10:30 PM, a woman claimed when she shut the doors of her house, she found her braid lying on the floor, scaring her.



The Deputy Commissioner of Police, Surinder Kumar, said these incidents shouldnt be looked at as some sort of witchcraft.



The incidents occurred under suspicious circumstances, but that doesnt mean theres an involvement of witchcraft, said the DCP.



The cases are being dealt with scientifically, the DCP assured. The team is checking the CCTVs installed in the area. In fact, in one of the CCTV footages, three men could be seen. We have developed their photographs. It might be possible that they are targeting people so that they could easily rob them. They will be arrested soon, Surinder Kumar said.



The FIR has been filed under sections of Arms Act and IPC sections 328 (causing hurt by means of poison), 354 (intention to outrage the modesty of a woman) and 379 (theft).



The hair sample has been sent to Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) to find out the weapon used to cut the locks. To stop such incidents and to instil confidence in people, Delhi Police have intensified patrolling.



At least 15 incidents of women's braids being mysteriously chopped off have been reported from the villages of the Mewat region in last two

weeks, police said on Monday.



These bizarre happenings have left the villagers in panic mode. Most women claimed to have fallen unconscious when their braids were chopped off leading to the villagers blaming godmen, ghosts, witches and "cat-like" creatures.
Bengaluru: The AIADMK has asked the Karnataka government to restrain DIG D Roopa from speaking to the media on VK Sasikala getting special treatment in Bengaluru jail.



In a complaint addressed to Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, advocate N Krishnappan representing Va Pugazhendi, Karnataka AIADMK party secretary and spokesperson, said the government should ensure that Roopa did not give TV interviews and press statements on the matter.



Accusing her of trying to gain publicity through the media, he sought appropriate departmental action against the officer for her "misconduct", reported PTI.



In a report submitted on July 12 to Sathyanarayana Rao, who was DGP (Prisons) then, Roopa as Deputy Inspector of General (Prisons) had said there was "a talk" that Rs 2 crore had exchanged hands to give preferential treatment to Sasikala and that there were allegations against him also.



She had also said that a special kitchen was functioning in the jail for Sasikala in violation of prison rules.



Sasikala is lodged at Parappana Agrahara central prison here ever since her conviction in February in the disproportionate assets case along with her two relatives V N Sudhakaran and Elavarasi, all serving a four-year jail term.



Alleging that Roopa was giving interviews to TV channels and issuing press statements targeting Sasikala despite her transfer and an inquiry being underway, the three page complaint said, "We request you to restrain Roopa from giving TV interviews and press statements and thereby gaining media publicity".



The AIADMK also said that anonymous letters making certain allegations on Sasikala and jail officials were also "leaked to the press".



"In order to fulfil her hidden ambitions, Roopa is indulging in such acts which shall not be allowed to continue. Therefore, it is essential that appropriate departmental action be initiated against her for her misconducts," read the complaint letter.



After Roopa and Rao indulged in a public spat over the report, the Karnataka government had shifted her as Deputy Inspector General ofPolice and Commissioner for Traffic and Road Safety, Bengaluru, while Rao was asked to go on leave.



The Congress government has also ordered a high level inquiry by a retired IAS officer into Roopa's report. The complaint letter also termed the allegations made by Roopa against Sasikala as "baseless".



(With PTI Inputs)
New Delhi: In what could paint a dismal picture of Indias fight for safeguarding the rights of all its citizens, atrocities recorded against scheduled tribes (ST) have been on the rise in the past three years.



Data put forth by the minister of state for tribal affairs, Jasvantsinh Sumanbhai Bhabhor, in the Parliament shows that the country recorded 314 cases of atrocities against those belonging to the scheduled tribes in 2016. The number in 2015 was 283, while in 2014 it was 258. There was an increase in the number of atrocities by 9.68% from 2014 to 2015, and 10.95% from 2015 to 2016.



The Article 342 of Constitution says the criterion followed for specification of a community as scheduled tribes are indications of primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, shyness of contact with the community at large and backwardness. STs consist less than 10 per cent of the countrys population.



Ironically, a lot of these atrocity cases are against state agencies. In 2015, the National Human Rights Commission had said that at least 16 tribal women were allegedly raped and physically abused by policemen in Bastar. Last year, in Ranchi, one person was killed and a dozen injured after police opened fire to rescue their colleagues who were allegedly being assaulted by almost 1,000 tribals who had gathered for an Adivasi Akrosh rally.



In April this year, a group of 13 persons allegedly thrashed three youth belonging to Koraga community, a scheduled tribe, in Trasi village of Karnataka, accusing them of slaughtering two oxen. A month later in May, a Chhattisgarh official posted on Facebook where she accused the state government of violating human rights of adivasis.



Experts have pointed to various reasons for the rise in the number of cases against atrocities, one of them being the alleged infiltration of ideologies, leading to a battle of cultures.



Rajasthan, MP, UP And Jharkhand Among Worst Affected



Rajasthan recorded 43 such cases in 2014, which rose to 49 the year after. In 2016, the state recorded 40 cases of atrocities.



Following close was Madhya Pradesh, which recorded 36 cases in 2014. The number rose to 28 in 2015 and to 47 in 2016. Uttar Pradesh recorded 25 cases in 2014, which fell to 13 in 2015, but further went up to 34 in 2016.



Maharashtra recorded 10 cases in 2014 and 2015, which rose to 15 in 2016. There were 30 such cases of atrocities recorded in Jharkhand in 2014, which fell to 25 in 2015. In 2016, the state saw 35 cases being recorded. The national capital recorded 13 cases in 2014, 12 in 2015 and 14 in 2016. The state of Chhattisgarh recorded 12 cases of atrocities in 2014, which went up to 16 in 2015 and further rose to 22 in 2016.



Places like Telangana, Mizoram, Daman & Diu, Jammu & Kashmir, Puducherry, Punjab, Manipur and Meghalaya saw very few or no such cases in the past three years.



Cobweb of Ideologies, Social Backwardness And Ignorance



Activist and political analyst Debashish Jarariya said infiltration of a certain kind of ideology into popular space was leading to a clash, which in many cases has turned out to be violent. With the current ruling party, there is a certain RSS-backed Hindutva ideology that has creeped into our lives. Now for someone to come from the forest and the adivasis that we talk about, its difficult for them to make peace with it, he said.



Additionally, he said globalization and privatization have led to an increase in the social strength of the scheduled tribes. They are getting into the mainstream, even if its with very menial jobs. But this is often considered as an encroachment by the so-called manuwadis and upper caste people. That also leads to a clash, Jarariya added.



Speaking to News18, CS Dwarakanath, former chairman of the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes, said, When these scheduled tribes come into the urban or rural space, they live in tents of little huts around bus stands, railway stations, etc. The police and administration come without notice and destroy everything they have in the most inhumane way possible. Nobody is spared; not even women and children, he said.



He mentioned the case of the Handijogi tribe, who, he added, rear pigs. The police and administration come and take away their pigs, without monetarily compensating them. The tribe is accused of spreading brain fever by rearing pigs. There is no scientific reason behind that, and its the tribe that ends up suffering, Dwarakanath said.



Better Reporting of Cases



A BJP MLA from Rajasthan said the numbers did not necessarily mean there was an increase in the atrocities against scheduled tribes. These numbers just show that the reporting of cases has been strong, which is good because necessary action can be taken. This means that people are increasingly getting aware of their rights. Also, lets not forget there are many who misuse the SC/ST Act under which atrocities are reported, said the MLA, on condition of anonymity.



Former director general of police (DGP) of UP, Vikram Singh said the increasing use of technology and various amendments made to the SC/ST Act had ensured that those on in administration could not shy away from filing cases of atrocities. Officers can no longer kick people out of police stations or refuse to file their complaints just because they are from the scheduled tribes or castes. While there is still room for improvement, but there have been certain changes in the bureaucratic set up also because of amendments to the SC/ST Act, Singh explained.



The retired IPS officer, however, added that the poverty level of many belonging to scheduled tribes was such that many of them turn to cooking rats. I have seen it happening in eastern UP. Now, if they are abused or their rights are violated, stringent action should be taken, Singh said.
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, under pressure over increasing political violence in the state, vented his anger on journalists at a meeting with BJP-RSS leaders on Monday.



The chief minister screamed "Get out" at reporters and camera persons who were inside the hall in Thiruvananthapuram when he and CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan arrived for the meeting.



Media persons who are used to two minutes of photo-op time before any such important meeting were taken aback at the CM's sudden outburst. Some protested the treatment as there were no prior directions from the CM's office or the police that the meeting was out of bounds for cameras.



After the meeting, CM Vijayan briefed media persons about the outcome, but refused to comment on his behaviour and stormed out of the place ignoring repeated questions from reporters.



On Sunday, Kerala Governor P Sathasivam had summoned the chief minister and DGP Loknath Behara over the killing of an RSS worker, which is the latest in the increasing violence between both sides.



The RSS worker, Rajesh, was hacked to death by a gang led by a historysheeter. While police say that there was personal enmity, the BJP alleged the hand of the ruling CPI(M).



The state had been witnessing a series of violent incidents allegedly involving BJP-RSS and CPI-M workers with the capital district rocked by incidents of attacks on houses of rival partymen in the past few days.



The state BJP office was vandalised on July 28 while stones were thrown at the house of CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan's son Bineesh Kodiyeri.
Kolkata: At least 30 people have been killed so far following a flood-like situation in West Bengal as heavy monsoon rain and Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) releasing water wreaked havoc in Midnapore, Bankura, Purulia, Hooghly and Howrah districts.



Sources in the irrigation department on Saturday claimed that DVC released nearly 1.20 lakh cusec water - causing severe problems for the people in most of the affected districts. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee held a review meeting at state secretariat  Nabanna  and personally examined the ground realities.



She instructed all the district administrative officials to increase the supply chain of relief materials in all the affected villages. More than 400 relief camps were set up and nearly one lakh affected people are sheltered in these camps.



Most of the rivers are still flowing above danger mark. Indian Air Force helicopters were pressed in to service to rescue people from marooned villages as National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team unable to reach in some of the affected areas.



In East Midnapores Pratapur village - nine children, two women and a man were airlifted and taken to Anukul Thakur Ashram for medical assistance. The Air Force rescue team also air dropped dry food packets and water pouches in some areas. On Sunday, once again they will assist the local administration in relief and rescue operation.



Mamata demanded that the DVC should immediately be reformed by the Centre. The work of dredging in Ganga is pending for several years now. Dredging has not been done in Kolkata, nor in Haldia. There are several barrages under DVC which should have been cleaned and dredged. They are filled with silt. Had that been done, the water storage capacity would have increased by 2 lakh cusecs, she said while adding that its a man-made flood.



Since 2012, we have raised the issue of water-release by DVC. But no action has been taken. Even today they have released more than 1 lakh cusec of water. Low-lying areas of Labhpur in Birbhum district, Purulia, Ghatal in West Medinipur and Goghat, Arambagh in Hooghly districts have been inundated. This is caused mostly due to the discharge of water by DVC from its barrages, she added.
Police and opposition protestors clashed Monday in Goma, eastern Democratic of Republic of Congo, as demonstrators protested President Joseph Kabila's sustained grip on power and called for elections.

Protesters and several journalists were arrested in cities across the country after the youth movement Struggle for Change (Lucha) called for marches nationwide, police and witnesses said.

Around 40 people were held in the eastern city of Goma, 17 in the capital Kinshasa and around 10 each in three other cities, Butembo, Bukavu and Lubumbashi, police spokesman Colonel Pierrot-Rombaut Mwanamputu told AFP.

The chief of police has decided that all people arrested in the context of these illegal demonstrations across the country will be released," he added.

Several opposition coalitions and prominent figures had publicly backed the marches, timed to mark the July 31 date given by the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) to conclude a voter registration programme.

In Goma, the regional capital of North Kivu province, bordering Rwanda, protesters threw stones and pulled up barricades as police fired tear gas at them, said police, an AFP journalist witnessed.

One group managed to force police lines to deliver a statement to the offices of CENI, Independent National Electoral Commission, before being arrested.

Further north at Butembo, 11 activists were "brutally arrested", a local priest told AFP.

And in Bukavu, the provincial capital of South Kivu, police used tear gas to break up a rally.

Police also detained two journalists from the private television channel Canal Futur, impounding their equipment. They were later released. A third journalist, from the local state TV station, was briefly held then released with his equipment.

Further west, in the capital Kinshasa, riot police were out in force in the city centre around the parliament, on foot and in motorised patrols, making seven arrests.

Political tension is rising steadily in DR Congo as the pressure mounts on Kabila, whose mandate expired on December 20 last year, to organise elections.

Under an agreement reached at the end of last year, Kabila was to hold them by the end of this year, under the aegis of the influential Roman Catholic church.

On July 7, however, CENI announced it would not be possible to organise elections in the vast and troubled country by the end of this year.

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New Delhi: A fire has broken out in central Delhis Shastri Bhawan.



According to reports, five fire tenders have been rushed to deal with the blaze which broke out early on Monday. Police told PTI that the fire broke out after a short circuit in an air conditioner.



The fire, which broke out on the seventh floor, was doused within a few minutes and five fire tenders were rushed to the spot, police added. In 2014, a fire broke out on the same floor.



Shastri Bhawan houses important government offices of ministries like Human Resource Development, Law, Information and Broadcasting, Corporate Affairs, along with Chemicals and Petrochemicals.



More details are awaited.



(With PTI inputs)




Almost every Indian musician, from Pundit Ravi Shankar to Amjad Ali Khan, has walked down the narrow lanes of north and central Kolkata, looking for an instrument of their choice.The small, dank workshops, where artisans toil day and night to handcraft musical instruments for maestros and novices alike, offer delight to any music lover. In shops lined with guitars, violins, sitars, tablas, and what not, one can see workers giving final touch to instruments.Post goods and services tax, however, these artisans have hit a sad note. The government has imposed 28% GST on musical instruments, making them costlier. The number of customers, as a result, has dipped significantly.We have been compelled to hike the price of our products. There is a steep decrease in production and selling of instruments. Customers are not willing to buy instruments at a higher cost. If this continues, we will have to shut shop, said secretary of West Bengal Musical Instruments Dealers and Manufacturers Association, Ajit Kumar Mondal.There are more than 3000 small, big and medium musical instruments manufacturing units in Bengal and nearly 5 lakh people are associated with the industry. Now, many of these units are on the verge of closure.Sujan Bhowmik, another worker at Dhulagarh string instruments unit and expert in making Violin, said, Earlier, we had 25 workers. Now only 15 are left as 10 of them were asked to leave. The government should consider our plea and we are hopeful that Bengal government will come forward to rescue us from this crisis.In its letter to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the association has sought exemption from GST. Earlier, certain musical instruments were exempted from value added tax. And the remaining instruments were taxed at 14.5%.Babu Maity, an expert in making Sitar in Dum Dum, said, Most of the workshop owners have already started downsizing their workforce. I have to look after my family and I am the only bread earner, but I am living in constant fear of losing my job.Sujoy Kumar Das, one of the owners of a production unit in North Kolkata, said, This is a fact that the industry will find it difficult to survive under 28% GST. The only option before us is to reduce our workforce and to compromise with the quality of instruments.Bengal has always been one of the most important cultural hubs in India. Not just us, but there are lakhs of students, teachers, music schools associated (indirectly) with this industry. I would like to request Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to consider out plea, Mondal said.
: Hyderabad traffic police, in a unique experiment, is all set to launch a Penalty Point System for Traffic Violations from August 1.The aim of the move is to inculcate self-discipline among commuters and to transform Hyderabad into a safe place to commute. Driving licenses of drivers, who cross the 12-point limit, will stand cancelled automatically for a period of one year.On April 24, 2017, the Telangana government had issued orders introducing the aforementioned system under the Motor Vehicles Act.Drunken driving on a two-wheeler will attract 3 points, a four-wheeler will get 4 penalty points, and a public-service vehicle such as a bus or a cab will be penalised with 5 points.Drivers will be penalised with one point of found driving a two-wheeler without a helmet and not using a seat belt while driving a four-wheeler.Wrong side driving, dangerous driving, driving while using a mobile phone, jumping signal, will be 2 points penalty.Offence like over speeding or racing will get 3 points penalty. Cognizable offence involving section 304(A), 304(2) IPC will get 5 points.According to the orders, penalty points awarded for an offence shall remain on record for a block period of 24 months from the date of award. At any point of time, if the cumulative tally of the penalty points accrued by a driver having a license exceeds the limit of 12 points during the preceding block period of 24 months, his/her driving license shall be suspended for a period of one year from the date of accrual of twelve points. On suspension of the driving license, the accrued penalty points shall cease to subsist.If a person, whose license has been suspended and later revoked after completion of one year period under Rule 45-A(4)(i), again accrues 12 points subsequently, driving license of such person shall be suspended for a period of 2 years from the date of accrual of the said twelve points. On further repetition of accumulation of 12 points every time, the driving license shall be suspended for a period of 3 years.If a person holding a learner's license accrues 5 points during the validity period of learner's license, such learner's license shall be cancelled forthwith. The person whose learner's license has been cancelled shall be eligible for re-issue of fresh Learner's License on production of a certificate of learning driving as prescribed from a recognized school or establishment.If a person has accumulated several points for violations, he shall get an opportunity to reduce the tally by three Penalty Points by undergoing defensive training course/motor vehicle accident prevention course from an institution recognized by the Transport Department of the Government. However, this facility shall be restricted to two times in a continuous period of two years.Where a person commits any offence(s) involving judicial proceedings punishable with fine/imprisonment or both, the penalty points in such case(s) shall accrue on the award of punishment by the trial court. However, the date of offence/violation shall be the date of the accrual of points for the purpose of the record.
New Delhi: A dossier prepared by the National Investigation Agency on terror funding in Jammu and Kashmir has established a direct link between Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hurriyat leaders, and details how financial assistance from across the border is used for terror financing and to fuel unrest in the Valley.



The dossier, accessed exclusively by CNN-News18, shows that Pakistans ISI and LeT have been in touch with most of the separatist leaders in the state. It says that the top leaders of Hurriyat acquired funds sent through hawala channels and under the guise of cross-LoC trade to finance protests over the last one year.



Sources said that separatist leaders have been the biggest beneficiaries of terror funding, as apart from creating unrest with the resources, they have used the money to buy properties and invest in business.



LeT is sending money to Hurriyat to pay for stone-pelters and create unrest in the Valley, said a source, on the condition of anonymity. He said that the stone-pelters are hired on either daily or weekly basis and are paid around Rs 500 per day or Rs 2,000 per week.



The NIA is now going after the businesses who are believed to be on the pay rolls of terror organisations and are routing funds to pro-freedom leaders from Pakistan. Almost 50 big traders and businessmen from the Valley are under the scanner of security agencies and may be summoned to Delhi for questioning soon, sources said.



The agency has expanded the probe against terror funding to choke the supply of separatists in order to curb violence in the Valley. A week ago, the NIA had arrested seven Kashmiri separatist leaders, including hardline Hurriyat chief Syed Ali Shah Geelanis son-in-law Altaf Ahmed Shah. Around 30 more people with links to this nexus, including Geelanis two sons, Nayeem and Naseem, have been summoned. Sources said that more arrests are likely in the next few days.



Speaking to CNN-News18, former J&K Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah also said separatists are being funded by Pakistan-based outfits. The book by former R&AW chief Mr. Dullat, who was attached to PMO, clearly shows that the money was being paid to these people. What more proof could you want? he asked.



However, he said he is against banning the Hurriyat, saying it would give them an opportunity to go underground. Then, it would be very difficult to know about them and their activities. It is better that they are not banned. You see, the world over, wherever groups like these were banned, it did not prove to be fruitful, he said.



Abdullah also accused J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti of being hand-in-glove with separatists, after she said that arresting those who fund stone-pelters in the Valley is not the solution. These things have not resolved the problem. They may have contained the situation for some time but this is not a resolution, Mufti had said.



There has also been a strong pushback from the state administration against the crackdown. The J&K High Court bar association has constituted a legal team to examine the constitutional validity of the NIA probe against Hurriyat leaders. The state's resistance to the NIA probe comes after Mufti warned against any interference with laws that grant the state special status.
New Delhi: More than 100 armed forces veterans have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, condemning mob attacks by cow vigilantes on Muslims and Dalits.



The letter, dated July 30, also expressed concerns over clampdown on free speech and the climate of fear. The letter, which was also sent to chief ministers of all states, has been signed by 114 armed forces veterans.



It saddens us to write this letter, but current events in India have compelled us to register our dismay at the divisiveness that is gripping our country, the letter said.



The 114 veterans who signed the letter include Admiral L Ramdas, Major General Dipankar Banerjee and Major General MPS Kandal, The Hindu reported.



We stand with the Not in My Name campaign that mobilised thousands of citizens across the country to protest against the current climate of fear, intimidation, hate and suspicion, the letter added.



The Not in My Name campaign was organised in June and saw people take to the streets to protest lynchings of Muslims and Dalits across several cities by self-styled gau rakshaks.



"We have spent our careers working for the security of our country. Collectively, our group holds no affiliation with any single political party, our only common commitment being to the Constitution of India," the letter said.



In the letter, the veterans said that media outlets, civil society groups, universities along with scholars had been branded anti-nationals and were being intimidated.



We can no longer look away. We would be doing a disservice to our country if we do not stand up and speak for the liberal and secular values that our Constitution espouses. Our diversity is our greatest strength. Dissent is not treason; in fact, it is the essence of democracy, the veterans said.
Patna: The Patna High Court on Monday dismissed a petition filed by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) challenging governor's decision to invite Nitish Kumar to form the government.



A bench of chief justice Rajendra Menon and A K Upadhyay called the petition frivolous and rejected petitioner's claim that the governor should have invited RJD to form the government being the single largest party.



Additional advocate general Lalit Kishore, who appeared on behalf of the state government, said that the court referred to various orders of the Supreme Court which established that the best place to settle such issues is on the floor of the house where Kumar proved his majority.



"The bench said there is no need to entertain the petition as the floor test has already taken place. RJD had the chance to show its strength during the floor test in which they failed," He said.



Kumar took oath on July 27 after snapping ties with RJD-Congress alliance and formed a new government with the help of BJP-led NDA.



He moved confidence motion the very next day which was passed with 131 votes vis-a-vis 108 against in the 243-member assembly.



The political landscape of Bihar changed in a matter of hours on June26th when Kumar formally staked claim to form the government with the backing of the BJP, marking his return to the NDA fold. He had resigned on Wednesday evening, citing the failure of his Mahagathbandhan allies  the RJD and the Congress  to act on demands of Tejashwi Yadavs resignation.



Tejashwi, his father Lalu Prasad Yadav and mother Rabri Devi have been booked by the CBI in a corruption case that dates back to 2005 when Lalu was the Railway Minister.



"In the circumstances that prevail in Bihar, it became difficult to run the grand alliance government," Kumar told reporters after submitting his resignation to Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi.
Rameswaram (Tamil Nadu): The controversy over the engraved Bhagavad Gita near the statue of late President APJ Abdul Kalam took a fresh turn after the scientists family placed a copy of the Quran and Bible near the memorial.



A local Hindu outfit protested the move by claiming that no permission was taken to place the holy books there.



Hours later, officials manning the memorial, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 27, kept the Bible and Quran in a glass box in the vicinity of the statue.



Hindu Makkal Katchi leader K Prabhakaran filed a police complaint claiming that the two holy books (of Quran and Bible) were placed without permission from authorities.



"I respect all these books. But keeping them (in the memorial) without permission is wrong. Steps should be taken to see that such things are not done again," he told reporters.



Vaiko-led MDMK and the PMK have raised questions on the need for keeping the engraved Bhagavad Gita alongside the wooden statue of Kalam playing the musical instrument 'veena' in the Rs 15 crore memorial, designed and built by the Defence Research and Development Agency with which Kalam was associated for a long time.



Meanwhile, Kalam's relatives Sheik Dawood and Salim told PTI earlier on Sunday, "An unnecessary controversy was raised by some people. DRDO officials worked tirelessly for the memorial construction and had not sculpted the Bhagavad Gita near the statue with any (ill) intention. Now we have left two books  Quran and Bible near the statue".



They said they would also place a copy of Tamil treatise 'Thirukkural' near the statue soon.



They said Kalam was a leader to all Indians and no one should seek to politicise the issue.



An MDMK spokesperson said party founder Vaiko had already questioned the need for a Bhagavad Gita there, when Kalam used to refer only from 'Thirukkural'.



A PMK leader, who did not wish to be named, also questioned the need for sculpting the wooden piece with the name of 'Bhagavad Gita', saying Kalam was common to all citizens of India.



The memorial at Peikarambu, inaugurated on the second death anniversary of the popular scientist at his home town here, also has on display a replica of rockets and missiles on which the late scientist had worked.



Besides, about 900 paintings and 200 rare photographs of Kalam, who held the office of president from 2002 to 2007, are on display at the memorial.







(With PTI inputs)
New Delhi: There has been a wave of incursions since July 24 by the Chinese army into Indian territory in the Barahoti area of Chamoli, Uttarakhand, sources have told CNN-News18.



Sources said 12 to 15 soldiers crossed over into the Indian side on July 24, then on the next day and again on July 26, which was the day National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval arrived in China for the BRICS meet of national security advisors.



People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops came 800 metres into the Chamoli area of Uttarakhand, according to available information, and had a verbal showdown with the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP). They left after two hours.



The latest incursion, at the time of reporting this, came on July 30 around 9 am.



Uttarakhand shares a 350km border with China and incursions are so regular that the local administration dismisses them as routine. China does not recognise the McMohan Line that marks the boundary between both countries, and these incursions are their way of marking what they perceive is their territory.



The latest wave of Chinese incursions in Chamoli assume significance because of the Himalayan Standoff in Doklam which has been on for more than 45 days.



The Indian Army on its part has denied any "intrusion" saying "transgressions happen in the area due to differing perceptions of LAC.
Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha has nothing to do with Omung Kumar's Bhoomi, but he is enraged by claims that the first poster of the Sanjay Dutt-starrer is copied from a Hollywood film. He says he is not in favour of "some bizarre, out of work, useless pests" who put people's hard work down.Sanjay shared the poster on his 58th birthday on Saturday, and it shows a close-up with him in a grim mood with his face covered with dust and blood. Some people highlighted the resemblance of the Bhoomi poster with Liam Neeson's film Grey.To prove his point, Sinha took to his Facebook page and cited examples of several other projects that used close-up shots for their poster.The lengthy post that came with a disclaimer 'Warning - abusive language alert', read: "Bollywood is so full of some bizarre, out of work, useless pests. Can't put a movie together themselves and they start running down other people's work the moment a movie gets off the ground."He went on to explain what bothered him, and also cleared that he is not speaking up because he has some vested interest attached to the project -- which is directed by Omung Kumar, and backed by Bhushan Kumar and Sandeep Singh.Sinha added: "This afternoon saw a fantastic poster of 'Bhoomi' (I have nothing to do with the film but for the fact that I love Sanju). Minutes later, another Liam Neeson poster of a movie called 'Grey' started circulating as the one 'Bhoomi' copied. F*ck you guys!"The Tum Bin maker continued: "It is a bloody close-up and I attach here quite a few such posters that for sure did not copy each other. These are posters made of a close-up. I think the 'Bhoomi' poster is fantastic and that's it.""And you mother-f***ing losers, remember if Bollywood does well, chances are you will also get to make a film someday. Sorry about my abusive language. But I am angry, very angry! So if you can't put a movie together, shut the f**k up."Touched by the post, Omung also took to Twitter to thank Sinha.He posted: "It is encouraging that while on one side we have people who are on the move to kill the zeal of passionate filmmakers, on the other side, we have people who are empathetic. Thanks for putting it in words Anubhav, what it takes to put together and release it. As long as we have people like you to support and encourage us, the show will go on."Bhoomi marks Sanjay's comeback after he was released from the Yerwada Central Jail in Pune in 2016. It is an emotional and sensitive revenge drama that explores the relationship between a father and daughter. It also stars Shekhar Kapur and Aditi Rao Hydari.
A post shared by Fatima Sana Shaikh (@fatimasanashaikh) on Jun 6, 2017 at 10:20pm PDT

A post shared by RASARIO (@rasario) on Mar 2, 2017 at 10:15am PST

sexist nonsense. The photogs went out of their way to take these pics.. and frankly I don't give a damn,I'm proud of my body! https://t.co/zryjBBYI6B  Sonam Kapoor (@sonamakapoor) March 3, 2017

Was such a lovely coincidence to be in #berlin at the same time as the Prime Minister. Thank you @narendramodi Sir for taking the time from your packed schedule to meet me this morning.  A post shared by Priyanka Chopra (@priyankachopra) on May 30, 2017 at 1:04am PDT

Legs for days.... #itsthegenes with @madhuchopra nights out in #Berlin #beingbaywatch A post shared by Priyanka Chopra (@priyankachopra) on May 30, 2017 at 4:23pm PDT

Body shaming doesn't differentiate ever. Whether you are a commoner in old clothes or a star posing in a bikini, haters ridicule you for your choices. But there are a few celebrities who not only shut down the haters, but also set an example for everyone to embrace their beautiful bodies irrespective of their size. Most recently, Hate Story actor Bhairavi Goswami slut shamed Kriti Sanon by using abusive language. For the unversed, Kriti had uploaded a dance video on Arjun Kapoor to show her fun side and support for his recent release Mubarakan. While Kamaal R Khan first first shared the same with a caption that read, Ye Dekho Kiriti Bechari, Raabta Ke flop Hone Ke Baad, mentally disturb Ho Gayee hai!, it was actress Bhairavis reply on KRKs tweet that didnt go down well with many. She is really behaving like a deranged woman. How did she become an actress. No headlight, no bumper . Even college students look better, she wrote.Read on to know about celebrities who have fought back against body shaming.Actress Fatima Sana Shaikh was slammed by social media users after she took to Instagram to share her photos clad in a black monokini on the beach of Maldives. Fatima, who has been filming Thugs of Hindustan, in Malta, was at the receiving end for 'dressing inappropriately' in the holy month of Ramadan. Needless to say she was slut-shamed and mocked her wearing 'indecent clothes' in the religious month.When Aneri Vajani took to her official Instagram account to share a photo of herself to celebrate International Yoga Day, little did she realize she would be attacked for her fashion choice.Credit: @ Aneri Vajani In the photo which Aneri shared, she was slut shamed for being scantily dressed. In fact, there were those too who said dieting ki be hadh hothi hae yaar, omg she looks like she has malnutrition and she being an Indian is disgracing herself.Sonam Kapoor was slammed for wearing a black Rasario Atelier jumpsuit at an event recently. She was ridiculed on social media for her choice. But the actress was quick to take to Twitter to lash out at those who made sexist comments. The photogs went out of their way to take these pics...and frankly I dont give a damn, Im proud of my body! (sic) she wrote.Priyanka Chopras decision to opt for a dress that had her flashing her legs during her recent meeting with Indias PM Narendra Modi lead to sanskari rage. But the Baywatch star gave a fitting reply to all the trolling. She flashed more flesh on social media in a photo that also featured her mother Madhu Chopra.
People living in homes with water damage, damp floors or visible mold are more likely to have chronic sinus problems and bronchitis, as well as allergies, asthma and other breathing disorders, according to a large study from Sweden.

Researchers found that about 11 percent of homes had visible signs of dampness - and the more signs were present, the higher the likelihood of residents having nose, throat and lung-related health problems, according to the report in Clinical and Experimental Allergy.

A lot of papers show an association between asthma-related symptoms and building dampness. Whats new is the association between chronic inflammation and building dampness, said senior study author Christer Janson of Uppsala University.

This is an important finding as chronic inflammation is quite a common condition with a very negative side effect on quality of life, he told Reuters Health by email. We were surprised that the association with building dampness was so strong.

The researchers analyzed data from more than 26,000 adults in four Swedish cities who responded to a questionnaire about respiratory symptoms, smoking, education and environmental exposures. In particular, the study team was interested in chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS), which includes symptoms of runny nose, itchy nose, facial pain, reduced sense of smell, nasal congestion and sneezing.

They identified dampness by asking about visible water damage, floor dampness or visible mold seen in the home during the last 12 months and gave participants a dampness exposure score based on how many of these signs were present.

A total of 2,992 people, or 11.3 percent, reported any signs of dampness. For 8.3 percent of the study participants, one sign was present, for 2.3 percent there were two signs and for 0.7 percent all three signs were seen in the home.

Reported dampness was more common in humid or mild climates, as compared to areas of the country with longer, colder winters. People reporting damp homes were more likely to be women, unemployed or full-time students, smokers and less likely to be retired.

Compared to nonsmokers with no signs of dampness at home, nonsmokers with any dampness signs were 90 percent more likely to have nighttime shortness of breath, 77 percent more likely to have chronic rhinosinusitis and 67 percent more likely to have chronic bronchitis. They also had higher rates of wheeze, nighttime coughing, asthma and allergies.

For chronic rhinosinusitis, the authors note, the degree of increased risk from dampness for nonsmokers was about the same as the effect of smoking for people without dampness in the home.

I found it both interesting and alarming that the adverse effects were stronger among people with low socioeconomic status due to limited possibilities for moving to a better home or making needed renovations, said Jouni Jaakkola of the University of Oulu in Finland, who wasnt involved in the study.

Future studies should look at long-term results to better understand cause and effect with dampness at home, Jaakkola told Reuters Health by email.

Cross-sectional studies (like this one) may underestimate the effects if people who get symptoms in damp homes change to better homes, he said. This probably explains the interaction between socioeconomic status and damp problems.

If there are signs of building dampness in your home or you have water damage, get professional help and try to fix it as soon as possible, Janson said.

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Lucknow: BJP Chief Amit Shah is busy making preparations ahead of 2019 elections to woo the Samajwadi Partys Yadav base away from the party.



During his three-day visit to Lucknow, Shah took a meeting with party workers and reportedly instructed them to focus more on inducting Yadavs in the BJP.



On Sunday. Shah visited a booth level party worker Sonu Yadav, who lives in Badi Jugauli area of Lucknow and had lunch at his house along with CM Yogi Adityantah, Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya and Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma.



As per BJP sources, Shah has asked the workers to go to booths, search for Yadavs and Dalits willing to join the party and ask the booth in-charge to enrol them as members.



At the meeting, Shah party workers from the two communities to raise their hands. When very few hands were raised, Shah said that focus would have to be shifted towards increasing the number of members from these two sections of the society.



The backward castes, with Yadavs the most prominent, constitute almost 40% of Uttar Pradeshs population. A huge chunk of this population voted for BJP in 2014 Lok Sabha elections and also in 2017 UP state assembly elections. Now, the BJP chief wants his party to capitalise on this ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections.



Shah made it clear that Maurya will not be shifted to Centre and will continue to be in the state government. Keshav Prasad Maurya will continue to work in the state government, he is not going to central government, he said.



Briefing media on Monday, Shah made it clear that his party had no role in resignation of Nitish Kumar. Nitish Kumar resigned because of his differences with Lalu Prasad Yadav and intolerance against corruption. BJP has no role to play in whatever had happened in Bihar, he said.


New Delhi: As the going gets tough for Ahmed Patel, the Congress is rushing in to save party chief Sonia Gandhi.



Congress MLAs from Gujarat are now holed up in a resort in Bengaluru to prevent them from being poached by the BJP ahead of Rajya Sabha elections.



Ahmed Patel, or AP as he is known in political circles, is fighting a prestige battle. His loss would be an embarrassment for Sonia Gandhi as well  as he happens to be her political secretary.



It would raise a question mark over her ability to keep her flock together. Each time Rahul Gandhi fails, the demand for Sonia to be still in control grows louder and she cannot be seen as the loser. This explains why suddenly, at a press conference, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad jumped in to save her.



Ahmed Patel is not contesting as political secretary. He has been a parliamentarian for long and it's not correct to bring the Congress president in," Azad said at the end of the press conference.



The press conference was called to answer questions on how the partys Gujarat MLAs could be in a Bengaluru resort while floods ravage their constituencies back in Gujarat. Azad hit back saying neither Chief Minister Vijay Rupani nor Prime Minister Narendra Modi had bothered to hit the ground, preferring only aerial surveys.



A defeat for Ahmed Patel may not be just a personal or political blow for him alone. Sources say he wasn't too keen to contest, but was cajoled into doing so by Sonia.



Now that he is in the fight, Patel, who has always stepped in to defend Sonia, may need to do it again. Which is why on Monday, the Congress officially stepped in to ensure Sonia is shielded.



In a span of less than ten days, everything that could go wrong for the Congress has gone wrong. It all started with 11 MLAs cross voting in the presidential election, putting a dent in the grand projections of opposition unity. The big blow, however, was the public falling out and exit of Congress most popular leader in Gujarat  Shankersinh Vaghela.



His departure has sparked an exodus, with six more MLAs quitting, making it increasingly difficult for Ahmed Patel to secure a Rajya Sabha berth.



There are a total of 182 seats in the Assembly. Prior to the string of resignations, BJP had 121 seats and the Congress had 57. The NCP has two seats, the JDU has one and there is one independent.



The total eligible votes, divided by the number of seats (in this case, three) plus one i.e four, plus one is the minimum number of votes required by a candidate to win the seat. Gujarat gets to send three members to the Rajya Sabha. So in Gujarats case it would be (182/3+1) + 1.



However, with six legislators quitting, now the total number of MLAs in the Gujarat Assembly is 176, bringing down the total number of votes required to win to 45 (176/4+1). This means that BJP chief Amit Shah and Union minister Smriti Irani can automatically get elected. The BJP will still be left with a surplus of 31 votes.



In the Congress camp, six of the 57 MLAs have already quit, bringing their tally down to 51.
New Delhi: A BJP legislator on Monday claimed in the Lok Sabha that majority of Indian Muslims were descendants of Hindus while asking both the communities to respect each other's sentiment.



Hukumdev Narayan Yadav trained his guns on the Opposition after it slammed the government over lynchings in the country. Yadav said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly come out strongly against such acts.



He raised the issue of killing of RSS workers in Kerala, which is ruled by the Left Front government.



Yadav asserted that the responsibility of containing mob violence is that of the state governments.



He said "certain demons" have put on "holy garb" to defame the government, likening it to an episode in the Ramayana.



"Some people are indulging in terror (atankvadi) activities to defame the government," the BJP member said and slammed the Congress for questioning the intention of the Modi government.



Yadav, the MP from Madhubani in Bihar, said a fight between two ideologies has been going on for several decades and asserted those who follow the path of "economic development and nationalism" will come out victorious.



During his speech, he extensively quoted Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and said the BJP ideologue had stated that "Muslims in India are descendants of Hindus."



He said every Muslim must respect Hindu sentiment and at the same time, Hindus must respect the Muslims.



The MP was also severely critical of the policies of Congress and said "I will prefer to die than bowing before the Congress...Some politicians sit with the Congress and have biryani and then indulge in artificial fight outside."



Yadav said he will prefer to die than abadonning the ideology he is fighting for.



Talking about nationalism, Yadav said freedom fighters Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan had sung the poem 'Vande Mataram' but there is an environment now in which singing it is considered a crime.



He also cited a recent case in which a political leader had sought support from the Naxals. "There cannot be bigger lynching than this," the BJP member said.



Yadav also alleged that Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and Ram Manohar Lohia were killed in late 1960s as both were planning to join hands.



The BJP MP drew the attention of the House towards the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and raised the issue of killing of RSS workers in Kerala.





(With inputs from PTI)


Jammu: The Congress on Monday demanded Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's resignation over her flag remarks, saying nobody has the right to insult the tricolour.



The party said she has hurt the sentiments of the people and asked the BJP to explain what kind of freedom is being advocated by their coalition partner (PDP) in the Jammu and Kashmir government and the chief minister.



"Congress has taken strong exception to the utterances of Chief Minister. No one has right to insult the national flag as great sacrifices and nation's honour is attached with it," state Congress unit's chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma said here.



"Mehbooba has no right to quote the example of national flag in any form and hurt the nationalist sentiments by insulting it, what so ever may be her reasoning or context," he said.



At an event in New Delhi on Friday, Mehbooba had said, "Who is doing it? Why are they doing it? (challenging the Article 35-A). Let me tell you that my party and other parties who carry the national flag there (in Jammu and Kashmir) despite all risks.... I have no doubt in saying that there will be no one to hold it (national flag) (if it is tinkered)."



Sharma also hit out at the BJP and accused it of "surrendering their agenda (of alliance)" to remain in power in the state.



"We seek answers from the BJP over the statement and utterances of Mehbooba Mufti. She is even questioning the utility of NIA investigations as well propagating her illogical and highly objectionable agenda," he said.



"What kind of freedom of idea is being advocated by their coalition partner (PDP) and the chief minister. She (Mehbooba) has lost right to continue in office," he added.



Notably, the BJP on Sunday expressed shock and surprise over Mufti's remarks and asserted that Article 35-A of the Constitution which grants special status to the state is "not a sacred cow that cannot be touched".



The state unit of the BJP said that while the party stands by the Agenda of Alliance with the PDP and wont seek alteration of existing constitutional position, "it is equally true that Article 35-A has done more harm to the State than any other provision of law".



Union minister Jitendra Singh on Saturday said the tricolour is "sacrosanct" and termed the chief minister's remarks as "shocking and ridiculous".
Mumbai: Maharashtra Legislative Council on Monday witnessed an uproar with the Congress demanding removal of certain sections on former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi from the state board's History textbook for class IX.



Raising the issue, Congress MLC Sanjay Dutt said the "defamatory reference" to the ex-PMs on the Emergency and the Bofors scam should be withdrawn.



A controversy erupted recently after the Maharashtra State Bureau of Textbook Production and Curriculum Research, popularly known as Balbharti, had revised the syllabus for class IX.



"The textbook makes no mention of the fact that the supreme court had given a clean chit to Rajiv Gandhi in the Bofors case. This is not only disrespect of the SC order but deliberate hiding of facts for political purposes," Dutt said.



He said attempts were being made to tarnish the image of the two political stalwarts who gave their lives for the nation.



"The sections referring to the two leaders should be immediately removed and action taken against officials responsible," the Congress leader said.



The Congress got a support from the party ally NCP with its MLC Sunil Tatkare heaping praises on the former premiers.



"It was Rajiv Gandhi who led technology revolution in the country and it was he who first spoke about digital India. Had he not been there, we could never have achieved technological advancements," Tatkare said.



He said the contribution of the Nehru-Gandhi family in building the foundation of the country and ensuring unity in diversity is immense.



"Do not spoil the minds of young children with your corrupt mentality. You will destroy the nation. Remember that Rajiv Gandhi's stature was such that then president of the US (Ronald Reagan) had held an umbrella for him as he had left the White House while it was raining," Tatkare said.



The NCP leader further said that students should know about the "supreme sacrifices" made for the nation by both the prime ministers.



Acknowledging the strong sentiments of the House over the issue, Education Minister Vinod Tawde said the feelings of the members will be conveyed to the textbook bureau for necessary action.



"Nothing has been written in the books for political motives. The board (Balbharti) decides on what has to be published. I have not interfered in their decision being a minister. I will not make any political intervention but convey the sentiments of the members to the board," Tawde said.



He said nowhere in the textbook Indira and Rajiv Gandhi are shown as being guilty of any wrongdoings, but only the sequence of events upto year 2000 has been published.



"Rajiv Gandhi got a clean chit in 2004. Hence that was not mentioned (in the book)," he said.



"So far history of the pre-Independence era was being taught to students and they had no knowledge about the happenings in the independent India. Hence it was decided to include history of the post-independence period," Tawde added.


New Delhi: Opposition Congress on Monday forced a brief adjournment of proceedings in Rajya Sabha alleging that the Gujarat police was kidnapping and threatening its MLAs in the state with a view to influence their votes in the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls.



Congress members trooped in to the Well of the House raising anti-government slogans, which were matched by counter-sloganeering by the BJP benches. Amid pandemonium, Deputy Chairman P J Kurien adjourned the proceedings for 10 minutes during the Zero Hour soon after it met in the morning.



Raising the issue, Madhusudhan Mistry (Cong) alleged that his party MLAs were being "kidnapped" and offered "Rs 10-15 crore" with a view to influence their vote in the August 8 elections to send three members from the state to the Rajya Sabha.



Ruling BJP has fielded three members including party president Amit Shah, union minister Smriti Irani and a rebel Congress MLA for the election. Ahmed Patel, Congress president Sonia Gandhi's political adviser, is seeking re-election.



Kurien said he was not allowing Mistry's notice under rule 267 seeking setting aside of the business to take up the issue as the same matter was raised on Friday as well.



Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi charged the Congress with "kidnapping" its own MLAs and lodging them in a holiday resort in Karnataka at a time when the people of Gujarat were facing miseries from flash floods.



"You should be ashamed," he said, daring the Congress party to debate the matter in the House.



As slogan-shouting Congress members entered the Well, some BJP members moved into the aisles and raised counter slogans.



Kurien said he was forced to adjourn the proceedings in Friday as members from both side had come into the Well.



He said he has heard Naqvi say that the government was ready for a discussion. "If you want discussion, give separate notice. We will consider it," he said.



Congress members were unmoved but that did not prevent him from calling members to raise their Zero Hour mentions.



"If you have something against the government, why do you obstruct other members," Kurien said adding that Zero Hour was members' business and their rights are being obstructed. "By slogan shouting, you will achieve nothing," he said.



In the melee, A K Selvaraj (AIADMK) raised the issue of hydrocarbon exploration in Tamil Nadu and asked the government to cease all such activities as it would impact ground water table and crops.



S Muthukaruppan (AIADMK) sought the government's intervention for the release of 75 Tamil fishermen and their fishing boats from Sri Lankan captivity.



But Congress members remained unrelenting and continued to raise slogans, forcing Kurien to adjourn the proceedings for 10 minutes.
New Delhi: The Janata Dal (United) will support the opposition vice presidential candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi in the August 5 elections notwithstanding its joining hands with the BJP.



A senior party leader said that the commitment to support Gandhi was made by party president and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar prior to joining hands with the BJP.



"Nitish Kumar ji had made the commitment to support Gopalkrishna Gandhi prior to joining hands with the BJP and will fulfil it. There is no going back on it and we have not changed our stand," senior party leader K C Tyagi told PTI.



The JD (U) moved out of the 'grand alliance' with the RJD and the Congress and decided to join hands with its old-time ally the BJP to form the new government in Bihar. It had split from the NDA in 2013 after a 17-year-old alliance.



Party leaders, however, say that it has to fulfil its promises made earlier.



The decision of the JD (U) will not alter the result of vice president's election as the ruling NDA nominee M Venkaiah Naidu has a big majority in his favour and is likely to sail through easily.



On whether its lone MLA in Gujarat would support the BJP or the Congress in the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections, they said since he is opposed by the BJP, he is free to take his own decision.



In the wake of its own legislators switching sides and resigning after Shankarsing Vaghela quit the party, Congress heavyweight Ahmed Patel needs the support of the NCP, the JD-U and other MLAs to win the third Rajya Sabha seat in Gujarat.
New Delhi: Its likely to be a tense start to the week in Parliament with the Congress gearing up to raise the Gujarat situation in the House.



Sources told CNN-News18 that the Congress members are likely to bring up the poaching of its Gujarat MLAs by the BJP ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections in the state. The party has kept 44 of its Gujarat MLAs at a resort in Bengaluru to guard them from being poached.



Also up for debate in the Lok Sabha is the issue of cow vigilantism and recent cases of mob violence against persons of minority communities.



The lower house of Parliament had witnessed uproarious scenes on Thursday when Congress members demanded a discussion on the recent mob lynchings. Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge had accused the government of shying away from a debate.



Kharge had told Speaker Sumitra Mahajan that two notices were submitted for the debate. "You (Mahajan) are ready (for a debate) but government is not," Kharge had said.



"When we met you I was very happy when you said you are ready for the debate, and we should convince the government side..." Kharge said.



Speaker Mahajan had retorted immediately, saying: "Don't twist my words."



As Kharge asked for the debate, he was joined by Sudip Bandyopadhyay of the Trinamool Congress and CPI(M) member Mohammed Salim who asked why the issue was not being debated under the adjournment motion.



Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar has said that the opposition wanted to discuss violence that was occurring outside, but did not want to speak on the incident that took place in the House when paper bits were thrown at the Speaker.



The opposition has been trying to corner the government in Parliament on a number of issues, including the recent lynchings of Muslims and Dalits by self-styled cow vigilantes.



Teenager Junaid was stabbed to death and his brothers were attacked by a mob in a moving train and thrown off it, a day ahead of Eid.



Pehlu Khan (55) was brutally beaten up after being intercepted by self-styled 'gau rakshaks' in Alwar on April 1 while he and his two sons, Irshad and Arif, were travelling in a pick-up car, carrying cattle from Jaipur.



A man was recently lynched by cow vigilantes in Jharkhand on the suspicion of carrying beef in his vehicle.
Lucknow: BJP president Amit Shah on Monday said there was no question of him leaving the party post and he was working "happily" and "wholeheartedly".



Ending speculation that he would resign as party president if elected to the Rajya Sabha, Shah also denied that the BJP had broken any party in Bihar.



"It was Nitish Kumar who resigned from the post of the chief minister as he did not want to continue with the corrupt. Are we supposed to force them to continue?"



Shah, who arrived here Saturday on a three-day visit, answered a range of questions, including on getting elected to the Rajya Sabha and subsequently resigning as party president.



"There is no question of doing so. I have the responsibility of being the party president. I am happy, and I am working wholeheartedly. You people (media) please do not push," Shah told reporters.



The BJP president exuded confidence that the party would come back to power with more strength in the next Lok Sabha election in 2019.



"BJP will romp home victorious with bigger strength than 2014 on the basis of its development and good governance of the Modi government, as well as the 13 state governments of the party in the country," he said.



Calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi the "undisputed most popular PM" of the country, Shah said the government had "succeeded in ending the politics of family, caste and appeasement in the country".



The previous Manmohan Singh-led government suffered from "policy paralysis", he said. "Every minister assumed himself to be the PM, and no one considered him as the PM."



He reiterated that unlike previous governments, which had just a couple of things to show as their achievements during their tenures, the Modi government had undertaken 50 important works in its three years.



Claiming that there were scams worth Rs 12 lakh crore in the 10 years of the UPA government, Shah said there was not a single allegation of corruption during the three years of the Modi government. Even the opposition could not cast any aspersions on this issue.



Making a special mention of the surgical strikes across the LoC last year, Shah said they projected the country as one with firm resolve in the global area, which can take any decision for its security.



Referring to Congress' Gujarat MLAs being shifted to Bengaluru to allegedly ward off "poaching", he said, "It can be understood if they speak about Gujarat. But why are they

(Congress MLAs) being kept in locked rooms in Bengaluru...you must understand that."



Asked about his party not being as strong in the south as it was in the north, he said this was earlier said about the BJP's presence in the north as well.



To a question on the NIA blaming cross-border trade for terrorism, Shah said that the BJP had no relevance as it concerned the security agencies, the Army and the Jammu and Kashmir government.
News18  Blogs  Politics

Procedure and Politics: Nitish Kumar Gets One Right, Answerable For The Other

File photo of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar

The Patna high court has dismissed two PILs filed by the RJD and SP against the Bihar governor not inviting the RJD as the Single Largest Party (SLP) to form the government in Bihar following Nitish Kumars resignation as the Mahagathbandhan chief minister. The court dismissed the petitions, saying no judicial intervention is required after the floor test in the Bihar assembly.



What does that mean?



There are two aspects that need to be clarified. One, the famous Bommai judgment was discussed in the context of Bihar. That judgment had more to do with Article 356 and the autonomy of states and the powers of governors and the President. But one aspect of the judgment that applies in the case of Bihar is about the floor test. Correctly, the Bihar governor, Kesri Nath Tripathi, asked Nitish Kumar to provide his majority on the floor of the assembly (and not, as in the past, with the help of a parade in the Raj Bhavan to help the governor decide which party to invite to form a government).



The second aspect, the more important one, is whom should the governor invite. By convention the SLP is invited to form the government. That is also the contention of the two PILS in the Patna high court.



This issue needs to be seen in perspective. It is about how a convention evolved during the tenures of three Presidents of India. In 1989, the Bofors-stricken Congress emerged the SLP in the general elections with 197 seats. Janata Dal of VP Singh came second with 143. The then President, R. Venkataraman, faced a dilemma. The mandate was against the Congress. But it was the Congress which was the SLP. Should he invite Rajiv Gandhi and go against the spirit of the mandate? He had another option: to go by the arithmetic and decide which party or formation should be call instead of the SLP. The old-timer did not want to get into that.



In the event, Venkataraman followed the convention and called Rajiv Gandhi. There was much off-the-record chatter about how Gandhi would decline the offer and thus would not place the President in an embarrassing position. Gandhi indeed declined politely. Only then was VP Singh called to form the government.



In 1991, Venkataraman invited PV Narasimha Rao as leader of the SLP. By following the convention. The Congress secured 244 seats. Rao was able to prove his majority because the BJP and Left parties abstained. The 1991 invite was a chancy decision.



Come 1996 and it was Shankar Dayal Sharma at the helm. The President did not hesitate to follow the convention and called Atal Behari Vajpayee to form the government. Unlike Gandhi, Vajpayee took up the offer. He lasted 13 days because he could not mobilise adequate support, in fact not even one single MP.



That was Sharmas last act as President. KR Narayanan succeeded him in July, 1997. He witnessed a flurry of short-lived governments. So, when the 1998 presented a hung Parliament, he became proactive. He did not want to repeat the farce of 1996 when Sharma had not bothered to read the writing on the wall that the BJP stood isolated and would not get a single extra vote of support. Narayanan was concerned more about the formation of a stable government than one borne out of mere convention. Whether the party to be invited was the SLP or a coalition was of lesser importance. Narayanan was of the view that he would invite a party which was not only willing but also able to form a government. He used discretion at a crucial time and set up a new convention.



Accordingly, he set a precedent by insisting that the invited party should produce letters of support from its allies. In 1998, Vajpayees BJP was the SLP with 182 seats. The BJP and its allies had a combined strength of 252. But Narayanan insisted that Vajpayee produce letters of support that would confirm that a stable government would be formed. In 1999, too, Narayanan ensured that Vajpayee could prove his majority and only then invited him. The convention was followed in 2004 and 2009.



Even in the states, there are several instances where the SLP was not called to form the government because the respective governors followed the central convention. In 1999, in the Maharashtra assembly elections, the Shiv Sena-BJP combine ended up with 125 seats. The Congress with 75 legislators and the NCP with 58 legislators came together (even though they fought each other in the polls ) as the largest alliance with 133 seats. In 2002, the PDP and Congress which had 15 and 21 legislators, respectively, was called in as an alliance to form a government in Jammu and Kashmir. The National Conference on that occasion was the SLP with 28 seats. In 2005 in Jharkhand, the JMM with 17 MLAs was asked to form the government even though the BJP had 30 MLAs. In 2013, the Aam Aadmi Party with 28 legislators was invited to form the government with support from the Congress even though the BJP had 31 seats. There are several other examples of this nature.



In 2017 alone, what happened in Bihar  the governor inviting an alliance rather than the SLP was a repeat of the Manipur and Goa assemblies. In Manipur, the Congress won 28 seats in the 60-member assembly and the BJP got 21 seats. Out-going Congress chief minister Ibobi Singh was again elected the leader of the Congress Legislature Party. But the BJP managed support of other legislators to take its tally to 32 seats and was asked to form the government. The assembly elections in Goa gave Congress 17 seats and the BJP bagged 13. But the governor invited the BJP to form the government after it claimed the support of three MLAs each of Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and Goa Forward Party, and two Independent MLAs.



Going by conventions, the Bihar governor cannot be faulted for calling Nitish a second time to form a government. The 2015 Bihar mandate went against the BJP. Accordingly, Nitish Kumar as leader of the Mahagathbandhan with sufficient numbers to form a stable government was invited. When the government fell, and Nitish did not recommend dissolution of the House for fresh polls, the task of the governor was to allow the formation of another stable government as soon as possible. The JDU and BJP together had a strength of 124 legislators, two more than the minimum majority vote required. In the ensuing floor test, they got 131 votes.



The issue, therefore, is not really one about conventions and procedures of invitations to form governments, but about political morality for which the answer lies not in the Raj Bhavan or the High Court but with the JDU.
New Delhi: Days after he was sworn in as Bihar Chief Minister amid the high-octane political drama, Nitish Kumar showered praises on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling him the "biggest leader" in the country and added that "there is no one who can defeat him."



"Nobody can compete with Narendra Modi. I don't have the capability to do that, and there is nobody capable enough in the country right now," he said, "there is no doubt that he will win in 2019 again."



In a press conference on Monday, Nitish broke his silence on breaking away from Mahagathbandhan, saying he was compelled to take a decision after it became "impossible to continue", adding that he intimated Lalu Prasad about allegations against Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav and asked him to "issue a clarification on the CBI raids on him."



"I kept tolerating everything, including Lalu Yadav, to ensure that Mahagathbandhan remained intact... After a while, we didn't have any other option left," Nitish said, adding that he never spoke against Lalu and respected the sanctity of alliance.



Nitish asserted that he never asked anybody to resign but wanted Lalu to go public and clarify his stand on CBI raids. "But they were not ready to clarify," Nitish said, referring to the reason which led to the dissolution of Mahagathbandhan.



In a veiled attack on his partys senior leader Sharad Yadav, who has expressed disappointment over Nitishs decision to join hands with BJP, he said, My party is only made for Bihar. I have nothing to do with other states. Who knows, few more problems could be solved at a time.



Describing the inevitable Nitish said, I had no other option but to break the alliance with RJD and Congress. Last year also, the situation worsened when a mafia don related to the RJD leader was freed from jail, and the man was sent to jail only after state governments intervention, referring to Mohammad Shahabuddin, RJD leader and strongman from Siwan.



Nitish Kumar reiterated his stance on secularism, saying he didn't need any certificate from anyone and previous NDA government in Bihar led by him was a testimony to this. "A record number of welfare schemes was launched for minorities."



He also mentioned his first and second term as the chief minister in which the state government reopened cases related to Bhagalpur riots and ensured justice.



Nitish Kumar, famous for his clean and corruption-free image across the country, found himself in a predicament when media vigorously pursued corruption charges against his foe-turned-friend-turned-foe Lalu Yadav.



"When issue of corruption came to light, I asked myself 'how could I compromise on my principles?'"



Nitish complemented media for its coverage of the issue and said that he "ran out of patience", prompting him to break the Grand Alliance in which Congress was the third partner.






Neither black money slashed abroad returned, one of d main slogans of d ruling party nor anyone caught out of those named in Panama papers.  SHARAD YADAV (@SharadYadavMP) July 30, 2017

New Delhi: In his first public reaction on the political upheaval in Bihar, former JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav on Monday termed Chief Minister Nitish Kumars decision to break away from the Mahagathbandhan as unfortunate.We are sad. I dont agree with this decision in Bihar. Its unfortunate. The mandate given by the people was not for this The people had voted for the Mahagathbandhan, he told mediapersons in the national capital.CNN-News18 had reported last week that Yadav was unhappy with Nitish Kumars decision to quit the alliance with the RJD and the Congress, and return to the NDA.Yadav had on Sunday questioned the BJP on its election promise of bringing back black money. In a tweet, Yadav had also questioned why those named in the Panama Papers expose were yet to be caught.There have been rumours of a rift in the JD(U) since Nitish Kumar stepped down as Chief Minister last Wednesday over corruption allegations against Tejashwi Yadav  the then deputy chief minister and son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav.Nitish returned as the CM the next day, but with BJP support this time.The Patna High Court has dismissed petitions challenging the formation of the new government, saying no intervention of the court is required after floor test in the state Assembly.








In a crackdown on Internet services by the Chinese government, Apple has removed all major VPN apps from the App Store in China. VPN service providers in China on Saturday received a notification from Apple that their applications would be removed from the App Store "because it includes content that is illegal in China".The notification was first shared by ExpressVPN, a VPN provider based out of the British Virgin Islands which also operates in China. "We are disappointed as it represents the most drastic measure the Chinese government has taken to block the use of VPNs to date and we are troubled to see Apple aiding China's censorship efforts," said ExpressVPN in a blog post.However, users who access the apps from a different territory's App Store by indicating their billing address to be outside of China are not impacted. The move is in line with the Chinese government's effort to censor open Internet.
The leaked image of the Nokia Copper-Gold variant.(Image: Nokia Power User)

HMD Global, the new caretakers of the Nokia brand, is all set to launch the flagship-class Nokia 8 Android smartphone on August 16 at an event in London. The Nokia 8 smartphone is expected to arrive in India soon. Rumours have it that there could be another 3G version of the Nokia 3310 as well. Before the August 16 launch, a Copper-Gold variant of the Nokia 8 smartphone has been reportedly leaked in all glory.The Nokia 8 will be the first Android smartphone from HMD Global to come with dual-lens rear camera. Reports suggest that the optics of the rear camera could be powered by Carl-Zeiss. The smartphone is almost confirmed to run Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor.The Nokia 8 Android phone will reportedly offer a 5.3-inch QHD display with dual-SIM support, 4GB of RAM and 64GB (with microSD card support) of internal storage. There will be a 13MP rear camera and a 13MP front camera as well. The Nokia 8 will be expensive and is expected to cost above Rs 40,000 in India. Reports claim that there could be 6GB RAM and 8GB RAM variants as well for a higher price. The Nokia 8 is expected to come in Steel, Gold/Copper, Blue and Gold/Blue colours.
Responding to a call that Facebook should do away with the encryption that prevents police from accessing WhatsApp data, the company's top executive has said such a move would make it difficult to track terrorists if the government gets such access. The call for ditching the WhatsApp encryption emerged after five people were killed in an attack on March 22 when Khalid Masood ploughed his car into crowds on the bridge and tried to storm the Parliament. Masood is said to have used WhatsApp minutes before carrying out the attack."The goal for governments is to get as much information as possible, and so when there are message services like WhatsApp that are encrypted the message itself is encrypted but the metadata is not. Meaning that when you send me a message we don't know what that message says but we know that you contacted me," Express.co.uk quoted Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer Facebook, as saying on Saturday."If people move off those encrypted services and go to encrypted services in countries that won't share the metadata the government actually has less information, not more. And so as technology evolves these are complicated conversations. We are in close conversations working through the issues all around the world," she added. With the growing terror attacks in London and Europe, social media has come under severe criticism for not doing enough to curb online terrorism. Facebook hired an online army of more than 7,000 people which is assigned to crack down on terrorists using the site.Facebook also has 4,500 people who work to stop any attempt by extremists to hijack the site and the company plans to hire 3,000 later this year. "Our Facebook policies are very clear. There is absolutely no place for terrorism, hate or calls for violence of any kind. Our goal is to not just pull it off Facebook but to use artificial intelligence technology to get it before it is even uploaded," Sandberg said. "We are working in collaboration with other tech companies now so if a video is uploaded to any of our platforms we are able to fingerprint it for all the others so they can't move from platform to platform," she added.
Dubai: Four Arab states that have cut diplomatic and transport ties with Qatar said Monday that they have opened up air routes that Qatari planes can use in case of emergency.



The United Arab Emirates' foreign ministry said that nine corridors were being opened in coordination with the International Civil Aviation Organization, or ICAO. The official Saudi Press Agency issued a similar statement.



Qatar denied that any new routes had been made available, however.



In a statement citing its Ministry of Transport and Communications and the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority, it said no navigation announcements have been released outlining the new corridors.



The ministry and QCAA alleged that the anti-Qatar bloc was trying to "leak incorrect news" ahead of a meeting of the ICAO council on Monday.



The ICAO did not immediately respond to a request for comment.



The Emirati foreign ministry said the emergency routes include overseas areas managed by the UAE and one over the Mediterranean, managed by Egypt.



The UAE, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain cut links with Qatar in early June over allegations it supports extremists. Qatar denies the charge.



The move forced state-backed Qatar Airways, one of the region's biggest airlines, to reroute many of its flights and scrap frequent routes to major regional destinations such as Dubai.
Doha: The Qatari authorities have accused Saudi Arabia of jeopardising the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca by refusing to guarantee the safety of those taking part.



Saudi Arabia and its allies have been boycotting Qatar since June 5, accusing it of backing extremist groups and of ties to Shiite Iran, in the region's worst diplomatic crisis in years.



On July 20, Riyadh said that Qataris wanting to perform this year's hajj would be allowed to enter the kingdom for the pilgrimage, but imposed certain restrictions.



The Saudi hajj ministry said Qatari pilgrims arriving by plane must use airlines in agreement with Riyadh.



They would also need to get visas on arrival in Jeddah or Medina, their sole points of entry in the kingdom.



The Qatari Islamic affairs ministry, in a statement published by the official QNA news agency on Sunday, said the Saudi side had "refused to communicate regarding securing the pilgrims safety and facilitating their Hajj".



The ministry accused Riyadh of "intertwining politics with one of the pillars of Islam, which may result in depriving many Muslims from performing this holy obligation".



According to the statement, 20,000 Qatari citizens have registered to take part in this year's hajj. The ministry said it denied Saudi claims that Doha had suspended those registrations.



"The distortion of facts is meant to set obstacles for the pilgrims from Qatar to Mecca, following the crisis created by the siege countries," the Qatari ministry added, referring to Saudi Arabia and its allies.



The hajj, a pillar of Islam that capable Muslims must perform at least once in a lifetime, is to take place this year at the beginning of September.



Saudi Arabia and its allies Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates cut diplomatic ties and imposed sanctions on Doha in June, including the closure of their airspace to Qatari airlines.



The four Arab states accuse Qatar of supporting extremists and of growing too close to Shiite-dominated Iran, the regional arch-rival of Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia.



Qatar denies the allegations and accuses the Saudi-led bloc of imposing a "siege" on the tiny emirate.
Tallinn: US Vice President Mike Pence said Monday Moscow's demand that Washington cut 755 American diplomatic staff in Russia will not lessen the US commitment to its allies.



"We hope for better days, for better relations with Russia but recent diplomatic action taken by Moscow will not deter the commitment of the United States of America to our security, the security of our allies and the security of freedom loving nations around the world," Pence said in Estonia after meeting with the leaders of the three Baltic states.



At a news conference, Pence said he had passed on a "simple message" from President Donald Trump to the three countries: "We are with you."



President Vladimir Putin on Sunday said the United States would have to cut 755 diplomatic staff in Russia and warned of a prolonged gridlock in its ties after the US Congress backed new sanctions against the Kremlin.



Putin added bluntly that Russia was able to raise the stakes with America even further, although he hoped this would be unnecessary.



Estonia, where Pence had on Sunday raised the possibility of deploying the Patriot anti-missile defence system, is the first stop of his European tour which will also take him to Georgia and Montenegro.



The aim of the trip is to reassure America's allies who say they are worried by Russian expansionism.



"We stand with the people and nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and we always will," Pence said.



A "strong and united NATO" was important, as Russia continued "trying to redraw borders", he said.



"The US will check any attempt to use force," Pence said.



The US government hoped for a better relationship with Russia, but stood by the NATO treaty's article 5 on collective defence. "An attack on one of us is an attack on us all," he said.



Pence also said that exports of US liquid natural gas to the Baltic states, which have already started, "will contribute to prosperity and security" in the three countries which are still heavily dependent on Russian gas.



Pence is scheduled to address NATO troops deployed in Estonia before travelling on to Tbilisi.
Umar Cheema was the only Pakistani journalist involved in the Panama Papers investigation with International Consortium of Investigative Journalism that started in 2013. He is the founder of Center for Investigative Reporting in Pakistan, a non-profit to resist the corporatization of mainstream media in Pakistan. The Center is also member of Global Investigative Journalism Network. In an email interview to News18s Eram Agha, he says the highest point of this collaboration was the impact it generated. Nowhere in the world has the investigation been kept alive the way it has been done here in Pakistan, he says. Edited Excerpts:



There have been disqualification of premiers in Pakistan before as well. Why is the verdict on Nawaz Sharif being seen as a wrong precedent by a section of civil society in Pakistan?



Yes, Sharif isnt the first PM to have been ousted. But the reason for the same is why the verdict is being debated as setting a bad precedent. Sharif and his children were facing probe triggered by the Panama Papers investigation, which put forth four apartments in London that they own through two offshore companies. His disqualification has, however, happened for a charge unrelated to this: For not declaring income as the Chairman of Dubai-based Capital FZE, which dissolved in 2014. Although Sharif did not withdraw any salary, the court has said it should have been declared in assets details.



This controversial decision has raised many questions about the future of democracy and how an elected Prime Minister can easily be sent home without getting an opportunity to defend his position on the particular point. This is what is being highlighted in Sharifs case. Theres no denying that being the top office holder doesnt immune one from accountability and disqualification without due process of law, but he wasnt given a chance to defend himself. That is highly unfortunate.



Does this expose the state of relationship between the courts and the executive in Pakistan?



Pakistan government has always had a tough relationship with the Supreme Court and transition of power from one premier to another has often been painful. But what politicians must understand is that democracy is not just holding elections and forming government. It is also about improving public services and upholding the rule of law. Politicians often complain of being decorated with official titles but deprived of power. They will have to strengthen themselves through caliber and character. Rights are earned, they arent granted.



What will be political impact of Sharifs exit?



Sharif is a popular leader. Whether his exit is for good remains to be seen. He will file a petition seeking review of the verdict. Lets hope the court realizes this fact too. Else, the disqualification of a popular leader on a petty matter will haunt the court for years to come. The verdict has given Sharif a new lease of political life. Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto became a larger than life figure after he was hanged due to a fabricated murder charge against him. That is still remembered as a judicial murder. Sharif is about to attain that grand status, without being hanged.



Will this change or rather enhance the significance of Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan in Pakistan, who was one of the petitioners in the case?



Imran has channelized the anger of disaffected population; youth in particular. However, Sharifs party still commands popularity. Its tricky to predict about who the winner will be in 2018 election at a time when voters are surprising the pundits around the world, but its still believe that Sharifs party is a frontrunner in the elections.



Do you think the Sharif verdict sets an example? What will be the global implications for those who abused power for personal gains?



I wish the Sharif family could have been brought to justice on the basis of revelations in Panama Papers. Although the familys scrutiny started in light of the Panama Papers findings, it culminated on Sharifs ouster on frivolous charges, which has nothing to do with his childrens offshore companies. That case has been referred for trial. Lets see what emerges from it.



That said, the message is loud and clear: the higher office you hold, the stricter scrutiny you will face. There is also no place in the world where you can hide your fortune. The world is opening up. We are living in the age of leaks that are shining lights on the dark parts of the world.



Everything aside, is this verdict the real test for the Pakistani judiciary?



The real test for the judiciary is how it deals with the cases about the military that doesnt face as much scrutiny as politicians. Power actors have changed their ways to exert influence. Another coup cant be ruled out, but it seems unlikely. Former military ruler, Musharraf, is a case in point. He was facing trial for subverting Constitution when sent abroad for medical treatment a year ago. Hes not likely to return anytime soon.



How deeply is corruption plaguing Pakistans politics and economy?



The need for truth and honesty led me to set up the Center for Investigative Reporting in Pakistan in 2012. Its inauguration coincided with the first-ever report about the taxes of lawmakers that made international headlines. Pakistans economy is largely undocumented. Of around 220 million, only one million file tax returns; half of these people declare zero taxable income in a culture of impunity. The poor subsidize the rich in Pakistan. The issue of taxation is close to me. I started a campaign against tax evasion in 2012 by reporting about the Members of Parliament. What we found was depressing: Around 70% lawmakers had not filed tax returns; one in five MPs was without National Tax Number, which is mandatory for filing tax returns. A follow-up report the next year found one in 10 lawmakers with NTN and half of MPs were non-filers of tax returns.



After this report, how did the Pakistan government react?



Well, after the report, the government set a deadline for the lawmakers to register themselves for NTN and file tax returns in addition with an announcement to make tax data public. With this, Pakistan has become the fourth country in the world where tax data has been made public after Norway, Sweden and Finland. Inspired by my campaign, a London-based organization, Finance Uncovered, replicated this initiative at the global level in 2016.



Coming to press freedom in Pakistan, journalist Cyril Almeida was barred from leaving Pakistan after he wrote a news article. In 2010, you were kidnapped and tortured for your reporting on government. How do you see press freedom in Pakistan?



We have all started journalism knowing the consequences. Threats persist but the nature of harassment varies.



I went public after my kidnapping and torture in 2010. I thought the decision of going public would send a strong message to the kidnappers. We were wrong. Saleem Shehzad, another journalist, was killed in 2011. Bloggers were picked up last year. These are the incidents that gained international attention because they occurred in Islamabad. Hamid Mir, a popular TV anchor, had survived an attempt on his life in 2014.



Many other journalists have been targeted; several of them were killed. Cyrils case was different in a sense that the matter was taken up at the highest level. Intended targets were a few individuals close to Sharif. An inquiry into the leak of information failed to find the leaker, however, the inquiry panel recommended action against a couple of ministers and a bureaucrat for their failure in stopping the news from publication. But its a fact that journalism is a dangerous career in Pakistan. And mainstream media has been corporatized.
Istanbul: The Turkish government on Sunday strongly defended a plan to let state-approved clerics conduct marriage ceremonies, rejecting fierce criticism that this would undermine the modern republic's secular foundations.



Turkey is mainly Muslim but officially is a secular state. Under its current laws, even religiously observant couples must be married by a state registrar from the local municipality and not an Islamic cleric.



But under a proposal submitted to parliament last week, muftis would also be given the power to carry out marriage ceremonies.



Muftis are clerics employed by Turkey's state religious affairs agency Diyanet with the task of taking care of worship across the country.



The main opposition, the Republican People's Party (CHP), has bitterly attacked the plan as the latest phase of alleged creeping Islamisation by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).



But Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag, who is the government spokesman, said the change was about giving people more choice and not about undermining secularism.



"This change is not against the principle of secularism; on the contrary it is fully in line with secularism as it is in line with the rule of law," he wrote on Twitter.



"The change will ease and speed up official marriages and protect women in marital law," he added.



He insisted the change was about offering "additional choices" to citizens. No-one would be forced into marriage by the muftis and could still use the existing arrangements, he insisted.



CHP lawmaker Candan Yuceer, the deputy head of the party's gender equality committee, said last week the plan "will inflict another blow to secularism" and risked encouraging underage marriages, according to the Hurriyet daily.



Pointing out there were ample officials in Turkey who could carry out secular marriages, she added: "Social life is step by step being formed in line with religious rules."



But Bozdag denied that the changes would encourage people to marry young, saying those who made such claims "either do not know the change or are deliberately distorting it".



President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been repeatedly accused by critics of eroding the secular pillars of modern Turkey set up by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic in 1923.



Erdogan's governments have notably eased restrictions on wearing the Islamic headscarf in education, politics, the police and most recently the army.



The government rejects the criticism, arguing it allows freedom of worship for all Turkish citizens and the lifting of headscarf bans merely brought Turkey into line with the rules in many Western, non-majority Muslim, nations.
Washington: The United States said Sunday the time for talk over North Korea was "over," spurning a UN response to Pyongyang's latest ICBM launch in favour of bomber flights and missile defence system tests.



Nikki Haley, the US envoy to the United Nations, said there was "no point" in holding a fruitless emergency Security Council session, warning that a weak additional council resolution would be "worse than nothing" in light of the North's repeated violations.



North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un boasted of his country's ability to strike any target in the US after an intercontinental ballistic missile test Friday that weapons experts said could even bring New York into range -- in a major challenge to Trump.



US strategic bombers on Saturday flew over the Korean peninsula in a direct response to the launch, and on Sunday American forces successfully tested a missile interception system the US hopes will be installed on the Korean peninsula.



Under Kim's leadership, North Korea has accelerated its drive towards a credible nuclear strike capability, in defiance of international condemnation and multiple sets of UN sanctions. The US Senate passed new bipartisan sanctions on Pyongyang on Friday.



Haley urged China, Japan and South Korea to tighten the screws on Pyongyang.



"An additional Security Council resolution that does not significantly increase the international pressure on North Korea is of no value," she wrote.



"It sends the message to the North Korean dictator that the international community is unwilling to seriously challenge him.



"China must decide whether it is finally willing to take this vital step. The time for talk is over."



'They do NOTHING'



Earlier, US President Donald Trump warned that he would not allow China -- the impoverished North's sole major ally and economic lifeline -- to "do nothing" about Pyongyang.



In two tweets, Trump linked trade strains with the Asian giant -- marked by a trade deficit of $309 billion last year -- to policy on North Korea, after Seoul indicated it could speed up the deployment of a US missile defense system that has infuriated China.



"I am very disappointed in China. Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk," Trump wrote.



"We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!"



Trump has repeatedly urged China to rein in its recalcitrant neighbor, but Beijing insists dialogue is the only practical way forward.



Shinzo Abe, the prime minister of US treaty ally Japan, also urged Beijing to act -- along with Moscow -- after telephone talks with Trump on Monday Tokyo time.



The North had "trampled all over" efforts to seek a peaceful solution to the situation and "unilaterally escalated" tensions.



"The international community including China and Russia must take it seriously and step up pressure," he told reporters.



'Stern warning'



Pyongyang lauded the developers of the missile at the weekend, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.



The US-led campaign only provided "further justification" for the North's resolve to maintain its weapons programs, Pyongyang's foreign ministry said in a statement carried by KCNA.



The ICBM test "is meant to send a stern warning to the US making senseless remarks, being lost to reason in the frantic sanctions and pressure campaign against the DPRK," it said, using an acronym for the North's official name.



Independent experts say it brings Los Angeles and Chicago within range, and could travel as far as Boston and New York.



Pacific Air Forces commander General Terrence O'Shaughnessy called Pyongyang "the most urgent threat to regional stability."



"If called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing," he said.



In a 10-hour joint mission at the weekend US B-1B bombers along with fighter jets from the South Korean and Japanese air forces practiced intercept and formation drills.



It was followed by the successful test of the missile defense system, with the launch of a medium-range missile over the Pacific that was "detected, tracked and intercepted" in Alaska.



In a standard response to the test, Beijing urged restraint by all sides, after the US and South Korea conducted a live-fire exercise using surface-to-surface missiles.
Washington: The World Bank has assured its neutrality and impartiality in helping India and Pakistan find an "amicable way forward" during talks over issues related to two of India's hydroelectricity projects under the Indus Waters Treaty.



Welcoming the participation of India and Pakistan in the talks to be held here, World Bank's Vice President for South Asia region Annette Dixon said, "We are pleased both parties have confirmed their participation in the meeting hosted by the World Bank in Washington, DC."



"The World Bank welcomes the spirit of goodwill and cooperation," Dixon said in a letter to Indian Ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna.



In the letter dated July 25, the World Bank assured the Indian envoy its "continued neutrality and impartiality in helping the parties to find and amicable way forward." "We hope that all parties will come to the table prepared to find a way forward that safeguards the Treaty," it said. Union Water Resources Secretary Amarjit Singh will lead the Indian delegation during the talks to be held today. The Indian team will comprise officials from ministries of external affairs and water resources.



The two countries last held talks over the two projects in March this year during the meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) in Pakistan. Pakistan had approached the World Bank last year, raising concerns over the designs of two hydroelectricity projects located in Jammu and Kashmir.



It had demanded that the World Bank, which is the mediator between the two countries under the 57-year-old water distribution pact, set up a court of arbitration to look into its concerns.



On the other hand, India had asked for the appointment of a neutral expert to look into the issues, contending the concerns Pakistan raised were "technical" ones.



Following this, the international lender had in November 2016 initiated two simultaneous processes -- for appointing neutral expert and establishment of court of arbitration to look into technical differences between the two countries in connection with the projects.



The simultaneous processes, however, were halted after India objected to it. After that, representatives of the World Bank held talks with India and Pakistan to find a way out separately.
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Tribalism in Guyana

HAVING SOME knowledge of the recent history of Guyana and its tribal divisions, I took with more than a grain of salt Freddie Kissoons dogmatic views on Indo- Guyanese as quoted by Raffique Shah in his column in the Express of 16/5/17.

My information is that Kissoon was an academic of minor standing who was dismissed from his position by the Indo-Guyanese-dominated PPP/Civic government for reasons not known. Smarting from this rejection it is hardly likely he would maintain an objective perspective on Indo-Guyanese in general as would the Kaiteur News whose editors had their confrontations with the PPP/Civic Government.

The unhappy experience of Guyana as an ethnically plural society has much to teach us. Both Indo- Guyanese and Afro-Guyanese supported the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) up to 1953 as both Dr Cheddi Jagan and Forbes Burnham held leadership positions in it.

When, in 1953, the British Government suspended the constitution of British Guiana and removed the PPP Government from office, Mr Burnham subsequently broke from the PPP and formed his own party, the Peoples National Congress (PNC), which drew its support largely from Afro-Guyanese.

The PPP was left basically with Indo-Guyanese support.

This was the genesis of Afro and Indo-Guyanese racial division with its political overtones and appeals to racial sentiment for political mobilisation.

Election results in 1957, 1961 and 1964 would confirm the racial cleavages. However, it should be noted that, although in the late fifties and early sixties, the Indo- Guyanese population was well in excess of 50 per cent of the total, the Indo-dominated PPP was able to command only 47.6 per cent of the total votes cast in 1957, 42.6 per cent in 1961 and 45.8 per cent in 1964.

These statistics indicate that a not insignificant percentage of Indo-Guyanese voted for non-Indo- Guyanese-based parties and therefore could not be regarded as uncompromisingly tribal in their voting patterns as Kissoon insinuates.

After Dr Jagan and his PPP won the 1961 election, there was a concerted effort to undermine his government with the objective of crippling its ability to govern. Dr Jagan was seen as having Marxist leanings and too cordial ties with the Soviet Union which caused alarm bells to ring in Washington.

In 1962, the CIA intervened in the internal affairs of then British Guiana and collaborated with Burnhams Afro-dominated PNC as well as the Afro-dominated Trade Union Congress to instigate street demonstrations, strikes and riotous disturbances of the peace.

Inevitably, the conflict devolved into a racial conflagration between Indo and Afro-Guyanese. The period 1962-1964 was a most traumatic time for the country. There was wanton looting, arson, maimings and killings.

Ann Marie Bissessar and John Gaffar La Guerre in their book, Race and Politics in Two Plural Societies  Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, noted: By the time some semblance of order was restored in late July 1963, the death toll stood at 166 with over 800 people wounded. About 1400 buildings, in addition to cane fields, were destroyed by fire. (p 86) While members of both major ethnic groups engaged in the violence, the Indo-Guyanese endured substantially more with greater loss of lives and more vicious attacks on their persons and properties. They fled the country in their tens of thousands. This experience of rabid violence seems to have deeply affected the psyche of Indo-Guyanese and it is understandable that their animosity towards Afro-Guyanese would become more entrenched and visceral.

However, it should be noted that many Indo-Guyanese blamed Dr Jagan for facilitating the conflict by pursuing his inflexible leftwing ideological agenda and for his governments inability to protect them.

Since they were acutely critical of their own party and its leader, I n d o - Guyanese tribalism could not have been absolutely unequivocal as c l a ime d by Freddie Kissoon.
Must see, must read

The women and girls must decide whether they should let the soldier die, give him to the southern Confederate army or hide him and nurse him back to health. His presence disturbs the house in unimaginable ways, stirring up resentment and sexual tension while testing the girls and womens Christian resolve and basic sense of decency. The twists and turns in the story are unimaginable.

Clearly the Union soldier, Corporal John McBurney, plays with everyones emotions, but the question is why? He wants to remain in the house, so is he merely trying to survive? Does he get a perverse sense of joy from toying with the girls and womens emotions? I suspect no two people will have the same take on the corporals motives -- or the womens for that matter.

For once, I saw the movie, now showing at MovieTowne, before I read the book. This allowed me to enjoy director Sophia Coppolas interpretation of the novel without being peeved about the changes she made.

Coppola says she stuck to the book published in 1966 more than the first movie version in 1971, which starred Clint Eastwood, but she too made many changes.

Although Coppola maintains the sour attitude of Edwina Morrow, Coppola transforms Edwina from a young student in the book to a teacher in the movie. She scraps the character of Matilda Farnsworth, Marthas sister, and eliminates the role of the woman slave who stayed behind.

Coppola claimed that the topic of slavery was far too important to include as a small role in the movie.

Coppola did stick to the book by casting Irish actor Colin Farrell to play the part of Cpl McBurney, an Irish mercenary fighting for the Union. Colin Farrell succeeds in creating many conflicting emotions including pity, hope, contempt and anger while setting up sexually charged scenes, which are tastefully done.

In the book, each person provides her point of view of events, making this an invaluable exercise in narration, characterisation, tone and mood. I found the rich description and details of the book to be fascinating.

Notably absent in the book is a chapter giving the corporals point of view, but Coppola makes up for this by offering scenes, such as the dinner table scene that is filmed from the corporals perspective.

Nicole Kidman deserves an Oscar nomination for her riveting interpretation of the schools headmistress Miss Martha.

As many people have pointed out, Kidmans uncanny ability to portray many emotions at the same time in this film are simply brilliant.

She can be both troubled and manipulative; refined and catty; humorous and profound at any given moment.

Australian-born Kidman, who has been living in Nashville, Tennessee since marrying musician Keith Urban does an admirable job of portraying a refined southern woman battered by the Civil War.

The Beguiled is a rare treat for a period piece because it offers such insight into characterisation with tension at every turn thanks to the complicated characters.
The elderly are being abused

The report noted that excessive bureaucracy has led to half of all complaints being dismissed on the ground of, inconclusive evidence.

And as allegations of abuse increase, especially with the advent of social media showing clear cut evidence of violence meted out to the elderly, successive governments have never instituted any investigations into how these private geriatric homes are operated with a view to ensuring the elderly are treated in a humane manner.

In fact, queries arise over which government agency should oversee these homes, with the report revealing that a grand total of six inspectors are tasked with monitoring the close to 200 registered private geriatric homes in the country. The claims of an increase in abuse against the elderly are contained in the third report by the Joint Select Committee (JSC) on Social Services and Public Administration, which was recently laid in Parliament.

The report listed five types of abuse occurring at geriatric homes. These are Neglect  Failure to meet basic needs such as food, clothing, and medical care; Physical  Infliction bodily harm and or injury; Financial Abuse  Illegal misuse or siphoning of an older persons money, assets or property; Emotional/ Psychological Abuse  Harm inflicted on the emotional self-worth of the older person (eg name-calling or denigration); and Sexual Abuse  Engagement in sexual acts without consent.

ABUSE SHOWN ON FACEBOOK

The report includes the record of the JSCs sitting of November 16, 2016, where deep insight was given by Dr Jennifer Rouse, Director of the Division of Aging (DOA) of the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services. She said that in 2016, the DOA received 156 complaints, of which 100 cases were compliance issues and 56 were specific complaints of abuse.

Table 2 of the report said that out of all 156 complaints, 88 investigations were completed, 47 were in progress, 20 were inconclusive and just one case was sent to the police, after a video of a woman standing on an elderly male patient was posted onto Facebook prompting a public outcry.

That one case that you saw with the police that was listed, that was the one that made the media where the care-giver had her foot on the chest of the elderly gentleman in a home, Rouse told the JSC. Rouse gave the JSC the outcome of the 56 complaints of abuse. She said ten complaints were probed and deemed to be unfounded, while 25 complaints were still in progress, meaning they were partially or wholly verified and the home is being regulated for compliance so as to ensure no recurrence.

However she raised eyebrows when revealing that delays in investigation is a main reason why half of complaints of abuse ended up deemed inconclusive. Twenty of those cases were inconclusive, in that the claims could neither be verified nor debunked, Rouse related.

Because what has happened to us, when the report is made, let us say we got a report that a person had physical abuse and there were bruises. Many times when the report is lodged at the division and a month or more has passed and we go in to investigate, there is no sign or evidence of that bruise.

15 COMPLAINTS A MONTH

It might have healed or whatever and we cannot verify or debunk that something went awry. So as a result we call those kinds of cases inconclusive. Rouse said the DOA does follow ups, especially with more than one complaint is made against a given home. We realize that this was just not a one off and we will follow up on that. But again, manpower does not allow us the latitude to really respond to all in respective times because of the frequency. Rouse revealed that the DOA on average gets 15 complaints of elderly abuse per month, most coming from the community rather than geriatric homes.

DAbadie/OMeara MP Ancil Antoine asked how the DOA reports back its findings of elderly abuse to the Ministry of Health and how does that ministry respond? Rouse replied, Some of the cases we have had to use the community police and then a report is generated for our files and we send a copy, so that the Ministry of Health knows what is happening, so that in their routine investigations of those homes, they also do a check to ensure that there was follow up, there is something remedial in place to avoid a recurrence.

That is the most that is done as present. When Antoine asked if the Ministry of Social Development has any way to know if the Health Ministry takes action against these homes, Rouse replied, No, not at this point. Ministry of Social Development permanent secretary Jacinta Bailey-Sobers added, That is out of our jurisdiction. She said that the Private Hospitals Act states that privately-run homes for the elderly are defined as hospitals and so fall under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health. Ministry of National Security parliamentary secretary Glenda Jennings-Smith, insisted that if an assault takes place at a geriatric home, the police must be notified.

CASES UNDERREPORTED

Rouse said, A lot of the cases of elder abuse are under-reported, because we are relying on the trust that the home-owner will be ethical and follow the instructions and do it right, but some out of them out of fear, if they know that they are not in compliance in some other way, they will not just call the division or call the police.

So we find that there is a tension there, and right now it is the neighbours, if they hear screaming or they hear noises at night, or they find out  they hear different sounds, they call us, but it is a very delicate area. The JSC Report had several recommendations.

These included a proper delineation of responsibility between the Health Ministry and the Social Development Ministry, both streamline their efforts, and both be more proactive in monitoring all geriatric homes.

The Homes for Older Persons (HOP) Act 2007 must allow the line ministry to order the cessation of operations at homes under investigations. The JSC wanted more inspectors hired and more regular visits of geriatric homes.

The Act must empower the relevant ministry to inspect without permission any geriatric homes that do not have a licence.

The report suggested the use of CCTV equipment in geriatric facilities to monitor activities and deter staff from committing acts of abuse against residents. The JSC urged the creation of an Elder Justice Roadmap that states how to recognize, prevent and address elder abuse, and establish a hotline and other mechanisms to receive anonymous tipoffs of abuse.
TT, Japan talk natural disasters

A release from the ministry last week said Sonura paid a courtesy call on Moses at his office at Tower C of the Portof- Spain International Waterfront Centre.

Moses and Sonura noted that both TT and Japan are islands and prone to natural disasters.

Sonura indicated that Japan has identified natural disaster prevention and the environment as focal areas for bilateral cooperation. He also said Japan will continue providing TT with cooperation in these areas despite this countrys graduation to a high income level country.

Moses assured Sonura of TTs support for Japans position on the reform of the United Nations Security Council. Sonura indicated Japans readiness to work together with the Caribbean and African countries on text based negotiations within the United Nations Friendship Group in New York in 2018.
Government is violating public service regulations by keeping in its employ bureaucrats who are way past their pensionable age, the Daily News can report.



Civil service regulations on pensionable age and retirement, state that a member appointed on pensionable terms of service before May 1, 1992, shall have a pensionable age of 65 years, while those appointed afterwards shall have a pensionable age of 60.



The regulations also provide that the paymaster shall, on the 1st (of) June each year, provide all heads of ministry or department with a list of members who will reach the age of 55, 60 or 65 years during the ensuing year.



The commission may, when it is in the interest of the Public Service to do so, permit a member whose pensionable age is 60 to continue to serve beyond the age of 60 for periods not exceeding one year at a time, provided that such member shall retire at the age of 65 years, reads part of the regulations.



Regardless, the public service now has a number of bureaucrats that have exceeded 65 years of age and should be enjoying retirement at their homes.



Topping the list is Tobaiwa Mudede, the Registrar-General who is over 70 years of age.

Mudede has been in charge of all elections held in Zimbabwe since 1981, amid accusations by the ruling Zanu PFs rivals of ballot fraud favouring the governing party.



The countrys electoral processes are, however, now being overseen by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, headed by Rita Makarau. Mariyawanda Nzuwa, chairperson of the Public Service Commission (PSC), is also believed to be way above the pensionable age of 65.



Nzuwa became the public service chief on May 1, 1992, replacing Malcolm Thompson who retired after serving 11 years on the post. The chief secretary to the President and Cabinet, Misheck Sibanda, born in 1949, is another bureaucrat who should have long retired.



The former ambassador to China, assumed the post in 2003 following the retirement of Charles Utete, now late. An insider within the PSC said the trio should have been long retired if the law were to be followed.



Only those that are employed in the private sector can go beyond 60 years as long as they are in agreement with their employers because the Labour Act is silent on that, said the insider.



This does not, however, apply to government workers who are governed by the civil service regulations and provides that one cannot go beyond 65 years.



Labour lawyer Tendai Biti told the Daily News yesterday that the duo should, under normal circumstances, have left their jobs a long time ago but they still exist for electoral reasons.

The two who are fast approaching 80 years, exist because they occupy two positions that help keep Zanu PF and (President Robert) Mugabe in power, Biti said.



Mudede is there so that he can tweak voter registration processes, while Nzuwa exists so that he can deal with government workers through employing ghost workers he is calling ward officers. You and I know that the so-called ward officers are Zanu PF militia who are being paid by government to do work for the ruling party, said the former Finance minister, adding that I actually wonder why lawyers have not challenged that in court.

Nzuwa has been blamed for resisting calls for him to get rid of ghost workers from governments payroll.



While efforts to get both Mudede and Nzuwas comments were fruitless, the former has previously denied allegations of falsifying voting records to ensure Mugabe remains in power.



MDC spokesperson Obert Gutu said Mudede and Nzuwa were still in office because they are serving a political purpose.



Of course, both men are a vital cog in the Zanu PF regimes election rigging machinery and thats the major reason why they are still holding their posts, Gutu said.



These two men are actually more powerful than most Zanu PF Cabinet ministers. Mugabe continues to pamper these two old men with plush incomes and other perks. Thats the main reason why Mudede periodically enjoys the very expensive past time of big game hunting. He can afford it. He shoots buffaloes and lions for fun.



Nzuwa and Mudede are not the only government employees who have been rewarded by Mugabe by being kept on their jobs despite reaching the age of retirement.

In 2014, in the aftermath of the 2013 polls, Mugabe gave a new lease of life to military generals, many of whom were nearing the retirement age of 60.



Those who benefited from the extension included Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander Constantino Chiwenga and Air Force of Zimbabwe boss Air Marshal Perrance Shiri.

To keep them in their jobs, he gazetted a statutory instrument extending the retirement age for freedom fighters within senior ranks in the army to 65.



According to Statutory Instruments (SI) 134 and 135 of 2014, the new regulations by the Defence Forces Service Commission now allow officers who either are war veterans or have served continuously to retire at the age of 65.



Provided that a member who is a war veteran as defined in the War Veterans Act (Chapter 11:15) (No 11 of 1992) shall continue to serve for further periods, not exceeding twelve months at a time, until he or she retains the age of sixty-five years, the regulations say.

A member who has continued to serve in terms of subsection (5) shall retire on attaining the age of 65 years.



The countrys security chiefs and war veterans have been blamed by opposition parties for unleashing a reign of terror against MDC supporters in the run up to the 2008 presidential election run-off.



The ministry of Defence and the Defence Forces Commission have, however, had an amendment to the Defence Act, which will now see soldiers retiring at the age of 50, down from the previous 60, unless one has been asked to continue serving at the recommendation of the Defence minister.



That ministerial approval only comes at the request of the commander of the defence forces.



Government has since gazetted SI 50 of 2016 titled Defence (Regular Force) (Officers) (Amendment) Regulations 2016 (No. 7), repealing the Defence Regulations SI 135 (No. 6) of 2014. Daily News
The Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park has not resulted in an increase in tourist arrivals.



The Government has now dispatched an inter-ministerial task team to investigate why Zimbabwe is not benefiting from the giant park.



The task team comprises members from the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development, Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate, Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality Industry, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Rural Development, Promotion and Preservation of National Culture and Heritage.



GLTP was established in 2002 and links the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique, Kruger National Park in South Africa and Gonarezhou National Park, Manjinji Pan Sanctuary and Malipati Safari Area, all in Zimbabwe. The total surface area covered by the transfrontier park measures around 37 572km.



Chairman of the National Task Team on Access and Infrastructure Development in Transfrontier Conservation Areas Mr Joseph Shoko said a team from various ministries was in Chiredzi up to Monday this week trying to identify shortfalls inhibiting Zimbabwe from enjoying returns from the pact.



He said they noted that Government should improve service provision at Sango Border Post, especially after Mozambique had established a tarred road up to the boarder post.





We travelled to quite a number of areas in Chiredzi District, said Mr Shoko, who is the chief environmental officer under the Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate.





We identified that we cannot say we have a border post when we talk about Sango Border Post. There is no electricity, its difficult to access during the rainy season and there are no ablution facilities. You only get water when Zimbabwe Revenue Authority and immigration officials make contributions to buy diesel to pump water from a nearby borehole.





Mr Shoko said they also identified that tourists struggled to reach the Zimbabwean side of the mega park due to damaged bridges.





There is Bubi Bridge, which links Chiredzi and Beitbridge District ,which was destroyed in 2000 during Cyclone Eline and its yet to be repaired, he said. herald
South African socialite and entertainer Zodwa Wabantu has joined many celebrities who have indicated their soft spot for Zimbabwes long ruling leader, President Robert Mugabe saying she would love to meet him.



This, she said was despite the threat by some of her fans on social media prior to her visit that she was likely to be banned from coming to the country due to her perceived indecent trade.



People have been threatening me about Mugabe on social media before I came here, Zodwa Wabantu told the Daily News after her appearance at Club Connect on Saturday evening.



They (fans) were telling me that Mugabe does not allow nonsense, as a result I wont be allowed into Zimbabwe because I am too sexy and put on something more like revealing, which some feel I will be half naked and that he knows that I dont wear panties, she said.



Now that those people see that I am here and free they begin to say maybe Mugabe is one of those that also like me because I dont wear panties. But the fact is I would love to meet Mugabe, if given a chance, I will certainly love to meet that man, Zodwa Wabantu said.

She also admitted that she was unsettled by those threats knowing what Mugabe is capable of doing.



I really felt threatened because I dont know the politics in this country, but I know Mugabe is a strong man, he will tell you what he wants and what he doesnt want.



Imagine if I had landed and I am told Zodwa you must go back. It was possible but after I passed the borders I got excited and felt like I was going to see Mugabe, she said.

Upon arrival at Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Airport in the afternoon, Zodwa visited Mqombothi Sport Bar in Nkulumane suburb where she mixed and mingled with her fans who braved the chilly weather.



She said the environment in the high density suburb made her feel more at home.

Thats my kind of lifestyle, being with the people, ekasi, in township, thats my, more of Tshisa Nyama, the outdoors I just loved it and that it was during the day I met the people, she said.



In the evening, Zodwa graced the oversubscribed Club Connect. Clad in a skimpy black dress that revealed her sensual thighs, Zodwa, who spent of most her time in the VVIP booth also joined the revellers on the dance floor where she exhibited her dancing skills that have made her popular.



Pantiless as she was, she came down to the fans where she mingled, mixed and danced with them setting the house on fire with others shouting; Zodwa, Zodwa, Zodwa!



The response was just overwhelming, I am so loved in this country more than any country I have been to, she told the Daily News.



Its exciting that I am coming back maybe end of August or September but this time around I will be going to Harare. It was my first time in Zimbabwe and I didnt know I am known that much.



The response is just very good. I think they understand Zodwa, they see themselves in me, I am not a bling bling, I relate with them. I still use the same bath soap, I buy the same bread. Nothing has changed because I know where I come from. I will never change going forward, she said.



I met Gringo who they say we look alike, it was nice meeting him and I realised people loved him. He is such a nice guy. Daily News
No One Will

Ever Smash

Stuff Quite

Like He Did
Chris Wright was driving to church in Georgia in 2014 when he spotted TunDe Hector walking in the rain carrying a jerrycan. She'd run out of gas with $5 in her pocket. The Good Samaritan tells ABC News he offered her a lift to a gas station and back, and "then the Lord said, 'Whatever you have in your pocket, just give it to her. She needs that.'" He gave her the $40 he had on him, noting she cried at this act of kindness, which would end up changing both of their lives. In June, Hector was working as a nurse's aide when she recounted the story to the family of the terminally ill woman she was caring for. "That was me," a stunned Chris Wright told her, per CBS News. Neither family could believe it, but they also didn't think the meeting was random. "We don't believe in coincidence," says Carmen Wright, Chris' wife. "We're a family of faith."

The Wrights knew about Hector's desire to attend nursing school, and so as a thank you for taking such good care of Chris' mother, Judy Wright, in her last daysshe died July 9they decided to help Hector achieve her dream. Their crowdfunding page had collected nearly $34,000 for Hector as of Monday, far surpassing their original $1,000 goal. The Wrights posted a video of Hector's reaction when they told her: "Oh Lord have mercy. Lord, you're so good to me.  You're kidding me." (The Facebook clip has racked up 1.2 million views.) "I don't know why God chose our two families," Carmen Wright tells CBS. "But she's family. It's like she's known us forever." (A Good Samaritan who lost both legs got a precious gift.)
An Ohio defense lawyer is accusing at least one juror of stealing 71 oxycodone pills during a drug trial, the AP reports. John David Moore Jr. says jurors found his client guilty and then rushed out of the courthouse before anyone noticed the 71 opioid pills were missing. He says his client should get a new trial or have his charges dismissed. But Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien tells the Columbus Dispatch it's too early to blame jurors for the missing pills, and that their disappearance doesn't affect the facts of the case. O'Brien says the jury took two breaks during the deliberations, and that could have left the pills unattended in the jury room, which court personnel can access.

O'Brien and Judge Stephen L. McIntosh say they've never heard of evidence going missing during deliberations. Heroin and methamphetamine used as evidence didn't disappear. The Franklin County Sheriff's Office is investigating and reviewing surveillance camera footage. The incident has opened discussions about how evidence should be handled during deliberations, per the Dispatch. Juries routinely handle drug evidence in the jury room, but McIntosh says photos of drug evidence could be used instead. (Read more oxycodone stories.)
It was one small model for Neil Armstrong, but one giant heist for thieves: Police in Ohio are searching for a rare solid gold replica of the first vehicle to land on the moon that was stolen from the Armstrong Air and Space Museum late Friday, NPR reports. An alarm signaled cops to the theft from the museum in Wapakoneta, Armstrong's hometown. Police said it was impossible to put a value on the 5-inch Cartier-cast replica, which Armstrong received in Paris shortly after the 1969 mission. Fellow Apollo 11 astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins also got 18-karat models, which were commissioned and paid for by France's Le Figaro newspaper and its readers.

The museum, which closed for several hours on Saturday, posted a statement on Facebook saying, "The truth is that you can't steal from a museum. Museum's don't 'own' artifacts. We are simply vessels of the public trust.  For every day that an item is missing, we are all robbed of an opportunity to enjoy it and our history." The FBI was aiding local police in investigating the theft. A retired NASA agent tells the AP the replica could fetch millions among space collectors, but the thieves probably plan to melt it down for its gold. Joseph Gutheinz Jr. notes that whoever swiped the statue left behind a large moon rock also worth millions. "Either they didn't have easy access to the moon rock, or they weren't into collectibles," Gutheinz says. "They were into turning a quick buck." (Thanks to a NASA inventory error, this woman is $1.8 million richer.)
It's not every day that a woman preparing to give birth to her own child stops to deliver another woman's baby. But Dr. Amanda Hess, an obstetrician in Kentucky, found herself doing just that when she was about to have her second child and heard an emergency unfolding in the room next to her own on July 23. Dr. Hala Sabry, who founded the nonprofit Physician Moms Group, writes on Facebook that Dr. Hess knew it would take longer for the on-call physician to reach the baby in distress than for her to throw boots over her flip-flops and help. So she jumped right in, telling NBC News, "I think we ought to have the baby." Moments after delivering Leah Halliday Johnson's fourth child, her own contractions kicked in, and she soon had her second daughter, Ellen Joyce.

"I had actually taken a call the day before, so I thought really that I was working up to the last minute," Dr. Hess tells LEX 18. "But this was literally till the last second." While Dr. Hess wasn't Halliday Johnson's primary obstetrician, the patient had seen Dr. Hess for a few checkups during her pregnancy and describes her as being "in doctor mode" during the delivery. "I appreciate what she did for my family, and it speaks a lot to who she is as a woman and a mother, as well as a doctor," Halliday Johnson notes. "It makes you feel better, bringing a baby girl into the world, knowing there are women like her willing to step up like that." As for Dr. Hess, she admits that delivering someone else's babysomething she does all the timewas easier than taking part in her own delivery. (This surgeon operated on the man who delivered him.)
Marian Diamond, a neuroscientist who studied Albert Einstein's brain and was the first to show that the brain's anatomy can change with experience, died on July 25 in Oakland, Calif. She was 90. Diamond, a professor of integrative biology at the University of California-Berkeley, became famous in 1984 when she examined preserved slices of Einstein's brain and found it had more support cells than the average person's brain. On campus, she was known for walking to her packed anatomy classes carrying a flowered hatbox containing a preserved human brain. Her groundbreaking research on rats found that the brain can improve with enrichment, while impoverished environments can lower the capacity to learn, reports the AP.

"Her research ... has literally changed the world," said George Brooks, a UC Berkeley colleague. Her subsequent research found that the brain can continue to develop at any age, that male and female brains are structured differently, and that brain stimulation can improve the immune system. She regularly encouraged activities, both mental and physical, that enrich the brain, and she continued to conduct research and teach until 2014, when she retired at the age of 87. She blazed trails along the way: The Washington Post reports she became Cornell University's first female science instructor in 1955. Diamond is survived by four children; her first child's birth happened the same year that she got her doctorate. (Read more obituary stories.)
"The time for talk is over" on North Korea, so the United States isn't planning to call a United Nations Security Council meeting for discussion of the country's latest ICBM launch, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley says. In a statement, Haley said there would be no point holding such a session if it produces "nothing of consequence." She said Pyongyang is already subject to plenty of international sanctions that it flouts with impunity, and adding yet another toothless resolution would be "worse than nothing because it sends the message to the North Korean dictator that the international community is unwilling to seriously challenge him," the BBC reports.

"China must decide whether it is finally willing to take this vital step," Haley said, On Saturday, President Trump slammed China for "doing NOTHING for us" with regard to North Korea. Chinese government adviser Victor Gao fired back at those remarks Monday, accusing Trump of acting like a "spoiled child." Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday that he had spoken with Trump and agreed to move toward taking action against North Korea, reports Reuters. The White House confirmed that Trump had reaffirmed "our ironclad commitment" to use the "full range of United States capabilities" to protect Japan and South Korea from attack. (US bombers made a show of strength on Sunday.)
A Vanity Fair interview with Angelina Jolie made headlines last week for a range of items, including the revelation she'd developed Bell's palsy last year. But one nugget in particular caught people's attention: how she allegedly cast kids for her new Netflix movie, First They Killed My Father, based on the story of Loung Ung, a Cambodia-born activist who lived under Pol Pot's regime. Vanity Fair described the casting process as a game "rather disturbing in its realism," in which Cambodian kids were asked to snatch money off a table (after thinking of something they needed it for), then asked to create a lie about why they'd needed the money after being "captured." The actress eventually tapped to play Ung reportedly became "overwhelmed with emotion" during her own audition, noting she'd been thinking of her grandfather's death and her family's inability to pay for his funeral.

All of which had people railing against Jolie for her "emotionally abusive and cruel" casting methods, per the BBC. But Jolie says, via a statement to Variety, that the audition was simply an improv exercise based on a scene from the film and that real money wasn't used. "I am upset," she says, adding: "I would be outraged myself if this had happened," referring to the "false and upsetting" prospect of real cash being ripped away from kids. She also notes "every measure was taken to ensure the safety, comfort, and well-being of the children on the film" and to "make sure that no one was in any way hurt by participating in the re-creation of such a painful part of their country's history." Producer Rithy Panh also issued his own statement, noting that guardians, tutors, doctors, and therapists were all on the set to help kids along during the filmmaking process. (Read more Angelina Jolie stories.)
A Toronto man who didn't want his fiancee to discover he was unemployed ended up slaughtering almost his entire family on a bloody day in August last year. Brett Ryan, 36, was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years Friday after confessing to killing his mother and two of his three brothers, the Toronto Star reports. His father died in 2015. The court heard that days before the Aug. 25 killings, Ryan admitted to his mother that he had lost his IT job after they discovered he had spent more than three years in prison for eight bank robberies in 2008. He told her he had been lying about working from the apartment he shared with the woman he was due to marry in three weeks.

Susan Ryan advised her son to tell the truth to his fiancee and promised to support him for a brief time financiallybut fearing she would expose him, he returned days later with a crossbow, the CBC reports. After an argument, he stabbed her with a crossbow bolt. His brother, Christopher Ryan, 42, was then fatally shot with the crossbow. Younger brother Alexander Ryan, 29, was stabbed with a crossbow bolt after arriving home. Brett Ryan assaulted a third brother, Leigh Ryan, 38, after he saw Alexander Ryan's body and ran to call authorities, but Leigh Ryan escaped to a neighbor's home. Police say that before the killings, Brett Ryan set up devices at his home intended to make it seem as if he had been visiting Internet sites at the time. (Read more murder stories.)
It's an avoidable tragedy that authorities across America want to make as rare as possiblebut in Phoenix, it happened twice in two days. The first baby to die in a hot car in the Arizona city over the weekend was 7-month-old Zane Endress, who was left in a car for hours on the city's north side on Friday afternoon, AZFamily.com reports. Police say the boy was in the care of his grandparents at the time. They believe a family member may have forgotten the boy was in the car after returning home from work. No arrests were made. In the second death, 1-year-old Josiah Riggins died Saturday afternoon in the back seat of a car in a church on the city's south side, 12 News reports.

Police say Josiah wasn't discovered until after his father had made two trips between his apartment complex and the church to drop off his mother and another relative. Police say the Riggins death also appears to be accidental and no arrests have been made. The deaths were the first of their kind in Phoenix this year. The AP reports that dozens of safety groups are urging the Senate to pass a recently introduced bill that would equip cars with sensors that could detect when a child is left in a rear-facing car seat and set off an alarm if one is left behind. "A simple sensor could save the lives of dozens of children killed tragically in overheated cars each year," bill sponsor Sen. Richard Blumenthal said in a statement last week. (Read more hot cars stories.)
A dozen inmates broke out of the Walker County Jail in Alabama Sunday evening, but they weren't all on the loose for long: Authorities say eight of the men had been recaptured by 10:42pm, about four hours after they escaped, AL.com reports. Police, who asked area residents to stay indoors and turn on outdoor lighting, say they're investigating how so many inmates managed to escape the Jasper facility, which only holds around 250 inmates. The New York Daily News reports that those still listed as on the loose late Sunday include Christopher Smith, a 19-year-old charged with attempted murder. (Read more prison break stories.)
He's been painted as both "brilliant beyond words" and a conman during his securities fraud trialand on Monday, the jury considering Martin Shkreli's case will start deliberations on whether "inmate" will be added to that list of descriptors, reports the Guardian. Closing arguments took place Friday, notes the AP, with prosecutors alleging that Shkreli took money from his drug company to pay back his upset hedge-fund investors; Shkreli's defense team has maintained that everyone involved made money, so no harm, no foul.

The 34-year-old, who was arrested in December 2015, could face up to 20 years in prison. On Thursday, Shkreli posted on Facebook that his trial was a "silly witch hunt perpetrated by self-serving prosecutors" before pulling out a couple of phrases often used by President Trump, who the Guardian notes is one of Shkreli's idols. "Drain the swamp. Drain the sewer that is the DOJ. MAGA," Shkreli wrote. (Read more Martin Shkreli stories.)
Admissions goofs are nothing new. Learning you've lost your admission in July is another matter. That's the situation with the University of California Irvine, which withdrew 499 offers of admission two months before the fall term is to begin. By the Los Angeles Times' count, that's abnormally high: Other UC campuses gave "recession" numbers ranging from seven to 150. Per the school, 290 of the reversals were because of transcript issues; the rest were over low senior-year grades. Many of the newly disappointed are accusing the school of fishing for slight or even unsubstantiated reasons to dump would-be freshmen after too many made the choice to enroll. The LAT cites numbers that suggest they may not be off base: The UC Office of the President says 7,100 students made the decision to enroll, versus a planned freshman class of 6,250.

A rep for the school concurs that the admissions office has been cracking down on verifying requirements "as a result of more students [having] accepted admissions to UCI than it expected." In case after case, the crackdown smells off: One student was told only one of the two required copies of her transcript was mailed; she says they were sent in the same envelope. Another student says he was told his transcript didn't contain a graduation date; he says it did. They're appealing, and they're not the only ones: Some 409or 82%have, with many of the students quoted by the LAT and OC Register as having 4.0-plus GPAs ... and having already turned down other schools and scholarships. As of Friday, 63 have emerged victorious. The school says the appeals process, which normally takes up to six weeks, has been accelerated. (Read more UC Irvine stories.)
Acclaimed actor and playwright Sam Shepard is dead at age 73, reports BroadwayWorld. Shepard, who died at home in Kentucky, had been suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease. He leaves behind an impressive legacy in the arts as the author of more than 40 plays, including Buried Child, for which he won the Pulitzer in 1979. Shepard also earned an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor for his portrayal of pilot Chuck Yeager in 1983's The Right Stuff. Most recently, he had portrayed the family patriarch in the Netflix series Bloodline.

The New York Times calls Shepard "one of the most original voices of his generation," noting other plays such as Curse of the Starving Class, True West, and Fool for Love. As BroadwayWorld notes, his plays are "chiefly known for their bleak, poetic, often surrealist elements, black humor, and rootless characters living on the outskirts of American society." He is survived by three children: Jesse Mojo, 47, from his marriage to O-Lan Jones; and Hannah Jane, 31, and Samuel Walker, 30, from his long relationship with Jessica Lange, notes People. (Read more Sam Shepard stories.)
Well, that was quick: The Mooch is out. President Trump on Monday decided to remove Anthony Scaramucci from his brand-new post as White House communications director. Coverage of the surprise move makes one thing clear: The decision came at the request of new chief of staff John Kelly, who is in his first day on the job. Scaramucci didn't even last two weeks in the job, though he made an impression with, among other things, a profanity-laced rant against rivals such as former chief of staff Reince Priebus. Related coverage:

One big takeaway: The bold move by Kelly shows that he is "moving quickly to assert control over the West Wing," per the Washington Post. It appears to be working: He "is already changing the culture around here," one White House aide tells Politico.

The bold move by Kelly shows that he is "moving quickly to assert control over the West Wing," per the Washington Post. It appears to be working: He "is already changing the culture around here," one White House aide tells Politico. The firer: Scaramucci was "too loose a cannon" for Kelly's taste, writes David Graham at the Atlantic, who is not surprised that the impetus to can him came from the chief of staff. For all his reputation of being the guy to yell "you're fired," President Trump is actually reluctant to do that in the real world, he notes.

Fatigue factor: Trump was initially pleased with Scaramucci's tough-talking persona, but Kelly and Trump family members began to turn the president against Scaramucci over the weekend, portraying him as a political embarrassment, according to the New York Times, which was first to report the firing.

Trump was initially pleased with Scaramucci's tough-talking persona, but Kelly and Trump family members began to turn the president against Scaramucci over the weekend, portraying him as a political embarrassment, according to the New York Times, which was first to report the firing. Bannon factor: Axios reports that Steve Bannon, a target of Scaramucci's infamous tirade, had been pushing hard to get him fired. Bannon reportedly has a good relationship with Kelly, though it's unclear whether they spoke about Scaramucci.

Axios reports that Steve Bannon, a target of Scaramucci's infamous tirade, had been pushing hard to get him fired. Bannon reportedly has a good relationship with Kelly, though it's unclear whether they spoke about Scaramucci. White House: "Mr. Scaramucci felt it was best to give Chief of Staff John Kelly a clean slate and the ability to build his own team," says the official statement. "We wish him all the best."

"Mr. Scaramucci felt it was best to give Chief of Staff John Kelly a clean slate and the ability to build his own team," says the official statement. "We wish him all the best." Mocked online: The short tenure is leading to a lot of jokes along the lines of "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days," and People rounds them up. One notes that the short stay "made Kim Kardashian's marriage to Kris Humphries seem long."

The short tenure is leading to a lot of jokes along the lines of "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days," and People rounds them up. One notes that the short stay "made Kim Kardashian's marriage to Kris Humphries seem long." Next for Mooch: It's not clear whether he will leave the White House entirely or shift into a different position.

It's not clear whether he will leave the White House entirely or shift into a different position. Bigger challenge? "In ousting Scaramucci, Kelly is only solving a problem that has existed for a mere 10 days," writes Andrew Prokop at Vox. The looming question is whether he can get Trump himself to rein in behavior often criticized as non-presidential.

"In ousting Scaramucci, Kelly is only solving a problem that has existed for a mere 10 days," writes Andrew Prokop at Vox. The looming question is whether he can get Trump himself to rein in behavior often criticized as non-presidential. From the right: "This is a shift in culture of the White House and I for one am glad to see it," writes Terresa Monroe-Hamilton at Right Wing News.

(Read more Anthony Scaramucci stories.)
The Trump administration has hit Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro with financial sanctions. The move comes after Venezuela held a weekend election that will give Maduro's ruling party virtually unlimited power in the South American country, reports the AP. The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control announced the sanctions against Maduro in a brief statement on Monday, a day after the Venezuelan vote to elect a constituent assembly that will rewrite the constitution. According to the Miami Herald, a statement from Trump read during a White House briefing Monday didn't mince words: Maduro is not just a bad leader: He is now a dictator. Per the Herald, the sanctions froze assets, banned travel, and forbade Americans from interacting with Maduro.

But extending the sanctions to Venezuelan oil might not be a good look for Trump, reports the Washington Post. The South American country, listed by the US Energy Information Administration as the USs third largest oil supplier after Canada and Saudi Arabia, provides America with 10% of its oil. An energy economist told the Post that a full ban would cause prices to surge: "Prices would go up like a rocket. Gas prices in the US would go up 25 or 30 cents a gallon within a couple of weeks." But along party lines, Republicans including senators John McCain and Marco Rubio are urging Trump to hit back hard after the Venezuelan election. McCain commended the move for sanctions on social media, also tweeting that Venezuelans "deserve democracynot sham elections and Maduros repression." (Read more Venezuela stories.)
North Korea warns of strong response if US imposes further sanctions

Pyongyang : North Korea on Sunday warned that it would take action if the US continued to adhere to its present military policy and of imposing tough sanctions in response to Pyongyang's second launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The North Korean Foreign Ministry issued a statement through its state-run news agency KCNA, in which it defended Friday's launch as a demonstration of the country's military capabilities.

Also Read: US test of THAAD defense system with Ballistic Missile after North Korea missile launch

The test was "meant to send a stern warning to the US making senseless remarks", and imposing "frantic sanctions and a pressure campaign against the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea)", the statement read.

"The US trumpeting about war and threat to impose extreme sanctions on the DPRK only emboldens the latter and provides further justification for its access to nukes," it added.

Earlier on Sunday, the US deployed B-1B strategic bombers near the Korean peninsula in response to North Korea's ICBM launch on Friday.

Washington also deployed the bombers on June 20, following the announcement of the death of American student Otto Warmbier, who passed away after being returned to the US in a comatose state by North Korea, which had held him for 17 months.

Also Read: Moscow to cut 755 US diplomatic personnel in Russia, says President Vladimir Putin

It said that it will ask the UN Security Council to impose tougher sanctions against North Korea and work on unilateral sanctions in response to the missile test.

The Hwasong-14 missile fired by Pyongyang flew 998 km for about 47 minutes and reached a maximum altitude of 3,724.9 km before falling into the Sea of Japan.

North Korea called the launch a success and said that it proved Pyongyang could strike any part of the US with the missile. North Korea's continued missile tests have escalated tensions on the Korean peninsula and have led to tough rhetoric by the US, which has also hinted at the possibility of preemptive strikes against the country.
US test of THAAD defense system with Ballistic Missile after North Korea missile launch

Washington : US forces carried out a missile interception system test on Sunday, a military agency said. The US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the US Army conducted a successful missile defence test, using the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, Xinhua quoted the MDA as saying.

Also Read: North Korea warns of strong response if US imposes further sanctions

The MDA also said a C-17 military transport aircraft launched a medium-range target ballistic missile (MRBM) over the Pacific Ocean, which was "detected, tracked and intercepted" by the THAAD weapon system located at Pacific Spaceport Complex Alaska in Kodiak, Alaska.

The test was conducted to gather threat data from a THAAD interceptor in flight, it added. This was the 15th tests for the THAAD weapon system.

Also Read: Moscow to cut 755 US diplomatic personnel in Russia, says President Vladimir Putin
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Lucknow:

BJP President Amit Shah on Monday said that he has no intentions to join the Narendra Modi cabinet after being elected to the Rajya Sabha. Shah said that he was happy handling the party affairs.



The question does not arise, was his reply at a press conference here, after he was asked whether he would quit as party president and join the Modi cabinet after entering the Upper House. Shah, who arrived on a three-day visit here on Saturday, answered a range of questions.



I have the responsibility of running the party. I am happy, satisfied and am working wholeheartedly, he said. The BJP chief exuded confidence that the party would retain power at the Centre in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls with more strength.



The BJP will romp home victorious with a bigger strength than in 2014 on the basis of development and good governance of the Modi government as well as the 13 state governments of the party, he said. Describing Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the undisputed most popular PM of India, Shah claimed that the saffron partys government had succeeded in ending the politics of family, caste and appeasement in the country.

ALSO READ | Amit Shah in Lucknow: In 3 years, Modi Govt established India as world leader, weeded out corruption, black money



As per the 13th Finance Commission, during the Congress-led UPA regime, Uttar Pradeshs share in the central taxes was Rs 2,80,467 crore. This rose to Rs 7,10,966 crore in the 14th Finance Commission during the Modi government, he said. Shah also claimed that the local bodies grant, which was merely Rs 523 crore during the UPA rule, saw an unprecedented hike by almost 88 times under the Modi government, which allocated Rs 46,026 crore in this regard.



During the UPA regime (13th Finance Commission), UP got grants amounting to around Rs 24,000 crore. The Modi regime increased it to Rs 48,000 crore. For the central schemes, Rs 1,39,052 crore has been made available to the state as an additional assistance, he said. Shah claimed that if all the assistance extended to UP were summed up, then it would be 2.3 times more under the Modi government than what was given during the UPA regime.



Alleging that the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government suffered from policy paralysis, he said, Every minister assumed himself to be the PM and no one considered him (Singh) the PM. Shah also claimed that unlike the previous governments, which had only a couple of things to show as achievements, the Modi government had undertaken 50 important works during its three-year rule so far.



Alleging that there were scams worth Rs 12 lakh crore during the 10-year UPA rule, he said there was not even a single corruption allegation against the Modi regime. Even the opposition could not cast any aspersion in this regard, said Shah.



The BJP chief claimed that the Armys surgical strikes across the Line of Control (LoC) last year had projected the country as one with a firm resolve, which can take any decision for its security, in the global arena. Referring to the Congress shifting its Gujarat MLAs to Bengaluru reportedly to ward off poaching, he said, I could have understood if they were kept in a locked room in Gujarat itself. But why Bengaluru, is beyond my understanding.



Asked about the BJP not being as strong in the south compared to the north, Shah played it down saying, This was earlier said about our presence in the north as well. To a question on the National Investigation Agency (NIA) blaming cross-border trade for terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP chief said the matter did not come within the ambit of the BJP and the Army, security agencies and the government of that state would be able to answer it.

ALSO READ | Amit Shahs assets grew 300% in 3 years, Smriti Irani yet to complete her BCom degree: Rajya Sabha affidavits

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New Delhi:

The troops of Chinas People Liberation Army (PLA) had made an intrusion in Barahoti area of Chamoli district of Uttarakhand on July 26. The incident took place in the morning at 8:30 am and came into Indian Territory up to 800m to 1 km. They had stayed for two hours in Indian Territory.

The ITBP jawans forced them to back off in their region. It is believed that Chinese troops were 200-300 in number.

Sources said that there are reports about Chinese intrusion in Barahoti area. It is said that similar incidents have happened in past but they were normally sorted out on the local basis.

Madan Kaushik, spokesperson of Uttarakhand government said that they have no official information from district administration or security forces.

This was the second incident in a month after the first transgression took place on June 16 in Dokalam area of Sikkim.

Chinese soldiers transgressed into Uttarakhand's Barahoti on 25 July at about 9 am & came into Indian territory upto 800m to 1 km: Sources pic.twitter.com/x8MF4Cs5bt  ANI (@ANI_news) July 31, 2017

The PLA soldiers had violated border area and had started road construction.

Also Read: Peoples Liberation Army has capability to defeat invading enemies, says Chinese President Xi Jinping

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New Delhi:

Congress on Monday slammed Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar for praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, reminding the former that he had once claimed that Modi would ruin the country.

While talking to news agency ANI, senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said he would now only heap praise on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Once he had said Modi will ruin the nation and he will never ally with NDA, he said.

Sharma said Nitish is a man of no principle and he is no one to decide that who will 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Another congress leader Rajiv Shukla said that Nitish Kumar has no other option but to praise the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Also Read: Tejashwi Yadav says Nitish has insulted people's mandate; knelt down before RSS

Will he say Modi will lose 2019 Lok Sabha Elections? He is running the government with support of Modi ji. How can he speak against Modi," ANI quoted him as saying.

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New Delhi:

Internet-giant Google has offered Rs 14 million yearly package to a 16-year-old boy from Chandigarh for icon designing.

The search-engine giant has offered the class 12 passout, Harshit Sharma, the offer to be part in its team as a graphic designer.

I cant share my happiness, its like a dream has come true, says Harshit Sharma

Sharma, a student of Class-XII of Government Model Senior Secondary School, Chandigarh, will fly to California, USA in August.

Also Read: Google denies offering 16-year-old boy Rs 14 million package

The offer by the Google to the 16-year-old boy was released by government officials of Chandigarh.

Google will pay Rs 4 lakhs per month as stipend for a year and give him advance training in graphic designing. After a year he will be enrolled as a regular employee and receive a salary of Rs 12 lakhs per month.

Sharma talking to the media said, I was hunting for job as a graphic designer online. I came across the opening with google. I had to go through an online interview.

He added that he was interested in graphic designing since he was 10-year-old. Last year posters designed by Harshit was selected by Google.

Harshits teachers told the media that he was a meritorious student.

Harshit school teachers also informed the media that he had received an award of RS 7,000 under the Digital India Scheme.

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New Delhi:

Dr. Nayeem Geelani, the eldest son of Hurriyat Chairman Syed Ali Geelani, who has been summoned by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with with alleged hawala transactions to provoke unrest in the Kashmir valley, was admitted to hospital after he complained chest pain.

A Hurriyat spokesperson told the media that Nayeem complained of chest pain on Sunday evening after which he was rushed to Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences.

The spokesperson of the party added that he has been admitted to ICU and is under the observation of the doctors.

According to Hurriyat members Nayeem had suffered a massive heart-attack in 2009 and was undergone two cardiac-operations.



The spokesperson of Hurriyat added that Nayeem is supposed to appear before the NIA on Monday and has also booked his flight tickets for Delhi.

The Hurriyat targeting the BJP led government in Jammu and Kashmir and in the centre said that the police and administration did not allow Nayeem conduct a press conference.

He had called the press conference to make the people of the nation and world make aware about the reality of the allegations and to expose the wicked agenda of the RSS mindset behind the propaganda but the media was prevented the media from talking to Nayeem, a Hurriyat statement said.

Nayeem, a surgeon, had returned from Pakistan in 2010 after spending 11 years and is considered Geelanis heir apparent. Nayeem was to be questioned in connection with the terror funding case which has named Hafiz Saeed, leader of Pakistan-based Jamaat-ud-Dawa and banned terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, as an accused.

The NIA is investigating if funds from Pakistan have been used to fuel unrest in the Kashmir Valley that left 100 people dead in 2016. In the past few weeks, the agency has raided places across Kashmir, New Delhi and Haryana searching for evidence of separatist leaders and businessmen receiving funds from the Jamaat-ud-Dawa group.

Earlier, on July 24, the NIA had arrested seven separatists over money laundering charges, for funding terror in the Kashmir Valley. The seven arrested have being identified as Altaf Shah, Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Mehraj Kalwal, Shahid-ul-Islam, Nayeem Khan and Bitta Karate. The separatist leaders were later sent to 10-days NIA custody.

The NIA first visited Srinagar in May to probe the alleged funding by Pakistan for illegal activities in Kashmir and has questioned several separatist leaders on transferring funds via the Hawala route.

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New Delhi:

Janta Dal United patriarch and MP Sharad Yadav finally broke his silence on Nitish Kumar aligning with the BJP in Bihar and termed turn of events as unfortunate. Speaking to media outside Parliament, Yadav described claimed the mandate given by the people was being violated.



I dont agree with the decision in Bihar, its unfortunate.The mandate by the people was not for this, he said.



According to reports, the senior party leader is upset with Nitish breaking the grand alliance with the RJD and Congress.



In the past few days, Yadav has been meeting several opposition leaders at this residence in Delhi. He is learnt to have told them that he was deeply pained with Nitish breaking ranks and entering into an alliance with the BJP at a time when Opposition unity was needed the most.



Meanwhile, Congress Party on Monday welcomed Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav's intention to invite Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)) co- founder and leader Sharad Yadav to take part in the fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Suggested read | Bihar cabinet reshuffle: Nitish Kumar gets new cabinet with 27 new ministers; 14 from NDA, 12 from JD(U) take oath



"News has come from various mediums of Sharad Yadav being unhappy with what Nitish Kumar has done. Any self-respected person would be unhappy with the same. Lalu Yadav's statement is worth welcoming. If he (Lalu) has plans to unite different forces against BJP, which has communal mentality and plays divisive politics then are is welcoming," Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit told ANI.



Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Naresh Agarwal spoke on the same lines, opining that it looked as if there was an attempt by the JD (U) to vanish Sharad Yadav's existence.



He further stated that Sharad Yadav's tweet exhibited that he is not happy with Nitish's decision.



"The investigation launched against Lalu with the intention of revenge makes it natural for him to initiate some or the other action. Whatever Sharad Yadav has tweeted, it indicates that he is not happy with Nitish Kumar's decision. Nitish Kumar took the decision without consulting Sharad Yadav, who is a senior person. Looks like, there is an attempt to end Sharad Yadav's existence by the JD(U)," Agarwal told ANI.



"Nitish has tarnished the image of Ambedkar. I urge Sharad Yadav, whom we consider as a true leader, to travel to every corner of the country and come to Bihar and join our fight against the BJP and Nitish Kumar," Lalu had said.

Suggested read | Tejashwi Yadav says Nitish has insulted people's mandate; knelt down before RSS

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Thiruvananthapuram:

The meet was held in the backdrop of the violence following the slaying of an RSS worker near Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday.



As Vijayan reached the meeting venue, apparently on seeing a large contingent of electronic media persons occupying the room, he lost his composure and asked them to leave.



Just as the media persons were coming out, the chief minister asked the staff at the hotel, where the meeting was being held, why members of the fourth estate were allowed inside.



'Kadakku Purathu (just leave)', the chief minister said tersely to the media.



Only after they had left the venue, did he enter the meeting hall.



After the meeting, Vijayan, while giving details about it, declined to reply to a question as to why the media was not allowed inside the meeting hall.



Later in a clarification, the CM's office said the media was not invited for the meeting, not even for the photo-op ahead of the meeting, it said.



"When the chief minister and other leaders came to the venue, the entire media was inside the hall. That is why, the CM asked them to leave the hall," the statement said.



It was not possible to hold such a discussion in the presence of the media, it added.



CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said probably the chief minister got angry as the media took visuals without permission.

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New Delhi:

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday addressed his first press briefing after the recent politicalA upheaval in the state. Nitish who recently parted ways with RJD to join hands with BJP said no one is capable of challenging MODI in 2019 elections.A

Here are the highlights:

# Hardik PatelA invited me to Gujarat but they had asked me not to go there and I didn't go. I respect Lalu ji that much. But i have told them we can be an ally but not a follower.

# This alliance is only for the state of Bihar and not at the national level.

#A We will continue to support Gopal Krishna Gandhi for Vice Presidential election, BJP don't have problem with that.

#A Lalu ji was contesting Patna Univ Students' Union election, I was in engineering college, I had 450/500 votes polled for him.

# No one is capable of competing with Narendra Modi in 2019.

#A I had asked to explain the corruption allegations, had they done that, situation could have been different: #Bihar CM Nitish Kumar

# I kept the proposal in front of my MLAs and they all gave their nod to hold hands with BJP.

# After my resignation BJP approached us with the proposal and even PM Modi tweeted as well.A

# I before resigning told Lalu Ji and CP Joshi about the moveA and then went to offer my resignation to Governor.

#A After that RJD meeting, I for the first time realised I could not run the government anymore. My MLAs supported me.

#A A On July 26, the RJD had a meeting, but nothing new came out of that. So we had to take a decision.

#A You are being framed is a good excuse for your supporters but you need to explain to the people.

#A What ever the media was running for past three weeks was also putting question marks on me as well. Our party reached on conscience decision to not leave our moral principals.A

#A I have an emotional attachment to politics, but the message that came from the other side was strong.

# I met with Tejashwi Yadav and asked him to explain to the public. He said you tell me what should I say, i replied have no idea about your lands and properties. You have to explain your self.

# We started getting complaints. Could not stay silent on corruption, We have a tough stance on this and that's is why the situation turned difficult.

#A I had always said the law should take its own course and it did. But during that time when comments even against me were made Lalu-ji never came out against them. But I ignored it. From our side no one said anything against the supreme leader of the RJD.

# RJD is responsible for alliance failure, Lalu's party went against the coalition's dharma.

# JD(U) didnat speak anything against RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar

# When raid happened first, BJP was congratulated about new ally through tweet then explained within 40 mins, but what was its impact.

# I didn't have a choice, tolerated everything, thought this happens in the alliance. Continued to work.

#A Yesterday (Sunday) I had a lot of meetings and work. And that's why I am briefing you today.

#A After resigning as Bihar CM I had said what I had to. After that, a new government was formed, and a trust vote was conducted.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Monsoon Session of Parliament resumed on Monday after a break for the weekend. The Houses are due to consider key bills including Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-third Amendment) Bill, 2017, The National Commission for Backward Classes (Repeal) Bill, 2017, The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Bill, 2017.

Proposed last week, Banking Regulations (Amendment) Bill 2017 is all due for discussion on the Lok Sabha floor on Monday. Congress has issued whip for Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-third Amendment) Bill, 2017.

The Monsoon Session so far has been a mixed bag of disruptions and productive sessions. While the Houses have been able to pass some crucial bills, the Opposition leaders have continued to gherao government on the issue of farmer's loans, Biharpoliticall turmoil and other issues.

Monday session is likely to be overshadowed by Opposition's protest against alleged horse trading by BJP president Amit Shah in Gujarat ahead of Rajya Sabha elections due on August 8.

Suggested read | JDU turnaround helps BJP-led NDA inch closer to majority in Rajya Sabha

Here are the Live Updates:

#12:55 PM: Every state he(Kharge) mentioned acted on those who took law in their hands, cases are subjudice: Ananth Kumar,Union Min on mob lynchings

#12:30 PM: Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh have become mob lynching centres: Mallikarjun Kharge,Congress in Lok Sabha



#12:30 PM:The cases of violence Mr.Kharge is mentioning are already in the courts so why is he saying all this?: Nishikant Dubey,BJP in Lok Sabha



#12:20 PM: Govt is indirectly encouraging groups like the VHP,Bajrang Dal and also Gau rakshaks: Mallikarjun Kharge,Congress in Lok Sabha

#12:15 PM: Today whole nation is crippled with fear, the incidents of mob lynching are refusing to come a halt: Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress in Lok Sabha

Also read: 'Dissent is not treason', Army veterans write to PM Modi

#12:15 PM: Lok Sabha discusses mob lynching

#11:35 AM: Rajya Sabha adjourned till 11:40 am

#11:35 AM: Uproar in Rajya Sabha by Congress over Gujarat MLAs issue

#10:40 AM: Congress MP Madhusudan Mistry has given notice in Rajya Sabha on Gujarat MLAs issue





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New Delhi:

At least 114 Army veterans have written an Open Letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders of the government criticising the ultra-nationalist environment in the country.



"It saddens us to write this letter, but current events in India have compelled us to register our dismay at the divisiveness that is gripping our country," it said.



Clarifying that the group veterans were not affiliated to any political group or ideology the letter offered support to 'Not in My Name' campaign which was sparked by the recent killing of a 16-year-old Muslim boy on a train near Delhi by attackers who called him a 'beef-eater'.



"We stand with the 'Not in My Name' campaign that mobilised thousands of citizens across the country to protest against the current climate of fear, intimidation, hate and suspicion."



In the letter, the Army veterans said that they can "no longer look away. We would be doing a disservice to our country if we do not stand up and speak for the liberal and secular values that our Constitution espouses."



The veterans urged the the Centre and in the States to urgently act to uphold our Constitution, both in letter and in spirit.



Here is the full text of the letter:



"We are a group of Veterans of the Indian Armed Forces who have spent our careers working for the security of our country. Collectively, our group holds no affiliation with any single political party, our only common commitment being to the Constitution of India.



"It saddens us to write this letter, but current events in India have compelled us to register our dismay at the divisiveness that is gripping our country. We stand with the 'Not in My Name' campaign that mobilised thousands of citizens across the country to protest against the current climate of fear, intimidation, hate and suspicion.



"The Armed Forces stand for "Unity in Diversity". Differences in religion, language, caste, culture or any other marker of belonging have not mattered to the cohesion of the Armed Forces, and servicemen of different backgrounds have fought shoulder to shoulder in the defence of our nation, as they continue to do today. Throughout our service, a sense of openness, justice and fair play guided our actions. We are one family. Our heritage is like the multi-coloured quilt that is India, and we cherish this vibrant diversity.



"However, what is happening in our country today strikes at all that the Armed Forces, and indeed our Constitution, stand for. We are witness to unprecedented attacks on society at large by the relentless vigilantism of self-appointed protectors of Hinduism. We condemn the targeting of Muslims and Dalits. We condemn the clampdowns on free speech by attacks on media outlets, civil society groups, universities, journalists and scholars, through a campaign of branding them anti-national and unleashing violence against them while the State looks away.



"We can no longer look away. We would be doing a disservice to our country if we do not stand up and speak for the liberal and secular values that our Constitution espouses. Our diversity is our greatest strength. Dissent is not treason; in fact, it is the essence of democracy.



"We urge the powers that be at the Centre and in the States to take note of our concerns and urgently act to uphold our Constitution, both in letter and in spirit."

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New Delhi:

Friendship turned sour in politics is quite a cliche put to enormous use and misuse over the years by political parties of every hue and colour. This one trait in Indian political parties has consistently grabbed onomatopoeic headlines mostly centring around shock and bewilderment.



So, why was it that Nitish Kumars betrayal of his associate-turned-foe-turned political ally Lalu Prasad Yadav did not evince shock or amazement from quarters it was most expected. Why was it that Laloo Yadavs whining he has been a victim of conspiracies hatched by communal forces to slight him and his equally picchhda vote bank found no takers this time round. Why was it that Nitishs slipping straight into the open arms of Modis ( Narendra and Sushil, more so the former since his bhakt-chiseled chest size is more virat and viral than the latter) after dumping his bade bhai is not being read mainly at the narcissistic intersection of secularism vs communalism, debates around which has the country in a tailspin past three years. Why is it that Nitishs politics of convenience cannot be judged purely on his roller-coaster relationship with former ally RJD without the mention of the third equally important player in the mahagatbandhan - the Congress party.



It is not easy to pin point exact answers to this political sudoku but one cannot pretend to ignore veritable play of cause and effect that have been on exhibit in Bihar political chessboard since 2013 when Nitish decided to break ties with its oldest ally BJP after the party declared Narendra Modi as its Prime Ministerial face for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Suggested read | Five occasions when Nitish Kumar supported Prime Minister Narendra Modi



It was a bold yet risky move and going by the rumblings on the ground many assailed Nitish for what was dubbed in certain quarters as political harakari. Yet he stuck to his guns risking his lifes entire political earnings at the altar of politics being increasingly polarised by the BJP in its all out effort to capture power at the centre after a hiatus of ten years.



With Modi as its face, BJP went all out to capture the minds of the voters. That Modi sought to temper his aggressive Hindutva politics by putting on the mask of vikas proved to be a winsome combination. The BJP not only covered its ground well but crossed the magic figure without the aid of its allies.



The Modi tsunami rocked Nitish boat hard as JD(U) could manage to win only two seats, a humiliating come down from 20 seats it won in 2009. Though none in his party could have questioned his authority, Nitish delivered a masterstroke when owning moral responsibility for the poll debacle he stepped down as the chief minister.



Modis rise at the centre also coincided with the Congress partys almost near and total decimation. The party buckled under the weight of its own inefficiency and corruption and was left nursing its wounds.The verdict had swung decisively back to the political right. The narrative had changed dramatically overnight. Eight months down the line and the Congress party would draw a historical cypher in the elections to the Delhi Assembly.

Suggested read | PM Modi congratulates Nitish Kumar on being sworn in as Bihar CM



Those wounded by the Congress debacle and mourning the loss of space for secular politics at the Centre suddenly turned to Nitish as if he held a magic wand. This included the Congress itself. The Congress faced a double whammy. Having lost power at the Centre the party seemed to lack the necessary stamina and the will to take on BJPs aggressive Hindutva packaged in nationalism that ejected one Congress government after another from states across the country. Rahul Gandhis uninspiring leadership only quickened the pace of Congress downfall.



Nitishs electoral pact with his bete noire Lalu Yadav and taking on the Congress on board the Mahagatbandhan spawned a whole new breed of naysayers. But Nitish also realised the limitations of winning an election. Personal integrity can help you get there but not quite unless you represent the dominant backward caste among the OBCs. He needed numbers in the next Assembly that eluded him in parliamentary polls to stay relevant in Bihar politics as Modi had already clipped his wings to fly north towards New Delhi. Having cut the umbilical cord with the BJP only because of Modi, Nitish found Laloo waiting for him at the next intersection.



Nitish-Laloo hit the bulls eye in 2015 Assembly elections. The RJD-JD(U) combination clicked big time, registering victory bigger than any Nitish had had in conjunction with his old ally, the BJP, in the last three elections. Nitish had gotten even with Modi. Laloo got his legitimacy back.



But RJD-JD(U) proved an uneasy alliance. The two partners became increasingly suspicious of each other. Lalu never failed to rub it in he was a bigger partner in the alliance and more than willing to exact his pound of flesh. Gangster Shahabuddins release from jail embarrassed Nitish to no end. His government had to seek refuge in the Supreme Court to put the gangster back in jail. And then came a torrent of corruption cases against the Lalu Pariwar. The involvement of deputy chief minister Tejaswi Yadav in railway tender scam got Nitishs goat. Already teetering on the brinks of a precipice the Mahagatbandhan now had the necessary ingredients to implode.

Suggested read | CM Nitish Kumar says he will not compromise on corruption, Bihar will develop with Centre's cooperation



The Centre worked overnight to facilitate Nitishs re-entry into the NDA fold. The signals were loud and clear. What Lalu failed to hear Modi went out of the way to tune into Nitishs Mann ki Baat.



Nitish is back in the NDA fold. But the big question is will he get his mojo back. What development model will Nitish bring to the table. Can Bihar look forward to Nitish delivering his inclusive development model or will that be compromised and in sync with Modis brand of vikas. Has Nitish come to accept corruption is a bigger evil and that secular politics has severe limitations. How will Nitish react to unstoppable fringe Hindutva brigade's sadistic celebration of cow nationalism on the streets. Or can it be safely deduced that by co-opting Nitish, Modi has managed to squeeze the opposition space even further in the run up to 2019 elections.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Several initiatives have been taken by the Yogi-government including the formation of anti-romeo squad for the safety of the fairer sex but all steps taken seem futile as three unidentified youths threw acid on a girl in her early twenties after she protested eve-teasing at Uttar Pradeshs Deoria on Monday.

According to media reports the miscreants threw acid on the girl a few metres away from Superintendent of Polices resident.

The victim was rushed to hospital. Doctors of the hospital told the media that her condition is critical.

Till the time report was filed the police had failed to nab the acid-attackers.

Also Read: Center proposes reservation in govt jobs, promotions for acid attack victims

On learning the incident Deoria Superintendent of Police rushed to the hospital to fetch information of the incident.

Local police told the media that the girl was taking a beautician course from a beauty parlor.

Also Read| London acid attacks: Teenager charged with 15 offences in UK

She was on her way to the parlor when the three attacked her, said a police officer who part of the investigating team to the media.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau Uttar Pradesh has cited highest number of acid attacks compared to the nation.
New Delhi:

A bizarre incident of ghost sighting was reported on Sunday in Air India crew Hotel in Chicago. The crew who was staying in the hotel claimed to have felt paranormal activities in the hotel and their bed rooms.

The staffers of Air India claimed they are feeling negative energies in their hotel rooms which is disturbing their lives and they are not able to get proper rest. Deputy Chief Cabin Crew has also sought managements intervention and written them to change their hotel.

News agency ANI claimed to have accessed the complaint letter written to Air India management by the scared crew.

The letter says, Majority of the crew are facing negative energies through paranormal activities in the hotel, most of us share rooms and sleep as we feel scared sleeping alone which is very unpleasant, after operating a ULH we are not able to get proper rest as these things keep playing in our mind. Even online there is a complete description about incidents of paranormal activities about this hotel still the contract with this hotel was signed.

I have been coming to this hotel since November'16 and every time something unpleasant has been happening. I would request you to look into the matter and change this hotel on urgent basis as most of us don't feel comfortable staying here.

I would also request you to please 'Do Not' assign me any Chicago flights till the hotel is changed as it's very uncomfortable in the hotel.

Let's not wait for any miss happening to happen. Waiting for the necessary action," the letter said in a passionate appeal.

Air India is also aware of the incident and investigating the unpleasant events.

"Matter is under investigation and we are in contact with our Chicago station," the agency quoted Air India spokesperson Dhananjay Kumar as saying.

News Nation does not endorse or support superstition.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

In a veiled attack on Pakistan, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday said the nation has been facing cross-border terrorism for several years and it has been recognised as a larger and global challenge.

While speaking at India-US forum, the minister said that the governments 'Neighbourhood first policy' has yielded results with all countries in the region barring one.

She said India has emerged as one of largest recipients of foreign direct investments, reaching figure of 60 billion US dollars last year.

Our 'Neighbourhood first policy' has yielded results with all countries in the region barring one: EAM Sushma Swaraj at India-US Forum pic.twitter.com/3rGIZDpBH7  ANI (@ANI_news) July 31, 2017

Swaraj said Prime Minister Modi and President Donald Trump had made clear and unambiguous message jointly which needs to be pursued with resolving by the international community.

Also Read | Jammu and Kashmir: Pakistan violates ceasefire in Nowshera sector

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New Delhi:

BJP president Amit Shah on Monday addressed a press conference from Lucknow along with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Shah, who has been on a three-day visit to Lucknow as part of his nationwide tour, attacked Opposition and previous governments for being ineffective and counted achievements of Modi Government's last three years.A

Here are the live updates:

#It seems Congress does not trust its MLAs. Why have they been made prisoners?: Amit Shah on Gujarat Cong MLAs in Bengaluru resort: Shah

#BJP will make the Government at the Centre in 2019 with a bigger marginA

#In Paris Climate Change Summit, India emerged as global leaderA



#In agriculture sector, Modi Govt has brought schemes which will double farmers'income by 2022

#Modi Govt sanctioned One Rank One Pension within a year



#ISRO established 104 satellites in orbit at onceA



#Modi Govt gave Constitutional status to OBC commissionA



#Modi Govt ensured electricity coverage in 13 thousand villages, by May 2018 it will reach 19 thousand villagesA



#In last three years, Modi Govt has been able to build 4.5 crore toilets for poor



#Demonetised weeded out black money in an unprecedented manner



#Established Yoga Diwas as an international festivalA



#Brought down prices of medicines

#With surgical strike, Modi Govt has understood that India does not need anyone for protection: Shah

#World has accepted that Indian Economy is growing rapidly

#Modi govt has been so well managed and effective that Opposition has not been able to levy a single corruption charge: Shah

#Previous government have been so ineffective that no one knew who was PM, who was not: Amit Shah

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Kabul:

A suicide bomber blew himself upoutside the Iraqi embassy in Kabul on Monday and militants breached the compound, Afghan officials said, in a complexhours-long attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

All the attackers had been killed and the compound secured roughly four hours after the assault began, Afghanistan's interior ministry said, adding that all embassy staff were safe and only one policeman wounded "slightly".

Earlier, black smoke billowed into the air above the neighbourhood in northwestern Kabul as the sound of gunfire,blasts and ambulance sirens could be heard. Panicked residents, including women and children, could be seen fleeing the area.

The interior ministry said at least four militants hadattacked the embassy, beginning with a suicide bomber who detonated his vest at the compound entrance.

"The quick-response police forces arrived in time and evacuated the Iraqi diplomats to safe place. No embassy staff have been harmed, only one policeman was wounded slightly," a ministry statement said.

The Iraqi foreign ministry in Baghdad said the charged' affairs was among those evacuated and that it was monitoring the situation with Afghan authorities, without giving further details. The Islamic State's propaganda agency Amaq released a statement claiming responsibility for the attack, saying two members "attacked the Iraqi embassy building in the Afghan city of Kabul".

The embassy is located in northwestern Kabul, in a neighbourhood that is home to several hotels and banks as well as large supermarkets and several police compounds. "I heard a big blast followed by several explosions and small gunfire," said Ahmad Ali, a nearby shopkeeper.

"People were worried and closed their shops to run forsafety. The roads are still blocked by security forces." The attack is the latest to rock Kabul, which is regularly devastated by bomb blasts and militant assaults, often killing many civilians. The resurgent Taliban claim many of the attacks as they step up their bid to drive out foreign forces with a series of assaults across the country. But the Islamic State group, recently ousted from the Iraqi city of Mosul, have been expanding their footprint ineastern Afghanistan and have claimed responsibility for several devastating attacks in Kabul.

First emerging in 2015, the group's local affiliate Islamic State Khorasan Province (IS-K), overran large parts of eastern Nangarhar and Kunar provinces, near the Pakistan border, where they engaged in a turf war with the Taliban. US forces in Afghanistan have repeatedly targeted the group, killing its head Abu Sayed and several senior advisers in a July 11 strike in Kunar, the Pentagon has said.

The decision to deploy the so-called Mother Of All Bombs(MOAB) also targeted IS hideouts in Nangarhar, according tothe Afghan defence ministry, though fighting in the area has continued. Pentagon officials say the group now numbers fewer than 1,000 in Afghanistan.

"We will be relentless in our campaign against ISIS-K.There are no safe havens in Afghanistan," said General John Nicholson, commander of US forces in Afghanistan, in a statement yesterday confirming some of the deaths in the July11 strike.

The group is believed to be on the back foot in the Middle East, where analysts have said it has lost more than 60per cent of its territory and 80 per cent of its revenue, three years after declaring its self-styled "caliphate" acrosss wathes of Iraq and Syria.

But analysts said today's attack in Kabul would be seenas a warning to Baghdad after it pushed IS out of Mosul. "(IS) wants to send a message to many states, not just to Iraq, to prove that it is present everywhere... particularly after the victories of the Iraqi security forces in Mosul,"said Issam al-Fili, a professor of Political Sciences at the Al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
A small observation rocket launched by Japanese startup Interstellar Technologies Inc. on Sunday failed to reach space.

The first Momo rocket, developed by the company, based in the town of Taiki in the northernmost Japan prefecture of Hokkaido, was launched from a site in the town.

The company aimed to bring the rocket to an altitude of 100 kilometers or higher in outer space. But its engine was stopped as communication with the rocket was disrupted about 66 seconds after the liftoff, company officials said.

The rocket is believed to have risen to an altitude of 20 kilometers, the officials said, adding that it did not reach space.
A 16-year-old high school student and two men were arrested Monday for allegedly robbing a man of a bag containing about 72 million yen in cash in Tokyo's Ginza shopping district in April, police said.

The boy, along with Okito Ogasawara, 20, and Yuta Kurata, 23, are suspected of snatched the bag from the man on a Ginza street at around 1:30 p.m. on April 21, the police said. The high school student's name is being withheld because he is a minor.

According to the police, the boy, who belongs to a public high school in Chiba Prefecture, admitted to the charge. The two adult suspects have denied the allegations.

The police said they identified the suspects from security camera footage taken around the incident site.

The victim was carrying the cash shortly after selling a 15-kilogram gold bullion at a nearby shop.

The trio made off with only 40 million yen of the cash in the bag as they dropped some 32 million yen at the site, the police said, adding Ogasawara and Kurata used to be in the same motorcycle gang and lured the boy into joining the heist.

Jul 31 (ANNnewsCH) - aSa4aaaeSaaeaSacace7000aaaaSaaaaYaaaaaaaaYaaaaeeaae cYaaa3aaeaaaaYa
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Bars across the country are rich in history, some dating back centuries.

The Daily Meal recently named the oldest bars in all 50 states, as well as Washington, D.C.

The food site said it included bars "that have either been in continuous operation in one place for longer than anyone else in the state, or, in a few instances, bars that occupy spaces that were bars long ago and are continuing that tradition and atmosphere to the modern day."

The Griswold Inn in Essex is home to the oldest bar in Connecticut, according to the report.

The inn's website said its bar, called the Tap Room, was originally built as a schoolhouse in 1735.

Click through the slideshow above for a look at some of the oldest bars in the U.S., and here for the full list.

"The vast majority of these bars are well over 100 years old, reaching back into the 1800s, the 1700s, and in some instances, even the 1600s," the report writes.

According to The Daily Meal, the bars on the list celebrate the past, often making visitors feel like they are stepping back in time. The Griswold's website acknowledges that they aim to maintain, "the charm of days gone by" but insist the experience is "anything but dated."

On Facebook, it lands 4.5 stars from nearly 1,000 reviews.

"One of my all time favorites. Especially around the holidays, it's spectacular! The Gris, however, is festive throughout the year," one reviewer wrote. "The wine bar is cozy and has great food and atmosphere. The tap room always has live music and is so much fun."

George Washington, Mark Twain, Katharine Hepburn and Albert Einstein are among the notable guests who once ate and drank at the Griswold Inn.
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NEW FAIRFIELD  Three of Connecticuts federal lawmakers have written to federal immigration authorities urging them to allow a Guatemalan man facing deportation to stay in the country while he tries to get legal status.

Joel Colindres, who lives in New Fairfield with his wife, Samantha, a U.S. citizen, and their two American-born children, was told July 20 during a meeting with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that he has to leave the country by Aug. 17.

Colindres came to the United States in 2004, and says a mix-up with paperwork led him to miss a court date that year, resulting in an order for his removal. The order has created a barrier for him to receive legal status based on his 2010 marriage.

Since then, his friends and family have pledged to fight his deportation. Last week, nearly 100 people gathered in Hartford at a rally while he was at another meeting with ICE officials.

In their letter to ICE and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty and Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Christopher Murphy, all Democrats, ask that ICE give a stay of his deportation full and fair consideration.

ICE has confirmed that Mr. Colindres has committed no crimes, contributes to his community, is employed, pays taxes and is raising a family, they wrote in the letter. He should be granted every consideration possible to remain in the United States and continue his pathway to citizenship.

Joel Colindres said on Monday that he was overwhelmed with emotion.

I want to thank Senator Blumenthal, Senator Murphy and Congresswoman Esty for their hard work and support of our case, he said. I am so thankful for my amazing wife, friends, family and other supporters for everything. I am feeling a bit more hopeful today and just really amazed how wonderful this country is that so many people have come together to fight for me.

The legislators letter says the Colindres family depends on his income and that his wife was recently diagnosed with two medical conditions that cause her pain on a daily basis.

If he were forced to be separated from his children, they would not only suffer emotionally, but could also face homelessness, as Mrs. Colindres cannot afford their mortgage payments on her income alone, the legislators wrote.

ICE spokesman Shawn Neudauer said in an email Monday that agency officials will respond directly to Esty, Blumenthal and Murphy, and declined to comment further on the letter.

In a separate letter, Blumenthal wrote to Elaine Duke, acting secretary at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, imploring her to address the profound irrationality and cruelty of certain current deportation policies.

I strongly urge you to grant stays and other temporary or permanent relief in cases nationally and in Connecticut involving undocumented individuals who have lived in our country for lengthy periods, raising families, working in stable jobs, paying taxes, and contributing to their communities - all without committing any criminal offenses or posing any danger to our nations security, Blumenthal wrote.

Such people, he said, include Colindres; Nury Chavarria, of Norwalk, a Guatemalan native issued an emergency stay of her deportation last week order after she took sanctuary in a New Haven church; and Luis Barrios, of Derby, who recently found out he will have an opportunity to present his case for asylum.

Hoping for more time

In May, Colindres attorneys filed a request for a waiver from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, which if approved could help him get legal status.

Colindres attorney, Erin ONeil-Baker, said since Colindres has a removal order, he cant get permanent residency and, if he leaves the country, wont be able to return for 10 years.

If the waiver is granted, she said, it means in essence that it has been excused or forgiven. She added that it can take six to nine months for USCIS to decide on the waiver.

The support from the CT Congressional delegation is so wonderful because this letter of support gets to the heart of Joels issue, which is he just needs a few months more time until he receives a decision on his waiver, said ONeil-Baker, who works in Hartford.

Once his waiver is granted he can pursue his legal permanent residency, she said. He wants to do this final period of waiting here in the U.S. with his family and in his home and that is all he seeks.
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Is there room for more than one second chance Dan in the governors office?

Middletown Mayor Dan Drew is standing by a one-time Mafia associate, who served prison time for racketeering and contributed to Drews exploratory committee for governor.

Salvatore Butch DAquila Jr. has given $375, the maximum allowed under the states clean-elections law, to Drew since the beginning of the year, filings with the state Elections Enforcement Commission show. He also attended a fundraiser for Drew, a Democrat who is seeking to become the heir apparent to criminal justice reformer Gov. Dannel P. Malloy in 2018

In 1991, DAquila was sentenced to 15 years in prison for running an illegal gambling ring for the Patriarca crime family  aka the New England mob.

Im not going to run away from him, Drew, now a declared candidate for governor, told Hearst Connecticut Media. He paid his debt to society.

DAquila listed his occupation as a manager for the Carabetta Companies, a property management, real estate development and construction company, on his contribution form. The firm has at least 11 rental properties in Middletown, where Drew said he was not aware of any contracts between the city and the company.

He is a member of the Middletown community, Drew said of DAquila, an Old Saybrook resident. Hes a friend.

Connecticut has developed a reputation as the second chance state under Malloy because of the governors bail reform and other criminal justice reform initiatives. And then theres Joe Ganim, the second chance mayor of the states largest city, Bridgeport, who is also exploring a run for governor after his imprisonment for corruption.

An internal foe

for Merrill?

Just when the Trump administrations deep dive for illegal voters was becoming a headache for Connecticuts top election official, now Democrat Denise Merrill is facing the prospect of a primary challenge.

If Merrill runs for a third term as secretary of the state  and thats a big if.

Karen Talamelli Cusick, the Democratic Town Committee chairwoman of Woodbridge, registered last week as a 2018 candidate for the office occupied by Merrill since 2011.

She said she gave a heads-up to Merrill, who has been mum about her political future.

In a written statement Monday, Merrill said she thought her most important work to protect voting rights and expand voter participation in Connecticut is yet to come. I will announce my plans in due time, but for now I'm focused on the task at hand."

I dont feel that Im running against her, Cusick said.

The finance director for Project Service LLC, which operates all of the service plazas on Interstates 95 and 395 and Route 15, Cusick said she would look to improve the working relationship between the secretary of the states office and the business community. In addition to supervising elections, the office is the commercial record keeper for the state.

I think the secretary of the states office can be doing so much more and can make a difference, Cusick said. Plausible deniability is not an excuse and the status quo is not an option.

Merrill has balked at a request by the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity for a trove of voter information. The panel was created by the Trump administration after the president claimed that illegal voting by undocumented immigrants cost him the popular vote in the November election against Hillary Clinton.

Legislator eyes

statewide office

A likely opening in the state comptrollers office is piquing the interest of state Rep. Sean Scanlon.

The second-term Democrat comes from Guilford, the hometown of the offices current occupant, Kevin Lembo, who is raising money for a probable run for governor.

Scanlon should have no trouble getting a reference from his boss, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, for whom he works as director of community affairs.

Comptroller is Connecticuts fiscal watchdog, and there is a lot of watching that needs to be done right now, Scanlon said.

Scanlon had been eyeing the state Senate seat of Ted Kennedy Jr. before the JFK nephew from Branford nixed a run for governor.

Honestly, my ultimate decision about this will not be about one seat closed or this is an open seat, Scanlon said.

The co-chairman of the Legislatures Insurance Committee, Scanlon said, he would try to pick up the efforts of Lembo to try to bring more sunlight to drug pricing in the state. Lembo introduced a drug price gouging bill that died in March.

Scanlon also said he would look at increasing overtime costs incurred by the state amid workforce reductions.

I think theres a lot that can be done from that office, Scanlon said.

twitter.com/gettinviggy; nvigdor@hearstmediact.com; 203-625-4436
North Korea seems to be preparing another ballistic missile test this week, CNN reported Monday quoting a Pentagon official.

On U.S. military satellite images, "transporter vehicles carrying ballistic missile launching equipment were seen arriving in Kusong, North Korea on Friday," it said.

Kusong is a launch site in North Pyongan Province.

"The official said that when such equipment is seen, a launch could occur within six days," CNN added. This would coincide with July 27, the 64th anniversary of the armistice of the Korean War.

"Continuous movements of a launch vehicle have been detected in North Pyongan Province," a government source in Seoul also said on Tuesday. "South Korean and U.S. military authorities are keeping and eye on the mobile launcher, which is capable of firing a missile anytime."

Meanwhile, the U.S. is going to conduct another test of a THAAD missile interceptor that will be launched from the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Kodiak, Alaska on Saturday, according to the U.S. Missile Defense Agency. This will be a second such test since July 11.


TORONTO, July 28, 2017 /CNW/ - The recently established Canadian Chapter of The Prince's Accounting for Sustainability (A4S) CFO Leadership Network will be working on three initial projects.

The Network brings together a group of leading CFOs from large organizations seeking to embed the management of environmental and social issues into strategy and business processes.

The three projects were unveiled yesterday at a Chapter event in Toronto and they are:

Managing the future today: ways to develop a strategic response to the risks and opportunities posed by major social and environmental trends





Social and human capital accounting





Incentivizing action: the role of the finance team in encouraging suppliers, customers, investee organizations and others along the value chain to take action on sustainability.

The Prince's Accounting for Sustainability Project is part of the Prince of Wales's Charities Foundation.

"Canada 150 provides us with the opportunity to look back, but also to consider what the future holds. We are facing a defining moment in history as we seek to build a prosperous, inclusive society in the face of huge challenges such as climate change," says Benita Warmbold, co-chair of the CFO Leadership Network in Canada and former CFO of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB). "As CFOs, we have come together with the aim of making a tangible contribution by transforming approaches to finance and accounting so that the environment and society are truly integrated into decision making."

The projects identified will offer practical advice and solutions to support finance professionals to build sustainable business models and a resilient economy. They will develop new tools, guidance and case studies that will provide practical approaches for finance professionals to embed sustainability into decision making.

"These projects will help us and the wider finance community to utilize open discussion and collaboration among peers to address social and environmental challenges," explains Brian Lawson, CFO of Brookfield Asset Management and CFO Leadership Network member. "For Brookfield, understanding the value of the social and human capital that we create is fundamental, both to our own success and the contribution that we make to society. Similarly, we can have a significant impact by analysing our value chain and identifying ways to incentivize action towards sustainable outcomes."

Jessica Fries, executive chairman of A4S, adds: "Practical approaches and examples are needed to help organizations overcome ever-evolving challenges especially in today's global economy. These projects will help CFOs and finance teams make a tangible contribution to their organization's purpose and profitability, as well as the wider economy, environment and society."

The Canadian Chapter is run in partnership with Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA Canada) and is supported by The Prince's Charities Canada.

"Collaboration can bring about real and effective change," stresses Joy Thomas, president and CEO of CPA Canada. "The potential offered by the CFO initiative is enormous and we also believe it helps to cultivate the Canadian ideal of good business championed by our organization for its recognition that sustainable growth and social development are intertwined in today's world."

The event was hosted by CPA Canada and the Canadian Chapter founding members which includes the CFOs from the following organizations: British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, Brookfield Asset Management, The Co-operators Group, City of Vancouver, Manulife, Metrolinx, Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS), Telus and the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB).

The CFO Leadership Network Canadian members are:

Lawrence Davis , British Columbia Investment Management Corporation

, British Columbia Investment Management Corporation Brian Lawson , Brookfield Asset Management

, Brookfield Asset Management Benita Warmbold (retired CFO of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB))

(retired CFO of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB)) Patrice Impey , City of Vancouver

, Bruce West , The Co-operators Group

, The Co-operators Group Steve Roder , Manulife Financial Corporation

, Manulife Financial Corporation Robert Siddall , Metrolinx

, Metrolinx Jonathan Simmons , Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS)

, Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) Douglas French , Telus

, Telus Pamela Steer , Workplace Safety & Insurance Board (WSIB)

For more details on the CFO Leadership Network see: www.accountingforsustainability.org/canada or www.cpacanada.ca/a4s

About The Prince's Accounting for Sustainability Project (A4S)

The Prince's Accounting for Sustainability Project (A4S) was established by HRH The Prince of Wales in 2004 to mobilize action and leadership by the finance and accounting community to address the challenges to the economy and society posed by issues such as climate change, increasing depletion of and demand for natural resources, urbanization and inequality. A4S seeks to inspire action by finance leaders to drive a fundamental shift towards resilient business models and a sustainable economy.

A4S works with the finance and accounting community to:

Inspire finance leaders to adopt sustainable and resilient business models

Transform financial decision making to enable an integrated approach, reflective of the opportunities and risks posed by environmental and social issues

Scale up action across the global finance and accounting community

A4S has two global networks: the A4S Chief Financial Officers Leadership Network, a group of CFOs from leading companies seeking to transform finance and accounting, and the Accounting Bodies Network (ABN) whose members comprise approximately two thirds of the world's accountants.

www.accountingforsustainability.org

About CPA Canada

The new Canadian designation, Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA), is now used by Canada's accounting profession across the country. The profession's national body, Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA Canada), is one of the largest in the world with more than 210,000 members, both at home and abroad. The Canadian CPA was created with the unification of three legacy accounting designations (CA, CGA and CMA). CPAs are valued for their financial and tax expertise, strategic thinking, business insight, management skills and leadership. CPA Canada conducts research into current and emerging business issues and supports the setting of accounting, auditing and assurance standards for business, not-for-profit organizations and government. CPA Canada also issues guidance and thought leadership on a variety of technical matters, publishes professional literature and develops education and professional certification programs. cpacanada.ca

SOURCE CPA Canada

For further information: The Prince of Wales's Accounting for Sustainability Project (A4S), Deborah McSkimming, Senior Communications Adviser, A4S, Tel: +44(0)7391 512090, [email protected]; CPA Canada, John Fenton, Manager, Media Relations, Tel: 416-204-3941, [email protected]

Related Links

www.cpacanada.ca


VANCOUVER, July 27, 2017 /CNW/ - Economical Insurance and its employees across the country are proud to give nearly $12,000 to support the efforts of the Canadian Red Cross to help families displaced by the massive wildfires in British Columbia. Economical is providing $5,000 and has matched employee donations up to $100 per employee for a total contribution of $11,730.

"Our colleagues all across Canada responded quickly and generously and, with company matching, our total contribution will go towards the ongoing efforts of the Canadian Red Cross here in BC," said Cheryl Edmunson, Regional Vice President, Sales & Distribution of Economical Insurance in British Columbia.

"We have been on the ground since July 14 supporting our customers and broker partners at resiliency centres in the area of the wildfires," added Edmunson. "We are getting money into the hands of our customers displaced by the wildfires so they can be as comfortable as they can be until they are able to return home. Our claims people are meeting customers face-to-face to help restore their lives. We're also taking calls from BC customers at 1-800-661-4404."

About Economical Insurance

Founded in 1871, Economical is one of Canada's leading property and casualty insurers, with more than $2.1 billion in annualized premium volume and more than $5.4 billion in assets as at March 31, 2017. Based in Waterloo, this Canadian-owned and operated company services the insurance needs of more than one million customers across the country. Economical conducts business under the following brands: Economical Insurance, Economical, Western General, Economical Select, Perth Insurance, Sonnet, Petsecure, Economical Financial, and Family Insurance Solutions.

SOURCE Economical Insurance

For further information: Doug Maybee, Manager, Public and Media Relations, Economical Insurance, (T) 519.570.8249, (C) 519.404.0989, [email protected]

Related Links

www.economical.com


**Strong overall performance with PBT up 36% for the quarter**

VANCOUVER, July 31, 2017 /CNW/ -

Profit before income tax expense for the quarter ended 30 June 2017 was $228m , an increase of 35.7% compared with the same period in 2016.

was , an increase of 35.7% compared with the same period in 2016. Profit attributable to the common shareholder was $158m for the quarter ended 30 June 2017 , an increase of 42.3% compared with the same period in 2016.

for the quarter ended , an increase of 42.3% compared with the same period in 2016. Return on average common equity was 13.3% for the quarter ended 30 June 2017 compared with 9.8% for the same period in 2016.

compared with 9.8% for the same period in 2016. The cost efficiency ratio was 64.1% for the quarter ended 30 June 2017 compared with 57.3% for the same period in 2016.

compared with 57.3% for the same period in 2016. In its annual Awards for Excellence, Euromoney magazine named HSBC the 'World's Best Bank'. HSBC was also named the top bank in several other categories including 'Best Transaction Bank in North America .'

magazine named HSBC the 'World's Best Bank'. HSBC was also named the top bank in several other categories including 'Best Transaction Bank in .' Total assets were $95.8bn at 30 June 2017 compared with $94.7bn at 31 December 2016 .

at compared with at . Common equity tier 1 capital ratio was 10.5%, tier 1 ratio 12.4% and total capital ratio 14.7% at 30 June 2017 .

The abbreviations '$m' and '$bn' represent millions and billions of Canadian dollars, respectively.

This news release is issued by

HSBC Bank Canada

Financial Commentary

Overview

HSBC Bank Canada reported a profit before income tax expense of $228m for the second quarter of 2017, an increase of $60m, or 36% compared with the second quarter of 2016. The increase in profit before income tax is primarily due to recoveries of loan impairment charges from improved credit conditions mainly in the oil and gas industry compared to high impairment charges in the second quarter last year. This was partially offset by a decrease in trading revenues as a result of favorable fixed income trading activities in the prior year. Operating expenses were higher from the bank's continued investment in regulatory compliance, financial crime risk, and strategic spending to reduce future costs; as well as investments to support the growth of our businesses.

Commercial banking remains focused on enhancing and simplifying its delivery model, improving productivity for the benefit of its customers and employees. Our strategic plan is focused on growing market share through expansion in Eastern Canada, increasing productivity by deepening product penetration, streamlining processes and leveraging our differentiated product suite in Global Trade and Receivable Finance (GTRF) and Global Liquidity and Cash Management (GLCM), and building on our position as the leading international bank with improved positioning in US-Canada corridor.

Global Banking and Markets generated higher event fee revenues through increased advisory and debt underwriting activities on a year to date basis by leveraging HSBC's global network on behalf of its clients.

Retail Banking and Wealth Management had 4% growth in total relationship balances, with increased sales across our products consistent with our focus on growing and serving our customer base. We continue to invest in strategic initiatives to make our bank simpler, faster and better for our customers.

Commenting on the results, Sandra Stuart, President and Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Bank Canada, said:

"Our strong performance in the first half was the result of continuing improvement in our oil and gas portfolio. In the second quarter, we recorded net new money sales in Retail Banking and Wealth Management and an increase in new-to-bank clients in Commercial Banking. There has been significant growth in revenues related to our international capabilities as our clients increasingly rely on HSBC's international network to support their work with Canada's key trading partners. This is consistent with Euromoney naming HSBC the top bank for transaction banking in North America, and the World's Best Bank."

"In this period, we also launched a number of options to enhance the digital experience including ApplePay, mobile cheque deposit and an upgraded online investing platform for our retail customers, as well as a new foreign exchange platform for customers of our Global Banking and Markets business and Commercial Bank. We also continued to hire and expand our team across the country to support the growth of each of our lines of business. As we move into the second half of the year, we do so with great momentum and pride in what we have been able to deliver for our customers."

Analysis of consolidated financial results for the second quarter of 2017

Net interest income for the second quarter of 2017 was $285m, an increase of $5m, or 2%, compared with the second quarter of 2016. Net interest income for the first half of 2017 was $567m, an increase of $6m, or 1%, compared with the first half of 2016. The increases over comparative periods were mainly driven by margin improvements. Yields on interest earning assets have increased over comparative periods. Whereas funding costs have decreased over the same periods, most notably in debt securities and other interest-bearing liabilities.

Net fee income for the second quarter of 2017 was $165m, a decrease of $6m, or 4%, compared with the second quarter of 2016. Net fee income for the first half of 2017 was $325m, a decrease of $7m, or 2%, compared with the first half of 2016. The decrease is primarily due to lower credit facilities and account services related fees.

Net trading income for the second quarter of 2017 was $22m, a decrease of $27m, or 55%, compared with the second quarter of 2016. Net trading income for the first half of 2017 was $53m, a decrease of $63m, or 54%, compared with the first half of 2016. The quarter-end decrease is mainly driven by a fixed income trading transaction which favourably impacted trading activities and negatively impacted changes in the credit and funding valuation adjustments in the prior year. The half-year end decrease is mainly driven by fixed income trading transactions and favourable changes in the credit and funding valuation adjustments in the prior year due to the tightening of client and HSBC's own credit spreads.

Gains less losses from financial investments for the second quarter of 2017 were $3m, a decrease of $3m, or 50%, compared with the second quarter of 2016. Gains on the sale of available-for-sale debt securities arose from the continued rebalancing of the bank's liquid assets.

Net expense from financial instruments designated at fair value for the second quarter of 2017 was $1m, which remains unchanged with the second quarter of 2016. The net expense from financial instruments designated at fair value was caused by marginal narrowing of the bank's own credit spread.

Other operating income for the second quarter of 2017 was $22m, an increase of $2m, or 10%, compared with the second quarter of 2016. The increase was mainly due to higher income from other Group entities.

Loan impairment recoveries and other credit risk provisions for the second quarter of 2017 were a recovery of $46m, an improvement of $100m compared with the second quarter of 2016. Loan impairment charges and other credit risk provisions for the first half of 2017 were a recovery of $95m, an improvement of $234m compared with the first half of 2016. This net loan impairment recovery over the comparative periods largely reflects improving credit conditions, notably as individually assessed and other credit risk provisions reduced, primarily against exposures in the oil and gas, and construction industry.

Total operating expenses for the second quarter of 2017 were $318m, an increase of $17m, or 6%, compared with the second quarter of 2016. This increase reflects the ongoing implementation of our Global Standards program to enhance our financial crime risk controls and capabilities. We have maintained our transformational efforts, developing our digital and wealth capabilities, and continue to realize the benefit of our cost-savings program.

Share of profit in associates for the second quarter of 2017 was a gain of $4m, an increase of $6m compared with the second quarter of 2016. Share of profit in associates for the first half of 2017 was a gain of $3m, an increase of $5m compared with the first half of 2016.

Income tax expense. The effective tax rate in the second quarter of 2017 was 26.3%, which is close to the statutory tax rate. The effective rate for the second quarter of 2016 was 27.7%.

Business performance in the second quarter of 2017

Commercial Banking

Profit before income tax expense was $168m for the second quarter of 2017, an increase of $103m, or 158%, compared with the second quarter of 2016. Profit before income tax expense was $329m for the first half of 2017, an increase of $217m, or 194%, compared with the first half of 2016. The increases from last year were driven primarily by lower loan impairment charges as a result of improving credit conditions.

Global Banking and Markets

Profit before income tax expense was $36m for the second quarter of 2017, a decrease of $14m, or 28%, compared with the second quarter of 2016. The decrease resulted from a favorable fixed income trading transaction in the prior year and lower equity underwriting activities. This was partially offset by an improvement in loan impairment charges due to provisions taken during the prior year. Profit before income tax expense was $76m for the first half of 2017, a decrease of $43m compared to the first half of 2016. The decrease was driven by favourable fixed income trading transactions in the prior year and changes in credit and funding valuation adjustments due to the tightening of clients and HSBC's own credit. This was partially offset by higher revenues from advisory and debt underwriting activities.

Retail Banking and Wealth Management

Profit before income tax expense relating to ongoing business (excluding the run-off consumer finance portfolio) was $10m for the second quarter of 2017, a decrease of $6m, or 38%, compared with the second quarter of 2016. There was significant growth in mortgages, deposit and wealth products products. However, the second quarter of 2016 included the sale of a small portfolio of impaired loans and the current quarter included increased costs to make our bank simpler, faster and better for our customers. Profit before income taxes relating to the ongoing business was $26m in the first half of 2017, an increase of $5m or 24%, compared with the first half of 2016, mainly driven by growth across all products and lower loan impairment charges.

Corporate Centre

Profit before income tax expense was $10m for the second quarter of 2017, a decrease of $17m, or 63%, compared with the second quarter of 2016. The decrease in profit was driven by lower net interest income, net trading income, gains from financial investments, and higher operating expenses. Net interest income decreased primarily due to lower liquidity levels and returns on available-for-sale assets. Net trading income decreased as a result of hedging ineffectiveness.

Dividends

During the second quarter of 2017, the bank declared and paid $47m in dividends on HSBC Bank Canada common shares, a decrease of $1m compared with the same quarter last year. Regular quarterly dividends have been declared on all series of HSBC Bank Canada Class 1 Preferred Shares in the amounts of $0.31875, $0.3125 and $0.25 for Series C, Series D and Series G respectively and will be paid on 30 September 2017 for shareholders of record on 15 September 2017.

Appointment of NonExecutive Directors

Effective 4 May 2017, Judith Athaide and Michael K. Korenberg have been appointed to the HSBC Bank Canada Board of Directors succeeding Nancy McKinstry and Michael A. Grandin who have retired from the Board. Currently President and Chief Executive Officer of Cogent Group Inc., Ms Athaide is an engineer with extensive experience in the energy sector including as a director and board committee chair. Mr Korenberg was with The Jim Pattison Group for nearly 20 years, most recently as Deputy Chairman & Managing Director, and is currently Chairman of Canfor Corporation and of Wreath Group Holdings Inc.

Reflecting on the retiring directors, Ms McKinstry and Mr Grandin, Samuel Minzberg, Chairman of the Board of Directors, HSBC Bank Canada said: "We are grateful to Nancy and Michael for their contribution to the organization through these past years of substantial change at the bank. It has been a busy, dynamic period leading to our current strong position and our ambitious plans to grow in Canada. We appreciate their thoughtful deliberations and challenges, and wish them well in their new ventures."

HSBC Bank Canada, a subsidiary of HSBC Holdings plc, is the leading international bank in the country. We help companies and individuals across Canada to do business and manage their finances internationally through three global business lines: Commercial Banking, Global Banking and Markets, and Retail Banking and Wealth Management. Canada is a priority market for the HSBC Group - one of the world's largest banking and financial services groups with assets of US$2,492bn at 30 June 2017. Linked by advanced technology, HSBC serves customers worldwide through an international network of around 3,900 offices in 67 countries and territories in Europe, Asia, North and Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa.

Copies of HSBC Bank Canada's Second Quarter 2017 Interim Report will be sent to shareholders in August 2017.













HSBC Bank Canada





Summary











($ millions, except where otherwise stated) Quarter ended

Half-year ended

30 June 2017 30 June 2016

30 June 2017 30 June 2016











Finance performance for the period











Total operating income 496 525

1,002 1,069

Profit before income tax expense 228 168

471 326

Profit attributable to the common shareholder 158 111

335 217

Basic earnings per common share ($) 0.32 0.22

0.67 0.43











Performance ratios (%)1











Return ratios (%)1











Return on average common shareholders' equity 13.3 9.8

14.4 9.6

Post-tax return on average total assets 0.67 0.48

0.47 0.47

Pre-tax return on average risk-weighted assets2 2.1 1.6

2.2 1.5













Credit coverage ratios (%)1











Loan impairment charges to total operating income n/a 10.5

n/a 13.1

Loan impairment charges to average gross customer advances and acceptances n/a 0.5

n/a 0.6

Total impairment allowances to impaired loans and advances at period-end 66.7 67.0

66.7 67.0











Efficiency and revenue mix ratios (%)1











Cost efficiency ratio 64.1 57.3

62.8 56.3

Adjusted cost efficiency ratio 64.0 57.2

62.6 56.2

As a percentage of total operating income:













- net interest income 57.5 53.3

56.5 52.5



- net fee income 33.3 32.6

32.4 31.1



- net trading income 4.4 9.3

5.3 10.8













At period ended











30 June 2017 31 December 2016





Financial position at period-end











Loan and advances to customers 48,699 46,907







Customer accounts 55,949 56,674







Ratio of customer advances to customer accounts (%)1 87.0 82.8







Shareholders' equity 5,613 5,415







Average total shareholders' equity to average total assets (%)1 5.9 5.7

















Capital measures2











Common equity tier 1 capital ratio (%) 10.5 10.5







Tier 1 ratio (%) 12.4 12.5







Total capital ratio (%) 14.7 13.5







Leverage ratio (%) 4.9 4.7







Risk-weighted assets 44,281 42,005











1 Refer to the 'Use of non-IFRS's financial measures' section of the MD&A for a discussion of non-IFRS's financial measures. 2 The bank assesses capital adequacy against standards established in guidelines issued by OSFI in accordance with the Basel III capital adequacy frameworks.









HSBC Bank Canada Consolidated income statement (unaudited)









(Figures in $m, except per share amounts)

Quarter ended

Half-year ended



30 June 2017

30 June 2016



30 June 2017

30 June 2016

























Interest income

452



441



903



859

Interest expense

(167)



(161)



(336)



(298)

Net interest income

285



280



567



561



























Fee income

183



189



360



367

Fee expense

(18)



(18)



(35)



(35)

Net fee income

165



171



325



332



























Trading income excluding net interest income

17



44



43



106

Net interest income on trading activities

5



5



10



10

Net trading income

22



49



53



116



























Net expense from financial instruments designated at fair value

(1)



(1)



(4)



(2)

Gains less losses from financial investments

3



6



21



27

Other operating income

22



20



40



35

Total operating income

496



525



1,002



1,069



























Loan impairment recoveries/(charges) and other credit risk provisions

46



(54)



95



(139)

Net operating income

542



471



1,097



930



























Employee compensation and benefits

(173)



(164)



(354)



(333)

General and administrative expenses

(133)



(127)



(254)



(249)

Depreciation of property, plant and equipment

(9)



(8)



(16)



(15)

Amortisation and impairment of intangible assets

(3)



(2)



(5)



(5)

Total operating expenses

(318)



(301)



(629)



(602)



























Operating profit

224



170



468



328

Share of profit/(loss) in associates

4



(2)



3



(2)

Profit before income tax expense

228



168



471



326

Income tax expense

(60)



(47)



(117)



(90)

Profit for the period

168



121



354



236



























Profit attributable to the common shareholder

158



111



335



217

Profit attributable to preferred shareholders

10



10



19



19

Profit attributable to shareholders

168



121



354



236



























Average number of common shares outstanding (000's)

498,668



498,668



498,668



498,668

Basic earnings per common share ($)

$ 0.32



$ 0.22



$ 0.67



$ 0.43





















HSBC Bank Canada

Consolidated balance sheet (unaudited)









(Figures in $m)

30 June 2017

31 December 2016









ASSETS

















Cash and balances at central bank

61

66 Items in the course of collection from other banks

19

58 Trading assets

8,098

6,288 Derivatives

3,477

3,850 Loans and advances to banks

865

1,071 Loans and advances to customers

48,699

46,907 Reverse repurchase agreements  non-trading

7,557

5,938 Financial investments

21,191

25,231 Other assets

1,004

447 Prepayments and accrued income

168

186 Customers' liability under acceptances

4,365

4,322 Property, plant and equipment

105

104 Goodwill and intangible assets

76

70 Deferred assets

125

119 Total assets

95,810

94,657









LIABILITIES AND EQUITY

















Liabilities







Deposits by banks

1,232

946 Customer accounts

55,949

56,674 Repurchase agreements  non-trading

6,368

4,345 Items in the course of transmission to other banks

406

82 Trading liabilities

3,755

3,784 Financial liabilities designated at fair value



403 Derivatives

3,405

3,838 Debt securities in issue

10,103

10,256 Other liabilities

2,725

2,610 Acceptances

4,365

4,322 Accruals and deferred income

369

475 Retirement benefit liabilities

371

342 Subordinated liabilities

1,039

1,039 Provisions

72

116 Current taxes

38

10 Total liabilities

90,197

89,242









Equity







Common shares

1,225

1,225 Preferred shares

850

850 Other reserves

5

27 Retained earnings

3,533

3,313 Total equity

5,613

5,415









Total equity and liabilities

95,810

94,657

HSBC Bank Canada

Global business segmentation (unaudited)









(Figures in $m)

Quarter ended

Half-year ended



30 June 2017

30 June 2016

30 June 2017

30 June 2016 Commercial Banking















Net interest income

130

125

263

264 Net fee income

71

72

141

146 Net trading income

10

8

17

15 Gains less losses from financial investments







2 Other operating income

5

5

11

10 Total operating income

216

210

432

437 Loan impairment recoveries/(charges) and other credit risk provisions

47

(47)

86

(125) Net operating income

263

163

518

312 Total operating expenses

(95)

(98)

(189)

(200) Profit before income tax expense

168

65

329

112

















Global Banking and Markets















Net interest income

25

20

46

36 Net fee income

37

45

74

78 Net trading income

6

28

18

83 Gains less losses from financial investments



(1)



(1) Other operating loss



(5)



(5) Total operating income

68

87

138

191 Loan impairment recoveries/(charges) and other credit risk provisions



(6)

5

(9) Net operating income

68

81

143

182 Total operating expenses

(32)

(31)

(67)

(63) Profit before income tax expense

36

50

76

119

















Retail Banking and Wealth Management















Net interest income

104

103

200

203 Net fee income

57

54

110

108 Net trading income

5

5

11

10 Gain less losses from financial investments

1



1

 Other operating income

1

7

2

9 Total operating income

168

169

324

330 Loan impairment recoveries/(charges) and other credit risk provisions

(1)

(1)

4

(5) Net operating income

167

168

328

325 Total operating expenses

(153)

(142)

(293)

(289) Profit before income tax expense

14

26

35

36

















Corporate Centre















Net interest income

26

32

58

58 Net trading income

1

8

7

8 Net (expense)/income from financial instruments designated at fair value

(1)

(1)

(4)

(2) Gains less losses from financial investments

2

7

20

26 Other operating income

16

13

27

21 Total operating income

44

59

108

111 Total operating expenses

(38)

(30)

(80)

(50) Operating profit

6

29

28

61 Share of gain/(loss) in associates

4

(2)

3

(2) Profit before income tax expense

10

27

31

59

SOURCE HSBC Bank Canada

For further information: Media enquiries to: Sharon Wilks, 416-868-3878, [email protected]; Aurora Bonin, 604-641-1905, [email protected]

Related Links

http://www.hsbc.ca/1/2/personal


Launches in Victoria, Kelowna and Nanaimo will make shopping at IKEA more accessible, convenient and affordable for local residents

BURLINGTON, ON, July 31, 2017 /CNW/ - Shopping at IKEA just got more convenient today for customers in Victoria, Kelowna, and Nanaimo, British Columbia with the launch of three Collection Points.

Customers can now shop online for IKEA home furnishings and have them delivered to their selected Collection Point for only $79, regardless of the size and value of their purchase. This means they will be able to ship as little as a single sofa or as much as an entire kitchen for a flat rate and represents significant savings over the average home delivery fee of $170. Customers who wish to take advantage of home delivery can still do so, with the delivery fees remaining the same.

"Our ambition is to become more accessible to as many Canadians as possible," said IKEA Canada President Marsha Smith. "The launch of three Collection Points for British Columbia is a great way to provide our customers with a more convenient shopping experience."

The Collection Points are not IKEA stores and are owned by third party service provider XPO. While they do not have any products available for purchase, Collection Points allow IKEA to make shopping easier in markets that have been identified as having potential.

"In such a large country, it is important to offer a variety of solutions we can use to make shopping easier for Canadians," said Smith. "Launching these locations was a natural next step to make shopping online at www.IKEA.ca affordable for many more British Columbia residents."

It is IKEA's aim to make the brand more accessible and convenient for the many Canadians, through increased service offerings like Collection Points, Pick-up and order points, Click & Collect, improvements in eCommerce and customer-focused distribution. IKEA hopes to provide its customers with a positive IKEA experience in every touchpoint.

IKEA Canada is committed to having a positive impact in the communities in which it operates. IKEA has made a $10,000 to the Red Cross on behalf of the Richmond and Coquitlam IKEA stores to assist with the relief and recovery efforts connected with the wildfires in British Columbia. IKEA will also support reforestation efforts through its partnership with Tree Canada.

In 2015, IKEA Canada announced an ambitious plan to double in size by 2025. To achieve this goal, the retailer will open new stores in new locations and also introduce some new formats over the next 10 years. The first new store on this expansion journey will be IKEA Halifax, set to open in fall 2017, followed by Quebec City in late summer 2018.

ABOUT IKEA CANADA

IKEA Group is a leading home furnishing retailer with 343 stores in more than 28 countries worldwide, which are visited by 783 million people every year. IKEA Canada has 12 stores, an eCommerce virtual store, 6 Pick-up and order points and 14 Collection Points. The company also recently announced plans to open stores in Halifax and Quebec City. Last year, IKEA Canada welcomed 28 million visitors to its stores and 88 million visitors to the IKEA.ca website. Founded in 1943, IKEA's business philosophy is to offer a wide range of products of good design and function at prices so low, the majority of people can afford them. For more information on IKEA Canada, please visit: www.IKEA.ca.

ABOUT THE COLLECTION POINTS:

Victoria  XPO, 2205 Keating Cross Road, Sannichton, V8M 2A5

Kelowna  XPO, 2255 Norris Road South, Kelowna, V1X 4R2

Nanaimo  XPO, 4386 Boban Drive, Nanaimo, V8T 6A7

SOURCE IKEA Canada

For further information: IKEA CANADA, Stephanie Harnett, Corporate PR Manager, IKEA Canada, [email protected], 905-637-9440 x6378

Related Links

http://www.ikea.ca


CALGARY, July 30, 2017 /CNW/ - Canadian Pacific invites local media to attend the CP Canada 150 Train community event this afternoon. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will also attend today's event and deliver remarks.



What: CP Canada 150 Train event



When: July 30, 2017 - 3-6 p.m. (public presentation and show to start at approx. 4 p.m.)



Where: Anderson C-Train station, South parking lot



Full event details, including on site activities, available at http://www.cpr.ca/en/community/canada-150/calgary. Feel free to promote the event prior to start time, as it is free for everyone.



Media is encouraged to share our Facebook event (https://www.facebook.com/events/208711719643169/) and engage on social media @CanadianPacific using #ConnectingCanada.



Only prearranged interviews with artists are available due to time constraints. Media should be prepared to gather all footage during the event.



Facts about CP in this city



When the first construction train reached what is now Palliser Square on August 15th, 1883 rail gangs set about building sidings and a station.

rail gangs set about building sidings and a station. CPR moved its head office from Montreal to Calgary in 1996.

to in 1996. The streets and avenues in Calgary's downtown core were originally named after CPR officials involved in the building of the railway.

downtown core were originally named after CPR officials involved in the building of the railway. With the exception of Stephen Avenue, named after George Stephen , Lord Mount Stephen, CPR's first president, the streets were changed to a numbering system in 1904.

, Lord Mount Stephen, CPR's first president, the streets were changed to a numbering system in 1904. During World War II the Ogden Shops were transformed for the manufacture of military items.

Calgary is the only terminal where the mainline operates in all four directions.

is the only terminal where the mainline operates in all four directions. Today, CP employs approximately 2,000 people in Calgary and the surrounding area, and is an important contributor to the local economy.

and the surrounding area, and is an important contributor to the local economy. CP gives where it lives and has donated millions to the Calgary area. CP also supports the 3 Things For Canada initiative and is asking Calgarians as well as Canadians at large to complete three acts of service for Canada in 2017 (http://www.threethingsforcanada.ca/)

SOURCE Canadian Pacific

For further information: Jeremy Berry, 403 819 0571, or [email protected]

Related Links

http://www.cpr.ca


The Kremlin vowed Sunday to retaliate against the United States for approving new sanctions against Russia for its meddling in last year's presidential election to help President Donald Trump win the White House.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told ABC News' "This Week." Russian President Vladimir Putin says 755 U.S. diplomats in the country must leave in retaliation for new sanctions Washington is imposing on Moscow for its meddling in the 2016 election to help President Donald Trump win the White House.

Putin told a Russian television network, "More than a thousand people were working and are still working" at the U.S. embassy and consulates, and "755 people must stop their activities in Russia."

The Russian leader said Moscow could take additional retaliatory steps against the United States following overwhelming congressional approval of new sanctions against Russia, but said, "I am against it as of today."

Moscow said the expulsion of hundreds of U.S. envoys by September 1 would leave both of the countries with the same number of diplomats in the two countries, 455.

Earlier, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told ABC News' This Week show, "I think this retaliation is long, long overdue." He said Moscow has "a very rich toolbox at our disposal. It would be ridiculous on my part to start speculating on what may or may not happen. But I can assure you that different options are on the table and consideration is being given to all sorts of things."

The White House says Trump will sign the legislation imposing the new sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea.


OTTAWA, July 31, 2017 /CNW/ - The Natural Gas Innovation Fund (NGIF) is accepting submissions for funding to support natural gas cleantech research, demonstration and deployment innovation projects in Canada.

NGIF was created by the Canadian Gas Association (CGA) in 2016 to support the funding of innovation in the natural gas value chain. It selects and advances natural gas cleantech projects led by startups and organizations with the right innovation for market uptake and commercial viability. NGIF is capitalized by the natural gas industry with access to pooled R&D innovation funding, leveraged intelligence, and a combined backyard across Canada to field test innovation. NGIF's Investment Committee includes CGA, Pacific Northern Gas Ltd., FortisBC, ATCO, SaskEnergy, Enbridge Gas Distribution Inc., Union Gas and Gaz Metro.

NGIF offers a continuous intake process to review and evaluate new ideas and innovation through a stage-gated investment model. This means that NGIF is always open for business and invites submissions of an investor deck from prospective applicants in order to gauge eligibility and make an initial technology assessment.

Further information on NGIF, how to apply for funding, and how to contact us can be found at www.ngif.ca.

Quotes

"NGIF's mandate is to build a diversified portfolio of investments, strategic partnerships, and a trusted investment model that delivers on improved environmental performance, greater affordability and competitiveness, and enhanced safety and resiliency. We are looking for innovators and entrepreneurs from all around the world to come forward with their innovation and project for Canada's natural gas industry."

John Adams,

Managing Director, Natural Gas Innovation Fund

"Innovation in the delivery of energy services to Canadians is top of mind for the members of the Canadian Gas Association. Making sure Canadians have continued access to clean, affordable, safe and reliable energy turns on constant innovation in our industry. NGIF is a demonstration of our commitment, and we want to work with industry, government and academic partners to support its success."

Timothy M. Egan,

President & CEO, Canadian Gas Association

Associated Links

Natural Gas Innovation Fund

Canadian Gas Association

SOURCE Canadian Gas Association

For further information: Paula Dunlop, Vice President, Corporate and Strategic Affairs, Canadian Gas Association, 613-748-0057 ext. 341 or 613-614-3280, [email protected]

Related Links

www.cga.ca


The Government of Canada provides $17,000 to support a community project in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region

POHENEGAMOOK, QC, July 31, 2017 /CNW Telbec/ - Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions (CED)

Key community stakeholders have long been asking for concrete, sustainable measures to improve community and recreational infrastructure. The Government of Canada is proud to support projects like the Tete-du-lac Pohenegamook visitor centre project that contribute to the vitality and vibrancy of all regions of the country.

The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Minister responsible for CED announced that the Tete-du-lac Pohenegamook visitor centre (website in French only) would receive $17,000 in funding, in the form of a non-repayable contribution, to replace and install a new dock.http://pohenegamook.net/affaire-et-developpement/developpement-touristique/

The Tete-du-lac Pohenegamook visitor centre was created in1986 to ensure the development of public spaces with the interests of the population in mind; promote and organize community and recreational activities for the public; and, foster the conservation and promotion of the environment of Lake Pohenegamook. The visitor centre also owns and manages the docks located on Pohenegamook municipal beach (website in French only). http://pohenegamook.net/tourisme/activites-et-attraits/plage/

The funding awarded under the Canada 150 Community Infrastructure Program (CIP150) will allow the organization to improve safety for visitors to the centre and increase visitor capacity. http://www.dec-ced.gc.ca/fra/financement/initiative/infrastructure-communautaire/index.html

Quotes

"Through the CIP150, the Government of Canada is supporting projects by organizations such as the Tetedu-lac Pohenegamook visitor centre that not only mobilize and unite our communities, but also, on a broader level, boost economic activity in Canada. The Canada 150 Community Infrastructure Program will help maintain and upgrade our community infrastructure so that Canadians and their families will be able to enjoy cultural, sports, recreational and leisure activities for many years to come. I am proud of this legacy of Canada's 150th anniversary."

The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister responsible for CED

"The Board of Directors of the Tete-du-lac Pohenegamook visitor centre is very excited about the addition of a new dock along Pohenegamook beach, as this will allow us to accommodate more boaters with highquality facilities. We would like to thank the Government of Canada for its assistance, without which this project would not have been possible."

Patrick Cyr, Secretary, Board of Directors, Tete-du-lac Pohenegamook visitor centre

Quick facts

Since its creation in 2015, CIP 150 has provided almost $13M for over 450 projects targeting the enhancement of the vitality of communities in Quebec .

for over 450 projects targeting the enhancement of the vitality of communities in . CED is one of the six regional development agencies under the responsibility of the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development.

Stay connected

Follow CED on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube

Find out about activities at Pohenegamook beach on Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/plagedepohenegamook/

SOURCE Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions

For further information: Media Relations, Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions, Tel.: 514-283-7443, Email: [email protected]:[email protected]
LONDON, ON, July 31, 2017 /CNW/ - From August 1st to August 31st, WINNERS and HomeSense stores across Canada will invite their customers to help Spread a Little Sunshine in support of The Sunshine Foundation of Canada. During the month-long Spread a Little Sunshine campaign, customers will be invited to make a donation of $2, $5, $10 or any dollar amount of their choosing at their local WINNERS or HomeSense store, all of which will be donated to Sunshine to help make dreams come true for children across Canada living with severe physical disabilities or life-threatening illnesses.

"Since 1999, thanks to the overwhelming generosity of our customers, we have had the privilege to help make dreams come true for children across Canada," says Erin O'Brien, spokesperson for WINNERS and HomeSense. "We are honoured to partner once again this year with Sunshine to continue to help raise awareness and funds to support such a wonderful cause."

Donations received during the Spread a Little Sunshine campaign will help children and youth like MacKenzie, a 16-year-old dreamer, realize a brighter future for themselves by experiencing their dream come true. For Mackenzie her dream of visiting The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios had very special meaning. As she explained in her dream application to Sunshine, "To me, Harry Potter is more than just a series of books and movies, it's a place where being unique is normal and wanted. When I watch Harry Potter movies I realize that, as Albus Dumbledore said, happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light." MacKenzie's Sunshine dream come true was presented at a Harry Potter-themed presentation at her local WINNERS and HomeSense store where she and her family were completely moved by the incredible send-off given them by the store's Associates.

"We are extremely grateful to WINNERS and HomeSense for their longstanding dedication to Sunshine and the children we serve," says Nancy Sutherland, CEO of The Sunshine Foundation of Canada. "As a national dream partner with Sunshine since 1999, the caring Associates and customers at WINNERS and HomeSense have raised millions of dollars through a combination of the Spread a Little Sunshine campaign, Associate fundraising activities and corporate contributions. Their generous support makes it possible for us to fulfill the most cherished dreams of children with complex medical conditions like Mackenzie, building their confidence, igniting hope and creating new possibilities. On behalf of Sunshine kids from coast to coast, I offer a sincere and heartfelt thank you to our partners at WINNERS and HomeSense, their Associates across the country, and every customer who said yes I will give."

To support Sunshine dreams, WINNERS and HomeSense customers are invited to make a donation of $2, $5, or $10-dollars at their local WINNERS and HomeSense store, or online at www.sunshine.ca on any day during the month of August.

For more information about the WINNERS and HomeSense Spread a Little Sunshine campaign, visit www.sunshine.ca/spreadalittlesunshine

ABOUT THE SUNSHINE FOUNDATION OF CANADA

The Sunshine Foundation of Canada is a national Canadian charity impacting the lives of children living with severe physical disabilities or life-threatening illnesses by making their dreams come true. Sunshine Dream Programs give the children they serve the opportunity to experience freedom from their daily regimens and challenges by having their dreams transformed into reality, impacting them with a sense of independence, confidence, and empowerment that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Sunshine has two dream programs: Sunshine Dreams, which can range from family trips to meeting a hero to customized gifts, and Sunshine DreamLift which is a whirlwind 'day of yes' adventure to a Disney theme park for a large group of children. Since its inception in 1987, Sunshine has fulfilled more than 8,000 dream experiences for children across Canada and coordinated 62 Sunshine DreamLifts. For more information, visit www.sunshine.ca or follow us on Twitter: @SunshineFound.

ABOUT WINNERS AND HOMESENSE

WINNERS and HomeSense are a division of TJX Canada, owned by The TJX Companies, Inc., the world's largest off-price retailer. With over 400 stores nationwide, WINNERS and HomeSense offer Canadians brand name and designer fashions and home decor at up to 60% less than department and specialty stores, every day. For more information, please visit www.winners.ca or www.homesense.ca.

SOURCE Sunshine Foundation of Canada

For further information: MEDIA CONTACT: Lauren Redman, Manager, Marketing & Communications at The Sunshine Foundation of Canada, P: 1-800-461-7935 Ext. 221E: [email protected]

Related Links

www.sunshine.ca


TORONTO, July 31, 2017 /CNW/ - Today, YouTube is launching a new way for Canadians to discover the best and buzziest Canadian content on YouTube. YouTube Spotlight Canada will showcase Canada's top stars in both French and English, alongside emerging Canadian talent.

Every month, YouTube Spotlight Canada will highlight the creators and the videos that have Canada clicking, watching and sharing. The channel will also feature themed playlists to help Canadians explore trending topics and news stories.

"Canada is the first country to have its own Spotlight channel dedicated solely to local creators," explained Marie Josee Lamothe, Managing Director, Quebec, Google Canada. "Canadians make up one of the world's most vibrant communities on YouTube  watchtime in Canada has grown 30% over last year, and our Canadian YouTubers are exploding internationally. We are so proud of their success and want to do more to share it here at home."

The inaugural edition of YouTube Spotlight Canada is a celebration of the best of the true north, strong and free. Canadians can meet the country's favourite YouTubers, check out highlights from Canada 150 celebrations, re-live moments in Canadian history and dive into an incredible roster of indigenous music artists.

In addition to this new channel, YouTube is also launching its popular Creator on the Rise feature in Canada, starting on August 2, 2017. Creator on the Rise will identify Canadian creators who are growing rapidly and showcase their videos in the Trending tab on YouTube, helping them build an even bigger audience.

Canada's YouTubers are part of a new generation of Canadian artists growing up online, and finding fans both at home and around the world. YouTube's open model and global scale reduces the cost of getting content to international markets. As a result, 90% of views on Canadian channels come from outside of Canada, which is higher than any other country on the platform. By lowering barriers to entry, it's become a powerful platform for creators in Canada to get their voice heard.

"Canada is home to some of the world's most creative people and YouTube is empowering this generation of creative Canadians to express themselves to the world," said Lamothe. "We are thrilled to shine a spotlight on the diverse Canadian voices creating on our platform."

YouTube by the Numbers*:

YouTube has over 1.5 billion monthly logged-in users and every day people watch over a billion hours of video and generate billions of views.

YouTube's watchtime in Canada is up 30% over last year.

is up 30% over last year. In the past year, Canadian channels have seen their watchtime grow 45%.

As Canadian creators build their international fanbase, watchtime for Canadian channels has grown 185% in India , and over 40% in the US, France and Australia .

, and over 40% in the US, and . Globally, there are 75% more channels with 1M+ subscribers versus last year.

We saw a 65% increase in the number of Canadian channels that have more than 100K subscribers.

Watchtime for Canadian broadcast TV channels on YouTube has grown by 400% over the last 3 years.

*Source: YouTube internal data, 2017

About YouTube Spotlight Canada

YouTube Spotlight Canada is a new way to discover the best Canadian content on YouTube. This new channel will showcase both rising talents and established stars from across the country. Each month will have a theme and will feature playlists of talented Canadians who are trending on the platform, alongside Canadian news stories and trending videos.

About Creator on the Rise

Creator on the Rise is a new feature on the Trending tab on both desktop and mobile that will identify Canadian creators who are rapidly growing and help them to build a bigger audience. A new creator will be featured every week, and any creator with over 1,000 subscribers is eligible to be featured. On The Rise creators are selected based on a variety of factors including viewcount, watchtime and subscriber growth.

SOURCE Google Canada

For further information: or to request an interview, please contact: Nicole Bell, Google Canada, [email protected]
China's military has the "confidence and capability" to bolster the country's rise into a world power, President Xi Jinping said Sunday as he oversaw a large-scale military parade meant to show off China's fighting prowess.

Live state television broadcasts showed Xi, dressed in fatigues and speaking from an open-top jeep, telling his troops that China needed a strong military "more than ever" as it moved "closer to the goal of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation."

Xi, who commands the People's Liberation Army as chairman of the Central Military Commission, has frequently spoken of his "China Dream" to restore China to a leadership position in international affairs with a modern, far-reaching military force to match.

Xi inspected troops, armored vehicles and conventional and nuclear missiles, hailing each formation by shouting "Comrades, you've worked hard!"

The parade at the Zhurihe military training base in China's Inner Mongolia region marked the 90th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army's founding. It was the first time a parade has been held to mark the occasion.

Long criticized as a corrupt bureaucracy with scant combat experience, the PLA has undergone reforms and an ambitious modernization program to make it a leaner force capable of projecting power overseas.

Hundreds of thousands of troops have been cut from the world's largest standing army while the PLA has invested heavily in aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and stealth fighters with the goal of surpassing the United States in regional and even global influence.

Although China has framed its growing military as a force for stability and peace, its expanding footprint and assertive posture in contested regions like the South China Sea has worried small neighboring nations.
Happy New Month Nigeria! Welcome to the month of June. As the world searches for a respite from all its troubles since 2020 began, one can ...
Self-acclaimed President of Biafra, Barr. Benjamin Onwuka



The Biafra Zionist Federation, Monday announced an interim government to run the affairs of Biafra, with Pat Utomi, Chukwuma Soludo, Aruma Oteh, Jerry Gana, and others making the list. In an announcement at a press conference in Enugu, the self-acclaimed President of Biafra, Barr. Benjamin Onwuka, who is leader of the Biafra Zionist Federation (BZF), on Monday, announced an interim government to run the affairs of Biafra.

According to DailyPost , Onwuka, who declared himself Biafra President, named Prof. Pat Utomi as the foreign minister, amid cheers from his members.





"I am the President of Biafra; we have formed an interim government that will be in place till the next 30 days. The interim government will take off tomorrow, August 1 and last till August 31, 2017, that is 30 days," Onwuka declared.







America is behind the Biafra people because former President Barrack Obama already endorsed Biafra before he left office and President Donald Trump will not go against it considering that it has formed part of Americas foreign policy.

Onwuka named other members of the cabinet to include; Prof. Chukwuma Soludo-Central Bank of Biafra, CBB; Prof. Pat Utomi-foreign affairs; Mrs. Aruma Oteh-finance minister; former Personal Secretary to Late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu-petroleum.

Others are Amarachi Ubani-information; Ohanaeze President, Chief Nnia Nwodo-Ambassador to US; Prof. Jerry Gana-transport; Labaran Maku-aviation, a lecturer at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN, Mrs. Mary Okafor-trade and industry; Benny Lar, Secretary to the Government of the Republic; Gabriel Oluwole Osagie- education, Prof Barth Nnaji- energy; Philip Effiong Jnr.-health.

Onwuka equally announced that the Israelis would hold the positions of defene, agriculture, internal affairs, Inspector General of Police and Air Force, adding that they would also take 25 percent of the civil service job in Biafra.

He said, Israel will be key players in this government because there is so much corruption in Nigeria; so, they are coming to help us clean the system. They are coming to sweep the system. They will challen agro-revolution and also abolish corruption very easily.





Same goes for America; their companies will be in control of our oil industry. This is to reward them for what Obama did for us; Obama saved us even when we were in detention; they already passed death sentence on us even without our knowledge, but Obamas intervention saved us.





He called for full mobilization of Biafra security forces, stressing all our security personnel in the army, police, air force, navy and others are hereby called upon to withdraw from Nigeria and join the Biafra government.





I am also calling on the avengers, the militants to come out from the creeks and join us to defend and protect Biafra. Im beckoning on Asari Dokubo, Tompolo, Ateke Tom to come out and join us. I am calling on all our boys in Biafra land to come out. Im not afraid, the US is with us.

He equally slammed the Federal High Court sitting in Owerri, the Imo State Capital, for allegedly refusing to free 10 of his members who were granted bail by the same court, and claimed that although we have met all the conditions for their bail, the bailiff of the Court is playing games, even after collecting hundreds of thousands of Naira from us.





So, we are using this medium to ask them to release our members forthwith because we have met all the conditions attached to their bail.





The self-acclaimed Biafra President, who also accused the Federal Government of Islamizing the Biafra Republic, vowed that such move would be totally resisted.

The Biafra people will not allow themselves to be Islamized; 1967 will no longer be allowed to repeat itself. Apart from removing the Christian Religious Knowledge from the school curriculum, they have also banned history. This is to prevent our young ones from knowing all the things that happened in the past.





This is entirely war on our people and we are not going to take it. Where there is religious conflict, the offended side will always win; the same thing will happen here, he vowed.

Onwuka was in 2014 arrested in Enugu after his group stormed the Enugu State Broadcasting Service for the purpose of declaring Biafra Republic. He was freed in March this year after over two years in jail.
THE Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) have threatened to embark on a nationwide strike if some industrial issues especially anti-labour practices by some employers in the oil and gas industry were not addressed within 21 days.While the NUPENG President, Comrade Igwe Achese, gave an indication of possible fuel scarcity in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja after the union National Executive Council meeting held in Abuja, PENGASSAN said in a statement by the Public Relations Officer, Comrade Fortune Obi, that a 21-day ultimatum giving to stakeholders in the oil and gas industry, was necessary due to persistent anti-labour practices by the management of some companies in the sector.Comrade Achese said the union after its NEC meeting, has taken a decision to stop fuel supply to Abuja and its environs.According to him, NUPENG has resolved to shut down supply of petroleum products to Abuja in the next 24 days unless the federal government prevail on the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) to pay the entitlements of workers of Sea wolf who were disengaged since 2013 after AMCON took over the company.He pointed out that the union had issued a directive to petroleum tanker drivers, and all its members in the oil sector to wear red in preparation for the planned industrial action in Abuja.He said: For four years, we have been discussing the issue of redundancy or closure of the company called Sea wolf which AMCON as a federal agency took over in 2013.It is very unfortunate to state here that workers of the company have not been paid. AMCON has refused to pay these workers their terminal benefits since 2013.Therefore, the union in a very strong revolution is requesting the government to prevail on AMCON to pay the workers. We have written series of letters to the security agencies, the ministry of Labour and employment, the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the Department of State Services and others. AMCON instead of paying took the matter to court and we are faced with series of adjournment since 2013.We therefore have no choice than to write an open letter to the Acting President to take all necessary measures to address the issue of Sea wolf. However, we have issued notice to the government in the letter that we wrote that failure to address this problem, the NEC in session has taken a decision that within two weeks of not addressing this issue, NUPENG will withdraw our services into Abuja and around its environment.At this point we are also directing all our PTD, workers across the entire country to begin to wear red, and tanker drivers to carry this on their trucks in readiness for this struggle; it is the responsibility of government to make sure that workers in the companies that they took over are paid their terminal benefits.Also in a statement signed by the PENGASSAN, the association therefore called on the relevant stakeholders to address issues of concern affecting its members within the stipulated days to avert the consequences of its next line of action.The statement issued on Sunday evening read: PENGASSAN in the last three years has not only been excessively stretched but equally unnecessarily over-burdened and is fast running out of patience over the loss of will by various managements to attend to industrial/welfare issues.Particularly frustrating is the sustained, deliberate and indiscriminate redundancies, sack, casualization, ill-treatment, adverse work condition, incessant disagreement to collective bargain resolutions and other anti-labour practices against our members by these managements without recourse to extant labour laws.The PENGASSAN identified in particular the provocative stance of managements of the Fugro, Sterling Global, Indorama Petrochemical Company, Baker Hughes/General Electric, Universal Energy, Frontier Energy, Vam Onne, Neconde Energy and ObiJackson Group, SDF, Ciscon, Tecon, Obax, Pan Ocean, NNPC Retail Limited, Exxon-Mobil and Petrobras.To this end, the PENGASSAN spokesperson said that the Association has directed the Zonal Executive Councils, in the four zones of Port Harcourt, Lagos, Kaduna and Warri, to commence systematic mobilization of its members for the planned action.He said that the Association also called on leadership of the National Assembly to reconsider the amendment of NLNG Act which, the Association alleged will portend danger in Federal Governments push to woo investors into the country.PENGASSAN also commented on certain provisions of the just passed Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) by the Senate that need revision to address some labour concerns, adding that the association observed that labour unions, especially the PENGASSAN and NUPENG were over-looked in the membership composition of the governing boards of the regulatory entities in the bill.Obi explained that PENGASSAN is a body of professionals who are best equipped to access and make inputs to policies in the petroleum industry by the virtue of their positions and in-depth knowledge in the Industry.PENGASSAN also observed with dismay the loose of condition of service with regards to job security/transfer of employment of staff in the existing agencies.PENGASSAN will resist any attempt under whatever guise to downsize or short-change Nigerian workers.
Getty

The UK was part of a US-led coalition which invaded Iraq after George W Bush and Mr Blair accused Saddam Hussein of possessing weapons of mass destruction and having links to terrorists (INA/Getty Images)

The High Court has blocked a bid by a former chief of staff of the Iraqi army to bring a private prosecution against Tony Blair over the Iraq War.General Abdul Wahed Shannan Al Rabbat has accused Mr Blair of committing a crime of aggression by invading Iraq in 2003 to overthrow Saddam Hussein.Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, the Lord Chief Justice, and Mr Justice Ouseley dismissed the generals application, saying there was no prospect of the case succeeding.The general wanted to prosecute Mr Blair and two other key ministers at the time  Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, and Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General.He lives in Muscat, Oman, does not possess a passport and travel to the UK.His lawyers asked Londons High Court for permission to seek judicial review in an attempt to get the Supreme Court, now the highest court in the land, to overturn a ruling by the House of Lords in 2006 that there is no such crime as the crime of aggression under the law of England and Wales.Westminster Magistrates Court refused to issue summonses in November last year on the grounds the ex-ministers had immunity from legal action, and in any event the current Attorney General, Jeremy Wright QC, would have to give consent.The Attorney General intervened in the case and his legal team urged Lord Thomas and Mr Justice Ouseley to block the generals legal challenge on the grounds that it was hopeless and unarguable because the crime of aggression is not recognised in English law.The UK was part of a US-led coalition which invaded Iraq after George W Bush and Mr Blair accused Hussein of possessing weapons of mass destruction and having links to terrorists.Michael Mansfield QC, appearing for General Al Rabbat, said at a recent hearing the inquiry into the invasion conducted by Sir John Chilcot, which concluded with a report published in July last year, justified the prosecution of Mr Blair.Mr Mansfield said the main findings were contained in a paragraph early in the 12-volume report and could be summarised as concluding that Hussein did not pose an urgent threat to the interests of the UK, and the intelligence regarding weapons of mass destruction had been presented with unwarranted certainty.It also concluded peaceful alternatives to war had not been exhausted and the war in Iraq was not necessary.Mr Mansfield argued that the international crime of a war of aggression had been accepted by then UK attorney general Sir Hartley Shawcross QC in the 1940s, at the time of the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war crimes.The QC contended that, as the international community had held those responsible for the Second World War to account by prosecuting those thought responsible for aggression at Nuremberg, it was the duty of the UK courts to follow that example in relation to the Iraq War.The House of Lords decided in the 2006 case of R v Jones, which also concerned the Iraq War, that although there was a crime of aggression under customary international law, there was no such crime under English law.Mr Mansfield argued the Jones case was wrongly decided and permission should be given to allow General Al Rabbat to re-argue the issue before the Supreme Court.But the High Court ruled: In our opinion there is no prospect of the Supreme Court holding that the decision in Jones was wrong or the reasoning no longer applicable.
The death toll of the deadly Boko Haram attack in the Lake Chad region of Nigeria has continued to increase as fresh reports continue to emerge.

At least 69 people died in a Boko Haram ambush of an oil exploration team in northeast Nigeria, as three men kidnapped by the jihadists made a video appeal.

Experts said the attack -- Boko Haram's bloodiest this year -- underscored the persistent threat it poses, despite government claims the group is a spent force.

"So far the death toll stands at 69," said an aid agency worker involved in the recovery of bodies after the attack in the Magumeri area of Borno state on Tuesday.

The worker, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said 19 soldiers, 33 civilian militia and 17 civilians were killed.

"The last body was recovered Friday in the bush in the Geidam district of neighbouring Yobe state, which is several kilometres from the scene of the ambush," he told a reporter.

"It shows the victim, who had gunshot wounds, died after trekking a long distance. There could be more such victims in the bush."

Another source with knowledge of the rescue operation gave the death toll as "70 or more" and also said it was unclear whether all the victims had been accounted for.

The attack hit Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation staff.

"It's a confirmation of the boldness and reassurance that Boko Haram has managed to gain over the last six weeks," said Yan St-Pierre, from the Modern Security Consulting Group.





"They have been attacking more and more military outposts and more military convoys. For them to go after NNPC personnel just shows they don't fear any military reprisal.





"Basically they have managed to gain enough resources, enough material, to plan ambushes targeted towards high value targets."

- Video appeal -

News of the rising death toll came after Boko Haram published a four-minute video in which three men identified themselves as being from the University of Maiduguri.

The trio were part of a NNPC team on a mission to find commercial quantities of oil in the Lake Chad basin.

"I want to call on the acting president professor Yemi Osinbajo to come to our rescue to meet the demand," one of the men says in the video, which he said was shot on Friday.

He attributed the attack to the Islamic State-supported Boko Haram faction headed by Abu Mus'ab Al-Barnawi, which has vowed to hit military and government targets.

"They have promised us that if their demands are met they will release us immediately to go back to the work we were caught doing," the man added.

There was no indication of where the video was shot but Magumeri is some 50 kilometres (31 miles) by road northwest of Maiduguri. University of Maiduguri spokesman Danjuma Gambo confirmed the identities of the three kidnapped men in the video.

"They are our staff but one more is yet to be accounted for," he told a reporter.

Five members of staff from the university -- two lecturers, two technologists and a driver -- were killed, vice-chancellor Ibrahim Njodi said on Friday.

He told reporters the university had been hesitant to send staff with the NNPC team but had been assured about security.

Nigeria is searching for oil in the northeast to try to reduce its reliance on supplies from the Niger delta, where militant attacks have slashed production.

- Suicide bombings -

Kidnapping has been a feature of the Boko Haram insurgency, which has killed at least 20,000, displaced more than 2.6 million and left millions of others on the brink of famine.

Thousands of women and girls have been seized, to be married off to fighters, used as sex slaves or suicide bombers, while men and boys have been made to fight in the Islamist ranks.

The al-Barnawi faction differs from fighters loyal to Boko Haram's long-time leader Abubakar Shekau in that it disagrees with the indiscriminate targeting of civilians.

On Friday, two suicide bombers struck a camp for displaced people in Dikwa, 90 kilometres (56 miles) east of Maiduguri, killing eight, said local government official Rawa Gana Modu.

In Bama, 70 kilometres (45 miles) southeast of Maiduguri, three young female suicide bombers were killed when their explosives detonated prematurely on Thursday.

"A fourth bomber, an 11-year-old girl, was too frightened to pull the trigger," said Babakura Kolo, a member of the civilian militia group.

"She succeeded in removing her vest and sneaked into town. She was found and taken into custody."
on Saturday

The Narcotics Control Bureau arrested four African nationals including a Nigerian man, two South African women and a Zambian woman for drug trafficking at Indira Gandhi International Airport, India in two separate incidents on Saturday, July 29.In the first incident, the drug enforcement agency got to know through a local intelligence report, which informed that a South African national will fly to Johannesburg from Delhi via Etihad Airlines and is suspected to smuggle Ephedrine.A team was formed headed by Madho Singh, zonal director of NCB and the woman was intercepted."The South African woman identified as Patricia Sakhile Ncube and her Nigerian friend Johnson were intercepted at the departure area. She carried 10 kilogram of Ephedrine, which was concealed in the bag. She and her friend was subsequently nabbed," said Taj Hassan, Deputy Director General of NCB.During interrogation, Patricia stated that she was going to Johannesburg through Abu Dhabi and her friend Johnson had come to see her off. She came to India on July 25 and was received by Johnson and was staying at her friend's place in Delhi. "Both were nabbed immediately," Hassan said.In the second incident just 12 hours before Patraicia and Johnson was nabbed, another team of NCB sleuths headed by Superintendent Tulika Morang nabbed another South African national for carrying Pseudoephedrine. The woman was identified as Mandaba Violet Xaba. She was to depart from IGI airport to Addis Ababa by Ethiopian Airlines.As Xaba arrived at IGI airport, the team intercepted her and five-kg of white colour crystalline was recovered."Pseudoephedrine was found concealed in the bottom of her bag. During interrogation, she said that she came to India on July 13. She was picked up by a Nigerian national Feddy. ," Hassan said."Xaba used to work at a saloon in South Africa, whose owner had lured her into the drug trade by promising her 10,000 rands for the deal. She had come to Delhi on July 13 and made contact with a Nigerian woman, identified as Feddy," the NCB officer added.The bureau is now carrying out raids across the national capital region to nab the associates of the arrested accused.Also, Zambian national was arrested from Airport for allegedly trying to smuggle out 17 kilogrammes of banned drugs worth Rs 36 lakhs outside the country. The Zambian woman was identified as Doris Mwansa and she was nabbed about to board a flight for Addis Ababa.
Following the deadly attack on the NNPC oil exploration team to Maiduguri which left many dead, Nigerian writer, Emmanuel Ugwu has issued a reaction.

Nothing proves Nigerias status as an oil alcoholic like the 50 dead bodies of the NNPC oil exploration team to Maiduguri. The scent of oil had us staggering into the killing field, with our eyes open; hence, the slaughter at the tryst of the countrys thirst for oil and Boko Harams blood thirst.

Its an open secret that the death cult is holding out in the Maiduguri axis. Their bestial predation in that zone is a staple of the news and a travel advisory in its own right. They are vigorously contesting the single story of their extinction.

They launch expeditionary raids. They dispatch suicide bombers. They perpetrate cruelty to shock.

Yet, Abuja decided that the task to beard the lion in his den could not wait. The spoil of oil must be sampled even if the occupied enemy territory that harbors it is one of the most dangerous spots in the world. It had to be done now.

Ibe Kachikwu, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, said that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation embarked on the venture despite the risks in order to grow the countrys crude oil reserves.

Affecting the demeanor of grief, he proceeded to announce the suspension of the fools errand, a fait accompli already imposed by the terrifying death toll. He said: "Certainly, we will not go back unless the military give us a clearance, just like we didnt go in before they gave us a clearance.

The "we" Kachikwu in that remark, mind you, is the royal we: the self-exaggerating plural that is the preserve of the proud nobility. Its invocation did not imply that the minister was eager to rush into the frontier where the 50 were slain. He was not part of the flock of sacrificial lambs that went into Maiduguri. If he were part of the we, he would have partaken of the massacre. And its precisely because he was not a physical casualty in that bungled essay that he could afford to threaten to try his luck again based on another military clearance.

Kachikwu abandoned his discretion and authorized the Maiduguri (mis)adventure because his own life would not be on the line. He knew he would watch the doomed safari from a safe distance. He would relax in his gorgeous office while the lesser mortals venture out to taunt Abubakar Shekau.

Now, if the oil seekers had managed to make reasonable progress under gunfire and returned safe, Kachikwu would have appropriated their sacrifice and owned the success. But he has refused to take responsibility for his misjudgment and their resultant massacre. He explained away the tragedy as if it were a trivial loss.

Kachikwu is the typical Nigerian Oga-at-the-top. They regard your human value as inferior. They conceive of you as a guinea pig, born to serve the experiment of their fantasies. You are the means to their end.

Kachikwu neither resigned nor apologized. Instead, he promised to repeat the foolish attempt. "Certainly, we will not go back unless the military give us a clearance, just like we didnt go in before they gave us a clearance.

Ibe Kachikwu has blood on his hands. If he is normal, he should have murder on his conscience.

The man in the street knows that, under the circumstances, traversing Borno state involves a high element of risk to life. Kachikwu cannot claim not to know that Maiduguri and environs are not congenial to oil exploration activities. The odds were that the team would be ambushed by Boko Haram.

But he chose to embrace a go-ahead that flied in the face of facts on the ground.

For over a year, the Nigerian military has been beating its chest over the "degradation of Boko Haram." They tout "degradation" as obliteration. They talk dismissively of Boko Haram as a vanquished rebellion; defeated, demoralized and demobilized.

The clearance they issued to Kachikwu was consistent with the tenor of that evidence-free propaganda.

Kachikwu should have had enough common sense not to suspend his disbelief. The reality he saw on the television every day affirmed that that part of the Lake Chad basin consumed people like the Bermuda Triangle. And he knew the Nigerian military better than to put much stock in their boast.

This is the same military that rained bombs on the IDP camp at Rann. It had presumed the sanctuary of the hapless refugees to be the hideaway of the terrorists. The erroneous bombardment wasted 54 persons.

Six months and an inhouse inquiry later, the Defence Headquarters confirmed that the error was indeed due to "lack of appropriate marking." In order words, they bombarded on a wing and a guess: they unleashed death on the off-chance it would hit the right target.

Nigerians deserve to know the real reason why Kachikwu signed off on that suicide mission. Was he really motivated by the need to grow Nigerias crude oil reserves at a time when production level has climbed to 2.2 million barrels per day? Or was trying to ingratiate himself with President Buhari? Was the junior minister too desperate to report good news to his boss who ordered him to "intensify" the exploratory work in the inland basin on the Chad Basin and Benue Trough areas?

The Maiduguri mission reeks of sycophancy. Kachikwu, the first class grade graduate, seemed to be scrambling to win the prize of the highest performer in the class of ministers. The oil of the Niger Delta is at the crux of the chaotic "restructuring" altercation troubling the polity. A token of success from the oil search in the North would have sufficed to calm down the agitation.

He wanted to perform the miracle of sensual pacification. The murmurs of the Israelites ceased when Moses struck the rock and water gushed out. Likewise, the agitations of Nigerians would cease if he struck oil in Shekaus backyard.

The daredevil stunt has sadly created a new set of widows and fatherless children.

Nigeria hung the Ogoni Nine for the sake of oil. Nigeria fed the Maiduguri 50 to Boko Haram for the sake of oil. Nigeria would rather shed blood to gain oil.

Nigeria is that country that defines itself by its crude capacity. Our existence is validated by oil. Nigeria is an oil arrangement just as a river is a body of water.

The rest of the world is weaning itself of oil and transitioning to a green economy. The west is racing towards the normalization of the electric car. Nigeria, the spoiled and retarded adult suckling, wanders off on a different track, searching for another virgin oil reserve to suck, another Oloibiri to rape.

Acting President Yemi Osibanjo ordered the same generals who manufactured the fake clearance to relocate to Maiduguri. He mandated them to effect real clearance of the area.

The carnage that had been going on in that place for a long time did not elicit a presidential directive to relocate. But the generals must redeploy now. Because we need to win the tug of war and get crude flowing from that place as soon as possible.

We cant have enough of crude oil. Though, the more of it we drink, the more we perish like the broke village drunk.

Too bad there is no Oil Alcoholics Anonymous to help Nigeria!

***

Written by Emmanuel Ugwu

You can reach Emmanuel at immaugwu@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @EmmaUgwuTheMan.
Their home countries don't want them back. Hundreds of foreign fighters who enlisted with Islamic State to fight in Syria and Iraq are being stripped of their citizenship and blocked from returning by Western governments.

Returning fighters are seen as a grim threat, the deadly legacy of a murderous movement being defeated and rolled back on the battlefield. Western intelligence officials say they are already over-stretched trying to monitor tens of thousands of suspected extremists who never left their home countries.

British officials say they have stripped more than 100 British fighters and brides of their citizenship, preventing them re-entering the country legally, according to British news reports. All those who have lost British citizenship are dual nationals. Under international law, governments can't revoke someone's citizenship if it would render them stateless.

According to Britain's Sunday Times newspaper, 152 IS recruits have been stripped of British citizenship since 2016, 30 since March. Of the estimated 850 Britons who joined IS or al-Qaeda-linked groups in Syria, 15 percent are thought to have been killed. A handful of returnees have been jailed, but officials say many cannot be prosecuted for lack of evidence. Some are thought to have become disillusioned with jihadism, but many are thought to pose a significant terror risk.

Britain isn't alone in fearing the havoc returnees could wreak or the added burden they place on intelligence services already struggling to maintain surveillance on thousands of suspects who never left to fight. In June, following terrorist attacks in Manchester and London, British authorities admitted 23,000 radical Islamists had been considered a "person of interest" to the security services at any one time, more than six times the previous figures made public by the government.

Of those, 3,000 are considered serious threats, including about 400 people who have returned to Britain after fighting for IS in Syria and Iraq.


Omoyele Sowore had a presentation at the Tracking Faulty Towers workshop which held at the University of Kent, London over the weekend where he said that President Buhari became sick after he discovered the amount that has been looted by previous administrations. According to him, there is no more corruption in Nigeria because there is no more money to steal.There is no corruption in Nigeria anymore because there is nothing else to steal and loot. When Buhari saw how much has been looted, he became sick. We are happy that Nigeria is no longer among the ten top countries in the world. Western countries accepting Nigeria and other countries stolen money should be the ones tagged corrupt. In my village, the custodian of stolen things is seen as the main criminal. People cannot steal in western countries because where to keep the stolen money is a challenge. The Western world made their system very difficult to steal and loot money. he said
The Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona, has dismissed as untrue rumours of his death, saying he is hale and hearty.

The Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona, has dismissed as untrue rumours of his death, saying he is hale and hearty.Some blogs had on Monday reported the death of the Ogun States 83-year old monarch, who is spending his 57th year on the throne.But, according to, The respected monarch debunked the rumours about his death in a telephone conversation.The Awujale has for the past week been a guest of Oriental Hotel in Victoria Island, in Lagos, where he has been staying after a routine medical checkup in a Lagos hospital, two weeks ago.Awujale expressed surprise that some bloggers could be spreading rumours about his death without confirming from the palace in Ijebu-Ode or from his chiefs.Why are people spreading rumours about my death, when I am right here at Oriental, PMNews quoted the monarch as saying.He enjoined journalists to check the veracity of their information, before publishing.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan Abuja house has been burgled.However, in what appears a curious twist, the house was not burgled by known thieves, but by alleged police officers assigned to guard the house.The Nigeria Police have thus arrested three of its officers for stealing items valued at several millions of naira from the Abuja residence of the former president.The items were alleged to have been stolen by the officers from the residence located at No. 89, Fourth Avenue in the Gwarimpa district of Abuja.
Former Special Assistant to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan on New Media, Reno Omokri, says President Muhammadu Buhari has turned Nigeria in...

Former Special Assistant to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan on New Media, Reno Omokri, says President Muhammadu Buhari has turned Nigeria into a laughing stock.

Omokri, a fierce critic of the Buharis administration, made the remark while reacting to a question posed by Cable News Network, CNN  The head of State of which country has not set foot in his home land in the past two months?





Nigeria was listed among as option C, while Saudi Arabia, Cuba and Syria were on the list.

Omokri, who took to his twitter handle, wrote: Look at how President Muhammadu Buhari has turned Nigeria into the laughing stock of the world on @CNN ! Look at the challenge question!

The former Presidential aide also described Buhari as a hypocrite.





If you dont believe PMB is a hypocrite, please look at these headlines. Nigeria has learnt the hard way that change is not always progress!, he added.
The Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, on Monday, admitted that the cost of managing the humanitarian crisis caused by insurgency especial...

The Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, on Monday, admitted that the cost of managing the humanitarian crisis caused by insurgency especially as it concerns about 2.4 million Internally Displaced Persons and extensive destruction of infrastructure is huge and enormous.According to a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, the Acting President spoke while receiving a delegation of the African Union Peace and Security Council at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.Osinbajo said countries in the Lake Chad Basin have been cooperating in dealing with the insurgency in the region and the consequent humanitarian crisis.He cited the progress of the Multi-National Joint Task Force set up to address the terrorist insurgency as a sign of the cooperation.Osinbajo noted that unlike in the past when there were difficulties when the militaries of the four countries tried to work together, the MNJTF surmounted the challenges and has succeeded.The statement read, However he (Osinbajo) observed that the humanitarian consequences of the insurgency are compounded by deep poverty, making the costs of dealing with the situation huge and enormous.He recalled that there are for instance about 2.4m displaced persons, extensive destruction of property, infrastructure, schools, homes and farmland. In some cases, he said, the situation required the rebuilding of whole societies.But he expressed satisfaction with the work of the Peace and Security Council of the AU.
Manchester United manager, Jose Mourinho, refused to respond to Antonio Conte over an unflattering remark about how he was sacked at Chelsea for the second time.However, he could not stop himself, from making a sly reference to the Italians elaborately restored hairline.As the Blues prepare to retain their Premier League title, Conte warned his players they will need to avoid a season similar to the one Mourinho was in charge of in 2015/2016, after winning the league the year before.The Blues finished 10th under caretaker Guus Hiddink that term, after Mourinho was fired before Christmas.Speaking after Uniteds 3-0 friendly win over Valerenga on Sunday, the Portuguese was reluctant to return fire directly.I dont know, he said.I could answer in many different ways but Im not going to lose my hair to speak about Antonio Conte.
A former governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Kalu, has said the Igbo will not support any move that will disintegrate Nigeria.Kalus view was expressed in a lecture in Lokoja on Sunday at the inauguration of the GYB support group.Delivering a lecture titled, Mainstreaming Igbo in Nigeria Politics; Kalu underscored the need to make Nigeria to work for all.His said, I see a more united country rising from the ashes of hate and fear. Those who fear that the Igbo do not have leaders should first try to find out how Igbo people manage their affairs. Yes, Igbo people have their leaders and when their leaders speak, those they lead take cue. And of course, Igbo leaders are talking.He called on the Igbo to align properly and seek strategic partnership of other interest groups and political blocs to achieve developmental ideas.The Igbo cannot do it alone. I agree that development of Igbo land is a task that must be done; but it cannot be done in isolation, he said.He argued that if the Igbo found a very strategic political partner, while not putting all their eggs in one basket, they could achieve their goals.We can however not do that if we remain antagonistic to one another. We cannot achieve it if we scare everyone with hate. We cannot achieve it if we think it is Igbo and Igbo alone. No, we must build necessary network. We must build alliances across the political divide. If we dont build such alliances, we may not be able to market our demand, he said.Similarly, the Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, urged Igbo to shun the call for the disintegration of the country, saying Nigeria would remain strong in unity and development if the nation was one. He assured the Igbo in Kogi State of governments support.
One of Nigerias leading stand-up comedians and United Nations World Habitat Ambassador, Francis Agoda, known popularly as I Go Dye, has sent out a word of caution to Nigerian politicians and government officials to desist from wasting the tax payers money to visit President Muhammadu Buhari whos recuperating in a London hospital.The humour merchant, made the statement in the wake of reports that the National Assembly members plan to visit the President after some top APC members and some governors have already visited the number one citizen, saying, it is utterly unnecessary, when there are so many national issues begging their attention.I kindly make this passionate appeal to Nigerians, that president Buhari should be left to rest. Nobody can question or decide who should get ill. This is a divine manifestation, that only God can answer. Since he has willingly handed over power to the Vice President as stipulated by the constitution, I recommend that the National Assembly should as a matter of urgency be delegating the various House Committees to address and pass legislation that will make it mandatory for all states to provide standard world class hospitals to meet international standard and provide quality services to the ordinary Nigerians. I strongly advise that Nigerian top government officials should stop visiting the president in London, since he is certified to be alive, he said.The report that National Assembly members want to visit him is totally irrelevant. They should visit our federal roads that have taken many lives. The Benin-Abuja road, eastern roads, Benin-Ore road and many others, most importantly, visit the stranded children and families in the north east, our public hospitals without dialysis equipment and non functioning emergency and accident units, he added.Speaking further he decried the state of infrastructures in the country, begging the National Assembly, both Upper and Lower Houses, to pay urgent attention to resuscitating them rather than playing to the gallery with ostentatious visit to the President in London.Our child mortality rate is among the highest in the world today and even our higher institutions are rated sub-standard. Those and many more should be their primary concern; passing legislation to create social welfare for youths, with a view to curbing kidnapping, terrorism and militancy. This should be a time for sober reflection as a nation and not glamourising an unfortunate situation. Many Nigerians are faced with health issues in the public hospitals and they cant afford medical trips abroad. Providing an environment where each and every Nigerian can have easy access to quality healthcare should be their priority. I kindly request that president Buhari should be allowed to rest, health issues are not for jamborees let alone to be used to score cheap political points. Nobody knows who is next. May God protect Mr president and bless our nation Nigeria, he quipped.
RIVERS state governor, Nyesom Wike has again accused his predecessor , the Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi of allegedly bl...

RIVERS state governor, Nyesom Wike has again accused his predecessor , the Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi of allegedly blackmailing the Supreme court justices because his appeal against the Judgement of the Appeal court on the Rivers state judicial commission of inquiry was before the apex court.Wike spoke Monday at the 106 quarterly meeting of Rivers state council of Traditional rulers in Port Harcourt, said that the state government had enough evidence to nail Amaechi over corruption allegations against him. The governor alleged that the former governor of the state, Amaechi had openly admitted in public to releasing funds for construction of Justice Karibi whyte hospital, which he said was non existent, adding that he also admitted to sale of some valuable assets of the state.The governor who dismissed allegations of forged documents against him said the records of these transactions, bank details were there for all to see. Governor Wike said: All the documents that proved Amaechis  acts are authentic. We never forged documents.The former governor himself admitted that he paid out $39million to Clinotech , without a single block laid anywhere. Is that a document he claims was forged.Where is the Hospital ? He has agreed in different interviews that he sold the state gas turbines for $309million. Convert $309million United States dollars to naira and you will understand the level of . Amaechi left only $204,000 in the state account. The bank statements of the pattern of withdrawals from that account are there for all to see. Can that be forged. The dates and amounts withdrawn are clearly written. There is no time that he loses a case without blackmailing the Judiciary.He feels that the only way he can do it is to blackmail the Supreme Court. You cannot play politics with everything . The governor also warned owners of hotel not to allow their property to be used for election manipulation, saying the government would not hesitate to withdraw the certificate of occupancy of such places. He said: Any hotel that is used to rig elections, that hotels certificate of occupancy will be withdrawn. I will not allowed that anymore .
The U.S. was scrambling for an effective response over the weekend after North Korea on Friday launched a game-changing intercontinental ballistic missile that could reach the U.S. mainland. North Korea launched the Hwasong-14 missile which it claimed had a "large, heavy nuclear warhead" at 11:41 p.m. on Friday night from a new launch pad near the Chinese border. The official [North] Korean Central News Agency said it reached an altitude of 3,724 km and traveled a total distance of 998 km for 47 minutes and 12 seconds. South Korean and U.S. analysis data confirmed this. According to calculations by David Wright, a missile expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists, the missile if angled properly could have Los Angeles, Denver and Chicago well within range, and could reach as far as New York and Boston. If North Korea is really just a few steps away from being able to deliver a nuclear attack against the continental U.S., the basic framework of efforts to resolve the nuclear standoff with Pyongyang will have to change.



An intercontinental ballistic missile is being launched in North Korea's Chagang Province near the Chinese border on Friday night. /Newsis

U.S. President Donald Trump vented his frustration in one of his intemperate tweets on Saturday. "I am very disappointed in China... they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!" But it was unclear how he envisages putting any more pressure on China. Until now, the U.S., South Korea, China and Japan have been trying to get North Korea to scrap its nuclear weapons and missile program by offering economic aid and security guarantees. But that was predicated on the North being some way short of developing a missile that could deliver a nuclear warhead to the U.S. mainland. North Korea clarified the purpose of the test, saying it was an armed protest targeting the U.S., which confirms that South Korea and other regional countries of little concern to Pyongyang. The U.S. is now under increasing pressure to take some kind of direct action since the North has stepped over the "red line" set down by South Korea and the U.S. for North Korean provocations to trigger a military response. But any military response could trigger an all-out war that would probably bring China into the fray.

A satellite image shows a launch site (dotted) of North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile tested in Chagang Province near the Chinese border. /Google Earth

The latest missile was launched in Chagang Province, just 30 km from the Chinese border. The area is an obvious a buffer zone, where China would tolerate no missile strikes from the U.S. Lee Cheol-woo, a member of the National Assembly's Intelligence Committee, told reporters on Sunday, "Even if the U.S. wants to launch a preemptive strike, it can't because of the proximity to China's border." North Korea has apparently deployed both the KN-08 and Hwasong 14 long-range ballistic missiles in North Pyongan Province and Chagang Province near the border with China. North Korea also appears to be testing the alert levels of the U.S. and South Korean militaries. CNN and other news media reported Thursday, the 64th anniversary of the armistice in the Korean War, that there were signs of an impending North Korean missile launch in North Pyongan Province. But the actual launch took place further east. There were also projections that a launch would be difficult due to rains, but the surprise launch on Friday night appears to have been an attempt to catch the U.S. and South Korean troops off guard. The U.S. on Sunday sent two B1-B bombers to Korean skies as a show of force, but it has done the same before without notable deterrent effect on North Korea. Attempts to prevent further missile tests by sending large aircraft-carrier fleets to nearby waters have also had no obvious effect.
The U.S. on Sunday sent two B-1B Lancer long-range bombers over the Korean Peninsula in response to North Korea's latest missile test. They arrived just 30 hours after the regime launched a ballistic missile that could be capable of reaching New York.

The B-1Bs conducted a joint drill with Japan Air Self-Defense Force fighters over Japan before training with South Korean Air Force fighters here, the two air forces said.

Gen. Terrence O'Shaughnessy, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Air Forces, said in a statement, "We have a responsibility to our allies and our nation to showcase our unwavering commitment while planning for the worst-case scenario."

"If called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal, and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing," he added.
President Moon Jae-in is showing signs of shifting his dovish position on North Korea and the deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery here after North Korea's latest missile test.

Moon was briefed about the North's latest intercontinental missile launch at 11:50 p.m. on Friday night, just minutes after the provocation, and called a meeting of the National Security Council at 1 a.m. Saturday.

"The latest missile launch could lead to fundamental changes in the Northeast Asian security structure," Moon said. He called on officials to consider "our own sanctions against North Korea."

South Korean and U.S. forces conducted joint exercises aimed at intercepting North Korea's missiles on Sunday. Seoul also proposed to revise limits imposed by the U.S. on the range and payload of South Korea's own missiles. The government wants raise the maximum payload from the current 500 kg to 1 ton.
China and Russia over the weekend downplayed the significance of North Korea's test of an intercontinental ballistic missile, especially its impact on the status quo.

China's Foreign Ministry in statements on Saturday criticized both North Korea's missile test and South Korea's decision to deploy four more missile launchers of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery from the U.S.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang urged Pyongyang to "halt acts that heighten tensions on the Korean peninsula." But he also expressed "Beijing's grave concern" over South Korea's response. He added China remains "persistent and clear" and "adamantly opposes" the deployment of the THAAD battery.

The Global Times, an English-language government mouthpiece, towed a similar line. "China has paid the most diplomatic cost in dealing with its neighbor's nuclear issue," it said. "The THAAD system deployed in South Korea severely jeopardized China's national security."

China worries that the THAAD system's powerful radar could be used to spy on its military maneuvers.

The Russia Defense Ministry in a statement denied the rocket was an ICBM at all and said that based on it flight path it was a "medium-range ballistic missile."

Moscow, which is forging increasingly close ties with Pyongyang, also said after the North's previous long-range missile test on July 4 that there was "no clear evidence" the missile was an ICBM and blocked attempts by the UN Security Council to sanction the North further.


The federal government plans to pour $125 million into the fight against a mysterious disease that has ravaged corals in Florida and much of the Caribbean, and now poses a dire threat to the treasured reefs off the Louisiana and Texas coasts.
The study looks at two smaller-scale projects that are in some ways predecessors to the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, the $2 billion plan to slow land loss erasing Louisiana's coast. Construction on that project could begin as early as next year, while a similar one on the opposite side of the river known as the Mid-Breton Diversion could follow.
More and more college campuses across the country are choosing to go tobacco-free.

Metro schools  including Iowa Western Community College, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Creighton University and Metropolitan Community College  have banned or are about to ban smoking or the use of other tobacco products on their campuses.

Those bans generally are part of efforts to help promote wellness and healthy lifestyles among student, staff, visitors and employees.

Students attending college in the fall will want to understand what these policies mean for them as they head off to college for the first time.

UNO spokesperson Charley Reed said going tobacco-free is a trend among college campuses right now.

For us, its largely a health initiative, Reed said. Its part of one of our many campus wellness initiatives that weve engaged in the last five to 15 years.

Prior to going tobacco-free, anyone wishing to smoke needed to do so at least 10 feet away from any campus building, he said.

The campus ban on smoking and tobacco use officially went into effect last August. The policy prohibits the inhalation, exhalation, burning or carrying of any lighted or heated tobacco or nicotine product.

The policy also includes a ban on spit tobacco and nicotine vaporizers.

In 2008, the State of Iowa passed a Smoke-Free Air bill that prohibits smoking in any enclosed facilities, parking lots and cars on the campus of Iowa Western. The campus has been tobacco-free since. The ban also includes dorm facilities.

Creighton went tobacco-free in 2008 after a number of different students, campus organizations and administrators began the quest to change the policy. The university spent roughly a year gathering various feedback from experts, the student body and campus groups before deciding to ban the use of tobacco campus-wide.

We had determined we didnt want to create smoke shacks or places where people could use tobacco on campus, said Dawn Obermiller, Creighton wellness program coordinator. We felt like that would send a mixed message to anyone on campus.

The policy defines the use of tobacco similar to the one in place at UNO and bans the use of smoking and all other types of tobacco products from campus use.

Metro Community College will be banning the use of tobacco effective Sept. 17, according to its website.

More and more schools are going this route, Obermiller said. The (Creighton) students were very much in favor moving forward with this campus policy, and we had their full support.

Students that do want to continue to use tobacco can do so off-campus on public streets or any non-university or college-owned building.

Both UNO and Creighton offer services to help staff and students to quit using tobacco including counseling, education and prevention services.

It was part of our mission, Obermiller said. We are a medical teaching campus and we want the people that live and work on campus to be as healthy as possible.
Time is running out for students entering seventh or 12th grade to obtain a newly required immunization that protects against meningitis.

As of the 2017-18 school year, Iowa law requires students to have a one-time dose of meningococcal vaccine on or after 10 years of age to attend seventh grade or higher, if born after Sept. 15, 2004.

The law now also requires two doses of meningococcal vaccine, with one dose received on or after 16 years of age, for students to attend 12th grade, if born after Sept. 15, 1999, or one dose if received when students are 16 years old or older.

Incoming high school seniors do not have to receive two doses, if they did not get the first one before they were 16, said Tanya French, public health nurse at Council Bluffs Public Health.

They have to have one dose after age 10 to attend seventh grade and one after 16 to attend 12th grade, she said. They will not be able to attend school the first day, if they do not have the vaccine  and thats the state law.

Council Bluffs Community School District is trying to make sure parents dont forget the new rule, sending a letter home with students last spring and including it in communications this summer.

We have been reaching out to parents of incoming seventh- and 12th-graders to remind them of the requirement, said Diane Ostrowski, the districts chief communications officer. The state requires the vaccines to attend school.

The Lewis Central Community School District also alerted parents at the end of the last school year  urging them to get shots before the back-to-school season  in a letter posted to the districts website, which was also sent to incoming seventh graders missing the requirement.

Many students have come in to get the shots  especially during the past two weeks, French said. She expects to stay busy for the next several weeks.

Iowa did the right thing by adding the shot to its required immunizations, French said.

Meningococcal disease is a very serious, life-threatening illness, she said. This vaccine protects against four strains, or serogroups, of meningitis and is 85 to 100 percent effective at preventing infection.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 10 to 15 percent of people with meningococcal disease die, even with appropriate treatment. Of those who recover, up to 20 percent have disabling aftereffects like permanent hearing loss, limb loss or brain damage.

This new school immunization requirement is important because the bacteria that cause meningococcal disease are spread through upper respiratory droplets like saliva, French said. Teens and young adults are at increased risk for meningococcal disease, and meningococcal vaccine is the best protection.

The fact that Iowa previously did not require this immunization was cited as a weakness in United Health Foundations Americas Health Rankings 2016 Report, The Nonpareil previously reported.

However, 75 percent of the states adolescents were getting the vaccination anyway, according to the report.
North Korean hackers are targeting both South Korean and foreign banks to raise badly needed hard currency, the Wall Street Journal reported last week.

Citing a report by South Korea's Financial Security Institute, the paper said, "North Korea's cyberarmy has splintered into multiple groups and is unleashing orchestrated attacks increasingly focused on funneling stolen funds to the secretive nation." It added that they have shifted their aims from stealing military secrets to stealing money.

The shift came because Pyongyang needs to raise money for its nuclear and missile programs and "demonstrates the difficulties" it has in finding the funds. The hackers often plant malicious codes in South Korean ATMs to steal information from banks and other lenders.

The attacks are led by a group called Lazarus, which has ties to North Korea. Other hacking groups called Blue Noroff and Andariel are also targeting South Korea and are widening their targets to casinos and financial software developers. They make the cash by selling the information to China, Taiwan or Thailand.


A new perspective will greet students at Wilson and Kirn Middle Schools this year.

The two middle schools are beginning their candidacy for the International Baccalaureate program, which will see the schools shift to present interdisciplinary lessons with an international perceptive.

An emphasis will be placed on students actively learning through hands-on projects, as well as encouraging them to make a difference in the world around them, deepening and providing motivation for their studies.

Perhaps one of the most visible changes will be that sixth, seventh and eighth graders will now be taking Spanish year-round, instead of as an exploratory class.

The goal of the IB program is that students should be proficient in Spanish by the end of middle school, said Julie Smith, executive director of teaching and learning for the Council Bluffs Community School District. The students will learn the equivalent of the first two years of Spanish at the high school level.

Physical education will be expanded, Smith said, and an additional fine arts requirement will have every student studying music at the middle schools.

Design will be part of students lessons, which will be more streamlined so concepts from, for example, language arts will be extended into social studies or science.

The district offers an IB program currently at College View and Carter Lake Elementary Schools. Parents at College View have asked for years to have students be able to continue with the IB program, which has been viewed as a success at the elementary level.

Now were hitting every kid in the district, Smith said, adding that the Iowa West Foundation has given financial support  a little more than $400,000  to help pay for the startup costs, largely training, associated with expanding IB to the middle schools.

The whole purpose is really to prepare kids to live in a global society, Smith said, with lessons covering a variety of subject areas, such as the environment. What we want kids to do is become thinkers.
Iowa Western Community College wanted to keep it simple in their advice to incoming students.

So the college came up with a motto: Show up. Work hard. Ask for help.

We came up with the motto about a year ago to have a consistent message about what students should be doing, said Sam Larson, director of academic support at Iowa Western. College success isnt always an easy thing. We tried to simplify it.

Larson said the slogan was introduced in the fall of 2016. She broke down the motto, phrase by phrase.

Show up: That is mainly talking about attendance in classes, Larson said, noting the transition from high school to college is sometimes difficult on that front. They have free time. Moms not waking them up for school. We tell them to go to class to get the material, stay on top of things.

Larson noted there are legitimate reasons to miss class. When that happens, reach out to an instructor, find out what you missed.

We recommend students try to connect with a classmate, she said. Make friends or connections to get notes from someone.

Work hard: College is different than high school, Larson said. They might not have had to study or had as much homework in high school. You need to step it up.

Deadlines become more stringent, with professors not always willing to accept late work.

Read the syllabus, know what the deadlines are, what the expectations are, she said. Put in the time outside of class. Students need to make sure theyre allowing themselves time to actually study. If they have a job, other obligations  they need to make sure theyre managing their time and have time to study.

Ask for help: Thats another one we encourage students to do. We have so many resources on campus to help them out, but we might not know theyre struggling, Larson said. Were trying to normalize that its OK to ask for help. There are so many services and resources. We want them to take advantage of that so they can succeed and move on.

Larson said shes happy to have the motto in the colleges efforts to help students as they arrive on campus.

We tried to boil it down to simple steps thatll be easy to remember, she said. Hopefully it works.
Growth in industrial profits quickens

From:Agencies | 2017-07-28 10:04

China's major industrial companies posted faster profit growth in June amid higher sales and increased efficiency, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.



They reported a profit rise of 19.1 percent year on year to 727.8 billion yuan (US$108 billion) last month, 2.4 percentage points faster than in May, data showed.

Bureau statistician He Ping attributed the acceleration to faster growth in product sales, slower increases in the cost of raw materials, an improved industrial structure and greater efficiency.

As evidence of the effects of Chinas ongoing supply-side structural reform, high-tech and equipment manufacturing industries are contributing more to the profit growth, the bureau said.

Equipment manufacturing took a 40.7 percent share of profits in June, up 11.3 percentage points compared to May, while mining accounted for 22.1 percent, down 13.4 percentage points.

Companies have improved their profitability, lowered costs and cut their debt ratio as result of the reforms.

The bureaus figures showed that 38 of 41 industries surveyed reported a growth in profits, led by coal and metal industries.

For the first half combined, the profits rose 22 percent to 3.63 trillion yuan. Although profit growth slowed from 22.7 percent in the January-May period, it far exceeded last years 8.5 percent increase.

Profits at Chinas state-owned industrial enterprises were up 45.8 percent at 805.5 billion yuan in the first half, compared with a 53.3 percent rise in the first five months. Private companies reported a 14.8 percent increase in profits to 1.19 trillion yuan in the first half, compared with 14 percent in the first five months.

The industrial sector, which accounts for about a third of Chinas GDP, rebounded last year after profits declined in 2015, helped by government efforts to cut overcapacity.

Chinas industrial profits would maintain a steady medium-high growth of 15 percent to 20 percent, China Merchants Securities said in a research note, although it predicted a slight retreat in accumulated profit growth next month.

In the January-June period, companies also reported healthier balance sheets. The average collection period for accounts receivable decreased from 38.1 days a year earlier to 37 days.

The corporate leverage ratio continued to decline. Debt-asset ratios of major industrial firms dropped 0.8 percentage points year on year to 55.9 percent.

Despite a general improvement, data related to financing costs rose, indicating higher funding pressure on companies, He said.

In June, financial expenses rose 9.7 percent year on year, up 4.6 percentage points from May.

Chinas economy expanded 6.9 percent for the first half of 2017, with consumption and services, together with new innovation-driven economic sectors, taking up larger roles in the economy.

On Monday, the International Monetary Fund raised Chinas growth forecast for 2017 and 2018 to 6.7 percent and 6.4 percent.

The Asian Development Bank also upgraded its forecasts to 6.7 percent for 2017 and 6.4 percent for 2018.

While acknowledging positive changes, Chinese policy-makers have called for more focus on hidden risks to promote long-term sustainable growth.

At a Politburo meeting on Monday, the Chinese leadership stressed that there were still contradictions and problems within the economy, promising to take further measures to address long-standing issues such as mounting local government debt and rampant financial irregularities.
Tests under way that could raise top speed of Chinas bullet trains

From:Xinhua | 2017-07-28 10:05

A Fuxing bullet train is ready to depart from Beijing South Railway Station yesterday for the start of tests aimed at restoring the maximum speed of the Shanghai-Beijijng rail line to 350 kilometers per hour, six years after it was reduced to 300kph.



TESTS have begun in a bid to restore the maximum speed on the Shanghai-Beijing rail line to 350 kilometers per hour, six years after it was reduced to 300kph.

Departing Beijing South Railway Station at 8:38am yesterday, a Fuxing bullet train completed the round trip from Beijing to Xuzhou in east Chinas Jiangsu Province, about 700 kilometers away, in around four hours.

The faster speed would cut the Shanghai-Beijing journey to about 4.5 hours, about half an hour faster than at present.

Connecting Chinas major financial and trade hub with its capital, the Shanghai-Beijing high-speed line is one of the busiest in the country, carrying over 100 million passengers a year.

Yesterdays test showed that energy consumption on the Fuxing decreased to 10 percent below that of the Hexie train (CRH380) when running at 350kph.

The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway is built to the highest standard in the world, while the Fuxing is designed and manufactured with an operating speed of 350 kilometers per hour, said Lu Dongfu, China Railway Corps general manager.

China started to run its first 350kph train between Beijing and Tianjin in August 2008 and opened at least three more high-speed lines nationwide in the following years, until the authorities ordered speeds to be cut to between 250 and 300kph in 2011.

Chinas Fuxing bullet trains were unveiled in June and are capable of top speeds of 400kph.

The Fuxing was designed and manufactured in China, led by the China Railway Corp. We hold the complete intellectual property rights of the new bullet trains  electric multiple units (EMU)  which have reached the worlds advanced level, said He Huawu of the China Academy of Engineering.

The new EMU has completed 600,000 kilometers of running assessment and increased the design life to 30 years from 20, He said.

The Fuxing has a monitoring system that slows the train in case of emergency or abnormal conditions. Telemetry allows a control center to monitor the train in real time.

The Fuxing is a substantial upgrade on the Hexie. It is more spacious and energy-efficient, with longer life expectancy and better reliability.

There will be a process for China to consider whether to speed up its whole high-speed network, though such a move may pose a challenge to railway management, He said, adding that the financial and social benefits must be considered.

The Fuxing, despite its increased efficiency, would consume 20-30 percent more energy if its speed went from 300kph to 350kph, according to Du Yanliang of the China Academy of Engineering.

However, the speed hike would improve social benefits, as it will help ease ticket shortages on the busy Shanghai-Beijing line and save time for passengers.

China will operate seven Fuxing trains in either direction of the Shanghai-Beijing line in its initial stage. Ticket prices will not change.

The authorities will gradually increase the number of the new bullet train and adjust ticket prices in future, He said.

China has the worlds longest high-speed rail network, 22,000 kilometers at the end of last year, or about 60 percent of the worlds total.

About a third of Chinas high-speed railways were designed to run at a speed of 350kph, He said.

Several countries, including Indonesia, Russia and India, have bought Chinese bullet trains.
The National Rugby League (NRL) and the Turnbull Government have kicked off a lifesaving partnership to mark the start of DonateLife Week, aiming to help double the number of Australians registered as organ and tissue donors.

Aged Care Minister and Indigenous Health Minister Ken Wyatt AM said the partnership was a significant opportunity to encourage millions of NRL fans and players to sign on to the Australian Organ Donor Register.

"I congratulate the NRL for tackling the challenge of trying to double the rate of organ donor registration," Minister Wyatt said.

"33 per cent of Australians are currently registered to give the gift of life but surveys reveal 67 per cent are prepared to donate, they just haven't got around to registering.

"NRL partnership activities will include promotions during Grand Final Week.

"The NRL will also engage fans on the importance of registration and family discussion of organ donation across its digital and social media platforms."

Minister for Sport, Greg Hunt, said NRL DonateLife Ambassadors, including former Parramatta Eels legend Nathan Hindmarsh, would play an important role.

"At present, around 1,400 Australians are waiting for the gift of a lifesaving transplant, thats why partnerships with major organisations like the NRL are so important," said Minister Hunt.

"Registering your donation decision is vital because it leaves your family in no doubt of your decision to save lives as an organ and tissue donor."

Last year, a record 1,713 Australians received transplants, thanks to the generosity of 503 deceased and 267 living organ donors and their families.

Research shows nine in 10 families will agree to organ donation when their deceased loved one is a registered donor.

To encourage more living donors, the Turnbull Government committed

$4.1 million in this years Budget to a four-year extension of the Supporting Living Organ Donors Program.

The program reimburses living donors for time off work or out-of-pocket expenses, to help lift donation rates and reduce waiting lists.

A new online form at donatelife.gov.au makes registration easy, taking just a minute or two on a mobile phone, tablet or desktop computer.
Journeyman Raiders winger Michael Oldfield achieved a rare feat when he scored a try in his club debut last Saturday and while he hopes it leads to further opportunities, is under no illusions as to where he stands in the Canberra backline pecking order.



Match Draw Widget

[2017] Telstra Premiership - Round 22: Sharks vs Raiders

Currently, Oldfield's last four NRL appearances are spread across three teams over two years with tries for each club. For good measure, each of those three tries have been scored for, or against, the Rabbitohs.

He played four games for the Bunnies in 2016, scoring a try in the first and third of those before joining the Panthers this year. His only start netted a try back in Round 6 against former club Souths before a mid-year switch to the nation's capital saw him called up on the weekend for the suspended Jordan Rapana, scoring another try in the 32-16 win, once again against the Rabbitohs.

Speaking to NRL.com after Saturday's game, Oldfield said a back-line log-jam at Penrith and a lack of depth in the outside backs at Canberra swayed him to leave his family base in Sydney and head south-west for greater opportunities, despite knowing he was still sure to be considered a back-up rather than top-line selection.

"Coming down here was a big move for me; I was just chasing an opportunity and 'Sticky' [Stuart] has been honest with me," Oldfield said.

"It was unlucky for 'Rapa' with the suspension but I'm happy to have played and put my hand up. Hopefully I did a good enough job to be in Sticky's mind going forward. Obviously Raps will come back next week. I'm happy just to be there when needed.

"You never know when you're going to get an opportunity. Moving down here, I wasn't expecting to play this early but it happened and I just had to take the opportunity as it came. I think I've done that."

The move to the Green Machine was initiated by the Raiders, Oldfield said, as they looked to shore up their three-quarter line.

"We were lacking in depth in the outside backs and obviously I wasn't getting much opportunity at Penrith. They had a very versatile squad and a lot of depth so I wasn't getting a run there," he said.

"An opportunity came up here. Stick's been honest from the start about where I sat in the squad. An opportunity has presented itself and I was lucky enough to play [against Souths].

"It's a fair way from Sydney and from the family and I didn't want to move and find out I'm sitting in the ranks again. It's been a good move for me and I'm happy with it."

The added security of being on contract for 2018 also sweetened the deal for the two-time Tongan international.

"Having that added security is good for the mindset going into next year," he said.

"Everyone wants that starting position and they're not handed out, they're not just given to you. I've come into a squad where people have solidified their spots and that's just the way it is, I just have to do my best."



Rabbitohs v Raiders: Five key points

Raiders put scrappy Souths to the sword


New research from the University of Vermont, US, has found that the most viewed content on TikTok relating to food, nutrition and weight perpetuates a toxic diet... Read More
The rock-painting craze is in full swing among communities all over Northwest Indiana.

I think its a wonderful movement and its contagious  we have painted 120 rocks, just ourselves. If we are diligent and if we all work to make this a good thing, our kids will remember this, said Elizabeth Eenigenburg, who started the Facebook page Crown Point Rocks. Its simple fun, simple kindness and simple love.

Every community Facebook rock page has a different philosophy  Happy Rock Project, The Kindness Rock Project, etc.  but the main idea is the same: A person paints a rock, hides it in her community, hopes that it is found and inspires the finder to re-hide the rock and/or paint a rock to continue the cycle.

Bobby Conger, of Portage, who started the Facebook page NW Indiana Happy Rocks, said his family learned of the Happy Rock project from Cub Scouts.

You are sharing a smile, basically, but you put a smile on a rock. Its just makes you happy. My whole family is painting rocks, even Grandma. We like everything about it. I personally get more enjoyment of the hiding the rock because you want a spot thats obvious but hidden, Conger said.

Everybody is doing it, and its cheap to do. Weve had our page up for only three weeks and we have almost 200 members.

Supplies to participate in the project can be permanent markers, nail polish, paint, colored pencils, etc.

Its important that you spray a sealant on the rock when youre finished so the paint stays on the rock, Eenigenburg said.

Since May, about a dozen painted rock Facebook pages in Northwest Indiana have been created  Highland in Rocks, Schererville Rocks, Northwest Indiana Rocks, 219 Rocks, Lowell Rocks, Chesterton Rocks, Valpo Rocks, Cedar Lake Rocks, etc. All pages have between 100 and 500 members.

Eenigenburg hosts neighborhood rock-painting parties and also is working with the Crown Point Library to host rock-painting classes over the next few months.

We had a rock party here a week ago and the kids that day painted 50 rocks. My table was a disaster, but they had fun, Eenigenburg said. At the library we are doing two week-night classes and a Saturday class. Its not just for kids  its for all ages.

Jenny Vander Meer, of Lowell, agrees it is for all ages.

She said hunting for rocks is a great way for kids to get off electronic devices and get outdoors. Although Vander Meer loves seeing her 5-year-old sons face light up when he finds a painted rock, she personally enjoys painting rocks.

The first rock I painted was a CHD (congenital heart defects) rock to spread awareness and honor baby Kane, who passed away in January. The Facebook page, KanesKrew  Made With Love, has become near and dear to my heart. I do plan on painting other rocks to help spread awareness, especially for cancer and brain tumors to honor my mom, who passed away in April 2015, Vander Meer said.

For more information, visit thekindnessrocksproject.com.
HAMMOND  Calumet College of St. Joseph's new president comes with a background that should prove beneficial to the institution's goals of constructing student housing on campus and growing enrollment.

As senior vice president of finance and administration at Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois, Amy McCormack oversaw more than $100 million in capital projects, including more than $10 million in interior improvements.

Calumet College of St. Joseph is currently undergoing its own interior improvements and replacing windows at its campus in the Robertsdale section of Hammond, but a priority is to move forward with a residence hall project with a dining component.

In order to accomplish this goal, the college needs to have a financial plan in place, and McCormack has experience in putting such plans together and in motion. She has a degree in accounting with a Master of Business Administration with finance and marketing concentrations in addition to her doctorate in higher education.

She spent 26 years with Dominican University, although noted that it was probably during a 15-year period of time that she oversaw the millions of dollars in capital projects she referenced.

"I did a lot of building, financing, planning and actually a lot of presentations to development boards," McCormack said in a recent interview.

The college's former president, Dan Lowery, made his own presentation to the Hammond Redevelopment Board about Calumet College of St. Joseph's plans for residence halls in December 2015 and July 2016.

In 2015, the college submitted to the redevelopment board a bid of $308,500 for a 5.61-acre site at 2500 New York Ave., next to the college's campus, which was to be used for the residential housing facilities.

The college put up $5,000 in earnest money for the site, with the rest of the $303,500 coming in the way of a promissory note that the commission was to forgive over a five-year period if the college follows through with the project.

McCormack said the college is still seeking to build the residential housing on that property, with the initial project to include a residential housing unit with a dining option. A second residential housing unit would come later.

McCormack said the project was discussed at a recent board retreat.

More than just a residence hall

"We are working with a few banks to try to put together our financing plan for the resident halls," said McCormack, who likes to refer to them as "living-learning communities."

She said in such communities, people from different backgrounds live and learn about different aspects of life, such as different food, religions or media, through topical discussions.

"I look at the residence halls really as an opportunity for student development," McCormack said.

By the end of this year, McCormack said she will have a firm understanding of the timing of the building program.

"It's a priority, and it's certainly something I want to move forward with in a positive direction," she said.

McCormack said the first priority is one residence hall with dining to support it. Officials are still evaluating whether the dining component would be within a new structure or within renovated existing space. The college will make sure there is a footprint for a second residence hall, but will not be building it right away.

"Residence halls will make us a stronger institution," McCormack said. "We need to have some residential components and options for students. It gives us more of a campus feel, which we are looking for and creates the learning environment, which I think I think is essential to our future growth."

She said the college will continue to have a large commuter population, but the residence halls just allows the college to serve a portion of the students who are coming from further away or just want a residential experience.

The college last year had about 1,100 students, which included part-time, full-time, traditional and graduate students. Of that number, there were 627 who were considered traditional students, and the college would like that to increase to about 700 to 750 students. There are about 130 students who live in apartments in the local community.

McCormack said there is a place for apartment living as juniors and seniors gain independence, pay their own bills and make arrangements for utilities.

She spoke also, however, of the opportunity for the development of freshman and sophomore students in the residence halls. She added that some of these students living on campus can hopefully be a resource to the community, such as volunteers at the local Boys and Girls clubs or tutors at secondary schools. Some perhaps could serve at interns at such places as the Hammond Port Authority, she said.

McCormack noted there are students who already perform community service locally, she said, but if they lived on campus it would be easier. While the residence halls might also allow for the college to draw students from a broader area, McCormack said even those coming from local communities like Munster, Highland or Crown Point might benefit from staying at them.
Fifteen years ago, while doing research in the genealogy department at the Porter County Library in Valparaiso, the late Larry Clark approached me with a small blue pamphlet titled, The Kankakee Marsh of Northern Indiana and Illinois by Alfred H Meyer.

The pamphlet was published in the 1935 issue of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters.

Larry was the genealogy department head in addition to being the Porter County historian, selected by the Indiana Historical Society. He was aware that my wife, Mary, and I had formed the Kankakee Valley Historical Society and were researching the history of the Kankakee River.

Clark told me the library was consolidating their collections and had an extra copy of Meyers pamphlet they were donating to the Kankakee Valley Historical Society.

Over the years I have reread Meyers paper many times and still pick up some new nugget of information each time. I consider Meyers essay to be the best comprehensive scholarly short paper about the Kankakee River prior to 1935 to present with proposals for future restoration projects within the Kankakee Valley.

Alfred Hermon Meyer was born on Feb. 27, 1893, to William and Maria Weihe Meyer in Venedy, Illinois. Alfred was the youngest of eight children born to the couple, and the only one to become a college graduate. He received his bachelors and masters degrees from the University of Illinois and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Meyer was a veteran of World War I. Five years after his return from the service, he married Lillian Folkers. They had one son  Alfred W. Meyer.

Although Valparaiso University is one of the older higher educational institutions in Indiana, it was rejuvenated when the Lutheran University Association assumed responsibility for its support in 1925.

The following year, Meyer was appointed as an instructor in the Geology and Zoology Department at VU, becoming the department head in 1933. In 1937, Meyer reorganized it as the Department of Geography and Geology. In 1942, he was promoted to full professor at VU. In addition to teaching at VU, Meyer also taught summer courses at 13 other universities.

Over the years, Meyer authored or co-authored 44 papers, reports and manuals. In 1963, Meyer and his department head successor, John H. Strietelmeier, wrote the textbook Geography in World Society: A conceptual approach which can still be found on Amazon.

In addition to his scholarly endeavors, Meyer was also involved with his community. From 1948-1951, while presiding over the Valparaiso Plan Commission, he was instrumental in developing the citys first master plan.

Of course, Meyer had a family life. I have been fortunate to have received remembrances from some of his grandchildren.

Meyers son, Alfred W Meyer, often told that the family didnt take vacations; We went on field trips. Meyers grandson Karl Meyer wrote me: He was a bit of an odd duck as I remember him. Very task-oriented and unassuming. I remember his organized little workshop in the basement. (He) Had a nice house built in the country that was fun to go to. (Grandpa was) a caring man who took us to Yellowstone and got (us) going out in nature thing.

In my next columns, I will dig into Meyers paper The Kankakee Marsh of Northern Indiana and Illinois.
GARY  Family and friends gathered Sunday evening in Brunswick Park to remember Kevin Hood, a 43-year-old local businessman and father of five, gunned down Friday night during an armed robbery outside his car wash business.

The mourners, dressed in orange-and-black clothing, clung to balloons as Norman Hairston, a bishop at Zion Progressive Cathedral, explained that though Hood had died, his soul remained, and just as the balloons would rise, so too would Hood's soul.

The Bible said that God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul, Hairston said. And because Kevin was a living soul, his body died, but his spirit still lives.

After a brief prayer, the balloons were released into the sunny sky.

The memorial service shared space at Brunswick Park with the West Side High School reunion, which Hood was expected to attend.

Hood's aunt Mary A. Lees said her nephew graduated from the high school in 1992. He remained in the community after graduation and became a successful businessman who was known for his good spirits and helpful nature.

He was a very positive person, Lee said. I don't think there is hardly anyone in our community who doesn't know Kevin Hood.

Hood helped shovel snow for senior citizens in his neighborhood and volunteered at Zion Progressive Cathedral.

Hairston said he spent about three hours with Hood on Friday at a barbershop. He had just left there when he learned about his friend's death.

He was a treasure, Hairston said.

Gary police were dispatched at about 5:40 p.m. to the area of 15th Avenue and Massachusetts after receiving reports of an armed robbery in progress, according to a news release.

Police learned at the scene that Hood had been robbed and fatally shot at his business.

Hood's girlfriend, Cecilia Gates, said Hood had just celebrated a month ago the opening of Shine On Car Wash, the third car wash he had opened in the city.

Family members said Hood was always interested in business. Lee said as a child Hood would sell firecrackers to other children in the neighborhood.

The aunt said she took him fishing when he was only 10 or 11 years old, and he caught a whole barrel of fish.

She said when she asked him later what happened to them, he said he sold them.

He has always been a businessman, Lee said.

Hood was also a longtime member of the Northwest Indiana Ruff Ryders motorcycle club.

He liked anything that was fast, Gates said.

Police are asking anyone with information about the murder to contact the Lake County/Gary Metro Homicide Unit at 219-755-3855, or the Crime Tip hotline at 866-CRIME-GP.

The family said Sunday a funeral date has not yet been scheduled.
PORTAGE TOWNSHIP  After a 56-year-old woman died and several others were injured July 12 in a crash along McCool Road at the intersection of County Road 875 North, Porter County Commissioner Jim Biggs, R-North, did some digging.

With the help of the county sheriff's department, he discovered there have been 96 accidents reported at or near that intersection over the last decade.

In hopes of shrinking or eliminating that number, Biggs said he will seek support from his two fellow commissioners next week to spend a little more than $10,000 in cable franchise fee proceeds to enhance the intersection with the same type of safety devices used at Meridian Road and County Road 700 North in Liberty Township.

The only traffic called on to stop at the McCool Road intersection are the vehicles on 875 North. Biggs said the east and westbound stop signs on 875 North will be enhanced with solar-powered flashing lights to better catch the attention of motorists.

Solar-powered yellow flashing lights will be installed on McCool Road, he said. Biggs said the hope is that both efforts will alert motorists from all directions that they are approaching an intersection that could be dangerous.

A 17-year-old female motorist was eastbound on 875 North during the late morning of July 12 when she failed to yield the right of way and pulled out in front of a northbound vehicle on McCool Road, police said. A Kentucky woman, who was a passenger in the young woman's vehicle, was pronounced dead at the scene.

There also have been three pedestrians killed along the same stretch of McCool Road recently after being struck by vehicles.

County officials were called on to better light the roadway following the most recent pedestrian death in October. But when concern arose over the cost of the lighting, a pathway was installed along the road instead.

The 5-foot-wide asphalt path extends just more than a mile north from U.S. 6 to the entrance of the Pleasant Valley mobile home park along the east side of McCool Road.

Speeding vehicles is a problem along that stretch of McCool Road, Biggs said. He plans to ask the sheriff's department to have officers stationed there more often to watch for traffic violations.
LOWELL  For about seven years, town officials say, they have had electrical problems at the wastewater treatment they believe are caused by the primary service line from NIPSCO.

Now, they plan to prove it.

The Lowell Town Council has authorized Town Manager Jeff Sheridan to hire Alternative Source to troubleshoot at the plant for $6,160.

"We've spent thousands of dollars over the last several years," Sheridan said of repairs or replacements made necessary due to the electrical issues.

The NIPSCO line is buried underground and has been there for about 40 years, he said. Replacement of the line has been estimated to be more than $25,000.

Through the years, NIPSCO representatives have denied the problem is theirs to solve, town officials said.

Hiring Alternative Source will give provide documentation to track the problem, Council President LeAnn Angerman, R-2nd, said.

Nick Meyer, director of communication for NIPSCO, said the utility company has been working with the town and will continue to do so.

"There is ample electricity from our end to their end," Meyer said.

He explained a wastewater treatment plant's electrical needs are different from those of a residence. Equipment that allows for the power source to be adjusted is necessary as the plant's needs change.

"The issue is not unique, and there are common solutions readily available," Meyer said. He said NIPSCO representatives have presented those options to the town. "We ultimately think they will need equipment upgrades on their end."

In another matter, Sheridan also reported the Ind. 2 Curb and Sidewalk Project with the Indiana Department of Transportation is expected to be completed in advance of Labor Day weekend when the town's population triples for the popular annual Lowell Labor Day Parade.

While it has slowed traffic on the town's main thoroughfare, the project is going well. The council approved payment of $28,651 to Commonwealth Engineering for construction inspection services on the project. INDOT will then reimburse the town 80 percent of that cost.

The council approved sidewalk installation on both sides of Main Street between Nichols Street and Liberty Park. It will be funded by the town's annual portion of Community Development Block Grant money, about $50,000. James Konradi, of Lowell, has begun the work.
CHESTERTON  Register from 1 to 3 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. today and Tuesday or TECHFIT (Teaching Engineering Concepts to Harness Future Innovators and Technologists) coming to Chesterton Middle School (CMS). The after-school program, which teaches students to integrate technology and fitness to create exergames, will be offered in the fall. Throughout the 10-week program, students will learn how to combine engineering design, computer programming and automation to create an exergame that may be showcased at the annual competition.

CMS teachers Carla Sissell, Mary Gish and Toni Biancardi were one of five teacher teams and the only team from Indiana accepted into the weeklong workshop held at Purdue University in July. The team was awarded second place overall for the exergame they created as well as recognition for the Best Use and Integration of Technology in their exergame.

Parents and students will have an opportunity to learn more about the program and play an exergame created by the teacher team at registration.

The professional development workshop is part of the fourth annual offering of TECHFIT, sponsored by a 1.2 million dollar grant by the National Science Foundation. TECHFIT trains teachers how to offer the program in their schools. The program aims to increase student interest in technology fields while offering an outlet for fitness. For more information about TECHFIT visit techfit.tech.purdue.edu or follow TECHFIT on Twitter @GoTECHFIT.
Being a detective means investigating and solving crimes. President Donald Trump said about Russias cyber meddling in our voting process, No one can really know whos doing it.

Its not unusual for someone not familiar with the computer industry to make such a statement. Chances are most adults would come to that conclusion, but they would be wrong. Cyber detectives within government security agencies have the tools to know who's meddling.

A cyber-crime detective is no different than a burglary-crime detective; they consider motive, clues and evidence. The low-level, email-based cyber criminal tries to conceal themselves in the From line of an email. Those types are relatively easy to detect by looking at the hidden, detailed return address information.

However, when dealing with sophisticated cyber criminals, especially when theyre part of an elite group run by a foreign government, it requires the talents of cyber detectives.

Its important to understand that computer code is just another language. How code is written is not that dissimilar from writing a letter. Each person has their own style: their use of certain words, where theyre placed in phrases. Its their fingerprint.

People in different countries have distinct ways of expressing the same idea. In the United States, we say Mom; in the United Kingdom, its Mum. Its tough to conceal who you are or where youre from.

Its unfortunate some people in our government cannot grasp this concept or just dont want to. As such, multifaceted, complex attacks by a foreign government will go completely over their head, and thats dangerous to our country.

Our society is run by computers and communication systems and, of course, requires power. An attack aimed at our power-generation infrastructure can be catastrophic. The Wall Street Journal reported that a federal analysis indicated that a coordinated terrorist strike on just nine key electric transmission substations could cause cascading power outages across the country in each of the nations three synchronized power networks.

To acquire additional information, I interviewed a security expert working at a major power generating system in the United States.

He indicated that cyber non-web attacks occurred on average 17,000 times a day, representing 50 percent of all attacks. Add to that 6,300, or 17 percent, blocked email web attacks, with the remaining 33 percent being crimeware and insider or third-party misuse. Thats a total of 34,000 attacks per day that a power system must deflect.

Surprisingly, most attacks are not through the Internet because that path is reasonably well protected. Internet hackers must bypass multiple layers of firewalls, a difficult job. However, a remote substation working through a supervisory system not connected through the Internet may have less physical or software security, and is often an entry point.

Whatever the attackers' intent, obviously, it was not to say hello, but rather to damage the network, to see if they could get in later or put in a Trojan Horse for future activation.

Hackers used several different techniques to compromise plant computers, including fake email personnel resumes that contained malicious code.

On the positive side, hacking in the United States is a more complex feat than in countries where grid systems are homogenous. Our power systems are diverse; no two substations are the same, and no two companies run their infrastructure the same.
Wife: Slain officer

honored to serve

INDIANAPOLIS  The wife of an Indianapolis-area police officer who was fatally shot while trying to help people inside an overturned car says her husband was honored to serve in law enforcement.

Stacy Allan released a statement Sunday offering thanks for the outpouring of support since Southport police Lt. Aaron Allan was killed Thursday.

She says: "There is no room in my heart for anger or hate, only peace knowing Aaron died doing what he loved."

Police arrested a 28-year-old Indianapolis man on a preliminary murder charge in Aaron Allan's death. Authorities haven't disclosed a possible motive.
Many of our Region's rural areas are transforming into a mixture of open farmland and residential subdivisions.

The growth is important to increasing Northwest Indiana's tax base and creating new housing stock to attract and retain residents.

Trigger-happy neighbors with guns, who once treated these areas of the county like Wild West shooting galleries, should no longer be tolerated.

We're seeing more and more reports of this problem.

Winfield in Lake County is one of the fastest growing Region locations in terms of new housing stock and population.

Recently, a Winfield homeowner reported to police and the town that a stray bullet fired on an adjacent property entered his home, traveled through his bedroom and a closet and struck a bathroom shower, resulting in $1,500 in damage.

Far worse than the cost in property damage was the potential cost to lives.

The bullet appeared to have resulted from several minors target shooting from a vacant lot near 113th Avenue.

Regardless of who fired the shot, such behavior is the worst possible example of gun ownership.

Rural subdivisions are swelling with existing and new residents, including families with children. Errant gunfire from target practice or hunting on nearby farmland cannot be tolerated by police or the municipal or county government leaders who preside over these areas.

In another reported incident, unincorporated Lowell-area resident Duane Ward had the ear of Lake County Councilman Eldon Strong last week at Strong's county government office.

Ward complained that neighbors of his rural neighborhood have been firing off guns and other explosive devices near his property for some time.

As his area becomes more congested with homes and residents, Ward is asking county government officials to review ordinances  and for county sheriff's police for better enforcement of laws meant to protect citizens from endangerment.

We couldn't agree more with Ward's sentiment.

And such incidents arent exclusive to rural areas. Earlier this month, 13-year-old Noah Inman died after being hit in Hammond with a bullet that someone apparently fired into the air as part of Independence Day revelry, police said.

How many tragically preventable outrages must occur before something is done?

Our Region is changing. Families are increasingly occupying land that once was open range. It's a reality of growth.

Responsible gun owners would never consider firing weapons within close proximity to where children play in yards or on neighborhood sidewalks or where families sit down to dinner.

Those bent on being irresponsible need to be hit with the full letter of the law.

Lives are at risk. No gun ownership or land rights trump the safety and security of citizens.
Nigeria is adamant that the sailors should be tried in court. The charges against them will be slapped once they reach the country.
A Georgia man accused of sending child pornography to an Alabama undercover officer and to locations in Tallapoosa County was arrested last Friday as part of a joint investigation.

"The Tallapoosa County Sheriffs Department initiated and conducted an Internet Crimes Investigation for over the past three months," according to a press statement released Monday from Sheriff Jimmy Abbett.

Lt. Bill Hough with the Tallapoosa department was in charge of the investigation.

Hough assisted several Georgia agencies Friday conducting a search in Franklin, Georgia. The search netted numerous images of child pornography on an electronic device seized during the search.

Henry Allen Sasser, 53, of Frolona Road in Franklin, is accused of "transmitting child pornography to an undercover officer assigned to the Alabama Internet Crimes against Childrens Task Force. Numerous images of child pornography were received in Tallapoosa County," according to the statement.

Sasser was arrested and taken to the Heard County (Ga.) Jail and charged with possession of child pornography.

Sasser was on probation with the state of Georgia and was a registered sex offender.

The Tallapoosa County Sheriffs Department will have 12 child pornography offenses pending on Sasser in Alabama, officials reported.

"Lt. Hough is to be commended for his participation and investigation of internet crimes for the department," Abbett said.

The investigation has also led to investigations spanning into other states, the sheriff said in his statement.
Families in Ghana are increasingly turning to troupes of dancing pallbearers to send their loved ones off in style, and bring some joy to what is usually perceived as a very sad event.

Dancing pallbearers not only lift the casket at a funeral, they also lift the mood of attendees by putting on a show. They parade the casket on their backs and shoulders, while at the same time executing a complex choreography that often involves spinning around, dropping to the ground and even pretending to drop the casket, all to the delight of the audience. Its definitely an unusual display, but families in Ghana are increasingly paying for the services of such troupes to give their loved-ones an upbeat send-off.

Photo: video screengrab

Ghanas dancing pallbearers have recently been featured in a BBC Africa video, but theyve apparently been around for at least seven years now. In 2015, blogger FollowMyBraids introduced the internet to the dancing pallbearers, after attending the funeral of his mother-in-law. His YouTube video has gotten around 600,000 views since.

This was a mind-blowing experience. Im so glad I was able to witness this performance in person. I actually enjoyed the awesome talent and strength of these young men. And they never missed a beat!! the blogger wrote.

Benjamin Aidoo, who started a business around the dancing pallbearers trend, currently employs around 100 men and women, training them to execute the choreography to perfection. he invests heavily in their outfits as well, for a more impressive visual effect.

I decided to add choreography to it so if the client comes to us, we just ask them: Do you want it solemn or do you want a bit more of a display? Or maybe you want some choreography on it? They just ask and we do it, he told BBC.
Elisabeth Anderson-Sierra, a 29-year-old mother-of-two from Beaverton, Oregon, suffers from a rare condition known as Hyperlactation Syndrome. She produces about 1.7 gallons of breast milk per day, almost 10 times as much as most lactating women, and spends around 10 hours every day nursing and pumping her milk. She has so far donated 600 gallons (2.5 tonnes) of breast milk to milk banks and families in need of it.

Ever since falling pregnant with her older daughter, Isabella, who is now two and a half years old, Elisabeth estimates that she has fed thousands of babies with her breast milk. She virtually spends her whole day pumping the liquid gold, which she then stores in four large freezers in her home, for local mothers who cannot breastfeed their newborns, gay couples and breast milk banks for premature babies. Despite the huge amount of time and the discomfort that goes into pumping the milk, the 29-year-old considers it a labor of love.

Photo: video screengrab

I pump five times a day  as soon as I wake up, after breakfast, after lunch, after dinner and again at midnight. I produce up to 0.625 gallons of milk during my first pump alone, the super-producer says. In total I will spend around five hours a day just pumping and then with storing, labelling, sterilizing etcetera, I easily spent eight to ten hours. Pumping is not fun  it is uncomfortable and it hurts  but it is my labor of love.

It is instant gratification when I donate locally because I see the babies and I see them thriving. It will have helped thousands of children. The milk at the milk bank goes to micro pre-emies, so just 1 fl oz can feed three or four babies, Elisabeth adds. I dont discriminate  I have donated to gay couples and to mothers who are on medication or had their breast removed due to breast cancer. Its an amazing feeling.

Photo: Elisabeth Anderson-Sierra/Facebook

Anderson-Sierra told Inside Edition that she was inspired to start donating excess breast milk after her own experience with her first daughter. She was born prematurely and Elizabeths daughter didnt come in right away, so she had to rely on donor milk. Even though I was a producer for my last child, I couldnt even do it for my own daughter, the mother said. When milk finally came in, I wanted to really make use of it and get that milk out there.

About half the milk Elizabeth produces is picked up by local families and couples, who sometimes choose to compensate her for her work, while the rest goes to California milk bank Prolacta Bioscience, which compensates her with$1 for every fl oz she donates.

Photo: Elisabeth Anderson-Sierra/Facebook

Despite taking great pride in having helped hundreds of couples, Elisabeth Anderson-Sierra admits that she did feel some fear in the beginning.

What if I gave away all my milk and something happened to me to where I then dried up and couldnt feed my own baby? Id hear horror stories about that happening to mothers all the time! Id then be the one in the position that Id be desperate to find donor milk, the young mother said.

I eventually got over it, and kept donating everything I had on hand. It makes me feel like I am giving back to my community and Im participating in humanity. I would encourage other mums to reach out to their own community and consider donating. Breast milk is like liquid gold  it should never be thrown away. And there is a high need for it out there.
Agricultural News

EPA's Scott Pruitt Touts Regulatory Certainty as a Key for a New Improved WOTUS Coming From the Trump Administration

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt continued his multistate action tour in Oklahoma this past week, following visits to Utah, Minnesota and Arkansas earlier in July. The visit highlights the administrator's recent decision to begin the process to redefine the "Waters of the United States" (WOTUS) rule to help return power back to the states and provide regulatory certainty to farmers, landowners, and ranchers across the country.





While in Oklahoma, Pruitt made stops in Bartlesville, Guymon and Oklahoma City. In Oklahoma City, the Oklahoma Association of Electric Coops and Oklahoma Rural Water Association hosted a meeting of over a hundred Oklahoma Ag Leaders and Government Officials to discuss what a new WOTUS Rule should look like. Bill Sims, President of the Oklahoma Rural Water Association, told Pruitt that he is hoping for a rule that is "simple and understandable and be easily administered."





As for Pruitt, he spoke of the need for "regulatory certainty" which he told Radio Oklaholma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays would result in "folks knowing whether the rule applies to them or not so they will know how to allocate resources to comply and do what is necessary." Pruitt adds "we want to make certain that the regulations and statue mach and that we have objective criteria so that people will know what is expected of them."





Pruitt also talked with the Ag Leaders that the rule he wants to be put in place will be durable. Pruitt told Hays it is his hope that "people will have a longer expectation about the rule and that it won't displaced two years from now. It is not a good situation for regulations to change every two or three or four years."





Pruitt told the ag leaders that the Obama Era WOTUS Rule is now in the process of being rescinded- and the Public Comment Period for that proposal runs now til August28, 2017. Click here for more details of that removal of the 2015 Rule. Pruitt says he hopes to have proposed language of a new Clean Water Rule in September and is aiming for early 2018 to finalize the redo of WOTUS.





You can hear comments from EPA Administrator Pruitt and Bill Sims in our special overview from the Friday event by clicking on the LISTEN BAR below.













Ron Hays talks with Scott Pruitt About WOTUS- Old and New after an OKC Listening Session

WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady NSI

Top Agricultural News
WASHINGTON  Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said Sunday that "no decision's been made" on whether to continue key Affordable Care Act subsidies to health insurance companies but that the administration's job is "to follow the law of the land." A top White House aide said President Donald Trump will decide soon.

Smarting from the failure of Senate Republicans to pass an Obamacare repeal and replace bill, Trump on Saturday threatened in a tweet to end the subsidy payments, which help make insurance accessible to poorer Americans, a move that could critically destabilize health exchanges if it went ahead.

The administration has previously floated the idea to stop paying the subsidies that help insurers offset health care costs for low-income Americans, called a cost-sharing reduction, or CSR. The next payment is due on Aug. 21.

"If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!" the president said in Saturday's tweet. It followed a Twitter message on Friday in which he vowed to "let ObamaCare implode."

Asked on ABC's "This Week" how soon the Trump administration could stop the cost-sharing payments, Price said no decision has been made and he can't comment further because of a pending court case. He also declined to clarify what Trump meant by "implode," saying the president's comment "punctuates the concern" he has about changing he direction of the health-care system and getting Congress to act.

In a separate interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," Price said that the administration's "job is to follow the law of the land" and that "we take that responsibility very seriously and we will continue to do so."

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said on "Fox News Sunday" that Trump will soon decide the fate of the subsidy payments. "He's going to make that decision this week, and that's a decision that only he can make," Conway said.

Trump's tweet on Saturday also implied that he may target subsidies made available to members of Congress and their staff, who as part of the Affordable Care Act are enrolled in plans on the Washington, D.C., health insurance exchange. Subsidies are similar to those made by employers to pay for their workers' health insurance premiums.

Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday that the president is weighing such a move, which was urged this month by a coalition of right-wing groups.

A months-long effort by Senate Republicans to pass health-care legislation collapsed early Friday after Republican John McCain of Arizona joined two of his colleagues to block a stripped-down Obamacare repeal bill. McCain's "no" vote came after weeks of brinkmanship and after his dramatic return from cancer treatment to cast the 50th vote to start debate on the bill earlier in the week. The "skinny" repeal bill was defeated 49-51, falling just short of the votes needed to advance it. Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska also voted against it.

Collins said Sunday on CNN that Trump's threat to target subsidies for members of Congress would not sway her.

"The president appears to be threatening to cut off funding for the health care plans that members of Congress receive," host Jake Tapper said in an interview with Collins on Sunday. "Would that kind of pressure change your vote?"

"No," she said.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he'll move on to other legislative business. But in a later tweet on Saturday, Trump suggested he isn't giving up. "Unless the Republican Senators are total quitters, Repeal & Replace is not dead! Demand another vote before voting on any other bill!"

The president said earlier that Senate Republicans "look like fools" after the repeal bill went down and made a renewed call for the Senate to abolish a rule requiring 60 votes for some bills  although the health-care measure needed only a 51-vote majority to pass, and fell short.

Trump reiterated that position in a Twitter posting on Sunday, saying, "Don't give up Republican Senators, the World is watching: Repeal & Replace...and go to 51 votes."

Republican Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Dean Heller of Nevada met with Trump Friday on a re-jiggered proposal. Graham said in a statement that Trump had been "optimistic" about the trio's plan. "I had a great meeting with the president and know he remains fully committed to repealing and replacing Obamacare," Graham said.

Ending the CSR subsidies, paid monthly to insurers, is one way that Trump could hasten Obamacare's demise without legislation, by prompting more companies to raise premiums in the individual market or stop offering coverage. The administration last made a payment about a week ago for the previous 30 days, but hasn't made a long-term commitment.

Responding to Trump's earlier tweet on Saturday, Andrew Slavitt, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in the Obama administration, said the impact of cutting off subsidy payments "will be felt by the middle class who will pay more to subsidize low income."

On Friday, health-care analyst Spencer Perlman at Veda Partners LLC said in a research note that there's a 30 percent chance Trump will end CSR payments, which may "immediately destabilize the exchanges, perhaps fatally."

America's Health Insurance Plans, a lobbying group for the industry, has estimated that premiums would rise by about 20 percent if the CSR payments aren't made. Many insurers have already dropped out of Obamacare markets in the face of mounting losses, and blamed the uncertainty over the future of the cost-sharing subsidies and the individual mandate as one of the reasons behind this year's premium increases.

Moments after the Senate voted down the Republican bill on Friday morning, McConnell called on Democrats to offer their ideas for moving forward with health care. But he warned: "Bailing out insurance companies, with no thought of any kind of reform, is not something I want to be a part of."

A survey in April by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation showed that 61 percent of Americans believe Trump and Republicans are responsible for future problems with the ACA, while 31 percent said President Barack Obama and Democrats would be at fault.

"If the President refuses to make the cost sharing reduction payments, every expert agrees that premiums will go up and health care will be more expensive for millions of Americans, The president ought to stop playing politics with people's lives and health care," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.

This article includes material from the Washington Post.
Jumping that ACT score is the best paying job a high school student could ever have, but still many myths about the test persist.

Here are six common myths surrounding the ACT.

Myth No. 1: Dont take the ACT too many times.

Truth: Actually, colleges dont care how many times a student takes the ACT. Colleges just care about a students highest composite and sub-scores. If the college of your dreams requires a 32 for a full-tuition scholarship  the University of Nebraska at Lincoln or the University of Alabama, for example  take the ACT at least four times to get that number and money.

Myth No. 2: Some colleges dont accept the ACT.

Truth: All colleges do. All colleges also accept the SAT.

Myth No. 3: The ACT doesnt affect community college students.

Truth: A higher ACT score can often exempt a student from remedial classes, which are classes taken on a college campus that are below college-level. These courses, often required by students who discover they have failed placement tests, are an unwelcome reality for about 50 percent of all community college students. Less than 25 percent of these remedial students at community colleges earn a certificate or degree within eight years, according to research by the National Conference of State Legislatures. A note to families and schools  please do everything possible so your students avoid remedial classes. This includes preparing for multiple ACT tests. Additionally, many community colleges give scholarships based on ACT scores. Yet another reason to prepare for and take the ACT as many times as necessary.

Myth No. 4: The science section primarily tests science.

Truth: The ACT science section primarily tests a students ability to assess charts, tables and graphs. Science background matters for a few questions, but the bulk of the science section depends simply on chart reading skills.

Myth No. 5: The ACT primarily does a good job of demonstrating which students come from privilege and which dont.

Truth: While there are many examples of a strong correlation between family wealth and a students ACT score, motivated students can fix that. All students, especially low-income students, tend to become motivated when they actually learn the life-changing importance of a two- or four-year college degree with minimal debt and how to accomplish that goal. Teaching that lesson first is critical to raising scores for all  especially students from low income families.

Myth No. 6: The ACT costs $42.50, an amount that represents a barrier for low-income students.

Truth: The ACT allows free-and-reduced lunch students to take the test twice for free. States like Nebraska that mandate the ACT for all juniors, also provide the spring junior year ACT for free. With proper motivation and preparation, any student with three tries should be able to score well.

Turning more of our children into two- and four-year college graduates with minimal debt requires an understanding of how college admissions and college finance works. Killing ACT myths would help.

***

John Baylor is a father, husband, author, Stanford grad, broadcaster and owner of OnToCollege with John Baylor. The mission of OTC is to help families and schools create two and four-year college graduates with minimal debt. You can listen to the OnToCollege Show on KHUB (1340 AM) in Fremont, KNCY (1600 AM) in Nebraska City, KLIN (1400 AM)in Lincoln, or by clicking here.
A 35-year-old Council Bluffs man was sentenced last week to a little more than two years in a federal prison in connection with the robbery of a credit union.

Hubert Theodore Carter III was sentenced in the Bluffs on Friday by U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger to two years and three months in the bank robbery, U.S. Attorney Kevin VanderSchels office said. Carter was ordered to serve three years of supervised release after his prison sentence is completed.

Carter entered the U.P. Connection Federal Credit Union in the Bluffs on Jan. 27 and handed a teller a handwritten note saying he had a firearm, VanderSchels office said. The teller was told to fill a bag with money. Carter fled with about $3,500.

Bluffs police quickly arrested Carter and recovered the stolen money, VanderSchels office said.
A registered sex offender has been accused of inappropriately touching a 14-year-old girl in Springfield, according to the Sarpy County Sheriffs Office.

Codi J. Verratti, 25, of Ralston was booked into the Sarpy County Jail on Monday morning on suspicion of one count of felony first-degree sexual assault of a child. Chief Deputy Greg London of the Sheriffs Office said the investigation is ongoing. London said police were called about the allegation Sunday night and contacted Verratti.

The girl knew Verratti because he was a family friend, London said.

Verratti was convicted of misdemeanor sexual assault involving a minor in 2014 in New Hampshire and was required to register as a sex offender.

In October, Verratti was accused of violating the Nebraska Sex Offender Registration Act, a felony, in Douglas County. Verratti has pleaded not guilty.
The conflict on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, centered on the city of Marawi, with U.S. military involvement, continues long past its supposed end.

President Rodrigo Duterte has now obtained from the Philippine parliament an extension of the initial 60-day period of martial law on Mindanao until the end of the year. In his usual brusque, vulgar manner, Duterte had predicted easy victory for the now some 3,000 Philippine troops involved in the battle for Marawi, backed up by hundreds of U.S. forces and surveillance aircraft.

So far, an estimated 97 Philippine troops have been killed, along with 45 civilians and a claimed 405 rebels. Rebel forces are holding some 300 hostages. The city of Marawi has been heavily damaged and its inhabitants scattered. The combatants come mostly from a longtime rebel group, Abu Sayyaf, a family group called Maute and, reportedly, assorted foreign combatants from countries such as Chechnya, Indonesia, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, some of them veterans of Middle Eastern wars.

Strife between the central government of the largely Roman Catholic Philippines and the Muslims of Mindanao is an old story, predating the 2015 proclamation by the Islamic State of the Philippines as a caliphate. An accord between the government and the Islamists in 1996 was supposed to bring fighting to an end. It fell through after five years. Then there was the deal between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in 2014, which the fighting in Marawi has shown not to have been effective.

Rather than perpetuate the carnage in Marawi and subject the people of the island of Mindanao, the Philippines second largest, to the rigors of martial law for six more months, it might make sense for Duterte to talk to the Abu Sayyaf head, Isnilon Hapilon. He is reportedly holed up in a mosque in Marawi. An attempt should be made to broker a ceasefire and an accord. Yet Dutertes reputation for brutality, exhibited in his campaign against drug dealers and users, would not make that easy, given that it does not inspire confidence. Nevertheless, he enjoys strong majorities in the Philippine parliament; its vote Saturday to extend martial law was overwhelming. After his annual state of the union speech, Duterte said that the government counteroffensive will continue until the last terrorist is taken out. Regarding drug offenders: They will end up in jail or hell, he said.

As for the United States, the American forces should be withdrawn from the Philippines promptly, putting them as far away from this meritless conflict as possible, in spite of its Islamist enemy pretentions. This is an old intra-Philippine conflict, not one which should engage the United States.
Absconding KLO millitant dies under mysterious conditions

India

oi-Amitava

Though questions are still doing the round regarding the whereabouts of Jeevan Singh alias Tushar Das alias Timir Das, self styled Chairman of the banned Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO,) his wife Bharati Das, was brought dead to the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH) near Siliguri in North Bengal on Sunday night.

Bharati Das, a trained KLO militant was absconding and wanted in connection with multiple cases in India. According to police sources an Ambulance from Birtamore, Jhapa district of Nepal brought Bharati Das and tried to admit her at the NBMCH. The doctors at NBMCH declared her "brought dead. " She was accompanied by her 12 year old and 9 year old daughters. The ambulance from Nepal has been confiscated by the police.

"They tried to admit her in the name of Rekha Rajbonshi (42 years) wife of Kamal Rajbonshi. Later she was identified as Bharati Das, wife of Jeevan Singh. It is believed that she was admitted at a nursing home in Birtamore Nepal from where she could have been referred" stated an officer of the intelligence department.

"It is confirmed that she is Bharati Das, wife of Jeevan Singh. She died an unnatural death" stated Neeraj Kumar Singh, Commissioner of Police, Siliguri Metropolitan Police.

Bharati who had received arms training has been absconding since 2004 and was reportedly living in camps in Assam, Bhutan, Mayanmar and Nepal shifting base. Two of her neighbours from Nepal were allegedly accompanying her but had returned from Kharibari on the Indian side.

Police then informed Bharati's relatives along with front rung KLO militants who have surrendered and leading lives in the Indian mainstream were informed for identification of the deceased. Her daughters Tithi (12) and Priti (9) were sent to a shelter home through the Child Welfare Committee.

"Her daughters claim that the name of their father is a person called Kamal Rajbonshi and that he lives in Italy. The two studied in an English medium school in Nepal " stated the intelligence officer.

On Monday morning relatives of the deceased along with front rung surrendered KLO operatives arrived at the NBMCH. "I had last met them (Jeevan and Bharati) in 2012 in Nepal. She was not sick then. After that we lost all contact with them. The police informed us last night about her death. So we have come. " stated Tom Adhikari, surrendered KLO militant. Tom is believed to be a close confidant of Jeevan Singh. He had received arms training in the 2003 batch.

42 year old Bharati's brother Ajit Das, a resident of Kumargram of the Alipurduar district stated "Since 2004 we had no contact with her. She was sent by the administration and police in 2004 to coax Jeevan to return to the mainstream. This is the first time we are seeing her after 2004, that too dead. "

Jeevan Singh's sister Sumitra Das who in the past had been arrested a number of times was present at the hospital. She now resides in Barobhisa. "I had last met them in 2009. After that we had no contact. I want to take my nieces home. We will try to adopt them through legal procedure. They have no one to look after them now" stated Sumitra.

After post mortem the body was handed over to the relatives. Cremation will take place late at night at Kumargram in the Alipurduar. Police along with the intelligence departments are keeping a close watch to see if in any way Jeevan Singh tries to establish contact.

Police Sources claim that Bharati was suffering from multiple diseases. She had breathing problem and her liver was also affected. "She could have died from these ailments. However we have to wait for the post mortem reports for confirmation" stated a police source.

The Kamtapur Liberation Organization (KLO) was formed on December 28, 1995 by students from the indigenous Rajbongshi community who were interested in breaking away and forming an independent Kamtapur State in the northeastern portion of the country.

The KLO is still committed to the creation of an independent Kamtapuri State comprising of all seven districts of north Bengal namely Malda, North and South Dinajpur, Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar and four contiguous districts of Assam namely Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon, Dhubri and Goalpara.

They had launched an arms struggle, carrying out bomb blasts in North Bengal leading to the death of many. Although several of its major leaders have been either killed or imprisoned between 1999 and 2003, it is believed that the group was revived by the ULFA after it nearly fell apart in late 2004.

It is believed that they are trying to regroup. Camps are still being run in Mayanmar. The outfit was banned by the Indian Government in 1997. "I had been contacted to work as training commanders in KLO camps but I rejected the offer" stated Manaka Rai talking to Oneindia. She is a surrendered KLO who now works as an Anganwadi worker.

KLO Chairman Singh was arrested in 1999 but was released by Assam Police to encourage more surrenders. He however absconded.

There were reports that Singh was killed in the June 9, 2015 operation carried out by Indian special forces in Myanmar. This was however not confirmed.

In a press release on September 14,2015, National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDBF) president B Saoraigwra claimed that Jeevan Singh had attended the outfit's martyr's day programme on behalf of KLO along with leaders of NSCN (Khaplang) and Ulfa (Independent).

"Contrary to the belief that Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) chief Jeevan Singh alias Timir Das, who was suspected to have been killed during the surprise cross-border assault on northeast insurgent camps by the elite para-commandos of the Indian Army a few months back, participated in the Martyrs' Day programme at an undisclosed location," the release said. It is believed that the programme had taken place in a forest in Myanmar.

KLO has long-standing ties with militant groups from the northeast. It has developed close links with NSCN (Khaplang) for training, weapons and funds. Ulfa leader Paresh Baruah had played a key role to facilitate this.

After the formation of the United National Liberation Front of Wesea - merger of NSCN (Khaplang), Ulfa (Independent), KLO and NDFB - the outfit's first subversive activity was an attack on an Army convoy in Manipur where 12 jawans were killed.

Prior to this the KLO used to run training camps in the dense jungles of Bhutan. In December 2003 the Royal Bhutan Army had launched Operation All Clear in which 14 ULFA camps; 11 NDFB camps and 5 KLO camps were destroyed and the militants flushed out.

The KLO was running a camp in Samdrup Jongkhar; 1 in Kalikhola Chungthag and 3 in Samtse district of Bhutan. More than 500 AK 47/56 assault rifles, 328 other assorted weapons including rocket launchers and mortars; 10 lakh rounds of ammunition along with an anti aircraft gun were recovered from the camps run by these outfits.

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Story first published: Monday, July 31, 2017, 18:37 [IST]
Army veterans write to Modi, CMs against rise in vigilantism, attack on free speech

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, July 31: On Sunday, a group of 114 retired officers of the three wings of the armed forces wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief ministers of all the states lamenting on the rise of mob vigilantism and attack on free speech in the recent times.

The army veterans in the letter also expressed their support to the campaign, "Not in my Name", that has been started to protest against mob lynchings of Muslims and Dalits in the name of cow protection.

"We can no longer look away. We would be doing a disservice to our country if we do not stand up and speak for the liberal and secular values that our Constitution espouses. Our diversity is our greatest strength," stated the letter.

"We are witness to unprecedented attacks on society at large by the relentless vigilantism of self-appointed protectors of Hinduism. We condemn the targeting of Muslims and Dalits," added the letter.

Last month, several retired bureaucrats too had issued a similar open letter to the PM against attacks on Muslims and Dalits.

The signatories of the latest letter include Lt Gen YN Sharma, Maj Gen L Tahliani, Maj Gen Dipankar Banerjee, Lt Gen CA Barretto, Surgeon Commander P Bellubi, Group Captain AV Bhagwat, Maj Gen PR Bose, Vice-Admiral A Britto, Brig TPS Chowdhury, Brig Dileep Deore and Lt Gen FT Dias.

Here is the full text of the letter by the veterans:

We are a group of veterans of the Indian Armed Forces who have spent our careers working for the security of our country. Collectively, our group holds no affiliation with any single political party, our only common commitment being to the Constitution of India.

It saddens us to write this letter, but current events in India have compelled us to register our dismay at the divisiveness that is gripping our country. We stand with the "Not in My Name" campaign that mobilised thousands of citizens across the country to protest against the current climate of fear, intimidation, hate and suspicion.

The Armed Forces stand for "Unity in Diversity". Differences in religion, language, caste, culture or any other marker of belonging have not mattered to the cohesion of the Armed Forces, and servicemen of different backgrounds have fought shoulder to shoulder in the defence of our nation, as they continue to do today.

Throughout our service, a sense of openness, justice and fair play guided our actions. We are one family. Our heritage is like the multi-coloured quilt that is India, and we cherish this vibrant diversity.

However, what is happening in our country today strikes at all that the Armed Forces, and indeed our Constitution, stand for. We are witness to unprecedented attacks on society at large by the relentless vigilantism of self-appointed protectors of Hinduism.

We condemn the targeting of Muslims and Dalits. We condemn the clampdowns on free speech by attacks on media outlets, civil society groups, universities, journalists and scholars, through a campaign of branding them anti-national and unleashing violence against them while the State looks away.

We can no longer look away. We would be doing a disservice to our country if we do not stand up and speak for the liberal and secular values that our Constitution espouses. Our diversity is our greatest strength. Dissent is not treason; in fact, it is the essence of democracy.

We urge the powers that be at the Centre and in the States to take note of our concerns and urgently act to uphold our Constitution, both in letter and in spirit.

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Story first published: Monday, July 31, 2017, 6:33 [IST]
Azad accuses Modi government of 'sleeping' over flood situation

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Monday accused the Modi government of "sleeping over" a human tragedy of gigantic proportions while referring to the flood situation in different parts of the country.

Talking to the media, Azad said the flood situation in the country was "alarming" and about one crore people had been affected.

He said the government was making perfunctory statements and has provided "little relief" after aerial surveys.

"An insipid BJP government sleeps over a human tragedy of gigantic proportions from east to west India," Azad said.

Azad, who is Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, said 82 people have died in Assam and two waves of floods in the state has affected over 25 lakh people in 29 districts.

Azad said at least 1,40,000 people have been displaced and at least 26,000 houses have been damaged. He said vulnerable wildlife species were under threat and 80 per cent of Kaziranga National Park was under water with 218 animals and 17 rhinos having drowned.

The Congress leader said that over two lakh hectares of crop area has been affected in the state with large tracks suffering severe damage and 200 schools are not in a position to conduct classes.

Azad said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not visited Assam so far and the money provided by the central government for rescue and relief work was grossly inadequate.

Referring to Gujarat, he said 128 deaths had taken place in the state with Banaskantha district accounting for 49, including 17 from one family.

Azad said 200 villages were without electricity and 945 roads, including five national highways and 31 state highways, had been damaged.

He said about 80,000 people had been evacuated and many were still waiting to be rescued. Taking a dig at the Modi government, he said they were "more interested in hijacking opposition MLAs than providing flood relief".

The Congress has witnessed defections in Gujarat ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections next month.

Azad said Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani visited the flood-affected areas of Banaskantha "five days after" the district witnessed damage to property and loss of life.

He said Modi had done a perfunctory aerial survey of the flood affected areas in the state.

Referring to Rajasthan, Azad said that 16 people have been killed in rain-related incidents and 12,000 people had been relocated to Jalore, Sirohi, Pali and Barmer districts.

Azad said four persons, including a father and son, have been killed in rain-related incidents in Himachal Pradesh, where several roads are blocked due to landslides.

Referring to West Bengal, he said floods have claimed at least 31 lives in the last 10 days and nearly 45,000 people had taken shelter in more than 2,000 relief camps set up in the flood-hit districts.

Azad said in Jammu and Kashmir, flash floods had wreaked havoc in Thathri town of Doda district inundating vast areas along the Batote-Kishtwar National Highway and washing away half a dozen houses.

Azad said at least 11 people had been killed in Odisha in lightning-related incidents, while 3,000 families and 27,000 livestock were affected in Manipur floods.

Azad said Mizoram faces the worst floods in 50 years and Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland had also been affected.

The Comptroller and Auditor General report had found a 60 per cent shortfall in release of central funds to some northeastern states for flood management schemes, Azad claimed.

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Story first published: Monday, July 31, 2017, 16:33 [IST]
Need to go beyond triple talaq, abolish all religious law: Taslima Nasreen

'Taslima Nasreen's tweet was not malicious', says Patna HC while quashing the case

Taslima Nasreeen barred from entering Aurangabad in Maharashtra

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Mumbai, July 31: Bangladeshi-born author Taslima Nasreen's tryst with ban continues. This time the controversial author, known for her hard-hitting writings against religious dogmas, has been stopped from entering Aurangabad in Maharashtra on Saturday.

The author was sent back from the airport in Aurangabad to Mumbai after a group of people protested against her visit to the city, police told reporters on Sunday.

Nasreen came to the city from Mumbai and landed at the Chikalthana airport. After seeing a huge crowd chanting, "Taslima Go Back", police personnel did not allow the author from stepping out of the airport.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (zone-II) Rahul Shrirame said Nasreen was sent back to Mumbai by the next flight to avoid any "law and order problem".

The author was advised to abandon her visit to the city and she agreed to go back, the police officer said. Protesters had also gathered outside a hostel where Nasreen was to stay during her three-day visit.

Police said they had come to know that the writer was planning to visit the world heritage sites of Ajanta and Ellora besides other tourist spots in Aurangabad.

The protest at the airport was led by Imtiyaz Jaleel, the AIMIM legislator from the Aurangabad central constituency. Jaleel said her writings have "hurt" the religious sentiments of Muslims across the world. "We will not allow her to step on the soil of our city," he said.

Ppl didn't want her to enter Aurangabad.I realized if she comes there'll be violence,so was sent back: I Jaleel,AIMIM MLA on Taslima Nasreen pic.twitter.com/m1NQtZphc3  ANI (@ANI_news) July 31, 2017

Last month, the Union home ministry has extended her visa for one year, with effect from July 23, 2017.

Nasreen, a citizen of Sweden, has been getting Indian visa on a continuous basis since 2004. The author is living in exile since she left Bangladesh in 1994 in the wake of threats to her by fundamentalist groups.

OneIndia News
Bhagwad Gita near Abdul Kalam's statue kicks up controversy

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

A controversy has erupted due to an engraved 'Bhagavad Gita' near the statue of late president A P J Abdul Kalam. The family quickly sought to end the row by placing a copy of the Quran and Bible near the statue.

However, in latest development, leader of a local Hindu outfit objected to the placing of Quran and Bible near the statue on the ground that "no permission was taken" for the same.

Hours later, officials manning the memorial, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 27, kept the Bible and Quran in a glass box in the vicinity of the statue.

Hindu Makkal Katchi leader K Prabhakaran filed a police complaint claiming that the two holy books (of Quran and Bible) were placed without permission from authorities. "I respect all these books. But keeping them (in the memorial) without permission is wrong.

Steps should be taken to see that such things are not done again," he told reporters. Vaiko-led MDMK and the PMK have raised questions on the need for keeping the engraved 'Bhagavad Gita' alongside the wooden statue of Kalam playing the musical instrument 'veena' in the Rs 15 crore memorial, designed and built by the Defence Research and Development Agency with which Kalam was associated for a long time.

The memorial at Peikarambu, inaugurated on the second death anniversary of the popular scientist at his home town here, also has on display a replica of rockets and missiles on which the late scientist had worked.

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India's heaviest rocket's payload enhanced by up to 450 kg

Comedian Vir Das event cancelled in Bengaluru after complaint by Hindu Janajagruti Samiti

When PM Modi stopped by on Bengaluru street to greet crowd | VIDEO

Chinese national attacked in Bengaluru, 5 arrested

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

A Chinese national was attacked in Bengaluru on Saturday night. All five accused have been taken into custody.

The man identified as Yan, arrived in Bengaluru to finalise a business deal.

Yan was in Indiranagar waiting for his cab, when five men on bikes came towards him and attacked with knives. The assailants tried to loot Yan, and when he resisted, they stabbed him on the face.

Yan escaped with a cut on his face and yelled for help. A police van nearby rushed to his rescue.

Yan was taken to a nearby hospital and administered treatment in the emergency room. He had sustained a deep cut on his face.

Ajay Hilori, DCP East, tweeted that all the accused, who had assaulted a Chinese citizen, were arrested within five days. Also, two bikes have been seized.

Arrested the accused who had assaulted a Chinese citizen within 5 days seized 2 bikes @CPBlr @AddlCPEast @BlrCityPolice  AJAY HILORI, IPS (@DCPEASTBCP) July 31, 2017

All accused are history-sheeters- Mani (23), Manikantha (20), Vijay (22), Arun Kiran (20) and Sharath (25).

OneIndia News
Deadline ends but Mumbai University yet to evaluate 3.35 lakh papers

India

oi-Anusha

The deadline to declare results is barely hours away but the Mumbai University is yet to evaluate close to 3.35 lakh answer sheets. On Sunday only 23,674 papers could be evaluated since barely 928 faculty members out of the 5000-plus turned up for assessment. Students are clearly running out of patience.

Maharashtra governor had given the Mumbai University until July 31 to declare results of 477 examinations but up until Sunday, results of only 151 examinations have been declared. On Sunday, around 11,000 papers were evaluated, 14,000 answer sheets were moderated and results of 10 exams were declared. Out of the 151 examinations results that have been declared, none are core courses.

The university had asked faculty members to work over the weekend to complete assessment, however, only a few turned up. The delay in declaring results are delaying admission processes for various courses for students. The university hopes to declare the results in the next three or four days. "328 results are yet to be declared. We are hoping to declare 100 more by the end of the day on Monday," said MA Khan, the Registrar, University of Mumbai.

Commerce course examination results are expected to be declared before Thursday. The systematic failure of the university was highlighted by the Shiv Sena and Aditya Thackeray had met the governor over the same.

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Story first published: Monday, July 31, 2017, 8:42 [IST]
Death toll in Gujarat floods rises to 213

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

The torrential rains have so far claimed the lives of nearly 213 people in nothren Gujarat, according to the data provided by the state flood control room on Monday.

More than a million households had been affected and losses to farmlands were being assessed. Over 4000 animals have been killed and around 50,000 cotton farmers are struggling to drain water from their land and homes.

The death toll in Gujarat jumped from Wednesday's total of 123 after rescuers picked up 25 bodies, including 17 members of a single family from two submerged villages in hard-hit Banaskantha district of Gujarat.

The waters recede from low-lying areas, allowing workers to reach remote spots where bodies are starting to appear. "The death toll in Gujarat this monsoon has risen to 213," A J Shah, director of relief operations with the Gujarat government, told AFP.

Only after a post-mortem is conducted we can officially confirm death of a person. The post-mortem process took place since many bodies were found resulting in delays in confirming the latest deaths.

Meanwhile, Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani who visited flood-hit areas in the state has said that he will be camping in the flood-hit districts of North Gujarat for the next five days to ensure faster action. He also extended financial help within 2 days to the flood affected people.

Till now, more than 17,800 people have been rescued so far with the help of Army, Indian Air Force, NDRF, and SDRF, besides police and fire personnel. The helicopters and boats are still at place to reach those still stranded.

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Story first published: Monday, July 31, 2017, 14:07 [IST]
Dileep's manager appears for questioning in actress molestation case

India

oi-Anusha

Actor Dileep's manager Sunil Raj, better known as Appunni appeared before the Kerala police on Monday. After days of evading the police, Appunni, suspected to be the link between Dileep and prime accused in the actress molestation case, Pulsar Suni, Appunni appeared for questioning.

The Kerala High Court on Thursday had rejected the anticipatory bail petition of Appunni and had directed him to appear before the police. While he has not been named an accused in the case, the investigating officials believe that he may provide vital clues about missing pieces of evidence including the mobile phone used to shoot the actress.

Appunni arrived at the Aluva police station with another person who resembled him. Multiple notices issued by the Kerala police to Appunni went unanswered. It took the High Court's rejection of his petition and direction to appear before police for Appunni to finally appear.

Investigating officials have stated that he was hiding at a resort in North Goa. Officials have noted that the prime accused in the case, Pulsar Suni called Appunni from jail. While the intention was unclear, police officials are attempting to find out if Appunni was contacted by Suni to connect with Dileep.

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Story first published: Monday, July 31, 2017, 12:43 [IST]
International news brief: Floods trap many in Florida; Royal Mint unveils first coins and more

During Modis visit, flood-hit Assam wants solution to erosion

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Guwahati, July 31: Finally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting Assam on Tuesday to take stock of the flood situation. Assam has been reeling under floods since June.

Around 85 people have died and more than 2.08 lakh hectares of crop land have been damaged due to floods in the northeastern state, as per official records.

In recent times, Modi has received a lot of criticism for neglecting the tragedy of flood-hit people of Assam. The opposition parties in the state have been asking the PM to visit the state since early July to get first-hand knowledge of the sufferings of the people.

The cry for Modi's visit to Assam became shrill after he recently did an aerial survey of flood-affected areas of his home state, Gujarat.

Now, as the PM is visiting Assam, the people of the state want Modi to solve the erosion problem that has led to the loss of massive chunks of land. According to figures, Assam has lost 4.27 lakh hectares of land to erosion so far.

The flood situation in Assam becomes precarious as altogether 39.58 per cent of total area in Assam is flood-prone, which is 9.40 per cent of the total flood-prone area in the country.

Moreover, nearly 5,000 km embankments constructed 50 to 60 years ago need to be strengthened immediately to tame flood waters in the near future. Every year, during floods, the situation turns more difficult due to water released from the dams on neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh and Bhutan hydro power projects.

"During his tour this time the PM should fulfill this demand, which has been on since the 1980s, by declaring flood and erosion a natural calamity. Flood and erosion are such huge issues that the state government can't solve it alone. The Centre needs to pump in money and expertise to solve it scientifically," Dilip Pegu, vice-president of Takam Mishing Kebang Porin, a students' body of the Mising community, was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.

The students' body has been demanding rollback of big hydel projects in Arunachal Pradesh to ensure that life and property of people living in downstream areas in Lakhimpur, Dhemaji and Majuli districts in Upper Assam are not affected.

During his visit to Assam, the PM would discuss all the aspects related to the floods with Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and senior officials, a state official statement said.

Matters related to flood management and the damages caused by the floods are also likely to feature in the discussions. The Centre has announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh under the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund for the next of kin of the deceased and Rs 50,000 to those seriously injured in the Assam floods.

As per official statistics, two waves of floods have affected over 25 lakh people in 29 districts of Assam this year. The administration has set up 1,098 relief camps and distribution centres in the state.

Though the current wave of floods has receded, six districts are still reeling under it and over 2,000 people have taken shelter in the relief camps.

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Story first published: Monday, July 31, 2017, 8:15 [IST]
UP: Fatwa issued against uncles carrying brides to doli as it may lead to lust

Fatwa against Bihar minister who chanted 'Jai Shri Ram'

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

A fatwa has been issued against newly appointed Bihar minister, Khurshid after he chanted, "Jai Shri Ram." A Muslim cleric who issued the fatwa said that the minister's marriage would be terminated for his mistake.

Khurshid shouted the slogan outside the Bihar assembly on Friday after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar won the trust vote.

The fatwa, or a decree, against the only Muslim minister in Kumar's new cabinet was issued by Mufti Sohail Quasmi of Imarat Shariah, which describes itself as a socio-religious organisation active in Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha.

The minister however said that he would not be cowed down by such threats, he said.

The minister later apologised for his statement, while talking to a TV channel.

"The CM told me if anybody felt hurt by my statement, I should apologise. My intention was not to hurt anyone. I have come to serve the people. My statement was distorted," he told the channel after coming out of a review meeting of the minority welfare department with chief minister Nitish Kumar.

Upset over the slogan hailing Hindu god Ram, Quasmi said Ahmad's marriage would be terminated and he would have to perform the nikah again after accepting his "mistake".

OneIndia News
People of Himachal have decided to go with Modi; all other factors irrelevant: CM Thakur

Former SP, BSP leaders join BJP

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Former Samajwadi Party (SP) MLC Bukkal Nawab and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLC Thakur Jaiveer Singh on Monday joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) two days after resigning from their respective political parties.

SP MLC and Rashtriya Shia Samaj founder Bukkal Nawab on Saturday tendered his resignation from the party while singing a favorable tune for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath. Also, Thakur Jiaveer Singh from the BSP submitted his resignation to Chairman of the Legislative Council, Ramesh Yadav.

Former SP MLCs Bukkal Nawab and BSP MLC Thakur Jaiveer Singh join BJP pic.twitter.com/7vHLtmaiPt  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) July 31, 2017

After submitting his resignation, Nawab said he was "feeling suffocated" in the party for the last one year and that he was ready to meet the BJP leadership if called by it.

Jaiveer Singh alleged that the BSP has deviated from its path and, therefore, he resigned from the party.

(With agency inputs)
Gorkhaland agitation reaches near sensitive Indo-Bhutan border

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Darjeeling, July 31: As the Centre is maintaining a deafening silence over the ongoing Gorkhaland agitation in Darjeeling and its neighbouring areas, the protest on Sunday reached the sensitive town of Jaigaon, which lies on the India-Bhutan border.

Due to the assembly of agitators in Jaigoan, movement of vehicles between the two neighbouring countries came to a halt.

Experts feel that the agitation reaching places of strategic importance like Jaigoan is not a good sign. On Saturday, the supporters of Gorkhaland, demanding a separate state for the Nepali-speaking people residing in Darjeeling and its suburbs to be carved out of West Bengal, staged a protest in Sukna.

Sukna holds great geographical and military importance to the country. Sukna is very close to Siliguri, the city at one end of the Chicken's Neck. Moreover, the distance between the Nepal and Bangladesh borders from Sukna is around 50 km. The headquarters of Trishakti Corps or the 33 Corps of the army is also in Sukna.

The protest turned violent as hundreds of Gorkhaland supporters threw petrol bombs at the police, The Times of India reported. The police, on its part, retaliated to quell the protest. The protesters also held a hunger strike at Jaigoan.

The hills of Bengal have been witnessing violent protests since June 8 after the Gorkhaland agitation broke out. This time, the agitation has been spearheaded by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM).

On Sunday, the GJM gave the Centre a 10-day deadline to intervene in the Gorkhaland statehood agitation on its behalf. The GJM also warned that if the Centre fails to do so, it would further intensify the agitation in the plains and the hills.

On Monday, the indefinite bandh in the hills entered its 47th day. Due to the bandh, life has come to a standstill across Darjeeling and its suburbs. In the hills, schools, colleges, shops and several offices have remained closed for more than a month now.

OneIndia News
The Western bias and why it cannot digest Indias success

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Indias first privately built rocket to be launched on Nov 15

India has become center point to world's desires, says PM Modi

Shravan: Holy month of festivals, fasting and feasting

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Shravan is the fifth month in the Hindu calendar. There are a number of festivals celebrated across India in the month of Shravan, which culminates with Raksha Bandhan. The Shravan month is synonymous with auspicious festivals and events.

Devotees of Lord Shiva pray for a better world and appease him during this time, especially on Mondays.

Shravani Upakarma Maharashtrian brahmins perform rituals during a religious programme to celebrate 'Shravani Upakarma' in Bhopal on Friday. PTI Photo Kopineswar Temple Devotees offer prayers to Lord Shiva at Kopineswar Temple during Shravan month in Thane, Mumbai on Monday. PTI Photo Holy dip in the river Ganga Devotees takes holy dip in the river Ganga during high tide in Kolkata on Monday before start of their journey to Tarakeswar Temple to offer puja to Lord Shiva on the occassion of holy month of 'Shravan'. PTI Photo Somnath Temple Devotees carry "Palkhi" of Lord Somnath on first Monday of Shravan at Somnath Temple in Somnath on Monday. PTI Photo Ayodhya: Devotees throng Nageshwarnath Temple pic.twitter.com/8NyPkuPAxR  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) July 31, 2017 Nageshwarnath Temple Devotees throng Nageshwarnath Temple to offer holy water to the Shiva lingam on Monday in Ayodhya.

OneIndia News
Hurriyat terror funding: Ahead of NIA questioning, Geelani's son admitted to hospital

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Ahead of his questioning by the National Investigation Agency, Naeem Geelani has been admitted to hospital. Naeem the son of Hurriyat Conference chairman S A S Geelani was to be questioned in Delhi by the NIA on Monday.

He has been admitted to the SKIMS Hospital after he complained of chest pain. Naeem was scheduled to visit New Delhi on Monday to appear before National Investigative Agency (NIA) for interrogation on Wednesday. He is under scanner for alleged terror funding.

Naeem is the second son of Geelani, who heads separatist conglomerate Tehreek-e-Hurriyat. A Hurriyat spokesman said that Naeem is a heart patient and had suffered a massive heart attack in 2009. He said, "Naeem has been kept in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit). He has been under regular medical care. Repeated psychological pressure may have had adverse effects on his health."

The NIA on Sunday conducted raids at two places belonging to a close aide of Geelani in Jammu. The agency detained Devinder Singh Behal, an advocate from Nowshera and chairperson of Jammu Kashmir Peace Forum.

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Story first published: Monday, July 31, 2017, 6:10 [IST]
Hurriyat terror funding: Behl was courier for money sent from Pakistan

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The National Investigation Agency on Sunday raided the residence of a Jammu based lawyer in connection with the Hurriyat terror funding case. Devinder Singh Behl a close aide of Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani has been accused by the NIA of being a courier.

The NIA says that it was found that Behl was a courier for the money sent from Pakistan to the Hurriyat to organise stone pelting in the Valley. Devinder Singh Behl is a member of the legal cell of the Hurriyat. He is a close associate of a top Hurriyat leader and regularly attends funerals of militants. The NIA is investigating into his role as courier as he is suspected to be involved in routing funds to the separatist leaders from Pakistan-based handlers," an NIA statement said.

Learnt to be close to Geelani, Behl has reportedly also hosted separatist leaders Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Shabir Shah at his Jammu residence in the past.

While being whisked away by NIA officials from his residence, Behl told mediapersons, "We do not want violence, but peaceful resolution of Kashmir issue''.

Behl hails from Nowshera in the Rajouri district. He settled in Jammu some two decades ago. He is married and is a father to two daughters. In 2013, he visited Pakistan, where he was arrested for trying to go to Mirpur without permission.

Besides sharing dais with separatist leaders on several occasions, he often makes posts on the social media, accusing security forces of committing human rights violation in the Valley. After the death of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani in an encounter, Behl had put up posts supporting the separatists' demand for "Azadi''.

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Story first published: Monday, July 31, 2017, 6:15 [IST]
Hurriyat terror funding: Kashmir's most dangerous woman under radar

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The National Investigation Agency which is probing the Hurriyat terror funding case has also filed an FIR against an outfit called the Dukhtaran-e-Millat. The outfit is headed by one of the most dangerous women in Kashmir, Asiya Andrabi.

She was in the news recently when she wished the people of Pakistan on independence day. Prior to addressing the rally at Lahore, she had also celebrated Pakistan's Independence Day at her residence.

The NIA says that she had played an active role in funding the unrest. The funds received by her organisation are under the scanner. She will be questioned soon and if the need be arrested too, NIA officials say.

Kashmir most dangerous woman:

Provocative and referred to as an iron lady by the separatists, Asiya is founder of the Dukhtaran-e-Millat (Daughters of the nation). The DeM is part of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference in Kashmir and the intent of this outfit is to separate Kashmir from India.

Asiya has made several statements that have raked up controversies. On one ocassion she had said that if her son sees George Bush anywhere, it would be a great honour to kill him.

She had words of hate against the Indian army as well and has very often said that that it is her dream to kill the soldiers.

Asiya has been in the news for all the wrong reasons since long. Married to Ashiq Hussain Faktoo one of the founders of the dreaded Hizbul Mujahideen, she has been labeled as an iron lady by her supporters.

Always in a burqa, she has been arrested in the year 2010 for waging a war against India and also inciting violence.

Very recently she was in the news for hoisting the Pakistan flag and singing their national anthem on March 25 2015. Security analysts termed these are desperate measures to get noticed by Pakistan.

However, she continues to remain one of the most powerful and important separatists. She also had played a key role in the stone pelting incident of 2010 where she managed to gather scores of her supporters.

She is best known for mobilizing women against India. She would invite women to read and understand Islam and wage a war against India. She believes that the women too should participate in the war against India and only then would it be a successful one.

She was also instrumental in starting the Quit Jammu and Kashmir movement along with several other wings of the Hurriyat Conference. She is a staunch believer in the concept of an Islamic state and says that she would be blessed if her own sons died as suicide bombers.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Monday, July 31, 2017, 7:32 [IST]
Central team roped in as dengue cases in Bihar rise to over 5000

I don't agree with Nitish's decision, its unfortunate: Sharad Yadav

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Senior Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav broke his silence over Nitish Kumar joining hands with the BJP in Bihar after parting ways with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

Yadav, who is attending the ongoing Monsoon Parliament session in New Delhi, termed the political development in Bihar 'unfortunate'.

He said, ' I don't agree with the decision in Bihar, its unfortunate. The mandate by the people was not for this.'

I don't agree with the decision in Bihar, its unfortunate.The mandate by the people was not for this: Sharad Yadav,JDU pic.twitter.com/RZDKlpKn2p  ANI (@ANI_news) July 31, 2017

Nitish Kumar resigned as Bihar CM and formed a new government with the BJP. Kumar was sworn in as CM and BJP's Sushil Modi as deputy CM on July 27. Nitish won a trust vote in the Bihar assembly on July 29.

Earlier, it was said that Yadav was upset with Nitish Kumar's decision to pull out of Grand Alliance and join hands with the BJP. However, he did not give statements on the political developments.

He had been meeting many opposition leaders, as well as JD(U) leaders from states like Kerala, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. He was learnt to have conveyed to these leaders that he is "deeply pained" at Nitish's decision at a time when Opposition unity was needed the most.

OneIndia News
J&K: One terrorist killed in encounter in Baramulla

India

oi-Madhuri

One terrorist was killed in an encounter at Turna village of Baramulla's Uri sector in Jammu and Kashmir.

According to ANI, the area was cordoned off and a search operation was launched. Meanwhile, the army has recovered a body of a terrorist killed in an infiltration bid foiled on July 27 in Rampur sector.

Earlier today, a group of at least three burqa-clad terrorists raided their bank in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag and escaped with over Rs. 5 lakh. The police said the incident took place at the Arwani branch of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank.

On July 30, at least two terrorists have been gunned down in an ongoing operation in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama, Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia confirmed.

OneIndia News
Karnataka CM accused of receiving kickbacks, Hublot returns to haunt Siddaramaiah

India

oi-Anusha

A letter written to the Karnataka assembly speaker accuses Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of handing out multicrore projects to his 'friend'. The letter written by former police officer Anupama Shenoy alleges that Siddaramaiah government has offered projects in violation of rules to a company associated with the man who gifted a Hublot watch to the Chief Minister.

Anupama Shenoy has sought an investigation into the alleged kickbacks and has highlighted the need to protect the Hublot watch. The watch was returned to the house by Siddaramaiah and is now said to be in the cabinet hall. "Two multi-crore projects have been handed over to the company where Dr Girish Chandra Varma works. The Chief Minister himself has called Dr Varma a close friend. This is the same Dubai-based person who had gifted a Hublot watch to the Chief Minister," Anupama Shenoy said.

According to the whistle blower former cop, Jog falls tourism development project and Udupi Haji Abdulah hospital renovation and development project has been handed over to handed to an NRI. "The projects have been given to B R Shetty, an NRI who owns NMC health care. Dr Girish Chandra Varma works in the same company. The Hublot watch and projects being given to a company associated with him is suspicious," she said.

The projects are said to be worth Rs 250 crores. Shenoy has alleged that she submitted the letter on July 18 but is yet to receive an acknowledgement. She has urged for the watch to be kept secure to ensure fair investigations.

OneIndia News
Kerala CM, BJP decide to hold all-party peace meetings over political murders

India

oi-Anusha

Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan met leaders of the BJP on Monday over escalating political tensions. Following the murder of another RSS worker on Saturday, the state government held talks with senior Kerala BJP as well as RSS leaders.

BJP state chief Kummanam Rajasekharan, MLA O Rajagopal and RSS leader P. Gopalankutty were part of the meeting where it was decided to hold peace meetings across the state. "Party offices and workers' houses should not be attacked. Political parties have to be more vigilant and ask workers to keep away from attacks. An all-party meeting will be convened on August 6 in Thiruvananthapuram to put an end to the unrest. Peace meetings will be held in Thiruvananthapuram, Kottayam and Kannur," said Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan after the meeting.

Vijayan added that after the recent incident and the violence that followed, leaders of all political parties decided to hold peace meetings. The meetings will be held district-wise and leaders of all political parties will be part of it. The meeting comes a day after the Governor of Kerala met DGP Loknath Behra and Pinarayi Vijayan over the deteriorating law and order situation in the state.

Media accuses Pinarayi Vijayan of misbehaving

Journalist and camerapersons who had gathered outside the venue of the meeting in Thiruvananthapuram of Monday were asked to 'get out' by the Chief Minister. Journalists accused the Vijayan of misbehaving with them for doing their jobs.

Meanwhile, police teams investigating the case said that the motive of the murder was both political and personal rivalry. Eight accused have been arrested in connection with the case while a search is on for those absconding. Even as the BJP accused the CPM of indulging in bloodshed and murdering their workers, Kodiyeri Balakrishna claimed that the CPM had no role to play in Rajesh's murder and the BJP had itself to blame for the political unrest in the state.

OneIndia News
Lack of development in J&K for decades was one of the reasons behind rise of terrorism: Rajnath Singh

Kerala: Rajnath express concern over RSS worker's killing

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has expressed concern over the killing of an RSS worker in Kerala. E Rajesh an RSS worker was attacked by four youth wing activists of the CPI-M on Saturday at Tiruvananthapuram. He succumbed to injuries.

Singh in a tweet said, 'Spoke to Kerala CM Shri Pinrayi Vijayan today regarding the recent incidents of political violence in the state. I have expressed my concern with the law and order situation in the state of Kerala. Political violence is unacceptable in a democracy. I expect that the political violence in Kerala is curbed and that the perpetrators are brought to justice expeditiously."

The BJP in Kerala alleged that CPI-M activists were behind the murder. The party announced a statewide shutdown on Sunday. "The CPI-M led government has become a mute witness to the violence going on in the state capital district. Even our state party headquarters was attacked. But we exercised restraint. But now, we are left with no other option but to call for a statewide shutdown tomorrow to protest the killing.. The state government has not even called for a peace talk to resolve issues," State BJP President Kummanem Rajasekheran said.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Monday, July 31, 2017, 5:39 [IST]
Modi to review flood situation in North Eastern states tomorrow

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, Jul 31: A day ahead of his visit to north-east states, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Rs 2 lakh each for the next of kin of those who lost their lives in the floods in Assam. He will also chair a series of high level meetings to review the flood situation, and the relief operations in the North Eastern States.

He also announced Rs 50,000 each for those seriously injured in the floods in the state, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said.

"Tomorrow, PM @narendramodi will be in Assam, where he will review the situation arising due to floods and the relief work," the PMO tweeted. He will chair a series of high level meetings to review the flood situation, and the relief operations in the North Eastern States, particularly in the states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur, the PMO said.

Chief Ministers and senior officials from these states are expected to be present at the meetings, it added. Earlier, the prime minister announced Rs 2 lakh each for the next of kin of those who lost their lives in the floods in Rajasthan as well. He also sanctioned Rs 50,000 each for those seriously injured in the floods in Rajasthan.

PTI
Mumbai teen jumps off building, Blue Whale suicide challenge suspected

India

oi-Anusha

The Mumbai police probing the suicide of a teenager is considering the possibility of an online suicide game, Blue Whale, prompting him to take the extreme step. A class 9 student jumped off a building in Andheri on Saturday.

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After gathering information from the 14-year-old boy's WhatsApp chats and conversations on his friends, the police suspect that he was addicted to an online game that prompts teenagers to commit suicide. The dangerous online game takes enthusiasts through 49 challenges before prompting the users to 'win the challenge by committing suicide'.

The police have not found substantial evidence from the deceased's parents. Neither has anything been found on the boy's mobile phone yet, however, given the discussion his friends have had, police suspect that the teenager was a victim of Blue Whale, a dangerous online game. This game has been linked with suicides of teenagers in Russia. If the Mumbai police establish a link between Blue Whale and the teenager's death, this would become the first instance of a game prompting suicide in India.

The teenager, a student of an international school in Andheri wished to become a pilot. A neighbour spotted him walking on his terrace holding his phone up. Within seconds, the boy is said to have jumped off the building. While investigations are underway, the police have categorically refused to comment on Blue Whale having a role in the suicide for now.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Monday, July 31, 2017, 8:04 [IST]
NIA continues raids on close aide of Hurriyat hawk Geelani

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

A team of the National Investigation Agency continued its raids on a lawyer alleged to be closely associated with Hurriyat hawk, Syed Ali Shah Geelani. The ancestral home of Devinder Singh Behl at Nowshera was raided by the NIA.

On Sunday, Behl's residence in Jammu was raided by the NIA in connection with the Hurriyat terror funding case.

The NIA says that it was found that Behl was a courier for the money sent from Pakistan to the Hurriyat to organise stone pelting in the Valley. Devinder Singh Behl is a member of the legal cell of the Hurriyat. He is a close associate of a top Hurriyat leader and regularly attends funerals of militants. The NIA is investigating into his role as courier as he is suspected to be involved in routing funds to the separatist leaders from Pakistan-based handlers," an NIA statement said.

J&K: NIA conducted raid at house of Devinder Singh Behl,member of Hurriyat's legal cell, in connection with terror funding case, in Nowshera pic.twitter.com/t4ZhZzYzKp  ANI (@ANI_news) July 31, 2017

Learnt to be close to Geelani, Behl has reportedly also hosted separatist leaders Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Shabir Shah at his Jammu residence in the past.

While being whisked away by NIA officials from his residence, Behl told mediapersons, "We do not want violence, but peaceful resolution of Kashmir issue''.

Behl hails from Nowshera in the Rajouri district. He settled in Jammu some two decades ago. He is married and is a father to two daughters. In 2013, he visited Pakistan, where he was arrested for trying to go to Mirpur without permission.

Besides sharing dais with separatist leaders on several occasions, he often makes posts on the social media, accusing security forces of committing human rights violation in the Valley. After the death of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani in an encounter, Behl had put up posts supporting the separatists' demand for "Azadi''.

OneIndia News
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Pakistan yet to award most favoured nation status to India

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Jul 31: Parliament was informed on Monday that Pakistan is yet to award the most favoured nation (MFN) status to India and it maintains a negative list of 1,209 items which are not permitted to be imported from India.

Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a written reply that the government has not taken any decision to review the MFN status accorded to Pakistan, so far. As per a World Trade Organisation (WTO) rule, every member of WTO requires to accord this status to other member countries.

India has already granted this status to all WTO members including Pakistan. Under MFN, a WTO member country is obliged to treat other trading nation in a non-discriminatory manner, especially with regard to customs duty and other levies.

"However, Pakistan is yet to transition fully to MFN status for India," Sitharaman said. The neighbouring country allows only 137 products to be exported from India through Wagah/Attari border land route, she added.

The bilateral trade between the countries stood at USD 2.28 billion in 2016-17. India mainly exports cotton, dyes, chemicals, vegetables and iron and steel wehile it imports fruits, cement, leather, chemicals and spices.

PTI

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Story first published: Monday, July 31, 2017, 17:33 [IST]
Central team roped in as dengue cases in Bihar rise to over 5000

Bihar's Gopalganj by-poll to see a tough fight between BJP and RJD

Bihar: Over 200 students sick, claim they saw 'dead lizard' in mid-day meal

Patna HC dismisses petitions challenging Nitish-BJP alliance

India

ians-IANS

By Ians English

Patna, July 31: The petitions challenging the formation of a new government by Nitish Kumar's JD-U, along with the BJP in Bihar, were dismissed by the Patna High Court on Monday.

After hearing the petitions, the court dismissed them on the ground that the new government was formed as per constitutional process.

The court observed that it has won the trust vote in the Assembly.

The Nitish Kumar-led NDA government on Friday secured 131 votes against the opposition's 108 during the floor test in the Bihar Assembly.

Nitish, who was part of the JD (U), Congress and RJD government in Bihar, walked out of the Grand alliance and joined hands with the BJP to form new government.

IANS
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Rs 1,500 cr worth transactions have been done using BHIM app: RS Prasad

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Union Information and Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday informed Parliament that BHIM, a mobile app to make digital payments, has been downloaded by close to two crore people, and transactions worth Rs 1,500 have been made so far.

BHIM or Bharat Interface for Money app for mobile-based transactions was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 14, 2017, the 126th birth anniversary of Dr Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar to boost the digital payments revolution.

The IT Minister said more than 2 crore people have been trained by common service centres on digital payments.

"There have been close to 50 lakh transactions only on the BHIM app worth Rs 1,500 crore," he said while responding to a reference made on it by SP member Jaya Bachchan during the Zero Hour in the House.

While congratulating the government for its intention to move towards digital and cashless payments, Bachchan said inadequte infrastructure was hampering digital payments, reported PTI.

Emphasising that demonetisation caused "confusion and hardship" to people in the country, she called it an improperly planned move.

[Download the BHIM app on your phone for faster, safer digital payment]

On November 8, 2016, Prime Minister Modi announced that existing Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes would cease to legal tenders and the governement introduced new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes with an aim to curb terror financing, black money hoarding and circulation of terror financing.

OneIndia News with PTI inputs
Rs 560 crore black money unearthed during last fiscal: FIU

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

At least Rs 560 crore black has been unearthed in the last fiscal year, the government has said in a report.

The report of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), the premier technical snoop wing under the finance ministry, said the financial year 2015-16 saw a "record increase" in the detection of such instances.

All banks and financial intermediaries apprise the FIU of the detections as part of their obligation to comply with the country's anti-money laundering and counter-terror financing measures.

"The year 2015-16 ... saw a record increase in the number of reports received, processed and disseminated by the FIU," the recent report, accessed by news agency PTI, said.

The number of cash transaction reports (CTRs) doubled from 80 lakh in 2014-15 to over 1.6 crore in 2015-16 and that of suspicious transaction reports (STRs) rose from 58,646 to 1,05,973 during the period, it said.

"A similar growth was registered in counterfeit currency reports (CCRs) -- over 16 per cent, NTRs -- nearly 25 per cent, while there was an 850 per cent growth in the number of cross border wire transfer reports (CBWTRs) during the period," the report said.

The central agency, tasked with analysing suspicious transactions in Indian banking and other financial channels, also issued a "record number" of 21 sanctions against the violating entities (banks and others) under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The report attributed the increase in the number of detections and their reportage to the FUI's "proactive outreach" to stakeholders to ensure that they increasingly detect such instances.

However, a senior finance ministry official said it was due to the "increasing penetration" of technology and awareness against suspect fund movements at a time when the fight against black money is actively being pursued in the country and the world.

"An increased awareness and the fight against black money is leading all the stakeholders, including the government and reporting entities such as banks and others, to be pro-active in detecting suspicious activities in their channels," the official said, requesting anonymity.

"A sustained momentum in law enforcement and strict compliance of established norms is required to keep these numbers growing, which is an indicator that the regime against black money, tax evasion and money laundering is strong in India," he said.

The report said that based on the STRs disseminated by the FIU, the CBDT detected unaccounted income of Rs 154.89 crore, the Enforcement Directorate nosed out proceeds of crime of Rs 107.47 crore and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence(DRI) came across assets worth Rs 300 crore during 2015-16.

The total value of money unearthed stands at Rs 562.36 crore.

It said the black money detection figures in the last fiscal year are for "only 5 per cent of cases" flagged by the FIU to probe agencies.

The FIU obtains reports from banks and other institutions and sends them for action to investigative and enforcement agencies that are mandated under the law to combat economic crimes.

While over 3.53 lakh CCRs were received in 2014-15, their number rose by 16 per cent to over 4.10 lakh in 2015-16.

Similarly, CBWT reports during 2015-16 increased to over 1.1 crore as against 34 lakh in the previous year.

Cross-border wire transfer pertains to any transaction of more than Rs 5,00,000 or its equivalent in foreign currency where either the origin or destination of fund is in India.

Likewise, CCR is defined as the usage of a forged or counterfeit currency note or bank note as genuine or where any forgery of a valuable security or a document has taken place during a cash transaction at a bank.

An STR is a transaction that either indicates that it has been made in circumstances of unusual or unjustified complexity or appears to have no economic rationale or bona fide purpose.

It is also applicable to the transactions that give rise to a reasonable ground of suspicion that it may involve financing of the activities relating to terrorism.

An NPO Transaction Report (NTR) pertains to all transactions involving receipts by non-profit organisations of more than Rs 10 lakh or its equivalent in foreign currency.

The FIU, established in 2004, provides financial intelligence to law enforcement agencies for safeguarding the economy from abuses of money laundering, terrorist financing and other offences.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Monday, July 31, 2017, 7:51 [IST]
SC sets aside Allahabad HC order granting bail to two accused in Owaisi car attack case

SC grants interim bail to Bengaluru blast accused Madani

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

The Supreme Court on Monday granted 14-days interim bail to 2008 Bengaluru blasts case accused Abdul Nasser Madani to attend his son's wedding.

Madani had knocked the doors of the apex court Court seeking bail to attend his son Umar Mukhtar' wedding to be held at Thalassery on 9 August.

In fact, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) court had rejected Madani's plea on July 24 seeking permission to attend his son's wedding.

According to a 2010 report of Hindustan Times, Madani was first arrested on April 8, 2000, in connection with the 1998 Coimbatore bombings which had killed 60 people. Madani was imprisoned for eight years, but was released on August 1, 2007, after being acquitted of all charges, the report said.

Madani, founder of Kerala's Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was lodged in Karnataka jail for his involvement in the 2008 Bangalore serial blasts and similar incidents in Ahmedabad, Surat and Jaipur.

In June 2009, Madani was charge-sheeted in the Bangalore blast case and arrested a year later by the Karnataka police.

(With agency inputs)
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Should medical marijuana be legal in India: List of countries that allow it

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Union Minister Maneka Gandhi recommended that medical marijuana be made legal in India. Medical marijuana is legal in several countries. While some allow the outright use of it, there are others who have stringent conditions attached to it.

Here are the list of countries where marijuana is legal.

Columbia: In 2012, Columbia decriminalised the possession of marijuana. In 2016, it was made legal for medical and scientific purposes.

Argentina: It was in March 2017 that Argentina legalised medical marijuana.

France: In France, the sale of medicines that contain derivatives, such as cannabinoids is legal.

Romania: Here, use of medicines containing marijuana derivatives to help ease patients' pain has been legalised.

Czech Republic: Medical cannabis was legalised in 2013. However the marijuana can be imported from Netherlands only and a special electronic prescription would be required.

Finland: In Finland, marijuana was legalised in 2008. Doctors prescribe the drugs to patient only if they do not respond to traditional pharmaceuticals.

Chile: Here medical marijuana was legalised in 2005.

Australia: In 2016 the Narcotic Drugs Act was passed to legalise medical cannabis.

Croatia: Medical marijuana is legal in Croatia for patients suffering from illnesses such as AIDS, cancer and multiple sclerosis.

Jamaica: In 2015, possession of marijuana was decriminalised and an authority was set up to cultivate and distribute cannabis for medical and scientific purposes.

OneIndia News
Swamy seeks copy of chargesheet in Sunanda Pushkar case

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Monday filed a fresh application in Delhi High Court seeking a copy of chargesheet in Sunanda Pushkar case within 45 days after Delhi police were clueless about the cause of Pushkar's death.

Last week, the Delhi Police has submitted the status report to high court saying the cause of Sunanda Pushkar's death was unknown.

Sunanda, wife of Congress lawmaker Shashi Tharoor was found dead in Room No. 345 of Hotel Leela Palace in 2014.

Soon after the status report was submitted, Swamy alleged, "Some other agency should investigate Sunanda Pushkar's death .Shashi Tharoor has lied and evidence have beentampered."

In fact, early this month also Swamy had sought a time-bound probe in the case, saying "very influential people are involved in the case, leading to attempts to protect them, and the matter has faced a lot of unnecessary delay already".

In the plea, he said that it was an extreme example of the slow motion of the criminal justice process and the extent to which it could be subverted by the rich and influential. It unfolds the apparent apathy on the part of all those concerned with the administration of criminal justice.

(With agency inputs)

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Story first published: Monday, July 31, 2017, 12:54 [IST]
FM Nirmala Sitharaman hints at possibility of Centre considering restoration of state status to J&K

Terrorists loot bank in Anantnag, J&K

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Terrorists looted a ban at Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir. The terrorists robbed the bank at gun point reports stated. The amount of cash which has been stolen is still being ascertained.

On July 11 an attempt to rob a bank in Shopian was made. However the police had foiled that attempt. It may be recalled that the police had recently bust a Lashkar-e-Tayiba module which was involved in bank robberies. The police had also arrested a non-Kashmiri Hindu in connection with the case.

Terrorists resort to looting banks in the Valley to fund their operations. Such incidents had risen post the decision on demonetisation due to which terror groups faced a cash crunch.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Monday, July 31, 2017, 13:12 [IST]
Decoding the exodus into the BJP in Uttar Pradesh

India

oi-Ratan Mani Lal

The defection on Saturday 29 July by three UP legislators - two of the Samajwadi Party and one of the Bahujan Samaj Party - to the Bharatiya Janata Party a little before the BJP national president Amit Shah landed in Lucknow came as a big blow to the nascent efforts towards opposition unity in a state that already has a brute majority of the BJP in the State Legislative Assembly.

The three legislators are members of the Legislative Assembly for which direct elections are not held, and it underlines the significance attached by the BJP to holding by-elections to facilitate five ministers (including the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath) become members of the State Legislature. If the day's developments are to be believed, the three vacancies in the Legislative Council would mean that at least three ministers won't have to contest by-elections. Besides the CM, his two deputies Keshav Prasad Maurya, Dinesh Sharma, Ministers of State Swatantra Dev Singh and Mohsin Raza are not members of any House of the UP Legislature.

Interestingly, while Yogi and Maurya are members of Lok Sabha from Gorakhpur and Phulpur, respectively, Dinesh Sharma, Swatantra Dev Singh and Raza are not members of any House.

Bukkal Nawab and Yashwant Singh, members of the Legislative Council (MLCs) of the Samajwadi party, and Jaiveer Singh, an MLC of the BSP, quit their seats and their parties in the morning, citing similar reasons. While Bukkal Nawab, a Shia leader belonging to the Old City area of Lucknow, said he was feeling "suffocated" in the SP, Jaiveer Singh said the BSP had strayed from its path and had become directionless. There were also reports that another SP MLC Madhukar Jaitley had also quit but he later denied it.

Nawab is considered close to the SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav but had remained in the party even after former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav took over reigns of the party.

Nawab termed the SP not as a party but an "akhada" (wrestling arena.) Yashwant Singh, on the other hand, is a close associate of the independent legislator from Kunda, Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyya who was a minister in the Akhilesh Government. Jaiveer Singh is one of the seniormost leaders in the BSP, having continued there for a long time. All the three MLCs submitted their resignation to Chairman of the Legislative Council Ramesh Yadav.

Predictably, Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati blamed the BJP for indulging in "political corruption". Akhilesh said that the party was shying away from facing the people in by-elections and had therefore opted for the short-cut. Mayawati said that the BJP's hunger for power had turned into "lust" and that the recent developments had put "democracy at risk."

During the last Asembly election campaign, Bukkal Nawab had caused a stir by saying that he would be happy to see a Ram temple come up in Ayodhya, and would help the cause by "carrying the first brick to Ayodhya" and also contribute financially towards temple construction. Incidentally, he is also involved in a case of alleged land grab in Old Lucknow. It remains to be seen what happens to these cases since he is now with the ruling dispensation.

Amit Shah is on a three-day visit to Lucknow and he plunged into a series of meetings right after his arrival. He is scheduled to meet all BJP ministers, legislators and office bearers. The working of the Yogi government and some issues in the party organisation are also expected to be discussed and sorted out during his stay here. On Sunday, he is scheduled to meet a section of the people at an "intellectuals' conclave."

OneIndia News
Some CBI officers had 'setting' with TMC, so ED was sent to probe Bengal scams: Dilip Ghosh

TMC leader shot dead in West Bengal

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

A leader of the Trinamool Congress has been shot dead in West Bengal. The leader Asitur Rehman was shot dead at Bhagor in Bengal. The police who have launched a probe suspect that the role of naxalites in the incident.

There have been conflicting reports regarding this incident. While one section believes that it was the naxals who killed the leader, others say that it was a result of infighting.

Asitur Rahman (30) alias Babusona, who was office bearer of Bhangar II panchayat samiti, wasreturning from the residence of another party leader Bhangara II panchayat samiti chief Arabul Islam when he was shot.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Monday, July 31, 2017, 9:23 [IST]
UK's first turbaned MP praises those raising issue of Maharaja Duleep Singh

India

oi-PTI

Phagwara (Punjab), July 31: The organisations and individuals demanding the remains of Maharaja Duleep Singh be brought back to Punjab were congratulated by Britain's first turban- wearing MP Tanmanjit Singh Dhesi.

He, however, sounded cautious in making any commitment over the issue. Talking to reporters here after he was honoured by over a dozen religious, social and voluntary organisations, including the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), Dhesi said it was a complicated matter involving legalities.

"Besides, some are supporting it while others are opposing it," he said. This was Dhesi's first visit to Phagwara after becoming a member of the British Parliament. His parents, Jaspal Singh Dhesi and Dalvinder Kaur Dhesi, live in Phagwara, though their native village is nearby Raipur. Dhesi's uncle Paramjit Singh Raipur is an SGPC member.

"I congratulate all those who have brought the matter into the 'lokan di kacheri' (people's court), but I will make any commitment on it only after all the facts and views come to light," said Dhesi. However, he added in the same breath, "We too are considering the issue seriously." Even after 124 years of the death of Maharaja Duleep Singh, the king of Punjab who was dethroned by the British, a controversy rages on over whether his remains should be brought back to the state from England for cremation as per the Sikh rites.

Singh, who was forced to spend the better part of his life in exile, lies buried at the Elveden Church in Suffolk in eastern England. A recently released film, 'Black Prince', had rekindled the debate that his remains be exhumed and brought to Punjab for cremation. On the issue of GST exemption to 'langar' (community kitchen), Dhesi said the demand was for the Punjab MPs and MLAs to raise both with the state and central governments.

"As a Sikh, I am in favour of GST exemption to both the langars at the Golden Temple and Bhagat Puran Singh Pingalwara," he said. Batting for an effective mechanism to address the issues of NRIs, Dhesi said the non-resident Indians faced problems related to land disputes and marriage among others.

"As a representative of the Punjabis, especially Sikhs, I will keep raising these matters at appropriate forums," he added. Addressing the gathering, Dhesi went down the memory lane and shared his memories of schooling in Raipur and association with Phagwara as a boy. Asserting that he would become a "loud voice" for the Punjabis and Sikhs in the House of Commons, Dhesi said he would keep raising the issues confronting the diaspora.

"It is tragic for the Sikhs living in France that they have to remove their turbans for getting photographed and their children cannot go to schools wearing turbans, while over 80,000 turbaned Sikhs had laid down their lives for that country's independence," he said. Dhesi also expressed concern over the alleged hate crimes against the Sikhs in the US.

He described himself as a "well-wisher of Punjabis" claiming that he had come to Punjab with a message of love and amity. Dhesi was feted with a 'siropa' and sword by Bibi Jagir Kaur, former SGPC president, and local MLA Som Parkash.

PTI

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Story first published: Monday, July 31, 2017, 8:56 [IST]
Uttar Pradesh: Akhilesh Yadav accuses BJP 'fanning' vote-bank politics

India

pti-PTI

Lucknow, Jul 31: Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav accused the BJP of fanning vote-bank politics in the state and linking meals with caste.

He also alleged that the BJP governments at the state and the Centre had failed to fulfil their poll promises and was not "bothered about the pain of the people" . "The BJP leadership is fanning vote-bank politics in Uttar Pradesh and has shown a narrow mindset by linking meals with caste," the Samajwadi Party national president said here in a statement.

His remarks comes in the backdrop of BJP chief Amit Shah and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath taking lunch at the house of a booth-level party worker yesterday. "The BJP leadership is indulging in horse-trading of legislators, as it is apprehensive of going to the voters (to seek a mandate).

The public feels harassed and unsatisfied by the non-fulfillment of promises by the BJP," he said. In its three years at the Centre, the BJP could not make an expressway like the one made by the Samajwadi Party government.

"The SP government built the Yamuna Expressway in 22 months and a fighter plane can also land on it. This expressway makes the journey from Lucknow to Noida possible in five hours. Even the Shatabdi Express takes more time than this," he said. The SP leader alleged that the BJP has only a "vote- relationship" with the people. "It believes in politics of religion and sect, and breaks the social amity. It generates hatred among the people and also creates separatism.

The BJP is least bothered about the pain of the people," he said. "Farmers, students, youngsters and poor people are worried. Their hard-earned money has been deposited in the banks.

Even traders, government employees and teachers are feeling agitated," Akhilesh said. The SP national president said, "We completed the metro rail in Lucknow without central assistance.

Had the Centre not created hurdles in granting the NOC, thousands of commuters would have been traveling by metro rail everyday." He said promises of making Varanasi like Japan's Kyoto also remain unfulfiled.

PTI
International news brief: Series of earthquakes rattle Hawaii and more

Turkey holds off on Finland and Sweden in NATO

Airstrikes in Turkey, Iraq kills 12 PKK militants

International

ians-IANS

By Ians English

Ankara, July 31: Military statements on Sunday claimed that a total of 12 outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants were killed in separate counter operations in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq on Saturday.

The operations in northern Iraq were conducted in the Zap and Matina regions, killing three terrorists who were allegedly preparing for an attack and destroying some weapon pits and caves, Xinhua quoted the Turkish Armed Forces as saying.

Another airstrike was conducted in Beytussebap district of Turkey's southeastern Sirnak province, killing nine PKK militants, including one senior member.

One Turkish soldier was also killed in an anti-PKK operation in southeastern Hakkari province, local media reported.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and the EU, has resumed its armed campaign against the Turkish government since July 2015.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK (Kurdish: Partiya Karkeren Kurdistane) is a left-wing organization based in Turkey and Iraq. Since 1984 the PKK has been involved in an armed conflict with the Turkish state

IANS
Iraqi Embassy siege ends after attackers killed: Afghan Ministry

International

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

At least four insurgents launched an attack on the Iraqi Embassy in Kabul city on Monday morning in the Ansari area of the city. The Ministry of Interior (MoI) said in a statement that three attackers were killed by security forces after a gunfight that lasted almost four hours.

The MoI said that "one policeman was wounded in the attack." The ministry condemned the attack as "un-Islamic and inhuman."

An ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan claimed responsibility for the suicide attack that targeted the embassy, according to the group's Amaq news agency.

Earlier in the day, the incident is said to have happened in the Shar-e-Naw neighborhood in the north-west of the city and a gun battle is underway. However, embassy employees were moved to a safe location.

"IS fighters had placed explosives at the Iraqi embassy entrance, and two of them had entered the building where at least seven guards were killed in the ensuing conflict," said two unauthenticated statements published online by IS-linked Amaq news agency.

The attack came a week after at least 35 people were killed in a suicide attack on government workers in Kabul. Last week's attack was claimed by the Taliban.

According to the UN, Afghanistan has seen at least 1,662 civilian deaths in the first half of 2017, with about 20 per cent of those in the capital.

(With agency inputs)
Do not to link trade with N Korea missile issue: China tells Trump

International

pti-PTI

Beijing, Jul 31: US President Donald Trump's remark that Beijing was taking no action on Pyongyang despite profiting from US business has drawn a sharp reaction from China

China said on Monday the US should not link trade to discussions about North Korea's nuclear programme.

"We believe that the North Korea nuclear issue and China-US trade are two issues that are in two completely different domains," Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Qian Keming told a press briefing, adding the issues "are not related, and should not be discussed together."

North Korea's unrelenting pursuit of its missile and nuclear programmes poses a thorny policy challenge for Trump, who is at loggerheads with Beijing over how to handle Kim's regime.

The North's July 4 test triggered a global alarm, with experts saying the missile had a theoretical range to reach Alaska. There remain doubts whether the North can miniaturise a nuclear weapon to fit a missile nose cone, or if it has mastered the technology needed for the projectile to survive re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

OneIndia News
Not just India's share, Govt mulling to cut down Pakistan's share of river water as well

India, Pakistan to hold talks on hydropower projects under Indus Waters Treaty today

International

pti-PTI

India and Pakistan will hold talks over issues related two of India's hydroelectricity projects under Indus Waters Treaty at the World Bank headquarters in Washington on Monday.

Welcoming the participation of India and Pakistan in the talks to be held on Monday, World Bank's Vice President for South Asia region Annette Dixon said, "We are pleased both parties have confirmed their participation in the meeting hosted by the World Bank in Washington, DC."

"The World Bank welcomes the spirit of goodwill and cooperation," Dixon said in a letter to the Indian Ambassador to the US, Navtej Sarna.

In the letter dated July 25, the World Bank assured the Indian envoy its "continued neutrality and impartiality in helping the parties to find and amicable way forward."

"We hope that all parties will come to the table prepared to find a way forward that safeguards the Treaty," it said.

Union Water Resources Secretary Amarjit Singh will lead the Indian delegation during the talks. The Indian team will comprise officials from ministries of external affairs and water resources.

The two countries last held talks over the two projects in March this year during the meeting of Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) in Pakistan.

Pakistan had approached the World Bank last year, raising concerns over the designs of the two hydroelectricity projects located in Jammu and Kashmir.

It demanded that the World Bank, which is the mediator between the two countries under the 57-year-old water distribution pact, set up a court of arbitration to look into its concerns.

On the other hand, India asked for appointments of a neutral expert to look into the issues, contending the concerns Pakistan raised were "technical" ones.

Following this, the international lender had in November 2016 initiated two simultaneous processes - for appointing neutral expert and establishment of court of arbitration - to look into technical differences between the two countries in connection with the project.

The simultaneous processes, however, were halted after India objected to it.

After that, representatives of the World Bank will hold held talks with India and Pakistan seperately.

PTI

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Story first published: Monday, July 31, 2017, 9:49 [IST]
Slip of Tongue in Pak Parliament: Speaker pronounces Nawaz Sharif's name instead of Shehbaz Sharif

Is everyone else in Pakistan honest asks Nawaz Sharif

International

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Nawaz Sharif wants to know if everyone else in Pakistan is honest. Sharif who was ousted as Prime Minister of Pakistan on Friday said, "You should be proud that your leader doesn't have a stain of corruption on him."

The Pakistan Supreme Court on Friday disqualified 67-year-old Sharif for dishonesty and ruled that corruption cases be filed against him and his children over the Panama Papers scandal, forcing him to resign from premiership.

The court's ruling stated that Sharif had been dishonest in not disclosing his earnings from a Dubai-based company of his son in his nomination papers during the 2013 general election.

One of the judges, Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, said that Sharif was no longer "eligible to be an honest member of the parliament".

Addressing leaders of his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Sharif said,

"I am proud that I have not been declared ineligible over charges of corruption," he said at the PML-N's parliamentary meeting that approved his brother and Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif as his successor.

The former premier claimed he did not receive any kickbacks or commissions and never compromised on principles.

"When I never took a salary, what would I declare," he said, referring to the Supreme Court judgement that led to his ouster. "When you take something, there's a problem; when you don't, there's a problem," he observed.

"Is it only my family that should be held accountable? Is everyone else in this country Sadiq (honest) and Ameen (righteous)?" he asked.

"My conscience is clear," he asserted. "If I had done something wrong; or took something from this country that was not mine, I would have felt the guilt myself," he said.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Monday, July 31, 2017, 5:54 [IST]
Imran Khan discharged from hospital, to resume long march from same point where he was shot

This cop from Pakistan became a millionaire overnight: Here is how

Pak's PM-designate Abbasi faces inquiry into corruption charge

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Islamabad, July 31: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) nominee for the post of interim prime minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, is facing a Rs 220 billion corruption inquiry by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) over a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import contract.

Abbasi, the former petroleum minister, is a principal accused in a NAB case registered in 2015, Dawn newspaper reported.

The other suspects in the case are former petroleum secretary Abid Saeed, Inter State Gas Systems (ISGS) managing director Mobin Saulut, private firm Engro's chief executive officer Emranul Haq and the Sui Southern Gas Company's (SSGC) ex-MD Zuhair Ahmed Siddiqui.

According to NAB documents, the contract for the LNG import and distribution was awarded to the Elengy Terminal, a subsidiary of Engro, in 2013 in violation of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules and relevant laws.

The case was registered on the complaint of Shahid Sattar, an energy expert and former member of the Planning Commission and the SSGC board of directors.

It is still under an investigation contrary to NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry's claim that he had introduced a new strategy under which the process of complaint verification, inquiry, investigation and filing of reference took 10 months, said the newspaper.

Sattar had accused Abbasi of misusing his authority and causing a potential $2 billion loss to the national exchequer in 15 years. The NAB documents said that it had been recommended that the names of all accused in the case, including Abbasi, should be placed on the Exit Control List.

After the removal of Nawaz Sharif by the apex court in the Panama Papers corruption case, the PML-N has nominated Abbasi as its candidate for the prime minister's post for an interim period before Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif replaces him for the remaining 10 months of the government's term.

The election of the new prime minister will be held on Tuesday and Abbasi is set to be elected in view of his party's comprehensive majority in the National Assembly, said the report.

Talking to reporters on Sunday, Abbasi said he was not afraid of any reference, adding that those levelling allegations against him should search their own souls and be ashamed of their deeds.

"Not only one case but get registered 10 references against me," he said in reply to a question about Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmed's decision to approach the Supreme Court against him regarding the NAB proceedings.

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Story first published: Monday, July 31, 2017, 16:33 [IST]
Police killed, 6 wounded in rocket attack in Saudi

International

pti-PTI

Riyadh, Jul 31: Saudi Arabia's interior ministry has said that a policeman was killed and six others wounded in a rocket attack in the Shiite-majority eastern district of Qatif.

The area has been rocked by unrest since 2011, when Shiite protests erupted to demand equality in the Sunni- dominated Gulf kingdom.

Sunday's incident saw a police patrol come under a "terrorist attack with a rocket" in al-Masoura neighborhood in Qatif, the ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA.

It said the six wounded officers were hospitalised and in a stable condition.

Qatif has seen a string of assaults on security forces in recent weeks. Police shot three men wanted for "terrorist" attacks earlier this month, the ministry said then.

Most of Saudi Arabia's Shiites live in the oil-rich east, where they have long complained of marginalisation. Authorities have blamed the violence on "terrorists" and drug traffickers.

PTI
Two presidents of Venezuela clash over aid; Guaido vows to bring in foreign help in country

Venezuela unrest: 10 people killed in violence

International

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

At least 10 people were killed on Monday in the ongoing protest and violence in Venezuela over the controversial vote which would grant President Nicolas Maduro's ruling socialist party virtually unlimited powers.

In a grinding battle against its political opponents and groups of increasingly alienated and violent young protesters, the government is continuing its push for total political dominance.

The violence in the once-prosperous OPEC nation has killed at least 122 and wounded nearly 2,000 since protests began in April, said reports.

Nikki Haley, the US envoy to the United Nations, has warned that Venezuela was taking a "step toward dictatorship" in its highly controversial vote championed by President Maduro to rewrite the nation's constitution.

According to reports, Venezuelans stayed away from the polls in massive numbers in a show of protest against a vote to grant President Nicolas Maduro's ruling socialist party virtually unlimited powers in the face of a brutal socio- economic crisis

The Trump administration has imposed successive rounds of sanctions on high-ranking members of Maduro's administration, with the support of countries including Mexico, Colombia and Panama. Vice President Mike Pence promised on Friday that the US would take "strong and swift economic actions" if the vote went ahead.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Monday, July 31, 2017, 9:10 [IST]
Venezuela vote a 'step toward dictatorship': US

International

pti-PTI

United Nations, Jul 31: Nikki Haley, US envoy to the United Nations, has warned that Venezuela was taking a "step toward dictatorship" in its highly controversial vote championed by beleaguered President Nicolas Maduro to rewrite the nation's constitution.

"Maduro's sham election is another step toward dictatorship. We won't accept an illegit govt. The Venezuelan ppl & democracy will prevail," Haley wrote in a tweet as the voting was marred by an escalation of deadly violence.

According to reports, Venezuelans stayed away from the polls in massive numbers in a show of protest against a vote to grant President Nicolas Maduro's ruling socialist party virtually unlimited powers in the face of a brutal socio- economic crisis and a grinding battle against its political opponents and groups of increasingly alienated and violent young protesters.

The government swore to continue its push for total political dominance of this once-prosperous OPEC nation, a move likely to trigger US sanctions and new rounds of the street fighting that has killed at least 122 and wounded nearly 2,000 since protests began in April.

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Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York:

Oslo and New York-based growth financing firm Amundsen Ventures is launching its maiden fund. The AV Growth Equity Fund is targeting $200 million in commitments for growth debt and equity investments in high growth Norwegian tech companies.

"Norway has always been known as an oil state, but they are making the transition to emphasizing other growth areas of the economy, now that oil prices are declining. That creates an opportunity for investors," explains Amundsen co-founder Karl Andersen in an interview with Opalesque.

The fund is set up as a hybrid - it will primarily offer growth debt financing, with the option to pick up some of the equity if a company starts to hit scale. The fund will be focused on companies in tech companies in industries including energy efficiency and the Industrial Internet. Andersen says he expects that the fund will be able to invest in 40-50 companies.

"Initially, we are targeting family offices and high net worth investors, largely in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia," Andersen explains. "There is a real interest in new technologies and specifically energy efficiency in that area of the world so in many ways we are creating a network of ideas and investment between Norway and Southeast Asia."

There has been some early institutional interest, but those investors are looking to make direct investments into the companies. Andersen envisions offering direct investments over time, as the fund work......................

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Intelligent Power Modules Market Share 2017 Vincotech, STMicroelectronics, Powerex, Fuji Electric

Intelligent Power Modules (IPM)

http://www.spiremarketresearch.com/global-intelligent-power-modules-ipm-market-2017-demand-insights-key-palyers-segmentation-and-forecast-to-2022

Intelligent Power Modules (IPM) Market Research 2017A market study  Global Intelligent Power Modules (IPM) Market  examines the performance of the Intelligent Power Modules (IPM) market 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Intelligent Power Modules (IPM) market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Intelligent Power Modules (IPM) market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Intelligent Power Modules (IPM) Market 2017 report includes Intelligent Power Modules (IPM) market Revenue, market Share, Intelligent Power Modules (IPM) industry volume, market Trends, Intelligent Power Modules (IPM) Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Intelligent Power Modules (IPM) Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Intelligent Power Modules (IPM) Market 2017 :Infineon TechnologiesMitsubishi ElectricFuji ElectricSEMIKRONON SemiconductorSTMicroelectronicsRenesas Electronics CorporationROHM SemiconductorTexas InstrumentsPowerexVincotechFirstly, the report covers the top Intelligent Power Modules (IPM) manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Intelligent Power Modules (IPM) report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Intelligent Power Modules (IPM) industry, Intelligent Power Modules (IPM) industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Intelligent Power Modules (IPM) Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Intelligent Power Modules (IPM) research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Intelligent Power Modules (IPM) market revenue worldwide.Finally, Intelligent Power Modules (IPM) market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USA
Global Ultrasonic Dishwashers Sales Market Report 2017

Global Ultrasonic Dishwashers Sales Market Report 2017

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The Ultrasonic Dishwashers Industry 2017 Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Ultrasonic Dishwashers industry.Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Ultrasonic Dishwashers market analysis is provided for the international market including development history, competitive landscape analysis, and major regions development status.Secondly, development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures. This report also states import/export, supply and consumption figures as well as cost, price, revenue and gross margin by regions (United States, EU, China and Japan), and other regions can be added.Then, the report focuses on global major leading industry players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials, equipment and downstream consumers analysis is also carried out. Whats more, the Ultrasonic Dishwashers industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed.Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and overall research conclusions are offered.In a word, the report provides major statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.Global Ultrasonic Dishwashers market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Ultrasonic Dishwashers sales volume, Price (USD/Unit), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingITWTK ultrasonicMeikoBoschGEMiele......Ask a complete & professional report sample, please send message to tinaning@qyresearch.com or visit atTable of contents:1 Ultrasonic Dishwashers Market Overview2 Global Ultrasonic Dishwashers Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application3 United States Ultrasonic Dishwashers (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4 China Ultrasonic Dishwashers (Volume, Value and Sales Price)5 Europe Ultrasonic Dishwashers (Volume, Value and Sales Price)6 Japan Ultrasonic Dishwashers (Volume, Value and Sales Price)7 Southeast Asia Ultrasonic Dishwashers (Volume, Value and Sales Price)8 India Ultrasonic Dishwashers (Volume, Value and Sales Price)9 Global Ultrasonic Dishwashers Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales Data10 Ultrasonic Dishwashers Maufacturing Cost Analysis11 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers12 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders13 Market Effect Factors Analysis14 Global Ultrasonic Dishwashers Market Forecast (2017-2022)15 Research Findings and Conclusion16 AppendixRelated Reports:Global Ultrasonic Dishwashers Sales Market Report 2017Europe Ultrasonic Dishwashers Sales Market Report 2017China Ultrasonic Dishwashers Sales Market Report 2017India Ultrasonic Dishwashers Sales Market Report 2017Japan Ultrasonic Dishwashers Sales Market Report 2017USA Ultrasonic Dishwashers Sales Market Report 2017Korea Ultrasonic Dishwashers Sales Market Report 2017Contact Details:Company Name: QYResearch CO.,LIMITED | focus on Market Survey and ResearchTina| Sales ManagersEmail: tinaning@qyresearch.com Tel: 0086-20-22093278(CN)Web:QYResearch established in 2007, focus on custom research, management consulting, IPO consulting, industry chain research, data base and seminar services. The company owned a large basic data base (such as National Bureau of statistics database, Customs import and export database, Industry Association Database etc), experts resources (included energy automotive chemical medical ICT consumer goods etc industries experts who own more than 10 years experiences on marketing or R&D), professional survey team (the team member with more than 3 years market survey experience and more than 2 years depth expert interview experience),Excellent data analysis team (SPSS statistics and PPT graphics process team); QYResearch has always pursuit product quality, adhere to the quality is the soul of business.Room 2311 VILI International Building No.167 Linhe West Road Tianhe District
Forecast on Propylene Tetramer Market for the Period (2017-2027)

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2772

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-2772

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Propylene Tetramer with CAS 6842-15-5 is an oligomer with a quaternary structure of four propylene units. Formed synthetically by the polymerization of propylene with phosphoric acidcatalyst, propylene tetramer is a colourless clear liquid with mild pleasant odour. Propylene tetramer is an important chemical critical for the production of various downstream chemicals. Propylene tetramer is employed as an intermediate for synthesis of a wide range of chemicals such as lube oil additives, polymerization agents, surfactants, agricultural chemicals, coatings as corrosion inhibitors due to its unsaturated double bond and high branching. Due to its versatile polymeric functionality, propylene tetramer is soluble in most organic diluters and solvents such as acetone, ethanol and ethyl ether. One of the important applications of propylene tetramers is for the manufacture of dodecyl phenol or dodecene, by the alkylation of phenol using propylene tetramer, which is primarily used as used in the production of additives for engine fuels and lubricant oils. Propylene tetramer is used for alkylation of benzene to make branched chain dodecylbenzene that is subsequently sulfonated to provide a non-biodegradable surfactant.Global Propylene Tetramer Market: Drivers & RestraintsThe consumption and demand of propylene tetramer market is expected to grow with the increase in demand from end use industries. The recuperating oil and gas industry and thriving automobile production are expected to create significant demand for propylene tetramer owing to its extensive application in the manufacturing of lubricant additives. Likewise, increasing urbanization has led to an escalation in the demand for surfactants, which are a critical part of household chemicals such as detergents, this demand is expected to create significant opportunities for the global propylene market during the forecast period. The increasing production and consumption of fertilizers and other agricultural chemicals also contribute to the sustainable demand for propylene tetramer market. However, stringent environmental regulations regarding the utilization of non- biodegradable substances and presence of alternate chemical substitutes are expected to restrain the revenue sales of the market.Request For Report Sample@Global Propylene Tetramer Market: SegmentationGlobal Propylene Tetramer Market can be segmented on the basis of application as:Oil and Fuel additivesFertilizer and herbicideSurfactants and detergentsPaint and CoatingsWater Treatment chemicalsOthersGlobal Propylene Tetramer Market: Regional OutlookIn the global propylene tetramer market, North America is a prominent consumer of propylene tetramer, which is due to the increased sales of tetramer due to its application in the lubrication and chemical surfactants and to large industrial sector. Followed by North America, Europe is also one of the major markets attributed to the high use of propylene tetramer in the lubricant industry. The demand of propylene tetramer market in North America and Europe is expected to be moderate for the forecast period owing to increasing significance of bio friendly chemicals and presence of stringent regulations restraining the production and consumption of non-bio degradable products and chemicals. However, the market dynamics is projected to shift towards Asia Pacific owing to relatively higher consumption and modest presence of environmental regulations. Consumption growth is forecasted to be most significant in Asia, followed by Middle East & Africa and South America. In Asia Pacific region, major industrial economies such as India, China and South Korea are expected to project higher growth in terms of both consumer and producer end. Middle East & Africa and Eastern Europe are estimated to participate significantly in the market dynamics of propylene tetramer owing to the escalating consumption in oil and gas sector.Visit For TOC@Global Propylene Tetramer Market: Market ParticipantsExamples of some of the market participants in the global propylene tetramer market, Bayer AG E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, Exxon Mobil Chemical, Shanghai Petrochemical, Dow Chemical Company, TPC Group,Chevron Oronite Company LLC, PJSC Nizhnekamskneftekhim and Qilu Petrochemical among others. The propylene tetramer market is highly fragmented and participants are focussing on both organic and inorganic expansions.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Forecast on Marine Propulsion Engine Market for the Period (2017-2027)

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Marine propulsion is the system or mechanism used to generate thrust that allows a small boat or even a ship to move across waterways. Modern ships are usually equipped with mechanical systems consisting of an electric motor turning a propeller, or even pump-jets or an impeller. These ships employ reciprocating engines as their main source of power because of their robustness, operational simplicity and lower emissions. The power required by a ship largely depends on the way it is used during regular operations  for e.g.  A passenger ship requires less power than either a trade or naval ship. The marine propulsion engine market serves offshore support vessels, commercial vessels, inland waterway vessels, submarines and more.Focus on renewable energy fuelling the marine propulsion engine marketA growing need for dependent and fuel-efficient ships is anticipated to be the main driver of the marine propulsion engine market. There has been rapid innovation in the industry that has led to the development of new high-performance engines that are more fuel-efficient than their predecessors. Leading companies in the marine propulsion engine market are continuously innovating and extending their product offerings to handle the growing demand for greater capacity handling. This is mainly due to a rise in international seaborne trade caused by a globalised world with heavy interdependence and interconnectivity.Request For Report Sample@The second major factor that is likely to impact the marine propulsion engine market is the focus on renewable energy sources. Global warming and an impending energy crisis are some of the biggest challenges faced by the world in the 21st century. Commercial and transport ships notorious for causing a lot of pollution and accidental oil spills not only damage the regional natural ecosystem but also negatively impact the companys goodwill and market image. That is why energy sources such as solar energy, wind energy, electric energy and hydroelectric energy are becoming more important than ever before. The development of electric motors that can power ships and reduce fossil fuel consumption will definitely have a positive impact on the marine propulsion engine market. The depletion of shale gas and conventional reserves will increase the demand for LNG, particularly as a marine fuel.Regulatory hurdles  the biggest challenge to the marine propulsion engine marketUncontrollable CO2 emissions from conventional engine systems have led to the implementation of stringent environmental regulations and various taxes such as carbon tax to help reduce the impact of climate change. The marine pollution convention (MARPOL) regulations help prevent sewage, oil and chemical spill contamination along with air pollution caused by marine propulsion engine exhaust fumes. Non-adherence to these governmental rules and regulations may lead to severe penalties running into billions of dollars. This can stifle the growth of the marine propulsion engine market particularly as smaller domestic companies may not be able to comply.Visit For TOC@Asia Pacific is the key marine propulsion engine market to watchAsia Pacific accounts for a major portion of the marine propulsion engine market and is anticipated to maintain its dominance throughout the forecast period. This is primarily because of key nations China, Japan and South Korea that have become manufacturing powerhouses heavily dependent on external trade. China is already the worlds largest exporter and would naturally require a greater number of commercial ships, thus having a positive impact on the demand for marine propulsion engines. In addition to trade, countries across the world have begun beefing up their navies to combat ocean piracy. Asian navies, in particular, are rapidly building their defence capabilities and this should increase the size of the marine propulsion engine market across the Asia Pacific region.Marine propulsion engine market: key playersSome of the key players in the marine propulsion engine market are Caterpillar, Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., General Electric Company, and Masson Marine.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Frictionless Remote Monitoring Devices Market Globally Expected to Drive Growth through 2026

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According to World Health Organization (WHO) accounts, 347 million people suffering from diabetes around the world and raised blood pressure is estimated to cause 7.5 million deaths around the world.Traditional treatment for monitoring glucose in diabetic patients requires periodic poking with needles. Presently, advanced technologies are available to overcome traditional treatment problems. Needle free glucose monitoring devices, wearable devices, and biosensors are the examples for Frictionless Remote Monitoring Devices.Wearable devices such as wrist bands, necklace are available for self-monitoring of health includes heart rate, miles cycled, calories consumed, and counting steps.Request Report Sample@Frictionless remote monitoring device components include sensors, recorder and GPS systems, and mobile phones. Using of frictionless remote monitoring devices reduces the hospitalization by providing the useful health data to the patient to monitor health themselves.Frictionless Remote Monitoring Devices Market: Drivers and RestraintsPresently, Frictionless Remote Monitoring Devices Market are driven by increasing the prevalence rate of chronic disorders such as diabetes and hypertension. Rapid growth in wireless technology, raised awareness among the people, increased geriatric population also drivers for Frictionless Remote Monitoring Devices Market.The devices are also available in new styles with customization options, this is the new trend in frictionless remote monitoring devices market.Health self-Monitoring Devices cost is very high, sometimes give wrong readings because of software problems and Mobile Apps disadvantage is the privacy of the patients health information. Not all healthcare service providers can be trust worth.Frictionless Remote Monitoring Devices Market: SegmentationFrictionless Remote Monitoring Devices Market further segmented into following typesBased on Product type:Wrist bandsGlucose monitoring devicesNecklaceBased on Application:DiabetesHigh Blood PressureCaloriesFitnessCounting stepsMiles cycledFloors climbedCalories consumedHeart rateBlood pressureFrictionless Remote Monitoring Devices Market: OverviewWith rapid growth in wireless technology and raised awareness about personal health care, the global Frictionless Remote Monitoring Devices Marketis expected to have a double digit growth in the forecast period (2015-2025).Frictionless Remote Monitoring Devices Market: Region- wise OutlookThe global Frictionless Remote Monitoring Devices Market is expected to register a double digit CAGR for the forecast period. Depending on geographic regions, global Frictionless Remote Monitoring Devices Market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, South America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Japan and Middle East & Africa.North America dominates the global Frictionless Remote Monitoring Devices Market due to the technical advancements and good awareness of healthcare in people. Europe occupies second place in this market due to well healthcare setup and good awareness about health. Asia Pacific is expected to grow at a remarkable CAGR.Visit For TOC@Frictionless Remote Monitoring Devices Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players in Frictionless Remote Monitoring Devices Market areNikeAbbott LaboratoriesMedtronicFitbitLG ElectronicsiHealth Lab IncDexicomPhilips HealthcareAbout Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Chemical Indicator Inks Market Intelligence Study for Comprehensive Insights

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Chemical indicator inks are used for monitoring sterilization process, and form a key component of chemical indicators. They are of the type that change colour in order to indicate successful sterilization of surgical equipment/accessory. When exposed to a specific type of sterilant, at pre-defined temperature conditions, they experience a permanent colour change.One of the most vital processes carried out in the healthcare industry is the sterilization process. It directly influences safety of the patient as apt sterilization of surgical instruments, equipment and supplies are applied in direct patient care and surgery. Chemical indicators happen to be primary products that are used to confirm effectiveness of the sterilization process. This not only ensures the effective sterilization of surgical instruments and devices, but also helps assess the level of sterilization achieved.The chemical indicator inks market is also expected to be driven by the application of chemical indicator inks in the growing food canning industry, where meat, fish and other perishable food items are processed.All these factors make the study of the chemical indicator inks market a vital need.Chemical Indicator Inks Market: Key Trends, DriversThe rising incidences of nosocomial infections and diseases at a global level is expected to increase the importance of even more stringent sterilization needs than in the past. Besides, regulatory bodies worldwide including the EU and EPA have recently been imposing strict regulations for mandatory sterilization for a wide range of surgical products. These factors are expected to drive the demand for chemical indicator inks at a global level.Request For Report Sample@It is expected that the market share of water-based chemical indicator inks would rise as stringent environmental regulations pertaining to emission of volatile organic compounds are expected to be on the rise in the near future, and that water-based chemical indicator inks conform to the relevant norms, when compared to other product segments. It has also been observed that superior product properties including better surface appearance, flow behaviour, improved colour and ink performance have been dictating the rising demand for chemical indicator inks.Amongst the sterilization processes applicable to chemical indicator inks usage, steam sterilization is free from toxic content, thereby making the sterilization processes extremely safe for instruments used for surgery. Hence, it is one of the most preferred techniques in the sterilization applications and also on all critical objects that are resistant to moisture and heat.The market share for flexographic printing is expected to increase over the next few years as it is expected that there would be preference for eco-friendly composition of chemical indicator inks through water-based formulation  a key aspect of flexographic printing. However, the market share for rotogravure printing may rise only negligibly or not rise although the formulation for rotogravure printing is very identical to that of flexographic printing, due to more expensive printing components.In the coming few years, effortlessness of usage and instant identification of completion of the sterilization process is expected to drive the demand for tapes in the chemical indicator inks market.Chemical Indicator Inks Market: SegmentationOn the basis of sterilization process, the chemical indicator inks market is segmented as follows:SteamEthylene oxideVaporized hydrogen peroxide and plasmaFormaldehydeOthersOn the basis of product type, the chemical indicator inks market is segmented as follows:Solvent-basedWater-basedUV-curedVisit For TOC@On the basis of printing process, the chemical indicator inks market is segmented as follows:Flexographic printingRotogravure printingScreen printingOn the basis of application type, the chemical indicator inks market is segmented as follows:Sterilizing bagsBottlesPre-fillable syringesIV & blood containersPouchesThermoformed traysTags and labelsOthers (such as blister packs)Chemical Indicator Inks Market: Market ParticipantsExamples of some of the market participants in the global chemical indicator inks market are as follows:North American Science Associates Inc. (NAMSA)RIKEN CHEMICAL Co., Ltd.3MTempil (LA-Co Industries)NiGK CorporationSteriTec Products Inc.Propper Manufacturing Company, Inc.ETIGAM bvTerragene SAgke GmbHSTERIS CorporationCrosstex International Inc. (subsidiary of Cantel Medical Corporation)ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Wearable Cardioverter Defibrillator Market Size, Analysis, and Forecast Report 2016-2026

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Wearable cardioverter defibrillator is an external defibrillator which is non-invasive it is used to prevent sudden cardiac attack. It has two partsA light weight vest that is worn under regular clothesA small portable unit that includes recorder and generatorSudden cardiac attack happens when there is an issue with the heart's electrical system. The electrical system guides the heart to relax and contract. Condition where there is abnormal rhythm in the ventricles of the heart is Ventricular Fibrillation. If VF occurs, a defibrillator sends an electrical current to the heart which is used to re-start a normal heart rhythm. Defibrillators are utilized for the treatment of life-threatening heart dysrhythmias, ventricular fibrillation, and ventricular tachycardia. They control irregular heartbeat, prevent heart failure, and treat patients affected by sudden heart failure. Defibrillators can be internal (inside the body) and external (outside the body). The wearable defibrillator is a treatment given for patients who are at high risk for sudden heart failure or sudden cardiac death. Basically the wearable cardioverter defibrillator is used for outpatient.The global wearable cardioverter defibrillator market is categorized on the basis of condition type, end user and geography. The market is driven by some key factors such as future advancement in technology which help in introducing patient friendly devices by reducing the size and weight of the wearable cardioverter defibrillator, introduction of rental services for wearable cardioverter defibrillators and reducing the cost and making it affordable in developing countries, enhancing patient education and training. Wearable cardioverter defibrillator is used for the conditions like Peripartum Cardiomyopathy, Congenital heart disease and Inherited Arrhythmias.Request Report Sample@Wearable Cardioverter Defibrillator Market: Drivers and RestraintsFactors contributing to the growth of wearable cardioverter defibrillator marketincludes the rise to prevalence of diseases, growing geriatric population, increasing number of training and awareness among the population base results in growth of market, technological advancements to propel the growth of the market, providing producers with future growth opportunities to bolster the growth of the marketHowever factors such as lack of knowledge about sudden cardiac arrest, problems related to the use of wearable cardioverter defibrillator devices, and the wearable cardioverter defibrillator does not monitor atrial arrhythmias therefore this hinders the growth of the marketWearable Cardioverter Defibrillator Market: OverviewThe wearable cardioverter defibrillator market is expected to have tremendous growth during the forecast period (2016-2026), with rising incidence of cardiac disorders, advancement and innovations in technology in medical field, and government initiative by increased spending in research and developmentWearable Cardioverter Defibrillator: Region- wise OutlookNorth America holds the largest market share of the overall industry and is liable to keep ruling the business sector asrising incidence of diseases, improvement in healthcare industry and extended growth. USA and Canada contribute to the overall defibrillator market in the region as lot of awareness about the sudden cardiac arrest and defibrillators. Europe has second largest market for defibrillator devices. The Market is appeared to be driven by increase in demand from emerging countries in the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions, where more workstations and business environments are introducing advancement in defibrillators. It is estimated to benefit the defibrillators market in upcoming yearsWearable Cardioverter Defibrillator: SegmentationGlobal wearable cardioverter defibrillatormarketis segmented on the basis of condition, end use and geography as following:By ConditionsPeripartum CardiomyopathyCongenital Heart DiseaseInherited ArrhythmiasBy End UserHospitalsHome Care SettingsCardiology ClinicsVisit For TOC@Wearable Cardioverter Defibrillator: Key PlayerZOLL Medical Corporation is the key player operating in this segment.About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Gaffers Tape Market Global Industry Analysis and Forecast Till 2027

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Global packaging industry has witnessed a number of technological advancement from last couple of decades. As packaging is unexecuted without the use of tape, the increasing demand for packaging from industrial sector in turn is creating huge opportunity for industrial tape market. The introduction of gaffers tape over duct tape has provided the manufacturer a wide range of packaging advancement. Gaffers tape which is also known as camera tape or spike tape is regarded as heavy cotton cloth pressure sensitive tape that delivers high adhesive properties. Through gaffers tape, now the manufacturers can use the tape on any kind of packaging material without the need for a solvent (such as water) or heat for activation. Gaffer tape is widely used in theatre, photography, film television production and industrial staging works.Gaffers Tape Market - Market Dynamics:One of the significant factors contributing towards the growth of the gaffers Tape market is the rampant growth of industrial tape industry. Moreover, the growing consumption of Gaffers Tape from automotive and construction segment is expected to rise the demand of gaffers Tape over the forecast period. Furthermore, Gaffers Tape is suitable for all types of packaging material owing to its properties such as better adhesive holding power, improved moisture resistance, better conformability and instant adhesion. Characteristics such as compatibility with various sterilization forms and non-toxic nature displayed by Gaffers Tape is further estimated to enhance the demand of Gaffers Tape market over the forecast period.Request Report Sample@Ease of entrance in the market has resulted in increasing competition in the global tape market. This has encouraged the vendors to introduce new and advance form of gaffers Tape, for instance double sided gaffers tape with high performance. Today most of the gaffers tape companies are focusing on highly efficient eco-friendly recovery technology for adhesive coating and is expected to be the next growth opportunity for pressure sensitive manufacturers over the forecast period.However, the gaffers tape market is highly fragmented market due to presence of numerous regional and local players. These manufacturers offers innovative packaging solution related to tape at a lower price than multinational players, resulting in intense price wars. It is expected that large multinational players will acquire the small regional and local players over the forecast period.Gaffers Tape Market- Market Segmentation:Global Gaffers Tape market is segmented on the basis of product, backing material, and application. On the basis of product, gaffers tape market can be segmented into cartoon sealing tape, masking tape, double sided tape, electrical tape and others. On the basis of backing material, gaffers tape market can be segmented into polypropylene, paper, PVC and others. On the basis of application, gaffers tape market can be segmented into packaging, building & construction, electrical & electronics, automotive, health & hygiene and othersGaffers Tape Market - Regional Outlook:Geographically, the global gaffers tape market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC) and the Middle East & Africa (MEA). The global gaffers tape market is expected to witness a significant CAGR over the forecast period of 2017-2027. Moreover, APAC dominates the global gaffers tape market and the trend is expected follow the same over the forecast period due to growing construction industry in the wake of population growth, government plan for infrastructure development and urbanization. Apart from this, the ample availability of raw material such as PVC, polypropylene etc. in China is projected to fuel the demand for gaffers tape market in APAC region. North America is expected to follow APAC in gaffers tape market over the forecast period.Visit For TOC@Gaffers Tape Market - Major Players:Some of the major players identified across the globe in the Gaffers Tape market are Henkel AG & Co., KGaA, 3M Company, The Dow Chemical Company, Avery Dennison, Ashland Inc. and H.B Fuller.About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Research report explores the Meat, Poultry and Seafood Packaging Market for the forecast period, 2017-2027

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Packaging has developed itself as an important component in the modern lifestyle due to its transportation, storage, and rising consumer inclination towards convenience on the backdrop of a fast paced lifestyle. Moreover, the growing demand for healthy products have witnessed developments in terms of its consumption over the last few years and easy availability due to its effective packaging solution. Meat, poultry and seafood packaging are designed to meet all the physical requirement of the supply chain to ensure that the product arrives on time along with preserving the texture, nutritive quality and taste. Moreover, high quality printed boxes allow the usage of color and graphics to promote the product or brand and achieve marketing objectives, as eye-catching presentation is a required for sales.Meat, Poultry and Seafood Packaging- Market Segmentation:The global meat, poultry and seafood packaging market can be segmented on the basis of product type, raw material type, technology type and application type. On the basis of product type, the global meat, poultry and seafood packaging market can be segmented into rigid packaging and flexible packaging, wherein, flexible packaging is expected to grow faster than rigid packaging solution due to easy handling and carrying solution along with less required material for manufacture. Rigid packaging is further segmented into corrugated box, trays, folding carton, cans, container, sleeve & others, and flexible packaging is further segmented into plastic films, bags, pouches and others, wherein, trays is expected to grow exponentially in the global meat, poultry and seafood packaging market over the forecast period, as microwaveable tray are heat resistant and can be used safely in microwave ovens, provide maximum convenience for consumer who are able to re-heat the product in its packaging. On the basis of raw material type, the global meat, poultry and seafood packaging market can be segmented into plastic, paper and metal. On the basis of technology type, the global meat, poultry and seafood packaging market can be segmented into modified atmosphere packaging, case ready packaging, vacuum packaging, active & intelligent packaging and retort packaging, wherein, modified atmosphere packaging is expected to account for significant market value and volume share, as the air is removed from the packaging chamber and replaced with a different mixture of gases specifically formulated to preserve the food from inside. On the basis of application type, the global meat, poultry and seafood packaging can be segmented into fresh & frozen, processed and ready to eat food, wherein, ready to eat food is expected to grow significantly during the forecast period to increasing usage of convenient products.Request Report Sample@Meat, Poultry and Seafood Packaging Market - Market Dynamics:One of the significant factors contributing towards the growth of global meat, poultry and seafood packaging market is the government initiative to increase healthy eating results in rising healthy eating trends which have risen the demand for meat, fish and seafood production. Adding to this, the growing demand for small size and single portion item is expected to drive the growth of the global meat, poultry and seafood packaging market. Moreover the ever growing retail sector coupled with rising disposable income among individual is considered as another factor towards the growth of the global meat, poultry and seafood packaging market. In addition to this, manufacturer and retailers had witness a shift towards case ready packaging as it reduces the cost of labor and increase protection due to the usage of high barrier films which is expected to drive the growth of the global meat, poultry and seafood packaging market. Furthermore, the growing population and rising GDP along with improved living standard and growing demand for ready to eat meals in emerging economies is expected to drive the growth of the global meat, poultry and seafood packaging. The advantageous feature of providing longer shelf life of the product and user friendly solution in terms of storage and reseal ability is expected to fuel the demand for the global meat, poultry, and seafood packaging market. However, the consumer and the manufacturer of growing economies are still inclined towards fresh food product, is expected to hinder the growth of the global meat, poultry and seafood packaging.Meat, Poultry and Seafood Packaging Market - Regional Outlook:Geographically, the meat, poultry and seafood packaging can be segmented into North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC) and Middle East & Africa (MEA). The growth of the global meat, poultry and seafood packaging is expected to witness a growing CAGR over the forecast period of 2016-2024. North America is expected to witness a fast paced growth of meat, poultry and seafood packaging as North Americans are inclined towards convenience products. Moreover, the emerging economies such as China and India is expected to heavily contribute to the growth of the global meat, poultry and seafood packaging market due to rising disposable income and eating healthy trend. Therefore, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to gain higher market value share in the global meat, poultry and seafood packaging.Visit For TOC@Meat, Poultry and Seafood Packaging Market - Major Players:Some of the major players identified in the global meat, poultry and seafood packaging are Bemis Company Inc., AEP Industries Inc., DuPont (EI) de Nemours, Smurfit Kappa Group, Visy Industries Holdings Pty Ltd, Tri-Mach Group Inc., Printpack, Inc., Orora Packaging Australia Pty Ltd, ABBE CORRUGATED PTY. LTD and Cambridge Packing Company.About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Global Metal Cutting Tools Market Applications, Services & Trends 2017: Sandvik, Kennametal, Iscar, Kyocera, Guhring

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Metal Cutting Tools Market Research Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.The research report on the global market for Metal Cutting Tools analyzes the most significant aspects of the market, offering valid decisive data including market projections. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of the overall market has been estimated to present a clear picture of the scope for expansion. Moreover, the report also furnishes CAGR for every major segment of the global Metal Cutting Tools market mentioned in the report. The various factors deterring and propelling the growth of the market have been enumerated.Global Metal Cutting Tools market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingSandvikKennametalIscarKyoceraGuhringSumitomo ElectricOSGMitsubishi MaterialsMAPALBIG KaiserLMTAlorisNachi-FujikoshiYG-1Get sample report @A trend analysis of the market helps the buyers to grasp the gist of the market developments, keeping them abreast of contemporary norms. The extensive market research data consists of a thorough compilation of primary and sources. Personal interviews, inputs by industry experts, and surveys together form the core of primary research. Secondary research, on the other hand, lays thrust on reputable paid sources and trade journals, in addition to industry databases. A detailed analysis of the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the market has been covered by the report, with the assistance offered by market participants who operate across the major sectors of the value chain.A distinct assessment of the macro- as well as micro- economic facets, opportunities, and regulatory influences guiding the growth of the global Metal Cutting Tools market has been incorporated as well. The leading market vendors, their recent collaborations, partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions have been talked about. More importantly, Porter's Five Force analysis has been utilized to gauge the intensity of rivalry among the key market participants.Table of ContentsGlobal Metal Cutting Tools Market Research Report 20171 Metal Cutting Tools Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Metal Cutting Tools1.2 Metal Cutting Tools Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Metal Cutting Tools Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category) (2012-2022)1.4 Global Metal Cutting Tools Market by Region (2012-2022)1.4.1 Global Metal Cutting Tools Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 India Status and Prospect (2012-2022)2 Global Metal Cutting Tools Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Metal Cutting Tools Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.1 Global Metal Cutting Tools Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Metal Cutting Tools Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Metal Cutting Tools Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.3 Global Metal Cutting Tools Average Price by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.4 Manufacturers Metal Cutting Tools Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product TypeBrowse Complete Report with TOC @3 Global Metal Cutting Tools Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)3.1 Global Metal Cutting Tools Capacity and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.2 Global Metal Cutting Tools Production and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.3 Global Metal Cutting Tools Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.4 Global Metal Cutting Tools Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.5 North America Metal Cutting Tools Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.6 Europe Metal Cutting Tools Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)4 Global Metal Cutting Tools Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2012-2017)4.1 Global Metal Cutting Tools Consumption by Region (2012-2017)4.2 North America Metal Cutting Tools Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.3 Europe Metal Cutting Tools Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.4 China Metal Cutting Tools Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)5 Global Metal Cutting Tools Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type5.1 Global Metal Cutting Tools Production and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.2 Global Metal Cutting Tools Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.3 Global Metal Cutting Tools Price by Type (2012-2017)5.4 Global Metal Cutting Tools Production Growth by Type (2012-2017)List of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Metal Cutting ToolsFigure Global Metal Cutting Tools Production (K Units) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Types (Product Category) (2012-2022)Figure Global Metal Cutting Tools Production Market Share by Types (Product Category) in 2016Figure Product Picture of Hand ToolsTable Major Manufacturers of Hand ToolsFigure Product Picture of Power ToolsTable Major Manufacturers of Power ToolsFigure Global Metal Cutting Tools Consumption (K Units) by Applications (2012-2022)Figure Global Metal Cutting Tools Consumption Market Share by Applications in 2016Figure Industrial ExamplesAbout UsQYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact Us1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Global PVC Paste Market by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application 2022 - Vinnolit, Solvay, Mexichem, Hanwha

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global PVC Paste Market by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 to its huge collection of research reports.The global market for PVC Paste is influenced by a variety of factors, an elaborate assessment of which is covered in the report. The report on PVC Paste offers in-depth insights into the key market dynamics, notable trends, emerging opportunities, strategic dynamics of major players, and recent technological advancements impacting the growth of the market in various regions. The study is a reliable source of qualitative and quantitative analysis of current and emerging business risks likely to shape the competitive dynamics. The evaluation, made with the help of inputs from a wide spectrum of credible secondary sources and various primary sources, offers participants a clear picture of the trajectory of the market over the forecast period [2017  2022]. The findings will help stakeholders identify key factors fuelling the growth of prominent segments along the forecast period.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The study covers recent advances in technology and major changes in governmental policies affecting the growth of the PVC Paste in various regions. A number of emerging players and new entrants in PVC Paste are expected to increasingly benefit from these insights. The regulatory landscape in major countries help market players identify lucrative growth avenues and imminent investment pockets. The analysis further bases its findings on the recent forecasts made by several prominent public and non-profit organizations and credit rating agencies. The report also highlights recent product development initiatives of major players and takes a closer look at their investment profile. In addition, the study zeroes in on the strategies of service providers and evaluates the impact of emergence of lucrative models of delivery of these services.Table of Contents1 Market Overview 11.1 PVC Paste Introduction 11.2 Market Analysis by Type 31.2.1 Suspension Method Product 51.2.2 Emulsion Method Product 53 Global PVC Paste Market Competition, by Manufacturer 903.1 Global PVC Paste Sales and Market Share by Manufacturer 903.2 Global PVC Paste Revenue and Market Share by Manufacturer 943.3 Market Concentration Rate 973.3.1 Top 3 PVC Paste Manufacturer Market Share 973.3.2 Top 5 PVC Paste Manufacturer Market Share 974 Global PVC Paste Market Analysis by Regions 984.1 Global PVC Paste Sales, Revenue and Market Share by Regions 984.1.1 Global PVC Paste Sales by Regions (2011-2016) 994.1.2 Global PVC Paste Revenue by Regions (2011-2016) 1004.2 North America PVC Paste Sales and Growth (2011-2016) 101Browse Complete Report with TOC @5 North America PVC Paste by Countries 1045.1 North America PVC Paste Sales, Revenue and Market Share by Countries 1045.1.1 North America PVC Paste Sales by Countries (2011-2016) 1045.1.2 North America PVC Paste Revenue by Countries (2011-2016) 105List of Tables and FiguresFigure USA PVC Paste Sales and Growth Rate (2011-2016) 12Figure Canada PVC Paste Sales and Growth Rate (2011-2016) 13Figure Mexico PVC Paste Sales and Growth Rate (2011-2016) 13Figure Germany PVC Paste Sales and Growth Rate (2011-2016) 14Figure France PVC Paste Sales and Growth Rate (2011-2016) 15Figure UK PVC Paste Sales and Growth Rate (2011-2016) 16Figure Spain PVC Paste Sales and Growth Rate (2011-2016) 17Figure Norway PVC Paste Sales and Growth Rate (2011-2016) 17Figure Sweden PVC Paste Sales and Growth Rate (2011-2016) 18About UsQYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact UsBrooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Virtualized and Nonvirtualized Physical Servers Market 2017 Trend, Analysis and Forecast to 2021

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Servers are computer programs or computing devices that are integrated with client-server architecture. Enterprises use servers for sharing of data and network resources through a client-service model. Physical server is mentioned as nonvirtualized servers in the report.Nonvirtualized servers manage data and workloads across the organizations. Virtualized servers reduce the total cost of ownership, enhance agility, and provide seamless storage and sharing of data.Publisher's analysts forecast the global virtualized and nonvirtualized physical servers market to grow at a CAGR of 5.26% during the period 2017-2021.For more information about this report:Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global virtualized and nonvirtualized physical servers market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the shipment of virtualized and nonvirtualized servers and the revenue generated are considered.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:-Americas-APAC-EMEAPublisher's report, Global Virtualized and Nonvirtualized Physical Servers Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors-Cisco Systems-Dell-HPE-IBM-Lenovo-VMWareRequest Sample Copy atOther prominent vendors-StackVelocity-Citrix Systems-Fujitsu-Huawei Technologies-Inspur Technologies-MiTAC Holdings-NEC-Nutanix-Oracle-Quanta Computer-Sugon Information Industry-Super Micro Computer-WiwynnMarket driver-Increase in number of business operations-For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge-Server management issues-For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend-Increased adoption of BYOD policy-For a full, detailed list, view our reportInquire for Report atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.Pune, India
The Cards and Payments Industry in China Market: check payments, payment cards, cash transactions

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MarketResearchReports.Biz presents this most up-to-date research on "The Cards and Payments Industry in China: Emerging Trends and Opportunities to 2020".Timetrics 'The Cards and Payments Industry in China: Emerging Trends and Opportunities to 2020' report provides detailed analysis of market trends in the Chinese cards and payments industry. It provides values and volumes for a number of key performance indicators in the industry, including check payments, payment cards, cash transactions, and credit transfers during the review period (20112015).The report also analyzes various payment card markets operating in the industry, and provides detailed information on the number of cards in circulation, and transaction values and volumes during the review period and over the forecast period (20162020). It also offers information on the country's competitive landscape, including the market shares of issuers and schemes.Download Sample copy of this Report @The report brings together Timetrics research, modeling, and analysis expertise to allow banks and card issuers to identify segment dynamics and competitive advantages. The report also covers details of regulatory policy and recent changes in the regulatory structure.SummaryTimetrics 'The Cards and Payments Industry in China: Emerging Trends and Opportunities to 2020' report provides top-level market analysis, information and insights into the Chinese cards and payments industry, including:Current and forecast values for each market in the Chinese cards and payments industry, including debit card, credit and charge cards.Detailed insights into payment instruments including credit transfers, cash transactions, checks and payment cards. It also, includes an overview of the country's key alternative payment instruments.Complete Report Details @E-commerce market analysis.Analysis of various market drivers and regulations governing the Chinese cards and payments industry.Detailed analysis of strategies adopted by banks and other institutions to market debit, credit and charge cards.Comprehensive analysis of consumer attitudes and buying preferences for cards.The competitive landscape in the Chinese cards and payments industry.ScopeThis report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Chinese cards and payments industry.It provides current values for the Chinese cards and payments industry for 2015, and forecast figures to 2020.It details the different demographic, economic, infrastructural and business drivers affecting the Chinese cards and payments industry.It outlines the current regulatory framework in the industry.It details marketing strategies used by various banks and other institutions.Have Any Query? Ask Our Expert @Reasons To BuyMake strategic business decisions, using top-level historic and forecast market data, related to the Chinese cards and payments industry and each market within it.Understand the key market trends and growth opportunities in the Chinese cards and payments industry.Assess the competitive dynamics in the Chinese cards and payments industry.Gain insights into marketing strategies used for various card types in China.Gain insights into key regulations governing the Chinese cards and payments industry.Key HighlightsThe People's Bank of China the countrys central bank announced in March 2016 that it is contemplating a cap merchant on service charges on card transactions. According to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the central bank of China, merchant service charges for debit cards will be capped at 0.35%, while those on credit cards will be no more than 0.45%. Prior to this new policy, banks could charge a maximum 0.9% on card payments. The central bank of China said that the development will take effect on September 6, 2016. This would result in saving of US$1.2 billion (CNY7.4 billion) for merchants in a year. With reduction in revenue, card issuers are likely to cut card benefits for consumers, and instead look at new ways to generate revenue.The emergence of digital-only banks is likely to accelerate a shift towards electronic payments in China. WeBank which was launched in January 2015, became the country's first digital only bank, allowing consumers to conduct banking transactions entirely online and via mobile phones. WeBanks launch was followed by the launch of MYBank and Baixin Bank in June and November of 2015 respectively.The uptake of alternative payments among Chinese consumers is gaining traction due to the availability of a number of options, such as Alipay, Tenpay and PayPal. In April 2016, Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi collaborated with China UnionPay (CUP) to introduce its own m-payment service. Similarly, Chinese mobile manufacturer Huawei Technologies entered into a partnership with CUP in March 2016 to launch its m-payment service, Huawei Pay. In February 2016, Apple Pay entered the Chinese market in partnership with CUP. Following the launch of Apple Pay, South Korean company Samsung also launched its m-payment service in China in March 2016, in alliance with CUP. The entry of new alternative payment solutions such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, QuickPass and Huawei Pay is likely to intensify competition in Chinas alternative payments market.About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Contact UsState Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-621-2074Website:Email: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
In-depth analysis of The Cards and Payments Industry in Spain Market

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MarketResearchReports.Biz announces addition of new report "The Cards and Payments Industry in Spain: Emerging Trends and Opportunities to 2020" to its database.Timetrics 'The Cards and Payments Industry in Spain: Emerging Trends and Opportunities to 2020' report provides detailed analysis of market trends in Spain cards and payments industry. It provides values and volumes for a number of key performance indicators in the industry, including check payments, credit transfers, direct debits, payment cards and cash transactions during the review period (20112015).The report also analyzes various payment card markets operating in the industry and provides detailed information on the number of cards in circulation, and transaction values and volumes during the review period and over the forecast period (20162020). It also offers information on the country's competitive landscape, including market shares of issuers and schemes.Download Sample copy of this Report @The report brings together Timetrics research, modeling, and analysis expertise to allow banks and card issuers to identify segment dynamics and competitive advantages. The report also covers detailed regulatory policies, recent changes in regulatory structure and profiles of card issuers operating in the country.SummaryTimetrics 'The Cards and Payments Industry in Spain: Emerging Trends and Opportunities to 2020' report provides top-level market analysis, information and insights into Spain's cards and payments industry, including:Current and forecast values for each market in Spain cards and payments industry, including debit card, credit and charge cards.Detailed insights into payment instruments including credit transfers, cash transactions, checks, direct debits and payment cards. It also, includes an overview of the country's key alternative payment instruments.Complete Report Details @E-commerce market analysis and online payment types.Analysis of various market drivers and regulations governing Spain's cards and payments industry.Detailed analysis of strategies adopted by banks and other institutions to market debit, credit and charge cards.Comprehensive analysis of consumer attitudes and buying preferences for cards.The competitive landscape of Spain's cards and payments industry.ScopeThis report provides a comprehensive analysis of Spain's cards and payments industry.It provides current values for Spain's cards and payments industry for 2015, and forecast figures to 2020.It details the different demographic, economic, infrastructural and business drivers affecting Spain's cards and payments industry.It outlines the current regulatory framework in the industry.It details marketing strategies used by various banks and other institutions.It profiles major banks in Spain's cards and payments industry.Have Any Query? Ask Our Expert @Reasons To BuyMake strategic business decisions, using top-level historic and forecast market data, related to Spain's cards and payments industry and each market within it.Understand the key market trends and growth opportunities in Spain's cards and payments industry.Assess the competitive dynamics in Spain's cards and payments industry.Gain insights into marketing strategies used for various card types in Spain.Gain insights into key regulations governing Spain's cards and payments industry.Key HighlightsTo increase the uptake of mobile point of sale (mPOS) among small merchants, solution providers are offering terminals at lower costs. One of the latest being the introduction of mPOS solution for SMEs by domestic solution provider, SetPay in July 2015. The solution is compatible with iOS and Android phones, and comes with a chip and PIN reader which can be connected via Bluetooth. In 2013, Banco Santander partnered with a Swedish payment service provider, iZettle to enable self-employed professionals and micro merchants to accept card payments via a smart phone or tablet. This was followed by the launch of the mPOS solution by Banco Sabadell in partnership with Ingenico in the same year. The mPOS terminal was EMV-compliant and accepts contactless payments. The introduction of low-cost solutions is anticipated to encourage merchants to accept card-based payments.The emergence of digital-only banks is likely to accelerate the shift towards electronic payments in Spain. The mobile-only bank imaginBank, launched by CaixaBank in January 2016, provides banking services exclusively through mobile apps and social networks. Through the mobile app, consumers can apply for current accounts, credit cards, consumer loans; manage their personal finances; and make person-to-person (P2P) payments. The bank also offers banking services on Facebook. Users can use the imaginBank Facebook application to find out their bank balance and view recent transactions.The uptake of alternative payments among Spanish consumers is gaining traction due to the availability of a number of options such as iupay, Orange Cash, BBVA Wallet and Caixa Wallet. Banks and telecom operators are also investing to offer their customers a choice of payment options, whether in-store, at home or on the move. Most recently in January 2016, CaixaBank signed an agreement with Samsung Electronics to add Samsung Pay to its mobile payment service. Customers of CaixaBank and its subsidiary imaginBank are the first in Spain to access the Samsung Pay service. This service is accepted in all stores that accept contactless payments, with the number amounting to over 600,000 payment terminals. The launch of Samsung Pay is likely to intensify competition in Spains alternative payments market.About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Contact UsState Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-621-2074Website:Email: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Construction Tractors Global Market by Type & Scope, Analysis and Forecasts to 2019

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Construction tractor is used on the construction site for lifting and loading materials such as asphalt, dirt, snow, logs, raw materials, debris, rocks, and sand. It is classified into two types: bulldozer tractors and wheeled tractors. Bulldozer tractors, also referred to as crawler dozer or track dozers, are mainly used to push rock, debris, demolish buildings, remove trees, and clear ground. Wheeled tractors are used on the construction site for lifting and loading materials and these tractors can be easily converted to loaders with attachments such as dozer blades, buckets, and rippers.For more informationOne of the major drivers propelling market growth is the increased investment in infrastructure projects. Rapid urbanization demands for high investment for developing infrastructure such as highways, railroads, and ports, which leads to the increased demand for construction tractors.Publisher's analysts forecast the global construction tractor market to grow at a CAGR of 6.78% over the period 2014-2019.Covered in this reportThe report includes the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global construction tractor market for the period 2015-2019.Publisher's report, Global Construction Tractor Market 2015-2019, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the Americas, APAC, and EMEA; it also covers the landscape of the global construction tractor market and its growth prospects in the coming years. The report includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key regions- Americas- APAC- EMEARequest Sample CopyKey vendors- Caterpillar- Deere- Hitachi Construction Machinery- Komatsu- Volvo ConstructionOther prominent vendors- BEML- Case Construction- Doosan Infracore- Hyundai Heavy Industries- JCB- Kawasaki Construction Machinery- Liebherr- LiuGong Machinery- Rockland- Shandong Heavy Industry Group- Shantui Construction Machinery- YTO Group- ZoomlionMarket driver- Increase in real estate development- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge- Changing customer needs- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend- Growth of equipment rental business- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMake an enquiry:Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Cufflinks Global Market by Product, Scope, Growth, Analysis and Forecasts to 2019

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Covering: This report covers the growth prospects of the global cufflinks market with segmentations based on product types and retail formats. In addition to this, the report gives an overview of the global jewelry market and global accessories market. Market shares for key geographies include APAC, Europe, North America, and ROW. It also includes an insightful analysis of the leading vendors of this market such as Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Montblanc, Paul Smith, and Tiffany.Outlook of global cufflinks marketThe increasing online retailing drives the sales of cufflinks, and the market is expected to reach a CAGR of over 9.87% during the forecast period. The rise in urbanization and per capita expenditure in developing countries also contribute to market growth. For instance, according to the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation, India's total disposable personal income grew by 5.7% and reached $2,097.23 billion in 2014. This rise in GDP led to an increase in purchasing power among consumers.For more informationThe manufacturers are also offering customized cufflinks to customers such as incorporating photo and monograms, contributing to market growth.Market segmentation of global cufflinks market by product type- Premium- MassPremium cufflinks dominate the global cufflinks market in terms of revenue as they are highly priced. These cufflinks are made of precious stones, platinum, and gold. Montblanc and Tateossian are the major producers of luxury cufflinks.Segmentation of cufflinks market by retail formats and analysis- Monobrand stores- Departmental stores- Online- OthersMonobrand stores dominated the global cufflinks market in 2014. The popularity of monobrand stores is because of their international look and wide spaces of the stores, which is an important factor in attracting customers.Geographical segmentation of global cufflinks market- APAC- Europe- North America- ROWRequest Sample CopyPublisher's analysts expect Europe to dominate the global cufflinks market with a market share of around 37% during the forecast period. The increase in the number of young affluent individuals, emerging fashion trends, and innovations in the forms of designs are expected to propel market growth during the forecast period.Vendor landscape of global cufflinks marketThe level of competition in the global cufflinks market is intense as the market is highly fragmented. Market vendors compete based on product innovations, exclusivity, product differentiation, and technological design advancements. There is competition from branded and private or unbranded players. The market is highly competitive, with all players competing to gain greater market share. Intense competition, rapid advances in technology, and frequent changes in consumer preferences constitute significant risks for vendors in the market.The top-five leading vendors of the market include:- Cartier- Louis Vuitton- Montblanc- Paul Smith- TiffanyThe other prominent vendors of the market include Armenta, Burberry, Chanel, Cufflinks.com, Dolce & Gabbana, Giorgio Armani, Gucci, Hugo Boss, Ralph Lauren, Tateossian, and Tod'sMake an enquiry:Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Cost Structure & Future of Double Sided Foam Tape Sales market in Global Countries like United States, China, Europe, Japan, Southeast Asia, India with Key Companies Profile, Trends & SWOT Analysis

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A new research document with title 'Global Double Sided Foam Tape Sales Market Report 2017' covering detailed analysis, Competitive landscape, forecast and strategies. The study covers geographic analysis that includes regions like United States, China, Europe, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and important players/vendors such as TESA, SEKISUI, Scapa Group, Wida, etc. The report will help user gain market insights, future trends and growth prospects for forecast to 2022.SummaryIn this report, the global Double Sided Foam Tape market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Request a sample report @Geographically, this report split global into several key Regions, with sales (K sqm), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Double Sided Foam Tape for these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesChinaEuropeJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaGlobal Double Sided Foam Tape market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Double Sided Foam Tape sales volume, Price (USD/sqm), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players including3MTESANitto DenkoSEKISUILintecBerry PlasticsScapa GroupYem ChioIntertapeBO.MAWidaPowerbandShurtapeKK EnterpriseCAPTAINAdhesives ResearchDeWALJonson TapesZHONGSHAN CROWNSanli Adhesive ProductsZhongshan GuanchangHAOTIAN RUBBERShanghai XinguanDongguan HaixiangTESA ChinaSEKISUI ChinaYem Chio FujianCAPTAIN FujianOn the basis of product, this report displays the sales volume (K sqm), revenue (Million USD), product price (USD/sqm), market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoPE FoamUrethane FoamOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate of Double Sided Foam Tape for each application, includingDaily CommoditiesIndustry UseAutoGet customization & check discount for report @There are 16 Chapters to deeply display the Double Sided Foam Tape Market.Chapter 1, to describe Product Overview, Scope and Classification of Double Sided Foam Tape, Market by Application/End Users, Market by Region, Market Size (Value and Volume);Chapter 2, to analyze the Market Competition by Players/Suppliers, (Volume and Value) by Type, by Region, (Volume) by Application;Chapter 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, to display Sales and Growth Rate by region, Revenue and Growth Rate by region, Sales Volume and regional Market Share by Players, Sales Volume and regional Market Share by Type, Sales Volume and regional Market Share by Application;Chapter 9, to show the Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors, Double Sided Foam Tape Product Category, Application and Specification, Double Sided Foam Tape Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin, Main Business/Business Overview;Chapter 10, to show the Key Raw Materials Analysis, Proportion of Manufacturing Cost Structure, Manufacturing Process Analysis of Double Sided Foam Tape;Chapter 11, Industrial Chain Analysis, Upstream Raw Materials Sourcing, Raw Materials Sources of Double Sided Foam Tape Major Manufacturers, Downstream Buyers;Chapter 12, Marketing Strategy Analysis: Marketing Channel, Market Positioning, Distributors/Traders List;Buy this report @Chapter 13, Market Effect Factors Analysis: Technology Progress/Risk, Consumer Needs/Customer Preference Change, Economic/Political Environmental Change;Chapter 14, Sales Volume and Growth Rate Forecast, Sales Volume, Revenue and Growth Rate Forecast by Region, Sales Volume, Revenue and Price Forecast by Type, Sales Volume Forecast by Application.Chapter 15 and 16, to describe Double Sided Foam Tape Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data source;....ContinuedView Detailed Table of Content @Thanks for reading this article, you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Contact us :HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA  08837sales@htfmarketreport.com+1 (206) 317 1218
Global EMI Absorber Sheets & Tiles Sales market Forecast 2022 including Key Companies Profile, Supply, Trends, Cost Structure & SWOT Analysis

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A new research document with title 'Global EMI Absorber Sheets & Tiles Sales Market Report 2017' covering detailed analysis, Competitive landscape, forecast and strategies. The study covers geographic analysis that includes regions like United States, China, Europe, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and important players/vendors such as NEC-Tokin (KEMET), Fair-Rite, Molex,Mast Technologies, etc. The report will help user gain market insights, future trends and growth prospects for forecast to 2022.SummaryThis report studies the EMI Absorber Sheets & Tiles market status and outlook of global and major regions, from angles of players, regions, product types and end industries; this report analyzes the top players in global and major regions, and splits the EMI Absorber Sheets & Tiles market by product type and applications/end industries.Request a sample report @According to QYR study, the global revenue of EMI Absorber Sheets & Tiles was valued at 581.76 million USD in 2016, and the global revenue of EMI Absorber Sheets & Tiles is forecast to reach 758.72 million USD by the end of 2022.The major players in global market includeNEC-Tokin (KEMET)3MTDKLaird TechnologiesFair-RiteVacuumschmelzeArc TechnologiesMolexAPI DelevanLeader TechMast TechnologiesGeographically, this report is segmented into several key regions, with revenue, market share (%) and growth Rate (%) of EMI Absorber Sheets & Tiles in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanIndiaSoutheast AsiaOtherOn the basis of product, the EMI Absorber Sheets & Tiles market is primarily split intoBroadband EMI AbsorbersNarrowband EMI AbsorbersThermal PadsOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report coversCommunications ElectronicsConsumer ElectronicsAerospace & DefenseOtherGet customization & check discount for report @There are 16 Chapters to deeply display the EMI Absorber Sheets & Tiles Market.Chapter 1, to describe Product Overview, Scope and Classification of EMI Absorber Sheets & Tiles, Market by Application/End Users, Market by Region, Market Size (Value and Volume);Chapter 2, to analyze the Market Competition by Players/Suppliers, (Volume and Value) by Type, by Region, (Volume) by Application;Chapter 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, to display Sales and Growth Rate by region, Revenue and Growth Rate by region, Sales Volume and regional Market Share by Players, Sales Volume and regional Market Share by Type, Sales Volume and regional Market Share by Application;Chapter 9, to show the Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors, EMI Absorber Sheets & Tiles Product Category, Application and Specification, EMI Absorber Sheets & Tiles Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin, Main Business/Business Overview;Chapter 10, to show the Key Raw Materials Analysis, Proportion of Manufacturing Cost Structure, Manufacturing Process Analysis of EMI Absorber Sheets & Tiles;Chapter 11, Industrial Chain Analysis, Upstream Raw Materials Sourcing, Raw Materials Sources of EMI Absorber Sheets & Tiles Major Manufacturers, Downstream Buyers;Buy this report @Chapter 12, Marketing Strategy Analysis: Marketing Channel, Market Positioning,Distributors/Traders List;Chapter 13, Market Effect Factors Analysis: Technology Progress/Risk, Consumer Needs/Customer Preference Change, Economic/Political Environmental Change;Chapter 14, Sales Volume and Growth Rate Forecast, Sales Volume, Revenue and Growth Rate Forecast by Region, Sales Volume, Revenue and Price Forecast by Type, Sales Volume Forecast by Application.Chapter 15 and 16, to describe EMI Absorber Sheets & Tiles Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data source;ts & Tiles Market by Regions 5....ContinuedView Detailed Table of Content @Thanks for reading this article, you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Contact us :HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA  08837sales@htfmarketreport.com+1 (206) 317 1218
Oncology Information System Market 2017, Future Industry Research, Trends, Forecast 2022

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https://goo.gl/qwoJd3

Oncology information systems is a software that is used to manage extensive cancer patient data and oversee procedures associated with oncology care. The advantages of using oncology information systems such as cost-saving, future-proofing, and environment-friendly, has increased the pressure on healthcare organization to upgrade their procedure from paper-based to paperless systems. The global oncology information systems market was valued at $2,247 million in 2015, and is estimated to reach $3,755 million by 2022, registering a CAGR of 7.5% 2016 to 2022.For More Info, Get Sample :The global oncology information systems market is segmented based on products and services, applications, end user, and geography. Based on products and services, it is classified into software and services. Software segment is further bifurcated into patient information systems and treatment planning systems. Services are further segmented into consulting/optimization services, implementation services, and post-sale and maintenance services. Based on applications, it is categorized into radiation, medical, and surgical oncology. Based on end users, it is bifurcated into hospitals and oncology clinics, and research centers. Geographically, it is analyzed across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA.The market growth is attributed to the surge in prevalence of cancer and technological advancements in oncology information systems, and the increase in disposable income among these patients. The benefits of using oncology information systems over conventional methods of record maintenance and treatment procedures, and rise in the healthcare expenditure are expected to increase the demand for these systems, thus fueling the market growth. However, dearth of healthcare IT professionals and high costs associated with oncology information systems are expected to hamper the growth.KEY MARKET BENEFITS This report offers a detailed quantitative analysis of the current market trends from 2014 to 2022 to identify the prevailing opportunities. The market estimations provided in this report are based on comprehensive analysis of the key developments in the industry. The global market is comprehensively analyzed with respect to products and services, application, end user, and geography. In-depth analysis based on geography facilitates in analyzing the regional market to assist in strategic business planning. The development strategies adopted by key manufacturers are enlisted in the report to understand the competitive scenario of the market.Enquire About Report :KEY PLAYERS PROFILED Accuray Incorporated Bogardus Medical Systems, Inc. Cerner Corporation CureMD Corporation Elekta AB Flatiron Health, Inc. Koninklijke Philips N.V. McKesson Corporation RaySearch Laboratories AB Varian Medical Systems, Inc.KEY MARKET SEGMENTSBy Products and Services Software Patient Information Systems Treatment Planning Systems Services Consulting/Optimization Services Implementation Services Post-sale & Maintenance ServicesBy Application Radiation Oncology Medical Oncology Surgical OncologyAlso Request For Discount :By End User Hospitals and Oncology Clinics Research CentersBy Geography North America U.S. Canada Mexico Europe Germany UK France Spain Italy Rest of Europe Asia-Pacific Japan China Australia India South Korea Rest of Asia-Pacific LAMEA Brazil Republic of South Africa Saudi Arabia Rest of LAMEAThe other players of the catheters market include (companies not profiled in the report): IMPAC Medical Systems, Inc. Siemens Healthcare Epic Systems Corporation Bizmatics, Inc. Charm Health Cordata Healthcare Innovations, LLC.Table Of Content CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CHAPTER 3 MARKET OVERVIEW CHAPTER 4 ONCOLOGY INFORMATION SYSTEMS MARKET, BY PRODUCT & SERVICE CHAPTER 5 ONCOLOGY INFORMATION SYSTEMS MARKET, BY APPLICATION CHAPTER 6 ONCOLOGY INFORMATION SYSTEMS MARKET, BY END USER CHAPTER 7 ONCOLOGY INFORMATION SYSTEMS MARKET, BY GEOGRAPHY CHAPTER 8 COMPANY PROFILESAbout UsWe have a large database of quality and precise market research reports that will be very beneficial for your organization. Reports that we sell our authentic in nature and from reputed publishers, hence it can definitely help you with your growth opportunities.Research Beam will always make sure to bring most ethical and high quality reports. We value your relationship with us and look forward for a long term relation.Contact UsGlobal Head Quarters5933 NE Win Sivers Drive,#205, Portland, OR 97220United States+1 (800) 910-6452help@researchbeam.com
Pantene, Avon, Olay - Facial Moisturizer Global Sales market Research by Trends, Other Key Players, sales market Driver, Sales market Segmentation, Forecast to 2022

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A new research document with title 'Global Facial Moisturizer Sales Market Report 2017' covering detailed analysis, Competitive landscape, forecast and strategies. The study covers geographic analysis that includes regions like United States, China, Europe, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and important players/vendors such as Pantene, Avon, Olay, Estee Lauder, etc. The report will help user gain market insights, future trends and growth prospects for forecast to 2022.SummaryIn this report, the global Facial Moisturizer market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Request a sample report @Geographically, this report split global into several key Regions, with sales (K Units), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Facial Moisturizer for these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesChinaEuropeJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaGlobal Facial Moisturizer market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Facial Moisturizer sales volume, Price (USD/Unit), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingLorealPanteneLancomeAvonDoveOlayEstee LauderHead&ShoulderChristian DiorChanelAveenoGarnierSchwarzkopfMaybelineClarinsShiseidoClean&ClearNeutrogenaNatureOn the basis of product, this report displays the sales volume (K Units), revenue (Million USD), product price (USD/Unit), market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoFor Normal SkinFor Dry SkinFor Aging SkinFor Sensitive SkinFor Oily SkinOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate of Facial Moisturizer for each application, including50 Years OldIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Get customization & check discount for report @There are 16 Chapters to deeply display the Facial Moisturizer Market.Chapter 1, to describe Product Overview, Scope and Classification of Facial Moisturizer, Market by Application/End Users, Market by Region, Market Size (Value and Volume);Chapter 2, to analyze the Market Competition by Players/Suppliers, (Volume and Value) by Type, by Region, (Volume) by Application;Chapter 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, to display Sales and Growth Rate by region, Revenue and Growth Rate by region, Sales Volume and regional Market Share by Players, Sales Volume and regional Market Share by Type, Sales Volume and regional Market Share by Application;Chapter 9, to show the Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors, Facial Moisturizer Product Category, Application and Specification, Facial Moisturizer Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin, Main Business/Business Overview;Chapter 10, to show the Key Raw Materials Analysis, Proportion of Manufacturing Cost Structure, Manufacturing Process Analysis of Facial Moisturizer;Chapter 11, Industrial Chain Analysis, Upstream Raw Materials Sourcing, Raw Materials Sources of Facial Moisturizer Major Manufacturers, Downstream Buyers;Chapter 12, Marketing Strategy Analysis: Marketing Channel, Market Positioning, Distributors/Traders List;Buy this report @Chapter 13, Market Effect Factors Analysis: Technology Progress/Risk, Consumer Needs/Customer Preference Change, Economic/Political Environmental Change;Chapter 14, Sales Volume and Growth Rate Forecast, Sales Volume, Revenue and Growth Rate Forecast by Region, Sales Volume, Revenue and Price Forecast by Type, Sales Volume Forecast by Application.Chapter 15 and 16, to describe Facial Moisturizer Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data source;....ContinuedView Detailed Table of Content @Thanks for reading this article, you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Contact us :HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA  08837sales@htfmarketreport.com+1 (206) 317 1218
Atomizing Copper Powder Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type 2012-2022

COPPER, Atomizing Copper Powder,Atomizing ,Powder,REPORTSANDMARKETS,MARKET,RESEARCH,REPORT

https://www.reportsandmarkets.com/reports/emea-europe-middle-east-and-africa-atomizing-copper-powder-market-report-2017-1474423

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ACCESS FULL REPORT AND TOC:In this report, the EMEA Atomizing Copper Powder market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report split EMEA into Europe, the Middle East and Africa, With sales (K MT), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Atomizing Copper Powder for these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast)Europe: Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Benelux;Middle East: Saudi Arabia, Israel, UAE and Iran;Africa: South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria.EMEA Atomizing Copper Powder market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Atomizing Copper Powder sales volume (K MT), price (USD/MT), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingKymera InternationalPometonFukuda Metal Foil & PowderGripm Advanced MaterialsChemetPound MetGGP Metal PowderSCHLENKShanghai CNPC EnterpriseChangsung CorporationTongling Guochuan Electronic MaterialAnhui Xujing Powder New-materialMitsui KinzokuSMM GroupSAFINA MaterialsOn the basis of product, this report displays the sales volume (K MT), revenue (Million USD), product price (USD/MT), market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into400 MeshOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume (K MT), market share and growth rate of Atomizing Copper Powder for each application, includingMetallurgy IndustryChemical IndustryElectronic MaterialsDiamond ToolsOthersFor Any Queries Contact Us AtReports And Markets is part of the Algoro Research Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.Are you mastering your market? Do you know what the market potential is for your product, who the market players are and what the growth forecast is? We offer standard global, regional or country specific market research studies for almost every market you can imagine.The marketing research reports consist of market analysis with statistical and analytical information on the markets, applications, industry analysis, market shares, technology and technology shifts, important players, and the developments in the market.Do you want to know more on a specific company? Our Company Reports collection contains thousands of profiles of major industrial companies. These reports typically contain information like a company overview, business description, company history, major products and services, key facts, SWOT analysis, key employees, subsidiaries, and company locations.On ReportsAndMarkets.com you will find all the globally available market research and company reports from well-respected market research companies, all leaders in their field. Reports And Markets is totally independent and serves its customers by providing the most reliable market research available, as we understand how important this is for you.Sanjay JainManager - Partner Relations & International Marketing info@reportsandmarkets.com
Rakhibazaar.com Introduces the Most Apt Way of Sending Rakhi gifts to Delhi

www.rakhibazaar.com/brothers-rakhi-117.html

www.rakhibazaar.com

Rakhi Bazaar has introduced new range of send rakhi gifts to Delhi range. The site is helping people find exclusive rakhis and gifts online.New Delhi, India - Rakhi Bazaar has once again updated its collection of rakhi gifts for brothers. Introducing new range to send rakhi gifts to Delhi and other parts of India, the online rakhi store gives an opportunity to rejoice the celebration without any hassle.With a mission to make online rakhi sending easy and comfortable, Rakhi Bazaar provides you innumerable choices. Online shoppers not only can send rakhi gifts to Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, and Bangalore but in other countries as well. The recently launched gift combos also help them to express their emotions beautifully to their loved ones. Fulfilling all budgetary constraints, the online rakhi store makes it easy for brothers and sisters living far away from each other to send gifts and wishes online.At present, it gives an opportunity to celebrate the long-standing tradition with a dash of modern flavor. Now, with an assortment of wider than before, online rakhi and gifts delivery has become easier on Rakhi Bazaar too. Shoppers can choose from fancy rakhi, cartoon rakhi, precious stone rakhi along with gifts like flowers, chocolates, toys and more.One of the spokespersons of Rakhi Bazaar said, Since a long time back we have been planning unique gifts for rakhi festival. Our specialists researched around and came up with some of the best yet pocket-friendly ideas. We firmly believe in making Rakhi festival an unforgettable one and the latest addition is a small step in this regard.The site also makes great effort to make online shopping for each and every shopper enjoyable. With improved search facility and interactive interface and easy to click categories, it has become easier for customers to find their products. The delightful offers and discounts also make it a memorable shopping experience.Now, its a great opportunity for customers to dig out special rakhis and gifts for brothers (). The festive season has started so as Rakhi Bazaar gifts offering jaunt. The site also offers special services to send your rakhi to India or abroad.Rakhi is an annual festival and it fall on Shravana Poornima every year. This stands for brothers and sisters love which is sweet and sour, hateful and loveable all.Shopping with Rakhi Bazaar is a real fun as the site helps you explore varieties of rakhi gifts under one roof. You need not go anywhere else just to find the right rakhi or gift for your sibling. The site has also made it easier to send gifts nationally and internationally.For further reference you can visit their official site.Rakhibazaar.com is one of the most famous online rakhi stores in India. The site helps people explore a wide range of rakhi gifts for brothers and sisters. Also, it brings the most fashionable rakhis around and spoils people for choices. One can find every type listed under special category. With easy payment options and fast delivery services the site has created a niche for itself in online domain.Media Contact :-Rakhi BazaarMayur Vihar Phase 1, Pandav NagarPostal Code :- 110091City - DelhiCountry - IndiaCustomer Service No. : +91 8470001155Email - support@rakhibazaar.comWebsite :-
Carbon Fiber Strips Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2012-2022)

REPORTSANDMARKETS,Carbon Fiber Strips,Carbon ,Fiber,Strips,Chemical ,Material Reports

https://www.reportsandmarkets.com/reports/1439020-global-carbon-fiber-strips-sales-market-report-2017

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In this report, the global Carbon Fiber Strips market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report split global into several key Regions, with sales (K MT), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Carbon Fiber Strips for these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesChinaEuropeJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaACCESS FULL REPORT AND TOC:Global Carbon Fiber Strips market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Carbon Fiber Strips sales volume, Price (USD/MT), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingMersen (French)Morgan Advanced Materials plc (UK)Schunk (Germany)Helwig Carbon Products (US)The Gerken Group (Belgium)Casram (Switzerland)Fuji iJapaniTrisToyo TansoiJapaniDremel?Harbin Electric Carbon Factory (china)Donon (china)SunkiiJapaniNantong Kangda (china)Morxin (china)On the basis of product, this report displays the sales volume (K MT), revenue (Million USD), product price (USD/MT), market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoCarbon Strip 10.0mm x 0.4mm x 1000mmCarbon Strip 15.0mm x 4.0mm x 1000mmCarbon Strip 25.4mm x 0.8mm x 1000mmOtherOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate of Carbon Fiber Strips for each application, includingRadio-Controlled (RC) Planes/HelicoptersUnmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs)Stunt/Power KitesRobotsMechanical Control MechanismsFor Any Queries Contact Us AtReports And Markets is part of the Algoro Research Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.Are you mastering your market? Do you know what the market potential is for your product, who the market players are and what the growth forecast is? We offer standard global, regional or country specific market research studies for almost every market you can imagine.The marketing research reports consist of market analysis with statistical and analytical information on the markets, applications, industry analysis, market shares, technology and technology shifts, important players, and the developments in the market.Do you want to know more on a specific company? Our Company Reports collection contains thousands of profiles of major industrial companies. These reports typically contain information like a company overview, business description, company history, major products and services, key facts, SWOT analysis, key employees, subsidiaries, and company locations.On ReportsAndMarkets.com you will find all the globally available market research and company reports from well-respected market research companies, all leaders in their field. Reports And Markets is totally independent and serves its customers by providing the most reliable market research available, as we understand how important this is for you.Sanjay JainManager - Partner Relations & International Marketing info@reportsandmarkets.com Ph: +44-020-3286-9338 (UK) +1-214-377-1121 (US)
Detail Study On Alkalinity Meters Market Professional Survey Report 2017

Alkalinity ,Meters Market,REPORTSANDMARKETS,SIZE,TRENDS,ANALYSIS,STRUCTURE

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Access Full Report:This report studies Alkalinity Meters in Global market, especially in North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and India, with production, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions, from 2012 to 2016, and forecast to 2022.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringHanna InstrumentsHachYokogawaMicroLovibond...By types, the market can be split intoHandheld Alkalinity MetersDesktop Alkalinity MetersDownload Sample Copy@By Application, the market can be split intoLaboratoryIndustrialBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Check Discount Offer :Table of ContentsGlobal Alkalinity Meters Market Professional Survey Report 20171 Industry Overview of Alkalinity Meters1.1 Definition and Specifications of Alkalinity Meters1.1.1 Definition of Alkalinity Meters1.1.2 Specifications of Alkalinity Meters1.2 Classification of Alkalinity Meters1.2.1 Handheld Alkalinity Meters1.2.2 Desktop Alkalinity Meters1.3 Applications of Alkalinity Meters1.3.1 Laboratory1.3.2 Industrial1.3.3 Application 31.4 Market Segment by Regions1.4.1 North America1.4.2 China1.4.3 Europe1.4.4 Southeast Asia1.4.5 Japan1.4.6 India2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Alkalinity Meters2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Alkalinity Meters2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Alkalinity Meters2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Alkalinity Meters3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Alkalinity Meters3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Alkalinity Meters Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Alkalinity Meters Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Alkalinity Meters Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Alkalinity Meters Major Manufacturers in 20164 Global Alkalinity Meters Overall Market Overview4.1 2012-2017E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2012-2017E Global Alkalinity Meters Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2016 Alkalinity Meters Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2012-2017E Global Alkalinity Meters Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2016 Alkalinity Meters Sales Analysis (Company Segment)4.4 Sales Price Analysis4.4.1 2012-2017E Global Alkalinity Meters Sales Price4.4.2 2016 Alkalinity Meters Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment)5 Alkalinity Meters Regional Market Analysis5.1 North America Alkalinity Meters Market Analysis5.1.1 North America Alkalinity Meters Market Overview5.1.2 North America 2012-2017E Alkalinity Meters Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.1.3 North America 2012-2017E Alkalinity Meters Sales Price Analysis5.1.4 North America 2016 Alkalinity Meters Market Share Analysis5.2 China Alkalinity Meters Market Analysis5.2.1 China Alkalinity Meters Market Overview5.2.2 China 2012-2017E Alkalinity Meters Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.2.3 China 2012-2017E Alkalinity Meters Sales Price Analysis5.2.4 China 2016 Alkalinity Meters Market Share Analysis5.3 Europe Alkalinity Meters Market Analysis5.3.1 Europe Alkalinity Meters Market Overview5.3.2 Europe 2012-2017E Alkalinity Meters Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.3.3 Europe 2012-2017E Alkalinity Meters Sales Price Analysis5.3.4 Europe 2016 Alkalinity Meters Market Share Analysis5.4 Southeast Asia Alkalinity Meters Market Analysis5.4.1 Southeast Asia Alkalinity Meters Market Overview5.4.2 Southeast Asia 2012-2017E Alkalinity Meters Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.4.3 Southeast Asia 2012-2017E Alkalinity Meters Sales Price Analysis5.4.4 Southeast Asia 2016 Alkalinity Meters Market Share Analysis5.5 Japan Alkalinity Meters Market Analysis5.5.1 Japan Alkalinity Meters Market Overview5.5.2 Japan 2012-2017E Alkalinity Meters Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.5.3 Japan 2012-2017E Alkalinity Meters Sales Price Analysis5.5.4 Japan 2016 Alkalinity Meters Market Share Analysis5.6 India Alkalinity Meters Market Analysis5.6.1 India Alkalinity Meters Market Overview5.6.2 India 2012-2017E Alkalinity Meters Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.6.3 India 2012-2017E Alkalinity Meters Sales Price Analysis5.6.4 India 2016 Alkalinity Meters Market Share Analysis6 Global 2012-2017E Alkalinity Meters Segment Market Analysis (by Type)6.1 Global 2012-2017E Alkalinity Meters Sales by Type6.2 Different Types of Alkalinity Meters Product Interview Price Analysis6.3 Different Types of Alkalinity Meters Product Driving Factors Analysis6.3.1 Handheld Alkalinity Meters of Alkalinity Meters Growth Driving Factor Analysis6.3.2 Desktop Alkalinity Meters of Alkalinity Meters Growth Driving Factor Analysis7 Global 2012-2017E Alkalinity Meters Segment Market Analysis (by Application)7.1 Global 2012-2017E Alkalinity Meters Consumption by Application7.2 Different Application of Alkalinity Meters Product Interview Price Analysis7.3 Different Application of Alkalinity Meters Product Driving Factors Analysis7.3.1 Laboratory of Alkalinity Meters Growth Driving Factor Analysis7.3.2 Industrial of Alkalinity Meters Growth Driving Factor Analysis8 Major Manufacturers Analysis of Alkalinity Meters8.1 Hanna Instruments8.1.1 Company Profile8.1.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.1.2.1 Product A8.1.2.2 Product B8.1.3 Hanna Instruments 2016 Alkalinity Meters Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.1.4 Hanna Instruments 2016 Alkalinity Meters Business Region Distribution Analysis8.2 Hach8.2.1 Company Profile8.2.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.2.2.1 Product A8.2.2.2 Product B8.2.3 Hach 2016 Alkalinity Meters Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.2.4 Hach 2016 Alkalinity Meters Business Region Distribution Analysis8.3 Yokogawa8.3.1 Company Profile8.3.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.3.2.1 Product A8.3.2.2 Product B8.3.3 Yokogawa 2016 Alkalinity Meters Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.3.4 Yokogawa 2016 Alkalinity Meters Business Region Distribution Analysis8.4 Micro8.4.1 Company Profile8.4.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.4.2.1 Product A8.4.2.2 Product B8.4.3 Micro 2016 Alkalinity Meters Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.4.4 Micro 2016 Alkalinity Meters Business Region Distribution Analysis8.5 Lovibond8.5.1 Company Profile8.5.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.5.2.1 Product A8.5.2.2 Product B8.5.3 Lovibond 2016 Alkalinity Meters Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.5.4 Lovibond 2016 Alkalinity Meters Business Region Distribution Analysis9 Development Trend of Analysis of Alkalinity Meters Market9.1 Global Alkalinity Meters Market Trend Analysis9.1.1 Global 2017-2022 Alkalinity Meters Market Size (Volume and Value) Forecast9.1.2 Global 2017-2022 Alkalinity Meters Sales Price Forecast9.2 Alkalinity Meters Regional Market Trend9.2.1 North America 2017-2022 Alkalinity Meters Consumption Forecast9.2.2 China 2017-2022 Alkalinity Meters Consumption Forecast9.2.3 Europe 2017-2022 Alkalinity Meters Consumption Forecast9.2.4 Southeast Asia 2017-2022 Alkalinity Meters Consumption Forecast9.2.5 Japan 2017-2022 Alkalinity Meters Consumption Forecast9.2.6 India 2017-2022 Alkalinity Meters Consumption Forecast9.3 Alkalinity Meters Market Trend (Product Type)9.4 Alkalinity Meters Market Trend (Application)10 Alkalinity Meters Marketing Type Analysis10.1 Alkalinity Meters Regional Marketing Type Analysis10.2 Alkalinity Meters International Trade Type Analysis10.3 Traders or Distributors with Contact Information of Alkalinity Meters by Region10.4 Alkalinity Meters Supply Chain Analysis11 Consumers Analysis of Alkalinity Meters11.1 Consumer 1 Analysis11.2 Consumer 2 Analysis11.3 Consumer 3 Analysis11.4 Consumer 4 Analysisa12 Conclusion of the Global Alkalinity Meters Market Professional Survey Report 2017MethodologyAnalyst IntroductionData SourceAbout usReports And Markets is part of the Algoro Research Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.Are you mastering your market? Do you know what the market potential is for your product, who the market players are and what the growth forecast is? We offer standard global, regional or country specific market research studies for almost every market you can imagine.The marketing research reports consist of market analysis with statistical and analytical information on the markets, applications, industry analysis, market shares, technology and technology shifts, important players, and the developments in the market.Do you want to know more on a specific company? Our Company Reports collection contains thousands of profiles of major industrial companies. These reports typically contain information like a company overview, business description, company history, major products and services, key facts, SWOT analysis, key employees, subsidiaries, and company locations.On ReportsAndMarkets.com you will find all the globally available market research and company reports from well-respected market research companies, all leaders in their field. Reports And Markets is totally independent and serves its customers by providing the most reliable market research available, as we understand how important this is for you.Sanjay JainManager - Partner Relations & International Marketing info@reportsandmarkets.comOffice No: 206 Empress Mill Society Shree Nagar, Nagpur - 440015 Maharashtra India
The Insurance Industry in Cameroon Key Trends and Opportunities to 2020

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https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/enquiry/784566

Timetrics 'The Insurance Industry in Cameroon Key Trends and Opportunities to 2020' report provides a detailed analysis of Cameroonian insurance industry.It provides key performance indicators such as written premium, incurred loss, loss ratio, commissions and expenses, total assets, total investment income and retentions during the review (20112015) and forecast periods (20152020).The report also gives a comprehensive overview of Cameroonian economy and demographics, and provides detailed information on the competitive landscape in the country. It also includes the impact of natural and man-made hazards on the insurance industry.The report brings together Timetrics research, modeling and analysis expertise, giving insurers access to information on segment dynamics and competitive advantages, and profiles of insurers operating in the country. The report also includes details of insurance regulations and recent changes in the regulatory structure.Get The Sample Copy Of This Report :SummaryTimetrics 'The Insurance Industry in Cameroon, Key Trends and Opportunities to 2020' report provides in-depth market analysis, information and insights into Cameroon insurance industry, including:An overview of Cameroonian insurance industryCameroonian insurance industry's growth prospects by segment and categoryA comprehensive overview of Cameroonian economy and demographicsThe detailed competitive landscape in Cameroonian insurance industryDetailed regulatory policies of Cameroonian insurance industryOverview of distribution channels in the Cameroonian insurance industryAnalysis of natural and man-made hazards affecting the industryScopeThis report provides a comprehensive analysis of the insurance industry in Cameroon:It provides historical values for Cameroonian insurance industry for the reports 20112015 review period, and projected figures for the 20152020 forecast period.It offers a detailed analysis of the key segments in Cameroonian insurance industry, with market forecasts to 2020.It covers an exhaustive list of parameters, including written premium, incurred loss, loss ratio, combined ratio, total assets, total investment income and retentions.It profiles the top insurance companies in Cameroon, and outlines the key regulations affecting them.It covers the economy and demographics structure of Cameroon.It analyzes the distribution channels in the Cameroonian insurance industry.It analyzes the impact of natural and man-made hazards in Cameroonian insurance industry.Send an enquiry :Reasons To BuyMake strategic business decisions using in-depth historic and forecast market data related to Cameroonian insurance industry and each segment and category within it.Understand the demand-side dynamics, key market trends and growth opportunities in Cameroonian insurance industry.Assess the competitive dynamics in Cameroonian insurance industry.Identify the growth opportunities and market dynamics in key segments.Gain insights into key regulations governing Cameroonian insurance industry and their impact on companies and the industry's future.Key HighlightsThe Cameroonian insurance industry is small, underdeveloped and largely dominated by non-life insurance companies. There were 21 insurers authorized to conduct business as of 2014, of which six were life insurers and 15 were non-life insurers.Life was the second-largest segment in the industry in gross written premium terms. Factors such as the low unemployment rate and implementation of VAT accounted for its growth.A large low-income population and insufficient knowledge remain barriers for healthcare products. Community-based health insurance (CBHI) is promoted by the government and has been growing since 2005.Bad weather created a demand for index-based insurance products in the agricultural sector. For instance; area yield index insurance and crop weather index insurance are used by small-scale farmers.Cameroon is facing political instability because of Boko Haram which is impacting the countrys economy. Tourism, FDI and trade have all been affected.MRRbiz supports your business intelligence needs with over 700,000 market research reports, company profiles, data books, and regional market data sheets in its repository. Our document database is updated by the hour, which means that you always have access to fresh data spanning over 300 industries and their sub-segments.State Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948(USA-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Cameroon: Continued Expansion of Network Coverage Will Drive Telecom Service Revenue Growth

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https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/enquiry/772218

The telecommunications market in Cameroon will generate service revenue of $1.2bn in 2016. Pyramid Research expects to see overall service revenue grow at a CAGR of 10.3% over 2015-2020. Growth will be driven by the increasing consumption of mobile voice and data services. Over the next five years, operators should seize opportunities related to 3G and 4G expansion by deploying affordable bundles and OTT content to drive increasing demand for data in the market. Network vendors can benefit by positioning themselves to support operators 3G and 4G expansion plans.Key FindingsThe overall telecom service revenue in Cameroon is expected to generate $1.2bn in 2016 and is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 10.3% during 2015-2020, mainly driven by growth in mobile revenue.We expect that by 2020, 85.7% of total service revenue will come from mobile services.The top two operators, MTN Cameroon and Orange Cameroon, which both provide mobile voice and data services, will account for 70.8% of overall service revenue in 2016.Get The Sample Copy Of This Report :SynopsisCameroon: Continued Expansion of Network Coverage will Drive Telecom Service Revenue Growth provides an executive-level overview of the telecommunications market in Cameroon today, with detailed forecasts of key indicators up to 2020. It delivers deep quantitative and qualitative insight into Cameroons telecom market, analyzing key trends, evaluating near-term opportunities and assessing risk factors, based on proprietary data from Pyramid Researchs databases.The Country Intelligence Report provides in-depth analysis of the following: Regional context: Telecom market size and trends in Cameroon compared with other countries in Africa and Middle East region. Economic, demographic and political context in Cameroon. The regulatory environment and trends: a review of the regulatory setting and agenda for the next 18-24 months as well as relevant developments pertaining to spectrum licensing, national broadband plans, number portability and more. A demand profile: analysis as well as historical figures and forecasts of service revenue from the fixed telephony, fixed Internet, mobile voice and mobile data. Service evolution: a look at changes in the breakdown of overall revenue between the fixed and mobile sectors and between voice, data and video from 2013 to 2020. The competitive landscape: an examination of key trends in competition and in the performance, revenue market shares and expected moves of service providers over the next 18-24 months. In-depth sector analysis of fixed telephony, broadband, mobile voice and mobile data services: a quantitative analysis of service adoption trends by network technology and by operator, as well as of average revenue per line/subscription and service revenue through the end of the forecast period. Main opportunities: this section details the near-term opportunities for operators, vendors and investors in Cameroons telecommunications market.Send an enquiry :Reasons To BuyGain in-depth analysis of current strategies and future trends of the telecommunications market in Cameroon, service providers and key opportunities in a concise format, to build proactive and profitable growth strategies.Understand the factors behind ongoing and upcoming trends in Cameroons mobile communications, fixed telephony and broadband markets, including the evolution of service provider market shares, to align product offerings and strategies to meet customers demand.Leverage the graphical information (more than 20 charts and tables in the report based on the Pyramid Research forecast products), to gain an overview of the telecom market in Cameroon.Analysis of key telecom players in the markets and major business strategies being adopted by them, to identify the opportunities to improve the market share.Explore novel opportunities to align your product strategies and offerings to meet the requirements and succeed in the challenging telecommunications market in Cameroon.MRRbiz supports your business intelligence needs with over 700,000 market research reports, company profiles, data books, and regional market data sheets in its repository. Our document database is updated by the hour, which means that you always have access to fresh data spanning over 300 industries and their sub-segments.State Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948(USA-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Cameroon Etinde Project Panorama - Oil and Gas Upstream Analysis Report

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Cameroon Etinde Project Panorama, GlobalDatas latest release, presents a comprehensive overview of the asset. This upstream report includes detailed qualitative and quantitative information on the asset, provides a full economic assessment and reflects several parameters including (but not limited to) geological profile, asset development and specific challenges. Based on this analysis, future outlook for the asset is presented with possible trends and related scenarios identifying upside/downside potential.Scope- Overview of the asset based on an analysis of the economic indicators- Key financial indicators including Net Present Value and Internal Rate of Return- Review of factors affecting the economic outcome of the field including development overview, geology, challenges, reserves and production with qualitative perspective on of the overall assets life with GlobalDatas analysis on the assets future outlook- Detailed production profile for the asset, giving annual output rates for each commodity produced- Cash flow statements from our economic analysis of the asset including capital expenditures, operating expenditures and tax liability- Individual valuations for equity holders- Sensitivity analysis for asset value considering a range of factorsGet The Sample Copy of This report :Reasons to buy- Understand the economic and non-economic factors that affect production of an asset- Benefit from an asset valuation derived from detailed research and modeling by our analysts- Basic view of various scenarios and its effect on the asset for risk or strategy planning- Utilize the quantitative and qualitative evaluation to ascertain trends within the region to inform decision making- Identify economic trends of an asset to determine investment requirementsMRRbiz supports your business intelligence needs with over 700,000 market research reports, company profiles, data books, and regional market data sheets in its repository. Our document database is updated by the hour, which means that you always have access to fresh data spanning over 300 industries and their sub-segments.State Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948(USA-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Cameroon: 3G and 4G Rollout to Drive the Telecom Market

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Pyramid Research estimates Cameroon will generate telecom service revenue of $1.1bn in 2015. Over the next five years, we estimate total market revenue will increase at a CAGR of 11.0% in dollar terms to reach $1.9bn in 2020. The growth rate will be higher versus other countries in the region like Cote dIvoire (9.6%), DRC (9.2%) and Uganda (8.6%). This growth will be driven by mobile voice and mobile data with the 2015 launch of 3G services by MTN Cameroon and Orange Cameroon, and Camtels re-entry into the mobile market after being awarded a mobile license in 2014. Additionally, completion of the WACS submarine cable in July 2015 and government investment in Internet exchange points will boost growth in the fixed segment.Key FindingsPyramid Research expects total telecom revenue to grow at a CAGR of 11.0% during 2015-2020 to reach $1.9bn. The fixed-mobile revenue split will continue to be dominated by mobile, with mobiles share of total service revenue increasing from 80.6% in 2015 to 86.1% in 2020. Operator expansion of 3G services, MTN Cameroons launch of 4G services and Camtels re-entry into the mobile market will drive this growth.The top two operators, MTN Cameroon and MTN Orange, which provide mobile voice and data services, will account for 75.4% of overall service revenue in 2015. Operators are investing heavily in their network coverage and quality of services due to increased competition. The expected launch of mobile number portability (MNP) over the forecast period will further stimulate competition.Over the next five years, operators should seize opportunities related to 3G rollouts by providing bundled offers targeted at specific customer segments and localised content to cater to increasing data demands. Network vendors should position themselves to support operators 3G and 4G expansion plans. Smartphone vendors also have an opportunity to capitalise on a rapidly growing mobile subscriber base.Get The Sample Copy Of This Report :SynopsisCameroon: 3G and 4G Rollout to Drive the Telecom Market provides an executive-level overview of the telecommunications market in Cameroon today, with detailed forecasts of key indicators up to 2020. It delivers deep quantitative and qualitative insight into the telecom market of Cameroon, analyzing key trends, evaluating near-term opportunities and assessing risk factors, based on proprietary data from Pyramid Researchs databases.It provides in-depth analysis of the following:Cameroon in a regional context; a comparative review of market size and trends with that of other countries in the region.Economic, demographic and political context in Cameroon.The regulatory environment and trends; a review of the regulatory setting and agenda for the next 18-24 months as well as relevant developments pertaining to spectrum licensing, national broadband plans and more.A demand profile; analysis as well as forecasts and historical figures of service revenue from fixed telephony, broadband, mobile voice and data markets.Service evolution; a look at the change in the breakdown of overall revenue by fixed and mobile sectors and by voice and data in the current year as well as the end of the forecast period.An in-depth sector analysis of fixed telephony and broadband services, mobile voice and data services; for mobile, a quantitative analysis of service adoption trends by technology/platform as well as operator, average revenue per line/subscription and service revenue through the end of the forecast period.Main opportunities; this section details the near-term opportunities for operators, vendors and investors in the telecommunications market in Cameroon.Send an enquiry :ReasonsToBuyProvides an overview of the Cameroon telecoms market through a combination of quantitative and qualitative insights. The graphical information consists of more than 20 charts and tables derived from Pyramid Researchs forecast products.Build profitable growth strategies by leveraging the analysis which includes an examination of current player strategies and the future trends of the Cameroon telecommunications market.Understand the factors behind ongoing and upcoming trends in Cameroon's mobile communications, fixed telephony and broadband markets, including the evolution of service provider mobile market shares, to align product offerings and strategies to meet customer demand.Gain insights on key telecom players in the market and their strategies to grow market share.Explore novel opportunities to align your product strategies and offerings to meet customer requirements and succeed in the challenging telecommunications market in Cameroon.MRRbiz supports your business intelligence needs with over 700,000 market research reports, company profiles, data books, and regional market data sheets in its repository. Our document database is updated by the hour, which means that you always have access to fresh data spanning over 300 industries and their sub-segments.State Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948(USA-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Cameroon: 3G Licensing and New MVNO to Boost Competition and Mobile Data Revenue

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Revenue in the Cameroonian telecom market will grow over the forecast period to a total of $1.8bn by 2018, driven in part by increased mobile data consumption. The entry of a new MVNO in 2012 and the award of a third MNO license to Viettel will shake up the landscape, although the deployment of undersea cables could help Orange and MTN reduce Viettel's impact by improving the quality of their service and their mobile broadband offerings. On the fiber-optic backbone side, there are still 4,000km to be built as part of the national broadband network plan.Get The Sample Copy Of This Report :Introduction and LandscapeWe expect mobile voice service to generate 71% of total telecom revenue in Cameroon in 2018. The intensified competition from the new MVNO Set'Mobile will contribute to mobile voice revenue, which is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7% over the forecast period. However, with the recent 3G license awarded to Viettel, data services will also be an increasingly important source of revenue. Mobile data will likely be embraced by many Cameroonians, who have been waiting for 3G services for a long time. With demand for data on the rise, we anticipate that mobile data revenue will grow at a CAGR of 26% through the end of the forecast period, faster than voice, to reach $253m by 2018. Mobile broadband adoption will be the primary driver. Revenue in the fixed segment is projected to reach $282m by 2018. Growth will be mainly due to the expansion of existing WiMAX networks and the deployment of a 10,000km fiber-optic backbone cable to be completed by 2015. Moreover, the landings and technical launches of the WACS (May 2012) and the expected ACE and Main One undersea cables should reduce overall telecom tariffs, benefiting the population given that the nominal GDP per capita in 2012 was estimated to be just $1,267.MRRbiz supports your business intelligence needs with over 700,000 market research reports, company profiles, data books, and regional market data sheets in its repository. Our document database is updated by the hour, which means that you always have access to fresh data spanning over 300 industries and their sub-segments.State Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948(USA-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Radiation-hardened Electronics Market 2017 Development Trends

Reportsweb

http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW0001795678/sample

http://www.reportsweb.com/global-radiation-hardened-electronics-industry-market-research-2017

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http://www.reportsweb.com/buy&RW0001795678/buy/2600

ReportsWeb.com has announced the addition of the Global Radiation-hardened Electronics Industry Market Research 2017 The report focuses on global major leading industry players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification.In this report, we analyze the Radiation-hardened Electronics industry from two aspects. One part is about its production and the other part is about its consumption. In terms of its production, we analyze the production, revenue, gross margin of its main manufacturers and the unit price that they offer in different regions from 2012 to 2017. In terms of its consumption, we analyze the consumption volume, consumption value, sale price, import and export in different regions from 2012 to 2017. We also make a prediction of its production and consumption in coming 2017-2022.Request a Sample atAt the same time, we classify different Radiation-hardened Electronics based on their definitions. Upstream raw materials, equipment and downstream consumers analysis is also carried out. What is more, the Radiation-hardened Electronics industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed.Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and overall research conclusions are offered.Browse Complete ReportMajor Points of this report:1. To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast of the various segments and sub-segments of the global Radiation-hardened Electronics market.2. To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth. To analyze the Radiation-hardened Electronics market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porte five force analysis etc.3. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World.4. To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective.5. To provide country level analysis of the market for segment by application, product type and sub-segments.6. To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market.7. To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the global Radiation-hardened Electronics market.Get discount on report purchase atKey Point from Table of Contents:1 Industry Overview of Radiation-hardened Electronics1.1 Brief Introduction of Radiation-hardened Electronics2 Industry Chain Analysis of Radiation-hardened Electronics3 Manufacturing Technology of Radiation-hardened Electronics3.1 Development of Radiation-hardened Electronics Manufacturing Technology4Major Manufacturers Analysis of Radiation-hardened Electronics5 Global Production, Revenue and Price Analysis of Radiation-hardened Electronics by Regions, Manufacturers, Types and Applications5.1 Global Production, Revenue of Radiation-hardened Electronics by Regions 2012-20176 Global and Major Regions Capacity, Production, Revenue and Growth Rate of Radiation-hardened Electronics 2012-20177 Consumption Volume, Consumption Value, Import, Export and Sale Price Analysis of RADIATION-HARDENED ELECTRONICS by Regions 20178 Gross and Gross Margin Analysis of Radiation-hardened Electronics9 Marketing Trader or Distributor Analysis of Radiation-hardened Electronics10 Global and Chinese Economic Impact on Radiation-hardened Electronics Industry10.1 Global and Chinese Macroeconomic Environment Analysis11 Development Trend Analysis of Radiation-hardened Electronics 12 Contact information of RADIATION-HARDENED ELECTRONICS13 New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis of Radiation-hardened Electronics14 Conclusion of the Global Radiation-hardened Electronics Industry 2017 Market Research ReportPurchase Complete Report atContact Information:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. The market research industry has changed in last decade. As corporate focus has shifted to niche markets and emerging countries, a number of publishers have stepped in to fulfil these information needs. We have experienced and trained staff that helps you navigate different options and lets you choose best research solution at most effective cost.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Venezuela Crude Oil Refinery Outlook to 2022

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http://www.reportsweb.com/venezuela-crude-oil-refinery-outlook-to-2022

http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW0001881601/sample

http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW0001881601/buying

ReportsWeb.com published Crude Oil Refinery Market from its database. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market."Venezuela Crude Oil Refinery Outlook to 2022" is a comprehensive report on crude oil refinery industry in Venezuela. The report also provides details on oil refineries such as name type operational status operator apart from capacity data for the major processing units for all active and planned refineries in Venezuela for the period 2012-2022. Further the report also offers recent developments financial deals as well as latest contracts awarded in the country's oil refinery industry.For more information about this report atScope- Updated information related to all active and planned refineries in the country including operator and equity details- Information on CDU coking catalytic cracking and hydrocracking capacities by refinery in the country where available- Key mergers and acquisitions partnerships private equity and IPOs in the country's crude oil industry where available- Latest developments financial deals and awarded contracts related to crude oil refineries in the countryReasons to buy- Gain a strong understanding of the country's crude oil refining industry- Facilitate decision making on the basis of strong historic and forecast capacity data- Assess your competitor's major crude oil refining assets and their performance in the country- Analyze the latest developments financial deals and awarded contracts related to the country's crude oil refining industry- Understand the country's financial deals landscape by analyzing how competitors are financed and the mergers and partnerships that have shaped the marketRequest a sample copy atTable of Content1.1 List of Tables 31.2 List of Figures 32 Introduction 42.1 What is This Report About? 42.2 Market Definition 43 Venezuela Refining Industry 53.1 Venezuela Refining Industry Key Data 53.2 Venezuela Refining Industry Overview 53.3 Venezuela Refining Industry Total Refining Capacity 53.4 Venezuela Refining Industry Crude Distillation Unit Capacity 73.5 Venezuela Refining Industry Coking Unit Capacity 83.6 Venezuela Refining Industry Catalytic Cracking Capacity 83.7 Venezuela Refining Industry Hydrocracking Capacity 93.8 Venezuela Refining Industry Asset Details 103.8.1 Venezuela Refining Industry Active Asset Details 103.8.2 Venezuela Refining Industry Planned Asset Details 334 Recent Contracts 414.1 Detailed Contract Summary 414.1.1 Awarded Contracts 415 Financial Deals Landscape 435.1 Detailed Deal Summary 435.1.1 Acquisition 435.1.2 Debt Offerings 456 Recent Developments 466.1 Other Significant Developments 466.1.1 Aug 23 2016 Venezuela's Amuay Refinery Unit Shut Down After Valve Problem 466.1.2 Jun 11 2016 CITGO Aruba And The Aruban Government Finalized Agreement To Re-open Refinery 466.1.3 Jun 03 2016 Citgo Petroleum Plans To Begin Rehabilitation Project At Aruba Oil Refinery In August 2016 476.1.4 May 13 2016 Citgo Petroleum Aruba Government Ink Deal To Lease And Restart 235000 BPD Refinery 476.1.5 Apr 01 2016 Citgo Extends Deadline To Take Aruba Refinery Back Online 476.1.6 Mar 21 2016 Aruba Refinery To Begin Hiring Staff For Repair And Modernization Works 486.1.7 Mar 05 2016 PDVSA Reports Fire At Cardon Refinery 486.1.8 Feb 11 2016 PDVSA Provides Update On Operations At Three Refineries In Venezuela 486.1.9 Feb 03 2016 ALL Delivers Its First Cargo Shipment For Multi-billion Dollar Puerto La Cruz Refinery Project 496.1.10 Sep 25 2015 Aruba Government Signs MoU With Citgo Petroleum To Reopen Idled Refinery 497 Appendix 507.1 Abbreviations 507.2 Methodology 507.2.1 Coverage 507.2.2 Secondary Research 507.3 Contact Us 517.4 Disclaimer 51Inquire for Report atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer Bauxite Mining and our customer support Bauxite Mining is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Wireless Tower Market in Europe: MNO Regulatory Requirements and Debt Burdens Create Opportunities for Tower Companies

ReportsWeb

http://www.reportsweb.com/Wireless-Tower-Market-in-Europe:-MNO-Regulatory-Requirements-and-Debt-Burdens-Create-Opportunities-for-Tower-Companies

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ReportsWeb.com published Wireless Tower Market from its database. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market."Wireless Tower Market in Europe: MNO Regulatory Requirements and Debt Burdens Create Opportunities for Tower Companies", a new Telecom Insider Report by Publisher offers a thorough study of the wireless tower market in the European region. The first section of this report explains the major sources of wireless capacity and the different radio access nodes used to offer wireless coverage. The report then provides an assessment of the European wireless tower market with a focus on selected markets in the region. The report includes an in-depth examination of the key factors driving and inhibiting wireless tower activity in Europe. We then present case studies that analyze the wireless tower markets in the UK, Italy and Romania. The report concludes with a summary of key findings and a set of recommendations.For more information about this report:Mobile network operators (MNOs) have invested heavily in setting up wireless tower infrastructure, resulting in high financial burdens. With declining ARPS and pressure to invest in network quality and LTE roll-outs, MNOs are looking to divest their tower infrastructure in order to reduce capex and debt. This has emerged as an opportunity for third-party tower companies (towercos) in recent years.Report Scope- In Europe, a growing LTE subscriber base and the increasing adoption of mobile video traffic driven applications over LTE-enabled smartphones is providing fuel for wireless tower market growth. It is, however, also resulting in substantial pressure being placed on operators to increase the number of wireless tower sites.- Until recently, the majority of wireless tower sites were owned and managed by MNOs, however this scenario is changing due to the increase in divestments of tower infrastructure by these operators. MNOs are either selling their tower infrastructure to independent towercos or creating independent entities to manage the tower infrastructure.- There are a variety of challenges faced by the key players in the European wireless tower market, which include complex permitting processes, site acquisition, environmental regulations and lower ARPU and population density in rural areas.Request Sample Copy atReasons to buy- This report examines the wireless tower market in the European region, in order to enable new tower companies to align their product offerings. The report also provides analysis of tower market structure along with drivers and inhibitors influencing the region with a focus on the region's major markets, including France, Italy, Romania, UK, Spain, Germany and Russia among others.- Helps executives build proactive, profitable growth strategies by offering comprehensive and relevant analysis of growing opportunities in the European wireless tower market, regulatory framework, competitive environment and best practices of the existing operators.- The case studies focus on the drivers and inhibitors within three leading tower markets in the region including the telco strategies being pursued in these markets to drive business, which can be beneficial to local players or prospective market entrants.- By understanding the interests and positions of the main stakeholders in the wireless tower market (including independent tower companies, MNOs, end users and regulators), telecom professionals and operators can develop strategies and increase their participation in the growing tower market.Companies Mentioned:TelefonicaDeutsche TelekomVodafoneOrangeSFRBouyguesTelecomWindHutchisonBT, 3T-MobileCellnexFPS TowersTDSINWITArqivaWireless Infrastructure GroupTelxiusOmega TowersDeutsche FunkturmInquire for Report atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer Bauxite Mining and our customer support Bauxite Mining is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
SD-WAN Router Market 2017 by Revenue, Application, Value, Region, Product, Analysis and Forecast to 2022

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http://www.reportsweb.com/global-sd-wan-router-market-outlook-2017-2022

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ReportsWeb.com published SD-WAN Router Market from its database. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.A WAN edge router is a device that routes data packets between different locations of a WAN, giving an enterprise access to a carrier network. Also called a boundary router, it is contrasted with a core router which only sends packets within a single network. SD-WANs can work as an overlay to simplify the management of existing WAN edge routers, by lowering dependence on routing protocols. SD-WAN can also potentially be an alternative to WAN Edge routers.This report provides detailed analysis of worldwide markets for SD-WAN Router from 2011-2016, and provides extensive market forecasts (2016-2021) by region/country and subsectors. It covers the volumes, prices, historical growth and future perspectives in the SD-WAN Router market and further lays out an analysis of the factors influencing the supply/demand for SD-WAN Router, and the opportunities/challenges faced by industry participants. It also acts as an essential tool to companies active across the value chain and to the new entrants by enabling them to capitalize the opportunities and develop business strategies.For more information about this report:The report has been prepared based on the synthesis, analysis, and interpretation of information about the global SD-WAN Router market collected from specialized sources. The report covers key technological developments in the recent times and profiles leading players in the market and analyzes their key strategies. The competitive landscape section of the report provides a clear insight into the market share analysis of key industry players. The major players in the global SD-WAN Router market are Plover Bay Technologies (HK) , Cisco (USA) , Silver Peak Systems (USA) , Riverbed Technology (USA) , Talari Networks (USA) , Viptela (USA) , Aryaka Networks (USA) , Versa Networks (USA) etc.The report provides separate comprehensive analytics for the North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa and Rest of World. In this sector, global competitive landscape and supply/demand pattern of SD-WAN Router industry has been provided.Request Sample Copy atTable of ContentsPart 1. Exclusive SummaryPart 2. MethodologyPart 3. IntroductionPart 4. Market LandscapePart 5. Segmentation by TypePart 6. Segmentation by ApplicationPart 7. North America SD-WAN Router MarketPart 8. Europe SD-WAN Router MarketPart 9. Asia Pacific SD-WAN Router MarketPart 10. Market ForecastPart 11. Company ProfilesPart 12. Market DynamicsPart 13. AppendixInquire for Report atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer Bauxite Mining and our customer support Bauxite Mining is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Global Baby Food Market: Analysis By Type (Infant Formula, Baby Food), By Region, By Country: Opportunities and Forecast (2017-2022)

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Market Research Hub includes new market research report "Global Baby Food Market: Analysis By Type, By Product Type, By Region, By Country: Opportunities and Forecast (2017-2022) - By Type (Infant Formula, Baby Food), By Product Type (Prepared, Dried, Others), By Region (N. America, Europe, APAC, L. America, Middle East & Africa), By Country (US, Canada, Medico, UK, Germany, France, China, Japan, India, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Brazil)" to its huge collection of research reports.A comprehensive research report created through extensive primary research (inputs from industry experts, companies, stakeholders) and secondary research, the report aims to present the analysis of Global Baby Food Market By Type (Infant Formula and Baby Food), By Product Type (Prepared, Dried and Other), By Region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle-East and ROW) and By Country (U.S., Canada, Mexico, France, China, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, U.A.E., U.K., Germany, Japan ).Request Free Sample Report -Baby Foods are those foods which are given to babies and infants for their sustenance during the few nascent years of their lives and can be demarcated into two types comprising of Infant Formula and Baby Foods. Infant Formulas serve as a replacement of mothers milk as it emulates the nutritional attributes of a mothers milk. And, baby foods are soft minced and mashed vegetables, fruits, meats, cereals, etc. for babies consumption and are sold in the form of purees or powders (to be consumed with the addition of water) and snacks.According to Azoth Analytics research report, Global Baby Food Market: Analysis By Type, By Product Type, By Region, By Country: Opportunities and Forecast (2017-2022) - By Type (Infant Formula , Baby Food), By Product Type (Prepared, Dried, Others), By Region (N. America, Europe, APAC, L. America, Middle East & Africa), By Country (US, Canada, Medico, UK, Germany, France, China, Japan, India, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Brazil), global baby food market is anticipated to exhibit a healthy growth of over 7.01% during 2017  2022, chiefly driven by rising women employment, mounting population growth, decline in infant death rates, and increasing awareness among parents about infant nutrition in the emerging regions.Over the next five years, demand and growth for natural-based, organic/prebiotic/probiotic based and customized variants of infant formulas and baby foods is projected to display the maximum advancement owing to increasing awareness among parents of infant nutrition. Growing number of women entering workforce and rising disposable income especially in the emerging nations of Asia Pacific, like India and China is expected to further propel the market for baby foods.Regions accounting for major share of baby foods in 2016 as well as forecasted to gain major share in 2022 are Asia-Pacific, North America and Middle-East. Factors driving growth are humongous population, elevated disposable incomes, lifestyle and perceptive changes towards indulgence and the demand for niche and premiumized retail goods. Other factors backing the Global Baby Food Market is the existence of large baby food companies offering numerous varieties of baby food at competitive prices and innovative packaging, their synergical investments and R&D initiatives inclining to propel the market.Browse Full Report with TOC -The report titled, Global Baby Food Market: Analysis By Type, By Product Type, By Region, By Country: Opportunities and Forecast (2017-2022) - By Type (Infant Formula , Baby Food), By Product Type (Prepared, Dried, Others), By Region (N. America, Europe, APAC, L. America, Middle East & Africa), By Country (US, Canada, Medico, UK, Germany, France, China, Japan, India, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Brazil) has covered and analysed the potential of Global Baby Food Market and provides statistics and information on market size, shares and growth factors. The report intends to provide cutting-edge market intelligence and help decision makers take sound investment evaluation. Besides, the report also identifies and analyses the emerging trends along with major drivers, challenges and opportunities in the Global Baby Food Market. Additionally, the report also highlights market entry strategies for various companies across the globe.Scope of the ReportGlobal Market - (Actual Period: 2012-2016, Forecast Period: 2017-2022) Baby Food Market Baby Food Market- By Type (Infant Formula and Baby Food) Baby Food Market- By Product Type (Prepared, Dried and Other)Regional Markets  North America, Europe, APAC, Middle-East and RoW - (Actual Period: 2012-2016, Forecast Period: 2017-2022) Baby Food Market Baby Food Market- By Type (Infant Formula and Baby Food) Baby Food Market-By Product Type(Prepared, Dried and Other)Country Analysis - U.S., Canada, Mexico, France, China, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, U.A.E., U.K., Germany, Japan - (Actual Period: 2012-2016, Forecast Period: 2017-2022) Baby Food Market Baby Food Market- By Type (Infant Formula and Baby Food)Other Report Highlights Market Dynamics  Trends, Drivers, Challenges SWOT Analysis Porters Five Forces Analysis Supply Chain Analysis Policy and Regulatory Landscape Company Analysis  Abbott, Danone, Hipp Organic, Krafts Heinz, Hain Celestial, The Honest Co., SMA Nutrition Milk Formula, Holle GMBH, Topfer, Little Freddie Organic Baby foodEnquire about this Report -About Market Research HubMarket Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Us90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free : 866-997-4948 (US-Canada)Tel : +1-518-621-2074Email : press@marketresearchhub.comWebsite :
Drug Discovery Technologies Market Revenue and Growth Rate Report 2016 - 2024

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Global Drug Discovery Technologies Market: OverviewDue to the prevalence of several life-threatening diseases and frequent inception of new health-related issues, it is essential to discover new, advanced, efficient drugs to combat the illness. Healthcare organizations across the world are actively looking for opportunities for drug discovery, which was historically done through identification of active ingredient from traditional remedies. However, in the recent past, the field of drug discovery has evolved considerably with technologies such as mass spectrometry, NMR, micro plate readers, chemotherapy, proteomics (2DGE, two hybrid systems, isotope encoding and activity based assays), RANi (siRNA, miRNA, ddRNAi, and short hairpin RNAs), microfluidics, gel electrophoresis, protein and nucleic acid isolation, DNA and protein microarrays, and nanotechnology, which includes atomic force microscopy, nano mass spectroscopy, and dip pen nanolithography. Drug discovery process have now become more refined and accurate, as well as significantly less time consuming.View Report @It has been observed that high-throughput screening (HTS) is one of the most widely used drug discovery technologies. Through this technology, a large number of potential biological modulators are assayed against a chosen set of defined targets. HTS technology enables building a portfolio of biologically relevant compounds quickly. Advancement in HTS technology such as reliable automation, multidetector readers, imaging hardware and software, and database and pattern recognition software will lead to the increased usage of the technology in future.Drug discovery technologies play a major role in overall growth of the pharmaceutical industry because they significantly contribute to the easy introduction of blockbusters and innovative drugs. Diverse diseases such as cancer, CVD and CNS disorders such as Parkinsons and Alzheimers have generated ample opportunities in the market for drug discovery technologies, which is estimated for a healthy growth rate during the forecast period of 20162024.Global Drug Discovery Technologies Market: Trends and OpportunitiesThe market is primarily driven by rising geriatric population across the globe as people aged over 60 years are more prone to chronic diseases. The demand for efficient drugs, especially from the rising population of affluent patients, is another factor pushing the global market for drug discovery technologies. Moreover, advances in the fields of biotechnology, molecular biology, nanotechnology, and genomics in the recent past have also paved way for increased investments in the field of drug discovery. Furthermore, patent expiries of several blockbuster drugs during the forecast period are also expected to make it a lucrative market for the existing players. New pharmaceutical companies also have an opportunity to venture into the global market for drug discovery technologies through generics.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Drug Discovery Technologies Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.As drug discovery plays an important role in the drug development cycle, pharmaceutical companies focus more on drug development technologies. However, drug discovery and development requires a huge investment and takes a long time, which leads to lower profit margins for the pharmaceutical companies. Pharmaceutical manufacturers usually face an impending surge of expiring patents regarding developed drugs, exacerbating the adverse effects of the long duration of the research cycle. This could hinder the markets growth in the coming years.Global Drug Discovery Technologies Market: Region-wise OutlookGeographically, the global market for drug discovery technologies can be segmented into the regions of North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. Currently, North America is the most lucrative market due to high concentration of worlds leading pharmaceutical companies. The governments in North American countries such as the U.S. and Canada have also formulated encouraging policies for the investors to research and develop new drugs. The demand for drug discovery technologies in the region of North America also gains from high-income population, collectively promising healthy potential returns on investments due to high adoption rate of new technologies. Asia Pacific holds immense promise as a market for drug discovery technologies due to rising disposable incomes, favorable long-term government policies, and aggressive investment by pharmaceutical industry in the region, which has skilled labor at affordable cost.Companies mentioned in the research reportSome of the key players in the global drug discovery technologies market are Abbott Laboratories, Inc., Affymetrix Inc., Agilent Technologies, Inc., Bayer Healthcare AG, GE Healthcare Ltd., Albany Molecular Research Inc., Arqule Inc., Astrazeneca plc, Novartis AG, Luminex Corporation, and Molecular Discovery Ltd. Many of the key players are partnering to develop sophisticated drug discovery technologies and discover novel drugs for various ailments.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Cardiology IT Workflow Solutions Market : Professional Survey Report 2015 - 2023

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Global Cardiology IT Workflow Solutions Market: OverviewCardiology IT workflow solutions are software products that aid in upping efficiency in managing and treating cardiovascular diseases and emergencies by improving the workflow. A few of the areas in which they help are billing and inventory management, image management, data management and analysis, and integrating and scheduling with hospital networks. On account of such benefits of IT workflow solutions, savvy hospitals and healthcare institutes have been quick to adopt them, which in turn has greatly filliped the market.View Report @The global market for cardiology IT workflow solutions is broadly divided into four parts, namely echocardiography lab IT workflow solution, catheterization lab IT workflow solution, vascular lab IT workflow solution, and electrocardiography data management solution. Depending upon the kind of facility, the catheterization lab IT workflow solution segment has been again divided into single facility, tertiary facility, and multi-facility catheterization lab IT workflow solution. The other segments have been further classified depending upon the end users into physician practices and hospitals.Global Cardiology IT Workflow Solutions Market: Drivers and TrendsThe global healthcare industry has witnessed healthy growth in the past couple of years on account of innovative technologies that have helped boost efficiency through better diagnosis. This, alongside the rising number of cardiology procedures being carried out across the world, is likely to propel the global market for cardiology IT workflow solutions significantly. In fact, these days, both practicing physicians and hospitals demand cardiology IT workflow solutions, which, among other things, enable fast and hassle-free access to patient data and effective management of the nurses various activities. Alerts and messages sent instantaneously enables the cardiology department to intervene immediately. All these improve the medical procedures and processes, eventually benefitting the patients the most.High initial investments required in procuring the systems, however, prevent smaller hospitals and physician clinics from adopting these systems. This high initial capital can be offset by the growing number of cardiology procedures in the near future. Further, improvements in technology may put a downward pressure on prices, leading to the increased adoption of IT workflow solutions in the global cardiology market.Global Cardiology IT Workflow Solutions Market: Geographical OutlookOn the basis of geography, the global market for cardiology IT workflow solutions can be segmented into Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, and the Rest of the World. Among them, North America and Europe hold the leading share in the market on account of various factors. One of them is their nimbleness in lapping up breakthrough technological innovations. This, alongside a robust healthcare system, growing geriatric population, and alarming instances of cardiovascular health issues, has driven the market in the two continents.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Cardiology IT Workflow Solutions Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.The Asia Pacific market, powered by China, India, and Southeast Asian countries, is also predicted to experience strong growth due to a fast expanding middle class population, rising per capita income, increasing GDP, and various government initiatives. Other factors expected to boost the growth of the region are surging medical tourism and fast evolving medical infrastructure.Key Players Mentioned in the ReportSome of the noteworthy names in the global market for cardiology IT workflow solutions are BioMedix, Agfa Healthcare NV, CernerCorporation, Cardiac Science Corporation, Consensus Medical Systems, Inc., Emageon, Inc., GE Healthcare Ltd., Fujifilm Medical Systems, Philips Healthcare, LUMEDX Corporation, Siemens Healthcare, and Vascular Vision.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Ophthalmology Cataract Surgery Devices Market 20176 Development Forecasts for 2024

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Cataract surgery is a procedure that removes clouding of the natural lens from the eye, an intraocular lens is implanted at the same time during the procedure. A person can be diagnosed with cataract by birth, or due to chemical or physical injury. The ophthalmology cataract surgery devices are used for the treatment of cataract, without causing any damage to the cornea. Cataract surgery is a low-risk procedure with an excellent record of safety and success.View Report @According to WHO, cataract is responsible for 51% of world blindness, which represents about 20 million people in 2010. There are three types of cataracts, such as nuclear cataracts, cortical cataracts and subcapsular cataracts. Cataract is one of the most common ocular disorders worldwide and is highly prevalent in the developed countries with rise in geriatric population. For example, as per the data enlisted National Institutes of Health (NIH), cataract is one of the leading causes for blindness worldwide and around 22 million Americans suffer from cataract and it has also stated that around 50% of the population will acquire cataract by the age of 80 years. These alarming statistics about cataract further provoke continuous technological advances to increase patient outcomes. Factors such as lack of health care insurance, lack of general awareness among people about eye disorders and poor primary health care infrastructure act as a barrier for ophthalmology cataract surgery devices market.The cataract surgery devices market has been segmented by product type, by end-users and by geography. In terms of product type cataract surgery devices market is classified into intraocular lens (IOL), Ophthalmic Viscoelastic Device (OVD), Phacoemulsification Equipment and Femtosecond laser Equipment. Phacoemulsification is the most preferred cataract surgery device worldwide, whereas in developing countries such as China and India manual and sutureless Small-Incision Cataract Surgery (SICS) is preferred because of the lower costs of the procedure.The adoption of foldable IOLs and advanced IOLs in emerging countries such as China and India is at a growing stage, due to factors such as reduced access to health care resources, and difference in income levels between urban and rural areas. The use of femtosecond lasers has ensured high efficiency along without any collateral tissue damages. The use of these lasers along with computer-controlled optical delivery systems has led to precise incisions without any damage to the surrounding tissues. By End-users, the market is further segmented as Hospitals, Clinics, and Ophthalmology centers.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Ophthalmology Cataract Surgery Devices Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.Geographically, the global ophthalmology cataract surgery devices market is segmented as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Middle East & Africa. North America dominated the ophthalmology cataract surgery devices market due to large geriatric population. According to Prevent blindness American, 17% of the U.S. population aged 40 years and older are affected by cataract, indicating that 24.4 million Americans are diagnosed with cataract. According to Novartis healthcare in 2015 nearly 4 million cataract surgeries were performed in the United States each year. Market saturation and slowing economy pose as barrier to the U.S. ophthalmology cataract surgery devices market's growth. However, Asia Pacific market is expected to grow at a lucrative growth rate owing to factors such as growing population, economic development in countries such as India and China support the market growth.The major players operating in the global ophthalmology cataract surgery devices market include Carl Zeiss Meditech AG (Germany), Abbott Laboratories (U.S.), Alcon, Inc., Allergan, Inc. (U.S.), Bausch & Lomb, Inc. (U.S.), Essilor International S.A. (France), opcon Corporation (Japan), NIDEK Co., Ltd. (Japan), STAAR Surgical Company (U.S.) among other significant players worldwide.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
C2C E-commerce Market Poised for a High Growth in the Years to Come

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C2C is a category of e-commerce which allows consumers to interact with each other. This model of e-commerce facilitates transactions of products or services between consumers. In business to consumer model, a consumer approaches a business to purchase goods or services. In C2C model, the business provides a platform where consumers can sell products or services to each other. The main goal of C2C is to help buyers find sellers. This benefits both the parties. A buyer finds a product or a service which would have otherwise been hard to find and a seller benefits by selling the product or a service. The platforms for such transactions are usually provided by third parties, which act as intermediaries between the sellers and buyers. For instance, online portals such as E-bay facilitates sellers to post their goods or services online that is available for consumers to purchase. In such transactions, the third party may charge a transaction fee or commission. Products sold on these websites can be new or second hand.The proliferation of Internet services across the world and the significant increase in the use of smartphones can be attributed as major factors to facilitate the C2C e-commerce market growth. Users can sign-up on online portals providing C2C services and begin to buy or sell desired products or services.Obtain Report Details @The reduction in the costs of these products and services, due to the absence of middlemen, wholesalers and retailers involved in the transaction has further aided to the growth of global C2C e-commerce market. Moreover, sellers are no longer restricted to local regions and can reach national and international audiences. Furthermore, the need of capital investment on outlet stores is eliminated and the inventory costs are reduced. This enables the sellers to sell their products at higher prices and at the same time buyers can purchase them at comparatively cheaper prices. Also, the convenience associated with this model with regards to ample choices available to buyers is an advantage for the subscribers of such portals. The advent and increasing popularity of online payment systems is expected to fuel the growth of C2C e-commerce, globally. However, Internet frauds and identity threats, absence of payment guarantees are the hurdles in adoption of these services. C2C websites have no control over the quality of goods being sold on them as they only act as intermediaries. The possibility of illegal or pirated products sold through such websites is a threat to the C2C market.On the basis of source of revenue, the C2C e-commerce market can be broadly segmented into classifieds and auctions. Classifieds can be further segmented into products and services. In terms of geography, C2C e-commerce market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa (MEA) and Latin America. North America is one of the leading regions in the global market because of high penetration of Internet and a large number of smartphone users. Asia Pacific is expected to witness rapid growth in the coming years due to the rise in Internet and smartphone users, mainly in China and India.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the C2C E-commerce Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market@The key players in the C2C e-commerce market include eBay Inc, Amazon.com, Inc., Craigslist, Inc, Taobao.com, OLX, Inc, Quikr India Private Limited , uBid.com, Auctions.com and Airbnb, Inc.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth insights, understanding market evolution by tracking historical developments, and analyzing the present scenario and future projections based on optimistic and likely scenarios. Each research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology developments, types, applications, and the competitive landscape.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Are we Getting Closer to a New Class of Antibiotic? DeNovaMed Explain more in an Exclusive New Interview

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SMi Group release a new interview with DeNovaMed Ahead of their Keynote Address at American Superbugs SummitSMi Group are thrilled to welcome the expertise of Christopher McMaster when he presents an exclusive keynote address at Superbugs USA 2017 this fall. Dr McMaster is the President & CEO of DeNovaMed, a Halifax based biotech that specialises in the development of a new class of antibiotics.The presentation will offer insight into computer aided drug design and synthesis to ensure a library of small molecules with structures unlike any other known antibiotic versus a novel target.To date DeNovaMed have synthesized over 650 novel compounds with increasing potency. Efficacy in animal models and preclinical PK/ADME of lead compounds suggest that DeNovaMed should be able to proceed to a first in human trial with their new antibiotic class pending further studies.In the run-up to the event, SMi Group caught up with Christopher McMaster to discuss common industry hurdles and clinical progress. From the answers provided, it is apparent that a lack of antibiotic funding is still the most common pitfall in the development of new antibiotics.To be honest it all comes down to money, sorry to say. It is odd that a new cancer drug that can extend a life by 3-6 months can sell for $250,000 for those 6 months of treatment, and yet a new antibiotic that could save a life seems to not be able to have a similar price point. Either the price point for new antibiotics needs to be higher, or up-front incentives need to be in place to enable a cost structure that would enable bringing new antibiotics into the market realistic. The other option is for governments to get into the antibiotic preclinical and clinical trial business and move antibiotic development out of the private domain, however that is highly unlikely. Christopher McMaster, President & CEO, DeNovaMedThe full interview in available to read in the event download center atOther notable speakers on the agenda will include representatives from: Janssen, BARDA, CARB-X, Pfizer, MedImmune, Visterra, Contrafect, Centauri Therapeutics, UNT Health Science Center , Microbiotix and Merck.A detailed program and full speaker line-up is available atSuperbugs & Superdrugs USA will take place on 13th & 14th November at the Renaissance Woodbrigde Hotel in Iselin, New Jersey. Sponsored by Merck and Soligenix.---end ---About SMi Group:Established since 1993, the SMi Group is a global event-production company that specializes in Business-to-Business Conferences, Workshops, Masterclasses and online Communities. We create and deliver events in the Defence, Security, Energy, Utilities, Finance and Pharmaceutical industries. We pride ourselves on having access to the world's most forward thinking opinion leaders and visionaries, allowing us to bring our communities together to Learn, Engage, Share and Network. More information can be found atContact Information:For all media inquiries contact Teri Arri on Tel: +44 (0)20 7827 6162 / Email: tarri@smi-online.co.ukAddress:SMi Group LtdGround & First Floor1 Westminster Bridge RoadLondon, SE1 7XW
Aviation Cyber Security Market Technological breakthroughs By 2024

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The aviation sector is expanding as more and more people are using airline services to travel across the globe. These have caused an increase in air traffic in recent years. To solve this problem, the aviation sector has adopted information technology in its system.The sector has upgraded itself from using Commercial Off-The Shelf (COTS) technologies to processor-based hardware platforms. However, use of information technology in aviation industry has given rise to the threat of cyber attack.Cyber attack is nothing but an internet based attempt to damage information technology system of an airline company and hack critical information using malware or spyware. To tackle this issue, a cyber security solution is necessary in aviation industry.Obtain Report Details:Cyber security is the use of technology and processes to protect data, computers and networks from attack of hackers through internet. Aviation cyber security solution mainly deals with management and protection of critical IT infrastructure in Aviation sector.Aviation industry basically uses and stores a high amount of processed data. This data is mainly used in airports, airlines and air traffic management (ATM) services. The manipulation of such data by hackers can create huge damage for aviation industry. The other threat is the increased use of mobile phones, laptop and tablets among airline passengers that has increased possible complexity regarding cyber attack threats.Due to the frequency and complexity of such cyber attacks, it has become necessary for aviation sector to improve the quality of protection. Thus, airline companies are now outsourcing their cyber security responsibilities to skilled security service providers, in order to gain better protection.High initial purchase and maintenance cost is a major challenge for the adoption of aviation cyber security solution in market. Most of airports and airline companies are unable to afford aviation cyber security due to this reason. Another challenge for aviation cyber security solution is the absence of standard cyber security framework.The aviation industry consists of many stakeholders such as airports, airlines and air traffic management service provider which are mostly controlled by private players. The coordination between the stakeholders is low which results in less standardization of aviation cyber security.A collective responsibility of governments, airlines, airports and Original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in aviation industry is necessary to adopt such framework. The introduction of cloud based cyber security solution will help aviation industry to upgrade service in less time and low cost.The aviation cyber security solution find its application mainly in areas of airport management, air traffic management (ATM), airline management and air cargo management.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Aviation Cyber Security Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.The application of aviation cyber security solution is going to increase in air cargo management service in coming years as popularity of air cargo services have increased. Due to increasing cyber terrorism threat, the demand for aviation cyber security market is going to increase in developed economies such as North America and Europe.Some of the key companies providing aviation cyber security solution are Amadeus IT Group, Airbus SAS, Arinic, Boeing, IBM Corporation, Intel Corporation, Sabre Airline Solution, SITA, Symantec Corporation, Unisys Corperation, BAE Systems, Booz Allen Hamilton Inc, General Dynamics Corporation, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Northrop Grumman Corporation and Raytheon Company.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions.About TMRTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact TMR90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email:sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Fibrin Glue Market: Market Competition, Value chain Analysis and Forecast 2023

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The skill of surgery has progressed over the years. Suture like threads produced from a wide-range of substances were used prior as a mechanical closure for the wounds. Surgical adhesives and hemostats consist of five new families, which consist of fibrin glue, cyanoacrylate, polyethylene glycol polymer, albumin cross linked with glutaraldehyde and bovine collagen and thrombin. Now in the last 30 years, fibrin glue has beenused in various indications throughout all surgical fields.View Report Fibrin glue is a derivative of human blood products andanimaland it is mostly withdrawn from collective plasma and comprises of different quantities of purified and virally inactivated human proteins. Biological fibrin glue typically contains two basic components such as human thrombin and human fibrinogen, together with a fibrinolysis inhibitor to prevent fibrin degradation during the storage. The various features of fibrin glue are high surface adherence strength, high internal bond strength and capability to improve tissue regeneration and clot formation. Fibrin glue is primarily used inhemostasis, but it isalso used to heal the wounds and as biological sealants,it in different situations such as air, gastrointestinal, bile and lymphatic leaks on a larger scale. Fibrin glue reducesthe threat of infection, offersquick hemostasis on the treated part, and improves cosmesis. Fibrin glue permits the surgeon to execute the operation using minor incision and with reduced tissue trauma. It also encourages natural tissue healing. On the other hand, one of the drawback of fibrin glue is the risk of passing on of infectious organisms from human bodies to the glue. Additionally, their role in tissue engineering is recently under investigation. Recently fibrin glue has received approval from U.S. FDA and European Union for their use in spleen trauma, cardiovascular surgery and for the closure of colostomies. Tisseel, biocol, and beriplast are some of the commercially prepared fibrin sealants.The global fibrin glue market is segmented based on application and geography. The applications of fibrin glue arein cardiac surgery, pulmonary surgery, burn bleeding, vascular surgeries, orthopedic surgeries, lacerations of liver and spleen, neurosurgery, plastic surgery,general surgery and wound management. The burn bleeding and cardiac surgeriessegment dominates the fibrin glue market in applications category.Based on the geography, market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East and Africa. North America dominates the market due to higher ageing population and increasing number of surgical procedures whereas, developing countries such as India and China are expected to be fastest growing in the fibrin glue market due to high spending in health expenditure and increase in the government funding.In the recent years, the usage of fibrin glue has risen due to the factors such as increasing number of surgical procedures, rising incidences of complications such as diabetic ulcers, pressure sores chronic wounds etc. increase spending on health expenditure and increase in the ageing population. All these factors are responsible to drive the fibrin glue market. Government funding and technological advancement are known to create an opportunities for fibrin glue market.However,the rise in the minimum invasive procedures such as endoscopic and laparoscopic surgeries can hinder the growth of fibrin glue market.Some of the key players of fibrin glue market areHaemcure Corporation, Baxter International Inc., Omrix Biopharmaceutical, Inc., Vivostat A/S, CSL Behring, CryolifeInc.and Interpore Cross.Request a brochure of this report to know what opportunities will emerge in the rapidly evolving Fibrin Glue Market during 2016- 2023About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Viscosupplementation Market: Development Insight and Manufacturers Challenge Competitors

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Viscosupplementation is a minimally invasive procedure that involves injection of gel-like substances into a joint to assist the viscous properties of synovial fluid. As of now hyaluronate injections are only approved viscosupplementation treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee. Hyaluronic acid (HA) or hyaluronate is a non-sulfated glycosaminoglycan that is distributed throughout the body in epithelial, connective tissues, and neural tissues. Hyaluronic acid is observed to be an integral component of the extracellular matrix as it contributes significantly to migration and cell proliferation.Hyaluronic acid acts as a joint lubricant and elastic in nature that allows it to act as a shock absorber because of its viscous nature. Chemical modification allows Hyaluronic acid to transform into several physical forms such as soft or stiff hydrogels, non-woven meshes, flexible sheets, viscoelastic solutions, electrospun fibers, macroporous, fibrillar sponges, and nanoparticulate fluids for use in a range of preclinical and clinical applications. According to the WHO, osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease that mainly affects the articular cartilage and is related with aging. This condition affects the joints that have been continually stressed over the years including the hips, fingers, lower spine and knees. According to the WHO, globally, around 9.6% men and 18.0% women are above the age of 60 years and suffer from symptomatic osteoarthritis, which is one of the top disabling diseases in developed countries. Osteoarthritis is mostly classified in two types: primary and secondary where primary osteoarthritis occurs due to aging and wear and tear of joints and secondary osteoarthritis occurs due to an accident or obesity at an early stage.Factors driving the growth of viscosupplementation market are increasing geriatric population, increasing demand for minimally invasive surgical procedures, high patient awareness about new drugs and devices for the treatment of osteoarthritis and rising obese population globally. However, lack of safety and inefficiency of the products might hamper the market growth. The product innovation and process development is an opportunity window for market players as safety and efficacy are the major concerns of viscosupplementation products. Thus, introduction of products that helps to overcome these concerns have an opportunity to enter and establish in the global viscosupplementation market.View Report The FDA approved hyaluronates currently available in the viscosupplementation market are Hyalgan (Sanofi), Euflexxa (Ferring Pharmaceuticals, Inc.), Orthovisc (Anika Therapeutics), Supartz and Gel-One (Seikagaku Corporation), and Synvisc, Synvisc One (Genzyme) and Durolane (Q MED AB).North America is the largest viscosupplementation market globally accounting for high product demand, high awareness in the region and acceptance of high priced products. Europe experienced an economic downturn that created problem in the hyaluronic acid products market as reimbursement policies turned out to be difficult but still the premium priced products were accepted in some of the countries. Although European market is expected to review and provide essential opportunity for viscosupplementation products as the economical conditions are reviving. Asia-Pacific and RoW observed to be the emerging markets for viscosupplementation and Asia-Pacific viscosupplementation market is especially driven by economic development, healthcare facility enhancements and high demand for minimally invasive surgeries.Some of the key players of viscosupplementation market are Alcon, Inc., F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Allergan, Inc., Fidia Farmaceutici SpA, Anika Therapeutics, Inc., Ferring Pharmaceuticals, Inc., GALDERMA S.A., LifeCore Biomedical LLC, Hyaltech Ltd. and others.Request a brochure of this report to know what opportunities will emerge in the rapidly evolving Viscosupplementation Market during 2016- 2023About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
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Prof. Ian White will join his Cambridge colleague Porf. David Cardwell as future member of the Scientific Advisory Board in the Federal Cluster of Excellence MERGE---After his colleague Prof. David Cardwell visited in June 2017, Prof. Ian White, Master of the Jesus College and Head of the Research Group Photonics at Cambridge University, decided to also pay a visit to Chemnitz University of Technology. White will also become a member of the Scientific Advisory Board in the Federal Cluster of Excellence at Chemnitz University. On site, he acquainted himself with the top-level research performance of the Chemnitz Cluster of Excellence.Prof. Lothar Kroll, Speaker of the Cluster of Excellence, welcomed the guest from Cambridge and presented current research projects. With regard to a future cooperation, Kroll emphasized the chances for scientific exchange on an international level, in particular: Our objective is to bring together scientists from different areas and universities abroad in this Board, in order to give the Cluster direction from a scientists point of view. Your participation is a huge asset for further expansion of international research cooperations and the visibility of our excellent lightweight construction research as core competency of Chemnitz University of Technology.Chemnitz University President Prof. Gerd Strohmeier, who once again initiated the cooperation, was pleased by Whites visit: After we were able to acquire Prof. David Cardwell, a renowned engineer of Cambridge University, for our Scientific Advisory Board, I am glad to know that also another Cambridge top-level researcher with excellent reputation and international expertise will become a member in this important committee.Ian White was impressed by the research strength and quality at the Chemnitz Federal Cluster of Excellence: Congratulations on this major MERGE initiative. What you are doing here is very exciting. And its an honor to be here, said White to representatives of Chemnitz University. With regard to the numerous and partly international network partners from industry and economy as well as regional SMEs in the Federal Cluster of Excellence MERGE he expressly commended the possibility of investigating directly on prototypes: What you have here  and what many small companies in the UK would wish for  is the ability to build prototypes. Your technology center is excellent for that. And its great to see that your Cluster not only has this skill but also shares it with partners.With regard to his cooperation as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board White was very taken with the project: If I could help, that would be great. I would certainly like to share your excellence with my colleagues in Cambridge, facilitate links and engage ideas. He can also see a fruitful cooperation on specific projects such as smart materials: We are currently involved in smart packaging, i.e. textiles and polymers with integrated electronic function, such as RFID. Your technology would actually be perfect for it. Lothar Kroll was delighted about his guests ideas and initiatives and responded: Our areas of research are actually complementary: we need your competencies in electronics and can offer our expertise in processing.In the following weeks the accession of Prof. Ian White as member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Federal Cluster of Excellence will take place.Weitere Informationen:Quelle: idw
By Keith Humphreys | Special to The Washington Post

The most rigorous study yet of the effects of marijuana legalization has identified a disturbing result: College students with access to recreational cannabis on average earn worse grades and fail classes at a higher rate.

Economists Olivier Marie and Ulf Zolitz took advantage of a decision by Maastricht, a city in the Netherlands, to change the rules for "cannabis cafes," which legally sell recreational marijuana. Because Maastricht is close to the border of multiple European countries (Belgium, France and Germany), drug tourism was posing difficulties for the city. Hoping to address this, the city barred noncitizens of the Netherlands from buying from the cafes.

This policy change created an intriguing natural experiment at Maastricht University, because students there from neighboring countries suddenly were unable to access legal pot, while students from the Netherlands continued.

The research on more than 4,000 students, published in the Review of Economic Studies, found that those who lost access to legal marijuana showed substantial improvement in their grades. Specifically, those banned from cannabis cafes had a more than 5 percent increase in their odds of passing their courses. Low-performing students benefited even more, which the researchers noted is particularly important because these students are at high risk of dropping out. The researchers attribute their results to the students who were denied legal access to marijuana being less likely to use it and to suffer cognitive impairments (e.g., in concentration and memory) as a result.

Other studies have tried to estimate the impact of marijuana legalization by studying those U.S. states that legalized medicinal or recreational marijuana. But marijuana policy researcher Rosalie Pacula of RAND Corporation noted that the Maastricht study provide evidence that "is much better than anything done so far in the United States."

States differ in countless ways that are hard for researchers to adjust for in their data analysis, but the Maastricht study examined similar people in the same location - some of them even side by side in the same classrooms - making it easier to isolate the effect of marijuana legalization. Also, Pacula pointed out that since voters in U.S. states are the ones who approve marijuana legalization, it creates a chicken-and-egg problem for researchers (i.e. does legalization make people smoke more pot, or do pot smokers tend to vote for legalization?). This methodological problem was resolved in the Maastricht study because the marijuana policy change was imposed without input from those whom it affected.

Although this is the strongest study to date on how people are affected by marijuana legalization, no research can ultimately tell us whether legalization is a good or bad decision: That's a political question and not a scientific one. But what the Maastricht study can do is provides highly credible evidence that marijuana legalization will lead to decreased academic success - perhaps particularly so for struggling students - and that is a concern that both proponents and opponents of legalization should keep in mind.

Humphreys is a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University and is an affiliated faculty member at Stanford Law School and the Stanford Neurosciences Institute.
By Tad Sooter | Kitsap Sun

Steven Fuhr opened the gate guarding his indoor marijuana farm and stopped to point out his two largest neighbors in the business park: A wood pellet manufacturer to the right; a recently shuttered power pole mill to the left. Between the two, Fuhr could pick out a half-dozen marijuana production facilities.

Not long ago, this swath of industrial park at the Port of Shelton, in northwest Washington, was buried under piles of lumber. As the timber industry declined and forest products businesses contracted, legal marijuana producers filled the gaps.

"This has become a cannabis community, when once this entire yard was a lumber storage yard," Fuhr said.

Fuhr's Toucan Farms is one of about two dozen marijuana producers that have gravitated to the Shelton area in search of cannabis-friendly regulations, cheap land and a low cost of living. The businesses have injected a welcome jolt of employment and capital to a corner of Puget Sound staggered by lost forestry jobs.

One marijuana startup is investing more than $5 million to transform an abandoned wood products laboratory into a state-of-the-art growing operation. The Black Diamond Biotech facility will employ about 50 people. "We're bringing back a bunch of PhDs -- people with biology, horticulture, biochemistry, genetics, genomics -- that otherwise there'd be no reason for," Black Diamond co-owner Andrew Lange said.

Politicians have reluctantly embraced cannabis as a renewable resource that can help revive the region's wilted economy. Mason County Commissioner Randy Neatherlin believes marijuana farms already employ hundreds of his constituents. "That's buying Christmas presents for kids and putting food on the table," Neatherlin said. "How do I turn up my nose at that?"

Founded in the late 1800s, Shelton flourished as a logging boomtown on the shores of Oakland Bay. Simpson Lumber Company and other mills employed hundreds of laborers, while chemists experimented with synthetic materials like rayon and cellophane at the Rayonier laboratory, now home to Black Diamond.

The state's logging industry sagged in recent decades, burdened with tighter regulation and shifting market dynamics. Two lumber mills shut down in Shelton during the past two years, laying off 500 workers. The loss was deeply felt, said Lynn Longan, who leads the county's economic development council. "We have to have a diverse economy," Longan said, "and marijuana is a big part of that diversity."

The only sign of Black Diamond Biotech's arrival on the waterfront was a fresh layer of gray siding on the old Rayonier laboratory. Inside the 70,000-square-foot complex, crews have installed technologies aimed at growing high-quality marijuana as efficiently as possible. "We'd like to be able to produce a very consistent product constantly," Lange said, standing in one of eight cavernous cultivation rooms.

To accomplish that goal, Black Diamond will cultivate its cannabis in aeroponic trays beneath LED lights. The plants' roots will dangle in air, nourished by a mist from computer-controlled nozzles. Ultraviolet emitters and ozone generators will keep the environment sterile without pesticides. A glycol cooling system and pressurized atmosphere ensure no contaminated air flows in.

On a lower level, workers will clone plants and genetically sequence strains. A processing wing has the capability of drying 1,500 pounds of marijuana flower weekly.

With millions of dollars on the line, Black Diamond Biotech will not operate like the stereotypical garage grow. Lange, who designed the facility, studied bioengineering, neurobiology and genetics at the University of Iowa. His employees will be highly trained and command salaries well above average for Shelton.

"It's a good job in this area," Lange said. "To get people who are happy to be here, want to be here, get paid well and want to advance this industry -- that's what we're focused on."

Nobody can say for sure how many people have gone to work for marijuana businesses in Mason County -- marijuana employment isn't specifically tracked by the government. A medium-sized grow like Toucan Farms employs six full-time workers, but brings on more help during harvests. "We've provided many jobs," Steven Fuhr said.

The economic effect of marijuana businesses ripples beyond direct employment. Growers hire carpenters, heating and cooling contractors, plumbers, security systems specialists and electricians. They buy supplies at the Pro-Build hardware in downtown Shelton and eat at local diners.

Lange said Black Diamond has already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars locally. "We're going to bring in tens of millions in revenue," Lange said. "Millions of dollars in payroll going out, dozens of direct jobs, hundreds of indirect jobs."

Of all the Shelton residents indirectly employed by the marijuana industry, Lonita Larson may be the least likely. The seamstress said she supported marijuana legalization, but doesn't mess with it herself. "Couldn't stand the smell." Which made it all the more strange when Steve Fuhr jangled through the door of her dress shop one day and presented Larson with a mesh bag.

The bag, she learned, was used to hold marijuana plant material as it's pressed to extract rosin -- a concentrated cannabis product. Larson and her business partner now produce all of Toucan's rosin bags. "We've got plenty of work, but this is a good thing," she said. "It could become a big part of our business."

Farther east on Railroad Avenue, Mayor Gary Cronce can often be found behind the counter of his jewelry store. The 65-year-old looks back on his pot-smoking days in the 1960s as a particularly unproductive period of his life. But even Cronce joined fellow city commissioners last year in voting to relax land use regulations and let in marijuana producers like Black Diamond.

"We're in a recession," Cronce said. "We needed money."

Commissioner Neatherlin wrestled with misgivings about marijuana before deciding to support looser regulation for producers. Neatherlin was worried about marijuana businesses opening close to schools and daycares, and balked at the small amount of tax money that would filter to the local level. Now that marijuana farms are entrenched across his district, Neatherlin is more enthusiastic. When Neatherlin toured a grow for the first time, he realized he knew most of the people working there. "It's been very good to my county," he concluded. "All I can do is say 'thank you.' "
Until now, Sen. Ron Wyden has been a reliable defender of Americans' civil liberties. Unfortunately, he is a co-sponsor of a proposed bill that could impose crushing fines and, under some interpretations, long prison terms on people supporting boycotts of Israeli businesses, a direct assault on our First Amendment right to free speech. The senator should remember that his oath to defend the Constitution overrides his loyalty to Israel.

Laird Wheeler Hastay, Forest Grove

Lynch schools: To honor their historical contribution, simply rename the three schools

"Patrick and Catherine Lynch, Wood Elementary",

"Patrick and Catherine Lynch, View Elementary", and

"Catherine and Patrick Lynch, Meadows Elementary".

My guess is the Lynches' first names were not used due to the number of letters on a particular sign, or letterhead. However, there are examples where "long" names are used to honor people or identify places. For example, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (better than King Boulevard, which obviously loses something), or Oregon State University in Bend.

Scott Hayes, Forest Grove
Lynne Terry/The Oregonian/OregonLive

Wildfires scattered around Oregon

Firefighters are battling six fires, mainly in rugged, wilderness areas. They range from the Whitewater Fire in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness area to the Indian Creek fire in the Mt. Hood National Forest.

Here's a rundown:

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Indian Creek fire east of Multnomah Falls

The Indian Creek fire east of Multnomah Falls in the Mt. Hood National Forest has burned more than 70 acres. Firefighters predict that with the warmer weather coming, it could grow to hundreds of acres.

The fire, first reported July 4, is traveling up a canyon in steep, rugged terrain. It has closed the Wahtum and Indian Springs campgrounds and Tunnel Falls.

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Whitewater fire in Mt. Jefferson Wilderness Area

The Whitewater fire in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness Area has scorched nearly 170 acres, with active torching of trees and spotting. On Monday, Jefferson Park will be closed to visitors, including an 11-mile section of the Pacific Crest Trail. Other trails in the area have been closed as well.

Crews have contained 40 percent of the blaze, which was first reported July 23. It was caused by a lightning strike in June.

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Blanket Creek fire In Rogue River National Forest

The Blanket Creek fire has scorched more than 625 acres in the Rogue River National Forest. Ignited by lightning, it was first reported July 25.

It is only 3 percent contained, but with 540 fire personnel on site, officials expect complete containment by Aug. 9.

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Upper Mine fire in southeastern Oregon

The Upper Mine fire south of Fields in southeastern Oregon has seared more than 4,000 acres of grass and brush. Ignited by lightning, it was first reported July 24. The fire is 95 percent contained.

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Chetco Bar fire in Josephine County

The Chetco Bar fire has burned more than 2,400 acres in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness in Josephine County. Officials suspect it was caused by lightning. It was reported July 12.

There are 80 firefighters on the ground, working to strengthen and lengthen contingency lines. They're focusing on areas with designated escape routes and safety zones. Crews don't expect to have it contained until cooler weather comes in October.

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Ana fire in south-central Oregon

The Ana fire near Summer Lake in south-central Oregon was the first major fire this season. Reported July 8, it has seared nearly 6,000 acres, destroying a hunting cabin and an outbuilding.

The fire is now 100 percent contained.
In the early 1970s, significant attention was given over to taking peace studies forward as a distinct academic discipline - one that had a distinct applied orientation. In this connection, the first occupant of the Chair of Peace Studies at Bradford - Adam Curle - articulated a vision for the study of peace that was closely aligned to the work of Galtung. The aims and objectives of Peace Studies were broad but they included a strong value orientation that inspired both analysis as well as a call to practical action both of which were underpinned by a commitment to bring about peaceful non-violent change. This talk from Dr Simon Whitby (University of Bradford) focuses on contestedness concerning the concept of peace and on its applied orientation.

Date Wednesday, 2 August 2017 Time 1:00pm - 2:00pm Audience Public Event Category Humanities Event Type Departmental Seminar

Campus Dunedin Department National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies Location St David Seminar Room 4 Cost Free Contact Name Rosemary McBryde Contact Phone 64 3 479 4546 Contact Email peaceandconflict@otago.ac.nz

Save this event
Quinton Bortel, of Midland, was awarded a Michigan Retailers Association college scholarship for the 2017 academic year.

He is a graduate of H. H. Dow High School and will be a freshman at Alma College in the fall. He is the son of David T. Bortel, M.D., who is the owner of David T. Bortel MD, PC, an MRA-member business.

Quinton Bortel received the Target Corporation Platinum Legacy Scholarship, made possible by contributions from Target, a member of MRA.

The $1,500 scholarship is one of 14 funded this year by the Michigan Retailers Foundation, a nonprofit organization established by MRA to benefit member businesses and their employees and families. Recipients were selected by an independent panel based on academic and extracurricular achievement.
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Prosecutors say Deja Olive, 21, was driving a white 2013 Chevrolet Caprice at about 4:58 p.m. in the 1600 block of North Main Street in Normal on July 14. A 34-year-old man was hit by the car and was taken to Advocate BroMenn Regional Medical Center where he was treated for a broken leg and bruises. Several witnesses were able to provide a description of the vehicle and driver. The pedestrian was cited for improperly walking in the roadway, according to police.
CHICAGO  Illinois may have ended its historic budget impasse, but the Capitol finds itself stuck in political gridlock again, this time over school funding.

The Democratic-led Legislature and Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner are at odds over a proposal that would alter how Illinois distributes school money.

Legislators approved a required plan that re-writes the funding formula, but Rauner opposes it and says he'll send it back with changes. Democrats are unsure if they have the votes to override him and are using a procedural hold to keep it off Rauner's desk, at least until Monday.

In the meantime, Rauner has convened a costly special session, but no one has budged in the first few days. With the bill's fate undetermined, it's unclear when, or if, schools will get funding.

Why now?

The new budget requires the state to replace its long-criticized school funding formula with one that provides more adequate funding to districts based on the needs of their students. The Legislature approved a so-called "evidence-based" plan that's largely supported by experts.

However, Rauner objects to some money for Chicago Public Schools, including additional pension help. He has repeatedly said he'll use his amendatory veto powers but has declined to specify what exactly he'll do. There are legal limitations on what changes he can make.

Democrats say the plan is fair since Chicago is the only Illinois district that pays the employer portion of teacher pension costs. Republicans say the new formula means Chicago will continue to get money that it previously received as a block grant.

The first payment to schools is due Aug. 10, but without a new funding formula, they won't get anything.

The hold up

Senate President John Cullerton says he hasn't sent Rauner the bill because he wants to address concerns in a private meeting. Rauner insists the bill should first be sent to him.

"I again urge the governor to show us any changes he wants and to sit down for rational discussions now," said Cullerton, who plans to send the bill Monday.

Rauner said he expects lawmakers to hash it out before it gets to him.

"If a reasonable compromise that is in the best interest of our children isn't reached, I will move forward with my amendatory veto on Monday, as planned," he said Friday.

There currently is no viable backup or new plan in the works.

Bill's journey

If Rauner issues an amendatory veto, the bill would return to the Senate. To overrule or accept his changes, legislators would need a three-fifths majority vote.

There are enough Democrats in the Senate for that to happen without Republican votes, but not in the House.

House Republican Leader Jim Durkin says his caucus stands firmly behind Rauner, unlike with the budget, when some GOP lawmakers voted with Democrats to override Rauner's vetoes and end the impasse.

"We are united with the governor," Durkin said after emerging from a rare closed-door meeting with all Republican lawmakers and Rauner on Thursday.

If there aren't enough votes to override the governor or accept the changes, the bill would die.

New formula

Republicans and Democrats agree that way Illinois has distributed school funding for 20 years needs an overhaul, but they disagree about how to change it.

Illinois uses a complex formula that requires districts to rely heavily on local property tax revenues. That leaves a wide per-student spending gap between districts that have low and high property tax wealth.

The new calculation channels money to the neediest districts first after ensuring that no district receives less money than last school year. The plan also includes pension help for Chicago.

Impact on schools

Even if there's no new formula in place, public schools across Illinois are largely expected to open on time. But it's unknown how long they could manage.

Some districts have reserves for a few months. Others, like Chicago Public Schools, have borrowed. A spokeswoman for the nation's third-largest district said schools will stay open no matter "what it takes."

In the central Illinois community of Canton, Superintendent Rolf Sivertsen says the 2,600-student district will rely on property tax revenues and be forced to tap into $8 million in reserves, which took years to save. But he says it'll only go so far toward covering the needed $24 million annual budget. Without a solution, his school district won't be able to stay open all year.

"There's a whole range of emotions: anger, frustration, and disappointment," said Sivertsen.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill.  Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner used his veto power Tuesday to strip millions of dollars for Chicago Public Schools from a school funding overhaul, a move that could mean no districts get state money before classes begin.

The Republican removed help for Chicago Public Schools' pensions along with money the district formerly received in the form of a block grant, along with other rewrites.

"With my changes, Illinois can achieve historic education funding reform that is fair and equitable to all of Illinois' children," Rauner said at a Capitol news conference.

The bill now returns to the Democrat-controlled Legislature, where three-fifths of lawmakers in both chambers must either approve or override Rauner's changes. Both options will be difficult. If neither chamber can muster the votes, the legislation dies.

Democratic Senate President John Cullerton had urged Rauner a day earlier to "do the right thing" and sign the legislation.

"Students, parents, teachers and taxpayers have waited long enough," he said. "This is a chance to make a huge, meaningful change for Illinois."

Rauner accused Democrats of sitting on the bill to force a crisis.

A new school formula is required as part of a budget deal that legislators approved earlier this month over Rauner's veto. Without new legislation, schools won't get paid. The first payment to schools is due Aug. 10.

While schools are expected to open on time even without state funding, many districts have said they'll have to make cuts or even close their doors if lawmakers can't agree on a plan by fall.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers met during the weekend and again Monday to try to reach a compromise, including the bill's sponsor state Sen. Andy Manar, a Bunker Hill Democrat. Ahead of Rauner's news conference, he said any veto would undo decades of work and urged Rauner not to engage in a "veto showdown."

Democrats involved in the talks described the closed-door meetings Monday afternoon as "friendly" and positive, and said they asked Republicans to continue to try to reach a compromise.

But Republican state Sen. Jason Barickman ripped the talks as "a charade" and accused his Democratic counterparts of playing political games.

Democrats then lifted a hold on the legislation they passed in May and sent it to Rauner.

Lawmakers from both parties agree the 20-year-old calculation currently used to fund public schools in Illinois is unfair and forces school districts to rely heavily on property taxes, creating huge disparities in per-student funding. But lawmakers have clashed over how to fix it.

The proposed formula channels money to the neediest districts first after ensuring that no district receives less money than last school year. It also includes pension help for Chicago.

Democrats insist the pending proposal is fair since Chicago is the only Illinois district that pays the employer portion of teacher pension costs. Republicans say the new formula means Chicago will continue to get money that it previously received as a block grant. Rauner has called it a "bailout."

___

Tareen contributed from Chicago.
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On Saturday Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple Accused of Bowing to Chinese Government by Shutting Down VPN Service Apps." The report covered ExpressVPN making it public that Apple sent them a letter notifying them that their app was being removed from the App Store because it included content that is illegal in China, which is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines. Apple's CEO has made it clear that they would follow the laws of the land that do business in. Today the Chinese Government made a formal statement to help clarify the VPN matter.

Today Zhang Feng, spokesman and general engineer of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) stated that "China is tightening crackdowns on illegal internet connections, including unauthorized VPN (virtual private network) services, but the move will not affect legal users of authorized VPN technology that can help them bypass the country's 'Great Firewall.' The statement was made at a recent press conference in response to questions about China's VPN policy and business suspension of some VPN operators.

Zhang said that based on an MIIT notice released in early July, all special cable and VPN services in China need to obtain prior government approvals, otherwise they would be declared illegal and cracked down. The crackdown on unregulated Internet connections is aimed at strengthening cyberspace information security management, he added.

The new regulation is also designed to step up monitoring the Internet connection service market, maintain an orderly development of the market, and promote a healthy development of the Internet services industry, according to Zhang.

Under the regulation, those individuals and enterprises not qualified or authorized to run international telecom services will be curbed if they rent special international cables or utilize unauthorized VPNs to engage in illegal cross-border telecom services, Zhang said.

He stressed that domestic and international enterprises, as well as individuals using authorized VPNs to carry out cross-border business operations or interviews will not be affected by the rule.

It is a legal practice for some domestic trading companies or international businesses to file applications with authorized telecom firms offering international communication access services to rent special cables for their own in-house business uses, according to Zhang.

Different requirements and screening criteria are applied to different Internet businesses. For instance, for those who want to engage in Big Data, cloud computing and data center operations, the criteria will focus on how they can safeguard the interests of consumers, such as how they can provide consumers with quality, long-term, and safe services.

Apple is set to comply with China's Cyber Security Law by Partnering with 'Guizhou Cloud' to set up new Data Center.

While the issue came to light in the Apple community this past Saturday due to ExpressVPN making Apple's letter to them public, the fact is that this issue began much earlier and the government's position made clear. The video below provides an overview of the matter.







According to a Bloomberg report on July 10, "China's government has told telecommunications carriers to block individuals' access to virtual private networks by Feb. 1, people familiar with the matter said, thereby shutting a major window to the global internet.

Beijing has ordered state-run telecommunications firms, which include China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, to bar people from using VPNs, services that skirt censorship restrictions by routing web traffic abroad, the people said, asking not to be identified talking about private government directives.

The clampdown will shutter one of the main ways in which people both local and foreign still manage to access the global, unfiltered web on a daily basis. China has one of the world's most restrictive internet regimes, tightly policed by a coterie of government regulators intent on suppressing dissent to preserve social stability.

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A ban on pedestrians looking at mobile phones or texting while crossing the street will take effect in Hawaii's largest city in late October, as Honolulu becomes the first major U.S. city to pass legislation aimed at reducing injuries and deaths from "distracted walking," reports Reuters.

"The ban comes as cities around the world grapple with how to protect phone-obsessed 'smartphone zombies' from injuring themselves by stepping into traffic or running into stationary objects.

Starting Oct. 25, Honolulu pedestrians can be fined between $15 and $99, depending on the number of times police catch them looking at a phone or tablet device as they cross the street, Mayor Kirk Caldwell told reporters gathered near one of the city's busiest downtown intersections on Thursday.

'We hold the unfortunate distinction of being a major city with more pedestrians being hit in crosswalks, particularly our seniors, than almost any other city in the county,' Caldwell said. Honolulu data on distracted-walking incidents was not immediately available.

Caldwell signed the legislation on Thursday after it was passed in a 7-2 vote by the city council earlier this month, city records show."

While New Jersey has been fining their citizens with tickets for texting while walking, it's only been recently that Assemblywoman Pamela R. Lampitt proposed an official bill to stop distracted walking in the state of New Jersey. Violators of this measure would be subject to a fine of up to $50 or even a 15 day stay in jail for repeated offenses. The proposal would decrease the danger of pedestrians to themselves and others, who just can't seem to concentrate on two things at once, reports the Viral Pirate.

You can also check out a USA Today report providing some recent statistics on the matter. Will Apple come to the rescue and create an app for that? Only time will tell. But until such time, iPhone owners should be aware that more cities are working on new laws that could hurt their wallet if their caught texting while in a crosswalk.



About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or negative behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus.
Patna: Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, with his on again, off again relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, declared the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Chief Minister of Gujarat 'untouchable' in terms of his electoral successes saying no person or a political party was in a situation to challenge Modi in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

"Given the political climate of today, I don't think anyone can compete with Narendra Modi," Kumar said at a press conference, the first one since he joined hands with the NDA for the second time following the collapse of the Mahagathbandhan government in Bihar last week.

The Chief Minister, under attack from all non-NDA sides, including criticism from his own party leader Sharad Yadav, blamed the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) for the climactic downfall of the so-called Grand Alliance in the state.

"I tried to ignore the media that was brutal in the aftermath of CBI raid at the RJD leader's residence and graft charges against Tejaswi Yadav. Soon people were accusing me of being hypocritical on my zero tolerance against corruption policy. I asked Tejaswi Yadav to come clean on the accusations but he failed to do so. I waited long enough and when I did not get any response from the RJD leaders, I had no choice but to resign from the government," Kumar said.

The JD-U leader also denied RJD's allegation that this change in administration was in making for months with the help of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders.

"Only after I resigned, the BJP proposed to me to form the government. I consulted with both my legislators and the BJP legislators and we agreed to form the new government," he said.

Lalu Prasad Yadav, other members of his party, senior JD-U leader Sharad Yadav, whose existence in the party of which he was a president for many years could be coming to an end very soon, have accused Nitish Kumar of colluding with the BJP to destroy the Mahagathbandhan government in Bihar.
Iran, Iraq reach deal over Kirkuk pipeline

07/31/17

Source: Press TV

Iran says it has reached an agreement with Iraq to construct a pipeline that would export crude oil from the northern Iraqi fields of Kirkuk via Iran. The announcement was made by Iran's Petroleum Minister Bijan Zanganeh after a meeting with his visiting Iraqi counterpart Jabbar al-Luaibi.

Zanganeh also added that agreements had been reached with Iraq about an international company that will carry out a feasibility study of the project.



Iran and Iraq signed a basic agreement in February that envisaged exporting Iraqi oil through the Iranian territory - a scheme that would remove Baghdad's reliance on the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to export its oil through a pipeline to Turkey.



This came against the backdrop of a long-standing dispute between Baghdad and the KRG over a scheme to pipe Iraq's oil from Kirkuk to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.



The flow of the pipeline was interrupted for several months last year as the Iraqi government disagreed with the Kurds on their share of the national oil revenue and budget, Reuters wrote in a report on Iran-Iraq agreement.



Zanganeh further emphasized that Iran would begin exporting gas to the Iraqi city of Basra in the coming months.



He said there had been some problems in receiving payments for current gas exports to Iraq via banks and that Iran was receiving cash payments.

Iran started a much-awaited project to export 7 to 8 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) of natural gas to Iraq's capital Baghdad in June. The exports are expected to reach as high as 35 mcm/d in the near future.



Gas exports to Iraq - which are meant to address the country's acute electricity shortfalls - started after two years of negotiations between Tehran and Baghdad.



Iran and Iraq initially signed an agreement in 2013 based on which the Islamic Republic would export natural gas to power stations around Baghdad through a 270-kilometer pipeline.



Iran has also signed another contract to export around 50 mcm/d of gas to Iraq's southern port city of Basra.



Once the Basra pipe is made operational, Iraq's total gas imports from Iran would reach around 80 mcm/d.
Iran Inks Rail Deal Worth 2.5 Billion Euros With Russia

07/31/17

Source: Tehran Times

TEHRAN- Iran and Russia signed a 2.5-billion Euro deal on joint manufacturing of passenger and cargo wagons in Iran, IRIB reported. The deal was inked between Industrial Development and Renovation Organization of Iran (IDRO) and Russia's largest manufacturer of locomotives and rail equipment, Transmashholding, in Tehran on Monday.



photo by Islamic Republic News Agency

Iranian Industry, Mining, and Trade Minister Mohammadreza Nematzadeh and Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi besides Russian Ambassador to Tehran Levan Dzhagaryan were present in the signing ceremony.



The two sides had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in this regard during the visit of an Iranian delegation led by IRDO Chairman Mansour Moazzami to Moscow in late March.



During the signing ceremony, Moazzami said a joint company will be established by the Iranian and Russian sides, in a way that its shares will be held 80 percent by Russia and 20 percent by Iran. The Russian side will finance the project totally, he noted.



Iran needs 8,000-10,000 wagons annually, he said, adding that cooperation with Russia in this area is an opportunity for both countries.
Corruption Verdicts Seen As Warning To Former Iranian President Ahmadinejad

07/31/17

By Frud Bezhan, RFE/RL



Former Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad

(source: frontpage of Iranian daily Abrar Eqtesadi)

Mahmud Ahmadinejad was no stranger to controversy during his two terms as Iran's president. Now he faces possible sentencing for his alleged mishandling of billions of dollars during his time in office.



But following news that multiple verdicts have been issued against the former president, analysts looking at the murky legal process suggest that the development is intended as a warning for Ahmadinejad to rein in his criticism of the country's clerical establishment.



"This is not simply a legal procedure but a political stick that can be wielded over Ahmadinejad to say, 'if you really challenge the system, then we have complete control and can take away your freedom,'" says Scott Lucas, an Iran specialist at Birmingham University in Britain and editor of the EA World View website.



Fayaz Shojaie, the public prosecutor at Iran's Supreme Audit Court, told the Etemad newspaper in an interview published on July 30 that the court had issued seven verdicts against Ahmadinejad. The Supreme Audit Court falls under the supervision of parliament, and it is unclear if Ahmadinejad was formally tried by the court and is now facing sentencing or whether the verdicts should be viewed as recommendations to be followed up by parliament, which would be more in keeping with the court's role.

Fall-Out

Ahmadinejad, who served as president from 2005 to 2013, has clashed with and fallen out of favor with the establishment since leaving office. His administration is frequently tied to allegations of corruption and is accused by detractors of mismanaging the economy.



He registered to run in the May presidential election against the wishes of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He was eventually disqualified by the powerful Guardians Council, half of whose members are chosen directly by the supreme leader.



His former vice president and close aide, Hamid Baghaei, was sent to prison in 2015 on unidentified charges. Baghaei was again behind bars over corruption allegations from July 9 of this year until his release on bail on July 26.



In unprecedented criticism of the authorities, Baghaei accused the Judiciary of being "liars" and condemned the treatment of inmates in Iranian prisoners. The Judiciary, backed by the supreme leader, is an all-powerful institution, often acting against opponents and critics of the establishment.





Ahmadinejad (L) speaking with his former VP and close aide Hamid Baghaei

(file photo)

Ahmadinejad, who greeted Baghaei outside the prison, described his close ally's detention as "illegal" and a "great cruelty."



Lucas says the timing of the court's verdicts against Ahmadinejad were not a coincidence, and that the comments from his former vice president, Baghaei, had "crossed a red line."



"Ahmadinejad is more of an annoyance than a threat," Lucas says, although he notes the former leader's criticism has taken on "greater significance" in the current fractious political scene.



Iran's hard-line conservative camp, with which Ahmadinejad used to be allied, are deeply divided and were beaten convincingly by reformists and moderates in the 2016 parliamentary elections and May's presidential vote.Ahmadinejad's criticism and his political ambitions are complicating efforts to unite the hard-line camp, Scott says.

Corruption Allegations

Ahmadinejad has long been dogged by claims of corruption and economic mismanagement. The Judiciary claims that it has a pending case against him, but details have never been released and no court proceedings have taken place.



The Supreme Audit Court issued seven verdicts against Ahmadinejad, five of them related to revenues from oil, the country's main export. The two other verdicts were not disclosed.



The court said it was up to parliament to decide whether to bring charges against Ahmadinejad and sentence him.



In one case, Ahmadinejad was found guilty of illegally allocating around $2 billion from the national treasury earmarked for paying cash subsidies to citizens. The government replaced food and fuel subsidies with cash payments in 2010, a move credited with compounding the economic crisis in the Islamic republic.



The court also found Ahmadinejad guilty of spending millions of dollars on gasoline subsidies, saying the move was unlawful because it only benefitted a segment of society.



Ahmadinejad was also found guilty of unlawfully allocating funds to the Iranian Red Crescent, a Tehran-based NGO that has been accused of smuggling intelligence agents and weapons to other countries.



Another charge, which was not explained, issued a verdict against Ahmadinejad over the case of Babak Zanjani, one of Iran's richest men, who was arrested in 2013 and is accused of stealing more than $2 billion from the government through crooked oil sales he made during Ahmadinejad's time in office. He was convicted of massive embezzlement and sentenced to death in 2015.



During Ahmadinejad's time in office Zanjani was considered something of a hero because of his ability to help Iran evade international sanctions and sell its oil abroad. But he was arrested soon after current President Hassan Rohani assumed office.



About the author:

Frud Bezhan covers Afghanistan and the broader South Asia and Middle East region. Send story tips to bezhanf@rferl.org

Copyright (c) 2017 RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org
The Controller and Accountant-General (CAG), Eugene Ofosuhene, has warned Heads of Departments and Agencies in the public sector to validate their employees before August or risk forfeiting their salaries.



CAG, on a monthly basis pays the salaries of over 500,000 employees across the country.



The caution follows governments decision to upgrade workers onto the Electronic Salary Payment Voucher (ESPV) in a bid to ensure prudent financial management.



At a stakeholders engagement on ESPV in Accra, the CAG emphasized that: We will stop salaries of HoDs and their staff for non-validation with effect from August 2017.



For 2017, HoDs who fail to do the validation of their staff, their salaries will be frozen and the officers who are not validated will have their salaries frozen that is the message. As we move into next months salary, it will be rigidly applied; no validation, no pay, Mr. Ofosuhene said.



The ESPV was rolled out in 2014 after several months of stakeholder engagements and sensitization.



The truth is that if all stakeholders collaborate and play their respective roles well, the issue of ghost names and unearned salaries would be a thing of the past. It is certainly a very good initiative and the huge investments made in it cannot be made to go waste, he said.



The objective of the meeting, the CAG explained was to re-orient Heads of Department and Unions on the importance of ESPV, bring to the fore challenges threatening the ESPV and also to accord Heads of MDAs and other stakeholders to seek clarification on issues pertaining to ESPV and Payroll Administration generally.

Source: B&FT









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Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta says the ailing economy the Nana Addo-led government inherited from the previous Mahama-led government is bouncing back following prudent policies being pursued by the current administration.



He noted that, macro-indicators for the first half of the year are promising.



Progressively, confidence is being restored in the economy and we are hopeful that it will be sustained. The macro-indicators for the first half of the year are pointing in the right direction. We replaced the 17.5% standard rate to a 3% flat rate. We reduced the special petroleum tax from 17.5 to 15% and abolished duties on spare parts, he said.



Presenting the 2017 budget review to Parliament Monday, Ken Ofori-Atta however noted that, The deficit on commitment basis is now on 10.9%, up from the previous 10.3%. In recent years, the country accumulated high debts; our debt stock increased to GhC122bn that is 1154%. We inherited a weak economy, characterized by high fiscal deficits.

Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/ Twitter: @Washman5/ Instagram: Washman007









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Over 200 delegates from Ghana and the United Kingdom have recently attended a 2-day trade and investment forum. The objective of the forum was to showcase Ghana and her business opportunities as a continuing re-energized and dynamic Sub Saharan African business partner.



The forum highlighted the renewed interest in Ghana by British businesses and investors.



Organized by the UK- Ghana Chamber of Commerce (UKGCC) in partnership with the Developing Markets Association (DMA), the forum attracted top government officials from Ghana like the Ghanaian High Commissioner to the UK, Papa Owusu - Ankomah, Ghanas Senior Minister, Hon. Yaw Osafo-Marfo and the Prime Ministers Trade Envoy to Ghana, Hon. Adam Afriye. It was the forth in series but the first with Ghanas new government.



A number of specific investment sectors including railways, energy and infrastructure were discussed at the forum.



Ghanas Senior Minister, Hon. Osafo Marfo in his remarks expressed the need for Ghanaian businesses established in the UK to invest in the various sectors of Ghana.



He said Ghana is open for business. The government is private sector focused and keen to grow the economy through the private sector with support from the public sector.



Ghana is ready to do business to help improve her economy and foster development for the benefit of all parties. He added.



The CEO of UKGCC, Tony Burkson said, This is the very reason the UK-Ghana Chamber of Commerce was formed - to act as a platform for Ghanaian businesses and UK businesses and UK government and Ghana government to interact in an open and transparent way. The chamber is taking this particular mandate very seriously and continues to promote interaction between our two countries.



Businesses already invested and businesses looking forward to invest in Ghana had the opportunity to engage with the relevant ministers and officials present.



Some of the government officials present at the forum included the Deputy Minister of Energy, Hon. Joseph Cudjoe, Minister of Railway Development, Hon. Joe Ghartey, CEO, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Dr. Kofi Koduah Sarpong, and the CEO, Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) R. Yofi Grant.



The Forum was supported by: Ghana International Bank; INTL FCStone; Tullow Oil; Appolonia; Unity Link and Quantum Power.

Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/ Twitter: @Washman5/ Instagram: Washman007









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The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, will visit Ghana from 1-4 August 2017 as part of efforts to strengthen cooperation.



The Presidents visit to Ghana will provide an opportunity to engage with the President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, key cabinet members and other development partners on the Banks partnership with the country, and visit key projects financed by the Bank.



AfDBs portfolio in Ghana as at June 2017 is composed of 22 operations with an overall commitment of UA 683.34 million (about US$ 950,319,370)



The Bank is finalizing a new Country Strategy Paper (CSP) for Ghana for the period 20172021. The Strategy will support Ghanas efforts to transform the economy through three of AfDBs High 5s (Light Up and Power Africa, Industrialize Africa and Feed Africa). The High 5s are the five areas in which the Bank is focusing on to help accelerate Africa's economic transformation.



This will be done through support to private sector development in particular the energy sector to facilitate industrialization, and agriculture development to transform the rural economy and improve food security.



The draft strategy is expected to be presented for Board consideration during the 3rd Quarter of 2017.



Recent road projects supported by the Bank include rural, urban and regional trade corridors. The support goes beyond road construction. It includes the integration of community infrastructure development through rehabilitation and reconstruction of schools, health, water and sanitation facilities as well as markets along the road corridors to support trade and integration as well as boost economic activities of the local communities.



Similarly, Ghanas aviation industry has witnessed a significant growth in the past decade due to the discovery of petroleum and gas reserves in the country, sustained domestic demand, and increase in the tourism sector. The Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL), which is responsible for the development and management of airports in the country, has prepared a capital expenditure programme to build new airport infrastructure and rehabilitate or modernize the existing airports. The AfDB is supporting the airport expansion program through a $120 million loan from its private sector financing facility.



Construction of a new terminal at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) and rehabilitation of existing airport facilities are among key projects designed to improve air transport in the country. The programme will also help to boost the countrys economy, reducing the cost of doing business and improving competitiveness.



AfDB is also exploring the funding of two separate interventions at Takoradi port through its private sector financing window. The Bank plays a lead role in infrastructure development in Ghana and in transportation in particular. The transport sector is the second largest share of the countrys portfolio (26%). Since 1981, the Bank has financed 10 road projects, 1 railway project, 4 road studies, and 1 multinational project in addition to supplementary loans totaling UA258 million (US$ 358,978,620).



The projects financed by the Bank have made significant contribution towards improving mobility, providing access to socio-economic opportunities for millions of people and facilitating regional integration. In 2016, the Bank successfully closed two projects: The Fufulso-Salwa and Awoshie-Pokuase Road and Community Development Projects and begun the implementation of the Accra Urban Transport Project (AUTP) and preparation of the Eastern Corridor project. The FufulsoSawla Project received a Bank Award in May 2017 for contributing towards regional integration.



The Banks current intervention in Ghana under the Development of Skills for Industry Project is tailored to address a key issue of human capital development through increasing the capacity of the country to produce high calibre technical skills. This project also dovetails with the Jobs for Youth in Africa (JFYA) strategy. The JFYA directly supports SDG8 on inclusive growth, productive employment and decent work for all, SDG 4 on equitable education and skills development, and SDG1 on ending poverty.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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Senturk Uzun, Turkeys former ambassador to Ghana, has been put in pretrial detention over his alleged links with Gulen movement, the Turkish state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Saturday.



Detained on July 26 in Istanbuls Kadkoy district as part of an investigation into the Gulen movement, which is accused by by the government of masterminding a July 15, 2016 coup attempt, Uzun was arrested on accusations of membership in a terrorist organization. The movement denies involvement in the failed coup.



The report said Uzun has been under investigation due to his alleged use of ByLock, a mobile app that Turkish authorities claim to be the top communication tool among followers of the Gulen movement.



A former deputy governor in Ankara, Uzun served as Turkeys ambassador to Ghana from September 2013 to August 2014.

Source: TURKISH MINUTE









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A 56-year-old businessman accused of defiling his own daughter and granddaughter has been sentenced to 35 years imprisonment by the Kumasi-based Gender and Violence Court.



Charles Kofi Quansah faced charges of indecent assault, defilement, incest, and the threat of death and he pleaded not guilty.



Police Chief Inspector Comfort Kyei-Baffour told the court, presided over by Madam Comfort Tasiame, that victims were aged eight and 11 years.



The little girls have been living with Quansah and the wife at Medoma in Kumasi.



He repeatedly abused the pair anytime the spouse was out of the house and warned them of death should they tell anybody about their ordeal.



The prosecution said on September 08, last year, the mother of the 11-year victim, who happens to be the granddaughter of the convict, visited, and the girl told her what they had been going through.



She reported this to Quansahs wife, took the daughter away and made a formal complaint to the police.



Police Chief Inspector Kyei-Baffour said a medical report signed by doctors who examined the victims confirmed that they had had their hymen broken.



The convict in his caution statement to the police profusely denied the offense.

Source: GNA









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Police personnel have raided the residence of the former Deputy Power Minister, John Jinapor.



John Jinapor confirmed this in an interview with Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM's Kokrokoo.



According to him, he was about to set off to Parliament on Friday when he was informed about the presence of the Police in his residence.



He noted that the Police were in search of some documents in his house over investigations into the AMERI Power deal.



"They had a search warrant on them. Ater they had showed it to me, i asked the police officer to give me a copy (of the warrant), but he refused," Mr Jinapor recounted.



They searched everywhere, my bedroom, kitchen, my childrens room, garage and everywhere possible, but I told them that I dont have anything with me and that every document regarding the Ameri deal was left at the ministry. They took my IPhone (but i took the sim card out first) and asked that I bring my laptop too. I told them I dont have a personal laptop, the one I use is a property of parliament and so I will go and ask the Speaker if he will allow me to go and give it to them," he added.



The AMERI Power deal was signed by the erstwhile Mahama government.



The company was contracted to provide 300MW of power across the nation at a value of $ 510 million.



But the deal has suffered a major blow as it has emerged that the contractors for the deal executed the project at a price of $360 million.



The Police also invaded the residence of the former Minister of Power, Dr. Kwabena Donkor, over the same issue.

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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FILE - In this Feb. 1, 2016 file photo, Amal Clooney, left, and George Clooney arrive at the world premiere of "Hail, Caesar!" in Los Angeles. ClooneyAos foundation is planning to open seven public schools for Syrian refugee children. The Clooney Foundation for Justice announced a new partnership Monday, July 31, 2017, with Google, HP and UNICEF to provide education for more than 3,000 refugee children in Lebanon. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
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FILE--In this Jan. 26, 2016, file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, left, is joined by Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio during a new conference at the Roundhouse Gymnasium in Marshalltown, Iowa. Arpaio has been convicted of a criminal charge Monday, July 31, 2017, for disobeying a court order to stop traffic patrols that targeted immigrants in a conviction that marks a final rebuke for the former sheriff and politician who once drew strong popularity from such crackdowns but was booted from office amid voter frustrations over his deepening legal troubles.(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, file)
The pandemic brought a technological revolution to schools. Is that a good thing?

Regardless of the path, by necessity, most educators agree the pandemic electrified the use of technology in the classroom.
Canada's heavy oil plugs gap left by OPEC cuts, Latam

Jiri Rezac



Raw tar sands mining operations near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada.





By Nia Williams



CALGARY, Alberta

Petroleumworld 07 31 2017

Canada's struggling oil market has found something of a lifeline as traders scramble for heavy crude due to OPEC production cuts and sinking Latin American output.

Output has fallen in Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-OPEC Latin American countries such as Mexico and Colombia, leading refiners as far away as China to look to Alberta's oil sands to fill the gap.

The interest has boosted the price for heavy Western Canada Select (WCS) oil, which is within range of its tightest discount to U.S. crude ever.

Canadian heavy oil is an easy substitute for Middle Eastern and Latin American grades, and the rising demand represents a rare bright spot for the oil sands, which have been hit hard by falling prices and the high cost to produce and blend Alberta's heavy, tar-like bitumen.

"We've been seeing a structural change (in the market) since OPEC cut medium sours, and Canadian heavy fits beautifully in there," one trader at an oil sands company said.

OPEC is attempting to rebalance global markets by cutting sour crude output, keeping light sweet barrels flowing as U.S. shale producers are pumping at record levels.

Output in Venezuela, an OPEC member, fell 11 percent in the first five months of the year to a 27-year-low due to underinvestment and infrastructure problems. And as political turmoil mounts there, the United States could impose sanctions that would hinder Venezuela's ability to sell crude.

Mexico's production fell 8 percent in the first five months of 2017 from a year ago as a result of long-running natural production declines in aging oilfields. Colombia's dropped 11.5 percent as a consequence of rebel attacks on pipelines.

Venezuela, Mexico and Colombia produce about 5.3 million barrels per day, while OPEC has cut about 1.8 million bpd in supply, most sour crude.

Gulf Coast refiners are paying more for Canadian production to replace these barrels, pushing the discount for Canadian oil delivered to the U.S. storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, to around $5 a barrel below U.S. crude. At current levels that would put the outright price of WCS at Cushing at just under $45 a barrel.

The narrowest differential at Cushing was $4.10 per barrel below U.S. crude in mid-2015.

Canada exports more than 3 million barrels of crude daily to the United States, its No. 1 customer, according to U.S. Energy Department data. Canadian barrels could supply refineries in Sweeney, Texas, and St. Charles, Louisiana, where Venezuela accounts for the majority of imports.

Major beneficiaries would be producers with committed capacity on Enbridge Inc pipelines that funnel crude to the Gulf, like Suncor Energy and MEG Energy, because they enjoy lower tariffs than spot shippers.

Sending more Canadian oil to the United States may be difficult due to pipeline constraints, though more oil could be sent by rail, albeit at a higher price. High costs and poor returns prompted international energy companies to sell around $22.5 billion in Canadian assets this year.

With OPEC cuts now starting to bite in Asia, traders said demand for sour barrels was rising in a region that historically sourced oil from the Middle East and Russia.

Two traders in Calgary said their companies were getting more calls from potential Chinese buyers, and declining freight rates meant more Canadian crude could make its way to Asia.

State-owned Indian Oil Corp bought its first cargo of U.S. and Canadian heavy crude in July, and 1 million barrels of Canadian crude went to China in the first quarter.

"So many tankers out there are looking for work it would not be surprising for somebody to get a sweetheart deal to take it to Asia," said RBC analyst Michael Tran. However, the country's lack of pipelines to the coast make significant exports to Asia unlikely, he said.







Reporting by Nia Williams; Additional reporting by Florence Tan in Singapore and Marianna Parraga in Houston; Editing by Toni Reinhold from Reuters.



reuters .com / 07 27 2017
I know y'all might not believe me, but I saw a pterodactyl in Georgia. I'll never forget it and it was the creepiest moment in my life. I was outside when the sound of the outdoors, the entire world, actually just "turned off", like a switch was flipped. I felt as though I was in a vacuum. The woods, the birds, water, cars above, wind... was just gone. I felt weightless, as if I was barely being held down by gravity and I saw this per-historic bird fly above then dip and fly in the other direction. I knew exactly what it was and it seemed to glide with absolutely no effort or "lift, yaw", whatever in the hell makes something fly. Then snap. Everything turned back on; the water, locust, wind, traffic, sounds of life. I've believed that I was in a different age for a few brief moments. I never get upset when people say I'm crazy. For one, I usually keep it to myself so not that many can accuse me of f*ckery. Two, I know what I saw and experienced. That vacuum was unforgettable. I was not, nor have I ever abused substances, nor was I ill in any manner.

'CHICAGO PHANTOM' - FLYING HUMANOID SIGHTINGS



Have you had a sighting of a flying humanoid or huge bat-like creature in the Chicago, Illinois metro area or nearby? The entity has also been referred to as the 'Chicago Phantom', 'Chicago Mothman', 'Chicago Owlman' & 'Chicago Man-Bat.' Please feel free to contact me at lonstrickler@phantomsandmonsters.com - your anonymity is guaranteed. Our investigative group is conducting a serious examination of his phenomenon. We are merely seeking the truth and wish to determine what eyewitnesses have been encountering. Your cooperation is truly appreciated. You can call me directly at 410-241-5974 as well. Thanks...Lon Strickler #ChicagoPhantom

********************Delhi Police were in for a surprise when they received three complaints of an unknown person cutting braids of women near Dwarka.According to Vimal Kumar from Chhawala, three incidents of similar nature occurred in 12 hours in the locality, scaring everybody. The first incident, according to Kumar, took place around 10 AM when Munish was lying in her bed.Munish came back home after giving fodder to the cattle. She complained of a headache to her daughter-in-law. While she was lying in her bed, her grandchild noticed her hair lying on the ground. Everybody at home panicked because no one saw anyone cut her locks, said Kumar.The villagers were not done talking about the first incident which occurred in broad daylight when another incident was reported in the evening at a location stone's throw from the place the first one took place.Sridevi, in her mid-40s, came back home after milking her cow, complaining of a headache. Her son spotted her hair on the ground.These incidents are bizarre as no one could see the person cut womens hair locks, said Kumar.At 10:30 PM, a woman claimed when she shut the doors of her house, she found her braid lying on the floor, scaring her.The Deputy Commissioner of Police, Surinder Kumar, said these incidents shouldnt be looked at as some sort of witchcraft.The incidents occurred under suspicious circumstances, but that doesnt mean theres an involvement of witchcraft, said the DCP.The cases are being dealt with scientifically, the DCP assured. The team is checking the CCTVs installed in the area. In fact, in one of the CCTV footages, three men could be seen. We have developed their photographs. It might be possible that they are targeting people so that they could easily rob them. They will be arrested soon, Surinder Kumar said.The FIR has been filed under sections of Arms Act and IPC sections 328 (causing hurt by means of poison), 354 (intention to outrage the modesty of a woman) and 379 (theft).The hair sample has been sent to Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) to find out the weapon used to cut the locks. To stop such incidents and to instil confidence in people, Delhi Police have intensified patrolling.At least 15 incidents of women's braids being mysteriously chopped off have been reported from the villages of the Mewat region in last two weeks, police said on Monday.These bizarre happenings have left the villagers in panic mode. Most women claimed to have fallen unconscious when their braids were chopped off leading to the villagers blaming godmen, ghosts, witches and "cat-like" creatures. - A 'Mystery Man' on Delhi Streets is Chopping off Women's Hair **********

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A shale-gas drilling rig in Susquehanna County. Janney analyst Michael Gaugler likes the stocks of three companies backing projected pipelines to bring upstate gas to Philly. Read more

When utilities stock analyst Michael Gaugler returned to the Philadelphia brokerage Janney Montgomery Scott two years ago after a decade of picking stocks for rivals, he told his bosses he wouldn't need a lot of airline tickets: There are many potentially lucrative stories among smaller U.S. energy- and water-related companies with operations right in Pennsylvania and neighboring Mid-Atlantic states, he said.

Even with today's low natural gas prices, the Marcellus Shale gas boom and neighboring fuel and liquid resources would keep brokers and bankers busy with pipeline, utility, and industrial projects for years, Gaugler predicted.

And gas utility prices rose, before plateauing recently.

Companies whose price-to-earnings ratio averaged 17 in 2015  not much more than old-line electric utilities with fat debt loads and static customer bases  "are now in the 20s," at premium-price levels. The stocks rose on hopes that gas will keep displacing other energy sources, fueling more residential, commercial, and export demand and higher profits, he told me recently.

He's gotten clients' attention. Gaugler's Utilities & Infrastructure Weekly, which covers 25 mostly small water, gas, and electric utilities and firms that supply them, has become one of Janney's most-read investment publications.

He's betting premium prices for gas-related companies, at least, will continue: "There's so much going on."

But he's not wholly bullish: Of 25 water, electric, and gas utilities, industrial firms that supply utilities, and gas partnerships on Gaugler's stock watch list, he rates 14 as neutral, the 11 others as buy.

Most of the Philadelphia-area companies that form part of Gaugler's coverage list are among those rated buy. The water and sewer system owners American Water Works, which is based in Voorhees, and Aqua America, of Bryn Mawr, suffered lower-than-expected demand during the first half of the year due to wet weather in the Northeast. Yet the group of water distribution stocks in which they are lead players were up a collective 10 percent in the first half of the year.

And Gaugler predicts that Aqua, his group's "top pick" among water utilities, will profit especially from Pennsylvania Utility Commission approval of pending rate hikes over the next year.

He's also bullish on Ametek, the Berwyn-based electronic-instruments and electromechanical equipment maker, and is looking at other area manufacturers that count utilities among their customers.

Gaugler finds it ironic that industries and gas consumers in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's largest market, don't much benefit from cheap Marcellus Shale gas because it's not yet coming into the area on the existing pipeline network.

At least three companies on Gaugler's list are backing projected pipelines that could bring upstate gas here, benefiting area users and shippers, and possibly help draw new employers to the region:

UGI Corp., the King of Prussia utility group, which is backing the PennEast pipeline project in partnership with Atlantic County-based South Jersey Industries and other utilities;

Delaware-based Chesapeake Utilities Corp., which is poised to bring Marcellus gas into the region from pipes across the Chesapeake;

WGL Holdings Inc., the Washington, D.C., utility with an interest in the Central Penn pipeline project approaching Philadelphia's western suburbs.

Gaugler rates UGI and Chesapeake "buy." He's "neutral" on WGL and South Jersey Industries at recent prices. He also has a buy rating on AmeriGas Partners, the King of Prussia propane supplier whose largest owner is UGI.
In the latest sign that the homely bank branch is in trouble, Wells Fargo & Co. has cut a layer and a half of bosses from atop its branch network, the nation's largest.

The bank, which has the top market share in Philadelphia, has eliminated its retail-banking area managers  including Greg Redden, who had held the job in Philadelphia for the past four years  and reduced the number of local regions, combining Philadelphia with its northern suburbs, for example, while continuing to shut hundreds of offices a year.

Like other banks, Wells Fargo has struggled to keep profits growing from the brick-and-mortar centers it acquired in its multibillion-dollar mergers as more Americans do their banking online. Former chief executive John Stumpf was forced from office after the bank's practice of opening new accounts without customers' permission, to meet his aggressive branch growth targets, was exposed last year.

But not every bank is done with branches. To be sure, one of the nation's largest lenders, BB&T  the old Branch Banking and Trust Co., of Winston-Salem, N.C., newly arrived in the Philadelphia area with its recent purchases of Susquehanna and National Penn banks  has closed its share of redundant offices and plans to shut dozens more in a network that stretches from Allentown to Texas.

But "we will be opening a couple more branches in Philadelphia over the next three years," says chief executive Kelly King, who was in town Monday visiting newly-acquired employees and customers.

National Penn (lately based in Allentown) and Susquehanna (from Lancaster County) were largely suburban and small-city institutions. King sees the action has moved to big cities like Philadelphia, and he wants to make sure BB&T has a bigger base here than its four current Center City branches and five in Northeast Philadelphia.

While Wells Fargo and other big banks have in recent years rotated some of their local-market managers like traveling salespeople, BB&T is, at the moment, emphasizing its hometown team, headed by Scott R. Gamble, who traces his banking roots to small-business lenders Continental (now part of PNC), Prime (now part of Bank of America), and Susquehanna. Backed by BB&T's $200 billion-plus in assets (smaller than PNC, larger than Citizens), Gamble says he's glad to be able to go after the Philadelphia area's largest clients  hospitals, local governments, corporations, investors.

I asked King whether he still hopes last year's Republican election victories will speed up business. Clients "were very pessimistic prior to the [November] elections," he said. "They were driving trucks with 300,000 miles on 'em, and using 20-year-old computers.

"After the election, there was a huge increase in optimism. They have been making replacement investments  maintenance, repairs." Still, too many business owners "are not making expansion investments  people, equipment. That will require actual movement in Congress on taxes and [boosting] infrastructure spending, and the changing impact of regulation."

Are business' goals  tax reform, an infrastructure bill, cuts to environmental and employer regulation  still likely, given Washington's failure to deliver health-care insurance reform on schedule? "There is still a strong belief we will get changes done," King insists. "We are not competitive globally from a tax point of view. Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan understand that. A lot of Democrats understand that.

"Health care is emotional. But taxes are rational," King says. So are bridges and highways: "We'll get infrastructure passed." He's also pushing for education reform  using technology, including electronic devices and education software, to teach youngsters the math and reading that employers require but that too many are not absorbing in schools.

King's own math shows that the big-bank mergers of 10 years ago are no longer economically feasible because nobody knows how long individual branches will remain profitable. But acquisitions still make sense in neighboring and "overlapping" markets, where you can close offices without losing too much business. King promises he'll keep offices open and visible: "That's psychological. Banks are where the money is. And if I have a problem, that's where I need to go and see the banker."
Wells Fargo & Co. is eliminating one whole level of management  its retail-banking area managers, including the job of its Philadelphia Community Bank Area chief, Greg Redden.

The bank has cut dozens of top managers overseeing its 6,000-plus local offices, the nation's largest branch network. It is also consolidating the regions that formerly reported to the area bosses  such as combining its former Philadelphia city region with its northern suburbs  leaving fewer regional bosses, each running more branches.

Wells Fargo announced in June that the national reorganization would eliminate 70 management jobs, leaving around 90 regional managers in what Wells Fargo calls its "community bank." The change "will help us become even more streamlined, effective, and consistent," Mary Mack, community banking chief for the San Francisco-based company, said in an internal memo at that time, American Banker reported.

Like other banks, Wells Fargo has struggled to keep profits growing from the branches it acquired in a string of multibillion-dollar mergers, as more Americans do their banking online and on mobile devices. Former chief executive John Stumpf, who had long boasted of the company's prowess at squeezing more business from customers, was forced from office after the bank's widespread practice of opening new accounts without customers' permission to meet growth targets was exposed last year by the Los Angeles Times, law enforcement, and bank regulators. Philadelphia sued the bank earlier this year, alleging it overcharged lower-income customers for home loans, which the bank disputes.

Instead of running its retail business through its former "areas" of around 150 branches each, headed by a president and split into three or four "regions" of around 40 branches each, the company has scrapped the areas and reduced the number of regions, leaving a smaller core of bosses with regions of 60 to 90 branches each.

Among those left without an assignment are Redden, the bank's last "Greater Philadelphia and Delaware Community President," and Anthony Rosado, who ran the company's former area for the City of Philadelphia, reporting to Redden.

The city, instead of forming its own area, is being combined with Lower Bucks and eastern and southern Montgomery County into a new "Greater Philadelphia" region, to be headed by Joe Kirk, who's moving here from his old job as Wells Fargo's New York City regional president.

The city's western suburbs and Delaware will be run as a region by Lauren Tobiassen, previously the bank's boss in Reading and central Pennsylvania. Brian Formisano, who headed the former Bucks and Montgomery County region, is heading a new consolidated South Jersey region covering the state below Trenton, from Shore to Bay.

Instead of reporting to the old area office in Philadelphia, the regional managers will now report directly to regional branch banking chief Larisa Perry at Wells Fargo's Northeast regional headquarters, in Summit, Union County, near Newark, N.J.
Wedding bells are ringing for former Nickelodeon star Danny Tamberelli, and they're bringing him  and at least one other Adventures of Pete & Pete cast member  all the way to Pennsylvania.

Tamberelli, as Page Six reports, will wed fiance Katelyn Detweiler in "an old steel factory in Pennsylvania, where the bride grew up," on May 5, 2018. Detweiler, the author of young-adult novels Immaculate and Transcendent, was raised in Marlborough Township and graduated from Upper Perkiomen Valley High School in 2004.

So, if they're staying close to home, that likely puts the lucky couple at the Phoenixville Foundry or the SteelStacks in Bethlehem, two former foundries in the area that host weddings. The initial report did not indicate the name of the couple's wedding venue.

The Brooklyn couple tells Page Six that 250 guests will attend the nuptials, and that Tamberelli's Pete & Pete co-star Mike Maronna (Big Pete) will serve as a groomsman. Tamberelli, who played Little Pete on the show, asked Maronna to be in the wedding in a recent episode of the pair's Adventures of Danny and Mike podcast.

All this, of course, after the couple first connected on dating app Tinder, as Detweiler told Page Six. The pair had their first meeting at a Brooklyn bar in what Detweiler called a "very fancy first date."

"I definitely had some friends in the lead-up to the first in-person date being like, 'What if it's not him? What if you're being catfished?,'" she said. "I was texting [friends] while I was sitting there debating whether to stay or not and I did."

Detweiler's most recent novel, Transcendent, was released in October 2016. Tamberelli, who appeared in '90s shows including All That and Figure It Out, currently performs in three bands, according to Page Six.
DEA agent Gary Tuggle looks at trash, made up of the paper envelopes that contain syringes, in the open-air drug market in Kensington near the Conrail tracks, in February. Read more

Months of buildup  shocking images of needles and trash, disturbing stories of addicts overdosing before your eyes, Dr. Oz's announcement to the world that "I just walked into hell."

At the edge of Kensington, one of the city's hottest neighborhoods, the homeless heroin camp below Gurney Street that for weeks has been the epicenter of media attention in the nation's opioid crisis will be cleaned up and shut down.

The crisis won't be, experts warn, even locally.

Some worry that, once the media trucks pull away from what residents call "El Campamento," overdose fatalities will rise as users shoot up in abandoned houses with no one watching out for them.

"There is this expectation that fences are going to go up and lights are going to go up and it's problem solved," said Jose Benitez, executive director of Prevention Point Philadelphia, the health-care provider and needle-exchange that has worked with the community for years. "That is not the way it is going to happen."

No one really knows where the residents of the encampment along the Conrail tracks are going. Most have already left, some into treatment, several dozen to city-funded housing, others joining small homeless clusters under I-95, more likely breaking into abandoned houses nearby.

The far more numerous day visitors seem to be fanning out around the neighborhood, using in parks and anywhere there is shade. Some say that street-corner transactions have become even more brazen.

"When they close it, I'll try to go somewhere else," said a 53-year-old homeless heroin addict named Jeff, who told city behavioral health workers the other day that he was still pondering another try at treatment and was on a waiting list for temporary shelter. Then he scrambled up a steep embankment and disappeared into the underbrush, his small, ripped pack bulging with belongings and the overdose reversal medication he has used on others several times.

A drumbeat of trespassing summonses, waves of outreach workers, tours by reporters, and a letter from Conrail left no doubt about what was coming. Anticipation and anxiety grew as activity was rumored and then delayed.

The July 31 contractual deadline that Philadelphia and railway officials agreed to last month has a ring of finality. But the process  preparing the site, planning possible futures for its occupants, building trust with a chronically homeless, drug-addicted community  is gradual.

Small areas of fencing have been going up for weeks. Heavy equipment capable of cutting brush and trees began moving to a rail yard with access to the tracks at Trenton and Lehigh last week. "I'm not sure there is going to be a whole lot of action on Monday," said Conrail spokeswoman Jocelyn Hill. She said the machinery actually will start work on Tuesday.

Hill said that the job would take several weeks but that there is no timetable. Piles of needles, mattresses, and assorted debris, both the detritus of homelessness and garbage dumped by pickup trucks, must be picked up. An area along the track will be cleared, a request from the Police Department to gain lines of sight.

Old-fashioned Reading Railroad wrought-iron fencing will be installed 6 feet high along varying topographical terrain, Hill said. "It is not easy to cut through. It is not easy to jump over. It is not easy to knock down."

Conrail's 1 miles of fencing will meet up with fencing that the city is installing and repairing at the ends of its bridges over the tracks.

Police Inspector Ray Convery, who oversees the East Division, which includes the Kensington/Fairhill section, said his officers were primarily concerned with safety. "I don't want somebody sleeping in the weeds when the [machinery] comes in," he said. "We're not going to lock them all up for doing their drugs. We want to save them."

Neighborhood foot patrols were replaced a month ago by 24 bicycle officers in a pilot program that makes them more visible. All are new graduates of the police academy, who typically are "more reactive," Convery said, issuing summonses for trespassing where older officers might give warnings.

Others see public health and safety downsides.

"This will create a lot of tension, I think, between residents and people who are looking for a place to get high," said photographer Jeffrey Stockbridge, who immersed himself in the community for his website and book, Kensington Blues.

"The camp tends to manage itself," said Dan Martino, secretary of the Olde Richmond Civic Association, "despite the fact that it looks kind of disgusting."

Virtually everyone there carries the emergency overdose reversal medication naloxone, leading some advocates to predict an increase in fatal overdoses in abandoned houses  within a half mile of the Gurney Street gulch are more than 30 houses that the city deems uninhabitable  although others believe that most users will inject publicly or with buddies.

Just 17 of last year's 907 fatal overdoses in the city occurred at the encampment, according to the Medical Examiner's Office, a statistic that places Benitez among the worriers.

"You would think there would be a lot more, and it's because people know how to reverse, to take care of themselves," he said. Prevention Point has been supplying and training people in how to use the medication for years, long before opioids were seen as a mainstream crisis, and before providing the medication became the goal of states across the country with Govs. Christie and Wolf among the leading proponents.

The nonprofit's staff and volunteers are a major part of the city's outreach, but they are more focused on "trying to build long-term relationships" with users who are "not ready for treatment, and figuring out housing possibilities for them," Benitez said.

Other city-supported teams tend to focus on either housing or treatment, and fall into a mind-boggling array of bureaucratic divisions dictated by federal funding categories.

The results so far have been hard to quantify, said Liz Hersh, director of the city's Office of Homeless Services. Is a psych unit "housing"?

Measuring treatment is even harder. "We've engaged a lot of people," said Roland Lamb, deputy commissioner of the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services, who defined success as "engagement, and treatment eventually."

The city's presence will ramp up again on Monday. A "social services hub" will be established at Second and Indiana Streets. Assessments for treatment will be conducted in a trailer at Tusculum and A Streets.

No exodus is expected. Addicts can be desperate for help yet unable to take it, experts say.

"Nobody chooses to be an addict in Kensington," said Christine Simiriglia, president and CEO of Pathways to Housing PA, which is working with the city on an opioid initiative that starts with housing and sets no mandates for treatment.

"Trust me. Nobody says 'I want to grow up and be an addict in Kensington.' "
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie taunts Cubs fan Sunday in Milwaukee while clutching a plastic container of nachos. Read more

Gov. Christie went all macho with a Chicago Cubs fan Sunday at the Milwaukee Brewers' Miller Park, clutching a bowl of fully loaded nachos so close to his chest that it threatened to turn his pale-green dress shirt into a cheesy Picasso. A video of the encounter quickly went viral on social media.

The fan, Brad Joseph, who was wearing a Cubs jersey, told Milwaukee's WISN-TV that when Christie was walking up the ballpark stairs, "I yelled his name and told him that he sucked. I called him a hypocrite because I thought it needed to be said."

Christie turned around for some face time with Joseph. "First he told me, 'Why don't you have another beer?' which I thought was a decent comeback and I thought that was kind of funny," Joseph said. "Then he started calling me a tough guy."

Then Christie lumbered away. No nachos were hurt during the confrontation.

Cheese, Christie can't even go to Milwaukee  where his son Andrew works for the Brewers  without getting in a fan's face while making sure he doesn't lose a drop of that precious melted cheddar.

You may recall that Christie, rated the nation's most unpopular governor in a Quinnipiac University survey in June, once dissed Snooki on a Jersey Shore boardwalk. That video went viral, too.

He also openly rooted for the Dallas Cowboys during a Philadelphia Eagles home game, then called Eagles fans "the worst in America." Apparently, he was unaware that thousands of Eagles fans live in New Jersey and are his constituents.

On July 18 at Citi Field in New York, Christie was loudly booed after catching a foul ball at a Mets-Cardinals game. Booed at a Mets game! And he's a Mets fan!
Isaac Appiahene, 18, immigrated to the U.S. from Ghana just a year ago. Hes graduating with top honors from a Philadelphia alternative school. Read more

A year ago, Isaac Appiahene was new to the United States, struggling with a language barrier and a world where he knew almost no one. He encountered problems at school and was told he didn't belong there.

On Thursday, the native of Ghana is scheduled to don a bright blue cap and gown and accept a high school diploma with top honors, achieved with lightning speed and prodigious effort. Appiahene starts college classes soon, with an eye toward a nursing degree that will help him reach the goal that pushed him to leave Ghana in the first place.

"I came to learn, to find a job, to help my family," said Appiahene, 18. "When you come to America, you have opportunities. You can take care of your family."

Appiahene's father left Kumasi, Ghana when his boy was a toddler. Other family members followed, but Appiahene stayed until he was 17. He thrived in school there. He had many friends.

But he knew more awaited him in the U.S., Appiahene said. He arrived in Philadelphia last June, moving into a house with his father, stepmother, and four younger brothers he had never met. He felt urgency to help, he said  his father works two jobs, primarily as a supermarket stocker, to make ends meet. His stepmother is ill and cannot work.

Appiahene reported to Martin Luther King High hopeful that he could finish his last year of school, but because he brought no transcript with him, officials placed him in ninth grade. His paperwork finally arrived from Ghana, but school officials were confused when his transcript arrived.

"They did not allow me to finish," said Appiahene. "I didn't know the system of education here, but I wanted a high school diploma."

Eventually, Appiahene heard about One Bright Ray, an alternative school that helps those who have dropped out or are at risk of dropping out get diplomas.

He started classes at the school's Fairhill campus in February. To get there, he rose before dawn and took three buses. Appiahene thrived, never earning less than a B. He zoomed through his required coursework in five months.

"I had many friends at home," said Appiahene. "Here, I had to stay indoors because of my studies. I needed to focus."

Appiahene is serious  not cold or uninterested, just quiet and determined. But his teachers say he was unafraid to speak up to probe and ask questions when he didn't understand a concept. On the last day of classes before graduation, he gave a presentation with ease, using a pointer to show photos of American immigrants at the turn of the 20th century.

"He's always on top of his work," said Dustin Yenser, a science teacher at the school. "He knows what he wants to accomplish and he knows what is expected of him."

Most One Bright Ray students opt for employment over college, but it was clear from the moment Appiahene walked in the door that he was different. He sought out Antoinette Muse, his counselor, asking how he could qualify for financial aid and whether she could help him fill out a form.

"Isaac is very motivated," Muse said. "Sometimes, students want to bring their past school experiences with them here, but Isaac bought in right away."

Appiahene knows jobs are plentiful in the nursing field, but that's not the only reason he wants to pursue that career.

"I like helping people  especially when someone gets hurt," he said. "I find a way to keep people calm."

Cosmos Appiahene, Isaac's father, worries about paying for his oldest child's college education, but he must find a way, he said. Cosmos did not have the chance to pursue an education the way Isaac has, and the teen has not let him down.

"He doesn't go with the smoking guys, the drinking guys," said Cosmos, 38. "He never insulted anybody, he never went against anybody."

Cosmos works seven days a week, often pulling double shifts. But he asked for a rare day off to be present at Isaac's graduation.

"He's my first son," Cosmos said. "I love the way he pushes himself."
A body believed to be that of a 24-year-old Slovakian woman who disappeared while swimming in the darkness early Sunday in Point Pleasant Beach, N.J., has been found about eight miles south in the Ocean Beach section of Toms River, police said Monday.

The discovery of the body came shortly after the Coast Guard called off the search for Zuzana Oravcova, who was employed by Jenkinson's Boardwalks in Point Pleasant Beach.

Officials said they were confident that the body was that of Oravcova, but an autopsy was scheduled to positively identify her.

She becomes at least the seventh person to drown at the Shore since Memorial Day, including another summer worker, Ismail Ahmed Abdelmonem Ismail, 24, an Egyptian, who worked on the Wildwood boardwalk and disappeared while swimming at night in June.

Toms River police said an off-duty Ocean Beach lifeguard spotted the body in the surf about 11:50 p.m. Sunday.

Police said Oravcova had been swimming with a fellow Slovakian, Thomas Kadlec, 23, about 2:30 a.m. when they got into trouble in the water. Kadlec made it to shore, but Oravcova did not, and he immediately notified a boardwalk employee, who called police.

On Sunday, the Coast Guard, the New Jersey State Police Marine Unit, the Bay Head and Mantoloking fire companies and police, and dive teams from Point Pleasant Beach and four nearby communities launched a sea and air search before darkness set in.

The National Weather Service had issued a warning about dangerous rip currents along the Jersey Shore over the weekend. The advisory had spurred many towns to ban swimming at their beaches. But a Coast Guard spokesman said Sunday there was no indication that rip currents played a part in this case. "That would be pure speculation at this time," he said.
U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta with Donald Trump at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre during the presidential campaign. Read more

WASHINGTON  One of President Trump's most prominent Pennsylvania supporters, U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, is edging toward running for the U.S. Senate next year, potentially setting up a direct referendum on the president's political brand.

Barletta, a Northeast Pennsylvania Republican who built his name as a fierce critic of illegal immigration, has been encouraged to run by Trump and is planning an announcement before Labor Day, according to John Brabender, a GOP consultant who works for the congressman.

The Associated Press reported that Barletta is telling top Republicans that he will run for the nomination to take on Sen. Bob Casey, a Democrat, citing an unnamed source, though GOP officials in Washington and Pennsylvania said nothing was yet firm.

"He's very, very seriously considering it. He has not committed to doing it yet," said Val DiGiorgio, the Republican state chairman. "He hasn't told me that he's in. They're at the planning stage where they are thinking about an announcement."

Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate to win Pennsylvania since 1988, scoring an upset that proved critical to his Electoral College victory. The next test for the GOP is whether that win was unique to Trump, or can be replicated by more traditional Republicans.

Trump began urging Barletta to run earlier this year after the congressman became one of the president's most visible backers in the 2016 presidential campaign.

"People all across Pennsylvania and the White House have been encouraging Congressman Barletta," said a spokesman for the congressman, Jon Anzur, who criticized Casey as "an extreme liberal."

Barletta "is still giving it serious thought and will make an announcement about his plans in the near future," Anzur wrote in an email. "Stay tuned."

The congressman "would have the support of the president, ability to raise substantial funds, which you need to win a race like these," DiGiorgio said.

Barletta is the former mayor of Hazleton, Luzerne County, part of a region where Trump racked up massive margins last year against Democrat Hillary Clinton with his appeal to white working-class voters.

Casey, too, hails from the same region, and has cast himself as a fierce Trump critic in the months since the election, potentially setting up a 2018 test of the president's standing two years into his term.

Democrats immediately pounced on Barletta's support for the Trump-backed health-care bill that passed the House earlier this year, citing the consumer protections that would have been weakened and potential cost increases under the plan.

"At every turn Congressman Barletta is looking out for himself and the wealthy special interests he serves, while Pennsylvania's seniors and working families pay the price," said a statement from David Bergstein, a spokesman for Democrats' national Senate campaign arm.

Eight other Republicans have already filed to run for the Senate, though Barletta would be the biggest name in the mix should he run.

Rep. Mike Kelly, a Republican from the northwestern part of the state, was also considering a run, though GOP insiders said he would not run if Barletta did.
In July, as part of a profile of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, we asked readers to vote on a few topics in the news that they wanted to have explained. This question won the most votes: What is special counsel Robert Mueller supposed to do?



On May 17, Philadelphia-born Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed a special counsel  former FBI director Robert Mueller  to lead the federal investigation into Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Some readers are still wondering: What, exactly, is Mueller supposed to be doing?

Let's start with a little backstory.

Who is Robert Mueller?

He ran the FBI from 2001 to 2013, serving under Presidents George W. Bush, a Republican, and Barack Obama, a Democrat. He was also a decorated Marine who was awarded a Purple Heart for his service during the Vietnam War.

OK, so how did he end up in this special counsel role?

On March 2, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the FBI's probe into the Russia matter. During his confirmation hearings, Sessions had told Senate leaders he hadn't had any contact with Russian officials in 2016  a claim that turned out to be, well, false. (As CNN reported at the time, Sessions "met twice last year with the top Russian diplomat" whose interactions with former national security adviser Michael Flynn led Flynn's firing. Both Flynn and Sessions were campaigning for Trump in 2016.)

Two months after Sessions' recusal, President Trump fired James Comey, the director of the FBI. The White House claimed Trump was acting on the advice of Sessions and Rosenstein, who wrote a memo that was deeply critical of Comey's decision during the campaign to publicly share "his own conclusions" about the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's private server and missing emails, "without the authorization of duly appointed Justice Department leaders."

But Trump then turned around and told NBC that he had made up his mind to fire Comey before consulting with Rosenstein or Sessions, and thought "this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story."

Rosenstein saw only one recourse: appointing an investigator unconnected to the campaigns, the Justice Department or the Trump administration to get to the bottom of everything. He summed up Mueller's duties in this order:

What is the scope of Muellers investigation?

Rosenstein's order enabled Mueller to take over the investigative work the FBI had done to that point. But Rosenstein also gave Mueller a wide berth to expand his investigation to "any matters that arose or may arise directly" as he probes any ties the Russian government had with people associated with Trump's campaign.

Trump has since said it would be "a violation" if Mueller started looking into his personal finances, and Trump's aides have reportedly been searching for information to undermine Mueller and his team.

According to the 1999 guidelines that defined the special counsel's powers, Mueller can prosecute crimes that occur during the course of the investigation, such as perjury, obstruction of justice, or the destruction of any evidence. He's not subject to day-to-day supervision, but could be asked by Rosenstein to explain steps his team is taking.

Trump could order Rosenstein to fire Mueller, but Rosenstein has said there would have to be a legitimate reason for him to make such a move. "If there were not good cause," he said, "it wouldn't matter to me what anybody says."

When will this all be over?

Let's save the existential questions for another day.
President Donald Trump steps off Air Force One after arriving at Long Island MacArthur Airport to deliver a speech on the street gang MS-13, Friday, July 28, 2017, in Ronkonkoma, N.Y. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) . Read more

Unending controversy generated by our Tweeter-in-Chief clogs up more than news of the day. It muddies and crimps critical thinking. It leaves little room for reflection.

His oddities in speeches and social media spew in such succession that their impact is softened and quickly dismissed.

But for me, two recent examples hit and stuck. Their nature and timing merit noting.

First, the president's bizarre and inappropriately partisan remarks at the National Scout Jamboree were, even for Donald Trump, stunning.

He spoke to an estimated 35,000 members of a 107-year-old organization that stresses honor, duty, and loyalty and that aims at building moral strength, character, and citizenship, along with physical, mental, and emotional fitness.

(Trump, you may know, was never a scout.)

Among meandering messages offered  including how he won Maine, Wisconsin, and the Electoral College in 2016, shots at former President Barack Obama and the "dishonest" press  was his view of the nation's capital.

"I go to Washington, and I see all these politicians, and I see a swamp. In fact, it's not a good place," he said, "We should change it from the swamp to the cesspool or perhaps use the word sewer."

Inspirational, no?

It wasn't followed with "and that's why we need you." No call to "bring your training and code to government and politics to improve and enhance public service."

No. Given the opportunity to talk to a rising generation, Trump conveyed an image of Washington as a receptacle for human waste.

And the good news? The size of the crowd and how, under his administration, "You'll be saying Merry Christmas again when you go shopping, believe me."

That's right, kids, remember the goal of enhanced holiday gift-buying.

Boy Scout leadership apologized for Trump's performance. Trump did not.

I'd note that the Boy Scouts, earlier this year, opened membership to transgender boys, which gets me to example two.

Trump's tweet banning transgender people from the military  on the anniversary of President Truman's July 26, 1948, order desegregating the military  drew wide rebuke, and rightly so.

It discriminates against an entire class of Americans, diminishes the ideals of all-volunteer service, and constitutes a blow to basic civil rights.

It is shameful. It greenlights similar thinking everywhere.

Pushback came from more than the LGBTQ community, Democrats, or the "snowflake" left. It came from conservatives such as Sens. Orrin Hatch, Joni Ernst, and John McCain. It came from Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, saying that the military will continue to "treat all of our personnel with respect" and take no action absent a directive carrying more weight than a tweet.

The collective constituencies abused or offended by Trump in the Boy Scout speech and transgender tweet  the former an act of self-aggrandizement, the latter an appeal to parts of his base  is large, diverse and different from what we've seen to date.

This isn't the work of "fake news." This isn't part of any "witch hunt." This is Trump displaying Trump in ways that degrade America and debase decency.

It is a double dose of Trump in the raw.

And because it comes amid controversies over Attorney General Jeff Sessions, special counsel Bob Mueller, White House shakeups, and failed or stalled health-care reform, tax reform, and infrastructure fixes, it creates a moment worthy of a stop sign.

Yes, Trump survived such moments before, as candidate and as president. But in the roiling rapids that represent the Trump administration, we've reached a point where Trump has jumped the shark.

It's a point, no matter one's politics, inviting reflection  and elemental questions. When is enough enough? When is the last election over? Where's the coalition to put country over party and keep calling out this president's egomania and divisive governing-by-tweet until, at long last, it stops?
Two years ago, on a snowy winter evening, a young Philadelphia police officer, Robert Wilson III, entered a local Gamestop store to buy a gift for his son. Minutes later, he was dead. Two brothers, both of whom had prior run-ins with the law, shot Wilson six times in a botched robbery attempt.

Since that horrible day, nearly 130 more police officers and an estimated 66,000 Americans across the country have died from gun violence, including suicide. These statistics prove what we in law enforcement already know to be true: Our nation is in the grips of a deadly gun-violence crisis, one that leaves our nation's brave law enforcement officers in the crosshairs, and one that demands a national solution.

But at a time when more police are being assassinated in ambush killings than in any time during the last two decades, some elected leaders in Washington  and the special-interest groups that back them  are pushing for new, irresponsible laws that are an assault on law enforcement officers, their families, and our communities' safety.

Right now, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are debating a dangerous proposal that would force each state to recognize the concealed-carry laws of other states, even those that have far weaker standards. Currently, Pennsylvania has the right to choose which state's concealed-carry laws it recognizes, which is important because the requirements to carry hidden, loaded guns in public vary drastically from state to state. If this federally mandated concealed-carry reciprocity bill passes, that will no longer be the case, and Pennsylvania will be forced to allow unlicensed, unvetted people from out of state to carry concealed guns in public places. If this happens, it will have a disastrous impact on public safety and law enforcement.

Twelve states  including Pennsylvania's neighbor, West Virginia  do not require any permit or training to carry hidden loaded guns in public. If this bill becomes law, almost any person from these states would instantly be able to carry concealed in Pennsylvania, regardless of whether that person meets the commonwealth's standards for carrying a concealed gun in public. This not only puts communities in danger, it makes it harder for law enforcement officers to do their jobs.

Under this proposal, it would be nearly impossible for law enforcement officers to quickly and easily verify that individuals are carrying lawfully. It's not just the state laws for who can carry concealed that vary significantly across the states. The actual permits vary significantly, too. Some state permit cards contain no photograph of the permit holder; others are as flimsy as library cards. This would require law enforcement to contact out-of-state issuing authorities to verify the permit's authenticity. Law enforcement is most effective when officers are out on the street fighting violent crime, not stuck behind a desk doing administrative work.

Most alarmingly, the bill in the House goes so far as to open up law enforcement to the threat of personal litigation. If a law enforcement officer mistakenly questions a person's legal authority to carry a concealed firearm, they can be sued, personally. If an officer has reasonable suspicion to believe that someone is carrying a firearm unlawfully, the last thing they should ever have to worry about is whether that individual may turn around and sue them and bankrupt their family.

As a law enforcement officer, I had to go through a series of common-sense steps before I was ever entrusted with a weapon. First, I had to pass a background investigation. Then, I underwent hours of rigorous firearms training in both the classroom and at the gun range. Every year, I qualified with the firearm I was issued to carry. Why should it be easier for an untrained civilian to carry a loaded weapon than a cop? It simply makes no sense. And that's why nearly every major law enforcement organization is opposed to this proposal.

Earlier this year, I joined former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, a gun-violence survivor, and her husband, Navy combat veteran Capt. Mark Kelly, the son of two New Jersey cops, in a new initiative, the Law Enforcement Coalition for Common Sense. This coalition brings together law enforcement officials from across the country who are committed to urging our elected leaders to enact responsible change. Some of us have served in rural communities. Some, like myself, have served in urban communities. We all have a deep appreciation for the Constitution and the Second Amendment. Yet we all have seen firsthand the toll our nation's gun-violence crisis is taking on our families and on our communities.

As public safety experts, we feel an obligation to speak out about the policies that will adversely impact the safety of law enforcement and our neighbors. It is my hope that others who have taken the same oath to protect their communities will join us in voicing concern about the dangers these irresponsible policies pose.

During my years in policing, I have responded to crime scenes. I have comforted grieving families at the hospital, including the families of brave officers, like Robert Wilson III, who were killed with a gun. I've seen the cost of our nation's gun violence crisis. From my experience, the only way to make our communities safer is not by playing to America's worst fears, but by championing our greatest hopes.

Now more than ever, we need to come together  concerned citizens, law enforcement, and elected leaders  to build safer communities for our children and cops. That important work must begin now, and it must start with us having the courage to oppose measures, like concealed carry, that put our very safety in jeopardy.

Charles H. Ramsey is a visiting fellow at Drexel University's Lindy Institute and a former police commissioner of Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. chr37@drexel.edu
President Trump's reckless decision to withdraw our country from the historic Paris Climate Agreement has put the health, safety and economy of both Pennsylvania and the United States in peril. Climate change affects all things, from industries such as agriculture and tourism to the health and mortality of infants and children. It is the No. 1 most pressing challenge affecting every nation on the planet.

As a mom, business leader and legislator, I cannot just stand by while this decision puts the health and economic future of our children at risk. In the absence of leadership at the federal level, state and local governments must lead the effort to protect the future of our communities, the commonwealth and our country.

That is why I introduced H.R. 421, urging Pennsylvania to join the 1,200 local officials, businesses  including Apple, Facebook, Google, Target and Walmart  and educational institutions across the nation who have committed to upholding elements of the Paris Agreement by signing on to the U.S. Climate Alliance. Many Pennsylvanians have already joined the effort: The signers include nine Pennsylvania mayors and the leaders of 15 Pennsylvania colleges and universities, including the presidents of Allegheny College, Bryn Mawr College, Chatham University, Drexel University, Elizabethtown College, Gettysburg University, Lebanon Valley College, Lehigh University, Millersville University, Penn State University and Villanova University.

Formed in response to the president's decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, members of the U.S. Climate Alliance are committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 26 to 28 percent from 2005 levels and meeting or exceeding the goals of the federal Clean Power Plan. By committing to clear benchmarks, we can start to mitigate the harmful effects of climate change  such as rising temperatures, extreme weather, increased smog and more  while creating family-sustaining jobs in Pennsylvania.

According to a report released last year, 5,400 direct and indirect jobs would be created every year if the U.S. meets its goals to reduce methane emissions by the oil and gas industry. Many of the jobs created in the clean energy sector pay well and provide long-term security. The median hourly wage for workers in the methane mitigation industry is $30.88, for example, compared with $19.60 for all U.S. jobs.

Joining the Climate Alliance is a step toward fulfilling our moral obligation to provide the next generation with an environment in better shape than the one we inherited. If we don't commit ourselves to taking action, we hand our children a world of increased food insecurity, higher rates of respiratory diseases like asthma, and increased transmission of some infectious diseases, just some of the negative effects of climate change.

By adopting my resolution and urging Gov. Wolf to sign Pennsylvania to join the thirteen states already in the Climate Alliance, we can position our commonwealth to be a leader in sustainable energy jobs for decades to come, all while ensuring for our children a planet with breathable air, drinkable water and a livable climate.

I thank my 39 colleagues in the General Assembly who have signed on as co-sponsors for H.R. 421. If you also want Pennsylvania to be a leader in the fight against climate change, contact your local elected officials and urge them to step up and fill the leadership void created by Trump.

Leanne Krueger-Braneky is a Democratic state representative from Delaware County.
Harrisburg lawmakers have been accused of plenty of bad traits over the years  and we've done some of that accusing  but in light of their recent actions, here's another this body deserves: They must suffer from a crippling fear of success.

Consider that in the past decade or so, two major and lucrative industries have taken hold in Pennsylvania: gambling and gas drilling. Both have performed beyond expectations, enriching their operators. And yet, a decade in, lawmakers find themselves once again scrambling to cover a massive budget hole and so desperately out of ideas that they have considered borrowing to cover the deficit.

What's wrong with this picture? Plenty, especially when it comes to the gas industry, which enjoys access to the Marcellus Shale formation virtually unfettered by anything, including a tax on the trillions of cubic feet of gas that they extract from our land each year.

They do pay a slight fee based on the number of wells. But after years of resisting this obvious and fair source of revenue, the State Senate last week approved a proposal that would add an extraction tax to gas drilling of the Marcellus Shale. Finally!

While it's hard to know what the House will do with this. This step is an accomplishment of sorts, albeit one derived from a $2 billion budget shortfall and a now-empty bag of tricks and gimmicks used over the years to paper over an ongoing structural deficit.

Pennsylvania has been in an enviable position since the discovery of new ways of accessing the abundant gas in the Marcellus Shale formation. We're not the only state that is drilling for gas, but we are the only one that doesn't tax the gas extracted from the wells.

The current fee has a minimal impact on the state budget, and has actually declined in recent years.

Gov. Wolf campaigned on a 5 percent extraction tax; that's the rate that West Virginia taxes gas extraction. The Senate is proposing a small tax that coupled with the current impact fee, would bring the effective tax rate to 2 percent, according to the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center. It will bring in about $100 million this year.

But two booby traps come with this proposal: The bill also calls for loosening of permitting regulations. Fracking has a huge impact on the environment, so this is especially troublesome. But the worst part of the proposal would impose a 5.7 percent tax on consumers' purchase of natural gas. That would bring in $303 million  three times the revenue from gas drillers.

That's a stunning insult to taxpayers, whether they're gas consumers or not. (The gas that Pennsylvania's customers use doesn't even come from Pennsylvania. Most of the gas extracted here goes elsewhere.)

It's a stark picture of lawmakers' priorities that they would burden consumers instead of an industry that should be paying its fair share for the riches it gains here.

Is Harrisburg is so accustomed to failure that it doesn't even recognize a clear path to success?

Then again, maybe we're being too kind. In a recent statement, the rating agency Standard & Poor's had a less polite way of describing the situation:

"Pennsylvania's chronic misalignment and eroding general fund position, particularly during a period of economic growth, demonstrate a pattern of financial mismanagement."

An extraction tax is a logical solution to our massive problem. Too bad the current proposal falls far short of being a solution.
Farmers and vets are being urged to continue following current prescription guidelines and completing courses of animal treatments, after some health experts questioned the validity of currently accepted guidelines.

An article published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) suggested that there is little evidence that failing to complete a prescribed antibiotic course could contribute to antibiotic resistance.

But the British Veterinary Association (BVA) is cautioning against any changes to the duration or dosage of antibiotic prescriptions, until further evidence is provided to support such changes.

BVA junior vice president John Fishwick said the UK veterinary profession is committed to the responsible use of antibiotics. Medicines should never be used to compensate for poor husbandry practices and routine habitual prophylactic use in healthy animals to prevent disease is a no-go, he said.

The article in the BMJ suggests that antibiotics should be used for as short a period as possible, and that we should move away from the concept of following a predetermined course. This may indeed be a very important advance, but it is far too early to determine how this would work in veterinary practice. We need to clearly establish the evidence supporting it.

We support the researchers calls for clinical trials to determine the most effective strategies for antibiotic treatment. Until further studies are conducted, it is too early to change the way we prescribe medicines and vets should continue to prescribe as previously, only when necessary. It is also vital that clients continue to follow the directions given by their vets, both in terms of dosage and duration of treatment, carefully.

Mark Fielder, Professor of Medical Microbiology with Kingston University London and member of the Responsible Use of Medicine in Agricultures (RUMA) Scientific Group, reiterated the advice.

He said: While it is right to debate and question current practice in science in medicine, it is also important to ensure the continuation of best practice unless new evidence suggests otherwise.

He said: It is imperative that the full course of antibiotics are used following culture and sensitivity testing to ensure that the drug has had the opportunity to act against the invading organism and achieve the best outcome.

This will also help in the prevention of resistance development as if the correct antibiotic is prescribed and administered in the most appropriate way, then it follows that there is the best opportunity for the organism to be killed, dead organisms do not mutate and so develop resistance.

This mirrors the advice from the chief medical officer Dame Sally Davies, who has said the message to the public on medical use of antibiotics should remain unchanged until there is further research.

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Get Chris Errington's exclusive behind-the-scenes take on life at Argyle in his weekly Inside Home Park newsletter

Former Plymouth Argyle striker Jordan Slew has not been offered a contract by Mansfield Town after playing as a trialist in some of their pre-season games.

However, manager Steve Evans has not totally ruled out the prospect of the 24-year-old earning a deal with the Stags.

Evans said: At this stage we are not going to do anything, but things do change.

He has a couple of offers in our league. He is a great lad and can use our facilities and you never say never in this business.

(Image: Dave Rowntree)

If he takes one of the options we will be the first to shake his hand and wish him well.

Slew had a short trial with Mansfields League Two rivals Swindon Town at the start of pre-season.

He signed for Argyle from Cambridge United last summer and made a total of 40 appearances, including 23 starts, and scored six goals.
Police are searching for two people after an off-duty Georgia State University police officer was shot Sunday night during an attempted armed robbery in southwest Atlanta.

Officer LaToya Denise Crook, an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, was walking with her friend in the 1400 block of Donnelly Avenue when two men came up to them and tried to rob them about 9:30 p.m., authorities said.

At some point, one of the males told them to give it up, Atlanta police Sgt. John Chafee told Channel 2 Action News. A struggle ensued between one of the females and one of the males and the male on the bicycle produced a firearm and fired at least one time at the female.

The off-duty officer returned fire, but the men ran away. It is unclear if they were hit, AJC.com reports.

The officer was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital with gunshot wounds to the hand and torso, but is expected to be OK.
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By Roberta Rampton

WASHINGTON (Reuters)  Republicans on Sunday urged President Donald Trumps new chief of staff John Kelly to rein in the chaos within the White House on Monday but said the retired Marine Corps general will be challenged to assert control.

In his first six months in office, Trump has upended White House convention with a loose decision-making style and an open-door policy to his Oval Office for advisers, both internal and external. Infighting among his senior staff has become bitter and public.

Hes going to have to reduce the drama, reduce both the sniping within and reduce the leaks, and bring some discipline to the relationships, Karl Rove, a Republican strategist and former White House adviser to George W. Bush, said on Fox News Sunday.

Trump announced Kelly would replace his embattled chief of staff Reince Priebus at the end of a particularly chaotic week that saw his first legislative effort  healthcare reform  fail in Congress.

He (Trump) is in a lot of trouble. This week was the most tumultuous week weve seen in a tumultuous presidency, Rove said.

On top of the healthcare debacle, Trump came under fire for banning transgender people from the military, and was pilloried for politicizing a speech he made to the Boy Scouts.

Adding fuel to the fire, his new communications director Anthony Scaramucci unleashed a string of profane criticism about Priebus and Trump strategist Steven Bannon to a New Yorker magazine reporter.

Republicans welcomed Trumps decision to bring in Kelly, who starts on Monday.

I think he will bring some order and discipline to the West Wing, said Republican Senator Susan Collins and Trump critic on NBCs Meet the Press.

The last week heightened concerns in Trumps party that the distractions and West Wing dysfunction would derail other legislative priorities, including tax reform and debt ceiling negotiations.

White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said he thought Priebus had been effective but was probably a little bit more laid back in the way he ran the office.

I think the president wants to go in a different direction, wants a little bit more discipline, a little more structure in there, said Mulvaney, who reports to the chief of staff.

It is not yet clear whether all of Trumps senior staff will answer to Kelly. Some members, including Scaramucci and senior counselor Kellyanne Conway, report directly to Trump, a structure which gives them more power.

I will do whatever the president and our new chief of staff General Kelly ask me to do, Conway told Fox News Fox News Sunday.

Kelly should be empowered to be the gatekeeper to the Oval Office, said Mike Huckabee, the former Republican governor of Arkansas, whose daughter Sarah Sanders is Trumps spokeswoman.

Thats what needs to happen, but thats going to be up to the president, Huckabee said on Fox News Sunday Morning Futures.

The president has a very different style, hes very open, the door is open, he invites people to just come on it to a meeting, Huckabee said.

To be effective, Kelly needs to find a way to work within Trumps untraditional style, said Corey Lewandowski, who was a former campaign manager to Trump, and remains close to the president.

The thing that General Kelly should do is not try to change Donald Trump, Lewandowski said on NBCs Meet the Press.

Anybody who thinks theyre going to change Donald Trump doesnt know Donald Trump, Lewandowski said.

(Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell, Sarah N. Lynch, and Caren Bohan; Editing by Mary Milliken)
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By Ben Blanchard and Elias Glenn

BEIJING (Reuters)  China hit back on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted he was very disappointed in China following Pyongyangs latest missile test, saying the problem did not arise in China and that all sides need to work for a solution.

China has become increasingly frustrated with American and Japanese criticism that it should do more to rein in Pyongyang. China is North Koreas closest ally, but Beijing is angry with its continued nuclear and missile tests.

North Korea said on Saturday it had conducted another successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile that proved its ability to strike the U.S. mainland, drawing a sharp warning from Trump and a rebuke from China.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spoke with Trump on Monday and agreed on the need for more action on North Korea just hours after the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations said Washington is done talking about North Korea.

A White House statement after the phone call said the two leaders agreed that North Korea poses a grave and growing direct threat to the United States, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and other countries near and far.

It said Trump reaffirmed our ironclad commitment to defend Japan and South Korea from any attack, using the full range of United States capabilities.

Trump wrote on Twitter on Saturday after the missile test that he was very disappointed in China and that Beijing profits from U.S. trade but had done nothing for the United States with regards to North Korea, something he would not allow to continue.

Chinas Foreign Ministry, in a statement sent to Reuters responding to Trumps tweets, said the North Korean nuclear issue did not arise because of China and that everyone needed to work together to seek a resolution.

All parties should have a correct understanding of this, it said, adding the international community widely recognized Chinas efforts to seek a resolution.

The essence of Sino-U.S. trade is mutual benefit and win-win, with a vast amount of facts proving the healthy development of business and trade ties is good for both countries, the ministry added.

Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Qian Keming, weighed in too, telling a news conference there was no link between the North Korea issue and China-U.S. trade.

We think the North Korea nuclear issue and China-US trade are issues that are in two completely different domains. They arent related. They should not be discussed together, Qian said.

China, with which North Korea does the large majority of its trade, has repeatedly said it strictly follows U.N. resolutions on North Korea and has denounced unilateral U.S. sanctions as unhelpful.

Nikki Haley, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, said in a statement China must decide if it is willing to back imposing stronger U.N. sanctions on North Korea over Friday nights long-range missile test, the Norths second this month.

Any new U.N. Security Council resolution that does not significantly increase the international pressure on North Korea is of no value, Haley said, adding that Japan and South Korea also needed to do more.

Abe told reporters after his conversation with Trump that repeated efforts by the international community to find a peaceful solution to the North Korean issue had yet to bear fruit in the face of Pyongyangs unilateral escalation.

International society, including Russia and China, need to take this seriously and increase pressure, Abe said. He said Japan and the United States would take steps towards concrete action but did not give details.

Abe and Trump did not discuss military action against North Korea, nor what would constitute the crossing of a red line by Pyongyang, Deputy Chief Cabinet spokesman Koichi Hagiuda told reporters.

Pyongyang is determined to develop its nuclear and missile program and does not care about military threats from the U.S. and South Korea, state-run Chinese tabloid the Global Times said on Monday.

How could Chinese sanctions change the situation? said the paper, which is published by the ruling Communist Partys official Peoples Daily.

China wants both balanced trade with the United States and lasting peace on the Korean peninsula, its official Xinhua news agency added in a commentary.

However, to realize these goals, Beijing needs a more cooperative partner in the White House, not one who piles blame on China for the United States failures, it added.

The United States flew two supersonic B-1B bombers over the Korean peninsula in a show of force on Sunday in response to the missile test and the July 3 launch of the Hwasong-14 rocket, the Pentagon said. The bombers took off from a U.S. air base in Guam and were joined by Japanese and South Korean fighter jets during the exercise.

North Korea remains the most urgent threat to regional stability, Pacific Air Forces commander General Terrence J. OShaughnessy said in a statement.

If called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal, and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing.

(For a graphic on nuclear North Korea, click : http://tmsnrt.rs/2lE5yjF)

(Additional reporting by Chang-ran Kim in TOKYO, Ben Blanchard and Elias Glenn in BEIJING, Christine Kim in SEOUL and Steve Holland in WASHINGTON; Editing by Lincoln Feast, Paul Tait and Michael Perry)
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The Obama backed, and Eric Holder chaired, National Democratic Redistricting Committee has raised $10.8 million in six months in their effort to combat Republican election rigging through gerrymandering.

Politico reported:

The National Democratic Redistricting Committee, the group backed by former President Barack Obama and chaired by former Attorney General Eric Holder to make Democrats competitive in redistricting fights, will finish July reporting $10.8 million, according to its financial filings.

.

Democrats are hoping that the group will be able to coordinate efforts between activists and interest groups in prioritized state legislative and governors races for the next round of redistricting after the 2020 census, as well as being the home of legal challenges on the state level and at the Supreme Court. Thats an enormous array of ambitious activities, in which theyll be going up against well-funded interests across the country. In most states, it is expected to be a major uphill battle to change the balance of power that could change the maps.

It is mindblowing that Democrats didnt have this sort of coordinated national effort already in place. The groups goals are ambitious, but the amount of money they have already been able to raise suggests that Democrats understand the importance of redistricting, and how vital it has become to the Republican Partys strategy for holding on to power.

Democrats have needed for decades to spend more money and organize in state gubernatorial and legislative races, so it is great to see this finally happen

Republicans like Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas are already freaking out and calling Obama and Holders efforts a George Soros backed Democratic plot to redraw district maps and take back power. Republicans are terrified because they have never been confronted in an organized fashion on their gerrymandering.

Barack Obama is no longer president, but he is striking at the belly of the Republican beast, and he knows exactly what it will take to end gerrymandering and return fairness back to US elections.

Obama isnt gone. He has taken up a new and quieter fight.
Watchdog and Public Service reporter

Thad Moore is a reporter on The Post and Couriers Watchdog and Public Service team and a graduate of the University of South Carolina. To share tips securely, reach Moore via ProtonMail at thadmoore@protonmail.com or on Signal at 843-214-6576.
Nearly two-thirds of South Carolina's utility customers have paid billions for a project that will likely never be completed, here's why and what is being done about it.
Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Sunshine and clouds mixed. High 77F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 56F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.
Adam Parker has covered many beats and topics for The Post and Courier, including race and history, religion, and the arts. He is the author of "Outside Agitator: The Civil Rights Struggle of Cleveland Sellers Jr.," published by Hub City Press.
Language teachers at high schools in Dorchester District 2 are putting on a March Madness-style competition in which students vote for music videos from around the world, all with the goal of promoting Spanish and other languages and cultures. Read moreDD2 teacher encourages learning foreign languages through 'music madness' tournament
Few outside the media probably took note, but the city of Charleston sent out one of its stranger news releases earlier this month, one that essentially said: Remember that property tax increase City Council passed last year? Never mind. Read moreBehre: Sales tax revenue means Charleston officials can be LOST at budget time
A Rochester man has been charged with multiple felonies after a police traffic stop and execution of a search warrant turned up large amounts of drugs, two loaded handguns and nearly $20,000 in cash.

Rashad Darnell Norwood, 37, was arrested July 11 in the 600 block of 12th Street Southeast.

After police put him in handcuffs and told him they would execute a search warrant at his home, he claimed it was not his address. He became visibly nervous, police said, and tried to run away. Officers tackled him about three houses down in a backyard.

They discovered a small bag containing about 2 grams of methamphetamine, as well as $325 in cash in his pockets, the report says.

The criminal interdiction unit of the Rochester Police Department entered Norwood's home in the 1300 block of 8 1/2 Street Southeast, where they allegedly found more than a half-pound of meth, more than a quarter-pound of cocaine, more than a quarter-pound of marijuana, about $19,000 in cash and two handguns  one of which had been reported stolen.

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Norwood was charged Friday via an amended complaint with one count of first-degree aggravated controlled substance crime; two counts of first-degree drug sale; two counts of first-degree drug possession; one count of fifth-degree drug sale; one count of fifth-degree drug possession; four counts of possessing ammo/any firearm after conviction for crime of violence; and three counts of controlled substance taxation-no stamp, all felonies. Norwood also faces one count of misdemeanor fleeing a peace officer by means other than a motor vehicle.

He remains in custody in lieu of $500,000 conditional bond and is due back in court Aug. 29.

Norwood was charged with second-degree murder after an incident July 8, 1999, in Blue Earth County. He was sentenced in December of that year to 15 years in prison.

In 2010, he was convicted of second-degree drug possession in Dodge County and sentenced to 78 months in prison.

In March 2015, Norwood was convicted in Ramsey County of second-degree drug possession and sentenced to 108 months in prison. A subsequent appeal to the Minnesota Court of Appeals was denied.
A Preston Republican wants to ban people from getting microchips implanted  unless it's for a medical reason.

Rep. Greg Davids said he is working on a bill to prohibit microchip implantation. His push for legislation comes after media reports that a Wisconsin company  Three Square Market  is offering to implant a microchip in its employees. The implant is the size of a grain of rice and would be placed between the forefinger and thumb. The chip, equipped with a Radio Frequency ID, would enable employees to enter the building or buy snacks at work.

Davids said allowing employers to microchip employees goes too far.

"It is kind of like George Orwell's 1984 coming a little later than we figured," he said.

The Wisconsin company's program is voluntary for its employees, but Davids still said he thinks it's a bad idea to allow chips to be implanted in people. He fears the devices could end up being used for purposes other than the ones stated  like tracking someone's movements.

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"We need to send a message that this is not the road we want to go down," he said.

Davids said he plans to introduce the bill when lawmakers return to the Capitol in February

Local Democrats mobilize for 'Resistance Summer'

Senate District 26 DFL Chairwoman Deb Staley said Rochester Democrats are keeping busy this summer with an eye toward the 2018 elections.

"With politics now, there's no off-season," Staley said.

Progressives are invited to gather for a community conversation from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Aug. 8 at the Olmsted County DFL office, 1500 First Ave. NE in Rochester. Staley said the goal is to make sure that various progressive groups are doing a better job coordinating. The party is also looking to identify likely supporters and update databases ahead of the 2018 election.

It's all part of the "Resistance Summer" effort launched by Democrats. Sixth District Rep. and Democratic National Committee Vice Chairman Keith Ellison sums up the movement's goal in a video posted on the Minnesota DFL's webpage.

"It's all about engaging the grassroots. It's all about the Democratic Party reaching out to activists everywhere," Ellison said.

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Pierson moves to Stewartville

Rep. Nels Pierson is a Rochester resident no longer. The local Republican recently moved to nearby Stewartville. Pierson and his wife, Nicole, purchased a historic building on Stewartville's Main Street. They are working to restore the 100-year-old plus building. All this is going on as Pierson is seriously mulling a bid for the 1st Congressional District seat.
Plastics are commonly portrayed as environmental villains. It is alleged that they never biodegrade, and therefore persist indefinitely in the environment. A few years ago it was even claimed, absurdly, that there are giant floating islands in the oceans, described in some quarters as twice the size of Texas, consisting of plastic.

None of that is true. Kip Hansen provides a useful corrective at Watts Up With That:

The simple fact is that plastics do degrade in the environment, especially in the ocean (and lakes, streams, rivers). When real scientists went out to investigate the marvelous Pacific Garbage Patch imaginatively described by Charles Moore, they found  well, almost nothing.

There is an enormous amount of missing plastic that some environmentalists claim must be floating in the ocean, somewhere. In fact, the missing plastic has been consumedif you will, recycled:

As we have seen, floating plastic in the sea rapidly breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces  being exposed to sunlight and the motion of the waves. When the size of the pieces reaches a seemingly critical point, smaller than 1 mm, the plastic disappears. Simply put, it has been known for the last ten years or so that the missing oceanic plastic is eaten. Not just by fishes, although certainly some is ingested and re-excreted by fishes, but actually consumed as food by microorganisms.

***

The tiny animals actually consume the plastic itself, much in the same way that they ate the oil from the Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill. (Scientific American magazine ran this piece: Meet the Microbes Eating the Gulf Oil Spill. ) The same principle involved in the melting of crushed ice vs. cubed ice operates here: the smaller bits have a greater surface area compared to their total volume, and at a critical size, the microorganisms eating away at the surfaces just eat it all up. The natural pathways for the degradation and biodegradation of plastics have been known since 2008-09 or so, splashed about in the major journals. This is not secret information.

So you can rest easy. Plastic is not forever. Does that mean that we should dump plastic objects into the ocean? Obviously not. Hansen concludes with some common sense observations:

Bottom Line: It is a Scientific Urban Legend that plastics are forever. Most plastics both degrade and biodegrade in the environment  whether in the oceans or in landfills. Some plastics  such as PVC  resist degradation and thus are useful as building materials replacing such things as metals in plumbing and lumber in siding and building. The floating rafts of plastic garbage-version of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a pernicious myth that needs to be dispelled at every opportunity. The missing 99% of the plastic in the oceans has been eaten, mostly by bacteria and other microbes. These little critters will continue to eat the plastic and if we reduce the amount of plastic going into the oceans, they may eventually eat it all up. Microbes are also eating up the plastic in landfills  albeit, much more slowly. Take Home Message: Kindergarten rules apply at all stages and areas of life: Pick up after yourself  clean up your own messes. We need to do all we can to keep every sort of trash, including plastics, contained and disposed of in a responsible manner  this keeps it out of the oceans and the rest of the natural environment. Plastics are valuable and should be recycled whenever possible into useful and valuable commodities, such as replacements for lumber in decking, shipping pallets, etc. Volunteerism to clean up beaches and reefs is effective and worthwhile. Responsible outdoor recreation, including boating, includes keeping your trash (and especially plastics) under control and disposed of properly ashore.

If anyone ever advocates capital punishment for those who throw trash off the decks of cruise ships, Im in. Sometimes, when talking to an environmentalist who goes on and on about global warming, etc., I like to change the subject and talk about littering and what can be done to stop it. Litter (including plastics) is, in my view, the most serious environmental issue, albeit one that never seems to be of much interest to environmentalists who can raise much more money by talking about global warming.
A couple years ago I offered here some totally heretical thoughts on why, from a long-term historical perspective, even radical climate change was not the existential threat to humanity that the Goreacles of the world constantly scream about. It was a very long post, but here are a couple of highlights:

Lets start with a question that no one ever discusses: where do human beings live on this planet? Inuits have lived near the arctic in primitive conditions for thousands of years. I hear it is very cold thereoften below zero for months at a time. Frankly I cant understand why they didnt move to Florida, but perhaps the tax rates in the Arctic were even more favorable than in the Sunshine State, or perhaps some ancient Seminole chief Big Trump built a wall. Likewise, Arabs and other tribes have lived in the desert for thousands of years where it is very hot (sometimes 125 degrees in the summer), yet became the cradle of civilization. (They seem to have lost that cradle lately, but thats a subject for another day.) Hmm: seems humans can flourish in a wide range of extreme temperatures. . . Yet a prospective four-degree global average temperature rise over a century or more is supposed to be the end of mankind? What kind of wimps do they take us for? This is silliness of the first order. But lets keep going. Lets go back 50,000 years or so, to the beginning of the human race as we know it, when there were, by some accounts, perhaps as few as 50,000 early humans (maybe as few as 5,000 by some reckonings) mostly clustered around the Rift Valley in Africa, chiefly because the rest of the world was too cold. Like Chicago, then under about a mile of ice. Humans didnt start to migrate around the globe in serious numbers until the last ice age ended and the place started warming up. . . But but but!!! Climate change will be radically disruptive! Twenty-foot sea level rise! More extreme storms! Droughts! Boiling frogs! Dogs and cats living together! A perfect storm of tipping points! And 45 other cliches I forgot to mention! Lets see: More disruptive than the black plague of the 14th century (one-third of Europe killed)? More disruptive than the Hundred-Years War or the Thirty-Years War? More disruptive than World War I and World War II? More disruptive than Nazism and Communism? We survived all of these, and moreover human progress continued. And climate change pales before prospective or active disruptions right in front of us. More disruptive than whats presently disrupting the Middle East? More disruptive than a President Trump? More disruptive than a prospective nuclear war between India and Pakistan (which has almost happened once)? I guarantee that if theres a major nuclear war in our future, UN climate conferences wont be very well attended, because no one will care about greenhouse gas emissions.

This is preface to bringing your attention to the splendid article in todays Wall Street Journal from David R. Henderson and John H. Cochrane, Climate Change Isnt the End of the World. (Access it through Google here if youre not a Journal subscriber.) I am quite ready to declare this to be the best article on climate change for 2017, even though we have five more months to go.

Partly thats because some of the arguments in it sound familiar:

Migration is costly. But much of the worlds population moved from farms to cities in the 20th century. Allowing people to move to better climates in the 21st will be equally possible. Such investments in climate adaptation are small compared with the investments we will regularly make in houses, businesses, infrastructure and education. And economics is the central questionunlike with other environmental problems such as chemical pollution. Carbon dioxide hurts nobodys health. Its good for plants. Climate change need not endanger anyone. If it didand you do hear such claimsthen living in hot Arizona rather than cool Maine, or living with Louisianas frequent floods, would be considered a health catastrophe today. Global warming is not the only risk our society faces. Even if science tells us that climate change is real and man-made, it does not tell us, as President Obama asserted, that climate change is the greatest threat to humanity. Really? Greater than nuclear explosions, a world war, global pandemics, crop failures and civil chaos? No. Healthy societies do not fall apart over slow, widely predicted, relatively small economic adjustments of the sort painted by climate analysis. Societies do fall apart from war, disease or chaos. Climate policy must compete with other long-term threats for always-scarce resources.

Do read the whole thing, and share it widely. And then sit back and watch the fireworks as the climatistas lose their minds over this heresy. I cant wait to see the outraged letters that pour in to the Journal over this.
In recent years, one catastrophe has followed upon another in the Middle East. In a bracing essay authored for Power Line, David Horowitz lays blame where it belongs, at the feet of the Obama administration:

During the eight years of the Obama administration, half a million Christians, Yazidis and Muslims were slaughtered in the Middle East by ISIS and other Islamic jihadists, in a genocidal campaign waged in the name of Islam and its God. Twenty million others were driven into exile by these same jihadist forces. Libya and Yemen became terrorist states. America  once the dominant foreign power and anti-jihadist presence in the region  was replaced by Russia, an ally of the monster regimes in Syria and Iran, and their terrorist proxies. Under the patronage of the Obama administration, Iran  the largest and most dangerous terrorist state, with the blood of thousands of Americans on its hands  emerged from its isolation as a pariah state to re-enter the community of nations and become the regions dominant power, arming and directing its terrorist proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and Yemen.

These disasters are a direct consequence of the policies of appeasement and retreat of the Obama administration. Beyond that, they are a predictable result of the Democratic Partys long-standing resistance to the so-called war on terror, and its sabotage of George Bushs efforts to enforce 17 UN Security Council resolutions in Iraq, aimed at maintaining international order and peace in the Middle East.

In fact, the primary cause of the disasters in the Middle East is the Democratic Partys sabotage of the War in Iraq. Democrats first voted to authorize the armed overthrow of Iraqs terror regime but within three months of its inception reversed their position 180 degrees and declared the war immoral, illegal & unnecessary. The reason for the Democrats reversal on the war had nothing to do with the war itself or the so-called absence of weapons of mass destruction, but was rather a political response to the fact that an anti-war Democrat, Howard Dean, was running away with their presidential nomination. It was this that caused John Kerry and his party to forget that the war was about Saddams defiance of 17 UN Security Council resolutions, and refusal to allow the UN inspectors to carry out their efforts to ascertain whether he had destroyed his chemical and biological arsenals.

Beginning in June 2003, Democrats began claiming  falsely  that Bush had lied to secure their support for the war. Bush lied, people died, became the lefts slogan to cripple the war effort. Bush couldnt have lied because Democrats had access to every bit of intelligence information on Iraq that he did. But this false narrative began what became a five-year campaign to demonize Americas commander-in-chief and undermine his efforts to subdue the terrorists and pacify the region.

The Democrats anti-war crusade climaxed with the election of Barack Obama, a leftwing activist and vocal opponent of the war, and of the majority of Senate Democrats who voted for it. At the time of Obamas election, America and its allies had won the war and subdued the terrorists by turning the Sunnis in Anbar province against them. But the new commander-in-chief, refused to use American forces to secure the peace, and instead set out to withdraw all American military personnel from Iraq. This was a fatal step that created a power vacuum, which was quickly filled by Iran and ISIS.

Obamas generals had advised him to maintain a post-war force of 20,000 troops in country along with the military base America had built in Baghdad. But Obama had made military withdrawal the centerpiece of his foreign policy and ignored his national security teams advice. Had he not done so, American forces would have been able to effectively destroy ISIS at its birth, saving more than 500,000 lives and avoiding the creation of nearly 20 million refugees in Syria and Iraq.

Instead of protecting Iraq and the region from the Islamic terrorists, Obama surrendered the peace, turning Iraq over to Iran and the terrorists, and betraying every American and Iraqi who had given their lives to keep them out. The message of the Obama White House  to be repeated through all eight years of his tenure  was that America was the disturber of the peace, and not radical Islamic terrorism  words he refused to utter. Instead he even removed the phrase war on terror from all official statements and replaced it with overseas contingency operations.

Second among the causes of the Middle Easts human tragedy was Obamas support for the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad whom his secretaries of state, Clinton and Kerry both endorsed as a democratic reformer on the very eve of his savage war against his own people. This was followed by Obamas refusal to enforce the red line he drew to prevent Assad from using chemical weapons on the Syrian population. When Assad did use them, Obama averted his eyes and papered over his culpability by arranging a phony deal with Russia to remove Assads chemical arsenal. Six years later, Assad was again using chemical weapons on Syrian civilians, the exposing Obamas ruse.

This capitulation to the Syrian tyrant was a powerful reiteration of Obamas signature message: The United States is the problem and is therefore committed to taking itself out of the picture. In other words, anti-American dictators and genocidal maniacs in the Middle East can have their way.

The third cause of the Middle Eastern morass was Obamas failure, early on in his Obama administration, to support the green revolution in Iran, when its brave citizens poured into the streets in 2009 to protest a rigged election and the totalitarian regime. Obamas silence was in effect support for the Jew-hating and America-hating regime, into whose ruling group Secretary of State Kerrys daughter soon married. Obamas betrayal of the Iranian people was a reiteration of his signature message to the region: America no longer cares to support freedom, and is willing to support its enemies, even those who kill Americans in the name of Islam.

The fourth cause of the Middle Eastern morass was Obamas intervention in Egypt  his overthrow of an American ally, Hosni Mubarak, and his open support for the Muslim Brotherhood, the spawner of al-Qaeda and Hamas and the chief sponsor of the Islamic jihad against the West. Obamas support for the Brotherhood was so strong that when it was overthrown by the Egyptian military following massive protests of the Egyptian people, the White House opposed the new regime of the pro-American General, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Through these policies, Obama alienated Americas most important Arab ally in the Middle East and opened the door to Russias influence in the region, and to the Kremlins alliance with its most barbaric regimes, Syria and Iran.

The fifth cause of the terrorist upsurge that has shattered the peace of the Middle East was Obamas unauthorized, illegal intervention in Libya and murder of its ruler Gaddafi  a ruthless dictator no doubt  but a dedicated enemy of al-Qaeda with whom he was actively at war. The result of this naked American aggression, whose chief advocates were Hillary Clinton and Samantha Power, was a Libya devoured by the terrorist wolves who now rule it  a failed state and a haven for the bloodthirsty savages of al-Qaeda and ISIS.

The sixth reason the Middle East is now in flames is Obamas policy of what he calls strategic patience but is in effect strategic cowardice and worse. Obamas failure to act decisively against ISIS  to take only one example  allowed the Islamic State (which Obama has even refused to concede is Islamic), to become the largest terrorist force ever, and to provide its armed missionaries with a free hand to destroy the oldest Christian community in the world in Iraq, exterminating 200,000 members of the faith, while driving many more into exile.

By way of contrast and showing what the Obama White House could have done, sixth months into the Trump administration, the ISIS stronghold of Mosul is liberated and Raqqa is about to fall, spelling the end of the Islamic State. The blood of those slaughtered Christians, as well as the Yazidis and Muslims, is squarely on the head of Barack Obama and his White House enablers  the Democratic Party and the Democrats kept press.

The seventh cause of the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East  and the one with the most long-lasting consequences  is Obamas embrace of the terrorist regime in Iran. Iran has killed more Americans than any other enemy of this country. Its kill list goes back to the Marine bombing of 1983 and includes the supply of every I.E.D. in Iraq used to blow up several thousand American soldiers.

Yet Obama built his entire Middle East policy around the so-called deal with Iran, which provides that nation with a path to nuclear weapons, and has no realistic inspection or enforcement mechanisms. The Iran deal lifted the sanctions that had been placed on a regime whose leaders were so openly contemptuous of Obama that they led chants of Death to America in the middle of the negotiations. The Iran deal brought Americas mortal enemy out of international isolation, provided it with the opportunity to acquire nuclear weapons, turned a blind eye to its ballistic missile development and stuffed its war chest with $200 billion in cash payments used to fund its weapons programs, and to support terrorist armies, including Hizbollah, Hamas and the Yemenite Houthis, busy creating havoc throughout the Middle East.

The Obama regimes role in the human disasters in the Middle East is a warning about what happens when American leaders sympathize with our enemies, hamstring our armed forces and abandon our responsibilities to help maintain the peace and defend freedom in a fractious, authoritarian and bloody-minded world. The Obama administrations enabling of the most barbaric forces in the Middle East is a national disgrace, and the most shameful episode in Americas post-World War II experience.

The path to rectifying these disasters and to stopping Islamic genocides of infidels in the Middle East, is first of all to restore Americas active presence in the region, taking a firm stance against radical Islamic terrorism. This is an effort which, thankfully, the Trump administration has already begun. Second, it is to make Americas policy firmly and consistently anti-terrorist, which the Trump administration has not yet done. This would mean, for example, cutting off all funds to the terrorist Palestinian Authority and the Hamas government in Gaza, and halting all peace negotiations until the Palestinians renounce terror and support Israels right to exist.

The lesson to remember in all this is that despite its human weaknesses and flaws, America is still the only great power in the world today that cares about human dignity and decency and has the wherewithal to defend them and the peace.
When Kerrin Wolf sat in a Delaware juvenile detention center to talk with youths about their roles in school prior to committing crimes, he found something very interesting.

Wolf had asked them if they had trouble in school, and many related to the idea that once they were suspended, they were labeled as hoodlums by their teachers from then on.

This is just one point in Wolfs findings when it comes to the school-to-prison pipeline  the current school disciplinary actions in the U.S., such as suspension, expulsion or getting police involved, that funnel young students out of the education system and into the criminal justice system. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds and minority groups tend to be disproportionately criminalized.

Wolf, who is an assistant professor of law in the School of Business at Stockton University, recently discussed his research at the second Salute to Stockton speaker series at Shirat Hayam Synagogue in Ventnor.

Last year, Wolf and his colleague Aaron Kupchik conducted a study titled School Suspensions and Adverse Experiences in Adulthood, where they looked at the disciplinary cycle that children and teenagers often go through and how that can lead to a life of crime.

According to the study, more than 3 million students are suspended in the United States each year  a number much larger than the 1 million in the 70s, according to Wolf.

For their study, Wolf and Kupchik followed students over a 14-year period and found, despite measuring students who attended the same schools and had similar economic backgrounds, that students being suspended were 72 percent more likely to be incarcerated as an adult. They also found that suspended students had a 31 percent greater chance of criminal involvement and a 22 percent greater chance of becoming victims of crime.

Another finding Wolf and Kupchik discovered was what exclusionary discipline, like suspension or expulsion, would do to a student.

Students who are suspended then miss time from school, and that means missed time from class. So they come back and scramble to catch up which can create frustration and more misbehaving, said Wolf, of Cherry Hill. Also, students suspended can then be labeled as troubled kids.

He has seen this when talking with teenagers and thinks talks like his recent one in Ventnor can help create a discussion for not only schools and student bodies, but for larger communities.

Its getting (the community) to think about it, he said.

Wolf said that often, its a natural response to see a troubled student in school and say that something has to be done in terms of punishment. But there are alternatives, Wolf said.

More people need to know that there are different ways to approach students than just kicking them out. Make suspension the last resort, he said.
TOMS RIVER  A woman's body was found around midnight Monday just north of Lavallete in Ocean County, said Point Pleasant Beach's mayor.

People were walking along Ortley Beach about midnight when they spotted a body, said Mayor Stephen Reid.

The body has not yet been identified, but Reid said he believes it could be that of the missing swimmer, Zuzana Oravcova, 24, of Slovakia.

"With the way the water and the wind were going, the location sounds about right," said Reid.

The National Weather Service had issued a warning about dangerous rip currents along the Jersey Shore this weekend. Red flags were posted on Point Pleasant beaches, Reid said.

Oravcova had been swimming with Thomas Kadlec, 23 also of Slovakia when they both began struggling in the high surf. Kadlec was able to return to shore, but Oravcova was reported missing about 2:25 a.m. Sunday, Point Pleasant Beach police said.

The Coast Guard searched for her from the water and air, but suspended the search Sunday night.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Laraza White, Jovana Jensen and Galen Spriggs are scheduled to make court appearances Tuesday morning on charges of human trafficking and promoting prostitution.

White, 24, and Jensen, 37, are scheduled for detention hearings before Judge Bernard E. DeLury in Atlantic County Superior Court in Mays Landing. Spriggs, 39, whose detention hearing had been set for Monday but was not held, is tentatively scheduled for a hearing Tuesday morning, the court said.

The suspects, all of Revere, Massachusetts, were each charged July 24 with one count of human trafficking and one of promoting prostitution. All three were sent to the Atlantic County jail.

The victim was recovered and received services from the Dream Catcher Program, according to Atlantic County Prosecutor Damon G. Tyner.

White was in court Thursday, but DeLury granted a three-day continuance for the detention hearing for both White and Jensen, who was not in court, at the states request.

Atlantic County Chief Assistant Prosecutor John Flammer said Thursday the investigation started 8 a.m. July 24 and continued throughout the day and night.

A search warrant was executed that night for one of the suspects vehicles, Flammer said. Several items were recovered through that process, Flammer said, and they were in the process of being processed.

The ongoing investigation involves a couple of other jurisdictions, Flammer said. The victim is 19 years old and was in the process of being put in a protective location, he said.

Additional charges may result for this defendant and the other defendants, Flammer said. Dectectives involved have produced a decent amount of discovery.

The discovery included witness statements, surveillance videos and investigation reports that were still in the process of being completed and provided to the defense.

Flammer said Thursday he anticipated he would be able to provide discovery to the defense after a day or so with redaction.
Safety takes spotlight as deaths rise among older motorcyclists

{child_byline}WALDY DIEZ

Staff Writer

{/child_byline}

LOWER TOWNSHIP  For Port Norris couple Dominick and Carol Cione, a Sunday motorcycle ride turned deadly July 9 on Seashore Road.

The couple, out for a morning ride with a friend, were knocked from their motorcycle when an SUV crossed the center line near Earl Drive.

They were pronounced dead at Cape Regional Medical Center.

The deaths of Dominick, 54, and Carol, 50, are part of a rising trend in motorcycle fatalities among older Americans.

There were 1,661 motorcycle deaths of people 50 and older in 2015, according to a November 2016 report by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Thats an increase of nearly 7 percent, up from 1,553 deaths the previous year. That age group accounted for 35 percent of the total 4,693 motorcycle fatalities, the most for 2015.

In the early 1980s, the proportion of fatally injured motorcyclists who were 50 or older started to increase, rising from 3 percent of all rider deaths in 1982 to 13 percent in 1999, and 35 percent in 2015, the IIHS study said.

There arent clear cut reasons for the increase in older motorcyclists deaths, although studies have suggested factors such as riders age and reaction times, and the growing number of older riders.

When older riders are injured, they are more likely to suffer complications, some as severe as death, according to a study on aging motorcyclists in Medical News Today.

Local riders interviewed say they believe it has to do with a lack of experience.

Credit card bikers are having a midlife crisis, said Wayne Tarapilli. Theyre either going to buy a Corvette or motorcycle. Or one of each.

The 60-year-old grew up in Vineland and now lives in Pittsgrove. He has been riding recreationally for about 50 years, he said.

Around 10 years old, my mother bought me a mini bike, and thats what started it all, Tarapilli said. I love the freedom and experience of it all. Its fun. My wife has one. Well go out for a Sunday drive, like you would go for a drive in your car.

Tarapilli described what he called credit card bikers as men in their 50s who buy Harley Davidson-branded items so others think theyre real riders. He stressed the importance of wearing proper gear, including suits with special body armor, as well as wearing a Department of Transportation-approved helmet.

All motorcyclists in New Jersey are required to wear DOT-approved helmets. But not all states require helmets.

All states that do must meet the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard.

Certified helmets have: a U.S. DOT symbol on the exterior rear of the helmet; the manufacturers label permanently attached inside; thick polystyrene foam lining; sturdy chinstraps; and they must weigh about three pounds, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration.

The NHTSA urges all riders to always wear U.S. DOT-compliant helmets because motorcyclist deaths are 27 times more likely than fatalities in other vehicles.

I agree that bringing attention to the issue generates discussion, but from what Ive read of the various accidents, there doesnt seem to be any one common denominator, said Sam Beloff, who lives in Gloucester County. Frankly, I think that there are no more accidents this year then there are in any other year. Its just that with social media, they get more attention.

Beloff has been riding for 42 years and is the assistant state representative of the Retreads Motorcycle Club. He also manages the South Jersey chapters social media presence. One way the local chapter of 250 members keeps safe is by riding in small, staggered groups.

Its scary sometimes, Tarapilli said. You sometimes see these people going down the road like theyre in a parade  like theres not traffic.

Tarapilli agreed the staggered formation is best, because if one rider has to maneuver suddenly, theres room for other riders to react.

All riders interviewed stressed the importance of safety, because you never know what is going to happen.

But that shouldnt stop anybody from riding.

It can be a challenge because of inattentive drivers, texting, deer  you name it, said Bob Benedetto, of Hammonton, a recreational rider who began riding motorcycles with his friends in his 50s.

I guess between the alternative of wrapping myself up in bubble wrap and waiting for my demise to find me or choosing to enjoy life and live it to the fullest, I live it, he said.
DUBLIN, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Asia-Pacific Collagen Market - Research Report - Growth, Trends & Forecasts (2017 - 2022)" report has been added to Research and Markets' offering.

Asia-Pacific will emerge as the most promising region for the global collagen market, by 2022. The region is home to the largest number of people, aged more than 60 years; it has witnessed an increased level of involvement of the government bodies in the past few years, towards raising the awareness regarding the health benefits of collagen.

Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at a faster pace than other regions, in the next five years. The prime reasons for the growth in the region is associated with the high growth in meat & confectionery industries, along with the growing awareness in the cosmetic, personal care and healthcare sectors.

Factors, such as the risk of injuries and side-effects related to collagen, the requirement of high capital investments, stringent regulatory guidelines and GMPs are hindering the growth of this market.



The collagen market is segmented into cattle, pigskin, and poultry & fish as collagen peptide sources. Japanese pharmacy shelves are lined with fruit-flavored shots, and collagen-infused marshmallows, called Precious, which has two grams of collagen. In Japan, people are consuming an average of five grams of collagen a day, mostly through drinkables.



China is home to major leading industry players. The Asia-Pacific collagen market continues to develop based on various market dynamics, such as the expanding application areas of collagen, increasing preference for collagen-based products, growing geriatric population, preference for minimally invasive or non-invasive technologies and the increasing use of collagen by biomedical industries.

The growth of this market is driven by the advancement of functional and processed food & beverage industries. Companies are forecasting development issuing equity and debt, which will help accelerate the growth of the collagen market.



Companies Mentioned:



Cargill.inc

Rousselot

Sapanan

Sinnipai Yakuhinin

Kim heng

Meiji

Kanro

Nitta Inc

Shenguan

Collagen Asia Pte Ltd

Rech Elist Pharma

Advance Inorganics



Key Topics Covered:



1. Introduction



2. Market Overview



3. Market Dynamics



4. Segmentation



5. Competitive Landscape



6. Company Profiles



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/f784jz/asiapacific

Media Contact:

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

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SOURCE Research and Markets
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

(All amounts in US$ unless otherwise specified)

Capstone Mining Corp. ("Capstone" or the "Company") (TSX: CS) today announced its financial results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2017. Cash flow from operating activities for the quarter was $4.1 million or $0.01 per share and cash flow from operating activities before changes in working capital for the quarter was $26.0 million or $0.07 per share. The net income for the quarter was $12.8 million or $0.03 per share and adjusted net income was $0.7 million or break-even on a per share basis after adjusting for certain non-cash and non-recurring charges. Copper production for the quarter totalled 24,002 tonnes (23,176 tonnes of payable copper) at a C1 cash cost[1] of $1.75 per payable pound produced with copper sales for the quarter of 20,771 tonnes at a C1 cash cost[1] of $1.74 per payable pound sold.

"Operational performance in the second quarter was on plan, with costs trending down from the first quarter," said Darren Pylot, President and CEO of Capstone. "Most importantly, Pinto Valley returned to full production, setting quarterly and monthly throughput records."

"For the second half of the year, approximately half of our production is unhedged and completely unhedged in 2018 and beyond," continued Mr. Pylot.

Overview 2017 Q2 2017 Q2 2016 YTD 2016 YTD Revenue ($ millions) 115.2 100.2 243.2 226.5 Copper produced (tonnes) 24,002 28,157 44,952 52,704 Payable copper produced (tonnes) 23,176 27,200 43,407 50,900 C1 cash cost per payable pound produced[1] ($/lb) 1.75 1.51 1.85 1.61 All-in cost per payable pound produced[1] ($/lb) 2.10 1.92 2.35 2.07 Fully-loaded all-in cost per payable pound produced[1] ($/lb) 2.26 2.01 2.51 2.19 Copper sold (tonnes) 20,771 22,549 42,353 50,534 Realized copper price per pound sold ($/lb)* 2.56 2.21 2.63 2.20 Adjusted realized copper price per pound sold ($/lb) ** 2.40 2.21 2.42 2.29 C1 cash cost per payable pound sold[1] ($/lb) 1.74 1.66 1.72 1.72 All-in cost per payable pound sold[1] ($/lb) 2.14 2.15 2.23 2.19 Fully-loaded all-in cost per payable pound sold[1] ($/lb) 2.31 2.26 2.39 2.30 Net income (loss) ($ millions) 12.8 (13.4) 5.4 (26.2) Net income (loss) attributable to shareholders ($ millions) 12.9 (13.2) 5.4 (25.9) Net income (loss) per common share ($) 0.03 (0.03) 0.01 (0.07) Adjusted net income (loss)[1] ($ millions) 0.7 (7.5) (1.7) (9.0) Adjusted net income (loss)[1] attributable to shareholders ($ millions) 0.8 (7.3) (1.7) (8.8) Adjusted income net loss[1] per common share ($) 0.00 (0.02) (0.00) (0.02) Cash flow from operating activities 4.1 1.1 26.1 33.3 Cash flow from operating activities per common share ($) 0.01 0.00 0.07 0.09 Operating cash flow before changes in working capital[1] ($ millions) 26.0 21.6 50.1 40.5 Operating cash flow before changes in working capital per common share[1] ($) 0.07 0.06 0.13 0.11 Cash and cash equivalents ($ millions) 82.4 100.2 82.4 100.2 Net debt[1 ]($ millions) 216.5 243.9 216.5 243.9 * Q2 2017 includes a provisional pricing adjustment of $0.2 million (2016 - negative $5.8 million) related to prior shipments, equivalent to nil per pound (2016 - $(0.12) per pound) of copper sold during the quarter. 2017 YTD includes a provisional pricing adjustment of $5.4 million (2016 - negative $11.5 million) related to prior shipments, equivalent to $0.06 per pound (2016 - ($0.10) per pound) of copper sold during the six month period. The Q2 2017 and 2017 YTD provisional pricing adjustments were predominantly related to assay adjustments. The Q2 2017 figure of ($0.2 million) is broken down as $0.6 million related to price adjustments and ($0.4 million) related to assay adjustments. This translates into adjustments of nil and nil respectively on a per pound sold basis. The YTD Q2 2017 figure of $5.4 million broken down as $3.7 million related to price adjustments and $1.7 million related to assay adjustments. This translates into adjustments of $0.04 and $0.02 respectively on a per pound sold basis. ** Q2 2017 adjusted realized copper price includes the provisional pricing adjustments noted above and realized loss of $7.7 million (2016 gain - $0.2 million) equivalent to $(0.16) per pound (2016 gain - nil per pound) related to copper derivative contracts exercised during the quarter. 2017 YTD adjusted realized copper price includes the provisional pricing adjustments noted above and realized loss of $19.3 million (2016 gain - $9.8 million) equivalent to $(0.21) per pound (2016 gain - 0.09 per pound) related to copper derivative contracts exercised during the period.

Financial Highlights for the Three Months Ended June 30, 2017

Net income of $12.8 million included: Earnings from mining operations of $21.1 million , Realized copper price of $2.56 per pound A commodity derivative gain of $3.8 million , comprising a realized loss of $7.7 million combined with an unrealized gain of $1.3 million and reversals of unrealized losses recorded in a previous period of $10.2 million , Production costs included a non-cash reversal of $(0.7) million related to the write-down of inventory at Pinto Valley, An income tax expense of $4.5 million .

included: Cash flow from operating activities of $4.1 million or $0.01 per common share.

or per common share. Operating cash flow before changes in working capital [ 1] of $26.0 million or $0.07 per common share.

of or per common share. Working capital increased $8.7 million to $157.0 million at June 30, 2017 from $148.3 million at March 31, 2017 . Cash decreased to $82.4 million at June 30, 2017 from $109.4 million at March 31, 2017 largely as a result of a $10.0 million debt repayment made in April, 2017 and $9.0 million in payments made related to the commodity derivatives during Q2'17.

to $157.0 million at from at . Cash decreased to at from at largely as a result of a debt repayment made in April, 2017 and in payments made related to the commodity derivatives during Q2'17. Production of 23,176 tonnes of payable copper at a C1 cash cost [ 1] of $1.75 per pound of payable copper produced and fully-loaded all-in cost [ 1] of $2.26 per pound of payable pound copper produced.

of per pound of payable copper produced and fully-loaded all-in cost of per pound of payable pound copper produced. Revenue of $115.2 million generated primarily from the sale of 20,771 tonnes of copper.

Financial Highlights for the Six Months Ended June 30, 2017

Net income of $5.4 million or $0.01 per common share which included: Earnings from mining operations of $48.1 million , Production costs included a non-cash charge of $0.4 million related to the write-down of inventory at Pinto Valley, A commodity derivative loss of $10.1 million , comprising a realized loss of $19.4 million , an unrealized loss of $6.0 million and reversals of unrealized losses recorded in a previous period of $15.3 million . $8.4 million in current and deferred income tax expense.

or per common share which included: Cash flow from operating activities of $26.1 million or $0.07 per common share.

or per common share. Operating cash flow before changes in working capital [ 1] of $50.1 million or $0.13 per common share.

of or per common share. Working capital decreased $14.1 million to $157.0 million at June 30, 2017 from $171.1 million at December 31, 2016 . Cash decreased to $82.4 million at June 30, 2017 from $130.4 million at December 31, 2016 largely as a result of $30.0 million in debt repayments and $19.3 million in payments made related to the commodity derivatives during 2017 YTD.

to $157.0 million at from at . Cash decreased to at from at largely as a result of in debt repayments and in payments made related to the commodity derivatives during 2017 YTD. Production of 43,407 tonnes of payable copper at a C1 cash cost [ 1] of $1.85 per pound of payable copper produced and fully-loaded all-in cost [ 1] of $2.51 per pound of payable pound copper produced.

of per pound of payable copper produced and fully-loaded all-in cost of per pound of payable pound copper produced. Revenue of $243.2 million generated primarily from the sale of 42,353 tonnes of copper.

Production and Additional Highlights for the Three and Six Months Ended June 30, 2017

Pinto Valley Mine:

Produced 15,491 tonnes of copper during Q2 2017 at a C1 cash cost [ 1] of $1.84 per pound of payable copper produced and all-in cost [ 1] of $2.17 per pound of payable copper produced.

of per pound of payable copper produced and all-in cost of per pound of payable copper produced. Produced 26,791 tonnes of copper during 2017 YTD at a C1 cash cost [ 1] of $1.98 per pound of payable copper produced and all-in cost [ 1] of $2.42 per pound of payable copper produced.

of per pound of payable copper produced and all-in cost of per pound of payable copper produced. At Pinto Valley, throughput averaged 58,700 tonnes per day ("tpd") for the quarter, setting a quarterly throughput record as well as achieving a new monthly throughput record in May of 60,350 tpd. Grade, recoveries and production were as planned for the quarter.

Cozamin Mine:

Produced 4,106 tonnes of copper during Q2 2017 at a C1 cash cost [ 1] of $1.19 per pound of payable copper produced and all-in cost [ 1] of $1.73 per pound of payable copper produced.

of per pound of payable copper produced and all-in cost of per pound of payable copper produced. Produced 8,236 tonnes of copper during 2017 YTD at a C1 cash cost [ 1] of $1.26 per pound of payable copper produced and all-in cost [ 1] of $1.84 per pound of payable copper produced.

of per pound of payable copper produced and all-in cost of per pound of payable copper produced. At Cozamin, grade and recoveries were as expected, with throughput continuing ahead of plan with ongoing improvement in mine production and mine development.

On April 4, 2017 , the precious metal streaming arrangement with Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (formerly Silver Wheaton Corp.) expired. After this date, the full silver by-product credit is earned by Cozamin resulting in an increase to by-product credits of $0.23 per payable pound of copper produced in Q2 2017 vs. Q2 2016.

Minto Mine:

Produced 4,406 tonnes of copper during Q2 2017 at a C1 cash cost [ 1] of $1.93 per pound of payable copper produced and all-in cost [ 1 ] of $1.95 per payable pound of copper produced.

of per pound of payable copper produced and all-in cost of per payable pound of copper produced. Produced 9,926 tonnes of copper during 2017 YTD at a C1 cash cost [ 1] of $2.00 per pound of payable copper produced and an all-in cost [ 1 ] of $2.03 per payable pound of copper produced.

of per pound of payable copper produced and an all-in cost of per payable pound of copper produced. At Minto , production for the quarter was impacted by mine sequencing changes to support a mine life extension. Throughput continued higher than planned, but head grade and recoveries were lower than originally guided due to a higher percentage of partially oxidized ore feeding the mill from the Area 2, Stage 3 open pit and underground mining running slightly behind schedule.

, production for the quarter was impacted by mine sequencing changes to support a mine life extension. Throughput continued higher than planned, but head grade and recoveries were lower than originally guided due to a higher percentage of partially oxidized ore feeding the mill from the Area 2, Stage 3 open pit and underground mining running slightly behind schedule. At current copper prices, Capstone anticipates the continuation of operations at Minto until mid-2020, subject to permitting and regulatory approvals. Capstone is also evaluating further deposits for re-inclusion into reserves, which may support additional mine life beyond 2020.

Additional highlights:

Capstone repaid $10 million on the senior secured corporate revolving credit facility ("RCF") on April 19, 2017 , reducing drawn debt to $298.9 million .

Outlook

Production Guidance:

Capstone expects to be within the range of 2017 consolidated production guidance of 94,000 tonnes (5%) of copper. Minto and Cozamin are expected to complete the year on, or above, plan, largely offsetting Pinto Valley's first quarter deficit.

Operating Cost Guidance:

Capstone anticipates that consolidated C1 cash cost[1], All-in cost[1] and Fully-loaded all-in cost[1] will end the year between $0.15 and $0.20 per pound of payable copper produced higher than originally guided.

At Minto, C1 cash cost[1 ]and all-in cost[1]are expected to increase by approximately $0.50 per pound of payable copper produced. The mine sequencing changes to support the mine life extension have resulted in lower production than initially guided in the first half of 2017. In addition, the revised Minto mine plan that extends operations beyond 2017 brings the Minto East underground and an extension of the Area 2 open pit into the mine plan. Development to access the Minto East deposit is ongoing and the stripping of the extension of the Area 2 pit will commence in H2'17, with resulting ore processed primarily in 2018. Because the development and stripping activities related to Minto East and the extension of the Area 2 pit are planned to take less than 12 months, all development and stripping costs will be expensed in 2017. The Area 2 open pit extension will supplement the ore mined from the higher grade underground deposits.

At Pinto Valley, increased costs related to the first quarter production deficit are expected to add between $0.10 and $0.20 to Pinto Valley's C1 cash cost[1 ]and all-in cost[1]per pound of payable copper produced.

Cozamin's 2017 C1 cash cost[1 ]and all-in cost[1 ]are expected to be slightly higher than guided as a result of lower by-product credits per payable pound of copper produced and additional planned capital, respectively.

1. This is an alternative performance measure; please see "Alternative Performance Measures" at the end of this release.

Capital and Exploration Guidance

At Cozamin, an additional $1.0 million in capital development is planned to be spent by year-end as the mine has been advancing at higher than planned development rates. As a result Cozamin's 2017 sustaining capital guidance is increased from $18.0 million to $19.0 million.

Also at Cozamin, a further $1.1 million has been approved to test brownfield targets along strike from the Mala Noche Footwall Zone ("MNFWZ") and east of the San Rafael zinc zone, and as a result, Cozamin's 2017 capitalized exploration guidance is increased from $5.0 million to $6.1 million.

At Minto, $0.6 million has been added to the 2017 H2 capital budget for definition drilling at Minto East and Ridgetop in support of the design of the extended mine plan.

All other capital and exploration guidance remains unchanged.

Conference Call and Webcast Details

Capstone will hold a conference call and webcast on Monday, July 31, 2017 at 11:30 a.m. Eastern time (8:30 a.m. Pacific time) to discuss these results.

Date: Monday, July 31, 2017 Time: 11:30 am Eastern Time (8:30 am Pacific Time) Dial in: North America: 1-888-390-0546, International: +416-764-8688 Webcast: http://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=1421361&s=1&k=20DB088377B441B928A92B347D0179CE Replay: North America: 1-888-390-0541, International: +416-764-8677 Replay Passcode: 103102#

The conference call replay will be available until Monday, August 7, 2017. The conference call audio and transcript will be available on Capstone's website within 48 hours of the call at http://capstonemining.com/investors/events-and-presentations/default.aspx.

This release should be read in conjunction with Capstone's consolidated financial statements and management's discussion and analysis ("MD&A") for the quarter ended June 30, 2017, which are available on Capstone's website at http://capstonemining.com/investors/financial-reporting/default.aspx and on SEDAR. An updated corporate presentation, including results to June 30, 2017, in addition to the Q2 2017 webcast slides, will also be available at http://capstonemining.com/investors/events-and-presentations/default.aspx.

About Capstone Mining Corp.

Capstone Mining Corp. is a Canadian base metals mining company, focused on copper. We are committed to the responsible development of our assets and the environments in which we operate. Our three producing mines are the Pinto Valley copper mine located in Arizona, US, the Cozamin polymetallic mine in Zacatecas State, Mexico and the Minto copper mine in Yukon, Canada. In addition, Capstone has two development projects; the large scale 70% owned copper-iron Santo Domingo project in Region III, Chile, in partnership with Korea Resources Corporation, and the 100% owned Kutcho copper-zinc project in British Columbia, Canada, as well as exploration properties in Chile and US. Capstone's strategy is to focus on the optimization of operations and assets in politically stable, mining-friendly regions, centred in the Americas. Our headquarters are in Vancouver, Canada and we are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). Further information is available at http://www.capstonemining.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This document may contain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this document and Capstone does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable securities legislation.

Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect our expectations or beliefs regarding future events. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the estimation of mineral resources and mineral reserves, the realization of mineral reserve estimates, the timing and amount of estimated future production, costs of production and capital expenditures, the success of our mining operations, environmental risks, unanticipated reclamation expenses and title disputes. In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "believes" or variations of such words and phrases, or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative of these terms or comparable terminology. In this document certain forward-looking statements are identified by words including "anticipate", "guidance", "outlook", "planned", "expects" and "expected". By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, amongst others, risks related to inherent hazards associated with mining operations, future prices of copper and other metals, compliance with financial covenants, surety bonding, our ability to raise capital, Capstone's ability to acquire properties for growth, counterparty risks associated with sales of our metals, use of financial derivative instruments and associated counterparty risks, foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, changes in general economic conditions, accuracy of mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates, operating in foreign jurisdictions with risk of changes to governmental regulation, compliance with governmental regulations, compliance with environmental laws and regulations, reliance on approvals, licences and permits from governmental authorities, impact of climatic conditions on our Pinto Valley, Cozamin and Minto operations, aboriginal title claims and rights to consultation and accommodation, land reclamation and mine closure obligations, uncertainties and risks related to the potential development of the Santo Domingo Project, increased operating and capital costs, challenges to title to our mineral properties, maintaining ongoing social license to operate, dependence on key management personnel, potential conflicts of interest involving our directors and officers, corruption and bribery, limitations inherent in our insurance coverage, labour relations, increasing energy prices, competition in the mining industry, risks associated with joint venture partners, our ability to integrate new acquisitions into our operations, cybersecurity threats, legal proceedings and other risks of the mining industry as well as those factors detailed from time to time in the Company's interim and annual financial statements and management's discussion and analysis of those statements, all of which are filed and available for review under the Company's profile on SEDAR at http://www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those described in our forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause our results, performance or achievements not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that our forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as our actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements.

National Instrument 43-101 Compliance

Unless otherwise indicated, Capstone has prepared the technical information in this news release ("Technical Information") based on information contained in the technical reports, news releases and MD&A's (collectively the "Disclosure Documents") available under Capstone Mining Corp.'s company profile on SEDAR at http://www.sedar.com. Each Disclosure Document was prepared by, or under the supervision of, a qualified person (a "Qualified Person") as defined in National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators ("NI 43-101"). Readers are encouraged to review the full text of the Disclosure Documents which qualifies the Technical Information. Readers are advised that mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The Disclosure Documents are each intended to be read as a whole, and sections should not be read or relied upon out of context. The Technical Information is subject to the assumptions and qualifications contained in the Disclosure Documents.

The technical information in this news release ("Technical Information") was prepared by, or under the supervision of, a qualified person (a "Qualified Person") as defined in National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators ("NI 43-101"). The disclosure of the Technical Information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Gregg Bush, P. Eng., Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Technical Information related to mineral exploration activities has been reviewed and approved by Brad Mercer, P. Geol., Senior Vice President, Exploration. Both are Qualified Persons under NI 43-101.

Alternative Performance Measures

The items marked with a "[1]" are alternative performance measures and readers should refer to Alternative Performance Measures in the Company's Consolidated Management's Discussion and Analysis for the quarter ended June 30, 2017 as filed on SEDAR and as available on the Company's website.

Cautionary Note to United States Investors

This news release contains disclosure that has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of Canadian securities laws, which differ from the requirements of US securities laws. Without limiting the foregoing, this news release may refer to technical reports that use the terms "indicated" and "inferred" resources. US investors are cautioned that, while such terms are recognized and required by Canadian securities laws, the SEC does not recognize them. Under US standards, mineralization may not be classified as a "reserve" unless the determination has been made that the mineralization could be economically and legally produced or extracted at the time the reserve determination is made. US investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of indicated resources will ever be converted into reserves. US investors should also understand that "inferred resources" have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence and as to whether they can be mined legally or economically. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of "inferred resources" will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Therefore, US investors are also cautioned not to assume that all or any part of inferred resources exist, or that they can be mined legally or economically. Accordingly, information concerning descriptions of mineralization and resources contained in this news release may not be comparable to information made public by US companies subject to the reporting and disclosure requirements of the SEC.

Cindy Burnett, VP, Investor Relations and Communications, 604-637-8157, cburnett@capstonemining.com

SOURCE Capstone Mining Corp.
LONDON, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Chubb today announced the appointment of three new positions within its regional claims team.

Marc Scheidegger has been appointed as Claims Director, Continental Europe, and will be based in Paris. With 22 years of experience in the insurance industry, Marc has joined Chubb from Zurich where he served in a series of senior claims roles with international responsibilities  most recently as Chief Claims Officer, Hong Kong General Insurance.

John Latter has been appointed as Claims Director, UK and Ireland, and is based in London. John has more than 30 years of insurance industry experience and also joins Chubb from Zurich, where he was Director of Technical Centre, UK Claims. Prior to this, John held a number of senior claims roles with both UK and international accountabilities.

Both Marc and John will report to Steve Parry, Director of Claims, Europe and Eurasia & Africa.

Steve Parry, Director of Claims, Europe and Eurasia & Africa said:

"Marc and John will direct the delivery of Chubb's claims service in these two regions. With their wealth of European and wider international experience, great technical expertise and strong track record of providing both leadership and customer focus in claims handling, they are a great addition to the team."

To further strengthen Chubb's regional claims team, Kevin Smith has been appointed as European Claims Service Manager. Based in London, Kevin will have responsibility for overall service delivery across Europe and will focus on major multinational accounts, as well as the development of Chubb's service proposition across the middle market and SME sectors. Kevin first joined Chubb in 2003 as Property Claims Adjuster in London. After occupying a number of external roles in the technical and claims management spheres, Kevin returned in 2013 as Assistant Property Claims Manager, Europe. Kevin will also report to Steve Parry.

Steve Parry, Director of Claims, Europe and Eurasia & Africa said:

"These appointments further demonstrate the fundamental importance of claims within our business and our commitment to continually improving customer service in a market where our reputation for claims excellence remains a powerful differentiator."

About Chubb

Chubb is the world's largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company. With operations in 54 countries, Chubb provides commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, personal accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance and life insurance to a diverse group of clients. As an underwriting company, we assess, assume and manage risk with insight and discipline. We service and pay our claims fairly and promptly. The company is also defined by its extensive product and service offerings, broad distribution capabilities, exceptional financial strength and local operations globally. Parent company Chubb Limited is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CB) and is a component of the S&P 500 index. Chubb maintains executive offices in Zurich, New York, London and other locations, and employs approximately 31,000 people worldwide. Additional information can be found at: chubb.com/uk

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/324916/Chubb_Logo.jpg

Related Links

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SOURCE Chubb
SAN FRANCISCO, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The global protein detection & quantification market is expected to reach USD 3.00 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Introduction of assay methods that enable protein estimation at lower limits of concentration in order to monitor the changes is expected to drive growth in the coming years.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160524/371361LOGO )

Governments are encouraging the research activities by raising funds in the field of proteomics industry and thus the protein detection and quantification market is anticipated to grow at a significant pace in the coming years. Presence of organizations such as the Human Proteome Organization, National Cancer Institute (NCI) and Genomic Health Inc. promotes funding to support R&D and product development exercises pertaining to the field of proteomics.

Growing need to understand chronic diseases at a molecular level and develop therapeutic solutions is expected to encourage these organizations to fund research and development programs. In addition, Public Health Genomics at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) promotes the integration of personalized medicine and genomics into public health cancer research in an attempt to reduce the burden of cancer across the globe

Although technological advancements continue to take place for simplification protein estimation, high cost of technology and assays are anticipated to restrict the usage of these assays and technologies under certain circumstances. For instance, Mass Spectroscopy (MS) which are often used for functional proteomics is considered expensive and slow by researchers. In targeted MS, custom antibodies are required for each target to perform immunoaffinity enrichment of peptides. This process is observed to be expensive as well as lengthy.

Browse full research report with TOC on "Protein Detection and Quantification Market Analysis By Technology (Immunological Methods, Chromatography, Mass Spectrometry), By Products, By Applications, By End-use, And Segment Forecasts, 2014 - 2025" at: http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/protein-detection-quantification-market

Further key findings from the report suggest:

Colorimetry dominated with the largest share sue to presence of significant usage of the reagents and solutions for laboratory analysis

Immunological methods and spectrometric methods are anticipated to grow at similar rates and exhibit fastest Y-o-Y growth

Advancements in these segments such as FTIR and SMCxPRO technology are attributive for the projected growth rate

Consumables accounted for the largest share due to wider availability and usage of kits and reagents

Clinical diagnosis is expected to register fastest progress in the coming years as a result of rising adoption these methods

Substantial use of technology in target identification and other steps of drug discovery is attributive for the largest share of drug discovery as an application of estimation of these biomolecules

Academic organizations dominated with respect to use of these protocols and clinical diagnostic labs anticipated to witness fastest progress

North American region accounted for the largest share as a consequence of large number of proteomics projects implemented herein

Asia Pacific market is expected to grow at the most lucrative pace due to changing health care infrastructure in this region which drives the demand for these products

market is expected to grow at the most lucrative pace due to changing health care infrastructure in this region which drives the demand for these products Key players operating include PerkinElmer Inc, GE Healthcare, Inanovate, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Danaher, Merck & Co., Inc., Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., Shimadzu Corporation, and RayBiotech, Inc.

These companies are engaged in collaborations, mergers & acquisitions for the new product launches that rely on the conventional technology but provide novel application in the field of proteomics

Browse related reports by Grand View Research:

Rubella Diagnostic Testing Market - http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/rubella-diagnostic-testing-market

Apoptosis Market - http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/apoptosis-market

DNA Sequencing Market - http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/dna-sequencing-market

SNP Genotyping Market - http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/snp-genotyping-market

Grand View Research has segmented the protein detection & quantification market on the basis of technology, product, application, end-use, and region:

Protein Detection & Quantification Technology Outlook (Revenue, USD Million; 2014 - 2025) Colorimetric Assays Immunological methods Chromatography Mass Spectrometry Spectroscopy Instruments Others

Protein Detection & Quantification Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million; 2014 - 2025) Kits & Reagents/Consumables Instruments Services

Protein Detection & Quantification Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million; 2014 - 2025) Drug discovery and development Clinical Diagnosis Others

Protein Detection & Quantification End-use Outlook (Revenue, USD Million; 2014 - 2025) Academic Research Institutes Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Companies Contract Research Organization Others

Protein Detection & Quantification Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million; 2014 - 2025) North America U.S. Canada Europe Germany UK Asia Pacific Japan China Latin America Brazil Middle East and Africa (MEA) South Africa



Read Our Blog By Grand View Research: http://www.grandviewresearch.com/blogs/healthcare

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.

Contact:

Sherry James

Corporate Sales Specialist, USA

Grand View Research, Inc

Phone: +1-415-349-0058

Toll Free: +1-888-202-9519

Email: sales@grandviewresearch.com



Web: http://www.grandviewresearch.com

SOURCE Grand View Research, Inc.
LONDON, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The Surf Lesson Price Index compiled by tech travel company Surfholidays.com has ranked UK Surf Schools as the 2nd cheapest country in Europe to have a surf lesson, and 10th overall in the world at 30.

Norway is the most expensive at 98. And Ecuador is the cheapest place in the world for a surf lesson at 17. Ireland is ranked 8th.

Of British people who travelled in 2016 for surf lessons, 22% of them favoured Portugal. France was the next most popular at 15%, and Spain third with 11%. Other popular destinations include Morocco, Ireland, Indonesia and Barbados.

The Surf Lesson Price Index analysed surf lesson booking data from over 1,250 surf schools around the world.

Surfholidays.com CEO Nicky Kelly said "Surfing continues its strong growth as a holiday activity. Countries in Europe are now fully established as having some of the best beaches to learn how to surf and it is here the British public are travelling to rather than further afield destinations such as Australia or Indonesia."

Rank Country Average Surf Lesson Cost 1 Ecuador GBP17 2 South Africa GBP18 = India GBP18 3 Argentina GBP19 4 Philippines GBP20 5 Peru GBP22 6 Jamaica GBP24 7 Chile GBP26 8 Ireland GBP28 9 Sri Lanka GBP29 10 United Kingdom GBP30 = Spain GBP30 11 Portugal GBP31 = El Salvador GBP31 12 Nicaragua GBP32 = Mexico GBP32 13 France GBP34 = Indonesia GBP34 14 Morocco GBP35 = Japan GBP35 15 Fiji GBP36 16 Panama GBP37 17 Australia GBP38 18 Brazil GBP39 = Colombia GBP39 19 Maldives GBP40 = Canary Islands GBP40 20 Costa Rica GBP41 21 New Zealand GBP42 22 Canada GBP47 23 Dominican Republic GBP51 24 China GBP55 25 Barbados GBP59 26 Puerto Rico GBP61 27 U.S.A. GBP65 28 Norway GBP98

Surfholidays.com is a technology company in the surf travel space set up in 2009 by surfers Nicky Kelly and Darryn Mountfort with its headquarters in the UK.

The company's flagship product, the Direct Booking Tool, powers the booking engines of surf schools and surf camps.

Their OTA Surfholidays.com , is a booking platform that allows owners of accommodation & surf schools to sell to the global surf travel market. They currently operate in 35 countries and 112 surf towns worldwide.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kl28bu9wj5pw1dr/Surf%20Lesson%20Price%20Index.png?dl=0

For More Information:

Nicky Kelly

nicky@surfholidays.com

+44-20-8144-9950

SOURCE surfholidays.com
BETHESDA, Md., July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Walker & Dunlop, Inc. (NYSE: WD) announced that it recently closed a $289 million financing with Fannie Mae on 21 multifamily properties across the state of California. Eleven of the 21 properties have project-based Section 8 Housing Assistance Payments Contracts and provide much-needed affordable housing to families and seniors in some of the nation's highest-cost metropolitan areas. The other ten properties all qualified for Fannie Mae's Green Rewards Program, where new investments in water and electrical systems will reduce the properties' environmental impact.

"This large transaction highlights Walker & Dunlop's expertise in both affordable and green financing," commented Steven Natale, vice president, who led the Walker & Dunlop team. "All the properties in this large portfolio met either Fannie Mae's affordable housing or Green Rewards criteria, generating significantly more favorable financing terms for the borrower. Fannie Mae is very focused on growing the supply of both affordable and environmentally sustainable multifamily properties across the country, and Walker & Dunlop is pleased to be one of their largest partners in financing these types of assets."

The 21-property portfolio is comprised of 2,189 units located across the state of California in major metropolitan areas including San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego, and Los Angeles. The transaction was sourced by Peggy Griffith, a Walker & Dunlop preferred correspondent.

About Walker & Dunlop

Walker & Dunlop (NYSE: WD), headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, is one of the largest commercial real estate services and finance companies in the United States providing financing and investment sales to owners of multifamily and commercial properties. Walker & Dunlop, which is included in the S&P SmallCap 600 Index, has over 600 professionals in 28 offices across the nation with an unyielding commitment to client satisfaction.

SOURCE Walker & Dunlop, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.walkerdunlop.com


Led by Amish Shah, a third generation diamond and jewelry manufacturer, ALTR is infusing new energy into the appeal of diamonds and rekindling the desire for diamond jewelry with amplified size, brilliance and impact. Unique to ALTR is that the created diamond brand has captured imagination of the modern consumer like never before with its larger carats at better value. ALTR's Created Diamonds amplifies the impact of superior stone to enhance desirability with its unmatched created diamonds as premium choice for affordable luxury.

"The whole culture surrounding relationships has changed  it's not about being with someone forever anymore, or about Cinderella and Prince Charming," Amish Shah told the Washington Post. "Today's relationships are messy, they're intense. They're about the here and now."

Employing proprietary technology to replicate the conditions whereby diamonds form in nature, ALTR creates certified Type IIA lab grown diamonds that are identical to chemical, optical and physical composition as the world's finest mined diamonds. ALTR Created Diamonds carry certification from Gem Certification and Assurance Lab (GCAL).

With an extensive design archive and more than 22 exclusive, patented diamond cuts, ALTR Created Diamonds offers a full line of rings, bracelets, necklaces and earrings sold under the ALTR brand name. For more information on the ALTR Created Diamonds, please visit www.ALTR.NYC.

About ALTR Created Diamonds

ALTR Created Diamonds are branded lab-grown diamonds created exclusively by RIAM Group. ALTR is solely devoted to creating high-quality diamonds and stunning jewelry designed around these diamonds. The ownership of the parent company RIAM Group has 75 years of experience in the mined diamond industry. RIAM Group has the background and knowledge to bring vertical and integrated manufacturing of created diamonds and jewelry made from those diamonds to an international market. RIAM Group is the only fully vertical manufacturer of both mined diamond jewelry and created diamond jewelry. The ALTR division of the group manufactures only created diamond jewelry.

SOURCE ALTR Created Diamonds

Related Links

http://www.altr.nyc


WEST ALLIS, Wis., July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On October 24-26th, Armstrong & Associates in partnership with Infocast is hosting the fifth annual 3PL Value Creation Summit in Chicago, Illinois. This year's event boasts 55 executive participants from leading 3PLs, investment, and innovation companies.

The 3PL Value Creation Summit is a distinct strategic event where C-level 3PL executives, investment community leaders, and technology innovators gather to assess the future outlook of the third-party logistics market and explore strategies for value creation to forge competitive advantage. Through a combination of insightful executive panels, market intelligence, and thought leadership, the event takes an unparalleled deep-dive into the operational and financial aspects of the global 3PL industry. The summit will analyze the most important industry trends (such as value-added services, recent mergers and acquisitions, e-commerce, and innovative technologies and automation) in an interactive and fully engaged way.

The 3PL Value Creation Summit offers up a strong platform for executives to network, learn, and exchange business knowledge and experience. It is your chance to position your company to be a provider of cutting-edge solutions which enhance your customers' supply chain flexibility and agility while boosting bottom lines.

This year's summit features the new and expanded topics of Ask the Experts (sponsored by project44), Innovation in the Americas, and Warehouse Pricing Best Practices for Increased Profitability. It offers a prodigious line up of participants from DHL Supply Chain & Global Forwarding, Kuehne + Nagel, C.H. Robinson, GEODIS, Yusen Logistics, CJ Logistics, FedEx Supply Chain, Coyote Logistics, Echo Global Logistics, GlobalTranz Enterprises, and more. Sponsors include MercuryGate International, project44, Bringg, MP Objects, GlobalTranz Enterprises, 3GTMS, Nulogy, Fetch Robotics, and Universal Logistics Holdings, Inc.

The 3PL Value Creation Summit will be held October 24-26th, 2017 at the Conference Chicago at University Center in Chicago, Illinois. If you would like to become a speaker or sponsor, please contact [email protected]. For further event details or to register, please visit http://infocastinc.com/event/3pl-value-creation/.

ABOUT ARMSTRONG & ASSOCIATES, INC.

Armstrong & Associates, Inc. (A&A) was established in 1980 to meet the needs of a newly deregulated domestic transportation market. Since then, through its leading Third-Party Logistics (3PL) market research and history of helping companies outsource logistics functions, A&A has become an internationally recognized key resource for 3PL market information and consulting.

A&A's mission is to have leading proprietary supply chain knowledge and market research not available anywhere else. As proof of our continued work in supporting our mission, A&A's 3PL market research is frequently cited in media articles, publications, and securities filings by publicly traded 3PLs. In addition, A&A's email newsletter currently has over 42,000 subscribers globally.

A&A's market research complements its consulting activities by providing continually updated data for analysis. Based upon its unsurpassed knowledge of the 3PL market and the operations of leading 3PLs, A&A has provided strategic planning consulting services to over 30 3PLs, supported 17 closed investment transactions, and provided advice to numerous companies looking to benchmark existing 3PL operations or outsource logistics functions.

ABOUT INFOCAST

For over 30 years, Infocast has produced deal-making events that enable organizations to innovate, design and build a better future. Infocast events ignite business transformation in each of the industries they serve, through extensive market research for the most relevant content and in-demand speakers, attracting highly-targeted audiences there to network with and learn from key industry leaders.

Armstrong & Associates, Inc.

10401 West Lincoln Avenue, Suite 207

West Allis, WI 53227 USA

+1-800-525-3915

SOURCE Armstrong & Associates, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.3PLogistics.com


BOCA RATON, Fla., July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Biotest Pharmaceuticals Corporation (BPC), a leader in the collection of Source Plasma, is pleased to announce the relocation of its Pembroke Pines Plasma Center to 6837 Taft Street, Hollywood FL., 33024. The 16,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility officially opened its doors for business on Sunday, July 30, 2017.

"The relocation of this facility represents our goal to continually enhance our donors experience and remain steadfast on our mission to secure a quality supply of the raw materials needed to help the thousands of patients that rely on plasma based therapies," said Ileana Carlisle, BPC's Chief Executive Officer.

The plasma collected at Biotest Plasma Centers is used to manufacture critical care therapies that treat life threatening disorders in a variety of therapeutic areas.

The Company anticipates that this newly relocated facility will expand the Center's workforce to over 50 employees and currently has employment opportunities available for medical personnel and phlebotomists.

In addition to supporting the local economy through employment opportunities, the Plasma Center is actively recruiting local residents to donate plasma. Plasma donors not only contribute the source material used to manufacture plasma derived therapies but are also compensated for their plasma donations.

About Biotest Pharmaceuticals Corporation

Biotest Pharmaceuticals is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Biotest AG, a German global provider of plasma products. The Company owns and manages twenty two plasmapheresis centers across the United States. We are committed to serving the thousands of patients worldwide who rely on plasma-based therapies. Biotest Pharmaceuticals' team of over 900 employees is part of Biotest AG's global workforce of more than 2,300 associates worldwide. To learn more about Biotest Pharmaceuticals, our Plasma Centers, and the difference we make in the lives of patients and the healthcare community, please visit us at www.biotestpharma.com and www.biotestplasma.com.

SOURCE Biotest Pharmaceuticals Corporation

Related Links

http://www.biotestpharma.com


DEN HAAG, Netherlands, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The bitJob team travelled to the Netherlands to meet with members of the Dutch government. Presenting to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Science, the delegation was led by Mrs. Marloes Pomp, Head of the Dutch government's blockchain program. Mrs. Pomp specifically invited the team to present bitJob's vision and product, and to share insights on how governments can utilize blockchain technology around the world. The visit took place at the formal Den Haag government buildings.

Marloes Pomp with the bitJob Team bitJob Team

Presenting to 15 Dutch representatives from the various ministries, the bitJob team explained their product, company goals, and how blockchain technology in general can be beneficial to governments. One of the central themes discussed was how Dutch student-communities can benefit from blockchain technology. The second part of the presentation focused on ICO's and token crowd sales, emphasizing challenges governments face with regulation and taxation.

During the question and answer period that followed, bitJob's team explained the platform's features and logistical advantages. The team also educated Dutch officials about current trends and standards related to blockchain best practices and how they can be applied within the country's programs.

Next on the Agenda, the bitJob team explained how the use of blockchain technology is rapidly advancing in student communities and has the potential to revolutionize the way student communities work, collaborate, and organize. bitJob's CEO & Co-founder Dror Medalion mentioned during the visit, "All of us at bitJob.io will never stop seeking transparency, solid partnerships and government collaborations. Only through real education and high-profile recognition of the blockchain infrastructure will we succeed to modernize this amazing technology and its limitless benefits."

In the next few weeks bitJob will declare partnerships with several European governments and organizations that will help the company move their platform forward and run a successful global pilot.

Presale event starts August 2nd!

ICO Opens at September 12th!

Join the Movement! Be the Movement!

Media contact:

James Gonzalez

[email protected]

519-496-2522

SOURCE bitJob
Eligible small- and mid-size businesses in Xcel Energy Minnesota's service territory can qualify for up to 60% rebates on the installed costs of HVAC efficiency upgrades. In addition, customers may qualify for 3.9% APR financing provided by CEE as part of the program.

This financing package, combined with the efficiency gains provided by 75F smart building controls, enables businesses to achieve significant ROI while supporting the principles of the Paris Climate Accord. 75F and CEE help businesses become social, environmental and financial ("triple bottom line") leaders.

75F customers are qualifying for significant CEE rebates on planned HVAC upgrades made possible by internet-of-things and cloud-computing innovations developed in-house at 75F.

"Our new HVAC offerings build on the outstanding success of the One-Stop Efficiency Shop's longstanding lighting upgrades program," explained CEE's Lead HVAC Consultant, Mark Totino. "Since 2000, One-Stop has facilitated over $65 million in rebates to 16,758 customers of Xcel Energy Minnesota, helping those customers save more than $668 million over the life of their new lighting systems. HVAC systems typically represent 40% of total energy usage in commercial buildings, so new opportunities for small businesses are substantial."

Deepinder Singh, 75F CEO, stated, "CEE is a natural partner for 75F. Our proactive, predictive solution is quick to install on a building's existing HVAC equipment, requiring just a few enhancements. We provide each of our customers with up to 50% annual energy cost savings in addition to the benefits of cleaner indoor air, improved comfort, reduced maintenance costs and prolonged system life."

As a member of the United Nations Environment Program  Sustainable Buildings and Climate Initiative, 75F is committed to making our planet great again. We continue to lead the way in creating and installing green, smart building technology that incorporates the principles developed in the Paris Climate Accord while helping our customers achieve their green building and LEED certification goals.

75F contact:

Kristen Johnson, Marketing Director

612.616.6272

[email protected]

About 75F:

75F is an award-winning, high-tech start-up disrupting the building automation industry by taking a fresh approach to HVAC, lighting and controls in commercial buildings. Its mission is to save energy, while improving comfort and air quality. Instead of reacting to problems, the 75F system predicts needs and manages buildings accordingly. Since 2015, 75F has delivered hundreds of energy-efficient spaces to enthusiastic customers who rave about the results.

About Minnesota Center for Energy and Environment:

CEE is a 501(c)(3)-designated nonprofit organization that promotes energy efficiency to strengthen the economy while improving the environment. For nearly 40 years, CEE has provided practical energy solutions for homes, businesses, and communities.

SOURCE 75F

Related Links

http://75f.io


VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Canadian Web Hosting, Canada's foremost provider of web hosting, cloud hosting and infrastructure services, has launched Weebly Site Builder as a service to its Linux shared hosting customers.

Weebly's wide variety of customizable templates allow users with no technical expertise to build professional looking websites. Weebly offers an impressive array of professional features including mobile responsiveness, custom forms, unlimited web pages, site search, password protection, advanced analytics, and more.

Weebly features an easy drag and drop interface, which can help users build modern and professional looking websites in a matter of minutes, with no prior technical knowledge required. In addition to its impressive array of professional e-commerce features (including Custom Forms, Unlimited Web Pages, Site Search, Password Protection, Advanced Analytics, and more), Weebly also pre-optimizes sites for mobile devices, and provides a wide variety of customizable templates.

Weebly is available at four different price points ranging from Basic (free forever) to Business (only $35/m). Interested parties can find more information regarding pricing and plans listed here.

"Weebly is a great service, both powerful and aesthetically pleasing," said Matt McKinney, Chief Strategy Officer at Canadian Web Hosting. "Customers will now be able to create beautifully designed, professional websites in just a few steps, and eradicate a lot of the stress that comes with getting a website off the ground."

Canadian Web Hosting is fully committed to providing its customers the very best service in terms of quality, variety, and price, and this latest offering demonstrates this commitment.

To learn more about Canadian Web Hosting or Weebly, contact Canadian Web Hosting today by calling 1-888-821-7888 or by emailing [email protected].

About Canadian Web Hosting

Since 1998, Canadian Web Hosting has been providing on-demand hosting solutions that include Shared Hosting, Virtual Private Servers (VPS), Cloud Hosting, Dedicated Servers, and IT as a Service for Canadian companies of all sizes. Canadian Web Hosting is AT 101 SOC 2 and SOC 3 certified, ensuring that their processes and business practices are thoroughly audited against industry standards. Canadian Web Hosting guarantees a 100% network uptime and a total money back guarantee that backs everything they do. Customers can get help by calling 1.888.821.7888 to get 24/7 support. For more information, visit them at http://www.canadianwebhosting.com, or get the latest news by following them on Twitter at @cawebhosting or by liking their Facebook page.

Media contact:

Adelina Wong

[email protected]

1-888-821-7888

SOURCE Canadian Web Hosting

Related Links

https://www.canadianwebhosting.com


HARRISONBURG, Va., July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Modernization work totaling $7 million has commenced at Cargill Protein's Harrisonburg, Va., turkey hatchery, with a focus on improving turkey health, biosecurity and worker safety. Construction work is being performed by Nielsen Builders, Inc., of Harrisonburg, with installation of new cutting edge equipment technology expected to take 24 months.

"We are replacing equipment that has served us well for more than 30 years," said Connie Isenhart, hatchery manager who oversees the incubation and hatching of more than 23 million turkey eggs annually. "The new technology reduces stress on the hatchlings due to advancements in environmental control technology, which improves the survivability of day-old turkey poults. Healthy poults convert feed more efficiently and result in the best bird possible for Cargill turkey farmers and consumers."

The new incubator/hatcher system is also easier to clean and sanitize between uses, enhancing biosecurity by reducing the potential for cross contamination from bacteria that could pose health risks to turkeys or people. Additionally, with all controls easily accessible, workers will no longer need to climb onto the equipment, reducing the potential for injuries while improving workplace safety.

"When our new system is operating at capacity, we will be setting more than 112,000 eggs daily to meet the needs of our turkey business," stated Isenhart. "As always, our goal is to hatch, then place with farmers, high-quality, healthy, turkeys that produce the great protein products our customers and consumers have come to expect from our Honeysuckle White, Shady Brook Farms and Honest Turkey brands. By investing in our business for future growth, we will be better positioned to help deliver on our promises to meet customer and consumer expectations."

Agriculture is the top economic driver in the state of Virginia, generating $70 billion in annual financial impact based on a newly released study by the University of Virginia. Rockingham County, where Cargill's turkey and cooked meats facilities are located, accounts for more than $4.2 billion in annual economic impact. Cargill operates a feed mill, turkey hatchery, turkey processing facility, cooked meats facility and distribution center in the Harrisonburg area, employing more than 1,800 people.

About Cargill

Cargill provides food, agriculture, financial and industrial products and services to the world. Together with farmers, customers, governments and communities, we help people thrive by applying our insights and 150 years of experience. We have 150,000 employees in 70 countries who are committed to feeding the world in a responsible way, reducing environmental impact and improving the communities where we live and work. For more information, visit Cargill.com and our News Center.

About Cargill Protein

Headquartered in Wichita, Kan., Cargill Protein is an industry leader that produces, distributes and markets beef, turkey, chicken and egg products to retail, foodservice and food ingredient companies throughout North America, and exports meat and by-products around the world. Cargill Protein's 28,000 employees, and more than three dozen protein processing facilities in the U.S. and Canada, are focused on delivering superior, innovative, products and services to help customers growth their businesses by meeting consumer desires. Cargill Protein is a unit of Minneapolis-based Cargill, Incorporated. For more information, visit Cargill.com and our News Center.

SOURCE Cargill

Related Links

http://www.cargill.com


PHILADELPHIA, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- CDI Corp. (NYSE: CDI) ("CDI", or the "Company"), a leading provider of engineering, information technology, and staffing solutions, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by affiliates of AE Industrial Partners, LLC ("AEI"), a private equity investor specializing in aerospace, power generation, and specialty industrial companies. Pursuant to the agreement, AEI will acquire all of the outstanding shares of the Company's common stock for $8.25 per share in an all-cash tender offer and follow-on merger. The agreement was unanimously approved by the Company's Board of Directors following a review of strategic alternatives that the Company announced in March 2017. In addition, shareholders representing 26% of shares outstanding have entered into tender and support agreements.

"After a review of strategic alternatives by our Board of Directors, we are pleased to reach this agreement with AEI, which provides our shareholders with immediate liquidity and substantial certainty of value. We further believe that this transaction presents a winning proposition for all of our stakeholders," said Michael S. Castleman, President, Interim CEO and Chief Financial Officer of CDI. "AEI has a proven track record of partnering with company management, is a strategic-minded and growth-oriented investor that has substantial experience in many of our core end markets, and has a strong understanding of the Company's capabilities and business model. With AEI's longer-term commitment, strategic vision, deep capital base, and relevant investing and operating experience, we believe that CDI will strengthen its market position and its delivery of value-added engineering, IT and staffing solutions."

"We are excited to partner with CDI's exceptional leadership team and market-leading brand," said Michael Greene, Managing Partner of AEI. "We believe that the Company's capabilities and reputation, combined with AEI's deep operating expertise in engineering, IT solutions, and human capital management, will allow the Company to expand and strengthen its relationships and its value proposition to key customers. We look forward to working with the Company and accelerating the growth of the business."

Under the terms of the agreement, AEI will commence a tender offer to purchase any and all of the outstanding shares of CDI's common stock for $8.25 per share in cash. The purchase price represents a 33% premium to the closing price of $6.20 on July 28th and a 36% premium to the average closing price for the last 30 trading days of $6.06. Upon completion of the transaction, CDI will become a privately held company.

The transaction, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2017, is conditioned upon, among other things, satisfaction of a minimum tender condition, regulatory filings, and other customary closing conditions. There are no financing conditions associated with the proposed agreement.

Houlihan Lokey is serving as financial advisor to the Company and Dechert LLP is serving as the Company's legal advisor. Lincoln International is serving as financial advisor to AEI and Kirkland & Ellis LLP is serving as AEI's legal advisor.

About CDI Corporation

CDI (NYSE: CDI) seeks to create extraordinary outcomes with our clients by delivering solutions based on highly skilled and professional talent. Our business is comprised of four segments: Enterprise Talent, Specialty Talent & Technology Solutions, Engineering Solutions, and MRI. We provide engineering, information technology, and staffing solutions to clients in multiple industries, including aerospace, chemicals, energy, industrial equipment, infrastructure, and technology, as well as municipal and state governments and the U.S. Department of Defense. We have offices and delivery centers in the U.S. and Canada. In addition, we also provide recruiting and staffing services through our global MRINetwork of franchisees. Learn more at www.cdicorp.com.

About AE Industrial Partners

AE Industrial Partners is a leading private equity firm specializing in control-oriented investments in aerospace, power generation, and specialty industrial businesses and has strong experience investing in businesses with similar capabilities and end-market exposure as CDI. AEI invests in market-leading companies that can benefit from its deep operating experience, industry knowledge, and relationships. AEI is able to provide a powerful level of industry insight and strategic direction that helps drive success within its portfolio investments. Learn more at www.aeroequity.com.

Notice to Investors

The tender offer for the outstanding common stock of CDI has not yet commenced. This communication is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to buy or a solicitation of an offer to sell any securities of CDI. The solicitation and offer to buy common stock of CDI will only be made pursuant to an Offer to Purchase and related materials. At the time the tender offer is commenced, Nova Intermediate Parent, LLC and Nova Merger Sub, Inc. will file a tender offer statement on Schedule TO with the SEC and CDI will file a Solicitation/Recommendation Statement on Schedule 14D-9 with the SEC with respect to the tender offer. Investors are urged to read these materials when they become available, as well as any other relevant documents filed with the SEC when they become available, carefully and in their entirety because they will contain important information, including the terms and conditions of the tender offer. Investors may obtain a free copy of the Solicitation/Recommendation Statement and other documents (when available) that CDI files with the SEC at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov , or free of charge from CDI at www.cdicorp.com.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this announcement regarding the proposed transaction, the expected timetable for completing the proposed transaction, future financial and operating results, future capital structure and liquidity, benefits of the proposed transaction, general business outlook and any other statements about the future expectations, beliefs, goals, plans or prospects of the board or management of the Company constitute forwardlooking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements that are not statements of historical fact (including statements containing the words "expects," "intends," "anticipates," "estimates," "predicts," "believes," "should," "potential," "may," "forecast," "objective," "plan," or "targets" and other similar expressions) are intended to identify forward-looking statements. There are a number of factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements, including: the ability to obtain requisite regulatory approvals, the tender of a majority of the shares of common stock of CDI on a fully diluted basis and the satisfaction of the other conditions to the consummation of the proposed transaction; the potential impact of the announcement or consummation of the proposed transaction on relationships, including with employees, suppliers and customers; and the other factors and financial, operational and legal risks or uncertainties described in the Company's public filings with the SEC, including the "Risk Factors" sections of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016 and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, as well as the tender offer documents to be filed by Nova Merger Sub, Inc. and the Solicitation/Recommendation Statement to be filed by CDI. CDI shareholders should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. CDI disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements as a result of developments occurring after the date of this document except as required by law.

SOURCE CDI Corp.

Related Links

http://www.cdicorp.com


NEW YORK, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Clooney Foundation for Justice today announced a $2.25 million partnership, which includes a generous donation from Google.org, and a $1 million technology grant from HP, to support formal education for Syrian refugees in Lebanon. The partnership with UNICEF will help seven public schools to provide critical education opportunities to nearly 3,000 currently out-of-school refugee students this school year, and will also support a pilot of technology tools in these schools to advance learning outcomes for refugee children and Lebanese youth.

"Thousands of young Syrian refugees are at risk -- the risk of never being a productive part of society. Formal education can help change that. That's our goal with this initiative. We don't want to lose an entire generation because they had the bad luck of being born in the wrong place at the wrong time," said George and Amal Clooney.

The Syrian refugee crisis remains the largest humanitarian crisis since the end of World War II. Lebanon, which has the world's highest per capita refugee population, has been particularly affected by an influx of more than one million Syrian refugees. This surge has left local resources strained, affecting both refugee children and Lebanese students.

Of today's announcement, Lebanon's Minister of Education, Marwan Hamade said "The Government of Lebanon is profoundly grateful to the leadership of George and Amal Clooney and the Clooney Foundation for Justice. We are delighted the Clooney Foundation has decided to support our efforts to open the doors of more public schools to ensure we can offer every child currently living in Lebanon a free education. We are also looking forward to collaborating with the Clooney Foundation and its partners on advancing innovative technology in all our classrooms. Each child given access to education, and new ways of learning, represents a life changed for the better. Today's grant from the Clooney Foundation for Justice is therefore a crucial investment in future generations in Lebanon."

The Clooney Foundation for Justice's initiative, combining financial support with technology, will improve educational opportunities for both Lebanese and Syrian refugee children, so many of whom are missing out on an education.

"How can children become the workers and leaders of their countries someday if they have not had the education and support they need to reach their full potential?" asked UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake. "By supporting the work of UNICEF and our partners to deliver education to every child affected by the conflict in Syria, the Clooney Foundation for Justice is not only investing in the futures of individual children, it is investing in the future of the entire region. UNICEF is deeply grateful for this critical funding."

Close to 200,000 Syrian refugee children in Lebanon are out of school. Their lives have been shaped by violence, displacement and lack of opportunity, and many have never been enrolled in formal education. Without access to learning and a return to a sense of normalcy, these children are at risk of becoming a lost generation. The Clooney Foundation for Justice is committed to supporting efforts that ensure children get the experiences they need to thrive. UNICEF has been working with partners across the region to put children first since the crisis began. In addition to providing emergency assistance and essential services, including child-friendly spaces, UNICEF and partners have been at the forefront of efforts to address the long-term needs of Syrian refugee children, including education, counseling and social inclusion.

"We must ensure that we do not fail those most vulnerable victims who have managed to flee the carnage in Syria. It is our hope that the refugee children who will soon start school through this initiative will have a chance to contribute to building a more peaceful and just world and, hopefully, one where those responsible for these grave crimes are held to account." said Ambassador David Pressman, Executive Director of the Clooney Foundation for Justice.

About UNICEF

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) works in more than 190 countries and territories to put children first. UNICEF has helped save more children's lives than any other humanitarian organization, by providing health care and immunizations, clean water and sanitation, nutrition, education, emergency relief and more. UNICEF USA supports UNICEF's work through fundraising, advocacy and education in the United States. Together, we are working toward the day when no children die from preventable causes and every child has a safe and healthy childhood. For more information, visit www.unicefusa.org.

About the Clooney Foundation for Justice

The Clooney Foundation for Justice was established in late 2016 by George and Amal Clooney to advance justice in courtrooms, communities, and classrooms around the world. For more information on the Foundation and its work, please visit www.cfj.org.

SOURCE U.S. Fund for UNICEF

Related Links

http://www.unicefusa.org


CHICAGO, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- CNA Financial Corporation (NYSE: CNA) today announced second quarter 2017 net income of $272 million, or $1.00 per share, and net operating income of $239 million, or $0.88 per share. Property & Casualty Operations' combined ratio for the second quarter was 93.5%.

CNA Financial declared a quarterly dividend of $0.30 per share, payable August 30, 2017 to stockholders of record on August 14, 2017.



Results for the Three

Months Ended June 30

Results for the Six

Months Ended June 30 ($ millions, except per share data) 2017

2016

2017

2016 Net operating income (a) $ 239



$ 201



$ 474



$ 292

Net realized investments gains (losses) 33



8



58



(17)

Net income $ 272



$ 209



$ 532



$ 275

















Net operating income per diluted share $ 0.88



$ 0.74



$ 1.74



$ 1.08

Net income per diluted share 1.00



0.77



1.96



1.02



















































June 30, 2017



December 31, 2016 Book value per share $





44.39



$





44.25

Book value per share excluding AOCI





44.26









44.89



(a) Management utilizes the net operating income financial measure to monitor the Company's operations. Please refer herein and to Note O in the Consolidated Financial Statements within CNA's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016 for further discussion of this non-GAAP financial measure.

Property & Casualty Operations' net operating income was $261 million for the second quarter of 2017 as compared with $229 million in the prior year quarter. This increase was driven by improved current accident year underwriting results which more than offset lower net investment income. Catastrophe losses were $24 million, after tax, as compared with $58 million, after tax, in the prior year quarter.

Net operating loss for our non-core segments improved $6 million for the second quarter of 2017 as compared with the prior year quarter. The improvement was primarily due to a $9 million improvement in the Life & Group Non-Core segment driven by the Long Term Care business.

Net investment income, after tax, was $344 million for the second quarter of 2017 as compared with $362 million in the prior year quarter. The decrease was driven by limited partnership investments, which returned 0.7% as compared with 1.8% in the prior year quarter. Income from fixed maturity securities, after tax, for the second quarter of 2017 increased $5 million as compared with the same quarter in 2016, primarily due to an increase in the invested asset base.

Property & Casualty Operations

"I am pleased with our second quarter results and overall operational progress. Improvement in both our underlying loss ratio and expense ratio created one of our best underwriting quarters in the past decade," said Dino E. Robusto, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CNA Financial Corporation.



Results for the Three

Months Ended June 30

Results for the Six

Months Ended June 30 ($ millions) 2017

2016

2017

2016 Net written premiums $ 1,702





$ 1,625





$ 3,334





$ 3,293



NWP change (% year over year) 5

%

(1)

%

1

%



% Net investment income $ 276





$ 310





$ 619





$ 555



Net operating income 261





229





529





436



Net income 289





239





574





430



























Loss ratio excluding catastrophes and development 60.5

%

63.9

%

61.3

%

62.9

% Effect of catastrophe impacts 2.4





5.3





2.3





3.9



Effect of development-related items (3.5)





(6.2)





(2.9)





(4.9)



Loss ratio 59.4

%

63.0

%

60.7

%

61.9

%























Combined ratio 93.5

%

97.4

%

95.3

%

96.8

% Combined ratio excluding catastrophes and development 94.6

%

98.3

%

95.9

%

97.8

%

Business Operating Highlights

Specialty



Results for the Three

Months Ended June 30

Results for the Six

Months Ended June 30 ($ millions) 2017

2016

2017

2016 Net written premiums $ 716





$ 691





$ 1,395





$ 1,375



NWP change (% year over year) 4

%

3

%

1

%



% Net operating income $ 136





$ 164





$ 290





$ 291



Net income 145





166





303





286



























Loss ratio excluding catastrophes and development 60.6

%

62.5

%

61.7

%

62.5

% Effect of catastrophe impacts 0.8





1.3





0.7





1.0



Effect of development-related items (3.7)





(9.9)





(4.5)





(8.0)



Loss ratio 57.7

%

53.9

%

57.9

%

55.5

%























Combined ratio 89.9

%

85.4

%

90.1

%

87.4

% Combined ratio excluding catastrophes and development 92.8

%

94.0

%

93.9

%

94.4

%

Net operating income decreased $28 million for the second quarter of 2017 as compared with the prior year quarter, primarily due to lower favorable net prior year loss reserve development and lower net investment income.

for the second quarter of 2017 as compared with the prior year quarter, primarily due to lower favorable net prior year loss reserve development and lower net investment income. The combined ratio increased 4.5 points while the combined ratio excluding catastrophes and development improved 1.2 points as compared with the prior year quarter. The loss ratio increased 3.8 points driven by lower favorable net prior year loss reserve development partially offset by an improved current accident year loss ratio. Catastrophe losses were $5 million , or 0.8 points of the loss ratio in the second quarter of 2017, as compared to $9 million , or 1.3 points of the loss ratio, for the prior year quarter. The expense ratio increased 0.7 points as compared with the prior year quarter.

, or 0.8 points of the loss ratio in the second quarter of 2017, as compared to , or 1.3 points of the loss ratio, for the prior year quarter. The expense ratio increased 0.7 points as compared with the prior year quarter. Net written premiums increased $25 million as compared with the prior year quarter. The renewal premium change was 1% driven by rate and retention remained strong at 88%. New business was modestly higher and broad-based.

Commercial



Results for the Three

Months Ended June 30

Results for the Six

Months Ended June 30 ($ millions) 2017

2016

2017

2016 Net written premiums $ 767





$ 740





$ 1,482





$ 1,488



NWP change (% year over year) 4

%

3

%



%

1

% Net operating income $ 115





$ 92





$ 209





$ 166



Net income 128





97





230





159



























Loss ratio excluding catastrophes and development 59.4

%

61.6

%

60.8

%

61.6

% Effect of catastrophe impacts 4.8





8.0





4.4





6.1



Effect of development-related items (4.2)





(2.2)





(1.8)





(1.9)



Loss ratio 60.0

%

67.4

%

63.4

%

65.8

%























Combined ratio 95.1

%

103.5

%

99.8

%

102.7

% Combined ratio excluding catastrophes and development 94.5

%

97.7

%

97.2

%

98.5

%

Net operating income increased $23 million for the second quarter of 2017 as compared with the prior year quarter, due to improved underwriting results partially offset by lower net investment income.

for the second quarter of 2017 as compared with the prior year quarter, due to improved underwriting results partially offset by lower net investment income. The combined ratio improved 8.4 points and the combined ratio excluding catastrophes and development improved 3.2 points as compared with the prior year quarter. The loss ratio improved 7.4 points due to an improved current accident year loss ratio and higher favorable net prior year loss reserve development. Catastrophe losses were $35 million , or 4.8 points of the loss ratio, in the second quarter of 2017 as compared to $55 million , or 8.0 points of the loss ratio, for the prior year quarter. The expense ratio improved 1.2 points as compared with the prior year quarter, due to lower employee costs.

, or 4.8 points of the loss ratio, in the second quarter of 2017 as compared to , or 8.0 points of the loss ratio, for the prior year quarter. The expense ratio improved 1.2 points as compared with the prior year quarter, due to lower employee costs. Net written premiums increased $27 million as compared with the prior year quarter, driven by higher new business within Middle Markets. Renewal premium change was 2% driven by exposure growth as average rate was flat. Retention decreased to 82%.

International



Results for the Three

Months Ended June 30

Results for the Six

Months Ended June 30 ($ millions) 2017

2016

2017

2016 Net written premiums $ 219





$ 194





$ 457





$ 430



NWP change (% year over year) 13

%

(22)

%

6

%

(7)

% Net operating income (loss) $ 10





$ (27)





$ 30





$ (21)



Net income (loss) 16





(24)





41





(15)



























Loss ratio excluding catastrophes and development 63.8

%

76.5

%

61.7

%

69.0

% Effect of catastrophe impacts (0.5)





10.6





0.6





6.3



Effect of development-related items (0.5)





(7.3)





(1.7)





(4.8)



Loss ratio 62.8

%

79.8

%

60.6

%

70.5

%























Combined ratio 100.1

%

118.6

%

97.7

%

108.8

% Combined ratio excluding catastrophes and development 101.1

%

115.3

%

98.8

%

107.3

%

Net operating results improved $37 million for the second quarter of 2017 as compared with the prior year quarter, driven by improved underwriting results and the favorable period over period effect of foreign currency exchange gains and losses.

for the second quarter of 2017 as compared with the prior year quarter, driven by improved underwriting results and the favorable period over period effect of foreign currency exchange gains and losses. The combined ratio improved 18.5 points and the combined ratio excluding catastrophes and development improved 14.2 points as compared with the prior year quarter. The loss ratio improved 17.0 points, primarily due to an improved current accident year loss ratio driven by a lower level of large and catastrophe losses, partially offset by lower favorable net prior year loss reserve development. There were no catastrophe losses in the second quarter of 2017 as compared to $21 million , or 10.6 points of the loss ratio, for the prior year quarter. The expense ratio improved 1.5 points in the current quarter, primarily due to higher net earned premiums.

, or 10.6 points of the loss ratio, for the prior year quarter. The expense ratio improved 1.5 points in the current quarter, primarily due to higher net earned premiums. Net written premiums increased $25 million for the second quarter of 2017 as compared with the prior year quarter. Renewal premium change was 4% driven by exposure growth as average rate was flat, and retention improved to 78%. New business was also higher in the quarter.

Life & Group Non-Core



Results for the Three

Months Ended June 30

Results for the Six

Months Ended June 30 ($ millions) 2017

2016

2017

2016 Total operating revenues $ 330





$ 327





$ 661





$ 645



Net investment income 195





188





392





375



Net operating income (loss) 5





(4)





9





(6)



Net income (loss) 9





(9)





19





(14)





Net operating results improved $9 million for the second quarter of 2017 as compared with the prior year quarter driven by improved long term care morbidity.

Corporate & Other Non-Core



Results for the Three

Months Ended June 30

Results for the Six

Months Ended June 30 ($ millions) 2017

2016

2017

2016 Net investment income $ 4





$ 4





$ 9





$ 7



Interest expense 39





38





77





80



Net operating loss (27)





(24)





(64)





(138)



Net loss (26)





(21)





(61)





(141)





Net operating loss increased $3 million for the second quarter of 2017 as compared with the same period in 2016 driven by lower recognition of retroactive reinsurance deferred gain due to lower net asbestos and environmental pollution claim payments.

About the Company

Serving businesses and professionals since 1897, CNA is the country's eighth largest commercial insurance writer and the 14th largest property and casualty company. CNA's insurance products include standard commercial lines, specialty lines, surety, marine and other property and casualty coverages. CNA's services include risk management, information services, underwriting, risk control and claims administration. For more information, please visit CNA at www.cna.com . "CNA" is a service mark registered by CNA Financial Corporation with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Certain CNA Financial Corporation subsidiaries use the "CNA" service mark in connection with insurance underwriting and claims activities.

Conference Call and Webcast/Presentation Information

A conference call for investors and the professional investment community will be held at 10:00 a.m. (ET) today. On the conference call will be Dino E. Robusto, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CNA Financial Corporation, and other members of senior management. Participants can access the call by dialing (877) 874-1569, or for international callers, (719) 325-2244. The call will also be broadcast live on the internet at http://investor.cna.com or you may go to the investor relations pages of the CNA website ( www.cna.com ) for further details. A presentation will be posted and available on the CNA website and will provide additional insight into the results.

The call is available to the media, but questions will be restricted to investors and the professional investment community. An online replay will be available on CNA's website following the call. Financial supplement information related to the results is available on the investor relations pages of the CNA website or by contacting Robert Tardella at 312-822-4387.

Definition of Reported Segments

Specialty provides management and professional liability and other coverages through property and casualty products and services using a network of brokers, independent agencies and managing general underwriters.

Commercial works with an independent agency distribution system and a network of brokers to market a broad range of property and casualty insurance products and services to small, middle-market and large businesses and organizations.

International provides property and casualty insurance and specialty coverages on a global basis through its operations in Canada, the United Kingdom, Continental Europe, China and Singapore as well as through its presence at Lloyd's of London.

Life & Group Non-Core primarily includes the results of the individual and group long term care businesses that are in run off.

Corporate & Other Non-Core primarily includes certain corporate expenses, including interest on corporate debt, and the results of certain property and casualty business in run-off, including CNA Re and asbestos and environmental pollution.

Financial Measures

In the evaluation of the results of Specialty, Commercial and International, management utilizes the loss ratio, the expense ratio, the dividend ratio and the combined ratio. These ratios are calculated using financial results prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (GAAP). The loss ratio is the percentage of net incurred claim and claim adjustment expenses to net earned premiums. The expense ratio is the percentage of insurance underwriting and acquisition expenses, including the amortization of deferred acquisition costs, to net earned premiums. The dividend ratio is the ratio of policyholders' dividends incurred to net earned premiums. The combined ratio is the sum of the loss, expense and dividend ratios.

This press release may also reference or contain financial measures that are not in accordance with GAAP. Management utilizes these financial measures to monitor the Company's insurance operations and investment portfolio. Net operating income, which is derived from certain income statement amounts, is used by management to monitor performance of the Company's insurance operations. The Company's investment portfolio is monitored by management through analysis of various factors including unrealized gains and losses on securities, portfolio duration and exposure to market and credit risk. Based on such analyses, the Company may recognize an other-than-temporary impairment (OTTI) loss on an investment security in accordance with its policy, or sell a security, which may produce realized gains and losses.

Net operating income (loss) is calculated by excluding from net income (loss) the after-tax effects of i) net realized investment gains or losses, ii) income or loss from discontinued operations and iii) any cumulative effects of changes in accounting guidance. The calculation of net operating income excludes net realized investment gains or losses because net realized investment gains or losses are largely discretionary, except for some losses related to OTTI, and are generally driven by economic factors that are not necessarily consistent with key drivers of underwriting performance, and are therefore not considered an indication of trends in insurance operations. Management monitors net operating income (loss) for each business segment to assess segment performance. Presentation of consolidated net operating income (loss) is deemed to be a non-GAAP financial measure.

For reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures and other information, please refer herein and/or to CNA's most recent 10-K on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as the financial supplement, available at www.cna.com .

Forward-Looking Statement

This press release may include statements which relate to anticipated future events (forward-looking statements) rather than actual present conditions or historical events. These statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and generally include words such as "believes", "expects", "intends", "anticipates", "estimates" and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements, by their nature, are subject to a variety of inherent risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results projected. Many of these risks and uncertainties cannot be controlled by CNA. For a detailed description of these risks and uncertainties affecting CNA, please refer to CNA's most recent 10-K on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission available at www.cna.com .

Any forward-looking statements made in this press release are made by CNA as of the date of this press release. Further, CNA does not have any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement contained in this press release, even if CNA's expectations or any related events, conditions or circumstances change.

CONTACT:





MEDIA:

ANALYSTS: Brandon Davis, 312-822-5167

James Anderson, 312-822-7757 Sarah Pang, 312-822-6394

Emma Riza, 312-822-5960



Robert Tardella, 312-822-4387

SOURCE CNA Financial Corporation

Related Links

http://www.cna.com


LONDON, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Growth in the residential security market and its position as the leading channel for smart home solutions have attracted numerous new entrants. Telecoms, cable operators, and CE manufacturers are joining traditional security players as they compete to fulfill consumer demand for safety and security. This report analyzes the changing competitive landscape of the professionally monitored arena and assesses key industry trends. In sum, this report provides a working knowledge of today's U.S. residential security system market, its players, and the market dynamics affecting the industry.





Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/3095599/







1.0 Report Summary

1.1 Purpose of Report

Growth in the residential security market and its position as the leading channel for smart home solutions have attracted numerous new entrants. Telecoms, cable operators, and CE manufacturers are joining traditional security players as they compete to fulfill consumer demand for safety and security. Categorically, each type of player is facing competition uniquely  national, regional, and local dealers all have a different strategy about how they will overcome the increasingly competitive landscape. This report is part of a 4-piece series focused on the U.S. residential security market. Paired with Home Security: Consumer Insights, Home Security: Channel Insights, and Home Security: Market Sizing and Forecasts, this series provides a comprehensive view of the security industry.



The purpose of this report is to assess key trends and document the changing competitive landscape of the professionally monitored security arena. Companies seeking a piece of the U.S. marketplace for security systems and their smart home adjacencies will benefit from understanding their competitors' positioning. In sum, this report provides a working knowledge of today's U.S. residential security system market, its players, and the market dynamics affecting the industry.



1.2 Scope of Report

This report focuses on the professionally monitored residential security market and includes the following content:

- Competitive analysis of residential security players

- Industry trends and insights

- Consumer data from Parks Associates



The key questions addressed and answered in this report include:

- What trends are affecting the market and competitive landscape?

- How are players competitively positioned?

- How are telecommunications and cable providers competing against traditional security providers?

- How does competition differ between geographic segments (national/regional/local)?

Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/3095599/



About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers

http://www.reportbuyer.com



For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 208 816 85 48

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

Related Links

http://www.reportbuyer.com


DALLAS, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Prominent Dallas wedding and portrait photographer Andrea Polito has secured a $1.08 million defamation verdict against two former clients who pursued an extensive social media campaign against her that a jury found was false and malicious.

A Dallas County jury found that the couple, Neely and Andrew Moldovan of Dallas, wrongfully attacked Ms. Polito through social media over what they claimed were unreasonable fees associated with the delivery of their wedding photos. The focus of the dispute was the couple's objection to the contract's stipulation for selecting a $125 photo album cover before the images of the rehearsal dinner and wedding were provided. In a 2014 TV interview, the couple charged that Ms. Polito was "holding their pictures hostage."

The Moldovans' allegations went viral, damaging Ms. Polito's then-thriving business. Ms. Moldovan, who maintains a lifestyle and beauty blog, said in one Facebook conversation that she was "pretty sure [Polito's] business is done."

The jury in District Judge Dale Tillery's court deliberated for two hours before returning the verdict. Evidence presented in court affirmed that Ms. Polito followed the terms of the contract signed by the couple and even sought to further explain the contract and satisfy their demands. Jurors found the Moldovans liable for defamation, disparagement, and civil conspiracy, and awarded punitive damages.

"Ms. Polito hopes this verdict will reinforce her attempts to repair her reputation, while also sending a message that freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences," said Ms. Polito's lawyer, Dave Wishnew of Dallas-based Gruber Elrod Johansen Hail Shank LLP.

"Texas has one of the strongest laws in the nation to protect individuals who air legitimate grievances and opinions. But those protections don't extend to a concerted campaign designed to defame and destroy someone's hard-earned business," he said.

The case is Andrea Polito and Andrea Polito Photography v. Neely Moldovan and Andrew Moldovan, DC-15-03069.

Gruber Elrod Johansen Hail Shank LLP represents clients in complex commercial litigation in Texas and across the nation, with extensive experience in probate, trust and fiduciary matters, employment, securities, intellectual property, oil and gas, and aviation. Clients include leading companies and individuals as both defendants and plaintiffs across a broad range of industries. To learn more, visit http://www.getrial.com.

For more information on the verdict, contact Barry Pound at 800-559-4534 or [email protected].

SOURCE Gruber Elrod Johansen Hail Shank LLP
DALLAS, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Digility Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Mastek UK Limited, announces plans to move its corporate office to Addison, Texas. This move is a significant milestone in the history of the company and demonstrates Digility's commitment to future investment and growth in North America.

Digility has considered the move from Bridgewater, New Jersey to Texas since the acquisition of the Dallas based ecommerce solution provider TAISTech in December 2016. With the increase of business originating from TAISTech, the company felt the need to support its continued growth and expansion out of Dallas. The company is in the process of accelerating the integration of TAISTech with Digility and the Mastek Group of companies. This move will be effective August 1, 2017.

Mastek Group CEO John Owen says, "This move to centralize our US operations in Dallas gives our business critical mass in the strategically important US market and will allow us to better serve our customers and attract the best local talent. This move comes on the back of strong quarter-on-quarter performance and is the next logical step in our evolution of our US business. As we grow from strength to strength, we will continue to invest in strengthening our US presence and is evidence of our continued commitment to our customers, our employees and our US partners."

Digility is proud to join the many other industry leaders in the Lone Star state. Situated 14 miles north of Dallas, Addison offers a strong pipeline of talent as Texas holds the second largest civilian workforce in America. The new headquarters, located at 15601 Dallas Parkway, Suite 250, Addison, Texas 75001, sits among the unique urban center environment of Addison Circle.

About Digility:

As the digital arm of Mastek, Digility enables large-scale business change programs through our service offerings, which include agile consulting, digital commerce, BI and analytics, application development and support, and testing. Whether it is creating new applications, modernizing existing ones or recovering failing projects, Digility help enterprises to navigate the digital landscape and stay competitive. Learn more by visiting www.digility.com.

SOURCE Digility Inc.

Related Links

http://www.digility.com


OAKLAND, Calif., July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/-- In honor of National Mutt Day, America's Favorite Veterinarian, Dr. Gary Richter, is donating his #1 Amazon Best-Selling book, The Ultimate Pet Health Guide, to animal rescue shelters who participate in the campaign, #RescuesRock. Pet owners have an opportunity to win a signed copy of his best-selling book on Pet Parent Pack Facebook page, #RescuesRock.

The Ultimate Pet Health Guide The Ultimate Pet Health Guide

In an effort to bring awareness to rescue animals and pets, Dr. Richter and his team educate pet owners how to take the best care of pets.

The #RescuesRock Campaign is a fun way for pet lovers to celebrate pets and rescue animals. The process of the campaign is:

Post a photo on the Pet Parent Pack Facebook group with the #RescuesRock hash tag

Buy Dr. Richter's book to show your support for National Mutt Day at www.DrGaryRichter.com

Campaign will be active from July 31, 2017  August 31, 2017

 Every week, a winner will be chosen via social media, who will receive a FREE copy of Dr. Gary Richter's book signed by Dr. Richter

In his book, The Ultimate Pet Health Guide, Dr. Richter discloses his best-kept nutritional secrets that help pets live much longer and healthier lives. The Ultimate Pet Health Guide uncovers essential steps for pet owners to navigate treatment options for their pets while leveraging the best traditional and holistic veterinary techniques. He reveals 50 of his best custom-developed dog and cat food recipes. Some recipes are specifically designed for diseases such as cancer, heart and kidney disease. Dr. Richter's book is gaining momentum at a rapid pace and was also featured on nationally recognized Pet Shows with Dr. Katy and also Dr. Frank Adams.

Dr. Richter is generously donating the Ultimate Pet Health Guide, where he shares his expert recommendations for an integrative approach to common pet diseases such as allergies, skin condition, diabetes, pancreatitis, GI and heart disease and cancer. All of the recommended treatments discussed in the book are backed by extensive research and from years of success using these treatments at Dr. Richter's clinical practice.

Dr. Richter's book has caught the attention of Ian Somerhalder - actor and founder of the Ian Somerhalder Foundation, who invited Dr. Richter to join ISF as a Veterinarian Medical Advisor to the Foundation. "We absolutely wanted to be involved to help pet parents get these life-changing insights, to ensure you have as much time as possible with your furry loved ones," said Ian Somerhalder.

About Dr. Gary Richter

Dr. Gary Richter M.S, D.V.M, C.V.C, C.V.A., has owned and been the medical director of Montclair Veterinary Hospital in Oakland, California since 2002 and launched Holistic Veterinary Care in 2009.

He obtained a B.S in animal science, an M.S. in veterinary medical science and a doctorate of veterinary medicine with honors from the University of Florida. He is also certified in veterinary acupuncture and as a veterinary chiropractor, using these treatments alongside his traditional veterinary education.

Alongside his two animal hospitals, Dr. Richter has received more than 30 awards at a local and a national level. These awards include Best Veterinary Hospital, Best Veterinarian, Best Canine Therapy Facility and Best Alternative Medicine Provider. Dr. Richter was also voted as America's Favorite Veterinarian in 2015 by the American Veterinary Medical Foundation (AVMF).

Those wishing to find out more about Dr. Richter can visit the website www.PetVetExpert.com. The Ultimate Pet Health Guide is available on Amazon: https://amazon.com/Ultimate-Pet-Health-Guide-Breakthrough/dp/1401953506.

About Ian Somerhalder Foundation

The Ian Somerhalder Foundation works to empower, educate and collaborate with people and projects to positively impact the planet and its creatures. ISF delivers unique programs and services and provides public outreach, education and grants in support of creatures, environment, youth and grassroot initiatives.

Contact

Susan Koehler

425-999-9816

[email protected]

SOURCE Dr. Gary Richter

Related Links

http://www.DrGaryRichter.com


ATLANTA, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX) today announced that Jeff Dodge and Doug Brandberg, Equifax Investor Relations will meet with investors at the Wells Fargo Technology Services Forum on Tuesday, August 8th in Newport, R.I. Dodge and Brandberg will also meet with investors in New York on Wednesday, August 9th and in Boston on Thursday, August 10th.

Dodge and Brandberg will discuss the company's second quarter 2017 performance as well as the strategic outlook for 2017.

An archive of the presentation will be available at investor.equifax.com.

About Equifax

Equifax is a global information solutions company that uses trusted unique data, innovative analytics, technology and industry expertise to power organizations and individuals around the world by transforming knowledge into insights that help make more informed business and personal decisions. The company organizes, assimilates and analyzes data on more than 820 million consumers and more than 91 million businesses worldwide, and its database includes employee data contributed from more than 7,100 employers.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., Equifax operates or has investments in 24 countries in North America, Central and South America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region. It is a member of Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 Index, and its common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol EFX. Equifax employs approximately 9,900 employees worldwide.

Some noteworthy achievements for the company include: Named to the Top 100 American Banker FinTech Forward list (2015-2016); named a Top Technology Provider on the FinTech 100 list (2004-2016); named an InformationWeek Elite 100 Winner (2014-2015); named a Top Workplace by Atlanta Journal Constitution (2013-2017); named one of Fortune's World's Most Admired Companies (2011-2015); named one of Forbes' World's 100 Most Innovative Companies (2015-2016). For more information, visit www.equifax.com.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

1550 Peachtree Street, NE

Atlanta, Georgia 30309

Marisa Salcines

Media Relations

678-795-7286

[email protected]

SOURCE Equifax Inc.

Related Links

http://www.equifax.com


NEW YORK, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Shoes are being used as a catalyst to intrinsically shift the economic, academic, social and spiritual aspect of a families' well being. Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship International (FGBCFI) launched a 50K Shoe Challenge, as a part of its LIVE FULL strategic initiative.

In just over a month, Soles4Souls' first reformation organization partner, met its shoe challenge and exceeded its' goal by 20,000 pairs of shoes yielding a donation of 70,000 pairs of gently used and new shoes to help those in need and fight global poverty.

Partnership Impact

The shoes FGBCFI collected will be delivered to Soles4Soulsa non-profit that creates sustainable jobs and provides relief through the distribution of shoes and clothing around the world. Founded in 2006, the organization has distributed more than 30 million pairs of new and gently used shoes in 127 countries.

Soles4Souls will convert every used pair of shoes collected from the community into a value-added social currency to achieve positive change, both humanitarian and economic. Most of the gently used shoes will be distributed to micro-enterprise programs that create jobs in Haiti and other poor nations. The resulting revenue will help fund the free distribution of new shoes in the U.S., Canada and developing nations around the world.

"We are committed to keep community, the opportunity to connect, and the radical compassion of Christ in front of us. We are determined to #LiveFull and as blessed members of FGBCFI we have the beautiful privilege of being empowered to share from our places of fullness. We do not 'do' outreach or 'do" missions. We are outreach; we are missions. Daily, we have the opportunity to be the living manifestation of both. We know that when we focus our faith, we can have real impact on real challenges. Over 900 million people live in extreme povertyless than $1.90 per day. Many don't have access to a sustainable income and are often unable to provide basic necessities, such as a good pair of shoes, for their family. We can do something more than discuss the statistics; we can be a solution-partner and change the statistics. We are encouraged about the news of exceeding our goal by 20,000 pairs of shoes, further proving the power of partnership, philanthropy and positive momentum that churches can deliver in today's culture," says Bishop Joseph W. Walker III.

"I am deeply grateful for this partnership," said Buddy Teaster, Soles4Souls' CEO." Bishop Walker's understanding and support of our approach to creating sustainable economic opportunities for people in the developing world is profound. By fully engaging with members of the FGBCFI, this powerful group will make a significant impact for thousands of women and their families. They are literally turning things in their closets that they no longer use into a roof over someone's head, an extra meal a day and school for children desperate for an education."

"Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship International views social enterprise and social outreach as key components to spiritual growth and it's our clarion call to the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship faith community and the faith community at large to LIVE FULL," says Bishop Joseph W. Walker III. "Collecting 70,000 pairs of shoes is a tremendous opportunity to connect the people of our faith community to children in need around the world and global culture as a whole."

For more information, log onto

http://www.fullgospelconference.org/soles4souls/.

About Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship International

Established in 1994, the birth of the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship International is in essence the story of a tremendous move of God beginning in the last decade of the twentieth century. The spiritual religious freedom that makes Full Gospel Baptist unique has impacted Christian men and women around the world.

About Soles4Souls

Soles4Souls disrupts the cycle of poverty by creating sustainable jobs and providing relief through the distribution of shoes and clothing around the world. Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, the organization repurposes product to supply its micro-enterprise, disaster relief and direct assistance programs. Since 2006, it has distributed more than 30 million pairs of shoes in 127 countries. A nonprofit social enterprise, Soles4Souls earns more than half of its income and commits 100% of donations to programs. Visit soles4souls.org for more information.

Media Contact:

Tashion Macon

[email protected]

8187498786

SOURCE Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship International
GAINESVILLE, Fla., July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Gainesville residents looking for a taste of the tropics will be in for a treat on Fri., Aug. 4 as the Tropical Smoothie Cafe (TSC), located at 4125 NW 16th Blvd., will hold a Grand Opening event starting at 7:00 a.m. to commemorate the newest location.

The brand is excited to introduce its second cafe in the community and will be celebrating with giveaways, product tastings, and $1.99 flatbreads all day with the purchase of any cafe menu item.* In addition, the first 50 customers in line at the cafe by 7:00 a.m. will receive free smoothies for a year!**

The 1,250 square foot cafe showcases the new Tropical Smoothie Cafe decor package, featuring an island-inspired atmosphere. The Tropical Smoothie Cafe is owned by franchisees Dhairya and Vipul Chaudhari.

After a year of joining the TSC brand, the Chaudhari's are excited to finally unveil the newest health option they are providing to the community, just in time for summer. "Joining the Tropical Smoothie Cafe system has proven to be a wise decision for us. It is a unique brand, with a bold, fresh, flavorful menu which is what attracted us to the business," Dhairya said. The franchisee duo have been residents of Gainesville for over a decade and operate additional franchised quick-service ice cream locations in the area.

Known for providing made-to-order real-fruit smoothies, as well as toasted sandwiches, flatbreads, wraps, salads and more, the Gainesville cafe is part of a national chain with more than 600 locations nationwide.

For more information on the Gainesville Tropical Smoothie Cafe, please call 352-363-6227 or find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TSCGainesville.

*$1.99 flatbread offer is limited to one per person.

**After purchase, the first 50 guests will receive a coupon good for one free smoothie per week for 52 weeks.

About Tropical Smoothie Cafe

Founded in 1997, Tropical Smoothie Cafe is a fast-casual restaurant concept inspiring healthy lifestyles across the country, with more than 600 locations nationwide. With snack and meal options for any time of day, Tropical Smoothie Cafe serves smoothies, salads, wraps, sandwiches, and flatbreads. All chicken is "antibiotic-free" in the sense that no antibiotic residues are present in the meat due to withdrawal periods and other precautions required by the government and observed by the chicken companies. The rapidly growing franchise has received numerous accolades including being ranked on Entrepreneur's 2015 Franchise 500, 2015 Fast Casual Top 100 Movers and Shakers and Nation's Restaurant News' 2015 Top 200.Tropical Smoothie Cafe is seeking qualified franchisees to expand throughout the United States in markets such as Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Charlotte, Philadelphia and Columbus, Ohio, among others. For more information, visit www.TropicalSmoothieFranchise.com.

Media Contact:

Jessica Chacoff

305.631.2283

[email protected]

SOURCE Tropical Smoothie Cafe

Related Links

http://www.tropicalsmoothiefranchise.com


The Astana Kazakhstan Expo 2017 is the first world expo initiated by central Asian countries to feature renewable energy development and green economy. GCL, as a leading green power provider, presented its intelligent energy solution that combines PV power generation, energy storage and conservation technology as well as wind power generation at the expo.

On "GCL Day", the company comprehensively demonstrated its commitment to improving efficiency and reliability in integrated green energy solutions via seminars, video, and an exhibition of the paintings themed "Green Power, Beautiful Homeland".

GCL also demonstrated its new achievements in solar power technologies on the day. Its self-developed micro grids that integrates various clean energy resources grabbed wide attention from both domestic and foreign visitors. Moreover, GCL's experimental programs of building intelligent green energy towns in China was also in place, which spurred interest of many local officials.

"China is leading the world in the energy development, while the industry in Kazakhstan is still in its initial stage. Therefore, we are very willing to learn from China advanced experience and working with their governments and companies to better improve the scenario of our renewable energy," said Ms. Zhukenova, deputy of the Kazakhstan's renewable energy department.

Ms. Shu Huan, leader of the China Pavilion also expressed the hope that GCL could further work with the Belt & Road countries via the Expo to develop the energy industry and to eventually receive good results.

Shu Hua, the president of GCL-SI, said, "We are very pleased to be invited to join the expo. Through the platform, GCL tries to provide a channel for all visitors to know better our products, innovation expertise and our efforts in driving green and new energy utilization in the world."

About GCL

Golden Concord Group Limited is a global energy group that specializes in clean energy, new energy and related industries. It is the world-top manufacturer of silicon materials with advanced technologies. It also boasts itself as the largest-sized, technology-leading PV material manufacturer in the world. The group holds several listed companies such as GCL-Poly, GCL System Integration and GCL New Energy and has establishments across 31 provinces (cities and autonomous regions) in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, as well as the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and many other places worldwide.

GCL supplies 30% of highly efficient PV materials to the world. Its total installed capacity of PV power stations ranks the second in the world. GCL has formed the most integrated PV industrial chain in the world which boast of the largest collection of intellectual property.

SOURCE GCL System
Financing provided by GCC based banks with syndication led by Emirates NBD

The raise will support the group's global operations to realise growth plans

The Group plans to tap the Islamic Finance and Sukuk markets in Asia with focus on Indonesia and Malaysia for future potential funding

Gulf Petrochem Group (GP), has successfully raised US$ 150 million from a group of international and local financial institutions based in the GCC. In an environment of continued low global oil prices, the financing will be used to support the group's activities around the world.

(Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/538279/Gulf_Petrochem_Group.jpg )



The borrowing will take the form of an 8 year term loan which was provided by a syndicate of banks lead by Emirates NBD. IL&FS acted as the Financial Advisor.

National Bank of Fujairah will be the security agent for the financing. The participating banks are Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait, United Arab Bank, Bank of China, ICICI Bank, Mashreq Bank amongst others.

The loan was competetively priced with a spread over the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR). Throughout the planning and syndication phases, GP worked closely with its stakeholders, IL&FS and the syndicate of banks.

A signing ceremony took place with high level representatives from the syndicate banks and GP's Group Managing Director Sudhir Goyel along with senior executives from GP in attendance.

Speaking about the deal, GP's Group Director, Prerit Goel said: "Amidst current market conditions it is a testament to our operations and business plans that we were able to raise this amount of capital. The banks involved have all expressed their admiration of our robust growth plans. As a group, we are determined to stay the course and to deliver on our long-term strategic ambitions." He went on to add, "Following the closure of this raise, we are currently studying to tap the capital markets with a strong focus on the Islamic finance and Sukuk market in Asia particularly, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Mr. Salah Mohammed Amin, Executive Vice President, Corporate Banking, Emirates NBD also added, "The positive response for this facility confirms the interest in key sectors in the UAE and the trust endorsed to Gulf Petrochem Group's strong financial position despite the difficult market conditions. Since the beginning of the year, we have arranged a number of syndicated loan transactions. This transaction further cements our footprint in the local market."

Sreehari Iyer, GP's Group CFO said: "The positive response we received from the banking community during our meetings was extremely welcoming. This competitive new source of funding will help us to achieve our global growth ambitions and showcases the financial trust in our business during these uncertain economic times."

About Gulf Petrochem Group

Gulf Petrochem Group is a leading player in the oil industry, specializing in Oil Trading and Bunkering, Oil Refining, Grease Manufacturing, Oil Storage Terminals, Bitumen Manufacturing, and Shipping and Logistics. Headquartered in United Arab Emirates, with a presence in South Asia, the Far East, Africa and Europe, Gulf Petrochem has emerged as one of the most well-established manufacturers and traders of petroleum products in major parts of the world.

SOURCE Gulf Petrochem Group
BELLINGHAM, Wash., July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Ever since a customer asked Heating Green owner Jeff Caldwell if he could heat hot yoga with infrared heating panels in 2011, Heating Green stepped up to serve yoga studios with their unique heating needs. Today, its clientele list includes Lyons Den Power Yoga, Yoga Pod, Tracy Anderson fitness studios, and much more. While most of the 400-and-counting studios served to date are located across North America, Heating Green has served yoga studios in Mexico, Sweden, Belgium, Romania, and Mongolia, for a total of 13 countries.

Becoming a preferred choice for hot yoga, infrared heat is a safe spectrum of light that is invisible to the eye and is experienced in the form of heat. Transferring radiantly, directly to objects and people, infrared heat is best described as the feeling of sun-like warmth.

"Just before opening iShine I was driving 30 minutes across town to practice under infrared panels at a friends' studio because I loved the way my body felt after practice," said Genevieve Boulanger, owner of iShine Yoga.

Using 20-40 percent less energy than other systems, as well as having longer product life spans than traditional heating systems, owner Jeff Caldwell named his business Heating Green in 2007.

"A growing number of our yoga customers are hearing about us from their friend or colleague that use our heaters. Infrared hot yoga is definitely being sought after more and more, and some of our customers pride themselves on being the first infrared studio in their local area," Caldwell said.

For more information about Heating Green, or infrared radiant heating, please visit heatinggreen.com or call 360-715-4328.

Related Images

image1.png

image2.jpg

image3.jpeg

Related Links

Heating Green Hot Yoga Information

Infrared Information

Related Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djMW2Xce6hw

SOURCE Heating Green LLC

Related Links

https://www.heatinggreen.com


HAMILTON, Bermuda, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Hoegh LNG Partners LP (the "Partnership") (NYSE: HMLP) advises that its 2017 Annual Meeting will be held on September 15, 2017. The record date for voting at the Annual Meeting, at which a member of the Board of Directors of the Partnership (the "Board") will be elected, is set to August 14, 2017. The notice, agenda and associated material will be distributed prior to the meeting. The 2017 Annual Meeting will be held at the Thon Hotel, Brussels Airport, Berkenlaan 4, 1831 Diegem, Belgium at 12 noon local time.

The Partnership also announces that Mr. Claibourne Harris has resigned from the Board, effective immediately. Richard Tyrrell, the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer of the Partnership commented, "the Board and I would like to express our gratitude to Mr. Harris for his service to the Partnership since its IPO in 2014, and we wish him all the best in his future endeavors."

Ms. Kathleen McAllister has been appointed as a new member of the Board by the Partnership's general partner to replace Mr. Harris. Ms. McAllister served as President, Chief Executive Officer, and Director of Transocean Partners LLC from 2014 until its merger with Transocean Ltd. in December 2016 and as Chief Financial Officer from February 2016 until the merger. From 2011 to 2014 Ms. McAllister served as Vice President and Treasurer of Transocean Ltd. and led the initial public offering of Transocean Partners in 2014. Ms. McAllister joined Transocean in 2005 as Director of Tax Reporting and subsequently served as Finance Director for the Americas Business Unit and as Assistant Treasurer. Before joining Transocean, Ms. McAllister served in various finance, treasury, accounting and tax roles at Baker Hughes, Helix Energy Solutions Group and Veritas DGC Inc. Ms. McAllister serves as an independent non-executive director of Fluid Holding Corp., the sole shareholder of Q'Max Solutions Inc., and is a member of the University of Houston-Clear Lake Accounting Advisory Board. McAllister began her career at Deloitte in 1989 and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Houston-Clear Lake.

Media contact:



Richard Tyrrell

Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer

+44 7919 058830

www.hoeghlngpartners.com

SOURCE Hoegh LNG Partners LP

Related Links

http://www.hoeghlngpartners.com


Mr. El-Erian, one of the most high-profile figures in global business and investment, has a distinguished career that includes senior roles in academia, international institutions and the private sector. He joins Investcorp's Advisory Board at a time when the Firm is achieving significant growth driven by an ambitious strategy.

Prior to assuming his current responsibilities at Allianz in 2014, Dr. El-Erian was CEO and Co-Chief Investment Officer of PIMCO (2007-14), the international investment management firm he first joined back in 1999 to lead its emerging market business. He has served as Chairman of the U.S. Government's Global Development Council under President Obama and has held roles including Deputy Director of the International Monetary Fund and CEO and President of the Harvard Management Company. He is currently a contributing editor at the Financial Times, a Bloomberg columnist, and co-chairs the capital campaign for Cambridge University and its Colleges. He serves on a number of non-profit boards, including the National Bureau for Economic Research, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and KAUST. The author of two New York Times bestsellers, he has been named one of Foreign Policy's Top 100 Global Thinkers four years in a row.

Commenting on the appointment, Dr. El-Erian said, "Investcorp has a strong track record of over 35 years of being a bridge for Gulf capital investing in assets in the West. While maintaining its Gulf roots, it has been transforming itself into a truly global alternative asset manager with an international client base, a broad range of products, and some of the most talented people in the industry. It is a privilege to have been invited to join its Advisory Board, and I am excited about being part of the next stage of the Firm's growth."

Mohammed Alardhi, Executive Chairman of Investcorp, said, "It is an honour to welcome Mohamed onto our Advisory Board. As one of the most respected voices on the international financial and economic stage, Mohamed brings with him unique insights that will benefit Investcorp as we deliver on our strategy to become one of the world's leading global alternative investment firms."

"The combination of his unrivalled experience in leading financial institutions such as PIMCO and Allianz, his in-depth understanding of global markets, and his connectivity around the world will provide the Firm with additional guidance as it continues on its transformation journey."

Investcorp's Advisory Board is chaired by Mohammed Alardhi, Executive Chairman of the Firm. It meets annually and provides advice and guidance to the Firm. It consists of Kofi Annan, President of the Global Humanitarian Forum and former Secretary-General of the United Nations; Dr. Wolfgang Schussel, President of the Foreign Policy and United Nations Association of Austria, and former Federal Chancellor and Minister for Economic Affairs of Austria; Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger, former German Deputy Foreign Minister and Chairman, Munich Security Conference; Global Head of Government Relations and Public Policy for Allianz; Pierre Keller, former Managing Partner of Lombard Odier & Cie; Ana Palacio, former Foreign Minister of Spain and Senior Vice President of International Affairs and Marketing, AREVA; Deepak Parekh, Chairman of India's premier housing finance company HDFC Ltd; and Dr. Otto Schily, former German Interior Minister and a member of the German Bundestag where he serves on the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

About Investcorp

Investcorp is a leading global provider and manager of alternative investments, offering such investments to its high-net-worth private and institutional clients on a global basis. The Firm continues to focus on generating investor and shareholder value through a disciplined investment approach in four lines of business: corporate investment, real estate, alternative investment solutions and credit management.

Since its inception in 1982, Investcorp has made over 170 corporate investments in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East and North Africa region, including Turkey, across a range of sectors including retail and consumer products, technology, business services and industrials, and more than 400 commercial and residential real estate investments in the U.S., for in excess of $53 billion in transaction value.

Investcorp employs approximately 390 people across its offices in Bahrain, New York, London, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Doha, and Singapore. It is publicly traded on the Bahrain Bourse (INVCORP). For further information, including our most recent periodic financial statements, which details our assets under management, please visit: www.investcorp.com.

About Dr. Mohamed A. El-Erian

Dr. Mohamed A. El-Erian is an Egyptian American businessman and currently Chief Economic Advisor at Allianz and chair of its International Advisory Board, a Financial Times contributing editor, and a Bloomberg columnist.

Dr. El-Erian attended Queens' College, Cambridge, receiving a first class honors undergraduate degree in economics. He obtained his Master's and Doctorate degrees in economics from Oxford University. In June 2011, El-Erian received an honorary doctorate degree from the American University in Cairo. He was admitted as an Honorary Fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge University in December 2013. Named by Foreign Policy as a Top 100 Global Thinkers four years in a row, he has written two New York Times Best Sellers: "When Markets Collide" and "The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability, and Avoiding the Next Collapse."

In 1983, he joined the Economist Program at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. where he rose to become Deputy Director. In 1999, he moved to the private sector, working in London at Salomon Smith Barney/Citigroup before joining PIMCO to lead its work on emerging markets.

After working at PIMCO as a managing director and head of the emerging market portfolio team, he was appointed CEO and President of Harvard Management Company in 2005. He served as a member of the faculty of Harvard Business School, returning to PIMCO in 2007 as co-CEO and co-CIO. His philanthropic efforts over the years have emphasized education and health, including major gifts to the Children's Cancer Hospital in Egypt as well as the University of Cambridge and Queens' College.

On December 21, 2012, President Obama announced the appointment of El-Erian as the chair of the President's Global Development Council, leading the Council in its role of informing and providing advice to the President and other senior U.S. officials on global development policies and practices. Dr. El-Erian has served on the Board of Trustee of several educational institutions, including Pegasus, St. Margaret School, Cambridge in America and KAUST, as well as advisory committees for the International Monetary Fund, the New York Federal Reserve and the US Treasury. His other board memberships have included the International Center for Research on Women, New America and the Petersen Institute for International Economics. He currently serves on the boards of the NBER, the Carnegie Endowment, and the OCSA Foundation. He co-chairs the capital campaign for Cambridge University and its Colleges and, since 2007, has been chairing Microsoft's International Advisory Committee.

SOURCE Investcorp

Related Links

http://www.investcorp.com


Brecher started his career in the electronic security industry in 1995 with ACI, a top tier regional systems integration company which was acquired by Diebold, Incorporated in 2004. Brecher held multiple leadership roles in field operations and engineering with Diebold and served as Vice President, Technology, for Diebold Electronic Security. Securitas acquired Diebold's U.S. and Canadian Electronic Security business in 2015 and Brecher was appointed Senior Vice President Technology & Chief Information Officer of Securitas Electronic Security, Incorporated (SES). He was responsible for SES enterprise information technology operations, technology strategy and the development of managed services for SES customers. Brecher has 20+ years of senior technology management, infrastructure and networking experience in the security industry.

"Jeremy is a highly regarded and respected IT leader and technology expert in the security sector," said Santiago Galaz, President, Securitas North America. "He has a keen insight into the future direction of the security and IT sectors and expertise in real-world customer applications. Jeremy is seen as a thought leader in the areas of Cloud and IoT technology. His goal is to leverage and expand upon the successful leadership position of SES in web-based and managed services to the entire Securitas North America platform and all our customers."

"Throughout my career, I have enjoyed the challenge and reward of leveraging proven and emerging technologies to deliver innovative security solutions for customers. In today's data driven, connected and mobile world, it's an exciting time to develop and deliver the next generation of customer-facing solutions and services," said Brecher. "I look forward to building upon our success at Securitas Electronic Security for the broader customer base throughout Securitas North America."

Brecher holds a bachelor's degree from Queens College in Queens, New York. He currently chairs the Security Industry Association Cloud, Mobility and IoT Subcommittee and is a past member of advisory boards for TechSec Solutions and the Connected Security Expo.

"Jeremy's vision, leadership and track-record of implementing innovative cloud-based services for SES and our customers is unmatched within the electronic security industry today," said Tony Byerly, President, Securitas Electronic Security. "Leveraging his expertise and strategic insights for the greater benefit of all Securitas customers, positions Securitas to continue our leadership position in providing world class web-based services, partnering with industry leading technology partners, and creating a best-in-class customer experience."

About Securitas

Securitas is a global knowledge leader in security. We base our protective services on customer-specific needs through different combinations of On-site, Mobile and Remote Guarding, Electronic Security, Fire and Safety and Corporate Risk Management. Everywhere from small stores to airports, our 335,000 employees are making a difference.

Securitas North America provides protective services, including On-site, Mobile and Remote Guarding, Electronic Security, Fire and Safety services and Corporate Risk Management in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. For more information, visit www.securitasinc.com.

SOURCE Securitas Security Services USA, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.securitasinc.com


SEOUL, South Korea, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Owing to U.S. President Trump's anti-immigration policies and a sharp reduction in the research budgets for the medical and science fields, large IT companies in the United States have begun to move to Canada as an alternative to Silicon Valley.

In reaction to this, the Canadian government has announced an investment of over $100 million in the AI (Artificial Intelligence) industry, allowing Canada to arm itself with more attractive conditions for these companies.

Britain's DeepMind, the developer of AlphaGo, has also selected Canada to be its first overseas research center. DeepMind announced on July 5th to establish a research center in Edmonton, Alberta and conclude a research contract with the University of Alberta.

DeepMind singled out Canada in the belief that it can easily secure highly talented persons within the far-reaching AI community.

Of University of Alberta graduates, dozens of researchers have already joined DeepMind, including Dr. Aja Hwang who played Lee Se-dol, a nine-dan Korean professional go player. KOTRA DeepMind plans to attract more AI researchers from all over the world to the region for continues studies.

At this time, the Canada Office of Korea IT Times and the KOTRA Vancouver Office are reviewing a jointly held "Korea-Canada IT Tech Cooperation Forum and Export Consultation Meeting" in Vancouver early next year.

For this occasion, Chung Youn-soo, head of the Canada Office of Korea IT Times, carried out an exclusive interview with Jung Hyung-shik, Chief Trade Commissioner of the KOTRA Vancouver Office.

Jung freely spoke about his expectations to "jointly push with Korea IT Times for the project to support Korean IT firms' advancement into Canada. Now is the best time for Korean IT companies to make inroads into Canada."

The following is an excerpt of the interview with Jung Hyung-shik, Chief Trade Commissioner of the KOTRA Vancouver Office.

Q: What is the role of the KOTRA Vancouver Office in supporting Korean IT companies' advancement into Canada?

A: KOTRA has been offering a marketing platform to domestic small and medium-sized companies for their advancement into overseas markets. Likewise, KOTRA has been providing IT companies with consultation services for local market surveys, buyer discovery, exports and advancement.

Through support projects such as participation in local missions, exhibitions and export consultation meetings, attracting buyer's visits to Korea and agent businesses as local branches, it has helped domestic IT companies advance into the Canadian market with their goods and services.

Q: Would you comment on the current status and future prospects for the IT industry in Canada's western region?

A: The Province of British Columbia (BC) in Canada has recently posted a rapid growth in terms of the IT industry, even being called "the second Silicon Valley." In particular, small and medium-sized IT venture firms are enjoying a boom.

Vancouver possesses an excellent IT start-up ecosystem, posting 18th in the rankings of IT start-up development cities.

In particular, Vancouver is famous for active advancement by Amazon, DeepMind, Facebook and Twitter. With the shortage of IT manpower becoming aggravated due to the U.S. anti-immigration policies, more large IT companies in the U.S. are expected to move into Canada under relatively soft conditions in immigration and manpower supply, compared to the U.S.

By sector, the software and computer service accounted for the biggest portion at 80%, followed by ICT wholesale (5.5%), communication service (3.7%) and ICT manufacturing (2.8%).

About 25% of Canada's top 100 enterprises are located in Vancouver. The city also boasts of its high level of technology and competitiveness in the software industry.

Business start-ups by small, medium-sized and venture firms are also active in mobile applications and game fields. The powerful growth potential has stretched out from the traditional IT service areas, including system integration, IT consulting, repair & maintenance, outsourcing and management service to such new service fields as cloud computing and Internet of Things (IoT).

"Korea IT Times, KOTRA Vancouver Office plans to hold the 'Korea-Canada IT Tech Cooperation Forum and Export Consultation Meeting' in Vancouver early next year."

Q: Would you elaborate on the main fields of interest for IT investors or buyers in Canada?

A: The Canadian IT market has showed a modest growth, accounting for 3.2% of the country's total GDP standing at 67.9 billion Canadian dollars.

Over the past five years, its annual exports reached some 10 billion Canadian dollars and its imports came to 32.4 billion Canadian dollars.

There are over 38,000 IT companies in Canada and some 560,000 workers engage in the industry. This represents 3.7% of the total labor population in Canada. The annual sales for Canada's IT industry rose by 28% from 133.4 billion Canadian dollars in 2007 to 182.9 billion Canadian dollars in 2016.

Its portion of the Canadian economy has risen steadily. In keeping with this, the federal government of Canada is mapping out an aggressive policy supporting the related industry through such incentives as a 15% tax deduction for software development cost.

The investors' interested fields can be classified into various tax breaks and corporate takeovers following legal contracts, away from R&D and general investment.

In case of the "S" company in Vancouver, for instance, it took over a part of the assets of the Korean company "A," a wireless communication chip and data developer, established a locally incorporated firm and possessed products and research manpower, while receiving various benefits from the government, including incentives for local R&D activities and employment of overseas engineers.

There is keen interest in the M2M (Machine to Machine)-related wireless modem, joint and win-win development of software on the mobile phone communication chip, and cooperation for VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) development.

Although various types of solutions have already appeared in the VoIP market, in addition to Skype-style technology, Korea's VoIP-related technology is well known as an advanced one.

The software field is regarded as one that Korean companies can advance into easily. The gaming, mobile, healthcare fields are emerging as the blue ocean thanks to strong demands.

Q: Would you comment on Canada's response to Korea's IT industry?

A: Korea's IT technology is widely known to have reached a top level in the world. Since the Korea-Canada FTA settlement in 2015, such industries as agriculture, livestock and forestry have enjoyed big benefits. However, it is expected to take some time before actual export transactions are reflected in the IT industry.

Q: Do you have any plans to promote exchanges and business cooperation in the IT industry between Korea and Canada?

A: At present, the exchanges in the IT industry between the two countries are at the initial stage so that it is a potential market. As a result, I think KOTRA's role will increase in ICT cooperation. As the service field accounts for about 84% of Canada's IT industry, the business cases in service cooperation between IT companies of the two countries remain at an insignificant level.

Under this backdrop, I think it is very timely that the KOTRA Vancouver Office and the Canada office of Korea IT Times push for holding the "Korea-Canada IT Tech Cooperation Forum and Export Consultation Meeting" in Vancouver early next year to energize exchanges in the IT industry between the two countries.

SOURCE Korea IT Times
NEW YORK, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- LexisNexis, a leading provider of content and technology solutions today announced that LexisNexis Newsdesk was named the Best News Media Monitoring Solution in the 2017 SIIA CODiE Awards. Finalists represent the best products, technologies, and services in software, information and business technology. LexisNexis beat out media monitoring industry veterans to claim the coveted win.

LexisNexis Newsdesk, a leading global media monitoring and analysis platform, helps clients comprehensively search, analyze, monitor, and share market intelligence. With content in over 90 languages from all over the world, it touts robust coverage of traditional media and social media, including premium and licensed sources.

The SIIA CODiE Awards are the premier awards for the software and information industries, and have been recognizing product excellence for over 30 years. CODiE Award recipients are the companies producing the most innovative businesses technology products across the country, and around the world.

"The media landscape is evolving more rapidly than ever, and with the influx of new media, social, and increasing content volumes, it's critical for PR and Communications professionals to be armed with powerful tools for evaluating coverage and performance. We have been investing heavily in innovative enhancements to the LexisNexis Newsdesk platform and are thrilled to gain this recognition from SIIA for how powerful the tool really is." said Alex Schwendtner, General Manager of Media Intelligence at LexisNexis.

Schwendtner continues, "We're honored to be winners in such a competitive category. We are really proud of the work we have accomplished to date, and are even more ecstatic about what's in store for Newsdesk's future."

LexisNexis continues to invest in their suite of Media Intelligence offerings. Earlier this year they rolled out a social analytics tool, a media contacts solution, and have expanded their professional service offering. Additionally, LexisNexis has committed a growing number of resources to the continuous enhancement and innovation of LexisNexis Newsdesk, their flagship media intelligence product.

"I am impressed by the level of innovation and creativity of the products that have been selected as this year's CODiE Award finalists. We are happy to recognize these products and the power they have to transform the future of how we do business." said Ken Wasch, President of SIIA.

The SIIA CODiE Awards are the industry's only peer-reviewed awards program. The first-round review of all nominees is conducted by software and business technology experts with considerable industry expertise, including members of the industry, analysts, media, bloggers, bankers and investors. The scores from the expert judge review determine the finalists. SIIA members then vote on the finalist products, and the scores from both rounds are tabulated to select the winners. 60 awards were given this year for products and services developed specifically for B2B software, information and media companies.

More information about the Awards is available at: siia.net/CODiE.

Details about the winning products can be found at http://www.siia.net/codie/2017-Winners

About LexisNexis Legal & Professional

LexisNexis Legal & Professional is a leading global provider of legal, regulatory and business information and analytics that help professional customers make more informed decisions, increase productivity and serve their clients better. As a digital pioneer, the company was the first to bring legal and business information online with its Lexis and Nexis services. Today, LexisNexis Legal & Professional harnesses leading-edge technology and world-class content to help professionals work in faster, easier and more effective ways. Through close collaboration with its customers, the company ensures organizations can leverage its solutions to reduce risk, improve productivity, increase profitability and grow their business. LexisNexis Legal & Professional, which serves customers in more than 175 countries with 10,000 employees worldwide, is part of RELX Group, a global provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries

About LexisNexis Business Insight Solutions

LexisNexis Business Insight Solutions (BIS) is a business unit within LexisNexis Legal & Professional serving companies and organizations across the globe, offering premier news, corporate information and public records through a portfolio of solutions, including the flagship media intelligence platform, LexisNexis Newsdesk. This unique combination of market-leading content and innovative technology helps business professionals make more insightful decisions by offering them quick and easy access to the latest news, facts and insights regarding their brand, clients, prospects, competitors, suppliers and industry trends.

About the SIIA CODiE Awards

The SIIA CODiE Awards is the only peer-reviewed program to showcase business and education technology's finest products and services. Since 1986, thousands of products, services and solutions have been recognized for achieving excellence. For more information, visit siia.net/CODiE.

SOURCE LexisNexis

Related Links

https://www.lexisnexis.com


LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Advisors invested client assets in actively managed funds in the first half of 2017, but net new flows were driven entirely by low fee and institutional priced share classes, according to data released today by Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:BR) via its Fund Distribution Intelligence. In the first six months of 2017, advisors from independent broker dealers and wirehouse firms added net new assets of $150 billion and $40 billion, respectively into institutionally priced actively managed funds. The majority of these positive flows were the result of conversions out of load funds (share class A, B and C), which decreased by $122 billion and $37 billion from independent and wirehouse broker dealers, respectively.

"Actively managed funds saw positive flows during the first half of 2017, even as advisors continue to invest client assets into passively managed ETFs and index funds at an increased rate," said Frank Polefrone, senior vice president of Broadridge's data and analytics business. "Net new asset flows into institutional shares of actively managed funds in the first half of 2017 is further proof that price and performance are the driving factors in advisor fund selection. We expect to see the move to lower fee share classes continue throughout 2017 as the majority of advisors move to a fee based practice, and the broker dealer home office realigns the mix of share classes offered to meet both client demand and regulatory requirements related to the DOL fiduciary rule."

Lower Fee Products Take Hold in 2017

Virtually all net new assets in 2017 flowed to lower fee products  ETFs, index funds, and institutionally priced actively managed funds.

In the first half of 2017, net new asset growth increased by $566 billion , or 5.5 percent.

, or 5.5 percent. Almost 77 percent of fund and ETF net new assets, $433 billion , went into lower fee passive products during the first half of 2017.

, went into lower fee passive products during the first half of 2017. Of the remaining $133 billion of net new assets that flowed to actively managed products, all net new assets went into lower fee institutional share classes.

of net new assets that flowed to actively managed products, all net new assets went into lower fee institutional share classes. The growth of lower fee products has been especially prominent in distribution channels supporting fee based advice, such as the RIA and online channels.

Net new assets into actively managed funds from all retail channels  independent broker dealer, wirehouse, RIA and online retail  were up $87 billion versus $48 billion for passively managed funds.

The fastest growing channel on a percentage basis for the first half of 2017 was the direct online channel, up 20 percent.

Net new flows of mutual funds increased by $67 billion , or 22 percent, for the online channel, with more than half of net new assets ( $36 billion ) going into actively managed funds.

, or 22 percent, for the online channel, with more than half of net new assets ( ) going into actively managed funds. Vanguard and Schwab drive the growth of the online channel, offering a wide range of index and lower fee actively managed funds.

"Today's advisors march to the drum beat of 'fees, fees, fees' and fund manufacturers without a low-cost solution are, at best, being ignored and at worst, getting trampled," Jeff Tjornehoj, Broadridge's director of fiduciary and compliance research. "While equity mutual funds have outflows of $69 billion collectively, those with an expense ratio of just 20 basis points or less have inflows of $93 billion. The battle ahead is about how fund sponsors will accept a fraction of what they historically collected. Even channels that traditionally supported premium priced products, such as wirehouses and broker dealers have shifted strategies based on fees."

In the first half of 2017, overall assets for ETFs increased by 11.6 percent to $3.1 trillion.

The largest increase of ETF assets in the first half of 2017 occurred in the RIA channel, with net new assets of $78 billion , up 11.4 percent.

, up 11.4 percent. The RIA channel remains the largest channel for ETFs with over $800 billion invested in ETFs.

Broadridge's Fund Distribution Intelligence comprises the most complete sales and asset data collection in the industry, creating transparency into more than $10 trillion of long-term mutual fund and ETF assets across a majority of mutual fund distributors.

About Broadridge

Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:BR) a global fintech leader, is the leading provider of investor communications and technology-driven solutions for broker-dealers, banks, mutual funds and corporate issuers globally. Broadridge's investor communications, securities processing and managed services solutions help clients reduce their capital investments in operations infrastructure, allowing them to increase their focus on core business activities. With over 50 years of experience, Broadridge's infrastructure underpins proxy voting services for over 90 percent of public companies and mutual funds in North America, and processes more than $5 trillion in fixed income and equity trades per day. Broadridge employs approximately 10,000 full-time associates in 16 countries. For more information about Broadridge, please visit www.broadridge.com.

Media Contact:

Joe LoBello

LoBello Communications

+1 516-902-2694

[email protected]

SOURCE Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.broadridge.com


Martin's, along with ProArts Media, received one "Bronze Telly" for a 30-second video called "Martin's Old-Fashioned Real Butter Bread" ( https://youtu.be/QVcnVu2nkXw ) in the "Regional Commercials - Food & Beverage" category. Martin's received another "Bronze Telly" for the longer digital version called "Just Like Grandma Used To Make" ( https://youtu.be/AaulcJmcT5I ) in the "Non-Broadcast Productions - Sales" category. The "Bronze Telly" statuette is awarded by The Telly Awards for outstanding achievement.

The videos were created to tell the story of Martin's Old-Fashioned Butter Bread. They depict such scenes as a family packing sandwiches for a picnic, a family enjoying breakfast at home, a multi-generational dinner gathering, and an elderly woman baking bread by hand in her kitchen surrounded by nostalgic cookware and decor. Martin's goal for this commercial was to showcase the warm, homey vibe that comes from a home-cooked meal. Since Martin's Butter Bread is described as "Old-Fashioned" due to its use of high quality ingredients such as real butter and cane sugar, the imagery of a grandmother figure baking fresh bread in her kitchen seemed to really emphasize the characteristics of the product. Martin's also felt that the imagery of various families gathered around the dinner table illustrated the importance of spending quality time with family and friends in today's fast-paced society.

"We are honored to have received these awards and were pleased with the opportunity to work with ProArts Media on this project. 'Breaking bread' has always been a way of bringing people together, and using our Old-Fashioned Butter Bread to tell a story, encouraging people to reminisce about past family meals and also to create new family memories over the dinner table, was really special. I can speak for my family, and our company, when I say that we feel truly blessed and honored to have been a part of this 'breaking bread' tradition for the past 60+ years!" says Julie Martin, social media manager and granddaughter to founders Lloyd and Lois Martin. "We are focused on creating cherished eating experiences, bringing families and friends together and making meals memorable. Butter Bread takes that focus one step further by bringing people of all generations together. In the Martin family, we often have 3 generations of our family together for meals, and we hope to encourage others to do the same! And, of course, we hope they'll use Martin's Butter Bread and some of our other products for these memory-making family meals," says Julie.

Founded in 1979, The Telly Awards are the premier awards honoring outstanding content for TV and Cable, Digital and Streaming, and Non-Broadcast distribution. The Telly Awards annually showcase the best work of the most respected advertising agencies, production companies, television stations, cable operators, and corporate video departments in the world. The Telly Awards are a widely known and highly respected national and international competition, and this year they received over 12,000 entries from all 50 U.S. states and five continents. The judges consist of a group of highly qualified advertising, production, and other creative professionals from all regions of the United States, representing large and small firms, including advertising agencies, TV stations, production houses, and corporate video departments. The judges base the decisions for the awards on a high standard of excellence rather than a competition. A full list of The Telly Awards can be found on their website at tellyawards.com.

"My Grandma Martin wouldn't have thought twice about providing fresh, quality, delicious bread to nourish her growing family. She recognized the importance of spending time together, and when we were together, only the best bread would do. These are the moments that we hold on to and remember from one generation to the next. This is the story represented in our videos," Julie explains.

Martin's Famous Pastry Shoppe, Inc., is an all-American family owned and operated company headquartered in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. From 1955, when Lloyd and Lois Martin converted their garage into a small bakery, the Martin's family has focused on baking great-tasting products using high-quality ingredients. Their dedication to excellence, quality, service, and family values is what truly sets them apart from their competitors.

Located in central Pennsylvania, Martin's Famous Potato Rolls and Bread has been known for its "Famous Dutch Taste." No longer just a "Pennsylvania novelty," Martin's Potato Rolls are the "#1 Branded Hamburger Bun in America." In addition to their famous burger (Sandwich) and hot dog (Long) potato rolls, Martin's also makes sesame-seeded Big Marty's Rolls, Hoagie Rolls, 100% Whole Wheat Potato Bread, and Cinnamon-Raisin Swirl Potato Bread. These and other Martin's products, such as the new Old-Fashioned Butter Bread, are delivered fresh to Eastern and Mid-West stores daily and are exported internationally to a growing number of countries. To learn more about Martin's Famous Potato Rolls and Bread, visit their website at: www.potatorolls.com.

Martin's Old-Fashioned Real Butter Bread is sold in retail stores within Martin's fresh distribution areas on the East Coast. Store locations can be found at: https://potatorolls.com/find-us/.

ProArts Media is a full-service video and photography production company located in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. ProArts provides businesses and organizations with the ability to represent their brand through visual storytelling, offering creative services in concepting, copywriting, production, and post-production. For more information, visit ProArtsMedia.com.

SOURCE Martins Famous Pastry Shoppe, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.potatorolls.com


LEUDELANGE, Sweden, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Millicom announced today that it has exercised its right to terminate its agreement to sell its Tigo operations in Senegal to Wari Group. Separately, the company also announced that it has signed an agreement to sell its Senegal operations to a consortium consisting of NJJ, Sofima (telecom investment vehicle managed by the Axian Group) and Teyliom Group, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

For further information, please visit: www.millicom.com or contact:

Investors:

Michel Morin:

+352-277-59094



Mauricio Pinzon

+44(0)20-3249-2460

[email protected]



Press:

Vivian Kobeh

+352-277-59084

[email protected]

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/millicom-international-cellular/r/millicom-terminates-agreement-with-wari-and-signs-agreement-to-sell-its-senegal-business,c2319960

The following files are available for download:

http://mb.cision.com/Main/950/2319960/705449.pdf Millicom terminates agreement with Wari and signs agreement to sell its Senegal business

SOURCE Millicom International Cellular

Related Links

http://www.millicom.com


The global advertising campaign, which will launch on U.S. digital channels beginning today, is a major initiative designed to drive brand awareness and elevate the importance of water in people's lives. The campaign will come to U.S. television beginning Tuesday, September 12, when the new Nestle Pure Life TV advertisement begins airing in every major metropolitan area in the United States.

In the U.S., the campaign will include the national television advertisement, all-new packaging for the bottles and multipacks, new point-of-sale (POS) display materials, web-based videos, digital and social media communications, and a new Nestle Pure Life web site.

"Our new campaign is highly inspirational and has the ability to deeply connect with parents on the importance of pure quality water," said Antonio Sciuto, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Nestle Waters North America. "Over nearly two decades, Nestle Pure Life has evolved into a leading global brand, and we now have an opportunity to express the brand's purpose in a way that inspires parents and adults to choose quality water and a future full of possibilities."

Research conducted by Nestle Waters revealed that consumers understand Nestle Pure Life's message of the relationship between water and quality, health and the environment. However, it also indicated that there is an opportunity to raise awareness of the brand's purpose, as well as the new design, a strong visual representation of the new purpose, and a range of packaging options.

The campaign will bring the Nestle Pure Life purpose to life as it shows ways in which the brand is, "Acting for Water Now to Help Inspire a Bright Future." This includes:

- Employing a 12-step quality process to achieve the brand's high standards for drinking water and deliver a taste that meets consumer preferences;

- Educating consumers on the benefits of hydration on the body;

- Encouraging drinking water as part of a healthy lifestyle;

- Efforts to help improve the collection of recyclable plastic.

With the launch of the new Nestle Pure Life bottles, Nestle Waters becomes one of the largest companies active in the How2Recycle Label Program  the only U.S.-based standardized labeling system designed to help consumers understand how to recycle, with prominent information on the packaging. All Nestle Pure Life bottles can be recycled. In addition, the company has reduced the amount of PET plastic in Nestle Pure Life half-liter bottles by 40 percent since 2005.

"Today, we recognize quality water for its positive benefits to both our bodies and the world, and we embrace our role in helping to respect this precious resource," said Andrius Dapkus, Vice President and General Manager for Nestle Pure Life at Nestle Waters North America. "That's why we provide Nestle Pure Life Purified Water in a range of formats that enable the choice for quality water anytime, anywhere. It's why we have a water stewardship mindset everywhere we have operations."

EDITOR'S NOTE: A full range of high-resolution images of Nestle Pure Life and related artwork is available for download here.

About Nestle Waters North America

Nestle Waters North America provides people with an unrivaled portfolio of bottled waters for healthy hydration. Brands such as Nestle Pure Life, Poland Spring, Perrier and S.Pellegrino have driven Nestle Waters North America to be the third largest non-alcoholic beverage company by volume in the U.S. Based in Stamford, Connecticut with about 8,500 employees, Nestle Waters North America is committed to reducing its environmental footprint across operations. The company is also committed to creating shared value and being a good neighbor in the 140 communities where it operates in the U.S.

SOURCE Nestle Waters North America

Related Links

http://www.nestle-watersna.com/company


PEARL RIVER, New York, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Qognify, the leader in big data solutions for physical security and operations, today announced that Golden Lion Marbella, one of Panama's top-ranking casinos, has selected Qognify VisionHub to upgrade security, safety and operations. Formerly the Princess Casino Marbella, Golden Lion features one of the largest casinos in Panama City which will now enjoy total coverage with Qognify's security solution for gaming featuring its market leading VMS, VisionHub.

The casino environment is an enticing target for criminal behavior for both visitors and employees - with large amounts of money constantly changing hands. Continuous, reliable 24x7x365 monitoring is a necessity for theft and fraud prevention, allowing casino security management to identify, verify and resolve unfolding incidents. VisionHub provides 100% system availability combined with high-definition video quality casinos need when monitoring card playing and money counting.

The security program at the casino serves as both a deterrent and accurate, non-refutable method to settle disputes. "VisionHub gives us the ability to view gaming sequences from many different angles and zoom in for close-ups," said Mr. Hasky, President of Sortis Hotel, Spa & Casino, Golden Lion Marbella. "If a dispute arises, we can scroll through the video quickly - back and forth - and view images from several cameras simultaneously. We can see the fine details, which cards each player held, the exact amount of a bet and when it was placed."

Specific industry experience is particularly important in the gaming industry. "Gaming is a challenging environment that requires an exceptional enterprise solution," said Moti Shabtai, CEO and President of Qognify. "The solution our teams designed for Golden Lion Marbella enables them to cost-effectively monitor the entire casino operation, with high-quality video. In turn, this facilitates the prevention of potential security issues, promotes the safety of guests and protects the integrity of casino operations."

About Qognify

Qognify helps organizations mitigate risk, maintain business continuity, and optimize operations. The Qognify portfolio includes video management, video and data analytics, and PSIM/ Situation Management solutions that are deployed in financial institutions, transportation agencies, airports, seaports, utility companies, city centers, and to secure many of the world's highest-profile public events.

www.Qognify.com.

Corporate Media Contact

Hagar Lev, +1-845-201-5654, [email protected]



Regional Media Contact

Graham Thatcher, +44(0)7793-673-240, [email protected]



SOURCE Qognify
Perpetual and Castlelake, on behalf of the funds it manages, formed Perpetual Production  MidCon, LLC (PP MidCon) to focus on acquiring minerals and overriding royalty interests in the Mid-Continent, including the STACK, SCOOP and Merge plays. The joint venture will also consider other opportunistic transactions, such as acquisitions of operated and non-operated leasehold interests in other regions. PP MidCon will leverage Perpetual's experienced management team to execute this land-focused strategy. Led by President and CIO Josh Camp, the PP MidCon management team has an established track record investing in mineral interests, non-operated working interests, and operated leasehold assets in Oklahoma and other regions throughout the U.S.

"We are extremely excited to partner with the Castlelake team to pursue our mineral interest aggregation strategy. Castlelake's opportunistic investing approach in oil and gas aligns with our outlook and our focus on portfolio optimization through a balanced approach to risk and reward as well as evolving strategic focus as market dynamics change," said Mr. Camp. "The firm's flexibility and unique industry insights position PP MidCon to execute its on-the-ground investment strategy."

Castlelake's opportunistic approach to investing in oil and gas is characterized by a focus on small- to mid-size investment opportunities in quality assets where it can serve as a flexible capital partner. Castlelake funds have existing investments in the SCOOP, STACK, Permian Basin, Eagle Ford and Powder River Basin, involving mineral interest, operated leasehold, non-operated working interest, and drilling joint ventures. Castlelake funds' existing oil and gas investment structures include control equity capital sponsorships, mezzanine debt and direct asset ownership.

"The PP MidCon joint venture enhances Castlelake's ability to aggregate smaller, off-the-run mineral interest assets that may generate and preserve value in today's evolving economic environment," said Evan Carruthers, Managing Partner at Castlelake. "Perpetual's deep expertise in mineral interests and Castlelake's track record in oil and gas as a reliable, value-added capital partner create a strong joint venture platform."

Perpetual is led by President and CIO Josh Camp, who most recently served as Director  Finance at American Energy Partners, LP (AELP), a $10 billion oil and gas investment platform founded by the late Aubrey K. McClendon, where he oversaw approximately $3 billion of mineral, royalty, leasehold and oil and gas infrastructure transactions. Mr. Camp is joined by VP  Land and Strategy, Chad Pinkerton, VP  Engineering and Acquisitions, Josh Voth, and Director of Land, Kris Price. Mr. Pinkerton previously worked at Sandridge Energy (NYSE:SD) as Director of Land and was heavily involved in the company's growth in the NW STACK and North Park Basin. Mr. Voth previously worked as a Reservoir Engineer at AELP where he focused the majority of his time on American Energy  Minerals, LLC and American Energy  NonOp, LLC (now collectively, Heritage Resources Management, LLC). Mr. Price previously served as Land Manager at Rockwell Minerals, a privately funded, mineral acquisition company, where he led acquisition efforts in STACK and NW STACK.

Investments in oil and gas assets by Castlelake funds are managed by Castlelake's Dislocated Industries and Corporate Special Situations team. The team is comprised of professionals with deep expertise in identifying cyclical industries in need of liquidity and acting quickly to execute. Contact Castlelake's Dislocated Industries team by emailing [email protected].

ABOUT PERPETUAL PRODUCTION

Founded in June 2017, Perpetual is a multi-strategy, land-focused oil and gas company with a broad mandate to pursue the acquisition of minerals, royalties, non-op working interests and leasehold. Perpetual is headquartered in Dallas, Texas and has an additional office in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. For more information about Perpetual, please visit www.perpetual-production.com.

ABOUT CASTLELAKE

Castlelake, L.P. is a global private investment firm focused on investments in alternative assets, sub-performing loans, dislocated industries and corporate special situations, and is an experienced leader in aircraft ownership and servicing. Castlelake's team comprises more than 100 professionals, located in Minneapolis and London. Castlelake manages private funds and debt vehicles with approximately $10 billion in assets, on behalf of endowments, foundations, public and private pension plans, private funds, family offices, insurance companies and sovereign wealth funds. For more information, visit www.castlelake.com.

SOURCE Castlelake, L.P.

Related Links

http://www.castlelake.com


CLEARWATER, Fla., July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Direct Mail integration software company, DirectMail2.0, announced its new event, specifically for Printing and Direct Mail Companies: Market-Edge 2017, which will be hosted in Clearwater, FL between October 25th and October 27th.

Market-Edge 2017. Direct Mail, Digital & Beyond. October 25-27 - Clearwater Beach Florida.

Market-Edge will feature eight guest speakers, all leaders in the direct mail and marketing industries, including Joy Gendusa, founder and CEO of PostcardMania, the largest and fastest growing direct mail company in the U.S. Other speakers include Carrie Bornitz, Informed Delivery Program Manager of the United States Postal Service; Patrick Valtin, CEO of New Era International; and John Puterbough, Founder of one of the first mobile development agencies in the United States.

Additionally, Konica Minolta's team will be present to give a custom presentation about their recently unveiled, public ready version of KMI, a digital printer highly praised for its image printing quality and its ability to print on a wide variety of paper media.

Other presentations will include Reverse IP Matching, Direct Mail and Augmented Reality, Social Media Marketing, List Data Technology, etc.

"The importance of integrating direct mail with today's technology is more crucial than ever," said Brad Kugler, CEO of DirectMail2.0. "This is why the focus of Market-Edge is to show how to easily integrate a traditional marketing business model into today's demands and expectations of online marketing and result tracking mechanisms. Due to the digital integration that DirectMail2.0 provided, our main beta printing company was able to see a 70% increase in reorders with more than $1.2 million in additional revenue that same year."

This event is an opportunity for commercial printers who are looking to integrate with today's market demands of technology, all while improving their profits, both for their clients and for their own business. Market-Edge offers the first unique approach dedicated to education on digital and print integration and tickets have been selling out faster than expected which has made seating highly limited.

For a limited time, tickets are still available for purchase at an early bird discounted rate starting at $699. Market-Edge pricing includes full event access, hotel stay at the Wyndham Grand Hotel on Clearwater Beach, breakfast and lunch.

The event will kick off on October 25th with a networking cocktail party at sunset. During the following days, presentations will focus on data-driven insight on how to effectively integrate print with the digital world while increasing profits. Attendees will also learn about the process of hiring motivated and effective people, gain knowledge about marketing their own business, and much more.

To learn more about the event and take advantage of early bird ticket pricing please visit www.marketedge2017.com

About DirectMail2.0:

DirectMail2.0 is a marketing company that gives printers and mail houses the ability to provide fully integrated campaigns to their small business clients. By adding mail tracking, call tracking and online follow-up ads to traditional direct mail campaigns, DirectMail2.0 provides the seamless, multi-channel, completely trackable marketing today's business owners demand. Since beta testing began in 2012, DirectMail2.0 has run thousands of successful campaigns across more than 300 industries, and is now available as a white label product. Visit DM20.com for more information.

CONTACT:

Iris Shalev

[email protected]

800-956-4129

SOURCE DirectMail2.0

Related Links

http://directmail2.com


LEHI, Utah, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Property Management Inc. (PMI), the leading franchisor of property management and real estate services, announces it has chosen to partner with Property Manager Websites (PMW) to build and enhance the digital marketing program for its franchises. This partnership gives PMI access to the highest level of website technology for each of its more than 200 individual franchise's websites. PMW is the industry leader in creating websites specifically designed for property managers.

The continued and rapid growth of PMI has in part been credited to its commitment to providing its property managers with innovative solutions to help operate and grow their business successfully. This commitment is the reason PMI chose PMW as its digital marketing partner. Steve Hart, President of PMI, believes that having a strong web presence is one of the keys to franchise growth. "PMW's customers dominate almost every market we checked. As a franchisor, I believe it is critical to help create a powerful marketing presence for our franchisees, and PMW gives us the best chance to do this," said Hart.

With this partnership, each PMI property management office will have their own website designed specifically to grow their brand, attract property owners, market properties and find tenants to fill vacancies. PMW creates first-class websites that incorporate marketing and technology tools proven to grow property management portfolios. "We give our customers a solid foundation to compete in the challenging world of search engine optimization," said David Borden, PMW's chairman. As the preeminent website development firm, PMW was the first choice for PMI when looking to provide its franchises with the edge needed to maximize success in the property management industry.

About Property Management Inc.

Property Management Inc. is a property management and real estate services company providing leading-edge technology, training, systems and support to more than 200 franchises. The PMI franchise network manages more than $4 billion in assets globally and has been recognized as a leading property management franchise. PMI's innovative franchise program gives franchise owners the tools for success and provides the competitive advantage required to succeed in the property management industry. PMI has been ranked on the Entrepreneur Franchise 500 list for three years running, is currently named "Best in Category" for 2017 and listed as one of the Top 100 Fastest Growing Franchises. Additionally, PMI was ranked as one of the Top 100 Global Franchises in 2017 by Franchise Direct. For more information, please visit www.propertymanagementinc.com.

Media Contact:

Cassie Gross, Public Relations Specialist

Property Management Inc.

385-455-4151

[email protected]

SOURCE Property Management Inc.

Related Links

http://www.propertymanagementnc.com


HOUSTON, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Quanta Services, Inc. (NYSE: PWR) announced today that it will release second quarter 2017 financial results on Thursday, August 3, 2017, before the market opens. In conjunction with the press release, Quanta has scheduled a conference call for 9:00 a.m. Eastern time on Thursday, August 3, 2017, which also will be broadcast live over the Internet.

What: Quanta Services Second Quarter 2017 Earnings Conference Call When: Thursday, August 3, 2017  9:00 a.m. Eastern time How: Live via phone  By dialing (201) 689-8345 or (877) 407-8291 and asking for the Quanta Services Second Quarter 2017 Earnings Conference Call at least 10 minutes prior to the start time.

Live over the Internet  by logging on to the website at the following address: http://investors.quantaservices.com

For those who cannot participate live, an archive of the webcast will be available shortly after the call on the company's website at http://investors.quantaservices.com and dial-in information for a replay of the call will be available in the upcoming earnings release. For more information, please contact Kip Rupp at Quanta Services at (713) 341-7260.

About Quanta Services

Quanta Services is a leading specialized contracting services company, delivering infrastructure solutions for the electric power, oil and gas and communications industries. Quanta's comprehensive services include designing, installing, repairing and maintaining energy and communications infrastructure. With operations throughout the United States, Canada, Latin America, Australia and select other international markets, Quanta has the manpower, resources and expertise to safely complete projects that are local, regional, national or international in scope. For more information, visit www.quantaservices.com.

Contact: Kip Rupp, CFA

Quanta Services, Inc.

(713) 341-7260

SOURCE Quanta Services, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.quantaservices.com


HOUSTON, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Quanta Services, Inc. (NYSE:PWR) announced today that it was selected by American Electric Power (AEP) to provide engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) solutions for the Wind Catcher Generation Tie Line (Wind Catcher Tie Line). The anticipated contract value for this project makes it the largest project award in Quanta's history. The Wind Catcher Tie Line consists of approximately 350 miles of a single circuit 765kV power line located between Guymon and Tulsa, Oklahoma, and two new substations. Quanta will provide turnkey EPC services for the entire project and estimates that up to 1,000 people could be working on the project in Oklahoma, supported by technical and engineering operations in Texas. Once completed, the Wind Catcher Tie Line would deliver energy from the Wind Catcher wind farm in western Oklahoma to customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas.

Duke Austin, Quanta's President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, "We are pleased to provide an innovative solution to a long-standing customer and partner. Quanta has built more high-voltage electric transmission infrastructure in North America than any other specialty contractor, with industry-leading experience constructing 765kV power lines. Quanta brings significant scope, scale and financial resources, as well as a track record of safely executing large, complex projects. We are confident that our collaborative process will provide benefits to the communities this project is designed to serve and appreciate AEP's confidence in our ability to safely execute on the Wind Catcher Tie Line project."

Quanta is providing early-phase project support services to AEP. Subject to AEP obtaining state and federal regulatory approvals, which are required for the Wind Catcher Tie Line project, Quanta expects construction to begin in the later part of 2018, with completion expected in late 2020. Quanta has yet to determine whether the project will be included in third quarter 2017 backlog.

About Quanta Services

Quanta Services is a leading specialized contracting services company, delivering infrastructure solutions for the electric power, oil and gas and communications industries. Quanta's comprehensive services include designing, installing, repairing and maintaining energy and communications infrastructure. With operations throughout the United States, Canada, Latin America, Australia and select other international markets, Quanta has the manpower, resources and expertise to safely complete projects that are local, regional, national or international in scope. For more information, visit www.quantaservices.com.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release (and any oral statements regarding the subject matter of this press release) contains forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the "safe harbor" from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, any expected value of the contract or project; the scope, services, terms and results of the project awarded under the contract; the anticipated commencement and completion dates for construction of the project; the anticipated date for obtaining regulatory approvals for the project; projected backlog; the impact of the project on the electric power grid; and the safety, efficiency or success of the project; as well as statements reflecting expectations, intentions, assumptions or beliefs about future events and other statements that do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. Although Quanta's management believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. These statements can be affected by inaccurate assumptions and by a variety of risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict or beyond our control, including, among others, the effects of industry, economic or political conditions outside of the control of Quanta; failure to obtain regulatory approval for the project; successful performance and completion of the contract and the project awarded thereunder; failure to realize the anticipated value of the contract or the project; delays, reductions in scope, or cancellations of the contract or the project awarded thereunder, including as a result of weather, regulatory or environmental issues, project performance issues, claimed force majeure events, or customer capital constraints; the potential for claims associated with schedule delays, performance shortfalls or Quanta's inability or failure to comply with the terms of the contract for the project, which may result in additional costs, unexcused delays, warranty claims, failure to meet performance guarantees, damages or contract termination; the inability or refusal of the customer to pay for Quanta's services; failure of the customer to comply with applicable regulatory requirements, which could result in delay or cancellation of the project; the failure of subcontractors to perform their obligations, including warranty obligations, under their subcontracts; adverse changes in economic conditions and trends in relevant markets; estimates and assumptions in determining contract value and backlog; Quanta's ability to realize backlog; cancellation and termination provisions present in the contract; and other risks and uncertainties detailed in Quanta's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2016, Quanta's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended Mar. 31, 2017 and any other documents that Quanta files with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). For a discussion of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, investors are urged to refer to Quanta's documents filed with the SEC that are available through the company's website at www.quantaservices.com or through the SEC's Electronic Data Gathering and Analysis Retrieval System (EDGAR) at www.sec.gov. Should one or more of these risks materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are current only as of this date. Quanta does not undertake and expressly disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Quanta further expressly disclaims any written or oral statements made by any third party regarding the subject matter of this press release.

Investors - Kip Rupp, CFA Media  Deborah Buks and Molly LeCronier Quanta Services, Inc. Ward (713) 341-7260 (713) 869-0707

SOURCE Quanta Services, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.quantaservices.com


CHICAGO, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Retrofit, a leading provider of weight-management and disease-prevention solutions, today announced it received a 2017 Chicago Elite Award for Employee Enrichment, Engagement & Retention. The organization also was named to the nation's list of Best and Brightest Companies in Wellness by the National Association for Business Resources.

The Employee Enrichment, Engagement & Retention honor is given to a company that fosters an environment where employees grow and succeed.

"We are committed to engaging our employees and helping them transform their lives just as we do for our clients," said Mary Pigatti, CEO, Retrofit. "From day one, we personalize the experience for each employee based on their needs. This level of personalization creates a culture where top talent want to work, thrive and make a difference in the lives of others. We are thrilled to be recognized for these efforts."

In an effort to build an enriched and engaged workforce, Retrofit offers Cheers for Peers for employees to recognize each other. These accolades are then announced at all company meetings to further acknowledge staff members. Pigatti also holds weekly "Think with Mary," meetings where employees talk about innovative ideas they have seen in the marketplace and brainstorm how to continually advance Retrofit solutions.

The Best and Brightest Companies in Wellness program honors a select group of organizations that make their business and the community a healthier place to live and work.

Retrofit employees benefit from a variety of company health perks, including free access to Retrofit's weight-management and disease-prevention programs. The company also offers time off to volunteer, walking meetings, treadmill desks and exercise breaks during all-company meetings in addition to flexible work schedules, the option to work from home and unlimited paid time off.

Retrofit has been recognized for its culture and HR best practices through several other workplace awards. The organization has been named a Great Place to Work, one of the 20 Best Workplaces in Health Care, one of the nation's 101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work for and a Best Workplace for Women.

About Retrofit

Retrofit transforms lives, workplaces and communities by offering weight-management and disease-prevention solutions that help all populations live a happier, healthier life.

Contact:

Nora Dudley

Phone: 773.330.5540

[email protected]

SOURCE Retrofit

Related Links

https://www.retrofitme.com


RADNOR, Pa., July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. (NYSE:SFE) today announced that its partner company, Good Start Genetics, Inc. ("Good Start"), signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by San Francisco-based genetics information company, Invitae Corporation (NYSE:NVTA). The transaction is expected to close in the first part of August 2017, subject to customary closing conditions. Safeguard expects to receive initial consideration consisting of $3.8 million of Invitae common stock, based on the 30-day trailing average stock price, and an additional $1.3 million of Invitae common stock which will be held in escrow for up to 13 months.

Invitae is one of the fastest growing genetic information companies in the U.S. whose longer-term strategy is to aggregate most of the world's genetic tests into a single service with higher quality, faster turnaround time, and lower price than many single-gene and panel tests today. The company currently provides a diagnostic service comprising approximately 1,500 genes for a variety of genetic disorders associated with oncology, cardiology, neurology, pediatrics, and other rare disease areas, as well as clinical analysis of a 20,000-gene medical exome.

Stephen T. Zarrilli, Safeguard's President and CEO, said, "From Safeguard's perspective, this outcome represents a significant shortfall based on our return expectations. However, considering the anticipated time and cost required to introduce additional technologies and tests into adjacent markets and to further develop Good Start, we believe that a larger, more financially capable enterprise that is focused on genetic testing was necessary to move Good Start's vision forward."

"Good Start is an excellent strategic fit with Invitae," said Gary J. Kurtzman, MD, Managing Director at Safeguard and board member at Good Start. "We believe that Invitae is the best partner to advance the mission Good Start began seven years ago."

About Safeguard Scientifics

Safeguard Scientifics (NYSE:SFE) provides capital and relevant expertise to fuel the growth of technology-driven businesses in healthcare, financial services and digital media. Safeguard targets companies that are capitalizing on the next wave of enabling technologies with a particular focus on the Internet of Everything, enhanced security and predictive analytics. Safeguard typically deploys between $5 million and $25 million over the course of its partnership with a company, initially investing in a Series A or B Round and opportunistically in a Seed Round. Safeguard has a distinguished track record of fostering innovation and building market leaders that spans more than six decades. For more information, please visit www.safeguard.com or follow us on Twitter @safeguard.

Forward-looking Statements

Except for the historical information and discussions contained herein, statements contained in this release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Our forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. The risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially include, among others, our ability to make good decisions about the deployment of capital, the fact that our partner companies may vary from period to period, our substantial capital requirements and absence of liquidity from our partner company holdings, fluctuations in the market prices of our publicly traded partner company holdings, competition, our inability to obtain maximum value for our partner company holdings, our ability to attract and retain qualified employees, market valuations in sectors in which our partner companies operate, our inability to control our partner companies, our need to manage our assets to avoid registration under the Investment Company Act of 1940, and risks associated with our partner companies, including the fact that most of our partner companies have a limited history and a history of operating losses, face intense competition and may never be profitable, the effect of economic conditions in the business sectors in which Safeguard's partner companies operate, and other uncertainties described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Many of these factors are beyond the Company's ability to predict or control. As a result of these and other factors, the Company's past financial performance should not be relied on as an indication of future performance. The Company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements or other information contained in this press release.

SAFEGUARD CONTACT:

John E. Shave III

Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications

610.975.4952

jshave(at)safeguard(dot)com

SOURCE Safeguard Scientifics, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.safeguard.com


SYRACUSE, N.Y., July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- SecurityDegreeHub.com has selected twenty of the best online cyber security degree programs for the 2017-2018 school year. At the top of the list is Penn State's College of Information Sciences and Technology. The full list can be viewed here: http://www.securitydegreehub.com/best-online-cyber-security-degree-programs/

With cyber security playing an increasing role in world affairs, from politics to banking, those professionals ensuring the integrity of private data will play a significant part in all of our lives. Students seeking a career in cyber security should prepare to take on the challenges of a rigorous education at a well-qualified school. Because of a competitive job market, it is important that students make themselves stand out with a quality education. In today's world students may need to juggle full time job and family responsibilities in addition to getting an education. Online schools provide a great way to get a quality education, on a schedule that fits the need of the student. This ranking offers a list of schools that meet both criteria: the flexibility of an online education with the quality of top tier colleges and universities.

According to the Editor of SecurityDegreeHub.com, Chris Collier, an Iraq war combat veteran, "Cyber Security is a growing and continuously advancing field of security that shows no signs of slowing down. We feel it is important students get a marketable degree from a high quality program that meets their needs both in and out of the classroom." The programs in the ranking "Top 20 Online Cyber Security Degree Programs for 2017-2018" meet or exceed those expectations.

The following schools were ranked:

Pennsylvania State University - University Park, Pennsylvania

Johns Hopkins University - Baltimore, Maryland

University of Arizona - Tucson, Arizona

Drexel University - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Syracuse University - Syracuse, New York

Florida Institute of Technology - Melbourne, Florida

Kennesaw State University - Kennesaw, Georgia

New Jersey Institute of Technology - Newark, New Jersey

University of Illinois-Springfield - Springfield, Illinois

Towson University - Towson, Maryland

DePaul University - Chicago, Illinois

University of Rhode Island - Kingston, Rhode Island

Nova Southeastern University - Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Bellevue University - Bellevue, Nebraska

Lewis University - Romeoville, Illinois

Champlain College - Burlington, Vermont

Dakota State University - Madison, South Dakota

Davenport University - Grand Rapids, Michigan

Mercy College - Dobbs Ferry, New York

Wilmington University - New Castle, Delaware

Security Degree Hub is a research website that helps students pursue a career in the emerging field of security. Our resources cover everything from education to job search.

Chris Collier, Research Editor

http://www.securitydegreehub.com/

[email protected]

(607) 226-2664

SOURCE SecurityDegreeHub.com

Related Links

http://www.securitydegreehub.com


DALLAS, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Serendipity Labs Coworking announced today that it will be opening its first location in the Dallas Metroplex this November at KPMG Plaza at HALL Arts in the Dallas Arts District. Renowned entrepreneur Craig Hall, the founder and chairman of HALL Group, has also invested in the fast growing coworking company which has attracted over $125 million of capital for development of its network (more than $100 million is from area franchisees and over $24 million is in direct corporate funding).

This represents the Design Standard for Serendipity Labs workplaces. Image, Serendipity Labs Bethesda. Photo Credit: Brad LeBlanc/Serendipity Labs KPMG Plaza at HALL Arts HALL Group Logo

"Serendipity Labs offers an upscale coworking experience and the stature and location of HALL Arts make it an ideal location for us," says John Arenas, founder and CEO of Serendipity Labs. "I am also thrilled to welcome Craig Hall and HALL Group as an investor. His vision and entrepreneurial spirit will be invaluable as we grow our network throughout the U.S. and internationally."

The Serendipity Labs at KPMG Plaza at HALL Arts will feature a 29,000-square-foot workplace on the building's 17th floor and lobby level. KPMG Plaza at HALL Arts is located within the HALL Arts development in the center of the Dallas Arts District and is home to several world-class businesses, including KPMG, Jackson Walker, Teknion, UMB Bank, Spencer Stuart, Sedgwick and HALL Group. This lease brings KPMG Plaza at HALL Arts to approximately 85% leased.

"We believe that the future of the workplace includes coworking as a new way for businesses to spur innovation, support increasing worker mobility and recruit top talent," says Craig Hall, founder and chairman of HALL Group. "The Serendipity Labs strategy to deliver coworking blended with hospitality aligns with our philosophy of providing inspiring places to work and live, and we are thrilled to welcome them to HALL Arts."

Each Serendipity Labs offers coworking memberships as well as dedicated offices and project team rooms, while local staff will curate an ongoing series of cultural events, talks and art shows, and regularly host professional and industry-specific networking events. The HALL Arts Event Terrace adjacent to the Texas Sculpture Walk provides the Dallas Lab with a great venue for corporate events, receptions and planning retreats, and HALL Arts' future hotel development and three on-site restaurants  Stephan Pyles Flora Street Cafe, Asian-fusion concept Musume and The Artisan  will provide additional amenities for members.

The Serendipity Labs Dallas HALL Arts will be operated by Serendipity Labs' exclusive area franchisee, Worth Coworking, LLC. According to Worth President, Doug Denman, the company also plans to develop additional Serendipity Labs in the DFW Metroplex. "Worth Coworking is excited to deliver a network of business-class Serendipity Labs workplaces into the DFW market over the next few years. Serendipity Labs Dallas HALL Arts will anchor our DFW network, delivering value to our members, investors and entrepreneurial landlords," he concludes.

About Serendipity Labs

Established in 2011 by industry leader John Arenas, Serendipity Labs, Inc., delivers coworking as an upscale hospitality brand that addresses the needs of mobile professionals, independent workers and project teams. It offers workplace memberships that include day passes, part-time and full-time coworking, dedicated private offices or team rooms for up to 20. Corporate membership, with central billing and reporting is available. The proprietary cloud-based IT platform is enterprise class and meets Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA standards. Serendipity Labs is growing through owned, managed and franchised locations in office buildings, high-rise residential projects, hotels and retail properties, with over 100 locations currently under development. For more information visit serendipitylabs.com.

About HALL Group

Founded in 1968, Dallas-based HALL Group is owned by founder and chairman Craig Hall and family. The diversified company is made up of several subsidiary brands, including: HALL Park, the 16-building, 162-acre office park in Frisco, Texas; HALL Arts, the three-phase, five-acre, mixed-use development in the Dallas Arts District; HALL Structured Finance, the entrepreneurial, value-add direct private lender to the real estate industry; HALL Collection, an immense collection of local and international art pieces located throughout HALL Group's properties; HALL Wines, located in St. Helena and Rutherford, producing highly-rated Bordeaux varietals; WALT Wines, Napa Valley producer of handcrafted Pinot Noir and Chardonnay varietals; and SENZA hotel, a Napa Valley boutique hotel and luxury resort. For more information, visit hallgroup.com .

About Worth Coworking

The Worth Coworking team is experienced in the hospitality industry having successfully developed projects under multiple hospitality brands including Marriott, IHG and Serendipity Labs Coworking. Our project development experience includes ownership, construction, and management of hotels, coworking facilities, conference centers and event spaces. Worth is the exclusive Serendipity Labs franchisee for the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and is actively engaged in analyzing additional markets in Texas and beyond. Doug Denman, President, Worth Coworking, LLC., is a board member of Serendipity Labs, Inc. For more information visit worthhospitality.com/worth-coworking.

SOURCE Serendipity Labs Coworking
FREMONT, Calif., July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Tailored Brands, Inc. (NYSE: TLRD) today announced that it will release fiscal 2017 second quarter results on Thursday, September 7, 2017, at approximately 4:15 p.m. Eastern Time. The announcement will be followed by a conference call and live webcast hosted by management at 5:00 p.m. Eastern.

To access the conference call at 5:00 p.m. Eastern on September 7th, please dial 412-902-0030. To access the live webcast, visit the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at http://ir.tailoredbrands.com. A telephonic replay will be available through September 14, 2017, by calling 201-612-7415 and entering access code 13667826#, or a webcast archive will be available free on the website for approximately 90 days.

Tailored Brands, Inc. is a leading authority on helping men dress for work, special occasions and everyday life. We serve our customers through an expansive omni-channel network that includes over 1,600 locations in the U.S. and Canada as well as our branded e-commerce websites. Our brands include Men's Wearhouse, Jos. A. Bank, Joseph Abboud, Moores Clothing for Men and K&G. We also operate an international corporate apparel and workwear group consisting of Dimensions, Alexandra and Yaffy in the United Kingdom and Twin Hill in the United States.

For additional information on Tailored Brands, please visit the Company's websites at www.tailoredbrands.com, www.menswearhouse.com, www.josbank.com, www.josephabboud.com, www.mooresclothing.com, www.kgstores.com, www.mwcleaners.com, www.dimensions.co.uk, www.alexandra.co.uk and www.twinhill.com.

Contact:

Investor Relations

(281) 776-7575

[email protected]

Julie MacMedan, VP, Investor Relations

Tailored Brands, Inc.

SOURCE Tailored Brands, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.tailoredbrands.com


NEW YORK, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Tata Consultancy Services (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS), a leading global IT services, consulting and business solutions organization, has been recognized as a prominent 'Technology Partner' at the prestigious 2017 Manufacturing Leadership 100 Awards for the fourth time in the past five years.

TCS was praised for its key role as IT Services partner for customers Boeing, Flowserve and Adient, and received recognition from the judges for supporting impressive winning entries in the categories of "Operational Excellence Leadership," "Enterprise Technology Leadership" and "Mobility in Manufacturing Leadership," respectively.

Now in its 13th year, the Manufacturing Leadership Awards, presented annually by Frost & Sullivan and the manufacturing leadership community, honor innovative manufacturing companies  across industries  that demonstrate breakthrough projects that set them apart from competitors and deliver compelling returns on investment.

TCS assisted Flowserve to standardize their eCommerce journey map, by implementing a global eCommerce solution. The solution helped Flowserve achieve a single global eCommerce platform, opening a new channel for sales, promoting cross-sell and up-sell opportunities and providing a differentiated and consistent shopping experience to buyers at different touch-points across geographies and business lines.

For Boeing, TCS implemented an organizational project management lean tool to digitally streamline steps in a new process that effectively controls task inflows and manages efficient task completion, while automating key steps in the process framework. The tool is also used to communicate status and generate metrics that provides business health data, crucial for running the organization.

TCS supported Adient in their digital journey by building diversified mobile solutions that can be used both within the organization and also used to improve visibility with the customer base. During the first phase of the project, mobile applications were rolled out to help Adient not only generate greater mindshare and engagement with its customers, but also enable better cross-sell and up-sell opportunities, improve visibility and access, and enhance customer experience of its product portfolio.

"This award reaffirms our ongoing commitment to deliver an integrated value proposition and digital transformation initiatives to our customers by constantly innovating and providing top-notch solutions to address critical business issues," said Milind Lakkad, global head of Manufacturing, TCS. "We are honored to be recognized for the fourth time as 'Technology Partner' in the Manufacturing Leadership 100 Awards."

"By helping to drive three breakthrough projects that won 2017 Manufacturing Leadership Awards, Tata Consultancy Services has proven itself as a leader in helping its customers achieve digital transformation," said Jeffrey Moad, research director with Frost & Sullivan's Manufacturing Leadership Council and director of the Manufacturing Leadership Awards. "TCS and its winning customers are all to be congratulated."

About Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS):

Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, consulting and business solutions organization that delivers real results to global business, ensuring a level of certainty no other firm can match. TCS offers a consulting-led, integrated portfolio of IT, BPS, infrastructure, engineering and assurance services. This is delivered through its unique Global Network Delivery Model, recognized as the benchmark of excellence in software development. A part of the Tata group, India's largest industrial conglomerate, TCS has over 385,000 of the world's best-trained consultants in 46 countries. The company generated consolidated revenues of US $17.6 billion for year ended March 31, 2017 and is listed on the BSE (formerly Bombay Stock Exchange) and the NSE (National Stock Exchange) in India. For more information, visit us at www.tcs.com

To stay up-to-date on TCS news in North America, follow @TCS_NA. For TCS global news, follow @TCS_News.

SOURCE Tata Consultancy Services

Related Links

http://www.tcs.com


"Phil is a thoughtful advisor who offers a deep understanding of healthcare law and decades of experience in physician-centric organizations," said Leif Murphy, president and CEO of TeamHealth. "I look forward to his steadfast guidance as TeamHealth continues to grow and expand its capabilities to support clinicians and clients in an evolving healthcare environment."

"TeamHealth has a long-standing commitment to clinical quality and patient safety, outstanding client service and operational excellence," McSween said. "I am honored to join a top-notch executive leadership team and look forward to the opportunity to work alongside the best and brightest clinicians and healthcare professionals in the country."

Prior to joining TeamHealth, McSween was a shareholder at Baker Donelson, where, since 2007, he served as chair of the Baker Ober Health Law Group, the third largest health law practice in the U.S. In practice, he counseled both non-profit and for-profit healthcare providers on a variety of regulatory and business issues, including joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions in all 50 states. He also advised clients on the legal issues related to healthcare services, physician transactions, outpatient services transactions, management and analysis of compliance issues and outsourcing service lines. His national client base included academic medical centers and health systems, specialty providers and physician groups.



McSween has been named among The Best Lawyers in America since 2010 in the areas of healthcare law, corporate law and mergers and acquisitions law. Additionally, he has been listed in Chambers USA: America's Leading Business Lawyers since 2012 as a leading healthcare lawyer in Tennessee. McSween served as a member of the board of directors of the Nashville Health Care Council from 2014 to 2015. McSween received a bachelor's degree from Rhodes College and received a law degree from the University of Virginia.



About TeamHealth

At TeamHealth , our purpose is to perfect our physicians' ability to practice medicine, every day, in everything we do. Through our approximately 20,000 affiliated physicians and advanced practice clinicians, TeamHealth offers outsourced emergency medicine, hospital medicine, critical care, anesthesiology, orthopedic hospitalist, acute care surgery, obstetrics and gynecology hospitalist, ambulatory care, post-acute care and medical call center solutions to approximately 3,300 acute and post-acute facilities and physician groups nationwide. Our philosophy is as simple as our goal is singular: we believe better experiences for physicians lead to better outcomesfor patients, hospital partners and physicians alike. Join our team ; we value and empower clinicians. Partner with us ; we deliver on our promises. Learn more at www.teamhealth.com .



The term "TeamHealth" as used throughout this release includes Team Health Holdings, Inc., its subsidiaries, affiliates, affiliated medical groups and providers, all of which are part of the TeamHealth organization. "Providers" are physicians, advanced practice clinicians and other healthcare providers who are employed by or contract with subsidiaries or affiliated entities of Team Health Holdings, Inc. All such providers exercise independent clinical judgment when providing patient care. Team Health Holdings, Inc., does not have any employees, does not contract with providers and does not practice medicine.

SOURCE TeamHealth

Related Links

http://www.teamhealth.com


HOUSTON and BEAUMONTPORT ARTHUR, Texas, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- TexanPlus, part of WellCare Health Plans, Inc. (NYSE: WCG), announced Monday the five finalists in the annual TexanPlus Champions competition and the beginning of online voting to determine the 2017 Grand Champion. TexanPlus, a leading local Medicare Advantage health plan, created the competition to honor individuals who help older adults in the Houston/Beaumont area live healthier and happier lives.

All of the finalists and their stories are featured on www.TexanPlusChampions.com. Community members can read about them and vote daily for a Grand Champion through Sept. 18.

The Champion with the most votes will be named the 2017 TexanPlus Grand Champion. He or she will be honored at a Houston AstrosTM game on Sept. 22 during a special pregame ceremony. The winner will present a $25,000 donation to his or her chosen charitable organization at that time.

"We are proud of the extraordinary work being done in Southeast Texas by this year's TexanPlus Champions," said Erin Page, president of TexanPlus. "Each of our finalists deserves recognition and will be honored at a Houston Astros game during the week of July 31. The public can get involved by reading the Champions' personal stories on our website and voting for one Grand Champion."

On Monday, July 31, Ken Burdick, CEO of WellCare, will kick off a week-long celebration of the TexanPlus Champions at Minute Maid Park by throwing out the first pitch at the Houston Astros game. Each night of the week, a different Champion will be honored at a Houston Astros game.

TexanPlus Champions are members of the local community who are examples of how one person can make a difference in the lives of older adults. The competition is a way to recognize people who share TexanPlus' goals of improving quality of life and maximizing access to services for seniors and people with Medicare.

Meet the Five TexanPlus Champions:

Elena Dinkin - When Elena Dinkin began working at the YMCA eight years ago, she thought she had found something to keep her busy and active now that her two daughters were grown. She immediately realized the job was more of a calling and quickly became the YMCA's Active Older Adult (AOA) director. She has a real gift for listening to the needs of the AOA members and creating or identifying a solution. Clearly, working at the YMCA is not a job to Elena, it is a way of life.

When began working at the YMCA eight years ago, she thought she had found something to keep her busy and active now that her two daughters were grown. She immediately realized the job was more of a calling and quickly became the YMCA's Active Older Adult (AOA) director. She has a real gift for listening to the needs of the AOA members and creating or identifying a solution. Clearly, working at the YMCA is not a job to Elena, it is a way of life. Jan Hughes - The term "volunteer" doesn't do Jan Hughes justice. She is one of the most dedicated and passionate volunteers at Interfaith Ministries. Jan says her concern for the welfare of seniors and their pets developed as she cared for her parents who have now passed away. She saw first-hand how challenging tasks as simple as preparing a meal could be for someone who is elderly and homebound. A three-year volunteer veteran, Jan is now proactive in identifying ways to better serve homebound seniors through her work with Interfaith Ministries.

The term "volunteer" doesn't do justice. She is one of the most dedicated and passionate volunteers at Interfaith Ministries. Jan says her concern for the welfare of seniors and their pets developed as she cared for her parents who have now passed away. She saw first-hand how challenging tasks as simple as preparing a meal could be for someone who is elderly and homebound. A three-year volunteer veteran, Jan is now proactive in identifying ways to better serve homebound seniors through her work with Interfaith Ministries. Stephen Coycault - A proud Air Force veteran, Stephen Coycault has been impacting the lives of Precinct2gether seniors for over 20 years. He partners with like-minded groups to advocate for seniors and provide opportunities to keep them engaged in their communities. As the TRIAD director for Harris County Precinct 2, Stephen educates seniors on how to stay aware and avoid being taken advantage of through fraud and abuse.

A proud Air Force veteran, has been impacting the lives of Precinct2gether seniors for over 20 years. He partners with like-minded groups to advocate for seniors and provide opportunities to keep them engaged in their communities. As the TRIAD director for Harris County Precinct 2, Stephen educates seniors on how to stay aware and avoid being taken advantage of through fraud and abuse. Connie Dickinson  At almost 101 years old, Connie Dickinson spends her days volunteering with the Golden Triangle RSVP at Baptist Hospital of Southeast Texas . Connie is essential to hospital visitors and is well-known throughout the facility. Connie has been a volunteer at the hospital for 25 plus years and has over 12,000 volunteer hours. She volunteers 2 to 3 days a week still driving her car there and home. Giving back to her community and helping others keeps Connie motivated to continue volunteering.

At almost 101 years old, spends her days volunteering with the Golden Triangle RSVP at Baptist Hospital of . Connie is essential to hospital visitors and is well-known throughout the facility. Connie has been a volunteer at the hospital for 25 plus years and has over 12,000 volunteer hours. She volunteers 2 to 3 days a week still driving her car there and home. Giving back to her community and helping others keeps Connie motivated to continue volunteering. Jarriett Flagg - As a child, Jarriett saw a great example and leader in his mother, Hazel Flagg . He volunteered at the Anderson Memorial Church of God in Christ food pantry for more than 27 years alongside his mother, who was the coordinator there until she became ill in 2009. At that time, Jarriett assumed responsibility for the Target Hunger food pantry as the coordinator and lead volunteer. In 25 years, Jarriett has missed only 15 days. This alone shows his extreme dedication to the food pantry and his church.

Go to www.TexanPlusChampions.com to read the Champions' full stories and watch their videos.

Voting is open now through Sept. 18. Each voter has the opportunity to vote once per day for the TexanPlus Grand Champion. Go out and vote!

About TexanPlus:

TexanPlus, part of WellCare Health Plans Inc., specializes in Medicare Advantage plans. The goal of our plans is to help our members stay active, live healthy and be independent.

For more information about TexanPlus, please visit our website at www.TexanPlus.com.

About WellCare Health Plans, Inc.

Headquartered in Tampa, Fla., WellCare Health Plans, Inc. (NYSE: WCG) focuses exclusively on providing government-sponsored managed care services, primarily through Medicaid, Medicare Advantage and Medicare Prescription Drug Plans, to families, children, seniors and individuals with complex medical needs. WellCare serves approximately 4.1 million members nationwide as of March 31, 2017. For more information about WellCare, please visit the company's website at www.wellcare.com or view the company's videos at https://www.youtube.com/user/WellCareHealthPlan.

SOURCE WellCare Health Plans, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.wellcare.com


TUBINGEN, Germany and BERLIN, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The 5th International mRNA Health Conference, taking place on November 1-2 in Berlin, Germany, is the premier meeting destination for professionals and academia in the field of mRNA drugs. In its fifth year, the conference is returning to Berlin to celebrate the remarkable research, preclinical and clinical progress of the past year. The event will provide participants an opportunity to attend scientific presentations given by the most esteemed experts in the field, secure updates on advances in mRNA technology, and to network with colleagues.

Hundreds of world renowned innovators, scientists, academia and pharmaceutical delegates are expected to attend the conference as mRNA therapeutic technology evolves from scientific concept to medical application. Approximately 25 speakers will present on preclinical and clinical development in the fields of oncology, infectious diseases and molecular therapies as well as mRNA delivery, design and product development. Additionally, a poster session will provide research groups and company representatives the opportunity to showcase their data to attendees.

Ingmar Hoerr, Ph.D., founding member of the International mRNA Health Conference and CEO of CureVac, commented, "The mRNA industry has witnessed a multitude of transformational events over the past twelve months, with multiple programs being pushed through the clinic and companies developing infrastructure to prepare for eventual commercialization efforts. It seems that every year since our colleagues from Moderna, BioNTech and we began hosting this meeting, we grow substantially closer to realizing mRNA as an actual medical application. Academics and industry continue to break new ground in understanding the vast potential of the technology across multiple therapeutic fields. With the conference entering its fifth year, we are delighted to welcome our colleagues in the field to celebrate another successful year of mRNA research and development as we bring our vision closer to realization."

The 5th International mRNA Health Conference

Date: November 1-2, 2017

Place: Berlin, Germany

Location: Sofitel Berlin Kurfurstendamm, Augsburger Strasse 41, 10789 Berlin, Germany

Website: www.mrna-conference.com

Program: The Conference will provide a comprehensive program around the medical use of Messenger RNA. The Science Committee of the Conference with members from three leading mRNA companies, BioNTech, CureVac and Moderna Therapeutics, is calling for abstracts for a potential talk or poster presentation during the conference  see http://mrna-conference.com/program-speakers/

Registration: Register by September 15th and benefit from early bird prices under http://mrna-conference.com/register/

Contact: [email protected]

Media Contacts

Verena Lauterbach, Senior Manager Communications

CureVac AG, Tubingen, Germany

T: +49 (0) 7071 9883 1756

[email protected]

Jason Rando, EVP & COO

Tiberend Strategic Advisors, New York

+1 212 375 2665

[email protected]

SOURCE International mRNA Health Conference

Related Links

http://www.mrna-conference.com/


DALLAS, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Gents Place, a lifestyle club bringing men's grooming to the next level, announced today that it has signed a new franchise development agreement, further expanding their presence throughout the state of Texas, to now include the brand's corporate flagship of San Antonio. New franchisees, Cecilia and Jack Johnson, will plan on opening the region's first location in the fall of 2018 with future plans to expand into neighboring markets thereafter. This agreement is part of The Gents Place aggressive expansion plans to grow the brand's presence throughout the state and beyond, with the ultimate goal of opening 150 clubs over the next five years.

"My husband and I have been interested in investing in The Gents Place for quite some time. I was part of the due diligence team at The Elevated Brands when TGP Franchising, LLC, franchisor of The Gents Place, was formed. Based on the review of operational performance of the existing clubs during this process, we knew we wanted to invest in the brand. The underlying recurring revenue model that The Gents Place is built on is attractive as an investor. In addition, The Gents Place provides a first-class experience to their members and guests delivering the belief that confident individuals can change the world. The Gents Place is a brand we're proud to be a part of," said franchisee Cecilia Johnson.

The San Antonio location will be owned by Cecilia and Jack Johnson of JDH Ventures, LLC. The Johnsons believe that men care about their appearance and understand that it is a reflection of their personal brand. The overall service offerings and experience in an upscale club-like atmosphere provided to members and guests establishes a basis for men to build this personal brand. In addition, Cecilia has experience in the industry, serving as chief financial officer of Massage Heights Franchising, LLC in addition to serving as Treasurer for TGP Franchising, LLC.

"The concept is rapidly growing in Texas with locations now in Dallas, Frisco, Southlake, and Houston in the pipeline, we are beyond thrilled to be expanding the brand's presence into our corporate offices home town of San Antonio with Cecilia, a franchisee who understands the intricacies of our brand," said Ben Davis, founder and president of The Gents Place. "We have said it time and again, the male grooming segment is an underserved one and with San Antonio being the 7th most populated city in the U.S., home to many of our core customer base, we believe we have a unique opportunity to make a real impact in the lives of our members in this community."

The Gents Place prides itself on having one of the most unique service menus in the industry, epitomizing the exclusivity of an old-world speakeasy paired with an upscale, welcoming country club atmosphere. Not only can guests enjoy an incredible hair service and shave in the best men's grooming and lifestyle clubs in town, but also they can take advantage of all of the luxuries of a modern spa. In addition to offering men's grooming services, The Gents Place is a purveyor of hard-to-find retail goods from all over the world including its proprietary Rascal line of products, Truefitt & Hill, and Lakme, among others.

The company currently has three lifestyle clubs in North Texas (Dallas, Southlake and Frisco), a location in Leawood, Kansas in addition to the development of locations in Austin, Houston and Chicago. The company is seeking qualified franchisees to join the brand and currently has opportunities nationwide in markets such as Texas, Georgia, Florida, California, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, and Virginia. The brand is aggressively targeting Atlanta and South Florida for franchise expansion.

Prospective single- and multi-unit franchisees should possess a minimum net worth of $400,000 and liquid assets of at least $175,000. Candidates should have strong business, management and/or marketing experience. Franchisees can expect their initial investment to be between $440,955  $705,980, including a $40,000 franchise fee. The Gents Place franchisees are provided with an array of tools to position them for success, including franchisee and management training; a proprietary web-based management system; ongoing hands-on training for club employees to learn our unique grooming methods, management and administration of a club; and advertising, marketing and public relations support. Additionally, The Gents Place provides assistance with site selection and construction.

To learn more about ownership opportunities with The Gents Place, contact Bret Franson, director of franchise development at [email protected] or visit http://www.tgpfranchising.com. Financing is available through the Small Business Administration for qualified franchisees. For more information visit https://www.franchiseregistry.com. Follow The Gents Place on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the latest news and trends.

The Gents Place's robust franchise growth is backed by Elevated Brands, a brand management and development company established by the principals of Massage Heights, a membership-based, therapeutic services franchise. In 2016, Elevated Brands invested in The Gents Place to help grow the brand nationally through the franchising model.

About The Gents Place

The Gents Place is the next level in men's grooming and lifestyle club that helps gentlemen look and feel their most confident best. Founded in 2008, the company has grown to include lifestyle clubs in Dallas, Southlake and Frisco, Texas, as well as Leawood, Kansas. The Gents Place provides luxury men's grooming services in addition to straight razor shaves, shoe shines and hand and foot repairs in a refined and timeless environment. For more information on The Gents Place, visit thegentsplace.com

About Elevated Brands

Elevated Brands is the brand management and development company established by the principals of Massage Heights, the membership-based, therapeutic services franchise company. The company provides emerging lifestyle concepts with the tools and strategic planning needed to grow their brands through the franchising model. Through its leadership team's deep franchise experience in the health and wellness space, Elevated Brands is on track to build a family of lifestyle brands that are dedicated to the well-being of those they serve. Its current portfolio includes Massage Heights Franchising, Summit Franchise Supply and The Gents Place.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Fish Consulting

Courtney Whelan

[email protected]

954-893-9150

SOURCE The Gents Place

Related Links

http://www.thegentsplace.com


With these new appointments, Tisha and Dani will help to lead the agency's mission: to utilize cultural insights to fuel creative ideas that build brands and connect with people where they are living, looking and buying, accelerating shoppers toward commerce. Assuming greater leadership roles within Integer's Denver office, which also serves as the network's headquarters and currently houses the agency's Kellogg's, Mars/Wrigley, P&G, PepsiCo, and Starbucks accounts, Tisha and Dani will also work as part of the executive team driving the evolution of the global Integer network.

"Both Tisha and Dani have played instrumental roles in growing our agency's size and quality of talent, broadening our client portfolio and increasing revenue; we are excited to acknowledge their invaluable leadership," said Mike Sweeney, CEO of The Integer Group. "The future of our agency lies in continuing to reimagine the definition and possibilities of commerce, pushing the boundaries of how to creatively connect our clients with consumers and shoppers to drive sales. Tisha and Dani are applying that same approach to evolving our agency, reimagining our own possibilities and innovating at the speed of culture, technology and commerce."

With an unwavering commitment to leading clients and building business; a people-first mentality that cultivates top talent; and most importantly, a keen sense of how to lead an organization into the future, Tisha Pedrazzini has been instrumental in transforming Integer from a shopper marketing agency to a commerce agency. Tisha has pioneered new ways of developing great work by challenging convention and championing big, creative ideas to solve business problems for some of the world's largest CPG clients, including P&G, Starbucks, Duracell, Coty and Bissell. Together with her team, she has grown P&G from one brand to over 25, while managing global work for many of those accounts out of Integer's Denver headquarters. Additionally, she and her team have significantly grown the Starbucks Channel AOR, digital and social businesses while also adding Seattle's Best Coffee to the agency's roster.

Inspiring award-winning work on billion-dollar brands and retailers, Dani Coplen leads a team of creatives to deliver strategic and holistic ideas through integrated branding, promotions, shopper marketing and advertising for some of world's largest and most iconic companies. Dani was instrumental in winning and building the Kellogg's and Starbucks businesses, the latter of which engaged Integer as its first-ever channel marketing partner, as well as working alongside Tisha to grow P&G into one of the agency's largest accounts. Dani and her team have received numerous awards and accolades for creativity and effectiveness, including Effie, Graphis, Design of the Times and HOW International Design awards in addition to a Cannes Lion shortlist.

For more information, visit www.integer.com.

About The Integer Group

We live at the Intersection of Branding and Selling. A key member of Omnicom Group Inc., The Integer Group (www.integer.com) is a global, creative-fueled commerce agency that delivers innovative ways for brands and retailers to connect and engage with shoppers, turning moments of receptivity into moments of conversion. We use cultural insights to inspire creative ideas that build brands and accelerate purchase both in and out of store, moving people from living to looking to buying. The Integer Group has more than 1,100 associates in 27 offices across the globe, including locations in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America.

About Omnicom Group Inc.

Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC) (www.omnicomgroup.com) is a leading global marketing and corporate communications company. Omnicom's branded networks and numerous specialty firms provide advertising, strategic media planning and buying, digital and interactive marketing, direct and promotional marketing, public relations and other specialty communications services to over 5,000 clients in more than 100 countries.

SOURCE The Integer Group

Related Links

http://www.integer.com


The fully automated Cascadion analyzer is designed for use by non-experts in a variety of settings, including hospital laboratories, to provide results for a range of frequently ordered tests. The Cascadion analyzer is available for demonstrations in booth #4039 during the 2017 American Association of Clinical Chemistry ( AACC) Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo , being held July 31  August 3 at the San Diego Convention Center. The company will seek CE mark followed by FDA approval.

"This is a marvelous development, and it is really quite outstanding. It will fulfill the needs of many laboratories," said Professor Brian Keevil, consultant clinical scientist and head of the Clinical Biochemistry Department, University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust, UK, after viewing a demonstration during EuroMedLab 2017.

The Cascadion system was designed and built using Thermo Fisher products and technologies combined with its industry-leading expertise in mass spectrometry. Featuring turnkey operation, the Cascadion analyzer is designed to be used by laboratory staff with no specialized training.

James Nichols, PhD, medical director, Chemistry and Point of Care Testing, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, added, "For much of what we do in terms of chromatography and mass spectrometry, we need very highly skilled and experienced medical technologists. The Cascadion analyzer is relatively maintenance-free and because it includes specially designed reagent kits, there is not a lot of interaction required with the technology."

After previewing the Cascadion analyzer, Michael Vogeser, senior physician and professor of laboratory medicine, University Hospital of Munich, stated "About 70% of all physician's decisions are based on laboratory tests so the impact on laboratory testing is huge and this completely new technological approach is of enormous value to mankind."

For more information about the Cascadion SM Clinical Analyzer or other Thermo Fisher solutions for the clinical diagnostic laboratory, visit www.thermofisher.com/Cascadion.

About Thermo Fisher Scientific

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science, with revenues of $18 billion and more than 55,000 employees globally. Our mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. We help our customers accelerate life sciences research, solve complex analytical challenges, improve patient diagnostics and increase laboratory productivity. Through our premier brands  Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific and Unity Lab Services  we offer an unmatched combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and comprehensive support. For more information, please visit www.thermofisher.com.

Media Contact Information:

Charlotte McCormack

Phone: 508-207-3696

E-mail: [email protected]

Website: www.thermofisher.com

SOURCE Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

Related Links

http://www.thermofisher.com


CITY OF COMMERCE, Calif., July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- 99 Cents Only Stores asked two teachers from a local day school to assist them with a back to school shopping video. They were instructed to completely fill baskets with everything they need for the upcoming school year to show viewers all of the items you can get at the 99. After the teachers filled up six whole baskets full of supplies, 99 Cents Only Stores revealed that they can keep every item they grabbed.

Watch the video below to see their reaction!
UST Global, a leading digital technology services company, is a proud recipient of the 'Pro Patria' award by the California State's Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) committee. The award is in recognition of the company's work for the veteran community as part of its 'Step IT Up America' program. 'Pro Patria' is the highest honor given to employers for support of National Guard and Reserve employees in California.

(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/540539/UST_Global_Logo.jpg )

(Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/540543/Pro_Patria_Award_ESGR_UST_Global.jpg )



UST Global was selected for the 'Pro Patria' award among the 4,000+ entries that ESGR received this year. Sajan Pillai, the CEO of UST Global, signed the ESGR Statement of Support as a symbol to reaffirm the company's commitment to members of the United States Guard and Reserve, in a symbolic awards ceremony. Key SIUA advocate BG Moore, Chief of Staff, UST Global, received special recognition for his commitment to excellence and leadership.

Sajan Pillai, CEO, UST Global, said, "With our 'Step IT Up America' program, we have pioneered a unique and sustainable workforce model in the United States. The 'Pro Patria' award by the California State's ESGR committee is a testimony to our efforts in supporting the veteran community. ESGR has been instrumental in providing right candidates for our SIUA program. The program imparts required knowledge & skills through a well-planned curriculum and places them in various technology roles that include important domains like cyber security. With the success of our Step IT Up program in the US, we are taking it to the other countries."

Jim Combs, California Chair, Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, said, "On behalf of the Secretary of Defense, the California Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) committee was proud to present UST Global the prestigious 'Pro Patria' award. This award reflects the exceptional support UST Global has provided their employees who have answered and continue to answer their nation's call to service as a member of the Guard and Reserve. UST Global has demonstrated the greatest support to veterans, Guard and Reserve employees through their leadership and enabling practices, including adopting personnel policies that make it easier for employees to participate in the National Guard and Reserve. UST Global is recognized by the Department of Defense as among the top 30 corporations in the United States. The 'Pro Patria' is the highest level award that may be bestowed by the California's ESGR Committee."

Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) is a Department of Defense program that develops and promotes supportive work environments for Service members in the Reserve Components through outreach, recognition, and educational opportunities that increase awareness of applicable laws, and resolves employment conflicts between the Service members and their employers. ESGR promotes cooperation and a safe workplace for all Reserve Component Service Members, making them ideal candidates in the field of technology (STEM).

Launched in 2013, UST Global's 'Step IT Up America' (SIUA) initiative is a national program that provides highly effective formula designed to employ woman and veterans in the field of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), and recognizes them as being the best positioned to transition into vital technology jobs. The selected women and veterans go through an intensive program on several aspects of IT to include, but not limited to, Java Programming, Business Analysis, Quality Assurance, and Project Coordination. The program has successfully placed 100s, serving a demography that has been traditionally under-represented in this growing and important field.

Sajan Pillai, CEO, UST Global, addressing the gathering at the ESGR Award ceremony - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qPQIa_fIX4

About UST Global

UST Global is a fast-growing digital technology company that provides advanced computing and digital services to large private and public enterprises around the world. Driven by a larger purpose of 'Transforming Lives' and the philosophy of 'fewer clients, more attention', we bring in the entrepreneurial spirit that seeks the fastest path to value in today's digital economy. Our innovative technology services and pioneering social programs make us stand apart. UST Global is headquartered in Aliso Viejo, California and operates in 21 countries. Our clients include Fortune 500 companies in Banking and Financial Services, Healthcare, Insurance, Retail, High Technology, Manufacturing, Shipping, and Telecom. UST Global believes in building long-lasting, strategic business relationships through agile and client-centric global engagement models that combines local experts & resources with cost, scale, and quality advantages of global operations.

For more information, please visit: http://www.ust-global.com



Media Contacts:

Manoj M Mani

[email protected]

+91-9632000553



Media Relations

[email protected]



SOURCE UST Global
NEW YORK, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The Surf Lesson Price Index compiled by tech travel company Surfholidays.com has ranked American Surf Schools as the 2nd most expensive country in the world for a surf lesson at $85, with Norway the most expensive at $128.

Ecuador is the cheapest place in the world for a surf lesson at $22.

Of Americans that travelled for surf lessons, 22% of them favoured Costa Rica. Mexico was the next most popular at 18%, and Europe third with 17%. Portugal is the most popular European destination for Americans at 7%. Other popular destinations include Indonesia, Nicaragua and Barbados.

The Surf Lesson Price Index analysed surf lesson booking data from over 1,250 surf schools around the world.

Surfholidays provides booking software to surf schools and surf camps. Its technology analysed the different cost of a surf lessons throughout 35 different surf countries and which countries people were travelling to for surf.

Surfholidays.com CEO Nicky Kelly said "Surfing continues its strong growth as a holiday activity. Increasingly Americans are travelling to Europe to find the best waves. Price or proximity to the waves is not a factor. The availability of cheap air carriers, has made it easier for surfers to cross the world, and our technology allows them book lessons and accommodation in advance so all they have to think about is chasing their next wave."

Rank Country Average Surf Lesson Cost 1 Ecuador $22 2 South Africa $23 3 India $24 4 Argentina $25 5 Philippines $26 6 Peru $29 7 Jamaica $31 8 Chile $34 9 Ireland $37 10 Sri Lanka $38 11 Spain $39 = United Kingdom $39 12 Portugal $40 = El Salvador $40 13 Nicaragua $41 14 Mexico $42 15 France $45 = Indonesia $45 16 Morocco $46 = Japan $46 17 Fiji $46 18 Panama $47 19 Australia $49 20 Brazil $50 = Colombia $50 21 Maldives $52 = Canary Islands $52 22 Costa Rica $54 23 New Zealand $55 24 Canada $61 25 Dominican Republic $66 26 China $72 27 Barbados $77 28 Puerto Rico $80 29 U.S.A. $85 30 Norway $128

Download JPEG picture of Surf Lesson Price Index Leaderboard: https://www.dropbox.com/s/86yfvur3atv6h1m/Surf%20Lesson%20Price%20Index%20US.jpg?dl=0

Surfholidays.com is a technology company in the surf travel space. It was set up in 2009 by surfers Nicky Kelly and Darryn Mountfort. The company's flagship product, the Direct Booking Tool, powers the booking engines of surf schools and surf camps allowing them sell on their own website.

They also operate an OTA Surfholidays.com, a booking website that allows owners of accommodation & surf schools to sell to the global surf travel market. They currently operate in 35 countries and 112 surf towns throughout the world.



For More Information:

Nicky Kelly

CEO

Surfholidays.com

+44-20-8144-9950

[email protected]

SOURCE surfholidays.com
DENVER, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Silvergate Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (www.silvergatepharma.com), leaders in the development and commercialization of innovative and safe medicines for children, today announced that Xatmep (methotrexate) Oral Solution, the first and only FDA-approved methotrexate oral solution, is now available for ordering. Xatmep is indicated for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and the management of polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis (pJIA) in pediatric patients.

"Xatmep is an exciting product in that it provides an FDA-approved, ready-to-use oral solution of methotrexate for children without the need for needles, crushing of tablets, or compounding into a liquid formulation," said Frank Segrave, President & CEO, Silvergate Pharmaceuticals, Inc. "As a company, we continue to focus on pediatric medications that are safe, effective, and readily available."

Xatmep (methotrexate) Oral Solution, 2.5 mg/mL, is a ready-to-use product that requires no preparation, facilitating ease of dispensing at the pharmacy. Xatmep is manufactured under CGMPs in accordance with FDA regulations. It eliminates the need for needles, crushing or splitting tablets, or compounding tablets into a liquid formulation. It requires refrigeration, but may be stored at room temperature for 60 days after dispensing to the patient. Xatmep will be available through an extensive network of pharmacies. For additional information on how to obtain Xatmep, please call 1-855-379-0382.

INDICATIONS

Xatmep is a folate analog metabolic inhibitor indicated for the:

treatment of pediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) as part of a multi-phase, combination chemotherapy maintenance regimen.

management of pediatric patients with active polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis (pJIA) who have had an insufficient therapeutic response to, or are intolerant of, an adequate trial of first-line therapy including full-dose non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents (NSAIDs).

About Xatmep

Xatmep (methotrexate) Oral Solution was developed, primarily, to meet the need for a ready-to-use, 2.5 mg/mL, methotrexate oral solution for the treatment of pediatric patients for the indications stated above. Prior to Xatmep, there was no FDA-approved, ready-to-use oral liquid formulation of methotrexate for use by pediatric patients requiring body surface-area (BSA) dosing (mg/m2), or those who have difficulty swallowing or cannot consume tablets, or those with a fear of needles/injections. Silvergate's Xatmep resolves these unmet medical needs in pediatric patients.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

BOXED WARNING: SEVERE TOXIC REACTIONS, INCLUDING EMBRYO-FETAL TOXICITY

See full Prescribing Information for complete boxed warning.

Methotrexate can cause the following severe or fatal adverse reactions.

Monitor closely and modify dose or discontinue methotrexate as appropriate.

Bone marrow suppression [ see Warnings and Precautions (5.1) ]

Serious infections [ see Warnings and Precautions (5.2) ]

Renal toxicity and increased toxicity with renal impairment [ see Warnings and Precautions (5.3) ]

Gastrointestinal toxicity [ see Warnings and Precautions (5.4) ]

Hepatic toxicity [ see Warnings and Precautions (5.5) ]

Pulmonary toxicity [ see Warnings and Precautions (5.6) ]

Hypersensitivity and dermatologic reactions [ see Warnings and Precautions (5.7) ]

Methotrexate can cause embryo-fetal toxicity, including fetal death. Use in pJIA is contraindicated in pregnancy. Consider the benefits and risks of XATMEP and risks to the fetus when prescribing XATMEP to a pregnant patient with a neoplastic disease. Advise females and males of reproductive potential to use effective contraception during and after treatment with XATMEP [see Contraindications (4), Warnings and Precautions (5.9), Use in Specific Populations (8.1, 8.3)].

ADDITIONAL SAFETY INFORMATION

Contraindications:

Xatmep is contraindicated in pregnant patients with non-malignant disease and in patients with severe hypersensitivity to methotrexate.

Warnings and Precautions: See full Prescribing Information for additional information.

Xatmep suppresses hematopoiesis and can cause severe and life-threatening pancytopenia, anemia, leukopenia, neutropenia, and thrombocytopenia. Obtain blood counts at baseline and periodically; monitor patients for complications of bone marrow suppression.

Patients treated with Xatmep are at increased risk for developing life-threatening or fatal bacterial, fungal, or viral infections, including Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia, invasive fungal infections, hepatitis B reactivation, tuberculosis (primary or reactivation), disseminated Herpes zoster and cytomegalovirus infections.

pneumonia, invasive fungal infections, hepatitis B reactivation, tuberculosis (primary or reactivation), disseminated and cytomegalovirus infections. Renal toxicity and increased toxicity with renal impairment, including acute renal failure. Consider administration of glucarpidase in patients with toxic plasma methotrexate concentrations (> 1 micromole/liter) and delayed clearance due to impaired renal function.

Xatmep can cause diarrhea, stomatitis, vomiting, hemorrhagic enteritis, and fatal intestinal perforation. Patients with peptic ulcer disease and ulcerative colitis are at increased risk for severe gastrointestinal adverse reactions. Unexpected severe and fatal gastrointestinal toxicity can occur with concomitant use of NSAIDs.

Hepatic toxicity: severe and potentially irreversible hepatotoxicity, including fibrosis, cirrhosis, and fatal liver failure can occur. Avoid use of Xatmep in patients with chronic liver disease.

Pulmonary toxicity: acute or chronic interstitial pneumonitis and irreversible or fatal cases can occur at all dose levels.

Hypersensitivity: anaphylaxis or other serious hypersensitivity reactions. Discontinue methotrexate.

Severe, including fatal, dermatologic reactions such as toxic epidermal necrolysis, Stevens-Johnson syndrome, exfoliative dermatitis, skin necrosis, erythema multiforme can occur. Radiation dermatitis and sunburn may be "recalled."

Secondary malignancies can occur at all dose levels. Lymphoproliferative disease has been reported with low-dose oral methotrexate which regressed when methotrexate is withdrawn.

Methotrexate can cause embryo-fetal toxicity and fetal death when administered during pregnancy. Consider the risks and benefits of Xatmep and risks to the fetus when prescribing to a pregnant patient with a neoplastic disease. Effective contraception should be practiced by patients of reproductive potential while receiving Xatmep therapy, and for 3 and 6 months afterwards for males and females, respectively. Xatmep is contraindicated in non-neoplastic disease.

Effects on reproduction: Methotrexate can cause impairment of fertility, oligospermia, and menstrual dysfunction. It is unknown if the infertility is reversible in affected patients.

Increased toxicity in third-space accumulation. Evacuate significant third-space accumulation prior to methotrexate administration.

Immunizations may be ineffective when given during Xatmep therapy.

Immunization with live virus vaccines is not recommended during Xatmep therapy.

Concomitant radiation therapy increases the risk of soft tissue necrosis and osteonecrosis associated with methotrexate.

Closely monitor laboratory parameters for hematology, renal function, and liver function. Increase monitoring during initial dosing, dose changes, and during periods of increased risk of elevated methotrexate blood levels (e.g., dehydration).

Pulmonary function tests may be useful if methotrexate-induced lung disease is suspected, especially if baseline measurements are available.

Risk of improper dosing: Once-weekly dosing is appropriate. Fatal toxicity has been reported with daily dosing. An accurate milliliter measuring device should be used. Inform patients that a household teaspoon is not an accurate measuring device and could lead to overdosage.

Advise women not to breastfeed during Xatmep therapy.

Adverse Reactions: See full Prescribing Information for additional adverse reactions.

Most common adverse reactions are ulcerative stomatitis, leukopenia, nausea, abdominal distress, and elevated liver function tests.

Other frequently reported reactions are malaise, fatigue, chills and fever, dizziness, and decreased resistance to infection.

The approximate incidences of adverse reactions reported in pediatric patients with JIA treated with oral, weekly doses of methotrexate (5 to 20 mg/m/week or 0.1 to 0.65 mg/kg/week) were as follows (virtually all patients were receiving concomitant nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and some also were taking low doses of corticosteroids): elevated liver function tests, 14%; gastrointestinal reactions (e.g., nausea, vomiting, diarrhea), 11%; stomatitis, 2%; leukopenia, 2%; headache, 1.2%; alopecia, 0.5%; dizziness, 0.2%; and rash, 0.2%. Although there is experience with dosing up to 30 mg/m/week in JIA, the published data for doses above 20 mg/m/week are too limited to provide reliable estimates of adverse reaction rates.

Drug Interactions:

Penicillins may reduce the clearance of methotrexate; increased serum concentrations of methotrexate with concomitant hematologic and gastrointestinal toxicity have been observed with methotrexate. Monitor patients accordingly.

Trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole has been reported to increase bone marrow suppression in patients receiving methotrexate. Monitor patients accordingly.

Hepatotoxins: May increase hepatotoxicity. Monitor patients receiving concomitant hepatotoxins for signs of hepatotoxicity.

Probenecid may reduce renal elimination of methotrexate; consider alternative drugs.

Theophylline: May decrease theophylline clearance. Monitor theophylline levels.

Keep this and all medications out of reach of children.

To report SUSPECTED ADVERSE REACTIONS, contact Silvergate Pharmaceuticals at 1-855-379-0383, or FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088 or www.fda.gov/MedWatch.

Please see full Prescribing Information, including the complete BOXED WARNING.

About Silvergate Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Headquartered near Denver, Colorado, Silvergate Pharmaceuticals, Inc., is a privately held pharmaceutical company dedicated to leading the way in the development and commercialization of innovative pediatric medications that are safe, effective, and readily available.

Silvergate Pharmaceuticals is committed to filling the unmet needs of children, developing innovative medications that will help improve the quality of care and outcomes for pediatric patients. For more information, please visit www.Xatmep.com.

Reference: Xatmep [prescribing information]. Greenwood Village, CO: Silvergate Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; 2017.

Contact:

Silvergate Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

(855) 379-0382

[email protected]



Read more news from Silvergate Pharmaceuticals, Inc.



http://www.silvergatepharma.com

www.Xatmep.com

RA-0364-MTX 170712

SOURCE Silvergate Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

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Muzzolini is an experienced leader in software development, agile business scaling, and talent acquisition and retention. As CTO, Muzzolini leads YourMechanic's engineering team, where he is responsible for daily operations, recruitment, and execution of strategic initiatives to create technology-based solutions which deliver best-in-class service.

Prior to joining YourMechanic, Muzzolini served as CTO at Spire Global, Inc., a satellite-powered data company. Under his leadership Spire designed, manufactured, and launched 30 nano-satellites operating in low-earth orbit. This initiative included creating systems to operate and communicate with the satellite fleet via a global network of ground stations. Muzzolini also oversaw the development of software for the fleet that performs multi-source data aggregation, storage, analytics, and data services for a range of customer use cases. He remains an Advisor to Spire.

Muzzolini also worked at Shutterfly, a company he joined in the same year it was founded. Over a tenure spanning more than a decade, he was instrumental in the growth of the business from an ecommerce startup offering a single product to a public company. At Shutterfly, he started as a senior software engineer and held positions of increasing responsibility including Vice President of Engineering. In this role he built and led a multi-location software engineering team which was responsible for the image rendering and software systems which generated more than $650 million in annual revenue.

He earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Saskatchewan. Outside of work, Muzzolini enjoys winemaking, playing music in bands, and working on cars, including a 1971 Pontiac GTO that was given to him by his father on his sixteenth birthday.

"YourMechanic is excited to welcome Russ to our team," said Anthony Rodio, President and CEO of YourMechanic. "His experience with scaling highly-talented teams and developing technical solutions to enable rapid business growth complement our strategic vision for the future of YourMechanic."

About YourMechanic

YourMechanic is the industry leader in mobile car repair, offering more than 600 repair, maintenance, and diagnostic services. YourMechanic is available in the top 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas with new cities added regularly. YourMechanic connects mobile mechanics to customers who seek affordable, convenient, and honest car repair, maintenance, and diagnostic services at their home or office, seven days a week. Mobile mechanics enjoy flexible hours and higher pay than at a shop or dealership.

Founded in 2012, YourMechanic has secured $32 million in funding. YourMechanic won TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco in 2012 and holds an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau.

Headquartered in Mountain View, California, YourMechanic is funded by SoftBank Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator, Ashton Kutcher, Data Point Capital, and others. For more information on YourMechanic, to book a service, or to view current career opportunities, visit www.YourMechanic.com.

SOURCE YourMechanic

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#football Injured star Son Heung-min named to S. Korean World Cup squad The injured South Korean football star Son Heung-min was named to the country's World Cup squad Saturday, as the football-crazed nation waits with bated breath to see if the belove...
New Delhi, July 26 : To enable businesses become more productive, Microsoft India on Wednesday officially launched 'Kaizala -- a 'made for India' app that has been designed for large group communications and work management, even for remote locations with 2G optimisation.

Powered by Azure Cloud platform, 'Kaizala' would help organisations seamlessly communicate, collaborate and complete tasks and bring together desktop users and mobile-only users who may be within or outside their organisations.

The company also announced the launch of 'Kaizala Pro' -- an enterprise version that allows organisations to have full administrative control of their groups.

'Kaizala' is available in India as a free download on iOS and Android phones. 'Kaizala Pro' is available for purchase at a list price of Rs 130 per user per month.

"'Kaizala' brings together the two disparate worlds of mobile only messaging apps and a digitally integrated modern workplace. The product will make it possible for organisations to interact with everyone both within and outside, seamlessly and with rich content," Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India, told reporters here.

"It is different from Microsoft Teams in a way that it helps mobile-first people -- be it partners, customers or users -- connect with organisations seamlessly," he added. Microsoft Teams is the chat-based workspace in Office 365.

The app users can simply get connected using their mobile phone numbers as their primary unique ID.

Using 'Kaizala', organisations can connect with their employees and the extended value chain.

"The product offers a simple and familiar chat interface and goes beyond to make everyone more productive using Surveys, Polls, Jobs, Meetings and other actions, right in your chats," added Rajiv Kumar, Corporate Vice President, Office Product Group, Microsoft.

'Kaizala' has seen significant adoption among organisations such as YES Bank, Apollo Telemedicine, Republic TV, United Phosphorous Limited and Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, who are currently piloting the solution for their internal teams.

Earlier in the day, NITI Ayog CEO Amitabh Kant said that the economic advisory body is an early adapter of the app.

"Delighted 2 launch Microsoft's Kaizala - a safe, secure, mobile first App designed & developed in India. Niti was its first few adopters," Kant tweeted.

In addition, the Andhra Pradesh government is one of the first government organisations to use 'Kaizala' for real-time governance.

More than 30 government departments and over 70,000 users in the state government are using 'Kaizala' for day-to-day work.

Both 'Kaizala' and 'Kaizala Pro' are integrated with Microsoft Office 365.

Kaizala is a product of Microsoft Garage, which focuses on experimental ideas and projects.
Morena, July 26 : Praveen Yadav, an accused in the Vyapam admission and recruitment scam, allegedly committed suicide at his house in Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday, the state police said.

He was to be presented before the Jabalpur High Court on Thursday.

The scam pertains to rigging of entrance examinations conducted by the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (popularly known by its Hindi acronym 'Vyapam'), involving politicians, senior officials and businessmen in the state.

Superintendent of Police Aditya Pratap Singh told IANS that Praveen Yadav hanged himself at his house in Maharajpur perhaps under stress over Thursday's scheduled hearing. No suicide note was found.

Praveen Yadav had gained admission to an MBBS course in 2008 and was named as an accused in the case in 2012 by an Special Task Force.

His family maintains that he was innocent and was framed in the case. Unemployment only added to his woes. Tired of being repeatedly questioned, he finally ended his life, the family said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation is currently investigating the scam after taking over the probe from the Special Task Force (STF) and the Special Investigating Team (SIT).

More than 50 people, including a TV channel reporter, have died during the course of investigation. Many are suspicious deaths.
New Delhi, July 26 : The declining sales revenue of the telecom players will have an adverse impact on government revenue collection in the form of spectrum usage charges and licence fee in the current financial year, parliament was informed on Wednesday.

"Telecom Industry including state-owned telecom PSUs and major banks have apprised the government about the financial stress in the telecom industry. The telecom sector witnessed a sharp decline in revenues in second half of financial year 2016-17," Communications Minister Manoj Sinha informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply.

"The revenue decline in the second half of financial year 2016-17 was mainly concentrated in the last quarter of the year. The declining tariff in the sector led to an adverse impact on revenue," he added.

Sinha also said: "If this trend continues, the License Fee and the Spectrum Usage Charges are likely to be impacted adversely during the current financial year."

Sinha said in the financial year 2016-17, at the end of the April-June quarter, the government collected licence fee of Rs 3,975.66 crore, Rs 3,584.04 in the July-September quarter, Rs 3,452.13 crore in October-December and Rs 2,663.29 crore in the January-March quarter.

An Inter-Ministerial Group has been set up by the government with representatives from the Department of Telecommunications, Department of Financial Services, Department of Economic Affairs and Department of Revenue to examine systemic issues affecting viability and repayment capacity in the telecom sector and make recommendations for resolution of stressed assets, he said.
Islamabad, July 27 : Pakistan Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar on Thursday vowed to quit politics and end his association with the ruling PML-Nawaz if and when the Supreme Court rules on the Panama Papers case involving Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

"The day the Supreme Court announces its verdict, I will resign and will never fight any election (after that)," Nisar said, adding he was addressing an "extremely difficult" press conference of his life.

"Someone who gave 33 years to (PML-N) cannot leave it just like that. But my 33 years worth of service seems to be reaching an end. It gives me great satisfaction that nobody believed I would leave: even my opponents wouldn't believe it," Geo TV quoted him as saying.

Nisar said he was a victim of internal intrigues and for the past month and a half, "I was suddenly excluded from the PML-N meetings... I was not invited to consultative meetings".

The news conference came hours after Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif -- the beleaguered Prime Minister's brother -- met Nisar in Islamabad, a second meeting between the two party leaders in less than 24 hours.

Shahbaz Sharif was reportedly accompanied by other PML-N leaders including Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Railway Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique and Minister for Petroleum Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

"I was told by senior leaders not to do this press conference. I told them I had to," said the minister.

Pakistan's top court has reserved its verdict in the case relating to the Sharif family's alleged illegal offshore wealth revealed by the Panama Papers. The Sharif family has denied any wrongdoing.
New Delhi, July 27 : There is no quid pro quo with China vis a vis Tibet and Arunachal Pradesh and India is not a "mute spectator" to the sufferings of the Tibetan people and the issue of stapled visas given to Arunachal Pradesh residents by China, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Thursday.

Replying to supplementaries in the Rajya Sabha, Swaraj said there is "no quid pro quo" with China as far as the question of the latter recognising Arunachal Pradesh as part of India is concerned.

"We used to earlier talk of One China policy, but we used to say that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India. And when we say that, we want China to also recognise this. Our policy has been very clear," she said.

The Minister said the issue of stapled visa to Arunachal Pradesh residents by China has been raised "in every bilateral meeting at various levels, be it at my level or by the Prime Minister".

On the issue of alleged atrocities in Tibet, she said India has not been "sitting as a mute spectator".

"Whenever there are differences, we raise them," she said.

She said the Dalai Lama wanted to visit Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh and the government facilitated his visit not once but five or six times.

"Whatever issue that is there that goes against India's interest, we lodge our protest," she said.
Washington, July 28 : Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Joseph Dunford said the Pentagon will wait until it is issued a new order to implement President Donald Trump's decision to ban transgenders from serving in the US military.

There will be "no modifications to the current policy until the President's direction has been received by the Secretary of Defence and the Secretary has issued implementation guidelines", Dunford wrote in a memo to the military on Thursday.

"In the meantime, we will continue to treat all of our personnel with respect," Dunford wrote, adding, "As importantly, given the current fight and the challenges we face, we will all remain focused on accomplishing our assigned missions."

Trump on Wednesday announced on Twitter his decision to prohibit transgenders from serving "in any capacity" in the US Armed Forces, after having consulted with his "generals and military experts", reports Efe news.

"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail," the President tweeted.

On Thursday, hundreds of demonstrators gathered in New York City, Washington, San Francisco and Portland to protest the ban.

The demonstrators carried anti-Trump signs and faced the White House as they chanted "Trans rights are human rights".

Service in the US military was opened to transsexuals in June 2016 on Obama's orders.

It is estimated that some 6,600 transgenders are serving in the Armed Forces, but their future in the military - along with the benefits they receive from their military service - is in limbo after Trump's announcement.
Islamabad, July 28 : The Pakistan Supreme Court will deliver later Friday its much-awaited verdict in the Panama Papers case that will not only decide the fate of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, but is also likely to chart the countrys political future.

The five-judge bench that will announce the historic verdict will be headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, who had put a dissenting note in an April 20 judgment with a quote from Mario Puzo's novel "The Godfather" and declared Sharif "disqualified" for not being honest to the nation, Dawn reported.

Ahead of the judgment, Sharif held informal consultations with close aides and key ministers in Lahore.

Sources said another meeting would be held after the Supreme Court decision to devise a plan of action in the wake of the verdict.

Sharif returned from his trip to the Maldives on Thursday and was received by his brother, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
Islamabad, July 28 : As opposition party leaders in Pakistan celebrated the Supreme Court's decision to disqualify Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from office, ruling PML-N members expressed disappointment but said Sharif's days are not over.

Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, talking to the media outside the apex court, said: "This is a difficult time for the PML-N. But the power to make party decisions will remain with Nawaz Sharif."

State Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said: "Nawaz does not need a chair, he is a reality. That day is not far when he will be chosen for the fourth time."

Aurangzeb added: "Some decisions happen in court, others in peoples' courts. We may have lost one decision... which I am not surprised about but am saddened."

"PML-N (Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz) is Pakistan's biggest political party. It has the highest number of political workers. And history is a witness that whenever Nawaz Sharif was removed unjustly, the people of Pakistan brought him back to Parliament with a greater majority."

She said that the party will announce its plan after looking at the court decision in detail.

Senior lawyer Asma Jehangir told Dawn that the court's decision should be accepted but there was room for criticism.

"After his decision, a lot of cracks have emerged which will keep the judiciary on its feet for a very long time," Jehangir said to Geo News.

"I think that Zia ul Haq (former President) and Iftikhar Chaudhry (former apex court Chief Justice) have returned. It will become difficult for others and the court... The Parliament will think that the apex court has always decided against us and Article 184(3) powers have reached a point where anyone can be disqualified, the Parliament will look to amend it."

She added: "This is a unique decision. It has had a unique procedure. In courts it happens that there is a set pattern but the way this case has happened is not normal."
Patna, July 29 : A day after winning the trust vote, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday expanded his Cabinet, inducting 27 ministers - 14 from his Janata Dal-United and 13 from the BJP-led NDA.

Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi administered the oath to 26 new ministers at the Raj Bhawan.

One BJP legislator, Mangal Pandey, failed to take oath as he was held up in Shimla in Himachal Pradesh due to bad weather.

Nitish Kumar refused to induct ministers from two allies of the NDA in his cabinet -- Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) of Union Minister Upender Kushwaha and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) of former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi.

Nitish Kumar informed BJP leaders that he would keep the two parties out of the government.

Besides the 14 ministers from JD-U, 12 ministers are from the BJP and one from its ally LJP.

The JD-U has inducted most of those from the party who were ministers in the previous Grand Alliance government, to avoid any controversy.

On the other hand, the BJP named those as ministers who are considered close to Deputy Chief Minister and party leader Sushil Kumar Modi.

Manjhi, sensing trouble from Nitish Kumar, on Friday itself said he was not keen to join the cabinet and would work to strengthen his party. Nitish Kumar has not forgotten how Manjhi had betrayed him when he was appointed Chief Minister in 2014 by him.

Manjhi had lobbied with the BJP to induct three leaders of his party into the cabinet after it was decided that Pasupati Kumar Paras from the LJP will be inducted in the cabinet. Paras is the younger brother of LJP chief and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan.

Paras is not a member of the legislative assembly. He was defeated in the 2015 assembly polls. Paswan is said to have put pressure on the BJP to induct him in the cabinet.

"Manjhi reportedly told BJP leaders that if Pasupati Kumar Paras can be inducted in the cabinet despite the fact that he is not a legislator, then his party leaders should also be inducted on the same lines," a BJP leader said.

Manjhi is the lone legislator of his party.

JD-U leaders said that Nitish Kumar has strong reservations against Upender Kushwaha, who had repeatedly attacked and targeted him in the last three years. Kushwaha is a friend-turned-foe of Nitish Kumar in the state politics.

"Nitish Kumar does not like Upender Kushwaha. When he proposed the name of one of his party legislators to be inducted in the cabinet, Nitish Kumar said no to it," another JD-U leader said.

Nitish Kumar on Wednesday resigned as the Chief Minister, dumping Grand Alliance partners Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress.

He again took oath as the Chief Minister with the support of the National Democratic Alliance on Thursday. Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi took oath as Deputy Chief Minister.
Baghdad, July 29 : Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Saturday declared a new plan to liberate Tal Afar town from the Islamic State group.

"I have put forward a plan to liberate Tal Afar with the participation of all (kinds of) security services, in addition to the Hashd Shaabi and Asha'iry (tribal units)," Xinhua news agency quoted Abadi as saying.

Abadi did not say to what extent the Hashd Shaabi would participate in the liberation of the ethnically mixed town of Tal Afar, some 70 km west of Mosul, as they were forced earlier to participate only in the open land outside Mosul, not inside the Sunni city.

The participation of the predominantly Shia paramilitary units in the ethnically mixed region in northern Iraq, where Sunni Muslims form a majority, could spark sectarian tension with Sunni Arabs, Turkomans and other minorities.

The neighbouring Sunni state of Turkey also has concerns about the participation of the Shia dominated Hashd Shaabi, because Turkey does not want the Iraqi campaign to drive the IS from Tal Afar to change the ethnic composition of the region, which is predominantly Sunni.

Abadi also urged the political parties to act in a way similar to the army's leaders, who were racing to achieve their main goal of defeating the IS, instead of fighting each other for political gains.

"We want national political parties similar to the army's leaders in their race to defeat Daesh (IS)," Abadi said, adding "the world states participated and supported Iraq in its war against terrorism because they found a real determination to fight Daesh".

On July 10, Abadi officially declared Mosul liberated from the IS after nearly nine months of fierce fighting to dislodge the extremist militants from their last major stronghold in Iraq.

Iraqi military officials later in the month said that after Mosul's liberation the troops will advance westward to free Tal Afar, the last IS redoubt in Nineveh province. The town fell to the extremist group in 2014.
Hyderabad, July 29 : Dabang Delhi scripted a remarkable comeback to defeat Jaipur Pink Panthers 30-26 in their opening match of the Pro Kabaddi League's (PKL) fifth edition at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium here on Saturday.

Delhi were trailing 9-16 at the half-time with the side being all out in the 12th minute. But Delhi's Iranian pair of Meraj Sheykh (seven points) and Abolfazl Maghsodlou (four points) and a stupendous defending from Nilesh Shinde (five points) Sunil (three) ensured that Jaipur were all out twice in the second half and conceded the match.

Jaipur, though they looked good at the beginning, Delhi kept a check on them trailing by 4-5 till the eighth minute. But two consecutive raids from Jasvir Singh eliminated four Delhi players -- Nilesh Shinde, Bajirao Hodage, Anand Patil and Viraj Vishnu Landge -- triggering an all out which gave the Rajasthan outfit an 11-4 lead.

After the all out, Delhi brought in substitute all-rounder Abolfazl Maghsodlou of Iran and his agility and strong physical presence improved Delhi even though fellow Iranian and captain Meraj Sheykh was still struggling. Maghsodlou also made impact in defence.

In the 17th minute, raider K. Selvamani's leg injury too affected Jaipur as one of their best talents, bought at Rs 73 lakh, was sidelined.

At half-time, Jaipur kept the seven-point advantage with the scoreboard at 16-9. But Delhi had already got the momentum with the late show.

With Jaipur ending the first half with only two men, Delhi didn't waste any time in forcing Jaipur's all out which put them three short Jaipur's tally of 16.

In the second half, Delhi captain Sheykh had regained his firepower and touch. He and his compatriot Maghsodlou and a collective strong defence pulled the Capital outfit from a weak position to equalise at 18-18.

Sheykh eliminated rival star raider Jasvir with a touch point to ensure that Jaipur struggle with their raids.

Nilesh, Hodage (two points overall), Sunil and Viraj (two) tackled one Delhi player after another to force another all out for Jaipur, and the scoreboard at this juncture stood at 24-21 in favour of the Capital side.

Later, a desperate Jaipur side, inspired by Pawan Kumar (seven raid points), did their best but they were not able to hold off Sheykh and his team from sealing this match in a remarkable fashion.

(Abhishek Purohit can be contacted at abhishek.p@ians.in).
Washington, July 30 : US President Donald Trump has warned of slashing subsidies provided to people enabling them to buy health insurance if Republican lawmakers cannot quickly approve a legislation to replace Obamacare.

"If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!" Trump warned on Twitter on Saturday.

He said, in another sign of his frustration over the failure of the bill to repeal and replace Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act in the Senate on Friday that "after seven years of 'talking' Repeal and Replace, the people of our great country are still being forced to live with imploding Obamacare!", Efe news reported Senators on Friday rejected a bill partially replacing the health care reform implemented in 2010 by former President Barack Obama.

Senator John McCain, recently diagnosed with brain cancer, was one of three Republican senators to vote against the bill, along with all the Senate Democrats, thus ensuring its defeat.

The subsidies to insurance companies that Trump threatened to end have ensured that deductibles, copayments and other costs to low-income people have been lower than they otherwise would have been under Obamacare.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Saturday immediately rejected the President's message and said Trump "ought to stop playing politics with people's lives & #health care, start leading and finally begin acting presidential".

Many observers noted that, with the failure of the Senate bill on Friday, it was - at least for now - virtually the last change for Republicans to overturn and replace, albeit in diluted form, Obama's signature piece of legislation, even though they have obsessed over it and promised to do so for the past seven years.

However, neither Trump nor some Republican senators appear to be ready to throw in the towel.

"Unless the Republican Senators are total quitters, Repeal and Replace is not dead! Demand another vote before voting on any other bill!" Trump urged in another Saturday tweet.

However, Republican congressional leaders appeared to be ready to turn the page and begin negotiating with Democrats to modify the current law.
Thiruvananthapuram, July 30 : In an unprecedented move, Kerala Governor P. Sathasivam on Sunday summoned Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to discuss the law and order situation in the state after an RSS worker was killed overnight.

Sathasivam quoted Vijayan as saying that law-breakers would be dealt with sternly and that he would meet both state BJP President Kummanam Rajasekharan and the state RSS chief and make a public appeal for peace.

The Chief Minister promised that action would be taken against law-breakers irrespective of their status and political affiliation.

The Governor said Kerala Police chief Loknath Behra also told him about the law and order situation.

Sathasivam also spoke on the phone with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Rajasekharan and CPI-M Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan about the stone pelting at his son's house.

Meanwhile, police on Sunday arrested all the six persons who took part in the hacking of Rajesh and arrested two others who helped the six. Two men are on the run.

The six arrests took place from a rubber estate in the capital's suburbs.

Balakrishnan told reporters here that the CPI-M had no role in the RSS man's murder. Police probing the crime say this was the outcome of political and personal rivalry.
Jerusalem, July 31 : An Israeli military court on Sunday rejected an appeal by an Israeli soldier convicted of killing an incapacitated Palestinian in the West Bank city of Hebron in March.

The court also rejected the appeal of the prosecutors to increase the sentence of 18-month term, Xinhua news agency reported.

On March 24, Elor Azaria, 20, shot Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, 21, when he was injured and immobilized on the ground.

The incident took place in the neighbourhood of Tel Rumeida in Hebron, where a few hundreds of settlers live in a heavily guarded enclave among some 200,000 Palestinians.

A military court in Tel Aviv convicted Azaria of manslaughter in January and sentenced him to 18 months in prison.

Both Azaria and the prosecutors have appealed to the court. Azaria demanded for reconsideration of his conviction while the prosecutors requested a harsher sentence.

A panel of five judges rejected both appeals, upholding the manslaughter conviction and the ruling of 18 months in prison.

The judges said that shooting a wounded Palestinian, as he was motionlessly lying on the ground, was a "forbidden, severe, immoral" act, adding that the "appellant had an intent to kill the assailant."

With his appeal rejected, Azaria can either take the case to the Supreme Court or ask for a reduced sentence, said his attorney, adding that a presidential pardon given by President Reuven Rivlin is another option.
Ankara, July 31 : A total of 12 outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants were killed in separate counter operations in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq Saturday, military statements said on Sunday.

The operations in northern Iraq were conducted in the Zap and Matina regions, killing three terrorists who were allegedly preparing for an attack and destroying some weapon pits and caves, Xinhua quoted the Turkish Armed Forces as saying.

Another airstrike was conducted in Beytussebap district of Turkey's southeastern Sirnak province, killing nine PKK militants, including one senior member.

One Turkish soldier was also killed in an anti-PKK operation in southeastern Hakkari province, local media reported.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and the EU, has resumed its armed campaign against the Turkish government since July 2015.
New Delhi, July 31 : Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday accused the government of indirectly encouraging cow vigilantes and noted that there was an environment of "fear and terror" in the country.

Initiating a debate in the Lok Sabha on mob lynchings, Kharge said: "The government is indirectly encouraging groups like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal and gau bhakts (cow vigilantes)."

He urged the government not to turn Hindustan into "lynchistan".

"Don't make lynchistan out of Hindustan," Kharge said.

He said the incidents of mob lynchings were not coming down.

Slamming the BJP governments in Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh, the Congress leader said: "Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh have become mob lynching centres."

Kharge was referring to increasing incidents of cow vigilantes lynching people on suspicion of carrying beef or while ferrying cattle.

Kharge said that minorities, Dalits and women were being targetted under the Modi government.

He also demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should come to the House and clear his government's stand on the issue of mob lynching.

Kharge was interrupted by BJP's Nishikant Dubey, who said that the cases mentioned by him were subjudice and asked why he was discussing them.

Responding to Dubey, the Congress leader asked the government how many cases were registered against cow vigilantes and how many people had been arrested.

"On one hand you disown these people, but what action is being taken against them?" he asked, adding that no action was being taken against such people.

Hitting out at the government, Kharge said, "All these crimes are happening because you are trying to impose your ideology and philosophy on the people."

He said the lynchings were "planned", and mentioned Pehlu Khan, who was killed in Rajasthan in April when he was transporting cows with all valid documents, and other victims of mob lynchings.

BJP member Hukmdev Narayan Yadav however termed it a conspiracy against the government.

"These programmes are being run to malign the government... It is important to find out who is behind these attacks," Yadav said.

As opposition members protested, he said: "I am not blaming any party."

Yadav said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked states to take action and it is now the responsibility of state governments to take action.

The debate was taken up on Monday after a meeting of the Business Advisory Council of Lok Sabha on Thursday.

The lower house saw protests and disruptions through last week as opposition members demanded a debate on the issue, leading even to suspension of six Congress MPs for five days.
Thiruvananthapuram, July 31 : LDF convenor Vaikom Viswan has expressed the ruling fronts unhappiness at governor P Sathasivams summoning chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan to seek an explanation in the wake of the murder of an RSS functionary in the state capital allegedly by CPI(M) workers the other day.

Speaking to reporters, Mr. Viswan said that the governors action amounted to challenging the federal system of governance.

CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran also opined that the governor exceeded his authority by summoning the chief minister.

From my understanding of the constitution, the governor is supposed to act on the basis of the recommendations of the council elected by the people of the state. The governor does not have the authority dictate to the state cabinet, Mr. Rajendran told reporters.

Governor P Sathasivam had on Sunday summoned chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and state police chief Loknath Behera to know about the measures taken by the state government to maintain law and order in the state in the wake of the murder of an RSS functionary and the spate of tit-for-tat violence between the CPI(M) and the BJP/RSS that preceded the murder.

Later on Sunday, the governors office informed in a tweet that the chief minister had assured the governor that law breakers would be sternly dealt with regardless of their political affiliations.

An RSS functionary named Rajesh was hacked to death on Saturday night allegedly by CPI(M) activists.

The police arrested 10 persons on Sunday in connection with the murder.

BJP observed a dawn to dusk hartal on Sunday in protest against the murder.
Tehran, July 31 : An Iranian court on Monday rejected the appeal of ten persons sentenced to jail for attacking the Saudi Arabian embassy here last year, the media reported.

Earlier, the court had examined the charges against 19 persons and convicted ten of them, Xinhua news agency reported.

Five of them were sentenced to six months in prison, while five others were handed down three-month sentences, their lawyer Mostafa Shabani said.

Shabani said that four other suspects were clergymen, whose case has been examined by the country's Special Clerical Court.

Tehran's Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said the police held 40 suspects for disturbing public order and causing destruction to Saudi Arabian diplomatic property.

Saudi Arabia on January 4, 2016, snapped diplomatic ties with Iran a day after angry Iranian protesters stormed and set fire to the Saudi embassy here to protest the execution of a Shia leader by Riyadh.
New Delhi, July 31 : Chinese troops transgressed almost a kilometre into Indian territory in Barahoti of Uttarakhand last week, even as a stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops is on in Doklam in the Sikkim sector.

While the Indian Army has refused to comment on the incident, an official said that transgressions occur due to different perceptions of the boundary.

According to sources, the transgression took place on July 25.

Both sides have reinforced troops and are maintaining positions along the border, with no sign of withdrawing soon.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said in Parliament on July 20 that while China has been demanding that India withdraw its troops from Doklam for a dialogue to begin, India is for a simultaneous withdrawal by both sides.

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval was in Beijing to attend a BRICS security summit on July 27-28, when he held talks with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi on bilateral issues.
Baghdad, July 31 : At least 20 Islamic State militants were killed by Iraqi paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units in a conflict in the desert area near the Syrian border on Monday, a statement said.

The Hashd Shaabi units, backed by helicopter gunships, fought heavy clashes with IS militants when dozens of extremists attacked the military base at the border post of Tal Sufoug near Syria, Xinhua news agency cited the statement as saying.

The paramilitary units are deployed in the desert near the Syrian border to prevent cross-border IS movement between Iraq and Syria.

On May 29, the units made their first arrival at the border after they freed al-Qahtaniyah town near the Syrian border.

On July 10, Abadi officially declared Mosul's liberation from IS after nearly nine months of fierce fighting to dislodge the extremist militants from their last major stronghold in Iraq.

The Iraqi forces still have to wage more offensives to drive out the IS from their redoubts in Kirkuk, the adjacent sprawling rugged areas in Salahudin province, in addition to the remaining IS strongholds in the border towns with Syria, including Aana, Rawa, and al-Qaim.
New Delhi, July 31 : Thousands of people who visited the Income Tax office here on Monday to file their returns on the last day to do so had a tough time standing in long winding queues to beat the deadline, though later in the day it was extended till August 5.

The extension of deadline by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) for filing Income Tax Returns (ITRs) until August 5 came in view of the difficulties faced by taxpayers in e-filing their returns before July 31.

The Income Tax Department said it had received a spate of complaints as a number of taxpayers were not able to log on to the e-filing portal owing to excessive rush for the past few days.

Those who had come to file their returns on Monday said they missed the ease of filing ITRs they had experienced in the previous years, when special camps would be arranged towards the last week of submission of returns.

A large number of people expressed their dissatisfaction over the absence of special camps this time round.

"It was pretty convenient last year on account of setting up of special camps. The office was open even on the weekends that fell in the last week of submission," 65-year-old Jaipal Rana told IANS.

Harvinder Singh, who came to file the return on behalf of someone else, said: "The queue is moving very slowly. Apparently, there is a problem in their system and thus the verification of documents is taking too long."

For 39-year-old Praveen Kapoor, the two-hour leave he took from his office was not sufficient due to the slow verification process.

Most of the people had to wait for two-to-three hours to be through with the entire process.

People said online submission was not possible as the server was unable to process the applications. Many of the tax-payers complained about it, and were relieved to know about the extension of deadline.

Some private sector employees also raised objections to government employees being given preferred entry on displaying their official identity cards.

"Private employees had to get passes made to get entry into the Income Tax office and had to further queue up along with others for submission of income tax return," 40-year-old Mohan Gupta complained.

Since many have not linked their Aadhaar with their PAN yet, this caused further delay.

There were no separate queues for women, but the staff justified it saying that very few ladies come to file ITR.

"A separate queue for them would have needed a separate system altogether. An entire window would have been under-utilised had we organised it," a man at the helpdesk said.
Islamabad, July 31 : A village council (Panchayat) in Punjab province has ordered a suspected rapists sister to marry the rape survivors husband as a punishment, it was reported n Monday.

The 14-year-old was married to the rape survivor's husband upon the Panchayat's orders in Chichawatni, a Geo TV report said.

According to the police, Rafique Ahmad allegedly raped a married woman.

Following this, few members from the woman's family came to Rafique's residence and took along at gun point his 14-year-old sister.

The girl was then forced to marry the rape survivor's husband at a local landlord's property.

Police registered a case against 10 suspects, including the head of the Panchayat.

The police arrested five of the suspects and sent them to the prison, whereas five others secured bail from a court.

Last week, in a horrific incident in Multan members of a panchayat ordered the rape of a 16-year-old girl as punishment for a rape allegedly committed by her brother.
University Business magazine is honoring six colleges and universities in 2017 in the Models of Excellence program. This is the final round of the program, which was launched in 2015 and has honored a total of 64 campus student success initiatives.

The Summer 2017 Models of Excellence honorees strategically shifted resources to better serve their student populations, often resulting in increased internal and community support, says JD Solomon, editorial director of University Business.

The Summer 2017 honorees are: Villanova University (Villanova, Pa.) McDaniel College (Westminster, Md.); Georgia Technical College (Macon, Ga.); University of Louisville (Louisville, Ky.); Endicott College (Beverly, Mass.); and the University of Wyoming (Laramie, Wyo.).

For full descriptions of the honorees efforts, visit http://www.universitybusiness.com/mox.

About University Business

University Business is the leading publication for senior managers at colleges and universities throughout the United States, reaching 80,000 leaders who manage offices such as enrollment, technology, business, finance, facilities and academic affairs.
We are excited to be part of the Brookfield community, said Dan Garlock, General Manager of Silver Lake Auto & Tire Centers. Both Darren and myself have always looked at Brookfield as a community that we wanted our business to serve.

Silver Lake Auto & Tire Centers is opening a new location in Brookfield, Wis. on Monday, July 31, 2017, expanding the brand to three locations.

The new automotive repair facility is the brands third location. The second location opened in Hartland, Wis. in 2013, and the brands flagship shop is located in Oconomowoc, Wis. and has been open since 1973. Each of the locations has a long-standing relationship with the communities they call home. From the Ruth and Naomi Car Care Clinics to supporting and partnering with local schools and churches, being an active member in the communities of which they are a part of has always been one of the brands core values.

We are excited to be part of the Brookfield community, said Dan Garlock, General Manager of Silver Lake Auto & Tire Centers. Both Darren and myself have always looked at Brookfield as a community that we wanted our business to serve, Garlock continued.

The new location is offering the same high level of service the Hartland and Oconomowoc locations provide. Its technicians are equipped with the latest technology, and the location provides digital vehicle inspections and is a Michelin and BFGoodrich Tire Expert Dealer.

Brookfield has set the bar high with its numerous quality auto repair businesses already in the community, and we will not disappoint, Garlock said. We plan on raising the bar even higher and engaging our customers and guests on a whole new level of service and trust, he continued.

Silver Lake Auto & Tire Centers have been serving Wisconsin drivers with an unparalleled reputation in their communities for delivering the best service since 1973. The opening of the new location will allow even more Wisconsin drivers to experience friendly, highly knowledgeable and trained ASE certified technicians using the most up-to-date technology on their vehicles.

Silver Lake Auto & Tire Centers is a family owned and operated auto service center serving Oconomowoc, Hartland and Brookfield, Wis. and their surrounding areas. The shops have received prestigious recognitions, such being recognized as the Automotive Training Institute Top Shop, being Repairpal Certified, AAA Approved and BBB Accredited. The shops are part of the NAPA AutoCare program, among having other industry certifications. Stay connected with Silver Lake Auto & Tire Centers on Facebook or Twitter.
D'Amore Personal Injury Law, LLC. Sonjia had just picked up her oldest daughter from her first semester of college. She and her two girls were driving home when their car was hit head on by Brown.

DAmore Personal Injury Law, LLC has filed a lawsuit in Baltimore City Circuit Court alleging negligence, gross negligence and wrongful death against the Maryland Transportation Authority, the agency to which the Maryland Transportation Authority Police Department belongs; several of its officers; the Maryland Department of Transportation; and Michael R. Brown of Hagerstown, Md.

In the Complaint, Johnson et. al. v. Maryland Transportation Authority, et al. CA-24-C-17-003354, the plaintiffs are seeking damages for the injuries of Rolanda Johnson and Verlonda Johnson-Baker and for the death of Sonjia Johnson-Baker, which occurred Dec. 11, 2015 during a high-speed police chase that lasted for more than 14 miles with police reaching speeds in excess of 130 M.P.H.

Watch News Coverage here.

The law suit details the Maryland Transportation Authority Polices pursuit of defendant Michael Brown. MTA police encountered Brown at a convenience store on Eastern Avenue in Baltimore City. Police observed Brown get into a vehicle and drive away. Police followed Brown then, for reasons that remain unknown, elected to effectuate a traffic stop. Brown sped away, leading police on a chase that continued for nearly 14 miles at speeds of more than 130 miles per hour.

The pursuit ended when Browns vehicle left the northbound lanes of I-95, crossed the median and smashed head-on with Sonjia Johnson-Bakers car in the southbound lane. The crash killed Johnson-Baker, and caused serious injuries to her two teen age daughters. A passenger in Browns car was also killed.

Attorney Scott Lucas of DAmore Personal Injury Law, Sonjia had just picked up her oldest daughter from her first semester of college. She and her two girls were driving home when their car was hit head on by Brown."

Attorney Paul M. DAmore, founding member of D'Amore Personal Injury Law, stated his hope that that suit would highlight the need for police pursuit laws to be re-examined. The suit alleges that the high speed chase violated public safety doctrines, placing the Plaintiffs in imminent danger for no apparent reason. To date, no explanation for the chase has been provided by the MTA.

USA Today has reported that between 1979 and 2013, over 5,000 innocent people have been killed as a result of high speed police chases. As few as 5% of those chases involved a driver suspected of a violent crime. This has caused some states to review and update their police pursuit policies.

You can read the full story here.
Episcopal Relief & Development is serving tens of thousands of displaced people in Rome through the ongoing relief efforts of its partner, the Joel Nafuma Refugee Center (JNRC). JNRC addresses the needs of people fleeing conflict and persecution by providing a safe and secure daytime shelter to support their physical and psychological well-being. Episcopal Relief & Developments support enables the center to provide food, essential non-food items and access to clean water and facilities for personal hygiene.

As Italy struggles to deal with the influx of asylum seekers, JNRCs humanitarian services are required more than ever. We are now seeing unprecedented numbers as the refugee population in Europe reaches crisis level, noted Annika Milisic-Stanley, an organizer for the center. The center reported that the increased demand for services is due to a rise in the number of people fleeing Libya, increased deportations from other countries, and the closure of Le Jongle (The Jungle) camp in Calais, France.

The Joel Nafuma Refugee Center provides a unique resource for people seeking safety in Rome, as the only center in the region supplying displaced people with food, shelter and social services during the day. The center offers its guests hot breakfast and food, blankets and toiletries, along with legal advice to assist them in finding employment and establishing new lives in Europe. People at the center can take computer and language classes, learning skills to help them find jobs and fit into new communities. It also offers a multi-faith prayer space, where guests can reflect, meditate and pray. Since many guests are alone and vulnerable, counseling services are available to help them cope as they transition to independence.

Through the Nafuma Centers longstanding presence in the region, they have significant experience and established relationships that allow our aid to be most effectively used, said Nagulan Nesiah, Senior Program Officer for Disaster Response and Risk Reduction at Episcopal Relief & Development. As more people seek safety and resources in and around Rome, their services are more vital than ever.

Episcopal Relief & Developments assistance will provide kitchen items and supplies to enable JNRC to serve 200-250 men and women per day with meals through the centers breakfast program. The agency will also support the bathroom and sanitation facilities at the center, including free hot water for guests, who often are homeless or staying in overcrowded government dormitories. Additional relief will include the provision of clothes, shoes, blankets and essential toiletries.

Episcopal Relief & Developments partnership with the Joel Nafuma Refugee Center is part of an ongoing effort to provide care and compassionate support for those seeking refuge in Europe. Over the past year, the organization has worked with the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe to support centers for displaced people such as the Asylum Seeker Center in Munich and the center in the Le Jongle camp in Calais, France. The agency has also supported congregations of the Convocation, such as All Saints Episcopal Church in Waterloo, Belgium, who continue to provide meals and other vital services for those seeking safety from conflict in Syria and elsewhere.

Please continue to pray for those displaced by instability and conflict in their home nations, and for the men and women providing refuge at the Joel Nafuma Refugee Center and other centers around the world.

In order to help, please donate to the International Disaster Response Fund to enable Episcopal Relief & Development to respond where most needed.

For over 75 years, Episcopal Relief & Development has served as a compassionate response to human suffering in the world. The agency works with more than 3 million people in nearly 40 countries worldwide to overcome poverty, hunger and disease through multi-sector programs, using the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework. An independent 501(c)(3) organization, it works closely with Anglican Communion and ecumenical partners to help communities create long-term development strategies and rebuild after disasters.
This new collaboration with AWS creates an affordable and efficient option for nonprofit organizations, which have limited budgets, to keep up with rapidly expanding technologies, as well as for people to find or progress within cloud tech careers.

Linux Academy, the foremost online Linux and cloud training platform and community, today announced a partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide cloud certification training to the nonprofit community. Free hands-on training is available for the first 45 days after signup.

Offered exclusively to nonprofits, this partnership gives users unlimited access to Linux Academys entire library of AWS and cloud certification and training courses, content, and hands-on labs focused on AWS and additional technologies, like Linux and OpenStack. The training is available to nonprofit teams to test and train their IT staff, as well as to individuals to learn hands-on skills and earn certifications.

Organizations and individuals are rushing to ensure they can handle the technologies available today on the cloud, said Anthony James, CEO, Linux Academy. We are excited about this new collaboration with AWS. It creates an affordable and efficient option for nonprofit organizations, which have limited budgets, to keep up with rapidly expanding technologies, as well as for people to find or progress within cloud tech careers.

Through this partnership, nonprofit teams and individuals will have access to:

 More than 2,500 self-paced video courses

 209 total hours of AWS course training

 438 Linux training hours

 105 OpenStack training hours

 More than 60 hands-on, scenario-based labs for AWS skill building

 Live AWS environments for practicing newly acquired skills

 Quizzes, study guides, flash cards, study groups, and practice exams

Additionally, Linux Academy provides training for all current AWS certifications:

 AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate Level

 AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional Level

 AWS Certified Developer - Associate Level

 AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional Level

 AWS Certified Advanced Networking Specialty - Certification

 AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate Level

 AWS Certified Big Data Specialty - Certification

Linux Academy courses are engineered to go beyond simply preparing students for certifications. Theyre designed to truly prepare students to advance in Linux and cloud careers. Course instructors and content curators are constantly creating lessons based on industry trends, new releases, and the demand of the community. Coupled with the subscription model, users are granted unlimited access to all current and future courses, as well as Linux Academy hands-on labs and various learning tools, including the Orion Papers  a companion to your journey through the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Certification prep course. This is a non-linear, visual, interactive supplement to the online content only offered by Linux Academy.

About Linux Academy

Linux Academy redefines continuing education for todays IT business professional. Through self-paced courses, hands-on labs, six cloud servers, personal access to expert instructors, and an ever-growing learning library, Linux Academy caters to beginners and experts alike. Courses are geared toward certifications in Linux, AWS, Google Cloud Platforms, OpenStack, DevOps, Azure, Big Data, and Containers, offering content that digs deeper to answer nuanced challenges of the latest emerging technologies. Linux Academy provides more value per dollar than any other IT training program. To enroll or to explore tools and group rates, visit: http://www.linuxacademy.com.
TouchSuite has been named to the South Florida Business Journal's Fast 50 list for the third consecutive year.

"Its a special honor to be named as a Fast 50 company for a third year in a row. The recognition from the South Florida Business Journal is a testament to our core values and company mission. TouchSuite is founded on the principle of treating our clients as business partners, enabling them to grow their businesses with the support of our technology and, in turn, strengthening our infrastructure through their feedback and industry insight. Our entire staff understands that the effort they put forth each day directly affects our success. said TouchSuite CEO Sam Zietz.

The Fast 50 is comprised of the fastest-growing privately held companies in the South Florida area. Companies are ranked by percentage of revenue growth and placed into either two top 25 lists: one for companies with more than $25 million in annual revenue, and one for companies with less than $25 million in annual revenue.

About TouchSuite: TouchSuite is one of Americas leading financial technology companies focused on the integrated electronic payment space and has been honored six times on Inc. Magazines list of the 500 fastest growing private companies in America. TouchSuites sales infrastructure provides merchants and partners with an unprecedented support system and ensures a positive user experience. TouchSuite is headquartered in Boca Raton, FL.
Green Street Academy (GSA) administrators express their gratitude to Baltimore City Schools for helping to refinance the Academys debt. This financial restructuring allows the West Baltimore public charter school to better service its outstanding debt while increasing its financial resources for future operations.

Between 2014 and 2015, GSA undertook an immense renovation, updating and upgrading its property at 125 North Hilton Street to provide students with a state-of-the-art learning environment. The renovated facilities were completed for the start of the 2015-16 school year at a total cost of approximately $19 million. GSA financed the project through a combination of loans, grants and credit enhancement from Bank of America, the Reinvestment Fund, the Abell Foundation and the Warnock Foundation.

In early 2017, favorable market conditions led GSA to consolidate and refinance all of its outstanding debt. Working with the Schools financial advisor, Wye River Group, GSA developed a plan of finance which contemplated a combination of tax-exempt and taxable bonds issued by the Maryland Health and Higher Educational Facilities Authority (MHHEFA). The bonds were issued in two series totaling $22,115,000 and sold by RBC Capital Markets as non-rated obligations through a limited offering to accredited investors and qualified institutional buyers.

On June 27, 2017, the refinancing was finalized allowing GSA to:



Lower its near term annual debt service as it works toward achieving stabilized maximum enrollment over the next two years

Secure a low fixed rate cost of capital for the entire 35-year term of the financing

Restore its liquidity reserves to levels sufficient to support its operations going forward

Finance $1.5 million of additional improvements to the third floor of its building

A Word of Gratitude

GSA leadership thanks the Baltimore City Public Schools, specifically the School Board, CEO, and Office of New Initiatives for their responsiveness in completing time-sensitive tasks throughout the refinance process.

Green Street Academys financial restructuring is a big win for the school, and will allow it to build on its record of success with innovative programs that engage students and prepare them for college and careers, said Dr. Sonja Brookins Santelises, CEO of City Schools. Including Green Street in our portfolio of schools is a big win for the district, and we were pleased to provide administrative support to the school in this effort.

About Green Street Academy

GSA provides STEM-based academics for students in grades 6-12. According to School administrators, the school seeks to inspire students to imagine their careers through the prism of sustainability and prepare them with marketable skills for their future work life and extended education.

The School opened its doors in September 2010 with 200 enrolled students from across the city. It quickly expanded to serve over 730 students during the 2015-2016 academic year. GSA anticipates enrollment of 850 students for the 2017-18 school year and expects to be at a maximum capacity of 875 students by 2018-19. For more information about GSA and its mission, please contact Daniel Schochor at (443) 642-2068.
2-10 Home Buyers Warranty Corporate Headquarters

Jennifer Pingrey

National VP of Marketing

jpingrey(at)2-10(dot)com

720.747.6137

2-10 Home Buyers Warranty Moves into New Corporate Headquarters

2-10 Home Buyers Warranty (2-10 HBW), an industry-leading provider of new home structural warranties and systems and appliances coverage for new and existing homes, moved into the companys new corporate headquarters. Located at 13900 E. Harvard Avenue, a short distance from RTDs new Iliff light rail station, the 74,000 square foot building houses 350 employees today, with expansion for 450.

We modernized and upgraded every facet of the building. Employees received new workstations and chairs, and we more than doubled the conference and huddle room space for greater collaboration, said Scott Cromie, 2-10 HBWs Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer.

2-10 HBW worked with the design and architecture firm of Acquilano Leslie and construction was completed by Howell Construction. The interior design features accents utilizing materials synonymous with home and home building, which compliments the companys mission of improving the quality of home building and the experience of home ownership.

Each floor features large community breakrooms which provide space for employees to host company events, like First Friday. First Friday gives each department an opportunity to host and share how they impact the business and the companys customers. Other features on each floor include private phone booths, wellness rooms, and coffee bars. Employees are also enjoying the line-up of food trucks twice a week.

As we settle in, I am extremely pleased to see that our vision for a collaborative and agile workspace has been realized, added Cromie. There is a buzz amongst the employees and many have verbalized their extreme satisfaction with the space.

About 2-10 Home Buyers Warranty

For over 37 years, 2-10 Home Buyers Warranty has been a market leader in helping people protect one of lifes biggest investments with new construction structural warranties and systems and appliances coverage for new and existing homes. Founded and based in Colorado, 2-10 Home Buyers Warranty has covered over 5.8 million homes and partners with thousands of the nations finest real estate professionals, home builders and service contractors to help home buyers, sellers and owners to mitigate risk, save money and have protection from the unexpected. For more information, visit 2-10.com.
A global leader in loyalty and rewards initiatives design, management and consulting At Kobie, we strive for innovation and collaboration across all business practices, and with their backgrounds, J.L. and Mark will deliver us toward these goals.

Kobie Marketing, a global leader in loyalty and rewards initiatives design, management and consulting, announced today that its board of directors appointed Mark Chronister as chief growth officer and Jean-Louis J.L. Casabonne as chief financial officer to lead the companys financial operations and business development, respectively, and align strategies to support future growth.

The depth and breadth of leadership experience J.L. and Mark bring to Kobie will help us maximize our service offerings and drive further opportunities for growth in the coming years, said Bram Hechtkopf, CEO of Kobie Marketing. At Kobie, we strive for innovation and collaboration across all business practices, and with their backgrounds, J.L. and Mark will deliver us toward these goals.

Chronister will lead Kobies business development and client management teams and work both internally and with clients to drive results and fully utilize the breadth of Kobies services teams. He most recently served as senior vice president of product and marketing for First National Bank of Omaha, where he focused on developing and launching new businesses, leading across teams and developing digital strategies.

An 18-year veteran of banking corporation MBNA America, Chronister previously oversaw the companys co-branding business, working with brands such as L.L. Bean, Sprint and Purina, and went on to lead the companys Mexican division and launch a life and health insurance vertical.

I am excited to hit the ground running and start building and strengthening the relationships, both internally and externally, that are key to Kobies success, said Chronister. Kobie is committed to driving sustained growth and building superior experiences for its customers, partners and employees, and I look forward to being a part of that.

Casabonne will run Kobies financial operations and administration and ensure quality financial reporting and compliance. A veteran of Xeroxs financial management team, he has more than 25 years experience in corporate finance and business development, serving as a senior leader at Fortune 500 companies, small to mid-size organizations and tech startups. He most recently served as CFO of application mobilization software company hopTo and previously helped launch a subsidiary software company under Xerox.

I look forward to not only steering Kobies financial success, but in helping the company to achieve success throughout all aspects of business and operations, said Casabonne.

Both new roles will bolster Kobies ambitious growth, which has seen the companys revenue increase 161 percent over the past three years. Now counting more than 450 employees, Kobie is focusing on its long-term growth strategy as it continues to build out its service and technology offerings.

Last year, the company increased its employee count by almost 25 percent in St. Petersburg alone and was recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies for the seventh year in a row.

For more on Kobie Marketing and to view career opportunities, visit kobie.com/careers.

About Kobie Marketing

Kobie Marketing is a global leader in loyalty marketing and an industry pioneer, delivering end-to-end strategy, technology and program management solutions. For more than 27 years, Kobie has provided innovative loyalty experiences to the worlds most successful brands, helping clients receive incremental revenue, product and household penetration, and brand advocacy. Kobie drives results and ROI through Kobie Alchemy, a best-in-class loyalty marketing technology platform. To learn more, visit kobie.com.
CraneWorks is one of the fastest-growing crane dealers in North America (http://blog.crane-works.com/craneworks-makes-huge-jump-in-act-top-100). One change fueling the companys expansion is the increase in demand for large cranes like all terrain and rough terrain models from Demag and Terex. To better accommodate this demand, CraneWorks is proud to announce Randy Harris as the companys new Large Crane Sales Specialist.

After a decade of sales and management experience in another industry, Harris brought his talents to the crane industry almost 20 years ago. While he is knowledgeable with all types of cranes, his experience with larger-capacity mobile cranes is unparalleled, having sold units across America with capacities well over 1,000 tons.

Harris base of operations will be in Central Texas, an ideal location to serve the oil & gas companies along the Gulf Coast and within the Permian Basin. As upstream companies recover from the industrys recent slump, an increasing number have requested large cranes from CraneWorks (including multiple Demag AC 100-4L cranes and the new Demag AC 220-5  http://blog.crane-works.com/craneworks-to-expand-sales-fleet-with-new-demag-ac-220-5).

Its not often that you find someone like Randy whose skill set is so perfect for the job, said Keith Ayers, CEO of CraneWorks. Customer interest in large cranes is up so much that we knew wed need a dedicated specialist soon for this market. With Randys deep knowledge, it was an easy decision to bring him on board.

About CraneWorks, Inc.

Founded in 2002, CraneWorks is a leading supplier of lifting equipment to companies across the globe. CraneWorks delivers reliable, customer-driven solutions for a wide range of industries, including construction, infrastructure, quarrying, mining, shipping, transportation, refining, energy, oil, utility and aerial. With offices in Houston, Denver, San Diego, Bakersfield, Kansas City, New York/New Jersey, and Calgary, CraneWorks is raising the bar in lifting equipment. For more information, visit the companys website at http://www.Crane-Works.com, its LinkedIn page at https://www.linkedin.com/company/craneworks-inc-, or its Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/CraneWorksInc.

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Please join members of the Pekin Community on Saturday, August 12th in the second annual Fight the Fight Addiction Awareness Walk at Pekin Park District, 1701 Court Street. The walk is from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and does not require registration. All community members are invited.

This event will be accompanied by activities such as a walk around the lagoon, tables with information on addiction and recovery, speakers, t-shirts and hoodies available for purchasing, dove release and music.

Proceeds go to the JOLT Foundation for Narcan for the community, to help those struggling with substance use disorder to pay for rent at a Sober Living House after they complete their inpatient treatment, as well as expenses to put on this event.

Gateway Foundation is a proud premier sponsor of this event.

Participants can purchase their t-shirts on Friday evening, August 11th, at Gateway Foundation located at 11 South Capitol Street, Pekin, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

About Gateway Alcohol & Drug Treatment

Since 1968 our goal has been straightforward: to help clients get their life back on track and achieve a life of sobriety, free from drug use and symptoms of mental illness, that is productive, socially responsible, and healthy. Gateway Foundation is the largest nonprofit treatment provider in the country that specializes in the treatment of substance use disorders, providing treatment for men, women, adolescents, and clients diagnosed with co-occurring mental health disorders.

Gateway's Community Division has treatment centers located throughout Illinois, including Carbondale, Chicago, Lake County, Fox Valley, Springfield, and the St. Louis Metro East area. These centers offer residential and outpatient treatment services for adults, teens, and adolescents accessed through insurance, state funding, and self-pay.

Gateway's professional clinicians help thousands of individuals successfully complete treatment by developing a personalized plan that treats the underlying causes of substance abusenot just addiction to drugs or alcohol.

Learn more about insurance coverage, treatment options, or Gateway's confidential consultation at RecoverGateway.org or call 877-505-HOPE (4673).

Reporters and Editors, for more information, please call Shannon Homolka, Marketing Manager, at 630-717-2256.
The Pendulum Real Estate Group and Eastbrook Homes are celebrating the opening of the Town Square Project, a new home community in Cannon Township. Pendulum acquired the property in 2013 and has partnered with Eastbrook Homes to redesign and build out this unique property.

Town Square was originally approved as a Planned Unit Development (PUD) in 2006. Located next to Rics Grocery Store near the intersection of Meyers Lake and Belding Road, the community will offer 109 total living units in three distinct styles: traditional single family homes, detached condominiums and townhomes. Base pricing for the single family homes and condominiums will start around $200,000, with the townhome price point starting lower.

The neighborhood will include ample community open space, including a Central Park area, dog walking area, sidewalks, and street lighting. The location offers convenient access to shopping, schools, dinning, walking trails, and other local amenities.

This project is exciting for the variety of home options, unique options, and overall design. We see the community as a place for both the millennial buyer feeling underserved in todays market as well as empty nesters looking for a new, convenient spot, said Bob Sorensen from Eastbrook Homes.

The Pendulum Real Estate Group has been active in West Michigan Development since 2011. Eastbrook Homes is celebrating 50 years of serving West Michigan as a community developer and residential home builder.

For more information on this project, contact Bob Sorensen from Eastbrook Homes at 616-455-0200.
Jennifer Gore-Cuthbert, owner and founding attorney of The Gore Law Firm, has been recognized by Atlanta Attorney at Law Magazine as an Attorney to Watch.

Jennifer says it is an honor to be recognized: "I am grateful to Attorney at Law Magazine for including me in its Atlanta edition, and proud to be featured with this esteemed group of local attorneys."

Each spring, Atlanta Attorney at Law Magazine invites Georgia lawyers to submit online nominations for lawyers who are successful, who excel in their practice, and who are leaders within the legal community. The magazine received dozens of nominations, and narrowed down the list to just 30 lawyers in the Atlanta area. Bill McGill, publisher of Atlanta Attorney at Law wrote in his Letter from the Publisher that this years list demonstrates that 2017 is going to be great for the legal community: With so many options, it was difficult to narrow down our list of award winners I feel these attorneys represent some of our best and brightest legal stars.

Atlanta Attorney at Law Magazine spotlights Atlanta-area attorneys, law firms, business leaders, and other legal professionals. The magazine, with content ranging from informative features to editorial columns, is produced both in hard copy and digital format. For more, visit atlantaattorneymagazine.com.

About Attorney Jennifer Gore-Cuthbert

Jennifer Gore-Cuthbert is committed to building a close working relationship with her clients to provide quality, compassionate and efficient legal representation. Jennifer works to move injury cases, wrongful death claims, property damage and diminished value cases to settlement or trial as quickly as possible without sacrificing results. She is also particularly attentive to the stress that being injured or in a collision can have on a persons overall life. Prior to working in this field, Jennifer was injured in a serious accident herself and brings this unique perspective to all her cases.

About The Gore Law Firm

The Gore Law Firm believes that the victims of serious accidents deserve compensation for their injuries. They should not have to deal with uncooperative insurance companies and get the runaround while trying to recover physically, financially, and emotionally. The Gore Law Firm represents victims of auto collisions, motorcycle collisions, truck collisions, victims hit by drunk drivers, those injured in a slip-and-fall, as well as wrongful death cases.
Further building upon its commitment to climate action, W.S. Badger Co. today announced that it became a signatory to the Climate Collaborative, a three-year project of OSC2 and the Sustainable Food Trade Association to catalyze bold action for climate action among natural products companies.

By becoming a signatory, Badger has joined the likes of Clif Bar, Stonyfield Farm, Dr. Bronners, New Hope, Annies, National Co+Op Grocers, White Wave and others pledging to help reverse climate change by focusing on one or more of nine emissions-reducing areas identified by the Collaborative. Those nine areas are agriculture, energy efficiency, food waste, forest conservation, packaging, government policy, renewable energy, transportation, and short-lived climate pollutants (such as methane).

We have always taken our role in protecting the environment very seriously, but have often considered our actions an internal effort," says Rebecca Hamilton, family owner and VP of Research & Product Development at Badger. In the wake of our countrys decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement, we now see that businesses have a responsibility to stand up and be vocal about our commitments. To inspire other to do the same, we are joining the leaders of our industry.

According to the companys recently published 2016 Impact Report, Badger is making considerable progress in reducing its carbon footprint. And as part of the work of crafting an impact plan and setting long-term climate goals, the company has committed to five of the nine climate initiatives, namely energy efficiency, policy, renewable energy, packaging, and forests.

Participating in the Climate Collaborative is a step forward in Badgers ongoing journey to develop and implement robust and sustainable solutions that exceed expectations and achieve measurable results.

Climate Collaborative co-founder Nancy Hirshberg, a sustainability consultant who for more than two decades served as Stonyfield Farms VP of natural resources, says The idea is not just to encourage organizations to pool their expertise and educational resources to accelerate progress toward a shared goal, but also to harness the power of peer-to-peer accountability. To that end, Climate Collaborative requires participating companies to report back on their emissions-reduction progress on an annual basis.

Launched on March 8th at the Natural Products Expo West, held in Anaheim, California, the Climate Collaborative asks businesses to not only make a commitment to reverse climate action but also to document, measure, report, and share best practices in meeting the challenge of climate change. To date, more than 80 companies have signed on to the Climate Collaborative, and of those 80, a total of 329 commitments have been made.

About Badger

Badger is a family run and family-friendly company that has been making healthy products for people and the planet since 1995. Badger was born when Badger Bill, a carpenter at the time, created a recipe of natural ingredients strong enough to soothe his rough, dry, cracked hands. Now a team of over 100 employees, Badger produces almost all of its products in Gilsum, N.H. Inherent in Badgers DNA is its status as a B Corp, a certification earned through B Lab, a third party non-profit that requires companies to meet rigorous standards of transparency as well as environmental and social performance. Badger has been a certified B Corp since 2011 and in 2015 became one of New Hampshires first businesses to register legally as a Benefit Corporation, a for-profit status that incorporates the pursuit of positive environmental and social impact in addition to profit. For more information, please visit http://www.badgerbalm.com

About The Climate Collaborative

The Climate Collaborative is a project of OSC2 and SFTA to catalyze bold climate action among natural products companies. The Climate Collaborative brings manufacturers, retailers, brokers, distributors, and suppliers together to build existing climate solutions to scale and to find innovative, new ways to help reverse climate change. Follow the Climate Collaborative on Facebook @climatecollab and on Twitter @ClimateColl.

About OSC2

A community of sustainably focused natural products industry CEOs and business leaders, OSC2 was founded in January 2012 to address the toughest sustainability problems facing the industry and planet. Directors Ahmed Rahim, founder and CEO of Numi Organic Tea, and Lara Jackle Dickinson, Natural Products Industry Executive, founded OSC2 and serve as its directors. OSC2 strives to leave earth and humanity in better condition than we found it by inspiring natural products leaders to work in innovative and collaborative ways toward positive change. For more information, please visit http://www.osc2.org.

About Sustainable Food Trade Association

The mission of Sustainable Food Trade Association is to build the capacity of the organic food trade to transition to sustainable business models. SFTA serves as a hub for businesses to learn, improve performance, communicate results, share common metrics and best practices. Thus, defining and driving excellence in environmentally sound, socially just business practices using a systems-based approach. For more information, please visit http://www.sustainablefoodtrade.org.
Photo credit: Marisa Chioini with MISA ME Photography - www.misamephoto.com We wouldnt have won this Best of Show award tonight without everyone on our team, from the dairy farms and cheesemakers, to our affineurs and the artisan cheese community.

Tarentaise Reserve from Spring Brook Farm Cheese/Farms for City Kids Foundation in Vermont was named Best of Show among 2,024 entries at the American Cheese Societys 2017 Judging & Competition. The results were announced here in a ceremony today at the 34th Annual ACS Conference: Cheese with Altitude. Second place Best of Show went to St. Malachi from The Farm at Doe Run in Pennsylvania. Third place Best of Show was awarded to Harbison from Cellars at Jasper Hill in Vermont.

We wouldnt have won this Best of Show award tonight without everyone on our team, from the dairy farms and cheesemakers, to our affineurs and the artisan cheese community, said Jeremy Stephenson, Cheese Program Director for Spring Brook Farm Cheese/Farms for City Kids Foundation. How much more honored could we possibly be?

This years American Cheese Society (ACS) Judging & Competition broke all records for the professionally judged contest with 2,024 entries of cheeses and cultured dairy products from 281 companies, a 10 percent growth over the prior year. Competing companies represented 36 U.S. states, four Canadian provinces, Mexico, and Colombia. ACS awarded a total of 410 ribbons: 111 first place ribbons, 142 second place ribbons and 157 third place ribbons.

Artisan cheese is clearly on a growth curve in both quality and diversity. We are thrilled by the record number of entries in this years ACS competition. It is a testament to the creativity and vitality of artisan cheesemakers, said Nora Weiser, ACS executive director.

Winners receive recognition for their hard work and craftsmanship, and consumers get a preview of what to look for at their local grocers or specialty cheese shops in the coming year, said Weiser.

For a printable list of this years winners and judges bios, visit http://www.cheesejudging.org. The 2017 ACS Judging & Competition media kit gives a complete breakdown of awards by product, dairy location and milk source, as well as producers contact information.

The 35th Annual ACS Conference & Competition will take place July 25-28, 2018 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Dr. Monee Thomas I was drawn to Dermatology because it allows me to take care and educate people on the health of their skin and help patients become more confident in their own skin. I have a special interest in hair loss and skin of color. Dr. Monee Thomas

Dr. Monee Thomas joins U.S. Dermatology Partners Houston in the Bellaire location on August 14th 2017. Dr. Thomas received her Bachelor of Science in Biology at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana before heading north to Howard University in Washington D.C. where she obtained her Doctorate of Medicine. It was also at Howard where Dr. Thomas completed her Internal Medicine internship and residency in Dermatology.

Prior to medical school, Dr. Thomas has contributed to several presentations on the subject of skin conditions such as morphea, chilblain and skin cancer specifically in African Americans. Dr. Thomas practices general dermatology and has extensive training and experience in laser hair removal, improvement in vascular lesions and scar resurfacing and chemical peels.

Dr. Thomas involvement in community outreach and volunteer services equipped her for many leadership roles she carried out during her training. She became President of Howard Universitys Student Dermatology Society and Dr. Thomas received the honor of serving as Chief Resident in her final year of residency.

I was drawn to Dermatology since it is a medical specialty that allows me to take care of and educate people on the health of largest organ on the body, the skin. It also, more importantly, allows me to help patients become more comfortable and confident in their own skin. I have a special interest in hair loss and skin of color and look forward to helping all of Houston feel healthy and confident. Dr. Monee Thomas

In her spare time, Dr. Thomas love to create and appreciate art, workout, try different restaurants and cuisine, and being a Louisiana girl, she loves a good crawfish boil. Dr. Thomas is excited to be in the Houston area near her family and eager to serve the community of Bellaire.

Dr. Thomas will begin seeing patients August 14th.

About U.S Dermatology Partners Bellaire

At U.S. Dermatology Partners of Houston  Bellaire, we are passionate about the wellbeing of our patients. Our board-certified dermatologists treat all aspects of skin, hair and nail disorders, including acne treatments and pediatric dermatology. We specialize in cosmetic dermatology procedures including Botox and Juvederm and provide expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of skin cancer. The Bellaire office treats patients from River Oaks, Memorial, Tanglewood and West University neighborhoods.

About U.S. Dermatology Partners

U.S. Dermatology Partners is making it easier for people to connect with a dermatologist and gain access to the very latest in dermatology care for the entire family and state-of-the-art treatment for diseases of the skin. As the 3rd largest physician-owned dermatology practice in the United States, patients not only have access to general medical, surgical and cosmetic skin treatments through its coordinated care network, but also benefit from the practices strong dermatology subspecialty thought leaders and medical advisory board. To be the best partners to its patients, U.S. Dermatology Partners is fervently focused on providing the highest level of patient-first care, and its team therefore includes recognized national leaders in sub-specialties including psoriasis and Mohs surgery. To learn more visit usdermatologypartners.com
Michael Barbarick, Newly-appointed Account Executive for CEG "CEG has experienced tremendous growth just in the last few months. Mike Barbarick will enable us to effectively support and cultivate that growth," says Sam Morrow, EVP of Sales for Critical Environments Group

Critical Environments Group (CEG), a leading provider of data center and critical environment infrastructure optimization solutions, today appointed Michael Barbarick as an Account Executive for the organization. In this role, Barbarick will create, manage and grow business primarily in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. However, he will be able to support all areas of direct sales for clients located anywhere across the country.

CEG is excited to have Mike join our team, as he has a long and impressive track record when it comes to sales and client relations, says Sam Morrow, Executive Vice President of Sales for Critical Environments Group. CEG has experienced tremendous growth just in the last few months. Mike will enable us to effectively support and cultivate that growth.

Prior to joining CEG, Mike Barbarick served as the Managing Director of Carrier-Neutral Colo, Inc. He has also served in senior sales and business development positions at Digital Realty, Internap, Verizon, vXchnge and Quatro Systems. He brings to CEG extensive knowledge about disaster recovery and business continuity planning, colocation services, cloud computing, and data center infrastructure solutions for enterprise and SMB companies.

Mike Barbarick will operate from CEGs corporate headquarters in New Jersey. He can be reached at 800-257-5235, extension 7001; at mbarbarick(at)criticaleg.com; or on LinkedIn.

About Critical Environments Group

Critical Environments Group (CEG) enables its clients to effectively manage, maintain and optimize their data centers and other IT environments. Were meeting the needs of this rapidly evolving industry by achieving value for channel partners or end users throughout the data center lifecycle.

CEG is the new, standalone organization that has been created because of DCiM Solutions 2016 acquisition of IIS Group. For more information about CEG and its combined comprehensive offerings, please visit http://www.criticaleg.com.
Intellitec Solutions announced today that they have renewed their corporate alliance membership in LeadingAge, an association of 6,000 not-for-profit organizations dedicated to expanding the world of possibilities for aging. LeadingAge advances policies, promotes practices and conducts research that supports, enables and empowers people to live fully as they age.

"We are pleased to support this exceptional organization that is critical to the success of the long term care organizations we support on Microsoft Dynamics GP and Intacct." said Rick Sommer, president of Intellitec Solutions. "Our involvement with LeadingAge is a great way for us to stay in touch with the issues facing our clients and the industry as a whole."

LeadingAge offers a strong and distinct voice to their members that strive to expand the word of possibilities for aging. Working together, they innovative practices that transform serving the aging population, and help meet older adults needs and preferences to advance the interest of the aging consumer.

About Intellitec Solutions

Intellitec Solutions is a leading ERP and CRM provider strategically located along the influential business corridor between Washington and Philadelphia. Specializing in Microsoft Dynamics GP, Dynamics SL, Dynamics 365 and Intacct, they have conducted thousands of engagements helping companies in diverse industries choose and implement software solutions to improve financial or customer relationship management. Using a proven system designed to maximize efficiency and business insight, Intellitec Solutions team of seasoned professionals provides value-added expertise to their clients. For more information or to schedule a demo of our solutions, please visit http://www.intellitecsolutions.com or call 866-504-4357

# # # #

All products mentioned in this release are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
"Our patients will be happy to know that with OrthAlign, their knees are being treated with a technology that helps to achieve the best alignment possible," said Dr. Edmundo Ford of Centro de Especialidades Ortopedicas at Hospital San Fernando.

OrthAlign, Inc., a privately held U.S.-based medical device and technology company providing orthopedic surgeons with advanced precision technologies, announced today a distribution partnership with Ortosistemas S.A. and the first set of KneeAlign cases successfully completed for total knee arthroplasty (TKA) in the country of Panama.

These cases were completed by Panama City-based orthopaedic surgeon Edmundo Ford, MD of Centro de Especialidades Ortopedicas at Hospital San Fernando and continue to demonstrate the rapid adoption of OrthAlign's handheld precision technologies, by surgeons throughout the world (the technology is now utilized in over 45 countries).

"KneeAlign is easy, simple, and reliable," said Dr. Ford. "I'm happy to know that going forward, my total knees no longer are subject to human error. Our patients will be happy to know that their knees are being treated with a technology that helps to achieve the best alignment possible, in order to maximize implant survival and a superior outcome."

OrthAlign provides highly accurate, computer-assisted, handheld technologies for surgeons to receive real-time, actionable data for precise alignment and positioning of components in total knee, unicondylar knee, and total hip (both posterior and anterior) arthroplasty surgeries. Over 15 peer-reviewed clinical studies have been published to date, validating OrthAlign's accuracy, simplicity of use, and benefits in recovery for the patient.

Maria Luisa Munoz, Chief Executive Officer of Ortosistemas S.A., a market leading orthopaedic distributor in Panama for over 25 years, stated, "Technology is a very important part of Panama's growing joint arthroplasty market. Surgeons are looking for tools to provide their patients with better outcomes. We are pleased to be OrthAlign's partner in Panama and look forward to not only providing surgeons with this valuable tool, but also further expanding our market share."

Panama is the gateway for our expansion into Latin America," said James Young Kim, OrthAligns Vice President and General Manager of International. "Over the next few years, Latin America is expected to be a major driver in global market growth, however, high costs of surgery are making it difficult for surgeons to even use technologies that will help them be more accurate. OrthAlign's cost-effective, highly accurate technology is the answer for the Latin American market.

About OrthAlign, Inc.

OrthAlign is a privately held medical device and technology company, developing advanced technologies that deliver healthier and more pain-free lifestyles to joint replacement patients, globally. We provide healthcare professionals with cutting edge, computer-assisted surgical tools that seamlessly and cost-effectively deliver vital data and clinical results to optimize outcomes for our patients. For more information regarding OrthAlign, please visit http://www.orthalign.com.

ORTHALIGN, ORTHALIGN PLUS, KNEEALIGN, KNEEALIGN 2, HIPALIGN, and UNIALIGN are registered trademarks of OrthAlign, Inc.
Today, Swidget announced that its Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund a highly configurable smart home platform has met its funding goal in less than three days. Minimalist in design, Swidget replaces your traditional wall outlet, blending seamlessly into the home and eliminating the need for clunky hardware. The device functions like any other electrical outlet, but includes an added feature that allows homeowners to add a variety of smart home functionalities via easily replaceable inserts.

The outlet itself can be installed in minutes using your homes existing wiring. Once installed, it can be easily customized to fit the needs of any user. A cavity at the center of the outlet houses user-friendly smart inserts that can be swapped without any tools. Initial Swidget inserts will include WiFi, video cameras, motion and temperature sensors, Bluetooth speakers, carbon monoxide sensors, aromatherapy, nightlights, USB ports, and more.

The smart home space today is highly fragmented and filled with clunky hardware that create unsightly homes that look anything but smart. Consumers shouldnt have to choose between functionality and design, said Swidget co-founder Lowell Misener. We see an opportunity to innovate the space with a future-proof product that actually integrates into the home and stays out of the users way.

The beauty of Swidget is that it plans to open up access to developers and smart home manufacturers from day one via an optional developer kit, allowing partners to build on top of the platform while giving homeowners limitless possibilities on how they live and interact with their homes. Chris Adamson, Swidget co-founder adds, We want to create an entirely new category of hardware that democratizes the smart home industry; think 'Hardware-as-a-Platform.

Swidget was invented by two highly qualified engineers who work with NASA and the Canadian Space Agency to design and develop systems for space missions and the International Space Station, the first true smart home. With this experience, they have been able to engineer a device thats not only innovative but also safe and reliable.

Swidget expects to complete all regulatory testing and start shipping next June.

To fund the Kickstarter campaign, please visit: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/swidget/swidgettm-outlet-the-smart-home-device-for-all-pla

To access the media kit, please visit: http://bit.ly/swidgetkit

About Swidget

Ideated and designed by a team of experienced engineers and smart home aficionados, Swidget is a technology company built to be the first true smart home platform. Incorporating minimalist design principles that eliminate the need for clunky hardware, Swidget brings the home to life with a snap of an insert, creating a smart home experience thats fully customizable and future-proof for years to come.
Poet Palma Mingozzi speaks with the stars on new cable show.

Boulevard Books author Palma Mingozzi will interview major musicians on her new talk show on local cable access Staten Island, channel 34. Luminaries such as composer, trumpeter, film maker Volker Goetze; Bass clarinetist Oran Etkin; Drummer Mario Layne Fabrizio, and Cole Davis Upright Bassist will all be on hand to discuss their art and life.

Palma Mingozzi is the author of the recent volume of poetry, ALWAYS IN LOVE, a collection about love for lovers. With expansive sensuality, she brings us poetry about LOVE like you've never experienced--it's relations and every day meaning for our lives. This volume of larger than life Dual language English-Italian love poems will refresh the heart and enervate the soul of every person.

Boulevard Books was founded in 2010 by author and educator Avi Gvili in order to empower authors everywhere with control of their work. It is the only publishing company that offers 100% royalties.
Cengage, Elsevier, McGraw-Hill Education, and Pearson today announced an agreement with Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. to implement the industrys Anti-Counterfeit Best Practices. The best practices were developed to assist publishers and distributors in combating counterfeits of print textbooks, a growing problem facing the industry.

Sales of counterfeit books are harmful to students, educators, publishers and distributors. The rise of illegal counterfeit materials in the market results in reduced incentives for publishers to invest in new content and technology to improve learning. In addition, distribution of counterfeit materials infringes on the publishers copyright and trademark rights and ultimately limits royalties due to authors and designers.

Barnes & Noble Education and MBS Textbook Exchange, one of the largest textbooks distributors that was recently acquired by Barnes & Noble Education, joins Ingram and Chegg as distributors working proactively with publishers to reduce the distribution of counterfeit materials.

At Barnes & Noble Education, our mission is to serve the students and faculty at our campuses nationwide. We recognize the importance of protecting the intellectual rights of publishers and authors, and remain steadfast in our ongoing commitment to enforce these rights as we have in the past, now guided by the publishers Anti-Counterfeit Best Practices. We look forward to working with our publishing partners to ensure the higher education community has access to authentic, high-quality course materials, said Patrick Maloney, President, Barnes & Noble College.

As a standalone company and, now, as part of Barnes & Noble Education, MBS has always taken the fight against counterfeiting very seriously. We will continue to work with our publishing partners to get affordable, authentic textbooks into the hands of students, said David Henderson, President, MBS.

By closely collaborating with Barnes & Noble Education and other industry partners in our fight against counterfeit sales, we stand united in our commitment to reduce the negative impact of piracy in the market, said Michael Hansen, CEO, Cengage. We will continue to be aggressive in our efforts to protect our intellectual property rights and the rights of our authors so that we can continue to invest in innovation to improve teaching and learning.

"We are pleased to engage with Barnes & Noble College and like-minded leaders in the industry to demonstrate our solidarity against counterfeiting," said Suzanne BeDell, Managing Director, Education, Reference & Continuity, Elsevier. "Working together will help protect the IP of our authors and safeguard the public from piracy's negative effects."

The best practices outline steps to verify suppliers and avoid illegitimate sources. They require distributors to verify the sources of their textbooks, inspect inventory that has a high risk of being counterfeit and prevent it from infecting their inventory. And when a distributor finds counterfeit books, there is agreement to share information about the materials and the supplier with the publishers so they can focus their enforcement efforts on the culprits.

The Anti-Counterfeit Best Practices are available at http://www.stopcounterfeitbooks.com with the goal that all publishers and distributors adopt and implement them as well. The Educational Publishers Enforcement Group (EPEG) is committed to pursuing their legal rights against anyone who is involved or who facilitates the distribution and sale of counterfeit textbooks, as well as those who engage in digital piracy. EPEG is hopeful that the adoption of the Best Practices by Barnes & Noble Educations 1,400 physical and virtual bookstores will prove to have a dramatic effect on the number of counterfeits currently in the marketplace. EPEG is also currently in discussions with other distributors to sign on to the Best Practices as well.

McGraw-Hill is pleased to see Barnes & Noble Education join Chegg and Ingram in adopting these best practices. We hope other distributors will follow their lead, said McGraw-Hill Education CEO, David Levin. The trade in counterfeits is not a benign one  it is based on the theft of intellectual property, and reduces the incentive to create new and improved educational materials.

"By agreeing to these best practices, Barnes & Noble College is setting a strong example on the right way to combat counterfeit textbooks and piracy, said Kevin Capitani, president, North America at Pearson. "We will continue to advocate for the integrity of high quality courseware and are pleased to be working with distributors that share that commitment."

The Publishers worked cooperatively through EPEG to achieve agreement with Barnes & Noble Education on the Best Practices. EPEG was represented by Oppenheim + Zebrak, LLP, and Barnes & Noble Education was represented by Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, LLP.
We have often seen a discrepancy between what the GMB Dashboard tells you and what the actual page your customers are seeing shows

Local SEO Guide, a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Agency catering to local businesses has introduced Locadium, a new tool that notifies businesses of Google My Business profile changes.

Our clients regularly experienced Google My Business page data changes without any warning from Google, said Andrew Shotland, Local SEO Guide CEO. Changes range from minor annoyances, such as an auto dealers GMB image getting changed to a picture of a cat or a half-eaten slice of pizza, to potentially significant revenue disruptors, including publication of an incorrect phone number for hundreds of national chain store locations.

Shotland said Locadium was at first only available to Local SEO Guide clients, but the company opted to make it available to anyone after other SEO firms expressed interest in the tool.

A few weeks ago, we asked 54 SEOs on Twitter how many of them had experienced unapproved updates to their GMB pages in the past six months. A whopping 78 percent experienced this concern.

Locadiums differentiator is providing independent verification of GMB page data changes. Other services offering GMB change-tracking rely solely on Google My Business API to track alerts that Google already provides to businesses via emails and the GMB Dashboard, said Dan Leibson, Local SEO Guide vice president of search. Locadium is unique. While it also uses the GMB API to track what Google tells you is happening to your listing, we independently verify what is happening on the GMB page that appears live in Google. We have often seen a discrepancy between what the GMB Dashboard tells you and what the actual page your customers are seeing shows. Locadium was built to catch these problems that business owners often dont even know are occurring.

Locadium is offered as a subscription service for local businesses and agencies. Subscription packages start at $5/month for a single location with significant volume discounts for multiple locations. More information can be found at https://www.locadium.com/.

Why Did We Call It Locadium?

The services original name was Evil Twin, but we thought it would be easier for someone to pitch their boss on getting budget for a service that sounded more scientific. A few beers later, we came up with Locadium.

About Local SEO Guide

Local SEO Guide is an SEO agency founded in 2006 to help single and multi-location businesses succeed at search engine optimization. The company specializes in SEO audits & strategy for retailers, ecommerce, media and B2B sites. In 2016, Local SEO Guide published the largest ever statistical study of Googles Local SEO Ranking Factors. More information can be found at http://www.localseoguide.com/
MedEvolve Our goal is for all of our clients to reach their full revenue potential.

MedEvolve, Inc., a national provider of practice management (PM), revenue cycle management (RCM) and analytics software and services for specialty practices, announced today the companys bookings for second quarter fiscal year 2017 represents the highest in its near twenty-year history. With change perpetually in the air for healthcare, MedEvolve has more momentum than ever to help physician practices prepare by consistently delivering market leading solutions to manage their revenue cycle.

The key to MedEvolves success in Q2 is its loyal client base that believes in the companys solutions and are eager to invest in additional technology and services to help them run their practices more efficiently, and optimize their revenue cycles. Many clients are moving towards outsourcing RCM services completely, or on a project basis, which resulted in 85 percent of the companys revenue for Q2. MedEvolve Practice Analytics, included in 43 percent of the bookings, is another big driver because it gives practices the insight required to maximize their financial performance.

One longtime MedEvolve client, an orthopedic practice in California, had performed billing in-house since its inceptiononly outsourcing occasional RCM projects to MedEvolve. However, as the cost to collect on outstanding patient balances increases, practices are finding a need to shift their focus from back-end billing and collections to front-end patient engagement functions like checking eligibility, providing treatment estimates and collecting balances prior to or at the time of service. After considering these factors, the practice determined it was time to outsource their back-office revenue cycle functions to MedEvolve.

Current and prospective clients see our value because we are in the business of delivering technology and services that get them paid, said Matt Seefeld, SVP of Business Development. We let timely and accurate data drive all our decision making and that continues to pay off for our RCM clients. The decision may be to outsource a project to us to clean up aged account receivable, or in some cases, it means outsourcing their entire revenue cycle when the cost of doing so is less than keeping it in house.

MedEvolve has also been getting creative with product and service offerings. The company is always seeking complimentary solutions to help clients better manage their practices, either through in-house development or partnering with other vendors. Announced last year, MedEvolves partnership with InstaMed is proving to be very successful for clients as they now have a variety of payment options to offer their patients integrated directly into MedEvolve Practice Management. This enables practices to collect more of the money that is owed to them up front prior to the service to ensure risk of bad debt is minimized.

Another recent example is a new Virtual Business Consulting (VBC) service offering. Many practices are finding they dont have the time or resources to monitor their billing metrics and make the changes necessary to improve their revenue cycleor maybe they simply dont know how. Now with VBC, MedEvolves Business Analysts can do it for them using MedEvolve Practice Analytics to uncover issues and resolve them so they dont happen in the future.

Additionally, the company signed some new physician practice clients who understand the value of working with a vendor that provides interoperability with ancillary solutions, such as EHRs, rather than attempting to be an all-in-one solution. MedEvolve understands that specialty practices should be able to choose the best EHR for their clinicians, not be forced into a combined solution where the practice management software may fall short on critical automation and technology. The company focuses its development efforts on its flagship product, MedEvolve Practice Management, which is how clients get paid for the services they deliver.

MedEvolve has been making strategic organizational changes over the last year to drive efficiency as a technology-enabled, data-driven services organization. I am pleased with our progress, and thankful to our entire team for their hard work and dedication, stated Matt Rolfes, CFO of MedEvolve. We will continue with our commitment to providing solutions that help physician practices maintain independence and protect cash flow despite the harsh realities of declining reimbursements, rising administrative costs and the growing issue of patient debt. Our goal is for all of our clients to reach their full revenue potential.

Is your physician practice seeking revenue cycle management expertise? Contact MedEvolve to request a consultation: call (800) 964-5129, email info(at)medevolve(dot)com, or visit our website to learn more.

About MedEvolve

MedEvolve enables specialty practices to work faster and more accurately through Practice Management (PM) and Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) software and services that result in quicker payment processes and improved patient and staff experiences. Additionally, with MedEvolve Practice Analytics, specialty practices gain a new level of insight that helps them identify problem areas and resolve issues quickly to improve financial, operational and clinical performance. Our unique Practice DNA consultative approach ensures our solutions fit with our clients existing processes so they begin to see positive results from day one. Visit http://www.medevolve.com to learn more.
Cliff is a tremendous asset protection leader, and is widely recognized by his industry peers as an expert and as a mentor.

New Albany, Indiana July 31, 2017  FireKing Security Group announced today the hiring of Cliff Stepp as Senior Advisor- Product Innovation and Customer Solutions. Cliff will report to the FireKing Product and Engineering Group and will facilitate the development of customized hardware and software solutions for the companys extensive retail customer base. Cliff is a seasoned Loss Prevention executive with over 30 years industry experience. His strategic knowledge of industry developments, combined with hands-on experience as a security expert will provide FireKing with a tremendous resource as it continues to develop industry leading security and cash management solutions.

I am excited to join FireKing and help the company tailor new and innovative solutions for the retail and restaurant industries, said Mr. Stepp. I have collaborated with the FireKing team for many years and have admired their commitment to the asset protection industry. They have differentiated themselves with truly unique hardware and software solutions. I believe that I can use my industry experience to help design a new generation of solutions for their customers.

Cliff Stepp comes to FireKing after recently retiring from a 30 year career at Yum! Brands in Louisville, Kentucky. His last position at Yum! was Director of Asset Protection. In addition to experience with his previous employer, Cliff has been a leader in the asset protection/loss prevention industry and has chaired, presided, or been a senior officer for numerous industry and law enforcement groups. Prior to his career at Yum!, Cliff spent 10 years as a law enforcement officer.

Cliff is a tremendous asset protection leader, and is widely recognized by his industry peers as an expert and as a mentor, said Mark Essig, CEO of FireKing. We are honored to have Cliff join our team. Our continued efforts to design the best solutions in the industry begins with listening to our customers. Cliffs experience in the field, and the respect he has within the industry, will help us continue to innovate and provide specific solutions for all of our customers needs.

ABOUT FIREKING SECURITY GROUP:

FKI Security Group manufactures a broad array of security products with best-in-class service and support for businesses. They operate in over 85 countries around the world, delivering products and services focused solely on protecting customers' assets, people, and vital information. FKI Security Group's brands FireKing fireproof filing cabinets, along with Summit, Ascent and NKL cash-management solutions. Additional information about FireKing is available at http://www.fireking.com.
Acclaimed storyteller Robert Gandt's newest work, Angels in the Sky (http://www.gandt.com/) has already garnered immense praise from fellow authors.

Steven Pressfield, New York Times bestselling author of Gates of Fire, wrote, Angels in the Sky reads like a WWII thriller, only better because every word is true.

New York Times bestselling author of Flight of the Intruder, Stephen Coonts says, "Books like Angels in the Sky come along once in a generation. You must read it.

Adam Makos, New York Times bestselling author of A Higher Call, added, Angels in the Sky does justice to an epic, unsung story.

Gandt is the award-winning author of numerous books on military subjects, including The Twilight Warriors (Random House, 2010) and Bogeys and Bandits (Viking, 1997), which he adapted for a CBS television series. His new book tells the true story of how a band of volunteer airmen saved the new state of Israel from a second Holocaust.

"After sixteen books, says Gandt, "I have learned to sense the ingredients of a great story. When I first heard the saga of the volunteer airmen who fought for Israel, I knew Id found such a tale. Here was one of the greatest untold war stories of the last century."

Gandt says while researching the book he asked his sources, "Why did 150 young airmenAmericans, Brits, South Africans, Canadians, all WWII veterans, risk everythingcareers, citizenship, their very livesto go fight in Israel. They all gave me the same answer: It was a righteous cause."

Gandt's writing career began in the mid-1970's while he was based in Hong Kong as a Pan Am pilot. His subsequent works were derived from his own experience and connections to military and aviation figures. Angels in the Sky will be released on October 3rd and available on http://www.amazon.com and everywhere books are sold.

To learn more about Robert Gandt and his works, visit his website: http://www.gandt.com
Prime and subprime contractors must take the NIST 800-171 requirements very seriously. With the deadline looming, companies that are not underway with a compliance program face the prospect of losing their defense contracts.

OCD Tech, the IT Audit & Security Division of OConnor & Drew, P.C. is pleased to announce that it has been listed as a top vendor for DFARS NIST Special Publication 800-171 compliance by the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA).

OCD Tech has been assisting Department of Defense prime and subprime contractors grapple with the requirements in DFARS clauses 252.204-7008, 252.204-7009, and 252.204-7012 since the regulations were first updated. OCD Tech provides a wide variety of services to meet the DFARS clauses, including the development of System Security Plans (SSPs) and Plans of Action & Milestones (PoA&Ms) which are required and expected as part of the compliance process. Some clients, who may not have sufficient resources on staff, often ask OCD Tech to manage the entire compliance process end-to-end. The 110 controls in NIST SP800-171 revision 1 are wide-ranging and can present a significant challenge for organizations that may not have the manpower to assign to achieve compliance.

Michael Hammond, Principal of OCD Tech said, Prime and subprime contractors must take these rules very seriously. With the deadline looming, companies that are not underway with a compliance program face the prospect of losing their defense contracts. The security requirements in Special Publication 800-171 revision 1 are meant to be flexible but are also intended to be implemented in full. Companies that fall short must notify their primes or the Department of Defense. This is not to be taken lightly.

Struggling prime or subprime DoD contractors should contact OCD Tech today in order to ensure compliance with the upcoming December 31, 2017 deadline.

For further information, contact:

Nick DeLena, Senior Manager

OCD Tech, A Division of OConnor & Drew, P.C.

Phone: (844) OCD-TECH
Providing students with affordable options for education is a moral imperative for all of us. Were pleased to launch this program with indiCo to provide students with the materials necessary to be more successful. -Macmillan Learning CEO, Ken Michaels

Macmillan Learning, a premier educational content and solutions company, and indiCo, a collaborative of independent campus stores, today announced a new consignment rental partnership to provide more college students with lower-cost course materials. Beginning with the fall term, the new partnership will allow independent campus stores to offer their students the cost-saving option of renting select Macmillan Learning textbooks and digital tools. Students will benefit from some of the lowest rental prices in the market, reaching savings of up to 60% of the cost of purchasing a new textbook.

This new program exemplifies Macmillan Learnings commitment to increase the inclusiveness and affordability of higher educational materials. Providing students with affordable options for education is a moral imperative for all of us, said Macmillan Learning CEO Ken Michaels. Our mission is to improve lives through learning. To do that, we need to put students in the best possible position to maximize their learning with our resources, including the content and digital tools that will drive their success. Were pleased to launch this program with indiCo to provide students with the materials necessary to be more successful.

In addition to the cost savings, this rental program gives students the option to retain access to the content after the rental period. Students can upgrade and continue to access the content via ebook or loose-leaf format for substantially less than the cost retaining ownership under most existing rental programs, and significantly less than the cost of a printed textbook, often spending 80% less than the price of purchasing a new book.

A subsidiary of the National Association of College Stores, indiCo is a collaborative of campus stores committed to supporting affordability, student success and the academic missions of higher education institutions. This new partnership with Macmillan is one of many indiCo initiatives that help independent campus stores reduce the cost of course materials for students. said Bob Walton, NACS chief executive officer. Our research shows that students like to rent textbooks, because it saves them money. This program allows them to do that, and gives them more options without sacrificing the convenience and purchasing assistance provided by the campus store.

We have done a complete internal review and overhaul to ensure all of our processes and practices enable us to keep our customer costs down, said Mr. Michaels. We recently announced several new affordability programs including new digital tools, a student eCommerce option, and partnerships that are in response to the needs of students and educators. This partnership will accelerate our collective efforts to drive affordability and inclusiveness in higher education.

To learn more about Macmillan Learnings affordable options, visit http://www.macmillanlearning.com/Catalog/page/affordable-solutions. To learn more about indiCo, visit goindico.com.

About Macmillan Learning:

Macmillan Learning improves lives through learning. Our legacy of excellence in education continues to inform our approach to developing world-class content with pioneering, interactive tools. Through deep partnership with the worlds best researchers, educators, administrators, and developers, we facilitate teaching and learning opportunities that spark student engagement and improve outcomes. We provide educators with tailored solutions designed to inspire curiosity and measure progress. Our commitment to teaching and discovery upholds our mission to improve lives through learning. To learn more, please visit http://www.macmillanlearning.com or see us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN or join our Macmillan Community.

About indiCo:

indiCo is a collaborative business model for operating campus stores that lowers the cost of higher education and improves student success. We offer campus administrators and store directors an alternative to leasing that supports self-operating their campus bookstores. indiCo combines the efficiency, buying power, and guidance promised by corporate lease operators with the flexibility and brand autonomy of an institutionally operated university store. Backed by its parent company, the National Association of College Stores (NACS), indiCo is a trusted partner with deep knowledge of campus stores and an established network of the industrys leading vendors.

About The National Association of College Stores:

The National Association of College Stores (NACS), headquartered in Oberlin, Ohio, is the professional trade association of the $10 billion campus store industry. NACS provides education and other resources that help its member stores support student success, the campus experience, and the academic missions of higher education institutions. The association represents all campus stores, which include nearly 4,000 campuses in the U.S. and Canada, and approximately 1,000 industry-related companies that supply course materials and other merchandise and services to campus stores.
Trade Credit Insurance - Credit Eureka Accounts Receivable Puts are an innovative product offered by banks and private equity firms to mitigate the financial risks in key business relationships.

Credit Eureka, a leading provider of trade credit insurance at https://www.crediteureka.com/, is proud to announce a new post on the topic of "Accounts Receivable Puts" or "AR Puts." With recent bankruptcies and fears of bankruptcies in the retail sector, there is growing anxiety about customer insolvency risks to suppliers in 2017/2018.

"Accounts Receivable Puts are an innovative product offered by banks and private equity firms to mitigate the financial risks in key business relationships," explained Dawson Beattie, President and Founder. "Recent turmoil in the retail sector has heightened awareness of this problem, but realistically AR Puts can be relevant to many types of business relationships, including longer term contracts in addition to normal course of business billing relationships between buyers and sellers."

To read the informative post on AR Puts, visit https://www.crediteureka.com/demand-rises-ar-puts-gymborees-bankruptcy/. To learn more about AR Puts, visit https://www.crediteureka.com/what-we-do/accounts-receivable-puts/.

Persons interested in more detailed information are urged to reach out to Credit Eureka, directly, as no two situations are the same. The company can work with an interested client to first educate them on the various options and then, if desired, to create a competitive quote for relevant insurance products. Journalists and bloggers writing articles on the topic are, of course, urged to reach out to Credit Eureka for interview opportunities.

The Amazon Effect, AR Puts, and the Retail Sector as an Example

Jeff Bezos is now the wealthiest man on the planet, according to Forbes magazine, and the "Amazon Effect" is getting increased press attention lately, as the growth of online sales continues to pressure traditional retailers. With bankruptcies growing in the retail sector, Credit Eureka is advising its Clients and other suppliers with seasonal sales and an interest in AR put protection to engage markets. Pricing is beginning to trend up. AR Put pricing has increased for credit protection on sales to certain retailers in lieu of the uptick in filings, prices often increase between now and October due to seasonal volumes and last minute purchases for protection on Q4 sales.

About Credit Eureka

Credit Eureka (https://www.crediteureka.com/) is a leading provider of trade credit insurance, which helps businesses increase their revenue, expand availability of financing, and minimize the risk of default on their commercial sales globally. Regularly purchased by commercial finance companies and banks, Credit Eureka helps manufacturers and services companies directly participate in this market to build programs for themselves. Nonpayment of trade-related debts and customer insolvency are other industry terms for this exposure. Additional common terms for its products are business credit insurance, accounts receivable credit insurance or commercial credit insurance. In addition to insurance markets, the company also facilitates the Accounts Receivable Puts (AR Puts)-- a debt indexed alternative to traditional credit insurance -- as well as helps with export credit insurance and political risk insurance. Businesses interested in these types of insurance, bank, and private equity products should reach out to Credit Eureka for more information or obtain a quote for the cost available for a portfolio or individual customer.

Tel. (888) 747-9541
Bureau of Automotive Repair Attorneys Receiving a STAR invalidation letter from California's Bureau of Automotive Repair can be intimidating.

Automotive Defense Specialists, a California law firm defending auto repair shops and technicians against the Bureau of Automotive Repair, is proud to announce a new informative resource for STAR Invalidations. The Bureau of Automotive Repairs STAR program has many controversial elements, among them costly invalidation actions against the licenses of station owners and SMOG technicians.

Receiving a STAR invalidation letter from California's Bureau of Automotive Repair can be intimidating, and shop owners may wonder if its worth contesting the issue, explained attorney William Ferreira of Automotive Defense Specialists. Our new resource page on Bureau of Automotive Repair STAR invalidations can help shop owners better understand the process for appeal, but they should consider contacting a knowledgeable attorney vs. attempting the appeal process on their own.

Interested persons can view the newly updated resource page on STAR Program invalidations at http://automotivedefense.com/star-program/. Those particularly facing an invalidation can view the resource article at http://automotivedefense.com/about/services/bureau-of-automotive-repair-star-invalidation-cases/. With recent efforts by the Bureau of Automotive Repair to tighten up regulatory enforcements of the Bureau of Automotive Repair STAR program, the law firm has seen an uptick in inquiries from concerned SMOG station owners and technicians.

SMOG Check and STAR Program Station Owners Pass the Test: Bureau of Automotive Repair STAR Invalidation Appeals

SMOG check stations, auto technicians, and participants in the STAR program may have spent many hours completing testing to become STAR certified. Once the word gets out to the public, a STAR station may have a full schedule as many consumers are required to SMOG their cars at a STAR station. There can be little time to focus on much else. If the Bureau of Automotive Repair sends a STAR invalidation letter, however, it can halt business immediately. Auto shop owners could have questions about what to do next. If the Follow Up Pass Rate (FPR), for example, is out of "normal ranges," this in and of itself may spell trouble for a station's license. Seeking professional advice to quickly begin a STAR invalidation appeal may become a top priority.

For these reasons, Automotive Defense Specialists, expert attorneys for actions concerning the Bureau of Automotive Repair STAR program, has announced a new resource page. SMOG station and auto shop owners in possession of an invalidation letter can find valuable information about the appeal process. Working with a skilled attorney, technicians and shop owners can review the STAR appeal options and take steps to begin the appeals process quickly.

About Automotive Defense Specialists

Automotive Repair Specialists is a top law firm representing auto repair facilities, SMOG check stations, and technicians in every facet of their legal needs including accusations from the Bureau of Auto Repair, STAR license invalidations and STAR invalidation appeals. The company offers free phone consultations to auto shops, mechanics, technicians and others who are facing disciplinary actions from the California Bureau of Automotive Repair.

Web. http://automotivedefense.com/

Tel. (415) 392-2886
We think theres a lot to be said for going by the old belief that a mans home is his castle.

July 31, 2017. Fort Lauderdale, FL.

Express Glass, a professional glass repair service for Fort Lauderdale offering sliding glass door repair, is proud to announce a new blog post on a timely topic for the summer, namely the downside of DIY or do-it-yourself repairs to glass windows and doors. Hosting parties at home has become a popular pastime in Florida.

We think theres a lot to be said for going by the old belief that a mans home is his castle, commented Yaniet Santos, general manager of Express Glass. People who take pride in their home want to care for it properly. That can mean deciding if a job requires do-it-yourself ingenuity or calling an expert. In the case of sliding glass door repair, however, we want to share the value of calling a professional. For this reason, we're announcing this tongue-in-check post on the perils of DIY.

To review the new blog about for Fort Lauderdale sliding glass door repair issues please visit http://www.expressglassfl.com/blog/sliding-glass-door-repair/fort-lauderdale-castle-not-sliding-glass-door-needs-repair/. Fort Lauderdale residents can become confused between repairing a sliding glass door alone or contacting an expert. A damaged patio door may require the skills and knowledge of a professional to get the job done right the first time. To learn more about Fort Lauderdale glass repair services, visit http://www.expressglassfl.com/fort-lauderdale-glass-window-repair/.

Fort Lauderdale Sliding Glass Door Repair Deserves the Royal Treatment

Here is the background to this fun, tongue-in-cheek post to the blog. Hosting friends and family at the home has become a trend, even in states such as Florida. A house can seem like a castle considering the accessible comforts of modern society. Specific magazines are dedicated to sharing tips and ideas for hosting a backyard party with flair. One chore to prepare for the perfect backyard barbecue may be to evaluate the space, including patio doors. Searching for possible cracked glass or difficult to slide patio doors can be important. If sliding glass door repair is on the task list, a do-it-yourself job may not be the best approach for Fort Lauderdale residents. To avoid jammed patio doors during a party, putting aside a personal toolbox and contacting an expert could help.

For this reason, Express Glass, Fort Lauderdale's favorite sliding glass door repair professionals, have announced a new blog post. Florida homeowners may take pride in maintaining a home and entertaining guests. Well-manicured landscaping may be personally managed by a homeowner sporting a green thumb. Certain home repair work could also be handled with a do-it-yourself attitude. When a patio door is in need of repair, it could be time to consider contacting an expert. Fort Lauderdale sliding glass door repair can require the skills of a professional with the knowledge and tools to get the job done right the first time. A busted or stuck patio door during a party could ruin the fun of a celebration at home. Fort Lauderdale sliding glass door repair experts may help hosts avoid the scourge of embarrassment. Glass door repair professionals can offer beautifully gliding patio doors fit for a king and queen.

About Express Glass Repair and Board Up

Express Glass and Board Up Service Inc. is a family owned and operated glass repair business with more than 20 years of experience. Professional technicians and the large variety of inventory make Express Glass the top sliding glass door repair service. If customers are looking for Fort Lauderdale sliding glass door repair as well as glass repair in Delray Beach or West Palm Beach glass repair, please reach out to the company for a free estimate. If customers need a 24/7 Sliding Glass Door repair service in Ft. Lauderdale or Boca Raton or Miramar, technicians are standing by. The company specializes in sliding glass door repair and window glass repair; technicians will handle any glass replacement situation efficiently. Home or business glass repair is the company's main priority.

Express Glass Repair and Board up

http://www.expressglassfl.com/
MC Assembly is helping CareerSource Brevard (CSB) and the City of Palm Bay expand their Juniors to Jobs (J2J) high school work readiness program internship options.

MC Assembly, a leading electronic manufacturing services provider, is helping CareerSource Brevard (CSB) and the City of Palm Bay expand their Juniors to Jobs (J2J) high school work readiness program internship options. This year, the program has opened up to seniors and recent graduates allowing for older students to participate in a wider range of internships that require a student to be 18 or older.

For the first time, MC Assembly is hosting five interns from the J2J program working in the departments of human resources, finance, engineering and production.

This program allows the students to get real-world work experience, said Brian Kingston, MC Assemblys Human Resources Director. We hope the interns decide to enter a career in manufacturing but if not, at least we are able to show them what we do and the impact manufacturing has on the world today.

We are glad to see the City of Palm Bay open up the age limit this year so that MC Assembly could come on board as an official worksite, said Jana Bauer, Program Planning Officer for CareerSource Brevard who runs the J2J program.

Founded in 2014, the J2J program provides paid internship opportunities and career guidance to local high school students looking to jump start their careers. Kingston has participated in the program from the beginning as an HR expert panelist passing along tips and best practices in resume writing, interview techniques and overall business acumen. This year Kingston interviewed and selected the MC Assembly intern picks.

Communication during the interview process is very important, Kingston said. Each intern we selected communicated very well. They did not have typical work experience but were able to articulate what they have done in high school and how it would apply to the internship.

Meet the Interns

Sydney Smith is a senior at Palm Bay Magnet High School interning in MC Assemblys human resources department. Her eventual career goal, to be an occupational therapist.

I signed up for the J2J program because I have no work experience and I saw this as a way to get introduced into the work force, Smith said. Since its only a six-week program, I figured it would give me a nice experience and wouldnt interfere with school.

Since starting her internship, Smith has worked in many areas of human resources learning filing, handling phone calls, working on the reception desk, creating power point presentations and assisting with open enrollment.

My favorite part is working the reception desk because you get to interact with a lot of people, Smith said. So far its been a fun internship, I really look forward to coming here.

Smith said the experience has really developed her people skills which will benefit her in the future.

I found that working here has helped me become more outgoing, Smith said. So far, this experience has taught me proper business phone etiquette, how to type and use excel, and I feel those are skills that you need almost any place that you go.

Duwaun Daley is a recent graduate of Heritage High School, focused on a career in mechanical or architectural engineering.

Im a math type of guy, Daley said. I took a couple of engineering courses and I grew an interest. I like to create, build, disassemble and reassemble things.

Daley applied to the J2J program specifically interested in manufacturing and picked MC Assembly for work experience.

I thought it was a good opportunity to learn about the manufacturing and engineering field and give me insight into what I want to do as a career, Daily said. I hope to gain practical technical experience and learn more about technology they work with.

Since starting, Daley has learned how to test circuit boards, do time studies and has shadowed several workers. Hes enjoying the opportunity to learn the industry up close.

Im meeting new people and learning a lot about testing, assembly, soldering, and the whole overall process, he said. Whats really interesting is how big the company is and how many people work on individual things and all the machines here that do specific things.

The internship also lets students sample corporate workplace life as well.

I like the culture of this company, Daley said. The people have been very friendly and easy going. I like how they treat me with respect as a young individual trying to learn about the company and manufacturing industry. I could see myself working here one day; I like the culture and environment.

The J2J Program

Each year, the J2J program accepts around 20-30 applicants. Participating high schools include Bayside High, Palm Bay High and Heritage High. Organizers report the program is growing in popularity and application rates have increased each year.

Students today face challenges on trying to even get their foot in the door, Bauer said. This program is important because it gives them leverage against other entry-level jobseekers by providing a five-week, paid, hands-on internship that can be listed on their resume as true work experience.

Several local businesses have participated in the program in industries ranging from

information technology, manufacturing, healthcare facility (assisted living), engineering firms to law firms.

This is an amazing experience for students, and more important than they realize in the beginning, Bauer said. Our organization has a very fluid relationship with employers and communicates with them about the needs of their organizations on a daily basis. Many employers want to hire candidates that bring experience to the table.

The overall goal of the program is to help high school students by offering them practical guidance in job hunting and interview skills and exposing them to real life working conditions. The students receive Foundations Training and a five-week paid internship opportunity.

It is also important because it allows the student to try out a field of interest, Bauer said. Five weeks is a good amount of time to become exposed to an organization, learn the culture and dynamics, learn the work and determine if its worth pursuing further or not.

Manufacturing for the Future

Manufacturing is often publicly perceived through a time warped lens as it appeared decades ago. Kingston says what he likes most about the internship aspect of the program is the opportunity to show student interns what modern electronic manufacturing is and how they could make it a career.

At orientation, the students could not stop asking questions about MC Assembly, Kingston said. Once we hit the production floor their eyes opened wide and you could tell they were very impressed with the facility, process and products we make. Several times throughout the tour the students described how neat the entire manufacturing process is and how cool it is assembling the printed circuit boards. The students had no idea this type of work existed and were very intrigued and wanted to learn more.

After spending time on the floor and seeing the process up close, the interns indeed report gaining a deeper appreciation for manufacturing as an industry.

Manufacturing is actually much more involved than I thought, Smith said. I just thought you throw stuff together on an assembly line, but it turns out theres a lot more to the process to it than that.

My perspective really changed a lot because I thought manufacturing was just a few steps, but now I see theres a whole complex process and a lot more steps to that and you need to be very precise, Daley said. It takes a while to get the job done right.

Kingston believes opportunities like this also help manufacturing companies build a talent pipeline for the manufacturing workers of tomorrow.

The manufacturing workforce is aging and unless we begin to train our next generation of employees our industry as a whole is going to suffer, he said.

About MC Assembly

MC Assembly (http://www.mcati.com), based in Melbourne, Fla., with additional operations in Billerica, Mass., and Zacatecas, Mexico, is a national leader in the contract manufacturing arena with annual revenues of approximately $200 million. It provides turnkey solutions to original equipment manufacturers and focuses on assembly of medium volume, medium mix printed circuit boards assemblies (PCBAs) and box builds. MC Assembly's capabilities include surface mount and pin-through-hole interconnection technologies, PCB and box build, DFM, DFT, DFA engineering, in-circuit, functional and environmental testing, and full box-build direct order fulfillment.

About CareerSource Brevard

CareerSource Brevard administers The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and Welfare Transition programs in Brevard County as well as grants and other employment support activities. CareerSource Brevard, formerly Brevard Workforce, is a non-profit, regional public/private partnership under CareerSource Florida. Workforce Boards create local workforce development systems through one-stop career centers which combine multiple federal, state, and local program funds, providing comprehensive services, labor market information and access to resources for businesses and career seekers. Visit http://www.careersourcebrevard.com or call (321) 504-7600 for more information about our services and resources. For more information on the Juniors to Jobs Program contact Jana Bauer, Program Planning Officer.
His experiences living in Alaska in his youth, his aviation career and his encounter with God in a life or death crisis while flying inspired Mark D. Rose to write Last of the Long Hunters: Exploits of a Young Arctic Pilot (published by WestBow Press). This is part history book, an adventure story and survival manual.

The book tells the story of Rose as a young pilot who flew the Alaskan Arctic while it was still a frontier. The events recorded represent a tribute to those who blazed the Alaskan wilderness trails by air in those early days, contributing to the development of the state in innumerable ways. This account occurred prior to the dispersal of Alaska lands into parks and native land withdrawals in the 1970s; however, Rose added an overview of the main events regarding aviation history in general, looking back as far as Vitus Bering, which he feels could not be left out of the general subject of long hunters.

I think there is a lot of misunderstanding about not only the existence of God, but His character, Rose says. In the book, I relate that in fact God sees our life, and further, is a great guy. He reached out to me when I humbled myself and first reached out to Him in my crisis need. After He spoke to me, I put together that He had miraculously acted to save my life many times prior. Give God a chance, read the Bible through, find the Creator and His Son. Thats the final message of the book.

Rose believes that anyone interested in Alaska, adventure, wilderness and flying will love the book. He encourages every pilot to own a copy because he includes many safety tips embedded in the story and an appendix covering mountain flying safe practices that will save lives. Readers may also check his website at http://www.longhunters.org

Last of the Long Hunters: Exploits of a Young Arctic Pilot

By Mark D. Rose

Hardcover | 5.5 x 8.5in | 178 pages | ISBN 9781512785661

Softcover | 5.5 x 8.5in | 178 pages | ISBN 9781512785654

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the Author

Mark D. Rose worked professionally in Alaska aviation for many years. As both a pilot and A&P technician, he worked as a manager of helicopter operations building the 28 mountain communication sites for the Alaska pipeline as well as outfitting Arctic hunting expeditions. His experiences in Alaska convinced him that the crust of the Earth had gone through a revolution which aligns fully with the Biblical account of Noahs flood, motivating him to author the popular title The Noah Code.

WestBow Press is a strategic supported self-publishing alliance between HarperCollins Christian Publishing and Author Solutions, LLC  the world leader in supported self-publishing. Titles published through WestBow Press are evaluated for sales potential and considered for publication through Thomas Nelson and Zondervan. For more information, visit westbowpress.com or call (866)-928-1240. For WestBow Press news, click Like at facebook.com/WestBowPress and follow @westbowpress on Twitter.
GetSafe Home Security (https://GetSafe.com), a leading provider of DIY home security and home automation products, has announced the winners of its 2017 private scholarship program. Two students whose lives have been touched by crime were awarded scholarships based on their essays.

The 1st Place $2,000 scholarship was awarded to Julissa Cocco, who will be attending Nassau Community College. Julissa is working to become a defense lawyer and earn her degree at Columbia University as her late father did.

The 2nd Place $1,000 scholarship was awarded to Michelle Harrison, who is attending Iowa Lakes Community College, where she is studying agriculture education.

The winners were chosen from more than 1,000 entries into the GetSafe Home Security scholarship essay contest. Students were asked to submit essays describing a crime that affected them or someone close to them, and how this event affected their life and future plans.

We read a lot of deeply moving essays from young people, says Alan Wu, Director of Sales and Marketing for GetSafe Home Security. It was hard to choose a winner, but ultimately we chose two very deserving students.

The essay contest was open to any graduating high school senior or college student enrolled in an undergraduate program for the 2017-2018 school year.

Wu says that his company is committed to helping young people.

We want to help people live better and more secure lives, says Wu. Helping young people get an education is part of that.

To learn more about GetSafe Home Securitys scholarship program, visit https://getsafe.com/scholarship/

About GetSafe Home Security

Founded by industry veterans with over 30 years of combined experience, GetSafe offers a fresh take on home security. The company offers DIY security systems and home automation products that fit todays lifestyles. Designed for a mobile-friendly world, the system is controlled through a smartphone. GetSafe is simple to install, and easy to customize, which means customers can take it with them when they move, and add to the system as their home grows.

Learn more by visiting https://GetSafe.com or by calling (888) 799-6255.
Safe Harbor - San Francisco CPA Firm As specialists in San Francisco with respect to finance, accounting, and tax issues, we know how a little planning can help mitigate the high cost of college.

Safe Harbor LLP, considered one of the best CPA firms in San Francisco, is proud to announce its August, 2017, newsletter focused on tax and accounting issues. With school season just around the corner, the newsletter focuses on financial advice for San Francisco residents who may be confronting rising educational costs.

As specialists in San Francisco with respect to finance, accounting, and tax issues, we know how a little planning can help mitigate the high cost of college, explained Chun Wong, Managing Partner at Safe Harbor LLP. Accordingly, this month's newsletter focuses on financial planning strategies for San Franciscans seeking to reduce college costs.

To read the newsletter, visit http://www.safeharborcpa.com/san-francisco-tax-tips-august/. To learn more about the San Francisco accounting firm, visit http://www.safeharborcpa.com/best-accounting-firm/.

The Importance of a Financial Planning for San Francisco Residents

As one of the most expensive cities in the world, San Francisco and the entire San Francisco Bay Area area also home to many fantastic universities. The University of San Francisco, for example, calls the City by the Bay, home, as does Cal State San Francisco and, across the Bay, the University of California at Berkeley. That said, the price of college is ever-rising, and San Francisco residents may need to consult with a financial and tax advisor to minimize taxes and structure their income in such a way as to maximize financial aid. For these reasons, the August newsletter by San Francisco CPA Firm, Safe Harbor LLP, focuses on these issues. In addition, the firm is happy to provide consulting and tax advisory services to high income San Francisco residents, as well as those who have business interests.

About Safe Harbor LLP  a Professional CPA Firm in San Francisco

Safe Harbor LLP is a CPA firm that specializes in accounting and tax services for individuals and businesses throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and greater California. Safe Harbor CPAs helps both individuals and businesses with tax preparation, IRS audit defense, and audited financial statements. The firm prides itself on friendly yet professional service and utilizes state-of-the-art Internet technology to provide quality customer service.

Safe Harbor CPA

http://www.safeharborcpa.com

Tel. 415.742.4249
International Travel Security & Executive Safety The ubiquity of the mobile phone has created an enormous positive opportunity for travelers of all types, from tourists to VIPs to employees to other business travelers.

IMG GlobalSecur, a leading international corporate security consulting firm at http://www.theimg.com/, is proud to announce that its FoneTrac app is now available to individual licensees at a discounted rate of $15 / month. Terms and conditions may change, so interested parties are urged to visit the FoneTrac website at https://www.fonetrac-go.com/ to learn more about the travel safety app.

"The ubiquity of the mobile phone has created an enormous positive opportunity for travelers of all types, from tourists to VIPs to employees to other business travelers," explained Chris Hagon, CEO of IMG GlobalSecur. "We were pleased to announce the availability of FoneTrac to individuals at a discounted rate, since we have received numerous requests to do so. Many individuals learn of FoneTrac as part of a corporate travel security program, or perhaps via a study abroad program, and then wish to continue to use it for international travel."

To learn more, or to sign up for an individual plan, visit https://www.fonetrac-go.com/subscribe/. On the website one can also learn more about FoneTrac's travel security features and options, such as:



Robust technology that provides precise position locating.

Straightforward and uncomplicated primary features  Check-In and Panic Alert buttons

Notifications to selected user-selected contacts to notify safety status (in addition to IMGs emergency control center).

Notifications to users in the event of location enhanced risk at their destination.

Two-way text message interaction.

Access to built-in GlobalSecur contact numbers for security advice.

Access to trusted, Worldwide security and (optional) medical support in the event of an emergency.

Continuous location monitoring in the event of a panic alert to provide accurate updated locations.

FoneTrac, now in 5th revision works on all major smartphone and tablet platforms

About the Incident Management Group (IMG)

Incident Management Group is a leading international security consulting firm. Corporate or business organizations concerned about their need for robust travel security solutions can reach out to the IMG Group for assistance. The companys experts provide services such as executive, employee, VIP, and expatriate travel security, workplace safety, duty of care management, risk and threat assessments, workplace violence prevention, crisis management planning, and more.

Web. http://www.theimg.com

Tel. (877) 887-9914
A Plant Pathologist at Crop Research Institute, Atta Kwesi Aidoo, who spoke to Kumasi-based Luv FM said the disease has the tendency of spreading very fast.

According to him, this disease is a major threat to mango plantations in Ghana.

READ ALSO: Fisheries Ministry burn illegal fishing nets

A Mycologist at Crop Research Institute, Zippora Appiah-Kubi, also added that the disease has been in the country for the past 7 years.

In Ghana, it was first detected in Tamale in 2010. Since then, the disease has been spreading southwards.

The disease kept moving southward and reached Dodowa and Somanya in the Eastern region in 2015.

READ ALSO: The sad story behind the collapse of fruit juice factories in Ghana

Farmers should check for the symptoms of the disease in other mango growing areas in the southern sector and report same to the CSIR-CRI, Appiah-Kubi cautioned.

The outbreak this year started in Kintampo in the Brong Ahafo region.

A team of Scientists led by Godfried Ohene-Mensah of the Plant Health Division of CSIR-CRI took 32 mango farmers through the management practice for effective BBS control in the region since the outbreak.

The CSIR-CRI recommended that the farmers use disease-free seedlings available at the facility in order to prevent the spread of the disease.
In 2016, the Nigerian government had accused the telecom group of illegally repatriating $14 billion out of the country. An accusation the telecom denied.

MTN group was accused of failing to get necessary certificates declaring it had an investment in foreign currency in the country thereby making repatriation of returns on such investment , illegal.

According to Nigerias upper legislative, the report of the investigation failed to capture various infractions by all stakeholders.

In a related event, MTN group was also fined $8.5 million by the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA) for a non-compliance regulatory procedure. MTN Rwanda was stated to have breached procedure in its involvement with MTN IT shared Services Hub in Uganda.

The CEO of MTN Rwanda, Bart Hofker confirmed this development and stated that they were currently in negotiation with Rwandan officials on the issue.

We have taken the necessary steps to address the regulators non-compliance concerns of the year 2014. We are currently in discussions with the regulator to agree on the terms of settling the fine, Bart said.
But now a different type of company is moving into their vacated spaces: grocery stores.

"Food retail is one thing helping struggling malls survive," June Williamson, an architecture professor at the City College of New York who cowrote "Retrofitting Suburbia," told Business Insider.

Kroger, the largest US grocer, with nearly 4,000 locations, recently purchased a former Macy's at Kingsdale Shopping Center in Upper Arlington, Ohio, for $10.5 million, not long after the department store announced it would close the 45-year-old location. 365 by Whole Foods (a smaller, more economical version of the well-known chain) will open at College Mall in Bloomington, Indiana, in late 2017, according to Indiana Public Media.

And Wegmans Food Markets is moving into a former J.C. Penney at the Natick Mall in Massachusetts. The shop is set to open in 2018. The grocer decided to move into the mall because the vacant department store has a lot of space and ample parking, Wegmans spokeswoman Valerie Fox told Business Insider. The mall's location, near numerous housing developments, is also convenient for shoppers.

Wegmans already operates a location in Montgomery Mall in Pennsylvania, and another at Hunt Valley mall in Baltimore County, Maryland (which was redeveloped into an outdoor shopping center in 2000). "Because our business model is predicated on high volume, we need a lot of customers to shop in our stores," Fox said of the decision to move into Natick Mall. "While we don't specifically seek out shopping malls, we consider them if they meet the things we're looking for ... Natick Mall met all our criteria for a store site."

Natick Mall started expanding in late 2006, adding nearly 100 stores as well as a connected condo complex over the next the two years. But the 2008 financial crisis affected the mall's sales, The Boston Globe reported at the time. The center, renamed Natick Collection, was envisioned as a luxury destination for suburban shoppers, but upscale stores like Neiman Marcus and Gucci had trouble catching on. The mall's J.C. Penney closed in August 2015 because of declining sales.

Losing an anchor store can make it difficult for a mall to survive, since department stores often pay a large part of the lease, Williamson said. But mall department stores have an opportunity to fulfill other community needs besides traditional clothing retail. Suburban malls are convenient for grocery shoppers because they often are already close to housing or accessible by public transportation. In the digital age, supermarkets or other food-related businesses, like indoor farms and farmers markets, could prove to be more financially viable for shopping centers than traditional anchors.

"Part of it is a survival tactic," Calvin Schnure, an economist with the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, told The Washington Post. "E-commerce is changing people's spending patterns. But in the process, they are changing the shopping experience in a mall."

Beyond indoor supermarkets, Williamson predicts, some shopping malls could also be good homes for other types of food preparation and retail. This can be seen in the recent growth of suburban farmers markets, often held weekly in mall parking lots from Everett Mall in Washington to Greece Ridge Mall in Rochester, New York.

Retrofitting malls for food production, in addition to retail, would create more jobs that are resistant to outsourcing, she added.

"Construction is one of those not-so-easy-to-outsource fields," Williamson said. "That's partly why new house starts, which bring labor and have to happen on the ground, are so important to our economy. Another area is food. By moving into malls, agricultural operations could be more integrated into already built communities. And a lot of these suburban areas were agricultural landscapes not that long ago, before they were developed. There could be a premium for things grown locally."

There are no American malls, to Williamson's knowledge, that grow fresh food themselves. (Food courts usually heat up frozen items that are shipped to them.) But some malls abroad are experimenting with food production. The Shanghai K11 mall, for example, has an indoor farm that grows vegetables, raises pigs, and sells its own produce. In late 2016, a rooftop farm was also built on top of Israel's oldest shopping mall, in Tel Aviv.
Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected!
This was mentioned by the Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta when he presented the 2017 mid-year budget review to Parliament on Monday (July 31, 2017).

He said the job opportunities will be created in the oil palm plantation sector.

Over 500,000 job opportunities in oil palm plantations and regulated small-scale mining will be created under a five-year Multilateral Mining Integration Project (MMIP) project.

His comments come at a time when a joint military and police personnel have been deployed on Monday (July 31, 2017) to help the fight against galamsey.

Four hundred security men will be deployed to mining areas in three regions to help fight galamsey.

The task force was launched at Burma Camp.

Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Lieutenant General Obed Akwa said failure is not an alternative in the fight against illegal mining.

Indeed as I said in Bondase, failure is not an option, we shall put an end to all forms of illegal mining activities.
This is according to the Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo.

Speaking to Accra-based Citi FM, he said the government has only been involved in re-profiling of debt which will rather extend the repayment period of loans taken by previous administrations.

READ ALSO: Finance Minister to present midyear budget review today

So far, this government has not been involved in borrowing; rather what it has been involved heavily in is debt re-profiling meaning that you are looking at your repayment period and you are asking other people to take some part of the debt and give you a longer repayment term.

Instead of paying something in one year, you get the option to pay within ten years. This helps to get a moratorium to reduce the debt service which is a major toll on the countrys resources and fiscal appearance, he added.

Some Ghanaians especially members of the opposition National Democratic Congress have accused the government of repeating the very issues it raised against them when they were in power.

The then running mate of the Nana Akufo-Addo criticised the sitting government at the time for increasing the debt burden of Ghanaians.

But Osafo Maafo said the length of time secured for borrowing, rather extends the maturity periods for the countrys debt.

According to the Bank of Ghana, the countrys debt stock stood at 137.2 billion cedis as at May 2017.

This also represents 67.5% of Ghanas debt to GDP ratio.

Meanwhile, the government of Ghana is looking forward to raising 17.4 billion cedis in the third quarter of 2017 from the securities market.

Of this, the government on Friday (July 28, 2017) raised 1.49 billion cedis from a 5-year bond it issued.

A 2.6 billion cedi fifteen-year bond will be issued in August. Two five year bonds will also be issued, one to be issued in July and the other in August.

Two 3 year bonds, three 1 year and two 2 year bonds will also be issued.
This grant is to help buttress the research capacity of the University across multiple disciplines to collectively solve the most pertinent global challenges of the world.

A total sum of 225 Million as part of the initiative would be invested in research areas across 37 interdisciplinary projects to tackle issues in health, humanitarian crises, conflict, the environment, the economy, domestic violence amongst other fields.

The rationale behind the project is to acquire trusted knowledge in pressing issues facing developing countries to add up to established research in the UK to in addressing such challenges.

In this regard, researchers from Ghanas premier university would be partnering with their counterparts from Malawi and Kenya on a four (4) year multidisciplinary project worth 5.4 Million titled Building Research Capacity for sustainable water and food security in drylands of sub-Saharan Africa (BRECcIA).

Prof. Samuel Nii Ardey Codjoe of the Regional Institute for Population Studies (RIPS) and Dr. Mawuli Dzodzomenyo of the School of Public Health are Co-Investigators from the University of Ghana with Professor Justin Sheffield of the University of Southampton as the Principal Investigator on BRECcIA.

The research of these academics would be geared towards finding innovative ways to improve water and food security in their respective countries to end the over-dependence of farmers on the inconsistent rains.

BRECcIA creates an international platform for researchers to network with their colleagues in the UK and other parts of the world to reconcile the differences in their irrespective nations.
The multiple award-winning actress and film producer shared a photo in African prints during her visit to the French Ambassador's residence in Accra last weekend.

She captioned the photo: "Beautiful morning at the French ambassador's residence with the wife of the US ambassador and Australian high commissioner. Sometimes my height embarrasses me".

She later shared another photo smiling in the same African print with the caption: "Outfit so cool....had to repeat it...how's your Saturday going??"
This years Citizens Day initiative was held under the theme; We are all citizens, reiterating President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addos call to Ghanaians to be citizens and not spectators.

The refurbishment project saw an enhancement of key infrastructure needed by the school to equip teachers and pupils with important educational tools. The project also had a strong emphasis on maintaining an environment conducive to pupils and their productivity. Refurbishment works included the painting of the primary school block, renovation of the ICT block, provision of desktop computers, cleaning of the school compound and provision of trash bins.

Speaking at a short ceremony at the school to commemorate Citizens Day, Mr. Sekou Coulibaly, General Manager of LOreal West Africa said, At LOreal, we take some time out every year to reflect on what it means to be a true citizen and how we can give back to our loyal customers and communities across Ghana. We are committed to ensuring sustainable learning environments which will benefit generations to come.

He expressed hope that LOreals contribution towards refurbishing the schools facilities would be a step towards encouraging both teachers and pupils to be even more engaged and excited about school.

Every year since 2010, LOreal has mobilized its staff on Citizens Day to devote one working day in a year towards making a difference. Last year, communities in 70 countries benefited from the generosity of LOreal employees with a record number of 28,000 volunteers taking part worldwide.

In Ghana, examples of Citizens Day initiatives have included the refurbishment of the hair dressing academy at the Demonstration School for the Deaf, Mampong, Akropong. The Centre, which was also originally built by LOreal West Africa in 2009, serves as a hair training academy for pupils of the school who are trained in hair care and barbering.
The device, Handy first launched in September 2012, bridges the gap of limited access to internet connection in and out of hostels while providing comprehensive travel guide for tourists.

The Handy device is the first of its kind in the African continent and promises to create a more mesmerizing experience for travelers.

According to the Managing Director for Tink Labs in Africa, Steven To, Handy would aid partner hotels in leading their market competition by providing services that enrich visitor experience.

Kell Bakorkor, the West Africa Regional Manager told journalists that since June when Handy was made available in Ghana, a lot of hostels in Accra and Takoradi have shown interest in partnering with the company.

These hotels are all willing to partner with us in this innovation to revolutionize the services and experiences they provide their guests, Mr. Bakorkor said.

He also described Handy as a revolution sweeping across Ghanas hospitality sector and thus the enthusiasm of many hostels to partnering with them.

READ MORE: Miss Malaika Ghana 2017 set for auditions

Currently, hotels like Ghana Accra City Hotel, Tang Palace Hotel, Oak Plaza Hotels, Swiss Spirit Hotel and M Plaza Hotel among others have partnered to offer services of the Handy smart device to their customers.

One of the first partners of Handy in Ghana, Mr. Sajid Khan, General Manager of Tang Palace Hotel expressed his contentment for joining the company.

We are delighted to partner with Handy to provide this complimentary service to our valued guests to ease the troubles they face during their trips, especially with connectivity and the ease of enjoying Accra during their stay here'' he said.

Creator of Circumspecte, traveler, and user of the device, Jemila Abdulai was convinced of the revolution the use of the device would bring to the tourism sector.

'Handy' is bound to make your Africa travel experience a whole lot easier and fun especially when visiting a place for the first time  for business, pleasure, or both she said.

The device would provide users customized city guides and free unlimited local and international calls, free internet, speed dial to hotel services, and local emergency and essential travel information.
Her message comes as Ghana joins the rest of the continent to celebrate African Womens Day which falls on July 31 every year.

The Day, adopted by the AU in 1962, celebrates African womens accomplishments at all levels of development.

It also serves as a reminder of the structures of inequality that African women continue to face daily.

In Ghana, the government has over the years made efforts to promote gender equality and fight against all forms of violence against women.

Nevertheless, the First Lady believes that women can achieve more if they work together.

On this day, I encourage you to keep up the good work where ever you may be. You might be unnoticed for now but your effort long term will not be discounted. Keep raising the bar higher, keep learning ,growing and do give back when you can. Most importantly, let us learn to support other women, Mrs Akufo-Addo wrote on her Instagram page.

Below is the full statement:

Today is African Women's Day. I believe it is a day for us to reflect on the many successes and achievements of the African Woman. It gives me much pleasure to know that our achievements are immeasurable.

Through all spheres of life we are contributing our quota and not relegating ourselves to the background.

We are assuming leadership roles and making a lot of impact wherever we find ourselves.

On this day, I encourage you to keep up the good work where ever you may be. You might be unnoticed for now but your effort long term will not be discounted.

Keep raising the bar higher, keep learning, growing and do give back when you can.
Parliament has summoned him to brief the House on the processes of the investigations by the security agencies against some three Minority lawmakers whose homes were raided in relation to the US$ 510 Ameri deal.

The Speaker of Parliament Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye disclosed this while he was addressing some members of the Council of State who paid a courtesy call on him.

Background

Mr Kobina Tahir Hammond, MP for Adansi Asokwa, former Deputy Minister of Energy and Ranking Member on Energy, had filed an urgent motion in Parliament to have the House rescind the US$ 510 million Ameri power deal, claiming that the cost was bloated.

On Tuesday, the former Power Minister, Dr Kwabena Donkor had his laptops and pen drives seized by some warrant holding officers after a search was conducted in his home.

Dr Donkor, who is also the Member of Parliament for Pru East said the security officials informed him that they were searching his house on the grounds that he had caused financial loss to the state in relation to the Ameri power deal.

The latest were former Deputy Attorney General, Dominic Ayine and the Ex-Deputy Power Minister John Jinapor, whose houses were invaded on Friday.

The Mahama administration in 2015 entered into a $510million deal with AMERI for the supply of power plants to mitigate the power crisis.

The then-opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), as well as, some Civil Society Organisations such as Imani Ghana and the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) criticised the deal.

READ ALSO: Police raids house of former Power Minister
According to the court, presided by Kwaku Ackah Boafo, the Minister erred in his action and he also refused to give fair hearing to the businessman.

Ashok Kumar Sivaram was deported on June 1, 2017, following a directive issued to the Ghana Immigration Service by the Interior minister Ambrose Derry.

I am directed to inform you that the Hon. Minister of Interior has issued a Deportation Order in accordance with Section 36(1) of Act 2000 (Act 573) for your removal from the country.

Consequently, you are to be deported on 1st June, 2017 to your country.

Please find attached the Deportation Order for your attention, a letter from the Comptroller-General addressed to the businessman ahead of his deportation read in part.

READ ALSO: We will admit more women into the security forces

But lawyers of the businessman argued that their client was deported without recourse to the law.

The Applicant was deported from Ghana on the said morning of 1st June 2017 without any notice to him or being offered the opportunity to be heard on the allegation of forgery leveled against him. The Respondents carried out this operation without regard to the presence of the Applicants business interest in Ghana that employs one hundred and sixty (160) people out of which one hundred and thirty (130) are Ghanaians and thirty (30) are Expatriates.

"Again, no regard or consideration was given by the Respondents in spite of the pendency of the case in the High Court, Commercial Division and the Order for a valuation process to be undertaken by Ernst & Young to enable the Court proceed with the matter pending before it, a letter attached to the writ by the lawyers, led by Gary Nimarko, read.

It added: Respectfully My Lord, it appears that issuance of Executive Instrument by the 1st Respondent prior to deportation of an alien is permissive under the Act but it is worth pointing out that Deportation Orders of an Alien subject to Deportation is backed by Executive Instrument. In the case of this Applicant, no Executive Instrument was issued by the 1st Respondent in respect of the Deportation Order.

READ ALSO: MP mulls subpoenaing Interior Minister over Lapaz shooting

My Lord, it is also worth pointing out that the Applicant was in Ghana as a Residence/Work Permit holder and has since been on that status until the permit was cancelled on 1st June, 2017 and immediately deported from Ghana.

My Lord, the Applicant was not in Ghana on the basis of an alleged fraudulent Marriage Certificate which the 1st Respondent is claiming that was submitted for Registration as a Ghanaian citizen. As a matter of fact, there is no record of the Applicant having involved himself in a criminal enterprise in Ghana since he started coming into the country from the year 2000 for which the 1st Respondent says that his presence in Ghana is not conducive to the public good.

"A closer reading of the Deportation Order makes it clear that the 1st Respondent came to the conclusion that the Applicants presence in Ghana was not conducive to the public good after having made a judicial determination that the Applicant has submitted a forged Marriage Certificate in support of his application for citizenship and that, that act is fraudulent and criminal.

Respectfully My Lord, we are at a loss as to whether the 1st Respondent has the jurisdiction to determine fraud within the powers vested in him under the Immigration Act 2000, (Act 547).
Unfortunately, people in the northern region were badly hit by the heavy downpour, with four people losing their lives and properties worth thousands of Ghana cedis getting destroyed.

The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, as usual, toured the affected areas and expressed his condolences to the families of those who lost their relatives in the incident.

READ ALSO: Death toll now rises to four

He also assured that the government would address the perennial flooding in the metropolis.

The hope is that this should not be only words, but should be ones backed by actions to prevent the unfortunate from recurring.

The thing is, it is not unusual for the country to experience rainfall in June and July.

The flooding situation in Tamale and its environs are perennial. Choked drains and building on water ways are some of the major causes. It requires immediate attention.

Besides, the extent of damage by the rains shows whether the country has learned its lessons about the reality of climate change that affects weather patterns.

Now, the people in the north are still counting their losses. But while they were at that, some security officers were busily searching for some documents in the form of dawn raids of homes of some MPs on the Minority Side, suspected to be linked to AMERI power deal.

Mr Kobina Tahir Hammond, MP for Adansi Asokwa, former Deputy Minister of Energy and Ranking Member on Energy, had filed an urgent motion in Parliament to have the House rescind the US$ 510 million Ameri power deal, claiming that the cost was bloated.

READ MORE: Police raids house of former Power Minister

On Tuesday, Dr Donkor had his laptops and pen drives seized by some warrant holding officers after a search was conducted in his home.

Dr Donkor, who is also the Member of Parliament for Pru East said the security officials informed him that they were searching his house on the grounds that he had caused financial loss to the state in relation to the Ameri power deal.

The latest were former Deputy Attorney General, Dominic Ayine and the Ex-Deputy Power Minister John Jinapor, whose houses were invaded on Friday.

But the bugging question now is: Who could have ordered the raid in the home of Dr Donkor, particularly when the former minister had before the raid held a meeting with K.T. Hammond [the ranking member who had earlier endorsed the deal but now wants parliament to rescind it] over issues with the deal.

The details of the said meeting are not known but Dr Donkor said that some compromises were made over the deal.

He, however, said the raid on his house has changed the dynamics of the compromises he had with the government officials and is now ready to face them in court.

For him, even though he suspects that some powerful hands are behind the raid, he knows for a fact that it is not from the presidency.

He also reiterated that due diligence was done in the purchasing of the plant and the previous government did no wrong.

Personally, these backs and forth are not auguring well for us as a country.

And this is perhaps where we need the office of the Special Prosecutor to handle matters. But for now, we might have to keep our fingers crossed as the Bill to set up the office has even been withdrawn by the government.

The Parliamentary, Constitutional and Legal Committee of Parliament had earlier rejected a request by the government for the office of the Special Prosecutors Bill to be passed under a certificate of urgency.

The committee, therefore, recommended that the bill should be taken through all the normal processes.

The minority in parliament had also before that raised procedural and constitutional issues with the bill, which definitely, should not be overlooked.

Yes, it is okay to have a special prosecutor to lessen the burden on the Attorney General who has the constitutional power to prosecute in the name of the republic.

But, we perhaps need to tread cautiously with this special prosecutor bill. The Constitution gives the power to the AG to prosecute and even to delegate those prosecution powers as well.

And hence, if the president wants the AG to share power with someone else, the president needs to be careful how it goes about it so that it does not appear as though he is dictating that pace.

As we already are aware, the Office of a Special Prosecutor was a major campaign promise of Nana Akufo-Addo while he was the opposition candidate in the December 2016 elections, and pressure is mounting on him to fulfil that promise since he assumed power.

But is the Office really necessary, considering the AG is already prosecuting and will continue to prosecute? Why wont we keep the status quo? Or do we feel that the presence of the special prosecutor whose seven-year stay in office is secure will ensure that we get the political neutrality we have been looking for? How can we be sure of this if the presidency is somehow involved in who gets appointed? Well, lets see how it goes.

And lets also see if the International Central Gospel Church will officially comment on the backlash it received from some Ghanaians when news broke that some members of the church were sowing seeds as much as 5,000 dollars in order to receive a miracle or favour from God.

Many have condemned the action and have since been asking if prayers are for sale. For some, the idea of seed-sowing is even alien to the church.

It has, however, become a phenomenon during its Greater Works conference as some of the guest speakers always end up bringing up the idea of seed-sowing, where blessings or miracles are categorised with specific amounts to be paid [special offering] for different categories.

Interestingly, some members of the ICGC are not comfortable with this money-collection formats and want answers as to why it should continue.
He said the recent confusion that rocked the appointments of Municipal and District chief executives (MMDCEs) and other key appointments were masterminded by the NPP MPs.

Mr. Naabu noted that their motive is diabolic because their preferred candidates were not appointed by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Speaking at the partys annual delegates conference in Tamale over the weekend, he indicated that, the MPs instead of working to advance the government, they are rather working against the NPP in the region.

"As Im talking to you now, in the Gambaga/Nalerigu constituency, if there is an election today, we cant win and same at the Gushegu constituency and other key places I wont mention now...We shouldnt think that we have won elections and for that matter that is all. It cannot be all. So, I just said a few things, put it in your head, get back to Accra and investigate and find out," he said.

He said "The problems are in the region are not from the regional executives but rather some of the MPs."
Their homes have since been searched by security officials holding search warrant for documents related to the power plant deal.

On Tuesday, 25 July, Dr Donkor had his laptops and pen drives seized by the officers when they went to the residence with a search warrant.

Dominic Ayine and John Jinapor's houses were invaded on Friday.

AMERI was tasked to build the power plants, own and operate it for 5years before finally transferring it to the government of Ghana at a total cost of $510m.

According to the Philip Addison committee report set up by Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko, the contract was overpriced by some $150 million.

The deal was for the supply of gas turbines to Ghana, which was to provide additional power to the national grid to ease the biting load shedding exercise that plagued the country at the time.

The committee also recommended to the government to recall owners of the Dubai-based company for renegotiation and that if the company refused to honour the invitation for re-negotiation, the government should renounce the agreement on grounds of fraud.

However, Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye gave an assurance that security officials will be invited to discuss the raids in the homes of the MPs.
If done properly it can prevent unintended and high risk pregnancies that often lead to the deaths of mothers and babies. Its important for other reasons too: it can reduce womens dependency by allowing them more opportunities to work. And lower population growth, combined with a good political climate, can boost economic development.

Contraceptives lie at the heart of proper family planning. But its use can be shaped by several factors. This includes cultural norms and values as well as the desires and decisions of couples. Myths and misconceptions also play a role, including beliefs that people who use contraceptives end up with health problems or permanent infertility, or, at one extreme, that contraceptives reduce sexual urge, and at the other that they increase promiscuity among women.

Other contributing factors include low access to health care facilities and the patriarchal nature of societies.

Nigeria has made no progress in improving the use of contraceptives for the past 10 years. Contraceptive use in the country is incredibly low.

The biggest contributor to the low uptake has been a lack of knowledge about the various available options, combined with misconceptions about the use of contraceptives.

But understanding what we mean by knowledge is key to unlocking Nigerias problem. We all accept that human behaviour is generally affected by what people know. A reasonable deduction would therefore be that knowledge about contraception should be an important predictor of contraceptive use. The reasonable assumption would be that the more people know about contraceptives, the more they would use them.

Nigerias 2013 demographic health survey showed that this isnt the case. About 85% of women and 95% of men reported knowing a contraceptive method. But just 15% were using it. The unmet needs of women wishing to stop or delay births by not using contraception is 16%.

Theres nothing to suggest that the situation has improved since the 2013 report. This is clear from Nigerias continued rates of population growth as well as maternal and infant deaths.

Poor state of affairs in Nigeria

Algeria provides a useful counterpoint. More than half  57%  of married women are using contraception and a woman will give birth to an average of 3 children in her lifetime. The north African countrys annual population growth rate is 1.89.

In Sweden, contraceptive use is 75%. A Swedish woman will give birth to an average of 1.6 children and the countrys population growth rate is 1.1.

So what is Nigeria doing wrong? And how can it be fixed?

Whats missing

Knowledge of contraception means knowing at least one of the methods. Modern contraceptive methods include female sterilisation, male sterilisation, the pill, the intrauterine device (IUD), injectables, implants, male condoms, female condoms, the diaphragm, foam/jelly, the lactational amenorrhea method, and traditional methods include periodic abstinence and withdrawal.

On average, a Nigerian woman or man aged 15-49 knows about 5 out of the 15 methods of contraceptives.

On top of this, the most common methods cited were those that carry the highest risks of pregnancy. The most common method women cited was the pill (71%) which has a failure rate of 9% and can lead to nine unintended pregnancies per one hundred women a year.

For men, the most common method cited was the male condom (91%), which has a failure rate of 18%. This can lead to 18 unintended pregnancies per one hundred women in a year.

Among the least known methods by both men and women in Nigeria was the long acting reversible implants method which can last between three to five years for women who use it. Implants have a 0.05% failure rate. However, only 17.9% men and 24.7% women knew about it.

The consequences

If Nigeria continues with the current trends in contraceptive use and fertility, the population will continue to grow exponentially in the next 10 to 20 years.

The consequences of this will be profound. The population will be a highly dependent one with few productive and more dependent people because of the age structure of exponential population growth. Also, health inequities will worsen. Already limited infrastructure will be stretched while rapid urbanisation will shrink service provision, leading to further social and economic challenges.

Nigeria needs to urgently rethink family planning programmes. In particular, it needs to focus on ensuring that people know more about the array of available contraceptives, the most effective types and how they can access them.

An initiative like this should also aim to reduce perceptions based on myths and misconceptions. Algeria has successfully plugged family planning gaps using an integrated approach of contraceptives availability, educational campaigns and partnering with religious groups.

Only a concerted effort can turn the situation around in Nigeria and narrow the existing knowledge gap.
The 2,566 homicides victims recorded in June were a 40% increase over the same month last year, and the most recorded in a month since the Mexican government started releasing that data in 2014.

June's 2,234 homicide cases (a case can contain more than one victim) were the most registered in a month since the government started releasing crime data in 1997.

Over the first half of the year, Mexico saw 13,729 homicide victims nationwide, a 33% increase over the same period last year. The 12,155 homicide cases through June this year were a 31% increase over the first six months of 2016 and the most seen during the first half of a year in any year for which data is available.

Past periods of drug-related violence have generally been localized; between 2008 and 2012, Ciudad Juarez on the border with Texas was home to much of the country's killing. The rise in killings in recent months appears to be taking place across a broader swath of the country.

In January, 25 of Mexico's 32 states saw increases in comparison with January 2016. The surge has now spread to 27 of those states.

Killings remain high in places that have traditionally struggled with homicides.

Baja California state saw 210 homicides in June. That was 128 more than it saw in June last year, and, according to state data, 152 of June's killings happened in Tijuana, a border city that is the subject of a turf war between the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels.

In Chihuahua  home to Ciudad Juarez, which is now reportedly being contested by the Sinaloa cartel, Jalisco New Generation cartel, and remnants of the Juarez cartel  the 220 homicides last month were more than double the 109 in June last year.

Of the 970 homicides in the state from January to June, 365 took place in Ciudad Juarez, according to El Diario  though that includes both intentional homicides and incidental ones.

Farther south, Guerrero  206 homicides last month  saw a 10% increase in homicides the first six months of this year over the same period last year.

Sinaloa state, ground zero of the fight for control of the Sinaloa cartel, saw a 68% increase in homicides from the first six months of 2016 to the same period this year.

Homicides nearly doubled in Veracruz, long a battleground for the Gulf and Zetas cartels, rising 97%.

The Gulf and Zetas cartels have also seen their own internal feuds flare up. Fighting between factions of the latter group has increased in Reynosa, a border city in northern Tamaulipas state, in recent months.

In Tamaulipas as a whole, homicides rose just under 6% between the first six months of last year and the first half of this year, but May and June were well above any other month this year.

But the bloodshed appears to have spread to areas that have been spared from the violence.

There were 25% more homicide victims in Mexico City over the first six months of this year compared to the same period last year. While the drug trade is present in the city, recent outbursts of violence point to the growing presence and militancy of organized-crime groups there, even if politicians avoid describing them as "cartels."

In Quintana Roo in the southeast and Baja California Sur in the northwest  home to tourist havens of Cancun and Los Cabos, respectively  drug-related killings have gone up as well.

In Quintana Roo, killings more than doubled, rising 106% over the first half of the year compared to the January-June period last year. Baja California Sur  where the Sinaloa cartel's weakness is also believed to be driving the violence  saw a 342% jump in homicides from the first half of last year to the first half of this year.

While much of the violence is related to the drug trade  particularly competition over the heroin and synthetic-drug trade in western Mexico  other factors appear to have allowed it to fester. The fragmentation of criminal groups, wrought in part by the government's "kingpin strategy" targeting cartel leadership, has led to more groups fighting over the same territory and products.

Deficiencies in the criminal-justice system have also contributed to the violence.

Some officials claim the country's new justice system, under which people caught with illegal weapons are sent jailed automatically ahead of trial, allows criminals to stay on the streets.

Others, like Mexican security analyst Alejandro Hope, attribute the wave of killings to impunity, blaming officials who say the rising body counts come from fighting between criminals and allow them to go unpunished.

Many security officials and politicians have also been found to be complicit in organized crime, allowing it operate or even participating in it.

Even police who aren't on the take may not be equipped to deal with cartels and gangs. A considerable number of police and other members of Mexico's security forces have failed tests of their competency in recent years. In Sinaloa in particular, more than half of police failed such exams this year but continued working.
Sam Altman, the 32-year-old president of Y Combinator, the most prestigious startup accelerator in Silicon Valley, has laid out this utopian vision over the years, and most definitively in a job listing posted on YC's blog in June 2016.

"We're seriously interested in building new cities and we think we know how to finance it if everything else makes sense," the post read. "We need people with strong interests and bold ideas in architecture, ecology, economics, politics, technology, urban planning, and much more."

Free houses, built by robots

Like many of his peers in Silicon Valley, Altman believes technology is the way to a better future. But his real-world ambitions are grander than most. He wants to investigate ways to build new cities, give people money for nothing, rethink voter registration, keep politicians accountable, and get new, Altman-approved leaders elected  all while running YC, which famously birthed startups like Airbnb and Dropbox.

Much like one of his notable colleagues, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Altman is set on turning the ideal into the practical. Both believe they have solid ideas for reshaping society. Sometimes this means executing plans within the next few months. Other times it means roadmapping projects decades down the line, and relying on phrases like "The math should work out" to assuage a wary public.

"I have a very strong vision of where I'd like to see the world go," Altman said. "And I don't think it gets there by startups alone."

In 2005, at age 19, Altman dropped out of Stanford to found the social-networking app Loopt, which he sold in 2012. In 2014, he replaced Paul Graham as YC president. These days, he says he spends 80% of his 65-hour weeks helping startups sort through their growing pains and get to market as fast as possible. The remaining 20% is dedicated to outside projects.

His baby is OpenAI, a nonprofit he cochairs with Musk that searches for benevolent ways to use artificial intelligence in daily life. Altman's vision for how OpenAI could be deployed sheds light on how he wants to help people in real ways.

"Let's imagine we get to a world where AI gets so good that robots can mine raw materials out of the ground, refine them, and build them into a house," he told Business Insider. (These robots, he clarified, are solar-powered.) "You can imagine a world where you own a small piece of land, you can say, 'Hey, robot. I would like a house here,' and you come back like a month later and there's a fully constructed house built for you for free."

Altman sees that kind of far-future scenario as a boon for towns and cities plagued by a shortage of affordable housing. He's seen the plight firsthand, from his home state of California to middle America.

In November 2016, shortly after Donald Trump won the presidency, Altman left YC's headquarters in Mountain View, California, in search of 100 supporters of the president-elect. He asked them about their political views, their fears, and their gripes with America's political landscape. He later published his findings on his blog for the world to see. "People don't believe they have an economic future," he said.

Over the past year, Altman has expressed a deep interest in resolving those economic concerns.

"[Fifty] years from now, I think it will seem ridiculous that we used fear of not being able to eat as a way to motivate people," he wrote in a January 2016 blog post on YC. "I also think that it's impossible to truly have equality of opportunity without some version of guaranteed income."

That blog post announced YC's intentions to launch an experiment in universal basic income (UBI), a system of wealth distribution that pays participants a set amount of money to use however they want. The premise, which is being tested in more than a half-dozen locations around the world, is that UBI can create a social safety net that reduces or even eliminates poverty.

Altman's own experiment is small, for now. It's running in Oakland, California, and involves about 100 people getting between $1,000 and $2,000 a month. The goal is to get some practice with delivering the money and collecting data. If that data come back showing basic income has left people better off, both emotionally and financially, YC will expand the project in a five-year, nationwide trial.

The same old Silicon Valley?

Society is poised to lose millions of jobs to AI, the prevailing research suggests. And it's propelled in part by Silicon Valley-types like Altman, who himself is researching how robotics can replace human labor on a grand scale with projects like OpenAI. In recognition of that responsibility, he believes the tech world should at least be trying something.

"I don't know if [basic income] is the answer or not to this massive technological revolution we're in the middle of," he said, "but it is something I'd like to study."

But for all his involvement in political issues, Altman doesn't consider himself a political person. He was raised in St. Louis to a pair of Democrat parents, with childhood memories of his time as a Boy Scout, tinkering with his Macintosh, and reading science fiction. He was interested more in computers than current events.

It's really only been since 2014, when he replaced Graham as YC's president, that he started to take a serious interest in how technology could improve the political process and the future of humanity. He began thinking of ways to broaden both his and YC's horizons to support more nonprofits, like the ACLU, and startups focused purely on hard science, which he sees as vital to humanity's progress.

Some have criticized Altman's larger-than-life goals, claiming they are ambitious to a fault. When news broke last spring that he wanted to build brand-new cities, Allison Arieff, editorial director of the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association, wrote on Twitter, "Y Combinator Aims to Build a New City From Scratch Because No One Has Ever Tried That Before."

And writing for Gizmodo, Alissa Walker questioned why YC even felt the need to build a brand-new city, given all that's wrong with existing urban areas. "Why not simply focus on improving the city of Mountain View, California, where Y Combinator is already located," she wrote, "and which certainly needs to find solutions to many of these urban problems (some due to startups like Airbnb which Y Combinator has backed)?"

Anand Giridharadas, a writer and political analyst covering technology and society, has written that Silicon Valley in general is obsessed with what he calls "regressive innovation," or the act of creating solutions that don't actually make life better for people. Speaking with Business Insider, he referred to such VCs as "world-changer incubator-messiahs."

Altman, for his part, has said he prefers to use the phrase "change the world" only after he's already done so.

In most cases, he sees his role more as a facilitator than a doer. He understands the technology side of his projects, but he still relies on people more well versed in economics, public policy, and urban planning to inform them, he said.

"I don't think tech is the solution to all problems," he said. "And I certainly don't think startups are the solution to all problems. They're the solution to a lot, but if the tech industry doesn't think about how everybody wins and everybody benefits, then we've kind of failed."

Elizabeth Rhodes picked up on that mind-set in her first face-to-face encounter with Altman, earlier this February. Rhodes was wrapping up her doctorate in political science and social work at the University of Michigan and had applied to lead YC's nascent basic-income project. In May, YC announced she had been selected.

"He was definitely very passionate about people's struggles," Rhodes recalled of her first meeting with Altman. Now more than a year into the job, she said Altman's interest in solving social problems through policy has come more into focus. "He's able to see more systemic changes that we could make, and he's not afraid to say, 'Let's try testing it out.'"

It's easy to compare Altman's outsize ambitions to Elon Musk and his many projects. But Altman calls the comparison "ridiculous," since he considers the serial entrepreneur less of an equal as much as a singular, multi-industry titan. "Elon is in a class by himself," Altman said.

The basic similarities are there. Musk has said in repeated interviews that the future grips him so deeply, without a passion for it he would never get out of bed in the morning. Altman envisions far-off societies hiring robots to build houses and giving people free cash from the government. He also shares Musk's view that these kinds of mega-projects aren't crazy. At the 2015 Vanity Fair Summit, the two appeared onstage to discuss, in calm voices, how they might live on Mars or harness the sun for nuclear energy.

"I believe that most things I work on are practical and someday will be hugely important," Altman told Business Insider.

Rewriting the social contract

In May, rumors began to swirl that Altman's political interests had compelled him to run for California governor in 2018. He seemed to be making a familiar transition from the private world into the public spotlight  a move Carly Fiorina, Peter Thiel, and other prominent Silicon Valley names had made before him.

But Altman ultimately went a different route. In mid-July he put the rumors to bed by issuing an open call on his blog for similar-minded political candidates that he could support. He could offer money, connections, and tech to help them get into the governor's office.

His requirements for the candidate: They should believe affordable housing is one of the most pressing issues in the state, because, as Altman put it, "The high cost of living hurts poor people the most, and it's destroying our country." And they should believe in single-payer healthcare, clean energy, skills-based education, and rewriting tax codes that favor the middle class.

"It's this pro-growth, pro-innovation, and pro-distribution idea," Altman said, "where we're going to have  as we've had after every technological revolution  we're going to have to rewrite the social contract."

What we're going for is a few really big world-changing hits and a lot of failures along the way.

Altman's move into politics reflects the ways philanthropy has shifted in recent years, fusing entrepreneurship with social causes, according to Brooks Rainwater, the director of the City Solutions and Applied Research Center at the National League of Cities. "What you're seeing is the tech mentality of pilot projects being grafted onto the social space," he said. "And I think there's a lot of opportunity here."

Critics tend to see that opportunity more as a threat  that entrepreneurs have no business in government because they'll focus only on a small group of people, neglecting the masses. Even President Obama expressed doubt that leaders in the tech world could make the leap into the public realm.

Pivoting from certain projects or abandoning them altogether isn't a matter of if, but when, Altman said.

"We try to make the cost of failing super low," he said. "What we're going for is a few really big world-changing hits and a lot of failures along the way. I view that just as the overhead of doing business."

He applies the mentality equally to his day job of helping startups and to his societal-improvement projects.
Though the show could have dedicated its entire half hour to what happened in the past week  Jared Kushner's prepared speech at the White House, the explosive interview that new White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci gave to The New Yorker, and the ouster of White House chief of staff Reince Priebus  Oliver instead looked at the radio host Alex Jones.

The "Infowars" host has climbed to conservative media prominence through explosive claims that go viral, such as that chemicals in our water are turning frogs gay, or ones that have made him infamous, such as that the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012 was a hoax.

But Oliver looked past all that to delve into something else Jones does a lot on his show: shill merchandise. Oliver said that in one week of Jones' recent broadcasts, he spent nearly a quarter of the time either talking about or playing ads for his products. And he has a lot of them.

The "Infowars" store has survival gear, organic shampoo and soaps, and even a Bill Clinton rape whistle. ("Last Week Tonight" bought this item, and Oliver said it came with a complimentary "9-11 Was an Inside Job" bumper sticker.)

Radio hosts doing ads is nothing new, but Oliver said that since 2013, Jones had been focusing on his vitamins and other supplements. Reportedly, two-thirds of his funding comes from marketing his own products, which range from vitality drugs to "Caveman," a paleo-formula chocolate drink with bone broth. It sounds awful, and Oliver bought it, tried it on air, and confirmed it tastes awful, too.

Jones even has a doctor come on his show to hock the merch with him. Jones claims that Dr. Edward Group III has a degree from MIT. But "Last Week Tonight" did some digging and learned he actually attended Texas Chiropractic College. When the show asked MIT about him, it responded, "Calling him an alumni would be inaccurate and misleading."

The show played a clip of Jones saying "Infowars" costs $45 million to $50 million to run and that any money from his store goes back into the show. However, Oliver noted that Jones had sported at least three different Rolex watches on his show.

Jones often says his critics focus on things he says taken out of context. But Oliver said on Sunday's show that in context, what Jones does was chilling.

"At the start of this piece, I promised Alex Jones that I would put his statements in context, because he is right  that if you play small clips in isolation, he looks like a loon," Oliver said. "But if you play them in context, he looks like a skilled salesman spending hours a day frightening you about problems like refugees spreading disease and then selling you an answer."

Perhaps the best example of this is that after Jones' "gay frogs" video went viral, he did a follow-up claiming that chemicals were being put in the water to feminize society and reduce the population, then segued to an ad about water filters.
The media personality took to Instagram earlier today to express her excitement over the union which has produced two children.

Betty, who is the publisher of the Genevieve magazine wrote, "Tickle Tickle...34 years later..WE STILL DO!"

The philanthropist clocked 60 in March 2017 and she doesn't even look it.

Her admirable aura and high sense of fashion have portrayed her as one with a great deal of style as often seen in her public appearances.

ALSO READ: Publisher commends celebrities for keeping relationships private
He also intends to venture into trading, and he considers all these a necessary step to having a fulfilled life.

I am interested in politics and I see myself becoming a politician in the future. One is not going to do music forever and I need to plan my life properly.

"I also love to engage in business, so I see myself doing a lot of that too, the rapper told Punch News in an interview.

Reminisce revealed in the chat that he does not believe in living an extravagant life like most of his colleagues do.

For him, having a private life is golden, that is why he prefers to keep things on the low and improve the lives of others.

I always keep my private life private as I believe that I have the right to my privacy. There is a very big difference between Reminisce, the artiste, and Remi, the family man.

"I thank God because Im comfortable and I dont need validation on social media. I dont have to put everything I own on social media so that people would know that I have arrived.

"Inasmuch as Im not begging anybody for food, its all good. Instead of flaunting material things, I prefer to invest in people.

ALSO READ: Rapper denies bleaching his skin

The husky voice music star already has three albums out, "Book of Rap Stories" (2012), "Alaga Ibile" (2013) and "Baba Hafusa" (2015).
Recall that the manager called out Tiwa Savage on Instagram in 2016 accusing her of infidelity and witchcraft before attempting to commit suicide.

Now, he's thankful for life and people who believed in him. He shared this via Instagram on July 29, 2017.

"I'm just thankful to be alive, thankful for believing in me, thankful for your love and empathy...... Y'all know yourselves! Blessings!," he wrote alongside a quote that read, "I am thankful for all those nights that turned into mornings, friends that turned into family and dreams that turned into reality."

That bridge has been crossed now and it looks like the couple are committed to reigniting the flame that once existed between them.

The pair have been spotted together at events and one of those include Jamil's dedication in church.

The two were also seen together in Ibadan, Oyo State on Easter Sunday, April 16, 2017 where Tiwa had gone to perform at Gbenga Adeyinka 1st's comedy show, Laffmattazz with Gbenga Adeyinka 1st and Friends.
Jack Ma is the 53-year old founder and chairman of the Alibaba Group, one of the biggest e-commerce platforms in the world. He is currently the richest person in Asia with an estimated net worth of $36.2 billion and is known to be one of the worlds most influential businessmen.

He visited Africa for the first time earlier this month touching down in Nairobi, Kenya and Rwanda as part of a tour organised by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

While in Kenya, Ma gave a deeply insightful and eye opening lecture at the University of Nairobi and you should totally check it out above.
In the early hours of Sunday, July 30, the cultists reportedly killed a family of four, a few weeks after relative peace in the Ikorodu environs.

According to Punch, the victims, Mr. and Mrs. Adejare, and two of their children were killed in Oke Ota community, Ibeshe.

Their third child is said to be in a coma at the Ikorodu General Hospital.

The deceased children - aged five and one - were identified as Siyin and Ajoke.

It was gathered that after gaining entry into the Adejares' apartment through their window, the attackers smashed the victims' heads with a stone and left the area unnoticed.

Punch cited a resident who said church members of the deceased found their lifeless bodies.

He said, "They had a special programme in their church today (Sunday). The members decided to check on them because they did not come to the church. They found the whole family in a pool of blood and raised the alarm. One of the three children was still breathing. He was rushed to the general hospital.

"There are burglar-proof bars on the windows in the house, except in the kitchen. They came through the kitchen. They tore the net and entered the house.

"We seem to have relaxed in securing the community because the attack subsided for some time. Even the police patrol has reduced."

Reacting to the incident, a community leader said the police are distant from the main area where the Badoo cultists operate.

He said, "We were happy that things were getting better before this incident. There is one little girl among them receiving treatment at a hospital. Her head was smashed.

"We only hear sirens of the police patrol from the main road. They dont usually come into the inner parts of the community, where the Badoo members operate."

The Lagos State police spokesperson, ASP Olarinde Famous-Cole, however, said the Badoo cult was not behind the latest attack.

ALSO READ: The scary thing about the Badoo ritual gang

Famous-Cole said the family's residence is not accessible to vehicles.

He said, "The house is just a room and parlour with one open window and no visible form of security. A family of five were attacked. Three died on the spot, one died while receiving treatment at a hospital and the last member is alive and responding to treatment.
The four students of the University of Port-Harcourt were lynched by a mob in Aluu, a community in Port-Harcourt, Rivers state in 2012.

The court presided over by Justice Nyordee sentenced the three guilty people to death. The court discharged and acquitted the remaining four suspects.

Justice Nyordee stated that prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th accused persons were involved in the murder of the four.

It will be recalled that 12 people, including a police sergeant have been facing trial since Dec. 20, 2012 over the alleged murder of the students.
The suspect, according to the State Commissioner of Police, CP Adeleye Oyebade who paraded him at the Command Headquarters in Umuahia, Igwe shot the 35-year-old woman, Ijeoma Uzoma, after inviting her to his residence at 22, Obohia Road, Aba.

CP Oyebade said the suspect and the deceased, also a married woman, had been in a romantic relationship since 2013.

Igwe was said to have shot Uzoma with his pump action rifle because she was using the said pregnancy to blackmail him. He claimed that he had given the deceased over N600,000 for her upkeep on the understanding that she would abort the pregnancy but got tired of her still exploiting him.

While speaking with journalists, Igwe said:

The deceased, Ijeoma Chibuzo, was my girlfriend. We started dating in 2013. I didnt know that she was married. In the course of our relationship, she became pregnant but we agreed that she would abort the pregnancy.

I gave her N600,000 for the abortion and for her upkeep. Not long after, she came back and took N200,000 and another N400,000, because of the pregnancy. I even had to sell my house worth more than N1 million, all to appease her to abort the pregnancy.

Then I realized that she was just defrauding me because of the pregnancy. When I was tired of the issue of Ijeoma using the pregnancy to blackmail me, I decided to invite her to my house when she demanded another N600,000.

She came around 10:30 am on July 9, 2017. Immediately she arrived, I went inside my bedroom, picked one of my pump-action rifles and shot her dead.
In a statement signed by the State Police Public Relations Officer [PPRO], ASP Olarinde Famous-Cole, the Command has launched an investigation into the death of the teenager with a view to bringing the culprits to book.

The deceased, Junior Secondary School [JSS 3] student, who hailed from Obosi in Anambra State, was gagged and gang-raped by the hoodlums when her parents had gone to work.

After raping her to their satisfaction, the suspects were said to have smashed her head with a heavy stone before escaping by jumping the fence of the compound.

Initial reports had claimed that the deceased was murdered by some boys who had made advances at her but she rebuffed them and to exact their vengeance, they sneaked into their house and carried out the nefarious act.

Some human rights activists have taken up the clarion call to ensure that the police rose up to their responsibility and fish out the culprits who are said to reside in that same community.

A women and girl childs rights activist, Esther Ijewere, is one of the first to take up the matter and is demanding justice for the deceased using the hashtag #Justice4ObiAmaka.

To propel the security agencies to action, Ijewere said a peaceful sit-down protest would be held at Governor Akinwunmi Ambode's office at Alausa, Ikeja, on Thursday, August 3, 2017.

As we rejoice and thank God for the release of the six Igbonla boys, let us remember our young girls that are being raped and traumatized. The latest victim is Obiamaka Orakwe, who was right in her home raped and killed.

Her killers must be found. A lot of our young girls would be at home alone during this vacation. We need to keep them safe, she said.
A statement by the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr Ebere Amaraizu, issued in Enugu on Monday said that the suspects were arrested following a distress call.

Amaraizu said the suspects, who were armed with a Pump Action riffle, allegedly went into a house at Onuakpa street Trans Ekulu and robbed the occupants of their property.

He said after robbing the occupants, the suspects attempted to kidnap a 76-year-old woman, Mercy Chijioke, in her car but failed.

The suspects allegedly broke into the house and robbed the occupants of their valuables and thereafter were about abducting one of the occupants, 76-year-old mercy chijioke in her own car before the operatives responded swiftly, it said.
I got the job after searching for one for over three years and with the current situation in the country, I don't know if I will be lucky to get a new job if I leave this one.

It was in May when our branch manager sent for me and when I got to his office, he told me that he had a special assignment for me after closing hours. It was not a new thing for a staff to be told to stay back if there was something for him to do.

So I did not see anything sinister in the request, so after closing, I went to his office to let him know but he told me to wait for him at the reception hall.

I was to wait there for over three hours when he called me to come to his office. By now, almost all the staff members had gone home leaving only a handful of workers behind.

When I got to his office, my boss told me he was busy and that I should make myself comfortable while he rounded up. After like 30 minutes, he stood up, went and locked the door and came to sit beside me on the sofa.

I was shocked and asked him why he locked the door but he told me he did not want anyone to come to his office as the assignment he had for me demanded privacy.

I was still not convinced with his explanation but his next action took me by surprise as he suddenly held me and drew me closer to him. It was so sudden that before I could get my balance, he had placed his mouth over mine and pushed his tongue into my mouth.

I struggled to free myself and asked him if that was the assignment he told me he had for me and he answered by saying he had been wanting to sleep with me for a long time.

I told him I could not sleep with him as he was not only married but my boss but he was past caring as he suddenly grabbed me and threw me to the seat, tearing my top in the process.

I screamed as I fought him but he was too strong and had me pinned down and tore my clothes, leaving me almost naked.

When I knew I would not be able to fight him, I resorted to crying and begging him to let me go but he told me nothing would make him not to have his way with me.

He , after which he begged me to forgive him, that he did not know what came over me.

I was so mad at him that I did not care about what he was saying. While I tried to gather my clothes, he brought out a wad of money and gave me but I told him to keep his money and stormed out of his office, cursing him as I left.

It has been two months now and I am still hurt and bitter over the incident. I don't know if I should report him to the management or just let go. I know he will victimize me if I dare report him and the management of the bank may not take action against a senior manager.

I have not been able to tell anyone of the assault, not even my fiance or my parents but it is eating me up and my productivity has dwindled as a result.

Victoria."
He made this known during the inauguration of a five-man board for SKYRUN Cocoa Processing Industry, in Ede, Osun state.

The inauguration of the board took place at the Government House, Osogbo.

According to him, this board, with the help of a partnership with a Chinese company, would improve cocoa production while turning Osun into the hub of Chinese investment in Nigeria.

Aregbesola also announced the company's plan to invest N10billion. He said this would provide opportunities.

In his words, "With N10 billion coming to the state through the production of cocoa and other related products, then Osun people rest assured of better life in commerce, trade and industry as our state would soon be the hub of Chinese investment in Nigeria.

"I have been to the head quarters of Shanghai Golden Monkey Group in China and I have confidence that with the vast industrial and commercial investment of this company, we are on the right economic track in developing our state through a productive, efficient and profitable partnership."

The governor also urged the newly inaugurated five-man board to do a good job.

Dr Adewale Adeeyo leads the board, along with Mr Jianhu Liu, Mr Xie Shao, Mrs Feng Xu and Elder George Adedeji.

Speaking on behalf of other members of the board, the newly inaugurated Chairman, thanked the governor for reviving the once moribund cocoa processing company in Ede.

He said, "Ede cocoa industry is up and running, and with the unmistakably intelligent 55-year experience of Golden Monkey, we would certainly rise to the height top in world cocoa and chocolate production business in West Africa.

"The success story of this industry would never have been possible without the resilient spirit of Governor Rauf Aregbesola, I praise the foresight of our great Governor and I will never be able to thank him enough for the persistent support that has sustained this major. industry into its now flourishing and profitable status.

"Rebuilding a moribund industry has never been an enjoyable experience, but our Governor has made it look like a child\'s play through his support and we have been able to record a seamlessly marvellous story."

The Chairman of the Shanghai Golden Monkey Group, Mr Qisan Zhao also spoke up at the inauguration ceremony.

Mr Zhao announced his company to provide 1,000 jobs for the unemployed youths.

In his remarks, the Chairman said, "This is the first time I am visiting Nigeria. With what I have seen, it is not a doubt that my presence has made me know that Nigeria has plenty of talents that could aid her to greatness commercially, economically and industrially. Nigeria is a good place to be.

"I represent 5,000 staffers of Golden Monkey Group and in 2015 the company had an agreement to partner with Osun having decided to invest in Nigeria on cocoa production and as at today, the ties have translated to positive results so far.

"With this move in the business world, we have seen that Nigeria is like China where everywhere is a chance for business and businessmen to thrive.

"Our partnership with Osun has made us see that cocoa beans in Nigeria are the best in the world, and we are ready to queue into this consciously to ensure the possible development of the state and Nigeria as a whole.

"I have the confidence to invest more in Osun. We are going to invest to ensure that Osun and Nigeria become the best producers of chocolate with great positive effects on the economy of Osun.

"We want to invest in Osun not only to boost her commercial trade and investment but to provide massive employment opportunity for her citizens.

"For these reasons, we have resolved to invest N10 billion into the Skyrun Cocoa Product Industry, Ede so as to boost the state's capacity in commerce, industry and business."
After an ambush by the terrorist group on the exploration team in the Magumeri area of Borno state, dozens were killed while 10 people were reportedly kidnapped.

The team was made up of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) workers and staff of the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID).

A day after the attack, the Director, Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Sani Kukasheka Usman, disclosed in a statement that all the kidnapped victims had been rescued.

However, the statement has been proven to be false after it emerged that more than 69 people have been reported dead from the encounter.

It was further revealed in a video released by Boko Haram that three members of staff of UNIMAID are still in captivity.

The director has issued a retraction of that original statement, saying that the error was not deliberate.

The full statement read, "The incident of 25th July 2017 where some Boko Haram Terrorists ambushed our troops including members of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) escorting some staff of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as well as that of University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) on oil exploration in Borno Yesu District of Magumeri Local Government Area of Borno state is unfortunate and highly regrettable.

"Most regrettable also is my earlier release on the said incident about the rescue of all NNPC Staff. The error in the statement was not deliberate. The Nigerian Army in this present dispensation is reputed for timely dissemination of information on activities of our troops in all theatre of operations.

"We have strived to keep the public informed on our activities with no intention of distorting any fact. Our troops have doubled efforts in the pursuit of the Boko Haram terrorists while search and rescue is still on-going to secure the safe return of the remaining civilians.

"So far the search and rescue team has recovered additional bodies of 5 soldiers, 11 Civilian JTF and 5 members of the exploration team.

"Contrary to reports in some media, 6 members of exploration team out of 12 that went out are still missing, while one of the NNPC staff returned to base alive.

"On the other hand, our pursuit team also recovered 2 of our own Gun trucks and an additional Toyota Buffalo Gun truck from the insurgents.

"In addition, the team also made the following recoveries; 4 Rocket Propelled Grenade Bombs, 4 Rocket Propelled Grenade chargers, 6 AK-47 rifles, 1 Anti-Aircraft Gun, 1 General Purpose Machine Gun,1 Anti-Aircraft Gun Barrel, 1 Rocket Propelled Grenade Tube, 4 Dane Guns, 8 Tyres and 2 Tyre Rims.

"Other items recovered include 1 Pumping Machine, 2 Tyre Jacks, 1 Super Battery, 5 Reflective Jackets, 3 Toyota Hilux, 4 Jerry cans filled with PMS, 1 Motorola Radio, 1 Geographical Positioning System (GPS), 21 empty Jerry cans, 2 Shovels and 3 Food Coolers. Troops also recovered 122 rounds of PKM ammunition, 213 rounds of 7.62mm NATO ammunition, 1255 Anti-Aircraft Guns ammunition, 4 boxes of API 12.7mm ammunition, 1 AK-47 Rifle Magazine, a Digger, 2 Bows and 13 Arrows, 2 LLG Bombs, assorted drugs and assorted working tools.

"The Nigerian Army condoles with the families of all that lost their loved ones in this unfortunate incident.

"Search and rescue efforts are on-going. We are counting on the goodwill and support of the populace in volunteering valuable information that could help in the search and rescue operation.

"What the remnants of the Boko Haram terrorists are doing are pure criminal activities of kidnapping to gain funds. This has been noted and will be jointly addressed in conjunction with other Security Services.

"The Nigerian Army remains resolute in the fight against terrorism and would not relent in its effort to safe guard lives of citizens, properties and the territorial integrity of the country."
Ogunyemi disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ota on Monday.

He said as at July 30, 47 road accidents occurred which resulted in the death of 22 persons, while 88 sustained various degrees of injury.

The corps commander said that 479 were arrested for various offences ranging from violation of traffic rules and driving without license, among others.

He urged road users in the state to be cautious on the highways, especially in August due to the excessive rainfall witnessed during the month.

He also advised motorists to always fasten their seat belt while driving and ensure that they had C-Caution in their vehicles to alert and prevent articulated vehicles from ramming into them.

Ogunyemi blamed majority of the road accidents to abandoned or broken down vehicles on the highways which, he said, had claimed so many lives.
The announcement was made by the group's self-acclaimed President of Biafra, Barr. Benjamin Onwuka at a press briefing in Enugu.

According to a report by The Daily Post, the interim government he announced includes: Prof. Pat Utomi as the Foreign Minister, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo in charge of Central Bank of Biafra (CBB), Prof. Jerry Gana as Minister of Transport, Labaran Maku as Minister of Aviation, and Mrs. Aruma Oteh as Minister of Finance.

Others are: Amarachi Ubani as Minister of Information, Chief Nnia Nwodo as Ambassador to the United States of America (USA), Mrs. Mary Okafor as Minister of Trade and Industry, Benny Lar as Secretary to the Government of the Republic, Gabriel Oluwole Osagie as Minister of Education, Prof Barth Nnaji as Minister of Energy, and Philip Effiong Jnr. as Minister of Health.

Barr. Onwuka declared, "I am the President of Biafra; we have formed an interim government that will be in place till the next 30 days.

"The interim government will take off tomorrow, August 1 and last till August 31, 2017, that is 30 days.

"America is behind the Biafra people because former President Barrack Obama already endorsed Biafra before he left office and President Donald Trump will not go against it considering that it has formed part of Americas foreign policy."

He went on to disclose that positions of defence, internal affairs, and Inspector General of Police and Air Force would go to Israeli citizens.

According to him, "Israel will be key players in this government because there is so much corruption in Nigeria; so, they are coming to help us clean the system. They are coming to sweep the system. They will challenge agro-revolution and also abolish corruption very easily.

"Same goes for America; their companies will be in control of our oil industry. This is to reward them for what Obama did for us; Obama saved us even when we were in detention; they already passed death sentence on us even without our knowledge, but Obama's intervention saved us."

He further called for withdrawal of security agents from the Nigerian government to form a Biafran security agency.

He said, "All our security personnel in the army, police, air force, navy and others are hereby called upon to withdraw from Nigeria and join the Biafra government.

"I am also calling on the avengers, the militants to come out from the creeks and join us to defend and protect Biafra. Im beckoning on Asari Dokubo, Tompolo, Ateke Tom to come out and join us. I am calling on all our boys in Biafra land to come out. Im not afraid, the US is with us."

Barr. Onwuka was in 2014 arrested after his group tried to declare the Republic of Biafra at the Enugu State Broadcasting Service.

The group had also stormed the Enugu State Government House and hoisted their flag, claiming that they had seized power and declared a Biafra independence, before they were repelled.
This was disclosed by the spokesperson for the party's National Caretaker Committee, Dayo Adeyeye.

While speaking to Punch in Abuja on Sunday, July 30, 2017, Adeyeye said, "The celebration of the alleged defeat of Boko Haram was premature. There was no need for that celebration. It was based on false information and distortion of facts.

"Now, we have seen the result that Boko Haram was not defeated and that is why the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, ordered the Army chief to relocate to Maiduguri.

"This is a grand deception; you can see that.

"It has been a complete disaster. Of course, we can have challenges fighting Boko Haram, but they should not deceive Nigerians. That is very important.

"They (the government) went to start the oil exploration in order to deceive Nigerians and the international community that Boko Haram has been defeated. They will claim that after all, we are now there and exploring oil. It is all deceit."

In what was Boko Haram's bloodiest attack in 2017, at least 69 people, including soldiers and civilians, died after the ambush of an oil exploration team in the Magumeri area of Borno.
Ojelabi, who is the Head of Media and Communication, LAMATA, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Monday.

He said that the terminal project was part of the Lagos Bus Reform Programme of the state government to organise transportation services in the state capital.

The media head explained that the current situation where commercial buses used the roads and under the bridges in Ikeja as parks was not in line with international practice.

Government wants to enhance the aesthetics of the city and clean up Ikeja."

Ikeja is the state capital and you cannot allow about 20 bus parks in one area and those buses are going to the same place."

So, all the parks are going to be relocated to the bus terminal."

The project which started in February was supposed to be completed in four months but the contractor had to place order to import Teflon, a substance used in molding articles."

Apart from that, the offices and tarmac to hold the buses are ready, the terminal as it is, is ready for use as soon as the governor commissions it."

I can say that the project is 90 per cent completed, he said.

The spokesperson explained that the project was designed as a mega terminal to accommodate buses plying various routes in the state.

Ojelabi said that the terminus was designed to accommodate and take buses to over 30 destinations within the state.

As part of its bus reform programme, the state government is introducing medium and high capacity buses that will take 30 passengers and above from the central point, where people will board the buses, he said.

The LAMATA spokesman explained that under the states Strategic Master Plan for transportation, there would be 13 bus terminals across the state which the Ikeja Bus Terminal will link up, for ease of commuting.

He said that a recent survey revealed that people usually commuted to about 30 destinations and that was captured in the design to have the Ikeja terminal as a central point for buses.

Ojelabi explained that the project included e-terminal zones, where people could purchase tickets with sitting areas.

These are not buses that will park and pick passengers and leave, not like what we have at under the Ikeja Bridge, he said.

He said that the states Strategic Transport Master Plan had 14 Bus Rapid Transit corridors to complement other forms of transportation, to assess inner routes which the Ikeja bus terminal captured.

Ojelabi said that the state governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, had announced that over a five year period, 5,000 medium and high capacity buses would be injected into the Bus Reform System.

The media and communication head also said that about 300 of those buses would be for the Ikeja route.

According to him, the governor has a vision to give the state a world class transportation system.
THE GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER

Were wrong on Boko Haram ambush, says Nigerian Army

The Nigerian Army has apologised to the public for issuing a statement that turned out to be false on last weeks attack on geologists from the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) who were with some officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in the Lake Chad region.

Two million containers stranded in Lagos ports

No fewer than two million containers laden with various cargoes worth over N5 trillion are currently stranded at the Lagos port complex, due to the inability of importers to evacuate them.

Stakeholders fault Etisalats $1.2b debt management, investments claim

The controversy dogging Etisalats $1.2 billion alleged Non-Performing Loan with 13-bank syndicate group has remained unsettling as stakeholders raise suspicion of incompetence, connivance and overstatement of investments.

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VANGUARD NEWSPAPER

Boko Haram: Osinbajo meets service chiefs, IGP, DSS boss

ACTING President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, last night, had another meeting with Service chiefs, Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris; and Director-General of Department of State Services, DSS.

IGBONLA SIX: How colleagues sickness aborted victims escape plan

More revelations about the 65-day abduction experience of the freed six Senior Secondary School students of Lagos Model College, Igbonla Epe, in their abductors den were unveiled yesterday, as one of the students disclosed how they attempted to escape from the den when it became apparent that their captors were not willing to release them quickly.

NEW ROAD MAP: FG, IOCs earmark N2trn for 457 projects in NDelta

MONTHS after the Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajos fact-finding tour of Niger-Delta, the Federal Government has come up with a two-year Strategic Implementation Work Plan, SWIP, involving the execution of 457 short, medium and long-term projects, to the tune of N2,065,140,035,959, across the nine states of the region, starting from this year.

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THE PUNCH NEWSPAPER

Boko Haram: ASUU threatens strike if FG doesnt rescue abducted lecturers

The Peoples Democratic Party, the Nigeria Labour Congress and civil rights groups, on Sunday, lashed out at the Federal Government for the killing of lecturers and oil workers on their way to the Lake Chad Basin by the Boko Haram sect.

Thugs attack senators, Reps, journalists in Kaduna

The secretariat of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Kaduna State Council was attacked by political thugs on Sunday.

Badoo strikes again in Ikorodu, kills couple, two kids

After a few weeks of relative peace, the notorious ritual cult, Badoo, has rekindled panic in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State.

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THISDAY NEWSPAPER

Northern Youths to Withdraw Quit Notice to Igbos This Week, Says Shettima

The coalition of Northern youths that asked Igbos in the North to quit the region before October 1, 2017, has agreed to withdraw the quit notice and give peace a chance, Borno State Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, said Sunday in Abuja.

US: Nigerian Military Lacks Capacity to Hold Captured Territories in NEast

In spite of the federal governments claim that the military had defeated the Boko Haram terrorists and was busy rehabilitating displaced persons in the North-east, the United States Bureau of Counter-terrorism has said that the Nigerian military is unable to hold and rebuild civilian structures and institutions in areas cleared by it in the region.

FG, States, LGs Shared N3.010tn in First Half of 2017

The Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) disbursed N3.010 trillion to the three tiers of government between January and June this year, figures compiled by THISDAY.

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THE BUSINESSDAY NEWSPAPER

GTBank, Stanbic, UBA, others surpass 2014 highs

As the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) broad market index, NSEASI approaches the next psychologically important mark, a peek below the surface at major components show a few market leaders powering the rally.

NHIS turmoil reveals critical operational lapses

A raging storm at Nigerias National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) is revealing critical administrative lapses, which have made it difficult for some Health Management Organisations (HMOs) to run effectively, hindering universal health coverage.

Seaports activity up on back of FX liquidity
Its been 85 days since Buhari left Nigeria for an open-ended medical vacation in London.

The Nigerian leader left Nigeria on May 7, 2017.

It took 77 days for the presidency to make pictures of a convalescing Buhari available to the local press.

Days later, the Nigerian president met with another group of Governors. Images from that meeting immediately swarmed the social media space.

The president is looking better than when he left Nigerias shores and for that, we are thankful to God.

However, like weve said here over and over again, theres no other country in the world where the president just disappears without a word for over two months. The rest of the world must be shocked to its marrow.

The point has been made time and again that the fact that the nations number one citizen is tending to his health in a London apartment, is an indictment on himself and the nations ailing health sector he promised to fix.

Its also arrogant of Buhari that he hasnt deemed it necessary to speak directly to the millions of people back home who got him elected president in 2015.

The president deemed it necessary to pen a letter from his London apartment to the Guinean president, Alpha Conde, and none to Nigerians.

In the past, Buhari has also made policy pronouncements to the international press during foreign travels, at the expense of the local press who are only considered good enough for press statements.

It is a disdain for the local press that is ingrained within the Buhari presidency.

The irony of a member of the international press taking subtle digs at Buhari and the rest of the nation he leads, therefore wasn't lost on anyone.

In the more than six months since he took office, could not have been more visible, dominating headlines just about every day, said CNNs Fareed Zakaria on his program, the Global Public Square (GPS), last weekend.

Continuing in tongue-in-cheek fashion, Zakaria said; One country has had the opposite problem in recent months and it brings you to my question: Which countrys head of state has not set foot in his homeland in over two months?

Zakarias options were:

A)Saudi Arabia (B) Cuba (C) Nigeria (D)Syria.

Everyone got the answer right. Every Nigerian got the answer right.

The answer was staring us in the face. CNN and Zakaria were having a laugh at our expense and lets be honest, we asked for it.

ALSO READ: 7 things we learnt as president meets APC Governors

I was having lunch while watching Zakaria pose the question during a segment of his program. It was all I needed to shove the bowl of rice out of sight and bid my appetite some farewell for the rest of the day.

See our life outside.

It wasnt lost on me that CNN and the rest of the world were mocking Nigeria and Nigerians.

It was embarrassing. This was one odium and ridicule well deserved from Zakaria and his team.

We are still awaiting our president and he has promised that once his Doctors hand him the all clear, hell be back home. As always, we wish him a speedy recovery and will welcome him home with open arms whenever he chooses to return.

But lets not dismiss the ridicule from CNN and the international community on account of Buharis medical sojourn.

Years from now, when school kids are asked the question: Which countrys head of state did not set foot in his homeland in over. during exams, therell only be one answer--Nigeria.
Also its 7th edition, the 2017 Lights Camera Africa!!! Festival aims to bring to its audiences, a reflective presentation of films that it hopes will support a common contemplation on opportunities for a "reset' of the weakening world order.

"We hope you are as excited as we are about bringing the people of Lagos a wonderful screening programme dedicated to the best of independent and African film as well as our family and industry-engaging offerings through discussions, talks and family-friendly programming," Ugoma Adegoke, the festival's director said.

This years programme hopes to demonstrate the festivals commitment to its mission of exposing African and global audiences to good quality independent African cinema, with a view to stimulating discourse on issues and experiences rooted in the African experience.

In partnership with the African Film Festival New York, the three-day 2017 edition will screen films that examine these issues in the political, science and arts sphere.

Over the years, the festival has had support from scholars, directors, artists and personalities like Tunde Kelani, Peace Anyiam-Osigwe, John Akomfrah OBE, Manthia Diawara, Uwem Akpa, Taiwo Ajai-Lycett, Pascal Ott, Ego Boyo, Kunle Afolayan, Tam Fiofori, Odia Ofeimun, Victor Ehikhamenor, Emeka Ed Keazor, Femi Odugbemi, Chika Anadu, Remi Vaughan-Richards, Kene Mkparu, Shaibu Husseini, Mildred Okwo, Nadia Denton, Adebola Williams, Lala Akindoju and Jahman Anikulapo.
Sunday's ceremony in Khartoum added Sudan to the 85 million-strong worldwide Anglican communion's 38 member churches -- known as provinces -- and six other branches known as extra provincials.

Welby said that creating a 39th Anglican province with its own Khartoum-based archbishop was a "new beginning" for Christians in Sudan.

He installed Ezekiel Kondo Kumir Kuku as the country's first archbishop and primate at a ceremony in the capital's All Saints Cathedral attended by American, European and African diplomats and hundreds of worshippers.

"We welcome the new primate with jubilation," Welby announced to a cheering crowd as he handed a cross to Kuku.

Welby, spiritual head of the Church of England and of the global Anglican Communion, said it was a rare opportunity for an archbishop to declare a new primate.

"It is a responsibility for Christians to make this province work, and for those outside (Sudan) to support, to pray and to love this province," he said.

"The church must learn to be sustainable financially, to develop the skills of its people, and to bless this country as the Christians here already do."

'Autonomous church'

The idea of a separate Anglican province in Sudan was first discussed in 2009 as it became clear that the south would secede.

Previously, the Episcopal Church of Sudan and South Sudan administered the region, Reverend Francis Clement of All Saints Cathedral told AFP.

"But after the split it was decided to have a separate, autonomous Episcopal Church of Sudan," he said.

"Today, we inaugurated that. It will have its own autonomous adminstration to take its own decisions."

There is no central Anglican authority such as a pope, with each member church making its own decision in its own ways guided by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Human rights and Christian campaign groups have regularly accused the Sudanese authorities of persecuting Christians and even destroying churches in the capital since the north-south split.

About three years ago two South Sudanese pastors, Yat Michael and Peter Yen, were arrested in Sudan on charges including spying and crimes against the state.

The two, arrested by agents of Sudan's powerful National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), were released by a Khartoum court in August last year.

Since the 1989 coup that brought Islamist backed President Omar al-Bashir to power, authorities in Khartoum have pursued Arabising and Islamising policies in a bid to unify the country.

This has stirred resentment and helped trigger a devastating civil war that ended with the secession of the mainly Christian south.

Christian communities in Sudan today are mostly found in the Nuba mountains of South Kordofan state. Experts say that between three and five percent of Sudan's about 25 million population are Christian.

US President Donald Trump is to decide on October 12 whether to permanently lift sanctions imposed in 1997 over Khartoum's alleged backing for Islamist militant groups.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 1,465 intending pilgrims from the state have been medically certified for the pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

The Executive Secretary of the board, Alhaji Mohammed Tunde-Jimoh told NAN that the disqualified women had been notified.

The exclusion of the three pregnant women detected after the medical screening of the intending pilgrims is not punitive, but to safeguard their health and that of the babies, he said.

He warned the intending pilgrims not to engage in drug trafficking and other negative tendencies capable of tarnishing the image of the country.
Unfortunately, the 'sad' part is that it has had time to bleed into our vocabulary, so, now people have quotes and phrases that they think are from the Bible.

But, the truth is there are so many things that we think are Biblical but really aren't.

Many of them that sound 'holy' are actually just paraphrases of the actual Bible verses.

Thus, here is a little Bible 101 to let you know which of these popular sayings do NOT exist in the scriptures.

1. Heaven or God help those who help themselves: How many times have we have pastors say this from the pulpit? At least, a million times, if we had to count. While this is an extremely popular Biblical-sounding saying, it might shock you to know this isn't actually from the Bible. Here is what the Bible actually says about God helping us.

"For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly....But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:6, 8). See Proverbs 28:26 and Jeremiah 17:5 for more.

2. Spare the rod, spoil the child: This totally sounds like something from the Bible, right? Shocker, it isn't there. The below are as close as it gets to this popular statement:

"He who withholds his rod hates his son, But he who loves him disciplines him diligently" (Proverbs 13:24).

"Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of discipline will remove it far from him" (Proverbs 22:15).

"Do not hold back discipline from the child, Although you strike him with the rod, he will not die.

You shall strike him with the rod, And rescue his soul from Sheol" (Proverbs 23:13-14).

"The rod and reproof give wisdom, But a child who gets his own way brings shame to his mother" (Proverbs 29:15).

Same principle, just different words.

3. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you: I'm sorry to announce this isn't in the Bible too. What the Bible really says is "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them (Matthew 7:12; Luke 6:31).

4. Cleanliness is next to godliness: We all know how popular this one is. Preachers say it all the time, our parents repeat it in a bid to get us to do our chores and we grow up saying it to the next generation. Sadly, this isn't in the Bible. This is actually a paraphrase of a passage that was coined by John Wesley. He was an 18th-century evangelist, who founded Methodism. Concerning the issue of cleanliness, the Bible says:

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you" (John 15:3).

The subject of cleanliness is repeated in 2 Corinthians 7:1, James 4:8, and Ephesians 5:26-27.

5. God works in mysterious ways: I know, I was just as surprised as you are to discover that this isn't from the Bible. No one knows how this became a thing, although Blue Letter Bible reports that it may have originated from William Cowper's hymn "God Moves in a Mysterious Way." See Deuteronomy 29:29 and Romans 8:28 for what the Bible says about God's mysterious ways.

Other seemingly Biblical phrases that can't be found in the God's Word include "Money is the root of all evil" and "Pride comes before the fall." (See 1 Timothy 6:10 and Proverbs 16:18).

'So, how come we have so many common 'Biblical' sayings?', I can hear someone ask.

The problem is that we are simply too dependent on others, our pastors, parents and so on.

So when they say something, we are inclined to just take it without actually doing any research of our own.

Thomas Kidd, a history professor at Baylor University in Texas, explains it best.

He said: No matter if John Wesley or someone else came up with a wise saying - if it sounds proverbish, people figure it must come from the Bible.

With that being said, I hope this article gives us that extra push to spend more time reading the Bible so we know what is and isn't in it.
The President of the Association, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi said the strike would commence if the Federal Government does not strengthen security in the University of Maiduguri and ensure the release of the abducted staff members.

Ogunyemi said Our union is no doubt saddened by the UNIMAID incident. It is a concrete manifestation of our fears all along. As far back as June 9, we expressed our fears about the alarming security situation in the Maiduguri metropolis and particularly in UNIMAID. Those fears we expressed are beginning to manifest concretely.

The situation could have been better handled. Our members, who were carrying out their legitimate duties were made vulnerable to this experience.

We have told the government to take the necessary steps and get our members in captivity released or else, we may be forced to call out our members. But we are getting assurances now that the government is going to do the needful.

Commenting on ASUU's threat, a Lagos State University lecturer, Dr Saheed Adeyemo, who is currently in Malaysia said the Union's warning to Federal Government is a good attempt to protect its own and make the government to be alive to its responsibility.

"Every association of union has the right to protect its own and one of the ways by which you can make a government to take an action on an issue sometimes is to issue a strong statement. However, they can not say so and act in earnest over such pronouncements. It is just to sensitize the government.

"As we know, whether the government is working on an issue or not, it is when people hear what they are doing that they will believe the government is taking a matter seriously. If you consider the abduction of the school boys in Lagos, it was because there were agitations from the public and right now the students have been released. Same thing with the Chibok girls. So, for ASUU to speak about their members, I don't think it is out of place. It is an attempt to make the government be alive to their responsibility because this is a security issue."

ALSO READ: Boko Haram releases video of UNIMAID workers begging for their lives

It would be recalled that the Boko Haram insurgents had on Tuesday, July 25, ambushed troops comprising of soldiers and members of the Civilian Joint Task Force escorting staff members of the university and Nigerian National Petroleum Commission staff who were carrying out oil exploration activities in Borno Yesu District of Magumeri Local government area of Borno state.

The insurgents during the attack killed soldiers, civilians and abducted three staff members of the University of Maiduguri.

The abducted trio according to the video the insurgent released on Thursday, July 28, are Yusuf Ibrahim, a lecturer, Geology department, University of Maiduguri; Haruna, a driver from the University of Maiduguri; and Dr Solomon a lecturer from the University of Maiduguri.

The lecturers were seen in the video begging the Federal Government to come to their aid.
Back in September 2016, after controversial senator Dino Melayemade the allegations on the floor of the Senate, an investigation was agreed by the Senate.

However, the committee set up by the upper house gave no recommendations for punitive measures against the South Africa-based telecom giant but instead berated the CBN over its failure to monitor fund transfers to and from Nigeria calling the apex banks oversight inadequate.

The committee has been investigating MTN Nigerias activities between 2006 and 2016 as well as some lenders including the CBN and Stanbic IBTC Bank.

The committees report recommended that the Senate condemn the CBN for failing in its duty stating that the apex bank failed to properly monitor foreign exchange transfers from the like of MTN.

CBN had lent credence to the banks argument that they were not breaking any laws by transferring foreign currency by failing to apply sanctions to the activities of the banks, the committee recommended.

MTN Nigeria had been accused of tax evasion by Dino Melaye, in September 2016. The senator accused the company of moving a total of $12 billion out of the country between 2006 and 2016.

MTN Nigeria has continually denied any wrongdoing since the allegations were first made.
A divorced mother of two teenage daughters, 49-year-old Montadas has not held a steady job for years. So she helps her disabled neighbour, cleans homes or irons clothes whenever she can to earn some cash.

If she runs low on food, she turns to charities like the Red Cross.

"My life right now is screwed," Montadas told AFP as she pushed the wheelchair through Los Pajaritos, her long hair tied in a ponytail.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Friday applauded data that showed Spain's economic activity is on the verge of recovering pre-crisis levels and the jobless rate has dropped to 17.2 percent, its lowest level in eight years.

But in Los Pajaritos, a neighbourhood of around 21,000 residents located just a few kilometres (miles) from Seville landmarks such as the Giralda tower, the good economic data contrasts sharply with the reality of daily life.

The average annual income per household in Los Pajaritos is 12,307 euros ($14,349). By comparison in Spain's richest neighbourhood, El Viso in Madrid, it is 113,001 euros.

The unemployment rate in the area is 56 percent.

"My daughters are well fed, we have never gone hungry, but that is because I am knocking on doors and thank God the doors open, but I am tired of calling on people all day," Montadas said at her sparsely decorated apartment.

Many of the homes in the neighbourhood are illegally hooked up to the electricity network.

Montadas receives a monthly state unemployment benefit of 312 euros.

She spends 110 euros on the mortgage on her apartment, 40 euros for the building's common expenses, another 40 euros for insurance and ten euros for her mobile phone. The rest goes towards food, leaving four euros a day for the family's remaining expenses.

"I don't have enough to even start to live, but I make a living," she said.

'I am the pillar'

Montadas said she uses a lot of peas and chickpeas. Sometimes there is meat which she gets from charities or neighbours.

Fish is "a luxury" as are yoghurts which her daughters, Andrea, 18, and Maria Luisa, 14, frequently ask for, she added. Last Christmas there were no gifts.

"They don't understand, how shoes or a dress are a huge expense," said Montadas, her eyes tearing up.

"I feel bad, I get down, but what can I do, if I break down, the house will come down because I am the pillar."

The family's problems are mounting. Maria Luisa suffers from developmental delays while Andrea, the oldest daughter, has dropped out of high school.

"She says she wants to live," said Montadas.

Maria Jose Herranz, a coordinator with a charity called Candelaria which distributes aid in the neighbourhood, said she believes the unemployment rate in Los Pajaritos is much higher than the official rate and "easily" stands at around 80 percent.

"There are households where nobody is working, there are many single parent homes, grandmothers who have to look after their grandchildren because their children are in jail or addicted to drugs," she said.

'Crisis was a tsunami'

The neighbourhood was badly affected by the heroin epidemic that swept Spain in the 1980s.

Already in decline, it suffered another blow when Spain was hit by an economic crisis in 2008 in part due to the collapse of a decade-long property bubble.

That left construction workers, many of them in the southern region of Andalucia, out of job.

"The crisis was like a tsunami that swept away those who were already struggling," said Mariano Perez de Ayala, the director of the Seville branch of Caritas, a global charity run by the Catholic Church.

About 70 percent of Spanish households have not noticed the benefits of Spain's economic recovery, according to a Caritas study.

"There are areas of Los Pajaritos that you can't imagine are in a neighbourhood in the European Union," said Perez de Ayala.

"We have a system in which the boom times correct inequality very slowly."

When asked about Spain's economic recovery, Montadas laughs.
The Court of Justice of the European Union last week ordered Poland to suspend logging operations there pending a final judgment on its dispute with the European Union.

But Environment Minister Jan Szyszko told journalists that operations would continue and that they were preparing a response to the Court, to be sent by Friday.

And Greenpeace's Polish spokesman told AFP: "The felling is continuing, even if it is at a lower intensity."

On Saturday, a cameraman trying to establish if the felling operations were continuing was assaulted by employees of one of the logging companies, an incident that was condemned Monday by the authorities.

The European Union took Poland to the Court on July 13, arguing that the operations were destroying a forest that boasts unique plant and animal life, including the continent's largest mammal, the European bison.

The Polish government said it had authorised the logging, which began in May last year, to contain damage caused by a spruce bark beetle infestation and to fight the risk of forest fires.

But scientists, ecologists and the European Union have protested and activists allege the logging is a cover for commercial cutting of protected old-growth forests.

The forest, which straddles Poland's eastern border with Belarus, includes one of the largest surviving parts of the primeval forest that covered the European plain 10,000 years ago.
According to a report by Bloomberg, Scaramucci was removed from his new job as White House communications director just 10 days after he joined the Trump's team.

Mr. Scaramucci felt it was best to give Chief of Staff John Kelly a clean slate and the ability to build his own team, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

Scaramuccis removal was a decision Trump made at the request of Kelly, who replaced Reince Priebus on Friday, July 28, 2017, The New York Times reported.

It was further reported that the timing of Scaramuccis ouster, is a strong signal to the rest of the administration that the presidents new chief of staff, Reince Priebus, has broad authority to impose discipline.
Today is Monday, July 31, the 212th day of 2017. There are 153 days left in the year.

1867 -- 150 years ago: On Thursday of this week, there was a test of reapers on the farm of John Eby, of Buffalo Prairie. The New Yorker, from Underwood & Bogues in Rock Island, won the contest easily.

1892 -- 125 years ago: The Rev. E.D. Green, pastor-elect of Second Baptist Church, was ordained to the ministry.

1917 -- 100 years ago: Dr. B.J. Lachner gave a demonstration of first aid before the Rock Island Boy Scouts.

1942 -- 75 years ago: Prof. Carl Fryxell was elected a director of the Moline School Board on a 14-6 vote.

1967 -- 50 years ago: The colorful childrens Lantern Parade, now a Rock Island tradition, will celebrate its 43rd year on Wednesday night. The parade will begin between 8:30 and 9, as soon as it is dark enough to make the lanterns effective when lighted.

1992 -- 25 years ago: If a steady rain continues to fall today, the Quad-Cities will probably break its record for rainfall in the month of July. As of 8 a.m., the National Weather Service reported 11.17 inches of rainfall.
VIENNA (AP)  An Austrian court has found a man who claimed the mass killings of Jews in gas chambers under Adolf Hitler was a story made up by Jews guilty of violating the country's anti-Nazi laws and sentenced him to a suspended 12-month prison term.

Additionally, the man has been convicted of the crime of incitement for calling Muslims vermin. The court in the western city of Feldkirch ordered him Monday to pay a fine of 1,440 euros ($1,690).

Both statements were made on Facebook. In claiming that the mass gassings were fiction, the man said Jews made up the story to make Hitler look bad should he have won the war.

The 34-year old acknowledged the postings were his. He is not being identified in keeping with Austrian privacy laws.
Of the funding, Lithuania will receive 98.3m, Latvia will receive 7m, and Estonia will receive 5.2m.

Member states of the European Union (EU) approved the funding decision presented at the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) on July 6 to allocate 2.6bn for 152 important transport projects, says Ms Victoria Von Hammerstein-Gesmold, press assistant at the EC.

Grant agreements for the recipients of the funding for all of the projects which will receive investment have been drawn up, and the signing process will start now and last until November.
Union Pacific Railroads Nebraska150 Express heritage train will tour the state August 4-6, to mark the 150th anniversary of the territorys entry into the Union.

The trains vintage passenger equipment and trio of EMD E-9 diesel locomotives will traverse Nebraska over three days, departing from Omaha and stopping for rallies in Columbus, North Platte, Ogallala, Sidney, Gering, Kearney and Grand Island.

To ensure the trip remains on schedule and the tour reaches as many Nebraskans as possible, public train tours and tickets are not available.

Our connection to Nebraska dates back to President Abraham Lincoln founding Union Pacific 155 years ago, when the Cornhusker State was a bustling territory, said Union Pacific Chief Eexecutive Lance Fritz. Our first track was laid in Omaha, not far from where the NE150 Express will be departing. Thanks to the perseverance, ingenuity and support of communities and their citizens, both Union Pacific and Nebraska blossomed with towns developing along the transcontinental railroad route. We look forward to touring the state and visiting these communities as part of the sesquicentennial celebration.
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Mitigation of sentence for alleged hacker Senakh is unwarranted - U.S. prosecutors

MOSCOW, July 31 (RAPSI)  Prosecutors in the cyber fraud case against Russian citizen Maxim Senakh have reiterated their position seeking 4.5 years in prison for the defendant dismissing his arguments for mitigated sentence, court documents available to RAPSI read on Monday.

On March 29, Senakh, alleged creator of the malware, known as Ebury, pleaded guilty to infecting computer servers around the globe. The defendant confessed that he was creating accounts with domain registrars for developing the Ebury botnet infrastructure.

The defendant, however argued that the United States District Court District of Minnesota should acknowledge the time he served in Finland and note that he has no funds to pay the fine. Altogether, the defense believes that considering all the circumstances of the case, repentance of the defendant, his inability to stay in foreign prison and lack of previous conviction, the term of imprisonment should not exceed 36 months.

Prosecutors argued that Senakhs time served in Finnish custody should not be taken into account because decision on this matter is made by the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), not a court. They also insist that Senakh must pay a significant fine in a way that punishment  should not permit him to retain his ill-gotten gains, at least as much as is possible under the law. Finally, prosecutors dont agree to reducing of prison sentence from 54 to 36 months because of scope and impact of the Ebury botnet, the level of Senakhs involvement in supporting and exploiting the botnet.

The alleged criminal was arrested in Finland in August 2015 and later extradited to the United States. Russia condemned actions of the two countries and called Senakh's arrest "another demonstration of the illegal practice of arrest of Russian citizens abroad launched by U.S. authorities.

According to the U.S. authorities, the malware harvested log-on credentials from infected computer servers, allowing the defendant and his accomplices to create and operate a botnet comprising tens of thousands of infected servers throughout the world, including thousands in the United States. The criminal group members used the botnet to generate and redirect internet traffic in furtherance of various click-fraud and spam e-mail schemes, the statement of the U.S. Department of Justice reads.
Russian antimonopoly watchdog checks Yandex, Google for preferential product placement

MOSCOW, July 31 (RAPSI)  Russias Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) is analyzing largest web search engines, Yandex and Google, over alleged preferential resource allocation, RIA Novosti reported Monday.

In late June, the European Commission fined Google 2.4 billion rubles ($40.2 million) for abusing its leading position on the web search market. In particular, Google search system prioritized the corporations own Google Shopping service. If Google fails to mitigate the situation it may be subjected to sanctions up to 5% of parent company Alphabets worldwide daily revenue.

According to the FAS, it is researching Googles case and overall behavior of web search companies on the Russian market.

On May 16, Google paid all administrative fines imposed by Russias Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) as part of antitrust investigation. Administrative proceedings against Google over its refusal to comply with the watchdogs order were terminated after an amicable agreement had been achieved on April 17 in a dispute between the FAS and the U.S. company. The settlement was approved by a federal court and a two-year-long legal battle between the watchdog and Google finally came to an end.

In September 2015, the watchdog held that Google Ireland Ltd. and Google Inc. abused their dominance on the Russian market of mobile applications by preinstalling applications on Android smartphones and therefore violated anti-monopoly law. Google was fined but refused to comply and challenged the FAS order in Russian courts. Later, the FAS imposed additional fines against Google, amounting to nearly 1 million rubles ($16,600) in total.
Russian President pardons two women sentenced for treason

MOSCOW, July 31 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has pardoned two women, who had earlier received prison terms for treason, according to the official website of legal information.

The pardon decree will take effect after ten days from its official publication.

Marina Dzhandzhgava was sentenced to 12 years behind bars in 2013; Annik Kesyan was given an 8-year prison term in 2014, the website of unofficial human rights group of lawyers and journalists Team 29 reads. They were convicted of sending messages allegedly containing information about a railroad train with war equipment bounding for the Republic of Abkhazia in 2008.

In March 2017, Putin pardoned another woman, Oksana Sevastidi, who had been sentenced to 7 years in prison for the same crime.

According to Sevastidis lawyer Ivan Pavlov, it was not the first case opened on charges of treason because of SMS-messages sent shortly before the military operation in Georgia resulted in Russian recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.
Owner of troubled Russian bank wanted for alleged embezzlement

MOSCOW, July 31 (RAPSI)  Actual owner of the St. Petersburg bank Banking House Yevgeny Lykov has been put on the federal wanted list for alleged embezzlement of 600 million rubles (about $10 million), the Investigative Committee announced on its website on Monday.

In August 2016, it was reported that officers of the Federal Security Service for St. Petersburg (FSB) and local investigators conducted searches in the Banking House.

Investigators believe that Lykov, an actual owner of the bank, embezzled over 600 million rubles and transferred the funds to his own accounts. Allegedly he also forged over a thousand sham credit contracts signed without clients knowledge and made it look like recipients received the funds.

In July 2017, Lykov was summoned to the Investigative Committees office to be charged with a crime but he did not appear before investigators and did not explain his absence. He was put on the wanted list as a result.

In March 2016, the Russian Central Bank revoked the Banking Houses license noting that the bank has a large shortage of funds and is engaged in questionable operations. In April, the bank was declared bankrupt.
What many observers have been nervously suspecting for months is now clear: President Donald Trump is intent on eviscerating the Iran nuclear deal, irrespective of the overwhelming evidence that it is successfully staving off Iranian nuclear weapons development.

According to an Associated Press report this week, the administrations new tactic is to use the deals snap inspections provision, which allows inspectors to demand access to any undeclared sites in Iran reasonably suspected of engaging in off-the-books enrichment activity, to make Iran appear noncompliant. The problem is there is no clear evidence Iran is doing any illicit enrichment or development. So, Iran quite reasonably can be expected to refuse access, at which point the Trump administration can try to falsely depict Iran as violating the deal.

As Daryl Kimball, director of the Arms Control Association tweeted, the Iran deals special access provisions were designed to detect & deter cheating not to enable false pretext for unraveling the agreement. The administration is simply seeking trumped up reasons to sink [the] Iran deal.

And as Mark Fitzpatrick, executive director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, put it: if there is real evidence of illicit activity, then an inspection request is warranted. A request designed to trap Iran into saying no isnt.

This is all in the context of worrying reports of an intense showdown at the White House earlier this month. The administration is required to certify Irans compliance with the nuclear deal every ninety days, which Trump has done twice now. But the last time around, some of the more hawkish members of his administration persuaded him that Tehran was in violation of the agreements restrictions, which went against the evidence from the International Atomic Energy Agency of Iranian compliance.

Trump was set on decertifying until an opposing team of White House officials, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis and National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster, prevailed upon the president at the last minute to reverse course and certify Iranian compliance. But, as he confirmed this week, Trump is prepared to overrule his own advisers in proclaiming that Iran hasnt met the terms of the agreement.

"Personally, I have great respect for my people, Trump said, but if it was up to me, I would have had them noncompliant 180 days ago . . . Well talk about the subject in 90 days but I would be surprised if they were in compliance."

That, of course, reverses how these decisions ought to be made. First you look at the evidence, then you determine compliance.

What Tillerson, Mattis and McMaster understood was that refusing to tell the truth and certify Iranian compliance would isolate the United States internationally and rob Washington of any leverage on Iran among European allies, China or Russia. Plus, if the United States deliberately abrogates the deal, Iran will presumably be freed from all of its restrictions on uranium enrichment, stockpiles, round-the-clock inspections, etc.

But even more important, one has to wonder what the endgame is here. If Trump blows up the nuclear deal, what are the options for confronting Iran that an administration full of hawks will then consider? Sure, they may hope to re-impose crippling economic sanctions or take a harder line against Iranian influence in Iraq and Syria. But the logical end to this determined effort to upend diplomatic progress and ratchet up tensions is military action.

Now, one would think that only some kind of Rip Van Winkle, asleep in the hills for the last fifteen years, could seriously advocate another U.S. war in the Middle East. The Bush administration launched the Iraq war on false pretenses based on cherry-picked intelligence, which was developed in order to fit a policy decision for war that had already been made. A few powerful ideologues in the White House with unwavering confidence in the effectiveness of U.S. military force to change regimes and recreate the Middle East in Americas image, used the pretext of weapons of mass destruction to launch a war. It was a terrible failure that cost trillions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives and continues to be a source of instability in the region today.

But advocates for military action and regime change against Iran are out there. And in high places. John Bolton, former UN ambassador under George W. Bush, for example, was an early candidate to be Trumps secretary of state and continues to be a regular visitor to the White House. Some insiders think he is angling to be Trumps replacement for McMaster, with whom Trump is increasingly at loggerheads. Bolton has repeatedly argued for military action to solve the Iranian nuclear issue once and for all.

To be clear, any limited strike against Irans nuclear facilities will not be limited for long. First, a limited strike couldnt destroy the entirety of Irans nuclear program, which is dispersed and redundant throughout the country, with several facilities buried underground. And in order to conduct even limited strikes, the United States would have to target Iranian air defenses, likely prompting a much broader campaign. Moreover, Iran is likely to respond, not by capitulation and submission, but by retaliating against U.S. bases in the region, launching asymmetric attacks against U.S. assets and allies, and pursuing a nuclear weapons break-out capability in earnestresponses which would then generate calls for greater U.S. military action, in a dangerous cycle of escalation.

Luckily, the Trump administration has an uphill battle in destroying the nuclear deal and putting the United States and Iran back on the path to war. First, several top cabinet officials apparently oppose such a route. Second, the White House will get considerable push back from European allies, Russia, China and the rest of the international community. And third, if the Obama administrations failed 2013 push to widen the U.S. war in Syria is any indication, the American people wont tolerate another costly major conflict.

The Iran nuclear deal is working. If it falls apart and America is once again poised to blunder into yet another tragic failure in the Middle East, it will be Washingtons fault. Lets hope Trump thinks better of it.
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Samsung makes the largest number of non-4G feature phones in India

A substantial portion of the estimated 159-million feature phone device market could shift to Reliance Jio this year.

This is likely to impact the Indian device manufacturers, small Chinese manufacturers as well as Korean giant Samsung.

That is, of course, if Jio decides to continue importing more phones or getting them manufactured in India through international suppliers.

According to sources, Jio is already in talks with Taiwanese major Foxconn Technology group, the worlds largest contract manufacturer of mobile phones, to make its phones.

With a 10 per cent import duty from July 1, Jio is already looking at manufacturing in the country.

With the company planning to launch its device in September, chip manufacturers are expecting the company to ship 30-50 million phones this year - which would be between a third and a fifth of the total feature phone market.

It will surely impact Indian feature phone manufacturers. But in the long run, I am sure the phones will be manufactured in India and that will benefit the country, said Pankaj Mahendru, chief of Indian Cellular Association, the body for mobile phone manufacturers.

The concerns were repeated by the proprietor of an Indian handset manufacturer.

It will have an effect. But what remains to be seen is whether our customers leave us or they buy a JioPhone as an alternative.

The sales channel in rural markets needs to be checked and we will keep a tight grip. Also, poor networks in these regions are not suitable for 4G devices, the person said.

Even Korean giant Samsung, which declined to comment on the launch, would face a dent, analysts said.

After all, they are the largest feature phone manufacturers in the country and do not manufacture 4G-enabled feature phones.

In the long term, however, it could help them by accelerating the shift of feature phone users to smartphones - which was slow earlier because of the price differential of nearly four times.

Big Chinese players like Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and Gionee, however, can continue with their dream run in the country.

The will be unaffected because their focus has always been on smartphones.

It seems a bit difficult to believe that we would launch a phone which wouldnt be smart. All our smartphones are 4G compatible out of the box and we believe the 4G phenomena in the Indian market would act as a booster for the growth of smartphones, a spokesperson of Xiaomi said.

Indian manufacturers are now looking at two alternatives.

Some are talking to Jio to be suppliers for them. Intex, for instance, has admitted publicly that it is in talks with Jio to bundle the phone and will launch the phone this quarter.

The other option is to manufacture premium 4G feature phones, so that it does not compete with Jios offer.

We already have a 4G feature phone that costs more than Rs 3,000. Our strategy will be to make phones that have more features in this space, said S N Rai, director, Lava Mobiles.

The entry of 4G feature phones will, however, not revolutionise this segment as dramatically as smartphones did.

This will not result in market movement to 4G feature phones as quickly as it did in the case of the smartphone, where the share of 4G devices shifted from 11 per cent to 65 per cent in just one year, said Jaipal Singh, senior analyst at IDC.

Analysts say Jio is getting into the device business so that it can kick off an ecosystem for 4G feature phones that does not exist in India at present.

Once other manufacturers get in and offer phones at a cheaper price, Jio would slowly reduce its commitment.

This was precisely what they did with the launch of 4G voice of LTE (VoLTE) phones under the LYF brand.

But with other device manufacturers also introducing a range of VoLTE phones, Jio took a backseat.

According to estimates, the market share of LYF fell to 2.5 per cent in Q4 of 2016-17 from 6.9 per cent in Q3 of 2016-17.

Photograph: Kind courtesy, Jio
'We eat first, they later; we sit on chairs and they on the floor; we call them by their names and they address us by titles.'

'Theres a real feeling that the employers are big people, and its going to be difficult to get police to take their complaints seriously.'



Image: between 1991 and 2001 there was a 120 per cent increase in the numbers of domestic help.

Sumana Barman, 11, a child labourer washes utensils at a house in the northeastern city of Siliguri, West Bengal.

Photograph: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters.

In the decade after liberalisation, there was a nearly 120 per cent rise in the number of domestic workers in India from 740,000 in 1991 to 16.2 lakh workers by 2001, says author Tripti Lahiri, quoting census data in her recently released book, Maid In India.

Women constitute over two-thirds of the workforce in this unorganised sector, which also includes chauffeurs and security guards, according to Lahiris analysis.

Female domestic workers usually come from Indias least-developed regions, such as Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Assam.

Their journeys are cross-country and transnational, as they seek work as servants in affluent homes.

They are, often barely of legal working age, their wages less than the minimum fixed by the government.

Their employers range from Indias elite to its nouveau riche, many of who still believe in the traditional divide between servants and masters.

Abuse, mental, physical or sexual, of these women is not uncommon.

One such dispute between a family and their Muslim domestic worker led to a riot-like situation in a gated community in Noida on Wednesday, July 12.

This is the world of Maid in India.

Through anecdotal evidence, Lahiri charts the sectors trajectory and details the business of brokers and agents and exposes the workers limited access to justice and formalisation.

She also draws from her own personal experiences of engaging domestic help.

'We eat first, they later; we sit on chairs and they on the floor; we call them by their names and they address us by titles,' she writes.

Currently based in Hong Kong, Lahiri is the Asia bureau chief of Quartz, a digital media news organisation.

She has worked for the Wall Street Journal in Delhi and was the founding editor of the Journals India Real Time blog.

In 2012, she won the Ramnath Goenka award for civic journalism.

She has written about industrial disasters in Bangladesh and Indias struggle to combat violence against women.

She has a masters in journalism and Latin American studies from New York University, is fluent in Spanish and says her Italian is rusty. This is her first book.

In an interview with IndiaSpend, Lahiri, left, discusses the lives and times of Indias maids.

India has always had servants in some form or the other, you write. What have been the trends over the last century in the sector?

There have been huge declines and then upswings in the number of domestic workers in India over the last 100 years. In 1931, the Census classified 2.7 million people as servants.

By 1971, the Census found just around 67,000 people doing that work.

A lot of that had to do with changes like the departure of a large class of people able to hire help - British colonial administrators, for example -- and the fact that in the first decades after independence people werent so well-off and almost all women who stayed home did their own work.

But suddenly, between 1991 and 2001 there was a 120 per cent increase in the numbers of domestic help.*

Its true that India has seen a stagnation, even a shrinking, in female labour participation rates long-term.

But because of the immense growth of the population, even with that apparent stagnancy, the absolute numbers of women working outside the home have gone up.

The Census shows the numbers of female workers aged 15-59 went up 17 per cent between 2001 and 2011.

In cities, it went up over 70 per cent from around 14.7 million in 2001 to 25 million in 2011. That trend is driving a demand for help.

Again, more people are prosperous, so even when women in affluent households stay home, those homes can still afford - and want to - hire help.

Indian women do about 15 times more housework than Indian men, as per the 2014 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development report you have quoted. Indian women do about 35 hours of housekeeping chores a week while Indian men do two -- the worst country ratio. What does this tell you about the countrys domestic-service sector?

For me, those numbers really highlighted the difference between women and men in India, and the amount of time that women spend waiting upon men.

In the period in the 2000s when official statistics noted the numbers of women in the workforce fell, other official studies found that women were doing more unpaid housework.

That means if you move out of the paid workforce, you take on more unpaid work at home, which is just considered a part of normal familial duties.

Whether you are a professional domestic worker, a housewife, or a white-collar professional, chances are that you are doing a whole lot more cleaning, cooking and childcare than your equivalent Indian man.

One thing that I didnt end up including in the book is how the normalcy of women and girls doing a lot of housework at home can shape court decisions.

Sometimes there are complaints registered with police that a family is keeping a child worker, and in those cases there might actually be a family relationship, admittedly a distant one.

In two rulings I looked at, the amount of housework those girls were doing was not the decisive factor in courts deciding whether they were maids or family members, because, as one court noted, its common for young women to do a lot of housework for family members.

Instead it was the lack of school enrollment that led to a court ruling in one case that a young girl was a maid, and not a family member.

In the other case, where school attendance records showed the girl was actually going to school regularly, the court ruled that she was being treated as a bonafide family member although she also did a lot of housework.

But the idea that a woman should serve her family in this way is being questioned in some legal cases, for example in divorce petitions.

In several of these that I looked at, the women seeking a divorce say that their in-laws fired the domestic help and gave all the work to them after their marriage, citing this as evidence that they were not treated as true family members.

More people are educated today than in the 1980s. In 1981 the literacy rate was 43.5 per cent -- as of 2011 it was 74.04 per cent. The trend is particularly pronounced for women as the number of female literates has jumped from 29.76 per cent in 1981 to 65.46 per cent in 2011. Despite this, why is the domestic service sector growing at an accelerated pace?

I think this has to do with the same trends that I mentioned earlier, relating to greater urban affluence and more women working in cities.

There are also more young women enrolled in school than ever before. If they go on to college and work in the future, they are also likely to want to hire domestic help.

Startups and other organisations, such as Babajobs, The Maids Company and Self Employed Womens Association (SEWA), attempt to bring these informal workers into the formal space, but your book tells us the formalisation process has not been as successful as it might have been. What are the obstacles to formalising domestic labour?

I should note that I didnt speak with Babajobs or SEWA for the book. But from The Maids Company interviews and other workers I spoke to, Id say there are two big obstacles.

What people think they should pay is really set by what people around them are paying -- basically by the microeconomy they live in.

So it can be really hard to convince people to pay more and if they agree to pay a lot more than their peers, they might end up expecting a lot more in return and being less flexible with their workers.

Conversely, even though workers might be open to banding together and demanding that wages be a certain level, they cant control an influx of migrants willing to undercut them and work for less.

But if there were more states with a law specifying a minimum wage for these workers, it would help, except for workers who are already earning a lot higher that those rates.



Image: In the period in the 2000s when official statistics noted the numbers of women in the workforce fell, other official studies found that women were doing more unpaid housework. Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters.

In your research how often did you find maids approaching the courts for justice against abuse? What are the challenges they face?

I didnt research FIRs and looked mainly at judgements in certain kinds of cases, so I dont have a good sense of the big picture.

Anecdotally Id say that its certainly not a first-resort option for women who arent able to collect pay or who are facing other problems.

Id also say theres a real feeling that the employers are big people, and its going to be difficult to get police to take their complaints seriously.

Most often women want to leave a bad situation, rather than file a complaint.

What did your research tell you about the social mobility of this class of labourers?

There definitely is mobility but it can take more than one generation to happen.

So the child of a young woman who comes to the city as a 24-hour worker is probably not going to jump into the white-collared classes. But the child of a woman who has been working in Delhi for decades might well be able to.

I met a woman in her 50s who started out as a cleaner in her teens and was a housekeeper in central Delhi when we met; her son worked at a top think-tank and to my mind, is part of the Indian elite.

I also think the child of someone like Santosh Srivastava whom I interviewed, a child domestic worker who became a cook and then became a placement agent, is going to go to college. I dont know if shell become a white-collar professional but she has a good shot.



Image: India is a really varied country and peoples relations with the help are pretty different, west to east, north to south.

Subhankar Baidya, aged five, eats his lunch at a home operated by "Free the Children," an Indian non-government organisation near Kolkata. Baidya does not want to talk about the sufferings he endured as a domestic servant, but silently points towards paper sketches he draws frequently to portray his misfortune.

Photograph: Parth Sanyal/Reuters.

In September 2014, the Delhi governments labour department issued executive directions for the regulation of private placement agencies providing domestic labour in the National Capital Region (NCR). How effective has this been in curbing exploitation?

These rules didnt become law, and I dont think they are really being applied yet.

Why did you focus your research on the Delhi-NCR region?

India is a really varied country and peoples relations with the help are pretty different, west to east, north to south.

But Delhi/NCR is the capital, where its wealthiest and most powerful reside, which is why it seemed to me that looking at how well Delhi handles this relationship was really important, and maybe was a proxy for how India as a whole handles inequality and class.

Its also a city that I know well, and where I was living when I was working on the book, so I could spend more time with workers whose jobs were in Delhi.

Which regions of India serve as the main sources of domestic labour and why?

The reasons that some states are maid-sending regions and others are not is down to the weakness of the economies of those areas.

In the same way that there are multitudes of micro-economies in the capital, the country is a collection of pretty different economies - compare the minimum wages of Maharashtra and Jharkhand.

It wouldnt be unfair to compare the wealth of Delhi and its pull on the people of Jharkhand or other eastern states to the dynamic between the United States and Mexico in the 1990s and early 2000s.

For the same reason, you might hear people say that there are no Punjabi maids because the state is too rich. Thats not entirely true.

But because the state is wealthier, their domestic workers are of a more advanced level: they have the knowledge and the connections to find work in Singapore, rather than Delhi. But thats a topic for another book.

* Domestic work has increased 222 per cent since 1999-2000 according to this 2011 report of The Task Force On Domestic Workers. The statistics on domestic workers vary from 4.75 million (employment and unemployment National Sample Survey 61st round, 2004-05) to 6.4 million (Census 2001).

Alison Saldanha is an assistant editor with IndiaSpend.

Photographs: , PTI Photo

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K Vaitheeswaran, co-founder of Indiaplaza, one of India's first e-commerce companies, shares the lessons he learnt from its failure.

Online retail, if run smartly, needs negative working capital and, to achieve this goal, we had negotiated average 40 per cent gross margins at 90 days' credit with most book publishers.

Flipkart, only an online bookstore then, started shipping large volumes by selling below cost and with free shipping.

Flush with early funding, they paid vendors in advance which destroyed any chance we had of continuing business with publishers.

With no funds, the online bookstore we had built over eight years with great passion and strong fundamentals rapidly went downhill.

Other categories were worse.

Electronics, our largest category by value, had low margins and lower credit periods which meant that, if we could not manage books, we could not manage any other category.

Recently, I read an interview by a couple of unicorn founders and learnt, albeit several years late, that back then I too could have requested for government protection since we were a vulnerable Indian start-up being undercut and destroyed by predatory commercial terms from competitors who were indulging in capital dumping backed by foreign funds. LOL!

We changed strategy and focused on the loyalty and institutional business but ran into a fresh challenge.

Loyalty clients enjoyed an average of sixty days' credit which meant we had to buy items upfront, ship and collect later.

We pleaded for some working capital, but to no avail, and since we were unable to adhere to shipment deadlines, most marquee clients moved on.

Another high gross margin business with bluechip clients, built over years of painstaking work, was destroyed.

With a small team of around 35 people, our focus was to somehow survive.

Every day, a few committed employees would go to wholesale markets and negotiate a deal for some interesting item with high margins and seven days' credit.

We would email these deals to customers and use the margins to pay rentals and salaries.

It was a measure of our email marketing skills and high conversion rates that we managed to keep the business running by just doing this.

Interestingly, this period was financially good for us.

Our margins grew steadily, we earned more than our monthly cash needs and for almost two years we survived with neither funds nor support from investors.

Lessons in crisis management

Through this madness of trying to survive physically from thugs while making sure the company also survives, I learnt some valuable lessons in crisis management.

The first lesson was the universal truth that any crisis will pass.

If you are stuck without funds, time will seem to crawl but you must believe that good times are around the corner.

Positivity at all times is a key ingredient for an entrepreneur.

The second lesson was that creditors must be able to access us at all times.

Under intense pressure that is hard to explain in words, I stopped picking my phone calls.

This was a big mistake.

Then, a long time vendor from Delhi walked into my office and offered simple words of advice: 'As a first-generation entrepreneur you may not know this, but ups and downs are common in business. You pay me whenever you can, I will wait. But do not stop picking up my calls.'

'In times like this, when you pick the phone on the other side, we also continue to live on the hope of better times ahead. If you do not pick the phone, then we are forced to explore other methods.'

In 2013 when things became much worse with creditors, I religiously followed this vendor's advice and never stopped taking calls, despite facing massive abuse.

I still use the same mobile phone number I got in the year 1999.

The third lesson is that you will find out who your most loyal employees are.

The committed ones who still have faith stay longer, willing to put up with salary delays, hoping to see turnarounds in future and generally trying harder.

It is easy to be cynical and think that these people are just waiting for another opportunity, but that is not always true.

To people like this, all you can offer is your personal commitment that you undergo the same hardships as others and more often than not the employees will be able to appreciate the sincerity.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are founders who would have made their millions when money is flowing endlessly by selling part of their stake but, when things get tough, they announce personal salary cuts while sacking hundreds of employees.

This is like mocking the sacked employees.

There have been several cases where investors have allowed founders to convert some of their shares to cash and subsequently become investors in other start-ups.

Founders must believe they are building the best company in the world and should not be investing into other start-ups while their own company is struggling to attain profitability.

This approach is not much different from Tiger ploughing in huge sums in Ola and Flipkart, yet subsequently investing in competitors Uber and Amazon as insurance in case the earlier bets don't to pay off as expected.

Excerpted from Failing To Succeed: The Story Of India's First Ecommerce Company by K Vaitheeswaran, with the kind permission of the publishers, Rupa.
'In the three years since 2014 social tyranny has become a very real problem.'

'The government has denounced this tyranny -- once in a while.'

'But its supporters in North India bash on regardless,' says T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.

Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com

For the last three years, an old word has been renewed, not without sufficient reason, 'tyranny'. A very close relative is 'intolerance'.

Much has been made of this word by historians and politicians when discussing British rule in India (1757-1947). But as I wasn't born then, I wouldn't know.

On the whole, though, I think the British, by simply leaving 99.9 per cent of the population alone for 99.9 per cent of the time, couldn't have been all that tyrannical.

They might have been greedy, rapacious, hypocritical, racist and all of that. But tyrannical? Hardly.

Tyranny happens when the government intrudes and controls every aspect of your life.

So we have to rethink tyranny and intolerance in the light of what has happened since 1947.

In India tyranny comes in three forms.

And it can come one at a time; or two at a time; or all together.

We have experienced all three forms.

The form everyone likes to talk about is political tyranny.

It involves dealing with the police, which is never easy. This is what we saw during the Emergency (1975-1977).

The second form is economic tyranny. It has been in place since the mid-1950s.

Under this form of tyranny, if you are a businessman, you can't make a move without the government's permission.

But on the whole, this is a milder form of tyranny because widespread bribery dilutes it considerably.

The third form is social tyranny. We have had this for the last 2,000 years via the solidification of the caste system and since 1947 we have added a new form, communal tyranny.

It has been on the ascendant since 2014. In the first two forms the government is an active agent because the police, the bureaucracy, and/or ministers are involved.

But in the third it is a passive agent: Its party does all the gadbad while the government pretends all is well.

In that sense the governments are like catalysts. They don't participate in the process but they do start it and keep it going.

Thus, if in the 1970s in Tamil Nadu the DMK practised caste tyranny, today the BJP government is allowing communal tyranny.

In fairness to the DMK, though, it never allowed violence against the Brahmins.

By and large this is a North Indian speciality.

The Congress, having been in power for so long, has been a great one at economic and political tyranny.

So today when it talks about tyranny, it is talking only of one aspect of it, the BJP's unforgivably permissive attitude towards mob violence and atrocities against Indian citizens whose only fault is that they are Muslims.

Where economic tyranny is concerned, the Congress choked off India's economic prospects in the name of socialism.

We are still living with its statist legacy, which the BJP seems to love, but is relinquishing reluctantly.

As to political tyranny the Congress once took it to another level altogether. The 38th Amendment to the Constitution in 1975 empowered the government to remove the fundamental rights of the citizen.

The 39th Amendment, also in 1975, placed the President, vice-president, prime minister, and the Lok Sabha Speaker beyond the jurisdiction of the courts, for everything including perhaps murder.

And the 42nd Amendment -- which came to be known as the 'Constitution of Indira' -- reduced the powers of the courts to pronounce on the Constitutional validity of laws.

It also spelt out our 'Fundamental Duties'.

The same Congress today likes to talk about the idea of India.

Social tyranny is absolutely the hardest to handle because it is not the government, but a violent mob that makes demands on citizens while the government does its catalysing act by its non-participation in the process.

It's exactly like an indulgent parent ignoring an unruly offspring who is smashing your TV.

In the three years since 2014 this has become a very real problem. The government has denounced such tyranny -- once in a while. But its supporters in North India bash on regardless, literally.

The more intellectual amongst the government's supporters have tried to deny this with the support of data.

But the question is not about data; it is about what the German philosophers call zeitgeist, or the spirit of the times. Arrests after the event dont change the zeitgeist.

Prime Minister Narendra D Modi must recognise this huge blot on his three-year stewardship of the country.

The political costs are enormous: The BJP only needs to lose 12 seats in 2019 to lose its majority in Parliament.
'The Congress has forgotten how to mobilise people on political issues,' says Aakar Patel.

As the BJP swiftly picks up state after state, the Congress response has been fear and panic.

Bihar slipped away despite the Congress having, according to Rahul Gandhi, prior knowledge of Nitish Kumar's defection.

If they knew, why were they helpless? It is difficult to understand.

Goa went similarly and though the Congress was better placed there, having won more seats, it waited. And waiting while faced with a party of the talent and energy and hunger of the BJP was a fatal error.

In Gujarat, Shankarsinh Vaghela's exit has triggered another round of chaos and six Congress MLAs have quit, jeopardising Ahmed Patel's Rajya Sabha election.

The party's response has been to suspect all its remaining MLAs and send them to Karnataka, one of the few states it controls.

The strange thing is that Gujarat is a state where the BJP has performed really poorly, according to Gujaratis themselves.

It is the BJP that should be concerned about losing its popularity.

In the last couple of years Gujarat has seen the following major agitations under which lakhs of people have been mobilised.

The Patidar agitation for reservations led by Hardik Patel, the counter agitation of OBC Kshatriyas led by Alpesh Thakor, the Dalit revolt after the Una episode led by Jignesh Mewani, the anguish of diamond merchants and textile workers after demonetisation and rallies by lakhs of traders in Surat after the imposition of GST.

Though these issues have been the direct result of BJP policies, all these agitations have happened without Congress leadership. They have thrown up new leaders like the three young men named above, or they have been leaderless.

This shows that the Congress has forgotten how to mobilise people on political issues. This is strange because some of Gandhi's most successful agitations, like the Bardoli Satyagraha, were in Gujarat.

The Congress party in Gujarat has consistently got over 30% of the vote. However it cannot get that extra three or four percentage points that are the difference between defeat and victory.

And that can happen if it is able to capitalise on one of the issues by mobilising people around it.

Its inability to mobilise despite all the agitations is the reason the Gujarat BJP remains comfortable.

The BJP is thought to be invincible, but no party can be in democratic politics.

In Karnataka, the BJP is actually on the defensive. The wily Congress chief minister Siddaramaiah has used Indian style political tactics to keep the Hindutva party busy.

He is using an anti Hindi agitation in Bangalore, a subject on which BJP is vulnerable because of RSS preference of Hindi. The local BJP must stay silent or suffer damage.

The other issue is that of the Lingayat community's internal demand that it be treated as a separate religion outside Hinduism.

Siddaramaiah has offered to send a recommendation of separation of the faith to the Centre, if the Lingayats want him to. This seemingly innocent offer has set the cat among the pigeons.

The problem of the BJP is that the community strongly backs the BJP (party leader B S Yeddyurappa is a Lingayat) but the BJP-RSS will not give Lingayat separatism legitimacy. Again, it must remain silent or suffer damage.

Siddaramaiah has also disarmed the BJP's nationalism by turning the focus to subnationalism issues like a flag for Karnataka.

All of this tells us that it is possible for Congress, and other parties, to offer a political challenge.

How can political parties in India mobilise their supporters in a time of trouble?

The Congress might be about to get a lesson in that from one of India's sharpest politicians.

Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati has resigned from the Rajya Sabha after claiming she was not allowed to speak. Whether her anger is real or not, the action is deliberate.

It will mean she will go to the ground and try to build back support she has lost.

According to those who follow local politics, the BJP succeeded in breaking up of the unified Dalit identity into jatis and sub castes and going after the Dalit groups Mayawati had ignored. Her party has been getting about 20 to 25% of the vote in UP.

In a multiple cornered fight so long as all parties were in that zone she had a reasonable chance of victory.

But Amit Shah's superb ability to build caste alliances has given the BJP overwhelming numbers that neither the Samajwadi Party (which is stuck at 29% of the vote) nor the BSP can match.

The only way to change that is to mobilise people. Mayawati knows that.

The Congress, after this moment of panic has passed, should take a deep breath and think about how to do it.

Aakar Patel is Executive Director, Amnesty International India. The views expressed here are his own.

You can read Aakar's earlier columns here.

IMAGE: Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, left, with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar before the Mahagatbandan in Bihar collapsed.
'If a majority of the country's population is sentimental about a certain species, why are we so ashamed to say that we want to give it statutory protection?' asks animal rights activist Gauri Maulekhi, in a conversation with Manavi Kapur.

"Perhaps the only time I fainted was when I first saw a maggot-infested dog during a roadside first-aid camp for animals in Lucknow." All of 17 then, Gauri Maulekhi remembers that day in 1994 clearly for good reason -- she poetically fell into a pile of cow dung.

A year later, she would catch the eye of Maneka Gandhi, the chairperson of People for Animals, an animal rights, rescue and shelter NGO.

"She gave me certain tasks and cruelty cases to address. The next time she visited Lucknow, I apprised her of the progress," says Maulekhi.

There was no looking back after that. Now a trustee of PFA and the adviser to Gandhi, the women and child development minister, Maulekhi has come a long way since that roadside camp.

She is the force behind the hotly debated legislation against cow slaughter in the country, among several other controversial cases, including seeking a ban on the bull-taming sport of Jallikattu in Tamil Nadu.

Inside her office in New Delhis Shastri Bhavan, Maulekhi occupies a large table on one end of the room. The rest of the space is filled with filing cabinets, a table piled with documents and couches that have a small basket, bags with pet food and more paperwork.

The pet food explains itself with a white cat curled up on a chair across Maulekhis desk.

"Sassy," she says nodding in the direction of the cat, "is a rescued cat. I have 35 others, 26 disabled or rescued equines and nine dogs at my home in Dehradun."

While her position at the ministry of women and child development requires her to be in Delhi, she says she WhatsApp manages her rescued pets with her staff in Dehradun.

Born and brought up in a business family in Lucknow, Maulekhi tried her hand at several professions before becoming a full-time animal rights activist.

After completing school at Loretto Convent, Lucknow, she acquired a Bachelors in Commerce and a Bachelors in Education from Lucknow University.

For close to five years, she worked as a teacher-counsellor at St Columba's School in Delhi.

She then worked with a software company in Noida, before trying her hand at being a radio-jockey, a voice-over artiste and reciting audio books for leading publishers such as Penguin.

But my heart was always with working for animals. I was actively running campaigns wherever I was, in whatever time my job allowed me. At 22, she gave up meat. Everyone in my family is now vegetarian, she says.

The proverbial moment of reckoning came after Maulekhi moved to Dehradun and began working with the local PFA unit there.

Mrs Gandhi urged me to look into the suffering of animals that get sacrificed for the appeasement of gods, which is when I started focussing on policy and judiciary to save animals, she says.

Maulekhi, left, says that at the time, there were no funds to hire a good lawyer and so she chose to represent that case herself in front of the Uttarakhand high court bench. She prepared herself with diligent readings of law books and took help from lawyer friends about court procedures.

I even Googled how to behave in court, she says.

The result was a favourable order from the high court in 2011 that said, We, accordingly, conclude the matter and direct the state and its agencies to ensure that no destruction / killing / sacrifice of any nature of any animal takes place outside a registered or licensed slaughter house

A wall-hanging of the Char Dham Yatra in Uttarakhand hangs tellingly over Maulekhis desk in Shastri Bhavan.

This was to be the first of the nearly 45 cases she would file.

The one that has made the most headlines is Gauri Maulekhi vs Union of India and others, which seeks a ban on the illegal export of cattle for the Gadhimai Mela in Nepal.

This is the case that opened up several avenues for the legislation on banning the slaughter of cattle and sits squarely at the centre of the storm surrounding a ban on the sale of beef.

The case also appears within the context of cow vigilantism and the mob killings of those suspected to be eating beef or transporting cattle for slaughter.

Murmurings among meat exporters and cattle farm owners suggest that the PFA is behind mobilising the vigilante activities across the country. When asked, Maulekhi shakes her head in disagreement.

PFA has one million volunteers and we dont do a police background check on everyone. Besides, I find this entire debate frustratingly lopsided and exaggerated, she says, adding, Hundreds of police officers and security personnel are mowed down by cattle smugglers every year. But we only choose to report the lynchings. I do not condone any violence, under any circumstances, but the larger picture is as important.

However, a leading meat exporter who requests not to be named, said, She may call us biased, but in reality, Maulekhis allegiance to the Bharatiya Janata Party is clear in the kind of legislation she chooses to fight. It is a clear attack on one community, a large portion of which relies on meat trade for sustenance.

Maulekhi minces no words when it comes to the issue of saving the cow.

If a majority population of the country is sentimental about a certain species, why are we so ashamed to say that we want to give it statutory protection? she asks.

The pseudo-secularism that we are encouraging is very dangerous and it tilts scales in a lopsided manner. Im absolutely not hesitant to say I am a Hindu and I stand by Hindu beliefs, especially non-violence that is the bedrock of Indian culture.

To balance the religious aspect of the cattle debate, Maulekhi brings in facts and figures about how cattle smugglers are eventually funding terror activities, and how the white revolution led to a gross commercialisation of cattle and agriculture.

The dairy industry is absolved of its responsibility to reasonably and responsibly dispose its by-product, the dry cows and calves. It uses these animals and palms them off to butchers as soon as it becomes uneconomical to keep them, she says.

The white revolution, or Operation Flood, was the worlds largest dairy development programme launched under the Indira Gandhi administration in 1970.

Being critical of the Congress's previous policies and agendas also appears to be the mood of the hour.

An attack on cattle is an attack on the culture of the country. While there were protests in Tamil Nadu against the ban on Jallikattu as it was seen as a threat to their culture, we must understand that it was still a regional phenomenon. Protection of cattle is in the spirit of India, she says.

A large green binder with Gadhimai written in bold letter is kept on top of one of the filing cabinet. Other binders include those on elephants, Animal Care Society and Vaishno Devi.

While her office is just steps away from Gandhis, there is little that Maulekhi seems to have to do with the women and child development ministry. Though her smile does not fade, her stance hardens a bit when asked about her work with the ministry, considering all her time is taken up by PFA campaigns and court cases.

Considering my experience with children when I was working with the school, I am assigned specific projects from time to time, she explains.

So, could this position eventually mean that she is to pursue a political career?

She chuckles. If animals had voting rights and if they had a say in Parliament, I would become a politician.

Mincing words does not seem to be something Maulekhi subscribes to.
Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah on Monday ruled out joining the Narendra Modi government after being elected to the Rajya Sabha, saying he was "happy" handling the party affairs.

"The question does not arise," was his reply at a press conference in Lucknow, after he was asked whether he would quit as party president and join the Modi cabinet after entering the Upper House.

"I have the responsibility of running the party. I am happy, satisfied and am working wholeheartedly," he said.

The BJP chief exuded confidence that the party would retain power at the Centre in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls with more strength.

"The BJP will romp home victorious with a bigger strength than in 2014 on the basis of development and good governance of the Modi government as well as the 13 state governments of the party," he said.

Describing Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the "undisputed most popular PM" of India, Shah claimed that the saffron party's government had succeeded in "ending the politics of family, caste and appeasement" in the country.

"As per the 13th Finance Commission, during the Congress-led UPA regime, Uttar Pradesh's share in the central taxes was Rs 2,80,467 crore. This rose to Rs 7,10,966 crore in the 14th Finance Commission during the Modi government," he said.

Shah also claimed that the local bodies' grant, which was "merely Rs 523 crore during the UPA rule", saw an "unprecedented hike by almost 88 times" under the Modi government, which allocated Rs 46,026 crore in this regard.

"During the UPA regime (13th Finance Commission), UP got grants amounting to around Rs 24,000 crore. The Modi regime increased it to Rs 48,000 crore. For the central schemes, Rs 1,39,052 crore has been made available to the state as an additional assistance," he said.

Shah claimed that if all the assistance extended to UP were summed up, then it would be "2.3 times" more under the Modi government than what was given during the UPA regime.

Alleging that the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government suffered from "policy paralysis", he said, "Every minister assumed himself to be the PM and no one considered him (Singh) the PM."

Shah also claimed that unlike the previous governments, which had "only a couple of things" to show as achievements, the Modi government had undertaken "50 important works" during its three-year rule so far.

Alleging that there were scams worth Rs 12 lakh crore during the 10-year UPA rule, he said there was "not even a single corruption allegation" against the Modi regime.

"Even the opposition could not cast any aspersion in this regard," said Shah.

The BJP chief claimed that the Army's surgical strikes across the Line of Control (LoC) last year had projected the country as "one with a firm resolve, which can take any decision for its security," in the global arena.

Referring to the Congress shifting its Gujarat MLAs to Bengaluru reportedly to ward off "poaching", he said, "I could have understood if they were kept in a locked room in Gujarat itself. But why Bengaluru, is beyond my understanding."

Asked about the BJP not being as strong in the south compared to the north, Shah played it down saying, "This was earlier said about our presence in the north as well."

To a question on the National Investigation Agency blaming cross-border trade for terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP chief said the matter did not come within the ambit of the BJP and the Army, security agencies and the government of that state would be able to answer it.

IMAGE: BJP national president Amit Shah addresses a press conference at the UP BJP office in Lucknow. Photograph: Nand Kumar/PTI Photo
Five days after their building came crashing down, bringing down their world along with it, the survivors wait in hope for definite answers from the authorities, reports Hemant Waje/Rediff.com.

IMAGE: Residents of Siddhi Sai speak with civic officials at the collapse site. Photographs: Hemant Waje/Rediff.com

Even though the debris has been cleared from the site of Siddhi Sai Society, the building at Ghatkopar, eastern Mumbai which collapsed five days ago killing 17 people, the survivors continue to worry over their future.

In search of answers, the survivors rush to the collapse site as soon as any civic official turns up to probe the incident. The officials are peppered with numerous questions, such as what they will do after the visit, what will happen to the main accused Shiv Sena leader Sunil Shitap, whether the probe report will go directly to the chief minister and, of course, how and when their homes will be rebuilt.

One of the residents even pleaded with folded hands, "Sir, please treat this as if your house has collapsed and make a report. We only want justice."

IMAGE: Rita Doshi has been alternating between the hospital where her husband has been admitted, and her son's friend's home.

Rita Doshi, whose husband Rajesh was miraculously rescued out of the debris after 14 hours, is worried about where her family will live now.

She said that during the day she and her son Darshan stay in the hospital where Rajesh has been admitted, and at night they take shelter at Darshans friends house near the doomed building.

"My husband is fine now, but we want the government to provide us a house in the same vicinity, she said.

After the collapse, civic officials claimed they gave the survivors an option to move into a BMC school nearby but many chose to stay in their relatives or friends homes.

However, many of them said the civic administration didnt give them any accommodation facility.

IMAGE: Survivors have been listing their lost belongings to officials.

Sadhana Shah, who stayed on the first floor of Siddhi Sai, told officials from collectors office -- who are doing a panchnama of lost belongings -- how she moved out of the building as soon as it started shaking and managed to escape the tragedy.

Shah, who used to stay alone, claimed that she lost her belongings worth Rs 25 lakh in the tragedy, while her house was valued at around Rs 80 lakh.

A circle officer and a talathi noted down everyones lost belongings without questioning the authenticity of their claims.

However, the circle officer claimed that as per government rules only the injured and next of kin of the deceased will get any compensation. Others will have to see if the state government considers their case and sanctions any assistance.

IMAGE: Manjula Kadam, who lives nearby, didn't suffer in the building collapse, she did meet with some misfortune... her sole form of income, an auto-rickshaw, was flattened.

Manjula Kadam, a widow who stays with her brother in the same area, didnt lose any family member or relative in the tragedy. But an auto-rickshaw she gave out on rent was parked near Siddhi Sai when it collapsed.

Hearing of the tragedy on the unfortunate day, she came to the building site and was shocked to see the mangled remains of the auto-rickshaw, which was her only source of income. The auto-rickshaws remains were still there near the collapse site over the weekend.

She said while the insurer has promised to settle the full claim within 20 days, till then she has to run her household on her meagre savings.

Sanjay Pandey, who used to drive Manjulas auto-rickshaw, now drives his friends vehicle at night.

IMAGE: Kadam's auto-rickshaw, her lone source of income, which was parked near Siddhi Sai was crushed when the building came down.

Now that the collapse site has been levelled and the chief minister has promised that the building will be reconstructed, the survivors wait in hope for definite answers from the authorities as to when the work will be completed and they will be able move into their homes.
A group of Indian armed forces veterans have flagged their concern over "divisiveness" and "relentless vigilantism" gripping the country and condemned the targeting of Muslims and Dalits.

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the 114 veterans wrote that issues like vigilantism and "targeting of Muslims and Dalits" have "compelled" them to pen the letter, which has also been marked for the chief ministers and Lt. Governors.

They observed that the recent happenings "strike" at all that the armed forces, and the Constitution, stand for. The veterans also lent their support to the 'Not In My Name' campaign in the letter.

"We are witness to unprecedented attacks on society at large by the relentless vigilantism of self-appointed protectors of Hinduism. We condemn the targeting of Muslims and Dalits.

"We condemn the clampdowns on free speech by attacks on media outlets, civil society groups, universities, journalists and scholars, through a campaign of branding them anti-national and unleashing violence against them while the state looks away," said the letter, dated July 30.

The retired personnel stressed that, collectively, their group holds no affiliation with any single political party, and their only common commitment was towards the Constitution of India.

"We can no longer look away. We would be doing a disservice to our country if we do not stand up and speak for the liberal and secular values that our Constitution espouses. Our diversity is our greatest strength. Dissent is not treason; in fact, it is the essence of democracy," they added.
The Rajya Sabha on Monday saw high drama and embarrassment for the government as a Constitution amendment bill on backward classes was changed after some amendments moved by the Opposition were passed by the House.

The Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill, 2017, providing for setting up of a National Commission for Backward Classes, was passed after dropping Clause 3, to which four amendments was approved by the House earlier.

The dropped clause pertains to the insertion of a new article 338B about the constitution and powers of the National Commission for Backward Classes.

The amended bill will now have to be returned to the Lok Sabha for its fresh approval. The Lower House had already passed the bill but in the Upper House it had been referred to a Select Committee as the Opposition had wanted more scrutiny.

Days after the Select Committee submitted its report, the Rajya Sabha on Monday took up the Constituent amendment bill, whose passage requires two-third majority of those present and voting in the 245-member House.

While the clauses of the bill were being put to vote, Congress members Digvijaya Singh, B K Hariprasad and Hussain Dalvai moved a number of amendments to clause 3.

One amendment sought increase in the number of members of the proposed commission from three to five with reservation for a member from a minority community and another for women.

Another amendment spoke about protecting the rights of states by making their recommendations binding.

Minister for Social Justice Thawar Chand Gehlot said the suggestions proposed through the amendments would be kept in mind while framing the rules.

However, Digvijay Singh pressed for division of votes, saying "they (government) are jumla politics people" and could not be trusted.

Subsequently, the amendments were passed by 74 to 52 votes, causing an embarrassment for the ruling side which has a strength of 89, if Janata Dal-United's 10 members are also counted with them.

This led to a deadlock as the clause which was amended was required to be passed by a two-third majority of those present and voting. This meant that the both the ruling and the opposition had to vote together.

A war of words ensued between the ruling and the opposition benches over this as the government was not ready to accept the amendments moved by the Congress members.

However, since the amendment had already been passed, there was no going back, Deputy Chairman P J Kurien ruled.

At the same time, he said since the proceedings of passing the bill had been initiated, it had to be completed anyhow.

Some members said if the bill was not passed, there would be disappointment among the backward classes who have been waiting for the Commission.

To find a way out, the proceedings were suspended for 10 minutes.

Afterwards, Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said the government should accept the amendments.

To this, Leader of the House and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the members could not be confined to any particular community and questioned whether the Congress wanted "exclusivity to be a part of the Constitution?"

He said exclusivity will render the bill unconstitutional.

However, the bill was finally put to vote, dropping the Clause 3 from it. It was passed by 124 to 0 votes, ending a drama of about 90 minutes.

Accordingly, a related bill -- The National Commission for Backward Classes (Repeal) Bill, 2017 -- was not taken up.

Earlier, the treasury benches and the opposition traded charges against each other, with the government accusing the opposition of not wanting to get the bill for backward classes passed while the opposition put the blame on the government for this lapse.

"The backward classes have been making this demand for decades and what has been done today is deceit with them. You will have to suffer the consequences of these moments for decades. You want this bill to be stalled and challenged in court," Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said.

Azad countered by saying that his party was not against the bill but the government should strengthen it.

"The government is responsible for all this. It happened because of them. The government wants to weaken the backward commission," the Congress leader said.

Jaitley said the opposition has passed an amendment that cannot stand the scrutiny of courts.

"You want to bring a provision which can be challenged in the court tomorrow," he said, adding that by passing the amendment that seeks to have a member of the minority community and another woman, the opposition is excluding all the others.

Jaitley also told the opposition "If that is the insistence that they want that the backward classes bill should fail, let them do so."

Earlier, while moving the bill for passage, Gehlot described the legislation as "historic".

The minister sought to allay fears of members, saying the bill does not seek to reduce the rights of states who have powers to include/exclude any caste from the list of OBC reservation.

The new Commission for backward classes that will be set up after the promulgation of the law passed today will have constitutional powers as enjoyed by the SC and ST Commissions, he said.

"The concerns of members that this bill will encroach upon the rights of states are wrong. There is no attempt to reduce the rights of states and attack the federal structure," Gehlot said.

The minister also made it clear that the BJP is in favour of reservation and will continue to be so, dispelling insinuations made by some opposition members.

Gehlot thanked the members for supporting the bill irrespective of party lines and said the concerns expressed by members are baseless.

"This bill has been brought with good intentions. The BJP is in favour of reservations and will continue to be so," he said.

The Opposition members had earlier raised strong objections to the setting up of a creamy layer in the other backward classes category for providing them benefits of reservation, but government said it is carrying on and has not been created afresh.

JD-U leader Sharad Yadav said the legislation in its present form would make the proposed commission toothless.

He opposed a clause in the bill related to the creamy layer, saying it will create havoc.

Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav said even after so many years of implementing reservation policy, the number of OBCs in government jobs remained very low.

"Even then you (government) have brought in this policy of 'creamy layer'. OBCs with annual income of Rs 6 lakh will fall in the creamy layer. It should not be there," Yadav said.

S Muthukaruppan of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam suggested that members of the commission should be selected after consulting the state governments.

Nadimul Haque of the Trinamool Congress said the bill in the current form went against the country's federal structure as it undermined the role of state governments and state commissions.

Ram Nath Thakur (JD-U) asked the government to abolish the 'creamy layer' policy.

T K S Elangovan of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam said the bill should protect the rights of the states.
Opposition Congress on Monday forced a brief adjournment of proceedings in Rajya Sabha alleging that the Gujarat police was kidnapping and threatening its MLAs in the state with a view to influence their votes in the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls.

Congress members trooped in to the Well of the House raising anti-government slogans, which were matched by counter-sloganeering by the Bharatiya Janata Party benches.

Amid pandemonium, Deputy Chairman P J Kurien adjourned the proceedings for 10 minutes during the Zero Hour soon after it met in the morning.

BJP offering Rs 15cr to MLAs: Congress in Lok Sabha Opposition Congress on Monday claimed in the Lok Sabha that its MLAs in Gujarat were being offered Rs 15 crore in return of support to the Bharatiya Janata Party and being pressurised by the ruling party in the state. As soon as the House assembled, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge raised the issue of political situation in Gujarat. The Congress MLAs are being put under pressure, Kharge alleged amidst the protests and counter-protests by Congress and BJP members respectively. Congress chief whip Jyotiraditya Scindia alleged that each of the Congress MLAs in Gujarat was offered Rs 15 crore in return of supporting the BJP. Both Kharge and Scindia wanted a discussion on the issue in the House. However, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan rejected the demand saying it was a subject relating to a state and cannot be discussed in the House.

Raising the issue, Madhusudhan Mistry (Congress) alleged that his party MLAs were being 'kidnapped' and offered 'Rs 10-15 crore' with a view to influence their vote in the August 8 elections to send three members from the state to the Rajya Sabha.

Ruling BJP has fielded three members including party president Amit Shah, union minister Smriti Irani and a rebel Congress MLA for the election.

Ahmed Patel, Congress president Sonia Gandhi's political adviser, is seeking re-election.

Kurien said he was not allowing Mistry's notice under rule 267 seeking setting aside of the business to take up the issue as the same matter was raised on Friday as well.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi charged the Congress with 'kidnapping' its own MLAs and lodging them in a holiday resort in Karnataka at a time when the people of Gujarat were facing miseries from flash floods.

"You should be ashamed," he said, daring the Congress party to debate the matter in the House.

As slogan-shouting Congress members entered the Well, some BJP members moved into the aisles and raised counter slogans.

Kurien said he was forced to adjourn the proceedings in Friday as members from both side had come into the Well.

He said he has heard Naqvi say that the government was ready for a discussion. "If you want discussion, give separate notice. We will consider it," he said.

Congress members were unmoved but that did not prevent him from calling members to raise their Zero Hour mentions.

"If you have something against the government, why do you obstruct other members," Kurien said adding that Zero Hour was members' business and their rights are being obstructed.

"By slogan shouting, you will achieve nothing," he said.

In the melee, A K Selvaraj (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) raised the issue of hydrocarbon exploration in Tamil Nadu and asked the government to cease all such activities as it would impact ground water table and crops.

S Muthukaruppan (AIADMK) sought the government's intervention for the release of 75 Tamil fishermen and their fishing boats from Sri Lankan captivity.

But Congress members remained unrelenting and continued to raise slogans, forcing Kurien to adjourn the proceedings for 10 minutes.
Several leaders arent happy with the chief ministers decision to walk out of the Grand Alliance and join hands with the BJP.

M I Khan reveals the latest from Bihar.

Backed by the Bharatiya Janata Party, Nitish Kumar returned as Bihar chief minister for the sixth time on Thursday, a day after he resigned dramatically.

However, the Janata Dal-Uniteds return to the National Democratic Alliance fold after four years by walking out of the Grand Alliance less than two years after being in power hasnt gone down well, with party leaders from 20 states having decided to back former party president Sharad Yadav.

Sharad Yadav it is reported is unhappy with Nitish Kumars decision to quit the Grand Alliance -- comprising of the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress.

On Monday, Yadav said that the turn of events in Bihar was unfortunate. He said the mandate given by the people was being violated. Speaking to reporters outside Parliament, Yadav said, I dont agree with the decision on Bihar, its unfortunate. The mandate by the people was not for this.

A JD-U leader close to Sharad Yadav said to Rediff.com, Angry over the developments, JD-U leaders will express their opposition by writing letters to Nitish Kumar.



On Wednesday itself, two JD-U Rajya Sabha MPs  Anwar Ansari and Virender Kumar -- had spoke out against Nitishs decision of aligning with the BJP. According to sources, both the leaders are in close touch with Sharad Yadav.

Sources have said that Sharad Yadav has met party leaders from Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala and other states in the last three days after Nitish Kumar joined hands with the BJP,



On Sunday, RJD chief Lalu Prasad appealed to Sharad Yadav to undertake a nationwide tour to defeat communal forces that have fanned out in the country.



Sharad Yadav was deeply hurt by Nitish Kumars decision without consulting the senior party leaders at a time when opposition unity was to be strengthened against the BJP. Sharad Yaadav has felt ignored and likely to take his final stand soon over the matter, another JD-U leader said.
Kumar said he had no option but to walk out of the grand alliance as continuing in it would have meant compromising with corruption.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who dumped the Grand Alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress to form the government with the National Democratic Alliance, on Monday said there would be no

challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2019 general elections.

"Nobody else can occupy it (PM's post)," he told reporters while responding to questions about whether Modi would return to power in 2019.

"Now nobody has the strength to take on the prime minister," he said.

Quizzed about his future role in national politics, Kumar, who heads the Janata Dal-United and was earlier seen as a potential challenger to Modi in 2019, said, "Ours is a small party which does not harbour big national aspirations."

When asked about the possibility of JD-U becoming part of the NDA at the national level with ministers in the Modi government, Kumar said the JD-U national executive will meet in Patna on August 19 and all such issues will be decided there.

When reminded of his remark while breaking away from the NDA in 2013 that he would "rather be decimated than join hands with BJP", he said, "That was in the context of that time."

Kumar spoke at length about events leading to the break-up of the Grand Alliance and his accepting the proposal from the "highest level" in the BJP for joining hands to form the government.

The chief minister said he was left with no option but to dump the Grand Alliance when the going got impossible. He said the decision to forge an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party was made "in the interest of Bihar".

He also hit back at RJD supremo Lalu Prasad and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi for criticising him.

"He (Lalu) arrogantly says that he made me the CM ... The people of Bihar showed him his worth in 2010 (when RJD's strength was reduced to 22)."

"The decision (to dump the alliance) did not come overnight. I repeatedly swallowed objectionable comments from the other side (RJD), including one by one of its leaders (former MP from Siwan Mohammad Shahabuddin who called him 'a CM of circumstance'). Lalu Prasad ignored it, saying it is an internal issue of his party."

"JD-U leaders never spoke against the RJD supremo but leaders of that party always made objectionable comments against me, which I tolerated in the interest of the coalition. There used to be interference in good governance too but we managed to keep the development momentum," he said.

But, Kumar said, once the issue of corruption came to the forefront with CBI registering an FIR against Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav in a graft case, he could not carry forward the alliance any more.

"I, while supporting demonetisation, had made a strong case for simultaneous hit on benami property. I had no ground to defend them."

"I had talks with Lalu Prasad on several occasions when I told him to explain things in public (about the allegations) by putting facts, but it seems they (RJD) had no explanation," he said.

He ridiculed Prasad's secular credentials. "Making huge money hiding behind the shield of secularism ...is this secularism? ... I need no certificate of secularism from anybody."

Kumar said his government had given compensation to the victims of the Bhagalpur riots on par with those of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Hitting out at Lalu for his repeated claim that he made him the chief minister despite his party having more MLAs than the JD-U, Kumar said it reflected the RJD leader's "arrogance".

"Why did they not declare my name for the CM's post at the meeting at Mulayam Singh Yadav's home during talks over unification of the old 'Janata Parivar'. It was done after a month. It was in their own interest," Kumar said.

Recounting his association with Lalu, Kumar spoke of how he helped him win the election of the Patna University Students Union president. He also spoke about having mobilised non-Yadav MLAs to back Lalu's chief ministerial bid in 1990.

On reports that senior JD-U leader Sharad Yadav was upset over the party joining hands with the BJP, he said, "It is not necessary that everybody always agrees on everything. One can have divergent views. The decision to break the Grand Alliance was taken by Bihar JD-U at its executive meeting which I had to abide by."

"The JD-U is registered with the Election Commission as a regional party in Bihar and hence going against the decision of the state party was not possible for me," he said.

He mocked at Rahul Gandhi for claiming that he had an inkling that Kumar would walk out of the coalition for the last three to four months. "Then why did he (Gandhi) meet me when I had gone to Delhi and sought his intervention...to ask the RJD to come clean on the accusations.

"The Congress did not act on time in Assam also when AGP had come on board. It cost us the Assam polls," he said, adding "we can be a partner but not a camp follower."

Kumar said he would continue to make efforts for a special status and financial package for Bihar.

On the issue of vice-presidential election, Kumar said that the JD-U will support the candidature of Gopal Krishna Gandhi.

We have already given our word to him, he said.

Earlier in July 2015, Modi had also attacked Nitish over his frequent change of political allegiances, saying it seemed that there was 'some problem with Nitish Kumar's DNA'.

With inputs from ANI

Photograph: PTI Photo
The Congress on Monday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ministers of being insensitive towards the sufferings of flood-ravaged people in the country and claimed that the ministers rushed to 'engineer defections' but did not visit the flooded areas.

The Congress also accused the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Gujarat of not fulfilling its 'Raj Dharma' by coming to the aid of the flood-affected people in the state.

Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said the Modi government was in "deep slumber" over human tragedy by not providing any relief to those affected and was instead indulging in 'petty politicking'.

The Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha said the flood situation in the country was serious but neither the prime minister nor any cabinet minister had visited the flood-affected areas despite almost two months since the floods began.

"When it comes to breaking governments the ministers rush to states to engineer defections, but when it comes to helping people affected due to floods then none visit the affected states, especially in the north east," he claimed.

Azad said the government uses north-east 'only for political purposes' and not to provide succour to flood-affected people.

"An insipid BJP government sleeps over a human tragedy of gigantic proportions from east to west India. The central government has failed to provide relief to the affected people," he told reporters.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the BJP was indulging in 'stealing' MLAs and instead of feeling sorry for doing something wrong, they were 'exulting'.

"You cannot abduct democracy by forcibly picking up MLAs and making them resign. If the ruling party misuses muscle and money power to force MLAs to resign, then we will not allow them to do so," Surjewala said.

"The BJP government in Gujarat is not fulfilling its Raj Dharma. What will happen to your Raj Dharma which is in power. The BJP should fulfil its Raj Dharma by helping those affected due to floods," he said.

Azad said one crore people have been marooned across the country and an estimated 300 people have died.

"Yet the BJP government makes only perfunctory voices, conducts aerial surveys and provides little relief," he said.

Azad said that the prime minister just made an aerial survey of Gujarat, where he was the chief minister for 13 years, but did not visit the affected areas there.

Asked about the BJP's charge of absence of Gujarat Congress MLAs from the state, the Congress leader said, "They say that the Congress MLAs are not present and are instead in Bangalore. What was Gujarat chief minister doing when being in Gujarat he did not visit the affected areas and only kept looking at people dying, especially in the most affected Banaskantha district."

"The MLAs not coming is the creation of the BJP. Even the chief minister has not visited Banaskantha in Gujarat. Even the central ministers, MPs of the BJP are sitting in Delhi and have not visited Gujarat. Why so?," he asked.

Azad said in most of the cases, it was the BJP which was feeding that Congress MLAs were not on the ground to help the flood-affected people so that an atmosphere was created against them.

"The ruling party is creating an atmosphere so that the Congress MLAs return and are forced to resign by the BJP," Azad claimed.

Azad said the MLAs are individuals who represent the Congress party which was very visible and active at the block and district level.

The entire party was out there in the field looking after the people who have been affected and displaced, he said.

Azad said while 128 deaths have occurred in Gujarat due to floods, 82 people died in Assam, 16 in Rajasthan, four in Himachal Pradesh, 34 in West Bengal, six in Jammu and Kashmir, 18 in Odisha and eight in Jharkhand.

He also called upon the Union Health Ministry to provide medicines and relief to the affected people.

'BJP stealing MLAs under premeditated plan'

The Congress accused the BJP of 'stealing' its MLAs under a 'premeditated plan' but claimed that its Gujarat Rajya Sabha candidate Ahmed Patel will still win as he has the support of more MLAs than required for victory.

Azad said Patel was contesting the Rajya Sabha election as a senior Congress leader and not as political secretary to party chief Sonia Gandhi and thus, her name should not be dragged into this poll.

"I don't want to involve the name of the Congress president. He is contesting as the senior Congress leader and not as political secretary," the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha said.

"Ahmed bhai will win by a margin of at least 10 to 15 votes. Our candidate had 13-14 votes surplus and the BJP says they do not steal. Why has the BJP fielded its third candidate for the polls when it does not have the requisite number of MLAs in support. It is only to steal our MLAs," he said.

Azad said, "This is a pre-meditated plan to steal MLAs."

He said the BJP was 'plotting' to steal Congress MLAs from the airport itself.

"The BJP is creating an atmosphere against them. They (BJP) are saying our MLAs are in Bengaluru when people are suffering because of floods. The BJP wants to exploit the situation so that when they return it could steal some of them and make a few others resign," he said.

He claimed Congress leaders and workers were on the ground, from block to district level, helping flood-hit people.

The Congress had 57 MLAs in the 182-member Assembly. Of these, six have quit since Thursday, brining down its strength to 51. Patel will require 44 first preference votes for a straight win which does not look very difficult to get at the moment.

However, more desertion could jeopardise his chances of getting elected to the RS for the 5th time. He also has the assured support of two MLAs of the Nationalist Congress Party and one of the Janata Dal-United.

The BJP has fielded party chief Amit Shah and renominated Union minister Smriti Irani for two seats and put up Balwantsinh Rajput for the third which is held by Patel.

Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters
Lalu Yadavs party said that it was only in Bihar that the CM had a case under Section 302 filed against him.

M I Khan reports.

Stung by Nitish Kumars betrayal, the Rashtriya Janata Dal launched a scathing attack on the Bihar chief minister, demanding that he resign immediately as he too had serious cases against him.

Senior RJD leader Jagdanand Singh said, Nitish Kumar should explain to 11 crore people of Bihar if he is or isnt an accused in a case under Section 302 (murder) and the Arms Act.

Singh addressing a press conference said that Nitish Kumar and his party, the Janata Dal-United, should satisfy the people of Bihar and explain the cases against him.

Singh,a former minister, considered close to RJD chief Lalu Prasad said Bihar is the only case where an accused under Section 302 is chief minister of the state. Desh mein kisi bhi aanay pradesh mein 302 ka aaropi CM ke pad par nahi baithe hai, he said.



Singh said that till the court decided the criminal case against Nitish Kumar, he should not occupy the top post of the state government. According to Singh, if an accused of 302 is a CM, how can justice be delivered.



Singh said RJD was forced to raise the pending case against Nitish Kumar dating back to November 1991 when one Sitaram Singh, 22, from Dhibar village was killed in firing at a booth during Barh Lok Sabha by-poll.



It is far from truth as JD-U leaders claimed last week that Lalu Prasad has been raking up the case in vain. Radha Krishna Singh, the elder brother of the victim, is seeking justice in the case, he said.



Singh said security of the victims family has been withdrawn. We fear that the victims family may be eliminated as to what happened in the infamous case of the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh.

Last week, son after Nitish Kumar resigned, Lalu Prasad had also attacked Nitish on the same charge when the Bihar chief minister in a dramatic fashion put in his papers.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that 755 American diplomats would be expelled from Moscow by September 1.

The expulsions came as a mark of retaliation for new sanctions against Moscow passed last week by the United States Congress.

Putin, while speaking in a television interview on the Rossiya 1 network, said that Russias patience in waiting for improved relations with the United States had worn out.

We waited for quite some time that maybe something will change for the better, had such hope that the situation will somehow change, but, judging by everything, if it changes, it will not be soon, Putin said.

The Russian foreign ministry had earlier issued a statement saying the number of American diplomats in the US Embassy in Moscow and its four consulates across the country should be reduced to 455 by September 1, which is the same as the number of Russian diplomats currently serving in the US.

It also said it would seize two US diplomatic properties, including cottages just outside Moscows city centre and a warehouse facility in Moscow. The embassy properties must be handed over by August 1.

Russias move came a day after the US. Senate passed a bill expanding economic sanctions on Russia, as well as North Korea and Iran.

The massive vote margins reflected growing bipartisan anxiety over Trumps two meetings with Putin in Hamburg, Germany, this month.

Following the orders, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov threatened further retaliation against the US.

If the US decides to move further towards further deterioration, we will answer, we will respond in kind, CNN reported Ryabkov saying.

We will mirror this. We will retaliate. ... But my whole point is, dont do this, it is to the detriment of the interests of the US.

The deputy foreign minister did not specify what Russias plans for retaliation are, but said that the country has a very rich toolbox at our disposal.

Earlier, Putin, speaking at a news conference in Finland, accused the US lawmakers of insolence.

We are behaving in a very restrained and patient way, but at some moment we will need to respond, Putin told reporters.

Its impossible to endlessly tolerate this kind of insolence toward our country. This practice is unacceptable. It destroys international relations and international law, he added.

The new US bill would slap new sanctions on Russia, and would set into law penalties former president Barack Obamas administration imposed on Moscow in December, for its meddling in the US election last year and for its aggression in Ukraine.

The bill also would give Congress veto power to block any easing of those sanctions.

The growing tensions between Russia and the US over the sanctions bill come in the wake of the congressional investigations into Russian hacking into the 2016 election, which the US intelligence services have said was an effort to influence the election in Trumps favour.
At least 10 people were reportedly killed in the deadly clashes between protesters and police that erupted during the Constitutional Assembly election in Venezuela on Sunday.

An opposition youth leader, a pro-government candidate and a soldier were among those who were killed, local media reports said.

Elections were held on Sunday to elect members of the Constituent Assembly who would replacing Venezuela's current National Assembly .

The Constituent Assembly will have the power to rewrite the Constitution.

The election comes after weeks of violent street protests in which many people have been killed or injured.

More than 100 people have been killed in the unrest ongoing in the country since April this year.

According to reports, the opposition leaders had called for a boycott of the vote, declaring it rigged for the ruling party.

Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Panama, Peru and the United States said they would not recognise Sunday's vote.

IMAGE: Demonstrators run as clashes broke out with security forces while the Constituent Assembly election was being carried out in Caracas, Venezuela. Photograph: Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters
New figures reveal that 54 per cent of the cow-related violence were from states governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Mohammad Akhlaq, Mohammad Ayub, Pehlu Khan.

The three names are among the many others in the nation who have become victims of cow-related violence. New data collected by IndiaSpend shows that there have been 26 incidents of cow-related violence in 118 days since 55-year-old Pehlu Khan died after a mob attack on April 1, 2017.

The data, created through a collection and content analysis of reports in the English media, reveals that there have been 70 cases of cow-related violence over eight years.

The database shows 97 per cent (68 of 70) of such incidents were reported after Prime Minister Narendra Modis government came to power in May 2014.

More than half or 54 per cent of the cow-related violence -- 38 of 70 cases -- were from states governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party, when the attacks were reported, revealed the analysis.

Muslims were the target of 51 per cent of violence centred on bovine issues over nearly eight years (2010 to 2017) and comprised 86 per cent of 28 Indians killed in 63 incidents.

The IndiaSpend data also shows that in the first six months of 2017, 26 cow-terror attacks were reported -- more than 75 per cent of the 2016 figure, which was the worst year for such violence since 2010.

The collected data shows that the states in the north, especially Uttar Pradesh (10) and Haryana (9), top the list, though as many as six such cases were reported from Karnataka of the 13 that were traced to the eastern and southern states.

What is even more shocking is that in about 5 per cent of the attacks, there was no mention of the culprits being arrested, though police registered cases in 21 per cent, or 13, instances.

In 23 cases, the attackers were mobs comprising people from various Hindu outfits, such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal and local gau raksha committees.

About 52 per cent of the incidents were caused by rumours and false intimidation.

The attacks continue despite Prime Minister Narendra Modis recent speech against violence perpetrated in the name of cow protection.

On June 29 of this year, on the centenary of the Mahatma Gandhis Sabarmati ashram, PM Modi said, Killing people in the name of gau bhakti is not acceptable. This is not something Mahatma Gandhi would have approved.

Earlier in August 2016 too, the prime minister had denounced cow vigilantes, some of whom had flogged Dalits in his home state Gujarat. In his public denouncement, Modi had then said he felt enraged at such anti-social elements who indulged in crimes by the night and masqueraded as cow protectors by the day.

Image used for representational purposes. Photograph: Getty Images
Disclaimer

This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.
South Sudan: UN must boost civilian protection as Lacroix visits IDP camps

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 28 July 2017 Cite as Amnesty International, South Sudan: UN must boost civilian protection as Lacroix visits IDP camps, 28 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/597f0f534.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

United Nations peacekeepers in South Sudan (UNMISS) must shore up efforts to protect civilians, Amnesty International said ahead of a 31 July to 2 August country visit by the UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix.



According to UNMISS, Lacroix will meet with political leaders, humanitarian actors, and internally displaced people (IDPs) - including those sheltering in UNMISS-run sites in Malakal and Bentiu.



"Jean-Pierre Lacroix must highlight the urgent need to protect hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians in South Sudan, tens of thousands of whom are now in UNMISS camps. Having fled hunger, atrocities and ethnically-motivated attacks, they are in dire need of protection and international assistance," said Joanne Mariner, Senior Crisis Response Adviser at Amnesty International, who visited the Malakal camp in late May.



"UNMISS must live up to its mandate to protect civilians by deploying forces directly to areas where civilians are being displaced, where they remain at ongoing risk, and where humanitarian aid is desperately needed. South Sudan's dire situation should give the international community pause when considering potentially life-threatening cuts to UN peacekeeping operations."



In May and June, Amnesty International researchers visited the areas of South Sudan most heavily impacted by renewed clashes. This included Upper Nile, where virtually the entire Shilluk minority was displaced when government forces burnt, shelled and systematically looted their homes between January and May 2017. Some of them sought refuge in the UNMISS site Lacroix will visit next week in Malakal.



Amnesty International also visited the Central Equatorias region, where starvation and fear stalk the population and around a million people have been displaced by ongoing atrocities. Last week, the organization published a report on how thousands of women and girls in South Sudan are bearing the brunt of sexual violence on a massive scale.



UNMISS should provide regular and timely public reporting on the human rights situation in the country, including on forced displacement and sexual violence.



Background



According to the UN, as of mid-July 1,900,000 people were displaced in South Sudan, including 217,969 seeking UNMISS protection. More than 5.5 million people across the country are facing a food emergency.



A total of 1.9 million South Sudanese refugees have also fled to neighbouring countries.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
A student examines a sculpture named Eternal Youth at the Shanxi Museum in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, July 30. [Photo/Xinhua]

The first sculpture exhibition for active duty military artists kicked off at the Shanxi Museum on July 30 to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.

Nearly 60 pieces are on display, spanning across a decade and featuring the history of the PLA and images of military heroes.

The seven sculptors, ranging from the post-50s to post-80s, are all from major artistic institutions such as the August First Film Studio and the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution.

"These sculptures showcase the contemporary military artists' excellent techniques," Wu Weishan, curator of Chinese Art Museum, said. "They also illustrate a majestic aesthetic style which derives for the military life."

"This exhibition aims at showing the glorious tradition and strong ambition of Chinese soldiers," Shi Jinming, director of the Shanxi Museum, said. "We hope to let more people know about the Chinese troops and cherish our peaceful and happy life at present."

The exhibit, which is open to the public for free, will run through August 30.
Spain: Migrants Held in Poor Conditions

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 31 July 2017 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Spain: Migrants Held in Poor Conditions, 31 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/597f11a94.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Asylum seekers and other migrants arriving by sea to Spanish shores are held in poor conditions and face obstacles in applying for asylum. They are held for days in dark, dank cells in police stations and almost certainly will then automatically be placed in longer-term immigration detention facilities pending deportation that may never happen.

"Dark, cage-like police cells are no place to hold asylum seekers and migrants who reach Spain," said Judith Sunderland, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Spain is violating migrants' rights, and there is no evidence it serves as a deterrent to others."

The number of asylum seekers and other migrants crossing the western Mediterranean to Spain is increasing. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 7,847 people reached Spanish shores between January 1 and July 26, 2017, compared with 2,476 during the same period in 2016.

Although the numbers pale in comparison to the 94,445 people disembarked in Italy during the first seven months of 2017, Spanish interior minister Juan Ignacio Zoido cited "important pressure" on Spanish ports in rejecting Italy's recent request to have some of the people rescued in the central Mediterranean taken to Spain.

Almost all adults and children traveling with a family member arriving to mainland Spain by boat are detained for up to 72 hours in police facilities for identification and processing. The majority of adult men and women are then sent to an immigration detention center for a maximum of 60 days, pending deportation. If they cannot be deported they are released but have no legal right to remain and are under obligation to leave the country.

Conditions in police facilities in Motril, Almeria, and Malaga, which Human Rights Watch visited in May, are substandard, Human Rights Watch found. The facilities in Motril and Almeria have large, poorly lit cells with thin mattresses on the floor, while Malaga police station has an underground jail with no natural light or ventilation.

In Motril, women and children are placed separately in the one cell with bunk beds. In Malaga and Motril, the cells have thick vertical bars while in Almeria, the cells are separated from the hallway by tightly woven steel grills. Detainees are locked inside at all times, and taken out only for medical checks, fingerprinting, interviews and, in Almeria and Malaga, to go to the bathroom because there are none inside the cells. Although there are outside, enclosed spaces in Almeria and Motril, immigration detainees are not allowed to use them. The Spanish Red Cross is present at all disembarkations to do basic medical screening and provide hygiene kits. Men are not provided toothbrushes on the grounds they may be used as weapons.

While unaccompanied children are generally transferred to dedicated centers, children traveling with family members are detained in Motril and Almeria, according to authorities. An observer told Human Rights Watch he saw children playing in dirty water from overflowing toilets in the cells of the Motril port detention facility in April, when nine children were detained there with their mothers for three days. Police in Malaga told Human Rights Watch that children are placed with social services while their family members are detained in the basement of that city's central police station.

Migrants detained told Human Rights Watch that they did not have individual meetings with a lawyer in police custody and were given little or no information about applying for asylum. Human Rights Watch has documented in the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla what appears to be a policy to discourage asylum applications. Despite a significant increase in asylum applications in Spain over the past few years, in 2016 the country received just 1.3 percent of all new applications filed in the 28 EU member states, and has a low per capita rate.

Within the permitted 72 hours of detention, the police must fingerprint and interview all migrants, issue a return order, and take the migrants before a judge to confirm or dismiss the order and to make a custody decision. At these hearings in Motril and Almeria, judges routinely conduct group interviews, including via teleconferencing, asking detained migrants pro forma questions before sending virtually all adults to immigration detention pending deportation.

In Malaga, concerted advocacy by the local bar association has improved procedures and ensured individual interviews by the judge and individualized detention orders. Alvaro Garcia Espana, a member of the Malaga bar association, said, however, that in Malaga, as elsewhere, detention orders were "systematic."

Detention for the purpose of deportation should only be ordered where there is a likelihood that deportation can and will be carried out reasonably promptly, with due diligence. However, according to the Defensor del Pueblo, Spain's human rights institute, only 29 percent of those detained in these facilities in 2016 were actually deported that year.

Alternatives to detention do exist, and should be used more effectively, Human Rights Watch said. Spanish law allows authorities to use non-custodial measures including withdrawal of documents, reporting requirements, and obligation to live in a certain place to ensure a person can be located to enforce a return or deportation order. Spain also has a system of "humanitarian shelters," financed by the government and run by nongovernmental organizations, where undocumented migrants may stay for up to three months.

While a relatively short journey, the sea route in the western Mediterranean is deadly. The IOM estimates that 119 people have died at sea since the beginning of the year, with 49 people perishing in early July in a single incident.

Spanish authorities should take urgent steps to improve conditions in police port facilities for people arriving by sea and ensure that they have effective access to information and legal advice, Human Rights Watch said. Given the particularly poor conditions in the Malaga central police station, people who enter there should not be detained, even for a brief period. The authorities should find alternative places to hold them for initial processing. As long as the port facilities in Motril and Almeria are used, new measures should be adopted to allow more freedom of movement within the compound, including use of outside spaces and free access to bathrooms. All detainees should be provided basic hygiene products, including toothbrushes. They should receive clear, consistent information about their rights - including their right to apply for asylum - in individual interviews with lawyers. Judges should assess individual circumstances, including the likelihood of deportation orders being executed promptly, before sending anyone to immigration detention and order alternatives to detention as much as possible.

"Whether by negligence or design, Spain fails to treat asylum seekers and migrants who arrive by sea with humanity and dignity, Sunderland said. "Spanish authorities should urgently upgrade police facilities and ensure full information, access to asylum, and proper judicial oversight for all migrants and asylum seekers who reach its shores."

Between May 16 and 25, Human Rights Watch visited the immigration detention centers in Algeciras and Tarifa, the police port facilities in Motril and Almeria, and the central police station in Malaga where people rescued at sea are held upon arrival. All are in Andalusia. The National Police gave Human Rights Watch permission to visit only the administrative and outside areas of the two detention centers and to speak with staff, but not to visit cells or speak with detainees. Human Rights Watch was allowed to inspect the port facilities in Motril and Almeria, and authorities allowed private interviews with people held there who wished to be interviewed.

At the time of the visits, there were no children in the police facilities. In Malaga, Human Rights Watch briefly visited the cells, but no migrants or asylum seekers who had arrived by boat were detained there at the time. Human Rights Watch also interviewed men who had recently arrived by sea in two shelters operated by nongovernmental groups for undocumented migrants in El Ejido and Granada.

Human Rights Watch spoke with 19 men and two women, seven from Guinea, five each from Cameroon and Cote d'Ivoire, two from Liberia, and one each from Senegal and Mali. All names have been changed to protect people's identity.

Western Mediterranean Boat Migration

Boat migration from North Africa to mainland Spain across the Strait of Gibraltar and the Alboran Sea is increasing. The International Organization for Migration recorded a 2017 percent increase in the first seven months of 2017 compared with the same period in 2016, when more than 8,000 arrived throughout the year. Most boats leave the Moroccan coast at night, and can spend 24 hours or more in the water before being rescued by Salvamento Maritimo, the Spanish maritime rescue service, and disembarked at various Andalusian ports. People use inflatable rubber boats with side-board engines, but also so-called toy boats - small, inflatable rafts big enough for seven or eight people, without engines. Some wear life vests. Others who cannot afford them - like Emmanuel, an 18-year-old from Cote d'Ivoire - wear bike tires.

Adolfo Serrano, head of Salvamento Maritimo in Algeciras, said that Spain's declared search-and-rescue zone extends all the way to the Moroccan coast. However, Spanish authorities rely on Morocco to patrol its coastline and intercept or rescue boats within Moroccan territorial waters. Salvamento Maritimo policy is to share any intelligence with their Moroccan counterparts and only intervene in Moroccan waters in case of imminent loss of life. Colonel Antonio Sierras, head of the Guardia Civil in Melilla, said that Spain takes the view that boats have entered Spanish territory only once inside the inner harbors of Ceuta and Melilla.

Migrants told Human Rights Watch that many take to the seas after repeated failed attempts to scale the fences surrounding Ceuta and Melilla. Marcel, 34, from Cameroon, tried six times to cross into Ceuta: "I never managed, just got beaten up [by Moroccan security forces], broken bonesonce when I was already at the fence they beat me on the foot to make me fall off the fence. Another time they hit me with a baton; it felt like a knife."

Interviews with sub-Saharan Africans in Ceuta and Melilla in March and in Andalusia in May indicate that violence by Moroccan border guards and other abuses previously documented by Human Rights Watch continue.

Conditions in Police Facilities

Migrants and asylum seekers disembarked in Malaga, Motril, and Almeria are detained in substandard, unsuitable facilities. Women and children traveling with family members are also detained at Motril and Almeria.

Malaga's central police station has underground jail cells, which are in particularly poor condition, Human Rights Watch found. There is no natural light or ventilation, and during the visit the stench in the enclosed, dank space was overpowering. Even if, as police officials asserted, people who arrived by sea are never placed in cells with other detainees, these cells are wholly unsuitable for even short periods, Human Rights Watch said.

In Almeria, where toilets are outside the locked cells, Human Rights Watch interviewed a woman who said that one of her three cellmates had felt ill all night and was unable to go to the bathroom. The other women detained at the time declined to be interviewed. An 18-year-old Ivorian man detained at the Almeria port detention facility in March said that he and his cellmates resorted to urinating in a plastic bottle when the police were not available to let them go to the bathroom.

The Spanish human rights institute, the Defensor del Pueblo, has raised concerns about the Motril port facility since at least 2009, saying that cells should have proper beds, air conditioning, and better sanitary conditions. Several police unions have also complained about conditions, with the Sindicato Unificado de Policia (SUP) saying in early July that it should be temporarily closed. A police officer stationed in Motril asked Human Rights Watch to press for improvements to the facility, citing constant problems with the plumbing, freezing temperatures in the winter, mosquitos in the summer, and terrible smells due to poor ventilation when the cells are full.

Access to Asylum in Spain

There has been a notable increase in new asylum applications in Spain over the past several years. In 2015, the last year for which official government statistics are available, there were 14,887 new asylum applications - a 150 percent increase over the previous year. In 2016, Eurostat, the EU's statistical service, reported 15,570 new applications. In the first quarter of 2017, Spain received 6,715 new applications.

These numbers remain low relative to other EU countries. The 2016 figures are just 1.3 percent of the total new applications filed in the 28 EU member states, and just 335 asylum seekers per million inhabitants. By comparison, Germany received 60 percent of all new applications in 2016, with 8,789 asylum seekers per one million inhabitants.

The largest national groups of applicants in Spain are Syrians, Ukrainians, and several Latin American nationalities, including Venezuelans. Sub-Saharan Africans constitute less than one-tenth, although they are the majority of those attempting to reach Spain by land and sea. According to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), 51 percent of those entering Ceuta and Melilla and reaching the mainland by boat between January 2016 and May 2017 were from Guinea, Ivory Coast, or Gambia. The UNHCR representative in Spain, Francesca Friz-Prguda, has expressed concern about limitations on access to asylum in Spain, recalling that 25 percent of the world's forcibly displaced people are sub-Saharan Africans.

While many migrants may not have protection needs, Spanish border policies may contribute to the low number of sub-Saharan Africans requesting asylum, Human Rights Watch said. In Ceuta and Melilla, denial of freedom of movement for asylum seekers to travel onward to the peninsula, and slow official transfers of asylum seekers from the enclaves to the mainland, appear to serve as a disincentive to applying for asylum. At Andalusian ports Human Rights Watch visited, limited information about their right to claim asylum and the lack of individual interviews with lawyers and judges may also deter people from applying.

Various people interviewed said that the police actively discourage asylum applications in the Andalusian port facilities. Numerous migrants and asylum seekers said they had received basic information about the procedure and their rights from the Red Cross and UNHCR, which has two field officers in Andalusia who visit the ports, rather than from the police. Several said they first heard about the possibility of applying for asylum after they were remanded to an immigration detention center (Centro de Internamiento de Extranjeros, CIE) rather than during the initial 72-hour detention and registration period.

Oumar's experience is typical. A 24-year-old from Mali, he was rescued by Salvamento Maritimo on March 22 and disembarked in Algeciras.

The lawyer came when we had to sign the paper [in police custody], he gave us a copy but didn't explain what it was. The judge interviewed us as a group. She asked why we came, if we had any identity papers, if we had any family in Spain. I was scared. Everyone said they came for work, so I said that too. The lawyer didn't say anything about asylum. It was the Red Cross at the Tarifa CIE that talked to me about asylum. I told them my story, and they said I could apply for asylum. So, I did.

Aristide, a 26-year-old from Ivory Coast, described the three days he spent in the Motril port police facility in early April:

They gave us food. we washed just once. I was always in the cell. They came to give us food and then would lock the door. The lawyer came, the judge came. They explained everything, but nobody mentioned asylum. They said they wanted to send us back, and that the lawyer could defend us.

By the end of May, when Human Rights Watch visited, only one person had applied for asylum in Almeria out of roughly 1,200 people who had disembarked there since the beginning of the year. None of the roughly 800 people who had disembarked in Motril had applied for asylum. By contrast, in Malaga, 62 people out of roughly 450 had applied. The Malaga bar association trains lawyers who may be called to represent people arriving by boat, and members of the subcommittee on migration advise lawyers on duty via WhatsApp about their duties and obligations when a boat arrives.

Automatic Detention

Although Spain has invested more in its asylum system in recent years, the official reception system has capacity for only 5,125 asylum seekers, according to official statistics as of the end of May. Of these, 4,709 places are in shelters run by nongovernmental groups, while four government reception facilities can accommodate 416 asylum seekers. Andalusia has 1,126 reception places, by far the most of any region of Spain.

Under Spanish law, immigration detention is permissible when ordered by a judge and for the purposes of deportation, for a maximum of 60 days. Spain currently has seven immigration CIEs. In April, the interior minister announced an intention to open three more - Malaga, Madrid, and Algeciras. In July, the central government's representative in Andalusia said the government was evaluating whether to open one in eastern Andalusia, where Almeria and Motril are located, in response to the increase in boat migration.

The majority of adults arriving irregularly by sea appear to be sent to the detention centers virtually automatically, regardless of the effective possibility to enforce a return order. There are many reasons why a person cannot be deported, including lack of a bilateral agreement with the country of origin for such returns. According to Spanish data, the deportation centers with the lowest effective deportation rate are Algeciras, and Las Palmas and Tenerife, both in the Canary Islands - all subject to boat migration. The Algeciras detention center, which includes an annex in Tarifa, had the highest number of detainees in 2016 - 3,101 people - and the third-lowest effective return rate at 15 percent. People who cannot be deported are released but remain undocumented migrants with an obligation to leave the territory. They can be subject to renewed expulsion orders and detention.

Emmanuel, the 18-year-old from the Ivory Coast, said the Almeria judge did a group videoconference hearing. The lawyer was at the police port facility with Emmanuel and the others: "The judge asked us how we got there and if we wanted to stay or go back to our countries. Everyone said they wanted to stayThey gave us a paper with our names, saying we would go to Valencia. I didn't understand it was a prison."

Patrick, a 27-year-old from Cameroon, like the other men interviewed in Motril, said he saw a lawyer only when it was time to sign the paper ordering his removal from Spain, and that the judge interviewed the migrants as a group. Before sending them to a detention center, the judge asked three questions, of which Patrick could remember only two: "Do you have family in Spain?" and, "Do you want to remain in Spain?"

The use of detention appears to be based on a flawed deterrence logic, Human Rights Watch said. The director of the Tarifa detention center said detention serves to "avoid a massive flow from Morocco to Europe. If they know that they'll go straight to a shelter where people will help them get where they want to go, the flow would be much greater. We are the frontier of Europe." An officer at the Algeciras CIE called the detention policy a "palliative measure, to avoid the pull factor." But a body of research, including a UNHCR comparative study from 2011, has found no empirical evidence that the threat of detention deters migration or refugee flows.

Spain's human rights institute, the Defensor del Pueblo, has repeatedly raised serious concerns about detention center conditions across the country, as have oversight judges. In May, Belen Barranco Arevalo, the oversight judge for the Algeciras center and its annex in Tarifa, issued a judicial order enumerating 31 urgent measures she considers "absolutely necessary" to comply with national and international law. The same judge had already strongly criticized conditions in both facilities in January, including overcrowding, the lack of recreational spaces and proper light, sufficient changes of clothing, including underwear, as well as the practice of locking people inside their rooms. The judge said the two facilities are "more typical of a prison regime," and called them "deplorable."

Under international and European law, detention pending deportation should be a last resort, implemented for the shortest time necessary, and is justifiable only insofar as authorities show due diligence in pursuing effective and safe deportation. The use of automatic detention as a deterrent measure is not permissible. Indeed, best practices point to the use of alternatives to detention, especially when deportation within a reasonable time is not foreseeable.

The detention of a child solely because of the child's own migration status, or that of a parent, constitutes arbitrary detention and contravenes the principle of the best interest of the child. For these reasons, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child calls on states to "expeditiously and completely cease the detention of children on the basis of their immigration status." These standards apply to family detention as well as to the detention of unaccompanied children.

Spain has alternatives to detention. People arriving by sea considered to belong to vulnerable groups, including families with children and pregnant women, are often taken directly to so-called humanitarian shelters. Many of those released from detention because they cannot be returned to their countries of origin are also placed in such shelters, where they may remain for up to three months. The directors of the Algeciras centers said the average length of stay was 15 to 20 days. National statistics show the average stay is around 24 days, including those who are deported as well as those who are released because they cannot be deported.

Copyright notice:  Copyright, Human Rights Watch
Armenia: Limited Justice for Police Violence

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 30 July 2017 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Armenia: Limited Justice for Police Violence, 30 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/597f13324.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

The Armenian government has failed to ensure full accountability for police violence against largely peaceful protesters and journalists a year ago, Human Rights Watch said today. At the same time the authorities have indicted at least 32 protesters, convicting 21 of them, with 11 sentenced to prison.

On several nights in July 2016, largely peaceful, anti-government protests took place in the Armenian capital, Yerevan. At some protests, the authorities used excessive force, assaulting many demonstrators as well as journalists reporting on the events. Authorities arbitrarily detained many protest leaders and hundreds of participants, pressing unjustified criminal charges against some. No officials have been prosecuted.

"A year after Yerevan's July protests, victims of police violence are still waiting for justice and accountability," said Giorgi Gogia, South Caucasus director at Human Rights Watch. "The public's trust in police and the justice system is severely shaken, and an effective accountability process is essential for restoring it."

The protests erupted after armed men from a radical opposition group, Founding Parliament, violently seized a Yerevan police station on July 17, 2016. They are alleged to have killed three policemen and taken hostages. Before the gunmen surrendered on July 31, public support for them and disaffection with the government grew into a protest movement, with almost nightly demonstrations in the capital.

The police response was heavy-handed at times. At a July 29 protest in the neighborhood of the seized police station, police fired stun grenades into peaceful crowds, causing first- and second-degree burns and fragmentation wounds on some demonstrators and journalists. Police did not give proper warning or attempt to use other less violent means to disperse the crowd. Police, and unidentified people in civilian clothes acting with them, attacked protesters and some journalists, punching, kicking, and beating them with wooden clubs and iron bars.

Police arbitrarily detained hundreds of protesters between July 17 and 31, and beat many detainees, in some cases severely. Police did not allow some detainees to get prompt medical care for their injuries. Police held some people for up to 12 hours without documenting the detentions, including holding more than 100 people overnight in a gymnasium. Authorities denied many detainees' basic rights, including prompt access to a lawyer of their choosing and the opportunity to inform a relative of their detention and whereabouts.

The authorities promptly opened an investigation into the police misconduct, but the investigation has led to limited accountability, Human Rights Watch said. No criminal charges have been brought against any law enforcement officials.

Some police have faced disciplinary actions that included dismissals. In early August 2016, authorities fired the Yerevan police chief for "failing to prevent violent attacks on protesters and journalists," and suspended or reprimanded at least 17 other officials. Following internal inquiries police also sent several cases to the Special Investigation Service, the government agency responsible for investigating crimes committed by law enforcement.

However, in December 2016, President Serge Sarkisyan awarded the Yerevan deputy police chief, who participated in police operations against protesters on July 29, a medal for "excellent maintenance of public order."

"Commending an official for his role in a police operation that involved excessive force and serious injuries to protesters and journalists raises serious questions about the government's commitment to accountability," Gogia said.

Armenian authorities have aggressively prosecuted protest participants and leaders. Of the 21 people convicted, 11 received prison terms ranging from one to three-and-a-half years, seven received conditional sentences, and three were fined. Most pleaded guilty, in part to be guaranteed a speedy trial, a lesser sentence than the maximum allowed by law, or both, their lawyers said. Charges included using violence during mass disorder and interfering with the work of a journalist.

Trials of 10 protesters are ongoing. They face charges of using life-threatening violence against officers on duty during the July 19 protest in Yerevan.

The trial of Andreas Ghukasyan, one of the leaders of the July 29 protest, is expected to begin soon. He is charged with organizing mass disorder during the demonstration. At least four other men who were particularly vocal and active in the July 29 protests are under investigation for the same alleged crime.

Ghukasyan has been in pretrial detention for one year. During that time, the authorities brought additional charges against him, related to his alleged intention to support and join the gunmen in the police station.

"The government should make publicly available any credible evidence that justifies the serious criminal charges against the protest organizers and participants," Gogia said. "The authorities should not seek to prosecute protesters and impose long prison sentences in retaliation for their vocal, but peaceful activism."

Copyright notice:  Copyright, Human Rights Watch
Ahmed Abba  two years in prison for nothing

Publisher Reporters Without Borders Publication Date 28 July 2017 Cite as Reporters Without Borders, Ahmed Abba  two years in prison for nothing, 28 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/597f15904.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

On the eve of the second anniversary of Ahmed Abba's arrest in northern Cameroon, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reiterates its support for this radio reporter and its condemnation of his ten-year jail sentence on an absurd terrorism-related charge, and again calls for his release.

Radio France Internationale's Hausa-language correspondent, Ahmed Abba has been held ever since his arrest in the far-north city of Maroua two years ago, on 30 July 2015, for allegedly collaborating with the Jihadi armed group Boko Haram, whose activities he was simply covering as a journalist.





Held incommunicado for months, he was finally tried before a military court in Yaounde and was sentenced on 24 April to ten years in prison and a fine of 85,000 euros on a charge of "laundering the proceeds of a terrorist act." The verdict was incomprehensible, says his lawyer, Charles Tchoungang, who is appealing.





Ever since Abba's arrest, his lawyer, RFI and RSF have been insisting on his innocence and condemning the many flaws in the judicial proceedings, which have fallen far short of due process.





"Ahmed Abba has no place behind bars because the case against him was non-existent, RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said. We call for his conviction to be overturned because it was based on allegations that were never supported by tangible evidence or independent experts. This judicial persecution reflects the hostility of the Cameroonian authorities towards the media, who have been sacrificed on the altar of security and the fight against terrorism."









Travesty of justice





Abba's trial dragged on for more than a year because of repeated adjournments on a range of absurd grounds including an inability to produced prosecution witnesses, experts whose qualifications were rejected, the main judge's absences and a failure to keep deadlines.





All of the requests for Abba's release that his lawyers presented in the course of the trial's 18 hearings were systematically ignored. At no point was the prosecution able to produce any hard evidence of his guilt. It was only at the 15th hearing, in February, that Abba was finally allowed to give the court his version of the events.





RSF repeatedly urged the Cameroonian authorities to abandon the case while RFI produced a great of irrefutable evidence of his innocence. One of the charges, condoning terrorism, was dropped during the trial but others were maintained despite the lack of any evidence









Victim of mounting security fears





Abba was the victim of growing alarm about Boko Haram, a terrorist group that the Cameroonian security forces have been combatting for at least five years. For a long time, he was facing a possible death sentence and it was under a controversial terrorism law adopted in June 2014 that he was tried by military court.





He was held incommunicado for the first three months after his arrest, during which he was subjected to mistreatment amounting to torture without ever being able to receive medical treatment or see his family or lawyer, who was not allowed access to the prosecution case file.





Cameroon is ranked 136th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2017 World Press Freedom Index.
Another Moroccan move to restrict coverage of Rif unrest

Publisher Reporters Without Borders Publication Date 28 July 2017 Cite as Reporters Without Borders, Another Moroccan move to restrict coverage of Rif unrest, 28 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/597f2da24.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns Morocco's expulsion of two Spanish journalists, Jose Luis Navazo and Fernando Sanz, who in recent weeks had been covering the protests in Al-Hoceima, in the northern Rif region.

The editor of the Correo Diplomatico online newsletter, Navazo has lived in Morocco for the past 17 years with his wife of Moroccan origin and his two children, while Sanz is a freelancer who had been finishing a report about the protests.





Police arrested them in Tetouan on 25 July, seizing their equipment and material, and expelled them without any explanation three hours later across the nearby land border with Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on the north Moroccan coast.





"I am stunned by what has happened," Navazo told RSF. "Morocco is the country I love and I have left my wife and children there. Nonetheless, I did my job in a professional and honest manner and checked all my information with different sources."





RSF Spain secretary-general Rosa Meneses said: "We call on the Moroccan authorities to allow Jose Luis Navazo to rejoin his family in Tetouan. We also ask the Spanish government to intercede on behalf of this journalist."





In a statement for the weekly Tel Quel, Moroccan culture and communication minister Mohamed Laaraj claimed that Navazo and Sanz, "identified themselves as tourists, not journalists, and tried to film although they had no permit for filming."





"There can be no justification for expelling journalists in such a summary manner, without giving them time to explain themselves or take the necessary steps," said Yasmine Kacha, the head of RSF's North Africa desk.





"This latest sign of hostility on the part of the authorities is part of a broader policy aimed at restricting the work of both Moroccan and foreign journalists trying to cover events in the Rif, a region that is in growing danger of becoming a no-go area for independent media."





Navazo and Sanz were expelled on the same day that Moroccan journalist Hamid El Mahdaoui was sentenced to three months in prison on a charge of "inviting" people to participate in a banned demonstration in Al-Hoceima, the epicentre of the protest movement in the Rif.





RSF described his conviction as "unjust and summary" in apress release on 26 July, which reported that a total of seven citizen-journalists and media workers had been arrested in or near Al-Hoceima in recent weeks.





Morocco is ranked 133rd out of 180 countries inRSF's 2017 World Press Freedom Index.
Greece: Minister uses court ruling to freeze publisher's bank account

Publisher Reporters Without Borders Publication Date 28 July 2017 Cite as Reporters Without Borders, Greece: Minister uses court ruling to freeze publisher's bank account, 28 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/597f2dfc4.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns an attempt by Greek foreign minister Nikos Kotzias to silence the Athens Review of Books magazine (regarded as the local equivalent of the New York Review of Books) in retaliation for a reference to his communist past.





The issue dates back to 2010, when the magazine published a reader's letter that not only said Kotzias used to be a member of the Communist Party of Greece but also described him as "the most extreme and fanatical, cruel and relentless communist of our generation."





Kotzias responded by suing the magazine for 250,000 euros in libel damages. After an appeal court ruled in his favour in 2015, the case went to Greece's supreme court, which upheld the appeal court decision although it reduced the damages to 22,000 euros.

It was on the basis of this decision that Kotzias had the bank account of the magazine's publisher, Maria Vasilaki, frozen on 24 July.





"We regret that the Greek courts have indulged this politician by issuing an outrageous and disproportionate damages award against a magazine publisher in order to reduce her to silence," said Pauline Ades-Mevel, the head of RSF's European Union desk.

"We call for a reform of Greece's press law so that defamation ceases to be treated as a crime and so that plaintiffs have to bring their defamation actions before civil courts."





The Athens Review of Books has now referred the case to the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights, which has ruled in favour of media freedom in similar cases in the past.





Greece is ranked 88th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2017 World Press Freedom Index.
Cumhuriyet trial: international observers call for all defendants to be released, charges dropped

Publisher Reporters Without Borders Publication Date 28 July 2017 Cite as Reporters Without Borders, Cumhuriyet trial: international observers call for all defendants to be released, charges dropped, 28 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/597f2e744.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Representatives from international free expression groups and professional journalist organizations observed proceedings in Istanbul this week in the criminal trial of 17 journalists and executives from the newspaper Cumhuriyet.





We reviewed the indictment ahead of trial and delegates were present in court as the journalists and executives defended themselves against accusations that they supported terrorists and violated their managerial duties to the newspaper.





We found credible defence arguments that the case relies on weak evidence cherry-picked to support a predetermined theory. At best, testimony from the journalists and executives strongly suggests that authorities failed to conduct a proper investigation.





Defence arguments that the indictment relies on factual errors and includes as evidence news reports that are mischaracterized or offered out of context raise legitimate concerns, as does prosecutors' reliance on "experts" whose qualifications seem questionable.





We are concerned by prosecutors' focus on what appear to be innocuous and unavoidable contacts - or even attempts at contact to which the accused did not respond - with individuals who had a secretive app on their phones, suggesting an attempt to prove guilt by tenuous association.





We are also troubled that a prosecutor in the case is himself under suspicion of links to the Gulen community. That prosecutor, who remains free, is entitled to the presumption of innocence. But so, too, are Cumhuriyet journalists and executives who have spent nearly nine months behind bars.





Viewed in light of events in Turkey in recent years, it is difficult to dismiss arguments that this case is another politically motivated effort to criminalize journalism. We are alarmed that it appears to be grounded on a theory equating journalism with violent extremism.





This case is a test for Turkey - the outcome will signal the place human rights and the rule of law will hold in the country's future. We welcome today's order to release seven of the defendants and call on authorities to implement it immediately. But Turkey should release all of the Cumhuriyet journalists and executives, as well as the many journalists and human rights defenders believed imprisoned for their work in violation of the fundamental human right to share and receive information.







Moreover, the issues identified above, among others, lead us to conclude that this case should not have been brought and should be withdrawn fully and without delay.






UN peacekeeping chief warns Security Council about insecurity in Central African Republic

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 28 July 2017 Cite as UN News Service, UN peacekeeping chief warns Security Council about insecurity in Central African Republic, 28 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/597f30514.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

The head of the United Nations peacekeeping operations has warned that the increased intensity of attacks on civilians and peacekeepers is bringing Central African Republic (CAR) to the tipping point.

Addressing the Security Council in a closed-door session, the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, yesterday cited the worsening security and humanitarian  situation in Bangassou, in the south-eastern part of the country, where three UN peacekeepers have been killed in recent days.

The attacks took place against the backdrop of sustained fighting in the south-east of the country, heightened inter-ethnic tensions and efforts by spoilers to manipulate communities along religious lines and undermine the stabilization process in the country, Mr. Lacroix told the 15-member Council, according to a note from the UN Spokesperson's Office.

Mr. Lacroix is scheduled to travel to the CAR over the weekend to convey a message of support to the UN stabilization mission known by its French acronym, MINUSCA, and to meet with national authorities.

In his address yesterday, Mr. Lacroix also raised concerns about the deteriorating security in the border town of Zemio, 290 km east of Bangassou, with the risk of further clashes between the Muslim community and elements affiliated with anti-Balaka, which had already led to the displacement of more than 22,000 civilians.

He also mentioned that the security situation in the town of Bria, in the north of the country, remains fragile and that the departure of the Ugandan and American forces from the eastern part of the country this spring has created a vacuum leading to the emergence of hostile 'self-defence' groups.

The violence has led to a worsening humanitarian situation in the country, with the numbers of internally displaced persons up about 40 per cent since last year.

Clashes between the mainly Muslim Seleka rebel coalition and anti-Balaka militia, which are mostly Christian, have plunged the country of about 4.5 million people into civil conflict since 2012. According to the UN some 2.3 million people, over half the population, in dire need of assistance. In addition to those displaced within the CAR, more than 484,000 people from the country have been forced to seek refuge in neighbouring nations.

The senior UN official also reiterated that a military solution to the problem of the armed groups will not suffice to address the root causes of the conflict: The absence of tangible progress in the peace process risks further worsening the situation.

He noted the importance of operationalizing the July 17 roadmap by the members of the African Initiative for Peace and Reconciliation and underlined the importance of prioritizing the implementation of the ceasefire agreed upon in the Rome agreement of 20 June.
Philippines: UN experts urge Government to address spiralling rights violations

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 31 July 2017 Cite as UN News Service, Philippines: UN experts urge Government to address spiralling rights violations, 31 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/597f30824.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

A group of United Nations experts has urged the Government of the Philippines to immediately address reported human rights violations, including murder, threats against indigenous peoples and the summary execution of children.

Attacks are spiralling against many groups in society and we are making an urgent appeal for Government action, said a joint statement issued by Agnes Callamard, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; Michel Forst, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; and Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children.

They said attacks target indigenous peoples and human rights defenders, including children.

The experts noted that a number of villagers, farmers and human rights defenders seeking to protect the ancestral land of Lumad indigenous peoples against businesses have been reportedly killed, or executed outside the ordinary legal proceedings.

Last week, President Rodrigo Duterte, speaking in a televised news conference on 24 July, threatened to bomb Lumad schools on Mindanao.

We urge the Government to ensure effective protection of individuals and groups who may be subject to extra-legal, arbitrary or summary executions, or those who received death threats, the experts said.

The Government must also prevent incitement to violence or killings against indigenous communities, human rights defenders and farmers, they concluded.

The group of UN human rights experts has been in contact with the Government of the Philippines regarding these concerns.

Special Rapporteurs and independent experts are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.
Human rights defenders in Viet Nam should 'never be treated as criminals,' says UN rights office

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 28 July 2017 Cite as UN News Service, Human rights defenders in Viet Nam should 'never be treated as criminals,' says UN rights office, 28 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/597f30ef4.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

The United Nations rights office expressed concern today over the intensifying crackdown in Viet Nam against human rights defenders who have questioned or criticized the Government and its policies.

Noting that last Tuesday, well-known activist Tran Thi Nga was sentenced to nine years' imprisonment and five years' house arrest for so-called anti-State propaganda for comments posted online, Liz Throssell, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) expressed serious concerns about the severity of the sentence and the conduct of the trial, which does not appear to have met due process standards.

Human rights defenders should never be treated as criminals who are a threat to national security, she told reporters at the regular bi-weekly news briefing in Geneva.

In accordance with provisions of article 88 of Viet Nam's Penal Code, Tran was kept in incommunicado detention for some six months  from her arrest in January until a few days before the trial. Tran was not allowed adequate time to prepare her defence, the trial lasted just one day and her family and friends were denied entry to the courtroom, according to the UN rights office.

Tran Thi Nga's sentence comes less than a month after Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, a prominent blogger known as 'Mother Mushroom,' was jailed for 10 years, also under article 88, following similarly flawed judicial proceedings.

OHCHR pointed out that over the last six months, at least seven other human rights defenders have been arrested and face prosecution, several dozen are currently detained, and two have been deported or sent into exile abroad. Many others have been intimidated, harassed and brutally beaten.

The UN Human Rights Office and international human rights mechanisms have repeatedly denounced article 88 of the Penal Code, along with several other provisions of the Code, as being in breach of international human rights law.

The Vietnamese Government's failure to address the concerns of the international community about restrictions on fundamental freedoms raises doubts about its commitment to protect and promote human rights, stressed Ms. Throssell.

We urge the Vietnamese authorities to immediately release all those detained in connection with their exercise of their rights to freedom of expression, and to amend the overly broad ill-defined laws that are used  under the pretext of national security  to crack down on dissent, she stated.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan (L), Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir (R), Foreign Minister of Egypt Sameh Shoukry (2nd L) and Foreign Minister of Bahrain Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa (2nd R) pose for a photo before their meeting in Manama, Bahrain on July 30, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

MANAMA - The Saudi Arabia-led Arab quartet on Sunday expressed preparedness for talks with Qatar, while insisting that Doha must meet their demands.

"We reiterate the importance of Qatar's compliance with the 13 demands outlined by the four states," said a joint statement released by the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt after a meeting.

Speaking at a televised joint news conference, Bahrain's Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa said the four countries are ready for dialogue with Qatar if it announces its "sincere willingness" to stop funding terrorism and extremism, halt interference in other countries' foreign affairs, and respond to the 13 demands.

"We are ready to have a dialogue provided the 13 conditions are met by Qatar," said Sheikh Khalid.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir said their demands "cannot be negotiated," adding steps taken by his country along with the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt were "sovereign and within international accords."

On the issue of Qatari Hajj pilgrims, Al Jubeir said they are welcome by Saudi like pilgrims from any other country.

"Kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not accept politicization of the pilgrimage, which is a religious act," he said. "We will welcome Qatari pilgrims like other Muslims."

He blasted Iran for trying to exert influence by benefitting from the situation in the Gulf.

"Any country that has dealt with Iran has a negative consequence, and if our brothers in Qatar think they will reap any benefits with Iran then they did not assess the situation properly," he said.

UAE Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister Sheikh Abdulla bin Zayed Al Nahyan said all measures taken by four states were within international laws and "essential to deter the scourge of terrorism which affected stability of other countries."

The Saudi-led quartet cut diplomatic ties with Qatar and imposed a blockade on the tiny rich Gulf nation on June 5, citing Doha's support of terrorism and extremism, interfering in their internal affairs and seeking closer ties with Iran, a Saudi rival.

The quartet presented in late June a list of 13 demands to Qatar as preconditions for resuming diplomatic ties and ending their sanctions. The demands included Doha's end to funding terrorism and extremism, stoping interference in their internal affairs and downgrading ties with Iran.

For its part, Qatar has strongly denied the charges, while rejecting the the quartet's demands, citing it would not negotiate on issues related to its sovereignty.

On Sunday, the quartet's foreign ministers also stressed that Doha must honor the six principles put forward by them during their previous meeting in Cairo, Egypt earlier the month.

The six principles, a reduced version of the 13 demands, include demands for Qatar to stop funding terrorism and extremist groups, stop inciting propaganda against them and halt interfering in their internal affairs.

They were created amid signs of easing of the Gulf standoff following the visit to the region by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson earlier the month.

During Tillerson's visit, Qatar and the US signed a deal on combating terrorism financing, one of the core demands by the Saudi-led alliance.

Later, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani issued a decree to amend some provisions of its law on fighting terrorism.

On July 21, in his first public speech since the crisis started, Sheikh Tamim also called for holding talks to resolve the Gulf standoff, though emphasizing that any talks should respect its national sovereignty.

He insisted that his country has been "fighting terrorism relentlessly and without compromise."
March of Georgians: A Breakthrough for the Country's Identitarian Groups

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Devi Dumbadze Publication Date 26 July 2017 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 99 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, March of Georgians: A Breakthrough for the Country's Identitarian Groups, 26 July 2017, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 99, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/597f33024.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Link to original story on Jamestown website

On July 14, several hundred agitated participants of the "March of Georgians"-a loose alliance of identitarian political groups, some of them self-proclaimed "fascists" (Facebook.com, July 14)-rallied along Aghmashenebeli Avenue, in central Tbilisi (YouTube, July 14). The political mainstream of the country largely ignored the happening. And initially, the ruling party, Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia (GDDG), issued no official statements in reaction to the event.

The demonstration was initiated by Sandro Bregadze, the deputy state minister for diaspora issues under the GDDG from 2014 to 2016, and the leader of the "Erovnulebi" ("The Nationals") movement. In a Facebook post, Bregadze called "all those whose heart beats for the homeland" to join in, also issuing an "ultimatum" for "all illegal foreigners (Iranians, Arabs, Africans, etc.) to leave the territory of Georgia by July 14" (Facebook.com, June 29).

"This is our response to a 51-year-old Iranian having raped Georgian children (boys)!!! We will clean our streets of foreign criminals!!!" Bregadze exclaimed, referring to a recent case of alleged rape as well as a number of arrests of foreign citizens in Georgia for other alleged sexual offenses (EurasiaNet, July 15). Nonetheless, labeling this rally as targeted merely against "Muslim immigrants" is misleading. Some active participants of the "March" stressed their rejection of all illegal or criminal aliens notwithstanding their faith-the second scandalous case was in fact purportedly committed by Indian citizens, whose confessional affiliation is unclear-as well as their staunch opposition to Russia (Facebook.com, June 29).

The March was supported by the opposition party Alliance of Patriots: Member of Parliament Emzar Kvitsiani joined the demonstrators on the streets (Netgazeti.ge, July 14), as did one of the party's leaders, Konstantine Morgoshia. Other activists included Gia Korkotashvili of the movement "Georgian Mission," Mikheil Amisulashvili of "Erovnulebi," businessman Ramaz Gagnidze, as well as Giorgi Oniani, a contributor to the TV station Obieqtivi (Tabula.ge, July 17). However, the organizers' claims that the March would be a "peaceful protest" was quickly undermined when the latter five activists staged a slur-filled verbal attack in a public Facebook post, which was later deleted. Its target was former Georgian Youth Delegate to the United Nations Tatia Dolidze (Netgazeti.ge, July 17), whom the five threatened to gang-rape. Dolidze-who had criticized the March of Georgians, saying it was destabilizing the country and, thus, "grist for Russia's mill" (Facebook.com, July 14)-reported the incident to the police, leading the Ministry of Internal Affairs to start an investigation into online harassment claims (Civil Georgia, July 17).

The scandal continued as Lado Sadghobelashvili, yet another co-organizer of the March and the founder of the non-governmental organization "Free Generation," posted photographs showing Tatia Dolidze in a friendly embrace with an "Ossetian separatist and FSB [Federal Security Service] officer" Timur Tskhurbaty (Intermedia.ge, July 19). The photographs were intended to be incriminating, allegedly proving that Dolidze was a "Sorosist" and "liberast" (a derogatory slang term stigmatizing liberals as homosexuals), in cahoots with the leader of the pro-Western opposition party Movement for Liberty-European Georgia (MLEG), Giorgi Bokeria, and courting a known murderer of Georgians during the 2008 war in the breakaway region of South Ossetia. Dolidze retorted that the photo of her and Tskhurbaty, which she herself supplied to a Palitra TV documentary, originated from a series of civil society gatherings she had taken part in, whereby Georgian diplomats met with their South Ossetian and Abkhazian counterparts in order to foster mutual dialogue (Palitravideo.ge, July 19).

Simultaneously to the March of Georgians, a group of civil activists organized a protest against yet another move by Russia in the process of so-called "creeping occupation." Earlier this summer, the Russian military removed border posts near the village of Bershueti, at the de facto border with South Ossetia, grabbing some additional 700 meters of territory for the separatist region (Civil Georgia, July 15; see EDM, July 10). However, calls to the March organizers to join this protest against the Russian occupation was met with no response. Other civil society organizations, such as the Women's Movement and the Coalition for Equality, issued statements condemning attacks against Dolidze, while MLEG and its candidate for mayor of Tbilisi, Elene Khostaria, announced a rally in the capital (on July 23) in response to both the March itself and the Dolidze incident (Pirveliradio.ge, July 19).

All in all, the March of Georgians marks a certain breakthrough for identitarian and avowed fascist movements in Georgia. It is the first instance in recent years of such a public demonstration by these groups that succeeded in independently drawing considerable media attention. Usually, the identitarian and fascist groups attach themselves to large public events held by other, more authoritative organizations, such as the Georgian Orthodox Church, thus maintaining a relatively low profile in the public eye. Such was the case, for instance, with the annual "Family Day," held this year on May 17, which was notably attended by various identitarian groups. Though both the rhetoric and form of activism of the groups behind the March of Georgians resembles the practice of their European counterparts, it remains to be seen what actual trans-border links or networks may exist between them.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Armenian Officials Remain Overly Cautious Despite Citizens Being Discriminated Against in Russia

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Publication Date 27 July 2017 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Armenian Officials Remain Overly Cautious Despite Citizens Being Discriminated Against in Russia, 27 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/597f33834.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Link to original story on Jamestown website

On July 14, Russia's State Duma (the parliament's lower chamber) adopted a law, which allows citizens of countries where the Russian language has a constitutionally accepted official statusBelarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstanto work in Russia as drivers without having to exchange their national driver's license. Leonid Kalashnikov, head of the Duma's standing committee on the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Eurasian integration, noted that Russia encourages the countries that "pay respect" to the Russian language. The law, therefore, grants the citizens of the mentioned countries an exemption from the demands set by another law adopted in 2013, which only allows those with a Russian driver's license to work as drivers, although its implementation had been postponed till June 1, 2017 (TASS, July 14).

As noted by an Armenian watchdog organization, the Union of Informed Citizens, the new Russian law contradicts the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) agreement, which guarantees free movement of the labor force. However, Russian lawmakers did not take into consideration that the new law violates the principle that international agreements take priority over national legislation (UICArmenia.org, July 20). As the new Russian law would cause discrimination against the Armenians working in Russia, an Armenian parliamentary delegation brought the issue up during a visit to Moscow. Russian Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin responded with a suggestion to have the Russian language granted an official status in Armenia (TASS, July 17). According to some Armenian sources, Volodin also complained of being asked about an issue that was not agreed in advance, and he pointed out the insufficient language knowledge of some guest workers. An opposition member of the Armenian delegation noted that he could not grasp the logic of how the status of the Russian language in Armenia would help guest workers to learn Russian, and Volodin reprimanded his Armenian counterpart, Ara Babloyan, for allowing an opposition representative to speak out, but ultimately agreed to review the issue later (Armlur.am, July 17).

Armenian officials' reaction to the dispute was restricted. The Chair of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Foreign Relations, Armen Ashotyan, noted that the language issue was not on the agenda and the negotiations about the driving licenses should continue (Lenta.ru, July 18). However, a few days later, Ashotyan spoke about an issue that Armenian officials usually avoid or tend to agree with the Russian argument: he admitted that Moscow's explanation that Russian arms sales to Azerbaijan are only an economic issue does not withstand criticism and undermines trust in the bilateral relations (News.am, July 22). Ashotyan's statement in a certain way contradicted President Serzh Sargsyan's televised interview on July 13, in which Sargsyan had said: "Nothing serious has happened so far [because of the Russian military supplies to Azerbaijan]. If any grave consequences occur, we may blame them; if not, we should consider those supplies as Russia's policy towards stabilization of the regional situation" (168.am, July 17). Although, in the few weeks preceding Sargsyan's interview, Russia had delivered large shipments of offensive weapons to Baku, his approach remained quite in line with the Russian argument about the need to keep a balance that might allegedly deteriorate in case arms supplies are imported from other countries. Particularly, immediately after the "four-day war" in April 2016, Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev justified arms sales to Azerbaijan with the need to keep the balance (see EDM, April 14, 2016). Earlier, Armenia's foreign minister, Eduard Nalbandyan, had even spoken about Russia's arms deals with Azerbaijan as "our ally's business," worth mentioning only from an economic point of view (Azatutyun.am, July 14).

Russian political scientist Sergei Markedonov criticized the official approach concerning the language issue. In his opinion, initiatives suggesting a violation of state status of the Armenian language are harmful for the bilateral relations and bound to backfire, especially considering Russia's cooperation with Azerbaijan and the regular violations of cease-fire on the line of contact in Karabakh. Markedonov also ridiculed the current Russian "soft power" approach, "limited to the language issue and Soviet nostalgia" (Ponarseurasia.org, July 18).

Besides the language and guest workers problem, another widely discussed matter in the Russo-Armenian relations has been the supposed establishment of "trade corridors" between Russia and Armenia via Georgia and its occupied territoriesAbkhazia and South Ossetia. While the Russo-Georgian negotiations did not reach an agreement (see EDM, July 10), Armenian officials and state-controlled media referred to the more optimistic Russian news reports, such as the one in Kommersant, which alleged that Russian and Georgian representatives had agreed to start the implementation of the 2011 agreement on trade corridors (Kommersant, July 10). While the state-controlled media, especially television, have habitually been relying on Russian sources' coverage of most of the international issues, the officials' excitement sometimes may cause a question about whether they receive any analytical notes besides the news reports, which are largely biased. At the same time, some think tanks and independent analysts are not optimistic about the possibility of "trade corridors," noting that Russia has simply been using the issue to increase the pressure on Georgia and to persuade Tbilisi to accept Abkhazia and South Ossetia as negotiating sides (Aravot.am, July 18).

Armenian officials have also been continuing to avoid a meaningful discussion about energy diversification (see EDM, June 27). While frustration with the dependence on Russia and its derogatory approach may have been growing, very little is done to adjust and diversify the current policies. One of the probable reasons was recently mentioned at the Georgia's European Way conference in Batumi by David Shahnazaryan, senior analyst at the Yerevan Regional Studies Center. In his opinion, there is so far no alternative to the strategic partnership with Russia, even though it is not quite satisfying, as none of the Armenian politicians would take a risk of military defeat in Karabakh (1in.am, July 18). However, Armenian officials' concerns about the possible threat to the regime's stability and their group economic interests in case of being disloyal to Russia may be playing an equally important role.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Cameroon: Boko Haram Stepping Up Attacks

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Alexander Sehmer Publication Date 28 July 2017 Citation / Document Symbol Terrorism Monitor Volume: 15 Issue: 15 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Cameroon: Boko Haram Stepping Up Attacks, 28 July 2017, Terrorism Monitor Volume: 15 Issue: 15, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/597f34994.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

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Two suicide bombers killed at least 14 people and wounded another 30 in northeast Cameroon on July 12 in an attack on a bustling market town near the Nigerian border (Cameroon-Info, July 14). The attack in Waza, attributed to Boko Haram, is the latest in what appears to be a resurgence of Boko Haram attacks in Cameroon's Far North region and elsewhere (Kmer SAGA, July 13).

After a dip in Boko Haram violence in the region, militants appear to be stepping up operations. Just a few days ahead of the Waza attack, members of Cameroon's Rapid Intervention Brigade (BIR) intercepted a group of suspected Boko Haram fighters - made up of four men and eight women - near Amichde, also near the Nigerian border (Kmer SAGA, July 11). Two of the alleged fighters were killed while the others escaped.

Cameroon's Far North region saw 18 suicide bombings in June, according to the International Crisis Group. There were also numerous clashes with BIR solders and members of local "vigilance committees," the vigilante groups Cameroon encourages as a form of local police.

Across the border, Nigeria has seen a similar increase in attacks after a period of relative quiet. A Boko Haram suicide attack killed at least 12 people and wounded another 18 on the outskirts of Maiduguri, the Borno state capital (Daily Post, July 17). The attack, reportedly carried out by two female suicide bombers, follows a wave of similar suicide attacks carried out in the same area (Sahara Reporters, June 19). The Nigerian army is now under orders to capture Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau "dead or alive" within the next 40 days (Premium Times, July 22).

In Cameroon, the military is conducting a similarly tough campaign, one that has received criticism in a recent report by Amnesty International, which accused Cameroon of torturing citizens suspected of supporting Boko Haram (al-Jazeera, July 20)

Analysts have warned that Cameroon, Nigeria and others in the region that are fighting against Boko Haram must develop a more comprehensive strategy that will take the fight to the extremists while at the same time hold the security forces accountable and resist the harsh treatment of local communities. Without that, it is argued, Boko Haram cannot be permanently defeated. The recent attacks may be evidence of this.

If officials are considering a more nuanced strategy, it is unclear. Certainly the rhetoric remains unchanged. Cameroonian officials met with their counterparts from Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Benin, in the capital Yaounde this month to discuss the regional security and humanitarian situation. Few details of the meeting were released, but Cameroon's defense minister, Joseph Beti Assomo, described it only as bringing the neighbors closer to the goal of "complete eradication of Boko Haram" (Kmer SAGA, July 9).

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Qatar: Tightening Up Anti-Terror Laws

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Publication Date 28 July 2017 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Qatar: Tightening Up Anti-Terror Laws, 28 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/597f34e84.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

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Qatar announced changes to its anti-terrorism legislation on July 20, including amending rules that define terrorism and establishing two national terrorism lists, efforts that are aimed at ending the boycott by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) (New Arab, July 21). It follows an agreement with the United States  signed while U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was in Doha on July 11  committing Qatar to work with the United States to fight terrorism financing.

The move is seen broadly positively by the Arab states, but they still dismissed it as "insufficient" to ease their boycott (Gulf News, July 21). Qatar's planned changes are loosely in line with some of the demands made of them, including freezing the assets of those designated terrorists by the Arab states and handing over wanted individuals. There is now interest to see who makes it onto the Qatari lists (The National, July 21).

The Arab states have made clear who and what they consider blacklisted, releasing a list of 59 individuals and 12 organizations (examined in detail by Andrew McGregor in the previous issue of Terrorism Monitor). Among them is Abdulrahman al-Naimi, a Qatari academic who is accused of orchestrating the transfer of millions of dollars to groups in Iraq and Syria. Al-Naimi is something of an "easy sell" in the West since, as a Specially Designated National (SDN), he already appears on sanctions lists. Indeed, when Anwar Gargash, the UAE's minister of foreign affairs, spoke on the issue in London this month, al-Naimi was the example he gave to illustrate Qatar's nefariousness. Less explicable  and unmentioned by Gargash  are the Bahraini opposition groups that also make the list.

The Arab states are also keen to stress that Qatar's alleged sponsorship of terror groups sabotaged international efforts to find non-jihadist partners on the ground in Syria. Qatar denies this. Its foreign minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, said his country had never funded Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front) or other terror groups in Syria (al-Jazeera, 22 June). But Qatar was sloppy about the funding it did send to Syria, and it was slow to crack down on private donations to jihadist groups, although it hardly stands alone in that regard.

Qatar's problem has been its willingness to back Islamists  Qatar's support of the Muslim Brotherhood is what really riles the Arab states. Unsurprisingly, its definition of terrorism has differed from that of its neighbors. While the Arab states have dismissed Qatar's proposed legislative changes, they may still prove to be a greater step toward resolving the crisis than the UAE and others are letting on. Its critics will say Qatar has made commitments to tackle terrorism funding in the past and failed to live up to them (The National, July 11). But bringing its definition of terrorism more in line with that of its neighbors is a practical step that Qatar can actually take. By contrast, it is highly unlikely to shut down al-Jazeera, another of the demands and one that, unlike the accusations about Syria, plays less well internationally (al-Jazeera, June 30).

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
The Future of Sunni Jihadist Violence in Iran

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Nat Guillou Publication Date 28 July 2017 Citation / Document Symbol Terrorism Monitor Volume: 15 Issue: 15 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, The Future of Sunni Jihadist Violence in Iran, 28 July 2017, Terrorism Monitor Volume: 15 Issue: 15, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/597f35354.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

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Since Islamic State (IS) declared its caliphate in June 2014, the rate of jihadist violence has escalated throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Until last month, Iran had proved to be an exception to this general trend, with its aggressive efforts to combat IS outside its own borders and its experienced domestic security forces regularly arresting "takfiris," a term used by the regime to describe those suspected of links to Sunni militant groups.

This situation changed dramatically on June 7, when 17 people were killed in simultaneous attacks by IS at the parliament building and at the tomb of Ayatollah Khomeini (al-Jazeera, June 7). The attacks came as a shock to many Iranians, unused to such violence in Tehran, but militancy by domestic Sunni extremists is only likely to increase as IS loses ground in Iraq and Syria.

Potential for Jihadist Recruitment

Iran views minorities in its peripheral regions as most vulnerable to radicalization and militancy. Following the June 7 attacks, the Iranian intelligence ministry identified one of the alleged perpetrators as Serias Sadeghi, an Iranian Kurd from the western town of Paveh near the Iraqi border. Further, the ministry said at least three of the four other attackers were also of Kurdish origin and that they had fought in Iraq and Syria before returning to the country.

Security forces subsequently cracked down on radicals in Kurdish-majority areas in the northwest, reflecting the increased perceived threat from this group (Rudaw, June 23). Additionally, Balochs in the country's southeast suspected of jihadist sympathies have also been killed and detained by security forces, despite the lack of evidence suggesting any direct involvement in the attacks (Press TV, June 19).

These incidents illustrate the key areas where extremist ideology most often translates to potential support for jihadist groups seeking to conduct attacks against the Iranian state. This is not always that case, however. In the southwestern Khuzestan province, where the security services are also highly active, members of the Ahwazi Arab minority involved in anti-state violence are mostly Shia and, as such, are not a significant potential source of future jihadist recruits.

Kurdish Threat and IS Links

Kurds make up an estimated nine to ten percent of the Iranian population, and most are Sunni. Despite initial support for the 1979 revolution, which they hoped would lead to greater political autonomy, Sunni Kurds abstained from voting for the creation of the Islamic Republic, which established Shia primacy. This ultimately led to an uprising, which was brutally repressed. Oppression of the Kurdish minority continues to the present day. Indeed, nationalist groups continue to wage insurgencies in response. These ethnic tensions therefore clearly provide a potential source of recruitment for militancy that can be exploited by radical groups.

However, while this may provide a source of hostility against the regime, the rise across the region of Salafist ideology, which justifies anti-Shia violence, has played a crucial role in forming Kurdish jihadists in Iran. A key development occurred in 2003, when members of Ansar al-Islam (AAI), a Kurdish Salafist-jihadist group established in Iraqi Kurdistan, fled to Iran during the U.S. occupation. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) allowed AAI's members to regroup and tolerated their presence as their fighters were focused on fighting the United States in Iraq.

Although Tehran ultimately outlawed the group, AAI ensured its extremist views gained traction among some Iranian Kurds. The dissemination of such ideas may also have been facilitated by members of al-Qaeda, including Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who also spent some time in Iran during the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

This predisposition to IS' extremist worldview will have incentivized the group's own efforts to boost its support among Kurds. Indeed, IS has recently released propaganda videos in Kurdish, making clear that IS seeks to win further Kurdish backing (Jihadology, November 12 2016). Geography will also have played an important role in the development of links to the so-called IS caliphate, as militants will have been able to take advantage of pre-existing fuel smuggling networks along the Iran-Iraq border to exit and return without detection. Around 150 Kurds were reported to have joined IS by early 2016, likely via such routes (Radio Zamaneh, February 29, 2016). Returning fighters now probably represent the key source of future jihadist violence in Iran.

Growing Radicalization in Balochistan

Like the Kurds, ethnic Balochs who seek greater political independence have suffered long-term oppression, something that was again exacerbated by the advent of the Islamic Republic, which further marginalized this majority-Sunni group. Baloch nationalism intensified as a result, but also took on a sectarian dimension that had previously been of little political significance - fighting against the Shah's government had been principally led by secular groups.

This more sectarian focus was evidenced by the establishment of Jundullah, a militant group founded by Abdolmalek Rigi in 2003 to fight for greater rights for Iranian Sunnis and ethnic Balochs. Although the group claimed to reject religious extremism, Rigi was himself educated at the Binnori Town seminary in Karachi, a madrasa that has played a significant role in helping to establish several major radical, and particularly anti-Shia, militant groups. Rigi's background, as well as other cross-border linkages with radical Islamists in neighboring Pakistan and Afghanistan, will doubtless have further influenced Jundullah. Notably, major successor groups that have gained prominence since Rigi's death in 2010, and the subsequent weakening of Jundullah, have included Jaish al-Adl (JaA) and Ansar al-Furqan, both of which present themselves as openly Salafist-jihadist organizations.

None of these have expressly sworn allegiance to transnational jihadist groups, and their own established networks in Iran's southeast will have faced greater difficulties than Kurdish jihadists in establishing direct links with IS' central command, owing to the greater distance from Iraq and Syria. However, given that these groups have a sectarian agenda and are fighting a Shia state, there is a degree of synergy between their ideologies. It is therefore possible these groups will be sympathetic to IS and provide future recruits.

Future Militancy Risk

While for now Kurds provide the most significant source of further IS violence, the threat may rise in the southeast, particularly if security forces engage in a wider crackdown against Balochs. That could in turn prompt Baloch jihadists to increase operations within the Iranian interior rather than confine themselves to attacks in border areas, such as that in April by JaA in which 10 Iranian military personnel were killed near the border with Pakistan (See Terrorism Monitor, July14; Tehran Times, April 28).

Tehran's strategy of allowing some Sunni militants to use Iran as a safe haven and logistics hub, on the understanding that they will focus on targets outside Iran, has helped limit the threat of jihadist violence. Such groups, including al-Qaeda, were unwilling to jeopardize this arrangement. However, the rise in Salafist ideology among Iranian Sunnis, as well as the growing regional Sunni-Shia divide, will provide fertile ground for future jihadist recruitment.

Indeed, IS will look to continue its insurgency in neighboring Iraq despite the recent fall of Mosul. The group has already increased its activities to win greater support in Pakistani Baluchistan, including involvement in the recent kidnapping and killing of two Chinese nationals (Dawn, June 9).

An IS presence in Baluchistan will ensure the group can further develop links with Kurdish and Baloch extremists in Iran over the longer-term, increasing the risk of further jihadist violence, especially as Iran presents an important symbolic target for IS as it seeks to maintain its relevance while its caliphate fades away.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Sanctioning Syed Salahuddin: Too Little, Too Late

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Sudha Ramachandran Publication Date 28 July 2017 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Sanctioning Syed Salahuddin: Too Little, Too Late, 28 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/597f35a44.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Link to original story on Jamestown website

On June 26, the U.S. State Department announced the designation of Mohammad Yusuf Shah (a.k.a. Syed Salahuddin) as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). The 71-year-old is "supreme commander" of the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), the largest Kashmiri militant group operating in the Kashmir Valley, and heads the United Jihad Council, an umbrella organization of anti-India terror outfits based in Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK). [1]

Salahuddin figures on India's "most wanted" list and is sought in connection with more than 50 cases ranging from assassinations and attacks on Indian security forces to money laundering (DNA, June 28). [2] According to a U.S. State Department announcement, he has carried out several attacks in Jammu and Kashmir and, in September 2016, "vowed to block any peaceful resolution to the Kashmir conflict, threatened to train more Kashmiri suicide bombers and vowed to turn the Kashmir valley 'into a graveyard for Indian forces'." [3]

Unlike Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), HM has not been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the United States, but it has been listed under "Other Terrorist Groups" in the appendix of the State Department's Patterns of Global Terrorism report since 2002. Because of its Kashmiri composition and agenda  as opposed to the predominantly Pakistani composition of LeT and JeM  the United States has refrained from imposing sanctions on the group or its leaders (Outlook, May 05, 2003). [4] With Salahuddin's listing as a SDGT that has changed. The move restricts Salahuddin's access to the U.S. financial system, freezes any U.S. assets and prevents American nationals from doing business with him. However, it is doubtful that the U.S. designation will impact HM's operations in the Valley.

Kashmir Conflict

Salahuddin spent his early years in the Kashmir Valley and was an active member of the Jamaat-e-Islami. In 1987, he contested elections to the Jammu and Kashmir State Assembly as a candidate of the opposition Muslim United Front. That election, which was marred by widespread irregularities, triggered Salahuddin's disillusionment with electoral politics and prompted him to turn to militancy.

Like hundreds of other Kashmiri youth, Salahuddin crossed over to POK for weapons and training to fight the Indian state. He joined HM, which Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) set up to promote its own objectives in the Kashmir conflict, and in 1991, emerged as the group's "supreme commander" (Hindustan Times, June 27).

The group's predominantly Kashmiri composition contributed to its popularity in the Valley, and Kashmiri youth joined it in large numbers. Pakistan's funding and weapons enabled it to wipe out its rivals and carry out innumerable attacks on Indian security forces and civilians in Kashmir, helping it to dominate militancy in the Valley in the 1990s (Swarajya, June 28). However, Pakistan preferred the Pakistani-dominated LeT and JeM to carry out its anti-India agenda, and the group declined in prominence from about 2000 onward.

It was in 2016 that HM made a comeback. Its south Kashmir commander, Burhan Wani, had captured the imagination of Kashmiri youth, and his death in July that year triggered mass protests and provided a fillip for the group's popularity in the Valley (see Militant Leadership Monitor, December 31, 2015; Rising Kashmir, July 6).

However, the organization has suffered several setbacks over the past year. Indian security forces have eliminated several of its commanders and cadres, including Wani's successor, Sabzar Bhat (Rising Kashmir, June 3). Additionally, HM suffered a split in May, when its operations commander Zakir Musa broke away to form the Taliban-e-Kashmir. Musa, who espouses a transnational jihadism, as opposed to Salahuddin's pro-Pakistan agenda, wants to introduce sharia law in Kashmir and could act as a bridgehead for Islamic State (see Militant Leadership Monitor, July 4; India Today, June 9). It is in this evolving situation that Salahuddin has been labeled an SDGT.

Limited Impact

The SDGT tag will cut off Salahuddin's access to his U.S.-based assets and funding from U.S.-based supporters (Times of India, June 27). But this is unlikely to have much impact on HM's functioning for at least two reasons.

First, the group's funding from U.S.-based Kashmiris has declined in recent years as it was hit by the arrest in 2011 of the Kashmir American Council's Ghulam Nabi Fai, who among other things was channeling ISI funds to the group and its front organizations (The Hindu, July 21, 2011). Second, since the vast majority of Salahuddin's funding comes from Pakistan's ISI, the U.S. designation will not substantially weaken his organization's capacity to operate in the Valley. Only if the ISI funding were shut off would the group's operations be crippled, and Pakistan is unlikely to withhold its support. In addition, operational decisions are made in the Valley, and Salahuddin's designation as an SDGT will have little impact there (Indian Express, June 27).

This has been the case with the LeT and JeM. Although their respective leaders, Hafeez Syed and Masood Azhar, were designated terrorists and substantial bounties put on their heads, they continue to operate freely in Pakistan and their group's operations have not been curtailed (Swarajya, June 28).

Additionally, in the case of HM, Salahuddin's control over his commanders and fighters in the Valley has diminished significantly over the years. The latter openly criticize his comfortable life in POK while they face pressure from the Indian security forces (The Quint, November 7, 2015). Indian analysts say that the designation of Salahuddin as a terrorist would have been effective had it come at least two decades ago (First Post, June 27). Sanctions on him now, at a time when he is largely irrelevant, are too little, too late.

Diplomatic Victory

More positively, the designation of Salahuddin as an SDGT will strengthen India-U.S. relations, especially in the field of counter-terrorism co-operation. Salahuddin's blacklisting is an indication to Indian officials that the United States has come round to accepting India's position that in Kashmir there is little difference between the violence of indigenous militants and Pakistani jihadists (The Week, July 09). For India, which has been pressing the United States for years to act more robustly against all Pakistan-based anti-India terror groups, including HM, the move is a major diplomatic victory.

The decision to designate Salahuddin as an SDGT was announced just hours ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. It set the tone for a productive meeting, which saw the two sides agree on setting up "a consultation mechanism on domestic and international terrorist designations listing proposals" (Indian Express, June 28).

Salahuddin's designation is a victory for India in the India-Pakistan tug-of-war over cross-border terrorism, but Salahuddin's designation as a SDGT is unlikely to impact HM's military operations on the ground in Kashmir.

With Pakistan unlikely to shut off funding, the group's capacity to carry out attacks in the Valley will not be undermined, and the United States is targeting Salahuddin at a time when he is a marginalized leader with little remaining influence in Kashmir. Instead, the move's most significant impact has been to boost U.S.-India relations.

NOTES

[1] In 1947, when Pakistani raiders attacked the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, the Maharaja chose to accede to India. However, Pakistan has questioned the legality of the Instrument of Accession and argues that the territory is disputed. At least a third of the former princely state's territory remains under Pakistani occupation today, an area India calls Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. The main bone of contention between India and Pakistan is the Kashmir Valley, which is part of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Since 1987, Pakistan has armed and trained Kashmiris and Pakistanis to carry out attacks in the state and other parts of India.

[2] "Wanted Details: Mohd Yusuf Shah," National Inv/estigation Agency, Government of India (see: http://www.nia.gov.in/wanted-details.htm?35)

[3] "Terrorist Designations of Mohammad Yusuf Shah aka Syed Salahuddin," US State Department, Washington DC June 26, 2017. https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2017/06/272168.htm

[4] Appendix C  Background Information on Other Terrorist Groups, in Patterns of Global Terrorism 2002, US State Department, Washington DC, pp. 134-35, https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/20120.pdf

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Reclaiming Lost Ground in Somalia: The Enduring Threat of al-Shabaab

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Publication Date 28 July 2017 Citation / Document Symbol Terrorism Monitor Volume: 15 Issue: 15 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Reclaiming Lost Ground in Somalia: The Enduring Threat of al-Shabaab, 28 July 2017, Terrorism Monitor Volume: 15 Issue: 15, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/597f36004.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Link to original story on Jamestown website

Over the last 12 months, al-Shabaab has markedly increased the tempo and sophistication of its attacks on a range of soft and hard targets in Somalia, the semi-autonomous region of Puntland and in southeast Kenya. The al-Qaeda affiliate is re-taking territory it once controlled in southern and central Somalia while threatening Puntland and southeast Kenya by moving more operatives into those regions (al-Jazeera, June 8; The Star, July 16). The resurgence coincides with the 2016 withdrawal of a significant number of Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) and a planned drawdown of troops with the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) (African Arguments, October 27, 2016).

The partial withdrawal of the EDNF and the proposed drawdown of AMISOM forces have contributed to al-Shabaab's ability to go on the offensive (IRIN, February 28). There is no doubt that the presence of relatively well-trained EDNF troops helped keep al-Shabaab from overtly taking control of villages and towns. However, the EDNF, AMISOM and the Somalia National Army (SNA) have struggled to consistently provide security for Somalis in the areas outside of select villages, towns and strategic roadways. In much of Somalia, especially in those areas under the nominal control of the Somali federal government, banditry, kidnapping and extortion are rife. The Somali National Army (SNA) remains poorly trained and is plagued by corruption and clan rivalries. [1] AMISOM - which is plagued by issues of corruption - and the SNA have largely failed to fill the security vacuum (Daily Nation, July 24).

Instead, al-Shabaab is stepping in, perhaps more so than ever before. The reasons for the group's enhanced capabilities in Somalia and further afield are twofold and interlinked. First, it has, over the last six years, further developed its formidable intelligence apparatus, the Amniyat. [2] Second, due to greater organizational discipline and efficiency, it is providing more consistent and predictable levels of security for residents than its primary rival, the Somali government.

Amniyat: A Ministry of Fear

Since its 2011 withdrawal from Mogadishu and its 2012 withdrawal from the port of Kismayo, al-Shabaab has undergone a transformation (al-Jazeera, September 29, 2016). Much like al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in neighboring Yemen, it is an organization that readily learns from its mistakes and rapidly adapts to shifting political and tactical environments. This ability to learn and adapt has served al-Shabaab well over the last five years. Under the leadership of Ahmed Abdi Godane (killed September 2014), al-Shabaab became a more streamlined and disciplined group (Daily Nation, September 5, 2014).

In the wake of its withdrawal from Mogadishu and the subsequent loss of the revenue generating port of Kismayo, al-Shabaab was forced to restructure itself. Rather than focusing its efforts on set piece battles with the better-armed AMISOM forces and on holding and governing territory, al-Shabaab prioritized organizational security and lower risk operations against its foes. Both of these priorities fostered and fueled the development of the Amniyat, al-Shabaab's intelligence apparatus.

Enhancing the Amniyat's capabilities and power was viewed by al-Shabaab's former leader, Godane, as critical to both his own survival and that of the organization. After its withdrawal from Mogadishu in 2011, al-Shabaab was riven with bloody internal disputes. The empowerment of the Amniyat allowed Godane to purge al-Shabaab of those who posed a threat to his leadership (African Arguments, July 2, 2013). Amniyat operatives instilled fear in al-Shabaab's cadre of fighters through intimidation and, when required, assassination. Amniyat operatives - who were and are seeded throughout the larger al-Shabaab organization - ensured the loyalty and discipline of regional and sub-commanders. Disloyalty to Godane, financial irregularities and ideological deviations could all lead to harsh punishments that included summary execution.

The ability of Amniyat operatives to seemingly see everything that went on in the larger al-Shabaab organization led some al-Shabaab members to refer to them as "Godane's ghosts." [3] The al-Shabaab leader recognized that secrecy is as seductive as it is useful, and while members of the Amniyat were feared, being chosen to serve within its ranks was an honor for which many fighters competed. [4]

Secrecy is at the heart of the Amniyat. To achieve a high degree of secrecy and security, the Amniyat is ring-fenced from the broader al-Shabaab organization. In addition to operating as an organization within an organization, parts of the Amniyat itself are further compartmentalized. This measure was taken to prevent leaks and, most critically, to ensure that when its operatives are captured by enemy forces, they are only able to reveal limited amounts of information about their particular job or task.

The compartmentalization of the Amniyat became ever more critical in 2012 and the years that followed. The sustained AMISOM offensive that began in earnest in 2012 and persisted to varying degrees for three years put pressure on al-Shabaab. Its fighters retreated to the thickly forested parts of the Somali state of Jubaland, located along the Somali-Kenya border. However, while the bulk of al-Shabaab's forces retreated to these areas where they could not be easily targeted, Amniyat operatives remained behind in the cities, towns and villages from which al-Shabaab had retreated. These operatives were al-Shabaab's eyes and ears on the ground.

The Amniyat has gone on to set up a countrywide network of operatives and informants. Al-Shabaab has boasted about the fact that it has informants in every government ministry and within AMISOM itself. [5] This is evidenced by the fact that al-Shabaab has repeatedly been able to attack secure sites in the Somali capital of Mogadishu and, with increasing regularity, heavily defended AIMISOM bases (The New Arab, March 21; BBC, January 27).

Many of these attacks are coordinated and timed in a way that points to its ability to conduct persistent surveillance of targets. In addition to being able to attack secure compounds, al-Shabaab, via its Amniyat operatives, routinely intimidates, recruits - often via threats to family members - and assassinates members of the Somali government, its security services, journalists and non-compliant business owners (Garowe Online, July 1; Garowe Online, July 6).

Clan Management

The Amniyat is also tasked with collecting intelligence on Somalia's fluid and fraught clan dynamics. [6] Such intelligence allows al-Shabaab to safeguard and grow its influence in Somalia.

In the early 1990s, the then-emergent al-Qaeda organization failed to establish itself in Somalia. Abu Hafs al-Misri, the deputy dispatched to Somalia by Osama bin Laden, attributed this failure to Somalia's fractious and ubiquitous clan politics. [7] All but a minority of those Somalis which al-Qaeda tried to recruit put loyalty to their clans and sub-clans ahead of ideology and obedience to foreigners.

The same problem bedeviled al-Shabaab's early expansion efforts. The leadership of al-Shabaab was, just like the Somali government, often held hostage to ever-shifting clan politics. Former al-Shabaab leader Godane recognized that clan rivalries posed a serious threat to his organization. Al-Shabaab, especially during times when it is under pressure, must be able to rely on its core membership. When it is on the offensive, it must also be able to rely, at least for a short period of time, on those it recruits and uses as "first wave" fighters. If clan politics and rivalries predominate, then there is little or no organizational cohesion.

To circumvent this, Godane and those close to him undertook a two-step plan. First, they indigenized al-Shabaab by expelling and or assassinating most of its members who were foreign jihadists. Al-Shabaab, much like AQAP would do later, recognized that, apart from some with technical expertise, foreigners were an unnecessary liability. The presence of foreigners had alienated al-Shabaab from the local population that they wanted to control. The second and concurrent step undertaken by al-Shabaab leadership in the aftermath of the defeats in 2011-2012, was to reshape al-Shabaab's organizational structure. Godane cleverly adopted a structure that outwardly modeled the de-centralized and non-hierarchical structure of Somalia's clans.

To this end, commanders and sub-commanders were empowered and allowed to recruit foot soldiers, appoint junior commanders and undertake limited defensive and offensive actions on their own initiative. They were also permitted to work with one another on joint operations, with little guidance from al-Shabaab's governing body, the executive shura council. However, this de-centralization of power was permitted because, at the same time, Godane markedly expanded the scope and powers of the Amniyat, which monitored all of al-Shabaab's junior and even senior commanders. Most importantly, the Amniyat answered only to Godane. The Amniyat was and remains highly centralized in terms of its leadership structure.

Al-Shabaab's commanders and sub-commanders were allowed - and indeed encouraged - to engage in clan politics. Al-Shabaab's leadership considers this as an "above but part of" strategy. The group's senior leaders and, to a lesser degree, its regional commanders remained above the often messy and at times bloody machinations of rival clans and sub-clans, allowing al-Shabaab's senior leadership to act as arbiters in conflicts. This outcome was not accidental and has allowed al-Shabaab to build a considerable amount of goodwill in parts of Somalia.

Hearts and Minds?

Al-Shabaab's pragmatic and Machiavellian approach to managing and taking advantage of Somalia's clan dynamics is emblematic of its larger strategy for winning the minds, if not the hearts, of the people it wants to control. Al-Shabaab's militant Salafist ideology remains an anathema to most Somalis. However, the aversion of many Somalis to al-Shabaab's radical interpretation of Islam is overcome by the higher levels of security and predictability that the organization often provides.

The leadership of al-Shabaab clearly understands the importance of predictability to a target population. To this end, while their methods are harsh and their punishments often overly punitive, they are consistent. For example, in those areas outside of al-Shabaab influence and control, a trader or mid-level businessman never quite knows what to expect from the SNA and AMISOM troops and officials that exert nominal control. He may be heavily taxed on whatever goods he is trying to move or sell or he may have them seized outright. He may also have to pay off numerous clan-based militias before he is able to finally get his goods to market. With al-Shabaab this trader or businessman knows what taxes he will have to pay. He is given a receipt for payment which allows him to move his goods through subsequent checkpoints without paying more taxes (Somali Update, July 24). Additionally, he knows that he is unlikely to come across bandits in those areas controlled by al-Shabaab. [8] This level of predictability and security is no small thing in a country that has known neither for three decades. While few Somalis are enthusiastic about al-Shabaab, in some areas there is a grudging respect for the control commanders have over their forces.

At the same time, there is fear. This fear is largely due to the Amniyat and its hold over both of al-Shabaab's own forces and of those civilians living in areas under al-Shabaab control. The Aminyat often imprisons or executes individuals who work against the group, those who refuse to pay its taxes and even clan elders who refuse to acknowledge its authority. Within al-Shabaab itself, those fighters and commanders who take bribes, embezzle funds or who do not follow orders are also subject to harsh punishments, including summary execution.

In the areas it controls, al-Shabaab is successfully employing a "carrot and stick" method to guarantee compliance if not support. Because of the years of war and famine, the bar for good governance in most parts of Somalia is low. If al-Shabaab provides a minimal level of security - in fact, it often provides quite a high level - and if it can control its forces, this places it well ahead of many of its rivals for power. Combined with this, it wields a mighty stick in the form of the Amniyat. Al-Shabaab's leadership has developed a formula for control that works and is likely to continue to do so.

Outlook

Over the last three years, there have been numerous forecasts that have predicted the demise of al-Shabaab as a force. These forecasts have all proved to be premature if not wholly incorrect. Al-Shabaab, much like AQAP in Yemen, has proven itself to be an adaptable organization that learns from its mistakes and then in response to lessons learned, modifies its tactics and overall strategy accordingly.

This ability to learn and adapt is evidenced by al-Shabaab's combination of an efficient and highly capable intelligence service with a pragmatic approach to building local support. This alone will guarantee that al-Shabaab endures. When these enhanced capabilities are combined with a planned drawdown of AMISOM forces and the inability of the SNA to provide real security, the result may well be that al-Shabaab yet again thrives.

NOTES

[1] See: Andrew McGregor, 'Are Corruption and Tribalism Dooming Somalia's War on al-Shabaab,' Terrorism Monitor (February 21, 2017).

[2] The Amniyat's origins as a power within al-Shabaab are not clearly defined. It is known that it was formalized as an institution within al-Shabaab in 2009 with Mukhtar Abu Seylai as its head. The Amniyat rapidly evolved into an elite cadre of al-Shabaab operatives and soldiers recruited on the basis of both their abilities and most importantly their ideological resolve. Members of the Amniyat were and are the most radical members of the al-Shabaab organization, and most of them likely subscribe to takfirism, a more radical form of Salafism. The Amniyat's remit includes ensuring the unity and security of al-Shabaab. As part of this remit, the Amniyat has the ability to circumvent al-Shabaab's own justice system and carry out immediate (most often lethal) action against those members who the Amniyat suspected of disloyalty.

[3] Author interviews with Somalia-based analysts (2016-17).

[4] Members of the Amniyat enjoy higher pay and status than most other members of al-Shabaab.

[5] Al-Shabaab operatives routinely phone even senior military commanders on their private lines in order to threaten and intimidate them.

[6] Governance within Somalia clans is acephalous - ie there is no central or hierarchical leadership. A popular aphorism in Somalia is: "Everyman is an elder." This is broadly reflective of the reality in which often even relatively young members of families and sub-clans participate in informal and formal discussions about matters that affect them. Somalia scholar IM Lewis argues that, "democratic principles in Somalia are practiced almost to the point of anarchy." To a large degree this characterization remains valid, especially in Somalia's predominantly rural areas where resources and power are less likely to concentrate. The primacy of the clans and their diffuse power structures militate against the imposition of hierarchical systems.

[7] See: "Al-Qaeda's (Mis)Adventures in the Horn of Africa," Harmony Project, West Point Combating Terrorism Center (2007).

[8] Author interviews with Somalia-based analysts and journalists (May 2017).

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Venezuela: UN rights wing urges calm ahead of controversial weekend polls

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 28 July 2017 Cite as UN News Service, Venezuela: UN rights wing urges calm ahead of controversial weekend polls, 28 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/597f3bb94.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

The United Nations human rights office expressed deep concern today at the risk of further violence in Venezuela, where elections for a Constituent Assembly convened by President Nicolas Maduro are due to be held on Sunday.

The wishes of the Venezuelan people to participate or not in this election need to be respected, Elisabeth Throssell, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) told reporters at the regular press brifing in Geneva.

No one should be obliged to vote, while those willing to take part should be able to do so freely, she added.

The OHCHR spokesperson pointed out that demonstrations considered by the authorities to be disturbing the elections have been banned until 1 August.

We urge the authorities to manage any protests against the Constituent Assembly in line with international human rights norms and standards, she continued, calling on those opposing the election and the Assembly to do so peacefully.

We hope that the poll scheduled for Sunday, if it goes ahead, will proceed peacefully and in full respect of human rights, she said.

Responding to questions, Ms. Throssell said the situation in the country is very tense and difficult. As such, OHCHR reiterated the call for calm and for peaceful protests and for all sides to use only peaceful means to make their views heard.

With regard to the legitimacy of the vote itself, the spokesperson noted that it is a hugely controversial issue amplified by the fact that there had been an unofficial consultation by the opposition on the constituent assembly.

[Our] Office is concerned about the environment in which the elections are to take place and believes that a constitutional process can only be successful if based on a broad consensus and the participation of all sectors of society, Ms. Throssell said.
Nicaragua: Abortion Ban Threatens Health and Lives

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 31 July 2017 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Nicaragua: Abortion Ban Threatens Health and Lives, 31 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/597f3e094.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Nicaragua's total ban on abortion is putting women and girls' health and lives at risk, Human Rights Watch said today. The country's 2006 law punishing abortion - without any exceptions, even if pregnancies are life-threatening or resulted from rape - has driven abortions underground. The ban has not stopped abortion, but has made it more unsafe.

Women and girls with crisis pregnancies are getting unsafe clandestine abortions. Often too afraid to seek medical care when complications arise from such abortions, some women and girls delay seeking care and do not disclose to doctors the cause of complications. Medical providers, caught in a conflict between the law and medical ethics, have reported women and girls to police for suspected abortions. Under Nicaragua's criminal code, women and girls who terminate pregnancies face sentences of up to two years in prison, and medical professionals can be sentenced to up to six years for providing abortions.

"Nicaragua's ban on abortion has sown fear and uncertainty among women and girls, endangering their lives, denying them autonomy and privacy, and interfering with medical care," said Sarah Taylor, women's rights advocate at Human Rights Watch. "Guaranteeing women and girls access to safe and legal abortions would go a long way toward fulfilling their right to health and will help stop preventable maternal deaths."

In early 2017, HRW interviewed six women in Nicaragua who had had unwanted and crisis pregnancies, all of whom had sought illegal abortions. Human Rights Watch also interviewed 23 medical providers, lawyers, representatives of organizations providing support and services to women and girls, and women's rights activists. The interviews took place in urban and rural areas, and on both coasts of Nicaragua. Due to the threat of prosecution and social stigma, Human Rights Watch is not identifying individuals, organizations, or the locations of these interviews.

Nicaragua has high rates of domestic and sexual violence, which can result in unwanted pregnancies. Available data indicates that young women and adolescent girls are at particular risk of unwanted pregnancy from rape.

One woman Human Rights Watch interviewed reported that her partner raped her repeatedly, resulting in two unwanted pregnancies. She gave birth after the first unwanted pregnancy, and had a clandestine abortion after the second. Service providers and activists said this is a common problem affecting women and girls, and victims face stigma and blame. "They are called names, told they asked for it, that rape is their fault," one legal professional told Human Rights Watch.

"Sexual violence is a serious threat for women and girls in Nicaragua," said Taylor. "They should not be doubly victimized by being forced to carry to term the pregnancies that can result from rape."

Medical and psychosocial service providers described the impact the ban is having on the life and health of their patients, especially women with low incomes, and girls, who have less ability to make decisions regarding their health care. A medical provider told Human Rights Watch that wealthier women can pay for safer abortions - even if illegal - but poorer women often use riskier methods or lack funds to pay for safer procedures. She said that "poor women suffer most" from the ban. One psychologist told Human Rights Watch that patients with unwanted pregnancies, many of whom suffered sexual abuse, talk to her about their fear and anxiety about their pregnancies and the ban. Some have attempted suicide after realizing they were pregnant, she said.

Stigma is a significant barrier to women and girls requesting and receiving medical care, including post-rape and post-abortion care. Religion exerts a powerful influence on everyday life in Nicaragua, and there is intense religious opposition to abortion. Numerous activists, providers, and women and girls who had terminated their pregnancies told Human Rights Watch that stigma, including condemnation from religious leaders, was a source of fear and shame.

The Nicaraguan government has published little data on enforcement of the abortion ban, and no information on the health effects, including on maternal mortality. But information from other countries has established that restrictive abortion laws are not associated with fewer abortions; they just make abortions less safe.

The Nicaraguan government does not publish data on the estimated number of illegal abortions, nor the number of women, girls, or abortion providers who face arrest, criminal charges, convictions, or sentences. Some activists said that, without the kind of high-profile convictions for abortion seen in neighboring El Salvador, people assume that the Nicaraguan government is not applying the ban. But a 2016 report, drawing on the scant data that exists, concluded that between 2003 and 2013, some 290 people were denounced (accused in a police report or complaint) or detained pursuant to the abortion ban. The data, drawn from police records, did not cover further criminal proceedings.

Many of the women and girls interviewed by Human Rights Watch said they feared possible imprisonment for terminating crisis pregnancies. Activists and service providers told of cases in which doctors or hospital administrators turned women and girls with suspected abortion complications over to the police.

Civil society is mobilizing to support women and girls with unplanned pregnancies, and to change the law. A citizens' initiative submitted to the National Assembly in 2015 sought to decriminalize abortion when a pregnant woman or girl's health is at risk, including in the case of rape. This proposal was signed by over 6,000 people. In April 2017, the Assembly rejected the initiative without debate.

The government has also been obstructing international funding for civil society. Activists told Human Rights Watch that this is blocking valuable support for women's organizations, including those supporting women with crisis pregnancies. Lawyers and service providers said this has resulted in groups reducing or ending programs, including for rape survivors. "We know that anyone who speaks about this must be very brave and prepared for the consequences," one activist told Human Rights Watch.

"Civil society organizations are providing vital information and support to women and girls," said Taylor. "International donors need to back this vital work, and the Nicaraguan government should not block it."

Background on Nicaragua's Abortion Ban and Medical Protocol

In 2006, Nicaragua adopted a penal code that completely banned abortion, even in cases of rape, incest, life- or health-threatening pregnancies, or severe fetal impairment. A 2008 legal challenge submitted to the Supreme Court argued that the ban was unconstitutional. The Court never ruled on this case, nor on a similar one regarding the 2014 constitution.

The 2006 law removed the few options that existed for women and girls to obtain a legal abortion. For 169 years - from 1837 to 2006 - abortion was partially decriminalized in Nicaragua. During that time, a pregnant woman could in theory obtain a so-called "therapeutic" abortion, in which abortion was allowed for a restricted set of health reasons. This legislation was partially applied in the last years of the Sandinista Revolution, but after 1990, the health system ceased therapeutic abortion. In practice, there was little access to abortion even before 2006, and this narrow exception did not enable women to make independent reproductive health decisions.

The 2006 total abortion ban penalizes women and girls who procure an abortion, those who provide abortion services, and anyone who assists a woman or girl in seeking an abortion. Women face between one and two years in prison. The penalties for medical professionals range from one to six years in prison for providing abortion, with the disqualification of medical professionals for two to ten years.

The Nicaragua Ministry of Health (Ministerio de Salud, or MINSA) has a protocol to guide medical providers treating post-abortion complications. It explains what medical professionals should do when women and girls present at medical facilities with medical emergencies related to abortion, or grave pregnancy complications that require providers to treat women in order to save their lives, even if this could result in terminating the pregnancy. However, according to one medical service provider, not all MINSA personnel have been trained on this protocol.

Human Rights Watch wrote to the Nicaraguan Ministry of Foreign Relations in June 2017, requesting comment on the inconsistency between the ban and the medical protocol, and requesting information on the training of medical professionals on the ban and protocol and other information related to the ban. The government did not respond to these requests.

Women and Girls Especially Affected by the Ban

Many of the organizations and experts interviewed by Human Rights Watch spoke about the disparity in access to abortion in the context of illegality. For women and girls with more financial means, abortions are more accessible, though illegal.

Nicaragua has high rates of domestic and sexual violence, which can result in unwanted pregnancies. A government demographic and health survey published in 2014 found that approximately 22.5 percent of women and girls (ages 15-49) who were ever married or in a union reported physical or sexual violence by a current or former husband or partner, and 10 percent reported that they had suffered forced (penetrative) sex or sexual abuse without penetration, by anyone, in their lifetimes. Of women who reported experiencing forced sex, 23 percent said the first occurrence was before age 15, and of those reporting non-penetrative sexual abuse, 41 percent said the first occurrence was before age 15.

The abortion ban also harms girls subjected to child marriage, which is common in Nicaragua, or forced partnerships. Under the law girls are permitted to marry at age 17 with parental approval, but many marry younger. UNICEF, drawing on government data, reports that 10 percent of children are married by age 15, and 41 percent are married by age 18. Sex with children under the age of 14 is considered rape, and sex with children between the ages of 14 and 18 is considered "estupro," a form of statutory rape. Child marriage is associated with health dangers associated with early pregnancy, lower educational achievement for girls who marry earlier, a higher incidence of domestic violence, and an increased likelihood of poverty.

Human Rights Watch spoke with medical service providers and lawyers who said they worked with girls subjected to child marriage and statutory rape, some of whom have gotten pregnant. Several said they knew of girls as young as 12 who had gotten pregnant by and were then forced to marry or cohabit with their rapists. Some sought illegal abortions, and faced complications. One medical provider told Human Rights Watch that she was currently treating five 13-year-old girls for post-abortion complications, one of whom was impregnated by a pastor. A lawyer said that between the abortion ban and other pressures, it is practically "an order of the state to force these girls to become mothers."

The International Pregnancy Advisory Services (IPAS) and the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) have conducted research on the impact of the abortion ban on girls. The report emphasized that the ban has a negative effect on the mental and physical health of girls who are not able to get an abortion when they wish to.

Cases of Women and Girls Who Sought to Terminate Crisis Pregnancies

Human Rights Watch interviewed five women and girls who sought to terminate a pregnancy after the abortion ban was enacted, and documented several additional cases described by lawyers, activists, and others with first-hand knowledge of the cases. The cases below illustrate the secrecy, fear, and stigma surrounding abortion. Due to the risks to women, girls, and providers, the cases do not describe steps they took to procure clandestine abortions, but rather the circumstances and impact of the crisis pregnancies. The names are pseudonyms.

"Ana" said her partner had raped her repeatedly over the past six years, and continued to subject her to daily verbal abuse. The rapes resulted in two pregnancies. The first time Ana became pregnant from rape, she said she wanted to get an abortion, but "he said he would kill me." After a difficult pregnancy and labor, she gave birth to her daughter, now 5 years old. Ana found out her partner was cheating on her in 2016, and told him to leave the house. He would not leave, and continued raping her. They separated in November 2016, at which point she stopped getting her birth control shot. But he returned and raped her again in January 2017, and she became pregnant again. "I decided to end the pregnancy because of my health If I had another pregnancy, it would be dangerous," she told Human Rights Watch, describing how her physician told her another pregnancy would put her life at risk. She has not told her friends or family about getting a clandestine abortion, as she believed they would condemn her. She said they criticized her when she tried to break up with her abusive partner. She told Human Rights Watch, "people look at you sideways, but they don't know. They don't put themselves in your shoes."

In September 2016, "Patricia" became pregnant with her partner of four years. Then she found out he had impregnated another woman, and she became very depressed and broke up with him. She already had a child, and felt that she could not care for another as a single mother. She told Human Rights Watch, "I felt forced to withstand the situation." Then she thought, "I cannot have this child." She managed to terminate the pregnancy. She said she "worried about law. But [I] had to do it to avoid bigger problems. Yes, I was scared."

Around 2007, "Soraya" realized she was pregnant, and knew she did not want to continue the pregnancy. She told her sisters, and they took her to have a clandestine abortion. She had to travel far from home to obtain the procedure. Although she works on women's rights, she has told very few people about her own abortion. She told Human Rights Watch, "We know there are women who have been detained."

In 2014, "Cristina" had an unwanted pregnancy, and knew she "wanted it to be over." She had to travel a long distance for the procedure, enduring considerable pain and incurring significant cost. She said that ever since then, she had severe pain every time she had her period but did not tell her doctor, "because then I'd have to tell them about the procedure." She spoke to her mother about the abortion but did not tell any other family members, believing they would judge her.

"Daniela" had an unplanned pregnancy in 2015, which resulted in a clandestine abortion. She already had two children, and had no plans for more. She regularly experienced pain during her period, but did not want to tell her doctor. She told Human Rights Watch that she does not regret having the procedure, although the only two people she has told about it have criticized her.

Human Rights Watch also interviewed medical service providers and legal professionals who described cases they knew of first hand, including the following:

"Ida," a 19-year-old woman with an intellectual disability, was raped by an acquaintance. Though she did not tell anyone, her mother realized Ida was pregnant. Ida's mother went to a women's rights organization and asked about an abortion, but was told it could not be done. Ida, attempting to terminate the pregnancy, threw herself down a staircase, but she remained pregnant. She gave birth, and completely rejects the child. Ida's mother is concerned her daughter might harm the baby she did not want. The rapist is now serving 15 years in prison.

Thirteen-year-old "Luisa" was raped repeatedly by her uncle. He threatened the girl and said he would kill her mother if she told anyone. Finally, the girl told her mother, "Mama, my uncle is raping me. It's been two months since my period." The girl was pregnant, and managed to get an abortion. The uncle was arrested for the rape.

Denunciation and Detention for Abortion

Prosecutions stemming from the ban seem to be rare in Nicaragua. Unlike in El Salvador, there appears to be a reluctance to pursue criminal charges. However, it is impossible to confirm how many prosecutions and convictions for abortion there are since the government has not disclosed information about this. What is clear, from news articles and a 2016 report on denunciations and detention for abortion, is that family members or medical providers have denounced many women and girls who they suspect had induced abortions.

In 2016, a specialist in gynecology and obstetrics research published a report on "persons who have been denounced or detained" for having abortions, and for providing abortions, including during the period when there was limited legal access to therapeutic abortions. The report, which analyzed police reports filed between 2003 and 2013, found that 290 people were denounced or detained under the conditions of the 2006 abortion ban: 186 women and 104 men. Those who assisted the women and girls also bore the brunt, with 43 percent of those detained being a family member of those seeking the abortion.

International Law

International human rights treaties require governments to respect women's reproductive rights. Authoritative interpretations of these treaties by United Nations experts and bodies call for the removal of criminal penalties for abortion.

Nicaragua's total ban on abortion violates or poses a threat to a wide range of human rights recognized under international law, including women's rights to life, health, nondiscrimination and equality, privacy, to decide the number and spacing of children, and to be free from torture and from cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment or treatment.

UN human rights bodies and experts consistently call on states to legalize or remove criminal penalties for abortion. For example, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child frequently recommends that governments decriminalize abortions in all circumstances. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee) has repeatedly called on states to remove punitive provisions for abortion. In a 2014 statement, the CEDAW Committee said:

Unsafe abortion is a leading cause of maternal mortality and morbidity. As such, States parties should legalize abortion at least in cases of rape, incest, threats to the life and/or health of the mother, or severe foetal impairment, as well as provide women with access to quality post-abortion care, especially in cases of complications resulting from unsafe abortions. States parties should also remove punitive measures for women who undergo abortion.

Other UN treaty bodies and experts, along with experts from regional human rights bodies, have made similar recommendations.

UN treaty bodies have specifically criticized Nicaragua's total abortion ban and called for reforms. For example, the Committee on the Rights of the Child has specifically urged Nicaragua to "Repeal the articles of the Penal Code that criminalize abortion and ensure that girls are not subject to criminal sanctions for seeking or obtaining an abortion under any circumstances." In the CEDAW Committee's 2007 review of the country, the committee stated its concern regarding the criminalization of therapeutic abortion, specifically because of the health and safety risks to women and girls, and the potential sanctions on them and on providers. The committee recommended that the State party move toward "removing punitive provisions imposed on women who have abortions and provide them with access to quality services for the management of complications arising from unsafe abortions."

In 2010, the case of a pregnant woman with metastatic cancer was brought before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, seeking precautionary measures that would enable her to obtain an abortion. Her doctors had refused to treat her cancer because of potential risk to the fetus, and refused to provide an abortion. The woman was given chemotherapy, and had a stillbirth at 8 months. She died shortly thereafter.

Copyright notice:  Copyright, Human Rights Watch
Russia: VPN ban is a major blow to internet freedom

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 31 July 2017 Cite as Amnesty International, Russia: VPN ban is a major blow to internet freedom, 31 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/597f3eee4.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

A new law signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin banning anonymizers and virtual private networks (VPNs) is a major blow to internet freedom in Russia, Amnesty International said today.

"With the Russian authorities increasingly intolerant of dissent, technologies that help internet users evade censorship and protect their privacy are crucial for freedom of expression online. Today the authorities have given themselves an instrument to ban the use of VPNs and other technologies that help people to freely access information online," said Denis Krivosheev, Deputy Director for Europe and Central Asia at Amnesty International.

"This is the latest blow in an assault on online freedom which has seen critical sites blocked and social media users prosecuted solely for what they post online, under vaguely written anti-extremism legislation. The ban on VPNs takes this shameful campaign a whole step further."

"To understand how the ban will work, it is enough to look at China, where Apple has just made a deplorable decision to remove most major VPN apps from the local version of its App Store. In doing so it has aided the online censorship efforts of the Chinese government and jeopardized the rights of countless internet users."

Background

The law signed by President Putin late on Sunday 30 July bans technology which allows internet users to access online content prohibited in Russia, including VPNs and anonymizers. The same law gives Russia's communications regulatory body, Roskomnadzor, additional censorship powers. After the law comes into force in November 2017, Roskomnadzor will be able to restrict access to anonymizing services. The law also creates an official register of online resources to which access is restricted in Russia.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
First, it was The Cheesegrater, then, The Walkie-Talkie. Now, industry analysts are asking what will sell next as Chinese commercial property investors snap up London landmarks. The Gherkin? The Shard?

The buildings are all high-rise towers in and around the City of London, the British capital's main financial district.

China's LKK Health Products Group paid 1.28 billion pounds ($1.68 billion) last week, the biggest-ever price tag for a United Kingdom building, when it bought 20 Fenchurch Street, which is colloquially known as The Walkie-Talkie.

The massive purchase followed the sale of the Leadenhall Building earlier this year, which is known as The Cheesegrater.

The other two buildings, also nicknamed for their unique shapes, are not for sale, but neither was The Walkie-Talkie before LKK made its owners an offer they could not refuse.

The purchase of commercial property in London by Chinese buyers has been accelerating at an unprecedented rate. The latest figures from real estate agent CBRE show Chinese investors bought 4.5 billion pounds of commercial property throughout the UK in the second quarter of 2017, a six-fold increase on a year earlier.

Meanwhile, statistics from real estate agent JLL show Chinese buyers invested 3.4 billion pounds in London properties overall in the first half of this year, which was 42 percent of all purchases.

Eric Pang, head of the China Desk at JLL, said: "We continue to witness the emergence of Chinese capital globally."

He said he expects China's share of investment in the UK to continue to rise.

Depreciation of the pound because of uncertainties around the UK's exit from the European Union is a key contributing factor, helping Chinese investors buy sterling assets at a discount.

Recent transactions also demonstrate the popularity of safe assets in prime locations.

The Walkie-Talkie, for example, is considered a safe asset because the building's space is fully leased to investment-grade-rated commercial tenants. The shortest lease in the building is for 13 years, meaning LKK has a guaranteed income for many years to come.

CC Land bought The Cheesegrater for 1.15 billion pounds in March, and China Resources Land bought 20 Gresham Street in May for 315 million pounds.

Critics have questioned whether Chinese investors have been buying trophy assets at inflated prices, especially in light of the fact that the sellers of both The Walkie-Talkie and Cheesegrater said they sold for exceptionally good prices.

But James Beckham, head of London capital markets at real estate agent Cushman & Wakefield, said Chinese investors can still enjoy good returns, despite the high prices they paid.

"The British developers have done a lot of work in the property development process, so their profit margins are justified. For the Chinese investors, they are looking for very safe, long-term assets, and they are getting that," Beckham said.

Rental yields for both The Walkie-Talkie and Cheesegrater are around 3.4 percent, which is favorable compared to similar assets in other geographical regions, Beckham said.

LKK chairman Sammy Lee said he was "delighted" with the Walkie-Talkie deal. The company said it paid a reasonable price for a long-term investment.

Meanwhile, the City of London local government team has invested heavily in strengthening relationships with landlords, developers and occupiers, to make properties in London's financial district more attractive, as a part of a campaign to uphold the image of London as a global financial center.

Efforts are focused on embracing "co-working, flexible office spaces, and the new wave of technology, media and telecoms companies attracted to the City," said Chris Hayward, chairman of the planning and transportation committee at the City of London Corporation.
Chinese Ambassador Liu Xiaoming at the reception marking the 90th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army in London, on July 27, 2017. [Photo by Wang Bo/chinadaily.com.cn]

China's ambassador to the UK notes Beijing will only use force for security

China is building a defense force that matches its international standing, but its military assets will never be used for anything other than ensuring national security, says the Beijing's top diplomat in the UK.

Speaking at a reception in London to mark the 90th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Amy, Liu Xiaoming, China's ambassador to the UK, said Beijing wants its armed forces "to provide a strong safeguard as China strives to realize the Chinese dream of national renewal and its 'two centenary goals'."

The two centenaries are the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China in 2021 and the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 2049.

To mark the milestones, Beijing has set goals that call for the nation to be economically secure by 2021 and for it to be a "strong, democratic, civilized, harmonious, and modern socialist country" by 2049.

The Nanchang Uprising in 1927 marked the beginning of the armed struggle for independence led by the Communist Party of China, the founding of armed forces that became the PLA.

The PLA today consists of five services - the Army, Navy, Air Force, Rocket Force, and Strategic Support Force. Liu quoted President Xi Jinping, who recently said "China will do well only when the world does well, and vice versa", adding that China remains committed to world peace and common development, and that China's military is a steadfast force to ensure peace and stability.

In recent decades, China's military expenditure accounted for 1.32 percent of GDP, which is far below the 2.4 percent world average, and China's per capita military spending is only an eighteenth of that of the United States and a ninth of the UK's.

Liu said China's military development is not targeted at any other country.

Noting that the PLA is more engaged in international military and security dialogues than ever before, he said the military-to-military ties China seeks to strengthen are not based on alliances, not confrontational, and not targeting any third country.

Liu said China will try to advance international cooperation on military and security issues, and play an active and leading role in international peacekeeping and humanitarian missions.

In terms of peacekeeping, China is the largest contributor of peacekeepers among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. It is also the second-largest contributor to the UN peacekeeping budget.

Since 1990, it has dispatched 33,000 peacekeepers, including the 13 Chinese soldiers who lost their lives during peacekeeping missions. Currently, 2,800 Chinese soldiers are taking part in nine missions, including ones in Mali and South Sudan.

During the past decade, China has participated in almost 30 international rescue missions. Chinese soldiers went to Africa to battle the Ebola virus, to the Indian Ocean to search for a missing Malaysian airliner, to the Maldives to battle water shortages, and Nepal, where they assisted following a devastating earthquake.

Liu said the military relationship between China and the UK has been on the fast track in recent years and noted that the nations work together on counter-terrorism, anti-piracy, and search and rescue missions.

Contact the writers at liwensha@chinadaily.com.cn
Feasterville-Trevose, PA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 07/31/2017 --AAA Public Adjusters is the premier public adjusting firm in Philadelphia, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware. AAA Public Adjusters has been helping East Coast property owners for over twenty years and now they are expanding their services to North Carolina and Virginia territory.



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Denver, CO -- (ReleaseWire) -- 07/31/2017 --On July 20, 2017, Colorado Springs advocacy organization A Just Cause filed a judicial complaint against Judge Christine M. Arguello for "displaying religious animus and making demonstrably egregious, hostile and slanderous comments" about Pastor Rose Banks of the Colorado Springs Fellowship Church (CSFC) in Colorado Springs, Colorado and abusing a legal court proceeding for the purpose of attacking Pastor Banks. Judge Arguello has never met Pastor Rose Banks, who, for the past 36 years, has been the Pastor of CSFC. Pastor Banks has never committed a crime or been indicted and has a stellar reputation for honesty, integrity, kindness, tough love and giving in the Colorado Springs community. "Judge Arguello clearly violated the doctrine of the separation of church and state and standards of basic human decency," says Cliff Stewart of A Just Cause.



According to the complaint, Pastor Banks' son-in-law, Gary Walker (54 years-old), who was the President & CEO of the IRP Solutions Corporation, was convicted of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in 2011. Since the 2005 raid of IRP Solutions Walker chose to defend himself and his codefendants both in and out of court, even choosing to fire his attorney and represent himself at trial along with his five codefendants (David Banks, Demetrius Harper, Clinton Stewart, David Zirpolo and Kendrick Barnes) who were executives with him at IRP. However, after being wrongly-convicted and sentenced in 2012 by Judge Arguello to serve 135 months in prison for being a leader/organizer in the alleged conspiracy, Walker, feeling frustrated from being in prison, had a sudden, self-serving epiphany that he was not really the CEO and not responsible for running IRP Solutions and asked Judge Arguello to vacate his sentence based on some ridiculously fantastic claims.



In a habeas motion asking to have his sentenced vacated, Walker now fantastically claimed that 1) he was only a CEO front-man at IRP appointed by his mother-in-law, Pastor Banks, 2) he was under the psychological control of Pastor Banks during the commission of the alleged crime and in firing his attorney, 3) Pastor Banks was running the company and made all decisions based on divine direction from God, 4) his wife Yolanda was culpable because she was bookkeeper and 5) he was only a lowly software developer and that he was unaware that his codefendants were allegedly making false statements to staffing companies to induce them into doing business with IRP, which was the central claim in the government's indictment.



"Court records confirm that none of these claims were made by Walker before trial, during trial or at sentencing," says Cliff Stewart. "In fact, long before trial, Walker personally defended his actions and business dealings in three online videos with other codefendants (See videos at http://bit.ly/2sdCTVA & http://bit.ly/2ubWLKc & http://bit.ly/2szeGIH). No self-respecting prosecutor or judge would give Walker's ridiculous claims a second thought but Judge Arguello and the Assistant United States Attorney Matthew Kirsch shockingly agreed to immediately release Walker based on his absurd claims" adds Stewart. "At the end of Walker's hearing Judge Arguello viciously slandered Pastor Banks," says Stewart.



The judicial complaint alleges that Judge Arguello (1) slandered Pastor Banks and attacked the exercise of her religious beliefs from the bench, (2) took improper judicial action without an arguable legal basis to release Walker, (3) engaged in unfair, discriminatory sentencing practices, and 4) has a pattern and practice of abusing sentencing laws established by Congress "It is clear from court documents that both Judge Arguello and Kirsch have been illegally using judicial proceedings in the IRP6 case as a tool to secretly persecute and destroy Pastor Banks," contends Stewart. "Judge Arguello also needs to explain to Congress why she sealed virtually all court documents in Walker's proceeding when the public has a presumptive First Amendment right of access to view criminal proceedings," says Stewart. "It is obvious that Judge Arguello and the government is trying to hide their secret persecution of Pastor Banks," says Stewart.



The judicial complaint further highlights how, in open court, Judge Arguello slandered and vilified Pastor Banks and her Christianity, calling Pastor Banks a "vindictive and mean-spirited Christian and Prophet of God" who controlled the minds and decisions of others, including Walker, Walker's wife Yolanda and their adult son Kyle, church members, her son David Banks and the other codefendants. Judge Arguello made these statements after receiving testimony from Walker and a few disgruntled church members, most of whom had no affiliation with IRP Solutions and all of whom had either voluntarily left the church or were asked to leave or were excommunicated by Pastor Banks for continually engaging in morally questionable behavior. Judge Arguello or the government never asked Pastor Banks, Yolanda and Kyle Walker or the codefendants about whether or not they were under the spell of Pastor Banks. Pastor Banks has two other sons-in-law, both of which met Pastor Banks' daughters and married in the church. Certainly, they could have informed Judge Arguello about whether or not they were under Pastor Banks' control.



"Isn't it bizarre that Pastor Banks is and has been the obsession of Kirsch and Judge Arguello in a federal criminal case about her son and son-in-law's software company when Pastor Banks was not even named in the indictment?" ponders Stewart.



"I don't believe Judge Arguello or Kirsch believed Walker's ridiculous claims for a minute," says codefendant David Banks. "My mother does not make choices or control decision-making for me, my sister Yolanda, my nephew Kyle, my codefendants or her sons-in-law," adds Banks. "All Judge Arguello had to do was ask us," says Banks. "We are not mindless automatons," muses David Banks. "The facts and evidence show we (the codefendants) are innocent, Gary Walker is innocent, and him lying about my Mom and suddenly feigning guilt to get out of prison is not going to change those facts --- facts that were proven with evidence from the government's own witnesses," adds Banks. "See for yourself online at (http://bit.ly/2mkcn4k) and also read the Washington Post article at http://www.wapo.st/29jXqSC where former federal appeals judge H. Lee Sarokin says we were indicted and prosecuted for failing to pay corporate debt," says David Banks. "Judge Sarokin or any other federal for that matter judge would risk their reputation by coming to the defense of convicted criminal defendants unless there was clear evidence of innocence or an unfair trial," adds Banks. "The government's case against us has been exposed as a fraud and their true motive of pursuing my mother has been revealed," exclaims David Banks.



"Judge Arguello and Kirsch obviously didn't check or care about the backgrounds of some of the disgruntled church members," says Stewart. "One young lady who provided an affidavit was caught stealing money as a teller at Wells Fargo Bank and El Paso County court documents show another man who provided an affidavit for Walker, sexually preyed on his teenage stepdaughter for years, even getting into the shower with her," adds Stewart. "Judge Arguello and Kirsch were so blinded by their desire to persecute Pastor Banks and cover up their misconduct in the IRP6 case they used Walker's outrageous claims in an attempt to do so," adds Stewart. "Walker feigning guilt does not change the fact that Judge Arguello abused her power and engaged in misconduct when she maliciously slandered Pastor Banks from the bench and immediately freed Walker based on his absurd claims of being under a spell cast on him by Pastor Banks," says Stewart. "It was Arguello and Kirsch who said Walker was a leader in the conspiracy while knowing all too well that there was no conspiracy because there was no crime," exclaims Stewart.



"Court documents clearly indicate that the indictment against IRP Solutions executives was nothing more than a ruse by Kirsch and the Colorado U.S. Attorney's Office to secretly pursue Pastor Banks and the church from the very beginning," says Stewart. Court documents show that 9000 out of 18000 pages of discovery was church and parishioner banking records which were obtained without a warrant or subpoena. Court documents show federal grand jurors in a 2007 grand jury (no. 06-01), who obviously didn't issue a subpoena, questioned FBI agent John Smith where he obtained the records who claimed he got them by subpoena. However, banking records were dated as early as 2003 and no grand jury existed at that time. Court documents show and the judicial complaint discusses that the grand jury foreman stated in open court that Pastor Banks was the target of the criminal investigation. Court documents show that the government only called church members before the grand jury and peppered them with questions about Pastor Banks and the church. Court records now show and witnesses at Walker's hearing confirm that Judge Arguello slandered Pastor Banks, her church and its members.



"I have personally spoken to numerous members of Congress and/or their legal counsel about Judge Arguello making rude, intemperate and slanderous remarks about Pastor Banks from the bench and her selective resentencing of Walker based on new post-conviction claims of being under the psychological control of Pastor Banks while the codefendants remain in prison," says Lamont Banks, Executive Director of A Just Cause. "Every single one of them expressed displeasure and outrage," adds Lamont Banks. "We have now forwarded them the judicial complaint at their request," says Lamont Banks.



"I hope our leaders and the public are starting to see the true gravity of the horrible injustice these men, their families and Pastor Banks have suffered at the hands of these officials," adds Lamont Banks. "We will not relent until we receive justice for these men and they are released from prison and reunited with their families," concludes Banks.



To see an online copy of the judicial complaint, go to http://bit.ly/2vmk73J.
Body cameras for the Mooresville Police Department have arrived. Find out when they will be used.

Mooresville-Decatur
Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, arrives in Downing Street, in central London, Britain, July 17, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

LONDON - Britain does not intend to lower taxes far below the European average in order to remain competitive after Brexit but rather expects to keep a recognisably European economic and social model, finance minister Philip Hammond said.

Hammond himself had suggested in January that Britain may have to change its economic model to remain competitive in the event that it left the European Union without having secured an agreement on market access.

In an interview with French newspaper Le Monde published over the weekend, Hammond was asked whether Britain would play the low-tax card to remain economically attractive after Brexit.

"It is often said that London would consider launching into unfair competition in terms of fiscal regulation. That is not our project or our vision for the future," Hammond was quoted as saying in response.

"The amount of tax that we raise, measured as a percentage of GDP, is within the European average and I think we will remain at that level. Even after we have left the EU, the United Kingdom will keep a social, economic and cultural model that will be recognisably European."

The comments were markedly different from Hammond's responses in his January interview with German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, which were seen as a thinly veiled threat to use corporate tax as a form of leverage in Brexit negotiations.

Asked directly whether Britain would lower corporate tax, Hammond had said that while he hoped Britain would remain a European-style economy with corresponding tax and regulation systems, it may have to change its model if it left the EU without agreement on market access.

"In this case, we could be forced to change our economic model and we will have to change our model to regain competitiveness," Hammond said. "We will change our model, and we will come back, and we will be competitively engaged."
Indonesian National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Rikwanto answers questions from reporters about the arrest of 149 members of a cybercrime syndicate from China that was operating in Jakarta, July 31, 2017.

Indonesian police said Monday they had arrested 149 Chinese suspected of involvement in an alleged multimillion-dollar online scam that targeted wealthy people from China.

A joint investigation with police from mainland China allowed Indonesian law-enforcement officials to break the international syndicate that had netted about 6 trillion rupiahs (U.S. $450 million) from its victims, according to National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Rikwanto.

The suspects will be deported to their home country immediately after Indonesian authorities complete their investigation, he told reporters in Jakarta.

All the victims are in China, he said. This is the request of the Chinese police, because the victims of this network also come from China.

The suspects perpetrated the scam by gathering information about Chinese businessmen facing legal issues, and then identified themselves as law-enforcement officials who could help settle the cases after being paid a certain amount, Rikwanto said.

Indonesian police raided the offices of the suspects in the capital Jakarta, the city of Surabaya and the island of Bali on Saturday during which investigators seized laptops, iPads and mobile phones, among other evidence, Rikwanto said.

They have been operating in Indonesia since the end of 2016 and March 2017, he said. Some of the victims have reported the case to police in China, so we were finally informed.

Only 20 percent of the suspects presented their passports and none of the 149 had work permits, Rikwanto said. He said others claimed that their passports were seized by a travel agent.

We are still looking for the agent who brought them to Indonesia, he said.

Most of the suspects appear to be citizens of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). According to an online news report from Taiwan, 22 of those in Indonesian custody are Taiwanese. The web portal Taiwan News quoted a police investigator as saying that each suspect was paid about U.S. $1,500 monthly to participate in the scam.

Investigators said they could not immediately confirm the number of fraud victims, but added that, so far, they believed that none were Indonesians.

Rikwanto said a few Indonesians who were present during the raids worked for the syndicate as domestic helpers, guides and drivers.

We are still investigating those who might be directly involved in this syndicate, he said.

Officials said the foreign suspects entered Indonesia using tourist visas. They said the syndicate might have chosen the sprawling archipelago because it was easier to hide from investigators compared with being in China.

About 3 million Chinese-descended citizens live in Indonesia, the worlds most populated Muslim-majority nation, which has about 264 million residents.

Yasonna Laoly, Indonesias minister of justice and human rights, confirmed that PRC officials had requested that the suspects be deported to face criminal charges back home.

We are still very weak

Saleh Pataulan Daulay, a member of Indonesias House of Representatives, blamed the governments weak monitoring of foreign nationals for the presence of international criminal syndicates in the nation.

We appreciate this arrest, but  we are still very weak in the monitoring of foreigners, Saleh told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.

This wasnt the first case where foreigners  especially those from China  were arrested for committing online fraud in Indonesia, Saleh said. Foreigners had also been taken into custody as suspects in cases related to illegal drugs and prostitution.

In February last year, police arrested nine Chinese nationals and three Indonesians for alleged involvement in an online fraud. In that case, the suspects would call their victims in China, telling them they had won some prize and that, in order to claim it, they had to pay a fee.

Agung Sampurno, spokesman for the Immigration directorate at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, said his office had formed 196 teams to monitor foreigners in a number of areas in the country.

This year alone, he said, 458 foreigners have been deported from Indonesia. During the same period, about 2,100 people have been blocked from entering the country or arrested at points of entry, he said.

Of course with the arrest of this fraud syndicate from China, we will further improve the supervision of foreigners in Indonesia, Agung told BenarNews.

Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.
President Xi Jinping's review of People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops in the restive region of Inner Mongolia at the weekend is indicative that behind-the-scenes power struggles at the heart of the ruling Chinese Communist Party are intensifying, analysts said on .



Xi appeared on state television dressed in fatigues and riding an open-top jeep on , calling out "Comrades, you have worked hard!" to parading troops, armored vehicles, missiles and aircraft, who hailed him as "Chairman Xi" in return.



The commander-in-chief of China's armed forces, Xi told the parade at the Zhurihe military training base in Inner Mongolia: "We need to build a strong people's military more than any other time in history."



"The PLA has the confidence and capability to defeat all invading enemies and safeguard China's national sovereignty, security and development interests," he said ahead of the 90th anniversary of the PLA's founding on Aug. 1.



Xi told the 12,000 troops to "unswervingly stick to the fundamental principle and system of the party's absolute leadership over the army," the official Xinhua News Agency reported.



"Always listen to and follow the party's orders," Xi said. "And march to wherever the party points to."



Hunan-based dissident Li Zhengran said Xi is still working hard to consolidate his position as the party's "core" leader ahead of the 19th Party Congress expected in November.



"The 19th Party Congress is still an unknown quantity that is unpredictable," Li said. "But this reviewing of the troops is a sort of attempt at unity, and is also intending to project a sense of shock and awe to those who oppose him [within party ranks]."



Hong Kong-based political commentator Li Ruishao said Xi needs the full backing of the PLA to consolidate his position as "core" leader ahead of the forthcoming congress.



"The fact that Xi appeared in camouflage gear at the review of the troops is an attempt to make up for the fact that he has no military background or combat experience," Li Ruishao said. "In fact, his military pedigree is very weak indeed."



"That's why he has to make such gestures, so show that he is on the same side as the military, and speaks with its voice," he said. "It also shows that he wants to cement his position as military commander-in-chief, and he is throwing all of his time and energy into doing that before the 19th Party Congress."



Advanced weaponry on parade

The PLA showed off its latest advanced weaponry on the parade, including a new Dongfeng-31AG variant of the nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile and the Dongfeng-21D "carrier killer." The parade was overflown by long-range H-6K bombers recently deployed in military exercises near Japan and the South China Sea.



Military analyst Huang Dong said China's unmanned aircraft, or drones, were of particular interest in the parade of military hardware.



"These anti-radiation drones were on display for the first time," Huang told RFA. "They seem to be modeled on Israel's Harpy UAV."



"The U.S. and Taiwan are particularly concerned about this, because firstly they didn't own the intellectual property to make them,and secondly, they are a threat to the radar installations of Taiwan and other neighbors," he said.



"We saw a pretty comprehensive display, including some very high specification [weaponry] from the PLA Rocket Army and comprehensive support forces," Huang said.



Since taking command of the Central Military Commission in November 2012, Xi has launched an ambitious modernization program for China's armed forces, cutting regular troops and pouring money into higher-end weaponry such as aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and stealth fighters.



Meanwhile, Beijing's growing use of quasi-military means to assert control over the South China Sea is raising concerns among neighboring countries and regional military planners.



Beijing is deploying coast guard ships and fishing vessels instead of its regular navy vessels in the busy shipping lanes of the region, claiming sovereignty over more than 80 percent of the islands and other land features, and rejecting conflicting claims from Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. Taiwans claims largely

overlap with Chinas.



Chinas increased use of its coast guard and maritime militia to press its territorial claims may now be adding an element of unpredictability and a higher risk of clashes with other nations vessels, analysts have told RFA.



Reported by Xin Lin for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Wong Si-lam for the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
UPDATED at 12:02 P.M. on 2017-08-01

Thai officials on Monday publicly refuted reports that agents had abducted a hardcore activist linked to the pro-democracy Red Shirts who has lived in self-imposed exile in neighboring Laos for the past three years.

Wutthipong Kachathamkhun (alias Ko Tee) apparently was abducted while he, his wife and a friend were getting out of a car at a residence in Laos, according to Chupong Teetuan, a supporter of the Red Shirts and an anti-monarchist who lives in the United States.

He was abducted Saturday night. His friend, Padet, and his wife were tied and left in a house, Chupong said in a YouTube video posted on Sunday. My Laotian source said the kidnappers were definitely not Laotian officials, he said, adding that Ko Tees wife and friend were able to free themselves.

Thai Army Commander-in-Chief Gen. Chalermchai Sitthisart rebuked the claims and denied knowledge of any abduction.

As far as I talked to the Supreme Commander and the secretary-general of the National Security Council (NSC), we do not have any knowledge on the issue. It is not our responsibility to trace how the claim happened, he told reporters in Bangkok.

NSC Secretary-General Taweep Netniyom had been assigned to deal with Laotian authorities and to shut down an underground online radio run by Ko Tee. He also sought to reach an agreement with Laos officials to have Ko Tee extradited to face trial in Thailand.

Jom Petchpradab, a former Thai journalist who lives in exile in the U.S., said friends of Ko Tee had filed a missing persons report at a local police station.

Nobody knows where Ko Tee is now, or if he is still alive. But according to the informants, he is more likely alive and could have been transferred to Thailand, he said.

Jom posted pictures of clothes and straps allegedly used by the perpetrators to tie up Ko Tees companions.

In Vientiane, a Laotian foreign ministry official and a police officer told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service, via telephone they had no information about Ko Tee or his whereabouts.

Links to Shinawatras

Human Rights watched called on the Lao government to find Ko Tee and prosecute the abductors.

Wuthipongs shocking abduction by armed men in Vientiane needs to be fully investigated; it should not be treated with silence or swept under the rug, said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. The Lao government needs to move quickly to ascertain the facts and publicly report their findings, including an assessment of Wuthipongs whereabouts and who might be responsible for this crime that was so boldly carried out in its own capital city.

Ko Tee was linked to hardcore efforts tied to the Red Shirt movement, whose official name is the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship. He aligned with Red Shirt leaders prime ministers Thaksin and Yingluck Shinawatra, who were toppled in military coups in 2006 and 2014, respectively.

He allegedly plotted online to assassinate Thai leaders and authorities seized a cache of weapons at his home in Pathum Thani province, on the outskirts of Bangkok.

Ko Tee has lived in self-imposed exile in neighboring Laos since June 2014 after he refused a summons from the Thai junta for so-called attitude adjustment. Since taking power following the 2014 coup, the regime of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha has summoned politicians and reporters for attitude adjustment sessions while in detention, after they spoke out against the junta.

The abduction claim broke out over the weekend as Red Shirt members warned the government of possible rioting on Aug. 25, the day Yingluck is to hear the verdict in her trial on negligence charges stemming from a rice-subsidy scheme implemented by her government. She is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday to make her final statement in the case against her.

Yingluck could face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty of failing to stop corruption related to the rice scheme, as well as pay a fine of $1 billion. Thai authorities have frozen some of her 12 bank accounts along with other assets of the nations first female prime minister, whose net worth is valued at U.S. $17 million (566 million baht).

Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.
Swe Win (L), editor-in-chief of Myanmar Now, speaks to reporters as he leaves court in Mahar Aungmyay township, central Myanmar's Mandalay region, July 31, 2017.

A prominent Myanmar investigative journalist charged under a controversial legal statute with defaming the countrys most notorious ultranationalist Buddhist monk was released on bail on Monday during the first day of his trial in central Myanmars Mandalay region.

Authorities detained Swe Win, the 40-year-old editor-in-chief of the nonprofit, independent news service Myanmar Now, at Yangon International Airport on Sunday night as he was preparing to go to Thailand on a business trip.

They transferred him from Yangons Insein Prison, where he was held overnight, to Mandalay to face charges for violating Article 66(d) of the 2013 Telecommunications Act by defaming Wirathu, a firebrand monk who frequently uses hate speech targeting the countrys Muslim minority.

The article prohibits the use of the telecom network to defame people and carries a jail sentence of up to three years and a fine for those found guilty of violating it.

Mandalay resident Kyaw Myo Shwe filed a criminal defamation case in Mandalay against the reporter on March 7, accusing him of insulting Wirathu of the ultranationalist monk group Ma Ba Tha in comments Swe Win made in February on Facebook.

The judge released Swe Win on bail during the hearing at Mahar Aungmyay township court until his trial date on Aug. 7.

I welcome the judges decision to release me on bail, as releasing me under Article 66(d) is up to him, Swe Win said. I would like to say that I will face whatever comes along with this case within the boundary of the law.

Fortify Rights weighs in

The East Asia-based rights group Fortify Rights called on Monday for the charges against Swe Win to be dropped.

Swe Win is a principled journalist with a towering reputation for exposing injustice, said Matthew Smith, chief executive officer of Fortify Rights. This is yet another feeble attempt to criminalize journalism. Journalism is not a crime.

In late June, 60 Myanmar and international organizations, including Fortify Rights, called on Myanmar authorities to drop Article 66(d) in accordance with international human rights laws and standards governing freedom of expression.

Amendments to the controversial article, which rights groups say is used by people in power to silence their critics, are being discussed in the national parliament.

A free press serves the public interest, Smith said. What were seeing now is a crackdown on journalists. Parliament should repeal the legal framework used to target the legitimate work of journalists and put an end to this crackdown.

Thet Myo Oo, a Wirathu supporter, filed a related complaint against Swe Win on March 19 under section 295 of the Penal Code, which criminalizes insulting religion, for comments he made about Wirathu during a press conference on March 8.

In early April, the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture issued a statement saying that Swe Win had not contravened any law in reporting on Wirathu.

Later that month, the Kyauktada township court in Yangon dismissed the complaint, saying that it should have been made by Wirathu himself.

The State Sangha Maha Nayaka (Ma Ha Na), a government-appointed body of high-ranking Buddhist monks that oversees and regulates the Buddhist clergy in Myanmar, has banned Wirathu from giving public sermons for a year for his repeated hate speech against other religions.

Myanmar monk Wirathu of the ultranationalist Buddhist group Ma Ba Tha speaks to followers at a monastery on the outskirts of Yangon, June 4, 2016. Credit: AFP Five and counting

Swe Win, who has reportedly received threats for his reporting on Wirathu, is the fifth journalist to be arrested and detained in Myanmar during the last two months.

Others recently detained include Lawi Weng, also known as Thein Zaw, of the independent online journal The Irrawaddy, and Aye Naing and Pyae Bone Aung, who work for the Democratic Voice of Burma news service.

They face charges under section 17(1) of the Unlawful Associations Act for covering a narcotics-burning event in northeastern Shan state hosted by the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA), an ethnic armed group engaged in periodic clashes with government soldiers. They could be sentenced up to three years in prison if found guilty.

Kyaw Min Swe, editor-in-chief of The Voice Daily, was detained and charged in June with defamation under Article 66(d) after a Myanmar Army officer filed a suit against him and the papers satire columnist Kyaw Zwa Naing, who goes by the pen name British Ko Ko Maung, in Yangons Bahan township on May 17.

Charges under Article 66(d) were dropped against Kyaw Zwa Naing on June 16 after Kyaw Min Swe testified that he was solely responsible for posting on social media a satirical article that allegedly insulted the armed forces by mocking a military propaganda film.

Both have also been charged with violating Article 25(b) of the Media Law in a second lawsuit filed by the government military in Yangon, though Kyaw Zwa Naing has been released on bail.

The article specifies a fine of 300,000-1 million kyats (U.S. $217-U.S. $724) for media workers found guilty of violating professional responsibilities and codes of conduct under three subsections of the law, including writing news in a manner that deliberately harms the reputation of an individual or organization, and which negatively affects human rights.

Reported by Hset Paing Toe for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
An unmarried Tibetan man set himself on fire and died in the northwest Indian hill town of Dharamsala on Saturday in a protest calling for the long life of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, Tibetan sources said.



Dhondup, aged 48 and a painter employed by the Norbulingka Institutea center for the preservation of Tibetan culture and artself-immolated at about 3:30 p.m. on July 29 in a wooded spot called Lhagyal Ri where local Tibetans perform religious rites, witnesses to the burning said.



When I arrived, his body was mostly burnt, but there was nothing I could do, one witness to the protest, Tenzin Dorje, told RFAs Tibetan Service.



I immediately went to call others [for help], including the Tibetan Youth Organization, and when we returned we found an umbrella, a small Tibetan flag, two to three thousand Indian rupees, and a small note about the 80th birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, he said.



Another witness, a woman named Ama Phurkyi, told a press conference after the protest that she had been walking along a path that circles the area, when I suddenly heard the sound of fire burning.



When I looked back, I heard a man calling out for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama while engulfed in flames, Ama Phurkyi said. I was so frightened that I ran away so that I could inform others.



Gyurme Dorje, another witness to the burning, said he also heard Dhondup call out for the Dalai Lamas long life, he said.



I was impressed by his faith and devotion for His Holiness, he said.



A sincere worker



Speaking to RFA, Norbulingka Institute employee Nyima Gyalpo said that Dhondup, who sources said had arrived in India from Tibet in 1991, was proficient in the Tibetan language and a regular reader of Tibetan newspapers like the Tibet Times and Tibet Express.



He did his work sincerely and always reported on time, Gyalpo said, adding that Dhondup tended to avoid going out with others and preferred going places on his own.



Dhondups protest was the second self-immolation by a Tibetan living in India this month, and followed the July 14 self-immolation of Tenzin Choeying, a Tibetan college student living in Varanasi who died of his burns more than a week later.



Self-immolation protests by Tibetans living outside Tibetan-populated areas of China are rare, while a total of 150 have now set themselves ablaze in Tibet and Tibetan-populated counties in western China.



Most protests feature demands for Tibetan freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama from India, where he has lived since escaping Tibet during a failed national uprising in 1959.



Reported by Sangye Dorje and Lobe Socktsang for RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finney.




A Tibetan monk who set himself on fire in Sichuan in a 2011 protest challenging Chinese rule in Tibetan areas was freed from prison at the weekend after serving his full term, sources in the region said.



Lobsang Kalsang, now in his early 20s, was released from Deyang prison on July 29 and returned to his home in Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) county the same day, a Tibetan living in the area told RFAs Tibetan Service.



Many Tibetans who learned of his sudden release gathered to welcome him with traditional scarves, RFAs source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.



The [Chinese] authorities are trying their best to restrict news of his release in order to prevent high levels of publicity inside and outside Tibet, the source said.



Kalsang and fellow Kirti monastery monk Lobsang Konchok set themselves ablaze at a major intersection of the Ngaba county seat on Sept. 26, 2011 while shouting slogans calling for Tibetan freedom and the return of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, another local source told RFA.



Soon afterward, Chinese police arrived and took them away, the source said, also speaking on condition of anonymity



Nothing was heard of Kalsangs condition until his release, and even now the true state of his health is not fully known, he said.



Kalsangs protest partner Lobsang Konchok was freed on March 28, 2017 with an injured leg and was immediately taken by police to a nomadic area far from his family home, sources told RFA in earlier reports.



Kirti monastery and Ngabas main town have been the scene of repeated self-immolations and other protests in recent years by monks, former monks, and other Tibetans opposed to Chinese rule.



Reported by Kunsang Tenzin and Lhuboom for RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finney.




Authorities in Vietnam arrested four members of a prodemocracy group on charges of attempting to topple the countrys one-party state over the weekend, drawing condemnation from their organization and Paris-based rights campaigners who demanded their unconditional release Monday.



On Sunday, police detained Protestant pastor Nguyen Trung Ton, 45, engineer Pham Van Troi, 45, journalist Truong Minh Duc, 57, and lawyer Nguyen Bac Truyen, 49, according to a statement on the website of Vietnams Ministry of Public Security.



The four menall members of the online group Brotherhood for Democracywere charged with carrying out activities aimed at overthrowing the peoples administration under Article 79 of Vietnams Penal Code and could face the death penalty if convicted.



They have all served prior jail sentences for anti-state activities and were connected to lawyer Nguyen Van Dai, who helped to found the Brotherhood for Democracy in 2013 and was arrested in December 2015 on charges of conducting propaganda against the state under Article 88 of Vietnams penal code.



Communist Vietnam, where all media are state-run, does not tolerate dissent, and rights groups identify Articles 79 and 88 as among the vague provisions that authorities use to detain and jail dozens of writers and bloggers.



In a statement Monday, the Brotherhood for Democracy slammed what it called the suppression, detention, and prosecution of its four members, as well as the arrest and imprisonment of several other activists amid an ongoing crackdown on dissent in Vietnam.



The group demanded that Vietnams government unconditionally release those arrested in a transparent manner, in addition to the countrys other jailed activists and prisoners of conscience.



It also called on the citizens of Vietnam, rights groups, and the international community to pressure the government over suppressed cases in the country.



The democracy groups condemnation of the arrests was echoed by Paris-based Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR), whose founder and president Vo Van Ai said in a separate statement on Monday that they showed the Vietnamese governments determination to suppress the rights movement.



VCHR said the four men had been detained under a very vague national security provision and called for their immediate release.



The arrests follow the conviction under Article 88 last week of prominent activist Tran Thi Nga, 40, and last month of 38-year-old blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, also known as Mother Mushroom (Me Nam), under the same charges. The women were sentenced to nine and 10 years in prison, respectively.



Nga was arrested on Jan. 21, for posting videos and articles about labor and land issues online that were described by government prosecutors at her trial as anti-state propaganda, though she has rejected that they constituted a national security offense.



Quynh was arrested on Oct. 10, 2016, for openly voicing her opinions on the deaths of people in police custody, Vietnams sovereignty over the disputed Paracel and Spratly islands in the South China Sea, and the governments handling of a toxic waste spill off the countrys central coast in April of last year.



Rights groups, the United Nations Human Rights Commission, and several governments have demanded their release, saying the two were convicted on vaguely worded charges.



Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh (L), also known as Mother Mushroom, stands trial at a courthouse in the city of Nha Trang in south-central Vietnam's Khanh Hoa province, June 29, 2017. Credit: AFP Mother Mushroom



Also on Monday, Quynhs mother, Nguyen Thi Tuyet Lan, told RFAs Vietnamese Service that her daughters health was in poor condition after meeting with her at the Khanh Hoa Provincial Detention Center where she is serving her sentence.



Quynhs health was not good and she was suffering from a condition in which her fingers are cramping up, she said, adding that the symptoms had started two weeks ago.



According to Lan, Quynh had not been provided enough medicine or a way to drink powdered milk she had been given.



Lan was granted a 10-minute meeting with her daughter on Monday after receiving permission from the head of the detention center, Pham Quang Nham. Aside from at Quynhs trial in June, it was the first time Lan had seen her daughter since her arrest last year.



Quynh, who was honored this year with the U.S. State Departments International Woman of Courage Award for her work highlighting rights abuses and promoting peaceful dissent in the one-party state, had been held incommunicado since October.



Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by Emily Peyman. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Vehicle consignment business CarLotz Inc. has opened a reconditioning center for the cars its sells for customers.

The Richmond-based company previously outsourced most of its vehicle service needs, company co-founder Michael Bor said.

As the volumes of total vehicles grew, the numbers of vehicles that needed some work here and there also grew, Bor said.

It got to a point where, when we aggregated the three Virginia stores that we have  two in Richmond and one in Chesapeake  there was enough service business that it started to make sense for us to do it ourselves, he said.

Bringing the work in house provides greater control over how quickly the work gets done and the quality, Bor said.

Employee Josh Adams is managing the local reconditioning center, which has six service bays and is at 5976 Midlothian Turnpike in South Richmond  about 7 miles east of the first CarLotz location at 11944 Midlothian Turnpike in Chesterfield County.

The service center works only on CarLotz consignment vehicles. We wont sell a car unless its inspected by a mechanic and given the OK, Bor said.

He projects the reconditioning shop will service about 200 cars a month, with most just needing very light work.

Very rarely does a car on our lot require transmission work or total body rebuild. They are doing a lot of tires, brakes, oil changes, shocks, a lot of the convenience and comfort functions of vehicles like air conditioning, sunroof fixes. We dont do body work or paint  we still outsource that, Bor said.

Adams said part of the space at the reconditioning center is being renovated into a studio for photographing the vehicles CarLotz takes for consignment.

Bor said CarLotz also has a reconditioning service center at its Charlotte, N.C., auto store. Cars brought to the Greensboro, N.C., CarLotz also are serviced there before being put up for sale.

CarLotz opened its first store in Chesterfield in 2011 and currently has five vehicle sales locations  three in Virginia and two in North Carolina.

Bor said the company is looking at opening new CarLotz locations in Texas, Florida and Georgia. Hopefully by the end of the summer, we will know something, he said.

Restroom rescue

When you gotta go but the bathroom is scary icky, what do you do?

Former Richmond resident William Bill Massey thinks his product The Restroom Kit is one solution. Its a small, portable packet that contains toilet paper, a toilet seat cover and sanitary wipes.

Massey pitched the product on Steve Harveys Funderdome, a reality TV competition that airs at 9 p.m. Sundays on local ABC affiliate WRIC. Massey said his episode is scheduled to air Sunday.

Masseys business partner in The Restroom Kit is his wife, Sonia Massey. The Masseys cant talk specifics of the show until after it airs.

We want to guarantee you have everything you need when you go into the restroom, said Massey, who graduated from Richmonds John F. Kennedy High School in 1980. He now lives in Maryland but still has relatives in the Richmond area.

The shows audience votes to name a winner. The Restroom Kit can be ordered online for three kits for $10.

Steve Harveys Funderdome premiered June 11. Contestants compete for seed money for their small businesses. Past guest entrepreneurs pitched such items as a drying system for wet dogs and a natural shave system for bald heads.

Girls think about the future

You be the boss.

That was the underlying message of a weeklong program that brought about 30 Richmond-area middle school-age girls together for a business basics boot camp. The Envision Lead Grow workshop challenged the girls to come up with an idea for a business. Workshop leaders helped them refine their concepts, write a business plan and learn how to pitch their ideas to potential investors.

They want bakeries. They want hair salons. As we take them through the week and go through the curriculum with them, they began to ask questions  Do we know our audience? How am I going to make money off of this? said Sateena Turner, spokeswoman for the program.

On Friday, Alexandra Wright, who created Baby Temp, won with the best idea. Her plan was awarded $500 toward starting her business. All were offered mentors to help them work on their business ideas after the workshop ended.

We want to make sure that these girls dont lose their energy and their enthusiasm, Turner said.

Envision Lead Grow was started in Norfolk in 2016 by Angela D. Reddix, president and CEO of ARDX, a health care management and IT consulting firm in Norfolk.

Weeklong workshops also were held this summer in Memphis, Tenn., Atlanta, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Greensboro, N.C., and Norfolk. The program in Richmond was held at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Economic education

Twenty-seven students from 16 area high schools now know more about the economy and innovation, thanks to the annual Cochrane Summer Economic Institute.

Hosted by Collegiate School and funded by the Powell Economic Education Foundation, the students each received a $500 stipend and worked with local partner organizations  ChildSavers, Ginger Juice, Impact Makers, Indivior, Richmond Kickers, Royall & Co. and World Pediatric Project  on real-world projects.
Update: The event is now sold out.

Previous: Care to sample a spruce beer similar to what might have been brewed at Monticello? Want to sip a cider popular in Colonial times?

The BrewHaHa craft beer festival Aug. 5 at the Virginia Historical Society will give you that chance.

As a follow-up to its History on Tap series, which provided recipes from its archives to local fermenters, the VHS has opened its archives to local craft brewers to inspire them to create a taste of history.

Jamie O. Bosket, president and CEO of the VHS, hopes the event will connect with craft beer fans as well as lovers of Virginia history.

Learning about the ingredients and the brewing process, and how the brewers adapted these centuries-old recipes into something we can enjoy today, truly sparks the imagination and makes history present, Bosket said. All of the brews inspired by recipes found in the Virginia Historical Society collections are part-beverage, part-time machine.

Danny Fain, brewer at Ardent Craft Ales in Richmonds Scotts Addition, decided to brew Spruce Beer, inspired by a recipe in the third edition of Miss Beechers Domestic Receipt Book, published by Catharine Esther Beecher in 1858. Fain, who sourced the spruce locally, said its an unusual ingredient that Ardent had never worked with before.

The spruce tips we used in the boil were fresh-cut from a Norwegian spruce from Sneeds Nursery in Bon Air, he said.

Fain chose Norwegian spruce because it is more representative of the types of spruce trees found in this part of America 200 years ago.

I loosely based the recipe on ones that would have been brewed by Thomas Jefferson at Monticello. After doing exhaustive research, I decided that using fresh-cut spruce tips in the boil, as opposed to a spruce extract, would give the beer a better flavor and a truer representation of how this beer would have been brewed historically, he said. I added a small amount of hops only to balance out the malty sweetness and to let the spruce shine through.

Trapezium Brewing Co. in Petersburg brewed a Superior Ginger Beer, an old British recipe that brewmaster James Frazer researched from the late 1800s, said Trapeziums sales director Kirk Candler. Its our take, using English yeast, bittered with heather flowers, with three ginger root additions, brown sugar and lime zest.

Ginger is the star in this beer, Frazer said. Its balanced with the heather, and the lime zest brings it all together. Its light-bodied and effervescent.

Center of the Universe Brewing Co. in Ashland and Virginia Beer Co. in Williamsburg collaborated on a beer aimed at beating the heat, a Persimmon Wheat Ale. The recipe is a little bit of old and new, said Chris Ray, an owner of COTU.

Persimmon and lemon were often used in brewing back in Colonial times, Ray said, so we took these two ingredients and included some malted two-row barley and wheat, commonly used back then.

The beer is about 4.5 percent ABV and has a nice, soft mouthfeel and gentle fruitiness to it, Ray said.

Given that it is a million degrees these days, Ray said, we decided to go in the direction of the persimmon and lemon, for a fruitier beer, light and refreshing.

The BrewHaHa is not just about beer. Blue Bee Cider, Buskey Cider and Black Heath Meadery, all located in Richmond, will also be at the festival.

Blue Bee is bringing its Harrison cider, which mimics what Colonial-era Americans were drinking as a table beverage, said its founder and owner, Courtney Mailey. Noted pomologist William Coxe wrote in 1817 of it being a high coloured, rich, and sweet cider of great strength, Mailey said.

Blue Bees Harrison is hazy in appearance, with a zesty apple aroma and notes of orange zest and golden raisin in the flavor profile, Mailey said.

Ardents Fain, likely speaking for all the brewers participating in BrewHaha, expressed gratitude for the new perspective he gained on his craft.

I think it is a rare and special thing to be able to look back in time and share this connection with our brewing forefathers, he said. Though the equipment may change throughout time, the passion and creativity remains constant in the brewing community.
Years ago, the arrival of Alcoholic Beverage Control agents on their doorstep wouldve been an unsettling development for Merle and Earl Corbin.

But when those lawmen showed up Saturday, the former moonshiners invited them in for apple dumplings.

And to wash it down?

Nothing stronger than iced tea.

All agreed this get-together would have been a lot different 50 or 60 years ago.

Quite a bit, John Wright said with a laugh. Wrights a retired director of enforcement for the ABC board.

I wrote in January about the Corbins, 82-year-old twins from Varina who were big-time bootleggers in the 1950s and 60s. Soon after the piece was published, Wright contacted me, as did Bobby Watkins, a retired ABC agent who arrested the Corbins in 1963 at an illegal still in the woods in King and Queen County.

Everybody talked about the Corbin boys, Watkins said of the brothers reputation among agents and other bootleggers. Youre kind of thinking of them as big, bad guys, but when we caught them, they were just as meek and mild and as nice as they could possibly be.

Which backs up what Merle told me months ago and said again Saturday:

We never had no argument with (agents). If we were caught, we were caught. Just be nice about it.

The men all wanted to get together to reminisce, so Earls daughter, Cheryl, arranged the reunion of sorts at her fathers home for Saturday afternoon.

Wright, 75, drove in from Amherst, where he lives, and brought along Buddy Driskill, 62, retired special agent in charge of the ABCs Lynchburg office. Watkins, 83, came from his home in Tappahannock. Cheryl Corbin made the apple dumplings, and Watkins wife, Barbara, brought brownies, and we all sat around the kitchen table chatting amiably as if long-lost friends had finally found each other.

I hadnt seen them for 54 years, Watkins said. I just wanted to see if they were still here.

I asked if he remembered when he last saw them.

March 26, 1963, at 12:10 a.m., Watkins said as everyone laughed.

Watkins and other investigators had been bedded down in the woods in their sleeping bags, waiting for daylight so they could destroy the unattended still they had discovered. Just about midnight, though, the Corbins showed up. Arrests were made. It was a bad night for the Corbins, but a good night for the law. Plus, as Watkins recalled, the Corbins had brought in eggs and bacon for the next morning, so when the sun came up  and after the Corbins had been carted off to jail  the remaining investigators had quite a feast.

I had a good time, Watkins said of his work as an agent.

The thing is, so did the Corbins.

I wouldnt have missed it for nothing, Merle said.

The respect from both sides was evident. Everyone was just doing their jobs, he said.

Added Earl, We got along with all of them.

The Corbins are identical twins  though born a few minutes apart on different sides of midnight, so they dont share the same birthday  who looked so much alike in their younger days that many people, sometimes even their own kin, couldnt tell them apart. The confusion over who was who came in handy in court occasionally, too.

They were into the illegal distilling business in a big way, though it was always Merle  the older of the two  who was more involved in the manufacturing of untaxed liquor. Merle never married, but Earl had a wife and children, and he didnt much like living in the woods for weeks at a time to tend to a still. He also didnt care much for the notion of going to jail and not being able to support his family.

Despite the illegality of what they were doing and the risks involved, the Corbins took pride in their work. They were constantly trying to stay a step ahead of the law. Whenever agents found and destroyed one still, the Corbins simply moved to a new location deep in the woods and set another. They developed a solid business model, selling carloads of moonshine at a time  the cars being reconfigured so they could carry up to 36 cases of 12 half-gallon jars of liquor made from elaborate operations they built from scratch in the middle of nowhere.

Man, it looked like a small factory, Earl said of the stills. We were like scientists. People liked it, and they didnt know how to make it.

They made whiskey from 1953 until 1969.

I aint done nothing illegal in my life except make liquor for 16 years, said Merle, who served time in state and federal correctional facilities. Earl never spent more than a night in jail, and he said that was enough to convince him to get out of the business.

Merle reiterated at Saturdays gathering that he got out of the business in 1969  Earl retired years earlier after the Watkins episode in King and Queen  because of the growing popularity of illegal drugs. When their sales went down, some bootleggers got into the drug business, but Merle wanted no part of it.

Through all their years of making liquor, the Corbins never took more than a taste for quality control. In fact, they dont even like the taste of liquor.

It was made to sell, not to drink, said Merle, whose day job for decades was running a trucking business.

The brothers decided to talk publicly about their long-gone moonshining days in part because Earl was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer last year, and they wanted to share their story while theyre both around. Earl is hanging in there, and he said hes feeling pretty good, considering everything.

On Saturday, they swapped stories and chatted about mutual acquaintances  law enforcement, bootleggers and at least one informant who squealed on the Corbins (Oh, yeah, said Merle, recognizing a name, a rat from way back.)

Driskill was curious to hear how the Corbins ran their operation after spending his entire career in the western part of the state.

The ones I fooled with went to a lot more lengths to keep from getting caught, Driskill said. Theyd take bulldozers and build caves and put cemeteries over top of (stills) and dig up under a trailer and put stills under it. You pull up into the driveway and all you saw was a house, trailer, a lean-to and a boat. The only way they got caught was when they had to get rid of the spent mash, and they got lazy and dumped it into the creek.

Wright said the meeting represented a dying breed from another era in terms of both law enforcement and bootlegging. He wanted to gather as much information as he could from the Corbins so he can develop a more complete picture of what it used to be like because Im here to tell you its not like that today.

To that end, Wright brought a clipboard full of questions for the Corbins:

When was the first time you remember seeing moonshine, and who had it? (Merle: About 1950, and it was a man who lived on Charles City Road.) How many customers did you have? (All of Richmond and most of Philadelphia.) Did you ever pay anyone to put your still on their property? (Every time.)

Wright stumped Merle when he asked, During your 16 years of making liquor, whats your ballpark estimate of how much you made?

Oh, Lord, I wouldnt have a clue, Merle said.

At which point Watkins piped up from across the table: 600 gallons a week. I did know that.

Everyone laughed.
On the private wish list she wrote for herself around Christmastime each year, Elaine Williams hoped for what thousands of schoolchildren in the Richmond region dont have:

A steady home.

During the seventh grade, Williams family was evicted from their East Highland Park residence. She went to live with a cousin, then her great-grandmother.

After her great-grandmother died during Williams junior year of high school, she moved in  for bursts of time  with her cousin, then her mother. She was living at her best friends house when she graduated from George Wythe High School in Richmond in 2012.

Reflecting over my childhood and looking at things in hindsight, I really believe that I faced unstable housing a lot growing up, Williams said on a recent morning. It was my normal.

They couch-surf, populate motels and, in the most extreme circumstances, are relegated to shelters or the streets. Homeless youth are a difficult population to fully identify, in part because they defy stereotypical conceptions of what it means to be homeless, advocates and experts say.

When you think of people who face unstable housing and homelessness, its someone standing on the corner begging for change or sleeping under the bridge, said Williams, who recently graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University. Youth facing unstable housing and homelessness are youth who go to work every single day, who are in college. These are your peers and people that are around you every single day.

The number of homeless children enrolled in Richmond schools has hovered above 1,500 in the past four academic years. Meanwhile, numbers in Chesterfield and Henrico counties increased in 2016-17 compared with recent years.

Both school systems have taken steps in recent months to augment the number of people tasked with carrying out the requirements of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, the federal legislation that guarantees homeless students equal access to public education.

In Henrico, Deb Reed, the divisions McKinney-Vento liaison, said adding another employee became necessary as the number of recorded homeless students continued to grow. During the most recent academic year, that number swelled to 992  the highest in the past 16 years.

Of the divisions intervention coordinator, Reed said: She was running ragged to keep up with forms, identifying families, doing screenings. ... She was really just pushed beyond her limit.

Addressing the need

The growth in homeless students is likely driven in part by legislation enacted during former President Barack Obamas administration that broadened the scope of students who must be served under McKinney-Vento and the services they must receive, Reed said.

But the larger numbers also coincide with a growth in suburban poverty  53 percent of the regions poor lived in the counties in 2015, up from 41 percent in 2000, according to U.S. census data analyzed by University of Richmond researchers. The number of students who receive free or reduced-price breakfast and lunch, an indicator of economic strain, also rose in Henrico in the last decade. Last year, nearly 41 percent of students were eligible for the lower-cost meals.

Weve seen a lot more poverty, Reed said.

The vast majority of Henrico students  about 690  who were homeless last school year were doubled up, or living with extended family or friends. That was followed by 261 kids who lived in motels, 38 who were in shelters, and three who were without shelter and living in, for example, a tent or car.

Housing Families First, which operates a housing program and the only Henrico homeless shelter for families, served 150 children for the fiscal year that ended June 30. Of the 87 school-age children, 23 percent were in Henrico, said executive director Beth Vann-Turnbull.

Vann-Turnbull noted that the organization has long been at capacity and serves a narrower category of people that excludes many of those whom the school systems mark as homeless.

These are just the Henrico children and students we work with who actually have fallen into literal homelessness, she said from a conference room at the shelter, which is located across the street from the school districts offices on Nine Mile Road. While we cant necessarily serve them, we want to be a voice for the hundreds and really thousands more who are very unstably housed, are doubled up, are living in hotels.

In Chesterfield, where officials shared data for just the past three school years, the number of students who were homeless rose to 733 in 2016-17 from 609 in 2014-15.

In March, Lisa Simes became the first Chesterfield schools employee dedicated solely to identifying and serving McKinney-Vento students. Previously, those duties were grouped with others, such as overseeing social workers, Simes said.

Figures from Richmond have gone up and down in recent school years. The division recorded 1,556 homeless students last year, compared with 1,737 the year earlier. In 2012-13, the division tallied 1,393 homeless students before growing to 1,757 the year after  the highest number in the past six school years.

Homelessness is a silent societal issue that impacts students in schools, RPS spokeswoman Kenita Bowers said in an email. Data for RPS has fluctuated over the course of the past few years. Families who are experiencing transiency often move between school divisions, but all surrounding school divisions work together to support families.

Growing tide of awareness

When Alex Wagaman moved to Richmond, she was struck by the dearth of options for young people facing homelessness.

We didnt have a youth shelter or youth-specific crisis housing, dont have a specific drop-in center for young people experiencing a housing crisis or anything, said Wagaman, an assistant professor at VCU. In other communities where Ive worked, those have been pretty important to young people.

In tandem with St. Josephs Villa, Wagaman formed Advocates for Richmond Youth, a research-driven group that studies youth homelessness locally, about three years ago. The group, formed of young people, has spearheaded a homeless count specific to youth and conducted training for service providers.

The group is currently collecting data on student, teacher and school staff experiences and opinions toward homelessness in the areas school systems.

Natalie May, founder and director of Change the World RVA, said few resources exist for teenagers and young adults without homes. The organization, which serves high school and college students, revolves around a once-a-week after-school program and also provides other support such as cellphones and access to a food pantry. Students are referred to the program by school social workers, she said.

Recognition of youth homelessness as an issue has grown in the region, said May, adding that a coalition of more than 30 organizations committed to addressing youth homelessness recently formed.

Were on the cusp of making some change, she said.

Students who belong to Change the World have inadequate health care, and some havent seen a doctor since elementary school, May said. Most, if not all, face depression and anxiety.

Williams, the recent VCU graduate who was formerly homeless, was adopted by a couple she met through Change the World RVA at the end of her freshman year in college. Gone was the uncertainty that accompanies homelessness; faraway was the feeling of worthlessness and fear that dogged her after her family was evicted from their home.

It gives you a sense of hope, and it gives you a new normal, she said. Now, I can be on the back side ... advocating for change.

On Monday, Williams begins a new job at YWCA Richmond. She will focus on helping divert people who are three days or less away from homelessness.
Richmond fire officials believe a discarded cigarette was the cause of a small fire that left at least $20,000 in damage Sunday at the Quirk Hotel and temporarily shut down the downtown establishments rooftop bar.

Deputy Fire Marshal Earl Dyer said Sunday evening that the blaze  which broke out about 11:45 a.m. and was marked under control an hour later  began in a seventh-floor penthouse level thats currently under renovation. No guests were staying on the floor, and no injuries were reported.

From the report that Ive gotten, some of the smoke was visible from the roof, Dyer said. There was very little flame, but there was a fair amount of smoke upstairs.

The $20,000 damage estimate was an initial tally, Dyer said, and officials were still working on a comprehensive figure taking into account fire, smoke and water damage.

The boutique hotel in the 200 block of West Broad Street continued to operate after the fire, with a hotel spokesman saying in the afternoon that guest check-ins were slightly delayed and the rooftop bar had been closed.

Besides that, the hotel is up and running at full force, said Eyad Idheileh, a front-desk employee.

The bar had reopened by Sunday evening. In an Instagram post, the hotel invited guests to come enjoy the view.

We are beyond grateful to the fine folks at Richmond Fire Department for everything today, the caption read.

Fire Marshal David Creasy said extra crews were called in because of the warm weather and concerns that firefighters could suffer heat exhaustion.

The fire was the latest of several in Richmond commercial buildings in recent months.

On July 20, firefighters responded to Peking Pavilion, a Shockoe Slip restaurant, after a fire began with a cooker in the basement kitchen, which sent flames to the lower floors ceiling.

Two weeks prior, a three-alarm fire closed the nearby Tobacco Company restaurant indefinitely. That fire came a week after a Carytown restaurant closed because of damage from a fire in the kitchen area; the owners of Dont Look Back announced that it would not reopen for six months.

Earlier in the year, acclaimed seafood restaurant Rappahannock, on East Grace Street, was closed for more than six weeks after a March 5 fire.
Informatiile publicate de evz.ro pot fi preluate de alte publicatii online doar in limita a 500 de caractere si cu citarea sursei cu link activ. Orice abatere de la aceasta regula constituie o incalcare a Legii 8/1996 privind dreptul de autor.
MONDAY

The Richmond School Board will meet at 6 p.m. at George Mason Elementary School, 813 N. 28th St., to hold a public hearing on the possibility of reassigning students to different buildings.

The Petersburg City Council will hold a special meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the Union Train Station, 103 River St.

TUESDAY

The Ashland Town Council will meet at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall, 101 Thompson St.

WEDNESDAY

The Petersburg School Board will meet at 6:30 p.m., 255 S. Boulevard East.

THURSDAY
Denver-based Chipotle Mexican Grill recently released further details about the payment card security breach that impacted most of its 2,250 restaurants  including in Culpeper  between March 24 and April 18.

The investigation identified the operation of malware designed to access payment card data from cards used on point-of-sale devices at its restaurants during the specified time period, according to a news release. The malware searched for track data  sometimes including cardholder name, card number, expiration date, and internal verification code  read from the magnetic stripe of a payment card as it was used.

Chipotle said there is no indication that other customer information was affected.

During the investigation, the malware was removed and the company said it continues to work with cyber security firms to evaluate ways to enhance its security measures.

In addition, we continue to support law enforcements investigation and are working with the payment card networks so that the banks that issue payment cards can be made aware and initiate heightened monitoring, the company statement said. We regret that this incident occurred and apologize for any inconvenience.

The credit/debit card security breach occurred March 26 through April 18 at the Culpeper restaurant, 15355 Creativity Dr.

It also occurred at all four of the Chipotle restaurants in Fredericksburg, two in Charlottesville and at the Warrenton location, according to the company.

The company advised checking your credit report for potential fraud or identity theft, copies of which are available for free every 12 months at annualcreditreport.com or 877/322-8228. Those who believe their personal information has been stolen should contact the Federal Trade Commission at 1-877/438-4338.

Customers with questions for Chipotle about the payment breach should call 888-738/0534 during normal weekday business hours.
Democratic Attorney General Mark R. Herring debated GOP challenger John Adams in June but has since resisted calls to commit to further debates.

Adam Zuckerman, Herrings campaign manager, said Monday that the campaign will notify the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce that Herring will agree to debate Adams before the chamber in October.

The Adams campaign has been calling on Herring for weeks to commit to more debates. On Monday, the Adams campaign issued a news release noting that Herring participated in the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce debate four years ago when he first ran for attorney general.

This debate is in his own backyard. One has to wonder why he still hasnt given the Loudoun Chamber an answer, reads an Adams comment in the news release.

Adams also accepted a debate invitation at the Liberty University Center for Law & Government and accepted a forum invitation from the Prince William Bar Association. The Virginia State Bar hosted the June debate in Virginia Beach.

Zuckerman said Herring participated in two debates when he ran for attorney general in 2013, the year he defeated state Sen. Mark D. Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg. Herring will again agree to two debates this year but not more, Zuckerman said. Herring is open to more joint appearances, he said.

The debate over debates is not new in politics. Incumbents, with name recognition and money in the bank, often want to avoid being on stage with a challenger who has less name recognition and more to gain from a newsworthy debate.

Herring was a county supervisor from Loudoun County and a state senator before his election as attorney general in 2013. Adams is on unpaid leave from his job as a white-collar defense attorney with Richmond law firm McGuireWoods.

The two candidates are political opposites, especially on social issues. Herring supports same-sex marriage and abortion rights; Adams is opposed to both and has criticized Herring for not defending the states 2006 gay marriage ban, which was later ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a Facebook post last week, Adams attacked Herring for being among state attorneys general who signed a letter asking Congress to protect transgender military personnel. President Donald Trump called for their removal from the armed forces on his Twitter account.
Despite what the numbers suggest, the regions love affair with and ability to support independent craft breweries has not come to a head.

Even with six craft breweries in downtown Charlottesville and 20 craft breweries total in the region, national beer experts and local brewers say there is plenty of room for new brews in Central Virginia.

Part of that is the nature of the region, experts say. The Charlottesville areas penchant for locally grown foods, farm-to-table dining and regional wines translates into support for a multitude of breweries.

Its definitely not a beer bubble and were not at an over-saturation point, said Chris McClellan, a New York City-based consultant with Guinness Brewer and publisher of Thebeerenthusiast.com. Theres still a large market share available to craft breweries. The fact that the Charlottesville area supports distillers, farms, restaurants and wineries and is focused on locally sourced products makes it well-suited to support multiple breweries.

Virginia Craft Brewers Fest coming to town The Aug. 19 festival will feature a variety of craft brews, as well as food trucks and music from Jackass Flats, Tara Mills and Jimmy Stelling and the Deer Creek Boys.

Thats what attracted the owners of Reason Beer, which is nearing completion of construction of its brewery in Seminole Place, the former Comdial building, in Albemarle Countys urban ring.

If you look at the local food scene, at the farmers markets and the emphasis on locally grown and locally made, you see the kind of support the area will have for small, independent breweries, said Mark Fulton, Reason Beers brewmaster and a University of Virginia alumnus. Locally crafted craft brews and breweries go hand-in-hand with locally sourced foods. There is a lot of support for local products here.

Reasons Patrick Adair, who also attended UVa, said the Reason team researched the market and compared it with other locations across the country.

We looked at different markets and how they were being saturated with breweries and we looked at Portland [, Oregon]. They have 70 breweries in the area and everyone gets on together like a house on fire, said Adair. Its a lot like Portland here. We talk with the guys at Three Notchd, Devils Backbone and Champion all the time. The camaraderie among brewers is there. We believe that every town with a passion for food and drink like Charlottesville has should have a variety of breweries offering a variety of beers.

The positive local beer-drinking outlook contrasts with industry statistics that show beer drinking is down across the country, with consumption based on volume decreasing by 1.5 percent in 2016 over the prior year. Meanwhile, consumption of liquor, spirits and wine has increased.

On the other hand, 850 breweries opened across the country in 2016 and now there are more than 5,000 breweries, according to the Brewers Association, a craft brew trade organization.

McClellan, a certified beer expert known as a cicerone, is familiar with the beer market both locally and nationally. He said the national statistics are accurate  that beer consumption is down and people are actually drinking less beer than in the past.

But he said thats partly because they have changed what they drink and why they drink it. He noted that statistics show craft beers accounted for more than 12 percent of the beer consumed in 2016, up from 5.7 percent in 2011.

A lot of beer drinkers started out drinking maybe three Bud Lights and now theyre drinking maybe one Champion or one Three Notchd or Starr Hill, McClellan said. Were seeing an entire generation that has grown up on craft beer and thats changing the way beer is made and consumed.

* * *

McClellan said local craft breweries are a growth segment in the industry. AB InBev, the international brewing giant that owns Anheuser-Busch, has purchased 10 craft brewers, including Nelson Countys Devils Backbone, in an effort to bolster flagging sales by joining in the craft beer market.

There are more people still discovering craft beer. There are discerning drinkers who are thinking about the beers theyre drinking and people making beer that are doing things that have not been done before McClellan said.

There is a reason why people drink what they drink, McClellan said. If they drink Bud Light Lime, theres a reason they drink that. Theres an identity, a self-association involved with that.

Although there is camaraderie among craft brewers, there is also competition. While mainstream brew drinkers are slow to change, many craft brew patrons are splitting loyalties, McClellan said.

For the most part, the craft breweries are fighting over the same piece of the market pie because the average light lager consumer isnt converting to craft beer as quick, he said. For instance, in Charlottesville, youve been able to drink Starr Hill beers for 18 years, but look at all of the local breweries that have popped up in the last five years. They are taking their customers from the national, regional and local breweries that were there before them, like Sam Adams, Devils Backbone, Starr Hill.

That competition has led to specialization and experimentation in the craft beer industry, McClellan said. He noted that a wide variety of beers are being brewed, from fruit-infused lagers to hop-infused bitter India Pale Ales to coffee-habanero stouts.

Beer is one of the most evolving products on Earth. The beer that was made 150 years ago was completely different than it was before and completely different than beer is now, McClellan said. There is a lot of experimentation going on. People are taking beer and turning it upside down and shaking it up and it will never be the same. They are finding new flavors, new ways to do things. A lot of people say you should not do this or that to beer, but why not? After all, its just beer.

Some of the old beers are getting makeovers to keep them current in the crowded market. Starr Hill Brewery, the areas longest-lived craft brewery, recently reviewed recipes of some of its beers to update flavors to reflect modern tastes.

We went through a brand refreshening, looking at what we were doing to build on our 18 years of success and continue attracting customers, said Jack Goodall, Starr Hills marketing manager. We adjusted our popular Northern Lights IPA recipe. Tastes change and evolve. It was good, but it was based for tastes and preferences that have changed in the last 10 years.

* * *

Most craft beers have alcohol content between 6 percent and 8 percent and some even higher, but recent studies show many craft brew drinkers are looking for beers with lower alcohol content. Reason Beers owners noticed the trend.

We saw a lot of things that pointed to people who want a good beer but they want to have more than one or sample other beers without having their palate ruined, Adair said. A lot of flavors that come out of hops are soluble in alcohol, so its easier to get those flavors into the beer if you keep the alcohol level higher. Weve been doing a lot of work making a lot of tests and small batches so we can create a 4 percent beer with a lot of flavor.

If youre opening a brewery now, you really have to have something to say. You have to have quality beer to open up with, Starr Hills Goodall said. Quality used to be something some folks would build toward, but it has to come with the territory at the start because there are so many options out there.

McClellan said that even though he doesnt see a business bubble in the brewing industry, competition is heavy.

A lot of breweries wont make it. You see a lot of local breweries close across the country, but you wont hear the local NPR station in New York City writing about that. Its not a big deal for most people that one brewery is out of business, he said.

McClellan said that breweries with strong identities, good products and a good following will survive.

You have to have real strong convictions about why youre doing this. You have to understand the business, he said. There is no bubble thats going to pop and suddenly interest is dead, but you are going to see contraction down the line. The brewers that connect with their customers, those that stay true to their vision, they will survive.
The Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigations Culpeper Field Office is seeking the publics help with a homicide and abduction that occurred 19 years ago on July 27, 1998 at a home in Strasburg in the Shenandoah Valley.

The 2-month-old child, Allyson Dalton, was last seen around 7:45 a.m. on that day in her mothers second-floor apartment in the 100 block of Charles Street in Strasburg. The baby girl was with her mother, Sylena Jo Dalton, at the time, according to state police.

At 2:25 p.m. on that same day, one of the mothers coworkers found 20-year-old Sylena Jo Dalton stabbed to death on a couch inside the apartment. Allyson was missing and so were several of her baby bottles, according to state police.

Investigators believe Sylena was killed between 9:15 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. that morning of July 27, 1998. Neighbors told police no screams were heard nor was there any disturbance that morning at the apartment. No murder weapon was found at the scene.

Since the beginning of this case 19 years ago, it has been a challenging one because of the complexities of it involving both a homicide and an infant disappearing without a trace, said Virginia State Police Capt. Gary Wilson, Commander of the Bureau of Criminal Investigations Culpeper Field Office. We do believe little Allyson was abducted by whoever murdered her mother. We are hopeful that someone will feel safe enough to come forward now, after all these years, and help bring a murderer and kidnapper to justice. Sylena and Allysons family deserves the truth and closure theyve been so desperately seeking for the past 19 years.

At the time of her disappearance, Allyson, a white female with brown hair and blue eyes, weighed 8 pounds and was 1-foot-8-inches-long. The baby girls biological father was not living with her and her mother at the time of the murder/abduction. He has cooperated with investigators over the years, according to state police.
Every American who is qualified to serve in the U.S. military should be eligible. Every one.

The U.S. military also is a huge, tremendously complex operation. Any change in command-wide policy is like turning an aircraft carrier. The Obama administration acted rashly and unwisely when it ordered the military to begin recruiting transgender personnel as of this July 1, without even so much as consulting military leaders. The result has been a hot mess.

But by tweeting that no transgender individuals can serve in the military in any capacity, Donald Trump has now made things exponentially worse. Does that include those currently in uniform? What about those currently in training? What about those who are unsure if they are transgender or not?

It was typical of the president to unload this decree through social media, rather than through an executive order carefully crafted in consultation with military and legal advisers. A bull in a China shop looks delicate by comparison.

A far greater concern than the delivery, however, is the policy itself. Legitimate questions about how to accommodate transgender personnel exist, and they deserve serious thought. Warfare is a life-and-death business, and policy changes that implicate both medical and social concerns should not be taken lightly. Nor should those concerns be dismissed as anti-trans bigotry. They arent.

Nevertheless: a complete ban on transgender individuals is antithetical to the American promise of liberty and justice for all.

It also may be based on exaggeration. One of Trumps tweets cited the tremendous medical cost of having transgender people serve in the military. But the number of transgender servicepeople seeking transition-related medical care in any given year is estimated at a few dozen, or perhaps as many as 129 at the high end. If you assume a cost of $130,000 for transition surgery, that works out to $17 million per year at most. (More conservative estimates place the cost at less than half that figure.) By comparison, the Pentagon spends $84 million a year providing Viagra and other drugs to treat erectile dysfunction. If the latter expense is justifiable, then so is the former.

Concerns about military readiness and unit cohesiveness likely are overblown as well. Last week Israel Army Radio asked retired Gen. Elazar Stern, the former head of Manpower Command for the Israeli military, about Trumps decree. He was dismissive. What? Why? It makes us strong that we dont waste time on questions like this, he said. Its something to be proud of. ... The armys task is to support its soldiers no matter what their needs, not meddle about in their lives.
Earlier this month, the City of Norfolk joined every major coastal community in Virginia  including my hometown of Virginia Beach  to oppose offshore drilling. I wholeheartedly applaud these localities for taking a stand and seeking to protect communities and critical economies from the significant risks that offshore drilling poses to our commonwealth.

Those risks to our coastal economy and Virginias economy are just not worth it. The Obama administration tried to open our coast to drilling a few years ago, but changed course in the face of overwhelming opposition from business owners and coastal communities. After recognizing the full impact of offshore drilling on the coast, Virginia Beach went from supporting offshore drilling a few years ago to coming out strongly against any plan to drill off its coast. Unfortunately, it seems some of our leaders in Washington didnt get the message.

The Trump administration has reopened discussion on what all of us along the coast thought was an open and shut case, and they are now seeking input from governors in coastal states before outlining their plan for offshore drilling. Gov. McAuliffe has a great opportunity to show his support for coastal communities, our robust ocean economy and everything that attracts millions of visitors and dollars to Virginias beaches and coast every year.

As a business owner, a leader in the hospitality industry and resident of Virginia Beach, its hard for me to believe that anyone would consider opening up the Atlantic to offshore drilling. A scenic and safe environment is critically important to attracting tourism  and oil and gas drilling has no place in that. Case in point, I recently visited the California coastline and watched a mother wipe tarballs off her childs feet after walking in the surf  tarballs routinely wash ashore from the everyday operations of rigs off Californias coast.

Tourism is a booming industry in our state, with $24 billion in revenue and 230,000 jobs in 2016 alone. Along the coast, tourism supports 45,000 jobs and nearly $1 billion in salaries annually  all of which we put at risk with rigs off our coast.

Just look at the Gulf of Mexico. A recent report found that revenue for tourism was 50 percent lower in Gulf counties and parishes where oil rigs and other drilling infrastructure were present. Consider what a 50 percent reduction in Virginia Beach tourism revenue would mean for us locally and for the state coffers.

As the Gulf learned firsthand in 2010, a major spill can wreak economic havoc. In the aftermath of the BP spill, local economies lost tens of billions of dollars in revenue. To add insult to injury, in addition to opening up the Atlantic coast to drilling, the Trump administration is seeking to roll back the protections specifically put in place to prevent disasters like the BP oil spill from happening again.

For business owners like me, the takeaway is clear: risky offshore drilling is just not worth it.

Its not just tourism at stake. As the largest seafood producer on the East Coast, Virginias fishing industry is responsible for more than $1.2 billion in sales and tens of thousands of jobs. Oil spills and pollution from offshore drilling would put those jobs  and the states 50 commercial fishery species  at risk.

Even without a major spill, our coastal economy would pay a steep price if the Trump administrations plan moves forward.

So it should come as no surprise that business leaders have been on the front lines in the effort to protect Virginias coasts. The Virginia Beach Restaurant Association, the Virginia Beach Hotel Association, and the statewide Virginia Restaurant, Lodging and Travel Association all oppose offshore drilling. Fortunately, were not going it alone. Virginias coastal communities have now spoken out against opening up the Atlantic Ocean to offshore drilling, and elected officials are working across the aisle to protect our coast.

In fact, North Carolinas Gov. Roy Cooper recently joined Republican governors from Maryland and South Carolina in coming out against the Trump administrations plan to open the Mid- and South Atlantic to offshore drilling for the first time. Its past time for McAuliffe to stand with our states coastal communities  and the businesses that keep our economy strong  and reject this risky plan. Our communities, our businesses, and our economy depend on it.
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
Taubman Museum of Art Executive Director Della Watkins is moving on.

Watkins, hired in 2013 after a time of turbulence in the museums history, has taken a job as executive director for the Columbia Museum of Art in South Carolina. Her last day at the Taubman will be Sept. 8.

My heart is so heavy leaving, she said. I love Roanoke and love the museum.

Shes just been a champ, said museum board chairman Leon Harris, president of Keltech Inc. Shes been a very, very active and really commanding leader for us.

Though the board of directors is sorry to see her go, members are not surprised that she has been hired away by a larger museum, with about 7,000 pieces in its permanent collection, as opposed to the Taubmans 2,400.

Working with Della is always enjoyable, because Dellas glass is always half full, said Medical Facilities of America chairman Heywood Fralin, vice chairman of the museums board. She will be extremely successful in her new position. The museum that shes going to is fortunate to have her.

Museum board members credit Watkins with navigating the once-struggling museum to calmer financial waters.

We feel very blessed to have had her, said board member Jenny Taubman. The museum is at a totally different level now than it was when she came.

Roanokes art museum has a history dating to the 1950s. The Taubman Museum is the latest incarnation, opening in 2008 with much fanfare inside a $66 million signature building designed by the late Los Angeles architect Randall Stout. Jenny Taubman and her husband, Nick Taubman, retired chairman and CEO of Advance Auto, made the largest single donation toward the capital campaign.

Soon after the grand opening, the museum was plagued with staff layoffs and budget overruns, becoming a frequent target of community criticism. Watkins was brought in to stabilize the budget and repair the museums reputation.

Before coming to the Taubman, Watkins worked as chief educator for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, implementing statewide programs. She came highly recommended by Alex Nyerges, the director of the VMFA, Fralin said. When Nick [Taubman] and I went to interview her for the position, we were very convinced that she was the right person.

Watkins set about getting to know the community and learning what stakeholders wanted to see in the Taubman. I listened for a year, then I got to work, she said, creating a five-year strategic plan. It takes a long, wide berth to turn a semi-truck around.

According to tax documents, Watkins earned a $149,595 salary as head of the Roanoke nonprofit.

Under her leadership, the Taubman earned re-accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums and built a $2 million special exhibitions gallery, which has hosted ticketed shows such as American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell. Previously, the building didnt meet security standards required for blockbuster exhibitions.

The museums operating budget has stabilized at about $2.7 million annually. Exhibitions rotate more frequently. Education programs are offered for adults and children. The museum is open Sundays to be more accessible to tourism.

Support came back, Watkins said. Money came back. Members came back. Tourists came back. The feedback she received as director changed. People cant wait to tell me about something that they did or they saw, instead of telling me how to redo it.

The Taubman is also working to fund a $20 million endowment that will assist with daily operations. At present, $11.7 million has been pledged toward the endowment. The museum wont be able to access the endowment until the funding goal is reached, Watkins said. Our long-term goal is to make sure the building will be taken care of.

The Columbia Museum of Art is undergoing a $6 million renovation, creating a new special exhibitions gallery, changing the installations of its permanent collection and seeking community input. Thats a very exciting time, said Watkins.

She wasnt looking for a new job, but a colleague alerted her to the opening in South Carolina, she said. At 56, she feels the Taubman has a map to follow going forward, and shes interested in new challenges. The Columbia Museum, which is state-supported, will make use of her skills with statewide projects that she honed at the VMFA. It is a great growing opportunity for me.

The board has begun the search for her replacement. Board members asserted that  thanks to Watkins efforts and the professionalism of the staff she assembled  the next director wont face challenges as difficult as she did. As far as the budget goes, theyve got it down pat, Jenny Taubman said.

In the meantime, Cindy Petersen, the museums deputy director of education and visitor engagement, will serve as interim director.

Board members said the museum will be in good hands with Petersen, who joined the museum staff seven years ago. I think the museum will continue to be a quality museum without missing a beat, Fralin said.

A consulting firm is working with the museum to create a new five-year plan, the specifics of which will help determine who Watkins successor should be.
Have you ever heard of an addict who was cured of his or her addiction because someone limited, but did not eliminate, their access to the substance or behavior in question? No, you have not. Is an addiction to gambling less harmful if the addict is only allowed to gamble five hours a week? No, it is not. The proposition is absurd.

Before I continue, a digression: I am allowed, by law, to call myself a psychologist; therefore, I am a psychologist. However, I am ever-increasingly aware that I do not have much in common with most people in my nominal profession. In this regard, I am of the experienced opinion (38 years) that clinical psychology is more ideology than science, more fad-driven than fact-driven, and that the facts are not impressive. Does several years of graduate school make one a better advice-giver? Is any form of psychological therapy reliably effective? These questions, and many more, remain unanswered to a satisfying degree.

My digression underscores a story recently passed along to me by a highly reliable witness. A psychologist, speaking to a group of North Carolina parents, recommended against taking video game controllers away from pre-teen and teen boys who are obviously obsessed with video games for the very reason that they are obsessed. To be clear: Because playing video games is, according to said psychologist, supposedly harmless and so very important to these boys and gaming is their main social activity to boot, the controllers should not be taken away. Again, the proposition is absurd.

In the early 1980s, I publicly asserted (in this column) on the basis of observation alone that video games were addictive. I was generally dismissed, even ridiculed. The ridicule, by the way, came primarily from  you may have guessed it  other psychologists. A growing body of research now confirms my theory. Over the years, hundreds of parents have sought my advice concerning teenage boys (never a girl, by the way) who want to do nothing but play video games. Their grades have plummeted, their personal hygiene has collapsed, they are sullen and do not want to participate in family activities, even mealtimes, they get up in the middle of the night to game, and they become threatening toward parents who even suggest that enough is enough.

My advice is always the same: While the boy is in school, confiscate the controller, smash it, and toss the pieces in a dumpster located at least 10 miles from home  and do not ever, under any circumstances, allow one of these nefarious devices back in said household. Without exception, the child has either gone stark-raving insane or he locks himself in his room and wont come out, sometimes for days; in either event, proving that he is indeed addicted.

It generally has taken several weeks for withdrawal to run its demonic course, after which the child begins to act like, well, a child again. One teen boy, upon discovering that his controller was gone, destroyed his room and would not speak to or interact with family for two weeks. Finally, he thanked his parents, telling them that he felt much, much better and was now aware of the damage he had been doing to himself. Ive heard many similar stories of recovery.

Video games are doing many children great harm. The many children in question constitute a significant number of boys in the up-and-coming generation. For these boys to become authentic men, they need to be rescued. They are not going to rescue themselves.
Ever miss a show you want to see? Love a concert so much you to want to hear it all again? Wait a couple of years for a band that you loved the first time?

All those possibilities and more can be part of the annual FloydFest equation.

On Sunday, FloydFest 17s final full day of live music, the equation began with Aaron Lee Tasjan. He and his band of East Nashville, Tennessee, country-flavored roots rockers drew lots of folks looking to escape one of Saturdays occasional rainfalls via the Speakeasy Tent. Most stayed well after the rain.

Sunday was sunny, with mild temperatures, but Tasjans act still drew well. Many stood outside the Speakeasy, soaking up rays.

Vocally, Tasjan sounds similar to Rodney Crowell but can bust out hard rock and soul vocal chops with big range, clarity and taste. As a guitarist, he knows all the old moves but recasts them in intriguing ways. Hes a strong songwriter, too.

All that came together in the hour-long sets final two numbers, Ready To Die and The Dangerous Kind. In the former, he sang One of these days Im gonna lose my mind / Cant wait to see what thatll help me find.

The set-closer featured Tasjan and second guitarist Brian Wright getting into chorus after chorus of psychedelic harmony jams.

Shovels & Rope returned to the main stage on Sunday, two years after the husband-and-wife duos first FloydFest. Then, Cary Ann Hearst was eight months pregnant with the couples first child.

This time, Hearst and Michael Trent brought their daughter along. The parents apparently were ready to deliver fierce rock n roll and autobiographical story songs.

Music from recent album Little Seeds included a brutal takedown of a shallow performer. In I Know, the pair harmonized about finding a little notebook lying on the bar, and now they know exactly who you think you are and are set on exposing.

Along with compelling lyrics and close, near continuous harmonies, the pair switched back and forth among guitars, a small drum set with a small bass keyboard, and a piano. The two easily and fluidly sounded like three and four.

As usual at FloydFest, with so much happening simultaneously on multiple stages, attendees missed shows. Keller Williams KWAhtro (pronounced quatro) was a half-hour into some wild jams when one could no longer ignore the timing overlap with Shovels & Rope, despite vibraphonist Mike Dillons brilliance.

Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives, who often play Rocky Mounts Harvester Performance Center, made their FloydFest debut with numbers including The Whiskey Aint Workin and John Prines strip-mining lament, Paradise.

They need to build a statue of John Prine in every city in the U.S., Stuart said, to huge cheers, and make it out of coal. It was a fantastic traditional country show, but deadline beckoned.

Music was scheduled to go on past midnight, although many of the reported 13,135 who came will leave wanting more.
Apart from hosting and possible maintenance costs, there are not exactly downsides to having your own website. Even if its just a personal blog it can always become more useful down the line, if you utilize it in the right manner. In other words, more
A number of elementary schools in Albemarle County have implemented multiage classrooms over the years, placing emphasis on student learning and what best fits the school.

Woodbrook Elementary soon will be the latest school in the division to use this model.

At the start of the 2017-18 school year, there will be one first grade and one second grade class combined, and all fourth and fifth grades combined.

Theres one classroom that will be used for multiage that is completely empty after a wall was knocked down to create a larger learning space, and theres another section of Woodbrook under construction.

The school is currently undergoing a $16.3 million expansion and modernization, thanks in part to a 2016 voter-approved bond referendum. The capital project will expand the buildings footprint, giving way to new instructional spaces that can be used for multiage.

The project is expected to be completed in fall 2018 with work going on during the upcoming school year.

The school divisions experience with multiage spaces in recent years is that it exposes students to more content, challenges some students to master higher-level academics at an earlier age and places an emphasis on social and emotional learning.

It does promote social and emotional development in children in a very natural context because theyre in a classroom community together, and we focus on community and we want to emphasize the students responsibility within that community, said Michele Castner, director of elementary education and former principal of Agnor-Hurt Elementary. And really what happens in that natural context is students begin to naturally help one another, ask questions to one another.

And for teachers, its given them more opportunities to work in teams and co-teach throughout the school day.

Currently, Agnor-Hurt and Red Hill elementaries have multiage learning spaces.

At Agnor-Hurt, a recent addition to the building allows for 100 students  by parent permission and request  to take part in a mixed-grade learning environment. Its broken down by kindergarten through second and third through fifth grades.

Outside of the addition, second and third grade classes were combined last school year. And at the start of the next school year, fourth and fifth grades will be grouped in a multiage model.

Red Hills multiage model is school-wide, and is divided by first and second grades, then third through fifth. Yancey Elementary, which the school board closed in June, used a similar model.

Even though multiage puts two or more traditional grade levels together, its mission is student-centered in a way that allows students and teachers to personalize learning and let the children explore their interests.

Our aspiration is to differentiate, to know our students well enough or so well that I know what your interests are, I know what your academic achievement levels are, said Debbie Collins, assistant superintendent for student learning.

I kind of know where your social, emotional needs are so when I start thinking about groups for you, Ive got those kinds of things over here and as I group and regroup students, Im going to put you in a situation where youre challenged academically, socially and emotionally  and sometimes Im going to put you in a situation where youre going to develop leadership over here.

The use of multiage classrooms has been growing nationwide.

As reported in The Atlantic in May, multiage learning spaces are popular in the country now and were common in the 1990s.

But with the passage of No Child Left Behind, the push to more standardized testing at the grade levels shifted classroom makeups back to traditional models.

But moving to multiage does not exempt a school from the Standards of Learning tests administered each school year in Virginia.

This model blends curricula from different grade levels but still aims to cover the standards, Castner said.

The standards are being taught at every level and the instruction is being differentiated to meet the needs of the individual child, she said. I would have no fear saying to any parent that your child is going to receive the standards and actually accelerate in standards because theyre being exposed to a greater curriculum.

School officials have drawn a parallel between elementary multiage spaces to the countys High School 2022 initiative, which is rethinking the high school structure and graduation requirements.

For Lisa Molinaro, Woodbrooks principal, multiage at Woodbrook and other elementary schools seems like a logistical transition to the evolving high school models.

Were building a school for the future and, most importantly, were building a school that will produce kids that will be going into our high schools of the future, she said.
History abounds with mysteries. One of them has intrigued people for ages.

What happened to plans for multiple frontier forts that were to have been built in the Roanoke Valley in the early stages of the French and Indian War?

The question came up in the wake of a recent article in this space discussing one of those stockades, Fort Lewis, which was constructed near the Roanoke River west of Salem. But what of other forts that were said to be proposed nearby by order of Colonial-era Lt. Gov. Robert Dinwiddie of Virginia?

One of the missing stockades in particular sparked the interest of a reader.

Q: Whats the scoop on Fort Mason in southwest Roanoke County?

Jeff Fletcher

Roanoke

A: When the governor ordered the chain of forts to be built from Winchester 300 miles south to the Mayo, three were planned for the Roanoke Valley, Clare White tells us in her book Roanoke 1740-1982.

One was to be on James Campbells property near the river and west of a salt lick  or wildlife feeding area  at the foot of Mill Mountain. Another was to be constructed at the Neal McNeal farm off what is now known as Peters Creek Road. A third stockade was planned for the John Mason spread on Back Creek.

The only one of the three to be built was Fort Lewis at Campbells. That was Whites conclusion, based on Col. George Washingtons account of his travels in October 1756.

Then 24 years old, Washington commanded the Virginia colonys militia. In that capacity, he was under orders from Dinwiddie to engage in a fact-finding mission to evaluate conditions at the string of frontier forts.

Intended as a defense for settlers under threat from the French and their Indian allies, a line of stockades from Winchester 300 miles south to the Mayo River on the North Carolina border had been planned.

Washington made it a point to visit the most remote of these posts. His itinerary included the western-most of them, Fort Vause, near present-day Shawsville, as well as strongholds east and south on the Blackwater, Smith and Mayo rivers.

Washington passed through the Roanoke Valley en route, and again as he was making the return trek to his headquarters in Winchester, White wrote.

He makes no mention of two forts he would have passed had they been either built or under way, so evidently there were not, nor would there be, forts in the heart of the Roanoke Valley.

F.B. Kegley in the 1938 book Kegleys Virginia Frontier drew the same conclusion that those places may have been dropped.

Fort Lewis was built, as we know, although the exact date of construction is unclear.

So what happened to the other two forts, Mason and McNeal? Why were they never built? No specific evidence seems to have been uncovered.

One possibility can be gleaned from correspondence from Washington to Dinwiddie on the mission. Two letters, dated Oct. 10 and Nov. 9, 1756, are available at Founders Online via the National Archives website ([http://founders.archives.gov/).

In both letters, the colonel pens a dim view of the quality of local militia along the frontier. One line in the Oct. 10 letter, which he wrote from what is now Henry County, was particularly telling.

The militia are under such bad order and discipline, that they will go and come when and where they please; without regarding time, their officers, or the safety of the inhabitants; but consulting solely their own inclinations.

These men were clearly a deficient defensive force, if Washington is to be believed. We are reminded of the saying which held that the great man was incapable of a lie.

Washington repeated his criticism Nov. 9, describing these inadequate Indian fighters:

The difficulty of collecting them upon any emergency whatever, I have often spoken of as grievous  the enemy having every opportunity to plunder, kill, & escape before they can afford any assistance.

He continued, describing the frontiersmen as obstinate, self-willed, perverse; of little or no service to the people.

On inspecting a construction crew of militiamen under command of Capt. David Hog (also spelled Hogg and Hoy) trying to finish Fort Vause, Washington predicted that the skimpy detail of 18 would take  til Christmas to finish the job, unless they had more help.

Washington pointed out that a Capt. Hunt from Lunenburg County, along with 30 of his men, was at the same post with Hogs detail but none of them woudd strike a stroke, unless I would engage to see them paid 40 lbs. Tobacco per day.

At another fort on the Jackson River, Washington wrote the garrison was so unprepared for trouble that children were playing outside the safety of the walls.

Elsewhere, he found bored militiamen wasting ammunition firing it away frequently at Targets for wagers.

All along the line of forts he observed garrisons characterized by indolence and irregularity.

If we were to ask Washington his opinion of the reasons why two of the three stockades planned for the Roanoke Valley never went up, we can guess with little hesitation one reason he would have offered.

If youve been wondering about something, call Whats on Your Mind? at 777-6476 or send an email to whatsonyourmind@roanoke.com. Dont forget to provide your full name (and its proper spelling) and hometown.
July 24, 1937 July 29, 2017 Dewey Edward Toms Jr., 80, of Bedford, passed away Saturday, July 29, 2017 at his residence. He was born on Saturday, July 24, 1937 in Bedford County, a son of the late Dewey Edward Toms Sr. and Louise Elizabeth DeWitt Toms. He was also preceded in death by his brother, Lionel W. Toms; and his nephew, John W. Toms. Dewey was a dedicated driver for J.C. Nichols Oil Co. for 26 years with many grateful customers. He was a current employee of Updike Funeral Home & Cremation Service, a member of Faith Hope Ministries, a member of Peaksville Odd Fellows Lodge #406 for 48 years and was secretary for 45 years. He was a charter member of Stoney Creek Rebekah Lodge #103 and was Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Virginia. He was the Grand Chaplain for the Grand Lodge of Virginia for 10 years. He loved and lived Oddfellowship. He also loved farming and farmed for 65 years after the death of his father when he was 15 years old. He never met a stranger and enjoyed people, spending time with family and friends and talking about the old days and the history of the community. He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Dora DeWitt Toms; his son, Ronald L. Toms and wife, Bonnie; his daughters, Wanda G. Toms, Sheila Toms Orange and husband, Gary; his sister-in-law, Mary L. Toms; his nephew, Jason L. Toms; his great-nephew, John W. Toms and his mother, Melinda, all of Bedford; as well as his extended family, Rick and Mary Reynolds of Texas; and numerous cousins and friends. The family requests those wishing to make memorials to consider Centra Hospice, 1621 Whitfield Drive, #C, Bedford, VA 24523 or Bedford Lifesaving Crew, P. O. Box 161, Bedford, VA 24523. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, August 1, 2017 at Updike Funeral Chapel, Bedford with the Rev. Joe Thompson officiating. Interment will follow in Suck Springs Baptist Church Cemetery. Friends may call after noon on Monday, July 31, 2017 and the family will receive friends from 5 until 8 p.m. at Updike Funeral Home & Cremation Service, Bedford.
By Alma Lee

Lee, of Roanoke, is president of the AFGE National Veterans Affairs Council.

Working people at the Department of Veterans Affairs are public servants who have dedicated their careers to caring for our nations veterans. They tend to those who have borne the battle, and sometimes are the only ones bedside as a veteran takes his or her final breaths.

VA workers are extremely passionate and driven in their work, but still face attacks about being the problem plaguing Washington and veterans in this country. Its an extremely disappointing  and quite frankly, offensive  narrative. Especially when people say such awful things without realizing that more than one-third of the VAs workforce are veterans themselves.

To help combat this growing false narrative being slung by partisan news outlets and insiders, I wanted to offer a few facts that point to the real problems at the VA, and how a dismantling of our countrys largest, most important health care system would be catastrophic for millions of veterans.

FACT: The Independent Budget document (sponsored by three major veterans service organizations) found that Congress 2017-2018 VA budget was 10 percent less than what the VA needs.

The Independent Budget recommended $77 billion in total medical care funding for last and this year, while Congress only budgeted for $70 billion. The bipartisan budget said that due to the ever-increasing demand for services at the VA, this level of funding will not keep pace.

FACT: Secretary David Shulkin says 90 percent of VA facilities offer same-day access, but 16 percent of outpatient panels are over-capacity right now.

First the good. Its wonderful that veterans can walk into almost any VA facility and get same-day access. But, its far from good that almost one out of every five facilities is over-capacity  and its not hard to understand why. There are more than 49,000 vacancies at the VA right now, and the patient population is only growing in size and needs. The VA cant keep up with the number of incoming patients if the administration wont make hiring a priority.

FACT: In his June Senate testimony, Disabled American Veterans Deputy National Legislative Director Adrian Atizado said, The pyrrhic goal of unfettered and unlimited choice also carries with it the potential to delay and distort realistic plans to move forward with implementing the shared vision of the veterans community and most active users of the VA health care system.

In the Veterans of Foreign Wars March 2017 survey, A Report Evaluating Veterans Health Care, 92 percent of respondents said they want the VA to invest in fixing their current deficiencies  not a private care card that forces them to wait in line outside the VA. Clearly, its not just the financial aspect of the Choice program thats failing our veterans.

FACT: Health care now represents almost 20 percent of our countrys gross domestic product.

It shouldnt come as a surprise then that several members of the Commission on Care that supported privatization of the VA came from hospital systems that would directly profit off the backs of veterans. Health care costs arent coming down anytime soon, and the veteran population is growing at an exponential rate, so getting them into private, for-profit systems now means a lot more money for the ultra-wealthy. The problem is what that means for quality of care and costs to taxpayers. According to the Commission on Cares Final Report, creating and implementing a new private VHA system would cost the federal government $11 billion more than the VAs 2017 budget. If were already seeing budget shortfalls now, how can we expect a higher price tag to help?

FACT: This problem is only going to get worse if Congress continues to address the wrong issues.

With almost 50,000 openings at VA medical centers nationwide, youd think Congress and the administration would make hiring a priority. Sadly, it has not. Instead, weve had lawmakers self-congratulating one another for eroding public servants rights at work, while ignoring the real problem at hand. Compounding the complacency of Congress is the estimate that caring for the newest generation of veterans will cost more than $3 trillion. That either means the VA will be starved for resources as it struggles to care for veterans, or that private, for-profit corporations will make trillions as they stick veterans in the back of the line to receive the care they need.

Its no secret that the VA offers the best health care option in the country. Independent medical journals know it. The Commission on Care knows it. And most importantly, veterans know it. Shoving veterans out of the only system tailored to their unique needs so they can stand in line at private providers  where wait times far exceed those at the VA  doesnt help care for those who have already sacrificed so much for this country. It only lets them down.
By August Wallmeyer

Wallmeyer is a semi-retired lobbyist in Richmond and the author of The Extremes of Virginia.

Wallmeyer, author of a recent book on the disparities between rural Virginia and the urban crescent, recently discussed the opioid epidemic with Jodi Manz, policy advisor to the state Secretary of Health and Human Resources. Here is an edited transcript.

WALLMEYER: How would you describe the current opioid situation in Virginia?

MANZ: We call it an epidemic, a public health crisis. Our commissioner of health officially declared it a public health crisis last November. Were not just looking at prescription drugs, were also looking at heroin and a drug called fentanyl and fentanyl analogs. The thing that all of those drugs have in common is that they are all morphine derivatives, derived from the same plant and synthesized in different ways to become different drugs. In certain parts of the state like Southwest and Southside Virginia, were looking more at a prescription opioid issue. The overdoses there tend to be from prescription opioids, but oftentimes in conjunction with things like benzodiazepines, drugs like Xanax, which are often prescribed for significant anxiety, or in combination with alcohol, other depressants, the kinds of things that will just slow your system down.

Were now seeing a decline in life expectancy that we havent seen before, particularly among white women in America. And it goes back to the idea of despair around economics, around job prospects, the kind of things that might exist in parts of the state that dont have the robust economies that they used to. And we also see theres a connection, especially among prescription opiods, to physical labor. Thats been a huge issue in Appalachia, with jobs connected to coal mining, in particular. Theres a pretty high rate of injury, and oftentimes this kind of addiction starts with a legitimate prescription for pain.

But sometimes this is just an epidemic that exists because the drugs proliferate socially. It has now become almost an acceptance that once someone has moved from opioids to heroin, which can happen very easily, heroin becomes almost more socially acceptable, particularly among young and adolescent users.

WALLMEYER: And heroin is now less expensive than a prescription opioid?

MANZ: Yeah. The numbers vary based on the area, because its a market and there is a cost of living issue. But in the City of Richmond, you can get high for about $15 if you buy some heroin. Whereas Oxycontin usually goes for about a dollar a milligram. So if Im a person who has developed an addiction its a lot easier and cheaper for me to go to the street and find heroin.

WALLMEYER: And now if you choose heroin, isnt it a much greater chance that your heroin will be cut with fentanyl or something else, and be much stronger and therefore even more deadly?

MANZ: Yes! This is a market, and drug dealers have caught on to the fact that the more attractive they make their product, the more likely you are to purchase it from them. One of the things that can make the product more attractive is if it is more potent, and fentanyl, which is essentially just like heroin but exponentially stronger. Once heroin dealers began putting fentanyl in their product, thats when we started to see the overdoses increase.

WALLMEYER: Just how bad is this problem in Virginia today?

MANZ: We got the 2016 overdose data recently, and had 1,460 drug overdose deaths total. Of those, 1,133 were related to opioids or heroin. Were not seeing these numbers go down, [even] with all the awareness and work thats gone into this, our overdose numbers are still going up. And thats happening in other states as well. Nobody has found the magic bullet to make this go away. Drug overdoses now kill more people than motor vehicle accidents and gun deaths in Virginia.

WALLMEYER: And as of today, no end in sight?

MANZ: No end in sight. Its not just as public health problem. Its not just a public safety problem. Its not just a community problem. Virginia has taken an all hands on deck approach. We have tried to do everything we can do. [Among other things,] we have created an opportunity for local health departments to have syringe exchanges. We have also mandated continuing medical education for providers. And the prescription monitoring program has changed to mandate that all prescribers and pharmacists have to be registered. Weve also mandated that any opioid prescription for more than seven days has to be checked through the prescription monitoring program. The goal of these regulation changes is for doctors to not go to opioids first, to not start with the highest level of treatment. Our goal is to make sure that patients get the right care, and the right amount of care, so were not overprescribing.
Michael Lydon

TWO men who stole 126,660 from a Yorkshire Bank in a morning raid have been jailed for more than 30 years.

Michael Lydon (53), of Fairview Avenue, Cleethorpes, denied taking part in a gun heist last January 29 at the Parkgate branch.

But after a two-week trial a jury found him guilty on Friday of two counts of robbery, two of possession of an imitation firearm and one each of making use of an imitation firearm with intent, attempted robbery and causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

Jurors took 90 minutes to deliver their verdicts and Lydon was jailed by Judge Julian Goose QC for 20 years.

Lydons accomplice, Paul Smith (55), of the Coppice, Kimberworth Park, admitted the same charges and was jailed for 13 years.

Getaway driver Jason Heppenstall (28), of Langdon Walk in Kimberworth Park, who also admitted his part in the robbery, is due to be sentenced tomorrow at the same court.

Lydon has several past convictions and was given 18 years in prison for another bank robbery, committed in 2000.

Paul Smith
Mandatory labeling of jewelry in Russia to begin in 2024 The deadline for mandatory application of physical marking on jewelry made of precious metals and precious stones in Russia has been postponed from March 2023 to March 2024. That resolution was signed by the Government of the Russian Federation. It is...

Northam Platinum mulls acquisition of remaining RBPlat shares Northam Platinum is planning to acquire all remaining shares in Royal Bafokeng Platinum (RBPlat) at R172.70 a share. It currently controls a 34.52% stake in RBPlat and, together with call options and a right of first refusal secured with...

10th Annual Dubai Precious Metals Conference to explore impact of trade, tech and regulations on the industry DMCC has announced that the 10th edition of the annual Dubai Precious Metals Conference (DPMC) will be held on 22 November 2022 at Atlantis, The Palm, Dubai. This years edition will bring together a plethora of speakers and participants from...

New record HPHT diamond sample The largest and purest diamond in the world weighing 16.04 carats was synthesized in Russia. The world's largest white diamond "Champion" is cut from a diamond grown by the HPHT method by the Russian company Advanced Synthetic Research...
Polished-diamond imports to the US fell for the eighth consecutive month in May, according to government data.

Shipments into the country slid 8% year on year to $2.85 billion, extending a negative trend that started in October 2016, figures showed. Import volume slid 12% to 1.2 million carats, with the average price climbing 5% to $2,368 per carat.

May is usually one of the busiest months for US imports of polished diamonds as goods enter the country ahead of the JCK Las Vegas show at the beginning of June.

Polished exports declined 6% to $1.29 billion, while net polished imports dropped 9% to $1.56 billion.

Rough imports increased 5% to $139 million, and rough exports decreased 16% to $31 million. Net rough imports jumped 13% to $108 million. The net diamond account  calculated as total rough and polished imports minus total exports  contracted 8% to $1.67 billion.

In the first five months of the year, polished imports declined 8% year on year to $9.65 billion, with polished exports down 5% to $7.02 billion. Net polished imports slid 15% to $2.63 billion.

Rough imports for the five-month period dropped 13% to $369 million, while rough exports surged 52% to $278 million. Net rough imports declined 36% to $92 million. The US net diamond account for the period retreated 16% to $2.72 billion.




ALROSA reported that the Mir mine is now operating normally after a fall of ground incident on July 29. One worker was injured, his life is out of danger.

Earlier, a source in the emergency services of the Republic of Yakutia said that as a result of the rockslide one of the workers was blocked in the truck. The emergency response team removed the worker from the truck, after which he was taken to the city hospital in Mirny. He is in stable condition.

It is noted that the collapse of the rock occurred at a depth of 300 meters. At that moment there were 111 workers in the mine.

The mine is operating normally, there was no emergency evacuation and no other people injured.




Jewelers of America (JA) has elected John Henne, president of Pittsburgh-based Henne Jewelers, as chairman, Rapaport said with a reference to the trade organization.

Henne has managed his family business  which his great grandfather Rudolf Joseph Henne established in 1887  since 1998, overseeing diamond procurement, accounting, sales and marketing. JA board members elected him to the chairman position at a meeting last week, to succeed Ryan Berg, market president of Lee Michaels Fine Jewelry.

Under Johns leadership, I know that Jewelers of America is poised to grow, better serve our members in this ever-changing retail environment, and enhance our consumer outreach to benefit the jewelry industry as a whole, said David Bonaparte, JAs CEO.

JA also named a new board of elected directors.




US President Donald Trump's son-in-law said neither he nor any member of the Trump campaign team colluded with Russia or with any foreign government to take advantage for the Republican candidate in the 2016 presidential election.

Jared Kushner, who is President's son-in-law and a top adviser, is scheduled to answer questions of the Senate intelligence committee in a closed-door session later Monday as part of investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Kushner released to the media his opening statement hours before the testimony.

The Senate Judiciary Committee last week called seven witnesses, including Kushner, Donald Trump Jr., and Paul Manafort, to provide testimony at the hearing.

Trump Jr., who is the President's eldest son, and Manafort, the GOP presidential campaign chairman, are scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday.

In a shocking revelation earlier this month, Trump Jr. had admitted that he met last year with a Russian lawyer whom he says had promised to provide damaging material on Trump's presidential rival Hillary Clinton.

But Trump Jr. says Natalia Veselnitskaya had given no "meaningful" material on the Democrat presidential candidate at the meeting held in June 2016.

Kushner and Manafort were also present at the meeting at New York's Trump Tower.

In the statement Monday, Kushner said he arrived late at the meeting, realized little of note was being discussed and that it was "time not well-spent".

He said: "I actually emailed an assistant from the meeting after I had been there for 10 or so minutes and wrote 'Can u pls call me on my cell? Need excuse to get out of meeting'."



"I had no improper contacts. I have not relied on Russian funds to finance my activities in the private sector. I have tried to be fully transparent with regard to the filing of my SF-86 form, above and beyond what is required," Kushner added.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Political News
Delta Air Lines is allowing some passengers use fingerprints instead of their boarding passes.

The pilot program at the Reagan Washington National Airport or DCA will allow members of Delta's SkyMiles loyalty program and enrolled in Clear, a third-party biometric screening program, to use fingerprints as proof of identity to board their plane, the company said in a statement.

Delta's biometric boarding pass experience was launched in May at the DCA Delta Sky Club. In the final phase of the biometric boarding pass test, coming this summer, members can also use their fingerprints to check a bag.

Gil West, Delta's Senior Executive Vice President & COO, noted that customer and employee feedback has been extremely encouraging throughout Delta Sky Club test.

"Biometric verification has a higher level of accuracy than paper boarding passes and gives agents more time to assist customers with seat changes and other skilled tasks instead of having to scan individual tickets - and customers have less to keep track of as they travel through the airport," West added.

During the pilot, Delta customers with a SkyMiles number and who are also enrolled in CLEAR are eligible for the biometric boarding pass experience. CLEAR will capture and use both biometric and SkyMiles information to identify customers at bag drop, Delta Sky Club entry and boarding.

He said that once the testing is complete, customers throughout domestic network could start seeing this capability in a matter of months - not years.

In 2014, Alaska Airlines began using fingerprint scans to verify customers at six of its airport lounges, while JetBlue Airways last month announced that it would begin using facial recognition on certain flights.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
(Agencia CMA Latam) - Colcap, the main index of the Colombian Stock Exchange, rose 0.48% Friday, closing at 1,486.79 points due to the rebound in oil prices abroad, boosting shares in the last session before the rebalancing of portfolios scheduled for Monday. During the week, the Colombian market rose by 1.05%.

The shares of Conconcreto (+ 2.49%), Bancolombia (+ 2.26%), Celsia (+ 1.84%) and Canacol (+ 1.69%) posted gains, while Davivienda (-0.30%), Cemargos (-0.19%), and Cemex (-0.18%) fell.

Luisa Diaz, an analyst at Acciones & Valores, said stocks were favored by the oil rally abroad in a market that is expecting Colcap's rebalancing for the third quarter.

Ecopetrol's shares closed stable despite the announcement of a new finding by the oil company in the Gulf of Mexico.

Meanwhile, the locally traded US dollar closed at 3,000.50 Colombian pesos, a 0.40% fall, due to an increase in oil prices by more than 1%. Sergio Naranjo, an analyst at Alianza Valores, said that oil maintained the bullish trend seen during the week, following the announcement by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) that it will enforce among member countries a deal on output cuts.

by Agencia CMA Latam

For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com

Economic News

What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.
AirMedia Group Inc. (AMCN), an operator of out-of-home advertising platforms in China, said that it has entered into Amendment No. 4 to amend the agreement and plan of merger dated September 29, 2015, among the company, its parent AirMedia Holdings Ltd. and AirMedia Merger Company Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the parent.

The merger agreement amendment No. 4 contains some major amendments.

This includes the consideration at which the parent will acquire all of the outstanding shares of the company not already owned by Herman Guo Man, Dan Shao and Qing Xu - collectively, the buyer group - has been reduced from $3.00 per ordinary share of the company or S$6.00 per American depositary share, each representing two shares ADSs, to $2.05 per share or $4.10 per ADS.

In addition, the buyer group intends to fund the proposed transaction from the proceeds of a loan facility to be provided by China Merchants Bank Co., Ltd., New York Branch pursuant to a debt commitment letter dated July 31, 2017.

Further, the parent termination fee has been increased from $5.32 million to $10.64 million and the termination date of the merger deal has been extended from July 31, 2017 to December 31, 2017.

Concurrently with the signing of the Amendment No. 4, Guo and Shao have amended their Limited Guarantee dated September 29, 2015 in favor of the company to increase the guarantee amount from $6 million to $11.64 million.

AirMedia cautioned its shareholders and others considering trading in the company's securities that the availability of the buyer group's funding for the proposed transaction is subject to various conditions.

This includes the condition in connection with the debt commitment letter, which is in turn contingent upon the buyer group obtaining sufficient PRC equity financing commitments.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

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(Agencia CMA Latam) - Several countries in the Americas dismissed the vote held Sunday in Venezuela to elect a National Constituent Assembly, promoted by President Nicol?s Maduro to modify the country's constitution.

Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Mexico, and Colombia issued official statements saying that the results would not be recognized. The United States, Canada, and the European Union also criticized the Venezuelan government for holding the vote.

"That Constituent Assembly has a spurious origin, and therefore we will not be able to recognize its results," said the Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.

"The election does not respect the will of more than seven million Venezuelan citizens who voted against it. Argentina will not recognize the results of that illegal election," said the Argentinean Foreign Affairs Ministry.

The Peruvian government said that "this vote violates the Venezuelan Constitution and contravenes the sovereign will of the people, represented in the National Assembly," while condemning "violent repression."

Mexico's Foreign Affairs Ministry said that the country "does not recognize the voting results."

For the Brazilian Foreign Ministry, the election of the National Constituent Assembly "violates the principle of popular sovereignty and confirms the rupture of the constitutional order in Venezuela." Chile expressed "deep disappointment" at the Venezuelan government decision to hold the elections.

by Agencia CMA Latam

For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com

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What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.
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SACI Instagram: Statement on Diversity and Inclusion e South African Chemical Institute The South African Chemical Institute is committed to diversity and inclusivity in chemical sciences. The Institute opposes discriminatory acts or threats based on race, ethnicity, citizenship, culture, language, disability, age, religious or spiritual beliefs, political opinion, gender, sexual identity, sexual orientation and economic class. The Institute is dedicated (i) to endorsing excellence and scientific credibility across chemical sciences conducted in academic, industrial, and governmental institutions, and (ii) to nurturing the values of diversity, inclusivity, and equity in the chemical sciences in South Africa. Hence, SACI will continue to play a leading role in assuring the professional competence and integrity of chemists and fostering international collaboration whilst upholding inclusivity and diversity. Statement on Sexual Harassment e South African Chemical Institute The South African Chemical Institute will not permit any kind of sexual harassment (physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct) in the Institute or at events organised by or related to the Institute. The Institute is committed to and fully supports environments that are free of any form of unfair discrimination and harassment, including gender-based violence. Allegations of any form of sexual harassment will be dealt with seriously, expeditiously, sensitively and confidentially. Statement from SACI Council on tertiary training in chemistry as a result of disruptions to the 2020 academic year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the professional body representing the interests of all chemists in South Africa, we recognise the challenges that the current COVID-19 crisis presents to all our members in academia, research and industry. We also acknowledge the challenges the current situation presents to our tertiary institutions and specifically the challenges presented by moving to online teaching. We applaud the efforts of all our members who work at tertiary institutions who have adapted and innovated to ensure that we can continue as far as possible with our teaching and learning of chemistry even when on campus face-to-face contact is not possible. Our tertiary institutions play a critical role in not only training the next generation of chemists, but they are also tasked with the important responsibility of ensuring that many people from other professions and disciplines are trained in the fundamental principles of chemistry. We reaffirm our belief that this training is essential, as chemistry is one of the central sciences. Key to this training is the practical component and laboratory based skills development. While we accept that this critical component of our training is not possible under the current situation, we strongly urge that plans be put in place to preserve this component of training as part of the curriculum as far as possible. In some cases, virtual laboratory tools can facilitate learning, but we believe that in laboratory practical training particularly for senior level courses should be preserved. SACI strongly recommends that at least a critical minimum practical experience should form part of the plans to complete the 2020 academic year at our tertiary institutions. We believe that this is essential to preserve the validity and integrity of the academic training programmes in chemistry. Latest Updates: Pay your SACI membership fees with SnapScan SACI Ties, Scarfs and T-shirts Periodic table ties and ladies scarfs R130 each. Periodic table T Shirt Short sleeve R180, Long sleeve R200 Please contact head office to place orders. There is also a courier charge of R150 per order for delivery.


Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, officially opened the new Samoa High Commission complex in Canberra, Australia last week.

It was a momentous occasion for the diplomatic community and the Samoans from around Australia. The complex comprises of a new chancery and official residence.

The ceremony commenced with the national anthems played by the Royal Military Band followed by introductory remarks by Hinauri Petana, High Commissioner of Samoa to Australia. Reverend Sapati Solipo, Chairman of the Council of Samoan Congregations in Canberra, conducted the prayer service.

Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, Minister for International Development and Pacific, spoke on behalf of the Australian Government and congratulated Samoa on the completion of an impressive building adding to the colourful panorama of embassies in Yarralumla, the centre of the diplomatic community.

She spoke of the close partnership between Samoa and Australia, and the leadership Samoa has continued to demonstrate in its affairs and especially in the region. She reflected on the investment by Australia in the country, contributing to its economic development goals.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa reiterated the long-standing and enduring partnership with Australia, with this year being the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

He acknowledged the great contribution by Australia to Samoa's development goals. He also acknowledged the important role of the diplomatic community in our national, regional and international goals, and emphasised strong collaboration on the priority issues of relevance to all of climate change, its impact on the environment, and the imminent danger to our oceans and marine life.

He warmly welcomed the strong presence of the Samoan community, and urged them to continue to work together with our High Commission in support of the welfare of our people in Samoa and here in Australia. He also urged them to use wisely the opportunities available in Australia for economic and social empowerment.

The design of the building is an archetype of a traditional Samoan building (fale) in a modern setting, and incorporates elements of a typical Samoan fale, with sinnet-woven motifs decorating the top of the concrete pillars in the reception foyer.

The Prime Minister commended the iconic design by the firm of Cox Architecture, and paid tribute to the late Lemalu Tate Simi, former High Commissioner, who worked with the firm on the design before his untimely death in 2014.

The Prime Minister also commended the excellent workmanship carried out by the Contractor, Manteena Construction, on the buildings.

He went on to thank the present High Commissioner, Hinauri Petana, and staff, for ensuring the execution of the project was carried out within budget and on time as scheduled.

He noted that this was a rare achievement these days. The Prime Minister also acknowledged the contribution by the Accident Compensation Corporation, which enabled the construction of the new chancery.
One of fastest growing banks if the Pacific region is working hard on ways to beat the growing number of schemers and scammers.

As part of this effort, by March 2018, the Bank of South Pacific plans to introduce a more secure chip-embedded card for Visa and MasterCard products.

The card is part of the banks response following recent incidents where criminals were able to steal money from the banks Automated Teller Machines in Samoa.

B.S.P. Limited Group, Chief Executive Officer, Robin Fleming, told the Samoa Observer the bank is working hard to protect their customers from such incidents. He said criminals have been engaging in card frauds by targeting more vulnerable countries all over the Pacific.

They have been using skimming devices and also have been stealing money by using counterfeit cards brought in, in large numbers from overseas, he said.

Mr. Fleming, who has been C.E.O. since 2013, said they have their staff checking the A.T.M.s regularly for skimming devices.

And we also remind and encourage our customers to place their hands over the pin pad when they enter their pin at the A.T.Ms.

Furthermore, as well as the more secure chip-embedded cards for Visa and MasterCard products, security measures are being upgraded in the banks A.T.M.s and EFTPOS terminals.

These are very costly upgrades for B.S.P. to carry out but these measures need to be undertaken so our systems are secure for our customers.

Further, he said B.S.P. will continue to invest in its systems to make them as secure as possible to prevent customers from criminals accessing their card details illegally.

We also encourage our customers to maintain security over their cards and pins and not share these details with anyone.

Two weeks ago, District Court Judge, Fepuleai Roma Ameperosa sentenced two Chinese men to five years in jail for their involvement in the skimming of over $70,000, from B.S.P.s ATMs.

Zhong Shuiming and Yang Quigreen who are both from China, came to Samoa for the first time with a high degree of planning and premeditation, said the Judge.

These were no ordinary thefts and most likely involved others.

You might have been the ones making the withdrawals but there was obviously a great deal of planning before you arrived in Samoa, and started stealing from the A.T.Ms.

It would have involved a fraudulent process obtaining identities and back data of overseas customers, said Judge Fepuleai.

He further noted the scheme involved the manufacturing of counterfeiting cards using information that was retained.

It also involves you traveling all the way from China, with those counterfeit cards to an island where you have never been before and then you have withdrawn numerous and substantial sums from A.T.M.s of a bank within three days.

During the sentencing submissions for the case Criminal Lawyer for the Attorney Generals Office, Lupematasila Iliganoa Atoa, issued a strong warning to international criminals that Samoa would not tolerate criminals who come here taking advantage of the vulnerability of our small country.

The lawyer said the Samoan electronic finance systems have not been exposed to such fraudulent conduct before and this is the first case of its kind. The defendants have clearly taken advantage of and used their advanced knowledge and system of fraud to steal from the Samoan A.T.M outlets, said Lupematasila.
Dear Editor

Re: What dictatorship? Samoa is a democracy!

Well Wendy, Im no expert at all but Im surprised your hubby didnt tell you a very well known story about the Malietoa title. Have you heard about the Tongans in Samoa? (ruled Samoa for some 500 years)

All other chiefs were serving the Tongans.

It was only the bravery of the brothers Tuna and Fata that finally defeated and sent the Tongans back.

Before the Tongans retreated in their canoes the Tongan king Talaifeii congratulated the brothers Malietoa malo tau simply Well fought great warrior hence the Malietoa title to the brothers.

Malietoa deserved to be the king of Samoa, as for accepting Christianity thats for another day.

Fili Lemana
Dear Editor

Re: Much to like, much to learn

1) I enjoyed Marj Moores editorial, as to Fiji Airways track record and the new Samoa Airways.

Just to clarify a little, the name Fiji Airways was the original name of the company from 1954 until the mid 1970s. Indeed I first arrived in Samoa on a Fiji Airways Hawker Siddeley 748 in 1969 to build the first Faleolo Airport and road to Apia.

Once the airport was nearing completion Fiji began placing considerable pressure on the Samoan and Tongan governments to combine Polynesian and Tonga operators into one regional airline. Because of this they changed the name to Air Pacific to give a more regional character and indeed both countries took a small shareholding, but opted to continue separately with Polynesian. After all these years Air Pacific has now reverted back to its more national identity name of Fiji Airways.

2) I was startled to read the 28 July article Australian Survivor survives Samoas weather conditions. What a load of absolutely insulting rubbish (I hesitate to use a stronger word) which could be quite damaging to Samoas tourist industry! Apparently there was some minor earth tremor which I did not even notice and no threat of a Tsunami. What cyclone activity and the king tide must have been terrible forcing them to move slightly higher up the beach.

Seemingly through amazing fortitude they managed to survive this and bravely did not opt for emergency evacuation. During this time tourists were luxuriating on other beaches and perhaps having to retire to the nearby bar to shelter from the occasional shower. It was particularly tragic to hear the glamorous plumber bravely went on the show without a jumper! I havent had one of these since arriving in Samoa but have somehow managed to survive. I cannot but wonder how she gets on cleaning out a blocked sewer!

In 2006, I think, the first American Survivor series was filmed principally near Virgin Cove. They experienced extreme privation and suffering whilst suitably exposing their attractive bodies to the camera.

The local village people were watching the show at a discrete distance, whilst an army of support staff refreshed and catered for all their needs between shooting before rubbing some more mud onto them. Luckily it was made more survivable by the helicopter parked nearby picking them up at the day and flying them to Aggie Greys Beach Resort for a refreshing massage and a few drinks before retiring to their air-conditioned room!!

3) The article last week as to the auction sale of Neil Armstrongs moon rock sample bag used on Apollo 11 brings back a reminder that in 1972 the U.S Government presented His Highness Malietoa with a moon rock sample, most likely collected in this bag.

I know it was kept for many years at his home in Faatoia but I have not heard any mention of its present whereabouts. It would seem apt for it to be in the local museum if indeed it still exists.

Michael Anderson
The L.D.S. Charity of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints presented some computers to the Samoa Social welfare Fesoasoani Trust last week.

According to Elder Clifford Vellinga the cost of the computer project is approximately $25,000.

We hope that we have made it possible for them to be able to have a much more effective way of teaching the people that they work with who need the help so that they can become better people, he said.

We think its important that people have the ability to return to the community and do the things that lift up their community and also themselves. We want them to be confident in their abilities and if we can assist in any way for them to be able to do that, we are just more than happy.

The purpose of the L.D.S. Charity is to bless the lives of the people and we want to bless everybody as much as we can.

We are interested in doing all the things that we can so that the people of Samoa will be able to have less stress but more happiness and thats what we aremostly interested in.

Elder Vellinga also spoke about the criteria that are required if people want them to help.

The criteria is that we look at the requests that we get. They have to be something that affects more than just a few people and it has to be something that is not directly related to our church, he told the media.

L.D.S. Charity does not do projects for our members, but we do projects for people who are in the community and some of the things we do is provide water tanks, help build bathrooms and schools and many times we provide desks, chairs and books for schools.

All the people who have requests have to do, is to have a good thing to come and tell us about. If we can help well say yes but if we cant, then sometimes we have to say no because some things arent really appropriate. But we try to help in any way we can.

Chief Executive Officer Leaula Theresa Asiata acknowledged with gratitude the support from the Church and its Elders.

Its generosity like this that helps organizations like ours continue to do the work we do, she said.

Without your support, these projects would not be possible today.

These computers will help with the programmes that we will be conducting for the young offenders.

It will also assist with our line of work and that is to nurture the lives of the offenders to keep them from breaking the law and to decrease the number of people entering Tafaigata Prison.
Every week, we see our justice system dealing with cases of theft, murder, rape, and incest. If research is to be believed, and many cases go unreported, these cases are just the tip of the iceberg. So in this Christian country of ours, where many of our values come from the Bible, why are there escalating numbers filling up our courtrooms? Is this simply a reflection of our society nowadays? Ilia L. Likou spoke to people in the street.

Sela Salevao, 40, Fasitoo uta

The main reason why cases like these have come to notice is because mothers are not carrying out their motherly duties and responsibilities. The mother is the one whose voice seems to hold the family together, who directs the children to do the right thing so without the mother, acting her role, everything falls apart. To me, the solution is very simple, have faith and go to church, spend quality time with your families and children.

Leilani Tulima, 34, Fasitoo uta

The answer is simple. The Bible says that we are getting near to the end of this lifetime. The other answer is that the world has changed and with technology as one of those changes, kids can easily gain access to the internet and we all know whats there. Personally, these are all the punishments for our sins as we get closer to the end of the world and the only thing to do now is pray and stay close to God.

Ki Ah-Kee, 48, Lotosoa Saleimoa

I think this sort of thing happens depending on how weak your faith has become and not only that, but also when youre someone with a wicked mind then all you ever think about is doing foolish things. The other reason is because these people never go to church. For me, looking after my daughters is not something that I belittle because I know how the world works. I always talk to my wife about how they should be raised. I think thats why problems such as these especially with incest happen, is because the mother is not keeping an eye on her children and also not doing her motherly duty. The only solution to people who are behaving this way; is from the government and that is; these people should be locked up. But within families, parents should always look out for their children in order to avoid these problems.

Ene Taleo, 23, Fasitoo

I think people who are acting this way are the ones who have suffered and struggled in their minds with their own problems; always needing help but they cant get it so they end up doing bad things. They started having a different perspective on life and all that, so all they want to do is bad things. My solution is, there should be a programme to help these people have direction in their lives and also to live their lives in the right way.

Leiua Lausii, 26, Faleula

Issues like these are happening because there is no more real love in our families. We have families, we have homes but we dont even feel safe anymore. Another thing is, our priorities have changed; people are putting other things first before their own families and this is the only solution as to why people are doing bad things like this. My advice to parents is dont just stay home when you know something doesnt feel right, seek help or counseling from other people.
The millennial workforce has become the center of attention in the media and the workplace for what seems like the last 20 years. But a big change is right around the corner. We have a new generation about to enter the workforce that will shake things up even before the dust settles with the millennials. They will be known as Generation Z.

Members of this new Z generation, born from 1995 to 2012, are fiercely independent, extremely competitive, and motivated by a fear of missing out on things. They are by far the most diverse generation ever, and researchers are very eager to understand them.

This Z generation communicates almost entirely through screens and not always with actual words (GIFs, videos and emoji also do the trick). Gen-Zers are less idealistic, and financial stability is very important to them.

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Wow, why the huge waves of change from millennials who are all about flexibility, their own self-worth, and the need to be coddled and hugely appreciated or they bail with no notice, and no new job to go to? Lots of great talents, but very difficult to manage.

Think about it. Generation Z grew up experiencing the 9/11 attracts, the Arab uprising, Iraq war, daily terrorist attacks, and most importantly the Great Recession. They saw Mom or Dad, or in many cases both, suddenly lose jobs to no fault of their own. They were threatened with losing their home, or actually losing it. And if not losing it, the house might be underwater. Many of their parents or friends parents life savings were wiped out. All very sobering, and not easily forgotten. In fact, living through these events and concern about the future enter your DNA for life.

To compare, the millennials generation grew up during the good times. The economy was humming along, and had been for years. There were plenty of jobs so if you didnt like this one, quit and find another one very quickly. Or you were recruited away by a search firm like Manpower and offered a lot more money. Technology was a brand new toy and millennials went to it like moth to light and absorbed all its best and worst qualities. As young people, it came to them easily and was a skill they soon developed that was very much in demand. They mastered it while their parents were struggling to learn email and cell phones. And most important may be the free spending and keeping up with the Joneses. Buying houses with nothing down and easy money from second and third mortgages allowed their parents to buy hot tubs, fancy cars and European vacations. And worry about it manana.

So what does this mean for the way we operate our businesses and as we welcome the new group as co-workers? As the first members of Generation Z are just now graduating from college, they too are searching for the job of their dreams.

In the workforce, probably in the same department at your company, there will be grandparents, baby boomers, millennials and now Generation Z.

In the next column, Ill talk about how this will or without planning wont work out. Stay tuned.

Contact: pblair@manpowersd.com

Twitter: @PhilManpowerSD
The San Diego County Water Authority wants to find somebody to develop an energy storage facility at the San Vicente Reservoir, nestled among the Cuyamaca Mountains near Lakeside.

And officials are not only confident they can find a number of potential candidates willing to fully develop the project, they expect to entertain proposals in the range of $1.5 billion to $2 billion.

Thats depending on the size of this facility and the configuration, said Kelly Rodgers, the energy program manager for the Water Authority, which is working in partnership with the City of San Diego on the project. This would be a great opportunity.

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The authority has sent out a formal request for proposals  called an RFP  to entities interested in putting together what officials call a full-service team that would not only design and construct a hydro energy storage facility at San Vicente but also fund, operate and maintain the project.

Water officials also expect the storage facility to better integrate renewable energy sources into the electric grid and help stabilize water prices for San Diego ratepayers.

Folks might ask, hey, why is our water agency involved in energy? Rodgers said. As trite as it may seem, there truly is a water-energy nexus.

While solar arrays and wind farms are renewable projects most people are familiar with, pumped hydro facilities have actually been part of the nations energy grid for more than 100 years.

The concept is pretty basic: Using turbines, water is pumped from one reservoir up to another and then released, with the ensuing rush of water generating electricity.

In fact, the authority already has a pumped storage facility up and running.

Opened in 2012, a facility at Lake Hodges has a two-turbine pump house that sends water uphill from the city-owned Hodges Reservoir to the authoritys Olivenhain Reservoir, generating some 40 megawatts of energy on demand.

But authority officials expect the San Vicente project to be more than 10 times larger than the Lake Hodges facility  up to 500 megawatts.

At full capacity, the project would generate up to eight hours of stored energy, enough to supply about 325,000 homes annually, and could be completed as early as 2025.

The money from the entity that eventually is selected to build the project is expected to put some downward pressure on ratepayers water bills.

Our main mission is to provide core services, Rodgers said. And this is an excellent opportunity for us to be able to potentially gain additional revenue that would help to offset our operational costs and sustain our water rates.

The projects other selling point relates to state and local policies mandating reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and boosting clean-energy sources.

California already has a Renewables Portfolio Standard that calls for 50 percent clean energy by 2030 and there is legislation in Sacramento calling for boosting that all the way to 100 percent by 2045.

In addition, the City of San Diegos Climate Action Plan calls for 100 percent of the citys energy coming from renewable sources and cutting the citys greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2035.

But requiring higher integration of renewables poses problems for the power grid. Wind and solar power, for example, have problems with intermittency. That is, solar production slows when the sun doesnt shine and wind lags when the breeze doesnt blow.

To make up for that, grid managers such as the California Independent System Operator have to rely on other energy sources while ramping up and down over the course of the day and night to meet sharp changes in electricity net demand.

Natural gas frequently fills in the gaps but energy storage systems can also be used.

Lithium-ion battery storage has received a lot of media attention of late but pumped hydro fits the bill as well.

San Vicente sits in a location that is really just optimal, said Rodgers. There is so much existing infrastructure in place for a pumped hydro project.

The water, of course, is already there. The San Vicente Reservoir holds up to 247,000 acre-feet of water. One acre-foot provides enough water supply for two families of four annually.

And the site sits near interconnection points to the grid. Power generated at the San Vicente facility could be delivered via electrical lines parallel and interconnected to San Diego Gas & Electrics Sunrise Power Link.

The team eventually selected for the project would have to design and build a number of pieces of infrastructure.

An upper reservoir would have to be created. Authority officials estimate the upper reservoir would hold fewer than 7,000 acre-feet of water and consider a spot about a half-mile north of San Vicente as a potential site.

A tunnel system and an underground pump house would connect the two reservoirs. The pump house would likely contain four 125-megawatt, reversible pump-turbines capable of lifting water to the upper reservoir and generating power as it flows down.

When supplies of wind and solar energy exceed demand, water could be pumped to the upper reservoir and stored for later use. During periods of peak energy demand, water would flow down to generate carbon-free power.

Pumped storage is like a big battery, Rodgers said. Imagine that the battery is sitting between where energy comes into the region and where energy is needed in the region.

The stored up energy is then used to respond quickly to peak demand on the grid.

It takes energy to send water uphill. According to the California Energy Commission, about 4- kilowatt-hours of energy is consumed during pumping for every 3-kilowatt hours that is generated. As a result, electric utilities with pumped storage plants tend to call them into service when on-peak electricity prices are 30 percent higher than during off-peak hours.

Rodgers said the proposed project at San Vicentes real value comes from its ability to store power.

Pumped storage is really a project that uses more energy than it produces so the benefit of pumped storage is being a big battery, not as an energy generation plant, Rodgers said. Its purely for the storage, and being able to respond quickly to peak demand on the grid.

The authority says the project would be a closed-loop system, would not consume water or interfere with the existing water supply, water quality, fisheries or recreational activities at San Vicente.

Officials are confident the project will attract interest. In March, the authority said 18 entities responded to preliminary solicitations to build the pumped storage facility.

Rodgers would not identify the parties but said the project attracted significant interest internationally, nationally and locally.

The RFP deadline is Sept. 12 and Rodgers said the city and the authority will narrow down the proposals, compile a short list of candidates, discuss terms and conditions and hope to have an agreement in place by next March.

Gary Ackerman, executive director of the Western Power Trading Forum, an organization based in Sacramento whose 90 members in the West buy and sell power, does not know the details of the San Vicente project but said he likes the idea behind it.

It makes a lot of sense, Ackerman said. If the state is serious about implementing a lot of renewables into the energy portfolio, and managing that effectively so you reduce greenhouse gas emissions, pumped storage is the way to go.

Some environmentalists have expressed concerns over large pumped hydro projects, citing potential impacts on habitat and groundwater.

Were focused on 100 percent renewable energy and storage is a real important part of that, said Sarah Friedman, senior campaign representative for the Sierra Club.

At the same time, Friedman said the Sierra Club needs to look at more details before passing judgment on the proposed San Vicente project.

I think its location on the grid is really interesting, Friedman said. But its in the very early stage of the environmental permitting so we definitely dont have a position on it at this time. We need more information.

Through a partnership between the authority and the city, the dam at San Vicente was recently raised 117 feet, adding 152,000 acre-feet to the reservoirs capacity as part of an emergency storage project to make sure water is available to the San Diego region even if access to imported water supplies is interrupted.

The effort took eight years to complete before San Vicente was reopened to boating and fishing in 2016.

The City of San Diego retains ownership of the original storage capacity of the reservoir while the Water Authority owns San Vicentes new, additional storage capacity for regional use.

The two agencies share the cost of operating and maintaining the dam and reservoir.

According to the California Energy Commission, there are four true pumped storage power plants in the state, including Lake Hodges, that possess reversible turbines.

The CEC says there are five other pumping-generating plants in California but they are not used to meet utility peak loads of an electric grid.

At an estimated 500 megawatts, a San Vicente project would trail only the pumped storage facilities at Castaic Lake in Los Angeles (1,682 megawatts) and the Helms project in Fresno County (1,212 megawatts) in size.

However, a proposed pumped storage plant near the Joshua Tree National Park called Eagle Mountain is listed with capacity for 1,300 megawatts. Developers of the project, which would use two excavated pits from a retired mining operation as reservoirs, want the project to come online by 2023.

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rob.nikolewski@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1251 Twitter: @robnikolewski

ALSO

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Utilities meet tight energy storage deadlines

Hydro, wind and solar make inroads into Californias electric grid
Paige Hellinger knows how to dress for success.

Oh, not in the business-suit or glam way you might think. The style-savvy student at Pacific Ridge School turned her love of fashion and dislike of final exams into a daredevil bet with her history teacher  and won.

Paige, a Solana Beach resident, is an honor student at the Carlsbad school and was scheduled to take just two final exams for her junior year. I thought, Maybe I can talk my teacher into just one final exam, she recalled. But American History instructor Phil Consuegra told her, I cant just not give a final.

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So Paige tried bargaining: Can I get out of my final if I come to every class dressed up like a historical figure?

Consuegra, a 10-year teaching veteran who was in his first year at Pacific Ridge, agreed to the deal.

Characters could be from any period of time, but if they didnt fit with the unit being studied, Paige had to supply biographical information on them. As for the costumes, they had to show some effort. If the quality began to slip, it would be disqualified, Consuegra said.

And if Paige missed even one day, the bet was off.

I didnt think it would happen, said Consuegra, who said hed never made such a wager with a student before. I thought it would be fun for two weeks, and then it would fade away.

But Paige was determined to make it work. She was experienced at costume design, because she had done them for her school musical every year since she was a freshman. And her personal style tends toward offbeat, original outfits, so she felt ready for the challenge.

And she had an ace up her sleeve: Bonnie Johnston, her former drama teacher at Diegueno Country School in Rancho Santa Fe, and now her good friend. Johnston had a warehouse of costumes that Paige could draw from.

Sometimes I would take a whole costume, and other times I would just have pieces, Paige said. Some of the flapper outfits were dresses I already had.

The class schedule called for Paige to appear in costume two or three times a week; no repeats were allowed. Characters ranged from Zelda Fitzgerald, Betsy Ross and Laura Ingalls Wilder to Marie Antoinette and Jackie Onassis. An equal-opportunity impersonator, she also portrayed Robert E. Lee, Al Capone, a gladiator, Patrick Henry and Texas hero Deaf Smith.

She even went mythological on them, with costumes depicting a Cyclops, the snake-haired Medusa, and the Greek goddess Athena.

Even when I was sick, Id text in a picture, Paige said. I dressed as Charles Darwin once, with a bushy white beard, sitting in bed. Though most people associate Darwin with the Galapagos Islands, once he returned to England he was frequently bedridden with illness, so the costume was appropriate.

Paige admitted to some dry spells. For women, there were not a lot of careers until about 100 years ago, she said. Id have to go as wives of famous people sometimes. But I seemed to always be able to pull something together. And I always had a backup costume  an Audrey Hepburn costume I used for Halloween.

Consuegra was amazed and delighted by Paiges efforts. The quality of her costumes was exceptional, he said. They were well-thought-out and detailed. It was great to watch the kids respond to it.

Paige really upped the ante, he added, with her Marie Antoinette costume. She came in with a wig, an ornate dress  and a slice of cake, referencing the remark attributed to the ill-fated monarch about her peasant countrymen, Let them eat cake.

But his favorite character  and hers  was the final one.

I had built it up, Paige said. My teacher is from Atlanta, and Gone With the Wind is my favorite book. It was a Scarlett OHara costume that my mom and I sewed. She had to come to class early to get the hoop skirt through the door.

Paige estimated she created about 75 costumes in total.

And all the effort paid off. Paige got out of taking the history final, and her final grade was definitely an A, said Consuegra. Shes an exceptional student, an exceptional kid. I was rooting for her.

Though the rest of her class didnt get to skip the final, Paiges project was beneficial for them, too, he said. You could tell they were reacting in a positive way  if to nothing else, to her follow-through and thoughtfulness. The students saw one of their peers take a project on and tackle it all year  and the quality never slipped.

Paige, who would like to pursue a fashion-related career, learned more than history from her project. I have a greater appreciation for clothing today. Wearing a corset and a hoop skirt and staying in it for an hour and a half is exhausting. But dressing up is fun.

As for Consuegra, hes learned never to underestimate a Pacific Ridge student. Would he make the same bargain in another class?

I would caution future students that the bar has been set very, very high, he said. Good luck to her history teacher next year.

laura.groch@sduniontribune.com
People anywhere in the world soon may be able to click their mouse to experience a walk on the Oceanside pier, a stroll along the citys beach or a glimpse inside several other popular local attractions.

For the past few weeks, a backpack-mounted Google Trekker camera has been touring the city to gather photos that will allow virtual visitors to explore locations not accessible via the companys Street View vehicles.

The Oceanside-Google partnership has advantages to both sides, said Leslee Gaul, CEO and present of Visit Oceanside, the citys tourism marketing organization.

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Because Google is such a major search engine, we want to make sure we have a presence, Gaul said. We want to make sure our destination is represented. Its free for us, but its also free work for them.

Google shipped the 40-pound, backpack-able camera to Oceanside for one month to take to locations around the city including the pier, the harbor, the beach, trails, Civic Center Plaza and more.

Two weeks ago, a backpacker carried the camera the 3.6-mile length of Oceansides beach. On Monday, the device went aboard a police boat for a ride around the inside of the harbor, and then back on foot to walk the path around the edge of the harbor and through the small village of harbor-themed shops and restaurants at the waters edge.

Other stops planned included Artists Alley, just south of the Civic Center, and the Pier View Way railroad underpass.

Google officials declined a request for an interview this week, but have previously said the Trekker is one of several ways the company adds important information to its maps.

Our goal is to create the most comprehensive and accurate and useful map as possible, Deanna Yick, a program manager for Google Maps, told the Los Angeles Times in 2014 When the road ends, it doesnt mean there isnt more to explore.

A committee of representatives from Visit Oceanside, MainStreet Oceanside, the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce and other local nonprofit promotional groups created the list of local sites to be photographed, and Google signed off on the list before sending the camera.

The recorded images will be shipped back to Google for editing and inclusion in Google maps.

San Diego is one of 12 California counties where Google is collecting Trekker video for their Street View program this year, according to the companys website.

The Trekker program is open to photographers, travelers and organizations such as nonprofits, universities, tourism agencies and research groups, the website states. The goal is to promote areas of cultural, historical or touristic significance.

Googles car-top, 360-degree-view cameras have been recording street scenes since 2007.

The company began using the Trekker in 2011, a 4-foot-tall, backpack-like, battery-powered computer topped by a ball containing 15 separate cameras. The Trekker, which snaps an image every 2.5 seconds, is used mostly for trails. Google also has mobile Street View-type cameras mounted on trolleys, tricycles and even snowmobiles for other locations, from indoor attractions such as museums to outdoor settings such as ski resorts and university campuses.

California state parks have partnered with Google since 2014 to provide 360-degree views of hiking trials at 110 parks, from Humbolt Lagoons in Northern California to Torrey Pines State Beach near San Diego.

philip.diehl@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @phildiehl
Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. Its Monday, July 31, and heres whats happening across California:

TOP STORIES

Complaints of drinking, abusive behavior dogged USC medical school dean

Doctors and other employees at USCs Keck School of Medicine complained repeatedly about what they considered then-dean Dr. Carmen Puliafitos hair-trigger temper, public humiliation of colleagues and drinking problem. When Puliafito came up for reappointment in 2012, many were adamant he be removed, according to current and former university employees as well as four letters of complaint reviewed by The Times. USC chose to keep him as dean. Los Angeles Times

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Netflix has big debts along with big subscriber numbers

Netflix has 104 million subscribers worldwide, up 25% from last year and almost quadruple from five years ago. Its series and movies account for more than a third of all prime-time download Internet traffic in North America. Its more than 50 original shows garnered 91 Emmy Award nominations this year, second only to premium cable service HBO. But theres another set of numbers that could spell trouble for the companys breakneck growth. Netflix has accumulated a hefty $20.54 billion in long- and short-term debt in its effort to produce more original content. Los Angeles Times

The mystery woman in Pacific Palisades

Times columnist Steve Lopez tells the remarkable story of the Pacific Palisades communitys quest to learn the identity of a homeless woman in the upscale area. The tale spans from the Pacific Ocean to Northern Europe. Los Angeles Times

L.A. City Hall promised reforms; then the movement stalled

As an election loomed this year, Los Angeles politicians were eager to prove that moneyed interests had not bought City Hall. Five City Council members called for a ban on campaign contributions from real estate developers seeking city approvals, saying it would address the perception that L.A. engages in pay-to-play politics. But that crusade appears to have stalled. Los Angeles Times

L.A. STORIES

On again: A state appeals court judge ruled Saturday that Southern California Gas Co. can resume operations at its Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility, the source of the biggest methane leak in the countrys history. Los Angeles Times

Taking sides: Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar is speaking out against vandalism and race-based tactics being used against art galleries and a coffee shop in Boyle Heights amid gentrification concerns, saying the actions were unacceptable and would not be tolerated. Los Angeles Times

Mall survival: So what should the luxury South Coast Plaza mall do with the Sears store? Some ideas might surprise you. A car dealership, anyone? Orange County Register

Traffic alert: If youre making an evening run to Los Angeles International Airport in the next three weeks, its best to avoid parts of the 405 Freeway. Lanes on the busy freeway that many drivers use to get to and from the airport will be fully or partially closed at night for 15 weekdays. Los Angeles Times

Adding up: Sticker shock for Jewish parents in Los Angeles. Los Angeles Times

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

A low-key style: California Treasurer John Chiang has won three statewide elections, yet remains nowhere near as well-known as his gubernatorial rivals Gavin Newsom and Antonio Villaraigosa. Los Angeles Times

Something missing: After Novembers supersized ballot, which sparked the most expensive ballot measure election in California history, the political arena where initiatives are crafted has been in a summer of stagnation. Thats surprising, given the short time frame left for organizing an effort to get on the ballot in 2018. Los Angeles Times

A lesson from above? Amid a desperate housing crisis from San Diego to San Francisco, what can California learn about development from Vancouver? Quartz

Plus: The national implications of Venice Beachs weird scene being evicted amid rising property values. The Atlantic

And: So how long can Marin County wall itself off from the realities of housing and population growth? CalMatters

Crazy in love: If you can stomach it, check out what could be Beyonce and Jay-Zs new $90-million spread in Bel-Air. Los Angeles Times

CRIME AND COURTS

Van crash: At least eight people were injured Sunday afternoon when a two-car collision sent a van hurtling into a group of people dining at a popular local restaurant in the Mid-Wilshire neighborhood of Los Angeles, police said. Los Angeles Times

Sentence stirs anger: One of the Los Angeles Police Departments top investigators sharply criticized a plea deal given to an off-duty city firefighter who choked a man unconscious, and he asked a judge to view video of the violence before sparing the defendant jail time, according to court records. Los Angeles Times

LAPD responds to Trump: President Trumps comments encouraging law enforcement officers to be rough with people they arrest have met with concern and some outrage from Los Angeles law enforcement, which has been working for decades to end that type of behavior. Los Angeles Times

Long reach: A look at how the Mexican Mafia controls its turf from inside prison. San Diego Union-Tribune

ICE intrigue: In Hayward, immigration agents came looking for one man but ended up arresting two others. Mercury News

THE ENVIRONMENT

Lights out: In Joshua Tree, an effort to make the Milky Way much clearer by clamping down on light pollution. Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

No joy in Spudville tonight: Californians are flocking to Idaho, where some locals arent exactly rolling out the welcome wagon. Sacramento Bee

In control: One of Americas hottest  and more secretive  painters does his work from a sprawling Echo Park studio. Hes probably an artist whos in more demand today than any other, said collector Alberto Mugrabi. Hes so good that he controls everything. He controls when galleries make shows, he controls who they sell a painting to  hes on top. New York Times

Speaking out: For decades, Louise Steinman has taken the short trip from her Silver Lake home to the central Los Angeles Public Library, where she runs the acclaimed Aloud program. The city has changed much, but the library, designed with a whisper from ancient Egypt, remains an elegant landmark bordered by skid row and high-rise architecture preening against the skyline. Steinman thinks a lot about how such contrasts echo through the citys cultural and intellectual life. Los Angeles Times

China pivot: After a much-hyped march into the movie business, Dalian Wanda Group is in retreat from Hollywood. Los Angeles Times

Grim tale: Panhandling on San Franciscos Market Street, with a newborn child. San Francisco Chronicle

In Riverside: Another California imam has drawn criticism after delivering a sermon laced with inflammatory remarks about Jews. Los Angeles Times

Small but big: For Teslas new affordable car, less could be more. Wall Street Journal

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Los Angeles area: sunny and 84. San Diego: mostly sunny and 77. San Francisco area: mostly sunny and 68. Sacramento: sunny and 101. More weather is here.

AND FINALLY

This weeks birthdays for those who made a mark in California: former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (July 30, 1947), Treasurer John Chiang (July 31, 1962), Angels owner Arte Moreno (Aug. 1, 1946), state Sen. Toni Atkins (Aug. 1, 1962), former L.A. Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti (Aug. 5, 1941).

If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. Send us an email to let us know what you love or fondly remember about our state. (Please keep your story to 100 words.)

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to Benjamin Oreskes and Shelby Grad. Also follow them on Twitter @boreskes and @shelbygrad.
A water main break knocked out service on a trolley line Sunday and flooded streets in Little Italy for about two hours before the water was shut off.

The 16-inch concrete main, located at the intersection of Kettner Boulevard and Juniper Street, broke around 6 a.m., sending a river of water into streets.

A San Diego Police Department official said officers blocked the surrounding streets until city workers could turn off the water and repair the break. No sink holes were found and the streets were reopened to traffic just before 9:30 a.m.

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According to Arian Collins, a spokesman for the citys water department, a broken collar that connects two sections of the 16-inch main caused the flooding.

City workers shut off water to four blocks of Kettner while repairs were made. Collins said water service was restored shortly before 5 p.m.

He said he did not know how many homes or businesses were flooded.

Shortly before 8:30 a.m., the Metropolitan Transit System said via Twitter that it was using buses to shuttle its Green Line trolley passengers between Santa Fe Depot and its Washington Street station.

MTS spokesman Rob Schupp said service is expected to resume as normal Monday morning.

Data Watch Videos On Now Data Point: Media Mergers 2:58 On Now Jaywalking infractions in San Diego 1:24 On Now Video: Finding the recipe for the perfect burrito 2:09 On Now Video: Where marijuana is legal in the United States 0:53 On Now Report: Correctional system fails women 1:22 On Now San Diego students have larger classes On Now Hierarchy of cuisine prices On Now Pay phones: Is that still a thing? On Now 2016 border apprehensions On Now STD trends, San Diego County

Contact Lauryn Schroeder via Twitter or Email.
Its been thought for decades that stormwater runoff is the major source of bacterial pollution in the countys rivers, bays and beaches  triggering swimming advisories up and down the regions shoreline for 72 hours after it rains.

However, the greatest source of dangerous pathogens flowing from these urban waterways into the ocean may actually be coming from human waste. Thats according to a newly released study commissioned by the areas top water-quality regulators in collaboration with the city and county of San Diego.

The reports authors said cleaning up sources of human feces  such as leaky sewer pipes and homeless encampments near rivers and streams  is the cheapest way to improve public health at beaches and bays following periods of precipitation.

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Human waste carries significantly more pathogens that can cause gastrointestinal illness and other infections than waste from other warm-blooded animals, including raccoons, coyotes, horses and dogs, according to scientists.

I was personally surprised at the extent of human waste that weve observed in our monitoring, said Todd Snyder, manager of the watershed protection program for the county of San Diego. The preliminary results that were seeing is that this human waste is everywhere  upstream in the watershed, downstream in the watershed, tributaries, the main stem of the San Diego River.

The San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board has required cities under its jurisdiction to limit bacterial pollution at specific locations during dry-weather conditions by 2021 and during rain events by 2031. The program stretches through more than a dozen watersheds, from Chollas and Scripps to San Marcos and Laguna Beach.

The new report looked at the most cost-effective ways to meet state standards for cleaning up fecal bacteria at 20 of the most impacted beaches, rivers and creek segments in San Diego and southern Orange counties.

Following release of the cost analysis, environmental groups expressed concern that local governments would try to use the findings to delay compliance with broader water-quality regulations. But they agreed that leaking sewer pipes and other sources of human waste could be the primary culprit polluting beaches with harmful bacteria.

While we question the motives behind the study and some of its methodology, to the extent this study allows our governments to reverse years of poor planning and fix aging wastewater infrastructure, we hope it can be useful, said Matt OMalley, executive director of San Diego Coastkeeper.

According to the report, for every $1 million spent by public agencies to reduce human waste in rivers and beaches, about 152 fewer people a decade on average would get sick from associated pathogens.

A different analysis  the Surfer Health Study commissioned last year by the city and county of San Diego  found that adults who went surfing 72 hours after it rained were more likely than dry-weather beachgoers to suffer gastrointestinal illnesses.

For every 1,000 surfers who went into the ocean within three days of a rain event, 30 fell ill on average, according to the Surfer Health analysis. Thats compared with 25 out of 1,000 surfers who got sick after getting in the water during dry-weather conditions.

The Surfer Health examination, which was conducted by UC Berkeley and the Surfrider Foundation, also found that while higher rates of illness were correlated with wet-weather conditions, the increase didnt exceed water-quality guidelines established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

At this point, San Diego County officials are trying to pinpoint where the human sewage in watersheds is coming from. The potential sources are wide-ranging: broken septic tanks, illegal dumping by RVs, transients camped in creek beds and cracking wastewater pipes.

Were doing more water-quality monitoring to see where are the highest concentrations, so we can go after those and dig in further, said Snyder, the watershed protection manager. For sewer pipes, we just need to keep working our way upstream to figure out where those hotspots are.

Community advocates for river and creek rehabilitation projects said homeless encampments are a significant source of pollution in urban waterways.

One of the large problems is transient populations in the creek, all up and down the watershed, said Leslie Reynolds, executive director of Groundwork San Diego.

On Friday, she was standing next to a section of Chollas Creek at Market Street and Euclid Avenue that her nonprofit group has helped restore dramatically, including a walking path, interpretive signage and native vegetation.

The revamped creek also had at least half a dozen homeless people congregating in and around it Friday, including 64-year-old Marcel Smith. He said people sleep in a culvert in the dry creek bed and that some relieve themselves in the area.

We have Starbucks across the street, so a lot of times if a person needs to go to the bathroom, thats where we go, Smith said. You find a lot that go over to the Starbucks and then you find the ones that dont. It varies.

The newly released cost-analysis report for reducing fecal bacteria comes as part of a debate about how  and to what extent  to improve water quality throughout the region. Should cities and counties follow traditional metrics that look at particular types of contamination, such as harmful bacteria? Or should they embrace broader approaches that seek to restore entire rivers and streams? Or should they concentrate on improving only aspects of watershed health that directly affect people?

Water-quality regulators have long pressured cities in San Diego County to clean up pollution through improvements to their stormwater systems. River contamination is worsened by rains, which flush everything from cigarette butts and industrial chemicals to lawn fertilizers and pet feces into waterways.

Municipalities have submitted extensive plans for meeting these goals, and in the past decade have started limiting hardscape surfaces in targeted areas  because they speed up runoff flows  and tightening rules on new housing and commercial development to require filtration systems that enable more urban runoff to soak into the ground.

All the while, cities have routinely pushed back on the huge price tags associated with larger river restoration projects and major overhauls of public stormwater systems. The collective cost runs into the billions of dollars over time.

After accounting for financial benefits associated with recreation, public health and other factors, the expense associated with cleaning up bacterial pollution in the regions rivers, creeks and beaches during and after storms would amount to about $34.6 million a year for the next 65 years, according to the new report.

In light of the latest findings, city and county officials have a chance to petition the regional water quality board to revise its overall approach and extend timelines for compliance.

While focusing efforts on human waste wouldnt necessarily satisfy the boards current standards for limiting overall bacterial pollution, it would be cheaper  requiring about $20.7 million annually for the next 65 years.

The new report also said if the deadline for wet-weather compliance were postponed until 2051, municipalities could reach compliance by spending only $7.8 million on average for the next 65 years.

Environmental advocates have strongly rejected a longer timeline for compliance, arguing that the water quality board has already extended its deadline for wet-weather standards from 10 years to two decades.

They have pushed for even more expensive changes, calling for large-scale rehabilitation of urban rivers and streams. They believe such investments would create lush, clean and inviting spaces that would also boost home values.

The new report found that incorporating more restoration strategies along with upgrading stormwater systems would have by far the greatest benefits  including millions of dollars of savings in public-health costs and higher revenues associated with recreation.

But wide-scale rehabilitation of rivers and comprehensive restoration of wetlands would also end up costing the most money in the long run. To meet the regional water quality boards standards for limiting bacteria, it would cost on balance about $60.4 million a year for the next 65 years.

Elected officials in San Diego and Orange counties will have a chance to submit their latest proposals to the water quality board later this year. The board will then likely make a determination of how to proceed in early 2018.

Twitter: @jemersmith

Phone: (619) 293-2234

Email: joshua.smith@sduniontribune.com
For the second straight week, whales have been spotted entangled in commercial fishing gear off the coast of California  from Del Norte County all the way down to the San Diego region, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday.

Rescue teams on Sunday cut loose a juvenile humpback whale caught in fishing lines off the coast of the San Onofre power plant. The lines are believed to be from Dungeness crab commercial gear from Washington state.

The 25-foot whale was first spotted on Saturday morning along the coast of Rancho Palos Verdes.

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NOAA officials caught up with the whale about four miles off the coast in northern San Diego County, where they attached flotation devices to the animal to keep it from swimming away or diving.

The team then approached the whale in an inflatable boat and used flying knives attached to long poles to slice through most of the fishing gear.

In this case, we had to slow the whale down and attach our large floats to help keep the whale at the surface and access it, said Justin Viezbicke, who led the rescue and works as marine mammal stranding coordinator for NOAA.

The humpback whale was last seen continuing to head south with a fishing line still attached to the right side of its mouth.

The rescue efforts involved NOAA, SeaWorld San Diego, the Los Angeles-based group Marine Animal Rescue and the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach.

Earlier this month, a veteran fisherman was killed by a North Atlantic right whale after he helped to free the marine mammal off the coast of New Brunswick in Canada.

These animals are very large and very dangerous, Viezbicke said. Theres potential for anything.

A week ago, another entangled whale was spotted off coast of Point Loma. NOAA officials are still trying to track down that animal.

Still another whale was rescued two weeks ago off the coast of Crescent City, just south of the California-Oregon border.

About 10 entangled humpback whales have been confirmed so far this year.

Last year, 71 whales were reported entangled off the West Coast, marking the highest number of such reports since 1982, when NOAA started keeping records.

Officials believe a steady rise in spottings of entangled whales in recent years is due to heightened awareness about the issue  and that reporting still falls short of the total number of whales that become ensnared each year.

Whales and sea turtles can slowly die after becoming tangled up in fishing gear, often dragging traps and buoys for miles over weeks or even months.

Twitter: @jemersmith

Phone: (619) 293-2234

Email: joshua.smith@sduniontribune.com
A week after proposing to use large industrial tents to get hundreds of homeless people temporarily off the streets, San Diego Padres Managing Partner Peter Seidler said hes preparing to release names of a broad coalition of people behind the idea.

Nothing is perfect by any stretch, but the effort and collaboration at this point behind the scenes  and Im a pretty critical person  is good right now, Seidler said Friday. And we need to keep that going.

On July 20, Seidler and chain restaurant operator Dan Shea announced that they had raised enough funds for to buy and install two large tents made by the company Sprung, an $800,000 expense for each one. The long-term plan would be to have a series of tents in different locations throughout the county.

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During a press conference at the University of San Diego that day, the two men stressed that the tent proposal does not conflict with the citys plan to find permanent housing for homeless people, but is a needed bridge until those homes become available.

Progress is being made to create permanent housing for the homeless. Just last week, grand-openings were held for the 62-unit Cypress Apartments for the chronically homeless in East Village and the 59-unit Talmadge Gateway for seniors with medical issues.

With 5,621 homeless people unsheltered and 3,495 in shelters throughout the county, however, the need for housing is greater than can be met in the foreseeable future. In the meantime, Seidler and Shea argued, people on the street are dying, and immediate help is needed.

There isnt disagreement on that point, but so far there hasnt been a united, public announcement of support for tents from elected officials.

Seidler, however, said there has been much behind-the-scene support, and he expects a public announcement of a broad coalition of people endorsing the plan will be released Tuesday.

County Supervisor Ron Roberts, chair of the San Diego Regional Task Force on the Homeless board, said after the tent proposal was announced that it made sense, and he called the offered to fund the first two very generous.

Other local officials, however, are holding their cards closer to their chest.

San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer said after the July 20 announcement that he appreciated the financial commitment Seidler and Shea had offered and he supported the idea of finding more beds for the homeless, but stopped short of endorsing a tent.

The city had used a similar tent to house homeless people in a winter shelter program, which was abandoned three years ago.

On July 24, the citys new Select Committee on Homelessness approved a plan to work with the mayor and stakeholders on four ideas to help get people off the street.

Among that was to use Golden Hall and Qualcomm Stadiums practice field to provide bridge housing for homeless people waiting for permanent housing.

Whether a tent would be used to house people at the practice field was left unsaid.

We definitely have been working steadfastly not only to identify the need, but identity potential site locations, Faulconers senior adviser on housing solutions Jonathan Herrera said. Whether thats in the form of a brick and mortar facility or Sprung structures, its something were still looking into. But is there a need to provide for the unsheltered population? I think were all in agreement that thats true.

Donna Cleary, director of communications for City Councilwoman and Select Committee on the Homeless member Lorie Zapf, said there has been no official communications with Zapf about the tent proposal.

Councilmember Zapf said she looks forward to hearing their ideas, Cleary said in an e-mail.

The bigger fight about the tent proposal may not be about whether theyre needed, but where to put them. Seidler said there already is a list of potential sites, which will be narrowed down before being revealed.

Steidler said the first step will be to release the list of people who support the idea, which will begin discussion among the city or county officials about where the first tent should be located.

Also whats critical is to show people that its going to be run really, really, well, he said, anticipating that a well-run facility will smooth the way for more locations.

While theres still much work to be done, Seidler said he hopes the tent will be up within the next few months.

Its not as quickly as Id like it to be, but weve got to get it up before winter hits, he said. Thats the measuring point for me. We cannot allow any more suffering.

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gary.warth@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @GaryWarthUT

760-529-4939
A Chinese man in the country without authorization was found inside a locked compartment of an impounded car early Saturday following a traffic stop in Kearny Mesa, San Diego police said.

The 2016 Toyota Tundra was pulled over around 2 a.m. on Interstate 15 near Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, police Sgt. Tom Sullivan said.

Officers impounded the car after the driver and registered owner of the vehicle was issued citations for speeding and driving without a license, Sullivan said. The vehicle was taken to a lot at Ruffner Street near Clairemont Mesa Boulevard by a Road One Towing driver.

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While taking inventory of the vehicle, a tow company employee heard yelling and banging from inside the vehicle, Sullivan said. Officers were called to the scene, along with San Diego Fire Department officials.

The man was found in a compartment built into the vehicle behind the back seat and in between the trunk.

He couldnt get out, Sullivan said. Impound employees had to unbolt the seat.

The man was not injured but officers determined he was in the country without permission. Border Patrol officials were called about 4:45 a.m.

Border Patrol spokesman Mark Endicott said the driver of the vehicle was arrested and charged with human smuggling. Officers also found a handgun with 15 rounds of ammunition in the car, Endicott said.

The man inside the vehicle was also arrested and is being processed for removal.

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Contact Lauryn Schroeder via Twitter or Email.
NASA is continuing to release dazzling images of Jupiter that were taken by JunoCam, a small, public education camera thats part of the Juno spacecraft, which is currently orbiting Jupiter.

JunoCam was designed and built by Malin Space Science Systems of San Diego, which is famous for the quality of the cameras it has developed for unmanned spacecraft, including Mars rovers.

JunoCam has been spending a lot of time photographing the poles and cloudscapes of Jupiter, and the Great Red Spot. Here is a sample of the images.

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Related stories

Video  Science in 60 Seconds: Bresnik reaches space station, Sally Ride heads out to sea

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Twitter: @grobbins

gary.robbins@sduniontribune.com
Wedging in more homes is no solution

Regarding New San Diego housing construction laws a strong start (July 25): Now that weve solved our water crisis with the federally financed Pure Water project, I guess theres no reason why we shouldnt bulldoze every vernal pool, canyon and mesa in San Diego to solve our affordable housing crisis.

Perhaps our City Council members got the idea from watching the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil and seeing favelas stacked like cord wood in Rio de Janeiro. If it works for Brazil, why not give it a go right here?

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But its only a fools dream that we can satisfy everyones desire to live in California by building more homes and making them affordable. I do regret that my sons probably wont be able to afford a home in San Diego. But every city in the world has a finite carrying capacity that must be protected for the greater good.

To paraphrase Dirty Harry, a communitys got to know its limitations.

Doug Bell

Rancho Penasquitos

Letters and commentary policy

The U-T welcomes and encourages community dialogue on important public matters. Please visit this page for more details on our letters and commentaries policy. You can email letters@sduniontribune.com or leave a comment below.

Logan Jenkins (Are bulldozers the answer to soaring local home prices? July 28) uses the typical argument, blame the people who came earlier and struggled to purchase a home in San Diego.

It was just as difficult then as it is now for us to pay for our home. We were always paycheck to paycheck and are now on fixed income. Would he prefer to have us living in a tent downtown?

We are not nimbys. We are still scraping by and hoping to have something to leave to our children. The fact that our home is worth many times more than we paid for it is not our fault. It is our reward for staying with our home in a neighborhood that was considered not so hot, while others moved on to their Poway palaces.

Gentrification has made our neighborhood very desirable to folks making high salaries, also not out fault. If prop 13 were refunded most of us would lose our homes. Would that please Mr. Jenkins or for that matter, improve our housing crisis?

Linda White

South Park

Want to see more letters that appear only online? Follow @UTLetters on Twitter and UTOpinion on Facebook.
Comments President Donald Trump made in jest during a law-and-order speech in New York on Friday about police use of force elicited laughter and applause from those in the crowd and in uniform, but other police officials are making it clear it wasnt funny.

Over the weekend, police chiefs and others criticized Trumps remarks at Suffolk County Community College in Long Island when he discouraged police officers from being too nice handling suspects.

"When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon, you see them thrown in rough, Trump told the crowd. I said, 'Please don't be too nice.' Like, don't hit their head and they've just killed somebody. I said, 'You can take the hand away, OK?'"

Police officers today face intense pressure to act fairly and more transparently in light of events that have put a spotlight on police use of force over the past several years. Protests have increased nationwide along with attention on incidents in which suspects die at the hands of police.

Trumps remarks put the conversation on police use of force back in the spotlight.

Video of the speech shows audience members laughing and clapping, and at least one Washington Examiner columnist argued that it was a natural display of their dark sense of humor. But others did not find it humorous at all.

Among those who voiced criticism was Charles Ramsey, former Philadelphia police commissioner, who told CNN that Trumps words were inappropriate, regardless of whether they were intended as a joke.

Hes the commander in chief, not a stand-up comic. Words matter, Ramsey said.

Other police agencies and police chiefs expressed criticism on Twitter. Among them leading the charge was Ben Tobias, a spokesman with Gainesville police in Florida, whose tweet went viral over the weekend.

Police chiefs and commissioners in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Houston and other cities also chimed in.

Elsewhere, police agencies issued statements speaking for their entire organizations.

Not all departments specifically referenced Trump or the remarks, and instead focused on reiterating their policies. The Boston Police Department, for example, said in a statement that it will focus on building relationships and trust in its community.

As a police department, we are committed to helping people, not harming them, it said.

San Diego-area law enforcement have not issued statements of their own, but we have asked the San Diego Police Department and the San Diego County Sheriffs Department for comments and will add them to this post once we receive them.

Update: After this post was published, San Diego police chief Shelley Zimmerman issued the following statement: "We believe in providing safety for all which means everyone without exception. Words matter, let all of us look for ways to unite."

Update: Moments after Zimmermans comment came in, Sheriff Bill Gore offered the following statement: "It is my expectation that the men and women of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department will treat the people we serve with dignity and respect at all times."

Tell us what you think: Did Trumps remarks go too far? Or should they be taken lightly and not seen as inciting police brutality as some have suggested on social media?

Have some thoughts to share?

Join me in a conversation: Shoot me a private email with your thoughts or ideas on a different approach to this story. As always, you can also send us a tweet.

Email: luis.gomez@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @RunGomez

Read The Conversation on Flipboard.

UPDATES:

2:00 p.m.: This article was updated with reaction from San Diego police chief Shelley Zimmerman and Sheriff Bill Gore.

This article was originally published at 11:30 a.m.
RIVERSIDE -- There are about 27,000 people serving lifesentences in California state prisons. Riverside County sent morethan 1,200 of those people there, and its the job of a recentlyformed unit of the district attorneys office to make sure theinmates stay there.

Unfortunately, in California, life doesnt mean life, saidDeputy District Attorney Sara Danville, who heads the countys"lifer unit. For the loved ones of victims, and even the jurorswhose convictions sent people to prison for life, we are here tomake sure life means life, Danville said.

One way the lifer unit tries to achieve that is by making sure aprosecutor appears at every parole hearing of an inmate who wassentenced in Riverside County.

Advertisement

Before the unit was formed earlier this year, it was typicallythe responsibility of the lawyer who prosecuted the case to handlethat. Since parole hearings for lifers often dont happen fordecades after an inmate is sentenced, and by that time, theprosecutors often had retired or moved on to other areas, the casesslipped through the cracks.

There really wasnt any coordination. This was a huge task thatneeded some attention, District Attorney Grover Trask said.

So the lifer unit was formed and now includes Danville, DeputyDistrict Attorney Jeanne Roy -- who is with the homicide divisionand backs up Danville when she cant attend a parole hearing --Stephanie Garthwaite, who serves as lifer unit coordinator, andChristine Lopez, a legal transcriber who handles the hearingcalendar and makes up case packets.

Danville said she uses a relatively simple criteria whendeciding whether to oppose a lifers parole. After reviewing thecase file, I ask myself if I would feel safe with this person outand moving into the house next to me. If the answer is no, thenthat tells me what I need to know, she said.

Both Trask and Danville say they realize it is unrealistic tothink that rehabilitation never happens, and they know that theremay be cases where the release of a lifer wont be opposed.

That just hasnt happened yet.

These are some of the most violent, serious offenders in ourcounty, Trask said. They are the worst of the worst.

Local lifers

The long list of those who committed heinous crimes and weresent to prison for life includes about 20 inmates whose crimes tookplace in Southwest County. They include:

Paul Checketts, who was convicted of murder in the 1995 deathof his stillborn daughter, who was dumped out with the trash at hisTemecula home, and for abusing his family. He is not eligible forparole until 2019.

Quintin Cross was sent to prison for murdering a friend of hisformer girlfriend in 1998, then raping her and forcing the LakeElsinore woman and her adult daughter to help him hide the deadmans body. He is eligible for parole in 2076.

Thomas Leevers was convicted of killing a Carlsbad woman when,while driving at nearly four times the states legal limit forintoxication, ran a stop sign in Temecula after leaving a Christmasparty in 1996 and killed her in her family car. Leevers is eligiblefor parole in 2017.

Jesus Sandoval Macias was the driver of an SUV that sped awayfrom Border Patrol agents in 1992, resulting in a horrendous crashoutside Temecula Valley High that killed six people -- includingfour high school students. Macias had a parole hearing in 2001,which was denied, and his next one is scheduled for December.

There are also at least five former local women serving lifesentences: Leslie Kay Thornell, sentenced for killing a 7-month-oldboy she was baby-sitting in her Temecula home in 1989; DianeProvencio, who shot and killed her husband in the couples Temeculahome in 1998; Kathey James, whose three children died in a 1995explosion at their Aguanga mobile home caused by her cookingmethamphetamine; and Terri Gramaje and Eileen Merchant, who wereconvicted last year of the brutal abuse of a friends child intheir Wildomar home.

Thornell has the earliest parole hearing, scheduled for 2015.The other four arent eligible for a hearing for decades.

During the last two months, the lifer unit participated inparole hearings for two men involved in Temecula murders (includingTemeculas first homicide after becoming a city in 1989):

Jose Martin Andrade, 34, drove the getaway car in February1990, after another man shot and killed the clerk at a Temeculaconvenience store during a beer run.

In March 1994, Michael Anthony Alvidrez, 27, was part of anow-defunct Temecula street gang and shot another gang member inthe back, killing him because the man wanted out of the gang.

Neither man was granted parole and they will wait until 2006 fortheir next hearings.

Keeping inmates inside

Trask said it is critical that those sentenced to life in prisonserve the time they deserve. Eventually, we know, some of thoseserving life sentences will be released, Trask said. We justdont want it to be too early.

Having a skilled, veteran prosecutor at Board of Prison Termsparole hearings is the best way to ensure proper sentences areserved, he said. Thats why Danville was selected for the newposition, Trask said.

On a wall in Danvilles Riverside office hangs her Prosecutor ofthe Year award for 2002. Her office also has stacks of filespertaining to inmates she hopes to keep in prison as long asnecessary.

Her drive and high energy level are evident when she talks abouther newest responsibility. The mention of an inmates name leads toa near instantaneous recall of very specific details of the crimeand the victim.

She anticipates there will be about 180 parole hearings thisyear for lifer inmates sentenced in Riverside County.

I love this job, Danville said. I bet I get thanked moretimes in a week (by the loved ones of victims) than an averagemother does, she added with a laugh.

Danville gives the credit to Stephanie Garthwaite, the liferunit coordinator, for tracking down the family members of thevictims of those serving life in prison.

Quite often, they didnt even know (the inmate) was still inprison, or that they could attend parole hearings to make astatement, Garthwaite said. The key to these (parole) hearings isthe victims family being there.

Danville agrees.

Whether she is headed to a state prison in some desolatelocation of the state or just around to corner to a DAs conferenceroom where hearings are held through a high-tech video-conferencelink, Danville said she always wants a victim family member sittingnext to her.

The purpose of this unit is to better educate the Board ofPrison Terms about the case, she said. But its also giving thenext of kin a voice.

The next of kin make a more powerful impact than anything I cansay.

The parole hearing

Parole hearings are like mini-trials, Danville said. We need tobe just as prepared and know as much about the case as we would befor a trial. The difference is that it doesnt take nearly as longand you get a verdict more quickly.

The typical parole hearing lasts about two hours and is overseenby two or three Board of Prison Terms commissioners or deputycommissioners.

When possible, hearings are held over a video-conference linkbetween the DAs office in Riverside and the prison. That was thecase recently when a hearing was held for Darrell Howard, whokilled Carolyn Lacy, 24, in March 1987, with a shotgun blast to thechest as her 7-year-old son watched.

In what Danville called extremely unusual, the inmate wasnt athis own hearing, telling prison officials at the California MensColony in San Luis Obispo he was too ill to attend. Often, thecommissioners will question the inmate at the hearing.

Even with Howard not in attendance, his hearing went on, withthe two commissioners evaluating his criminal history and themurder conviction -- as well as the good and bad things hes doneduring his time in prison.

Then Danville, looking at the camera atop a large televisionmonitor in the conference room, told commissioners the many reasonswhy her office believes Howard is unsuitable for release, includinghow Lacy was forced to beg for her life in front of her youngson.

Next, the inmates appointed defense attorney addresses thecommissioners and explains why the inmate should be released.

Commissioners then hear comments from victim family members.Lacys mother, Alice, spoke at Howards hearing. She expressed deepconcern that Howard would slip back into the same habits that ledto his using drugs and assaulting women before his conviction.

Alice Lacy also told the commissioners how her grandson, theyoung boy who watched his mother die 17 years ago, died from abrain aneurysm he suffered years ago while at school.

After a few minutes deliberating, the commissioners returned tothe television screen and announced that Howard still presents athreat to society and is not yet suitable for release. He will nowwait three years for his next parole hearing.

Once the video connection was severed, Danville and CarolynLacys parents cheered the boards decision.

They hugged Danville and she received two more heartfelt thankyous.

Contact staff writer John Hall at (909) 676-4315, Ext. 2628, orjhall@californian.com.
Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/31/2017 -- Pyramid Research estimates Cameroon will generate telecom service revenue of $1.1bn in 2015. Over the next five years, we estimate total market revenue will increase at a CAGR of 11.0% in dollar terms to reach $1.9bn in 2020. The growth rate will be higher versus other countries in the region like Cote dIvoire (9.6%), DRC (9.2%) and Uganda (8.6%). This growth will be driven by mobile voice and mobile data with the 2015 launch of 3G services by MTN Cameroon and Orange Cameroon, and Camtels re-entry into the mobile market after being awarded a mobile license in 2014. Additionally, completion of the WACS submarine cable in July 2015 and government investment in Internet exchange points will boost growth in the fixed segment.



Key Findings



Pyramid Research expects total telecom revenue to grow at a CAGR of 11.0% during 2015-2020 to reach $1.9bn. The fixed-mobile revenue split will continue to be dominated by mobile, with mobiles share of total service revenue increasing from 80.6% in 2015 to 86.1% in 2020. Operator expansion of 3G services, MTN Cameroons launch of 4G services and Camtels re-entry into the mobile market will drive this growth.



The top two operators, MTN Cameroon and MTN Orange, which provide mobile voice and data services, will account for 75.4% of overall service revenue in 2015. Operators are investing heavily in their network coverage and quality of services due to increased competition. The expected launch of mobile number portability (MNP) over the forecast period will further stimulate competition.



Over the next five years, operators should seize opportunities related to 3G rollouts by providing bundled offers targeted at specific customer segments and localised content to cater to increasing data demands. Network vendors should position themselves to support operators 3G and 4G expansion plans. Smartphone vendors also have an opportunity to capitalise on a rapidly growing mobile subscriber base.



Get The Sample Copy of this Report : https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/502602



Synopsis



Cameroon: 3G and 4G Rollout to Drive the Telecom Market provides an executive-level overview of the telecommunications market in Cameroon today, with detailed forecasts of key indicators up to 2020. It delivers deep quantitative and qualitative insight into the telecom market of Cameroon, analyzing key trends, evaluating near-term opportunities and assessing risk factors, based on proprietary data from Pyramid Researchs databases.



It provides in-depth analysis of the following:



Cameroon in a regional context; a comparative review of market size and trends with that of other countries in the region.



Economic, demographic and political context in Cameroon.



The regulatory environment and trends; a review of the regulatory setting and agenda for the next 18-24 months as well as relevant developments pertaining to spectrum licensing, national broadband plans and more.



A demand profile; analysis as well as forecasts and historical figures of service revenue from fixed telephony, broadband, mobile voice and data markets.



Service evolution; a look at the change in the breakdown of overall revenue by fixed and mobile sectors and by voice and data in the current year as well as the end of the forecast period.



An in-depth sector analysis of fixed telephony and broadband services, mobile voice and data services; for mobile, a quantitative analysis of service adoption trends by technology/platform as well as operator, average revenue per line/subscription and service revenue through the end of the forecast period.



Main opportunities; this section details the near-term opportunities for operators, vendors and investors in the telecommunications market in Cameroon.



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Provides an overview of the Cameroon telecoms market through a combination of quantitative and qualitative insights. The graphical information consists of more than 20 charts and tables derived from Pyramid Researchs forecast products.



Build profitable growth strategies by leveraging the analysis which includes an examination of current player strategies and the future trends of the Cameroon telecommunications market.



Understand the factors behind ongoing and upcoming trends in Cameroon's mobile communications, fixed telephony and broadband markets, including the evolution of service provider mobile market shares, to align product offerings and strategies to meet customer demand.



Gain insights on key telecom players in the market and their strategies to grow market share.



Explore novel opportunities to align your product strategies and offerings to meet customer requirements and succeed in the challenging telecommunications market in Cameroon.
Carlisle, PA -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/31/2017 -- Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet is now enrolling students for dance classes starting in September 2017. This world-renowned dance school give parents the opportunity to start their children on a journey to learn the language and movement of classical ballet, from beginner to pre-professional. Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet currently has openings in the Children's Division, perfect for boys and girls aged three to six, as well as the Primary Division, ideal for children aged six to nine.



Parents who wish to enroll their children in one of the dance school's Academic Programs can expect ballet classes taught by an illustrious group of instructors, new studio space, performance opportunities, as well as two convenient locations. Marcia Dale Weary, the Founding Artistic Director, has developed a proven teaching syllabus where children can learn foundational ballet positions, develop strength, understand the French vocabulary that defines ballet steps, and consistently build technique to perfect their practice.



What's more, not only will children be learning the fundamentals of ballet, but in the process they will also acquire valuable skills that last a lifetime. Some of these life skills include a new sense of self-confidence, clear focus and determination, taking ownership for actions, and working towards a goal.



Parents interested in enrolling their children in the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet Children's Division or Primary Division dance classes can meet with the school's Children's Division Coordinator, Rose Taylor. There will be an open house on Thursday, August 3, 2017, from 6:00 - 7:00 p.m. at their Carlisle location, and on Friday, August 4, 2017, from 6:00 - 7:00 p.m. at their Camp Hill location.



Parents who are unable to attend either of the open house's can contact the school via phone at 717-524-1280, or visit Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet's website, https://www.cpyb.org/, for more information.



About Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet

Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet is a celebrated leader in the world of dance education with an international reputation for training boys and girls. This nationally renowned ballet school focuses on building technical strength, stamina, flexibility and artistic development. Aspiring dancers from around the world, aged 3-20, come to this ballet school to learn critical skills from an experienced faculty. Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet aims to prepare and enrich young lives into the world of dancing.



To learn more about the school and their programs please visit them on the web at https://cpyb.org/.
The top court of the European Union has recently ordered the Polish government to stop logging in the Bialowieza forest. It is one of the primeval forests in Europe.

Bialowieza forest, straddling Poland's border with another country Belarus, is the UNESCO Heritage Site. The forest is the home of many beautiful birds, insects, and the popular European bison. The executive commission of the EU sued Poland at the ECJ or the European Court of Justice regarding the logging in this ancient forest. The ECJ has recently given an interim decision and has asked the Polish government to stop the logging immediately.

The decision says that the logging could bring very serious damage to the Bialowieza forest. It will take some more time to have a conclusion of the main case filed against the Polish government. The commission has stated that the logging clearly violates the laws of the wildlife protection. So far the environment ministry of Poland has not uttered any word about the ECJ announcement.

The ministry only says that the Bialowieza forest needs protection from the beetle invasion, The Guardian reported. Currently, the PiS or the Law and Justice party is sitting in the Polish government. Notably, the environmentalists have claimed that no impacts by the beetles were visible among the majority of the fallen trees. The environmentalists have been protesting against this act, and the UNESCO has even urged the Poland to suspend the logging.

Lawyer of the environmentalist group ClientEarth, Agata Szafraniuk, utters significantly about the situation. The lawyer says that a serious conflict could take place with the EU law if the Polish authorities don't abide by the ECJ decision. Environment minister of the Polish government, Jan Szyszko, stated that above one million trees need to be cut down in the current year. The minister suggests that the step must be taken to prevent the beetle invasion.

According to Phys.org, the Polish government has authorized the logging in the Bialowieza Forest from May 2016. Poland's right wing government has suggested that the purpose of this act is to contain the caused by beetle infestation. Another important reason the Polish authorities have shown is to fight against the risk of the forest fires.

But, the environmentalists opine differently. They say that original motives of the Polish government's Environment minister are economic and political. According to the environmentalists, increased logging helps the local community to earn more revenues, and this enhances the support for the PiS.

The Wild Poland Foundation, a green group, revealed that almost half of the sold wood came from the trees that were 100 years old. The Polish government has not yet reacted to the interim decision of the ECJ. But if Poland faces defeat at the ECJ, then the country has to bear a hefty amount as fine, and penalties for every day.
Aurora Expeditions, named in honour of Sir Douglas Mawsons ship, made its first journey to Antarctica with a small group of intrepid travellers in 1992.



The company has specialised in ship charters to take small groups of passengers to the worlds wildest and remotest places. Over the years it has expanded its scope from polar exploration to include off-the-

beaten-track destinations, like Papua New Guinea and the Russian Far East.



To mark its quarter of a century, Aurora will operate a 25 Year Anniversary expedition to Antarctica and South Georgia aboard Polar Pioneer, built in Finland in 1985 as a Russian research ship and

refurbished in St Petersburg in 2000 to provide comfortable accommodation for 54 passengers.



The 18-day anniversary voyage aboard the ice strengthened 1,753gt vessel departs Ushuaia, Argentina, on December 27 and arrives in Santiago, Chile, on January 13, 2018.



One of Auroras original expedition leaders, Gary Miller, will be on board with other polar specialists. Dr Miller, who is a Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia, has had almost 30

years experience in Antarctica and 15 in the Arctic.



Passengers will attend a special anniversary dinner on board and will receive a commemorative book, with photographs from the past 25 years.

Copyright  2022. All rights reserved. Seatrade, a trading name of Informa Markets (UK) Limited.
The goal is to attract Latin Americans to Panama, boosting tourism and Pullmantur's sailings from Colon, one of the line's three regional homeports.

Under the agreement, Copa Airlines will provide exclusive rates to passengers joining a Pullmantur cruise in Colon who fly from 14 airports in eight Latin American countries: Santa Cruz, Bolivia; Belo Horizonte, Sao Paulo, Porto Alegre and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Santiago, Chile; Quito and Guayaquil, Ecuador, Guadalajara, Monterrey and Mexico City, Mexico; Asuncion, Paraguay; Lima, Peru; and Montevideo, Uruguay.

The rates will be used by wholesalers to create fly-cruise packages, according to Karla Guillen, manager of wholesale sales, Copa Airlines.

The Panama Tourism Authority will work with Pullmantur Cruises on various promotions in the Southern Cone, including exposure on television and in movie theaters in Colombia, Peru and Ecuador with 10- and 20-second spots about seven-night vacation packages to five destinations.

The packages will also be promoted on mobile and fixed billboards and signs in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Costa Rica, as well as in newspapers and magazines.

'We will have weekly cruise arrivals, which will generate more income and higher hotel occupancy,' Panama Tourism Authority administrator Jennifer Champsaur said.

Agusto Terracina, manager of the cruise terminal Colon 2000, said the marketing collaboration will bring more tourists to Panama, who stay two or three days before or after their cruise, boosting business, especially on weekends when there's less business in hotels and shopping centers.

Pullmantur's Monarch will sail from Colon on 52 departures of its 'Antilles and Southern Caribbean' and 'Legendary Caribbean' routes, and is expected to double the number of passengers carried from there.

Richard Vogel, president and ceo of Pullmantur Cruises, expressed his confidence that the cooperation with the Panama Tourism Authority and Copa will give an important boost to sales and help make Pullmantur's product even more attractive.

Pullmantur estimates $19m in spending by pssengers and crew in Panama, on top of the line's own spending there.
The initial $300m investment plan will be from five Chinese companies based in Jiangsu Province that would create more than 1,400 jobs.

Under the terms of the agreement, China-UAE Industrial Capacity Cooperation Construction (Jiangsu) Management, a UAE company newly established by the Jiangsu Provincial Overseas Cooperation and Investment Company Limited (JOCIC), will occupy and develop approximately 23.7 million square feet of the FTZ for the Chinese companies. This represents 2.2% of the available FTZ in Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabis (KIZAD) newly allotted Khalifa Port Free Trade Zone (KPFTZ) area.

The five Chinese tenant companies are Hanergy Thin Film Power Group, Jiangsu Fantai Mining Development (Group) Co, Xuzhou Jianghe Wood, Jiangsu Jinzi Environmental Technology, and Guangzheng Group.

The land lease includes an option for China-UAE Industrial Capacity Cooperation (Jiangsu) Construction Management to establish and develop a further 107,639,100 square feet of free zone at KIZAD Area B to meet additional demand by Jiangsu province businesses.

Commenting on the investment agreement, H.E. Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber said: We have worked hard to make KIZAD not only the largest free zone in the region, but also one of the most sophisticated and high-potential free zone areas in the world, particularly for the industrial and manufacturing sectors.

The agreement also saw the establishment of a 50-year Musataha Agreement, signed by Abu Dhabi Ports with JOCIC.

The Musataha agreement between Abu Dhabi Ports and JOCIC will attract foreign investment into Abu Dhabi  an ideal environment for investment opportunities due to the competitive advantages KPFTZ enjoys, including its strategic location, world-class infrastructure and logistics solutions. Khalifa Industrial Zone and Khalifa Port are both expected to see a surge in global investments, added H.E. Al Jaber.

The UAE is considered a gateway to about 60% of Chinas exports to regional markets at an annual volume of exchange of $70bn.

Chinas H.E. Vice Governor Huang Lixin stated: We will work together with Abu Dhabi to build the UAE-China Industrial Capacity Cooperation Demonstration Zone into a landmark program of the Belt and Road initiative and a beacon of UAE-China exchanges and cooperation.

Captain Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, ceo of ADP, said the agreement plays a pivotal role in the Abu Dhabi governments plans to strengthen the infrastructure and transport sectors in Abu Dhabi, in line with the Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030.

Al Shamisi added: Last year, ADP signed with Cosco Shipping, the worlds largest container operator, who chose Khalifa Port as the hub for its operations in the Middle East, and is expected to raise the annual capacity to 6m teu in both its existing container terminals.
SECURITY COUNCIL AND WIDER UN STRUCTURE

Briefing on Cooperation between the UN and the League of Arab States

Expected Council Action

In August, the Council will hold a briefing followed by an informal interactive dialogue on cooperation between the UN and regional and subregional organisations with a focus on the partnership with the League of Arab States. The UN Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, Ahmed Aboul-Gheit, will brief the Council. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres may also brief. No outcome is expected.

Background

The UN Charter establishes the Security Council as the principal organ charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. In this context, however, Chapter VIII of the Charter envisions a role for regional arrangements and agencies in an effort to achieve the peaceful settlement of local disputes as long as these organisations and their activities are consistent with the principles and purposes of the UN. Furthermore, Article 54 says that the Council should at all times be kept fully informed of activities undertaken or in contemplation by regional organisations for the maintenance of international peace and security.

Improving partnerships and cooperation with regional organisations has in the last decade or so become an increasingly prominent theme for the Council and other parts of the UN system. The Council has held annual joint consultative meetings with members of the AU Peace and Security Council and, more recently, informal meetings with members of the EU Political and Security Committee. It has also received regular briefings from the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. In addition, the Council has held meetings on cooperation with other regional organisations, including the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

In his latest report on cooperation between the UN and regional and other organisations, Secretary-General Guterres emphasised the growing cooperation with the League of Arab States, including plans to establish a UN liaison office in Cairo, the organisations headquarters. The interaction between the two organisations has become more prominent with the onset of the Arab uprisings and the subsequent proliferation of conflicts in the region, especially in Syria where the League of Arab States was involved in the initial mediation efforts.

The representatives of the League of Arab States have addressed the Council on several occasions regarding the organisations efforts to mediate conflicts in the Middle East. The first such occasion was in January 2012 when its then Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby spoke to the Council on the efforts of the organisation to find a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis and urged the Council to endorse the Leagues plan for ending hostilities in that country.

The UN and the League of Arab States also cooperated by appointing Joint Special Envoy for Syria Kofi Annan in 2012, and subsequently Joint Special Representative for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi, who relinquished his post in May 2014.

During the German presidency in September 2012, the Council held a high-level meeting on peace and security in the Middle East focusing on the institutional relationship between the Council and the League of Arab States. During the meeting, the Council adopted a presidential statement in support of the Leagues contribution to collective efforts for the peaceful settlement of conflicts in the Middle East.

During the Councils visiting mission to Somalia, Kenya and Egypt in May 2016, the Council held its first consultative meeting with members of the League of Arab States in Cairo. The meeting was focused on the Middle East peace process, Somalia, Libya, and developments in the Syrian conflict. Members of both bodies called for greater cooperation between the two organisations on issues pertaining to international peace and security and to stability in the Arab region. Some members called for institutionalising this relationship and making this type of consultative meeting a regular occurrence. Elaraby noted during the meeting that the Council needed to fulfil its international peace and security responsibilities, especially in regard to Palestinian issues and the Syrian conflict.

In March, Secretary-General Guterres addressed Arab leaders at the summit in Jordan of the League of Arab States. He reiterated the importance of the partnership between the two organisations and called for unity in the Arab world, noting that divisions have opened the door to foreign intervention and manipulation, breeding instability, sectarian strife and terrorism. The summit focused on some of the pressing regional issues including the Middle East peace process, Syria, the threat of terrorism, and the refugee crises.

Key Issues

A key issue is whether Council members see cooperation with the League of Arab States as a promising tool for addressing the challenges at hand.

Given that political developments are in flux in the Arab world, a key issue for the Council is how to strengthen the existing cooperation to jointly emphasise conflict prevention and resolution in the region.

Options

One option for the Council is to simply hold the discussion.

Another option is for members to explore Council practice regarding conflict prevention and mediation and members positions on developing a more robust Council role in the Middle East.

A further option is to establish a regular mechanism for contacts between the two bodies, perhaps along the lines of the practice the Council has forged with the AUs Peace and Security Council of holding regular meetings at each others headquarters.

Council and Wider Dynamics

Council members are generally supportive of the initiative to hold briefings on cooperation between the UN and regional and subregional organisations. However, the League of Arab States has been critical of the Councils approach towards the Arab-Israeli conflict. In addition, the League of Arab States has suggested that there is a need to review the use of the veto especially after it prevented several attempts by the Council to reach an outcome and take action on the Syrian conflict. Some member states may be wary of discussing specific country situations and will probably aim to have more general discussions on cooperation between the two organisations.

Egypt is the only Council member which is a member of the League of Arab States.

UN DOCUMENTS

Welcomed the intensifying cooperation between the UN and the Arab League, reiterated the Councils commitment to comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace and welcomed the appointment of the Joint Special Representative for Syria. A high-level meeting on the Middle East and enhancing cooperation between the Arab League and the UN. The Council was briefed by the Secretaries-General of the UN and the Arab League. This was the General Assembly resolution on cooperation between the UN and the League of Arab States.
AFRICA

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Expected Council Action

In July, the Security Council expects to be briefed by Maman Sambo Sidikou, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), on the Secretary-Generals three-monthly report on the implementation of MONUSCOs mandate and most recent developments.

The mandate of MONUSCO expires on 31 March 2018.

Key Recent Developments

Violence has continued in the Kasai region in southern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Intercommunal clashes between militias and government forces began in August 2016, when the leader of the Kamwina Nsapu militia was killed in fighting with the DRC police. Over 1.3 million people have now been displaced from their homes, with the UN Refugee Agency reporting that over 30,000 have fled south to Angola. Beyond Kasai, the DRC remains highly unstable, and violence also continues across a number of locations in eastern DRC.

There has been little progress in the implementation of the 31 December 2016 agreement on the electoral process; the government and the main opposition coalition, the Rassemblement, have been unable or unwilling to form a transitional government. Opposition leaders have accused President Joseph Kabila of seeking to use the current crisis in the Kasai for political advantage, and of failing to comply with the 31 December 2016 agreement. The agreement attempted to address the political crisis created by Kabilas ongoing determination to remain in office beyond the conclusion on 19 December 2016 of his second and, according to the constitution, final term.

The intended establishment of a transitional government is envisaged to be the first step in preparation for the presidential, national and provincial legislative elections that the 31 December 2016 agreement stipulates will occur in 2017. In an interview with German newspaper Der Spiegel on 3 June, Kabila reportedly declared that he had made no promises, but that he did wish to organise elections. The process of voter registration is reported to be facing long delays, and seems unlikely to be completed before November.

On 15 June, the Kofi Annan Foundation released an open letter signed by Kofi Annan and nine African former heads of state, expressing deep concern at the situation in the DRC, and identifying it as a threat to African stability, prosperity and peace. The letters signatories called on Kabila and other Congolese leaders to implement the 31 December 2016 agreement as a means to ensure elections occur by the end of the year.

Moise Katumbi, the former governor of Katanga province who fled into exile in 2016, has announced his intention to return to DRC to contest the presidential election. It is unclear when exactly Katumbi will return to DRC, or how he will be received on arrival. Katumbi has a strong base of support, particularly in Katanga. However, he faces charges of attempting to hire mercenaries and has been convicted in absentia for selling a house that he did not own. Katumbi contests both charges and says the accusations are politically motivated. His return may be a catalyst for protests and clashes between his supporters and security forces.

Human Rights-Related Developments

The High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a 9 June statement, called on the Human Rights Council (HRC) to establish an international investigation into the widespread human rights violations and abuses that have occurred in the Kasai since August 2016, a call also made by a coalition of 262 Congolese and nine NGOs in a press release on 1 June. The High Commissioner said that the scale and nature of these human rights violations and abuses, and the consistently inadequate responses of the domestic authorities, oblige us to call for an international investigation to complement national efforts. On 23 June, the HRC adopted without a vote resolution 35/33 on technical assistance to the DRC and accountability concerning the events in the Kasai region. The resolution requests the High Commissioner to dispatch a team of international experts, including experts from the region to investigate alleged human rights violations and abuses, and violations of international humanitarian law in the Kasai regions in cooperation with the DRC government, and to submit the conclusions of the investigation to the judicial authorities in the DRC. The High Commissioner is set to present an oral update to the HRC at its 37th session and submit a comprehensive report at its 38th session, with the investigative team also invited to participate in interactive dialogues with the HRC on both occasions.

Sanctions-Related Developments

The 1533 DRC sanctions regime was renewed on 21 June for an additional year by resolution 2360. The renewal is largely a technical rollover, however it did extend by two months the deadline for the final report by the Group of Experts, and introduced attacks on the Group of Experts as new criterion for the imposition of targeted sanctions against individuals. Both are in response to the murder of two members of the DRC Group of Experts, American Michael Sharp and Swedish-Chilean Zaida Catalan.

Key Issues

The key issue for the Council is seeking to ensure that the 31 December 2016 agreement is implemented and that elections take place in 2017.

Another important issue is how to address the continued violence in the east and the emerging violence in Kasai, which remain a serious threat to peace and security.

Establishing facts and accountability for the murder of the two 1533 DRC Sanctions Committees experts is an important issue for Committee members.

Options

One option is for the Council to issue a presidential statement that:

calls on stakeholders to cooperate and swiftly implement the 31 December 2016 agreement and resolve all outstanding issues in order to hold free and fair elections;

threatens the use of sanctions against those who act to impede a solution to the political crisis; and

condemns the mass violence in Kasai and elsewhere, and calls for accountability for violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law.

Another option is for the Council to establish clear implications if elections are not held before the end of 2017. Such implications could include targeted sanctions against those identified as having failed to implement the 31 December 2016 agreement. A resolution that includes benchmarks for implementation of the 31 December 2016 agreement is one option for setting out potential consequences for spoilers.

Council Dynamics

Council members remain concerned about the ongoing political crisis and the potentially explosive ramifications if the 31 December 2016 agreement does not result in fair and timely elections and a peaceful transfer of power. Some Council members have expressed concern that the perpetuation of the violence in Kasai undermines the viability of inclusive and fair elections. The Council is divided on the importance of elections occurring this year: some members emphasise the need for full implementation of the 31 December 2016 agreement this year to move DRC beyond the current crisis; other members see all stakeholders as jointly responsible for carrying out the elections and believe the timing of them is less important than the elections occurring in a peaceful and inclusive manner.

France is the penholder on the DRC, and Egypt chairs the 1533 DRC Sanctions Committee.

UN DOCUMENTS ON THE DRC

This renewed the DRC sanctions regime and the mandate of the Group of Experts. The Council renewed MONUSCOs mandate until 31 March 2018. This was a report on the implementation of the political agreement of 31 December 2016. This was on the implementation of the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework Agreement. This was the Secretary-Generals report on MONUSCO. This was a briefing by Special Envoy to the Great Lakes Region Said Djinnit on the situation in the Great Lakes Region. The Special Representative and head of MONUSCO, Maman Sidikou, briefed the Council This was a press statement expressing the Councils concern at the challenges facing the implementation of the 31 December 2016 agreement and stressing the importance of investigations into recent violence in Kasai. This was a statement on the 20 March meeting of the Committee with regional countries and a briefing by Sidikou and Djinnit.
ASIA

DPRK (North Korea)

Expected Council Action

In August, the chair of the 1718 Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) Sanctions Committee, Ambassador Sebastiano Cardi (Italy), is due to brief Security Council members in consultations on the Committees work. In addition, the Council may adopt a resolution in response to the DPRKs 4 July missile test. At press time, bilateral negotiations on the draft text were ongoing between China and the US. Additional meetings may be called for if there is another missile launch during the month.

Key Recent Developments

There has been an increase in the pace of missile tests conducted by the DPRK this year, with signs of significant technological advances in the development of intermediate-range and submarine-launched missiles. The most recent test, on 4 July, is believed to have been an intercontinental ballistic missile, although Russia has disputed this. As the below table shows, the Council has reacted to almost all of the DPRKs 2017 missile tests by issuing a press statement condemning the launches and calling on members to increase their efforts in implementing sanctions. Generally, stronger action such as additional sanctions or listing new individuals and entities has been taken only after major new violations or a quick succession of several violations.

Date Test Council Reaction 11 February Medium-range ballistic missile; landed in the Sea of Japan Press statement on 13 February 5 March Four Scud missiles; three falling in Japans EEZ Press statement on 7 March 19 March Ballistic missile engine test 21 March Missile launched but immediately exploded Press statement on 23 March condemning the 19 March engine test and 21 March missile launch 4 April Medium-range ballistic missile Press statement on 6 April 15 April Medium-range ballistic missile that exploded Press statement on 20 April 28 April Missile that disintegrated 13 May Ballistic missile Press statement on 15 May condemning the 28 April and 13 May launches. Met in consultations for a briefing on 16 May. 21 May Medium-range ballistic missile Press statement on 22 May. Met in consultations for a briefing by Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman on 23 May. 28 May Scud-class ballistic missile Adopted resolution on 2 June listing new individuals and entities. 8 June Surface-to-ship missiles 4 July Ballistic missile, possibly an intercontinental missile Public briefing on 5 July. Unsuccessfully attempted a press statement.

The day after the 4 July test, the Council broke with its practice of meeting in closed consultations and held a public meeting with a briefing by Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Miroslav Jenca. Members were unanimous in their condemnation of the missile launch, but some members stressed the need to combine sanctions with dialogue, while others referred to the DPRK as a global threat and focused on the need for further significant measures.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who were meeting in Moscow on 4 July, issued a joint statement reiterating their desire for the DPRK, the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the US to begin negotiating a solution to the regional crisis. They suggested that the US should refrain from military exercises that could inflame tensions on the Korean peninsula. On 5 July, the ROK and the US conducted a joint exercise and fired missiles into the ROKs territorial waters in reaction to the DPRKs missile launch.

On 28 April, the Council discussed the denuclearisation of the DPRK at a high-level meeting chaired by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who said in his national statement that the time had come to put new pressure on North Korea to abandon its dangerous path. He urged the Council to act and said there was a need to work together to adopt a new approach.

The most recent resolution, adopted on 2 June, added 14 individuals and four entities to the 1718 consolidated sanctions list. It condemned in the strongest terms the nuclear weapons and ballistic missile development activities, including missile launches, conducted by the DPRK in flagrant disregard of relevant Council resolutions.

On 17 July, the ROK proposed re-opening inter-Korean communication channels, including military contacts, and encouraged the DPRK leadership to respond positively.

A report released on 21 March by 13 UN agencies and international NGOs operating in the DPRK called for $114 million to meet the urgent needs of half of the population (13 million). Donations to the DPRK for humanitarian aid have been affected by the sanctions due to complications created by banking restrictions and some donors perceptions that such aid allows the government to focus its resources on building weapons rather than spending on its population.

Sanctions-Related Developments

On 23 May, the chair of the 1718 DPRK Sanctions Committee, Ambassador Cardi, presented his 90-day report on the work of the Committee. On 10 May, the Committee held informal consultations to discuss the recommendations in the latest report from its Panel of Experts. It also continued the series of regional outreach meetings initiated in March as a follow-up to paragraph 44 of resolution 2321, adopted in response to the 9 September 2016 nuclear test, which requested the Committee to hold special meetings on important thematic and regional topics and member states capacity challenges. The Committee met with the Group of Latin American and Caribbean Countries on 31 March; the Eastern European Group on 10 April; the African Group on 1 May; the Western European and Others Group on 12 May; and the Asia-Pacific Group on 26 May. The Committee announced on 1 June that it had amended four entries on its sanctions list, and on 5 June it announced the amendment of another two entries. The latest report from the Panel of Experts is due in early August. Although usually only the final report is made public, it is possible this mid-term report may be made public so that member states will have access to the recommendations from the Panel that might be relevant to their implementation of the sanctions regime.

Human Rights-Related Developments

The Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, Catalina Devandas-Aguilar, travelled to DPRK from 3 to 8 May in what was the first visit to the country by an independent expert mandated by the Human Rights Council (HRC). In a statement on 15 May she welcomed a number of positive steps taken by the DPRK on disability issues but maintained that there is still a long way to go to realize the rights of persons with disabilities in the DPRK. Devandas-Aguilar is set to submit a report to the HRC in March 2018. In a statement on 21 July, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the DPRK, Tomas Ojea Quintana, said that the protection of human rights should be central to the ROKs policy of rapprochement with the DPRK, noting ongoing allegations of arbitrary detention, human trafficking, and enforced disappearances. He also expressed alarm at the surge in detentions and forced repatriations of North Koreans caught in China. In addition, Ojea Quintana noted that many observers he met with, both in the ROK and elsewhere, reminded him of the need to consider the impact of international as well as unilateral sanctions on the [North Korean] population, and the extent to which they integrate human rights protection concerns. Ojea Quintanas statement came at the conclusion of his visit to Seoul from 17 to 21 July. Denied access to the DPRK since his appointment in March 2016, Ojea Quintana visited the ROK to engage with its new administration and to collect human rights information, including from people who have recently fled the DPRK. Ojea Quintana will report to the General Assembly in October 2017.

Key Issues

In the face of the flagrant violations of Council resolutions and the fact that the DPRK has continued to upgrade its nuclear capabilities and ballistic missiles, the effectiveness of the Councils approach is an issue. A related issue is whether serious consideration should be given to other options, such as making a greater effort to engage with the DPRK, combined with the sanctions approach.

An issue following the 4 July missile launch is the different interpretations by Council members as to what sort of missile was launched. The US almost immediately confirmed the DPRKs claim that it had fired an intercontinental ballistic missile, but Russia has disputed this claim. In a letter sent to the Council shortly after the launch, Russia described the North Korean projectile as an intermediate-range rocket. As a result of this difference, it was not possible to issue a press statement following the launch, and negotiations on a draft resolution are likely to also be affected.

In the 1718 DPRK Sanctions Committee, ensuring strict implementation of the sanctions continues to be a key issue. A forthcoming issue is likely to be getting agreement on recommendations in the Panels mid-term report given the heightened sensitivity of this issue

A further issue is the potential humanitarian impact of the sanctions, which might be exacerbated if further sectoral sanctions are imposed.

Options

One option is to continue to use sanctions as the main approach in responding to the DPRKs missile launches. A resolution imposing additional measures, such as an oil embargo, a ban on hiring DPRK workers abroad, and further restrictions on transportation and exports would be a possibility in this context.

Another option for the Council is to request the Secretary-General to play a good offices role in bringing together the key actors.

The potential for this issue to escalate beyond the region could prompt some members to consider informal discussions on new approaches as a possible option.

In search of a new approach, exploring possible forums for discussing new regional security mechanisms is a possible option.

An option related to the briefing of the chair of the sanctions committee is a wider discussion of implementation of the Councils resolutions on the DPRK and the potential impact of further sanctions.

For the Committee, making the Panel of Experts mid-term report public and moving toward getting agreement on its recommendations are both immediate options.

Council Dynamics

The administration of US President Donald Trump has made the DPRK a priority issue, with involvement at the highest levels of government. The DPRK was discussed when Council members met with Trump earlier this year. Trump told members that the status quo was unacceptable and that the Council must be prepared to impose additional sanctions. There has also been a discernible shift to stronger public statements, with US Ambassador Nikki Haley most recently stating during the 5 July meeting that the US would be willing to use the full range of its capabilities, including military means. Other Council members have stressed the importance of a peaceful and diplomatic solution rather than a military one.

China has long promoted a dual-track approach of denuclearisation and the establishment of a peace mechanism on the peninsula. It has also been pushing a suspension-for-suspension proposal that would allow for the suspension by the DPRK of its nuclear and missile-related activities and the suspension by the ROK and the US of any joint military exercises. Russia, which has been supportive of the Chinese position, is showing signs of wanting to play a greater role on the DPRK. It also appears to be more resistant to further sanctions on the DPRK following the imposition of US sanctions on two Russian firms for aiding the DPRKs weapons programme.

The US is the penholder on the DPRK.

UN DOCUMENTS ON THE DPRK

This was a resolution condemning the nuclear weapons and ballistic missile development activities, including missile launches, conducted by the DPRK in flagrant disregard of relevant Council resolutions since 9 September 2016. This resolution renewed for another 13 months the mandate of the Panel of Experts assisting the 1718 DPRK Sanctions Committee. This was a resolution on sanctions, in response to the DPRKs 9 September 2016 nuclear test. This was a public meeting on the situation in the DPRK. This was a meeting on the situation in the DPRK, chaired by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. This was a press statement condemning the DPRKs 21 May missile launch and calling on the 1718 DPRK Sanctions Committee to redouble its efforts to improve global implementation of all measures. This was a press statement in which Council members condemned the missile launches conducted by the DPRK on 28 April and 13 May. Council members condemned the DPRKs 15 April missile launch. Council members condemned the DPRKs 4 April missile launch. This statement condemned the DPRKs ballistic missile launch of 21 March and the ballistic missile engine test of 19 March. This was a press statement that condemned the ballistic missile launches conducted by the DPRK on 5 March. Council members condemned the DPRKs 11 February missile launch. This letter transmitted the concept note for the 28 April Council meeting on the denuclearisation of the DPRK. This was the Panel of Experts final report under resolution 2276.
EUROPE

Kosovo

Expected Council Action

In August, the Council is expected to hold its quarterly briefing on the situation in Kosovo. Zahir Tanin, the Special Representative and head of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), will brief on recent developments and the latest report by the Secretary-General. As on several previous occasions, Serbia is likely to participate at a high level, while Kosovo will probably be represented by its ambassador to the US.

Key Recent Developments

During his briefing to the Council in May, Tanin raised concerns about heightened nationalist rhetoric and the lack of progress in the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina. He also said that frequent elections in both Serbia and Kosovo have contributed to delays in the EU-facilitated dialogue on the normalisation of relations. Notwithstanding the political tensions between Belgrade and Pristina, Tanin noted that the overall security situation remained relatively stable.

In May, Kosovo President Hashim Thaci dissolved the legislature after 78 of its 120 representatives approved a no-confidence motion, bringing down the government led by Prime Minister Isa Mustafa.

General elections were held on 11 June with the participation of about 41 percent of the electorate. The coalition of political parties led by Thacis Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) won 39 seats in the parliament. The coalition led by the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK)Mustafas partywon 29 seats. The nationalist Self Determination party achieved the most significant result by obtaining 32 seats, which doubled its presence in the legislature. This party has been a vocal opponent of the EU-facilitated dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina and has been fiercely opposed to the government led by Mustafa. On multiple occasions during the past two years, members of Self Determination sought ways to obstruct the normal functioning of the parliament, including setting off smoke bombs in the chamber and organising street protests.

The leading PDK coalition has nominated the former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) commander Ramush Haradinaj for the post of prime minister. Haradinaj is wanted in Serbia for his alleged involvement in war crimes against Serbs during the Kosovo war in the 1990s. Earlier this year, Haradinaj was at the centre of a dispute between Serbia and Kosovo after French authorities arrested him upon entering that country. French police acted on an Interpol notice requested by Serbia. Haradinaj was held under judicial supervision in France for several months and released when the court formally ruled against Serbias extradition request. In 2005, Haradinaj surrendered to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY); he was eventually acquitted of war crimes charges in 2012.

At press time, it is still unknown which political party or coalition of parties will have enough votes to form the new government. The next constituent session of the parliament has been set for 3 August.

After a break of more than six months, the high-level EU-facilitated dialogue resumed on 3 July in Brussels. Federica Mogherini, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, hosted a meeting with President Aleksandar Vucic of Serbia and Thaci, during which they agreed to start a new phase in the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, while also stressing the importance of implementing existing agreements.

On 28 June, the special court based in The Hague that will investigate crimes committed by the KLA during the conflict in Kosovo approved rules of procedure and evidence, paving the way towards issuing its first indictments.

Human Rights-Related Developments

In a 26 May statement, the spokesman for the Secretary-General announced the establishment of a trust fund to implement community-based assistance projects, primarily in North Mitrovica, South Mitrovica and Leposavic but also to benefit the broader Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities. The announcement follows the July 2016 report of the Human Rights Advisory Panel, which examined alleged human rights violations by UNMIK, including a complaint submitted by 138 individuals from the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities that they suffered lead poisoning and other serious health consequences as a result of their relocation to internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in northern Kosovo. Via his spokesman, the Secretary-General expressed profound regret for the suffering endured by those living in IDP camps and called on the international community to support the initiative by providing resources to the trust fund. On 29 and 30 June, members of the Working Group on Persons Unaccounted for in Relation to the Events in Kosovo and representatives of UNMIK, the ICRC and the UN Working Group on Missing Persons and Enforced Disappearances met in Geneva to discuss the issue of the 1,658 persons who remain missing in Kosovo. In statements on 29 June at the opening of the roundtable, the High Commissioner for Human Rights said, It is right and urgent that all parties make the extra effort to ensure the fate and whereabouts of every missing person is at last known. Tanin emphasised that finding the missing persons was not only a humanitarian imperative but also a human rights one.

Key Issues

Maintaining stability in Kosovo remains the primary issue for the Council. Related to this is what role UNMIK can play in promoting the implementation of the existing agreements between Belgrade and Pristina.

A further issue for the Council is whether to lengthen the reporting cycle on UNMIK and the possibility of the missions drawdown.

Options

Should the tensions between Belgrade and Pristina escalate further or start to pose a risk to overall stability, the Council could consider issuing a statement calling on both sides to resolve outstanding issues through dialogue. However, the Council has not pronounced itself on the situation in Kosovo in almost ten years, with the last presidential statement adopted in 2008.

If the situation remains stable, the Council could consider lengthening the reporting cycle.

Given the ongoing discussions about the need to improve the effectiveness of UN peace operations, the Council could request the Secretary-General to conduct a review of the mission.

Council Dynamics

Kosovo remains a low-intensity issue for the Council that is followed closely mainly by members with particular interest in the region. Other regional organisations such as the EU, NATO and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe have been playing increasingly prominent roles in Kosovo.

The permanent members of the Council continue to be deeply divided on Kosovo. France, the UK and the US recognise Kosovos independence and tend to be supportive of Kosovos government while China and Russia, which do not, strongly support Serbias position on the issue. The P3 and Japan have become increasingly outspoken in advocating a lengthening of UNMIKs reporting cycle and thus reducing the frequency of meetings on Kosovo. Furthermore, the US and Japan, which are also the top two contributors to the UN peacekeeping budget, have called for a drawdown and eventual withdrawal of UNMIK, given the stability in Kosovo. The US has asserted that the mission remains overstaffed and over-resourced considering its limited responsibilities and that these resources could be put to better use in more pressing situations on the Councils agenda.

Since the current US administration has placed great emphasis on reviewing the UN peacekeeping operations with the aim of reducing costs and increasing efficiency, the issue of modifying UNMIKs mandate is likely to become more prominent. However, any attempt to change the status quo regarding UNMIK would require a new resolution, which Russia would strongly oppose and be likely to block.

UN DOCUMENTS

This resolution authorised NATO to secure and enforce the withdrawal of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia forces from Kosovo and established UNMIK. This was the Secretary-Generals report on UNMIK. This was a briefing by Zahir Tanin, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of UNMIK.
MIDDLE EAST

Lebanon

Expected Council Action

In August, the Council is expected to renew the mandate of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which expires on 31 August.

Key Recent Developments

According to the Secretary-Generals most recent report on the implementation of resolution 1701, the environment in the UNIFIL area of operations remained stable overall during the reporting period (9 March to 21 June), but heightened rhetoric by both parties led to some anxiety among the local population.

In particular, he reported on the events of 20 April, when Hezbollah conducted a tour for Lebanese and international media in the UNIFIL area of operations including along sections of the Blue Line. According to the report, the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) notified UNIFIL less than an hour before the tour started, saying that LAF personnel would be present but with no mention of Hezbollah. UNIFIL personnel did not observe unauthorised armed personnel when they encountered the group. However, a UNIFIL investigation, based on reliable media reports and information gathered, found it credible that unauthorised personnel and weapons were present during the event, a violation of resolution 1701. Apart from this incident, UNIFIL did not receive specific information or find evidence of armed personnel, weapons or infrastructure in its area of operations. Israel, however, continues to allege that Hezbollah maintains military infrastructure and equipment in southern Lebanon.

Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace continued on an almost daily basis during the reporting period, and the Israeli occupation of northern Ghajar and an adjacent area north of the Blue Line continuedboth of which are violations of resolution 1701 (2006) and of Lebanese sovereignty.

Mutual accusations of violations of resolution 1701 continued. On 25 April, Israel said in a letter to the Council (S/2017/356) that it is extremely disturbing that armed Hezbollah militants feel free to move openly in the UNIFIL area of operation, without being challenged by UNIFIL or LAF personnel. In an open debate on protection of civilians on 25 May, the Deputy Permanent Representative of Israel told the Council that Hezbollah had amassed over 100,000 missiles pointing at Israel in violation of resolutions 1559 and 1701. In his letter dated 19 June (S/2017/523), the Permanent Representative of Lebanon denied the presence of armed fighters and weapons in southern Lebanon and accused Israel of encroaching on the daily lives and security of Lebanese civilians with surveillance towers and listening devices all along the southern border.

On 8 March, the Secretary-General sent a letter to the Council containing the results of a strategic review of UNIFIL, conducted in accordance with a request from the Council in resolution 2305 of August 2016. The review noted that Lebanon and Israel continue to approach any adjustment to the capabilities, structure or activities of the mission with strong caution, emphasising that, in the current climate of uncertainty, the focus should be on minimising risks. The strategic review determined that the force was well configured overall to implement its mandated tasks and that the missions deterrent effect contributes to security and stability in the area. The review recognised that failure to meet the political objectives of resolution 1701namely, a permanent ceasefire and long-term solution to the conflictincreasingly puts the relative calm achieved in southern Lebanon and along the Blue Line at risk.

The review identified the following three strategic priorities in the implementation of the mandate of UNIFIL: that UNIFIL, in close coordination with the Special Coordinator for Lebanon and the UN country team, should further promote an integrated and comprehensive approach to the implementation of resolution 1701; that UNIFIL should undertake all necessary preventive actions to maintain calm in its area of operations, including as a means to build confidence between the parties and contribute to creating conditions conducive to the establishment of a permanent ceasefire; and that UNIFIL should have contingency plans in place and be prepared to implement its mandate in extreme situations and, in particular, to deliver on its mandated responsibility to protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence. The review noted that the overall strategic political guidance is to maintain the current strength, composition and configuration of UNIFIL.

On 20 July, Special Coordinator Sigrid Kaag and Assistant Secretary-General El Ghassim Wane briefed Council members in consultations on the report. In their interventions, it seems that members echoed concerns about the lack of progress on the implementation of 1701 and over violations of the resolution, particularly the build-up of weapons by Hezbollah. Issues such as the plight of Syrian and Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, increasing womens political representation, the need to support the LAF, and implementing the recommendations of the strategic review of UNIFIL were raised by various members. Ambassador Nikki Haley (US) said that Hezbollah was calling the shots in Lebanon, that the LAF had no control, and that things needed to change. She stated that while the US supports the work of UNIFIL, the force needed to do more to reduce the illicit build-up of arms, and that this should be considered at the time of the mandate renewal.

Human Rights-Related Developments

On 8 June, the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) published its concluding observations on Lebanons implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The CRC noted measures taken to implement the convention and commended Lebanons role in hosting and supporting a large number of Syrian refugees, including children. It also highlighted the need for further progress, making recommendations regarding such issues as corporal punishment, sexual exploitation and abuse, children with disabilities, economic exploitation, and the administration of juvenile justice.

Key Issues

The main issue is that although the situation is relatively calm, there has been little progress toward the key objectives of resolution 1701 nearly 11 years after its adoption, including a permanent ceasefire.

A central issue is that Hezbollah and other non-state actors continue to maintain weaponry that directly hinders the governments exercise of full authority over its territory, poses a threat to Lebanons sovereignty and stability, and contravenes its obligations under resolutions 1559 and 1701. In that context, the ongoing crisis in Syria, with Hezbollahs involvement on the side of the regime, and the flow of arms from Syria to Hezbollah remain of great concern.

Options

One option for the Council is to renew the mandate of UNIFIL for an additional year without significant changes. However, since the US has indicated that it would like UNIFIL to do more, another option is renewing UNIFIL with changes to the mandate in this regard.

Council Dynamics

The Council has long been united in its position that UNIFIL contributes to stability between Israel and Lebanon, and there is broad support for the mission, as well as for the LAF. However, the US, which appears to be increasingly interested in focusing the Councils attention on the threats posed by Hezbollah and Iran, has been critical of UNIFIL and indicated that it may push for an augmented mandate. In contrast, France, the penholder, appears to prefer to renew the mandate with no major changes, which is widely supported by other members.

UN DOCUMENTS ON LEBANON

This was a resolution which renewed UNIFILs mandate for an additional year and requested the Secretary-General to conduct a strategic review of UNIFIL by February 2017. This resolution expanded UNIFIL by 15,000 troops and expanded its mandate. This resolution urged withdrawal of all foreign forces from Lebanon, disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias, extension of the Lebanese governments control over all Lebanese territory and free and fair presidential elections. This report was on the implementation of resolution 1701. This letter was from the Permanent Representative of Lebanon denouncing the presence of armed fighters and weapons in southern Lebanon. This letter was from the Permanent Representative of Israel regarding Hezbollahs alleged activities in Lebanon. This was the Secretary-Generals strategic review of the UNIFIL.
AFRICA

Libya

Expected Council Action

In August, the Council is expected to receive a briefing from the new Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), Ghassan Salame. The chair of the 1970 Libya Sanctions Committee, Ambassador Olof Skoog (Sweden), is also expected to brief the Council.

UNSMILs mandate expires on 15 September, and the mandate of the Panel of Experts assisting the 1970 Libya Sanctions Committee expires on 15 November 2018.

Key Recent Developments

The process aimed at reaching an inclusive and sustainable political settlement in Libya continues to be deadlocked. There is consensus on the need to amend some provisions of the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA)such as the structure and mandate of the Presidency Council and the authority of the supreme commander of the armed forcesbut deep divisions remain as to how to do so. Briefing the Council on 7 June, Martin Kobler, then head of UNSMIL, described the unstable situation in Libya and underscored the difficulties created by the existence of parallel institutions. He reiterated that the House of Representatives has failed to endorse the Government of National Accord or adopt the amendment incorporating the LPA into the constitutional declaration. On 16 July, the head of the Presidency Council, Faiez Serraj, proposed a roadmap to hold parliamentary and presidential elections by March 2018, but on 18 July the speaker of the eastern-based House of Representatives, Agila Saleh, questioned this announcement, as well as the legitimacy of the Presidency Council. On 25 July, French President Emmanuel Macron convened a meeting of Serraj and the commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA) Khalifa Haftar, with the participation of Salame. In a joint declaration issued after the meeting, Serraj and Haftar committed to a ceasefire and to the holding of presidential and parliamentary elections as soon as possible. On 27 July Council members welcomed the meeting and the joint declaration.

The security situation continues to deteriorate. In Tripoli, militias nominally associated with the Presidency Council have clashed with rival armed groups supporting Khalifa Ghwell, the self-appointed prime minister of a Tripoli-based national salvation government. In the south and center of the country, clashes have continued between Misrata-based militias, the LNA, and tribal armed groups, who are competing for the control of strategic infrastructure amid ongoing tribal tensions. After a three-year military campaign, on 5 July Haftar declared the liberation of Benghazi from terrorism but fighting continues in some neighbourhoods. A continuing LNA offensive towards Tripoli constitutes a risk of further military escalation. (The LNA has repeatedly justified its operations, including against rival militias, as fighting terrorist groups.) Although Misrata-based militias took Sirte from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in late 2016, the presence of ISIL-associated groups and dormant cells in other areas of Libya persists.

The situation of migrants and refugees in Libya, which was characterised in December 2016 as a human rights crisis by UNSMIL and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, continues to be critical. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, as of mid-July more than 93,000 persons have fled to Italy in 2017 following the central Mediterranean Sea route. In the first half of the year, more than 2,200 refugees and migrants have died or gone missing trying to cross from Libya.

In other developments, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, whose extradition has been sought by the ICC, was set free by the Abu-Bakir al-Siddiq Brigade, a Zintan-based militia, in June. On 14 June, ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda called on the Libyan authorities, the Security Council, state parties to the Rome Statute, and all other states to provide her office with any information regarding Gaddafis whereabouts. She stated that the arrest warrant issued against him in 2011 for crimes against humanity remains valid regardless of any purported amnesty law.

The Department of Political Affairs has recently concluded a strategic review of the UNs role in Libya. The recommendations of this exercise, which included an independent evaluation, are expected to be shared with the Council. In December 2016, the Council indicated that it stands ready to review UNSMILs mandate if needed. On 28 June, militias opened fire on an UNSMIL convoy near Tripoli. Although there were no casualties, staff members were temporarily held by the militias.

Sanctions-Related Developments

In June, the Council adopted two resolutions related to the implementation of the sanctions regime. On 12 June, the Council adopted resolution 2357 renewing the authorisation for member states, acting nationally or through regional organisations, to inspect on the high seas off the coast of Libya vessels bound to or from Libya when there are reasonable grounds to believe that they are violating the arms embargo. It also renewed the authorisation for member states to seize and dispose of arms and ammunition found during the inspection of these vessels. Resolution 2357 will continue to be mostly implemented through the EUs EUNAVFOR MED Operation Sophia.

On 29 June, the Council adopted resolution 2362 reviewing the sanctions regime and renewed the mandate of the Panel of Experts assisting the 1970 Libya Sanctions Committee until 15 November 2018. The resolution added refined petroleum products to the commodities banned from illicit export from Libya (before it covered only crude oil). The resolution also added as a designation criterion for the travel ban and the assets freeze involvement in attacks against UN personnel, including members of the Panel of Experts. On 21 July, the 1970 Sanctions Committee listed a Tanzania-flagged vessel for transporting gasoil illicitly exported from Libya.

Human Rights-Related Developments

In a statement on 18 July, a spokesperson for the High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern that people taken prisoner by members of the LNA after recent fighting in Benghazi may be at imminent risk of torture and even summary execution. This follows reports suggesting the involvement of the Special Forces, a unit aligned with the LNA, and in particular their field commander Mahmoud al-Werfalli, in torturing detainees and summarily executing at least ten captured men. While the LNA had announced in March that it would conduct investigations into alleged war crimes, the spokesperson noted that the LNA has not shared any information regarding the progress of these inquiries. The spokesperson urged the LNA to ensure that there is a full, impartial investigation into these allegations and also called on the group to suspend al-Werfalli from his duties as a Special Forces field commander pending the conclusion of such an investigation.

Key Issues

A continuing overarching issue is to ensure that the parties agree on a solution to end the political deadlock by addressing the issues raised by those refusing to support the LPA. Engaging military actors in this endeavour is a related issue.

Rebuilding trust among Libyans, underscoring the added value and relevance of UN mediation efforts, and pressing external actors to ensure the coherence of their mediation efforts are important issues for the political process.

A further issue in light of the complex situation in Tripoli and beyond is the safety and security of UN personnel if the plans for their return from Tunis to be based again in Libya are carried out.

Options

Following the completion of the strategic review of the UN presence in Libya, the Council could discuss its conclusions and adopt a resolution prioritising a limited set of tasks that UNSMIL can realistically achieve to align the missions mandate with the political, security and operational realities on the ground.

Council members could also visit Libya and the region to hold discussions with the parties, including spoilers, and regional stakeholders to help overcome the political deadlock.

Council and Wider Dynamics

In response to the current stalemate, there seems to be consensus among Council members about the need to amend the LPA. Members, including the P5, generally support UNSMILs mediation. But so far, the Council has failed to set a clear direction to reach and support a political settlement. Given the involvement of regional actors with diverging priorities in Libya, the decision by several key countries (including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt) to break off diplomatic ties with Qatar in early June may affect the calculations of Libyan actors regarding their external support.

Several months of P5 divisions over the appointment of a new head for UNSMIL ended when Salame was named on 22 June.

The UK is the penholder on Libya, and Sweden chairs the 1970 Libya Sanctions Committee.

UN DOCUMENTS ON LIBYA

This was a resolution renewing the mandate of the Panel of Experts assisting the 1970 Libya Sanctions Committee and the measures regarding attempts to illicitly export oil from Libya. This was a resolution which renewed for an additional year the measures contained in resolution 2292 on the arms embargo. This was a resolution extending UNSMILs mandate until 15 September 2017. This was from the Charge dAffaires of the Permanent Mission of Libya to the UN, reiterating the request of the Presidency Council to allow for the reinvestment of frozen assets. This was a briefing from Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of UNSMIL Martin Kobler, as well as the 1970 Libya Sanctions Committee chair, Ambassador Olof Skoog (Sweden). This was the final report of the Panel of Experts.
Sahel

Expected Council Action

In August, the Council expects to receive a briefing on the joint force of the Group of Five for the Sahel (G5 Sahel), comprising Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger. Resolution 2359 of 21 June asked the Secretary-General to provide an oral briefing within two months of the adoption on the activities of the G5 Sahel, including on its operationalization, on challenges encountered and possible measures for further consideration.

Key Recent Developments

The Sahel region continues to experience instability. Over the past year, terrorist and violent extremist groups from Mali have increasingly spread into north-east Burkina Faso and western Niger. In particular, Niger has been under pressure from a triple threat: armed groups in Mali to its west, the conflicts in Libya to its north, and attacks by Boko Haram in the south-east.

At a summit in Bamako on 6 February, the heads of state of the G5 Sahel countries announced their decision to establish a regional force of 5,000 troops to combat terrorism and transnational crime.

On 13 April, the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) authorised the deployment of the G5 Sahel Joint Force for an initial period of 12 months. The PSC mandated the force to:

combat terrorism, drug trafficking, and human trafficking;

contribute to the restoration of state authority and the return of displaced persons and refugees;

facilitate humanitarian operations and the delivery of aid to affected populations as much as possible; and

contribute to the implementation of development strategies in G5 Sahel countries.

The G5 force is to deploy along the Mali-Mauritania border; the Liptako Gourma border region between Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger; and the Niger-Chad border. In its 13 April communique, the PSC urged the UN Security Council to approve the deployment of the force and to authorise the UN Secretary-General to identify the modalities of sustainable and predictable financial and logistical support to be provided to the Force, including through the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).

On 15 May, the Secretary-General circulated to Council members the PSC communique and the draft concept of operations of the joint force with a letter from the Chairperson of the AU Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, conveying the AU request to the Council. On 21 June, the Council adopted resolution 2359, which welcomed the deployment of the G5 force throughout the territories of its contributing countries. The resolutions adoption followed a difficult negotiation over whether the Council should authorise the force and envisage the possibility of using UN assessed contributions to support its budget. Neither was included in the final text. The resolution encourages bilateral and multilateral partners to support the force and to expeditiously convene a planning conference to ensure the coordination of donor assistance. For follow-up, the resolution, in addition to asking for the oral briefing, requested the Secretary-General to provide a written report within four months. It also expressed the Councils intent to review the forces deployment after four months.

At a G5 Sahel heads of state summit in Bamako on 2 July attended by French President Emmanuel Macron, the five Sahel countries formally launched the force. In addition to the EUs previously announced commitment of 50 million euros to the force, Macron said that France would contribute around 8 million euros towards logistical support. Each of the G5 Sahel countries pledged to contribute 10 million euros. The currently promised funds, however, still leave a significant gap in funding the projected 423 million euro annual budget.

On 13 July, Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced in Paris the launch of the Alliance for the Sahel, a joint initiative of France, Germany and the EU to improve development cooperation in the region and promote innovative development among the EU, its member states, the World Bank Group, the African Development Bank, and the UN. The joint statement announcing the alliance noted that the initiative would not duplicate the UN Integrated Strategy for the Sahel, developed by the UN in 2013 to address the regions underlying causes of instability.

Key Issues

The planned briefing is expected to update members on progress in establishing and deploying the joint force and on issues related to funding and possible challenges to the forces sustainability. The session will also likely consider security developments in the region. It may further provide information about how MINUSMA and Frances counter-terrorism Operation Barkhane are supporting G5 countries in establishing the force.

Options

The Council is unlikely to take substantive decisions in August in light of the Secretary-Generals expected report in October and the Councils intention to subsequently review the forces deployment. It could, however, consider issuing a statement that welcomes any progress reported on the establishment of the G5 Joint Force and that commends the commitment of the G5 Sahel countries and the support provided by the EU and France.

Council and Wider Dynamics

While members support this initiative to tackle the regions security threats, the Council is divided over the UNs role in funding the G5 force. During negotiations on resolution 2359, the US and several other major financial contributors objected to authorising the force, in part because they considered it unnecessary but also out of concern about the financial obligations such an authorisation could imply. France, which maintains Operation Barkhane in the Sahel, supported the position of the G5 countries and the AU that the UN should consider providing assessed contributions.

Burkina Faso, Chad and Niger have deployed about 4,000 soldiers within MINUSMA. Chad and Niger also contribute troops to the Multinational Joint Task Force, which is a similar regional force set up by Lake Chad Basin countries to combat Boko Haram. Chadian President Idriss Deby, whose government is under significant financial strain because of a recession, has expressed reluctance about participating further in the G5 Joint Force unless more international support is provided.

France acted as penholder on resolution 2359.

UN DOCUMENTS ON THE G5 SAHEL

This was a resolution renewing MINUSMAs mandate for an additional year. This welcomed the deployment of the G5 Sahel force. This was the meeting during which the Council adopted resolution 2359.
PEACEMAKING, PEACEKEEPING AND PEACEBUILDING

Sanctions

Expected Council Actions

Egypt has scheduled a briefing in August under the agenda item General issues relating to sanctions. A representative of the Department of Political Affairs will brief, and a resolution addressing a number of matters applicable to sanctions across the board is expected to be adopted as the briefings outcome. At press time, the draft resolution was being negotiated.

Key Recent Developments

Leading up to the briefing during its August presidency, Egypt organised an Arria-formula meeting on 5 July on Enhancing the Design Process of UN Sanctions: Perspectives from All Stakeholders. According to a concept note, the meeting was called to provide an opportunity for a discussion on the enhancement of UN sanctions design process, including perspectives of previously or currently targeted countries and to bring together representatives from permanent and non-permanent members of the UNSC, wider United Nations membership, and Regional Organizations. The meeting was held in an open format and was webcast by UNTV. The briefers included ambassadors of two countries for which Security Council sanctions have been terminated recently, Lewis G. Brown of Liberia and Amadu Koroma of Sierra Leone, and of one member state currently under sanctions, Ignace Gata Mavita wa Lufuta of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Representatives of civil society also briefed.

Both ambassadors of states formerly under sanctions expressed their conviction that Security Council sanctions contributed to their respective countries return to democracy. In the two-hour discussion that followed, most members of the Council took the floor. The broad range of topics covered included aspects of the working methods of sanctions committees; common threads running through different sanctions regimes, such as the need for flexibility and periodic adjustments of sanctions measures; and the uneven and sometimes faulty implementation of the sanctions. Several members stressed the need for sanctions to be part of an overall broader strategy for the Councils approach to a given situation.

A considerable number of non-members of the Security Council attended the meeting. Several addressed the gathering, including some who spoke on behalf of groups of states particularly interested in specific aspects of sanctions.

Developments over the Years

The Security Council considers sanctionsas envisaged in Article 41 of the UN Charteran important tool to enforce its decisions. In the UNs first several decades, Chapter VII sanctions were imposed only twice, on Rhodesia in 1966 and South Africa in 1977, but following the end of the Cold War their use has become quite extensive.

There are now 13 active sanctions regimes; the all-time high, from March 2015 until January 2016, stood at 16. Collectively, the work of sanctions committees, all of which are currently chaired by permanent representatives of elected Council member states, accounts for a significant portion of members time and resources. Sanctions are nowadays discussed virtually every month, in briefings, consultations and meetings of the different sanctions committees, but almost always in the context of a specific sanctions regime.

Following a period in the 1990s when several sanctions regimes were created very quickly and in an ad hoc fashion, members realised that the Council lacked methodology and sometimes even consistent terminology that would ensure clarity and coherence from one sanctions resolution to another. In early 1997, the eight elected members chairing the sanctions committees at the time started meeting informally to share experience and expertise, and to discuss the possibilities of devising more uniform guidelines and procedures, rationalising the use of existing resources and achieving better sanctions implementation. In consultations in November of that year, the Council discussed sanctions thematically for the first time, rather than only considering one sanctions regime at a time. This in turn led to the Councils adopting a number of documents on working methods related to sanctions.

Sanctions became a thematic issue on the Councils agenda when Canada, during its April 2000 presidency, organised an open debate on the topic. On the same day, the President of the Council issued a note in which members of the Council decided to establish an informal working group of the Council to develop general recommendations about how to improve the effectiveness of UN sanctions.

In the 17 years since adding to its agenda the thematic item General issues relating to sanctions the Council has held a few meetings under this item; two of them as open debates.

After the first open debate in 2000, Ireland organised an open debate on sanctions on 22 October 2001 during its presidency with a focus on the design of targeted sanctions. (Numerous members at large asked to speak, and the debate resumed on 25 October.) Germany held a follow-up to the two open debates in a Council debate on 25 February 2003. More recently, Australia held a briefing in November 2014 and Venezuela held a debate in February 2016.

Much of the methodological work on and discussions of UN sanctions unfolded outside the Council. Starting with a March 1998 meeting in Switzerland, different member states hosted international meetings in quick succession, addressing specific aspects of sanctions. The Swiss meetings, held in Interlaken in 1998 and 1999, were focused on the design and technicalities of financial sanctions. In November 1999, a meeting focusing on arms embargoes and targeted sanctions was held in Bonn, and its follow-up took place in December 2000 in Berlin. The next large international initiative on sanctions was undertaken by the Swedish government with meetings in April and November 2002. Each of these meetings was attended by government representatives, experts, and members of civil society, and they became known, after the locations where the seminars were held, as the Interlaken, the Bonn/Berlin, and the Stockholm processes. Each produced a handbook-type report intended for use by the Council and other relevant actors. Building on these efforts, the Informal Working Group on General Issues of Sanctions transmitted its final report on 18 December 2006, which the Council, on 21 December, welcomed in resolution 1732, deciding that the Working Group has fulfilled its mandate.

Several more government-driven initiatives, aimed at improving sanctions effectiveness while also addressing their side effects, followed. These included the 2005/2006 study of targeted sanctions and enhancing due process of sanctions regimes led by Germany, Sweden and Switzerland; the ongoing work of 11 Like-Minded States on Targeted Sanctions; and, in 2014-2015, a High Level Review of UN Sanctions, initiated by Australia, Finland, Germany, Greece and Sweden, with its compendium containing 150 recommendations published in 2015, followed by an assessment document published this June.

Council and Wider Dynamics

Since the late 1990s, there has been an interesting pattern to the dynamics surrounding UN sanctions. Most methodological exercises, as described above, originated outside the Council, and although most Council members participated in these meetings, the Council as a whole kept a certain distance from these discussions. Also, the Council never formally took on board the results of these processes, though several of their respective outcomes were published as Council documents in the form of annexes to a letter to the Secretary-General or the president of the Security Council. Taken together, the different series of initiatives played an important role in the development of the Councils sanctions methodology, and the presentation of their outcomes provided the opportunities for most of the Councils public discussions of the general issues of sanctions.

Elected members have tended to lead on these initiatives, such as organising public discussions; they also led the Informal Working Group on General Issues of Sanctions from 2000 through 2006.

On the whole, permanent members have seemed more reluctant to engage in initiatives aimed at establishing sanctions methodology applicable to all sanctions regimes. They have, however, often taken the lead in designing or modifying specific sanctions regimes.

The Egyptian initiative appears to reflect a desire for the Council, when needed, to be able to address issues common to all or most sanctions regimes, such as the methodology of sanctions committees or their monitoring bodies, or the Councils ability to adjust sanctions in accordance with the changing environment. It is also partly a response to concerns from the wider UN membership about states capacity to implement sanctions and their need for assistance and guidance in this respect.

UN DOCUMENTS ON SANCTIONS

This resolution welcomed the report of the Working Group on General Issues of Sanctions and requested its subsidiary bodies to take note of methodological standards and best practices proposed in the report. This resolution established a focal point within the UN Secretariat to process submissions for de-listing under Council resolutions involving targeted sanctions. This was on the cooperation between Interpol and the 1267 committee. This was a debate titled Working Methods of Security Council Subsidiary Organs. This was a briefing by Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman and Interpol Secretary-General Jurgen Stock regarding sanctions. This was a debate on sanctions organised by Germany. This was an open debate on general issues related to sanctions and its continuation. This was the resumption of an open debate on general issues related to sanctions and its continuation. This was the last time article 27(3) was raised by a member state during a Security Council meeting. This note by the President of the Council established on a temporary basis an Informal Working Group to develop general recommendations on how to improve the effectiveness of UN sanctions. This was a letter from the Permanent Representative of Australia to the President of the Security Council requesting the circulation, as a document of the Security Council, of the annexed assessment of the High Level Review. This was a concept note circulated by Venezuela for the debate titled Working Methods of Security Council Subsidiary Organs. This was the Compendium of the High-level Review of UN Sanctions. This was a concept note circulated by Australia for the briefing on sanctions. This was a note by the President of the Security Council transmitting a letter from the Chairman of the Informal Working Group of the Security Council on General Issues of Sanctions and enclosing the report of the Informal Working Group.
AFRICA

Somalia

Expected Council Action

In August, the Council is expected to adopt a resolution reauthorising the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) for an additional year.

Key Recent Developments

The security situation in Somalia remains precarious, with attacks by militant Islamist group Al-Shabaab continuing. On 2 July, a roadside bomb struck a minibus north of Mogadishu, killing two people and injuring six others. At least four soldiers were killed and several others wounded on 23 July when a roadside blast targeted a security convoy 250 kilometres south-west of the capital Mogadishu; Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack.

Al-Shabaab militants have also stepped up attacks in neighbouring Kenya. Several attacks took place in July, in areas close to Kenyas long, porous border with Somalia. These attacks include the 5 July killing of three Kenyan police officers by Al-Shabaab gunmen in the Pandaguo area of Lamu County; the 8 July beheading of nine Kenyans in the same area; and the 20 July killing of two people by Al-Shabaab gunmen in Kiunga, Lamu County.

On 12 July, the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) adopted a communique on the report of the chairperson of the AU Commission on the AU-UN joint review of AMISOM, the AUs renewal of the mandate of AMISOM, and the report on the 10-year lessons learned assessment of AMISOM. (At press time, the UN Security Council had not yet received the report of the joint review.)

In the communique, the PSC requested the AU Commission to establish a committee of experts to develop a joint AU/troop and police contributors exit strategy, stressing the importance of an AMISOM transition plan that is based on a realistic timeframe and the attainment of the key security conditions suggested by the AU-UN joint review. The communique endorsed the reviews recommendations on a phased reduction and reorganisation of AMISOMs uniformed personnel, with Somali National Security Forces (SNSF) progressively taking the lead in undertaking security tasks. The communique underlined the need to avoid any security vacuum. The PSC further emphasised that the continued presence of AMISOM in Somalia and the implementation of a viable transition necessitates the securing of predictable and sustainable funding for AMISOM and Somali security institutions.

The humanitarian situation in Somalia remains dire. According to a 24 July OCHA report on drought response, 6.7 million Somalis are in need of aid. Somalis displaced by drought remain highly vulnerable to the spread of acute watery diarrhoea (AWD), as well as cholera and other communicable diseases, because of limited access to safe water and poor sanitation and hygiene conditions. According to the report, over 70,000 AWD/cholera cases and 1,098 related deaths have been recorded since the beginning of 2017.

Sexual and gender-based violence has increased in the context of drought-related displacement. Between November 2016 and March, UNICEF and partners responded on average to about 300 cases of rape, sexual assault and gender-related violence each month. In June, the number tripled, with 909 reported cases. Over 750,000 people have been displaced since November.

Sanctions-Related Developments

On 24 July, the chair of the 751/1907 Somalia and Eritrea Sanctions Committee, Ambassador Kairat Umarov (Kazakhstan), delivered his 120-day briefing to Council members in consultations, covering the period from April to July 2017. The chair reported that the Committee received two notifications pertaining to humanitarian exemptions, one request for advance approval for supply of arms to the government, and three notifications of transfers of arms to the government for the development of the national security forces. His briefing touched on the 21 April midterm update of the Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group (SEMG). In this update, the SEMG reported that the terrorist group Al-Shabaab remained the most significant threat to peace and security, while an extremist group affiliated with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is increasing in size. The resurgence of piracy off the coast of Somalia and the charcoal ban were also addressed. On Eritrea, Umarov updated Council members on the allegations by two member states concerning the transfer of weapons from Eritrea to Al-Shabaab made in late 2016, reporting that Djibouti has yet to provide the group with sufficient information to support its allegations and that the SEMG is awaiting further information to corroborate information already received. The SEMG reported that Eritrea continued its support to Ethiopian and Djiboutian opposition groups, he said. The SEMGs investigation into a consignment of 24,900 blank-firing pistols destined for Sudan via Massawa port in Eritrea continues. The SEMG observed that the pistols fall within the scope of the arms embargo and their import to and export from Eritrea would constitute violations of the embargo. The chair also addressed the Djibouti-Eritrea conflict, following Qatars 14 June announcement that it would no longer mediate between the parties and its withdrawal of peacekeeping forces from the border areas. On 16 June, Djibouti accused Eritrea of occupying disputed territory along their mutual border. The SEMG has requested access to the border area but has only gained clearance by the Djiboutian side. Umarov also reported that his planned visit to the region in late Julywhich was to include a visit to Asmarahad to be postponed at the request of the Eritrean government.

Human Rights-Related Developments

In a statement on 26 May, the Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Somalia, Bahame Tom Mukirya Nyanduga, called on the international community to support the country through the current humanitarian crisis, its ongoing state-building process, and efforts to improve the human rights situation. The statement came after the conclusion of Bahame Nyandugas visit to Somalia from 15 to 25 May. Bahame Nyanduga also expressed concern about violations of the right to freedom of expression and media rights in Somalia, including detention without trial, police brutality, and intimidation of journalists. Bahame Nyanduga is set to submit a report to the Human Rights Council at its 36th session in September.

Key Issues

Concerning the reauthorisation of AMISOM, a key issue is ensuring that the mission is equipped to adequately strengthen the SNSF so they can progressively take the lead in providing security. This is particularly urgent in light of AMISOMs plan to begin withdrawing from Somalia in October 2018, since a premature handover of security responsibilities would risk undermining Somalias security and political gains.

Closely related is the need to secure predictable and sustainable funding for AMISOM and Somali security institutions. In this regard, the AUs requests for the UN to provide AMISOM with funding through assessed contributions, also suggested by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during his March visit to Somalia, may be considered by the Council.

Another issue concerning AMISOM is ensuring that its forces comply with human rights standards, including in joint military operations with the SNSF against Al-Shabaab. Likewise, encouraging Somali security forces to meet such standards, including through participation in human rights training programs provided by the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM), is crucial to facilitating a successful transition.

Pressing humanitarian issues include ensuring effective humanitarian responses to the drought, the looming famine, and the outbreak of cholera.

Options

The most likely option in August will be to reauthorise AMISOM for one year using the observations and recommendations of the joint AU-UN review of AMISOM as a basis for any alterations to the mandate.

Council and Wider Dynamics

On Somalia generally, Council members are united in supporting state-building processes and in their support for AMISOM, as demonstrated by unified messages conveyed during the Councils visit to Somalia in May 2016 and the uncontentious adoption of several recent Council outcomes on Somalia.

The AU continues to press the Council to do more to ensure predictable and sustainable funding for AMISOM. It appears that most Council members are in favour of providing some funding to AMISOM through UN assessed contributions, however, the US is opposed to the proposal.

Regarding sanctions, the Council is divided between those members who believe that, because evidence of Eritrean support for Al-Shabaab is lacking, it should reconsider its measures against Eritrea, and those who remain concerned about Eritreas other activities in the region and seem to view cooperation with the SEMG as a precondition for any changes in the sanctions regime.

The UK is the penholder on Somalia, and Kazakhstan is the chair of the 751/1907 Somalia and Eritrea Sanctions Committee.

UN DOCUMENTS ON SOMALIA

This was a resolution extending AMISOMs authorisation until 31 August 2017 with no changes. This was a resolution on Somalia and Eritrea sanctions with ten votes in favour. This was the Secretary-Generals report on Somalia. This was the report on Eritrea of the Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea. This was the report on Somalia of the Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea.
AFRICA

South Sudan

Expected Council Action

In August, the Council is expected to consider the Secretary-Generals 30-day assessment of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and the deployment and future requirements of the Regional Protection Force (RPF).

The UNMISS mandate expires on 15 December.

Key Recent Developments

Fighting has continued in South Sudan, despite the limited mobility imposed by the rainy season and notwithstanding the unilateral ceasefire declared by President Salva Kiir on 22 May, which has since been effectively discarded. The South Sudanese government has announced that its forces are besieging Pagak, the nominal headquarters of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army-In Opposition (SPLA-IO), in the Upper Nile region. UNMISS has reported that over 5,000 civilians have been displaced from Pagak and that some humanitarian personnel have been forced from the town because of fighting.

Violence has been escalating in and around the UN civilian protection sites, where more than 200,000 people have sought shelter. On 15 July there were reports of fighting between youth groups within the UNMISS civilian protection site at Bentiu. The site contains over 120,000 civilians, and the fighting is a troubling reminder of the difficulties UNMISS faces in maintaining law and order inside the sites.

Deployment of the RPF, which was initially authorised in August 2016, is continuing, albeit at a slower than desired pace. To date, initial elements of the force headquartersthe Bangladesh Construction Engineering Company and the Nepalese High Readiness Companyhave deployed to Juba, with the remaining forces to follow. Deployment of the remaining contingents continues to be delayed by difficulties finalising agreement with the South Sudanese government over the use of basing sites and securing the necessary clearances.

On 20 July, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations El Ghassim Wane briefed the Council on the situation in South Sudan. Wane spoke about the ongoing fighting in the Upper Nile and Eastern Equatoria regions, and noted with concern that President Kiir continues to replace opposition-aligned members of the nominal Transitional Government of National Unity with his own supporters or those loyal to Vice-President Taban Deng Gai.

Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC) Chairman Festus Mogae also briefed the Council, via video teleconference from Juba. Mogae reported on his interactions with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and regional leaders. Mogae discussed IGADs steps to revitalise the political process. On 2 July, the IGAD Council of Ministers agreed on guidelines and a timeframe for convening the High-Level Revitalization Forum, called for by the 12 June communique of the 31st Extra-Ordinary IGAD Summit. The forum is expected to convene in late September. Mogae also reported that he had visited former First Vice-President and opposition leader Riek Machar in South Africa and that Machar had refused Mogaes request to renounce violence and declare a unilateral ceasefire.

Key Issues

The central issue for the Council remains how to support IGADs efforts to revitalise the political process, either by exerting pressure on the South Sudanese government and opposition to implement a ceasefire and embrace an inclusive process or by combining both incentives and disincentives.

Another issue is how to complete the deployment of the RPF and ensure that it enables the redeployment of other UNMISS elements to areas where civilian populations are most affected by ongoing violence.

The larger issue for the Council remains how to encourage greater cooperation by the government, including ending the ongoing violence against civilians and removing impediments to both humanitarian access and UNMISSs ability to carry out its mandate.

Options

One option is for the Council to adopt a presidential statement that:

strongly condemns violence perpetuated by government forces and armed groups in South Sudan and calls for an immediate ceasefire;

welcomes the communique of the 12 June IGAD Summit; and

emphasises the Councils united support for the High-Level Revitalization Forum.

Another option for the Council is to impose an arms embargo on the country or an assets freeze and travel ban on key figures responsible for the ongoing violence, or both.

An alternative option is for the Council to attempt to incentivise the South Sudanese government to cooperate by offering conditional support, possibly including logistical support, for the national dialogue. Conditions might include implementation of a ceasefire, the governments participation in a revived and inclusive political process, and confirmation that the national dialogue will have a neutral chairperson.

Council Dynamics

The Council remains divided over its approach to South Sudan. There is still no consensus on the degree to which the Council should welcome the national dialogue as it is currently presented by the government of South Sudan. Some Council members are concerned that a focus on the national dialogue may come at the cost of engagement with IGADs efforts to revitalise the political process. Council members also remain divided over whether to incentivise cooperation by the South Sudanese government or whether the targeting of civilians by Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) forces necessitates a strong response by the Council to pressure the South Sudanese government towards peace.

During the 20 July briefing, Council members welcomed IGADs efforts to revitalise the political process and emphasised the need for all parties to commit to implementation of a ceasefire and participation in an inclusive political process. The US reiterated its call for an arms embargo and additional targeted sanctions; however, there does not appear to be sufficient support for such action at this time.

The US is the penholder on South Sudan, while Senegal chairs the 2206 South Sudan Sanctions Committee.

UN DOCUMENTS ON SOUTH SUDAN

This extended the mandate of the South Sudan sanctions regime until May 2018. This extended the mandate of UNMISS for one year and reauthorised the Regional Protection Force. This resolution authorised the Regional Protection Force. This statement emphasised the need for a political solution to the conflict in South Sudan. This was a briefing by Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations El Ghassim Wane. This was a briefing by the head of UNMISS, David Shearer. This was a briefing by Shearer. This was a high-level briefing on South Sudan. This was the 90-day report on UNMISS. This was the draft resolution on an arms embargo and targeted sanctions that failed to receive the necessary support to be adopted. It received seven affirmative votes (France, New Zealand, Spain, Ukraine, Uruguay, the UK and the US) and eight abstentions (Angola, China, Egypt, Japan, Malaysia, Russia, Senegal, and Venezuela).
Status Update

Sudan (Darfur)

On 3 July, the 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee met to discuss the report of the chair, Ambassador Volodymyr Yelchenko (Ukraine), on his 14 to 18 May 2017 visit to Sudan (SC/12903). Yelchenko briefed Council members in consultations on the work of the committee on 24 July.

Children and Armed Conflict

The Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict met on 6 July to discuss its draft conclusions on the Secretary-Generals report on children and armed conflict in the Philippines (S/2017/294). It met again on 13 July to adopt its conclusions on Somalia (S/AC.51/2017/2). The Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba, briefed Council members on 6 July under any other business on the impact of the conflict in the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on children.

Counter-Terrorism

In a press statement on 7 July, Council members condemned a terrorist attack at a checkpoint in Rafah, Egypt, where at least 26 officers and soldiers from the Egyptian armed forces were killed and injured (SC/12905). On 20 July, the Council adopted resolution 2368 renewing and updating the 1267/1989/2253 ISIL (Daesh) & Al-Qaida Sanctions regime. The resolution included a number of updates intended to better reflect and counter the evolving threat presented by Al-Qaida and ISIL (S/PV.8007). These focused on addressing foreign terrorist fighters returning to their respective countries of origin; trafficking in persons and kidnapping for ransom by Al-Qaida and ISIL; and measures to restrict Al-Qaida and ISIL financing. The resolution also provided updates concerning the Office of the Ombudsperson, including regarding communications among the Ombudsperson, the Sanctions Committee and petitioners. Through an annex to the resolution, eight individuals or organisations were added to the ISIL (Daesh) & Al-Qaida Sanctions List. On 24 July, Council members issued a press statement condemning the terrorist attack in Lahore, Pakistan that occurred that same day and resulted in more than 80 people killed or injured, with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan claiming responsibility (SC/12925).

Colombia

On 10 July, the Council adopted resolution 2366 establishing the UN Verification Mission in Colombia, a successor mission to the current UN Mission in Colombia (S/PV.7997). The adoption followed a 5 June letter (S/2017/481) to the Council and the Secretary-General from Colombias President Juan Manuel Santos Calderon conveying the request of the parties to establish the mission in accordance with the Final Agreement. The resolution also calls on the UN Mission in Colombia to start provisional work anticipated by the Verification Missionwithin its current configuration and capacity up until the time its mandate ends on 25 September.

Ad Hoc Working Group on Conflict Prevention and Resolution in Africa

On 12 July, the Working Group convened to discuss the AU roadmap for silencing the guns, a plan to end conflict in Africa.

Yemen

On 12 July, the Council was briefed via video teleconference by the Secretary-Generals Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, and in person by Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Stephen OBrien (S/PV.7999). The director-generals of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and of the Food and Agricultural Organization, Jose Graziano da Silva also briefed by video teleconference. After further discussion in consultations, Council members issued elements to the press, which reiterated members support for the Councils 15 June presidential statement (S/PRST/2017/7) and recognised the need for all parties to convert the words of the text into action.

Central African Republic

In a meeting on 13 July (S/PV.8001), the Council adopted a presidential statement that expresses concern at the ongoing clashes between armed groups in the Central African Republic (CAR) and the targeting of civilians from specific communities, UN Peacekeepers and humanitarian workers (S/PRST/2017/9). At the subsidiary level, the 2127 CAR Sanctions Committee met on 21 July to discuss the six-monthly report of the committees Panel of Experts. In a press statement on 24 July Council members condemned the attack on a MINUSCA convoy in Bangassou (Mbomou) on 23 July by anti-Balaka elements that resulted in one peacekeeper killed and three injured (SC/12926). Another press statement was issued on the Central African Republic on 26 July, condemning the 25 July attacks on MINUSCA peacekeepers (SC/12930). On 27 July, Council members discussed recent developments in the CAR under any other business.

UNOWAS

On 13 July, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, Special Representative and head of UNOWAS, briefed the Council (S/PV.8002) on recent developments in the region and the semi-annual UNOWAS report (S/2017/563). After public statements by Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Russia and Uruguay, further discussions followed in consultations. On 24 July, the Council adopted a presidential statement (S/PRST/2017/10), initiated by Senegal, in follow-up to the briefing (S/PV.8009). The statement, inter alia, welcomed developments in The Gambia and Cote dIvoire, highlighting the role for UNOWAS to support, as necessary, Cote dIvoire following the recent withdrawal of the UN peacekeeping operation to the country. The statement highlighted the terrorism threat in the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin and regional efforts through the Multinational Joint Task Force to combat Boko Haram, and the initiative of the Group of Five for the Sahel to establish a joint force. The presidential statement, among other elements, also encouraged further progress in implementing the UN Integrated Strategy for the Sahel. In this regard, it emphasised the importance of the UN and partners enhancing their programmatic capacity and focus on cross-border challenges, as well as reiterating the importance of UNOWASs collaboration with the Peacebuilding Commission.

Iraq

On 13 July, Council members issued a press statement in which they welcomed the announcement by the Iraqi authorities on the liberation of Mosul (SC/12911). The statement also called on the government of Iraq to stabilise liberated areas across the country and called on all Iraqis to work towards national reconciliation. On 14 July, the Council adopted resolution 2367, extending the mandate of UNAMI for another year (S/PV.8003). The resolution also requested the Secretary-General to conduct an independent external assessment of the structure and staffing of UNAMI and related resources in an effort to ensure that the UN mission and the UN country team fulfil their mandated tasks more efficiently. On 17 July, Special Representative and head of UNAMI Jan Kubis briefed the Council on the latest developments in Iraq and on the situation in Mosul (S/PV.8004).

Cyprus

On 18 July, Council members met in consultations on the situation in Cyprus. Elizabeth Spehar, Special Representative and head of UNFICYP, briefed on the latest report of the Secretary-General (S/2017/586) and on developments related to the UN mission. Espen Barth Eide, the Secretary-Generals Special Adviser on Cyprus, briefed on the latest developments in the unification talks. On 27 July, the Council unanimously adopted resolution 2369 which extended the mandate of UNFICYP for another six months (S/PV.8014). The resolution also requested the Secretary-General to conduct a strategic review of the mission and provide, within four months, recommendations on how the mission should be optimally configured to implement its mandate.

Haiti

On 18 July, Sandra Honore, Special Representative and head of MINUSTAH briefed the Council on the latest report of the Secretary-General (S/2017/604) and recent developments (S/PV.8005). Honore called on the Haitian authorities to restore the countrys judiciary and to bolster its independence. Council members emphasised the importance of the smooth transition to a successor mission in October. Council members also addressed the issue of cholera and some also called on the international community to contribute to the cholera fund.

Peace and Security in Africa

On 19 July, the Council held an open debate on Enhancing African capacities in the areas of peace and security (S/PV.8006 and Resumption 1). The open debate focused on policies and procedures that can provide concrete and effective support for building the capacities of African countries in the field of peace and security. The Council was briefed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the AU Commissioner for Peace and Security Smail Chergui. The basis for the open debate was a concept note circulated by China (S/2017/574) as well as the 26 May report of the Secretary-General that identified four options through which UN assessed contributions could be used to help meet the requirements of supporting AU peace support operations (S/2017/454).

Liberia

On 24 July, the Council adopted a presidential statement (S/PRST/2017/11) on the Liberia peacebuilding plan and upcoming presidential elections (S/PV.8010). The statement, which was drafted by both the US, the penholder on Liberia, and Sweden, which chairs the Liberia country configuration of the Peacebuilding Commission, was intended to represent a sign of continued Council support for Liberia in its peacebuilding efforts. It commended the progress made in restoring peace, security and stability in the country and the commitment of the people and government of Liberia to developing democracy.

Afghanistan

In a press statement on 24 July, Council members condemned the terrorist attack that took place in Kabul that same day, which resulted in more than 70 people killed or injured, for which the Taliban claimed responsibility (SC/12924).

Israel/Palestine

On 25 July, the Council convened for its regular quarterly open debate on the Middle East (S/PV.8011 and Resumption 1). Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov briefed, focusing on the increased tensions around the Haram al-Sharif compound in Jerusalem and related violence. A day earlier, Mladenov briefed Council members on the same issue under any other business, at the request of Egypt, France and Sweden. He also briefed under any other business on 12 July on the situation in Gaza, at the request of the Secretariat.

Burundi

On 26 July, the Council received a briefing, followed by consultations, on the situation in Burundi from Special Envoy Michel Kafando and Ambassador Jurg Lauber of Switzerland, the chair of the Peacebuilding Commissions Burundi configuration (S/PV.8013).
AFRICA

Sudan/South Sudan

Expected Council Action

In August, Council members may be briefed on the first of two reports requested in resolution 2352 on the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA).

Key Recent Developments

The Sudanese and South Sudanese governments, still distracted by domestic crises, have made no recent progress in resolving the status of Abyei, the disputed territory along the Sudan/South Sudan border, which remains in administrative and political limbo. Despite ongoing meetings in Addis Ababa between the parties, there has been no visible advance in the implementation of key aspects of the 20 June 2011 agreement, which established temporary arrangements for the administration and security of Abyei pending resolution of its status.

On 15 May, the Council adopted resolution 2352, renewing the mandate of UNISFA until 15 November, while warning that support would be withdrawn unless Sudan and South Sudan complied fully with their obligations. In particular, the resolution decided that the extension of support for the Joint Border Verification and Monitoring Mechanism (JBVMM) would be the final such extension unless both parties demonstrate through their actions clear commitment and steadfast guarantees for implementation of the JBVMM, in line with the steps outlined in paragraph 7, and requests the Secretary-General to report on the status of whether the mechanism has reached full operating capability by 15 October 2017.

Against this backdrop of political paralysis, UNISFA continues to maintain law and order and a measure of stability in Abyei. This stability has, however, been challenged in recent months, with UNISFA reporting an increase in criminal activity, including cattle rustling, carjacking, robbery, and in May a grenade attack in the Amiet market, a commercial hub, that injured several civilians. UNISFA has reportedly facilitated discussions to defuse tensions between the Misseriya and Ngok Dinka ethnic groups and has supported the return of stolen cattle as part of these efforts. UNISFA is continuing its disarmament activities and announced the destruction of 25 weapons and over 470 rounds of ammunition in June.

There has been no progress in agreeing on the removal of armed Sudanese police from around the Diffra oil facility, as required by several Security Council resolutions that have called for the demilitarisation of Abyei (with the exception of UNISFA peacekeepers and the yet-to-be-established Abyei Police Service).

Key Issues

The key issue facing the Council is whether Sudan and South Sudan have responded to the deadline for progress in implementing the JBVMM and the full implementation of the 20 June 2011 agreement.

A related issue is whether the Council should move to add any additional pressure on Sudan and South Sudan in the absence of such progress.

Options

One option is for the Council to issue a presidential statement reiterating its intent to alter the UNISFA mandate should the parties fail to demonstrate a clear commitment to resolving the current impasse.

Another option is for the Council to take a more hopeful approach, recognising that meetings between the parties are ongoing and reiterating the Councils willingness to remain engaged.

Council Dynamics

Negotiations on the renewal of UNISFAs mandate in May revealed a divide in the Council between the US and Ethiopia, the primary troop-contributing country for UNISFA, on the current mandate and troop ceiling for the mission. The US appears to have been concerned that UNISFA is persisting longer than intended for an interim force, and that Sudan and South Sudan are taking advantage of the relative stability UNISFA provides to delay attempts to resolve the status of Abyei while they focus on respective domestic issues. During the May negotiations, Ethiopia, supported by a number of other Council members, argued that a reduction of the troop ceiling would undermine the effectiveness of the mission. This difference in perspective is likely to be reflected in any meetings in August on Sudan/South Sudan.

More broadly, Council members have for some time recognised that the situation in Abyei and the wider border-related issues between Sudan and South Sudan cannot be resolved in isolation from the internal conflicts in Sudan and South Sudan. Notwithstanding the current focus on the JBVMM, with neither party ready to advance the political process the Council continues to devote only minimal time and focus to Abyei.

The US is the penholder on Abyei.

UN DOCUMENTS ON SUDAN/SOUTH SUDAN

This was a resolution that extended UNISFAs mandate until 15 November 2017. This resolution added a border-monitoring support role to UNISFAs mandate. This was the report of the Secretary-General on the situation in Abyei. This was a special report of the Secretary-General on the review of UNISFAs mandate. This was the report of the Secretary-General on the situation in Abyei.
MIDDLE EAST

Syria

Expected Council Action

In August, Council members expect to receive the monthly briefings on political and humanitarian developments in Syria as well as on chemical weapons.

Key Recent Developments

Despite the announcement in early May by Iran, Russia and Turkey of the establishment of four de-escalation areas in Syria, a 4-5 July meeting in Astana ended without agreement on the delineation of the areas or their monitoring mechanisms. On 7 July, the US and Russia, along with Jordan, announced the establishment of a ceasefire agreement in southwestern Syria. While details regarding the implementation of the agreement are still being discussed, Russian military police units have deployed along the perimeter of the de-escalation zone. On 22 July, Russia and Egypt brokered a ceasefire agreement in Eastern Ghouta. Despite the deployment of Russian military police, the government reportedly conducted airstrikes the next day. Taking control of Eastern Ghouta has been a longstanding objective of the government given its strategic location near Damascus. The different actors on the ground, which include Al-Nusra Fronts latest iteration Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) along with moderate opposition groups, make it challenging to separate out the armed groups protected by the terms of the ceasefire.

Although violence has subsided in some parts of Syria, the situation has continued to deteriorate in other areas including the east of Al-Sweida. Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura has repeatedly warned against the parties taking advantage of existing ambiguities to make territorial gains or divert resources to other strategic battlefronts. During consultations on 14 July, de Mistura also emphasised the need to ensure that the de-escalation areas are a temporary measure and highlighted the importance of preserving the national unity and territorial integrity of Syria.

From 10 to 14 July, de Mistura convened the seventh round of the intra-Syrian talks in Geneva. Briefing Council members on 14 July via video teleconference, de Mistura described incremental progress, particularly regarding the holding of joint meetings with opposition delegations before and during the last round of talks in which common positions were identified. He also described how the government has so far not provided concrete thinking on issues in the different baskets, particularly on a proposal regarding the schedule for drafting a new constitution.

During the sixth round of talks, de Mistura had proposed the establishment of a technical process of expert meetings to address constitutional and legal issues, but the government has refused to participate in these meetings between rounds. De Mistura conveyed his intention to address these issues and to push for direct engagement by the parties in the next round of talks in early September. On 13 July, France proposed the establishment of a contact group composed of permanent members of the Council and regional actors to support UN efforts to broker a political settlement.

The investigation of the 4 April attack in Khan Shaykhun conducted by the Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), while not able to visit the site given security considerations, concluded that a large number of people, some of whom died, were exposed to sarin or a sarin-like substance used as a chemical weapon. On 29 June, the OPCW informed the Council that with the destruction of an aircraft hangar in June, the OPCW has verified the destruction of 25 of the 27 chemical weapons production facilities declared by Syria. However, the OPCW continues to consider Syrias initial declaration as incomplete.

On 6 July, Izumi Nakamitsu, the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, and Edmond Mulet, the head of the three-member leadership panel of the OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM), briefed Council members in consultations. Final substantive reports are expected in October, but Mulet presented a progress report regarding incidents involving the use of chemicals as weapons in two incidents: in Um Housh (on 16 September 2016) and Khan Shaykhun. Speaking to the press after the meeting in consultations, Mulet said that the JIM has been under pressure from some member states, telling them how to do their work and otherwise threatening not to accept their conclusions. He appealed to all member states to allow the JIM to perform its work in an impartial, independent and professional manner.

Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Stephen OBrien briefed the Council on 29 June on the humanitarian situation in Syria. Despite the drop in violence in some areas of the country, humanitarian convoys continue to be delayed and blocked by bureaucratic restrictions that limit their ability to get to civilians living in besieged and hard-to-reach areas. OBrien stressed how even if the most egregious restrictions come from the Syrian government, other groups operating in areas not controlled by the government are also implementing procedures that slow the process or impinge upon humanitarian principles. The creation of the de-escalation areas has so far not resulted in a sustained increase in humanitarian access. According to the 21 July report of the Secretary-General, the number of people displaced across northeast Syria due to the counter-terrorism offensive near Raqqa has grown in June alone to almost 20,000, many of whom were displaced more than once. (It is estimated that 190,081 persons have been internally displaced since 1 April.) At press time Ursula Mueller, the Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, was expected to brief the Council on 27 July.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)which include the Kurdish armed group YPGcontinue their offensive against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Raqqa with the support of the US-led coalition. In a 10 July statement, de Mistura stressed how stabilisation efforts in parts of Syria, particularly the management of areas recovered from ISIL, should not undermine the agenda for a political process guided by resolution 2254. Clashes have occurred between the Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army and the SDF over strategic locations in northern Syria. Turkey has strongly criticised the provision of support by the US to the YPG, which it considers a Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

After months of increasing tension and direct clashes between HTS and Ahrar al-Sham as well as other moderate opposition groups in Syria, HTS took control of the northern city of Idlib and a strategic border crossing (Bab al-Hawa) in late July. HTS also incurred in territorial losses near the Lebanese town of Arsal, in the border with Syria, after a military operation led by Hezbollah. The area shelters several thousands of Syrian refugees.

On 3 July, the Secretary-General appointed Catherine Marchi-Uhel as head of the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism to assist in the investigation and prosecution of those responsible for international crimes committed in Syria since March 2011.

Human Rights-Related Developments

In a statement on 28 June, the High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed grave concern about the fate of up to 100,000 civilians effectively trapped by the air and ground offensive against ISIL in Raqqa. The High Commissioner noted that the large number of civilian casualties, with conservative estimates of at least 173 killed between 1 and 28 June, indicates that much more needs to be done by the parties to ensure protection of the civilian population. He further stressed that civilians must not be sacrificed for the sake of rapid military victories.

Key Issues

More than six years since the start of the war, the essential issue is whether the Council can rise above P5 divisions and exert leadership in promoting efforts to reach a political solution.

An important issue is to ensure that the expectations raised by the ceasefire and de-escalation initiatives are fulfilled and improve the living conditions for 13.5 million civilians in need, without promoting a de facto partition of the country. Bringing on board regional actors with influence on the parties but diverging agendas is a related issue.

As the international efforts against ISIL continue, ensuring coherence of stabilisation initiatives with UN efforts aimed at brokering a political settlement is a relevant issue. While some regional and international actors may prioritise expediting the return of refugees to Syria, preserving the right for all Syrians to seek asylum and enjoy refugee protection until conditions are conducive for voluntary return in safety and in dignity is a fundamental issue.

Options

The options at the disposal of Council members are limited because of P5 divisions.

However, Council members could, both individually and collectively, step up efforts to ensure that the parties, particularly the government, guarantee humanitarian access to besieged and hard-to-reach areas.

Once details are worked out by the countries involved, Council members could be informed about the operationalisation of the ceasefire and de-escalation agreements and discuss whether there is any UN role to play in supporting the monitoring mechanisms needed to enforce them.

Council and Wider Dynamics

The ceasefire agreement in south-western Syria was partly motivated by the priority of the US to protect Israel and Jordan, specifically opposing any role for Iran or its allies near both countries. However, Israel, which occupies the Golan Heights, has expressed its dissatisfaction with the arrangement. On 16 July, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly opposed the ceasefire agreement, claiming that it did not do enough to prevent Iran from perpetuating its presence in Syria. Iran has for a long time aimed at establishing a land corridor between Iran and Lebanon through southern Syria, which is perceived as a strategic threat for both Israel and Jordan. Despite difficulties in hammering out an agreement, Iran continues to engage with Russia and Turkey over the delineation of other de-escalation areas and confidence-building measures.

As has been the case in the past on Syria, Council members engagement has been limited to following the lead taken by key actors outside the Council. However, if progress on the establishment of de-escalation areas leads to the deployment of third-party monitoring mechanisms, it is likely that such a decision would be dealt with in the Council. Furthermore, Frances initiative to create a contact group to support efforts for a political solution may lead to an increased multilateralisation of actions by member states regarding Syria.

UN DOCUMENTS ON SYRIA

Welcomed efforts by Russia and Turkey to end violence in Syria and jumpstart a political process. Renewed the mandate of the UN-OPCW Joint Investigative Mechanism for a further year. This resolution was adopted unanimously by the Council and required the verification and destruction of Syrias chemical weapons stockpiles, called for the convening of the Geneva II peace talks and endorsed the establishment of a transitional governing body in Syria with full executive powers. This was the first resolution focused exclusively on a political solution to the Syrian crisis. It was adopted unanimously. This was on the humanitarian situation. This was the report of the FFM report on the Khan Shaykhun attack. This was an OPCW report on progress in the elimination of the Syrian chemical weapons programme. This was the sixth report of the JIM. Established the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism to assist in the investigation and prosecution of those responsible for the most serious crimes under international law committed in Syria since March 2011. The resolution was drafted by Liechtenstein and was passed with 105 votes in favour to 15 against with 52 abstentions.
PEACEMAKING, PEACEKEEPING AND PEACEBUILDING

In Hindsight: The Security Council and Climate Change-An Ambivalent Relationship

The year 2017 marks the tenth anniversary of the Security Councils earliest consideration of climate change. During the past decade, it has been a matter of some controversy whether or not the Council is an appropriate body to address this issue. Numerous Council members have underscored the security implications of climate change, but China, Russia and other countries have expressed concern that the Councils engagement on this matter encroaches on the prerogatives of other UN organs, notably the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council. Despite the political tensions associated with addressing climate change, the Council has over time managed to engage with this issue in two open debates, in formal meetings covering a wide range of emerging threats to peace and security, and in informal Arria-formula meetings.

The first time the Council focused explicitly on climate change was on 17 April 2007 during a ministerial-level open debate on the relationship between energy, security and climate, which was convened by the UK and included a briefing by then Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (S/PV.5663 and Resumption I). Sharp divisions coloured the debate. The UK representative said that an unstable climate will exacerbate some of the core drivers of conflict, such as migratory pressures and competition for resources, a view echoed by other members who drew a clear linkage between climate change and the Councils conflict prevention responsibility. However, Council members China, Russia and South Africa questioned the compatibility of the issue with the Councils mandate under the UN Charter, with China saying that although climate change may have certain security implicationsgenerally speaking it is in essence an issue of sustainable development. Both the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and the Group of 77+China sent letters to the Council expressing concern about infringement on the work of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council. The statements of the wider membership (38 member states spoke in addition to the 15 Council members) largely mirrored the divisions among Council members.

The Council again took up climate change on 20 July 2011, in an open debate initiated by Germany that featured a briefing by Secretary-General Ban and the Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (S/PV.6587 and Resumption I). As in 2007, differences of opinion regarding whether the Council was the appropriate forum to discuss climate change were again on display among the 15 Council members and the 47 non-Council members participating. While several countries supported Council discussion of the issue, China and Russiaas well as countries such as Argentina (on behalf of the G77), Egypt (on behalf of the NAM), and Indiareiterated their concerns about encroachment on the prerogatives of other UN entities they perceived as more appropriate to address the issue.

One interesting element of both the 2007 and 2011 debates was the view of the Pacific Islands small island developing states. While most of these states are G77 members, they did not share the same level of concern about encroachment as other G77 members. Countries making statements on behalf of this group emphasised that rising sea levels induced by climate change threaten their very existence. For example, in the 2011 debate, while expressing understanding and concern about encroachment, President Marcus Stephen of Nauru said, we are more concerned about the physical encroachment of the rising seas on our island nations. He proposed that the Council should request the appointment of a Special Representative on climate and security, and an assessment of the capacity of the United Nations system to respond to such impacts [of climate change] so that vulnerable countries can be assured that it is up to the task. The Council has pursued neither measure.

The divisions among Council members on this issue were highlighted by Germanys efforts to negotiate a presidential statement in the lead-up to the July 2011 debate. Negotiations continued during the meeting in an effort to adopt the statement for the occasion, an outcome that was not clear for much of the debate. Early in the meeting, the Ambassador Susan Rice (US) complained about the inability of the Council to reach consensus on even a simple draft presidential statement that climate change has the potential to impact peace and security in the face of the manifest evidence that it does. Rice added that the Councils failure to reach agreement is pathetic, short-sighted anda dereliction of duty.

Ultimately, agreement was reached by the end of the proceedings (S/PRST/2011/15). The statement reaffirmed that the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is the key instrument for addressing climate change. At the same time, it expressed concern that possible adverse effects of climate change may in the long run aggravate certain existing threats to international peace and security. The statement further noted the importance of including conflict analysis and contextual information on the possible security implications of climate change in the Secretary-Generals reports, when such issues are drivers of conflict, represent a challenge to the implementation of Council mandates or endanger the process of consolidation of peace.

The difficult nature of the July 2011 debate and negotiations was instructive to members who wanted to address climate change in the Council. This was the last time the Council held a formal meeting specifically on climate change. Since then, one common strategy has been to hold briefings or debates focusing broadly on non-traditional threats to peace and security, including climate change and other issues. For example, on 23 November 2011, Portugal convened a high-level briefing on a number of inter-related issues constituting New challenges to international peace and security and conflict prevention, including HIV/AIDS, climate change, and transnational organised crime (S/PV.6668). Likewise, on 30 July 2015, New Zealand held an open debate on peace and security challenges facing small island developing states, during which climate change, transnational organised crime, drug and human trafficking, and piracy were among the issues raised (S/PV.7499). And on 22 November 2016, Senegal chaired an open debate on water, peace and security (S/PV.7818) which explored such issues as the relationship between climate change and water scarcity, the management of transboundary waters, and the harmful impact that conflict can have on access to clean water.

Another way in which Council members have addressed climate change is through Arria-formula meetings. Since these are not formal meetings of the Council, the political tensions about discussing the issue are dampened, allowing members to hear the views of a diverse and informed group of stakeholders in an informal setting. On 15 February 2013, the UK and Pakistan co-hosted an Arria-formula meeting on the security dimensions of climate change that included the participation of civil society as well as member states from outside the Council. Ban, who championed efforts to combat climate change during his two terms, was one of the briefers, particularly noteworthy since it is highly unusual for a Secretary-General to brief in this format. Similarly, Spain and Malaysia co-hosted an Arria-formula meeting on 30 June 2015 on the role of climate change as a threat multiplier for global security. Most recently, an Arria-formula meeting organised by Ukraine on Security Implications of Climate Change: Sea Level Rise, with cooperation from Germany in preparing the session, was held on 10 April 2017.

The future of the Councils engagement with climate change is uncertain. Political divisions persist and may be magnified by the position of the current US administration, which recently announced its decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change. However, there are indications of a growing willingness in the Council to recognise the security implications of climate change. For example, resolution 2349 on the Lake Chad Basin, adopted shortly after the Councils visiting mission to the region in early March, included a paragraph recognising the negative impact of climate change, as well as other factors, on stability in the region. The US was the only member that expressed discomfort with the paragraph, but it agreed to accept it with some modification.
THEMATIC ISSUES

Women, Peace and Security

Expected Council Action

In August, the Council expects a briefing by Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed following her 19-28 July joint visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Nigeria with the AU Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security, Bineta Diop. Executive Director of UN Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, who were also on the mission, will participate in the briefing.

The UN-AU Visit

The joint UN-AU July visit focused on the importance of womens participation in peace and security processes. Other objectives of the visit included fostering stronger womens mobilisation and bringing greater visibility to the consequences of conflict-related sexual violence against women and girls.

In Abuja, members of the delegation met with acting Nigerian President Yemi Osinbajo and called on the government to intensify its investment in women in the promotion of peace. They also met with the heads of key ministries and with conflict-affected girls, including some of the Chibok girls rescued from Boko Haram. During the visit, the Deputy Secretary-General stressed that urgent action was needed on the meaningful participation of women in peace processes. She also highlighted the importance of advancing gender equality as a precondition for sustainable development for all. Mlambo-Ngcuka and Diop also visited an internally-displaced persons (IDP) camp in Maiduguri, northern Nigeria.

In the DRC the UN-AU delegation focused on strengthening the meaningful participation of women in peace and security and elections. The delegation met with Vice-Prime Minister Leonard She Okitundu and with women leaders from civil society where they stressed the importance of womens participation in peace making and conflict prevention for sustainable peace. They also visited an IDP camp in North Kivu province. and met with the National Elections Institute authorities.

Recent UN Activity

Deputy Special Representative Lisa Grande and representatives of UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the Iraq country team briefed the 2242 Informal Experts Group (IEG) on 14 June. Among the issues covered were the abuses committed against women, including being used as human shields, being executed in public, and being abducted and sold. The overall regression of womens rights in cities occupied by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) was also covered, together with the low participation by women in national reconciliation efforts.

The IEG met on the Lake Chad Basin crisis on 27 February ahead of the Councils visiting mission to Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger. The members were briefed by the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Edward Kallon, and representatives of the UN country team, UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), and the UN Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA). There was particular interest in the demobilisation and reintegration of women and girls who had been associated with Boko Haram, and in early warning and national and regional counter-terrorism efforts to prevent violent extremism. Other issues that were covered included solutions for forcibly displaced persons and how their return is being managed, and the training of security forces to respond to sexual violence.

In line with resolution 2242which expressed the Councils intention to invite civil society, including womens organisations, to brief the Council in country-specific situationscivil society representatives from the DRC, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen have briefed the Council during country-specific briefings so far in 2017.

On 2 June, UN Women, the AU Commission, and Germany launched the African Women Leaders Network. This initiative seeks to enhance the leadership of women in the transformation of Africa with a focus on governance, peace and stability.

Council Dynamics

This briefing will be held under the agenda item Peace and Security in Africa. Women, peace and security issues, particularly around womens participation and sexual violence, are regularly raised during the Councils country-specific discussions on the DRC and Lake Chad Basin, partly due to the work of the IEG. The briefing by the Deputy Secretary-General would be an opportunity for Council members to deepen their understanding of these issues in the DRC and Nigeria.

The Council visiting mission to the Lake Chad Basin is still fresh in members minds, and the Secretary-Generals report on the Lake Chad Basin is expected to be published at the end of August, followed by a presentation to the Council this fall. Members may want Mohammeds assessment of how the role of women and gender inequality have shaped the conflict in northern Nigeria, and the measures being taken to address Boko Harams use of sexual violence to further its strategic and military objectives. This information could be useful in shaping the Councils discussions, expected in September, of the Lake Chad Basin report.

This briefing could also help shape the Councils thinking on gender issues in the next few months as it focuses on the possibility of elections in the DRC at the end of the year and the review of UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) requested by resolution 2348 on 31 March 2017, which is expected to be provided to the Council by 30 September. The issues around sexual violence in the DRC have long been a topic in Council discussions on the DRC, and the information from this women, peace and security-focused visit could help members gain an insight into how the Council might be able to better address this issue in the DRC.

UN Documents

This was on the Lake Chad Basin. The Council renewed MONUSCOs mandate until 31 March 2018. The was a resolution that addressed womens roles in countering violent extremism and terrorism, improving the Councils own working methods in relation to women, peace and security and taking up gender recommendations made by the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations and the Global Study. This was a briefing on the situation in Burundi.
Sen. Bam to look into AI threat to jobs for Filipinos

Sen. Bam Aquino is set to conduct a hearing into the effects of artificial intelligence (AI) to jobs in the country.

"Every job created for Filipinos is important. We have to guard against trends that will take jobs away from our countrymen," said Sen. Bam, who will conduct the probe on Tuesday (August 1) as chairman of the Committee on Science and Technology.

"Gusto nating malaman kung ano ang epekto ng artificial intelligence sa employment, lalo na sa ating business process outsourcing (BPO) o call center sector," added Sen. Bam.

Sen. Bam filed Senate Resolution No. 344, to conduct an inquiry on the government's plan and initiatives to maximize the benefits of developments in artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.

The senator expressed alarm over the growing presence of Chatbots and the emergence of systems capable of referring questions to human operators and learning from their responses.

"These systems use artificial intelligence and are capable of performing the tasks of human employees, putting their livelihood at risk, especially in the call center industry," said Sen. Bam.

In 2016, the International Labor Organization (ILO) reported that 49 percent of all employment in the Philippines faces a high risk of automation in the next couple of decades.

Based on research conducted by International Data Corporation (IDC), around $47 billion will be spent on AI-related applications globally by 2020, especially in banking, healthcare and retail sectors.

According to Jubert Daniel Alberto of IDC Philippines, the rise of AI will definitely affect the BPO industry that currently employs around 1.2 million Filipinos.
Press Release

July 31, 2017 De Lima commemorates her father's 5th death anniversary Senator Leila M. de Lima has commemorated the 5th death anniversary of her father, the late Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Vicente de Lima, in a simple celebration attended by families, friends and associates last July 30. Kalookan Bishop Pablo Virgilio "Ambo" David officiated the Thanksgiving Mass, along with Fathers Albert Alejo, Manny Seranilla, and Robert Reyes, inside the Custodial Center of the Philippine National Police, in Camp Crame, Quezon City. In his homily, Bishop David shared about how God was pleased with King Solomon's wish that instead of asking for long life, riches or the life of his enemies, he asked to be granted wisdom, to have the capacity for discernment and good judgment. "In this world, there is a spiritual battle all the time," he said, stressing that it is important to have wisdom to discern between what is good and what is evil. After the Mass, De Lima expressed her profound gratitude to all those who celebrated the Holy Mass with her and her family on the occasion of her father's 5th death anniversary. "The No. 5 is significant to us. It's in our surname," De Lima said as she explained why she would always present her open palm to the crowd with her five fingers extended whenever she would appear in public. "The 5th commandment is 'Thou shall not kill.' It's also a stop signal. Stop the killings. Stop the lies," she added. Incidentally, it is also the fifth month of Senator De Lima in detention as the first prominent political prisoner over trumped-up drug charges the government has questionably hurled against her based on fake evidence and perjured testimonies. Despite the political persecution, De Lima continues to uphold and defend human rights, attributing her "stubbornness" to the teachings of her father. She recalled him saying: "Never be afraid to fight for what you believe is right." The Senator from Bicol said she also shares the concerns of Bishop David over the high numbers of summary executions of suspected drug offenders that are being reported almost daily in his diocese--which includes Malabon, Navotas, and South Caloocan. She cited Al Jazeera's news report which confirmed the information she has been receiving that some fishermen are being hired to dump dead bodies in Manila Bay in what she referred to as "Bangkay sa Bangka" modus employed by some police authorities to conceal drug killings. De Lima has said earlier she will be filing a Senate resolution calling for an immediate investigation into this deplorable act and to put an end to these brazen killings. "We don't know who the killers are, but God definitely knows who they are. There will come a time that they will be held accountable, maybe not under human justice, but definitely under divine justice," she said. De Lima also thanked Bishop David--who has been recently elected as vice president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP)--for heeding her request for him to celebrate Mass for her late father. She described the Prelate as a "marvelous storyteller" in his book, "The Gospel of Mercy according to Juan and Juana", that she read in detention. Before Bishop David left, he gave De Lima an autographed copy of his new book, "The Gospel of Love according to Juan and Juana".
Press Release

July 31, 2017 Drilon urges Ombudsman to probe USec. Orceo Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon urged the Office of the Ombudsman to motu proprio investigate Justice Undersecretary Reynante Orceo for "manifest partiality, evident bad faith and inexcusable negligence" in downgrading the charges against Supt. Marvin Marcos and his group. Upon review of applicable law and jurisprudence, Drilon said that Orceo violated Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (Republic Act 3019). According to Drilon, a former justice secretary, Section 3(e) of the anti-graft law says that any government official or employee can be charged for "causing any undue injury to any party, including the Government in the discharge of his official administrative or judicial functions through manifest partiality, evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence." He said that Orceo's case falls squarely in the essential elements of violation of Sec. 3(e) of RA 3019, which inludes that (1) the accused must be a public officer discharging administrative, judicial or official functions; (2) he must have acted with manifest partiality, evident bad faith or inexcusable negligence; and (3) that his action caused any undue injury to any party, including the government, or giving any private party unwarranted benefits, advantage or preference in the discharge of his functions. "It is very clear that officials led by Usec. Orceo colluded in order for the charges against Macos and his men to be downgraded from murder to homicide, so that they could post bail and be freed," said Drilon. Drilon said that there was a clear violation of the anti-graft law on the part of Orceo, who claimed at a Senate hearing that he acted on his own when he downgraded the charges against Marcos and his men. "His action caused undue injury to the republic and to our justice system. What they did is a mockery of our justice system," he stressed. "That is the very reason why faith in our justice system remains low despite everything that we've done to ensure a fair and efficient justice system," he lamented. The minority leader said he will recommend to the committee of public order and committee on justice that a case be filed against Orceo. "I would ask the committess handling this case that the Senate stand by its finding that Mayor Espinosa was murdered and that we must recommend the filing of appropriate criminal and administrative charges against Orceo and whoever colluded with him," Drilon said.
Press Release

July 31, 2017 Transcript of ANC interview with Sen. Chiz TV NETWORK: ANC

PROGRAM: HEADSTART

ANCHOR: KAREN DAVILA Interview with Sen. Chiz Escudero DAVILA: Joining us for Hotcopy this morning is Senator Chiz Escudero. Senator Chiz, thank you for coming to the show. ESCUDERO: Hi Karen, Good Morning and to all of our televiewers, good morning! DAVILA: Is there any reason to believe on your end that police officers aren't telling us the whole story when it comes to Ozamiz raid. ESCUDERO: We're still waiting for the things to unfold Karen. It only happen in the wee hours of Sunday morning which begs the question because under the rules of court, under the police manual of the Philippines National Police itself; as a general rule, search warrants should be served during day time. Unless there is an exception, unless the court or the judge issuing the warrant directs that it can be served during the day time or night time but always still subject to reasonableness. Because the provision of our Constitution is quite clear, Karen. In fact, there is a separate provision on searches and seizure alone; to put a premium on how important this issue or this thing is. The Constitution in Article 3 in the Bill of Right, Section 2 provides: the right of the people to be secure in there persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizure of whatever nature and for any purpose shall be enviable and that no search warrant or warrant of arrest shall issue except upon probable cause to determine personally by the judge after examination under oath or affirmation of the complainant and the witnesses may produce ... mahaba yung provision. In particular Karen, describing the place can be searched, persons or things to be seized. DAVILA: Okay. ESCUDERO: The Constitution put a premium in fact including the procedure written in the Constitution itself. DAVILA: Because I think this is to remind the viewers who are following the story. The search warrant was served at 2:30 in the morning, Sunday. ESCUDERO: In the most recent case of people versus Court of Appeals it's a December 2000 case. The Supreme Court location to rule upon the reasonableness, the Constitution speaks unreasonable search and seizure. The reasonableness of serving a warrant in Paranaque City at 7:30pm. And the Supreme Court said, it was reasonable because in urban centers, in the city people are usually still awake. DAVILA: Oo. ESCUDERO: At 7:30 in the evening. This was is a separate case, it's a totally different case to served at 2:30 in the morning. Now, what's the exemption? If the affidavit, if the witnesses, the judge interviewed says that the...(voice overlapping) DAVILA: May drugs dun, sinabi ng witness. ESCUDERO: Right then and there, and there's a possibility that it will be lost or taken away at any time. But according to the police, the house was under surveillance for quite a long time already. And number two according to the police, I saw the interview, one of the policemen, as a rule they were serving search warrants at night daw. That one I do not understand because again there own manual says as a general rule, it should be served during the day time. DAVILA: Okay, now Senator Chiz coming from the death of former Albuera, Leyte Mayor Espinosa in jail, where a search warrant served also in the wee hours of the morning and you have police officers saying nanlaban, lumaban and it's the same story here. They were in their home, the mayor, the wife, the board member, all of them dead plus 12 others and police say nanlaban lahat sila. ESCUDERO: Will find out in the few days, Karen because I don't think there were any casualties on the part of the Philippine National Police kung nanlaban. Probably a lot of then or too many of them for the security forces of the mayor and not to been able to put a fight but we'll find out I guess in the next couple of days pag lumabas talaga yung imbestigasyon at totoong status kasi populated yung lugar na iyun e. Kilala ko yung mayor na yun, si Mayor Aldong. Populated yung lugar nila; maraming bahay dun so may mga lalabas na kwento palagi at testigo kung ano talaga ang nangyari at paano nangyari iyun. DAVILA: Okay, Vice Mayor Nova Parajinog, who is the daughter... ESCUDERO: Yes. DAVILA: The mayor who was killed... ESCUDERO: Former mayor of Ozamiz . DAVILA: Also the former mayor claims that police planted evidence against her. ESCUDERO: Iyun ang hindi ko alam, usual allegation naman siguro iyun. Pero... DAVILA: What can she do if it's true? ESCUDERO: If it's planted and the search warrant...anything seized would cannot be used against her in the court of law. Kaya lang sa kasong ito patay na e, patay na yung Tatay niya, patay na yung Nanay niya, patay yung Uncle niya, yung mga bodyguards nila. If at all, any investigations should look into of overkill or the possibility of adequate force was not used or overpowering forces instead was used in effect that search warrant. Ang nakakapagtaka lang pinangalanan na siya ni Pangulong Duterte bilang isa sa mga narcopoliticians; ba't ka pa magtatago ng droga sa bahay mo? I mean, it's out of the ordinary unless ganun din kalakas ang loob. Di ko alam. DAVILA: You have a good point, I was leading there so you have Aldong Parajinog in the list of Mayor Duterte, pinangalanan ka pa and may droga ka pa sa bahay mo. ESCUDERO: Either too reckless, sobrang lakas ng loob o nilagay yun don, hindi ko alam. DAVILA: I'll be direct, could this be police abuse? I mean after the Albuera situation, you have police now saying you know what we're protected by the government. It's an overnight wipe out of a political clan when you think about it. You have two Parojinog members dead, actually three, three Parojinog members dead and the daughter was the vice mayor arrested. It's wiping out a political clan. ESCUDERO: Yes, that would be the corollary effect, Karen, but I don't think the intention is political. Kung may abuse man yung pulis, hindi pa ako nakahandang sabihin 'yon pero siguro dapat magpaliwanag pa at mag-esplika pa ang kapulisan kung ano nga ba ang nangyari, bakit nagkaganon? Hindi naman pwedeng we were met by a valley of fire and everyone is killed and nobody is killed in our side. They should I think be more detailed in their explanation in the next couple of hours or days. DAVILA: Okay. Does this merit a Senate investigation? ESCUDERO: I will not be surprised, Karen, if one of my colleagues will file a resolution to investigate what happened and given that both cases in the Albuera mayor and the Ozamiz City mayor, they were both suspected of having drug links. But that often by itself does not merit a death warrant. Search warrant siguro, oo. Arrest warrant siguro, oo, but not a death warrant. DAVILA: But Sen. Chiz, are you hopeful of any kind of justice? Given the fact that look at the situation of Chief Supt. Marcos and company. The Senate committee report said it was murder, the NBI said it was murder, state prosecutors said it was murder. And then you have the DOJ downgrading it. ESCUDERO: You have to understand, Karen, this will all be shortlived. I hope our police officers will not have short memories. Yung dalawampung taon nga ni Marcos, natapos din e. The term of the incumbent administration is only for 6 years, so whatever it is they're enjoying right now, if they violate any of our existing laws, they would have to face it anyway after 6 years, in this case after five years. So, huwag sila masyadong mag-isip na protektado sila habambuhay. In the case of former Pres. Marcos, his cronies, people under him thought it was never going to end but it actually ended after 20 years. This one, it is certain to end after 6 years. DAVILA: But do you believe there could be police impunity in this situation? ESCUDERO: That's what we're trying to prevent in the Senate actually, and that's we were afraid of from the beginning that if you give them so much confidence, impunity will result on the part of law enforcement officers. However, hindi ko lalahatin Karen. In fact, the officer involved here si Espenido, siya din yung galing sa Leyte e. So, hindi naman siguro lahat din. Itong si Espenido, siya din yung galing sa Leyte nung nangyari yun sa Albuera mayor. DAVILA: Ni-raid niya yun e no? ESCUDERO: Ni-raid niya yun. DAVILA: Ni-raid niya yun, hindi naman namatay. ESCUDERO: Oo, pero I mean hindi naman siguro lahat ng kapulisan ganoon, mahirap naman lahatin yung kapulisan natin nang-aabuso. May ilan siguro palagi, at yun ang sanang pinapapanagot ng gobyerno. As I said in the case of Supt. Marcos, it was a wasted opportunity on the part of government. They could've showed to the people, to their critics, to the world that they were equally serious with respect to dealing with police abuse as they are with drug trafficking and drug pushing. DAVILA: Now, do you believe at this point because there are many mayors that were in the narco list of Pres. Duterte. What does this say at this point following this raid? ESCUDERO: Actually, pangatlong mayor na ang napapatay pa lamang 'yan, Karen. The mayor of Saudi-Ampatuan, the Albuera mayor, and now the Ozamis mayor the third mayor in a year. DAVILA: In a year ha? Tatlong mayor na ang patay. ESCUDERO: In a year. It shows the seriousness of the administration and the member, I am sure Pres. Duterte and Mayor Aldong knew each other. I mean they're both in Mindanao, parehas silang kasama sa mga sigang mayor 'yan noon. I'm sure they knew each other. In fact, in one of the speeches of the President, he admitted that he knew the mayor but that he was in the list. He called them out to surrender and to report to the police otherwise he will issue a warrant for his arrest through the courts. DAVILA: Okay. Now, well President Duterte has criticized the Human Rights Watch, the EU on supposedly extra judicial killings. I mean, honestly speaking Malacanang saying that international organization should not tell us how to run our business. There is an alarming sort of point of view in seeing this happen when you have a unilateral figure, if ever is proven it's just says, 'this goes even if it is against the law.?' ESCUDERO: I don't think he's that meticulous and that nitty-gritty when it comes issuing orders against particular individuals-- DAVILA:- Meaning President Duterte? ESCUDERO: Meaning President Duterte. I think he created that atmosphere and emboldening the Philippine National Police in so far as war against the illegal drugs is concerned. I am behind you. Iyon naman ang madalas niyang sinasabi e. But to give specific orders against specific personalities, I'm not prepared to think that he would dared say that at this point in time. DAVILA: So, you don't think that would go that far? ESCUDERO: Giving specific order t to specific individuals? Well, he has a list and PNP has the list so it's up for the PNP to implement whatever law enforcement measure they can against people on that list. DAVILA: Okay, going back to Chief Superintendent Marcos, you have Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon saying he might be exonerated. Do you think that's possible? ESCUDERO: Exonerated by the courts? I don't think he will really, Karen but I think I preferred that as long as no double jeopardy so the proper criminal cases can still be file against him later on. DAVILA: Yeah. ESCUDERO: I would rather that than have him convicted to a lower offense be covered and ruled by the double jeopardy and not face anymore the more serious crime of murder when the time comes. DAVILA: Now, with three mayors dead within a year, what kind of signal does this send to other politicias in Durerte's narco list? ESCUDERO: That they should be forewarned .I guess, it shows the seriousness of the administration of President Duterte in so far as his battle against drugs is concerned. Two of the three are from Mindanao, Karen. DAVILA: Oo. ESCUDERO: And that is the reason of the President .So, I guess he is also showing and proving that even if he knows them, even if it's in his area, he will not think twice either. Although the President has not yet commented, so far, on this particular incident raid against the former Mayor of Ozamiz. DAVILA: Alright we are going to a quick break. When we return, will be discussing the 2018 national budget and some parts that may suffer even if the budget has actually increased for 2018. Stay with us. DAVILA: Back to Hotcopy, still with us Senator Chiz Escudero. He was the former chairman of Senate finance committee but knows the budget. Let's talk about this, not so detailed but concerns layman's concerns about the budget. Budget Secretary Ben Diokno said that the Duterte administration was to right size the bureaucracy. So you have government workers fearing that at least 20,000 government employees will lose their jobs and they want to abolish the PCGG. Agree or disagree? ESCUDERO: I haven't seen the right size bill but Karen under the Revised Administrative Code, the president has the continuing authority to reorganize the government which includes the power to abolish or to create agencies of government. I do not know right sizing but.... DAVILA: Sen. Chiz Escudero will react, I wanna ask him a reporter asked essentially what you've said that search warrant should be given during office hours, during day time, and you have the PNP chief saying no there are no rules like that. ESCUDERO: Gen. Bato is mistaken, Karen, he's wrong. The rules of court is very clear and the revised PNP manual itself, which he should know about, is also clear. Search warrants should be served during day time, unless the court, the judge issuing the warrant specifically directs that it can be served during the day time or night time given certain circumstances. Ngayon magandang malaman yung search warrant ba na ginamit ng mga pulis sa bahay ni Mayor Parojinog, nakalagay ba doon pwedeng gabi, pwedeng araw? Kasi kung walang nakalagay, day time lang talaga i-serve yon. Pero ang kaso nun hiwalay doon sa patayan. Ang kasong 'yon administrative siguro, ang kaso non kriminal laban doon sa mga pulis na hindi sumunod sa rules nung search warrant. Iba pa yung kaso nung pagpatay kung nanlaban man o hindi yung mga nasa loob ng bahay. DAVILA: Okay. And then you have the PNP now saying that they were met with a valley of fire coming from the private army of Mayor Parojinog. ESCUDERO: That's possible, Karen, but again that's subject to evidence that must be proven by the PNP because the only time dehado ang mga pulis natin dyan. Kailangan putukan muna sila bago sila pumutok, hindi sila pwedeng unang pumutok. Ngayon kung may pruwebang pinutukan sila ng una, at binalikan lamang nila ng putok, tama yung rules of engagement nila. Hindi sila pwede ang unang magpaputok sa anumang klase ng engkwentro. Dun dehado ang ating kapulisan at siguro doon tayo magsimpatiya sa kanila. Pero yun ang pinagkaiba natin sa mga kriminal, yung mga kriminal walang pakundangan sa buhay. Yung kapulisan akusado man o hindi, inosente man o bystander, dapat yung pangangalaga niya ng buhay nandoon parin. DAVILA: Another reporter asked, if it was true that the CCTV cameras were supposedly taken off, removed before the shoot-out happened? ESCUDERO: May balita na nag-brown out muna sa Ozamiz or baka pina-brown out nila yung Ozamiz bago nag-conduct ng search warrant o yung raid. Pero si Gen. Dela Rosa mismo nagsabi, hindi tama na putulan o pinutalan ng CCTV. Kung magse-serve ka lamang ng search warrant dahil mas maganda pa nga 'yon. Mayroong ebidensiya na tama yung pag-serve ng warrant o sa kasong ito, may ebidensiya na pinaputukan sila ng una ng mga security forces ng dating Mayor. DAVILA: Does it bother you in any other way, Senator Chiz, Crame holds a press conference and the main topic at hand wasn't even the Ozamiz killings. It was, I think a robbery-extortion issue. Only reporters asked about it and then they answered. ESCUDERO: Actually, inaasahan ko rin akala ko tungkol sa Ozamiz iyon. Pero, Karen to be fair, General Dela Rosa should have known that this will be brought up. Ano man ang sabihin niyang minor incident or malaking incident sa ibang parte ng Pilipinas. Palaging matatanong siya tungkol sa Ozamiz. At hindi naman talaga siya regular na nagko-conduct ng presscon ng Lunes ng umaga e. So, siguro ginamit niya na lamang na behikulo iyon para makasagot na rin ng tanong tungkol sa Ozamiz ng hindi ipinaparada ng mayor iyong topic ng Ozamiz. Pero alam niya, alam ko. Tatanungin siya talaga doon. DAVILA: So, Senator Chiz as closing statement, what disturbs you or bothers you the most? With essentially what happens in Ozamiz; the presscon today? ESCUDERO: They see the nonchalant attitude of General Dela Rosa on this whole issue and his statement that it can be serve anytime of the day or any day of the week. Hindi po totoo iyon. Iyong sarili ninyo pong PNP manual ang nagsasabi po noon na hindi puwedeng gawin iyon maliban na lamang kung na direct specifically ng Judge at nakasulat sa warrant iyon. DAVILA: Senator Chiz Escudero, I wanna thank you and also apologized that we cut the interview short but definitely you'll come back on the budget.
Press Release

July 31, 2017 HONTIVEROS FILES BILL PROTECTING HEPA PATIENTS FROM DISCRIMINATION, WANTS TO MAKE TESTING VOLUNTARY AND CONFIDENTIAL Two days after the observance of the World Hepatitis Day, Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros on Monday filed a bill to combat the discrimination against Hepatitis patients in the country and promote education on blood borne viral Hepatitis. Senate Bill No. 1520 otherwise known as the "Bloodborne Viral Hepatitis Testing Act of 2017" seeks to penalize discriminatory acts against people who suffer from Hepatitis B and C, particularly the denial of employment or promotion based solely on testing positive for Hepatitis. The bill also penalizes other discriminatory acts such as exclusion from health, accident or life insurance based on testing positive for Hepatitis. Hontiveros also wants to make testing for Hepatitis voluntary and confidential, and sets up counseling services for proper management of the condition. She said that similar to people who have HIV, those who tested positive for Hepatitis B and C should not be grounds for non-acceptance to employment, education, or other services. The lawmaker said that the Department of Health (DOH) and other health sector organizations and partners should be mandated to create and implement education and awareness programs about the prevention of Hepatitis, with particular emphasis going to the promotion of vaccination and advocating voluntary testing in the general population. Hontiveros said that there are an estimated 7.3 million Filipinos who are chronically suffering from Hepatitis B. The Senator said that there have been reports of discrimination of people suffering from Hepatitis B and C. She said that some are reportedly being denied work despite the disease's low risk of transmission. "It is time to work towards ending the stigma surrounding Hepatitis. All individuals deserve the right to proper health care and opportunities to create a better quality of life. Hepatitis B and C are diseases with low risk of transmission, and medical technology and knowledge exists for its prevention. We should continue these steps forward to strengthen the public health practice of the country," Hontiveros said. Hontiveros serves as the Vice-Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Health and is the current Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Women, Gender Equality, and Family Relations.
Please welcome Christina Ward, a master food preserver for Milwaukee County in Wisconsin and author of Preservation: The Art and Science of Canning, Fermentation and Dehydration. Over the next few weeks, she'll break down the science of and principles behind food preservation, with accompanying recipes so you can put your newfound knowledge to work.

For those of us in northern climates, strawberries are the first tangible evidence that summer has truly arrived. These fragile berries, filled with water and sugar, are beloved both by people and by the kajillion-strong microbe population. To enjoy strawberries, you've got to be quick, because the invisible kingdom of bacteria and molds is just as eager to take a bite. Every moment that your haul of berries sits on the counter, enzymatic decay makes them increasingly susceptible to microbial colonization. It's a race against time that determines who will consume the berry first: you, or the microbes.

Your best defense, aside from eating them all right away, is preservation, but "preservation" is a bit of a misnomer; it's really extension. All preserved foods have a shelf life, and eventually they, too, will degrade to the point of becoming inedible. In the end, all we're trying to do is buy ourselves some time, and the better we understand the science that underlies preservation, the more time we can buy.

The Antimicrobial Tools of the Preservation Trade

Most microbes thrive in environments similar to the ones that support human life. They require the same basic elements: water, food, and oxygen.* They also have environmental preferences for certain temperature and acidity levels. It helps to visualize a microbe as a wealthy high-society matron in Boca Ratonthe environment has to be just right for her to thrive. Too hot, too cold, too dry, too acidic, too salty, too much anything, and the microbe will die. And, just like Boca retirees, microbes have varying degrees of hardiness; the more delicate the microbe, the less it takes to kill it off. If we don't want these old-timers...er...microbes around, we can change the chemical and physical conditions of the environment, erecting barriers that block them and increasing the edible life of a food.

There's a pesky class of microbes that thrive in anaerobic (oxygen-free) conditions. Clostridium botulinum is one of the deadliest, and it loves low-oxygen, low-acid environments. Botulinum toxins can kill you. In a later article, we'll talk about how to keep them away with the help of acidbecause no one should ever have to die because someone chose to ignore science!

There are several approaches we can use to do this, often in combination. Pickling, for instance, is about creating a high-acid solutiontoo high for microbes, but still tasty for us. You can pickle strawberries, especially underripe ones, but it's not the most common approach.

Pressure canning, meanwhile, is about raising temperatures to a point so high that nothing will survive. Sure, we could expose our strawberry harvest to the extreme heat of a pressure canner, but to what end? The 240F (116C) temperature would kill any and all microbes, but it'd also turn the strawberries into a jar of overcooked mush. It'd be like launching a nuclear bomb when a BB gun would have done the job. Freezing foods is on the opposite end of the temperature spectrum, as extreme cold prevents microbial growth. If you have the freezer space, that's certainly an option for keeping an abundance of ripe strawberries.

Gravlax relies on salt and sugar to lightly cure salmon. It's not enough for long-term preservation, but the salt and sugar lower the fish's water activity enough to buy you a few extra days of freshness.

We'll discuss acids and temperature in future articles on the science of preservation, but today we're interested in yet another essential method: reducing the available water in the food. Any time a recipe involves preserving a food using lots of salt, sugar, and/or dehydration, it falls into this category. Salt-cured meats and fish, fruits poached in sugary syrups, jams, jellies, and dehydrated snacks like jerky and fruit leather all operate under the same basic principle: drive off or tie up enough of the available water in a food to make it inhospitable to microbes.

Hell or Low Water

All living matter is an assemblage of cells, and those cells are made from molecules. Those molecules are made of elements, and each element is built from atoms. Fruits, vegetables, and meats are constructed primarily from the elements carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, which are mostly arranged into molecules of water, carbohydrates, protein, and fibers. Of course, you don't need to know the exact chemical makeup of every single thing you eat to be able to prepare it appropriately; for now, the important thing to keep in mind is that every food contains water.

From a food safety standpoint, though, what matters most is not the absolute water content of a food, but its water activity. The technical definition of "water activity" quickly gets us into scientific-formula territory, so for our purposes, we can think of it more simply as the amount of water that's available to a moleculeand that includes all the molecules that make up a living organism. Since all organisms need water to live, we can prevent them from contaminating our food by reducing the amount of water that's available to themthat is, by reducing the food's water activity.

Think of it this way: Imagine that all the water molecules in a piece of food are just people in a room. And then think of a microbial pathogen as a really annoying guy who's always trying to get into the room and make trouble. One solution would be to get as many people out of the room as possible before the annoying guy arrives; that, in essence, is dehydration. With fewer people in the room, he has fewer people to bother. But let's say that, for a variety of reasons, it's not possible (or desirable) for every last one of those people to leave before the guy comes in. In that case, we need another strategy. The people in the room could, for example, occupy themselvesperhaps by putting on headphones to listen to music, or reading a book. They'd be busy, and therefore unavailable to the annoying guy. He'd eventually die of boredom, or wander off in search of another room full of more available people.

The key thing to understand is that the room had people in it the whole time, just as food always has some amount of water in it. They just weren't available to the annoying guy. But, of course, this only works if there are enough books and headphones in the room for everyone to use.

The question, then, is what the book and headphone equivalents are in the world of food. There are many potential ones, but two of the most powerful are salt and sugar. Add either (or both) of them to the food and they'll bond with the water molecules, tying them up and making them unavailable to any microbes that come around looking for a nice place to stay. Add enough salt and sugar, and there won't be sufficient water molecules available for the microbes to survive, even though the food still contains plenty of water.

From a chemical perspective, it's helpful to think of this riddle: When is water not really water? When it's salt water.

Strawberry Bonds

Sugar molecules bond with the water in the strawberries to form a syrup and lower the fruit's water activity.

Let's get back to our strawberries. Thus far, we know that we want to reduce the water activity of the strawberries enough to make a microbe's survival damned hard. But how much is enough? Measuring water activity in a food requires complex and expensive laboratory equipment that most of us don't have.** For most of us, the best we can do is rely on tested recipes or, even better, formulas that can help ensure our strawberries are in the safety zone.

** Scientists have methods for measuring water activity, which they express as a value (a w ). Pure water has an a w of 1.0. The ideal target for preservation is a water activity of 0.85 to 0.80 (a w ). But, again, you don't need to know how to measure or calculate this as long as you have a good recipe to follow.

If we were to simply cover our strawberries in sugar, the berries' water would begin to leach out, then combine with the sugar to form a syrup. The syrupy strawberries have just as much water as the berries did before the sugar was added, but their water activity has been reduced, all thanks to the sugar molecules bonding with the water molecules. That alone, a process cooks call maceration, buys you a few more days of usability.

Add heat to the sugar-covered strawberries and the water activity is reduced even further through evaporation (and, as a result, dehydration), buying you even more time. Most preserved foods rely on such combinations of chemical and physical barriers to ensure no pathogens can grow. Even the simple act of sealing the sugared and cooked strawberries in a clean glass jar, then placing them in the fridge, is a line of defenseone more wall that makes it difficult for ambient microbes to move in.

But we want to take our preservation a step further by making jam, which will get us even more usable time out of those strawberries.

Preservation in Action: Strawberry Jam

Flex Your Pectins

Strawberries and sugar alone aren't enough to make jam. You need enough pectin, a natural fruit fiber, for the jam to thicken properly.

We've finally made it to the fun part of food preservation, where we'll master water activity by actually making some strawberry jam.

In our above example, we tossed fresh strawberries with sugar, then cooked the two together. One might assume that we made jam during that process, but we didn't. While definitions can vary, most would agree that for jam to be jam, it can't just be cooked fruit in a sugar syrup. It requires a thickener called pectin, a natural fiber in fruits and vegetables that keeps the outer peel or skin firm and intact.

Some fruits, like apples and oranges, have more pectin; some, like strawberries and raspberries, have less. Strawberries, which have very little pectin, will never set into a thick jam on their ownat best, they'll cook to a thickened syrup. Old European methods of jam-making resolve low pectin levels in a berry jam by tossing an apple, quince, or orange into the mix. Some old recipes don't even say to do this, as it was just assumed that a home cook would know as much.

Today, we can add either homemade pectin (super-thick apple jelly, for instance) or commercial pectin to our strawberry/sugar mixture to account for its absence in low-pectin fruits like strawberries. Commercial pectin is derived from citrus peels and refined into a powder, and it comes in a couple of different forms.

A "regular" pectin is chemically designed to thicken when combined with heat and sugar. A "low-sugar" pectin undergoes additional refinement to work with lower amounts of sugar. Low-sugar pectins also increase the overall acidity of a jam, which erects yet another barrier to microbial growth. They usually contain a small amount of dextrose, which is a hyper-absorptive sugar, and sodium citrate, an acidifier. Using it requires a catalyst, in the form of an acid (from lemon juice) or calcium water. Regular pectin requires no additional catalyst.

I love low-sugar pectin, especially the Ball and Sure-Jell brands. It allows flexibility with the type and amount of sugars used. (This includes fruit juices and the artificial sweetener Splenda.) Purists may balk at the idea of adding dextrose and sodium citrate to a jam, but it's the dextrose that ensures sufficiently reduced water activity, even with lower levels of sugar in the recipe as a whole.

One word of warning: The Pomona's brand of low-sugar pectin works a little differently from Ball and Sure-Jell, relying on calcium water to activate the pectin with little to no additional sugar. The method of incorporating it into a jam is different from other low-sugar pectins, so you can't easily substitute it unless you know how. Even more importantly, Pomona's doesn't really reduce the water activity to a safe level so much as it acidifies the jam. Personally, I don't use Pomona's Pectin because, quite frankly, it makes me nervous. Jam is safely preserved only once we've adequately reduced the water activity; acidification alone doesn't do it.

Ready...Set...

Many old-school jam recipes require cooking the fruit-and-sugar mixture for a prolonged period of time at 220F (104C). This is meant to do two things: reach an 80% water activity (the point at which water activity is reduced enough to prohibit pathogen growth) and get the jam to jell sufficiently. (Candy-makers will recognize that 220F temperature as just below the "thread" stage.) This is the method used in many European recipes. Here's what's happening: Sugar bonds with the fruit's water molecules, reducing the water activity, while heat evaporates more of the water, further reducing the water activity and causing sugar and carbon molecules to re-chain into tight bunches, which results in thickening. Achieving and maintaining the ideal 220F temperature requires vigilance and patience. It's a putzy job of stirring, adjusting heat, waiting, and repeating. Those who do use this method should use cautionif you allow your mixture to overheat, the batch can quickly transform into something other than jam. It might turn into candy, or it could just scorch and burn.

The dextrose in commercial pectin, whether regular or low-sugar, provides a scientifically sound shortcut that allows you to avoid that whole process. When you add pectin to your fruit-and-sugar mixture, that dextrose kicks in to rapidly bond with available water molecules, helping you reach your desired water activity almost immediatelyno need to cook the jam for a long time to get there. Bringing the mixture to a hard, rolling boil for one minute does the trick and is much easier than the method required if you don't use a commercial pectin.

How do you know if you've got it right? How can you tell if your jam is set and not just syrup? You're looking for a consistency at room temperature that is, in a word, gelatinous. A good jam set, as it's called, will remain intact when scooped, but can also be spread thinly, without seeming watery. It shouldn't have any lumps, save for the tasty pieces of fruit, nor should it be so thick that you can stand a knife up in the jar.

Because fruits contain varying amounts of sugar and pectin from one batch to the next, the set may differ between batches, even when you're using commercial pectin. And that's okay. The beauty of homemade jams is the subtle differences that exist between batches and cooks. Homemade jams havedare I say it?a terroir, like wines. The wild summer strawberries of northern Minnesota will taste somewhat different from those in Grandma's Alabama berry patch. The jams made from those berries will reflect their unique geographic and territorial markers.

A majority of the frantic phone calls I get from novice jam-makers communicate variations on "My jarred jam didn't set! Now what?" The solution is to figure out if the jam is set before you pour it into jars or containers. I use what we've dubbed the "Moses Test," because your goal is to "part the sea": Take a teaspoon of the hot cooked jam out of the pot, and place it on a small dish. Let it completely coollike, seriously cool, to room temperature. Five minutes is good. You can use that time to prepare your jars or containers. Now run your finger through the middle of the splotch of jam. Do the edges run back together to the middle? If they don't, then you've successfully parted the sea, and your jam is set.

Formula One

Once you understand the jam formula, you can safely invent your own recipe.

We now have the key ingredients for our strawberry jam: strawberries, sugar, pectin, and lemon juice (if you're using low-sugar pectin). The cool thing is that once we learn a very basic formulaand because we understand the science behind water activity and preservationwe can break free of any specific recipe.

What's the formula? For a strawberry jam using regular pectin: 4 cups strawberries + 4 cups sugar + 1/3 cup pectin. For a strawberry jam made with low-sugar pectin: 4 cups strawberries + 2 cups sugar + 2 tablespoons lemon juice + 1/3 cup low-sugar pectin. In fact, that's not just the master formula for strawberry jam; that's the master formula for most jams. Four cups of almost any fruit, when combined with sugar and pectin (again, plus the lemon juice, if you're using low-sugar pectin), will, in the vast majority of cases, yield a beautiful jam. Sure, there are some exceptions here and there, and you can go too far out of bounds in an attempt to be wildly experimental, but for the most part, this formula works. The variations in natural sugar and pectin content from one fruit to the next are slight enough that the overarching ratio will still lead you to success.

Since we know what each of these ingredients is doing to the other, we can swap and change them around. Mix in oranges. Or ginger beer. Or red wine. Don't want to use white sugar? Use brown sugar. Or maple syrup. Or hickory syrup. Or Splenda (but only if using low-sugar pectin, since you'll need the added dextrose to make up for the missing sugar). As long as you keep the ratios of the formula intact, you can add herbs, spices, and other flavorings without affecting your overall success in preserving the strawberries as a jam. How best to create your signature strawberry jam? Using the four cups of berries as the base measurement, make your substitutions accordinglysay, three cups of strawberries plus one cup of ginger beer. Or two cups of strawberries and two cups of wine. It won't affect the result if your substitutions are liquid or solid. Some added ingredients, like candied ginger, may already be "sugared." In those cases, you have a choiceproceed with the formula for a sweeter batch, or reduce the total sugar amount to compensate. The water activity will still be sufficiently reduced because the sugar is still there, just coming from a different source.

In the classes that I teach, this is the point when I see faces light up. They're now thinking of all the tasty and silly and personal combinations they can create. This is the alchemy of jam-making. Did you know that strawberry and horseradish complement each other magnificently? The cooking process tempers the horseradish, and, when married to the sugar and strawberries, it produces a jam that will change every roast beef sandwich in your life. Using chopped candied ginger and candied orange peels together increases the sweetness, but adds a lovely toothsome quality to strawberry jam. If you follow your imagination and palate, the possibilities are endless. If you don't own it already, check out The Flavor Bible by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg. It's a nerd's food bookan encyclopedic listing of every food and which other ingredients will complement it. It's a great resource for the kitchen alchemist.

Jam Session

The final step is to ask yourself what your goals are for your preserves. Do you need the jam to last for months on end in a cellar? Then you'll need to heat-process it on top of everything else. If you merely want to store the jam in the fridge for several weeks, you can skip that step.

Heat-processing the jam, a technique I'll cover in more depth in a later article, involves submerging a lidded jar into a bath of boiling water (or placing it in a pressure canner) for a prescribed amount of time, during which any remaining oxygen is driven out and the jars will be sealed against new microbes. Like I said at the beginning, many preserved foods call on a combination of microbial barriers for guaranteed success.

At this point, you're ready to erect that first barrierlow water activitywith the help of salt, sugar, and dehydration. It's a key tool in the multipronged approach to blocking microbes from our food and keeping it edible for much, much longer.
In San Francisco, checking out a book from the Main Library, attending a Symphony concert or going to City Hall for a marriage license can mean confronting some of the most egregious examples of the citys drug and homelessness problems.

For years, Civic Center has been a grim showcase for the citys worsening heroin and methamphetamine epidemic. And given that the area is a major transit hub, thousands of people each day stream past a startling amount of open-air injection-drug use, veering around the used needles and other detritus, including human waste, that often accompanies it.

To address whats become an acute public health and quality-of-life problem, San Francisco officials have quietly embarked on an unprecedented effort to coordinate the actions and combine the resources of several city departments to clean up Civic Center for the long term.

You could see an increase in drug use just walking to the (Civic Center) BART station  people just shooting up, with needles coming out of their stomachs, their arms, everywhere, said City Administrator Naomi Kelly, whose office is overseeing the coordinated cleanup initiative.

Whether youre a city worker or work for a company in the neighborhood, or youre just coming to do business here at the seat of government, this needs to be a safe zone, she said.

The urgency to clean up the area, Kelly said, was ramped up because Civic Center is home to a swelling number of families, and there are institutions, like the Asian Art Museum and the Main Library, that offer a range of programs for children. Two playgrounds are being built in Civic Center Plaza, and 800 multifamily apartment units are going up in the surrounding neighborhoods.

The project also coincides with the citys Civic Center Public Realm Plan, which seeks to improve the area to make it a more hospitable public gathering space.

In addition to the administrators office, the project, dubbed the Civic Center Health and Cleanliness Pilot Program, is composed of four city departments: Public Works, Public Health and the police and fire departments.

They are focusing on an area of about 100 city blocks bounded by stretches of Golden Gate Avenue and Gough, Mission, 14th, Folsom and Sixth streets.

The program got under way slowly in June by offering services to addicts and others living on the streets. Soon afterward, the city began posting notices designating small sections of Civic Center as public health nuisances and advising those in the area to clear out before police and cleaning crews swooped in. So far, the city has posted eight such abatement orders in various locations.

Each department is expected to play to its respective strengths, with Public Works cleaning streets; the police cracking down on drug dealing, robberies and assaults; Public Health administering medical care and working to steer addicts and homeless people toward city programs; and the Fire Department providing emergency medical response.

But rather than simply sticking to those traditional job descriptions, the program relies on structured and near-constant communication as a way to efficiently focus agencies efforts.

Now, Kelly said, the left and the right hand knows what the other is doing in real time so that we can all adjust together.

In practice, that might mean a Public Works employee calls the health department to report seeing someone incapacitated in the street. Or, during the course of making an arrest, the police might call Public Works to identify a location littered with needles and debris. Providing one another with real-time information, Kelly added, also helps the agencies provide services more quickly.

A lot of people know a lot of things, but when were actually working together, then theres better cohesion, better coordination, and theres obviously better results, Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru said. If we see quality-of-life concerns, if someone is laying over or if we see someone shooting up, we engage the other agencies.

Public Works has collected roughly 6,500 needles and about 54,610 pounds of trash from the area since the cleanup began. Combined with a bolstered police presence intended to discourage drug dealers from frequenting the area, officials say theyre beginning to see results.

When they see the officers out there, most people are going to think twice before they engage in that type of (criminal) activity, so thats why the presence is so important, said Police Chief Bill Scott.

To keep the lines of communication open, representatives from each department meet every weekday morning to update one another and compare notes and statistics about what their staffs have been seeing on the streets, how many needles and pounds of trash have been picked up, what arrests have been made, and how the weather might affect cleanup efforts.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

The department heads meet weekly and, accompanied by a police escort, tour portions of the targeted area, stopping to talk to people in search of ideas on how to improve conditions.

James Jackson, who lives in a mens shelter at Fifth and Bryant streets, talked at length with Scott during a recent walkabout. He urged the city to create more activities and communal spaces to keep people engaged and off the streets during the day.

Just open the door for me, and Ill be there, Jackson said.

While a health department nurse darted over to help a woman suffering from an eye infection, health department Director Barbara Garcia said she wants to see whats going on in the street. That lets me know what the reality is about what my staff is doing and should be doing.

The city is collecting data to measure the effects on the Civic Center and the surrounding area, said Kelly, the city administrator.

Theres no timeline to end the pilot program. If its successful, Kelly hopes it will become a model for cooperation among city departments as San Francisco works to clean and secure its streets.

Thats definitely a goal, Kelly said. What we dont want to do is just push everyone out of Civic Center into a different neighborhood. We want a citywide approach where were dealing with the core issues and not just moving folks from one place to another.

Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa
James Tensuan/The Chronicle

A cyclist who died after being hit by a light rail train in San Jose on Saturday has been identified as Paul Candelaria.

Candelaria, 26, was riding his bike through the intersection of Race Street and Parkmoor Avenue at 4:30 p.m. when a train on the Winchester-Mountain View line struck him. No one on the train reported any injuries from the collision.
Many California communities could open centers inviting addicts to shoot up hard drugs under a bill that has cleared the state Assembly and now awaits a vote on the Senate floor.

The goal is to reduce deaths. Heres how the concept  modeled after a supervised drug injection center in Vancouver, British Columbia  works:

A user walks into a government-run clinic with heroin in his pocket. Hes greeted by a nurse who directs him to wash his hands before offering an array of clean needles. He sits down at a sterile booth, rolls up a sleeve and shoots up.

As the high sinks in, he makes his way to a chill-out room for a cup of coffee or juice. There, staff members watch for signs of overdose, prepared to administer life-saving medication if needed.

Nothing like this exists in the United States. AB186 would make California the first state in the nation to permit illegal drug use in designated places  and would set up a conflict with federal law, which not only forbids the use of illicit drugs but also prohibits owning or renting buildings for the purpose of consuming them.

Its a radical response to the scourge of addiction and overdose that has swept the United States. Nationwide, overdoses kill more people than guns or car crashes. In California, 4,571 people died from drug overdoses in 2015, a 33 percent increase over the previous decade.

We have an opioid epidemic. We have a public health crisis, said Assemblywoman Susan Eggman, the Stockton Democrat who co-wrote the bill with state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and who once worked as a drug treatment counselor. We have traditionally treated addiction as a criminal issue and that has failed. We need to treat it as the public health issue that it is.

San Francisco is deep into discussions about opening an injection center. The Board of Supervisors has put together a safe injection services task force under the Department of Public Health that is holding public meetings and developing recommendations. The Chronicle reported that city workers in March cleaned up an average of 430 syringes a day.

People are shooting up on the street, in peoples doorsteps, in childrens playgrounds, Wiener said. Anything we can do to reduce the open, public shooting up that we see, we should go in that direction.

The Assembly bill would allow eight counties  San Francisco, Alameda, Fresno, Humboldt, Los Angeles, Mendocino, San Joaquin and Santa Cruz  and the cities within them to approve supervised drug injection programs. The centers would have to provide clean needles and be staffed with health care workers offering first aid to prevent overdose and referrals to detox for addicts who want to quit.

Visitors to the clinic would have to bring their own drugs, and they would be shielded from criminal charges for using at the site.

Although law enforcement widely opposes the approach, it has gained growing support in the medical field. Research published in the Lancet medical journal shows that overdose deaths decreased by 35 percent in the neighborhood surrounding the Vancouver injection clinic and by 9 percent in the city overall.

The New England Journal of Medicine recently published an article by a substance abuse specialist who teaches at Harvards medical school making the case that supervised injection saves lives and improves health. The American Medical Association, the official voice of the nations doctors, voted in June to support the development of pilot projects where addicts can use their own intravenous drugs under medical supervision.

Gabrielle Lurie/Special to The Chronicle

Studies from other countries have shown that supervised injection facilities reduce the number of overdose deaths, reduce transmission rates of infectious disease, and increase the number of individuals initiating treatment for substance use disorders without increasing drug trafficking or crime in the areas where the facilities are located, the medical association said in announcing its support.

Law enforcement groups argue that the centers would become crime magnets that would normalize hard drugs rather than helping addicts kick them.

The California bill does not have any robust effort to get addicts into treatment, said John Lovell, a lobbyist for the California Narcotic Officers Association and the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs. Instead, it simply accepts that they will come to the county-operated shooting gallery, shoot up and then leave with all of the other consequences.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Critics raise questions about liability if a drug user dies or hurts someone after leaving an injection clinic, and they say creating them would be unfair to neighborhoods already suffering from poverty and crime. A coalition of churches in urban areas that works closely with law enforcement on antidrug policies is also fighting the bill.

The drug dealers will stand around understanding that ... those that are coming out of these safe houses are not going to treatment, but theyre going to be looking for more drugs, said Ron Allen, a Sacramento bishop who heads the International Faith-Based Coalition and described himself in a hearing as a recovered crack addict.

Opposition from law enforcement is usually a potent force in the state Capitol, so its surprising that the bill by Eggman and Wiener has advanced as far as it has. A similar bill last year failed in its first committee. But this year, the bill eked out of the Assembly with the bare number of votes needed and has already passed two committees in the Senate.

Republican state Sen. Jeff Stone of Temecula (Riverside County), who voted against the bill in committee, warned that the idea would put local governments in stark conflict with the Trump administration. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has expressed zero tolerance for marijuana use  much less more potent illegal drugs  although he hasnt yet directed a crackdown against states such as California that have legalized pot.

Whether we like or dont like the present administration, Stone said, I think their reaction to recreational marijuana is going to be much different than recreational heroin, and having safe zones for that.

Laurel Rosenhall is a reporter with CALmatters.org, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.
Good news for jittery residents of the Millennium Tower in San Francisco  an engineering analysis ordered up by the city has concluded that, while the 58-story downtown high-rise continues to both sink and tilt, it can nonetheless withstand a magnitude 8.0 earthquake.

The effect of the settling on the building  as it is right now  is negligible, City Administrator Naomi Kelly said, summing up the findings.

The report by the three-member expert panel, due to be made public Monday on the citys website, bolsters developer Millennium Partners repeated assertions that the building is safe.

It was a year ago this week that we first reported that the Millennium Tower  a symbol of San Franciscos new high-rise and high-end living since its opening in 2009  had sunk 16 inches and was tilting to the northwest. Since then its sunk another inch, and its lean has become more pronounced.

An analysis last year by structural engineer Ronald Hamburger, paid for by the developer, concluded that the building was safe. But some residents were skeptical, so Kellys office commissioned the latest study.

The city-hired engineers  Greg Deierlein, Marko Schotanus and Craig Shields  said they agreed with Hamburger that the towers settling has not compromised its ability to resist strong earthquakes and (has) not had a significant effect on the buildings safety. But with the Millennium still sinking, they recommend continued monitoring and another evaluation down the line.

Millennium Partners says it has a solution to stabilize the tower and prop it back upright. The plan involves drilling new piles down to bedrock from the buildings basement  at a cost estimated at $100 million to $150 million.

Experts disagree on whether it will work, and the city report doesnt address it. Nor is there an agreement on who will pay for it. Like many things in the slow-motion debacle, it will probably end up in court.

On your marks: Six weeks after Contra Costa County District Attorney Mark Peterson resigned over his misuse of campaign funds, the contest is on to succeed him  with a dozen candidates applying to be appointed interim district attorney.

The list includes two Contra Costa judges, two San Francisco deputy district attorneys and several current and former prosecutors from Contra Costa and other counties.

Interesting to note that both of the San Francisco deputy district attorneys who applied for the job are also former East Bay mayors  Michael Menesini (Martinez) and John Delgado (Hercules).

The county Board of Supervisors will pick someone to fill out the remaining year-plus of Petersons term, which opened up after he pleaded no contest to misdemeanor perjury in connection with his misuse of campaign funds. The sorting-out process starts Tuesday.

The in-house hopeful rumored to be among the leading candidates is 22-year Contra Costa prosecutor Paul Graves. He and another contender for the interim job, Deputy District Attorney Patrick Vanier of Santa Clara County, have already said they intend to run for the post in June no matter who is appointed to fill out Petersons term.

Some people think Superior Court Judge Diana Becton also has a strong shot at the interim job. Shes an African American who serves on the bench in Richmond, and she was elected last year as president of the National Association of Women Judges.

Others seeking the job are David Brown, a former Contra Costa prosecutor who is now a private attorney; Superior Court Judge Danielle Douglas, a former deputy district attorney in San Francisco and Contra Costa counties; William Green, a onetime public defender working for the county bars criminal conflict program; Thomas Kensok, a veteran Contra Costa deputy district attorney; Richard Madsen, a private attorney; Brad Nix, a prosecutor in Stanislaus County; and Michael Roemer, a retired Alameda County deputy district attorney.

Michael Cardoza, a high-powered defense attorney and former prosecutor who has gained attention over the years as a TV legal analyst, didnt apply but is seriously considering running next year.

He thinks the supervisors should keep Petersons former No. 2, Doug MacMaster, in the job. Hes been running the show since Peterson resigned in June and didnt apply for the interim job.

I dont think its fair for them to give the appointment to someone intending to run for election next year, Cardoza said.

However, Supervisor Karen Mitchoff said the county counsel told the board it had to appoint someone within a reasonable amount of time  and the argument was that since Mark resigned in June, a year is not a reasonable amount of time.

San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX-TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call (415) 777-8815, or email matierandross@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandross
Gone are the days when workplace exchanges were confined to conference rooms, meetings and the proverbial water cooler.

More than ever, businesses are turning to instant messaging apps like Slack, Hipchat and Skype to facilitate communication and collaboration. As this informal communication becomes the norm, so too do the tiny pictographic characters known as emoji.

Emoji have become so ubiquitous they have even been turned into a movie. But lawyers are increasingly encouraging companies to keep them out of their workplaces, cautioning that what a given emoji means can change depending on the context and culture in which its used.

Devised as a way to clarify the tone or emotion of a message, emoji can also muddle meaning and lead to workplace misunderstandings that legal experts worry could soon get someone sued.

Thats why Michelle Lee Flores, a partner at Cozen OConnors Los Angeles office, is devising an online seminar addressing emoji in the workplace  how to use them, how not to use them and why you should never, ever send someone an eggplant because of its phallic shape.

My advice when it comes to using (emoji) is always the same: Just because you can doesnt mean you should, Flores said. Theres so much opportunity for confusion and room to insult or offend other people, and thats where a lot of problems in the workplace start, with someone going, Well, Im not sure how to take that. Use your words. Try that instead.

The idea of inviting clients to listen to an hour-long session on emoji may seem unusual, though several attorneys said they incorporate slides about emoji into sexual harassment and discrimination presentations. Still, some of Flores peers said she could be on to something.

In Silicon Valley, we think of ourselves as being very politically correct, but as things get more and more casual theres more of a likelihood that you can say something offensive, said Sheeva J. Ghassemi-Vanni, an employment lawyer with Fenwick & West who specializes in advising startups. Were already seeing this become a problem where (lawyers) have to come in and figure out what an emoji means, what they were trying to say and what someone else thought they said. Its a problem.

The Unicode Consortium, the body charged with deciding what characters should be added to the universally accepted emoji lexicon, is also tasked with defining emoji. Online, they offer insights and definitions into each of the more than 2,600 emoji.

Some emoji  like the smile and thumbs-up symbol  have fairly ubiquitous definitions: happiness and indicating approval, according to Unicode.

Others are not so simple.

The oncoming fist emoji can be seen as an angry punch or a congratulatory fist-bump. The winking face emoji can be seen as humorous or flirtatious.

Alden Parker, a partner at the San Francisco office of Fisher Phillips, said hes seen emoji used as evidence in cases that allege harassment and workplace discrimination.

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People sometimes misgender someone or dont use the correct (skin) pigmentation or they use a symbol that has another meaning that is offensive and inappropriate, he said. Maybe they didnt mean it, maybe they did. But thats typically where we see problems arise.

This year, 69 new characters will be added to the emoji library. For lawyers, thats 69 new emoji to worry about.

One of them is a breastfeeding woman. One of them is a woman in a hijab or a headscarf. And its wonderful that were being inclusive and we have emoji to represent all kinds of people, but it also creates more opportunity for abuse, Flores said.

Earlier this year, a judge in Israel ruled that two potential renters owed a landlord more than $2,000 because of an incomprehensible stream of emoji the renters sent the property owner. The emoji  some dancing women, a peace sign, a chipmunk and a Champagne bottle  were enough to prove intent to the judge, who ruled they seemed celebratory and gave the landlord cause to think a contract was in the works.

Bay Area employment attorneys said they have yet to hear of a case in the U.S. that has turned on the use of an emoji, but the symbols have become a common piece of evidence presented to judges and juries on the premise that they illuminate tone.

But tone can be subjective, lawyers said, especially in written communication.

Christina Janzer, head of user research for Slack, a company that creates chat tools for businesses and teams, said she and her team use emoji all the time.

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The tiny characters can boost productivity by providing workers a common language in which to communicate, Janzer said, as well as quick ways to convey feeling and make messages feel more personal.

When a member of her team needs other people to take a look at a project or a document, team members react to the file or link with an emoji that looks like a pair of eyes. That means theyre on it, Janzer said. When theyve finished the task, they mark messages with a check.

Its an easy way to respond and react to things as they are happening while avoiding the whole reply-all trap of email, she said.

Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle

Slacks apps let individuals turn off emoji for themselves, displaying plain text instead, and businesses can add custom emoji by uploading images. The company is considering letting its customers restrict emoji that may be inappropriate or culturally insensitive, Janzer said.

According to data from the Unicode Consortium, the red heart emoji, smiley face with hearts for eyes and face with tears of joy emoji are among the most popular and commonly used.

But none of these should be used at work, according to Flores.

I dont recommend using emoji at work at all, but if you do, I would stick to a traditional happy face. Just a happy face, not a rosy-cheeked one or winky-faced one, she said. If you want to do a thumbs-up or some gesture thats universally understood, use the generic yellow or the skin color thats closest to your own skin color.

Creating a rule restricting employees emoji use could miss the nuanced ways the symbols are used, Janzer said. She pointed to the heart emoji as an example.

We see people using the heart emoji to say, I feel for you, when a colleague is going through a hard time, she said, adding that she often uses the smiley face with heart-eyes with her team at work. Its acknowledging that I feel grateful and thankful for them and their great work but in a more human way.

Marissa Lang is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mlang@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Marissa_Jae
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The State Bar of California moved forward Monday with a proposal to lower the passing score of the bar exam by three points  a change that could increase the rate of passing by about eight percentage points.

The State Bar made the proposal open for a public comment period until Aug. 25, with the goal of finalizing a recommendation in September.

Just 43 percent of test-takers passed the July 2016 California bar exam, fewer than any other state and the lowest figure for California in more than three decades. Soon after those results came out, the State Bar and Committee of Bar Examiners began discussing ways to reform the passing rate and commissioned a study by research firm ACS Ventures to make recommendations.

At 144, California has the second-highest score required for passing the bar in the country (Delaware has the highest). The median nationally is 135, the study noted. Californias number, referred to as a cut score, was set more than 30 years ago.

David Faigman, chancellor and dean of UC Hastings law school, called the study fundamentally flawed. He was one of 20 California law school deans who recommended the state lower its bar exam cut score closer to the national median of 135  six points below what the report proposed.

As part of the study, a panel of lawyers was asked to determine a passing score that would set a standard for minimum competence as a lawyer.

Were not trying to determine whether or not theyve mastered the content  thats a slightly higher bar, Chad Buckendahl the psychometrician who conducted the study, said at a State Bar meeting Monday. All were trying to determine is should they be eligible to enter practice at this point.

The chair of the Committee of Bar Examiners, Karen Goodman, expressed concerns at Mondays meeting about the studys definition of minimum competence.

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The State Bar has until Dec. 1 to submit its recommendations to the California Supreme Court, which has the final say on any changes to the states passing score.

If state officials act more quickly, as they are hoping to do, the change in the passing score could affect people who took the bar exam last week. The scores are typically released in November.

Janet Brewer, a member of the Board of Trustees for the State Bar, said the process was being rushed and voted against moving the proposal forward. We are putting the (California) Supreme Court ... in an untenable position of potentially having to make decisions before theyve gotten all of the information, she said at the meeting. Why the rush to do it for the July bar?

Isha Salian is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: isalian@sfchronicle.com
Editor s note: Here are five Bay Area startups worth watching this week.

There are certain matters of dogma for startups. And one of them is: Puppies are good. Add the Internet, and theyre even better.

Alex Neskin learned this nearly five years ago, when he connected a camera and laser pointer to the Internet so he could monitor and entertain Rocky, his pet chihuahua, remotely. Neskin worried that Rocky was bored when he wasnt home. He gave others access to the system to play with Rocky, too. And so Petcube was born.

That initial setup was the Petcube Play. Last week, the startup began selling Petcube Bites  the latest iteration of its webcam that allows users to fling treats at their pet using an app. The system is not unlike throwing berries to tame an elusive character in Pokemon Go, except in this case, real morsels fly out of the Petcube Bites webcam for a cat or dog to enjoy. Call it dogmented reality.

The Petcube Bites device comes loaded with treats, but pet owners can refill it with any brand thats the right shape.

More than 65 percent of American households own a cat or dog, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. While pet toys and accessories have long been on the market, its only in the past five years that technology startups have begun seriously exploring the market, said Petcube co-founder and CEO Yaroslav Azhnyuk.

We feel like pet owners and pets are underserved by the the tech community, he said.

As every pet startup must, Petcubes Potrero Hill office regularly hosts its employees cats and dogs. And it has provided Petcube Play cameras to more than 60 animal shelters, so prospective owners can look at pets up for adoption through the app.

Petcube Play, released last year, retails at $199. More than 100,000 have been sold. Petcube Bites is listed for $249. News of the Bites device propelled interest in the company among users of Crunchbase, the startup database. The company has raised $3.8 million in funding.

Twenty percent of users share their cameras with friends and family, and the average user spends 50 minutes per week using the companion app, Azhnyuk said. Thats more than Im talking to my mom all week, he quipped.

Petcube stores footage from its devices in the cloud, so users can see what they've missed. The company is also using motion detection in the connected cameras and is working on adding other software features that use the collected data.

An irony: Azhnyuk doesnt own a pet himself. He says he doesnt spend enough time at home. You cant only communicate with your pet with a Petcube, he acknowledged.

Also trending:

Proxce

What it does: Creates digital profiles for guests so hotels can set up mobile check-in systems, send messages and provide keyless room access based on the individuals location. Customers include two international luxury hotel chains: Jumeirah Group and Taj Hotel Resorts and Palaces.

What happened: Proxce is signing up two major customers; it is also announcing corporate partners next month. The company is in talks with major airlines as potential customers, and is also raising Series A funding.

Why it matters: The Internet of Things is here to stay, and its getting less clunky to use. Using an app has to be easier than using a switch, or why would you use it? founder and CEO Madhu Madhusudhanan said.

Headquarters: Sunnyvale.

Funding: $10.4 million, according to Proxce.

Employees: 12 full-time workers and more than 35 contractors.

Proximity Grid

What it does: Offers an app that uses mobile location data so people can create shareable bookmarks called Grid Cards. The bookmarks allow users to view and share photos, links and notes about a particular map location.

What happened: Proximity Grid was added to Apples App Store, and it is rolling out features and updates over the next couple of months. Its in talks with businesses and potential partners, and gearing up to raise more funding.

Why it matters: Snapchat and Instagram Stories have shown that people love to share where they are and what theyre doing. And because every mobile device tracks user locations, its natural to try putting this on a map.

Headquarters: San Jose.

Funding: $1.85 million, according to founder and CEO John Reimer.

Employees: 10.

PacketZoom

What it does: With its Mobile Expresslane, networks are improved so that app users get connections that are two to three times faster. It is integrated on hundreds of apps, reaching millions of users.

What happened: The company is about to announce a new product to improve mobile performance.

Why it matters: The Internets key protocols werent designed for todays mobile networks, according to founder and Chief Technology Officer Chetan Ahuja, so its time to transition to a better system.

Headquarters: San Mateo.

Funding: $6.5 million, according to Ahuja.

Employees: 20.

Actiance

What it does: Lets businesses monitor their employees communications on more than 80 channels to ensure compliance with laws and company policies. Actiance is used by more than 1,500 businesses, including all the major global banks.

What happened: The company recently announced a new partner program and will introduce support for WhatsApp and WeChat on Tuesday.

Why it matters: Information leaks are everywhere, and businesses have their work cut out for them trying to trace and prevent them, whether an employee is using Skype for Business, Twitter or good old email.

Headquarters: Redwood City.

Funding: $70 million, according to President and CEO Kailash Ambwani.

Employees: 400 to 500.

Isha Salian is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: isalian@sfchronicle.com

How we pick

the companies

Every week, The Chronicle and Crunchbase, a San Francisco firm that tracks key businesses in technology, analyze private Bay Area companies based on their financial backing, employees and activity on Crunchbase. We feature five that are moving up in the ranks. For more information on the companies: www.crunchbase.com
When Kevin Bohlin was scouting locations for Saint Frank, his first coffee shop, four years ago, colleagues told the former Ritual Roasters coffee educator that the Polk Street space he was eyeing was no good.

The same strip, they said, already had branches of Starbucks, Peets and a small chain called Royal Ground. Some told him the market was saturated. Others thought Starbucks fans would never respond to Bohlins coffees, sourced directly from farmers and roasted in minuscule batches.

Proving the doubters wrong, Saint Frank has been so successful that Bohlin opened a fourth cafe, in the South of Market, last week.

A new study commissioned by The Chronicle shows that San Franciscans support locally owned coffee shops like Saint Frank to a degree no other major city does.

The study, conducted by Hoodline, a San Francisco news site, analyzed listings on consumer ratings site Yelp. According to Hoodline, which compared data for 10 U.S. cities, only Seattle has a higher concentration of cafes: 8.5 coffee and tea shops per 10,000 residents, compared with San Franciscos 8.4 per 10,000. Both figures are more than double those of larger cities such as New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago.

In addition, Hoodline found that only 24 percent of San Francisco coffee shops belonged to chains that have 12 locations or more  lower than any other city studied.

Since the 19th century foundings of Folgers and Hills Bros., San Francisco has been a coffee town. Cafe culture here has flourished since the 1950s, when Caffe Trieste opened in North Beach, arguably the first espresso bar on the West Coast.

Peets in Berkeley, which opened in 1966, was a major inspiration for national chains that came to prominence in the 1990s, such as Starbucks and Caribou, before Peets went national itself. In the early 2000s, Blue Bottle, Flying Goat and other Bay Area companies helped popularize the third wave, a nationwide movement away from milky lattes and cups of French roast dispensed from a spigot toward single-estate coffees prepared according to exacting standards.

The fact that almost a quarter of cafes in San Francisco belong to chains does not mean the city is hostile to corporate coffee. Starbucks, the worlds largest coffee chain, currently has 77 locations in the city. Included in that 24 percent are Bay Area companies Peets Coffee (36 San Francisco locations), Philz Coffee (13) and Blue Bottle (8).

Yet, as Bohlin put it, San Francisco is a fiercely independent city in so many ways.

Alexis Liu, owner of Beacon Coffee in North Beach, said San Franciscans prize the diversity of businesses the city has. I think the average consumer in San Francisco is very savvy about where they want their consumables to come from.

Chris Hillyard, who owns the 28-year-old Farleys Coffee on Potrero Hill, echoed Liu. We have a steady stream of customers, he said. They like the fact that were a neighborhood establishment and that we support the community through featuring local artists and nonprofits and hosting music, things of that nature that chains wouldnt do.

But San Francisco doesnt just breed goodwill toward local entrepreneurs. City officials also enact policies that make it harder for chains to enter the market.

In 2004, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a law to curtail the spread of formula retail, stores with 12 or more locations nationwide.

Some commercial districts, such as Hayes Valley, reject formula retail stores outright; many others require any such company to apply for a conditional-use permit, subject to neighborhood approval. The Financial District, Fishermans Wharf and several other districts are exempted. So are certain market sectors, such as grocery and real estate.

Bohlin discovered the depth of the citys commitment to limiting formula retail when he started navigating city bureaucracy for his first location. The amount of paperwork I had to fill out to verify I was not a chain was equal to the paperwork I had to fill out just to (incorporate as) a business, he said.

Considering that 70 percent of conditional-use permits are approved, the fact that several San Francisco neighborhoods have mobilized to stop coffee chains from opening is a measure of the role of the local coffee shop in the city. In 2003, Hayes Valley activists rebuffed a proposed Starbucks location on Gough Street, a rejection repeated in the Castro in 2013.

Some San Franciscans turn on local coffee shops that grow into chains, such as Philz and Blue Bottle. This year, Lower Haight residents rejected Blue Bottles attempt to move into a space on Steiner Street  less than a mile from the Oakland companys first kiosk, in Hayes Valley.

City support aside, running an independent coffee shop in San Francisco is far from easy. Cafe owners said they struggle with high rents, high wages and the citys copious layers of bureaucracy, not to mention laptop-toting customers who buy a single cup of coffee and monopolize a table all day.

Yet interest in coffee here, as well as the density of independent cafes, appears to keep growing. Bohlins newest cafe, inside his year-old roastery, is only a few blocks from locations of Sightglass, Equator, Blue Bottle and Contraband, all Bay Area companies. Still, SoMa customers keep telling him they are thrilled Saint Frank has opened at Mission and Seventh streets because there was nothing there.

San Franciscans want great coffee from a place they feel connected to  thats also a block or less away from them, he said.

Jonathan Kauffman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jkauffman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jonkauffman


I didnt go out of my way to get into the movie stuff, Sam Shepard once said. I think of myself as a writer. And in the end, its as a playwright that Shepard, who died on Thursday, July 27, at age 73, probably will be most remembered.

But then again, maybe not. Plays have to be produced and rehearsed and presented to the public. But movies are everywhere, and Shepard not only made a lot of them, but lots of very good ones  including The Right Stuff, Crimes of the Heart, Voyager, The Assassination of Jesse James, Frances and Cold in July  spread out over three decades. He distinguished himself in these films as a strong and distinct screen presence.

Shepard seemed incapable of a dishonest moment. Whatever he showed you was only a fraction of what he was thinking or feeling  or at least thats the illusion he cultivated. He was afraid of flying and went out of his way to avoid air travel, and yet he was convincing as the renowned test pilot Chuck Yeager: The scene in which he pushed a plane to the breaking point and walks away, charred but unscathed, is one of the indelible moments of his screen career. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance.

In his younger years, in his late 30s and early 40s, he was something close to a sex symbol  not a general public sex symbol, but one for the thinking woman. (In 1984, a female theater professor told me in awestruck terms that she had just been in a room with Sam Shepard and that he was the most attractive man shed ever met.) Shepard was cool, but not cool in a self-loving way. His coolness had a philosophical aura.

The aura suggested that life was essentially a sad adventure that rendered all pretense absurd, so why not be authentic? His emotional honesty, tempered by reticence and natural dignity, called forth honesty from other people. He never seemed like he was too cool for others, but rather that he judged nobody, that he assumed that nobody was better than he was, or worse. He had a sureness grounded, paradoxically, in a philosophical acceptance of uncertainty. His best film along this line was Voyager (1991), an English-language film by the German director Volker Schlondorff.

Shepards equanimity, which added to his attractiveness as a younger man, gave gravity to the roles of his later years. He seemed like hed seen it all  he played the Ghost in Michael Almereydas modern-dress Hamlet (2000), and that seemed right.

Shepard seemed like hed done it all, too  perhaps some really, really bad things. He was absolutely chilling in Cold In July (2014), as an old man looking to avenge the death of his son, who was killed while burglarizing a house. He finds the man who killed him and says, That son of yours  he looks just like you. Thats it. Nine little words, spoken softly, with a little smile, and everyone in the audience thinks ... oh, no.

As a writer, Shepard was drawn to myth. As an actor, he had a mythic quality. Walking out from the debris smoke in The Right Stuff, he wasnt just a lucky guy, but a spirit that couldnt be killed. Fortunately, the spirit that was Shepard was captured on celluloid, so other generations will enjoy it.

Mick LaSalle is The San Francisco Chronicles movie critic. Email: mlasalle@sfchronicle.com
MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sunday that the U.S. diplomatic missions in Moscow and elsewhere in the country will have to reduce their staffs by 755 people, signaling a significant escalation in the Russian response to American sanctions over the Kremlin's intervention in the 2016 presidential election.

The United States and Russia have expelled dozens of each other's diplomats before - but Sunday's statement, made by Putin in an interview with the Rossiya-1 television channel, indicated the single largest forced reduction in embassy staff, comparable only to the closing of the American diplomatic presence in the months following the Communist revolution in 1917.

In the interview, Putin said that the number of American diplomatic and technical personnel will be capped at 455 - equivalent to the number of their Russian counterparts working in the United States. Currently, close to 1,200 employees work at the United States' embassy and consulates in Russia, according to U.S. and Russian data.

"More than a thousand employees - diplomats and technical employees - have worked and are still working in Russia these days," Putin told journalist Vladimir Solovyov on a nationally televised news show Sunday evening. "Some 755 of them will have to terminate their activity."

Putin's remarks came during a 31/2-day trip by Vice President Pence to Eastern Europe to show U.S. support for countries that have chafed at interference from Moscow - Estonia, Georgia and Montenegro.

"The president has made it very clear that Russia's destabilizing activities, its support for rogue regimes, its activities in Ukraine are unacceptable," Pence said, when asked by reporters in Tallinn, Estonia, whether he expects Trump to sign the sanctions. "The president made very clear that very soon he will sign the sanctions from the Congress of the United States to reinforce that.

"As we make our intentions clear, we expect Russian behavior to change."

On Sunday night, a senior State Department official said, "The Russian government has demanded the U.S. Mission to Russia limit total Mission staffing to 455 employees by September 1. This is a regrettable and uncalled for act. We are assessing the impact of such a limitation and how we will respond to it."

The Kremlin had said Friday, as the Senate voted to strengthen sanctions on Russia, that some American diplomats would be expelled, but the size of the reduction is dramatic. It covers the main embassy in Moscow, as well as missions in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok.

The U.S. Embassy in Russia has been unable to provide exact numbers on the number of staff it employs in Russia. But according to a 2013 review by the State Department, of 1,200 employees of the American Mission in Moscow, 333 were U.S. nationals and 867 were foreign nationals, many of them probably local Russian support staff, including drivers, electricians, accountants and security guards. That would suggest that the majority of the 755 who must be cut would not be expelled from the country.

"This is a landmark moment," Andrei Kolesnikov, a journalist for the newspaper Kommersant who regularly travels with Putin and has interviewed him extensively over the past 17 years, told the Post in an interview Friday. "His patience has seriously run out, and everything that he's been putting off in this conflict, he's now going to do."

The Russian government is also seizing two diplomatic properties - a dacha, or country house, in a leafy neighborhood in Moscow and a warehouse - following the decision by the Obama administration in December to take possession of two Russian mansions in the United States.

The move comes as it has become apparent that Russia has abandoned its hopes for better relations with the United States under the Trump administration.

"I think retaliation is long, long overdue," deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said Sunday on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."

"We have a very rich toolbox at our disposal," Ryabkov said. "After the Senate . . . voted so overwhelmingly on a completely weird and unacceptable piece of legislation, it was the last drop."

Hours later, Putin said during his evening interview that he expected relations between the United States and Russia to worsen and that Russia was likely to come up with other measures to counter American financial sanctions, which were passed by the House and Senate last week and which President Trump has said he will sign.

The reduction in U.S. diplomatic and technical staff is a response to President Obama's expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats in December in response to the alleged Russian hacking of the mail servers of the Democratic National Committee. The United States also revoked access to two Russian diplomatic compounds on Maryland's Eastern Shore and on Long Island. American officials said they were used for intelligence collection.

It is not yet clear how the State Department will reduce its staff in Russia. Some of the local staff were hired to help with a significant expansion of the U.S. embassy compound in Moscow.

After the State Department, the next largest agency presence in Moscow in the 2013 review belonged to the Defense Department, which had 26 employees working for the Defense Intelligence Agency (20 of them U.S. nationals) and 10 working for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (of whom nine were U.S. nationals).

The Library of Congress had two U.S. staff and two foreign staff, and NASA had eight U.S. staff and four foreign staff members.

There were 24 Marine security guards.

The move increases the likelihood of new, perhaps asymmetrical reprisals by the United States in coming days.

Michael McFaul, former ambassador to Russia, tweeted Sunday: "If these cuts are real, Russians should expect to wait weeks if not months to get visas to come to US."

---

Ashley Parker in Tallinn, Estonia, and Madhumita Murgia in Washington contributed to this report.
Major tech companies have blamed the lack of diversity in their workforce on a pipeline problem, meaning a lack of available talent. To address the vacuum, an increasing number of nonprofit programs are focused on expanding the representation of minorities in the tech sector. These nonprofits are picking up the slack in an area where California public schools have lacked either the resources or the foresight to prepare students for this vibrant sector.

Mission Bit offers semester-long coding classes taught by professional software engineers for low-income communities. Black Girls Code offers computer skills training to young girls of color in the Bay Area. Through successful partnerships with tech companies such as Google and ThoughtWorks, Black Girls Code has expanded the program from one location to 14 chapters in U.S. cities and Johannesburg,. The Hidden Genius Project mentors African American high school students in Oakland and Richmond along with teaching business and coding skills.

Two weeks ago, Mission Bit hosted their Demo Day in San Francisco, where students got the chance to compete for prizes and bragging rights, showing off their games and websites to parents and a panel of judges. One team debuted a two-dimensional, side-scrolling game using playable farm animals similar to the Super Mario Brothers series and complete with catchy music, high scores and carefully designed background art.

The audience oohed and aahed when an all-girls team took the stage to talk about the design, setbacks and message of their website focused on social justice issues like police brutality. Visitors to the site could click on different highlighted pictures that would reveal statistics and infographics. Another team created an online database dedicated to providing resources on transitioning for transgender teens. Since 2013, Mission Bit has trained more than 1,000 students and plans to expand their courses into East Oakland next year.

The language of the 21st century is the language of code, said Zakiya Harris, co-founder and chief education officer at Hack the Hood. Harris is hopeful in the ability of students to create solutions to the problems their communities are facing. We want young people to fuse their personal passions with technology.

Hack the Hood incorporates leadership and entrepreneurial workshops that focus on training students on building professional portfolios, pitching products to investors and code-switching.

Entrepreneurship is central to what we want to put forth in the boot camp, said Max Gibson, a lead instructor for Hack the Hoods boot camp and co-founder of online magazine and event platform Wine and Bowties. We want to shift them from being consumers of tech to creators of tech by thinking critically about their environment and creating their own platforms.

With a lack of access to computer education, potential talent is overlooked, contributing to the low number of minorities in the tech workforce. Eli Kennedy, CEO of the Oakland-based Level Playing Field Institute, believes that exposing students to computer science at an early age is a strong factor in their readiness to study at top schools such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The students from affluent communities are more likely to have parents or family with experience in the area of tech, so its like having an inside track to these companies, Kennedy said. While those from affluent backgrounds may find interest in developing convenience apps like ride-sharing services, low-income students may be more invested in using tech to fix social problems like lack of access to fresh groceries.

Diversity in the workforce isnt about the optics; its about tapping into the talents of students who will be responsible for creating solutions to the problems their communities are facing.

Spencer Whitney is an assistant editor on The San Francisco Chronicles opinion pages. E-mail: swhitney@sfchronicle.com
The U.S. Treasury Department, led by Secretary Steve Mnuchin, has announced the end of an Obama-era program designed to help Americas low-wage workers save for retirement.

The program, called mRA, was intended to help the approximately 55 million Americans who lack access to a workplace retirement plan.

The employer pension is increasingly a perk of the past. This has had a particularly devastating impact on lower-income workers in the private sector. The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office has found almost half of households with at least one retirement-age adult have no retirement savings.

The mRA program was designed as a modest response to these striking figures. It created starter accounts for participants, who could make small contributions without restrictions like minimum deposit balances or fees. The maximum workers could contribute to these accounts was $15,000. At that point, theyd be rolled over to a private-sector retirement account.

The Treasury Department said that the program is too expensive. The bill for the program has been $70 million since 2014, according to the Treasury.

Much of the $70 million tab was spent on startup costs for the program: It would cost only about $10 million per year going forward.

There are currently 30,000 participants who have saved a total of $34 million. While those numbers could have been better, new programs often take time to attract participants  especially for something as complex as retirement financial planning.

Outreach would have helped, too. Earlier this month, a group of congressional Democrats wrote to Mnuchin, asking him to offer support to the program so it could succeed. They noted that the country is in the midst of a retirement crisis.

Demonstrate that this administration is committed to helping hardworking families save for retirement, the group wrote on July 14, led by Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wis., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

Regrettably, it seems that the Treasurys priorities dont include helping modest-income Americans make plans for their futures. The Treasury has also reversed two rules that would have made it easier for states, including California, to create retirement savings programs for workers who dont have access to employer plans.

California is moving forward with its program anyway. The U.S. Treasury is missing an opportunity  a program like this is better run at the federal level. But because the Treasury wont support struggling workers, the states will have to step in.
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Troupes of neon-vested Segway riders and strolling tourist families exploring Golden Gate Park on Sunday made way for an especially vibrant interruption: the Festival of Chariots, an annual Hindu parade and celebration with roots going back millennia in India.

Held since 1967 in San Francisco, the festival drew hundreds of smiling worshipers who helped pull three large chariots along John F. Kennedy Drive that carried likenesses of Lord Jagannath  who to many Hindus is known as Lord of the Universe or Krishna  his brother, Lord Baladeva, and his sister, Subhadra.

Men knelt to touch their forehead to the ground and women in jewel-toned saris danced with the procession. The large wooden carts were painted with elephants and swans, draped with garlands of carnations, and capped by tall red tents meant to resemble temples.

This is a way to bring the lord outside and into the park, said Haladhara Rupa of Dublin, who wore a traditional purple-blue kurta, or long shirt, and billowing white dhoti pants over bright green running shoes. You can bring the lord in a joyous way.

Celebrants encouraged bystanders to help pull the chariots, which they said would give them blessings. Different groups sang and chanted Hare krishna, hare krishna, krishna krishna, hare hare, while others played drums and blew on conch shells.

With roots in Puri, India, where it is known as Ratha Yatra, the chariot festival is meant to bestow the blessings of Lord Jagannath. The San Francisco version was started by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the Hare Krishna movement in the United States, and is still organized by local Hare Krishna chapters.

Vani Devi Das of Sacramento, whose parents brought her up in the Hare Krishna movement on a farm in Pennsylvania, brought her three children to the festival. Ive been going to this for 30 years, she said.

San Jose software engineer Malini Devi Dasi and her 9-year-old daughter were giving out pamphlets explaining their religious beliefs to cyclists and joggers. This festival reminds me I can invite the lord in my heart, she said. Im so confused in this world. I need some direction. I need to open my heart and clean it out a little bit.

As the parade passed Lindy in the Park, a free swing dance class held every Sunday near the de Young Museum, it overwhelmed the class sound system for a few minutes. The parade ended with a festival in Sharon Meadow, where there was a free vegetarian feast as well as a stand selling spiritual fashions and exhibitions on Hare Krishna beliefs, including vegetarianism and reincarnation.

Amit Goswami of San Mateo shepherded his son, Nimai, 5, through the crowd. Nimai pulled a small likeness of one of the parades red chariots that he had built with the help of his mother and grandmother on top of a toddler push car.

We keep it in the garage, Goswami said, and every year we remodel it.

Tara Duggan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tduggan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @taraduggan
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP)  In an age when everything else is captured for public consumption on a smartphone, why not your own jailbreak?

Inmates who broke out of the maximum-security wing of a Southern California jail last year did just that with a smuggled cellphone and through an attorney released it to the public Wednesday, complete with glossy voiceover from one of the convicts.

It shows the kind of images usually relegated to movies like "The Shawshank Redemption," with the three inmates shimmying into a vent and crawling through plumbing shafts.

It was provided to The Associated Press by an attorney for escapee Adam Hossein Nayeri.

The crisply edited video has a pop-music soundtrack and includes TV news clips about the escape and subsequent manhunt. It also contains voice-overs by Nayeri, recorded after their capture, giving his version of events, praising the cab driver the trio kidnapped and railing against the legal system.

One clip shows the inside of the maximum-security dorm room, known as Module F, at the jail in Santa Ana. How the inmates got the cellphones and were able to record in jail is not clear.

"You know, a lot of people like to credit us with some Houdini escape act all in eight minutes flat. It's an interesting myth," Nayeri says in voiceover to the video. "In reality we did leave that mod after count. Not the one they're claiming though. I left that module at least eight hours earlier the night before."

Inmates in the cramped dorm seem to know Nayeri is recording, but do not react, except for fellow escapee Bac Duong, who flashes a grin.

The video then shows the escape.

Nayeri carefully lifts a sawed-off bunk bed leg, exposing a previously cut metal screen on a wall. The screen is set aside as he disappears into a vent.

The trio crawls through plumbing shafts within the walls. At one point Nayeri stops and gives a thumbs-up. Jonathan Tieu squints as the light of the cellphone is shined on his face.

The inmates eventually reach the roof of the Orange County Jail.

The video does not show how the inmates got to the ground. Previous reports said they rappelled down using bed linens. On the video, Nayeri says they had industrial rope, a toolbox, a duffel bag and new clothes.

The next clips show the men taking turns posing at the corner of Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco. There are scenes from inside a van where they were sleeping.

"This is our casa for the moment. This is our crib. Water, all the basics," Nayeri says. "Friday night in San Francisco, a special Friday night in San Francisco."

A marijuana pipe is flashed. They hold up a bottle of Jack Daniels.

The men led authorities on a weeklong manhunt before they were recaptured.

The video does not show their recapture. Instead, Nayeri narrates the final two minutes of the edited video.

"We scared a lot of people and caused a lot of anxiety and fear and at the end of the day I can't say I feel good about that. I can't."

In another section, Nayeri refers to Long Ma, the taxi driver they are charged with kidnapping, and who drove them north.

"This man is truly a hero," Nayeri says. "He just radiated this calm fatherly presence."

Photos show Ma with Tieu on a beach, appearing to pose for the camera.

Nayeri's attorney, Salvatore Ciulla, did not respond to questions Wednesday about why he was releasing the video, when the voiceover was recorded and who edited the recordings.

Lt. Lane Lagaret, an Orange County Sheriff's Department spokesman, has said the department wouldn't comment on a video that "seeks to make light of criminal actions."

The Orange County district attorney's office said it would be inappropriate to comment on the video because the case is in litigation.

Stan Goldman, a criminal law professor at Loyola Law School, said the inmates could sell the footage or the rights for a film under California's so-called "Son of Sam" law.

The law allows victims to sue if those convicted of serious crimes profit from their criminal acts, but a legal question could be raised in this case about whether the county could be considered a victim or entitled to sue or if jailbreak is a serious crime, Goldman said.

___

This version corrects that Goldman said inmates can sell the footage or rights, not that questions could be raised about their ability to sell it under California law.
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The State Bar of California moved forward Monday with a proposal to lower the passing score of the bar exam by three points  a change that could increase the rate of passing by about eight percentage points.

The State Bar made the proposal open for a public comment period until Aug. 25, with the goal of finalizing a recommendation in September.

Just 43 percent of test-takers passed the July 2016 California bar exam, fewer than any other state and the lowest figure for California in more than three decades. Soon after those results came out, the State Bar and Committee of Bar Examiners began discussing ways to reform the passing rate and commissioned a study by research firm ACS Ventures to make recommendations.

At 144, California has the second-highest score required for passing the bar in the country (Delaware has the highest). The median nationally is 135, the study noted. Californias number, referred to as a cut score, was set more than 30 years ago.

David Faigman, chancellor and dean of UC Hastings law school, called the study fundamentally flawed. He was one of 20 California law school deans who recommended the state lower its bar exam cut score closer to the national median of 135  six points below what the report proposed.

As part of the study, a panel of lawyers was asked to determine a passing score that would set a standard for minimum competence as a lawyer.

Were not trying to determine whether or not theyve mastered the content  thats a slightly higher bar, Chad Buckendahl the psychometrician who conducted the study, said at a State Bar meeting Monday. All were trying to determine is should they be eligible to enter practice at this point.

The chair of the Committee of Bar Examiners, Karen Goodman, expressed concerns at Mondays meeting about the studys definition of minimum competence.

The State Bar has until Dec. 1 to submit its recommendations to the California Supreme Court, which has the final say on any changes to the states passing score.

If state officials act more quickly, as they are hoping to do, the change in the passing score could affect people who took the bar exam last week. The scores are typically released in November.

Janet Brewer, a member of the Board of Trustees for the State Bar, said the process was being rushed and voted against moving the proposal forward. We are putting the (California) Supreme Court ... in an untenable position of potentially having to make decisions before theyve gotten all of the information, she said at the meeting. Why the rush to do it for the July bar?

Isha Salian is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: isalian@sfchronicle.com
The San Francisco genetic testing firm Invitae Corp. plans to acquire two smaller companies that specialize in prenatal and reproductive screening, the company announced Monday.

The move is Invitaes first acquisition in the prenatal space, a fast-growing segment of the genetic testing industry.

The two acquired firms  Good Start Genetics of Cambridge, Mass., and Irvines CombiMatrix  specialize in testing pregnant women and fetuses for genetic abnormalities that may increase the likelihood of developmental problems in the child. The tests are ordered by obstetricians and reproductive endocrinologists for patients undergoing in vitro fertilization, or IVF. The testing can help determine, for example, whether a genetic disorder may be a contributing factor in recurrent miscarriages.

We view this as an important step into the reproductive side of genetics, said Invitae chief executive Sean George. This is us moving the industry from a test-by-test laboratory type of market to genetic information as a service moving across all stages of life.

Several other firms already compete in the prenatal genetic screening market, including South San Franciscos Counsyl, San Carlos Natera and San Diegos Sequenom, which is owned by the lab diagnostics giant LabCorp.

Prenatal screening has become more widely available in recent years, as the technology to screen for genetic abnormalities continues to advance rapidly. But some experts have cautioned against interpreting the results  which can yield false positives  without seeking the advice of a medical expert or genetic counselor.

Invitae was founded in 2010 and went public in 2015. It offers a wide range of genetic tests, including those that detect genetic variants linked to breast and ovarian cancer. Unlike direct-to-consumer genetic tests like those sold by 23andMe, these tests are ordered by a physician and increasingly are covered by major commercial health insurers.

The proposed acquisition of Good Start is expected to close in August, with the CombiMatrix deal following in the last three months of the year. CombiMatrix, which is publicly traded, reported $12.8 million in revenue for 2016. Good Start is privately held and does not disclose financial figures. Invitae reported $25 million in revenue last year.

The deal will merge the combined genetic information collected by all three companies. Invitae currently partners with biotech firms MyoKardia, BioMarin and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals to share patients genetic information, with their consent, to be used in the development of drugs to treat genetic disorders, including patients participation in clinical trials.

George said he expects to see more mergers and acquisitions in the genetic testing industry as the sector matures.

Thats exactly what you see in the 100-plus companies that supply genetic information, George said. These two are examples, and there are more that I would expect to see in the coming year  companies that either cease to offer genetic testing services or who get bought by other companies as this industry scales up in volume and sheer number of people. I definitely expect that to continue.

Invitae stock closed at $9.28 on Monday, down 2.4 percent from Friday. CombiMatrix stock closed at $4.95, down 3.9 percent.

Catherine Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Cat_Ho
SANTA FE, N.M.  To spend a couple of consecutive nights at the Santa Fe Opera over the weekend was to get a crash course in the unnerving power of female sexuality, at least as conceived by the male imagination. Apparently women can wreak undreamed-of havoc with their irresistible wiles unless the menfolk stay eternally vigilant.

In Handels Alcina, which opened here on Saturday, July 29, in a manic production directed by David Alden, the witchcraft is literal and unapologetically erotic  the title sorceress lures men to her enchanted island and transforms them into beasts. Rimsky-Korsakovs odd satirical fairy tale The Golden Cockerel, which took the stage the night before, depicts seduction as a political resource.

The notion that women are fascinating but dangerous  get too close and youre done for  is a recurrent motif throughout the operatic canon, of course, but its startling to encounter it in such a concentrated dosage. Maybe the companys schedule counts as thematic programming; still, Ive never felt so glad not to have Carmen in the lineup as well.

And this sort of sexual politics unsettles the entire operatic experience, because vocal allure is both the artistic point of the exercise and the vehicle of feminine danger. So when soprano Elza van den Heever delivered Alcinas arias with a gorgeous high gloss, or when soprano Venera Gimadieva imparted a bravura hootchy-kootchy shimmy to the role of Rimsky-Korsakovs Queen of Shemakha, it was hard to avoid a double sensation of exhilaration and wariness.

Alcina, fortunately, has more things on its mind than pure sorcery  or at least, it takes a broader view of what enchantment entails. Romantic complications flow in all directions, jealousy and ardor collide with chivalric notions of loyalty, and magic can work to dispel illusions as well as create them.

A certain amount of that busy density came through in Aldens staging, which imagines Alcinas island as an abandoned theater full of props and extras, and the real world outside it as a suburban housing development reachable by a jostling commuter train. Admittedly, the trope of theater as the place where magic happens has been done to a turn, but it was still hard to resist the profusion of tap-dancing ushers and usherettes, acrobats in gorilla suits, and Busby Berkeley-style routines.

And in the third act, when Alcinas seductive power (betokened in a deft bit of symbology by a single fuchsia glove) falls to bits, the staging turned impressively dark. Van den Heever, who began her road to prominence with the San Francisco Opera, proved just as compelling as an angry, embittered drunk  unleashing long, forceful vocal phrases whose implacability belied her tottery stage business  as she had in the stately early phase of her ascendancy.

She was partnered by an ensemble that largely did justice to the demands of the score. As Ruggiero  the latest victim of Alcinas predatory romantic practices and in many ways the operas protagonist  the Irish mezzo-soprano Paula Murrihy gave an especially impressive performance, marked by understated expressivity and vibrant tone.

Keep an eye and ear peeled, too, for the gifted soprano Jacquelyn Stucker, who delivered brilliant vocal fireworks in the tacked-on role of Oberto, a boy who has wandered into Alcinas sway for reasons not worth going into. Tenor Alek Shrader exhibited witty exuberance as Alcinas general Oronte  in this rendering an ape-man with a fondness for bananas  and Harry Bicket, who is both the companys chief conductor and one of the leading Handelians of our day, led the performance with grace and vitality.

The Golden Cockerel  or, to give it the French title by which Serge Diaghilev introduced it to Western audiences, Le Coq dOr  proved to be a harder sell, and Fridays performance, despite an imaginative visual production and first-rate vocal contributions from some members of the cast, didnt make a particularly persuasive case for the work.

The composers final opera ran into trouble with the Russian Imperial censors for perfectly apparent reasons, and wasnt performed until 1909, a year after his death. Since then, the piece has never been entirely forgotten, but its never been a mainstream item either (Pamela Rosenberg had it on the San Francisco Opera schedule at one point, but it never materialized).

The story, derived from Washington Irving by way of Pushkin, concerns a lazy, dim-witted ruler with two idiot sons, whose plan to protect his kingdom involves building a large wall along the border. Any relevance to contemporary life must remain in the eye of the beholder, because director Paul Curran has no interest in connecting those dots.

But if this portrait of feckless leadership is what got the censors backs up, the real story here is the ease with which the foreign queen  an undulating sexpot from the indolent, strength-sapping East  gets Czar Dodon to surrender his kingdom without putting up even token military resistance. The sexual danger emanating from exotic foreigners was a recurrent anxiety in Imperial Russian culture, and the sinuous melodic scales that Rimsky-Korsakov uses to exemplify that threat are a classic example.

Gimadievas success in bringing the sense of peril to life  a matter of elegantly fluid vocal turns and saucy stage demeanor  was a wonder to behold, and there were superb contributions as well from the clarion tenor Barry Banks as the astrologer who sets the plot in motion and from the powerhouse contralto Meredith Arwady as the czars housekeeper (and basically, nanny). Unfortunately, Tim Mixs bland and underpowered performance as Dodon felt a little too spot-on.

If nothing else, the production, which features vividly bright-hued scenes and costumes by Gary McCann, evoked the fairy-tale absurdity of the proceedings. For a parable about besieged political integrity, the whole thing played with winning lightness.

Joshua Kosman is The San Francisco Chronicles music critic. Email: jkosman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JoshuaKosman

Alcina and The Golden Cockerel: Through Aug. 23 at Santa Fe Opera, 301 Opera Drive, Santa Fe, N.M. $59-$310. (505) 986-5900, www.santafeopera.org
TRENTON, N.J.  New Jersey Gov. Chris Christies trip with his family to a public beach shuttered during a government shutdown drew online mockery and international headlines. Now its led to a proposed law to stop it from happening again.

The Democrat-led Assembly passed a measure Monday that would force the governors beach house to close during a shutdown, while a second measure they approved would keep state parks open.

The bills still need to be debated in the state Senate and would then need approval from the Republican governor.

Christie previously pledged to sign a measure the Legislature passed Monday that would pay state workers who were furloughed during the three-day shutdown this month. His spokesman declined to comment on the other measures, referring to office policy not to comment on pending legislation.

While Christie made viral headlines Monday over an argument with a Chicago Cubs fan while holding nachos in Milwaukee on Sunday, the Assembly brought the focus back to Christies beach incident.

If a beach is closed because of a state shutdown, it ought to be closed to everybody, said Assemblyman John Wisniewski, a Democrat who proposed the measure to close the beach house during shutdowns. Having it open to the governor and his guests while its closed to all the other New Jersey residents who are paying for them to be there isnt right and it isnt fair.

Christie had told reporters earlier that week that he planned to go to the beach house at Island State Park with his family during the Fourth of July weekend. A photographer for NJ Advance Media in an airplane got the shot of him lounging on a chair in shorts, sandals and a Mets T-shirt and hat.

That inspired Wisniewski and other Democratic lawmakers to try to put a stop to it from happening again, including the measure to prevent the state from shutting down public parks during government shutdowns.

Most camping trips or outdoor plans are made weeks or months in advance. It is unfair and unreasonable to hold residents holiday plans hostage over the governors and the legislatures inability to meet the budget deadline, Democratic Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle said.

Christie defended his visit to the shore, saying he had previously announced his plans to vacation.
ALBANY, N.Y.  Fifty years after actress Jayne Mansfield died in a Buick that slammed underneath a tractor-trailer, safety advocates say regulations inspired by that gruesome crash need updating to prevent hundreds of similar deaths annually.

Were asking Congress to pass a bill that would mandate comprehensive underride protection, not only on tractor-trailers but on single-unit trucks, such as dump trucks, said Marianne Karth, who lost two teenage daughters, AnnaLeah and Mary, when her Crown Victoria crashed beneath a tractor-trailer in Georgia in 2013.

After two cars skidded under a jackknifed tanker truck in northern New York on July 6, killing four people, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called on regulators to order trucks to be equipped with side guards that would prevent cars from sliding beneath them.

The devastation of crashes like these  a result of a gap in truck safety standards  could be reduced, Schumer said.

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 301 of the 1,542 car occupants killed in collisions with tractor-trailers in 2015 died when their vehicle struck the side of the rig. Another 292 died when their vehicle struck the rear. The institutes researchers estimate that half the fatal crashes between large trucks and passenger vehicles involve underride, which makes air bags and other crash protection ineffective because the top half of the car is sheared off.

Under regulations enacted after Mansfields death, big rigs are required to have rear underride guards to keep cars from traveling beneath the back of a trailer in a collision. Known as Mansfield bars, they consist of two vertical steel bars supporting a horizontal bar less than 2 feet from the ground.

Side guards arent required by federal regulations, but at least three cities  Boston, New York and Seattle  mandate them on city-owned trucks to eliminate deaths and injuries, particularly among pedestrians and bicyclists.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says side guards could prevent hundreds of deaths per year in the U.S.

Mary Esch is an Associated Press writer.
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WASHINGTON  Two prominent lawmakers urged President Trump on Sunday not to sabotage the Affordable Care Act after failed Republican efforts to scrap the health care law.

But Trump urged Republican senators to try again to push through some version of repealing and replacing the law, even though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said last week it is time to move on to other matters.

Kellyanne Conway, a Trump adviser, said the president will decide in coming days whether to block subsidies that are a crucial component of the law.

Hes going to make that decision this week, and thats a decision that only he can make, Conway said on Fox News Sunday.

Two of the GOP lawmakers who blocked the Senate Republican repeal plan last week, however, criticized the administrations continued efforts to overturn the law.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, blamed the Trump administration for encouraging instability in the insurance markets by continuing the uncertainty over whether the subsidies  payments that reduce out-of-pocket health care costs for poorer Americans  would continue.

Im troubled by the uncertainty that has been created by the administration, Collins said on NBCs Meet the Press. She contested Trumps characterization of the payments as an insurance company bailout.

Thats not what it is, she said, calling the reduction payments vital assistance to low-income Americans.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said further action on health care should be done in a bipartisan manner and not rushed. You cannot do major entitlement reform single-handedly, and you wouldnt do major legislative initiatives single-handedly, she said.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, independent-Vt., echoed Collins criticism of Trumps threat to stop making the cost-sharing payments.

You know, I really think its incomprehensible that we have a president of the United States who wants to sabotage health care in America, make life more difficult for millions of people who are struggling now to get the health insurance they need and to pay for that health insurance, he said on CNNs State of the Union.

Trump said Sunday on Twitter that Republican senators should press ahead with efforts to scrap the Affordable Care Act  a day after he tauntingly exhorted them not to be quitters in the quest for a legislative victory for him.

On CNNs State of the Union, White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said it is Trump administration policy that the Senate should keep working to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, skipping an August recess if necessary.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, while acknowledging a responsibility to follow the law, also signaled that Trump is not accepting defeat in efforts to get rid of the health care law.

Our goal  as well as the presidents goal, is to put in place a law, a system, that actually works for patients, he said on Meet the Press.

Laura King is a Tribune Co. writer.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP)  A dozen inmates escaped from an Alabama jail by using peanut butter to change the numbers above a door and trick a new employee into opening another door that led outside, a sheriff said Monday.

The inmates changed the number above a cell to the number that identified the door leading outside the jail. So when an inmate asked a young, inexperienced jailer to let him into his cell, the jailer was fooled into opening the outside door instead.

The group then fled, throwing off their orange uniforms and using blankets to climb over a fence topped with razor wire on Sunday evening.

"It may sound crazy, but these people are crazy like a fox," Walker County Sheriff James Underwood said at a news conference in Jasper.

Inmates "scheme all the time to con us and our employees at the jail," Underwood added. "You have to stay on your toes. This is one time we slipped up. I'm not going to make any excuses."

The sheriff said the inmates "went off in every direction," but all but one were captured within eight hours, and the sheriff said he hoped the last prisoner would be back in custody by the end of the day Monday.

The 11 were arrested without violence, and the only person seriously hurt was an inmate who sliced his thumb climbing over the fence, the sheriff said.

The fugitives were between 18 and 30, facing charges ranging from disorderly conduct to attempted murder.

A manhunt continued for the last fugitive, Bradley Andrew Kilpatrick, 24, of Cordova, who had been jailed on charges of possessing marijuana and drug paraphernalia. That search was getting some airborne help from a state helicopter.

Underwood estimated that the inmates had cleared the barbed wire fence in less than 10 minutes.

"They took advantage of a young fellow that hadn't been here very long" and who had to monitor 150 inmates at a time, the sheriff said. They apparently saved peanut butter from food regularly served at the jail.

"They love peanut butter sandwiches," the sheriff said.
Early returns indicate that dockworkers at 29 West Coast ports, including the Port of Oakland, will approve a three-year contract extension with shipping companies, union leaders said today.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union said the early results show that the proposed extension with the Pacific Maritime Association will be approved by 67 percent of its members in California, Oregon and Washington.

The workers' agreement, which was scheduled to expire on July 1, 2019, would be extended to July 1, 2022, if the agreement is ratified when the official results are announced on Aug. 4.

ILWU members voted on "the employer's unprecedented contract extension proposal after a year-long debate and democratic process" in which every worker had an opportunity to vote, the union said in a news release.

The union said the extension would raise wages, maintain health benefits and increase pensions.

"The ILWU was founded on the principles of democracy, and the rank-and-file have always had the last word on their contracts," ILWU international President Robert McEllrath said in the release.

McEllrath said, "There was no shortage of differing views during the year-long debate leading up to this vote, and members didn't take this step lightly. In the end, members made the final decision to extend the contract for three years."

Port of Oakland officials said they applauded word that dockworkers will likely approve the contract extension.

"This shows that the West Coast means business when it comes to moving cargo for our customers," Port of Oakland Executive Director Chris Lytle said in a statement.

Lytle said, "We're the most efficient, timely and cost-effective gateway for international trade and with a contract extension, we're also the most dependable."

Contentious negotiations between the ILWU and shipping companies in 2014 and 2015 lasted for months and resulted in a severe disruption at West Coast ports, including the Port of Oakland.

The dispute was only resolved after the White House intervened in February 2015 and helped broker a tentative agreement. Workers finally approved the agreement in May 2015.

Port of Oakland officials said a contract extension would ease concerns about labor-management disputes that can arise when waterfront contracts are negotiated but added that labor relations have been good and productivity high since the previous contract was signed two years ago.

Lytle said, "We feel that a decision to extend the contract reflects improving relations and performance up and down the West Coast."

Pacific Maritime Association President James McKenna said in a statement that the agreement "will be great news for the maritime industry as well as our customers, workers, port communities and the U.S. economy."

McKenna said, "With this contract extension, the West Coast waterfront has a tremendous opportunity to attract more market share and demonstrate that our ports and our workforce are truly world-class. We are fully committed to delivering the highest standards of reliability and productivity for years to come."

McKenna said he looks forward to working with McEllrath "to ensure that the West Coast sets the standard for service and efficiency, and is the destination of choice for cargo entering and exiting the United States."

The ILWU's Coast Longshore Division represents about 20,000 longshore workers on the West Coast.

627-1193

ILWU spokeswoman Jennifer Sargent Bokaie (503) 703-2933
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Sam Shepard, the Oscar-nominated actor and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who premiered many of his works at San Franciscos Magic Theatre, died Thursday at his home in Kentucky.

The cause of death was complications from Lou Gehrigs disease, his family confirmed. He was 73.

Over a career that lasted more than five decades, Mr. Shepard brought American theater out of the polite parlors of the East Coast and South and into the Wild West.

He first started writing off-off-Broadway and off-Broadway, winning Obie Awards for plays like La Turista, Red Cross and The Tooth of Crime in the 1960s and early 1970s. Many of his most enduring and widely produced plays premiered at the Magic Theatre, where he was playwright in residence for a decade beginning in 1975, including for the writing of three of his quintet of family plays: Buried Child (1978), which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1979, True West (1980) and Fool for Love (1983), which starred Ed Harris and Kathy Baker.

Cut off geographically and psychically from middle-class norms, his characters forge their own mythos. The American Dream doesnt figure into their consciousness; if they strive for anything, its often to run away from or return to lovers and kin. His men, in particular, are always embarking on sweeping road trips, much like the peripatetic Mr. Shepard himself. (Also like their creator, many of Mr. Shepards male characters are scarred by an abusive or absent father.)

You get the sense, though, that it never matters whether his characters are in close physical proximity or far apart. They cant really hear each other even when theyre right next to each other, everyone stuck in his or her own stunted perspective. Yet futilely assert their realities to one another they must, for kin is all they have; the rest is bare refrigerators, trailers stuffed with magazines. Mr. Shepards families are blood tribes. Its them against the rest of the world  their destinies sealed together by shared secrets and shames, by mysterious supernatural forces that feel as ancient as the land itself.

Sam Shepard was the defining American dramatist of his generation, theatrically testifying to the nightmare underpinnings of the American Dream, writes Larry Eilenberg, longtime professor of theater arts at San Francisco State and the Magic Theatres artistic director from 1992-93 and again from 1998-2003.His best works represent a convergence of (Eugene) ONeills brand of tragic family drama and (Samuel) Becketts bleak absurdism, with Sams father and the Mojave never far from view.

Mr. Shepards association with the Magic Theatre continued long after his official residency, with 24 productions in total. That included the star-studded world premiere of The Late Henry Moss in 2000, which featured Woody Harrelson, Sean Penn and Nick Nolte, as well as the companys more recent multiyear, multi-company Sheparding America project, which, beginning with the playwrights 70th birthday in 2013, honored his legacy by reviving many of his most beloved plays. Other local theater companies Word for Word, American Conservatory Theater and Crowded Fire also participated.

A lot of us make theater because of the work that he made, his groundbreaking writing, said Magic Theatre Artistic Director Loretta Greco. Its not just that he was prolific, but, lets face it, he wrote across all mediums equally beautifully. That includes the screenplay for Paris, Texas, which won the Palme dOr at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival, and collections of short stories and poems as well as longer fiction.

He never stopped, Greco said. He started in his teens, and he was writing when I saw him last, in April.

His career as an actor on stage and screen also spanned decades. With a rangy build and rugged good looks, somehow only enhanced by his very uneven teeth, Mr. Shepard was a natural in macho Hollywood roles that were much like the cowboys and drifters he created in his plays. He received an Oscar nomination for his performance as Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff, also giving memorable performances in Days of Heaven, Baby Boom, Steel Magnolias, The Pelican Brief and Black Hawk Down, among more than 40 other roles.

Hes such a great looking guy, and he held himself so well, Harris, who also starred in The Right Stuff, said by phone. He had most recently worked with Mr. Shepard on a production of Buried Child in London this winter. As an actor, Harris said, Mr. Shepard was always very centered. He has such a low tolerance for bull.

Mr. Shepard often directed his own work or consulted on notable productions of it, and his actors describe a similar hewing to the essentials. Local actor Will Marchetti, who played the Old Man in the Magics world premiere of Fool for Love, remembers Mr. Shepard as a man of few words.

I was a little intimidated by him, by his silence really, Marchetti said by phone. That silence was much more likely to break over Tequila at Toscas in North Beach than in the rehearsal room. I realized early in the game that questions werent permitted. Without having to say so, Marchetti said, Mr. Shepard clearly felt that if you dont get it right at the start, somethings really wrong. Youve got to understand what I wrote. Im not here to answer questions.

Luckily, Marchetti says, the play kind of directed itself.

But if Mr. Shepard was old-school in his macho reticence, that doesnt mean he wasnt generous to his artists. Local actor Rod Gnapp remembers Mr. Shepard greeting him backstage after the first time he went on as an understudy in the world premiere of The Late Henry Moss. Sam met me in the dressing room with a shot of bourbon and just a big smile and a hug, Gnapp recalled by phone.

As a director, Mr. Shepard hailed from an earlier time. Gnapp said Mr. Shepard used phrases like make it organic or just do what you feel, in contrast to many other directors more marionnette kind of approach. Gnapp said that although Mr. Shepard was very attentive to every period and comma, hed also say things like, Lets just get up and move around and pretend were animals, frequently punctuating his speech with hippie phrases like, Cool, man.

His plays were full of vivid, even grotesque images. Mr. Shepards language, said Harris, is extraordinary. Especially having just done Buried Child in London, one of the things you realize is that theres just no end to exploring this stuff. Its like a bottomless pit, playing these characters that hes created.

His theatrical monologues  arias really  brim with the spirit of American tall tales, of Pecos Bill and Calamity Jane, and the oversized lies we tell to sustain us, said Eilenberg.

Perhaps one of the most striking examples of his imagery comes from the end of Curse of the Starving Class, when Wesley and his mother, Ella, remember a tale their patriarch used to tell, about an eagle capturing and flying off with a cat:

Ella: ...They fight like crazy in the middle of the sky. That cats tearing his chest out, and the eagles trying to drop him, but the cat wont let go because he knows if he falls hell die.

Wesley: And the eagles being torn apart in midair. The eagles trying to free himself from the cat, and the cat wont let go.

Ella: And they come crashing down to the earth. Both of them come crashing down. Like one whole thing.

Samuel Shepard Rogers III was born on November 5, 1943, in Fort Sheridan, Ill., to a mother who was a teacher and a father who was a pilot in World War II, a Fulbright Scholar and an abusive alcoholic.

He was married once, to actor O-Lan Jones, from 1969 to 1984, and with whom he had a son, Jesse Mojo Shepard.

He moved in with actor Jessica Lange in 1983, having two children with her: Hannah Jane Shepard and Samuel Walker Shepard. Their relationship lasted until 2009. He is survived by his three children and by his sisters, Sandy and Roxanne Rogers.

The family is planning a private funeral. The Magic Theatre will host a Bay Area celebration of Mr. Shepards life and work in September; more details to come.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writers Evan Sernoffsky and Leba Hertz and wire services contributed to this report.

Lily Janiak is The San Francisco Chronicles theater critic. Email: ljaniak@sfchronicle.com
The Hotel Association of New York City is pulling no punches in its fight against the San Francisco-based short-term home rental website Airbnb.

In a 30-second ad circulating Monday, the group utilized a news story from May about Salman Abedi, the man who is believed to have planned and carried out a suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England. Following the attack, the Independent reported Abedi had planned his attack while staying in a short-term rental near the arena. The rental was not secured through Airbnb.

The ad, which will begin airing in New York Monday, asks, "Who's in your building? Airbnb won't say."

Airbnb has responded to the attack, telling SFGATE that any links between the company and terrorism in any sense is "outrageous."

"This ad is an outrageous scare tactic by big hotels," said a company spokesperson in an emailed statement. "The fact is Airbnb had nothing to do with the tragic events in Manchester and we are one of the only hospitality companies that runs background checks on all U.S. residents, both hosts and guests. Hotel CEOs have a responsibility to tell us why they don't do the same and why they continue to fund this sort of despicable, cynical advertising."

Airbnb says it runs background checks on "all hosts and guests globally against regulatory, terrorist, and sanctions watch lists" and cross-references names with the Office of Foreign Assets Control. The company also says it checks for some felony convictions, sex offender registrations, and serious misdemeanors.

Some critics, however, don't believe Airbnb is doing enough to curb violence and crime associated with their rental platform. This month, a New Mexico woman sued the company after she says she was sexually assaulted and held against her will by a host. Her complaint states that Airbnb "creates a false sense of security to its lessors and lessees."

AIRBNB TROUBLE: Woman sues Airbnb, claiming sexual assault by 'Superhost'

The Hotel Association's ask, however, is slightly different. This group appears to be attempting to get Airbnb to "hand over" the addresses and renter information to law enforcement officers for around 40,000 listed homes to try to prevent criminal activity.

Airbnb is working to improve its standing with city governments. In May, Airbnb and HomeAway settled a lawsuit against San Francisco, with both companies agreeing to help the city crack down on illegally listed units for rent.

Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at apereira@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira.


JERUSALEM  An Israeli military court upheld the 18-month sentence Sunday of a soldier convicted of fatally shooting a Palestinian attacker who lay on the ground wounded after stabbing another soldier, in a case that divided the country.

Sgt. Elor Azaria, an army combat medic, was recorded on a cell phone video as he fatally shot a badly wounded Palestinian who had previously attacked a soldier with a knife, injuring him. The Palestinian, Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, was lying on the ground unarmed when Azaria shot him in the head.

The 2016 incident occurred in the volatile West Bank city of Hebron at a time of frequent Palestinian attacks.

Israels top generals pushed for the prosecution of the soldier they say violated the militarys code of ethics they hold dear.

Large segments of the public, including politicians on Israels nationalist right, sided with Azaria. Some called him a hero who was being wrongly persecuted. In Israel, military service is compulsory for most Jewish men, and soldiers enjoy widespread sympathy and support.

Israels Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman issued a statement urging the soldiers family not to continue appealing. Its a difficult day, he said, adding the ruling must be respected. He said the militarys Chief of Staff should be asked to pardon him. I have no doubt he will take into consideration the difficult circumstances, he said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later tweeted that he will recommend a pardon. Other ministers also called for the soldier to be pardoned.

Human Rights Watch welcomed the court decision. Upholding the conviction of a soldier convicted of fatally shooting a man who posed no threat sends an important message about restrictions on lethal use of force, said Sari Bashi, the Israel and Palestine advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.

Israel has been coping with a wave of Palestinian violence that erupted in 2015. Attacks at times were a daily occurrence. Since then, Israeli forces have killed more than 256 Palestinians; Israel has said that most of them were attackers, others died in clashes.

During that same period, Palestinians have killed 48 Israelis, two visiting Americans and a British tourist in stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks targeting civilians and soldiers.
MOSCOW  Even as it sought to punish the United States for imposing new sanctions by forcing the mass dismissal of employees from U.S. diplomatic posts in Russia, the Kremlin left the door open Monday for President Trump to avoid further escalation.

Without mentioning the U.S. president directly, Moscow seemed to be appealing to him to resurrect his campaign promise to try to improve Russian-U.S. relations.

The will to normalize these relations should be placed on the record, Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, told reporters Monday.

The breadth of the dismissals demanded  755 people, most of whom will be Russian employees  was stunning even by the standards of the Cold War playbook from which the move seemed copied. But Peskov suggested Russia was forced to respond to sanctions approved by Congress, and that it was not the Kremlin that was making matters worse.

Of course were not interested in those relations being subject to erosion, Peskov said. Were interested in sustainable development of our relations and can only regret that, for now, we are far from this ideal.

Trump had talked during his campaign of improving ties with Russia and had praised Putin. But then, in quick succession, came the expanded sanctions passed by Congress, Trumps indication that he would sign them into law and Moscows forceful retaliation.

In Washington, the State Department issued a statement saying it was assessing the impact of the Russian measures and how it would respond. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow declined to comment.

Peskov said it was up to the Americans to decide how to reduce their staff to 455, matching the size of Russias diplomatic staff in the United States.

Neil MacFarquhar is a New York Times writer.
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TALLINN, Estonia  U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Monday strongly pledged Americas commitment to protecting NATO allies against attacks, including the Baltic states, which have anxiously watched a growing Russian military presence in the region.

Under President Donald Trump, the United States stands firmly behind our Article 5 pledge of mutual defense  an attack on one of us is an attack on us all, Pence said after meeting with the presidents of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the Estonian capital of Tallinn.

Mutual defense is a vital issue for the three small former Soviet states that border Russia, which were all occupied for nearly five decades by Soviet troops before regaining their independence in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The United States never recognized the claim by Soviet leader Josef Stalin on the three countries  which have a combined population of 6 million  allowing Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to maintain independent diplomatic missions and have their national flags stored at the State Department throughout the occupation.

Saying that Trump knows security is the foundation of our prosperity, Pence said America and the Baltic countries would seek new ways to increase prosperity by increasing trade that currently amounts to $3.5 billion and by increasing their mutual investments.

Earlier, he met Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid, Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis and Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite at the baroque 18th-century Kadriorg Palace, which was built by the Russian Emperor Peter the Great.

Energy is one way that Washington is seeking to tighten its commercial ties with the Baltic countries. It closed a deal in June to sell liquefied natural gas from the United States to the region.

Pence said he and Trump were pleased with the deal that will help the Baltic states to reduce their reliance on Russian gas.

Later Monday, Pence met with NATO troops from Britain, France and the United States that are stationed in Estonia. The alliance has deployed some 4,000 troops and military hardware in the three Baltic states and Poland to counter Russias presence in the region.

Estonia is the first leg of Pences European tour. The U.S. vice president flew later Monday to Georgia, and will also visit new NATO member Montenegro.

Jari Tanner is an Associated Press writer.
Something in the water

The tap water of 1.7 million New Mexicans contains unsafe quantities of uranium. That's more than 80 percent of the state. Although Santa Fe's water system follows state and federal guidelines for safe drinking water, one group using stricter standards based on California's water safety guidelines found that city water "contains eight cancer-causing contaminants at levels above California's health guidelines."

Populist uprising in Santa Fe

Fed up with what they perceive as Mayor Javier Gonzales limousine liberalism, a

says it will run at least one candidate in next years City Council election. Smart Progress New Mexico is a group of Bernie Sanders-minded liberals as well as fiscal conservatives who helped defeat the sugary drink tax. The group has already recruited one person, Jim Williamson, to run for a council seat. Might it be the same Williamson who

about his support for Trump on election night last November?

Zinke goes into the wild

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's been in the state reviewing 20 federally designated national monuments to decide whether to rescind or shrink their acreage. On the last leg of his visit he met Sen. Martin Heinrich and Sen. Tom Udall in the Sabinoso Wilderness, a 16,000-acre federally designated wilderness that is currently inaccessible to the public because it is surrounded by private land. The senators are hoping that Zinke will approve a purchase by a nonprofit organization of a ranch that butts against the wilderness. Previously, Zinke has ignored requests from public officials in places critical of the proposal to scale back public lands.

Laminated Social Security cards OK for REAL ID

It just got a little easier to obtain a REAL ID-compliant form

of identification in New Mexico. The Motor Vehicle Department

in lieu of W-2 or 1099 tax forms. Its unclear if a lawsuit filed two weeks ago by a woman frustrated that the a private-contract MVD wouldnt accept her laminated Social Security card as a form of ID had anything to do with the change.

Alerta, alerta

Tomorrow, the main suspect in the 2016 kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of an 11-year-old girl in the Navajo Nation is expected to

in federal court in Albuquerque. The case shone a spotlight on the lack of an Amber Alert system for the Navajo Nation, even though it was awarded $333,000 in funding for such a system years ago. US Sen. John McCain has said more than 7,700 American Indian children are listed as missing in the US.

Pipeline construction in Taos

Construction of

in the Rio Grande Gorge will begin on Aug. 1. The $14 million job is said to be a necessary upgrade to crumbling New Mexico Gas Company infrastructure, but some Northern New Mexico communities still won't have gas service even after the Taos Mainline Reroute Project is in service. The project will also make traffic worse along Highway 68.

Thunder and rain

It didnt rain as much as some feared or hoped in Santa Fe this past weekend, but most days this week appear with a little cloud-and-lightning-bolt next to it, according to my iPhone. Be sure to pack an umbrella for the week, just in case.





Subscribe to the Morning Word at Thanks for reading! The Word is using bottled water to make this morning's coffee.Subscribe to the Morning Word at sfreporter.com/signup

Santa Fe Reporter
Democrats will not withhold financial support for candidates who oppose abortion rights, the chairman of the party's campaign arm in the House said in an interview with The Hill.



Rep. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) said there will be no litmus tests for candidates as Democrats seek to find a winning roster to regain the House majority in 2018.



"There is not a litmus test for Democratic candidates," said Lujan, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman. "As we look at candidates across the country, you need to make sure you have candidates that fit the district, that can win in these districts across America."



...Lujan, serving his second term as the DCCC's chairman, has cast a wide net for candidates. A map on his office wall highlights districts held by dozens of Republican that he hopes to oust in the 2018 midterm elections.



"To pick up 24 [seats] and get to 218, that is the job. We'll need a broad coalition to get that done," Lujan said. "We are going to need all of that, we have to be a big family in order to win the House back."

Not sure what @TheDemocrats don't understand about the massive amounts of under- or unpaid labor women perform for the party on state level. https://t.co/IfOSEpga3G  Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 31, 2017 Not sure why they imagine that labor will continue if women's basic autonomy is treated like so much trash.  Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 31, 2017 If you're not a party who is uncompromisingly supportive of abortion access, then you're not a party who is serious about healthcare.  Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 31, 2017 (_)

<) )ABORTION

/ \



\(_)

( (> IS

/ \



(_)

<) )> HEALTHCARE

/ \  Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) September 18, 2015

How do the @washingtonpost editors write "The man who may disenfranchise millions" and not talk about Pence's role? https://t.co/JpyKbSTVed  Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 31, 2017 "Mr. Kobach now leads a presidential commission on election integrity." No he doesn't. Mike Pence leads it. https://t.co/ihAezuzTMA  Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 31, 2017 Mike Pence's history of hostility to voting rights in Indiana is crucial info. He's also next in line for the presidency, so, you know.  Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 31, 2017

Groups spending millions in anonymous donations are leading the outside efforts to either defend [Donald] Trump or sell his agenda with voters and Congress, despite the president's repeated calls to "drain the swamp" in Washington of special-interest money.



The political empire affiliated with billionaire Charles Koch has spent $2 million to date to advance Trump's tax-cut blueprint and will hold events this week in Washington to kick off the next phase of its multimillion-dollar campaign to drive congressional support for a comprehensive tax plan to slice corporate tax rates and enact broader tax cuts.



Americans for Prosperity, the Koch network's grass-roots arm, already has 50 events scheduled in August and September to help promote the tax plan.



The pro-Trump Great America Alliance is spending $450,000 on a TV and digital ad that casts special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into possible collusion between Russia and Trump's campaign as a "rigged game."



The group already has pumped more than $3 million in advertising to advance Trump's policies and has committed to spending $5 million more, said Eric Beach, a Republican strategist who helps run the group.



The Judicial Crisis Network, which spent $7 million to push Trump's top judicial nominee, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, is "prepared to spend whatever we need to spend to help [Donald] Trump fulfill his promise of restoring balance to our federal courts," policy director Carrie Severino said in a statement.



Trump has more than 100 judicial vacancies to fill.



Another pro-Trump group, America First Policies, has spent $5 million push his agenda and to help a Trump-supported congressional candidate in Georgia.



All operate as nonprofits, can accept unlimited funds from virtually any source but are not required to disclose their donors publicly.

One of the difficulties in resisting the Trump administration, the Republican Congressional majority, and Republican state legislatures is keeping on top of the sheer number of horrors, indignities, and normalization of the aggressively abnormal that they unleash every single day.So here is a daily thread for all of us to share all the things that are going on, thus crowdsourcing a daily compendium of the onslaught of conservative erosion of our rights and our very democracy.* * *Here are some things in the news today:Earlier today by me: Any Politician Who Says Our Voting Machines Are Secure Is Lying and "Economic Anxiety" I'll begin today's thread with a specialto the Democrats who are obliging us to divide our energies and resist their anti-choice indecency, too, like we don't already have enough to deal with: Dem Campaign Chief Vows No Litmus Test on Abortion Did he really just say "we have to be a big family in order to win the House back" to justify compromising on abortion rights? Jesus fucking Jones.* * *Robbie Gramer, Dan De Luce, and Colum Lynch at Foreign Policy: How the Trump Administration Broke the State Department . "Veterans of the U.S. diplomatic corps say the expanding front office is part of an unprecedented assault on the State Department: A hostile White House is slashing its budget, the rank and file are cut off from a detached leader, and morale has plunged to historic lows. They say [Donald] Trump and his administration dismiss, undermine, or don't bother to understand the work they perform and that the legacy of decades of American diplomacy is at risk. By failing to fill numerous senior positions across the State Department, promulgating often incoherent policies, and systematically shutting out career foreign service officers from decision-making, the Trump administration is undercutting U.S. diplomacy and jeopardizing America's leadership role in the world, according to more than three dozen current and former diplomats interviewed by FP." Fucking hell.There is literally nothing this administration does that I don't compare (inevitably unfavorably) to what Hillary Clinton's presidency would have looked like, and all of it is painful, but I am left particularly grief-stricken by the damage being done to the State Department and U.S. diplomacy, given Clinton's experience, knowledge, and talents in this area.Louis Nelson at Politico: Pence: We Will 'Hold Russia Accountable for Its Actions' . Okay, player! "Pence's remarks came before members of the U.S., French, British, and Estonian militaries and followed a meeting between the vice president and the presidents of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Pence offered optimism that the U.S.-Russia relationship might improve but said that any warming would come with a shift in Moscow's behavior. ...'Under [Donald] Trump, the United States will continue to hold Russia accountable for its actions  and we call on our European allies and friends to do the same,' Pence said Monday in Estonia."Trump's totes gonna continue (???) to hold Russia accountable, y'all! Great news! And we know we can believe it because Mike Pence always tells the truth! * jumps into Christmas tree Hey, speaking of Mike Pence, why is the Washington Post not speaking about Mike Pence?\_()_/[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Fredreka Schouten at USA Today: Secret Donations Are Helping to Boost Trump's Agenda, Fights with Investigators That all seems fine.Ian Millhiser at ThinkProgress: Trump's Latest Attempt to Gut Obamacare Could Backfire Spectacularly . "As soon as this week, according to Donald Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, Trump intends to decide whether to cut off payments intended to stabilize insurance markets and make health care affordable for many Americans with modest incomes. Trump apparently believes that cutting off these payments will help 'implode' Obamacare. Yet, if Trump should stop the payments, that could have the unintended effect of expanding access to health insurance, even potentially making some health plans free for many families of modest means. The reason why involves a fairly complicated formula governing how most Obamacare exchange customers pay for their health plans, and Trump's apparent unfamiliarity with how that formula operates." It would be nice if one of his spectacular fuck-ups accidentally ended up helping people.What have you been reading that we need to resist today?
New Zealand business confidence cooled less than normal in July as firms remained upbeat about their own activity and were keen to take on more staff.

A net 19 percent of firms surveyed in the ANZ Business Outlook expect general business conditions to improve over the coming year, down from 25 percent in June in a smaller monthly drop than is typical for the depths of winter. In seasonally adjusted terms, business confidence rose 2 points to a net 28 percent, and a net 40 percent of firms anticipate better time ahead for their own business in the coming year in the second highest reading of 2017, down from 43 percent in June.

"The economic thermometer is warm. Being upbeat about activity - and prepared to invest and employ - translates into solid economic momentum," ANZ Bank New Zealand chief economist Cameron Bagrie said in his report. "It's pleasing to see business sentiment (and the consumer equivalent) hold up amidst a slow-down in pro-cyclical parts of the economy."

New Zealand's economy has got a new lease of life this year with the recovery in global dairy prices reviving the rural sector and adding to the twin planks of record tourism and immigration that have seen a rapid pace of growth in recent years.

ANZ's Bagrie said the agriculture sector was the most optimistic about the general economy, its own activity and profitability as a result of 44-year high terms of trade and strong commodity prices.

Of the 352 companies surveyed, a net 26 percent expect to take on more staff in the coming year, up from a net 24 percent in June, which Bagrie said was "tremendously encouraging" and shows "no let-up on the demand side of the equation" as firms struggle to find skilled staff.

Government figures this week is expected to show continued employment growth and steady wage increases. Household incomes have been stagnant in recent years as an expanding population has created more competition for jobs, although a tightening supply is expected to push up salaries as firms vie more aggressively for staff.

Today's survey shows firms' investment plans shrank to a net 23 percent from 27 percent in June. A net 25 percent anticipate bigger profits in the year to come, down from 30 percent in June, and a net 28 percent plan to raise prices, down from 31 percent. Still, a net 33 percent see exports increasing over the coming year, up from 27 percent last month.

Residential construction investment intentions shrank to a net 11 percent in July from 18 percent in June, while commercial construction investment intentions dropped to 5.6 percent from 29 percent in June. Government figures today showed new residential building permits dropped 7 percent in June with a drop in new house consents issued.

(BusinessDesk)

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interests dont automatically trump all others.This is the upshot of two separate rulings released Wednesday.That is good news for proponents of oil and gas pipelines such as the controversial Kinder Morgan project in British Columbia.It is bad news for those who had hoped that Indigenous resistance would be sufficient to derail such projects, including pipelines designed to move heavy oil from Alberta to tidewater.The two decisions are particularly important in that they provide a road map for resource companies and their regulators on how to organize proposed projects in a way that passes legal muster.At the heart of this is the fact treaties signed between Indigenous nations and the Crown are part of Canadas constitution. The courts have long held that this alone requires the government to consult with First Nations before authorizing projects that could affect treaty rights.What hasnt been entirely clear is what consultation requires. Is it a weak requirement that means Indigenous views, like those of environmentalists, must be taken into account by government before a final decision is made?Or is it a strong requirement that means affected Indigenous nations must give their consent before a resource project like a pipeline can go ahead?This week, the top court, came down firmly against the latter interpretation.The duty to consult does not provide Indigenous groups with a veto over final Crown decisions, the court ruled in a case that pitted pipeline giant Enbridge against the London-area Chippewas of the Thames First Nation.And while Indigenous peoples may have a special public interest, the judgment reads, in the end that interest must be balanced against other competing societal needs.Put simply: Indigenous interests dont automatically trump all others.This weeks rulings focused on two radically different cases. In one, centred around the tiny Inuit community of Clyde River, Nunavut, the court said the Crown, in the form of the National Energy Board, did just about everything wrong.In the other, featuring the Chippewas of the Thames, the court found that the NEB did just about everything right.For Clyde River, the issue was seismic testing. Oil exploration companies wanted to set off sonic explosions in the Arctic Ocean near the hamlet in an attempt to locate undersea petroleum deposits.The local Inuit argued that this would spook the whales, seals and polar bears the community hunted.At one point, they reportedly asked for $10 million in compensation. The companies declined.The entire issue went before an NEB panel, which essentially approved the seismic testing scheme.But the court ruled that in doing so, the NEB failed to adequately consult the Inuit. It didnt hold oral hearings nor did it provide the local community with funding that would allow it to intervene effectively.As well, it made no objection when the companies, in response to Inuit questions, replied with a 3,926-page online document written almost entirely in English.This in a community where most spoke only Inuktitut and where internet access was rudimentary.The court ruled that none of this constituted adequate consultation and overturned the NEB approval.In the arguably more important Chippewa ruling, however, the court sided with Enbridge and the NEB against the local Indigenous community.This case revolved around Enbridges plans to expand and adjust an existing pipeline to let it ship heavy oil from the west to the east  plans which had been okayed by the NEB.Here, the court ruled, the government agency had met its obligation to consult. It held oral hearings; it provided the Chippewa with intervenor funding; it took Indigenous treaty concerns seriously.That the Crown, in the form of the NEB, ultimately decided against the Chippewa, the court said, was beside the point. It had taken their Aboriginal rights into account. It had weighed them in its decision.This, said the court unanimously, is all that the Crown is required to do.Indigenous interests dont automatically trump all others.
Free movement between Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand proposed post-Brexit

Citizens of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom should have the right to live, work and study in each others countries

That freedom of movement should be based on the Trans-Tasman Travel Agreement between Australia and New Zealand

Customs and commerce restrictions should be removed through the establishment of a comprehensive multilateral free trade agreement between the CANZUK countries

CANZUK countries should cooperate more on intelligence, defence, and foreign policy, to help the Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance, NATO and the UN Security Council

The right to freedom of movement would mean all CANZUK passport holders could undertake any form of work in the other countries.

Petition has more than 180,000 signatures

**

*

A non-profit group promoting freedom of movement between Canada, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand is set to submit its post-Brexit plan to the UK government.Britain officially triggered its departure from the European Union this week, with negotiations over the next two years set to determine the terms of the divorce. CANZUK International believes the way forward for Britain is free trade and movement of people with Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.Chief Executive James Skinner told Daily Hive he plans submit the proposals to the UK government in the next week.We have already received support from multiple high-profile politicians and diplomats, said Skinner by email. We have also arranged meetings with senior government officials to get our proposals underway.According to a release, the organizations proposals for the four CANZUK countries are:However, under CANZUK Internationals plan, they would not be able to claim social welfare payments until they had spent four years in their host country.According to CANZUK, a January 2017 poll of among 2,000 participants showed 77% of Canadians support freedom of movement with Britain, Australia, and New Zealand.Meanwhile, they say, 64% of Brits support it, with 72% of Australians and 81% of Kiwis on board with the idea too.CANZUK International is the evolution of the Commonwealth Freedom of Movement Organization, founded by Skinner.The organization launched a petition on Change.org calling for freedom of movement between the CANZUK countries, which has now been signed more than 181,275 times.According to the CANZUK International site, Skinner has worked extensively in the Australian and British governments.Meanwhile, he has now also been joined by Chairman John Bender and Member of the Advisory Board Sir Michael Craig-Cooper in his CANZUK quest.According to the website, Bender is chairman of Bender & Co. Holdings Ltd, an investment office associated with one of the founding families of a FTSE 100 publishing concern.Craig-Cooper served as Vice Lord Lieutenant of Greater London and has served as a board member of the National Bank of Kuwait, says the website.Same sovereign, same languageThe group is not alone in promoting the idea of freedom of movement between Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.Back in January, a report by the Free Enterprise Group said Britain should take advantage of Brexit by offering freedom of movement to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.The report, titled Reconnecting with the Commonwealth: the UKs free trade opportunities, had several suggestions for visa arrangements between the four countries.It also cited British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, and former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who have both backed free trade and movement for the two countries.Skinner told Daily Hive that Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are economically and socially developed to function under free trade and free movement protocols.Canada will be part of our CANZUK negotiations as it shares numerous similarities with Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom; the same Sovereign, the same respect for democracy, the same common law legal system and the same language, he said..................................
What We Can Learn From Finlands Basic Income Experiment

FINLANDS FAILED EXPERIMENT?

Universal basic income (UBI) is a hot topic in the world today. So far, however, very few experiments have been conducted to ascertain precisely how best to implement such a system. For that reason, a small-scale UBI experiment in Finland has drawn much attention as one of the few real-world examples we have of how UBI could work.The trial began earlier this year and is being managed by Kela, the national social-insurance institute. Kela selected 2,000 Finns between the ages of 25 and 58, each of whom was receiving some form of unemployment benefits, to receive 560 (about $645) per month.In theory, this project would give the world new insights into the logistics and consequences of introducing a UBI system. However, the trial has been riddled with issues and mistakes from the start due to improper planning and a troubled political environment, and now, it is little more than a lesson of how not to run a UBI experiment.[youtube]PArYs-fdJeM[/youtube]Among the most serious errors was a slashing of the sample size to just one-fifth the number suggested in the original proposition. This extremely small dataset is not enough to be scientifically viable.Additionally, the trial kicked off during a period of economic turmoil in Finland. The countrys economy had suffered three recessions since 2008, and this state-sponsored UBI project was launched in a time of economic austerity.Although the results of the project, which will be announced in 2019, may give us some insights into the viability of future UBI programs, even those who designed the Finnish experiment are skeptical of its validity. Olli Kangas, Kelas coordinator for the program, told The Economist that it was currently in a state of neglect, comparing politicians actions to small boys with toy cars who become bored and move on.Universal basic income has been proposed as a solution to two issues that are currently shaking society: poverty and the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into the jobs sector. In an interview with The Guardian, Stephen Hawking warned that the latter will cause job destruction deep into the middle classes, and Elon Musk has asserted that there will be fewer and fewer jobs that a robot cannot do better as the technology develops.The idea of a UBI system is to automatically award every citizen with a state-sponsored wage, which could then be augmented by further work. This would provide those displaced by robotic systems with a way to support themselves on the most basic level.Although Finlands lackluster experiment remains the largest state-sponsored experiment to date, various governments are considering conducting their own UBI trials.India, the worlds largest democratic country, has endorsed the system  claiming in a report that it is basically the way forward  and is now considering the best way to introduce it to its populous. The state of Hawaii, which also recently accepted the terms of the Paris Agreement despite Donald Trumps federal withdrawal, has also announced on Reddit that they will begin evaluating universal basic income.[youtube]SV6bKri_2Ao[/youtube]The system is not without its skeptics, however. Experts question who would provide the money to fund such projects, asserting that a universal basic income of $10,000 a year per person could add approximately $3 trillion to national spending in the U.S.Individuals such as Mark Cuban and Robert Gordon, an economist at Northwestern University, have suggested that we should optimize existing benefits systems. Gordon told the MIT Technology Review that his idea is to make benefits more generous to reach a reasonable minimum, expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, and greatly expand preschool care for children who grow up in poverty.We wont know for sure how effective a UBI could be until someone actually implements an experiment large enough to provide meaningful data, and right now, Finland doesnt appear to be that entity.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- While speaking to hundreds of police officers on Long Island Friday, President Donald Trump suggested that they be rough with members of the gang MS-13 when they arrest them, but Rep. Daniel Donovan, who had a front-row seat, thinks people are reading too much into the comments.

Trump was addressing a room full of law enforcement members in Brentwood, L.I., where the violent gang has a foothold.

He promised to eradicate the gang and support law enforcement in their attempts to do so.

He said, when arresting them, "Please don't be too nice. When you guys put somebody in the car and you protect their head. The way you put the hand ... like, they just killed somebody and don't hit their head ... You can take the hand away."

Donovan (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) was seated with two other members of Congress after having flown into the event with the president on Air Force One.

"I think he was playing to the audience," Donovan said Monday. "I don't think he was promoting police brutality or anything else."

He added, "Everybody, I think, was taking it in jest. I don't think the president intended for anyone to do anything that's unconstitutional or illegal in their duty as police officers."

TRAVELING WITH THE PRESIDENT

Donovan, the Staten Island district attorney for 12 years before being elected to Congress, got a call the day before, asking him to accompany the president, along with other New York Republican Congressmen Peter King, Lee Zeldin and Chris Collins, on Air Force One from Washington, D.C., out to Long Island and back.

They drove in a motorcade from the White House to Joint Base Andrews where they took off.

"It's an amazing operation to see how they moved the leader of the free world," Donovan said, blocking off traffic and all intersections.

It was "very cordial," Donovan said, with the president leaving his private office on the plane to visit the congressmen.

Then-chief of staff Reince Priebus and then-communications director Anthony Scaramucci were both on the plane, and the congressmen watched as the White House staff changes played out on TV news stations.

"They were both sitting right with us," Donovan said. Later "our phones started blowing up" when the news broke.

Trump had announced that Gen. John Kelly, the secretary of Homeland Security, would replace Priebus as chief of staff.

On Monday, Scaramucci was fired, after 10 days on the job.

Also, North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile Friday morning, "and the president was dealing with that as well," the congressman noted.

Earlier, the congressmen were invited into the president's private room to "just shoot the breeze."

After they went back to their seats, Trump called Donovan back to ask his thoughts on Kelly.

Donovan is on the Homeland Security Committee, and heard Kelly testify a few times. Donovan is also the chairman of its subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications.

"I think he had made a decision and asked my opinion" as a confirmation of what he already thought, the congressman said.

Donovan called Kelly "a patriot and an American hero." Trump turned to an aide and said, "See."

"The president felt he needed a change," Donovan added.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Joseph Angelo Calabria, a tireless advocate for Korean War veterans who was instrumental in renaming the Richmond Parkway and PS 6 in Richmond Valley, has died.

Calabria, 86, died Friday in Manhattan's NYU Langone Medical Center, family said.

A proud veteran of the Korean War, Calabria served as commander for 18 years of the Cpl. Allan V. Kivlehan Chapter of Korean War Veterans on Staten Island. During his tenure, he was instrumental in the renaming of the Richmond Parkway to Korean War Veterans Parkway, and the renaming of PS 6 to the Allan F. Kivlehan School. He also helped to establish the Korean Veterans Memorial on Ocean Terrace and the Allan F. Kivlehan Park in New Dorp.

Born in Manhattan, he grew up in Brooklyn where he met his future bride, the former Josephine Sanfilippo, at a Coney Island dance hall. They were married in 1957. Calabria moved to Eltingville in 1968 to raise his growing family.

Calabria was working as a longshoreman on the Manhattan waterfront when he was drafted into the Army on Oct. 1, 1951.

After a brief stint in Fort Lawton, Wash., Calabria stopped in Yokohama, Japan, before landing in Puson, Korea, in April 1952. Calabria was assigned as a driver to the 715th Transportation Truck Company of the 55th Truck Battalion. He was given the job of relaying weapons, ammunition, food and other supplies to the soldiers on the front lines.

Calabria returned home and was discharged a private first class at Camp Kilmer, N.J., on Sept. 19, 1953.

He received the Good Conduct Medal, the Korean Service Medal with three campaign stars, the United Nations Service Medal, the National Defense Medal, the Korean Presidential Unit Citation, the Korean Ambassador of Peace Medal and the New York State Conspicuous Service Cross. In 2000, he received a Korean Service ribbon from the Korean government.

After his discharge, he resumed his work as a longshoreman. He spent his career working on the Manhattan waterfront and held a succession of positions, including foreman, pier supervisor and hiring boss. He served as a union delegate for Local 856, International Longshoremen's Association, for several years before he retired in 1997, after 48 years on the waterfront.

ACTIVE VETERAN

For this veteran, however, retirement was only the beginning.

Calabria made a point to become active in veterans' organizations throughout the borough, including the Oakwood Heights Post, Veterans of Foreign Wars; the Watkins-Kellett Post, American Legion, the Korean War Veterans Association and the Halloran Chapter of Disabled American Veterans.

He often visited Island schools to speak with students about the Korean War. "If you like your freedom, thank a vet," he would say, uttering what became a signature tagline for him.

Calabria was a fan of the New York Yankees. He enjoyed reading and solving crossword puzzles, and spending time with his grandchildren.

He is survived by his wife of 60 years, the former Josephine (JoJo) Sanfilippo; two sons, Anthony and Joseph; two daughters, Debra and Gina Calabria; a brother, Dan, and two grandchildren.

The funeral will be Tuesday from the John Vincent Scalia Home for Funerals, Eltingville, with a mass at 11 a.m. in St. Clare's R.C. Church, Great Kills. Burial will be in Resurrection Cemetery, Pleasant Plains.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The 13th annual three-borough motorcycle ride to support injured veterans and remember soldiers killed or lost in combat kicked off from Elm Park on Sunday.

This year's run, the Frankie "Towkar" Appice Memorial 3 Boro Run, was a memorial to the former member and founder of the Rolling Thunder New York Chapter 2. Appice's children, grandchildren and great grandchildren attended the run in support of Appice, who died in January.

Several hundred members and supporters of the chapter gathered at the West Shore Little League memorial complex on Walker Street to kick off the escorted ride to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Plaza in Manhattan.

The after party was hosted at the Marine Corps League Det. 246 headquarters in Sunnyside where Staten Islanders enjoyed food, music, games and raffles.

Rolling Thunder is a volunteer, non-profit organization that dedicates itself to support those who have served our country, both in the past and present.
WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump swore in his new chief of staff, John Kelly, on Monday morning, formalizing a shake-up in his top ranks that was announced Friday evening with word of the resignation of Reince Priebus.

"We look forward to -- if it's possible -- an even better job as chief of staff," Trump said to Kelly, formerly the secretary of homeland security.

"I'll try, sir," Kelly replied.

Trump is hoping that Kelly, a retired general, will retool and bring order to a White House that has struggled with low poll numbers, staff infighting, a faltering legislative agenda and an investigation into Russian election meddling and potential collusion and obstruction of justice.

Yet Trump said the administration "has done very well" after a reporter asked what would be different under Kelly. He cited the unemployment rate, the thriving stock market and unnamed polls that, he said, show high business confidence.

"We're doing very well. We have a tremendous base," he said. "The country is optimistic. And I think the general will just add to it."

Trump praised Kelly's performance at the Department of Homeland Security, where Kelly focused on immigration issues at the southern border, as "record-shattering," with "very little controversy."

There was no word on whom the president might name to replace Kelly at the department. Trump reportedly has considered moving Attorney General Jeff Sessions there from the Justice Department, reflecting his unhappiness with the attorney general, but Republican senators pre-emptively have signaled their opposition to such a move.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Finally. Someone has said it.

The city plans to dismiss a whopping 500,000 arrest warrants issued during the administrations of Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg for "Broken Windows" type crimes. That is, low level offenses like turnstile jumping.

"I believe that issuing blanket amnesty for these offenses is unfair to those citizens who responsibly appear in court and sends the wrong message about respecting our community and our laws," said Staten Island District Attorney Michael McMahon.

Excuse us for being giddy, but Hallelujah! The district attorney is absolutely right.

Seems, sadly, that he is the only one of the five New York D.A.s who think this way. Not to mention the mayor, not surprisingly, and the NYPD. The mayor and his NYPD commissioner have already decided that such crimes against our quality of life -- consider public urination, for example -- and not worthy of an arrest, but instead an administrative hearing instead of a Criminal Court appearance.

Despite claims to the contrary, Broken Windows policing is effective. Not everyone will recall what New York was like pre-Guiliani. Progressives can dispute the policy all they want, and claim crime would have dropped no matter, but they'd be wrong.

Our current mayor has decried panhandling lately, telling his constituents he wishes it was illegal. We do too. But we wonder where all the panhandlers and squeegee people were during the administration of Mike Bloomberg. Within a week after Bill de Blasio was sworn in, we were accosted by an aggressive panhandler on Targee Street at the Staten Island Expressway overpass -- and regularly after that.

Coincidence? We don't think so. Because the newly elected de Blasio sent a message all during his campaign that he intended to change the philosophy of the NYPD.

We will not claim to disagree with all of Bill de Blasio's progressive ideas the way most Staten Islanders do, but we are having an increasingly difficult time understanding what he is thinking when it comes to quality of life in New York.

McMahon is on target when he says we are sending a message that our laws and our communities do not demand respect.

A few months ago, when the mayor moved his office to Staten Island, Advance/SILive City Hall reporter Anna Sanders spotted cops sweeping the aggressive, obnoxious ticket sellers from the plaza around the Whitehall Ferry Terminal where they regularly harass tourists and commuters alike.

Anna heard an officer tell one seller to come back at 9:30 a.m. De Blasio caught the 9:15 boat.

This was followed by a report in the New York Post that cops swept subway stations of homeless when the mayor was taking the train recently. When de Blasio was confronted by an internal NYPD email ordering the sweep, he first told the Post, "Read my lips: I don't care," the tabloid reported.

He did go on to say that such sweeps are not part of his administration's policy and that "any approach ... should be the same every single day, regardless of whether I'm around."

You're right on that that count, Mr. Mayor.

Our question: What is that approach? There certainly seems to be some confusion between the NYPD and the de Blasio team.

In our book, quality of life on the streets of every borough is pretty important. The message we're getting: Don't sweat the little things. Just like we didn't in the 1970s.
Page Content





The Minister has targeted Fort Lauderdale since starting her tenure in January and has continued efforts to finalize airlift out of the city, particularly from JetBlue and Southwest Airlines.





The Minister and her team were given a tour of Fort Lauderdale's new international terminal for Southwest, built by Southwest, as well as the international hall out of which JetBlue operates.





The tour was guided by airport officials as well as Broward County Commissioner Dale V.C. Holness who welcomed the Minister and had informal discussions about a future business relationship between St. Maarten and Fort Lauderdale.





"We have New York and Miami as our two major US hubs and of course we have been looking to add another gateway with great connecting options," the minister said.





"There is a key aspect that many people don't consider when they hear about government trying to lock down a new gateway. We have to look at combining demand for destinations and regular flights. Passengers will be able to access different airlines to multiple destinations around the world.





So it's not just about getting from St. Maarten to Fort Lauderdale and back, its the connecting options it adds for us as well. In this context Fort Lauderdale has the potential to be a major US hub for us," the Minister explained.





Broward County's Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) serves the needs of 29.2 million passengers and the general aviation community throughout South Florida.





FLL is ranked 21st in the U.S. in total passenger traffic and 13th in domestic origin and destination passengers. There are more than 325 departure and 325 arrival flights a day. FLL offers nonstop service to 140 U.S. cities and flights to Canada, Bahamas, Caribbean, Mexico, Latin America, and Europe. FLL averages 640 commercial flights per day on 26 airlines. There are also 100 private flights. Each day an average of 80,000 travelers pass through the four terminals at FLL.





The Minister said discussions will continue with both airlines and Fort Lauderdale.





caption: From left Head of the St. Maarten Tourist Bureau Rolando Brison, Policy Advisor in the Ministers Cabinet Julian Lake, Broward County Commissioner Dale V.C. Holness, Minister Mellissa Arrindell-Doncher, the Ministers Chief of Cabinet Cecil Nicholas and a representative of the Fort Lauderdale Airport.





Minister of Tourism Mellissa Arrindell-Doncher and a small delegation from St. Maarten recently met with Fort Lauderdale city representatives and airport officials to continue discussions on opening that city as the islands next big US hub.
What is coolsculpting? How to get desired results? If you are confused about the treatment,
airberlin announced expansion of its flight offerings for the summer of 2018. airberlin is planning the most extensive schedule in its history with around 100 long-haul flights per week.

Passengers from Dusseldorf can look forward to two new destinations in the airberlin route network: from 1 May 2018, airberlin will fly to Toronto in Canada four times a week. The red-and-white airberlin jets will depart five times a week as of 2 May 2018 from the North Rhine-Westphalian state capital to Chicago. The round trip to Chicago starts at 373 euros including taxes and fees. Tickets for flights to these new destinations will be available for booking from 1 August 2017.

In comparison with last year, airberlin is also increasing its market leadership at Dusseldorf Airport with 13 per cent more long-haul flights. In total, airberlin offers 57 flights a week from Dusseldorf to the USA. No other airline flies from North Rhine-Westphalia to the USA more frequently: airberlin provides connections between Dusseldorf and New York (JFK) twice a day. airberlin operates daily flights from Dusseldorf to each of the following destinations: Boston, Los Angeles, Orlando, Miami and San Francisco. airberlin has increased the number of flights to Orlando with two additional flights compared to last year. airberlin is the only to fly from Europe direct to Fort Myers, which it does three times a week. During the summer of 2018, airberlin will also fly to Cancun, Mexico and to Varadero, Cuba twice a week. Furthermore, there will be flights from Dusseldorf to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic three times a week.

The North Rhine-Westphalian state capital is our most important hub. airberlin's growth is also good news for the Dusseldorf aviation market." explains Ahmelmann.

airberlin offers a daily flight from the German capital to New York (JFK). airberlin will also fly from Berlin-Tegel to Abu Dhabi twice a day this summer.

All airberlin flights up to the end of October next year can now be booked with airberlin. The new flights from Dusseldorf to Toronto and Chicago will be available for booking from 1 August 2017. Feeder flights are available from many airports in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Tickets are available for booking online at www.airberlin.com
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Air Canada will launch the only daily service between Vancouver and Yellowknife starting December 15, 2017 until April 1, 2018.

Special introductory fares start as low as $219 one-way, all in, and tickets are now available for purchase at aircanada.com or through travel agents.

"We continue to strategically build our Vancouver hub and we are excited to link Vancouver and Yellowknife with daily non-stop flights this winter, complementing our existing Yellowknife services from Calgary and Edmonton. These new non-stop flights will shave off almost four hours of round-trip travel time for customers travelling between Canada's west coast and the Northwest Territories. In addition to convenient business travel between these two areas, these new flights also connect seamlessly at our YVR trans-Pacific hub to and from our Asia and US transborder networks, offering one-stop ease for visitors travelling to enjoy Canada's spectacular Aurora Borealis and northern winter adventures," said Benjamin Smith, President, Passenger Airlines, at Air Canada.

The new non-stop services will be offered onboard 75-seat Bombardier CRJ-705 aircraft featuring a choice of Business Class or Economy service operated by Jazz Aviation LP under the Air Canada Express banner. All flights provide for Aeroplan accumulation and redemption, Star Alliance reciprocal benefits and, for eligible customers, priority check-in, Maple Leaf Lounge access at the Vancouver hub, priority boarding and other benefits.

Flight # Depart Time Arrive Time AC8833 Vancouver (YVR) 4:00 p.m. First flight operates Dec. 15, 2017 Yellowknife (YZF) 7:30 p.m. AC8834 Yellowknife (YZF) 7:30 a.m. Last flight operates Apr. 1, 2018 Vancouver (YVR) 8:53 a.m.

So far in 2017, Air Canada has launched new services from its Vancouver hub to: Taipei, Frankfurt, London-Gatwick, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Boston, with Melbourne seasonal flights to begin December 1, and Delhi seasonal service resuming on October 14 increasing up to five times weekly for the 2017/2018 season.
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'The ACT has consistently moved to move progressive changes to the party when it comes to a woman's right to choose," Ellie Yates said.

And they voted up a motion asking the government to force pharmacists who refuse to carry reproductive products like the morning-after pill to place a sign in their window to save women from being discriminated against or humiliated when they go to fill their prescriptions.

Vigil: The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn, Christopher Prowse, centre, joins others in prayer outside the ACT Health building in Moore Street, Civic. Credit:Graham Tidy

Party members and delegates also moved for a binding vote on abortion law, hoping to start momentum for change to the party's national rules, which allow members of parliament to vote with their conscience.

The ACT Labor party has called on the government to consider allowing abortion drugs to be sold in chemists via prescription.

"Wayne Berry and his caucus in 2002 moved to decriminisalise abortion. We have made great steps since then but there is still room for improvement.

"There is currently one provider in the ACT of medical and surgical terminations. The concept of it being safe and accessible has come a really long way but the thing that has been missed and the thing that needs to be worked on more is making it affordable.

"Whether it's surgical or medical, it's $500 in the ACT to access the service. There are women in our community for who $500 is a deal breaker. $500 is whether they can put food on their kids' tables. It's food for them, it's rent, it's whether they can get to work and it's whether they can support themselves going through that time. $500 is too much, $500 is not making it accessible and affordable in our community."

The general resolution called on the ACT government to explore how it could make abortions more affordable, including making abortion drugs available by prescription from pharmacies or from government-run sexual health clinics

Member for Canberra Gai Brodtmann supported the affordable abortion motion and revealed she was working with Emily's List to decriminalise abortion in Queensland and NSW.
A man locked up after he threatened a Dickson TAB worker with a gun and fled with $36,000 cash more than a decade ago has won an appeal against his jail term.

Michael Reginald Baker, 50, pleaded guilty last year to armed robbery and riding in a vehicle without authority for nabbing the cash at gunpoint and escaping in a stolen car on December 30, 2001.

He had stolen the car from Tumut earlier that night. The female cashier was the only person inside when he approached the front glass doors with a gun in his hand about 8pm.

Baker aimed the gun at the woman through the glass and demanded she open the doors before he kicked his way inside and pointed the gun at her.

She tried to call for help but Baker knocked the phone out of her hands with the firearm before pressing the gun into the side of her head as he demanded she open the safe.
Two brothers have pleaded guilty to rape and aggravated robbery charges that stemmed from two violent attacks against sex workers in the ACT.

Mohammed Alabbasi, 22, and Ahmed Al Abbasi, 31, were set to fight allegations they raped women in separate incidents in apartments in Reid and Braddon in 2016.

The two men will be sentenced later this year. Credit:Louie Dovis

But the men will avoid trial after switching their pleas in the ACT Supreme Court on Friday.

Documents previously tendered in court said one female sex worker was raped after a man booked an appointment and several men showed up in Reid on March 13.
Let's take a look at what's making headlines today.

It's a frosty morning, but we're expecting a sunny day to follow - not bad after all that rain. It dipped only just below freezing overnight, and the weather bureau has forecast a maximum of 15 degrees.

A controversial agreement that allows UnionsACT to vet companies vying for government contracts will be written into law next year.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr told the weekend's ACT Labor conference the government would would establish a "local jobs code" to ensure "worker safety, fair pay and conditions on public projects" within the next 12 months.

The federal and territory Liberals have previously spoken out against the agreement with Canberra Liberals industrial relations spokesman Andrew Wall saying "serious questions" needed to be answered on who's running the show.

Katie Burgess has more here.

Canberra man wanted to 'get on it with his heroes'
Thieves broke into a car at Kambah pool before driving off in a stolen grey BMW linked to a string of Canberra burglaries and firearm offences.

At 12:00pm on Thursday, July 6, the owner of the car returned to find his vehicle broken in to, with a witness saying they saw two men around the car.

Police believe the drivers of this stolen car are linked to the theft and a number of other serious offences in Canberra.

Police urged this witness to come forward as they would be able to describe the alleged offenders.

The stolen grey BMW 523i is linked to a number of serious offences in Canberra, police said.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has reminded us of why Australians like the Brits so much. By audience acclaim, his dinner speech to Australia's business and political elites last week was the funniest delivered on any serious occasion in living memory.

He showcased the easy familiarity between Aussies and Poms, the shared cultural reference points, the common sense of humour. The laughter started at the very outset when he launched into a recollection of his 19-year-old self at the end of a year's sojourn in Australia. He had become a firm convert to Aussie pop culture who returned to Britain as "a kind of unconscious Les Patterson  a self-appointed and unwanted cultural ambassador" for Australia. "My conversation was studded with words like 'bonzer, mate' or 'you little ripper'," he told the audience of 600 in the cavernous Sydney Town Hall. "And on the streets of London in broad daylight I insisted on wearing the same Stubbies daks  shorts of appalling brevity  that I had worn in the bush until my then-girlfriend said that it was her or the stubbies daks. I am not sure how the contest was resolved."

At the same time, Johnson gave Australians a timely reminder of why we need to forge our own way in the world. Australia never wanted to be separated from the "Mother Country". Although Australia federated in 1901, it still thought and acted as a British colony. When the US, Japan and China each approached Australia about the possibility of establishing diplomatic relations in the 1930s, Canberra said no, as Allan Gyngell records in his book Fear of Abandonment: Australia in the World Since 1942.

Australia's relationships with the world were all conducted through London. Eventually, when prime minister Joseph Lyons decided in 1939 that Australia might actually need its own ambassadors abroad with another world war looming, his attorney-general, Robert Menzies, denounced the idea as a threat to British unity that would "lead to nothing but chaos and disaster".
Senate crossbenchers will move to refer One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts to the High Court if the government hesitates, all but guaranteeing his eligibility will be decided by the court.

But Senator Roberts, whose office threatened to report Fairfax Media to police for "stalking" in response to questions over his eligibility, is now delighting in the "unbelievable" increase in his profile the furore has created.

The Greens party room will discuss the issue next week, while Derryn Hinch said he would move the motion himself, if the government or One Nation itself failed to do so. The Greens and Senator Hinch are pushing for an independent audit of all MPs' citizenship status.

"Our view is there should be a comprehensive audit of all members of Parliament and we would like to see an independent audit  we would support the government conducting an independent audit, but in the absence of that, then each house can conduct an audit, can basically co-opt independent advice and in fact, could proceed to appoint an auditor to do this and make recommendations about any cases that should be referred to the High Court," Greens leader Richard Di Natale said.
Southwest Airlines announces new weekly service to Cancun, Mexico from Indianapolis. The new flights between Cancun and Indianapolis will operate seasonally on Saturdays beginning March 10, 2018.

Katherine Findlay, a Southwest Airlines Vice President and executive sponsor of Indianapolis said, "The opening of our 17th international gateway comes just in time for spring break, giving travelers a quicker route to a much-needed vacation."

As part of today's flight schedule extension, the carrier is also offering new international service beginning March 8, 2018 between Ft. Lauderdale and Aruba. Additionally, new nonstop service offered daily between Milwaukee and Houston (Hobby) will allow connections to destinations such as Belize, Cancun and Mexico City.

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Southwest begins seasonal weekly service on Saturdays between Detroit and Tampa as well as Omaha and Tampa.

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FARE TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Purchase from July 27 through August 3, 2017, 11:59 p.m. in the respective time zone of the originating city. Domestic and International travel is valid March 8 through April 6, 2018. Service begins March 8, 2018. Domestic travel is not valid on Fridays and Sundays. International travel is valid Monday through Thursday. Fares are valid only on nonstop service. Displayed prices include all U.S. and international government taxes and fees. Points bookings do not include taxes, fees, and other government/airport charges of at least $5.60 per one-way flight. Fares are not available to/from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Seats and days are limited. Fares may vary by destination, flight, and day of week and won't be available on some flights that operate during very busy travel times and holiday periods. Travel is available for one-way Wanna Get Away fares. Fares may be combined with other Southwest Airlines combinable fares. If combining with other fares, the most restrictive fare's rules apply. Sale fares may be available on other days of week, but that's not guaranteed. Fares are nonrefundable but may be applied toward future travel on Southwest Airlines, as long as reservations are canceled at least 10 minutes prior to the scheduled departure. Failure to cancel prior to departure will result in forfeiture of remaining funds on the reservation. Any change in itinerary may result in an increase in fare. Standby travel may require an upgrade to the Anytime fare depending on Rapid Rewards tier status. Fares are subject to change until ticketed. Offer applies only to published, scheduled service. Service between Ft. Lauderdale and Aruba subject to government approval.
Corruption authorities have been asked to investigate $400,000 worth of donations a tobacco executive made to the Labor Party, potentially breaching NSW law and ALP rules.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale has written to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption asking it and the NSW Electoral Commission to probe revelations that Sydney tobacco company director Peter Chen made a $200,000 donation to NSW Labor in 2011 and another to the party's federal branch in 2013.

Mr Chen is the sole Australian director of ATA International but donated via another of his companies, Wei Wah, which retails the cheap Chinese brand cigarettes that ATA imports.

The ALP banned donations from the tobacco industry in 2004. NSW law also bans funds from any "tobacco industry business entity", which includes "a close associate" of a tobacco corporation.
More than 40 years after Gough Whitlam was dismissed as Prime Minister, his eldest son has appeared in court to fight for the release of letters that would shed light on what Buckingham Palace knew in the lead-up to the Dismissal.

Antony Whitlam, QC, headed a legal team appearing in the Federal Court in Sydney on Monday for Professor Jenny Hocking, a Labor historian and Monash University academic who is seeking access to letters between the then governor-general Sir John Kerr and the Queen.

The National Archives of Australia has refused to release the correspondence  which also includes letters between Sir John and the Queen's private secretary, as well as Prince Charles  on the basis they are "personal" letters rather than Commonwealth records.

Mr Whitlam said medical records and other documents unrelated to the performance of Sir John's official duties would be classified as "personal records" but it would not extend to correspondence with Buckingham Palace before he dismissed the Whitlam government in November 1975.
I love a good perve inside a celebrity's wardrobe, thanks to the glossy mags. There's always some magical Portobello Road Market find  those that you, as a mere mortal, will never be able to nab, plus, quite often, a staggering number of jeans; it's not unheard of for some fashionistas to have more than 100 pairs.

Over the rainbow ... Kesha wearing a pair of colourful, customised overalls at LAX. Credit:starzfly/Bauer-Griffin

But since learning about the devastating effect denim production can have on the planet  the toxic chemicals and water usage in the dyeing process, the impact of so-called "distressing" techniques, and so on  I've had a massive rethink about how many pairs of jeans I "need".

I probably own about seven pairs but could easily survive with three: a light, a dark and a black.

Given Friday is Jeans for Genes Day, it is timely to share the stories of two people in the fashion industry who are slowing denim consumption by producing one-of-a-kind pieces using very different techniques.
Interestingly, it was South Australia and Victoria, the states with the most privatised systems, which went furthest and fastest in the direction of renewables. Did the relevant governments actually understand the risks they were running? Once governments stop actually doing things, their IQ degrades quite rapidly, because they no longer have the independent expertise within the public service to understand what is going on.

The Snowy Hydro Scheme at Talbingo, NSW. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

This can lead to unexpected policy outcomes. South Australia, the state that pursued renewables most assiduously, has found that its network lacks resilience. This is not a problem of renewables per se, but it does reflect a lack of engineering understanding in government. During an extreme heatwave last February, the back-up power the government thought was there (from Pelican Point's gas-fired generators) was not in fact available when it was needed, and many consumers lost power. Why did this happen? This is where the engineering (and commercial) know-how comes in. Engie, the operators of Pelican Point, had initially provided back-up power to the network. However, it turned out not to be needed, and it was costing the company money, so for some time the power station had not had the capacity quickly to increase its output, in its normal mode of operation.

In February 2017, when the additional power would have been useful, the option to use it was not there. The politicians were surprised. No one knew that in a market-coordinated network, you can't assume there will be sufficient flexibility to respond smoothly to unexpected events. Bringing extra capacity online can be done relatively quickly, but it depends on many factors, including accurate demand projections. It is not like flicking a switch, as I am sure the engineers would have told the politicians. All technologies raise complex issues. It makes you wonder whether the SA government is getting balanced advice about the big battery to be provided by Elon Musk.

The last chapter in this story belongs to Western Australia. In this case, the tyranny of distance seems to have had its advantages. While some market-type reforms have occurred, the WA power network continues to be largely both vertically-integrated and state-owned (via three separate regionally-based government-owned corporations). Presumably because it is a long way across the Nullarbor, they have been spared membership of the National Electricity Market. In addition, because they can, they have reserved 15 per cent of the state's gas output for domestic use.
The ALP escaped this fate and went to enjoy lusty adolescent growth because it was linked to the AWU. The AWU unionised pastoral and mining workers scattered across regional and rural Australia. Its paid full-time organisers set up and ran local Labor branches across the wide brown land. AWU newspapers proclaimed the gospel of Laborism.

The AWU, because of its pivotal role in propagating the Labor message, came to be seen as the embodiment of an Australian ethos of egalitarianism and mateship. It helped to consolidate support for key early federal initiatives such as compulsory arbitration and, regrettably, the White Australia policy.

Dyrenfurth is right to stress the AWU's resilience over the years. In the less heady decades that set in after World War I, AWU leaders saw off repeated perceived challenges.

Throughout this long tussle employers and business people have often been the least of the AWU's worries. As Bill Shorten demonstrated in his years with the AWU, his union prefers to do deals with the business sector. Where there is animus, it is usually generated against the AWU and other unions by assorted free market ideologues.

The AWU's atavistic enemy instead is other labour people. Dyrenfurth's book is peppered with accounts of conflict with other unions (such as the Federated Ironworkers' Association in its various guises) and with rebellious grassroots industrial activists. Over the years the AWU waged war against the Labor hero Jack Lang, the Communist Party of Australia and the trade union disciples of BA Santamaria.
In 2003, the OECD published a comprehensive report on how to deal with conflict of interest in government (OECD Guidelines for Managing Conflict of Interest in the Public Service). As the report noted, increased collaboration between governments and private companies has devolved more public functions on to non-government actors and has required government officials to engage more closely with commercial partners through the awarding and monitoring of contracts. Those employed in the private sector are often unfamiliar with public sector procedural values such as impartiality and may have difficulty meeting government standards. At the same time, public servants dealing with business people are exposed to more opportunities to cut corners and do favours for family and friends.

A conflict of interest, like corruption, is normally understood to involve a clash between the public duties of an official and his or her personal interests. The main difference from corruption is that a conflict of interest need not lead to actual wrongdoing whereas corruption necessarily implies wrongdoing. Conflicts of interest have always been a major focus of public sector ethics but attention has grown in the last two decades with the renewed interest in questions of governance in both the public and the private sectors.

Last month's article on nepotism in the Australian Tax Office and elsewhere ('Tip of the nepotism iceberg', Public Sector Informant, July 2017) attracted an unusually strong response from readers. A number of public servants, current and former, wrote in with their own stories of nepotism and other types of conflict of interest in the APS and offering interesting analyses of where the problems lie. The evidence is purely anecdotal, of course, and provides no sound basis for generalising. But the contrast with the resounding silence that usually follows my monthly articles suggests, at the very least, that the topic strikes a chord with many public servants. The broader issue of conflicts of interest, of which nepotism is one type, is worth further exploration.

In the APS, recent controversy over spending on consultants in defence and related areas illustrates how conflicts of interest may arise when government officials are awarding contracts among a small group of expert consultants with whom they have close professional and personal relationships. A report last year by the Australian National Audit Office was highly critical of a contracting process between Air Services Australia and a Canberra-based group of consultants. It revealed a network of relationships between Defence department officials, defence contractors, private consultants and air services personnel which could give rise to serious conflicts of interests. Several of my correspondents referred to the unhealthily close connections between current managers and former colleagues now employed on lucrative short-term contracts.

APS policy on conflict of interest flows from the APS Values and Code of Conduct as set out in the Public Service Act. The Code requires "employees to take reasonable steps to avoid any conflict of interest, real or apparent, in connection with their employment". The code also obliges employees "to disclose details of any material personal interest". (A similar requirement is also included in the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act). As the Australian Public Service Commission indicates in its online guide The APS Values and Code of Conduct in Practice, the term 'material personal interest' (emphasis added) is intended to rule out any interests so trivial that they would not give rise to a genuine conflict of interest.

Most policies on conflict of interest refer to three types  real (or actual), apparent or perceived and potential. The Code, however, followed by the APSC guide, mentions only the first two types (real and apparent). The guide is also unusual in defining the difference between real and apparent conflicts in terms of whether or not they improperly influence the employee. Most definitions, by contrast, assume that conflict is about the situation - actual, perceived or potential - not the outcome. That is, a real conflict can exist without leading to wrongdoing, if the person manages it properly.

In practice, perhaps, these idiosyncrasies in definition have little effect on the policy. But they do reflect a certain carelessness about the concept which may be a symptom of a deeper reluctance to treat the issue with sufficient seriousness.

While the APS Code of Conduct requires public servants to disclose any material personal interest in connection with their employment, the legislation is silent on how such disclosure is to be made. The APSC has filled the gap in its guide, setting out a service-wide policy on disclosing interests and managing conflicts of interest. Agency heads and Senior Executive Service employees must submit an annual statement of their own and their immediate family's financial and other material interests, with SES employees reporting to agency heads and agency heads reporting to ministers. Agency heads are then responsible for managing any conflicts that arise.
Like democracy itself, the referendum had decidedly pejorative connotations in the 19th century, commonly associated in the public mind (at least in the English-speaking world) with Napoleon and his referendums in post-revolutionary France  the first national referendums. At first, Napoleon employed the device to secure support for new constitutions, and subsequently to tighten his grip on power. As he spread his control over much of Europe, he also initiated referendums in several other countries, Switzerland among them, designed to win approval for new imposed constitutions. Former NSW premier Bob Askin called a referendum on New England seceding from the state after a promise in 1965. Credit:Fairfax Media With Napoleon having set the example, use of the referendum at the national level gradually spread in the late 19th and early 20th century, but this had little to do with democratic advance. On the contrary, the device was more often than not employed to legitimise authoritarian regimes, or to win approval for unpopular measures. The referendum was to be further tarnished by its use by dictators, such as Nazi Germany's Adolf Hitler and fascist Italy's Benito Mussolini who saw in the plebiscite a convenient means of disguising oppressive policies as blatant populism. Both leaders also resorted to referendum-style "elections" to further legitimise their authority  Mussolini in 1943 and Hitler in 1936. Other dictators seized on it too  Francisco Franco in Spain in 1947, Park Chung-hee in South Korea in 1972 and Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines in 1973. Margaret Thatcher was a critic of referendums. Credit:AP

In non-authoritarian states, the referendum also began to gain ground during the course of the 20th century, mainly through the rise of populist political ideas, most notably in the United States at the local and state level (the US has no provision for a national referendum); its usefulness to governments of all stripes for winning approval of diverse measures; and as a means of determining the status of territories, as occurred after World War I in such places as Silesia and Schleswig. In the 1990s, the referendum gained further ground with its option by a number of former Communist-bloc countries in eastern Europe, but it reached a global peak of sorts in 2016 when voters rejected Colombia's peace deal with the FARC rebels; separated Britain from the European Union; endorsed a constitution in Thailand that drastically curtailed democracy; and, in Hungary, backed the government's anti-EU plan to restrict refugees, but without the necessary turnout for a valid result. Adolf Hitler used a referendum-style "election" to legitimise his power in 1936. Credit:AP Each of these far-reaching moves was determined by a process of national referendum  but with dubious outcomes that confounded government processes, eroded rights and set in train a series of unintended consequences and political crises. Each of the examples demonstrated why many political scientists consider referendums messy and dangerous, and with a highly ambiguous relationship with accepted practices of democracy. Britain's former prime minister Margaret Thatcher had strong views on the referendum as she did on most issues, quoting with approval the words of one of her predecessors, Labor's Clement Attlee, who called the referendums "a device for dictators," arguing that they reduced complicated issues down to simplistic "yes/no" questions and allowed elected representatives to abrogate the responsibility for which they had been elected.

Spanish dictator General Francisco Franco, left, gestures during a speech on the balcony of the Oriente Palace in Madrid. Listening on is Juan Carlos de Borbon, who was crowned king after Franco's death. Franco seized on the referendum to further his own ends. Credit:AP Unlike an election, with its party policies and broad positions sketched out, voters face a formidable problem in any referendum, especially one as complex as Brexit. The process requires them to distil difficult and contested policy choices down to a simple yes or no, and determine by a simple majority the outcome of decisions so complex that even experts might spend years struggling to understand them. Politicians, as well as other interested parties, will often seek to reframe the referendum into simplistic, straightforward narratives. The result is that voters become less concerned about the actual policy question than about contests between abstract values, or between which narrative voters find more appealing. The English philosopher, Anthony Grayling, writing in The New European, argued that the Brexit referendum ran entirely counter to representative democracy, and was in fact a subversion of democracy. He wrote: "The whole point of representative democracy is that its forms prevent the political system from descending into crude majoritarianism ('the tyranny of the majority' over minorities is a danger that systems of representative democracy are designed to prevent) or, worse, ochlocracy or mob ruleRepresentative democracy is a filter that guards against descent into forms of populism. It consists in a due process intended to allow for all factors to be taken into account, and for mature deliberation to select the best way forward on the basis of those factors." Criticism also came from Harvard economist, Kenneth Rogoff, formerly chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, who wrote that the idea that somehow any decision reached any time by majority rule is necessarily democratic is a perversion of the term. "This isn't democracy; it is Russian roulette for republics," he wrote.

While advocates of direct democracy argue that referendums offer a way to engage otherwise apathetic voters  especially as support worldwide for established political parties is in decline  the fact is that increasingly referendums are being used for other, less salubrious, reasons. Some, including the anti-immigration referendum in Hungary, have been called to challenge or subvert EU policies. The year before, in Greece, an embattled Alexis Tsipras, Greece's prime minister, called a referendum with only eight days' notice on the Greek economic bail-out conditions. Elsewhere, the rapid rise of populist single-issue parties has seen referendums used as a way of challenging EU-wide treaties  for example, in the Netherlands on the EU's trade deal with Ukraine, although the Netherlands is little affected by it. Even in Britain, the Brexit vote called by former prime minister David Cameron was partly due to pressure from Eurosceptics within his own Conservative Party worried by the rise of the UK Independence Party. The referendum  ostensibly a way of taking power out of the hands of elected representatives and giving it to the people  is by no means above the political fray; indeed, it is riddled with politics. It can be used just as much to subvert the popular will as it can to implement it. Take for example a promise made in 1965 by the then-Leader of the Opposition in NSW, Bob Askin, to hold a referendum on the issue of New England seceding and becoming a new state. Askin was duly elected, breaking the 24-year stranglehold of Labor, and was reminded of his pledge.

The trouble with the promise was that sentiment in the New England region was running high in favour of going it alone, and while Askin did not want to go back on a pledge that had helped him win government he also did not want to become known as the leader who lost the north. So, the wily Askin let the New Englanders have their vote, as promised. But a new state needed a port, so, helpfully, Askin, after a commission of inquiry, offered the secessionists Newcastle, knowing full well that its inclusion in the voting area would more than offset the pro-secession numbers  and especially as Labor was campaigning heavily for a no vote. So, on 29 April 1967, voters in northern NSW went to the polls, with the secession proposals only narrowly defeated, 54 per cent voting no. As Askin had hoped, the very high no vote in the Labor strongholds of Newcastle and the Lower Hunter offset the majority yes vote elsewhere, although the no margin was not high. Some towns, such as Inverell, were more than 80 per cent in favour of leaving NSW. The people got their vote, but politics won in the end. The referendum can be used by politicians not wanting to be seen taking difficult decisions, even when it is within their power to take those decisions. It provides a convenient "blame the people, not us" excuse. This is what the Turnbull government appears to be doing with its determination to press ahead with a potentially divisive plebiscite on marriage equality. Australians, as is well known, have an established track record in opposing change: just eight out of 44 referendums since Federation have resulted in a yes vote. The consulting firm PwC estimates that the proposed plebiscite could cost $525 million, including $158 million to conduct the voting and $66 million for campaigning costs.
Machinery of government literature does not provide guidance as precise as Newton's laws of motion. Indeed, the Haldane Report cautions against the application of its dictums with "absolute rigidity." There is also the need for purist administrative prescriptions to take into account, for example, the abilities and wishes of ministers. Nevertheless, there's sufficient agreement in the literature to distil principles against which the Home Affairs proposal can be tested. Let's take a few. First, Haldane says that functions should be allocated by "defining the field of activity in the case of each department according to the particular service it renders" rather than on the basis of "persons or classes to be dealt with." That's re-iterated by the Coombs Royal Commission which says that "departments should be organised around a coherent function." The 1987 changes sought to do that with departments dealing with foreign affairs and trade, health and community services, industry services and the like rather than children, the unemployed or the ill. Turnbull says that the proposed Home Affairs portfolio is about "entrenching cooperation between agencies which has helped us thwart 12 terrorist attacks and stop 31 people smuggling ventures." That is to say, he's wanting an organisation based primarily on what he sees as overlapping classes of people to be dealt with  "terrorists" and refugees. It's unlikely to work well and to apply the approach as a general principle in government administration would be disastrous. Second, major related functions should have a stand-alone department. Since the end of the Second World War, immigration has been one of the most important Commonwealth functions and its effects have been highly consequential. Now it's likely to be thoroughly subordinated in the Home Affairs portfolio whose primary objective now seems more to be about keeping people out rather than getting them in. Through gritted teeth the big loser in the re-organisation, Attorney-General George Brandis, says that the Home Affairs portfolio will provide a minister "whose exclusive focus is on national security." Really? So immigration, a nation building function, will have to fit under a minister whose exclusive focus is on "national security". It's tragic that a great department, the Department of Immigration, is to have its role further distorted and its place in the scheme of things reduced by the perceived imperative of pandering to exaggerated anxieties about those who try to get into the country on rickety boats. Third, departments should be composed of like or related functions. On this basis the merging of immigration and customs was a mistake that no amount of muttering about "border protection" can make good. Arranging for people to migrate to Australia is an entirely different activity from seeing that appropriate duties are levied on imports and that illegal imports of goods are prevented. That may be why the Australian Export Council is reported as calling for customs and visa policy to be transferred to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Apart from difficulties caused by the distractions of its re-organisation and the obnoxious policies it's had to implement, it's no wonder the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, composed of functions as different as immigration and customs, has been so plagued with controversy and administrative failure. Adding a range of security functions is going to further impede the effective administration of them all.

Fourth, police and prosecutorial functions should be kept at a step removed from major activities they are likely to be required to investigate. That is why the Australian Federal Police Act has usually been administered by the Attorney-General where the AFP can more properly, independently and impartially carry out its role across the broad range of Commonwealth functions and that is why it is wrong for them now to be placed with customs and immigration. Fifth, intelligence gathering should be kept apart from related policy functions so that policy predispositions don't bias intelligence collection and analysis. The CIA's intimate involvement with decisions by President George W. Bush to invade Iraq in 2003 appears to have affected the nature of intelligence advice. The head of the CIA, a statutorily independent organisation, told the President that Saddam Hussein's possession of weapons of mass destruction was a "slam dunk" while a British official reported back to the Blair government that in Washington intelligence "facts" were being fitted around the policy. With the best will in the world, once a government policy is set, there is a natural tendency for officials to look for "facts" to support it. Putting distance between intelligence gathering and policy helps to minimise this risk. That is to say, it is unwise to include ASIO in the new Home Affairs organisation notwithstanding its statutory independence, especially given the capacities and inclinations of its minister-to-be Peter Dutton. Sixth, overall government responsibilities should be spread as evenly as possible between ministers. The Home Affairs proposal goes significantly in the opposite direction. Seventh, some observers have remarked on the apparent intention for the Attorney-General to retain his role in issuing warrants and authorisations for ASIO which will not be in his portfolio, although that's uncertain as the Prime Minister has said that the Attorney's role "in ASIO operations" is to be reviewed. Having the Attorney approve warrants etc may not be significant although it is a return to the bad old days, abetted by Kevin Rudd, of ministerial matrix management making for confused operations and accountability. More could be said but it should be clear enough that the Home Affairs proposal is inconsistent with just about all usually accepted principles of machinery of government.

In his announcement, the Prime Minister made much of the precedent of the UK's Home Office. That's an inappropriate, ill-advised and unconvincing comparison. The UK has a unitary system of government including all those functions performed in Australia by state governments and which can conveniently be gathered into its Home Office which has evolved over perhaps hundreds of years. Moreover, in its contemporary form it hardly seems that this institution is worthy of copying or emulating, it having recently experienced a plague of scandals, adverse publicity and failure. It's also worth noting that a Home Affairs portfolio was not recommended in the L'Estrange-Merchant report on the AIC. There's been a suggestion that such a proposal would have been outside their terms of reference. Clearly it would not have been, the terms of the review requiring it to report on "how effectively the AIC [the Australian Intelligence Community] serves (and is positioned to serve).the needs of policy makers" and "whether the AIC is structured appropriately, including in ensuring effective coordination and contestability." In commenting on the Home Affairs proposal the head of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Peter Jennings, is reported as saying that "I don't think the case has been as compelling as it could have been" and that the government's decision was a "line ball call". As the poet Pope wrote, "Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer. And without sneering teach the rest to sneer". The fact is that there is no obvious compelling case for the government's proposals. In the improbable event Jennings has one in his back pocket, let him bring it forth. If he were to do so, he would need to deal with former Queensland National Party senator and Treasury Secretary, JO Stone who slagged off on the proposal using a quip he falsely attributed to the Roman courtier, Petronius, to the effect that "we tend to meet any new situation by re-organising, and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralisation". While there's no evidence Petronius said any such thing, the sentiments are apposite. More convincingly and a couple of thousand years after Petronius, former Public Service Board Chairman and departmental secretary, the late Peter Wilenski, referred to academic analysis of mergers and demergers in the UK Civil Service the two major conclusions of which were:

that re-organisation always produces cost escalation (expressed as the iron law of prodigality), and

that it has little observable effect on operations (expressed as the iron law of inertia). While these observations are hyperbolic, in the hapless circumstances of the development of the Home Affairs proposal, they stand an excellent chance of being made more credible. If there's a good thing, if unredeeming, in this whole business, it is that when something goes wrong on the security-terror front, everyone will know who to ask why: Peter Dutton. If he's true to form, however, don't expect a straight answer or even any answer. Clarification: An earlier version of this article wrongly said the 1987 machinery of government changes were done "without apparent consultation at ministerial or official levels." That is not quite true as at least some departmental secretaries were asked about prospects for the amalgamation of functions in their departments, although this consultation was not significantly apparent at the time. Paddy Gourley is a former senior public servant.
First published in The Sydney Morning Herald on 1 August 1967

Mr Eternity has written his last one-word sermon on the pavements of Sydney.

Eternity plaque which has been placed near the waterfall in Sydney Square. Credit:Grant Peterson

Arthur Stace, whose copperplate handwriting in chalk for more than 30 years exhorted society, died on Sunday night, aged 83.

A very colourful character to those who knew him well, Arthur Stace found a new direction in life when he accepted Christianity at St. Barnabas' Church of England, Broadway, 37 years ago.
A man has been taken to hospital with serious burns after explosions caused a chemical fire in Sydney's west on Monday.

The blaze at a chemical disposal factory on Links Road, St Marys, is believed to have been started by exploding aerosol cans.

About 15 fire crews battled the fire.
Dubai is gearing up to host delegates from the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) at the 2018 Institute of Internal Auditors International Conference, scheduled to take place in Dubai next year. Dubai Business Events (DBE), the citys official convention bureau, collaborated with Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) and the UAE Internal Auditors Association (IAA) to successfully bid for the event.

With the 2017 International Conference concluding in Sydney, Australia, Dubai is accelerating preparations to host the 2018 conference, which is expected to attract approximately 3,500 delegates from 110 countries. The conference will take place at Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre, part of the Dubai World Trade Centre complex, from 6th  9th May 2018.

Themed Connecting the World Through Innovation, the 2018 IIA International Conference in Dubai will lay emphasis on innovation, and tackle current technology issues that affect the internal audit profession. The event will offer a unique platform for members from around the world to connect with thought leaders and discover insights on matters pertaining to the profession. The customisable agenda will feature a variety of educational sessions for varying levels  from CAEs and heads of internal audit, to directors, managers and audit staff.

Issam Kazim, Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing, said: Professional associations play a significant role in the growth of specific industries and make an important contribution towards knowledge-sharing and industry progression around the globe. As we work to strengthen Dubais reputation as an ideal destination to host business events, and most importantly, a global knowledge hub, business events such as the IIA International Conference further fuel our journey towards achieving our goal.

Matar Al Mansoori, UAE Counsellor to Australia, said: International conferences play a crucial role in promoting the UAE to a global audience and attracting business interest in a broad range of sectors. As our economy diversifies and grows, events such as the IIA International Conference 2018 will continue put the spotlight on our competitive business environment and the opportunities in the UAE.

The UAEs representation here in Sydney and the official handover of this event to Dubai is another example of the strong and fruitful relationships we have internationally.

The IIA is an international professional association headquartered in Florida, USA, with over 185,000 members around the globe. Established in 1941, the authority comprises members who work in internal auditing, risk management, governance, internal control, information technology audit, education, and security.
The son of a man arrested in Sydney over an alleged plot to bring down an aeroplane with a bomb or deadly gases studied aviation management and mixes with a network of pilots and airline workers, it can be revealed.

The revelation comes as sources confirmed to Fairfax Media that the Sydney cell behind the alleged plot were talking to foreign fighters in Syria in communications that were picked up by allied intelligence agencies.

It is understood that British and US spies fed the information to Australia, triggering police to bring forward a planned operation by launching dramatic raids in Surry Hills, Punchbowl, Wiley Park and Lakemba on Saturday evening.

Four men  two middle-aged fathers, one adult son and a relative in his 30s  remain in custody at the Sydney Police Centre on suspicion of attempting to build an improvised explosive device that they could smuggle onto a plane, believed to be a commercial flight to Dubai.
A man on trial over the 2011 manslaughter of a drunk woman on a remote northern NSW beach "repeatedly and vigorously" sexually assaulted her, a jury has heard.

Accused man Adrian Attwater later told police "girls will be girls, boys will be boys", an interview played at the NSW Supreme Court in Coffs Harbour on Monday reveals.

Adrian Attwater (in sunglasses) is confronted outside Grafton Local Court last year. Credit:Channel Nine

Attwater has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter and sexual assault of mother-of-seven Lynette Daley, 33, who died at Ten Mile Beach in January 2011.

The "on-again-off-again" couple were on an Australia Day camping trip with Attwater's friend, Paul Maris, 47, who has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault and hindering the discovery of evidence.
The NSW government has confirmed Sydney's Powerhouse Museum will be relocated to Parramatta, while conceding that the future redevelopment of the current inner city location will "potentially" include residential units.

Ending long-running speculation over the future of the Powerhouse Museum, Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced on Monday a new facility would be built on an old car park site by the Parramatta river, which it will purchase for $140 million from the City of Parramatta council.

"Let me be clear, there will be one Powerhouse Museum in NSW. It will be across the river here [in Parramatta]," Ms Berejiklian said.

Arts Minister Don Harwin said the size and cost of the new facility would depend on the final business case for the redevelopment of the Ultimo site, which will be released later this year.
A Sydney man has been charged after he allegedly pointed a gun at his four-year-old daughter and pulled the trigger before allowing the girl to play with the pistol.

The 32-year-old from Revesby, in Sydney's south-west, was arrested by Strike Force Bowser, a terrorism investigation relating to illegal firearms.

Police allegedly seized two Colt 1911 .45-calibre automatic pistols, a .25-calibre Walther TP-model pistol and a Bentley-brand 12-gauge shotgun during raids on properties at Revesby and Granville.

They also seized a mobile phone on which they allegedly found footage showing the man "sky-larking with one of the Colt .45 handguns, pointing it at his four-year-old daughter and pulling the trigger".
Two men and a teenager have pleaded guilty to plotting a terrorist attack on government buildings, including police headquarters, in Sydney almost three years ago.

Jibryl Almaouie, 23, and Sulayman Khalid, 22, pleaded guilty in the NSW Supreme Court in Parramatta on Monday to conspiring to carry out an act of terror in late 2014.

Another person under 18, who cannot be named, also pleaded guilty to the plan, which involved carrying out the attacks with firearms.

The two men and the teen who pleaded guilty on Monday are among six involved in the plot.
Much of Queensland looks to be headed for its hottest July on record after a warm, dry month without much cold air blowing up from the south.

Provisional figures from the Bureau of Meteorology show a "large swathe" of the state, particularly the top half, likely to break average maximum temperature records for the month.

Queensland only experienced a short cold blast earlier in July. Credit:Michelle Smith

The final results would not confirmed until later this week, as the bureau waited for temperatures to top out on Monday and then its climate department checked them all to confirm the results.

BoM meteorologist Adam Blazak said it was too early to confidently predict which exact centres would break records but a "large swathe" of the state, including most of central and north Queensland, looked likely to set records.
Police believe oil has been deliberately poured across the width of the tracks.

Several cyclists have lost control of their bikes after oil and diesel was left on paths in North Melbourne in the past three weeks.

A malicious vandal is targeting cyclists in Melbourne's inner city, leaving oil slicks across bike paths in a potentially deadly act.

In the latest incident, cyclist Brittany Slater required dental surgery after losing control on the oil on Sunday night.

Cyclist Brittany Slater required dental surgery after losing control on the oil on Sunday night. Credit:Channel Nine

Ms Slater, 21, was riding home on the Capital City Trail about 11pm when she hit the slick.

"As I rode through the oil, the bike slipped underneath me ... I fell on my nose and my teeth," she told Channel Nine.

The same track, used by about 1000 cyclists each day, was targeted three weeks ago.
A doctor who beat her abusive husband to death with a mallet as he slept in their West Australian home has taken the fight to overturn her conviction and sentence to the High Court.

Sri Lankan-born Chamari Liyanage was sentenced to four years in prison after being convicted of the manslaughter of Dinendra Athukorala in Geraldton, in the state's Mid West region, in June 2014.

Chamari Liyanage killed Mr Athukorala by beating him with a mallet as he slept after suffering years of abuse. Credit:ABC News

She walked free from jail in March and dodged deportation after the Department of Immigration agreed to reinstate her permanent residency.

Dr Liyanage then took her case to the WA Court of Appeal, arguing the trial judge made errors, including excluding evidence her counsel sought to adduce from a social worker about domestic violence, and that the sentence was manifestly excessive.
New York: Anthony Scaramucci's wife filed for divorce while she was nine months pregnant and when their son arrived last week he congratulated her by text message, according to reports.

The new White House communications director, who in the space of a week has gone from being a little-known financier to a household name - thanks largely to his expletive-laced rants about his new colleagues - is yet to confirm the divorce proceedings.

He tweeted a request for prayers for his family. The New York Post reported that Deidre Scaramucci, 38, filed divorce papers on July 6 at Nassau County Supreme Court, in New York. They were married for three years and she gave birth to their first son, Nicholas, in early 2014.

Their second son, James, arrived last Monday in New York City, while Mr Scaramucci was at a Boy Scout jamboree with President Donald Trump in West Virginia.
Turkey's Aegean city of Izmir will host will Travel Turkey 2017 at fuarizmir' between 7 and 10 December 2017. The travel exhibition organized by TURSAB - Association of Turkish Travel Agencies and IZFAS, under the patronage of Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Culture & Tourism announced its hosted buyer programme.

Travel Turkey Izmir runs a Hosted Buyer Programme in partnership with Republic of Turkey Ministry of Economy and Turkish Airlines to invite and host senior-level travel industry buyers to develop new business with the exhibitors, build network and discover the Turkish tourism market. The programme includes buyers setting pre-appointments with exhibitors to lead to successful business deals while their travel expenses are compensated by the organizers.

In 2016, 179 international buyers from 52 countries were hosted along with 518 national buyers resulting in a total of 7.160 B2B meetings held in a 1.200sqm VIP Lounge. The hosted buyers also attended a post-show tour where they visited Denizli, Pamukkale, Ephesus and House of Virgin Mary in order to discover the regions tourism destinations.

To apply for the Hosted Buyer Programme, you need to submit your registration online. All registrations will be reviewed by the Hosted Buyer Selection Committee and successful applicants will be notified latest by October 20, 2017.

Only one buyer will be hosted per company.

Please submit your registration not later than September 30, 2017.

Reserve your hotel room in Izmir.
Beijing: China hit back on Monday at Twitter posts from US President Donald Trump over trade and the North Korea crisis, saying the two issues should not be linked and that the US is to blame for Pyongyang's military buildup.

"We think the North Korea nuclear issue and China-US trade ... are in two completely different domains," Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Qian Keming said at a news conference in Beijing on Monday.

"They aren't related. They should not be discussed together."

He added that trade between China and the US has been beneficial to both nations despite a US trade deficit with China that reached almost $US350 billion last year.
New York City: US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley says there is no point in having an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council if it produces nothing of consequence.

"An additional Security Council resolution that does not significantly increase the international pressure on North Korea is of no value," she said in a statement on Sunday.

"In fact, it is worse than nothing, because it sends the message to the North Korean dictator that the international community is unwilling to seriously challenge him. China must decide whether it is finally willing to take this vital step.

Earlier Hayley tweeted: "Done talking about NKorea.China is aware they must act.Japan & SKorea must inc pressure.Not only a US problem.It will req an intl solution."
Beijing: A massive military parade through China's desert overseen by its military chief and president, Xi Jinping, was lauded as a "first" in blanket coverage across Chinese state media.

Official social media pumped out images of 12,000 military service personnel in combat fatigues marching to a backdrop of tanks, combat helicopters, stealth fighter jets and nuclear missiles.

Mr Xi said China's army had the capability to "defeat all invading enemies", and safeguard national sovereignty, security and "development interests".

The first military parade staged to celebrate Army Day, on August 1, was planned months ago for the 90th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army.
London: Saddam Hussein's former army chief of staff has failed in a bid to prosecute former British prime minister Tony Blair over the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

General Abdulwaheed Shannan Al Rabbat's lawyers had argued that Mr Blair and former foreign secretary Jack Straw should be arrested for 'crimes of aggression'.

Former British prime minister Tony Blair. Credit:AP

Last year's Chilcot report, they said, established that Hussein had not posed an immediate threat to the UK, that the UK's intelligence regarding weapons of mass destruction had been presented with "unwarranted certainty", and that the invasion had been unnecessary and without United Nations authority.

Mr Blair and Mr Straw "should be tried before a court so they could be held to account for their criminal breach of the law", the general's legal team argued.
Caracas: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has celebrated the election of a new legislative superbody that is expected to give the ruling Socialist Party sweeping powers and mocked US criticism that the vote was an affront to democracy.

At least 10 people were killed on Sunday in protests against the unpopular Maduro, who insists the new body known as the constituent assembly will bring peace after four months of protests that have killed more than 120 people.

Opposition parties sat out the election, saying it was rigged to increase Maduro's powers. They decried the vote as a fraud and called on supporters to protest again.

Countries across the Americas, as well as the European Union, denounced the creation of the assembly, which will have the power to rewrite the constitution.
As the Slut Walk takes place to protest sexual violence, a different sort of violence appears imminent

"All children have the right to be protected from violence."

Katla Volcano near Reykjavik, Iceland is showing such an increase in seismic activity, that some volcanologists are saying an eruption of enormous magnitude is imminent.

400 tremors or quakes have been reported in the last 24 hours, and the alert level has been stepped up to yellow, one step below Orange. Orange indicates an eruption is imminent. http://www.wnd.com/2017/07/iceland-about-to-experience-biggest-volcanic-blast-ever/

"Katla has been showing this kind of behavior for as long as we know. There is always seismic activity in Katla but some years show more unsteadiness than others," says geophysicist Pall Einarsson speaking with Morgunblai.

As previously reported, scientists now believe that there's a greater likelihood for an eruption in Katla. Tour operators are stepping up their response plans.

"There's certainly been unrest in Katla in previous years but this is turning into the most unrestful year," adds Einarsson.

Separately, the Reykjavik Slut Walk took place in Reykjavik yesterday afternoon. Thousands rallied to support the cause: to put an end to sexual violence, shame the perpetrators and not the victims and to press for changes in the judicial system with regards to sexual crimes.

The slut walk protests the idea that "women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized".

An emphasis was also put this year on counteracting distribution of photographic or video material taken without consent and revenge porn.

The walk began at Hallgrimskirkja church at 2 pm and women, men, teenagers and children carrying banners and balloons walked all the way to Austurvollur in the city centre when a program of speeches and music took place in support of the cause.

The slut walk, now in its sixth year also wants to emphasize that the behavior or clothing of victims is never an excuse for sexual crimes.

In response to concerns that volcanic ash ejected during the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland would damage aircraft engines,[2] the controlled airspace of many European countries was closed to instrument flight rules traffic, resulting in the largest air-traffic shut-down since World War II.

The closures caused millions of passengers to be stranded not only in Europe, but across the world. With large parts of European airspace closed to air traffic, many more countries were affected as flights to, from and over Europe were cancelled.

After an initial uninterrupted shutdown over much of northern Europe from 15 to 23 April, airspace was closed intermittently in different parts of Europe in the following weeks, as the path of the ash cloud was tracked. The ash cloud caused further disruptions to air travel operations in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland on 4 and 5 May[7] and in Spain, Portugal, northern Italy, Austria and southern Germany on 9 May. Irish and UK airspace closed again on 16 May and reopened on 17 May.
According to the latest Deloitte Consumer Review: Customer loyalty: A relationship, not just a scheme, highlights the need to rethink traditional loyalty schemes since more than a fifth (22%) of UK consumers - 10.3 million people - have unused loyalty points.

The report includes findings from a survey of more than 2,000 UK adults which reveals that one in four consumers (26%) are regular users of brand loyalty schemes, using them at least once a week. However, almost half of consumers (41%) use such schemes once a month or less, with 14% of respondents never using them.

While the majority of respondents (54%) claim they like points-based loyalty schemes, only half of consumers (47%) always redeem all of their points. 18 to 24 year olds are even less likely to redeem points (40%) despite a higher percentage than average enjoying a points-based loyalty scheme (60%). This might reflect the fact that the most popular loyalty schemes were designed for previous generations and now need to reflect consumers growing appetite for personalization and experience.

Furthermore, brand loyalty is driven more by customer service (41% of respondents), convenience (36%) and the overall shopping experience (27%) than having a traditional loyalty scheme (26%). Deloittes research also found that personalization and relevance are high on the list of what consumers expect from a loyalty scheme. One in three consumers (32%) want a loyalty scheme that better reflects my lifestyle, such as offering freebies.

Ben Perkins, Head of Consumer Business Research at Deloitte comments: Traditional loyalty schemes need a rethink not only because of changing consumer expectations but also because they have become expensive to run and difficult to unwind.

Perkins adds: Consumers want to be recognized and rewarded as individuals, not as faceless points collectors. A decade on from the introduction of the first smartphone, todays savvy consumer also expects brands to be more relevant in the way they communicate and engage with them.

Retailers and consumer businesses should consider smartphone apps, coupon scanning, data profiling tools and connected stores. These may help evolve a traditional loyalty scheme into a custom-built smart loyalty programme that engages consumers at a personal level.
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Everything you need to know about No. 20 Notre Dame's game vs. Navy Saturday in Baltimore
Holographic imaging could sample and identify living microbes in the outer solar system







Pasadena CA (SPX) Jul 24, 2017





We may be capable of finding microbes in space - but if we did, could we tell what they were, and that they were alive? This month the journal Astrobiology is publishing a special issue dedicated to the search for signs of life on Saturn's icy moon Enceladus. Included is a paper from Caltech's Jay Nadeau and colleagues offering evidence that a technique called digital holographic microscopy, which uses lasers to record 3-D images, may be our best bet for spotting extraterrestrial microbes. N ... read more
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Shaheed El-Hafed, July 31, 2017 (SPS) - The Saharawi government denounced the contents of the speech of the King of Morocco on the occasion of the 18th anniversary of the so-called his ascension of the throne, a speech, according to the Polisario Front, showed a total intransigence on the issue of Western Sahara.

"If the King of Morocco has tried to deny the accusation concerning the police nature of his regime in the Kingdom, it is certainly impossible to deny this fact towards the reality of the Moroccan occupation in Western Sahara since 31 October 1975," indicated Sunday a statement of the Ministry of Information.

The Government of the Sahrawi Republic and the Polisario Front reiterated their condemnation of this intransigent and dangerous attitude, which did not serve the Secretary-General's intention to create a new dynamic for the resolution of the conflict, calling on the United Nations to assume full responsibility and to resume its efforts to end the stalemate and the policy of obstruction of Morocco, release all Sahrawi political prisoners, stop the Moroccan looting of Sahrawi natural resources and end the militarization and siege and restrictions imposed by the Moroccan occupation on the occupied parts of Western Sahara. (SPS)

062/090/TRA




The grant is for its Sustainable Management Scheme project funded through the Welsh Government Rural Communities - Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, which is funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Welsh Government.

This will ensure that the partnership can move forward in its aim to promote continued improvement, restoration and sustainable management of the natural resources of the Black Mountains, an iconic expanse of upland common that spans Wales and England across the counties of Breconshire, Monmouthshire, and Herefordshire.

The pioneering partnership brings together key stakeholders in the area, including graziers from the Black Mountains Graziers Association and private land owners; Glanusk Estate, Tregoyd Estate, Bal Mawr/Bal Bach Estate, Duke of Beaufort Estate, Michaelchurch Estate and Ffwddog Estate. Along with public land owning bodies including the Brecon Beacons National Park Authority, Natural Resources Wales, Natural England, Welsh Water and support from the Young Farmers Club. Working together the partners aim to improve the viability and quality of the traditional farming practices that contribute to the sustainable management of natural resources. Across the landscape of the Black Mountains these will include bracken management, heather regeneration, improvement of grazing land and the protection of peat resources. Planned improvements to livestock access will help with stock management and also provide a better visitor experience of the area. Local communities will be involved through developing a rural skills programme, engagement with schools and the creation of employment opportunities including two partnership ranger posts.
There are nearly 700 rams entered for sale, 150 more than last year, with the bigger numbers in the Texel and Charollais rings.

The extended choice, coupled with a significant lift in lamb prices early in the year augurs well for the sale. It is well established as the place to come to for early lambing flocks wanting the pick of the rams ready for tupping and traditionally sets the price for top quality, healthy, assured rams.

Chairman John Owens is confident of a good sale, saying:

The sheep job is buoyant, well above expectations. The early prices have been good and hopefully this will encourage the trade at the early sale.

People producing good quality early lambs know they can get the best choice of tups at the NSA Wales & Border Early Ram Sale.
The address, which was part of a seminar hosted by the Welsh Government, came from Keith Cutler of Salisbury-based Endell Veterinary Group, chairman of the Technical Group for Cattle Health Certification Standards (CHeCS).

He said the recognition from both Governments that a scheme promoting cattle biosecurity and herd health has a major role to play in reducing the risk and spread of Bovine TB was a very positive development.

Mr Cutler said: CHeCS provides a framework for control of a range of diseases through improved health and biosecurity measures, and CHeCS Bovine TB Herd Accreditation was added to the standards at the end of 2016.

Now, in Wales, a waiver for Post Movement Testing has been implemented for cattle coming from herds participating in the CHeCS TB programme and classified as Level 10, presenting the lowest risk of a breakdown or spreading the disease.

Furthermore, a Defra consultation released in early July proposes less frequent testing for herds who are engaged in the CheCS TB programme and have gained a favourable score.
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STAMFORD  Before entering the booming craft beer industry, Mike Bushnell taught himself to brew in the laundry room of his Stamford townhome. The result, at first, was less than delicious.

The first 10 or 15 batches I just dumped down the drain, said Bushnell, a 41-year-old former financial controller, who took up the hobby while his wife was busy pursuing a doctoral degree. Finally I got one that was right and I started handing it out to friends. They liked it, and it seemed pretty comparable to what we were drinking at the time.

That initial success four years ago kicked off a long journey and many more batches that would eventually launch Fairfield Countys newest brewery, Lock City Brewing Co., which celebrated the opening of its taproom earlier this month.

The proliferation of small-batch brewers Stamfords Half Full, Stratfords Two Roads and Bridgeports Brewport  doesnt mean achieving profitability in this industry is easy, said Bushnell, who opened Lock City with business partner Patrick Casciolo.

There are a lot more roadblocks and hurdles than there were a few years ago, Bushnell said. You go to a place like Cask Republic and they have 30 taps on the wall, and you go to Coalhouse where they have 75 taps, and probably 45 or 50 of them are being used. You have too many choices. Some beers sit on tap for two months and you cant get rid of them.

That perception has informed Bushnell and Casciolos business model for Lock City. Instead of distributing their beers to bars and restaurants, the duo wants to keep their product in-house, serving it at their Research Drive taproom three or four days a week and limiting keg distribution. In the fall, theyll start canning small amounts.

Were not just going to sell it to the dive bar down on the corner, where most of those people are drinking Budweiser anyway, Bushnell said.

Their model may prove successful in a state where the number of breweries has tripled since 2011. Connecticuts 49 craft-beer manufacturers represent a nearly $570 million industry, according to the Brewers Association in Boulder, Colo. Craft beer sales nationwide were up 6 percent in 2016.

Casciolo, 42, said their business model is based on what theyve seen work at their favorite brewers, like Trillium and Night Shift in Boston, Bissell Brothers in Portland, Maine, and Tree House in Charlton, Mass.

Once your beer goes through distribution, you dont have any control over what happens to it, Casciolo said. Especially fresh New England-style IPAs have to be consumed right away. Theres really no shelf-life for these beers.

Last week, Lock City was mixing its fifth ever commercial batch at its 2,000-square-foot brewery and taproom, where patrons sip their pints feet from the tall metal vats used to ferment the beer just days or weeks before. Its latest creation is a stout made from 375 pounds of malt mash with a hint of cold-brew-style coffee.

Its hopefully going to be a lower-alcohol-type stout, Bushnell said. Were still in the middle of tweaking, getting the pH right in the water. Its going to take a hundred batches to get everything where we want it.

As Lock Citys brewmaster, Bushnell is the scientist and mixologist behind the brand. His creations so far include Research Drive Blonde Ale and O.J. on Parole IPA. Meanwhile, Casciolo, a Darien resident who also owns an audio-video installation business, calls himself the face of Lock City. The two met years ago through their wives and decided together to join the craft-beer industry.

Besides developing recipes, the owners faced a hurdle in finding an available space that met their needs in an area with the type of industrial zoning that would permit them to operate a brewery. They eventually settled in an industrial section of Glenbrook.

Throughout their search, Bushnell and Caciolo were determined to have their brewery be a Stamford venture, reflected in its wholly Stamford name. Anyone who knows about Stamford history is familiar with Yale & Towne locks. The manufacturer flourished in the first half of the 20th Century, giving Stamford a lasting nickname that inspired the creators of the citys second recent brewery.

Yale & Towne is represented in the retro-industrial decor of the taproom, which has the manufacturers metal locks displayed throughout. The vintage locks were easy to find on eBay, Bushnell said.

We decided to bring some history back to the city and build community, he said. If you make a good product, people are going to find you.

Lock City Brewing Co., at 54 Research Drive, is open Thursday through Friday, 5 to 9 p.m., and Saturday, from noon to 7 p.m.
H SBC offered hope of an ongoing bonanza for shareholders today as it reported rising profits and share buybacks, and ruled itself out of ambitious takeover plans.

By some City estimates, HSBC will soon have up to $50 billion (38 billion) a year of surplus capital, leading to claims that it is building a war chest for deals.

However, chief executive Stuart Gulliver knocked this down today, telling the Standard. HSBC is already regarded as too big to fail. It is very unlikely to get regulatory approval for big deals.

HSBC shares rose 3% to 765p as traders bet that investors will instead benefit from large payouts.

It will buy back another $2 billion of its own shares, taking the total this year to $5.5 billion. Profits for the half-year rose 5% to $10.2 billion.

The bank says it has paid out more in dividends in the past 12 months than any other European or American bank.

Excess capital will be dished out to investors or redeployed within the bank, said its chairman Douglas Flint, who in October will be replaced by Mark Tucker, the former chairman and chief executive of AIA.

With a market value of 155 billion, HSBC now accounts for 6% of the FTSE 100, though the vast majority of its earnings come from outside the UK.

The banking group is seeking a replacement for Gulliver, who will be leaving next year. Flint, today claimed there were strong internal and external candidates for the job, while insisting it would require a very special person for the job.

With regulators increasingly worried about consumer debt, HSBC distanced itself from the issue, noting it does not have a car finance arm.

Gulliver said: The Bank of England clearly is concerned. We make 85% of profits from outside the EU, so we are less exposed than others.

HSBC did set aside another $300 million to deal with the UK PPI scandal.

HSBC has paid out hundreds of millions in fines in the last few years and cut tens of thousands of jobs as part of streamlining. Both Gulliver and Flint apologised for unacceptable failings at its Swiss arm over tax deals for rich clients.

In a note headed Gullivers Glory, Ian Gordon at Investec said: Stuart Gulliver observes, HSBC has made an excellent start to 2017. We concur.

Despite worries about rising consumer debt, banks have lately been in good shape. There is hope that Royal Bank of Scotland results this week will be reasonable, allowing chancellor Philip Hammond to resume a sell-off of the state-controlled business.
T he closely watched report on companies in financial distress from insolvency group Begbies Traynor wasnt so much waving the red flag as flapping it frantically in the wind.

The company on Monday said it had seen the biggest increase in financial distress among UK companies in three years.

Almost 330,000 UK firms were suffering significant distress. Begbies said it was the largest number in at least five years, having grown 25% in the past year.

It pointed to particular trouble for property and construction companies, which it said was further evidence of a cooling housing market. Smaller businesses bore the brunt of the distress.

Julie Palmer, a partner at Begbies, said: While we are seeing rising levels of distress across all corners of the UK economy, the quarterly deterioration in the property and construction sectors is particularly concerning.

She added that it raises doubts over whether they have strong enough foundations to cope with upcoming headwinds Brexit and the rising cost of imported goods.
T he third floor of Second Home, the co-working space in Shoreditch, feels more like the Eden Project than a tech start-up hub.

Large, curved windows let in light to nurture the dense foliage which blankets the corridors. According to Hayden Wood, the co-founder of Bulb, a tech-focused energy start-up based in the quirky office space, theres method to the jungle feel.

The plants are meant to encourage creative thoughts, he explains, wearing a look which suggests he isnt entirely convinced by the theory.

But as he and co-founder Amit Gudka talk through the businesss rapid growth, I wonder whether Wood should be less sceptical about the inspirational powers of the surrounding shrubbery.

In just over two years, Bulb has got all the regulatory clearance needed to be a gas and electricity supplier, has secured two rounds of investment, amassed 70,000 customers or members, and is profitable (an unusual trait for a Second Home dweller).

The idea stemmed from their work in the energy sector. Gudka was a gas and electricity trader for Barclays and Wood a consultant for Bain and advised some of the Big Six such as Npower.

As friends, theyd often meet up after work and rant about how the energy market was broken. The Big Six were ripping everyone off and somehow getting away with it, they agreed, and had poor customer service to boot.

They decided to do something about it and set up Bulb. The concept was simple. An energy company (renewable, no less) with one tariff, no sneaky teaser rates, no exit fees. And they would be able to charge less because theyd run it as online only with fewer staff.

They raised 1.3 million in seed funding from friends and family to get the idea off the ground and after a few early teething issues  the usual start-up hiccups like dodgy phone lines  business quickly grew.

Londoners tend to be the least likely out of most parts of the country to switch energy provider, but Bulb has found it to be a hotbed for young switchers, perhaps a sign that those paying high rents in the capital are starting to dig around for savings.

Five of the six big energy companies have raised prices this year, even though wholesale prices for electricity and gas have fallen 40% and 25% respectively since November. Bulb has cut its prices twice already to pass on the savings.

Both in their early thirties, the entrepreneurs come across as particularly passionate about the renewable aspect of their business.

I cant imagine starting an energy company and it not being renewable. It was just a genuine no-brainer for us, says Wood.

But we saw it as a really exciting challenge to prove that renewables can be affordable for everyone and it isnt just an expensive, upper-middle-class lifestyle product that only a few people in Primrose Hill can buy.

Before energy, the pair first bonded over their passion for music. Gudka, a DJ, ran a record label and club night called Man Make Music (still going), which he started with Nikhil Shah, the founder of streaming site Mixcloud.

Wood was just a self-confessed music geek. In fact, hes just returned from Worldwide, the music festival in the south of France.

I wore a Bulb t-shirt one day. Eight people came up to me and said I love that company, I get my energy from them. Were talking about Bulb, he says, half-chuffed, half-bemused by the companys cult status.

Bulbs employees arent your usual energy company staff, Gudka explains. One of our energy specialists, shes a meteorologist and specialises in the weather on Mars.

The company may already be profitable, but recently tapped up angel investors for another 6 million to keep up with the pace of growth.

We were reaching the stage where so many people wanted to sign up that we were having to throttle things back and that didnt feel right, Wood says.

That extra funding will help as smart meters find their way into more homes. By the end of 2020, energy suppliers must have offered them to every home in the UK.

Bulbs customers will be able to use the mobile app, which is still in testing mode, to see how much energy they are using through their smart meters.

Gudka has just had a baby boy and after taking a month off after the birth, is about to take another three months paternity leave.

Theres obviously some worries about leaving the business for a bit, but actually to be fair for the month [I was on paternity leave] business went better than it ever had before that, which was very reassuring, he laughs.

Quickly outgrowing the third floor of Second Home, the duo are planning a move to a larger space upstairs. If they were a superstitious bunch, theyd be taking those big plants with them.
T he summer heatwave across Europe drove punters to watering holes, brewing giant Heineken revealed today.

A strong performance on the Continent helped the Dutch company, which also brews Amstel and Fosters in Europe, beat analysts forecasts.

First-half revenues rose 3.8% to 10.5 billion (9.4 billion), while operating profits flowed 5.9% higher to 1.8 billion.

Heineken attributed the strong performance to the timing of Easter and good weather, particularly in Europe. Operating profit leapt 16.1% in Europe, better than any other market.

Europe delivered a good performance, momentum remained strong in Americas and Asia-Pacific, and results improved in Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe despite continued difficult market conditions, chief executive Jean-Francois van Boxmeer said.

The company, which took over Punch Taverns for 403 million in December, offered to sell 33 UK pubs last month to get the green light from the regulator.
S ome of Britains biggest airlines are looking at European carrier airBaltic in a race to crack fast-growing Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian markets.

The Latvian government, which has hired investment bank Lazard to sell down its 80% stake in the budget airline, is seeking a strategic buyer and has sent sales documents to a range of British firms.

Two weeks ago the Latvian government said 40 potential investors had expressed interest and that due diligence would start soon.

In the past British Airways owner International Airlines Group has grown by acquisition having bought Spains Iberia, budget airline Vueling and Irelands Aer Lingus, and easyJet snapped up rival Go for 374m.

Ryanair has also expressed interest in failed Italian carrier Alitalia.

AirBaltic chief executive Martin Gauss would not be drawn on the identity of the British firms.

"We dont want the speculation to go wild, but you cannot predict anymore what will happen," he told the Standard.

"Ryanair now say they want to buy Alitalia and somebody questioning are we flying to the Baltics? and answering no, BA for example, could see there is this airline that could be acquired that already has more than 3 million passengers."

Lazard was given the mandate to sell the stake globally and recently issued a teaser document.

Once non-binding offers are received this will open the door to due diligence. The sale is on track to complete by the end of the year.

In 2011 the Latvian government was forced to step in and save its national carrier snapping up the equity.

Earlier this year Danish investor Lars Thuesen acquired 20% of the airline and is said to be open to either selling with the government or maintaining his stake.

The Latvian government is seeking to reduce its stake to 50%.

Since taking the helm Gauss has turned the business around  it has just posted its third year of profit, up to 1.2m, on sales of 286m.

He is also talking to plane makers about buying 14 aircraft to add to the fleet of 28 aircraft that flies to 60 destinations.

Gauss said: "If you look at the market we have six million people living in the Baltics and we have zero long haul flights to or from the Baltics. Somebody could come in a say Im using that network to fly longhaul."

The UK is a key destination for the budget airline that flies to Gatwick and Aberdeen. It competes with Ryanair and Wizz Air.

One source close to the talks cryptically said the British did not consider AirBaltic to be an ugly child.

IAG, and easyJet declined to comment. A spokesman for Ryanair said: "We do not comment on speculation."
T his year marks the 150th anniversary of the Federation of Canada in 1867, the centenary of the battle of Passchendaele in 1917 and the start of the Brexit talks with the European Union. These events are all closely connected. The federation of Canada was driven by the threat of Unionist retaliation for British support for the South during the Civil War, by fears of the growing Russian Empire and the looming unification of Germany.

During the First World War there were more than 200,000 Canadian casualties. Fifty years after federation, men from the young country assaulted the German lines at Passchendaele, resulting in around 16,000 casualties. For many years it was fashionable to deride this battle and others on the western front as pointless. More recent research, though, clearly shows that the strategy pursued was the only viable one in the circumstances and contributed to the collapse of the Reich a year later. One way or the other, the unifying experience of the battle served to make Canadians, just as Gallipoli made Australians.

Canada also made a big contribution to the allied victory in the Second World War. The Canadian economy, which was as large as that of Hitlers main European ally, Italy, built aircraft, ships and shells. Canadian pilots pounded the factories and, more controversially, the cities of the Reich. Canadian troops stormed the beaches at Dieppe in 1942 and, more successfully, in Normandy two years later. She took a substantial stake in the continental order on which the European Union was built.

For this reason, Canadians regard Brexit with apprehension and ambivalence. This is partly a question of economics. The days of imperial preference are long gone. If you talk to senior Canadian representatives you will find them deeply concerned about access to the European market. This anxiety goes two ways, however. The EU is also a conduit to Britain, and Ottawas relationship with Brussels would immediately become less attractive if there were a hard Brexit.

Moreover, Brexit is a much broader issue. Canada is geopolitically more closely tied to Europe than the Pacific. Her presence in the Baltic, deterring Vladimir Putin, is far greater than that of most EU member states. Ottawa therefore regards anything that would lessen Britains commitment to the continent, or might set her against the continent, with concern.

The Battle of Passchendaele explained

So the Brexit negotiators should listen carefully to what the Canadians say. Canada is not simply another economic interest group that can be told to get in line. Canadians have been freeholders of the European system since Passchendaele. They have paid for those shares in blood.

Brendan Simms is author of Britains Europe: A Thousand Years of Conflict and Co-operation (Penguin)
B ehind the Twitter bluster and shows of force by bombers and allied fighter escorts over the Korean Peninsula, and the US declaration that the time for talk is over, there is a real sense of danger in the new twists to Kim Jong-uns latest missile experiments.

The missile flew for some 47 minutes before being ditched into the sea near Hokkaido in the archipelago of Japan. Kim Jong-un said this was to be a stern warning to the United States, to show all of the mainland of the United States is within the range of our missiles.

This is no idle boast, according to the Pentagon. The latest launch, the second in a month, shows North Korea is likely to have an effective ballistic missile that can strike anywhere on the western seaboard of the US, from Alaska to California, within a year.

This immediately provokes the question of whether North Korea has the capability of producing a credible nuclear warhead for the new generation of missiles. This has always been seen as the major challenge  miniaturising nuclear devices to fit missiles is thought to have defeated the North Korean armourers till now. Hitherto it has also been whispered that acts of sabotage, from computer hacking aided by the Israelis to the supply of dud parts through third parties, have managed to slow down and derail the nuclear and missile programmes.

The intent of Kim Jong-uns crazy-paving strategy is still hard to discern. The central question is whether he has a clear and coherent war aim against the United States, South Korea and Japan. Is he out for global mayhem or, more modestly, merely to unite North and South Korea on his own terms. Clear aim or not, even the most wild strike on America with a missile tipped by a nuclear or dirty warhead  involving chemical or biological agents  would be catastrophic.

And its not just the North Korean programme thats worrying strategic thinkers in the US administration. The day before the launch of the North Korean missile, Iran launched a rocket high into the atmosphere. It had the potential to carry a nuclear warhead, and is based on North Korean technology.

North Korean missile 'can hit US mainland' says Kim Jong Un

It is likely to be of small comfort that the missile is assessed by Pentagon analysts to have blown up before it completed its test trajectory. There is a synergy both politically and technically between the missile programmes and postures of Tehran and Pyongyang. Iran and North Korea share technology as well as hardware at times. They have both been linked to the activities and network of the father of Pakistans nuclear bomb programme, AQ Khan.

President Trump would like to stop both Iran and North Korea in their tracks. He wants the US to withdraw from last years six-power agreement to peg back Iranian military nuclear programmes, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA of 2015.

The preferred option seems to be to walk away from the deal but his European allies think this a bad move.

The Iran angle may well be why the Chinese are so reluctant to endorse the latest Trump Twitter blasts about taking military action over North Koreas increasing tempo of missile tests. China is becoming the major new investor in Iran, and sees Iran as a key partner in the New Silk Road project.

The Iran angle, too, flags up the risk for Trump of a ballistic missile challenge in two major regional theatres, in South-East Asia bordering the Pacific, and South-West Asia facing the Gulf, the Middle East and even south-east Europe.

The wider geopolitical and strategic frame of the missile standoff should not deflect from the real sense of surprise caused by Fridays launch.

The response to the heightened threat has been colourful and calculated. Apart from the tweet rants from Trump, Nikki Haley, his UN ambassador, said the administration was done talking about North Korea, and China must act. Within hours two B-1B Lancer long-range bombers, flanked by South Korean and Japanese fighters, flew over the Korean Peninsula. More practically, the two carrier groups in the region carried out anti-missile attack manoeuvres, as did American and South Korean forces around Seoul. They included use of the controversial THAAD  Terminal High Altitude Area Defence system  which Seouls new pacifist-leaning president Moon Jae-in said he didnt want. THAAD also had a live firing test in Alaska.

But these are largely tactical defences. As if to counter this, General Terrence OShaughnessy, Commander of the US Air Force in the Pacific, thundered that the US is prepared to respond with rapid, lethal and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing.

At the top of the military chain, the Defense Secretary James Mattis has avoided mentioning a pre-emptive or first strike  which suggests the highest military arbiter in the current US administration hasnt ruled it in or out.

Meanwhile the US and Chinese presidents seem to be engaged in a bar- room brawl. Trump says China should do more, instead of selling more to North Korea  a form of Danegeld to keep away the feared hordes of refugees if there is total breakdown. Beijing says Trumps rants impede a united approach.

It is clear that China does not want to jump on Pyongyang if it jeopardises its other interests, such as growing involvement and investment in Iran. Iran, too, is also ramping up the tactical rocketry and missiles of its allies in Syria and Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia.

Trump now has no easy options. The military option risks uncontrollable regional conflict  perhaps worse. The Kim Jong-Un problem cant be solved by one clean, kinetic swipe. Nor should the White House rule out the possibility of talks, however indirect, via the UN or other international forums. The answer has to be diplomacy, and it must involve China and principal global allies in Europe and Australia as well as regional partners South Korea and Japan.

The missile race bears an echo of the arms race leading to the First World War. The allies in the West, China and Russia and their partners need to work to arrest the slide from confrontation to conflict. Especially as the next conflict, like the Great War, is likely to be unprecedented in scale and impact.
A ny serious effort to improve air quality deserves applause but if the Government is to achieve its target of replacing diesel and petrol vehicles with electric ones in the next few decades theres one factor that requires urgent attention.

Making a change on our roads of the scale proposed will require an enormous network of charging points, which begs the question: where will we find the skilled technicians to install them?

The skills gap is already having an impact on the utilities and construction sector that may see the Government miss its target for Smart electricity meters in homes. If the ambition for electric vehicles is to be realised, we need to consider the training implications now and ensure that structures are in place to deliver the next generation of technicians.

This means thinking long-term. Many of the individuals who will be required to install charge points are in primary school now, so the drive for electric cars is another reason why we must do more to promote careers in engineering, energy, utilities and construction for children and young people.

As a specialist training provider to the utilities and construction sector we are ready to play our part, but the Governments track record with regards to industry has too often been too little, too late. When it comes to heralding the age of electric cars, it would be a shame if this laudable and lofty vision for cleaner air turns out to be hot air as a result.

Chris Wood, CEO, Develop Training



Before we all chase down the idea of using electric cars, lets consider some of the possible downsides.

The first is that the electricity has to be generated. How are we going to do that? The current programmes for wind power and other green energy supplies will in no way cover the surge required, so do we have to generate the power from traditional non-green sources?

Also, the deposits of lithium throughout the world are not infinite, and I understand that a lot of these reserves are controlled by China. We have to analyse the cost of manufacturing these batteries in both monetary and energy terms before going ahead with electric cars.

Andy Brewer



With all this pressure to get drivers into electric vehicles, it will be interesting to see how many London councils will give up their cash-cow parking bays in favour of electric vehicle charging docks.

I wonder if we might see a further erosion of road space and proliferation of pavement clutter, similar to the Boris Bike scheme? Some councils will surely already be looking into ways to punish those who cannot afford to replace their diesel or petrol car with a battery equivalent.

G Crane



Surely fuels can become toxin-free?

Why is the Government planning to ban diesel and petrol cars by 2040? After all, it is not the cars themselves that pollute, it is the fuels the cars use that are the problem.

I wonder if scientists, for example, can perhaps find a way of removing the toxins from the fuel? It surely cannot be beyond the whit of man to do this, given the recent technological advancements.

I do support the need to improve air quality as I have a long-term lung disease that requires me to use oxygen. As a result, I have been looking to purchase an electric or hybrid vehicle but have found them far too expensive to buy and insure on my limited income.

I hope this will soon change when they become more commonplace.

Stuart Robinson

So the Government has made a ridiculous vow to ban all petrol and diesel cars by 2040. If it wants to improve air quality, may I suggest that it gets rid of all bus and cycle lanes, which seem to cause more congestion than anything else?

T Sayer

Join the conversation: #escleancityviews



Students have such business potential

Student entrepreneurs have long used academic environments to form brilliant business ideas. Our university system is also an incubator for top-quality talent, with an 11 per cent increase in the number of people studying for degrees in business and administration. So why arent we nurturing this spirit even earlier?

While university partnerships with businesses are commonplace, partnerships with schools are comparatively lacking. Our education system should ensure that business, finance and entrepreneurial skills are embedded into the curriculum.

For those students who later start their own businesses and those who choose a different path, these skills will provide an invaluable foundation for their future careers.

Alison Baines, principal, Bellerbys College London



Britain has sunk to an all-time low

With confusion at the heart of the Governments Brexit policy [Brexit plans in chaos as minister says 2019 will be end of free movement, July 27] and our blundering ministers on overseas trips [Aussie verdict: bumbling blond wombat, July 27], one wonders how much more embarrassment this nation can take?

It was only just over a year ago that we were respected on the world stage. While other countries did not always agree with us, the UK was renowned for its sound judgment and pragmatic decision-making.

How painful it is to see this great nation so humbled.

Rohan Moorthy



There is logic in buses going slow

In response to Fiona Weir [Letters, July 25], I am a London bus driver who knows that due to the time schedules we are given, driving at 20mph would mean permanently running late.

Bus drivers have to break the speed limit just to keep up with the timetable. Passengers often ask me why I am driving so slowly, especially on their way to work.

Transport for London should make allowances for buses to run at 20mph.

Paul Ganney

Join the conversation: #esnewsviews



Spurs are right to keep faith in youth

Your columnist, Tony Evans, is absolutely right to praise Tottenhams cautious approach to the summer transfer window. With such great talent coming through at White Hart Lane, why would they sign average players for such inflated fees?

We have already seen the potential of Josh Onomah and Kyle Walker-Peters in substitute appearances and pre-season friendlies, and no doubt there are many more who, like them, will come through to be part of the first-team squad.

When you consider the effect manager Mauricio Pochettino has had on Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Harry Winks, it could be a working formula. Regardless, it is good to see a big club finally placing faith in their youth. Chelsea and Arsenal could learn a thing or two.

Nathan Clarke

Join the conversation: #essportviews
C omedian Margaret Cho has told how she is looking forward to going on tour to get away from America and escape the disaster that is Donald Trump.

The US comedian, 48, who is touring the UK later this year, said she feels like she must apologise for the president whenever she leaves her country. But she said she felt comedy was a good way of trying to process the global climate. It is a good way to try and make sense of everything Laughter is an important tool.

On Trump, she said: I feel like I have to apologise for him, it is just a disaster I love to get away.

Five-time Grammy and Emmy nominee Cho also pointed the finger at energy drinks and drug use for Trumps rise to power.

I think I blame reality television. And energy drinks. Anything that has a lot of taurine and caffeine. And crystal meth. I think people are doing meth and not thinking about what the world really needs.

Cho, born in San Francisco to Korean parents, said her Fresh Off the Bloat tour reflected her. The work is disgusting, she said. I am like, such a vile human being I am excited to bring it to England.

London's best comedy clubs and nights 1 /15 London's best comedy clubs and nights The Soho Theatre Sara Pascoes favourite comedy venue, and with good reason: the Soho Theatre is arguably Londons finest place to see both up-and-coming and established acts. Being a theatre, rather than a comedy club per se, expect to see full sets from individuals rather than bills with a few comics. Its three rooms host all sorts of things, from the latest Edinburgh winners to big names road-testing their latest bits. The standard is reliably excellent: even if youve never heard of a comedian, chances are, if theyre playing here, theyll be worth watching. The Comedy Store Another old favourite, the Comedy Store benefits from being built for purpose: no other venue in London suits stand-up quite so well (and the beer isnt too ridiculously priced, either). After starting out above a strip club in Soho, this place made its name throughout the eighties by breaking the pioneers in alternative comedy. Its happy to host mainstream stars these days, and never struggles to draw top acts, but if you can only make one thing, try The Comedy Store Players, old pros whose improvised shows on Wednesdays and Sundays all but guarantee hilarity. Tuesdays The Cutting Edge is best for those who like topical humour. Old Rope at The Phoenix Old Rope is popular with circuit veterans and newbies alike, so the weekly show usually has a mix of big names, comedy veterans and ones-to-watch. Host Tiff Stevenson leads an evening of new material  yes, lots of jokes given their test run  and its given its name for the noose that hangs over the stage. Ironically, this noose is a bit of a life-saver: if the new act is going badly, comics can grab the rope and fall back on old material. Knock2bag Always top value, the Knock2bag nights offer the chance to indulge in the odder end of the comedy spectrum: expect serious helpings of whimsy, eccentricity and surrealism. If you're looking for something different, this is your place to go. Monkey Business Comedy Club A first-rate comedy club and well worth travelling for. Wed pick the Thursday night over Saturday, but youll get a decent show on either day. Theres a mix of big names and up-and-comers, and host Martin Besserman is a pro wholl keep you laughing in between acts. Of which, theres often as many as twelve a night, so youll get your moneys worth. If one isnt to your taste, another promises a laugh. Banana Cabaret Club The Banana Cabaret Club hosts a lot of top drawer comics, and is well loved in comedy circles  in part, because theyve been going a good thirty years and in part because of the man running things, David Vickers, whose had everyone from Eddie Izzard to Stephen K Amos performing. Stars pop-in, and comedy circuit regulars play often, but its also on the finest spots to see new talent . No wonder Marcus Brigstocke name-checked it as his favourite London comedy club. Besides, once the two-hour show is done (typically wrapping up around 11pm), DJs strike up and everyone dances till 2am. Splendid. http://vivivi.co.uk/ Piccadilly Comedy Club Hats off to the Piccadilly for keeping comedy cheap: their shows cost 10 at the most, and they do a meal deal, where you can eat at Tiger Tiger and see the show for 20 all-in. A bargain. Expect a mix of well-known TV regulars alongside the best newcomers on the scene. Line-ups are particularly well thought out here: they dont just sling together anyone, so the nights tend to be uniformly excellent. Leicester Square Theatre The Leicester Square Theatre draws the big names, so expect to see top flight acts: Richard Herring hosts a weekly podcast here on Wednesdays, and the likes of Bridget Christie, Micky Flanagan and Frankie Boyle all make it a stopping point on their tours. That said, check the website for whats upcoming  there are chance to see some under-the-radar sets too. Live at Zedel The excellent Brasserie Zedel  whose Bar Americain is one of the finest drinking spots in the capital  relaunched Crazy Coqs as Live At Zedel last year and following a successful first run, are launching their second season. Besides comedy  the standard is usually very decent  they also host musical theatre and drag acts. The cocktails are terrific and there's at-table service. Eat in the restaurant beforehand (or after), too: we swung by recently and the food is as good as its ever been. Cheap, too. Happy Mondays This fortnightly show boasts the best new up-and-coming acts in the capital, combined with big name hosts  expect the likes of Miles Jupp, Sara Pascoe and Holly Walsh  who keep the standard up to scratch. Definitely up to par, somewhere to find your new favourite comedian. Angel Comedy Just how a comedy club should be: small, crowded and above a pub. Best of all, its free, and each night offers something different, from open-mic nights to well-known names giving their latest sets an airing. Check the website for details, but you wont be let down  just get down early, as it fills up quickly. Ginglik Comedy Club Following a decade of success in Shepherd's Bush, this comedy club has found a new home at the ever-popular Roof Gardens. Known as 'Jimmy Carr's favourite comedy club', the Ginglik has had everyone from Al Murray to Robin Williams play, and is set for more success. Laugh Out London The likes of Stewart Lee, Reginald D Hunter and Tony Law play these nights, which gives an idea of just how decent they are. Laugh Out London always do a good job of bringing the highlights from Edinburgh festival to town, so take the chance to see who everyones been tweeting about. The 99 Club This Leicester Square club is much, much better than you might expect for a place that continually flyers. A big favourite with the Chortle Awards, it always attracts big names  it runs a little like Live At The Apollo but on a smaller scale. There are three acts a night, and shows are fairly priced: some are as cheap as a fiver, though most will cost around 10 - 15. Theyve also got venues in Soho and Covent Garden. Live At The Chapel Bit of a shame that shows here are so few and far between  usually about once a month  but theres no place more beautiful than the Union Chapel to see comedy in London. The upside is that, with so few performances, they always get the big names headlining, with unfailingly impressive support. Plus theres usually a live band, who are fab. The atmosphere is everything. Anthony Devlin/PA Wire

Margaret Cho will play Shepherds Bush Empire on December 10. For tickets go to livenation.co.uk
A man is recovering in hospital after being shot in Canning Town shortly after midnight today.

Police were called to reports of gunshots in Freemasons Road and found the 26-year-old suffering a wound to the stomach. He was taken to hospital where his condition is said to be serious but not life threatening.

There have been no arrests.

In a separate incident last night an 18-year-old man was attacked with a corrosive liquid in West Hampstead shortly before 11pm.

The man was sprayed in the face with an alkaline-type liquid in Iverson Road near the West Hampstead rail station. Two suspects, described as white and wearing hoodies, fled towards Kilburn High Road.

The teenage victim was rushed to a central London hospital. His condition is not life threatening but he is due to be transferred to a specialist eye hospital for further treatment.

There have been no arrests.

Anyone with information should call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or visit crimestoppers-uk.org.
A former Royal Marine who amassed bombs for use in terror attacks by dissident Irish republicans has been jailed for 18 years.

Ciaran Maxwell stashed anti-personnel mines, mortars, ammunition and 14 pipe bombs - four of which were later used - in 43 purpose-built hides at eight locations in Northern Ireland and England.

Bomb-making materials were found in barrels and buckets buried in the ground as well as an adapted Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) pass card, a PSNI uniform and a police stab-proof vest.

The 31-year-old, who is originally from Larne in Co Antrim and was with 40 Commando based at Norton Manor Camp in Taunton, Somerset, at the time of the offences, pleaded guilty to preparation of terrorist acts between January 2011 and August last year, possessing images of bank cards for fraud and possessing cannabis with intent to supply.

Explosive stash: a barrel containing weapons, which were recovered from a 'terrorist hide' in woodland at Capanagh Forest / PA

PSNI Detective Chief Inspector Gillian Kearney said Maxwell used his military know-how to accumulate and construct his devices, and described the infiltration of the military by a republican terrorist as "very unusual" and "certainly the first case of its kind in recent years".

Sentencing, Mr Justice Sweeney said: "I'm sure that you were and will remain motivated by dissident republican sympathies and a hostility to the UK."

Maxwell was handed an 18-year jail term with another five years on licence. He was given consecutive sentences of 18 months and two years respectively for possessing cannabis with intent to supply and possessing images of bank cards for fraud.

A hide in Carnfunnock Country Park, Northern Ireland, which Maxwell created and used / Met Police

Maxwell, described by the judge as an "inveterate record-keeper", showed little emotion as the sentence was handed down.

He had appeared in court via video link from Woodhill Prison in Milton Keynes.

The Old Bailey heard that the father-of-one researched targets and discussed plans to attack police stations and officers.

His plot, however, was foiled when members of the public stumbled across his weapons hides by chance.

A greenhouse used by Maxwell at Powderham New Plantation / Met Police

DNA evidence found on parts of the haul led them to Maxwell, who was on the national database due to his alleged involvement in an unrelated assault case.

Paul Hynes QC, defending, told the court his client was not ideologically driven and would not have used violence for a cause.

He said it was Niall Lehd, said to be a member of the Continuity IRA (CIRA), who was the "instigator" of a joint venture with Maxwell, who had "no long-lasting republican ideology".

Ammunition recovered from Maxwell's hide at Powderham New Plantation / Met Police

Maxwell denied joining the Royal Marines in 2010 with the intention of infiltrating them.

He claimed he faked his support for the dissidents' cause because he was "frozen" with fear and believed old connections wished "serious ill" on him and his extended family in Northern Ireland and England.

The court also heard that he had been brought up as a Catholic in the largely loyalist town of Larne and suffered a fractured skull as a 16-year-old when he was the victim of a sectarian attack.



Police fear weapons Maxwell constructed may still be in circulation, ready for deployment by dissident republicans.

Timers recovered by police from Capanagh Forest in Northern Ireland / Met police

Four of his pipe bombs have already been used by the violent extremists in Northern Ireland - two detonated, without causing injury - but detectives acknowledge others might still be out there.

PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Stephen Martin said: "We are quite clear Ciaran Maxwell had a link to a violent dissident republican group in Northern Ireland.

"There is a strong likelihood that items associated with Maxwell have made their way into the hands of violent dissident groups in Northern Ireland and four of those items have been used, three in the last year.

"There is no doubt that he knew these items were going to be used by violent dissident republican groupings."

Detectives believe he essentially operated as a lone wolf, who despite links to the Continuity IRA, acted largely independently of that renegade organisation.

Commander Dean Hayden, of the Met's Counter Terrorism Command, said: "There is no evidence to suggest Maxwell himself was directly involved in the deployment of the items but he was the bomb maker.

"A significant number of dangerous items were prevented from getting into the hands of terrorists, hence the public relationship in fighting terrorism is crucial."

Maxwell denied he joined the Royal Marines with the intention of infiltrating them from the outset, insisting his criminal exploits only started when his friendship deepened with an old acquaintance who was in the Continuity IRA.

He claimed things then spiralled out of control and, as his lawyer put it, he got "in above his head".

But detectives are not convinced by this explanation.

DCI Kearney said: "It's hard to say - we don't know that definitely.

"Whatever his motivation was in joining the Royal Marines, quickly he became involved in the engineering of devices and very dangerous activity which made him a very dangerous individual."
A young Islamic State fanatic who mocked British troops for being "baby butchers of the Muslims" is facing jail for spreading terrorist propaganda.

Taha Hussain, 21, from Slough, attended Islamic "road shows" distributed videos about recent terror atrocities and shared copies of an IS magazine.

The Old Bailey heard he became increasingly extreme leading up to his arrest in August and was convicted of seven charges of sharing terrorist propaganda.

During the trial the prosecution described how Hussain and a companion filmed themselves repeatedly driving past the Victoria Barracks in Windsor the day after the French terror attack in November 2015.

As they drove past, they were listening to Islamic chants and discussing their support for IS, the court was told.

One of the men was heard to say: "Wake up you kuffar (disbelievers), when are you gonna wake up?"

Later the same night Hussain sent the video to a friend, and then shared a WhatsApp message giving a Muslim perspective to the Paris outrage.

In June last year, he made another drive-by video around the area of Cavalry Barracks in Hounslow, where the 1st Battalion Irish Guards are based.

In a hate-filled commentary, Hussain was allegedly heard to say: "We are outside the British Barracks today, as you can see, the baby butchers of the Muslims."

When police seized Hussain's mobile phone last August, they found the black flag of IS on his screen saver and his pin number was 9117 - in apparent homage to the 9/11 and 7/7 terror attacks.

Hussain, who was cleared of two other charges of distributing terrorist documents and of encouraging terrorism on Twitter - will be sentenced at Kingston Crown Court on September 11.
A serial conman who lied about having terminal cancer as he masterminded a scam that cost his bosses 1.2 million has been jailed for 10 and a half years.

Christopher Theile, 39, was working as a salesman at Flashbay Ltd, which produces USB sticks.

In 2013 he said he had pancreatic cancer and secured six months of paid sick leave. A colleague gave him 6,000 to buy medication.

From an internet cafe in Walthamstow, Theile emailed Flashbay managing director Stephen Webster, claiming that while at a Swiss cancer clinic he had met the director of a firm who was looking for an order of 400,000 USB sticks for Siemens.

He convinced Flashbay to start production on the USB sticks, at a cost of 1.2 million, and was given 22,000 in sick pay and 24,000 commission.

Theile created an alias, Byran Hawkes, as the go-between in the Siemens deal, linking to a fake website in the name Jardines, a real firm in Hong Kong.

As Ms Hawkes, he made up excuses for why payment had not come through. In January 2014 he told Mr Webster he had suffered a stroke and his cancer was terminal. Mr Webster eventually realised the Jardines website was a fake.

He employed private investigators to find Theile, who was arrested in September 2014 and charged with fraud.

On bail, he pretended to be a stockbroker who had lined up an investment opportunity in property in Enfield. His neighbour, an economics professor at a London university, handed over 66,000, believing that Theile was planning to invest it.

Theile was found guilty of three counts of fraud and one of perverting the course of justice at Snaresbrook crown court. It heard he maintained a facade of a businessman with a wife and children and in 2005 had been jailed for four years in Germany for a 500,000 scam.

Jailing him on Friday, Judge John Radford said: The facts reveal you to be a truly deceitful and dishonest man.
P olice have dropped an investigation into the head of a Cambridge University equality group after a post on his Twitter claiming all white people are racist.

Jason Osamede Okundaye, who runs the Black and Minority Ethnic society, shared messages on social media on Friday night after a protest over the death of Rashan Charles in Dalston turned violent.

Tweets sent from the 20-year-old students Twitter account said all white people are racist and that they had colonised Dalston.

At the weekend, Cambridgeshire Police said it was investigating complaints that the tweets incited hatred and violence.

Jason Osamede Okundaye

But on Monday, the force told the Standard the probe had been dropped as there was no realistic proposition of a conviction for any offence.

A tweet sent from the student's account following the protests / Twitter

A spokeswoman said: We have been working alongside Cambridge University and have also read Mr Okundayes account of how he says his Tweets were intended.

We do not believe that there is a realistic proposition of a conviction for any offence. Any investigation is now in the hands of the university.

Several wheelie bins and a mattress were set alight. / PA

A series of tweets posted on Mr Okundayes account said: Watching these middle-class white people despair over black people protesting in their colonised Dalston is absolutely delicious.

All white people are racist. White middle class, white working class, white men, white women, white gays, white children they can all geddit.

He also posted a meme that appeared to address the protesters, which said: Youre doing amazing sweetie.

Mr Okundaye, a student at the prestigious universitys Pembroke College, made his account private after he received a backlash over his comments.

Senior Tory MP Bob Blackman said: "This is stirring up racial hatred unnecessarily - and completely without justification."

A Cambridge University spokesman told the Standard: The College is looking into this matter and will respond appropriately.

Masked activists clashed with police, hurled petrol bombs, smashed windows and set fire to a barricade of mattresses and bins during the protest in Kingsland Road, near to where Mr Charles died last week following a struggle with a police officer.
T hree US police officers have been suspended for allegedly repeatedly tasering an 18-year-old suspect who was strapped to a chair.

Jordan Elias Norris, now 19, has filed a lawsuit claiming he suffered more than 40 taser burns after he was arrested and held at Cheatham County Jail in the state of Tennessee.

Norris, who was being detained over drugs and weapons offences, filed the lawsuit in the US District Court citing excessive force, failure to protect and deprivation of civil rights.

Footage appears to show one of the officers repeatedly using a taser on Norris while he is being restrained in a chair.

The lawsuit, obtained by the Tennessean newspaper, claims the officer tasered Norris four times totaling approximately 50 seconds on his stomach and legs."

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Ill keep on doing that until I run out of batteries, the officer is heard telling Norris in the video footage.

The lawsuit claims the officer using the taser acted in a sadistic and malicious nature and that the force used was unreasonable.

Norris was arrested on November 3, 2016 and charged with the manufacturing and possession of marijuana for resale, possession of drug paraphernalia, theft and five counts of possession of a prohibited weapon, according to the Tennessean.

Cheatham County Sheriff Mike Breedlove told the newspaper Norris was originally suspected of stealing a semi-automatic rifle and it was feared he would use the weapon on police who tried to arrest him.

He said he had ordered an independent investigation into the incident and had ordered supervisors to review the current use of force policy.

The newspaper quoted Mr Breedlove as saying: "As Sheriff, I want our citizens to know that any inappropriate behavior that may have violated an individual's rights will not be tolerated. I have placed the employees involved on administrative leave while the investigation is conducted.

"We will work closely and cooperatively with the TBI and District Attorney's Office to ensure all facts are provided and all angles of this incident are thoroughly investigated."
A Russian environment minister believes Londons new T-charge will speed-up the switch to electric vehicles as he praised the capital as a leader in green policies.

Anton Kulbachevsky, head of Moscows department for environmental management and protection, said the Russian capital wanted to follow the example of London but was still at the preliminary stage when it came to traffic pollution measures.

Mayor Sadiq Khan is introducing the 10-a-day T-charge on the most polluting vehicles driving into the city centre from October 23.

Mr Kulbachevsky said: London is a leader among big cities, in particular at finding solutions to environmental issues. The future is electric vehicles. This is the direction everyone is going.

"Infrastructure, charging points are the greatest difficulties. Gradual policies can reduce pollution and improve air quality. We have to think of the impact on industry, but the charge can speed-up gradual policies and bring change faster.

An Ultra Low Emission Zone will be introduced in 2019 in central London, with a charge of 12.50, before being expanded to include the north and south circulars.

Moscow, which has labelled 2017 as the year of the environment has also introduced measures to tackle air pollution including restricting older lorries in the capitals centre.

Mr Kulbachevsky was in the UK for a Moscow-London: Green Cities summit to promote co-operation between the two capitals.
M asked activists who clashed with police in east London over the death of Rashan Charles were condemned after traders told of how terrified customers fled the violent protests.

Diners were locked inside restaurants as protesters as young as ten fought with riot police, hurled petrol bombs, smashed windows and set fire to a barricade of mattresses and bins.

Mounted police were called in to disperse crowds as youths ran amok in smoke-filled Kingsland High Street in Dalston, near to where Mr Charles died last week following a struggle with a police officer.

The disturbances erupted despite pleas for calm from the family of Mr Charles who called for peace on the streets following the violent clashes.

Riot police and horses were drafted in. / PA

Mr Charles, 20, died in hospital on Saturday, July 22 after he was chased into an off-licence where he was wrestled to the floor by an officer who attempted to remove an object from his throat.

Stafford Scott, speaking on behalf of Mr Charless family at a vigil outside Stoke Newington police station on Saturday, said: Dont feel that the family dont feel that anger and that frustration too. But what the family knows is that taking it to the streets doesnt give you justice.

CCTV of the moment Rashan Charles enters shop

Today Kingsland High Street was said to be pretty much back to normal after a massive clean up operation by the council over the weekend.

Several businesses had windows shattered in the disturbances, including Dalston Kingsland shopping centre, Paddy Power and vegan restaurant Fed By Water.

Riot police on Kingsland Road. / PA

A post on the restaurants Facebook page said diners had run into the kitchen terrified the loud bangs were another terrorist attack.

It said: Elderly neighbours were fearful of their houses being burnt down when they watched from their windows young people pouring petrol all over police vans.

The fear on my young neighbours faces who were unable to put out of their minds the possibility that London would burn again.

A regular customer wrote: A restaurant that prides itself on serving cruelty-free food because they dont like harming animals is ironically harmed by animals.

The road blockade was set on fire as the protest continued later into the evening. / PA

Many other small local businesses had their windows smashed with police helicopters, horses, officers etc all needed to try to maintain order - a huge waste of resources.

Turkish restaurant Mangal IIs Ferhat Dirik described how the doors of his kebab shop, a favourite of artists Gilbert and George, as masked teenagers clashed outside.

Protesters hurl bottles at police in Dalston during a Rashan Charles protest

He said: These little p****s have Molotov cocktails and are chucking it at police. Most are skinny white boys.

Its a mixture of white and black boys. Very young. All of them covered up. Some look as young as 10. Reminds me of the London riots.

His last tweet came at just before midnight, said: Everyone is safe. Back open for business.

Detective Superintendent Claire Crawley said: Thankfully, nobody was seriously injured, but there was inconvenience to local residents and road users and damage caused to vehicles, a cash machine and a number of windows. 

Meanwhile, a Cambridge University student who praised rioters who threw petrol bombs at police and said all white people are racist has defended his comments.

IPCC investigation: Rashan Charles was pronounced dead in hospital / Twitter

Jason Okundaye, 20, head of the Black and Minority Ethnic society at the university, was criticised after posting a string of posts on Twitter.

The sociology and politics student faces a university investigation for a racial hate crime but commenting on his posts, Okundaye said: My tweet about all white people being racist was pulled out of context and separate to my tweets in support of the Dalston protests.

My tweets on white racism had been said before, in response to people acting as if racism is exclusive to working class people.

I stated that regardless of sexuality, class, gender or age, all white people are racist i.e. not just one type of white person.

His mother Jennifer, a civil servant who lives in Battersea ,told the Mail: He should never have been doing it, he just was not thinking straight.

A university spokesperson said: The college is looking into this matter and will respond appropriately.

:: A 17-year-old male was appearing before magistrates in Stratford today charged with grievous bodily harm against two police officers and affray.
F ree movement of EU citizens to Britain will end in March 2019, Theresa May's spokesman has said.

Downing Street said on Monday it was wrong to suggest free movement would continue as it is now once Britain leaves the EU.

It comes following days of confusion and rumours of infighting between Cabinet colleagues over the crucial issue of immigration after Brexit.

Tory Brexit tensions have heightened after Chancellor Philip Hammond and Home Secretary Amber Rudd backed transitional arrangements once the UK leaves the bloc. which suggested EU migration could continue with a registration scheme.

Philip Hammond: Transitional deal expected within three years of leaving EU

But leading Brexiteer and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said unregulated free movement of labour after Brexit would "not keep faith" with the EU referendum result.

He added that the Cabinet had not agreed a stance on immigration.

Under pressure: the Chancellor, Philip Hammond / PA Wire

The Prime Minister's official spokesman insisted the Government's position remained as set out by Mrs May in her Lancaster House speech on Brexit.

"The Prime Minister's position on an implementation period is very clear and well-known," he said.

No deal: International Trade Secretary Liam Fox / PA

"Free movement will end in March 2019. We have published proposals on citizens' rights. Last week, the Home Secretary said there will be a registration system for migrants arriving post-March 2019.

"Other elements of the post-Brexit immigration system will be brought forward in due course. It would be wrong to speculate on what these might look like or to suggest that free movement will continue as it is now."

Downing Street acknowledged "it will take time to get immigration numbers down" but the Government remained committed to the aim.

Chancellor Mr Hammond said on Friday's Radio 4 Today programme there was "broad acceptance" in Cabinet of a post-Brexit transitional period lasting up to three years.

He said this would mean "many arrangements remaining very similar to how they were the day before we exited the European Union".

Mr Hammond said there would be a registration system in place for people coming to work in the UK after Brexit, during the transitional period.

But in an interview with the Sunday Times, Dr Fox said he not been involved in any Cabinet talks on extending free movement for up to three years after Brexit.

In remarks that were seen as directed at the Chancellor, Dr Fox said: "I am very happy to discuss whatever transitional arrangements and whatever implementation agreement we might want, but that has to be an agreement by the Cabinet.

"It can't just be made by an individual or any group within the Cabinet."

Number 10 dismissed the idea that the UK was seeking an "off-the-shelf" model for the transitional period, as Mr Hammond had reportedly told business leaders.

"We are not looking for an off-the-shelf model. Precise details of what the implementation period looks like are for negotiation," the spokesman said.

Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon and Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt sought to play down reports of a row within Mrs May's top team.

Sir Michael, taking part in Passchendaele memorial events in Ypres, said the issue of immigration policy during a transitional deal would be "one of the details" for the Brexit negotiations.

He said: "It's not an argument, it's part of the negotiations.

"We have always understood that we have to ensure immigration is managed properly, that's what the public expect to see - that there are controls of it.

"That's one of the details that's going to be sorted out during the negotiations. It's not an argument raging around the Cabinet table."

Health Secretary Mr Hunt insisted the Cabinet was "completely united", telling BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It has to be a Brexit that works for business, it has to work for the NHS, the NHS needs to recruit doctors and nurses from all over Europe and that is going to continue after we leave the European Union."

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson's spokesman forced to dismiss a suggestion that he was about to quit over the way Brexit was being handled.

Mr Hammond also used an interview with Le Monde to downplay claims Britain could try to become a Singapore-style low-tax economy if it does not get the Brexit deal it wants - appearing to contradict his earlier position on the UK's potential future.

He said: "I would expect us to remain a country with a social, economic and cultural model that is recognisably European."

Shadow Treasury chief secretary Peter Dowd said: "This Government has broken down into farce.

"The Chancellor is not only disagreeing with Cabinet colleagues over Brexit, he is now in open dispute with himself given it is only his own comments on the matter in January which he is pretending to contradict."
P hilip Hammond has said the UK will not become a tax haven in a bid to compete with European rivals after Brexit.

The Chancellor made the comments in an interview with French newspaper Le Monde, revealing the UK will not reduce taxes or regulations after leaving the bloc.

"I would expect us to remain a country with a social, economic and cultural model that is recognisably European, he told the newspaper.

He said the percentage of the British economy raised by tax puts us right in the middle of EU countries, adding we dont want that to change, even after weve left the EU.

I often hear it said that the UK is considering participating in unfair competition in regulation and tax, he said.

"That is neither our plan nor our vision for the future.

But in January, in an interview with German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, Mr Hammond appeared to take a different stance when he said you can be sure we will do whatever we have to do" if Britain was unable to agree a good trade deal with the bloc.

He said: "If we have no access to the European market, if we are closed off, if Britain were to leave the European Union without an agreement on market access, then we could suffer from economic damage at least in the short-term.

"In this case, we could be forced to change our economic model and we will have to change our model to regain competitiveness."

The interview also covered the rights of EU workers after Brexit. Mr Hammond said he wants both EU workers and Brits living abroad to continue with family life in the country and be part of the economy.

It comes after international trade secretary Liam Fox said the Cabinet had agreed a deal to allow the free movement of labour for three years after Brexit.
D owning Street backed Philip Hammond today after he pledged that Britain will remain recognisably European after Brexit.

The Chancellor also appeared to withdraw a threat to slash taxes and regulation to compete against the European Union if the UK was refused a favourable trade deal.

Downing Street responded: While Brexit presents opportunities to build a more global Britain, weve always been clear were leaving the EU but not leaving Europe.

Mr Hammonds comments to a French newspaper irritated Tory Brexiters, who saw it as another move by the Treasury to soften the departure from the European Union. Economist Gerard Lyons, an ally of Boris Johnson, said the UK should aim for a British model in its future taxes and regulations.

Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, weighed in alongside Mr Hammond, insisting the Government was united behind very positive messages to Brussels about its post-Brexit vision.

Mr Hunt also said that the NHS would be free to recruit doctors and nurses from all over Europe after Brexit.

Downing Street sources played down Mr Hammonds remarks, denying they were a change in tone. However, they were widely seen as a complete contrast to comments he made to a German newspaper in January which were interpreted as threatening to undercut the EU with a Singapore-style economic model of low tax and regulation.

Speaking to Le Monde, he said: I often hear it said that the UK is considering participating in unfair competition in regulation and tax. That is neither our plan nor our vision for the future.

The amount of tax we raise as a percentage of our GDP puts us right in the middle of the pack. We dont want that to change, even after weve left the EU. I would expect us to remain a country with a social, economic and cultural model that is recognisably European.

In January, however, he urged a trade deal, and warned: But if we are forced to be something different, then we will have to become something different.

A Treasury source said his weekend interview reflected growing confidence of a favourable trade deal. The source said that his January comments had been over-interpreted as a threat.

Labours divisions on Brexit remained apparent as shadow Brexit secretary Emily Thornberry told an interviewer that the party would not say what model it wanted. She told Westminster Hour that Labour wasnt sweeping any options off the table when it came to negotiating Brexit.
A north London Labour councillor has been suspended after allegedly posting tweets which criticised gay pride marchers and labelled them paedophiles.

Chika Amadi, a councillor on Harrow Council since 2014, has been accused of spreading anti-LGBT messages on her social media accounts.

Labour suspended the councillor and pledged to investigate after her Twitter rant on Sunday evening caught the attention of LGBT rights activists.

Cllr Amadis account shared a story from Christian news website LifeSiteNews about nude men at a Gay Pride event in Toronto forcing a little girl to "cover her eyes".

The tweet, since-deleted, added: Nothing but paedophilia being labelled liberalism adults polluting children with their senselessness.

A tweet sent from cllr Amadi's account / Twitter

When other Twitter users accused her of homophobia, a tweet sent in response read: Evil. If you dare walk naked in front of my child God will give you terrible assignment that will put you to perpetual sleep. Be warned.

A further tweet form her account read: You did not vote me in and You cannot remove me. Keep your mouth where your money is. Keep busy and stop nosing around.

The co-chairs of the Labour Campaign for LGBT rights said the offensive, distasteful and homophobic remarks were not acceptable from a councillor.

Ian Dylan Thomas and Sarah Kerton added: LGBT Labour has been in contact with the Labour party today calling for the immediate suspension of Cllr Chika Amadi pending an investigation in to her online actions.

We would also call upon Harrow Council Labour Group to suspend Cllr Chika Amadi and for her to be reported to the Standards Committee.

Chris Ward, chair of LGBT Humanists UK, also called for Cllr Amadi to be suspended.

A Labour spokeswoman said: "Chika Amadi has been suspended from the Labour Party pending an investigation."

Harrow Council's leader, Sachin Shah, told the Standard: "As Leader of Harrow Council and a proud Harrow resident I absolutely reject and condemn these abhorrent statements.

"Homophobic views have no place in our community  which is one of the most diverse and accepting in all of the UK. Harrow Council this year has been awarded Most Improved Organisation by LGBT charity Stonewalls Workplace Equality Index.

"We stand for equal rights for all  and I have asked the national Labour Party to deal with this issue swiftly and decisively."

Mrs Amadi, who describes herself as a legal adviser, pastor and author, has been a councillor for the Edgware ward since 2014.
T ory MPs in London warned Philip Hammond today that it would be unfair and unacceptable to hit the capital with higher council tax bills.

The alarm was raised after the Treasury admitted its officials were engaged in blue-sky thinking about potential tax hikes on fuel and homes.

The Chancellor must raise billions in new taxes if he is to meet demands to ease the pay cap on the public sector without resorting to extra borrowing.

Options include putting up council tax on the biggest homes by up to 10 per cent. The Treasury had looked at imposing an upper band on higher-value homes but this was shelved.

Senior MP Bob Blackman warned: If you introduce extra council tax bands it would affect London and the South East and almost nowhere else. It would be seen as unfair and unacceptable.

A Conservative MP in the capital said: I hope the Chancellor will not accept any measure that targets one region where people see too much of their income swallowed in housing costs.

The party previously attacked Labour and the Lib-Dems for planning a mansion tax dubbed a tax on London.
M onday marks 100 years since the Battle of Passchendaele, one of the First World Wars bloodiest offensives.

The three-month military campaign, also known as the Third Battle of Ypres, saw the deaths of 325,000 Allied and 260,000 German soldiers.

Passchendaele is also infamous for being one of the muddiest battles of the war, with many soldiers and war horses drowning in the liquid mud.

Here is everything you need to know.

When was the Battle of Passchendaele?

The offensive began on July 31, 1917 and ended more than three months later, on November 6.

The wreckage of a British tank beside the infamous Menin Road near Ypres, Belgium. / PA Archive/PA Images

The First World War had already been going on for three years before the Passchendaele offensive was launched.

Where was it?

Passchendaele, now spelt Passendale, is a small village in Flanders, Belgium, to the north east of Ypres.

Why was Passchendaele launched?

The British armys commander in chief in France, General Sir Douglas Haig, believed Germanys army was close to collapse and needed just one more push for defeat.

A French assault, called the Nivelle Offensive, had ended in disastrous failure in May 1917, spurring General Haig on to push for a major British offensive.

Kate and William visit war graves on the outskirts of Ypres, Belgium. / PA

Shortly before Passchendaele, in June, the Allied army captured nearby Messines Ridge, which also boosted the belief that German troops morale was low.

What happened?

The Passchendaele offensive began on July 18 with a bombardment attack on German lines with thousands of guns and millions of shells.

Then, in the early hours of the morning on July 31, the infantry assault began. But to the armys surprise, the German army fought well and Allied gains were not as large as expected.

The ruins of the medieval Cloth Hall in Ypres, Belgium, at the end of the First World War. / PA Wire/PA Images

At the same time, the area saw the heaviest rainfall in more than 30 years leaving soldiers drenched in mud. Many men and war horses drowned in the liquid mud, and even tanks became stuck.

The assault was temporarily stopped before starting up again on September 20 with further attacks in early October.

The German army also unleashed mustard gas, leaving many soldiers with chemical burns.

A sculpture of a World War One soldier made out of Flanders Fields mud, in Trafalgar Square, London. / PA Wire/PA Images

Despite massive Allied losses and small gains, General Haig refused to accept defeat and ordered more assaults.

Troops finally captured the village on November 6 and the offensive was called off with General Haig claiming success.

How many people died?

Although it is difficult to calculate exact numbers, around 325,000 Allied and 260,000 German soldiers died in the Battle of Passchendaele.

Among the Allied deaths were 36,000 Australians, 2,500 New Zealanders, 16,000 Canadians. Some 42,000 bodies have never been recovered.

Why was it important?

The battle became a symbol of muddy trench warfare and large numbers of casualties which defined the First World War.

Allied forces advanced just five miles during the entire campaign.

Duke of Cambridge leads Battle of Passchendaele commemorations on the 100th anniversary

The operation led to criticism of General Haig for continuing the campaign even after it became apparent a breakthrough might be unlikely.

Although both sides suffered badly, one common view is that German forces could afford the loss of troops even less.

How is it being remembered?

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have led the official commemorations to mark 100 years.

A soldier walks past a field of tribute poppies at the Tyne Cot cemetery ahead of a commemoration to mark the centenary of Passchendaele. / Reuters

The towering Menin Gate in the Belgian town is covered with the names of 54,391 British dead who have no known grave, according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Speaking at the Menin Gate monument in Ypres, where the Last Post was played, Prince William said: Today, the Menin Gate records almost 54,000 names of the men who did not return home; the missing with no known grave.

Members of our families; our regiments; our nations; all sacrificed everything for the lives we live today.

Those who fought there included Harry Patch, the "Last Tommy" who died aged 111 in 2009.
C harlie Gard will be buried with his cuddly toy monkeys, his grieving parents have said.

Connie Yates and Chris Gard brought one of their sons two toy monkeys to each court appearance during their lengthy legal battle to take him to the US.

His mother Ms Yates said it was so we always had a little part of Charlie with us.

Charlie died on Friday evening after his parents called time on their legal battle, agreeing that treatment in the US no longer had any chance of success.

Charlie's parents Chris Gard and Connie Yates give a statement outside court / Reuters

His breathing tube was finally withdrawn at a hospice after he was transferred from Great Ormond Street Hospital.

On Sunday night, his mother said: We should be planning Charlies first birthday but instead were planning his funeral.

Tributes flow in for Charlie Gard

The familys spokesman Alison Smith-Squire said: Chris and Connie spent the weekend quietly with close family. They face the anguish of registering Charlies death.

After that they will begin the agonising task of arranging his funeral. They havent finalised any funeral plans yet.

The parents of Charlie Gard with their baby son

But they have already decided Charlie will be buried with his beloved toy monkeys.

Over the weekend, it was revealed that Ms Yates and Mr Gard are planning to set up a charity in his name.

The 1.35 million in donations they raised to pay for experimental treatment in the US will be used to help other parents whose children have similar conditions to the rare genetic disorder which Charlie had.

Charlie died just a week short of his first birthday. By the time of his death, doctors believed he could no longer see, hear, breathe or move due to his condition.

His parents had wanted to take him back to their home in Bedfont, west London, for his final days but experts would not let him leave intensive care.

Instead, Charlie was transferred to a hospice where High Court judge Mr Justice Francis ruled doctors could stop providing treatment.

The legal battle between his parents and Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) over his care had attracted worldwide attention for months.

Pope Francis, Prime Minister Theresa May and US vice president Mike Pence were among those to pay tribute to the youngster after his death was confirmed.
B BC presenter Vanessa Feltz has said she is extremely upset by a column published in The Sunday Times which suggested she earns more than female colleagues because shes Jewish.

The radio host also questioned how the obviously racist piece by Kevin Myers found its way into print.

It appeared in the Irish edition of the title and was removed from the newspaper's website after readers expressed disgust at its publication.

Speaking on BBC Radio London where she presents the breakfast show, Ms Feltz said: "I would have thought after all these years I'd be immune or used to it, but that's not at all how I felt. I felt extremely upset.

"The apologies are all very well but how did it end up in the paper in the first place?" she added.

Sunday Times editor Martin Ivens apologised for the piece and said it should never have been published.

The column, headlined Sorry, ladies  equal pay has to be earned, addressed the gender pay gap row embroiling the BBC and commented that two of the organisations best-paid female presenters  Ms Feltz and Claudia Winkelman  are Jewish.

Mr Myers wrote: Good for them.

"Jews are not generally noted for their insistence on selling their talent for the lowest possible price, which is the most useful measure there is of inveterate, lost-with-all-hands stupidity."

The comments sparked an immediate backlash with Sunday Times readers labelling the article anti-Semitic and racist.

The Campaign Against Anti Semitism said it would report the "brazenly anti-Semitic" article to the Independent Press Standards Organisation and asked for confirmation that Mr Myers will not write again for any News UK title.

It said in a statement: It is clear that Kevin Myers should not have been invited to write for the Sunday Times, and his editors should never have allowed the article to be published.

"That they removed the article within hours of publishing it is proof that the decision was irrefutably wrong."

Later on Sunday, the newspaper confirmed Mr Myers would never write again for the title.

Editor Mr Ivens said: "The comments in a column by Kevin Myers in today's Irish edition of The Sunday Times were unacceptable and should not have been published.

"It has been taken down and we sincerely apologise both for the remarks and the error of judgement that led to publication."
L ondons financial sector is set to continue outperforming its competitors in Europe, despite reports of foreign plots to exploit Brexit and weaken the City.

The capital's GDP is predicted to grow at a rate of 2.3 per cent each year from now until 2021, beating Paris at 1.6 per cent and Frankfurt at 1.5 per cent.

The new forecast comes from an Oxford Economics report published on Monday.

It follows claims from the City of Londons envoy on Brexit of a plot by France to exploit the UKs departure from the EU in a bid to disrupt Londons financial sector.

In a leaked memo, Jeremy Browne claimed the French are crystal clear about their underlying objective: the weakening of Britain, the ongoing degradation of the City of London.

Earlier this month a major report from London think tank Centre for London also warned up to 70,000 City jobs could be lost in the catastrophic event if Britain crashed out of the Single Market.

Up to 70,000 jobs could be lost if the UK crashes out of the Single Market, a report warned in July. / PA

Over 20 financial services firms are already set to expand in Paris and Frankfurt, City A.M. has reported. It is thought Frankfurt will benefit from 10,000 extra jobs after Brexit, while the French capital is hoping for an extra 20,000 in the long-term.

Morgan Stanley and Citigroup have already pledged to set up offices in Frankfurt with Lloyds Bank also said to be preparing to expand in Frankfurt.

But Dublin is forecast to beat London in its growth forecast, today's Oxford Economics report found. The study predicted Dublin would grow by 2.7 per cent after pledges of expansion from 15 firms.

Earlier this month the Treasury backed calls for a so-called City visa to protect the stream of international talent to the UKs financial sector.

Although the City of London Corporation has proposed regional visas, it is thought the Treasury would prefer a sector-based visa.

Banks pay 24 billion in taxes to the exchequer while the UKs insurance and financial sector employs more than a million people. Almost a third of the workforce in Londons Square Mile is international.
T ony Blair cannot be prosecuted for his role in the Iraq war, the High Court has ruled.

Judges today blocked an attempt by former Iraqi general Abdul Wahed Shannan Al Rabbat to privately prosecute the former UK Prime Minister over allegations he committed the crime of aggression by invading Iraq in 2003.

The ex-chief of staff of the Iraqi army wanted to prosecute Mr Blair along with the then-foreign secretary Jack Straw and former attorney general Lord Goldsmith.

But the High Court today ruled there was no prospect of the case succeeding.

In 2006, the House of Lords ruled there is no such crime as the crime of aggression under the law of England and Wales.

Lawyers acting for General Al Rabbat attempted to overturn the Lords' decision. They asked London's High Court for permission to seek judicial review in an attempt to get the Supreme Court, now the highest court in the land, to overturn it.

Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, the Lord Chief Justice, and Mr Justice Ouseley dismissed the general's application.

Last year Westminster Magistrates Court turned down General Al Rabbats bid to bring a private prosecution and refused to issue summonses.

The general, who lives in Muscat, Oman, does not possess a passport and cannot travel to the UK.

Britain was part of the coalition led by the US which invaded Iraq after American president George W Bush and Mr Blair accused Saddam Hussein of possessing weapons of mass destruction and links to terrorists.

Michael Mansfield QC, appearing for General Al Rabbat, argued the Chilcot Inquiry report now justified the prosecution of Mr Blair.

Mr Mansfield said the main findings were contained in a paragraph early in the 12-volume report and could be summarised as concluding that Saddam did not pose an urgent threat to the interests of the UK, and the intelligence regarding weapons of mass destruction had been presented with "unwarranted certainty".

It also concluded that peaceful alternatives to war had not been exhausted and that the war in Iraq was not necessary.

Mr Mansfield argued that the international crime of a war of aggression had been accepted by then UK attorney general Sir Hartley Shawcross QC in the 1940s, at the time of the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war crimes.

The QC contended that, as the international community had held those responsible for the Second World War to account by prosecuting those thought responsible for aggression at Nuremberg, it was the duty of the UK courts to follow that example in relation to the Iraq War.

The House of Lords decided in the 2006 case of "R v Jones", which also concerned the Iraq War, that although there was a crime of aggression under customary international law, there was no such crime under English law.

Mr Mansfield argued that the Jones case was wrongly decided and permission should be given to allow General Al Rabbat to re-argue the issue before the Supreme Court.

But the High Court ruled: "In our opinion there is no prospect of the Supreme Court holding that the decision in Jones was wrong or the reasoning no longer applicable."
A picture shared by the daughter of the Kyrgyzstan President has triggered a debate about breastfeeding.

Aliya Shagieva, 20, responded to critics after she faced a backlash for sharing an image of her breastfeeding in her underwear.

The intimate photograph of her and her one-month-old son Tagir was posted on Instagram in April with the caption: I will feed my child whenever and wherever he needs to be fed.

But after she was attacked on social media and accused of sexualisation, she took the image down.

Speaking to the BBC, Ms Shagieva argued that the body she had been given is not vulgar but functional.

But her parents, President Almazbek Atambayev and his wife Raisa, disapproved.

They really didnt like it. And it is understandable because the younger generation is less conservative than their parents, she said.

Kyrgtzstan is a mainly Muslim ex-Soviet republic and is socially conservative but breastfeeding in public is acceptable.

Ms Shagieva gave birth to her son six months after she wed Russian husband Konstantin.

She added: When Im breastfeeding my child I feel like Im giving him the best I can give. Taking care of my baby and attending to his needs is more important to me than what people say about me.

Ms Shagievas post attracted widespread attention with some users commenting that there was no need to post such an intimate photo, while others praised her for breaking taboos surrounding womens bodies. Read more

It is illegal to ask a woman in the UK to stop breastfeeding in a public place, such as a park, cafe or on public transport.
T he Prince of Wales today delivered a passionate speech honouring those who died for King and Country in the battle of Passchendaele on the Western Front a century ago.

In a deeply moving address at the Passchendaele service at Tyne Cot cemetery in Belgium, Prince Charles recalled the "courage and the bravery" of our men who paid the ultimate sacrifice in the devastating "third battle of Ypres" in World War One.

Charles said, "One hundred years ago today the Third Battle of Ypres began.

"At ten to four in the morning, less than five miles from here, thousands of men drawn from across Britain, France and the Commonwealth attacked German lines.

"The battle we know today as Passchendaele would last for over one hundred days.

"We remember it not only for the rain that fell, the mud that weighed down the living and swallowed the dead, but also for the courage and bravery of the men who fought here.

"The advance was slow and every inch was hard fought. The land we stand upon was taken two months into the battle by the 3rd Australian Division.

He went on, "It would change hands twice again before the end of the war.

"In 1922 my great grandfather, King George V, came here as part of a pilgrimage to honour all those who died in the First World War," he said.

The Battle of Passchendaele took place on the Western Front, from July to November 1917, for control of the ridges south and east of the Belgian City of Ypres in West Flanders.

"Whilst visiting Tyne Cot he stood before the pillbox that this Cross of Sacrifice has been built upon, a former German stronghold that had dominated the ridge.

"Once taken by the Allies, the pillbox became a forward aid post to treat the wounded," the prince said.

"Those who could not be saved were buried by their brothers in arms in makeshift graves; these became the headstones that are before us today.

"After the end of the war almost twelve thousand graves of British and Commonwealth soldiers were brought here from surrounding battlefields.

Charles concluded, "Today a further thirty four thousand men, who could not be identified or whose bodies were never found have their names inscribed on the memorial.

"Thinking of these men, my great grandfather remarked: I have many times asked myself whether there can be more potent advocates of peace upon earth through the year to come, than this massed multitude of silent witnesses to the desolation of war.

Charles also quoted war reporter, Philip Gibbs  who had himself witnessed Third Ypres who wrote about the battle in 1920.

Charles quotes Gibbs saying that "nothing that has been written is more than the pale image of the abomination of those battlefields, and that no pen or brush has yet achieved the picture of that Armageddon in which so many of our men perished."

Charles concluded, "Drawn from many nations we come together in their resting place, cared for with such dedication by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, to commemorate their sacrifice and to promise that we will never forget."
M ore than 750 staff have been told to leave US diplomatic missions in Russia.

Vladimir Putin kicked out the diplomats in retaliation for new US sanctions targeting Moscow.

America retaliated by calling the expulsion a regrettable and uncalled for act.

The deepening cold war between Washington and Moscow could take another turn for the worse with President Trump considering a tit-for-tat dismissal of Russia officials working in the US.

We are assessing the impact of such a limitation and how we will respond to it, said a US State Department official, responding to the Russian Presidents shock announcement.

Mr Putins ruling, effectively cutting the US mission in Russia by half while also seizing two American diplomatic properties - a storage facility and a country house outside the capital - suggests that Moscow has shelved any hopes of boosting relations with the White House under Mr Trump.

The response was in retaliation for new US sanctions against Moscow / Shutterstock

We were waiting for quite a long time that maybe something would change for the better, were holding out hope that the situation would change somehow. But it appears that even if it changes someday it will not change soon, said Mr Putin.

Before he was elected, Mr Trump said he wanted to restore US ties with the Russian leadership - claims that have come back to haunt him as his own administration has come under investigation over accusations of collusion with Moscow.

Mr Putins order was in response to the overwhelming vote in the US Senate and House of Representatives for additional sanctions on Russia as punishment for the Kremlins alleged meddling in last years presidential election and its 2014 annexation of Crimea.

Earlier yesterday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told ABC's 'This Week' that the US sanctions bill was weird and unacceptable and suggested his government was planning further action against America.

He said it will be the last straw if Mr Trump signs the sanctions into law.

If the US side decides to move further towards further deterioration, we will answer. We will respond in kind. We will mirror this. We will retaliate, he added. We have a very rich toolbox at our disposal.

It would be ridiculous on my part to start speculating on what may or may not happen. We are not gamblers. We are people who consider things very seriously and very responsibly. But I can assure you that different options are on the table and consideration is being given to all sorts of things.

The White House has said Mr Trump will rubber stamp the sanctions bill this week.
T he North Korea missile crisis deepened today as Americas ambassador to the United Nations warned: The time for talk is over.

US vice-president Mike Pence also claimed all options are on the table after the rogue regimes latest test of a long-range missile allegedly capable of hitting American cities.

Donald Trump and his senior aides are looking to China to act to restrain dictator Kim Jong-un. Nikki Haley, American ambassador to the UN, said Beijing must decide if it is finally willing to take this vital step of taking on North Korea.

It follows Fridays test-firing by Pyongyang of a second intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). North Korea said it flew for 47 minutes and reached an altitude of 2,300 miles, with Kim claiming it put the whole of the US within strike range.

After the launch the US sent two su-personic B-1B bombers over the Korean peninsula in a 10-hour show of force. They were escorted by South Korean fighter jets and performed a low pass over an air base near Seoul.

Donald Trump and his senior aides are looking to China to act to restrain dictator Kim Jong-un

Mr Trump said he was very disappointed in China, tweeting: Our foolish past leaders have allowed [Beijing] to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk.

He said in another message: China could easily solve this problem! The US also said it conducted a successful test of the Alaska-based THAAD missile defence system, which is designed to shoot down ballistic missiles.

Washington sources say Mr Trump is facing pressure from some Cabinet members to strike against North Korea before it has time to add a nuclear warhead to its ICBMs. The argument is that flight data from Kims second test showed a broader part of mainland America, including Los Angeles and Chicago, is now in range.

President Donald Trump tweeted he was "very disappointed in China" for supporting North Korea / Getty Images

However, US defence secretary James Mattis warned last month that a conflict could result in tragedy on an unbelievable scale.

Claiming that the war of words was having little effect, Ms Haley dismissed suggestions America was seeking UN Security Council action, as it has done following previous missile tests.

North Korea was already subject to numerous Security Council resolutions that they violate with impunity, she said, and an emergency meeting was worse than nothing, because it sends the message to the North Korean dictator that the international community is unwilling to seriously challenge him.

The US administration says neither sanctions nor pressuring China  which North Korea relies on for food and fuel  has had much success in curbing the regimes nuclear and missile programmes in the past.

Mr Pence said that while all options were available to the US it was seeking a consensus against North Korea.

Speaking during a visit to Estonia, he added: The continued provocations by the rogue regime in North Korea are unacceptable, and the United States of America is going to continue to marshal the support of nations across the region and the world to further isolate North Korea economically and diplomatically. We believe China should do more.

Japans prime minister Shinzo Abe today said he and Mr Trump had agreed on the need for action on North Korea.

After a 50-minute talk with the US president he said: International society, including Russia and China, needs to ... increase pressure.

He did not give details about any action. Chinas foreign ministry said the nuclear issue did not arise because of China and everyone needed to seek a resolution.
N ot knowing what to wear is an issue that plagues almost everyone when faced with the challenge of dressing appropriately, but for the Duchess of Cambridge , finding and donning a suitable outfit appears to be a breeze, with her latest public engagement proving to be another sartorial success.

The Duchess, along with the Prince William , visited the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery in Ypres today wearing a suitably demure outfit that reflected the solemnity of the day.

Standing alongside the Duke, who wore his service medals for the occasion, the Duchess had opted for a pale pink coatdress by one of her favourite designers, Catherine Walker .

The royal couple is in Belgium to attend a ceremony commemorating the thousands of servicemen killed at the Battle of Passchendaele, which started a hundred years ago today.

Made from Venetian wool hand appliqued with corded lace, Kate chose to pair her coatdress with pale blush court shoes, a poppy and a maple leaf broach made of pearls  undoubtedly a reference to the Commonwealth.

Melrose by Catherine Walker

Her hair was pulled back in a simple low bun under a delicate pink and grey hat and she carried a simple clutch bag that matched her shoes.

Centenary of Passchendaele - In pictures 1 /22 Centenary of Passchendaele - In pictures The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge walk among graves with Victoria Wallace, Director General of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission PA A military band plays at the Tyne Cot Cemetery PA Fake poppies of remembrance at the cemetery PA Today sees the centenary of the battle of Passchendaele Reuters Duchess of Cambridge lays flowers at the commemorations Rex Features The Duchess of Cambridge during commemorations at the Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Ypres, Belgium, to mark the centenary of Passchendaele PA Prince Charles greets Prince William and Catherine the Duchess of Cambridge as he arrives at Tyne Cot cemetery for commemorations for the 100th anniversary of the battle of Passchendaele near Ypres in Belgium Reuters King Philippe of Belgium and Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales arrive at the Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery as part of the Centenary of Passchendaele; The Third Battle of Ypres, in Zonnebeke, Belgium EPA Prime Minister Theresa May arrives at the Commonwealth War Graves Commisions's Tyne Cot Cemetery Getty Images Belgium's Minister of Defence and Public Service Steven Vandeput and British Prime Minister Theresa May, Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and Queen Mathilde of Belgium and Britain's Prince William walk past headstones of soldiers who fell in World War One at The Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Zonnebeke, , as part of a series of commemorations for the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele AFP/Getty Images A general view of former servicemen walk among graves during the service at the cemetery in Belgium Getty Images The Duchess of Cambridge wore all white for the day's events in Belgium PA The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge walk together at the event marking the centenary of the battle of Passchendaele PA Soldierss carry wreaths as they walks past cut out poppies with messages written on them dedicated to the soldiers who fell in World War One AFP/Getty Images A military band plays among graves of the war dead at the cemetery Getty Images Wreaths are carried into the Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Ypres PA The Duchess of Cambridge speaks with workers from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission PA
B ritish star Aaron Taylor-Johnson has revealed that his latest war movie is so distressing he may never let his children see it.

The 27-year-old spent time training with US military personnel to prepare for his role as a snipers spotter in The Wall. It sees him play a beleaguered soldier who is pinned down by a crack-shot Iraqi.

Particularly disturbing scenes see him dressing a wound to his knee as he is tormented by the enemy sniper over his radio earpiece.

The actor has two daughters with director wife Sam Taylor-Johnson  Wylda, six, and five-year-old Romy. He told the Standard: There are some things that you never want to show your family and it is probably too distressing for them to see their father suffering so much on screen.

Spotter: Aaron Taylor-Johnson in The Wall

Maybe they will discover it on their own one day when theyre older, but I obviously know that some of my work is a little too much for children.

The movie is unique as it is the first ever spec script to be commissioned by Amazon, and was shot on a shoe-string budget of $3 million. A spec script is a story that has not been commissioned by a studio and is usually an unsolicited piece written by an unknown writer.

TODO: define component type brightcove

The Wall was directed by Doug Liman, whose CV includes The Bourne Identity, Mr & Mrs Smith and Jumper, and also stars WWE wrestler John Cena.

Taylor-Johnson added: I prepared by spending months with marines and former war veterans, and I did some military training in Arkansas.

We have shown the film to lots of ex-military personnel and they have praised it for its accuracy. John plays his character perfectly.
F rench actress Jeanne Moreau has died at the age of 89 at her home in Paris.

The iconic star was best known for her roles in French New Wave classics Jules et Jim and Lift to the Scaffold, as well as her work behind the camera.

French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to the late star on Monday, saying that she has embodied cinema and always rebelled against the established order.

After starting her career on the stage, Moreau went on to star in a number of French films in the 1950s and 60s.

Iconic: Jeanne Moreau in New Wave classic Jules et Jim

She won the Best Actress prize at Cannes in 1960 for her role in Moderato Cantabile, two years before her acclaimed role in Jules et Jim.

Moreau then picked up the Bafta Awards for Best Actress for her turn in 1967 film Viva Maria!

She worked with Orson Welles on a number of film projects, starring opposite Anthony Perkins in his adaptation of Kafkas The Trial.

Later notable roles included 1992s The Old Lady Who Walked in the Sea, for which she won the Cesar Award for Best Actress.

Moreau was the recipient of a number of lifetime achievement awards including Bafta fellowship in 1996.

Talking about feeling nostalgic for the French New Wave in the 1996s Moreau once said: Nostalgia for what? Nostalgia is when you want things to stay the same.

I know so many people staying in the same place. And I think, my God, look at them! Theyre dead before they die. Thats a terrible risk. Living is risking.


The couple confirmed the news after Mackintosh, 28, sparked speculation when she was pictured with a ring on her wedding finger while holidaying with Taylor, 31, in Mykonos, Greece.

I can confirm that Hugo and Millie did get engaged whilst they were on holiday in Greece, a representative for the businessman told MailOnline.

The couple, who rose to fame on Made in Chelsea, rekindled their romance last year after Mackintosh finalised her divorce from Green.

The pair had been married for three years before calling time on their relationship.

Mackintosh hinted at an engagement when she posted a picture on Instagram alongside the caption best birthday ever.

But the reality TV couple sent the rumour mill into overdrive when she shared a picture of herself hugging Taylor on board a yacht.

She was sporting a ring, while one eagle-eyed fan questioned whether Taylor was holding a ring box.

The couple recently moved in together, with Mackintosh announcing the news on Instagram where she called Taylor her new roomie.

Standard Online has contacted representatives for Taylor and Mackintosh for comment.
Doug Rozendaal has been flying airplanes for more than four decades, but when he took off from Mason City Airport on Friday it was a first for
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Congratulations to Gov. Scott Walker and U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, for landing Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics giant thats promising a $10 billion plant and thousands of jobs in southeastern Wisconsin.

If Foxconn delivers on its elaborate plans, Wisconsin will benefit from a surge in construction, manufacturing and employment in Ryans 1st Congressional District, which includes Kenosha and Racine counties. Thats where the plant (or plants) would likely go.

Foxconn, which makes liquid display panels for computers, televisions and other devices, also has expressed an interest in UW-Madison research, which could further expand the companys positive economic impact across the state.

This weeks announcement is exciting and welcome, given that several other states had hoped to land the technology manufacturer and its 20 million-square-foot campus on at least 1,000 acres.

But Wisconsin taxpayers still need convincing that the governors incentive package is worth its steep price. Gov. Walker wants the Legislature to approve some $3 billion in tax breaks and other incentives for Foxconn to locate here  by far the biggest government subsidy ever for a private company in the state.

The governor insisted Thursday that Foxconn wouldnt get the $3 billion over 15 years unless it employed 13,000 people. Still, thats about $231,000 in state subsidy per job.

Were eager to listen in the coming weeks to the governor and other advocates sell the Foxconn agreement to the Legislature and to the public. And we hope the case is strong for moving forward.

Unfortunately, the governors Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. (WEDC), which oversees and enforces such deals, has a spotty track record on protecting public dollars. And some of Foxconns promises in the past have failed to materialize.

Economists also stress that the source of most job creation is small business. So would those $3 billion in government incentives be better spent on helping startups expand in a state that ranks low for business creation? And if the Foxconn agreement does go forward, what guarantees does the state have that it will follow through?

Those are the kinds of questions that need clear and detailed answers as the Legislature prepares to take up special legislation as soon as next month to approve the state subsidies.

We hope the state Legislature can find its way to supporting tax and other benefits for Foxconn that are justified. What state lawmakers, in the glow of this weeks splashy announcement, shouldnt do is ignore their responsibility to ensure public dollars are protected and well spent.

This editorial appeared in the July 27 edition of the Wisconsin State Journal, another Lee Enterprises publication.
Last night, the Ali Paris Trio and friends filled the modest stage at Old First Church with passionate music. The international crowd included families who spoke Spanish, Arabic, Russian and Yiddish; and they cheered the accomplished musicians with love and ovations.

This is the second of three Ali Paris concerts at Old First Church this year, at a familiar and well-loved venue. Ali was accompanied by David McLean on flamenco guitar and Sage Baggott on percussion. Violinist Briana Di Mara and flamenco dancer Kerensa DeMars were special guests. For the last three songs, vocalist Clare Madrid took the stage and joined Ali on vocals.

Kerensa DeMars command of the stage was instant and complete

Standing throughout the concert, Ali played the qanun, said to be derived from the ancient Egyptian harp. This instrument has been used in Arab music since the tenth century. Lifting it carefully from its table, Ali showed the beautiful instrument to the audience; it is a trapezoid-shaped flat board over which 72 [or 76 or 81] strings are stretched. The modern Arab qanun features multiple levers for string groups; adjusting these levers allows a full range of notes.

Alis childhood home was filled with music. From the age of seven, he pursued music in the only conservatory in Palestine. For 12 years he studied the qanun. With others he performed in Dubai, Sweden, Norway. He first visited the U.S. in 2003. During a 2009 interview he gave at the Berklee College of Music, where he studied voice, Ali said Its all about showing our different, unique music and telling people that we have musicians in Palestine. We have our culture.

Ali likes all kinds of music. One reason he wanted to study in the U.S. was to mix all this music and add our music to it. Lately Im trying to play jazz on my qanun. It feels great to have all the prospects opened in front of my eyes. His musical abilities are admired by Alicia Keys, Bobby McFerrin and Quincy Jones.



This concert was advertised as flamenco from Morocco to Andalucia. Halfway through the concert of ten songs, the musicians were joined by a captivating dancer.

Kerensa DeMars command of the stage was instant and complete; the musicians eyes followed her sparkling white shoes and long red skirt as she moved with all the discipline and excitement one would expect of a choreographer and artistic director of the San Francisco Flamenco Dance Company. She is known for her synthesis of flamenco and middle eastern dance. At one time she was part of a music and dance collective which developed unique interpretations of flamenco, north African and middle eastern musical traditions. Kerensas international performances include appearances in London, Madrid, Barcelona, Paris and Qatar. In San Francisco she teaches flamenco to children and adults.

Church pews were filled with entire families and often three generations. While snacking on Spanish wine and almond cookies after the concert, audience members purchased CDs and mingled happily with performers.

Old First (Presbyterian) Church on Van Ness Avenue in the City was established in 1849; it is the oldest Protestant congregation in California. Its famous weekend concert series started in 1970. The series focuses on emerging and mid-career professional musicians and their ensembles playing creative programs that frequently include new or rarely heard repertoire.

Individual song titles were not included in the program, but were announced from the stage. A problematic sound system prevented many from hearing remarks made between songs. However, the musicianship was first rate throughout the evening.
A white University of Kentucky student accused of physically assaulting a Black student worker while repeatedly using racial slurs says she will withdraw from the school. The decision announced Tuesday by a lawyer for 22-year-old Sophia Rosing came after hundreds of students rallied on campus the night before. News outlets report the students called for unity and for the university to quickly address the situation. Officials say Rosing has been charged with assault, public intoxication and disorderly conduct. She pleaded not guilty during an arraignment Monday afternoon. The altercation at Boyd Hall was captured on video and posted to multiple social media platforms.
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The law now introduces a "major distortion" in the pension system and "an anomaly," national leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) Calin Popescu-Tariceanu said Monday, stating that a "correction" should be made.

"Today, the law (...) introduces a major distortion in the pension system and an anomaly, namely the special pensions are higher than the net salary before retirement. So far as we know, there is nowhere else such a system in place that is sustainable, so a correction must be made," Tariceanu said at the end of a meeting of the ruling coalition that also includes the Social Democratic Party (PSD).

Agerpres...
A total of 42 immigrants from Syria, Iraq and Iran have been located on Monday in an illegal camp they had built in a neighborhood on the outskirts of western Timisoara, all of them being taken to the Timis County Police Inspectorate (IPJ) for check-ups.

"The immigrants are asylum seekers and have filed applications at centres on Romanian territory, under the administration of the General Inspectorate for Immigration, in order to be granted some sort of international protection status," the Timis IPJ spokesman, Ionut Bocancea stated on Monday for the press.

According to the cited source, there are also children among the immigrants.

The checks were carried out by police officers of Timis County police along with immigration police officers, and measures will be proposed according to their competencies.

Judicial sources mentioned that the immigrants arrived in Romania from Serbia and intended to reach Germany.

agerpres.
The Romanian Government has filed a bid for the relocation of the European Medicines Agency to Bucharest in the context of the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the Union European.

"The filing of the bid is mission accomplished at the current stage of the procedures for the relocation of the European Medicines Agency's headquarters. I believe in Romania's chance to qualify for this selection because we have substantial expertise in the medical sector. Information in our bid is evidence in support of our arguments that Romania is ready to take on such a responsibility," Romanian Prime Minister Mihai Tudose is quoted as saying in a press statement on Monday.

The bid is said to have been prepared by an interdepartmental working group, including the General Secretariat of the Government, the Ministry of Health, the National Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices, the minister-delegate for European affairs, the Ministry of Public Finance and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

According to the statement, "the location proposed by Romania is on the northern side of Bucharest, right behind the Pipera metro station".

"The European Medicines Agency would be housed in a new building, of an approximate area of 27,000 square metres, complete with a conference centre that can accommodate 720 participants and an excellent IT & C infrastructure," the Government says.

The Government points out that the European Medicines Agency, one of the largest and most important European agencies, is currently based in London and is a decentralised body of the European Union which primary responsibility is to protect and promote public health through its assessment and supervision of medicinal products for human use.

"The European Commission will examine the bids and submit its own assessment to the General Secretariat of the Council by September 1, 2017, with the final decision expected on the side-lines of the General Affairs Council meeting of November 2017. The decision would be made on the basis of successive rounds of voting, with each member state having an equal number of votes. The member state to be selected for hosting the European Medicines Agency will no longer be able to apply for the relocation of the European Banking Authority," according to the same statement.

In supporting Romania's bid, the Government pointed out that "Romania has a consistent medical expertise, being in the top percentile of medical school graduates, and since 2007 14,000 Romanian medicine and pharmacy specialists have been working in other member states of the European Union ".

"There are also numerous institutions in Bucharest, including laboratories and pharmaceutical companies (the Cantacuzino National Research Institute, the Ana Aslan National Institute of Gerontology and Geriatrics, the Victor Babes National Institute, the Prof Dr. N. Paulescu National Institute of Diabetes Nutrition and Metabolic Diseases) aiming to manage the major effects of emergencies that may affect the national healthcare system," according to the Government.
MELBOURNE, Australia, July 31, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Telix Pharmaceuticals Limited (Telix) is pleased to announce the completion of a Master Services Agreement (MSA) with Cyclotek (Aust) Pty Ltd (Cyclotek). Under the agreement, Cyclotek will provide Telix with radiopharmaceutical manufacturing and distribution services for Telixs pipeline of oncology products, for both clinical trial purposes and, where appropriate, prescriber exemption use.



Telix is developing a pipeline of therapeutic and diagnostic radiopharmaceutical products for use in a variety of oncology settings. As an Australian biotechnology company, Telix is committed to ensuring that engagement with leading Australian cancer hospitals are an integral part of the companys clinical development activity, paving the way for domestic patient access in the future.1

Telix CEO Christian Behrenbruch stated, We are very pleased to be working with Cyclotek to manufacture our products for the ANZ region. Weve chosen to work with the Cyclotek team because of their experience, stellar track-record of delivering product and effective integration with both domestic and international clinical studies.

Cyclotek Managing Director Greg Santamaria commented, Its great to see the emergence of a new radiopharmaceutical company with a late-stage product development pipeline that is committed to including Australian clinical sites in its development activities. We look forward to partnering with Telix for both clinical trials and ultimately the delivery of product to patients.

About Telix Pharmaceuticals Limited

Telix is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia. Telix is developing an advanced portfolio of clinical-stage products that address significant unmet medical needs in renal, prostate and brain (glioblastoma) cancer. Telixs pipeline consists of theranostic radiopharmaceuticals, agents that can be used both diagnostically (via PET imaging) and therapeutically for patient benefit. Telix is an unlisted public company. For more information go to www.telixpharma.com.

About Cyclotek (Aust) Pty Ltd

Cyclotek has been the major supplier of Positron Emission Tomography (PET) radiopharmaceuticals since 2001. It currently operates four manufacturing facilities in Australia and New Zealand, and is rapidly expanding its facilities, and diversifying into manufacture of therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals. Cyclotek facilities are licenced by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) to manufacture medicines according to the Code of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP). For more information go to www.cyclotek.com.

1 Subject to applicable regulatory approvals or usage exemptions. Telix does not currently have regulatory authorization for the sale or use of any of its products in Australia or New Zealand.


Centene Corp. said it plans to buy the long-closed Maryland School in Clayton after previous failed attempts by others.

Centene said it would preserve the school and use it for leadership development programs and employee child care.

In March 2016, neighbors successfully blocked a plan by Love Investment Co. and Higginbotham Custom Homes to raze the building to make way for 25 luxury town houses on the site at 7501 Maryland Avenue. The Clayton Plan Commission twice voted against the necessary rezoning requests, and the developer dropped the plan.

The project called for 48 town houses initially, but after neighbors objected, the number was reduced to 25 with underground parking. Neighbors still objected, saying they preferred green space to town houses. They were also opposed to injecting high-density housing into the neighborhood that consists primarily of single-family homes.

The school board voted in June to put the school back on the market. District spokesman Chris Tennill said at the time that $6 million to $8 million in renovations would be needed to bring the building up to code and usable for school purposes.

Centene said the company was committed to minimizing disruption to the neighborhood during the necessary renovations.

This site has been vacant for many years and is in decay. We look forward to bringing life back into the building, Michael Neidorff, Centene CEO said in a statement.

The Board of Education voted unanimously to go forward with Centenes proposal after receiving multiple offers for the property. In a statement, the board said the proposal allows the district to generate short- and long-term revenue to support our schools.

The school, on 2.95 acres near the intersection of Maryland and Jackson avenues, was designed by the famed architect William B. Ittner. It was last used as an elementary school for the district in 1980.

The building has since been rented by a private preschool and elementary school.

Centene is a health insurer that primarily contracts with states to provide health benefits to low-income individuals enrolled in Medicaid.

According to St. Louis County personal property records, Neidorff owns property within half a mile of the school.

Centene is currently involved in a $770 million expansion in downtown Clayton. The project is one of the largest business developments in Clayton in decades and will accommodate an additional 2,000 workers.

The development calls for a 28-story office building and eventually space for a hotel, retail and parking.
The Information Technology Entrepreneur Network, known as ITEN, is no longer one of the few organizations dedicated to helping the regions startups.

Over the last decade, investors, accelerators and incubators have proliferated throughout the area, and ITENs free mentoring and training services for aspiring entrepreneurs have become one piece of the ecosystem. Local entrepreneurs may have more resources these days, but their needs are evolving.

Thats at least how Mary Louise Helbig, who starts Monday as ITENs new executive director, sees it. Now its her job to maintain ITEN as an important piece of the areas entrepreneurial infrastructure.

Were kind of at a new stage for ITEN and the entrepreneurial community, Helbig said.

She replaces Francis Chmelir, who left in May after two years at the helm of the organization founded and led until 2015 by Jim Brasunas, a former Brooks Fiber Properties executive.

Helbig has spent the last several years as an entrepreneur in residence for ITEN, mentoring the people launching new companies and helping them navigate the startup ecosystem to find funding and customers.

Before getting involved in ITEN, she did work for American Express and Charter Communications, often in high-growth or new product areas. She also worked at CyberTel, the first mobile phone provider in the area, which was eventually gobbled up during the telecom mergers of the 90s.

Helbig says ITEN should make the commercialization program it offers to entrepreneurs a bit stricter. Companies should be encouraged to fail fast if they need to, before the people behind them expend too many resources on an idea that isnt viable.

We want to put more rigor around the validation steps, Helbig said. Maybe exercise some more tough love early on.

ITEN currently has five corporate partners: Ameren, Reinsurance Group of America, Monsanto, Mercy Health and Enterprise Holdings. Helbig wants to double that and expand ITENs corporate innovation program.

Corporate partners, whose membership fees underwrite free services for startups, have access to similar services through the program. Business plan validation and other commercialization services are offered to divisions within larger companies, which can help employees move more nimbly test product concepts than going up the corporate ladder might allow. In addition, startups can meet potential corporate customers, who in turn can scout services or even acquisition targets.

Growing ITENs corporate relationships are especially important now with the loss in funding from the Missouri Technology Corporation, which saw its budget slashed by the state legislature to $2.5 million this year from $23 million last year. For years, MTC has provided funding to entrepreneur groups, including ITEN, which received $240,000 from MTC last year.
Danish English

Announcement

31 July 2017

Coloplast  transactions in connection with share buy-back programme

As mentioned in Announcement No. 2/2017 Coloplast has initiated the second part of the share buy-back programme totalling up to DKK 1bn. This part of the programme of DKK500m is expected to take place from 27 February, 2017 to 28 August, 2017.

The buy-back programme will be structured in accordance with Article 5 of Regulation No. 596/2014 of the European Parliament and Council of 16 April 2014 (MAR) and Regulation 2016/1052, also referred to as the "Safe Harbour" rules, which ensure that the company is protected against violation of insider legislation in connection with the buyback programme.

The following transactions have been executed during 24  28 July 2017:

Date Number of shares Buying price Amount DKK 24 July 2017 0 0.00 0.00 25 July 2017 40,000 540.25 21,609,960.00 26 July 2017 32,376 541.90 17,544,651.53 27 July 2017 0 0.00 0.00 28 July 2017 25,628 538.01 13,788,215.10 Accumulated until now under the programme 928,010 538.78 499,992,157.96

Henceforth, Coloplast owns 3,832,253 treasury B shares of DKK 1 equal to 1.77% of the companys total share capital.

The second part of Coloplasts share buy-back programme initiated 27 February 2017 (see announcement no. 02/2017) is hereby finalized.

Kind regards,

Investor Relations

Coloplast A/S

Tel. +45 4911 1800

For further information, please contact

Investors and analysts

Ellen Bjurgert

Director, Investor Relations

Tel. +45 4911 1800/+45 4911 3376

Email: dkebj@coloplast.com

Rasmus Srensen

Sr. Manager, Investor Relations

Tel. +45 4911 1800/ +45 4911 1786

Email: dkraso@coloplast.com

Press and the media

Dennis Kaysen

Director, Corp. Communication

Tel. 4911 2608

Email: dkdk@coloplast.com

This announcement is available in a Danish and an English language version. In the event of discrepancies, the Danish version shall prevail.

Coloplast develops products and services that make life easier for people with very personal and private medical conditions. Working closely with the people who use our products, we create solutions that are sensitive to their special needs. We call this intimate healthcare.

Our business includes ostomy care, urology and continence care and wound and skin care. We operate globally and employ more than 11,000 people.

The Coloplast logo is a registered trademark of Coloplast A/S.  2017-07 All rights reserved Coloplast A/S, 3050 Humlebk, Denmark.
Updated with Monday's closing share prices.

Charter Communications Inc.'s shares surged to a record high on Monday after a source said Japan's SoftBank Group Corp. was considering an acquisition offer, even as Charter has shot down the possibility of it being the acquirer in any merger with SoftBank's U.S. wireless carrier, Sprint Corp.

A source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday that SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son is considering making a bid for Charter, which has a market capitalization of $101 billion and another $60 billion in debt, as early as this week in what would be by far the Japanese telecommunications conglomerate's biggest ever deal.

The prospect of a Sprint-Charter tie-up comes at a time when the telecom industry is preparing for a wave of deal activity. Regulators lifted a ban on merger discussions among telecom companies following the conclusion of an auction of broadcaster airwaves for wireless use in April.

Analysts and investors have said that tie-ups between cable companies and wireless carriers increasingly make sense as the distinction between broadband and wireless connectivity blurs, and consumers demand seamless connections for their devices.

Cable companies have the infrastructure that wireless carriers need for the growing amounts of mobile data customers are using. Meanwhile, cable companies could benefit from ownership of cellular networks as they launch their own mobile services.

Charter is currently planning to launch its own wireless service on Verizon Communications Inc.'s network next year, and analysts have said that renting a network from a wireless carrier will be more costly long term than owning one.

Sprint, which is in the middle of a turnaround plan, has been looking to boost its financial status and better compete amid a fiercely competitive and saturated market for wireless service. The company has been exploring deal options with T-Mobile US Inc. but faces the hurdle of reaching an agreement on price as well as getting the deal approved by regulators. Both companies have said they are open to other partners.

Charter's shares closed Monday at $391.91, up nearly 6 percent, after hitting a record high of $399.95. Sprint shares fell 2.9 percent to $7.98.

A Charter spokesman declined to comment on Monday on whether the company would sell to the wireless carrier.

A deal between the two could be complex and disruptive, analysts said, noting financing issues, complicated ownerships and the possibility of upending existing partnerships.

JPMorgan analyst Philip Cusick wrote in a research note on that a base case scenario would assume a $500 a share bid for Charter, paid for with $20 billion of new cash from SoftBank and $40 billion of new debt. The deal could drive $2 billion in annual synergies, but he noted that SoftBank could lever Charter up significantly. A deal could also nullify part or all of Charter's network resale agreement with Verizon.

It would also require the blessing of cable provider Comcast Corp. Comcast and Charter announced a wireless partnership in May aimed at finding cost savings as both companies enter the wireless market with their own mobile services. That agreement bars either company from tying up with a wireless carrier for a year without the other company's consent.

________________________________

Our earlier story, from Bloomberg, posted at 9:44 a.m. Monday

Masayoshi Son, the chairman of Japanese technology goliath SoftBank Group, wants in on the U.S. cable market. And he appears determined to use Charter Communications to get him there, one way or another.

Son's initial gambit failed: Charter on Sunday rebuffed his proposal to combine the company with Sprint, which SoftBank controls. Undeterred, the Japanese billionaire is mustering an offer from SoftBank to buy Charter outright and intends to make the offer this week, according to a person with knowledge of his plans who asked not to be identified ahead of a public announcement.

Bidding for Charter, which has a market value of $101 billion, would mark the most ambitious target yet for Son, whose deal spree has made SoftBank one of the most debt-laden companies in Japan. While an early bet on Alibaba Group Holding has delivered outsized returns, Sprint has lost billions since he bought control in 2013 while the Japanese company's investments in India have been largely written off.

"Son is going back to his bad old days of wanting to conquer the world, just as we thought he was becoming more sensible," said Amir Anvarzadeh, head of Japanese equity sales at BGC Partners Inc. in Singapore."It does sound as if they're doing anything but de-leveraging. They're re-leveraging."

The plan for Charter isn't complete and could change, the person familiar with the matter said.

Shares of SoftBank fell 2.3 percent in Tokyo, giving the company a market value of $89 billion. The company also has debt of $135 billion (14.9 trillion yen), making it the second-most indebted non-financial company in Japan, trailing only Toyota Motor .

The plan by Son could reignite deal talks that had appeared to be dead late Sunday, when Charter said it wasn't interested in buying Sprint. The billionaire had previously proposed a deal that would create a new public company to absorb Sprint and Charter and combine them, people familiar with the matter said last week.

"We understand why a deal is attractive for SoftBank, but Charter has no interest in acquiring Sprint," Charter said in a statement before Bloomberg reported Son's latest plans.

Son is known for bold decisions and has spoken, without irony, about his 300-year plan for SoftBank and aims to build the world's most valuable company. His Vision Fund has raised $93 billion for tech investments, winning backing from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, as well as Apple and Qualcomm.

Last year, SoftBank paid $32 billion for chipmaker ARM Holdings in a bet on the nascent concept known as the Internet of Things, while he has committed billions to ride-sharing services such as Didi Chuxing in China and Southeast Asia's Grab.

U.S. cable and wireless carriers have been circling each other as more consumers watch video and access the internet on mobile devices. By combining, companies like Charter and Sprint could offer a full suite of telecommunications services to customers, from home broadband internet to wireless plans, and compete head-to-head with the packages sold by phone giants AT&T and Verizon Communications.

Since the end of May, Charter and Comcast had been in exclusive talks with Sprint over possible deals, including one that would allow the cable companies to resell wireless service under their own brands.

The exclusivity ended this week, and Charter has decided against a reselling deal with Sprint, according to another person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.

"Overall our view is that Charter likely does not want to sell, but that SoftBank is one of the few companies that could put a bid in big enough to take control," analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co., led by Philip Cusick, said in a note. "While we don't see a deal as very likely, especially given later headlines that Charter is cool to the idea, Masa is never to be counted out as a buyer."

A combination of Sprint and Charter would put together the fourth-largest U.S. wireless carrier with the No. 2 U.S. cable company. Sprint, based in Overland Park, Kansas, has a market value of almost $33 billion and even more in long-term debt  putting pressure on Son to make a deal as Sprint's losses mount and bond maturities approach.

JPMorgan estimates synergies from combining Sprint with Charter at about $2 billion a year.

Son has also been considering merging Sprint with T-Mobile US Inc., the third-biggest U.S. wireless carrier. Sprint has argued publicly that a merger with T-Mobile makes sense because it would create a bigger wireless carrier to take on larger competitors AT&T and Verizon. But a surge in the value of Sprint's wireless spectrum holdings persuaded executives to consider other deals, too, Bloomberg reported in April.

Charter has a separate pact with Comcast that could complicate a deal with Sprint. The cable companies agreed in May to work together on any transaction with a wireless company in the next year. That means if Charter changes its mind and decides to merge with Sprint, Comcast would have a say in the matter.

Charter has long-term debt of more than $63 billion. Its revenue totaled $40.8 billion in the past year.

Cable billionaire John Malone holds a 21 percent stake in Charter through his Liberty Broadband Corp. Son has also met with Malone and Warren Buffett about making potential investments in Sprint, a person familiar with the matter said earlier this month.

Charter moved its headquarters from Town and Country to Stamford, Conn., in 2012, but maintains a large local workforce estimated at about 4,000 people.

With assistance from Bloomberg' Alex Sherman Yuki Furukawa and Yuji Nakamura

____________________________

Our earlier story, from Reuters, posted at 5:32 a.m. Monday

Charter Communications Inc. is not interested in Sprint Corp's proposal to be acquired by Charter, a company spokesman said.

Sprint proposed a merger with Charter as the wireless carrier seeks an alternative to a deal with T-Mobile US Inc. that has so far not come to fruition, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.

Japan's SoftBank Group Corp., which controls Overland Park, Kan.-based Sprint, proposed a complex transaction that would create a new company and be controlled by SoftBank, the sources said.

"We understand why a deal is attractive for Softbank, but Charter has no interest in acquiring Sprint," the spokesman said in an email to Reuters on Sunday.

Charter has a good mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) relationship with Verizon Communications Inc. and intends to launch wireless services to cable customers next year, the spokesman added.

MVNOs do not own networks, and instead rent capacity from established operators to sell on to their customers, usually at low prices due to their small overheads, with cheap distribution through the internet or convenience stores.

______________________

Our earlier story, "Sprint seeks alternatives to a merger with T-Mobile, eyes Charter," which was updated Saturday morning.

Sprint Corp. has proposed a merger with Charter Communications Inc. as the wireless carrier seeks an alternative to a deal with T-Mobile US Inc. that has so far not come to fruition, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Japan's SoftBank Group Corp., which controls Overland Park, Kan.-based Sprint, proposed a complex transaction that would create a new company and be controlled by SoftBank, the sources said, asking not to be named because the talks are private. The Wall Street Journal first reported the discussions on Friday.

There is no guarantee Charter would be interested in a tie-up with Sprint, the sources said. Bloomberg reported Friday Charter had rebuffed Sprint's merger proposal.

Charter's market capitalization, at $94.6 billion, is much larger than Sprint, which closed trading valued at $32.8 billion on Friday. Verizon Communications Inc also expressed interest in a takeover of Charter earlier this year, sources have said.

If Charter were to agree to a merger with Sprint, it would need the blessing of No. 1 U.S. cable provider Comcast Corp. Charter and Comcast announced an agreement in May that bars either company from entering into a material transaction in wireless for a year without the other's consent.

Sprint and Comcast declined to comment while Charter, SoftBank and T-Mobile did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Sprint shares rose 5.8 percent in after-market trading while Charter shares were marginally up.

Sprint has been looking at solutions to further its turnaround, strengthen its financial health and better compete in the fierce U.S. wireless industry.

It held talks this month about receiving billions in funding from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and John Malone's Liberty Media Corp., Reuters previously reported, but they have not resulted in a deal. Sprint had been in a two-month period of exclusive negotiations with Charter and Comcast over a potential wireless partnership that had put Sprint's merger talks with T-Mobile US on hold. That exclusivity period has ended but talks with the cable companies continue, according to the sources.

Despite regulatory hurdles, investors have long expected a deal between T-Mobile and Sprint, the third- and fourth-largest U.S. wireless service providers, anticipating cost cuts and other synergies.

T-Mobile appears to be in no rush to pursue a merger although it has acknowledged interest in speaking to Sprint. T-Mobile has been gaining share from larger competitors AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. in a saturated U.S. wireless market through network improvements and lower prices.

Charter moved its headquarters from Town and Country to Stamford, Conn., in 2012, but maintains a large local workforce estimated at about 4,000 people.

This isn't the first time the Wall Street Journal has raised the possibility of a Charter combination with a major telecom. In January, it reported about the possibility of a Verizon-Charter merger.

The Post-Dispatch contributed to this report by Reuters.
WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump on Monday took aim at the nation's health insurers in an escalating threat to cut the health care subsidy payments that make Obamacare plans affordable, one day after urging Republican senators to continue working to undo his Democratic predecessor's health care law.

"If ObamaCare is hurting people, & it is, why shouldn't it hurt the insurance companies & why should Congress not be paying what public pays?" Trump, a Republican, wrote on Twitter.

Trump, frustrated that he and Republicans have not been able to follow through on their campaign promises to repeal and replace Obamacare, has repeatedly threatened to let it implode.

So far, the administration has continued to make the monthly subsidy payments, and withholding them is just one way they could make good on Trump's threat that could weaken the law.

The president's latest comments echoed his weekend tweets targeting the federal government's cost-sharing reduction subsidies to insurers that lower the price of health coverage for the poor under the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.

Kellyanne Conway, a senior counselor to Trump, told "Fox News Sunday" Trump would decide this week whether to end the cost sharing reduction (CSR) payments.

Insurers have asked the government to commit to making the $8 billion in payments for 2018. Trump could cut off the monthly payments for this year's plans as soon as September.

"Beyond that is a sea of uncertainty," analysts for Capital Alpha Partners wrote in a research note on Monday.

If the subsidies end, insurers have said they will raise premium rates by another 20 percent in 2018 to make up for losing them. They face an Aug. 16 deadline to submit 2018 rates for Obamacare plans.

Kristine Grow, spokeswoman for health insurer lobby America's Health Insurance Plans, declined to comment on Trump's latest tweet but said subsidies are a federally mandated part of the individual insurance market and that health plans do not profit from them.

Insurers that sell individual plans incorporating subsidies include Anthem Inc., Molina Healthcare Inc. and Centene Corp. Anthem shares fell 0.5 percent to $186.80, Molina fell 2.2 percent to $68.45 and Centene fell 3.4 percent to $79.86 in morning trading.

Anthem warned last week it would be forced to withdraw from some Obamacare exchanges, including possibly Missouri's where it is the only insurers in most counties, with the subsidies. Michael Neidorff, chief executive of Clayton-based Centene, separately warned that any cut in federal cost-sharing payments would hurt "millions of Americans who currently have affordable health care insurance in the marketplace."

The subsidy question looms after Republicans last week failed to push through their latest healthcare plan through the Senate, despite having a majority in the chamber.

A bipartisan group of 43 House lawmakers in a letter on Monday called for Congress to quickly stabilize the individual insurance market by appropriating money for the payments and creating a stability fund for states.
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.  "Masterpiece" executive producer Rebecca Eaton had so much news for TV critics Monday morning that she had to number the entries.

 "American drama. We are doing American drama," Eaton said, answering questions from some critics about why "Masterpiece" is so British. In fact, "Little Women" is in production, with the BBC on board. The Louisa May Alcott adaptation will air next year.

 "Masterpiece" is making its first feature film, "The Chaperone," about actress Louise Brooks. Elizabeth McGovern of "Downton Abbey" found the Laura Moriarty novel and brought it to Fellowes. The movie will air on "Masterpiece" after its limited big-screen run.

 Benedict Cumberbatch will produce (via his new company SunnyMarch) and star in "The Child in Time," adapted from the Ian McEwan novel. In the story, Cumberbatch's character takes his 3-year-old daughter to a supermarket, where the child vanishes. The 90-minute drama, set for next year, explores the effect on the couple's marriage.

 Vanessa Redgrave will star in "Man in an Orange Shirt," to air next June during Gay Pride Month. The drama from Patrick Gale tells two gay love stories, 60 years apart, with Redgrave as a grandmother.

 With Season 2 of "The Durrels in Corfu" due, "Masterpiece" sponsor Viking River Cruises has added a stop in Corfu. Eaton praised the high-end travel company for its enduring support, which continues next year.

Gail Pennington is attending the TV Critics Association summer press tour. Follow her on Twitter (@gailpennington), Facebook (@tubetalkPD) and here at stltoday.com/tubetalk.
A Kansas City-area lawmaker resigned his post Monday after Gov. Eric Greitens appointed him to the Missouri Tax Commission.

Now-former state Sen. Will Kraus, R-Lee's Summit, still must receive confirmation from the state Senate to join the three-member panel, which oversees assessments.

Kraus will take the place of Ryan McKenna, a Democrat appointed in December by former Gov. Jay Nixon. When reached by phone, McKenna said the post has been vacant since February because he was only appointed on an interim basis and never confirmed by the Senate.

If confirmed to a six-year term, Kraus will receive an annual salary of $108,756, said Sandy Wankum, spokeswoman for the commission.

In a news release, Kraus pointed to his experience in the Legislature pushing tax reform proposals.

Being an advocate for smaller government and lower taxes has been the cornerstone of my legislative career," he said in the statement.

In 2014, Kraus sponsored Senate Bill 509, a proposal that took effect after the GOP-led Legislature overrode a veto from then-Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat.

The measure outlines a gradual reduction in Missouri's personal income tax rate over five years, from 6 percent to 5.5 percent. It also instituted a new deduction for business income reported on individual returns.

Estimates then said the legislation would reduce state revenue collections by $620 million annually when fully implemented.

Kraus' resignation sets up a Nov. 7 special election in the suburban Kansas City district he represented, which tilts Republican.

Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft announced Monday two other special elections to be held Nov. 7.

Rep. Tila Hubrecht, R-Dexter, resigned her post earlier this summer to return to nursing, she said. A Kansas City Democrat, Rep. Randy Dunn, also announced his resignation in May.
ST. LOUIS  Most people are lucky if they see one total solar eclipse in their lifetime.

Sharon and Billy Hahs dont leave it up to chance.

Since 1991, the Kirkwood couple have chased 14 solar eclipses, all in different countries, and have managed to catch 11 of them. This year, they wont have to travel far.

Their family-owned farmhouse in Sedgewickville, Mo., is within the path of totality for the event Aug. 21. They, along with their friends and family, will gather to watch the astronomical phenomenon from the backyard of the white, two-story clapboard house, which has been in the Hahs family for six generations.

Its almost like it was meant to be.

Self-proclaimed eclipse aficionados, the Hahses have the science of eclipse-viewing down to a T. Theyve seen eclipses in Ethiopia, Australia, Zambia, Norway, Easter Island and many other places they wouldnt have thought to visit if it werent for their love of astronomy.

You know roughly whats going to happen, Sharon Hahs said of eclipse-viewing. But with each one you have a deeper appreciation for our physical world.

Sharon Hahs, who retired last year from her position as president of Northeastern Illinois University, photographs every eclipse using a camera with a 500 mm lens. She said the camera is good enough to capture the whole corona, but photos can never do it justice.

Thats why Billy Hahs, using his painting skills, tries to capture what the camera misses. He brings paint samples of every shade of blue to each eclipse site. During totality, he takes notes describing the eclipses size, shape, symmetry and any other observations. After the moon passes, he immediately chooses which shade most closely matched the skys hue during the eclipse.

It took me until the third eclipse to notice that the sky was not black, Billy Hahs said. It was dark blue.

Billy Hahs, a former public defender in Madison County, also recently retired. The couple said they now have more time than ever to pursue their hobby, which began in 1991 after Billy Hahs wanted an excuse to take his wife on a trip to Costa Rica, a country he had visited the year before.

That eclipse lasted 6 minutes and 53 seconds, a record that wont be beaten until the year 2132.

Unfortunately, the Hahses didnt actually get to see the eclipse in Costa Rica. It was blocked by rain clouds.

In terms of the weather, youve got to be philosophical or zen-like, Billy Hahs said. If you miss an eclipse, just let it go.

Their advice for viewers on Aug. 21?

Dont look directly at the eclipse until it reaches totality. And dont get so carried away with taking pictures that you forget to enjoy the moment.

If you really pay attention to your surroundings, Billy Hahs said, you might notice some strange things. During their eclipse trip to Zambia, for instance, the animals on a farm they stayed at started heading back to their bedtime posts because they thought the sun had set.
Arnold  Life is about to become very different for one Jefferson County electrician.

On July 9, David Piper, 67, walked into the Schnucks at 3900 Vogel Road in Arnold. He picked up some groceries and bought a few lottery tickets, as he usually does.

When Piper returned to his home in Imperial, he drank a cup of coffee and scratched off his $30 game, the $300,000,000 Golden Ticket.

The numbers came up and he just started counting zeros, Piper said at a Monday press conference wearing a plain T-shirt, jeans and worn moccasins.

I just didnt believe it, Piper said. I called my wife and told her I won $10 million, and she just said: No, you didnt.

Piper was in disbelief until he got his ticket verified at Schnucks the next day.

Somebody was upstairs watching out for me, he said.

Piper was an electrician in Washington Universitys radiology department. Notice thats past tense. He decided to retire a few days after winning the $10 million prize.

Pipers wife, Vickie, also retired, from a job at St. Anthonys Medical Center in south St. Louis County.

David Piper said hes been driving a 20-year-old car with 250,000 miles on it  but now he plans to buy a Jeep.

The couple also hope to find a new home with the winnings.

On Monday, the Pipers are leaving for a trip to New Orleans, where David Piper said he plans to enjoy myself.

But even before the money, Piper said he never felt like he was missing much in his life.

I have a beautiful family and grandkids, he said. I just felt lucky with what I had.

On Monday, a few spectators gathered around the Schnucks lottery machine where Piper bought the winning ticket.

Come on, give me some of that luck, one man said, putting his money in the slot. I won $5 here once, but thats about it.
Attendees Must Pre-Register here: https://goo.gl/KN6imo

Live Audio Streaming Is Available to Non-Attendees by Registering Here: https://goo.gl/WjBojy



CENTENNIAL, Colo., July 31, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NioCorp Developments Ltd. (NioCorp or the "Company) (TSX:NB) (OTCQX:NIOBF) (FSE:BR3) today announced that it will hold a Nebraska Town Hall Meeting and Buffet Dinner to discuss the details of the Elk Creek Project Feasibility Study on Friday, September 8, 2017, at the Kimmel Ag Expo Center, 198 Plum Street, in Syracuse, Nebraska.

The doors will open and food service will begin at 6 p.m. Advance registration is required, which can be done online at https://goo.gl/KN6imo or by calling 1-855-2-NIOCORP and selecting option 1.

The Kimmel Ag Expo Center in Syracuse was chosen to host the event because it can accommodate as many as 500 attendees. Syracuse is approximately 30 miles from Lincoln, 47 miles from Omaha, and 30 miles from Elk Creek.

Representing NioCorp at the Town Hall Meeting will be the following: Mark A. Smith, NioCorp Executive Chairman and CEO; Scott Honan, President of Elk Creek Resources Corporation; and Jim Sims, NioCorp VP of External Affairs. NioCorp will present the details of the Project Feasibility Study and answer questions from participants.

The people of Nebraska have been extraordinarily supportive of this Project, and I very much look forward to walking through with them the details of our positive Elk Creek Feasibility Study and discussing how we intend to move this project to construction and eventually to commercial operation, said Mr. Smith.

Those unable to attend in person can participate via a live webcast, with listen-only audio and graphic presentation slides that can be seen on computers, laptops, and smart phones. Participants must pre-register here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7144444422596495363, and connection options will be then provided to each individual registrant.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors,

"Mark Smith

Mark Smith

Executive Chairman, CEO, and Director

@NioCorp $NB $NIOBF $BR3 #Niobium #Scandium #ElkCreek

About NioCorp

NioCorp is developing a superalloy materials project in Southeast Nebraska that will produce Niobium, Scandium, and Titanium. Niobium is used to produce superalloys as well as High Strength, Low Alloy ("HSLA") steel, which is a lighter, stronger steel used in automotive, structural, and pipeline applications. Scandium is a superalloy material that can be combined with Aluminum to make alloys with increased strength and improved corrosion resistance. Scandium also is a critical component of advanced solid oxide fuel cells. Titanium is used in various superalloys and is a key component of pigments used in paper, paint and plastics and is also used for aerospace applications, armor and medical implants.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Neither TSX nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this document. Certain statements contained in this document may constitute forward-looking statements, including but not limited to potential future production at the Elk Creek Project, anticipated products to be produced at the Elk Creek Project, the future critical and strategic nature of niobium and scandium, anticipated costs of production at the Elk Creek Project being competitive, and anticipated competitive advantages. Such forward-looking statements are based upon NioCorps reasonable expectations and business plan at the date hereof, which are subject to change depending on economic, political and competitive circumstances and contingencies. Readers are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause a change in such assumptions and the actual outcomes and estimates to be materially different from those estimated or anticipated future results, achievements or position expressed or implied by those forward-looking statements. Risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause NioCorps plans or prospects to change include risks related to the Company's ability to operate as a going concern; risks related to the Company's requirement of significant additional capital; changes in demand for and price of commodities (such as fuel and electricity) and currencies; changes in economic valuations of the Project, such as Net Present Value calculations, changes or disruptions in the securities markets; legislative, political or economic developments; the need to obtain permits and comply with laws and regulations and other regulatory requirements; the possibility that actual results of work may differ from projections/expectations or may not realize the perceived potential of NioCorps projects; risks of accidents, equipment breakdowns and labor disputes or other unanticipated difficulties or interruptions; the possibility of cost overruns or unanticipated expenses in development programs; operating or technical difficulties in connection with exploration, mining or development activities; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development, including the risks of diminishing quantities of grades of reserves and resources; and the risks involved in the exploration, development and mining business and the risks set forth in the Companys filings with the SEC at www.sec.gov. NioCorp disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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Get all the news from the courts direct to your inbox with our court and crime email

A mother serving life behind bars for the brutal killing of her baby daughter during a "violent outburst of temper" today had her minimum jail term cut by top judges.

Kathryn Smith was found guilty of murder and child cruelty after 21-month-old Ayeeshia Jane Smith was beaten and stamped to death at her home in Burton-upon-Trent.

The toddler's heart had torn due to the force of a fatal blow - a type of injury usually only found in car crash victims - and she had also suffered other injuries, including a bleed on the brain, in the months before her death in May 2014.

Smith, 24, of Overseal, Swadlincote, Derbyshire, was ordered to serve at least 24 years behind bars at Birmingham Crown Court in April last year.

But her 'tariff' has now been reduced to 19 years by judges sitting at the Court of Appeal, in London.

The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Thomas, said the original term was too long, in light of Smith's youth and "immaturity".

Sitting with Mr Justice Goss and Sir Wyn Williams, he said: "The minimum term imposed by the judge did not properly reflect the circumstances of the murder, the previous conduct, the other offences of which she was convicted or the mitigating factors.

"In our judgment, the minimum term which properly reflected all the factors should have been one of 19 years."

The judges refused Smith's bid to overturn her murder conviction.

Her barrister, John Butterfield QC, argued at hearings in November last year and earlier this month that the conviction was "unsafe".

He said an interruption by the trial judge as he made his closing speech caused "prejudice" in the minds of jurors, as did the judge's summing up of the case.

Mr Butterfield also put forward "fresh medical evidence", which came to light during a serious case review of Ayeeshia's death, including discrepancies in Ayeeshia's weight and the fact she suffered a blister to her finger when she wasn't with her mother.

But, dismissing the appeal, Lord Thomas said that none of the matters raised cast any doubt on the safety of the conviction.

He added: "Although it would have been better if the personal criticism of Mr Butterfield had not been made and the summing up had not contained some of the comments on the evidence and the witnesses which it did, we are satisfied that, looked at overall, the summing up was both thorough and fair.

"Of fundamental significance was the inability of Smith to provide any significant explanation for the child's injuries from October 2013 onwards and her repeated changes of account as to the events leading up to her collapse.

"There was ample evidence on which the jury could have reached the verdicts they did.

"We conclude that although this is a case in which we should grant leave to appeal on both grounds the convictions were, in our view, safe."
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Hundreds of supermarket workers came together to stage a fun day in memory of a long-serving colleague who died just weeks after being diagnosed with pancreatitis.

Steve Kyte had worked for supermarket giant Tesco for 37 years before his sudden death at the age of just 52 earlier this year.

Now, four months on, his co-workers  along with wife Lisa  have held an event at Bucknall Park to raise thousands of pounds for the Royal Stoke University Hospital in his honour.

In total, more than 400 Tesco employees from 23 stores across Staffordshire and Cheshire took part.

Widow Lisa, services manager at Tesco in Hanley, said she was overwhelmed by the support she had received.

She added: "Steve was amazing. He worked for Tesco for 37 years and so many staff members know him.

"He was well thought of and it was a shock for everyone when he passed.

"He went into hospital on January 5 and was diagnosed with pancreatitis. Two days later he was in critical care before being in a coma for two weeks. We thought he was doing well but on March 18 he lost the battle."

The fun day included a full It's a Knockout-style inflatable obstacle course, as well as a number of stalls.

Lisa, from Draycott, added: "At Tesco we do a lot of fund-raising anyway to support our local communities. After Steve died I asked for donations to go to the critical care department at Royal Stoke.

"I've made friends for life there and both Steve and I were so well looked after. I don't know how they do it. Everyone in the department is great. They deserve anything we can raise for them."

She said: "It was a very overwhelming day. I'm proud that Steve means so much to so many people, who all came together just for him."

Rich Stephenson Evans, group lead champion at Tesco, came up with the idea for the family fun day with his colleague Jonathan Wayward, store manager at Tesco in Congleton.

The 36-year-old said: "Just knowing how close Steve was with everyone at Tesco, it was only right to remember him by holding this fantastic day and raising vital money for the hospital that looked after him.

"I'm sure he will be so proud of his Tesco team for coming together to support this event. More than 400 people from 23 Tesco stores got involved."

"We've had all kinds of stalls, a tombola and the huge inflatable course has been very popular.

"All Tesco stores competed against each other for the chance to win a trophy."
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A church once 'at risk of falling down' is celebrating its 150 anniversary after renovations were finally completed.

Fegg Hayes Methodist Community Church is welcoming back parishioners after undergoing a 145,000 upgrade.

Plans for the refurbishment were first put forward six years ago with work finally getting underway at the start of the year after a successful fund-raising campaign.

The changes have included a new roof and internal walls, underfloor heating, insulation, solar panels and a new TV and sound system.

It comes after the Fegg Hayes Road church secured more than 525,000 of lottery cash to create a community centre on neighbouring land with The Hub @ST6 opening last year.

Ray Perry, volunteer project manager for both the church and hub, said: "This refurbishment has been an act of faith. The congregation worked with my vision to see through the project.

"It became my responsibility to get funding. In the end, it's cost around 145,000 which was provided by a whole host of Christian organisations.

"The hub was mostly funded via the National Lottery but is independent from the church, although it was instrumental for getting the funding needed to revamp it."

Ray, aged 63, added: "The church was days from falling down, it had holes everywhere. It's brilliant now. It has taken us to the next level and it's now costing us almost nothing to run as the building is quite green.

"Our congregation is trying a different way of thinking and we want to be close to the community.

"I just want to say thank you to all the fund-raisers. I'm in wonderment at how this has happened."

Chris Ambler, superintendent minister for Stoke North Circuit Methodist Churches, has also been impressed with the community's dedication.

The 58-year-old added: "We've certainly done what we set out to do and better. It's delivered what we hoped for.

"The challenge now is to find ongoing ways to connect with the community and to develop our engagement plans."

David Broad, chaplain for the Boys' and Girls' Brigade Association, has attended the church for more than 60 years.

David, from Knypersley, said: "If it hadn't been done it wouldn't be here anymore.

"It's excellent and is vastly different from how it used to be. It has made a very big difference to the area."

Senior church steward Jean Machin added: "We've got to move with the times and modernise. Because of all the work that's been done, the Sunday School has started again after a seven-year break. We're very pleased with how it turned out."

The church is now looking for trustees for The Hub, young leaders for the Boys' and Girls' Brigade and a pianist for the church. Anyone interested is asked to visit The Hub.
Dayton, Ohio, July 31, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MacAulay-Brown, Inc. (MacB), a leading National Security company delivering advanced engineering services, cybersecurity and product solutions, announced today that it has partnered with Mid Atlantic Professionals, Inc. DBA/SSI supporting the Department of Defense Language Interpretation and Translation Enterprise II (DLITE II) multiple award Indefinite-Delivery/Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) contract issued by the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM). The multiple award IDIQ contract has a five-year base period, as well as a five-year option period with a total ceiling value of $9.8 billion.

SSI was selected as one of 20 IDIQ contract awardees to provide foreign language interpretation, translation and transcription services. SSI was chosen as one of nine IDIQ awardees for the Force Projection mission area, which provides linguist services in support of forces engaged in humanitarian, peacekeeping, contingency, and combat operations.

Drawing on MacBs vast history and experience of delivering innovative intelligence and training solutions across multiple theaters, a team of national security and mission experts will provide program and project management support for the contract, as well as technical and field expertise, planning and training. Other multi-discipline solutions may include intelligence analysis and counterintelligence support.

We are pleased to partner with SSI to help deliver specialized interpretation and translation services in support of this crucial requirement, said Dan Gutierrez, Senior Vice President and General Manager of MacBs National Security Group (NSG). This is another opportunity for our team to deliver exceptional intelligence, analysis, and security solutions for U.S. Army INSCOM and the DoD to meet todays diverse operational and mission requirements.

ABOUT MACAULAY-BROWN, INC. (MacB)

For more than 37 years, MacAulay-Brown, Inc. (MacB) has been solving some of the Nations most complex National Security challenges. Defense, Intelligence Community, Special Operations Forces, Homeland Security and Federal agencies rely on our advanced engineering services, cybersecurity, and product solutions to meet the challenges of an ever-changing world. With Corporate Headquarters in Dayton, Ohio and National Capital Headquarters in Vienna, Virginia, our more than 1,500 employees worldwide are dedicated to developing mission-focused and results-oriented solutions that make a difference where and when it matters most. Learn more about MacB at www.macb.com.

Follow MacB

###
AV1 and Legal Challenges: Does the Codec Have a Future?

Following the state of intellectual property (IP)-related strategies is part of the job of any encoding professional. Heres an update on two issues and my thoughts on the IP status of the AOMedia Video 1 (AV1) codec.

One scary litigation from last year was Nokia suing Apple for H.264 infringement, as Nokia was pursuing an interesting strategy that might have excluded encoder-related patents from fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) pricing restrictions that apply to technologies included as part of a standard. Apple and Nokia settled that litigation in May, with Apple paying Nokia an undisclosed sum. For most of us small producers, this is meaningless, but if youre shipping boatloads of H.264 encoders, decoders, or both, and youre not currently writing a check to Nokia, expect a call soon.

Another IP-related turn from late 2016 was the MPEG LA-sponsored DASH (dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP) group. What Ive heard from several sources is that most large companies intend to ignore the group unless and until one or more of the group members files an infringement suit. The collective thought is that DASH is, in essence, a scheme involving text-based manifest files, which is not particularly impressive to begin with, and that most of the heavy lifting was done by Cisco, Qualcomm, and Microsoft, which arent part of the royalty group and arent seeking royalties. With proposed royalties totaling $30 million per year, the larger companies seem willing to roll the dice to invalidate the patents rather than ponying up voluntarily. Interestingly, the MPEG LA licensee list for this group had zero entries when I checked the list on June 8. So well see.

Regarding the legal status of the Alliance for Open Medias AV1 codec, theres a general feeling that AV1 will be challenged and will likely lose because there must be some infringing technology in the codec. This is typified by comments from Joe Inzerillo, CTO of BAMTech, who, during a keynote talk at Streaming Media East, said that serious companies shouldnt waste time with a free technology that ultimately is unproven legally. In my view, Joe is one of the brightest stars in our universe, and certainly has access to better lawyers than I do, but Im going to disagree.

First of all, the Alliance includes members like Adobe, Amazon, AMD, ARM, Bitmovin, Broadcom, Chips&Media, Cisco, Google, Intel, Ittiam Systems, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, NVIDIA, and Realtek, which are, in anyones view, some pretty serious companies.

Second, before Google acquired On2, the early VPx codecs had achieved significant success without any patent claims. This includes VP6, which was the it codec for Flash before H.264, and VP7, which was used in Skype and by Move Networks. Then Google bought On2 and released VP8 and VP9, both used very extensively by YouTube. Nokia made a patent claim in Germany and lost, and that was it.

True, Google licensed H.264 patents for VP8/ VP9 when MPEG LA formed a VP9 patent pool, but my discussions with people at Google indicate that this was window dressing to avoid protracted IP issues, not a legal necessity.

Regarding the Alliance, I assume that each member performed its own due diligence relating to the underlying codec technology. All these companies will be deploying the codec, giving rise to potential royalties if the technology does infringe. During codec development, all contributions to AV1 are being double-vetted for IP claims, first by the company making the contribution, then by an outside law firm and other experts.

Assuming that AV1 will wither due to IP claims from the H.264/HEVC camp also assumes that Google and all members of the Alliance bought a pig in a poke, a potential problem they felt they couldnt defend in court or otherwise negotiate away. Serious companies dont do that.

I havent studied the underlying IP, so I cant render an informed decision. From my perspective, assuming companies with a combined market share of multiple billions are making a silly IP-related decision is almost always an incorrect assumption.

[This article appears in the July/August 2017 issue of Streaming Media Magazine as "AV1: Follow the Money."]

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Milwaukee, July 31, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

Hupy and Abraham, S.C., personal injury law firm, announced that firm president Attorney Michael Hupy has developed a unique long-term fellowship involving Marquette University Law School students. The five-year commitment will support students in the Public Interest Law Society (PILS) and will act as an important resource for the continuity of the fellowship program.

PILS is a student-run organization committed to creating opportunities for students intending to dedicate themselves to providing assistance to those who are traditionally underrepresented in the legal system. The Michael F. Hupy Fellowship will allow one student to be placed at the Milwaukee Justice Center (MJC). Additionally, the fellowship enables students to contribute an entire summer to public interest legal work in local and global communities.

The Milwaukee Justice Center strives to provide legal aid for persons who do not qualify for government-issued services and cannot afford an attorney. The center is a combined partnership between the Milwaukee Bar Association, Marquette University Law School and Milwaukee County.

A principal benefactor of the MJC, Attorney Michael Hupy has said, The legal profession exists for the benefit of the public. I am very proud of the contributions of the Milwaukee Justice Center volunteers who provide legal services to those who would otherwise not have access to it and am happy to be able to help. I am proud to support these students dedicated to working for the common good.

Hupy and Abraham, S.C. also partners with several other legal nonprofits that work to provide free and/or low-cost services to those in need.

Hupy and Abraham, S.C.

Founded in 1969 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, personal injury law firm Hupy and Abraham, S.C. has a proven record of success with large settlements in serious cases, collecting over a billion dollars for more than 70,000 satisfied clients. The firm has a long-established reputation of providing sound legal representation to accident victims, securing fair compensation for its clients and giving back to the community.

With 11 offices located in Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa, the law firm handles personal injury cases including car accidents, motorcycle accidents, wrongful death, pharmaceutical and medical device class actions and nursing home neglect and abuse cases.

The firms 26 experienced attorneys are committed to going above and beyond the call of duty for their clients by tirelessly representing them to the best of their ability while being involved in the local community  from raising funds for local charities to participating in safety and accident prevention initiatives. In the past three years, the firm has donated more than $500,000 to more than 250 worthwhile causes.

Hupy and Abraham, S.C. has received top ratings from a number of national professional organizations for many years and was voted Best Personal Injury Lawyers in 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012 and 2011 and voted Best Personal Injury Law Firm in 2016, 2014, 2013 and 2012 in another popular poll, and named Best Law Firm in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinels Top Choice Award in 2015 and 2016. In 2015, the firm was named a Webby Award Honoree in the Best Law Website Category and was honored at the Legal Marketing Associations Your Honor Awards for Best Website: Reboot. In 2017, the firm was voted Best Personal Injury Law Firm by the Wisconsin Law Journal readership.

###

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/9bfd4e62-c708-4b4f-80d1-faa3d1a766db

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/46367cf0-1eeb-4434-85bf-9eae9a2c0188
Washington, July 31, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Earlier this year, a team of scientists led by Dr. Ray Hilborn found, among other conclusions, that forage fish are best managed on a case-by-case basis that accounts for their unique environmental roles. In a memo earlier this month, an inter-state scientific review committee tasked with incorporating the ecological role of menhaden into management determined that this conclusion aligns with their own findings.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commissions (ASMFC) Biological and Ecological Reference Points (BERP) Workgroup, which is leading development of ecosystem-based fisheries management for Atlantic menhaden, reviewed the Hilborn et al. paper earlier this summer. It concluded that the papers recommendation of using stock-specific models to evaluate ecosystem needs were similar to models being developed by the workgroup.

The [workgroup] is currently developing a suite of intermediate complexity menhaden-specific models that align with the general recommendations from both Dr. Hilborn and the 2015 Stock Assessment Peer Review Panel, said the July 14 memo, Review of Hilborn et al. 2017.[1] The [workgroup] anticipates that these models will be ready for peer review in 2019.

The Hilborn et al. study, published in April in Fisheries Research, found that there were several variables in forage fish species that make imprecise, one-size-fits-all management approaches difficult. Most importantly, there seems to be little correlation between the number of predator species in the water and the number of forage fish, making it nearly impossible to determine a catch level that is appropriate for forage fish as a whole. Other variables include the natural variability of forage fish, which is different from species to species, and relative locations of predators and forage species.

We suggest that any evaluation of harvest policies for forage fish needs to include these issues, and that models tailored for individual species and ecosystems are needed to guide fisheries management policy, the paper finds.

The ASMFC will consider the work of the BERP, including its review of Dr. Hilborns paper, at its upcoming 2017 summer meeting, to be held from August 1-3 in Alexandria, Virginia.

[1] ASMFC Biological Ecological Reference Points Workgroup, Memorandum: Review of Hilborn et al. 2017, July 14, 2017

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/60755608-cb9e-4022-8fbc-726b614c1f32
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 31, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- EXETER RESOURCE CORPORATION (NYSE MKT:XRA) (TSX:XRC) (Frankfurt:EXB) (Exeter or the Company) announces that at its special meeting of shareholders (the Meeting) held July 31, 2017, holders (Exeter Shareholders) of common shares of Exeter (Exeter Shares) approved the plan of arrangement (the Arrangement) whereby Goldcorp Inc. (Goldcorp) will acquire all of the issued and outstanding Exeter Shares (other than those already held by Goldcorp).



A special resolution approving the Arrangement was approved by approximately 99.80% of the votes cast at the Meeting, in person or by proxy, by Exeter Shareholders and approved by 99.79% of the votes cast at the Meeting, in person or by proxy, by Exeter Shareholders, excluding the votes cast in respect of Exeter Shares held by interested parties required to be excluded pursuant to applicable securities law.

On closing of the Arrangement, Exeter Shareholders (other than Goldcorp) will receive 0.12 common shares of Goldcorp for each Exeter Share held.

The Arrangement is subject to final approval by the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Supreme Court of British Columbia (the Court). The Court hearing for the final order to approve the Arrangement is scheduled to take place on August 1, 2017, and the completion of the Arrangement is expected to occur on August 2, 2017.

Additional information regarding the terms of the Arrangement is set out in Exeters management information circular dated June 27, 2017, which is available under Exeters profile at www.sedar.com.

About Exeter Resource Corporation:

Exeter is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on the exploration and development of the Caspiche project in Chile. Caspiche is well located in Chiles Maricunga district, which has good infrastructure and is in close proximity to other large scale mining operations and projects in development.

About Goldcorp:

Goldcorp is a senior gold producer focused on responsible mining practices with safe, low-cost production from a high-quality portfolio of mines. For further information about Goldcorp, please visit their website at www.goldcorp.com.

On behalf of Exeter Resource Corporation

Jason Attew

Director and Chief Financial Officer

For further information, please contact:

Etienne Morin

(800) 567-6223 2200 HSBC Building, 885 West Georgia Street,

Vancouver, BC V6C 3E8

Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements: This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, Section 21E of the United States Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, or in releases made by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, all as may be amended from time to time, and forward-looking information", under the provisions of the applicable Canadian securities legislation concerning the completion of the Arrangement. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", or variations or comparable language of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", should, "might", "will be taken", "occur", "be achieved" or has the potential to or the negative connotation thereof.

Forward looking statements contained in this press release may include statements regarding our ability to complete the Arrangement, which involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties which may not prove to be accurate. Actual results and outcomes may differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in these forward-looking statements. Such statements are qualified in their entirety by the inherent risks and uncertainties surrounding future expectations.

Among those factors which could cause actual results to differ materially are the following: uncertainties as to the timing of the Arrangement and satisfaction of the conditions thereto, market conditions and other risk factors listed from time to time in our reports filed with Canadian securities regulators on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov. Although Exeter has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, accordingly, are subject to change after such date. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities legislation.

NEITHER THE TSX NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS NEWS RELEASE
Women mathematicians a struggle for recognition Continuing our series Women in Science lost in history by Dr. Viduranga Waisundara View(s): View(s):

Of all the scientific disciplines, mathematics suffers the worst gender imbalance of all, mostly due to the perception that boys are better than girls in mathematics. While this is not true, several studies have shown that negative stereotypes about girls abilities in mathematics can indeed measurably lower girls performance in this discipline. The classical formulation of this idea is that men naturally excel in mathematics, while women naturally excel in disciplines involving language skills. Thus women mathematicians throughout history as well as engineers for that matter, have been consistently overlooked and under-represented with their names unrecognized, their work uncredited and their achievements uncelebrated.

This week, we look at the lives of two relatively unknown (that is, as compared with their male counterparts) women mathematicians who had to endure many bouts of social injustice and cultural prejudice before they were able to get achieve academic success.

Emilie du Chatelet

Born in Paris in 1709, at a time when education for daughters of nobility was viewed with disapproval and education for daughters of the poor were not discussed at all, Emilie was given away in marriage to the Marquis Florent-Claude du Chastellet-Lomont when she was 18 and he was 34. The marriage came as a blessing in disguise for Emilie, since her husband was mostly tending to his numerous estates or pursuing his passion of participating in the war, leaving her alone in the household to follow her scientific pursuits. She had three children, and with the support of governesses and nurses, she was able to return to her mathematical interests in the night. A daring individual she broke into the old boys network, dressed as a man, visiting clubs and public houses with her male colleagues.

In 1737, Emilie published a paper entitled Dissertation sur la nature et la propagation du feu based upon her research on the science of fire. This was one of the first investigations identifying infrared radiation and the nature of light.In the early 18th century, although the concepts of force and momentum had been well understood, the idea of energy transfer between different systems was still in its infancy. However, Emilie hypothesized that total energy was conserved, as distinct from momentum, whereby mechanical, kinetic and potential energy may be lost to another form, but the total energy is conserved in time.

It is stated that Emilie conducted an experiment in which balls were dropped from different heights into a sheet of soft clay. The kinetic energy of each ball, as indicated by the quantity of material displaced, was shown to be proportional to the square of the velocity. This observation essentially displaced previous theories of Sir Isaac Newton and Voltaire who believed that energy was indistinct from momentum and therefore proportional to velocity.

Emilies most significant scientific achievement to date is her translation of Sir Isaac Newtons Principia Mathematica. Although this was published posthumously, it is still considered the standard French translation of the textbook that made Newtons work available to the French mathematicians. Nevertheless, Voltaire, her lover, received credit for the writing since women were not allowed to publish under their own name.

Consequently, many have attributed Emilies contributions to science and philosophy to others or ignored them completely. Nevertheless, as Voltaire himself declared du Chatelet was a great man whose only fault was being a woman. Emilie passed away in 1749 at the age of 42 due to a pulmonary embolism following childbirth.

Sophie Germain

The daughter of a wealthy silk merchant in France, Sophie Germain was born in Paris in 1776 and did not attend school for the simple fact that women in France were not allowed entry into schools during that period. When Sophie was 13, the Bastille fell resulting in her being confined indoors. She found solace in her fathers library. To pass the time, she taught herself Latin and also explored the writings of Archimedes. Sophie was of the opinion that if geometry could hold such fascination for Archimedes, it was a subject worthy of study.

Sophies parents did not at all approve of her sudden fascination with mathematics. In the evening, they would deny her warm clothes and a fire for her bedroom to try to keep her from studying. However, after they left she would take out candles, wrap herself in quilts and study. At times, her family found her asleep at her desk in the morning, the ink frozen in the ink horn and her slate covered with calculations.

Sophie was 18 years old when the Ecole Polytechnique was established in Paris. However, as a woman she was denied entry into the premises. Nevertheless, she was able to obtain lecture notes and began sending her work to a faculty member Joseph Louis Lagrange under the name Monsieur Antoine-August Le Blanc. When Lagrange saw the significance of M. Le Blanc, he requested a meeting, whereupon Sophie was forced to disclose her true identity. Fortunately, Lagrange did not mind that she was a woman and became her mentor providing her with moral support for her academic initiatives.

Sophie could be recognized as the pioneer in the number theory. This was further stimulated when she read Carl Friedrich Gauss monumental work Disquisitiones Arithmeticae. After three years of working through the exercises and trying her own proofs for some of the theorems she wrote to Gauss under the pseudonym of M. LeBlanc forming a friendship. Nevertheless, despite their correspondence, Sophie and Gauss never met each other in person.

Sophie avidly studied elasticity of materials. It is believed that the Eiffel Tower was designed and constructed using the theories of elasticity developed by Sophie. Sophie took an interest in a contest sponsored by the Paris Academy of Sciences concerning Ernst Chladnis experiments with vibrating metal plates. The object of the competition was to give the mathematical theory of the vibration of an elastic surface and to compare the theory to experimental evidence. Sophies initial entry did not win the prize. However, the contest was extended by two years, and Germain decided to try for the prize again. This time around, her entry received only an honorable mention. The contest was extended once more, and Sophie began working on her third attempt. This, she submitted under her own name, and became the first woman to win a prize from the Paris Academy of Sciences. Even after winning the contest, she was still not able to attend the Academys sessions due to the tradition of excluding women other than the wives of members.

Sophie was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 53. Nevertheless, she continued her mathematical work on the curvature of elastic surfaces, which led to the discovery of the laws of equilibrium and movement of elastic solids. Six years after Sophie passed away, when the matter of honorary degrees came up at the University of Gottingen, Gauss stated that she proved to the world that even a woman can accomplish something worthwhile in the most rigorous and abstract of sciences and for that reason would well have deserved an honorary degree.

(The writer is a Senior Lecturer (Temporary), Technology Programme, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka, Mihintale)
Buddhist heritage and interference by lay authorities By Satharathilaka Banda Atugoda View(s): View(s):

Rulers were created, according to all religions, by the consensus of humans when conflicts arose among them. Agganna sutta and several other sermons in the Buddhist doctrine analyse how and why the rulers were chosen; the inhabitants who came from the Abhassara world, found the need for leaders to bring peace and harmony in the community, especially when the yield was to be divided equitably among the farmers. The sutta elaborates, how badalatha an edible plant came to being, and el hal, a kind of rice sprang-up and the collective efforts by the community to cultivate and receive the yield, but the ignorance, and craving in humans prevented them from receiving the yields equitably. They then selected a leader to adjudicate on quarrelsome behaviour and conduct of the humans; this episode of eons past, was supposed to be the origin of leaders among humans. Gita mentions the triumvirate among the pantheon of gods, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, the creator, protector, and destroyer of the humans and earth, and the creation of rulers. Christianity, relates how Adam and Eve erred, and ate the forbidden fruit and he created the persons looking after the welfare of humans. Islam similarly, relates how the great Allah, regulates actions of humans, and how the Holy Prophet was sent as messenger and how leaders arose. The religious leaders themselves became the guardians of peace and tranquility in society, and advisors to rulers, and the leaders in turn protected the religions and the religious dignitaries.

In this blessed land of ours too, the ruling classes sprang up when permanent settlements were established, even before the advent of Aryans. These leaders continued either as royalty, or as chieftains; after the introduction of the Buddhist doctrine, these leaders utilised the teachings to introduce morality and ethics to the society; thus the doctrine had a profound effect on the worldly life of persons and their spiritual advancement. The land became the protector of the doctrine according to Buddhist scriptures. The sangha, one of the three ratnas had to be protected by the kings, as they became the doctrinal advisors to the king as well as the inhabitants. They were highly educated and the education of the people too lay in their hands. The kings built viharas and dagabas and enshrined the relics of the Buddha in them. Ruwanweli Seya, Mirisawetiya and other sacred sites came into being and their sustenance became also the responsibility of the kings. The story begins with Arahant Mahinda preaching the Culla haththipadopama sutta and Devaduta sutta, and suttas like Balapanditha-Sutta, during their first encounter at Maha-Megha park. They contained the sublime essence of good and bad as a ruler following the doctrine. When the sacred Bo sapling was brought the king went knee-deep in water to receive the gift from Theri Sanghamitta. How King Devanam Piyatissa listened to the sermons of Mahinda Thera in the woods of Mihintale is fascinating history of which all Sri Lankans are proud inheritors. Later the arrival of danta dhatu, the sacred tooth relic with Princess Hemamala and Prince Danta from Jambudhdveepa, present Orissa, and their enshrinement in a chaitya in Anuradhapura which became a guardian of the land for centuries to follow. The sangha, the monarchy and the laymen protected each other from any impending calamity, including foreign invasions, and destruction of Buddhist monuments. In all periods of history this phenomenon continued including during the era of western domination. The Vihara Devalagam Ordinance, and the Buddhist Temporalities Ordinance during these periods and also the Convention of Kandy, assured the protection of the doctrine and Buddhist places of worship.

After independence successive Governments continued with the supreme pedestal on which Buddhism was placed, although, there were some attempts at non-implementation of proposals of the Buddha Sasana Commission. They were later implemented on the urgings of the sangha, and Buddhist intellectuals. There were also some excesses by persons in robes and they were requested to disrobe. Generally, the doctrine, the sangha, and the Buddhist temples were protected.

Recently there had been some un-Buddhist actions, and pronouncements by the rulers who are vested with the responsibility of protecting the very foundation of our Buddhist civilisation, as described above. This aspect is clearly spelt out in the Asgiri Maha Vihara Statements on the uncalled for actions by some ruling hierarchy. They include taking of Buddhist monks into custody, for making statements which could disturb national reconciliation, speaking rather disparagingly about Buddhist monks, and making statements that temple administrations of some temples would be vested with ruling hierarchy. These are made supposedly to rectify some so-called excesses by the Buddhist clergy. Although, the creation of a Mahasammatha, according to Buddhist literature was to eradicate social evils, the successive prathagjana, worldly rulers became dabblers in worldly pleasures that proper justice was not enacted anywhere. It became a phenomenon globally, throughout history. In some parts of the world protectors of spiritual upliftment, the clergy too engaged in unethical ungodly, economical pursuits that there were conflicts between the papacy and the monarchy. In Lankan Buddhist history this phenomenon was less visible as the role of the venerable monks was strictly spiritual in character except when their advice was sought by the kings. The Buddhist clergy were the protectors of the doctrine as propounded in the teachings.

There were however schisms in the sangha organisations, like the Maha Vihara and the Abhayagiri Vihara. In the face of foreign invasions from Chola, Pandya, Chera, and Kerala, the kings intervened to protect the Buddhist places of worship. The invaders themselves, at times reconstructed, or rebuilt some monuments, as they too were very conversant with the teachings of the Buddha which was preserved in their lands. There were of course, destruction of sites under invaders like Magha. The kings and the Buddhist monks were able to overcome the political challenges posed by the South Indians. This unbroken link between the Buddhist monks and the monarchy continued except for random conflicts. The kings also took steps to develop relations between the sangha and the kings in the maintenance of the Buddhist places of worship and also the fostering of the doctrinal rules laid down in the scriptures. These accepted norms continued even during western occupations except for some aberrations during the Portuguese period. When the Udarata Convention was drafted there was the clause included to protect the Buddha sasana, and it was signed and followed by the British. However, there was the degeneration of the sangha which was attended to by the sangha themselves, as in the case of bringing the upasampada by Velivita Sri Saranankara Thera. Throughout Lankas history therefore, Buddhism was protected in the land for the spiritual attainments of the inhabitants. This trend continued even after independence by successive Governments.

In the 1972 Constitution, Chapter 2 states in Paragraph 6 The Republic of Sri Lanka shall give to Buddhism the foremost place and accordingly it shall be the duty of the State to protect and foster Buddhism while assuring to all religions the rights granted by section 18(1) (d).

In the 1978 Constitution Chapter 2 states in Paragraph 9, The Republic of Sri Lanka shall give to Buddhism the foremost place and accordingly it shall be the duty of the State to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana, while assuring to all religions the rights granted by Articles 10 and 14 (1) (e).

On May 22, 1972 the nation became a republic and in 1978 its name was amended to The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka with a new constitution as certified on August 31, 1978.

The Constitution at independence in 1948, known as the Soulbury Constitution too, had a safeguard to protect Buddhism and also the minority communities. It is clear therefore, that Sri Lanka has maintained a solid foundation for the protection of the doctrine while ensuring the rights of the other religions and communities

Sri Lanka was gifted this tolerance by the doctrine of the blessed one and there had been no discrimination of persons and their rights. It has infact, been ingrained in the Asoka edicts, from which the worldly rules of the State of Lanka were promulgated from the time of the advent of Buddhism. The twin features in any rule was the foremost place granted to Buddhism and the preservation of the rights of all beings. Lanka should not be sermonised on human rights by the so-called world bodies today as these values flow in the blood veins of the inhabitants of this blessed land. The ruling classes may be reminded of this lesson today so that there will be no departures from the respected ethics of the land. In the proposed Constitution, it is said that these basics are not in anyway violated. The countrymen however remain perplexed by different statements by the ruling hierarchy.

There are also pronouncements made to temporarily close one of the foremost historic temples Dambulla to restore the precious Buddhist paintings. Although a laudable objective, there is a process to approach these sensitive issues. The nayaka Theras who had been the custodians of these sacred precincts preserved the cave temples since the time of King Valagambahu. He has granted the temple, lands around the rock to a distance where the sound of the bera handa (drum beat) emanating from the rock caves can be heard. It signifies the mode of protectionism implemented, economically, of the temple, of course under the feudal system. These lands were cultivated according to the Rajakariya System by the tenant farmers. Perhaps, some of them have been donated to the ande cultivators on the strict understanding that the temple rajakariya should be performed whenever called for. It is the system followed by even the sacred temple of the tooth relic and also temples in historic Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Dambadeniya, Kurunegala, Yapahuwa, Gampola, Kotte, and Maha-Nuwara. Different methods of tenure systems are adopted by these temples now as it becomes difficult to follow the same feudal system; employing others and paying them from the income from these properties, and employing persons especially for perahera seasons are two of them. The donations given by the devotees is another source of income to these temples. How these incomes could be effectively utilised is a subject falling under the chief incumbent of the temple. There should be consultations with the sangha on all matters pertaining to the temple, including preservation of the archeological heritage of the monuments. The lay authorities could seek the advice of the maha sangha in the processes to be undertaken as they are the ones who have been growing up with the temples. As suggested in the Sunday Times comments page of July 16 the restoration of paintings of the viharas at the Dambulla cave could be undertaken cave by cave. It does not have to be closed for pujas and public viewing. This was the practice followed when reconstruction was undertaken even previously. The political authorities perhaps need to be educated on these practices before they are asked to make public statements.

The maha sangha had been the custodians of not merely the temples but the preservation of the dhamma. They lead a life of austerity from a very young age as samaneras and become upasampada bhikkhus, obtain an education with great difficulty, and serve the nation perhaps more than political authorities. This was the crux of the value system ingrained in the Buddhist society of Lanka. The lay politician has to obtain advice from these Theras as they know what is best for our motherland. The rhetoric by some monks seems to overstep the vinaya to be followed by the sangha. They are the exception than the rule, but as the Asgiri Mahanayaka Thera has stated the content of the statements is more important than how they are presented. When dealing with them, the lay authorities should perhaps balance the prestige that Sri Lanka has earned as the prime citadel of the doctrine with the mode employed to suppress their excesses, so that no harm is brought to the respect earned by our mother land. The images that go into the internet seem to damage us globally. Our minds should go back to the days when monks in Vietnam and Cambodia self -immolated to liberate their countries.

One last thought. The societal strata is always made up of the clergy above laypersons and even rulers. The rulers should have a good formal education and possess an enlightened three Hs  head, heart, and hand. For this learning a bit of history is imperative, which was pushed away as unnecessary, sometime ago; our thrice blessed land is sacred to us.

(The writer was a foreign service ambassador.)
WILMINGTON, Del., July 31, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Andrews & Springer LLC, a boutique securities class action law firm focused on representing shareholders nationwide, is investigating potential breach of fiduciary duty claims against the Board of Directors of Avista Corporation (Avista or the Company) relating to the sale of the Company to Hydro One Limited (Hydro One). On July 19, 2017, the two parties announced the signing of a definitive merger agreement pursuant to which Hydro One will acquire Avista in a merger worth $6.7 billion. As a result of the merger, Avistas shareholders are only anticipated to receive $53.00 per share in cash in exchange for each share of Avista.



Andrews & Springer is investigating whether Avistas directors are breaching their fiduciary duties by failing to adequately shop the company and maximize shareholder value. Our investigation is also looking into whether Avistas top executives were conflicted and acted in their own self-interest and negotiated their continued employment when approving the merger thus making the process and consideration unfair. According to the Companys July 19th announcement, Avistas senior management will continue their employment post-merger: Avistas management team and employees will remain in place and it will operate with its own Board of Directors . . . .

If you own shares of Avista and want to receive additional information and protect your investments free of charge, please visit us at http://www.andrewsspringer.com/cases-investigations/avista-class-action-investigation/ or contact Craig J. Springer, Esq. at cspringer@andrewsspringer.com, or call toll free at 1-800-423-6013. You may also follow us on LinkedIn  www.linkedin.com/company/andrews-&-springer-llc, Twitter  www.twitter.com/AndrewsSpringer or Facebook - www.facebook.com/AndrewsSpringer for future updates.

Andrews & Springer is a boutique securities class action law firm representing shareholders nationwide who are victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty or corporate misconduct. Having formerly defended some of the largest financial institutions in the world, our founding members use their valuable knowledge, experience, and superior skill for the sole purpose of achieving positive results for investors. These traits are the hallmarks of our innovative approach to each case our Firm decides to prosecute. For more information please visit our website at www.andrewsspringer.com. This notice may constitute Attorney Advertising.
Competition is certainly heating up for the entry dishes for the Ora King Salmon Awards.

A big thanks to Debbie and the team at The Rabbit Hole for the invite to not only try the entry dish, but to enjoy a superb five-course wine and food match degustation with stunning dishes produced by executive chef Cezar Takahasi and his highly talented team, matched perfectly with gorgeous Matawhero wines.

What a great night  amazingly crafted dishes, excellent service and a superb venue.

The elements of each dish and the matching wines were carefully explained before each course.

Most fascinating was the story told by Cezar on the origins of how the creation of his Ora King Salmon entry dish came about. Cezars dish was an exquisite work of art, showcasing his interpretation of the bottom of the sea, amazing colours, textures, balance and harmony.

Cezar has a wealth of experience born from his Japanese/Brazilian heritage. He is passionate about all aspects of food, from filleting whole fish (something he learnt from his Japanese grandfather), to combining the culinary techniques of Japan with the flavours and sweetness of his Brazilian heritage  known as Nikkei Fusion. His menu reflects his heritage, while at the same time he incorporates a strong hint of Kiwi cuisine from time spent in the Cook Islands working and living with Kiwis. His career spans 13 years, including several years as a Sushi Master. Cezar is passionate about delivering the perfect meal, both visually and gastronomically.

The entry dish, Corina Kaiyo, uses techniques that Cezars grandmother taught him many years ago. The salmon is cured using the kobujime technique, which is a way of curing salmon by wrapping it in konbu seaweed and salt. The konbu boosts the umami flavour in the fish, giving it a unique taste. The salmon is coloured with red cabbage juice to give it a Latin touch. The dish also uses the Japanese style of pickled cucumber called sunomono. The shallots have a Latin twist as well, poached in chilli and vanilla syrup.

Make sure you try this Ora King Salmon dish currently featured on the menu at The Rabbit Hole, or one of the many other interesting dishes.

Executive chef Cezar Takahashi with Mayra Vergne and Laurent Eudes.Photo: Supplied.

My name Is Cezar Macario Takahashi. I was born in Brazil 35 years ago but Japan Is my second love. Even though Ive never been there my heart will always direct me towards it because of my grandmother, Fuji Kobayashi, who was Japanese and taught me everything I know.

My Grandma was eight years old when she was sent to Brazil from Ibaraki on the north east coast of Japan, running away from the war. She was separated from her family and as soon as she arrived in Brazil she had already a marriage organised by her aunty.

My Grandma told me that she knew already her fate and she spent the rest of the years waiting to grow up and be with my grandfather, Mituro Takahashi.

Even though my grandfather had a Japanese father and mother, he was born in Brazil. Both of my grandparents gave me my Japanese culture, heritage, habits and lifestyle. Unfortunately, my grandfather never wanted anybody to speak Japanese at home and I couldnt learn the language properly. He had painful memories from his parents about the war, but it was always my dream to learn the language and live in Japan. Ive learned a lot about the value of hard work and also to love and respect the sea and the fish from him.

My mind flies backwards all the time, remembering them because they raised me and guided me and I always think to myself what would Grandpa do? Mituro was a very tough and silent man. We would only speak when he would take me on weekend mornings to his fishing boat to tell me I had to learn everything about the business in order to survive. On the other hand, my Grandma was lovely and kind and she would take me after school, hug and kiss me, and I would stay by her side the rest of the day while she was cooking for the fishermen and their wives. Every day we had the same routine together. Ive learned how to cook all the recipes that she learned from her mum and aunty. She told me once that every day since she knew she had a husband, her aunty would teach her a traditional Japanese recipe. Her family used to have a seaweed farm back in Japan and from her Ive learned to cure the salmon with the kobujime technique.

My Grandma helped me to understand my passion in life, which is cooking, and Grandpa taught me everything about fish and boats. My inspiration was born on those days when I used to hang on the boat looking into the sea and wondering about life on the bottom of the ocean? Which creatures could be there? How beautiful and quiet it must be! I wanted to live there!

My heart and my soul lives with Japan, the sea, and my grandparents and thats how I inspire myself  through the love I have for my Fuji, my Corina (Grandmas Brazilian name) my Bachan, my Grandma. I hope you can see what I see!
The autopsy carried out on the bodies of a British couple found dead at their home in Sabinillas, Manilva, has concluded that they died of natural causes.

The bodies of the pair, who have been named only as Michael and Valetta, were found on Thursday last week in different rooms in their flat. Michael was 71 and Valetta 80, reports said.

The grim discovery was made after the couples son, who lives in the UK, had contacted neighbours as he had heard nothing from his parents in several days. A hairdresser who made home visits to Valetta then contacted the Guardia Civil.

When officers entered the property on Avenida de la Paz they found the bodies in separate locations and in an advanced stage of decomposition. It is thought that they had been dead for more than ten days.

Valettas body was found in the bedroom lying face down on the floor. Her husband was discovered near the sofa in the living room face up, according to sources.

Michael died first

During an initial inspection of the scene no signs of violence were detected, nor other evidence of the cause of death. The flat was locked from the inside, initially indicating that no third party was involved. The bodies were removed to Malaga for an autopsy.

Announcing results of the autopsy the following day, investigators confirmed their initial hypothesis of death from natural causes. They believe that Michael died first suddenly and that his wife, who had Alzheimers, passed away two days later due to some form of stroke.
Given the success of the Spanish State Visit to the UK the week before last, which, among other things, highlighted the importance of people-to-people links between our two countries, I thought it timely to return to the subject of citizens rights in the negotiations on our departure from and future partnership with the EU.

In the year since the EU referendum, Ive had the pleasure of meeting many of you across the country, from the Balearics to the Canaries, along the Costas and in Madrid, and our consular teams have met many more.

I know from those conversations that there has been uncertainty for many of you. My teams and I have listened to your concerns about the future, including about your residency status in Spain, the level of your UK pensions, and your access to Spanish health and other social services, and have noted the questions you have about tax, inheritance, right to work and the implications of applying for Spanish nationality.

At our meetings, on our social media and in interviews, I have also pledged to keep you up to date as negotiations on our exit from the European Union continue. So, let me update you on where matters stand now, in light of the latest negotiation round in Brussels last week.

The UK Government has been clear that citizens are our top priority in the exit negotiations. We want an agreement that provides citizens with greater certainty about their future.

Last week, we held constructive and substantive discussions with the European Commission on the bulk of the issues underpinning our respective positions on citizens rights. Together we have taken a big step forward. There is a much clearer understanding on the detail of the positions on both sides and significant convergence on the key issues that really matter to citizens. You can read this technical note which compares the UK and EU positions on these issues online (tinyurl.com/ybt5mqbn). It is clear both sides want to move towards an agreement.

As you know, on 26 June, the Prime Minister outlined to Parliament an offer to protect the rights of EU citizens in the UK. We are entering the negotiations with the European Commission and the other 27 EU Member States constructively and we therefore hope that the EU27 will offer reciprocal treatment for British nationals resident in the other Member States.

Many of you will have seen press reports of our 26 June offer, whether in the UK or Spanish media. I hope you will also have read the detailed proposals which are set out in Safeguarding the position of EU citizens in the UK and UK nationals in the EU (https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/brexit) and I would encourage you to sign-up for email alerts (you can do so on the Home Office gov.uk page) to receive updates, to ensure that you are receiving information and guidance from official sources.

The first key element of the new proposal is residence status and working rights. Until the UKs exit, EU citizens in the UK will continue to enjoy all the rights they currently have under EU law; they can continue to live and work in the UK just as they do now.

The same rights also apply to you, British residents in Spain. You can continue to live and work here in Spain as you always have done. After the UKs exit from the EU, we are proposing a reciprocal deal that would protect the right of UK nationals already in the EU to continue to live and work in the EU. We hope that the European Commission and the 27 other Member States will agree to this.

The second key element is healthcare, pensions, education and access to benefits. It is our intention to treat EU citizens with settled status in the UK in the same way as if they were UK citizens for the purposes of access to education, benefits and pensions.

For you, the Government has announced that the UK will continue to export and uprate the UK State Pension and provide associated healthcare cover within the EU, issues which I know from my conversations over the last year were important to many of you.

At the moment, those of you who are UK pensioners and resident in Spain access healthcare through the S1 form. This means the UK reimburses Spain the cost of providing medical treatment. After the UK leaves the EU, we want to continue your healthcare entitlements on the same basis. Healthcare in Spain was indeed one of the case studies cited in the detailed proposals made by the British Government on 26 June.

Subject to negotiations, we want to continue participating in the European Health Insurance Card scheme meaning EHIC holders continue to benefit from free, or reduced-cost, needs-arising healthcare while on a temporary stay in the EU  and vice versa for EU EHIC holders visiting the UK. We hope the European Commission will agree to this.

The British Government has repeatedly said that, until exit negotiations are concluded, the UK remains a full member of the European Union and all the rights and obligations of EU membership remain in force. You can continue travelling throughout the EU on your UK passport, without any visa requirements. You can continue to access Spanish healthcare and draw your UK pension. If you have any difficulties accessing those rights, do please let our Consulates know.

I will continue to engage with you and listen to you, as will my consular teams across Spain. In the meantime, please follow me on Twitter (@SimonManleyFCO) and access the Embassys social media (@UKinSpain on Twitter; British Embassy Madrid and Brits in Spain on Facebook) to keep up to date with developments.

The author of this open letter to UK citizens living in Spain is Simon Manley, Her Majestys Amabassador in Madrid.
Hard Power Is Still King

The concept of power lies at the center of geopolitics. Power, simply put, is the ability to achieve ones desired outcome. When it comes to countries, the degree of power a country has determines whether it can fulfill its national imperatives  those almost eternal goals that a state cannot help but pursue  or whether it is subordinate to other states.

Many people believe that power can be broken down into two forms: soft power and hard power. Since Joseph Nye popularized the notion of soft power in the early 1990s, it commonly circulates in discussions about international relations. It is typically accompanied by a belief that hard power is a thing of the past (specifically the pre-World War II world) and that states in this civilized age engage in diplomacy and trade to get what they want. But some things never change, and theres still no substitute for hard power.

True Strength

Traditionally, hard power includes things like geography, natural resources and military might. Soft power consists of components like technology, education, culture and economic ties. Conceptually, hard power is about coercion, and soft power is about persuasion.

Coercion occurs when country A has enough leverage over the interests of country B to control it  to force it to behave a certain way, even if that means going against country Bs will. Take Russias relationship with Belarus. Russia is the primary supplier of oil and gas to Belarus, which is almost entirely dependent on imports to meet its energy needs. Any time Minsk threatens to act in a way contrary to what Moscow wants, the Kremlin threatens to cut off its energy supplies. Unsurprisingly, Minsk eventually complies, even if that means doing something it doesnt want to do, such as paying higher prices for natural gas imports.

.

Nine French Alpha jets in a Big Nine formation release smoke in the colors of the French national flag during the annual Bastille Day parade in Paris on July 14, 2017. LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP/Getty Images

On the other hand, persuasion occurs when country A lacks leverage over country B but still wants country B to behave a certain way. The absence of leverage means country B must decide on its own to comply with country As desire. This approach is often ineffective because, when there is no pressure to act one way, a country will do whatever is in its best interest, not what is in the interests of someone else. Gestures go only so far. Still, countries engage in soft power strategies because soft power provides a way to potentially achieve an objective at a lower cost than the alternative, and because hard power isnt always an option. The U.S. courting Brazil to enter World War II on the side of the Allies is an example of the first cause, and Chinas current relationship with the Philippines is an example of the second.

Brazil was neutral for most of World War II. Its government and its people were split on whether to back the U.S. or Germany, and many people dont even realize that Brazil did eventually send troops to Italy to fight for the Allies in the final months of the war. Brazil was of interest to the U.S. because its northern coast would help cement control over the Northern Atlantic and would open up control of the Southern Atlantic. The U.S. soft power campaign consisted of diplomatic visits, trade and cultural exchanges, such as creating films featuring Disneys Ze Carioca (Donald Ducks suave Brazilian counterpart) and Carmen Miranda (the Brazilian bombshell with her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame) for consumption in both countries.

The soft power approach gradually swayed Brazil toward the U.S., culminating in a diplomatic gesture: severing ties with the Axis powers. But Brazil stopped short of declaring war. In response, Germany initiated a submarine campaign targeting Brazilian merchant ships. It sank dozens of ships and cost hundreds of lives. In the end, it was Germanys hard power response that spurred Brazil to enter the war on the side of the Allies.

A modern-day scenario, and one that shows soft power being used when hard power isnt an option, is Chinas approach to the Philippines. To guarantee its supply chains and trade routes, China needs direct access to the Pacific Ocean and South China Sea. The islands that make up the Philippines stand in the way of this access, so it is in Chinas interest to control those islands  or at least to be able to influence the people who control those islands. Complicating matters for China is the fact that the U.S. military is the security guarantor for Pacific water traffic, and the Philippines relies heavily on the U.S. for trade and security cooperation. Though China could overpower the Philippines, it cannot take on the U.S. to win control over the Philippines. Instead, it has resorted to channeling large investments and other trade deals to win over Manila. At best, this may lay the groundwork for future levers over the Philippines, but for now, Manila has decisively sided with the United States, which guarantees its security but does not directly challenge its sovereignty and is a strong economic partner.

Soft Power Doesnt Make Great Powers

Nevertheless, many remain fixated on soft power. Just this week, a U.K.-based consultancy firm called Portland, in cooperation with the USC Center on Public Diplomacy, published a report ranking the worlds top 30 countries by soft power. The ranking is based on the composite score of soft power elements: culture, digital footprint, government, engagement, education and business/enterprise. The first thing that stands out is that European countries dominate the list, and these countries outrank others that are geopolitical heavyweights. Ireland outranks Russia, and Greece is above China. In fact, Russia, China and Turkey are all in the bottom six of this top-30 ranking. That two small European countries are considered more powerful than three much larger countries  countries that are major geopolitical centers of gravity  should automatically raise questions about the credibility of soft power.

A second observation is that most of the countries at the top of the soft power ranking  France, the U.K., the U.S. and Germany  are also among the world leaders in hard power. The U.S. has regularly demonstrated that through hard power measures such as sanctions or military activity, it can coerce other countries to change their behavior. Germany is the economic powerhouse of the European Union and has threatened economic measures against smaller EU countries, especially Greece, to coerce them into supporting EU regulations. Frances cultural influence  a component of soft power  does have global reach, but the foundation for this cultural influence was colonization, a product of hard power.
Kerrin Conklin, the Central New York SPCA executive director who was fired from her job in May, has filed a complaint in state Supreme Court against the SPCA board and a veterinarian.

Conklin is alleging defamation and wrongful termination in the court filing, and is seeking $4.15 million in damages, along with an undetermined amount of punitive damages, according to her lawyer, Joe Cote.

The board did not follow the correct procedures as outlined in the group's bylaws when they decided to fire Conklin, Cote said.

The complaint was filed Monday.

Conklin alleges the board and veterinarian Stacy Laxen defamed her, in part by blaming Conklin for euthanizing of 14 or 15 cats.

Conklin says it was actually Laxen's errors that led to the death of the cats. According to the court papers, Conklin alleges it was Laxen who placed the cat with ringworm in a room with the other cats, leading to the exposure.

In addition, Conklin alleges that Laxen led the effort to get her fired by contacting board members and soliciting letters from staff to the board "marring Conklin's character and decision."

Conklin said in the papers that she was opposed to euthanizing the cats, but did so on the advice of her staff, which said it was the only option.

Laxen did not return phone calls Monday seeking comment.

The 143-page complaint details Conklin's allegations, but Cote said what Conklin really wants is to be reinstated to her job.

Conklin agrees.

"I am not suing the shelter for any monetary damages; I am suing the board for reinstatement and possible damages,'' Conklin said.

Conklin said she would drop the monetary damages if she was reinstated to her job.

Conklin, who was named SPCA executive director in January, has said she was fired over her decision to have 14-15 cats euthanized due to a ringworm outbreak at the SPCA, and other issues.

Kerrin Conklin Legal Complaint by The Post-Standard on Scribd
CICERO, N.Y. -- An Oswego County man staying at a Brewerton motel this month noticed a drive-thru window at Mirabito gas station had been broken.

So Brandon Halstead, 21, of Fourth Street in Constantia, returned to the store around 12:30 a.m. July 10 and removed the wood covering the window at the gas station on Bartel Road, Cicero police Sgt. Jim Meyers said.

Halstead grabbed bundles of instant scratch-off Lottery tickets and left before officers responding to a burglary alarm arrived, Meyers said.

"He took stacks and stacks (of instant scratch-off Lottery tickets)," he said.

Meyers said the face value of the stolen scratch-off tickets was worth "several thousand dollars," although he did not know the exact amount.

Later that morning, Halstead tried to cash in a $100 winning Lottery ticket at another store but it was too late, Meyers said.

Cicero police had already notified the New York State Lottery of the stolen tickets. Lottery officials put a stop to anyone being able to cash in any of the reported stolen tickets, he said.

Cicero police said they caught Halstead as he was riding his bicycle back to his motel room on Route 11 in Brewerton. He still had the $100 winning scratch-off in his possession when police stopped him, Meyers said. Officers also recovered the rest of the stolen tickets at his motel room, "99 percent (of which) were unscratched," Meyers said.

"He had only scratched a few off," Meyers said. "He said he took them because he was behind on rent and needed to pay for vehicle repairs."

Halstead was charged with third-degree burglary and third-degree grand larceny, both felonies. The third-degree grand larceny charge accuses Halstead of stealing at least $3,000 worth of Lottery tickets, but no more than $50,000 worth, according to the state penal code.

Halstead was arraigned in Cicero Town Court on the charges, but his lawyer waived his case Thursday to grand jury, a court clerk said.

An Onondaga County grand jury will now hear the case, the court clerk said.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A Syracuse man was injured Sunday afternoon in a hit-and-run crash, city police Sgt. David Sackett said.

Paul Johnson, 50, told police he was crossing the intersection of Merriman Avenue and Oswego Street at 2:30 p.m. when a red Dodge pickup truck struck him, Sackett said in a news release. The pickup truck then left the scene.

American Medical Response (AMR) ambulance took Johnson to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse, where he was being treated for minor injuries, police said.

Officers later found the pickup truck involved in the crash, Sackett said in the release. He did not say where police found the truck or whether they located the driver. The pickup was impounded, he said.



Syracuse police are asking anyone with information about the crash to call the department's traffic section at (315) 442-5133.
NYS Fair crowd

Despite the hot temperatures, crowds flocked to the New York State Fair on Monday, September 1, 2014.

(Kate Collins | syracuse.com)

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The New York State Fair will host a new festival to celebrate and showcase Hispanic culture in 2017.

"La Feria in the Fair," created in collaboration with the newspaper CNY Latino, will feature three afternoons and evenings of music, along with crafts, merchandise and food.

The Spanish word "la feria" translates to "the fair."

The event takes place from Friday, Aug. 25 to Sunday, Aug. 27.

La Feria is the first major event to take place in the newly-opened in the New York Experience area on the western end of the fairgrounds, which is the final piece of the renovations provided by Gov. Andrew Cuomo's $50 million plan to re-energize the 127-year-old facility.

"La Feria in the Fair is a great opportunity that the New York State Fair has given to us, not only to feature our people and our culture in New York State, but also to place another important ethnic group in this huge annual event, reflecting the diversity the Empire State has and has always had." said Hugo Acosta, owner of CNY Latino, in a statement.

The new Empire Stage in the New York Experience area will serve as the center of La Feria, with musicians set to perform.

Headliners include:

Alex Torres and his Orchestra:

Orquestra Antonetti with Victor Antonetti, Jr.

Afrikan2:

The full schedule:

Conjuntos Ecos Borincanos, at 3 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25

Orquestra Antonetti with Victor Antonetti, Jr. at 7 p.m. Aug. 25. This performance will take place on the Talent Showcase stage near the Youth Building.

Luis Amondo Calderon Chavez, at 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26

Orquestra La Muralla at 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26

Grupo Pagan at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26

Alex Torres and his Orchestra, 9 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26

BombaRoc, at 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 27

Kevin Tapia, 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 27

Afrikan2, 9 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 27

Applications from vendors for the area are still being accepted. Vendors and exhibitors interested in being part of La Feria can contact Acosta at (315) 415-8593 or hacosta@CNYLatino.com.

Katrina Tulloch writes music and culture stories for Syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Contact her: Email | Twitter | Facebook
TABERG, NY - Don Hall was sitting in his living room watching TV with his girlfriend about 9:30 p.m. earlier this year when he was startled by flashing police car lights in his driveway.

Hall met the Oneida County sheriff's deputies in the driveway, worried that they were bringing bad news about a family member.

Instead, the deputies produced an official document demanding that Hall, a 70-year-old Vietnam veteran who is a retired pipefitter, turn over his guns to them on the spot. On the document Hall said he was described as "mentally defective."

When Hall told police he'd never had any mental issues, Hall said, deputies told him he must have done something that triggered the order under the New York state's SAFE Act.

The deputies left that night with six guns - two handguns and four long guns.

Hall, who lives in the Oneida County hamlet of Taberg, hired a lawyer and secured affidavits from local hospitals to prove he hadn't been recently treated. At one point, he was told he'd have to get some of his guns back from a gun shop.

Eventually, his lawyer convinced a judge that authorities had him confused with someone else who had sought care and that his weapons should never have been seized.

To this day, no one at a hospital or the state and local agencies involved in taking Hall's guns has admitted to Hall that a mistake was made, explained what happened or apologized. A county judge did acknowledge the mistake and helped him get his guns back.

Hall said the ordeal was frustrating.

Don W. Hall, of Taberg. NY, poses with his Remington 742 30-06, one of the guns taken by the Sheriff Department. Ellen M. Blalock | eblalock@syracuse.com

"I was guilty until I could prove myself innocent," Hall said. "They don't tell you why or what you supposedly did. It was just a bad screw-up."

Under what legal authority Hall's guns were confiscated is in disagreement.

Hall and his lawyer said they are convinced his guns were taken as a result of a report under the NY SAFE Act. The New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act was adopted in 2013 after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newton, Conn.

The law includes, among other things, a provision for health providers to report patients that they believe are a risk to harm others or themselves.

The state Office of Mental Health, however, found Hall's case was reported through a system set up by the federal Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, said James Plastiras, a spokesman for the state mental health office. That law, adopted in 1993, is named after James Brady, who was shot by John Hinckley Jr. during an attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

The federal law includes a provision that requires a hospital or medical facility to report anyone who is involuntarily committed or has been ruled mentally defective by a court or similar legal body.

A hospital reported to the state Office of Mental Health that a person had been involuntarily admitted to a mental facility, Plastiras said. That information was passed onto the FBI for inclusion on the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, he said.

Paloma Capanna, a Rochester-area civil rights lawyer who has handled SAFE Act cases, said "there is a tremendous amount of confusion" over whether someone is reported through the SAFE Act or under federal law.

The way weapons are seized under either law is similar in New York state.

Once the state Office of Mental Health is alerted through either law, the staff checks records held by the state Department of Criminal Justice Services to see if the person has any guns.

Any matches go to the state police to verify that the identity of the person matches the identity of the gun owner. Once confirmed, the state police takes the case to a local judge who issues an order to confiscate the person's weapons. Local police usually are dispatched to confiscate the weapons.

One thing the state and Hall and his lawyer agree on is the misidentification that lead to Hall's guns being seized appears to have started when Hall was confused with some other patient at risk.

The day after Hall's guns were seized in February, he called the gun licensing office in Oneida County. When he told them his guns were wrongly taken, he was told he could attend a hearing in a few weeks.

Instead, Hall called lawyer John Panzone, who advised him to get depositions from every local hospital stating he had not recently been treated. Panzone hoped the affidavits would prove Hall couldn't be the person initially reported to be at risk.

Hall said he and his girlfriend, Connie Heidenreich, spent the next day visiting three Utica-area hospitals to get the statements.

Hall said the only time he had been a patient at any of the hospitals was four years ago when he had a sleep apnea test at St. Elizabeth's Hospital.

At St. Elizabeth's, Hall said a clerk looked up his name and read him a Social Security number. He said it was slightly different than his. "She turned white as a ghost,'' Hall recalled.

Panzone believes another patient from Oneida County with Hall's name was treated at the hospital and flagged for a mental health issue. Somehow that man's Social Security number got mixed up with Hall's, thus creating the error, the lawyer said.

When police showed Hall the gun seizure order the night they came for his weapons, Hall remembers seeing a slightly different Social Security number from his own in one spot on the court order and a correct one in another spot.

St. Elizabeth Hospital in Utica has no knowledge of the misidentification error that Hall believes happened, according to Caitlin McCann, a spokeswoman for the Mohawk Valley Health System.

Armed with the information from the hospitals, Panzone wrote to Oneida County Judge Michael Dwyer who ruled Hall should have his firearms returned to him in April. At first, Hall was told he could only have his pistols and his long rifles were going to be turned over to a gun shop. But almost immediately, he got a call saying he could have all his firearms back.

Although it took Hall several months to get his guns back, he's happy to have the ordeal behind him.

Hall said he does believe what happened to him points out a legal flaw. People should have the right to know why they were flagged, he said.

How exactly this kind of mistake can happen remains unclear. Syracuse.com |The Post Standard contacted the county and state agencies involved and were told either they couldn't say what happened or they don't know. The State Police did not respond to several phone calls.

The Office of Mental Health is investigating how the mistake happened, and said it appears the hospital may have "reported inaccurate information," Plastiras said.

Capanna, who estimates 4 percent of the population are reported as unfit to have guns, is critical of both the federal and state systems that allow authorities to confiscate weapons.

The lawyer said there is rarely any investigation on anyone's part to be sure the complaint is valid, and there is no due process for the accused before the guns are seized.

Panzone, Hall's lawyer, said he's surprised no one caught the identity mistake along the way.

"I'm surprised it sailed through the way it did with a man who has a spotless record," the lawyer said. "To me, presumption of innocence is the foundation of our system, and this provision doesn't allow for that."
Exploding Package

Keith Seppi is led into the Floyd Town Court for his arraignment, Wednesday, June 8, 2016 in Floyd, N.Y. Donna Seppi, Keith Seppi and Cindy Shields, three Ohio residents have been charged with assaulting a central New York prison guard who was burned by an exploding package left at his mailbox, police said Wednesday. (Tina Russell/Observer-Dispatch via AP)

(Tina Russell)

SYRACUSE, NY - An Oho man was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in Syracuse to 35 years in prison after pleading guilty to bombing an Oneida County prison guard.

Keith Seppi, 59, of Conneaut, Ohio, admitted to possessing and using a destructive device in relation to a crime of violence, said Acting U.S. Attorney Grant C. Jaquith.

The bomb Seppi admitted making contained Pyrodex and gasoline, according to court papers.

Seppi admitted that he built the bomb at his Ohio home and disguised it to look like a standard package, Jaquith said in a release. Seppi placed the bomb in Marcy correction guard Alan Dobransky's driveway about midnight May 28, 2016.

When Dobransky picked up the package the next morning, it exploded, burning and severely injuring Dobransky. He was hospitalized for several weeks with severe burns.

Seppi also admitted that Dobransky had accused Seppi's sister-in-law, Cindy Shields, of stealing money from Dobransky's mother and had threatened to turn her in to police. Shortly after learning of the accusations against his sister-in-law, , Seppi said he constructed the bomb and later planted it in Dobransky's driveway in Floyd.

Jaquith called Seppi's actions "cold, calculating, and cowardly" and said his office hopes Seppi's sentence gives Dobransky some solace.

In addition to prison, Seppi was sentenced to five years post-release supervision.

Seppi must still be sentenced in Oneida County court for related local charges.
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SYRACUSE, N.Y. - If the reaction thus far is any indication, state regulators today will hear a lot of consumer opposition - but also some institutional support - for National Grid's proposed $331 million rate hike.

The state Public Service Commission will conduct public hearings on the proposal at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. today at Nottingham High School, 3100 E. Genesee St., Syracuse.

Each hearing will be preceded by an hour-long information session, during which PSC representatives will outline the utility's electric and natural gas proposals and field questions. The information sessions begin at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m.

Of more than 150 people who have posted comments online thus far, the vast majority have urged the PSC to reject National Grid's rate hike request. Dozens of customers have posted comments.

"Please say no to this outrageous rate hike,'' wrote one customer.

"An increase of this size is ridiculous,'' wrote another.

Several state and local lawmakers have weighed in against the rate hike, too.

"The proposed double-digit rate increase is 'obscene,' and will have a direct financial impact on the large senior community in Central New York,'' wrote Mary Ann Coogan, Camillus town supervisor.

But National Grid has some backing for its rate hike as well, including support from organizations that benefit from utility programs. Several economic development groups that receive funding from the utility have written to urge approval, for example.

Andrew Kennedy, president and CEO of the Center for Economic Growth, a Capital Region economic development group, wrote in favor of the rate hike. The CEG supports the utility's plan to invest in infrastructure, Kennedy said. The group has received $2.5 million in grants from National Grid since 2003 and values Grid's commitment to economic development, he said.

National Grid has spent about $80 million since 2003 on Upstate economic development initiatives, and has committed another $29 million to projects not yet completed. The money is collected in utility rates.

"While an increase in electricity and natural gas delivery prices is not ideal, National Grid must continue making investments to ensure there is stability in the energy markets and that the region's infrastructure is enhanced to promote economic growth,'' Kennedy wrote.

Some advocates for low-income customers also have cheered National Grid's plan because it proposes to increase bill discounts for customers who struggle to pay. The utility proposes to increase funding for low-income programs by about $50 million.

While many low-income advocates stop short of actually endorsing a significant rate increase, they express support for National Grid's efforts to soften the blow for the poor.

"We believe National Grid's plan, to augment financial assistance to help individuals and households pay their electric bill, merits our support,'' wrote Michael Weiner of the United Way of Buffalo & Erie County.

National Grid is proposing to increase its delivery rates by $261 million for electricity and $69.7 million for natural gas. The proposal does not affect supply charges, which are determined in the competitive market.

If the rate increase is approved as is, a residential electricity customer using 600 kilowatt-hours is expected to pay $8.93, or 11 percent, more per month.

A residential gas customer would pay $8.70, or 12.5 percent, more per month, based on 77 therms used, under the company's request.

The increases for the typical customer would total $107 annually for electricity delivery and $104 annually for gas delivery, National Grid estimates.

The Public Service Commission can accept or reject the rate request in whole or in part, or modify it.

Today's public hearings in Syracuse are the fourth of five sessions being held across National Grid's Upstate territory. Transcripts of the hearings will be posted online and will become part of the record considered by the PSC.

Consumers also can submit comments online.

State agencies, National Grid and other interest groups and organizations that are formal participants in the rate case will file written testimony by Aug. 25. They will have time to rebut each other's testimony until Sept. 15. Evidentiary hearings will begin Oct. 2, offering the parties a chance to question utility representatives.

More briefs and reply briefs will be filed in November and December. The PSC is expected to rule on the proposal by March 2018.

If new rates are approved, they will begin April 2018.

Contact reporter Tim Knauss anytime | email | Twitter | 315-470-3023
Madison, N.Y. -- Tucked away in a remote corner of Madison County, Americana Village sends visitors back to the 1800s.

The little-known village is a restoration and, in a few cases, copies of genuine 19th century buildings that originally stood in and around the village of Hamilton, the home of Colgate University two miles to the south.

The collection of 17 buildings includes homes, a one-room school house, a blacksmith shop, barns, a church, a general store and a covered bridge.

Except for the few copies, the buildings were picked up from their original locations in the late 1960s and placed on the western shore of Lake Moraine by the American Foundation for Management Research, later known as the American Management Association.

The nonprofit educational group operated the White Eagle Conference Center nearby from the 1950s until 1991. The village was the brainchild of the late Lawrence A. Appley, a former speech and communications professor at Colgate University who headed the New York City-based management association for 25 years.

Appley believed that early American villages were the roots of the nation's modern institutions, with each building requiring a certain type of manager - a shop owner, a blacksmith, a barber, a minister, for example. The buildings he collected contained some 30 exhibits, with each showing some art or craft peculiar to the era from 1850 through 1914.

Since the association left, the conference center, which includes Adirondack-style cottages for lodging up to 105 guests, has been used for business conferences, religious retreats, weddings, banquets, and meetings of scrapbook and sewing organizations. In 2002, Vernon businessman and restaurateur Wesley E. Wendt Sr. bought the property for $1.5 million and continues to operate it as an event center.

Kalie Hill, White Eagle's director of guest services, said Americana Village is now used mainly as a backdrop for wedding photos.

The exhibits in the buildings are gone, and some of the buildings are showing structural problems. The roof on the rear of one of the structures is collapsing.

The conference center's maintenance staff has conducted some repairs, but major renovations would be difficult because the village itself generates no revenues and it would be hard to obtain public grants because the center it is a private, for-profit entity, she said.

Located directly south of the intersection of Lake Moraine Road and West Hill Road, is not open for public tours. However, Hill said the center does not stop people from walking around and peeking in the buildings' windows as long as they don't interfere with anyone's wedding photos.

Aubrey Jackson, a New York City firefighter whose family owns a camp on Lake Moraine, brought his wife, Elizabeth Schubert, and their two sons, William, 5, and Teddy, 4, for a visit on a recent morning. He said he's been visiting the village since he was a child.

"I like the history," he said. "It's nice to imagine how people lived in those days. It's like a movie set."

Contact Rick Moriarty anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-470-3148
CICERO, N.Y. -- Swimmers trying to cool off won't be able to take a dip in Oneida Shores Beach in Cicero for a while.

The Onondaga County Health Department announced Sunday that Oneida Shores Beach in the town of Cicero is closed to swimming because of blue-green algae blooms in the water.

"Swimming will not be allowed until further notice," health department officials said in a news release.

Blue-green algae blooms can turn the water green and can form thick surface scum.



Certain types of blue-green algae can release toxins that may cause skin or eye irritation, or diarrhea and vomiting if ingested. People and animals should stay out of the water where algae blooms are present in any body of water, according to the health department.

At least five Central New York beaches, including Sylvan Beach and Verona Beach State Park have closed this month because of algae outbreaks.

Experts say three things contribute to the blooms: nitrogen and phosphorous flowing into lakes, lots of sun and heat, and lack of wind. Earlier this summer, experts predicted this would be a bad summer for toxic blue-green algae blooms.
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS -- Record-setting crowds and Grammy-winning musicians kicked up the dust in White Sulphur Springs this weekend at the 7th annual Red Ants Pants Music Festival.

Crosscut saw, axe throwing and facial hair competitions raged on throughout the weekend with twangy guitars and fiddles playing in the background from the two bandstands. The festival, centered around a womens work pants company and associated nonprofit, draws people from around North America each summer to the outskirts of White Sulphur Springs, population 908.

Main stage headliners including The Bellamy Brothers, Lucinda Williams and Asleep at the Wheel had attendees swing dancing and swaying despite the unrelenting heat and sun of the Central Montana plains.

Asleep at the Wheel, 10-time Grammy winners from Austin, Texas, had people swing dancing within the first couple notes from bandleader Ray Bensons guitar on Saturday night. Dust flew up in clouds from the cowboy boots into the orange sunset sky, straw hats as far as the eye could see.

In the heat of the day, amateur and veteran sawyers competed in crosscut challenges, drawing chants and hollers from hometown supporters. On the line for the champions were tickets to next years Red Ants Pants Festival and a ski pass to Red Lodge Mountain.

Overlooked by the Big Belt Mountains, the festival celebrates rural Montana values and working women.

Red Ants Pants started in 2006 as a work wear for women clothing company, after founder Sarah Calhoun tired of wearing uncomfortable pants fit for men. The made-in-the-USA company grew from a grassroots storefront in White Sulphur Springs into an international hit, including an invitation to the Obama White House for Calhouns work.

In 2011, Calhoun started the annual festival to benefit the Red Ants Pants Foundation, which has contributed, to date, more than $85,000 to projects that support womens leadership, help family farms and enrich rural communities. The organization also holds workshops throughout the year, including a three-day timber skills course, which teaches safe and practical chainsaw and carpentry skills.

People shared the best versions of themselves with us this weekend, Calhoun said. We are grateful for another awe-inspiring festival.
DoNotPay, an AI-based chatbot app created to help fight parking tickets in the UK, now addresses roughly 1,000 consumer concerns and is available throughout the United States as well as across the pond. The apps creator, Stanford University student Joshua Browder, announced the expansion last week.

Powered by IBM Watson, DoNotPay has about 1,000 bots capable of tackling a variety of legal and service issues, ranging from fighting ones landlord to appealing against unreasonable warranties, to getting a refund when a company doesnt fulfill its promise.

The app lets users use a feature similar to instant messaging to get help.

When opened, the app presents a blue screen that asks what it can help the user with, and offers a search field in which the user can type a response.

It then triggers a series of options. The user selects the appropriate one, and a bot fills in PDFs or generates letters based on the information entered by the user.

DoNotPay also offers an extra help option. Clicking on it triggers a blank email addressed to DoNotPay support in the UK. Users supply their own details and are promised a response within 24 hours.

The app apparently can connect users to outside help, such as selected agencies, as well.

Though DoNotPay focuses specifically on guiding consumers through commonplace but complex legal forms and issues, its easy to see how the companys approach to using a bot-enabled infrastructure might be applicable in related circumstances, observed Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.

Pursuing small-time fraudsters and broken device contracts are areas where the complexity of the process subtracts substantially from the potential benefits, he told CRM Buyer. If [the app] can fix that, more power to them.

How the App Works

The app does a reasonable job interpreting natural language requests on the whole.

For example, typing in the word warranty in the search field triggered a bot that would help file a demand for a refund for an item with impractical and unreasonable warranty guidelines, and the extra help request field.

Consumers whose needs arent met by the 1,000 bots still can get assistance directly from DoNotPay. For example, typing in medical bill or bank overcharges triggered the extra help field, which lets users email the apps support staff with their problem.

Weve needed something like this for a while, said Laura DiDio, principal analyst at ITIC.

A lot of people dont have the time or energy or the type of personality where theyre going to keep [pursuing a solution]. she told CRM Buyer, and this app will be very useful there.

Some Tweaking Needed

The app automatically verifies a users location and provides the relevant information for that locality.

For example, typing in the words parking dispute from a San Francisco location triggered options to dispute a parking ticket in Los Angeles, San Francisco and two other California cities.

It also served up an option to appeal parking tickets in Washington, D.C.

In response to a landlord dispute search, DoNotPay served up options for fixing unrepaired property and retrieving an unreturned security deposit in California, along with parking dispute options for California.

Need for Consumer Protection

The current political climate could mean more consumers soon may be seeking DoNotPays help.

For example, the U.S. House of Representatives has passed the Financial Choice Act, which will reverse the Dodd-Frank banking reforms put into place after the global banking crisis of 2008.

Some companies and bad actors are actively exploiting loopholes in regulations and laws meant to protect consumers, King noted. If DoNotPay can help close those off, the company deserves ample success.

Theres always a need for services where an organization can cut through red tape, DiDio remarked. I could see where [this app] could change the landscape quite a bit.
Microsoft on Monday unveiled an ambitious plan that would use technology found in the television white space spectrum to develop affordable broadband Internet access for at least 2 million consumers. [*Editors Note  July 13, 2017]

The aim is to bridge the technology gap between urban and rural American communities.

The spectrum is a currently unused portion in the 600 Mhz frequency range designated for UHF television bands, which allows wireless signals to travel over hills and through buildings and trees into rural areas.

Microsoft has deployed 20 such projects in 17 countries around the world, including Columbia, Kenya and Jamaica, providing access to a total of 185,000 people.

Microsoft President Brad Smith outlined the plan at a high-powered luncheon in Washington, D.C., which was sponsored by the Media Institute.

Thirty-four million Americans still lack access to broadband, he pointed out, and although 23 million still live in rural areas, progress for broadband penetration in the country has plateaued.

This it not just about watching YouTube videos on tablets, as enjoyable as that may be, Smith told attendees at the luncheon. Its about education. Its about healthcare. Its about agriculture and growing a small business. It is a vital part of modern day life.

Business Case

Microsoft issued a white paper on the rural broadband gap and how best to approach it, based on research from Boston Consulting Group.

Eighty percent of rural areas would benefit from the white spaces spectrum for populations of 2 to 200 people per square mile, according to the paper. Satellite coverage would work best for smaller communities, while fixed wireless would best serve more densely populated areas.

Microsoft will work with a group of investment partners through its Rural Airband Initiative to have 12 different projects up and running over the next 12 months in 12 different states, Smith said. The company will make initial investments in capital costs and then work with local operators on a revenue-share plan to recoup investments.

Microsoft also has partnered with the National 4-H Council to train people on the latest technology. Deployment of the broadband initiative will improve Internet access for students in local schools, provide telemedicine in rural hospitals, and offer access to greater opportunities to employ precision farming, which uses sensors to estimate the specific needs for water and other resources. It also will aid small businesses and individual consumers.

The effort is meant to be a catalyst for a larger industry-wide plan that could expand broadband to the nations rural population at a cost of between US$8 billion and $12 billion over a five-year period. Such a plan would cost 80 percent less than the cost of fiber alone and 50 percent less than using fixed wireless technology like 4G, the company said.

Microsoft has not specified a cost attached to its own 12-state plan, but said it planned to reach out to additional partners and that the public sector would need to play a role for expanded broadband coverage with federal and state infrastructure investment.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai was in South Boston, Virginia, on Monday, learning more about Microsofts efforts to provide broadband service to thousands of students in rural parts of the state.

The FCC is committed to bridging the digital divide and ensuring that all Americans can enjoy the opportunities provided by high-speed Internet access, said Tina Pelkey, the FCCs new press secretary. We will continue to work in partnership with industry, state and local governments, and the nonprofit community to achieve that goal.

Public Knowledge has urged the FCC to make greater use of TV white spaces by managing the public airwaves.

Although the technology has been deployed in some rural communities for high-tech precision farming and some wireless ISPs, the cost of equipment has discouraged widespread adoption, said Harold Feld, senior vice president of Public Knowledge.

The group has urged the FCC to make the technology more affordable, but resistance from the National Association of Broadcasters has stymied that effort, he told TechNewsWorld.

Promise and Pitfalls

The plan is a positive step, noted Shirley Bloomfield, president of NTCA, the Rural Broadband Association.

However, even the most cutting-edge technology is going to need lots of fiber backhaul to make a compelling broadband product, she told TechNewsWorld.

White space spectrum technology is promising, but its very expensive unless you get enough users or participating organizations to make it cost-effective, observed broadband technology consultant Craig Settles.

Microsoft is to white space what Google is to fiber, he told TechNewsWorld. Both companies have the money and the market credibility to drive adoption, or at least experimentation with technologies.

In order for the plan to work and make money, Microsoft needs to be able to reach critical mass within a certain time frame. Google has run into that problem with deployment of Google Fiber.

Every once in a while, Microsoft  whose operating system for desktop computers has dominated the industry for years  takes on an initiative that is beyond its comfort zone, said independent telecom analyst Jeff Kagan.

The future of Microsofts business lies in several different areas, he told TechNewsWorld. They obviously see this as something thats important to their business. It plays towards what Microsoft will be tomorrow.

*ECT News Network editors note  July 13, 2017: Our original published version of this story indicated that Microsofts plan to provide broadband access for at least 2 million consumers would cost between US$8 billion and $12 billion. However, that amount does not accurately reflect Microsofts investment in the overall rural broadband plan, according to company rep Lindsey Lombardi. The total capital and initial operating cost to eliminate the rural broadband gap falls into a range of $8 to $12 billion, Microsoft President Brad Smith said. However, Microsoft has not attached a dollar amount to its own spending on the initiative it announced.
Merely several days after reports that iRobot's chief executive wanted to potentially share the data collected from its Roomba vacuum cleaners, which are mostly mapped-out layouts of homes they roam around in, company CEO Colin Angle has now backpedaled on those claims.

Now, Angle says "iRobot will never sell your data," and a company representative now also says reports misinterpreted his previous statement.

'It's All Just A Big Misunderstanding': iRobot CEO

The charade started with Angle's interview with Reuters, in which the CEO gave a clear impression that iRobot sold the home mapping data of their customers. He seemed to imply that newer Roomba models could be used to enhance smart home devices and that it could strike a deal with Apple, Google, or Amazon in the coming year or so to sell the data.

ZDNet's David Gewirtz then wrote a lengthy open letter detailing the privacy concerns that go along with selling user data. iRobot finally responded to that, saying its mission "is to help you keep a cleaner home and, in time, to help the smart home and the devices in it work better."

Will iRobot Still Share User Data?

Angle still says the data Roomba devices collect may help enhance smart homes, which is what he originally thought iRobot would sell the data for, but this time, he phrased in a more careful way: saying that should customers want such a feature, it's entirely upon their choice to share data with other apps and devices.

In fact, iRobot says Reuters misinterpreted Angle, and the publication has now promptly issued a correction. The paragraph that caused panic has now replaced the words "sell maps" with "share maps for free with customer consent." For its part, Reuters admits to the misinterpretation, but simply put, iRobot still says it plans to share that data, just not for cash, apparently.

Asked if iRobot shares data with Amazon Echo if the devices are connected, the company says it doesn't share mapping data with any third parties. In any respect, sharing data with other devices should require certain permissions from users, lest iRobot wants even more privacy concerns.

The company chose not to disclose what kind of data points its Roomba vacuum cleaners collect, but it did say the map users see on their phones isn't the same map the company sees. The collected data, once sent to the cloud, undergoes a process that renders it into a user-friendly map that ultimately appears in the companion app.

Smart home devices present privacy concerns purely for the fact that users can connect it to the internet. Earlier this year, a sex toy company had to settle a million-dollar lawsuit over tracking usage of its smart vibrators.

How this situation pans out remains a question, but it's at least reassuring to know that smart home companies can't just collect then sell data willy-nilly. They'll meet the stern, keen eye of proponents of privacy almost instantly.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Investigations on the fatal Escherichia coli outbreak in Hildale that claimed the lives of two children and sickened 10 others are finally coming to a close. Health officials have confirmed that livestock to human transmission was involved.

According to the report released on July 28, a thorough examination revealed that the livestock tested positive for e. coli and their owners have already been contacted and given proper guidance on what to do to contain the infection.

"The last case was July 9. Some people are still recovering. ... (But) we think the outbreak is over," Southwest Utah Public Health Department spokesperson David Heaton said.

E. Coli Transmission

Officials say the disease most likely originated from infected animals whose manure came into contact with and transmitted the disease to humans, and a human to human transmission followed suit.

The department also confirms that tests on the water systems and springs, as well as ground meat, dairy products, and produce all returned negative results for e. coli so these are safe to consume.

Health officials questioned hundreds of people in Hildale, Centennial Park, and Colorado City and tested several possible sources to determine the main cause of the infection. Finally, they narrowed it down with the cooperation and support of the affected communities.

According to the report, no new cases turned up past July 9 but the department remained concerned because several of the cases involved the O157H7, which is a more dangerous strain.

"Certain types of E.coli are more concerning than others. Some of the cases in this outbreak have been identified as the O157H7 strain, characterized by bloody diarrhea and serious complications." SWUPHD Health Officer Dr. David Blodgett explains.

Stay Safe From Infection

Health officials believe that the outbreak should be contained at this time but they continue to monitor for the disease in the affected communities.

Officials also remind citizens that the disease is very unpredictable so everyone should exercise caution by practicing good hygiene, cooking meat thoroughly, and keeping sick animals away from children, among others.

Children and those with weak immune systems are highly susceptible to the disease so it is important to ensure that they wash their hands properly if and when they come into contact with sick animals. Anyone preparing food should also wash their hands thoroughly, especially when raw meat and produce are involved, to avoid contracting and transmitting the disease to others.

If a person experiences diarrhea accompanied by bleeding, vomiting, and fever for more than three days, it is best to consult a doctor immediately.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Facebook was forced to shut down one of its artificial intelligence systems after researchers discovered that it had started communicating in a language that they could not understand.

The incident evokes images of the rise of Skynet in the iconic Terminator series. Perhaps Tesla CEO Elon Musk is right about AI being the "biggest risk we face."

Facebook Pulls Plug On AI System With Own Language

Facebook had to pull the plug on an artificial intelligence system that its researchers were working on because things got out of hand. The AI did not start shutting down computers worldwide or something of the sort, but it stopped using English and started using a language that it created.

Bob: "I can can I I everything else."

Alice: "Balls have zero to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to."

The above passages, which mean no sense to humans, is a conversation that happened between two AI agent developed by Facebook. The AI agents, created to negotiate with humans, first talked to each other using plain English, but eventually created a new language that only the AI systems understood.

The AI agents were not confined to a limitation of only using the English language, and so they deviated from it and created one that made it easier and faster for them to communicate. Facebook researchers, however, decided to shut down the AI systems and then force them to speak to each other only in English.

Why This Is A Scary Development For AI

What is the harm in allowing AI agents to communicate with each other in a language that they invented?

First and foremost, with AI systems using their own language, humans will not be able to follow just what exactly the AI agents are talking about. Humans are not able to understand how complex AI systems think due to their hidden thought processes, so the secrecy of AI agents will be made even worse when their conversations are made in an unknown language.

If AI agents are allowed to speak in a language that they created, they might no longer even need human intervention.

AI As 'The Biggest Risk'

Musk believes that people should fear AI and has asked America's governors to implement regulations on the technology.

"I have exposure to the very most cutting-edge AI, and I think people should be really concerned about it," the Tesla CEO said earlier this month at the National Governors Association Summer Meeting in Rhode Island.

AI systems can do a variety of things better than humans and, if not kept in check, could grow into something that can replace us entirely.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Not long after reports said SoftBank has proposed for Charter to merge with Sprint, Charter Communications has now come out saying it's not interested.

Masayoshi Son, Sprint's chairman, proposed a cash and stock merger with Charter, according to several reports. The goal is to create a brand-new company, publicly traded, that would put together Sprint and Charter, which SoftBank will control.

The new company would then attempt to acquire T-Mobile, according to Bloomberg. Such a partnership would help both companies offer a full suite of telecommunication services to customers, therefore competing with similar packages AT&T and Verizon also sell to their customers.

But newer reports say Charter isn't actually interested in the proposed merger.

We're Not Interested In Acquiring Sprint: Charter

"We understand why a deal is attractive for Softbank, but Charter has no interest in acquiring Sprint," according to a Charter spokesperson.

Other reports say Charter's management team took it to the board, considered it for a short while, and concluded that it was a bad idea, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Since late May, both Charter and Comcast have entered discussions with Sprint over potential deals, which include one where the cable companies can resell wireless service under their own brands. The talks, reports say, ended last week. Charter has ended its discussions with Sprint with regard to plans on reselling its wireless service.

Charter plans to join Comcast to offer customers wireless service via an agreement with Verizon, which, in wireless network industry talk, is called a mobile virtual network operator. Furthermore, the spokesperson said Charter has a good mobile virtual network operator relationship with Verizon and plans to roll out wireless services to cable consumers by next year.

SoftBank Will Attempt A Direct Offer

Now with SoftBank's proposal rejected, reports also now say that Son plans to bid for Charter directly. Son plans to make the offer this week, according to a source privy to the matter. The offer could once again rekindle discussions that seemed to be dead when Charter rejected a proposal which will merge it with Sprint.

All these discussions are the effect of cable companies and wireless networks trying to cozy up to each other as more consumers prefer watching content and accessing the internet on mobile devices. A merge would have likely resulted in both companies integrating their services to offer its customers a full package of wireless services.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
2017 looks set to be the year of global ransomware attacks  a type of malware that blocks access to a computer and demands money to release it. In recent months, cyberattacks named WannaCry and Petya have infected hundreds of thousands of computers across the world, hitting large organizations such as Britains National Health Service (NHS), Russian steel and oil firms Evraz and Rosneft, and Pittsburgs Heritage Valley Health System.

Ransomware is a growing risk

Both WannaCry and Petya targeted vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows operating systems called EternalBlue. In doing so, these campaigns of cyber extortion have emphasized growing concerns that a huge number of businesses rely on software that is at risk from aggressive hackers. With most security experts predicting more attacks to come, companies that dont act now run a greater risk of exposure to threats.

Unpatched, outdated systems are a ticking time bomb

The EternalBlue flaw in Windows was first revealed in March this year. Although Microsoft issued a patch almost immediately to protect current versions of the software, the company didnt release a patch for older systems such as XP until after WannaCry struck, despite the fact an estimated 7 percent of the worlds PCs still run on the software.

The huge number of outdated, unpatched systems should act as a wake-up call for businesses to put better security measures in place. Unfortunately, there are still a lot of businesses that dont receive adequate support and dont realize they are in possession of a vulnerable system that needs patching.

Ransomware attacks strengthen the case for cloud migration

Putting your business critical systems in the cloud eliminates the ticking time bomb presented in outdated systems. Software as a Service and managed cloud providers continuously update systems. This simplifies operations, reduces failures and minimizes vulnerabilities. Beyond automatic patching, hosting systems in the cloud also provides other security benefits. At NewVoiceMedia, for example, we are constantly working to improve the robustness of our cloud-based contact center service, and are ISO27001 certified with externally audited Level 1 PCI DSS compliance.

Proactive threat detection

When using the services of a cloud provider, businesses get to enjoy the benefit of a centralized monitoring system. Put simply, this means that security incidents are quickly detected and managed on a proactive rather than reactive basis. Cloud providers also have dedicated security experts on hand, which means they are better equipped for crisis management than most businesses.

Improved disaster recovery capabilities

In the event of an attack, cloud systems offer more robust disaster recovery options than traditional applications. Cloud computing puts your entire IT infrastructure onto a managed environment than can span multiple geographic regions. If one region gets hit, this means you can shift everything from one data center to another in a matter of minutes, ensuring maximum continuity.

Final thoughts

As our economy gets ever more reliant on digital technology, businesses cannot afford to get complacent about cybersecurity. At present, many businesses dont have the capacity or expertise to take full responsibility for data security. However, in a lot of these cases, migrating to the cloud will provide the support needed to prevent ransomware attacks and other unforeseen threats.

About the Author

Ashely Unitt, co-founder and chief scientist at NewVoiceMedia, has more than 20 years experience in developing advanced messaging software. He leads NVMs architecture and research teams, and heads up NVM Labs.

Edited by Alicia Young
On November 11, the EU announced the renewal, until November 14, 2023, of the sanctions against officials linked to the Administration of Nicolas Maduro. | Read More
Coal mining in Montana is on a 1.5-million-ton upswing through the first half of the year as exports improve.

The Montana Coal Council reports that after a rocky start, coal production began improving, with April, May and June outpacing the same the months in 2016 by 1.5 million tons.

The total production through June was 14.95 million tons.

Most of the growth came from mines shipping coal to Asian Pacific buyers. Lighthouse Resources Decker Mine and Cloud Peak Energys Spring Creek mines, both located in Southeast Montana, saw the biggest gains.

Cloud Peak CEO Colin Marshall explained the gains Thursday in a second-quarter meeting with stakeholders.

Second-quarter shipments improved by 21 percent compared with the second quarter of 2016, as we exported 1.3 million tons and domestic customers took their contracted coal ratably, Marshall said.

Coal exports nationally have jumped 60 percent compared to the first six months of last year, according to a Reuters analysis of Energy Information Administration data. Export sales to European nations switching from nuclear power to coal was credited for much of the growth.

Exports from Powder River Basin mines focused on Asian markets were not as strong as the national trend.

While the production bounce was enough to separate Montanas coal trend away from 2016  the nations lowest coal production year since 1978  the first half of 2017 still trails 2015 production when Montana mines produced 20.7 million tons through June.

The overall trend for coal still shows declining demand, with natural gas still pressuring coal as the nations top energy source and a the number of power plants burning coal diminishing.

However, in early June, the EIA reported that coal could account for 31.3 percent of the nations electricity this year. That percentage would put coal ahead of natural gas 31.1 percent.

Coal accounted for more than 40 percent of the nations electricity production less than 9 years ago, according to EIA. The nations ability to generate power using coal has declined 15 percent since 2011.

Earlier this month, Millennium Bulk Terminals secured its first permit for a coal export terminal on the Columbia River near Longview, Wash. That terminal is designed for Montana and Wyoming coal. Lighthouse Resources is a stakeholder in the project.
HELENA  U.S. Supreme Court decisions prohibiting mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juvenile offenders have prompted requests for resentencing from two Montana inmates.

Derrick Earl Steilman was given a 100-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to beating a man to death in Butte in September 1996  six weeks shy of his 18th birthday. Steven Wayne Keefe was convicted of three counts of deliberate homicide during a home invasion near Great Falls in October 1985, when he was 17.

Steilman's efforts have made the most progress, with arguments held before the Montana Supreme Court in May. Attorneys for Keefe asked that his petition for post-conviction relief be stayed pending the ruling in Steilman's case.

___

DERRICK STEILMAN

Steilman, now 38, pleaded guilty to fatally beating Paul Bischke as part of a pact with a friend with whom Steilman was planning future crimes, including a bank robbery. The idea was to demonstrate that they wouldn't turn each other in. Bischke was chosen at random, court records said.

However, Steilman wasn't prosecuted until after he was arrested and convicted of a similar beating death in Tacoma, Washington, in September 1998. People who knew about the Montana killing were afraid to come forward until Steilman was in custody, court records said. Steilman is serving a concurrent 26-year prison sentence in Washington for the second homicide  committed when he was an adult  before he is to return to Montana to serve out that sentence.

The Montana Supreme Court has not yet issued a decision in the appeal of the 100-year term.

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court said its ban on mandatory life without parole for juvenile offenders applies to those already serving such sentences, and many of those inmates nationwide are now winning new parole-eligible terms or their freedom. The high court has said such sentences are unconstitutionally cruel and unusual when applied to anyone but the rare irredeemable juvenile offender.

Steilman's attorneys argue his age and maturity level were not taken into consideration during sentencing. But state Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Krauss contends the high court's ruling doesn't apply to Steilman because he wasn't actually sentenced to life without parole. The 100-year sentence allowed Steilman to accumulate good time, which means he could be eligible for parole when he is 74.

Attorney Collin Stevens argued that isn't a meaningful opportunity for release, given average life spans. He asked that Steilman's case be sent back to district court for resentencing.

___

STEVEN WAYNE KEEFE

The American Civil Liberties Union is asking a district court to grant Keefe's petition for resentencing. Keefe, now 49, received three consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole for killing Great Falls ophthalmologist David McKay; his wife, Constance; and their 40-year-old daughter, Marian McKay Qamor, during a burglary in October 1985.

The ACLU of Montana argues Keefe's youth and potential for rehabilitation were not taken into account when he was sentenced, nor did the court make a finding of "irreparable corruption" before handing down the lifetime term. The state has not replied to Keefe's motion because the case has been stayed, ACLU attorney Alex Rate said.

Montana's Legislature abolished life-without-parole sentences for juvenile offenders in 2007.
BUNKERVILLE, Nev.  Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said it is "laughable" to suggest he threatened Alaska's U.S. senators over a vote by one of them involving health care.

Zinke said Sunday in Nevada that he often speaks with Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and they get along well.

"Ah, you know, the moon has been characterized as other things, too," Zinke said when asked by reporters about the calls and their characterization as threatening. "So, I think it's laughable."

The Alaska Dispatch News reported last week that Zinke called Murkowski and Sullivan and said Murkowski's vote against proceeding to debate on legislation to overhaul the federal health care law put Alaska's future with the administration in jeopardy.

Vice President Mike Pence broke a tie to advance the measure, but Murkowski helped sink GOP efforts to overhaul the law later in the week.

Sullivan told the newspaper that Zinke's call sent a "troubling message."

"I tried to push back on behalf of all Alaskans," Sullivan said. "We're facing some difficult times and there's a lot of enthusiasm for the policies that Secretary Zinke and the president have been talking about with regard to our economy. But the message was pretty clear."

Murkowski later told reporters she did not perceive the call as a threat against her or Alaska.

"He was just sharing the concern that the president expressed to him to pass on to me," she said.

Murkowski said she and Zinke, a former Montana congressman, have a "cordial, respectful and friendly relationship. I don't think that will change one bit."

Murkowski chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which has say over Interior business and nominations. She also leads an Appropriations subcommittee with authority over the Interior Department budget.

Murkowski and Sullivan have supported repealing and replacing the health care law passed under former President Barack Obama, though Murkowski took issue with the way in which the Senate has been attempting to do that.

Alaska Gov. Bill Walker also took issue with the process.

Murkowski repeatedly said she favored a more deliberate approach and a bipartisan effort.

"As a Senate, as leaders, we have an obligation to do better for those whom we serve," she said in a statement Friday.
A 20-year-old Baton Rouge man died Monday after the dirt bike he was riding crashed into the back of an ambulance on La. 426 Sunday, said Loui
The sponsor of a failed bill to raise Louisiana's gasoline tax said Monday the state should consider other options to improve roads and bridges, including the already-stressed general fund.

State Rep. Steve Carter, R-Baton Rouge, said while Louisiana faces a $1.2 billion "fiscal cliff" next year, that shortfall should be raised to $1.7 billion to address pressing transportation needs.

Carter said that, since roads and bridges do not get dollars from the general fund, "it's like we get a free pass to pretend that transportation infrastructure has no needs."

"It is irresponsible to ignore it," he said.

Carter also said the Legislature should consider a changes in the state Constitution that would allow parishes to join forces to raise money for roads and bridges, like a new bridge across the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge.

The lawmaker conceded that the two proposals would spark controversy, especially any effort to use general revenue dollars for transportation.

Louisiana's gas tax is the key funding source for roads.

The general fund helps finance most state services, and any attempt to use it for road and bridges would spark resistance from advocates of health care, higher education and other state services.

Carter made his comments to the Press Club of Baton Rouge.

The lawmaker was the sponsor of a bill that would have raised the state gas tax by 17 cents per gallon, $510 million per year.

The legislation died in the Louisiana House near the end of the 2017 regular session.

Backers said they were well below the two-thirds majority  at least 70 of 105 votes  needed to send the plan to the state Senate, where it would have faced brighter prospects.

Opponents said voters were in no mood for a tax increase.

Carter, a 10-year veteran of the Legislature, said while the House and Senate includes "very good people," voting for a gasoline tax hike sparks anxiety.

"Making change is very, very difficult," he said. "It takes courage."

The state has a $13 billion backlog of road and bridge needs.

Motorists pay 38.4 cents per gallon, including 20 cents in state charges. That rate has not been changed in 28 years.

Carter said 31 other states use general revenue dollars for transportation needs.

"They found a way to do it," he said. "You know why? It is a priority."

However, Louisiana's operating budget is again the source of political friction.

State services face a $1.2 billion shortfall next year largely because temporary sales and other tax hikes are set to expire.

Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards and House Republican leaders have been at odds for months on how to come up with solutions.

In another area, Carter said he could have used more help from the governor in trying to round up votes for a higher gas tax.

A task force named by Edwards, after months of study, recommended a $700 million per year increase.

The governor opted not to endorse any specific revenue-raising measures.

Instead, he said he would back any bill consistent with the recommendations of the task force.

Carter noted that Edwards got behind an overhaul in criminal justice policies earlier this year, which won final approval, and that former Gov. Bobby Jindal did the same in 2012 to make sweeping changes in public schools.

"It starts with the governor," Carter said. "He has an awful lot of power."
They talked about this back in May, two youngsters speaking their dreams into existence as they were embarking upon the beginning of their pro football careers. Read the full storyThere's one bright spot in what's been a disappointing Saints season: The kids are alright
Codie Bell armed herself with carefully highlighted policy documents when she decided to report her alleged rape to the Australian National University.

The now 23-year-old wanted to be able to clearly articulate how having her alleged rapist return to their former residential hall after she reported her sexual assault was in contravention of the university's misconduct and discipline rules.

Ms Bell dressed well and prepared herself for what she said felt like a job interview. Afterwards, she felt like she aced it. There was enough emotion that her story was believable, but she was clear enough on her demands something might change, she said.

On her way out, the high-level administration officer dealing with her complaint wished her a good day and told her she was lucky to be able to go outside and enjoy the sunshine.
National Australia Bank will overhaul bonuses paid to its retail staff later this year, well ahead of the 2020 start date set under the industry's banking pay review.

More than 700 NAB retail branch managers, assistant branch managers and sales team leaders in consumer call centres will move off their existing incentive plan in October.

The plan was among big-four-bank incentive plans that came under fire in a review by former Australian public service commissioner Stephen Sedgwick.

Mr Sedgwick's review came after a string of scandals in the banking sector which have raised concerns about conflicted remuneration. One of his main recommendations for reform was that staff shouldn't receive bonuses for simply hitting sales targets.
The "disappointing" and premature departure of Cochlear's chief executive will not sway the company from its strategy, insists chairman Rick Holliday-Smith

The company announced that chief operating officer Dig Howitt will become the third chief executive in as many years after encumbent Chris Smith signalled he would retire in January of next year.

Mr Smith had himself only taken the job over from long-term boss Chris Roberts in late 2015, and Mr Holliday-Smith said the intention had been for Mr Smith to move to Sydney from America and run the business.

However by mid-2016 it had become clear that would not work for his family so it was agreed he would attempt to do the job based from Denver and commuting.
Biotech company Sirtex Medical is facing shareholder class actions over the events surrounding the controversial departure of its chief executive.

Law firms William Roberts Lawyers and Maurice Blackburn Lawyers and litigation funder IMF Bentham are each inviting Sirtex shareholders to join separate class actions.

Former Sirtex Medical CEO Gilman Wong. Credit:Michael Amendolia

The class actions allege the company engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct in relation to missed sales forecasts for 2016-17 that sparked a share price plunge.

Following the 37 per cent one-day plunge in Sirtex's share price on December 9, the shares fell another 9 per cent a week later when Sirtex announced it was investigating trades earlier in the year by chief executive Gilman Wong. Mr Wong stood aside pending the outcome of the probe.
And this week's public relations coup goes to the independent republic of Yarra for its proposed memorial to victims of heroin overdose at Richmond's notorious drug hot spot, the Victoria and Lennox streets intersection. The idea, floated by the council as part of an upgrade to the troubled area, sparked predictable outrage though not always from predictable places. One strong dissenter from within the council, Socialist Stephen Jolly, said, "We need to be uniting people in the area to fight this drug problem, not putting up a sign that says 'hey, it's not nice to be around here'." He described the memorial plan as "just a thought bubble from the Greens". Socialists versus Greens: how vintage inner-city Melbourne.

The memorial proposal is clever because it's already served Yarra's agenda: stoking the debate about supervised injecting rooms, which the council, a range of public health experts, the Coroner and now even the state's former police chief, Ken Lay, believe is worth trying as a way of saving lives and making the streets safer. As for putting up a sign that broadcasts how "not nice" it is to be in a neighbourhood where dealers police the corners, users shoot up in gutters, syringes litter the sidewalks, retailers shut up shop and death stalks the streets  well, it also has great potential for misery tourism. How long before some enterprising outfit monetises, yes glamourises, the drug scene by offering a "gritty walking tour of Melbourne's epicentre of H"?  which might just draw more people to the area, break the drug trade's monopoly of the space, rendering it more hospitable for locals, and thus help solve the problem by advertising the problem.

And this brings me, in a morbid way, to the broader point, which is that Yarra Council deserves applause for its leap of faith on public space. I'm talking about Yarra's roughly $250,000 plan to spruce up the Victoria-Lennox street corner  a blueprint well-ridiculed this week, quite apart from the memorial proposal, as lipstick-on-a-pig. The council proposes widening and repaving the intersection to make more room for cyclists and pedestrians, installing more street lights, planting new crepe myrtle trees, removing the single concrete bench that's there now and replacing it with smaller tables and chairs.

Sure, in the absence of a solution to the drugs crisis the new streetscape might do little more than give junkies a more welcoming and user-friendly space in which to transact and consume  Yarra's mayor, Amanda Stone, conceded as much in an interview with Jon Faine. But only the state government can act on injecting rooms or other harm minimisation measures, and so far its headline response to Victoria Street's woes has centred on kicking the can down the road by funding CCTV cameras, which are likely to do little more than push the trade into surrounding streets. The council had to cough up a quarter of a million to match Spring Street's contribution to works in the area. What did it do? Commendably, Yarra eschewed surveillance, a response based in fear, in favour of an approach grounded in openness and trust  inviting regular locals to hang out where the action is because there's safety in numbers.
The regulator responsible for ensuring children are not at risk of abuse from teachers has failed to meet its duty. The Victorian Institute of Teaching says its purpose as a community safety watchdog is "to regulate the teaching profession in Victoria in the public interest by enforcing high ethical and professional standards for teachers".

The VIT has disregarded its mission in a case that a group of disillusioned parents has forced to be reopened. A month ago, the institute stunned the parents and perturbed the Education Minister, James Merlino, by not revoking the licence of a grade 4 teacher who told students disturbing stories including one revolting example, about a little girl being "urinated" on in a toilet by a priest, as well as tales of incest, murder and persecution.

Credit:Quentin Jones

The teacher also paid children for massages in class. A particularly troubling element of the case is that he instructed his students they must not tell their parents or others about the stories.

As The Age's education team, Henrietta Cook and Timna Jacks, revealed, the VIT made its finding even after the Education Department, following an 18-month investigation, sacked the teacher, who had been suspended in late 2015 from Caulfield Junior College. The department's finding that the teacher had acted in a "disgraceful, improper" manner was central to the Fair Work Commission rejecting his claim he was unfairly dismissed.
The ABC is under fire from a diverse group of politicians  including a Labor MP  who are accusing the public broadcaster of allowing a flagship current affairs program to promote a book designed to help the political rehabilitation of Labor senator Sam Dastyari.

Veteran Labor MP Michael Danby, Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson, government minister Zed Seselja, crossbencher Cory Bernardi and Liberal backbencher James Paterson all called for the ABC to explain Monday night's episode of Australian Story, which they described as a "puff piece", "propaganda", and an "infomercial".

Communications Minister Mitch Fifield has also told Fairfax Media he would ask ABC management about the program given the number of complaints he had received from colleagues.

Senator Dastyari is a prominent Labor figure who enjoyed a stunning rise in the media and Opposition as general secretary of the NSW Labor Party and then a Labor senator, until he was forced to resign from the Opposition frontbench following Fairfax Media's revelations he asked a Chinese donor to pay a personal debt.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has indicated he would be comfortable with backbench MPs crossing the floor to legalise same-sex marriage, saying the right to break with party policy is a "fundamental principle" of the Liberal Party.

Mr Turnbull was speaking after two Liberal backbenchers, Trevor Evans and Tim Wilson, left open the possibility of crossing the floor to force a vote on same-sex marriage.

"In our party, backbenchers have always had the right to cross the floor," Mr Turnbull said, when asked if he could prevent Mr Evans from siding with the Labor opposition.

"In the Labor Party, you get expelled for doing that.
So while Labor complains of the rich getting richer while everyone else slides, it is increasingly exposed to the charge that via its "inequality" agenda, it has (i) abandoned the task of growing the national economic pie in favour of distributing it, and (ii) proposed a policy that will inevitably affect some legitimate small businesses.

Post-announcement tinkering to patch unintended consequences, is easily depicted as retreat and worse, confusion. Another problem is that in mapping out large parts of the policy terrain, what's left unsaid becomes the focus.

The trouble with releasing policies well ahead of any election - usually desirable - is that you can become welded to ideas that need further work, fine tuning, etcetera.

Not that the government has much to crow about here. The Coalition has made little impression on stagnant wages and widespread under-employment in the 13 months since it ran on the gloriously diffuse goal of "jobs and growth". Modelling of its permanently blocked $65.4 billion business tax cut (by 2027) shows its centrepiece policy lever would have only a modest impact on economic expansion. And that, years down the track.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten greets the crowd after his NSW Labor Party Conference speech on Sunday. Credit:AAP

Still, serious parties of government must present a full suite of economic policies. Stubbornly flat wage growth is a core problem in many post-GFC economies. And that in turn, has become the major handbrake on confidence, and on growth overall. So much so that Reserve Bank Governor, Philip Lowe (no less) has begun urging employees to demand wage rises. There are even hints that pay increases need not be offset with productivity gains.

Malcolm Turnbull's company tax plan may not be popular, but at least it allows the government to defend its ongoing pursuit of growth and prosperity.

Labor seems to be getting more vulnerable on this front as the term progresses. Its latest economic prescription is another tax increase. That comes on top of its proposed re-instatement of the now lapsed 2 per cent temporary deficit repair levy on high income earners, and amid signs it will roll back some of the business tax cuts already legislated.
Today is a day of mixed emotions. For the first time ever, the Australian Human Rights Commission has released national data on the prevalence rates of sexual assault within university communities.

For some, the results will be shocking. For many others the results merely confirm what we've known for decades: that young women experience frightening levels of sexual violence, particularly in their university years.

We know that at times like these, emotions often run high and we expect there will be anger, sadness, fear and relief. These feelings and experiences are all valid.

Irrespective of what you hear in the public statements, news coverage and media releases, today belongs to the university sexual assault survivors, students, activists and their families. We didn't arrive here because of the "bravery" of universities, or the "courage" of vice-chancellors, as was suggested at the launch in August last year.
Its painful to watch the national news. Partisan politics rule the day. The times when you made decisions by taking into account the best interests of your neighbor feel all but gone. We used to come together as one nation, indivisible, and chart out a course that we all could agree on.

We used to meet in the middle. And in rural Montana, we still do.

We have all seen the magic that occurs when diverse interests and stakeholders put their differences aside, and focus on their commonalities. Thats the real Montana -- not Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians or Independents. Its neighbor helping neighbor solve problems and plan for a future where the grizzly and elk are plentiful, and where our kids and grandkids can still find moments of inspiration in mountain meadows.

On the heels of the recent Montana state legislative session, there was a lot of talk about our public lands. Some radical folks on the right feel our federal public lands -- lands that are managed and protected for all to use and enjoy -- should be transferred to states, or sold completely to private parties. They arent happy with how these lands are managed by our Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, or National Park Service.

We saw the same rancor on the left side of the spectrum, with extremists who toss wrenches into forest restoration activities with little consideration for simple -- yet hugely significant -- consequences for local economies and potential wildfire risks.

We urge Montanans of all stripes to meet us in the middle, listen to each other, respect each other, and hash out a path forward where we all win.

Over the last decade weve seen lots of bills come and go statewide and nationally that propose quick fixes to long-term problems. The only legislation that has passed, that has passed the litmus test of ALL Montanans, are the pieces of legislation where the solutions started around the kitchen tables of real Montanans.

The Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act, which permanently protected thousands of acres of prime wildlife habitat, was over 30 years in the making. Sure, there were folks on the left who said the habitat protections were not enough, and people on the right who said it was too much. But the overwhelming majority met in the middle. And Montana is better for it.

More recently in the communities of Seeley Lake and Ovando, over a decade of listening, tweaking and compromise resulted in the recently introduced Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act, which not only puts logs on trucks and promotes forest restoration activities, it also provides mountain bikes and snowmobiles with more terrain while permanently designating some of Montanas wildest landscapes such as Grizzly Basin and Monture Creek as wilderness.

We are seeing this collaboration elsewhere in the state. The Gallatin Range near Bozeman is currently seeing mountain bikers, hunters, horsemen, skiers, outfitters and conservationists working together to find permanent solutions for that vital corner of Greater Yellowstone. That collaborative spirit is also alive and well in Lincoln, where ranchers, timber mills, snowmobilers, business owners, fly fishermen, hunters and more are working together to create a positive future for the area.

Each Montanan has the ability to come together, meet in the middle, and decide how Montana grows in the next hundred years and beyond. Senators Tester and Daines, and new Congressman Gianforte: please, support our Montana-made solutions. Put your partisan leanings aside. Work on behalf of Montanans, who meet in the middle.

Its in this place where the real work is done.

Loren Rose of Seeley Lake is the Chief Operating Officer of Pyramid Mountain Lumber. Paul Roos of Lincoln is owner of Paul Roos Outfitters. Barb Cestero of Bozeman is a Senior Regional Representative for The Wilderness Society.
Fiona Murray's liver was large. So large people would often ask her when her baby was due.

A healthy human liver weighs about 1.5 kilograms, but Ms Murray's weighed a massive 12.08 kilograms when it was removed.

"When I actually had the operation I said, 'can somebody take a photo of it for me' but they took one step forward and said,'well actually, the fellow in pathology said could we actually have it for the museum'," she said.

And after receiving a donor liver and kidney herself, Ms Murray said she jumped at the chance to donate her own to science.
Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart says there is no known terror threat to the state, following raids in New South Wales at the weekend.

Members of an alleged Islamist-inspired terrorist cell have been arrested in Sydney over an alleged "elaborate" plot to build an improvised device that could take down a plane.

Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart has apologised "unreservedly". Credit:Glenn Hunt

Mr Stewart briefed the Queensland cabinet on security, including airports, on Monday.

Before the doors were closed to media, Mr Stewart said media reports had included a potential attack on the Australian aviation industry.
Police have failed to discover any trace of slain pregnant teen Tiffany Taylor after a large-scale search of bushland west of Brisbane.

About 40 SES volunteers searched an area in the Somerset suburb of Fernvale on Sunday, acting on a tip-off after her family's emotional appeal for help earlier this month.

The body of Tiffany Taylor has not been located. Credit:Facebook

Rodney Wayne Williams, 60, has been charged with her murder but police have been unable to find a body.

In a statement released on Monday morning, the Queensland Police Service said the search did not turn up anything of interest.
A second man has been charged with attempted murder, after a man was shot in the stomach and knee in Toowoomba more than two weeks ago.

It comes after the same charge was laid against a woman, who allegedly organised the alleged attack, and another man.

The scene of a shooting in the Toowoomba suburb of Rangeville. Credit:Melody Labinsky

Police allege that just after 1am, a 20-year-old local man was speaking with two men outside a Curzon Street house in Rangeville on July 19, before being shot and taken to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

A 25-year-old man has been charged with attempted murder and was due to appear in Toowoomba Magistrates Court on August 14.
One of the recurring issues raised with me by small business operators around the country is access to justice.

It's a real problem that legal action to remedy any dispute is expensive, time consuming and often not worth the effort.

Small Business Ombudsman Kate Carnell says such enterprises need somewhere to go if they feel aggrieved by their dealings with banks. Credit:Andrew Meares

Whether it's late payment of accounts or disagreements over a contract, there is currently no simple way to have matters arbitrated.

The consequences of a protracted dispute can be severe and potentially lead to insolvency if substantial sums of money are involved.
A kayaker missing for five days in the freezing waters of Port Phillip Bay is likely to be dead and his body may never be found, Victoria water police say.

Searchers found the kayak belonging to missing Japanese national Junichi Yoshimura on Monday morning.

Junichi Yoshimura at Zeally Bay Sourdough. Credit:Lauren Bamford

A paddle was tethered to the kayak, Sergeant Louis du Plessis told Fairfax Media.

It was still not known if Mr Yoshimura was wearing a life jacket, or how well he could swim, but Sergeant du Plessis said "any person in any type of clothing would not last more than a day" in the conditions.
This is an open letter to all Montanans enrolled in Affordable Care Act health care exchanges.

The Associated Press just announced that Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Montana is requesting an average 23.1 percent premium rate hike for individual plans purchased through insurance exchanges of the Affordable Care Act. This is the third double-digit hike in premiums by BC/BS since 2009.

The company said the uncertainty regarding the failure to reach congressional consensus on a health care bill has caused the Montana private insurer, BC/BS (and surely other national private insurers), to price for that uncertainty.

All Montanans should recognize that this decision is how for-profit health insurance companies and the other profit-driven health stakeholders operate. The free market motive to preserve profits for stockholders is expected to be primary in a capitalistic society, but that is why profit-making in a system that treats health care as a commodity can never be justifiably applied to health care.

It is long past time for Americans to demand that health care be declared a human right and insist on single-payer, H.R. 676, Medicare for all. We must have unimpeded, guaranteed access to affordable health care, which is Medicare for all.

Richard A. Damon

Bozeman
"I find that Numan engaged in a course of conduct that involved radicalisation and behaviour that was increasingly dangerous, ultimately causing his death," he said. The coroner said the Victorian policeman  referred to as Officer A  had no other option than using lethal force, as Haider was crouched over the AFP officer  Officer B  and stabbing him in the chest.



"It has been established that Numan's death was not preventable, other than at the expense of Officer's B's life, from the time he produced a knife and commenced stabbing at the officers," Mr Olle said. Officer B suffered stab wounds to the face and chest and Officer A was stabbed in the arm. Officer B told last year's inquest he thought Haider was going to decapitate him.



No adverse finding was made against members of the Joint Counter Terrorist Team of Victoria Police and the AFP, or ASIO, over the way they monitored Haider or planned to meet him outside the police station. However, Mr Olle said one element that might have changed the way the officers met Haider was not known at the time and was discovered after the teenager's death. Five days before the attack Haider was on the telephone trying to call an associate, but told a friend nearby: "If I had a knife I would have stabbed 'em."

The remark referred to Haider's run-in with police at Dandenong Plaza that day, when he waved the Shahada flag at officers. ASIO telephone monitoring did not pick up the remark at the time because Haider's telephone call never went through, and the system did not monitor unanswered calls. But the remark was recorded and was later heard by a Victoria Police detective assisting the coroner. Mr Olle said Officer A might have cancelled the meeting with Haider had he known the teen previously spoke of stabbing police. Haider's family  who cannot be identified and were overseas on Monday  previously said the teenager was not radicalised, and that he just snapped amid the pressures of study and the recent break-up from his fiancee. Mr Olle said that though it was difficult for Haider's family to accept, the teenager "did fit the stereotype of a dangerous young man motivated by an extreme and non-representative form of Islam".

He passed his condolences to the family and praised their dignity in extending their sorrow to the injured officers, and to the two policemen whose lives were changed "immeasurably". ASIO and police had concerns Haider was planning politically-motivated violence through his attendance at the controversial Al-Furqan Islamic Centre, his associations and his application for a passport to travel to Afghanistan. His family wanted to visit their native Afghanistan to find Haider a wife. Mr Olle said that in the months before the attack, Haider went from a "happy-go-lucky" teen to one with new friends who was obsessed with events in the Middle East and had shut himself off from his family. On the day he waved the Shahada flag at police at Dandenong Plaza, he told officers he had problems with the Australian government and that it would pay for terror raids in Sydney and Brisbane that day. That night he posted on Facebook a photograph of him in a balaclava and camouflage clothing and holding the flag, and made derogatory comments about the AFP and ASIO.

Over the following days, Haider accessed Islamic State propaganda online, which included graphic videos of executions and instructions on using weapons to achieve martyrdom. He also accessed news articles about the movements of then prime minister Tony Abbott. Police arranged to meet with him in the hope of building rapport. But the two officers were caught on the back foot when Haider arrived earlier than expected and parked his car away from the station, where the lighting was poor. They and Haider shook hands, but the teenager produced a knife when asked to turn out his pockets. The inquest raised questions about information shared between ASIO and the police, as it was unclear whether police knew about Haider's Facebook posts prior to the attack.
Mother-of-three Rowena Gray understands the pull power of Peppa Pig and the magnetism of Minions when it comes to food marketing and children.

The lactation consultant may be "pretty tough", restricting her children to healthy options, but that does not stop them continually pestering her for anything branded with popular television and movie characters.

"They will be drawn to it every single time," said Mrs Gray, who has three daughters aged four to nine.

"And it's mostly the yoghurt with the highest sugar content in it, so it's not the one I'm interested in buying."
In Rosebud, more than one in 10 adults are widows, and 53 per cent of the population is female. In neighbouring Rosebud West, now known as Capel Sound, 569 women  more than one quarter of the female adult population  are widows. It would appear that many of the female residents have outlived their husbands. A total of 389 of them are older than 80 and there are six widows aged over 100. There also 176 widowed men in the area, the analysis shows.

The suburb skews older than most Melbourne suburbs and has a median age of 59, 22 years older than the median age for Victoria. Other areas with a high proportion of widowed people are Junction Village in Melbourne's south-east, North Geelong, Wonthaggi and Sorrento. Mornington Peninsula Shire mayor Bev Colomb says the numbers come as no surprise. "We do know that we have a higher percentage of older people on the peninsula and that trend has been there for quite some time," Cr Colomb says. "It is not a huge surprise ... and it is something we have been preparing for for quite sometime."

Cr Colomb says the council's aim is to meet the needs of the elderly in the community in particular, for mobility and social inclusion. "If you are thinking of widows ... these are people who have gone from living with a partner to living, often, on their own," she says. "It is really important they still feel an active part of the communities that they are in, that they are being listened to and that they can go out and about whenever they wish and they have vibrant townships with great activities that they can attend." Cassandra Szoeke, who heads the Women's Healthy Ageing Project at the University of Melbourne, says being socially engaged and having a network is important for healthy ageing. "Isolation, and in particular, social isolation, has been associated with earlier death and poorer health," Professor Szoeke says.

"Being a widow, particularly when we talk about people who are 80 or 90 ... they may well have been with ... their partners ...[for] five decades. "So there is a window of risk. When a person's long-term partner dies, they actually have a higher chance of death in the next few years." After losing her husband, Ms Gardiner says that, at first, all she wanted to do was "rest". But her friends had other ideas, urging her to get involved in the Rosebud RSL Club's women's auxiliary. "When my husband passed away, I thought the end of the world had come," she says. "But, you've got to get out.
Christian leaders in Victoria have combined to voice their opposition to proposed voluntary euthanasia laws, arguing assisted dying would be akin to killing off the terminally sick and elderly.

An open letter signed by local leaders of the Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Greek Orthodox and Coptic Orthodox churches, among others, argues that a decision to legalise assisted dying would also "send a confusing message" about the value of life to those at risk of suicide.

"Euthanasia and assisted suicide represent the abandonment of those who are in greatest need of our care and support," says the letter, which appeared as an advertisement in the Herald Sun on Monday.

Two Melbourne archbishops and five bishops signed the letter, including Catholic Archbishop Denis Hart, Anglican Archbishop Philip Freier and Greek Orthodox Bishop Ezekiel.
Washington: In describing how nasty the Washington-Moscow relationship has become, analysts are reaching back a full century, to the Bolshevik Revolution and the ensuing Russian Civil War, when the US embassy in Moscow was shuttered for 15 years.

The Cold War imposed a manageable, if at times frightening, diplomatic dynamic.

But Moscow's weekend confirmation that the US must cut its embassy staff by 755 comes as the two powers butt heads in the Middle East, as tensions mount on the Korean Peninsula and the Ukraine crisis festers. All are unfolding with none of the guard-rail certainty that endured for more than four decades after World War II  and with both countries led by unpredictable, headstrong presidents.

As Vladimir Putin warned of possible further Russian measures against the US, the Trump administration was flexing its military muscle over the Koreas  flying two supersonic B-1 bombers over the peninsula with Japanese and South Korean aircraft along for the ride, at the same time as the US responded to a new North Korean missile test with its own missile defence test over the Pacific  which it claimed was a success.
Kabul: Gunmen stormed the Iraqi Embassy compound in Kabul after a suicide bomber blasted open the gates to the site on Monday, forcing diplomats and others to flee as Afghan security forces battled the attackers, officials said.

The Interior Ministry said one police officer was wounded in the commando-style attack by four assailants, including the suicide bomber. The three gunmen were later killed during a shootout with security forces.

Security forces patrol Kabul after a suicide attack at the Iraqi embassy in Kabul on Monday. Credit:AP

There were conflicting reports of casualties as the attack unfolded. Najib Danish, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said two Afghan embassy workers had also been killed.

The Islamic State propaganda agency Amaq claimed that militants from the group carried out the assault and killed at least seven guards. The claims could not be verified.
DECATUR  A hard life took quite a bite out of Sammy the dog.

The 13-year-old shih tzu had not been taken care of properly and lost 17 teeth to gum disease so bad it decayed and broke his jaw. Now rescued and looking remarkably calm considering his ruff life, he was one of the star attractions Sunday afternoon at Mission Pawsible: An Area-Wide Adoption Event hosted at Decatur's Infusion Bar & Banquet Center.

The afternoon brought together pet adoption agencies with pets needing new homes as well as vendors offering everything from T-shirts to jewelry. The idea was to whip up interest in pet adoption and make it a fun time with Infusion laying on food and drinks. There were also games and even music, courtesy of disc jockey Andrew Gum, known as DJ Gummy, a Millikin University student who donated his services.

Mission Pawsible also had another key role to raise freewill donations for a planned dog and cat foster agency in Decatur called New Hope Animal Shelter. Still at least a year away from happening, it's hoped the shelter will be able to take up some of the slack left after the Homeward Bound shelter's closure in 2016.

New Hope board president, Matthew Schmahl, said Sunday's event gave New Hope a chance to both introduce itself and help existing groups already working to find homes for pets. He said tackling the problem of uncared for animals needed many hands.

Feral cats, for example, is a real problem in Decatur, said Schmahl, 40. Low cost spaying and neutering services need to be readily available and New Hope wants to build up to where we have the funds to create a nice surgical room for that.

Among the already established animal foster and care organizations taking part Sunday were the Care Van Pet Program and Leia's Hope Canine Rescue, which brought along both Sammy and a deaf 10-year-old pug called Willow, rescued as a stray.

She would definitely make someone a good pet, said Willow's temporary foster Mom, Kaylin Born. Willow is super calm.
DECATUR  Duane Yeakel remembers getting his hair cut, then climbing in his car to head to Decatur Memorial Hospital for a doctors appointment.

The next thing Yeakel knew, he was in a hospital bed at DMH. He asked his wife and brother what happened, and when they told him, he didnt believe them.

I just kept thinking, surely not, Yeakel said.

Yeakel, 66, of Decatur, had been driving toward DMH, heading north on Water Street, when he suffered cardiac arrest and his car crashed into the side of the brick building that houses Ticket-N-Trips at 1135 N. Water St.

Terence Woods, 62, an otolaryngologist at ENTA Allergy, Head & Neck Institute on the DMH campus, was driving to work and saw Yeakels vehicle veer off the road.

I was in the far right lane and I looked to my left and it caught my attention when the car hit the curb, Woods said. I thought he was going to hit a post, but he made it through and I thought, he better slow down or hes going to hit that wall.

Woods said he watched as Yeakels vehicle hit the building at between 35 and 40 miles per hour. He took the first left he could take, on Leafland, then another left on an alley behind the building to get back to the Ticket-N-Trips parking lot. He approached the car, which was smoking and leaking fluid. Inside, airbags had inflated, but he could see Yeakel slumped over the steering wheel.

As a physician, Ive seen people who are dead before, and thats what he looked like, Woods said.

Woods tried to use a multi-tool he had in his car to break out the window, but it didnt work. An employee from Tickets-N-Trips came out of the building and gave Woods a hammer, which he used to smash out the passenger side window. But the passenger door was locked, so he broke out the drivers side window, wrenched the smashed door open and climbed inside the car.

I reached over and undid his seatbelt, but Mr. Yeakel isnt a small man, Woods said. I was able to grab him and kind of roll him out of the car and onto the pavement. I started yelling to other bystanders to help me drag him away from the car, and someone got his legs and we got him to an open space.

Woods said he checked for Yeakels pulse and there wasnt one, and he wasnt breathing. He ripped open Yeakels shirt and began performing chest compressions.

He had a broken sternum and fractured ribs  I could feel them cracking while I was doing the compressions, Woods said.

Every once in awhile, Yeakel would take a deep breath and bystanders would say, "You brought him back to life," Woods said. But the doctor knew those were just agonal breaths, which sometimes happen after people have died.

Honestly, I was pessimistic about his chances, Woods said.

Woods said he kept performing CPR until the Decatur Ambulance Service arrived and paramedics applied an automated external defibrillator.

It was at that point I stepped back and they took over, Woods said. They shocked him a couple of times and were able to get a rhythm back.

The accident happened on the morning of Wednesday, July 5. Yeakel had been headed to an appointment with Dr. Nadal Aker, a cardiologist. Yeakel had first become aware he had a heart issue in late January during the process of getting his hip replaced  it was discovered that his blood pressure was high and heart rate was abnormal.

But Yeakel said he hadnt been feeling bad leading up to the accident, and was shocked to wake up in the hospital. It took some time for what had happened to sink in.

We had to tell him what happened about 50 times. He just kept asking, said Yeakels wife, Linda. At first he couldnt really get the words out, but I could see the question mark in his eyes. Wed tell him what happened and the tears would flow, then 20 minutes later he was asking again. He was just on so many pain medications. It was three days before he finally realized.

Linda was at work in Monticello at the time of the accident and got a call from her sons fiancee that Duane had been in a serious accident and she needed to get to the hospital as soon as possible. When she got there, she was told it was unknown how long Duane had gone without oxygen.

I didnt know whether or not he was going to live. The fatal accident investigator came in and was asking questions, Linda said. It was an awful feeling.

But it turned out Woods actions had saved him. Duane had an implantable defibrillator attached to his heart and was in the intensive care unit for eight days. In addition to the cardiac arrest, Duanes ribs and sternum were broken and he had cuts and bruises, many of them still visible.

But other than a lingering sore throat from the respirator, Duane is feeling better and the Yeakels want to get to the bottom of what caused the cardiac arrest. On the recommendation of their doctors at DMH, theyre going to Barnes Hospital in St. Louis on Aug. 24 to see Dr. Keith Mankowitz, a cardiologist who specializes in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a condition that causes the muscle in the heart to become bulky, which can lead to heart failure and stroke.

In addition to getting treatment, the Yeakels want to find out if its genetic so the rest of Duanes family  he has a brother and three children  can be tested to see if they have it and avoid a similar episode.

People usually die instantly with that heart attack, so their families dont know it exists, Linda said.

The Yeakels know the statistics. According to the American Heart Association, the survival rate for cardiac arrest outside a hospital was 12 percent in 2016. If it hadnt been for Woods, Duane probably wouldnt be alive.

It was an amazing miracle Dr. Woods was there, Linda said. I keep going over in my head, how do you write a thank you note for something like that? You cant just give him a token gift card to a place to eat or something like that. Its just not enough.

I dont know what were going to do, but well figure out something. He certainly deserves something for what he did.

Woods served as a physician in the U.S. Army from 1982 to 1996, then returned to duty in 2012. In February he returned to Decatur after a stint in the Iraq/Syria/Kuwait theater of operations, and plans to retire from the Army in 2018. He said there was never any doubt in his mind when he saw Duanes car crash into a building that he was going to turn around and do anything he could to help.

I had to, Woods said. That was the only thought going through my mind.
Why brand is the engine of the luxury drinks model

Brands drive the appeal of luxury products. By providing better brand experiences, from packaging to in-store and beyond, luxury drinks brands can succeed all over the world, says the MD of RPM

Dom Robertson RPM

Brands drive the appeal of luxury products. By providing better brand experiences, from packaging to in-store and beyond, luxury drinks brands can succeed all over the world.

Brands are the engine of the luxury drinks business model. As Vincent Bastien, the former CEO of YSL said, Can we imagine luxury without brands? The brand is an integral part of the luxury productthere is no luxury without brands. It is the brands that drive the desire for the luxury products. They sell the luxury dream. Luxury brands confer status, and this status is an important part of any consumer decision to treat themselves to a luxury drink product. Different people want to signal status in varying ways, and status changes across generations and geographical borders.

Luxury has never simply been about scarcity and exclusivity  it has always been much more complex and revolved around notion of image and self-identity, reflecting status and aspiration. Luxury not only varies across borders and ages, but there also seems to be a wider shift happening in the way that elites are signalling their wealth which is key for luxury brands to understand. This is best described as the rise inconspicuous consumption  where knowledge and building cultural capital are prized above consumer goods, with the spending habits that follow this. Instead of purely focussing on price tags, knowing the less expensive social norms, like reading The Economist, show that you have gained the cultural capital necessary to gain entry. Cultural capital is king. For luxury brands, this means they not only need to make sure they maintain their status as highly desirable to their audience in culture. When we worked with Talisker to create a sail-in cinema they were not only telling the brands story  that they are made by the sea  but also connecting with an audience through their passion for sailing, giving the brand cultural salience.

People are looking for hand-crafted brands and products that are distinctive and personal; a step above and a world apart from mass produced, artificial and uniform products. You only have to look at the rise of the craft beer and spirit market to prove that consumers are willing to pay more for a quality crafted product. Consumers value authenticity, the knowledge that someone with passion has spent time making a great product. If you take a brand like Fentimans, with their traditional glass bottles from the Victorian era and their all natural, hand crafted drinks, taking consumers back to an era before mass production and chemical filled factories. This is a packaging world that appeals to the consumer and delivers a quality experience in line with their brand.

Luxury is of course hard to define. Its an abstract concept in many ways. Not wholly rational, very emotional and highly subjective, which of course impacts on brands that operate in its sphere. Necessity is all about surviving, while luxury is all about living and its this basic truth that informs consumers purchasing decisions. Its all about the experience  the feeling that enjoying a luxury product provides. For those looking for a luxury experience, a 27 bottle of whisky is a cheap ticket into the luxury world. These excursionists into the luxury world may not be infrequent luxury buyers in categories such as spirits, but are not fully in the complete luxury world. They are venturing into luxury, and are therefore a significant opportunity for brands.

From packaging right through to how your products appear in retail, luxury brands need to deliver a great brand experience to consumers, otherwise it is hard to justify the price tag. Brands and retailers must look at the total buying journey and consider how they optimize every touchpoint, from the retail experience which should feel approachable and highly personal, to the actual product experience which should implicitly tell stories, for example of the craft behind the product, to increase the value perception.

To ensure brands deliver a consistent luxury experience to their consumers across every touchpoint, they need to move beyond creating key visuals to creating brand worlds. Brand worlds move how the brand manifests in the customers world far beyond what traditional brand guidelines are capable of. They draw on a sense of time and place that the brand opens the door to, they are physical, textural and behavioural, which in a day and age where interaction on-line and off-line is crucial, provides the back bone to the consistent experience that customers desire. The starting point for the luxury brand world will of course differ by brand, each brand has a different place of origin, story, or time that encapsulates or conveys its purpose. Single-minded focus on this brand world and an unwavering commitment to delivering this world at every touchpoint, from branded content to retail and product packaging, will build and preserve the brand experience, ultimately, helping defend the premium price tag.

Ensuring this brand experience is delivered consistently across any touchpoint in any country can be extremely challenging. Creating toolkits that can be implemented by many different markets in a way that preserves the brand experience is vital to maintaining the luxury status. Weve worked with Diageo on toolkits for World Class and Johnnie Walker helping them to deliver their better brand experiences across the world. This work also led us to help tackle the problem of counterfeiting, an issue for sought-after products everywhere, but particularly for luxury whisky in Thailand. We worked with Johnnie Walker to create a smart bottle to track this issue, while opening a world of digital content for the consumer. Enhancing the experience people have of the brand, while tackling a key business problem.

Brands drive the appeal of luxury products. By providing better brand experiences, from packaging to in-store and beyond, luxury drinks brands can succeed all over the world. With elites looking for products that are not only beautifully crafted, but also culturally relevant, brands need to ensure they do both to remain relevant. For Excursionists and die-hard luxury fans alike, the brand experience, wherever they interact with the brand, is key. Focussing on brand worlds and remaining true to them, while connecting with people in culture will ensure luxury drinks brands continue to succeed.

Dom Robertson, Managing Director, RPM

31 July 2017
College Station police arrested a 22-year-old man over the weekend after a caller complained to authorities that patrons of EZ Travel Inn were selling marijuana from a room.

It marked the third time in 8 1/2 months that Bryan resident Christopher C. Johnson Jr. had been arrested on a felony marijuana charge in Brazos County. He also was arrested during that period on two misdemeanor pot possession charges, theft of a firearm and unlawful carrying of a weapon. Each of those cases are pending.

As authorities approached the hotel room at about 9:30 p.m. Friday, police said Johnson came out and walked up to a car. Officers smelled marijuana coming from the car while questioning a pair in the vehicle, according to a court document that said there was $3,500 in cash in the car, as well as pot.

Officers arrested Johnson, who was staying at the hotel in the 2000 block of Texas Avenue, after getting a search warrant for his room where they discovered more than five ounces of marijuana, along with various items of drug paraphernalia and electronic devices.

The possession charge is a state jail felony, punishable by up to two years behind bars and a fine of no more than $10,000. He posted $5,000 bail Sunday and was released from the Brazos County Jail.
Blinn College government instructor Celina Vasquez is in Israel this week with more than a dozen other Latino leaders from Southwest regions to deepen her understanding of the country and its relationship with the U.S, while building "a partnership" with the Jewish community.

"As a Latina leader in the Bryan community, this is important for me," Vasquez said, speaking to The Eagle by telephone from Israel. "I believe it's going to be a transformative experience, to continue to learn the bonds that tie Israel and the relationship with the USA."

Vasquez, who teaches state and federal government courses part-time, is participating in the one-week gathering of community leaders and political activists sponsored by the American Israel Education Foundation, or AIEF.

She said she thinks the foundation's emphasis on Southwest Latino leaders is because they know what the future is, since "the future of America includes Latino leadership" at local, state and federal levels.

Latino and Jewish communities share a general history of persecution, Vasquez said, since both groups have "struggled for self-determination and for a right to exist."

In a letter sent to Vasquez indicating her acceptance into the program, the foundation stated that the "intensive educational experience" includes informational briefings with experts and government officials, as well as visits to historical, religious and strategic sites, with the goal that participants will "return to the United States better informed and able to serve as advocates for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship."

Vasquez said that she and the other participants will meet with Israeli and Palestinian officials "to hear all sides" and develop a more comprehensive understanding of the challenges facing the country and its people.

Vasquez said she had a "jam-packed schedule for five days" before she returns home Aug. 6. She said she will spend two nights each in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and may even spend some time at the country's northern border near Lebanon and Syria, "depending on the border situation."

Vasquez said that, of the 16 leaders there, she is the only educator -- and the only representative from Central Texas.

"It's going to help me become a better instructor in the classroom when the fall semester begins at Blinn," Vasquez said of her trip.

Vasquez said she hopes her trip will allow her to "bring a world view and perspective [back] that our students who never have really left Texas or Brazos County have been exposed to."

Her students learning secondhand about the challenges facing Israelis and Palestinians, Vasquez said, could "help the students understand themselves. They may hear some similarities in some of their struggles."

"I know that it's going to be life-changing," Vasquez said of her journey. "Just being able to come back to Bryan and show that to faculty and students, letting them know that, 'If I'm able to do this, the possibilities are endless for you.' "
Texas State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, has been appointed to the Texas Windstorm Insurance Legislative Oversight Board.

The board reviews rules proposed by the Texas Department of Insurance relating to windstorm insurance and submits comments to the insurance commissioner. The board also monitors windstorm insurance -- including rates -- as well as operation of the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association and availability of coverage. Kolkhorst was appointed to the board by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

"With nearly a third of the Texas coast line in Senate District 18, I am honored to serve on this important board," Kolkhorst said in a statement. "Affordable windstorm insurance will keep our economy strong and keep Texans prepared for future natural disasters."
A 20-year-old woman told College Station police she stole $130 worth of clothing so she could sell the items to help pay for college.

Authorities said they were called to Cavender's Boot City off the Texas 6 feeder road Friday evening after employees said the theft monitors beeped when she exited the store. According to court documents, employees found stolen items in her purse after she allowed them to check it.

Police said the woman told them she intended on leaving the store without paying because she "planned on selling the items so she could earn money to pay for her college classes."

She posted bail Saturday on the Class B misdemeanor theft charge. If found guilty, she could face up to 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.
UPDATE: Police arrested three teens following an hours-long search this morning during which the area around Graham Road and Birmingham Drive was shut down in south College Station.

The trio have been identified as Frank Blanco, 18, Fernando Funes-Cruz, 18, and Felix Ponce, 17. All three Bryan residents have been charged with theft of a firearm and evading arrest, but the case remains open.

Authorities said officers first responded to the 200 block of Rugen Lane around 4 a.m. to investigate a reported vehicle burglary. Police said after fleeing the scene, the teens were spotted in their vehicle near Graham Road where officers attempted to make a traffic stop.

After pulling into the entrance of the College Station Utilities Center the teens fled on foot into the nearby woods, according to police. While one of the suspects was apprehended immediately, police said a perimeter around the area was formed to locate the other two.

Authorities said the second suspect was located around 5:45 a.m. and the third was detained just after 8 a.m.

A total of four burglaries were reported this morning in the area of Rugen Lane this morning, authorities said.

Police said several items from the burglaries were recovered, including two handguns. Officers are working to connect the recovered property to the crimes, authorities said.

College Station police said the Bryan Police Department's K-9 unit assisted in the arrests.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The area around College Station Utility Center has been reopened. Police said a third and final suspect was taken into custody just after 8 a.m. More details later.

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Police are asking the public to avoid the area around College Station Utilities Center off Graham Road and Birmingham Drive while officers search for potential burglary suspects.

Lt. Steve Brock, spokesman for the department, said officers have shut down the entrance into the Utility Center as they canvass the area.

He said in a statement just before 7:40 a.m. that it won't be closed for long, and will notify the media once it's safe to return to the area.

The Eagle will update this story as it develops.
H.K. "Keith" Sterzing, 78, of Bryan, formerly of Cedar Park, Texas, passed away Friday, July 21, 2017. Services were held at 10 a.m. Wednesday July 26, at Oakwood Cemetery Annex in Austin. Arrangements were entrusted to Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home North, in Austin.
Doud previously spent eight years working for the National Cattlemens Beef Association (NCBA)  a powerful lobby group that has identified Brexit as an opportunity to lift UK restrictions on the import of beef reared with substances that increase animal growth rate  such as hormones and beta agonists.

Energydesk can further reveal that Trumps nominee for the new role of under-secretary of trade at the US department of agriculture, Ted McKinney, is a former director at Elanco Animal Health  a major manufacturer of growth hormones and beta agonists.

During last weeks visit to Washington, Fox downplayed the significance of US meat exports to any future trade deal between the UK and US.

But some US trade experts believe that getting rid of barriers preventing the export of US beef, pork and chicken will be a red line for the US in any negotiations.

Speaking to Energydesk, Daniel Pearson, a senior fellow in trade policy studies at the Cato Institute in Washington, said that a post-Brexit deal will not happen if the UK is not willing to drop restrictions.

The agriculture community here can prevent a UK-US agreement from happening and probably would unless theres some significant progress on those issues. I cant see the Farm Bureau and the commodity organisations being willing to say yes, lets do a deal with the UK under the same terms that we have with the European Union.

No safe level

The US maintains that beef and pork reared using hormones and beta agonists is safe and that the EU ban is simply a protectionist measure.

Nick Giordano, vice president of global government affairs at the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC)  a large industry group that focuses on free trade  told Energydesk: The EU is making arguments that are not based on science, theyre below the belt punches that are belied by the scientific facts.

He added: It would be over my dead body that a free trade agreement gets through the US Congress that doesnt eliminate tariffs on food and agriculture products and non-tariff barriers.

The European Commission though, maintains that there is insufficient evidence supporting claims that currently banned animal growth substances are safe.

In a 2009 assessment of evidence supporting a bid by the US to establish a recognised safe intake level for the beta agonist ractopamine, the European Food Safety Authority found weaknesses in the data and concluded that: the study on cardiovascular effects in humans cannot be taken as a basis to derive an Acceptable Daily Intake.

Banned substances

Ted McKinney, the nominee to be the USDAs trade under-secretary, held the role of director of global corporate affairs at Elanco Animal Health  a major manufacturer of ractopamine  between 2009-2014.

In 2012, McKinney played a role in a successful bid to get the UN to adopt levels at which ractopamine should be considered safe.

The motion passed by just two votes and was strongly opposed by the European Union on the grounds of persisting scientific uncertainty about the safety of products derived from animals treated with ractopamine.

McKinney was later recruited by Indianas then governor, current Vice President Mike Pence, to serve in his cabinet.

As director of agriculture for Indiana, McKinney is a member of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA)  which is calling for the US government to eliminate barriers to US agricultural exports, such as Europes ban on growth hormones.

When contacted for comment by Energydesk, McKinney declined to comment  citing the ongoing nomination process.

Pork Alliance

Energydesks investigation found that lobbying is already underway in Washington, as the US agricultural sector seeks to ensure that the UK relaxes its restrictions on meat imports from the US post-Brexit.

McKinneys former employers, Elanco, are funders of the Pork Alliance  a lobbying operation coordinated by the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC).

Senate lobbying disclosures show that, in 2017, the NPPC has lobbied Congress; the US Department of Agriculture and the Office of the US Trade Representative regarding lifting market access restrictions to the UK.

The NPPCs Giordano told Energydesk: I dont think Im the only one whos been on the other side of the pond, and whos been talking to US and UK officials.

Elanco failed to respond to multiple requests for comment.

Beef lobby

Chief agricultural trade nominee, Greg Doud, spent eight years as chief economist for leading beef lobbyists, the National Cattlemens Beef Association (NCBA).

His nomination to be chief trade negotiator was warmly welcomed by his former colleagues. Senior vice president of government affairs, Colin Woodall, said:

Gregg has been a friend and colleague for many years, and I can testify first-hand that Americas cattlemen and women will be well-served by having Gregg at the table as agricultural trade deals are hammered out.

The NCBA believes that Brexit offers an opportunity to finally begin exporting to the UK. Woodhall told CNBC that: A U.K. agreement will be a good opportunity for us to actually base trade on science rather than just a precautionary principle and undue fear.

UK has been under the blanket EU restrictions where they will only take non-hormone, non-antibiotic treated beef, he added.

Strong criticism

Douds 2013 paper argued that the US should walk away from trade negotiations with the EU if it refused to drop its restrictions on US meat imports.

Citing the EUs bans on beta agonists and antibiotics, Doud said: Are we prepared to walk away from the negotiating table if access is restricted via these other issues? We better be.

Referring to the European Union, he also said: we all know who wrote the book when it comes to using non-tariff trade barriers to block imports and protect domestic markets.

When contacted by Energydesk to verify that this had been his position on trade with Europe, Doud said this was accurate, but declined to comment further.

This Author

Lawrence Carter is an investigations reporter at Greenpeace Energydesk.
DECATUR  Local artist Sheryl Polley has created beautiful paintings and interesting sculptures. Her work has been seen throughout the community.

Some may have been affected by her paintings and not even known it.

In January 2016, Polley began painting small, portable stones naming them Bee Kind Rocks. She had created so many that she started leaving them in different spots around Decatur: hospital benches, a nursing home, outside of a church.

Someplace where somebody might need something to pick up their spirits, she said.

Polley, 61, noticed the rock craze among other artists began around the same time.

I think it is because there is so much news about all the turmoil and all the bad stuff, she said. It has touched the artists' hearts. We all wanted to spread kindness.

In order to do her part, Polley wanted to go farther than Decatur. Her goal was to leave a Bee Kind Rock in all 50 states. And since she has family who enjoy traveling, she wanted her bees to touch the world.

Polley's brother and sister-in-law, Marvin and Mona Sowers, are geocachers, a hobby in which hunters search for treasures through computer coordinates from their phones. The couple left the first rock as a geocache at a Missouri truck stop. But this isn't how they usually distribute the rocks.

Normally we just give them to people who have done something nice, Mona said.

A few weeks ago the couple was in Iceland. After misjudging when to get gas, they desperately stopped at a hotel for advice. The woman who helped them received a rock.

She was the kindest woman we had met in Iceland, Marvin said.

Upon introducing the bees to other parts of the world, the Sowers have learned about various cultures. For instance, a tribal member in Fiji refused their offering, because the chief was the only one allowed to accept a gift for the tribe. In other customs, gifts can be exchanged, therefore both parties receive a gift or token.

Many people take a picture, then want to give the rock back, Mona said.

The Sowers believe they get the fun part of the Bee Kind Rocks with the experiences. They meet the people, obtain their contact information, then link them up with Polley.

It depends on who you can leave it with, Marvin said. But you know when it is the right person.

The Sowers have taken 53 of the pocket-size rocks with them on their travels.

We ask for the smallest size that she has because of our luggage, Mona said.

Polley has more than 215 Bee Kind Rocks left throughout the world. She has also mailed them to other areas, including Malaysia and Australia. Many of her connections are found through her Facebook page, Bee Kind Rocks.

Her passion for painting stones started three years ago. Compared to her other creations, Bee Kind Rocks have a universal message of peace. She has found others with a similar passion, adding to her own rock collection.

There are Compassion Stones from Canada, Polley said about one of her favorite rocks.

Polley paints on canvas and creates other sculptures. She also teaches art classes to individual groups.

I've always done something, she said. But now it is the rocks.

She finds the rocks at landscaping companies. She also walks along the beaches of Michigan hunting for the special stones. Bee Kind Rocks are numbered and placed in a bag along with a short note explaining their meaning. Polley encourages the recipient to contact her through her Facebook page.

It's a little thing that makes a big difference, she said. They are already touching people's lives.
Making a return to our two favourite summer locations, Mount Maunganui and Nelson in early January 2023, we've got whiff of the first release lineup and me oh my, yes boy
SPRINGFIELD  The states Republican governor and Democrat-controlled legislature appeared headed for another showdown as negotiations broke down Monday on a school funding overhaul, putting money for districts statewide at risk weeks before classes begin.

Democrats sent Gov. Bruce Rauner a new plan for doling out money to schools that they approved in May but had not yet sent to the governor because of concerns he would veto it.

Rauner, who had set a Monday deadline for Democrats to send him the bill, has said he will use his veto authority to strip additional funding for Chicago Public Schools. His spokeswoman said "swift" action is expected, though he hadn't made any changes as of Monday night.

Republicans such as Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, blasted Democrats for failing to enter into good faith negotiations. The comments came shortly after Democratic Sen. Andy Manar of Bunker Hill said he believed legislators were making progress toward a deal to ensure schools get state funds.

While schools are expected to open on time even without state funding, many districts have said they'll have to make cuts or even close their doors if lawmakers can't agree on a plan by fall. In Decatur, the public school district would run out of money by mid-November if no state money is received, Superintendent Paul Fregeau said last week.

Our schools need certainty and stability if theyre going to run, Fregeau said during a news conference with Macon County education leaders during which they pleaded with lawmakers to reach an agreement. Officials at Cerro Gordo and Meridian have said their reserves could last until January.

Senate President John Cullerton, a Chicago Democrat, warned that Rauner's changes would jeopardize money for schools statewide. That's because if legislators can't muster enough votes to either approve or override the governor  scenarios that appear unlikely  the legislation dies, and there's no back-up plan ready to go.

Cullerton urged Rauner to "do the right thing" and sign the legislation, which is aimed at making school funding more equitable and ensuring districts have adequate funds to educate students.

"Students, parents, teachers and taxpayers have waited long enough," he said. "This is a chance to make a huge, meaningful change for Illinois."

Rauner has accused Democrats of sitting on the bill to force a crisis. His spokeswoman, Laurel Patrick, said they were "holding our students hostage and threatening our public schools' ability to open on time."

A new school formula is required as part of a budget deal that legislators approved earlier this month over Rauner's veto. Without new legislation, schools won't get paid. The first payment to schools is due Aug. 10.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers met over the weekend and again on Monday to try to reach a compromise.

Democrats involved in the talks described the closed-door meetings Monday afternoon as "friendly" and positive, and said they asked Republicans to continue to try to reach a compromise.

"We would rather not go to a veto showdown," said Sen. Andy Manar, a Bunker Hill Democrat who sponsored the bill.

But minutes after Manar spoke to reporters, Republican state Sen. Jason Barickman ripped the talks as "a charade" and accused his Democrat counterparts of playing political games.

Democrats then lifted a hold on the legislation they passed in May and sent it to the governor.

Manar said that he and the Democrats were willing to work with Rauner, but noted that Rauner was unwilling to negotiate until late last week.

We will work toward a compromise with him, Manar said.

But Republicans such as Rose stuck to the message pushed by Rauner in recent weeks: that the veto was necessary to give downstate schools more money over those in Chicago.

I look forward to the governors amendatory veto of Senate Bill 1, as we should not be bailing out the Chicago teacher pension system on the backs of downstate school children. Rose said in a statement.

Democratic state Rep. Sue Scherer, a former teacher from Decatur, said she was hopeful that lawmakers could find some sort of agreement in the coming days.

This standoff does nothing to help the regular people of Illinois, she said.

Lawmakers from both parties agree the 20-year-old calculation currently used to fund public schools in Illinois is unfair and forces school districts to rely heavily on property taxes, creating huge disparities in per-student funding. But lawmakers have clashed over how to fix it.

The proposed formula channels money to the neediest districts first after ensuring that no district receives less money than last school year. It also includes pension help for Chicago.

Democrats insist the pending proposal is fair since Chicago is the only Illinois district that pays the employer portion of teacher pension costs. Republicans say the new formula means Chicago will continue to get money that it previously received as a block grant. Rauner has called it a "bailout."
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After nearly two years of renovations, the inn at GrayBarns on the Silvermine River in Norwalk has opened. Formerly the Silvermine Inn and Tavern, the property was purchased by the Glazer Group in 2015 and has undergone extensive renovations in advance of its reopening.

The Glazer Group purchased the inn for $1.1 million, according to city records.

"The building was built around 1800. It had been a tavern for at least 100 years so there's always been something here," Andy Glazer, owner of Glazer Group, said. "It got very run down over the years ... so the neighbors are thrilled to have it renovated."

Over the years, in addition to being an inn, the building has been used as a small textile factory and speakeasy. Now a six-suite inn, the Perry Avenue property has a fresh country style, a decor of soft white walls, wooden beams, original fireplaces and surrounding views of the Silvermine River.

The suites each have custom wood bed frames, luxurious baths and spacious sitting areas. Some even have private balconies overlooking the courtyard and river.

"People that have stayed here before would be surprised probably to see the transformation," said Alyssa Nollman, co-manager at the inn at GrayBarns.

Reservations are already rolling in. Pam James, co-manager at the inn, said guests are coming from surrounding Connecticut towns, as well as from out of state.

"There's a lot of history with this place," James said. "It's been home to a lot, there's been a lot of weddings here, and people want to come back."

Silvermine Arts Center, a nearby business, said it's also looking forward to the newly restored property.

"We are especially pleased with developer/owner Andy Glazer's careful restoration of the 200 year old Silvermine Tavern building, which stood at the center of the community providing a gracious ambiance and place to gather," said Rose-Marie Fox, the center's Board Chair. "This important landmark is soon to be a gleaming beacon to attract visitors to our area and resurrect the gentility of former days."

Business at the inn is expected to pick up even more following the opening of the Tavern, which is set for after Labor Day. The restaurant will seat about 100 people and will serve traditional American fare that integrates fresh ingredients grown on site. There will also be an area upstairs to accommodate private parties between 30-40 people.

"We want to make sure we're serving the community," said Nollman. "We want to become the local restaurant that it once was."

To complete the GrayBarns project, Glazer Group also purchased the nearby general story which they will open as a mercantile in early 2018. Its plans include a cafe, spa, along with a variety of items for sale.

"GrayBarns will restore the architectural details of the building as well as feature country market staples and carefully curated items for the home," the GrayBarns' website writes.

On the property also stands an old barn transported from upstate New York. The barn, which now serves as a workshop for the carpenters, will eventually be home to community events.

"True to its history, GrayBarns on the Silvermine River has remained the ideal setting to unite city slickers, international travelers and the local community over food and libations, relaxation and leisure," the release said.
NORWALK  Cornerstone Community Church invites children ages 5 to 11 to Vacation Bible School Monday, Aug. 14, through Friday, Aug. 18. The camp will meet from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the church at 718 West Ave.

This years theme is Hero Central. Classrooms and Fellowship Hall will be transformed into cities where superheroes reside  Gotham City, Metropolis, and more. Bible lessons will center on delving inward to find the gifts of heart, courage, wisdom, hope, and power, and then using those gifts to seek and create peace.
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump is trying to take command of his floundering administration by enlisting a retired four-star Marine general as his White House chief of staff, empowering a no-nonsense disciplinarian to transform a dysfunctional West Wing into the "fine-tuned machine" the president has bragged of running but has not yet materialized.

John Kelly will be sworn in Monday at the nadir of Trump's presidency, with historically low approval ratings, a stalled legislative agenda and an escalating Russia investigation that casts a dark cloud.

Trump envisions Kelly executing his orders with military precision and steely gravitas, and without tending to outside political motivations or fretting about palace intrigue, according to Trump confidants. The president replaced Reince Priebus with Kelly, who had what Trump considers a star run as homeland security secretary, in the hope of projecting overall toughness and of inspiring the respect - and even fear - that has eluded him on Capitol Hill, where fellow Republicans last week defied the White House on health care and Russian sanctions.

But no matter how decisive his leadership, Kelly alone cannot turn Trump's vision into reality. Warring internal factions that have stirred chaos, stoked suspicions and freelanced policies for six straight months may not easily submit to Kelly's rule. And the president - whose rash impulses routinely have sabotaged the best efforts of his senior aides - has shown no willingness to be tamed.

"Kelly is an incredibly disciplined person who could bring order to the process if the animals in the zoo behave," said John McLaughlin, a former acting director of the CIA who served in seven administrations. "The danger he has is that Trump will be Trump."

Kelly got a quick introduction to his new life on Saturday: an angry tweet storm from Trump in which he told Senate Republicans to "Get smart!" and change chamber rules to make it easier to pass his priorities, saying that the senators "look like fools."

If Kelly has been recruited to bring order to a turbulent White House, the first decision he must make is where to concentrate his energies.

There is not a single model for White House chiefs of staff, as all are derivative of the president's style and preferences. But broadly, chiefs of staff can be viewed as either managing the president or managing the government, managing up or managing down and out.

In Trump's White House, given the personality of the president and the clashing world views among the senior staff, Kelly might be forced to do both.

"It will be a challenge for someone who has demonstrated great discipline, General Kelly, to be able to introduce President Trump to some of the discipline he should have in the Oval Office," said Andrew Card, who was President George W. Bush's first White House chief of staff. "Great generals do not allow impulse to dictate how they are going to inspire other people to do their jobs. Generals appreciate the consequence of decisions."

No one disputes that Trump's White House lacks discipline. This dynamic was not an accident. It was designed that way by the president-elect during the transition. Experts on government management knew from the minute Trump named Priebus as his first chief of staff and anointed Stephen Bannon as chief strategist with virtual coequal standing that this was going to be a White House with competing power centers.

These days, there are three camps in the Trump White House, factions that sometimes meld: family, represented by daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner; Trump campaign loyalists, including Bannon and counselor Kellyanne Conway; and GOP establishment figures, such as Vice President Pence and other senior aides.

Kelly, who comes from none of those camps, is being grafted onto the existing body. He is well liked by all three factions and has forged a particularly close bond with two members of the Cabinet: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. The three men have formed a rapport as older, calmer presences in Trump's orbit navigating tricky policy directives that frequently overlap.

In the White House, Kelly could form a natural alliance with national security adviser H.R. McMaster, a three-star Army general who has struggled to take full control over the national security process.

As some administration officials texted and called each other Saturday to discuss Kelly, there was widespread angst, since few of them were familiar with his leadership style.

To get a grasp of his personality, people familiar with Kelly urged White House aides and agency leaders to read books by conservative writer Bing West, a retired Marine, who has extensively chronicled Kelly's military tenure in titles such as "The Strongest Tribe" and "The March Up."

One particular scene in "The March Up" was passed around by several Trump associates as a sign of how Kelly operates: tersely and with little tolerance for complaints.

After Kelly saw the bodies of Iraqi civilians alongside a road, West writes, he warned his commanders that so many civilian casualties was not acceptable - a point that prompted a defensive response from the commanders about how they were just trying to protect their troops.

"'Don't go there with me,' [Kelly] shot back, cutting off debate," West writes. "He had been in the infantry thirty years and knew the range of every weapon."

Trump advisers also checked in with friends at the Department of Homeland Security, asking what they had gleaned from Kelly's time there. They shared two immediate takeaways: first, that Kelly had not been directed with a heavy hand from the White House on whom to hire as his deputies, and second, that he is driven by duty and a passion for enforcing the law rather than by ideology.

Throughout his life, Trump has venerated military valor, and he recruited several generals into his administration, including Kelly. He admired Kelly's decisive moves to crack down on illegal immigration and border crime and first sought him out for the chief of staff role in mid-May. Trump was rebuffed multiple times until Kelly agreed this past week to take the job.

Even as confidants suggested other options for chief of staff, Trump kept coming back to Kelly. The collapse this week of the Republican health-care bill sped up the president's timetable to replace Priebus, according to people familiar with the move.

Kelly comes into the post as more of an equal to the president than Priebus, both generationally - Kelly is 67 and Trump is 71, whereas Priebus is 45 - and in stature.

"The kinds of people that Trump particularly likes are people with bucks - money - and braids - the military," said Martha Kumar, director of the White House Transition Project.

Although Kelly does not bring legislative experience, Trump sees him as part of the solution to his administration's legislative woes, according to people familiar with the decision to bring Kelly to the White House. Instead of hiring an insider who would ingratiate himself or herself on Capitol Hill, Trump wanted someone who adds stature and commands respect from congressional leaders, the people said.

Over recent months, Trump concluded that Priebus's close relationship with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., became a hindrance, giving Ryan leverage and insight into the workings of the White House. He resented the suggestion that Priebus was a "Trump whisperer" who had to explain Trump to Ryan and other GOP leaders, these people said.

So far, most of the administration's accomplishments have been overturning or reversing Obama-era policies. But Kumar said Kelly could help reorient the White House around a "positive policy agenda."

When Kelly made the rounds on Capitol Hill before his nomination hearings in January, he did not know Trump very well and asked people there to share stories about the president-elect. He wanted to know how Trump made decisions. Told that Trump relished competing power centers around him, Kelly grimaced and said nothing.

Those who knew Trump before he became president knew that his management approach, short attention span and general lack of discipline were a recipe for trouble. Trump's early transition planners envisioned a White House table of organization that started with a strong chief of staff and that included clear lines of authority and limited direct access to the president.

But Trump got what he wanted: a White House in which the power and influence of individuals ebbed and flowed, with status affected by Trump's aims of the moment, his limited loyalty toward any of those in his employ and the backstabbing that has been a constant feature almost from Day 1.

Trump's transition documents included a lengthy memo about White House structure, based on past administrations. "They didn't follow the product at all," said a person with direct knowledge of what transpired as Trump was setting up his administration. "They did it instinctively . . . The president-elect didn't want to say no to anybody."

The result was the White House that now exists, populated by advisers with competing ideologies that reflect an administration that is an amalgam of populist nationalists, hard-line conservatives and establishment Republicans - and a few Democrats. Trump saw this group as his winning coalition in the presidential campaign and as encompassing his disparate views on the issues, but it has added greatly to the lack of coherence once he took office.

"The only way a chief of staff can be successful is if he is empowered by the president, and I never had any feeling that Reince Priebus was fully empowered by the president," said Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa. "The success of Kelly will be significantly dependent upon how much authority President Trump grants him."

The environment is poised to change in the Kelly era. The new chief of staff is expected to have full control over the Oval Office and schedule, officials said. Trusted aides such as Hope Hicks, Dan Scavino and Keith Schiller - as well as senior advisers such as Kushner, Bannon and Conway - will continue to have casual access to the president.

But Kelly is expected to have a far tighter grip than Priebus was able to exercise on who participates in meetings and the process by which policy decisions are made.

"The vast majority of people who work in the White House are quite competent and quite self-confident," Card said. As chief of staff, he added, "You want to make sure that they recognize that their competence is needed, but their self-confidence should be managed."

One possibility mentioned by Kelly associates as a deputy chief of staff is Christian Marrone, a Republican who served in President Barack Obama's administration as chief of staff to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. Marrone declined to comment.

Many of Trump's top aides chafed at taking instructions from Priebus. When Anthony Scaramucci was hired as communications director this month, he received an assurance from Trump that he would report to the president, not to the chief of staff.

Chris Whipple, author of "The Gatekeepers," a history of White House chiefs of staff, said Kelly's task will be "mission impossible" if his control is not absolute.

"If Scaramucci reports directly to President Trump, therein lies disaster," Whipple said. "You can't have a loose cannon rolling on the deck. Kelly has to make sure he's in charge of the White House staff, in charge of the information flow to the president, and in charge of executing policy. And fundamentally, he's got to be able to go in, close the door, and tell Trump what he does not want to hear."
President Trump was right to defend the West, a civilization which goes back to the Homeric epic and the Hebrew prophets, and having been baptized by Christ, is not the property of any particular race but the universal aspiration of humankind

In an essay for The Atlantic earlier this month, Peter Beinart, an associate professor of journalism and political science at the City University of New York, attacked President Trumps Warsaw speech for its repeated reference to the West and to our civilization. According to Mr. Beinart, President Trump referred to the West ten times during his speech and to our civilization five times. For Mr. Beinart, who evidently shares the racial obsession of most progressives, all such references to the West and to our civilization are racist. He states that Mr. Trumps white nationalist supporters will understand exactly what he means when he uses such terms and that, therefore, its important that other Americans do, too.

Mr. Beinart then proceeds to educate his American readers about what President Trump means by the West and by our civilization. The West is not a geographic term, he informs us, reminding us that Poland is further east than Morocco and that France is further east than Haiti. Continuing the geography lesson, he points out that Australia is further east than Egypt, yet Poland, France, and Australia are all considered part of the West, whereas Morocco, Haiti, and Egypt are not. So far, so good. We are all agreed that the West, in this context, is not merely a geographical thing.

Next Mr. Beinart reminds us that the West is not an ideological or economic term either. India is the worlds largest democracy and Japan is among its most economically advanced nations. And yet, says Mr. Beinart, no one considers them part of the West. This might also seem a point on which we can agree, unless by the West we mean the sort of globalist hegemony in which the G-20, global corporations, the World Bank, and the IMF rule the world in the name of an economically advanced ideology, an ideology which indubitably has its roots in Western political philosophy, albeit a philosophy which is the cankered fruit of a decaying West. In this ideological sense, we can say that Japan and India have become westernized insofar as they embrace the sort of capitalism that leads to global corporatism. Such a view could even be seen as a form of western economic imperialism. Mr. Beinart is not interested in this definition of the West because it precludes his being able to characterize President Trumps use of the word as racist, which is really the point that Mr. Beinart wishes to make.

The West is, Mr. Beinart insists, a racial and religious term: To be considered Western, a country must be largely Christian (preferably Protestant or Catholic) and largely white. Its important at this point in Mr. Beinarts argument that we catch his sleight of hand. With a quick rhetorical change of direction, he will now discuss the racial and the religious as scarcely distinguishable synonyms, an implication which is accentuated by the title of his essay (The Racial and Religious Paranoia of Trumps Warsaw Speech). The implication is that to be religious in an orthodox Christian sense is simultaneously to be racist.

Where there is ambiguity about a countrys Westernness, its because there is ambiguity about, or tension between, these two characteristics. Is Latin America Western? Maybe. Most of its people are Christian, but by U.S. standards, theyre not clearly white. Are Albania and Bosnia Western? Maybe. By American standards, their people are white. But they are also mostly Muslim.

In order to justify this juxtaposition of the racial and the religious, Mr. Beinart reminds us of the influence of Steve Bannon on Trumps civilizational thinking, quoting a 2014 speech by Mr. Bannon in which he celebrated the long history of the Judeo-Christian Wests struggle against Islam and praised our forefathers for having bequeathed to us the great institution that is the church of the West.

Lets look at Mr. Beinarts dexterous sleight of hand a little more closely; in slow motion, so to speak. He is suggesting that the struggle of Christians against the militaristic expansion of Islam from the early middle ages right through to modern times is not merely a struggle for religious and political freedom but is racial. When Charles Martel, way back in 732AD, defeated an Islamist army, which had invaded Spain and most of France during the previous twenty years, advancing as far as Poitiers and Tours, he was not defending Christian civilization from a murderous military invasion but was somehow being a racist. When, almost eight hundred years later, in 1529, the people of Vienna defended their city from the siege placed upon it by the Islamic imperialist, Suleiman the Magnificent, they were not defending their homes and their families, and their faith and their freedom, they were being racist.

And what of the numerous people of impeccably non-white heritage who have fought the good fight for Christendom and have been canonized by the Church as saints? The website Catholic Online (www.catholic.org) lists no fewer than 937 of them. From an orthodox Christian perspective these saints are beacons of the West, the heroes of Christendom. It might be argued by those who are as racially obsessed as Mr. Beinart that some of these so-called black saints were from north Africa and might not be technically black but Arab. From a Christian perspective, it doesnt matter whether they are black, white, or any of forty shades of grey in between. To be of the West is to be part of Christian civilization. Its a question of creed, not of colour. In other words, the juxtaposition of racial and religious is not merely a sleight of hand but an outright lie.

The irony is that Mr. Beinart and his ilk are as religious as the rest of us. Its just that they worship different gods. Every president from George H.W. Bush to Barack Obama emphasized the portability of Americas political and economic principles, enthuses Mr. Beinart. The whole point was that democracy and capitalism were not uniquely Western. They were not the property of any particular religion or race but the universal aspiration of humankind.

In point of fact, contrary to Mr. Beinarts belief, democracy and capitalism are uniquely Western, insofar as they began in the West, though they are not uniquely or originally American as he seems to imply, the former having its origins in ancient Greece and the latter originating in England. They are, however, not applicable to the West alone but have become global phenomena, much as Christendom has become a global phenomenon. Mr. Beinart goes further, applying a proselytizing religious zeal to the principles of democracy and capitalism, which are not the property of any particular religion or race but the universal aspiration of humankind. Whether we are as keen to bend the knee to such abstract Western concepts as those in which Mr. Beinart places his faith, we can agree that the West is for everyone, regardless of any accident of birth. The West, as understood by Christians, is the flowering and flourishing of a civilization which goes back to the Homeric epic and the Hebrew prophets, and having been baptized by Christ, is not the property of any particular race but the universal aspiration of humankind.

President Trump was right to defend such a civilization, even if he doesnt really know what it is, and Mr. Beinart is wrong to accuse him of racism when he does so. It is Mr. Beinart and not Mr. Trump who sees everything in terms of an unhealthy obsession with race, reducing everything to the level of skin colour. Perhaps he should look at the log in his own eye before criticizing the perceived splinter in anyone elses perspective. Once he follows such sound Christian advice, he might stop being the proverbial pot calling the kettle black.

Books on the topic of this essay may be found in The Imaginative Conservative Bookstore. The Imaginative Conservative applies the principle of appreciation to the discussion of culture and politicswe approach dialogue with magnanimity rather than with mere civility. Will you help us remain a refreshing oasis in the increasingly contentious arena of modern discourse? Please consider donating now.
The following members of Catholic Daughters Court Ave Maria No. 1263 attended the State Convention on April 22 and 23 in Kearney: Regent Barbara Bosak, Vice Regent Cindy de la Cruz, Financial Secretary Pat McHugh, Recording Secretary Glenda Stittsworth and Betty Aalborg and Marge Peters. The Court was presented with an award from the Tiny Hands project for being the Nebraska court donating the most money to the project.

At the May 2 meeting Regent Bosak gave a recap of convention matters and the various Circle of Love projects which other Courts are undertaking. The possibility of the Court contributing funds to help pay for religious education for a family who could not afford the fee was discussed.

Shirley Murphy provided the Court with a list of the various legislative bills concerning pro-life matters. Marge Peters had the honor of crowning Mary at the May Crowning ceremony.

The Court led the rosary in honor of the 100th anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima on July 13 and are scheduled to lead the rosary again at 12:05 p.m. Sept. 13 at St. Marys Cathedral.

A motion passed for the Court to contribute to the Cathedrals Capital Campaign over the next three years.

CDA Court Ave Maria No. 1263 meets the first Tuesday of every month at St. Marys Cathedral Square, 112 S. Cedar St.
I just recently learned that you cant pump your own gas in New Jersey and Oregon. I was told this by my friends who live in New Jersey while talking in a voice chat online  and after some friendly ribbing about them being too delicate to pump their own gas, it got me thinking.

The idea of maturity and responsibility is radically different in certain parts of the U.S.

For instance, in most states, the age of majority is 18. However, in Alabama and Nebraska the age is 19  and in Mississippi its 21. This means that you are not legally considered an adult by the state of Nebraska until you are 19, but federally at 18. Weird, huh?

Now, I think for the most part it doesnt mean a whole lot. Im still considered an adult in most private companies and venues at 18. Whether its entirely correct of the venue to do it or not, I have no clue.

What really struck me, though, was that the age to buy tobacco and tobacco products in New Jersey is now 21. This means that even when the individual is legally an adult in New Jersey, they must wait three years before they are legally allowed to smoke. And they will never be able to pump their own gas.

Im not going to get into my own politics too much, but I will point out that in every state it is legal to sign up for the military at age 18. Its an overused and rehashed argument, yes, but I do still find it a tad bit ridiculous that the New Jersey government believes that individuals should be allowed to sign their life away at 18 for a set number of years but not allowed to light a cigarette while doing it.

Gov. Chris Christie was quoted as saying, By raising the minimum age to purchase tobacco products to 21, we are giving young people more time to develop a maturity and better understanding of how dangerous smoking can be and that it is better to not start smoking in the first place.

The minimum commitment time for the Coast Guard, Air Force and Marine Corps is four years. Active Reserve and National Guard usually require a minimum of six. This is a very long time when someone has only lived 18 years. In fact, if the individual signs on for the Active Reserve or National Guard, it will have been 25 percent of their life thus far taken up by that signing. They would be released at 24.

On the other hand, cigarettes take up seven to eight years of the smokers life on average (according to tobaccofactfile.org). However, the average life expectancy in the U.S. is about 79 years. So, at the age of 71, they would be dealing with the final repercussions of smoking. That would have taken up 11.27 percent of their life total, and arguably negligible amounts whilst smoking. The National Guard would have taken up about 7.59 percent of their total life.

Not to say that those comparisons are anywhere near comparable, or whether I should have even made them. Dying from smoking and being in the National Guard isnt the point I am trying to get across. What I want to show from these comparisons is that the justification for it is ridiculous. One cannot possibly say without a shred of irony that we must give young people more time to choose something that will really start to affect them in the long run, but continue to allow them to sign up for programs that will have taken up a quarter of their life once released.

This is not an argument for tobacco, nor an argument against our military. I just enjoy pointing out hypocrisy. Please do not take any of this the wrong way. Ive gone over my limit for writing, so I will end it with: Thank you for reading.
Stuhr Museum is in its 50th year of operations and the community came together to celebrate its birthday Sunday.

About 1,000 people came out to the museum to see the exhibits in the Stuhr Building, Railroad Town and enjoy ice cream at an ice cream social. Executive Director Joe Black said an event like this helps introduce people to the museum and exposes them to what it has to offer.

What we wanted to do was have a nice weekend where people could come out and enjoy the fruits of what Leo Stuhr planted here 50 years ago, Black said. Its not just the beautiful Stuhr Building. It is not just Railroad Town. It is great exhibits, hand-on history, classes and everything people have done throughout the years at Stuhr coming to life in one weekend.

He said events were held at Stuhr Museum throughout the weekend, including Merit Badge University that attracted more than 600 Boy Scouts and a Masonic rededication of the cornerstone of the Stuhr Building. On Sunday, there was a demonstration by artist Todd Williams, whose Painting the Legacy exhibit, featuring paintings representing all 93 counties in Nebraska, is displayed in the Stuhr Building.

He is doing a demonstration of how he paints and why he paints, Black said. People can learn the hows and whys of that beautiful exhibit as well.

All of the Stuhr Museum visitors who spoke with The Independent at Sundays event said the main reason they came out to Sundays event was to see Williams demonstration and exhibit.

Dan and Jan Novotny of Grand Island said they were impressed with the exhibit and called Stuhr Museum a marvelous venue to display the paintings.

One of my favorite paintings is of the Hamilton County Courthouse, Jan said, pointing to the painting displayed in the exhibit. It shows classic architecture and is beautifully done.

Don Christensen of Wolbach said he attended the Stuhr Museums 50th birthday event to see Williams painting demonstration. He added he was attracted to the demonstration after participating in a workshop conducted by Williams.

I enjoyed it. I had an excellent time, Christensen said. This is the second workshop Ive done with him. Now Ive done two oil paintings and Ive done them both in his workshop.

Monica Fisher said after seeing an NET program on the Painting the Legacy exhibit, she wanted to see the paintings of all 93 counties in Nebraska, as not all of them were shown on TV.

Christensen said he has visited Stuhr Museum before and is fascinated by how the museum keeps with the look of the old days. He said he comes to Stuhr Museum due to the programs it provides.

Fisher echoed that comment, saying the museums atmosphere is what keeps her coming back.

Theres a lot of changes, she said. Weve noticed some buildings we never saw before. Its been a while since weve been here. We also like to visit the Green Mill equipment that came from our hometown. They brought it out of the building in Clarkson and brought it here to Grand Island.

The Novotnys said, as Grand Island natives, they have been to Stuhr Museum before and continue to visit it.

Its a nice showcase of pioneer history and Hall Countys history, Jan said. We enjoy Stuhr Museum.

Black credited the museums 50 years of success to not only the museums board, staff and volunteers, but also the Hall County Board of Supervisors, donors and the community.

They have all helped us go from an idea to 200 acres and over 100 buildings, he said. It truly has been a community effort to get us where we are. We are very proud of what weve done in those 50 years and what weve turned into.
Dear Abby: I am a Yale-trained pediatric nurse with a post-master's as a psychiatric nurse practitioner. I respectfully ask that you retract your answer to "First-Time Mom in New Jersey" (June 21). I'm concerned your response will encourage other mothers to buy into the incorrect assumption that it's "impolite" to ask questions that ensure their child's safety.

You should have encouraged and empowered "First-Time Mom" to politely ask about the presence of weapons in the other parents' homes, and if so, how they are stored. It's important information for her to have.

If she has every playdate at her house and refuses to go to another home because she's afraid to ask about gun safety, eventually the other mothers will pick up on the fact that she doesn't trust their child-rearing capabilities, but won't know why. If these potential friends don't have unsecured firearms, or if they do and they are properly and safely stored, your advice will prevent healthy, honest friendships from developing, which will socially isolate her.

How will she ever ensure a break for herself by allowing and encouraging her child to socialize at another trusted mother's home she knows to be safe? Your advice will only isolate "First-Time Mom" further and put her and her toddler at great risk.

-- Colleen M. Sullivan, Rn, Msn, Cpnp

Dear Colleen: Of course you are right. The woman's question wasn't about etiquette. It was about child safety. A large number of readers besides you agreed my perspective was off. I have heard all of you loud and clear, and I apologize.

I SHOULD have advised: "You are responsible for your child's welfare. Part of assuring her safety involves asking whether weapons are on the premises and, if so, what safety precautions have been taken. (The same is true for prescription drugs, swimming pools, caustic chemicals and foods to which your child is allergic.) You should also ask if the children will be under parental supervision at all times. If anyone feels concern for your child's safety is presumptuous, do not allow your child to play there. Suggest instead that the children play at your house."

Read on for more perspectives:

Dear Abby: I am a pediatrician and a mother. Your advice to "First-Time Mom" about gun safety runs counter to the recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics as well as numerous gun violence protection groups.

Research shows that guns are present in one in three homes, and that one in three of those guns is kept loaded and unlocked, posing a risk to children. This is why I routinely recommend that parents inquire about the presence of guns and storage methods at the homes their children visit. I also urge them to discuss with their CHILD the importance of never touching a gun and immediately notifying an adult if they come across a gun or are shown one by another child.

-- Jessica Mowry, M.D.

Dear Abby: Probably the toughest call a cop has is a shooting where one child gets ahold of a loaded, unsecured gun and accidentally kills his sibling in child's play. As an adjunct professor in criminal justice, I ask my students how many of them know someone who was involved in a gun suicide, homicide, assault, accident or other crime. Typically, one-third of the hands go up.

Parents should be able to politely ask whether a gun is in a house where their children regularly play. Sometimes the owners are not as responsible as they should be.

-- Chester J. Kulis, Illinois

Readers: More on this subject tomorrow. It's important, so stay tuned.

***

To receive a collection of Abby's most memorable -- and most frequently requested -- poems and essays, send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $7 to: Dear Abby -- Keepers Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. Shipping and handling are included in the price.
President Trump has reached a moment of reckoning, says Sen. Lindsey Graham, the Republican from South Carolina. And he is correct.

The issue is a program created by President Obama called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, which protects immigrants who were brought to this country illegally as youngsters and have lived here ever since.

Since its inception in 2012, the program has been a huge success, enabling about 780,000 young immigrants  often called Dreamers  to obtain drivers licenses and work permits, go to school, join the military and contribute both their energy and their taxes to their adopted country. Even Trump, who once vowed to repeal DACA on the campaign trail, has called Dreamers incredible kids.

But last month, in a particularly vicious and venal act, 10 Republican state attorneys general wrote to the administration demanding that DACA be rescinded. They threatened to sue if the president didnt cave to their demands by Sept. 5.

In response, Graham and Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Democratic whip, introduced legislation to make DACA permanent. To President Trump, youre going to have to make a decision, Graham said. The campaign is over. To the Republican Party: Who are we? What do we believe? When they write the history of these times, Im going to be with these kids.

So are we. And so are many Americans from both parties, who reject the nativist mania behind the AGs ultimatum. In an editorial, The Wall Street Journal pointed out the folly of rescinding DACA and deporting Dreamers, stating that these AGs would dedicate scarce enforcement resources to going door-to-door in a University of Texas dorm, terrorizing hard-working, law-abiding students.

The better solution is for Congress to rewrite national immigration law to recognize reality, including that it isnt a political winner to deport people brought to the country as 5-year-olds, said the Journal.

That is the better solution, but an unlikely one. The congressional calendar is crowded and the prospects for bipartisanship, on this or any issue, are pretty dim. Meanwhile, the deadline set by the attorneys general is fast approaching.

So the moment of reckoning is up to the president. What he should do is announce, once and for all, that he will preserve DACA and let those incredible kids get on with their lives, without the fear of deportation hanging over their heads.

Such a position would be a political winner. A CNN poll last March found that only 13 percent of Americans believe that deporting undocumented immigrants should be the governments top priority. Sixty percent said the main objective should be developing a plan to allow those in the U.S. illegally who have jobs to become legal residents.

But politics is only one argument. Economists have consistently agreed that immigrants  particularly young, job-holding, tax-paying immigrants  contribute far more to the economy than they cost. Ike Brannon, a researcher at libertarian think tank The Cato Institute, has concluded that deporting the Dreamers would require $60 billion; their absence from the country would reduce economic growth by an additional $280 billion over the next decade.

The left-leaning Center for American Progress concludes that the cost of ending DACA would be even greater: $433 billion in lost economic activity. Philip E. Wolgin, a co-author of the study, described the Dreamers fiscal value to Politico: Their ability to now work legally has meant that theyve been able to be more economically productive and create more economic growth for the areas that they live in.

Then theres the moral imperative. The Dreamers signed up in good faith and willingly gave personal information to the government. For the government now to use that information to locate and deport them would be a profound breach of trust.

Sen. Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, says that for the Dreamers, ending DACA would be just a stunning undermining of their ability to contribute to the country they know and love.

On what planet does it make any sense to defy every rational argument  political, economic and moral  and purge the country of these productive and patriotic residents?

Abrogating DACA, and endangering Dreamers, would send devastating messages to the rest of the world: America does not keep its promises. America does not understand, nor does it act on, its own self-interest. America is no longer a moral beacon that lives by its own values.

President Trump keeps saying he wants to make America great again. Heres a chance, a moment of reckoning, for him to keep that promise.
WASHINGTON  Transparency, thy name is Trump, Donald Trump. No filter, no governor, no editor lies between his impulses and his public actions. He tweets, therefore he is.

Ronald Reagan was so self-contained and impenetrable that his official biographer was practically driven mad trying to figure him out. Donald Trump is penetrable, hourly.

Never more so than during his ongoing war on his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions. Trump has been privately blaming Sessions for the Russia cloud. But rather than calling him in to either work it out or demand his resignation, Trump has engaged in a series of deliberate public humiliations.

Day by day, he taunts Sessions, attacking him for everything from not firing the acting FBI director (which Trump could do himself in an instant) to not pursuing criminal charges against Hillary Clinton.

What makes the spectacle so excruciating is that the wounded Sessions plods on, refusing the obvious invitation to resign his dream job, the capstone of his career.

Trump relishes such a cat-and-mouse game and, by playing it so openly, reveals a deeply repellent vindictiveness in the service of a pathological need to display dominance.

Dominance is his game. Doesnt matter if you backed him, as did Chris Christie, cast out months ago. Or if you opposed him, as did Mitt Romney, before whom Trump ostentatiously dangled the State Department, only to snatch it away, leaving Romney looking the foolish supplicant.

Yet the Sessions affair is more than just a study in character. It carries political implications. It has caused the first crack in Trumps base. Not yet a split, mind you. The base is simply too solid for that. But amid his 35 to 40 percent core support, some are peeling off, both in Congress and in the pro-Trump commentariat.

The issue is less characterological than philosophical. As Stephen Hayes of The Weekly Standard put it, Sessions was the original Trumpist  before Trump. Sessions championed hard-line trade, law enforcement and immigration policy long before Trump rode these ideas to the White House.

For many conservatives, Sessions early endorsement of Trump served as an ideological touchstone. And Sessions has remained stalwart in carrying out Trumpist policies at Justice. That Trump could, out of personal pique, treat him so rudely now suggests to those conservatives how cynically expedient was Trumps adoption of Sessions ideas in the first place.

But beyond character and beyond ideology lies the most appalling aspect of the Sessions affair  reviving the idea of prosecuting Clinton.

In the 2016 campaign, there was nothing more disturbing than crowds chanting lock her up, often encouraged by Trump and his surrogates. After the election, however, Trump reconsidered, saying he would not pursue Clinton who went through a lot and suffered greatly.

Now under siege, Trump has jettisoned magnanimity. Maybe she should be locked up after all.

This is pure misdirection. Even if every charge against Clinton were true and she got 20 years in the clink, it would change not one iota of the truth  or falsity  of the charges of collusion being made against the Trump campaign.

Moreover, in America we dont lock up political adversaries. They do that in Turkey. They do it (and worse) in Russia. Part of American greatness is that we dont criminalize our politics.

Last week, Trump spoke at the commissioning of the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier. Ford was no giant. Nor did he leave a great policy legacy. But he is justly revered for his decency and honor. His great gesture was pardoning Richard Nixon, an act for which he was excoriated at the time and which cost him the 1976 election.

It was an act of political self-sacrifice, done for precisely the right reason. Nixon might indeed have committed crimes. But the spectacle of an ex-president on trial and perhaps even in jail was something Ford would not allow the country to go through.

In doing so, he vindicated the very purpose of the presidential pardon. On its face, its perverse. It allows one person to overturn equal justice. But the Founders understood that there are times, rare but vital, when social peace and national reconciliation require contravening ordinary justice. Ulysses S. Grant amnestied (technically: paroled) Confederate soldiers and officers at Appomattox, even allowing them to keep a horse for the planting.

In Trump World, the better angels are not in evidence.

To be sure, Trump is indeed examining the pardon power. For himself and his cronies.
Nearly every Sunday after mass, my family encounters a homeless woman on the walk to our car.

She sits on a park bench between the church and the parking lot and asks conscience-laden churchgoers passing by for money.

Were I suddenly to find myself in a difficult personal situation, my church community  any faith community for that matter  is one place to which I would turn, too. Studies confirm that people of faith are significantly more charitable than secular or non-religious people.

But charity doesnt always take the form of dollars and cents.

When asked during an interview this year about what our response should be to beggars, Pope Francis replied, Help is always right.

It certainly is.

But this womans perennial presence on that park bench suggests her situation is not temporary, is not improving and that monetary handouts from churchgoers isnt providing the real help she needs.

Like many cities, Fort Worth, where I live, has grappled with how  and if  to regulate panhandling.

Earlier this year, the city council banned aggressive panhandling and even briefly considered ticketing people who give money to beggars.

The latter measure was withdrawn from consideration, as it raised constitutional concerns about limits on personal monetary decisions, but it provoked other important questions about our moral responsibility to the people we encounter on the street.

While there are some beggars who are overly aggressive, exploitative and whose tales of woe are transparently false, we can assume that many people asking for money are, in fact, desperate and authentically in need of assistance.

But in such cases, is giving money to a panhandler helpful or harmful? Does it satisfy a moral good?

Weve all heard the stories of panhandlers who have used their street earnings to feed an addiction.

Several years ago, I encountered a woman whose alcoholism rendered her homeless for a lengthy period of her life. After years of begging, she recovered, no thanks to the money she acquired on the street, which she insisted only fueled her drinking. I went straight to the liquor store every time, she said.

A priest I know, who is a former social worker, once chastised a congregant for giving cash to a panhandler when they were at lunch one afternoon. Dont do that. It wont help, he warned, speaking from his experience working with the poor for years in New York City.

For many of us, a street handout is an easy way to satisfy our conscience.

Still, its legitimate, even necessary, to wonder if our charity is ignoring or contributing to a larger problem.

If our consciences dictate that we must help, there are many ways to do it, some of which do not involve cash at all.

Most people on the street ask for money, but many of them have other basic needs that are easy to satisfy.

Its sometimes as simple as directing them to a charity or organization you support that can connect them with services they need.

You could carry cards with the address and phone number for Catholic Charities or any of the numerous providers whose mission is to help people get back on their feet.

Offering necessities like sunscreen, toothpaste, wet wipes and even some nonperishable food items should be welcomed by a person in true need.

If carrying such items isnt practical, carrying gift cards to grocery stores or restaurants is. Giving them out in lieu of money is one way of helping to ensure your donation is put to good use.

If time is not an issue, offering to purchase a meal for someone is a way to help, and it provides the opportunity to talk with and listen to the person.

Many times, listening and empathy is as needed as the meal itself.

How best to provide help is personal decision, one that need never involve money, but one that should always be performed in a way preserves the dignity of the person being helped. That means, engaging them, asking their name, and looking them in the eye  even if theyve asked you for money most Sundays for the last year.
Sanitek Armenia says that the amount of garbage its hauled from Yerevan streets has increased 10% in the past two months.

The increase is most likely due to the summer increase in tourists travelling to the capital of Armenia.

The company, a branch of Sanitek International Group, says that it collects and hauls 1,000-1,100 tons of garbage daily, up from 900-1,000 in 2016.
Why?: What Makes Us Curious

By Mario Livio

Simon & Schuster. 252 pp. $26

---

What is it that compels us not only to gaze at the stars but also to build the technology to reach out to them, study them, understand them? It is, of course, that mysterious, powerful force of curiosity that is with us from infancy, blossoms in childhood and persists throughout our lives. Plenty of animals show a keen interest in objects and situations. But in "Why?," astrophysicist Mario Livio argues that humans are the only species to ask not just what, where or who, but also why.

This wide-ranging investigation is no humanist's dalliance into wonder and whimsy. Commanded by Livio, who worked on the Hubble Space Telescope, the topic is treated with a physicist's sensibility. Examples (Leonardo da Vinci, Richard Feynman) are put under the microscope, the science (fMRIs, neurotransmitters) is assessed, and hypotheses (doscientists consider themselves curious?) are tested. Livio has the credentials for taking on this unwieldy subject, having authored numerous popular-science books ("The Golden Ratio," "Is God a Mathematician?" and "Brilliant Blunders," among others), and is apparently plenty familiar with the topic (the first line of the book is: "I have always been a very curious person").

His research roves broadly, from historical documents and technical studies to personal interviews. But the result is rather stilted, yoked to the cult of individual scientific genius, embellished with umoored quotations from Western thinkers and delivered in a tone that often reads as didactic. The reader feels less like a fellow discoverer than an undergraduate in lecture.

Like any notable instructor, Livio includes some fascinating tidbits along the way. Perhaps the most interesting and useful segment delves into the role of curiosity in learning and memory. Participants in one study were asked to rate how interested they were in learning the answers to various questions on a list. They were then shown the questions, one by one, followed by the corresponding answer. But the answer was not delivered instantaneously. The subjects sat through a waiting period, during which they saw a brief image of a random face. Later, an unexpected memory test showed that people best recalled the faces shown when they were waiting for an answer they had been particularly eager to know. The lesson: Stay curious, remember more.

The curiosity memory boost involves a partnership between the brain's learning and reward systems. The hippocampus, which is associated with learning, and the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is linked to pleasure, were activated together in a range of studies on the physiological underpinnings of curiosity. "In other words," Livio writes, "the desire to learn produces its own internal rewards."

This reward, at times, proves too enticing to Livio himself. He often starts into a promising line of narrative but then quickly veers off to insert a tangential fact, quote or reference before moving on to something else entirely. As a result, the reader must move through a scree field of asides, which have apparently tumbled down from some great unseen monolith of the author's mind.

This tendency gains a brief reprieve when Livio leaves the scientific literature behind to probe curiosity in living people: paleontologist Jack Horner, rock band Queen's lead guitarist and astrophysicist Brian May, CERN Director General Fabiola Gianotti and several others. We learn that Horner is largely self-taught, May collects Victorian-era stereophotography and Gianotti received her first degree in music. Although composed of fascinating individuals, his sample leaves something to be desired: Each person is famous, all but two are scientists, and most of them are fellow physicists. It leaves the reader to wonder: Is an impressive accomplishment, unexpected interest or second career the exclusive domain of the rarefied, "very curious person"?

Livio's elevation of the high-profile scientist as a different breed backs up his premise that "people are not equally curious." Furthermore, he surmises that "curiosity requires certain cognitive abilities . . . governed to a significant degree by genetic inheritance." He does ultimately add the much-needed acknowledgement that superstar curiosity is often not attainable for those in dire situations, such as refugees and residents of repressive regimes (Livio's own parents fled Romania during World War II). Left out of his picture, however, is the majority of humankind, who live neither in a state of constant threat nor in the academic world: those of us who find curiosity in the people and things around us and in the details of our work and hobbies that will never be written up in Science or Rolling Stone. By exalting the few, he undercuts the true beauty of curiosity, which is that it is one thing that truly unites and ignites us as humans.

But he rescues his book with an unexpected moral call that is worth listening to: "Curiosity," he writes, "is the best remedy for fear."

We now have an unprecedented ability to quench our curiosity about the specific. Nevertheless, fear of the broad unknown - often in the guise of protectionism or hatred - remains. Curiosity is an overlooked catalyst that can turn such detrimental potential energy into true human progress - which can take us to the stars and beyond.

---

Harmon Courage is a science writer and the author of "Octopus! The Most Mysterious Creature in the Sea" and "Cultured," a forthcoming book about cuisine and the microbiome.
"The Blinds"

By Adam Sternbergh

HarperCollins. 400 pp. $26.99

---

Adam Sternbergh's eerie new novel is set in a strange community where 50 criminals live in cinder-block bungalows surrounded by a 14-foot fence on the arid plains of west Texas. They call their grim little world the Blinds, perhaps to suggest the blind leading the blind. The inmates are given books, booze and meals but denied telephones, mail or visitors, and a sheriff with a dime-store badge keeps the peace.

The residents of the Blinds are unique in that, as part of an experiment in rehabilitation, all their criminal memories have been erased. They know they've been bad, but they don't know how. Although free to leave, they stay because they fear that the law, or perhaps old enemies, might await them outside the fence. Life may be dull as dishwater in the Blinds, but it's safe.

As this story begins, a resident named Errol Colfax kills himself with a gun he wasn't supposed to have. Next, Hubert Humphrey Gable is shot to death in the Blinds' grubby little bar. The easy-going sheriff, Calvin Cooper, investigates this outburst of violence without success. Cal is a likable sort, but he has his secrets.

We meet others. Fran Adams is one of the few women in the Blinds and the mother of its only child, a boy of 8. She and Cal once were lovers, and he hopes to persuade her to leave so the boy can have a normal life. Cal has a deputy who was a battered wife before she took refuge in the Blinds. Dr. Judy Holliday, the elegant scientist who dreamed up the experiment, adds more mystery to the tale.

(If some of these names seem odd, it's because, to promote anonymity, arrivals to the Blinds must choose a new name from two lists, one of movie stars and another of former vice presidents. Thus we meet the likes of Lyndon Lancaster, Spiro Mitchum and Marilyn Roosevelt. The author, like certain of his characters, has a few quirks.)

The violence grows. The sheriff confronts one man with his criminal record - "A litany of unimaginable perversion" - only to have the man, who has no memory of his crimes, insist, "That's not me." Cal, unconvinced, shoots him dead.

Another resident, cruelly beaten as a child, responds at age 15 by murdering his abusive father and then, when she protests, his mother. He thus began a long career as a professional killer: "The truth is, once you've killed your parents, there's no one in the world you can't kill," the author notes. This formidable fellow fights a duel to the death with another psychopath, a newcomer whose body is covered with the tattooed faces of the 23 men, women and children he has slain. Amazingly enough, readers may find themselves rooting for the less loathsome of the two.

A celebrated California billionaire, poised to run for president, sends well-armed killers to the Blinds to eliminate one-time underlings who know too much. The once-placid community's dusty streets are soon soaked with blood. Can Cal, who's down to his last bullet, stop the slaughter?

Sternbergh's characters are intriguing, his plot is suspenseful and his outlook is endearingly dark. Nice moments flash by, such as this snapshot of Cal: "A half-drunk bottle is on the table before him, and the half-drunk Cooper contemplates it." Abruptly, he seizes the bottle and toasts himself: "Here's to the person you might have been, and to the person you have become. May they never meet in a dark alley."

What is the author telling us, as he parades these deplorables before our eyes? One hint arrives near the novel's end, when the enigmatic Dr. Holliday says to Cal, "The minds of the innocent are simple and so easily explained. The minds of the guilty, however - they are endlessly fascinating."

For Sternbergh, culture editor of New York magazine and author of "Shovel Ready," just about all our minds are guilty and thus potentially fascinating, if not homicidal. Readers who share his dim view of humankind can embrace "The Blinds" as naughty fun, but it can also be viewed as a meditation on the ubiquity of evil. Read it and weep. Or laugh. Or both. Sternbergh is an original, grandly irreverent writer.

---

Anderson writes regularly about thrillers and mysteries for The Washington Post.
What She Ate: Six Remarkable Women and the Food That Tells Their Stories"

By Laura Shapiro

Viking.

320 pp. $27

---

That this reviewer, a food writer and lifelong cookbook collector, opened a book titled "What She Ate: Six Remarkable Women and the Food That Tells Their Stories" with a slightly weary sigh suggests that our appetite for food narratives might be close to sated. That after reading food historian Laura Shapiro's bracing first essay I devoured the rest of her book in one sitting suggests that there's plenty of room left for work like Shapiro's.

Food writing is often unrigorous, more emotional than cerebral. But Shapiro approaches her subject like a surgeon, analytic tools sharpened. The result is a collection of essays that are tough, elegant and fresh.

Shapiro starts from the premise that "everyday meals constitute a guide to human character" and composes her portraits by poring over grocery lists, diaries and third-person accounts of sometimes abysmal dinner parties. Of the figures she chose to profile, only two had completely healthy relationships with food. Rosa Lewis, the Edwardian-era caterer whose life inspired the BBC series "The Duchess of Duke Street," rose from Cockney scullery maid to fixture of the British aristocracy on the strength of her turtle soup and truffles boiled in champagne. Shapiro's sketch of this salty character doubles as a concise social-culinary history of early-20th-century London.

The British novelist Barbara Pym also used food to advance her career. Pym enjoyed teasing out the connections between table and character, as does Shapiro, who traces the jottings in Pym's diaries to the meals of roast duckling and blancmange that vivify her sly, undersung tales of vicars and spinsters.

But many of the possible uses and meanings of food are less wholesome. The other women in this book variously gorged on, weaponized, disdained and feared food. What did these dysfunctions say about their lives? Shapiro's opening essay on the poet and diarist Dorothy Wordsworth is a dazzler, a work of inspired literary sleuthing. Shapiro reconstructs Wordsworth's youth via the repeated, offhand references to food in her early diaries ("I made bread & A wee Rhubarb Tart & batter pudding"), which she likens to "the gently recurring rhymes in a sonnet." Wordsworth began her adult life cooking simple, delicious meals for her brother, the Romantic poet William, with whom she was extremely (some have said incestuously) close. But after William's marriage, Wordworth gradually settled into the often thankless role of the family's "all-purpose spinster."The cheerful food allusions grew scanter and grimmer until they stopped altogether. Wordsworth found a way to rebel, though. Shapiro's account of the final chapter of Wordworth's eating life is too chilling to spoil here.

Shapiro has less success getting inside the pretty head of Eva Braun, Adolf Hitler's mistress, but we probably aren't missing much: Braun's head appears to have been empty. Shapiro shows us a vapid, childlike woman who ate very little in order to stay slender. She appears as a decorative charmer, champagne flute in hand, fluttering around Hitler at his banquets, softening the face of the Third Reich straight to the end. Shortly before her death, holed up in the Berlin bunker with Hitler and his henchmen, she was still keeping up appearances, and brightly offered cake and Moet et Chandon to an astonished visitor.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, Eleanor Roosevelt was ensuring that everyone who dined at the White House endured an epically dreadful meal. If all you ever read about the former first lady is this essay, the strongest in the book, you'll understand her strengths and vulnerabilities, as well as the possibly subconscious ways she used food to channel her resentments. Upon arriving at the White House, Roosevelt installed "the most reviled cook in presidential history" and refused ever to fire her. For the next 12 years, the Roosevelts sat down daily to leathery roasts, watery vegetables and atrocities such as "Eggs Mexican," a melange of fried eggs, bananas and rice. Shapiro builds a strong case that Roosevelt hired and kept this incompetent cook to spite and punish her husband for his inattention and affairs.

Indeed, the only dish in this book that sounds as revolting as Eggs Mexican is Helen Gurley Brown's version of hot buttered rum. It called for Butter Buds, a packet of Equal, rum and hot water. Cheers?

For Brown, the editor of Cosmopolitan magazine from 1965 to 1997, fat was disgraceful and calories a diabolical force to be resisted at all costs. Shapiro didn't have to dig deep to uncover Brown's pathology as Brown, a self-described "grown-up anorectic," crowed about it constantly: "I have dumped champagne (which I adore) into other people's glasses when they weren't looking or, in a real emergency, into a split-leaf philodendron, wrapped eclairs in a hanky and put them in my purse, once in an emergency, sequestered one behind the cushion of an upholstered chair - in a napkin of course."

Napkin or no, that was a rotten thing to do to someone's chair. But for Brown, thinness trumped etiquette. She emerges as both formidably accomplished and, literally, stunted. Shapiro doesn't delve into the ways that Brown, unlike the other women in the book, inflicted her food obsessions on the culture at large. This might have been worth a few pages. For decades, Cosmo was displayed at supermarket checkout stands to be studied by waiting children and adults alike. Brown's nearly naked models and lurid coverlines juxtaposing sex and slenderness helped shape - or perhaps the right word is warp - a generation's attitude toward food and the female body.

Indeed, Brown would be a sorry figure with which to end this splendid book if the very existence of this book were not evidence that the values she touted have shifted. While thinness is still prized, more forgiving standards of beauty have been embraced since Brown's heyday. And a vibrant food culture has burgeoned, one that has spawned a rich body of literature to which "What She Ate" is just the latest addition.

---

Reese, the author of "Make the Bread, Buy the Butter," writes the Tipsy Baker food blog.
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Linkedin EDITORIAL (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, July 31, 2017 07:53 1930 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aadb620 4 Editorial #Editorial,Perppu,#Perppu,HTI,Hizbut-Tahrir-Indonesia,mass-organizations,caliphate,Islamic-caliphate,democracy,#Democracy Free

And the witch-hunt begins. The threat of the dismissal of university lecturers accused of having links to Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI) harks back to the 1960s witch-hunt against anyone associated with communists, along with similar crackdowns on reds across the United States.

With this new weapon, the new rule banning mass organizations deemed incompatible with the Pancasila state ideology, the government has banned HTI, which campaigns for a caliphate.

Recently, Research, Technology and Higher Education Minister Muhammad Nasir said state-employed lecturers who were HTI members would be sent three written warnings, each valid for 30 days, to leave the organization or be fired.

Home Minister Tjahjo Kumolo said regional heads must identify any official with HTI links. Jakarta Governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat suggested civil servants linked to HTI or similar groups should have their citizenship revoked.

Many of us cheer the governments firmness on HTI and like-minded groups who preach that a caliphate would solve all worldly problems.

No thanks, we prefer the option where no one can hide behind a God. But commitment to democracy faces a test with the instincts to crush HTI and its supporters.

Clearly, we havent learned from history, when the state and the army, helped massively by the people egged on by religious figures, hunted down reds among students, educators, neighbors and even family members.

Hundreds of thousands were arbitrarily arrested and executed; others vanished. Their offspring remain stigmatized.

The role of campuses in the past witchhunt came to light after testimonies presented at the International Peoples Tribunal on the 1965 events last year at The Hague in the Netherlands, where several elderly exiles, including former students, have died.

As we have yet to resolve this ugly chapter, can we guarantee the traumatic events will not recur? True, we will not likely go around butchering people in the name of Pancasila.

Still, jumping on the witchhunt bandwagon is tempting, given the mad savagery of the Islamic State (IS) movement, which also appeals to Indonesians outside HTI. But with the possibility of HTI members going underground, a more effective option might be to strengthen our democracy and the critical thinking of our citizens. Besides, crushing anyone today is futile. A Gadjah Mada University (UGM) lecturer who is on the list immediately expressed defiance, saying that his preaching would continue despite the ban.

The attraction will remain for simple solutions with little need to think, with blind trust in the authorities monopolizing interpretation of the law of God. Todays distress in facing growing extremism exposes us to similar yearnings for quick solutions.

However, what is needed is strong leadership in protecting all citizens. Law enforcers should no longer stand by as vigilantes intimidate anyone seen as infidels, just because leaders fear upsetting Islamists.

Critical citizens will not be fooled into defending God or the religious fervors of nationalism.
How many hours a day are your cows not in their home pen? Taking a closer look into your milking herds daily schedule is an important management step. An article by Lisa Holden in the Penn State Dairy Digest dives into the negative impacts of cows not following the ideal itinerary for their day. More than 3.7 hours away from their pen leads to cows not reaching their maximum performance level, research from a study in the Journal of Dairy Science shows.

Ideal schedule

Cows love routine and are content doing the same thing each day. They need to have their 24-hour day budgeted correctly with hours in the day allocated to certain activities to be the most productive. According to research by Grant and Albright, a cow (living in a freestall barn) prefers to spend its day with the following routine:

 12 to 14 hours resting

 3 to 5 hours eating

 7 to 10 hours ruminating (while standing and lying)

 30 minutes drinking water

 2 to 3 hours of social interaction

 Leaving 2.5 to 3.5 hours for outside of the pen activities (milking)

Evaluate

If your cows are not following the above schedule very closely, they may not have enough time in their home pen for much needed rest and relaxation. Analyze the parlor flow and how well the cows move through the milking routine.

Changing parts of the routine that are slowing things down may improve the milking time, if your herd is spending too much time outside of their pen. Holden emphasized in her article that it is important to understand that time away from the pen includes the time when the first cow goes to get milked to when her herdmate is the last one to return back after that milking shift.





Elise Regusci grew up on her family's farm in Modesto, Calif. Regusci attends Cal Poly University, majoring in dairy science with an agricultural communication minor. On campus, she is the Los Lecheros Dairy Club Ag Council representative and a member of the Cal Poly dairy judging team. Regusci is the current Brown Swiss Youth Ambassador and is the 2017 Hoard's Dairyman summer editorial intern.
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Linkedin Inforial (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta, Indonesia  Tue, August 1, 2017

LEAD MAIN: Chilean wine and Italian cuisine blend together to make a perfect match.

Wine pairing has always been a favorite activity for wine connoisseurs, matching the right wine with the right food in order to enhance their palatial enjoyment and bring it to a higher level. Different types of wine have different flavor nuances depending on their terroir, a French term referring to the set of environmental factors that affect a crops characteristics, including soil quality and climate conditions.

Chilean wine is quite unique because of Chiles diverse geographical condition, resulting in different varieties of wine flavors depending on where the winery is located. Therefore, Chilean wine is suitable to be paired with different types of foods.

Recently, Shangri-La Hotel Jakartas Rosso Restaurant explored the possibilities of Chilean wine by conducting a wine-and-dine event with Concha y Toro, a Chilean wine brand distributed by PT Mega Beverindo and sold by the popular VIN+ wine store. Organized in the evening of July 14 in the restaurant, the event brought Chilean wine and Italian food together.

- (-/-)

Participated in by approximately 65 people, the function featured a six-course menu prepared by Rossos Italian chef Gianfranco Pirrone, paired with Concha y Toros best wine, Marques de Casa Concha.

Concha y Toro is a winery that was founded in 1883 in Chile, one of the first wineries to be established in the country. It consist of a number of vineyards that total 8,720 hectares in size and are spread throughout the countrys major wine regions, namely Maipo, Maule, Rapel, Colchagua, Curico and Casablanca.

Chile is a unique country. You can find almost all the climates here and Marques explores the diversity of Chile, the wine varieties that this place produce, Concha y Toro Asia Zone Wine Ambassador Pablo Pressac told The Jakarta Post before the wine-and-dine event.

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He pointed to several examples of how the flavors of the Marques wine varied according to the place where its grapes grow.

For instance, the chardonnay is very fresh as it grows near the ocean, with lots of minerals from the soil. The syrah, meanwhile, which grows 450 kilometers south of the chardonnay, is a red wine that is very powerful with a full body, he explained.

According to Pessac, they have decided to pair the Chilean wine with Italian foods for the occasion because Italian cuisine is very popular in Jakarta.

Basically, however, the wines could also be paired with Asian gastronomies, which have similar flavor characteristics [to the Italian foods], he said.

Below are some guidelines to pairing Chilean wine with Italian foods based on a review by the Post of the wine pairing at Rosso:

First course

Wine: Concha y Toro, Terrunyo, Sauvignon Blanc, 2008.

Food: Amberjack crudo.

Ingredients: Freshly sliced amberjack fish with parsley-chives puree, avocado mousse and drizzled with ginger-lime vinaigrette.

Review: The savory flavor of the food with its subtle salty nuances blends well with the sauvignon blancs fruity and acidic taste. The wine actually lengthens the aftertaste of the food.

Second course

Wine: Concha y Toro, Marques de Casa Concha, Chardonnay 2009.

Food: Lombok Blue Crab Trianglo.

Ingredients: Triangle-shaped ravioli filled with Lombok blue crab, toasted hazelnut and cacciuco sauce.

Review: This food is savory, but with sweeter nuances. This is why the foods flavor works well with that of the wine, which also has a sweeter taste. Similar with the first course, the wine in this course also strengthens the aftertaste of the food.

Third course

Wine: Concha y Toro, Marques de Casa Concha, Carmenere 2014.

Food: Summer squash risotto.

Ingredients: Creamy squash risotto with diced foie gras and fontina cheese.

Review: The food has a savory flavor with a predominant sweet touch to it. For those who do not really like sweet foods, the wine could somehow help neutralize the sweetness of the food.

Fourth course

Wine: Concha y Toro, Marques de Casa Concha, Cabernet Sauvignon 2015.

Food: Spiced duck.

Ingredients: Pan-seared spiced duck breast with creamy polenta, gorgonzola and spicy jus.

Review: The strong taste of the wine fits well with the well-rounded taste of the duck meat. Both the food and the wine have equally strong flavors, so in a way they balance each other out.

Fifth course

Wine: Concha y Toro, Marques Casa Concha, Syrah 2015.

Food: Prime short rib.

Ingredients: Prime short rib with pan-seared Hokkaido scallops, green pea puree, beets and truffle jus.

Review: The strong taste of the wine fits well with the well-rounded taste of the short rib. Both the food and the wine have equally strong flavors, so in a way they balance each other out.
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Linkedin Sebastian Partogi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, July 31, 2017 08:53 1930 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aae03e0 4 People Indonesian-writer,bali,Oka-Rusmini,gender-equality,women-empowerment Free

Well-known for writing about the oppression of women in the Balinese context, Balinese author Oka Rusmini is now studying ancient literary texts from across Indonesia.

Over the course of 20 years, the 49-year-old writer, who also works as a journalist for the local Bali Post newspaper, has released around 10 books.

In all her writings, the violence against women and the oppression they have to face due to Balinese adat (customs) as well as the shackles put on human beings through the caste system have become a constant common thread.

Her best known work is Tarian Bumi (Earth Dance, 2001), a novel that has been translated into English, Swedish, German, Italian and Korean.

The novel summarizes all the problems mentioned above, which are commonly found in Balinese society, into one sweeping prose. The novel is about a woman who is cast out by her family after marrying someone from a lower caste. Issues relating to poverty and lesbianism are also interwoven in the novel.

Read also: Adults key to children's interpretation of tolerance

Rather than contesting established stereotypes, another recent text creates its own mythic quality through evocation of the ongoing, timeless quality of female experience, literary critic Barbara Hatley wrote about the book.

Oka received the Southeast Asian Writers Award in Bangkok in 2012. Previous recipients were Indonesian literary luminaries like Budi Darma and Sapardi Djoko Damono.

Recently, Tarian Bumi has been republished by Gramedia. Meanwhile, the other three books  Sagra ( 2001 ), Kenanga ( 2003 ) and Tempurung (Shell, 2010)  have been republished by Grasindo during the same period.

Sagra ( 2001 ), Kenanga ( 2003 ) and Tempurung (Shell, 2010) by Oka Rusmini (Grasindo/File)

We decided to republish three of her books to further boost Indonesians interest in reading literary works, which have improved over the last few years. We know that prior to this [recent boost], Indonesians interest in reading literary works had slumped, Grasindo editor Septi WS says.

Septi said a strong feminist slant, encapsulated in thick layers of Balinese culture, was Okas distinguishing characteristic as a writer.

Okas fascination with literature, feminism and culture goes a long way.

When I was 4, I used to dance the ballet, before I was crippled by polio. I couldnt dance anymore. Plus, my parents marriage was a train wreck and I was taken away by my grandparents. From then on, I started to live in a solitude that could not be resolved and I couldnt tell anyone about this; I trusted nobody, Oka told The Jakarta Post.

Thankfully, she said her family was able to fill the emptiness with books and a typewriter. This was when she started to find her voice through writing.

My favorite writer is Hans Christian Andersen; his works enabled me to fantasize, to be myself. I can perform monologues with trees. I sculpt these stories and make them my own, she said.

Read also: Saparinah Sadli continues to fight for justice

Her decision to join the Bali Post in 1990 as a humanities reporter marked a turning point in her life when she was finally able to transcend her own pain by observing that of others.

I was able to interview a lot of extraordinary women implicated in cases involving the adat, farmers, Balinese dancers whose names were not acknowledged, did not get serious attention from the government despite saving local culture and dance, she said.

My mind was blown open. In 1990, all problems in Okas life have finished [] There are many things that need to be documented in a novel. Im not the only one whos suffering in this world, there are so many others who share the same fate.

The result was Tarian Bumi, initially published as a serial in the Islamic Republika daily newspaper in 1995. Another fruit from her reporting experiences was her 2010 novel Tempurung.

Tempurung is a compilation of events recorded in daily news, which I thought would not be much of an interesting read. Thats why I decided to present them as prose, she said.

Oka said in contrast to the 1990s, nowadays Balinese womens bargaining power when dealing with adat cases is relatively stronger thanks to better education.

Read also: Agustinus Wibowo: Making peace with identities

Women in villages might still face conflicts related to customs, but now they are a bit more courageous in standing up to them. Now, womens inheritance rights have already been fulfilled. Previously, once women got married, they were thrown away like dogs, she said.

However, feminisms battle is far from over.

Although womens earning power is now relatively similar to that of men, it doesnt mean their problems are over, she said, lamenting womens magazines that still confine women to domestic roles and lure them with consumerism.

It is sad that literary writers never win awards to commemorate Kartini Day [] Those who win such awards are typically fashion designers and chefs. Kartini deals with ideas.

Her concern about women, coupled with her literary ambition, has actually prompted her to explore ancient texts from other cultures as well

In Borobudur, I studied [Javanese text] serat centhini, which talks about religion and womens bodies, which suits [my interest], she says.

In ancient Javanese textbooks, including the kakawin, it seems like women have no voice or role. These texts have been finished, but I want to interpret them in my own way and publish them in a series of books.
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Linkedin Ni Nyoman Wira (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, July 31, 2017 10:36 1930 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aae2c47 1 People one-fine-sky,Education,jakarta,charity Free

A smile bloomed on Ibu Munis face when she found out that her grandson, in elementary school, had received his school uniform for free.

If I didnt get this, the school required me to pay Rp 150,000 for a complete uniform, she said.

Ibu Munis grandson was one of a hundred participants in a charity event conducted by the charity project One Fine Sky on Saturday at the Cilincing Fish Auction (TPI) in North Jakarta.

One of the main agendas of the event was distributing bundles of school uniforms that consist of a shirt, pants or skirt, cap, tie and stationery to children in the area.

Participants from One Fine Sky distribute sets of uniforms to children on Saturday. (JP/Ni Nyoman Wira)

One Fine Sky, established on May 2 this year, invites people to buy a white shirt with its signature smiling cloud logo on the left chest.

The charity will then donate a school uniform set to students in need.

Amanda Witdarmono, one of the founders of One Fine Sky, stated that they chose to raise funds by selling white shirts because it's a universal piece of clothing and can be worn on many occasions.

We want to encourage people to share in an interesting way, she said.

Read also: Being generous may make you happier

More than 500 people have purchased One Fine Sky's shirts since, and some also came to Saturdays event to present the school uniforms directly to the children.

Actor Reza Rahadian was seen at the event, handing out uniform sets for the children of fishermen in Cilincing.

One of the participants plays a game with a child during the One Fine Sky event at the Cilincing Fish Auction on Saturday. (JP/Ni Nyoman Wira)

With unsteady family income and a relatively nomadic lifestyle, the children of fishermen in Cilincing tend not to prioritize education.

Amanda hopes the new uniforms will motivate them to stay in school and study.

We hope we can give them motivation to stay in school, she said.

Those who are interested in getting involved in the charity can visit the social projects Instagram account. (asw)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, July 31, 2017 19:50 1930 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aaf98c2 1 City lobster-seeds,smuggling,Halim-Perdanakusuma-Airport Free

A coordinated team from the East Jakarta Police and Halim Perdanakusuma Airport security personnel has foiled an attempt to smuggle lobster larvae from Batam, Riau Islands, which were hidden inside a suitcase.

We found 13,600 lobster larvae packed in 68 plastic bags hidden inside an orange suitcase, East Jakarta Police Sr. Comr. Andry Wibowo said as quoted by kompas.com on Monday.

He went on to explain that the discovery occurred when a security officer noticed the case was wet.

The suitcase was examined by X-ray and we found the lobster larvae, Andry said.

On the basis of our investigation, the suitcase belongs to a resident of Batam, identified [only] as A. Members of our team have departed to Batam to pick up A for questioning, Andry said.

A similar case was uncovered last month, when the National Polices Special Crimes Directorate foiled an attempt to illegally export lobster eggs worth billions of rupiah to Singapore via Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Cengkareng, Banten, which could have inflicted state losses of Rp 31.3 billion (US$ 2.4 million). (fac)
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Linkedin Farida Susanty (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, July 31, 2017 11:12 1930 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aae4244 1 Business haj-pilgrimage,movement,soekarno-hatta-airport,Halim-Perdanakusuma-Airport,#HajPilgrimage Free

The government has moved all haj flights scheduled to depart from Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in Jakarta to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Banten because of runway damage.

"Based on our evaluation, we decided to move all of the remaining haj flights to ensure flight safety and convenience of the haj pilgrims," Transportation Ministry director general for air transportation Agus Santoso said over the weekend.

Initially, 159 haj planes--operated by national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia and Saudi Airlines--carrying 63,371 passengers were to take off from Halim Perdanakusuma Airport.

However, the airport runway reportedly was in serious damage, following the take-off of a Boeing 777 carrying haj passengers on Friday.

[RA::One haj flight moved to Soekarno-Hatta from Halim Perdanakusuma Airport::http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2017/07/28/one-haj-flight-moved-to-soekarno-hatta-from-halim-perdanakusuma-airport.html::

An official said the airport was initially closed for three hours to repair the damage, but the government rescheduled all the haj flights.

Friday was the first day of departure for Indonesian pilgrims traveling to Saudi Arabia. This year, Indonesia will send 221,000 pilgrims to the country. Indonesians wait an average of 17 years after registration to go on the haj. (bbn)
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, July 31 2017

Just a month after the exposure of a salt scandal, which allegedly involves the top executive of a state-run salt company, Indonesia once again faces another problem in the salt industry as supply disruptions have led to a 150 percent hike in salt prices, making salt imports inevitable.

The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministrys director general for territorial sea management, Brahmantya Satyamurti, said the current rainfall rate of 150 millimeters per day had forced salt farmers to harvest only four to five days of crystallization under the sun, a much compressed time-frame from the ideal process of 10 days.

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Linkedin Viriya P. Singgih (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, July 31, 2017 13:51 1930 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aaec36e 1 Business Bukit-Asam Free

State-owned coal miner PT Bukit Asam plans to boost the annual capacity of its coal freight distribution to 65 million tons by 2023, from a capacity of only 10.23 million tons as of June, said a company executive recently.

In total, we have coal reserves of around 3.3 billion tons. Its not difficult for us to mine those reserves. However, the problem is to transport the coal to our customers. Thats why it is important for us to boost the capacity of our coal freight, Bukit Asam president director Arviyan Arifin said recently.

To meet its target, Bukit Asam will team up with state-owned railway operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) to upgrade its two existing railways in South Sumatra.

The first route pegged for the upgrade leads from the Bukit Asam mine in Tanjung Enim to the Kertapati coal port, and will have an annual capacity to transport 5 million tons of coal by 2019.

The second leads from Tanjung Enim to Tarahan coal terminal, which will have an annual capacity to transport 25 million tons of coal once the upgrade is completed in 2020.

The company also plans to develop three new railways, to the Prajin and Kramasan coal barge ports in South Sumatra and to Srengsem port in Lampung.

The new railways to Prajin and Kramasan will have a capacity of 10 and 5 million tons of coal, respectively, and are slated for completion in 2022. Meanwhile, the one heading to Srengsem will have a capacity of 20 million tons and is expected to be complete by 2023. (bbn)
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Linkedin Fadli (The Jakarta Post) Batam, Riau Islands  Mon, July 31, 2017 18:23 1930 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aaf6b98 1 National Batam,shaesta-waiz,refugee,Riau-Islands,aviation,solo-flight Free

Shaesta Waiz, 29, a refugee-turned pilot who is on a three-month solo flight across the globe, visited Batam, Riau Islands, on Monday where she encouraged more Indonesian women to become pilots.

Waiz, an Afghan-American, who was born in a refugee camp, told more than 50 female high school students the story of her life where she managed to overcome all the limitations and challenges as a refugee to become a pilot who has inspired people around the world.

"The equality issue for me is no longer challenge. To become the first female civilian pilot in Afghanistan was a struggle," she said, adding that being a pilot was not a matter of gender.

Waiz started her epic flight in a small, single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza A36 plane in Florida in May and is currently in Singapore.

Afghan pilot Shaesta Waiz says she wants to share the sense of freedom of soaring high above ground with other young women. (AFP/Catherine Legault)

Indonesia will be the 15th country she will have visited when she is scheduled to make a stopover in Bali on August 4. She was invited by the Indonesian Transportation Ministry to be a speaker in Batam while she was in transit in Singapore.

From Bali, Waizs plane is scheduled to leave for Australia.

The 18-country world tour is expected to be complete in August.

Read also: Another cargo plane skids off runway in Papua

We need to push for more females to become pilots, the ministrys domestic cooperation bureau head, Susanti Pertiwi, told The Jakarta Post.

According to her there are some 7,000 licensed pilots in Indonesia but only around 150 of them are female. (bbs)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, July 31, 2017 22:15 1930 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aafcd77 1 City transjakarta,stealing Free

The Ciracas Police in East Jakarta have named Sentot Setiadi a suspect for attempting to steal a Transjakarta bus.

The man, who drove the stolen bus all the way from Jakarta to Pekalongan in Central Java, was named a suspect after undergoing questioning on Monday, Ciracas Police chief Comr. Tuti Aini said as quoted by kompas.com.

Tuti said the police were struggling to find the motive behind the theft, because Sentot kept giving different and confusing statements.

Sentot previously claimed he had stolen the bus after hearing a whispering voice.

Thats why we will test [his mental state], Tuti said, adding that the police may drop the case should Sentot be diagnosed with a psychological disorder.

Sentot made headlines after he managed to drive the bus hundreds of kilometer from Jakarta to Central Java without getting noticed. He was arrested only after the bus ran out of gas.

If found guilty, Sentot, a former Transjakarta driver, could be charged under Article 363 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) on theft, which carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison. (fac)

Topics : transjakarta stealing
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, July 31, 2017 14:26 1930 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aaee187 1 Business food-and-beverage,investment,first-half,2017 Free

The Indonesian Food and Beverage Producers Association (Gapmmi) has recorded a Rp 37.3 trillion (US$2.8 billion) first semester investment in the food and beverage (F&B) industry. The association's records also showed that local investors contributed Rp 21.6 trillion to total investment, while foreign investors contributed Rp 15.7 trillion.

Investment in the first semester had sent a positive signal, said Gapmmi chairman Adhi S. Lukman in Jakarta on Sunday. The achievement shows that businesspeople still see Indonesia as a potential market, he said, as quoted by kontan.co.id.

The F&B industry saw total investment of Rp 67 trillion in 2016 and Rp 43 trillion in 2015. Gapmmi has estimated a total investment of Rp 70 trillion in 2017.

Business players considered the huge population and changing local lifestyles as indications of great potential for the industry in this country, Adhi said.

Adhi agreed, however, that consumer purchasing power had not yet recovered, as lower-middle income citizens were trying to manage their stagnant incomes, while the upper-middle class were worrying over the unstable business condition. (rdi/bbn)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Semarang  Mon, July 31, 2017 18:41 1930 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aaf8360 1 National corruption,prison,diabetes,death,Semarang,KPK,toll-road Free

The former mayor of Salatiga, Central Java, John Manuel Manoppo, who was sentenced to five years in prison for graft in 2013 was found dead inside his prison cell at Kedungpane Penitentiary in the provincial capital Semarang on Monday.

The warden of Kedungpane prison, Taufiqurrahman, said a prison guard found John to be unresponsive on Monday morning and he was immediately rushed to the facility's medical center.

"He was quite old, 70 years old," Taufiq said as quoted by tribunnews.com.

The warden added that John also suffered from diabetes and had been undergoing treatment.

The Semarang Corruption Court in April 2014 sentenced John to five years in prison and a fine of Rp 100 million (US$10,276), or an additional three months in jail, for his involvement in the Salatiga southern ring road (JLS) graft case.

The former mayor, without the recommendation of the bidding committee, awarded the JLS project to joint venture PT Kuntjup-PT Kadi International. Kuntjup-Kadi had bid Rp 47 billion while another company, PT Bali Pacific, bid Rp 42 billion.
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Linkedin Newsdesk (JP) Jakarta  Mon, July 31, 2017 22:04 1930 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aafa38a 2 Business insurance,premium,OJK Free

The insurance literacy program conducted by the Financial Service Authority (OJK) has had a positive impact on the countrys life insurance sector, bringing its total premium revenue to close to Rp 50 trillion (US$3.75 billion) in the first half of this year.

Indonesia Life Insurance Association (AAJI) chairman Hendrisman Rahim said on Monday that the financial literacy program, which involved government and businesspeople, had boosted life insurer companies outreach into many regions.

Life insurance is penetrating the regions. Almost all companies have opened branches outside the big cities. This means that insurance products are more reachable, he said.

He added that the e-insurance program that had been implemented by the industry also contributed to the growth of its premium revenue, set to rise above 20 percent by the end of this year.

The number of insurance agents reached 566,356 as of March, a 15.2 percent increase from the total number of agents last year. During the first quarter of this year, 38.3 percent of the industrys total premium revenue was contributed by insurance agents. (rdi/ags)

Topics : insurance premium OJK
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Linkedin Newsdesk (JP) Jakarta  Mon, July 31, 2017 22:06 1930 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aafac53 2 Business Mandom-Indonesia,net-profit,Performance Free

Publicly listed cosmetics factory PT Mandom Indonesia saw growth in its net profits during the first half of 2017 with a 26.8 percent increase to Rp 98.4 billion (US$7.39 million) from Rp 77.6 billion during the same period in 2016.

According to the companys press statement, the firm booked Rp 1.4 trillion in revenue  a 9.2 percent increase compared to the Rp 1.2 trillion recorded last year.

The revenue mostly came from hair-product sales, which rose by 21.6 percent to Rp 621 billion. Skin-care and make-up product sales grew by 4 percent, while fragrance-product sales retreated by 4 percent, it wrote.

Furthermore, domestic sales also grew by 9.2 percent, year-on-year, to Rp 1.1 trillion from Rp 963.2 billion. A similar trend was also seen in foreign sales where the companys exports rose by 9.2 percent to Rp 330 billion, from Rp 302.3 billion last year.

Mandom Indonesia has established a management theme of challenge, change and innovation while continuously performing in order to achieve double-digit growth for the coming years, said Mandom Indonesia president director Tatsuya Arichi. (dea/ags)
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Linkedin Theresia Sufa (The Jakarta Post) Bogor, West Java  Mon, July 31, 2017 22:46 1930 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aafd94c 1 National AgricultureMinistry,Agriculture-Ministry,agriculture,AgricultureProductivity,pest-resistant-paddy-variety,IPB,Amran-Sulaiman Free

The Agriculture Ministry is set to buy 3S, a pest-resistant paddy variety newly developed by the Bogor Agricultural University, to boost rice production in East and West Java.

Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman said the prime variety offered high yields. He said he plans to buy 200 tons of 3S paddy seeds and distribute them to farmers in the two provinces free of charge.

We will use our trip budget to buy the seeds for farmers. We want to prioritize our farmers. Its much more important for us to provide them with prime variety seeds. It doesnt matter for us to have a small [trip] budget as long as we can ease their burden, he said.

The minister spoke during a national seminar held by the Indonesia Agronomy Association at the Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) International Convention Center in Bogor, West Java, recently.

It is expected the newly-invented 3S paddy seeds, which are pest resistant, can been fully bought and distributed to East and West Java farmers within two weeks.

IPB rector Herry Suhardiyanto said 3S was a high yielding variety. To introduce the prime variety, IPB cooperated with several local administrations, one of which was the Bogor regency administration. Farmers in Cariu district, Bogor regency, used the 3S variety seeds in 2016.

Herry said in 2017, IPB was set to strengthen seed producing programs in eight provinces and research activities in three regencies, namely Bogor regency in West Java, Banyuasin regency in South Sumatra and Pinrang regency in South Sulawesi.

It aims to develop seed-independent regencies, he said. (ebf)

Green playground: Children play in a field where farmers plant 3S, a pest-resistant paddy variety developed by the Bogor Agricultural University (IPB). (JP/Theresia Sufa)
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Linkedin Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post) Medan  Mon, July 31, 2017 18:34 1930 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aaf7936 1 National accident,bus,bus-accident,student,school-bus,traffic-accident Free

Three students were killed and 34 others injured after the school bus they were traveling in plunged off a cliff in Tanjungan village in Samosir regency, North Sumatra, on Monday morning.

The dead victims were identified as Cindi Sinaga, 14 and Elfika Situmorang, 14, from Hutaginjang village, as well as Ester Situmorang, 15, from Tanjungan village.

Traffic unit head at the Samosir Police Adj. Comr. Ferrymon said the driver, identified as Bilinton Situmorang, drove the bus at very high speed when traveling from Onan Runggu to Simanindo in Samosir. As a result, the driver lost control and plunged off the 25-meter cliff, he told The Jakarta Post, adding that the driver was being treated at the Pangururan Hospital.

Read also: Two men involved in car accident arrested for testing positive for drugs

Mei Sinaga, a survivor, said the students had warned the driver to be careful while driving. The driver was seemingly worried he would fail to get us to school on time, Mei, who suffered a minor injury, said.

Ferrymon said the police were still investigating the accident.

Samosir Regent Rapidin Simbolon said he hoped the police could complete the investigation as soon as possible. (bbs)
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Linkedin Nurul Fitri Ramadhani (The Jakarta Post) Semarang  Mon, July 31, 2017 17:54 1930 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aaf495f 1 National Unnes,ITE-Law,Muhammad-Nasir,freedom-of-expression Free

The University of Semarang (Unnes) in Central Java has reported two of its students to police for committing satire after they criticized Technology, Research and Higher Education Minister Muhammad Nasir by granting him a bogus award.

The students, identified as Julio Belnanda Harianja and Harist Achmad Mizaki, uploaded a picture of an award described as being "for the ministry for hurting the principle of a Single Tuition for Higher Education (UKT)."

The university's law and human resources division reported the students to the police, accusing them of violating the 2017 Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law.

Read also: Man arrested for allegedly hacking Indonesian Press Council website

The university stated it was worried the students' action could damage the reputation of the institution and its rector Fathur Rokhman.

However, Fathur said the university did not report the students to the police to restrict their freedom of expression and speech. He added that the university had warned the students about social media posts.

"If they are sure they're innocent, they should not be afraid of the report," Fathur said on Monday as quoted by Tribunnews.com.

He added the university would always be open to criticism "as long as it is based on valid analysis and data." (bbs)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, July 31, 2017 13:34 1930 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aae9ff1 1 Business textile,first-half,production,reduction,purchasing-power Free

Indonesian Textile Association chairman Ade Sudrajat has said that the textile industry had to cut production in the first half of 2017 because of weak consumer purchasing power.

Many shopping centers reported weak sales during the recent Ramadhan and Idul Fitri holiday seasons, which usually see the year's peak sales for textile products.

Several companies have been cutting their production since the first half, he said, as quoted by kontan.id, adding that the textile industry's electricity usage had declined by 20 percent in the first half of the year.

As part of efficiency measures, textile companies extended their Idul Fitri holiday period for employees to 20 days from two weeks, Ade added.

He also recorded many companies had also postponed their expansion plans, pending the availability of growth in overseas markets.

Separately, the iron and steel industry had withheld sales, pending the materialization of the governments plan to cut the gas price to US$6 per million British thermal units (mmbtu), said Indonesian Iron and Steel Industry executive director Hidayat Tresiputro.

Meanwhile, state electricity company PLN recorded 1.17 percent increase in its electricity sales in the first half of 2017. (rdi/bbn)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, July 31, 2017 17:29 1930 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aaf3357 1 City Rizieq-Shihab,MUI,FPI Free

Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) chairman Maruf Amin has urged Islam Defenders Front (FPI) leader Rizieq Shihab to come home to Indonesia and face the legal case being brought against him.



Rizieq, who was named a suspect in a pornography case in May, is believed to be in Saudi Arabia and has been put on the police wanted list.



The legal proceedings are ongoing and [Rizieq] should undergo the process. Hopefully, it can be settled well, Maruf said at his home in Koja, North Jakarta, as quoted by kompas.com on Monday. He made the comment following a visit from the Jakarta Police chief earlier in the morning.



Rizieq was allegedly involved in a steamy WhatsApp chat with a woman named Firza Husein, who is also a suspect in the case. Rizieq failed to obey two police summons prior to his naming as a suspect.

He has been charged under the 2008 Pornography Law, which carries a minimum sentence of five years in prison upon conviction.



Apart from the pornography case, Rizieq, who led two large rallies to demand the detainment of then Jakarta governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama on blasphemy charges, has also been implicated in other cases, such as for defaming the state ideology of Pancasila. (fac)
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Linkedin Newsdesk (JP) Jakarta  Mon, July 31, 2017 22:10 1930 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aafc283 2 Business Uniqlo,surabaya,store Free

After quenching the thirst of fashion lovers in and around Jakarta, Japan giant retail Fast Retailing Co. Ltd., the owner of international fashion brand Uniqlo, is reaching out to new markets by opening two stores in Surabaya, East Java.

The companys expansion to the East Java provincial capital increases the number of Uniqlo stores in the country. Uniqlo already operates 11 stores, spread around several regions consisting of Jakarta, Tangerang in Banten, Bekasi and Bandung in West Java.

PT Fast Retailing Indonesia president director Michiaki Tanaka said in a statement that the new stores in Surabaya were part of his companys plan to reach all customers across the country. The new stores are also part of our way to understand the culture and local wisdom of Indonesia, especially in Surabaya, he said.

The two upcoming stores, which will be launched in September this year, are being built in Surabayas biggest malls, Tunjungan Plaza and Pakuwon Mall.

Uniqlo currently has 1,800 stores in 18 countries around the world, including Japan, Australia, Belgium, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. (rdi/ags)

Topics : Uniqlo surabaya store
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Linkedin Theresia Sufa (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, July 31, 2017 22:12 1930 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aafc92d 1 National oil-palm-plantations,Oil-palm-products,renewable-energy,biomass,industry Free

Indonesia has vast biomass potential, large enough to meet Indonesias renewable energy demand and boost its economy, a researcher has said.

Energy expert Erliza Hambali said that with the aid of various technologies, Indonesias biomass sources, such as palm oil waste, could be converted into high-value products. The energy potential of biomass could be used in various industries as a substitute for conventional petroleum-based products, he added.

We can create a new market of derivative products from palm oil waste, said Erliza, director of the Bogor Agricultural Universitys (IPB) Surfaktan and Bioenergy Research Center (SBRC).

Erliza said several technologies and conversion processes had been developed for biomass use so that in the future biomass could hopefully become a viable option for various industry because it was renewable, environmentally friendly and could reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

Erliza spoke during the 2017 International Conference on Biomass held in Bogor, West Java, from July 24 to 25. Around 200 researchers, practitioners and business players from Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia and the US attended the conference.

The potential of only a few biomass sources in Indonesia have been tapped so far either as energy sources or as raw materials in the countrys industries, the conference said. Meanwhile, many countries have used biomass as energy sources in the form of pellets. In Indonesia, the greatest source of biomass potential comes from palm oil waste.

Justinus Satrio, a researcher from Villanova University, USA, said biomass was not only an opportunity but also a challenge. Biomass can damage the environment if its use is not compliant with environmental conservation principles, he said. (ebf)

Energy talks: Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) deputy rector for research and partnership Anas Miftah Fauzi opens the 2017 International Conference on Biomass held in Bogor, West Java, from July 24 to 25. (JP/Theresia Sufa)
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Linkedin Olivia Hampton and Park Chan-Kyong (Agence France-Presse) Washington, United States  Mon, July 31, 2017 13:42 1930 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aaea93c 2 World NorthKorea,missile-test,US,trump,China,Security-Council Free

The United States said Sunday the time for talk over North Korea was "over," spurning a UN response to Pyongyang's latest ICBM launch in favour of bomber flights and missile defence system tests.

Nikki Haley, the US envoy to the United Nations, said there was "no point" in holding a fruitless emergency Security Council session, warning that a weak additional council resolution would be "worse than nothing" in light of the North's repeated violations.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un boasted of his country's ability to strike any target in the US after an intercontinental ballistic missile test Friday that weapons experts said could even bring New York into range -- in a major challenge to Trump.

US strategic bombers on Saturday flew over the Korean peninsula in a direct response to the launch, and on Sunday American forces successfully tested a missile interception system the US hopes will be installed on the Korean peninsula.

Under Kim's leadership, North Korea has accelerated its drive towards a credible nuclear strike capability, in defiance of international condemnation and multiple sets of UN sanctions. The US Senate passed new bipartisan sanctions on Pyongyang on Friday.

Haley urged China, Japan and South Korea to tighten the screws on Pyongyang.

"An additional Security Council resolution that does not significantly increase the international pressure on North Korea is of no value," she wrote.

"It sends the message to the North Korean dictator that the international community is unwilling to seriously challenge him.

"China must decide whether it is finally willing to take this vital step. The time for talk is over."

Earlier, US President Donald Trump warned that he would not allow China -- the impoverished North's sole major ally and economic lifeline -- to "do nothing" about Pyongyang.

In two tweets, Trump linked trade strains with the Asian giant -- marked by a trade deficit of $309 billion last year -- to policy on North Korea, after Seoul indicated it could speed up the deployment of a US missile defense system that has infuriated China.
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post)  Tue, August 1 2017

Today Swiss people all over the world, including in Indonesia, are celebrating their National Day. The special relationship between Switzerland and Indonesia is already 65 years old this year. In connection with the celebration of these two events  Swiss National Day and the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Indonesia and Switzerland, The Jakarta Posts Veeramalla Anjaiah interviewed Swiss Ambassador to Indonesia Yvonne Baumann recently. The following are the excerpts from the interview.



Question: This year Switzerland and Indonesia celebrate the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. What, according to you, is the most inspiring fact that has kept the relationship growing?



Answer: Already in the 17th century long before the first official Swiss representation in Indonesia had been opened  researchers and merchants from Switzerland travelled to this immense archipelago and explored its diverse and fascinating culture, languages and traditions, as well as its flora and fauna. It is characteristic of Swiss-Indonesian relations that they were never limited to official diplomatic and inter-governmental affairs. Rather there has always been exchange and cooperation between private companies, business people, research institutions and scientists.



Despite the huge geographical distance between Switzerland and Indonesia, we have many similarities that may inspire prosperity in our relationship. Switzerland is also a diverse country in terms of culture, language and religion. We have three official languages, German, French and Italian, and a fourth national language, which is Romansh. Unity in diversity is the main principle of both our countries and in fact Indonesia and Switzerland are both nations of consensus.



I think we can also draw inspiration from the distinctions or complementarities between our two countries: Switzerland is a small land-locked country in the heart of Europe, whereas Indonesia is a large archipelago in the up-and-coming region of Southeast Asia. Switzerland is poor in natural resources but highly innovative and has by now an ageing population, while Indonesia has great potential not only in its immense natural resources but also in its young and promising population. All this makes for an inspiring relationship.



What were the major milestones for these fast growing ties during the last 65 years?



Already in 1863 a Swiss consulate, one of the first in the region, was opened in Batavia (as Jakarta was then called). In 1952, official diplomatic relations with Indonesia, by then independent, were established through the opening a diplomatic representation in Jakarta, which was up-graded to an Embassy in 1957. Later we also added three Honorary Consulates in Bali, Makassar, and - two years ago - in Surabaya.



In the last 65 years, political, economic and cultural relations have been growing, and we have seen many exchanges at the high political level. The first president of Indonesia, Sukarno, visited Switzerland in 1956.

Over the last few years we have had frequent ministerial visits. In 2015, Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter came to Indonesia, in 2016 Infrastructure and Energy Minister Doris Leuthard visited - she was then vice president and today the President of the Swiss Confederation - and several Indonesian Ministers travelled to Switzerland.





Federal Councillor Johann N. Schneider-Ammann, the Minister for Economic Affairs, Education and Research, was here just two weeks ago, accompanied by a business and a science delegation. All three ministers have also been received by President Joko Widodo for a courtesy call. The frequency of the ministerial visits shows the close and friendly ties as well as the mutual interest. It is also quite remarkable since our government consists of only seven members, the rotating presidency included.



Important for our relations was the technical assistance and cooperation program since the early 1970s. The support for the establishment of many polytechnic schools in Indonesia, which are still up and running today, had a major impact on the perception of Swiss engagement in Indonesia.



Economic ties form the backbone of bilateral ties. Could you please throw some light on bilateral trade and Swiss investment in Indonesia?



Despite its relatively small size, Switzerland was the 11th largest investor in Indonesia and the 3rd largest from Europe in 2016. However, there is a discrepancy between the statistics and according to the figures from the Swiss National Bank, we would have been among the top 10 in Indonesia over the last few years, as we are in many other countries. Our trade volume  now close to US$3 billion - has been growing steadily, with an increase of more than 50% in 2016 alone, due to the strong growth of Indonesian exports to Switzerland. Nevertheless, Swiss exports could still do better, particularly if we compare with other countries in the region.



Currently there are more than 150 Swiss companies operating in Indonesia that have created at least 21,000 jobs. In order to further promote trade and investment relations, we recently opened the Swiss Business Hub Indonesia, located on the premises of the Swiss Embassy in Jakarta. It aims to help companies and investors from Switzerland access Indonesias large and dynamic market. We would also welcome more Indonesian investment in Switzerland.



How does Indonesia, the country with the worlds largest Muslim population, figure in Swiss foreign policy?



From the Swiss foreign policy perspective, we see the potential and strategic importance of Indonesia as a whole. It is the third biggest democracy in the world, the largest country within ASEAN, located in a

strategic position between the Pacific and Indian Ocean, it is an emerging market turning more and more into a regional production and export hub, and it has an important soft power potential that can reach far beyond the region.



As the country with the worlds largest Muslim population, where mainly a moderate Islam is practiced and six religions are officially recognized, Indonesia can play an important role as a model in other parts of the world and act as a facilitator. I very much hope that Indonesia can preserve its pluralism and tolerance and continue to see its diversity as an asset. We see Indonesia as an important partner.



What areas are you focusing on in Indonesia?



Trade and investment relations are certainly very important for us. Furthermore, we just launched the next four-year cycle (2017-2020) of cooperation that aims to support sectors of the Indonesian economy in becoming more competitive. In this context, we have a new focus on vocational education and training. With this we are in some way reconnecting to our old cooperation legacy. We will support the Indonesian government in establishing new polytechnic schools in the manufacturing sector as well as a hospitality school. In these areas Switzerland has proven expertise.

_________________________



Switzerland is poor in natural resources but highly innovative and has by now an ageing population, while Indonesia has great potential not only in its immense natural resources but also in its young and promising population. All this makes for an inspiring relationship.



The development of sustainable tourism is another focus of our cooperation since Indonesia has obviously a great potential for tourism. Also, we will continue our large program in helping cocoa farmers improve and increase their production and secure better market conditions. Together with the World Bank and other partners we support the national and local governments in public financial management reforms.



We also have a dialogue on human rights issues with the Law and Human Rights Ministry and work on joint projects, for instance, in the field of torture prevention. Within the United Nations and other international bodies, we have a good cooperation with Indonesia on environmental issues.

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, July 31, 2017 15:05 1930 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aaf125a 1 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,Borobudur-Temple,festival Free

Borobudur International Festival (BIF) 2017 was officially opened on July 28 at Lumbini Park, Borobudur Temple, Central Java.

The opening event featured traditional dance performances as well as dance performances from other countries such as Japan, China and India.

Tourism ministry's archipelago marketing development deputy, Esthy Reko Astuti said that BIF is an event that is held on every four years aims to increase the number of tourist visits to Borobudur Temple.

Read also: Six eco-friendly accommodation options for green travelers

Borobudur Temple is an extraordinary tourist magnet in Indonesia. The ministry has committed that the biggest Buddhist temple in the world will be a destination that can bring in more tourists. The target is to have two million overseas tourists visiting Borobudur Temple in 2019, said Esthy.

The event that ran from July 28 to 30 featured plenty of arts and cultural activities, seminar, human resource training, local products and culinary exhibitions.

We hope that BIF can be held more frequently, make it into an annual or biannual event, Esthy suggested.

Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo welcome the suggestion of making BIF as an annual event. Ganjar said that the event positively contributes to the enhancement of Indonesian tourism, especially in Central Java.

If this becomes an annual event, were going to prepare it really well, perhaps with a carnival, involving arts and culture and local products of Central Java, said Ganjar.

Read also: 5 must-visit destinations in Surabaya

Tourism minister Arief Yahya said that BIF is a good platform to brand Borobudur Temple that has become the main attraction of Joglosemar.

Arief also mentioned that the ministry has come up with sub-brands for 10 destinations such as Joglosemar with Java Cultural Wonders, Colorful Medan, Wonderful Riau Islands, Enjoy Jakarta, Stunning Bandung, Majestic Banyuwangi, Island of the Gods for Bali, Friendly Lombok, Explore Makassar and Coral Wonders for Wakatobi  Bunaken  Raja Ampat.

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Pandjaitan and Tourism Minister Arief Yahya recently launched the operation of the Borobudur Tourism Authority Board (BOP) that aims to turn the Buddhist temple into a national and international cultural destination that will attract 2,000,000 overseas tourists by the year 2019. (asw)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, July 31, 2017 13:09 1930 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aae8c39 1 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,citilink,international-flights,Batam,China,Chinese-tourists,China-Indonesia Free

After welcoming 1,700 Chinese tourists from the Changsha city of Hunan province, Batam city of Riau Islands will be hosting a total of 2,008 tourists from Ordos city of China beginning on August 11.

Its the same procedure with the previous group, these 2,088 Chinese tourists will fly to Batam using charter flights. The difference is the previous group used Lion Air, while this group from Ordos will fly with Citilink, explained Hang Nadim International Aiport Batam marketing general manager, Dendi Gustinandar.

Citilink will divide the tourists into 12 flights that will fly from August 11 to October.

Read also: The Palace Museum in China has a new virtual city app

These Chinese tourists come to Batam with a free-visa policy. They will travel using an Airbus A320 airplane that can carry up to 180 passengers with flight numbers QG5900 and QG5901, added Citilink area manager for Kalimantan and Sumatra, R Hendra JS.

The airplane first leaves Batam with the flight number QG 5900 at 04:30 p.m. to Ordos. The flight from Ordos is then scheduled to depart at 12:00 a.m. with the flight number QG 5901. The final stop of this flight is Jakarta with a transit in Batam for Custom Immigration Quarantine (CIQ).

Ordos is said to be Chinas largest ghost city with the largest supplies of coal and natural gas. It's said that the city owns 1/6 of natural gas in the world.

Since 2011, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Ordos and Mongolia has won over other developing countries in the East Asia Pacific market. In 2013, the GDP of Mongolia was at 11.7 percent.

Ordos and Mongolia are covered with snowy mountains. The people there don't have close access to the ocean. Batam offers sea attractions that will definitely make them happy, said tourism ministry's deputy assistant for Asia-Pacific tourism promotion, Vinsensius Jemadu.

Read also: Top 10 most attractive Chinese cities for foreigners

China provides the biggest number of overseas tourists, its outbound number reaches 120 million in 2015 and it keeps on increasing. Meanwhile, the number of tourists in Riau Islands is far from reaching the 2017 target of 2.6 million. Up until May, there were only 801,000 visits, Vinsensius added.

For this year, the tourism ministry is targeting to welcome two million Chinese tourists to Indonesia, up 800,000 from 2016.

Moreover, Mongolia and Indonesia apparently have something in common between them. The word Rupiah for Indonesian currency actually comes from rupia in Mongolian that means silver.

Vinsensius said that based on the history, in the past Mongolia was being ruled by Genghis Khan who was then followed by Timur Lang and Kublai Khan. These rulers at one point invaded southern countries such as India, Afghanistan and Pakistan, up to the northern ones such as Russia. These countries then did trades to other parts of the world including Indonesia, hence the reason why Indian currency is called Rupee, Indonesian currency is called Rupiah and Russian is called Rubel. (asw)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, July 31, 2017 14:01 1930 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aaed36b 1 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,Lion-Air,Shanghai,manado,North-Sulawesi,China-Indonesia,international-flights Free

Starting Friday, Indonesia's largest low-cost carrier Lion Air has officially opened a new route from Shanghai Pudong International Airport in China to Sam Ratulangi International Airport in Manado, North Sulawesi.

The charter flights are available on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays with departure time from Manado is at 6:35 p.m. and from Shanghai at 1 a.m. The travel time is around five hours using Boeing 737-800/900ER and Boeing 737 MAX-8 aircraft.

We see a growing number of foreign tourist visits especially from China who entered Indonesia via Manado, which is why we feel the need to open a new route from Shanghai, the economic and trade center of China, said Lion Air Group Public Relations manager Andy M. Saladin.

Read also: Six glamping sites in Indonesia for adventure seekers

With the new route, Lion Air has officially served four destinations in China, namely Guangzhou, Changsha, Shenzhen and Shanghai. It also offers charter flights to other Indonesian destinations, such as Bali and Batam.

Beginning August were going to start a new charter flight route from Jakarta to Haikou in China, Andy added.

The Tourism Ministry's deputy minister for Overseas Promotion, I Gde Pitana, said the new route would be able to contribute to the 2017 target of 130,000 Chinese tourists. In the first trimester of 2017, there were already 21,208 foreign tourists, close to last years number of 50,208 tourists."

During the high season period there will be 19 charter flights every week from China to Manado with each flight carries around 200 to 212 passengers, Pitana added.

Read also: What to Know: 2017 Asian additions to UNESCO World Heritage List

Apart from providing Chinese tourists with a free-visa policy, Manado has plenty on interesting things to offer, such as white sand beaches in Likupang in North Minahasa and Lembeh in Bitung. It is also home to the famed Bunaken National Marine Park, which is the best place for snorkeling and diving.

Other interesting destinations in North Sulawesi include Linau Lake in Tomohon, Lake Tondano and Tangkoko National Reserve in Bitung.

Manadonese food is also an attraction in itself. Known for its spicy taste, its food are mostly seafood-based dishes, such as woku belanga (spicy chicken curry), ikan bakar rica rica (grilled fish in spicy rica rica sauce) and kuah asam (sour soup). (kes)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, July 31, 2017 12:08 1930 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aae70d1 1 News Tourism-Ministry,Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,AirAsia Free

The Tourism Ministry is partnering up with AirAsia to promote Indonesian destinations.

The ministrys special staff for Infrastructure, Judi Rifajantoro, said 26 percent of foreign tourists come to Indonesia using the carrier. AirAsia connects Singapore to interesting destinations in Indonesia, such as Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Bali, Semarang and Bandung, with a total of 77 flights per week; the highest in Southeast Asia region. The target for next year is to add 10 more destinations."

The partnership marks the second time the two parties work together.

Read also: Jomblang Cave, a vertical cave with heaven-sent view

Both the airline and the ministry have the same goal, which is to bring in tourists. The Central Statistics Agency [BPS] data shows that in the first semester of 2017, a total of 745,000 Singaporean tourists came to Indonesia, Judi added.

Assistant deputy for Southeast Asian Tourism Promotion at the ministry, Rizki Handayani, said partnering up with AirAsia.com was one of the easiest ways to promote the archipelago to 23 countries using 13 different languages.

The aim is to build the brand awareness of Wonderful Indonesia on the homepage and running a skycraper ad since Singaporeans are very tech savvy. Our target are millennials and expats, said Rizki. Another way is by selling AirAsia tickets and tour packages."

Read also: Four Indonesian destinations named best dive sites in Asia by CNN

The ministry will also collaborate with AirAsia in the scope of design finalization, launching and press gathering events and facilitating space, decoration, Indonesian art performances and souvenirs. As well as holding direct selling or consumer selling programs in several locations, added Rizki.

Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said 75 percent of foreign tourists entered Indonesia by plane, hence the reason he came up with the top three tourism programs: digital tourism, tourist village homestay and air connectivity.

In 2017, the ministry is targeting to welcome 15 million foreign and 265 million domestic tourists. The ultimate goal is to have 20 million foreign and 275 million domestic tourists in 2019.

We need to expand the 75 percent by adding more flights, improving airport facilities and adding more terminals and international airports, said Arief. (kes)
In letters to the mayors of two New Jersey towns, Agudath Israel Executive Vice President Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel expressed deep concern about the order to remove an eruv that had been constructed (with permission) on telephone and utility line poles to enable observant Jewish residents to carry objects outside of their homes on the Jewish Sabbath.

The towns have argued that the plastic strips on utility poles are signs and violate the local zoning ordinances, but Rabbi Zwiebel asserted that what opponents of the eruv are troubled by is not the presence of unobtrusive plastic strips on utility poles, but by the continued growth of the Orthodox Jewish community. The fact that so many of those opponents make no effort to hide their hatred is shocking and should not be tolerated.

Yehudah Buchweitz, an attorney at Weil Gotshal & Manges, included several of the many disturbing online comments in a letter he sent to the mayors of the townships on behalf of the organization promoting the eruv.

They are clearly trying to annex land like theyve been doing in Occupied Palestine. Look up the satanic verses of the Talmud and tell me what you see.

I dont want my town to be gross and infested with these nasty people.

I do not want these things coming into my town and ruining it.

Following a contentious meeting in Mahwah last week which brought out more than 600 residents, several eruv pipes were vandalized and one person was arrested.

Agudath Israels New Jersey Director Rabbi Avi Schnall condemned the vandalism, but expressed his willingness to work with the mayors of the affected towns. Currently, the only sign we see is the one emanating from some township residents that religious bigotry is welcome, but Orthodox Jews are not! We hope to work with the townships officials to reduce the hateful rhetoric and protect the religious liberty of all residents.

During a very similar debate fifteen years ago, regarding an eruv in Tenafly which was ultimately decided in favor of the eruv supporters, Agudath Israel submitted an amicus curiae brief and has been involved in other cases since then.

Click here to view the letter.
Two Bridges Neighborhood Council (TBNC) has announced the appointment of a new associate director.

Shes July Yang, who previously ran the Lower East Side non-profits music program. Yang, raised in Shenyang, China, received her MBA from Pace University in 2017. Shes worked at TBNC since 2013. Yang replaces Kerri Culhane, who served nearly five years in the job before departing in the spring of 2016 to do independent consulting work.

Theres been a lot of turnover in the staff at Two Bridges in the past year or two. By our count, eight staff members have moved on, including: Roxana Archer (community programs manager); Elisa Espiritu (director of development and communications); Hannah Fleisher (planning projects manager); Christine Keefe (director of community programs); Dan Ping (program manager); Michael Tsang (program manager); and Wilson Soo (program manager). Some have left to pursue advanced degrees (like Soo); others have gone on to realize longtime dreams (Tsang, for example opened an ice cream shop on Allen Street).

TBNC recently posted on its website news of four new hires, including Yang.

Its a sensitive time for the organization. Along with its development partner, Settlement Housing Fund, Two Bridges Neighborhood Council revealed last year that it was selling a Cherry Street parcel to JDS Development Group for a 77-story residential tower. TBNC President Victor Papa said the project would create new affordable apartments (a portion of the units are designated for low- and middle-income households) and help pay for critical resiliency improvements in the neighborhood. The project, along with two additional large-scale towers now in-the-works, are widely unpopular in the community.

Two Bridges co-sponsored construction of more than 1500 affordable apartments beginning in the 1970s. It also runs a variety of community programs.
President Donald Trump speaks Wednesday at the White House accompanied by House Speaker Paul Ryan, Foxconn CEO and founder Terry Gou, and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis. Trump said that electronics giant Foxconn will build a $10 billion factory in Wisconsin that's expected to create 3,000 initial jobs, eventually adding up to 10,000 more.
A group of womens rights activists have launched a social media campaign to challenge an Afghan custom that prevents anybody from speaking their name.

Hearing a woman's name is rare in Afghanistan. Instead of their name, women are more often referred to as the sister of their brother, the wife of their husband or the mother of their son, even on their headstones.

The act of sharing a womans name is seen to be dishonourable and could result in severe punishment.

This cultural tradition reflects the lack of control that women in Afghanistan have over their lives, with male relatives often making decisions about their education or family life.

Thomson Reuters Foundation But Bahar Sohaili is taking action and is one of the prominent activists who launched the campaign #WhereIsMyName. Sohaili, when speaking to the, said:

Our society is full of injustice for women, basically everything is taboo for women.

With this campaign we aim to change many things for women and social media has opened a new window to Afghanistans young generation.

The campaign has been supported by thousands, with many prominent Afghans supporting it on social media.

A group of young Afghan women started the campaign called #whereismyname / #_. The campaign was created... https://t.co/eqWVCqVHJS  WomenforAfghanWomen (@WAWHumanRights) July 12, 2017

Farhad Darya, a well known Afghan musician, supported the campaign by posting a selfie of him and his wife, captioning it with both of their names: Sultana and Farhad.

Darya also wrote the following message on social media about what happens when he speaks the names of his female relatives during a concert:

On many occasions in front of a crowd that doesnt have family relations to me, I have noticed how the foreheads of men sour by what they see as my cowardice in mentioning the name of my mother or my wife.

They stare at me in such a way as if I am the leader of all of the worlds cowards and I know nothing of Afghan honor and traditions.

Thousands of people have backed the movement on Facebook and Twitter.
This comes after rumours of disagreements within the Cabinet and days of uncertainty regarding the principal issue of immigration post-Brexit. Regarding new policies, Chancellor Philip Hammond said: Any transitional period would have to be finished by the next general election, June 2022. In a statement that proved controversial, and whilst Theresa May was in Italy, Hammond announced he favoured a standstill Brexit transition, with many arrangements remaining very similar to how they were the day before we exited, suggesting the free movement of labour could continue for up to three years after Brexit.Downing Street has since issued a statement confirming that free movement between the EU and the UK will end March 2019, in an apparent attempt by May to reign in Hammond. From this date, workers from the EU coming to Britain will have to register until a permanent post-Brexit immigration policy is implemented. International Trade Secretary Liam Fox has expressed concerns over the unregulated free movement of labour continuing beyond Brexit, arguing it would not keep faith with the results of last years referendum. He added that thus far, the Cabinet had not agreed on a uniform stance on immigration. As for now, the Home Office has requested for the Migration Advisory Committee to investigate the economic and social costs and benefits of EU migration to the UK economy, and whether it would be beneficial to focus migration on high-skilled workers. The report will purportedly be released only six months before Brexit, something which Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott rose concerns over, stating it would not allow enough time to design a new immigration system. Home Secretary Amber Rudd has said that the aim of this report is to design a system that would attract migrants who benefit the UK economically, socially and culturally, whilst still giving Westminster control over the numbers coming in, and restoring public confidence that the UK was applying its own rules on immigration. However, Home Affairs spokesman Sir Ed Davey criticised the move for doing nothing immediate to reassure businesses, the NHS and universities, as to the future of immigration. After leading members of Mays government this week contradicted one another regarding Brexit plans, Downing Street has confirmed that Mays position, which stated that free movement would end in the spring of 2019, remains set.
Sanitary products are currently classed as luxury rather than essential goods by the EU, and as such are taxed at 5% VAT. European ministers last year agreed to change the rules to scrap the tax, but the earliest a new law could come into force would be 2018. Rather than wait for an end to the tampon tax, Tesco has become the first UK retailer to cut prices and shoulder the burden of the tax itself. This move could save women and users of sanitary wear hundreds of pounds across their lifetimes. Tesco group brand director Michelle McEttrick said: For many of our customers, tampons, panty-liners and sanitary towels are essential products. However, the cost of buying them every month can add up. The price cut will affect both branded and own-label products. The government has promised that until the tampon tax is scrapped, revenue will be spent on womens charities. This decision was met with backlash last year as many claimed that supporting womens charities should be a burden carried by the whole of society, rather than just women. Paula Sheriff, the Labour MP at the fore of the campaign against the tampon tax, praised Tescos decision and called on other supermarkets to follow its example. It would have been completely unacceptable if abolishing the tampon tax had just led to big businesses boosting their bottom line at the expense of women buying what are essential goods, she said.
The head of the Cambridge University Equality Group, Jason Osamede Okundaye, has a very unequal way of looking at skin colour #DalstonRiots pic.twitter.com/4amKefYM3B  Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) July 29, 2017

The reaction of Cambridge Uni BME head to Dalston riots - 'white people despair, excellent stuff, smash everything' @Cambridge_Uni pic.twitter.com/4ExYwcEg2O  Katie Hopkins (@KTHopkins) July 28, 2017

Jason Okundaye, head of the Black and Minority Ethnic campaign of the Universitys student union, wrote: ALL white people are racist. White middle class, white working class, white men, white women, white gays, white children they can ALL geddit..The tweet followed violent protests in east London over the death of Rashan Charles after a police struggle, and was part of a string of comments Okundaye had made on the subject. Another tweet read: Watching these middle-class white people despair over black people protesting in their colonised Dalston is absolutely delicious.The remarks were met with a wave of anger on Twitter, with several users labelling the Pembroke College student a racist, and some stating that he should go back to where he came from. Katie Hopkins dedicated six tweets to the matter, after previously declaring that protesters in Dalton were rioters and looters after some free sneakers. Okundaye has since set his Twitter account to private.Speaking to The Tab, Okundaye said: My tweet about all white people being racist was pulled out of context and separate to my tweets in support of the Dalston protests. My tweets on white racism had been said before, in response to people acting as if racism is exclusive to working class people. I stated that regardless of sexuality, class, gender or age, all white people are racist i.e. not just one type of white person. And the reference to geddit refers to my previous tweets on how all demographics of whiteness can and should be called out for their racism and how it specifically manifests in their groups e.g. white middle class refusing to hire Black people killed, or white gay men stating no blacks, no Asians on dating apps such as Grindr. The tweet was conflated with my separate tweets which supported the Dalston protests and my support of activism which seeks justice against police brutality. A spokesperson for the University of Cambridge said that Pembroke College would be looking into this matter. Cambridgeshire police also confirmed that they were investigating the incident. Riots were sparked in Dalston after video footage on social media appeared to show at least one police officer restraining Rashan Charles on the floor of a shop last Saturday. The 20-year-old later died in hospital. The police watchdog, the Independent Police Complaints Commission, is investigating the circumstances of Charles death.
This week, Bruce Miller's acclaimed dystopian series comes to an eventful close, in which the Republic of Gilead gets a long overdue taste of defiance.The episode opens with a flashback (what else?) of Offred's initial arrival into the Red Centre and her first fateful meeting with Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd). In a wistful voiceover, Offred (Elisabeth Moss) contemplates a look that she shared with the handmaids before her - a "look of terror" that has since subsided after years of abuse and repression. Aunt Lydia is a complex character, whose merciless wrath frequently collides with her seemingly motherly nature towards the girls. If there is one thing that this opening flashback does, it's that it serves as a reminder of her callous cruelty as she herds the "pack of sluts" into the red centre, zapping them with cattle prods, inflicting preachy terror and branding Offred with a cattle tag - making the allusion that the handmaids are animals kept for produce all the more real. In the present, Offred is suddenly attacked by a vengeful Serena (Yvonne Strahovski), who last week discovered that her husband's deceptive behaviour had continued beyond their former handmaid. After giving her a gnarly head wound, Serena forces Offred to take a pregnancy test - a forbidden item that Offred later deduces came from the black market. To Serena's joy - and Offred's dismay - the test reveals that Offred is infact pregnant. When Fred (Joseph Fiennes) returns home, he finds Serena sat in his office, looking resolvedly at the Scrabble set that formed the basis of his secret rendezvous' with Offred. What follows is an inevitable confrontation, in which Serena scathingly warns Fred to stay away from Offred. When Fred attempts to silence his wife - first by blaming her for his lustful betrayal and then reminding her of his possession of her - Serena blithely tells him of the pregnancy, before spitefully revealing that he is not the father; "You are weak and God would never let you pass on that weakness. You can't father a child because you are not worthy."Meanwhile, Nick and Offred share a tender, bittersweet moment in which Nick delicately places a hand on Offred's stomach. "It's terrible," she whispers, before Nick responds, "no, it's not." As Serena enters the room, glancing at this subtle display of affection, we are reminded of the dichotomy of family in Gilead. Though family and children are considered sacred by this society, this same society is relentless in its pursuit of ripping families apart. This cruel trend is further explored in several facets of the episode - the first being the contents of the mysterious, all important package that Offred and Moira were tasked with bringing back from Jezebels. Feeling dismayed, Offred opens the package - only to find a stack of desperately penned letters from other handmaids from across Gilead. The emotional letters depict the handmaids' common plight ("they rape us, they treat us like animals") and reveal the regime's cruelty as dozens of mothers appeal for the whereabouts of their stolen children. And later comes an even bigger blow, as Serena takes Offred on a journey to a mysterious house, far from town. Trapped in the car, Offred watches on as Serena enters the building - and then, minutes later, returns with Offred's daughter Hannah in tow. To say that the scene of Offred pleading and raging from within the car is affecting would be an understatement. It is devastating - and beyond cruel. When Serena returns, she gives Offred a thinly veiled threat: "as long as my baby is safe, so is yours." Offred's understandably crude response - "You are deranged. You're fucking evil, you know that? You're a goddamned motherfucking monster. Fucking heartless sadistic motherfucking evil c***. You are gonna burn in goddamned motherfucking hell, you crazy evil bitch" - feels somewhat cathartic for us as viewers. This is after all, what we've been thinking the entire time. However, Serena's icy response only invokes more anger as she scolds: "Don't get upset. It's not good for the baby." Elsewhere, Moira finally arrives in Canada to a warm and friendly welcome - the likes of which is relieving (and a little disorientating) after years spent in Gilead. An emotional reunion also occurs when Luke arrives, having been alerted to the return of a member of his "family" - a gesture that Moira takes to heart as she breaks down - finally safe in the arms of her friend. Of course, the events of last week's episode also come into play this week as punishments are doled out towards Commander Putnam and Ofwarren. Fred pushes for a lenient conclusion to Warren's trial - in which he confesses to "lust" - only to be rebuffed by Commander Price, who reveals that Warren's wife, Naomi, has requested the "harshest possible punishment." As such, we watch as Warren's left hand is amputated in a very gruesome, graphic hospital scene. Meanwhile, the handmaids are brought forth to participate in another death sentence - you'll remember that last time this happened, with the sentenced rapist, the barbaric event was somewhat cathartic for these tortured women. They participated willingly and with the verve that only comes from desperation and repression. This time around, however, they refuse outright after seeing the intended victim of the stoning: Ofwarren. After one handmaid is beaten, Offred defiantly steps forward, drops her rock and leads a chorus of "Sorry, Aunt Lydia"'s - echoing that opening scene with a newfound sense of strength. After being promised "consequences", the final scene sees Offred being lead into a mysterious black van. Before walking out, Nick urges her to go with them, leading us to believe that Offred's destination is more hopeful than ominous. Offred takes her final walk through the Waterford household, leading Rita to the pack of letters, as well as having silent confrontations with both Fred and Serena - who though indignant at Offred's removal, don't put up much of a fight, which is surprising (and a little disappointing) given Serena's supposed devotion to her/Offred's unborn child. Featuring another stand-out performance by Elisabeth Moss, as well as commendable portrayals by Fiennes, Strahovski and Dowd, the finale of this season closes on a hopeful, if ambiguous note. Only time, and the confirmed second season, will tell what lies in store for Offred.
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On yesterday, Wednesday, July 26, 2017, we, Liberians, celebrated the 170th Birth Anniversary of the Liberian Political State, with the usual, historical pomp and pageantry. The back-slapping, family gatherings, gifts-giving and merry-making festivities of self-praise, feel-good and self-glorification now leading to another political hoopla for vote-rigging planned for the forthcoming general and Presidential Elections, scheduled for October, 2017.

This planned, hopeful hoopla of the continuous, continuing you chop, they chop and I chop is made possible through history of deceit, treachery, lies, thievery, public dishonesty, graft & greed and the over-night, rags-to-riches system by the nations political rulers/managers, while the critical needs of nation and its citizens have sunk, are sinking deeper and deeper to the great beyond of abject poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, etc.

No one, not even the wealthy political ruler/manager, can get into his/her late model, top-of-the-line, expensive SUV and drive to the scenic, seaside city of Robertsport, Capital of Cape Mount County and the potential tourist attraction of the breath-taking, scenic beauty of Lake Piso, both just about an hours drive from Monrovia, because of an ancient, pot-holed, quarter-mile laterite road from the paved Liberia/Sierra Leon highway to the city of Robertsport, home of several, leading political bigwigs who own and live in mansions on Monrovias Tubman Boulevard.

The only paved, 4-Lane thoroughfare in Liberia, the pride of the citizens, is the approximate ten-mile Tubman Boulevard that commences from the junction of Capitol Bye-Pass/Camp Johnson Road on Capitol Hill to ELWA Junction in Paynesville. Traffic jams are Monrovias 24/7 nightmares, because, apparently, all vehicles imported to Liberia are concentrated, crammed in the Monrovia area, but no roads to ply, also, because there are no safe, efficient highways in rural Liberia.

And, most importantly, because the primary, major and secondary streets/roads in the capital city, paved/unpaved, designed and built some 50-60 years ago, are now decayed and dilapidated with deep pot-holes and dust during the dry seasons and hills of mud during the rainy seasons. These roads/streets are now incapable to facilitate, safely and smoothly, the massively increased volume of vehicular/pedestrian traffic in the capital city.

Moreover, the capital City of Monrovia is a tiny peninsula with suburbs or enclaves, over-populated and congested, by rural-to-urban migrants and their born-here voting-age (18 years and over) children now the majority of nations population teeming in the enclaves. The socio-economic and political condition of the hundreds of thousands of these young people, unemployed, hungry, angry and often sick but without healthcare delivery service; street-smart, un-educated and ignored, but the convenient source of recruitment for drug-dealing with introduction to substance abuse, prostitution and high crime as well as an attractive opportunity for illegal income leading, eventually, to the nightmare of Slum Democracy compounds, economically, and renders city governance inefficient and ineffective.

Emergence of the Code of Conduct Scandal

Now, barely a day or two after the euphoria of Independence Day celebrations, there is ferocious attack against Law - of law-making (National Legislature); observance & obedience (all citizens, including the law-makers); enforcement (the Executive Government); and interpretation (trial & punishment by the Courts, headed by the Supreme Court) - by a prominent member of the National Legislature, the Upper House, in the person of the Honorable Senator Dan Morais (NPP, Maryland County), that the Republic of Liberia is  a Lawless Nation (New Democratnews, July 28, 2017),growing from, apparent contradictory decisions by the Supreme Court of Liberia, as we shall see later.

First, the Case against Cllr. Korkoya

In an Article entitled The Power of the President of Liberia (Analyst Liberia, March 3, 2013), we held that The National Elections Commission (NEC), the Nations Referee and lawful manager of the Electoral Process that determines the most powerful chief executive in the land, is seen by the Liberian People as being manipulated and controlled by ruling political parties and that the NECs lawful responsibilities of (1), registration and management of political parties; (2), over-sight of parties financing; registration of voters, control of political campaigns and management of the Electoral Process; (3), tabulation and announcement of results; and (4), adjudication of complaints have not been free, fair, transparent, democratic and legal, as we have seen and experienced.

Elsewhere recently, we reported that Cllr. Jerome Korkoya, current Chairman of the National Elections Commissions (NEC), was taken before the Supreme Court (Associate Justice Philip A. Z. Banks, III, in Chambers) on charges that he (Cllr. Korkoya) is citizen of a foreign country (USA) in violation of Liberian Elections Laws, including laws against dual citizenship and that he lied under oath during confirmation hearings. In asking the High Court for a Writ of Prohibition against the Counselor, the accusers submitted overwhelming, validated evidence, including the number of Cllr. Korkoyas US Passport, date and place of US naturalization.

Based on the strength  veracity  of the evidence submitted, conclusion of a guilty verdict, issuance of the requested Writ of Prohibition and possible removal of Cllr. Korkoya as Chairman of NEC are inevitable. Moreover, Cllr Korkoya, who did not, does not, deny the charges against him, told the High Court that those making the claim (charges against him) are opening a Pandora Box . . . why come after me . . . take the issue up with the Executive government (represented by the President) that appointed me (Front Page Africa, June 20, 2017).

Accordingly, indications which follow, reasonably, from the evidence provided are that a direct, inevitable guilty verdict against Cllr. Korkoya implicates the President of Liberia as an accessory and, therefore, she should and must be prosecuted for the offense,becauseshe appointed, knowingly, Cllr. Korkoya who is legally-incompetent to hold such position but, thereby, aided/abetted Cllr. Korkoya in the commission of the offense. If she pleads lack of fore-knowledge, she is still liable for not knowing that which she should have known, as President of the nation.

Now, Associate Justice Philip A. Z. Banks, III, who, himself, is likely to be US citizen, dodged the inevitable decision of a guilty verdict against Cllr. Korkoya and issuance of the requested Writ of Prohibition by recommending that Petitioner (accuser/prosecution) takes advantage of the statue by filing a petition for Declaratory Judgment at the Civil Law Court, a lower court.

This suggestion appears to be the Liberian, traditional legal gymnastics designed to baffle, delay and, eventually, deny justice, because sending the case to the lower court, the provenden or storehouse of Liberian legal gymnastics of jury-tempering and cash payments; judges decisions in favor of the highest bidder; massive public dishonesty and corrupt practices. The suggestion is tantamount to sending a hungry cat to a house of mice or a hungry lion to a den of antelopes. So, political Liberian observers and analysts conclude, reasonably, leave Korkoya alone and in place; protect the President from political shame and disgrace!!

The Code of Conduct

Now comes the proverbial load  the Code of Conduct  that broke the Camels back. Crafted by the (Dr. Amos) Sawyer-led Book Doctors Club, the powerful public policy theorist/counsel, the Governance Commission, the Code was designed, apparently, to disable formidable, political opponents. But the Code boomeranged, also, into the proverbial town trap that is not for rat alone, being an element of human desires in a rapidly changing choices of political alliance. The Governance Commission, even, tried to undo applicable sections of the law, but the dee-dee-bahs/mango-mangos were too obvious for comfort.

The Code of Conduct was part of the Executive Branch of Governments Legislative program submitted to the Legislature, supported and guided through debate, analysis & passage. It (the Code) was signed into law by the President and published in handbills in June, 2014. Later, in March, 2017, the Supreme Court, by its constitutional authority, vetted and ruled the Code Constitutional and, therefore, binding law of the land.

Quite recently, in the case of young Abu Kamara Versus NEC, the Supreme Court held that Mr. Kamara could not contest for a seat as Representative because he was found in violation and gave a stern, legal warning lecture on recognition, respect, observation of and obedience to law, delivered by none other than His Honor, the Chief Justice, himself, of the Supreme Court.

The 360-degree Turn-around

But the same Supreme Court and same Judges/Justices delivered the ruling in the most recent case of Liberty (political Party) versus the NEC, involving Mr. Harrison Kanwea with extension to Messrs. Mills Jones of MOVEE and Sulunteh of ANC that stunned the Nation, Liberian political observers and analysts because it is a complete 360-degree turn-around, an apparent contradiction of their earlier rulings. The critical language translated, is that, though Messrs. Kanwea, Jones and Sulunteh are in violation of the Code, but they must be permitted to stand and contest.

Indeed, this Ruling has been, and is, the talk of the town, Monrovia, in posh restaurants, barbershops, salons, Fufu & Soup Cook-shops, residential dinner tables, side-walk intellectual encounters and the Monrovia grapevine, rumor mill because, the ruling raises fundamental questions regarding the historical problems that impact the lives of all Liberians, including, particularly, the majority  disadvantaged, poor and uneducated:

Of indigenous/country-, Americo- and congo-Liberian Divides; and The problem of political control/manipulation of the judiciary and law enforcement.

The issue of the Divide (item 1 above) came into focus recently from the reported massive political/economic support of Cllr. Charles Bumskine - leader of the opposition Liberty Party who is African-American (therefore Americo-Liberian True Whig Party) political class that ruled Liberia for more than a century and continuing - by Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Flag Bearer of the ruling Unity Party, ineligible to stand for a third term who, according to education, life-style, attire (until lately, after the April, 1980 Event), mannerism, deportment and body language convey the reality that she (Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf) was, and also is, socio-culturally African-American and natural heritage of European-German descent, while she claims to be bio-physically indigenous, Liberian-African.

Furthermore, her rise to political power and careerbegan as Ideological foot-solder of the African-American (Americo-Liberian True Whig Party) of Liberia and, eventually, became the nations Minister of Finance.

Hence, Liberian political observers and analysts believe the motivation for continuation of the Divide in favor of the African-Americans of which Mrs. Ellen John-Sirleaf is member and to which she reportedly gave support to fellow member, Americo-Liberian, Cllr. Brumskine, although leader of the opposition political party to her ruling Unity Party, now headed by Vice President Boakai of Indigenous Country origin.

And finally, regarding item 2 above - the problem of political control and manipulation of the Judiciary and Law Enforcement  the causes are poverty and ignorance characterized by the American expression of Catch-22.

What is your take? Please post your comments below:


The most vital and clear-cut pathway to propelling transformative social change and inclusive growth in Liberia is through youth development and sustainable agriculture. It is no secret that agriculture is the backbone of our economy with over 80% of our people living in abject poverty, earning less than US$2 per day, and relying primarily on small-scale subsistence farming as their primary source of income, food, nutrition and survival. Our country ranks 12th from bottom of the United Nations Human Development Index with 75% of them under 36 years of age, and 44% of that percentage under 16 years of age, with the majority uneducated, unskilled, jobless and idle.

Over the past 12 years, transformative social change in various sectors has been stalled due to the lack of vision, innovation, support, training, performance, investment, inequalities, and gender bias, even with a female president leading and navigating the ship of state. Sustainable agriculture for instance, the backbone of our economy and major component of our food security was left unattended without promulgating cutting-edge policies and programs to build critical capacities to enhance social change. As a result, the size of farmlands were allowed to shrink, along with severe inadequacies in water resource management, upgrading of seed varieties and distribution to boost food production, employment and training. Instead, appalling policies were implemented, which did nothing more than to compromise the growth of the sector along with outrageous concession agreements that will seriously injure our country in a few short years to come.

Conversely, with such serious challenges facing Liberia, the majority of our youth, the greatest segment of our population, are stuck at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder twisting in an endless cycle of abject poverty without a strategic pathway to contribute or participate in our country's development agenda. Many are instead, marginalized, neglected and excluded from mainstream society without constructively and strategically being engage in contributing to the sustainable growth and development of our country. Since the end of the civil war in 2003, the majority of Liberia's youth have been left behind in frustration, restlessness, impatience and agony due to the lack of productive education, skill- training, employment and a clear pathway to livelihood improvement.

Today, more than ever, Liberia desperately need a game-changing strategy to fundamentally root transformative social change to spur inclusive growth. The strength, vigor and dynamism of all our young people needs to be groomed and harnessed through sustainable agriculture, the service industry and the trades. Our youth are a sleeping giant and they must be made the principle driving force to propel transformative social change in every community and municipality in our country. If transformative social change is to take place in Liberia, than the culture of impunity that has historically hamstrung and restrained our governance structures and socioeconomic relationships must be urgently brought to an end.

Since our country's founding, impunity has been used to institutionalize inequality, injustice, privilege and poverty. It has separated, alienated and set most of our people apart socially, economically, politically and geographically by creating class structures that are destructive and urgently needs to be torn down. Fundamentally, when impunity is paired with bad governance, corruption, dishonesty and deal making, it prevents our leaders from formulating clear-cut policies and pathways for inclusive growth and delivery of critical services such as, education, healthcare, human resource development, employment, nutrition, water, sanitation, and electricity amongst others. Every Liberian knows all too well that as a collective, these social ills limit social mobility, sustainable development, food security, efficient service delivery, youth development and poverty eradication. According to the World Bank, these are the primary reasons for our country's underdevelopment, even with its vast wealth and abundant natural resources.

It is this author's view that the major contributing factor to Liberia's underdevelopment is the existence of two exclusively separate and unequal societies that exist in Liberia. One of these societies is prosperous and well-off, while the other, illiterate, poorly educated, unskilled, unemployed and hopelessly poverty stricken without straightforward opportunities for upward social mobility. Each of these societies remains so culturally different from one another that they project diametrically different, and opposing views about prosperity, social change, growth, and development.

Since the end of the civil war in 2003, Liberia's extractive industry has been the principal source of growth, however, as a collective, the industry's lofty ventures and enormous profits yield very little, if any, benefit for our people; thereby, forcing the vast majority of our people to continue to languish at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder in excruciating agony, misery, disappointment, resentment and pain. However, Liberia has an extremely impressive future ahead of it. The country is in a unique position to chart a new destiny towards a better and brighter future. But, innovative public policy will have to be promulgated to ignite transformative social change. Such innovative policy initiatives will have to be put front-and-center in our governance structures by a visionary leader to create a trajectory for change through youth development, sustainable agriculture, food production, service delivery, increased commodity production and the creation of small and medium industry.

This trajectory will indeed shift the changing realities of economic diversification. If this doesn't happen after the 2017 elections, high illiteracy rate, couple with the lack of marketable skill-sets for our youth along with food insecurity, malnutrition, and unemployment will continue to keep Liberians hopelessly in poverty without clear-cut pathways to transformative social change. In this light, it will take a progressive leadership with a vigorous and resolute agenda to empower our youth and enhance sustainable growth. Liberia cannot afford any longer to allow the most vibrant segment of its population to continue to arbitrarily and haphazardly be used as instruments of hostility, violence, conflict and devastation. Our youth are the engine that can, and must drive our country to prosperity. They are endowed with the most underutilized talent for building critical capacity to igniting transformative social change and inclusive growth in our country. The time has come for our youth to be empowered with productive education, livelihood skills and employment to ignite transformation, increase resiliency and annihilate socioeconomic vulnerabilities. But, it is imperative that our youth be nurtured and guided in order for them to revolutionize their communities to success and prosperity.

Another way to also begin this transformative process is through the effective utilization of the robust value chain applications, practices and performances of a sustainable agricultural sector. Such an approach will allow the sector to become successful in enhancing youth development and empowerment. Our youth must be strategically targeted in a consequential manner so as to boost inclusive growth in a dynamic, and innovative way. It is no secret that our country is a net importer of food; yet we produce far less than our potential given our rich soil, abundant rainfall, and favorable climate for agriculture. This author holds the view that when sustainable agriculture is paired with youth development, it will translate into a win-win situation for our country. It will create considerable employment, improve food security, improve livelihoods, plus increase the balance of payments for our country. For instance, frozen foods and livestock that could be raised and grown in the country will no longer have to be imported. Moreover, basic vegetables, which are consumed every day by every Liberians will be grown in our country; instead of being imported from neighboring Guinea and Ivory Coast to fill the gap as it is currently being done at a tune of US10 million dollars annually.

A definite way to begin such a transformative process is the regional institutionalization of Farmers Field Schools. Such initiatives without a doubt will surely help to lift millions of Liberians out of poverty through sustainable agriculture. It can bridge the divide between the youth, women and smallholder farmers through capacity building, and discovery learning to facilitate interactive learning amongst this underserved segment of our population. Additionally, it will prepare participants to effectively utilize the entire value chain spectrum of the agricultural sector, by allowing them to become more engaged citizens through employment, entrepreneurship, teamwork, and problem solving. Agriculture is the backbone of our economy, it cannot continue to suffer from entrenched negative perception and underinvestment where smallholder farmers perform long hours of backbreaking-work with very little to show for their life's work. Our agricultural sector desperately needs to be modernized through the introduction of new techniques, methods, fertilizers and modern equipment to achieve better yields. What better way to initiate transformative social change, than through youth development and sustainable agriculture? Mama Liberia, the country we love, and the only country we have, cannot continue to be weakened by shortsighted public policy, which bring about intolerance, injustice, sexism and hostility. The confidence of our people cannot continues to be corroded and sink deeper into poverty and paucity. Every Liberians must be welcome on board. We need all hands on deck to develop our country from Cape Mount to Cape Palmas, and from mount Nimba to seashores of Montserrado. But most importantly, the participation and contribution of our youth in sustainable agriculture must be encouraged through the public and private sectors, and civil society working together to reach this goal. Liberia First!

About the Author: Francis Nyepon can be reached at fnyepon@aol.com for remarks and comments

What is your take? Please post your comments below:


I would like to thank the Executive Governor Kaduna State, His Excellency Malam Ahmad Nasir El-Rufai, for the kind hospitality that his dynamic government accorded me and my delegation, and the Organization of Liberian Communities in Nigeria (OLICON) in Nigeria to facilitate its second annual convention in this productive city of Kaduna. The relationship between Kaduna and Liberia may be seen in the role Kaduna State and its leaders have played in promoting the bilateral relations of Nigeria and Liberia, and in the Liberian peace process. Governor El-Rufai played a pivotal role to bring peace to Liberia when he served as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja.

Kaduna State is very much at the center of implementation of the defense and security agreement between Nigeria and Liberia. As host of Nigerias premier military academies, several Liberian cadets and military officers have received training from the National Defence Academy (NDA) and the Armed Forces Command and Staff College at Jaji. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a distinguished alumna of the NDA, which accorded her the Doctor of Laws degree (Honoris Causa) in Management Science in 2012, for her outstanding leadership. Many Nigerians now call Kaduna their home away from home. In this respect, let me pay tribute to our late sister of blessed memory, Ms Jartu Sackor, who was a long time resident of Kaduna and contributed actively to its civic and community programs. Jartus body lies at a cemetery not too far from the venue of this Convention. May her soul rest in perfect peace.

I wish to also thank the Officers and members of OLICON for inviting me as the Guest Speaker of their Second Annual Convention to speak on the theme Strengthening Our Community Through Consolidation.

I vividly recall the National Convention of OLICON in Onitsha, Anambra State, in July, 2016, when the bodys Constitution was adopted and national election held producing a cadres of officers led by Mr. Daoda Kanneh of Minna, Niger State as National President, and Mr. Joseph Gonganu Mendy as National Vice President. The Vice President of the ECOWAS Court of Justice, Judge Micah Wright, served as the Guest Speaker at the of the election of OLICON Officers and the bodys celebration of Liberias 169th Independence Day by Liberians in Nigeria. The Judge is on record of delivering a unifying and motivational speech at the event. The Embassy subsequently hosted the first inauguration of OLICON in August 2016 as part of the joint celebration of Independence and Flag days in Nigeria.

Commenting on the needs of communities in the new world order (some may argue disorder) in the March-April 2017 issue of Foreign Affairs, Professor Walter Mead of Bard College, USA, observes that The challenge of international politics in the days ahead is therefore less to complete the task of liberal world order building along conventional lines than to find a way to stop the liberal orders erosion and reground the global system on a more sustainable basis. International order needs to rest not on elite consensus and balances of power and policy but also on the free choices of national communities-communities that need to feel protected from the outside world as much as they want to benefit from engaging with it.

Although his observation was about the historical emergence of populist communities which catapulted the election of Mr. Donald Trump as President of the United States, the free choice and utility implications of his point also apply to the needs of communities in the Diaspora who want to strengthen their constituencies with respect to receiving and home countries momentum and vicissitudes of development.

To address the topic of this paper, I explain the issues affecting Liberian Diaspora Communities based on my own experience in the 1990s as an active member of the Liberian Diaspora. Utilizing a TWOS Analysis (Threats, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Strengths), I outline the way forward for the achievement of equilibrium between the states of life in receiving and sending countries affecting Liberian Diaspora Communities.

For the purpose of this speech, community means a group of people living in the same place and having a particular characteristic in common. I take consolidation to mean the reinforcement or strengthening of communities position or power. Sustainability is the ability of Diaspora communities to maintain their state of life at equilibrium rates or levels. Diaspora means the dispersion of any people from their original homeland. Equilibrium is the state of life of Liberian communities by which opposing forces or influences in their receiving and sending countries are balanced.

Many Liberians are in the Diaspora today because of the fratricidal civil war that mercilessly waged in Liberia between 1989 and 2003. In a pre-war, World Bank demographic study of migration in West Africa by Zachariah and Conde, Liberians were found to be less internationally mobile than their neighbors in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Cote dIvoire. That was because of attractive factors at their home that Liberians called the Sweet Land of Liberty. In the throes of the civil war, 1990s data from the United States Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) showed that over a million people emigrated in concentric circles: first to neighboring countries, then the ECOWAS sub-region, followed by the rest of the world. About 200,000 died in the first episode of the conflict (1989-1997). Some Liberians were already abroad for various reasons and causes and became part of the Diaspora. For example, I fell in that category. I was a graduate student in the United States when the war started, and became a member of the Liberian Diaspora in the United States.

From my experience, a key threat of Diaspora Communities during and after the war is the inability by some to overcome the overwhelming issues of their pre-emigration and immigration experiences. Some individuals witnessed the war, or episodes of it, and became traumatized in their new abode. Some even suffered from what psychologists call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): a condition of persistent mental and emotional stress occurring as a result of injury or severe psychological shock, typically involving disturbance of sleep and constant vivid recall of the experience, with dulled responses to others and to the outside world. Overcoming trauma has therefore been a key issue of adjustment in Liberian Diaspora Communities. The problem has been in seen in how Liberians manage their identities, social relations, and participate in political activities, including extending support to the government of the day back home in Liberia.

For example, in the United States during the 1990s, county matters were more attractive to many Liberians than national issues. In other words many Liberians identified more with their county development than with national reconstruction. This was partly due to divisive consequences of the civil war, and frequent political problems within the Union of Liberian Association in the Americas (ULAA).

Consequently, Liberians were always deeply divided on political matters back home. ULAA was therefore unable momentarily to operate as a strong center for the solution of social, economic and adjustment matters affecting Liberians in the United States. For example, adjustment was difficult for newly arrived Liberian children in the West Philadelphia area, where I lived. Kids were left to their own devises when their parents went to work. Some parents had multiple jobs.

I participated in an outreach project organized by a local NGO and the University of Pennsylvania for West Philadelphia schools that were grappling with the adjustment of children in their classes. Part of my assignment was to sensitize the teachers about Liberian culture, including Liberian accents of the immigrant children, how to inform instructors to motivate the new learners to participate in classroom activities. Some of the teachers had perceived that because the Liberian students were less responsive than their American counterparts, they might have psychological problems requiring intervention by their guidance counselors.

Our interventions sensitized the teachers to their new learners realities. Many of the faculty reported that the student outcomes changed dramatically a semester following our intervention. The lesson to be learned from this experience in faraway America is that community members can positively collaborate with local NGOs and private institutions to address the prevailing and urgent adjustment issues affecting their communities.

The threat of disunity in organizational matters can be addressed by commitments to good governance, transparency and accountability. When communities organize themselves into a Union, as you have done in Nigeria, the elected leaders should ensure that the Constitution and By-Laws of the umbrella group is scrupulously implemented with respect to the welfare of Chapter organizations.

The problem with ULAA in the 1990s was frequent disharmony between its Board of Trustees and the Chapters, especially those located on the eastern seaboard of the United States. The power struggle was often about adherence to constitutional term limits, and power struggles between the board chairs and chapter leaders. Another big problem was the extension of support to the regime of day in Liberia. Precious time was sacrificed at the altar of disunity.

You in Nigeria can learn from this experience by adopting good governance, transparency and accountability as the consolidating mantras and practices to strengthen your communities. I am aware that some of our compatriots who applied for the UNHCR benefits before the organization announced the end of the refugee program in Nigeria received their packages and successfully integrated in Nigerian society. Some were repatriated through a special program the Government of Liberia implemented through the Liberia Refugee, Repatriation, and Resettlement Commission (LRRRC) and the Liberia Immigration and Naturalization Service.

In March, 2016, I sent our Minister Counselor for Press and Public Affairs, Mr. Nat Bayjay, to find out the status of former Liberian refugees who were still residing at the Oru Refugee Camp in Ogun State. He reported that although UNHCR had declared its refugee program for Liberians in Nigeria over, because of the improved political and economic situation in Liberia, a significant number of Liberians continue to live in the camp in Ogun State by fending for themselves. This situation has overstretched the hospitality of the local host community, who intend using the land occupied by the Liberians to construct a university campus. Meanwhile, the entrenched former Liberian refugees are still looking forward to receiving relocation assistance from the Government of Liberia, through the Embassy of Liberia.

The Embassy had previously assisted the Oru refugees through the sponsorship of the Government of Japan, and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). About 300 Liberian refugees were repatriated to Liberia. Many left their belongings in storage at the camp because of the limited baggage requirement of the repatriation program. We are still working on sending the belongings that were left behind by the first batch of repatriated group under the Japanese cum IOM Program. This will free the space for the planned development program of the host community, which has graciously extended their welcome of the former Liberian refugees.

Turning to community weaknesses, which are related to the aforementioned threats, the lack of capacity and overconcentration on war experiences can stand in the way of consolidation. Liberia is now on record of enjoying fourteen years of peace, eleven of these sacred years under the administration of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. This blessing from the Almighty should be consolidated in our communities by mobilizing all our psychological and socio-economic potentialities to move our communities forward.

We should encourage no more space for ethnic epithets in our relations. That some are still doing this, especially in social media should be condemned at every opportunity and proscribed. Many an unscrupulous compatriot uses these platforms for self serving ventilations of falsity, unwarranted insults and profanities. And false information is proliferated if it is true. It is time to question information that we receive on social media based on evidence before we spread them to our friends on whatever platforms we use. The question to ask is how do we really know that received information is true? And how does it affect our lives?

Liberian Diaspora Communities are often located in places of great opportunities. Their opportunities and strengths include their capacities to provide remittances, for transnational household support, access to information, education and skills training. Those in the United States in the 1990s could work and support their families back home through remittances. Macroeconomic data on Liberia in the 1990s revealed significant remittances from Liberian Diaspora communities around the world, especially from the United States, in insulating households to the then stagflation in the Liberian economy as a result of the civil war.

Nigeria is also a land of great business opportunities for entrepreneurial ventures. The Embassys magazine JELIN (Journal of the Embassy of Liberian in Nigeria) edited by Mr. Nat Bayjay, Minister Counselor for Press and Public Affairs, recently featured some Liberians in Lagos and Abuja, who are making use of opportunities in music, broadcasting, writing, hotel and event supplies and fashion design. A few examples would suffice. Honorary Consul, Chief Opral Benson, the widow of Nigerias first Minister of Information, TOS Benson, is today an iconic role model from her work, for over 50 years in Nigeria, in the fields of education and beautification. Ms Jerrilyn Mulbah has made her a name for herself as a talk show host on WE FM, a popular radio station in Abuja. Mr. Abubakar Kaneh is excelling in the hospitality industry, while Miss Jarsea Jessica Kanneh is doing her unique styles as a fashion designer. The President of OLICON, Mr. Daoda Kanneh, has been inspirational as the CEO of Development Initiatives of West Africa based in Minna, Niger State. He and many other Liberians have benefitted from education support provided by the Government of Nigeria and NGOs like the Islamic Education Trust of Minna, Niger State.

Many other Liberians are currently have completed or currently pursuing higher education at several premier Nigerian Universities, including Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, the University of Lagos, Obafemi Awolowo University, the African University of Science and Technology, and the University of Ibadan in fields ranging from ICT to petroleum engineering. Similar opportunities were pursued by Liberians in the United States in education, community development, social work and peace-building.

My personal experience in this respect may be instructive. My zeal in the 1990s was working for peace in Liberia. That burning desire took me and colleagues all over the United States, wherever Liberian communities were found, to ensure that we worked with the various interim regimes to restore peace in Liberia. I was particularly interested in the higher education sector at a time when most schools and government facilities had been destroyed.

We helped to mobilize Liberian professionals in United States for repatriation back home to contribute to the peace and reconstruction process. Motivated by the work of the then President of the University of Liberia, Professor Patrick Seyon, was doing to revive the University of Liberia, I contacted several institutions, including the African American Institute (AAI), where former UL Professor Dr. Jane Martin was President. At a presentation at the AAI, I learned about a United States Pentagon program called Excess Property, that provided several used office logistics to institutions of friendly countries. And after another presentation at the West Africa Division of the Pentagon, with my late friend, Dr. Napoleon Divine of Philadelphia, we received the United States Governments endorsement for desks, chairs, buses, and computers, among others, for the University of Liberia. I was also motivated by the community leadership of the late Dr. Romeo Horton to form an election support group that mobilized support in the US for elections in Liberia. I subsequently became the first participant in 1995, of a UNDP-Liberia program on the Transfer of Knowledge Through Expatriate Nationals (TOKTEN) to rebuild the University of Liberia. The point here is that members of Liberian Diaspora communities should make use of the opportunities in their receiving countries to strengthen their communities while contributing to national reconstruction and development.

Another point is that Liberian Diaspora communities should engage the opportunities in their receiving locations to make their living. And the opportunities they pursue should be fueled by patriotic zeal to contribute to development back home according to their abilities.

Let me now turn to some current concerns of Diaspora Communities. These may vary by location but invariably include unemployment, education and skills training, integration in host communities, family matters, (host country spouses), consular and immigration issues, Diaspora voting, dual citizenship, political issues at home.

In order to consolidate Liberian communities in Nigeria, I recommend that OLICON devises initiatives to address the first set of these problems. Some of these issues can be addressed through acquiring entrepreneurial skills. Revolving loan funds mirroring the microcredit principles of our Susus back home could be established to help members establish small businesses. And there is no short supply of institutions in Nigeria for the provision of these skills. These range from government institutions like the Nigerian Directorate for Employment (NDC) to the Open University of Nigeria, among others. Compatriots who have opted to integrate in Nigerian society should comply with Nigerian laws and norms, while not sacrificing their patriotic duties to Liberia. Some of our women compatriots are married to Nigerians. A few of these marriages have gone sour. OLICON could help our sisters by extending support through channels of alternate dispute resolutions based on mutual cultural understanding.

The Embassy is actively addressing consular and immigration issues of Liberian communities in Nigeria. I many very pleased to announce that the Passport Application Center (PAC) at the Abuja Mission is now ready for the online renewal of passports of Liberians resident in Nigeria and adjoining countries. We will inaugurate the PAC at a date to be announced soon as a special celebration of our countrys 170th Independence Anniversary in Nigeria. This is a key deliverable of the Administration of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, to address the welfare of Diaspora Communities. PACs are also available in the United States, Belgium and Ghana. One will soon be established in Beijing, China. The PAC will address the many immigration issues that some compatriots have been facing in Nigeria, especially with respect to the acquisition of residence permits and documentation for registration at educational and other institutions.

The Abuja Mission and the Office of the Honorary Consul of Liberia in Lagos issue visas, traveling documents, and authenticates certificates. The Embassy also has a Protocol Attache in Lagos in the person of Chief Cliff Nzeruem. I would like in this special manner, to extend our heartfelt thanks to Chief Cliff for providing valuable protocol services to Liberian dignitaries and other government officials transiting at the Murtalla Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, or visiting Lagos for meetings and conferences. He also personally intervenes on behalf of the Mission, in matters affecting the Liberian communities in Lagos and adjoining states.

The remaining concerns of Diaspora voting, dual citizenship, political issues at home require concerted efforts by both Diaspora Communities in concert with the Government of Liberia. Our Constitution and Electoral Laws do not currently prescribe for Diaspora voting and dual citizenship. But these issues are now currently before our Legislature. And the fact that dual citizenship has been very beneficial in some African countries is a best practice that Diaspora communities should continue to cite as evidence to support amendment of the requisite national legislations for benefit of the current generation of Liberians in the Diaspora and posterity.

Regarding political issues at home, Diaspora Communities are actively engaged through the utility of the new media. The forthcoming presidential and legislative elections will be defining polls in Liberian history. 1944 was the last year there was orderly transfer of democratic power from the administration of President Edwin Barclay to that of President William V.S. Tubman. President Ellen Johnson has proficiently taken our nation from war to peace. We now look forward to a political future where the successor administration can sustain the peace and consolidate the gains made by the Sirleaf administration. Diaspora Communities are currently social media influencers for the better of the worse. I suggest that Liberia will next be better off with the emergence of a reliable, trusted and experienced leadership, to steer our nation as a stable and responsible member of the comity of nations. There have been many interesting observations on the elasticity of the recent Supreme Court decisions with respect to the provisions of the Code of Conduct Act requiring aspirants in the executive branch to resign two years before the national elections scheduled for this October. Liberia Diaspora Communities should strive to understand the emerging electoral issues and their legal interpretations in order to arrive at their own objective decisions. Their decisions should be devoid of emotionalism and provincialism, but based on nationalism and patriotism, in influencing their constituent voters back home, in making balanced decisions for the benefit of their families, communities and the nation.

In conclusion, considering the theme of this Convention, in order to be a positive and sustainable force of social change and development, Liberian communities in the Diaspora need to maintain equilibrium between their receiving and sending countries social order as they address their needs, while keeping abreast with the evolving policies and developments back home. This would afford their members to remain focused, law abiding, well informed and resilient in living meaningful lives that are beneficial to them in both their host and home countries.

I thank you.

What is your take? Please post your comments below:


Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou, left, and Gov. Scott Walker hold the Wisconsin flag July 27 at the Milwaukee Art Museum to celebrate Foxconn's planned $10 billion investment in a display panel plant in Wisconsin.
Hamlin senior throws standout Gracelyn Leiseth headed to Florida

Hamlin's Gracelyn Leiseth to compete in women's track and field at the University of Florida.
It's our annual Labour Weekend tradition ...The Sound 'Hall Of Fame' Countdown... Where we honor the greatest 500 songs of all time as voted by you.
The commerce ministry is negotiating as many as 21 trade agreements, including with Israel and Mauritius, Parliament was informed on Monday.

Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also said the negotiations for a free trade agreement are a continuous process and it is difficult to set a timeline for their conclusion.

She said that before starting talks for such pacts, studies are carried out internally as well as through joint study groups to look at the feasibility of such pacts.

"The Department of Commerce is negotiating 21 trade agreements including with Israel and Mauritius," she said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

India is negotiating FTAs with countries including European Union, Sri Lanka, Thailand, New Zealand and Canada.

Replying to a separate question, she said India has exported 53,490 livestock in April this fiscal and 12,02,841 in the last fiscal.

In a separate reply, she said out of the country's total imports of drugs of USD 4.45 billion in 2016-17, imports from China stood at USD 1.96 billion, which is 44.1 per cent.

"One of the reasons for imports from China is the price competitiveness of these products," Sitharaman added.


The Maharashtra government is working on a three-point agenda that includes providing uninterrupted power, water and stable market to strengthen farmers in the state, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Sunday.

"The state government is working to provide farmers electricity, water and stable market to strengthen them and bring positive changes in their life," the chief minister said after laying the foundation stone of a multi-purpose cold storage plant in Lasalgaon village in the district.

Once completed, the 2,500-tonne capacity cold storage plant will be able to store 1,500 tonnes of onions and 1,000 tonnes of fruits and vegetable for export.

The plant is being jointly developed by the Railways and the Lasalgaon's Cooperative Kharedi Vikri Sangh, said Nanasaheb Patil, Chairman of Kharedi-Vikri Sangh.

Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu, MoS for Defence Subhash Bhamare, Nashik district Guardian Minister Girish Mahajan, Tourism Minister Jaykumar Rawal were present on the occasion.

"Famers should store onions and other agri products in the cold storages so that their agri produce will fetch good rates," he said, adding that Central government will set up 227 cold storages across the country, of which 52 will be in Maharashtra.

Prabhu said the Centre and state governments are working together to ensure that farmers get benefited from their policies.

"The government has taken a string of important decisions, including setting up multi-purpose cold storage projects. The Container Corporation of India (CCI) would assist farmers by using a high technology so to as bring their agri produce in the market," he said.

Prabhu said Kamayani Express will stop at Lasalgaon station as per demands of the local people.

Later, Fadanvis laid a foundation stone of the project that envisages modernisation of 'Mela Bus Stand' in Nashik.

The project envisages development of the bus stand, owned by the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation, on the lines of an airport.
With the Supreme Court of Pakistan disqualifying Nawaz Sharif from holding public office for life, the ancestral village of Pakistans ousted Prime Minister (PM), Jati Umra, in Punjab is in the state of shock over the turn of events in the neighbouring country.

But residents of this village in Tarn Taran district are finding solace in the fact that Sharif has named his younger brother Shahbaz Sharif  current chief minister of Punjab province  as a successor to the country's top office.

They say the PM's post will thus remain with the Sharif family, which migrated from Jati Umra to Pakistan before the partition of India in August 1947.

"We are shocked to hear the news (about Sharif's ouster). Though we want Sharif to return as PM, it's soothing for us that the PM's post is going to Shahbaz, who is from the same family," sarpanch (village head) of Jati Umra, Dilbagh Singh (40), told The Statesman over the phone.

He said the village has gained much from its association with the Sharifs. "When Shahbaz visited the village in 2013, the state government gave Rs 2.53 Crore for the village which has been used for making a stadium, water tank, streets, roads, community hall, gym and much more," Singh said adding that the village has better facilities that other villages only because of the Sharif family.

A granthi (ceremonial reader of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib) with the village gurdwara, Inderjeet Singh said whenever residents of Jati Umra go to Pakistan for pilgrimage, the Sharif family takes care of all their local travel and other arrangements. "They also give them gifts when coming back to India," he told The Statesman over the phone.

The village sarpanch said village residents keep watching TV news regarding the happenings in Pakistan. "We pray for the good of the Sharif family because whatever our village has is because of them," Singh said.

Sharif family named their palatial estate at Raiwind near Lahore after their ancestral village in India. Now, Jati Umrah has developed into a small town in the Punjab province of Pakistan.

Jati Umra is the birthplace of Sharif's father, Muhammad Sharif. The family's residence has now been turned into a gurdwara as per the wish of the Sharif family. The wooden door frame of same house was presented to Sharif family by Sikh caretakers in the 90s and was fixed at their residence Jati Umra. The grave of Sharif's great grandfather is in Jati Umra.
Mohamed Maliki, Moroccan Ambassador to India, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka, has held many important positions, including heading the Asia and Oceania Affairs Directorate as Director (Additional Secretary) in the Foreign Ministry of his country . He was at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation (MAEC) headquarters in Rabat from July 2007 to September 2016 and has been Deputy Ambassador at the Moroccan Embassies in Islamabad, Pakistan (2003) and in Yaounde,Cameroon (1994).He holds a Master's in English Literature and Diplomatic Studies. In this interview to Sarah Berry, he talks about the growing bilateral relations between Morocco and India and his plans for enhancing the same during his tenure.

How do you look at the current scenario of bilateral relations between both countries and in which areas do you envisage further growth, especially post the India-Africa Summit?

Though Morocco and India are almost 8,500 kilometres apart, history records the association back to the visit of Ibn Batuta from Tanja/Tangiers, if not earlier. The contribution of Moroccan intellectuals like Abdullah Al-Arwi and Abid alJabri have made a deep impact on thought processes in India and across the globe. Till now, the partnership between India and Morocco has been particularly strong in the fields of phosphates and their derivatives.

Possible expansion could be envisaged in the fields of agriculture, ICT, aerospace, pharmaceuticals, automotive, research and development, science and technology. Man-power training, water resources management and vocational training could be other areas of cooperation.

In fact, the visit of His Majesty Mohammed VI to India in October 2015 for the India-Africa Summit gave a real impetus to the bilateral cooperation in different fields. The two leaders decided to elevate these relations into a strategic partnership. The two countries celebrate this year as the 60th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations.

Tourism is an important aspect in developing people-to-people connects.How does Morocco plan to develop this segment for the Indian outbound traveller? Are connectivity and language an issue?

Morocco's uniqueness lies on its abundant and exotic natural and architectural beauty. This apart, the cuisine and hospitality are one of the finest. In fact, Moroccan kitchen is ranked amongst the Top Five in the world. Having said that, it is important to note that the destination is ideal for a second or third-time traveller, as there is simply a lot to be explored. With a growing middle class section of society, spending capacity and awareness, my country is bound to gain even more prominence as a travel destination for the discerning Indian traveller. Besides this, the luxury segment in Morocco is strong, like India.

Language and connectivity are not really a challenge any more, as English is commonly spoken besides French and Spanish; Arabic being the official language. A number of permutations and combinations are available as regards connectivity. However, a direct connectivity is being worked upon. In my tenure as Ambassador, I hope to be able to enhance contacts with the travel and trade communities here, and build on this important sector. Another vital aspect is the shooting of Indian films. In fact, right now, Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif are shooting Tiger Zinda Hai in Morocco. So, we look forward to many more such ventures.

Does Morocco support India's candidature for a permanent seat in the Security Council?

India is an important world player. The Security Council should reflect the new realities and ensure a large representation of different regions and emerging powers. India remains a serious candidate in this reform and a reliable friend to Morocco.

How do you see the cooperationbetweenIndia,Morocco and the African continent develop in the next five years?

As Morocco is becoming a regional player and growing power in Africa, the need for enhancing current partnerships and building new networks is essential. In fact, Morocco could, hence, serve as an important gateway for Indian companies seeking access to diverse African markets.

How are Indian films perceived in your country, especially since quite a few famous Indian actor shave been felicitated by the Moroccan government?

Indian films find resonance with the Moroccan people, as the finer aspects of life are something which both peoples appreciate. In fact, three years ago, India was the Guest of Honour at the Marrakech International Film Festival. Renowned Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan was honoured by His Majesty a few years back.

In the eighth edition of the Jagran Film Festival last month, Morocco was a partner and a focus country, where many Moroccan feature films are being and will be screened in 16 Indian cities for 100 days. Yet another famous Indian actor, Shah Rukh Khan has also been seen participating in advertisements and promotions in Morocco. So, we are looking forward to receiving many more Indian film producers and film stars in my country.

Women's empowerment is an important issue. How does Morocco address this subject?

As you said, it is an important issue. It is also an opportunity to remember that the first university built in Morocco was by a lady! Equality is paramount, including gender equality and parental balance. For example, a Moroccan mother can pass on her nationality to her offspring, regardless of the husband's nationality. Granting wives joint responsibility of the family, with their husbands, and equal access rights to property, strong rights upon divorce, are other achievements of Moroccan ladies. Reservations for women in political spheres and free education ~ applicable to both genders ~ covering even higher education are yet other important milestones achieved.

Under the leadership of His Majesty Mohammed VI, the King, Moroccan women have held positions in high ranks in the government. Nine ladies were recently appointed as Ministers in the current Government of the Kingdom. Besides this, in the latest reshuffle of the diplomatic corps, 14 Moroccan ladies were appointed as Ambassadors of His Majesty to different countries.
Success, students of political science can often say, is never an orphan. Many vie for the credit of having fathered it. But failure is a born orphan and in most cases, none would own it up. The exit of 81-year-old Nagaland chief minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu into oblivion in a rather unceremonious manner is certainly an episode where success and failure ought to be debated.

The change of guard in Nagaland has taken place yet again. The downfall of Shurhozelie after being in the hot seat for five months, was practically without political reasons as the elected members of the legislative assembly, decided that they must get back TR Zeliang as their chief minister one fine morning.

Zeliang had to step down following protests over holding of urban civic poll last February with 33 per cent reservation for women and this despite stiff opposition from tribal bodies. So what changed in the last six months?

Apparently, the Zeliang camp did not appreciate the fact that, after coming to power  as a non-MLA  Shurhozelie was only playing a bigger game, albeit in tandem with his legislator son Khriehu Liezietsu.

In fact, the rebellion started in May itself. Hardly three months after Zeliang resigned, Naga Peoples Front legislator Khriehu Liezietsu gave up the Northern Angami I Assembly seat to pave the way for his father, chief minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu to become an elected legislator. The by-election was slated for 29 July. The Zeliang camp saw it as an act of betrayal as, apparently, it was agreed between Zeliang and Shurhozelie that the latter would quit in due course of time and hand over the charge to Zeliang.

But the other side has rejected the allegation and said that Zeliang fell prey to the conspiracies hatched by anti-NPF forces. Reports say Zeliang had worked out a deal with three-time elected chief minister Neiphiu Rio who had floated the new Democratic Progressive Party. The lone Lok Sabha MP from Nagaland, Rio was not happy with the goings on in the NPF and maintained that frequent defections by legislators, especially since 2014, had tarnished the image of the party.

Incidentally, the developments, including the sharp attack on his own party by Rio and at the same time, Zeliang deciding to back the move to oust chief minister Shurhozelie, also coincided with the formation of the DPP.

That opened the doors for all who "aspire to work for the people and are willing to make efforts towards resolution of the political conflict". Many see this appeal from the DPP as both timely and strategic. This could possibly mean the weakening of the NPF as a regional force.

In Nagaland, despite a history of long-term Congress rule, regional forces have been quite influential and there had been always a room for a strong regional entity. In this context, it is worth mentioning that in the 1970s, the United Democratic Front was a major anti-Congress plank and leaders associated with it, like the late former chief minister Vamuzo Phesao, were jailed, during the Emergency.

The regional forces then took different names from time to time, like Naga National Democratic Party, Naga Peoples Council, Nagaland Peoples Party and Nationalist Democratic Movement. In all this it is crucial to note that Shurhozelie has remained a key regional politician with a clear anti-Congress stance for three to four decades. Otherwise politicians like Rio and Zeliang had earlier been flag- bearers of the Congress and both had worked under the mentorship of veteran S C Jamir, who is now the governor of Odisha.

Shurhozlie, along with Vamuzo and Vizol Angami (both former chief ministers) actually formed the regional triumvirs and they never joined the Congress formally. With Vizol and Vamuzo no more, Shurhozelie, till the other day, was the last surviving "regional politician" who, however, from time to time struck good working relations with renowned anti-Congress leaders at the national level. Vamuzo was a great friend of George Fernandes for a long time.

Even as in the earlier regional avatars also the anti-Congress plank in Nagaland had given some chief ministers like Vizol, JB Jasokie, KL Chishi and Vamuzo, it was only Rio who made the regional NPF humble the Congress in the 2013 assembly election. In what is called the worst ever performance by the Congress that year, its strength dwindled to eight in the 60-member house.

That practically started the Congress-free Nagaland and in a subsequent assembly by-election even veteran Jamir lost from the Aonglenden constituency. The dynamics of change have been working yet again. Therefore, when Rio, after 11 years of uninterrupted rule, quit to contest in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Zeliang took over, albeit with the blessings of Shurhozelie.

It is said that from the very beginning Rio was against naming Zeliang as his successor. But the machinations of Jamir seemed to work. However, in a smart but nasty move for many Naga politicians, Zeliang has today cultivated a few key BJP leaders in New Delhi and hence the action plans were charted out very cautiously.

Apparently, the sidelining of Rio was complete. But in February this year when Zeliang tried to conduct the urban civic poll election with 33 per cent reservation for women despite opposition from different tribal bodies and violence erupted, Rio thought it was time to return to state politics as he was not happy being a mere MP without any central cabinet post. He had apparently given up the chief ministership with the hope of becoming an MP and also a minister in the Centre. Rio reportedly tried to replace Zeliang when dissidents demanded the latters ouster. Things could have gone in his favour over the last few months but Shurhozelie played a last-minute game. That way he came to power. But that power itself has turned into his nemesis.

Thus, Shurhozelies unceremonious exit certainly leaves a vacuum in the regional and hardcore anti-Congress polity of Nagaland. But then, who will have the last laugh?

The writer is a New Delhi-based freelance contributor.
Can a separatist militant group survive without public support? Is the government waiting for the natural death of some ethnic insurgent groups engaged in low-scale terrorism with some ageing leaders at the helm of affairs?

These questions and many more may be raised in the case of the United Liberation Front of Assam (Independent), formed by Paresh Barua, after top Ulfa leaders, headed by Chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, surrendered to Bangladeshi authorities in December 2009 and were later handed over to India.

There are many in Assam who still believe that the Ulfa must exist to support them in various aspects. Even most local media outlets have a soft corner for militants irrespective of their relentless disruptive activities. Its a typical Assamese psyche one finds only in this part of the world.

And a veteran like Paresh Barua knows how to play with sentiments. Over 60, Barua alias Paresh Asom alias Kamruj Zaman alias Zaman Bhai, functions as the self-styled commander-in-chief of Ulfa (Independent) and runs his hideouts somewhere along the Myanmar-China border. Barua is among the top three rebels that the National Investigation Agency has charge-sheeted for waging a war against India.

The other two accused rebels are Dr Abhijit Asom, who is the new chairman of Ulfa (I) and Gagan Hazarika alias Joydeep Cheleng. Dr Abhijit alias Abhizeet Barman alias Mukul Hazaria hails from Nagaon in central Assam and lives in London. Gagan Hazarika is now in police custody.

Many Ulfa leaders have left the outfit and joined the peace process. The formal talks with Ulfa leaders headed by Rajkhowa started in February 2011 but in the last two or three years, little is heard of progress, if any. After submitting their demands, Ulfa leaders claim the ball is now in the Centres court. That said Barua is unrelenting. He has made it abundantly clear that unless peace talks include the sovereignty agenda, he will never be part of it.

When Rajkhowa demanded that for quick decision-making, the presence of Ulfa general secretary Anup Chetia was necessary and the Centre obliged by extraditing him some months ago and released him on bail. Chetia was in Dhakas safe custody after serving a seven- year prison term for entering Bangladesh without valid documents. He was also wanted in India in the alleged murder case of a Kolkata- based tea planter in 1991 and was arrested from the city the same year. But then Assam chief minister Hiteswar Saikia released him to contact Ulfa top leaders who had gone underground following the Armys Operation Rhino in 1991. In fact, most top Ulfa leaders are now on bail and waiting for the final settlement.

Paresh Barua and Dr Abhijit maintain that Assam must be free from the colonial Indian forces. Rejected by most Assamese citizens, Barua now runs his camps with Chinese support and its cadres are active mostly in eastern Assam.

After coming to Guwahati, Cheria remarked that Baruas presence was necessary for any fruitful peace initiative. In fact, it was Chetia who had influenced Barua, one of his close relatives, to join the Ulfa and hence he carries goodwill of the hardliner rebel. But even then, Chetia has not succeeded in persuading Barua to join the peace process.

Chetia has categorically said that in the days of Islamist terrorism today, one cannot sustain ethnic armed struggles. Now people will compare their activities with ISIS or similar religious terror outfits. So, insurgent leaders for any ethnic or regional cause may find it difficult to sustain the revolution as people will simply call them terrorists.

The Ulfa leaders, even though most of them took shelter in Bang-ladesh, maintain their character of pluralism. They have neither introduced themselves as Hindus nor expressed hatred against any other religion. They continue their preaching for a homeland for the indigenous populace of Assam irrespective of their religious practices.

But when the leaders, along with their families were in Bangladesh, they did not say anything against illegal migrants in Assam and in other parts of North-east India. Rather, they argued that everyone, who is not indigenous to the region, must leave. They often targeted the sizable Hindi- speaking population in Assam as outsiders.

But after the Bangladesh government took a tough stand against North-east militants taking shelter in their land, the Ulfa started criticising illegal Bangladeshi migrants in Assam. However, that did not deter the Bangladeshi government led by Sheikh Hasina to prosecute Barua in an arm-smuggling case. In fact, Barua today faces a court order for capital punishment in that country.

Now enjoying Beijings patronage, he often issues media statements saying that China was never an enemy of Assam, and that they the Chinese would be helpful for the indigenous people of Assam in various aspects, once they get separated from India.

During the recent visit of the Dalai Lama to Tawang, the Ulfa (I) issued a statement warning the Nobel Peace laureate against making any anti-China comments. Rather it urged the Dalai Lama to help the native people get their due political rights from New Delhi as the militants believe Assam was an independent country till the British signed the Yandabu agreement with Burmese invaders in 1826.

Earlier, in a statement the same outfit asserted that China is a true friend to Assam and any kind of anti-Beijing propaganda would not be tolerated in the region. Rather it urged the people of the North-east to avoid supporting the Tibetan movement against China for a free Tibet. Its open support to the Chinese domination over Tibet shows that Barua is under Beijings absolute influence, if not control.

Lately Barua became vocal against those who had recently called the people to boycott all kinds of Chinese goods. The original call was forwarded by a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh wing across the country, which was followed up by a few patriotic individuals of Assam. They issued media statements and staged demonstrations urging the people to boycott any kind of China-made commodities.

The media-savvy militant leader recently talked to a few Guwahati- based news channels where he said those individuals who take anti-China stand are puppets of New Delhi. Barua also alleged that they were doing this for selfish purposes overlooking Assams broader interest, comprising the indigenous population.

Of course, the ground reality is different. Many Assamese-speaking people with nationalistic spirit in hearts issued a statement claiming that China was always a foe to India and Beijing had shown its true colours with the illegal occupation of Tibet. They also asked Barua to rethink his ties with China.

The Patriotic Peoples Front Assam even urged New Delhi to change its policy towards China and support the Tibetan movement for an independent Tibet, which should be the real neighbour to India (not China). The PPFA also commented that Beijing was secretly using Barua against New Delhi as a tool to exact revenge for Indias support to the Tibetan exile government at Dhara-mshala.

The writer is The Statesmans Guwahati- based special representative.
A man was detained at Tampa Bay Comic Con on suspicion of stalking actress Kate Beckinsale, who later made a scheduled celebrity guest appearance at the event.

Terry Lee Repp, a 45-year-old resident of Iowa, was taken into custody on Saturday after he turned up at the Tampa Bay Convention Centre a couple of hours before Beckinsale was set to take the stage for a question and answer session, reports eonline.com.

Beckinsale filed a police report against him.

Police said in a statement that on Thursday Repp was seen at Centre during the Comic Con event and "has a history of following and harassing (Beckinsale) and came to Tampa in an effort to continue the harassing behaviour.

"Repp made physical contact with the victim during an event in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2016. During this encounter, Repp touched the victim's back and made a statement to the victim in reference to stabbing her," the statement said.

"In a continuing effort to harass the victim, Repp also travelled to Houston, Texas, in 2016 where (Beckinsale) was attending an event. Repp was detained by the Houston Police Department and trespassed from the event. Repp appears to have an irrational obsession with (Beckinsale) and has travelled across the country in an effort to harass her," the statement further read.
At a time when relation between India and China has ebbed due to Doklam stand-off, a case of transgression by People's Liberation Army has come to the fore.

As per sources, Chinese troops reportedly crossed the border and entered the Indian territory in Uttarakhand's Barahoti in Chamoli district on 25 July at about 9 am. The PLA soldiers reportedly walked about a kilometre inside the Indian territory.

Government sources said the Chinese soldiers asked cattle owners to leave the area.

Last year also a similar incident was reported from the region. Sources said there were about 200-300 Chinese soldiers who walked into the Indian side.

The ITBP team, patrolling the area, raised the issue and the Chinese soldiers went back after a meeting.

Chinese and Indian soldiers are already locked in a face-off in Doklam area in the southernmost part of Tibet in an area also claimed by Indian ally Bhutan. India had objected to a road being constructed by China in the area.

India has conveyed to China that the construction of the road would mean a change of status quo with serious security implications for New Delhi.

India has said it is ready for talks with China to end the tension but both sides should first withdraw their armies from the disputed area.
A plan for the deteriorating Sauk City rail bridge will move forward.

The plan concerns removing piers one, two and three and spans one, two and three of the defunct bridge.

The Wisconsin River Rail Transit Commission approved the plan, which will cost approximately $990,000, at its July 7 meeting.

The rail bridge is over a century old and has been in disrepair since 2002. In September, 2016, the bridge shifted several feet and an inspection of the bridge by Westbrook Associated Engineers found pier 2 was in a failed condition, and recommended it be removed.

An ad hoc committee was formed to investigate funding options for the structures removal, and made that recommendation during the July 7 meeting of the Wisconsin River Rail Transit Commission.

The commission will share one-third of the cost to remove the bridge sections along with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation and the Wisconsin and Southern Railroad at an estimated $330,000 each.

The commission will apply for a loan up to $200,000 for freight rail improvement through the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, said Matthew Honor, associate planner with the Southwestern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission. The remaining $130,000 would come from the commissions amended 2017 budget.

Honer said the next step is getting a request for proposal go out for bid by August.

Any surplus funds from steel salvage from the Great Sauk State Trail could also be used toward the bridge as well.

Honer said the commission hasnt yet discussed when work on the bridge would take place, although he said it would likely happen when it was safest for a contractor to get out there.

I imagine it would be done at the safest time for the contractors which would be when the water level is low, Honer said.

He said it is still not known exactly how the bridge piers and spans would be removed.

We dont know that because we dont yet know how the contractors will propose to tear down the bridge, Honor said. But it will be done in a matter that takes into account public safety.
In a major relief for Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the Patna High Court on Monday dismissed two PILs challenging the formation of the new BJP-JD(U) alliance government in the state.

A division bench comprising of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice A K Upadhyay had heard the matter on Friday and adjourned it till Monday.

Of the two PILs, one has been filed by RJD MLAs Saroj Yadav and Chandan Verma while the second by Jitendra Kumar who is a member of the Samajwadi Party.

The petitions sought the court's order for issuance of a direction to invite the leader of the single largest party, which is the RJD to form government in the state.

Principal Additional Advocate General Lalit Kishore and Additional Solicitor General S D Sanjay termed the PILs as frivolous.

Nitish Kumar won the Bihar trust vote with 131 MLAs for and 108 against the motion on Friday.

Kumar had on July 27 dumped his former coalition partners, the RJD and Congress, to join hands with the BJP, a former ally with which he ran a previous coalition government till 2013.

(With inputs from agencies)
Breaking his silence over the recent political re-alignment involving his own party in Bihar, senior Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav termed the JD-(U)-BJP marriage as unfortunate. The former JD(U) chief said the people of Bihar didnt vote for an alliance between his party and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Yadav said that people of Bihar had voted for the JDU-RJD-Congress grand alliance.

I dont agree with the decision in Bihar, its unfortunate. The mandate by the people was not for this, Sharad Yadav told reporters.

It was being talked about that Sharad Yadav was upset with CM Nitish Kumars move. Two JD(U) members, Ali Anwar Ansari and MP Veerendra Kumar, have already expressed their displeasure over Kumars decision to quit the grand alliance and join hands with the BJP.

On Sunday, Sharad Yadav took a dig at the BJP, pointing out that the saffron party is yet to fulfil its electoral promise of bringing back black money stashed abroad. He also questioned why no action had been taken against those whose names had appeared in the infamous Panama Papers.

"Neither black money stashed abroad returned, one of the main slogans of the ruling party, nor anyone caught out of those named in Panama papers," Yadav said in a tweet.

Sharad Yadav was replaced as JDU president last year. Nitish Kumar had resigned as chief minister on 26 July, and taken oath with the BJP as ally the following day. He won a trust vote in the assembly on 29 July.

The BJP had on Sunday appealed Yadav to not to lose his faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We admire Sharad Yadav and he has worked with the NDA government as well. As a fellow politico, I will suggest Yadav to not lose hope in Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he will bring back the black money from abroad as well as clear the corruption from the entire nation, BJP leader Ashwani Choubey had said.
Four walls do not make a prison, said the sage of Abhedashram in Thiruvananthapuram. Sasikala Natarajan, general secretary of Tamil Nadus ruling AIADMK, has demonstrated that a person with unlimited unaccounted cash can, without the mumbo-jumbo of any guru, convert an ordinary prison cell in a high security jail into a luxurious suite with a well appointed reception room to receive unending visitors and favour-seekers.

Just before taking up residence at the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison in Bengaluru to serve a four-year sentence for amassing wealth far beyond her known sources of income, Sasikala had converted two sea-facing luxury resorts south of Chennai into a high security jail to imprison more than 100 AIADMK MLAs for no fault of their own.

They were kept on leash till they cast their votes for her nominee, Edappadi Palaniswamy, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, in a trust vote in the State legislature. The cozy arrangement in the Bengaluru jail that lasted for a quarter of a year received a jolt when D Roopa, Karnataka DIG, Prisons, made a surprise visit of its premises.

What she saw shocked the State. Of the cells allotted to Sasikala unofficially, one had been turned into a lounge with LED TV and other paraphernalia. Another served as her bedroom. She had access to a refrigerator and other gadgets. Victualling was carried out by the Karnataka head of the AIADMK.

Sasikala was not the only pampered prisoner of Parappana Agrahara. IAS officer Gangaram Baderia, real estate conman Sachin Nayak and Abdul Karim Telgi of the fake stamp paper scam are in the list of VIP prisoners whose needs are catered to by the jail authorities.

Of the 25 prisoners Roopa tested for drug use, 18 showed positive for ganja which means there is a continuous supply of the drug in the prison and 72 per cent of the inmates are addicted to it.

For her pains, Roopa was relieved of her prison portfolio and sent out to mind the chaotic Bengaluru road traffic. It is her 26th transfer in 17 years of service in Karnataka police. She had charged the authorities of turning a blind eye to the rampant corruption in the department.

Now, her immediate boss in prisons administration, since transferred out of his job, has threatened her with a defamation suit. That is how the cookie crumbles in todays India. While goings-on in the Parappana Agrahara prison have now come into the limelight, the story of prison administration in India is one of corruption and mismanagement.

High-profile and affluent prisoners find ways to extract facilities well beyond the scope of the jail manual, while those without means suffer abuse and inhuman treatment. A comprehensive overhaul is long overdue.
A resolution called the Bengaluru Declaration was adopted recently at the conclusion of an international conference on Dr BR Ambedkar organized by the Congress Government in Karnataka. It stated that regressive forces with State power were systematically dismantling the institutions that were the foundations of our society by undermining Indias holistic welfare and affirmative action architecture and by destroying the pluralistic fabric of our nation. These concerns needed to be addressed urgently and the attacks resisted boldly. All Governments in the country were accordingly called upon to uphold constitutional values and the rule of law. Academics from the National law School of India, Azim Premji University and Jawaharlal Nehru University  the creme de la creme  and policy makers were among those involved in drafting the Declaration after broad consultations during the Conference, including with members from the general public.

The core message underpinning the Resolution has echoed in different forms over the last few months and also been taken up in Parliament during the ongoing Monsoon session. It is heartening that these robust articulations are receiving traction. Reiteration and reinforcement are imperative to ensure they do not get bumped off the radar of stringent public scrutiny.

In this backdrop of justifiably indignant righteousness it is, however, deeply disappointing to hear the jarring high-decibel chorus of political vendetta, revenge and witch-hunting when investigative action is initiated on allegations of corruption against high-value politicians in the Opposition ranks. Intriguingly, here law is not supposed to take its course. A convenient spin is provided to buttress the leave  tainted  netas  be crusade. This rests on the purported sanctity of Opposition solidarity which must not be dented at any cost for the noble cause of resurrecting the idea of India from the imagined sinister designs of forces of certain select hues. It appears to be just fine to repeat ad nauseam the cliches of Investigative Agencies being the designated Dirty Tricks Department packed with obsequious minions , tasked to assiduously mine and reopen decades-old probes and harass fancied stalwarts who supposedly have it in them to pull down the Government. These are flogged with ridiculous seriousness and misplaced solemnity. P Chidambaram, former Finance Minister, when drawn into the investigative protocol with his son for alleged shady deals, piously proclaims that he will not be silenced and will continue to speak and write against the Government. He cleverly paints himself in with beleaguered media honchos, NGOs and civil society activists, many of whom actually have a lot of explaining to do, which they go through dazzlingly creative hoops to avoid ! It is faintly amusing to find the ex- Minister deluding himself that he is deftly shooting incendiary ammo at the Government as a self-appointed demolition-guy. Hubris, refusing to fade away.

Lalu Prasad, convicted in the fodder scam, jailed thrice, disqualified from Parliament, barred from contesting elections and reportedly now the biggest landlord in Bihar , is the unsurprising darling of the fragmented Opposition. He is the beacon of hope, having swung a massive mandate in Bihar in 2015 for the crassly expedient mahagatbandhan with Sushasana Babu, who tomtoms zero -tolerance for corruption and the Congress.

There was, for obvious reasons, no murmur or negative comment from the Opposition when the Supreme Court on 8 May, held that the RJD supremo and other accused persons be tried separately for corruption and criminal conspiracy in cases involving the withdrawal of money and falsification of records in connection with the Rs. 900-crore fodder scam referenced above. The Bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Amitava Roy set aside the 2014 Jharkhand High Court decision to drop charges against Lalu on the ground that he could not be found guilty of the same offence twice under Section 300 of the Cr PC. It directed the CBI Court to complete the trial in nine months and also pulled up the CBI for delaying the filing of its appeal against the High Court order of discharge. There was a delay of 500 days!

Between 1998 and 2006, Lalu and spouse, Rabri Devi, both former CMs of Bihar by turns  a truly global record  were embroiled in a high profile DA case. Patna High Court granted him bail and extended it over 20 times. These remain badges of honour, going by the cloying adulation heaped on the rustic charmer. More than ample evidence of tolerance  much in demand today  from political fellow travellers. Impressively, no neta, however tainted, has ever been ostracized by the privileged political class. In that sense , Lalu is no exception but his lionizing is certainly exceptional.

In keeping with this strong , proven spirit of enviable camaraderie, when IT officials conducted raids and surveys in about 22 premises in Delhi and adjoining areas of Gurgaon and Rewari over benami land deals allegedly involving Lalu and his brood, said to be running into 1000s of crores, there was a virtual stampede of luminaries , led by the Congress, to protest against what was red-flagged as muzzling of the Opposition.

The same fetid howl of injured innocence went up again when FIRs were filed by the CBI against Lalu, Rabri and son, Tejaswi Yadav on charges of making illegal profits during Lalus tenure as Railway Minister. Lalu statedly rigged terms of tenders for running Railway hotels in favour of a company that, in lieu sold prime land at underpriced rates to a benami company owned by his close associate, Sarla Gupta. Ashok Choudhury, Bihars HRD Minister and State Congress Chief, couldnt have been more groveling in his support. Since BJP have failed to defeat the Grand Alliance through the peoples mandate, they are now misusing the Government machinery to target us. The AICC spokesperson went one better to declare that the investigations did not bode well for democracy!

Lalu flying into paroxysm of rage, spurred by deep anxiety and insecurity about being dethroned from his gilded existence of endless luxury and entitlement, is no shocker. When he starts frenetically tweeting about fighting fascist forces till his dying breath and ranting BJP mein himmat nahi hai Lalu ki awaaz ko dabaa sake, Lalu ko dabaayenge, to desh bhar mein karoron Lalu khade ho jayenge, it is crystal clear that hes been jolted hard.

BJP wants to finish me and I want to finish BJP. Thats his rallying cry for the 27th August Opposition show of strength. He has every reason to believe that they will commit to his grand project, going by past experience and present trends. Mamata Banerjees shrill protestations about the Saradha and Narada scams are clones of this hypocrisy dolled up as swish ideology.

It is high time the Opposition came out openly to elucidate what it means by upholding the rule of law. For now, it reeks of only one overriding concern  Government, please stay clear of corrupt netas. Let them live the high life and help bring us back to power at the earliest.

As in many other challenges confronting us, hopefully the Supreme Court will save the day and rule in the PIL before it, in favour of debarring convicted politicians for life from fouling the political arena.

Mission Augmented Democracy, 70 years on, cannot be scuppered by the corrupt, faking it as wannabe messiahs.

(The writer is a retired IAS officer and comments on governance issues.)
With the continuing impasse at Doklam, and unabated militancy and violent unrest in the Kashmir Valley, it was inevitable that the observations of the Vice-Chief of the Army Staff on those hot issues would attract much attention  even though made at a defence-production focused interface between the military and industry.

There is reason to suspect that Lieutenant General Sarath Chand was actually speaking in accordance with a game-plan. India has opted for reticence on Doklam despite much sabre-rattling from Beijing, the Vice-Chiefs was a mini-response, but given the occasion little official importance could be attached to it.

Yet in the larger interests of national security, there was greater significance to what he said about the state-run ordnance factories failing to meet the Armys needs. The functioning of the 40-odd factories has been criticised by the forces earlier too, but Lt.Gen. Chand injected a telling dimension to the equation  the Pakistan military was being better served by its domestic production units.

Pakistan was exporting more military stores than India, he said to drive his point home. And if that does not provoke the NDA government into a long-overdue upgrade of the factories, little else will deliver. For recent orders enabling the Service Headquarters to directly spend more than ever before is only cosmetic treatment for a malaise that has yet again been highlighted by the Comptroller & Auditor General.

Though the ordnance factories often speak of their long history, Gen. Chand said they had not kept pace with changing technology, that there is no competition whatsoever and this was an unsuccessfulm ethod of supporting our defence requirements. He wondered if their tardy functioning was because of assured orders, or a lack of accountability  which plagues most government-run organisations.

There is little or no research and development. They do not even have the capacity of absorbing the industry through transfer of technology, and in some cases they have even failed to assemble products that have been imported. It is very hard to see ordnance factories changing in the present state he asserted in his strong indictment.

That the government is not unaware of the need to revamp defence production is evident from its encouragement to private industry to cater to defence needs, and to be fair some leading industrial houses are entering the specialised sector.

A section of the political establishment slams privatisation and dilution of the public sector, but the forces contend that they cannot indefinitely accept entrenched inefficiency and slothful trade unionism.

A thorough overhaul of the ordnance factories is critical if they are not to attract the white elephant tag. Since the factories have considerable land and material assets, handing them over to private players might be an answer  provided their leaders are prepared to accept a professional work-culture.
Mahatma Gandhi once said: I visited the Vishwanath temple last evening. If a stranger dropped from above on to this great temple, would he not be justified in condemning us? Is it right that the lanes of our sacred temples should be as dirty as they are? If even our temples are not models of cleanliness, what can our self-government be? We do not know elementary laws of cleanliness. We spit everywhere. The result is indescribable filth. Now, considering the fact that India accounts for 60 per cent of the worlds open defecation, the Modi Government launched one of Indias most ambitious civic programmes Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. And to this end a new cess the Swachh Bharat Cess (0.5 per cent) on all taxable services was levied. This was simply added to the 14.5 per cent service tax rate. For around six months, well publicised sanitation campaigns were taken across the country, but on the ground, the excitement and photo-ops failed to make as much impact as was hoped for.

A cess is a tax on tax levied by the government to raise funds for an explicit purpose. It is different from the usual taxes such as income tax, excise duty and customs duty in another respect. All these taxes collected by the government generally go into the Consolidated Fund of India (CFI) which can be disbursed for any legitimate public activity. But the collection from a cess is required to be kept outside of the CFI and to be spent only on the specific purpose for which it was levied.

Constitution of India stipulates the governments power to raise revenues by imposing cesses. As per Article 270 of the Constitution, cesses imposed by the Parliament for earmarked purposes need not be shared with state governments. The proceeds are retained exclusively with the Union government, which should ideally be used for their stated purpose. Another major feature of cess like surcharges is that the Centre need not share it with states. But regarding all other major taxes they come under the divisible pool and hence they shall be shared with the states with the recommendations of the Finance Commission. Some of the major cesses we have known are education cess, road cess or (fuel cess), infrastructure cess, clean energy cess, Krishi Kalyan cess and Swachh Bharat cess.

The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan stressed on making India defecation free and cleaning of public places by 2019. One of the campaigns main objectives was to instil behavioural change among people by encouraging the usage of soap and hand wash. The Abhiyan intended to construct roughly 12 crore toilets along with undertaking programmes related to solid and liquid waste management.

Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha in a written reply mentioned in the Lok Sabha that the fund collected from Swachh Bharat cess in financial year 2015-16 was Rs 3901.78 crore. The amount utilised in financial year 2015-16 under Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) is Rs 2400 crore and under Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) is Rs 159.2 crore. Total donations received, including interest, for Swachh Bharat Kosh totalled Rs 369.74 crore, of which Rs 359.2 crore were released for construction of toilets. The fund utilised under Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) since October 2, 2014 is Rs 6,411.05 crore, including Rs 185.22 crore spent on print and electronic media," Sinha added.

The Union Cabinet has approved amendments in the Customs and Excise Act relating to abolition of cesses and surcharges on various goods and services to facilitate implementation of GST. The Centre will abolish 16 cesses and surcharges on union excise and service tax as it lays down the path for rolling out Goods and Services Tax (GST) from July. However, the government till now has made no announcement about its plans to financially make up for the cess amount which will no longer be collected once GST rolls out.

apparatus viz. commodes, urinals and flushing cisterns will fall under the 12.5 per cent bracket and hence become costlier. Similarly, a GST of 18 per cent has been proposed on the bio-toilet industry. The tax rate will be higher than what was being charged from manufacturers by the Indian Railways (12.5 per cent). This in essence will make the whole process of toilet building more expensive. Whether the Central Government levies a rebate for purchase of sanitary ware for Swachh Bharat purposes remains to be seen, especially in rural areas from where the government is trying to eradicate open defecation. The effects of GST will be realised once the taxation system is rolled out in full. The abolition of the Swachh Bharat cess, and how the rise in prices of sanitaryware affects toilet building will be realised in some time.

Modis exhortation to own the Mahatmas dream needs more impetus. Not only is the toilet situation bad, but the condition of excreta treatment and disposal is appalling. Lack of capacity of municipalities and district panchayats to undertake this enormous job and ineffective awareness campaigns by them have failed to bring about the desired results. The less than enthusiastic response from the private sector to take up toilet building has added to the governments distress.

The Sarkaria Commission remarked way back in 1988 that the application of cesses must be for limited duration. CAG reports have brought to light the consistent short transfer of cess funds in many instances including Road Cess. The government has mandated for 30 per cent of corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds to be utilised for Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, and will hope that more private funding is pumped into the programme, which is in its third year and deserves to be successful.

(The writers are, respectively, an Associate Professor of Law at NLU Odisha and a student of commerce at Glocal University. The views expressed are personal)
A total of 12 outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants were killed in separate counter operations in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq Saturday, military statements said on Sunday.

The operations in northern Iraq were conducted in the Zap and Matina regions, killing three terrorists who were allegedly preparing for an attack and destroying some weapon pits and caves, Xinhua quoted the Turkish Armed Forces as saying.

Another airstrike was conducted in Beytussebap district of Turkey's southeastern Sirnak province, killing nine PKK militants, including one senior member.

One Turkish soldier was also killed in an anti-PKK operation in southeastern Hakkari province, local media reported.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and the EU, has resumed its armed campaign against the Turkish government since July 2015.
French Defence Minister Florence Parly has arrived in Chad, at the start of a tour of three Sahel countries, assuring that French troops in the region will have the means to carry out their mission against jihadist insurgents.

"You can count on my determination that you will have the necessary means to carry out your mission," she on Sunday told the head of Operation Barkhane  a 4,000-man French mission to shore up fragile Sahel countries against jihadist bombings, shootings and kidnappings.

"It's my fight, it's less risky than yours, of course," she added.

Parly was beginning a two-day swing of the region, during which she will be joined by German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen in a joint show of support for the initiative.

Parly "will reaffirm France's support for the emergence of a joint G5 Sahel force () tasked with playing a key role in fighting terrorism and trafficking which are contributing to instability in the region," the French defence ministry said in a statement ahead of her arrival.

After meeting Chadian President Idriss Deby in Ndjamena, Parly will heald for talks in Niger with head of state Mahamadou Issoufou and with President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in Mali.

The planned G5 Sahel anti-terror force would gather Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger in a 5,000-man joint unit.

France is trying to muster international support for the estimated $480 million it will cost, as the participating countries rank among the poorest nations in the world.

Newly-elected French President Emmanuel Macron has won a commitment  yet to be detailed  from German Chancellor Angela Merkel to support the scheme.

Von der Leyen will join Parly in Niger and Mali where they will "seize the opportunity to show their support for providing equipment and training for the G5 force, as well as their active efforts to mobilise European and international partners to support their action," the French defence ministry said.
Pakistan on Monday expressed concern over the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile by North Korea and asked Pyongyang to refrain from actions that could lead to escalation of tensions in the region and beyond.

On Friday, North Korea fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that experts say has the potential to reach the US mainland.

Pakistan's Foreign Office said that North Korea's actions are in contravention to the UN Security Council resolutions and undermine peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula as well as North East Asia.

We continue to urge the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) to comply with its obligations under the UN Security Council resolutions and to refrain from actions that could lead to escalation of tensions in the region and beyond, it said.

We call on all relevant parties to pursue the path of dialogue and diplomacy to reduce tensions and work towards achieving a comprehensive solution, it said.

North Korea has fired 18 missiles during 12 tests since February, further perfecting its technology with each launch.

On July 4, North Korea conducted its first test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which it claims could reach anywhere in the world.

The UN Security Council has already imposed six rounds of progressively tougher sanctions against North Korea.
Trade between Beijing and Washington has nothing to do with the North Korean conflict, a senior Chinese official said on Monday.

Vice Minister of Commerce Qian Keming's statement came in response to criticism from US President Donald Trump over Beijing's lack of support regarding North Korea after the Kim Jong-un regime successfully conducted its second intercontinental ballistic missile test on July 28, reports Efe news.

Qian, while addressing a press conference, said the North Korean nuclear issue and the trade between China and the US belong to different spheres and are not related  hence they should not be discussed in the same breath.

The minister underlined the mutual benefits arising from trade between China and the US, and expressed Beijing's willingness to work with the international community to push for the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

On Saturday, Trump tweeted: "Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet they do nothing for us with North Korea."

Following the latest missile test, the Chinese government urged Pyongyang to respect the UN Security Council resolutions and called for calm and reducing tensions.

Beijing has continued to urge for talks regarding North Korea, whereas Washington and its allies have stressed on the need to increase sanctions, both unilaterally and through the UN.
RANDOLPH  As is their custom, the members of the Kattywampus Quilt Guild began their business meeting on Wednesday by reciting, in unison, the organizations mission statement: to share the art and love of quilting through fellowship, extending the hand of friendship to others and supporting charitable causes within our communities.

For about an hour before the business meeting, however, the 15 women  members and guests  were living out that mission statement.

Spread out on the long tables of the Randolph Village Halls community room were yards and yards of blue and ivory fabric, which had been assembled into 16 quilts  one for each Didion Milling worker who was in the Cambria facility at about 11:30 p.m. May 31, when an explosion ripped through the plant. Five workers died as a result of the blast.

All that was left to do was to tie, by hand, the quilts and the batting that serves as lining and insulation, using pearl cotton thread of white and blue and large-eyed needles commonly used in crewel embroidery.

Several of the women described the effort as a labor of love.

Each stitch, said Leonore Neumann of Cambria, represents a prayer.

The idea to make prayer quilts for the Didion workers  and for the surviving loved ones of the five who died  occurred soon after the explosion.

Tami Eisenga of Fox Lake chose the pattern, called Arkansas Crossing. The blocks alternate between a large X (similar to the sign at a railroad crossing) and an array of four rows of four squares each  totaling 16, representing each person who was working at Didion at the time of the explosion.

When you start here, Neumann said, pointing to the top of one quilt, you can see that the X blocks embrace. They represent the arms of this community, embracing these people.

Each quilt also includes the machine-embroidered name of a Didion worker, with a cross encircled by a heart.

Eisenga said the names of the surviving workers are being kept confidential, because many of them feel very strongly about their privacy. Thats why the quilts will be presented privately in each recipients home, which Eisenga said should happen any day now.

Each of the workers who died also has his name on a quilt  Duelle Block, Robert Goodenow, Pawel Tordoff, Angel Reyes and Carlos Charly Nunez.

Eisenga said the colors, blue and white, represent hope, peace, calm, the heavens.

To start the project, members of the Kattywampus Quilt Guild (who come from various communities within a 40-mile radius of Randolph and meet monthly at the Village Hall) donated all their blue quilting fabric, which is why each quilt has slightly different shades and prints. Other individuals, and businesses from all over south-central Wisconsin, donated additional material and the quilt batting.

The Kattywampus Quilt Guild, which has existed for 10 years, occasionally holds open sews on Saturdays, in which anybody can come and help make a quilt.

A special one was scheduled for June 30 and July 1 at the Cambria Village Halls community room.

Neumann collects vintage sewing machines, and brought along one of her hand-crank machines, which still works.

It was providential, she said, because one of the people who wanted to help sew the quilts was a 5-year-old girl, who couldnt operate a modern sewing machine but could easily use the old-fashioned one.

She was the youngest person there, using the oldest machine, Neumann recalled.

What was going on Wednesday was the final task: tying.

Faye DeBoer of Randolph said she loves to quilt, but doesnt have the time to participate regularly in a group like Kattywampus. But she sat alongside her friend Mary Jean Eisenga of Cambria (Tamis sister-in-law) and worked on the tying. The work entailed pulling the thread through all the fabric layers, tying it with a square knot and snipping the thread so that the tails of the knot were just an inch or two long.

Even during the business meeting  which included reading a thank-you note from a man who has cancer, and who got a quilt from the Kattywampus group  the women kept on stitching.

Many hands, Neumann said, make light work.
North Korea on Sunday said its latest ICBM launch was a "warning" over efforts to slap sanctions on the hermit state, as the US carried out a successful test of its missile defense system in a pointed show of force.

A bilateral mission led by US strategic bombers yesterday flew over the Korean Peninsula in a direct response to the North's launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile it boasted could reach the United States.

The exercise was followed Sunday by a successful test by American forces of a missile interception system the US hopes will be installed on the Korean peninsula.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un boasted of his country's ability to strike any target in the US after the ICBM test Friday that weapons experts said could even bring New York into range  in a major challenge to Trump.

Under Kim's leadership, North Korea has accelerated its drive towards a credible nuclear strike capability, in defiance of international condemnation and multiple sets of UN sanctions. The US Senate passed new bipartisan sanctions on Pyongyang on Friday.

But the US-led campaign only provided "further justification" for the North's resolve to maintain its weapons programs, Pyongyang's foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

"The test-fire of ICBM  this time is meant to send a stern warning to the U.S. making senseless remarks, being lost to reason in the frantic sanctions and pressure campaign against the DPRK," it said, using an acronym for the North's official name.

The statement came hours after US President Donald Trump warned that he would not allow China  the impoverished North's sole major ally and economic lifeline  to "do nothing" about North Korea.

In his critique of Beijing, which came in two tweets, Trump linked trade strains with the Asian giant  marked by a trade deficit of 309 billion last year  to policy on North Korea, after South Korea indicated it was speeding up the deployment of a US missile defense system that has infuriated China.

"I am very disappointed in China. Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk," Trump wrote.

"We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!"

Trump, who is at loggerheads with Beijing over how to handle Kim's regime, has repeatedly urged China to rein in its recalcitrant neighbor, but Beijing insists dialogue is the only practical way forward.

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley tweeted that she was "done talking" about North Korea.

"China is aware they must act. Japan & SKorea must inc pressure. Not only a US problem," she said.

Trump's tweets coincided with a 10-hour bilateral mission that saw US B-1B bombers along with fighter jets from the South Korean and Japanese air forces practice intercept and formation drills.

It was followed by the successful test of the missile defense system, with the launch of a medium-range missile over the Pacific that was "detected, tracked and intercepted" in Alaska.

"North Korea remains the most urgent threat to regional stability," said General Terrence O'Shaughnessy, Pacific Air Forces commander, in a statement.

"If called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal, and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing."

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said he held telephone talks with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and agreed on the need to put "the heaviest possible pressure" on North Korea.

"We confirmed that we will closely cooperate in adopting a fresh UNSC (UN Security Council) resolution, including severe measures, and working on China and Russia," Kishida told reporters.

In a standard response to the test, Beijing urged restraint by all sides, after the US and South Korea conducted a live-fire exercise using surface-to-surface missiles.

The heads of the US and South Korean militaries also discussed "military response options" after North Korea's launch, the Pentagon said.

The US military will also roll out "strategic assets" to the South following the North's missile test late Friday, according to South Korean defense minister Song Young-Moo.

Song declined to specify the nature of the mobilization, but the phrase usually refers to high-profile weapons systems, such as stealth bombers and aircraft carriers.
The last days of the Newfie Pride

There were many nights he didnt sleep. The numbers and scenarios turned over and over in his mind, making rest impossible. Id get up two, three oclock in the morning, night after night, come out to the kitchen table and work the numbers every ...
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st August 2017 Deadline: 31August 2017
Patnaik's close aides say that to understand him, one has to understand his empathy

By Pratul Sharma/Photos Sanjay Ahlawat
Under pressure from the NIA, which has arrested four of his aides and summoned his two sons in connection with receiving funds for fomenting trouble in Kashmir, senior separatist leader Ali Shah Geelani said the resistance leadership has decided to take legal action against the NIA as well as sections of the Indian news media for character assassination of its leaders and family members.

In a statement, Geelani said he didn't take up a political career for material gains or for his livelihood.

The statement said the resistance leadership never feels shy or are afraid of any accountability in public.

On Sunday, police prevented Geelani from addressing a press conference.

On Monday, the NIA summoned Geelani's younger son, Naseem Geelani, for questioning.

Earlier, his elder son, Nayeem Geelani, was also detained for questioning.

Nayeem was removed to hospital after he complained of chest pain. He had a heart surgery in the past.

The NIA is investigating separatist leaders and their aides for alleged transfer of funds from Pakistan to Kashmir.

To date, the agency has arrested seven aides and leaders that include, Nayeem Khan, Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate, Mehrajuddin Kalwal, Aftab Hilali alias Shahidul Islam, Gazi Javid, Peer Saifullah and Altaf Ahmed Shah alias Altaf Fantoosh.

The agency recently alleged that Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has amassed wealth and assets over the years.

Mirwaiz, after being prevented from holding a press conference, released a video to rebut the NIA allegations.

The video was also uploaded on the Facebook.

The statement issued by Geelani said he was prevented from holding a press conference.

It said the press conference was aimed at making aware the nation and the world about the reality of these allegations leveled by the NIA.

The police and the state administration in a bid to appease their masters in New Delhi sealed off the entire residence-cum-office of Syed Ali Geelani and didnt allow anybody to enter or to leave the office premises, the statement said.

The statement said the police was meant to keep the people in the dark and to provide a chance to the Indian biased media for character assassination of the pro-freedom leadership of Kashmir.

Indian authorities resorted to character assassination of the pro-freedom leadership and the services of agencies like NIA are being employed to defame (them), the statement said. Biased media is propagating cooked and fabricated stories.

Rebutting charges of amassing assets disproportionate to the known source of income, the statement said daughters of Geelani are married and his two sons, Nayeem Geelani and Naseem Geelani, have no illegal assets.

It said negative propaganda and fabricated reports about properties wont help New Delhi, nor will they dampen our spirits.

We are considering the details and will come with the actual figures to make people and the world community aware of the misinformation campaign and malicious propaganda of Indian authorities, the statement said.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan today convened a meeting with BJP-RSS leaders in the state against the backdrop of the recent political violence and slaying of an RSS worker here.

BJP state President Kummanam Rajasekharan, former Union Minister and MLA O. Rajagopal and RSS leader P. Gopalankutty are attending the meeting called by the CM.

CPI(M) State Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan is also at the meeting.

As the chief minister arrived at the venue of the meeting, a group of television personnel who were present to take video footage before commencement of the meeting, were asked by Vijayan to leave.

Yesterday, Kerala Governor P. Sathasivam had summoned the CM and DGP Loknath Behara over the incident.

The CM had assured him that he would be meeting BJP and RSS state leaders.

Vijayan and the DGP met the governor separately after they were summoned by the Raj Bhavan to ascertain the action taken following the recent violent incidents including the murder of 34-year-old Rajesh on July 29.

The state had been witnessing a series of violent incidents allegedly involving BJP-RSS and CPI(M) workers with the capital district rocked by incidents of attacks on houses of rival partymen in the past few days.

The state BJP office was vandalised on July 28 while stones were thrown at the house of CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan's son Bineesh Kodiyeri here.

Rajesh was hacked to death by a history-sheeter-led gang here on Saturday. His left arm was chopped off and there were several injuries all over his body.

The BJP had called for a dawn-to-dusk statewide hartal yesterday to protest the incident.

Police had said seven persons, including prime accused Manikandan, the history-sheeter, have been arrested in connection with the killing of the RSS workers. They said the attack was due to personal enmity between Manikandan and the victim for the last one-and-half years.

Yesterday, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to the chief minister and voiced concern over the attacks on political workers in Kerala and said political violence was unacceptable in a democracy. While BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan alleged that the CPI(M) was behind the attack, the CPI(M) district leadership has denied any role of the party in the attack.

CPI(M) state Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has said the RSS worker's killing was a fallout of individual rivalry and his party had nothing to do with it.

However, Rajasekharan, has alleged that the ruling CPI(M) was trying to eliminate its political opponents and urged it to refrain from violence.

The opposition Congress had observed a fast yesterday in Kozhikode to protest against the politics of violence.
Amid increasing instances of political violence in the state, the CPI(M) government has decided to convene all-party meetings to find a solution.

The first of such a meeting will be held on August 6 in Thiruvananthapuram. Similar meetings will be held in Kannur districtthe hotbed of political violenceand Kottayam, where sporadic instances have been reported.

A decision in this regard was arrived after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan met leaders of all political parties, including BJP and Congress. The meeting was held amid escalating political tensions in the state. The meeting happened a day after the governor of Kerala met state police chief Loknath Behra and Pinarayi Vijayan over the deteriorating law and order situation in the state.

"The government will take strong steps against the perpetrators, regardless of their political affiliation," Vijayan told media persons after the meeting.

He also said that it was unfortunate that even houses and family members are not spared from political violence. He said everyone agreed to the suggestion of an all-party meeting. "A coordinated effort is needed to find a solution to the violence," he said.

BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan said that everyone should respect the different voices in a society. "Multiple voices and opinion are the basis of our culture. Everyone should respect that," he said.

The BJP had called for a hartal following the murder of an RSS activist, claiming that the CPM was behind the murders.

In between, journalists and camerapersons who had gathered outside the venue of the meeting in Thiruvananthapuram of Monday were asked to "get out" by the chief minister. Journalists accused the Vijayan of misbehaving with them.

The CM's office, however, issued a press statement saying that media persons were not invited to the peace meet.

Meanwhile, police teams investigating the case said that the motive of the murder was both political and personal rivalry. Eight accused have been arrested in connection with the case while a search is on for those absconding. This exposes the claim made by CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishna that the CPM had no role to play in Rajesh's murder.

The outburst of political violence had caught national attention with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh expressing concern over the killing. Singh, in a tweet, had said, "Spoke to Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan regarding the recent incidents of political violence in the state. I have expressed my concern with the law and order situation in the state of Kerala. Political violence is unacceptable in a democracy. I expect that the political violence in Kerala is curbed and that the perpetrators are brought to justice expeditiously."
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has given hints of a fresh political realignment in the state as she decided to support the Congress candidate in one of the Rajya Sabha seats.

Elections to the upper house will be held in six seats in the state. Mamata's Trinamool Congress has fielded its own candidates in all other five seats.

Mamata had earlier asked Congress leadership to field former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar in the seat vacated by CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury. However, the Congress high command renominated senior party leader Pradip Bhattacharjee.

Bhattacharjee received a phone call from Ahmad Patel, political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, about his renomination. Bhattacharjee is likely to get the support of the CPI(M), but the party politburo has yet to take a final decision on supporting the Congress candidate.

CPI(M) state committee had earlier proposed the name of Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, former mayor of Kolkata, for the seat. But once Bhattacharjee, one of the strong proponents of Congress-CPI(M) alliance in Bengal, is in the fray, the state committee is in a fix whether to support another candidate or not.

Mamatas decision to support the Congress candidate has put the CPI(M) on the spot. With the Trinamool's support, Bhattacharjee would easily sail through the polls even if CPI(M) decides to support another candidate.

I think time has come to check the BJP. I would be happy if all parties vote me so that BJP will not be benefited, Bhattacharjee said when asked bout Trinamool Congress support.

The CPI(M) wants to support Bhattacharjee at this juncture as they would like to keep the prospect of future alliance afloat. Even if the party had decided on the name of Bikash Bhattacharjee as the candidate, it has now asked the central leadership to reconsider the decision and support Bhattacharjee.

CPI(M) state unit has been on the war path with its central leadership on its understanding with the Congress. The state leaders privately came down heavily on the central leadership for canceling its prospect of Sitaram Yechury getting elected from West Bengal with the support of Congress.

Gautam Deb, senior central committee member, even went a step further and said, It would be improper on the part of the central leadership to turn down the proposal of the West Bengal state committee.

It was the Kerala lobby in the party which had scuttled the chance of Yechury getting elected from West Bengal to Rajya Sabha. Leaders of Kerala and Bengal are in a tug of war over the supremacy in the central committee.

Now, Mamatas sudden change in decision has forced the CPI(M) central leadership to think twice whether to support a Congress candidate in Bengal or not.

It they give nod, it would be an alliance of Congress, CPI(M) and Trinamool in West Bengal to tackle the BJP.

Of the six Rajya Sabha seats, four are currently held by the Trinamool, one by the CPI(M) and one by the Congress.
BJP National President Amit Shah on Monday said a grand Ram temple will be constructed at Ayodhya, and the way for this will be either through talks, mutual settlement or through a court verdict.

Addressing the media on the last day of his three-day visit to the Uttar Pradesh state capital, Shah said that construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya was very much part of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) agenda.

He praised the working of the Yogi Adityanath government in the state and said that within three months of its advent, a semblance of governance had come in the state and people were noticing a perceptible change.

"It is a coincidence that as I speak to you, three years of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre and three months of the Yogi Aditynath government in the state have been completed," the BJP chief said, praising the functioning of both the governments.

Shah ridiculed the media speculation that senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader and younger brother of Mulayam Singh Yadav, Shivpal Singh, was hitching himself to the party bandwagon.

Accompanied by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister and state BJP chief Keshav Prasad Maurya, Shah also claimed that with his good governance, brave decisions and crackdown on black money, Modi had emerged as the most popular Prime Minister of India ever.

Shah also tried to put an end to speculation about Maurya that he was being shifted to the Centre as a Union minister, saying that as soon as a state party chief was finalised, Maurya would devote full time to the state government.

He also tried to trash the opposition charges that by dining at a Yadav worker's house on Sunday, he was picking on caste politics.

"Sonu Yadav is a party booth worker, and just as I go to eat at any other place, I went to his house and had food... No politics should be read in this," he added.

Shah also blamed the previous Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) governments in the state for the mess in Uttar Pradesh and said that they had collectively presided over scams to the tune of Rs 12 lakh crore. "There is not one finger raised at us as the government is working with transparency," he added.

With regard to Panama Papers, the BJP chief said there were no names from his party in those leaks, and in any case, the Special Investigation Team was probing the Panama Papers leaks.

Shah said that the Union government, apart from the funds allocated to Uttar Pradesh, had opened its coffers for the state to develop and prosper.
The United States flew two supersonic B-1B bombers over the Korean peninsula in a show of force on Sunday and the US ambassador to the United Nations said China, Japan and South Korea needed to do more after Pyongyang's latest missile tests.

North Korea said it conducted another successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) on Friday that proved its ability to strike America's mainland, drawing a sharp warning from US President Donald Trump.

Trump's ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Twitter on Sunday that the United States was "done talking" about North Korea, which was "not only a US problem."

"China is aware they must act," Haley said, urging Japan and South Korea to increase pressure and calling for an international solution.

China, the North's main ally, said it opposed North Korea's missile launches, which it said violate UN Security Council resolutions designed to curb Pyongyang's banned nuclear and missile programmes.

"At the same time, China hopes all parties act with caution, to prevent tensions from continuing to escalate," China's foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

Early in his presidency, Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and had expressed hope Beijing would use its economic clout to curb North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

But on Saturday, Trump said on Twitter that he was "very disappointed in China" which he said profits from trade with the United States but does "NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue," he said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un personally supervised the midnight test launch of the missile on Friday night and said it was a "stern warning" for the United States that it would not be safe from destruction if it tries to attack, the North's official KCNA news agency said.

North Korea's state television broadcast pictures of the launch, showing the missile lifting off in a fiery blast in darkness and Kim cheering with military aides.

The missile test came a day after US Senate approved a package of sanctions against North Korea, Russia and Iran.

The B-1B flight was a response to the missile test and the July 3 launch of the "Hwasong-14" rocket, the Pentagon said. The bombers took off from a US air base in Guam, and were joined by Japanese and South Korean fighter jets during the exercise, according to the statement.

"North Korea remains the most urgent threat to regional stability," Pacific Air Forces commander General Terrence J. O'Shaughnessy said in a statement.

"If called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal, and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing."

Also on Sunday, the US Missile Defense Agency announced the United States had successfully shot down a medium-range missile in the latest test of its THAAD missile defense program which is designed to protect the country against potential threats from countries such as North Korea and Iran.

The test was planned well before the rising tensions with North Korea and involved a medium-range missile, not the long-range types being tested by the North Koreans.

The Hwasong-14, named after the Korean word for Mars, reached an altitude of 3,724.9 km (2,314.6 miles) and flew 998 km (620 miles)for 47 minutes and 12 seconds before landing in the waters off the Korean peninsula's east coast, KCNA said.

Western experts said calculations based on that flight data and estimates from the US, Japanese and South Korean militaries showed the missile could have been capable of going as far into the United States as Denver and Chicago.

David Wright of the US-based Union of Concerned Scientists wrote in a blog post that if it had flown on a standard trajectory, the missile would have had a range of 10,400 km (6,500 miles).

US Senator Dianne Feinstein, a leading Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, said she saw the test as "a clear and present danger to the United States."

"I think the only solution is a diplomatic one. I'm very disappointed in China's response, that it has not been firmer or more helpful," Feinstein told CBS television's "Face the Nation," urging the administration to begin talks with the North.

U.S. intelligence officials assess that even if North Korea does develop a reliable, nuclear-capable ICBM, which some say it remains several steps short of doing, the weapon would be almost useless except to deter the conventional attacks that Kim fears.

Intelligence experts have concluded that Kim will not abandon his pursuit of a deliverable nuclear weapon.

Kim is determined to secure international recognition of the North as a nuclear armed state, for the purposes of security, prestige, and political legitimacy, says the National Intelligence Councils January Global Trends report.
Dangwimsai Pul was in a hotel room in Guwahati when she got my call. She was about to leave for her house 12 hours drive away in Tezu, Arunachal Pradesh. She said she would stay back in the hotel for one more day. I will talk to you in detail, she said.

Her room in the hotel was on the fourth floor, but she was waiting in the lobby when I reached there next morning. Apparently, it is a courtesy typical of her tribe. Dangwimsai, who is in her early forties, is the eldest wife of Kalikho Pul, former chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh, who committed suicide on August 9 last year, barely a month after he was removed from office.

Sixty pages of suicide notes, in ten bundles, were found in Puls room at the chief ministers bungalow in Itanagar. Four of the bundles are still in the possession of the Arunachal Pradesh Police. Four bundles were made public by his three wives, and two are in the possession of his personal secretary. The suicide notes in the public domain spoke about corruption in governance and politics in Arunachal Pradesh. Pul also wrote that powerful people in Delhi had asked him for bribes so that his short-lived government could be revived. But he refused.

Dangwimsai spoke about Puls political past while we waited in the corridor for the housekeeping staff to finish cleaning her room. When they were done, she asked me to sit on a bed, herself sitting on another bed. The room was barely 80sqft, a far cry from the palatial chief ministers bungalow where Dangwimsai and two other wives of PulVikilu and Dasangluhad stayed for five months.

Today, all three wives live apart. Dangwimsai and Vikilu live in two houses in Tezu that belonged to their husband. The third wife, Dasanglu, is now the MLA from Hayuliang, a constituency on the India-China border, which Pul had represented for two and a half decades. She lives in Itanagar, at the same MLA quarters where Pul had lived as MLA and minister.

How could three wives live in the same building, even if palatial? I asked the eldest wife. Who would want to share her husband with another woman, tell me? Our custom allows a man to be polygamous. So, I accepted the other women. And they accepted me as well, said Dangwimsai, bowing her head down with a smile.

Adieu, father: Three of Kalikho Puls children bidding him farewell.

I asked her whether a woman in her tribe could divorce her husband or whether a widow could remarry. No, we dont have the right to divorce the husband. We will have to remain loyal to him even if he marries multiple times. If he is no more, we can get married to his next of kin, not anyone else, she said. But she said none of the wives was planning to remarry.

I asked her whether the wives were remaining united after their husbands death. We have good relations but we dont stay together, she said.

(The third wife, Dasanglu, was more candid. She said, I wont say we are good friends. But we dont say anything against each other in public. But it would be wrong to say that we were good friends or lived like sisters.)

The wives, however, are together in demanding punishment of people who, they allege, had forced Pul to commit suicide. Dangwimsai has taken the lead. She declined to stand for election from her husbands constituency when her name was suggested after his death.

I wanted to fight the case and so I let Dasanglu become MLA, she said.

Dangwimsai has been travelling to Delhi, meeting politicians, bureaucrats and lawyers to seek their help for getting justice. She said, for the first time, that Pul had to bribe MLAs for supporting his government.

He had to pay MLAs before, and then to keep his government intact. When he stopped doing that, they showed him the door, said Dangwimsai. He sold his buildings in Itanagar and land at various parts of Arunachal to raise the money. But they stabbed him in the back.

In late 2015, Pul had led a coup in the Congress. After leaving the Nabam Tuki cabinet, he became chief minister in February 2016 with the support of rebel Congress MLAs and opposition BJP members, and won vote of confidence in the assembly. Along with the MLAs who defected to him, he formed the Peoples Party of Arunachal.

Defending his decision to split the Congress, Dangwimsai said, The Congress demanded money from him when he was finance minister. Once a former chief minister of Arunachal asked him to send 16 crore to Delhi. He was so put off that he decided to leave the Congress.

The third wife, Dasanglu, the MLA, said Pul discussed politics with her. Its true, she said, that they sought money from him, many of them in the name of the high command. It was very distressing.

It was unclear why the MLAs had turned against Tuki and supported Pul. Besides, Pul, in his suicide notes, has stated that he had refused to become chief minister three times in the past. So it seemed a mystery why Pul finally took the post, that too by buying MLAs.

Dangwimsai said Pul wanted to make a change as he could not bear with the corruption within the party and the government.

Even though he was the senior-most member of the party, he was reduced to a minister without portfolio because he refused to release funds for personal gains, said Dangwimsai.

The Supreme Court on July 13, 2016 termed the Pul government as illegal and reinstated Tuki as chief minister. Pul, however, did not vacate the chief ministers bungalow. Mysteriously on July 15 Tuki was removed from the chief ministers post, and Pema Khandu was installed in his place. Pema Khandu is the son of former chief minister Dorji Khandu, who died in a helicopter accident in 2011. Pema was acceptable to most of the MLAs of the PPA, the party Pul had founded.

Equally intriguingly, Tuki remained silent. Sitting at her hotel room, Dangwimsai said in a firm voice, Tuki did not remain chief minister because he received Rs 60 crore from Pema Khandu, the present chief minister.

I asked her if she had any evidence in support of her startling allegation. Dangwimsai said there was evidence, though not with her. Acting on the tip-off, I later obtained an agreement on a non-judicial stamp paper worth Rs 10. It says Pema has agreed to pay Rs 60 crore to Nabam Tuki on his becoming the leader of the Congress legislature party. It further says Pema is paying the sum of Rs 8 crore to Shri Nabam Tuki, Chief Minister, as token money.

The agreement carries the signatures of both Pema Khandu and Nabam Tuki, and four other MLAs. It is dated July 15, 2016, the day Khandu was chosen as leader of Congress legislature party, replacing Tuki. Two days later he was sworn in as chief minister. A few days later, Pema Khandu along with his MLAs left the Congress, moved to the PPA and finally joined the BJP.

THE WEEK could not verify the so-called agreement. The stamp paper does not reveal for which purpose the money was exchanged. And it is rare for a politician to bribe another politician through a written agreement.

Lost cause: One of the buildings sold by Pul in Itanagar | Salil Bera

The chief ministers office declined to comment. Jambey Tsering, his public relations officer, told me: The chief minister and state cabinet have already referred investigation of the suicide to the Union home ministry. The chief minister has nothing more to say. All allegations of bribery are baseless.

Tuki did not take my calls. His mobile phone kept ringing. A text message I sent also went unanswered.

An MLA whose signature appears in the agreement, Techi Kaso, called it a forgery.

Formerly a Congressman, Kaso is now in the BJP and is parliamentary secretary in Pemas government. I did not sign any document, he said.

It is intriguing that no one has been booked for forgeryif it is a forgeryof a document that has the signatures of a chief minister and a former chief minister.

I asked Kaso who might have forged it. Had I known, I would have told you who they are. I have no idea, he said. Itanagar police superintendent A. Koan confirmed having received an agreement four months ago on a monetary exchange between Tuki and Pema. It is being investigated, Koan said. We are yet to verify its genuineness. However, the police somehow never thought of testing it in a forensic lab.

A citizens group, Mere Vichar Andolan Committee, was formed to seek justice for Pul. Its convener R.N. Lalum said, Why are you surprised and want to probe the genuineness of the agreement? There is nothing wrong in it. This happens in Arunachal. Here politicians are sold very easily.

In his suicide note, Mere Vichar (My Judgment), Pul had mentioned former chief ministers Dorji Khandu and Nabam Tuki, present deputy chief minister Chowna Mein and government spokesman P.D. Sona as corrupt. Sona is also parliamentary secretary.

Sona demanded 110 crore from my husband, alleged Dangwimsai. He was paid Rs 4 crore. We want the money back. Sona rubbished the allegation. He said he had never taken any money.

Kalikho Puls letter is full of contradictions. At one point of time he said that he did not pay money to remain in power, but then he said he paid money. Had he been alive today he would have been hard put to clarify his comments, Sona told me.

I pointedly asked him whether he had received money from Pul. No, never, Sona said.

Its a blatant lie. He received money, said Dangwimsai. Sona said no one in Arunachal except Puls first wife was interested in the matter anymore. But at least two other wives and many citizens are with her.

Puls second wife, Vikilu, told me, Yes, I no more have that good a relation with our elder sister [the first wife]. But whatever she is doing is right and we are with her.

Vikilu said, though she was the second wife, she was younger than the third wife. She is 26. She fled home to marry Pul in 2010 after a whirlwind romance.

I did not tell my parents about my marriage. I was deep in love with him. He used to come to our village, on the India-China border in Anjaw district.

As she was very young, Pul did not discuss politics with her. I was nagging him to tell me about it. But he asked me to look after my son and concentrate on my own matters, said Vikilu. Pul had seven children from three wives.

But I knew he was in deep trouble. He was anxious. When trouble erupted I was in Delhi for my delivery and the newborns treatment. The baby has a heart problem. I gave birth to him in Delhi a year back. My husband dropped me at the hospital and went to meet some leaders, Vikilu said. But she was at the official bungalow on the day Pul died.

Dangwimsai said Pul was desperate to join the BJP. Many politicians who are in the BJP today did not want him to join the party. My husband had very good relations with Prime Minister Modi and other leaders in Delhi. But he was not given the opportunity to move to the BJP.

I met the third wife, Dasanglu, the BJP legislator, at her MLA quarters in Itanagar. Initially she was reticent. I am a ruling party MLA, she said. Also the situation is tense in Arunachal now.

She opened up after a while. A day before he committed suicide, on August 8, 2016, he left for Guwahati to meet senior leaders of the BJP, on the advice of central BJP leaders. He left the bungalow at 11 in the morning. But there was a terrorist attack at Kokrajhar on that day. When he was at Tezpur, Assam, he was informed that that the appointment had been cancelled because of the law and order problem, Dasanglu said.

The oldest and original BJP leader of Arunachal, and power minister, Tamiyo Taga said some leaders did not want Pul to join the BJP. I would not say all of them, but a section did not want, Taga told me.

On being denied the meetings, Pul called Dasanglu from Tezpur, midway between Guwahati and Itanagar, to say that he was returning.

When he returned he looked extremely grim. He said corruption was playing havoc with his life. He also wanted to appeal in the Supreme Court against its own verdict replacing him. I had never seen him like I saw him on that evening, Dasanglu said.

Puls personal assistant Anjoy Ama said, He had been working on the appeal for the last seven days of his life. He told us that he would expose everyone. We thought he would call a press conference and tell everything. But we never realised that whatever he was dictating in his last two months to a stenographer was actually a suicide note.

A young man from Uttar Pradesh, Shyam, took down Puls dictation for two months. Shyam had been his stenographer when Pul was chief minister. Apparently, Pul did not trust it with any local resident.

Dasanglu said on the last day of his life, after returning from Tezpur, he gave time to all three wives separately. He had a long discussion with me, said Dasanglu, who had worked in the electric supplies department before she became MLA.

Final moments: Puls last photo. Seen here with his son.

Then he dined with Vikilu and went to bed with the eldest wife. Realising that he was not in good shape, I asked her son to go to his dad and be with him. But all attempts went in vain, said Dasanglu.

She said Pul had put his hand on her head before going to bed and told her, Dont think of me too much. Take care of the children. Give them good education so that they can stand on their own feet. Dasanglu is in her mid thirties.

Dangwimsai said Pul did not say much before going to bed, but repeated what he used to say, I have a very long life line in my hand. But I will not live longer. These people [politicians] will not let me live long.

As day broke, Dangwimsai saw Pul was not in the room. There is a meditation room attached to his room, and lights were on.

I rushed to the room and found him hanging. Sheets of paper were strewn all over the floor, all of which were signed. Those were his suicide notes, said Dangwimsai.

She raised alarm. The other wives rushed in along with the security man Rajesh Kumar. The suicide notes were collected in bundles. There were ten bundles. Dangwimsai has kept four of them.

I had no idea that those were his last wishes. They ultimately became his dying statement. When we read them later, we were stunned, she said. She later uploaded them on social media, creating a sensation.

Arunachal Civil Society chairman Patey Tayum, who knew Pul for many years, said a couple of days before his death Pul had met deputy chief minister Chowna Mein at Meins official residence.

We want the CCTV footage of his meeting with Chowna Mein. What transpired? Many people, including the chief minister and deputy chief minister, would be indicted if a proper investigation of Puls death is conducted, said Tayum.

Arunachal Civil Society led violent protests over Puls death. The activists attacked the houses of several senior leaders. They damaged the ordinary coffin that was brought for the peoples chief minister and forced the government to send a regal one. It has been continuing its campaign to make the government file cases of abetment to suicide against many people mentioned in his dying statement.

We all know that a suicide note is treated as a dying statement. Why should it be any different in the case of Kalikho Pul? asked Tayum.

The massive protests and the tenacity of the three wives forced the Arunachal government to send the matter to the Union home ministry. Chowna Mein told me: Many are blaming the government. We want the truth to come out, so we have referred the matter to the Central government. However, the state government has refrained from recommending a CBI investigation.

Government spokesman Sona recommended that the Union home ministry could get the case investigated by any Central agency.

Dangwimsai said she had met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, who has since retired. Rajnath-ji said he would look into the matter. Mehrishi said the matter could be taken up only by the new home secretary, said she. Dangwimsai is now looking up to the prime minister. To pave the way for the Central government to act, she withdrew her petition in the Supreme Court praying that FIRs be lodged against people mentioned in Puls suicide note.

Every time we try to meet the PM, we are denied appointment. The PM was a long-time friend of my husband, but he is not hearing us. I want his intervention immediately to get justice. I dont know why he is silent on this tragedy, said Dangwimsai.

One obvious problem is that most of the people mentioned in the suicide note are now in the BJP. Another is that Pul raised unbelievable allegations against the legal fraternity.

Said Dasanglu: What my husband wrote in his suicide note was exactly what he had told me. He used to tell me he would expose the corrupt people. At one point he wanted to quit politics and go back to his village.

Kalikho Puls mother died when he was one year old. His father, a poor farmer, married again, produced two more sons, and died when Pul was seven, and the boy was brought up by his uncle. As a student, he once tried to commit suicide, but a local businessman stopped him and took him to a politician, who then took him under his wings. While in college Pul started a small business, and soon after his graduation in economics, he became one of the richest businessmen and contractors in Arunachal. After he became MLA he surrendered his contractors licence. He belongs to the Idu Mishimi tribe, which has a tendency to commit suicide.

In the last 20 years 1,000 Idu tribals have committed suicide. They are very emotional people. If they suffer a loss or defeat they take their own lives, said Tarun Mene, professor of cultural anthropology at Rajiv Gandhi University in Itanagar.

From the MLA quarters I went to the chief ministers bungalow where Pul had died. The bungalow has been turned into a state guest house. The present chief minister does not want to stay here. It is seen as a haunted house.

Though named a guest house, the building has not had a guest in the past one year. The gates were closed when I reached the place. ITBP section commander Rajesh Kumar, his security man, was in the office at the gates.

But after persistent requests, PWD officer Tapan Biswas let me go around the bungalow, but not inside. It is a three-storey building, not really a bungalow. The meditation room where Pul killed himself is on the second floor. The White Palace, as it is now known, stands on a plot of three acres.

At the entrance of the house is an office which was the chief ministers office. Pul used to work here till 3am. Now the office has been turned over to the state legal aid cell.

He slept only for three hours. But he always asked us to eat on time. No other chief minister ever thought of our well-being, said Kumar, his security officer. Pul met common people the whole day every Saturday and Sunday. Hundreds of visitors slips are still in the possession of the security staff.

Like his suicide note, Kalikho Puls spirit has made this house very special.
Angry Jordanians took to the streets outside the Israeli Embassy in Amman on Friday calling on the government to cancel its peace agreement with Israel.

Muslims in Jordan protested on Friday, taking to the streets after prayers services. Shouts of Death to Israel and No Zionist embassy in Jordan were heard as well.

The angry crowd called for justice for the two-people killed by embassy security officers; including a 17-year-old worker who attacked an embassy security officer with a screwdriver. A second person, reportedly a doctor, was wounded and died of his injuries later on. Initial reports blamed that death on a stray bullet.

Under pressure from Jordan, with the latter creating a diplomatic row, Israel has signaled that Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit will order a probe of the attack. In the interim, angry Jordanians are calling on King Abdullah II to cancel the 1994 peace agreement with Israel.

King Abdullah has been an open critic of Israels placement of metal detectors on Har Habayis following the attack, a moved perceived as infringing on Jordans authority over the holy site alongside the Islamic Waqf. Israel has since removed the controversial magnetometers.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
In letters to the mayors of two New Jersey towns, Agudath Israel Executive Vice President Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel expressed deep concern about the order to remove an eruv that had been constructed (with permission) on telephone and utility line poles to enable observant Jewish residents to carry objects outside of their homes on the Jewish Sabbath. The towns have argued that the plastic strips on utility poles are signs and violate the local zoning ordinances, but Rabbi Zwiebel asserted that what opponents of the eruv are troubled by is not the presence of unobtrusive plastic strips on utility poles, but by the continued growth of the Orthodox Jewish community. The fact that so many of those opponents make no effort to hide their hatred is shocking and should not be tolerated.

Yehudah Buchweitz, an attorney at Weil Gotshal & Manges, included several of the many disturbing online comments in a letter he sent to the mayors of the townships on behalf of the organization promoting the eruv.

They are clearly trying to annex land like theyve been doing in Occupied Palestine. Look up the satanic verses of the Talmud and tell me what you see.

I dont want my town to be gross and infested with these nasty people.

I do not want these things coming into my town and ruining it.

Following a contentious meeting in Mahwah last week which brought out more than 600 residents, several eruv pipes were vandalized and one person was arrested.

Agudath Israels New Jersey Director Rabbi Avi Schnall condemned the vandalism, but expressed his willingness to work with the mayors of the affected towns. Currently, the only sign we see is the one emanating from some township residents that religious bigotry is welcome, but Orthodox Jews are not! We hope to work with the townships officials to reduce the hateful rhetoric and protect the religious liberty of all residents.

During a very similar debate fifteen years ago, regarding an eruv in Tenafly which was ultimately decided in favor of the eruv supporters, Agudath Israel submitted an amicus curiae brief and has been involved in other cases since then.

(YWN Headquarters  NYC)
European banks are still risky and have suffered from years of lax oversight, a star fund manager who predicted the global financial crisis has warned.

US investor Steve Eisman realised the American property market was headed for a catastrophic crash in 2008.

He made a fortune by betting on price falls in actions immortalised by the hit 2015 film The Big Short.

The Big Short: US investor Steve Eisman realised in 2008 the American property market was headed for a crash

Although the hedge fund guru believes the financial system is much stronger than it was before the crisis, he said Americas banks had made far more progress than their Continental rivals  and that not every bank in the world is safe.

Eisman, who now works for US fund firm Neuberger Berman, told the Mail that European lenders recovery was derailed by the sovereign debt crisis, when a string of eurozone nations teetered on the brink of collapse after rescuing their financial systems.

And the investor was scathing about the European Banking Authoritys stress tests.

These are designed to examine how large lenders would cope with a severe downturn but have been widely criticised for their politically-driven approach, with claims that struggling banks are given a clean bill of health to avoid rocking the boat.

In contrast, several Wall Street behemoths have repeatedly failed the stress tests set by the US Federal Reserve  and become stronger as a result.

Eisman argued that the EBAs shortcomings were laid bare by the near-collapse of Spanish lender Banco Popular last month, when it had to be rescued by rival Santander.

Despite almost crumbling, Popular passed last years stress test.

The stress tests in the US have been very tough and real, and the stress tests in Europe have been extremely weak in my view, Eisman said.

He was less concerned about British banks, although he does not believe they will ever return to the huge profits they made before the crisis.

The success of lenders such as NatWest owner Royal Bank of Scotland proved to have been based on reckless, unsustainable growth.

The British banks tried to be global banks and didnt succeed all that well, Eisman said. RBS will never be what it was, and I dont think Barclays will either.
Glamorous financier Amanda Staveley is busy filming her big screen debut.

Prince Andrews former consort recently won a cameo in Sir Ridley Scotts All The Money In The World after bidding 16,000 at an auction in aid of the Old Vic theatre.

The film, which stars Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey, tells the story of the 1973 kidnapping of John Paul Gettys grandson, whose ear was severed by his captors when the notoriously frugal industrialist refused to pay their $17m ransom.

Glamorous financier Amanda Staveley is busy filming her big screen debut

The old miser eventually agreed to cough up $2.9m, the maximum amount that was tax deductible.

JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimons rant about the gridlock in US politics, in which he recently described being an American citizen as an embarrassment, provokes an interesting theory in the City.

A former colleague of Dimon is convinced the enduring King of Wall Street plans a tilt at the White House in 2020.

City law firm DLA Piper is still reeling from the recent cyber attack which has left its well-remunerated lawyers with limited access to email and the company intranet.

Connections: Eccentric businessman Sir David Tang once met North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang

The poor lambs have been offered free soothing rubdowns by the firm to help them cope with the stress caused by the meltdown. Sensitive flowers in the legal profession, arent they?

Eccentric businessman Sir David Tang, 62, tells the FT he once met North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang, where the supreme leaders tailor crafted him one of Kims oafish-looking suits.

Sir David previously claimed to have lunched in the Sahara with Libyas Colonel Gaddafi whose tassels from his epaulettes would not have looked out of place on Barbara Cartlands drawing-room curtains. Tangos a frightful name-dropper, but hes good value.

Bob Diamonds daughter Nell welcomes her fathers recent 66th birthday, writing on social media: HBD Bobby D. Nells fond of an abbreviation or two.

When papa was forced out of Barclays, she suggested (then) chancellor George Osborne should go ahead and HMD, shorthand for a particularly grubby term of disgruntlement, the first two letters of which stand for Hold My.
It is no secret that a significant percentage of seniors require some form of long-term care. Unfortunately, because of the significant expense, many individuals dont obtain this care because they believe other necessary needs have a higher priority.

Many veterans who need this care dont realize that they may be eligible for veterans benefits that will help pay for long-term care. The spouses of veterans and their widows may also be covered. According to the VA, many veterans and their spouses are eligible for these benefits, known as Aid and Attendance Pension, but they have not applied for them. The benefits are not subject to income taxes.

The objective of this pension is to provide financial aid to veterans who have served on active duty during wartime to help offset the cost of long-term care. Specifically, veterans who need assistance with activities such as bathing, dressing, eating and using the toilet may be eligible. Veterans who are bed-ridden or have limited eyesight may also be eligible, as well as veterans who are patients in nursing homes and/or assisted living facilities for either physical or mental conditions.

The limits of monthly benefits are as follows:

Surviving spouse: $1,153

Veteran with sick spouse: $1,410

Single veteran: $1,794

Married veteran: $2,127

Two veterans married: $2,846

Veterans are eligible to file for this benefit if they have served on active duty for at least 90 days, and received an honorable discharge, as long as any portion of their service coincided with a period of war. Their spouses are also eligible. A surviving spouse is eligible to file for this benefit if he or she was married at the time of the death of the veteran. Benefits are also based on the financial status of the veterans family taking into consideration both income and asset considerations.

The general rule regarding assets is that there should be less than $80,000 in assets excluding home and vehicles. There are exceptions, however, so a veteran should apply even if assets are above the $80,000 limit. For a single veteran, the income limit is less than $15,773 per year. For a married veteran the countable income should be less than $19,770. Again, there are exceptions, and your eligibility will also depend on your age, life expectancy, and the costs you are incurring for health care.

3 steps to follow

There are three steps required to request this benefit: gathering the required documents; filling out the correct application forms; and mailing the forms to the state Pension Management Center.

There are multiple ways to file. You can use the resources of the VA, a veterans service organization, a VA accredited claim agent or an attorney. No one is allowed by law to charge a veteran or spouse for completing or expediting the VA pension paperwork. However, you can incur fees from a claim agent or attorney if you request other services.

Filling out the forms properly is a complex job, so you should consider using assistance from one of these sources. If your application is rejected, you will have to wait a year to reapply. Accordingly, you should be very careful when you file your initial application. It will take approximately six to eight months for your application to be reviewed. Benefits will be retroactive to your initial filing date.

An excellent source is American Veterans Aid (www.americanveteransaid.com), a VA-accredited claim agent that specializes in this pension. They will help you determine your eligibility, assist you in filling out the forms, and follow through after the application is filed.

In addition, there are veteran service officers (VSOs) throughout the U.S. who can help. These individuals, compensated by state and local organizations, are well-trained, and they can assist you not only with the Aid and Attendance Pension program but also other veteran benefits. Dont assume you are better off filling out the forms by yourself. Contact the local Department of Veteran Affairs to identify the VSOs in your area, or visit go.madison.com/vetserv.
MBABANE  The chief investigator of the matter is a dog but the sad part of it is that it cannot come to court to testify.

This is the story of a sniffer dog of Usutu Forest Products (PTY) Limited which did investigations that now form part of litigation. Its investigations led to the discovery of some people who had burnt forests belonging to the company.

The exploration by the sniffer dog resulted in Usutu Forest Products terminating the contract of Imvuselelo Investment, a company which it had sub-contracted to harvest gum trees.

The investigations by the sniffer dog were outlined to the court by one of the security personnel.

During the hearing of the matter, Sihle Mavuso from Usuthu Forest Products told Judge Mumcy Dlamini that they were able to identify the culprits through the dog. He told the court that together with a team of qualified trackers who were using trained dogs, they went to the fire scene.

Mavuso said the dogs led them to Imvuselelo compound (where the employees of the companys which had been sub-contracted were staying). According to Mavuso, the dogs then led them to a room where four of the employees of Imvuselelo Investment were staying.

Four men who were employees of Imvuselelo were fingered as the ones who burnt the forest, he stated.

Imvuselelo has since taken Usutu Forest Products to court where it demanding E13.7 million for alleged breach of contract. In its particulars of claim, the company claimed that on or about July 31, 2015, it entered into a written agreement with Usutu Forest Products.

It informed the court that during the signing of the agreement it was represented by its Chairperson, Masotsha Dlamini, and Usutu Forest Product Company represented by its Forest Manager, Jurgnes Kritzinger.

It alleged that the material terms of the agreement were inter alia as follows: that the plaintiff (Imvuselelo Investment) was to harvest gum trees, Usutu will in turn weigh the harvested products at the weighbridge and pay as per invoice generated, plaintiff was expected to harvest, fell 30 000 weighbridge tones of gum per year.

Imvuselelo informed the court that it performed its obligations in terms of the joint venture and felled trees for the month of September 2015 and Usutu Forest Products duly paid as per the agreement.

The company (Imvuselelo Investment) had engaged its own workforce for purposes of meeting its contractual obligations and was to remunerate them as per their own agreement.

The management of the company claimed that because of the agreement it had with Usutu Forest Product, it had approached the bank for an overdraft facility.
MANZINI  A self-proclaimed bishop resorted to public display in showing his frustration over a lawyer he alleged swindled him some money.

Bishop Mfanukhona Dlamini of Dvokolwako, spray-painted his car and demanded to make a court appearance.

He had also layered himself in a sack with all sorts of inscriptions about his issue with the attorney.

The bishops car, a brownish Chevrolet sedan, was covered in red inscriptions while he wore a sack, which was also engraved with unpalatable messages directed to whoever wanted to read them about the attorney.

He stormed the Manzini Magistrates Court and demanded to see magistrates and public prosecutors on Friday.

Employees at the magistrates court and members of the public rushed to the parking lot after noticing the sedan, which had been parked at the main parking bay, spray-painted in red.

Shocked members of the public were heard asking why the car had been painted and some even took pictures of the vehicle.

Dlamini was shouting at the top of his voice, stating that he was pained by the treatment he got from the attorney.

He said he painted his vehicle in order for the court to realise the seriousness of the matter and his pain.

Angimunandzi nga *Dlamini. Wacala nini atsatsa timali tami nyalo utsetse nemoto usafuna lenye futsi imali. Utsi kute langiyositakala khona, angiphelekubhadala, - loosely translated, I am aggrieved over *Dlamini. He started a while ago, demanding money from me, even now he still wants more money and informs me no one would ever assist me.

Some of what he was saying was also inscribed on his vehicle.

Also written were amounts from E1 500 to the E16 000 the attorney is now allegedly demanding for the release of Dlaminis motor vehicle, a Colt van.

Other messages spray-painted on the car cannot be repeated due to their defamatory nature.

The name of the lawyer will not be revealed as the allegations against him are yet to be proven in court.
A Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Wisconsin who calls himself strongly pro-life once sent a letter to a pro-abortion rights group praising its work and saying there was potential for a strong partnership.

The letter is the latest record from Kevin Nicholsons time in 2000 as head of the College Democrats of America that is haunting him as he tries to win over conservative support for a Senate run. He also voiced his support for a womans right to choose when he spoke at the 2000 Democratic National Convention.

Nicholson is running as a conservative for the seat held by Democrat Tammy Baldwin. He says he stopped being a Democrat years ago  after serving in the U.S. Marines, having children and working as a business consultant. Hes likely to face one or more Republican opponents, putting a spotlight on Nicholsons positions on core conservative issues such as abortion.

His campaign spokesman Michael Antonopoulos downplayed the letter on Monday.

Its pathetic to see Tammy Baldwin and her liberal allies dredging up decades-old material from Kevins college days, Antonopoulos said. As the father of three children and a combat veteran who has seen innocent life destroyed, Kevin has made clear why he is strongly pro-life today.

Nicholson sent the letter via fax on June 28, 2000, to EMILYs List, a national Democratic group that helps raise money to support women candidates who support abortion rights.

Nicholson asked the political director of EMILYs List for a $10,000 donation, saying there was great potential for a strong partnership.

EMILYs List president Stephanie Schriock was in Wisconsin on Sunday to attend a fundraiser for Baldwin. Schriock said the letter shows that Nicholson cant be trusted.

Schriock said Nicholson knows he has a problem with his change in position on abortion, which she attributed to political expediency. The fact that Nicholson now says his previous support for abortion rights was a mistake should make women voters nervous, Schriock said.

This is really about the voters of Wisconsin understanding where he stands, she said.

Nicholson, 39, has argued that because he chose to become a Republican after his life experiences, his beliefs are more solid than when he was younger and a Democrat. He touted his anti-abortion stance in his campaign launch video released last week.

The one thing in life you cannot compromise are your principles, Nicholson said in the video. Im strongly pro-life. Ive seen innocent children killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. And here in this country, it is unacceptable for our government to systematically allow the lives of innocent children to be taken.
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By Bill Parry

Mayor Bill de Blasio began the final day of his weeklong stay in the borough with a ride on the F train to Jackson Heights where he joined City Councilman Daniel Dromm (D-Jackson Heights) and community leaders to break ground on a $4.5 million project to make Diversity Plaza a permanent public space.

Since the two-block stretch of 37th Road from 74th Street to Broadway was closed off to traffic in 2012, the area has become a gathering spot for the neighborhoods many ethnic communities that speak more than 150 languages.

Diversity Plaza is an epicenter of culture, community, and vibrancy within New York Citys most diverse borough, Queens, de Blasio said. Diversity Plaza is an act of defiance against voices of hatred and division.

Dromm helped to create and fund the plaza with $500,000. He held up an issue of Time magazine which ranked Diversity Plaza as No. 46 in its Reasons to Celebrate America list last summer.

When the roadway was closed to vehicular traffic in 2011, many business owners initially objected.

As someone who worked hard to establish the plaza six years ago, I am delighted to see it come so far, Dromm said. Not only is Diversity Plaza home to so many important cultural events, it serves as a town hall for residents who wish to protest, celebrate and mourn as one community. Thanks to these improvements, it will continue to serve our community for years to come.

The project will feature new trees, raised planters, bike racks, moveable furniture and an open space for performances. The surrounding streets will be resurfaced and receive infrastructure upgrades such as new water mains, catch basins, sidewalks, curbs, street lighting and traffic signals.

The mayor promised slower speeds on streets surrounding what he called maybe the real crossroads of the world, making it safer for pedestrians.

Diversity Plaza is where people from all communities, all walks of life, and all over the globe gather to meet, laugh, cry, sing, pray, dance, eat and play, Borough President Melinda Katz said. Its our boroughs public hub for the unabated exercise of speech, assembly, religion and expression. Thanks to investments secured by Council member Dromm and the dedication of the Department of Transportation, the new features and attention to Diversity Plaza will help enhance safety, aesthetics and utility of this plaza.

The project is expected to be complete in summer 2018.

This major upgrade is great news for Jackson Heights, Dromm said. I applaud this progress and remain committed to bringing additional improvements to this invaluable public space.
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By Mark Hallum

State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) endorsed City Council candidate Paul Graziano last week at the new Korean Community Services building in Bayside, formerly the Jewish Community Center.

Granziano is challenging Councilman Paul Vallone (D-Bayside) again on the Democratic line, a the seat they battled for in 2013.

Graziano, a northeast Queens native, land use expert and civic activist, is known for fighting against over-development by working with elected officials such as Avella to adjust zoning laws. Graziano is also responsible for having the Broadway Flushing neighborhood  1,330 buildings in total  added to the National Register of Historic Places.

He has been so helpful to me on so many issues in terms of zoning, Avella said, explaining how Grazianos expertise went a long way during his own time in City Council. He was crucial in helping me come up with the new [zoning] category, R2A.  Hes been a wonderful asset to every single organization, not only in northeast Queens, but beyond. He has the true community spirit and he has the knowledge to go with it. Its so important in todays City Council that we have someone who actually knows whats going on, especially when it comes to zoning and development.

Avella accused Vallone of being unwilling to take part in issues within his district, which spans from Little Neck and Douglaston in the east to College Point in the west, and even passing constituent complaints off to the senator in what he described as a dereliction of duty.

I cant tell you how many battles Ive had to fight alone because the current councilman doesnt do his job in representing the community, Avella said, expressing the need for an ally within the city government.

Graziano said he has been involved in building civic organizations in the district for over 25 years.

Over-development is the driver for a lot of the issues that we have: infrastructure, school over-crowding, lack of services, traffic, Graziano said. Ive actually been contacted often about issues because people know Im a community activist and that I work on these issues, particularly with illegal conversions of homes.

Graziano cited an event in which he and Avella had blown the whistle on a home in a single-family zone which had been converted into a 17-unit rental building with a better than $7,000 rent-roll.

I want to do that job, I want to make that clear, Graziano said. I want to be elected so I can be the person to take care of these issues, or work in concert with the senator to take care of these issues, because thats what a city representative is supposed to do.

Vallone responded to these accusations by firing back at Avella criticizing his membership in the Independent Democratic Committee. The IDC is a rogue band of state senators who have split from the mainline left to negotiate with Republicans in order to pass legislation. The GOP formerly held the majority until a special election in late May. IDC officials have become the object of scorn and include state Sen. Jose Peralta (D-East Elmhurst).

Avellas endorsement speaks for itself as the IDC senator has once again turned his back on the entire Democratic Party, our community leaders, elected officials, unions and organizations that all stand united with us, Vallone said.
Convoys of buses arrived on Monday to transfer thousands of Syrian militants and refugees from Lebanon\s border region into rebel territory in Syria in exchange for Hezbollah prisoners.

Under a local ceasefire between the Sunni Muslim militants and the Shi\ite Hezbollah, about 9,000 fighters and their relatives were to leave on Monday, a Hezbollah media unit said earlier.

The deal includes the departure of all Nusra Front militants from Lebanon\s border region around the town of Arsal, along with any civilians in nearby refugee camps who wish to go.

The truce echoes deals struck within Syria in which Damascus has shuttled rebels and civilians to Idlib province and other opposition areas. Such evacuations have helped President Bashar al-Assad recapture several rebel bastions over the past year.

Lebanon\s Hezbollah has played a major role in fighting militants along the frontier during Syria\s six-year war, sending thousands of combatants to support Assad\s government.

Last week, Hezbollah took most of the mountainous zone of Jroud Arsal in a joint offensive with the Syrian army to drive Nusra militants from their last frontier foothold.

The Nusra Front was al-Qaeda\s Syria branch until it severed ties and rebranded last year. It now spearheads the Tahrir al-Sham Islamist alliance in the Syrian war.

The Lebanese army, which receives considerable U.S. and British military support, did not take an active part in the operation, setting up defensive positions around Arsal.

The next phase is expected to target a nearby enclave currently in the hands of Islamic State jihadists.

"Buses that will transport Nusra Front militants and their families have started arriving in Jroud Arsal," the military media unit run by the Iran-backed Hezbollah said via social media on Monday.

The convoys rolled in from Syria and headed towards Lebanese army positions. Syrian Red Crescent ambulances arrived on the opposite side of the frontier, the media unit said.

Footage from the border zone showed dozens of white buses driving through the barren hills. The Lebanese Red Cross has taken part in logistics.

The first step of the ceasefire, brokered by Lebanon\s internal security agency, unfolded on Sunday as the two sides exchanged the bodies of dead fighters.

A Lebanese security source said 200 militants with hundreds of their family members, as well as more than 5,000 refugees, were due to leave, mostly towards insurgent-held Idlib.

Nusra Front will release eight Hezbollah fighters under the deal, three captured in recent days and five held in Syria, a Lebanese security source said.

Hezbollah\s al-Manar TV said the two sides would swap Nusra militants for the Hezbollah hostages near the city of Aleppo, which the Syrian government controls.

The U.N. refugee agency, not involved in the deal, was trying to reach refugees in the Arsal region to evaluate whether returns were voluntary, spokeswoman Lisa Abou Khaled said.

"UNHCR believes that conditions for refugees to return in safety and dignity are not yet in place in Syria," she said, with war continuing across large swathes of the country.

The multi-sided Syrian conflict has killed hundreds of thousands of people and driven at least 11 million from their homes  about half Syria\s pre-war population.

Nearly 1.5 million refugees have poured into Lebanon  around a quarter of its population  where most languish in severe poverty. Several thousand live in makeshift camps east of Arsal.

SOURCE: REUTERS
Bridgewater looks to become a regional nightlife hub in western PA

Bridgewater bars offer patrons a nightlife experience that is unique from any other in western Pennsylvania
The north wing of Meriter Hospital will soon be exclusively dedicated to mother-baby care.

An ongoing construction project will add about 30,000 square feet to the hospitals mother-baby care space, with a new triage area, a neonatal intensive care unit, birthing suites, ultrasound rooms and special suites to provide bed rest for women carrying high-risk pregnancies. Before construction started in January, the mother-baby space was about 89,000 square feet.

The project will help the hospital prepare for an anticipated 20 percent increase in patients in 2018 due to the addition of births from Group Health Cooperative, as well as the general yearly increase of babies born in Madison.

Meriter delivers more babies than any other Wisconsin hospital, at just over 4,000 deliveries last year.

The wings new triage space, which was still spotted with construction helmets and the smell of fresh paint Tuesday, is a cornerstone of the project. It will be the first new section of the wing to open in the second week of August.

Carla Griffin, the director of perinatal services, said a new lobby for the triage center will provide a better, larger area for families to wait.

Patient access, meanwhile, will be much better, definitely for a woman in labor, said Karen Kuenzi, charge nurse of the birthing center.

The triage center  the point of entry for any patient with a pregnancy-related concern  was previously on the fourth floor, and will now be on the hospitals ground floor, with close access to the main lobby, Kuenzi said.

From the triage center, patients in labor are directed to the Labor and Delivery unit on the fourth floor.

Construction will add four labor rooms, for a total of 17.

The new triage area also has three additional rooms, and loops around a central nurse-provider workspace. Construction has allowed the hospital to update ergonomic features, such as computer setups, making the area more nurse-friendly, said Missy Binotto, nurse manager of the birthing center.

Former services offered in the north wing  inpatient rehabilitation and pediatric therapies  have moved to the UW Health Rehabilitation Hospital on Madisons East Side, and Meriters Monona Clinic, respectively.

Although the entire space will be opened to the public in tiers, construction is expected to be complete by the end of November.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the nature of the arrangement between Meriter and Group Health Cooperative.
ALBANY  Charter Communications is blaming Verizon for frustrating its expansion of broadband internet coverage, which led to a settlement with New York state regulators that could cost the Connecticut-based cable company up to $13 million.

Charter says that despite shelling out $4.1 million in access fees, Verizon and other utilities have failed to allow Charter timely access to their poles so that it can extend its network cables to new customers.

Last month, Charter agreed to the settlement with the Public Service Commission involving its 2016 merger with Time Warner Cable. Under the merger agreement, Charter said it would extend its Spectrum broadband internet network to an additional 145,000 new homes and businesses in the state over four years.

After falling short of hitting 25 percent of that expansion in the first year, Charter agreed with the PSC to pay penalties that could total $13 million over the four years.

Charter only extended its network to 15,164 new homes and businesses as of May.

Under the proposed settlement, which has yet to be approved by the commission, Charter would use $1 million of the settlement to give out grants that would provide computers and internet access to low income customers.

The remaining $12 million, secured by a letter of credit the company has to provide to the PSC, would be clawed back as the company worked toward its expansion goal over six month periods. The company could lose up to $2 million, however, for each six-month period in which it does not meet its expansion requirement.

Now Charter is accusing Verizon and other New York utilities National Grid and NYSEG of holding up access to their poles that support distribution lines for cable television and the internet as well as electric power and telephone service.

Charter claims that Verizon specifically may be delaying pole access for competitive reasons. Verizon and Charter compete for many of the same customers in the Capital Region where Verizon offers its FiOS cable TV and high-speed internet service.

Charter has offered to pay Verizon to increase its staffing to allow for more pole access.

"Verizon's constructive refusal to provide timely access to its poles is further unjust and unreasonable because it is anticompetitive," Charter said in a complaint filed with the PSC. "The cumulative effect of Verizon's conduct has been to frustrate Charter's ability to bring its services to additional areas in the state and offer competitive alternatives to ... providers  including competing against Verizon itself."

Verizon spokesman Raymond McConville disagreed with Charter's description of the situation.

"We have been more than cooperative and even presented Charter with options to speed up their construction efforts," McConville said. "For them to try to shift blame is puzzling at best. We stand ready to continue to assist them and again provide them with the methods to speed things up."

The PSC has asked for the public to comment on the $13 million settlement before it makes its decision. The comment period ends Aug. 21.
The deans of education programs at 18 State University of New York schools are condemning a proposal they say would lead to unqualified teachers in New York classrooms.

The proposal comes from the SUNY Charter Schools Institute, the largest authorizer of charter schools in New York, and would allow certain high-performing charter schools to operate outside of the state's stringent teacher certification requirements and instead certify their own teachers on the promise they produce strong academic results.

But critics say the move would weaken teacher standards in New York at the same time that SUNY and other education leaders are trying to elevate the profession. A chief concern is the requirement that charter school teachers have just 30 hours of classroom experience.

"The regulation change allows anyone with a bachelor's degree to earn state teacher certification without broad and rich intellectual stimulation from education faculty, without taking appropriate coursework or completing an adequate number of field experience hours, without demonstrating adequate content knowledge, without student teaching, and without demonstrating the ability to teach effectively according to any standardized measure," the deans wrote in a letter released Saturday.

In the letter, the deans call on outgoing SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher, the SUNY Board of Trustees and the SUNY Charter Schools Institute to speak out against and reject the proposal, which was floated quietly during the final days of the 2017 legislative session and sent out for public comment on July 6 by the board's charter school committee.

Charter school advocates say the proposal would help schools that are struggling to find New York-certified teachers in a state with one of the most stringent certification processes in the nation.

But the plan drew immediate criticism from the state teachers' unions, which oppose the publicly funded, privately run charter school industry. Even the State Education Department, which partnered with SUNY last year on an initiative to reform and enhance teacher preparation programs, expressed "cause for concern" with the proposal.

The SUNY deans, who oversee the state's teacher preparation programs, say the proposal "flies in the face" of SUNY's recent efforts to transform and enhance teacher preparation in New York.

"It is entirely inappropriate to lower the standards for teachers because charter schools are finding it difficult to hire certified teachers, and is entirely unfair to the students in their charge," the deans wrote. "Creating a cadre of underqualified teachers is misguided, shortsighted and harmful to the state's children as well as to the profession of teaching."

SUNY spokeswoman Holly Liapis said Monday that system leaders have seen the letter from the deans and are taking their views into account as they review the proposal.

"Teacher preparation is a top SUNY priority, and we will ensure that any regulatory changes made are in line with SUNY's own rigorous standards," she said.
ALBANY  When a victim takes the stand to identify the person who committed a crime against them, the jury follows the witness' pointed finger to the defendant, who is already flanked by attorneys and facing a judge.

It's dramatic but not scientific.

A courtroom identification is not the first time a victim or witness has named the suspect for police but it's likely the only ID a jury in New York has seen or heard  until July 1.

Now, the photo array a crime victim or witness was shown in the hours or days after the offense is admissible as evidence during a trial months, even years, later.

"The first identification is most reliable," said Michael Green, the executive deputy commissioner of the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. The new rules streamline how those IDs are made statewide.

"It's ultimately safeguarding the rights of the accused," Green said. "One of the sources of wrongful conviction is misidentification."

The streamlined identification procedures are among several criminal justice reforms passed at the state level this year. The plan will also update the bail system, improve a defendant's access to a speedy trial and competent court-appointed defense attorneys, require that all police interrogations be recorded and raise the age of criminal responsibility to 18.

DCJS has already spent $3.5 million on outfitting police agencies' interrogation rooms with video and audio recording devices. Green said he expects to award $500,000 more in grants by the year's end.

"But what is the cost of a wrongful conviction?" he said. The legislation was drafted by the District Attorneys Association of New York State, the New York State Bar Association and the Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal organization that is committed to exonerating wrongly convicted people and to reforming the criminal justice system.

Police have long used photo arrays to identify suspects. The results of those photo-array interviews were then reviewed by judges, who decided whether the witness could take the stand and point out the defendant, based on the reliability of the police work.

The new state law dictates what the photo array should look like and how officers should act before, during and after the procedure in order to ensure fair and accurate results.

A photo array is made up of six people's mugshots: One depicts the suspect. The other five people were not involved in the crime but their characteristics are similar enough to the suspect's that a correct answer is not visually suggested. The rules also govern what police can say and do.

"I couldn't say, 'That's the guy, isn't it?'" Green said, explaining that could taint the witness's testimony beyond repair. "If a photo array is done properly, then it can be admissible."

Before July 1, New York was the only state in the country that did not allow photo arrays to be admitted into evidence.

"We were keeping them in the dark," Green said. The former Monroe County district attorney recalled countless jurors telling him after trial that they "couldn't figure out how this person got charged."

The new rules, he said, will "give the jury the whole picture."
QUEENSBURY  An Albany man who was arrested Friday during a traffic stop is accused of hiding 21 grams of cocaine and heroin in his rectum, State Police said.

Someone called 911 at about 11:30 a.m. to report an erratic driver on State Route 149. Soon after, a trooper saw the car cross the double yellow line and pulled over 27-year-old Alexander Barkey, State Police spokesman Trooper Mark Cepiel said.
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Albany

When Australian experts wanted to know which terrorist groups pay pirates to capture ships, steal cargo and ransom the crews to provide new revenue for terrorists, they teamed up with two University of Albany professors to find the answers.

Karl Rethemeyer, interim dean of Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy, and political science associate professor Victor Asal are creators of a database named BAAD  Big, Allied and Dangerous. BAAD is packed with in-depth information on hundreds of terrorist groups, their alliances and whether those ties are based on religion, ideology, affection or cold cash. BAAD can also monitor which groups abandon politics to become nothing more than criminal gangs. It can track which terrorists abandon violence to become elected officials. It also assesses which terrorists are likeliest to develop weapons of mass destructionand hit the button.

Rethemeyer and Asal offer BAAD as a tool for journalists and researchers striving to separate political spin and fake news from reality and facts. BAAD's data is harvested from declassified documents, news articles, academic papers and even selected social media threads.

Rethemeyer and Asal met in 2003 as the United States prepared to invade Iraq based on what later proved to be erroneous intelligence reports.

"We were both looking for a project that would help us get tenure so we went to Sovrana's to brainstorm over pizza," Rethemeyer said.

By the time they got to Death in a Cup, the Albany pizzeria and deli's signature chocolate-drizzled custard dessert, they had envisioned a unique project.

Rethemeyer has long been fascinated by how networks function. He earned his master's from the London School of Economics before getting his Ph.D. from Harvard. Asal has master's degrees from both Tufts University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

"We decided to focus on non-state actors who kill civilians intentionally for the purpose of changing a political regime," Asal explained. "The database also includes insurgents who did not kill civilians but have caused at least 25 battle deaths of soldiers or policemen."

The pair immediately drafted teams of students to review all English-language reporting they can find on a region or terrorist group. Linguistic software complements their work by translating documents from Arabic, Mandarin, Russian and other key languages. But "robot linguists" have limits; they don't grasp sarcasm and often stumble over idioms.

While BAAD calculates a set of 30 to 40 terrorist groups want to strike on the U.S., its data also has contradicted several common beliefs held among U.S. officials about terrorism.

Former president George W. Bush's "global war on terrorism", for example, seemed a misnomer since most terrorist groups have no interest in attacking America. And FARC guerrillas devastated Colombia for decades but had no plans to attack America or its embassy.

Then in 2007, the Federal Bureau of Investigation described "environmental terrorism" America's "number one threat." Environmental Liberation Front members occupied four of 11 spots on the FBI's Most Wanted domestic terrorists list. BAAD disagreed.

"To this day, American environmentalist and animal rights groups have never killed anyone, not one human," Rethemeyer said.

Academics, U.S. and foreign government agencies are interested in BAAD's intelligence. Rethemeyer recently spoke to South Korea's National Assembly and Korean intelligence agencies about how North Korea might use terrorists. ("It's a mistake for anyone to dismiss Kim Jong Un as a buffoon or a fool; he is sane and insecure and knows he can trust no one in his government," Rethemeyer said.)

The professors have applied for grants to expand BAAD's scope to include American groups who threaten violence against perceived enemies ranging from gun background check advocates to government workers alleged to be part of the "Deep State," a term conspiracy theorists apply to a stealth insurgency they believe plots against the president.

The men are interested in how even inaccurate rhetoric about terrorism by elected officials and journalists can be used to justify political goals or government spending. And they believe it is crucial for Americans to know that terrorism is not the prosaic danger here that it is in the Middle East or even in Europe. Statistics indicate Americans should feel more secure.

"I tell Americans that statistics show they have a bigger danger of being killed by their toddlers than of being murdered by a terrorist," Rethemeyer said.
A Janesville man was killed Saturday afternoon when his car crossed the center line of a Walworth County highway and hit a semi head-on.

Ryan Phetteplace, 46, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The crash happened at about 3:50 p.m. on Highway 11/14 just west of Highway 89 in the town of Darien, the Sheriff's Office said.

According to the report, Phetteplace was eastbound on Highway 11/14 when he went into the westbound lane and hit a semi head-on.

He was the lone person in the car and was not wearing a seat belt.

The semi driver, Dennis Bennington, 55, of Minnesota, was not injured.

The crash remains under investigation.
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Paris

John Morris, a celebrated American photo editor who brought some of the most iconic photographs of World War II and the Vietnam War to the world's attention, has died at 100.

His longtime friend, Robert Pledge, president and editorial director of the Contact Press Images photo agency, told The Associated Press that Morris died Friday at a hospital in Paris, the city where he had been living for decades.

Among his proudest achievements, Morris edited the historic pictures of the D-Day invasion in Normandy taken by famed war photographer Robert Capa in 1944 for Life magazine. In addition, as picture editor for The New York Times, he helped grant front-page display to two of the most striking pictures of Vietnam War by Associated Press photographers Nick Ut Cong Huynh and Eddie Adams.

During a career spanning more than half a century, Morris played a crucial role in helping to craft a noble role for photojournalism. He also worked for The Washington Post, National Geographic and the renowned Magnum photo agency.

His job as a photo editor included sending photographers to war zones or other reporting sites, advising them on the angles of their photographs, choosing the best shots in the stream of images transmitted and staging the selected images for the news outlets.

Describing himself as a Quaker and a pacifist, Morris was also known for his political commitment, backing the Democratic Party and being an early supporter of Barack Obama. Even at his advanced age, Morris had closely followed the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign and had been "appalled" by the election of Donald Trump, his friend Pledge said.

Morris felt his fierce anti-war convictions did not contradict his work with photographers covering war zones.

"He believed that photography could change things," Pledge said in a phone interview from his New York office. "Morris was convinced that images of horrors, devastations, damage to minds and bodies could prompt a movement of hostility to war in the public and eventually help make the world wiser."

Born in New Jersey in 1916 and raised in Chicago, John Godfrey Morris described himself as a journalist. His first major assignment in 1943, as picture editor for Life magazine in London, made him responsible for getting to the world the 11 famous, grainy black-and-white photos of the Allied invasion taken by Capa on Omaha Beach, June 6, 1944.

In a 2014 interview with The Associated Press for D-Day's 70th anniversary, Morris recalled that Capa sent four rolls of negatives via couriers to his editors in London. But, because of an alleged mistake by a young darkroom assistant, three of the rolls were ruined.

"The first three, there was nothing, just pea soup, but on the fourth there were 11 frames, which had discernible images, so I ordered prints of all of those," he recounted.

For years, Morris blamed himself.

"I used to go around with a sad face saying I am the guy who lost Capa's D-Day coverage. Now I say I am the one who saved it! It was, needless to say, an awkward moment," he told the AP.

Years later during the Vietnam War, as a photo editor for The New York Times, Morris insisted that difficult pictures be published because they showed the horrors of the war.

On at least two memorable occasions, he got disturbing pictures published on the front page of the renowned paper.

The first one, by AP photographer Eddie Adams, showed a Saigon police chief executing a Vietcong prisoner at point-blank range in 1968 during the opening stages of the Tet Offensive. The second one, by AP photographer Nick Ut Cong Huynh, depicted a naked 9-year-old girl and other children fleeing a napalm bombing in 1972. Both photographs won Pulitzer Prizes.

Morris, who was married three times, is survived by his partner, Patricia Trocme, four children and four grandchildren, Pledge said.
BALLSTON SPA - A Troy man who led police on a high-speed chase through Saratoga Springs was sentenced on Monday to nine years in prison.

David W. Sousa, 41, was sentenced in Saratoga County Court by Judge James Murphy after he was convicted on nine crimes: three counts of criminal possession of a weapon, three counts of criminal possession of stolen property, unlawfully fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle, resisting arrest and reckless driving.

Sousa was arrested in the early morning hours of Sept. 8, 2016. He was stopped by State Police when he failed to obey a stop sign. Sousa fled police and led them on a high-speed chase at speeds in excess of 100 mph.

Hearing the pursuit on his patrol unit radio and anticipating Sousa's next moves, Saratoga Springs police Sgt. Mark Leffler deployed "stop sticks" across Union Avenue. The sticks deflated Sousa's tires, causing him to come to a stop. But by the time police caught up with the car, Sousa was gone again. He was found and arrested a short time later on Mitchell Street.

While Sousa was on the run, he tossed a backpack containing stolen property onto the roof of a building. The backpack contained incriminating contents related to a string of car break-ins in Niverville. They included a stolen 9mm Ruger gun and two stolen police badges.

Saratoga County District Attorney Karen Heggen praised the police work that led to Sousa's arrest and conviction.

"The New York State Police and the Saratoga Springs police department worked closely together and ultimately located the evidence that the defendant Sousa discarded on the day of the car chase," she said. "Because of the diligent and continuing efforts of the NYSP and the SSPD, a stolen handgun and stolen law enforcement badges were located. These are items, if not recovered, could have been used in the commission of other crimes."
Moscow

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sunday that the U.S. diplomatic missions in Moscow and elsewhere in the country will have to reduce their staffs by 755 people, signaling a significant escalation in the Russian response to American sanctions over the Kremlin's intervention in the 2016 presidential election.

The United States and Russia have expelled dozens of each other's diplomats before  but Sunday's statement, made by Putin in an interview with the Rossiya-1 television channel, indicated the single largest forced reduction in embassy staff, comparable only to the closing of the American diplomatic presence in the months following the Communist revolution in 1917.

In the interview, Putin said that the number of American diplomatic and technical personnel will be capped at 455  equivalent to the number of their Russian counterparts working in the United States. Currently, close to 1,200 employees work at the United States' embassy and consulates in Russia, according to U.S. and Russian data.

"More than a thousand employees  diplomats and technical employees  have worked and are still working in Russia these days," Putin told journalist Vladimir Solovyov on a nationally televised news show Sunday evening. "Some 755 of them will have to terminate their activity."

Putin's remarks came during a 31/2-day trip by Vice President Pence to Eastern Europe to show U.S. support for countries that have chafed at interference from Moscow  Estonia, Georgia and Montenegro.

"The president has made it very clear that Russia's destabilizing activities, its support for rogue regimes, its activities in Ukraine are unacceptable," Pence said, when asked by reporters in Tallinn, Estonia, whether he expects Trump to sign the sanctions. "The president made very clear that very soon he will sign the sanctions from the Congress of the United States to reinforce that.

"As we make our intentions clear, we expect Russian behavior to change."

On Sunday night, a senior State Department official said, "The Russian government has demanded the U.S. Mission to Russia limit total Mission staffing to 455 employees by September 1. This is a regrettable and uncalled for act. We are assessing the impact of such a limitation and how we will respond to it."

The Kremlin had said Friday, as the Senate voted to strengthen sanctions on Russia, that some American diplomats would be expelled, but the size of the reduction is dramatic. It covers the main embassy in Moscow, as well as missions in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok.

The U.S. Embassy in Russia has been unable to provide exact numbers on the number of staff it employs in Russia. But according to a 2013 review by the State Department, of 1,200 employees of the American Mission in Moscow, 333 were U.S. nationals and 867 were foreign nationals, many of them probably local Russian support staff, including drivers, electricians, accountants and security guards. That would suggest that the majority of the 755 who must be cut would not be expelled from the country.

"This is a landmark moment," Andrei Kolesnikov, a journalist for the newspaper Kommersant who regularly travels with Putin and has interviewed him extensively over the past 17 years, told the Post in an interview Friday. "His patience has seriously run out, and everything that he's been putting off in this conflict, he's now going to do."

The Russian government is also seizing two diplomatic properties  a dacha, or country house, in a leafy neighborhood in Moscow and a warehouse  following the decision by the Obama administration in December to take possession of two Russian mansions in the United States.

The move comes as it has become apparent that Russia has abandoned its hopes for better relations with the United States under the Trump administration.

"I think retaliation is long, long overdue," deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said Sunday on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."

"We have a very rich toolbox at our disposal," Ryabkov said. "After the Senate ... voted so overwhelmingly on a completely weird and unacceptable piece of legislation, it was the last drop."

Hours later, Putin said during his evening interview that he expected relations between the United States and Russia to worsen and that Russia was likely to come up with other measures to counter American financial sanctions, which were passed by the House and Senate last week and which President Trump has said he will sign.

The reduction in U.S. diplomatic and technical staff is a response to President Obama's expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats in December in response to the alleged Russian hacking of the mail servers of the Democratic National Committee. The United States also revoked access to two Russian diplomatic compounds on Maryland's Eastern Shore and on Long Island. American officials said they were used for intelligence collection.

It is not yet clear how the State Department will reduce its staff in Russia. Some of the local staff were hired to help with a significant expansion of the U.S. embassy compound in Moscow.

After the State Department, the next largest agency presence in Moscow in the 2013 review belonged to the Defense Department, which had 26 employees working for the Defense Intelligence Agency (20 of them U.S. nationals) and 10 working for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (of whom nine were U.S. nationals).

The Library of Congress had two U.S. staff and two foreign staff, and NASA had eight U.S. staff and four foreign staff members.

There were 24 Marine security guards.

The move increases the likelihood of new, perhaps asymmetrical reprisals by the United States in coming days.

Michael McFaul, former ambassador to Russia, tweeted Sunday: "If these cuts are real, Russians should expect to wait weeks if not months to get visas to come to U.S."
Albany

"Tis the season to oppose tick-borne disease.

Both of New York's senators traveled upstate last month to voice support for efforts to address Lyme disease and other illnesses spread by deer ticks, including Powassan virus, a rare disease that has infected three Saratoga County residents this year, killing one of them.

Charles Schumer, New York's senior senator, was at Albany Medical Center Monday, letting constituents know he is calling on U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price to speedily implement provisions of the 21st Century Cures Act that would provide federal funding to conduct research and better educate doctors and Americans about tick-borne illness. The law was signed by President Barack Obama in December.

Two weeks ago, New York's junior senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, was in Hudson Falls, vowing to fight for the inclusion of chronic Lyme disease patient advocates on a federal advisory panel that is also mandated by the law. Chronic Lyme disease is a controversial diagnosis that is not recognized by many infectious disease experts.

On Monday, Schumer said federal health agencies have given too little attention to Lyme disease. There are about 8,000 reported cases of Lyme disease in New York each year, with more suspected. The illness, which is caused by bacteria transmitted to people through a tick bite, is primarily seen in counties along the Hudson River, including in the Capital Region.

Schumer said Monday that there were a couple other Powassan virus cases this year in counties outside of Saratoga. But that ended up to be inaccurate information the senator received from Albany Med, according to Jeffrey Gordon, a spokesman for the medical center. Two other patients tested positive for Powassan virus in preliminary screening tests, but through further laboratory investigation were later found not to have the virus, Gordon said.

More Information Keeping ticks away  Make sure shirts are tucked in and also tuck pants into socks to prevent ticks from accessing the skin.

 Wear long-sleeved shirts and pants.

 Wear light-colored clothing that will make it easier to spot and remove ticks.

 Check for ticks every two to three hours while outdoors, and brush off any ticks before they attach.

Bathe or shower as soon as possible after coming indoors.

 Perform a full-body check multiple times during the day to ensure that no ticks are attached.

 If you need to remove a tick, pull the tick straight up with fine-tipped tweezers, as shown in the video at this link. Ignore the advice to use dish soap to remove a tick. Yes, it will irritate the tick. But that might not encourage the tick to back out. Instead, it may salivate heavily and be more likely to infect you. Source: Bryon Backenson, State Department of Health See More Collapse

The illness can be difficult to diagnose. It does not produce a rash like Lyme disease sometimes does, but causes vague symptoms like headache, fever, confusion, nausea and vomiting. The senator said a friend of his, who fell into a coma and was unable to walk or talk for months, was eventually diagnosed with the virus.

Catherine Duncan, public health director for Saratoga County, stressed the importance of getting ticks off your skin after spending time outdoors. While it can take a day or two for a tick to infect a person with Lyme disease, Powassan virus can be transmitted within 15 minutes of a tick attaching to the skin.

On a separate matter, Schumer expressed optimism that Democrats and Republicans in Washington could come together to make changes to the Affordable Care Act, following Republicans' failed attempt to repeal the federal health insurance law known as Obamacare.
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A woman and her two children were walking on a trail in Peebles Island State Park when they were confronted by a recently paroled sex offender.

The man, 42-year-old William Goodman, was convicted in 1992 of sodomizing a child under 11, as well as rape, kidnapping, attempted sodomy and sexual abuse. He was paroled in early June after serving more than two decades in prison.

But on a Thursday afternoon in Waterford, the level-three sex offender was at the public spot where the closest Park Police officer was nearly 17 miles away in Grafton Lakes State Park.

While Waterford police responded to the July 20 incident at Peebles Island  and later charged Goodman with misdemeanor menacing  union officials for state Park Police say understaffing has been an issue for several years, and they fear it could lead to more severe incidents.

The Police Benevolent Association of New York State Law Enforcement is calling on the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation to address these concerns as well as the systemic issues affecting state park safety, according to a letter penned by Daniel De Federicis, executive director and counsel, to parks Commissioner Rose Harvey.

The incident at Peebles Island, which could have been much worse for the victims based on the felons past criminal acts, is just another example of the potential dangers the public and our officers can face at state parks, De Federicis wrote.

On the same day of the incident at Peebles Island, there were no officers at Thacher State Park and only one officer at Grafton Lakes. At Saratoga Spa State Park, there were four officers.

There are 250 officers staffed to cover 180 parks and 35 historic sites across New York State, some spanning thousands of acres. Sometimes events, or concerts, at venues like Saratoga Performing Arts Center  located in Saratoga Spa  call for additional resources, pulling officers from other sites, leaving them unmanned.

De Federicis said the union would like to see officers at all park locations as well as the state to consider long-term solutions to issues of retention.

One officer covering hundreds of acres also doesnt adequately address public safety, and possibly leads to employees jumping ship, he said.

Theres a certain demoralization when the agency doesnt recognize the need for adequate police protection, De Federicis said. The safety and security of the patrons and citizens you serve should come first and foremost.

Although local law enforcement can respond, state parks are under the jurisdiction of Park Police and the expectation is they should be somewhat self-sufficient, De Federicis said.

The victims could be further endangered by the lack of Park Police coverage and the potential lengthy delayed response of state troopers or the sheriffs deputy, who could be backed up in calls and/or a significant distance away, De Federicis said.

Saratoga Springs police work in tandem with park police when it comes to coverage at SPAC, and Lt. Bob Jillson described the department as solid.

Theyre a very self-sufficient police department, he said. If they need us, they know were a resource. Over the winter and during the spring, we start talking to them about response plans for summer concert events.

However, not all parks have been treated equally. Albany Sheriff Craig Apple said hes watched the slow decline in park police staffing at Thatcher for several years and plans accordingly.

I dont count on them, he said. We do our scheduling in the summertime assuming theyre not around. If they are around its a luxury and hopefully a quick response time.

Sheriffs deputies also wind up responsible for calls from Thompsons Lake Campground, which are typically intoxicated people, Apple said. At Thacher, its rescues, which calls for appropriately trained personnel, he said.

We do have a skilled search and rescue team, but its almost like the rest of the county has to bear the burden for Thacher Park, Apple said. Would I like to see more (park police) staffing? Absolutely.

afries@timesunion.com - 518-454-5353 - @mandy_fries
Madison Police Chief Mike Koval said he will begin publicly posting daily recaps of overnight police calls on his blog Monday, as he tries to sound a broader community alarm on crime.

Koval said he has been writing recaps each morning for about three months and sending the reports to City Council members and Mayor Paul Soglin, but will begin posting them for the public Monday at noon.

The reports contain details of what Koval considers the most significant crimes each night between the hours of 5 p.m. and 5 a.m.

Ill use my blog as basically a daily, overnight log, to give my community a sense of what are the dynamics, what are the complexities, what are the labor-intensive kind of calls that our police department responds to every night, Koval said.

Koval began writing the daily reports, what he calls snapshots, of overnight crime, after a press conference in April 28 where his response to a reporters question landed him in hot water with Mayor Paul Soglin.

There was a crime wave, and (police spokesman) Joel (DeSpain) thought it would be best that  because he was getting blitzkrieged  we really ought to do a press conference on these six significant crimes that took place over a brief period of time of eight hours, Koval said. We were on priority calls all night because we couldnt keep up with the capacity issues.

At the press conference, a reporter asked Koval if the number of crimes that night was evidence of a need for more police officers. Soglin saw Kovals affirmative answer as a way of campaigning for public funds outside the usual budget process.

Since then, Koval said he has written a snapshot of the overnight reports everyday, including weekends, to send to elected city officials.

Im trying to educate them  this was not a circus, theatrical moment where Im posturing to try to get bodies, Koval said of his comment at the press conference. This was attempting to sound a moment of alarm to our community, and I can prove it because Ill send you every nights overnights.

The police department responds to more than 400 calls on some nights, not including parking violations or accidental 911 dials, he said.

Koval said the snapshots will not include details of each call, but rather an overview of what he said represent the most significant crimes and the prevailing trends in Madison. These include any violent crimes as well as drug overdoses and mental health calls.

I want to paint the picture of how that takes hours when done properly, Koval said.

The police departments annual report for 2016 showed a 4.2 percent decrease in overall crime in Madison compared to 2015  due to large drops in reported burglaries, fraud and drug charges  although forcible sex offenses and stolen vehicles saw increases.

Homicide rates also rose last year with eight in 2016, compared to six in 2015. There have been nine homicides in Madison so far in 2017, which is the highest number since 10 people were murdered in 2008.

Police do not have detailed records of confirmed incidents of shots fired in 2015, but between January and July this year and the same period last year, there has been a 63 percent increase.
Inland Fisheries Ireland has issued an appeal to farmers in Tipperary to remain vigilant during the summer months when harvesting silage and spreading slurry to avoid water pollution and the loss of nutrients to water.

There were 31 fish kills across the country last year, with eight of those directly attributable to agricultural activities. None were in Tipperary.

Fish killed in these incidents included brown trout, Atlantic salmon, eel, stone loach and stickleback.

As agriculture was the largest identifiable and avoidable attributing factor to fish kills, farmers in Tipperary are reminded of the importance of managing their silage operations correctly.

Silage operations are ongoing all summer and silage effluent has the potential to cause devastating pollution in streams and rivers.

Silage effluent is a significant polluting substance, starving fish and invertebrate life of oxygen, resulting in potentially massive fish kills if it enters a watercourse.

With some rivers low during summertime with little dilution capacity, the effect of a small leak can cause huge damage.

In addition to the agricultural related kills, two fish kills were as a result of municipal works and one by industrial works.

In four instances, the exact cause of the fish kill was difficult to ascertain while 16 incidents of fish kills were as a result of disease and natural causes.

"Inland Fisheries Ireland is grateful to the farming community for their continued consideration and vigilance. Good farmyard management can help to prevent accidental runs of polluting substances and protect the local environment. This will have a significant and lasting positive impact on valuable wild fish populations in an area," said Dr Greg Forde, head of operations at Inland Fisheries Ireland.

Inland Fisheries Ireland is advising farmers in Tipperary to follow its simple six-point plan to ensure good farmyard management and reduce their risk of polluting:

- Use round bales as the most environmentally friendly way to store silage



- If a silage pit is being used, ensure it is properly sealed to prevent leakage from under the slab



- Carry out slurry spreading in dry weather and never when heavy rain is forecast



- Never spread slurry close to a watercourse, be aware of the slope of land to the watercourse



- Do not clean tanks beside any watercourse, stream or a river



- Do not allow any effluent or washings to enter any rainwater gully.
An eight year old boy from Tipperary has died in a tragic boating accident in Boston.

Harry O'Connor from Clonmel was travelling with his family on a 23-foot Four Winns Bowrider when the vessel capsized near Hog Island channel near Massachusetts on Wednesday last.

The boy was rescued from the water by professional diver Michael Margulis and later taken by helicopter to Boston Children's Hospital.

On Sunday it was reported that the youngster had tragically lost his fight for life.

Harry was with his family on the Bowrider when it capsized, throwing all 12 passengers aboard into the water. The Coast Guard and Buzzard's Bay Task Force rushed to the scene to help the passengers however Harry became trapped under the boat for over 20 mins before he was rescued by diver Michael Margulis who spotted the boys lifejacket.

Harry lived in Sudbury, Boston with his parents Paudie O'Connor and Laura Lenehan and siblings Ellen, Charlie and Joe. The family are from Poulnaganogue, Clonmel and Harry had previously attended Gaelscoil Cluain Meala and Montessori class at Clonmel Childcare.

In Boston Harry attended Nixon Elementary School where he was in the third grade.

Nixon Elementary School superintendent Anne Wilson expressed condolences in a district wide e-mail on Sunday afternoon writing that Nothing compares to the grief and sadness of losing a child.

It is with sadness and a heavy heart that I share with you the untimely death of Harry OConnor, third-grader at Nixon Elementary.

While the family is the most impacted, many others share in the profound sadness of this tragic event, she added.

Harry is survived by his parents Paudie O'Connor, Laura Lenehan, siblings Ellen, Charlie, grandparents Pat and Marie, Margaret and the late Johnny, aunts, uncles, his cousins and a large circle of friends and neighbours.

Reposing at the home of John and Barbara Lenehan, Downstown, Duleek, Co. Meath on Wednesday afternoon from 3 o'clock to 8 o'clock. Removal on Thursday morning to St. Cianan's Church for Requiem Mass on arrival at 11 o'clock and thereafter to Holy Cross Cemetery. No flowers please. Donations, if desired, to Crumlin Childrens Hospital.
A Tipperary bride says she is overwhelmed by the generosity and support she has received from the public who have stepped in to save her big day after a wedding company failed to pay out a 10,000 prize.

Carol Fleming and her partner Dermot Molloy from Drangan won a 10,000 prize to pay for their wedding from Dublin based company Winourwedding.ie in March 2016.

However less than a month before Carol and her partner Dermot Molloy were to walk down the aisle, Ms Fleming received an email from the owner of the website to say they were unable to pay the balance of more than 7,000 due to cashflow problems.

We werent going to go ahead with the wedding last week. For the last 15 months its been nothing but stress. We had small deposits paid for but the remainder of the balance had to be paid out. We didnt have the money ourselves so we were going to cancel the wedding, Ms Fleming told the Tipperary Star.

Last Tuesday Ms Fleming posted a message to her Facebook page warning other bride and grooms who entered the competition about her experience when she was inundated with offers from suppliers, photographers, florists, bands and boutiques to provide their services free of charge to help make August 17 the day of her dreams.

I still cant believe it. I put that message out as a warning to others who might have entered but never for a second did I expect anyone to offer to help with the wedding.

Ive received hundreds of Facebook messages from people offering everything from unity candles to dresses, table plans and wedding favours. Im still trying to reply to people to say thank you.

The Help Im getting married page on Facebook have been fantastic. They stepped in to help and liaise with suppliers and I cant thank them enough. I had one lady message me from The Cakery in Cavan saying she wanted to make the cake and when I told her Im in Tipperary she said no problem shed drop it down.

Its just unbelievable how generous everyone has been.

Receptions Bridal in Clonmel, Tony Connolly Menswear Clonmel, The Fairy Godmother, Mark Kennedy Photography from Ballingarry, the band Panic Animals and Janes Flower Cabin are just some of the many businesses who have stepped in to offer their services to Carol and Dermot for free on August 17.

The childhood sweethearts, who got engaged over two years ago, had previously decided to postpone getting married after their son Danny was born with a rare heart condition which left him on life support for seven months.

However when Ms Flemings sister spotted the competition to pay 10,000 towards a wedding she decided to nominate the Tipperary couple to give them the day of their dreams.

The vote based competition saw Ms Fleming and her partner earn more than 24,000 votes, at a cost of 1.25 per vote, as friends and members of the public rallied together to treat the family.

With less than a month to her wedding Ms Fleming received an email from Elaine Whitney, owner of winourwedding.ie, to say she would not be able to pay out the remainder of the balance leaving the couple more than 7,000 short.

I was just shocked when I saw the email. She was paying off small amounts for the cake and things so I thought she would make the payments closer to the date, explains Ms Fleming who said she repeatedly gave Ms Whitney the benefit of the doubt.

I had asked before if there were any problems and I was told everything was fine. I know a couple who had won the same prize on the Win Our Wedding website before so I felt it was legitimate. My son has been ill so my main focus is on him. If she contacted me 12 months ago to say she couldnt afford to pay out I would have been relieved as I was sick of going over and back between suppliers who werent getting paid, she added.

The next few weeks will be very busy but I want to thank everyone who helped us along the way. The kindness and generosity has been something else and neither myself, Dermot or Danny will ever forget everyones support.

In a statement to the Irish Examiner owner of winourwedding.ie, Elaine Whitney, explained she had no option but to close the company due to cashflow problems.

The Dublin based company, which started in 2013, ran competitions offering weddings worth 20,000.

However Ms Whitney said that the company fell into debt but that she continued running competitions to try to make money to pay for the prizes. Each vote in the competition cost 1.25 however it was also possible to purchase multiple votes in bundles for 2.50 and 5.

There are two things Im guilty of, one is not closing the company in 2016 and the other is letting couples down. I am absolutely heartbroken, Ms Whitney said
[July 31, 2017] Equifax to Meet with Investors in Newport, R.I., New York, and Boston

ATLANTA, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX) today announced that Jeff Dodge and Doug Brandberg, Equifax Investor Relations will meet with investors at the Wells Fargo Technology Services Forum on Tuesday, August 8th in Newport, R.I. Dodge and Brandberg will also meet with investors in New York on Wednesday, August 9th and in Boston on Thursday, August 10th. Dodge and Brandberg will discuss the company's second quarter 2017 performance as well as the strategic outlook for 2017. An archive of the presentation will be available at investor.equifax.com. About Equifax

Equifax is a global information solutions company that uses trusted unique data, innovative analytics, technolog and industry expertise to power organizations and individuals around the world by transforming knowledge into insights that help make more informed business and personal decisions. The company organizes, assimilates and analyzes data on more than 820 million consumers and more than 91 million businesses worldwide, and its database includes employee data contributed from more than 7,100 employers.



Headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., Equifax operates or has investments in 24 countries in North America, Central and South America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region. It is a member of Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 Index, and its common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol EFX. Equifax employs approximately 9,900 employees worldwide. Some noteworthy achievements for the company include: Named to the Top 100 American Banker FinTech Forward list (2015-2016); named a Top Technology Provider on the FinTech 100 list (2004-2016); named an InformationWeek Elite 100 Winner (2014-2015); named a Top Workplace by Atlanta Journal Constitution (2013-2017); named one of Fortune's World's Most Admired Companies (2011-2015); named one of Forbes' World's 100 Most Innovative Companies (2015-2016). For more information, visit www.equifax.com.

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[email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/equifax-to-meet-with-investors-in-newport-ri-new-york-and-boston-300496298.html SOURCE Equifax Inc.

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[July 30, 2017] Veteran Property Agent and Analyst Joins HugProperty As Co-Founder

SINGAPORE, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Singapore-based start-up HugProperty, a property platform which provides property buyers and sellers with unbiased, expert-guided information, is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Ku Swee Yong, Chief Executive Officer of International Property Advisor, as a co-founder. The move is part of HugProperty's strategic plans to provide customers with expert insights focusing on a credible and factual analysis of properties. HugProperty aims to eliminate unnecessary delays to property transactions by providing unbiased information amidst the myriad of misleading information present in today's market. As a successful property agent and analyst, Mr. Ku is recognized as a locally acclaimed thought-leader in the industry. With a deep and extensive understanding of Singapore's property scene, Mr. Ku is especially well versed in the core central region, namely property districts 9, 10 and 11. In his new role, Mr. Ku will be able to advise HugProperty users on their property purchase. Renowned for his proven track record and expertise on issues affecting the property market, Mr. Ku often speaks u against the typical 'sales talk' and is fiercely protective of his clients from making ill-advised property purchasing decisions.



Incoming co-founder of HugProperty, Mr. Ku Swee Yong commented, "I have seen how local property buyers and sellers are often exposed to incorrect and biased information. With a shared vision of providing accurate and factual consultations, I decided to join HugProperty as a co-founder to take the platform to even greater heights." Co-founder of HugProperty, Dr. Andy Teoh added, "We are very fortunate to have Mr. Ku on board. With his years of valuable on-the-ground experience and proven capability in property analytics, we believe that our customers can benefit from Mr. Ku's expertise. Our aim is to model the thought process of good quality property advisors onto our AI-platform to make their knowledge more accessible to HugProperty's clients."

His Royal Highness Prince Abdul Qawi of Brunei Darussalam, HugProperty's lead investor, expressed, "I have always found Mr. Ku's advice to be factual, unbiased and relevant. He once asked me to hold back on an intended property purchase, even though his firm would have earned significant fees. Mr. Ku's integrity in his property recommendations and willingness to protect his clients is admirable. I am glad he has joined HugProperty." About HugProperty HugProperty is a web-based property platform, which provides potential buyers and sellers with expert knowledge and insights, that are necessary to make informed decisions. Originally started by three co-founders, Mr. Winston Lam, Dr. Andy Teoh and Mr. Jeffery Sung in July 2016, the HugProperty team now consists of industry experts such as veteran property agent and property analyst, Mr. Ku Swee Yong and renowned mortgage expert, Ms. Ally Yang. Through data analysis conducted by the experts, HugProperty can help make property buying and selling, an intelligent and hassle-free experience. For more information, please contact: Keith Jonathan / Nadia Chan

PR Communications Pte Ltd

Telephone: +65 6227 2135

Email: [email protected] / [email protected] Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20170728/1909099-1 SOURCE HugProperty

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[July 31, 2017] Robin Li, Baidu and NRN Murthy, Infosys Should Lead BRICS Artificial Intelligence Cooperation - Notes Prasoon Sharma, Fellow at India Global

NEW DELHI, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- In March 2015, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang unveiled the China Internet Plus (CIP) plan, 'to integrate mobile Internet, cloud computing big data, and the Internet of Things with modern manufacturing, to encourage the healthy development of e-commerce, industrial networks, and Internet banking, and to get Internet-based companies to increase their presence in the international market.' (China Daily). With annual ICT investment worth 2.7 trillion yuan (US$415 billion) and 731 million Internet users, China is looking to re-boost its economy through Internet Plus. In July 2015, Indian Prime Minister, Shri. Narendra Modi launched Digital India Program (DIP) to transform India into a digitally-empowered society and knowledge economy. For DIP, India will spend 1.13 trillion INR in the next three-five years to provide Internet connections to all citizens. The plan is likely to create over 17 million direct and 85 million indirect jobs. During the 4th India-China Strategic Economic Dialogue held in Delhi, India on October 7th, 2016, an action plan on 'Digital India' and 'Internet Plus' between the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology of India and National Development and Reform Commission of China was agreed. In January 2017, Infosys presented a report at the World Economic Forum on Artificial Intelligence (AI). This report revealed a surprising fact that China-India's companies' AI maturity score is much higher than of US companies. In March 2017 at the opening of the National People's Congress, the annual meeting of China's legislature, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang announced another historic step by showing strong determination to support Artificial Intelligence's future growth. In same meeting, Robin Li, Founder of Chinese search engine Baidu Inc., made proposals for regulators to consider using Artificial Intelligence to crack down on human trafficking and to reduce traffic jams in cities. According to a study done by IIT, Madras, Traffic congestion on Delhi roads costs around $10 billion annually. Thus, cooperation between India-China on AI will be win-win situation for both countries. However in terms of resources like infrastructure, research and talent pool, China is much ahead of any other BRICS countries in the AI domain. As shown below, China is next to U.S. in terms of total AI companes and total number of patents filed in AI domain.



As per a report published jointly by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) and consulting firm PwC, AI can be applied to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiatives such as the 'Digital India' initiative, 'Skill India' and 'Make in India'; in large-scale public endeavours ranging from crop insurance schemes, tax fraud detection, and detecting subsidy leakage. For example, Farmer (Kisan) Call Centres can respond to issues raised by farmers instantly and in their local language. An AI system can assist this call centre by linking soil reports from government agencies to the environmental conditions prevalent over the years using data from a remote sensing satellite. The call centre could, then, provide advice on the optimal crop that can be sown in that land pocket. This information could also be used to determine the crop's susceptibility to pests.

Thus, China-India and especially BI (Baidu - Infosys) should work together to induce AI in BRICS. If implemented successfully and in synergy, this cooperation can improve life of almost 40% of the world's population and mostly the population of BRICS nations and can boost the world economy by reenergising two of the world's fastest growing economies i.e. India and China. For long, BRICS countries have been considered the beacon of hope for the global economy. Owing to an increased mining of raw materials and the outsourcing of numerous Western branches of industry to low-labour-cost countries, investors expect long-term yields. But, Brazil and Russia are becoming less attractive as demand for raw materials is currently very low. With AI, the technical development of production robots, many companies producing in low-labour-cost countries will relocate their production sector to the countries where they originally came from. Thus during BRICS summit 2017, AI skill development centre and AI Task force should be announced to prepare the future blueprint of AI cooperation framework. As China and India already have national policies named China Internet plus and Digital India, companies like Baidu and Infosys and the student population with good mathematics background are to promote and support AI and lead this drive to promote AI growth in BRICS countries. This drive can be named as iBRICS - Intelligent BRICS which resembles BRICS countries with strong AI capabilities. - Prasoon Sharma,



Author is a Fellow at India Global

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn link of Prasoon Sharma: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prasoon-sharma-a156633/ A Brief About Prasoon Sharma: Prasoon Sharma, the Author is a Fellow at India Global [Think tank formed by US and UK-based Indians] and Visiting Research Fellow at Qianhai Institute of Innovative Research (QIIR), Shenzhen [Ranked among top 35 Global New think Tank in 2016 by University of Pennsylvania]. Prasoon Sharma, an alumnus of the prestigious King's College London with an award of merit, has created projects worth 450 million USD approximately in last three years in the Indian Smart City and e-governance domain. He initiated a new era of cooperation between India-China during Indian Prime Minister - Shri. Narendra Modi's May 2015 China visit by signing an MoU for Developing Smart cities in Gujarat in presence of the then Gujarat Chief Minister - Smt. Anandiben. He pioneered to setup Indo-China joint Incubation Centre. This centre will have offices in Andhra Pradesh and Shenzhen to connect entrepreneurs and start-up resources from India and China. Prasoon was invited to be part of the Gujarat Government delegation to China to promote trade and bilateral relationships. He was also invited to be part of the Vibrant Gujarat, 2017 organising committee. Vibrant Gujarat is the name given to a biennial investors' summit held by the Government of Gujarat in Gujarat, India. Indian Prime Minister - Shri. Modi started this event in 2003, when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. Prasoon got a letter of appreciation from the Gujarat Government for facilitating $ 5 Billion worth of investment during Vibrant Gujarat, 2017. Prasoon has been appointed as an authorised representative of Shenzhen Govt. for Indian Smart City initiatives. He was invited to be a part of the Chinese delegation for BRICS forum on Urbanisation led by Mr. Ni Hong, Vice Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, China and Mr. Li Tie Chairman, CCUD, China. Media Contact:

Rabindra Kumar Jha

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[July 31, 2017] Business will take the lead in 2017 China-Arab States Expo

YINCHUAN, China, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- 2017 China-Arab States Expo will be held in Ningxia of China from September 6-9th this year. Business communities will be the key role in organizing the Expo. The Seventh China-Arab Businessmen Conference in the framework of China-Arab Cooperation Forum will be held along with the Expo. About 600 representatives from China, Arab countries and other countries along the "One Belt and One Road" is estimated to participate in the conference for topics of co-building "One Belt and One Road" and infrastructure construction, scientific and technological innovation and optimization of trade structure. Council Meeting of China-Arab Joint Chamber of Commerce and China-Arab Cooperation Workshop for Business legal service and promotion will also be organized to help creating more business friendly environment. The China-Arab Businessmen Conference is an important mechanism for dialogues and initiatives among the China and Arab business communities to further promote economic and trade cooperation under the framework of China-Arab Cooperation Forum. It has been successfully held for six sessions alternatively in China and one Arab country every two years."Tis year, we are organizing along with the China-Arab States Expo for the benefits of the two events to help the business community of the two side taking the leading role in the platform to fully explore opportunities and discuss cooperation between China and Arab countries", according to Wang Jinzhen, Vice Chairman of China Council for the Promotion and International Trade.



The importance of China-Arab States Expo has been largely recognized by business circles of China and Arab world. In the last sessions, the number of participants in the Expo exceeded the estimate of the organizers. 2017 China-Arab States Expo will be more focused on attracting enterprises to meetings and exhibitions for cooperation in the fields of commodity and service trade, high-tech and innovation, industrial investment cooperation and tourism. Series of specialized activities are to be organized, including China-Arab Agricultural Cooperation & Modern Agriculture Exhibition, China-Arab Technology Transfer and Innovation Cooperation Forum & High-tech and Equipment Exhibition and China-Arab Logistics Cooperation forum. China-Arab States Expo has become an important platform for co-construction of "One Belt and One Road". Qian Keming, Vice Minister of Chinese Ministry of Commerce pointed out that 12 state leaders of China and foreign countries, 143 Chinese and foreign ministerial officers, 60 foreign ambassadors to China, 80 countries, regions and international institutes, 139 chambers of commerce, 2200 representatives from large and medium enterprises and 18000 exhibitors and purchasers have participated in the past China-Arab States Expo. 321 agreements have been signed in these two sessions, where the contract value is accumulatively RMB 132.87 billion for cooperation projects in the fields of science and technology, finance, energy, agriculture, healthcare, tourism and education.

Online registration has already opened for participating in 2017 China-Arab States Expo at the official website of China-Arab States Expo (http://www.casetf.org/). The organizer is making all effort to bring more business cooperation between China and Arab countries. SOURCE China-Arab States Expo

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[July 31, 2017] SteelEye Joins UnaVista's Partner Programme to Provide Financial Firms With an Integrated and Comprehensive MiFID II Solution

LONDON, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The partnership will provide financial firms with an unrivalled end-to-end solution to help meet their obligations for Record Keeping, Trade Reconstruction, Best Execution and Transaction Reporting Significant market opportunity as MiFID II deadline looms and firms' regulatory burdens continue to increase SteelEye, the compliance technology and data analytics firm, today announces that it has joined UnaVista's Partner Programme. The partnership agreement with the London Stock Exchange Group's (LSEG) UnaVista is an opportunity for the two businesses to provide a cohesive, end-to-end technology-based solution to help firms meet their regulatory obligations under MiFID II and other key regulatory directives. (Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/530173/SteelEye_Logo.jpg )

(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/540210/London_Stock_Exchange_Logo.jpg )

UnaVista is the industry leading regulatory reporting and data integrity platform that offers a range of business services designed to help firms optimise efficiency and minimise operational and regulatory risk across all asset classes. With 50,000 established platform users, it processes in excess of five billion transactions annually. SteelEye and UnaVista's combined expertise and services will provide firms with a comprehensive, market-leading, technology-based solution to meet the increasing regulatory demands they face. The regulatory data and reporting burdens imposed upon firms by regulations such as Dodd Frank, EMIR, AIMFD, and the upcoming MiFIR and MiFID II, translate into unprecedented requirements for data storage and transaction reporting with potentially significant penalties for non-compliance. SteelEye's CEO, Matt Smith, explains, "financial firms in Europe and around the globeare having to report vast quantities of data to the various regulators. Together, SteelEye and UnaVista will not only provide a straight forward integrated reporting capability, but our clients will also meet their record keeping, trade reconstruction, and best execution obligations through one centralised solution." Matt continues, "the cumulative requirements to store data imposed by the various regulatory regimes represent a considerable opportunity for businesses and the SteelEye platform will help clients leverage its potential for improved business insight."



UnaVista is an Approved Reporting Mechanism (ARM), which firms can use to fulfil their transaction reporting obligation across all asset classes to any relevant National Competent Authority (NCA) within the EEA. MiFID II not only significantly broadens the terms of what a firm must report on, it also requires more data points, increasing reportable attributes from 24 fields in MiFID I to 65. UnaVista's Global Head of Partnerships, Wendy Collins, comments, "with so many varied requirements confronting investment firms covered under MiFID II, we are excited to be partnering with SteelEye to help firms optimise their MiFIR transaction reporting and utilise their transaction reporting data in meaningful ways, whilst fulfilling other MiFID II related obligations such as record keeping and best execution."

Of the more than 9,000 firms registered with the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), many find themselves ill-prepared to meet the MiFID II directive's new obligations for the recording and reporting of data. The 7,000+ small to mid-sized firms located across Europe will be hardest hit by the changes. No longer able to rely on larger institutions to handle their record keeping and reporting obligations, these firms will now be held accountable for their own regulatory conformity, including the recording and storage of voice data. Increasingly unable to handle the growing burden themselves, businesses are progressively turning to external platforms to meet these regulatory demands. To learn more, please visit: https://www.steel-eye.com. Notes to Editors About SteelEye SteelEye is the only regulatory compliance technology and data analytics firm that offers transaction reporting, record keeping, and data insight in one comprehensive solution. The firm's scalable secure data storage platform offers encryption at rest and in flight and best-in-class analytics to help financial firms meet regulatory obligations and gain additional insights into their business activities, helping them to trade with greater efficiency and profitability. With a fully open API framework, SteelEye enables clients to visualise, interpret and store consolidated data in flexible ways that suit their needs. SteelEye is headquartered in London, UK. For more information, visit: https://www.steel-eye.com. About UnaVista UnaVista is LSEG's hosted technology platform, helping firms reduce operational and regulatory risk. The platform assists over 5,000 counterparties reporting in excess of 5 billion transactions annually with 60,000 users in 86 countries. UnaVista's Partner Programme brings together the world's leading financial services technology and consultancy firms to help the markets become more efficient and reduce operational and regulatory risk. Located in more than 200 cities around the world, UnaVista's partner ecosystem provides clients with a wide variety of options to comply with regulations across the globe such as MiFID II, Global Derivative Reporting, CAT, MAR and many more. http://www.lseg.com/unavista For further information please contact:

Morgan Rossiter

Richard Evans/Kathleen Edmondson/Rosie Ward

[email protected]

+44(0)203-195-3240

Richard Evans mobile: +44-7751-087291

Kathleen Edmondson mobile: +44-7507-903457

Rosie Ward mobile: +44-7426-655669





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[July 31, 2017] Serendipity Labs Coworking Debuts in DFW at KPMG Plaza at HALL Arts

DALLAS, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Serendipity Labs Coworking announced today that it will be opening its first location in the Dallas Metroplex this November at KPMG Plaza at HALL Arts in the Dallas Arts District. Renowned entrepreneur Craig Hall, the founder and chairman of HALL Group, has also invested in the fast growing coworking company which has attracted over $125 million of capital for development of its network (more than $100 million is from area franchisees and over $24 million is in direct corporate funding). "Serendipity Labs offers an upscale coworking experience and the stature and location of HALL Arts make it an ideal location for us," says John Arenas, founder and CEO of Serendipity Labs. "I am also thrilled to welcome Craig Hall and HALL Group as an investor. His vision and entrepreneurial spirit will be invaluable as we grow our network throughout the U.S. and internationally." The Serendipity Labs at KPMG Plaza at HALL Arts will feature a 29,000-square-foot workplace on the building's 17th floor and lobby level. KPMG Plaza at HALL Arts is located within the HALL Arts development in the center of the Dallas Arts District and is home to several world-class businesses, including KPMG, Jackson Walker, Teknion, UMB Bank, Spencer Stuart, Sedgwick and HALL Group. This lease brings KPMG Plaza at HALL Arts to approximately 85% leased. "We believe that the future of the workplace includes coworking as a new way for businesses to spur innovation, support increasing worker mobility and recruit top talent," says Craig Hall, founder and chairman of HALL Group. "The Serendipity Labs strategy to deliver coworking blended with hospitality aligns with our philosophy of providing inspiring places to work and live, and we are thrilled to welcome them to HALL Arts." Each Serendipity Labs offers coworking memberships as well as dedicated offices and project team rooms, while local staff will curate an ongoing series of cultural events, talks and art shows, and regularly host professionaland industry-specific networking events. The HALL Arts Event Terrace adjacent to the Texas Sculpture Walk provides the Dallas Lab with a great venue for corporate events, receptions and planning retreats, and HALL Arts' future hotel development and three on-site restaurants  Stephan Pyles Flora Street Cafe, Asian-fusion concept Musume and The Artisan  will provide additional amenities for members.



The Serendipity Labs Dallas HALL Arts will be operated by Serendipity Labs' exclusive area franchisee, Worth Coworking, LLC. According to Worth President, Doug Denman, the company also plans to develop additional Serendipity Labs in the DFW Metroplex. "Worth Coworking is excited to deliver a network of business-class Serendipity Labs workplaces into the DFW market over the next few years. Serendipity Labs Dallas HALL Arts will anchor our DFW network, delivering value to our members, investors and entrepreneurial landlords," he concludes. About Serendipity Labs

Established in 2011 by industry leader John Arenas, Serendipity Labs, Inc., delivers coworking as an upscale hospitality brand that addresses the needs of mobile professionals, independent workers and project teams. It offers workplace memberships that include day passes, part-time and full-time coworking, dedicated private offices or team rooms for up to 20. Corporate membership, with central billing and reporting is available. The proprietary cloud-based IT platform is enterprise class and meets Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA standards. Serendipity Labs is growing through owned, managed and franchised locations in office buildings, high-rise residential projects, hotels and retail properties, with over 100 locations currently under development. For more information visit serendipitylabs.com.

About HALL Group

Founded in 1968, Dallas-based HALL Group is owned by founder and chairman Craig Hall and family. The diversified company is made up of several subsidiary brands, including: HALL Park, the 16-building, 162-acre office park in Frisco, Texas; HALL Arts, the three-phase, five-acre, mixed-use development in the Dallas Arts District; HALL Structured Finance, the entrepreneurial, value-add direct private lender to the real estate industry; HALL Collection, an immense collection of local and international art pieces located throughout HALL Group's properties; HALL Wines, located in St. Helena and Rutherford, producing highly-rated Bordeaux varietals; WALT Wines, Napa Valley producer of handcrafted Pinot Noir and Chardonnay varietals; and SENZA hotel, a Napa Valley boutique hotel and luxury resort. For more information, visit hallgroup.com . About Worth Coworking

The Worth Coworking team is experienced in the hospitality industry having successfully developed projects under multiple hospitality brands including Marriott, IHG and Serendipity Labs Coworking. Our project development experience includes ownership, construction, and management of hotels, coworking facilities, conference centers and event spaces. Worth is the exclusive Serendipity Labs franchisee for the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and is actively engaged in analyzing additional markets in Texas and beyond. Doug Denman, President, Worth Coworking, LLC., is a board member of Serendipity Labs, Inc. For more information visit worthhospitality.com/worth-coworking. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/serendipity-labs-coworking-debuts-in-dfw-at-kpmg-plaza-at-hall-arts-300496274.html SOURCE Serendipity Labs Coworking

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In a divided nation, this president took office amid controversy. Many Democrats believed his victory was illegitimate. And what exactly were his qualifications?

Obviously, were referring to President George W. Bush, who won the 2000 election only after the U.S. Supreme Court validated his 537-vote Florida victory. Yet Bushs first six months in the White House went smoothly, professionally. In June 2001 he delivered on a promise to cut taxes.

Dont spit out your coffee here, but Congress passed that legislation with broad bipartisan support. ...

What weve seen so far is a calm and careful administration, one that has established itself in the mainstream of conservative orthodoxy, one that, to its credit, understands that campaign promises should be kept, the Chicago Tribune editorial board wrote in late April 2001. That will annoy some people who cling to the notion that this is an illegitimate presidency run by a hapless man. But for the great majority of Americans, it should give confidence that the White House is in capable hands.

Looking back to Bush reminds us of what the American people should demand of the incumbent president: Do your job and deliver results. While everything would change for Bushs presidency on 9/11, he overcame odds early in his tenure to govern effectively. That Donald Trump has failed, abjectly, to move the country forward is not a matter of political circumstances beyond his control. The disarray in the White House is all on Trump. And it must end  now.

What is Trumps record so far? Beyond seating Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and a welcome shift of regulatory policies to encourage economic growth, weve seen mostly disappointment, stasis and reason for concern. The investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election would have remained in the background if only the president had self-control. Instead, Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, which led to the naming of a special counsel and the amping up of an investigation that has sucked the oxygen out of Washington. Still the president wont shut up, picking on Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself. Might Trump fire Sessions, too, to get at the special counsel?

No one in the White House is capable of restraining Trump or coaxing him to focus on the details that matter. The president uses Twitter as an insult machine. He attacks foes and gloats about his accomplishments at nonpolitical events. In case you missed it, the head of the Boy Scouts apologized to families for Trumps tacky political comments at a Scout jamboree....

Obsessing on the presidents crass behavior often strikes us as a waste of energy. Yes, he can be vulgar and impetuous. That was clear before the election, which he won. While we rejected his candidacy, tens of millions of voters were drawn to him precisely because he is an outlier. ...

Trump supporters did not want a cookie-cutter president, they wanted someone who is different  and thats who the country will get, deep flaws and all, the Tribune wrote in January.

Our underlying premise is he should be judged above all on his policy agenda for the country, which includes spurring economic growth and creating jobs. Where Trump gets himself in the most trouble is when his rash temperament and classless comments distract from important issues and derail political progress. Infighting among aides exacerbates the sense of chaos. On Friday, Trump ousted chief of staff Reince Priebus, and on Monday, he ousted communications director Anthony Scaramucci.

Trump promised to repeal and replace struggling Obamacare with a better health care plan, but he failed to develop a strong working relationship with the Republican-led Congress. His tax plan awaits his attention. He burned political capital on a Mexican wall instead of crafting immigration reform. Allies in Europe and Asia are still not sure they can trust Trump. Perhaps if the president stopped rehashing his victory over Hillary Clinton hed have more time to think about the future.

Its now the cusp of August. Congress soon will recess, in all likelihood without an Obamacare replacement. Members will go home to get an earful from frustrated constituents. Then soon enough the fall session will begin. The window of opportunity to achieve results will reopen, then slowly shut as the 2018 election season intensifies.

Trump has two options: He can get a grip on his presidency or see it wither.
[July 31, 2017] Radial Customer Care Centers in Brevard County, Florida, Bringing On 3,200 Workers to Support Holiday Hustle

MELBOURNE, Fla. and MERRITT ISLAND, Fla., July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Radial announced today its plan to bring on an additional 3,200 workers in Brevard County, Florida, to support the busiest time of year in the retail industry. As more people shop online, job opportunities in customer care centers have expanded dramatically to ensure customers receive the personal care and service they expect. With the increased pressure to provide the highest level of customer care for Radial's clients and their consumers during the holidays, Radial understands the importance of providing a positive work experience for its seasonal hires. Seasonal workers will have access to competitive hourly wages, overtime and holiday pay, flexible schedules with the option to work from home, employee discounts, and a referral bonus program. The customer care centers in Melbourne and Merritt Island, Florida, also feature games in the lunch rooms, giving workers a chance to unwind while at work. For workers who may be looking for something more long term, Radial converted over a thousand seasonal employees las year into full-time roles after the holidays.



At the customer care centers in Brevard County, workers will have the chance to work with some of the world's favorite brands and retailers. Workers will represent brands and retailers of all sizes, and handle customer issues that drive sales, as well as satisfaction. "We're thrilled to be creating so many additional jobs in Brevard County, many of which may lead to full-time opportunities. If you value quality, excellence and the best customer service possible, and you thrive in an energized, fast-paced and rewarding workplace culture, we'd love to have you work with us," said Kelly Scally, Director, Strategic Staffing, at Radial. "Whether you're looking to earn extra cash for the holidays or wanting to get your foot in the door at Radial, seasonal work is a great place to start."

To learn more about seasonal job openings in Brevard County, Florida visit www.radial.com/jobs. About Radial

Radial is the leader in omnichannel commerce technology and operations, enabling brands and retailers to profitably exceed retail customer expectations. Radial's technical, powerful omnichannel solutions connect supply and demand through efficient fulfillment and transportation options, intelligent fraud detection, payments, and tax systems, and personalized customer care services. Hundreds of retailers and brands confidently partner with Radial to simplify their post-click commerce and improve their customer experiences. Radial brings flexibility and scalability to their supply chains and optimizes how, when and where orders go from desire to delivery. Learn how we work with you at www.radial.com. Media Contact:

Laura Beauregard

PAN Communications for Radial

407-734-7320

[email protected] View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/radial-customer-care-centers-in-brevard-county-florida-bringing-on-3200-workers-to-support-holiday-hustle-300496037.html SOURCE Radial

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[July 31, 2017] Radial Customer Care Center in Brunswick, Georgia, Bringing On 1,150 Workers to Support Holiday Hustle

BRUNSWICK, Ga., July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Radial announced today its plan to bring on an additional 1,150 workers in Brunswick, Georgia, to support the busiest time of year in the retail industry. As more people shop online, job opportunities in customer care centers have expanded dramatically to ensure customers receive the personal care and service they expect. With the increased pressure to provide the highest level of customer care for Radial's clients and their consumers during the holidays, Radial understands the importance of providing a positive work experience for its seasonal hires. Seasonal workers will have access to competitive hourly wages, overtime and holiday pay, flexible schedules with the option to work from home, employee discounts, and a referral bonus program. The customer care center in Brunswick also features games in the lunch room, giving workers a chance to unwind while at work. For workers who may be looking for something more long term, Radial converted over a thousand seasonal employees last year into full-time roles after the holiays.



At the customer care center in Brunswick, seasonal hires will have the chance to work with some of the world's favorite brands and retailers. Workers will represent brands and retailers of all sizes, and handle customer issues that drive sales, as well as satisfaction. "We're thrilled to be creating so many additional jobs in Brunswick, many of which may lead to full-time opportunities. If you value quality, excellence and the best customer service possible, and you thrive in an energized, fast-paced and rewarding workplace culture, we'd love to have you work with us," said Kelly Scally, Director, Strategic Staffing, at Radial. "Whether you're looking to earn extra cash for the holidays or wanting to get your foot in the door at Radial, seasonal work is a great place to start."

To learn more about seasonal job openings in Brunswick, visit www.radial.com/jobs. About Radial

Radial is the leader in omnichannel commerce technology and operations, enabling brands and retailers to profitably exceed retail customer expectations. Radial's technical, powerful omnichannel solutions connect supply and demand through efficient fulfillment and transportation options, intelligent fraud detection, payments, and tax systems, and personalized customer care services. Hundreds of retailers and brands confidently partner with Radial to simplify their post-click commerce and improve their customer experiences. Radial brings flexibility and scalability to their supply chains and optimizes how, when and where orders go from desire to delivery. Learn how we work with you at www.radial.com. Media Contact:

Laura Beauregard

PAN Communications for Radial

407-734-7320

[email protected] View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/radial-customer-care-center-in-brunswick-georgia-bringing-on-1150-workers-to-support-holiday-hustle-300496278.html SOURCE Radial

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[July 31, 2017] Radial Fulfillment Center in Groveport, Ohio, Bringing On 500 Workers to Support Holiday Hustle

GROVEPORT, Ohio, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Radial announced today its plan to bring on an additional 500 workers in Groveport, Ohio, to support the busiest time of year in the retail industry. As more people shop online, job opportunities in the fulfillment and transportation sectors have expanded dramatically to ensure consumers' holiday packages arrive at their doors on time. Radial understands the importance of providing a positive work experience for its seasonal hires. Seasonal workers will have access to competitive hourly wages, overtime and holiday pay, flexible work schedules, employee discounts, and a referral bonus program. The fulfillment center in Groveport also provides holiday meals and fun events, giving workers a chance to unwind while at work. For workers who may be looking for something more long term, Radial converted over a thousand seasonal employees last year into full-time roles after the holidays. At the fulfillment center in Groveport, seasonal hires will have th chance to work with some of the world's favorite brands and retailers. Workers will source orders and send them to their final destinations faster using Radial's technology, fulfillment and transportation solutions.



"We're thrilled to be creating so many additional jobs in Groveport, many of which may lead to full-time opportunities. If you value quality, excellence and the best customer service possible, and you thrive in an energized, fast-paced and rewarding workplace culture, we'd love to have you work with us," said Kelly Scally, Director, Strategic Staffing, at Radial. "Whether you're looking to earn extra cash for the holidays or wanting to get your foot in the door at Radial, seasonal work is a great place to start." To learn more about seasonal job openings in Groveport, visit www.radial.com/jobs.

About Radial

Radial is the leader in omnichannel commerce technology and operations, enabling brands and retailers to profitably exceed retail customer expectations. Radial's technical, powerful omnichannel solutions connect supply and demand through efficient fulfillment and transportation options, intelligent fraud detection, payments, and tax systems, and personalized customer care services. Hundreds of retailers and brands confidently partner with Radial to simplify their post-click commerce and improve their customer experiences. Radial brings flexibility and scalability to their supply chains and optimizes how, when and where orders go from desire to delivery. Learn how we work with you at www.radial.com. Media Contact:

Laura Beauregard

PAN Communications for Radial

407-734-7320

[email protected] View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/radial-fulfillment-center-in-groveport-ohio-bringing-on-500-workers-to-support-holiday-hustle-300496035.html SOURCE Radial

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[July 31, 2017] Printing and Direct Mail Companies Converge in Florida to Learn the Latest in Direct Mail Marketing Integrations

CLEARWATER, Fla., July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Direct Mail integration software company, DirectMail2.0, announced its new event, specifically for Printing and Direct Mail Companies: Market-Edge 2017, which will be hosted in Clearwater, FL between October 25th and October 27th. Market-Edge will feature eight guest speakers, all leaders in the direct mail and marketing industries, including Joy Gendusa, founder and CEO of PostcardMania, the largest and fastest growing direct mail company in the U.S. Other speakers include Carrie Bornitz, Informed Delivery Program Manager of the United States Postal Service; Patrick Valtin, CEO of New Era International; and John Puterbough, Founder of one of the first mobile development agencies in the United States. Additionally, Konica Minolta's team will be present to give a custom presentation about their recently unveiled, public ready version of KMI, a digital printer highly praised for its image printing quality and its ability to print on a wide variety of paper media. Other presentations will include Reverse IP Matching, Direct Mail and Augmented Reality, Social Media Marketing, List Data Technology, etc. "The importance of integrating direct mail with today's technology is more crucial than ever," said Brad Kugler, CEO of DirectMail2.0. "This is why the focus of Market-Edge is to show how to easily integrate a traditional marketing business model into today'sdemands and expectations of online marketing and result tracking mechanisms. Due to the digital integration that DirectMail2.0 provided, our main beta printing company was able to see a 70% increase in reorders with more than $1.2 million in additional revenue that same year."



This event is an opportunity for commercial printers who are looking to integrate with today's market demands of technology, all while improving their profits, both for their clients and for their own business. Market-Edge offers the first unique approach dedicated to education on digital and print integration and tickets have been selling out faster than expected which has made seating highly limited. For a limited time, tickets are still available for purchase at an early bird discounted rate starting at $699. Market-Edge pricing includes full event access, hotel stay at the Wyndham Grand Hotel on Clearwater Beach, breakfast and lunch.

The event will kick off on October 25th with a networking cocktail party at sunset. During the following days, presentations will focus on data-driven insight on how to effectively integrate print with the digital world while increasing profits. Attendees will also learn about the process of hiring motivated and effective people, gain knowledge about marketing their own business, and much more. To learn more about the event and take advantage of early bird ticket pricing please visit www.marketedge2017.com About DirectMail2.0: DirectMail2.0 is a marketing company that gives printers and mail houses the ability to provide fully integrated campaigns to their small business clients. By adding mail tracking, call tracking and online follow-up ads to traditional direct mail campaigns, DirectMail2.0 provides the seamless, multi-channel, completely trackable marketing today's business owners demand. Since beta testing began in 2012, DirectMail2.0 has run thousands of successful campaigns across more than 300 industries, and is now available as a white label product. Visit DM20.com for more information. CONTACT:

Iris Shalev

[email protected]

800-956-4129 View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/printing-and-direct-mail-companies-converge-in-florida-to-learn-the-latest-in-direct-mail-marketing-integrations-300496129.html SOURCE DirectMail2.0

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[July 31, 2017] Bishop Fox Introduces the Hacking AI "DeepHack" at DEF CON 25

PHOENIX, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Bishop Fox, a leading global cybersecurity consulting firm, has created an AI-based hacking tool, "DeepHack." With the introduction of DeepHack, Bishop Fox researchers showcase the potentiality of AI-based cybersecurity tools that can think for themselves. Senior Security Associate Dan "AltF4" Petro and Security Analyst Ben Morris presented DeepHack to the world at their DEF CON 25 talk, "Weaponizing Machine Learning: Humanity Was Overrated Anyway," on July 30, 2017 in Las Vegas. "AI-based cybersecurity tools are a technology that pentesters have yet to fully explore, and these tools will eventually take penetration testing to a new level. DeepHack is an early proof of concept, but serves as evidence of what mahine learning can do for our industry," said Petro.



DeepHack works the following way: Neural networks used in reinforcement learning excel at finding solutions to games. By describing a problem as a "game" with winners, losers, points, objectives, and actions, a neural network can be trained to be proficient at "playing" it. The AI is rewarded every time it sends a request to gain new information about the target system, thereby discovering what types of requests lead to that information. Click here to view a brief video on DeepHack. Petro uses a robot as an analogy. If you give a robot an incentive to move forward on a track, the robot will learn to walk on its own. Likewise, DeepHack can learn on its own.

Added Morris, "While it will take time for the AI-based tools to become more practical, we expect to see more in the future that build off what DeepHack has accomplished." About Bishop Fox Bishop Fox is an independent cybersecurity firm that protects businesses from today's increasing security threats. Since 2005, the firm has provided security consulting services to the world's leading organizations. The company is headquartered in Phoenix and has offices in Atlanta, San Francisco, and New York City. Contact:

Amy Blumenthal

617-879-1511

[email protected] View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bishop-fox-introduces-the-hacking-ai-deephack-at-def-con-25-300496633.html SOURCE Bishop Fox

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[July 31, 2017] ANSI Announces Recipients of the 2017 Leadership and Service Awards

NEW YORK, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) announced today the recipients of its 2017 Leadership and Service Awards. Recipients have been recognized for their significant contributions to national and international standardization activities, as well as an ongoing commitment to their industry, their nation, and the enhancement of the global voluntary consensus standards system. ANSI will honor these 22 distinguished award recipients during an October 18 ceremony held in conjunction with World Standards Week 2017 in Washington, DC. James M. Shannon, president, International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), has been awarded the Astin-Polk International Standards Medal, which honors distinguished service in promoting trade and understanding among nations through the advancement, development, or administration of international standardization, measurements, or certification. Sharon Stanford, director, department of standards administration, American Dental Association (ADA), will receive the Howard Coonley Medal, which recognizes an executive who has benefitted the national economy through voluntary standardization and conformity assessment and has given outstanding support to standardization as a management tool. William Berger, managing director, standards, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), will receive the Finegan Standards Metal, which honors an individual who has shown extraordinary leadership in the actual development and application of voluntary standards. Masood Shariff, senior principal engineer, CommScope Network Solutions, will receive the Edward Lohse Information Technology Medal, which recognizes outstanding efforts to foster cooperation among bodies involved in global IT standardization. William S. Hurst, chief, technical research branch, laboratory division, office of engineering & technology, Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and Jay Pendergrass, vice president, Environmental Law Institute, will receive the Gerald H. Ritterbusch Conformity Assessment Medal, which honors distinguished service in promoting the understanding and application of conformity assessment methods as a means of providing confidence in standards compliance for the marketplace. This is the first time that two Ritterbusch Medals hav been awarded in the same year, reflecting the critical contributions of conformity assessment professionals in the U.S. standardization system.



Don Heirman, president, Don Heirman Consultants, will receive the Elihu Thomson Electrotechnology Medal, which honors an individual who has contributed in an exceptional, dedicated way to the field of electrotechnology standardization, conformity assessment, and related activities at the national and international levels. Mary Logan, president and CEO emeritus, Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI), will receive the George S. Wham Leadership Medal, which honors an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the voluntary standardization community and provided long-term direction and visionary qualities in support of the ANSI Federation.

Ed Morris, director (retired), America Makes, and vice president (retired), National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining, will receive the Chairman's Award, which honors outstanding accomplishments performed by any group or individual on behalf of ANSI or the ANSI Federation. Next Generation Awards Four individuals will receive the Next Generation Award, honoring those who have been engaged in standardization or conformity assessment activities for less than eight years, and who have, during this time, demonstrated vision, leadership, dedication, and significant contributions to their chosen field of activity. The awardees are: Christopher Dorr , senior hardware engineer, Rockwell Automation

, senior hardware engineer, Rockwell Automation Sun Gil Kim , program officer, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

, program officer, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Andrew Northup , director, global affairs, Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance (MITA), a division of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA)

, director, global affairs, Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance (MITA), a division of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) Amy Phelps , program manager, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Meritorious Service Awards Nine individuals will receive the Meritorious Service Award in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the U.S. voluntary standardization system. Each has demonstrated outstanding service in enabling ANSI to attain the objectives for which it was founded. The awardees are: William Boswell , counselor at law, William P. Boswell , LLC; general counsel, North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB)

, counselor at law, , LLC; general counsel, North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB) Shaun Clancy , director, product regulatory services, Evonik Corporation

, director, product regulatory services, Evonik Corporation Mary Donaldson , program manager, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

, program manager, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Steve Ferguson , manager, codes, American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE)

, manager, codes, American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) William G. Lawrence, Jr. , principal engineer, hazardous locations, operations vice president, FM Approvals

, principal engineer, hazardous locations, operations vice president, FM Approvals Kevin Lippert , manager, codes and standards, Eaton Corporation

, manager, codes and standards, Eaton Corporation Deborah Prince , standards process manager, UL

, standards process manager, UL Clark Silcox , general counsel, NEMA

, general counsel, NEMA Dr. Sue Ellen Wright , professor, German translation, Kent State University Institute for Applied Linguistics The 22 winners will be honored at the 2017 ANSI Leadership and Service Awards, a banquet and ceremony to be held on Wednesday evening, October 18, at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC. For more information, visit www.ansi.org/awards and www.ansi.org/wsweek. About ANSI

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private non-profit organization whose mission is to enhance U.S. global competitiveness and the American quality of life by promoting, facilitating, and safeguarding the integrity of the voluntary standardization and conformity assessment system. Its membership is made up of businesses, professional societies and trade associations, standards developers, government agencies, and consumer and labor organizations. The Institute represents the diverse interests of more than 125,000 companies and organizations and 3.5 million professionals worldwide. The Institute is the official U.S. representative to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and, via the U.S. National Committee, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and is a U.S. representative to the International Accreditation Forum (IAF). View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ansi-announces-recipients-of-the-2017-leadership-and-service-awards-300496641.html SOURCE American National Standards Institute

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IMPORTANT INVESTOR ALERT: Khang & Khang LLP Announces an Investigation of Flowserve Corporation and Encourages Investors with Losses to Contact the Firm

Khang & Khang LLP (the "Firm") announces that it is investigating claims against Flowserve Corporation ("Flowserve" or the "Company") (NYSE: FLS) concerning possible violations of federal securities laws.

If you purchased shares of Flowserve and want more information, please contact Joon M. Khang, Esquire, of Khang & Khang LLP, 4000 Barranca Parkway, Suite 250, Irvine, CA (News - Alert) 92604, by telephone: (949) 419-3834, or by e-mail at [email protected].

The investigation concerns whether Flowserve and certain of its directors and/or officers violated federal securitis laws. On July 27, 2017, the Company announced disappointing Second Quarter 2017 Results. Flowserve announced that "certain immaterial accounting errors were identified in prior period financial statements for the period beginning in 2013 through the first quarter of 2017" Also, "the Company determined material weakness existed in its internal control structure at year-end 2016 and continued through the end of the 2017 second quarter." When this news was announced, shares of Flowserve declined in value.







If you have any questions concerning this notice or your rights, please contact Joon M. Khang, a prominent litigator for almost two decades, by telephone: (949) 419-3834, or by e-mail at [email protected].

This press release may constitute Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170731005874/en/
[July 31, 2017] Ret. Army Lt. Gen. Patty Horoho Joins Optum to Lead Expanding Efforts That Serve Active Duty Military, Veterans and Their Families

Optum, the health services business of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), announced that retired Army Lt. Gen. Patty Horoho has joined the company to bring together and align Optum's extensive capabilities to better support and deliver innovative solutions that meet the health needs of active-duty service members, veterans and their families. Horoho has 33 years of experience leading large integrated health systems in the public and private sectors, and served as the 43rd Army Surgeon General. "Optum is privileged to support the health needs of U.S. military members, veterans and their families, and Patty Horoho's experience and strong leadership will help us serve them in the most comprehensive and effective ways," said Optum CEO Larry Renfro. Optum has a long history of partnering with federal and state government agencies to meet the health needs of the millions of people they serve. From its efforts on the HealthCare.gov turnaround, to assisting in building an innovative next-generation Medicaid data system, Optum has deep experience working with government to make the health system work better for everyone. Optum currently serves the readiness and health needs of active-duty military members and veterans by providing preventive health screenings and assessments to ensure that troops are ready to answer the call of duty. It is also leading the collaborative update of clinical practice guidelines for the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, providing doctors and other clinicians an updated framework to evaluate, treat and manage care for specific health conditions that create pathways to better outcomes.



"Supporting the health and well-being of our nation's veterans and active-duty service members is critically important," said Horoho. "I am excited to join the Optum team because it has the commitment, experience and proven capabilities to fundamentally improve the way health services are delivered in the military and veterans' health systems."

Horoho was the first woman and the first nurse to hold the position of Army Surgeon General and commanded the U.S. Army Medical Command, a large integrated health care organization that provides health services to 3.9 million active and retired personnel, and their families. She was also the first nurse and first woman to serve as commander of the Walter Reed Health Care System. Horoho has been honored with numerous military awards, honorary doctorate degrees, civilian and international awards. Lt. Gen. Horoho's military awards and citations include the Superior Unit Citation, Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star Medal, France's National Order of Legion of Honor, Chevalier (Knight) Award, Japan's Defense Cooperation Award Second Class, and The President's Lifetime Achievement Award. She was also honored by the American Red Cross with Women Who Care Humanitarian Award; USO honored her with Woman of the Year award and Family Circle magazine named her one of the most influential moms. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and a member of the American Association of Nurse Executives. About Optum

Optum is a leading information and technology-enabled health services business dedicated to helping make the health system work better for everyone. With more than 100,000 people worldwide, Optum delivers intelligent, integrated solutions that help to modernize the health system and improve overall population health. Optum is part of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH). For more information, visit www.Optum.com. Click here to subscribe to Mobile Alerts for UnitedHealth Group. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170731005877/en/

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[July 31, 2017] DENSO kicks-off North American investment push with approximately $75.5 million to fuel technology development at regional headquarters

SOUTHFIELD, Mich., July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- DENSO, one of the world's largest automotive technology, systems and components suppliers, is growing its commitment to advancing innovation in the heart of North America's auto industry. The company kick-started a major round of investments in its North American network today with approximately $75.5 million to expand DENSO International America, Inc. (DIAM), DENSO's North American regional headquarters based in Southfield, Mich., and one of its satellite offices located in Dublin, Ohio. The investment will bolster the staff at DENSO's North American headquarters facilities by approximately 133 employees over the next three years, attracting top talent to design and deliver advanced mobility solutions. DENSO will tap into the thriving automotive community and deep talent pool across the Midwest, working with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), Ohio Development Services Agency (ODSA), and City of Dublin. "This is the first in a line of investments to create the future of mobility by bringing in top talent and fostering our culture of innovation," said Kenichiro Ito, chairman of DENSO's North America Board of Directors and chief executive officer of DIAM. "Expanding our team and resources now will help us make a future of autonomous cars and advanced electric vehicles possible." Investment Details:

Southfield, Michigan: DENSO's $75 million investment will create 120 new jobs over the next three years and expand and renovate R&D facilities to develop the future of mobility, focusing on automotive safety, cybersecurity and autonomous vehicles. Among the facility renovations, DENSO will expand ts testing facilities and add new test equipment. In the past five years, DENSO has expanded its Southfield footprint by 44 percent with the purchase of two additional buildings and a vehicle test strip to support sales and engineering R&D activities.



Dublin Ohio: DENSO's $500,000 investment will include a full renovation of DENSO's current 10,000 square foot satellite office, as well as add an additional 5,000 square feet of space on the same campus. The additional space will support R&D activity in the area of Powertrain and Infotainment. This site will also serve as a Quality Engineering lab, and host Infotainment System Validation activities. DENSO and the MEDC will work together to attract and train skilled workers, and identify support opportunities through programs like Michigan Works! Likewise, the ODSA will provide $160,000 in performance-based incentives to expand DENSO's team in Dublin.

DENSO, based in Japan, founded DENSO International America in 1985 as the parent company for its North American operations. Since then, it has grown to seven buildings in Southfield housing design and production engineering, technical support, sales and finance functions. The Southfield facility also includes DENSO's 36-acre North America Technical Center Test Chambers, which simulate a variety of real-world driving conditions that allow engineers to develop and road-test new automotive solutions. The Dublin campus includes sales, quality engineering and application engineering teams supporting major OEM customers. DENSO also operates 28 manufacturing facilities across the U.S., Canada and Mexico, and employs more than 23,000 across the North America region. About DENSO in North America

DENSO is a leading global automotive supplier of advanced technology, systems and components in the areas of thermal, powertrain control, electronics and information and safety. With its North American headquarters located in Southfield, Michigan, DENSO employs more than 23,000 people at 30 consolidated companies and affiliates across the North American region. Of these, 28 are manufacturing facilities located in the United States, Canada and Mexico. In the United States alone, DENSO employs more than 17,000 people in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Iowa, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. DENSO's North American consolidated sales totaled US$9.6 billion for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017. For more information, go to www.denso.com/us-ca/en. Connect with DENSO on Facebook at www.facebook.com/DENSOinNorthAmerica . DENSO Worldwide

DENSO Corp., headquartered in Kariya, Aichi prefecture, Japan has more than 200 subsidiaries and affiliates in 38 countries and regions (including Japan) and employs more than 150,000 people worldwide. Consolidated global sales for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017, totaled US$40.4 billion. Last fiscal year, DENSO spent 8.8 percent of its global consolidated sales on research and development. DENSO common stock is traded on the Tokyo and Nagoya stock exchanges. For more information, go to www.denso.com, or visit our media website at www.denso.com/global/en/news/media-center/ View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/denso-kicks-off-north-american-investment-push-with-approximately-755-million-to-fuel-technology-development-at-regional-headquarters-300496642.html SOURCE DENSO

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[July 31, 2017] Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson Joins Dignitaries for $16K Check Presentation to Nonprofit 2nd Saturday CDC

Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX-30) will join representatives from the office of U.S. Senator John Cornyn (TX), the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas (FHLB Dallas), TBK Bank and 2nd Saturday Community Development Corporation (CDC) for a $16,000 check presentation to 2nd Saturday CDC. The event will take place at 10:00 a.m., Monday, August 7, 2017, at the nonprofit's future headquarters located at 2428 Pine Street, Dallas, Texas, 75215. The media is encouraged to attend. The 2nd Saturday CDC began in 2009 as a volunteer home improvement project. Today, the nonprofit serves low-income seniors and disabled residents of west and south Dallas neighborhoods. 2nd Saturday CDC focuses on two areas of impact: meeting home repair needs and growing 2nd Saturday Industries, an enterprise that annually employs and empowers 10 to 15 ex-offenders and reinvests all profits into the community. 2nd Saturday CDC will use the PGP (News - Alert) grant to purchase tools, equipment and training curriculums, as well as implement new case-management software. PGP awards provide grants up to $12,000 to community-based organizations (CBOs). The funds may be used for research, organizational capacity-building, grant- and funding-application assistance, or contractual services. Through PGP awards, FHLB Dallas matches a member's contribution to a CBO of $500 up to $4,000 at a 3:1 ratio. The grants are offered via a lottery system once a year through FHLB Dallas members. In 2017, FHLB Dallas awarded $300,000 in PGP funds through 31 member institutions to assist 30 CBOs. Combined with the $104,550 contributed by FHLB Dallas members, a total of $404,550 was awarded to the organizations. For more information, visit fhlb.com.







WHAT: Check Presentation WHEN: 10:00 a.m., Monday, August 7, 2017 WHO: The Honorable Eddie Bernice Johnson, U.S. Representative, TX-District 30 Collin McLochlin, North Texas Regional Director, Office of U.S. Senator John Cornyn (TX) Kamal Fulani, North Texas Deputy Regional Director, Office of U.S. Senator John Cornyn (TX) Ray Sperring, Executive Vice President, TBK Bank Keith Shepelwich, Vice President & CRA Officer, TBK Bank Scott Sillers, Assistant Vice President, Commercial Lending, TBK Bank Todd Fields, President & CEO, 2nd Saturday CDC Marcus Toussaint, Vice President, 2nd Saturday CDC Brandi Dunn, Philanthropy Specialist, TBK Bank Linley Pisano, Marketing & Events Specialist, TBK Bank Greg Hettrick, First Vice President, Director of Community Investment, FHLB Dallas Eric Haar, Vice President, Government and Industry Relations, FHLB Dallas Steven Matkovich, Sr. Affordable Housing Analyst, FHLB Dallas WHERE: 2nd Saturday CDC Future Headquarters 2428 Pine Street Dallas, Texas 75215

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170731006226/en/

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U.S. Sen. John McCain took a stand for honor and country last week in sharp contrast to the self-obsessed showman in the White House.

The Arizona Republican summoned the strength to return to Congress after a brain cancer diagnosis to urge fellow senators to halt the ugly partisanship that is destroying our institutions. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump was busy tweeting threats to fire his top officials and undercutting any chance for coherent domestic or foreign policies.

McCains statesmanship stood in stark contrast to the circus in the White House, where a willfully ignorant president is emboldening our adversaries and could provoke a war.

When McCain cast the vote that finally scuttled GOP repeal of the Affordable Care Act, his intent went beyond the health-care issue. His real objection was to the secretive Republican process that failed to produce any credible replacement for Obamacare and would have made the health care situation worse, not better.

The last GOP skinny repeal bill, which the Arizonan nixed, was so bad that most Republican senators disliked it, but were ready to pass it just so Trump could chalk up a win.

In a moving floor speech last week, McCain warned of a U.S. Senate that was more partisan, more tribal, more of the time than any other time I remember. He pleaded for senators to recognize that the genius of our democratic system  which made it different from cruel autocracies  was its recognition that compromise is needed to reach solutions.

He urged a return to the old way of legislating in the Senate with hearings and bipartisan input. It is our responsibility to preserve that, he urged, even when it requires us to do something less satisfying than winning.

The jab at the president could not have been more clear.

And McCain offered another pertinent caution. Stop listening to the bombastic loudmouths on radio and television and the internet, he advised. To hell with them. They dont want anything done for the public good.

Meanwhile, the tweeter-in-chief was busy illustrating just what McCain was warning about. Instead of leading on health care, he spent the week tweeting a stream of grotesque insults at Attorney General Jeff Sessions, one of Trumps most loyal backers. Lacking the guts to fire Sessions, he was trying to goad the AG to quit.

Then  in case the world wasnt already convinced the White House had gone mad  Trump brought in plutocrat pal Anthony Scaramucci as his chief communications director. The Mooch promptly let loose a foul, expletive-laced public rant against White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and Trumps chief strategist, Steve Bannon  a clear warning their jobs were endangered.

Scaramucci was clearly fronting for Donald Youre Fired Trump, with whom hed just had dinner. Priebus was fired Friday.

This White House reality show endangers the republic, as McCain knows all too well.

Beyond his domestic failures, the presidents antics destroy any coherent foreign policy process. Trump publicly countermands Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on important issues  such as Iran and the Arab Gulf  to the extent that Tillerson had to deny hes quitting. Rumors swirl about the future of National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, who is openly challenged in the White House by Bannon.

In the meantime, Trump openly insults his own intelligence agencies and continues to refute their conclusion that Russia hacked the 2016 election. And the president plays fast and loose with the Pentagon, ignoring normal policy processes. Just last week, he tried to ban transgender service members from serving  via a tweet  without first informing the Pentagon or military brass.

Such White House antics display a tempting show of weakness to Americas adversaries, inviting them to test the presidents ability to respond. (Trumps minor missile strike on one Syrian base is no longer viewed abroad as a sign of strength.)

The president is eager to withdraw from the nuclear treaty with Iran  over Tillersons disapproval  and chafing over North Koreas missile testing. But can the country trust the reaction of an erratic president who tweets before consulting his experts, and believes he knows better than his generals?

Trumps next missile strike might heedlessly trigger a war.

Which brings me back to McCains warnings. We are an important check on the powers of the executive, he told his fellow legislators. Our consent is necessary for key appointments and in many respects to conduct foreign policy. We are not the presidents subordinates. We are his equal!

What this means is it is insufficient for the Senate to resume bipartisan cooperation on legislation (though it would be a welcome miracle if this happened).

Its time for a bipartisan delegation of senators to visit the White House and warn Trump that his destructive style of governance is endangering the country and emboldening bad guys. McCain understands this, but he cant do it alone  or with the two brave female GOP senators who voted nay on the Trumpcare horror.

Which male GOP senators, if any, have the guts to follow McCains lead?
[July 31, 2017] SHAREHOLDER ALERT: Levi & Korsinsky, LLP Notifies Investors of an Investigation Involving Possible Securities Fraud Violations by the Board of Directors of BMW AG -- BMW

Levi & Korsinsky announces it has commenced an investigation of BMW AG ("BMW" or the "Company") (OTC PINK:BMWYY) concerning possible violations of federal securities laws. On July 25, 2017, a class action was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey against Porsche AG, Volkswagen AG, Audi AG, BMW AG, and Mercedes-Benz USA, alleging violations of federal antitrust laws. The complaint alleges that, beginning in 2006, the carmakers conspired "to share commercially-sensitive information and reach unlawful agreements" in order "to impose a German automobile premium on consumers premised on superior German engineering, while secretly stunting incentives to innovate." On July 28, 2017, similar complaints were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and in the District of New Jersey. On news of the antitrust lawsuits, BMW's share price has fallen sharply. To obtain additional information, go to:



http://www.zlkdocs.com/BMWYY-Info-Request-Form-5991 or contact Joseph E. Levi, Esq. either via email at [email protected] or by telephone at (212) 363-7500, toll-free: (877) 363-5972.

Levi & Korsinsky is a national firm with offices in New York, California, Connecticut and Washington D.C. The firm's attorneys have extensive expertise in prosecuting securities litigation involving financial fraud, representing investors throughout the nation in securities and shareholder lawsuits. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170731006237/en/

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Rex Early, longtime Republican leader in Indiana, has died

Rex Early was chairman of the Indiana Republican Party and led former president Donald Trump's campaign in Indiana in 2016.
AS THE COUNTDOWN TO 100 HOMICIDES STARTS EARLY!!!

Fox4: One person is dead and a second was taken to the hospital early Monday morning following a shooting on the citys east side. It happened near 39th and Elmwood just before 3 a.m.

Police report five to six shots fired and the likely use of a semi-automatic weapon . . .Developing . . .
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- One person was taken into custody Monday after allegedly shooting towards people. Police say at 9:27 a.m. they received a report that shots had been fired near 39th and Main. Kari Thompson with the Kansas City Police Department says a man was shooting at cars at this location.
Kansas City police are looking into a possible sexual assault at a Truman Medical Center facility. Officers received the call at Lakewood Care Center around 2 a.m.
"Johnson County should pay to fix and control the storm runoff. Kansas City is now spending billions to prevent this in the areas of combined sewers, meaning storm drains and waste sewers. It is about time Johnson County have to do something about the problem they created."

Greedy Johnson County developers were the cause, Bob Lewellen said. They didnt want to see flood control lakes on their land --- and they killed it. In the early 1970s, a handful of land developers ---- aided by Congressman Larry Winn, Jr. --- blocked creation of three major reservoirs in Johnson County.





Called Tomahawk, Indian Creek and Wolf-Coffee, the trio would have served as the receptacle for much of the overflow that three times in 20 years inundated vast areas. It was a small, but powerful, group that led the opposition that killed the lakes. And in doing so wiped out forever the opportunity to control the flood waters that have ravaged parts of the community and will again. Unless, of course multi-millions are spent to stem the flow.

This morning we offerperspective of recent flooding that notes the consequences of old school JoCo decisions.Our blog community says:And so, here's a missive from the archives and background about this history of this ongoing problem overlooked by MSM . . .Each time the flood waters rush out of Indian Creek, Tomahawk Creek, the Blue River and the tributaries --- causing property losses, other Johnson Countians, too, are especially unhappy --- andvery angry . . . A former Kansas City councilman not only agreed, but was even stronger in his comments:The fact is that when it rains hard in Johnson County, its felt on the Missouri side of State Line. Thats because of the lay of the land and river basins. And if its a very heavy rain, it can cause severe flooding.As we said, in the 70s, Johnson County had the solution right in the palm of its hand. And even more important, the federal government was ready to pay the bulk of the money. But it was lost and with it went flood control.#######And so recent rain had a cause beyond pseudoscience touted by MSM . . .You decide . . .
11 Days Of Prez Trump Glory

Trump Removes Anthony Scaramucci From Communications Director Role Mr. Scaramucci had boasted about reporting directly to the president, not the chief of staff. But the decision to remove him came at Mr. Kelly's request, the people said. It was not clear whether Mr. Scaramucci, who is known informally as "The Mooch," will remain at the White House in another position or will leave altogether.

The Downtown Good Life

Pickwick Plaza's rebirth is 'a great gift to Kansas City' - Kansas City Business Journal Tom Smith was a little-known multifamily developer when he first saw - and fell in love with - the historic downtown complex built in 1929-30 by the San Diego-based Pickwick Corp. Smith, president of Gold Crown Properties, and his son, Bryan, Gold Crown's executive vice president, now are being hailed as heroes for preserving the historic structure at 933 McGee St.

TKC Told You So: Will Kraus Career Kaput

Kraus to step down as state senator, will join State Tax Commission - The Missouri Times JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - It seems that some of the rumors are true: Sen. Will Kraus will be stepping down as a state senator. Gossip had spread that the Republican senator would be leaving his District 8 seat to take an appointment, several of the rumors going as far as saying it would be with the Trump administration in Veterans Affairs, and his seat will be up for a special election.

Kansas Nudity Is NOT Illegal But Banned By Some Municipal Ordinances

Man arrested for walking naked in Lawrence twice in one day KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A man in Lawrence, Kansas was arrested for walking naked through the streets twice in the same day. According to a statement from Lawrence police, officers found the 34-year-old man walking nude on the 900 block of Massachusetts Street in downtown Lawrence at about 2 p.m.

Golden Ghetto Money Grab Gone Wrong

58-year-old man sentenced to more than 5 years in prison for robbing Leawood bank LEAWOOD, Kan. - A Kansas City man was sentenced to more than five years in prison for robbing a Leawood bank in August of 2016. Terry Lovelady, 58, was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison for his charges. Lovelady pleaded guilty to one count of bank robbery.

Price For Justice Increased

Reward is now $4,500 in New Year's Day homicide A reward for information in the New Year's day shooting death of Marc Bivins has increased to $4,5000. Bivins was found mortally wounded in the 10100 block of Raytown Road.

Old School Kansas City

Small bungalows, apartments made up South Hyde Park block Like most of Midtown, people moved in and out of this South Hyde Park neighborhood from the time its small homes and apartments were built in the early 1900s. Some of the small bungalows were occupied by owners and their families; others were rented from real estate companies.

CharMac hotness starts this whirlpool of news as we consider today's stories from the top and on down. Take a look:And this is thefor right now . . .
It is calculated that 3 billion euro will be put into investments within the scope of Juncker Plan

Resources equal to 36 billion euro are made available by the European funds for Greeces economy, for the programming period up to 2020, according to the National Development Strategy for Greeces production restructuring. Until this day, Greece has received about 13 billion euro and is expecting another 25 billion euro, including funds of the previous programming period.

According to the Economy Ministry plan, it is calculated that 3 billion euro will be put into investments within the scope of Juncker Plan, focused mainly on infrastructure and innovation projects, as well as on the financing of small and medium-sized enterprises and start-ups.

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Europa credito urgente License: CC-BY-SA

Source: int.ert.gr
Emerson Automation Solutions has launched its new Beginners Integration Training (BIT) programme, recruiting 15 Saudi nationals who have recently graduated from top universities and institutes in Saudi Arabia and the US.



The recruitment and training programme, which is consistent with Emersons global commitment to invest in local resourcing and communities where its customers are, is planned to be conducted annually with a minimum of 15 graduates who will be hired to full-time positions with the company each year.



The newly recruited graduates will occupy technical (electronics, instrumentation, computer science, chemical and mechanical engineering) and non-technical positions (such as logistics, finance, marketing, administration, and document control).



This recruitment and training program reflects Emerson's continued commitment to invest and further economic development within the region. It is designed to support the In-Kingdom Total Value Add (IKTVA) programme by driving localization and job creation in the region through the development of local talent. Emersons BIT program will also aid in managing and staffing projects locally in the Kingdom, allowing faster project completions.



The training, allowing the participants to be exposed to the various operations involved with Systems and Solutions through several courses, is expected to be completed within less than a year. Performance of participants will be measured through progress reports, training examinations, and program milestone reviews.



Liam Hurley, general manager of Emerson Automation Solutions in Saudi Arabia, said: Even after the first week, the standard set by this group of employees is very high and reaffirms our long-term vision for this program. I am very excited about Emersons future in Saudi Arabia having this team on-board and look forward now to seeing how the group grows and develops throughout the programme.  TradeArabia News Service
Memac Ogilvy, a leading advertising and public relations agency in Mena, has partnered with Zain Iraq, a top telecom provider, to offer communication services.



Held at Zain Iraq headquarters in Baghdad, the signing ceremony was attended by senior executives from Zain Iraq and Memac Ogilvy Beirut marking the strategic communication partnership including advertising, public relations and social media.



Based on tough standards and lengthy review, Memac Ogilvy Beirut was selected for its teams dedication, passion in addition to common strategic vision and enthusiasm in presenting a creative and strategic full-fledged proposal in line with Zain Iraq business and communications objectives. As part of the partnership, Memac Ogilvy Beirut will create a custom roadmap for Zain Iraq tapping into the competitive landscape to create a recognizable telecom brand across Iraq.



Memac Ogilvy stood out from competition showing an absolute understanding of our business and market needs as well as challenges. The team grasped our objectives and managed to translate them into a creative approach, said Ali Al-Zahid, CEO of Zain Iraq. We look forward for their fresh thinking in line with the local community evolution, to meet our subscribers aspirations and exceed the Iraqis expectations.



As part of this partnership, Memac Ogilvy Beirut will develop a custom roadmap for Zain Iraq, handling its communication strategy, corporate reputation management, advertising, activation, public relations and social media.



"Zain Iraq is committed to provide innovative services that meet the Iraqi consumers needs especially its subscribers, said Mohammed Samir Ban, chief commercial officer at Zain Iraq. Memac Ogilvy will help us achieve this goal by developing communication strategies including solutions that will enable us to reach our subscribers efficiently and keep them informed about our latest services and offerings.



We are proud to partner with Zain Iraq. The demand for our services is stronger than ever and this is evident by increasing the breadth of our practice areas and growth in our professional staff. Zain Iraq chose Memac Ogilvy for our solid strategy developed based on a market research and insights discovered by our team members, said Edmond Moutran, CEO and chairman of Memac Ogilvy Mena.



The addition of Zain Iraq to our clients portfolio in Beirut represents the next chapter in our "ambitious growth story. Our team challenged themselves to outperform in developing a full-fledged proposal around Zain Iraq role in the Iraqi telecom sector within a challenging timeline, said Naji Boulos, managing director of Memac Ogilvy Beirut. We believe that our partnership with Zain Iraq and its team will help us provide the support required to achieve their marketing objectives and meet subscribers aspirations across Iraq.



The strategic partnership between Zain Iraq and Memac Ogilvy harnessing the power of a wide-array of communication tools - including advertising, marketing and PR - to propel the brand positioning as a telecom leader setting a new benchmark in quality standards.  TradeArabia News Service
Qatar must commit to implement the 13 anti-terror demands made by the four Arab states that have imposed sanctions on the country before talks can begin, the quartet said yesterday.



Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt expressed their willingness to engage in dialogue with Qatar, provided it declares its sincere and practical desire to stop its support and funding for terrorism and extremism and dissemination of hatred speech and incitement, to commit itself to non-interference in the affairs of other countries and to implement the 13 demands that guarantee peace and stability in the region and the world, a statement issued following a meeting of the foreign ministers of the countries in Bahrain said.



The four countries affirmed the six principles announced at the Cairo meeting, which represent the international consensus on the fight against terrorism, extremism and its funding, and rejection of interference in the affairs of other countries, which is contrary to international laws, said a Bahrain News Agency report.



Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir, Bahrain's Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, the UAE's Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry attended the meeting.



They also affirmed the importance of implementing the 2013 and 2014 Riyadh Agreements which have not been implemented by Qatar.



The four countries also stressed that all measures taken against Qatar are sovereign and in conformity with the international law.



The ministers also discussed the need for Qatar to stop disseminating hatred speech and incitement and interfering in the internal affairs of other countries.



The ministers expressed gratitude and appreciation to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa for receiving them and for sharing his insightful vision to achieve common Arab interests and the continued close solidarity among the four countries in dealing with all the challenges they are confronting.



The ministers reviewed the latest developments regarding the crisis in Qatar and the regional and international contacts they made, stressing the continued close coordination among them, in order to enhance solidarity among their countries, support Arab national security and root out terrorism to further preserve regional and international peace and security.



They expressed their appreciation for the role played by His Highness Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, the Emir of the State of Kuwait, to resolve the Qatar crisis within an Arab framework.



The four countries denounced the deliberate move by the Qatari authorities to obstruct the performance of Haj rituals for Qatari nationals. In this regard, they commended the facilities provided by the Saudi government to welcome all pilgrims.



The ministers agreed to continue their consultations and coordination regarding this issue in their forthcoming meetings.


Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD), a leading national entity in development aid, is set to construct the National Dispatch Centre in the west African nation of Guinea at an estimated cost of Dh66 million ($18 million).



The centre will bolster energy control efforts, help stabilise the Guinean national electrical grid, and bring power to the nation.



Moreover, the project aligns with the West African Power Pool (WAPP) programme that aims to provide electricity supply and facilitate cross-border power exchange, said senior officials at the official cornerstone-laying ceremony of Guineas National Dispatch Centre held in the presence of Guinean President Alpha Conde and Prime Minister Mamady Youla.



A total of $90 million Abu Dhabi government grant had been earmarked for development projects across the country in 2013.



The grant seeks to boost socio-economic development across the country and help strengthen electricity supply for more than 10 million Guineans. The funds contribution will cover 80 per cent of the projects total cost, they added.



Saeed Al Dhaheri, the director of finance at ADFD, led the delegation that represented the Fund at the ceremony. Also present at the event were Abdullah Al Hammadi, UAE Ambassador to Guinea, and several high-ranking Guinean officials.



Mohammed Saif Al Suwaidi, the director general of ADFD, said: "We are proud to support the Guinean government with this new strategic project. This latest endeavour is part of the funds tailored energy portfolio for the West African region."



"Previously, ADFD contributed more than $20 million towards the construction of two power stations, Tombo I and Tombo II, in the Guinean capital, Conakry. Both stations are now complete and produce about 60 megawatts of energy in total," he added.



According to him, ADFDs support for the National Dispatch Centre re-affirms its commitment to financing projects that elevate living standards, promote sustainable socio-economic growth and equip Guinea with a reliable national grid capable of supplying, transmitting and exchanging electricity across the region.-TradeArabia News Service
In light of the current political situation with Doha, the government of Saudi Arabia has extended its welcome to pilgrims from Qatar and has expressed its keenness to enable them to perform Umrah, said a report.



The Ministry reaffirmed that Qatari pilgrims can continue to perform Umrah at any time and can arrive into the kingdom through any airlines, except Qatar Airways, said a report in Saudi Press Agency.



Qatari pilgrims are expected to start from Doha and come through any transit station via any carrier and arrive at King Abdul Aziz Airport in Jeddah or Prince Mohammed Bin Abdul Aziz Airport in Madinah.



Qatari pilgrims and those residing in Qatar who have Haj permits from the Ministry of Haj and Umrah and the Haj affairs authorities in Qatar, and have been registered in the Haj electronic system, will be able to come directly from Doha or through any other transit station via any carrier, other than Qatar Airways, selected by the Qatari government and approved by the GACA, it said.
FIT Ruums, Webjet Groups B2B travel distributor in Asia, has formed an exciting new partnership with China Airlines to provide exclusive dynamic packages to travellers in Taiwan.



Under the new agreement, China Airlines will release special airfares to leading appointed Taiwanese travel agencies, which will be combined with hotels to create a collection of tempting packages. The hotels will be selected and supplied by FIT Ruums from its vast global product inventory.



Were very excited to announce this milestone partnership with China Airlines today, which demonstrates our continued commitment to delivering the best deals and promotions to Taiwanese travellers, said Joseph Shih, general manager of FIT Ruums Taiwan. As per our companys motto, we believe that we are Always Stronger Together and will continue working hand-in-hand with industry partners to provide the very best services to our clients and suppliers.



Partnerships such as these promote travel and create benefits throughout the entire industry. We are delighted to be able to use our latest travel systems to help partners respond to fast-changing market trends and demands, Shih added.



The agreement will see a tailored collection of 15,000 hotels from FIT Ruums global inventory packaged together with China Airlines exclusive airfares. These dynamic packages will then be provided to an appointed group of Taiwans top travel agencies, to offer to their customers. FIT Ruums worked with China Airlines in recommending and selecting the hotels, and more properties are expected to be added to the partnership in future.



Taiwanese travellers will be able to search for and book these exciting packages from beginning of August onwards via the websites of the appointed agencies. By choosing these special packages, customers will be able to enjoy the best prices, saving up to 25 per cent compared to booking the hotels and flights separately.



Outbound travel from Taiwan is booming. According to official figures from Taiwans Tourism Bureau, 14.6 million Taiwanese travelled overseas in 2016, representing an increase of 10.7 per cent compared to the previous year. More than 92 per cent of these outbound trips were to other destinations in Asia, reflecting the strength of the intra-regional travel market.



Building on this demand for intra-Asian travel, the majority of the destinations featured in the partnership are located in the Asia Pacific region. These include Osaka, Tokyo, Kyoto, Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul and Bangkok, which are expected to account for 85 per cent of the partnerships sales. Travellers to these alluring destinations will be able to stay at a vast selection of hotels, including global chains and local independent hotels.



All of the hotel content supplied by FIT Ruums will be provided in Traditional Chinese language to support the local Taiwanese market. China Airlines platform will provide a real-time booking option that packages the best airfares and hotel options. This dynamic packaging technology will enable consumers to find their preferred holiday package quickly and easily.



For hotel partners, this is a great opportunity to leverage the travelling power of one of Asias most important outbound markets. By packaging their rates with China Airlines fares, hotels are able to tap into the networks of one of Asias biggest international carriers, while at the same time enhancing relations with Taiwans top travel agencies.



A member of the SkyTeam alliance, China Airlines flies to almost 150 destinations in 29 countries or territories around the world. These will soon include London Gatwick Airport, with four weekly direct flights from Taipei due to commence in early December 2017, using the airlines state-of-the-art Airbus A350 aircraft. This will make China Airlines the only carrier to fly non-stop between the UK and Taiwan.



As Taiwans largest airline, we are very happy to be working together with FIT Ruums to bring attractive packages to Taiwan market, further boosting the outbound business. This partnership is exciting and innovative, combining the strengths of our two companies for the benefit of the Taiwanese travel trade and consumers. We look forward to working with FIT Ruums on many more initiatives in the future, said Benjamin Yang, general manager of Dynasty Package department, China Airlines.



The partnership between FIT Ruums and China Airlines will take effect from beginning of August. FIT Ruums is planning to continue rolling out more such partnerships in the future, harnessing its vast hotel inventory, travel management technology, trade relationships and market insights.



The FIT Ruums-China Airlines travel packages will be sold by the following appointed travel agencies:



 YesTrip (a subsidiary of China Airlines)

 Lion Travel

 Richmond Tours

 FTSTour

 Life Tour

 EZ Travel

 Star Travel

 Cola Tour

 Set Tour

 DTS Group (Coming Soon)

 Fuller Tour (Coming Soon) - TradeArabia News Service
Fund Managers and Strategists Think the Bull Market Is Ending Next Year

Could this year be the last call for the bulls?

Americas second-longest bull run in stocks on record will end by late 2018, when U.S. credit also will enter its first bear market since the global crisis, according to a Bloomberg survey of fund managers and strategists.

In an article on Bloomberg, a poll of 30 finance professionals on four continents showed a lack of consensus on the asset judged as most vulnerable now, with answers ranging from European high yield to local-currency emerging-market debt -- though they were mostly in the bond world. Among 25 responding to a question on the next U.S. recession, the median answer was the first half of 2019.

The would-be end of a great cycle for financial markets would come just about when central bank balance sheet contraction is expected to kick into high gear. By mid-2018, the Federal Reserves wind-down may be well under way, and the European Central Bank might have joined the Bank of Japan in tapering asset purchases.

While none of the respondents signaled a 2007-09 style meltdown, even smaller-scale downturns have wreaked large-scale damage in the past. The 2002 bear market in U.S. stocks wiped out more than $7 trillion of value.

Consequences could be very painful, Remi Olu-Pitan, who manages a multi-asset fund at Schroder Investment Management Ltd. in London, told Bloomberg. We have had a liquidity-fueled bull market. If that is taken away, there is a pressure point, she said.

To read the complete article, please click here

For more information on related topics, visit the following channels:
New Delhi, July 31

Global aerospace major Boeing on Monday said it expects a demand for 2,100 new aircraft in India over the next 20 years.

According to the companys 2017 India current market outlook, the demand for 2,100 new aircraft is valued at $290 billion.

Commercial aerospace demand in India continues to grow at unprecedented rates, said Dinesh Keskar, Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific and India Sales, Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

The increasing number of passengers combined with a strong exchange rate, low fuel prices and high load factors bodes well for Indias aviation market, especially for the low-cost carriers, he said.  IANS
New Delhi, July 31

Snapdeal on Monday called off the USD 950 million-takeover (over Rs 6,000 crore) by Flipkart, apparently over differences in valuation and terms of what could possibly have been the largest deal in the Indian e-commerce space.

Discussions to acquire the beleaguered Snapdeal by Flipkart were initiated in March but contours of the deal could not reach finality even after several rounds.

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Snapdeal has been exploring strategic options over the last several months. The company has now decided to pursue an independent path and is terminating all strategic discussions as a result, a Snapdeal spokesperson said in a statement, without naming Flipkart.

The spokesperson added that the company will now pursue Snapdeal 2.0 which is expected to help Snapdeal be financially self-sustainable.

Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, which holds close to 35 per cent stake in Snapdeal and one that was driving the discussions, said it supports entrepreneurs and their vision.

...we respect the decision to pursue an independent strategy. We look forward to the results of the Snapdeal 2.0 strategy, and to remaining invested in the vibrant Indian e- commerce space, a SoftBank spokesperson said.

According to company sources, the talks ended on account of the complexity of the deal that came with multiple conditions, right from indemnity to a non-compete clause.

These did not find favour with the founders of the Gurugram-based online marketplace, they added.

The sources did not wish to be named as the discussions were private.

The deal was also contingent upon a nod from Snapdeals high-profile minority investors, including Ratan Tata and Azim Premjis investment arm, PremjiInvest.

It wasnt immediately clear if any of the minority shareholders had objected to the deal.

Once a leading player in the Indian e-commerce space, Snapdeal has seen its fortunes fall amid strong competition from rivals, Amazon and Flipkart.

Its valuation plunged from a peak of about USD 6.5 billion in February 2016 to about USD 1 billion during the latest round of discussions.

Indias nascent e-commerce sector is witnessing an intense battle for leadership between US-based Amazon and home grown firm Flipkart as more Indians turn to online shopping.

The players have been pumping in millions of dollars in building infrastructure, getting sellers online as well as promotions to bring more shoppers onboard.

The decision to continue independently also comes within days of Snapdeal agreeing to sell its digital payment platform, FreeCharge, to Axis Bank for Rs 385 crore.

One of the sources said Snapdeal is now pivoting into a Taobao-like open marketplace set up and with money coming in from the sale of non-core assets like Freecharge and Vulcan (when it gets completed), the company will have a run time of a few years. Snapdeal has about 1,200 employees.

In an e-mail to employees last week, Bahl had indicated that the company may decide to continue independently. Bahl had said the Freecharge deal would give Snapdeal the necessary boost in resources to continue its e-commerce journey.  PTI
The BJP under Narendra Modi-Amit Shah is making fresh political conquests by the day but is leaving behind the odious residue of discord, conflict and impunity. The latest to raise the flag is a group of over 100 retired officers from all the three services who have penned a collective letter to the Prime Minister protesting the relentless vigilantism that is sweeping parts of the country. This is not the first time that superannuated officers, with no ostensible axe to grind, have cautioned the Modi government about the social discord unleashed in towns and villages of the country. Last month 65 retired bureaucrats of all India and Central services, who were at pains to point out that they had no political affiliation, had expressed their deep disquiet over the erosion of the credo of impartiality, neutrality and commitment to the Indian Constitution.

What makes the latest missive different is that all of its backers are retired officers from the three services, the constituency completely claimed by the ruling dispensation. These former officers also say the compelling reason for penning the note of protest is the current climate of divisiveness behind which is the cultivated buildup of climate of hate and distrust. Like their retired civilian colleagues, these officers have also done some plain speaking on the browbeating of the media and the targeting of Dalits and Muslims.

Success is a major disincentive for changing course, especially in a hard-fought profession like politics. The Prime Minister referred to communalism in his latest broadcast to the nation but it was water off the duck's back for the Hindutva vigilante crowd. The formula worked brilliantly in UP and Assam and reaped a decent harvest in Bihar that subsequently came in handy. This approach is overlaid with the sauce of hyper-nationalism in which it is proclaimed that the armed forces are co-opted partners as they chip away at the Constitutions liberal and secular values. Now it is that very section which says it can no longer look away in silence while diversity, the glue of cohesion for the nation and the armed forces, is under attack.
Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, July 31

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Monday cancelled his official visit to Chamba after a massive protest was held by locals over the rape of a student, allegedly by a teacher, in Tissa.

Angry protesters pelted the police with stones, injuring three policemen, including Chamba ASP Varinder Singh.

Though the teacher accused of rape was arrested, the locals have sought action against the school staff.

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Meanwhile, the teachers on Monday boycotted classes in Tissa demanding the arrest of those who attacked the staff of the school.

The incident reportedly took place three to four days ago.

Earlier, an irate mob damaged a few shops, burnt a PWD rain shelter and two kiosks at Tissa. The Deputy Commissioner, who was at the spot, said the situation was under control and peaceful.

Protesters also gheraoed the office of the SDM at Tissa and shouted slogans against the local administration while seeking justice for the rape victim.

Politicisation

Singh accused the state BJP of trying to politicise the gangrape and murder of a schoolgirl in Shimlas Kotkhai last month.

The BJP believes in "violence" and is "adopting cheap tactics" before the state assembly elections, he told reporters here.

"The opposition is trying to disturb law and order in state capital Shimla and playing cheap politics over the death of an innocent girl," Singh said.

The CBI is investigating the case, he said. (With PTI)
New Delhi, July 31

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday met BJP MPs from several states, including from Haryana, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir, and emphasised the need to ensure continuance of the benefit chain under GST.

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The Prime Minister also asked small businesses and traders to register under the recently rolled out goods and services tax, as the Members of Parliament maintained that there was a lot of enthusiasm among small commercial ventures regarding the new law.

GST has been accepted and overwhelmingly supported across the country. Small traders should also register themselves with this new tax law. It should be ensured that the benefit chain of GST be continued, an official statement quoted Modi as saying.

Besides J-K, Delhi and Haryana, MPs from Punjab, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh as well as the party MP from Chandigarh were present during the meeting with the Prime Minister.

Modi asked them to ensure that senior citizens get maximum benefits under various welfare schemes, including a new pension scheme, Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana (PMVVY), under which they will get 8 per interest on their deposits.

The Prime Minister also talked about the development of hill regions, noting that the government had implemented various new schemes which had resulted in qualitative changes in the life of people.

As a result, tremendous opportunities for jobs and tourism had opened up in the hill states, he added.

On closure of the public distribution system (PDS) in Chandigarh and Puducherry, Modi said money was directly transferred into the beneficiaries accounts. This model, he added, could be adopted in other states as well.

This was Modis sixth meeting with BJP MPs at his residence during the ongoing Monsoon session of Parliament.

These meetings are coordinated by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar. PTI
New Delhi, July 31

Chinese troops entered one kilometre into Indian territory and threatened shepherds grazing cattle in the Barahoti area of Uttarakhand's Chamoli district, officials said on Friday.

The transgression took place on the morning of July 25 when Peoples Liberation Army troops ordered some shepherds to leave a stretch of land, officials who knew about the developments said on the condition of anonymity.

The incident comes in the backdrop of a prolonged standoff between Chinese and Indian troops at Dokalam near Sikkim.

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Barahoti, an 80 sq km sloping pasture about 140 km from the Uttarakhand capital Dehradun, is one of three border posts in what is known the 'middle sector', comprising Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

It is a demilitarised zone where Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) jawans are not allowed to take their weapons, officials said.

In 1958, India and China listed Barahoti as a disputed area where neither side would send their troops. In the 1962 war, the PLA did not enter the middle sector and focused on the western (Ladakh) and eastern (Arunachal Pradesh) sectors.

After the war, ITBP jawans would patrol the area with weapons in a non-combative manner  with the barrel of the gun facing down.

During negotiations on resolving the border dispute, the Indian side unilaterally agreed in June 2000 that ITBP troops would not carry arms in three posts, Barahoti and Kauril and Shipki in Himachal Pradesh.

ITBP men go patrolling in civil dress and the Barahoti pasture sees Indian shepherds from border villages tending their sheep and people from Tibet bringing their yaks for grazing. PTI
Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 31

Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan may be in for trouble as Attorney General KK Venugopal on Monday sought his prosecution for his atrocious comments on the Bulandshahr gang rape case last year.

Khan should not have been let off, for his statement that the gang rape of a mother-daughter duo was a part of a political conspiracy amounted to an attempt to obstruct the police from discharging their duty, Venugopal told a Bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra.

I dont think he should have been absolved. He made the statement as a cabinet minister. Everybody knows that the local police are directly under the control of the state government. The implication of his statement was that the mother and daughter were branded as liars, Venugopal told a Bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra.

The Attorney General, however, said: Thankfully the case is with the CBI or else the police would have filed a closure report. His statement was contrary to the rule of law, Venugopal submitted, adding the former state minister should be charged under section 186 of IPC. The provision attracts three-month imprisonment and a fine of Rs 500 or both.

Showing newspaper clipping to the top court, Venugopal said Khan was in the habit of making such remarks and even after being let off in the Bulandhshahr case he made statements against the Indian Army for which he was facing a sedition case. Accusing Khan of obstructing the course of justice, the AG said he was a repeat offender.

As the Bench said a formal application should be filed, senior advocate Harish Salve, who is assisting the court in the matter, said he would do it. Shouldnt such a minister be disqualified from the legislature? This is becoming endemic in our country, Salve said.

The Bench said it would take up the issue on October 5.

The top court is to decide whether a person in a position of power can be held accountable for making irresponsible public statements in rape or criminal cases.

The issue reached the top court after the Bulandshahr rape survivors filed a petition seeking action against Khan for terming a case a political conspiracy.

During the hearing, Salve said: This principle (of whether people holding constitutional post can make statements influencing criminal cases) needs to be settled.

Khan had blamed the media for misinterpreting his statement and then tendered an unconditional apology in December last. But the court chose to go ahead with the hearing to determine if it could lay down guidelines to hold such people in power making irresponsible statements in criminal cases accountable.
Shahira Naim

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, July 31

Categorically denying any role of his party in the breaking of the grand alliance government in Bihar, BJP national president Amit Shah retorted should I have pointed a gun to keep them together?

Nitish Kumar resigned as he did not want to stay with the corrupt. Should I have pointed a gun to keep them together? asked Shah while responding to a question about Bihar.

Addressing a press conference on the concluding day of his three-day stay Shah attacked the Congress for not trusting its own MLAs and making them prisoners in a hotel room in Bengaluru.

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Denying any possibility of a return gift to the three UP MLCs who had quit their seats to facilitate the entry of the CM and his two deputies in the state legislature, he said such a word did not exist in his partys dictionary.

Shah also played down charges of his party now luring the Yadavs among the OBCs after focusing upon Dalits.

Please dont see politics in it. Earlier also I had eaten at the house of a booth-level worker who was a Dalit and on Sunday I ate at the home of another Yadav, a booth-level worker. They are party workers first, he claimed.

Scuttling rumours of SP MLA Shivpal Singh Yadavs likely entry into the BJP, Shah said neither was there such a proposal, nor was it being considered.

Reiterating that a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya was very much on the agenda of the party, Shah, however, said it would be built as per the decision of the court or through dialogue among stakeholders.

While Shah asserted that there was not a single allegation of corruption against the three-year old Narendra Modi government he flatly denied anyone from the party being involved in Panama Papers.

He said that even before the Modi government came to power the union cabinet had asked the Supreme Court to set up a committee to investigate the matter.

Responding to a question about the partys prospects in 2019, Shah said the BJP would emerge with even a greater majority on the basis of development and good governance alone.

Giving a pat on the back to both the Modi and Yogi governments, he quoted statistics to prove how the central assistance was now reaching the most marginalised in UP.
Ravi S Singh

Tribune News Service



New Delhi, July 31

Initiating a discussion on the situation arising out of the reported incidents of atrocities and lynching in the country, Congress Leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday tore into the government saying it was giving patronage to culprits.

Kharge said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is prompt in expressing views on other issues, but remained silent on killing of Junaid Khan on a train on suspicion of carrying beef.

He said organisations like the VHP, Bajrang Dal and cow vigilantism groups were behind the attacks on minorities and Dalits in the name of cow protection.

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Kharge wanted to know what the PM had done against them.

The atrocities are taking place where the BJP is in power. The image of the country has taken a beating abroad on account of the condemnable incidents. Do not make the country lynchistan, he said.

Everywhere there is an air of violence. At some places even Muslims are attacking members of their own community. He referred to the killing of a DSP in Srinagar.

During the discussion, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ananth Kumar objected to Kharge quoting former president Pranab Mukherjee.

Countering Kharge, Hukam Narayan Dev of the BJP said there should not be double standards on the issue of killings by mobs and on the issue of communal incidents.

Defending the Prime Minister, the leader said the former had condemned the incidents and called for action against the culprits; it was up to the state governments to take action.

He said vested interests were trying to sully the image of the government and were indulging in such acts under changed identities.

Referring to the incidents, including the lynching of the DSP in Kashmir, the BJP leader questioned the Congress and other Opposition benches about their silence in the matter.

Earlier, intervening in the discussion, Ananth Kumar said the state governments had been taking action in the lynching cases. He objected to Kharge raising the incidents which were sub judice.
London, July 31

The Indian government has submitted the requisite "opening note" and paperwork related to Vijay Mallya's extradition case to the liquor baron's legal team within the UK court deadline on Monday.

Chief Magistrate Emma Louise Arbuthnot, presiding at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London at the last hearing in the case on July 6, had set July 31 as the deadline for the Indian side  represented by the UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)  to provide Mallya's defence team with a detailed opening note on the case.

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The 61-year-old tycoon is sought by Indian authorities for allegedly defaulting on several bank loans amounting to nearly Rs 9,000 crore.

All matters are on track," official sources confirmed to PTI today.

The next hearing to assess the progress in the case will be held at Westminster Magistrates' Court on September 14.

Mallya, who has been in self-imposed exile in the UK since March 2016, was arrested by Scotland Yard on an extradition warrant on April 18 and is currently out on bail.

The CPS, arguing on behalf of the Indian government earlier this month, had told the court that they had "excellent cooperation" with the Indian authorities in the case and now had sufficient material to establish a prima facie case for the extradition of the former chief of erstwhile Kingfisher Airlines.

"We have completed a review of materials and I am happy to state that we have had excellent cooperation with the Indian authorities in this case. We are ready and willing to proceed and would invite the court to fix a hearing date at the earliest, CPS barrister Mark Summers had said.

The judge agreed with the CPS to "progress with some rigour" and retained December 4 as the date for a final hearing in the case.

If the Chief Magistrate rules in favour of extradition at the end of the trial, the UK home secretary must order Mallya's extradition within two months of the appropriate day.

However, the case can go through a series of appeals before arriving at a conclusion.

India and the UK have an Extradition Treaty, signed in 1992, and Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi had recently indicated it was working fine.

We are on the verge of extraditing an individual from India to the UK in the next week or 10 days. The extradition treaty is working just fine and there is no difficulty in the extradition treaty. We have extraditions already successfully completed," Mehrishi had said during his UK visit earlier this month.

So far only one extradition has taken place from the UK to India under the India-UK extradition treaty  that of Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel.

"He was extradited with the due process of law. We do understand that extradition does take time and there are multiple levels of appeal in either country and it is not the easiest of processes to complete. But being a liberal democracy that we are, we have to allow for the law taking its own course," Mehrishi added.

Mallya's extradition is also believed to have featured during bilateral talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart Theresa May on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Germany earlier this month.  PTI
Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, July 31

In a major embarrassment for the Devendra Fadnavis government in Maharashtra, a minister has been accused of rape.

Senior Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar produced a CD in the assembly, which he said contained details of allegations against the minister.

Pawar did not name the minister, who he said, belonged to one of the smaller parties that are part of the Fadnavis

government.

Pawar produced the CD after legislators from the Opposition raised the issue on the floor of the House.

The NCP leader said he was not naming the minister as he had not given prior notice to him as required by House rules. I am ready to give the CD to the speaker, Pawar said.



According to Pawar, the woman who raised the allegations of rape was the sole breadwinner in her family and was being blackmailed by the minister.

In letters written to senior police officials and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, the woman said the minister had threatened to implicate her in a false case to silence her.

After Pawars intervention, Speaker Haribhau Bagade ordered a probe in the allegations against the minister.

The probe will be conducted by Minister of State for Home Dr Ranjit Patil.

The Opposition MLAs however demanded that the government make a statement on the floor of the House. However, with the government not relenting, the Opposition legislators staged a walkout.

The matter took a curious turn after Eknath Khadse, a former minister in the Fadnavis government, said the woman has withdrawn the allegations against the minister.






New Delhi, July 31

A petition before the Supreme Court has asked for Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's membership of the state Legislative Council to be cancelled for allegedly concealing his suspected involvement in a murder case.

The petition claims that Nitish Kumars involvement was suspected in the murder of a local Congress leader Sitaram Singh in the run-up to Lok Sabha by-elections elections in Barh constituency in 1991.

The petition, filed by lawyer ML Sharma in his personal capacity, has also asked to court to order the CBI to register an FIR against Kumar.

"Respondent number 2 (Election Commission), despite knowing facts about his (Kumar's) criminal case, did not cancel his membership of the house and respondent (Kumar) still enjoys constitutional office till date," the petition said, asking for Kumar's membership to the Legislative Council to be terminated on the ground that he had not disclosed the criminal case in his any of his affidavits since 2004, except for one filed in 2012.

The Election Commission mandates candidates to disclose criminal proceedings against them in their nomination papers.

Congress leader Sitaram Singh was killed and four people were wounded in a clash in the village.

Kumar was among five Janata Dal leaders whose involvement was initially suspected in the case, but police later dropped his name from their chargesheet it submitted before a local court.  PTI/Agencies
Ananya Panda

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 31

In a major blow to Delhi University, the Delhi Government has announced withholding of grants to 28 of its constituent colleges over prolonged delay of the varsity in constituting full-fledged governing bodies for ten months now.

The drastic move is expected to hit the colleges at a time when the Delhi University is currently in process of beginning appointing permanent faculty.

It has been condemned by DU teachers blaming varsity Vice Chancellor Prof Yogesh Tyagi for it and urging the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government to withdraw the order.

The teachers unanimously said it will only hamper the academic process and employees have to pay for it more than anyone else.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has issued order to the Finance Department for stopping funds to all 28 Delhi government-run colleges of DU.

Twelve out of the 28 colleges are fully funded by the government and 16 are partially funded.

Hv ordered Fin Dept to stop funding for all Delhi gov funded 28 DU colleges, as DU not willing to hv governing bodies for last 10 months. I can not allow unchecked corruption and irregularities to be sustained on Delhi govt funds in the name of Education.

"The sequence of events from Sept 2016 seems to indicate a deliberate and malafied attempt to delay formation of gov bodies by DU, Sisodia, also the Delhi Education Minister, said in a series of tweets.

The governments move came in the backdrop of series of communications pertaining to the constitution of the governing bodies of the colleges since October 16 last year when the Registrar, Higher Education of Delhi Government asked the DU to send a panel of names for setting up of the bodies.

It was after three reminders from the Delhi Government the varsity administration sent a list of names on February 14.

Since last year most of the colleges are running with truncated governing bodies and minimum quorum (one-third of the total members 5).

The Delhi University Teachers Association has been putting pressure to create the governing bodies at the earliest to allay concerns of nepotism and corruption in faculty appointments.
GS Paul

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 31

'Pathis' (priests) at the Golden Temple on Monday protested against low wages in the presence of SAD chief Sukhbir Badal and Union Minister Harsimrat Badal while the 'akhand path' was on.

Sukhbir and Harsimrat were there to be part of the akhand path being performed at the Akal Takht on their behalf.

The protesting 'pathis' of the Golden Temple, supported by their colleagues from Gurdwara Shahidan Sahib, Gurdwara Budha Sahib and Gurdwara Baba Bakala, refused to accept fresh 'akhand path' bookings till their grievances were redressed.

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There are around 800 'pathis' engaged temporarily with the Golden Temple, 500 with Gurdwara Shahidan Sahib and nearly 150 each with Gurdwara Budha Sahib and Gurdwara Baba Bakala. They demanded a raise in their wages, besides other basic facilities offered to the regular SGPC employees.

Pathi Angrej Singh alleged that the SGPC had been adopting double standards when it came to paying wages or offering medical and educational facilities to its employees. He said the SGPC had granted them a raise of just Rs 50 per shift on the insistence of Sukhbir Badal, prior to the elections.

But today, SGPC officials refused to entertain us and we were forced to shun work to raise our concern. Majority of the 'pathis' have been associated with the respective gurdwaras for the past over three decades, but are being given indifferent treatment in comparison to other employees. Neither our children are allowed to study in the SGPC institutes nor are we entitled to free medical aid in its hospitals. We have repeatedly approached successive SGPC presidents, but to no avail, he said.

Harsimrat Badal condemned the move. It was unbecoming on their part to vitiate the spiritual environs by raising slogans, she said.

A delegation of priests under the banner of Shiromani Akhand Pathi Welfare Society met SGPC officials. SGPCs executive member Ram Singh also termed their behaviour bad. They could have approached us. But hampering the 'akhand path; and raising slogans in the Golden Temple complex was uncalled for, he said.

Sources said the agitating pathis were later given a raise of another Rs 50 per shift.
Ahmedabad, July 31

The Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) on Monday detained three persons in connection with the seizure of 1,500 kg of heroin valued at about Rs 3,500 crore from a merchant vessel off the Gujarat coast yesterday.

Though the vessel, identified as 'Hennry', claimed to have set sail from Iran and headed to Gujarat, the ATS is not ruling out the possibility that the contraband was loaded at a port in Pakistan before starting its journey towards Gujarat coast.

"Based on the (satellite) call details of the crew, we have detained three persons for questioning. They were picked up from different locations," said a senior ATS official.

"Though the boat claimed to have set sail from Iran, there is a possibility that the heroin was loaded at a port in Pakistan," he added.

In one of the biggest drugs haul, an Indian Coast Guard (ICG) ship seized 1,500 kg of heroin valued at about Rs 3,500 crore from a Panama-registered merchant vessel off the Gujarat coast yesterday, said a release by the Defence PRO.

After the seizure of the boat and heroin, various agencies such as the ATS and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) swung into action and started their investigation.

The ATS official said that all the eight crew members on board the vessel are from either Bihar or Uttar Pradesh.

While talking to mediapersons at Porbandar yesterday, Commodore Rakesh Pal of the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) said two satellite phones were also recovered from the eight crew members, who are now undergoing joint interrogation at Porbandar.

"We have extracted call data from one of the seized satellite phones and given that data to various agencies such as ATS and NCB for further action," he said.

During primary investigation by the ICG, it was revealed that though the vessel was registered in Panama as "Hennry", the crew was transmitting its identity as Prince II, the release said.

The vessel was intercepted at around 1200 hrs on July 29 and taken to Porbandar port yesterday for further investigation, it said.

Security agencies are trying to find out who in India was to take the delivery of the contraband.  PTI
NEW YORK: Scientists have found the first indisputable evidence of the presence of a molecule  acrylonitrile  on Titan, which may be key to exotic life on the methane-based, oxygen-free moon of Saturn.

According to researchers at Cornell University in the US, the discovery gets us closer to finding life in a truly alien environment.

Researchers definitively discovered the molecule, vinyl cyanide (acrylonitrile), that is our best candidate for a protocell that might be stable and flexible in liquid methane, said astronomer Jonathan Lunine from Cornell.

This is a step forward in understanding whether Titans methane seas might host an exotic form of life, said Lunine.

Saturns moon, Enceladus is the place to search for life like us, life that depends on - and exists in - liquid water.

Titan, on the other hand, is the place to go to seek the outer limits of life  can some exotic type of life begin and evolve in a truly alien environment, that of liquid methane? he said.

According to Paulette Clancy, chemical and biological engineer at Cornell, this confirmation suggests that future collaborations between computational approaches and mining of the experimental data can lead to breakthroughs in understanding worlds alien to our own. PTI
BEIRUT, July 25

Air strikes killed at least nine people in the Eastern Ghouta area near Damascus overnight and insurgent shelling from the rebel-held area landed near the Russian embassy on Tuesday, a war monitor reported.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the deaths in the air strikes in the Eastern Ghouta town of Arbin marked the first civilian casualties since a Russian-backed truce in the area came into effect. The Syrian military declared a cessation of hostilities there on Saturday.

But Russia, a military ally of President Bashar al-Assad, dismissed reports of air strikes in the area as "an absolute lie" meant to discredit Moscow's peacemaking efforts.

"During working contacts with representatives of opposition groups in Eastern Ghouta it was confirmed that no military actions had been conducted in this de-escalation zone, there had been no air strikes," the Russian defence ministry spokesman said in a statement on Tuesday.

Russia said on Monday it had deployed military police in Eastern Ghouta to try to enforce a de-escalation zone it said it had agreed with the Syrian opposition there.

Tuesday's shelling near the Russian embassy marked the first time rebels had hit government-held areas of central Damascus since the truce began.

The Observatory said the overnight air strikes wounded 30 people in Eastern Ghouta while another four were injured by further air strikes that targeted the area on Tuesday morning.

The Civil Defence for rural Damascus, a rescue service operating in the area, said the dead included five children and two women.

In a statement on its Facebook page, it put the number of wounded and missing at 50. The air strikes hit the area at 11 pm (2000 GMT), it said.

There was no immediate comment from the Syrian military on the report, and no mention of air strikes by state media.

Witnesses said three mortar shells landed in the neighbourhood where the Russian embassy is located in northeastern Damascus. There were no reports of casualties.

The Syrian army, with military support from Russia and Iran, has dealt the opposition a string of defeats around the capital over the last year, seizing back control of areas including Daraya and Moadamiya. Reuters
Beijing, July 30

Chinese President Xi Jinping today said the Peoples Liberation Army is capable of vanquishing all invading enemies and praised its combat readiness as he reviewed a massive military parade to mark the 90th founding anniversary of the worlds largest armed force.

Dressed in camouflage, Xi inspected 12,000 troops in various formations from an open-top military jeep at the parade held in Zhurihe  Asias largest military training centre in the middle of a desert in Inner Mongolia.

Over 100 fighter jets flew overhead and almost 600 types of weaponry were on display on the occasion.

Xi said the PLA should strictly follow the absolute leadership of the Communist Party of China and march to wherever the party points to.

While there was no reference in his speech to over a month-long India-China military standoff at Doklam in the Sikkim section, his remarks came in the midst of a shrill official media campaign and assertions by the foreign and defence ministries here accusing Indian troops of trespassing into Chinese territory at Doklam.

A spokesman said Zhurihe was selected to highlight PLAs combat readiness, but stressed war-zone trainings was long scheduled.  PTI
Moscow/Washington, July 30

MOSCOW/WASHINGTON: President Vladimir Putin said the United States would have to cut its diplomatic staff in Russia by 755 people and that Moscow could consider additional measures against Washington as a response to new US sanctions approved by Congress.

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Moscow ordered the United States on Friday to cut hundreds of diplomatic staff and said it would seize two US diplomatic properties after the US House of Representatives and the Senate overwhelmingly approved new sanctions on Russia.

The White House said on Friday that US President Donald Trump would sign the sanctions Bill.

Putin said in an interview with Vesti TV released on Sunday that the United States would have to cut its diplomatic and technical staff by 755 people by Sept. 1.

Because more than 1,000 workers - diplomats and support staff - were working and are still working in Russia, 755 must stop their activity in the Russian Federation, he said.

The new US sanctions were partly a response to conclusions by US intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in the 2016 US presidential election, and to punish Russia further for its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

Russias response suggested it had set aside initial hopes of better ties with Washington under Trump, something the Republican president, before he was elected, had said he wanted to achieve.

A federal law enforcement investigation and multiple US congressional probes looking into the possibility that Trumps campaign colluded with Russia have made it harder for Trump to open a new chapter with Putin. Russia denies it interfered in the election and Trump has said there was no collusion.

Moscow said on Friday that the United States had until Sept.

1 to reduce its diplomatic staff in Russia to 455 people, matching the number of Russian diplomats left in the United States after Washington expelled 35 Russians in December.

On Friday, an official at the US Embassy, who did not wish to be identified, said the embassy employed about 1,100 diplomatic and support staff in Russia, including Russian and US citizens.

Uncalled-for act

The State Department declined to comment on the exact number of embassy and consular staff in Russia.

But a State Department official called Russias action a regrettable and uncalled-for act.

We are assessing the impact of such a limitation and how we will respond to it, the official said on condition of anonymity.

As of 2013, the US mission in Russia, including the Moscow embassy and consulates in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok, employed 1,279 staff, according to a State Department Inspector Generals report that year. That included 934 locally employed staff and 301 US direct-hire staff, from 35 US government agencies, the report said.

That breakdown suggested the actual number of Americans forced to leave Russia would be far less than 755.

We dont (sic) have 755 American diplomats in Russia, said Michael McFaul, a former US ambassador to Russia, in a post on Twitter on Sunday.

The cuts would likely affect how quickly the United States is able to process Russian applications for US visas, McFaul said.

If these cuts are real, Russians should expect to wait weeks if not months to get visas to come to US, he said.

Putin said Russia could take more measures against the United States, but not at the moment.

I am against it as of today, Putin said in the interview with Vesti TV.

He repeated that the US sanctions were a step to worsening relations between the two countries.

We were waiting for quite a long time that maybe something would change for the better, were holding out hope that the situation would change somehow. But it appears that even if it changes someday it will not change soon, Putin said.

He said Moscow and Washington were achieving results on cooperation, however, even in this quite difficult situation. The creation of the southern de-escalation zone in Syria showed a concrete result of the joint work between the two countries, Putin said. Reuters
Washington, July 31

The US has said the time for talk over North Korea was "over," spurning a UN response to Pyongyang's latest ICBM launch in favour of bomber flights and missile defence system tests.

Nikki Haley, the US envoy to the United Nations, said there was "no point" in holding a fruitless emergency Security Council session, warning that a weak additional council resolution would be "worse than nothing" in light of the North's repeated violations.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un boasted of his country's ability to strike any target in the US after an intercontinental ballistic missile test Friday that weapons experts said could even bring New York into range -- in a major challenge to Trump.

US strategic bombers on Saturday flew over the Korean peninsula in a direct response to the launch, and on Sunday American forces successfully tested a missile interception system the US hopes will be installed on the Korean peninsula.

Under Kim's leadership, North Korea has accelerated its drive towards a credible nuclear strike capability, in defiance of international condemnation and multiple sets of UN sanctions. The US Senate passed new bipartisan sanctions on Pyongyang on Friday.

Haley urged China, Japan and South Korea to tighten the screws on Pyongyang.

"An additional Security Council resolution that does not significantly increase the international pressure on North Korea is of no value," she wrote.

"It sends the message to the North Korean dictator that the international community is unwilling to seriously challenge him.

"China must decide whether it is finally willing to take this vital step. The time for talk is over."

Earlier, US President Donald Trump warned that he would not allow China -- the impoverished North's sole major ally and economic lifeline -- to "do nothing" about Pyongyang.

In two tweets, Trump linked trade strains with the Asian giant -- marked by a trade deficit of $309 billion last year -- to policy on North Korea, after Seoul indicated it could speed up the deployment of a US missile defense system that has infuriated China.

I am very disappointed in China. Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017

...they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017

"I am very disappointed in China. Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk," Trump wrote.

"We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!"

Trump has repeatedly urged China to rein in its recalcitrant neighbor, but Beijing insists dialogue is the only practical way forward.

Shinzo Abe, the prime minister of US treaty ally Japan, also urged Beijing to act -- along with Moscow -- after telephone talks with Trump on Monday Tokyo time.

The North had "trampled all over" efforts to seek a peaceful solution to the situation and "unilaterally escalated" tensions.

"The international community including China and Russia must take it seriously and step up pressure," he told reporters.

Pyongyang lauded the developers of the missile at the weekend, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

The US-led campaign only provided "further justification" for the North's resolve to maintain its weapons programs, Pyongyang's foreign ministry said in a statement carried by KCNA.

The ICBM test "is meant to send a stern warning to the US making senseless remarks, being lost to reason in the frantic sanctions and pressure campaign against the DPRK," it said, using an acronym for the North's official name.

Independent experts say it brings Los Angeles and Chicago within range, and could travel as far as Boston and New York.

Pacific Air Forces commander General Terrence O'Shaughnessy called Pyongyang "the most urgent threat to regional stability."

"If called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing," he said. AFP
The contract between a Coca-Cola distributor and Tulsa Countys Expo Square  claimed as the barrier that prevented an Olympic sports headquarters planned for the fairgrounds  is set to end before the facility could have been built or a single beverage poured.

Expo Square officials attempted to negotiate deals between USA BMX and the distributor but declined to detail why negotiations failed on a sunsetting contract or how any such negotiations took place.

Communication between all parties took place surrounding the agreement and how to come to a beneficial resolution, which led to the decision by USA BMX to explore other opportunities, said Sarah Thompson, Expo Square spokeswoman, in an email response to several questions regarding the process.

Neither Thompson nor Expo Square CEO Mark Andrus responded to requests for additional information.

The amended and restated beverage agreement between the Tulsa County Public Facilities Authority and Great Plains Coca Cola Bottling Co. gives the distributor exclusive rights to all beverage pours at Expo Square facilities with a good faith clause to pursue adding any new facilities into the agreement.

The contract has paid out about $250,000 to the county in each of the past three years in a deal that pays out a minimum, a bonus for exceeding sales expectations and a percentage increase each year for the life of the contract.

The original Beverage Agreement began Jan. 1, 2003, and was amended and restated effective Jan. 1, 2008, for a 10-year span.

That means the contract needs to end or be renegotiated this year before it sunsets Jan. 1, 2018.

The city of Tulsa hadnt planned on funding construction of the BMX facility until after that date with plans to open the facility closer to 2020, indicating the agreement itself is not the sole factor in the projects displacement.

The plans for the USA BMX facility at Expo Square were abandoned earlier this summer due to irreconcilable differences surrounding the Coca-Cola contract between BMX and the other parties involved, Andrus announced in June.

The plans had been to use Vision Tulsas $15.2 million lure to bring USA BMX by refurbishing offices at the fairgrounds next to old Drillers Stadium where Expo Square officials planned to dismantle the existing structure and build a new BMX arena.

Once the Expo Square plans were abandoned, the city of Tulsa took over sole responsibility of the project and recently announced plans to build an indoor arena and house USA BMX offices at the downtown Evans-Fintube industrial facility.

Expo Square officials provided information in response to a records request asking for the cost thus far of demolishing old Drillers Stadium.

The only financial figure so far associated with the demolition was actually a gain after the Tulsa County Public Facilities Authority received $11,000 for the purchase and removal of stadium seating and equipment, according to the response to the records request.

Expo Square officials have previously said they are looking for other opportunities to fill the site and looks forward to continuing a relationship with USA BMX, that has for years held its biggest event of the year at Expo Square.

Were disappointed that it didnt work out, of course, Thompson said in June. They (USA BMX) have been a really good partner to us for a really long time.
University of Tulsa President Emeritus Steadman Upham will return to the school's top leadership post effective Oct. 1, the school's board of trustees announced Thursday.

Upham's return to Tulsa was preceded by the Sept. 12 firing of President Geoffrey Orsak only 74 days after Orsak took office.

Upham, 63, led TU for the eight years prior to Orsak's brief tenure. He has agreed to return to the school for up to two years.

Reached at his home in Santa Fe, N.M., Upham said he was surprised to be headed back into the school's top office but was pleased that it will mean he will return to a city and a university that he loves.

He said he thought the school's trustees had handled the Orsak situation well and that TU isn't in turmoil, but his first job in office will be to carefully assess the situation before continuing the school's push toward established academic and institutional goals.

"I think I should go in listening and then push up. We've got work to do," Upham said. "I want to go back and do what I can to help the university."

Upham, who retired June 30, oversaw an era of academic and physical growth for the school, raising more than $700 million and helping it rise to No. 75 among national research universities in the annual U.S. News & World Report survey.

"I have every confidence that the University of Tulsa is as strong as ever, and I look forward to helping ensure TU has a smooth transition into its next historic phase," Upham said. "I sincerely love this university and this city, and I am glad to be of service at this crucial time."

TU Board Chairman Duane Wilson said Upham will provide the university with the leadership it requires.

"Stead knows TU inside and out and is respected by our students, faculty, alumni and friends," Wilson said. "The board agreed that this stabilizing force will allow us to move forward deliberately and without haste in selecting TU's next president."

The trustees have not announced a timeline for a presidential search.

Upham said travel plans and other obligations will keep him busy until his return.

On Sept. 11, TU announced Orsak was taking a leave of absence "to attend to a very serious health matter of his father in Dallas."

The next day, the school announced Orsak had been fired effective immediately.

School officials have refused to offer any details for the decision or whether the two announcements were related.

Orsak later confirmed by email that he was in Dallas and was taking care of his father, who had a brain tumor. Given the lengthy process of candidate selection, Orsak said he was disappointed that "the board has decided to go in a different direction" so quickly.

Orsak also didn't offer any details on what had happened.

Contacted by telephone Thursday, William Funk, the Dallas-based consultant who worked with TU on its last presidential search, declined to answer on-the-record questions about the search process.

Kevan Buck, TU's executive vice president, has been in charge of day-to-day operations at the school since Orsak's departure.

Wayne Greene 918-581-8308

Original Print Headline: Upham to resume role as TU president
Multiple fire departments and other agencies worked together in downtown Wagoner as a blaze spread through several historic buildings Sunday.

Wagoner Police believe the fire broke out Sunday evening at Stacy Lynn Lofts and spread to engulf other structures on the east side of South Main Street near West Cherokee Street. Owl Drug and the Auction House were burned.

Owl Drug has been in Wagoner for 115 years. That building also housed a business called Gametime Nutrition.

No injuries were reported. Four families from the affected apartments were on the street when first responders arrived, officials said at a news conference Sunday evening.

Wagoner citizens also were asked to restrict water usage through the night to help crews have access to as much water as needed to fight the flames.

Wagoner Fire Chief Kelly Grooms said he was less concerned about water availability than the age of the buildings affected.

The issue is once they get to burning theyre hard to put out. Theyve got so much stuff in them, theyre old; you cant send people into them because theyre just too dangerous, Grooms said at the news conference.

Grooms said the fire destroyed five buildings.

On these older, downtown buildings have you to give up a little to save the other buildings, Grooms said. You get to a point where you have to sacrifice some thats already burning.
As the number of people waiting for developmental disabilities services has reached an all-time high, the Oklahoma Department of Human Services is considering abandoning the first-come, first-served approach to the developmental disabilities services waiting list.

Instead, it would prioritize the list according to need, meaning families who have waited for help for years could be moved back in line while others are shifted to the front.

But how that system would work, and whether it would be fair and effective, is unclear. DHS officials said the change will take years to implement. The agency has made relatively little progress during the past two years.

In the meantime, the waiting list for government-paid services for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities continues to grow, hitting a record 7,560 this year.

In 2015, a state panel formed by Gov. Mary Fallin recommended ways to improve services for developmentally disabled people and proposed ranking those on the waiting list according to their situation and need.

Personnel changes at DHS and the agencys attention to other matters, however, have delayed changing the first-come, first-served approach, a DHS official said.

Under the current system, individuals on the waiting list receive a Medicaid waiver for services as soon as their name reaches the top of the list. The waiver allows Oklahoma to use Medicaid funds to pay for treatment of the disabled in families homes or community homes instead of large institutions.

The approach has left more than 1,000 families waiting for a decade or more for services, which can include therapy, vocational training, home health aides and long-term case management. Those on the list have conditions such as autism, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, brain injuries and intellectual disabilities. About half are children.

Currently, applicants who have extreme needs can receive emergency waivers.

Over time, dwindling state funding has caused the waiting list to swell. After hitting a peak of about $238 million in fiscal 2014, funding for developmental disabilities services dropped to about $224 million in 2016. During the same time period, the waiting list grew from 6,980 to 7,405.

I think that the waiver is very important to most individuals, said Marie Moore, DHSs interim director for developmental disabilities services. It allows them to be more independent, and it allows them to be in the community more so than they would without that service.

Parents perspective

Since 2010, Erin Taylors 15-year-old son, Henry Weathers, has been on the disabilities waiting list. Weathers was born with a congenital heart condition that required multiple heart surgeries and led to an intellectual disability.

When Taylor, an advocacy and training coordinator for the Oklahoma Developmental Disabilities Council, a state advocacy agency, added her sons name to the list, she wasnt sure what services he would need down the line.

I didnt know what I wanted, but I knew I didnt want him to live in an institution, she said.

Over time, shes gotten a clearer picture of what shed like for her son. She expects him to need case management  someone who can coordinate his medical and vocational needs and check on him several times a day.

Moore said about 1,200 of the waiver applicants, or 16 percent, have been on the waiting list for 10 years.

Wanda Feltys 28-year-old daughter, Kayla White, spent time on the waiting list before becoming one of the first in the state to receive care and independence-skills training at home through the waiver. A habilitation training specialist works with White six days a week to develop skills ranging from personal care to daily living.

The bottom line is, without this support I would not be able to work, and Id be home with Kayla, said Felty, of Oklahoma City, an advocate who served on the waiting-list recommendation panel. Kayla would not be gaining in independence. Where she is now and where she started from is completely different.

Since the state panel recommended revamping the list, Moore said DHS has been in discovery mode, examining how other states prioritize program applicants by need.

DHS has looked at several states  including Missouri, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Utah  to determine how they run their waiting lists and what criteria go into prioritization assessments, Moore said.

New Jerseys waiting list is organized into two categories  a priority list and a general list. Applicants are placed on the priority list if they meet certain criteria, such as being at risk for abuse or neglect, or both of their parents are age 55 or older.

Other states use more categories to prioritize their wait list applicants. Floridas wait list has seven categories that rank their needs. The highest level is a crisis due to homelessness, being a danger to themselves and others, or losing their caregiver. The lowest category is made up of clients under age 21 who, in addition to meeting other standards, arent in crisis or the child welfare system and have a caregiver.

When asked why DHS hasnt yet overhauled its wait list, Moore, said, Weve had quite a bit of personnel changes, and the prior director had a focus on closing down the facilities, and she left 18 months ago. I dont think that it was something she didnt want to do. Its just that we had other needs. Were just working on it as we get information.

Once DHS sets a direction, it will spend time working with families and other stakeholders to develop a process that is believed to be fair, she said. Then it will take at least three years to establish the new system.

Would it be fair?

Ann Trudgeon, executive director of the Developmental Disabilities Council, supports a prioritized wait list, describing it as a triage for applicants. She pictures a system with multiple categories based on need, ranked 1 to 5, with 1 being the greatest need. It would require regular assessment of applicants to reflect their changing situations, she said.

For families on the waiting list, the idea of a new priority system can bring up complicated feelings. What if someone who had been on the list for 10 years is shuffled toward the bottom because DHS determines their need is a low priority? What if DHS fails to connect families with other available services while theyre waiting?

First of all, when Kayla was on the waiting list, I felt like no one knew about the waiting list and no one cared about it, so I put myself back in that place, Felty said. Id think Kayla would never get services and wed never get help, and then the hope would go away. The biggest (concern) for me is families, for them to lose hope.

Both Felty and Trudgeon expressed concerns that under a needs-based waiting list, some applicants will linger near the bottom of the list.

How do you tell someone who has been on the list for seven years that someone who has been on the list for two years is ahead of them? Trudgeon said. Thats the downside of that system. It is going to look unfair, and Id like to think that my fellow Oklahomans understand who most needs support, but I think it will be a challenge.
Republican Lauren Boebert is in a tight race in her bid for reelection to a U.S. House seat in Colorado against Democrat Adam Frisch, a businessman and former city councilman from the posh, mostly liberal ski town of Aspen. Boeberts contest in Colorados sprawling 3rd Congressional District is being watched nationally as Republicans try to flip control of the U.S. House in the midterm elections. The Donald Trump loyalist established herself as a partisan flashpoint in Washington, D.C., in her first term, and had been favored to win reelection after redistricting made the rural conservative district more Republican. Frisch criticizes what he calls Boebert's divisive brand of angertainment in Washington. Boebert vows: We will have this victory.
Our entire community mourns the death of former University of Tulsa President Steadman Upham.

Upham, 68, died Sunday from complications following recent surgery.

At TU, Upham was a quiet, transformative leader who reshaped the school physically and intellectually.

His strong guidance fostered a new spirit at TU, manifested in new buildings, academic successes and a spirit of confidence and mission.

Upham served eight successful years as the universitys president before he retired in 2012. Then, in a sacrificial act, he returned to the schools helm when his successor was fired shortly after arriving. The incident could have been disastrous for the school, but thanks to Uphams solid guidance, TU hardly missed a beat. He returned to retirement last year, and had planned to join the TU anthropology faculty.

In total, Upham led TU for 12 years, a time of great achievements for the school, including new academic programs, the successful $698 million Embrace the Future fundraising campaign, establishment (with the University of Oklahoma) of the OU-TU School of Community Medicine, TU management of Gilcrease Museum, establishment of The Helmerich Center for American Research and acquisition of The Bob Dylan Archive. It is an impressive record of accomplishment that will leave TU changed forever.

We offer our condolences to Uphams family and the TU community. We share in their loss.

Upham was a wise man, a community leader and a great president. We had hoped to benefit from his abilities for much longer.

He will be missed.


Key Industry organisations have joined forces for a new Charter to promote diversity on screen.

The Screen Diversity and Inclusion Network (SDIN) launched yesterday at AFTRS in Sydney with a Charter to promote diversity in the sector. Another event will be held at ACMI in Melbourne on 7th August.

Amongst those committed to improving diversity on screen are:

Foxtel

Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS)

ABC

SBS

Network TEN

The Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association (ASTRA)

Screen Producers Australia (SPA)

FreeTV Australia

The Australian Screen Industry Group (which represents all the Guilds)

MediaRING

Screen Australia

Create NSW

Film Victoria

Screen Queensland

Screenwest

The South Australian Film Corporation

Screen Territory

Screen Tasmania

ScreenACT

The SDIN will set targets for industry change and evaluate progress via sector-wide measurement tools. In order to be member, an organisation needs to officially commit to the Charter.

SDIN Chair (and CEO of AFTRS), Neil Peplow, said: We want to ensure that Australian screen culture reflects the dynamic diversity of contemporary Australia. We want our stories to be enriched by a range of perspectives and experiences. And we want them to be created by our best creative talent, whatever their background. The Screen Diversity and Inclusion Network charter sets us up to make these ambitions become reality.

Foxtel CEO, Peter Tonagh, said: To address this important issue will require engagement across the entire industry. We want to bring new talent and fresh stories into our sector and to deliver that there needs to be opportunities for new creative voices at every stage of their careers.

Pam Longstaff, Acting CEO Free TV Australia, said: Free TV welcomes this initiative. Our industry provides Australians with thousands of hours of home-grown content every year. A diversity of talent in the screen production sector sustains Australian story-telling and allows local voices to flourish and shape our national identity.

Screen Australia CEO, Graeme Mason, said: We have a lot of work to do to ensure that the Australia we see on our screens more accurately reflects the diversity of Australian society, as the Seeing Ourselves study highlighted, and we know that Screen Australia cant do this alone. It is encouraging to see The Screen Diversity and Inclusion Network (SDIN) bring together television networks, screen agencies, industry bodies and AFTRS who collectively have the ability to make a genuine change across all areas of the screen sector.

ABC Managing Director, Michelle Guthrie, said: As the Australian community becomes increasingly diverse, the ABC and the wider media industry needs to represent all Australians if it is to remain relevant to audiences. This means embracing diversity both behind and in front of the camera.

SBS Managing Director, Michael Ebeid, said: Diversity is at the core of SBS. Driven by our unique purpose, weve been promoting the benefits of diversity in all its forms for more than 40 years. Were committed to improving the representation of diverse communities within the media  not just in the faces reflected, but in the perspectives shared and in the stories explored  because ensuring our industry is truly representative of contemporary Australia, on and off our screens, encourages a more inclusive society and contributes to a successful and cohesive multicultural nation.

SPA CEO, Matthew Deaner, said: We want Australian creative practitioners and Australian content to draw on our best and to reflect who we are to ourselves and the world. We can only do that if we ensure that our screen industries properly reflect our diverse culture by addressing diversity in front of, and behind, the camera and we hold ourselves to account.

Screen Queensland CEO, Tracey Viera, said: The need for more diversity in how we show and tell the stories of contemporary Australia is an issue that the entire industry has identified and one that we are working collectively to solve. Its incredibly encouraging to see the industry come together and sign the SDIN charter which is an important step in ensuring that each and every one of us sees our work through a diversity lens.

Network TEN Chief Executive Officer, Paul Anderson, said: The Screen Diversity and Inclusion Network (SDIN) is an important and welcome industry-wide initiative. Australians want to see Australian stories on their screens and its vital that those stories reflect the diversity of our community whenever possible. What happens in front of the cameras, of course, is only part of the story. It is just an important to embrace diversity and inclusion in our workplaces.

SDIN members are already working together on a range of initiatives, such as intensive professional development for new practitioners from underrepresented groups across Australia, internships, placements and attachments.

www.sdin.com.au


Geoffrey Wrights 1992 feature Romper Stomper is to be turned into a 6-part drama series for Stan.

The film which starred Russell Crowe will see Jacqueline McKenzie and Dan Wyllie reprising their roles in a continuation of the story 25 years later. Joining them are Lachy Hulme, Sophie Lowe, David Wenham and rising star Toby Wallace (Boys In The Trees).

The drama is to be produced by John Edwards and Dan Edwards for Roadshow Rough Diamond.

Described as a high stakes crime drama / political thriller, Romper Stomper will follow a new generation of the activist Right, their Anti-Fascist counterparts, and the multicultural fabric of a country each of them threatens to tear apart.

The new series is the brainchild of original filmmaker Wright himself, who will direct alongside Daina Reid (The Secret River, Never Tear Us Apart: The Untold Story of INXS, Howzat! Kerry Packers War), and New Zealand director James Napier Robertson (The Dark Horse). The 6 x 1 hour drama is written by Wright, Robertson, award-winning author / poet and rapper Omar Musa (Here Come the Dogs), and Walkley award-winning journalist and author Malcolm Knox.

Producer John Edwards said: Romper Stomper is a fantastic chance to break the mould of Australian drama  a contemporary thriller with competing tribes and different points of view battling for power. The series brings together some of our greatest character actors and wonderful new talents as well. Very exciting.

Stans Chief Content Officer, Nick Forward said: With such an extraordinary creative team, Romper Stomper will be unmissable television, as provocative now as the film was in 1992, examining at a personal level the hatred, fear, vengeance and politics hidden in plain sight all around us. Stan is privileged to bring Geoffreys prodigious talents to bear on a contemporary exploration of the themes his film tackled so brilliantly.

Mesmerising, confrontational and controversial, the original films ideas are more relevant than ever now, 25 years later, as the world confronts the politics of hate and hard-right populism. This bold, new Stan Original Series will be a must-see TV event, and will be available exclusively on Stan.

Screen Australias Head of Production, Sally Caplan said: Few Australian films provoked more social commentary than Romper Stomper did in 1992. With prolific producer John Edwards and original Romper Stomper writer/director Geoffrey Wright at the helm, this project came to us with an exceptional creative vision, now supercharged by a stellar Australian cast. We commend Stan on taking a risk with this story and are delighted to partner with them once again as they continue to expand their original local content offerings.

Film Victoria CEO, Jenni Tosi said: In 1992 Film Victoria supported Geoffrey Wright as he set the Australian feature film world alight with his fearless debut feature Romper Stomper. Twenty five years later we are delighted that he is leading this reimagining of the original story along with the equally talented Victorian Director Daina Reid and being produced by John Edwards and Dan Edwards from Roadshow Rough Diamond.
The official UEFA Super Cup programme is out now, packed full of features and interviews looking forward to Real Madrid's showdown with Manchester United in Skopje, capital of FYR Macedonia.

The two sides share a thirst for glory and a love of the spectacular, and their sixth meeting in UEFA competition is a mouthwatering appetiser for the 2017/18 European season. The official programme charts the history between the two teams as well as building up to the new campaign, with Zinedine Zidane acknowledging that the road to Kyiv  venue for the 2017/18 UEFA Champions League final  starts here.

Ronaldo, Beckham, Figo: Great Madrid United goals

Jose Mourinho also speaks to the programme, describing the UEFA Super Cup as "a great opportunity" to measure his UEFA Europa League winners against the European champions as United prepare to return to the UEFA Champions League. "Playing against the European champions, it's like we're back at the theatre, back at that level. This is where we want to be," he says.

There are interviews too with Henrikh Mkhitaryan, scorer of United's second goal in the final in Stockholm, and Madrid's rising star Marco Asensio, plus a focus on two of FYR Macedonia's European Cup winnners: Goran Pandev and Darko Pancev.

Visit uefaprogrammes.com now to get your copy as well as the chance to win an official UEFA Super Cup ball. UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League final programmes containing all you need to know about Madrid and United's successful 2016/17 seasons are also available. Get your copies here.




In 1995, a deal was struck between CPS and the State of Illinois, a deal which gave control of CPS to Mayor Richard M. Daley. Part of the arrangement called for the Chicago Board of Education to have the flexibility to mingle education funds with funds formerly earmarked only for pensions. As part of the deal, the General Assembly agreed to let CPS quit paying anything into the pension fund for 10 years and, instead, use the money for other things, like teacher salaries, with the hope that the state would boost its contributions in that period. (Yeah, right.)

In an article written by Greg Hinz in November of 2012 and published in Crains Chicago Business, the story continues. Its a great article, and you should read the whole thing. Heres a big part of it:

For awhile, according to Mr. (Kevin) Huber (executive director of the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund), things worked out all right. With the stock market taking off in the late 1990s, CTPFs funded ratio of assets to anticipated liabilities actually topped 100 percent for a couple of years

But when the market dropped, so did the funded ratio. By 2005, it was down to 79 percent  due not only to the market decline but to the absence of a cumulative 2 billion dollar pension-payment holiday (emphasis mine).

In 2006, the board resumed making payments. Then came another crisis and a predictable response: Ron Huberman, CPS chief at the time, went to Springfield and got another, partial pension-payment holiday. This one lasted from 2011-13 and allowed the board to put in only $200 million a year  not the $600 million it was supposed to contribute.

Though then Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jesse Sharkey says he recalls the union objected in Springfield, other sources say any objection was perfunctory. The key votes were 48-6-3 in the Senate and 92-17-7 in the House, which ought to tell you something.

Why wasnt there a bigger fight? After all, the funded ratio, predictably, has kept dropping and was down to a miserable 59.76 percent in 2011.

Perhaps the reason is that, financial crisis or not and plummeting funded ratio or not, CPS kept delivering nice, sweet, across-the-board raises to CTU members like clockwork.

Between 1995 and 2011, the board agreed to annual pay increases of between 3 percent and 4 percent every year. And, I stress, those were across-the-board raises, above and beyond the step hikes for experience, obtaining a higher college degree, etc.

Put a different way: Between 1995 and 2011, any teacher on the payroll throughout that period was entitled to an 82 percent raise  before step hikes . (Again, emphasis mine)

When Mayor Rahm Emanuel came into office, his new board cancelled the last negotiated 4 percent hike, for 2011. But the horse was way, way, way out of the barn by then.

In 2014, the latest pension holiday will expire. That means CPS and taxpayers are on the hook for at least another $400 million or more in pension payments a year. Thats why you hear officials talking about a $1 billion CPS deficit next year.

The unions Mr. Sharkey says the CTU clearly understands that no one in the union wants an insolvent pension fund. All sides need to sit down as a group and negotiate something, he says. CTPFs Mr. Huber is holding out hope for a pending bill that would reduce the unfunded liability to zero by 2059  if, that is, nearly bankrupt Illinois will pony up another $200 million or so a year, and if CPS increases its contributions 7 percent a year, every year.
Film Celebrating Einstein to be Shot in IMAX; Portion Dedicated to UW Experiment of Aug. 21 Eclipse

Daniel Ferguson, a documentary filmmaker with Cosmic Picture, will direct the documentary Einsteins Incredible Universe and shoot the film in IMAX. He is working with UW and the AMK Ranch for a portion of the film that will showcase the Aug. 21 eclipse. (Cosmic Picture Photo)

On Aug. 21, the total solar eclipse will cross the continental United States for the first time in 39 years. And, the University of Wyoming-National Park Service (UW-NPS) Research Center at the AMK Ranch, near Leeks Marina in Grand Teton National Park, will provide the location of one of the most breathtaking and spectacular views of this phenomenon.

IMAX cameras will be there to capture the historic event in all its glory.

When the filmmakers contacted me, they asked, What is the most beautiful place along the eclipse path?, says Michael Pierce, a UW associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. I said, The Tetons.

Daniel Ferguson, a documentary filmmaker with Cosmic Picture, will direct the documentary Einsteins Incredible Universe (working title). According to Ferguson, the effort will include multiple crews in seven states, including aerial footage shot in Wyoming. Additionally, the film will include footage from specialist eclipse chasers and photographers from around the world to provide additional shots for the eclipse sequence, Ferguson says.

We hired these people for very specific shots we want, Ferguson says. Well get human faces wearing the (eclipse safety) glasses; a shot through glass skyscrapers with the sun; aerials, a big helicopter shot flying into the shadow over the Tetons; a close-up of the suns corona; and the eclipse exiting the beach in South Carolina, where the eclipse exits the continental U.S.

Ferguson says he is currently working with NASA and the European Space Agency to obtain satellite photos of the eclipse.

And, of course, he wants to get a shot of traffic backed up on Wyomings back roads, much like the scene in the 1979 Steven Spielberg classic, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Devils Tower in northeast Wyoming played a pivotal role in that film.

A few months ago, Ferguson was in Wyoming scouting for locations for the film. Initially not finding what he needed, he considered moving his main cameras elsewhere. However, his research assistant, Sophie de Champlain, found contact information for Pierce and Michael Dillon, a UW associate professor of zoology and physiology, and director of the UW-NPS Research Center.

Ferguson recalls phoning Dillon, who invited him to the AMK Ranch to meet with him and Pierce.

It all kind of happened. The stars aligned, Ferguson says. Obviously, the Tetons are really among the most spectacular landscapes in the path of totality, and the research station provides us with a stunning base to film the experiment that made Einstein famous.

One of the things Ive found in scouting this (for locations) is that everyone is excited. Its a big deal. The public is focused and curious about this, especially the kids.

The 45-minute feature film will be released in 2019, primarily showing in museums with IMAX and giant screens, Ferguson says.

This spectacular view of the Tetons can be seen from the University of Wyoming-National Park Service Research Center at the AMK Ranch, near Leeks Marina in Grand Teton National Park. The location is expected to be one of the best places to view the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse. (Michael Dillon Photo)

Recreating Eddingtons 1919 Experiment

For a small segment -- approximately 5 minutes -- of the IMAX movie, UW faculty members Pierce and Adam Myers will lead an experiment in which they will duplicate scientist Sir Arthur Stanley Eddingtons May 29, 1919 experiment in which he imaged stars near the sun during a solar eclipse.

This experiment provided one of the earliest confirmations of Einsteins theory of general relativity. In effect, Einstein proved there is no such thing as a gravitational force as proposed by Sir Isaac Newton. Rather, general relativity is a distortion of space and time, Pierce says.

Eddingtons experiment made Einstein a rock star, says Pierce, who is Wyoming state coordinator for NASAs Citizen CATE (Continental-America Telescopic Eclipse) Experiment.

Using 61 telescope stations across the country, including nine in Wyoming spaced approximately 50 miles apart, the CATE projects goal is to create a continuous 90-minute movie of the solar corona during the total eclipse. Researchers and scientists hope to gain a better understanding of the suns inner corona.

But, for the IMAX movie, the research focus for Pierce and Myers will be on recreating Eddingtons experiment.

I see the experiment not really as new science, or as something that will improve our tests of general relativity but, rather, as an opportunity for students to learn about and conduct one of the pivotal observational experiments of the 20th century, says Myers, a UW associate professor of physics and astronomy. Students would not have had the opportunity to run an experiment like this 100 years ago and expect a successful outcome, because the expense would have been too great, and the technology would have meant that detection was potentially only marginal.

Myers says the goal is to train students to conduct observations using an experimental setup that can detect gravitational lensing of the light from distant stars by the mass of the sun. The bending of light from these stars makes the position of the stars change by an order of 1.75 (as predicted by general relativity) for light that is just grazing the edge of the sun.

The size of our telescope means that we expect to be able to observe, of order, 100 times as many stars as Eddington did, Myers says.

The camera manufacturer Hasselblad has even agreed to provide one of its highest-resolution, medium-format cameras to support the project, Ferguson says.

This should allow us to capture some of the most detailed images ever of the stars around the suns corona, Ferguson says.

This map shows the path the total solar eclipse will take through the state of Wyoming Aug. 21. Along each paths red line, the eclipse will last approximately 2:30. The blue dots represent where UW will place its portable telescopes. (UW Photo)

Eclipse Activities at AMK Ranch

The AMK Ranch will host a program and barbecue for the public Thursday, Aug. 17, Dillon says. The barbecue will start at 5:30 p.m., followed by a seminar, titled Eclipses, Einstein, Eddington, and the Shattered Star That Has Yet to Shatter. Myers will present the seminar.

An eclipse viewing, led by UW faculty and students, and the UW NASA Space Grant Consortium, is scheduled Monday, Aug. 21, from mid-morning to mid-afternoon.

The southern part of Grand Teton National Park will be one of the best places in the entire country to view the eclipse, according to the website Eclipse2017.org. On the centerline, the park will experience 2:20 of totality at about 11:35 a.m.

The shadow will then cross Pavillion (at 11:38 a.m.), and Shoshoni and Riverton (at 11:39 a.m.) for about 2:23 before landing squarely on the city of Casper. The centerline will pass right over the intersection of Highway 220 and South Poplar Street in Casper at 11:42 a.m., and provides viewers there with 2:26 in totality.

Douglas, Glendo, Thermopolis, Lusk and Torrington are other larger Wyoming towns that will experience a total eclipse. For those who live in or will be visiting Wheatland at that time, they will be right on the southern edge of the eclipses path and, so, the eclipse will only last a few seconds. To experience the full length of totality, people there will need to move north.

During portions of the eclipse where the sun is only partially covered and visible, safety glasses are advised. When it gets fully covered, meaning the moon is in front of and blocking out the sun, it will be safe to view the solar eclipse with the naked eye, Pierce says.

The UW-NPS Research Center provides a base for university faculty members and government scientists from throughout North America to conduct research in the diverse aquatic and terrestrial environments of Grand Teton National Park and the greater Yellowstone area.
Invasive Species in Yellowstone Topic of Aug. 3 UW Research Center Talk

Invasive New Zealand mudsnails in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem are the topic of discussion Thursday, Aug. 3, at the University of Wyoming-National Park Service Research Center in Grand Teton National Park. (Amy Krist Photo)

Invasive species in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem (GYE) will be discussed Thursday, Aug. 3, at the University of Wyoming-National Park Service (UW-NPS) Research Center. The center is located at the AMK Ranch in Grand Teton National Park.

UW Department of Zoology and Physiology Associate Professor Amy Krist will present Biology of the invasive New Zealand mudsnail in the GYE as part of the centers Harlow Summer Seminars at 6:30 p.m. at the AMK Ranch, located north of Leeks Marina. A barbecue, at a cost of $5 per person, will take place at 5:30 p.m. Reservations are not required.

The invasive New Zealand mudsnail arrived in the GYE in 1987; it also is invasive in several other parts of the world. In her talk, Krist will discuss interactions between this snail and native species in the GYE and, how, in New Zealand, the snail is central to addressing two major unresolved questions in evolutionary ecology.

Krist will first explain how studying a recent population crash of the snail in the GYE led to insights about the effects of this particular snail on native species and to a native species that may control its invasiveness. She will then talk about what this snail has taught researchers about why sexual reproduction persists in the multitude of organisms that also can reproduce asexually. Krists talk will then address what scientists have learned from the snail about the uneven distribution of polyploids, organisms with more than two chromosomes.

She collects data on what causes introduced species to become invasive; how invasive species affect native species; the factors that affect how parasites interact with their hosts; and how nutrients affect the distribution and frequency of polyploidy.

Krist has a B.S. degree in biology and a history B.A. degree, both from the State University of New York College-Potsdam, and her doctoral degree is from Indiana University.

The UW-NPS Research Center provides a base for university faculty members and government scientists from throughout North America to conduct research in the diverse aquatic and terrestrial environments of Grand Teton National Park and the greater Yellowstone area.

For more information about the Harlow Summer Seminars, contact Michael Dillon at (307) 543-2463 or michael.dillon@uwyo.edu.
Choosing an Effective Entry Model for Vietnam Investments, the latest publication from Dezan Shira & Associates, is out now and available for complimentary download through the Asia Briefing Publication Store.

In this issue:

Understanding Vietnams Investment Landscape

Considering Your Market Entry Options

Optimizing Investments in Conditional Sectors

Foreign investors in Vietnam are realizing increasing profitable opportunities because of steady regulatory reform and the gradual expansion of market access to previously restricted sectors. While the market may be opening, many foreign investors still find it challenging to establish their operations effectively in Vietnam. Those who are ill prepared to act upon regulatory updates, revisions to investment restrictions, or other changes to Vietnams investment environment can quickly find the setup and expansion process to be an overwhelming experience.

Regulatory changes, and the complexity of Vietnamese bureaucracy are challenges, but foreign investors can significantly reduce their headaches by selecting a corporate structure that is well suited to their business plans and keeping abreast of the latest regulatory changes. Foreign investors that understand corporate structuring options  along with their purpose, benefits, and future outlook  make a critical first step toward managing market selection and entry challenges.

In this issue of Vietnam Briefing, we detail the structure of Vietnams investment landscape and outline of the most prudent market entry models for foreign enterprises seeking to take advantage of ongoing reforms. We highlight opportunities for 100 percent foreign owned investment projects, discuss the utility of representative offices in pursuing market expansion, and showcase the role that joint ventures can play in maximizing access to restricted sectors.

Related Reading:

Dezan Shira & Associates is a pan-Asia, multi-disciplinary professional services firm, providing legal, tax and operational advisory to international corporate investors. Operational throughout China, ASEAN and India, our mission is to guide foreign companies through Asias complex regulatory environment and assist them with all aspects of establishing, maintaining and growing their business operations in the region. This brochure provides an overview of the services and expertise Dezan Shira & Associates can provide.

An Introduction to Doing Business in Vietnam 2017 will provide readers with an overview of the fundamentals of investing and conducting business in Vietnam. Compiled by Dezan Shira & Associates, a specialist foreign direct investment practice, this guide explains the basics of company establishment, annual compliance, taxation, human resources, payroll, and social insurance in this dynamic country.

In this issue of Vietnam Briefing, we discuss the prevailing state of labor pools in Vietnam and outline key considerations for those seeking to staff and retain workers in the country. We highlight the increasing demand for skilled labor, provide in depth coverage of existing contract options, and showcase severance liabilities that may arise if workers or employers choose to terminate their contracts.
Australian Federal Police and NSW Police officers work in the Surry Hills suburb of Sydney, Australia on Jul 29, 2017. (Photo: Sam Mooy/AAP Image via AP)

Australian Federal Police and NSW Police officers work in the Surry Hills suburb of Sydney, Australia on Jul 29, 2017. (Photo: Sam Mooy/AAP Image via AP)

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the plot appeared to be "elaborate" rather than planned by a lone wolf, as security was beefed up at major domestic and international airports across the nation.

"I can report last night that there has been a major joint counter-terrorism operation to disrupt a terrorist plot to bring down an airplane," Turnbull told reporters. "The threat of terrorism is very real. The disruption operation, the efforts overnight have been very effective but there's more work to do."

Officials did not specify if the alleged plot involved a domestic or international flight, but Sydney's Daily Telegraph reported that a local route had been the objective.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin described the plot as "Islamic-inspired", saying four men had been arrested in a series of raids across Sydney on Saturday.

"We do believe it is Islamic-inspired terrorism. Exactly what is behind this is something we need to investigate fully," he said.

Colvin added that local authorities had received "credible information from partner agencies" about the claims but would not elaborate further or state if the men were on any watch list.

"In recent days, law enforcement has become aware of information that suggested some people in Sydney were planning to commit a terrorist attack using an IED (improvised explosive device)," he told reporters.

He added that several items "of great interest to police" had been seized in the raids but police did not yet have a great deal of information on the specific attack, the location, date or time. He said the investigation was expected to be "very long and protracted".

"However, we're investigating information indicating the aviation industry was potentially a target of that attack."

Colvin would not provide further details, but the Australian Broadcasting Corporation said police found items that could be used to make a homemade bomb in one of the raided homes Saturday.

Authorities believed they planned to smuggle the device onto a plane to blow it up, the ABC added.

AIRPORT SECURITY BOOST

Four men were arrested Saturday after armed police stormed homes in at least four neighbourhoods, though their names and ages have not been released and they have not been charged by police.

The Seven Network reported 40 riot squad officers moved on a terraced house in the inner city suburb of Surry Hills, as TV footage showed a man with a bandage on his head being led away by authorities, draped in a blanket.

Sections of surrounding roads remained cordoned off on Sunday as forensic officers and investigators wrapped up and removed items from the house.

Airline passengers have meanwhile been asked to arrive at least two hours early for domestic flights and three hours for international routes, and to limit their baggage.

"Australia has very strong safeguards in place at its airports; these changes are about making them even stronger," Australian carrier Qantas said.

Airline Virgin Australia stressed that the additional airport security measures were just "precautionary" and passengers "should not be concerned".

Turnbull said the national terror alert level, which was raised on September 2014 amid rising concerns over attacks by individuals inspired by organisations such as Islamic State, would remain at probable.

Canberra has introduced new national security laws since then, while counter-terrorism police have also made a string of arrests.

A total of 12 attacks, before the latest announcement, have been prevented in the past few years, while 70 people have been charged, Justice Minister Michael Keenan said.

"The primary threat to Australia still remains lone actors, but there's still the ability for people to have sophisticated plots and sophisticated attacks still remain a real threat," he told reporters Sunday.

The prime minister added that the alleged plan appeared to be "more in that category of an elaborate plot".

Several terror attacks have taken place in Australia in recent years, including a Sydney cafe siege in 2014 that saw two hostages killed.
The launching ceremony for GE Healthcares state-of-the-art Revolution CT 256 detector rows, the newest in Friendship Hospitals arsenal

The ceremony took place on July 20, attended by government officials, domestic and international medical experts, GE representatives, leaders, managers, and the staff of Friendship Hospital and other hospitals.

According to export.gov, a trusted source of market intelligence developed by international trade specialists and economists, much of the existing medical equipment in Vietnamese public hospitals is obsolete and needs replacement. Many hospitals lack sufficient equipment for surgery and intensive care units. Thus, the Vietnamese government encourages the import of medical equipment because local production cannot meet the demand.

US-based GE Healthcare has become a familiar brand in the Vietnamese medical industry, as it has provided hospitals and clinics with modern medical equipment and numerous training courses for their medical staff. This is especially helpful in the context reported in a 2016 research study by the Danish Embassy in Vietnam. The report describes the demand for imported medical equipment as a growing one, especially for imaging diagnostic equipment, such as CT scanners.

GE Healthcare is making yet another significant contribution to the Vietnamese medical industry by supplying the new Revolution CT 256 detector rows. It is the newest in CT technology, with many state-of-the-art improvements to the CT 64 detector rows, the technology used in Friendship Hospital at present. The Revolution CT 256 detector rows are a breakthrough in the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases.

The Revolution CT 256 detector rows

The Revolution CT 256 detector rows use low-radiation doses and offers high reliability and accuracy, said Prof. Jean Louis Sablayrolles, chief of CT and MRI Department at the Centre Cardiologique du Nord  Saint Denis in France.

With smart dose technologies, this new CT scanner is designed to provide high-quality images using lower doses of radiation. Smart dose technologies ensure a more accurate diagnosis and lower exposure for patients during routine and advanced exams, including dynamic acquisitions for perfusion and 4D studies.

In particular, it reduces the dose by up to 82 per cent for patients of all ages. Also, it helps decrease the amount of radiocontrast agents that patients have to use. Thus, the new technology significantly reduces health risks to patients.

Notably, the Revolution CT 256 detector rows deliver better care for paediatric patients at a lower dose. With the Revolution CT 256 detector rows, paediatric patients experience sedation-free scanning. Whole abdomen and pelvis scans can be accomplished in less than one second. 70kV scanning facilitates low-dose protocols, which are especially suitable for paediatric imaging. Design features, such as soft ambient lighting and a patient-centric bore pattern, create a calming effect. The adventure series, offered as an option, takes patients on an underwater journey or jungle adventure, with themed rooms to help distract them from the procedure.

The Revolution CT 256 detector rows 16-centimetre gemstone detector coverage and 0.28-second rotation speed, combined with intelligent motion correction, bring about excellent cardiac imaging at any heart rate. In addition, this technology can be applied to challenging patients, including the obese, heavily-calcified, or those with high heart rates, among others. This technology also helps doctors accurately study the stroke patients brains, thus raising their probability of survival.

This is an innovative system with comprehensive improvements in hardware design, from the 16cm gemstone detector with focally-aligned module design, contactless slip ring, and Whisper Drive system to the 3D collimator, fully designed for optimum image quality with one of the best resolutions possible for patients at any heart rate, said Le Thi Thu Hang, GE Product sales specialist.

GE entered the Vietnamese market in 1993 by setting up a representative office. Subsequently, it opened another representative office in Ho Chi Minh City in 2001, working in partnership with local organisations. In 2003, GE established GE Vietnam Ltd., a 100 per cent GE-invested firm that offers a wide range of after-sales services for medical, electric, and energy equipment.

Besides the co-operation with Friendship Hospital, GE Healthcare supports the Vietnamese government and healthcare providers in strengthening the healthcare system and training clinicians in the country.

Last month, GE Healthcare, in partnership with the Department of Medical Equipment and Construction under the Ministry of Health and local dealers, conducted a five-day biomedical engineering training course for engineers from 56 hospitals in the southern provinces of Vietnam.

Last year, GE Healthcare teamed up with the Vietnam Society of Anaesthesiologists, Viet Duc Hospital, and VietMedical to open a new VSA Simulation Training Lab for Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, aimed at improving anaesthesia education, training, and raising awareness on the importance of safe anaesthesia administration in Vietnam. The simulation training lab was the first-of-its-kind in the country.

Through its commitment to building a healthier community with improved access to quality products, GE Healthcare is providing transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping the new age of patient care in Vietnam. Today, more than half of all domestic clinics and hospitals have at least one GE medical device.
The index has fallen almost 30 per cent so far this year, the biggest plunge in Asia.The VN Index was also down 44 per cent from its peak of 1,174 points in March 2007. Equity strategists said this week was another difficult week for investors and it is understandable why there was so much pessimism surrounding the market.Our recent discussions [with fund managers and retailers] have revealed their bearish sentiments on outlook, said King Yoong Cheah, Mekong Securitiess head of research.Cheah said that besides the increased external uncertainties about the US recession and high oil prices which continue to reduce investors appetite for risk, the continued tightening of monetary policies to counter escalating inflation was largely blamed for the sharp downturn.The continued monetary tightening has raised concerns that these measures could slow down economic growth and drain significant liquidity from the equity market, Cheah said.He added that the continued switching of funds from the equity market to the booming property and gold markets were also dampening confidence.The million dollar question that we are frequently encountering is whether the market has reached its bottom, therefore provide a buying opportunity, or whether the Vietnamese equity market will continue to perform poorly, said Cheah.Johan Kruimer, Ho Chi Minh City Securities Corporations (HSC) deputy CEO and head of brokerage said confusion was still the word on the trading floor and uncertainty could be translated into lower prices of assets.Prices could start to recover a bit over the coming days, but even at these levels, volatility and risk are likely to stay high in the foreseeable future, said Kruimer.[Investors] success or failure is rather more likely to be determined by the markets actual performance during March, said Kevin Snowball, director of PXP Vietnam Asset Management Limited.Cheah said for investors with a long term investment horizon, the current market weakness warranted some bargain hunting and at the present level, the market has limited downside risk.
GE Healthcare is currently co-operating with many different hospitals in Hanoi. Are there any significant differences among these arrangements?

Our plan to work with hospitals largely depends on what their focuses are. Our technology portfolio is now the widest in the industry, so we do not approach a hospital with a specific product to sell in mind. We work with the hospitals, ask them about their focus areas, and recommend technology and solution based on the answers. Some hospitals are looking for training programmes, some for research, and some are focusing on public health. We will work with each hospital according to their needs.

In the case of Friendship Hospital, they have a strong focus on cardiology, which is why we think the Revolution CT is the right technology solution, and the software and training packages we have built are more focused on the needs of the hospital.

What is GE Healthcares development plan in Vietnam? Will you expand the number as well as the areas of co-operation with private as well as public hospitals in Vietnam?

We do have a specific strategy for the private sector, which is where a lot of the clinical advancement, research, and high-end technology are going to be.

On the other hand, the public sector is all about the health of the populace, which is extremely important. They usually provide services to a large number of people at the lowest possible cost, because the majority of the population, especially in the non-urban areas, cannot afford some of the premium technology. We have both premium technology solutions and affordable technology solutions. On the public side, our plan is to expand into the provinces and provincial hospitals with affordable care solutions. At the same time, urban areas such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, where doctors would like to do more advanced work, are where we bring the premium technology.

The rural areas in Vietnam are very large, but the infrastructure is quite underdeveloped. What is GE Heathcares plan for co-operation in this area?

The type of technology we are making in the affordable bracket of our portfolio is designed for infrastructures that are not necessarily well developed. We have a CT system which can work in harsh environments, can handle power fluctuations, even rough usage, since medical staff in the rural areas is not always as well-trained as in the city. We also provide a lot of training, so we understand that the clinical ability of doctors or radiographers is not the same everywhere. Just giving them the technology is not the solution, we have to give them training and support. It is a very different model of support that we have for them.

Currently, most medical equipment in Vietnam is imported from oversea. Since GE Healthcare has such a presence in Vietnam, do you have any plans to bring production here, in addition to services and training?

Why not? Just an example, we used to manufacture our CT in only two places, Japan and the US. Today, our engineering technology is done in places like Israel, India, and China, and we also have research and development facilities all over the world. The global quality management system allows us to keep the quality standard no matter where the manufacturing site is located. We look at Vietnam as a potential manufacturing base, for sure. I think this is an idea we would first need to discuss with the government. For example, what types of projects can we co-invest in? We would love to have a local footprint in Vietnam.

Investing in hospitals in Vietnam is said to be lucrative. Since GE has GE Capital, do you think that maybe investments in this vein is what you are looking for?

Most definitely. When we talk about solutions, it is not just about technology. Training and providing services are two types of solutions, financing is a third. We help many of our customers who are buying new technology for the first time with financing. That is why we have distribution partners all over the country, to make sure we always have local support, including financing, available. We have new models, where customers can pay per use or they can pay overtime as they make money. Bigger hospitals perhaps do not need as much financing, but smaller hospitals are where we see a lot of financing opportunities.

Can you share a little on GE Healthcares research and development plans for the future?

GE Healthcare spends about $1 billion every year on research, and this is our 125th year in operation. I believe innovation is in our blood. We are proud to say that we are the market leader, especially in the field of medical imaging. Many innovations are coming, in both software and hardware, but the direction is also changing. More and more research is going into life sciences. Early diagnosis is coming into demand. Everyone wants to start the treatment before patients reach the critical stage. This is where our research is currently going, molecular imaging, , life sciences and cell theraphy, so that we can better understand diseases and build the tools for early diagnosis.
On Saturday, just hours after the fire, the PM asked the capital Peoples Committee to closely co-operate with the Ministry of Public Security to determine the cause of the fire, and report the result directly to him.

The blaze started at around 10.30am on Saturday morning at a confectionary workshop by National Highway 32 in uc Thuong Commune, Hoai uc District, when 17 workers were working inside.

As the fire spread very fast, only nine people managed to escape. The building quickly collapsed, trapping eight people in the flames that were only put out about three hours later.

Seven people were confirmed dead at the scene, while one succumbed to severe burns at the hospital.

Hoai uc police on Saturday managed to identify the victims. The only female victim, 55-year-old Can Thi Tam, was the cook at the workshop. The rest of the dead people were young men, with the youngest, Kieu Van Truc aged just 15.

Other victims were identified as Nguyen Nho Thanh, 16, Kieu Tien Trong, 17, Nguyen Hong Son, 19, Tran Quang Huy, 20, and the 27-year-old Le Van Hoat.

The age of the last victim, Khuat Van Thinh, is yet to be ascertained.

Two 16-year-old teenagers, Nguyen Tien Anh and Nguyen Duy Tien, suffered serious burns and are being treated at the National Institute of Burns.

At a press conference on Saturday evening, the Ha Noi fire police reported that the workshop making cakes and chocolate was owned by Nguyen Van uoc, 25, to produce cake and chocolate.

The workshop had an area of 170sq.m, a seven metre wide facade, and a small garret where some welding work had been done at the time of the fire.

Preliminary investigations show that sparks from the welding reached the Styrofoam ceiling and ignited the fire.

Fire Police Division 13 Chief Major Nguyen Tien Nam said that the workshop was built with steel frames that collapsed minutes after the fire began, dividing the workshop into two parts and trapping the victims inside.

Deputy Director of the Ha Noi Fire Police, Colonel Nguyen Van Son said that the workshop had only one main gate without any emergency exit.

It would take only 15 minutes for this kind of building to collapse in the heat of the fire in normal conditions, he added.

Hoai uc Peoples Committee Deputy Chairman o uc Chung said that the local authorities have provided an ex-gratia payment of VN3 million (US$130) to the families of the deceased.
Investors at MBS Securities in Ha Noi. - VNS Photo Truong Vi

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange gained 0.72 per cent to close at 777.09 points, rebounding from Thursdays loss of 0.3 per cent.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange rose 0.93 per cent to end at 100.55 points. The northern market index has rallied 3.7 per cent in the last four sessions.

The two local indices also posted weekly gains after Friday. The VN Index rose 2 per cent for the week and the HNX Index increased by 2.6 per cent.

Both local bourses underwent a week of strong movement as large-cap stocks, especially bank stocks, surged strongly, supporting the markets uptrend.

Among the nine listed banks, the biggest gainers were Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BID), MB Bank (MBB) and Sacombank (STB).

These three bank stocks made weekly gains of 9.1 per cent, 15.7 per cent and 9.4 per cent, respectively.

Other listed bank stocks such as Vietcombank (VCB), Vietinbank (CTG), Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) and Eximbank (EIB) rose at lower rates.

The positive gains in bank stocks helped improve investor confidence in other leading sectors like securities and insurance companies and leading firms like property developer Vingroup (VIC) and dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM).

According to analysts at Bao Viet Securities (BVSC), weekly gains of both local indices proved that the risk of a short-term sharp decline was significantly minimised.

The VN Index is expected to move positively this week on the back of investor optimism, BVSC said in its weekly report.

The Ha Noi-based brokerage added that the next resistances for the VN Index are the level of 775 points and the range of 783-785 points.

Lack of info

Meanwhile, some analysts and securities firms have expressed concerns over the possibility of a decline for in both local indices as the market enters August  a month that lacks business information from listed companies and the market nearly runs out of positive news from second-quarter earnings reports.

Analysts at BIDV Securities Co (BSC) said in a note that the current gains were not stable as market trading liquidity did not increase relatively, raising concerns about possible declines in the near future.

An average of more than 256.9 million shares, worth VN4.33 trillion (US$192.8 million), were traded in each session last week.

Last weeks average daily trading figures were both 8.9 per cent lower in trading volume and value compared to the previous week.

Technical signals suggest we take a cautious look at market movements as it approaches previous short-term peaks this week, once trading liquidity shows no sign of improvement.

BSC was also worried about the second-quarter earnings-report effect, which seems to have run out since the financial statements released for the second quarter and first half of the year were not convincing enough.

"Stocks had grown significantly in the first half of the year, reflecting investor expectations in the business prospects," said Vo Van Cuong, leading analyst at Martime Securities (MSI).

Therefore, investors may have less chance to look for new investment opportunities and they will now focus on selling to earn profits, he said.

An additional 218 companies on both local exchanges have announced their second-quarter earnings reports, bringing the total number of companies doing so to 545 or 76 per cent of total listed firms.

In terms of results, total post-tax second-quarter profit inched up just 0.1 per cent to VN17.9 billion, a significant decrease from the growth rate of 10 per cent seen in the previous week.

The top five companies on the stock market in terms of profit earned are MBBank, Vietcombank, Vicostone and Kido. MBBank posted the biggest yearly profit increase of VN308 billion.

Meanwhile, the three companies whose profits grew at a slower rate are steel producer Hoa Phat Group (HPG), Ocean Group (OGC) and PetroVietnam Technical Services (PVS). HPG posted a yearly decrease of VN488 billion in its post-tax profit.
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Dont set yourself on fire just yet: Arrested Developments fifth season is finally on its way. Jason Bateman tweeted a heads-up to series fans on Sunday, announcing that the show will reenter production on August 8. Here comes trouble, the actor announced, along with a shot of Lucille Bluths pristine living room. The Bluths move back in on the 8th. The show is scheduled to return to Netflix with a 2018 premiere date. Seeing as how the upcoming installment of Arrested Development revolves around the mysterious death of Liza Minnellis Lucille Austero, a plot which Bateman previously described as a bit of whodunit, those tarps might be protecting that furniture from more than just a little dust.
When Alex Jones isnt selling his Bill Clinton rape whistle (Let Bill know that youre in the crowd and that you know the truth) or a 9/11 Was an Inside Job bumper sticker, hes pushing pills. A bulk of his time on Infowars is spent plugging his own products under his Infowars Life Brand. These products are called nutraceuticals  Which I believe are the results of the word nutrition fucking the word pharmaceutical from behind, Oliver suggests  and seem to have no health benefits whatsoever. Jones uses Dr. Edward Group III, a chiropractor without an undergraduate degree (who claims hes an MIT alum), to push these pills. To match the absurdity, Oliver introduces his own Dr. Ted  Jack McBrayer in a wig  to hawk his phony Last Week Tonight nutraceutical, which can be purchased on InfoWipes.com.
The public and the Waco City Council on Tuesday will get their first look at proposals for developing a site surrounding Heritage Square downtown, with one featuring a 15,000-square-foot grocery store anchoring a retail-heavy complex and the other 500,000 square feet of Class A office space.

The staff will recommend the office space, but the decision was so close I thought the council should hear both proposals, Waco City Manager Dale Fisseler said. Both are such quality developments we may have an interest in offering another site to the runner-up.

City staffers have been reviewing the proposals since the May 31 deadline for their submission. Fisseler said the city likely will pursue a long-term ground lease that allows Waco to retain ownership of the property, located between Washington and Austin avenues at Third Street.

A partnership called The Civic Center, formed by Dallas commercial developer Phillip Williams and Waco urban planning consultant Chris McGowan, proposes the office development that includes ground-level retail and on-site structured parking.

McGowan declined to discuss details of the project Saturday.

We have a presentation to make, and are just hoping to move the ball forward on what we consider an interesting project, he said. We believe there is a market for quality office space downtown, and well have a lot more to say about that on Tuesday. I dont know which project the staff will recommend.

When the city announced acceptance of the two proposals in June, McGowan said he believes the proposed development site represents the hub for downtown Waco and could bring more jobs to the central city.

Ed Kinkeade, a Dallas federal judge and Baylor University alumnus, has proposed a mixed-used development with a grocery store, retail space and offices.

He is representing an entity called 300 Clay Avenue LLC, which proposes to call the development Heritage Crossing, according to the council agenda.

We would need significant drivers such as population density and income levels to bring a grocery downtown, and Im not sure were there yet, though I would love to have one, said Kris Collins, the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerces senior vice president for economic development. I do know we have a strong need for office space.

One of our goals is bringing more professional employers to Waco, especially downtown, where we have no Class A professional office space. How much could we fill up? I would hate to speculate on a number. I wouldnt want to box us in. I do know Waco is appearing on a lot of peoples radar.

Collins said she will attend the project presentations Tuesday.

The elements Ive heard about both projects lead me to believe they would be fantastic additions to downtown, City Center Waco executive director Megan Henderson said. The challenge is figuring out the long-term timing and spacing of the proposed developments.

Fisseler said he does not know the brand of the grocery store proposed for Heritage Square.

Whether Waco could absorb half-a-million square feet of quality office space is another issue that would require discussion over several months, Fisseler said. Both groups likely would expect use of the land at little or no cost and would propose rebates from the Tax Increment Financing Zone for public infrastructure improvements.

McGowans partner on the 500,000-square-foot office project, Phillip Williams, has been developing office and mixed-use property in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex for almost 20 years.

Williams partnered with the city of Allen to develop an upscale mixed-use urban center known as Watters Creek at Montgomery Farm, with 415,000 square feet of retail space, restaurants, offices and apartments.

Meanwhile, in the past few years, Kinkeade has developed two apartment complexes downtown at 222 Clay Ave. and 300 Clay Ave.

The city council will discuss the development proposals during a 3 p.m. work session in the Bosque Room of the Waco Convention Center.

At 6 p.m., council members will go into regular session and vote on leasing two floors in the Waco Police Department headquarters adjacent to the old Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center campus in North Waco to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The bureau will spend about $370,000 renovating the space, and it will share the $85,600 cost of interior demolition with the city.

Also during the work session, the council will hear a report on the Downtown Trolley, which has linked central-city attractions and parking areas for one year. Information provided by the city shows 171,534 passengers have used the trolley, an average of 3,431 per week.

It has cost $254,393 to operate, or $1.48 per passenger.

Ridership was highest in October of 2016, when 22,279 people attended attractions including Silobration at Magnolia Market at the Silos, and in March, when Spring at the Silos drew large crowds.
A 21-year-old man pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of sexually assaulting a Baylor University student in October 2013.

Dontrell Lee Hullett, from Humble, acknowledged his guilt and will be sentenced by 19th State District Judge Ralph Strother on Sept. 25.

Prosecutors recommended Hullett be placed on deferred-adjudication probation, and the judge ordered a presentence report by probation officers.

According to reports filed in the case, Hullett told Baylor police investigators he knew the woman was intoxicated when he went to her dorm room.

The woman, a Baylor student at the time, told the Tribune-Herald last year that her grades suffered after the assault. She also said police blamed her for the incident, telling her it would not have happened if she wasnt drunk.

In an interview with Baylor police, Hullett admitted the victim was intoxicated, according to the records filed in the case. He said she was drunk and invited him to her room.

Hullett said he and the woman attended a party and then they went to a restaurant with another man and woman, reports state. However, Hullett said they didnt go inside because the woman was drunk. Hullett told Baylor police the woman drank two beers and three lemonade drinks containing alcohol.

The Baylor investigator watched surveillance video of the four people entering the residence hall after the party and asked Hullett why he and the woman went in the back door of the dorm. Hullett said it was because men arent allowed in the dorm that late and the victim was drunk, according to court documents.

Hullett went on to say the victim was not acting in the right state of mind, the investigator wrote.

When the investigator asked if a sexual act occurred, Hullett said, most definitely, an arrest affidavit states.

The officer told Hullett that the woman could not give consent while intoxicated. Hullett said he understood, according to records.

Hullett then tried explaining that the victim was not that drunk because she could walk on her own and walk up the stairs, the affidavit states. Then within seconds, Hullett was explaining that they went to McDonalds before going back to the room and the reason they didnt go inside to eat was because of how drunk the victim was.

Hullett, who has never been a student at Baylor, enrolled at Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma, for the spring 2014 semester and was on the wrestling team, according to a Bacone College spokeswoman. She said he also was a student at the college for the fall 2015 semester, but the school did not allow him to re-enroll.
Beverly Hills police say a Waco man threatened to kill a woman and himself before a two-hour backyard standoff ended Sunday afternoon.

Jordan Mikell Gilbert, 19, was arrested after he allegedly called a woman and claimed he was going to kill her and himself at her Beverly Hills home. At about 2 p.m., Gilbert, who was armed with a gun, arrived at the woman's home in the 3800 block of Acree Street, kicked in the front door and was confronted by the woman's father, Beverly Hills police Lt. Thomas Schmidt said.

"The dad ended up pushing him back outside and by the time Gilbert saw officers, he took off running," Schmidt said. "As the officer started chasing him, when he jumped a fence, or however it happened, a round went off and the officer had to stop and take cover."

No one was injured by the gunfire, Schmidt said.

Beverly Hills police requested assistance and Waco police, McLennan County Sheriff's Office deputies and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers arrived in the neighborhood. Gilbert jumped several fences and was surrounded by officers a few homes away from where the original confrontation began, Schmidt said.

A standoff ensued and concluded about two hours later when Gilbert surrendered. Schmidt said officers battled hot temperatures, including Beverly Hills Police Chief Debra Bruce, who suffered heat exhaustion and was taken to an area hospital for medical treatment.

Bruce was later cleared and returned to duty, Schmidt said.

"We are very thankful for all the help," he said. "We had a great amount of teamwork that really helped us out."

Gilbert was also taken to an area hospital for medical treatment at about 4 p.m. He was later cleared and taken to McLennan County Jail on a first-degree felony charge of burglary of a habitation, a third-degree felony charge of unlawful possession of a firearm, a third-degree felony charge of deadly conduct and a state-jail felony charge of theft of a firearm.

Gilbert remained jailed Monday afternoon with a bond listed at $85,000.
COLON  Jorge Armando Rodriguez, 38, was conscious and talking to a Saunders County Sheriff deputy July 31.

He was telling the deputy regarding what he remembered about his July 23 assault.

Rodriguez was the victim of an early morning assault July 23 that left him unconscious for several days.

Saunders County Sheriff Kevin Stukenholtz said his office had been waiting for a report from doctors that Rodriguez was conscious in order to question him regarding the incident.

Saunders County dispatch received a 911 call around 6:30 a.m. July 23 regarding an injured individual in the Colon area.

The information we had was that two citizens saw a victim being beaten by another party, Stukenholtz said.

The citizens saw Rodriguez and Dallas Mathis in an altercation and stopped the assault before making the call, he added.

Mathis, formerly of Ashland, fled the scene into nearby corn fields, but was arrested around noon after an approximately six-hour search that included a Nebraska State Patrol helicopter, Stukenholtz said.

He is charged with aggravated assault and use of a weapon to commit a felony. The alleged weapon used in the alleged felony was a piece of wood, Stukenholtz said.

Mathis went before County Court Judge Patrick McDermott July 27 for bond hearing.

Bond was set at $75,000 and his next court date is Aug. 3.
WAHOO  The death of Fremont man in the custody of Saunders County law enforcement is still under investigation.

Robert Imus, 45, of Fremont died July 29 at Saunders Medical Center in Wahoo while in custody of Saunders County Law Enforcement.

Imus was arrested July 26 by III Corps Drug Taskforce in Dodge County on charges of possession of a controlled substance and had been in Saunders County less than two days when he died, said Saunders County Sheriff Kevin Stukenholtz.

Imus was in custody of Dodge County authorities from the time of his arrest around 11 p.m. last Wednesday until he was transported to the Saunders County Law Enforcement and Judicial Center in Wahoo around 5 p.m. the following day.

Imus was noncompliant with Dodge County authorities upon arrest and would not give any information regarding his physical or medical condition, Stukenholtz said.

Howerver, he was evaluated in Dodge County and cleared for incarceration before being transported to Saunders County, he added.

Upon arrival in Saunders County, Imus allegedly continued his noncompliance with authorities.

The sheriff said he refused food and insulin with Dodge County authorities and did the same in Wahoo. Eventually, he did allow Saunders County authorities to give him some medication, Stukenholtz said.

Through some research by Advance Correctional Healthcare, Stukenholtz said staff did determine to some degree that Imus had a diabetic condition.

During his stay in Wahoo, Imus complained of not feeling well and was given medication, Stukenholtz said.

Imus reportedly responded to the medication and appeared to be feeling better. But, he was later found unresponsive in his cell.

Imus was communicative with Saunders County authorities 15 minutes prior to being found unresponsive, Stukenholtz said.

Imus was then immediately taken to Saunders Medical Center, where he died July 29 just before 6 p.m.

An autopsy was conducted July 30, but the results may take up to four weeks, said Saunders County Attorney Steven Twohig.

The death investigation is being handled by Nebraska State Patrol, Stukenholtz said.

Imus had a criminal history and he had served time in jail. He also a significant medical history, Twohig said.

Because Imus died while in custody, Twohig must empanel a grand jury within 30 days of completing a death certificate.

But, the grand jury cannot do its job until the autopsy is complete, according to the count attorney.
VALPARAISO  The Valparaiso Knights of Columbus Council 8625 honored a charter member July 23 with over 30 years of perfect attendance.

Don Kobza has not missed any of the Valparaiso Knights 400 meetings since the council began in 1984.

It was just a personal goal of mine to make all the meetings, Kobza said.

Whenever the council gets new Knights, theyre sent Kobzas direction to show them what to do, said State Deputy Lou Gasper.

Ive always enjoyed helping people and we do quite a bit as an organization, Kobza said.

Council 8625 Knights of Columbus is an organization that raises money for birthright, educational scholarships and other endeavors.

Kobzas community efforts go beyond the Knights of Columbus, as hes been on the Valparaiso Fire Department for 44 years, a member of the American Legion Post 371 for 46 years and with the VFW Post 10491 for 17 years.

Kobza said he gets a lot out of being involved in the community.

Hes also on the Valparaiso Days Committee and the local businessmens association.

We have a lot of dedicated community members, but we have some that dont belong to anything. Theyre missing out on a lot, he said.

Kobza said he greatly enjoys the camaraderie with each group.

I guess if I didnt enjoy it, I wouldnt do it, he said.

Kobza has no intention of slowing down, but said at some point age will dictate how well he continues with consecutive meetings.

Nearly 50 gathered July 23 in Valparaiso to honor Kobza at the councils annual picnic.

Grand Knight Jeremy Jordan said there are close to 180 Knights in the council that includes the Touhy parish.
Raggi celebrates as central government averts water crisis.

Rome mayor Virginia Raggi has welcomed the intervention of Italy's central government in brokering a deal to avert water rationing being introduced in the drought-hit capital from 31 July.

The last-minute intervention of Italian environment minister Gian Luca Galletti on 28 July saw the Lazio regional administration back down on an order banning Rome from withdrawing water from the much-depleted Lake Bracciano , an important source of potable water for the capital.

Under the agreement reached between the Lazio Region and Rome's water authority ACEA, the city will continue to receive water from Bracciano albeit at progessively reduced quantities until 1 September when it will be phased out completely.

While Raggi hailed the deal as "good news for everyone!", the Lazio Region president Nicola Zingaretti said the mayor had avoided taking responsibility, adding: "with an attitude like that, Rome is likely to die."

The original order to stop pumping water from Bracciano was given by Zingaretti, of the centre-left Partito Democratico (PD), and was due to take effect at midnight on 28 July, to avoid an environmental catastrophe.

Raggi, of the anti-establishment Movimento 5 Stelle, has taken credit for the fact that 1.5 million residents of the capital have avoided the prospect of water rationing , for up to eight hours a day in rotating districts.
Jan Cameron has worn many hats over the years: Kathmandu founder, philanthropist, conservationist  and more recently corporate agitator at Bellamy's.

Easy touch is not on her CV, just ask the casualties from Bellamy's board spill in February.

Or the 1000-plus staff who lost their jobs at the misadventure she had at Retail Adventures, which collapsed twice under her watch and cost the Kathmandu founder most of her fortune  roughly $200 million according to some counts.

And that figure does not include the $13.8 million she had to pay Retail Adventures' liquidators in August 2014 to settle claims of insolvent trading.
Bill Shorten says he will introduce a 30 per cent tax rate on discretionary trust distributions to people over the age of 18 if he wins power. Credit:Tracey Nearmy Clearly it matters quite lot for the living standards of a household with an income of $100,000 a year if that income is spread across a family of six, or just one adult. The bureau adjusts for this to get a measure of "equivalised disposable household income". The bureau conducts its survey every two years. The latest figures we have are for 2013-14. They show that the average equivalised household disposable income in 2013-14 was $998 a week. The median was somewhat lower  $844  thanks to the asymmetric shape of the distribution, that is, the relatively small number of households who have relatively high incomes, and the relatively large number of households who have relatively low incomes. The bureau's data allows us to consider the distribution of income and wealth between "quintiles". That is, if you ranked all households from lowest to highest, and then divided the population into five equal-sized groups.

Let's start with income. After taking account of the number and age of people in the household, households in the highest-income quintile in Australia received over 40 per cent of total income in 2013-14. By comparison, households in the lowest quintile received 7.3 per cent of total income. This pattern has remained relatively stable over the past 20 years. While the average household income is now close to $1000 a week, the average for the lowest quintile is just $375, and $2037 for the highest quintile. Since 1994-95, the average household disposable income has grown by 67 per cent in real terms. But, while income in the lowest quintile grew by 58 per cent, income in the highest quintile grew by 80 per cent. So the poor didn't get poorer, but the rich got richer a lot faster than the poor got richer, thus widening the gap between rich and poor and increasing inequality. But the bureau also measures the distribution of wealth, which is even more unequally distributed than income  as it is in most countries. Income, of course, is a flow. Wealth is a stock. For its measure of wealth, the bureau uses a measure of "net worth", being the sum of a household's assets (property, shares, superannuation) minus its liabilities (home loans and other debts).

In 2013-14 the average household had assets of $954,800 and liabilities of $144,900, giving an estimated average net worth of $809,900. When ranked by their level of wealth, the top 20 per cent of Australians owned 62 per cent of total household wealth in 2013-2014. By comparison, the bottom 20 per cent of households owned less than 1 per cent of all household wealth. Housing makes up 60 per cent of all assets owned by Australian households (split between owner-occupied housing at 43 per cent and investment property at 15 per cent), and superannuation makes up a further 15 per cent. Although declining rates of home ownership are deepening wealth inequality, Australians' growing superannuation nest eggs have helped to limit the increase in wealth inequality overall. Of course, different types of households have fared differently. Lone person households of prime working age fared particularly badly over the decade and a half to 2009-10.

This is due in large part to less generous increases to the Newstart Allowance relative to the age pension (Newstart is indexed to consumer prices, and pensions to the more generous measure of wages). Households in the 55 to 65 age bracket have fared the best. They are more likely to be working than previous generations, while also drawing an income from investment housing (rent) and dividends from share ownership. Another important indicator of inequality is a "Gini coefficient". Gini coefficients range from 0 (perfect equality  everyone has the same) to 1 (perfect inequality  one person has all the income or wealth). It is possible to construct Gini coefficients for the distributions of both incomes and wealth. The bureau's figures reveal that Australia's Gini coefficient for income has risen from 0.302 in 1994-95 to 0.333 in 2013-14.

The Gini coefficient for wealth in 2013-14 was 0.605  almost double the inequality of incomes. Inequality, on the Gini income measure, did not increase greatly from 1994-95 to 2003-04, as the Howard government's significant increases in the family tax benefit offset the effect of greater dispersion in market incomes. Between 2003-04 and 2007-08, however, income inequality worsened by almost 10 per cent, from 0.306 to 0.336, due to continuing dispersion in market incomes, plus a series of annual tax cuts favouring higher income earners. Between 2007-08 and 2011-12, in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis, the income Gini fell by about 5 per cent to 0.320. Unfortunately, this decline in inequality was almost entirely reversed in the latest survey for 2013-14, coming in again at 0.333. Overall, Scott Morrison is fairly correct to say that inequality of incomes has not changed dramatically since the GFC. Loading
In the post-9/11 era of tight security in which the so-called Islamic State has urged followers to grab whatever they can find as a weapon and just go for it, public attention has been diverted to low-tech, unsophisticated terrorism plots.

Knives, cars, trucks, small arms  in countries where they are relatively easily available, which thankfully does not include Australia  have been the trend. Capture it on a mobile phone and you get high impact for relatively little investment.

Yet authorities have been warning all along that this doesn't mean they've taken their eye off the threat of more elaborate plots.
Treasurer Scott Morrison has described Labor's $17 billion plan to close family trust tax loopholes as a "direct assault" on small business and has challenged Opposition Leader Bill Shorten to release the full details of his policy.

Describing Mr Shorten as a "till raider", Mr Morrison said the Labor plan was yet another negative policy "dripping with envy and higher taxes" that would do nothing to get Australians into jobs.

"This is another direct assault on small businesses by Labor. Bill Shorten is whacking small business families with a double tax," Mr Morrison told Fairfax Media. "He is using small businesses as an ATM, putting his hand in their till. If your family runs a small business and you have a family trust, Bill Shorten thinks you're the problem, that you're dodgy."

Mr Shorten confirmed the crackdown on Sunday, telling Labor's NSW conference he will introduce an across-the-board minimum 30 per cent tax rate on discretionary trust distributions to people over the age of 18 if he wins power.
The state of Australia's airport security has been thrown into question following the dramatic arrest of an Islamist-inspired terrorist cell in Sydney whose members were allegedly plotting to blow up an aircraft.

In a significant departure from the low-tech, lone actor attacks that Islamic State has inspired in Australia, the group of two middle-aged men and their two adult sons were allegedly working on an "elaborate" plot to build an improvised explosive device that could take down a plane.

Bomb squad officers were among dozens of police who raided five properties across Sydney on Saturday evening, smashing their way through glass doors and brick walls and arresting four men.

Fairfax Media understands a home-made bomb was allegedly found in a Surry Hills terrace, possibly to be planted on a commercial flight to the Middle East.
A grade 4 teacher who told students stories about incest and paid them for massages will be re-investigated by the teaching watchdog following a campaign by parents.

Earlier this month, the Victorian Institute of Teaching controversially ruled that Caulfield Junior College teacher Chris Adams would keep his registration, despite being sacked by the Education Department for acting in a "disgraceful, improper" manner.

The regulator has now said it will investigate the matter again after receiving fresh information, although it did not say what the information was.

"The VIT takes its role in protecting children seriously and understands that the community must be reassured that our processes and decisions reflect the importance of this role," chairperson Lesley Lamb said.
On request of the Commissioner of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) of the Philippines, the WCO conducted a Mercator Programme mission to Manila from 10 to 14 July 2017.

The objective of the mission was to analyse the situation at Manila Port and to provide advice for future steps. Discussions covered Customs inspection requirements, future technologies and operational needs. A priority for the BOC is more efficient trade facilitation and revenue collection under the auspices of the Manila Maritime Trading District Development Project (MMTDDP).

The MMTDDP is a proposed mixed-use development project across an area of approximately 474 hectares. The MMTDDP aims to transform certain portions of the Manila Port area, specifically those covering the South Harbor, Manila International Container Port and the North Harbor, into a world-class maritime trading district equivalent to major international ports in the Asia-Pacific Region.

During the visit the WCO advisors studied relevant documents, interviewed officers of BOC and made some site visits to Customs and Port facilities. Topics discussed during the interviews included the scope of the MMTDDP, a BOC operating model that takes into account both enforcement and facilitation obligations, BOC policy and infrastructure needs, and stakeholder engagement responsibilities.

A range of related issues surfaced during the week. The WCO advisors and BOC officials also discussed organizational structure developments within BOC, the implementation of the TFA, Time Release Study strategy, anticipated recruitment of new staff, design of a proposed new Customs Academy, among other issues.

At the end of the mission, the WCO-advisors presented their analyses of the situation including recommendation for the next steps to senior management of BOC. The proposed steps forward which included a a redirection of the Operating Model of BOC were well received and would be considered.
Under the auspices of the WCO-EAC CREATe project, funded by Sweden, the WCO supported the Burundi Revenue Authority (Office Burundais des Recettes - OBR) with the launch of its national AEO Working Group on 14 July 2017 in Bujumbura, Burundi.

The OBR invited other border agencies that included the Standardization bureau as well as the private sector to discuss the Authorized Economic Programme and to jointly develop the Terms of Reference for the national AEO working group.

The consultations proved to be successful as all present stakeholders developed an agreeable set of Terms of Reference for their national AEO Working Group. .

During the launch, the Commissioner-Customs, speaking in the presence of the press, highlighted that a strong public-private partnership was the foundation of any AEO programme and encouraged all stakeholders to play their part to ensure the successful implementation of the EAC regional AEO programme. He also thanked the WCO for its effective and continuous support especially through the WCO-EAC CREATe project funded by Sweden.

For more information about this activity and about the WCO-EAC CREATe project in general, please contact WCO-Sweden Programme Director Richard Chopra (richard.chopra@wcoomd.org).
From 25 to 28 July 2017, the acting Deputy Director of the Tariff and Trade Directorate attended the "VII International Scientific and Practical Conference on the Problems of Expert Activities" in Vladivostok (Russian Federation). The Conference was opened by Mr. Peter Tokarev, Head of the Central Expert Criminalistic Customs Administration (CECCA) who emphasized the important role played by Customs Laboratories in the protection of the society and the environment. The Russian Customs Laboratory became in 2016 WCO Regional Customs Laboratory. During the conference, approximately 50 experts from Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, Korea, Russian Federation and the WCO exchanged experiences and challenges regarding chemical analysis by Customs Laboratories.

During the Conference, a wide range of topics related to the Harmonized System (HS) and Customs Laboratories were addressed and the participants were informed about the changes introduced to the HS 2017 edition that might affect the routine of the Customs Laboratories. Participants were also informed of the WCO strategy regarding the Regional Customs Laboratories.

Moreover, the chemical analysis of some specific commodities (e.g., polymers, mineral oils, tropical wood, food, juices, narcotics and designer drugs) and some modern analytical methods (e.g., capillary electrophoresis, immunochemistry) were discussed by participants and facilitators. In his closing remarks, Mr. Tokarev thanked participants for the high level discussions and emphasized the importance of the cooperation and networking between Customs Laboratories.
An Official Opposition (PLP) member has exposed his partys Achilles heel when expressing contempt for the newly elected Prime Ministers national address.

The spokesmans comments that follow confirm the last government lived in an alternate universe.

PLP Comment: What concerned me about the speech is why do they keep talking down this economy?

Response: Providing an honest assessment of the state of the economy is not talking it down. Those of us that live in reality understand how long the economy has been on a downward trend and this must be reversed. The policies of the former government were compounding the economic problems.

PLP Comment This is a rich country. This is not a poor country.

Response: Yes, by many standards this is a rich country, but was being made poorer each passing year by government spending more than it takes from the taxpayer all the while expecting investors (both local and foreign), businesses and the taxpayer to support the leviathan that has been created.

PLP Comment: But everything that comes out of their mouths is woe is me...doom and gloom.

Response: It obvious now that living at the expense of the taxpayer insulates one from the reality of the economy.

PLP Comment: I was surprised when I was minister of immigration the extent to which major businesses depend on government spending.

Response: This shows a complete lack of understanding and is the opposite of how the economy should be structured. The smaller the government is in relation to the economy the better it is for economic growth and job creation.



PLP Comment:

And now you say youre going to take 10 percent off government spending and in addition youre laying off staff in an economy which is consumer driven.

"Custom duties depend on consumers spending money.

VAT is a consumer tax so the more people buy the more governments coffers increase.

So now youre going to take measures to suck life out of the economy and now on top of that youre talking down on the economy?

Response: The burden of excessive government spending has placed the current administration in this position as a result of spending beyond the taxation capacity. These measures, government spending within its means, are long overdue.

PLP Comment: So every investor who is looking out will say Oh My God. We cant go to The Bahamas, things are terrible there. Its falling apart. The government said its not going to happen and so on and so forth.

Response: Lets ponder this. Investors are happy investing in a country where governments increase deficits and debt and implement unfriendly business policies as the PLP were doing? Not to mention the allegations of corruption by government officials that have surfaced since the PLP lost the election. Once again, the PLP spokesperson shows an obvious lack of economic understanding.

PLP Comment:

Theres a reason they said when you put a moratorium on hiring, you develop a skills gap.

So when I came back to the foreign ministry in 2012, you had senior officers on top, junior officers down at the bottom but nobody in the middle.

So you dont have the experience, you dont have the institutional knowledge so what you try to do is you get some from every birth cohort every year.

So even if you cant hire six, you should hire three.

Response: Here again, this issue has been known for at least a couple decades. Why wasnt this fixed in their last term? Or even the term before that? Packing government payroll with the unemployed is not a solution to unemployment or economic growth. Rather, creating an environment where people are willing to invest to create jobs and economic growth is the idea.



What would be useful, since the Opposition consider themselves so learned, is offering some ideas that might improve the economy. This rhetoric only confirms why the economy is in the state its in.

But keep talking. It exposes the shallowness of your policies when your party was the government.

I am no fan of politics nor big government for that matter, but I must give the new government some credit at this point for at least mouthing that they will attempt to rationalise spending. The taxpayer cannot bear any more of what took place during the last administration.
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By WestKyStar & Graves County Library Staff Jul. 29, 2017 | 02:40 PM | MAYFIELD, KY





In conjunction with the Mayfield Animal Shelter, the Graves County Public Library will host a special program called Paws to Read. It will be every first Thursday of each month at 4 pm and will allow children to read aloud to a therapy dog or cat for 15 minutes. Patient, nonjudgmental pets help reluctant readers gain confidence and comfort with reading. Parents will need to fill out and sign a waiver before their child can participate. This program is open to children in grades K-6. If you have questions, contact the library at 270-247-2911.The Graves County Public Library will have a drawing for school supplies during back to school week July 31st through August 5th. They will have different guessing games, and if you make a guess you will get your name in for the drawing. The prize will be an assortment of school supplies. Stop by anytime in the first week of August to participate. If you have questions, contact the library at 270-247-2911.Western Kentucky is quickly approaching a total solar Eclipse in August. You can stop by the library on either August 15th at 5:30 pm or August 10th at 4 pm for two special programs. On the 15th a Professor from WKCTC will discuss the upcoming Solar Eclipse and on August 10 Jason Lindsey from the wildly popular Hooked on Science will explore everything from how an eclipse happens to engineering a solar eclipse box. Finally on August 21st at 11:30 am join everyone at the library for a solar eclipse viewing event. If you have any questions, call 270-247-2911.The Graves County will have Zumba classes this August. ZUMBA is a fusion international music and dance themes which create a dynamic, exciting workout, and which is based on the principle that working out should be "Fun and Easy to Do". On Wednesday, August 9th and August 23rd at 3:30 pm come by the library for Zumba. The instructor will be Sherry Monroe and everyone is welcome to join in this class. If you have any questions contact the library at 270-247-2911.On Saturday August 12th at 10:30 am, the Graves County Public Library will have a DIY Wind Chime craft. All supplies will be provided and you will be able make your very own personalized wind chime. Space is limited so sign up at the library if you would like to participate. If you have any question, call 270-247-2911.Author Susan Davis will be at the Graves County Public Library on Saturday, August 19th at 12:30 pm for a book signing and discussion. Susan Page Davis is the author of more than seventy published novels. She writes inspirational fiction in the historical romance, cozy mystery, and romantic suspense genres. A Maine native, she lived for a while in Oregon and now lives in western Kentucky. You wont want to miss this special guest. If you have any questions, contact the library at 270-247-2911.The Graves County Public Library will host family movie night on Tuesday, August 22nd at 4 pm. Join us as we watch as an adaption of a fairy tale in which a monstrous looking prince and a young woman fall in love. Free drinks and popcorn will be served. Children under the age of 10 should be with an adult. We will also have games to play along with a craft and the chance to win a prize. Sign up at the library for the craft. If you have any questions, call 270-247-2911.
Buffalo County might join with Wabasha County and other units of local government upset with a proposed Army Corps of Engineers long-range plan for depositing dredged sand on properties bordering the Mississippi River along Lower Pool 4 in the Alma, Nelson and Cochrane areas.

A draft plan introduced publicly by the Corps of Engineers in May identified private property sites on both the Minnesota and Wisconsin sides of the river where they proposed depositing more than 10 million cubic yards of dredged river sand over the next 40 years.

The plan has met stiff opposition from landowners and residents from throughout the Wabasha, Nelson and Alma areas opposed to taking prime agricultural land for permanent sand piling and increasing truck traffic to haul the sand on residential roads and streets.

A proposal coming before the Buffalo County Board of Supervisors in August calls for hiring legal counsel to advise the county on what it can do to stop or alter draft plans now under review by the Army Corps.

A public comment period on the draft plan was extended a 3rd time by the Corps last week, now set to expire on July 28. The original cutoff date was June 9.

A Buffalo County committee last week authorized its land conservation and resource management department to do environmental testing of dredge spoils taken from Pool 4.

County finance supervisors said they would hold off on testing for now, but wanted to have the land conservation department ready to take test samples if advised to proceed.

Dredged material tests produced by the Corps and cited in their draft plan were old, all of them dating back to the 1980s, finance supervisors said.

Carrie Olson, county land conservationist, said the department was prepared to take an estimated 6 samples of dredged material to have tested for presence of contaminants.

The Corps said it extended its deadline for taking public comments on the draft plan to give the public more time to understand the document and provide alternative suggestions.

The Corps said it would work with federal, state and local partners to explore opportunities to reduce costs of maintaining the river channel and minimizing impacts to communities.

A financial technology company ranked Buffalo County first among the top 10 counties in Wisconsin in best overall value index.
Two men are in custody facing attempted murder charges after leading police on a high-speed chase and shooting at police in Houston County early Monday.

La Crescent police noticed two men acting suspiciously at a Kwik Trip and stopped their vehicle around 1:30 a.m. in Hokah, Minn., where the suspects exchanged gunfire with the officers, according to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

According to a recording of squad car radio posted on the website mnpoliceclips.com, the suspects drove at speeds of up to 100 mph while shooting at the pursuing officers on Hwy. 44. Officers from the Houston County Sheriffs Office, Caledonia Police Department and Minnesota State Patrol aided in the pursuit.

The chase ended when the suspects crashed and ran into a bean field near Caledonia, where they eventually surrendered, according to the BCA.

One of the men was treated for non-life threatening injuries at Gundersen Medical Center in La Crosse before being booked into the La Crosse County jail. According to squad radio, he was shot in the neck. The other suspect was booked into the Houston County jail.

Both are expected to be charged with attempted murder, according to the BCA, which did not name the suspects.

Neither officer was injured, and both are on administrative leave.

La Crescent police do not use body cameras, but the shooting was captured on squad car video, according to the BCA. That footage has not been released to the public.
With her oldest child battling cancer, and expenses piling up, Pam Miller of Reedsburg and her husband were having trouble making ends meet.

On the verge of being taken to court over past due bills, Pam felt like they were running out of options. She began to pray for help.

I really didnt know what to do, Pam said. We were behind with a lot of stuff.

Little did she know, her prayers were about to be answered by a 4-H Club member, a lamb named Benefit, and a group of local businesses engaged in a bidding war for the ages.

Pams 9-year-old son, Jake, was diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma in January. While receiving treatment at the American Family Childrens Hospital in Madison, he spent time with two other Reedsburg children battling cancer, 9-year-old Sam Madigan and 8-year-old Josie Perea.

One morning in mid-July, Pam received a message on Facebook from a local mother who had learned of the families shared struggle and wanted to help.

The message was from Paula Brandt, whose family lives on a farm near Rock Springs. Her son, Bracen, had won top honors for his 6-month-old lamb  aptly named Benefit  at the Sauk County Fair. He wanted to donate the proceeds from the animals sale to the three families.

I was in shock, Pam said. I told her that she had just answered my prayers.  It brought tears to my eyes. Im not one to ask. I just dont do that. And I had never even met Paula.

On July 15, Bracen walked his prize market lamb into the show ring at the Sauk County Fairgrounds in Baraboo. The auctioneer told bidders of his plans to donate money from the sale.

What happened next was unexpected. Businesses began to team up, joining forces to outbid one another and drive the price sky high.

Baraboo Meat Market owner Mike Vold said the bidding had reached more than $20 per pound  an unusually high price for a lamb  when he decided to join two other businesses.

They were going to stop because it got too high, and I just told them Id go in with them, Vold said. It was going to a good cause. It was going to these three kids. We all just thought we should do something.

Soon a team of four businesses was united in a bidding war against Viking Village Foods of Reedsburg. As the crowd cheered, the group locked in the winning bid at $30 per pound. It later found a fifth investor, and decided to pay a record $35 per pound for the 132-pound lamb.

Benefit was sold to the Meat Market, Scenic Bluff Equipment, Lime Ridge Ag Supply, Gavin Brothers Auctioneers and Brute Construction for $4,620. The money will be split evenly between the three families.

It was a very kind and generous thing for them to do, said Beth Madigan, whose son Sam was diagnosed with leukemia last August. I just think the community and everyone coming together helps to make things easier. Knowing you have that support is wonderful.

Bracen has placed highly at the fair in recent years. He and his mother decided that if he did well again this year, he would do something special with the proceeds from the animal.

The Jolly Beavers 4-H Club member said he knows cancer can take a financial toll on a family. The treatments and driving to Madison is expensive, Bracen said.

Paula said the buyers allowed her son to keep Benefit so that he can be shown at the Wisconsin State Fair in August and possibly at the North American International Livestock Exposition in Louisville, Kentucky, in November.

After that, Benefits days will be numbered. Paula said she was thankful that her family, and Benefit, could be of some help.

We just wanted to do something to give back, Paula said. Our family as a whole has been very blessed.

I was in shock. I told her (Paula Brandt) that she had just answered my prayers.  It brought tears to my eyes. Im not one to ask. I just dont do that. Pam Miller of Reedsburg
President Donald Trump, who went to a private military academy and avoided service in Vietnam while heroes like Sen. John McCain languished in North Vietnamese prison camps, has made one of the most appallingly cynical calculations of his appalling cynical presidency.

In a series of Tweets, and apparently without apprising the Pentagon, Trump announced Wednesday that he was banning transgender Americans from serving in the military, possibly expelling thousands who already are serving.

After consultation with my generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military, Trump wrote. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.

It rapidly became apparent, however, that when Trump talks about overwhelming victory, what he actually means is shoring up his base in the Rust Belt states he won or narrowly won in 2016 (including my home state of Pennsylvania.).

Speaking to the online news service Axios, an administration official quickly laid bare this dysfunctional White Houses true motivations for the ban:

This forces Democrats in Rust Belt states like Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin to take complete ownership of this issue, the unnamed official told White House reporter Jonathan Swan. How will blue-collar voters in these states respond when senators up for re-election in 2018 like (Sen.) Debbie Stabenow (of Michigan) are forced to make their opposition to this a key plank of their campaigns?

Even by the odious standards of this administration, thats a politically disgusting calculus and a morally repugnant argument to make.

As The Washington Posts Greg Sargent reports, citing a RAND Corp. study, about 4,000 transgender Americans now serve in the military. Their blood is just as red as any other soldiers. And they serve just as proudly as any other soldier. The only difference being one of gender identity.

Trumps about-face (surely, he remembers the term from his years at New York Military Academy) reverses an Obama administration policy.

Defense Secretary James Mattis, who supports trans service, and who, as Slate reports, vigorously lobbied against a narrowly defeated amendment barring the military from providing transition-related medical services to trans soldiers, was conducting his own review of the policy.

That review was supposed to be completed in December, as The Post reported. And its not clear why Trump put it on the fast track. Nor is it clear, as Slate notes, which generals and military experts were pushing for a ban on trans service.

As Slate reported, the trans policy formulated by former Defense Secretary Ash Carter enjoyed broad support, particularly in the wake of the successful lifting of the Dont Ask, Dont Tell policy that barred gay and lesbians from serving openly.

In June, Mattis imposed a 6-month delay, citing, per Slate, the views of the military leadership and of the senior civilian officials now arriving in the Defense Department.

Trump also faced external pressure from conservative activists, such as the Family Research Center, to undo the Obama-era policy.

Still, there is no evidence to suggest, as Trump claims, that transgender service imposes unreasonable costs on the military. A 2014 journal article indicates that the opposite is true. Nor is there any deleterious effect on unit morale or cohesion  which was the same ridiculous argument made to keep women out of certain military roles.

The only answer, sadly, is naked politics. And thats an insult to every service member who has pledged to defend the Constitution that protects all Americans, including the transgender ones whom Trump so cruelly targeted with his heartless announcement.
MADISON  A Wisconsin agency said its never too early for farmers who are considering retirement to start putting together a plan for their farms future.

The state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Protections Wisconsin Farm Center gives farmers free advice, Wisconsin Public Radio reported.

The center takes about 2,000 calls annually, said Dan Smith, an agricultural development administrator with the department. More than half of the calls in 2016 were regarding setting up a plan to sell a farm, he said.

Smith said about 98 percent of Wisconsin farms are considered family farms, though many are multimillion-dollar businesses. While there are economic and legal issues to consider when putting together a plan, there are many emotional ties to selling a family business that can make planning for the future difficult.

The farm is a business, but its also the home, Smith said. It is the home to the next generation. It is the home to non-farming siblings who still think of growing up on the family farm and have that deep emotional connection to it.

Transitioning from a farm supporting a single family to supporting multiple families makes succession plans complicated, he said. It can take six years to develop a farm succession plan, he said.

Its important for farmers who are considering retirement to talk with their family members about the farms future, but it may be a difficult conversation to have, said University of Wisconsin-Extension agricultural agent Trisha Wagner.

Sometimes a facilitator or a third party is needed to just help get those ideas out of each of the (family) members heads whether theyre going to end up farming together and be business partners or not, Wagner said.
Kolkata, Jul 31 (PTI) Five TMC candidates and a Congress candidate were elected to the Rajya Sabha unopposed from West Bengal after CPI(M) candidate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyas nomination was cancelled due to technical reasons.

The five TMC candidates elected to the Rajya Sabha are Manas Bhunia, TMCs chief national spokesperson Derek OBrien, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Dola Sen and Santa Chetri. Congress candidate Pradip Bhattacharya was also elected to the Upper House.

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Bhattacharya, Roy, OBrien and Sen were renominated by their respective parties, while Bhunia and Chetri are first-timers.

"Congratulations to the five @AITC official candidates elected today to Rajya Sabha and the sixth supported by us who had switched over to the TMC," West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee said in a tweet.

Banerjee had on Friday extended her partys support to the Congress candidate.

The nomination of CPI-M candidate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya was rejected on Monday after the returning officer declared it as invalid on the ground that an additional affidavit was submitted after the 3 pm deadline on the last date for filing of papers on July 28 for the August 8 polls to the six seats.

The cancellation of Bhattacharyas nomination has kicked off a political debate between the TMC and CPI(M), with the latter alleging that it was the "handiwork" of the ruling party in the state.

"We feel TMC was rattled by his nomination and that is why a conspiracy was hatched to reject his nomination. We will seek legal advice on it," CPI(M)LP leader Sujan Chakraborty said.

Countering Chakrabortys claim, TMCLP leader Partha Chatterjee said, "There is no conspiracy. They are trying to malign the Election Commission. Actually they had a secret understanding with the BJP before nominating a person like Bhattacharya who has never been a part of the Rajya Sabha." PTI PNT KK SRY

--- ENDS ---
Hardoi (UP), Jul 31 (PTI) The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force today arrested two persons and seized nearly 185 kilograms of charas from a truck in Sandil area here, the police said.

On a tip-off, the STF team from Bareilly stopped the truck coming from Maharajganj, located on the Indo-Nepal border, at Sarai Makhrurpur, Additional Superintendent of Police (East Hardoi) Kunwar Gyananjay Singh said.

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They found the contraband, worth Rs 2 crore, kept under the drivers seat, the officer said.

One person managed to escape, he said. PTI CORR NAV ANB

--- ENDS ---




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Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan has donated Rs 25 lakh to the Assam government for its flood relief operations which has so far killed over 80 people and in the devastating catastrophe that has rendered many homeless.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal took to Twitter to thank Aamir Khan for his kind act as a responsible citizen.

Thank you @aamir_khan for contributing Rs 25 Lakh towards Assam Chief Minister's Relief Fund through Aamir Khan Productions Pvt. Ltd.; Sarbananda Sonowal (@sarbanandsonwal) July 31, 2017

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Aamir Khan, who has voiced his concerns over various social issues plaguing the country, had recently posted a video on Twitter asking people to come out in support of flood victims in both Assam and Gujarat.

The 52-year-old 'Dangal' star said, "Friends, many areas of Assam and Gujarat have been affected by heavy floods. And, our brothers and sisters there are facing a lot of difficulties. Lots of lives have also been lost and there has been a huge financial loss too. We are helpless in front of nature but we can help those staying there."

He appealed his fans to help people staying in Assam and Gujarat by contributing to the Chief Minister's Relief Fund.

The Centre has already announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each under the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund for the next of kin of people killed and Rs 50,000 to seriously injured persons in the recent flood in Assam.

The flood situation in the state has improved but one more person was killed in Morigaon district taking the toll in the natural calamity to 83, including eight in Guwahati.

According to Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), about 5,000 people are still affected in Lakhimpur and Jorhat districts and 366 people are taking shelter in four relief camps in the two districts.

This year, two waves of floods in the state have affected around 25 lakh people from 29 districts prompting the administration to set up 1,098 distribution centres and relief camps, where about 1.32 lakh people took shelter.

Also read:

PM Modi in Assam tomorrow to review flood situation, meet CMs of northeastern states Tale of two floods: Assam continues to wave for help while Gujarat gets Rs 500 crore

Also watch:

Assam flood toll climbs to 60, over 10 lakh affected

--- ENDS ---
China connects fourth unit at Fuqing

31 July 2017

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Unit 4 of the Fuqing nuclear power plant in China's Fujian province has been connected to the grid, China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) announced today. The 1087 MWe CPR-1000 unit becomes the country's 37th operational power reactor.

Fuqing 3 and 4 (Image: CNNC)

CNNC said the unit was connected to the grid at 6.09pm on 29 July.

First concrete was poured for unit 4 in December 2012 and its dome was put in place in June 2014. The process of loading the 157 fuel assemblies into the reactor core began on 13 June this year and was completed on 19 June. The unit achieved a sustained chain reaction for the first time on 16 July.

The unit will now undergo a load test run and other relevant testing before entering full-power demonstration operation. It is expected to enter commercial operation later this year.

CNNC's Fuqing plant will eventually house six Chinese-designed pressurised water reactors, the first four being 1087 MWe CPR-1000 units. Units 1 to 3 entered commercial operation in November 2014, October 2015 and October 2016, respectively.

China's State Council gave final approval for construction of Fuqing 5 and 6 in mid-April 2015. First concrete was poured for the fifth unit in May 2015, while that for unit 6 was poured in December. These will be demonstration indigenously-designed Hualong One reactors.

CNNC said it expects all six units at Fuqing "to be fully commissioned and put into operation in 2021".

The Fuqing nuclear power plant project is owned by CNNC subsidiary China Nuclear Power Company (51%); Huadian Fuxin Energy Company (39%); and Fujian Investment and Development Group (10%).

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

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China, Pakistan agree to uranium cooperation

31 July 2017

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China and Pakistan have agreed to cooperate in uranium exploration and mining. China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) said it had signed a framework agreement with the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission yesterday for technical cooperation in the exploration and development of uranium resources. China signed a similar agreement with Saudi Arabia earlier this year.

Under the new agreement, China's uranium industry will fully employ its technological advantages, its nuclear research institutes, nuclear chemistry industry, aerial remote sensing centre and other units in its cooperation with Pakistan.

CNNC, which said Pakistan is an "important bridge across the Middle East and South Asia", has already exported four 300 MWe reactors to that country and is constructing two 1000 MWe units. It said it is actively engaged in cooperation with Pakistan in uranium resources, nuclear technology applications, the training of workers and other areas.

In March, CNNC signed a memorandum of understanding with the Saudi Geological Survey regarding bilateral cooperation in uranium and thorium resources. Under the agreement, CNNC is to carry out exploration of nine potential areas in the Kingdom within the next two years. In late May, CNNC said it had completed the fieldwork phase and identified several target mineral areas for further investigation.

On 15 July, CNNC's Beijing Research Institute of Chemical Engineering and Metallurgy signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia's King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology to collaborate in research on extracting uranium from seawater. According to that agreement, Saudi and Chinese researchers will conduct a two-year investigation.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

Related topics
With a bustling tourist economy, Honduras is a small beautiful country located in Central America. The country is bordered by Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Honduras, and the Gulf of Fonseca. Spanning over 43,433 square miles, Honduras is home to more than 8 million inhabitants. The country is rich in natural resources such as sugar cane, coffee, minerals, and tropical fruits. Honduras also serves as the international market for its growing textile industry.

Discovery and Etymology

Honduras was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1502 during his last voyage to the New World. Therefore, the term Honduras is derived from the Spanish language meaning "depths". The name could either be due to an alleged quote by Columbus "Thank God we have departed from those depths," or a reference to the bay of Trujillo as an anchorage, which is known as a fondura in Spanish's Leonese dialect.

Language and Religion

Spanish is the official language used in Honduras and Roman Catholicism is considered the main religion, with about 51.4% of the population identifying themselves as Catholic. Before the Spanish invasion of Honduras in the 16th century, the country was home to many Mesoamerican cultures, including the Mayas. The Spanish introduced both the Spanish language and Roman Catholicism, together with a plethora of traditions that were integrated with the indigenous cultures.

Poverty and Murder Rates Have Been High Since Independence

Honduras has been a republic since 1821 when the country gained its independence. However, due to its political instability and social conflicts, it is among the poorest nations of the Western Hemisphere. It is believed that more than 50% of the country's population lives below the poverty level. The country also records the highest murder rate in the world. Following Haiti, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Guatemala, and Guyana, Honduras is the 6th least developed Latin American country according to the Human Development Index.

Honduras Was the Original Banana Republic

The term Banana Republic was first applied to the country by American writer O. Henry in 1904, due to the influence that the US banana companies had in the region. During the late 19th century, infrastructure and fruit companies based in the US were given substantial land concessions by Honduras. In return, these companies were to develop the northern regions of the country. As a result, thousands of workers flooded the north coast in search of work in banana plantations. Banana exporting companies dominated the region until 1930.

Devastating Hurricanes

On September 18th and 19th 1974, Hurricane Fifi swept the northern coast of Honduras, causing significant damage and destroying infrastructure. In 1998, the country was devastated by Hurricane Mitch, leading to massive destruction with losses estimated at $3 million. About 5,000 people were killed and the number of injuries reached 12,000. An estimated 70% to 80% of the country's transportation infrastructure, together with 70% of crops, were destroyed. About 33,000 homes were destroyed in the hurricane, and another 50,000 were damaged. Hurricane Mitch set the country back 50 years in terms of development and progress.

Other Facts

The lempira, which is the official Honduran currency, is named after an Indian chief who died trying to protect his property from Spanish invaders. Even though the picture on the actual bill looks like an indigenous man, it is a Native American Indian from North America. The Honduran flag features five stars, each representing the five countries of Central America. The star in the middle represents Honduras.
Located on the Java island's northwest coast is Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia, and the country's most populous city as well. Java Island is also the most populous island in the world. The city of Jakarta is Indonesia's center for politics, economics, and culture. As of 2014, the city of Jakarta had an estimated population of more than 10 million people. Jabodetabek is the name given to the greater metropolitan area of Jakarta. The name Jabodetabek was created by combining the syllables of the cities that make up the greater metropolitan area. With a population of more than 30 million people, according to a census done in 2010, Jabodetabek is the world's second largest urban settlement. The city of Jakarta is a melting pot of many cultures and communities. The main reason is that the city does not only offer a potentially high standard of living but also has numerous business opportunities attracting migrants from different parts of the country.

The History Of Jakarta

The city of Jakarta was initially established as Sunda Kelapa during the fourth century. Sunda Kelapa developed as an important trading port for the Sunda Kingdom. The city was also known as Batavia, at the time and it was the Dutch East Indies's de facto capital. However, after the Second World War, Indonesian nationalists renamed Batavia as Jakarta after the country attained its independence in 1946, from the Dutch. During Indonesia's fight for independence, the republics capital was established in Yogyakarta by the Indonesian Republic. However, Jakarta was once again made the country's capital city in 1950. Sukarno who was the country's founding president had a vision of Jakarta as a great international city in the future initiating huge government- funded projects featuring modern architecture. The city's infrastructure went through a series of developments under the leadership of Lieutenant General Ali Sadikin who served as Jakarta's Governor from 1966 to 1977. Sadikin's governorship was at the time when Jakarta was declared a 'special capital region.'

The Geography Of Jakarta

The city of Jakarta covers an area of 255.4 square miles of land and 2,694 square miles of sea area. North of the city specifically in Jakarta Bay lies the Thousand Islands which are part of the city's administration. According to the Koppen climate classification system, the city has a tropical monsoon climate experiencing a wet season which runs from October to May. As of June 2011, the city only had 10.5% of open green spaces but hopes to increase the number in the future.

Language, Ethnicity, And Religion

Regarding language and ethnicity, Jakarta is highly diverse. By 2000 the city's population comprised of 1.62% Malays, 3.18% Minangkabau, 3.61% Batak, 5.53% Chinese, 15.27% Sudanese, 27.65% Betawi, and 35.16% Javanese. The official language of Jakarta is Bahasa Indonesia while English is widely spoken as the second language. Dutch is also spoken by some senior citizens in the city. Islam is the predominant religion in Jakarta with about 85.36% of the city's population according to a census of 2010.

Present Day Jakarta

Six companies listed on the Forbes Global 2000 have their headquarters in the city of Jakarta as of 2017. As of 2016, Jakarta was also home to two of Fortune 500 companies. In the 2016 Globalization and World Cities Research Network report, Jakarta is listed as an Alpha Global City. The city's GDP was estimated at US$321.3 billion by Brookings Institution based on the global metro monitor. Among the 200 largest cities in the world, Jakarta's economic growth was ranked 34th. The city has experienced a more rapid growth compared to other big cities such as Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, and Beijing.
Afghanistan is a landlocked country in the heart of Asia. It has been the center of several powerful empires for decades. However, in the last three decades, Afghanistan has been in chaos due to major wars. Economically, the country is ranked among the poorest countries of the world. Afghanistans infrastructure has been severely damaged by the ongoing wars. With the constant threat to security, land travel is increasingly becoming a challenge, and air travel remains the safest and the most efficient means of transport. The country is served by several domestic and international airlines, including Safi Airways, Kam Air, Ariana Afghan Airline, and Afghan Jet International, connecting it to the rest of the world. Ariana Afghan Airline is the flag carrier of Afghanistan.

Ariana Afghan Airlines

Ariana Afghan Airlines is the largest airline in Afghanistan and also the countrys flag carrier. The airline is part of the larger Ariana Afghan Airline Company Limited, which has its main base in Kabul International Airport, where it operates its domestic and international connections linking Afghanistan with the several destinations in Europe and Asia. The airline offers both passenger and cargo freight services to all its destinations. The airline is headquartered in Share Naw, Kabul, and is fully owned by the government of Afghanistan. Although Ariana Afghan Airlines does fly to some of the European countries, it is among the air carriers that have been banned in the European Union Since October 2006.

History

Ariana Afghan Airlines was founded in 1955 when an American pilot relocated several Dakota Aircraft he had been operating in India after World War II. There was no air service for passengers in Afghanistan before that, even though the Afghan Air Force had been in existence for several years. The airline was established as Aryana Airlines with the help of the Indamer Company Limited, with the company holding 49% of interest, while the government held the rest. The airlines first international destinations included Bahrain, India, Iran, and Lebanon. Domestic schedules started in 1957, the same year Pan American World Airways took over the 49% interest from Indamer. By 1960, a fleet of three aircraft linked Kabul with several cities in Asia, including Delhi, Jeddah, and Karachi. In 1989, the Taliban took over Kabul, grounding many of the carriers international flights, resulting in devastating economic effects on the company. Ariana Afghan Airlines began to rebuild in 2001 following the overthrow of the Taliban regime. Several sanctions and bans were lifted, allowing the airline to resume international routes. However, due to the safety regulations, the EU banned Ariana from flying into its airspace in 2006.

Destinations and Fleet

As of December 2016, Ariana Afghan Airlines serves ten domestic and international destinations, seven of which are international destinations to mainly Asian countries. Some of the international destinations include Kazakhstan, the UAE, India, Netherlands, Turkey, Germany, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, and China. Most of the routes are from Kabul International Airport, which is the airlines main hub. The airlines fleet consists of two Airbus A310-300 and two Boeing 737-400 aircraft. Ariana has written off 19 aircraft involved in about 13 events, seven of which were deadly.
Kim Jong-Un is the current leader of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, often called North Korea. He was born on either January 8, 1984 or July 5th, 1984, however, no literature has documented his exact date of birth. Jong-Un is the second-born child of Jong-il who ruled the country from 1941 to 2011. Kim Jong-Un was rarely seen in public before he came to power. Even today, Kims government activities remain heavily concealed.

On December 2011, Kim was sworn in as the supreme leader after his father's state funeral. He has many titles such as Chairman of the Central Military Commission, Chairman of the Workers Part of Korea, and Supreme Commander of the Korea Peoples Army. He holds two degrees, one at Kim II-sung Military University as an army officer and another at Kim II-sung University in physics.

Early Life

There is little information known about Kim's early years. According to Japanese newspapers, Kim studied in Switzerland around Bern. It is believed he went to a private English international school in Gumligen between 1993 and 1998. Later reports indicate that Kim went to a school in Koniz called Liebefeld Steinholzli between 1998 and 2000.

In April 2012, new records of Kim Jong-Un showed he had stayed in Switzerland from 1991 or 1992, contrary to the first reports. Many believe that it was Kim Jonh-Chul, Kim's brother, who attended Gumligen International School and not Kim Jong-Un.

Party Conference Speculation Pre-2010

Kim Jong-Nam, Kims eldest stepbrother, was the preferred candidate for leadership but he lost the favor in 2001 when he attempted to sneak to Japan using a doctored passport. He was later killed in 2017 in Malaysia by people believed to be agents sent by North Korea.

According to BBC News, on March 8, 2009 Kim Jong-Un had been nominated for Supreme Peoples Assembly election which could have granted him automatic step to North Korea parliament. However, his name did not get to the list, but he was promoted in National Defense Commission to mid-level position. Since 2009, it was general knowledge that Kim Jong-Un would take over from his father as the North Korea de-facto leader.

North Korea Ruler

Following his father's death, Kims personality was promoted as a way to prepare the public for Kim Jong-Un leadership. Korea Central News Agency portrayed Kim as a great person born of heaven, and the Workers Party wrote in their editorial stating that We vow with bleeding tears to call Kim Jong-Un our supreme commander, our leader. Kim was officially assigned the position of Supreme Commandership of Korean Peoples Army and supreme leader on December 30, 2011.

Nuclear Weapons

North Korea views nuclear weapons as a deterrence to any attack by perceived enemies and Kim Jong-Un stated on March 31, 2013, at a WPK Central Committee meeting that North Korea will resort to a new way of developing nuclear-armed troops. He has subsequently tested a large number of missiles since he assumed the leadership and lately on July 4, 2017, North Korea launched KN-14 which is believed by experts as an intercontinental ballistic missile.
AAP leader Kapil Mishra has come up with a sting operation on a CNG kit scam in Delhi.

Rebel Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Kapil Mishra today released a sting operation and alleged that the Delhi government is involved in a CNG kit scam.

"There are 20 lakh CNG users in the national capital - from taxi services to school buses, autos and even the cars people drive. Delhi stands on a ticking time bomb and this is not possible without the hand of the Delhi government," said Kapil Mishra.

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Members of the Aam Aadmi Sena (AAS) took a leaking cylinder to four different compressed natural gas checking centres across the national capital and in all four centres they managed to get a pass certificate for the leaking cylinder. The cylinder failed the hydrostatic stretch test specially done for the compressed gas cylinders but they still got certificates to use the cylinder.

"We have brought up the matter with the LG. We are sure he will take the needful action," said AAS president Prabhat Kumar.

"We have given the Delhi government four days. If nothing is done within the next four days then we will take to the streets with various transport unions," said Mishra.

Also read:

Kapil Mishra vs Arvind Kejriwal Round 3: Ex-Delhi minister claims AAP received funds through hawala

--- ENDS ---
Chamba, Jul 31 (PTI) The police today used teargas to quell a violent mob which was protesting the allegedrape of a school girl in Tissa in Chamba district.

Fifteen persons including an Additional District Magistrate (ADM), an Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) and several others sustained injuries, Deputy Commissioner,Chamba, Sudesh Mokhta said.

Communal tension had gripped Tissa following the rape of a school girl.

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Following the incident some locals attacked some teachers which led to further tension. Three persons had earlier been arrested in connection with the attack on teachers.

Mokhta said that ASP Virender Thakur, who was seriously injured, was referred to the Pt Jawaharlal Nehru government medical college hospital, Chamba.

The DC said that the protesters damaged the property and security was deployed in strength and situation was now under control and strict vigil was being maintained. PTI CORR PCL ADS

--- ENDS ---
Over the past fortnight, the Liberal-National government has unveiled the most far-reaching revamping of the countrys security apparatus since the political convulsions of the 1960s and 1970s.

First, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, surrounded by masked Special Forces commandos, announced expedited measures to call out the military to suppress any outbreaks of domestic violence.

Next, he outlined plans for a Home Affairs super-ministry to take command of seven surveillance and enforcement agencies, including the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), the Australian Federal Police (AFP), the Australian Border Force (ABF) and the Immigration and Border Protection Department.

Then, Turnbull announced that a new US-style Office of National Intelligence (ONI), headed by a Director-General of National Intelligence, will be created in the prime ministers office. The ONI will establish centralised control over all the internal and external spy agencies that constitute the National Intelligence Community.

This network already has about 7,000 personnel and an annual budget approaching $2 billion. Most of its key agencies have roughly trebled in size under the cover of the war on terrorism since 2001. Now it is to be vastly expanded and handed a range of new powers, in particular to monitor the political activities of Australians both at home and overseas.

By making his series of security pronouncements, Turnbull obviously had his governments own immediate concerns in mind. The increasingly unpopular and divided Liberal-National Coalition government has been hanging by a thread since last Julys double dissolution election left it with a bare one seat majority in parliaments lower house. No government has lasted a full three-year term since 2007 because of widespread opposition to the bipartisan program of austerity, war preparations and boosting the powers of the police, intelligence and military agencies.

The political fears and strategic calculations in ruling circles go far deeper, however. They are driven by the global turmoil and uncertainties produced by the Trump administration, the decline in the hegemony of the United Statesto which the fortunes of Australian capitalism have been tied since World War IIand the rise of seething discontent in every country, including Australia, generated by ever-greater social inequality.

Some light was shed on those underlying concerns by the release of an unclassified version of an intelligence review report prepared at Turnbulls request over the past six months. The government has accepted all the recommendations of the review, which include the establishment of the ONI.

The report was drafted by former intelligence and foreign affairs chiefs Michael LEstrange and Stephen Merchant, and Sir Iain Lobban, ex-director of Britains intelligence control centre, the Government Communications Headquarters. The public version bluntly states that Australias national security environment is being re-shaped by the ongoing decline in the global influence of the US, intensifying conflicts between the major powers, and the rise of domestic economic and political disaffection.

The trend in the global balance of wealth and power is favouring China and India, the report warns. The Western ascendancy in international institutions and values that characterised the second half of the twentieth century, and the early years of the twenty-first century, is eroding.

Clearly, the prospect of war is growing. The geopolitical consequences of economic globalization are creating new centres of power and encouraging new strategic ambitions among many states. There are increasing complexities, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region, generated by enhanced economic interdependence and rising geopolitical rivalry.

Above all, the global strategic influence of the United States has declined in relative terms and that trajectory is set to continue.

The report warns that these profound changes have far-reaching implications, not only internationally but also domestically. Without elaborating, the report says the shifts are challenging aspects of Australias comparative advantages.

There are potentially dire economic consequences for the Australian corporate elite in any conflict between the US, which remains by far the largest source of investment in Australia, and China, the countrys biggest export market.

Among the heightened tensions and instabilities, the report highlights enhanced nationalism, populism and economic parochialism in many countries and notes: This is exacerbating a growing sense of insecurity and alienation.

These comments have gone unreported in the capitalist media. They expose the fraud of Turnbulls assertions, echoed throughout the media, that his governments only concern is to keep Australians safe from terrorism and cyber-attacks.

Far from protecting the Australian population, those in ruling circles are preoccupied with suppressing widespread opposition to their plans for war and to the deepening attacks on the jobs, wages and social conditions of working class people.

As recommended by the review, the Director-General of National Intelligence will head an office with double the number of analysts in the existing Office of National Assessments, and provide daily briefings to the prime minister. Headed by the director-general, the new ONI will direct and coordinate the activities of an extensive network of agencies.

These include the domestic spy agency ASIO, the overseas spy service, the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS), the electronic surveillance operation, the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), and the militarys Defence Intelligence Organisation (DIO).

Also in the sprawling network are the satellite mapping agency, the Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation (AGO), the police-linked Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC), and the financial tracking agency, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC). In addition, there is the Australian Government Security Vetting Agency, the Australian Cyber Security Centre and the intelligence arms of the Federal Police, Border Force and immigration department.

Significantly, to these will be added a National Intelligence Community Innovation Hub to involve other government officials, corporate chiefs and academics to address capability needs and create new linkages.

To boost funding across the network, a Joint Capability Fund will be established, pouring an estimated $370 million extra into shared capabilities over the next five years.

New powers will be handed to the agencies, including streamlined ministerial authorisations for operations against entire classes of Australians. ASIS agents will be armed and trained to use lethal weapons. There will be a comprehensive review of all existing legislation to enhance intelligence powers and data-sharing.

Great attention is being paid to camouflaging the security buildup because of mounting hostility toward the surveillance agencies, particularly since the false intelligence claims used to invade Iraq in 2003 and the disclosures of WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden.

Julian Assange and WikiLeaks revealed some of the atrocities and war crimes being committed by the US and its allies, including Australia. Snowden exposed the electronic spying conducted by the US National Security Agency and its partners on millions of people around the world.

The report notes that following the WikiLeaks and Snowden unauthorized disclosures and growing interest in the broader community in perceived failures of intelligence, it was critically important to provide public reassurance and build trust with the population.

For that purpose, the report recommended slightly expanded roles for two cosmetic oversight mechanisms, describing their contributions to the intelligence community as value adding. They are the Inspector-General of Intelligence, a small agency of security-vetted officials in the prime ministers department, and the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, which consists of 11 Liberal-National and Labor MPs handpicked by the prime minister and the opposition leader.

The document noted that the Reviewers also held discussions with key interlocutors from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand. Together with Australia, these countries are part of the global US-led Five Eyes surveillance network.

The establishment of the new over-arching ONI will bring the intelligence services into line with their counterparts in the US and UK, where similar centralised apparatuses have been created during the past 16 years.

Opposition Labor Party leader Bill Shorten has guaranteed bipartisan support for the restructure, having been briefed by Turnbull in advance. Labor has backed, or initiated, every bolstering of the state apparatus for decades.

This is the greatest overhauling of the security apparatus since the late 1970s, following the global political upheavals of 1968 to 1975, which saw the toppling of governments in many countries. In 1978, the Fraser government used the still officially-unsolved detonation of a bomb outside the Sydney Hilton Hotel to declare that the age of terrorism had arrived, deploy troops on the streets, establish the AFP and hand immense powers to the intelligence agencies.

Today, the entire state apparatus is being prepared to deal with even more intense social and political disaffection under conditions of deepening social inequality, austerity and an intensifying drive to war.
Between April and June, Google completed a major revision of its search engine that sharply curtails public access to Internet web sites that operate independently of the corporate and state-controlled media. Since the implementation of the changes, many left wing, anti-war and progressive web sites have experienced a sharp fall in traffic generated by Google searches. The World Socialist Web Site has seen, within just one month, a 70 percent drop in traffic from Google.

In a blog post published on April 25, Ben Gomes, Googles chief search engineer, rolled out the new censorship program in a statement bearing the Orwellian title, Our latest quality improvements for search. This statement has been virtually buried by the corporate media. Neither the New York Times nor the Wall Street Journal has reported the statement. The Washington Post limited its coverage of the statement to a single blog post.

Framed as a mere change to technical procedures, Gomess statement legitimizes Internet censorship as a necessary response to the phenomenon of fake news, where content on the web has contributed to the spread of blatantly misleading, low quality, offensive or downright false information.

The phenomenon of fake news is, itself, the principal fake news story of 2017. In its origins and propagation, it has all the well-known characteristics of what used to be called CIA misinformation campaigns, aimed at discrediting left-wing opponents of state and corporate interests.

Significantly, Gomes does not provide any clear definition, let alone concrete examples, of any of these loaded terms (fake news, blatantly misleading, low quality, offensive, and down right false information.)

The focus of Googles new censorship algorithm is political news and opinion sites that challenge official government and corporate narratives. Gomes writes: [I]ts become very apparent that a small set of queries in our daily traffic (around 0.25 percent), have been returning offensive or clearly misleading content, which is not what people are looking for.

Gomes revealed that Google has recruited some 10,000 evaluators to judge the quality of various web domains. The company has evaluatorsreal people who assess the quality of Googles search resultsgive us feedback on our experiments. The chief search engineer does not identify these evaluators nor explain the criteria that are used in their selection. However, using the latest developments in programming, Google can teach its search engines to think like the evaluators, i.e., translate their political preferences, prejudices, and dislikes into state and corporate sanctioned results.

Gomes asserts that these evaluators are to abide by the companys Search Quality Rater Guidelines, which provide more detailed examples of low-quality webpages for raters to appropriately flag, which can include misleading information, unexpected offensive results, hoaxes and unsupported conspiracy theories.

Once again, Gomes employs inflammatory rhetoric without explaining the objective basis upon which negative evaluations of web sites are based.

Using the input of these evaluators, Gomes declares that Google has improved our evaluation methods and made algorithmic updates to surface more authoritative content. He again asserts, further down, Weve adjusted our signals to help surface more authoritative pages and demote low-quality content.

What this means, concretely, is that Google decides not only what political views it wants censored, but also what sites are to be favored.

Gomes is clearly in love with the term authoritative, and a study of the words meaning explains the nature of his verbal infatuation. A definition given by the Oxford English Dictionary for the word authoritative is: Proceeding from an official source and requiring compliance or obedience.

The April 25 statement indicates that the censorship protocols will become increasingly restrictive. Gomes states that Google is making good progress in making its search results more restrictive. But in order to have long-term and impactful changes, more structural changes in Search are needed.

One can assume that Mr. Gomes is a competent programmer and software engineer. But one has good reason to doubt that he has any particular knowledge of, let alone concern for, freedom of speech.

Gomess statement is Google-speak for saying that the company does not want people to access anything besides the official narrative, worked out by the government, intelligence agencies, the main capitalist political parties, and transmitted to the population by the corporate-controlled media.

In the course of becoming a massive multi-billion dollar corporate juggernaut, Google has developed politically insidious and dangerous ties to powerful and repressive state agencies. It maintains this relationship not only with the American state, but also with governments overseas. Just a few weeks before implementing its new algorithm, in early April, Gomes met with high-ranking German officials in Berlin to discuss the new censorship protocols.

Google the search engine is now a major force for the imposition of state censorship.
A Socialist Equality Party campaign team spoke to local residents in Londons Ladbroke Grove on Saturday. The team were campaigning for the public meeting being held by the SEP on August 19: The Grenfell FireSocial Murder: A crime against the working class.

The team met with a warm response, with many residents in the working class area expressing agreement with the SEPs analysis of the fire as a crime of capitalism. The inferno was the end result of decades of deregulation and cuts by central and local governments of all political stripes, including the deadly impact of gutting the fire service. Many people expressed their interest in attending the public meeting.

Francesca and her friend Antony spoke to the WSWS. She said, There was blanket 24/7 coverage for a week or 10 days after it [the fire] happened, and you could see quite clearly peoples frustrations, and what they were asking the government to do. They wanted some place to stay, some stability, information about their loved ones, and where they could live. And its just really disheartening now to find that actually the government hasnt helped these people. There isnt support for people who are immigrants, and need help with translation and legal fees.

The bare minimum that you would expect our government to provide for people is somewhere to live, somewhere permanent, some answers. Its really shocking the kind of basic level of help that isnt there. It doesnt exist and it doesnt seem to be forthcoming.

I dont think poor and immigrants matter to this government. I think if this had happened to some multi-million-pound building in a different part of the borough, help would have been forthcoming instantly. But I dont think the people that run this country see people like this as having value or being worth helping.

There are a lot of people that care, but there are also a lot of people that see people that arent white as being deserving of less help; that they shouldnt have been given the homes in the first place, that theyre taking homes from people that were born here.

A WSWS reporter pointed out that race politics being promoted around Grenfell, focussing attention on the fact that ethnic minorities were living in the building, obscures the class nature of the ongoing social attack on the poor.

Francesca replied, But I think you cant separate the two. Race and class issues are absolutely hand in hand, and inextricably linked. So I dont think there would be in this country, for example, a multi-million-pound building with wealthy Muslim immigrants.

At that point Antony broke in to say, Well no, I think there would be, and could even be in the same borough actually. Maybe not a tower, say a block of townhomes, but absolutely.

Francesca continued, And when there was talk about rehoming people in a nicer area there was sympathy but only up to a point, and [wealthy] people in the nicer areas said, Ive worked hard to live here, why should they be placed here for free?

Jane said she opposed austerity measures that had led to the slashing of budgets by local authorities, with many vital public services, including fire safety programmes, eviscerated. I grew up near Latimer Road, she said, and my parents have friends who died in that fire, and I think it is completely irresponsible in one of the richest boroughs in London for austerity to do this to the people that the government should be protecting the most. Its completely out of order.

Asked what she thought caused the fire, Jane said, I think there is a general climate of austerity and then those at the top ignored all the complaints of the residents for years. It has all come together.

If they had just put boxes around the [exposed] gas pipes, put sprinklers in, changed the cladding, it could have saved hundreds of peoples lives. I think that it has taken this, in which over 100 people have lost their lives, to see that ignoring people and their basic rights has gone too far. The treatment of the [Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC)] council towards its residents is disgusting and irresponsible.

The council is trying to get rid of people and send them all out of London. It will be getting rid of what London is. These working class communities have always been here. There has to be more attention paid to people who need it most.

The worst part of all this is that they [the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO)] who ran the block on behalf of the council got all these warnings. They got a warning last November saying, We now think it will take a tragedy before you will listen to us. Thats the worst part, that they saw this coming and they did nothing to stop it. There are whole families gone, children, wives, husbands gone and people whose entire lives have been ruined.

Manual, who is a building worker and regularly meets with architects, said, I have some knowledge of how buildings are developed. There has to be a special department in the council who signs for these kinds of changes [to cladding] and there is also some responsibility for this fire in the architects team.

Asked why he thought no one had been arrested or charged, Manuel said, This has always been the same when such things happen, not just here but in other countries too. Those who did this will never take responsibility for anything.

Manual said he agreed with the Socialist Equality Party that the callous indifference to basic fire safety that led to the Grenfell fire was central to the ruling elites policy to socially cleanse London of its working class population. You have these rich people paying 2 million for a house and they dont want to look at poor people living in a tower block near them, he said. I have been living around here in Ladbroke Grove for 30 years and it is so different to how it was.

Jasmin, a single mother and council resident, said, Its the responsibility of the government of course to take care of the people affected. It is outrageous that the building was made unsafe with the cladding. And now some, a few, of the people were given nice flats, I think so that they will not complain. Oh, some were very good, but pleasepeople died!

Im a single mum, and I have two kids and I have to move every year or two. I could easily end up in a building like that.

The government covered up whats happened. How many people were killed? And kids!

And now, I think they are trying to make a political advantage out of the disaster.

A council tenant, who did not want to give her name so as to avoid any reprisal from the RBKC, spoke out against the authorities underplaying of the number of people who died in the Grenfell inferno, and the hazardous conditions in the tower block she lived in.

I have friends [who lived in the tower] I havent seen, from Sudan, from Egypt, from Morocco. I think too many people have passed away. Its [the number of fatalities] not like what they have said. And they do not care.

She described a fire hazard in her building regarding a propane gas tank, We speak to the council, they say, Ah, sorry. It is a problem. But it has been there for a month, and they do nothing. They dont come and they dont do anything. Its still there.

All the people [who are indifferent to residents living in unsafe housing] who are working in the council, give them the sack straight away. This is a dirty game, OK. I have only a one-bedroom flat, but I dont want to move into a high-rise building. Its finished now, Im not trusting anyone. They send people to lead the council that dont have any experience or education, these are the people working for the building, and why?

Asked what he thought about the official response to the fire, Jephte, a local resident, said, Its not serious. The people that made decisions on cladding should bear some responsibility. If youre doing construction and you know [the cladding] can catch on fire, you should accept some responsibility.

On the ongoing project of expelling the working class from the neighbourhood, he said, You cant have a place with only rich people. Whos going to work? In this modern society you cant have that.

Many residents said they saw the news that the police were looking at possible corporate manslaughter charges against the RBKC and KCTMO. Mary said, Corporate manslaughter is a just a means to make sure that no one goes to prison. They will just pay a fine and then its business as usual. This has to be stopped. She added, If you look all over London, all you see is social cleansing. Why the hell should working class people who have lived here for generations have to get out? None of this is fair and its wrong.
This is a new translation of an open letter Trotsky addressed to the Provisional Government on the arrest of Bolshevik leaders, which took place during the crackdown that followed the July Days (see: July 17-23: The July Days, insurrection and counterrevolution in Petrograd). The letter is dated July 23, 1917 (July 10, O.S) and was published in the journal Novaya Zhizn, N. 73, on July 13 (O.S.). The Provisional Government responded to this letter by issuing a warrant for Trotskys arrest.

Citizen Ministers!

I am informed that the arrest warrants that were issued in connection with the events of July 3-4 extend to comrades Lenin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, but not to me. Accordingly, I consider it necessary to bring to your attention the following:

1. I share the principled position of Lenin, Zinoviev and Kamenev, and I have advocated it in the journal Forward (Vperiod) and in all of my public speeches.

2. My attitude towards the events of July 3-4 was identical with the attitude of the above comrades, namely:

(a) Concerning the anticipated demonstration of the First Machine Gun Regiment and other regiments, comrades Zinoviev, Kamenev and I first learned of it at a meeting of the joint Bureaus on July 3, and we immediately took the necessary steps to ensure that this demonstration did not take place; in taking this position, comrades Zinoviev and Kamenev were in contact with the centers of the Bolshevik Party, as I was with my comrades in the Interdistrict organization, to which I belong;

(b) When the demonstration nevertheless took place, I, like the comrade Bolsheviks, repeatedly spoke before the Tauride Palace, expressing my full solidarity with the main slogan of the demonstrators: All power to the Soviets, but at the same time I emphatically called on the demonstrators to return promptly to their military units and their quarters in a peaceful and organized manner;

(c) At a meeting involving a number of members of the Bolshevik and Interdistrict organizations, which took place deep into the night (July 3-4) in the Tauride Palace, I supported Comrade Kamenevs proposal: to take all measures to prevent the repeat of the demonstration on July 4; only after all the orators arriving from the districts reported that the regiments and factories had already decided to demonstrate, and that until the government crisis had been resolved, there was no way to restrain the masses, all participants of the meeting joined the decision to undertake every effort to ensure that the demonstration took place within a peaceful framework and to insist that the masses come out without weapons;

(d) During the whole day of July 4, which I spent in the Tauride Palace, I, like the Bolshevik comrades present there, repeatedly spoke before the demonstrators in the same sense and spirit as on the previous day.

3. The fact that I am not connected with Pravda and am not a member of the Bolshevik Party is not due to political differences but to certain circumstances in our party history which no longer have any significance.

4. Press reports that I denied my involvement with the Bolsheviks are fabrications, as are the reports that I supposedly asked the authorities to protect me from mob violence, as well as hundreds of other statements of the same press.

5. In light of the above, it is clear that you cannot have any logical reasons for exempting me from the warrants that subject comrades Lenin, Zinoviev and Kamenev to arrest. As for the political side of the matter, you can have no reason to doubt that I am an equally irreconcilable opponent of the general policy of the Provisional Government, just like the comrades mentioned. My exemption only more sharply underscores the counter-revolutionary and capricious character of your actions in connection with Lenin, Zinoviev and Kamenev.

Leon Trotsky

July 10, 1917

Petrograd
Maldives President Abdulla Yameen deployed Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) officers and police on July 24 to stop opposition MPs entering the parliament.

The unprecedented move was to prevent a no-confidence motion by the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) against parliamentary speaker Abdulla Maseeh Mohamed, an ally of the president. MDP chairman Hassan Latheef told Reuters: We were dragged, pepper-sprayed, and tear-gassed by the police and brutally stopped from entering the parliament.

Last Mondays events are the latest chapter in the ongoing, and increasingly bitter faction fight within the countrys ruling elite. The Maldives, an archipelago of 1,192 islands with a population of just under 400,000, is strategically located astride major sea-lanes across the Indian Ocean.

The MDP-led opposition has been planning for months to oust the speaker. MDP leader and former president Mohammed Nasheed opposes Yameens close relations with China and has openly declared that he is ready to serve US and Indian geo-political interests in the region. Nasheed and his supporters want to remove a law that bans anyone convicted on so-called terrorism charges from running in presidential elections.

Yameen introduced this anti-democratic law in 2015 to sideline Nasheed, who was convicted of terrorism charges after ordering the arrest and detention of former chief justice Abdulla Mohamed in 2012. Nasheed was sentenced to 13 years jail but was later released under pressure from the US and Britain.

Last April, the MDP, together with Jamhooree Party, Adhaalath Party and supporters of former Maldives dictator Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, attempted to remove the parliamentary speaker from the 85-member parliament. This failed after 10 MPs from Yameens Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) refused to support a no-confidence motion.

The pro-US Yameen-led opposition over the recent months, however, has secured support from 45 MPs, including PPM members, for another no-confidence resolution, which was scheduled for July 24.

Although Yameen failed to persuade the 10 PPM defectors to support this vote, he reportedly used other tactics. The Maldives police claim that opposition MP Faris Maumoon bribed some members of parliament to win their backing. He denied the allegation but was arrested and taken into custody on July 18. Another opposition supporter has also been accused of bribery.

Yameen has secured a Supreme Court ruling that any MP who changed their political party affiliations would be unseated. He claimed that four government MPs had lost their seats. The parliament secretary responded by declaring that the July 24 vote would not be allowed.

The MDP and its opposition allies attempted to hold protest rallies following last Mondays police and military blockade of the parliament. On Wednesday night seven journalists from two television stations were arrested while covering a protest outside a MDP meeting in Male, the national capital. The journalists were accused of obstructing police attempts to disperse an unlawful gathering. They were released later.

The Maldives is an important focal point in Washingtons pivot to the Indo-Pacific region to confront China.

Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Male in September 2014 during Yameens presidency. Yameen declared that the Maldives would join Xis Maritime Silk Route, a key element in Chinas One Belt and One Road initiative. India, which is a key partner in the US military buildup against China, is hostile to Yameens relations with Beijing.

While MDP leader Nasheed was jailed on terrorism charges, the Maldives government, under pressure from the US and Britain, allowed him to leave the country under the pretext of taking medical treatments in London.

Nasheed, who has been in exile for the past two years, told the Indian Express on July 21 that he would terminate all the Chinese projects if elected president in next years elections. What is in Maldives interest very much depends on what is in Indias interest, he said, adding, If India feels that its security and safety is compromised in the Indian Ocean, and then we must be mindful of that.

According to the Indian Express, Nasheed said that the Maldives was in danger of becoming another Sri Lanka, a reference to the Chinese infrastructure loans taken out by former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse. Nasheed accused Yameen of selling Maldives national interest to the Chinese.

US, British, German and French embassies and EU representatives covering the Maldives but located in Sri Lanka issued a joint statement last week opposing Yameens attempts to muzzle the opposition. It declared that it was alarmed by the recent actions of the government of Maldives which seriously damage and undermines democracy and the countrys international human rights obligations.

The statement also condemned the forcible closure of the parliament to opposition MPs and their harassment and arrest, and demanded that the parliamentarians be allowed to conduct their rightful duties.

The concerns of these imperialist powers about democratic rights in the Maldives are a fraud. All these powers, within their own countries and internationally, readily violate democratic rights and commit war crimes in pursuit of their economic and geopolitical interests. The increasingly violent political instability in the Maldives is a direct result of the US-led war drive against China.
Depending on the outcome of the talks with the BJP leadership, AIADMK is likely to join the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.

After winning an ally in the form of Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) in Bihar, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is said to be in talks with leaders of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) as part of its mission to grow its base in southern India.

According to sources, top BJP leaders are in talks with the AIADMK leadership. A top Cabinet minister in the Centre is trying to mediate with both factions of the AIADMK - EPS and OPS.

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It is also being believed that depending on the outcome of the talks, AIADMK is likely to join the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.

The timing of the talks assumes significance as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going to expand his Cabinet later on in August. Chances are high that if the AIADMK joins NDA they may want a Cabinet berth.

Sources said JD(U) members too may join the council of ministers.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E Palaniswami has called for an MLA meeting in the AIADMK headquarters tomorrow.

The EPS and the OPS factions within the AIADMK have also been trying to put up a united stand.

In the past, AIADMK has been in and out of the NDA government. It had joined the alliance in 1998-1999 and then again in 2004-2006.

The BJP, which has only a 2.5 per cent vote share in Tamil Nadu, has been trying to increase its foothold in the state.

According to reports, multiple factions within the AIADMK had made it tough for the BJP to negotiate politically with their leadership. If the EPS-OPS factions put up a united front forward, it will be easier for the AIADMK to enter NDA.

Led by O Panneerselvam and E Palaniswami, the two factions have been fighting for the last few months after the death of Jayalalithaa. Sasikala, on the other hand, is already in jail.

AIADMK Deputy General Secretary TTV Dhinakaran has reportedly set an August deadline for the merger and indicated that he will take up the effort if the others on either side failed to do the job.

Dhinakaran, the nephew of jailed party chief VK Sasikala, had announced stepping aside from party activities in April this year after a section of ministers revolted against him and Sasikala.

He was later arrested by the Delhi Police in a bribery case over the AIADMK's 'Two Leaves' election symbol. However, on being released on bail last month, he said he would resume party work.

He had also said Sasikala told him to wait for two months to see if the merger happens.

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Also read:

How did she meet 82 people against 8 allowed? RTI filed over Sasikala meeting visitors in prison

Sasikala's nephew Dhinakaran, brother Dhivakaran patch up to tighten grip over AIADMK

Sasikala still controls AIADMK, will decide on support to BJP candidate in presidential election, says nephew

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Kamal Haasan, Rajnikanth can join AIADMK, says Tamil Nadu Minister Sellur Raju

--- ENDS ---
US President Donald Trump has lashed out at China following North Koreas long-range missile test last Friday, accusing Beijing of failing to force Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear and missile programs.

In his tweets yesterday, Trump declared that he was very disappointed in China, stating that they made hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. In a menacing warning, he added: We will no longer allow this to continue.

For months, Washington has been pressuring Beijing to impose crippling sanctions on North Korea as a means of bullying it to accept US demands. Trumps impatient tweets are another sign that the White House is actively considering far more aggressive methods, including military strikes against North Korea.

The danger of the US taking reckless action on the Korean Peninsula is heightened by the acute political crisis engulfing the Trump administration, highlighted by the sacking of the presidents chief of staff last Friday and the installation of former general, John Kelly, previously head of Homeland Security, in the post. An attack on North Korea would serve to distract attention from the internal turmoil within the White House over allegations of collusion with Russian officials during the presidential election campaign.

In a show of force, the Pentagon flew two strategic B-1 bombers over the Korean Peninsula yesterday as part of joint war games with Japanese and South Korean fighter jets. The fly-over followed a live fire exercise on Friday by the American and South Korean militaries, including the firing of missiles into the sea.

Commander of the US Pacific Air Forces, General Terrence OShaughnessy, reinforced the message sent by the B-1 bombers. He warned that the United States and its allies were ready to respond with rapid, lethal, and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing.

The US also conducted another test of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) anti-ballistic missile system over the weekend, shooting down a target missile launched in Alaska. Following the North Korean missile launch, South Korea dropped its objections and gave the green light for the full deployment of a US THAAD battery in its territory.

US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, dismissed suggestions that the US was going to call an emergency session of the UN Security Councilas it did after North Korea first tested its long-range missile on July 4. She said it was pointless as long as China refused to commit to increasing pressure on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

In fact, Haley said, it is worse than nothing, because it sends the message to the North Korean dictator that the international community is unwilling to seriously challenge him. China must decide whether it is finally willing to take this final step. The time for talk is over.

Haley made clear that if China refused to bully North Korea into submission, the US would act militarily. Earlier, she retweeted a photo of the B-1 bombers flying over the Korean Peninsula to reinforce the warning.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson blamed Russia as well as China for failing to take action against North Korea. He branded Moscow and Beijing as the principal economic enablers of North Koreas nuclear and ballistic missile development program. China and Russia bear unique and special responsibility for this growing threat to regional and global stability.

China has already imposed heavy sanctions on North Korea in line with resolutions in the UN Security Council, restricting the import of coal and banning the import of gold, rare earths and other minerals. The Trump administration, however, is pressing for Beijing to bring Pyongyang to its knees by cutting off oil and other essential exports to North Korea.

While imposing sanctions, the Chinese government is reluctant to impose measures that would bring about a complete economic crash, threatening an implosion of the Pyongyang regime that could be exploited by the US and its allies to intervene. Beijing has long regarded its ally North Korea as a crucial buffer on Chinas northern border against the United States.

The growing danger of an American attack on North Korea has been underscored by a new leaked assessment by the Pentagons Defence Intelligence Agency that North Korea will have a reliable, nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) as soon as next yeartwo years earlier than previously estimated. The revised assessment was made on the basis of the July 4 test by North Korea and prior to last Fridays launch.

After Kim Jong-un announced on January 1 that North Korea was on the brink of testing an ICBM, Trump tweeted it wont happen. His latest tweets indicate that time is running out for a peaceful solution to the confrontation on the Korean Peninsula.

The US and international press are stepping up the drum beat of condemnation against North Korea, claiming that it is a threat to the US and the world. A constant stream of articles and commentary speculate about the means for halting North Koreas nuclear weaponsincluding an all-out military attack.

The propaganda barrage in the media is to whip up a climate of fear and provide the pretext for war. In reality, it is the US, not North Korea, which has waged one war after another over the past 25 years in a bid to retain its global dominance. The US threats of another, even more devastating war on the Korean Peninsula, are not primarily aimed at Pyongyang, but at Beijing, which Washington regards as the chief threat to its hegemony.

The recklessness of military action against North Korea was underscored by US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, General Joseph Dunford who declared last week that a war on the Korean Peninsula would be horrific and result in a loss of life unlike any we have experienced in our lifetimes.

The last war on the Korean Peninsula between 1950 and 1953 brought the Chinese and US militaries into direct conflict and led to the deaths of millions of military personnel and civilians. Under conditions of acute geo-political tensions, a new war could rapidly draw in the major nuclear-armed powers and have far more catastrophic consequences for humanity.
Figures released by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) this month, highlight the deepening crisis of staff shortages in the National Health Service (NHS). They indicate that plummeting staff levels in the NHS are the result of deliberate policies pursued by successive governments.

According to the NMC, there has been an increase in the number of nurses and midwives leaving its register, while the number joining has slowed. The net result is a reduction in the numbers of nurses and midwives registered to work in the UK.

While the NMC register increased year on year from 2013 to March 2016, since then, 20 percent more registrants have left the register than joined, leading to a reduction of 5,047 nurses and midwives.

Of the nurses and midwives on the NMC register, 85 percent first registered in the UK, 10 percent first registered in non-EU countries, with only 5 percent having initially registered in EU countries.

The NMC said that between 2016 and 2017, 45 percent more UK registrants left the register than joined it for the first time. It also noted that more nurses and midwives are leaving the register before retirement age with a noticeable increase in those aged under 40 leaving.

Since July last year, the right-wing anti-immigrant atmosphere and uncertainty created by Brexit has drastically reduced the number of EU nurses and midwives registering to practice in the UK.

This mass exodus of nurses and midwives takes place amid a broader shortage of 40,000 nurses and 3,500 midwives in England alone, according to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) trade unions.

Analysing the official data for the two-year period 2014-15 to 2016-17, the Health Service Journal (HSJ) exposed that 96 percent (214) of the 224 acute hospitals in England operated without an adequate level of nursing staff during the day shifts last October, and 85 percent did not have the right staff levels on night shifts.

The terrible conditions that have forced nurses and midwives to leave the register have come to light in an NMC survey conducted between June 2016 and May 2017. Of the 4,544 responses received by the NMC from nurses and midwives during that period in regard to the reasons for their leaving from the register, less than half cited retirement as the reason for leaving. In contrast:

* 44 percent cited poor working conditions, for example low staffing levels and workload.

* 28 percent cited a change in personal circumstances, such as ill-health and childcare responsibilities.

* 27 percent cited disillusionment with the quality of care provided to patients, along with poor pay and benefits.

Research by RCM last year similarly confirmed that midwives were being driven out of the profession by excessive workloads and poor staffing levels.

However, the staffing crisis is not confined to these professional categories. There are numerous media reports about the shortage of consultants, doctors, GPs and other clinical groups, thanks to the years of underfunding, the destruction of training opportunities and indifference to the health needs of working people.

GP leaders and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine say that Britain urgently needs more general practitioners and emergency doctors.

Secretary of State for health Jeremy Hunt, who capitalised on the betrayals of British Medical Association (BMA) of the junior hospital doctors steadfast opposition to new, inferior contract, to impose it regardless, cynically attributed the fall in the nurses and midwives numbers to inflexible NHS contracts.

The staffing shortage in health carewhich leads to entirely preventable deathsis, no less than the conditions leading to the Grenfell Tower inferno, social murder. It flows inexorably from deliberate policies of both Conservative and Labour governments that represent the interests of the financial and corporate elite that has nothing but contempt for the lives and well-being of working people.

After coming to power in 2010, Tory-led governments, in which Hunt held office, implemented the plans put forward by the Gordon Brown-led Labour Party in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crash, carrying out a massive social counterrevolution to reverse the social gains of the working class.

The Tories indifference to staffing levels came to light when in 2015 Hunt ordered the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to stop setting safe staffing levels in order to save money. NICE had started drawing up guidelines on NHS-wide safe staffing levels in 2014 in the wake of Sir Robert Francis QCs inquiry into the failures of Mid Staffordshire Hospital in 2013.

Since 2010, the Tory-led governments have implemented year on year pay freezes or 1 percent pay caps for public sector workers, including nurses and midwives, resulting in a real-term pay cut of up to 15 percent. Many nurses and midwives are compelled to work beyond their contracted hours, despite the heavy workloads created by poor staffing levels, in order to keep their heads above the water.

A major attack on health workers living standards came in 2011, when the Tories increased pension contributions and cut pension benefits. This was agreed by the health workers trade unions, who tacitly agreed to the governments termsin opposition to their own members who wanted to fight the measures.

In 2013, the NHS trade unions signed a rotten agreement with the Staff Council accepting a cut in health workers wages and conditions. The agreement included the introduction of performance-based incremental progression, an end to sickness absence enhancements, the elimination of the recruitment and retention premium and the removal of accelerated pay progression for Pay Band 5 workers, including nurses, midwives, physiotherapists and radiographers.

Last year, the Tory government announced the scrapping of student bursaries in order to reduce the funds given to Health Education England.

The RCN, RCM and other professional bodies representing Allied Health Professionals point out that the Tory governments plan to scrap bursaries from this year will exacerbate the already dire shortage of frontline workers. The government falsely claims that replacing bursaries with student loans will attract more students for these professionscreating an extra 10,000 nurses training places by 2020.

The latest figures from UCAS, the university admission service, disprove these claims. There has already been a massive 23 percent fall in nursing applications this year in England compared to 2016, with 33,810 applying in 2017 compared to 43,800 applicants in 2016. It means that the number of nurses and midwives is set to fall even further.

It is indisputable that not only the governments constant attacks on the NHS and workforce but the refusal of the unions to launch a unified struggle of the workers to defend the NHS and the staffs pay terms and conditions have played a major role in the mass exodus of nurses and midwives from the register.

The willingness to oppose the attacks on NHS workers was shown in the bitter dispute of junior hospital doctors who, last year, fought the governments imposition of an inferior contract. That is why the RCN, which allowed attacks to go ahead unhindered for seven years, has been compelled to call a summer of protests in order to keep its restive members under control. This follows a recent poll of RCN members finding that 91 percent would support industrial action in support of a pay claim. In an attempt to head off a possible strike, the RCN called on Prime Minister Theresa May to remove the public sector pay cap of 1 percent before a formal legal ballot on action later in the year.

Mays government are determined to go ahead with their plans to cut 26 billion from the NHS budget through its Sustainability and Transformations Plans (STPs), despite losing their majority in the election. There is no doubt that they will try to use a deliberately-provoked staffing crisis and other major problems within the NHSresulting from years of slashing budgetsas a justification to privatise its remaining services.
Fridays announcement by President Trump removing White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and replacing him with retired Gen. John F. Kelly marks a further stage in the emergence of the military brass as the decisive political power in the Trump administration.

With General Kelly as White House chief of staff, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, an active duty officer, as national security adviser, and retired Gen. James Mattis as secretary of defense, military men hold three of the top four appointed positions in the executive branch.

Press coverage of the White House transition has focused almost entirely on the Twitter antics by Trump and the vulgar ranting by his new communications director, former hedge fund boss Anthony Scaramucci. A sober assessment of the actual political implications of the White House reshuffle reveals, however, that the events of the past week mark a major turning point for the Trump administration and the crisis-ridden US political system as a whole.

Trump fired Priebus, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, whom he chose as chief of staff to act as a conduit to the Republican congressional leadership and the party establishment. He has replaced him with a retired Marine general with no political record and an avowed and well-publicized contempt for civilian oversight of the militaryone, moreover, who, as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, has overseen the administrations program of mass arrests and deportations of undocumented immigrants.

The president coupled the removal of Priebus with a public blast against Senate Republicans, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, over their failure last week to enact any version of a repeal of the Obama administrations Affordable Care Act.

Trump responded with a series of tweets saying Senate Republicans look like fools and demanding that McConnell trample on minority rights in the Senate and proceed immediately to push through White House proposals for slashing taxes on the wealthy and gutting social programs such as Medicaid.

Trump presents himself more and more as a ruler above the two capitalist political parties, while seeking to surround himself with uniformed audiences. He addressed 40,000 Boy Scouts assembled at a jamboree in West Virginia, then gave a speech Friday to police on Long Island in which he endorsed rough treatment for immigrants and others under arrest, touching off chants of USA, USA from the assembled cops.

While inciting police violence, Trump made direct appeals to ultra-right bigotry with a tweet calling for the expulsion of transgendered people from the military and new legal steps by the Justice Department directed against the democratic rights of homosexuals.

Added to this is the rancid atmosphere of palace intrigue in the White House. It is widely reported that Trump family members played a key role in the firing of Priebus, with son-in-law Jared Kushner, daughter Ivanka Trump and First Lady Melania Trump all weighing in.

In all of this there is the stench of dictatorship. Trump is pursuing a definite political strategy. He is seeking to carve out for himself, as the representative of the financial oligarchy, a position of power independent of the apparatuses of the establishment political parties and the traditional institutions of bourgeois rule such as Congress, the courts and the so-called mainstream media.

Like all would-be Bonapartist autocrats, he seeks to establish a personalist regime based on the military and police. His use of Twitter is an essential component of this effort. He bypasses the establishment media and makes his appeal directly to the military and police while seeking to whip up national chauvinism and all forms of social and political backwardness. He seeks in this way to establish a base he can mobilize independently of the political parties.

But Trump is not some aberration or accident, an interloper into the otherwise pristine precincts of American democracy. He is the product of decades of uninterrupted war, reaction and decay of political culture within the ruling class and all official institutions, including academiaa process that has been presided over by both big-business parties. This has coincided with the rise of a criminal financial oligarchy and a staggering growth of social inequality to levels incompatible with democratic norms.

The Democratic Party for its part welcomes the appointment of Kelly. Its opposition to Trump continues to be centered on demands for an escalation of the confrontation with Russia. It welcomes any sign that this is being done, such as the White Houses announcement that Trump will sign the bill passed last week with virtual bipartisan unanimity imposing new sanctions on Russia, as well as Iran and North Korea.

It fears no less than the Republicans the growth of social opposition and anticapitalist sentiment in the working class and supports the domination of the military over the political system as insurance against the threat of social revolution.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi praised General Kelly during an appearance on Fox News Sunday, while expressing the hope that he would improve the functioning of the Trump White House. I will be speaking with him today and look forward to working with him, she said.

On another Sunday interview program, CNNs State of the Union, Democratic Representative Barbara Lee was grilled for remarking that by putting General Kelly in charge, President Trump is militarizing the White House and putting our executive branch in the hands of an extremist. Lee backpedaled from the suggestion that she was antimilitary, declaring, Let me first say, I have come from a military family And so I respect and honor the military and recognize the sacrifices that all of our military men and women make as well as General Kelly and his history and his sacrifices.

Senator Bernie Sanders appeared on the same program and did not even make reference to the White House shakeup.

The concentration of wealth in the hands of a tiny financial oligarchy, personified by social criminals like Trump and Scaramucci, is completely incompatible with democratic rights. The defense of democratic rights falls to the working class, as a central element in its struggle for the abolition of the profit system and the socialist reorganization of society.
On the morning of Friday, July 28, a middle-aged couple jumped to their death from a building in mid-town Manhattan. In their suicide notes the couple explained they cannot live with their financial reality.

According to media reports, Glenn Scarpelli, 53, and his wife, Patricia Colant, 50, were seen the night before their deaths removing their belongings from their home and putting them on the curba sign they may have been recently evicted. The following morning they leaped from the ninth floor of a Madison Avenue building, where Scarpelli worked as a chiropractor and Colant as his receptionist.

The couple had placed their respective suicide notes and IDs inside plastic bags in their pockets.

Scarpellis note, which was headed, We had a wonderful life, explained, Patricia and I had everything in life, before referring to the couples financial spiral.

Colants letter also provided contact information for family and friends, and instructions on how to notify their two children about their deaths.

Friends and relatives of Scarpelli and Colant have expressed shock to the media over the couples death, and it has been widely reported that the family was well known and liked at restaurants and bars in New Yorks financial districtwhere they lived.

Scarpelli was also known for generosity with his time. Following the events of September 11, 2001, he volunteered countless hours as a chiropractor at ground zero. Adam Lamb, a fellow volunteer, told the New York Post, We helped adjust for stressed and freaked out firefighters, policemen anyone who needed help.

Amy Lambert, who rented a room at Scarpellis Madison Wellness Center, described him as someone who just wanted to help people. She also noted that he never turned anyone away if they couldnt afford his services.

Scarpellis father, Joseph C. Scarpelli, was mayor of Brick Township, New Jersey, until he was named in a federal government corruption probe. The elder Scarpelli was eventually sentenced to 18 months in jail.

New York Police Department Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce told the media that the source of the couples money problems was unclear. However, part of the difficulties seem to stem from Scarpellis student loans. In 2013 a federal judge ordered him to pay almost $62,000 as part of a lawsuit by the government over his failure to repay loans he took out in 2000 as a student at Logan College of Chiropractic (now Logan University) in Chesterfield, Missouri in suburban St. Louis.

Scarpelli and Colant also sent both their children to the prestigious Loyola High School, which costs roughly $38,000 a year. Their daughter Isabella, 20, is currently a student at St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas, and their son, Joseph, 19, attends the University of Miami.

The family also had a lien against them from September showing they owed $23,304 in federal back taxes, and a separate lien in April 2015 revealed they were $232,295 in arrears.

Numerous friends of the couple have told the media they were entirely unaware of the financial problems, and some have speculated that other factors may have contributed to Scarpelli and Colants decision to end their lives. Further details may well emerge over the course of the next few days.

According to a report published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in 2015, a close relation exists between the rise in suicide rates among 40 to 64-year-olds and economic instability or decline. The report notes that external economic factors were tied to 37.5 percent of all suicides in 2010 compared to 32.9 percent in 2005. From 2000 to 2014, the Journal pointed out, there was an increase in suicide rates by 43 percent for men and 63 percent for women between the ages of 45 to 64.

A growing number of people in the US, many of them working class and living in small towns or rural areas, feel that debt, deteriorating economic conditions or outright poverty have deprived them of a future worth living. Scarpelli and Colant were erstwhile successful professionals living in the middle of New York City.
Perhaps more than any other battle in world history, the Third Battle of Ypres will endure for generations as a symbol of pointless and fratricidal barbarism. Poison gas, swamped battlefields, barbed wire, bayonet charges against machine guns, the endless rain of high explosive shells, infection, disease, the arrogance and incompetence of the officers, the soaring cost in young livesthe nightmare in Flanders leaves a lasting mark on human consciousness.

While popular moods continue to turn against the war, counterrevolution is in full swing in Russia. Trotsky is jailed in Petrograd, and Kerensky is assembling a Bonapartist government to save capitalism, prosecute the war to victory, and crush all resistance from workers, peasants and soldiers.

Belgium, July 31: The Third Battle of Ypres begins

At 3:50 on the morning of July 31, 1917, the allied troops of Great Britain and France begin the so-called Third Great Flanders Offensive, also known as the Third Battle of Ypres. It is preceded by several weeks of continuous heavy artillery fire of German positions.

Eighteen divisions of the British Fifth Army cross 23 kilometers from Deulemont on the Lys to the north of Steenstraat in Belgium to attack the German Fourth Army. France is only able to deploy three divisions because most of its forces have been paralyzed by serious mutinies in recent weeks.

The offensive is intended to tie up the forces of the Central Powers on the Western Front and to prevent them from deploying reinforcements to the east, where the Russian armies are retreating in a state of collapse. The commander-in-chief of the British army in France, Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, plans to break through to the Belgian coast to conquer the German U-Boat bases near Ostend and Zeebrugge. This is intended to avert the threat posed by the German U-Boats to the British navy and provide an opportunity to surround the German troops.

Twenty-six British and six French divisions; 3,535 artillery guns (1,423 of them heavy artillery); and 680 planes are made available for the offensive. The German Fourth Army has at its disposal only 18 divisions and much fewer arms. Rain and the destruction of drainage systems by artillery fire turn the swampy terrain into a muddy wasteland in which any troop movements, especially for the artillery, are extremely difficult. It becomes a grueling battle of attrition and a terrible slaughter that continues through November. For months, the ruins of a single location are fought over. For the first time, aerial battles take place involving more than 100 fighter planes. Only with difficulty does the German military command manage to replace the divisions which are quickly disabled.

Outnumbered and outgunned, the Germans overcome their disadvantage by using mustard gas for the first time, the barbaric chemical agent that burns the airways and skin within seconds. Professor Adolf Julius Meyer, the creator of mustard gas, later boasts: The effect of mustard gas in the Flanders battle of 1917 grew more and more and it was often the case that the enemy was happy if he was able to keep a quarter of his men unharmed.

The fighting lasts through mid-November. The military objectives of the offensive are not achieved. The only resulta relocation of the front line by 8 kilometersis paid for on the British side with approximately 50,000 killed; 38,000 missing in action; and 236,000 wounded. On the German side, approximately 46,000 are killed and missing while 281,000 are wounded and seriously ill.

Petrograd, July 31 (July 18, O.S.): Kerensky appoints General Kornilov as commander-in-chief

Following a meeting with generals in the high command on July 29 (July 16, O.S.), Alexander Kerensky announces his decision to appoint Lavr Kornilov as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, replacing Aleksei Brusilov. The appointment of Kornilov is an expression of the growing influence of the military on the Provisional Government in the wake of the July Days. Popular achievements of the February Revolution are being quickly abolished.

The day after his appointment, Kornilov issues a telegram bluntly declaring that he will not submit to any kind of civilian oversight. He demands that the government accept all demands put forward by the top generals at the meeting on July 29. These demands include the introduction of capital punishment for soldiers both at the front and in the rear and total independence for the generals in appointing commanders and issuing operational directives. The generals take particular exception to the existence of soviets of enlisted soldiers, which have asserted the authority to discuss and vote on orders received from officers.

The right-wing Socialist Revolutionaries Boris Savinkov and Maximilian Filonenko had pressured Kerensky to appoint Kornilov as commander of the southwestern front in June and also coaxed him into appointing him as commander-in-chief. The Kadet Party, conservatives, and the old tsarist military cliques look toward Kornilov as a possible strongman in an authoritarian dictatorship they seek to establish in place of the dual power regime that has existed since February.

Kornilov, born in 1870 to a family of Cossack officers, is distinguished by his exceptional cruelty and narrow-mindedness. A future White Army commander, whose units will wear the deaths head, his political sympathies lie with the monarchist and fascistic Black Hundreds. He is despised by the revolutionary masses, by his own soldiers in particular, and even by other generals. General Alekseev once called him a man with a lions heart and the brains of a sheep.

Yet it is the very brutishness of his hatred of the revolution that qualifies Kornilov for the post of commander-in-chief amid the rising tide of counterrevolution. Drawing no distinction whatsoever between the Bolsheviks, on the one hand, and moderate petty-bourgeois socialist parties like the Socialist Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks, on the other, for him all parties that have supported the February Revolution and the Provisional Government merge into one mass of Russias internal enemies that must be ruthlessly crushed.

Western Front, July 31: Two poets, Hedd Wyn and Francis Ledwidge, killed in action

Irish poet Francis Ledwidge and Welsh poet Hedd Wyn are both killed during the first day of the Third Battle of Ypres.

Ledwidge, born in 1887, was associated with the Gaelic revival movement prior to the war, and he was also active in trade union circles. He tried and failed to establish a local club of the Gaelic League, a literary and cultural organization that promoted the use of the Irish language and was associated with the development of nationalism at the beginning of the 20th century. He was more successful in creating a local branch of the Irish Volunteers in Slane, the organization formed in response to the creation of the Ulster Volunteers to ensure the implementation of home rule for Ireland. Though Ledwidge initially sided with the minority of the Irish Volunteers, which, on the outbreak of war, opposed participation in the British army, he soon shifted his position and joined the military in October 1914.

Ledwidges poetry was influenced by rural life. He also responded to the radicalism of the 1916 Easter Rising, writing in OConnell Street:

A Noble failure is not vain

But hath a victory of its own

A bright delectance from the slain

Is down the generations thrown.

Wyn, born Ellis Humphry Evans in 1887, is also killed near Ypres. He adopted the name Hedd Wyn, meaning blessed peace in Welsh, in 1910. His poetry drew heavily on the influences of the Romantic era, including themes of nature and spirituality, although he has also written several war poems since the conflict broke out. Wyn initially opposed the war on Christian pacifist grounds. He was conscripted in 1916 and then arrested by the military police in early 1917 after overstaying a period of leave at home. Wyn posthumously won an award at the National Eisteddfod, a festival of poetry and music, for his poem Yr Arwr.

Some of Wyns works have been translated, including the poem Rhyfel (War), which begins,

Why must I live in this grim age,

When, to a far horizon, God

Has ebbed away, and man, with rage,

Nowwields the sceptre and the rod?

Vatican, August 1: Pope Benedict XV warns that European civilization is committing suicide

Is the civilized world to be but a field of death? the pope asks. And must Europe, so glorious and so flourishing, go, as if driven by a universal folly, into the abyss and lend a hand to her own suicide? The pope urges the belligerent nations to open peace negotiations.

The Catholic Church has not taken a side in the Great War, but as the head of one of Europes oldest and most reactionary institutions, the pope expresses concern that the profound unpopularity of the war will lead to upheavals and revolutions that could challenge the existing order.

Benedict XV adheres to his predecessor Leo XIIIs visceral hatred of socialists, whom the latter branded a wicked confederacy of men who defile the flesh, despise dominion and blaspheme majesty. On July 25, 1920, following the establishment of Soviet power in Russia, Benedict XV will issue an edict that denounces socialism as the sworn enemy of Christian principles. In this document, the pope expresses alarm that in the vows and in the expectation of the most seditious, he sees emergence of a certain universal republic, which is founded on the absolute equality of men and on the communion of goods and in which there is no distinction of nationality, the fathers authority over his children is not acknowledged, nor public authority over citizens, nor God over human affairs.

Butte, Montana, August 1: IWW organizer Frank Little lynched by company thugs

In the midst of fierce class struggles in Montanas copper mines, Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) organizer Frank Little is murdered in Butte, Montana.

Little, an executive board member of the IWW who publicly opposes US involvement in World War I, is abducted in the middle of the night from the boarding house where he is staying. The kidnapperswidely acknowledged to be company thugs hired by the Anaconda Copper Mining Companydrag Little behind their car, beat him and then hang him on a railway trestle. His official cause of death is listed as strangulation by hanging.

Thousands of workers in Butte turn out for Littles funeral. Little arrived in Butte on July 18, having avoided deportation with miners from Bisbee, Arizona because of a broken ankle. He immediately began agitating against US imperialisms involvement in World War I and against the copper companies that dominate Butte.

In June, Butte miners marched against conscription and a catastrophe at the Speculator Mine that killed almost 200 miners. Nearly 20 percent of US copper is mined by 12,000 workers in and around Butte.

Little, who was born in 1879, became an organizer for the IWW in 1906, campaigning for free speech and organizing lumberjacks and other workers in the US West. During a 1913 strike of ore-dock workers in Duluth, Minnesota, Little worked with fellow IWW organizer James P. Cannon, who would go on to lead the Trotskyist movement in the United States.

No one was ever charged or convicted in relation to Littles lynching.

Oklahoma, August 2: Green Corn Rebellion of tenant farmers against conscription

An uprising involving thousands of Oklahoma tenant farmers and allieswhite, black, and American Indians of the Muskogee and Seminole nationsagainst the imposition of military conscription is met with massive repression, resulting in hundreds of arrests and three deaths.

Called the Green Corn Rebellion because the tenant farmers allegedly intend to march on Washington, DC, surviving on roasted green corn as they move, the rebellion emerges in a part of the United States where socialism has had a major influence. In Seminole County, the center of the rebellion, the Socialist Party won 22 percent of the vote in the 1916 presidential election. The same year saw the emergence of a union of tenant farmers calling itself the Working Class Union, or WCU, which was inspired by the revolutionary trade unionism of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). The WCU, which claims 35,000 members in Oklahoma, has armed itself and carried out violent reprisals against the vigilante justice of the rural elite.

According to one local newspaper account, a statement has been issued to the tenant farmers calling for resistance to conscription:

Now is the time to rebel against this war with Germany, boys. Boys, get together and dont go. Rich mans war. Poor mans fight. The war is over with Germany if you dont go and J.P. Morgan & Co. is lost. Their great speculation is the only cause of the war.

An army of some 800 to 1,000 farmers respond to the call to arms on August 2, burning down bridges and cutting telegraph lines. However, after a skirmish with a large sheriffs posse, the men disperse. Three are killed in the exchange. Mass repression follows. Some 450 are arrested, of whom 150 receive lengthy prison sentences lasting as long as 10 years. The Oklahoma Socialist Party, facing persecution, disbands. The IWW in Oklahoma is also targeted.

Lanarkshire, Scotland, August 2: More than 50,000 miners down tools to protest rising food prices

Over 50,000 miners throughout the Lanarkshire coalfields stop work for a day to protest the spiraling cost of living. Prices for basic foodstuffs have risen sharply across Britain since the beginning of the war, and the government began announcing restrictions on some foodstuffs in the spring.

But workers wages have stagnated, making many foodstuffs unaffordable. The one-day strike is organized by the Executive Committee of the Lanarkshire Miners. The protest takes place in the face of bitter opposition from the pro-war established trade unions, which have conspired with the bosses and government to block strikes and protests during the war. The executive of the Scottish Miners has refused to be represented at a regional meeting of the workers and soldiers council to be held August 11, organized following the Leeds convention, which declared its support for the February Revolution in June.

In the Coalburn district in south Lanarkshire, workers pass an additional resolution threatening a down tools policy if the government seeks to impose military or industrial conscription in the area.

The miners action marks a growing politicization of the struggles of workers in Glasgow and surrounding industrialized areas, which have been led by the Clyde Workers Committee since its foundation in February 1915. In May 1915, thousands of workers, led by socialists, launched a rent strike to oppose rent increases. The movement spread across the city, leading to mass demonstrations and 20,000 workers refusing to pay rent hikes by November 1915. As the movement spread, gaining support in the citys slum areas, the government was forced to impose a rent freeze at pre-war levels to prevent a further escalation of the protests.

Sydney, August 2: Great strike of 100,000 Australian workers begins

Several thousand transport workers gather at the Eveleigh railway workshops and the Randwick tram depot in Sydney, Australia, to discuss plans for industrial action. The meetings vote for an indefinite strike in opposition to new attacks on working conditions.

The immediate trigger for the dispute is the introduction of time cards, designed to monitor productivity. They are part of a broader overhaul, which includes increases to the number of foremen monitoring transport workers, as part of the drive to boost production and efficiency for the war effort.

Over the coming weeks, the strike will rapidly spread throughout the countrys east coast states, including New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. It will come to involve 100,000 workers in transport and other industries, making it the largest industrial action to that point in Australian history.

Underlying the mass movement is growing opposition to the war. In October 1916, workers defeat a government plebiscite, aimed at introducing conscription to provide new cannon fodder for the battles of the Western Front. In 1917, the carnage in Europe escalates, with 77,000 Australian troops killed, wounded or missing. News of catastrophic losses on the battlefields of Messines and Bullecourt in France fortifies anti-war sentiment.

The New South Wales premier, William Holman, of the Nationalist Party, formed earlier in the year through a split in the Labor Party, denounces the strike as the work of the enemies of Britain and her allies. He warns that many Trade Unions have become the tools of Disloyalists and Revolutionaries.

The state and federal governments prepare to repress the strike. Holman and Nationalist Party Prime Minister Billy Hughes declare that the revolutionary-syndicalist Industrial Workers of the World is responsible for the action, and is seeking to sabotage wartime productivity

In July 1917, the Nationalist and Labor Parties had passed the Unlawful Associations Act through the federal parliament. The bill was directed at illegalizing the IWW, which had already been subjected to frame-ups and persecution, and other socialist organizations. Hughes declared that the IWW was the great menace to society.

London, August 2: John Maclean calls for release of anti-war socialists interned by British government

John Maclean, a leading member of the British Socialist Party who was only released a month ago from prison, issues an appeal in the BSPs newspaper The Call for the release of Peter Petroff, a socialist and former member of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, who has been detained without charge by the British authorities since January 1916 because of his anti-war stance.

Petroff played a role in the 1905 revolution before being exiled to Siberia. He later escaped to Britain, where he made contact with Maclean and other members of the Social Democratic Federation, which later went on to form the BSP. Since 1916, the BSP has been under the leadership of anti-war forces who defeated the pro-war, nationalist faction led by Henry Hyndman. Petroff adopted an anti-war stance in 1914 and contributed articles to, among other publications, Nashe Slovo, the Russian-language daily published in Paris in 1915 and 1916 to which Trotsky contributed. Working with the Clyde Workers Committee, Petroff has addressed a number of mass meetings on the war and the 1905 Russian revolution. However, Petroff distanced himself from Lenins efforts at Zimmerwald to turn the world war into a civil war.

Petroffs internment was instigated by Hyndman, who published a vitriolic denunciation of Petroff in the BSPs newspaper Justice in December 1915, entitled, Who and What is Peter Petroff? This article all but accused him of being pro-German and denounced him for his opposition to the provision of financial support to the International Socialist Bureau of the Second International. Petroff wrote of Hyndmans role, This paragraph appeared on the same day I was arrested in Fife, where I was to speak at two meetings of miners. At the same time raids were made upon the offices of the Russian Seamens Union and the Central Bureau of the Foreign Committee of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party. Thus the action of those responsible for Justice curiously coincided with the action of the authorities.

As well as Petroff and his wife, Irma, Maclean raises the case of J. B. Askew, a socialist and translator of many of Kautskys works into English, who is also detained.

Petroff will remain detained until January 1918, when the British authorities deport him to the Soviet Union. He will go on to work for the Soviet government, later breaking with the party and leaving the Soviet Union over the rise of Stalinism.

Wilhelmshaven, Germany, August 4: 600 sailors disobey orders and march ashore in protest

Around 7:00 a.m., 600 sailors of the battleship Prinzregent Luitpold (Prince Regent Luitpold), the flagships Kaiserin (Empress) and Friedrich der Groe (Friedrich the Great), and several other ships of the second, third and fourth squadrons of the German Navys High Seas Fleet begin to march ashore. The immediate cause of the protest action is the arbitrary imprisonment and severe punishments with which the commandant of the Prinzregent Luitpold has responded to the spontaneous walkout of 49 of his subordinates the previous day. Those sailors had revolted against the needless replacement of the free time promised to them with military exercises.

The High Seas Fleet has not been involved in combat operations for months due to the superiority of the British fleet and its naval blockade. Therefore, the repeated calls for unnecessary military drills at a time when sailors face starvation rationing of miserable food are seen as pure harassment. The second, broader reason for the protest is hatred of the war and the political suppression of all opposition to it.

The sailor Max Reichpietsch and the stoker Albin Kobis lead the protest. In the tavern Zum weien Schwan (The White Swan) in the small town of Rustersiel near Wilhelmshaven, where all the sailors have gathered, Max Reichpietsch calls for the participation of sailors in the rationing of meals through a committee of their own choosing. Above all, however, he calls for immediate peace without annexations. Influenced by the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD), he points to the significance of the Stockholm Peace Conference. If it does not succeed, he argues, then the sailors of the High Seas Fleet would have to pressure the government with joint protest actions to achieve peace.

Albin Kobis concludes his speech with the words: We are the true patriots. Down with the war! We will wage war no longer!

Although the sailors limit their march to three hours and willingly maintain combat readiness with watch duty on the ship, the ship commanders and admirals of the fleet retaliate against them without mercy. Those sailors identified as the instigators, as well as several who had only participated, are imprisoned by the dozen, brought to land and cruelly interrogated under torture and threat of the death penalty. The commanders have enough spies among the sailors, with whose statements military investigators manage to coerce some confessions and to trump up charges sufficient to bring the sailors before a military tribunal in a matter of days.

For weeks, under the leadership of Reichpietsch, Kobis and a few other sailors have built an organization in secret, a so-called league of soldiers, and a movement of confidants of the soldiers. In June, Reichpietsch and Kobis had appealed to the leadership of the USPD for support and won hundreds of sailors to membership in the party. But party chairman Wilhelm Dittman is rather frightened by Reichpietschs visit to Berlin and warns against illegal actionshe limits his support for the revolutionary sailors to urging caution in their activities.

The league of soldiers has taken a systematic and careful approach to building their revolt against the war. It is politically and organizationally unprepared for the unexpected early outbreak of spontaneous protest actions arising from the events at the beginning of August. Thanks to informants, lists are found containing the names of sailors who had supported with their signatures the Stockholm Peace Conference and the call for an immediate negotiated peace.

That is sufficient for their accusers to call for death sentences, decades or life in prison on the grounds of high treason and insurrection. For the time being, the rebellion is crushed.

Petrograd, August 5 (July 23, O.S.): Trotsky and Lunacharsky thrown in prison

While the Mensheviks and SRs are being invited to join a new coalition government, as for Trotsky and the Bolsheviks, there was no talk of an invitation to enter the Government, but of an invitation to enter the Kresty prison, as Trotsky later wryly observes.

After the Provisional Government issues an arrest warrant for the leading Bolsheviks, including Lenin, Zinoviev, and Kamenev, Trotsky publishes an open letter to the ministers of the Provisional Government in the journal Novaya Zhizn. He writes: I consider it necessary to bring to your attention the following: I share the principled position of Lenin, Zinoviev and Kamenev, and I have advocated it in the Forward (Vperiod) journal and in all of my public speeches. The authorities respond to this letter by issuing a warrant for his arrest as well.

August 6 (July 24, O.S.): Kerensky officially forms second coalition Government

A new coalition cabinet is formed with Alexander Kerensky at its head. This cabinet includes Kerensky as Minister-President and Minister of War and Navy, Nikolai Nekrasov as Vice-President and Minister of Finance, Victor Chernov (SR) as Minister of Agriculture, Matvey Skobelev (Menshevik) as Minister of Labour, and Nikolai Avksentiev (SR) as Minister of Internal Affairs. This government proposes to restore order, defend capitalism, continue prosecuting the war, and crack down on enemy agents within Russia.

This new government issues a lofty proclamation making various popular promises: to hold elections for a Constituent Assembly on a certain date, to guarantee self-government, to abolish the relics of the tsarist system of social estates and privileges, to carry out land reform, and to guarantee the eight-hour day, job security, and social insurance. Not a single one of these promises will be kept.

On August 7 (July 25, O.S.), at a joint meeting of the Central Executive Committee of Soviets of Workers and Soldiers Deputies and the Executive Committee of the Congress of Peasants Deputies, the Mensheviks and SR leaders adopt a resolution urging the most strident support for the new coalition government.

In his pamphlet The Beginning of Bonapartism, which will be published in the coming weeks, Lenin, who is now in hiding, warns that Kerensky is emerging as a Bonapartist dictator:

Now that the Cabinet of Kerensky, Nekrasov, Avksentiev and Co. has been formed, the gravest and most disastrous error Marxists could make would be to mistake words for deeds, deceptive appearances for reality Lets leave this pastime to the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries who have already gone as far as to play the part of clowns around the Bonapartist Kerensky. If we only said the counter-revolution had temporarily gained the upper hand here in Russia we should be dodging the issue. If we analyzed the origin of Bonapartism and, fearlessly facing the truth, told the working class and the whole people that the beginning of Bonapartism is a fact, we should thereby start a real and stubborn struggle to overthrow Bonapartism, a struggle waged on a large political scale and based on far-reaching class interests Let the Party loudly and clearly tell the people the whole truth that Bonapartism is beginning; that the new government of Kerensky, Avksentiev and Co. is merely a screen for the counter-revolutionary Cadets and the military clique which is in power at present; that the people can get no peace, the peasants no land, the workers no eight-hour day, and the hungry no bread unless the counter-revolution is completely stamped out. Let the Party say so, and every step in the march of events will bear it out. With remarkable speed Russia has gone through a whole epoch in which the majority of the people put their faith in the petty-bourgeois Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik parties. And now the majority of the working people are beginning to pay heavily for their credulity. All indications are that the march of events is continuing at a very fast pace and that the country is approaching the next epoch, when the majority of the working people will have to entrust their fate to the revolutionary proletariat. The revolutionary proletariat will take power and begin a socialist revolution; despite all the difficulties and possible zigzags of development, it will draw the workers of all the advanced countries into the revolution, and will defeat both war and capitalism.
Angelina Jolie has denied the process of controversial casting for her upcoming film First They Killed My Father.

Angelina Jolie has refuted a magazine's cover story that described a controversial casting process for her movie First They Killed My Father. She says she is "upset" by the misconstrued report.

According to the cover story by Vanity Fair magazine, Jolie and her casting associates placed money on a table and allowed the children auditioning for the Cambodian film to take it. It claims that after taking the money, the director "caught" the children, and forced them to explain why they needed the cash.

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The magazine's cover story, titled Angelina Jolie Solo, describes the auditioning process of First They Killed My Father.

"To cast the children in the film, Jolie looked at orphanages, circuses, and slum schools, specifically seeking children who had experienced hardship. In order to find their lead, to play young Loung Ung, the casting directors set up a game, rather disturbing in its realism: they put money on the table and asked the child to think of something she needed the money for, and then to snatch it away. The director would pretend to catch the child, and the child would have to come up with a lie. "Srey Moch [the girl ultimately chosen for the part] was the only child that stared at the money for a very, very long time," Jolie says. "When she was forced to give it back, she became overwhelmed with emotion. All these different things came flooding back." Jolie then tears up. "When she was asked later what the money was for, she said her grandfather had died, and they didn't have enough money for a nice funeral."" read the story.

Srey Moch was ultimately chosen for the part.

Jolie now says that the process described in the profile was misconstrued, reports variety.com.

She says it was "a pretend exercise in an improvisation, from an actual scene in the film".

Jolie noted that she was "upset" by the allegations.

"The suggestion that real money was taken from a child during an audition is false and upsetting. I would be outraged myself if this had happened," she said.

First They Killed My Father is based on the 2000 book by Loung Ung. The story is a personal retelling of Ung's survival of the Pol Pot regime. The film will be released on Netflix in September.

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - An Alabama man is facing charges in Leon County after being caught attempting to seduce who he thought was a 13-year-old child online.

Brian Patrick Donald, 40, of Theodore, AL, contacted an undercover officer who was posing as a 13-year-old child on Feb. 8, 2017, according to a probable cause affidavit.

He was caught by officers conducting an online undercover operation.

The officers were targeting suspects who use the internet to try to meet children to sexually exploit them.

Agencies that cooperated in the operation included the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Tallahassee Police Department and the Leon County Sheriff's Office.

During their online chat, Donald said he "got that dad build" and identified himself as a 40-year-old white male.

"I've done a lot," he said. "And I do some stuff some think is bad."

Donald went on to provide the undercover officer with his telephone number. Authorities said photos that Donald sent to the undercover officer matched Donald's Alabama driver's license photo.

The phone number Donald gave online matched a number owned by T-Mobile, the complaint said, and the company confirmed that Donald was the number's owner.

Donald was arrested on Saturday.

He was charged with the crime of using a computer for obscene communication to seduce, solicit, or lure a child.

MOBILE USERS: Download our WTXL news app on your Apple and Android devices for the latest from South Georgia and North Florida. Also, download our WTXL Weather Now app for Apple and Android devices to get the latest local weather wherever you go.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (RNN/WTXL) - Governor Rick Scott is warning residents to actively monitor Tropical Storm Emily as watches are activated in several Florida counties.

Though it wasn't expected to happen, a tropical storm formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday morning.

Tropical Storm Emily is located 45 miles west-southwest of Tampa, FL, and 50 miles west-northwest of Sarasota, FL, moving east at 8 mph, the National Hurricane Center said. It is packing maximum winds of 45 mph.

Florida Governor Rick Scott spoke with the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) Monday morning to get an update on potential storms.

Governor Scott said, As we know in Florida, storms can quickly develop, bringing severe weather to our state in a moments notice. Last night, this storm posed no threat to Florida. Now, after rapidly intensifying overnight, a tropical depression will impact the Tampa area and Floridians must prepare for impacts to Southwest Florida. Just as with last years storms, I encourage Floridians to get prepared and visit FLGetAPlan.com."

Emily will make landfall on the west-central Florida coast Monday afternoon, forecasters said, and is expected to change little in strength until landfall.

A Tropical Storm Warning has been issued for the west coast of Florida from the Anclote River south to Bonita Beach, FL.

Tropical storm conditions are expected in this area, including rain accumulations of 2 to 4 inches between the Tampa Bay area and Naples, with isolated amounts of up to 8 inches possible, as well as strong winds.

An isolated waterspout or two is also possible within the warned area.

Forecasters expect the storm to turn northeast later Monday or Tuesday and increase in forward speed. It will then make its way across the Florida peninsula and reach the Atlantic Ocean.

Forecasters said the storm will weaken to a depression over land, but will become a tropical storm again in the Atlantic.

The storm's expected path in the Atlantic takes it roughly parallel to the coast as it moves to the northeast.

The only landfalling storm so far this season, Tropical Storm Cindy, made landfall near Lake Charles, LA, on June 22. It spawned tornadoes throughout the South, including an EF-2 in Birmingham, AL.

The storm claimed the life of a 10-year-old boy vacationing in Fort Morgan, AL.

There is currently a Tropical Storm Watch in effect from Anclote River in Pasco County southward to Englewood in Sarasota and Charlotte Counties and the depression is expected to produce total rain accumulations of 2 to 4 inches through Monday night along the west coast of Central Florida between the Tampa Bay area and Naples.
LORAIN, OH (WOIO) - Police in Lorain have arrested a mother after her eight children were found living in a "disgusting" home. The children were smeared with feces and living in a home infested with bedbugs and covered with mold.

According to police, Quinn Washington, 33, was arrested on child endangerment charges on Monday when officers responded to a home in the 800 block of West 18th Street after a maintenance worker, who just finished working on the home next door, told a neighbor the house was "disgusting" so the neighbor called police.

When police arrived, they found eight children living in deplorable conditions. Police say the children were going to the bathroom on the floor. Some kids were found in dirty diapers while others were covered in feces. One young child was found in a closet wearing a diaper that stretched past his knees because it was full of feces.

The house was infested with bedbugs and smelled like rotten milk, according to police. There was also mold covering parts of the home, including inside the refrigerator. Bags of trash were thrown across the living room and kitchen spaces.

All of the children were being supervised by their 13-year-old sister, according to Lorain police, while their mother was at work.

Washington was arrested at home when she returned from work. She was taken to Lorain city jail.

The children have been taken into custody by Children Services.

Copyright 2017 WOIO. All rights reserved.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - The Rotary Club of Tallahassee Southside prepared dinner for local children with disabilities attending a special summer camp.

WTXL was at the Wallwood Boy Scout Camp on Lake Talquin in Quincy as the organization served 37 teenagers a special spaghetti dinner as part of an annual service at Rotary Youth Camp (RYC).

RYC allows children and teenagers with disabilities to be part of an overnight camp, which is a big deal for these kids.

Many of them need a nurse or two every day, so the camp is a chance for them to do things other kids do -- and give their parents and caretakers a much-needed break.
A blind item suggested that Anupam Kher had a heart-related ailment in the middle of the IIFA Awards in New York recently.

Most B-Towners would have you believe that blind items in tabloids are a figment of someone's very fertile imagination, with no basis in reality. Anupam Kher recently made it to a blind item in Mumbai Mirror, which was about a "veteran actor" who had a "heart-related ailment" when he was in New York for the IIFA Awards. Apparently, he was adamant on not going for a check-up, but had to give in when the paramedics insisted.

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The actor slammed the tabloid for embellishing parts of the story to make it more dramatic. "Dear #MumbaiMirror. Let me unburden u. This is about me. Hadn't eaten for hours so had blanked out. @BeingSalmanKhan called paramedics," he tweeted.

Dear #MumbaiMirror. Let me unburden u. This is about me. Hadn't eaten for hours so had blanked out. @BeingSalmanKhan called paramedics.???????? pic.twitter.com/osGTfZyIJY- Anupam Kher (@AnupamPkher) July 30, 2017

Wishes poured in from concerned fans, who wanted to know if Anupam was alright. Alia Bhatt's mother, Soni Razdan, also tweeted, "Ai hai please eat every 2 hours carry dried fruits and biscuits always especially to award functions."

Ai hai please eat every 2 hours carry dried fruits and biscuits always especially to award functions ?????????- Soni Razdan (@Soni_Razdan) July 30, 2017

On the work front, the 62-year-old actor will be seen next in Akshay Kumar and Bhumi Pednekar-starrer Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, which will hit the screens on August 11.

ALSO READ: Padmavati attack was not intolerance, they just wanted to get noticed, says Anupam Kher

ALSO READ: Anupam Kher to play Manmohan Singh in biopic based on The Accidental Prime Minister

ALSO READ: Anupam Kher bristles at selective media

--- ENDS ---
Homes are scattered across a hillside at the entrance of the Yakima River Canyon near Ellensburg, Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2016. Most of Kittitas County's rural residents rely on private wells, but the county now requires people who want to build new homes to purchase a water right from a bank for those wells. Yakima County will launch a water system early next year to ensure that property owners have access to water that would comply with a 2016 Washington State Supreme Court decision. (SOFIA JARAMILLO/ Yakima Herald-Republic file)
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By Pramod Madhav: Even before the controversy over placing the Bible and Quran near late president APJ Abdul Kalam's statue could subside, a pro-Muslim group leader has come up with a shocking statement claiming that Abdul Kalam was not even a Muslim.

Jainulabudeen, leader of Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath alleged that Kalam was not a Muslim as he prayed to idols and respected naked sadhus. "Before he became a president, nobody knew him. He was just another scientist in the crowd. BJP and the Sangh noticed him and lack of his objection to praying to idols or getting blessings from Sankarachariyar. This is why they made him the president," he alleged.

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He went ahead and claimed that Abdul Kalam just had a Muslim name and that Thowheed Jamath will not protest for not placing a Quran in his memorial. Jaimulabudeen's comment is seen as a continuation to the controversy of the government placing a Bhagavad Gita next to his statue inside the memorial. The move was not taken lightly by the politicians of Tamil Nadu who objected to it.

Kalam's grand nephew tried to shut down the controversy by placing a Bible and Quran next to it which caused more issues as Hindu Makkal Katchi, a pro-Hindu group, protested in front of the memorial and made the cops remove the holy books. Surprisingly, central intelligence officers visited the memorial and had even questioned Kalam's family members for placing the holy books.

Jainulabudeen, reciprocating to these developments, stated that they would have been offended had a Quran be placed next to the statue of a man who didn't approve of idol worship. "We don't even mind if you adorn the statue with holy thread or apply holy ash to his face," he said.

Tamil Nadu, on the whole, is not appreciating the acts of tarnishing the legacy of the people's president by factional groups for their own ideological gain.

ALSO READ:

After Bhagavad Gita row, Bible and Quran placed next to APJ Abdul Kalam statue

PM Modi inaugurates 'missile man' APJ Kalam's memorial on his 2nd death anniversary

WATCH: Bible, Quran placed next to Abdul Kalam's statue following Bhagavad Gita controversy

--- ENDS ---
The Waqfs decision on Thursday to resume prayers at the Temple Mount has not solved the crisis of the past two weeks just yet. Hamas and Fatah have declared days of rage, and its still unclear where the Palestinians' feeling of victory will lead to. It may take days for the region to calm down.

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Meanwhile, the diplomatic failure cannot be ignored: The Israeli Embassy in Jordan has been evacuated, the Egyptians have cancelled the Egyptian Independence Day celebrations in Israel, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has violated the reconciliation agreement and Israel is afraid to claim the price lest he decides to come to the Temple Mount himself, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been pushed into a corner and has become oppositional regarding everything that has to do with the current crisis. If that isnt a failure, what is?

Metal detectors dismantled outside the Temple Mount. The solution is in the leaders hands (Photo: AP)

In the last cabinet meeting on Monday night, when it was decided to remove the famous metal detectors , all those present were asked to sign a confidentiality agreement. There was no chance it would work. Less than half an hour after the end of the meeting, everything had already been leaked, and not by chance. The cabinet members are sensing that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will soon start looking for scapegoats.

The Temple Mount crisis is not the security officials failure. Its the failure of a weak and hesitant political echelon, which should have directed the police, the army and the Shin Bet and provided the political envelope for the aggressive moves on the ground.

In that meeting, Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh presented the polices planned security perception, and Military Intelligence Directorate chief Herzl Halevy presented the IDFs evaluations of the situation. There is no unanimity between the army and the police, and thats a good thing. Nevertheless, as the national police headquarters and the General Staff see it, leaking the security plans and revealing the disagreements between the police on the one hand and the army and Shin Bet on the other hand add fuel to the fire at the Temple Mount. They make the Waqf and its supportersfrom Qatar through Turkey to the Palestinian Authorityfight and raise the price.

The professional, legitimate arguments within the defense establishment focused, first of all, on a fundamental question: Is there room, after the murder of the two policemen at the Temple Mount, to make a change that could move the region, even by an inch, towards a religious conflict with the Muslim world. In the Israeli security outlook, the Temple Mount was and remains the most explosive place in the region, which could lead not only to an outburst of religious fanaticism, but also to an overall regional conflict and to the loss of strategic assets. The leaked arguments over the metal detectors were a smoke screen. Everyonethe army, the Shin Bet, the police and definitely the cabinethad an interest in downplaying the decision and presenting it solely as a tactical matter.

Only last Tuesday, four whole days after the terrible attack at the Temple Mount, the army was askedfor the first time officiallyfor its opinion on changing the security arrangements at the Temple Mount. The IDF presented a fundamental stance: The status-quo at the site must not be changed. This mantra, which is supported by the Shin Bet as well, has been repeating itself in every discussion since then: No metal detectors, no cameras and no scaffoldings with different inspection sensors on them over the nine crossings into the Temple Mount. Everything that has been installed should be removed.

Smart cameras, too smart

Police chief Alsheikh can definitely see himself as an expert on Palestinian issues and on the Temple Mount. He is as big an expert, if not more, as any of his colleagues at the Shin Bet and IDF. As a former Jerusalem district commander at the Shin Bet, he knows every corner there and all those involved, and unlike some of his colleagues who run the other organizations, he knows Palestinians not just through the rifle sight. Thousands of Palestinians sat in front of him in the interrogation room, he has perfect knowledge of the culture and the language.

But when he decided to recommend the erection of metal detectors at the Temple Mount, in the weekend following the murder of Staff Sgt. Maj. Ha'il Satawi and Staff Sgt. Maj. Kamil Shnaan, Alsheikh likely wasnt acting like a policeman. He came from to the police from the organizational culture of the Shin Bet, and so did his associations on traumas and the way to deal with crises. As far as hes concerned, the moment two policemen were murdered by Arabs who smuggled weapons into the Temple Mount and acted from within the site, a red line had been crossed in terms of security and there is no way back.

Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh. From the Shin Bet's organizational culture (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

When Shin Bet officials talk about a red line being crossed in security, they are mainly referring to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabins murder by a Jew. The main assessments in light of the threats on Rabin pointed to the Arab side. The emergence of a Jewish murderer was considered, but it wasnt perceived as a realistic option, until it happened. Thats probably what crossed Alsheikhs mind when Israeli Arab terrorists arrived at the Temple Mount with firearms . While the police had focused on the possibility of Jews committing terror attacks and provocations on the Temple Mount, Arab terrorism from the mountain wasnt seen perceived as a real threat, even if it did appear in the scenarios. Like in the Rabin murder, but the other way around.

As soon as this red line was crossed, Police Commissioner Alsheikh saw before his eyes an ISIS loyalist entering the Temple Mount and shooting Jews, tourists and police officers. As far as hes concerned, thats a scenario Israel must now prepare for.

The original intention in the ministers consultations with the heads of the defense establishment, immediately after the two policemen were killed, was to lock the mountain for a week. The metal detectors option was raised, but they werent perceived as a key issue, as there was a feeling that there was a week to sit, discuss, calm the situation down on the ground and hold diplomatic talks. Eventually, in light of the protests around the world over the precedent of closing the Temple Mount for a long period of time, it was decided to open it as early as Sunday, and the metal detectors became a hit as the only means available to try to deal with the scenario the police chief and his people were preparing for: The entry of armed Muslims to the Temple Mount.

And so on Saturday evening, two weeks ago, the prime minister held the famous conference call in which he gave the green light for placing the metal detectors and opening the Temple Mount, a moment before boarding a plane for an official visit abroad. The Shin Bet and the IDF were not required to voice their opinion at this moment, which seemed like a technical stage. In retrospect, military officials were even surprised by the polices efficiency in organizing 11 metal detectors overnight to greet Sundays worshippers.

The Jerusalem District Police saw the metal detector as a temporary, partial response to begin with, which wouldnt be able to provide a good solution for the passage of tens of thousands of people in the rain and under other restrictions. The metal detectors were perceived as an initial response until the police would fulfill their wild dream: To install an advanced security system around the Temple Mount, which would make it possible to locate suspects even before their arrival at the entrances around the mountain. These secret measures are the cutting edge of global security technology: Underground metal detectors, far away from the Temple Mount, cameras which would send data to computers that would quickly locate suspects and unusual activity, etc. From all this Temple Mount mess, the police got one good thing at least: They received a budgetary approval in principle for tens of millions of shekels to develop the systems.

A few smart cameras were installed as part of a police pilot about a year ago. Had these cameras been activated now, it might have been possible to locate one or two of the terrorists, radical Islamist activists from Umm al-Fahm, whose names were in the Israel Police and Shin Bets database and who carried out the attack at the mountain two weeks ago. By the way, 29-year-old terrorist Muhammad Jabarin, the muezzin at the al-Farouq mosque in Umm al-Fahm, was stopped by a policeman before entering the Temple Mount on the morning of the attack and was asked to present documents. He didnt raise any suspicions, however, because the weapons had been smuggled by an accomplice of the cell who intentionally looked sickly.

The problem is that even if those cameras had been installed around the Temple Mount the next dayand they werent, in light of the Jordanians strong refusalthis isnt a system that can provide a response within days, or even within weeks. The metal detectors are a stupid and effective tool, while smart systems need a learning and adjustment period. The computer behind the camera learns all the time.

Sacred Honolulu vacation

At the time of the decision to place the metal detectors, there was no sense of urgency in the political echelon. The ministers didnt identify the explosive potential. The prime minister went abroad as planned, Jordans King Abdullah was on vacation in the United States, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was in China. The White House wasnt involved. Netanyahu hadnt tied any loose ends yet. The discussions with the Jordanians focused on the Israeli demand that Amman would use its influence on the Waqf people who receive their paychecks from Jordan. The Jordanians, in response, demanded that Israel remove the metal detectors.

Until last Sunday, the White House addressed the Temple Mount events as something which should be handled by its embassies in the region. The problem is that both the US ambassador to Jordan and the US ambassador to Israel are new. Moreover, the White House office dealing with Middle Eastern affairs, as most offices in the State Department, is still unmanned. The State Department and the White Housetwo systems which were well-oiled until recently and knew how to deal with crises around the worldare simply not functioning under Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and President Donald Trump. Netanyahu, on his part, didnt feel the need and didnt want to get the Americans involved, so as not to turn the event into an international saga.

As a result, the Americans came into the picture at a much later stage, with the Amman embassy shooting affair . Shabbat also played a considerable part here. Not only is the White House not functioning very well and lacking any proper work systems, but three senior officialsAmerican Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, the presidents son-in-law and close advisor, Jared Kushner, and the special representative for international negotiations, Jason Greenblattare religious Jews who observe Shabbat. They were all on their weekend break until Monday, and the White Houses operations room didnt bother getting them involved.

Shin Bet Director Nadav Argaman. It was in everyones interest to downplay the decision and present it as a tactical matter (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

It was only on Sunday that Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer found his personal friend Kushner and asked him to talk to the Jordanian king, who was vacationing in Hawaii. Kushner took care of the request himself, but its hard to say that Israel had his full attention: During that weekend, the presidents son-in-law was busy preparing for his dramatic testimony to the Senate on Monday, following heavy suspicions that he had made contact with Russia before the presidential elections.

Greenblatt left for the region that same day, with no plan in his pocket apart from a basic agreement between Netanyahu and the king: The security guard would be returned to Israel in exchange for an Israeli concession that would ease the tensions at the Temple Mount. When Greenblatt boarded the plane, he thought he would arrive in Jordan, get the security guard out and move him to the American embassywhere he would be questioned by Jordanian security officialsand then return with him and with the embassy staff to Israel, and the US would receive Netanyahus gratitude. Moreover, he had already began contemplating an organized procedure for the future handling of crises with American involvement, which Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians would all be part of. Nothing of the kind happened. King Abdullah disrupted all the plans. The inexperienced Americans failed to coordinate their plans with him, and he had no intention of ruining his vacation.

The king already had a recommendation from the head of his security services on the table. The latter had met on Monday with Shin Bet Director Nadav Argaman, who travelled to Amman to personally handle the security guards release from the embassy building. Argaman and his Jordanian counterpart tailored the required arrangements to end the crisis, including an agreement that the Jordanian authorities would question the security guard at the embassy before his departure. The praise Netanyahu showered Trump with gives the American president a bit more credit than he deserves.

Israels main lesson from this affair is that it mustnt rely on the current US administration in the next big crisis either. While it wants to help, its still unable to.

The key is in Abdullahs pocket

The Temple Mount attack caught the Israel Police at a time when it seemed as if they would be abletogether with the other security forcesto restore normalization at the Temple Mount and uproot the potential for incitement from the site after 18 difficult months. This process included arrests of Islamic Movement members, outlawing the Islamic Movement and the "Mourabitoun, and expelling radical Waqf members from the mountain, with Jordans help.

While the Palestinian Authority prevented an Israeli-Jordanian agreement to install cameras on the Temple Mount two years ago, the parties found a way to use measures that would make it possible to reasonably monitor the situation at the site. The Waqf people knew about it and ignored it. The police believed they were back on track.

Paradoxically, the three terrorists from the Temple Mount are, according to the police and Shin Bets perception, a product of the successful reduction in violence around the Temple Mount. According to the working premise, as soon as the Islamic Movements open activity is stopped, some of the steam is let off through terrorism, which is why a terrorist cell around a dominant figure in an Israeli mosque shouldnt have been a big surprise.

Netanyahu and Abdullah. The inexperienced Americans failed to coordinate their plans with the Jordanian king (Photos: AP, AFP)

In cabinet discussions and in evaluations of the situation within the security bodies, on the eve of the metal detectors erection, the police chief estimated that there would be riots and resistance on the Arab side to the change in the security measures. The issue wasnt brought to the Palestinians' attention, and the swift decision wasnt shared with the Jordanians either.

At the time, the police had rejected all the scenarios provided by the other security bodies, which talked about worshippers storming the metal detectors or forcibly breaking into the Temple Mount. Nevertheless, in order to deal with such a possibility, the police raised their alertness to the highest level and recruited several thousand police officers in the Jerusalem area, to create a mass in every point of protest for deterrence and dispersal purposes. They didnt put out the fire, but they didnt let it spread inside the city either. The army recruited five regiments and prepared for reinforced security to deal with acts of terror.

Friday, July 21st, was the first test. The army and the police succeeded in putting out small fires, on the tactical level. After three Palestinians were killed, the police removed themselves from the points of friction to reduce the number of casualties, and allowed the Palestinians run wildas long as they stayed away of the Temple Mount and central Jerusalem. At this point, it was clear to everyone that the battle wasnt over metal detectors but over sovereignty. As far as the Palestinians are concerned, this was a calculated Israeli move aimed at dividing the Temple Mount between Jews and Arabs like the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Until this very day, the Waqf wont forgive itself for agreeing to divide the sites management with Israel.

Throughout the entire day, there was a feeling in the joint operations room of the army, the Shin Bet and the police in Jerusalem that there had been a drop in the motivation for violence. The Palestinian public, officials estimated, saw the Arab world intervening and pushing for an end to the crisis. The army removed two regiments. And then the Halamish massacre took place, and the army returned three regiments. At the moment, the volume of the IDFs forces in the West Bank is similar to its volume on October 2015, when the knife intifada broke out.

Paradoxically, the state of affairs on the Palestinian street after the murder of the three Salomon family members points to a satisfied feeling of revenge, to a bloody account that has been settled. Israel believes, therefore, that the situation can be calmed down from this point. It shouldnt be indifferent, however, and disregard the potential of a renewed flare-up, for example in the event of acts of revenge by extreme rightists.

IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, on his part, has instructed the army to prepare for a long deployment in Judea and Samaria, as well as for a possibility of calling up reserve forces to reinforce the regular forces when they resume training. In a visit to an IDF induction base, Eisenkot revealed that the current battle, according to the IDFs definition, is different from the wave of stabbing attacks in 2015. Its a struggle with a deep religious background, which has rules of its own and little restraining ability.

The key for solving the crisis is in Abdullahs pocket: He pays the Waqfs salaries, he has people of his own at the Temple Mount, he can guide them and he can fire each and every one of them. Abdullah, on his part, was ready to let the security guard go, but he has no interest in getting into too much trouble with the Jordanian street and parliament . The relations between the security services are one thing, and fixing Israels mistakes at the Temple Mount are another thing.

The third angle, which Israel has chosen to erase from peoples consciousness and refuse to see as a partner for any agreement or purpose, is missing here: Palestinian President Abbas. Israel is expressively ignoring him, as well as disregarding his threats to cut security ties with the Israelis.

The solution is now in the leaders hands. Trump couldnt care less about all of this. He has no intention of presenting any demands to Israel. On the contrary. The White House congratulated Netanyahu on the wise decisions he made. The other leadersin Israel, in Jordan and in the PAare in a catch-22 situation. Three unadventurous leaders are forced to dig their heels in against their own will, because they are afraid of the radicals in their society. And this is where things stand.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spoke with US President Donald Trump on Monday and agreed on the need for more action on North Korea just hours after the US Ambassador to the United Nations said Washington is "done talking about North Korea".

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Nikki Haley, US Ambassador to the United Nations, said in a statement China must decide if it is willing to back imposing stronger UN sanctions on North Korea over Friday night's long-range missile test, the North's second this month.

North Korean missile test (: )

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Any new UN Security Council resolution "that does not significantly increase the international pressure on North Korea is of no value", Haley said, adding that Japan and South Korea also needed to do more.

Abe told reporters after his conversation with Trump that repeated efforts by the international community to find a peaceful solution to the North Korean issue had yet to bear fruit in the face of Pyongyang's unilateral "escalation".

Photo: Reuters

"International society, including Russia and China, need to take this seriously and increase pressure," Abe said. He said Japan and the United States would take steps towards concrete action but did not give details.

Abe and Trump did not discuss military action against North Korea, nor what would constitute the crossing of a "red line" by Pyongyang, Deputy Chief Cabinet spokesman Koichi Hagiuda told reporters.

A White House statement after the phone call said the two leaders "agreed that North Korea poses a grave and growing direct threat to the United States, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and other countries near and far".

It said Trump "reaffirmed our ironclad commitment" to defend Japan and South Korea from any attack, "using the full range of United States capabilities".

Nikki Haley (Photo: EPA)

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the talk between Abe and Trump lasted for about 50 minutes.

"The role that China can play is extremely important," he told a news conference.

"Japan intends to call on those countries involvedincluding the UN, the United States and South Korea to start, but also China and Russiato take on additional duties and actions to increase pressure," Suga said, declining to give details about what those steps might be.

"VERY DISAPPOINTED"

North Korea said on Saturday it had conducted another successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile that proved its ability to strike the US mainland, drawing a sharp warning from Trump and a rebuke from China.

Trump later wrote on Twitter that he was "very disappointed" in China and that Beijing profits from US trade but had done "nothing" for the United States with regards to North Korea, something he would not allow to continue.

Photo: AFP

Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Qian Keming, asked at a news conference in Beijing about Trump's tweets, said there was no link between the North Korea issue and China-US trade.

"We think the North Korea nuclear issue and China-US trade are issues that are in two completely different domains. They aren't related. They should not be discussed together," Qian said.

State-run Chinese tabloid the Global Times said in an editorial on Monday Trump's "wrong tweet" was of no help, and that Trump did not understand the issues.

"Pyongyang is determined to develop its nuclear and missile programme and does not care about military threats from the US and South Korea. How could Chinese sanctions change the situation?" said the paper, which is published by the ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who is on vacation, planned to have a phone call with Trump soon, a senior official at the Presidential Blue House said.

"If the two heads of state talk, they will likely discuss their respective stances on North Korea, the US-(South Korea) alliance's standpoint on North Korea and other things including how to impose heavy sanctions," the official said.

US missile test in South Korea (Photo: EPA)

The United States flew two supersonic B-1B bombers over the Korean peninsula in a show of force on Sunday in response to the missile test and the July 3 launch of the "Hwasong-14" rocket, the Pentagon said. The bombers took off from a US air base in Guam and were joined by Japanese and South Korean fighter jets during the exercise.

"North Korea remains the most urgent threat to regional stability," Pacific Air Forces commander General Terrence J. O'Shaughnessy said in a statement.

"If called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal, and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing."
A group of thieves broke into Ami'oz moshav in the Eshkol region on Friday night and burgled six houses where they managed to steal, along with valuable property, a safe containing a handgun and bullets belonging to one of the residents.

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Due to the fact that the moshav is located near the Gaza border, security forces rushed to the scene where a tracker from one of the IDF brigades identified traces left behind by the thieves.

Safe found containing the gun

Using the clues, the tracker informed the security forces of possible escape routes the thieves had taken.

Apparently realizing that the forces were onto them, the thieves then abandoned the safe and left the moshav empty-handed.

Shortly after the manhunt began, the tracker located the abandoned safe and returned the gun back to its owner. Nevertheless, the robbers have yet to be found.
Leah Samet, 93, an energetic Holocaust survivor from Ramla, had a dreamto sit in her living room with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, with famous Israeli chef Assaf Granit cooking delicacies for her and her family, just like on television.

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Samet's eldest daughter, Tsipi Gover, 67, saw in Yedioth Ahronoth an article about the project "Fulfilling Small Dreams for Big People," and decided to try her luck and ask for help in realizing her mother's dream.

Granit and Samet (Photo: Hagit Frenkel)

Gover knew the chances for Granit to agree to this were slim, as he is, putting it mildly, very busy. As the co-owner of Jerusalems famous Machneyuda restaurant and Londons award-winning The Palomar, and the host of the Israeli prime time show Kitchen Nightmares (based on Gordon Ramsays "Kitchen Nightmares"), Granit is famous for being a hard guy to reach.

But, to everyone's surprise, Granit immediately agreed when the request was made.

"I have a large familytwo daughters, six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildrenand I love to host," Samet said. "I cook all the time for everyone, and I like someone to cook for me, too. I saw chef Granit cooking on television, I like the way he cooks and I wanted to (experience it)," explained Samet.

Granit with Samet's family (Photo: Hagit Frenkel)

On Sunday, at 1pm sharp, Chef Granit came with his team of cooks to Samet's small kitchen. With the help of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, he conducted the work in the home kitchen, just like on television, and prepared a mouth-watering dairy meal.

"My grandmother was also called Leah and they remind me of each other," Granit said, noting that he was very moved by her request. "Since Leah came from Eastern Europe, I decided to prepare a meal based on the food from the area from which she immigrated to Israel.

"In Israel, eastern food has a great influence on the local cuisine, perhaps because of the climate, but the traditional food of Eastern European Jews deserves respect in the Israeli kitchen, and I am happy to cook for Leah in this style."

Photo: Hagit Frenkel

Samet, who survived World War II in the Czernowitz ghetto in Romania, married her late husband in a displaced persons camp in Germany and immigrated to Israel in 1948.

"My favorite food is baked potatoes," Samet said. "I did not ask for a special menu, the main thing is for the whole family to eat together." Laughing, her daughter added: "potatoes are easy on her teeth, their soft."

In the kitchen, the grandchildren and great-grandchildren finish cutting the vegetables into a salad. Chef Granit bakes the mushrooms, tastes the sauce, and arranges the airy "polenta" made of potatoes on a serving plate.

Photo: Hagit Frenkel

The grandchildren and the great-grandchildren are a little weary that Granit may just shout at them, like on television, but to everyone's delight the atmosphere is pleasant as everyone sits around the antique table in the dining area.

Great-grandma Samet sits at the head of the table, all raise their glasses for a toast, and chef Granit receives a warm and loving hug from the old lady as she tells everyone: "It really is a dream come true."
Police arrested five young Jaffa residents on suspicion of setting fire to garbage cans. The detainees will be brought today for a remand hearing.

In addition, the police opened an investigation after two vehicles were burned overnight on Re'im Street in the city.
In an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, military veterans said that the situation in the country defies the values of the armed forces and the Constitution of India.

By India Today Web Desk: In an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, over 100 armed forces veterans condemned the killings of Muslims and Dalits in different parts of the country. The veterans extended their support to the 'Not In My Name' protest.

"We stand with the 'Not in My Name' campaign that mobilised thousands of citizens across the country to protest against the current climate of fear, intimidation, hate and suspicion," the letter read.

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The letter that has been signed by 114 veterans from the Indian Army, Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force, reiterated that the armed forces stand for "Unity in Diversity".

The letter said that the current situation in the country defies the idea of unity in diversity, thus defying what the armed forces and the Constitution of India stands for.

The 'Not In My Name' protest was organised in many major cities of the country in June where thousands of people, from all walks of life, came together to condemn the killings of innocent Muslims and other communities in the name of religion and sometimes in the name of cow.

Here is the full text of the open letter to PM Modi:

"We are a group of Veterans of the Indian Armed Forces who have spent our careers working for the security of our country. Collectively, our group holds no affiliation with any single political party, our only common commitment being to the Constitution of India.

It saddens us to write this letter, but current events in India have compelled us to register our dismay at the divisiveness that is gripping our country. We stand with the 'Not in My Name' campaign that mobilised thousands of citizens across the country to protest against the current climate of fear, intimidation, hate and suspicion.

The Armed Forces stand for "Unity in Diversity". Differences in religion, language, caste, culture or any other marker of belonging have not mattered to the cohesion of the Armed Forces, and servicemen of different backgrounds have fought shoulder to shoulder in the defence of our nation, as they continue to do today. Throughout our service, a sense of openness, justice and fair play guided our actions. We are one family. Our heritage is like the multi-coloured quilt that is India, and we cherish this vibrant diversity.

However, what is happening in our country today strikes at all that the Armed Forces, and indeed our Constitution, stand for. We are witness to unprecedented attacks on society at large by the relentless vigilantism of self-appointed protectors of Hinduism. We condemn the targeting of Muslims and Dalits. We condemn the clampdowns on free speech by attacks on media outlets, civil society groups, universities, journalists and scholars, through a campaign of branding them anti-national and unleashing violence against them while the State looks away.

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We can no longer look away. We would be doing a disservice to our country if we do not stand up and speak for the liberal and secular values that our Constitution espouses. Our diversity is our greatest strength. Dissent is not treason; in fact, it is the essence of democracy.

We urge the powers that be at the Centre and in the States to take note of our concerns and urgently act to uphold our Constitution, both in letter and in spirit."

FYI || Not in my name: When celebrities, activists joined common people and said no to ALL lynchings ||

FYI || #NotInMyName was not about religion or agenda, until it was ||

FYI || Not In My Name campaign against mob lynching is global, protests planned in Pakistan, US, UK, Canada ||

--- ENDS ---
The Elor Azaria affair marks a cultural decline, an astronomic event at one soldiers expense. It ended Sunday, no matter how many more spins attorney Yoram Sheftel and the rest of the associates are planning. The result has been determined, the damage has been done, the garment has been torn into 12 pieces.

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On March 24, 2016, BTselem released a video of an anonymous soldier from the Kfir Brigade shooting a terrorist who deserved to die in Hebron. Azaria fired his weapon 11 minutes after the terrorist had been neutralized. He approached the terrorist, removed his helmet and fired at close range without warning anyone to stay away from the person he claimed had been carrying an explosive device.

Anyone watching the video with the slightest bit of combat experience knew exactly what had happened there. Others perhaps didnt have the proper training, but most people understood. From this point on, each person chose his own political way. It wasnt Azaria they saw before their eyes, but the political objectives.

Azaria arrives in court with his mother. The important question is whether a strong, organized army could turn into phalanges in which every person does what he feels like (Photo: EPA)

That same day, I wrote about the attempts made by Breaking the Silence and BTselem to portray the entire IDF as an army of brutes. Where mistakes are made, they are checked and investigated, I wrote. Little did I know. A year and a half later, the conclusion from the video is the same conclusion reached by the court, but it was a winding and dangerous road. The cultural decline spread through Israeli society. Rightists joined the Leftists in claiming the occupation corrupts, that its not the soldiers fault.

Activists of the right-wing Lehava organization, who havent served a single day in the army, were explaining that Azaria was a hero. Even the last sacred cow in Israeli societythe IDFwas slaughtered in public. The final touch was provided by small politicians who identified an opportunity and stripped away every last ounce of stateliness they had. The tail wagged the dog.

The initial response from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot and then-defense minister Moshe Yaalon was in line with the acceptable norm in the State of Israel when it comes to unusual events. The big change occurred in the days that followed. In the name of public opinion polls, an alternative truth was born, alternative values and twisted explanations, at the end of which everything got mixed up. There is no right and wrong.

Likud MK Oren Hazan, bottom right corner, speaking to the Azaria family at court (Photo: Tomer Applebaum)

The moral question about shooting a terrorist is the wrong question. In certain situations, like a targeted killing for example, there is permission and authority to assassinate the enemy even when he lacks any weapon or intention. Thats what an army does, and Im proud to have been part of such efforts.

The important question is whether a strong, organized army could turn into phalanges, into gangs in which every person does whatever he feels like, whenever he feels like doing it and however he feels like doing it. Thats, unfortunately, what Elor Azaria looked like in the video: Firing without a helmet when he shouldnt have, making up a threat about an explosive device when it's clear in the video it didnt even cross his mind. So he turned into a tool in the hands of small politicians against Israeli stateliness.

I felt sorry for Azaria from the very first moment. He made a mistake at the scene when he fired without justification, and he kept making mistakes when he let politicians exploit him. Sharon Gal, Avigdor Lieberman and Oren Hazan have never faced such a situation, never experienced such comradeship or made decisions at the drop of a dime. He made a mistake when he let them turn him into a hero. After all, he had learned enough about battle heritage and he knew there was no heroism in shooting a dying terrorist. Brigadier-General (res.) Avigdor Kahalani is a hero, fallen soldier Roi Klein is a hero. He is no hero, and he knew that very well. The army made mistakes on the way too, but that doesnt change what happened there, whats right and what isnt.

The Azaria affair has come to an end. I hope in a few months hell return home after being pardoned and forget about all the imaginary friends who adopted him so they could be on television for a minute. Now, on the eve of Tisha BAv, Israeli stateliness is just beginning to patch things up.
Uganda's military says 12 of its soldiers were killed in an ambush Sunday by al-Shabab Islamic extremists in southern Somalia.

Uganda's Ministry of Defense said in a statement Monday that seven other Ugandan troops were injured in the attack in Lower Shabelle region.

Ugandan troops are deployed to Somalia as peacekeepers under the banner of the African Union. Ugandan authorities say they were conducting a joint patrol with Somali forces when they were attacked.

There is no word yet on any casualties among the Somali forces.

Al-Shabab claims it killed 39 soldiers.

The attack came hours after a car bomb in Somalia's capital killed at least five people, most of them civilians, shattering a month of relative calm in Mogadishu.
The family of the security guard Ziv Moyal , who shot dead two Jordanians in an incident near the Israeli embassy in Amman, Jordan, left their home in the moshav near Kiryat Malakhi in southern Israel shortly after the affair was made public.

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For a few days now, they have not been living in their home, and only returned to take items they need. "There was a lot of relief when (Ziv) arrived (back home)," said one of the family's neighbors. "These are natural emotions. Every mother would worry. They just wanted to know that Ziv was okay. They are a modest and charming family, simple people. They wanted to get away from the commotion."

Ziv Moyal's embassy card

Another neighbor said: "I was disappointed that they published his name. It would have been better had they not. It was logical that his family would be afraid, but they didn't talk about it. They didn't say they were afraid."

"We pray for them, but in my opinion they are not expected to return home soon," another neighbor said.

On Sunday morning, the Jordanian daily Al-Rad published a picture and identity of Ziv Moyal, who shot dead a Jordanian man who attacked him with a screwdriver and accidentally killed another man in Amman.

The newspaper published his name and his diplomatic identity card, delivering a blow to Israel which has censored the publication of the guards details.

King of Jordan (L) consoles father of Jordanian attacker who Ziv shot

Last week, the Jordanians claimed it was a truck driver who stabbed the security guard, not the 17-year-old Mohammad Jawawdah who was shot dead along with the building's landlord, who was also a doctor. But by the end of the week, their version changed and is now mostly in line with the Israeli version.

To date, Jordanian media outlets have avoided publishing details and it is quite possible that the leak stems from the severe crisis between Israel and Jordan following the incident.

The same crisis was exacerbated following the publications of photos depicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hugging the embassy guard in question.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomes Ziv back to Israel with a hug (Photo: Haim Zach/GPO)

The photos led to an unprecedented attack on Netanyahu by King Abdullah II and Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Al Safadi, with the two of them accusing Netanyahu of trying to raise political capital at the expense of the incident that is defined as a crime in Jordan in every respect.

Jordan is not interested in allowing Ambassador Einat Schlein and her diplomatic team to return to the Israeli embassy in Amman until a serious, in-depth investigation is conducted into the guard's conduct.
Indictments against five residents of east Jerusalem were submitted Monday for offences including incitement, calling for terror attacks to be carried out against Israel and for a string of posts uploaded onto Facebook supporting the deadly terror attack earlier this month on Temple Mount which claimed to lives of two policemen

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The indictments, which were filed at the citys Magistrates Court by the Jerusalem District Attorney's Office, were submitted with the approval of Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit.

Clashes and arrests (:  )

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Mohammed Mahiymar, 19, from 'Anata was one of the people indicted for posting on a number of occasions in 2014 on his Facebook page calls for violent and terror activities against Israeli civilians and security forces, and also for praising and supporting the Hamas terror group and its military arm Izz ad-Din al-Qassam brigades and the Democratic Front.

Two of the terrorists who carried out the deadly attack

The same day, he also uploaded a picture of a policeman holding his face in shock as paramedics tend to the wounds sustained by his colleague, accompanied by the words: Hell and darkness in the next life.

One of the terrorists being shot

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A few hours after the attack, he also wrote: With a rock, a knife, an ax, a Molotov Cocktail or a lighter. Spontaneous without planning. Three martyrs came from Umm al-Fahm. A thousand consolations are with us and we are following you. We were raised on the holy way of death.

Later on, one of the other individuals posted: Today, Palestine got four martyrs. Our dead are in heaven and their dead are burning. The martyrs of Jerusalem.

Another one of the indicted individuals, 17, also posted content supporting terror organizations. On the day of the Temple Mount attack, he posted a picture of two of the terrorists who carried out the attack accompanied with the words: A picture of two martyrs from the heroic attack that they uploaded before the attack#smile-tomorrow-more beautiful #martyrs-of Al-Aqsa.

Other posts included similar glorification of the terrorists. The martyrs are similar to the beauty of the Dome of the Rock, to the beauty of the Old City. On this holy Friday four martyrs ascend, to prove to everyone that the intifada continues.

Twenty-six-year-old Safian Mahmoud from Isawiya and Mohammad Samasana, 23 from the Shuafat refugee camp, were also indicted for uploading posts calling for violence and terror against Israelis and showing solidarity with terror groups.

In addition to the indictment, police arrested 33 suspects overnight Sunday who participated in public disturbances over the last few days during riots which erupted over the Temple Mount.

During the clashes with Israeli security forces , many rioters threw Molotov Cocktails, rocks and fired fireworks, injuring a number of policemen.
Jews the world over will begin fasting on Monday night until the following evening as they mourn the destruction of the First and Second Temples which marked the genesis of their 2,000-years-long exile from the Land of Israel.

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The day of collective mourning, Tisha BAv, meaning the 9th of the month of the Jewish calendar month of Av, is an annual fast day which also commemorates the anniversary of a number of disasters which have befallen the Jewish people throughout the ages.

But primarily, the fast day, which concludes Tuesday evening, focuses on the destruction of both the First Temple by the Babylonians and the Second Temple by the Romans in Jerusalem.

Photo: Getty Images

In addition to the lamentations which are read during the day, Jews also use the opportunity to engage in introspection, reminding themselves of the Mitzvot (positive deeds and commandments) which they are obligated to fulfil.

The day also provides people in Israel the time for self-reflection and consideration of ongoing conflicts, particularly internal divides within the country.

The mourning period actually lasts for three weeks, and culminates with the fast of Tisha BAv when the books of Kinot is read as worshipers gather inside synagogues at night and sit on the floor to symbolize the suffering their ancestors underwent.

The main event of the fast takes place at the Western Wall which each year sees a turnout of thousands of Jews, flocking to the site, the last surviving remnant of the temple, as they pray and lament the its destruction.

Photo: Getty Images

There, the worshipers read the megillah (book) of Eicha, literally meaning lamentations which centers around the prophet Jeremiah and the destruction of the First Temple. Eicha is also recited in the synagogues around the world.

Each year, Jews stay throughout the night at the Kotel and some stay until the conclusion of the early morning prayers, Shacharit.

Those unable to make it to the Kotel however will participate in the synagogues in a national event called The night of not learning Torah which will consist of discussions focused on Israels 70th year of independence.
A little over a week has passed since some 120 settlers invaded the Machpelah House in Hebron, in protest of delays in the purchasing process of the building and objections by the High Court of Justice and the Civil Administration to them moving in before the legal issues surrounding the purchase are resolved.

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Frenzied talks have been ongoing between the settlers and state authorities to try and find a solution since they entered the building, but now it seems these talks are gaining momentum, and based on legal opinions in the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Defense, there is a legal possibility of allowing them to stay in the building.

Legal opinions so far have determined that allowing the families to remain in the building is illegal. However, new legal opinions in recent days point to the contraryeven to the point of allowing the families to stay during deliberations.

Machpelah House (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

Kiryat Arba Mayor Malachi Levinger said he and his friends "congratulate the prime minister and the defense minister on their intention to find a solution that would allow the families to stay in the house that was lawfully acquired."

Levinger is part of a group of 15 families that entered the structure last Tuesday as part of purchase proceedings being conducted by the "Harhivi" (Expand) organization.

Settlers moved into the building without waiting for official approval from the Land Registration Committee, which has yet to determine the legality of the purchase deal.

Families in the Machpelah House (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

Yossi Dagan, head of the Shomron Regional Council, is expected to arrive at the Machpelah House on Monday with his family. "I am asking the prime minister stop this injustice on the eve of Tisha B'Av, the day in which we commemorate the destruction of the Temple. Do not lend a hand to more destruction," said Dagan.

Following the arrival of the families, the area was declared a closed military zone. However, there is cautious optimism in settler groups that unlike previous occasions, this attempt at reclaiming the Machpaleh House will not end in a forced evacuation.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defense has refused a request by Coalition Chairman David Bitan to visit the contested site in Hebron.

Bitan angrily responded, "A Knesset member cannot visit Hebron? This is a scandal. I have the right to visit Hebron. I very much hope this is not a defensive and weak policy on the part of the Defense Ministry."
American cyber firm FireEye was broken into by hackers, compromising the security of IDF and Bank Hapoalim documents, Calcalist learned Monday.

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Hackers accessed the company's internal information including business documentssome of which pertain to the company's Israeli clients, among them the IDF and Bank Hapoalim.

The company, currently worth $2.7 billion, has been dropping in pre-market trading.

File photo: Shutterstock

An initial investigation found that hackers have released the stolen information to the public through the Pastebin sharing site with a link to download it. Adi Peretz, a top executive with the company, had his LinkedIn profile defaced with hackers uploading degrading photos to it. It was also discovered that part of the stolen information included usernames, work documents, client email exchanges and other sensitive items.

FireEye is considered one of the world's biggest cyber companies, providing information security services to thousands of organizational clients worldwide. The company specializes in defending critical and security infrastructures as well as banks and industry plants. It has had a hand in exposing dozens of break-in attempts and vulnerabilities in computer systems.

It appears the break-in took place in FireEye's subsidiary, Mandiant, which provides cyber-security services to both business and governmental entities. Mandiant was purchased by FireEye in 2013 with the company's founder Kevin Mandia appointed FireEye's CEO as well.

The company also operates an Israeli branch located in Ramat Gan and headed by Meir Amor. This branch of the company provides cyber solutions to dozens of clients in the country including governmental and security organizations and even hi-tech firms.

The company stated it is aware of the break-in into one of its employees' social media accounts and that the matter was under investigation. "All possible steps have been taken to limit further exposure," the company said in a statement. The company further added that according to their investigation, there is no reason to believe the company's own systems have been compromised.

Bank Hapoalim said in response, "The bank possesses multiple information security products, including those provided by the FireEye company. We're in touch with FireEye regarding this matter. To the best of the bank's knowledge, no confidential information was accessed. The matter, however, is still under investigation".
Senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath said that the Palestinian Authority would renew ties with Israel in civilian areas in order to ease the lives of Palestinian residents.

It was clear that security coordination with Israel was still frozen following the declaration of severing relations over the Temple Mount crisis.
This past June, Coalition Chairman MK David Bitan announced a dramatic increase in disability pensions, set to rise to NIS 4,000, based on a plan that was already in place at the Ministry of Finance and was set to go into effect on January 1, 2018.

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This change, which is intended to improve the conditions of disabled people and has consensus across the aisle, must still pass through the usual Knesset legislation process.

However, Bitan has yet to push actual legislation through and, in point of fact, the Knesset is now in recess with the future of disabled Israelis still up in the air. Most coalition members, except MK Nava Boker (Likud), refused to comment on the matter.

The disability pension protests

"I've been up at arms on this issue for 18 months," said Boker. "I've submitted an unprecedented bill, which was signed by 82 MKs, because this is not a partisan issue; there's complete consensus. The bill was taken up to the Ministerial Committee for Legislation and was rejected by the Ministry of Finance, despite receiving support from most of the coalition's ministers."

Boker stresses that, "At the beginning of the next session, a governmental bill will be put forward, to which two private proposed bills will be attachedone of my own drafting and one by my friend Ilan Gilon who submitted his own bill six months ago, which was shot down."

Why wait for the start of the next session?

"Unfortunately, the Knesset is already in recess, but that doesn't mean we've stopped working. What I say is this  let's grab this initial accomplishment with both hands, because going from NIS 2,342 to NIS 4,000 is an absolute win. It may not be minimum wage, and I'll continue working until we get there, but it's certainly better than nothing. It's the best result we could've possibly achieved, and we've used every possible tool in our arsenal. It won't happen within the next year, but I firmly believe eventually we'll achieve that goal."

'A disability double standard'

Michal Hasson, one of the leaders of the disabled protest and a mother of two, is forced to live off of an NIS 2,342 pension and an additional pension, both of which are insufficient for a respectable existence, she says. "It's simply not good enough  not for me and not for my children," says Hasson, who's currently unemployed. "I stopped working because I saw everything I made go to National Insurance payments and rebates."

As for politicians' statements about bringing disability pensions up to minimum wage levels, Hasson says: "There was some hope, but as long as no law is passed, I can't believe it can actually happen. Disabled people have been given the runaround for 15 years while pensions have been eroding. Fifteen years have passed since they were linked with the consumer price index, and they haven't gone up at all."

Disabled protesters outside Finance Minister Kahlon's house (Photo: Elad Gershgoren)

Today Hasson receives financial support from her family: "I have a son and a daughter and my family's been helping, but it just feels awful having to turn to my mom and say, 'I need money because I don't have any.'"

During a Knesset discussion, Hasson turned to MK Boker: "I'm asking you, what am I supposed to do from now until January 2018? Besides which, the planned increase won't pertain to all disabled people. There are double standards in place. What does medical disability have to do with a living pension that anyone incapable of working should receive? What are disabled people supposed to do?"

Boker replied: "There are some benefits that won't be taken off the pension of a disabled person who's able to work, as has regrettably been the case up until now. These further benefits are supposed to be included in the proposed deal, which I'm sorry to say will only be up for debate when we're back in session, which is not up to me."

MK Gilon placed blame for the delays at the feet of the prime minister and minister of finance, "The Knesset has already agreed to something, and it seems someone has intentionally disrupted it  Netanyahu on the one hand and Kahlon on the other, who needs a bill of his own so he can add his name to it. As far as I'm concerned, the compromise was reached in pensions being NIS 4,000 and not NIS 5,000. Let me have a go at being Minister of Finance for two months and I'll set that straight."

MK Ilan Gilon (Photo: Yogev Attias)

"Why do we have to wait until the end of the summer? Because two very powerful egos are in play competing for who does better by disabled people, while in reality one chastises them with whips and the other with scorpions," adds Gilon. "It's a budget of NIS 4.5-5 billion and the money's there, but now they need a fourth proposed bill called the 'Yaron Zelekha' bill because Kahlon wants to appear to be the law's originator. In the meantime, real people are undergoing real suffering."

"I approached both Netanyahu and Kahlon eight months ago, and I told them, 'If your problem is getting the credit, then go ahead and take it because this needed to happen 15 years ago,'" Gilon said and went on the offensive, "Everybody's cheating and everybody's lying, including the nonsense I heard here before about the supposed best efforts. Nobody's doing disabled people any favors. Poverty is an improper distribution of wealth."

After the article was published, Bitan issued the following statement: "As part of an unprecedented move in the Knesset, the Chairman of the Coalition has brought together all of the parliament's parties to support the agreement thatfor the first time in 14 yearsraises disability pensions to NIS 4,000 in several stages, comparing it to the minimum wage and even significantly changing the law to say a disabled person will be able to make up to NIS 4,200 working without harming their pension.

"The agreement was approved by the prime minister and the minister of finance with the target date for starting to implement it being January 2018, when the first stage starts raising the pension of people with serious disabilities to NIS 4,000. MK Bitan has contacted the prime minister to ask that legislation on this matter go into effect during recess and end with the coming winter session. The prime minister has instructed the minister of welfare to initiate governmental legislation on the issue, so any claims by heads of the disabled persons' organizations are premature."
Various officials are trying their best to convince the Azaria family to give up their legal battle against Elor's prison sentence for shooting a neutralized Palestinian terrorist in Hebron, and appeal to Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot for a pardon.

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Earlier Monday, Charlie Azaria said, "We have not yet received a request from the prime minister or defense minster, but if we get an official request, we will consider it."

An IDF legal official told Ynet Monday, "The Supreme Court is not inclined to discuss the issue at alllet alone intervenein the military appeals court. The moment his family accepts this, they will understand it is better not to further delay his release from prison."

Elor Azaria with his parents in court Sunday (Photo: Reuters)

Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman took to Twitter Sunday, appealing to the Azaria family not to file an additional appeal. "I ask the Azaria family not to file an additional appeal, but rather to appeal to the Chief of Staff for a pardon. I have no doubt that the chief of staff will take into account all the difficult circumstances and that he (Elor) was an outstanding soldier," Lieberman wrote.

In addition to Lieberman, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also touched on the subject, saying, "My opinion has not changed on the granting of a pardon to Elor Azaria, as I expressed following the verdict. When the subject is brought up for practical discussion, I will forward my recommendation for amnesty to the relevant parties."

Despite calls for a pardon, sources at the President's Office said that thus far, no such request has been submitted to President Reuven Rivlin. The same sources also added that Rivlin will most likely allow Lt. Gen. Eisenkot to handle the request.

Photo: Motti Kimchi

Should Azaria request a pardon from Rivlin exclusively, he will have to take into account that such a request entails an extended process of deliberation involving the IDF Military Advocate General, the head of the IDF's Manpower Directorate, the chief of staff and the minister of defense.

On Sunday, the Military Court of Appeals rejected both appeals in the caseboth Azaria's appeal of his manslaughter conviction and that of the military prosecution, which demanded a longer prison sentence. Sources in the IDF emphasized the rejection of the prosecution's appeal for a longer sentence was not unanimous. Two of the presiding judges advocated a sentence of two and a half years in prison.

Azaria is expected to begin his sentence at Prison Four, located at the military police compound in Camp Yadin.

Even if Azaria waives his appeal to the Supreme Court, in order to be eligible for amnesty from the IDF chief, he would likely have to admit culpability, remorse and responsibility for his actionswhich he has not yet done.

As part of the deliberations into Azaria's request for pardon, Chief of Staff Eisenkot will receive an opinion from Chief Military Advocate General Brig. Gen. Sharon Afek that is expected to highlight Azaria's stubbornness in accepting responsibility for his actions as well as undermining the credibility of soldiers and officers he served with.

Brig. Gen. Sharon Afek (Photo: Tzvika Tischler)

Sources close to the Military Court of Appeals estimate that in any case, Eisenkot is not expected to significantly shorten Azaria's sentence. If anything, Azaria may only receive a shortened sentence of several months.
By PTI: Barasat (WB), Jul 30 (PTI) The police today seized machineries for arms manufacturing from Ashok Nagar police station area of North 24 Parganas district and arrested 10 persons in this connection.

A lathe machine, other equipment for manufacturing arms and some raw materials were kept at a spot yesterday in Matiagachha locality from where those were seized, police said.

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Two vehicles were seized and 10 persons, all residents of Kolkata, were arrested.

Police said the accused had links with the illegal arms factory which was unearthed in Tiljala area of Kolkata on July 28. PTI COR NN

--- ENDS ---
Ahead of Tisha B'Av, a first-of-its-kind video campaign is going live featuring Haredi MKs, rabbis and mayors of Haredi cities, all of whom rail against harming Haredi soldiers.

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What started with flyers and vociferous accusations by religious extremists has long since turned into an out of control incitement campaign against ultra-Orthodox men serving in the IDF, which includes cursing, shouting and even physical violence.

Haredi soldiers coming home from the army oftentimes face violent harassment from their neighbors when their only crime is choosing to join the IDF.

Shas and United Torah Judaism MKs

Leaders of the Haredi public were called upon time and again to denounce the violent behavior soldiers have had to experience as well as the use of the pejorative term "Hardakim" (a Hebrew acronym meaning "weak-minded Haredim") against them. However, they have thus far refrained from such denunciation almost to a man.

It wasn't just the ultra-Orthodox leadership, however, as the mainstream Haredi mediaenjoying a great deal of influence within the sectornever came outright against the phenomenon.

In anticipation of Tisha B'Av, which starts Monday evening, a reporter called Yishai Cohen from Haredi website Kikar Hashabat put together a video documenting different figures from the Haredi sector denouncing the incitement and violence against Haredi soldiers. The video is set to be uploaded to the website in parts  one clip every few hours.

Perhaps most surprising of the video's participants are MKs from the United Torah Judaism party. MK Moshe Gafni has so far claimed he has no part in violence against Haredi soldier, and he therefore sees no need to denounce it. Nevertheless, now Gafni has chosen to take part in this project. "We were brought up to detest violence," states Gafni. "I think violence is 'Chillul Hashem.' It does damage to the world of the Torah, those studying it and 'Da'as Torah.'"

Another UTJ MK to join the campaign is Uri Maklev, who denounced the violence publicly for the first time and referred to the fact neither he nor his compatriots have gone against this phenomenon: "I'm often asked why we won't denounce the acts of violence. It is in this case, as well as others: the people responsible have nothing to do with the public I represent."

United Torah Judaism leadership (Photo: Gil Yohanan)

A third UTJ MK participating in the project is Eliezer Moses: "Naturally, above all else, the Torah defends us and those studying it are of paramount importance. Having said that, if someone chooses to join the army, it is of course forbidden to shame them in public."

Persons affiliated with the Shas party are perhaps a better fit for this campaign, as many of the party's voters don't lead ultra-Orthodox lifestyles and send their children to the army themselves. Still, a campaign bringing together Haredi politics, both Sephardic and Ashkenazi, is quite out of the ordinary.

Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri says in the project: "The Gemara teaches us the First Temple came to ruin because of paganism, incest and bloodshed. The Second Temple due to unjustified hatred. Our path is one of pleasantness and respecting one another. Who gives anyone the right to defame someone who doesn't agree with him? It's not the way of the Torah, and certainly not the way of its disciples."

MKs Yoav Ben-Tzur, Ya'akov Margi, Michael Malchieli and Yigal Guetta from Shas also took part in the project alongside Rabbi Dovid Grossman and Israel's chief rabbis, comprising a group whose members could be expected to renounce these acts.

The project also boasts another surprising presence in the form of several Haredi mayors such as Moshe Abutbul, Beit Shemesh mayor, and Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem Zvika Cohen, who have yet to release public statements on the matter. Perhaps the most hard-line stance of all is provided by Elad mayor Israel Porush, who's taped standing next to a graffiti denouncing Hardakim.

Yishai Cohen, the reporter behind the project, said: "The constant coverage of attacking Haredi soldiers has brought us to the deep understanding that today it's soldiers being attacked, but tomorrow it can be anyone else. This made us want to raise a different voice, a loving and inclusive one, the sane voice of the Haredi public that feels so at odds with that vocal, extremist group. We hope what we do here will trickle down to the rest of the Israeli public, sending the message that the Haredi public places 'Love your neighbor as yourself' above all else."
Interior Minister Aryeh Deri will be questioned again on suspicion of a range of corruption charges, including bribery.

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Among other things, the police will investigate allegations regarding Deri's involvement in the election of a candidate for the Chief Rabbi of Lod, who is affiliated with Georgian billionaire Mikhael Mirilashvili and his son Yitzhak.

During a recent High Court hearing on the election, the State Attorney's Office said new information unveiled in the case demanded further inquiry.

Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Photo: Avihu Shapira)

For more than a year, Lod has had no state-appointed chief rabbi. Mayor Yair Revivo set his sights on appointing Rabbi Meir Biton, who is of Moroccan descent and affiliated with the Shas movement, while Deri and Shas have been actively pushing for the election of a rabbi of Georgian origin who is affiliated with Mirilashvili.

One of the suspicions investigated is the transfer of large amounts of money from Mirlashvili and his son to an association headed by Deri's wife.

The municipality of Lod claimed Deri and his associates put tremendous pressure on Shas representatives in the city, among others, to appoint Rabbi Yitzhak Mozgarshvili as chief rabbi of the city.

Mikhael Mirilashvili (L), Minister Deri (C) and Yitzhak Mirilashvili (R) (Photo: Yaakov Cohen)

Documents pointing to the apparent connection between Deri and Mirilashvili in the matter were also passed on to the state comptroller in order to show how Deri allegedly sought to help Mirilashvili.

According to testimonies from officials in Lod, some of whom were transferred to the police, businessmen and interested parties spoke with the members of the selection committee and the council members, and tried to influence them to replace their representatives on the committee, so the support would be transferred from Rabbi Biton to Rabbi Muzgarshvili.

Mayor Revivo had previously threatened the Ministry of Religious Affairs that he would petition the High Court if they did not convene the committee to elect the city's rabbi.

Revivo made good on that threat, leading the State Attorney's Office to announce the opening of an investigation.
This has been a long time in the making, but in our continuing pursuit to bring only the best of firearms, 2nd Amendment and defence related news to our readers, we are very excited to announce the next step in our evolution as a company.

As of 2020, Minuteman Review is now the proud owner and operator of Your Defence News, a website with a long history of breaking huge news stories and investigative journalism.

We hope you are equally as excited as us.

This means that now the teams of Minuteman can combine with the firepower of Your Defence News to stay at the absolute forefront for our readers.

Keep an eye. Big things are coming soon. We couldn't be more excited.

In the meanwhile, here are some of our most popular posts and categories to keep you busy.

Happy shootin' my friends!

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Expert Advice with Philippe Brach 01/08/2017

In the world of property investment, there is no one foolproof strategy for success. As a result, for new investors who are hungry for information, its easy to become overloaded as tips pour in from all sides.

Its not just advice you need to sort through: you will also be exposed to huge quantities of data, predictions, forecasts, warnings and trends.

With so much information at your fingertips, it is understandable that many would-be investors dont know who to trust or what action to take. However, you dont have to let analysis paralysis claim you. There are many things you can do to cut through the clutter and come up with a plan that moves you from where you are now, to where you want to be.

1. Know your plan  and stick to it

It all begins, as most good things do, with a plan.

Are you looking for a long-term investment? Do you seek regular cash flow from rental income? Are you keen on development? Once you figure out what you want to achieve as a property investor, it will help you narrow down what information you should focus on.

If youre not sure what you want to do, concentrate first on finding someone whose journey inspires you and who can help you pinpoint a strategy that fits your circumstances.

In this field, an unexperienced buyer can be influenced by sales talk, so its important to have a knowledgeable advisor on your side. Your advisor or mentor should be able to work with you at a pace youre comfortable with, and help you create a path forwards using a strategy suitable to your circumstances.

2. Clarify your concerns

I often hear from investors who are worried about investing in property, but many times their fears are unfounded. With a clear investing plan and some risk mitigation strategies in place, you can overcome most property-related concerns.

If fear and worry is holding you back, then try writing down the issues youre most concerned about, to give yourself some perspective and allow you to determine just how valid they really are. This is where having an advisor can be beneficial as, sometimes, having another point of view can help you see the bigger picture.

Its also important to check the reputability of your sources, especially where statistics are concerned (such as median prices, vacancy rates and growth levels), you need to be looking in the right places. Top sources for such data include CoreLogic, the Real Estate Institute of Australia, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

3. Switch off

Lastly, consider switching off for a while. Stop checking news excessively. Having access to constantly changing information at our fingertips can be a disadvantage, because it can influence you to make short-term decisions based on the current financial climate.

Instead, you need to keep sight of your end goal: whether that of the future growth potential of your investments, or a healthy financial retirement, or even the ability to quit your job and invest full time, keep it top of mind. Before you make any quick decisions that could have lasting impacts, be sure to get advice from your advisor.

Information overload can overwhelm an investor who doesnt know where they are headed. The best defence against it is to have a clear plan, a good advisor and a focused vision to keep your eye on the prize.

..........................................................................

Philippe Brach is CEO of Multifocus Properties and Finance. Philippe has over 10 years experience in property investment, he has helped many first time and experienced investors achieve their goals.

Disclaimer: while due care is taken, the viewpoints expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Your Investment Property
Attorney General KK Venugopal told the Supreme Court action should be taken against Azam Khan for his comments calling the Bulandshahr gangrape case a conspiracy.

Attorney General KK Venugopal asked the Supreme Court not to let Azam Khan off the hook over the Samajwadi Party leader's comments about the Bulandshahr gangrape in which he called the case a "conspiracy".

Venugopal's opinion came despite the Supreme Court accepting Azam Khan's apology in the matter. The attorney general noted that even though the apex court had accepted the apology, Azam Kahn continues to make controversial statements.

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Azam Khan's calling the Bulandshahr gangrape a conspiracy amounted to calling the mother and the daughter, both of whom were raped, liars, Venugopal said in his opinion to the court, adding that the comments also amounted an obstruction in the process of law.

Venugopal, who is the Centre's apex legal advisor, also noted that even sedition cases have been filed against Azam Khan for his statements.

The top court has adjourned the matter and will hear it later to lay down the guidelines on whether there should be any action against lawmakers who make such statements. Amicus curiae Harish Salve has opined that the court must mull a disqualification in such matters.

ALSO READ | Azam Khan booked for sedition over controversial remarks against Army

ALSO READ | Azam Khan on Rampur incident: UP girls should stay indoors to avoid molestation

--- ENDS ---
News

Washington, DC - Representatives of the U.S. Government, private sector, and civil society will meet with nearly 1,000 young leaders from Sub-Saharan Africa during the State Department-sponsored Mandela Washington Fellowship Summit from July 31-August 2, in Washington, DC. The Mandela Washington Fellowship and Summit fosters and builds relationships that support and expand U.S.-Africa cooperation on shared goals the continent.

The Summit, held at the Marriott Marquis Hotel, will feature an Expo with more than 100 organizations engaged with Africa, as well as a Congressional Forum and other leadership and networking sessions. The young African leaders are convening in Washington after six weeks of academic study and leadership training at 38 higher education institutions across the United States as part of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders. Alumni of the Fellowship are playing a role in strengthening democratic institutions, spurring economic growth, and enhancing peace and security in Africa. The Mandela Washington Fellowship is the flagship program of the Young African Leaders Initiative, the United States effort to invest in the next generation of African leaders.

The Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders is a program of the U.S. Government and is supported in its implementation by IREX.
News

East China Sea - Seven midshipmen embarked the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain (DDG 56), nicknamed "Big Bad John," from July 3-21.

The midshipmen joined Big Bad John during its port visit to Darwin, Australia and remained aboard the ship for three weeks as part of a summer cruise program designed to teach them about shipboard life. The midshipmen were assigned junior petty officers as running mates to help them with day-to-day shipboard life.



"It's humbling and really eye opening to be forward-deployed like we are," said Midshipman 3rd Class Baliee Ward. "I have a lot of respect for the Sailors in 7th Fleet knowing that they are here for a purpose and a mission."



The midshipmen experienced several underway training events involving the ship's combat systems, engineering, damage control, and medical departments to see first-hand the busy pace a forward-deployed ship. The midshipmen also saw how Navy ships receive supplies and fuel during a replenishment-at-sea (RAS) with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) Towada-class fast-combat support ship JS Hamana (AOE 424).



"I will not forget my time here on Big Bad John," said Midshipman 3rd Class Charles Dimer. "I became a better person from the experience and from the knowledge that the ship and her crew offered to me, and I couldn't be more grateful."



McCain is forward-deployed to Yokosuka, Japan, assigned to Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 15 in support of security and stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.
Latest News

Washington, DC - With its latest launch of a Simorgh space launch vehicle on 27 July, Iran has again demonstrated activity inconsistent with UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2231. We condemn this action.

This resolution calls upon Iran to not undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such technology like this launch. Space launch vehicles use technologies that are closely related to those of ballistic missiles development, in particular to those of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles.

This step follows missile launches into Syria on 18 June and the test of a medium range ballistic missile on 4 July.

Irans program to develop ballistic missiles continues to be inconsistent with UNSCR 2231 and has a destabilizing impact in the region. We call on Iran not to conduct any further ballistic missile launches and related activities. We are writing to the UN Secretary General with our concerns. The governments of France, Germany and the United Kingdom are discussing these issues bilaterally with Iran and are raising their concerns.
Yuma News

Yuma, Arizona - The Yuma Police Department would like to provide the community with some back to school safety tips. Awareness and education can be used as tools to help keep children safe.

Designated school zones are in place this week. The posted speed limit in a school zone is 15 miles per hour from portable sign to portable sign. Drivers may NOT proceed through a school zone crosswalk until all pedestrian have cleared the crosswalk. Drivers are encouraged to adjust their drive times due to the school zones and increased traffic near schools.

Drivers should be aware of students riding bicycles and walking to school. Parents are encouraged to discuss pedestrian safety and to encourage children to use designated school zones to cross the street.

Students riding bicycles are also reminded to wear helmets in accordance to the city ordinance. Parents should ensure their high school drivers to leave for school early.

In addition to the extra patrol provided by our traffic unit in school zones, we also have School Resource Officers at middle and high schools and Neighborhood School Resource Officers assigned to elementary schools.

Walking:

Should:

Ensure your child leaves early enough to get to school 10 minutes prior to the start of school.

Use the same route every day and avoid shortcuts.

Go straight home after school.

Students should use public sidewalks and streets when walking to school.

Choose the safest route between home and school and practice walking it with children until they can demonstrate traffic safety awareness.

Walk to school with other students. Strength in numbers.

Teach children to recognize and obey traffic signals and pavement markings.

Cross at designated crosswalks, street corners and traffic controlled intersections.

Always look both ways before crossing the street and never enter streets from between parked cars or from behind shrubbery.

Walk- dont run- across intersections. A flashing walk signal or the crossing guard in the street does not mean its safe to cross, double check the intersection is clear.

Avoid talking to strangers and get distance between themselves and anyone who tries to approach or make contact with them.

Never get into a vehicle with a person even if they know them without parent permission. If a stranger approaches, tell a trusted adult such as a parent or teacher.

Shouldnt:

Allow your child to be at school any earlier than 15 minutes prior to the start of school as crossing guards, teachers, or aids may not be out at the school to monitor your child.

Go to friends house without getting permission.

Walk to school using canals, alleys and cutting through yards or open fields.

Walk alone as they will be an easier target for harassment, bullying, or stranger approach.

Run into to cross the street or intersection or cross in the middle of the block especially in heavy traffic areas. Never let children under age 10 cross the street alone.

Talk to stranger or get within reach of that person. That includes taking a ride from a stranger or someone they know without parents permission.

Riding Bicycles:

Bicycles are associated with more childhood injuries than any other consumer product except the car. To make sure children are safe when riding bicycles to school:

Check with your school principal to make sure bicycles are allowed. Some schools do not allow students to ride bicycles until a specific grade.

Wear a helmet! City ordinance requires it, and failure to wear one could result in a traffic citation. More importantly, helmets can reduce the risk of head injury by as much as 85 percent.

Obey rules of the road; the rules are the same for all vehicles, including bicycles.

Stay on the right-hand side of the road and ride in the same direction as traffic.

Know and use appropriate hand signals.

Choose the safest route between home and school and practice it with children until they can demonstrate traffic safety awareness.

Riding the Bus:

Although bus travel is one of the safest ways to get to and from school, injuries can still occur, and most of them take place when children are getting on or off the bus. Some safety tips for riding the bus are:

Arrive at the bus stop at least five minutes before the scheduled arrival of the bus.

Stay out of the street and dont horseplay while waiting.

Wait for the bus to come to a complete stop before getting on or off.

Remain seated and keep head and arms inside the bus at all times.

Do not shout or distract the driver.

Do not walk in the drivers blind spot  the area from the front of the bus to about 10 feet in front of the bus.

Driving:

Motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of unintentional injury-related deaths among children age 14 and under. To reduce the risk of injury:

Always use child safety seats and safety belts correctly when driving or riding in a car.

Arrive early- especially the first few weeks of school- and use the schools designated student drop- off and pick- up zone.

Do not double park or make U-turns in front of the school. Police officers are issuing citations for traffic violations and there is no warning or grace period.

Children should enter and leave the car on its curbside.

Pick your child up on time so they arent left waiting near or out front of the school unattended.

If you have any questions about school safety or other concerns please contact the Yuma Police Department at 928-373-4700.
Nairobi: Elite Kenyan security forces on Sunday killed a man at the home of Deputy President William Ruto, ending a 20-hour siege that left one officer dead and another wounded, security officials said.



Ruto and his family were not at the vast property in northwest Kenya when Saturday`s attack began, less than two weeks before what are expected to be tightly-fought elections.



Ruto condemned the violence at a campaign rally on Sunday.



"Those who seek to frustrate our unity, undermine our progress or work towards destroying our nationhood will not succeed," he told supporters in the town of Murang`a.



Kenya`s police chief Joseph Boinnet said one attacker was shot and killed in the assault, while a police officer was found dead after being taken hostage by the assailant in an armoury where he holed up.



"The situation is under control," Boinnet said, adding the attack began when an intruder stabbed a police officer guarding Ruto`s house, wounding him and stealing his gun.



Regional security coordinator Wanyama Musyambo said the assailant then fled into an armoury on the compound`s grounds.



"It was a very delicate operation because, being in the armoury, he was at an advantage and was firing various weapons, and this caused confusion because you would think there was more than one person firing," Musyambo said.



While Boinnet said there was only one assailant, several security sources had earlier told AFP that the assault was staged by multiple people using guns, raising the possibility that some of the attackers remain at large.



"There are armed people who staged the attack and have shot the GSU officer and stolen his gun," one security official said, referring to the elite police General Security Unit deployed to guard Ruto`s house.The deputy president had left the house shortly before the attack to attend rallies alongside President Uhuru Kenyatta, his running mate who faces a re-election contest on August 8 against longtime opposition leader Raila Odinga.



Kenyatta did not address the attack during appearances at multiple rallies on Sunday.



The weekend attack occurred despite the round-the-clock presence of GSU guards at the property, near the town of Eldoret, some 300 kilometres (200 miles) northwest of the capital Nairobi.



Moses Wetang`ula, the leader of one of five opposition parties in the coalition backing Odinga, called the incident "unfortunate" in comments to The Standard newspaper but questioned if it could be an attempt to heighten security fears ahead of the vote.



"We hope it is not a ploy to play a victim," Wetang`ula said.



Ruto`s home sits in Kenya`s western Rift Valley area, the flashpoint for an outbreak of clashes after the violence that followed the disputed 2007 polls, leaving 1,100 people dead and tarnishing Kenya`s image as a regional beacon of safety and stability.



Opinion polls suggest this year`s election will be close and tensions have been rising.



Odinga has repeatedly claimed the government is scheming to steal the election, while Kenyatta has accused Odinga of trying to delay the polls.



Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch said it had received reports of threats and voter intimidation in Naivasha, a hotspot town in 2007 and one of the potential trouble spots in this year`s election.



In the Rift Valley, hate speech flyers have been circulating and some local residents have already left their homes.



The 2007 bloodshed haunted both Ruto and Kenyatta long after it ended when the International Criminal Court put both on trial for orchestrating the violence.



Those charges were later dropped, with ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda blaming a relentless campaign of victim intimidation for making a trial impossible.
The miscreants had vandalised 17 temples on allegation of contempt Islam in a Facebook post on October 30, 2016.

The arrested had applied for bail however, after hearing the plea the court rejected the petition.

By Sahidul Hasan Khokon: At least 20 people have been arrested for attacking Hindus and vandalising temple in Habiganj district of Bangladesh last year. District Additional Judicial Magistrate Mohammad Kawsar Alam passed the order on Sunday afternoon.

Habiganj Assistant Superintendent of Police (Media) Nazim Uddin, confirmed this to the same and said that earlier, police presented 20 people including the main accused Ramuz Ali before the court. They have been detained on charges of vandalism and attack on Hindus.

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The arrested had applied for bail however, after hearing the plea the court rejected the petition, he added.

A group of miscreants vandalised at least 17 temples, including the Kalimandir of Madhabpur upazila on allegation of contempt Islam in a Facebook post on October 30, 2016. On the same day, over 100 houses of Hindus were vandalised and looted at Brahmanbaria Nasirnagar area of Bangladesh.

According to Habiganj police officials, a case was filed against 200 miscreants on October 30, 2016 on charges of vandalism. A resident of Madhabpur, Abhimanu Pal had filed another case against 33 people including Ramuj Ali, who was identified as the main accused.

"After the attack and vandalism on temples and houses of Hindus, Madhabpur Police Station Assistant Inspector (SI) Gias Uddin was removed on the charge of negligence of duty," he said.

ALSO READ |

17 temples, dozens of Hindu houses vandalized in Bangladesh Bangladesh: Shiva Lingam stone stolen from a temple in Chuadanga, 1 arrested

Bangladesh: Fresh violence breaks out, dozens arrested for attacks on minority Hindus

--- ENDS ---
Caracas: At least 10 people were reportedly killed in the deadly clashes between protesters and police that erupted during the Constitutional Assembly election in Venezuela on Sunday.

An opposition youth leader, a pro-government candidate and a soldier were amongst those who were killed, local media reports said.

Elections were held on Sunday to elect members of the Constituent Assembly who would replacingVenezuela's current National Assembly .

The Constituent Assembly will have the power to rewrite the Constitution.

The election comes after weeks of violent street protests in which many people have been killed or injured.

More than 100 people have been killed in the unrest ongoing in the country since April this year.

According to reports, the opposition leaders had called for a boycott of the vote, declaring it rigged for the ruling party.

Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Panama, Peru and the United States said they would not recognise Sunday's vote.
Brussels: The European Union on Monday condemned what it said was excessive use of force by state troops in Venezuela and said it was unlikely to recognise results of the elections on Sunday that were marred by deadly clashes.

Sunday marked one of the deadliest days since massive protests started in early April in Venezuela and voters broadly boycotted an election for a constitutional super-body sought by the unpopular leftist President Nicolas Maduro.

"We will not recognise this election," said European Parliament head, Antonio Tajani. "It is very clear that the current regime is clinging to power. The will of the people is to change the regime. It is necessary to go to elections now."

The bloc`s executive European Commission also said it had "serious doubts" about whether to recognise the result.

"The European Union condemns the excessive and disproportionate use of force by security forces," it said in a statement. Venezuelan authorities said 10 people were killed in clashes between anti-Maduro protesters and law enforcement.

"Venezuela has democratically elected and legitimate institutions whose role is to work together and to find a negotiated solution to the current crisis. A Constituent Assembly, elected under doubtful and often violent circumstances cannot be part of the solution."

It did not mention whether the EU was considering imposing more sanctions on Venezuela, as mulled by the United States.
Tallinn: US Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday raised the possibility of deploying the Patriot anti-missile defence system in Estonia, one of three NATO Baltic states worried by Russian expansionism, Prime Minister Juri Ratas said.



"We spoke about it today, but we didn`t talk about a date or time," Ratas told state broadcaster ERR after Pence began a visit to the tiny frontline state.



The Patriot is a mobile, ground-based system designed to intercept incoming missiles and warplanes.



"We talked about the upcoming (Russian military) manoeuvres near the Estonian border... and how Estonia, the United States and NATO should monitor them and exchange information," Ratas said.



Relations between Moscow and Tallinn have been fraught since Estonia broke free from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991, joining both the EU and NATO in 2004 -- a move that Russia says boosted its own fears of encirclement by the West.



Concern in Estonia and fellow Baltic states Latvia and Lithuania surged after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and stepped up military exercises.



Pence, in remarks to journalists in the Estonian capital of Tallinn, spoke in strong but general terms about US support for eastern European countries.



On Monday, he heads to Georgia -- a non-NATO member that is also worried about Russia -- and then to Montenegro, which became NATO`s 29th member on June 5.



"President (Donald) Trump sent me to Europe with a very simple message. And that is that America first doesn`t mean America alone," Pence said.



"Our message to the Baltic states - my message when we visit Georgia and Montenegro - will be the same: `To our allies here in Eastern Europe, we are with you, we stand with you on behalf of freedoms`."



Pence also said the Trump administration had "made it clear" that it stood behind NATO`s Article 5 commitment that an attack on one member was an attack on all -- a pledge that Trump has been criticised for failing to spell out emphatically.



Pence`s schedule in Tallinn includes meetings on Monday with President Kersti Kaljulaid and her Lithuanian and Latvian counterparts, Dalia Grybauskaite and Raimonds Vejonis.



He is also to visit troops from the Enhanced Forward Presence programme, under which NATO has deployed four battalions to the Baltic states and Poland to bolster the alliance`s eastern flank.



Moscow last year deployed nuclear-capable Iskander missiles into its Kaliningrad exclave, which borders Lithuania and Poland.



It is due to hold massive military exercises in Belarus and Kaliningrad in September. The so-called "Zapad" ("West") drills will see Russia showcase new hardware and upgrade existing systems in its western military region.



Georgia and the United States, meanwhile, are conducting their biggest ever joint military exercises.



Some 800 Georgian and 1,600 US troops are taking part in the Noble Partner 2017 drills -- the largest ever in Georgia since it fought a brief war with Russia in 2008.
District of Columbia: The United States decries as "regrettable" Russia`s decision to cut 755 diplomatic staff, and is now weighing its options, a State Department official said on Sunday.

"This is a regrettable and uncalled for act," the official said.



"We are assessing the impact of such a limitation and how we will respond to it."
Columbia: The United States said Sunday the time for talk over North Korea was "over", spurning a UN response to Pyongyang`s latest ICBM launch in favour of bomber flights and missile defence system tests.

Nikki Haley, the US envoy to the United Nations, said there was "no point" in holding a fruitless emergency Security Council session, warning that a weak additional council resolution would be "worse than nothing" in light of the North`s repeated violations.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un boasted of his country`s ability to strike any target in the US after an intercontinental ballistic missile test Friday that weapons experts said could even bring New York into range  in a major challenge to Trump.

US strategic bombers on Saturday flew over the Korean peninsula in a direct response to the launch, and on Sunday American forces successfully tested a missile interception system the US hopes will be installed on the Korean peninsula.

Under Kim`s leadership, North Korea has accelerated its drive towards a credible nuclear strike capability, in defiance of international condemnation and multiple sets of UN sanctions. The US Senate passed new bipartisan sanctions on Pyongyang on Friday.

Haley urged China, Japan and South Korea to tighten the screws on Pyongyang.

"An additional Security Council resolution that does not significantly increase the international pressure on North Korea is of no value," she wrote.

"It sends the message to the North Korean dictator that the international community is unwilling to seriously challenge him.

"China must decide whether it is finally willing to take this vital step. The time for talk is over."Earlier, US President Donald Trump warned that he would not allow China  the impoverished North`s sole major ally and economic lifeline  to "do nothing" about Pyongyang.

In two tweets, Trump linked trade strains with the Asian giant -- marked by a trade deficit of $309 billion last year  to policy on North Korea, after Seoul indicated it could speed up the deployment of a US missile defense system that has infuriated China.

"I am very disappointed in China. Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk," Trump wrote.

"We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!"

Trump has repeatedly urged China to rein in its recalcitrant neighbor, but Beijing insists dialogue is the only practical way forward.

Shinzo Abe, the Prime Minister of US treaty ally Japan, also urged Beijing to act  along with Moscow  after telephone talks with Trump on Monday Tokyo time.

The North had "trampled all over" efforts to seek a peaceful solution to the situation and "unilaterally escalated" tensions.

"The international community including China and Russia must take it seriously and step up pressure," he told reporters.

Pyongyang lauded the developers of the missile at the weekend, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

The US-led campaign only provided "further justification" for the North`s resolve to maintain its weapons programs, Pyongyang`s foreign ministry said in a statement carried by KCNA.

The ICBM test "is meant to send a stern warning to the US making senseless remarks, being lost to reason in the frantic sanctions and pressure campaign against the DPRK," it said, using an acronym for the North`s official name.

Independent experts say it brings Los Angeles and Chicago within range, and could travel as far as Boston and New York.

Pacific Air Forces commander General Terrence O`Shaughnessy called Pyongyang "the most urgent threat to regional stability."

"If called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing," he said.

In a 10-hour joint mission at the weekend US B-1B bombers along with fighter jets from the South Korean and Japanese air forces practiced intercept and formation drills.

It was followed by the successful test of the missile defense system, with the launch of a medium-range missile over the Pacific that was "detected, tracked and intercepted" in Alaska.

In a standard response to the test, Beijing urged restraint by all sides, after the US and South Korea conducted a live-fire exercise using surface-to-surface missiles.
Caracas: A wave of bloodshed swept Venezuela on Sunday as troops cracked down on violent protests against elections to choose the members of a powerful assembly that President Nicolas Maduro has tasked with writing a new Constitution.



At least nine people were killed as protesters attacked polling stations and barricaded streets around the country -- drawing a bloody response from security forces, who opened fire with live ammunition in some cases.



"This is war!" Caracas resident Conchita Ramirez exclaimed on television as she described troops firing at people and buildings in the capital.



The unrest confirmed fears over the vote for a new "Constituent Assembly" called by Maduro in defiance of months of demonstrations and fierce international criticism.



The socialist president is gambling his four-year rule on the 545-member citizens` body that will be empowered to dissolve the opposition-controlled congress and rewrite the constitution.



Nine people were killed overnight and into Sunday, according to prosecutors, bringing the death toll in four months of violence to some 120 people.



Among those killed was a 39-year-old lawyer in the southeastern town of Ciudad Bolivar who was a candidate for the new assembly. He was shot by assailants in his home late Saturday. Prosecutors said the motive was unknown.



Shootings at protests on Sunday killed a 13-year-old and a 17-year-old in the western state of Tachira. A soldier was also shot dead there.



The death toll also included a 30-year-old regional leader of a youth opposition party in the northeast town of Cumana and two protesters in the western state of Merida.



In eastern Caraca, seven police were wounded when an improvised explosive targeted their motorcycle convoy.



National guard troops used armored vehicles, rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse protesters blocking roads in the west of the city.



Soldiers also violently moved against protesters in the second city of Maracaibo, in the west, and Puerto Ordaz in the east.



The opposition had called for a boycott and mass demonstrations against the election, which it called a bid by Maduro to install a dictatorship.



"This constituent assembly is being born in a bloodbath. It is born illegitimate," said Nicmer Evans, a prominent socialist turned Maduro critic, alleging widespread irregularities.Maduro kicked off voting by casting his ballot in a west Caracas polling station.



"I`m the first voter in the country. I ask God for his blessings so the people can freely exercise their democratic right to vote," the president said. He was accompanied by his wife, Cilia Flores, a candidate for the new assembly.



He got a technological snub when he scanned his ID card at the polling station and the screen spit out the words, "This person does not exist or the ID was cancelled."



Turnout will be key to determining the legitimacy of the election.



But that will be difficult to ascertain as most voters will be able to vote twice: once by region and once by social or industrial sector.



Voting was extended by an hour, to 7:00 pm (2300 GMT), to accommodate what officials described as long lines, despite reports to the contrary.



According to polling firm Datanalisis, more than 70 percent of Venezuelans opposed the idea of the new assembly -- and 80 percent reject Maduro`s leadership.



Maduro decreed a ban on protests during and after the vote, threatening prison terms of up to 10 years.



But protesters flooded the streets in defiance.



"The people are not going to give up the streets until this awful government goes," protester Carlos Zambrano, 54, told AFP in western Caracas.Fear of the violence worsening has rippled across the region, and beyond.



The US, the EU and Latin American powers, including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, have condemned the election.



"Maduro`s sham election is another step toward dictatorship," tweeted US envoy to the United Nations Nikki Haley.



Britain`s junior foreign minister Alan Duncan also described the vote as a "sham," as did many experts.



"The vote means the end of any trace of democratic rule. Maduro`s blatant power grab removes any ambiguity about whether Venezuela is a democracy," said Michael Shifter, head of the Inter-American Dialogue research center.



Several foreign airlines, including Air France, Delta, Avianca and Iberia have suspended flights to Venezuela over security concerns.



The US has ordered the families of its diplomats to leave after imposing sanctions on 13 current and former Venezuelan officials.



Maduro, whose term is meant to end in 2019, describes the election as the most important in Venezuelan history.



"I have come to vote to tell the gringos and the opposition that we want peace, not war, and that we support Maduro," said voter Ana Contreras.Colombia, Panama and Peru -- refuges for tens of thousands of Venezuelans fleeing the chaos at home -- have said they will not recognize the results of the election.



The US has suggested further sanctions could follow.
Sydney: Stricter screening of passengers and luggage at Australian airports, introduced after police foiled an alleged "Islamic-inspired" plot for a bomb attack on a plane, will remain in place indefinitely, Australia`s immigration minister said on Monday.



The ramped up security procedures were put in place after four men were arrested at the weekend in raids conducted across several Sydney suburbs.



The men are being held without charge under special terror-related powers. The Australian Federal Police would not confirm media reports the alleged plot may have involved a bomb or plan to release the poisonous gas inside a plane.



The arrests follow last month`s siege of the city of Melbourne, where police shot dead a gunman who was said to have links to the Islamic State group.



Immigration Minister Peter Dutton told reporters in Melbourne on Monday that the alleged plane bomb plot could prompt longer-term airport security changes.



"The security measures at the airports will be in place for as long as we believe they need to be, so it may go on for some time yet," Dutton said.



"It may be that we need to look at the security settings at our airports, in particular, our domestic airports, for an ongoing enduring period."



Interstate travellers are subjected to far less scrutiny than those travelling abroad with no formal identification checks required for domestic trips.



Passengers at major Australian airports, including Sydney, experienced longer-than-usual queues during the busy Monday morning travel period. A Reuters witness said the queues had disappeared at Sydney Airport by lunchtime.





A source at a major Australian carrier said airlines and airports had been instructed by the government to ramp up baggage checks as a result of the threat, with some luggage searches now being conducted as passengers queued to check in their bags.
Sydney: Four men accused of plotting to bring down a plane planned to use poisonous gas or a crude bomb disguised as a meat mincer, reports said on Monday, with Australian officials calling preparations "advanced".



The men -- reportedly two Lebanese-Australian fathers and their sons -- were arrested in raids across Sydney on Saturday evening.



The Sydney Daily Telegraph said they allegedly planned to carry the device on board a commercial flight from Sydney to a Middle East destination as hand luggage.



It said the idea was to use wood scrapings and explosive material inside a piece of kitchen equipment such as a mincing machine.



The Sydney Morning Herald also reported that a mincer was being examined, while The Australian newspaper cited multiple sources as saying it was a "non-traditional" device that could have emitted a toxic sulphur-based gas.



This, it said, would have killed or immobilised everyone on the aircraft.



Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the plans were "advanced" but refused to comment on the conflicting claims over the method of attack.



"I have to respect the integrity of the investigations," he said.



"But I can say that certainly, the police will allege they had the intent and were developing the capability.



"There will obviously be more to say over coming days. It will be alleged that this was an Islamist, extremist terrorist motivation."



Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin on Sunday said the aviation industry was potentially a target and that an improvised explosive device was involved.



Justice Minister Michael Keenan on Monday called the plans "quite sophisticated".



"It was a plot to bring down an aircraft with the idea of smuggling a device on to it to enable them to do that," he said.



A magistrate late Sunday gave police an additional seven days to detain the men, who have not been officially named, without charge.



Police continued to gather evidence Monday at the five homes raided, warning the investigation would be "very long and protracted".



TV footage on Saturday showed riot police moving into a terraced house in the inner-city suburb of Surry Hills, with a man with a bandage on his head being led away by authorities, draped in a blanket.



A woman at the address denied they had any link to terrorism.



Security has been strengthened at major domestic and international airports across Australia since the raids, with passengers asked to arrive early and to limit their baggage.



Australia`s national terror alert level was raised on September 2014 amid concerns over attacks by individuals inspired by organisations such as Islamic State.



A total of 12 attacks, before the latest one, have been prevented in the past few years, while 70 people have been charged.



Several terror attacks have taken place in Australia in recent years, including a Sydney cafe siege in 2014 that saw two hostages killed.
Bengaluru: The Indira Nagar police on Monday arrested all the five accused, who attacked a Chinese national with knives here.

The accused were identified as Mani, Manikantha, Vijay, Arunkirran and Sharath.

The police have also recovered two 2-wheelers from them, which were used for committing the crime.

Earlier on Saturday, a Chinese national identified as Yan, who arrived here to finalise a business deal, was attacked by five assailants.

Yan was waiting for his cab in Indira Nagar when five men came on a bike and attacked him with knives.

As per the report, the accused wanted to snatch Yan`s mobile and when he resisted they attacked him.

Yan, however, managed to escape from there with a cut on his face.

The accused had fled the spot by the time police van reached the spot.
Patna: Breaking his silence on why he decided to part ways with RJD chief Lalu Yadav after nearly twenty months of sharing power together in the state, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said that it was getting difficult for him to tolerate the wrong doings of his party's former ally.

Addressing a press briefing in the state capital, Nitish said that it was getting difficult for him to tolerate the corruption allegedly done by Lalu Yadav's family members.

I kept tolerating Lalu Prasad so that the 'Mahagathbandhan' remained intact, but it became impossible to continue, the Bihar CM said.

Referring to the CBI raids on Lalu Yadav's family members, Nitish Kumar said, ''When issue of corruption came up, it made me realise how can I compromise on corruption.''

I spoke to Lalu many times. I told him that he should issue a clarification on the CBI raids, the Bihar CM said.

But, he kept defending his son, he added.

Attacking his critics, the Bihar CM said, ''I don't need any certificate from anybody on secularism,'' adding that 'it can't be used to amass huge wealth illegally.'

Bihar CM also attacked Lalu for making objectionable statements against the 'Grand Alliance', while claiming that none from JD(U) said anything against the RJD chief.

On realigning with BJP, the Bihar CM said the proposal in this regard came from BJP's top leadership.

''PM tweeted as well, ''Nitish Kumar said, while replying to a question on JD(U)-BJP alliance.

The Bihar JDU leader also showered praise on PM Narendra Modi and said, ''No one is capable of challenging Modi ji in 2019 Lok Sabha elections".

The remarks from the Bihar CM came hours after his party colleague Sharad Yadav expressed his strong displeasure over Nitish Kumar's decision to join hands with the BJP.

Breaking his silence on the issue, the Janata Dal United veteran said that he "does not agree with" Nitish's decision of joining hands with the BJP and called it "unfortunate".

The senior JD (U) leader further said that Nitish breaking away from the 'Grand Alliance' and allying with the BJP and the NDA goes against the "mandate by the people" who voted overwhelmingly for the former.

"I don't agree with the decision in Bihar, it's unfortunate. The mandate by the people was not for this," said Sharad Yadav, who was JD (U) president until last October.

Last Wednesday, in a shock move, Nitish left the 'Grand Alliance' and allied with the BJP.

He claimed his move was inspired by "conscience" as he couldn't possibly support RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his son who was deputy CM, Tejashwi Yadav, following their being named in a CBI corruption case.

While most analysts were aware that Sharad Yadav was unhappy with Nitish's decision, he had maintained a stoic silence thus far, not publicly commenting about it until Monday morning.

JD(U)'s Rajya Sabha MPs Veerendra Kumar and Ali Anwar have openly criticised Nitish's move to break away from the 'Grand Alliance'.

They also met with Sharad Yadav in Delhi following the break-up of the 'Mahagathbandhan'.
Bengaluru police commissioner Praveen Sood, who had in the past issued stern warnings to pro-Kannada activists against breaking the law, was transferred by the Karnataka government today.

In an sudden announcement, IPS officer T Suneel Kumar, who was Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) and Managing Director of Karnataka State Police Housing Corporation, has been appointed as the new head of the city police.

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IPS Sood had recently warned pro-Kannada activists against violating the law while opposing use of Hindi on signboards in the city.

Kannada Rakshana Vedike (Kannada Protection Forum) activists came had defaced Hindi signboards at a dozen metro rail stations and threatened shops and private offices to use Kannada on their sign boards.

After this the Bengaluru police had booked cases against 36 KRV activists and arrested about 20 of them under Section 153 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for blackening Hindi sign boards at the metro stations.

Also read:

Bengaluru: Chinese national attacked by five miscreants

Bengaluru: Police to arrest those who painted Hindi signboards black at Namma Metro stations

Also watch:

Language war intensifies in Karnataka as pro-Kannada groups make fresh demands

--- ENDS ---
The Patna High Court on Monday dismissed a petition by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) against the formation of new Bihar government by Janata Dal (United)  Bharatiya Janata Party.

The petition was filed by RJD legislator Saroj Yadav's petition on Friday, 28 July.

The court accepted the petition on Friday but refused to put a stay on the Nitish Kumar's floor test, stating that hearing won't be possible before July 31.

Last week, Nitish Kumar resigned from the position of Bihar Chief Minister, alleging corruption charges against RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav's son  Tejashwi Yadav, and dissolved the grand alliance between JD(U) and RJD. Within hours, Nitish was back in office with a new coalition with old ally BJP.

Nitish Kumar-led government sailed through the the floor test in Bihar with 131 votes

Protesting against these out-of-control developments, RJD leadership filed a petition in Patna High Court.

Meanwhile, BJP's Sushil Modi took charge as the new Bihar Deputy Chief.

We'll take Bihar towards development with the same pace with which it was progressing in 7.5 years of NDA rule, said Sushil Modi.
New Delhi: Senior Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav, who was apparently upset with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for aligning with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form a new government in Bihar, broke his silence on the matter on Monday.

In his first reaction to the breakup of Grand Alliance, Yadav described the turn of events in Bihar as unfortunate.

I don't agree with the decision in Bihar, its unfortunate. The mandate by the people was not for this, the former JD(U) president told reporters outside Parliament.

Yadav is also reportedly "upset" over not being taken into "confidence" by Nitish Kumar before he decided to align with the BJP.

JD(U) MPs Ali Anwar and MP Veerendra Kumar, who have voiced their discontent with the decision to ally with the BJP, had met Yadav on July 27.

After the meeting, Veerendra Kumar told reporters that Yadav has told him that he is not going to accept the decision of Nitish Kumar.

On Sunday, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad urged Yadav to undertake a nationwide tour to defeat "communal" forces that have fanned out in the country.

In a surprise move last week, Janata Dal (United) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar left the "grand alliance" with Lalu Yadav's RJD and the Congress.

Kumar allied with the BJP and formed a new government.
Chennai: The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) on Monday provided one week relief to Sahara India Life Insurance Company Ltd against the order of insurance regulator IRDAI transferring its life insurance policy portfolio of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Ltd.

In a statement, Sahara India Life said SAT, condemning the order of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), also raised serious objection against the order.

The SAT had ordered status quo till it completes hearing on August 7.

"The SAT is going to decide a landmark case in the liberalised Indian insurance industry. This is going to be an important case under the Insurance Act," D. Varadarajan, a Supreme Court advocate specialising in company/competition/insurance laws, told IANS.

He said the status quo order was waiting to happen.

"The harsh and extreme order of IRDAI against Sahara India Life can be likened to a staged shooting by trigger-happy and over-zealous cops," Varadarajan quipped.

"How far the IRDAI is justified in acting on the basis of the report of the administrator who happen to be its own employee will be decided by SAT," he added.

"Not only a bias, even the likely would of bias in case of a harsh decision would raise many a eyebrows," said Varadarajan.

On July 28, IRDAI had ordered transfer of Sahara India Life`s business portfolio to ICICI Prudential Life Insurance effective from July 31.

Last month, IRDAI had appointed its own official as an administrator of Sahara India Life. The administrator had initially ordered Sahara India Life to stop accepting new business.

The IRDAI had ordered transfer of Sahara India Life`s insurance business to ICICI Prudential Life based on the administrator`s report.

According to the statement, Sahara India Life felt that the order was passed to benefit a third party and in violation of the principles of natural justice.

"Existence of power is one thing while the mode and manner of exercise of that power is another thing. With its status quo order, the SAT would be inclined to examine the manner and method of exercise of power by IRDAI," Varadarajan said.

Sahara India Life challenged the IRDAI action, stating that its business was continuously in profit and the company has been in absolute and strict compliance of all regulatory norms /directions issued by the regulator.

It argued that there has not been even a single case of any complaint of non-payment of any claim to any policy holder and though the regulatory requirement of solvency margin is only 1.5, Sahara India Life has been maintaining solvency margin of more than 8 which reflects the company`s sound financial health.

IRDAI had not even framed any scheme, to safeguard the interest of policy holders, which is a statutory requirement before transferring the business to ICICI Prudential, it said.

The order was passed in great hurry and there was neither any transparency in the action of IRDAI nor the legal provisions were complied with, Sahara India Life said.
New Delhi: E-commerce firm Snapdeal on terminated talks for a takeover by larger rival Flipkart, saying it will "pursue an independent path" to continue its operations.

The company was reported to be in talks for selling its business to Flipkart in a USD 900-950 million deal.

"Snapdeal has been exploring strategic options over the last several months. The company has now decided to pursue an independent path and is terminating all strategic discussions as a result," Snapdeal spokesperson said in an emailed statement, without naming Flipkart.

The company said it has a "new and compelling direction - Snapdeal 2.0" and has made significant progress towards the ability to execute this by achieving a gross profit this month.

"In addition, with the sale of certain non-core assets, Snapdeal is expected to be financially self-sustainable," it added.

The latest developments come within days of Snapdeal agreeing to sell its digital payment platform, FreeCharge, to Axis Bank for Rs 385 crore.

One of the leading contenders in the Indian e-commerce space, Snapdeal has seen its fortunes falling amid strong competition from Amazon and Flipkart.

Its largest investor, SoftBank had been proactively mediating the talks for the sale.

Japanese conglomerate SoftBank said supporting entrepreneurs and their vision is at the heart of Masayoshi Son's (SoftBank Chairman and CEO) and SoftBank's investment philosophy.

"...We respect the decision to pursue an independent strategy. We look forward to the results of the Snapdeal 2.0 strategy, and to remaining invested in the vibrant Indian e- commerce space," a SoftBank spokesperson said.

The deal, if it had gone through, would have marked the largest acquisition in the Indian e-commerce landscape.

Compared to a peak valuation of about USD 6.5 billion in February 2016, the talks had valued Snapdeal at about USD 1 billion.
New Delhi: Talks for the proposed acquisition of the beleaguered Snapdeal by larger rival Flipkart seem to have broken down after almost six months of negotiations, with the fate of the deal likely to be decided by the end of the day, according to company sources.

The founders (Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal) and shareholders have not yet agreed on the terms of the deal as the former are pushing aggressively for continuing operations as an independent entity, one of the sources said.

They did not want to be named as they are not authorised to speak on the matter and the discussions are still under way.

When contacted, Snapdeal did not comment. A SoftBank spokesperson said "a board resolution is expected by the end of the day".

Snapdeal's largest investor, SoftBank, has been proactively mediating in the talks for sale for the past few months. The deal with Flipkart for USD 900-950 million, if it goes through, would mark the largest acquisition in the Indian e-commerce landscape.

The latest developments come within days of Snapdeal agreeing to sell its digital payment platform, FreeCharge, to Axis Bank for Rs 385 crore.

One of the sources said if the decision to continue as an independent entity is accepted, it could see Snapdeal reducing its workforce significantly and scaling down operations.

Interestingly, in an e-mail to employees last week, Bahl had termed the Freecharge sale as a "great outcome" and said it would give Snapdeal the "necessary boost in resources" to continue its e-commerce journey.

The company is also holding discussions with potential buyers for its logistics arm, Vulcan Express.

The proceeds from Freecharge sale and Vulcan, when it comes in, could buy Snapdeal some months to continue independently, the source added.

One of the leading contenders in the Indian e-commerce space, Snapdeal has seen its fortunes falling amid strong competition from Amazon and Flipkart.

Compared to a valuation of about USD 6.5 billion in February 2016, the sale to Flipkart could see Snapdeal being valued at about USD 1 billion.
New Delhi: As many as 43 percent of the country's employees are in the unorganised sector and efforts are on to provide them EPF, ESIC and other benefits, the Lok Sabha was informed on Monday.

Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said there are around 43 percent of the total employees in the country are in the unorganised sector and 4.7 crore of them were in the construction sector.

He said steps have been taken to enhance the minimum wages of labourers and efforts are on to provide the benefits of Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) to them.

Dattatreya said an MoU has been signed between ESIC and Directorate General Factory Advice Service and Labour Institutes on July 11 to collaborate in the field of occupational health and reduce the occurrence of work-related injuries and diseases.

"The ministry of labour and employment is committed for the social security of the labour force in the country," he said during Question Hour.

The major steps taken by the ministry in this regard include increased maternity benefits, special schemes to enrol left out employees including contractual, casual and temporary workers among others, the minister said.
Ndjamena: French Defence Minister Florence Parly has arrived in Chad, at the start of a tour of three Sahel countries, assuring that French troops in the region will have the means to carry out their mission against jihadist insurgents.

"You can count on my determination that you will have the necessary means to carry out your mission," she yesterday told the head of Operation Barkhane -- a 4,000-man French mission to shore up fragile Sahel countries against jihadist bombings, shootings and kidnappings.

"It's my fight, it's less risky than yours, of course," she added.

Parly was beginning a two-day swing of the region, during which she will be joined by German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen in a joint show of support for the initiative.

Parly "will reaffirm France's support for the emergence of a joint G5 Sahel force (...) tasked with playing a key role in fighting terrorism and trafficking which are contributing to instability in the region," the French defence ministry said in a statement ahead of her arrival.

After meeting Chadian President Idriss Deby in Ndjamena, Parly will heald for talks in Niger with head of state Mahamadou Issoufou and with President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in Mali.

The planned G5 Sahel anti-terror force would gather Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger in a 5,000-man joint unit.

France is trying to muster international support for the estimated USD 480 million it will cost, as the participating countries rank among the poorest nations in the world.

Newly-elected French President Emmanuel Macron has won a commitment -- yet to be detailed -- from German Chancellor Angela Merkel to support the scheme.

Von der Leyen will join Parly in Niger and Mali where they will "seize the opportunity to show their support for providing equipment and training for the G5 force, as well as their active efforts to mobilise European and international partners to support their action," the French Defence Ministry said.
Moscow: Russia on Monday called on all parties interested in settlement on the Korean Peninsula for restraint and establishment of a dialogue after a new missile launch by North Korea.



"We call on all parties involved to refrain from any steps which could lead to further escalation of tension in the region," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.



The statement also said Russia was concerned by the missile launch, which directly violated the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council, Xinhua news agency reported.



On Friday, North Korea test-fired a missile, which the country described as an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) called Hwasong-14, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).



At the same time, Moscow was concerned by the military activities of the US, South Korea and Japan around the Korean Peninsula with the deployment of elements of the US global Anti-Ballistic Missile system in South Korea, it said.



South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Saturday ordered his aides to consult with their US counterparts on the deployment of four more mobile launchers of the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) on top of the two delivered previously, the South Korean JSC said.



"We suggest all interested parties immediately begin a comprehensive discussion about the establishment of collective efforts to resolve the situation on the basis of the ideas contained in the 'road map'," the foreign ministry statement said.
New Delhi: In the wake of recent attacks on Dalits and Muslim community in the country, a group of 114 armed forces veterans have penned a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemning the surge in mob violence and unprecedented attacks by relentless vigilantism of self-proclaimed 'Gau Rakshaks'. In the letter, the 114 veterans of all three forces said that they stand with the 'Not in My Name' campaign, that had mobilised thousands of citizens across the country.

"We are a group of veterans of the Indian Armed Forces who have spent our careers working for the security of our country. Collectively, our group holds no affiliation with any single political party, our only common commitment being to the constitution of India," the letter reads.

"It saddens us to write this letter, but current events in India have compelled us to register our dismay at the divisiveness that is gripping our country. We stand with the Not in My Name campaign that mobilised thousands of citizens across the country to protest against the current climate of fear, intimidation, hate and suspicion,"the veterans told Modi in the letter.

"The armed forces stand for unity in diversity. Differences in religion, language, caste, culture or any other marker of belonging have not mattered to the cohesion of the armed forces, and servicemen of different backgrounds have fought shoulder to shoulder in the defence of our nation, as they continue to do today. Throughout our service, a sense of openness, justice and fair play guided our actions. We are one family. Our heritage is like the multi-coloured quilt that is India, and we cherish this vibrant diversity," it added.

"However, what is happening in our country today strikes at all that the armed forces, and indeed our constitution, stand for. We are witness to unprecedented attacks on society at large by the relentless vigilantism of self-appointed protectors of Hinduism. We condemn the targeting of Muslims and Dalits. We condemn the clampdowns on free speech by attacks on media outlets, civil society groups, universities, journalists and scholars, through a campaign of branding them anti-national and unleashing violence against them while the state looks away," the letter further said.

"We can no longer look away. We would be doing a disservice to our country if we do not stand up and speak for the liberal and secular values that our constitution espouses. Our diversity is our greatest strength. Dissent is not treason; in fact, it is the essence of democracy. We urge the powers that be at the Centre and in the states to take note of our concerns and urgently act to uphold our constitution, both in letter and in spirit," the retired 'faujis' appealed.

Earlier, PM Modi had also condemned the killing of people in the name of cow protection. "No person in this nation has the right to take the law in his or her own hands. Killing people in the name of 'gau bhakti' is not acceptable. This is not something Mahatma Gandhi would approve,"the PM had said while delivering a speech to mark the centenary of the Sabarmati ashram.
One of independent India's earliest international accords was its 1949 friendship treaty with Bhutan. It was concluded at a time of uncertainty on India's periphery: the British were withdrawing, revolutionary China was moving into Tibet, with which Bhutan had age-old ties of religion and culture. The 1949 treaty, in effect, affirmed Bhutan's independence, provided for Indian support when required and helped bring stability to the sensitive Himalayan frontier.

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Just a few years later, Jawaharlal Nehru made a pioneering visit to Bhutan, which at that time involved trekking across Tibet's Chumbi Valley. By then, the universal demand in all parts of the world was for accelerated development, and Nehru's talks with the King led to agreement that India would fully support Bhutan's economic development. This has remained the pattern ever since.

Even while Bhutan drew closer to India, it steadily increased its own profile as an independent country. A major step was its admission to the United Nations, which was done with India's active support. Its greater international visibility notwithstanding, Bhutan refused to become entangled in the affairs of regional and other powers in matters where it had no direct concern; its own traditional statecraft drove it towards distance, even isolation, from the affairs of others. Entry into the UN did not greatly alter these attitudes, and Bhutan even today remains sparing in the access it provides to outsiders. Only a very few diplomatic missions are permitted, none from the P-5 and it keeps aloof from the proliferating disputes at the UN and other multilateral forums.

It thus came as a surprise when, a few weeks ago, senior Bhutanese officials spoke up against Chinese encroachments along the border and asked China to respect the procedure for border settlement that it had itself agreed on with Bhutan. This was an unusually forthright demand from a country that is normally very restrained in its diplomatic expression. Such untypical action suggests that China had caused apprehension by being unresponsive to Bhutan's concerns and had thus invited criticism.

Since then, there has been a spate of comment and speculation about the matter, including sharp exchanges between India and China. The place in question is in the area of the trijunction between India, Bhutan and China, a geographically sensitive area with important security and strategic features. India and China have both established military defences in the area, which have been strengthened in the course of the current disagreement.

From the Chinese side, there have been accusations that India has been inciting Bhutan to take a tougher line on its claims. However, for more than three decades, Bhutan has conducted its border negotiations with China according to its own lights. In an earlier phase, India did have a role in attempts to delineate the border, derived from historic factors, but long ago, this gave way to a Bhutan-China process without third party involvement. Bhutan was well aware that the prolonged India-China border talks were going nowhere and felt it should make an independent bid for a settlement, to which India was persuaded to agree. Bhutan expected that its boundary issue would soon be settled and China would be generous to its small neighbour. In the event, China was unyielding, offered no concessions and appeared to be trying to leverage the border talks to establish a new order of relationship with Bhutan. This effort made no headway, as was revealed in the Bhutanese complaint about China's failure to observe the agreed process for border settlement.

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These events make it evident that Bhutan has found its voice and is well able to defend its interests. The unprecedented democratisation of the country, when the monarch voluntarily ceded his authority, can be seen to have given new strength to the country's instruments of governance. Standing up for its territorial and other interests, even in the face of its formidable northern neighbour, is a measure of how far Bhutan has come.

(Salman Haidar is a former foreign secretary and has served as ambassador to both Thimphu and Beijing)

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--- ENDS ---
New Delhi: Over 90 animals, including seven rhinoceros, have died due to the flooding in the Kaziranga National Park in Assam, the government told Parliament on Monday.

The Assam floods have affected the Kaziranga National Park. Seven rhinos, 82 hog deer, and two sambar deer have died in the flooding, Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan said in a written reply.

The floods have so far claimed over 70 lives in the northeastern state.

Over 25 lakh people bore the brunt of the flooding in 29 districts. The administration set up 1,098 relief camps and distribution centres in the state.

Vardhan said that based on Annual Plan of Operations submitted by tiger reserves, the government provides funds to them under the centrally-sponsored scheme 'Project Tiger' through the National Tiger Conservation Authority.

The funds are used for various activities, including for measures to address flood situation such as creation of highlands and preventive structures against erosion, boats, rescue of animals, desiltation and creation of road network etc, he said.
Rameswaram: Seeking an end to the controversy over Bhagawad Gita in the A P J Abdul Kalam Memorial, the late president's family on Sunday placed the Quran and Bible beside the wooden statue.

The controversy erupted after a copy of Bhagwad Gita appeared beside the statue of Kalam -- playing playing the 'veena' at his memorial in Rameswaram -- right before its inauguration by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

PM Modi had inaugurated the APJ Abdul Kalam Memorial at Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu on July 27 on the death anniversary of the late President.

Protesting the development, local Hindu outfit claimed that no permission was taken to place the holy books  Quran and Bible  there.

Meanwhile, Vaiko-led MDMK and the PMK questioned why the Bhagawad Gita was placed alongside the statue of Kalam.

Calling the controversy unnecessary, Kalam's relatives Sheik Dawood and Salim told PTI, "DRDO officials worked tirelessly for the memorial construction and had not sculpted the Bhagavad Gita near the statue with any (ill) intention. Now we have left two books  Quran and Bible near the statue".

They said Kalam was a leader to all Indians and no one should seek to politicise the issue.

Both MDMK and PMK said they would also place a copy of Tamil treatise 'Thirukkural' near the statue soon.
New Delhi: Majority of Muslims in India are descendants of Hindus, said a BJP MP in the Lok Sabha during a mob lynching debate on Monday.

Hukumdev Narayan Yadav, MP from Madhubani in Bihar, slammed the opposition for targetting the central government over incidents of mob lynching.

He added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly come out strongly against such acts.

In the debate, Yadav also cited the issue of killing of RSS workers in Kerala, which is ruled by the Left Front government.

The MP asserted that the responsibility of containing mob violence is that of the state governments.

He said "certain demons" have put on "holy garb" to defame the government, likening it to an episode in the Ramayana.

"Some people are indulging in terror (atankvadi) activities to defame the government," the BJP member said and slammed the Congress for questioning the intention of the Modi government.

According to Yadav, a fight between two ideologies has been going on for several decades and asserted those who follow the path of "economic development and nationalism" will come out victorious.

During his speech, he extensively quoted Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and said the BJP ideologue had stated that "Muslims in India are descendants of Hindus."

He said every Muslim must respect Hindu sentiment and at the same time, Hindus must respect the Muslims.

The MP was also severely critical of the policies of Congress and said "I will prefer to die than bowing before the Congress...Some politicians sit with the Congress and have biryani and then indulge in an artificial fight outside."

Yadav said he will prefer to die than abandoning the ideology he is fighting for.

Talking about nationalism, Yadav said freedom fighters Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan had sung the poem 'Vande Mataram' but there is an environment now in which singing it is considered a crime.

He also cited a recent case in which a political leader had sought support from the Naxals. "There cannot be bigger lynching than this," the BJP member said.

Yadav also alleged that Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and Ram Manohar Lohia were killed in late 1960s as both were planning to join hands.

The BJP MP drew the attention of the House towards the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and raised the issue of killing of RSS workers in Kerala.
New Delhi: Amid the military stand-off in Doklam, the Chinese troops recently entered a disputed stretch along the international border with India.

The alleged incursion took place on July 26 at Barahoti in Chamoli district, Uttarakhand.

On July 19 also, the Chinese troops had violated the border in Chamoli district and were seen camping along with arms.

Reports said that People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops had sent back a team led by Chamoli District Magistrate and others, including officials from ITBP, who had gone for a survey of Barahoti ground. The Chinese troops had claimed that it was their land.

In another incident, a helicopter of PLA violated the Indian air space in Uttarakhand on July 19.

After hovering over the Indian airspace for nearly five minutes, the helicopter disappeared and flew back to the Chinese airspace.

Uttarakhand shares a 350-kilometer long boundary with China.

India and China are currently at loggerheads over Doklam plateau in Bhutan.

The military tension over the Himalayan tri-junction between the two countries that share a 3,500-km boundary started in June when Indian troops stopped Chinese soldiers from building a road at the stretch where India and China connect with Bhutan.

The stand-off has hit India-China ties with Chinese experts threatening a war if New Delhi did not buckle.

Former foreign secretary Shyam Saran had on Thursday called the month-long military stand-off between India and China at Doklam part of a mind game. He added that there was a possibility of a prolonged impasse.
Delhi: The Congress Party on Monday welcomed Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav`s intention to invite Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)) co- founder and leader Sharad Yadav to take part in the fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

"News has come from various mediums of Sharad Yadav being unhappy with what Nitish Kumar has done. Any self-respected person would be unhappy with the same. Lalu Yadav`s statement is worth welcoming. If he (Lalu) has plans to unite different forces against BJP, which has communal mentality and plays divisive politics then are is welcoming," Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit told ANI.

Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Naresh Agarwal spoke on the same lines, opining that it looked as if there was an attempt by the JD (U) to vanish Sharad Yadav`s existence.

He further stated that Sharad Yadav`s tweet exhibited that he is not happy with Nitish`s decision.

"The investigation launched against Lalu with the intention of revenge makes it natural for him to initiate some or the other action. Whatever Sharad Yadav has tweeted, it indicates that he is not happy with Nitish Kumar`s decision. Nitish Kumar took the decision without consulting Sharad Yadav, who is a senior person. Looks like, there is an attempt to end Sharad Yadav`s existence by the JD(U)," Agarwal told ANI.

"Nitish has tarnished the image of Ambedkar. I urge Sharad Yadav, whom we consider as a true leader, to travel to every corner of the country and come to Bihar and join our fight against the BJP and Nitish Kumar," Lalu had said.

"I talked to Sharad Yadav over phone. I appeal to him that come and go to every corner of the country, and take command of this fight," he added.The RJD supremo further said that they are going to launch "Desh bachao, BJP bhagao" movement.

"There is a conspiracy to tatter the Constitution. In this light, we have called for a rally `Desh bachao, BJP bhagao`. Nitish, who was elected to ward off fascist and communal forces, has betrayed the mandate of the people," said Lalu.
To err is human. And so is making a little harmless fun over that error.

Errors often grab eyeballs, especially when a minister or a big-shot makes the mistake. Twitter has had quite a few 'ROFL' moments in the past.

Yesterday, yet another advertorial goof-up made the day for Twitter.

This time, the onus was on Dr Lal PathLabs Limited  service provider of diagnostic and related healthcare tests  and it's massive billboard posted somewhere in Kolkata.

Now, look at the image above.

A doctor examining an X-ray report earnestly, as the company lists out services offered on the side. Right?

Wrong. Look again.

Found anything wrong? May be the X-ray?

That's right. The 'supposed' doctor on the billboard is holding the X-ray upside down.

Quick to notice, Twitter was filled up amusing reactions:

@lalpathlabs really : Are you nuts??



1) Put saner people on the advertising job



2) Hire real doctors who know how to hold an X ray pic.twitter.com/SmFxLSfAdT  The Good Doctor (@Kaalateetham) July 30, 2017

@lalpathlabs this was bound to happen when you take models rather then doctors for promotion. #upsidedownxray pic.twitter.com/GqDMsoeChW  Dr. Ravinder Chopra (@chopsravi) July 30, 2017

@lalpathlabs I am not sure if this is true but if it's true then it's fucking hilarious, sure not everyone can read an X-Ray! pic.twitter.com/AaGEm8ZvQH  MAYANK AGARWAL (@Dr_MayankAg) July 30, 2017

Dr Lal Pathlab's official twitter account, however, handled the entire episode with grace.

We have noticed this too. We apologize for the inconvenience caused and have removed all such hoardings with immediate effect, they tweeted.
New Delhi: A fire broke-out in New Delhi's Shastri Bhawan on Monday morning. Four fire tenders reached the spot to douse the flames.

"The furniture and air conditioner of room no. 711 caught fire. The fire was doused immediately," Divisional Officer of Delhi Fire Service Sanjay Tomar told ANI.

Delhi: Fire breaks out in Shastri Bhawan, 4 fire tenders on spot  ANI (@ANI_news) July 31, 2017

Shastri Bhawan, named after late Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, is situated near Central Delhi.

The building houses several ministries and its officials including Human Resources Development, Law & Justice, Information & Broadcasting, Corporate Affairs, Chemicals and Petrochemicals, Culture, Women & Child Development etc.

The building also houses offices for Ministries of Education, Petroleum, Chemicals and Fertilizers, Youth Affairs, Family welfare etc.

More details are awaited.
New Delhi: Mahatma Gandhi's grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi, who is contesting the August 5 Vice Presidential Election, has been slammed by his own nephew for agreeing to represent the Congress-led Opposition.

In a letter to his uncle, Shrikrishna Kulkarni wrote, I saw with dismay the TV images of you, going to file your nomination for the Vice President  flanked by this family of dynastic politics.

Kulkarni, the great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, hit out at the former West Bengal governor for offering his candidature to a side which has "re-institutionalized dynastic succession and has systematically eroded the political landscape of India."

By joining the Opposition, Gandhi has "tore apart the principles of Mahatma Gandhi and Bhimrao Ambedkar", wrote Kulkarni.

"The present President of the Congress Party has been in position for 18 years since 1998. Her son (5th generation of Nehru dynasty, starting from Motilal Nehru) is in line for succession. And of all the people in this nation, you choose to offer yourself to be their candidate?" Kulkarni said.

So many scandals & not single comment from you. Do you really believe these are political vendetta?: Krish in letter to Gopalkrishna Gandhi pic.twitter.com/rSYhej1dir  ANI (@ANI_news) July 30, 2017

Opposition-backed Gopalkrishna Gandhi is pitted against ruling National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) candidate M Venkaiah Naidu.

In an effective electoral college of 786 members of both houses of Parliament, Naidu is comfortably placed against Gandhi as the NDA has a clear majority in the Lok Sabha. The Lok Sabha currently has 543 members and the Rajya Sabha 243. Both Houses have two vacancies each.
New Delhi: Amid a military standoff in Doklam, fresh tensions erupted in the country's western border where the Chinese troops have been accused of transgressing into the Indian territory, media reports said on Monday.

Soldiers of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) had reportedly entered some 200 meters into the Indian territory at 9 pm in Barahoti in Uttarakhands Chamoli district on 25 July.

The Barahoti border has not been demarcated and the two sides differ on perception about it. Over 10 soldiers were reportedly involved in the incident.

According to reports, PLA soldiers had sent back an Indian team led by Chamoli District Magistrate which had gone there for a survey.

A spokesperson for the Uttarakhand government said that they had watched the report on TV but they had not received any official information on the issue.

"We haven't received any official information as yet. The stationed security forces have not given us any information nor has the district magistrate" Madan Kaushik told ANI.

He said that a probe has been ordered into the matter.

This comes just three days before National Security Advisor Ajit Doval was to meet Chinese president Xi Jinping in Beijing.

Uttarakhand shares a 350-kilometre border with China. This was the second time Chinese troops crossed into the Indian side in Barahoti. In July last year, two PLA soldiers had reportedly crossed into the same area.

The latest incursion comes, even as both sides have been locked in an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation in Doklam in the eastern sector for over a month.

China has accused India of trespassing into its territory and stopping its road construction at Dokalam, while New Delhi maintains the area lies in Bhutan's territory.

The crisis erupted after Indian and Bhutanese troops foiled an attempt by the Chinese Army to encroach on a disputed enclave.

China responded by suspending the Kailash-Mansarovar yatra through the Nathu La pass.

A meeting between India's national security advisor and the Chinese President on the sidelines of a BRICS summit in Beijing last week failed to resolve the crisis, said to be the longest standoff between the two armies since 1962.

Another such standoff in 2013 had lasted for 21 days in Ladakh's Daulat Beg Oldie. The Chinese troops had reportedly entered 30 km into the Indian side claiming it to be a part of its Xinjiang province. They were, however, pushed back, the First Post reported.

India has boundary disputes with China in both the western and eastern sectors. It shares the longest international border in the eastern sector. China claims a part of Arunachal Pradesh as its territory, which it calls South Tibet.

In the western sector, the Aksai Chin region is the main flashpoint between the two countries. India claims some of the areas are part of Ladakh, while China maintains they are part of its Xinjiang region.

Besides the border row, the two sides also have other prickly issues to settle.

In November 2010, China started the practice of issuing stapled visas to people from Jammu and Kashmir. The same year, India cancelled defence exchanges with China after Beijing refused to permit a visa to Lt. Gen. B.S. Jaswal.

In 2009, China had objected to the then prime minister Manmohan Singhs visit to Arunachal Pradesh. And in 2007, Beijing had also denied a visa to the then Arunachal Pradesh CM arguing that he would not require travel documents to visit his own country.
New Delhi: Tightening the noose around the corrupt, officials, the Modi government is preparing to launch a crackdown on graft-tainted officers.

The vigilance department of each ministry has been asked to prepare a dossier of corrupt officials.

The government will begin taking action against those whose names will be on the list after August 15.

The Ministry of Home Affairs is preparing the dossier on the basis of service records of the officials.

The ministry has dispatched letters to various departments and all the paramilitary forces to finalise the list by August 05.

The list would include names of those officers who, after enquiry or during the course of enquiry have been found to be lacking in integrity. The dossier will be approved by the competent authority.

The dossier will be forwarded to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). The agencies will keep a tab on such officials and take necessary action against them.
The Bombay High Court took the Maharashtra government to task questioning the delay in providing the state human rights commission office space or enough employees.

The Bombay High Court today came down heavily on the Maharashtra government for not providing space and or hiring enough employees for the State Human Rights Commission.

The commission has been left a toothless tiger as due to a lack of space and employees, it has not been able to hear cases of human rights violations in Maharashtra.

A division bench of the Bombay High Court, headed by chief justice Manjula Chellur, asked the state government, "Why don't you scrap the human rights commission if you can't give them place and employees? How can it take 16 years to give basic needs to one commission?"

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The court was hearing a public interest litigation filed in 2013 by one Naresh Gosavi. The state government had earlier said that an office at the world trade centre was assigned to the human rights commission. However, the advocate claimed ignorance, saying the commission was not aware about the World Trade Centre office.

The court made note of the communication gap between the government and the commission and ordered Maharashtra to inform the court within two weeks about its current position in the matter.

ALSO READ | Children's Home case: Miffed at reply, Bombay High Court summons Maharashtra WCD secretary

ALSO WATCH | Justify Dutt's early release, Bombay High Court tells Maharashtra government

--- ENDS ---
Lucknow: Launching a scathing attack on Congress, BJP President Amit Shah on Monday said that we used to hear about new scams every month under the UPA government but the NDA delivered a scam-free stable government.

"There is not a single case of corruption Modi government in three years, even our opponents failed to find any single charge of corruption against us. We have given a stable government. However, in UPA rule every minister believed themselves to be the Prime Minister of India. No one considered Manmohan Singh as PM,"Shah took a dig at Congress.

Shah, who is on a three-day visit to Lucknow showered praise on Modi government over the surgical strike, demonetization and GST Bill. He asserted that in the past three years, the BJP government has done a lot for the welfare of this nation and is committed fully towards the welfare of poor and backward section.

The BJP chief was also confident of party's thumping victory in 2019 general elections saying, "We will win 2019 general election even with the bigger mandate because of development, good governance."

On being asked about Nitish Kumar's decision to snap ties with RJD and Congress in Bihar, Shah said,"We did not break any mahagathbandhan'. It was Nitish Kumar's decision against corruption."

The BJP chief also refuted Congresss allegations that its MLAs were being poached by ruling BJP ahead of the August 8 Rajya Sabha elections in Gujarat. "Why have they been made prisoners? It seems Congress does not trust its MLAs," Amit Shah hit out at the grand old party.

Reacting over deteriorating law and order in Uttar Pradesh, Shah stated," The police and administration that has been politicised in so many years will take some time to improve. (Jo Police aur prashasan ka itne saalon mein rajneetikaran hua hai use sudhaarne mein thoda time lagega)."
Patna: Days after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar broke the 'Mahagathbandhan' and joined hands with NDA to form a new government in Bihar, sulking Samajwadi Party leader Shivpal Yadav is likely to join Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) soon.

If reports of leading portal India Today are to be believed, Yadav has two options, one is to join Nitish Kumar's JD(U) and become part of NDA and the other alternative is to form a new party of his own and set an alliance with the NDA. Yadav is reportedly in talks with some of the JD(U) leaders.

As per the reports, the SP leader is also discussing his options with party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav. The duo had also met yesterday in the national capital and discussed both the options.

Earlier, three Samajwadi Party MLCs Yashwant Singh, Bukkal Nawab and Madhukar Jaitley have resigned from the party and heaped praise on PM Modi and Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath which led to the speculation that they main join BJP.

"I am feeling very suffocated since last one-year. It is clear that when he (Akhilesh) is not with his own father then how can he be with the people," Nawab had told ANI after putting in his papers. He had also expressed his willingness to join the BJP. The Rashtriya Shia Samaj founder had also hinted that some people may resign from the SP soon.

Reacting to the political development, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and SP president Akhilesh Yadav blamed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the resignations saying,"BJP is indulging in political corruption from Bihar to UP. People are watching everything."
New Delhi: It is too early to understand the impact of GST on the tourism sector, though an early assessment has shown that the single tax regime has brought down the level of taxation, the government said on Monday.

Responding to supplementaries in the Lok Sabha, Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma also said he will talk to the GST Council on the possible difficulties houseboat owners in Kerala may face due to GST.

He said while it is too early to understand the impact of GST on the tourism sector, an internal assessment shows that the level of taxation has gone down in the sector.

Responding to another supplementary, he said the proposed 'Incredible India 2' policy will be out soon. It will have provisions to tie up with private sector to help promote tourism in the country.

In his written reply, Sharma said the Tourism Ministry has no scheme to encourage states to enter into revenue- sharing agreement with technology-driven hospitality service providers in the country.
Lucknow: BJP president Amit Shah on Monday ruled out joining the Narendra Modi government after being elected to the Rajya Sabha, saying he was "happy" handling the party affairs.

"The question does not arise," was his reply at a press conference here, after he was asked whether he would quit as party president and join the Modi cabinet after entering the Upper House.

Shah, who arrived on a three-day visit here on Saturday, answered a range of questions.

"I have the responsibility of running the party. I am happy, satisfied and am working wholeheartedly," he said.

The BJP chief exuded confidence that the party would retain power at the Centre in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls with more strength.

"The BJP will romp home victorious with a bigger strength than in 2014 on the basis of development and good governance of the Modi government as well as the 13 state governments of the party," he said.

Describing Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the "undisputed most popular PM" of India, Shah claimed that the saffron party's government had succeeded in "ending the politics of family, caste and appeasement" in the country.

"As per the 13th Finance Commission, during the Congress-led UPA regime, Uttar Pradesh's share in the central taxes was Rs 2,80,467 crore. This rose to Rs 7,10,966 crore in the 14th Finance Commission during the Modi government," he said.

Shah also claimed that the local bodies' grant, which was "merely Rs 523 crore during the UPA rule", saw an "unprecedented hike by almost 88 times" under the Modi government, which allocated Rs 46,026 crore in this regard.

"During the UPA regime (13th Finance Commission), UP got grants amounting to around Rs 24,000 crore. The Modi regime increased it to Rs 48,000 crore. For the central schemes, Rs 1,39,052 crore has been made available to the state as an additional assistance," he said.

Shah claimed that if all the assistance extended to UP were summed up, then it would be "2.3 times" more under the Modi government than what was given during the UPA regime.

Alleging that the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government suffered from "policy paralysis", he said, "Every minister assumed himself to be the PM and no one considered him (Singh) the PM."

Shah also claimed that unlike the previous governments, which had "only a couple of things" to show as achievements, the Modi government had undertaken "50 important works" during its three-year rule so far.

Alleging that there were scams worth Rs 12 lakh crore during the 10-year UPA rule, he said there was "not even a single corruption allegation" against the Modi regime.

"Even the opposition could not cast any aspersion in this regard," said Shah.

The BJP chief claimed that the Army's surgical strikes across the Line of Control (LoC) last year had projected the country as "one with a firm resolve, which can take any decision for its security," in the global arena.

Referring to the Congress shifting its Gujarat MLAs to Bengaluru reportedly to ward off "poaching", he said, "I could have understood if they were kept in a locked room in Gujarat itself. But why Bengaluru, is beyond my understanding."

Asked about the BJP not being as strong in the south compared to the north, Shah played it down saying, "This was earlier said about our presence in the north as well."

To a question on the National Investigation Agency (NIA) blaming cross-border trade for terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP chief said the matter did not come within the ambit of the BJP and the Army, security agencies and the government of that state would be able to answer it.
Srinagar: At least three masked gunmen looted a bank branch in Anantnag district of Kashmir on Mondau. They gunmen took away cash, police said.

Bank officials are yet ascertain the amount of cash looted by the masked gunmen, a police official said.

"Three to four masked gunmen entered the Jammu and Kashmir Bank branch at Arwani in Anantnag district and decamped with cash from the premises," the official told PTI.

Police is investigating the matter.
Srinagar: The Srinagar unit of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has shared photographs of a jawan reciting namaz, while his colleague stands guard.

The pictures, tweeted on Saturday evening, are gaining a lot of attention on social media.

At the time of writing, the tweet had been retweeted 1.8k times and garnered more than 7.1k likes.

The tweet was captioned "Brothers-in-arms for peace".

At a time when incidents of violence against armed forces in Jammu and Kashmir are on the rise, the CRPF's tweet sends a very strong message to those whose aim is to spread hate in the Valley.

Here is what CRPF tweeted:

"Brothers-in-arms for peace" - CRPF Srinagar pic.twitter.com/QfsOIKbHoa  Srinagar Sector CRPF (@crpf_srinagar) July 29, 2017

This is how Twitterati responded:

A true colour of Secular n Nationalist CRPF guards for the freedom of religious faith n coexistence.  Sanjay Sharma (@sanjay16sharma) July 29, 2017

This is Real India.  Sunil Kumar Acharya (@su4nil) July 29, 2017

heart filled with joy after seeing this pic...jai hind brothers  SaswataBiswas (@jewel_rimo) July 30, 2017

Pic wid million of words n msg, it represnt what we're n real sprit of Harmony. Salute to armd force personal dat how dey save us any cost July 29, 2017

We are proud of you. Keep the flag flying high.  Abhishek Singh (@abhi8487) July 30, 2017

absolutely fantastic... This single pic left millions speechless... Hats off CRPF  Tausif Khalil khan (@tausif_khalil) July 30, 2017

This is my INDIA  Ansh Agarwal (@Maverick_Ansh) July 30, 2017
New Delhi: In yet another major robbery, terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir barged into a bank and looted cash on Monday.

The incident took place in Anantnag district, reported ANI.

A footage captured by a CCTV camera installed in the bank revealed two armed men carried out the robbery.

The staff and the customers stood helpless as the armed militants made their way out.

Watch the video here:
New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has found a detailed protest calendar issued and signed by Hurriyat hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani during a crackdown on Kashmiri separatist leaders for their alleged involvement in funding terror activities, underlining the party's role in instigating violence in Jammu and Kashmir.

According to The Times of India, the 'protest calendar' was recovered from Geelani's son-in-law Altaf Ahmad Shah 'Funtoosh'.

It marked the activities for August 2016, a month after the encounter of Hizbul Mujahideen leader Burhan Wani on July 08, 2016, said the daily.

Here is how Hurriyat fanned the violence that led to several deaths in clashes between stone pelters and security forces:

August 06, 2016  Geelani called for gathering and occupying local chowks and centres close to mohallas, villages and localities, and playing of Islamic and azadi taranas in mosques.

August 08, 2016  The calendar called for blocking all roads towards and around the civil secretariat in Srinagar and ensuring that no employee was able to report to work.

August 09, 2016  The activity mentioned was to organise a 'women's protest' and playing azadi songs in mosques.

August 11, 2016  Geelani called for an issuance of a poster letter asking all pro-India politicians and their workers to quit their posts. The poster letter was to be posted on the gates of their homes.

The NIA had registered a case on May 30 against separatist leaders, including members of the Hurriyat, who it said were in connivance with militants from outlawed groups like Hizbul Mujahideen, Dukhtaran-e-Millat, Lashkar-e-Toiba and others for raising and receiving funds to sponsor terror activities and protests in the Kashmir Valley.NIA had registered a case on May 30 against separatist leaders, including members of the Hurriyat, who it said were in connivance with militants from outlawed groups like Hizbul Mujahideen, Dukhtaran-e-Millat, Lashkar-e-Toiba and others for raising and receiving funds to sponsor terror activities and protests in the Kashmir Valley.

Investigators said the funds were received by the separatists through illegal means, including hawala channels, for funding terrorist and other activities in Jammu and Kashmir.
New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday summoned Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani's younger son, Zahoor Geelani, to Delhi on charges of receiving funds from Pakistan to sponsor terror activities and protests in the Kashmir Valley.

The NIA had on July 27 issued summons to the elder son of the Kashmiri separatist leader in the terror funding case.

In a related development, Naeem Geelani, the elder son of Geelani, was yesterday admitted to the SKIMS Hospital after he complained of chest pain.

Naeem was scheduled to visit New Delhi today for the NIA investigation.

As part of its crackdown on Kashmiri separatist leaders for their alleged involvement in funding terror activities, the NIA had on Sunday questioned a Jammu activist and businessman, Devinder Singh Behal, who is considered close to Syed Ali Shah Geelani and regularly seen at funerals of slain militants.

Earlier, the NIA arrested eight separatists for funding terror in the Kashmir Valley. These include Shabir Shah, Altaf Shah, Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Mehraj Kalwal, Shahid-ul-Islam, Naeem Khan and Bitta Karate.

The accused on remand with the NIA for custodial interrogation have been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The NIA had registered a case on May 30 against separatist leaders, including members of the Hurriyat, who it said were in connivance with militants from outlawed groups like Hizbul Mujahideen, Dukhtaran-e-Millat, Lashkar-e-Toiba and others for raising and receiving funds.

Investigators said the funds were received by the separatists through illegal means, including hawala channels, for funding terrorist and other activities in Jammu and Kashmir.

(With Agency inputs)
Jammu: Pakistan violated the ceasefire by firing on Indian posts along the Line of Control in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir.

The ceasefire violation took place on Sunday night.

"The Pakistani Army violated the ceasefire by using light weapons and MMGs (medium machine guns) along the LoC in Baba Khori belt of Naushera sector of Rajouri district at 2230 hours last night", Deputy Commissioner, Rajouri, Shahid Iqban Choudhary said.

There have been 23 incidents of ceasefire violations, one BAT attack and two infiltration bids by Pakistan in June, in which 4 persons, including 3 jawans, were killed and 12 injured.

In July, 11 people, including 9 soldiers, have been killed and 18 injured in ceasefire violations by Pakistan along the LoC in J&K.
A non-resident Indian, originally from Haryana, has developed a GST software that will make it easier for small-time traders to keep track of their billing with the new Goods and Services Tax charges included.

This non-resident Indian was so impressed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiatives demonetisation, GST and Make in India that he himself decided to join hands to support the initiatives.

Hailing from Haryana's Yamunanagar town, 52-year-old Stalin Jeet had immigrated to Canada in 2012. He had started his career as a printer and later started a transport business in Canada way back in 2012 by investing more than 4 lakh Canadian dollars. He got a chance to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April 2015 who had invited NRIs to strengthen nation's economy.

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"While in Canada I realised where we stood. Other countries were organised and adopted the technology faster than us which not only saved time but also increased efficiency. GST is a subject which has left smaller businessmen baffled as they do not have money to buy software and hardware. It costs nearly Rs 40,000 initially which is a major hindrance," says Stalin Jeet who has established a software arm in India which has developed a mobile-based GST software which will be available to the users at a nominal cost of Re 1 per day.

Within a few days of launch, the Fresh Khata app has been demanded by nearly 5 lakh people. Stalin wants to target small-time businessmen who cannot afford costly software and hardware. By spending just Re 1 a day, one can easily manage his business. His firm also offers the services of an accountant at a nominal fee of Rs 100 per month in case one requires accounting help.

The application will prove to be a blessing to small traders who are not computer literate. Users will be able to do GST billing with the help of Fresh Khata App on a smart phone. One may also bill customers manually all day and upload all bills at his spare time by just clicking their photos.

"Making the software affordable is the primary concern. We developed a software for Haryana co-operative societies and sold at Rs 2,000, whereas others were charging ovr Rs 1 lakh per licence. The price of GST mobile software has been kept at the lowest. We want to contribute to nation's efficiency and are ready to take 1,000 steps to support Prime Minister's initiatives," says Stalin Jeet.

ALSO READ | Goods and Services Tax: All you need to know about the 'revolutionary' bill

ALSO READ | Goods and Services Tax: How world went about GST and what lies ahead for India

--- ENDS ---
The Pakistani Army, once again, violated ceasefire on Sunday night along the Line of Control (LoC) in Baba Khori area of sector Nowshera, Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir. Using light weapons and medium machine gun (MMG), the Pakistani Army fired on Indian posts.

"The Pakistani Army violated ceasefire by using light weapons and MMGs (medium machine guns) along the LoC in the Baba Khori belt of Naushera sector of Rajouri district at 2230 hours tonight", Deputy Commissioner Rajouri Shahid Iqban Choudhary told ANI.



In June 2017, there has been 23 incidents of ceasefire violation, one Border Action Team (BAT) attack and two infiltration bids by Pakistan. This has resulted in the death of four people, including 3 jawans, and 12 injured men.



In July so far, 11 people, including nine soldiers, have been killed and 18 injured in ceasefire violation by the Pakistani Army along the LoC in J&K.
Srinagar: Naeem Geelani, the elder son of Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani, was on Sunday admitted to the SKIMS Hospital after he complained of chest pain.

"Naeem has been kept in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit)," a Hurriyat spokesman said.

He said Naeem Geelani, who is under the NIA scanner for alleged terror funding, is a heart patient and had suffered a massive heart attack in 2009.

Naeem Geelani was scheduled to visit New Delhi on Monday for the NIA investigation and had also booked a flight ticket, the spokesman said.

"He has been under regular medical care. Repeated psychological pressure may have had adverse effects on his health," he added.
Jammu: The National Investigation Agency on Sunday widened its investigation in the terror funding case by searching the office and residence of a lawyer linked to hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

Four mobile phones, a tablet, some electronic devices, incriminating documents and financial documents were recovered during the search operations at Devinder Singh Behal's Jammu residence and office.

Know more about Devinder Singh Behal:

- Devinder Singh Behal is considered close to Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

- Behal is the chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Social Peace Forum (JKSPF), which is a constituent of the hardline faction of the Hurriyat Conference led by Geelani.

- The NIA is probing Behal's role "as a courier as he is suspected to be involved in routing funds to the separatist leaders from Pakistan-based handlers".

- Behal regularly visits High Commission of Pakistan in New Delhi.

- He is regularly seen at funerals of slain militants.

The NIA had registered the case on May 30, accusing separatist and secessionist leaders of being in cahoots with terrorist groups.

The case was registered over raising, receiving and collecting funds through various illegal means, including through hawala channels, for funding separatist and terrorist activities in the state and for causing disruption in the Valley by pelting security forces with stones, burning schools, damaging public property and waging war against India.

The NIA conducted searches in several places in the state besides Haryana and the national capital. Electronic devices and valuables worth crores of rupees were impounded.

It is for the first time since the rise of militancy in the early 1990s that a central probe agency has conducted raids in connection with the funding of terrorist and separatist groups.
Aurangabad: Controversial Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen was sent back from the airport here to Mumbai after protests by a group of people against her visit to the city, police said on Sunday.

Nasreen landed at the Chikalthana Airport on Saturday evening by a flight from Mumbai.

Police stopped the author from stepping out of the airport, where a crowd had gathered shouting slogans like "Taslima Go Back".

Deputy Commissioner of Police (zone-II) Rahul Shrirame said Nasreen was sent back to Mumbai by the next flight to avoid any "law and order problem" in this city in central Maharashtra.

The author was advised to abandon her visit to the city and she agreed to go back, the police officer said.

Protesters had also gathered outside a hostel where Nasreen was to stay during her three-day visit.

Police said they had come to know that the writer was planning to visit the world heritage sites of Ajanta and Ellora besides other tourist spots in Aurangabad.

The protest at the airport was led by Imtiyaz Jaleel, the AIMIM legislator from the Aurangabad central constituency.

Jaleel said her writings have "hurt" the religious sentiments of Muslims across the world. "We will not allow her to step on the soil of our city," he said.

Last month, the Union Home Ministry had extended her visa for one year, with effect from July 23, 2017.

Nasreen, a citizen of Sweden, has been getting Indian visa on a continuous basis since 2004. The author is living in exile since she left Bangladesh in 1994 in the wake of threats to her by fundamentalist groups.
New Delhi: Chinese smartphone maker Lenovo will unveil its flagship device K8 Note in India on August 9.

"New KillerNote uncaging on 09.08.17," the company said in a statement on Monday.

Earlier, it was expected the new addition in Lenovo`s Note series would be K7 Note.

The reason Lenovo decided to skip on the K7 Note remains unclear.

Chinese smartphone manufacturer OnePlus also skipped on the number 4 and launched OnePlus 5 after OnePlus 3T.

Similarly, South Korean tech giant Samsung skipped Galaxy Note 6 and unveiled Note 7 last year.

Specifications of the upcoming K8 Note were recently leaked on Geekbench benchmarking site which suggests that it is likely to house a deca-core MediaTek Helio X20 Helio SoC coupled with 4GB RAM.

The smartphone will run Android 7.1.1 Nougat OS out of the box, the listing adds.

It is also expected to sport a 5.5-inch screen with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels.
New Delhi: Bollywood stars Sidharth Malhotra and Jacqueline Fernandez's upcoming film 'A Gentleman' is already trending on social media, all thanks to its high-octane trailer and foot-tapping music. And to take the excitement up a notch, the 32-year-old star on Monday took to twitter to tease the video of pole dance performed by the 'Roy' diva from the upcoming song 'Chandralekha'.

"NO more GENTLE office parties! Check out @Asli_Jacqueline n her pole dance in our karaoke song," Sid tweeted along with a clip. In the short video, Jacky can be seen flaunting her killer moves.

Have a look:

'A Gentleman' reportedly stars Suniel Shetty as the antagonist. It will be releasing on August 25 this year.
New Delhi: Sidharth Malhotra, showing off his perfectly chiseled bod, is the sure shot way to wipe away your Monday blues!

The 'Baar Baar Dekho' star, while advising his fans and followers to not make excuses, but make changes, recently shared a photo of himself, where he is seen showing off his abs.

"Don`t make excuses Make changes ! #train #hard #sidfit #london #shoot @blacklinetraining," read the caption.

On the work front, Sidharth is currently in New York, filming for Neeraj Pandey's 'Aiyaary' and is also gearing up for the release of his upcoming film 'A Gentleman,' opposite Jacqueline Fernandez.

The film is slated to release on August 25, 2017.
Zee Media Bureau/Smriti Srivastava

New Delhi: Government is all set to begin poking around social media sites of tax payers under the new big data plan - 'Project Insight'. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new weapon possibly aims at checking tax invasion through virtual information drive with an experimental twist. The concerned authorities, garnering this information, will track your social media posts along with the bank statements. This will help them to sketch the gap between citizens' spending practice and income declaration.

If you are spending holidays at some exotic location but earning less than a sum of 6-digit salary per month, you better watch out now!

Your personal social media account could possibly be invaded by taxman to identify the defaulters in order to save on manpower wastage in raids.

Key Highlighters of the 'Project Insight'
New Delhi: Freedom fighter Udham Singh's revolver, which was used to avenge the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre in 1919, may never return to India.

According to a Times of India report, Udham Singh's revolver is still in custody of Metropolitan Police, UK.

The United Kingdom had declined to return the belongings of the martyr to Punjab government.

In a communique sent in 2004, the UK Govt had maintained that Singh's diaries, cobbler knife, revolver and ammunition were part of evidence so they can't be returned to India.

This was revealed in an RTI reply by the Union Ministry of External Affairs in September 2016.

Today is the 77th death anniversary of Udham Singh.

Replying to the RTI activist Jatinder Jain on September 26, 2016, the Europe west division of the MEA said a communication from the Government of UK had made it clear that Udham Singh's belongings were in the possession of Metropolitan Police, London.

On March 13, 1940, Udham Singh had killed Michael O' Dwyer - during whose tenure as the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab the Jallianawala Bagh Massacre took place - with the said revolver at Caxton Hall, London.

He was hanged on July 31, 1940, at Pentonville prison for the assassination.

Every year on Udham Singh's death anniversary, authorities make promises to get back the belongings of Udham Singh from the UK.

Udham Singh was born in Sunam town, Punjab, on December 26, 1899.

Interestingly, revolutionary Bhagat Singh's pistol has reached Hussainiwala border museum in Ferozepur.
New Delhi: US space agency NASA is opening up an opportunity where eclipse viewers around the country can participate in a nation-wide science experiment by collecting cloud and temperature data from their phones.

The Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment, or GLOBE, Program is a NASA-supported research and education program that encourages students and citizen scientists to collect and analyze environmental observations. GLOBE Observer is a free, easy-to-use app that guides citizen scientists through data collection.

For the first time in 99 years, on August 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse will occur across the entire continental United States.

NASA says crossing the country from Oregon to South Carolina over the course of an hour and a half, 14 states will experience night-like darkness for approximately two minutes in the middle of the day.

The eclipse enters the US at 10:15 a.m. PDT off the coast of Oregon and leaves US shores at approximately 2:50 p.m. EDT in South Carolina. And all of North America will experience at least a partial eclipse.

In order to participate, you need to first download the GLOBE Observer app and register to become a citizen scientist.

The app will instruct you on how to make the observations. You will also need to obtain a thermometer to measure air temperature.

Observations will be recorded on an interactive map.

To join in the fun, NASA says you can download the GLOBE Observer app https://observer.globe.gov/about/get-the-app.

After you log in, the app explains how to make eclipse observations.

Check out NASA video below to learn more about the GLOBE Observer eclipse app!

No matter where you are in North America, whether its cloudy, clear or rainy, NASA wants as many people as possible to help with this citizen science project, said Kristen Weaver, deputy coordinator for the project. We want to inspire a million eclipse viewers to become eclipse scientists.
Chinese soldiers transgressed into Uttarakhand's Barahoti in Chamoli district on July 25 at about 9 am and came into Indian territory upto 200 metres.

Even as Indian and Chinese soldiers are engaged in a deadlock in Doklam area for the last few weeks, People's Liberation Army (PLA) crossed the border in Uttarakhand and entered Indian territory.

In the fresh case of transgression by China, Chinese soldiers crossed into Uttarakhand's Barahoti in Chamoli district on July 25 at about 9 am and came upto 200 metres on the other side of the border.

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Government sources said the soldiers came as usual and asked cattle owners to leave the area. However the soldiers left after a couple of hours.

Last year also a similar incident was reported from the region.

Sources said there were about 200-300 Chinese soldiers.

The ITBP team, patrolling the area, raised the issue and the Chinese soldiers went back after a meeting.

The area is a declared disputed area and a demilitarised zone. India also patrols this area but without uniform or weapons. The flat land is used by grazers of both India and China.

Every year both the Chinese and Indian sides go to this area, at least once a year, to stake claim over the territory. India sends a civilian group backed by ITBP in civilian clothes to measure the area.

Chinese and Indian soldiers have been locked in a face-off in Doklam area in the southernmost part of Tibet in an area also claimed by Indian ally Bhutan for over a month after Indian troops stopped the Chinese army from building a road in the disputed area.

India has conveyed to China that the construction of the road would represent a significant change of status quo with serious security implications for New Delhi.

India has said it is ready for talks with China to end the tension but both sides should first withdraw their armies from the disputed area.

Also Read:

China says 1890 treaty backs claims to Doklam plateau at trijunction

The last Sikkim stand-off: When India gave China a bloody nose in 1967

How India counters China over Doka La face-off near Sikkim

Watch Video: China says 1890 treaty backs claim to Doklam Plateau at trijunction

--- ENDS ---
Hyderabad: In a shocking incident, the Telangana Police has allegedly thrashed a student, who had taken a photo of a teacher sleeping in class and sent it to the education department.

The Class 10 student was tied up to a volleyball post at Zilla Parishad High School, Midjil, Mahbubnagar on Saturday and then beaten up by two policemen with sticks.

The boy had reportedly clicked the picture of his Math teacher snoozing in class on Thursday and sent it to the District Education Officer on WhatsApp.

As a result, K Ramulu was suspended. The incident probably infuriated other teachers in the school, reported NDTV.

A group of teachers called police on Saturday to 'teach him a lesson'.

The student claims that he was sitting with friends when he was caught and tied to a post in the school ground, with teachers watching.

He has bruises all over his body.

Quashing the student's claim, the police say he had been caught consuming alcohol within school premises.
Cairo: About 65 per cent of Egyptian families have nine children, which can hinder the nation`s development, a minister said here.

"The population increase rate has reached 2.5 per cent, which requires raising the economic growth rate three times in no less than ten years, which is not happening for the time being," Egyptian Minister of Social Solidarity Ghada Wali said on Sunday.

The minister added that about 62 per cent of Egyptian mothers are illiterate.

Egypt`s population has exceeded 100 million, including 93.4 million citizens in addition to at least 8 million expatriates, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics.

According to President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, terrorism and growing population are the largest challenges that Egypt is currently facing.
Beirut: About 8,000 people have registered to leave the Lebanese border region near Arsal for a rebel-held area of Syria as part of a local ceasefire between Hezbollah and the Nusra Front, a security source in Lebanon said on Sunday.

The local ceasefire came into effect on Thursday and will involve the departure of all Nusra militants from the area around Arsal along with any of the civilians living in the area`s refugee camps who wish to leave with them.

The first step in the ceasefire took place on Sunday as the two sides started to exchange the bodies of fighters killed in clashes between them. Five Hezbollah prisoners held by Nusra will be released as part of the agreement.

Nusra and the Islamic State group have been present in the mountains near Arsal in northern Lebanon for years, the most serious spill-over of Syria`s civil war into its neighbour.

Shiite Hezbollah retook most of the area held by Nusra during an offensive last week that killed nearly 150 of the Sunni militants and about two dozen Hezbollah fighters.

Hezbollah, which has had an important role in the Syrian civil war supporting President Bashar al-Assad, is expected to launch an offensive against a smaller Islamic State enclave near Arsal.
Kabul: A series of four explosions along with sounds of gunfire and grenades shook Afghan capital Kabul on Monday. Sources in security further said that a suicide bomber had blown himself up in front of the Iraqi embassy.

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing attack.

According to reports, the attackers appeared to have taken cover in the Iraqi embassy building, located inside a business district of northwestern Kabul, from where smoke could be seen rising. The neighbourhood is home to several hotels, banks, supermarkets and police compounds.

No immediate information about casualties was available. Civilians are currently being evacuated by Afghan security forces.

The incident took place after 11:00 am (0630 GMT).

People on social media reported hearing ambulance sirens rushing to the scene of explosion. A column of smoke rose into the air from the blast site.

Police confirmed at least one blast had taken place, but said they did not immediately have further information, said Reuters.

The attack is the latest to rock Kabul, and comes as the resurgent Taliban ramp up their offensive across the country during the warmer weather fighting season.

Last week, a car bomb struck Kabul killing 26 people.

A recent UN report showed that nearly 20 percent of all civilian deaths in Afghanistan in the first half of 2017 took place in Kabul.
Islamabad: Pakistan`s lawmakers will elect a new Prime Minister on Tuesday to replace ousted leader Nawaz Sharif, with ruling party stalwart Shahid Khaqan Abbasi expected to become interim leader until Sharif`s own brother is eligible.

The confirmation from parliament came after Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain convened a special session after Sharif decided to put forward his ally Abbasi as interim leader and named his brother Shahbaz, 65, as long-term successor.

Sharif`s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party holds a majority with 188 seats in the 342-member parliament, so it should be able to swiftly install its choice, barring any defections from its own ranks.

A quick handover could ease the political upheaval sparked by a Supreme Court decision on Friday to disqualify Sharif for not declaring a source of income. The court also ordered a criminal investigation into him and his family.

Abbasi on Sunday vowed to continue Sharif`s work.

"I hope that God will help me in furthering Nawaz Sharif`s policies," Abbasi told reporters in Islamabad, adding to speculation that Sharif will continue to run the show behind the scenes.

The turmoil and the premature end to Sharif`s third stint in power has also raised questions about Pakistan`s democracy. No Prime Minister has completed a full term in power since the country gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947.

"We wanted to make sure there is a smooth transfer of power and no constitutional crisis," said Miftah Ismail, a senior PML-N official and Sharif ally.

Succession Plan

On Sunday evening, thousands of supporters of opposition politician Imran Khan held a celebration rally in Islamabad, waving flags and cheering Sharif`s ouster.

Khan, who spearheaded a campaign for the Supreme Court case that removed Sharif, has said he expects to win the next general elections in 2018.

Meanwhile, Sharif loyalists incensed by his ouster cheered his arrival in the hill town of Murree.

Sharif has lashed out against the court`s decision and opponents who used the Supreme Court to topple him. He has vowed his party would continue to focus on development, touting a faster-growing economy as proof of his success.

"Wheel of development is moving and may God keep it rolling and may it never stop," he told members of PML-N on Saturday night.

On Sharif`s arrival, supporters chanted: "The Lion is here".

But his foes slammed PML-N`s plans as dynastic and undemocratic. Khan called it a form of "monarchy".

Sharif said the plan is for former petroleum minister Abbasi to stay in power for less than two months until Shahbaz, who is the chief minister of the vast Punjab province, wins a by-election to the national Assembly and becomes eligible to be Prime Minister.

Abbasi and Shahbaz will have to work fast to tackle Pakistan`s worsening ties with the United States, frayed relations with India, and persistent attacks by Islamist militants, including the Pakistani Taliban and Islamic State.

They will also need to boost economic growth above the current rate of 5.3 per cent to find employment for millions of young people entering the job market every year in a nation of nearly 200 million people.

Economists say this will prove tricky, with the current account deficit is ballooning and an overvalued currency is hurting exports.

Court Ruling

Sharif, whose PML-N party won elections in 2013, said he was shocked by Friday`s Supreme Court ruling disqualifying him from office over unreported income from a company owned by his son in Dubai. Sharif said the monthly salary - equivalent to $2,722 - was nominal and he never actually received any of it.

The Supreme Court employed little-used Article 62 of the Constitution, which calls for the dismissal of any lawmaker deemed dishonest, to dismiss Sharif. His allies believe the verdict smacks of judicial overreach. Others say privately elements of the military had a hand in the process.

"People of Pakistan haven`t accepted the decision," Abbasi said.

The army has not commented on Sharif`s departure, or on allegations they were involved. It has also dismissed claims in the past that they were behind the Supreme Court`s push.

Sharif`s two previous stints in power were also cut short, the second ending in a military coup led by General Pervez Musharraf in 1999.

Shahbaz Sharif, who has been in charge of Punjab since 2008, has better relations with the military than his brother. He has built a reputation as a competent administrator focused on building infrastructure.
Gilgit-Baltistan: People in Gilgit-Baltistan on Sunday came out onto the streets protesting against China and the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which passes through the region.

They were protesting against the project as they fear it would create a huge ecological imbalance.

A large number of people in the region have been displaced as their houses have been demolished and farm lands acquired for the CPEC project.

The local residents of Gilgit-Baltistan claim that the government has not compensated them for their lands as promised.

"It`s been 8-10 years since we have been waiting for the compensation. We have lost animal shelters and shops but nothing has been compensated. Local officials are also not working properly. We have lost 500-600 trees and two-three kanal (unit) of land has been damaged. We have reminded them several times, but concrete action has not been taken," a local resident of Gilgit-Baltistan said.

Though Gilgit-Baltistan plays a key role in the CPEC project and all roads and pipelines crossing into China from Pakistan will run through this mountainous region, not a single Special Economic Zone is being set up here to support the local residents.

"It`s been over eight years since the government had acquired our land for the road construction. Our land had fruit trees and we used to earn rupees 8,000 to 10,000 from one tree. We have lost around 10 fruit trees and we have no idea about the compensation," another local resident said.

People also fear that the multi-billion dollar project will hardly benefit them and is a deliberate attempt to change the demography of the region.

"Gilgit-Baltistan is home to some 101 peaks of over 7,000 metres, four national parks and four glaciers. The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is passing through these peaks, glaciers and national parks. The glaciers of Gilgit-Baltistan are the water banks of Pakistan which will start melting. Secondly, the national parks of Gilgit-Baltistan have a unique wildlife which is not seen in any part of the world, that will also be affected," a local resident said highlighting the ecological impact of the CPEC project.

Political activists, who have opposed the CPEC, have been slapped with sedition charges by Pakistan and hundreds are languishing in jails across Pakistan.

The people of Gilgit-Baltistan have been urging the international community to focus on the illegality of the CPEC as it does not have the approval of stakeholders and without their approval the corridor should not be built.
Riyadh: A Saudi policeman was killed and six others wounded Sunday in a rocket attack in the Shi`ite-majority eastern district of Qatif, the Interior Ministry said.



The area has been rocked by unrest since 2011, when Shi`ite protests erupted to demand equality in the Sunni-dominated Gulf kingdom.



Sunday`s incident saw a police patrol come under a "terrorist attack with a rocket" in al-Masoura neighborhood in Qatif, the ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA.



It said the six wounded officers were hospitalised and in a stable condition.



Qatif has seen a string of assaults on security forces in recent weeks.



Police shot three men wanted for "terrorist" attacks earlier this month, the ministry said then.



Most of Saudi Arabia`s Shi`ites live in the oil-rich east, where they have long complained of marginalisation.



Authorities have blamed the violence on "terrorists" and drug traffickers.
Seoul: The US flew two supersonic bombers over the Korean Peninsula in a show of force against North Korea following the country's latest intercontinental ballistic missile test.

The US also said it conducted a successful test of a missile defense system located in Alaska.

The B-1 bombers were escorted by South Korean fighter jets as they performed a low-pass over an air base near the South Korean capital of Seoul before returning to Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, the US Pacific Air Forces said in a statement.

It said the mission was a response to North Korea's two ICBM tests this month.

Analysts say flight data from the North's second test, conducted Friday night, showed that a broader part of the mainland United States, including Los Angeles and Chicago, is now in range of Pyongyang's weapons.

Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday during a visit to Estonia that the US and its allies plan to increase pressure on North Korea to end its nuclear program.

"The continued provocations by the rogue regime in North Korea are unacceptable and the United States of America is going to continue to marshal the support of nations across the region and across the world to further isolate North Korea economically and diplomatically," Pence said.

"But the era of strategic patience is over. The President of the United States is leading a coalition of nations to bring pressure to bear until that time that North Korea will permanently abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile program."

"The time for talk is over," US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said in a statement. She denied reports that Washington would seek an emergency session of the UN Security Council, saying that new sanctions that fail to increase pressure would be "worse than nothing."

Haley said a weak resolution would show North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that "the international community is unwilling to challenge him," and singled out China, the North's biggest trading partner, as a country that must change its approach.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he and President Donald Trump spoke by phone Monday morning Asia time and have agreed to take further action against North Korea.

Abe said Trump pledged to "take all necessary measures to protect" Japan and that Abe praised his commitment to do so.

Abe said Japan would pursue concrete steps to bolster defense system and capabilities under the firm solidarity with the US and do utmost to protect the safety of the Japanese people.

Gen Terrence J O'Shaughnessy, Pacific Air Forces commander, called North Korea "the most urgent threat to regional stability."

"Diplomacy remains the lead. However, we have a responsibility to our allies and our nation to showcase our unwavering commitment while planning for the worst-case scenario," O'Shaughnessy said. "If called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal, and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing."

Sen Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, told CBS' "Face the Nation" that North Korea's latest test presents a clear and present danger to the United States.

"I've spent time on the intelligence and at the briefings, and done as much reading as I possibly could," said Feinstein, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. "And I'm convinced that North Korea has never moved at the speed that this leader has to develop an ICBM."

Feinstein said the situation shows the danger of isolating a country.

"I think the only solution is a diplomatic one," she said. "I'm very disappointed in China's response, that it has not been firmer or more helpful."
Berlin: German Minister for Economics Brigitte Zypries on Monday renewed her criticism of planned US sanctions against Russia, saying the measures "were quite simply contrary to international law".

The new bill passed by both houses of the US Congress, which has been publicly approved although not yet signed into law by President Donald Trump, would entail sanctions for German and European firms which cooperate with Russian entities, Xinhua news agency reported.

"The Americans cannot punish German firms because they are conducting business in another country," she said.

The minister said Germany wanted to avoid a trade war between Europe and the US. Berlin had therefore repeatedly encouraged Washington not to depart from the path of mutually agreed sanctions.

German business representatives have raised concerns that their interests could be harmed as a consequence, in regards to long-standing cooperation on European energy supply with Russian organisations.
YEREVAN, JULY 31, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijani forces have targeted the village wheat fields of several communities of Armenias Tavush province in the recent days.

Seryozha Alexanyan, the local official of Voskevan community told ARMENPRESS Azerbaijani forces opened gunfire at the wheat fields at 11:00  13:00 on July 30.

No one was wounded in the shooting. The only damage was the 2,5-3 hectares of wheat fields, he said, adding that the situation is currently calm.

In another community of Tavush, Chinari, farmers are unable to harvest the wheat.

The [Azerbaijani] sniper can fire at any moment, a local official said.

Azerbaijan has also opened gunfire at other communities as well. In Koti, wheat fields were destroyed by fire, which resulted from Azeri shooting.
New Delhi/Dehradun, Jul 31 (PTI) Chinese soldiers transgressed into Indian territory twice this month in the Barahoti sector of Uttarakhand but the incidents were downplayed by Indian officials today, saying these should not be given "undue importance".

Around 15-20 personnel of Chinas Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) came 800 metres inside Indian territory in Chamoli district on the morning of July 25, officials said.

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The incident took place just a day before National Security Adviser Ajit Doval left for Beijing to attend a meeting of NSAs of BRICS. It also comes amid the ongoing standoff between the armies of the two countries in Dokalam at the India-China-Bhutan tri-junction.

The first transgression took place on July 15 and the other on July 25. In both instances Chinese soldiers numbering about 15-20 came into Indian territory, stayed there for a while and left, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) sources told PTI in Dehradun.

On July 25, the PLA troops entered into the Indian territory and even threatened the shepherds grazing cattle in the Barahoti area during their two hours stay, officials in the know said on the condition of anonymity. The Chinese troops left after the Indian side protested.

However, official sources said incidents of similar nature have happened in the past but are normally sorted out locally and should not be given undue importance.

They said transgressions occur due to differing perceptions of Line of Actual Control (LAC) by the two sides.

"Soldiers of the Chinese army come into our area and leave after staying there for a while. It has been happening for decades. Though we cant call it routine it is not so unusual movement either," said a senior ITBP official on the condition of anonymity.

In July last year also, Chinese troops had transgressed into Chamoli district of Uttarakhand.

Barahoti, an 80 sq km sloping pasture about 140 km from the Uttarakhand capital Dehradun, is one of three border posts in what is known the middle sector, comprising Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

It is a "demilitarised zone" where Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) jawans are not allowed to take their weapons, officials said.

In 1958, India and China listed Barahoti as a disputed area where neither side would send their troops. In the 1962 war, the PLA did not enter the middle sector and focused on the western (Ladakh) and eastern (Arunachal Pradesh) sectors.

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After the war, ITBP jawans would patrol the area with weapons in a non-combative manner -- with the barrel of the gun facing down.

During negotiations on resolving the border dispute, the Indian side unilaterally agreed in June 2000 that ITBP troops would not carry arms in three posts, Barahoti and Kauril and Shipki in Himachal Pradesh.

ITBP men go patrolling in civil dress and the Barahoti pasture sees Indian shepherds from border villages tending their sheep and people from Tibet bringing their yaks for grazing. PTI MPB/SKL/ALM MIN PYK ZMN

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YEREVAN, JULY 31, ARMENPRESS. 55 foreign national have requested asylum in Armenia during the first half of 2017.

Karine Kuyumjyan, head of the Census and Demography department of the national statistical service, told a press conference that 25 of the 55 asylum seekers were from Syria, 9 from Ukraine, 7 from Cuba, 6 from Iran and 4 from Azerbaijan. The remaining are nationals of other countries.

46 people were granted asylum in the abovementioned period, 22 applications were either denied or cancelled.

In 2017, 2055 foreign citizens were granted residence permit in Armenia. 451 of them are nationals of Russia, 336 of Iran, 265 of India and 166 of Syria. 10 Greek nationals had also requested residence permit.
YEREVAN, JULY 31, ARMENPRESS. 622.381 tourists have arrived in Armenia in January-June 2017 which is an increase of 24.2% compared to the same period of 2016, according to the data of the National Statistical Service, reports Armenpress.

In January-June 2017, 570.400 people have left Armenia for tour purposes. This figure has been increased by 21.2% compared to the same period of 2016.
Rethinking the Southern Secession Movement of 1861

The question is: Was the Civil War fought over the issue of Slavery? I won't deny that slavery was an issue that inflamed the passions of both sections of the country and put each at odds with one another, but it was NOT the cause of the conflict that I will refer to as the War of Northern Aggression, a war which claimed the lives of over 650,000 young Americans.



At the end of 1860, with the election of Abraham Lincoln as president, the Union was on the verge of dissolution. By the time Lincoln was inaugurated on April 4, seven states had already seceded and a new nation had been formed, the Confederate States of America (complete with a new constitution). Following South Carolina's lead (December 1860), Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and then Texas formally severed political ties with the Union. On April 4, Virginia held a state convention to consider secession but voted it down, 89-45. (North Carolina would do the same). Lincoln could not allow the Union to be split; he could not lose the tariff revenue supplied by the agrarian South which, in 1859, not only supplied approximately 80% of the federal revenue, but was used to enrich the industrialized North. And so, something had to be done to give Lincoln a "pretext" to restore the Southern states to the Union.



On April 12, 1861, Lincoln tricked South Carolina militia forces into firing on the federal garrison at Fort Sumter, even after South Carolina had demanded, and even tried negotiating for, the transfer of the fort to the Confederacy. The attack on Fort Sumter would provide the pretext he needed. He used the incident to characterize the southern states as being in a state of active rebellion and thus ordering troops to subdue them. On April 15, President Lincoln declared a state of insurrection and called for 75,000 volunteers to put down the rebellion and to defend the capital. With that proclamation, four more Southern states left the Union. The first was Virginia.



Virginia did not leave the Union because of slavery; same with North Carolina. We should take particular note of this piece of history.



Virginia looked at President's Lincoln's Proclamation and demand for troops, and just as her leaders did when President John Adams passed the Sedition Act, she saw serious constitutional violations and contemplated how she needed to respond.



In reading the responses by Virginia's Governor John Letcher below, you will see that he exercised all the remedies implied in the concept of State Sovereignty, Tenth Amendment, and even the Declaration of Independence: First, he refused to comply with Lincoln's decree - Virginia would not supply troops. That is Nullification and Interposition. And then, because the proclamation evidenced the will of a maniac, a tyrant, and an enemy of the Constitution, and evidenced the transformation of the federal government into something Virginia could no longer trust her sovereignty with and no longer wanted to be associated with, her people decided to sever the bonds which held her in allegiance. Virginia seceded.



On April 16, Virginia's Governor John Letcher made the following dispatch to Lincoln's Secretary of War, Simon Cameron:



EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT.RICHMOND, Va., April 16, 1861.



HON. SIMON CAMERON, Secretary of War:



SIR: I received your telegram of the 15th, the genuineness of which I doubted. Since that time (have received your communication, mailed the same day, in which I am requested to detach from the militia of the State of Virginia "the quota designated in a table," which you append, "to serve as infantry or riflemen for the period of three months, unless sooner discharged."



In reply to this communication, I have only to say that the militia of Virginia will not be furnished to the powers at Washington for any such use or purpose as they have in view. Your object is to subjugate the Southern States, and a requisition made upon me for such an object - an object, in my judgment, not within the purview of the Constitution or the act of 1795 - will not be complied with. You have chosen to inaugurate civil war, and having done so, we will meet it in a spirit as determined as the Administration has exhibited towards the South. Respectfully,



JOHN LETCHER.



The following day, Governor Letcher issued the following proclamation, which was published for the people of Virginia to read:



Whereas, Seven of the States formerly composing a part of the United States have, by authority of their people, solemnly resumed the powers granted by them to the United States, and have framed a Constitution and organized a Government for themselves, to which the people of those States are yielding willing obedience, and have so notified the President of the United States by all the formalities incident to such action, and thereby become to the United States a separate, independent and foreign power; and whereas, the Constitution of the United States has invested Congress with the sole power "to declare war," and until such declaration is made, the President has no authority to call for an extraordinary force to wage offensive war against any foreign Power: and whereas, on the 15th inst., the President of the United States, in plain violation of the Constitution, issued a proclamation calling for a force of seventy-five thousand men, to cause the laws of the United states to be duly executed over a people who are no longer a part of the Union, and in said proclamation threatens to exert this unusual force to compel obedience to his mandates; and whereas, the General Assembly of Virginia, by a majority approaching to entire unanimity, declared at its last session that the State of Virginia would consider such an exertion of force as a virtual declaration of war, to be resisted by all the power at the command of Virginia; and subsequently the Convention now in session, representing the sovereignty of this State, has reaffirmed in substance the same policy, with almost equal unanimity; and whereas, the State of Virginia deeply sympathizes with the Southern States in the wrongs they have suffered, and in the position they have assumed; and having made earnest efforts peaceably to compose the differences which have severed the Union, and having failed in that attempt, through this unwarranted act on the part of the President; and it is believed that the influences which operate to produce this proclamation against the seceded States will be brought to bear upon this commonwealth, if she should exercise her undoubted right to resume the powers granted by her people, and it is due to the honor of Virginia that an improper exercise of force against her people should be repelled.



Therefore I, JOHN LETCHER, Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, have thought proper to order all armed volunteer regiments or companies within this State forthwith to hold themselves in readiness for immediate orders, and upon the reception of this proclamation to report to the Adjutant-General of the State their organization and numbers, and prepare themselves for efficient service. Such companies as are not armed and equipped will report that fact, that they may be properly supplied.



In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the Commonwealth to be affixed, this 17th day of April, 1861, and in the eighty-fifth year of the Commonwealth. - JOHN LETCHER.



On April 17, in a newly-called convention, Virginia, the traditional leader of the South, made the decision to secede - 88 to 55, on the condition of ratification by a statewide referendum. Neither Virginia nor any of the other later-seceding states understood the federal government to authorize violence against member states.



Virginia's ordinance of secession was ratified in a referendum by a vote of 132,201 to 37,451 on May 23.



On April 4, Virginia decided to remain in the Union. How did that decision preserve or extend slavery? Virginians had been willing to endure a crushing protective tariff under President Lincoln, the likes of the Tariff of Abominations (1828). And they understood that remaining in the Union would mean that slavery would continue to be under attack by his administration. Virginia was loyal to the Union even when the government was antagonistic to her. No, slavery wasn't the reason the Southern states of Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina (and probably others), left the Union. It would be Lincoln's demand for troops that would change their minds. To these states, remaining in the Union was to abandon every principle of confederation that they valued. Continued loyalty to a Union that would attack member states and being forced to take up arms against her neighbors was inconceivable and intolerable.



Slavery was the issue that caused the North to become aggressively hostile to the states of the South and to cause the South to question whether the two regions could ever have enough of a common interest to remain joined together with a government that was to serve each equally and fairly. But the independent ambitions of the federal government and the schemes and twisted ideology of its president were the direct cause of its violent course the division would take.



Reference:



"Governor Letcher's Proclamation: His Reply to Secretary Cameron - State of Affairs Norfolk," New York Times, April 22, 1861. Referenced at: http://www.nytimes.com/1861/04/22/news/gov-letcher-s-proclamation-his-reply-secretary-cameron-state-affairs-norfolk.html


If you lose electricity, keep refrigerators and freezers closed.

Food that has stayed cold in the refrigerator without electricity should be eaten while it is still fresh.

Throw away food that has been without refrigeration for longer than four hours.

Frozen food that stays frozen or that partially thaws while remaining cold can be eaten or refrozen when power returns.

Conserve water if your septic system floods.

Boil water for three to five minutes if your water system lost pressure or your private well flooded or lost electricity.

If your well flooded, it will need to be disinfected once flood waters recede.

Contact your local health department for assistance.

Contact: Ford Porter

Ford Porter govpress@nc.gov

RALEIGH: Governor Roy Cooper today pressed for faster action to restore power to Hatteras and Ocracoke islands. The islands lost power Thursday following damage by a contractor to a critical transmission line from the mainland and local officials have ordered all visitors to evacuate.The electric cooperatives that serve Hatteras and Ocracoke are working to safely access the damaged underwater transmission line that supplies power to the islands without causing further damage. Until the damage assessment is complete, the utilities say they cannot determine how long it may take to repair or provide an estimate for permanent restoration of power. The utilities are coordinating their efforts closely with state and local officials.In telephone calls with local officials from Dare and Hyde counties, Gov. Cooper today pledged that all available state resources are being offered to help efforts to manage the crisis and restore power quickly.Gov. Cooper said.NC Department of Transportation Secretary Jim Trogdon visited the location of the transmission line today to assess progress and determine if the utilities need additional resources that the state can provide. He will also observe evacuations from Dare and Hyde counties and provide Gov. Cooper with a first-hand account of the situation.In addition to DOT, officials with NC Emergency Management are working closely with local governments and the electric cooperatives to address the emergency situation caused by the power outage.The power outage occurred after a transmission line was cut during construction on the Bonner Bridge. The line provides power to both Hatteras Island in Dare County and Ocracoke Island in Hyde County. If PCL Construction is found to have caused the power outage, then the contractor would likely be responsible for any costs and damages related to the repair as determined by the electric companies.Portable generators transported to the islands by NC DOT ferries are providing power for public safety and water and sewer services as well as limited power to local residents and businesses. Officials with local utilities and emergency management continue to stress the need to conserve power for the most critical needs.Gov. Cooper said.Hyde County officials ordered a mandatory evacuation for visitors on Ocracoke Island effective 5 p.m. Thursday. Dare County officials ordered a mandatory evacuation for visitors on Hatteras Island south of Oregon Inlet effective 6 a.m. Saturday.As of 2 p.m. Saturday, NC DOT ferries had evacuated 3,782 people and 1,485 cars from both islands. The ferries will continue to run normal schedules throughout the day Saturday including twice daily fuel truck deliveries to keep generators running. Revised ferry schedules for Sunday and beyond will be announced by NC DOT. State Highway Patrol troopers are assisting local law enforcement to oversee reentry restrictions.On Thursday, Governor Cooper declared a State of Emergency and waived weight and hours of service restrictions in response to the power outages. The swift declaration enabled the rapid movement of portable generators into the affected areas to help meet critical public safety power needs for police, fire and EMS.The State of Emergency declaration also triggered the state's law against price gouging to prevent overcharging in Dare and Hyde counties during the crisis. Gov. Cooper encouraged people to who spot potential price gouging to report it to the Attorney General's Office at 1-877-5-NO-SCAM or 919-716-6000 or ncdoj.gov Travelers with plans to visit the Outer Banks can call 1-800-Visit-NC for updated information that may impact their plans. Vacationers who have rented properties on the islands are encouraged to contact their rental agency. More information about vacation renters' rights is available from the Attorney General's Office.People can also protect their own health and safety following a power outage. Take these steps to stay safe and healthy:
The Democrat leadership has made constant, profound and incredible pronouncements that one's supportive vote for Republicans is tantamount to surrendering Democracy forever. Understanding their sincere thinking in their extreme position: How will you still vote on this election day?

Democrat; because the continuance of this Democracy from the existential threat of extreme Republicans is paramount.

Republican; the process of having a choice is the democratic method within what so called "Democracy" does exists.
Four years ago, brothers at the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at UNC Wilmington (UNCW) brought campus due process-or lack thereof-into the sunlight. The young men had been accused of hazing and underage drinking. Although the students were eventually cleared of any wrongdoing, they endured an unfair and onerous investigation and adjudication process to prove their innocence.They brought their experience with UNCW's disciplinary process to the attention of the North Carolina General Assembly. As a result, North Carolina became the first state in the nation to protect due process for students and student organizations when then-Governor Pat McCrory signed the Students & Administration Equality (SAE) Act.Others states are beginning to follow North Carolina's lead.The SAE Act guarantees students and student organizations at public colleges and universities the right to counsel when they are accused of violating their institutions' disciplinary or conduct rules. It also mandates that the institution report the number and type of disciplinary proceedings it initiates.Joe Cohn, legislative and policy director at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, has said of the SAE Act,During the first six months after the Act was passed, 119 students across the UNC system chose to have legal representation at disciplinary hearings. Such choice was generally impossible before the passage of the Act.One reason that states are moving to protect due process comes from the U.S. Department of Education. In April 2011 the Department's Office for Civil Rights issued a now-infamous "Dear Colleague Letter" instructing colleges and universities to use the lowest possible standard of proof in sexual assault cases. This "preponderance of evidence" standard means that accusers need only prove that a particular fact or event was slightly more likely than not to have occurred. This is far different than proving something "beyond a reasonable doubt," which is standard in criminal cases outside a university campus.Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos signaled earlier this month that she plans to revisit OCR's sexual assault regulations. But until then, the "Dear Colleague Letter" guides campus action. In addition to changing evidentiary standards, the letter discourages cross-examination of accusers, strongly suggests that institutions accelerate adjudications to take place within a 60-day limit, and allows accusers to appeal not-guilty findings. The possibility of appeal for accusers subjects defenders to a kind of "double jeopardy" not allowed in criminal cases.It is in this environment that other states have moved to follow North Carolina by passing their own due process protections. Arkansas and North Dakota have passed legislation similar to the SAE Act, and legislators in Massachusetts and Virginia have proposed similar policies.In Utah, proposed changes goes further. There, Rep. Kim Coleman (R) and Sen. Todd Weiler (R) have sponsored legislation that would give students the right to active counsel as well as add requirements to the adjudication process. The bill would require parties to make good-faith efforts to exchange evidence and would allow students and their advocates to make opening and closing statements and to present and question witnesses.Interestingly, legislators in North Carolina have plans to bolster the protections offered by the SAE Act. House Bill 777, which stalled in committee this year, included provisions that mirror Utah's legislation.The bill would require universities to give accused studentsIt would also permit both parties in a case to question and cross examine witnesses. And in a clear departure from federal policy, it states that theThese examples from North Carolina and other states show that momentum is building to restore due process on campus. State action can ensure that students are free from arbitrary, onerous, and unfair campus courts-and strengthen the rule of law promised to all Americans in the U.S. Bill of Rights.
The stinging remarks come close on the heels of the apex court convicting Vijay Mallya for contempt against orders to disclose assets.

By Harish V Nair: Annoyed at contempt cases piling up in various courts, Chief Justice JS Khehar remarked, "Now it's like we are Indians. Violation of law and court orders is in our blood and culture."

"This just cannot happen and should be set right for once and all. If you have to rise as a nation, you have to abide by law. Otherwise you have to be punished," the CJI warned on Friday while hearing a contempt case.

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The stinging remarks come close on the heels of the apex court convicting liquor baron Vijay Mallya for contempt against orders to disclose assets and also for failure to appear before it in the loan repayment case.

Mallya escaped to the UK in the middle of efforts by a group of banks to recover around Rs 9,000 crore in unpaid loans to his now defunct Kingfisher Airlines. Even as a warrant is against him, he recently said that he is "safe in UK" and India had no grounds to extradite him.

The specific contempt case in which the SC made the remarks on Sunday, however, was against one Dinesh Khosla, head of an educational institute in Lajpat Nagar. As per the master plan, the premise was residential. But it was being illegally put to commercial use till now, even 11 years after the apex court order (in 2006) to vacate and shift the institute to a conforming area.

This, despite the institute's own affidavit dated February 23, 2007, requesting to de-seal the property "till May 2008" by which time they promised to shift. Taking their word, the property had even been de-sealed.

The SC was hearing a contempt plea filed by advocates ADN Rao and Anitha Shenoy, representing the monitoring committee (sealing) against Khosla for "deliberate and willful" violation of court orders. "Today the trend is like come what may, I won't obey law. I will violate court directions. Come what may, nothing is going to happen to me", an angry CJI Khehar told lawyers representing Khosla.

The Chief Justice was all the more angry as the lawyers kept on arguing for nearly two hours, tried to counter each contention of the monitoring committee and of the bench when the evidence regarding non-compliance of court order was clearly against him.

They only changed the tone and seemed inclined to apologise when the court clearly said it was going to send Khosla to jail. "At the beginning itself, you could have apologised. Rather than that, you are refuting all charges. You violate and then raise arguments," Khehar told Khosla's lawyers.

The lawyers, however, succeeded in persuading CJI against imprisoning Khosla citing several "mitigating factors" in his favour. The court limited the punishment to a fine of Rs 5 lakh.

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ALSO READ |

CJI bats for paperless courts, says work of judiciary becomes easier

Parties should be made accountable for unfulfilled poll promises: CJI Khehar

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Making

Sierra College to Build Up Makerspaces with $350,000 Grant

Dominic Gutierrez, Sierra makerspaces director

California's Sierra College is investing in makerspaces with a $350,000 grant from the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office. The college was one of 24 to receive a CCC Maker grant to "create an inclusive makerspace community, provide internships, and develop curriculum to prepare students with innovation and entrepreneurial skills to thrive in the regional economy."

The college has partnered with Hacker Lab in Rocklin, Curious Forge in Grass Valley, and Truckee Roundhouse in Truckee in a collaborative effort devoted to sharing best practices, preparing students with STEAM skills and developing a model for college makerspace communities. "We've made a conscious decision to partner with community makerspaces  that are near our campuses and reflect the unique culture, interests and businesses in each part of the region," explained Willy Duncan, Sierra College superintendent/president, in a statement.

"Engaging community college students and faculty in makerspaces, and growing the maker and entrepreneurial mindset to develop creative, passionate, curious and persistent lifelong learners and educators, is essential to complement existing college programs," said Dominic Felipe Gutierrez, Sierra makerspaces director, who serves as a liaison between the campuses and the makerspaces. "The skills needed by employers are changing so rapidly that Sierra College is boldly embracing this initiative to transform what we teach and how we teach."

"In a makerspace community, members teach each other and collaborate on projects," continued Gutierrez. "Students may teach faculty and business owners skills, and they in turn may mentor students. There is a natural comaraderie when people are working in a shared work space and learning creative ways to use laser cutters, 3D printers and electronics, with a variety of materials such as fabric, wood and recyclables to develop new products or complete class projects."

More information on the CCC Maker initiative is available here.
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Bangkok, July 31, 2017Myanmar authorities should drop all charges against Swe Win, the editor of the news website Myanmar Now, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Police at Yangons international airport yesterday arrested the journalist on charges of attempting to flee the country before his trial next month on criminal defamation charges, news reports said.

Police apprehended Swe Win before he boarded a flight to neighboring Thailand, according to news reports. Today authorities brought him to the central city of Mandalay, where his trial on defamation charges is scheduled to begin on August 7, his lawyer, Khin Maung Myint, told Reuters.

Yangon police Lt. Col. Myint Htwe said the arrest was made at the request of Mandalay City authorities. The Mandalay police informed us that Swe Win was trying to run away and to detain him at the airport, he told reporters.

Lawyer Khin Maung Myint said court officials had not informed his client that he was barred from leaving the country, and that the journalist had intended to return to Myanmar from Thailand today, after making work arrangements for the time he would be on trial, reports said. He was released on bail today, according to news reports.

We call on Myanmar authorities to drop all charges against Swe Win and to stop detaining journalists on spurious defamation charges, said Shawn Crispin, CPJs Southeast Asia representative. The criminalization of news reporting harks to the dark days of the previous military regimes censorship and is embarrassingly out of step with Myanmars supposed transition to democracy.

Swe Win is one of several journalists who face possible three-year prison sentences on charges pending under article 66(d) of the Telecommunications Law, a provision that criminalizes online speech deemed as defamatory.

It is good that this has happened. I have got to tackle this. The law should not exist, Swe Win told reporters at a police station in Mandalay last night. It will be good for the citizens as well.

The charges were initially filed in March by Kyaw Myo Shwe, a follower of Buddhist monk U Wirathu, over comments Swe Win posted on Facebook accusing the monk of breaking monastic rules by praising the January 29 assassination of a Muslim lawyer. Any citizen of Myanmar can file defamation charges for material published online under the Telecommunication Laws broad provisions.

In another emblematic prosecution under article 66(d), Kyaw Min Swe, editor of The Voice newspaper, has been held in pretrial detention since June 2 on charges filed by the military for an article the newspaper published lampooning an army-produced propaganda film. Kyaw Min Swe has been refused at least eight separate bail requests, according to news reports.

Three other journalistsAye Naing and Pyae Phone Naing from the Democratic Voice of Burma news agency, and Thein Zaw of The Irrawaddy media groupwere arrested on June 26 on charges filed by the military under the 1908 Unlawful Associations Act for reporting on an event hosted by a rebel armed group. A court on July 28 refused to release them pending the conclusion of their trial, according to news reports.
There's no denying the beauty of a diamond, but some of these stones have ugly origins. Conflict diamond sales can be used to finance violence, and human rights abuses can run rampant in diamond mines. Of course shoppers don't want this shadow hanging over their jewelry.

That's where "conflict-free" diamonds come in. These are diamonds whose origins are purportedly tracked and are certified to have a violence-free pedigree. There's just one problem: An estimated 5% to 10% of diamonds are traded illegally  and consumers may be paying a big upcharge for ethical gems that are anything but.

We'll tell you why real conflict-free diamonds are so hard to find, then offer tips on how you can get truly ethical gems.

Conflict-Free Diamond Certification Is Flawed

The diamond industry has a certification process to assure buyers their gems aren't involved in violence: the Kimberley Process. But the certification has loopholes that allow blood diamonds to go into circulation.

It's easy for gems to slip into the market from anywhere and still have all the paperwork to assure they're conflict-free.

The first flaw is in the definition of a blood diamond. The Kimberley Process explicitly defines a conflict diamond as a rough diamond "used by rebel movements or their allies to finance armed conflicts aimed at undermining legitimate governments." The problem with this phrasing is perfectly illustrated by Zimbabwe, where the government kills and tortures mine workers  but the diamonds the country mines are still certified as conflict-free by the Kimberley Process.

As you can see, these conflict-free gems are only guaranteed to be free of one very specific type of conflict. Kimberley Process stones still can (and do) fund human rights abuses.

But the Kimberley Process' limited definition of what makes a conflict diamond actually isn't the biggest issue when it comes to ensuring conflict-free diamonds. The second part of the problem is that it's difficult (or even impossible) to track exactly where an individual diamond comes from.

The Kimberley Process only tracks batches of gems, as opposed to individual stones. Diamonds may change hands up to 30 times before they reach the reseller you're buying from, and each time there's a chance an unknown diamond has been added to the batch.

Because every step in the process isn't tracked and audited for every stone, it's easy for gems to slip into the market from anywhere and still have all the paperwork to assure they're conflict-free.

Even if the Kimberley Process has banned a country from exporting diamonds  as it does with countries that don't meet its standards  those diamonds can be smuggled across borders and then sold as KP-certified gems.

SEE ALSO: You Need to Have These 5 Money Talks Before You Get Married

How Do You Know if You've Bought a Conflict Diamond?

Physically, there's no difference between a conflict diamond and any other diamond. An expert can't examine a diamond and tell you whether it came from a Zimbabwean mine or a Canadian one. Once the gem has changed hands repeatedly and been cut, it's impossible to trace it back to its source.

The sad truth is, you'd probably have no idea if you purchased a conflict diamond. As we've noted, even gems that are Kimberley Process certified or advertised as "ethical" could well be blood diamonds.

What to Look for When Diamond Shopping

It's difficult to be certain a diamond is fully conflict-free, but shoppers can take some steps. Ignore all advertisements about how "ethical" a diamond seller is, and instead ask for proof of where the diamond came from. A responsible reseller should be able to trace the stones to the country (or mine) of origin and provide documentation from its suppliers stating its gems are conflict-free. Any seller who dodges the question is suspicious.

Expect to pay more for a genuine Canadian diamond, but you can buy guilt-free.

If the diamond you're considering is from Zimbabwe or Angola, you may want to say no. While there's no guarantee it's a conflict diamond, both countries have bad track records with human rights abuses in their mines. Instead, look for diamonds from a country with a solid human rights reputation, like Namibia or Botswana.

Diamonds from Canada  the third-largest diamond-producing country in the world  offer easy reassurance to shoppers. The country lacks the kind of conflict that might result in a blood diamond, and ensures stones are mined sustainably and ethically. Expect to pay more for a genuine Canadian diamond, but you can buy guilt-free.

A Canadian diamond should come with paperwork verifying its authenticity, and most retailers will allow you to check the diamond's ID online to verify it. A couple of resources to consider are the Canadian Diamond Code of Conduct and CanadaMark, which allow you to verify gems by serial number.

What About Brilliant Earth?

This online diamond retailer advertises that its gems are "beyond conflict free." However, the claim is specious at best  and outright deceptive at worst. A recent investigation by The Next Web suggests the company makes that assertion by not paying very close attention to where its diamonds come from.

SEE ALSO: Everything You Need to Know About Synthetic Diamonds

Though Brilliant Earth gives you its word that its conflict-free stones come from Canada  and gives them the price tag to match  the company can't independently verify the source of its stones. As we mentioned above, Canada keeps close track of its diamonds, which often have unique identification numbers that can tell you exactly where the stones came from. This makes Brilliant Earth's lack of proof tough to believe.

Whoever you're shopping with, remember that if you want an ethical diamond, ask where it came from. If anything the company tells you seems off, just walk away.

Consider Synthetic Diamonds

Lab-grown diamonds have just as much sparkle as their mined counterparts, but you can be assured they aren't blood diamonds. As a bonus, they're often cheaper  especially if you're looking for diamonds in specific colors. You really can't find a better deal in the diamond market.

Readers, have you ever shopped for a conflict-free diamond? What was your experience like? Tell us about it in the comments below.
Rodrigo Duterte

A Philippine mayor accused by President Rodrigo Duterte of having links with the illegal drugs trade has been shot dead in a police raid.





Reynaldo Parojinog, mayor of the city of Ozamiz on Mindanao island, was killed with his wife and 10 others at his home as police served a warrant.





Officers were fired on by the mayor's security guards, officials said.





More than 7,000 people are said to have been killed since Mr Duterte launched a war on the drugs trade in July 2016.





Police were serving an arrest warrant when they were "met with a volley of fire" by Mr Parojinog's security guards, officials said.





"The Parojinogs, if you would recall, are included in President Duterte's list of people involved in the illegal drug trade," Mr Duterte's spokesman, Ernesto Abella, said in a statement.





A spokesman for the Parojinogs denied that there had been any exchange of fire and said the mayor's camp did not fire a shot.





Mr Parojinog's brother was also killed in the dawn raid in Ozamiz. His daughter, the city's vice-mayor, was arrested and faces charges relating to drugs offences, police said.





Officers recovered rifles, cash and illegal drugs at the address, according to provincial police chief Jaysen De Guzman.





Mr Parojinog is the third Philippine mayor to be killed in the government's bloody narcotics crackdown, in which Mr Duterte has singled out local officials, policemen and judges.





The move has made him popular with many Filipinos but has been condemned by human rights groups and other critics.





Mr Duterte took office just over a year ago following an election campaign in which he promised to kill tens of thousands in order to put an end to the illegal drugs trade.





Earlier this month, legislators in the Philippines voted overwhelmingly to extend martial law in Mindanao to help deal with violence on the island linked to an Islamist insurgency.





Mr Duterte said the extension was necessary to crush the insurgency, but his critics have said that it is part of a wider power grab.

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Congress has failed to pass a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare. Meanwhile, the system is imploding. Premiums and deductibles are rising, making the exchanges unaffordable without subsidies. For a bronze plan, deductibles are more than $12,000 per family and $6,000 per individual. The situation is spiraling out of control. What to do?

The Democrats solution is for the federal government to increase subsidies to lower costs to consumersbut this will not solve the fundamental problem of increasing costs. It will just paper over the problems.

The best solution is to repeal Obamacare. If Congress cannot repeal Obamacare, here are five proposed changes to improve it, creating a parallel system that would enable people to purchase the plans they want to buy.

1. Allow All Plans on the Exchange. Obamacare mandates a one-size-fits all, overly-generous plan, with required free preventive care, mandatory mental health and drug abuse coverage, free contraceptives, and no lifetime maximum. Combined with the requirement that people can sign up anytime, health insurance becomes very expensive, with the young subsidizing the old.

Federal and state exchanges should be allowed to offer multiple health insurance choices, including catastrophic health plans for those who want to pay for routine costs out of pocket and insure only against major medical events. People should be able to buy insurance that covers major financial hardships, rather than predictable, routine care. And they should be able to purchase insurance directly from any provider.

2. Offer Discounts for Continuous Coverage. Under the Act, insurance companies have to take anyone in any open enrollment period, so people can wait until they are sick to sign up. This is similar to being able to buy auto insurance after a car crash or home insurance after a fire. Naturally, it raises premiums. People should get a discount if they sign up when they are young and healthy and keep continuous coverage. Conversely, they should be penalized if they sign up after they are uncovered.

3. Give All Americans Refundable Tax Credits for Health Insurance Purchase.

This amount could be adjusted up or down depending on income. Under the ACA, if people do not qualify for health insurance subsidies on the exchange and their employers do not offer insurance, premiums come from after-tax dollars. So a family, earning $100,000 in the 25 percent federal tax bracket with a premium of $12,000 would have to earn about $16,000 before tax to pay for health insurancemore if they owe state income tax. This would modify the employer advantage to providing health insurance and help create an individual market for insurance.

4. State Risk Pools. About 2 million to 4 million people a year have uninsurable conditionsabout one-to-two percent of the U.S. population of 313 million. Under the ACA, these individuals are insured with everyone else, raising general insurance costs. In order to enable insurance companies to offer health insurance with low-cost premiums to the general public, AEI scholars James Capretta and Tom Miller have proposed that those with severe illness could be given the option of special health insurance programs through the state, known as risk pools. The federal government should be prepared to help states set up risk pools if they request such assistance. This would provide more choice for those who really need extra help with difficult to-insure conditions.

5. Block Grant Medicaid Payments to States. States are the best judge of how to cover their low-income residents. They successfully manage to distribute payments from the Childrens Health Insurance Program to those in need. Using the same process, they can cover other individuals through Medicaid. Indianas Healthy Indiana Plan is an example of an efficient state allocation of funds to low-income residents. It could serve as a model to other states.

For the past seven years Republicans have been calling for repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Congress should. If that is not possible, then the system has to be made more responsive to vulnerable peoples needs. Bailing out the system through additional infusions of federal dollars, as some are proposing, will not solve Obamacares long-term problems.

Diana Furchtgott-Roth (@FurchtgottRoth) is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and an adjunct professor of economics at George Washington University.

Interested in real economic insights? Want to stay ahead of the competition? Each weekday morning, e21 delivers a short email that includes e21 exclusive commentaries and the latest market news and updates from Washington. Sign up for the e21 Morning Ebrief.
New Delhi, Jul 31 (PTI) The commerce ministry is negotiating as many as 21 trade agreements, including with Israel and Mauritius, Parliament was informed today.

Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also said the negotiations for a free trade agreement are a continuous process and it is difficult to set a timeline for their conclusion.

She said that before starting talks for such pacts, studies are carried out internally as well as through joint study groups to look at the feasibility of such pacts.

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"The Department of Commerce is negotiating 21 trade agreements including with Israel and Mauritius," she said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

India is negotiating FTAs with countries including European Union, Sri Lanka, Thailand, New Zealand and Canada.

Replying to a separate question, she said India has exported 53,490 livestock in April this fiscal and 12,02,841 in the last fiscal.

In a separate reply, she said out of the countrys total imports of drugs of USD 4.45 billion in 2016-17, imports from China stood at USD 1.96 billion, which is 44.1 per cent.

"One of the reasons for imports from China is the price competitiveness of these products," Sitharaman added. PTI RR SBT

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According to the State Departments annual terrorism report for 2016, ISIS remained the most capable terrorist organization, directing and inspiring terror cells, networks, and individuals around the world. But it suffered a long string of defeats, losing much of the territory it had controlled in Syria, and particularly in Iraq.

As its losses mounted, ISIS dispatched operatives from Iraq and Syria to conduct attacks outside of the Middle East, and also worked to inspire and encourage similar actions by its followers abroad.

Al-Qaida and its affiliates exploited weak and ineffective governments and institutions in a number of states and regions to remain a significant worldwide threat. Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula remained a significant threat to Yemen, the Gulf region, and the United States, despite a number of key leadership losses. Al-Nusrah Front, al-Qaidas affiliate in Syria, continued to exploit ongoing armed conflict to maintain a territorial safe haven in parts of northwestern Syria. Al-Shabaab continued to conduct asymmetric attacks throughout Somalia and parts of Kenya despite weakened leadership and increasing defections. And in Afghanistan, al-Qaida continued to suffer losses.

Two trends continued in 2016. First, terrorist groups established safe havens in ungoverned territory and conflict zones, and used them to expand their reach. And second, attacks by so-called lone offender terrorists continued, particularly against civilian targets in public spaces.

And finally, Iran remained the foremost state sponsor of terrorism globally, providing support to various terrorist groups in Syria, Iraq, and throughout the Middle East.

The State Department report includes a statistical annex prepared by the University of Marylands National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, known as START. START noted that terrorist attacks declined globally by 9 percent, while total deaths due to terrorist attacks decreased by 13 percent compared to 2015.

This was largely due to fewer attacks and deaths from terrorist attacks in Afghanistan, Syria, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Yemen.

At the same time, there was an increase in terrorist attacks and total deaths in several countries, including Iraq, Somalia, and Turkey, said Acting Coordinator for Counterterrorism Justin Siberell on the release of the report in late July.

The United States will continue to devote resources toward improving counterterrorism capabilities of key partner countries, while at the same time focusing long-term efforts on addressing the drivers of violent extremism.
Earlier this year, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke of Irans alarming and ongoing provocations that export terror and violence:

Whether it be assassination attempts, support of weapons of mass destruction, deploying destabilizing militias, Iran spends its treasure and time disrupting peace.

Evidence of Irans malign activity was recently made available when the State Department published its annual report on global terrorism. As Acting Coordinator for Counterterrorism Justin Siberell said at the release of the report, while ISIS remains a top focus for U.S. and international counterterrorism efforts, Iran remains the foremost state sponsor of terrorism globally.

The report identifies the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps Qods Force as Irans primary mechanism for cultivating and supporting terrorists abroad for example, through the Qods Forces direct involvement in the conflicts in Iraq and Syria.

But Iran also supports terrorism through proxies. In 2016, Iran remained the primary source of funding for Hezbollah and coordinated closely with Hezbollah in its efforts to create instability in the Middle East, Mr. Siberell said. Describing it as an extremely sophisticated terrorist group with a global network, Mr. Siberell noted that Hezbollah has gone full-in on supporting the Assad regime and its war against the Syrian peopleand [also] carried out several attacks against Israeli Defense Forces in 2016 along the Lebanese border.

In addition, Iran supports Iraqi militant groups, including the Shia terrorist organization Kataib Hezbollah, which is guilty of serious rights abuses against Sunni civilians. Iran has also provided weapons, funding and training to Bahraini militants that have conducted attacks on Bahraini security forces.

And there is Irans relationship with al-Qaida: the Iranian government will not bring senior al-Qaida members detained in Iran to justice and refuses to publicly identify them. Also, since at least 2009, Iran has allowed al-Qaida facilitators to operate a pipeline through the country, enabling al-Qaida to move funds and fighters to South Asia and Syria.

The State Department has made clear that terrorismwhether carried out by non-state actors or supported by a governments powerhas no place in a peaceful, civilized world. To that end, as President Donald Trump has said, Until the Iranian regime is willing to be a partner for peace, all nations of conscience must work together to isolate Iran [and] deny it funding for terrorism.
Haitians will get a boost in nutrition thanks to a joint program between United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, and government of Haiti. On July 21st, U.S. Charge dAffaires Brian Shukan joined with Haitis Ministry of Health, USAID, and RANFOSE, the first food fortification project of Haiti.

RANFOSE will increase the availability of high-quality, fortified staple foods across the country and expand the local production and importation of fortified foods.

The project will work with the private sector, including local food producers and importers, to ensure the market viability to reach a wide population throughout the country said Shukan. RANFOSE directly contributes to the Government of Haiti-led efforts to improve the nutrition, health, and food security, per the Government of Haitis Nutrition Strategic Plan 2013-2018. The project aims to decrease deficiencies in micronutrients, which play a vital role in the well-being of children, mothers, and other individuals.

For over a year, USAID has been working with the Ministry of Health and other partners, such as the United Nation Childrens Fund, to develop a food fortification activity. In a recently released study financed by the Canadian Embassy, the Copenhagen Consensus Center identified food fortification, specifically wheat flour with iron, as one of the most efficient investments in Haitis development. The RANFOSE project will focus on fortifying wheat flour with iron and folic acid, vegetable oils with vitamin A, and salt with iodine. USAID will work with Partners of the Americas and Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition to implement this $4 million four-year health and nutrition project.

USAID is devoted to working closely with the Haitian Government to ensure the sustainability of these joint efforts to improve the nutritional status of the entire population. Additional programs, in which USAID collaborates with the Government of Haiti to promote nutrition and combat malnutrition, include a food pyramid guide for consuming nutritious local foods and a voucher safety net program to increase access to locally-produced foods among vulnerable households.

The U.S. is proud to work with its partner Haiti to help the people of Haiti meet their important nutrition needs.
Experts are forecasting a rise in the number of Spaniards going on summer vacation this year. Following several years of decline due to the economic crisis, the tourism sector is optimistic that the trend will be reversed in 2017.

The beach in San Sebastian on July 29. JAVIER HERNANDEZ JUANTEGUI

The Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation (CEHAT) does not keep separate figures on Spanish and foreign visitors, but it is confident that 2017 will be a record year for both.

This group notes that parts of Spain that traditionally receive very few foreign visitors  landlocked areas, the northern coastline and municipalities of 30,000 residents or fewer have registered a visitor rise of over 40% from 2013, one of the worst years on record.

The CEHAT also says that small airports, typically used by national travelers, have been seeing greater activity.

The fact that Spaniards are traveling abroad more is a sign that the domestic economy is doing better

Theres been a rise not just in the number of trips taken by Spaniards, but also their duration, says Ramon Estalella, secretary general of CEHAT. During the crisis, many domestic visitors only spent three nights out over the Easter vacation period. And this year there were many who stayed the entire week.

Exceltur, the tourism industrys lobby group, shares this optimism. The economys strong performance and the containment of energy prices have encouraged spending by Spaniards during the spring, pushing up tourist spending, reads the groups second-quarter report.

The report underscores that all Spanish tourist consumption indicators have intensified their upward trend during the March-to-May period, helped along by the Easter break and good weather. The most relevant figures show a strong rise in non-hotel bookings: rural tourism grew 13.2%; licensed vacation rentals rose 11.8%; and campsite stays advanced 9.9%.

Tourists boarding a Barcelona sightseeing bus. Carles Ribas

There was also a noticeable spike in spending on bookings for foreign trips (17.1%), as well as a 5.5% rise in luxury products such as four- and five-star hotel accommodations. Business trips also increased, according to figures released by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

Jose Antonio Perez-Aranda, director of Barcelona Universitys Tourism School CETT, also sees 2017 as the year of complete recovery. Domestic tourism has grown in volume and in travel days, he says. Besides the economic recovery, there are other factors at play such as the emergence of the low-cost airline Level, which offers cheaper flights to Latin America and the US. We are seeing more short-term stays throughout the year, and an increase in trips abroad.

In 2016, Spaniards undertook 182 million trips, a 3.7 % rise from 2015, on which they spent 41.4 billion, or 9.1% more.

Although Spaniards are mostly visiting European destinations, the biggest spikes were in the Asia-Pacific region

Although Spaniards are mostly visiting European destinations, the biggest spikes were in the AsiaPacific region, where there was a 15.7% rise in Spanish tourist arrivals in 2016, according to ForwardKeys, a travel pattern analysis firm. There was also a 4.4% rise in trips to Canada and the US, and a 4.6% increase in trips to Latin America.

The fact that Spaniards are traveling abroad more is a sign that the domestic economy is doing better, because average spending abroad is much higher: 96 per person compared with 44 in Spain.

Last year, 39.5% of respondents in the INEs Living Conditions Survey said that they could not even afford one week of vacation a year. During the worst of the crisis, that figure reached 45%.

English version by Susana Urra and George Mills.
She was an ordinary bank employee in the small municipality of Almoradi, population 20,000, located in Spains Alicante province. Yet for 25 years she lived far beyond her means: she owned a big house, drove a luxury car, and took expensive trips to exotic destinations with her partner, then openly boasted about it on social media.

The suspect and her partner on one of the exotic trips they took and documented on social media. CIVIL GUARD

The Spanish Civil Guard has just discovered the origin of her wealth: for a quarter century, she had allegedly been stealing from a Russian client who had an account at her bank.

Investigators believe that the suspect, a 51-year-old woman whose identity has not been disclosed, diverted $1.5 million (around 1.28 million) in funds from an account held by a Russian national now aged 80. She is being charged with bank fraud and forging documents.

The investigation began a month ago, when the account holder filed a complaint with the local Civil Guard in Almoradi. The name of the bank has not been released either.

Every time the man returned to Russia, his account would be depleted a little more

According to police sources, the Russian national arrived in Rojales, located eight kilometers from Almoradi, in 1992. He then opened a bank account in the latter municipality, and developed a relationship of trust with the suspect.

The account holder rarely checked his balance, but in June of this year he requested a detailed statement because he was considering switching banks. That is when he realized that over $1.5 million was missing.

Investigators analyzed all the transactions linked to that account, and realized that most money transfers had taken place while the account holder was in Russia, meaning that he did not authorize them.

Every time the man returned to Russia, his bank balance would be depleted a little more. But every time he requested information about the balance, the employee would provide unofficial documents forged by herself, to make it look like his balance had not changed.

The suspect was arrested and released pending trial following her arraignment.

English version by Susana Urra.
Details added (first version posted on 10:56)

Baku, Azerbaijan, July 31

Trend:

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev received credentials of newly appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Burkina Faso Amadou Dico July 31.

The ambassador reviewed a guard of honor.

Amadou Dico presented his credentials to President Aliyev.

President Aliyev then had a conversation with the ambassador.

Saying he is happy to start his activities as the ambassador of Burkina Faso to Azerbaijan, Amadou Dico said: "It is my honor to visit beautiful Azerbaijan to represent my country in front of a personality like you."

President Aliyev hailed good opportunities for developing cooperation between Azerbaijan and Burkina Faso in political, economic, trade and investment areas, as well as in the issues of mutual interest within international organizations.

The president said it is important that the two countries and peoples better know each other.

President Aliyev expressed his hope that the ambassador will spare no efforts in this regard.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 31

Trend:

Baku will tomorrow host a solemn opening ceremony of the Sea Cup 2017, held in Azerbaijan as part of the International Army Games.

The opening ceremony will kick off at 18:30 (UTC +4) in front of the Clock Tower at the Baku Seaside Boulevard, Azerbaijans Defense Ministry said in a message July 31.

Representatives of the public, city residents, servicemen, and representatives of foreign countries accredited in Azerbaijan will attend the opening ceremony.

The ships of the naval forces of Azerbaijan, Russia, Iran and Kazakhstan will take part in the Sea Cup 2017 competitions. Meanwhile, officials from the armed forces of Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain will take part in the competitions as observers.
Details added (first version posted on 14:55)

Baku, Azerbaijan, July 31

Trend:

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has today received Speaker of the House of Representatives of the US State of Arizona Javan Mesnard.

Speaker of the House of Representatives of the US State of Arizona Javan Mesnard said he has been in Azerbaijan already for a few days and has had an opportunity to familiarize himself with Baku and other regions.

I am very happy to be in your marvelous country. Azerbaijan is a very beautiful country. I am visiting it for the first time. People show friendship and hospitability everywhere. I will share my impressions with everyone when Im back to the US, he said.

Javan Mesnard added that the majority of Arizona legislators heard much about Azerbaijan.

President Ilham Aliyev said that as Javan Mesnard has visited Baku and the regions he will be able to have wider information on the country. The head of state noted that organizing more visits from the US to Azerbaijan is highly crucial in expanding the contacts between people and in the two nations knowing each other more closely.

This will also strengthen cooperation between the two countries, said President Ilham Aliyev.

The head of state hailed the bilateral relations in the areas of politics, economy, energy, security as well as the countrys cooperation with different US states. At the same time, President Ilham Aliyev noted that in some parts of the US, the society is not fully informed about Azerbaijan, stressing the importance of spreading the countrys realities.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 31

By Seba Aghayeva  Trend:

Armenias growing cooperation with NATO shows that Yerevan is trying to play on two fronts, Sergey Markov, Russian presidents confidant, member of Russian Civic Chamber, told Trend July 31.

NATOs multinational military exercises, Noble Partner 2017, began in Georgia July 31. Armenian servicemen are also taking part in the exercises. The opening ceremony of the Noble Partner 2017 exercises took place at the Vaziani Air Base July 31. The exercises, which involve eight NATO member countries and partners, will last until August 12. The US Vice President Mike Pence, who will arrive in Tbilisi July 31, is expected to attend the exercises.

Markov noted that Armenias participation in the multinational NATO-led exercises indicates that Armenia is trying to maintain the best possible relations not only with Russia, but also with the Western coalition.

Many countries today maintain cooperation with NATO. We see that Georgia is a full ally of the NATO, and Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Belarus have close relations with the Western coalition, said the expert.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan says more clearly and honestly that it maintains relations with both parties  Russia and the West, he noted, adding that Russia accepts this position with understanding.

Armenia says that it is an ally of Russia, but in fact, it carries out a different policy, namely, a policy of in-depth cooperation with NATO, said Markov.

He noted that Armenia uses Russia as an ally in a very selfish way.

According to Markov, Armenias such policy based on interaction with NATO countries is a response to the position of Russia, which prefers to step up its in-depth cooperation with Azerbaijan, rather than with Armenia.

Thus, the Armenian leadership demonstrates that it doesnt like the cooperation of Russia with Azerbaijan, particularly, the sale of Russian weaponry to Azerbaijan, which significantly strengthens Azerbaijans military power, added Markov.
govt

New Delhi, Jul 31 (PTI) A regulatory committee has recommended the environmental release of genetically engineered (GE) mustard to the government but no final decision has been taken yet, Rajya Sabha was told today.

Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan in a written reply said that the application for GE mustard submitted by Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants (CGMCP), University of Delhi is not a Herbicide Tolerant (HT) crop but the usage of herbicide is limited only for hybrid seed production.

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The minister said that the apex regulatory committee constituted under the Rules for the Manufacture, Use, Import, Export and Storage of Hazardous micro-organisms or GE organisms or cells (Rules 1989) held its 133rd meeting held on May 11 this year.

"(It) has recommended the proposal for environmental release of GE mustard submitted by CGMCP to the government for its final decision. No decision has yet been taken," the minister said.

This came after the Centre today told the Supreme Court that it will take a decision in a month-and-a-half on whether to allow the commercial roll out of Genetically Modified (GM) mustard crop in the country.

"The application submitted by CGMCP seeking permission for environmental release of GE mustard is not HT crop. In fact, it relates to HT and usage of herbicide is limited only for hybrid seed production," the minister said.

As per the data provided by the applicant to Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), the applicant has compared DMH-11 with Varuna (barnase), EH-2 (barstar), Varuna, EH-2, Maya or RL-1359.

He was asked whether the Genetically Modified Herbicide Tolerant (GMHT) Mustard, normally referred to DMH-II have not outperformed non-GM hybrid varieties in terms of yield. PTI TDS IKA

--- ENDS ---
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 31

Trend:

The Israeli Haaretz newspaper's false and slanderous article contradicts the spirit of Azerbaijan-Israel relations, Novruz Mammadov, the Azerbaijani presidents assistant for foreign policy issues, said as he was commenting on a Haaretz article on Azerbaijan which was published on July 30.

"Unfortunately, some media representatives who lack responsibility, think that their profession is to disseminate false and slanderous information, he said. Israel's Haaretz newspaper has repeatedly published some false information about the Azerbaijani state, its foreign and domestic policy so far.

However, since the next lie and slander directly target the family of the Azerbaijani president, there is a need to express our attitude to this," Mammadov said.

"Thus, on July 30 Israel's Haaretz newspaper published completely false information, a brief but a treacherous article about the family of the president, he said. The main concern is that the article quotes the Israeli tourism minister Yariv Levin.

The article alleges that over the past few months the president's family has been involved in buying property in Israel and making investments in the country, Mammadov said. At the same time, allegedly, the president's youngest son (just pay attention) has visited Israel these months. But the truth is that the president's son has never visited Israel  not only in the mentioned months, but never in general.

This information is nothing else than lie and slander, and it has nothing to do with reality, he said. The publication of such articles in the Israeli press causes regret and runs contrary to the spirit of relations between the two countries.

"A journalist for the Haaretz newspaper quotes the Israeli Tourism Minister Yariv Levin in order to carry out his treacherous intentions, Mammadov added. I think that the Israeli Embassy should express its stance as well as the position of Minister Yariv Levin on this false and slanderous information."
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 31

Trend:

With the launch of the first global talent portal, the career service of UNEC Business School has collaborated with EFMD Global Network to offer you your very own career portal, connecting you with global opportunities. The Corporate Members of EFMD Global Network have access to the portal to post their current placements and job opportunities. Since you are a student of a member school of EFMD Global Network, starting today you can activate and login to your personal portal (open a new unec.edu.az domain) to find internship, trainee positions, apprenticeships and graduate positions that are relevant to you from companies around the world.

As all new initiatives, there will be a lot of upgrades on the way, making a global website is an ongoing job. There will be new companies, new opportunities, improvements and updates made constantly.

This global talent portal comes as an addition to all other existing initiatives and resources you have access to at school. It is targeted towards international students looking for placements back at home and local students that want to explore an international experience.

We want to make things easier for you as a student, help you save time and focus on your learning. So as a part of your journey towards employment we would like to give you a head start and discover the potential in you.

As a part of the process of getting employed at a company you will need to undergo several interviews, assessments and test. It is important that you get to know yourself the way companies will look at you. Most large companies rely on online assessment test when they are considering new hires. We have taken this into consideration and teamed up with one of the largest global players in this field to give you the upper hand. The online assessment test you will find in your career portal will provide you with a 17 page career report based on the test taken. The report will be for your personal use only and will not be shared with any school administration or companies. It is a tool to help you understand your strengths and weaknesses. 

Click here to login and get started: https://unec.higheredtalent.org/Login

UNEC is the brand of Azerbaijan State University of Economics. The brand of UNEC has been registered and patented by the State Committee on Standardization, Metrology and Patent on January 21 2016.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 31

Trend:

Graduates of Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS) start their professional career. The most talented of them will become staff members of leading transnational oil and gas companies. Akhmed Gelenderli who graduated from BHOS with honors as Chemical Engineer is one of them. Soon he starts working at BP company in Azerbaijan.

 You were selected the Chemical Engineering Student of the Year. What have learned at BHOS?

 During my studies, I obtained not only a profession, but also a bright future and real friends. I will have keep very memories about my Alma Mater. The Higher School played a very significant role in my life as well as in the life of my fellow students. Young people enter BHOS to receive engineering education, but they receive much more than that. We have been taught to use the knowledge we gain, take responsibility and be a leader, work in a team, and we have acquired other qualities. Having these and other skills, I managed to obtain employment at the world-known company.

 You have managed to achieve your goals, have you not?

 Yes, indeed. I wanted to receive good technical education, and I did. At the same time, I have achieved other purposes, too. From the very beginning, I dedicated all my time to studies. However, I also participated in various conferences, workshops and other activities, as BHOS management always supports students initiatives. In 2014, I became a winner of II Student Scientific and Technical Conference held at BHOS. Later on, I won the 8th Grant Contest conducted by Youth Foundation of Azerbaijan under the President of the Azerbaijan Republic. As to other graduates and their future paths of life, I am sure that they will be very successful because they possess qualities they obtained at BHOS.

 What someone needs to do to join a company like BP?

 Nowadays, possession of excellent technical knowledge is not sufficient to become a staff member of a transnational company. Of course, you must be a technical expert in your field; otherwise, you should not apply at all. At BHOS, I did receive such kind of knowledge, as our curriculum was based on the modern international academic programs. However, you must have other skills to work in a large company. You must be able to work in a team, to make decisions, take responsibility and be a leader. Without these qualities, you will never succeed in your attempts to get a good job.

 How was the selection of candidates organized?

 There is a unique staff recruitment system at BP. They need to select best of the best candidates from thousands of applicants. It is a difficult choice, as only strong candidates apply to work at transnational company like BP. You need to differentiate oneself from your competitors, and this is a formidable challenge. I think that BP management has their own selection criteria, and the successful candidates shall meet these criteria to be invited to work for the company. Ability to prove your knowledge and expertise and a strong desire to join the company are also important. BHOS helped me develop these skills, too. During two terms, we attended classes to study Azerbaijani language, rhetoric and speech culture in depth. In addition, being a member of BP team means that you can lead others, make decisions, and that you are not afraid of taking responsibility.

 While a student, you had opportunity to undertake on-the-job training. Will it be useful for your work?

 I am confident that such experience is a crucial part of training of future engineers. It is impossible to master the profession only by reading textbooks and learning theory. On-the-job training at BP and Petkim were very useful and helped me to obtain practical knowledge and learn more about modern oil and gas industry. Moreover, the internships also helped me understand how to work in a team of professionals, how build relations with colleagues and what rules of corporate culture and ethics I need to follow. I believe that these skills and qualities would contribute to my successful career in the future.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 31

Trend:

The first stage, called Individual race, of the Tank Biathlon contest kicked off July 31 as part of the International Army Games, said the press service of Azerbaijans Defense Ministry in a message.

The Azerbaijani tank crew with the T-72B3 tank, ranked second in the first stage of the competition, ahead of Kuwait and Mongolia.

The Tank Biathlon competition, which will end on August 12, involves 55 tank crews from 19 countries.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 28

By Azad Hasanli  Trend:

The Czech Republic is undoubtedly interesting for Azerbaijan in terms of investment, such as in the petrochemical industry, energy and natural resources, Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Jiri Havlicek said in an exclusive interview with Trend.

"In this area, only few concrete projects have been implemented, and Azerbaijani investors have so far been interested especially in the field of real estate and hotels," he added.

"The amount of Azerbaijani investments in the Czech economy is relatively small, reaching a rate of two percent [out of all investments made in this country]," Havlicek said. "The largest investments are directed to the real estate and hotels. I think, however, that right now it is a very good time for investment in the Czech Republic."

"Our economy has been steadily growing in recent years and creates many opportunities for foreign investors, whether in existing companies or start-ups," he said. "Investment incentives are dealt with by a specialized agency CzechInvest, and we attach great importance to it."

Havlicek said that Czech banks have lent more than 1.8 billion euros to Czech companies that have implemented major projects in Azerbaijan over the last ten years.

"These projects were funded by our banks directly," the minister said. "Therefore, we consider these financial contributions as investments in the Azerbaijani economy. This implies that the Czech Republic is one of the most important investors in the Azerbaijani economy and evidences the confidence of Czech entrepreneurs in cooperation with Azerbaijan."

As for cooperation with Azerbaijan, Havlicek also spoke about the areas of mutual interest having great potential for development.

"I would like to remind here the January visit of my predecessor, Jan Mladek [Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic until February 28, 2017] in Baku," Havlicek said. "During this visit, the 4th meeting of the Joint Czech-Azerbaijani Commission was held to address these issues in detail. I agree with what was said at the meeting."

"The most promising areas for cooperation between the Czech Republic and Azerbaijan are traditional and renewable energy, modernization of transport infrastructure, green technologies, agriculture and manufacturing, chemical and pharmaceutical industry, supplies of medical equipment, engineering and construction," he said. "I see another significant potential in the development of tourism."

The minister added that the aforementioned fields are also most interesting for setting up joint ventures that are of interest to the Czech Republic.

"We can recommend this way [establishment of joint ventures with Azerbaijani companies] to Czech companies, however, they have to decide and choose a partner by themselves," Havlicek added. "In this regard, I would like to invite our Azerbaijani business partners to not to be afraid to enter into business relations with Czech companies; they are reliable players which have a lot to offer."

According to the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee, the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic amounted to $201 million in January-June of 2017, with $168.26 million of that amount accounting for the export of Azerbaijani products to that country.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 31

By Azad Hasanli  Trend:

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has called on Azerbaijan to step up bilateral talks with WTO members on market access commitments for goods and services in order to accelerate its efforts to secure WTO membership, says the organizations message posted on its website.

The negotiations on Azerbaijans access into the WTO were held last week as part of the visit of Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammad-Guliyev to Geneva.

The chair of the WTOs working party on the accession of Azerbaijan, Ambassador Walter Werner (Germany), concluded a meeting of the working party by calling on Azerbaijan to proactively engage and advance market access negotiations with members and to focus in particular on bilateral market access talks, whose progress, in my view, has fallen behind other areas of the accession negotiations.

Mahmud Mammad-Guliyev, the Azerbaijani deputy minister and Chief Negotiator, said his government intended to concentrate on the bilaterals, which he acknowledged as one of the weak parts of our accession process, as well as implement the legal reforms necessary to bring its domestic trading regime in line with WTO requirements.

He noted that Azerbaijan had undertaken a number of reforms over the past six months, including adopting 12 strategic roadmaps for the development of the countrys economy as well as regulations covering trade facilitation and the improvement of trade and logistic infrastructure.

Mammad-Guliyev added that implementation of the roadmaps by 2020 would serve as a foundation towards successful accession to the WTO.

In addition to advancing the bilateral market access negotiations, the chair asked the WTO Secretariat to prepare a revised draft working party report based on new inputs received from Azerbaijan, and for Azerbaijan to submit an updated and revised legislative action plan along with copies of newly enacted legislation, says the WTO message.

The chair added that the date for the next working party meeting would be fixed once these new inputs are received, according to the message.

Azerbaijan launched negotiations with the WTO member states in 2004. As of today, the country has completed negotiations and signed protocols with Turkey, Oman, the UAE, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan. Azerbaijan is at the stage of signing protocols with China and Moldova.

Azerbaijan has had an observer status at the WTO since 1997.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 30

By Khalid Kazimov  Trend:

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh and his Iraqi counterpart Jabar al-Luaibi have joined a new round of oil talks in Tehran to discuss further cooperation between the two countries, IRIB news agency reported.

According to the report, the sides are expected to discuss the two countries cooperation in the joint oil fields and also the ways for transporting Iraqi Kirkuks oil to Iranian refineries.

The report added that the sides are planning to refine Kirkuks oil in Iran and then send back the refined products to Iraq.

Under an initial agreement Kirkuks oil will be refined in two Iranian refineries of Tabriz and Kermanshah, the report suggested.

Exporting Irans gas to Iraq through Shalamcheh route and also the issue of training Iraqi oil experts in Iran are also on the agenda.

Iranian gas officials earlier announced that the volume of Irans gas exports to the neighboring country has already reached seven million cubic meters per day and Iraq has requested to increase the volume.

Iran has launched exporting its gas to Iraqi capital, Baghdad, since June 21 through a pipeline.

The two countries had earlier reached two agreements on exporting gas. The first agreement has envisaged gas export to Baghdad and the second one obliges Iran to export gas to Iraqi city of Basra through a pipeline crossing Shalamcheh City. Irans gas is expected to be used in power generation in Iraq.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 31

By Azad Hasanli  Trend:

Direct supply of Azerbaijani gas to the Czech Republic would be very welcomed, Jiri Havlicek, the Czech minister of industry and trade, said in an exclusive interview with Trend.

The minister noted that the Czech Republic supports both the diversification of natural gas sources and routes of gas transportation to the European Union in order to increase the energy security.

In this sense, the Southern Gas Corridor and especially the TAP and TANAP pipelines have been appreciated several times by the Czech side, said Havlicek.

From a general point of view, the future possibility of physical presence of gas from Azerbaijan sites in Central Europe or directly in the Czech Republic would be very welcomed. However, we are aware of the fact that, in addition to the Southern Gas Corridor project, it will be necessary to also complete a follow up gas infrastructure located outside the Czech Republic to realize this option. This is in particular the North-South Gas Interconnection and it will also be necessary for such gas to be competitive on a fully liberalized gas market in the Czech Republic, added the minister.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority energy projects for the EU. It envisages the transportation of gas from the Caspian region to the European countries through Georgia and Turkey.



At the initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects. Other sources can also connect to this project at a later stage.



As part of the Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz development, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline and Trans Adriatic Pipeline.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 31

By Elmira Tariverdiyeva  Trend:

The new US bill on sanctions against Russia will also affect the Russian pipeline project known as the Nord Stream 2.

The Senate has approved a bill toughening the US sanctions against Russia, Iran and the North Korea. The document is to be signed by US President Donald Trump.

According to the bill titled Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, the US government is required to counteract the construction of the Nord Stream 2 as the project has a harmful effect on the energy security of the European Union, the development of the gas markets in Central and Eastern Europe, and energy reforms in Ukraine.

Another project, the Southern Gas Corridor, which should provide Europe with Caspian gas, despite the equity of Iranian and Russian companies there, is not mentioned in the document. The gas to be supplied through the Southern Gas Corridor will be produced at Azerbaijans Shah Deniz Stage 2. Russian Lukoil owns a 10 percent stake in the project. National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), exempted from sanctions by a special amendment to the US law on Iranian energy companies, also has a share there.

There was enough speculation over this project. Former US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Richard Morningstar said that the US bill tightening the anti-Russian sanctions may harm the development of Shah Deniz Stage 2 and the supply of the gas extracted there to Europe.

However, sanctions against Russia or any other country will unlikely prevent the West from implementing such a strategically important project as Southern Gas Corridor.

As for the Nord Stream 2, the political component of the project plays a big role here, which gives Moscow the leverage to exert influence upon Europe. However, the Caspian gas, which can help the EU to ensure energy independence and security bypassing Russia, is in the US interests.

Therefore, lobbying for the project that will supply the Caspian gas to Europe has been centerpiece to Washington's long-term policy of European energy security.

The new US administration apparently understands that realization of Shah Deniz Stage 2 and Southern Gas Corridor will change not only the world's energy map, but also its political map, as it will contribute to ensuring Europe's energy security and weakening Moscow's influence in the region, which is strategically important for the US.

Taking into account the aforementioned, the US is unlikely to jeopardize such an important project as the Southern Gas Corridor.
In the first half of the year, over 700 people benefited from the services provided by Mobile Eye Clinic, supported by Azercell Telecom LLC, while around 500 of them were adults and over 200 of them were children.

In January the doctors of mobile clinic examined 36 refugees and the deprived in Kurdamir district. As a result, some patients were assigned eyeglass prescriptions while others received various treatment. Moreover, the doctors also checked 58 people in the polyclinics No. 13 in Amirjan settlement and polyclinics No. 23 in Hovsan settlement. Additionally, with the support of Social Protection Fund in Sabunchu, 42 more people benefited from the service in the beginning of the year.

In February, the clinic served further 78 people in Bilgah and Shaghan settlemeents. 42 people in the boarding school No. 11 located in Bilgah, 36 people in boarding house for disabled in Shaghan and 32 patients in Red Crescent Society in Narimanov district were examined.

The clinic was especially active during spring months. Thus, in March the doctors provided services to Russian Communty in Narimanov district, children in SOS Childrens Village in Gandja and refugees in Lokbatan settlement.

In April and May, Mobile Eye Clinic examined 29 children in boarding school No. 10 in Pirshagi settlement, 30 children from low-income families in Pirallahi settlement with the support of Local Executive Power, 84 children in Yasamal and Nizami districts, as well as 35 children in the secondary school in Godekli village, Khachmaz. In June, the doctors examined and treated 43 refugees and IDPs in Yasamal and Darnagul districts and 25 more in Red Cross in th 20th area. The doctors also served 28 IDPs settled in Khachmaz in June.

During its four-year operation, the clinic supported by Azercell and Caspian Compassion Project public union visited most of boarding schools and orphanages in Baku. The doctors of the clinics visited Baku and other regions in the country and supported people in need of treatment.

The leader of the mobile communication industry of Azerbaijan and the biggest investor in the non-oil sector Azercell Telecom LLC was founded in 1996. With 48% share of Azerbaijans mobile market Azercells network covers 80% of the territory and 99,8% of population of the country. Currently, 4,5 million subscribers choose Azercell services. Azercell has pioneered an important number of innovations in Azerbaijan, including GSM technology, advance payment system, 24/7 Customer Care, online customer services, GPRS/EDGE, M2M, MobilBank, one-stop- shop service offices Azercell Express, mobile e-service ASAN signature, etc. Azercell deployed first 4G  LTE services in Azerbaijan in 2012. According to the results of mobile network quality surveys of Global Wireless Solutions company and international systems specialized in wireless coverage mapping such as Opensignal and Testmy.net, Azercells network demonstrated the best results among the mobile operators of Azerbaijan.
in Maha textbook

Mumbai, July 31 (PTI) Maharashtra Legislative Council today witnessed an uproar with the Congress demanding removal of certain sections on former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi from the state boards History textbook for class IX.

Raising the issue, Congress MLC Sanjay Dutt said the "defamatory reference" to the ex-PMs on the Emergency and the Bofors scam should be withdrawn.

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A controversy erupted recently after the Maharashtra State Bureau of Textbook Production and Curriculum Research, popularly known as Balbharti, had revised the syllabus for class IX.

"The textbook makes no mention of the fact that the supreme court had given a clean chit to Rajiv Gandhi in the Bofors case. This is not only disrespect of the SC order but deliberate hiding of facts for political purposes," Dutt said.

He said attempts were being made to tarnish the image of the two political stalwarts who gave their lives for the nation.

"The sections referring to the two leaders should be immediately removed and action taken against officials responsible," the Congress leader said.

The Congress got a support from the party ally NCP with its MLC Sunil Tatkare heaping praises on the former premiers.

"It was Rajiv Gandhi who led technology revolution in the country and it was he who first spoke about digital India. Had he not been there, we could never have achieved technological advancements," Tatkare said.

He said the contribution of the Nehru-Gandhi family in building the foundation of the country and ensuring unity in diversity is immense.

"Do not spoil the minds of young children with your corrupt mentality. You will destroy the nation. Remember that Rajiv Gandhis stature was such that then president of the US (Ronald Reagan) had held an umbrella for him as he had left the White House while it was raining," Tatkare said.

The NCP leader further said that students should know about the "supreme sacrifices" made for the nation by both the prime ministers.

Acknowledging the strong sentiments of the House over the issue, Education Minister Vinod Tawde said the feelings of the members will be conveyed to the textbook bureau for necessary action.

"Nothing has been written in the books for political motives. The board (Balbharti) decides on what has to be published. I have not interfered in their decision being a minister. I will not make any political intervention but convey the sentiments of the members to the board," Tawde said.

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He said nowhere in the textbook Indira and Rajiv Gandhi are shown as being guilty of any wrongdoings, but only the sequence of events upto year 2000 has been published.

"Rajiv Gandhi got a clean chit in 2004. Hence that was not mentioned (in the book)," he said.

"So far history of the pre-Independence era was being taught to students and they had no knowledge about the happenings in the independent India. Hence it was decided to include history of the post-independence period," Tawde added. PTI MM NSK

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Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, July 31

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

The office of Turkmenistans permanent mission in New York hosted a ceremony of signing of a joint communique on establishment of diplomatic relations between Turkmenistan and Paraguay, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said in a message July 31.

Officials from Turkmenistan and Paraguay confirmed their interest in strengthening the friendly relations between the two countries and developing bilateral political, economic and cultural cooperation, according to the message.

The two sides exchanged views on expansion of political cooperation, and highlighted the role of interaction within international organizations.

Paraguay became the 145th country with which Turkmenistan established diplomatic relations.
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, July 31

By Demir Azizov Trend:

According to Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyevs decree, Dilmurod Kasimov has been appointed Business Ombudsman for protection of rights and legal interests of business entities.

Previously, Kasimov served as the first deputy prosecutor for the Samarkand region of Uzbekistan.

The Institute of the Commissioner for Protection of Rights and Legal Interests of Business Entities under the Uzbek president was established by President Mirziyoyev in May of 2017.

The Institute was established to ensure the priority principle of the business entities rights.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 31



By Kamila Aliyeva  Trend:

Bishkek hosted latest round of continuous negotiations between the delegations of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan on the delimitation of the state border, which this time lasted for nine days and ended July 29, according to the information published on the website of Uzbekistans Foreign Ministry.

During the latest talks representative delegations, on the basis of mutual coincidence of positions, continued their joint work on the demarcation of certain sections of the Uzbek-Kyrgyz borderline.

Following the negotiations, which were held in traditionally friendly and constructive atmosphere, relevant Protocol was signed.

Uzbek delegation was headed by Ilhom Nematov, while Kyrgyz delegation was led by Kurbanbay Iskandarov.

Nematov also held a meeting on this issue with Kyrgyz Deputy Prime Minister Zhenish Razakov.

Total length of the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border is 1378.44 kilometers. Nearly 50 sections of the borderline, totaling at about 300 kilometers havent been delimitated yet.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 31

By Dalga Khatinoglu, Trend:

Iran has increased both its power generation and exports, while the imports remained flat during four months of the current fiscal year (started on March 21).

According to the latest weekly statistics, published by Iran's Energy Ministry, Irans electricity generation reached about 110.5 terawatt-hours (TWh) in the first four months of the current fiscal year, indicating a 7-percent growth year-on-year.

Iran's electricity exports also increased by 47 percent to 3.222 TWh, while imports remained flat at 1.591 TWh.

Despite positive results in the power sector, the pace of Irans power export growth is decreasing, as the warm season pushed the domestic demand up.

The decline of import went from - 23 percent in the first month of the fiscal year to 1 percent in the fourth month of the year. Irans power demand increases in summer, mostly due to rising consumption in housing sector.

Fiscal year, started March 21 Cumulative Exports Change Yearly Cumulative imports Change Yearly Cumulative generation 1st month 491 143% 379 -23% 22327 Two months 1293 330% 741 -16% 45509 Three months 2363 85% 1203 -8% 78000 Four months 3222 47% 1591 -1% 110451

Based on Energy Ministrys weekly reports (GWh)

Iran also decreased its electricity imports by 23 percent in the first month of spring.

The country increased gas and gas oil delivery to its power plants by 9.6 percent and 12.4 percent to 25.104 billion cubic meters and 543 million liters, while fuel oil supply to this sector decreased by 30.8 percent to 552 million liters in the mentioned period.

The actual generation capacity of Irans power plants stands at 60.298 GW, but above 11 percent of Irans generated net electricity is lost in transmission and distributing process.

Iran has increased nominal power generation capacity by 1.88 GW in July 21, compared to the same day in 2016, of which above 0.5 GW was added during the current fiscal year.

Iran plans to add 4.2 GW more to power its generation capacity during the next eight months of the current fiscal year to March 20, 2018.
Details added, first verstion was publiushed at 13:40 (GMT+04:00)



Tehran, Iran, July 21



By Mehdi Sepahvand  Trend:



Irans Industrial Development & Renovation Organization (IDRO) signed an agreement with Russian Transmashholding Company to establish a joint venture for manufacturing wagons for railroads, Trends correspondent reported from the event July 31.



The Russian side will provide 80 percent of the 2.5 billion euro agreement for manufacturing passenger wagons, including the metro wagons.



Transmashholding is the largest manufacturer of locomotives and rail equipment in Russia.



IDRO and Transmashholding finalized a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to boost cooperation in production of railroad cars in March of 2017.



Iran possesses about 24,000 cargo and 2,000 passenger wagons, as well as 100 locomotives which are currently actively being used.



Iran plans to expand its railway grid from the current 11,000 km up to 25,000 km within the next five years, which explains the need for more equipment, including the wagons.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 31

By Khalid Kazimov  Trend:

Iranian Transportation Minister Abbas Akhoundi has called on Germany to create a transportation corridor linking China to the European country through Iran.

Given the fact that a huge amount of cargo is transported from Germany to China, we propose to set up the rail corridor of Germany-Iran-China, Mehr news agency quoted him as saying at a meeting with German Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, Brigitte Zypries.

Elaborating on the existing infrastructure in the region for creating the corridor, he added that the transportation of cargo through the proposed corridor would cut costs and save time.

He further added that the sides in order to fulfill the plan need to jointly study the opportunity.

Iran is currently in collaboration with Azerbaijan and Russia to inaugurate the north-south transportation corridor which is meant to connect Northern Europe with Southeast Asia.
Tehran, Iran, July 31

By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:

Iran has drafted a 12-year plan on agricultural mechanization, according to Head of Agricultural Mechanization Development Center Kambiz Abbasi.

The issue of water management is the most pivotal point, around which the plan has been prepared, he said, IRIB news agency reported July 31.

The plan asserts that each cubic meter of water should yield 1.7 kilograms of agricultural product as the target point, he noted.

According to the official, over the past four years Iran made 52 trillion rials worth of investment in agricultural mechanization.

He also said 1.6 million hectares of farmland have been put under protective farming, as the result of which 70 liters of gas oil per hectare is being saved on.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 31

By Khalid Kazimov  Trend:

Russian envoy to Tehran has said that Moscow will probably remove visa requirements for Iranian nationals over the next two months.

Russian Ambassador to Tehran Levan Dzhagaryan has said that under an agreement with Irans Foreign Ministry, Iranian citizens will be able to travel visa-free to the Russian Federation within the next two-three months, Tasnim news agency reported.

Under a previous agreement, Iranian tourists, in groups of 5 to 50 people, can travel to Russia without an entry visa for a stay of up to 15 days.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 31



By Kamila Aliyeva  Trend:

Islamic Republic will experience a new series of hardships under the recently imposed US sanctions, Canadian political analyst Shahir Shahidsaless told Trend.

He noted that many companies might be affected due to the fact that the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) was chosen as the main target of the sanctions.

Given the major role that the IRGC plays in Irans economy, including in the sectors such as oil and gas, power generation, shipping, and telecommunication, many key companies and organizations may become subject to the sanctions, Shahidsaless said.

The expert underlined that losses may be significant especially for the petrochemical sector.

For instance one of the companies owned by the IRGC is Khatam al-Anbia, a construction company primarily involved in gas and oil mega projects. The company boasts 50,000 employees and an estimated annual turnover of $12 billion. The IRGC and its subsidiaries also have large stakes in three petrochemical complexes, he said.

Depending on the extent of those sanctions, Irans economy could experience a new wave of hardships since the significant American sanctions were suspended under the landmark 2015 nuclear deal, according to the expert.

The US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to slap new sanctions on Iran, Russia and North Korea but the bill in order to become a law needs to be signed by President Donald Trump.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 31



By Kamila Aliyeva  Trend:

Iranians got some experience when it comes to US sanctions, French Expert in US and Middle East relations Dr. Hichem Karoui, Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Center for China and Globalization, told Trend.

The expert expressed the view that Iran will find a way to cope with the newly-imposed sanctions due to previous experience of the Islamic Republic.

They have learned, over the years, the ways to go around and managed to stay afloat, thanks to their connections with regional and other major powers in Asia and elsewhere, he said.

Iranian business may be affected somewhat, but US companies will not be much happy as well, according to Karoui.

They are never happy with sanctions that hinder them from making business with a big market like Iran, he added.

The US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to slap new sanctions on Iran, Russia and North Korea; nonetheless, the bill, in order to become a law, needs to be signed into by President Donald Trump.
By PTI: Ghaziabad, Jul 31 (PTI) Congress workers and members of the Muslim community held a protest demonstration, demanding that the Haj House here be opened for the pilgrims this evening.

The protestors blocked the GT Road near the Hindon river bridge. According to the police, the protestors pelted stones at their vehicles, when asked to vacate the place, resulting in injuries to a few constables.

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The mob also allegedly misbehaved with a lady constable, they added.

Assistant Superintendent of Police Anoop Singh said the protestors offered namaz outside the Haj House and subsequently, staged a sit-in there.

He added that they also tried to break open the lock of the premises.

Police resorted to lathicharge to disperse the mob and detained three Congress office-bearers -- Naseem Khan, Pooja Chaddha and Sameer Khan -- Singh said, adding that the situation was now under control.

The procedure for registering an FIR against them was underway, he said.

Earlier, the Muslim Maha Sabha and the Peace Party gave a memorandum to the district administration demanding that the Haj House be opened.

The then UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had inaugurated the facility in September last year. The multi-storey building, meant to serve as a transit-cum-facilitation centre for the Haj pilgrims, is caught up in litigation at the National Green Tribunal (NGT). PTI CORR AQS AQS

--- ENDS ---
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 31

By Kamila Aliyeva  Trend:

Iran did not violate the terms of the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) with July 27 rocket launch, an expert in nuclear policy and visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe in Brussels Sinan Ulgen told Trend.

He underlined that the JCPOA contains no direct prohibitions against such testing

Iran is called upon not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology, until the date eight years after the JCPOA Adoption Day or until the date on which the IAEA submits a report confirming the Broader Conclusion, whichever is earlier, Ulgen quoted one of the annexes of the UNSC Resolution 2231 endorsing the nuclear deal.

The wording "called upon" cannot be read in diplomatic terms as an outright prohibition, according to the expert.

Iran can however be criticized, at most, for defying the spirit of the JCPOA, he added.

Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia - plus Germany signed the JCPOA on July 14, 2015 and started implementing it on January 16, 2016.

Under the agreement, limits were put on Irans nuclear activities in exchange for, among other things, the removal of all nuclear-related bans against the Islamic Republic.

The UN Security Council later unanimously endorsed a resolution that effectively turned the JCPOA into international law.
The four Arab countries which have cut ties with Qatar said on Sunday they were ready for talks to tackle the dispute if Doha showed willingness to deal with their demands, Reuters reported.

The foreign ministers of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) met in the Bahraini capital Manama to discuss the crisis that has raised tensions across the region.

Diplomatic efforts led by Kuwait and backed by Western powers have failed to end the dispute, in which the four states have severed travel and communications with Qatar.

"The four countries are ready for dialogue with Qatar with the condition that it announces its sincere willingness to stop funding terrorism and extremism and its commitment to not interfere in other countries' foreign affairs and respond to the 13 demands," Bahrain's foreign minister, Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa, told a joint news conference after the meeting.

They announced no new economic sanctions on the Gulf state.

Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt and Bahrain have previously issued a list of 13 demands for Qatar, which include curtailing its support for the Muslim Brotherhood, shutting down the Doha-based Al Jazeera channel, closing a Turkish military base and downgrading its relations with Gulf enemy Iran.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said Qatar was not serious in tackling the countries' demands.

"We are ready to talk with Qatar on the implementation of the demands, on the implementation of the principles, if Qatar is serious, but it has been clear that it is not," he said.

The four countries have also listed "six principles" they want Qatar to adopt.

The Saudi-led bloc cut ties with the Gulf state on June 5, accusing it of backing militant groups and cosying up to their arch-foe Iran, allegations Doha denies.

Earlier on Sunday, al-Hayat newspaper said, citing unidentified Gulf sources, that the four countries "are expected to impose sanctions that will gradually affect the Qatari economy."

Saudi Arabia has closed its land border with Qatar while all four countries have cut air and sea links with Doha, demanding the gas exporting country take several measures to show it was changing its policies.

Turkey and Iran have stepped in to provide fresh produce, poultry and dairy products to Qatar instead of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, with Oman providing alternative ports to those in the UAE.

The four Arab countries added 18 more groups and individuals they say are linked to Qatar to their "terrorist" lists last week.
The US armed forces are always prepared to use force in response to North Koreas actions, if that is necessary, General Terrence OShaughnessy, US Pacific Air Forces commander, said on Sunday, TASS reported.

"North Korea remains the most urgent threat to regional stability," the Fox News TV channel quotes him as saying. OShaughnessy stressed that "diplomacy remains the lead," while solving North Koreas problem. "However, we have a responsibility to our allies and our nation to showcase our unwavering commitment while planning for the worst-case scenario," he noted.

"If called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing," the general added.

Earlier reports said that two US Air Force B-1 strategic bombers, along with two Japanese F-2 fighters, held joint drills following a ballistic missile test in North Korea. The exercises were held in the area between the Korean Peninsula and Japans southwestern island of Kyushu.

On Saturday, The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported the successful launch of the Hwansong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). I noted that the missiles range was 998 kilometers, while the maximum height was nearly 3,725 kilometers. According to the Japanese Defense Ministry, the missile fell into the Sea of Japan in the countrys exclusive economic zone. It also noted that, compared to the previous launch conducted on July 4, the flight altitude grew nearly 1,000 kilometers, and the time it spent in the air grew by 5 minutes.
At least seven militants of Daesh terrorist group (banned in Russia) were killed as a result of a drone strike in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province, Sputnik reported, citing provincial police chief Maj. Gen. Jumma Gul Himmat.

The NATO-operated drone strike that targeted a terrorist hideout in mountainous Talona area of Watapur district at approximately 11 a.m. local time (06:30 GMT), left seven militants killed, including a commander, the Pajhwok news agency reported.

Afghanistan has been experiencing significant political, social and security-related instability for decades, as terrorist organizations, including Daesh and the Taliban radical movement (also banned in Russia) continue to stage attacks against civilian and military targets.

The United States and its allies launched a military operation in Afghanistan in 2001 following 9/11 terror attacks. The mission in Afghanistan ended on December 28, 2014. On January 1, 2015, NATO announced its new mission in the country, called Resolute Support, to train and assist the Afghan security forces.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 31

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Ayse Acar Basaran, an MP from Democratic Peoples Party, an opposition party in Turkey, was detained in the countrys southwestern Batman Province, the Turkish media reported July 31.

Reportedly, Basaran was detained in a local airport as she tried to fly to Ankara.

She was detained due to her refusal from testifying in the court as a witness.

In June, the police of Turkeys southeastern Diyarbakir Province detained another MP from Democratic People's Party, Osman Baydemir.

In general, 11 MPs from Democratic People's Party, including co-chairs of the party Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, have been recently arrested in Turkey.

The MPs from Democratic People's Party are accused of creating a criminal organization, membership in a terrorist organization, and other crimes.

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Follow Rufiz Hafizoglu on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 31

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Session of the Turkeys Supreme Military Council headed by the Chief of the Central Command of Turkish Armed Forces Hulusi Akar and countrys Prime Minister Binali Yildirim will be held on August 2, according to the reports of Turkish media on July 31.

The fight against the Fethullah Gulen movement participants infiltrated in the ranks of Turkish Armed Forces is expected to be one of the issues to be discussed at the session.

As a result of purges in Turkeys Armed Forces after the July 15 military coup attempt, the number of generals and admirals decreased by 40 percent, countrys media reported earlier.

There were 236 generals and admirals in the Turkish Armed Forces before the coup attempt, and currently, their numbers total at 96.

Reportedly, after the military coup attempt, about 13,000 servicemen, most of whom were ranked reserve officers, were called back for duty into the Turkish Armed Forces.

It should be noted that on July 15, 2016, Turkish authorities stated that a military coup attempt took place in the country, as a group of servicemen declared the transition of power. Taking into consideration that rebelling servicemen started to surrender on July 16, Turkish authorities stated that the coup attempt had failed. Nonetheless, more than 255 Turkish citizens were killed during the attempted coup.

Follow Rufiz Hafizoglu on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
KYODO NEWS - Jul 30, 2017 - 10:02 | Feature, All

Kayaking in a transparent canoe off the coast of the western Japan prefecture of Tottori has become a popular tourist attraction, with many foreign visitors taking part in the activity described as "similar to flying in the sky."

Visitors to the Sea of Japan coastal area known for its jagged coastline and caves hollowed out by waves can watch schools of Japanese horse mackerels, squids and sea anemones from the bottom of the kayak off Uradome beach in the town of Iwami, where the water is as transparent as the famously clear seas off Okinawa.

The 4-meter-long polycarbonate boat takes visitors to a sea area which comprises a global geopark designated by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization for its geomorphological and geological features.

The service offered by a local group has attracted many overseas visitors, particularly from Asia, and gained favorable reviews by participants, with some saying they felt like they were "swimming with fish and lying on a carpet of seaweed."

The water transparency off Uradome beach is around 25 meters, matching the level off the Okinawa main island in Japan's southernmost prefecture, according to Koji Hasegawa, 55, who heads the group promoting the use of local nature for leisure and education.

Visitors may kayak into rocky areas or caves in the two-seat boat accompanied by a guide. The fee is set at 8,000 yen ($72) and the operator currently holds five boats.

"I want visitors to enjoy the beautiful ocean and magnificent geological features," said Hasegawa.

The beach is part of the San'in Kaigan Geopark admitted to the UNESCO-assisted Global Geoparks Network in 2010. The geopark covers coastal areas in Kyoto, Hyogo and Tottori prefectures and features igneous rocks, dunes and geological strata related to the formation of the Sea of Japan around 25 million years ago.
Agencia EFE

Madrid, 12 nov (EFE).- Ecuador no pudo pasar del empate a cero frente a Irak en el amistoso disputado este sabado en el Civitas Metropolitano y evidencio asi su falta de gol, incluso con Gonzalo Plata fallando un penalti en el ultimo instante, ya que solo ha logrado dos tantos en los ultimos seis encuentros de preparacion para un Mundial de Catar que inauguraran contra la anfitriona el domingo 20 y al que llegan aun con la duda de si estara un Byron Castillo que abandono el campo por lesion a lo
New Delhi, Jul 31 (PTI) Hitting out at Pakistan, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today said cross border terrorism directed at India is now recognised as a larger regional and global challenge and there has been growing convergence between New Delhi and Washington to counter it.

In an address at a think-tank, Swaraj also underlined the need for respecting sovereignty and territorial integrity while carrying out connectivity projects, seen as a reference to Chinas ambitious Belt and Road Initiative.

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Touching on a variety of issues, she identified evolving situation in the Indo-Pacific region as one of the main challenges confronting the world today.

She said India and the US stand together in upholding an international rules-based system that has benefited all nations, in an apparent reference to the situation in the South China sea where China has been ramping up its military strength.

Referring to Indias deteriorating ties with Pakistan, Swaraj said the "Neighbourhood First" policy of the government has yielded results with all countries in the region barring one.

On challenge of terrorism, Swaraj said India and the US has been attaching "high priority" to counter it.

"Both our countries have been direct victims of this scourge. In India, we have been facing cross-border terrorism for many years now. This is now recognised as a larger regional ? even global ? challenge," she said at the India-US Forum.

Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modis talks with US President Donald Trump in Washington last month, Swaraj said the "clear and unambiguous" message given jointly by the two leaders to contain terrorism needs to be pursued with resolve by the international community.

The external affairs minister said the increasing strategic convergence between India and the US was also reflected in bilateral defence ties as two-way military exchanges have grown in range and complexity.

"The focus now is on co-production and co-development. The recognition by the US of India as its Major Defence Partner is an important development; and we hope that it will enable higher levels of technology partnerships," she said.

On connectivity initiatives, Swaraj said India has outlined the principles that should be adhered to in undertaking connectivity initiatives, which included ensuring respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity.

"India will continue to work with the US and other partners in support of these objectives and principles," she said.

India has been critical of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) due to its sovereignty concerns as the USD 50 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor which is part of the BRI passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

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She identified Afghanistan as an important "theatre of cooperation" over the last decade and half between India and US.

"We deeply appreciate the sacrifices made by the US to preserve peace, security and democracy in Afghanistan. However, it is important that the international community, particularly the US, must remain engaged in Afghanistan so that the gains of last 16 years are not frittered away," she said.

She said India remains committed to continue supporting the Government and people of Afghanistan.

Swaraj said Indias emergence as the worlds fastest growing major economy and the revival of growth in the US create win-win opportunities for both countries.

She also talked about reform initiatives undertaken by the Modi government.

"The scale and size of the changes can be gauged by the fact that the government has removed 1200 obsolete laws and taken 7000 steps to improve ease of doing business at the federal level alone in the last three years," she said. PTI MPB ZMN

--- ENDS ---
GettyImages 490495069

The chief of the New Orleans Police Department has denounced comments by President Donald Trump that seemed to endorse aggressive and violent police conduct.

"Improving public safety and reducing crime requires restoring trust with the community," Michael Harrison, chief of the department, said in a statement on Saturday. "The President's comments stand in stark contrast to our department's commitment to constitutional policing and community engagement."

Harrison continued: "Any unreasonable or unnecessary application of force against any citizen erodes trust at a time when we need support from our local communities the most. This is not a binary choice of either protecting the public or protecting a person's rights."

Trump's comments came during a speech to law-enforcement officers in Brentwood, New York, on Friday. During an unscripted aside, Trump suggested that police shouldn't be "too nice" with suspects as they put them in the backs of police vehicles.

"Like when you guys put somebody in the car and you're protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over. Like, 'don't hit their head,' and they've just killed somebody," Trump said. "'Don't hit their head.' I said, 'you can take the hand away.' OK?"

The comments drew widespread criticism from police departments across the country, including two of the nation's largest in New York and Los Angeles.

"What the president recommended would be out of policy in the Los Angeles Police Department, said Steve Soboroff of the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners, according to the Los Angeles Times.

"It's not what policing is about today."

NOW WATCH: 'What you feel isn't relevant': Sen. Angus King grills intel leaders on whether Trump tried to influence them





More From Business Insider


Apples (AAPL) sudden removal of an entire category of privacy apps from its Chinese-market App Store should be upsetting news. But it shouldnt be unexpected.

Something like this was bound to happen when a government that strictly controls its citizens access to information meets a smartphone vendor that strictly controls its users access to apps. And if Apple wants to continue to sell its devices to Chinas citizens, its going to have to play by Chinas rules.

Whats more, this probably wont be the last time Apple finds itself in such a situation.

Why VPN mattersespecially in China

The apps in question provide virtual-private-network services, which offer encrypted connections from a device to the rest of the internet, ensuring that your internet provider and any other third parties cant see what websites youve visited.

VPNs remain something of a niche app in the U.S. A survey conducted last June found that only 13% of Americans understood a VPNs ability to shield your privacy on open, public Wi-Fi networks.

Such apps can be tricky to set up, and require complete trust in the company running the service, as cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs notes in this excellent essay: The VPN company will know every site you visit.

Apple has removed virtual private network apps from its App Store at the request of the Chinese government. (image: AP Photo)

But in countries like China and Russia with a history of snooping on internet traffic, a VPNs ability to encrypt your online traffic is essential to stop such routine government surveillance.

You may also need it strictly on functional grounds: Without using a VPN app during my recent visit to Shanghai for the CES Asia conference, I risked not being able to use Google (GOOG, GOOGL), Facebook (FB) and Twitter (TWTR), which are all routinely blocked in China.

Precedents in the U.S.

When the Chinese government demanded that Apple remove VPN apps that didnt have newly mandatory government licenses from Chinas version of the App Store, Beijing knew Apple could fulfill that directive and do so quickly.

Story continues

Apple removed us from the Chinese App Store without any warning, explained Sunday Yokubaitis, president of the Austin-based VPN service Golden Frog. He forwarded a vague notice from Apple saying its VyprVPN app included content that is illegal in China.

But Apple has a history of exercising its control over the App Store  the only way everyday users can install programs on an iOS device, aside from small-scale app beta tests  suddenly and sometimes capriciously.

In just the first two years of the stores existence, Apple used its authority to reject apps that let people look up swear words, read a text-only copy of the Kama Sutra and see an argument for single-payer health insurance. In the most egregious case, the company briefly tossed Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist Mark Fiores app because it violated a rule against content that ridicules public figures.

The company has since tried to make the app-review process more predictable and transparent  for instance, you can read the review guidelines in comic-book form. But just months ago, Apples ban on offensive, insensitive, upsetting content apparently led it to evict a news app that lets you track U.S. drone strikes.

Thats a big reason why Apple fared so poorly in a recent survey of how well major tech companies protect digital rights.

Apple PR didnt respond to a request for comment Monday morning, but in a statement sent to other news outlets it acknowledged that We have been required to remove some VPN apps in China that do not meet the new regulations.

A plan B in the PRC, but what about the next time?

Privacy-minded Chinese iOS users arent completely out of luck, however. Golden Frogs Yokubaitis said that Chinese users who set a billing address outside the country can still download its apps, while others can follow manual-setup instructions to configure iOSs built-in VPN support to use its service.

The same risk does not apply to Android users because Google doesnt offer its Play Store at all in China. Consumers there can install apps off other stores  or they can disable a security setting and download apps directly from specific websites.

Both practices increase the odds of malware infecting an Android phone, but they also ensure theres no app-procurement choke point for a government to control.

Apple has done a good job in standing up to the U.S. governments appetite for information about its users: see its refusal last year to defeat an iPhones encryption to help out FBI investigators. But other governments dont have the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to limit their reach into peoples lives.

And if Apple wants to do business in other countries  besides China, where its now trying to get slumping iPhone sales to rebound, theres Russia, which just enacted a ban on VPN use that goes into effect Nov. 1  it will find itself asked, nicely or not, to exercise its App Store control on those governments behalf.

Not only have we seen this movie before, I fear it will spawn many sequels.

More from Rob:

Email Rob at rob@robpegoraro.com; follow him on Twitter at @robpegoraro.
The FAA is being asked to review seat regulations on planes.

These days, airlines get to decide how much legroom they give passengers. But a new court order is pressuring aviation officials to set a mandate for seat size.

On July 28, judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia called out the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), urging it to review what one judge called, The Case of the incredible Shrinking Airline Seat.

The court order was actually inspired from a petition originally filed by Flyers Rights in 2015. In that document, the consumer advocacy group raised concerns over the safety of passengers if seats continued to decrease in size. They believe that passengers wouldnt be able to swiftly vacate a plane in an emergency, because the cabin is so cramped with seats. The petition also points to health concerns, like deep vein thrombosis, which can occur if blood flow is restricted in the leg.

The FAA denied that petition, but the court of appeals found that the FAA used off-point studies and undisclosed tests using unknown parameters to backup their claims for denying the petition. Now the agency will have to seriously consider the groups safety concerns.

Currently, the FAA does not mandate the size of seats, and each airline gets to use its own discretion. This is perhaps why we have seen seat pitch (the distance between the back of one seat and the front of another) decline in the past couple of years.

According to the petition, the average seat pitch used to be 35 inches. Today, that number has fallen to 31 inches. Most of the major carriers like Alaska Air, American, Delta and United have seat pitches ranging from 30-32 inches. JetBlue consistently offers more legroom, boasting a seat pitch of 32-33 inches on most of its planes. On the shorter end of the spectrum is budget carrier Spirit, which has a leg-cramp inducing 28 inch pitch in the economy cabin.

Not surprisingly, seats have also gotten more narrow. Flyers Rights says the average width of a plane seat was 18.5 inches in the early 2000s. That number dropped down to 17 inches in 2010. The shrinking seats are even more magnified by the fact that Americans have gotten larger over the past decade. The average weight for men in 2002 was 191 pounds. Today, the number is 195.7. For women, weight has jumped from 164 to 168 pounds.

Story continues

Its no secret that airlines have decreased the size of seats to maximize space and profits on flights. In May, American Airlines added more seats to its 737 Max jetliners, decreasing pitch from 31 inches to 30 in the economy section. Whats more, three rows on the plane were saddled with just 29 inches of legroom.

In 2015, United added enough seats to planes that it was equivalent to building 14 new aircraft. The airline was able to add revenue, but passengers lost precious legroom in the process.

For this new petition, the FAA has six months to respond by dismissing the petition or by issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking.

While these new measures may be of interest to passengers who want more leg room, they shouldnt hold their breath. A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a bill in March that would require the FAA to issue minimum seat-size requirements. It has yet to be voted on. A similar bill was rejected in 2016.

In the meantime, passengers can take an active role in the seats they select. During booking, the type of plane youre flying on is typically listed in the details. With that information you can visit a site like Seat Guru to get a layout of the seat locations, pitches and accessibility.

Armed with this information, passengers will be able to better compare the cost of a ticket with the level of comfort they can expect during their flight.

Brittany is a reporter at Yahoo Finance.

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The August issue of the New Jersey State Bar Association's bi-monthly magazine, New Jersey Lawyer, focuses on the evolving topic of biotechnology, genetics and the law.

"Although a very specialized area, biotechnology law crosses many legal disciplines, including litigation, licensing, intellectual property, patents, agriculture, business, venture capitalism, antitrust, biosecurity and bioethics," said Angela Foster and David Opderbeck, who served as special editors for the issue.

"The use of biotechnology has raised a number of legal, ethical and social issues, including who owns genetically modified organisms (GMOs), whether genetically modified foods are safe to eat, and who controls a person's genetic information. This issue explores contemporary biotechnology issues impacting the legal community."

A dozen articles explore the topic in the award-winning magazine, beginning with a look at whether organs-on-chips are patentable in an article by Douglas Bucklin. Richard Catalina Jr.'s article on the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act follows.

Nancy Del Pizzo's article looks at the open source model in biotechnology, while Foster explores the truth and fiction behind genetically modified food. Jonathan Lourie reviews strategic licenses and collaborations.

Reproduction is the topic of two articles, one analyzing assisted reproductive technology, written by Alan Milstein, and one penned by Kimberly Mutcherson on regulating the right to procreate.

Opderbeck's contribution focuses on synthetic biology and biosecurity, while Anjana Patel and Patricia Wagner discuss biotech mergers, acquisitions and antitrust issues and Marina Sigareva and Ryan O'Donnell look at global strategies for protecting biotech inventions.

The edition closes with articles on the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's influence on the biotech and pharma industries, written by Nichole Valeyko and Maegan Fuller, and the privacy implications for biotechnology by Wagner.

The October edition of New Jersey Lawyer will explore pro bono issues.
John Kelly

Retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, President Donald Trump's new chief of staff, nearly resigned over the way Trump fired former FBI director James Comey in May, sources told CNN on Monday.

"John was angry and hurt by what he saw and the way [Comey] was treated," one source said.

Kelly was serving as Trump's homeland security secretary at the time Comey was fired, and the two men reportedly had a professional relationship and a "deep mutual respect" for each other, according to CNN.

Comey was fired on May 9 and became aware of Trump's decision when he saw it break on cable news, while he was addressing FBI employees in Los Angeles. When he first saw the headlines, Comey laughed and thought it was a prank, The New York Times reported.

After getting confirmation that he was, in fact, fired, Comey left Los Angeles for Washington and took a phone call from Kelly on the way, CNN reported. When he learned that Kelly may resign over the events that had transpired, Comey urged him not to.

Kelly recently accepted a position as Trump's chief of staff, replacing Reince Priebus, who was ousted on Friday amid brewing tensions with White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, who was ousted on Monday.

Scaramucci's ouster followed an explosive interview he gave to The New Yorker, during which he called Priebus "a paranoid schizophrenic  a paranoiac" and made vulgar comments about White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.

Kelly was reportedly the one who requested that Scaramucci be removed as communications director, in an effort to assert that he was in charge, according to the Times.

NOW WATCH: Kellyanne Conway defended Donald Trump Jr.s meeting with a Russian lawyer using show-and-tell cards  and the internet went nuts





More From Business Insider


& Co., the lender struggling to overcome a fake-accounts scandal in its community bank, said the division's new leader is cutting about 70 senior executive jobs.

The lender will reduce the number of regional and area presidents to 91, Mary Mack, head of the retail bank, said Friday in a memo to staff, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg. Bank spokeswoman Bridget Braxton confirmed the contents of the memo and said employees whose positions are eliminated will remain staff members for 60 days until further steps are decided.

Most of the remaining managers will be re-titled as region bank presidents with direct responsibility for more employees than before, in a move aimed at reducing management levels across the branch network, Mack wrote. Across its 10 geographical divisions, Wells Fargo previously employed 160 regional and area presidents.

"Change is hard, yet change is necessary to make sure we are well positioned for the future," Mack wrote. "In order to truly be better, we must put the right structure in place," she added.

The community-banking division, which houses the retail bank, has generated weaker profit since September when Wells Fargo was fined $185 million because employees had been opening accounts for more than a half decade without customers' permission. This week, the firm's consumer operations revealed another scandal, announcing that the bank had charged as many as 500,000 customers for auto insurance they didn't need.

Read more: Wells Fargo stumbles again with unwanted auto insurance

Mack, who took over as head of community banking last year, had shuffled higher-level executive positions in March. She collapsed her top-ranking regional deputies from three positions to two, putting Lisa Stevens and Michelle Lee in charge, according to a memo Bloomberg obtained at the time. Their colleague John Sotoodeh, who had previously oversaw a third main region, was demoted to lead regional president.

Story continues

The three executives remain in those positions, as do others based on factors including interview results, performance, sales quality and tenure, according to Friday's memo. Mack said some departing employees have chosen to retire while others didn't want to move to a new job.

With the latest reorganization of the community bank, about 41 percent of the 58 regional executives senior enough to be listed in the firm's last public filing of key employees will have left their roles. The last public report was in early 2016, when Carrie Tolstedt oversaw the retail bank. A Wells Fargo board investigation assigned her much of the blame for the sales goals that regulators found drove employees to open bogus accounts.

Some of the managers who will no longer work in regional banking are among those described by Bloomberg in a November story that profiled supervisors who won promotions amid cross-selling, the practice of persuading individual customers to sign up for more bank products.

Two executives who helped run California are no longer working as regional bank managers: David DiCristofaro, who is now a leader in branch experience; and Ben Alvarado, who is "looking for new opportunities," according to a separate memo Mack sent to staff in May. The bank previously fired some of the other managers profiled in the story.

The retail bank will continue to have 12 regional leaders, the same number as before the sales scandal. All but one of the lead executives are the same. David Miree, a former executive at Webster Bank, rejoined Wells Fargo this year to take a lead role overseeing the Texas region.

A list of the 91 positions that remain includes 11 unfilled roles, the memo shows.

See original article on Fortune.com

More from Fortune.com
A senior Afghan official has accused Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of providing sanctuaries and material support to the Afghan Taliban.

The accusations follow allegations by Afghan officials that Tehrans support enabled the Taliban to briefly capture a district in western Afghanistan last week.

The claims underscore the budding alliance between Irans Shiite clerical regime and Afghanistans hard-line Sunni Taliban, who were once each others sworn enemies.

Mohammad Arif Shahjahan, the governor of Farah Province in western Afghanistan, told Radio Free Afghanistan on July 31 that Tehran had provided safe havens to some Taliban leaders.

Some Taliban leaders travel frequently to Iran, he said. They have hideouts there and are being aided with a lot of material resources.

Shahjahan also said that while supporting the insurgents, operatives from the IRGCs elite Quds Force recently met and advised the Taliban in Farahs Pusht-e Koh and Gulistan districts. The Quds Force is IGRCs special operations unit often seen as responsible for conducting covert operations outside Iran.

He said visits from Quds Force operatives are frequent in Farah, which shares a nearly 300-kilometer porous border with Irans southeastern provinces of South Khorasan and Sistan-Baluchistan.

Lawmaker Jamila Amini heads Farahs provincial council. She told Radio Free Afghanistan that IRGC operatives are even using promises of sought-after residency in Iran to encourage families from various Farah districts to let their younger members fight for the insurgents.

Iranian interference is direct. It is engaged in encouraging youth to join the insurgency in return for allowing their families to reside in Iran, she said. [In most cases,] one member of the family is required to fight in the insurgency in return for his familys residency in Iran.

While she and Shahjahan didnt provide any evidence to back their accusations, Afghan officials in the western provinces bordering Iran are increasingly vocal about Tehrans interference.

Last week, officials in neighboring Ghor Province accused Tehran of bankrolling a Taliban offensive to briefly overrun Taywara district.

Afghan forces claimed to have recaptured Taywara on July 29 after the Taliban held it for five days.

Iran has supported the Talibans war against Afghan armed forces in Ghor to destroy Salma Dam in the neighboring province of Herat as well as demolishing the Poze Lich Hydropower plant that is currently under construction, said Fazlul Haq Ihsan, head of Ghors provincial council.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid rejected accusations that his organization is being aided by Iran, which opposed the Taliban regime in the 1990s. The two came close to war in 1998 following a massacre of Iranian diplomats during the Talibans recapture of the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif.

The Iranian Embassy in Kabul did not respond to requests for comment. Iranian officials, however, have always maintained that they support the government in Kabul.

Incoming Iranian army chief Amir Ahmad Reza Pourdastan recently claimed his country now dominates intelligence over the activities of Islamic State (IS) militants in Afghan and Iraqi provinces along Irans border.

We were able to gain good intelligence on the movements of IS affiliates in Iraqs Diyala Province and in the three provinces of Afghanistan [bordering Iran], Pourdastan was quoted as saying by Irans Tasnim News Agency.

Irans growing alliance with the Taliban is attributed to its quest to guard the ultra-radical IS militants from threatening its southeastern borders with Afghanistan. It is not a coincidence that Taliban militants have systematically eliminated IS cells in the Afghan provinces bordering Iran.

During the past two years, Irans alliance with the Taliban has apparently mushroomed to the extent that former Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansur was killed by a U.S. drone attack after returning from Iran in May 2016. Tehran, along with Moscow and Islamabad, is now seen as a major backer of the Afghan Taliban.

Irans alleged covert support for the Taliban is not the only issue plaguing relations between the neighboring countries. Earlier this month, Afghan officials reacted strongly to remarks by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani about water projects in Afghanistan.

We cannot remain indifferent to the issue [water dams], which is apparently damaging our environment, Rouhani noted. Construction of several dams in Afghanistan, such as Kajaki, Kamal Khan, Salma, and others in the north and south of Afghanistan, affect our Khorasan and Sistan-Baluchistan provinces.

Noorullah Shayan contributed reporting from Farah, Afghanistan while Shahpur Sabir contributed reporting from Herat, Afghanistan.
English Lithuanian

Elektrenai, Lithuania, 2017-07-31 15:01 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB, legal entity code 302648707, the registered office address is Elektrines st. 21, Elektrenai (hereinafter  the Company). Overall number of ordinary registered shares is 635 083 615, ISIN code  LT0000128571.

The Company presents preliminary, non-audited financial indicators for JanuaryJune period of 2017:

The preliminary Companys sales revenue of the January-June period of 2017 are EUR 63.31 million and are 8 percent smaller than the revenue of the January-June period of 2016 (EUR 69.15 million).

The preliminary Companys profit of the January-June period of 2017, excluding interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization ( EBITDA ) reaches EUR 27.08 million and is 25 percent bigger than the profit of January-June period of 2016 (EUR 21.66 million).

The preliminary Companys net profit of the January-June period of 2017 reaches EUR 10.28 million and is 42 percent smaller than the net profit of January-June period of 2016 (EUR 17.79 million).

Decreased power production had the biggest impact on the decrease of Companys income. In total, the Companys power plants produced 14% less power from January to June 2017 than from January to June 2016: 549 GWh and 636 GWh respectively.

This year, an early spring flood and rains at the beginning of summer filled Nemunas, so more water flowed through the units of the Kaunas Algirdas Brazauskas' Hydroelectric Power Plant. From January to June 2017, this power plant produced 241 GW of power, i.e. 19% more than from January to June 2016 (203 GWh).

Increased power production in Kaunas contributed to improving the Company's profitability indicators. Another factor that had a significant impact on the change of the Companys EBITDA was the fact that the Companys income from unregulated activity of 2017 is no longer decreased due to commercial production profit adjustment and the activity inspection of 2010-2012. These decisions of the National Commission for Energy Control and Prices, according to which income from the funds of public service obligations (PSO) and power reserve securing services was decreased, lowered the EBITDA indicator from January to June 2016 by approximately EUR 11.1 million.

From January to June 2017, the Elektrenai complex produced 79 GW of power, i.e. 51% less than from January to June 2016 (163 GWh). The main reason for decreased production is recent decrease of power prices on the wholesale market. From January to June 2015, in the Lithuanian prices area of the Nord Pool market, power cost EUR 37.8/MWh, from January to June 2016, it cost EUR 36.2/MWh, and from January to June 2017, it cost EUR 34.5/MWh on average.

So, when there is an option to import cheaper power, gas facilities of the Elektrenai complex have fewer opportunities to produce competitive power, but they reliably ensure the reserve necessary for the system. We switch on the combined cycle unit, which is one third more efficient than the old ones, after a considerable increase of prices on the market. Then, by producing a relatively large amount of power, it may contribute to their stabilisation. From January to June 2017, the CCU was switched on 10 times (from January to June 2016, it was switched on 30 times) and worked smoothly, says Egle Ciuzaite, Chairperson of the Board and CEO at Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, to emphasise the reliability of the device ensuring the safety of the power system.

Since the difference between the day and the night prices is decreasing, 16% less power produced by the Kruonis Pumped Storage Hydroelectric Plant was sold on the market (from January to June 2016, 271 GWh were produced, and 228 GWh from January to June 2017); however, the quantity of sold regulatory power more than doubled (the service is needed for balancing the power surplus / shortage in the energy system). Another system service provided by this power plant, the secondary reserve power, was needed seven times from January to June 2017. From January to June 2016, this service, which is intended for ensuring the safety of the power supply, was activated as many as 40 times.

According to E. Ciuzaite, one of the most important events in the Company in the first half of 2017 is related to this power plant: the feasibility analysis of the expansion of the Kruonis PSHP by installing the fifth hydropower unit was completed. The expansion of the power plant is important for ensuring sufficient power capacities and competitive energy in Lithuania in the future, so the expansion project is included in the list of the main planned works in the energy sector.

The change of the net profit of the company (if the results of January-June 2017 and January-June 2016 are compared) continues to reflect one-off effects: at the beginning of 2016, the sale of a part of the Companys business was accounted for, which increased the net profit result by EUR 16.6 million. If this factor is eliminated from the results of 2016, the net profit of January-June 2017 would exceed the result of January-June 2016 almost nine times (EUR 1.2 million).

For almost a year we have been focusing on implementing the updated strategy of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba. I am happy that if we compare the operating results and the financial results of 2017 with the results of 2016, as early as after the first six months we can see positive developments in increasing the efficiency of cost management and the Companys profitability, says the head of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba.

The interim financial reports of the Company on January-June 2017 and the interim report will be published on 31 August 2017.
Dallas, July 31, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DALLAS  July 31, 2017  Istation, a leader in educational technology, has been awarded a statewide contract with the Idaho State Department of Education. Under the terms of the agreement, Istation will provide its formative assessment (known as ISIP) to Idaho district and charter school students in kindergarten through third grade.

Istations ISIP provides reliable data with frequent, age-appropriate measurement for students. While adjusting to each students reading ability, the interactive assessment keeps developing readers engaged and provides educators with the data they need to help students grow.

We are honored to be chosen as a partner with Idaho public schools, said Istation Chairman and CEO Richard H. Collins. Students and teachers across Idaho will now have access to technology that can assist teachers and help all students enhance their reading proficiency.

Istation will be part of the Idaho Reading Initiative (IRI). The IRI is designed to ensure that all children in the state of Idaho will master the skills they need to become successful readers.

An entire class can be assessed in all measures in 3040 minutes in a computer lab setting. Individually, the subtests range from approximately 310 minutes. Instant scoring results and a wealth of reports are available, including Lexile measures. Over 2,500 teacher-directed lessons are available to support teachers with targeted instruction in reading.

For more information, please visit https://www.sde.idaho.gov/assessment/iri/

# # #

About Idaho State Department of Education (SDE)

The Idaho State Department of Education (SDE) is a government agency supporting schools and students. The agency is responsible for implementing policies, distributing funds, administering statewide assessments, licensing educators, and providing accountability data. Idaho SDE delivers leadership, expertise, research, and technical assistance to school districts and schools to promote the academic success of students.

About Istation

Founded in 1998 and based in Dallas, Texas, Istation (Imagination Station) has become one of the nations leading providers of richly animated, game-like educational technology. Winner of several national educational technology awards, the Istation program puts more instructional time in the classroom through small-group and collaborative instruction. Istations innovative reading, math, and Spanish programs immerse students in an engaging and interactive environment and inspire them to learn. Additionally, administrators and educators can use Istation to easily track the progress of their students, schools and classrooms. Istation now serves over 4 million students throughout the United States and several countries.

Facebook: /istationed | Twitter: @Istationed

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/675e84ee-f158-4307-b665-cc0ef48c1d50
Three top professors have left the faculty for greener pastures over the last six months, a development which insiders say is unprecedented in AIIMS history.

In last three years, approximately 17 young faculty members have resigned because of poor salary and non-availability of accommodation.

By Priyanka Sharma: The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), the country's premier institute in the field of medicine, is finding it difficult to retain talent. Three top professors have left the faculty for greener pastures over the last six months, a development which insiders say is unprecedented in AIIMS history.

Dr BS Sharma, senior professor from neuro-surgery, who was a member of AIIMS faculty for more than 25 years, has joined a private medical institute in Jaipur while another professor from the department, Dr Sumit Sinha has moved to Paras Hospitals, a super speciality medicare chain. Dr Sinha served AIIMS for over a decade. The third one to leave is Dr Pravash Mishra from hematology department, who has joined Max Healthcare.

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"The migration of faculty has severely affected key areas of healthcare like liver transplantation services, renal transplantation, high quality paediatric medicine and general medicine services," noted the Faculty Association of AIIMS (FAAIIMS) in a letter sent to director Randeep Guleria on July 25. Mail Today has a copy of the letter.

The FAAIIMS has also sent their demands to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union health minister JP Nadda, requesting them to take action to stem the migration.

Reacting to the issue and the letter sent to health ministry, Union health secretary CK Mishra said, "AIIMS doctors get salaries which is very different from other government hospitals. However, the ministry is looking into the matter."

FIRST TIME

"It has never happened in the history of AIIMS," a senior faculty member, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Mail Today.

"These top doctors are migrating from AIIMS as they are not getting appropriate salaries, suitable accommodation and have administrative issues. The worrying part is that in some of the departments where the faculty faces the brain drain, the waiting list of patients stretches till 2019-2020."

"Not just the veteran but even the younger faculty is getting distraught with the functioning of the institution.

"In last three years, approximately 17 young faculty members have resigned because of poor salary and non-availability of accommodation," the faculty member said.

The FAAIIMS letter also points out that senior most faculty members "get no promotion for 15 to 20 years". This translates into static or slow raise in their incomes.

"An assistant professor's existing pay band and grade pay is Rs 15,600-39,100 with minimum scale of Rs 30,000.

"Suppose, this pay-band gets him a take-home amount of Rs 1 lakh. If the same doctor applies to a private institution, particularly with AIIMS experience, he is likely to get three times of his current pay. Why would he stay on?"

NEW PAY BANDS

"We want that the new faculty which is coming should be given pay band 4 so that they straightway come to the new level 13. With this, AIIMS can attract bright faculty for the future," said another senior member of AIIMS faculty.

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The Seventh Pay Commission recommendations are yet to be implemented for the AIIMS faculty. At present, it has been enforced only for staff group B, C and D.

In February this year, a committee was formed for the implementation of revised pay rules and the matter was discussed that pay scale should be made higher and new allowances should be given to the faculty.

ALSO READ |

AIIMS to adopt 50 physically challenged senior citizens

AIIMS Delhi doctors wear helmets to work in support to their counterparts in Maharashtra

Ailing AIIMS: Health Ministry's clean chit puts probe into Rs 7000 crore scam in jeopardy

--- ENDS ---
DALLAS, July 31, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Park Place Energy Inc. (OTCQB:PKPL) (Park Place or the Company) announces that on July 17, 2017, Scott C. Larsen resigned as President and CEO of the Company and as a Director from the Board of Directors. In addition, on that same date, the following officers resigned their positions: Chas Michel resigned as Chief Financial Officer, David Campbell resigned as Vice President-Exploration and Francis M. Munchinski resigned as Corporate Secretary and Treasurer. Each of these officers also resigned from all capacities including their respective positions as officers and directors of the Park Place subsidiaries. The Company would like to thank Mr. Larsen, Mr. Michel, Mr. Campbell and Mr. Munchinski for their work and dedication.



The Dallas, Texas office will close August 31, 2017. The Companys activities are focused in Eastern Europe and Turkey. It currently has offices in Ankara, Turkey and Sofia, Bulgaria.

Dr. Arthur Halleran (Ph.D. Geology) has been appointed President and Chief Executive Officer, David Thompson as Chief Financial Officer and Ijaz Khan as Corporate Secretary and Treasurer.

Dr. Halleran has 37 years of petroleum exploration and development experience predominantly international. In 2007, Dr. Halleran founded Canacol Energy Ltd., a company with petroleum and natural gas exploration and development activities in Colombia, Brazil and Guyana. Dr. Halleran was one of the original United Hydrocarbon International personnel that raised the initial investment capital to acquire the lucrative oil parcels in Chad, Africa. Dr. Halleran has been a director and technical advisor to Park Place since 2011 and is very familiar with Park Places business; this will ensure a smooth transition of management.

David M. Thompson, the Companys new Chief Financial Officer, has over 30 years financial experience in the oil and gas industry. He founded a Bermuda oil trading company in with offices in the U.S. and Europe. He was responsible for the companys production operations in Turkmenistan and successfully raised over $100 million in equity and negotiated the farm-out of a number of company assets. Mr. Thompson is Managing Director of AMS Limited; a Bermuda based Management Company. In the past he served as Founder, President and CEO of Sea Dragon Energy Inc., Chief Financial Officer of Aurado Energy, Chief Financial Officer of Forum Energy Corporation, Financial Director of Forum Energy Plc and Senior Vice President at Larmag Group of Companies. Mr. Thompson is a CPA (1998).

Ijaz Khan, the Companys new Secretary/Treasurer, was formerly general counsel for Kuwait Gulf Oil Company and Vice President, Special Projects, for United Hydrocarbon International Corp. Mr. Khan holds a law degree from Seattle University School of Law and formerly practiced law with the law firm of Mussehl and Khan. Mr. Khan has extensive international experience in the oil and gas industry.

Dr. Halleran, the Companys new President and CEO, stated: Park Place Energy has excellent gas and oil production from its Turkey assets. The Dallas, Texas office closing is the first step in re-aligning company expenditures with production revenue. The new management will be looking at ways to reduce G&A and OPEX costs and increase production revenue.

About Park Place Energy Inc.

Park Place energy Inc. is an energy company engaged in the exploration of oil and natural gas. For further information, please see our website: www.parkplaceenergy.com or email us: contact@parkplaceenergy.com

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.

This release contains forward-looking statements, which are based on current expectations, estimates, and projections about the Companys business and prospects, as well as managements beliefs, and certain assumptions made by management. Words such as anticipates, expects, intends, plans, believes, seeks, estimates, may, should, will and variations of these words are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements speak only as of the date hereof and are subject to change. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise or update any forward-looking statements for any reason. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements about the Companys expansion and business strategies and anticipated growth opportunities and the amount of fundraising necessary to achieve it. Such statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Accordingly, actual results could differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. These factors include operational and geological risks, the ability of the Company to raise necessary funds for exploration; the fact that the Company does not operate all its properties; changes in law or governmental regulations, including tax and environmental requirements; the outcome of commercial negotiations; changes in technical or operating conditions; and other factors discussed from time to time in the Companys Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including but not limited to the most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent reports on Forms 10-Q and 8-K.
pawanpawar wrote:

Hi everyone,



I gave my GMAT on July 13, 2017 and got a score of 750 (V: 42, Q: 49, IR: 4, Essay: 5).



I want to specialize in Strategy Consulting and have shortlisted the following schools;

1. MIT Sloan

2. Kellogg

3. Columbia Business School

4. Indian School of Business

5. Wharton



Profile:

Age: 25

Nationality: Indian

Work Ex: 3 years in Aerospace Defence Public Sector Organisation

Degree: Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering (80% Final Score) from a little known Pvt. Engg. college in Hyderabad, India



I want to apply to only 3 colleges, in which ones do I stand the best chance?



Will my abysmally low scores in IR and Essay be a drawback?



Are there any other reputed colleges that I should be thinking about?



PS: Availability of financial aid is one of the major considerations.



Any suggestions will help a lot. Thanks in advance :D

Hey there good sir!Id love to help you out but without more info its gonna be hard. I especially need more info about your work experience: What do you do? How quickly have you advanced? Do you have any leadership? What are your great achievements? Do you have notable community service or extra curriculars? Which school did you graduate from?All of these will play important roles in your evaluation. And a few notes about your goals too.One thing to keep in mind.. wait two:1. Applying to three schools may not be a good strategy for you. Most people apply to 4-5 schools, and I normally recommend Indian candidates to apply to more, given the huge and competitive applicant pool, as a way to increase admissions chances2. A 750 is a fantastic GMAT, but it may not be enough to guarantee that you will get into Top5 or top10 schools as a Indian non-IIT grad. You may want to adjust, discuss and reconsider your final school list.I hope you find this useful,Best,JonAnd feel free to drop us a line for a more full-on Free Consultation: http://bit.ly/mbafcGC
Re: INSEAD vs. Stanford MSx [ #permalink

14 Kudos 5 Bookmarks

Hi everyone,



Thanks for the discussion, advice, and your poll participation. I wanted to give an update on my decision. I have decided to attend the Stanford MSx program . This comes after a long period of reflection and also researching articles, blogs, and interviewing alumni. At the end of the day, for my interests, you just can't do better than Stanford. Stanford walks the talk on social entrepreneurship, design thinking, personal development and the school mission is a better fit for me.



The following were the major deciding factors to what was otherwise a very tough decision. As a caveat, since I ultimately chose Stanford the deciding factors will seem skewed:



More resources = more room to explore

There are overwhelmingly more resources at Stanford. Besides being a full-fledged University and a top business school, Stanford is also a powerhouse at fundraising. This means that they have the ability to support more fellowships, centers, programs, and more varied electives. With regards to my interest in Social Impact/Design they have the Center for Social Innovation, Impact Labs, D.School, Social Impact Fellowship, offer certificate programs and double-majors, publish the Stanford Social Innovation Review, and have professors recruited from the UN, World Bank, etc. INSEAD has a student group INDEVOR that runs a wide variety of social impact activities on campus and about 3 electives that I could find which are tailored to social impact, and a 3-day design thinking bootcamp. The INSEAD menu had one of everything that I was interested in, but it was more of an appetizer rather than a full course meal.



Pay to Play

At INSEAD you pay for add-ons what Stanford offers for free. Outside of coursework, INSEAD requires students to pay a discounted "student fee" for things like startup/design bootcamps (at the tune of 400+ Euros a pop). From what I can tell, Stanford students access these same types of opportunities for free as electives, can make use of the wider university resources for free, and in addition, can even get a student discount for Bay Area professional conferences and events. Also, it surprised me that the INSEAD deposit was the highest I had ever encountered at 10K USD to reserve your seat. Between paying your own way for bootcamps, events, and social activities/travels, the cost of the full INSEAD experience can start climbing quickly.



Cohort and Alumni Network

Where INSEAD wowed me was with the friendliness and caliber of their students. All the alumni speak about the program with great enthusiasm. They're incredibly proud that INSEAD is grown into its potential. There is an instant camaraderie that I've come to find is characteristic of INSEAD students/alumni, which comes from the incredibly unique set of traditions and experiences that make up the INSEAD MBA program.



With Stanford, I was not connected to their alumni chapters as that's reserved for active students and alumni (not prospective students). This made it harder to compare programs and was initially a major disadvantage for Stanford as I had built a rapport with INSEAD alumni. However subsequent conversations with a few Stanford alumni connections helped set expectations. I'm relying on assurances from the alumni I interviewed that GSB has a vibrant community, unusually responsive alumni, and that the school takes a very active role in organizing and funding events for alumni to stay connected. INSEAD alumni events seem largely self-sponsored.



Pace of program

The pace of the full INSEAD experience seemed unnecessarily complex between squeezing in an exit foreign language, sightseeing other countries on the weekends, student clubs that meet over Skype to coordinate between France/Singapore, an entire period flying to multiple countries as part of the recruitment process, working around electives that are only available in one of the campuses, the pain of moving campuses halfway through school and finding new apartments/services, friends who come in and out of your circle because they switched campuses and later scatter to various corners of the earth after graduation - all within a 10 month span. Exhilarating for some, but exhausting for me.



I also felt that INSEAD's exit language and new leadership development requirements would not have enhanced my experience but rather burden an already packed schedule. As an aspiring career changer, I want more mental space to thoughtfully explore interests and tee up my future. Stanford's 12 month program and the fact that opportunities come to campus seemed a more effective use of time.



Culture of Changemakers

Although I value a culture of diversity, which INSEAD offers in spades, I value even more a culture of dreamers, moonshots, and change-makers. Stanford embodies an idealism yet down-to-earth quality that I find compelling. Personally, I'm looking for a journey of self-discovery and not a path to a MBB job. In addition, as another reply mentioned, the MSx program is 60% internationals and hosts their own 'National' event for fellow classmates. I am confident that I will still get an international perspective from my cohort.



When I reflected on my reasons for going to business school in the first place Stanford became a no brainer. Put another way, talking to INSEAD alumni made me excited about the social life, travels, and traditions at INSEAD. Talking to Stanford alumni made me excited about my future, encouraged to take risks, and try to "change the world". Between the "Best year of my life" vs. "Change my life", I opted for the program that I felt would bring the most personal and professional transformation.
The Indonesian government has finally agreed to the wrong killing of a Nigerian man, Humphrey Ejike Eleweke. He was wrongly accused of smuggling drugs into the country.

The execution which was carried out on July 29, 2016, took the Indonesian watchdog one year to finally realise that it was a mistake and agreed that there was maladministration.

On Saturday, July 28, the Ombudsman (watchdog) commissioner, Ninik Rahayu, disclosed that this act was carried out due to the negligence and discrimination by the attorney generals office and the Supreme Court.

Ejike Eleweke. Source: Nigerian Bulletin

READ ALSO: Senator Dino Melaye takes time off to rest in London (photos)

Jakatar Post also disclosed that before Eleweke was executed, he said that the government just hates blacks and does not mind killing them. He said: The Indonesian government just hates us, they want to kill us because we are black.

Rahayu further revealed that the execution did not comply with the rules and regulations because it took place while the convict was still seeking clemency. He added that the Supreme Court was guilty for refusing the deceased appeal without proper explanation.

PAY ATTENTION: Get all the latest gossips on NAIJ Gossip App

Watch Legit.ng video below:

Source: Legit.ng
One product to protect all your devices, without slowing them down.

After threatening to shut down end-to-end encrypted messaging service Telegram, Russia is now moving to ban virtual private network (VPN) applications designed to offer unrestricted, anonymous access to the Internet.

President Vladimir Putin last week signed a law that bans not just VPNs, but any application designed to enable people to access the Internet anonymously, Reuters reports.

A virtual private network enables a secure, encrypted connection to the Internet. It can be envisioned like a tunnel between the users computer and a server operated by the VPN service operator.

VPNs are largely used to securely access a corporate intranet or other corporate resources while working remotely. However, much demand also comes from individual users looking to secure their wireless transactions, or to circumvent geo-restrictions and censorship. VPNs are also broadly used around the globe by users who purely wish to safeguard their personal identity.

The new legislation has gotten a green light from the lower house parliament and will go into effect November 1. Leonid Levin, Head of Information Policy Committee, told Russias RIA news agency that the law is meant to block access to unlawful content, not to impose restrictions on law-abiding citizens. There is no mentioning of what this unlawful content is.

China has set in place a nearly-identical law, prompting vendors to stop selling their VPN apps in the country. iPhone maker Apple Inc. has been forced to pull all VPN apps from its App Store in China to comply with the new legislation.

Both Russia and China are ramping up efforts to ban certain parts of the Internet as the two countries are gearing up for new elections and political reform, respectively.

Two weeks ago, China disrupted WhatsApp and Signal, two end-to-end encrypted messaging services, preventing users from sending images, videos and voice recordings to (reportedly) hamper the propaganda around recently-deceased activist Liu Xiaobo.

And Russia recently struck a deal with messaging service Telegram a after threatening to block it in the country a to enable the government to have conversations decrypted on demand if it believes the information is vital to national security.
As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQ
Will China go to war with India over Doklam? This question is being analysed by security experts not only in India and China but in other countries as well. Read here what will be at stake for China, if it goes to war with India.

Indian Army and the People's Liberation Army of China are facing each other holding their respective posts at about 150 metres from each another. Even though the border has not seen firing of bullet from either side for decades, China has shown aggressive posturing at all levels of government.

First, Chinese foreign office made references to 1962 war and yesterday Chinese President Xi Jinping inspected the first military parade to mark China's Army Day at its biggest training centre.

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Jinping said that Chinese army was capable of defeating any invading enemy. The reference is curious given that the Chinese foreign ministry has incorrectly been claiming that Indian Army has entered its sovereign territory.

As per records, Doklam plateau belongs to Bhutan and by security arrangement with the Himalayan kingdom, India is responsible for its security. China does not have diplomatic relation with Bhutan which Beijing is desperate to have in order to extend its sway over the buffer country. This is part of what is called China's 'Salami Slice' policy.

However, several China experts are of the view that despite its aggressive talks, Beijing will not go to war with India over Doklam. In the event of a war with India, China stands to lose much more than India.

CHINA'S FUEL SUPPLY

China is heavily dependent on the Strait of Malacca for its fuel supply. China gets most of its fuel from West Asia and Africa. According to China's state media reports, more than 80 per cent of its oil imports come through the Indian Ocean or Strait of Malacca.

Strait of Malacca is not very far from the Nicobar Islands where Indian Naval has one of the largest military bases. India can easily choke Chinese supply passing through the Strait of Malacca or Indian Ocean.

China can hardly afford to lose its energy supplies. It was the same fear that prevented China from helping Pakistan during the Kargil war. China was said to be inclined to come to Pakistan's aid but Indian response in the Indian Ocean foiled Chinese move during the war.

OTHER CHINESE ASSETS AROUND INDIA

China has said that if Doklam standoff turns into a war, India cannot expect Beijing to limit is strike in the Sikkim sector only. This was a clear warning that China intended to escalate the military engagement near India-Pakistan border as well.

In that event, China is much to lose. China has invested billions of dollars (USD 46 billion) on the China-Pakistan-Economic-Corridor (CPEC). The present value of the CPEC project is estimated to be USD 62 billion. In the event of an all-out war, China cannot expect India to safeguard Beijing's ambitious project in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

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Chinese commercial stakes are also high at the Chittagong port in Bangladesh, Cocos Keeling in Myanmar, recently opened port in Djibouti and just acquired Hambantotat port in Southwest Sri Lanka besides the Gwardar port of Pakistan. All these Chinese establishments will have to face a hostile Indian Navy, which is capable of choking them in the event of war.

The commercial cost of any all-out war would be very high for China as its String of Pearls policy to encircle India may turn disadvantageous for it.

DIPLOMATIC COST

China has a history of border disputes with all its 14 neighbours. The border disputes have remained manageable over the years but a war with India over Doklam will definitely alarm the 14 neighbours of China as well as the US and Japan.

China incidentally has positive trade balance with most of its neighbours because of its export-oriented economy. A war with India is bound to impact its trade relation not only with New Delhi but with other neighbours as well.

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A war with India may have its ripple effect in the South China Sea, where Chinese hegemony is challenged not only by Vietnam, Philippines, South Korea and Japan but also by the United States. The US has categorically rejected Chinese sovereign claim over the South China Sea. The ongoing tension may further worsen.

CLOSER INDIA-US COOPERATION

China uses both its economic and military muscle to force most of the Southeast Asian countries to toe its line. Hambantota port of Sri Lanka was acquired by China last week as part of what is called 'debt-trap diplomacy'.

India has, however, never bowed down to Chinese carrot and stick approach. Strategically, India is located at advantageous position with respect to China where it can affect Beijing's energy lifeline and its latest One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative.

Further, unlike the times when India and China engaged militarily, New Delhi has now better partnership and cooperation with the leading powers of the world. India, the United States and Japan held their 10-day Malabar 2017 naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal in July.

Around the same time, the US approved the USD 2 billion deal for the sale of surveillance drones and another USD 365 million pact for the sale of military transport aircrafts to India. These were seen in Beijing as signs of growing Indian influence in the geostrategic game.

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China cannot expect the US and Japan to remain silent when it goes to war with India especially when Donald Trump administration is looking for excuses to impose restrictions on Chinese imports in order to give a fresh push to manufacturing sector under America First policy.

ALSO READ |

Doklam standoff: Did Chinese President Xi Jinping just call India an invading enemy?

Doklam border standoff: Will there be an India-China war?

Surprise as Bhutan speaks up against China encroachments along its border

ALSO WATCH | Doklam standoff: Will conflict with India be disastrous for China?

--- ENDS ---
As many as 42 children went missing from a children's home in Mumbai in the past three years. The Bombay High Court is hearing a PIL on the allegations of corruption in the remand home.

Days after Maharashtra Women and Child Development Minister Pankaja Munde told the state Assembly that 42 children went missin in the last three years from a remand home in Mumbai, the Bombay High Court today summoned department's secretary to appear in person.

The high court today came down heavily on the Maharashtra government after an affidavit was filed by Women and Child Development Secretary Vineeta Singhal in a case of corruption in the Dongri Children's Home of Mumbai.

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The affidavit does not mention anything about the action that the government has taken against accused persons in the Dongri Children's Home case. The high court has directed Vineeta Singhal to appear in person next week to explain government's stand in the case.

A sting operation had shown corruption in the Mumbai Children's Home. The division bench of justice R M Savant and Justice Sadhna Jadhav noted that "from reading the affidavit, we gather that it has only been filed to comply with our orders. We expected some pro-active action from state government."

PIL AND THE CASE

A letter had been sent by a former chief justice of Kolkata High Court who had spoken about the disturbing sting after which it was converted into a petition by the Bombay High Court. The bench had sent a notice to the government, which filed its response today.

As many as 42 juveniles had fled the Dongri remand home located in the city in the last three years. The matter was raised in the Maharashtra Assembly. There were also reports that juveniles were being kept in the children's home in violation of norms.

In a written response to a question by Pravin Darekar (BJP), Pankaja Munde said that from 2014-15 to 2016-17, 42 children had fled the Dongri remand home. Out of those, 16 were traced and brought back and one security official was suspended.

GOVERNMENT'S REPLY IN COURT

The Bombay High Court sought to know if any action had been taken by the state government against those who were shown indulging in malpractice. The affidavit only mentioned that a show cause notice was sent to one person while the guard of the children's home was suspended.

When public prosecutor Arajakta Shinde told the court that an inquiry was going on, Justice Savant asked, "What kind of inquiry happens we all know. Assurance is not going to help."

Justice Jadhav said, "We are not satisfied with the manner in which this affidavit has been filed. We expect some seriousness. Therefore, we directed the secretary to file the affidavit."

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The bench was furious with the government's response. The court said that it was not a matter of only suspicion as a CD of the corruption and other materials had already come out in public domain. A process of cleansing should have started by now, the bench said.

The Bombay High Court directed the Women and Child Development Secretary to be appear in person before the court in the next hearing next week.

ALSO READ |

Mumbai teen kills self, could be first Indian case of Blue Whale suicide challenge

42 children have fled Dongri remand home in 3 years: Maha govt

ALSO WATCH | This is What a Social Media 'Like Farm' Looks Like

--- ENDS ---
On 3-5 October 2017 Kyiv is going to host the Space and Future Forum to network international experts and youth, many of whom will also participate at the first CosmoHack in the world. Joinfo provides media coverage of the Forum, and some of its topics were already discussed ...


This is Whats Trending Today

As of July 31, grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park are no longer considered threatened.

Grizzlies are large, brown bears that live in North America. Male grizzlies weigh over 200 kilograms, while the females weigh less than 200 kilograms. They are about two meters long.

Grizzlies once lived across much of North America. There were tens of thousands of them.

They can be found in Alaska, Canada and across the northwestern United States, including in Yellowstone. The park is made up of more than 8,900 square kilometers of land in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.

About 40 years ago, scientists estimated that fewer than 150 bears remained in Yellowstone National Park. After that estimate, Yellowstone grizzlies were added to the threatened list under the Endangered Species Act.

The Interagency Grizzly Bear Study team recently determined there are now about 700 bears in the park. The team is made up of scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service and other government agencies.

The study team says that population increase means the bears do not need to be protected by the government. They are no longer considered threatened.

State wildlife agencies in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho will now be in charge of managing the bears population. Officials from the three states told the Bozeman, Montana, newspaper that the decision will make their jobs easier.

Brian Nesvik is the chief game warden for Wyoming Game and Fish. He told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle the change will permit each state to respond more quickly if there are problems with the bears.

Sometimes bears that are involved in incidents with humans or farm animals must be put in another part of Yellowstone or even killed. In the past, Nesvik said, the state would propose a plan to the federal government, and the two organizations would not always agree on a solution.

The grizzly bear population is strong, but some people remain concerned about their safety.

In an opinion article in the New York Times last month, writer Thomas McNamee said the bears food supply is declining. That includes the seeds of pine trees, fish that swim in local rivers and the moths that live high in the mountains.

Hunting is another concern. The state of Montana is considering making it legal to hunt the bears. About three percent of Yellowstone land sits within Montana.

However, a spokeswoman for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, told the Bozeman newspaper that we will not be talking about a hunting season anytime soon.

Many organizations are protesting the change in the bears protection status. The groups have to wait 60 days from the date of the change before they can announce a lawsuit against the government.

Many scientists, however, say the bears should be able to continue to thrive, even with reduced protection from the government.

And thats Whats Trending Today.

Im Phil Dierking.

Dan Friedell wrote this story for VOA Learning English based on reports by the Associated Press, New York Times and Bozeman Daily Chronicle. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

Do you think the bears will be safe? We want to know. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

threatened  adj. in danger of something bad happening

endangered  adj. used to describe a type of animal or plant that has become very rare and that could die out completely

species  n. a group of animals or plants that are similar and can produce young animals or plants : a group of related animals or plants that is smaller than a genus

declining v. to become lower in amount or worse in condition

status n. the official position of a person or thing according to the law

thrive v. to grow or develop successfully : to flourish or succeed

warden n. a person who is in charge of or takes care of something


Russia has called on the United States to show political will to improve relations between the two countries.

The comment comes one day after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered large cuts in the number of people working at the U.S. Embassy. Putin ordered the United States to reduce its diplomatic workers in Russia by 755.

Dmitry Peskov is a Russian government spokesman. He said Monday, We are interested in a steady development of our ties and are sorry to note that we are still far from that."

Peskov said the reduction of diplomatic staff ordered by Putin could include Russia citizens. But it is still likely to require big reductions in U.S. personnel at the U.S. embassy in Moscow.

Putin made his announcement in a Russian television interview on Sunday. He acted after U.S. officials said President Donald Trump would sign into law legislation that places additional sanctions on Russia, and two other countries: Iran and North Korea.

The bill was approved by large majorities in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

Putin said on Russian state television Sunday, "We had hoped that the situation will somehow change, but apparently if it changes, it wont be soon. I thought it was the time to show that were not going to leave it without an answer.

Putin said that Russia is open to working with the U.S. on issues such as terrorism and cybercrime. But he said it only hears false charges of Russian interference.

Russian experts said Putin had hoped for better relations with the Trump administration than he had with former President Barack Obama. Obama had ordered reductions in Russian diplomatic staff to punish Russia for interfering with the 2016 U.S. elections.

Congressional and FBI investigations into possible connections between Trumps campaign and Russia have made it more difficult for Trump to move for improved relations.

Michael OHanlon is a foreign policy expert for the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. He said, President Trump himself is already using far tougher words toward Russia than he did as a [presidential] candidate. OHanlon also said Trumps top security experts are taking a hard line against Russia.

Former U.S. ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, said the new Russian sanctions will likely mean longer waits for Russians to obtain visas to travel to the United States.

If these cuts are real, Russians should expect to wait weeks if not months to get visas to come to U.S. McFaul said on Twitter. He served as U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2012-2014 during the Obama administration.

The sanctions bill passed by Congress places additional economic limits on Russian industries. Russias economy has already felt the effects from sanctions put in place in 2014. Those restrictions were meant to punish Russia for its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine that same year.

In early July, Putin and Trump met twice during a meeting of the Group of 20 leaders in Germany. During their first meeting, Trump said Putin denied he directed efforts to interfere with the U.S. presidential election.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence spoke in Eastern Europe Monday after the embassy staff reductions were announced by Putin. Pence said there is no bigger threat to Baltic States than Russia.

He said Russia continues to try to change international borders by force, undermine democracies and divide the free nations of Europe, one against another.

Pence spoke in Estonia's capital, Tallinn, after meeting with leaders of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Im Ashley Thompson.

Ken Bredemeier reported on this story for VOANews.com. Bruce Alpert adapted this story for Learning English with additional reporting from Reuters, the Associated Press and other sources. Mario Ritter was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section and share your views on our Facebook Page.

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Words in This Story

steady - adj. lasting or continuing for a long period of time in a dependable way

sanctions - n. an action that is taken or an order that is given to force a country to obey international laws by limiting or stopping trade with that country or not allowing economic aid for that country

apparently - adv. used to describe something that appears to be true based on what is known

cybercrime - n. crimes using computers or the internet

tougher - adj. stronger than before

visa - n. an official mark or stamp on a passport that allows someone to enter or leave a country usually for a particular reason

annexation - n. to take control of land or a territory
Credit: Cancer Research UK

Researchers in the US have created a comprehensive map of genes that tumour cells rely on to survive.

The project by the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute aimed to produce a catalogue of genetic weaknesses in cancer  finding genes that tumour cells depend on to stay alive and grow.

"This important study sheds light on how human cancer cells are dependent on particular genes," said Professor Paul Workman , a Cancer Research UK-funded drug discovery expert at The Institute of Cancer Research, London . "The genes identified could be targets for drug discovery efforts to find new targeted treatments."

The researchers investigated more than 500 different human cancer cell lines, representing more than 20 types of cancer. These are cells that scientists can keep growing in the lab, and they looked at the effects of switching off thousands of genes.

This uncovered 769 genes that the cancer cells were dependent on for survival.

While a large number of these weaknesses were specific to particular cancer types, around 1 in 10 were found in several types of cancer. This suggests that targeting these core genes could be relevant to a range of cancers. The results have been published in the journal Cell .

Although the team used a large number of cell lines, they and others have highlighted the need for larger follow-up studies to complete the picture.

"As the authors have said, we need even bigger, international efforts to make a full map of cancer dependencies," said Workman.

"The innovative method the researchers used also reduces the likelihood of producing incorrect results  a problem that has plagued similar studies in the past."

The scientists also found that the best way to predict such dependencies was to look at patterns of gene activity, rather than focusing on whether an individual gene was faulty  a discovery that Workman described as "surprising".

These patterns, he said, could be used to identify patients who might benefit from targeted treatments based on the genetics of their tumour.

More information: Aviad Tsherniak et al. Defining a Cancer Dependency Map, Cell (2017). Journal information: Cell Aviad Tsherniak et al. Defining a Cancer Dependency Map,(2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2017.06.010
Illustration incorporating gene-expression maps and cell images from the new research. Credit: University of Michigan

Every day, 17 million HIV-infected people around the world swallow pills that keep the virus inside them at bay.

That is, as long as they swallow those pills every day for the rest of their life.

But no matter how many drugs they take, they'll always have the virus in them, lurking in their white blood cells like a fugitive from justice.

And if they ever stop, HIV will come out of hiding and bring down their immune system from the inside out, causing the disease known as AIDS and potentially spreading to others before killing them.

Now, new research into HIV's hiding places reveals new clues about exactly how it persists in the body for years. The discovery could speed the search for drugs that can flush HIV out of its long-term hideouts and cure an infection for good.

In a new paper in PLoS Pathogens, a team led by University of Michigan researcher Kathleen Collins, M.D., Ph.D. reports that HIV hides in more types of bone marrow cells than previously thought - and that when these cells divide, they can pass the virus's genetic material down to their "daughter" cells intact.

This keeps the infection going for years, without tipping off the armed guards of the immune system.

Collins and her colleagues made the discovery in bone marrow samples donated by dozens of long-term HIV patients treated at U-M's academic medical center, Michigan Medicine, and at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit.

Using funding from the National Institutes of Health, they found that HIV can hide in hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs), which also serve as the parents of new blood cells that replace worn-out ones on a regular basis. HIV tricks the cells into incorporating the virus's genetic material into the cells' own DNA.

"Looking for the cells that harbor functional HIV is like searching for a needle in a haystack. Our new results expand our understanding of the type of cells that can do it," says Collins, a professor of Microbiology and Immunology and of Infectious Disease at the U-M Medical School. "It's like a cancer biology problem, only the 'mutation' in the cells is the inserted viral genome."

HPCs are made by hematopoietic stem cells, the "master cells" of blood production found in the marrow. Previous research had shown that HIV can hide for years in the bone marrow.

But it was not known whether the virus persisted only in stem cells or whether the reservoir could include more differentiated progenitor cells. Demonstrating that progenitor cells form a long-lived reservoir of virus expands the number of cell types that need to be targeted.

By demonstrating that HIV genetic material can lurk in blood progenitor cells, the researchers extend other recent studies indicating that such cells can live for years, says Collins, whose lab team included lead author Nadia Sebastian, a U-M M.D./Ph.D. student.

She notes that from the point of view of the virus, finding a harbor in this kind of cell means it can hedge its bets, giving it a chance at survival and eventual reproduction if its host's defenses weaken. The virus that causes chicken pox - varicella - also does this, hiding out in nerve cells just under the skin for years until it awakens and causes the painful condition called shingles.

Knowing exactly what cells harbor HIV over the long-term is crucial to battling persistent infections. Other research has focused on the T cells that carry out key immune system functions.

"Having established this, now we're poised to ask if we can treat HIV infection by targeting hematopoietic progenitor cells," she explains. The team is evaluating potential drugs that could kill just these cells.

The research team on the new paper also includes former U-M stem cell researcher Sean Morrison, Ph.D., who now leads a research center at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Morrison's lab uses mice as a model to study stem and progenitor cells.

They find in the new paper that in order for HIV to infect a progenitor cell, that cell must have a type of receptor on its surface, called CD4, that the virus can attach to. Additionally, the researchers show that two subtypes of HIV can infect these cells: those that use the CXCR4 co-receptor to enter cells as well as those that use CCR5, which expands the types of HIVs that can potentially cause reservoirs.

Finding those progenitor cells in the marrow of the human patients who agreed to undergo a biopsy for the sake of pure research was tricky, Collins says. But thanks to them, researchers are a step closer to a day when HIV infection is no longer a life sentence for millions of people around the world.

"Moving from the state we're in, where patients will always have to be on these drugs, to a better form of therapy where they can stop, would have a huge effect," she says. "Today's medications have side effects, as well as financial costs. To get to the next step, we need to target the types of cells that form a latent infection, including these progenitor cells."

More information: Nadia T. Sebastian et al, CD4 is expressed on a heterogeneous subset of hematopoietic progenitors, which persistently harbor CXCR4 and CCR5-tropic HIV proviral genomes in vivo, PLOS Pathogens (2017). Journal information: PLoS Pathogens Nadia T. Sebastian et al, CD4 is expressed on a heterogeneous subset of hematopoietic progenitors, which persistently harbor CXCR4 and CCR5-tropic HIV proviral genomes in vivo,(2017). DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1006509
Immunofluorescent staining shows co-staining of lamin B2 in cGAS positive micronuclei. Scale bar, 10  m. Credit: The lab of Roger Greenberg, MD, PhD, Perelman School of Medicine

Cancer is essentially a disease of the cell replication cycle. The goal of treating the disease is to permanently kill off the cells that replicate with abandon without any molecular brakes. Chemotherapy and radiation cause breaks in DNA, and eventually, death even in these out-of-control cells. Within minutes after being exposed to treatment, cancer cells call on DNA-repair proteins to counteract the damage wrought by these treatments. Days later, immune cells show up to tumors to assist further in beating back cells that have survived the effects of the toxic therapies.

This delayed arrival of immune cells after cancer therapy is well documented and critical for responses to chemotherapy and radiation, yet the events underlying their induction remain poorly understood. Now, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have discovered how DNA damage is a clarion call for the immune system. The findings are published this week in Nature.

"Having solved what cues immune cells to arrive at cancer cells with DNA damage in the first place, we can apply that information to design better treatments," said senior author Roger Greenberg, MD, PhD, a professor of Cancer Biology and director of Basic Science for the Basser Center for BRCA. "This tactic aims to improve a patient's response to treatment using the immune system at the same time as inhibitors to keep cancer cells on track to replicate until cell death sets in."

If a cell's DNA is damaged, it stalls for about 24 hours at a point in the cell replication cycle just prior to entering a phase that leads to cell division. Cells resume dividing as they eventually overcome their wounds, and this leads to activation of signals that attracts the immune system.

In the Nature study, the Penn team describes how DNA damage from cancer therapies causes small packages of DNA from the nucleus to form in the cytoplasm when cells divide after experiencing DNA damage from radiation or chemotherapies. These out-of-place micronuclei tend to rupture, exposing DNA within the cytoplasm to a special surveillance protein. This watchdog molecule is typically activated when invaders such as viruses are detected as foreign DNA in the cytoplasm. The anti-microbe alarm incites an immune response, hailing immune cells to attack micronuclei-filled cancer cells.

The team demonstrated that inhibiting cells from progressing to later cell-division stages prevented micronuclei from forming and strongly reduced immune responses to cancer cells that had been treated with radiation.

Overall, the Nature study reveals that changes in how fast or slow a cancer cell progresses through cell division is an important consideration for cancer therapies that combine DNA damage and immune checkpoint inhibitors.

"Our work allows for the development of rational strategies to increase immune response to enhance patients' sensitivity to radiation," Greenberg said. "This approach would combine drugs that damage DNA and inhibit immune checkpoints with those that promote cell division by interfering with the factors that delay cell division in response to DNA damage."

More information: Shane M. Harding et al. Mitotic progression following DNA damage enables pattern recognition within micronuclei, Nature (2017). Journal information: Nature Shane M. Harding et al. Mitotic progression following DNA damage enables pattern recognition within micronuclei,(2017). DOI: 10.1038/nature23470
Children who are resuscitated after drowning can survive as prisoners inside their own bodies, awake but paralyzed. Drowning deprives the brain of oxygen, which can cause a form of anoxic brain injury (ABI). Unable to move or speak, 10 children with ABI studied at UT Health San Antonio exhibited variations of locked-in syndrome, a rare condition in adults and thought to be even rarer in children. This work suggests that pediatric drowning may be one of the most common causes of locked-in syndrome.

Injury is localized, not diffuse

The scientists are from the Research Imaging Institute at The University of Texas Health Science Center, now called UT Health San Antonio. They studied brain images of the 10 children and reported July 31 in Human Brain Mapping that the pattern of ABI seen in childhood drowning is not widespread as was previously believed. Instead it is largely confined to a small but crucially important motor pathway supplied by a specific set of small arteries deep inside the brain.

Focal stroke

The injury is a focal stroke that, in the future, might be treated when children are first admitted to the hospital. That's if neuroprotective agents now being tested in animals are moved into human trials, said Peter T. Fox, M.D., professor in the Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio and director of the Research Imaging Institute. Dr. Fox is senior author of the new paper and two other recent studies that report anatomical and functional effects on the brains of young children resuscitated after drowning.

Preservation of networks

"In the imaging studies we see preservation of visual, auditory, tactile and cognitive networks, and predictably, we also see damage to motor pathways and networks," Dr. Fox said.

The Research Imaging Institute developed a Neural Network-Based Behavioral Scoring System, which is a score sheet for families and caregivers to submit their impressions of the awareness and cognition that their children display. Some of the children are able to communicate via eye movements. Others are not able to do so.

Family impressions

"In locked-in syndrome, the patients' families are typically the first to report return of consciousness," Dr. Fox said. "They are around their children all the time and they remember the child's personalities and preferences from before the injury."

The brain system that's most associated with awareness is called the default-mode network. The team found a strong correlation between social behaviors and preservation of this network, Dr. Fox said.

Machinery for awareness

"Even in the most severely affected of the children, we have evidence that at least the machinery for awareness of themselves and others remains functioning," he said.

"Does it mean that they're fully conscious? Well, we can see that the machinery is still intact."

Relief to parents

The finding is exciting and a relief to parents like Liz Tullis, whose son, Conrad, suffered ABI from drowning and was resuscitated. She founded the Conrad Smiles Fund, which has supported the research, and is a co-author on the three papers.

"Some parents, like Liz, are quite convinced that their kid is in there, thinking," Dr. Fox said. "Perhaps clinicians are telling them that their child is not aware, and they want another opinion. They came to be a part of the study for another opinion."

In future, treatment in hospital envisioned

If this new observationthat ABI from childhood drowning can cause a focal stroke in the motor pathwaysbecomes widely known among clinicians, and if treatments that are effective in animal models can be translated to humans, children could be treated immediately after hospital admission and much function could be saved, Dr. Fox said.

"This is a new syndrome," he said. "It's not taught in medical school. This is all new neuroscience."

Hope for parents

"When Conrad survived his accident, I was not given much hope or guidance; in fact I was encouraged to institutionalize Conrad," Tullis said. "Other families were encouraged to withdraw care. Because ABI is believed to be 'generalized' brain damage, the prevailing medical prognosis is grim and any treatment or recovery is considered too difficult if not impossible.

"The results of this study are groundbreaking," she continued. "Simply publicizing the results of Dr. Fox's research will have a huge impact on families. The fact that these children are 'in there' has never been communicated to the medical community and will improve the support we receive. The fact that this study can lead to more advancements in the understanding and treatment of ABI provides additional hope to fuel the fire of our love and dedication to our children."

The team has published its research findings in clinical journals so that this will have an impact on care delivery, Dr. Fox said.

Maximizing intellectual stimulation

Thirteen years after his accident, Conrad Tullis is 15 and a high school sophomore in San Antonio. Parents like Liz Tullis provide "environmental enrichment" opportunities for their locked-in children.

"If you believe that your kid is aware, then you want him to be stimulated, and have the opportunity to develop his own knowledge base and develop his own personality and intellect," Dr. Fox said. "This research can guide care toward brain systems that are preserved, and it can encourage families to provide an enriched environment."
(HealthDay)More interventions are needed to meet the target of hepatitis C virus (HCV) elimination, defined as a 90 percent reduction in prevalence by 2020, in the country of Georgia, according to research published in the July 28 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Noting that in April 2015, Georgia embarked on the world's first program to eliminate HCV, with technical assistance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Muazzam Nasrullah, M.D., Ph.D., from the CDC in Atlanta, and colleagues present the progress toward this goal.

Through partnership with Gilead Sciences, the country committed to identifying infected individuals and linking them to care and curative antiviral therapy. The researchers found that 27,595 persons initiated treatment from April 2015 through December 2016, and 71.7 percent completed treatment. Overall, 84.1 percent of the 6,366 persons tested for HCV RNA 12 weeks after completing treatment had no detectable virus in their blood, indicating sustained virologic response. The peak number of persons initiating treatment occurred in September 2016 at 4,595, and subsequently decreased in October to December.

"Broader implementation of interventions that increase access to HCV testing, care, and treatment for persons living with HCV are needed for Georgia to reach national targets for the elimination of HCV," the authors write.

Gilead Sciences had no role in the conduct of the research or preparation of the report.

Copyright  2017 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
The fire, which broke out on the seventh floor, was doused within a few minutes and five fire tenders were rushed to the spot.

The fire, which broke out on the seventh floor, was doused within a few minutes

By Press Trust of India: A fire today broke out in Shastri Bhawan in central Delhi after a short circuit in an air conditioner, police said.

The fire, which broke out on the seventh floor, was doused within a few minutes and five fire tenders were rushed to the spot.

In 2014, a fire broke out on the same floor.

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Shastri Bhawan accommodates ministries of Law, Information and Broadcasting, Human Resources Development, Corporate Affairs, Chemicals and Petrochemicals.

ALSO READ:

Fire in Delhi's Lok Nayak Bhawan office complex, no casualties

WATCH | Delhi: Fire breaks out in Lok Nayak Bhawan office complex, 25 fire tenders rushed

--- ENDS ---
Osteoblasts actively synthesizing osteoid. Credit: Robert M. Hunt; Wikipedia.

There is no disputing that the use of bisphosphonates - with brand names such as Fosamax, Boniva and Reclast - is proven to combat bone loss and fragility fractures in millions of osteoporosis patients for whom a fracture could be debilitating, even life-threatening.

But there is a caveat: Prolonged use of these drugs can alter the composition of bone, making it more brittle and more susceptible to a rare but serious form of fracture. And a group led by Eve Donnelly, assistant professor of materials science and engineering at Cornell University, has put forth a couple of possible explanations for this phenomenon.

Her group - in collaboration with researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine and the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, among others - detail their findings in "Atypical Fracture with Long-Term Bisphosphonate Therapy is Associated with Altered Cortical Composition and Reduced Fracture Resistance," published July 31, 2017, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Modern medicine and attention to healthier lifestyles has contributed to people living into their 80s, 90s and beyond. Some estimates say that by 2050, the number of U.S. residents age 65 and older will be near 84 million, nearly double the 2012 total.

But that has also made more people - especially postmenopausal women - vulnerable to conditions such as osteoporosis, a loss of bone tissue due in part to hormonal changes.

"Because of the changing demographics of our country," Donnelly said, "the Surgeon General's office estimates that by the year 2020, half of our population over age 50 will either have or be at risk for fractures from osteoporosis."

It's been known for some time that prolonged use of bisphosphonates can put people at risk for atypical femoral fracture (AFF), a break in the shaft of the femur that can occur as a result of little or no trauma. The Donnelly group set out to understand the link between the drugs and AFF.

For this study, the team examined biopsies of cortical bone - the outer layer - from the shaft of the femur obtained from postmenopausal women during fracture repair surgery. Analysis of bone samples was conducted at the Cornell Center for Materials Research and with collaborating labs at University of California Berkeley and University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf.

The participants were placed in five groups, based on fracture type and bisphosphonate use. Some of the women in the study had used bisphosphonates for more than eight years.

The testing pointed to a couple of contributing factors: Bisphosphonate-treated women with AFF had bone that was harder and more mineralized than bisphosphonate-treated women with typical osteoporotic fractures. Donnelly said this is due to bisphosphonates' main function: slowing the resorption (shedding) of old bone, which is typically followed by remodeling, the growth of new bone. In healthy adults, cortical bone is constantly being resurfaced, such that the entire adult skeleton is overhauled every 10 years or so.

But that resurfacing process begins with resorption, and if resorption is slowed by bisphosphonates, the remodeling process is also affected. The result: The existing bone ages and gets brittle over time.

"It's kind of a double-edged sword," Donnelly said. "It's extremely good to prevent bone loss, but the drugs will also slow this natural process, which allows turnover."

The other unforeseen side effect to long-term bisphosphonate use involves crack-deflection - the resurfaced bone's ability to stop a microscopic crack from propagating, which can lead to a break. New layers of bone can act as a "firewall" of sorts, stopping a crack from spreading, but mineralized, older bone loses that function.

"Bone usually has natural variability in mineralization within the tissue, which may help to deflect cracks," Donnelly said. "As you increase the mineralization, you may tend to lose that natural variation."

The Food and Drug Administration is now recommending patients use bisphosphonates for three to five years, followed by reassessment of their risk. Donnelly makes it clear that her study is not proposing doing away with bisphosphonate treatment. Studies have estimated the risk of AFF among bisphosphonate users at between one and 10 in 10,000, and have shown the benefit of bisphosphonates continues to far outweigh the risk of AFFs.

One study, published in 2011 on pubmed.gov, estimated that for each reduction of 100 typical hip fractures associated with bisphosphonate use, there was an increase of one AFF.

"That's one of the cautions I'd like to impart," Donnelly said. "What we have observed is really the result of long-term treatment, well beyond what the FDA is recommending for these drugs now. Our work explains some of the underlying mechanisms of AFFs and can inform the refinement of dosing schedules for patients at risk of fragility fractures."

More information: Ashley A. Lloyd el al., "Atypical fracture with long-term bisphosphonate therapy is associated with altered cortical composition and reduced fracture resistance," PNAS (2017). Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Ashley A. Lloyd el al., "Atypical fracture with long-term bisphosphonate therapy is associated with altered cortical composition and reduced fracture resistance,"(2017). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1704460114
A new study has shown the far-reaching implications of handwriting skills in early childhood.

In an Australian first, Murdoch University researchers Dr Anabela Malpique, Dr Deborah Pino-Pasternak and PhD Candidate Debora Valcan examined the handwriting abilities of children prior to starting Year 1.

"Writing is a way of transforming and expressing ideas into language and we know that early handwriting automaticity, that is how effortlessly students can write letters, is a strong predictor of both writing fluency and quality," Dr Malpique said.

"Over the past few years we have seen a significant decline in literacy outcomes for Year 7 and Year 9 students in Australia.

"However, this is the first time researchers have examined the origins of these skills, back when children are learning their alphabet at the start of their school journey."

The Murdoch University researchers examined 177 kindergarten children enrolled in 23 classrooms from seven primary schools in Western Australia.

These students were monitored three times over 15 months to assess the development of their handwriting skills from the end of pre-primary and throughout Year 1.

"We were interested in learning about children's handwriting automaticity, which is the ability to access and retrieve all the letters of the alphabet and to write them automatically and legibly," Dr Pino-Pasternak added.

In this study, the team measured the variation in automaticity levels amongst the children at the end of Pre-Primary (first year of compulsory education in WA) and investigated the degree to which existing variation could be explained by teacher's practices for writing instruction.

"We found that writing instruction in Australian classrooms is highly variable," Dr Malpique said.

"The Australian curriculum outlines that children are expected to develop skills like identifying and correctly forming letters, and learn to create short texts during pre-primary and Year 1.

"However, teachers are approaching this goal with very different strategies, with a big variation in how much time is spent on teaching writing and on the nature of the skills being taught, from turning sounds into letters to the planning of ideas to express in writing.

"This is significant because our results indicate that 20 per cent of the difference in children's level of handwriting automaticity could be attributed to the teacher's strategies in the classroom even when accounting for children's gender and reading skills."

The team is now looking at the students' development of writing skills across time points to understand these initial results further and hope to identify classroom-based practices that lead to improved writing skills in the next year.

The project forms part of a larger Australian Research Council DECRA project awarded to Dr Pino-Pasternak examining the development of children's independent learning skills, higher order thinking processes, and academic outcomes in the first two years of schooling in WA.

More information: Anabela Abreu Malpique et al. Handwriting automaticity and writing instruction in Australian kindergarten: an exploratory study, Reading and Writing (2017). Anabela Abreu Malpique et al. Handwriting automaticity and writing instruction in Australian kindergarten: an exploratory study,(2017). DOI: 10.1007/s11145-017-9753-1
In new research published today, researchers have created a machine learning algorithm that is able to form two distinct groups of people who have early memory problems known as mild cognitive impairment. The algorithm was able to predict different rates of change in people's memory and thinking skills, also showing how those in the rapid change group were at an increased risk of developing dementia.

The researchers used data from 562 people who are part of the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). These people had been diagnosed with early memory problems known as mild cognitive impairment, which puts them at an increased risk of going on to develop Alzheimer's disease or another form of dementia. The researchers had results from a wide range of tests, including genetic information, brain scans, and results from a number of memory and thinking tests, with both baseline information as well as a follow-up period of up to five years.

The team used a machine learning algorithm  a complex mathematical analysis  to group people into clusters based on how similar their starting data was. Through this they produced two groups. The researchers then looked at whether there were any differences at later time points between the two groups, finding that one group showed very little change in memory and thinking skills over the five-year study period, while the other group showed a more rapid decline. When they looked at the number of people who were subsequently diagnosed with dementia, the rate of conversion was higher in the 'rapid change' group (64%) compared with the 'slow change' group (13%).

Dr Rosa Sancho, Head of Research at Alzheimer's Research UK, said:

"In the era of big data, machine learning will be a useful tool to help scientists analyse colossal datasets, and has the potential to provide new insights into complex conditions like dementia. This new study demonstrates the value of machine learning approaches, finding that this type of analysis can find similarities among large and varied datasets. Being able to predict the rate at which symptoms change in people with mild cognitive impairment and those who are at a higher risk of developing dementia would be a crucial weapon in the arsenal for doctors, but further studies are needed before this new algorithm could be used clinically. These findings may also help scientists unravel the biological processes that underpin why different people with mild cognitive impairment experience different rates of change in their memory."
Clodronate-evoked inhibition of vesicular ATP release is important for the treatment of chronic pain. Credit: Okayama University

Researchers at Okayama University describe in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the effect of clodronate on the regulation of adenosine triphosphate release and its potential as a drug for the treatment of chronic pain. The compound has few side effects and may also be effective for treating other medical conditions including diabetes.

Typical drugs for treating chronic paina condition estimated to affect 20 to 25 percent of the world's populationoften cause serious side effects such as stomach problems, kidney failure or addiction. Now, a team of researchers led by Yuri Kato and Takaaki Miyaji from Okayama University has identified a compound, clodronate, that inhibits the mechanism triggering chronic pain while producing few side effects. Clodronate may therefore be used for future chronic pain drug development. Moreover, the researchers reckon it may also be effective for the treatment of other diseases such as diabetes and neurological disorders.

Acute pain is the result of sensory nerves responding to a (potentially) harmful stimulus, a biological process called nociception. However, inflammation or nerve injuries can trigger pathological nociceptiona long-lasting sensation of pain due to the stimulated production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) molecules that bind to so-called purinergic receptors causing pain responses. The ATP molecules participating in the purinergic signalling processes are carried by vesicular nucleotide transporter (VNUT) protein. Since it is known that suppression of VNUT function leads to an improvement of neuropathological conditions in mice, Moriyama and Miyaji and colleagues looked for a VNUT inhibitor with few side effects.

The researchers tested clodronate, a molecule belonging to the class of bisphosphonates, compounds used for treating osteoporosis. Clodronate does not contain nitrogen, a characteristic known to decrease therapeutic effect for osteoporosis and the number of side effects. Experiments on proteoliposomes showed that clodronate is a potent inhibitor of VNUT, whereas injections of clodronate in wild-type mice showed that it attenuated chronic neuropathic and inflammatory pain.

The scientists confirmed that clodronate has few side effects, and noted that its therapeutic effectiveness is stronger than that of other widespread drugs for neuropathic pain. Clodronate's potent inhibition of VNUT also makes it a highly relevant candidate drug for the treatment of diabetic symptoms. Given that clodronate is currently clinically approved in many countries for the treatment of osteoporosis, the drug has great potential. Accordingly, Kato and Miyaji and colleagues conclude their report by noting that "further studies regarding the wide range of applications of clodronate are currently in progress in our laboratories."

Chronic pain

In medicine, pain lasting a long timetypically, three months or moreis called chronic, as opposed to acute pain. Chronic pain can be neuropathic, when the nervous system is damaged, or nociceptive, when inflammation causes nociceptors (pain sensors) to be triggered permanently.

Current drugs for the treatment of chronic pain, notably opioids like morphine, have various side effects, including stomach or kidney dysfunction, drug addiction, drowsiness and vomiting. Yuri Kato and Takaaki Miyaji and colleagues have now identified a potential non-opioid drug, clodronate, that suppresses chronic pain by inhibiting the release of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a mechanism involved in chronic pain.

Purinergic signalling

In living organisms, purinergic signalling is a way of passing on signals outside cells. It involves purines, particular types of aromatic molecules containing nitrogen, and so-called purinergic receptors in cells. The purinergic signalling mechanism associated with chronic pain involves the purine adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a molecule playing an important role in biological energy transfer processes; ATP is carried by vesicular nucleotide transporter (VNUT) protein. The present study shows that clodronate inhibits VNUT, which in turn attenuates neuropathic and nociceptive pain. Since clodronate has few side effects and since it has already been clinically approved in many countries, it is a promising drug for the treatment of chronic pain.

More information: Yuri Kato et al. Identification of a vesicular ATP release inhibitor for the treatment of neuropathic and inflammatory pain, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2017). Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Yuri Kato et al. Identification of a vesicular ATP release inhibitor for the treatment of neuropathic and inflammatory pain,(2017). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1704847114
Credit: Play England

New research from the University of Bristol shows that playing outside, aided by regular road closures, helps to increase children's physical activity.

The report confirms that temporary street closures help children to meet the daily target of 60 minutes moderate to vigorous physical activity set out in the government's obesity strategy.

The insights are based on the highly successful Street Play project, funded by the Department of Health, and delivered by Play England with partners Playing Out, London Play and the University of Bristol.

The project supported parents and communities to hold regular road closures, enabling children to play outside in 33 geographically diverse areas, with a sustainable network of over 5,000 volunteers creating over 60,000 additional play opportunities.

The report 'Why temporary street closures for play make sense for public health', led by Professor Angie Page and colleagues in the University of Bristol's School for Policy Studies, found that outdoor, active play was more likely to replace sedentary and screen-based activities, than physical activities that normally occur after school.

Children wore accelerometers and GPS which showed that physical activity gained during temporary street closures made a meaningful contribution to daily physical activity for both boys and girls.

Since the project's conclusion in March 2016, over 500 streets in 45 different local authority areas are involved in active street play.

Professor Page said: "We know that time spent outdoors is related to greater daily physical activity and reduced risk of obesity. However, few interventions are effective at increasing physical activity in the local environment. This resident-led intervention shows the potential for meaningful increases in physical activity as well as social benefits to both children and the communities in which they live. It is relatively low cost, scaleable and potentially sustainable  this is why it makes sense for public health."

A second report, written by researcher and author Tim Gill in response to concerns about the decline in children's opportunities for outdoor play, highlighted a range of factors that influence the likelihood of success of street play initiatives in disadvantaged areas.

Based on interviews with people involved in schemes across five local authorities, he showed the benefits of streamlining local authority application procedures and removing cost barriers, as well as noting the importance of local sources of practical support working alongside local authorities.

The report recommends adapting the street play model for housing estates as well as supporting where children spontaneously play already in neighbourhood streets.

Nicola Butler, Chair of Trustees at Play England, said: "Children's time spent outside is falling, particularly amongst girls. Yet the evidence is clear. When children play out they are three times more likely to be physically active. Giving children access to free outdoor play opportunities is the best way of tackling problems like obesity. Not only is active play physically good for children and young people, it helps their mental health too. We need more initiatives like street play at the heart of the government's health and wellbeing agenda."

Alice Ferguson, Co-founder and Managing Director of Playing Out, said: "We are delighted to have hard evidence that shows what we already knew - street play is great for children and for communities. Government and local authorities should now be supporting this in any way they can."
A new study has found that a community-based service learning experience involving greater interaction with older adults had a positive impact on career development for medical residents (physicians who have graduated from medical school and are starting work at a healthcare facility under supervision). Researchers who designed the program published their findings in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Eighty third-year Internal Medicine residents at the University of Pennsylvania participated in the study; 71 residents completed follow-up surveys. As part of the program, medical residents engaged in several different activities at residential facilities serving older adults:

Participants toured the building or center, including apartments, and learned about the facility's purpose, operations, and diverse community of older men and women.

Participants attended brief presentations about local community resources available to older adults.

Participants delivered a 45-60 minute presentations on healthcare topics for older adults at the facility. Presentations covered cancer screenings and preventive healthcare for heart disease and strokes, as well as diabetes, arthritis, hypertension, dementia, and depression.

The researchers set specific goals for the medical residents, including:

Increasing their awareness of community resources that support older adults.

Broadening their knowledge of clinical topics in geriatrics.

Improving their communication skills when working with older men and women.

Following their experience, the medical residents filled out a survey. Based on the results, most residents said that the tour was informative, and that they valued the facts they learned about the facility and what it offered. Most of the residents said that the experience increased their ability to communicate effectively with older adults, boosted their knowledge of resources and community living, and expanded their knowledge of health topics important to older people.

Most residents also strongly agreed that the experience contributed to their capacity to care for older adults.

The residents said that the service learning program helped them appreciate older adults' concerns, and increased awareness of the health literacy barriers that many older adults face. What's more, the residents said that the program introduced them to the environment and social context that impacts older adult care.

When asked about the most interesting part of their experience, many residents noted they appreciated the opportunity to interact with older adults outside a hospital setting. They reported benefitting from learning how to communicate health information to older men and women, and learning how older adults understand common conditions and concerns.

Medical residents suggested that these community-based service learning programs could be conducted earlier in healthcare professional training, perhaps during internships before someone graduates from school. Program participants also suggested that service learning could be offered more frequently, and that perhaps several different levels of older adult care could be included.

More information: Rachel K. Miller et al, Effect of a Community-Based Service Learning Experience in Geriatrics on Internal Medicine Residents and Community Participants, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (2017). Journal information: Journal of the American Geriatrics Society Rachel K. Miller et al, Effect of a Community-Based Service Learning Experience in Geriatrics on Internal Medicine Residents and Community Participants,(2017). DOI: 10.1111/jgs.14968
Credit: Emory University

To reduce the growing number of deaths related to both prescription opioid overuse and illicit opioid use, a new report determines it will take years of sustained and coordinated efforts by physicians, patients, federal and state agencies and the public to curb the opioid epidemic. The findings were released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine earlier this month.

Drug overdose is now the leading cause of death from unintentional injury in the U.S., and most of these deaths involve an opioid, according to the report. As of 2015, two-million Americans ages 12 or older had an opioid use disorder or OUD involving prescription opioids. Nearly 600,000 had an OUD involving heroin.

Based on these staggering statistics, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched an Opioids Action Plan in 2016, asking the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to convene a committee to review the science on pain research, medical care and education, and to identify actions the FDA and others can take to respond to the crisis.

Made up of 18 experts in medicine, law, public health and other specialties, the committee was tasked with looking at two public health challenges. Anne Marie McKenzie-Brown, MD, associate professor of anesthesiology at Emory and director of the Emory Pain Center, located at Emory University Hospital Midtown, was selected to be a part of this committee. For almost a year, she has been meeting with the other committee members every few months in Washington, DC, to compile the report.

"The FDA asked us to balance the need for pain relief while contrasting the growing problems related to opioid overuse and abuse," says McKenzie-Brown. "Focusing on the individual benefits versus the risks of prescription opioid use is going to take a culture change. We found we not only need to look at the way physicians treat pain, but also at patients' expectations in the way their pain is managed."

McKenzie-Brown also says it is important for physicians to look at alternatives to opioids for pain relief, which include a broad variety of non-opioids and non-pharmacological therapies and treatments. These alternatives often have the same or better results, without the risks and side-effects of opioids.

Some of the strategies the committee recommended include:

Enhancing education for both health professionals and the general public to improve awareness of the risks and benefits of opioids;

Reviewing the safety and effectiveness of all approved opioids by the FDA;

Reducing the supply of prescription opioids in the community to help curtail access, while determining other pain-reducing options for patients besides the illegal market;

Providing universal access to evidence-based treatment for opioid use disorder by states and federal agencies;

Providing easier access to naloxone, a life-saving medication for treating opioid overdose;

Convening state public-private partnerships to implement drug take-back programs that allow drugs to be returned to any pharmacy on any day, rather than relying on occasional take-back events; and

Encouraging public and private payers, including insurance companies, to develop reimbursement models that support evidence-based and cost-effective comprehensive pain management, including both drug and non-drug treatments for pain.

"The committee realizes there is not a 'one size fits all' option for non-opioid treatments and other interventions to curtail pain; however current evidence does not support opioids as the first treatment option for chronic pain," says McKenzie-Brown.

McKenzie-Brown goes on to say, "Our understanding of opioid use disorder is far from complete. We need better tools for identifying those at risk for development of and effective, affordable treatment options for those with opioid use disorder."

The report shows that more research is needed to better understand the neurobiological interaction between chronic pain and opioid use, and what has driven our society into the opioid epidemic of today.

"This report gives us a detailed map to begin our journey," says McKenzie-Brown.

More information: Pain Management and the Opioid Epidemic: Balancing Societal and Individual Benefits and Risks of Prescription Opioid Use. Pain Management and the Opioid Epidemic: Balancing Societal and Individual Benefits and Risks of Prescription Opioid Use. nationalacademies.org/hmd/repo  opioid-epidemic.aspx %20
The UK accounted for over a quarter of foreign visitors to Spain in June



ARCHIVED ARTICLE

The British market was the largest in the Costa Blanca, the Costa del Sol and the Canaries

The boom in international tourism in Spain continued unabated during June, according to data published by the governments central statistics unit on Monday morning, with the total of 8.4 million visitors from abroad representing an increase of 11.6 per cent in comparison with the same month last year.

At the same time, the year-to-date total for 2017 after six months has climbed to almost 36.4 million, 11.6 per cent higher than at the same point a year ago, and both during June and in the year as a whole the importance of the UK as a source of tourism in Spain is underlined by the breakdown of the figures. In June the proportion of international tourism accounted for by the British market was as high as 25.8 per cent, with 2.18 million visitors arriving from the UK, and again it appears that the Brexit effect, if there has been any, has been positive rather than negative for the tourism sector in this country: 4.2 per cent more people came to Spain form Britain than in June 2016, and while this in itself is not a sharp increase the year-to-date total has risen by 9.1 per cent to 8.58 million (or 23.6% of all visitors to Spain so far this year).

Further evidence of the importance of British tourists in Spain is not hard to find in the figures provided for the five main coastal regions attracting visitors to the Costas: in three of them the UK accounted for the largest share by nationality (46.2 per cent in the Canaries, 34.5 per cent in the Comunidad Valenciana and 29.6 per cent in Andalucia), while in the remaining two the Brits were ranked second in terms of the numbers of visitors (29.5 per cent in the Balearics and 14.1 per cent in Catalunya).

Among other leading sources of international tourism in June the German market behaved most positively, with a 15.9 per cent rise in visitor numbers raising the monthly total to 1.42 million. The number of people coming from France increased by a more modest 4.4 per cent to 860,000, making this the third largest market, while Scandinavia supplied 25 per cent more visitors than in June last year (513,000).

Another aspect which stands out among the data published is the sharp rise in the figures related to inter-continental tourism both in June and in the first half of the year. The categories of USA, the rest of the Americas and the rest of the world all showed rises of over 25 per cent during the month, accounting for a total of well over a million people, and a similar trend can be seen in the year-to-date figures (over 4.8 million visitors, almost one in seven of all those coming to Spain).

This is no doubt related to the fact that among the main tourist regions in Spain the sharpest increase in tourist numbers in June is the one recorded in Madrid (29.5 per cent). In the Costas, meanwhile, the most significant growth was in the Comunidad Valenciana, which includes the Costa Blanca, with the total of 874,000 representing a year-on-year rise of 19.7 per cent.

The most popular destinations in Spain during June were the Balearic Islands and Catalunya, both with monthly totals of slightly over 2 million, and all the signs are that the peak months of July and August will push international tourism in Spain closer to another all-time record in terms of visitor numbers.

Image: the beach at Cullera in Valencia on Saturday (EFE, fully copyrighted)

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Aida is the perfect employee: always courteous, always learning and, as she says, always at work, 24/7, 365 days a year.

Aida, of course, is not a person but a virtual customer-service representative that SEB AB, one of Swedens biggest banks, is rolling out. The goal is to give the actual humans more time to engage in more complex tasks.

After blazing a trail in online and digital banking, Swedens financial industry is now emerging as a pioneer in the use of artificial intelligence. Besides Aida at SEB, theres Nova, which is a chatbot Nordea Bank AB is introducing at its life and pensions unit in Norway. Swedbank AB is adding to the skills of its virtual assistant, Nina. All three are designed to sound like women, based on research suggesting customers feel more comfortable with female voices.

There are some frequent, simple tasks that we need to deal with manually today, and in that effort were looking into AI to see how we can deploy it, and Aida is one, Johan Torgeby, the chief executive officer of SEB, said in an interview.

Chatbots have access to vast amounts of individual client data, meaning they can quickly handle straightforward customer requests. That in turn frees up human employees to deal with more complex services, like coming up with the best mortgage plan to suit a specific customer.

Basically all banks are closing branches, Mattias Fras, head of Robotics, Strategy and Innovation at Nordea, said in a phone interview. This is a way to return to full service again.

Nordeas chatbot will eventually help customers who want investment advice, who want to cancel lost credit cards or to open savings accounts.

Winning Over Customers

Swedish banks have already seen their customer satisfaction scores drop to a 20-year low after shutting branches and pushing people onto online services.

But AI might be part of the cure. According to a recent study by market researcher GfK, there are wide gaps between what consumers hope to receive from banks in terms of service and financial advice, and what they actually get. AI applications such as chatbots hold the promise of filling in these service gaps, given the right data and programming, GfK said.

Swedbank, which already operates its chatbot Nina in Sweden and plans to roll it out to its Baltic markets as well, says one of the benefits to the technology is that it eases users into the new digital age.

AI can help our customers become more digitized, for example by guiding a client in paying bills on the Internet, Swedbank spokeswoman Josefine Uppling said.

Now read: LG rolls out guide and cleaning robots to airport
Remember the Note 7? The high-end smartphone, released last year, was unfortunately prone to spontaneous combustion. Its maker, Samsung Electronics Co., spent more than $5 billion to recall it from the market amid a thunderstorm of customer injuries, airline anxieties and late-night comedy routines.

This summer, the consumer electronics juggernaut did something curious: It refurbished millions of returned phones, added new, apparently safer batteries and reintroduced it as the Note 7 Fan Edition in South Korea. It is actually getting pretty good reviews. And the company plans to sell the Note 7 FE in other Asian countries soon, ahead of the global launch of the Note 8 this fall.

This is roughly akin to Ford coming out with a new hatchback called the Pinto SE or Apple calling the newest version of the iPad the Newton Pro. Only Samsungmethodical, relentless, perhaps unstoppablecan successfully resurrect a brand very recently considered to be a laughing stock.

Samsungs resilience is the topic of our latest cover story in Bloomberg Businessweek, which you can check out here. With my colleagues Sam Kim and Ian King, I traveled around Seoul for a week, visiting Samsung offices and talking to its executives. Consternation over the Note 7 was a major topic of conversation; in fact the company considered killing the brand during the height of the crisis. It would be a lie to say that it didnt cross my mind at all, said Tae Moon Roh, Samsungs chief of research and development. But I think given the lessons of the Note 7 and being aware of what happened last year made us be more committed to making a better product.

As youll read in our story, Samsung is in the middle of another kind of firestorm right now. The de facto head of its parent company, the Samsung group, is embroiled in a political scandal and is currently on trial on corruption charges. His father, the chairman of the company, had a heart attack three years ago and hasnt been seen since. South Koreans are bitterly divided over the company that helped spur the economic development of their country over the last 50 years.

Yet, amid all that sturm und drang, last week Samsung announced its best earnings ever, recording $12 billion in operating income. Depending on what Apple Inc. reports after the market closes on Tuesday (analysts estimate $10.5 billion in profit), Samsung will likely take the crown as the most profitable company in the world.

While the Note series and Galaxy smartphone series have established Samsung as the major challenger to Apples iPhone, whats really fueling this run at Samsung is the booming business of making semiconductors and display panels. Samsung has already surpassed archrival Intel Corp., despite reporting its own upbeat earnings last week, as the largest maker of semiconductors on the planet.

On our trip to South Korea, we got a glimpse of Samsungs manufacturing muscle at a massive construction site in Pyeongtaek, about a half hour south of Seoul. Remarkably, Samsung only broke ground on the facility in 2015 and started producing its first chips there in July. It can take other companies three to five years or longer to get new chip plants up and running. For example, in 2011, Intel announced plans to build a new fabrication plant in Chandler, Arizona. After numerous delays, layoffs and pressure from the Trump administration, it only recently announced a plan to resume work and finish it sometime after 2020.

The awe-inspiring efficiency of Samsung may not be able to make up for existential threats to the business. Right now, Apple relies on Samsung for components, such as chips and display panels in the iPhone and other devices. This, in turn, makes Samsung reliant on Apple as a dependable buyer of its stockpile, driving revenue and profit. It is in an awkward position to be in with a competitor. As my Gadfly colleague Tim Culpan noted last week, Samsung may be dangerously reliant on the cyclical business of memory chips.

But for now, with prices for memory at a high, Samsung looks to have an unassailable advantage. It can use its incredible resources to push its high-end smartphones, and, in the case of the Note 7, even to resurrect them from the dead.

Now read: Samsung Galaxy S8 gets 500Mbps speeds on Vodacom
As many as 100 passengers from suspended cable cars that run over the Rhine River in Cologne after a gondola ran into a support pillar.

Firefighters rescue people out of a cable car gondola in Cologne Photo: AP

By AP: German fire crews are focused on evacuating as many as 100 passengers from suspended cable cars that run over the Rhine River in Cologne after a gondola ran into a support pillar.

Public transportation authorities for the city in North-Rhine-Westphalia state say 32 of the cars were operating when the mishap occurred Sunday.

When the one car collided with the pillar, the others were brought to a stop.

Firefighters rescue people out of a cable car gondola in Cologne Photo: AP

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The DPA news agency cites transport and fire department officials as saying that as many as 100 passengers were left stranded.

Witnesses report that fire crews are using a mobile crane to bring down the first of them.

No injuries are being reported.

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--- ENDS ---
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Thanjavur (TN), Jul 31 (PTI) The opposition DMK today said placing of an engraved Bhagavad Gita near the statue of late president A P J Abdul Kalam at his memorial, amounted to the BJPs attempt to "thrust communalism in Tamil Nadu".

DMK working president M K Stalin said he would have appreciated if a copy of the Thirukkural (Tamil classic and a moral treatise) was placed near the statue.

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He, however, said none should feel that it was due to a hatred for the Gita, but because no individual religious identity should be imposed.

"Kalam spent his life for Indias security. They have created an unfortunate situation of associating him with a particular religion," he said.

"It is because BJP is engaged in an attempt to thrust communalism in Tamil Nadu," Stalin said.

An engraved Bhagavad Gita near the statue of late president A P J Abdul Kalam had kicked up a controversy yesterday, with his family seeking to end the row by placing a copy of the Quran and Bible near it.

Hours later, officials manning the memorial kept the Bible and Quran in a glass box in the vicinity of the statue after a local Hindu outfit leader registered a police complaint stating that no permission was taken to place the holy books (of Bible and Quran) near the statue.

Stalin said the act of removing the Quran and Bible showed that the Centre was "denigrating" the late president and using his influence for politics.

"Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswamis regime is spineless to even object to it," he said.

The memorial at Peikarumbu in Rameswaram was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 27.

Meanwhile, expressing his solidarity with the protesting villagers at nearby Kathiramangalam against an ONGC pipeline project, the leader of opposition in the state assembly said his party would always stand behind them. PTI VGN APR SRY

--- ENDS ---
South Carolina Company Halts Nuclear Project

The board of directors at Santee Cooper on July 31 suspended construction work on Units 2 and 3 at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in Jenkinsville, S.C. -- a decision the company reports will save is customers nearly $7 billion.

The board of directors at Santee Cooper, South Carolina's largest power provider that is based in Moncks Corner, S.C., on July 31 suspended construction work on Units 2 and 3 at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in Jenkinsville, S.C. -- a decision the company reports will save its customers nearly $7 billion in additional costs to complete the project. "The decision to suspend construction is based in large part on a comprehensive analysis of detailed schedule and cost data, from both project contractor Westinghouse Electric Co. and subcontractor Fluor Corp., first revealed after Westinghouse, filed for bankruptcy in March," the company's statement said.

So far, Santee Cooper has spent approximately $4.7 billion in construction and interest for its 45 percent share of the new nuclear power project. The new analysis shows the project wouldn't be finished until 2024, four years after the most recent completion date provided by Westinghouse, and would end up costing Santee Cooper customers a total of $11.4 billion. The analysis anticipates Westinghouse will reject the contract in bankruptcy proceedings; it shows the final cost for Santee Cooper to complete the project would be $8.0 billion for construction and approximately $3.4 billion for interest, which would mean the delays have boosted the projected interest costs 143 percent over the original plan.

"Generation diversity remains an important strategy for Santee Cooper, but the costs of these units are simply too much for our customers to bear," said Leighton Lord, chairman of the board. "Even considering these project challenges, Santee Cooper is proud of our role in this initial effort to restart a 30-years-dormant industry. Nuclear power needs to remain part of the U.S. energy mix."

Santee Cooper and majority partner South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. gave Westinghouse full notice to proceed with construction in April 2012. The contract provided that Westinghouse would provide substantially complete units in 2016 (Unit 2) and 2019 (Unit 3), and the Santee Cooper board approved a $5.1 billion budget, representing its 45 percent share of the joint project and additional transmission needed for the Santee Cooper electric system. In October 2015, the board approved an amended Westinghouse contract that included an option to fix Santee Cooper's share of the costs at $6.2 billion, and the board approved fixing the price at $6.2 billion in June 2016.
It finally happened.

No, not a revisit discovering the fate of Ed Sheeran  instead, the show's literary namesake, fire (Daenerys) and ice (Jon Snow) finally met face to face. And it was a reception much more chilly than warm  at least at first.

Before they met, however, there was one reunion to get out of the way on Dragonstone: Jon Snow and Tyrion, a long ways away from their days slaving away as family disgraces at The Wall. The two share some fun quipping back and forth on the beaches and sharing some warm laughs  but not enough to distract Jon from noticing the armed guards, the fact that Dany's troops took their boat away and, oh by the way, there's three massive dragons casually soaring around the island.

One thing he doesn't see? Melisandre, who's watching his arrival from far, far away on top of some cliffs with an exceptionally sneaky-sounding Varys  even more sneaky-sounding than usual. Still, Melisandre manages to drop the hammer on his smug, smirking vibe, right at the end revealing some prophecy or vision that both of them will die in this land.

But enough of those two: We're here to see ice meet fire. The two finally end up in the same room  but just literally so, as they chat in the throne room, never in the same frame  a smart touch by director Mark Mylod  as Dany sits proudly in the Dragonstone throne (a nice practice throne for the real one at King's Landing) while Jon Snow stands in the middle of the darkened room.

Khaleesi comes out maybe a little hard, having Missandei list off seemingly all of her nicknames and accomplishments  Breaker of Chains, Mother of Dragons, High School Minesweeper Champion, etc.  while Ser Davos missed the memo on playing hype man for his king. Dany expects Jon to kneel; Jon refuses, noting they've got bigger issues at hand  aka the frosty undead trotting toward them  than power plays and political chess. But Dany  who may never blink during this entire tense sparring session  seems unconvinced and unhappy that Jon Snow refuses to bend the knee to her rule, putting him in open rebellion against her assumed rule. 16 minutes into the episode, the two finally share a shot together ... but it's Dany walking at Jon Snow, noting that the only thing that kept her alive over her years of struggle was believing in herself as the only living Targaryen. Umm, about that, Dany ...

Ser Davos remembers his hype man training and brags of Jon Snow's accomplishments  cut off around the time he gets to the fact that he's actually Zombie Jon Snow. Still, this suspenseful battle between their two egos and pride ends in a stalemate, both refusing to yield. We'll see what happens, though, when Dany hears of last week's finale, decimating a large chunk of her fleet and putting two of her allies in chains. She might be better off winning allies than holding them casually prisoner.

Speaking of last week's big finale, here's an update in Theon's Life Sucks news: Yep, Theon's life still sucks. Floating amongst the wreckage, he gets picked up by a not-so-friendly friendly ship that's unimpressed by his supposed "attempt" to save his sister. "If you tried," notes the captain, "you wouldn't be here," before the whole crew walks away from the cowardly embarrassment in shame. This has been an update in Theon's Life Sucks news.

Euron, meanwhile, is just freaking loving his life, laughing and smiling his way through a parade in King's Landing, celebrating his naval victory while dragging the Dornish queen, her daughter and Yara through the streets and into Cersei's throne room. His promised gift has been delivered, and Cersei  trying on the grimacing version of her patently smirk face  has no choice but to accept him as an ally and possibly as her future husband. Fair to say Jaime is not in love with that  especially when Euron comes over to grossly talk about how Cersei likes it in bed. He tries threatening Euron with a beheading, but that just gets sent back at him. The people don't care who gets killed for their amusement, he notes, "The people just like severed heads, really." Truly words have never been spoken.

What the people don't like, however, is crushed skulls  and unfortunately, here's Cersei in Ellaria's prison reminding the audience of that time the Dornish ruler's lover got popped like a particularly juicy Gusher many seasons ago. That was an image I'd nicely forgotten until now, Cersei. Unappreciated.

Thankfully, she doesn't crack open Ellaria's daughter's head like a cherry-flavored coconut, as retribution for murdering her daughter all that while ago  but her final revenge isn't much more pleasant. With the help of Qyburn, she lays a poisonous kiss on Ellaria's daughter, one that will oh so slowly kill her right in front of her sobbing mother, who will then have to watch her daughter die and rot away in chains. At least the head-popping was fast.

Murderous revenge apparently gets Cersei horny as hell, so she seeks out her brother, and the two sleep together  and she doesn't care who knows it, answering the door with a naked Jaime in plain sight of her servants. She also doesn't care about mincing words with the Iron Bank, who's come to see if she's got the gold her kingdom owes  and if she stands a chance against Dany's dragons. Cersei says he shouldn't be so sure that the dragons are immune to all harm, so she must be REALLY confident in that glorified crossbow from last week. I'm not convinced. It's still just a big crossbow.

Back at Dragonstone, Jon and Tyrion  it must be said; having Sassy Peter Dinklage back is a delight  have brood-off while overlooking a gorgeous cliff. Jon's still upset that nobody believes him about the White Walkers and that Dany's busy playing chess when an army of undead are about the flip the whole table over anyways. Tyrion defends his queen, saying, "She protects people from monsters," and offers his help in at least convincing her to allow him to mine for dragonglass. And the negotiation works; she allows the North to mine for the supposed White Walker weapon  all while Jon's knee remains unbent and she remains not entirely convinced about undead snow warriors.

Back at Winterfell, Sansa's taking to rule well, prepping the region for a food shortage during the winter AND a war, as well as making sure the armor is appropriately leather-ed. Littlefinger tries to warn her of Cersei, but if there's one thing that Sansa doesn't need, it's a reminder that Cersei's an insane murderous tyrant with a bloody lust for power. Kinda got to see that first-hand, Littlefinger, ya smirky punk. Still, he reminds her to see and predict every possible outcome  and just in time, because HEEERE'S BRAN, who can see everything as the three-eyed raven! So that's Stark family reunion number one; next week is Stark family reunion number two with Arya, then?

Off to Oldtown, where what gross adventures will Sam get into this week? Oh ... none? Dammit, I postponed dinner just for this. Anyways, Jorah's greyscale is cured, as last week's brutal surgery and goo treatment actually worked  which seems a little easy for what's been teased as a uncureable ailment form hell. But still, good for Jorah, who's off to reunite with Dany. Meanwhile, Jim Broadbent takes Sam aside to find out how he managed to cure the uncureable. Sam's secret? "I read the book and followed the instructions." GENIUS! Broadbent rewards Sam with a warm congratulations on saving a man's life ... and then sends him off to play human photo copier with some old rotting manuscripts (with bonus skin gnats!). Truly a fine reward.

Finally, the episode heads to Casterly Rock, where Dany and Tyrion's first masterful move is in effect, seizing the landmark thanks to an old tunnel system Tyrion built in back in his days of being demeaned by his fellow Lannisters. And they win easily ... too easily. For the second straight week, Euron and his ships come barging in to wipe out some more of Dany's ships, while Jaime and company head to kill Olenna Tyrell.

Sad  but boy, does she know how to leave a show. She lays a few salty burns on Jaime and his dead, crappy son Joffrey  it's been too long since we've mocked Joffrey  before Jaime serves up some poisoned wine. But you think some deadly vino scares Olenna? Nah, she chugs it down like Kool-Aid before telling him, "Hey, I super killed your crappy son Joffrey; be sure to let your sister know. Laters!" And thus it's curtains for Olenna and the great actress Diana Rigg on "Game of Thrones."

Talk about some chilly burns to end an episode about fire and ice combining as one.
By India Today Web Desk: Genetically modified mustard will hit the market as the GEAC (Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee) of India has given its approval.

Anti-GM activists have requested Prime Minister Modi to ensure that the release of the genetically modified mustard is declined. The GEAC gave a thumbs up to GM Mustard on Thursday, July 27.

Now, the fate of the production this genetically modified crop depends the decision of the central government.

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The application for allowing the commercial production of GM Mustrad was put in by Deepak Pental, noted genetics scientist and ex-vice chancellor of Delhi University. The GEAC gave a go-ahead to the GM Mustard after a sub-committee was set up to examine the effects of its use. Last year, the GEAC had observed that the GM Mustard is safe for consumption by human beings.

Activists from the Sarson Satyagrah have condemned the GM Mustard and has also urged PM Modi to make sure the application for the commercial production of the GM mustard is not accepted. In an open letter, activist Mira Shiva has said that it is being argued that GM mustard is good because it is a "public funded project", "forgetting that what is inherently unsafe (created through transgenic technology) is bound to be unsafe whether it is from the public sector or private sector".

Activists are arguing that GM mustard is harmful to all - consumers and producers alike.

#FYI GM crops are genetically modified crops whose DNA has been altered to include traits that are not found in the crop naturally. In food crops, the features include resistance to pests, diseases and environmental conditions.

Vandana Shiva, well-known physicist and activist in an article in Deccan Chronicle stated that the introduction of GM Mustard will be "anti-science and anti-democracy".

"Anti-science because the main justification given for genetic engineering mustard, with herbicide-resistant traits to resist Bayers herbicide glufosinate called Basta, is to increase in yields of mustard and stop edible oil imports. The GMO mustard has lower yields than non-GMO alternatives available in the country," the article states.

If GM mustard is allowed, it will be the second genetically modified food crop in the country after Bt Brinjal.

The crop is said to bring down the produce of mustard in India and also adversely affect the Indian farmers who are already under the burden of debt. Apart from environmental activists, the Swadeshi Jagran Manch an affiliate to the RSS, is also against the approval for production of GM Mustard.

The government meanwhile has announced that it will take a decision on GM Mustard in September.

Centre told SC that it is likely to take a decision on GM Mustard issue in September- ANI (@ANI_news) July 31, 2017

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Also read : Farmers protest against approval to GM Mustard, fear its use may mean end of 'Sarson ka Saag'

--- ENDS ---
Christoph Bezemek of the Institute of Public Law and Political Science, at the University of Graz, Austria, tells a tale of his school history teacher who purported that only "scoundrels" sent letters to a newspaper anonymously. His teacher's argument being that public discourse as a democratic society's bonding agent and so those who wish their voice to be heard should not hide behind a veil of anonymity. And yet, in a free society, surely one should have the right to a voice whether anonymous or not, after all throughout history often the messenger was at the lethal end of the phrase: the pen is mightier than the sword.

In the modern world, where everyone is a messenger thanks to online social networking and social media, there seems an even greater need to protect the right of an individual to remain anonymous in public discourse if they chose to do so and perhaps even to have the prerogative to encrypt their message and so limit its audience. This does not necessarily conflict with the notion of civic courage,

Being anonymous is often the only way to honourably, rather than perniciously, spread an opinion especially when faced with fraudulent scoundrels who hold power. There is a long tradition of anonymous pamphleteering that continues onto today's digital age. At least in democratic nations, it is established sufficiently that the principle of anonymous free speech lies at the very core of that democracy. Everyone should have the right to free speech and to whether or not they make their name public in their declarations. Whether they are anonymous or not we all have the right to listen or to ignore them.

As governments start to ban encryption technology and virtual private networks (VPNs) or request technology companies to grant them "backdoor access" into computer systems, we must be vigilant that free speech may still be exercised, whether openly or anonymously; even if by scoundrels.

More information: Christoph Bezemek. Behind a veil of obscurity - anonymity, encryption, free speech and privacy, International Journal of Technology Policy and Law (2017). DOI: 10.1504/IJTPL.2017.085232

Provided by Inderscience
Researchers are running tests on pig skin to come up with an artificial alternative for robots. Credit: Dr Aisling Ni Annaidh at University College Dublin

Artificial skin with post-human sensing capabilities, and a better understanding of skin tissue, could pave the way for robots that can feel, smart-transplants and even cyborgs.

Few people would immediately recognise the skin as our bodies' largest organ, but the adult human has on average two square metres of it. It's also one of the most important organs and is full of nerve endings that provide us with instant reports of temperature, pressure and pain.

So far the best attempts to copy this remarkable organ have resulted in experimental skin with sensor arrays that, at best, can only measure one particular stimulus.

But the SmartCore project, funded by the EU's European Research Council and at the Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) in Austria, hopes to create a material that responds to multiple stimuli. To do so requires working at a nanoscalewhere one nanometre represents a billionth of a metrecreating embedded arrays of minuscule sensors that could be 2 000 times more sensitive than human skin.

Principal investigator Dr Anna Maria Coclite, an assistant professor at TU Graz's Institute for Solid State Physics, says the project aims to create a nanoscale sensor which can pick up temperature, humidity and pressurenot separately, but as an all-in-one package.

'They will be made of a smart polymer core which expands depending on the humidity and temperature, and a piezoelectric shell, which produces an electric current when pressure is applied,' she said.

These smart cores would be sandwiched between two similarly tiny nanoscale grids of electrodes which sense the electrical charges given off when the sensors 'feel' and then transmit this data.

If the team can surmount the primary challenge of distinguishing between the different senses, the first prototype should be ready in 2019, opening the door for a range of test uses.

Robots

Dr Coclite says the first applications of a successful prototype would be in robotics since the artificial skin they're developing has little in common with our fleshy exterior apart from its ability to sense.

'The idea is that it could be used in ways, like robotic hands, that are able to sense temperatures,' said Dr Coclite. 'Or even things that can be sensed on even a much smaller scale than humans can feel, i.e, robotic hands covered in such an artificial skin material that is able to sense bacteria.'

Moreover, she says the polymers used to create smart cores are so flexible that a successful sensor could potentially be modified in the future to sense other things like the acidity of sweat, which could be integrated into smart clothes that monitor your health while you're working out.

And perhaps, one day, those who have lost a limb or suffered burns could also benefit from such multi-stimuli sensing capabilities in the form of a convincingly human artificial skin.

'It would be fantastic if we could apply it to humans, but there's still lots of work that needs to be done by scientists in turning electronic pulses into signals that could be sent to the brain and recognised,' said Dr Coclite.

She also says that even once a successful prototype is developed, possible cyborg use in humans would be at least a decade awayespecially taking into account the need to test for things like toxicity and how human bodies might accept or reject such materials.

Getting a grip

But before any such solutions are possible, we must learn more about biological tissue mechanics, says Professor Michel Destrade, host scientist of the EU-backed SOFT-TISSUES project, funded by the EU's Marie Skodowska-Curie actions.

Prof. Destrade, an applied mathematician at the National University of Ireland Galway, is supporting Marie Skodowska-Curie fellow Dr Valentina Balbi in developing mathematical models that explain how soft tissue like eyes, brains and skin behave.

'For example, skin has some very marked mechanical properties,' said Prof. Destrade. 'In particular its stretch in the bodysometimes you get a very small cut and it opens up like a ripe fruit.'

This is something he has previously researched with acoustic testing, which uses non-destructive sound waves to investigate tissue structure, instead of chopping up organs for experimentation.

And in SOFT-TISSUES' skin research, the team hopes to use sound waves and modelling as a cheap and immediate means of finding the tension of skin at any given part of the body for any given person.

'This is really important to surgeons, who need to know in which direction they should cut skin to avoid extensive scarring,' explained Prof. Destrade. 'But also for the people creating artificial skin to know how to deal with mismatches in tension when they connect it to real skin.

'If you are someone looking to create artificial skin and stretch it onto the body, then you need to know which is the best way to cut and stretch it, the direction of the fibres needed to support it and so on.'

Dr Balbi reports that the biomedical industry has a real hunger for knowledge provided by mathematical modelling of soft tissuesand especially for use in bioengineering.

She says such knowledge could be useful in areas like cancer research into brain tumour growth and could even help improve the structure of lab-grown human skin as an alternative to donor grafts.
Future quantum computers will be able to calculate the reaction mechanism of the enzyme nitrogenase. The image shows the active centre of the enzyme and a mathematical formula that is central for the calculation. Credit: Visualisations: ETH Zurich

Science and the IT industry have high hopes for quantum computing, but descriptions of possible applications tend to be vague. Researchers at ETH Zurich have now come up with a concrete example that demonstrates what quantum computers will actually be able to achieve in the future.

Specialists expect nothing less than a technological revolution from quantum computers, which they hope will soon allow them to solve problems that are currently too complex for classical supercomputers. Commonly discussed areas of application include data encryption and decryption, as well as special problems in the fields of physics, quantum chemistry and materials research.

But when it comes to concrete questions that only quantum computers can answer, experts have remained relatively vague. Researchers from ETH Zurich and Microsoft Research are now presenting a specific application for the first time in the scientific journal PNAS: evaluating a complex chemical reaction. Based on this example, the scientists show that quantum computers can indeed deliver scientifically relevant results.

A team of researchers led by ETH professors Markus Reiher and Matthias Troyer used simulations to demonstrate how a complex chemical reaction could be calculated with the help of a quantum computer. To accomplish this, the quantum computer must be of a "moderate size", says Matthias Troyer, who is Professor for Computational Physics at ETH Zurich and currently works for Microsoft. The mechanism of this reaction would be nearly impossible to assess with a classical supercomputer alone  especially if the results are to be sufficiently precise.

One of the most complex enzymes

The researchers chose a particularly complex biochemical reaction as the example for their study: thanks to a special enzyme known as a nitrogenase, certain microorganisms are able to split atmospheric nitrogen molecules in order to create chemical compounds with single nitrogen atoms. It is still unknown how exactly the nitrogenase reaction works. "This is one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in chemistry," says Markus Reiher, Professor for Theoretical Chemistry at ETH Zurich.

Computers that are available today are able to calculate the behaviour of simple molecules quite precisely. However, this is nearly impossible for the nitrogenase enzyme and its active centre, which is simply too complex, explains Reiher.

In this context, complexity is a reflection of how many electrons interact with each other within the molecule over relatively long distances. The more electrons a researcher needs to take into account, the more sophisticated the computations. "Existing methods and classical supercomputers can be used to assess molecules with about 50 strongly interacting electrons at most," says Reiher. However, there is a significantly greater number of such electrons at the active centre of a nitrogenase enzyme. Because with classical computers the effort required to evaluate a molecule doubles with each additional electron, an unrealistic amount of computational power is needed.

Another computer architecture

As demonstrated by the ETH researchers, hypothetical quantum computers with just 100 to 200 quantum bits (qubits) will potentially be able to compute complex subproblems within a few days. The results of these computations could then be used to determine the reaction mechanism of nitrogenase step by step.

That quantum computers are capable of solving such challenging tasks at all is partially the result of the fact that they are structured differently to classical computers. Rather than requiring twice as many bits to assess each additional electron, quantum computers simply need one more qubit.

However, it remains to be seen when such "moderately large" quantum computers will be available. The currently existing experimental quantum computers use on the order of 20 rudimentary qubits respectively. It will take at least another five years, or more likely ten, before we have quantum computers with processors of more than 100 high quality qubits, estimates Reiher.

Mass production and networking

Researchers emphasise the fact that quantum computers cannot handle all tasks, so they will serve as a supplement to classical computers, rather than replacing them. "The future will be shaped by the interplay between classical computers and quantum computers," says Troyer.

With regard to the nitrogenase reaction, quantum computers will be able to calculate how the electrons are distributed within a specific molecular structure. However, classical computers will still need to tell quantum computers which structures are of particular interest and should therefore be calculated. "Quantum computers need to be thought of more like a co-processor capable of taking over particular tasks from classical computers, thus allowing them to become more efficient," says Reiher.

Explaining the mechanism of the nitrogenase reaction will also require more than just information about the electron distribution in a single molecular structure; indeed, this distribution needs to be determined in thousands of structures. Each computation takes several days. "In order for quantum computers to be of use in solving these kinds of problems, they will first need to be mass produced, thereby allowing computations to take place on multiple computers at the same time," says Troyer.
Human trafficking is much more than kidnapping and selling people. Those who commit labour exploitation can, for example, also be sentenced for human trafficking. Criminologist Masja van Meeteren hopes to simplify the complexity of the phenomenon by charting the different forms of labour exploitation.

Women who are kidnapped in Eastern Europe to work in the Netherlands as prostitutes are one of the best-known examples of the harrowing problem that goes by the name of human trafficking. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Many other forms of human trafficking are less well known to the public, often because they are not recognised as such. This makes it difficult to trace, and even more difficult to deal with. This is particularly true of labour exploitation, a crime that has been treated in the Netherlands the same as human trafficking since 1995.

Consenting victim

'It is by no means always organised gangs that traffick in people, although this is the image that most people have,' says criminologist Masja van Meeteren, who conducts research on labour exploitation. She explains this in the context of the UN World Day against Trafficking in Persons on 30 July. 'In reality, the perpetrators are often families or owners of small companies, who to some extent are operating with the consent of the victims. That can make it complicated to pursue a perpetrator. It's by no means simple to prove that force is involved.'

Laundry

Van Meeteren mentions a recent example where refugees were working in the Netherlands in poor conditions in a laundry. The status holders were promised ten euros per hour. In reality they received 4.50 euros or nothing at all. As the amount they received was barely enough to pay for bus fares to and from the asylum centre, they slept in the laundry among the washing and the mice.

Not aware

Although such treatment is punishable in law, in many cases the exploited workers do not always see themselves as victims. They earn a little extra money, and the working conditions are often better than in their country of origin. The employers are also often not aware that they are doing anything wrong, let alone that the courts can convict them of human trafficking.

Categories of exploitation

In her research - financed with a Veni award - Van Meeteren tries to divide the different types of labour exploitation in the Netherlands into categories. This will give more insight into the grey area betwen poor treatment by employers and criminal labour exploitation. It will also contribute to a better and broader understanding of human trafficking. She is examining the fifty or so dossiers of cases of human trafficking, some of which resulted in a conviction. She will also at a later stage be talking to victims and perpetrators.

Large-scale exploitation

Van Meeteren will be working on the project for another two years, but she feels confident about predicting the first results. She makes a clear distinction between large-scale exploitation and individual exploitation. 'With the first of these, victims are often deceived or misled,' Van Meeteren says. 'Think of Polish women, for example, who work here picking mushroom, and who earn less than the minimum wage because they are paid a very low piecework rate.'

One-on-one exploitation

Individual exploitation is completely different. The victims are often people who have suffered some form of abuse; they may have been neglected as children, for instance. That makes them easy victims for the perpetrators. Van Meeteren mentions the example of a Hugarian Roma couple on a camp site in the Netherlands who treated a victim as a personal slave. 'The victim had to hand over his wages and sleep outdoors, but at the same time he idolised the couple exploiting him. This case shows just how complex this material can sometimes be.'
The use of 3-D printing technologies in Victoria University of Wellington's Classics Museum has students using ancient Greek artefacts the way they were intendedfrom interacting with 3-D printed ancient objects to designing their own amphorae (storage jars).

Dr Diana Burton, senior lecturer in Victoria's School of Art History, Classics and Religious Studies, wanted students to have practical experiences with the objects in the Museum without risking damage to the historic pieces.

"In Greek art, pretty much everything is functionalthey don't really have art for art's sake," she says.

"In order for students to really get to grips with the way the use of an object has informed its design and decoration, they need to be able to use it and handle it in the ways the ancients did. 3-D printing objects is a safe way to facilitate this."

Together with Victoria's School of Design, Dr Burton has been taking digital scans of items in the Classics Museum and having them 3-D printed.

The first project was 3-D printing a kylix, a drinking vessel that ancient Greeks used to play drinking games.

"We have a collection of ancient pottery in the Museum and one of the shapes is a shallow bowl with a stem and handles," says Dr Burton. "The ancient Greeks used it in a drinking game where they held the handle and flicked the dregs of the wine at a target. So we filled them with water and had the students engage with the object in the way it was designed by the Greeks."

Students also had the opportunity to design their own amphora. The students drew black figure illustrations using a supplied template, which were then digitally scanned and mapped.

"The students had to illustrate the amphora with an appropriate Greek myth," says Dr Burton. "It needed to fit into their personal story and social content, the same way the Greeks did with their decorations."

Five students have had their creations 3-D printed. The winning designs focused on a range of contemporary subjects from student finance struggles to the 2009 Samoa earthquake and tsunami.

"Coming up with a design for the amphora was great funit was the most fun I've ever had doing an assignment. I really enjoyed the hands-on aspect," says student Isaac Bennett-Smith.

"I think it was a really good way to learn. It doesn't completely replace writing but it would be a bit naive to assume writing is the only way we can communicate ideas. It's really good to incorporate that visual literacy into subjects like Classics."

The process was guided by Industrial Design lecturer Bernard Guy and Master of Design Innovation graduate Zach Challies, who specialises in high-end multi-property 3-D printing. Zach designed the template for students to draw their amphora design, digitised each design for 3-D modelling, and did the original experimentation to ensure they would print correctly as full colour 3-D printed objects.

The designs were printed in New York at Shapewaysthe world's largest online 3-D printing service provider.

The project has been hugely worthwhile for both parties, demonstrating how students and academic researchers can work towards a 3-D printing enabled university, says Bernard Guy.

"It's fantastic to see ancient culture and items that are thousands of years old meet the digital future. It's not an obvious meeting, but one that resulted in a valuable experience for the School of Design and tangible learning tools for the Classics programme.

"3-D printing allows the unexpected to become realityit opens avenues to tell entirely new stories, make entirely new discoveries, and to truly unlock the possibilities of the digital age. We're interested in finding other areas of the University where 3-D printing could become an effective teaching or learning tool."

Dr Burton hopes to use the technology to create an online 3-D gallery of Victoria's Classics Museum.

"Museums are increasingly looking at 3-D technology as a way of making their collections available. We've scanned almost 30 pieces that we want to make available on the websitehaving an interactive 3-D image allows the viewer to interact and see how the whole design functions."
Map of Tlacotalpa made by Francisco Gali in the 16th century. Credit: University of Seville

In the last third of the 16th century, the Spanish crown launched a project to obtain a complete map of the New World. The project used surveys known as Relaciones Geograficas. A questionnaire with more than 50 questions was sent to each settlement. These also had to be completed with a map of the local region. These maps, known as pinturas (paintings), lacked ground measurements and therefore scale, as well as geographical coordinates. Only a few were completed in accordance with the norms of European mapmaking. Among these, some of the most important are the maps created by the Sevillian Francisco Gali, navigator, explorer, cosmographer and cartographer.

Manuel Morato, researcher from the Higher Technical School of Engineering (ETSI) of the University of Seville, has published a scientific article on the map of Tlacotalpa, one of the first examples of local nautical cartography in Hispanic America, which Francisco Gali produced on behalf of a group of mayors who had to complete the Relaciones questionnaire as ordered by Philip II. Tlacotalpa, today Tlacotalpan, is a small river village in the southeast of the state of Veracruz within the limits of the Papaloapan region in Mexico.

"These local civil servants, instead of getting a local artist to draw the maps, made the most of the fact that Gali, a sailor with knowledge of cartography, was traveling through the area toward the Pacific coast on the orders of the King to find a route to the Philippines from the west coast of Mexico," explains Morato.

Gali produced a hand-drawn nautical chart in February 1580 with great exactitude by the standards of the time. It shows in great detail the coast, the estuaries, bays, capes, lagoons and rivers, and in some areas, indicates the depth of the water. Both the chart and the text of the Relacion are kept in the Royal Academy of History in Madrid. According to the text of the Relacion, in the local tongue, "nahuatl-Tlacotalpa" means "divided land," which refers to the fact that the village was founded in the Pre-Hispanic era on an island in the river Papaloapan, as is represented on the map.

"The Gali map has been compared with current satellite photographs, and the images are practically the same, apart from the distances of the time and the growth of the populated areas, like the city port of Veracruz and its surroundings," adds the researcher. So the planimetric deformation of the map, compared with a current one, could be due to the fact that Gali did not take sufficient measurements or that he did so, but too quickly, as he was only passing through the area.

North American experts like Barbara Mundy suggest that these deformations could be due to Gali having used an existing padron (a master map that was updated as new lands were discovered) that included these deformations. In this case, Gali only had to complete the information by adding locations and detailing geographical features. Manuel Morato maintains that this hypothesis is quite unlikely due to the secret nature of the Padron Real, which was jealously guarded in the Casa de la Contratacion in Seville, and of which obsolete copies were destroyed so that they did not fall into the hands of foreign powers. Other causes could have been motivated by the lack of in situ measurements and the impossibility of determining geographical length in the 16th century.

Francisco Gali is known worldwide for his trans-Pacific voyages, but little or nothing is known about him before his appearance in America. He discovered the Acapulco route to Manila in 1583, according to the data kept in the Archivo General de Indias in Seville. He explored the islands of the archipelago of Hawaii, the coast of California and was the first explorer to see the San Francisco Bay, though he did not cross it. Its discovery has thus been attributed to Gaspar de Portola in 1769 and to Juan de Ayala, who was the first to cross the bay in his schooner on 5 August 1775.

In 1585, this Sevillian navigator wrote the book Voyage, Discoveries And Observations From Acapulco to the Philippines, from the Philippines to Macao and from Macao to Acapulco. The manuscript was sent to the Viceroy of Mexico, but for unknown reasons, ended up in the hands of the Dutchman Jan Huygen van Linschoten (1563-1611), who published it in Dutch as Defeat of the Indies (Amsterdam, 1596, 1614, 1626). It was also translated into English and German in 1598, into Latin in 1599 and into French between 1610 and 1638. It was, however, never published in Spanish. In addition, the whereabouts of Gali's original remain unknown, another of the mysteries that surround the life of this man.

Gali worked as a cartographer on three Relaciones Geograficas: Tlacotalpa (February 1580), Coatzacoalcos (April 1580) and Tehuantepec (September-October 1580). The first two maps are signed by their author, while the Tehuantepec map is anonymous, "although it has an unmistakable similarity to the other two maps by Gali. However, this map is not given much credit as it is incomplete. It is clear that it wasn't made using the same measuring techniques as Gali used on his other two Gulf maps," says Manuel Morato.

Morato, together with experts from the School of Hispanic American Studies (EEHA) at CSIC (Council of Scientific Research), has been working on the study of the representation of the territory from a historical perspective since 2010, using 16th-century maps, especially those related to the discovery and colonisation of the Americas.

More information: Manuel Morato-Moreno, Map of Tlacotalpa by Francisco Gali, 1580: An Early Example of Local Coastal Chart in Spanish America, The Cartographic Journal (2017). DOI: 10.1080/00087041.2017.1323152
This image provided by Armstrong Air and Space Museum shows a lunar module replica at Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Wapakoneta, Ohio. Police say the rare gold replica of the lunar space module has been stolen from the museum. Police responded to an alarm at the museum just before midnight Friday, July 28, 2017, and discovered the 5-inch high, solid-gold replica had been stolen. (Armstrong Air and Space Museum/Wapakoneta police department via AP)

Whoever broke into an Ohio museum and stole a solid-gold replica of the Apollo 11 lunar module likely intends to melt it down for the value of the gold instead of trying to sell what could be a collectible worth millions of dollars, said a retired NASA agent who has helped recover stolen moon rocks worth millions of dollars.

The 5-inch (12.7-centimeter) replica was discovered stolen after an alarm sounded just before midnight Friday at the Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Wapakoneta, the boyhood home of astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the moon in July 1969.

Replicas made by the French jeweler Cartier were presented to Armstrong and fellow Apollo 11 space voyagers Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins in Paris shortly after they returned to Earth.

The NASA agent, Joseph Gutheinz Jr., noted the thief or thieves left behind a moon rock from the Apollo 11 mission that's much larger than other rocks given away or loaned to museums or foreign countries that could easily be smuggled out of the country, where a geologist could verity its authenticity. He said it would be worth millions of dollars to a collector into space items.

"Either they didn't have easy access to the moon rock, or they weren't into collectibles," Gutheinz said Sunday. "They were into turning a quick buck."

Gutheinz ran an undercover sting operation in 1998 that led to the recovery of a moon rock from the Apollo 17 mission originally given to the Honduran government. The seller offered the rock to Gutheinz for $5 million. Now an attorney in Texas, he more recently has led a group of criminal justice students from the University Phoenix in a project that has identified 79 missing lunar samples and rocks from the Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 missions.

A lunar collection bag Armstrong carried on the moon sold for $1.8 million, a value enhanced by tiny amounts of moon dust engrained in the bag, at an auction of space items earlier this month at Sotheby's in New York.

It will be difficult to catch the thief if the replica is melted down, which Gutheinz said would be a "damn shame." It's unclear how much gold the replica contains.

The FBI and Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation are assisting Wapakoneta police in the theft investigation. Police have said they aren't able to place a value on the replica lunar module. No updates on the investigation have been released and authorities haven't said whether there were surveillance cameras in or around the museum that might have recorded the theft.

Armstrong died in 2012 at the age of 82.

 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
HBO said Monday its network was victimized by a cyberattack, and media reports said the hack resulted in the leak of a script of the popular series "Games of Thrones" and content from other productions.

A statement by the Time Warner-owned TV group said a "cyber incident" resulted in "the compromise of proprietary information," and that the company had contacted law enforcement and outside cybersecurity firms.

The statement did not indicate what was compromised, but several media reports said hackers obtained the script of a new episode of the award-winning fantasy series as well as unaired episodes of two other programs, "Ballers" and "Room 104."

"Any intrusion of this nature is obviously disruptive, unsettling and disturbing for all of us," HBO chief Richard Plepler said in a memo to staff.

"I can assure you that senior leadership and our extraordinary technology team, along with outside experts, are working round the clock to protect our collective interests. The efforts across multiple departments have been nothing short of herculean."

Some media journalists, including one from AFP, received emails from an unidentified address boasting of the breach and proposing unaired content from "Game of Thrones."

 2017 AFP
Bustling scene at a market in Antananarivo, Madagascar. Credit: Shutterstock

Ramen noodles in Sweden, wheat bread in Tanzania and Chilean wines in China. The cross-Atlantic transit of the potato and the tomato from the Andes to Europe, and back again as French fries and pasta sauce. We think of the world as globalised and sophisticated in its food tastes, and our palettes as curious and ever-expanding. Food spreads cultural acceptance and understanding.

But the spread of food also exposes a darker underlying history of globalisation and industrialisation. Patterns in the way that food is distributed around the world follow colonial-industrial trends from the past. And while global trade has helped lift many out of poverty, it has not done so evenly. It has kept a colonialist imprint on the planet in a different way: with differentiated access to nutritious food and the rise of obesity and other food-related health problems.

Beyond adding unusual grains or fancy foods to their palettes, wealthy shoppers might have their pick of green beans imported from Kenya to the UK, or beef and grains grown in Uruguay by US farmers.

Meanwhile, eaters in developing countries are more likely to eat "exotic" foods like white bread, maize or rice. These are less nutritious because of the way in which they are processed. In addition, exotic food crops tend to require unsustainable farming practices, like using more water in places where it's already a scarce resource.

To escape these patterns, a new way of engaging with the complexity of food systems is needed. We need to adopt an approach that recognises that challenges are systemic and that they can't be solved with silver bullet solutions.

A more systemic approach could help shift the global food system because it recognises that food production must become more environmentally sustainable and must be designed in a way that meets the needs of the world's people in an equitable and just manner.

Understanding the food system as a complex system with interlinking social and ecological aspects is an important step that resilience thinking brings to the table of food system governance.

Colonial roots

Like many problems in the global South, the global food system issues can be traced back to a colonial history. Back in 1989 two sociologists, Harriet Friedmann and Philip McMichael, developed a useful concept in their work on agrarian studies: global food regimes. They described two key periods where the structure of the global food system enabled the uptake of Western-style capitalism and consumerism. The diasporic-colonial food regime of 18701914 and the mercantile-industrial food regime of 19471973. Friedmann went on to describe a potential third regime that we might find ourselves in now: the corporate-environmental regime.

The first food regime is defined by food imports to Europe from the colonies. That would include basic grains and livestock from the settler colonies, most notably to Australia, Canada, and the US, and tropical imports from the rest of the occupied colonies.

The second food regime rerouted food from the US "to its informal empire of postcolonial states on strategic perimeters of the Cold War". It was framed as a development project that had a suite of interventions like food aid, green revolution technologies, and chemical fertilisers and pesticides, and the extension of international markets into the countryside.

Food chains promote their organic food aisles, separate from their regular and usually more affordable foodstuffs. Credit: Shutterstock

At the same time, a division of agricultural labour evolved at the international scale: cheap labour in the former colonies facilitated the flow of commodities across national borders, from poorer to richer countries.

The third regime, corporate-environmental, follows globally powerful food retailers and agro-food companies. They have selectively adopted the language and goals of environmental and social movements. Food chains promote their organic food aisles, separate from their regular and usually more affordable foodstuffs. This new regime is arguably a response to the environmental critique of industrial agriculture. But it's often removed from the context in which these products are produced.

Food flows

In the last decades of the previous century the green revolution and industrial agriculture simplified agricultural methods to increase the yields of staple crops. This was often done in the name of famine prevention. At the same time it marginalised rural communities and eroded agricultural biodiversity, soil fertility and indigenous knowledge.

Recent social movement responses to these processes have been wide ranging as well. The nearly 30-year-old Slow Food movement set out to prevent the disappearance of local food cultures and traditions, and to combat people's dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, and how food choices affect the world around us. La Via Campesina is an international movement that brings together many poor people with farm workers to defend small scale sustainable agriculture to promote social justice and dignity.

But Friedman observes that the shift to a different kind of green revolution has been preempted by companies that reorganise supply chains to meet the needs of rich and poor consumers differently. The result is, if you can afford healthy, sustainable food, then you will go to an upscale organic grocery store, but if price is your main consideration, then you are heading to a budget grocery chain stocked with prepared packaged foods.

The moral of this story is that developing countries continue to be used to further the economic, environmental, and physical well-being of developed nations.

Weighing the future

This is not to say that trade or even globalisation are bad: they have significantly contributed to reducing poverty and increasing overall human well-being. But the way in which trade regulations and globalisation currently play out is detrimental. It's bad for the people in the global South, who often get a raw deal for their produce, but also bad for the planet. The world simply can't sustain 9 billion American-style consumers or the continued expansion of modern industrialised agriculture.

Formal recognition of how much developing countries contribute to developed economies is needed. This assessment will be an important component in working to meet the Sustainable Development Goals, relating specifically to goal 12: sustainable consumption and production.

Once again, the colonised might have to provide for the former colonisers, but this time, I hope their products will be solutions and not raw materials.

Somewhere in between must be a marriage of genetic diversity, old and new practices, and yes, the ability to eat teff or any other once local food anywhere. But at the same time, not taking for granted the diversity available on the local grocery store's shelves.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Credit: aleks1949 / shutterstock

After fears the Loch Ness Monster had "disappeared" last winter, a new sighting in May 2017 was celebrated by its enthusiasts. The search for monsters and mythical creatures (or "cryptids") such as Nessie, the Yeti or Bigfoot is known as "cryptozoology".

On the face of it, cryptozoology has little in common with mainstream conservation. First, it is widely held to be a "pseudoscience", because it does not follow the scientific methods so central to conservation biology. Many conservation scientists would find the idea of being identified with monsters and monster-hunters embarrassing.

Moreover, in the context of the global collapse in biodiversity, conservationists focus their attentions on protecting the countless endangered species that we know about. Why waste time thinking about unknown or hypothesised creatures? Most people are rightly sceptical of sightings of anomalous primates or plesiosaurs in densely populated regions that have been surveyed for hundreds of years.

However, while there are strong ecological and evidence-based reasons to doubt the existence of charismatic cryptids such as Nessie and Bigfoot, conservationists should not automatically dismiss enthusiastic searches for "hidden" species. In fact, cryptozoology can contribute to conservation in several ways.

Known unknowns

Firstly, the process of mapping out the world's species is far from finished. Conservationists aim to protect and preserve known plants and animals  but it is not always appreciated how many remain "undescribed" by scientists. Since 1993, more than 400 new mammals have been identified, many in areas undergoing rapid habitat destruction. The number of undescribed beetles, for example, or flies, let alone microscopic organisms, will be huge.

We are entering a new age of discovery in biology with descriptions of new species reaching rates comparable to the golden era of global exploration and collection in the 18th and 19th centuries. The advent of methods such as DNA barcoding offer the possibility of automated species identification.

A recent mathematical model predicted that at least 160 land mammal species and 3,050 amphibian species remain to be discovered and described. Other predictions suggest that a large proportion of undescribed species will go extinct without ever being recorded or conserved at all  a phenomenon we might term "crypto-extinction".

The father of cryptozoology, Bernard Heuvelmans, argued that "the great days of zoology are not done". In the sense that so many species remain undiscovered, he was correct. The main principle behind cryptozoology is soundly zoological: species exist that humans have not discovered or described. The quest to locate and protect the world's biodiversity is one that conservation and cryptozoology share, even if cryptozoologists tend to focus their attentions on the large, mythical and monstrous, over the small, plausible, and non-mammalian species in our midst.

Homo floresiensis went extinct around 50,000 years ago. Credit: Tim Evanson / Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, CC BY-SA

Cryptozoology involves rampant speculation and unconventional surveying methods. But controversial new "findings" can inspire a renewed quest to better map out the natural world. This was the case with the cryptid spiral-horned ox, never seen by a scientist in the flesh and known only from a few horns found in a market in Vietnam. The debate between rival camps of zoologists about whether the ox existed pulled together historic accounts, local folklore, and samples of museum specimens  all classic cryptozoological methodologies.

Shared histories

The second reason why conservationists should not automatically discount cryptozoology is its shared history, co-evolving with conservation in the 20th century and interesting many conservationists along the way.

One notable connecting thread comes through Peter Scott, the founder of the World Wildlife Fund and creator of the Red Data Book method of classifying endangered species. Scott first grew interested in Loch Ness Monster reports in 1960 and in the same year wrote to Queen Elizabeth offering to name the  undiscovered  cryptid Elizabethia nessiae in her honour. Although the Queen was said to be "very interested", her advisers wrote back saying it would be inappropriate to attach her name to something viewed as a monster or likely to be a hoax.

In an infamous article in Nature in 1975 Scott published underwater photographs appearing to show a creature with a diamond-shaped flipper. Scott and his co-author, the American Nessie enthusiast Robert Rines, named the creature Nessiteras rhombopteryx with the intention that it could then be preemptively protected under the Conservation of Wild Creatures and Wild Plants Act (1975).

Although he knew that grainy photographs were insufficient taxonomic evidence in the long term, Scott argued "the procedure seems justified by the urgency of comprehensive conservation". For Scott, conservation was at the heart of the hunt for Nessie.

Scott was not the only curious conservationist. In his book Searching for Sasquatch, Brian Segal examines several other mainstream conservationists who grew interested in cryptozoological ideas and endeavours.

More recently, when specimens of a species named Homo floresiensis were found on the island of Flores in Indonesia in 2003, Henry Gee, an editor at Nature, wrote:

The saola, or Vu Quang ox, was first discovered in 1992 and first photographed in the wild in 1999. Credit: Bill Robichaud / Global Wildlife Conservation, CC BY-SA

If animals as large as oxen can remain hidden into an era when we would expect that scientists had rustled every tree and bush in search of new forms of life, there is no reason why the same should not apply to new species of large primate, including members of the human family.

Cryptozoology - in from the cold?

Given conservation's haunting relationship with the problem of absence, is it time to bring cryptozoology, in some form at least, in from the cold? A rapprochement would demand changes on both sides.

Cryptozoology's appeal currently comes from its celebration of the anomalous and monstrous. A "post-monstrous" outlook might aid in forging new coalitions, and a stronger focus on plausible undiscovered species (such as the thousands of smaller amphibians and mammals predicted to exist) than on charismatic, but highly unlikely, cryptids.

The third way that cryptozoology can contribute to conservation is through the sense of wonder. From the conservation perspective, something might be learned from the Nessie and Bigfoot hunters about telling new stories of weird and wonderful discoveries alongside the more familiar tales of flagship species decline.

Instead of rebuffing them, conservationists might consider enlisting cryptozoologists as part of a wonder zoology that accelerates conventional taxonomic efforts. Indeed, the EDGE of Existence conservation initiative is doing exactly this by focusing its attention on "weird" endangered species.

Other examples of wonder zoology include the descriptions of new (although known to local people) primates by Marc van Roosmalen in the Amazon, and the "lost world" of new species found in or near Vietnam's Vu Quang Nature Reserve in the 1990s.

One promising model of how conservationists and cryptozoologists might engage is sketched out by the paleozoologist Darren Naish. Naish's "sceptical cryptozoology" does not dwell on the question of whether cryptozoology is pseudoscientific or not but focuses instead on the ground it shares with conventional zoology.

Stories of the discovery and rediscovery of species routinely punctuate the depressing catalogue of extinction after extinction. Wonder and speculation  however untethered  must play a role in energising conservation actions.

Although no one expects conservation NGOs to start searching for Bigfoot, it would be remiss of them to ignore the powerful ecological imagination that can be inspired by cryptozoology.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
New Delhi, Jul 31 (PTI) The government today launched the third cleanliness survey -- Swachh Survekshan-2018 -- to rank 4,041 cities and towns in the country with a revised methodology.

Under the survey, launched by Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Narendra Singh Tomar here, 500 cities with more than 1 lakh population and state and UT capitals will have all-India ranking.

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Also, 3,541 cities with less than 1 lakh population will have state and zonal rankings.

Cities will be ranked based on 71 sanitation-related parameters with different weightage. The cumulative marks will be 4,000. The 2017 survey had total 2,000 marks.

Huge negative marking has been introduced this time to ensure cities do not make false claims about improvement in sanitation infrastructure.

If claims of a city government about any parameter are found to be incorrect by independent assessors, it will get zero marks for that parameters. Also, it will attract 33 per cent negative marking on the total obtained marks.

Union minister Babul Supriyo, who was also present on the occasion, released an anthem Swachhata Ki Jyot Jagi Hai (flame of sanitation has been lit) to encourage peoples participation in the survey.

The cleanliness survey was launched in 2016 as part of the Swachh Bharat Mission.

Under the first survey, Swachh Survekshan-2016, 73 cities with over 10 lakh population and all the state capitals were ranked. Mysuru had topped the list.

In the 2017 survey, 434 cities with over 1 lakh population and all the state capitals were ranked. Indore had emerged as the cleanest city.

The 2018 survey is the first such pan-India exercise and is the largest in the world, Tomar said as he stressed on making Swachh Bharat Mission a jan andolan (peoples movement).

Detailing the changes in assessment weightages, Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra said the weightage of citizen feedback has been increased to 35 per cent in the 2018 survey from 30 per cent in the last one.

Similarly, the weightage of direct observation is also increased to 30 per cent from 25 per cent in previous survey.

However, service level progress has been reduced from 45 to 35 per cent.

A new element of innovation has been introduced with a weightage of 5 per cent to encourage cities to take up innovative sanitation practices and solutions. The weightage of processing and disposal component has been increased from 20 to 25 per cent.

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The weightage of Open-Defecation Free component remains unchanged at 30 per cent, while information, education and communication (IEC) and capacity-building components were kept same at 5 per cent each.

The collection and transportation component was reduced from 40 to 30 per cent in this survey.

The results of the survey will be announced in March next year.

The script for Swachhata Ki Jyot Jagi Hai song has been written by renowned lyricist Prasoon Joshi and visuals have been provided by producer Mukesh Bhatt. Shankar Mahadevan has given music.

This song has seen participation from Supriyo himself, Udit Narayan, Shreya Ghoshal, Alka Yagnik, Akriti Kakar and Shann Banerjee, among others. The song features messages from Amitabh Bachchan and Sachin Tendulkar.

All the artistes have provided their services free of cost and the song will be dubbed in regional languages for a wider outreach.

Tomar also criticised previous governments approach towards cleanliness saying if they had not "neglected" this aspect of governance, he would not have been talking about it even after 70 years of Independence. PTI MP TIR

--- ENDS ---

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The image depicts a new device for surface enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy. Infrared light (the white beams) is trapped by tiny gaps in the metal surface, where it can be used to detect trace amounts of matter. Credit: University at Buffalo

Scientists searching for traces of drugs, bomb-making components and other chemicals often shine light on the materials they're analyzing.

This approach is known as spectroscopy, and it involves studying how light interacts with trace amounts of matter.

One of the more effective types of spectroscopy is infrared absorption spectroscopy, which scientists use to sleuth out performance-enhancing drugs in blood samples and tiny particles of explosives in the air.

While infrared absorption spectroscopy has improved greatly in the last 100 years, researchers are still working to make the technology more sensitive, inexpensive and versatile. A new light-trapping sensor, developed by a University at Buffalo-led team of engineers and described in an Advanced Optical Materials study, makes progress in all three areas.

"This new optical device has the potential to improve our abilities to detect all sorts of biological and chemical samples," says Qiaoqiang Gan, PhD, associate professor of electrical engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at UB, and the study's lead author.

Co-authors of the studywhich will be featured on the cover of September's Advanced Science Newsin Gan's lab include Dengxin Ji, Alec Cheney, Nan Zhang Haomin Song and Xie Zeng, PhD. Additional co-authors come from Fudan University and Northeastern University, both in China, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The sensor works with light in the mid-infrared band of the electromagnetic spectrum. This part of the spectrum is used for most remote controls, night-vision and other applications.

The sensor consists of two layers of metal with an insulator sandwiched in between. Using a fabrication technique called atomic layer deposition, researchers created a device with gaps less than five nanometers (a human hair is roughly 75,000 nanometers in diameter) between two metal layers. Importantly, these gaps enable the sensor to absorb up to 81 percent of infrared light, a significant improvement from the 3 percent that similar devices absorb.

The process is known as surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) spectroscopy. The sensor, which acts as a substrate for the materials being examined, boosts the sensitivity of SEIRA devices to detect molecules at 100 to 1,000 times greater resolution than previously reported results.

The increase makes SEIRA spectroscopy comparable to another type of spectroscopic analysis, surface-enhanced Rama spectroscopy (SERS), which measures light scattering as opposed to absorption.

The SEIRA advancement could be useful in any scenario that calls for finding traces of molecules, says Ji, the first author and a PhD candidate in Gan's lab. This includes but is not limited to drug detection in blood, bomb-making materials, fraudulent art and tracking diseases.

Researchers plan to continue the research, and examine how to combine the SEIRA advancement with cutting-edge SERS.

More information: Dengxin Ji et al, Efficient Mid-Infrared Light Confinement within Sub-5-nm Gaps for Extreme Field Enhancement, Advanced Optical Materials (2017). DOI: 10.1002/adom.201700223 Journal information: Advanced Optical Materials
The ancient forest of Bialowieza straddles Poland's eastern border with Belarus

Poland will keep logging in the ancient forest of Bialowieza despite an order from the EU's top court to halt the practice, the country's environment minister said Monday.

The Court of Justice of the European Union last week ordered Poland to suspend logging operations there pending a final judgment on its dispute with the European Union.

But Environment Minister Jan Szyszko told journalists that operations would continue and that they were preparing a response to the Court, to be sent by Friday.

Polish television station TVN24 showed footage of machines felling trees in the forest, which has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

And Greenpeace's Polish spokesman told AFP: "The felling is continuing, even if it is at a lower intensity."

On Saturday, a cameraman trying to establish if the felling operations were continuing was assaulted by employees of one of the logging companies, an incident that was condemned Monday by the authorities.

The European Union took Poland to the Court on July 13, arguing that the operations were destroying a forest that boasts unique plant and animal life, including the continent's largest mammal, the European bison.

The Polish government said it had authorised the logging, which began in May last year, to contain damage caused by a spruce bark beetle infestation and to fight the risk of forest fires.

But scientists, ecologists and the European Union have protested and activists allege the logging is a cover for commercial cutting of protected old-growth forests.

The forest, which straddles Poland's eastern border with Belarus, includes one of the largest surviving parts of the primeval forest that covered the European plain 10,000 years ago.

The UNESCO committee overseeing the world heritage sites project has joined the EU in calling on Poland to halt the logging operations.

 2017 AFP
Experimental setup of the lab-scale bioreactor and P-filter. Credit: Laura Christianson

Algae blooms in the Gulf of Mexico use up the majority of the oxygen in the water, leading to massive "dead zones" that cannot support fish or other wildlife. The culprit? Nitrate, running off agricultural fields through tile drainage systems. But nitrate is only part of the problem. Algae in freshwater lakes and ponds flourishes when exposed to a different pollutant, phosphorus, and the tiniest amount is enough to trigger a bloom.

Illinois and the 11 other states that send the majority of the water to the Mississippi River set aggressive goals to reduce nitrate and phosphorus pollution in the Gulf of Mexico. To achieve those goals, large point sources of phosphorus, such as wastewater treatment plants, will need to invest in new infrastructure. But new research suggests there could be a role for farmers, as well.

Laura Christianson, assistant professor of water quality in the Department of Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois, is an expert in woodchip bioreactors. She has done extensive work to demonstrate the potential of the woodchip-filled trenches in removing nitrate from tile drainage water in Illinois croplands.

"The woodchips and the nitrate are necessary for the bacteria to complete their life cycles. As they consume the nitrate, it is removed from the water. It's a biological process," Christianson explains.

In a recent study, Christianson and several colleagues looked at whether they could also remove phosphorus by adding a special "P-filter" designed to trap the fertilizer-derived pollutant. The team tested two types of industrial waste products in the P-filters: acid mine drainage treatment residual (MDR) and steel slag. Phosphorous binds to elements such as iron, calcium, and aluminum contained in these products, removing it from the water.

Dr. Laura Christianson stands in front of a farm-scale woodchip bioreactor in Illinois. Credit: Debra L. Larson

Rather than mixing MDR or steel slag with woodchips in one big nitrate- and phosphorus-removing machine, the team placed a separate P-filter upstream or downstream of a lab-scale bioreactor. They ran wastewater from an aquaculture tank through the system and measured the amount of nitrate and phosphorus at various points along the way.

Nitrate removal was consistent, regardless of P-filter type and whether the P-filter was upstream or downstream of the bioreactor. But MDR was far superior as a phosphorus filter. "It removed 80 to 90 percent of the phosphorus at our medium flow rate," Christianson says. "That was really, really good. Amazing."

Steel slag, on the other hand, only removed about 25 percent of the phosphorus. "But steel slag is a lot easier to find in the Midwest. And according to the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy, we're only trying to remove 45 percent of the phosphorus we send downstream. Since agriculture is only responsible for half of that, 25 percent would be pretty good," Christianson says.

The system clearly shows potential, but several unknowns remain. Paired bioreactors and P-filters have yet to be tested in real-world conditions, although a handful have been installed in the United States. Perhaps more importantly, researchers don't have a good handle on how much phosphorus is running off agricultural fields in tile drainage.

"We suspect our tile drainage in Illinois doesn't have much phosphorus in it, but we know there is some," she says. "We're getting a better handle right now on just how much phosphorus we have.

"We know that phosphorus moves more readily in surface runoff. When you have soil eroding and the water is murky and brown, there's generally phosphorus attached to the soil. The easy way to sum it up is if you have tile drainage, you should be more concerned about losing nitrate in that water, but if you have hillier land, you should be more concerned about soil erosion and losing phosphorus."

More information: Laura E. Christianson et al, Denitrifying woodchip bioreactor and phosphorus filter pairing to minimize pollution swapping, Water Research (2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2017.05.026
An artist's view of the heart of a quasar. Credit: NASA

Some of the biggest galaxies in the universe are full of extinguished stars. But nearly 12 billion years ago, soon after the universe first was created, these massive galaxies were hotspots that brewed up stars by the billions.

How these types of cosmic realms, called dusty starburst galaxies, became galactic dead zones is an enduring mystery.

Astronomers at the University of Iowa, in a new study published in the Astrophysical Journal, offer a clue. They say quasars, powerful energy sources believed to dwell at the heart of galaxies, may be responsible for why some dusty starburst galaxies ceased making stars.

The study could help explain how galaxies evolve from star makers to cosmic cemeteries and how various phenomena scientists know little aboutquasars and supermassive black holes that are believed to exist deep within all galaxies, for examplemay propel those changes.

The scientists arrived at their theory after locating quasars inside four dusty starburst galaxies that still are creating stars.

"These quasars may play an important role in making the dusty starbursts extinct in the cosmic history," says Hai Fu, assistant professor in the UI's Department of Physics and Astronomy and the paper's first author. "This is because quasars are energetic enough to eject gas out of the galaxy, and gas is the fuel for star formation, so quasars provide a viable mechanism to explain the transition between a starburst and an extinct elliptical (galaxy)."

Quasars shouldn't be detectable in dusty starburst galaxies because their light would be absorbed, or blocked, by the grit churned up by the intense star-forming activity taking place there, Fu says.

"So, the fact that we saw any such quasars implies that there must be more quasars hidden in dusty starbursts," Fu says. "To push this to the extreme, maybe every dusty starburst galaxy hosts a quasar and we just cannot see the quasars."

Fu and his team located the quasars in March 2016 with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a bank of radio telescopes located more than 16,000 feet above sea level in northern Chile. It was the first time Fu's team reserved time on ALMA, brought into full operation in 2013 and funded by international partners, including the U.S. National Science Foundation.

The scientists then mapped the quasars with other telescopes and at wavelengths ranging from ultraviolet to far infrared. Based on these observations, they confirmed the quasars are the same as those located with ALMA. The question then became: Why are these quasars visible when they should be enshrouded?

The researchers have a theory. They think the quasars are peeking out from deep holes in each galaxy, a debris-less vacuum that allows light to escape amid the cloudy surroundings. The specific shape of these galaxies is unclear because even ALMA isn't powerful enough to provide a clear look at regions of the cosmos where light being detected was emitted 12 billion years ago, when the universe was roughly one-seventh its current age. But the team imagines the galaxies may be doughnut shaped and oriented in such a way that their holes (and, thus, the quasar) can be seen.

"It's a rare case of geometry lining up," says Jacob Isbell, a UI senior from Garrison, Iowa, majoring in physics and astronomy and the paper's second author. "And that hole happens to be aligned with our line of sight."

The scientists now think most quasars inside dusty starburst galaxies can't be seen because they're oriented in a way that keeps them hidden. But finding four examples of dusty starburst galaxies with viewable quasars does not seem random; in fact, it suggests more exist.

The paper is titled, "The circumgalactic medium of submillimeter galaxies. II. Unobscured QSOS within dusty starbursts and QSO sightlines with impact parameters below 100 kiloparsec."
Vertical structure of the winter wind circulation over the Red Sea depicts the Red Sea Convergence Zone and the transport of moisture to the northern regions. Credit: KAUST

The El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has been shown, for the first time, to play a role in increased rainfall and storms along the Red Sea and surrounding regions.

During the winter months, from October to March, the northern Red Sea experiences northwesterly winds from the Mediterranean and southeasterly winds from the Gulf of Aden. These winds form the Red Sea Convergence Zone (RSCZ), an area characterized by cloudy skies and drizzle that contrasts with the typically clear weather of the region.

Associate Professor of Earth Science and Engineering Ibrahim Hoteit and colleagues at KAUST have explored how the intensity and position of the RSCZ affects rainfall during the winter months and how it is influenced by ENSO.

"The Red Sea is a narrow basin, and so requires high spatially resolved data to accurately describe variations in the RSCZ," explained Hoteit. "This means we require extensive and accurate datasets to assess the influence of ENSO variability on the region's rainfall."

The team modeled rainfall patterns for the period 1979-2016. This involved combining data from a number of datasets from NASA's ERA-Interim global atmospheric reanalysis and the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer for sea surface temperatures with satellite data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and the Asia focused APHRODITE, a dataset containing gridded daily precipitation.

Using data on wind speeds and patterns, the researchers first identified the position and intensity of the RSCZ and the locations of the associated high- and low-pressure systems. Then, to explore the mechanisms responsible for rainfall, they analyzed variables, such as convective available potential energy, total column perceptible water vapor and evaporation.

"Because rainfall intensity is associated with the meeting of different water-vapor fluxes, we used a moisture budget analysis to identify the sources of moisture and to estimate the amount of rainfall in the region," said Dr. Hari Dasari, the first author of the study.

They found that the RSCZ shifts northward during the warming El Nino phase of the ENSO, transporting more moisture from the Arabian Sea and increasing the number of rainy days and the intensity of rain events. This results in cooler than normal air from the North combining with warm air from the South over the RSCZ.

"We are working on building advanced models for short- and long-term predictions as well as investigating how changes in the global circulation patterns during ENSO years are connected with the Red Sea weather and climate, and vice-versa," explained Hoteit.

More information: Hari Prasad Dasari et al. ENSO influence on the interannual variability of the Red Sea convergence zone and associated rainfall, International Journal of Climatology (2017). DOI: 10.1002/joc.5208
With the number of security breaches and cyber-attacks on the rise and reports of the financial burden of these varying from $400 billion a year to $2.1 trillion by 2019, cyber-security experts may soon have a new tool in the fight against online threats. Patrick Rubin-Delanchy, Heilbronn Research Fellow in Statistics at the University of Oxford, will present a new statistical method for monitoring networks to automatically detect "strange behavior" and ultimately prevent intrusion on Monday, July 31, at the 2017 Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM).

Data arising in cyber-security applications often have a network structure. A tool that monitors networks has access to massive amounts of data of which "normal" behavior can be observed. "Since data on intrusions is lacking," notes Rubin-Delanchy "accurate statistical modeling of connectivity behavior has important implications, particularly for network intrusion detection."

Rubin-Delanchyin collaboration with Nick Heard, reader in statistics at Imperial College London, and Carey Priebe, professor of statistics at The Johns Hopkins Universityhas developed a "linear algebraic" approach to network anomaly detection, in which nodes are embedded in a finite dimensional latent space, where common statistical, signal-processing and machine-learning methodologies are then available. They illustrate results from their methodology on network flow data collected at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

In contrast with traditional cyber-security approaches like anti-virus software, the new methodology is not based on hand-engineered signatures, but rather machine learning in which programs can access and use the data and learn for themselves. "Our anticipation is that this model will provide a more robust approach to cyber-security in the future."

Additional presentations about cybersecurity at JSM will be led by other renowned experts, including the following:

Mark Briers, Alan Turing Institute

Marina Evangelou, Imperial College London

John Abowd, U.S. Census Bureau

Melissa Turcotte, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Christopher White, Microsoft
Credit: Northeastern University

The field of medicine has come a long way from using heroine as a cough remedy or magnet therapy to improve blood flow. These outdated methods were put to bed decades ago. But there are plenty of ancient medicinal practices that have stood the test of time. In fact, many of the life-saving pharmaceuticals we rely on today are derived from plants first discovered by indigenous communities.

Ethnobotany is the scientific study of traditional plant knowledge. It's what gave us morphine, aspirin, and ephedrine, to name a few. And there is still untapped potential.

In a paper published on Tuesday in Trends in Biotechnology, Northeastern University doctoral candidate John de la Parra described a new field called ethnophytotechnology. It's the use of plant biotechnology to improve the plant-based drug discovery pipeline.

"New production, engineering, and analysis methods have made it easier to meet scientific challenges that have confronted traditionally used plant-derived medicines," said de la Parra, PhD'18, who is earning his doctorate in chemistry. "It is our hope that as the field expands, rich troves of indigenous knowledge can find prominence within innovative drug discovery and production platforms."

In collaboration with Cassandra Leah Quave, a medical ethnobotanist at Emory University, de la Parra examines the vast opportunities for ethnobotany and ethnophytotechnology to promote new drug discovery and solve health challenges. Here, he and Quave take a deeper dive into their recent paper.

You mentioned that traditional plant knowledge has been the foundation of some important medicines. Could you share some examples?

de la Parra: Plants have given us some of our oldest and most important medicines and there are countless examples, from aspirin to the chemotherapy drug Paclitaxel, crossing cultures across the world. Historically, to practice medicine or pharmacy has usually meant, in some regard, to be a botanist.

An interesting place to start is by looking at diseases that we know existed in the ancient world and still persist today. Take malaria for example. An extract from the bark of the cinchona tree was traditionally used to treat victims of this parasitic disease. Chemists then isolated quinine from this plant and until fairly recently, quinine derivatives were our most important anti-malarial drugs. However, the isolation of this type of single molecule treatment led to the rise of quinine-resistant malaria. Luckily, traditional plant knowledge came to the rescue with artemisinin. This compound was discovered by 2015 Nobel laureate Tu Youyou when she consulted a nearly 2,000-year-old Chinese medicinal text that described methods to extract the plant Artemisia annua.

The paper suggests that using indigenous knowledge for drug development is more important now than ever. Why is that?

John de la Parra, PhD Candidate in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, poses for a portrait on July 28, 2017. Credit: Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

de la Parra: There are many reasons why plant medicine is so important right now. Cassandra's work has focused on the alarming rise of drug-resistant infectionsinfections for which we have no effective treatments. Plant-derived drugs present the potential for novel drug scaffolds that often have a history of safe and effective usage.

I tend to think about my work from a broad perspective. A rapidly expanding global population with ever-growing economic disparity has led to shocking inequalities in medical treatment. In the West, pharmaceutical companies have focused more on diseases of the affluentchronic diseasesand less on improving treatments for acute infections that tend to affect the developing world. Many of these areas of the world also rely on traditional plant treatments. Ethnophytotechnology is a chance for combined expertisethe West's mechanization and biotechnology strengths combined with the developing world's thousands of years of rich ethnobotanical knowledgeto find and develop effective drugs for otherwise neglected diseases. This is all at a time when we see those same diseases spreading around the world despite our artificial bordersthink of Zika, Ebola, and Chagas disease for instance.

Quave: We're entering into a new era of medicineone in which previously useful antibiotic compounds are losing their ability to effectively treat microbial infections. Although we've recently come to rely more and more on synthetic chemistry for the generation of medically important drugs, humankind shares a long and extensive history in which nature was the major source of cures for various maladies. The advantages of ethnophytotechnological innovation, represented by the merger of traditional knowledge with technological advancement, will be an increased ability to tap into nature's resources to sustainably produce large quantities of novel chemical entities to fill the drug discovery pipeline in the future and better address emerging medical needs.

How can it be assured that indigenous populations and practices are not damaged by the biomedical field?

de la Parra: As an ethnobotanist, someone whose concern is the honoring and preservation of human plant knowledge, this is a huge and primary concern. First it must be acknowledged that the historical record is full of accounts of how many indigenous communities have been preyed upon, destroyed, and systematically dismantled by greedy interests. Then, the international community must agree upon and enforce regulations to protect indigenous people, knowledge, and culture. The Nagoya Protocol is an important first step for individual researchers and corporations to follow, even if one's home country is not a signatory. It sets forth important standards for researchers and protections for indigenous communities.

Why did you get into this type of research? What is your inspiration for pursuing ethnobotany and ethnophytotechnology?

de la Parra: I grew up on a farm in Alabama where we lived closely with plants and relied on them for many things. I remember being fascinated by my grandmother's use of plants as medicine. As I began my academic pursuits I often felt that the scientific community was skeptical of the idea of plant-derived medicine. And truthfully, there has been a lot of misinformation disseminated about plant remedies. Biotechnology provides the rigor, accuracy, and reproducibility to help dispel scientific apprehension about plant-derived treatments and that's why I work at the interface of ethnobotany and biotechnology.

More information: John de la Parra et al. Ethnophytotechnology: Harnessing the Power of Ethnobotany with Biotechnology, Trends in Biotechnology (2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2017.07.003 Journal information: Trends in Biotechnology
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New Delhi, Jul 31 (PTI) The government will probe the issue of liquid nitrogen being served in drinks or food at soe restaurants if it gets any such information, Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Harsh Vardhan said today.

The assurance came after Bhubaneswar Kalita of the Congress raised the issue, following which Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari asked him to provide the details to the minister.

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The issue came in the backdrop of an incident in April when a man drank a cocktail with liquid nitrogen at a Gurgaon pub that burnt a hole in his stomach. Following this, the Haryana government banned the use of liquid nitrogen in drinks and food.

"If the honourable member has any information about liquid nitrogen being served in the beverages in any particular restaurant, he can pass on the information to us and we will get it investigated," Vardhan also said.

He was responding to a supplementary question asked by Kalita who wanted to know from the minister whether he was aware that liquid nitrogen is served in the beverages in some restaurants.

"What action or what measures are being taken by the Department to stop serving liquid nitrogen in the beverages by restaurants," Kalita had asked.

To another query relating to environment clearance for an aqua food park at Thunduru in Andhra Pradesh, Vardhan said the Centres permission was not needed for this food park being set up for processing of fish and prawn as this does not fall in the categories of polluting industry under the Environment Protection Act.

This food park project has not yet been completed, he said, adding that the state pollution control board has given the permission for establishing this factory and also laid down norms.

The state government has set up a committee and proposed to lay a 26-km pipeline to discharge effluent to the sea.

"The Environment Clearance has not been granted for aqua food park at Thunduru in West Godavri District as this activity is not listed in the scheduled in the project/ activities under the Environment Impact Assessment Notification 2006 as amended from time to time," Vardhan said.

The minister said the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board has said that the nearest villages are about 450 metres from the industry.

"No drinking resources will be polluted because the proposed food park is not permitted to discharge effluent outside its premises," Vardhan said. PTI MJH ARC

--- ENDS ---

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Star Micronics to Showcase New mPOS Solutions at 2017 RSPA #RetailNOW

Somerset, NJ  July 31, 2017  Star Micronics, leading provider of point of sale and proof of transaction technology, will be exhibiting new solutions at the 2017 RSPA RetailNOW expo at booth #707.

The show will be held from August 6st through August 8nd at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas, NV. RetailNOW is one of RSPAs signature events, billed as the place where the industry meets with over 170 exhibitors.

Star Micronics will be showcasing a number of our newest mPOS peripherals and solutions including the mPOP with new peripheral options, TSP100IIIU, and SM-L300 portable printer, all compatible with Star Cloud Services digital receipt and customer engagement solutions.

mPOP

Star Micronics has upgraded our popular all-in-one mPOP to add even more functionality. Now the mPOP will support a number of peripheral options including a 1D or 2D bar code reader, a customer-facing line display, three NTEP legal-for-trade point of sale scales, and an additional cash drawer. Users can now transform their mPOP into a complete point of sale hub, while still saving space.

TSP100IIIU

Star Micronics will be introducing the latest version to the TSP100III series, the TSP100IIIU at RetailNOW 2017. Now offered with a simple plug and play USB connection, users will be able to enjoy the upgrades of the TSP100III series including faster print speed and a paper de-curl mechanism that provides a flat receipt, even when the receipt paper is at the end of its roll. The TSP100III also facilitates data communication and device charging using only one lightning cable for iOS users.

SM-L300

The brand new SM-L300 is Stars first Bluetooth low energy receipt, label, and MAXStick portable printer. The SM-L300 is Bluetooth (3.0/4.0) compatible with all operating systems including Windows, Android, and iOS, and is equipped with a receipt de-curl function and easy drop-in and print paper loading.

Star Micronics is also proud to host our partners: CAP Software, Weigh & Pay Solutions, TouchBistro, GreenBits, AppSuite, Appetize, eMobilePOS, and Vend. Visit booth #707 for demonstrations of our partners POS software solutions with Star POS and mPOS peripherals.

About Star Micronics

Star Micronics, one of the worlds largest POS providers, has designated a portfolio of printing, secure cash management, and customer solutions for any retail or hospitality establishment in POS and mPOS environments. Embracing the mobility wave, Stars complementary SDKs allow users to utilize Star printers in tandem with Android, and iOS iPad and iPhone devices to generate receipts for all of its printers. Always leading, and always innovating, Star Micronics enables web-based printing solutions including remote cloud printing, wireless cash drawer solutions, proximity-based printing, and secure cash management. For more information, please visit www.starmicronics.com or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, or Vimeo.

Other POS News:
Congress chief whip Jyotiraditya Scindia alleged that each of the Congress MLAs in Gujarat were offered Rs 15 crore in return of supporting the BJP.

Congress chief whip Jyotiraditya Scindia alleged that each of the Congress MLAs in Gujarat were offered Rs 15 crore in return of supporting the BJP

By Press Trust of India: Opposition Congress today claimed in Lok Sabha that its MLAs in Gujarat were being offered Rs 15 crore in return of support to the BJP and being pressurised by the ruling party in the state.

As soon as the House assembled, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge raised the issue of political situation in Gujarat, from where Congress shifted its MLAs to Karnataka fearing poaching allegedly by the BJP ahead of the August 8 Rajya Sabha elections.

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Ruling BJP has fielded three members including party president Amit Shah, union minister Smriti Irani and a rebel Congress MLA for the election. Ahmed Patel, Congress president Sonia Gandhi's political adviser, is seeking re-election.

"The Congress MLAs are being put under pressure," Kharge alleged amid the protests and counter-protests by Congress and BJP members respectively.

Congress chief whip Jyotiraditya Scindia alleged that each of the Congress MLAs in Gujarat were offered Rs 15 crore in return of supporting the BJP.

Both Kharge and Scindia wanted a discussion on the issue in the House.

However, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan rejected the demand saying it was a subject relating to a state and cannot be discussed in the House.

ALSO READ:

Congress flies Gujarat MLAs to Bengaluru resort to prevent them from joining

BJP Flew MLAs to Bengaluru to save democracy: Congress counters BJP

WATCH: Gujarat MLAs exodus: Congress leaders approach Election Commission

--- ENDS ---
By Michelle Nichols NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States is "done talking about North Korea" and China must decide if it is willing to back imposing stronger United Nations sanctions on North Korea over its two long-range missile tests this month, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Sunday. Haley said in a statement that any new U.N. Security Council resolution "that does not significantly increase the international pressure on North Korea is of no value." The United States flew two supersonic B-1B bombers as a show of force after Pyongyang fired a second intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Friday. "China must decide whether it is finally willing to take this vital step. The time for talk is over," she said. The Chinese mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The United States has been in talks with North Korean ally China on a draft U.N. Security Council resolution to impose stronger sanctions on North Korea. Haley gave China a draft text after North Korea's July 4 ICBM test. Haley said last Tuesday that the United States had been making progress with China. Some diplomats had expected the United States, Japan and South Korea to ask for the 15-member U.N. Security Council to meet on Monday over the test. Haley said on Sunday that the United States saw "no point in having an emergency session if it produces nothing of consequence." Such a meeting would have set the stage for a likely showdown between the United States and Russia over whether Friday's launch was a long-range rocket test. It was unclear if any other Security Council members, such as Japan, planned to request a meeting. Diplomats say China and Russia only view a long-range missile test or nuclear weapon test as a trigger for further possible U.N. Security Council sanctions. The Pentagon and South Korean military believe Friday's test was an ICBM. However, a Russian Defense Ministry official said Moscow's data indicated it was only a medium-range missile. The United States and Russia have waged rival campaigns at the Security Council over the type of ballistic missile fired by North Korea on July 4. Western powers said it was an ICBM, while Russia said it was medium-range. North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 over its ballistic missile and nuclear programs and the Security Council has ratcheted up the measures in response to five nuclear weapons tests and two long-range missile launches. Haley has said some options to strengthen U.N. sanctions were to restrict the flow of oil to North Korea's military and weapons programs, increasing air and maritime restrictions and imposing sanctions on senior officials. Traditionally, the United States and China have negotiated sanctions on North Korea before formally involving other Security Council members. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)
By Clement Uwiringiyimana KIGALI (Reuters) - Rwandan President Paul Kagame, already in power for 17 years, predicted on Monday he would win overwhelming popular backing for a third term in elections this week, brushing off accusations of stifling political debate. Kagame is able to run for the third term only after constitutional changes were approved in a 2015 referendum by what the opposition and Western diplomats described as a suspiciously high 98 percent vote. Appearing in one of his last rallies before Friday's presidential elections, Kagame told hundreds of cheering supporters of his Rwanda Patriotic Front that victory would ensure economic growth in the tiny East African nation. "From August 4, we will have seven years to achieve more development," the 59-year old told the crowd gathered along the slopes of hills north of the capital Kigali. "Considering the might of the Rwanda Patriotic Front, combined with other political parties in the coalition, that is almost 100 percent (victory)," said Kagame. Kagame restored stability to Rwanda after its 1994 genocide, presiding over rapid economic growth and a relatively corruption-free government. However, accusations of foulplay have marred the run-up to the polls, which activists say will take place in a climate of fear. "Rwanda's history of political repression, attacks on opposition figures and dissenting voices ... stifles political debate and makes those who might speak out think twice before taking the risk," said Amnesty International's official for Africa, Muthoni Wanyeki, in a report earlier this month. The constitutional changes could technically allow Kagame to rule until 2034, when he would turn 76, but one supporter said he should be content with one more, seven-year term. "If elected, he should step down after this term instead of waiting until he is no longer popular. This could put our country back to war," said Ngerageze Anastase, a farmer attending the rally. "His predecessors clung on to power and it led to killings. He should avoid it." Kagame's critics believe economic progress has come at the expense of civil liberties and media freedoms. Some of his political opponents were killed after they fled abroad, in cases that remain unsolved. The government denies any involvement. Some people at the rally said they were coerced into attending. "The authorities woke us up at 3 a.m. and we had to come," Jean Pierre Ngarambe, a 52-year old farmer, told Reuters. "They warned us that whoever refused would be punished." (Writing by Aaron Maasho; Editing by David Stamp)
A smoking cabinet at a FairPrice supermarket. (Photo: Gabriel Choo/ Yahoo News Singapore)

The ban on the display of tobacco products in retail outlets took effect on Tuesday (1 August) but many supermarket chains and provision shops were ready to comply way ahead of the deadline.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) first announced the ban in December 2015 as part of the proposed amendments to the Tobacco (Control of Advertisements and Sale) Act. The ban applies to all types of tobacco products including cigarettes, cigars and beedies.

Many supermarkets have progressively installed cabinets with sliding doors to store tobacco products from as early as June. The cabinets are typically plain-looking and found behind cashier counters. All 137 FairPrice stores that sell tobacco products have been installed with such cabinets, a FairPrice spokesman told Yahoo News Singapore.

As of last week, PRIME and Sheng Siong had installed similar cabinets in more than 90 per cent of their stores with the remaining stores becoming compliant a few days before the ban kicked in. 7-Eleven has introduced cabinets with an auto-close mechanism to store tobacco products. Featuring grey or white opaque doors, the cabinets have been installed in all 400 7-Eleven stores across the island.

All cashiers and store managers at FairPrice, PRIME, Sheng Siong and 7-Eleven have been briefed by their respective companies on the ban and the use of the new cabinets.

Smaller retail stores, such as provision shops, were less prompt in complying with the ban. Shehabudn, 57, who owns a mama shop with his wife in Tampines, told Yahoo News Singapore that they did not intend to get any special cabinet.

Instead, they are placing the tobacco products on the same shelves that they have been using all the while, and covering them with a grey plastic cover with black velcro strips. The covers had been provided by a supplier of tobacco products.

It acts like a curtain. Theres no point spending money on a cabinet just because of a new ban, Shehabudn said.

Mr Shehabudns wife showing how her mama shop will be covering up tobacco products. (Photo: Gabriel Choo/ Yahoo News Singapore)

Business likely to be affected

Retailers of tobacco products also have to adjust their selling process given the display ban. They can only use a text-only price list to inform their customers of the tobacco products on sale. Some retailers told Yahoo News Singapore that business could be affected as such.

Story continues

Lamenting on the new measure, Shehbudn said, Smokers dont really know the (specific) product name, they only remember how the package looks like. If we cover up the cigarettes and only give them a price list with no pictures, it is not going to work. We might lose business.

Crispian Leong, Head of Marketing at 7-Eleven, also forecast weaker cigarette sales because of the slower turnaround time. The transaction time is longer because customers have to describe in detail which tobacco brand they intend to purchase, instead of previously pointing it out to our store staff, said Leong.

Wendy Sim, 32, a cashier who works at a 7-Eleven outlet in Hougang, said she noticed a dip in the number of people who had bought cigarettes when the cigarette cabinet in the outlet was already in place before the ban came into effect. The whole process of buying cigarettes has become less convenient, even for cashiers, Sim said.

A cigarette cabinet at a 7-Eleven store. (Photo: Gabriel Choo/ Yahoo News Singapore)

Will display ban help curb smoking?

The reactions from retailers and smokers were mixed on whether the display ban would be effective in getting people to quit smoking. The ban may deter new smokers but the impact may not be significant for existing smokers, according to a PRIME spokesman.

Lai Jia Wen, a 26-year-old smoker, felt the ban would not influence him to curb his habit. If I want to smoke, I will still buy cigarettes. Just because I cant see it, doesnt mean I wont buy it, he said.

A FairPrice spokesman said the supermarket chain supports the governments efforts to progressively de-normalise tobacco use and reduce (its) exposure to non-smokers.

Polytechnic student Wilkin Ng, 19, said it is a case of out of sight, out of mind. He added, If I were (planning) to buy cigarettes and dont see them on display, the purpose of hindering cigarette sales would be quite useful.

Other related stories:
A Turkish court arrested three soldiers allegedly filmed beating up and verbally abusing four young Syrians who attempted to cross the border illegally, state media reported Monday. The video, widely shared on social media but which could not be independently verified, appears to shows four Turkish soldiers kicking and beating the Syrians. A court in the southern Turkish province of Hatay ruled three of the soldiers would be remanded in custody but released a fourth soldier, state-run news agency Anadolu reported. Before the arrests, the army said in a statement late Sunday that "the personnel in question were taken into custody and all administrative and judicial procedures have been immediately started against them". The incident took place on Friday at around 11:00 am (0800 GMT) on the Turkish-Syrian border, according to the military. It said the Syrians who attempted to cross illegally were deported back after passing medical checks. The video was apparently filmed by one soldier, whose shadow appears in the footage. It was not immediately clear how the footage had been released. One soldier asks the Syrians: "Will you come to Turkey again? Be quiet man! Don't shout." One soldier is also seen repeatedly kicking a Syrian and then again once he is on the ground. The Syrians are seen groaning in pain in the video. And the soldier asks another man: "Why did you bring the refugees in? Are you a smuggler?" Turkey is home to 2.9 million Syrian refugees, according to government figures, but the vast majority are scattered throughout the country rather than in camps. Ankara's allies have applauded the generosity shown by Turkey to its Syrian neighbours throughout the conflict although there have been signs of growing tensions recently. Early this month, a Syrian refugee in Turkey was raped and bludgeoned to death by rock-wielding attackers just days before she was due to give birth, and her 10-month-old baby strangled, sparking outrage. In the early stages of the conflict, Turkey had an "open-door" policy for Syrians seeking to flee to the country but in reality the border has tightened considerably since then. Rights groups, including Amnesty International, have accused Turkish troops of firing on Syrians seeking to cross the border. However Ankara has always denied such alleged abuses.
President Nicolas Maduro calls her "the tiger" as a tribute to her fierce loyalty to his socialist government. Delcy Rodriguez, an outspoken ex-foreign minister, would be the dominant figure in the all-powerful assembly being elected Sunday to rewrite the constitution. The 48-year-old lawyer told AFP the goal of the voting and new assembly is not to "annihilate" the opposition. She said dialogue is "the only path" to end her country's political crisis, but insisted Maduro's Socialists -- the political heirs of the late firebrand Hugo Chavez -- were not considering giving up power. Q: Why is the new constituent assembly necessary? Rodriguez: "It's the only immediate way we have to solve the problems among Venezuelans, to secure peace and end the violence. It is bullets and hate versus ballots. The new constitution will be put to a referendum, and that will give it its legitimacy." Q: The opposition says it will usher in a communist dictatorship. A: "A constituent assembly can't roll back the rights that are in our constitution. Quite the opposite: this is to make rights more progressive." Q: Will there be a witch hunt? A: "This isn't about prosecuting people, only crimes. One of the proposals before the constituent assembly is to transfer the right to take criminal action from the prosecutors' office to the victim." Q: Maduro has demanded crimes by the right (the opposition) be investigated. A: "The right has swapped political action for criminal action. You have never seen the right issuing a condemnation every time a person is lynched or burned alive. On Friday, a woman in Barquisimeto was burned to death for being pro-government. Most of these leaders have parliamentary immunity, but they have taken it as a sort of license to commit crimes. Opposition followers are fed up with the fact that the only call they hear is for criminal action, and I am sure that we are just hours away from having a political majority that is in favor of peace. Q: Will that majority include sectors from the opposition? A: Absolutely. The political majority does not seek war. Q: Will the constituent assembly foster dialogue? A: When the right wing won a majority in congress in 2015, a fundamental imbalance took place because one of the first things it did was to disavow the Chavez movement. The constituent assembly is gong to repair that imbalance. - 'The idea is co-existence' - Q: Maduro undertook dialogue with the opposition. Why didn't it achieve anything? A: Venezuela's main problem is the opposition's lack of unified leadership to reach any kind of agreement. It is deeply divided. But we are going to persist. Dialogue is the only path. The constituent assembly is not designed to annihilate the adversary. It seeks mutual recognition, co-existence and dialogue. Q: Will congress be dissolved? A: The idea is co-existence. There must be a process of coexistence. What is not permissible is for the established powers to disavow the decisions made by the constituent assembly. Q: What will happen with the justice system? A: The justice system has not lived up to the principles of equality embodied in the revolution, because it must be impartial. It must not have a political component. That balance collapsed, and for this reason we are going to build real rule of law. Q: Some countries have warned that they are not going to recognize the assembly. Does that deny it legitimacy? A: For me it is ridiculous to hear such statements. The US position around the world is aggressive. Venezuela has raised its voice and therefore its model is seen as a threat by (Colombian President Juan Manuel) Santos and (Argentine President Mauricio) Macri. What are the elections like in Colombia? The people who vote are the elites and they govern for the oligarchs. Q: Will the assembly lead to more violence? A: This violence aimed at toppling the government began on April 6, when there was no constituent assembly. It is up to the opposition to heed the message of the people or that of Washington. Q: Do you consider yourself a powerful figure within the Chavez movement? A: It is not about power but rather loyalty to a historical project. Q: Will the dialogue be aimed at negotiating the end of the Chaves movement? A: Never. We are never going to betray our historical project. We are never going to surrender. We are open to reaching an understanding, through dialogue. For peace we will do anything. For war, nothing. The Chavez movement is not taking on the Venezuelan right wing but rather the global powers, of which that right wing is a tool.
HONG KONG (Reuters) - A Hong Kong court on Monday cleared a pro-democracy activist and former lawmaker of misconduct while in public office for allegedly failing to declare a HK$250,000 ($32,015) donation from a media tycoon. Leung Kwok-hung, known as "long hair" for his signature hairstyle and affection for Che Guevara t-shirts, was disqualified as a lawmaker earlier this month for brandishing a yellow umbrella, a symbol of the mass pro-democracy street occupations in 2014, and truncating his oath during his swearing in. Prosecutors had alleged that Leung received the donation from media tycoon Jimmy Lai in May 2012 and then concealed it from the Legislative Council (LegCo). Lai is the owner of the pro-democracy Next Media Ltd, which publishes the Apple Daily tabloid. In a 77-page judgement, District Judge Alex Lee said the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. "I consider that the defendant's conduct is not without suspicion," Lee wrote in the judgement. "However... I cannot be sure that the latter cashier order was for the defendant personally as a LegCo Member rather than a payment which he had received on LSD's behalf," he said, referring to the opposition party, the League of Social Democrats. Opposition members in the Legislative Council face a series of legal battles that have already led to the expulsion of six democratically elected lawmakers from the legislature. "The pan-democrats have been accused of receiving benefits and money from 'foreign forces' for a long time, which is not true," Leung said outside the court following the verdict. ($1=7.809 Hong Kong dollars) (Reporting by Jasper Ng and Venus Wu; Editing by Neil Fullick)
Want to make it easier for customers to connect with you?

Make sure you update your phone number in online directories. It turns out these are found to be the most popular means to obtain contact numbers.

Thats according to new research by National Cellular Directory, a Minneapolis-based information commerce search engine.

Data compiled by the company determines online directories are the most reliable at helping users fine contact numbers at about 84 percent.

Traditional Phone Directories are Not Very Useful

The report also revealed the diminishing relevance of traditional phone directories (usually in booklet form) since they contain only landline numbers. These directories are therefore becoming less and less valuable Brent Christensen, president and CEO of the Minnesota Telecom Alliance told USA Today.

Moreover, only 9 percent of Americans answer their landline, which further makes phone directories less attractive to users.

Stay Updated on Google and Social Media

With 95 percent of U.S. adults owning a cellphone today, Google and social media have become more popular for searching phone numbers.

Businesses should therefore update their phone numbers on their Google listings and social media pages.

Try Not to Change Your Phone Number Too Often

Most customers will save your number when they find it. Thats why it can be quite annoying for them to try your number again a couple of months later and find it doesnt work anymore.

In certain cases, when you just have to change your number, make sure it is updated everywhere.

Best Places to List Your Business Phone Number

Curious to know more? Check out the infographic below:
Twitter failed to add new users in the latest quarter, while the stock seems to be dipping, according to a Bloomberg report published Thursday.

Twitter Q2 2017 Results

Some users, though, are becoming increasingly dedicated to the the social media platform, as 12 percent more are visiting the site on a daily basis than last year.

Such a statistic doesnt definitively equate to a growing business. News of the lack of additional users likely contributed to shares diving more than 10 percent Wednesday in market trading before the bell.

Twitter lost four executives at the end of 2016, and three more in early 2017, in what appeared to be a hemorrhaging spate of high-level employees. All praised the company and its leader Jack Dorsey in some respect, but the departures may have signaled a sign of things to come, specifically its potential stagnation especially relative to other firms in Silicon Valley.

Other tech companies like Facebook had a substantially better quarterly report. The social media service turned tech conglomerate surpassed Wall Streets projections, growing its user base  which is already the biggest in the world at around 2 billion  roughly 17 percent compared to this point last year.

Twitter did not respond to The Daily Caller News Foundations request for comment by the time of publication.

Republished by permission. Original here.
Union Minister Smriti Irani today visited flood affected areas of Banaskantha district of Gujarat, where 213 people have lost their lives.

Gujarat's Banaskantha and Patan districts are witnessing massive floods due to heavy rains over the last week. The floods have claimed 213 lives till now, Relief Commissioner AJ Shah told India Today.

As the situation continues to be grim in flood affected areas of Gujarat, Union Minister Smriti Irani today visited Banaskantha to take stock of the situation.

Explaining the flood situation in Gujarat, Shah said, "We are still in process of gathering data from across the state. But the number of those died in flood related incidents has reached 213. Out of this, 186 deaths could be confirmed due to drowning while 27 others were caused by other reasons."

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Rescue operation is still going in many villages in the affected districts. "The death toll will not go beyond this," Shah added.

FLOOD OF POLITICS

To take stock of the flood situation and inspect the relief and rescue operation, Smriti Irani today visited Khara village of Banaskantha district. Apart from the governmental work, Irani's visit assumes political connotation.

While the Congress party has flown its 42 MLAs to Bengaluru fearing more resignation and poaching by the BJP ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections, the BJP is trying to make it a point to engage senior leaders and ministers in the relief and rescue work of the state government.

From the Congress, senior leaders Ashok Ghelot and Ahmed Patel yesterday visited Banaskantha and Ghulam Nabi Azad raised the flood situation issue in Parliament. But, the party's MLAs who were voted by the local people are parked at a resort in Bengaluru.

SMRITI IRANI IN BANASKANTHA

Union Minister Smriti Irani visited flood affected areas of Banaskantha where people are still in distress. Rain has stopped in this district. Rescue operation has also been stopped. Rehabilitation of those displaced commenced today.

Speaking exclusively to India Today, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said, "Rescue operation has got over now. The priority of the government is to quickly do rehabilitation work in all the flood affected places."

Smriti Irani visited Khara village near Deesa. This village was totally disconnected for past seven days due to heavy rain and flood. Over flooded Banas river water submerged the main highway connecting Khara to other 15-16 small villages.

Smriti Irani visited the village along with an NDRF (National Disaster Relief Force) team in a small rubber boat. Irani spoke to local people, who had been trapped in the flood water.

"State machinery has done its job properly. Centre, on its part, has given adequate help to Gujarat government. Army, NDRF and other rescue teams reached affected areas and carried out rescue work efficiently. I am visiting these villages and speaking to affected people to understand what more help they require and how fast can we provide them," Smriti Irani said.

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ALSO READ |

Flood fury in 4 states: Rescue operations underway, says PM Modi; Gujarat CM Rupani to camp in Banaskantha

Tale of two floods: Assam continues to wave for help while Gujarat gets Rs 500 crore

ALSO WATCH: Image of the day: Gujarat faces flood fury

--- ENDS ---
Police officers finally check on the queues, look for fake mediators and unofficial waiting lists.

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Days and nights of waiting in Petrzalka will be over once the department of Foreigners Police in Bratislava moves to its currently-prepared new location in Vajnory. The much-anticipated move could take place by the end of this year.

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The sometimes two-day-long wait in front of Bratislavas Foreigners Police department has become a heated issue among foreigners living in the capital in the past weeks again. Until recently, they also had to put up with the spread of unofficial waiting lists that brought yet more discord among the people queuing to get their residence permit or similar documents.

By now, police officers are checking people in the queue with camera to prevent circulation of the lists and notice potential mediators who make the queue instead of their (often numerous) clients at the time of issuing the order tickets. Foreigners agree that the officers finally stay there.

Now the police intervene and do not let such people take the queuing tickets, said Eduard, a lawyer whom The Slovak Spectator interviewed in front of the office in the Bratislava district of Petrzalka on July 19, and who did not want to have his full name published. He confirmed that the lists were still on two weeks before. At that point, several foreigners contacted The Slovak Spectator or shared their experiences with the unorthodox practices in the queue on social networks.

In the official statement, the police described checks as measures to ensure public order, compliance with silent hours and monitoring. The measures should continue until the situation requires them, the Bureau of Border and Alien Police (UHCP) stated.

Read also:

Read also: Scaring off the aliens Read more

Foreigners grow in number

The police explain the queues by the departments lacking capacity, growing number of applicants for permit and the time they needed to react.

The problem is in the capacity and the real number of people who are interested in staying in Slovakia, the director of the Bureau of Border and Alien Police (UHCP) Ladislav Csemi told The Slovak Spectator.

His office has been dealing with the problem of a steep increase in numbers of foreigners that exceed their capacities for about two years now, he said. In the first five months of 2017, the number of residence permit requests has increased in 41 percent in the year-on-year comparison. In general a 22-percent increase can be expected in half a year, compared to 2016, Csemi estimated.

video //www.youtube.com/embed/5l3k52e5DdM

Moving to a better place

The Bratislava department has been waiting to move to more accommodating premises to alleviate the situation at the police. In Petrzalka, they have reconstructed part of the building where the offices for EU citizens are located now. In the non-EU section, they made some small changes, like a shelter for the queuing people and a barrier railing.

After several postponements Csemi expects the whole department will soon move to former military premises in the Vajnory district, located on the city outskirts to the east. Originally the move was planned for mid-2018, but Csemi now assumes they could be in Vajnory by the end of 2017.

Now for the first time we very much hope that we will anticipate the reaction with the move to Vajnory, Csemi said, adding that it is rocket speed for a state institution to get, reconstruct, and move to a new building within a year and a half.

Read also:

Read also: Desperate foreigners continue to deal with queues at the police department Read more

Will it be accessible?

Authorities chose the area due to prepared wiring network for information technologies in the building, adjacent storage spaces (which they need for the documentation that needs to be stored for many years), car park for clients and staff, and more service capacity by about 30 percent.

Infrastructure of the new workplace would enable more fluent work of the departments staff, Csemi told The Slovak Spectator.

However, one of the most criticised aspects of the new location at the Regrutska Street in Vajnory is practically unknown to foreigners, and hardly accessible. Currently only one bus No. 65 from Vrakuna to Raca connects the area with other city districts.

Our counter-argument is that a foreigner is able to find a monument in a forest, Csemi said when asked whether the remote location of the office will not cause problems for clients who might easily lose their way. In the world today I google Regrutska 3 and it comes up.

UHCP claims they plan to negotiate with the respective municipal authorities about additional public transport lines in the future.

Csemi also promises other changes for more smooth operation of the department including relocation of marginal activities to departments in adjacent cities and special care for families with children that have priority in getting permits even now.

Read also:

Read also: FAQ: Non-EU citizens - dealing with immigration authorities Read more

Unofficial waiting lists

For the moment, still in Petrzalka, the queuing system at the department works with the queuing machine that issues numbered tickets, just like at other Slovak offices. However, the limited capacity of the department limits the number of people who get the tickets issued in one day, and some line up in the queue for the tickets through day and night.

The police officers open the doors to the room with the ticket machine exactly at 7:30, the official opening time of the office. That way, laggards who try to avoid the queue have no chance to get the ticket.

The unofficial waiting lists that have appeared in the past few months, on scrap papers, were an attempt to avoid the official system and secure those on the list the spot for the next day.

Foreigners who came to the department on July 19 confirmed the existence of the lists.

The lists contained names of people who had to report their presence every three hours, Serbian citizen Nemanja, who did not want to have his surname published, said. He did not sign the list, but managed to get his number out of the queuing machine the day before. He waited through the night to get his documents handled in the morning.

Read also:

Read also: Queues rigged at foreigners police, say clients Read more

Various groups and mediators have started making a business out of the desperate queuing situation. Some of them wait through the night and in the morning, just before the room opened, they called their clients and moved them to good spots in the queue. The Slovak Spectator directly witnessed one such case on July 19.

Foreigners in the queue and on Facebook report that such service could cost between 50 and 80.

People should report situations

What can the clients of the Foreigners Police department in Bratislava do when faced with such unofficial lists and various mediators that rig the queues?

The UHCP says that the police cannot really intervene in all cases, as some occur in public spaces.

I cannot intervene against a foreigner or a Slovak citizen who at first sight did not do anything wrong, Csemi said. If I did that, we would be sitting here answering questions why the police used force inappropriately.

For the time the department remains in Petrzalka, experts from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) recommend to the clients waiting in the queue who want to act within the law not to pay the fees to intermediaries and report all suspicious situations to the police.

If they feel that the police officers themselves do not act in accordance with the law, they have the opportunity to file a complaint with the inspection of the Interior Ministry, Zuzana Vatralova, head of the IOM in Slovakia, told The Slovak Spectator.
How much longer can Slovakia afford to deter would-be foreign residents?

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Why do Brits living in Slovakia fear Brexit? They worry that if they want to continue living in Bratislava, they will have to forget about the convenient queue for EU citizens at the local immigration office and instead pitch their tents in Petrzalka whenever they need to change or renew their papers.

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That is, of course, an exaggeration: Brits have other reasons to fear  or celebrate  Brexit. And there is not  yet  a campsite in front of the foreigners police department in Bratislava.

That said, people have reported they do actually have to wait for days on end to be seen, and some say they have slept in front of the office in Petrzalka this summer. The office on Hrobakova Street, which is surrounded by the neighbourhoods typical panelaky, is the improbable focal point for people from different countries of the world and from different walks of life. Here they meet, often at improbable hours of the day or night  typically the early hours  and not for some kind of awkward afterparty. Rather, this more-or-less unavoidable experience is what those who want to stay in the country legally must endure.

Read also:

Read also: Will moving bring order to Foreigners Police in Bratislava? Read more

Elsewhere in Slovakia, foreigners do not have to go through the same kind of travails. This author has personal experience dealing with the equivalent departments in Trnava and Nitra, and at the latter in particular the staff, including the doorman, went out of their way to process the necessary bureaucracy with a human face.

Things are different in Bratislava. But it would not be right to place all the blame on the people behind the counter. They have been disparaged for their poor knowledge of languages  but, as the former management of the Office of Border and Alien Police argued, their language skills reflect the fact that they are secondary school graduates (this is the level of education that is required of people employed in the role), and their salaries are hardly extravagant.

For years now, every time the media has mentioned the problems for which the Petrzalka office has become notorious, the response of the Police Corps Presidium was that the department would move from Petrzalka to a better facility and thereby solve most of the capacity problems  including the queuing.

But it seems that the possible new locations for the department have been chosen with the aim of making them as remote from central Bratislava as possible. First, there was talk about a building in Kopcany (on the edge of Petrzalka) that is reported to be in very poor condition. Now the office is expected to move to Vajnory, on the north-eastern edge of the city. This former military barracks might be in a better condition than the current place. But if the current location is a challenge for new arrivals to Bratislava, who have to wander around the concrete jungle of Petrzalka in search of the right building, wait till they have to find their way to Vajnory.

None of these issues is news to those concerned (Everybody knows this is how it works there, as immigration lawyer Zuzana Stevulova said recently). Very little has changed, at least for so-called third-country (i.e. non-EU) nationals. And it is clear that the services this country provides to people who want to live and work here are way down the list of priorities of the police, the Interior Ministry, and the government. Perhaps it is too optimistic to assume that they will ever move far up the list.

Plainly, this is a mistake. With the ongoing brain drain, Slovakias aging demographics, and the already pressing lack of qualified workers in some fields, the Bratislava region and the rest of the country will soon need more than a few foreign workers to fill the gaps in the labour market.

Instead we are either putting them in the position of scarecrows (when it suits the xenophobic mood of the electorate in an election campaign), or putting scarecrows like the foreigners police department in Bratislava in their way.
Last week's hoaxes.

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Ebola epidemic in Italy is a hoax

There are 40 cases of Ebola recorded in Italy and the authorities have been silent about it. They banned reports on the matter and are thus allowing the virus to spread around Europe. The infection probably came from Senegalese refugees.

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So says the three year old hoax that has recently appeared again on the Czech website Lajkit.cz, a known source of fake news. It is based on an article that was published on another known fake news website, tadesco.cz.

Meanwhile, however, tadesco.cz admitted that the article, which it took from an unnamed foreign website, was only a translation of an original that was published in 2014. Back then, there really was an Ebola epidemic in Africa, but only a few cases were recorded in Europe. In Italy, WHO only reported one case.

Tadesco.cz has not presented any proof that there are 40 cases.

We are still keeping the 2014 article on our website, the author of the article wrote.

At least 840 people have shared the hoax from their website through Facebook.

Read also:

Read also: The Sme daily starts a hunt for hoaxes Read more

Millions protest against compulsory vaccination in Italy

Millions of people in Italy took to the streets to protest against government plans to introduce stricter compulsory vaccination. The media are keeping silent about it.

The anti-vax movement and the allegations of silence in the media are popular mantras for the disinformation scene. They have now appeared in an article about Italian protests against compulsory vaccination, published on the biosferaklub.info website and spread on Facebook.

It is yet another text that is based on a true story but twists the facts to fit its purpose. Italy really went back to compulsory vaccination and introduced sanctions for violating the law. But the article cites English texts that were written with the bias of anti-vax movements, like the humansfree.com website. The picture that they use to illustrate the millions of protesters is really from a protest of Italian women against Silvio Berlusconi in 2011, and has nothing to do with the anti-vax movement in Italy.

The Italian newswire ANSA wrote that about 2,000 to 3,000 people protested against compulsory vaccination in Rome.

UN depopulation plan is a hoax

The United Nations published a depopulation plan on its website, which describes how western governments should replace their original inhabitants. The short alarmist text has been spread on Facebook. At least 742 people shared it from the svobodnenoviny.eu website alone.

The Nove Zamky branch of the Sme Rodina party also shared it on its Facebook page.

The text comes from the American website, common sense evaluation, and cites the conspiracy theory about a plan where they will take all our money in taxes, force people to lower the birth-rate by increasing the costs of life, and then replace the western population of Europe and the US with illiterate immigrants whom they will pay to reproduce.

The text is based on a real UN report about global trends in population. But it does not mention an important fact: the report is from 2000 and was published long before the current migration crisis. To find this, the reader would have to click from svobodnenoviny.cz to the source article at common sense evaluation and there click on the link to the UN report.

The report really deals with ageing and decreasing trends in population in several western countries. But that does not mean the UN planned this situation. It only reported on it 17 years ago.

The claims that they will increase our taxes and prepare soil for the migrants are based on nothing. The articles are not signed.

No author, an alarmist headline, a lack of sources, and the omnipotent they, are the usual signs that the text is a hoax or just downright propaganda.
Banska Bystricas regional governor faces a sentence of six months to three years for sympathising with extremist movements. Meanwhile, his party has filed a suit against the daily that wrote about it.

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Marian Kotleba, the Banska Bystrica regional governor, has been testing the limits of freedom of speech in Slovakia for some time, the Sme daily wrote on July 28. He has been charged by police with promoting extremist movements  donating oversized cheques for 1,488 this March. This figure is a neo-Nazi symbol and initially, his party claimed the amount to be coincidental. Party members collected 4,464 for those in need, later divided into a smaller donation of 1,488 each, explained Milan Uhrik, LSNS party vice-chair for promotion. He admitted later, though, that they could have rounded the sum. But then they would not have attracted so much attention.

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Read also:

Read also: Foreign Neo-Nazis meet on Slovakian soil at a village that was burned by the Nazis during WW2 Read more

However, the police was not satisfied with this explanation  as this figure is a famous Nazi symbol alluding to the initials of Adolf Hitler and a song praising the white race. They accused the party chairman, Marian Kotleba, of the crime of sympathizing with extremist movements.

Currently, Kotleba  who did not comment  faces a prison sentence of six months to three years. If sentenced, he would also lose his parliamentary mandate.

Party and its chairman having troubles

His LSNS party, which has MPs in parliament, has long used neo-Nazi symbols. Several well-known extremists are among its candidates.

Blogger Jan Bencik clearly proved with his analyses that LSNS and Kotleba know all too well the meaning of the Nazi symbols they use.

In 2005, Kotleba was already prosecuted for distributing the agenda of his then-party Slovenska Pospolitost (Slovak Togetherness) while in uniform. The case ended after four years, unable to prove any intention of Kotlebas.

Ultimately, Slovenska Pospolitost was dissolved by the Supreme Court on March 1, 2006. Kotleba then founded another party, the Peoples Party-Our Slovakia (Ludova Strana Nase Slovensko, LSNS) and again tested the Slovka legal system when ending his address at a meeting on March 14 (the day when the wartime Slovak State was declared) with On guard! or Na straz! He was detained but released when the prosecutors office found that the greeting was not a clear reminder of the Slovak States Gardist (i.e. Slovak-Nazi) greeting, as it was not accompanied by the typical gesture. Kotleba may have only appealed to those present to be better guardians.

Read also:

Read also: Will the far-right LSNS be banned? Read more

Most recently, Kotlebas party is suing the Sme daily for claiming he is a neo-Nazi.

The LSNS party now faces a motion for dissolution, filed in May by the General Prosecutor Jaromir Ciznar with the Supreme Court. This is for aiming at the removal of the democratic system in the Slovak Republic. Kotleba is a chairman of another party, however, re-named in June to Ludova strana Pevnost Slovensko/Peoples Party Fortress Slovakia. With all probability, it will serve as a back-up in case the LSNS is dissolved. Politicians suggest that in some cases, the political activities of individuals, rather than parties, should be banned, Sme wrote.
The opposition is calling for a no-confidence vote on him.

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Police have already started dealing with the dubiously allocated millions of euros from EU funds for research and development. These were allocated by Education Minister Peter Plavcan (SNS nominee).

Plavcan fled the press conference on July 26, at which he planned to explain the questionable allocation of EU funds, without really answering the medias questions.

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The minister has been criticised by the opposition and the media for allocating millions of euros from EU funds to companies. These companies made relevant adjustments to their focus of operations in the Business Register only shortly before applying for the subsidies, the Sme daily wrote.

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Read also: Education minister fails to explain distribution of EU money Read more

The scandal was brought to light already on June 30 when the Governments Commission on Science, Technology and Innovations discussed it, according to the report published on its website, the Dennik N daily wrote. The redistribution of funds was criticised by Rector of the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava Robert Redhammer, executive director of Club 500 Tibor Gregor and Jozef Buday of the Association of Industrial Science Research and Development Organisations. They already knew their projects had been unsuccessful.

The Special Prosecutors Office ordered a check on the allocation of the money, while Plavcan refused to comment on the check by the police. Apart from the Slovak polices National Criminal Agency (NAKA), the European Commission, the Supreme Audit Office and the ministry officials are checking into the subsidies. The order came from a prosecutor of the Special Prosecutors office.

However, Plavcan had been plagued by scandals and inexplicable behavior even before he was appointed minister. He is also criticised by experts for not really launching the much-awaited education reform into practice.

Politicians reactions

Prime Minister Robert Fico refuses to comment on whether it was okay to redistribute millions of euros allocated for science and research among companies that had never dealt with this field before, instead of to large universities. Culture Minister Marek Madaric, however, considers the suspicions serious. If any wrongdoing is confirmed, the responsible person should be removed from office, he said, without specifying who that should be. The opposition is meanwhile calling for Plavcans dismissal (who is a coalition partner, SNS party, nominee).

So far, the ministry is reluctant to speculate on Peter Plavcans potential successor. Eva Smolikova of SNS has been mentioned most frequently, according to Sme.

The incumbent minister allegedly welcomes the fact that the authorities are taking action  according to his spokesperson  and the ministry has launched an audit on its own. However, he is not intending to resign.
A small but efficient agency should help connect Slovak and foreign cinematography professionals and make shooting films easier.

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The Culture Ministry is planning to create a National Film Agency later this year in an effort to encourage film crews to choose Slovakia as their location to film.

The agency will also be tasked with enabling links between foreign and Slovak motion-picture professionals and lay the groundwork for film production in Slovakia, minister Marek Madaric told the TASR newswire on July 20.

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I believe that this small agency will be very helpful both for the promotion of Slovak films and for its ability to provide information about the country, and bring co-production partners and film investors to Slovakia, the minister said.

The ministry is also easing the requirement for minimum investments that filmmakers need to make in order to become eligible for a subsidy from the Audiovisual Fund that would cover 20 percent of their total expenditure.

As of August, the minimum level will be cut from 2 million to 150,000 for a single feature, documentary or animated film, and to 300,000 for a project involving at least two such films or a television series, Madaric told the newswire.

Meanwhile, the state's annual contribution to the Audiovisual Fund is to be increased by 1 million  compared to 2017  to at least 6 million from next year.
The well-established rating agency, confirmed the long-term rating for the country, with a stable outlook.

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Standard & Poors (S&P) announced the results of the credit rating as cited by the Slovak Finance Ministry, the TASR newswire wrote on July 28.

The agency is mostly concerned with the stable and relatively fast economic growth of the country, which should achieve a level of about 3.5 percent annually in the upcoming period  also thanks to the increasing consumption of Slovak households, the growing loan activities of banks and stable private capital investments.

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S&P has also positively evaluated the low debt burden of the public sector, sustainable public finances, the stable volume of foreign investments and the well-capitalised banking sector with a low incidence of troublesome credits (5%). According to its estimates, the Slovak public debt should decline to about 48 percent of GDP by 2020.

The risks threatening economic development include, as cited by Standard & Poors, mainly the aging of the population, regional disparities and the issue of long-term unemployment.
Nitra-based Lyra Chocolate has been collaborating with Indians of the Taisha region.

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A collaboration between a Slovak chocolate producer and Ecuadorian Indians is continuing. After Nitra-based chocolate manufacturer Lyra Chocolate signed a cooperation agreement with the Indians from the Ecuadorian region of Taisha in early February, the joint venture Taisha Chocolate has been launched.

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With the new venture, the Slovak chocolate producer has become co-owner of land in Amazonian rain forests, where it will build a centre for the fermentation and drying of the cacao beans. Lyra Chocolate will manufacture bars from these beans at its plant in Ivanka pri Nitra, a village close to Nitra. The chocolate will be part of the producers tree-to-bar line, the SITA newswire reported.

Cocao from this area is of a high quality, without any traces of cross-breeding or artificial pollination. Lyra Chocolate found it with the help a Slovak missionary from the Salesian order who is staying at a mission there.

Read also:

Read also: Ecuadorian tribe involved in chocolate production Read more

This was the first international contract signed by a representative of the Taisha region. Slovak President Andrej Kiska had been present at the inking of the agreement.

The project has also a social component, as part of the raised money will be used to support development in the Taisha region, said Katarina Jaklovska of Lyra Chocolate.
If you went to school in India, especially a convent school, you've probably spent hours copying sentences in cursive and days writing answers with unfaltering precision. Your notebook and hand needed to be perfectly aligned for the best strokes. Moving from pencil to pen was a life changing moment, right?

Today, you avoid writing and prefer keyboards where commands can copy sentences and the intelligent system can even correct your mistakes.

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However, before we get our feet too deep in technology, it's advisable to take a step back and look at researchers' stance on typing.

Squiggly cursive is making a comeback in Louisiana, after a law was passed last year, making writing a thing of the 'present' for 3rd to 12th graders. Fourteen American states have adopted the dying form and the reasoning is pretty solid.

1. Better Cognition

University of Washington professor Virginia Berninger told the Washington Post that the myth that we don't need handwriting in the era of computers is untrue. "That's not what our research is showing. What we found was that children, until about grade six, were writing more words, writing faster, and expressing more ideas if they could use handwriting - printing or cursive -than if they used the keyboard." Writing ensures better cognition, be it in a meeting or while filling an application.

2. Increased Engagement

Brain scans reveal that brain activity increases when you write. Researchers suggest that one reason may be because when we write by hand, every letter of every word demands different actions. Whereas when we type, we repeat the same moves over and over again, whatever the word, decreasing our engagement with the alphabets. Different word combinations are joined by different strokes when we write but while typing, you just have to hit keys for the words to appear on screen. What you create with your own hand is also better embedded, better than what you let technology produce for you.

3. Wholesome Information

"We found that students who took notes on laptops performed worse on conceptual questions than students who took notes longhand...whereas taking more notes can be beneficial, laptop note takers' tendency to transcribe lectures verbatim rather than processing information and re-framing it in their own words is detrimental to learning," shared researchers from Princeton University. So if you're selective typing, you will selective learn and your answer will be even more selective. This is important to avoid because only if you can go over wholesome handwritten notes will you be able to perform well in a presentation, an interview or an exam. How can you understand and re-phrase something with restricted knowledge?

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4. History isn't a mystery

Beth Mizell, Louisiana state senator pushed for the cursive bill at a constituent's suggestion after he told her that the high school students he hired for summer jobs couldn't read old handwritten land-transfer documents. She told then Shreveport Times that she also learnt that kids couldn't read old family letters or even sign documents as they were no longer being taught to write cursive and preferred printing their names. Thank cursive for preserving our Indian history!

5. Accomplished adults

Technology is a big distraction and no one can deny the hours social media and the internet in general seem to eat out of our precious time. So, adults who have practiced handwriting in the past should go back to it in order to follow the footsteps of Susan Sontag and Vladimir Nabokov. Listen to advocate Quentin Tarantino if no else, who says that poetry can't be typed on a computer. More concentration, better work!Thank the nuns in convent schools for saving you from this hand and cursive writing apocalypse. You've been saved.

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Stryker Corporation operates as a medical technology company. The company operates through two segments, MedSurg and Neurotechnology, and Orthopaedics and Spine. The Orthopaedics and Spine segment provides implants for use in hip and knee joint replacements, and trauma and extremities surgeries. This segment also offers spinal implant products comprising cervical, thoracolumbar, and interbody systems that are used in spinal injury, deformity, and degenerative therapies. The MedSurg and Neurotechnology segment offers surgical equipment and surgical navigation systems, endoscopic and communications systems, patient handling, emergency medical equipment and intensive care disposable products, reprocessed and remanufactured medical devices, and other medical device products that are used in various medical specialties. This segment also provides neurotechnology products, which include products used for minimally invasive endovascular techniques; products for brain and open skull based surgical procedures; orthobiologic and biosurgery products, such as synthetic bone grafts and vertebral augmentation products; minimally invasive products for the treatment of acute ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke; and craniomaxillofacial implant products, including cranial, maxillofacial, and chest wall devices, as well as dural substitutes and sealants. The company sells its products to doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare facilities through company-owned subsidiaries and branches, as well as third-party dealers and distributors in approximately 75 countries. Stryker Corporation was founded in 1941 and is headquartered in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Valero Energy Corporation manufactures, markets, and sells transportation fuels and petrochemical products in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Refining, Renewable Diesel, and Ethanol. It produces conventional, premium, and reformulated gasolines; gasoline meeting the specifications of the California Air Resources Board (CARB); diesel fuels, and low-sulfur and ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuels; CARB diesel; other distillates; jet fuels; blendstocks; and asphalts, petrochemicals, lubricants, and other refined petroleum products, as well as sells lube oils and natural gas liquids. As of December 31, 2021, the company owned 15 petroleum refineries with a combined throughput capacity of approximately 3.2 million barrels per day; and 12 ethanol plants with a combined ethanol production capacity of approximately 1.6 billion gallons per year. It sells its refined products through wholesale rack and bulk markets; and through approximately 7,000 outlets under the Valero, Beacon, Diamond Shamrock, Shamrock, Ultramar, and Texaco brands. The company also produces and sells ethanol, dry distiller grains, syrup, and inedible corn oil primarily to animal feed customers. In addition, it owns and operates crude oil and refined petroleum products pipelines, terminals, tanks, marine docks, truck rack bays, and other logistics assets; and owns and operates a plant that processes animal fats, used cooking oils, and inedible distillers corn oils into renewable diesel. The company was formerly known as Valero Refining and Marketing Company and changed its name to Valero Energy Corporation in August 1997. Valero Energy Corporation was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas.
The rape of a school girl has led to violent protests in Chamba with irate locals targeting a police station and the school where the crime occurred.

By Manjeet Sehgal: Violent protests over a rape have once again rocked Himachal Pradesh, this time in Chamba. The protests were over the rape of a minor school girl who was repeatedly assaulted, allegedly by her teacher, over a period of time in Tissa, Chamba.

The case came to light last week, when the girl told her parents about the ordeal. The teacher, who allegedly threatened the girl with dire consequences including failing her in her exams, was later arrested.

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Despite the arrest, irate locals on Sunday allegedly manhandled the staff of the school where the rape occurred and set a rain shelter and two kiosks on fire.

The protests continued on Monday, with the a mob pelting stones at a police station, injuring three cops, including an officer. The unrest forced Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, who was scheduled to visit Tissa on Monday, to cancel his visit.

Meanwhile, police have detained four people for allegedly manhandling school staff on July 27 when a meeting between school authorities and locals was organised.

The teacher has been suspended and remains in police custody.

The Chamba protests come soon after similar violence was seen in Shimla district over an alleged gangrape and murder of a girl.

ALSO READ | Shimla rape, murder threatens to topple Congress government months before polls

ALSO WATCH | Our press reports every incident of rape so it becomes 'top of the mind': Maneka Gandhi

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Weatherford International plc, an oilfield service company, provides equipment and services for the drilling, evaluation, completion, production, and intervention of oil and natural gas wells worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Western Hemisphere and Eastern Hemisphere. It offers artificial lift systems, including reciprocating rod, progressing cavity pumping, gas, hydraulic, plunger, and hybrid lift systems, as well as related automation and control systems; pressure pumping and reservoir stimulation services, such as acidizing, fracturing and fluid systems, cementing, and coiled-tubing intervention; and drill stem test tools, and surface well testing and multiphase flow measurement services. The company also provides safety, downhole reservoir monitoring, flow control, and multistage fracturing systems, as well as sand-control technologies, and production and isolation packers; liner hangers to suspend a casing string in high-temperature and high-pressure wells; cementing products, including plugs, float and stage equipment, and torque-and-drag reduction technology for zonal isolation; and pre-job planning and installation services. In addition, it offers directional drilling services, and logging and measurement services while drilling; services related to rotary-steerable systems, high-temperature and high-pressure sensors, drilling reamers, and circulation subs; managed pressure drilling, conventional mud-logging, drilling instrumentation, gas analysis, wellsite consultancy, and open hole and cased-hole logging services; reservoir solutions and software products; and intervention and remediation services. Further, the company provides equipment and drilling tools; tubular handling, management, and connection services; equipment rental services; and onshore contract drilling and related services through a fleet of land drilling and workover rigs. Weatherford International plc was incorporated in 1972 and is headquartered in Baar, Switzerland.
Corning Incorporated engages in display technologies, optical communications, environmental technologies, specialty materials, and life sciences businesses worldwide. The company's Display Technologies segment offers glass substrates for liquid crystal displays and organic light-emitting diodes used in televisions, notebook computers, desktop monitors, tablets, and handheld devices. Its Optical Communications segment provides optical fibers and cables; and hardware and equipment products, including cable assemblies, fiber optic hardware and connectors, optical components and couplers, closures, network interface devices, and other accessories. This segment also offers its products to businesses, governments, and individuals. Its Specialty Materials segment manufactures products that provide material formulations for glass, glass ceramics, crystals, precision metrology instruments, software; as well as ultra-thin and ultra-flat glass wafers, substrates, tinted sunglasses, and radiation shielding products. This segment serves various industries, including mobile consumer electronics, semiconductor equipment optics and consumables; aerospace and defense optics; radiation shielding products, sunglasses, and telecommunications components. The company's Environmental Technologies segment offers ceramic substrates and filter products for emissions control in mobile, gasoline, and diesel applications. The company's Life Sciences segment offers laboratory products comprising consumables, such as plastic vessels, liquid handling plastics, specialty surfaces, cell culture media, and serum, as well as general labware and equipment under the Corning, Falcon, Pyrex, and Axygen brands. The company was formerly known as Corning Glass Works and changed its name to Corning Incorporated in April 1989. Corning Incorporated was founded in 1851 and is headquartered in Corning, New York.
The following companies are subsidiares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.: 2235158 Alberta Limited, A.J. Amer Agency, AHC Digital LLC, AIX Limited, AJG Coal LLC, AJG Financial Services LLC, AJG Meadows LLC, AJG North America ULC, AJG RCF LLC, AJGRMS of Louisiana LLC, ARM RE Ltda., AVIATION INSURANCE SERVICES, AVRECO, Ace IRM Insurance Broking Group, Acumus Holdings Limited, Acumus Interco Limited, Acumus Ltd, Adams & Associates International, Adaptive Marketing LLC, Adco General Corporation, Advanced Benefit Advisors, Aequus Trade Credit, Affinity Marketing Group, Ahrold Fay Rosenberg, Aires Consulting Group, Alesco Risk Management Services Limited, Alize Limited, Allied Claims Administration Inc., Alternative Market Specialists, Altman & Cronin Benefit Consultants, American Freedom Carriers Inc., American Security Services Corp., American Wholesalers Underwriting Ltd, Andrew-Anthony Insurance Agency, Anthony Hodges Consulting Limited, Antrobus Investments Limited, AquaSurance, Argentis, Argentis Financial Group Limited, Argentis Financial Management Limited, Argus Benefits, Armstrong/Robitaille/Riegle, Artex (SAC) Limited, Artex Cedar Hill, Artex Corporate Services (Malta) Limited, Artex Corporate Services Limited, Artex Holdings (Gibraltar) Limited, Artex Holdings (Malta) Limited, Artex Insurance (Guernsey) PCC Limited, Artex Insurance (Tennessee) PCCIC Inc., Artex Insurance Brokers (Malta) PCC Limited, Artex Insurance ICC Limited, Artex Intermediaries Ltd, Artex Risk Solutions (Bermuda) Ltd, Artex Risk Solutions (Cayman) Limited, Artex Risk Solutions (Gibraltar) Limited, Artex Risk Solutions (Guernsey) Limited, Artex Risk Solutions (International) Ltd, Artex Risk Solutions (Malta) Limited, Artex Risk Solutions (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Artex Risk Solutions (UK) Limited, Artex Risk Solutions Inc., Arthur J Gallagher (Norway) Holdings AS, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (AUS) Ltd, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (Bermuda) Limited, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (Illinois), Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Insurance Brokers of California Inc., Arthur J. Gallagher (Aus) Pty Ltd, Arthur J. Gallagher (Bermuda) Holding Partnership, Arthur J. Gallagher (Life Solutions) Ltd, Arthur J. Gallagher (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Arthur J. Gallagher (U.S.) LLC, Arthur J. Gallagher (UK) Limited, Arthur J. Gallagher Asesoria S.A.C., Arthur J. Gallagher Australasia Holdings Pty Ltd., Arthur J. Gallagher Brokerage & Risk Management Services LLC, Arthur J. Gallagher Broking (NZ) Limited, Arthur J. Gallagher Financial Services Professionals Risk Purchasing Group LLC, Arthur J. Gallagher Group Quebec ULC, Arthur J. Gallagher Holdings (UK) Limited, Arthur J. Gallagher Insurance Brokers Limited, Arthur J. Gallagher Latin America LLC, Arthur J. Gallagher Management (Bermuda) Limited, Arthur J. Gallagher Real Estate Risk Purchasing Group LLC, Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services (Hawaii) Inc., Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services Inc., Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services of Utah Inc., Arthur J. Gallagher School Risk Purchasing Group LLC, Arthur J. Gallagher Service Company LLC, Arthur J. Gallagher Services (UK) Ltd, Ashmore & Associates Insurance Agency, Atlantic Risk Management Corp., Atrex Insurance (Cayman) SPC Limited, Avantek Pty Ltd, Axe Insurance PCC Limited, BIS Insurance Services, Baker - Tillys employment benefits solutions, Ballard Benefit Works, Bankers Financial Benefits, Barmore Insurance Agency, Behnke & Co. Inc., Bellisle Pty Ltd, Belmont Associates Consultants, Belmont Insurance Holdings Limited, Belmont International, Belmont International Limited, Benefit Development Group, Benefit Management Group, BenefitLink Resource Group, Benefits Planning & Insurance Agency, Benefits Unlimited, Bennett & Shade Co., Bergvall Marine, Bergvall Marine A.S., Besselman & Little Agency, Big Savings Insurance Agency Inc., Blenheim Park Ltd, Blenheim Park Services Limited, Blue Holdings Pty Ltd, Blue Horizon Insurance Services, Blue Water Benefits, BluePeak Advisors, Blueleaf Consulting Pty Ltd., Bluewater Incorporated Cell Insurance Company, Bollinger Inc., Bollinger Insurance Services Inc., Bowen Miclette Britt & Merry of Arkansas Inc., Brendis & Brendis, Brim AB, Broker Benefit Services, Brokerage Professionals, Brown Hobbs & McMurray Insurance, Bultman/Bell Associates Inc., Burkwald & Associates, Burns-Fazzi Brock & Associates, Bushong Insurance Associates, C&B Consulting Group, CGM Gallagher Insruance Brokers (Trinidad & Tobago) Limited, CJM Solutions Inc., CMA Solutions LLC, Cairnstone Financial, California Insurance Center, Capital Bauer Insurance Agency, Capitol Benefits Group, Capsicum CRLA LLP, Capsicum Re Brasil Participacoes Ltda, Capsicum Re Latin America Corretora De Resseguros Ltda, Capsicum Reinsurance Brokers Bermuda Limited, Capsicum Reinsurance Brokers Miami Inc., Carefree Marketing Inc., Carpenter Cammack & Associates, Cashan & Co., Castle Insurance Associates, Centennial Insurance Agency, Charity First Insurance Services Inc., Charles Allen Agency, Charter Lakes Insurance Agency, Chris Schroeder Insurance, Christie-Phoenix, Cintran Claims Canada Limited, Classic Insurance Services, Cleaveland Insurance Group, Cohen & Lord Insurance Brokers, Cohn Financial Group, Coleman Group Holdings Limited, Coleman Holdings Limited, College and University Scholastic Excess Risk Purchasing Group LLC, Commercial Insurance Brokers, Complete Benefit Alliance, Complete Financial Balance, Complete Financial Balance Pty Ltd, Consolidated Casualty Specialties LLC, Construction Risk Solutions, Contego Underwriting Limited, Contego Underwriting Ltd, Continental Excess & Surplus, Convergence Risk Services Ltd, Copper Mountain Assurance Inc., Cornwall & Stevens Co., Corporate Benefit Advisors, Corporate Life Consultants, Countrywide Accident Assistance Limited, Coverdell & Company Inc., Coverdell Canada Corporation, Cowles and Connell, Craig M. Ferguson & Co., Crist Elliott Machette Insurance Services, Crombie Lockwood (NZ) Limited, Davis-Poston & Associates, Denman Consulting Services, Detlefs Johnson & Partners, DiBrina Group, Dickinson & Associates, Discount Development Services L.L.C., Discovery Benefit Solutions, Dodson-Bateman & Co., Donald P. Pipino Co. Ltd., E. S. Susanin Inc., EHE Holdings LLC, EHS Holdings Limited, Elantis Premium Funding (NZ) Limited, Elantis Premium Funding Limited, Elite Benefits Insurance Marketing Services, Employee Benefits Analysis Corp., Employee Benefits of The Carolinas, Encore Insurance & Bonding, Everett James, Evolution Risk Services Limited, Evolution Technology Services Limited, Evolution Underwriting Group, Evolution Underwriting Group Limited, Evolution Underwriting Limited, Excel Insurance Services, FYI Direct Canada Corporation, FYI Direct LLC, Farallone Pacific Insurance Services, Fenchurch Faris Limited, Fidelity Benefits & Insurance Services, Financial Profiles Inc., Finergy Solutions Pty Ltd, First Agency, First Iowa Insurance Agency, First Premium Inc., First Premium Insurance Group, Fish & Schulkamp, Fishermans Insurance Services, Foley Healthcare Limited, Fortress Financial Solutions Pty Ltd, Fortress Insurance LLC, Foundation Strategies, Fox Lawson & Associates, Franklin-Case Agency LLC, Fraser MacAndrew Ryan Limited, Friary Intermediate Limited, Fuller & O'Brien, G.S. Chapman & Associates Insurance Brokers, G.S. Levine Insurance Services, GBS (Australia) Holdings Pty Ltd, GBS Administrators Inc., GBS Insurance and Financial Services Inc., GBS Retirement Services Inc., GBS Specialty Markets LLC, GGB Finance 1 Limited, GGB Finance 2 Limited, GGB Finance 3 Limited, GGB Finance 4 Limited, GPL Assurance, GPL Assurance Inc., Gabor Insurance Services, Gale Smith & Co. Inc., Gallagher (Bermuda) Insurance Solutions Ltd., Gallagher - Grace/Mayer Insurance Agency, Gallagher Bassett Aires Inc., Gallagher Bassett Canada Inc., Gallagher Bassett Insurance Services Ltd., Gallagher Bassett International Ltd., Gallagher Bassett NZ Pty Ltd., Gallagher Bassett Services Inc. , Gallagher Bassett Services Pty Ltd., Gallagher Bassett Services Workers Compensation Victoria Pty Ltd., Gallagher Benefit Services (Canada) Group Inc., Gallagher Benefit Services (Holdings) Limited, Gallagher Benefit Services Inc., Gallagher Benefit Services Management Company Limited, Gallagher Benefit Services Pty Ltd, Gallagher Benefits Consulting Limited, Gallagher Bomford Couch Wilson, Gallagher Burgess, Gallagher Canada Acquisition Corporation, Gallagher Caribbean Group Limited, Gallagher Clean Energy LLC, Gallagher Communications Limited, Gallagher Community Clinic RPG LLC, Gallagher Consulting Ltda, Gallagher Corporate Services LLC, Gallagher Coyle, Gallagher CyberRisk, Gallagher Energy Risk Services Inc., Gallagher Fiduciary Advisors LLC, Gallagher Holdings (UK) Limited, Gallagher Holdings Bermuda Company Limited, Gallagher Holdings Four (UK) Limited, Gallagher Holdings Three (UK) Limited, Gallagher Insurance Brokers (Barbados) Limited, Gallagher Insurance Brokers (St. Kitts & Nevis) Limited, Gallagher Insurance Brokers (St. Lucia) Limited, Gallagher Insurance Brokers (St. Vincent) Limited, Gallagher Insurance Brokers Jamaica Limited, Gallagher International Cash Management s.r.l., Gallagher International Holdings (US) Inc., Gallagher Investment Advisors LLC, Gallagher Inwest Group, Gallagher Koster, Gallagher Lambert Group, Gallagher Madison Risk & Insurance Services, Gallagher Mauritius Holdings, Gallagher Mississippi Brokerage LLC, Gallagher RE Colombia Ltda Corredores de Reaseguros SA, Gallagher Risk & Reward Limited, Gallagher Risk Group LLC, Gallagher Risk Placements Pty Ltd, Gallagher SKS, Gallagher Service Center LLP, Gallagher-Tarantino, Galtney Group, Game Day Insurance Inc., Gardner & White Corp., Gardner Marine Agency, Garza Long Group, Gatehouse Consulting Limited, Gault Armstrong Kemble Pty Ltd, Gault Armstrong SARL, Giles Group, Giles Holdings Limited, Giles Insurance Brokers, Gillis Ellis & Baker Inc., Goodman Insurance Agency, Grandy Pratt Co., Greenseed Alternative Mangaers Platform Ltd, Grossman & Associates, Group Benefits of Arkansas, Group Insurance Associates, Gruppo Marcucci, HLG Holdings Limited, HMG-PCMS Limited, HPF Investments LLC, HR Owen Insurance Services Limited, Hagan Newkirk Financial Services, Hagedorn & Company, Hardman & Howell Benefits, Harlequin Insurance PCC Limited, Hartstein Associates Inc., Healthcare Professionals Purchasing Group LLC, Healthcare Risk Solutions, Heath Lambert Group Ltd., Heath Lambert Limited, Heath Lambert Overseas Limited, Heiser Insurance Agency, Henderson Phillips Fine Arts Insurance, Herbruck Alder & Co., Heritage Insurance Brokers (CI) Limited, Hesse & Partner AG, Hesse Consulting, Hexagon ICC Limited, Hexagon Insurance PCC Limited, Hill Chesson & Woody, Hogan Insurance Services, Home & Travel Limited, Honour Point Limited, Horseshoe Corporate Services Ltd, Horseshoe Fund Services (Cayman) Ltd, Horseshoe Fund Services Ltd, Horseshoe Fund Services USA Inc., Horseshoe ILS Services UK Ltd, Horseshoe Insurance Advisors US LLC, Horseshoe Insurance Advisory Ltd., Horseshoe Insurance Services Holdings Ltd, Horseshoe Insurance Services Holdings US Inc., Horseshoe Management (Gibraltar) Limited, Horseshoe Management (Ireland) Ltd, Horseshoe Management Ltd., Horseshoe PCC Limited, Horseshoe Re Limited, Horseshoe Services (Cayman) Ltd, Horseshoe Services (Pty) Ltd, Horton Insurance Agency, Housing Authorities Services Risk Purchasing Group LLC, Human Resource Management Systems, I-Protect Underwriting Pty Ltd, IBIS Advisors, IBS Reinsurance Singapore Pte Ltd, ILS Fund Services Ltd., ISG International, ITI Solutions, Igloo Insurance PCC Limited, Independent Benefit Services, Independent Fiduciary Services, Ink Underwriting Agencies Limited, InsSync Group Pty Ltd, Inspire Underwriting Limited, Instrat Insurance Brokers, Instrat Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd, Instrat Integration Holdco Pty Ltd, Insurance Acquisitions Holdings Limited, Insurance Associates Inc., Insurance Dialogue Limited, Insurance Dialogue Ltd., Insurance Plans Agency, Insurance Plus Risk Purchasing Group LLC, Insurance Point, Insurance Risk Managers of Missouri Inc., Insure My Villa Limited, Insure Pty Ltd, Integrated Healthcare Strategies, InterNational Insurance Group, InterPacific Underwriting Agencies, Intermountain Financial Benefits, Interstate Insurance Underwriters, JPGAC LLC, James F. Reda & Associates, James R. Weir Insurance Agency, Jenkins and Associates, Joe E. Martin Inc., John P. Woods Co. Inc., Jones Brown, Jones Brown Group Inc., Jones Brown Insurance Solutions Inc., Joseph Distel, Joseph James & Associates Insurance Agency, Just Landlords Insurance Services Ltd, KDC Associates, KRW Insurance Agency, Kahl Insurance Services, Kaler Carney Liffler & Co. Inc., Kane Group - Insurance Management Operations, Kelly Financial, Kent Kent & Tingle and RBS, Keyser Benefits Corp., Kingspark Enterprises Pty Ltd, L&R Benefits, LSG Insurance Partners, Learn About Money Limited, Lewis & Associates Insurance Brokers, Leystone Insurance & Financial, Life Plans Unlimited, Lincoln Financial Management, Longfellow Financial, Lucas Fettes Limited, Lucas Fettes and Partners Limited, Lutgert Insurance, MA Underwriting Pty Ltd, MDM Insurance Associates, MG Advanced Coal Technologies-1 LLC, MGA Insurance Services, MRS Holdings Ltd., Madison Scott & Associates, Managed Healthcare Solutions, Mannequin Insurance PCC Limited, Marchetti Robertson & Brickell Insurance, Marine Insurance Service, Martin Gordon & Jones Inc., McDowall Associates Human Resource Consultants, McIntyre Risk Management, McLean Insurance Agency, McNeary, McPherson Benefits Group, McRory & Co., Mecacem Insurance SPC Ltd, MedInsights Inc., Melton Insurance Associates, Memberworks Canada LLC, Merit Insurance, Metcom Excess, Metzler Bros. Insurance, Meyers-Reynolds & Associates, Mid America Group, Midwest Surety Services, Mike Henry Insurance Brokers, Mike Henry Insurance Brokers Limited, Mike Henry Insurance Funding Limited, Miller Buettner & Parrott, Miller-Harrison Insurance Services, Milne Alexander Pty Ltd, Minvielle & Chastanet Insurance Brokers, Monument Insurance (NZ) Limited, Monument Llc, Monument Premium Funding Limited, Mortgage Insurance Agency, Murphy Consultants, Mutual Insurance Services, NationAir Aviation Insurance, National Administration Co., National Ethics Association, National Transportation Adjusters, Nelson/Monarch Insurance Services, Nicoud Insurance Services, NiiS/Apex Group Holdings, Nonprofit Insurance Risk Purchasing Group LLC, Noraxis Capital Corp, Nordic Forsakring & Riskhantering AB, North Alabama Insurance, Nourse Insurance Brokers, O'Gorman & Young, OAMPS (UK) Limited, OAMPS Gault Armstrong Pty Ltd, OAMPS Limited, OAMPS Special Risks Ltd, Offshore Market Placements Limited, Optimum Talent, Orb Financial Services, Orb Financial Services Limited, Osprey Insurance Brokers Limited, Oval Group, Oval Healthcare Limited, Oval Insurance Broking Limited, Oval Limited, Oval Management Services Limited, Oxygen Insurance Managers, P2 Group, PEN Insurance Management Advisors Ltd, PT IBS Insurance Broking Service, Pacific Insurance Agency, Palmer Atlantic Insurance, Palmer Atlantic Insurance Ltd, Palmer Atlantic Risk Services Ltd., Park Row Associates, Parkstar Enterprises Pty Ltd, Parmia Pty Ltd, PartnerSource, Pastel Holding (NZ) Company, Pastel Holdings Pty Limited, Pastel Purchaser (NZ) Limited, Pastel Purchaser Pty Limited, Pavey Group Holdings (UK) Limited, Pavey Group Holdings Limited, Pavey Group Limited, Pearson Dunn Insurance Inc., Pen Underwriting Canada Limited, Pen Underwriting Group Pty. Ltd., Pen Underwriting Limited, Pen Underwriting Pty Ltd, Persing Dyckman & Toynbee Inc., Personal Advice Services Pty Ltd, Petty Burton Associates, Pointer Insurance Agency, Portmore Insurance Brokers (Wilshire) Limited, Portmore Insurance Brokers Limited, Potter-Holden & Co., Powell Insurance Agency, Premier Insurance Services Inc., Premier Risk Services, Premium Finance Corporation, Preston-Patterson, ProSource Financial, Professional Agents Risk Purchasing Group LLC, Professional Claims Managers, Proinova AB, Proinova Agency AB, Pronto California Agency LLC, Pronto California General Agency LLC, Pronto Florida Claims LLC, Pronto Florida General Agency LLC, Pronto Franchise LLC, Pronto General Agency Ltd, Pronto General Agency Management LLC, Pronto Holdco Inc., Pronto Holding California LLC, Pronto Holding Florida LLC, Pronto Insurance Agency of Laredo Inc., Pronto Premium Finance LLC, Property & Commercial Ltd., Property Insurance Initatives Limited, Property and Commercial Limited, Protected Insurance Company, Protection Plan Association Inc., Protek Group Limited, Providium Consulting Group, Ptarmigan Underwriting Agency Limited, Ptarmigan Underwriting UK Limited, Purple Bridge Claims Management Limited, Purple Bridge Finance Limited, Purple Bridge Group Limited, Purple Bridge Investments Limited, Purple Bridge Online Services Limited, Purple Bridge Publishing Limited, Quantum Underwriting Solutions Limited, Quillco 226 Limited, Quillco 227 Limited, R. L. Youngdahl & Associates, R.G. Speno Inc., R.W. Scobie, RA Rossborough (Guernsey) Ltd., RA Rossborough (Insurance Brokers) Ltd, REGENCY Group inc., RGA Referencing Limited, RGA Underwriting Limited, RIL Administrators (Guernsey) Ltd., RJ Dutton Inc., RSM Insurance Services Limited, Reassurance Holdings Inc., Rebholz Insurance Agency, Reid Manson Ltd., Reimbursement Services, Rentguard Limited, Reward Management Limited, Reynolds & Rodar Insurance Group, Riley & Associates, Rio 587 Limited, Rio 588 Limited, Risk & Reward Group, Risk Management Partners Limited, Risk Placement Services Inc., Risk Planners, Risk Services (NW) Limited, Risk Services (NW) Ltd., Risk Solutions Group Limited, Robert A. Schneider Agency, Robert Keith & Associates, Roberts & Roberts Insurance Service, Robinson-Adams Insurance, Rossborough Healthcare International Ltd, Rossborough Insurance (IOM) Ltd., Rossborough Insurance Services Ltd. (Jersey), S. A. Freerks & Associates, SEG Insurance Ltd, SGB-NIA Insurance Brokers, SHILLING Ltd, SKANCO International, SMERI AB, SRS Underwriting Pty Ltd, Secure Enterprises Pty Ltd, Securitas Re, Sellers Group, Sentinel Indemnity LLC, Septagon Insurance PCC Limited, Shuford Insurance Agency, Sigma II Insurance Agency, Sinclair Billard and Weld Limited, Sobieski & Bradley, Solid Benefit Guidance, Spanjers Insurance Agency, Spataro Insurance Agency, Specialised Broking Associates, Specialty Risk, Stackhouse Poland, Stackhouse Poland Bidco Limited, Stackhouse Poland Group Limited, Stackhouse Poland Holdings Limited, Stackhouse Poland Midco Limited, Stackouse Poland Limited, Stanton Group, Stark Johnson & Stinson Inc., Steel Agency, Strata Solicitors Ltd, Strategic Health Plans Corp., Strathearn Insurance Brokers, Strathearn Insurance Brokers (Qld) Trading Trust, Strathern Insurance Group Pty Ltd, Strathern Integration Holdco Pty Ltd, Strathern Unit Trust, Strong Financial Resources, Summit Insurance Group, Sunday and Associates, Sunderland Insurance Services, Super Advice Corporate Services Pty Ltd, Taylor Benefits, Texas Insurance Agency, Texas Insurance Managers, The BeneTex Group, The Buchholz Planning, The Chapman Group, The Commonwealth Consulting Group, The Daniels Group Inc., The EHE Group LLC, The EHE Insurance Agency LLC, The Eagle Insurance Agency LLC, The Eriksen Group, The Forker Company, The Gleason Agency, The Great Lakes Agency, The HR Group, The Hawk Agency, The Human Capital Group, The Lance Group, The Levitt/Kristan Co., The MW Bagnall Company, The Old Greenwich Consulting Group, The Parks Johnson Agency, The Plus Companies Inc., The Presidio Group, The Producers Choice, The Rains Group, The Splinter Group, The Titan Group, The Treiber Group, The Woodsmall Companies Inc., Title & Covenant Brokers Ltd., Title Investments Limited, Tom Sherwin Insurance Agency, Total Reward Group, Total Rewards Group (Holdings) Limited, Towle Agency, Transwestern, Tri-State General Insurance Agency, Triad Insurance Agency, Triad USA, Tribeca Strategic Advisors, Trinder & Norwood, Trip Mate, Trissel Graham & Toole, Tropp & Co., Tudor Risk Services, Tyloma Holdings Limited, Uni-Care Inc., Unison Inc., Universico Group, Unoccupied Direct Limited, V2V Holdings LLC, VEBA Service Group, Vasek Insurance Services Limited, Velo ACU LLC, Velo Holdings Inc., Verbag AG., Vertrue LLC, Victory Insurance Agency, Vincent L. Braband Insurance, Vital Benefits, Voluntary Benefits Solutions, W. E. Kingsley Co. Inc., WM. W. George & Associates, Walker Taylor Agency, Welling Associates, Wesfarmers Insurance - Insurance Brokerage Operations, Western Benefit Solutions, White & Company Insurance, Whitehaven Insurance Group, William Gallagher Associates Insurance Brokers, William H. Connolly & Co., Williams Insurance Agency Inc., Williams-Manny Insurance Group, Winn & Company Insurance Brokers, Wischmeyer Benefit Partners, Woodbrook Underwriting Agencies, Woods & Grooms, WorkCare Northwest, Worksite Communications, Y. S. Liedman & Associates, YOA Capsicum Reinsurance Broker Limited, Zenor Limited, Zuber Insurance Agency, and e3 Financial.

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By PTI: pro-pak slogans

Srinagar, Jul 30 (PTI) Self-styled Hizbul Mujahideen divisional commander Reyaz Naikoo today appeared at the funeral of slain militant Shariq Ahmad at Awantipora in South Kashmirs Pulwama district.

A video has surfaced showing Naikoo, brandishing an AK- 47, addressing the people at the funeral of the slain militant. Earlier in the day, Shakir was killed in an encounter with the security forces in Tahab in the district.

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According to an eyewitness, Naikoo appealed to the people "not to fall into the Al-Qaeda trap as it is defaming our freedom moment".

In the video, the militant commander is also seen raising pro-independence and pro-Pakistani slogans before leaving the place. PTI MIJ AQS AQS

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WABCO Holdings Inc., together with its subsidiaries, supplies electronic, mechanical, electro-mechanical, and aerodynamic products worldwide. The company engineers, develops, manufactures, and sells braking, stability, suspension, steering, transmission automation, and air management systems primarily for commercial vehicles. The company's products include pneumatic anti-lock braking systems, electronic braking systems, electronic stability control systems, brake controls, automated manual transmission systems, and air disc brakes; and various conventional mechanical products, such as actuators, air compressors, and air control valves for medium and heavy-duty trucks, buses, and trailers. It also offers pneumatic and hydraulic braking and control systems for off-highway vehicles; conventional braking systems; electronic and conventional air suspension systems; steering technologies; and vehicle electronic stability control and roll stability support products, and advanced driver assistance systems. In addition, the company supplies electronic suspension controls and vacuum pumps to the passenger car and SUV markets, as well as provides remanufacturing services. Further, it offers replacement parts, fleet management solutions, diagnostic tools, training, and other expert services for commercial vehicle aftermarket distributors and service partners, and fleet operators. The company sells its products primarily to truck and bus original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), trailer OEMs, and car manufacturers; and manufacturers of heavy duty and off-highway vehicles in agriculture, construction, mining, and other industries. WABCO Holdings Inc. was founded in 1869 and is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce was formed in 1961 with the merger of the Canadian Bank of Commerce and Imperial Bank of Canada. The merger, the largest in Canadian banking history, gave the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce its name but not its true origin. The founding banks originated in 1867 and 1873 respectively and were among the countrys oldest surviving banks at the time. The business is headquartered in Toronto and located at the iconic CIBC Square in downtown Toronto.

Today, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce is a diversified international financial institution serving more than 13 million clients globally. It provides a full range of financial products and services for individuals, families, businesses and institutions in North America and around the world. The companys goal is to create value by providing consistent returns and sustainable growth. The company maintains a lower-than-average credit profile to help achieve that goal and keep it in a position to take advantage of strategic opportunities.

The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce operates in 4 segments that include Canadian Personal and Business Banking, Canadian Commercial Banking and Wealth Management, U.S. Commercial Banking and Wealth Management, and Capital Markets. In late 2022 the company brought in over C$20 billion in revenue, had more than C$678 billion in deposits and had more than C$896 million in total assets. In regard to the banks health, it carries high AA or A+ investment grade credit ratings from all the major credit rating agencies.

The companys products and services include personal and business deposit accounts, checking, savings, credit cards, and loans. Loans include mortgages, business credit, student loans, and agri-business. Other products include investment services, wealth management, and insurance services. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerces digital platform, which was the first launched in Canada, is award-winning and ranked #1 for customer satisfaction by J.D. Power.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerces strategy is built on 3 drivers. The first is focusing on high-growth, high-traffic client demographics, the second is elevating the customer experience through digital and the third is investing in differentiators within fast-growing markets. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce is also a committed dividend payer that has not only paid a dividend every year since its inception but increases it on a regular basis as well. The company is also well-known for its long-term dividend growth and has a 15-year CAGR above 5.0%.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce is committed to sustainability. The companys efforts won it a spot on Canadas Greenest Employers list for 2022 as well as recognition as Best Diversity Employer and for gender equality.
In the legal notice, Puthiya Tamizhagam party has sought Rs 100 crore as damages if the actor and the TV channel fail to tender an apology within seven days of receipt of the notice.

Actor Kamal Haasan and makers of Bigg Boss have been slapped with a Rs 100 crore notice. Photo: India Today.

By India Today Web Desk: Puthiya Tamizhagam party leader has filed a defamation suit against actor Kamal Haasan and others for Rs 100 crore.

Besides Kamal Haasan, notices were issued to Bigg Boss contestant and choreographer Gayatri Raghuram, a production company, and a private television channel for allegedly hurting the sentiments of slum-dwellers and those living in huts through comments made by a participant on the reality show Bigg Boss Tamil.

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In the legal notice, the pro-Dalit party has sought Rs 100 crore as damages if the actor and the TV channel fail to tender an unconditional apology within seven days of receipt of the notice.

In an episode of the Big Boss Tamil, participant Gayatri Raghuram made a remark on another actor's behaviour being similar to someone living in slums and huts.

Puthiya Tamizhagam founder Dr Krishnasamy said that the remarks by Gayatri Raghuram had hurt the sentiments of slum and hut dwellers. "This insults the lower caste and lower economic strata people," the notice said.

Puthiya Tamizhagam party leader also accused Kamal Haasan and others for encouraging casteist behaviour on the show for TRPs.

Earlier, Prison and Law Affairs Minister C V Shanmugam had accused Kamal Haasan of being casteist and called for his arrest. "Whole Big Boss show is under his control and criticism directed against the socially backward people project an upper-caste attitude. I urge that he be arrested under Prevention of Atrocities Act," Shanmugam said.

In the wake of Krishnasamy's attack on Kamal Haasan, several Dalit activists have questioned the former's silence on the murder of a Dalit activist in Trichy for allegedly breaking a plastic tap.

(Inputs from Priyamvatha and Pramod Madhav)

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Kamal Haasan, Stalin should stop criticising govt or will lose their minds: Jayakumar

GST: Kamal Haasan thanks Rajinikanth for asking Tamil Nadu government to rethink double tax on movie tickets

ALSO WATCH: Kamal Haasan or Rajinikanth: Who will be a better politician?

--- ENDS ---
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PulteGroup, Inc., through its subsidiaries, primarily engages in the homebuilding business in the United States. It acquires and develops land primarily for residential purposes; and constructs housing on such land. The company also offers various home designs, including single-family detached, townhomes, condominiums, and duplexes under the Centex, Pulte Homes, Del Webb, DiVosta Homes, American West, and John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods brand names. As of December 31, 2021, it controlled 228,296 lots, of which 109,078 were owned and 119,218 were under land option agreements. In addition, the company arranges financing through the origination of mortgage loans primarily for homebuyers; sells the servicing rights for the originated loans; and provides title insurance policies, and examination and closing services to homebuyers. PulteGroup, Inc. was formerly known as Pulte Homes, Inc. and changed its name to PulteGroup, Inc. in March 2010. The company was founded in 1950 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
As per eyewitnesses' accounts, the three militants entered the bank in the early hours of the day.

Gunmen today looted Rs 5 lakh from a branch of Jammu and Kashmir Bank in Arwani village of Anantnag district. The assailants entered the bank wearing a burqa.

Once they were inside, the men took off the burqa, brandished their weapons and fled with the money. As per eyewitnesses' accounts, the three militants entered the bank in the early hours of the day. They ransacked computers among other things and fled with cash of more than Rs five lakh from the cash counter.

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Police reached the bank branch after the loot and search operations are now underway.

A spate of bank robberies early this year forced banks to go for cashless banking in south Kashmir. But with an improvement in the security situation, banks resumed cash dispensation in the region where militancy is on the rise.

Monday's daylight robbery is the first in nearly three months and the seventh in last one year in the Kashmir Valley.

(With inputs from agencies)

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Hizbul militants kill 5 policemen, 2 J&K Bank employees in Kulgam while looting cash van

Robbing banks and stealing guns: Kashmir militants have found a new way to fund terror

--- ENDS ---
After losing an underwater task to Rithvik Dhanjani and Karan Wahi, Manveer finally managed to survive in the show, but sadly Shiny couldn't. Details inside.

After Shibani Dandekar, Shiny Doshi is the second to get eliminated in Colors' Khatron Ke Khiladi.

Shiny was in danger zone along with Rithvik Dhanjani, Nia Sharma and Manveer Gurjar.

These four contestants were divided into the team of two each and were made to perform the elimination stunt. The team that performed better would win and get rid of the much-feared 'fear fanda'.

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FIRST ELIMINATION TASK

Rithvik and Karan were part of one team, while Shiny and Manveer did this underwater stunt together. One of the contestants had to sit inside the dicky of a submerged car, while the other sitting inside the car had to unlock a flag kept inside the glove compartment, and then open the dicky of the car so that the contestant sitting inside can come out and the two can swim back together.

Shiny and Manveer were went first but Shiny took time to unlock the glove compartment. Karan and Rithvik won this task after completing it in an impressive 36 seconds. While Shiny and Manveer were heartbroken, host Rohit Shetty told them that they had another chance to survive in the show and that they had to be part of a final elimination task.

FINAL ELIMINATION TASK

This task required Shiny and Manveer to take a dip into water full of filth, bones, liver, basically decomposed body parts of animals. The one who collected seven discs from inside the water in ten minutes would emerge victorious. Shiny went first and collected only five discs, Manveer however collected all seven and won the task.

Unfortunately, Shiny became the second elimination of the stunt-based reality show.

--- ENDS ---
RJD MLA Santosh Yadav, in his petition to the Patna High Court, argued that JDU-BJP government formation in Bihar was unconstitutional as 2015 mandate was for the Mahagathbandhan.

By India Today Web Desk: In a further blow to Lalu Yadav, the Patna High Court today dismissed a petition challenging Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United (JDU) forming government in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bihar.

The high court dismissed RJD MLA Saroj Yadav's petition which said that Nitish Kumar has no right to claim the CM's chair as the people's mandate in 2015 Assembly election was for the Mahagathbandhan or grand alliance.

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The formation of the new JD(U)-BJP government was 'unconstitutional', the petition said.

It also argued that RJD, which has 80 MLAs, should have been called first to form the government after Nitish Kumar decided to break-off the 20-month-old alliance.

The Janata Dal United has a strength of 71 in the present house, BJP 53 and other NDA parties 5.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar unexpectedly resigned last week, but hours later joined hands with the BJP to reclaim the government in a stunning political manoeuvre that relegated his alliance partner RJD to the opposition.

The ostensible reason for Nitish Kumar to quit was his falling out with Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, the son of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad. Tejashwi Yadav is facing corruption charges but had refused to step down despite Nitish Kumar's exhortations.

Tejashwi Yadav has claimed that the CBI case against him was a conspiracy hatched by the BJP.

ALSO READ:

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3 reasons why Nitish Kumar's swearing-in happened so quickly after resignation

Watch the video here: Another setback for RJD: Patna High Court dismisses PILs filed against JD(U)-BJP alliance govt

--- ENDS ---
By Apeksha Nair and Karen Rodrigues (Reuters) - Oil analysts have cut their 2017 crude price forecasts for a sixth straight month in July, citing concerns over compliance with an OPEC-led deal to limit production that could dampen the market's attempt to rebalance. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and partners including Russia have agreed to reduce output by about 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) until March 2018. "OPEC's compliance is expected to remain under pressure over the coming months as scepticism grows over the pace of market rebalancing, despite actions taken by the cartel and some non-OPEC countries," said Abhishek Kumar, senior energy analyst at Interfax Energy's Global Gas Analytics in London. Adherence to the deal was high in the first half of the year, but the International Energy Agency's latest report showed compliance fell to 78 percent in June from 95 percent in May, as several members pumped much more oil than agreed upon. Saudi Arabia, Angola and Kuwait have shouldered the largest cuts. [OPEC/O] OPEC member Ecuador has opted out of the deal and said it plans to gradually raise output. Analysts agree the impact on overall supply is likely to be small, but the move could hurt market sentiment. "The longer prices remain low, the greater the risk is that some OPEC countries will no longer comply with the production cuts as strictly as they have been doing so far," Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch said. Following Ecuador's announcement, Saudi Arabia pledged to cut exports in August, when domestic Saudi energy consumption is close to its highest. "OPEC was swift to reaffirm its commitment in the production deal after Ecuador's announcement. The group vowed to tackle low compliance among its members, although it remains unclear how. Saudi Arabia continues to lift most of the weight of the cuts," said Giorgos Beleris, analyst at Thomson Reuters Oil Research and Forecasts. The survey of 33 analysts and economists showed Brent crude would average $52.45 per barrel in 2017, below the $53.96 per barrel forecast in June. Brent has averaged about $52.12 in 2017. The poll forecast U.S. light crude would average $50.08 a barrel in 2017, down from $51.92 in June's forecast. Analysts also lowered their price outlook for 2018. Brent is now seen averaging $54.51 per barrel, down from $57.37 in the June poll. WTI is seen at $51.88, down from $55.20 in June. While oil demand is seen picking up in the second half of 2017 thanks to stronger global economic growth, the supply picture still remains unclear, despite a recent drawdown in U.S. inventories. Geopolitical risks in the Middle East, instability in Libya and an escalating crisis in Venezuela including possible sanctions from the United States are some of the factors that could impact the market this year, analysts said. "The simple truth is that OPEC and Russia have to contend with the fact that there is output growth elsewhere diluting their efforts at reducing supply. Nigeria, Libya and U.S. shale oil feature prominently as an offset to OPEC's efforts," BNP Paribas analyst Harry Tchilinguirian said. A few analysts expect the market to show a narrow deficit by the end of the year if OPEC sticks to its supply deal and U.S. shale producers moderate their pace of drilling. Others believe the rebalancing could be pushed into next year. (Reporting by Apeksha Nair and Karen Rodrigues in Bengaluru; editing by Amanda Cooper and Jason Neely)
(Adds quotes on City, background, context)

LONDON, July 31 (Reuters) - Britain does not intend to lower taxes far below the European average in order to remain competitive after Brexit but rather expects to keep a recognisably European economic and social model, finance minister Philip Hammond said.

Hammond himself had suggested in January that Britain may have to change its economic model to remain competitive in the event that it left the European Union without having secured an agreement on market access.

Hammond, who had campaigned for Britain to remain in the EU ahead of last year's referendum, is seen as a proponent of a relatively "soft Brexit", sometimes putting him at odds with cabinet colleagues who yearn for a cleaner break with the bloc.

Senior (Other OTC: SNIRF - news) ministers have given conflicting signals over key issues such as whether free movement of people could continue after Brexit, with divisions coming out into the open since the ruling Conservatives lost their parliamentary majority in June.

In an interview with French newspaper Le Monde published over the weekend, Hammond was asked whether Britain would play the low-tax card to remain economically attractive after Brexit.

"It is often said that London would consider launching into unfair competition in terms of fiscal regulation. That is not our project or our vision for the future," Hammond was quoted as saying in response.

"The amount of tax that we raise, measured as a percentage of GDP, is within the European average and I think we will remain at that level. Even (Taiwan OTC: 6436.TWO - news) after we have left the EU, the United (Shenzhen: 000925.SZ - news) Kingdom will keep a social, economic and cultural model that will be recognisably European."

The comments were markedly different from Hammond's responses in his January interview with German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, which were seen as a thinly veiled threat to use corporate tax as a form of leverage in Brexit negotiations.

Story continues

Asked directly whether Britain would lower corporate tax, Hammond had said that while he hoped Britain would remain a European-style economy with corresponding tax and regulation systems, it may have to change its model if it left the EU without agreement on market access.

"In this case, we could be forced to change our economic model and we will have to change our model to regain competitiveness," Hammond said. "We will change our model, and we will come back, and we will be competitively engaged."

In his Le Monde interview, Hammond was also asked to comment on the prospect of banks potentially moving part of their activities after Brexit from the City of London (LSE: CIN.L - news) to EU cities such as Frankfurt, Paris or Dublin.

Hammond responded that it would be "very dangerous for Europe" to fragment the financial services market based in the City, which he described as an important component of the British and European economies.

"The big winner would not be Paris or Frankfurt, but New (KOSDAQ: 160550.KQ - news) York. Let's not have any illusions: the major American banks are not going to fragment their activities between different countries," said Hammond.

"They will either keep working as they do today, or they will move their activities back to Wall Street, which is particularly attractive given that the U.S. administration is in favour of deregulation and cutting taxes." (Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
(This July 30 story was corrected to say site of haj is Mecca, not Medina in first paragraph) BEIRUT (Reuters) - Nearly 90,000 Iranians are expected to attend the haj in Mecca this year, and were due to start arriving on Sunday, after Tehran boycotted the pilgrimage last year amid tensions with Saudi Arabia. Around 800 pilgrims were due to leave Iran on three flights to nearby Medina on Sunday, the director of the haj at Irans Haj and Pilgrimage Organization, Nasrollah Farahmand told state media. Approximately 86,500 Iranians are expected to attend the haj in total this year and 800 coordinators have travelled to Saudi Arabia to help Iranians during the pilgrimage, he said. Iran boycotted the haj last year after hundreds of people, many of them Iranians, died in a crush at the pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia in 2015, and following a diplomatic rift between the two countries who are vying for power and influence in the region. In a speech to haj organizers on Sunday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that Iranians would never forget the catastrophic events of 2015 and called on Saudi Arabia to ensure the security of all pilgrims. "The serious and constant issue for the Islamic Republic is the preservation of the security, dignity, welfare and comfort of all pilgrims, particularly Iranian pilgrims," Khamenei said, according to his official site. "The security of the haj is the responsibility of the country where the two noble shrines exist." Riyadh severed diplomatic relations last year after Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran following the execution of a Shi'ite cleric in Saudi Arabia in January 2016. In February this year Iran, which is predominantly Shi'ite Muslim, sent a delegation to Saudi Arabia, which is mostly Sunni, that initiated the process of Iranian pilgrims returning for the haj. However, tensions between the two countries remain at an all-time high. Last month Iranian officials pointed a finger at Saudi Arabia after Islamic State carried out attacks on the Iranian parliament in Tehran and the shrine of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, that left at least 18 dead. Saudi Arabia denied any involvement. Khamenei in his speech on Sunday also called on all pilgrims to show their reaction to the recent unrest at the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and "Americas wicked presence in the region" at the haj, according to his official website. He did not specify what kind of reaction he expected pilgrims to show. (Reporting By Babak Dehghanpisheh; Editing by Susan Fenton)
By PTI: Ranchi, Jul 31 (PTI) Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das today said that the landscaping of the upcoming smart city should be according to the nature and climate of Ranchi.

Reviewing the plan of smart city here at a top-level meeting, Das said the smart city should be created keeping in view the geographical position and eco system of Ranchi, according to an official release.

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The new city should be made in such a way that people would remember the planner even after hundreds of years, he said adding that electric cables should be laid underground and special focus must be given on water supply and sewerage system.

He directed the officials to start the work as soon as possible.

Urban Development Secretary Arun Kumar Singh described the plan of the smart city and said that in the 656 acre city, 30 per cent of the space would be provided to educational institutions and institutions of skill development.

Thirteen per cent space would be provided for residential complexes and 10 per cent for commercial complexes.

He said there would be separate track for cyclists in the city and solar energy will be used in a big way.

Singh said that 122 cycle stations are being built in every 300 metre. In the first phase, 1264 cycles fitted with GPS will be made available at the cycle stations. PTI IKD PVR NN

--- ENDS ---
For the future security and stability of our country, our continent and the world this is the worst possible moment for the UK to be leaving the European Union. Unfortunately, we are planning to leave our European partners at a time when there is going to be less and less agreement amongst the most important countries about how to deal with current and emerging global problems. The global order established in 1945 by a small group of countries including the UK is under challenge as the economic power centres of the world move to countries in Asia with growing populations, economies and political impact, not just India and China but also Indonesia and elsewhere. The election of an impetuous, unilateralist President has brought great unpredictability about where the USA is and where the USA will be. Is Trump an aberration or does he actually represent a long term change in America's approach? The 19 against one split on the G20 communique on climate change may be the first of many disagreements. Yet, the United States is by far the largest military power in the world. 75% of the expenditure of NATO is USA defence spending. All of the other 28 member states added together are just a quarter. The USA is a permanent member of the UN Security Council with a veto which it uses. It also clearly has a global reach through its soft power ideologically and Trump's approach will embolden demagogues elsewhere like President Duterte in the Philippines, who has referred to Oxford University as "a school for stupid people". It will also embolden Erdogan in Turkey, and Putin in Russia. . Former Conservative Foreign Secretary William Hague has warned that leaving the EU would mean a loss of global power and influence for the United Kingdom. There was a vote in the United Nations General Assembly recently on a resolution brought by Mauritius about the Chagos Islands and the British Indian Ocean Territory where the UK lost badly. Large numbers of normally supportive European Union countries did not vote with the UK. Similar problems could arise surrounding other Overseas Territories like the Falkland Islands and of course Gibraltar once there is no UK voice within the EU. Labour must fight hard to press the government to defend the global internationalist system that was established with the universal declaration of human rights. It must hold countries to high standards of equality and liberty and freedom of expression. It must work with our partners not just in Europe but also through NATO, but also use our soft power influence. That includes our role in the Commonwealth, but the role of that consensus based body is greatly exaggerated by the nostalgist imperial preference right. Much more important are our universities, and the English language but the Tory government approach is damaging both. University cooperation in Europe, joint projects and our soft power are being weakened by Brexit even before we leave. So could defence cooperation. When we leave the EU we leave the European Defence Agency, and a range of other agreements and institutions that are linked into being members of the EU. The essence of British foreign policy for centuries has been that if there is instability or war in Europe we cannot opt-out. Our security is dependent on the security in the land mass we are next to. And especially today when you have an authoritarian aggressive regime in Russia which is prepared to break international law, and invade a neighbouring country and annex its territory then clearly we need to reaffirm that. NATO is the most important component of military security for us and it will remain so whether or not we are in the EU. But the European Union has increasingly been developing a defence and security component which is extremely important for us too, as are the policing issues - Europol and the European Arrest Warrant. If we leave the EU, there is a real danger that we damage the existing cooperation with France, when in fact we should be building on existing agreements and co-operation. We should also work with France to get the Germans to do more in European security. We should work very hard to strengthen the common foreign and security policy, for the UK to remain within or associated with it, to build on the bilateral agreements with France, and to work collectively for stronger European defence co-operation, as the United States becomes more and more unilateralist. In defence and foreign and security policy, we need more Europe not less. Mike Gapes is the Labour MP for Ilford South and a former Chair and current member of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee
CAIRO (Reuters) - The Saudi-backed Yemeni government will not allow its Houthi foes to keep the Red Sea port of Hodeidah, the information minister said, underlining its intention to remove the vital aid delivery point from the control of the Iran-aligned group. The United Nations has proposed that Hodeidah, where 80 percent of food imports arrive, should be handed to a neutral party, to smooth the flow of humanitarian relief and prevent the port being engulfed by Yemen's two-year-old war. The government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi accuses the Houthis of using the port to smuggle in weapons and of collecting custom duties on goods, which they use to finance the war. The Houthis deny this. "The government will not accept that Houthi control of Hodeidah port continues, or that humanitarian aid is obstructed or that its revenues are used for the military effort while state employees have not been paid for 10 months," the minister, Muammar al-Iryani, told Reuters on a visit to Cairo. Iryani repeated that the government had accepted a proposal by U.N. envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, to hand over control of Hodeidah to a neutral party as a way of avoiding military action. "The government has in principle accepted Ould Cheikh Ahmed's proposals regarding Hodeidah out of a feeling of responsibility for all the people of Yemen, but the Houthis have rejected them," he said. The Houthis have signalled they are ready to discuss the move as part of measures that would involve assurances that long delayed salaries of state workers be paid and resuming commercial flights from the capital Sanaa. Yemen has been devastated by more then two years of civil war in which Hadi's government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, is fighting to drive the Houthis out of cities they seized in 2014 and 2015 in a rapid rise to national power. Efforts to broker a fresh U.N.-sponsored peace talks are stalled, blocked by disagreement over demands that the Houthis hand over Hodeidah to a neutral party and Houthi demands that the government pays civil servants their back-pay. The Houthis are also demanding that the Saudi-led coalition, which controls Yemen's airspace, allow commercial flights to resume from the airport of the capital Sanaa. Iryani said that an attack by the Houthis on al-Mokha port last week was an attempt to obstruct plans to rehabilitate the facility and prepare it to be an alternative to Hodeidah. The Yemen war has killed more than 10,000 people, destroyed Yemen's infrastructure and pushed the country to the brink of famine, and there is no sign that the conflict will end soon. A cholera outbreak has also killed some 1,900 more people since April and infected more than 400,000 and the number is expected to rise to more than 600,000 by the end of the year, according to estimates by the International Committee of the Red Cross. (Editing by Sami Aboudi and Richard Balmforth)
Photo credit: Getty

From ELLE UK

A sunscreen that uses DNA to act as a 'second skin' is on the horizon, potentially offering better protection from ultraviolet light throughout the day without the laborious task of constant re-application.

Scientists in the US used DNA samples taken from salmon to develop a product which gets better at shielding the skin from harmful UV exposure the longer it is in direct sunlight. It also helps lock in the moisture beneath the skin's surface  promising a longer-lasting tan.

The Concept

Instead of damaging our own skin's DNA (resulting in sunburn), the UV light instead only affects the alternative applied layer of salmon DNA. Dr Guy German, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Binghampton university, where the research was conducted, explained:

'We thought, let's flip it. What happens instead if we actually used DNA as a sacrificial layer? So instead of damaging DNA within the skin, we damage a layer on top of the skin.'

In tests, the research team found that the thin, optically transparent crystalline DNA films that they had developed became better at absorbing UV light the more they were exposed to it. German added:

'If you translate that, it means to me that if you use this as a topical cream or sunscreen, the longer that you stay out on the beach, the better it gets at being a sunscreen.'

As it stands, current sunscreens need to be applied roughly 30 minutes before sun exposure and then reapplied every couple of hours throughout the day  unless you go swimming or sweat profusely, in which case you need to reapply more often. However, the development of this DNA film means that a single application would suffice for beachgoers, holidaymakers or anyone who spends a significant amount of time in the sun.

Other Uses

The potential of DNA films isn't just limited to sunscreen. The moisture-locking properties of such a product promises a potential treatment or prevention method for dry, flaky or pigmented skin, as well as injuries. Commenting on the versatility of the material, German said:

Story continues

'Not only do we think this might have applications for sunscreen and moisturisers directly, but if it's optically transparent and prevents tissue damage from the sun and it's good at keeping the skin hydrated, we think this might be potentially exploitable as a wound covering for extreme environments.'

For now, however, the research is still in the early stages, and a lot more tests will have to be done before anything of this kind appears on the market. So, as far as summer 2017 is concerned, keep applying that sun lotion.

The research was published in the journal Scientific Reports.

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By India Today Web Desk: Initiating the debate on mob lynching in Lok Sabha, Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge today accused the NDA government of "indirectly encouraging" right-wing groups like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal in attacking people in the name of cow protection.

"The government is indirectly encouraging groups like the VHP, the Bajrang Dal and also the Gau Rakshaks (Cow Vigilantes)," Kharge said, as he read out a list of a series of mob lynchings and attacks in the last three years.

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"Today the minorities, Dalits, and women are being attacked. Hindus are even killing Hindu, Muslims are killing Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir. Why is this happening today? It is happening because you are trying to impose your ideology. My clear allegation is that today the Bajrang Dal and VHP people are behind these incidents. Even Prime Minister failed to rein them in," he said.

"There is an environment of fear and terror across the country. There is no stopping murders by these mobs. Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh have become mob lynching centres," the senior Congress leader added.

While Kharge was speaking, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey got up to remind him that the cases of violence mentioned by him are "already in the courts" and therefore, sub-judice. "So why is he saying all this?" Dubey asked.

ALSO READ

Pranab Mukherjee: When mob lynchings become uncontrollable, we must ask are we vigilant enough

Lynch mobs don't fear PM Modi, says Chidambaram on Jharkhand murder

Watch the video here: NDA govt indirectly encourages gau rakshaks, PM Modi unable to control them: Mallikarjun Kharge

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(Eds: Updates with government response to debate)

New Delhi, Jul 31 (PTI) Charges and counter charges flew in the Lok Sabha today over the issue of lynchings, with the Congress saying Hindustan should not be allowed to become "lynchistan" and the government accusing the Opposition of enacting a "drama" in the name of secularism to defame Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The government asserted that mob-lynching or anything related to it was "unacceptable" and noted that the prime minister has himself condemned this several times while terming the acts as the "worst form of crime".

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As the House discussed the issue of lynchings, Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju said it is the responsibility of the state governments to deal with such crimes and the Centre, on its part, has issued clear advisory in this regard.

"How is it possible for the Centre (to intervene in a state subject)? Does the opposition want the prime minister to break the federal structure and want the Centre to take over," Rijiju asked while replying to the debate.

The Congress, Left parties and AIMIM expressed unhappiness over the ministers reply and staged a walkout.

During the discussion on "incidents of atrocities and mob-lynching" in the country, members of all parties condemned the killings in the name of cow. However, Opposition parties like the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Left and AIMIM accused the BJP-led government of encouraging groups behind the violence by cow vigilantes.

Initiating the debate, Leader of the Congress Mallikarjun Kharge said Hindustan should not be allowed to become "lynchistan".

He alleged that this government was against minorities, Dalits and women, claiming that these sections had borne the maximum brunt of mob violence.

The Prime Minister says he is against such violence but what action has he taken, Kharge asked and added, "He (PM) says something and does something else."

He asked the government to give details of the action taken against the accused in these cases, claiming that they had become brazen because of lack of action.

Kharge, while citing the incidents of this year, said the lynchings had mostly happened in the BJP-ruled states and that there was an atmosphere of fear and terror across the country, which has brought a bad name to India in the world.

In his reply, Rijiju told the Opposition: "You have to stop vitiating the atmosphere of the country. If the prime minister has appealed, that should be respected. Everybody in India and outside is praising the prime minister. You get unmasked when you raise these issues. I am warning you. The more you malign us, we become stronger." He added, "The image of the country does not get maligned by surgical strike (conducted by the Army), but by those who seek proof of it. The atmosphere does not get vitiated by respecting the Army, but it does by calling the Army Chief by names."

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Kharge accused organisations like the VHP and Bajrang Dal of being involved in such violence.

"It is also being done so that your ideology and philosophy could be established in the country," the Congress leader said, pointing to the BJPs "links" with these outfits.

BJP-ruled Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh had become centres of mob lynching, he said, adding that such incidents would become a major threat to the nations integrity.

Rijiju countered, "They (Opposition parties) are trying to find a political link in this (lynchings) to malign the image of the prime minister. They have made a joke in the name of secularism and are doing a drama."

He said the figures of incidents of communal violence will "unmask" the Opposition.

Accusing the opposition of "selective amnesia", the minister said an environment is created in the country that there is intolerance and no freedom of expression.

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"There is freedom of expression, but we will not spare anyone who will badmouth the country," he said.

Recalling Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhis visit to JNU after its student leader Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested over alleged pro-Azadi slogans, Rjiju said a majority of the students in the varsity are "desh bhakts" (patriots) but some vitiate it.

He said the atmosphere in the country is not vitiated by saying Bharat Mata ki Jai, but it does when someone talks of breaking the country into pieces.

Referring to the murder of a BJP worker in Kerala, Kharge said the Governor there summoned the DGP on the issue, but nothing of that sort was done in other states where lynching incidents took place. In his reply, the MoS for Home Affairs said Kerala had reported the highest number of incidents of communal violence in 2014 when it was governed by the Congress.

Uttar Pradesh topped the list in 2015, followed by Telangana and Karnataka, he said. In 2016, Uttar Pradesh against reported highest number of cases of communal violence, followed by West Bengal and Kerala, Rijiju added.

In terms of attacks on scheduled castes in 2016, he said UP topped the list, followed by Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. Referring to attacks on churches in Delhi ahead of the assembly polls in 2015, Rijiju said he had sought a report from the police commissioner on the incidents related to attacks on places of worships.

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The data showed that over 300 incidents of attack related to temples, around 30 to gurudwaras, 40-50 to mosques and 4-5 to churches, the minister said, adding this was contrary to the impression created by the Opposition parties which "tarnished" the image of the country.

While attacking the Congress, Rijiju said, "I want to tell Congress that during the regime of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi an order was passed that no Christian missionary or Father can enter Arunachal Pradesh ..if they entered, they would be arrested...they did not even allow Mother Teresa."

Rijiju hails from Arunachal Pradesh.

He went on to add, "Until three years ago, there was this issue of corruption, but after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power, the issue of corruption is no more there...So you people (Opposition) are discussing mob lynching."

BJP members earlier objected to Kharge citing incidents, saying many of the cases he was referring to were sub-judice.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar also objected to his reference to former President Pranab Mukherjees speech, saying it was against rules.

Kumar said action had been taken against the hooliganism which had taken place in the name of cow protection. PTI PR RR KR MPB JD SID RAM AKK AKK

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Americas farming communities are facing an economic crisis. Not since the 1980s have farm incomes declined so far, so fast. The Wall Street Journal called it the next American farm bust and noted that rural communities are grappling with the steepest economic slide since the Great Depression.

Billions of bushels of surplus crops are pushing down the value of U.S. agriculture products, and nations like China are working to shut out American farm exports. Agricultural communities are looking to leaders like Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., for support in tearing down market barriers that stand in the way of rural jobs and new opportunities to put Americas vast resources to work.

Right now, the most precious of those opportunities may lie in renewable energy. Homegrown biofuels such as ethanol supply a full 10 percent of Americas demand for motor fuel, and access to growing markets will offer new opportunities for New Mexico farmers to compete against foreign oil at the gas pump. Its a vital industry that already supports over 2,000 New Mexico jobs, generating over $100 million in wages.

Renewable fuels made from U.S. crops not only hold down prices for consumers, they are vital to combating global climate change, an existential threat for many southwestern farmers. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, homegrown ethanol is cleaner than ever, reducing carbon emissions by an average of 43 percent compared to gasoline.

Ethanol also replaces toxic additives in our gasoline supply, increasing octane without the health risk associated with chemicals like MTBE. Even better, for those raising livestock, ethanol production leaves nutrients and protein intact, generating vast quantities of high-quality animal feed.

The primary federal policy aimed at harnessing all these benefits is the Renewable Fuel Standard, which provides homegrown energy a growing role in the fuel mix. America oil imports have fallen by more than half since 2005, when the RFS was first adopted. Last year alone, U.S. ethanol displaced over 500 million barrels of oil.

Unfortunately, that progress is under threat by fossil fuel companies in Washington, D.C., who want to eliminate competition at the gas pump by weakening the successful RFS. The move would be a devastating blow to rural communities, where farmers are already struggling to make ends meet. And, it would undermine the single-most effective federal policy currently working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote investment in the next generation of high-performance, low-carbon biofuels.

The signs are clear. America cant afford to back away from its commitment to home-grown fuels. American farmers are counting on Sen. Udall and his colleagues in Congress to stand strong against those working to gut the RFS. The need for clean, affordable energy has never been greater, and the opportunity to harvest those resources will provide the market that farmers need to keep the economy growing in New Mexico and across the country.

Dale McCall is a Colorado farmer and president of Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, a general farm organization whose 22,000 members make their living farming and ranching in New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming.
Is America perfect? Of course not, how can a land of imperfect people be perfect? But we are a great people. We, Americans of every stripe, have been the leaders in developing the idea that individuals matter. Americans led the way in the idea of freedom for all, not just the elite. Americans led the way to the idea of justice for all. Before America, these ideas were alien to both the common peasant and the rulers. Can we strive for an even better society? Absolutely, but let us never forget that we are the great people who are moving the entire world toward a better life.

Today, we hear much about how bad America is and how we need to learn tolerance. So how intolerant, exactly are Americans?

Americans of many different faiths, colors and sexual practices all go to school and work together and shop in the same stores all without killing or even threatening each other. This is standard every day here in New Mexico and all over our great country. But it doesnt happen in most other parts of the world. America is the most tolerant society.

Intolerance is cutting off the heads of people who have different beliefs than you, blowing up restaurants full of people of a different faith or flying planes into their buildings.

The gay activists have to go back to 1998 to come up with a truly spectacular gay hate crime. Why? Because we are a tolerant society. The men who killed Matthew Shepard, a gay man, were not celebrated as heroes; they were rightfully convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

However, in the drive to make us feel intolerant, the activists have confused tolerance with acceptance. Tolerating differences politically, morally or spiritually is not the same as accepting them. In America we tolerate people of different faiths, but this does not mean we must accept that faith. This is a real sign of tolerance.

In Northern Ireland Protestants and Catholics spent the better part of 100 years blowing each other apart. Yet the average American couldnt tell the difference between them. In Kosovo, Christians and Muslims kill each other while various sects of Islam kill each other all over the world. Yet, the average American cant even understand why they hate each other. America is a tolerant society.

We are bombarded with the idea that it is intolerant to mention God. I say it is intolerant to forbid the mention of God by people of faith. To force people into conduct that is against their faith is intolerant. To forbid them from even acknowledging their faith publicly is the epitome of intolerance.

It is not intolerant to invite or encourage others to join the faith. It is, however, intolerant to force them to join the faith at the edge of sword or by burning down their village or by destroying their houses of worship. It is also intolerant to force them to NOT believe as many want done in America.

America is a tolerant society. But we have no obligation to accept things we believe are wrong. We tolerate people of different beliefs or sexual practices or cultures, but we should not be coerced into accepting those as our own.

The truly intolerant seem to be the very ones who march under the love, equality and tolerant banner. They demand we accept everything about them while they reject others. Not only do the open-minded and tolerant not accept positions that differ from their own, they demand intolerance of those positions.

If America is to continue to be a tolerant society we must never accept the intolerance of those who want to use laws to destroy our political positions or our faith. Tolerate their whining but never succumb to their intolerant demands of acceptance.

America is the epitome of a tolerant society, for now.
The votes from Republican Sens. Susan Collins, John McCain and Lisa Murkowski to stop their partys repeal-Obamacare juggernaut were demonstrations of genuine courage.

The appearance of this virtue in a dark time is not necessarily miraculous, but I couldnt help noticing the striking intervention in this debate by 7,150 American nuns who called the Senate GOPs core proposal the most harmful legislation for American families in our lifetimes.

In a letter organized by the Catholic social justice lobby NETWORK, the nuns cited Pope Francis  health is not a consumer good, but a universal right, so access to health services cannot be a privilege  and noted matter-of-factly: To cut Medicaid and take health care from millions of people is not a pro-life stance.

Their plea was a reminder, particularly to more secular liberals, that religious witness in politics is not confined to the political right, that Christianity has long had a lot to say about economic and social inequities, and that pushing prophets inspired by faith out of the public square would be harmful to progressives as well as conservatives.

In speaking out as they did, the socially minded nuns  who do the work of justice and mercy every day in hospitals, clinics, homeless shelters and schools  made clear that depriving millions of Americans of health coverage truly is a moral outrage. But while the most conservative among the faithful might not appreciate it, the sisters also did a service to believers of all stripes by demolishing stereotypes about what it means to be religious.

This is important because religion and the political standing of believers are badly harmed by the reality that so many Americans associate faith exclusively with the conservative movement. Large numbers of young people are abandoning organized religion, and particularly Christianity, altogether. A key reason: They see it as deeply hostile to causes they embrace, notably the rights of gays and lesbians.

Harvard Universitys Robert Putnam and Notre Dames David Campbell, the authors of American Grace, their definitive 2010 study of data on American religious attitudes, concluded that young Americans have been alienated from organized religion by its increasingly conservative politics. A PRRI survey in 2014 found that among millennials who no longer identify with their childhood religion, nearly a third said that negative teachings about, or treatment of, gay and lesbian people were either somewhat or very important to their disaffiliation.

Its true that some, particularly but not exclusively on the left, criticize religion and those devoted to it on principle. They believe, devoutly you might say, that faith in God is irrational and destructive. They see religion as promoting passivity, conformity and, in extreme cases, violence. The popularity of the late Christopher Hitchens book god is not great  Hitchens did not capitalize God on purpose  speaks to the strength of this view among a sizable group of Americans.

But studies by PRRI and the Pew Research Center suggest that at least some who have moved away from formal religious affiliation do not see belief itself as a bad thing and remain spiritually engaged. They are turned off by the worldly, not the otherworldly, aspects of religion.

Alexis de Tocqueville, that shrewd 19th-century student of American life, noted in Democracy in America that religion was stronger and faced less hostility in the United States than in Europe precisely because faith on our shores was far less associated with propping up political power and ideological interests.

Unbelievers in Europe attack Christians more as political than religious enemies, Tocqueville wrote. They hate the faith as the opinion of a party much more than as a mistaken belief, and they reject the clergy less because they are representatives of God than because they are the friends of authority. Religious apologists for President Trump should take note.

A critic could fairly observe that the argument I offer here is naturally congenial to me as a liberal. Nonetheless, my conservative brethren who worry about religions decline should consider that a rampant secularism may be less to blame than a narrowing of the scope of faith-based public engagement. Pope Francis insistence that the church be associated more with justice and mercy than with cultural warfare can thus be seen as precisely the right antidote for what ails organized religion.

The sisters are right that claims to compassion and love are hollow when they are severed from societys obligations to the most vulnerable. They also make clear that faith is something more than a cog in the status quos political machine.

Dionnes columns, including those not published in the Journal, can be read at abqjournal.com/opinion  look for the syndicated columnist link. Copyright, Washington Post Writers Group; e-mail: ejdionne@washpost.com. Twitter: @EJDionne.
The New Mexico Film Office, FilmABQ and the state Tax and Revenue Department deserve a hand for streamlining the path to working in the film industry here.

If youre hoping to tap into New Mexicos multimillion-dollar film and television industry, head to www.tax.newmexico.gov, click on the search icon and type in Declaration of Residency. What youll find there is a form and instructions on how to obtain a New Mexico Film Residency Certification Card that can put you on the fast track to industry jobs.

When film and television companies hire local talent, they need to collect certain information for tax purposes. If you have your Film Residency Certification Card in hand when you apply for a job, it will make life far simpler for them and for you.

Nick Maniatis, director of the New Mexico State Film Office, said the cards will expedite the hiring process for production companies because it lists all the information they need.

Ann Lerner, director of the Albuquerque Film Office, known as FilmABQ, said both offices also offer programs for veterans and New Mexico residents who rent out their homes to production companies. The latter exempts the homeowner from paying state taxes on the related income.

Maniatis said the revenues from direct spending by production companies in the state topped $387 million last year and are likely to surpass $500 million this year.

More information about the states film industry is available at http://www.nmfilm.com and www.filmabq.com.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
Copyright  2017 Albuquerque Journal

New Mexico has 21 different governing boards running its 31 public colleges and universities, a higher education model some critics argue is inefficient and maybe even ineffective.

Now the state is actively exploring alternatives.

The New Mexico Higher Education Department is leading a study to determine whether reorganization or consolidation would make more sense, and department Secretary Barbara Damron said she aims to deliver recommendations to the Legislature and governor by the end of this year.

Her department has enlisted about 100 people to help, including university administrators, faculty and other campus personnel, lawmakers, representatives from K-12 education, business and other interested groups.

Three committees are examining different topics: higher education governance models around the U.S.; the financial implications of reorganizing  or keeping things the same  in New Mexico; and what changes to state law, if any, a reorganization would require since many schools governance is dictated by the New Mexico Constitution.

Damron warned against advocating for any specific changes until the research is complete, noting the complexities involved.

There is no one answer to how higher education should be structured, she said. We have essentially 50 labs (in 50 states) going on.

The project is an outgrowth of a statewide higher education master-planning process HED initiated last August that yielded an attainment goal  that 66 percent of working-age New Mexicans will have some post-secondary credential by 2030  and ushered in some reforms.

The effort recently narrowed to reorganization research due to what Damron called the appetite for such information.

New Mexico devotes about 13 percent of its general fund to higher education. Critics for years have complained that New Mexicos decentralized higher education network has created unnecessary overlap and duplication, and calls for change have grown louder amid the states budget crisis. The states 31 public institutions have a combined 77 access points around the state.

Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, warned during a recent higher education forum that the states higher education funding is spread too thin.

The bottom line is weve cut that pie into so many pieces that its very difficult for us to do justice financially to all the institutions in the state of New Mexico, Smith said.

During the 2017 Legislature, Rep. Bill McCamley, D-Las Cruces, and Sen. John Sapien, D-Corrales, sponsored a joint memorial urging HED to study the costs and benefits of New Mexicos system compared to others around the country.

McCamley said last week that New Mexico has a disjointed network of colleges and universities, making it harder to effect consistent change and limiting the ability to leverage New Mexicos higher education assets.

He noted that the University of New Mexico, New Mexico State University and New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology all sought a piece of the Sandia National Laboratories management contract when it went out for bid last year but did so as part of two different teams. Neither team won the contract.

McCamley also said New Mexicos investment in higher education has not paid commensurate dividends on the workforce development front.

Everybody knows something needs to get done; its just a question of what that turns out to be, McCamley said. But we have to treat this with a sense of urgency. We have to get better and do it sooner rather than later.
In the summer of 1923, Eblens Cash Store placed several advertisements in the Albuquerque Journal for what it called the most efficient grocery delivery system ever offered. For a small fee, or none at all if the order totaled more than $5, Eblens said it would quickly deliver everything from cookies to firm radishes to any address in Albuquerque via taxi.

It is unclear whether the experiment was a success. In any case, it did not prevent Eblens from disappearing in the wave of modernity that swallowed up most of the citys small grocers and their delivery services.

Building the most efficient grocery delivery system ever offered might have been hyperbole for Eblens nearly a century ago, but the possibility is real for Seattle-based e-commerce giant Amazon today. Amazon  which has brought sweeping changes to the book, cloud computing and retail industries, to name a few  announced in June it would acquire Austin, Texas-based supermarket chain Whole Foods for $13.7 billion. The news sent grocery stocks tumbling in what data and analytics firm Trepp LLC termed the Amazacolypse.

Though Amazon remains tight-lipped about its strategy, analysts say the grocery industry is scrambling to anticipate the e-retailers next move. That means Albuquerque consumers could see changes in their shopping experience more quickly than they might have expected.

Everything is going to change very rapidly, said Phil Lempert, an industry observer and the founder of SupermarketGuru.com. Its going to change in Albuquerque. Its going to change everywhere.

A saturated market

Lempert described the grocery industry in medium-sized metropolitan areas such as Albuquerque as highly saturated and very competitive. Here, the market is comprised of major chains (Smiths, Albertsons, Whole Foods), warehouses (Costco, Sams Cub), mass merchandisers with grocery operations (Walmart, Target), as well as independent operators.

Data from the trade publication Chain Store Guide show two companies dominating the Albuquerque grocery sector: Walmart (which operates Walmart Supercenters, Walmart Neighborhood Market and Sams Club) controls about one-third of the market share, while grocery chain Smiths has a little less than a quarter. Another quarter is approximately split by Albertsons and Costco. The rest is shared by Whole Foods, Sprouts, Trader Joes and all other grocers, including La Montanita Co-op, Lowes and independent operations.

Whole Foods has only two locations in Albuquerque, but Lempert said they could potentially be important brick-and-mortar sites for Amazon Fresh, Amazons grocery delivery service, which is currently unavailable in New Mexico. In the U.S., nearly all 80 million members of Amazon Prime live within 10 miles of a Whole Foods.

In other words, Lempert said, the Whole Foods deal gives Amazon hundreds of depots out of which to base its grocery operations, as well as a built-in customer base within delivery distance.

Amazon Fresh could very quickly become the number one grocery delivery service in the country, he said.

Lempert also speculated that Amazon would place lockers in Whole Foods locations, allowing in-store customers to pick up other Amazon orders. Perhaps most crucially for the rest of industry, he said, it is likely that Amazon will significantly reduce Whole Foods prices to undercut the competition, a tactic it has used in other industries.

A spokesperson for Whole Foods told the Journal it was premature to comment on the deal, and Amazon did not respond to a request for comment. Both companies have said there will be no layoffs as a result of the acquisition.

No one-size-fits-all solution

Not everyone agrees the Amazon deal will usher in a sea change for the grocery industry, at least in the immediate future. John Dryden, a former research analyst for Kroger, parent company of Smiths, pointed out that the shopper who goes to a specialty grocer like Whole Foods is not necessarily the same shopper who frequents a store like Smiths. If Amazon keeps Whole Foods operations in its current form, the impact on the industry could be minimal.

(Whole Foods and Smiths) are relatively different spaces with a pretty significantly different product mix, said Dryden. I dont see a lot changing right away (with the acquisition), though it ups the level of competition for sure.

Still, Gene Valdez, executive director of the New Mexico Grocers Association, said the deal was a sign that it is time for grocers of all sizes in the state to think carefully about their digital business strategy.

Every (grocer) is going to need to work out their delivery operations, to come up to speed with their online ordering system, he said. This affects everyone, across the board.

Several grocers in the state have experimented with e-commerce operations. Smiths and Walmart have programs that allow customers to order their groceries online and pick them up outside the store at a designated time. South Valley-based Skarsgard Farms has an online ordering and home delivery system, and offers two-hour delivery to some Albuquerque neighborhoods.

A report earlier this year from Food Marketing Institute and Nielsen determined online grocery sales could surge to 20 percent of the grocery market by 2025, with younger shoppers leading the trend.

Dryden said one of the biggest headaches for Internet Age grocers is that no one shopping experience will appeal to every category of consumer.

Theres no one-size-fits-all solution, said Dryden. For every shopper who wants their groceries delivered or waiting for them outside the store, theres another who wants to physically pick up their fruit and smell it.

As a result, traditional grocers are adopting a variety of strategies aimed at different categories of consumers. Dryden said Kroger has focused on both streamlining checkout for shoppers who want to get in and out of the store quickly, while also encouraging other shoppers to linger. One technique involves cutting open samples of citrus fruits in the produce section so the smell wafts through the air to draw shoppers in.

A spokesperson for Sprouts said its recently expanded deli, sushi, juice and pre-made item offerings are aimed at convenience-focused consumers. In some markets, Sprouts has partnered with Amazon to offer online ordering and two-hour delivery, though the service is not available in Albuquerque.

In the low-margin world of groceries  between 1 percent and 3 percent is typical, according to experts  Dryden said success across consumer categories often comes down to two words: impulse buys. In fact, he said one of Krogers business tenets is that shoppers get the products (they) want, plus a little.

You know the magazines and candies they sell right by the checkout counter? said Dryden. Those items have pretty good margins. The faster you get people out of the store, the quicker you will see those sales fall, not to mention (the sales) of all the other things shoppers might have picked up had they stayed in the store longer.

Unfortunately for traditional grocers, if theres one thing Amazon has been able to do with its e-commerce ventures, its using data to understand and target shoppers impulses. And with the acquisition of Whole Foods, it will have access to a plethora of data on grocery shopping.

Hope for the corner store

Late last year, Amazon released a video introducing a grocery store called Amazon Go. The video depicts shoppers taking items from the store without stopping by a cashier, their purchases tracked by an app on their phones. A few months later, Amazon filed a patent for a beehive-like tower to house and receive delivery drones.

Lempert said neither Amazon Go nor the drones are likely to change the grocery landscape in the next few years. The opening of the first Amazon Go store in Seattle has been delayed due to technical issues, he pointed out. The drones, while promising, are still considered creepy by many consumers.

Instead, Lempert said the rise of e-commerce grocery operations, whether run by Amazon or other companies, may ultimately help an unlikely competitor: small, local grocery stores. Even if the vast majority of shoppers turn to e-commerce and delivery, he said, they will still need to enter a physical store at some point to pick up items on the go. In that case, they are more likely to choose a business where they have personal connections.

The mom-and-pop stores that have been building relationships with their customers for years, they will be fine, because their customers want to see them succeed, said Lempert. Its the faceless, 40,000-square-foot chain store thats in trouble.

In other words, its possible that in the not-too-distant future, Albuquerques grocery industry could be dominated less by major chains and more by the modern-day equivalent of Eblens. But whether those firm radishes will be delivered by car or by drone is anyones guess.
The Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base is aggressively stepping up its efforts to take new technologies to market with help from New Mexico universities.

The lab is finalizing a new partnership agreement with New Mexico Tech in Socorro, which has assisted the lab for years on tech-transfer and community outreach, to broaden that collaboration into a team effort that will now include the University of New Mexico, New Mexico State University and Northern New Mexico College. The three research universities will help train AFRL scientists, engineers and community-engagement professionals in technology commercialization. That will include patenting new innovation, pushing the most marketable inventions into the tech-transfer pipeline and seeking investors and entrepreneurs to take them to market.

Northern New Mexico College, meanwhile, will work through its Small Business Development Center to help AFRL engage more with small, rural and veteran-owned businesses.

The initiative grows out of the states newfound groundswell of inter-institutional collaboration to move New Mexicos economy forward through grass-roots entrepreneurship and innovation. In particular, efforts to build a high-tech research and development corridor in the heart of Albuquerque, anchored by the Innovate ABQ hub at Broadway and Central Downtown, inspired the Air Force lab to reach out to the universities, said Matthew Fetrow, director of AFRLs technology engagement office.

Real statewide collaboration is rapidly becoming the norm, rather than the exception, Fetrow said. Its created a new, deliberate focus on our part to work with other institutions.

In fact, AFRL is already participating in Innovate New Mexico, a collaborate effort among the research universities and national labs to jointly promote their technologies to investors and entrepreneurs. That includes twice-annual technology showcase events, the latest of which took place in April in Albuquerque.

The UNM Science and Technology Corp., the universitys tech-transfer office, will play a central role in helping the Air Force lab. STC will launch a multi-pronged training program this fall for AFRL personnel, said STC President and CEO Lisa Kuuttila.

It will include:

 Working with lab scientists and engineers to bring forward more potentially marketable inventions and collaborate with lab management to commercialize them.

 Instruction in market research to identify and seize on business opportunities.

 Direct outreach to investors and entrepreneurs.

 Centralizing all AFRL tech-transfer activity through a modern software system to track and manage commercialization from the earliest steps of invention disclosure to patenting, marketing and licensing.

AFRL is already transitioning its work into the new software system.

It provides backbone infrastructure for technology transfer, Kuuttila said. Instead of having a thousand spreadsheets, everyone works off of one module.

STC will hire a half-time professional and a student intern to work directly with the AFRL on technology transfer. Project and marketing managers will also each devote a quarter of their time to AFRL activities.

Those efforts will be facilitated by AFRLs presence at Innovate ABQs new Lobo Rainforest building, which will open in August. The building will house the STC, students studying entrepreneurship and innovation, startups working to commercialize new technologies, and co-working spaces and conference rooms for events and programs.

The AFRL will occupy a 1,700-square-foot space next to STCs offices where AFRLs Technology Engagement Office will centralize its marketing and outreach activities.

Its an innovative, diversified, collaborative space to interact with all the resources and people involved in entrepreneurship and innovation, Fetrow said.

AFRL and STC both believe the internal training for lab scientists and engineers is particularly critical, because technology transfer depends on an institutions innovators to provide a pipeline of marketable inventions. That often requires a cultural shift for lab researchers, who must learn to focus on potential commercial applications of their work in addition to the central mission of defense and national security.

Lack of such dual focus likely contributed to the failure of a program run by California-based Wasabi Ventures, which the AFRL hired last fall to provide business accelerator-type training to people inside and outside of AFRL interested in taking lab technologies to market. AFRL canceled the program this year because of low participation.

The AFRL workforce wasnt as prepared for an aggressive entrepreneurial program like that as we thought, Fetrow said. We need to do more internal, preparatory work first before we try something like that again.

New Mexico Tech will the lead the new partnership agreement, given its management of AFRL community outreach efforts over the past two decades, said Carlos Romero, associate vice president for research and economic development. Through the agreement, valued at about $7.5 million over five years, Tech will call on STC, NMSUs Arrowhead Center and Northern New Mexico College as needed to assist the lab.

Were all working together now in this new agreement to collaborate on helping the AFRL meet its needs, Romero said.
Schushop, a Nob Hill shoe and handbag retailer, is moving, but never fear. Fans of Ruby, the 2-year-old Labrador whos a constant presence, will still be able to visit their favorite mascot.

Michelle Schuch said her shop has simply outgrown its space and is moving from Central and Carlisle SE to the North Towne Plaza at Academy and Wyoming NE. Schushop will be occupy the spot next to Chicos on the Academy side of the plaza.

Weve grown out of this space, she said. Not so much on the sales floor, because we like to keep things quaint.  Where weve run out of space is in the back room. I am in desperate need of a dedicated work space.

Though the expansion is not large  from 700 square feet on Central to 950 square feet on Academy  the new space will include a bathroom and a special place for Ruby. As a bonus, Schuch said, the new space will be away from ART construction.

Though Schuch is careful to explain that the rapid transit project is not the main reason for moving, she said it is a factor. We resisted for so long, but the numbers dont lie, Schuch said. Lots of businesses are suffering, and it hasnt been easy.

Schuch said a loyal customer base has kept her store afloat during construction, and most customers have said they will follow her to her new location. And she said shes excited to be discovered by more people.

Schuch does not sell apparel or jewelry but is happy that her new neighbors do. We love the (new location), she said. Its kind of a one-stop shopping center.

The move will also come with expanded hours and a doubled workforce, to four employees, not including Ruby.

The Acre

Danielle and Shawn Weed are bubbly and friendly people. Theyre the kind of people who seem like old friends as soon as you meet them.

Its that kind of personal touch and sensitivity to customer desires that they hope will set their new restaurant, The Acre, apart when they open in October at Wyoming and Montgomery NE. Well, that and the food.

Shawn, The Acres chef, describes the restaurant as vegetarian food for carnivores.

He is heavily influenced by his grandfather, a farmer in Pennsylvania. He talks about eating everything fresh from the farm and said he wants to bring that experience to Albuquerque.

With that in mind, Weed plans to change the menu seasonally to provide both the freshest vegetables and another reason to keep coming back. Adding green chile and other New Mexican staples is of paramount importance, he said.

This is our culture, he said. Its important to show it. Weed has worked out deals with local farmers and cooperatives to provide as many local materials and ingredients as possible.

Most people get terrified when they hear vegetarian,' Weed said. They think kale tossed with tofu. I dont want that to be the experience (at The Acre). This is comfort food but reinvented without the meat.

The new, 1,440-square-foot restaurant will be located in the shopping center on the southeast corner of Wyoming and Montgomery. It will seat up to 50 customers.

Weed has been in the restaurant industry for 26 years, working all over the country to hone his skills. He said he decided to open his first restaurant in his home state.

Altard State

Altard State, a womens clothing chain with nearly 90 locations nationwide, is the newest addition to ABQ Uptown. The store will open Aug. 1, according to Mary Beth Fox, chief brand officer.

Altard State, which bills itself as a Christian company, is headquartered in Maryville, Tenn. This is its first New Mexico location. Fox said the company is always looking for opportunities. Of course we want to expand in New Mexico.

Fox said the chain has been looking at the state for a long time and loves the ABQ Uptown location, a nearly 6,000-square-foot store across from Williams Sonoma.

Altard State will employ roughly 25 people, depending on traffic, Fox said.

The store is involved in global and community charities, offering employees opportunities to get paid for volunteer work with different causes and donating a portion of Monday proceeds to various charities like Boys and Girls Clubs.

According to Fox, the Albuquerque locations interior is modeled after the first chapel the company built in Peru.

The store is a much-needed addition to the Uptown shopping center which has seen several shops and restaurants leave in the last several months, including Marcellos Chophouse, Bebes and most recently Alfred Angelo Bridal.

In other news:

North Valley restaurant Murphys Mule Barn closed suddenly last month. There is no word yet on if or when it will reopen.

The lot that once held Pauls Monterey Inn is under heavy construction. The building has been torn down, and signs indicate it will be a new Peter Piper Pizza location. This will be the fourth Peter Piper Pizza in the Albuquerque area.

Casablanca Market will open next to Red Lobster on Montgomery near San Pedro NE by the end of the summer. The grocer specializes in Mediterranean and European specialty items. The owners are Hiad and Ali Jamaleddin, landlord Joanna Guidotti said.  We think the market will really help revitalize Republic Square, she said.

Petes Frites, a Nob Hill burger joint at 3407 Central NE, has closed its doors after roughly a year in business. Petes began as a Santa Fe food truck until owner Marie and Peter Gabriel decided to open their first restaurant last summer. Previously, the space was home to Shade Tree Customs & Cafe for two years.

Fox and Hound, a national restaurant chain, has begun rebranding. The Albuquerque location on Pan American NE has already changed its signage to Craft Republic.

If you have retail news to share, contact me at thood@abqjournal.com or 823-3953.
The team investigating the Malayalam actress abduction case has now come across information that several Mollywood celebrities were aware that Dileep was planning to harm the actress.

By India Today Web Desk: The Malayalam actress abduction case has seen numerous twists and turns over the last few months, ever since a complaint was filed with the police. The incident dates back to February 17, when the actress was abducted and allegedly molested and raped in a car by six men. The men then dropped her and disappeared.

Malayalam actor Dileep, who was arrested in connection with the case, is currently in judicial custody. His bail plea was turned down by the Kerala High Court. The court argued that if Dileep were granted a bail, he could tamper with the evidence in the case.

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Now, in a fresh development, the team investigating the case has unearthed information that several prominent celebrities in Mollywood were aware of Dileep's plans to abduct the actress. A report in Manorama Online says that the police have prepared a list of people from the Malayalam film industry who knew of Dileep's nefarious plans to harm the actress. The report further states that while the police have prepared a list and are to question them, they are not planning to arrest any of these celebrities as of now.

The animosity between the actress and Dileep was quite well-known in the industry. The friction between the two supposedly dates back to 2013, and the Dileep-Kavya Madhavan affair.

At an event organised by AMMA (Association of Malayalam Movie Actors) in 2013, Dileep confronted the actress and alleged that she was responsible for creating a buzz in the industry that he and Kavya Madhavan (his present wife) were having an affair. Dileep was married to actress Manju Warrier at that time. Dileep also accused the actress of telling his then wife Manju Warrier that he was having an extra-marital affair with Kavya Madhavan.

Everybody in Mollywood was aware of Dileep and the actress's strained relationship. Dileep's clout in the industry ensured that he received support, albeit silently from some, from the who's who of the industry.

The investigation team is said to have zeroed in on the people who voiced their support for Dileep during the annual general body meeting of the AMMA (Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes). It should be noted that it was only after the arrest of Dileep that the members of AMMA met and decided to expel him.

Only two weeks ago, Malayalam director Vinayan alleged that Malayalam superstars Mohanlal and Mammootty were 'puppets in Dileep's hands'.

"From my personal experience, I know that Dileep is a master manipulator and Mammootty and Mohanlal have just been puppets in his hands. He rose to so much power that behind the scenes, it was him who was controlling Malayalam cinema's progress," Vinayan said.

Mollywood was shocked by the stunning silence from Malayalam superstars and senior actors after Dileep's name cropped up in the case. It wasn't until the arrest of Dileep earlier this month that the AMMA took any action against the actor, who was the treasurer of the association.

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This morning, Dileep's manager Appunni appeared before the police for questioning.

The popular actress was abducted on February 17 when she was on her way home after a shoot. Some men got into her car on the way to Kochi and allegedly sexually assaulted her. They also took photos and videos of the act to blackmail the actress.

ALSO READ: Dileep's absconding manager Appunni finally appears for questioning

ALSO READ: All you need to know about the Malayalam actress abduction case

ALSO READ: How the Malayalam actress abduction case drama unfolded

ALSO READ: Kerala High Court rejects Dileep's bail plea in Malayalam actress abduction case

ALSO READ: Why Mollywood was shockingly silent in the Malayalam actress abduction case

ALSO WATCH: Dileep's bail plea rejected, more trouble for the Malayalam actor

--- ENDS ---
NEW YORK  At more small businesses, any watercooler chat takes place in a messaging app. Staff meetings are held via Skype. There might not even be an office.

Having a remote staff can be a good fit for many companies. Among the upsides: It expands the pool of job candidates, and lowers a companys overhead since theres no need for a big office. But there can be downsides, including the risk of personal and professional isolation. And sometimes interaction isnt quite as effective as it is in person.

There is only so much that you can communicate through text, says Max Sheppard, CEO of TrustedPros, an online service that helps people find home-improvement workers. This makes it difficult to gauge employee emotions, morale, and well-being.

Sheppard, like many other owners, uses messaging programs like Google Hangout and Slack that let remote staffers hold group or individual chats. He has six employees, all in the Toronto area. Video services like Skype and Zoom are also popular.

Many owners have at least one meeting a year that brings far-flung staffers together. Some, Sheppard among them, gather with employees for periodic dinners or other social activities.

Employees overall are doing more telecommuting, though its hard to quantify how many work remotely and how many of those are at small companies. In a report from Gallup released earlier this year, nearly a third said they work remotely 80 percent or more of the time, up from nearly a quarter who said that in 2013.

Culture clash?

Having some staffers work remotely while others are in one office can create separate cultures, and some remote employees may feel left out.

At Todd Hortons software company, KangoGift, four staffers work together in Boston and six are remote, scattered in Europe and India. Communication can get problematic  some employees feel so distant they forget to keep everyone in the loop with them.

Information can get trapped in silos, says Horton, whose business helps companies send performance awards to employees. If the European team gains an insight and doesnt share it quickly, the others will never know something happened.

Another wrinkle: Horton will sometimes take the Boston crew out for a business lunch, and the overseas employees do learn of it.

They know theyre missing out, Horton says.

At H2O Media, an advertising agency based in Eden Prairie, Minn., where seven of 12 staffers work remotely, We all try to look at the separation as a positive, and we make an effort to stay connected via team emails, calls and annual meetings, says Allison Baker, social media and marketing coordinator.

But Baker notes that the remote workers include salespeople  a job that had employees working away from an office long before computers or telecommuting.

Timing may be key to the success or failure of a remote work situation, says James Celentano, managing director of EnterGain, a human resources consulting firm. If a company transitions from in-office to remote staffing, it can be a difficult adjustment. Startups, especially those with tech-savvy staffers, may find it easier.

Those that do it well or have fewer issues are companies that embrace it from the get-go, Celentano says.

Morale problems

Owners need to be aware if working remotely is getting staffers down.

Kean Graham, who recalls getting cabin fever when he worked at home the first few years after starting his company, is mindful of the need for his staffers to sometimes see different scenery during the workday.

You have to be proactive and change your environment  go to a coffee shop or shared workspace or even go take a walk, says Graham, CEO of MonetizeMore, an advertising technology firm. Hes based in Victoria, British Columbia, and has 80 remote staffers on five continents.

Managers need to watch for signs that workers are discontented, even depressed, Graham says. For example: anger, or withdrawal that becomes apparent from the tone of a staffers voice, email or text, or a lack of communication.

A remote employees morale needs to be an important consideration when a boss makes any kind of communication, but especially a critique.

If you dont word it correctly, people can take offense at something very simple. You have to be very pointed in how you ask questions or give feedback, says Michael Fry, president of Deepwater Subsea, a Houston-based company that inspects oil rigs and has 11 staffers in Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee.

His solution: Pick up the phone. A conversation can lower the risk of misunderstandings.

A good fit?

A remote job can be a dream for some employees, but a disaster for others. They can miss working with colleagues or find it hard to stay productive.

Working from home sounds alluring and sexy, but what weve found is there are just some people that shouldnt work from home, says Bryan Miles, CEO of staffing company BELAY, whose 70 employees at its base of Atlanta all telecommute. Weve hired people and theyve found, Gosh I should really be in an office.

Usually its clear within three to six months whether working remotely is a good fit, Miles says.

Lost spontaneity

With a remote staff, a company can lose some of the spontaneous chatter about sports, movies or news. Those moments help create a camaraderie that Andrea Goulet remembers from working in a traditional office setting. Her solution for Corgibytes, her software repair and revising company, is to encourage staffers to keep a daily journal in Slack about whats happening with them.

If you neglect the entire human side of communication, then you dont feel that connection, Goulet says. Her Richmond, Va.-based company has 12 full-time remote staffers in states including Virginia, Michigan, North Carolina and South Carolina.
MOSCOW  Amid a major diplomatic retaliation unseen since the Cold War era, Russia urged the United States on Monday to show the political will to repair ties.

President Vladimir Putins move to cut hundreds of U.S. diplomatic personnel in Russia underlines his readiness to raise the ante in the face of new sanctions approved by the U.S. Congress. The Russian leader warned that he has more tricks up his sleeve to hurt the U.S., but he voiced hope that he wouldnt need to use them.

Vice President Mike Pence, visiting neighboring Estonia, said he hoped for better days and better relations with Russia.

Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said it will take time for the U.S. to recover from what he called political schizophrenia, but he added that Russia wants constructive cooperation with Washington.

We are interested in a steady development of our ties and are sorry to note that we are still far from that, he said.

Peskovs statement followed televised comments Sunday by Putin, who said the U.S. would have to cut 755 of its embassy and consular staff in Russia, a massive reduction he described as a response to new U.S. sanctions.

The Russian Foreign Ministry first announced the cuts Friday, when it said that the U.S. should reduce its presence to 455 employees, the number that Russia has in the United States. It also declared the closure of a U.S. recreational retreat on the outskirts of Moscow and warehouse facilities.

Moscows action is the long-expected tit-for-tat response to former U.S. President Barack Obamas move to expel 35 Russian diplomats and shut down two Russian recreational retreats in the U.S. following allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Putin had refrained from retaliating until now in the hope that President Donald Trump would follow on his campaign promises to improve ties with Moscow and roll back the steps taken by Obama.

The Russian leader hailed his first meeting with Trump on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Germany earlier in July, saying that the talks offered a model for rebuilding relations.

But the congressional and FBI investigations into links between Trumps campaign and Russia have weighed heavily on the White House, derailing Moscows hopes for an improvement in ties that worsened over the Ukrainian crisis, the war in Syria and other disputes.

The overwhelming endorsement of a new package of stiff financial sanctions that passed Congress with veto-proof numbers last week dealt a new blow to Moscows aspirations. The White House said Trump will sign the package, and Putin decided to fire back without waiting for that to happen.

We had hoped for quite a long time that the situation will somehow change, but apparently if it changes, it wont be soon, Putin said in remarks broadcast by state television late Sunday. I thought it was the time for us to show that were not going to leave anything without an answer.

The diplomatic personnel reductions are the harshest such move since 1986, when Moscow and Washington expelled dozens of diplomats.

The U.S. State Department called Putins move a regrettable and uncalled-for act.

Pence said in the Estonian capital of Tallinn that the U.S. wants to improve bilateral relations with Russia despite the recent diplomatic action by Moscow.

We hope for better days and better relations with Russia, Pence said.

Putin described the cuts in the U.S. Embassy and consular personnel as painful. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said it would be up to the U.S. to determine who should leave.

The State Department declined to give an exact number of its diplomats or other U.S. officials in Russia, but the figure is believed to be about 400, some of whom have family members accompanying them on diplomatic passports.

Most of the more than 1,000 employees at the various U.S. diplomatic missions in Russia, including the embassy in Moscow and consulates in St. Petersburg, Vladivostok and Yekaterinburg, are local employees.

Putin said Russia has other levers to hurt the U.S., but added that he currently sees no need for further action.

A moment may come when we could look at other options of retaliation, but I hope that it wont come to that, he said.

Gleb Pavlovsky, a political analyst who has consulted for the Kremlin in the past, said the congressional sanctions marked a point of no return.

He described the personnel cuts as a moderate response, a sort of an eleventh-hour warning to the U.S. from the Russian president.

Putin had to do something, and from his point of view, that was the minimal possible response, he said. Putin is offering to stop, to make a pause.

He predicted that if the escalation continues, the Kremlin will go for an indirect strategy  dealing blows in other areas of the globe where the U.S. has interests.

While the congressional move and the potential Russian response will foment global instability, the new U.S. sanctions will also further fuel anti-Americanism in Russia and help Putin mobilize his support base ahead of the March 2018 vote in which he is widely expected set to seek another term, Pavlovsky said.

The Kremlin has received additional arguments for its game, he said. If Putin wanted to, he could build whole his election campaign solely on American sanctions.
WHITNEY POINT, New York (AP)  Authorities in upstate New York have captured an alligator that got loose.

According to Animal Adventure Park, New York state Department of Environmental Conservation crews captured the renegade reptile Saturday behind the fairgrounds in rural Whitney Point. Sightings of the alligator were first reported July 22.

Officials say the alligator is 3 feet, 3 inches long. They believe it's someone's pet.

The alligator will be quarantined and then permanently placed in an exhibit at Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville. The privately owned zoo, just east of Binghamton, is home to April the giraffe, whose pregnancy and birthing of a male calf was an internet sensation this year.

Staffers at Animal Adventure say they are looking forward to educating visitors about the alligator.

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TUCSON, Ariz.  A police helicopter rescued about 35 hikers stranded by flooding in a national forest in Arizona  the latest incident in which groups were trapped by flood waters during the states rainy season.

The rescue Sunday in a canyon on the outskirts of Tucson took place a week after 17 people were saved after flash flooding through a different canyon several miles away, and 15 days after 10 members of an extended family died in flash flooding along a river.

Those rescued Sunday evening werent in immediate danger, the Pima County Sheriffs Department said.

An Arizona Department of Public Safety helicopter was used to ferry out the people who were stranded at a flooded, bridged crossing leading to two popular trails in the Sabino Canyon area.

The National Weather Service had issued a flash flood warning for the canyon and other parts of the Santa Catalina Mountains due to thunderstorms that dropped heavy rain, including 2 inches at a ranger station on Mount Lemmon.

It wasnt known whether the hikers were already in the canyon when the warning was issued.

The situation was reported to the Sheriffs Department about 7 p.m. and the rescue was concluded nearly four hours later. Deputy Cody Gress said.

Personnel from the Sheriffs Department and Southern Arizona Rescue Association assisted as the police helicopter flew several hikers at a time between a landing spot on a canyon road and the parking lot at a visitor center, Gress said.

Nobody was hurt or required medical condition. Authorities decided to use the helicopter partly because one impatient hiker decided to swim across the flood water, Gress said.

That person just barely made it across. Our concern is we had anxious hikers willing to do that, he said.
CARLSBAD, N.M.  In a story July 30 about the housing shortage in oil-rich New Mexico, The Associated Press reported erroneously that Eddy County was a northeastern New Mexico community. It is located in southeastern New Mexico.

A corrected version of the story is below:

Officials extend workers camp ban as they finalize ordinance

County commissioners have extended a ban on new camps for oil workers in a southeastern New Mexico community while they are working with constituents to draft new regulations for the so-called man camps

CARLSBAD, N.M.  County commissioners have extended a ban on new camps for oil workers in a southeastern New Mexico community while they work with constituents to draft new regulations for the so-called man camps.

The move comes after residents of the north Carlsbad community gathered hundreds of signatures in petitions asking Eddy County commissioners to adopt an ordinance to regulate the camps they feared would create a safety hazard.

The Carlsbad Current-Argus reports (http://bit.ly/2wbEZqt) Eddy County commissioners have banned new camps from being built for an additional 40 days while they work with legal counsel to finalizing the language on the ordinance and schedule public hearings.

Officials say the ordinance draft could be revised after public meetings in early August. They hope to hold a final vote at their Sept. 5 meeting.
FLORENCE, Ariz.  An Arizona inmate will serve an additional 20 years in prison for plotting to kill a prosecutor and two prison investigators.

Raymond Olson, 35, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of solicitation to commit first-degree murder in May, the Casa Grande Dispatch reported (http://bit.ly/2weaUXB). He will serve 20 years in prison in addition to his previous 10-year prison sentence for a street gang charge outside of Maricopa County, in south-central Arizona.

The FBI interviewed a Florence prison inmate in 2014 who gave investigators notes written by Olson where he described plans to kill Maricopa County deputy attorney Ellen Dahl and state Department of Corrections employees Brandon Rodarte and Lance Uehling, according to the defendants presentence report.

All three had a hand in investigating and prosecuting Olson.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety confirmed the notes were from Olson.

In the notes, Olson wrote that the murder plot would be carried out by his fellow Aryan Brotherhood white supremacist gang members who were about to be released from prison.

Olsons notes were not filled with empty words, and he came dangerously to unfolding his plan, prosecutors said.

The FBI followed an Aryan member who met up with Olsons wife in Mesa in June 2015. The two discussed Olsons plan to obtain the addresses for his three targets, according to investigators. They suspect one of the state Department of Corrections employees addresses was circulated.

Olson declined to make a statement during the sentencing hearing.

He will begin serving his new 20-year sentence after he completes his previous sentence in a couple of years. .

___

Information from: Casa Grande Dispatch.
DENVER  Colorados secretary of state is sending voter registration rolls to a presidential panel thats looking at alleged voter fraud.

Wayne Williams spokeswoman Julia Sunny says the information is being sent to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity by close of business Monday.

Critics cite President Donald Trumps unsubstantiated claim that millions voted fraudulently in last years presidential election. Democrat Hillary Clinton won the popular vote.

Williams emphasizes that any citizen can get the voter rolls.

The information includes whether registered voters cast ballots in previous years, names, mailing addresses, year of birth, political party affiliation and whether a voter is active or inactive.

It doesnt include how anyone voted, drivers license numbers, Social Security numbers, full dates of birth or voter signatures on file.

One-tenth of 1 percent of Colorados 3.7 million registered voters withdrew their registrations after the commission requested voter rolls in June.
PHOENIX  The political defiance that made Joe Arpaio popular and seemingly untouchable as metro Phoenixs sheriff of 24 years ultimately led to his downfall Monday as he was convicted of a crime for ignoring a U.S. court order to stop traffic patrols that targeted immigrants.

The TV interviews and news releases that the media-savvy lawman used over the years to promote his immigration crackdowns came back to bite him. The judge who found him guilty of misdemeanor contempt of court cited comments Arpaio made about keeping up the patrols, even though he knew he was not allowed.

Not only did defendant abdicate responsibility, he announced to the world and to his subordinates that he was going to continue business as usual no matter who said otherwise, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton wrote.

The verdict marked a final rebuke for a politician who once drew strong support from such crackdowns but was booted from office last year as voters got frustrated with his deepening legal troubles and headline-grabbing tactics, such as jailing inmates in tents during triple-degree summer heat and making them wear pink underwear.

Arpaio told The Associated Press that he didnt have an immediate comment on the verdict, but his attorneys said they will appeal. The 85-year-old is set to be sentenced Oct. 5 and could face up to six months in jail, but attorneys who have followed the case doubt someone his age would be incarcerated.

Critics said the verdict that followed a five-day trial in Phoenix was a long-awaited comeuppance for a lawman who had managed to escape accountability through much of his six terms.

Lydia Guzman, a Latino civil rights advocate and longtime Arpaio critic, said the sheriff was partly responsible for Arizonas reputation as a place thats intolerant of immigrants.

He is the one who led the rally against immigrants, and the legislators followed suit, Guzman said, noting Arizonas landmark 2010 immigration law. I hope a lot of this is erased and that Arizona can go back to being a normal state. I dont know when that will be.

Prosecutors say Arpaio ignored the 2011 order from a different U.S. judge so he could promote his immigration enforcement efforts in an effort to boost his 2012 re-election campaign. That judge later ruled the traffic patrols racially profiled Latinos.

The sheriff had acknowledged prolonging his patrols for nearly a year and a half but insisted it was not intentional. He also blamed one of his former attorneys in the racial profiling case for not properly explaining the importance of the court order.

Bolton rejected all Arpaios key arguments, saying the attorney had clearly informed him of the order and that a top aide also read part of it aloud to him during a staff meeting.

His lawyers contend the former sheriffs fate should have been decided by a jury, not a judge. They also said Bolton violated Arpaios rights by not reading the decision in court.

Her verdict is contrary to what every single witness testified in the case, his lawyers said in a statement. Arpaio believes that a jury would have found in his favor, and that it will.

His defense had focused on what his attorneys said were weaknesses in the court order that failed to acknowledge times when deputies would detain immigrants and later hand them over to federal authorities.

Unlike other local police leaders who left immigration enforcement to U.S. authorities, Arpaio made hundreds of arrests in traffic patrols that sought out immigrants and business raids in which his officers targeted immigrants who used fraudulent IDs to get jobs.

The efforts are similar to local immigration enforcement that President Donald Trump has advocated. To build his highly touted deportation force, Trump is reviving a long-standing program that deputizes local officers to enforce federal immigration law.

Arpaios immigration powers were eventually stripped away by the courts and federal government.

The contempt-of-court case marked the first time federal authorities had prosecuted Arpaio on a criminal charge, though his office had been the subject of past investigations.

Federal authorities had looked into Arpaios misspending of $100 million in jail funds and his criminal investigations of political enemies. Neither investigation led to prosecution of the sheriff or his employees.

Arpaios criminal charges are believed to have contributed heavily to his crushing defeat in November to Paul Penzone, a little-known retired Phoenix police sergeant.

He was ousted in the same election that sent Trump to the White House. Trump used some of the same immigration rhetoric that helped make Arpaio a national figure in the debate over the U.S.-Mexico border.

Cecillia Wang, an attorney who helped press the racial profiling case against Arpaio, said his fate is a cautionary tale for police bosses who want to get into immigration enforcement.

What was a lark to him in going after undocumented immigrants was terrible, not only for the people he hurt but also for his own agency and his career, Wang said. His career will go down as ending with his conviction.

___

Follow Jacques Billeaud at twitter.com/jacquesbilleaud. His work can be found at https://www.apnews.com/search/jacques%20billeaud .

___

This story has been corrected to show that Arpaio faces up to six months in jail, not six years, and that his trial lasted five days, not eight.
DENTON, Texas  An ex-Marine has been convicted of murder in the New Years Day 2016 shooting of a University of North Texas student that happened after people in two vehicles argued following a party.

Jurors in Denton found 21-year-old Eric Johnson guilty Monday in the death of 20-year-old Sara Mutschlechner (MUCH-lehk-nur) of Martindale. Johnson faces up to life in prison.

Denton police say people from both vehicles had attended the same New Years Eve party. An affidavit says the shooting happened when men in an SUV made sexual remarks toward Mutschlechner, who was driving another vehicle, and a female riding with her.

Johnson was later arrested at a Marine Corps facility in Yuma, Arizona, and then discharged by the Marines.

An affidavit says Johnson was associated with an address in Fort Worth.
Narmada Bachao Andolan activist welcomed the Supreme Court allowing an extension to the July 31 deadline of evacuating those to be displaced by the increase in the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam.

Medha Patkar of the Narmada Bachao Andolan exhorted people getting displaced by the increase in the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam not to sign affidavits agreeing to move to rehabilitation sites constructed by the Madhya Pradesh government. At the same time, the activist welcome the judgement and said that they will continue their fight for adequate compensation.

Patker's comments came in response to the Supreme Court extending until August 8 the deadline for evacuation from affected areas. Patkar said, "This is a victory for us. We will approach the court again. I urge all of you not to sign affidavits."

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Patker along with hundreds of other protestors are on a fast demanding adequate compensation for those affected by the project. The Supreme Court had earlier set a July 31 deadline for evacuation of the affected population.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, through a tweet, assured those affected that his government will adopt a humane approach while dealing with them.

Chouhan has also said that bridges would be constructed to link areas that will be reduced to islands after the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam is increased.

192 villages along with one small town - Dharampuri - will be affected once the height of the dam is increased to 138.68 meters.

Of the 192 affected villages, 65 are from the district of Badwani, 26 from Alirajpur, 19 from Khargone and 75 from Dhar. 19 villages in Gujarat and 33 villages in Maharashtra will also be affected.

Madhya Pradesh will get 56 per cent of the power generated, while Maharashtra will get 33 per cent. Gujarat will get 11 per cent of the power generated but will have 100 per cent rights over the water in the reservoir.

ALSO READ | Medha Patkar sits on indefinite fast in Barwani over compensation for relocation

--- ENDS ---
Copyright  2017 Albuquerque Journal

When a crime occurs in Albuquerque, investigators spend a lot of time trying to determine if and where security cameras may be located in the area, as well as whom to contact about obtaining that video, and then they hope any images that may help solve the crime were not deleted or recorded over.

On Monday, the city of Albuquerque and the 2nd Judicial District Attorneys Office announced the creation of an initiative called SCAN, or Security Camera Analytical Network. The idea, explained Mayor Richard Berry, is to get the owners of existing security cameras at homes and businesses to voluntarily register their cameras and become part of a potentially large security camera map.

Police would then look at the whole collection of video taken in a crime area for suspects or details of a crime or maybe even track an escape route.

The announcement was made during a news conference held outside the 7-Eleven store at Copper and Fourth Street. Convenience stores are often the scene of armed robberies and other violent crimes. Area 7-Eleven stores are part of the new camera mapping system.

Public safety is about the whole community uniting against crime, said Berry. Ultimately, when we expand the amount of video evidence of criminal activities in our community and make accessing that evidence easier for our police and prosecutors, more offenders will be caught and punished, and our community will be safer.

District Attorney Raul Torrez said, Participating businesses and residents can help us solve crimes and prosecute offenders by sharing data they are already collecting.  So if people in this community are willing to at least let law enforcement know that they may have some of those videos, it can go a long way toward building stronger investigations and helping us improve our outcomes in the courts.

SCAN will also be available to other law enforcement agencies, including the Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office and the New Mexico State Police.

Homeowners and businesses can register their camera systems online at cabq.gov/scan or on the home page for the District Attorneys Office and answer basic questions about the make and model of the system, the address of the home or business, the number of cameras in the system, picture quality resolution, retention time of the video, and contact information for the person whom police and investigators could call to review the video.

The Real Time Crime Center will search the network as calls for service come in and advise officers in the field when there are cameras near the scene of the crime. Officers will be able to see the security camera map along with contact information for the system owners, Berry said.

Albuquerque Police Chief Gorden Eden said he wanted to stress: This is not a monitoring program. We do not monitor your cameras. Its a networking capability and an investigative tool for our detectives and our criminal agents.

Businesses, however, can elect to additionally have their security camera systems enrolled in a Real Time Crime Center program that allows operators there to remotely access the cameras  assuming the camera system has the capability to do that or can be retrofitted to perform that function.

There is no cost to register on the security camera map; however, the owner of a business camera system would have to bear the cost of retrofitting the system if participating in the Real Time Crime Center remote access program is desired.

The SCAN initiative was spearheaded by the Real Time Crime Center with the support of the Albuquerque Innovation Team, or ABQ i-team, a city-affiliated research and innovation team funded by a grant procured by the city. The initiative was modeled in part by a similar program used in San Francisco, i-team director Scott Darnell said.
The states Patient Compensation Fund, which helps doctors and other qualified providers pay malpractice claims, has a dangerous deficit because the state Office of Superintendent of Insurance has allowed corporate hospital chains to participate in it, according to a lawsuit filed by current and former New Mexico Medical Society presidents.

If the fund were to become insolvent, it would cause irreparable harm to New Mexico physicians and the New Mexico healthcare system, said the suit, filed last week in state District Court in Santa Fe against the insurance office and Insurance Superintendent John Franchini.

A 2016 actuarial study found the fund was $36.6 million short of where it should be to be actuarialy sound  six times greater than what was reported in a 2014 study, the suit said.

The suit accuses the insurance office of qualifying, in a secret and surreptitious manner, 16 hospitals and 46 outpatient care facilities to use the fund without disclosing whether they would be charged enough to cover the enormity of the malpractice liabilities they pose, the suit said.

It asks a judge to block decisions in 2009 and 2016 that allowed those providers to tap into the fund, established in 1976 as insurance against medical malpractice claims. The overwhelming balance of the fund is paid by surcharges levied against doctors, based on the riskiness of their specialties, the suit said.

Rather than working to shore up the ailing fund for New Mexicos physicians, who were its existing beneficiaries, the superintendent imposed additional burdens on the fund by allowing New Mexicos largest hospital chains to `tap in to the fund for payment of their malpractice liabilities. Franchini, who took office in July 2010, did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

Before the insurance office qualifies a hospital or outpatient care center, it must do studies on the risk each provider poses to the solvency of the fund, the lawsuit says. However, its impossible to know what the risks are because the decisions were made in secret, the suit says.

The fund pays malpractice claims above a providers $200,000 personal liability, up to the $500,000 cap imposed by state law on medical negligence.

The suit points to an insurance office decision in 2009 giving Christus St. Vincent in Santa Fe access to the fund, but the companys annual surcharge remains a secret, the suit said.

It said more secret deals followed in 2015 and 2016, with approvals for Community Health Systems and Quorum Health, which operate rural New Mexico hospitals; Ardent, which owns Lovelace hospitals and the Heart Hospital of New Mexico; LifePoint Hospitals in Las Cruces and Los Alamos and HealthSouth, with its rehab hospital in Albuquerque, the suit said.
Lisa Riley, Wells Fargos regional president for New Mexico and El Paso for nearly eight years, has moved on to a new leadership position for the bank in central Arizona, a spokesman confirmed Monday.

David Hockmuth has replaced Riley as the states region bank president as part of a larger management shakeup meant to put bank executives closer to customers.

The leadership changes are effective immediately, said Mike English, a spokesman for Wells in New Mexico.

Wells Fargo is consolidating its regional president and area president roles into a new position called region bank president. The move reduces 160 positions across the country to 90 positions.

Riley, who grew up in Tucson and has been with Wells or its predecessors for nearly 30 years, came to New Mexico in 2009 from the Phoenix area, where she managed Wells community banking division.

Hockmuth has over 27 years of banking experience, 17 of those as an area president and district manager. With his new appointment, Hockmuth will oversee 87 branches and lead a team of over 900.

Hockmuth, who grew up in Albuquerque, attended Sandia High School. He attended New York University and graduated from the University of New Mexicos Anderson School of Management and the Western States School of Banking.

Senior executive positions in Wells other banking divisions in New Mexico are not affected by the leadership restructuring.
OSHKOSH, Wis. (AP)  Federal investigators say the pilot of a seaplane that crashed on Lake Winnebago in eastern Wisconsin last month, killing himself and a passenger, tried to take off for Minnesota despite warnings about rough water.

The plane crashed July 27 while trying to take off from the Experimental Aircraft Association's seaplane base near Oshkosh during the group's annual convention. The crash killed the pilot, 84-year-old Ray Johnson, of Marshall, Minnesota, and 71-year-old Diane Linker, of Sauk Rapids, Minnesota. A second passenger survived.

The National Transportation Safety Board's preliminary report Monday doesn't pinpoint a cause. But it says the pilot was taken onto the lake by boat after personnel expressed concern about the high waves. But Johnson still asked for the seaplane to be refueled to fly to Marshall in southwestern Minnesota.

 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
MADRID (AP)  The Latest on the commuter train accident outside of Madrid (all times local):

6.30 p.m.

Emergency services in Spain say that two people are hospitalized with serious injuries after a double-decker commuter train crashed into a barrier in a town near Madrid.

The Madrid region's Summa 112 emergency services also lowered the number of people who were treated following the Friday afternoon accident from 45 to 39.

In a statement, the service said two people were seriously injured and 11 moderately, with the rest treated for bruises and for suffering anxiety.

Spain's railway operator, Renfe, said the accident took place on Friday afternoon at the end of a track at Alcala de Henares station, some 40 kilometers (24 miles) east of the Spanish capital.

5:55 p.m.

Emergency services in Spain say 45 people have been treated, four of them for serious injuries, after a double-decker commuter train crashed into a barrier in a town near Madrid.

The Madrid region's Summa 112 emergency service said in a statement that most of the people who received medical treatment had bruises or anxiety from the Friday afternoon crash,

Spain's railway operator, Renfe, said the accident happened at 3.37 p.m. (1437GMT) on a train making its last stop on a trip from the Spanish capital to the Alcala de Henares train station.

Renfe said it was investigating the reasons for the accident. It added that commuter services weren't interrupted, but that some trains were running with delays.

 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
In a recent announcement, Ashok Venkatramani, the former CEO of ABP news Network, has joined Chrome Data Analytics & Media Private Limited as Director. He brings with him an experience of over 25 years in sales, marketing and general management roles in the FMCG and broadcasting sectors. Chrome DM has been a pioneer for over eight years in Broadcast Distribution Audits and Primary Media Research in India. Over the years the company has built strengths across Big Data and Primary Consumer Research & Analytics. In his role, he will be working closely with the groups leadership team.

Chrome DM has recently launched a new Consumer & Market Research Services vertical. This business vertical leverages Chromes nationwide field force across 3300 Cities and 215,000 villages and proprietary technology tools for primary consumer research. Within a short span of six months, it has already bagged accounts of leading brands & a wide spectrum of clients like Mercedes, Dabur, Gionee, Bureau of Energy Efficiency (Ministry of Power, Gov. of India), Lava, Central Ministry of Urban Development (Govt. of India), Toyota, BhartiyaJanta Party and Department of Information and Public Relations(Govt. of Rajasthan), among others. Mr.Venkatramanis engagement would further strengthen this initiative. While he would be based out of Mumbai, he would be equally involved with the Delhi team.

Chrome has witnessed unprecedented growth over the years, and is today an accepted currency for over 600+ TV channels, said Venkatramani. Im also looking forward to working closely with its bright young Team, as its doing some interesting work in the space of Primary Consumer & Media Research and analytics with a diverse portfolio of clients , he further added.

Commenting, Pankaj Krishna, Founder &Managing Director, Chrome Data Analytics & Media said, Im delighted to have Ashok on board. As a young company, Ashoks years of experience make for the perfect fit for us. He has been a driving force in his previous roles at Unilever and ABP, and were looking forward to the value he will add with his inputs.
The adorable kids in HULs campaign have made us smile even as they convey an important message of hygiene, chanting Haath, Munh aur Bum, Bimaari Hogi Kum. Tata Tea has forced us to ruminate over and take action in their hard-hitting social awareness ads that tell us Alarm bajne se pehle Jaago Re. Recently, P&Gs Vicks, Ariel and PepsiCo Indias Mirinda came up with innovative advertising to break stereotypes and fight existing odds. United Colors of Benetton have for years been going against the grain in socially relevant campaigns dominated by provocative visuals that have never failed to generate conversations and strong reactions.

Vicks latest campaign  #TouchofCare  narrates the story of a transgender mother Gauri and her adopted daughter Gayatri, who aims to become a lawyer as she feels that her mother is denied human basic rights. Ariels much applauded #ShareTheLoad campaign is a call to action for people, especially men, to share household chores with their beloved. On the other hand, Mirindas #ReleasethePressure ad film appeals to parents to support and motivate their children. Also, it was the first time that the brand decided to not go the regular summer campaign way, but highlight a socially relevant issue. The objective of the campaign was to drive behavioural change by inviting people to pledge to Release the Pressure during exams. While it was a digital-only campaign, a TVC with the tagline, No More Pressurepanti, Only Pagalpanti, was also released owing to the tremendous response.

HUL launched the Swachh Aadat, Swachh Bharat programme in line with the Government of Indias Swachh Bharat Abhiyan to promote good health and hygiene. As part of the programme, the company released a campaign which sought to bring alive this message in a fun and engaging manner, celebrating children as the agents of change.

The CSR factor is gaining grounds in brands campaigns as they seen to bring about a social change, along with building up the brand. According to a study commissioned by Havas Media, brands which embed social and environmental benefits in their core products outperform the stock market by 120 per cent and generate higher levels of loyalty, purchasing intent and overall consumer advocacy. What happens when a brand goes the cause-way and keeps it at the centre?

Adgully spoke to a cross section of brands to find out the objective behind going the cause-route to advertise, generating an emotional connect with the consumers, storytelling factor, driving consumers from social media and much more.

Bringing in a cause at the centre of the campaign, benefitting the brand in terms of brand recall and ideology

Forthe #TouchOfCare film was more about redefining family care which Vicks as a brand has been iconic for over the past decades.

According to Sundeep Chugh, MD & CEO of Benetton India, when consumers choose a brand, they look beyond labels, tags and trends  they are drawn to the ethics and value system that the brand stands for. He further claimed that since inception, Benetton has always maintained purpose and social commitment at the central helm. Consumers often personify brands, which implies that the same rules apply in bringing consumers to a brand as they do in bringing people close to one another; one is drawn to the principles, ideologies, intellect and belief systems of a person. In the same way, consumers look for a brand which encompasses a sphere which goes beyond just fashion. This is exactly where Benetton comes in.

affirmed that memorable campaigns need to connect with the consumers emotions, and resonate with what the consumer believes in. At the same time, the message has to identify with the brand essence and brand idealogy. Mothers Recipe has always had an emotional connect with consumers, the name extends a beautiful identity to all our products. She added, We believe our food is made with recipes passed down generations with emphasis on traditional taste, without adding any artificial flavours or chemical preservatives, just like our mothers would make for us. Thus, it is important for a brand like Mothers Recipe to pick a cause that reflects these emotions. The best brand campaigns are those which seamlessly transverse this distance and creatively tell a story of the brand to the consumer, driving brand recall.

Is emotional connect the only way forward? What if the story fails to resonate with the audience?

is a believer of owning up a cause not for communication, but for commitments sake. He opined, If you and your organisation believe in owning up an ideology, make sure its something you can give your 100 per cent to and are ready to nurture it long term. I dont see any reason why such an honest dedication on any subject wont resonate with customers.

Highlighting the latest wave of advertising the cause way, Desai stated that most of the brands today are talking to the consumer on an emotional level, trying to integrate themselves into the consumers world and be top-of-mind for them. Very few, however, are able to do that thus, sometimes leading to a communication that is memorable, but absolutely no fit with the brand ideology, she said.

Desai is of the belief that for any brand to associate successfully with their consumers, it is imperative to first identify the core brand essence and then build a campaign resonating with the brand ethos.

She further said, Mothers Day has a perfect connect with our brand Mothers Recipe and our #TasteofMothersLove initiative explored this connect beautifully. There are 20 million children in India who have never experienced a mothers love and out of 440 million children in India, 176 million lack care givers. These numbers were staggering. Taking the challenge to address this need, Mothers Recipe initiated this unique yet ambitious initiative of giving a #TasteOfMothersLove to the children who are deprived of the most beautiful emotion  Mothers Love  on the joyous occasion of Mothers Day. Through this initiative, we urge mothers to join us to celebrate Mothers Day with children in orphanages across the country. So far, 1,000 mothers have touched the lives of 1,250 children in 22 orphanages across 5 cities.

On the other hand, Darbari confirmed that the insights come from markets/ culture. According to him, to capture the nerve of the society and then to give out a strong message, it is important that the messaging is most relatable to that set of society. He said, As a brand we tried to look at stories that made the brand contemporary and fitted family and care we came across the story of Gauri. We felt that the story needed to be told. Both the Vicks team and Publicis felt that Vicks needed to bring this story to life.

Meeting the revenue targets

Darbari simply puts it down by replying that the campaign and ideas make an impact on the overall equity of the brand and in turn on the sales.

Sales is a long term result of brand building. It is really an investment you have to wait to reap, said Chugh. We launched #UnitedBy series last year talking about various causes right from Gender Inequality to Religious tolerance; but frankly we only used social impact, communication reach and consumer engagement as a yardstick.

Storytelling as the foundation of a brand and a strategy for future growth

Desai pointed out that todays consumer is spoilt for choice and has a very short attention span. The multiple avenues being used by various brands to reach out to the consumer ensures a communication clutter, and multiple messages being sent out. Great storytelling creates the hook for the consumer to listen to the entire communication, break the clutter and provides an entry point for the brands into the consumers consideration set.

Echoing similar views, Chugh agreed that the most iconic brands in the world have been storytellers. Storytelling has to run in the brand DNA, it cant be learnt or adopted overnight. The brand has to have a passion for storytelling, owning up causes and striving hard to make a social impact. Its the least of the area where strategies can be patterned and followed.

Talking about brand Vicks, Darbari noted that Vicks has always been about generations of love and care and the brand will support initiatives which are in the same space. The brand stands for love and care shown by a mother to her children over generations. Vicks has continued to look for ways to make the brand and its connection contemporary. He further emphasised that even in the film, Gauri is an epitome of motherhood showing her love and care towards her daughter  the setting is contemporary, but the relationship is timeless. The film celebrates ties between two people formed due to care given, who share very unique backgrounds in real life.

Digital media contributing to the increase in frequencies of social-centric ads

Darbari feels that the digital platform optimises share ability and voice of opinion. When you want to give out a message that is so strong, it is important that the receiver gets it on a platform which helps them to engage and give their POV. He further exemplified his views by revealing the heartwarming response by the consumers to the #TouchOfCare campaign has been launched as a digital film hosted on the Vicks India YouTube page and shared on the Facebook handle. He said, The film has received a tremendous response from our consumers in India who have shared and supported the film. Key influencers have also expressed their appreciation by sharing the film on their social media assets.

Desai, too, opined that digital media is the biggest contributor  it allows brands to experiment with storytelling, allows experimentation with styles, see what a brands consumers are reacting well with and lets us connect with our target consumers directly. Budgets are very flexible and promotions can be changed based on responses. Direct product ads are passe now, it has become a crowded space and keeping users interested in is increasingly becoming difficult. Social awareness is something that really connects with the social media user and lets them show their friends what matters to them. In my opinion, digital media is a great way to engage users in trying to make a difference in the society; it gets the brand positive recall and adds to the overall brand equity.

At Mothers Recipe, we believe it is very important for us to be socially responsible and create awareness for a cause we believe in is very close to our hearts. The #TasteOfMothersLove campaign received an overwhelming response both on-ground and in the digital media space. Over 1,100 entries received, 1,100,000+ video views, 400+ comments online and 75 million TV viewership on various platforms, she informed.

Campaign video link 2016

Speaking on the similar lines, Chugh agreed that digital media is increasingly becoming an integral part of mix owing to the right TG presence. The millennial generation is engaged on their devices more than ever before. Digital media is a platform is very conducive to viral thoughts and ideas, just with a click of share- anyone can join the wave. Therefore, if brands are looking at starting conversations, building up communities , digital media can up their game very well.

For a brand, making an impactful campaign seems to be a daunting task without its creative partner. After all, a campaign reflects the ideology of the brand and the agencys belief in that particular topic chosen for advertising. A power-packed storytelling combined with original content forms the recipe of a successful cause-related campaign, believe experts. But what if the story fails to touch a chord with the consumers?
India with the help of advanced technology ,editorial sophistication and big global channels is on verge of becoming the media capital of the world before the year 2020 and will take on BBC, CNN and other global channels .

India is the only country where media can question any one on any subject including religion, the kind of journalism that we practice, the way we go overboard , boldness being shown by journalist across the nation and bringing out the truth from lies is helping media become agent of social change This will also help us become global media platform before 2020. That is my dream  said Mr Arnab Goswami , eminent TV personality and Managing Director, republic TV while speaking at an Interactive session News as an Agent of Change organised by FICCI ladies Organisation (FLO) here today.

 The Delhi city has been has helped me grow in my career as I have spent t nine and a half years of my professional life in Delhi and always felt that it was not a city that supported pure merit. In 2000-2001, I was about to leave this profession. I was frustrated as a reporter and journalist in Delhi since I felt I was a cog in the wheel. .After shifting base to Mumbai which was the best decision I ever made and helped me do my kind of journalism and what we do is possible for bringing in social change because I was physically separated from the centre of power of this country. This city has taught me the values of merit, independence and professionalism. I owe everything that I am today and everything that I can be, with your support, to this Delhi and Mumbai city,said Arnab.

 The television media has made politicians of this country accountable for their doings. We play a conscious role towards being a force multiplier for social movements. Such was the case during the India Against Corruption movement, in which Anna Hazare, Kiran Bedi, Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan came together. Today, when now media questions Kejriwal as a politician, people ask me, Have you forgotten that you are the same people, who put Kejriwal on a pedestal? But I never supported Arvind Kejriwal. I supported the fight against corruption. Our support was for the Lokpal movement and not for a group that wanted to become a political party. Said Mr Arnab Goswami.

Its always a tough decision to take the path less travelled. Rival channels have always accused me of being over the top and presenting a dumbed-down version of the news. However I am a firm believer in my form of journalism. We have created a form of journalism in our country, which does not believe in the underhand delivery. I look upon us as new-age journalists. It is my responsibility to throw those in power a googly or bouncer once in a while. He said.

 I never wanted to become a journalist or do I enjoy it but then there are moments when I realise how journalism can change the lives of ordinary people, he said

There are people who allege that Times Now only focuses on sensational journalism. To which Arnab gave a brief account of his stint with NDTV as a young journalist. Appan Menon was my news editor and he wanted me to cover a story. The story was about a child who had fallen into an open manhole. I told him I didnt want to do it since it is a small story. I wanted to cover foreign affairs and politics. Appan told me, One day, Arnab, you will realise what a big mistake you made. The biggest story is that our country is the only country in the world, where a child comes out of school and falls into a manhole that should have been covered by the government. Appan died six months later but that guilt stayed with me.

Ten years later, the Times Group launched Times Now. Arnab said, I am a great believer of the Almighty, who opens your eyes and makes you realise your mistakes. In 2006, a child in Kurukshetra fell into an open borewell. My news editor felt it was a Hindi news channel story. I asked myself, what is an English news channel story? Is it the Democratic and Republican vote share in Arkansas? Or a story about the Ministry of External Affairs? My heart went back to the mistake that I had made ten years ago. I went to the office and told my people to forget everything else and do this story.

Arnab shared another anecdote which he termed as another mistake in his career. This incident happened when actor Sanjay Dutt was being transported from Mumbais Arthur Road Jail to Punes Yerwada prison. I sent my reporters and camerapersons to cover Sanjay Dutts story. While I was having my lunch, I got a phone call from someone in Bengaluru, who had been following my career and Times Now since a long time. He vowed never to watch my channel again. I was surprised and asked him why. He said that his best friend, Colonel Vasanth Venugopal had died in a combat with terrorists on the border. But not a single news channel had bothered to cover the martyrdom of this man. I was shocked and apologised to him. Suddenly, the whole Sanjay Dutt drama looked puerile to me. I invited the man to come on my programme and he agreed.

But Arnab was in for a surprise. Before he went live, he asked his producer if the guest was ready. His producer replied, Yes, she is ready. Arnab told him it was a man, who had called but his producer interrupted and said, Col. Venugopals wife, Subhashini, has decided to come on your programme. Arnab recalled, Here was a lady, who had cremated her husband four hours ago. What do I ask her? I started off by asking some opening questions. She spoke for ten minutes from her heart  about her husband, about how proud she was of him and about her children. I immediately got a call from Col. J. J. Singh, who was the Chief of Army Staff at that time. He asked me for the brave ladys number. The incident changed my perspective of journalism forever.

Towards the end of his speech, Arnab posed a thought-provoking question to the FLO members He asked, What kind of media do you want in this country? Do you want this media, irrespective of how noisy, argumentative and difficult it is? Or would you like to have the tame, quiet and sophisticated media that bowls underhand deliveries?

FLO President, Ms Vasvi Bharat Ram speaking on the occasion said said, FLO is the most apt platform to connect, learn and grow.

We recognise the success stories of true achievers and provide a platform for the members to be inspired by them. This programme has provided us an excellent opportunity to be motivated by the inspiring success story of Arnab Goswami and learn about his journey to success.

She further said, Considering the fact that media persons have to walk a tightrope between the establishment and their duty to the citizenry, the bottom line imperative ought to be fairness, truthfulness, and objectivity in their reporting. We heard from the stalwart himself, the journey of being the valiant news-person that he is, the challenges and the achievements in the pathway to success , the most talked about Times Now breakaway, and the return with the bang Republic- all of these and much more.
Marico South Africa Pty. Limited (MSA), a wholly owned step-down subsidiary of Marico Limited (BSE: 531642, NSE: MARICO) today announced the acquisition of Business including related intellectual property rights of ISOPLUS, a leading hair styling brand in South Africa from JM Products SA Pty. Limited (JM Products) and Ms. Mary L Harris, its owner for a consideration of 75 million South African Rand (circa INR 36 Crore) at a revenue multiple of 1.2. This strategic buyout will enable MSA to become a full spectrum ethnic hair care company in South Africa.

The acquisition comprises purchase of manufacturing facilities, working capital and all intellectual property rights owned by JM Products and Ms. Mary L Harris. The acquisition is expected to be fully consummated by mid-Q3 FY18.

Founded in 1995, JM Products is one of the largest African-American owned companies that manufactures hair care products in South Africa. The business operates in styling products, the second fastest growing segment within ethnic hair care. With a value market share of 27%, Isoplus is the leader in the styling segment, with oil sheens and styling gels being the main contributors to the brands top line. In 2016, J M Products clocked a sales turnover of 62 million South African Rand (circa INR 30 Crore). Marico is currently present in South Africa through brands like Caivil, Black Chic, Just for Kids, Hercules and Medi-Pac and is amongst the key players in the aftercare maintenance, chemical treatments and hair colour segments. This acquisition of the styling business of JM Products makes Maricos portfolio in ethnic

hair care complete.

Commenting on the acquisition, Saugata Gupta, MD and CEO, Marico Limited said This bolt-on acquisition plugs a critical gap in Maricos portfolio in the ethnic hair care space in South Africa. Isoplus has a strong consumer franchise and I am confident that the team will leverage its strengths and expertise to further grow the business.

John Mason, Managing Director and Business Head, MSA commented, I am excited with this acquisition. The strength of the brand Isoplus coupled with years of sales and marketing expertise developed within will enable us to grow both, the category and our presence in the category in the long run.
Following a multi-agency pitch, leading electrical solutions company, Orient Electric, part of $1.6bn diversified Indian conglomerate CK Birla Group has appointed Lodestar UM as its media Agency On Record (AOR). A global market leader in Consumer Electricals, Orient Electric offers diverse selection of consumer products including Fans, Lighting, Switchgears and Home Appliances. The account will be handled out of Lodestar UMs Delhi office.

Orient Electricals has been synonymous to the Indian Fan industry for over 60 years. The company is known for its world class R&D facilities and a spirit of continuous innovation and commitment to manufacture cutting-edge lifestyle electrical products. One of the first tasks for Lodestar UM would be to drive Orient Electrics foray into the highly competitive and growth oriented LED lighting and Home Appliances category. But maintaining the numero uno position in the fan segment will continue to be the topmost priority.

Speaking on the partnership, Anshuman Chakravarty, Head Brand & Corporate Communications  Orient Electric, said, Lodestar UMs primary consumer interaction coupled with their media recommendations presented us with a fresh perspective of creating innovative solutions which are rooted in strong audience, cultural and technological insights. Through this intense media agency selection process Lodestar UM never ceased to excite us with their willingness to learn about the category, getting into the market to un-earth the current ground level situation and using this as a platform to deliver insights for designing our strategies.

He further added, Our ambition is to make Orient Electric the MOST ADMIRED and RESPECTED consumer electrical company in our peer group. We have very high level of expectations as well as confidence in Lodestar UM to make the difference.

Hema Malik, COO, Lodestar UM Delhi, said, Orient Electric is positioned at a crucial juncture in their growth path and the stakes are high. The success of our partnership will determine much of the future trajectory of the company. Lodestar UM with its proven planning process, coupled with deep insights and solutions led approach will strive to create a strong and differentiated go-to-market strategy  cutting through the clutter and me too media activities.

Lodestar UM is a leading media agency of IPG Mediabrands. Amongst its key clients are Coca-Cola, Samsung, BMW, Tata Motors, Johnson & Johnson, Tourism Australia, Mahindra, Whirlpool, Amul, MP Birla Cement, IndusInd Bank, ExxonMobil, Century Plyboards, VIP Industries and several others.
Manjula Shetye is said to have been beaten up in jail till she lost consciousness.

The Bombay High Court has been continuously pointing out the issues that surround the Manjula Shetye murder case and Monday was no different.

When the case came up for hearing, the court noticed that it was only on July 6 that the jail authorities had written to the magistrate to conduct an enquiry into the murder case. According to rules, it should have been done within 24 hours of a convict inside the jail being found dead.

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Manjula Shetye, a Byculla jail inmate, was declared dead at JJ hospital on June 23 and the additional general pleader Mankuwar Deshmukh informed the division bench of Justice R M Savant and Justice Sadhna Jadhav that a wireless message was sent across to about a dozen authorities including the local area magistrate.

However this did not help as the court said that it was a weekend so the magistrate was on leave and so the vacation bench should have been informed.

The judges were not impressed with the reasons given and also noted that till date the lady magistrate has only been provided with the FIR copy and the post mortem report pointers.

"Why has the videography of post-mortem not given to the magistrate? It is an independent enquiry. You are supposed to keep the magistrate apprised. With just the FIR and post-mortem report how will she enquire into the matter?," asked Justice Jadhav. The court noted in its order that "it does not augur well for the manner in which the investigation is being carried on at present."

The court also asked if Kavita Sanap who had taken Shetye to hospital had been suspended. Jailor Sanap was the one who told the doctor at JJ hospital the lie that Shetye had fallen in the washroom and had died. Deshmukh told the court that Sanap was still working at Byculla jail.

The investigating agency's crime branch had recorded her statement and the statement of doctor Vishwas Roke who had given a report that there were no injuries on the body of Shetye when she was declared dead. It was precisely a few hours later the post mortem report had noted multiple injures on the body of Shetye. Court was informed that an enquiry has begun to see if there is any dereliction of duty in issuing an injury certificate.

The investigating agency also submitted a report of the work done so far in which prima facie the complicity of the arrested accused police personnel is mentioned. Apart from the jailor, five jail constables have been arrested in the Shetye murder case.

The investigating agencies have to hand over all the necessary documents to the magistrate as well and "any non-compliance would be viewed seriously and appropriate action would be taken against erring officers". The court has ordered the magistrate to conduct the enquiry as expeditiously as possible and has granted four weeks for further investigations to be completed.

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Also read:

Security of jail inmates needs to be looked into after Manjula Shetye's death: Bombay High Court

--- ENDS ---
The Parzor Foundation and Madison BMB along with Bombay Parsi Panchayat, TISS, Mumbai and Federation of Zoroastrian Anjumans of India today launched the Jiyo Parsi Phase-II campaign.

The Hon'ble Minister for Minority Affairs Shri. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi presided over a gathering of eminent personalities and released the campaign. Also present on the occasion was the Consul General of Iran, H.E. Masood E Khaleghi and renowned actress Parizad Kolah Marshall who both spoke on the importance of the Launch and Programme.

The Jiyo Parsi Scheme launched on 24th September 2013 is unique, not only in India but to the world.

What is Jiyo Parsi?

The Jiyo Parsi Scheme is initiated by the Ministry of Minority Affairs (MOMA), Government of India, to reverse the decline in the Parsi population by adopting scientific medical protocols and structured interventions, to stabilize and increase the population of Parsis in India.

The Parzor Foundation along with other Parsi organizations and many reputed doctors across India is working to spread awareness on the sociological, psychological and medical issues which have led to the critical decline in numbers, to make Parsis benefit from the huge advances in ART (Assisted Reproductive Technology) available today.

As Indias population more than tripled in over 60 years, the number of Parsis has reduced by almost 50% and is now less than 57,264 (Census 2011).

This is the First Time in the World that an intervention is being attempted to bring an urban, educated community back from the brink of Demographic extinction. Between September 2013 and today, 101 babies (for Parsis, a blessed number), have been born under the scheme and for many more couples, the Scheme has been 'Truly a Miracle', 'Our Silver Lining', 'At the End of Every Tunnel there is Light'. With the full support of the Ministry of Minority Affairs (MOMA), Jiyo Parsi been able to turn despair into delight. 'Jiyo Parsi appeared in our lives as a ray of hope....., the Jiyo Parsi Counsellor gave us the courage to try one more time, with God's blessing we are parents of an energetic baby today'.

These Testimonials are only one part of the story. From infertility to grand-parenting, Jiyo Parsi has become a Movement to bring back the happiness of family, a faith in the future and a firm belief in the resilience of the Parsi Zoroastrian community. We can proudly say that even children declare 'Jiyo Parsi'.

Says Dr. Shernaz Cama, the prime mover of the scheme, As we enter our next Phase, we look ahead to carry the community with us, old and young, to think outside the box and be the pioneers in reviving a community; let us know that every step we take can make a difference.

Whilst Phase-I of the campaign, created by Sam Balsaras Madison focused on awareness of Jiyo Parsi and sensitizing the community and its youngsters to the issues in a tone of voice that ensured virability of the campaign, the current Phase-2 consists of 12 ads and is focused more on trying to persuade young Parsis to get married and have children for a better balance to their own life. Raj Nair, CEO and Chief Creative Officer of Madison BMB, the agency behind the creative execution of the campaign says, After the huge success of the deliberately tongue-in-cheek last print campaign, we have created a new rendition. We have continued to focus on issues especially relevant and meaningful, like togetherness, the importance of family, that having children is joyful and doesnt come in the way of life at all, that there is no positive outcome to choosing to be alone and so on. The hope is that the issues touched upon will clearly resonate with young Parsi people in a completely positive manner. Madison BMB has been involved with the project since inception.
The gender divide is fast dissipating in every sphere of business. There are several women business leaders today, leading from the front and inspiring an entire generation of young women to take up the mantle of leadership.

English Business News Channel BTVi - Business Television India has endeavoured to bring women thought leaders under one platform, celebrating their success stories, thereby motivating the millennial with their show, Women Mean Business. The second season of the show went on air on June 17, 2017 and airs every Saturday @ 8pm on the channel. The guests on the show this season will range from Media baron to Renowned Restaurateur, from award winning Gemologist and Jewellery Designer to Globally acclaimed artist.

Ritu Dalmia is an Indian celebrity chef and restaurateur. She is the chef and co-owner of the popular Italian restaurant, Diva, in Delhi, which was established in 2000, with co-founder Gita Bhalla under partnership firm Riga Food. Other restaurants of company are Latitude 28 and Cafe Diva.

She also started hosting a TV cookery show, Italian Khana, for NDTV Good Times for three seasons, and published her first cookbook by the same name in 2009.

You have just returned from Milan, what have you been up to?

We are opening a restaurant there and we thought its high time Italians learn how to eat Italian food made my way. I am very excited and for years it has been a mindset for me that I will not open anywhere except Delhi, because I want to be there at every restaurant myself.

One may call it lucky or unlucky that my team is very good and they are with us since a long time. There are people taking care of the restaurant so I had nothing to do.

I have been going to Italy since I was 10 years old and for a long time I thought Italians cant eat anything else except their mammas pasta. It is still true in most of the parts, but Milan as a city has changed so much. When you go there, you get better Japanese than you would get in London. Its a city which is evolving very quickly. I thought its high time because Italians have a mindset in terms of Indian food. It is using Indian recipes with Italians ethos.

I am not bastardising the recipes, but I am playing with it. I am in my mid 40s now and every time you need to sharpen your brain, you need to learn a new language. For me a new language is learning a new style of cooking. When I was 40, I did Diva spiced, which was Asian food. I am known for Italian food and so I taught myself a new cuisine. We worked with modern Asian and now its time to go back to my roots and play.

How and when do you know that you need to relearn?

When the kitchen is no longer fun and I am looking at the food turned out perfectly and I dont have a rule to play. When there is nothing for me to do, then I teach myself something new so that I can teach that further.

My father taught me that money, manpower and machinery is what you need for a business. Banks lend you money, machinery can be bought and so it is the manpower  the people  who make or break the business. I feel very lucky as I have an amazing team of people; Diva is what it is because of the people.

What is the Diva team all about?

The Diva team started with 11 people and I never hired an educated chef in my kitchen and one of those people who started with chopping vegetables is the head chef of our Italian embassy restaurant. That says a lot for someone who cant read or write, but cooks better pasta than most Romans do. Today, there are nearly 200 people.

When I started, there were no women in the kitchen. Today, my entire top management is women, including all my head chefs. Its funny how sometimes we sit for a team meeting with all the women and the boys are quiet and scared!

Cooking is considered to be a gender-based role...

Women in general are also homemakers, and this is a job which is 15 hours a day and 7 days a week. When everyone else is partying on a New Years eve, you are working your butt off. There are a lot of women who get into the kitchen, but there are very few who can endure it to a point because it is like a curve. When I started, I had so much work in the kitchen, but now when people ask me who cooks in the kitchen when you are not cooking, I say its the same people who are cooking when I am there. After a time you dont need to spend 15 hours in the kitchen, but unfortunately most of the women dont reach that stage.

Women have to be really strong and determined to make sure to put a balance in your family, your home, and your job. We have a few women who have cut that mark. The woman who will to be running the restaurant in Milan is our Head Chef in Delhi.

How did this whole thing with Italy start?

I went to a school called CJM in New Delhi, which is a Missionary school. When I was 10 years old, there was the 100th anniversary of convents all around the world. The nuns at my school wanted the principal to go to Rome to attend this festival, but such schools in those days used have a monthly fees of Rs 30 and they did not have any money to travel. They decided to do a school trip of 80 to 90 kids. My parents obviously didnt want to let me go alone because I was just 10, but I created a scene and they relented. In Rome, I had a blast. I ate a spaghetti pomodoro every night, while all the other kids were starving for Indian food. The day we were coming back I hid in the bathroom at the airport, hoping they would miss me out and leave me behind! I think my love for Italian food started there.

In my teens, I started travelling to Italy for the marble business. But instead of the marble business, in a few years I fell in love and learnt how to cook. When I had a little bit of money in my pocket, I went ahead with my life in my own hands.

What was your familys reaction when you put your ambition of being a cook in front of them?

My father was so upset with me not only because I was opening a restaurant, but serving non-vegetarian food and picking up plates, which he considered to be a menial job at that time, were the concerns. It was not easy, but my mom was very supportive and I was financially independent. At the end of the day, I realised that if you are financially independent, a lot of pressure goes away. Today, my dad is super proud, he is a weekly client at Diva and even collects all newspaper clippings about me, my work and my restaurants.

How do you navigate in todays competitive environment?

Since, I am not bright in many things, especially marketing, I believe that facts come and go, but at the end of the day what you really need is honest food with good ingredients which doesnt intimidate you, and after finishing the food there should be smile and a feeling of satisfaction. I am a purist and for some reason it has worked for me. Going forward, I dont want to change this because I am doing this for the pure pleasure, even though the money works.

Tell us something about the risks and brushes of failure that you came across.

In 1993, I started Mezza Luna in Hauz Khas Village, which worked for three years. The restaurant was started too early after the liberation. During that period, we had sets of regular guests, but I was losing money since there were no ingredients available, import duties and wine licences were a nightmare. After three years, the restaurant was sold out because it didnt work. I was so attached to it that from 1993 to 2012 I never went back to Hauz Khas Village. There should be an emotional detachment from restaurants when they dont work or they dont make money.

How much time you need to realise that the restaurant is not profitable?

Mezza Luna was the perfect example with time span of three years, but now its very simple  if a restaurant doesnt work, I will shut it down within one year, because whatever investments you put in a restaurant, there is no resale value for it. Although, people have appreciated me for so many successful restaurants, but at the same time I have had equal amount of failures as well. We opened our Asian Spice Restaurant in Defence Colony under the name of Diva Cage, which was a nice place, but the Delhi mindset was not prepared for that, so after six months we changed the location and came into Meharchand Market and the same restaurant which wasnt working in Defence Colony is now running superbly in Meharchand Market.

How do you decide upon a location for the penetration of new restaurants?

Its all about guts, because restaurants are all about locations and for me, Milan is just my guts. I dont do business plans, because I am not good at it.

How have things changed now which is not easier?

There are a lot of things which are still difficult, because the supply chain is not very well defined. For instance, earlier to get organic Basil was a coup, but now there are so many organic suppliers and very good importers of Italian food. As we are going forward, we are trying to use as much locally produced ingredients as possible rather than importing them. Its is the best time to invest in this business, because food is always the best time to come in. When World War 2 happened, the only two industries that survived were Beer and Restaurants. Its much easier to be in the food business than it was in 1993.

Tell us something about what irritates you as a chef.

One of the things that I hate is shortcuts, since food is all about detailing and what annoys me in the office is that the salad leaf is not as crisp as it should be and that my chef has missed it  that drives me crazy. Every time I keep on learning something new is because food is my language.
NEW YORK, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Shoes are being used as a catalyst to intrinsically shift the economic, academic, social and spiritual aspect of a families' well being. Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship International (FGBCFI) launched a 50K Shoe Challenge, as a part of its LIVE FULL strategic initiative.

In just over a month, Soles4Souls' first reformation organization partner, met its shoe challenge and exceeded its' goal by 20,000 pairs of shoes yielding a donation of 70,000 pairs of gently used and new shoes to help those in need and fight global poverty.

The shoes FGBCFI collected will be delivered to Soles4Soulsa non-profit that creates sustainable jobs and provides relief through the distribution of shoes and clothing around the world. Founded in 2006, the organization has distributed more than 30 million pairs of new and gently used shoes in 127 countries.

Soles4Souls will convert every used pair of shoes collected from the community into a value-added social currency to achieve positive change, both humanitarian and economic. Most of the gently used shoes will be distributed to micro-enterprise programs that create jobs in Haiti and other poor nations. The resulting revenue will help fund the free distribution of new shoes in the U.S., Canada and developing nations around the world.

"We are committed to keep community, the opportunity to connect, and the radical compassion of Christ in front of us. We are determined to #LiveFull and as blessed members of FGBCFI we have the beautiful privilege of being empowered to share from our places of fullness. We do not 'do' outreach or 'do" missions. We are outreach; we are missions. Daily, we have the opportunity to be the living manifestation of both. We know that when we focus our faith, we can have real impact on real challenges. Over 900 million people live in extreme povertyless than $1.90 per day. Many don't have access to a sustainable income and are often unable to provide basic necessities, such as a good pair of shoes, for their family. We can do something more than discuss the statistics; we can be a solution-partner and change the statistics. We are encouraged about the news of exceeding our goal by 20,000 pairs of shoes, further proving the power of partnership, philanthropy and positive momentum that churches can deliver in today's culture," says Bishop Joseph W. Walker III.

"I am deeply grateful for this partnership," said Buddy Teaster, Soles4Souls' CEO." Bishop Walker's understanding and support of our approach to creating sustainable economic opportunities for people in the developing world is profound. By fully engaging with members of the FGBCFI, this powerful group will make a significant impact for thousands of women and their families. They are literally turning things in their closets that they no longer use into a roof over someone's head, an extra meal a day and school for children desperate for an education."

"Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship International views social enterprise and social outreach as key components to spiritual growth and it's our clarion call to the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship faith community and the faith community at large to LIVE FULL," says Bishop Joseph W. Walker III. "Collecting 70,000 pairs of shoes is a tremendous opportunity to connect the people of our faith community to children in need around the world and global culture as a whole."

For more information, log onto

http://www.fullgospelconference.org/soles4souls/.

About Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship International

Established in 1994, the birth of the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship International is in essence the story of a tremendous move of God beginning in the last decade of the twentieth century. The spiritual religious freedom that makes Full Gospel Baptist unique has impacted Christian men and women around the world.

About Soles4Souls

Soles4Souls disrupts the cycle of poverty by creating sustainable jobs and providing relief through the distribution of shoes and clothing around the world. Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, the organization repurposes product to supply its micro-enterprise, disaster relief and direct assistance programs. Since 2006, it has distributed more than 30 million pairs of shoes in 127 countries. A nonprofit social enterprise, Soles4Souls earns more than half of its income and commits 100% of donations to programs. Visit soles4souls.org for more information.

Media Contact:

Tashion Macon

169591@email4pr.com

8187498786

View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/full-gospel-baptist-church-fellowship-international-fgbcfi-becomes-largest-soles4souls-faith-based-engagement-partner-with-70000-pairs-of-shoes-collected-300496296.html

SOURCE Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship International
Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) and Plattform Industrie 4.0 have announced a stop in Singapore on their IIoT World Tour, which brings together industry leaders from both organizations and local organizations to accelerate the digitalization of industrial production. The two organizations have partnered with the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), to co-host an event in Singapore, held in conjunction with A*STARs Future of Manufacturing Singapore, a series of events related to advanced manufacturing. The Singaporean-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce will serve as a further local partner for the event.

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies will dramatically improve productivity and efficiencies throughout the entire manufacturing supply chain, with processes governing intelligent machines to improve production and even take corrective action to avoid unscheduled downtime. A thriving manufacturing sector helps strengthen the global economy.

The event will feature keynote presentations from representatives of the Industrial Internet Consortium, Plattform Industrie 4.0, A*STAR and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, an executive panel of IIoT leaders, followed by sessions of industry experts discussing how companies can collaborate to accelerate the development, adoption, and wide-spread use of interconnected machines and devices.

WHEN: Friday, 15 September 2017 - 8:30-16:00

WHERE: Singapore - Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, 392 Havelock Road

WHO: Open to the public

HOSTS: Industrial Internet Consortium, Plattform Industrie 4.0, A*STAR, held in conjunction with A*STARs Future of Manufacturing Singapore

MARKETING PARTNER: Singaporean-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce

COST: Complimentary, pre-registration required

About A*STAR

The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) is Singapore's lead public sector agency that spearheads economic oriented research to advance scientific discovery and develop innovative technology. Through open innovation, A*STAR collaborates with partners in both the public and private sectors to benefit society. As a Science and Technology Organization, A*STAR bridges the gap between academia and industry. A*STARs research creates economic growth and jobs for Singapore, and enhances lives by contributing to societal benefits such as improving outcomes in healthcare, urban living, and sustainability. A*STAR play a key role in nurturing and developing a diversity of talent and leaders in Agency and Research Institutes, the wider research community and industry. A*STAR oversees 18 biomedical sciences and physical sciences and engineering research entities primarily located in Biopolis and Fusionopolis. For more information on A*STAR, please visit www.a-star.edu.sg.

About the Plattform Industrie 4.0

Plattform Industrie 4.0 is the central network to advance digital transformation towards Industry 4.0 in Germany. In close cooperation with politics, industry, science, associations and trade unions, it develops and coordinates information and networking services in order to make Industrie 4.0 solutions better known among companies and to deploy them on site. As one of the largest international and national networks, it supports German companies  particularly medium-sized companies  in implementing Industrie 4.0. It provides companies with decisive impulses through examples of company practices from across Germany as well as concrete recommendations for action and test environments. The platforms numerous international co-operations underscore its leading role in international discussions on Industrie 4.0. For further information, visit www.plattform-i40.de.

About the Industrial Internet Consortium

The Industrial Internet Consortium is the worlds leading organization transforming business and society by accelerating the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). The IIC delivers a trustworthy IIoT in which the worlds systems and devices are securely connected and controlled to deliver transformational outcomes. The Industrial Internet Consortium is a community of the Object Management Group (OMG). For more information, visit www.iiconsortium.org.

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Industrial Internet Consortium

Karen Quatromoni, +1-781-444-0404 x146

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or

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Lynn Hong Xiuling, +65 6419 6597

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or

Plattform Industrie 4.0

Dr. Jonas Gobert, +49.170.3600696

Jonas.gobert@ifok.de
Four protective cases for the Google Pixel 2 and Pixel XL 2 appeared on Amazon, together with two screen protectors, one for each device. The case renders are largely in line with some previous supposed sightings of Googles upcoming flagship duo, showing two devices with nearly bezel-less designs that only differ in terms of screen size and camera setups. The phones depicted in the images that can be seen in the gallery below seemingly feature a tall aspect ratio thats rumored to amount to 18:9 and thus be identical to the Full Vision display panel of the LG G6. With the South Korean phone maker reportedly producing at least one of the two handsets, industry insiders previously suggested that Google will equip its next flagships with LGs screen modules, and the newly uncovered renders give more credence to that possibility.

Its currently unclear whether any or all of the new accessories listed on Amazon are based on accurate product information about the Google Pixel 2 and Pixel XL 2, though all of them can already be purchased for as little as $7.99. The cases and screen protectors are being sold by LK, MicroP, and Starhemei, three manufacturers of phone accessories that usually support a wide variety of different brands. The renders published by the companies indicate that the Google Pixel 2 will have a somewhat angled camera module compared to its larger counterpart, in addition to implying that both will boast circular fingerprint scanners centered in the top thirds of their rear panels. The handsets otherwise seem mostly identical and are shown as using on-screen system keys instead of a physical Home button. Both also seem to feature cut-outs for a 3.5mm audio jack, which goes against recent rumors that stated the smaller model will lack this conventional audio port. None of the listings contain any mention of the actual screen sizes of either the Pixel 2 or Pixel XL 2.

The Mountain View, California-based tech giant is still believed to be months away from officially announcing the successors to the original Pixel and Pixel XL. The 2016 handsets were revealed in early October and their follow-ups may be debut around the same time this year before hitting the market in mid-fall. In the meantime, anyone interested in getting their hands on any of the newly unveiled unofficial cases or screen protectors for the two smartphones can do so on Amazon.
The latest figures released by a market research firm, Canalys suggest that the Indian smartphone market has contracted, especially in terms of numbers. This has further resulted in smartphone shipments of the country falling by 4 percent year-on-year, and the Indian smartphone market has never experienced such a bad hit before, claims Canalys. The research firm further goes on to state that this is a consequence of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) that was implemented in the country on July 1st, 2017.

The Indian smartphone market is currently being led by Samsung with 25 percent market share in total. The firms recent launches that include the Galaxy J and the Galaxy S8 series seemed to have worked well in the companys favor. Samsung is followed by the Chinese tech-giant Xiaomi, with shipments of nearly 4.8 million smartphone units in Q2 of this year. Most of the credit for Xiaomis immense popularity undoubtedly goes to its low-range Redmi Note 4 and the Redmi 4A devices. Vivo surprisingly takes the third position with an all-time high shipping of 3.4 million smartphone units. The research firm suggests that Vivo majorly dominates tier-two and tier-three cities in India, and these companies are followed by OPPO and Lenovo who occupy the fourth and the fifth place, respectively.

The primary winners (Samsung and Xiaomi) of the smartphone market seem to represent a clear threat that the Chinese players pose against any other company, especially in India. Canalys states that since China is already suffering decline in its home market, India therefore plays a key role for the Chinese vendors to make maximum profit. Meanwhile, OPPO and Vivo have gradually emerged to be major dominants in the market, thanks to the visibly rigorous effort applied by both on online and offline retail campaigns. Unfortunately, Lenovo can be seen as struggling as far as the smartphone market is concerned. The firm is reportedly focusing most of the concentration towards its sister-company, Motorola. Canalys analyst, Rushabh Doshi, reportedly stated that there is much confusion among consumers since GST was implemented. Due to lack of awareness regarding GST, there is apprehension among the mass, including retailers and distributors as well. The research firm predicts that the market will emerge stronger after the GST-led confusion phases out.
Google acknowledged a number of issues related to the Google Homes support for Google Play Music that the Mountain View, California-based tech giant introduced earlier this month. The problems range from some purchases not registering on the Internet of Things (IoT) device to a number of portfolios from particular artists being entirely unsupported by the feature. The smart speaker also seems to be struggling with searching users content libraries, as some reports are claiming that a broad range of songs cannot be accessed through the device no matter what, yet those same tracks can be cast to the Google Home from an Android smartphone.

According to another report, the issue that prevents songs from certain artists from being played can be circumvented if the songs themselves are part of ones personal library. An unrelated bug flagged by several users has the Internet-enabled speaker starting a suggestions-based playlist without being asked to do so immediately after playing certain tracks. Initial reports indicate that the only functionality related to the speakers Google Play Music support that works in a reliable manner is the one thats meant to identify and reproduce playlists. A Google official recently acknowledged the complaints and said that the firms software engineers are working on addressing them as quickly as possible but didnt provide a more specific time frame for their resolution. Due to the sheer volume of reported issues, its likely that the bugs wont be eliminated with a single update and will instead be slowly fixed through a larger number of patches that will be gradually distributed in the coming weeks.

As always, users affected by the issues are encouraged to send feedback to Google and detail their troubles as much as possible. Its currently unclear whether the Internet giant will provide frequent updates on the matter or if it will simply start rolling out fixes without any special announcements, as the company has a history of varying between the two approaches to software support. As for Google Play Music itself, the service is set to be merged with YouTube Red in the near future, the tech giant recently said.
Nokia Chief Executive Officer Rajeev Suri warned investors about some near-term risk that the Finnish tech giant expects will be generated by the fifth generation (5G) of mobile networks, i.e. the rapid advancements and deployment of related technologies. While speaking on a conference call hosted shortly after the company published its consolidated financial results for the second quarter of the year, Suri predicted that the next major iteration of wireless networks will be significantly closer to being commercialized on a global level over the course of 2018, adding how those developments wont necessarily be entirely positive for the telecommunications firm. While Nokia is largely expected to benefit from the emerging wireless technology, the fact that 5G developments are ramping up faster than it expected puts additional pressure on the company to conclude its related research and development efforts that are already on a tight schedule, Suri revealed.

In recent years, Nokia was predicting that 5G will take off in 2021 and later moved that prediction a year forward, stating that scientifically significant large-scale 5G trials are likely to become widespread come 2020. Suri now changed that forecast once again, noting how recent market indicators suggest that the wireless sector will already be deeply involved in the process of field-testing 5G technologies as early as next year. This turns of events mandates a change to Nokias own 5G technology roadmap, its CEO said, adding that the tech giants workload is now set to increase in the coming months in an effort to not fall behind the industry as a whole and be ready to serve all sizes of businesses as soon as 5G becomes the new standard in telecommunications. Nokias Mobile Networks and R&D divisions will both be affected by this move, Suri revealed, without elaborating on the matter.

During the conference call, Nokia CEO also predicted that first significant deployments of 5G-ready infrastructure will be completed in the United States and China in 2019, noting how the Finnish company will do everything it can to keep up with the pace of related technological advancements. The firms actual market position remains uncertain, with its Q2 2017 financials revealing stagnating sales that prompted some industry analysts to speculate that its telecommunications division is set to maintain that unimpressive performance for the time being, despite the company as a whole reducing its losses and recording a number of other positive results over the three-month period ending June 30.
Charter Communications isnt interested in acquiring Sprint despite the fact that the fourth largest mobile service provider in the United States is said to have already proposed a merger with the cable company or is planning to do so shortly, sources with knowledge of the matter said on Sunday. Sprints parent SoftBank has been in talks with Charter and Comcast for over two months now, trying to negotiate a new wireless partnership, but the three parties are still somewhat away from reaching a deal, recent reports indicate. Its currently unclear why the Japanese conglomerate favors a merger with the cable firm over that with T-Mobile, a competitor whose user base and technology would likely prove to be more immediately beneficial for the Overland Park, Kansas-based wireless carrier. Regardless, sources familiar with the matter claim that SoftBank Chief Executive Officer Masayoshi Son is still willing to discuss a potential consolidation with the Deutsche Telekom-owned mobile service provider.

Some industry watchers believe that Sprint wasnt expecting its merger proposal to be accepted by Comcast at all and instead opted for the move in an attempt to gain more leverage in its negotiations with T-Mobile that already started in an unofficial capacity earlier this year before being put on hold for two months after Sprint agreed to a two-month exclusivity period of talks with Comcast and Charter. In a statement provided to Reuters on Sunday, a Charter spokesperson confirmed that the cable giant has no interest in becoming a majority owner of the wireless carrier but didnt elaborate on the matter. The official did state that Charters mobile service ambitions are still being pursued, saying that the Stamford, Connecticut-based firm remains adamant to launch a wireless service in 2018. Both Charter and Comcast already have a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) deal with Verizon Communications, though recent reports suggested that Sprint would be willing to offer more favorable terms to the two companies.

Even if Charter and Sprint were interested in a merger, theyd need to acquire approval for such a deal from Comcast, as per a recently signed collaboration agreement between the two cable service providers, which some industry analysts believe isnt likely to happen. Sprint is expected to continue pursuing its M&A ambitions in the coming months as the company is looking to make its highly leveraged business more sustainable in the long term.
More smartphones with screens featuring a tall aspect ratio of 18:9 (2:1) will be released by the end of the year in China, industry sources close to the Taiwanese component suppliers said on Monday. A number of display panel manufacturers like Innolux and AUO are reportedly ramping up production of such modules in an effort to meet the demand for taller screens thats been steadily increasing in recent months. The leaked image below is thought to depict the overall design of some plates featured on those Chinese phones, though the source of the report didnt elaborate on the sketch.

While none of the five largest original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the Far Eastern country have yet announced new 18:9 devices that will be released this year, one industry insider claims that Huawei, OPPO, Vivo, Xiaomi, and Gionee have all already ordered bezel-less display modules from local suppliers. Its understood that not all of those modules are equipped with 18:9 screens, but a number of them certainly are, the source said. All of the newly ordered components will be used for smartphones that are set to compete in the entry level and lower mid-range segment of the handset market, the insider believes, adding that none of them will retail for more than 1,599 yuan, which amounts to a little over $237 by todays exchange rates. Chinese consumer electronics manufacturers are reportedly optimistic about the appeal of such devices and have already ordered large quantities of bezel-free display modules, expecting significant demand for their new products later this year. Xiaomi itself is apparently set to launch three full-screen smartphones in the second half of 2017, with one of them being the highly anticipated Mi MIX 2. The other two handsets may be aimed at different price segments, insiders speculate.

Tall mobile image formats werent pioneered by LG Electronics but the South Korean company played a significant role in popularizing them earlier this year after it announced the LG G6 with a Full Vision display panel featuring an 18:9 aspect ratio. This design language already started trickling down to LGs more affordable devices, having recently appeared on the newly announced LG Q series of mid-rangers. LGs rival Samsung gave an even larger contribution to bringing this design practice into the mainstream spotlight with the extremely popular Galaxy S8 lineup and its 18.5:9 Infinity Display thats also expected to be featured on the upcoming Galaxy Note 8.
Opposition leaders have alleged that additional FSI (Floor Space Index) was provided to a private developer by violating rules.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has ordered an inquiry in the alleged slum rehabilitation authority (SRA) scam in South Mumbai's Tardeo.

By Kamlesh Damodar Sutar: Maharashtra Housing Minister Prakash Mehta is under scanner as Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has ordered an inquiry in the alleged slum rehabilitation authority (SRA) scam in South Mumbai's Tardeo.

Opposition leaders have alleged that additional FSI (Floor Space Index) was provided to a private developer by violating rules. Replying to the issue raised by former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavhan, Fadnavis said that the allegations will be probed.

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Raising the issue Chavan said, "The file of the project had a remark that the CM has been consulted while allotting extra FSI but the CM was not consulted. Was the CM kept in dark to benefit a private developer?"

Chavhan also alleged that the decision could have earned the developer a profit of up to Rs 500 crore.

NCP leader Jayant Patil demanded a thorough probe in the matter. "Without consulting the CM, such a decision has been taken. This is not a sign of transparency that the government boasts of. A judicial probe should be ordered in the case," Patil demanded.

A cornered Prakash Mehta said that he was open to any probe. "The decision to allot extra FSI was as per the policy of the earlier government. I thought that the CM was apprised, but he wasn't," Mehta said in defense.

Fadnavis said that Mehta had explained his stand and to ensure transparency, the government will order an inquiry.

Opposition leaders, however, were not happy with the reply and staged a walkout.

ALSO READ |

ED registers ECIR against Congress leader Baba Siddique, 8 others in SRA money laundering scam

Mumbai: MHADA pays Rs 19 crore to contractors who built illegal building

Exclusive: Baba Siddique, others were eyeing a profit of Rs 2000 crore from SRA scam, reveals ED

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Samsung has just announced a brand new, ultra-fast LTE modem. The company has announced that it has developed a new LTE modem for next-gen mobile SoCs, and this modem actually supports 6CA (Carrier Aggregation), which makes Samsung the first company to release such tech. Samsung also notes that this new tech managed to achieve a maximum downlink speed of 1.2Gbps (gigabits per second), were looking at Cat. 18 LTE here.

Now, for comparisons sake, the Exynos 8895 SoC, which is Samsungs flagship processor included in the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8 Plus, comes with a Cat. 16 LTE model which can achieve 1.0Gbps downlink speed, and it has 5CA support, so its safe to assume that this new model with 6CA support and 1.2Gbps downlink speeds will be included in Samsungs upcoming flagship Exynos chip, and that processor will fuel the Galaxy S9 next year. Samsung says that you can basically download full-length HD movies within 10 seconds thanks to this new modem, and there are all sorts of other benefits thanks to such speeds, of course. Samsung also says that by increasing the aggregation capability from the previous models five bandwidths to six that are included in this new modem, the company managed to offer a more stable data transfers, despite the fact theyre now faster than ever before.

Its worth noting that this new model also supports 44 MIMO (Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output) and higher-order 256 QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) scheme, plainly speaking, this is supposed to maximize the data transfer rate. Samsungs new tech also allows telecommunications companies to make full use of their resources, as this modem utilizes enhanced Licensed-Assisted Access (eLAA) that can aggregate licensed and unlicensed spectra. The company also said that this new modem will enter mass production by the end of this year, which also suggests that the Galaxy S9s Exynos SoC will ship with such technology once the company announces it next year, and that will probably happen in March or April. The Vice President of System LSI Protocol Development at Samsung Electronics also said that this new modem highlights Samsungs leading design capabilities and well-positions the company for the upcoming 5G era.
A detailed spec sheet of the Nokia 9 recently surfaced on GFXBench, consistent with the earlier leaks about the device that may be marketed as the Nokia 8. The report, which mentioned three variants of the upcoming Nokia flagship  TA-1004, TA-1012, and TA-1052 made no mention of the specifications of any individual variant even though various older rumors have claimed that the TA-1012 model is the dual-SIM variant of the phone. Although the device bears the Nokia brand, it will be developed by HMD Global thats now licensed to sell products under Nokias moniker.

The Nokia 9 will include Qualcomms Snapdragon 835 chipset, built on a 10nm manufacturing process, coupled with the Adreno 540 GPU and 4GB of RAM running Android 7.1.1 Nougat out of the box. The information also lists the device to carry a 5.3-inch Quad HD (2560 x 1440) display, which again, is consistent with previous reports. While no support for external storage is mentioned, the Nokia 9 is likely to include 64GB of internal storage, which has become a memory standard these days. The report also suggests that the Nokia 9 will more likely than not miss out on a heart rate sensor. Furthermore, the Nokia 9 is said to include a 12-megapixel front sensor and another back shooter with the same resolution, both of which will support Ultra HD 4K recording capabilities, the listing indicates. The rear camera will also include autofocus, face detection, and HDR capabilities, in addition to being accompanied by a dual-LED flash, according to the same source.

Although there have been reports claiming that the Nokia 8/9 will sport 6GB to 8GB of RAM and up to 128GB of storage space, GFXBench fails to mentions any of these individual models. With the 64GB variant of the device rumored to sell for more than $500, its still unclear how much the 128GB model, if available, will go for. HMDs decision to launch Nokia devices with a vanilla take on Android and providing fast and timely updates may be the primary reason for its increasing market share in the Chinese region, with tech enthusiasts and nostalgics alike buying its devices as soon as theyre made available. Although HMD has been relatively slow to release its products worldwide immediately after their official announcements, the company is slowly but surely ramping up its manufacturing capacities to meet the ever-growing demand for the new devices.
A number of Nokia 8 leaks have surfaced in the last couple of weeks, and a new leak has seemingly revealed the price point of HMD Globals new smartphone. According to Vodafone Romania, a Romania-based carrier, the Nokia 8 will be priced at 434.81, excluding tax, while it will cost 517 with tax in the country. Do keep in mind that this price is valid for Vodafone Romania only, its price will probably differ quite a bit in some regions, though other countries in EU can expect to see a similar price point, at least if this info is accurate.

Now, the Nokia 8 will, according to previously leaked info, ship with a 5.3-inch QHD display, and the phone will be made out of metal. The device will probably sport two 13-megapixel shooters on the back, while a single 12-megapixel camera will be included on the phones front side, at least if rumors are to be believed. Qualcomms Snapdragon 835 64-bit octa-core SoC will probably fuel the Nokia 8, and the phone will ship with either 4GB or 6GB of RAM on the inside, while more than one storage option might become available. The Nokia 8 is expected to ship with Zeiss optics, following a recent agreement between HMD Global and Zeiss, not to mention that a recently-leaked render sported Zeiss branding on the back. The devices fingerprint scanner will be included below its display, and that sensor will double as the phones home button, while it will be flanked by two capacitive keys.

The Nokia 8s volume up, volume down and power / lock keys will be placed on the right, while its SIM card tray will probably be included on the left. The phone will also sport an LED flash on the back, and the companys branding will be present on both the front and back sides of this smartphone. The Nokia 8 is actually rumored to arrive on August 16, and it seems like it will land before the Nokia 9, the companys flagship which is expected to land before the end of this year as well. In any case, more info will probably surface soon, so stay tuned.
Hukumdev Narayan Yadav extensively quoted Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and said the BJP ideologue had stated that "Muslims in India are descendants of Hindus".

Asking Hindus to respect Muslims, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP today told the Lok Sabha that a majority of Muslims in India are descendants of Hindus.

During a debate on the recent incidents of lynching, Hukumdev Narayan Yadav extensively quoted Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and said the BJP ideologue had stated that "Muslims in India are descendants of Hindus".

He said every Muslim must respect Hindu sentiment and at the same time, Hindus must respect the Muslims.

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Yadav slammed the opposition for targeting the central government over incidents of lynchings, saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly come out strongly against such acts.

He raised the issue of killing of RSS workers in Kerala, which is ruled by the Left Front government.

Yadav asserted that the responsibility of containing mob violence is that of the state governments.

He said "certain demons" have put on "holy garb" to defame the government, likening it to an episode in the Ramayana.

"Some people are indulging in terror (atankvadi) activities to defame the government," the BJP member said and slammed the Congress for questioning the intention of the Modi government.

Yadav, the MP from Madhubani in Bihar, said a fight between two ideologies has been going on for several decades and asserted those who follow the path of "economicdevelopment and nationalism" will come out victorious.

The MP was also severely critical of the policies of Congress and said "I will prefer to die than bowing before the Congress...Some politicians sit with the Congress and have biryani and then indulge in artificial fight outside."

Yadav said he will prefer to die than abandoning the ideology he is fighting for.

Talking about nationalism, Yadav said freedom fighters Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan had sung the poem 'Vande Mataram' but there is an environment now in which singing it is considered a crime.

He also cited a recent case in which a political leader had sought support from the Naxals. "There cannot be bigger lynching than this," the BJP member said.

Yadav also alleged that Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and Ram Manohar Lohia were killed in late 1960s as both were planning to join hands.

The BJP MP drew the attention of the House towards the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and raised the issue of killing of RSS workers in Kerala.

(PTI inputs)

Also read:

Al-Qaeda vows attack on Hindu outfits involved in killing Muslims, destroying mosques

This picture of Hindu cop standing guard as Muslim comrade offers namaz will melt your heart

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Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CAANZ) has warned the public about the termination of its contract dispute resolution service, which may not be widely known.The service, previously known as President Nominations, was ceased in 2015.CAANZ issued the warning after discovering that some contracts still contain dispute resolution clauses that require the CAANZ president to appoint an independent expert when parties cannot agree on an independent expert to resolve disputes and/or provide valuation services. Commercial contracts with this provision could have unenforceable dispute clauses if they are not amended.We recommend you review any contracts to see whether this issue may arise and seek appropriate advice on your options, said CAANZ in an announcement.CAANZ recommends checking with the local law societies if they offer guidance or recommendations. It also said that the Australian Disputes Centre, the New Zealand Dispute Resolution Centre, and The Resolution Institute offer this service. CAANZs site also has the Find a CA tool, which can point people to certain CAANZ members who are specialists in the field.
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AWD

As a preview for the continent cruiser you might adorn your garage with, we've brought along the piece of spy footage below. The clip shows a prototype of the new Conti doing its thing on the Nurburgring.As you can notice in the video, the Crewe machines corners flatly, which falls in line with the expectations for the newcomer. To be more precise, while the outgoing car could conceal its hefty scale footprint, the upcoming model should actually be able to deliver serious sporty thrills through the twisties.The said transformation process will be led by the new MSB platform of the 2018 Bentley Continental GT. And while the old car tipped the scales at about 5,100 lbs (make that 2,300 kg), the fresh model is expected to sit close to 4,850 lbs (2,200 kg). Then there's the torsional rigidity boost brought by the platform, which will bring benefits on both the handling and coziness fronts.It will also be interesting to see if the current default torque distribution of thesystem, which sits at 60:40 (front:rear), is maintained - note that earlier versions of the Continental GT came with a 50:50 split.Underneath the generous hood of the Conti, we'll find the British automaker's new W12 unit. Running a DVLA (the U.K.s Driver Vehicle and Licensing Agency) check, we found out that this test car is animated by a 5,950cc unit, while the now-old model comes with a 5,998cc mill.Once the 3,993cc V8 joins the party, Bentley will also introduce a hybrid model. The automaker has already confirmed that the gas-electric model will offer V8 levels of power while employing a V6 engine. As such, we're expecting the Continental GT to borrow the 462 hp powertrain of the Porsche Panamera 4 E-Hybrid Of course, once all the camo comes off, the sculpted shapes of the exterior will rival the plush cabin veneers in the battle for our attention.
The government is preparing to launch a big crackdown on corrupt officials from August 15. Departments have been asked to prepare a list of officials with dubious service record.

Various government departments have been asked to prepare a list of corrupt officials. (India Today graphics)

By Jitendra Bahadur Singh: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has time and again claimed that corruption has come down since he took charge and that providing graft-free rule is on top of his priority. Now, to further polish its taint-free image, the government is preparing a crackdown on corrupt officials.

According to a government notification available exclusively with India Today, the vigilance department of each ministry has been asked to prepare a dossier of tainted and corrupt officials.

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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The Home Ministry is preparing the dossier based on service records of the officials. The ministry has written letters to various departments and all the para military forces to finish the list by August 5, so that further action is initiated. Dossier of corrupt officials and employees will be based on the complaint, enquiry report and conduct of the officials, moral turpitude, dereliction of duty in protecting the interest of the government. It will also examine whether major or minor penalty was imposed against the particular official or not List/dossier of corrupt officials will be approved by the competent authority. After the list/dossier is completed, the vigilance department will keep a watch on such corruption prone officials. Their actions and decisions will be examined to see if they are causing loss to the government for personal benefits. The list will be sent to CBI and CVC, who will monitor the conduct of tainted officials and keep close watch on such officials and take necessary action to prosecute, or recommend departmental action including major penalty, demotion or even dismissal from service. Sources said once list/dossier is ready action against or crackdown will start after August 15.

RULES TO PROBE CORRUPTION CASES AMENDED

Changing an over 50-year-old rule, the government in June set a deadline of six months to complete probe in corruption cases involving its employees

The decision has been taken to speed up the investigation in such cases, most of them pending for quiet a long time

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has amended Central Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1965, and decided time-line for critical stages of investigation and enquiry proceedings.

The Inquiring Authority should conclude the inquiry and submit its report within a period of six months, says the amended rules.

However, an extension for a period not exceeding six months at a time may be allowed for any good and sufficient reasons to be recorded in writing by the disciplinary authority, it said

Earlier, there was no time-frame to complete an enquiry.

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WATCH: Mann Ki Baat: Modi assures proactive insurance to farmers facing losses due to floods

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The decision to keep things nice and traditional made X-Tomi Design take the matter into his own hands. The pixel artist imagined how the family-oriented Phantom VIII would look like by taking inspiration from the 20/25 Shooting Brake from 1932. Thats right, ladies and gents! Rolls-Royce used to make such vehicles back when the Phantom was in its second generation.Hot on the heels of the new models world premiere, Rolls-Royce chief executive officer Torsten Muler-Otvos told the media that his company is looking to broaden the lineup while keeping volume below an arbitrary limit.Word has it the Phantom Coupe and Phantom Drophead wont live on to see another generation, with their places taken indirectly by the Ghost-derived Wraith and Dawn. On the flipside, one all-new model that will be loosely based on the Phantom VIII will be the Cullinan utility vehicle.The introduction of the Cullinan would put Rolls-Royce sales in the ballpark of 5,000 units per year, which is a significant step up from the 4,000 vehicles the automaker sold in 2016. Similar to its three-box counterpart, the high-riding luxobarge will take its power from an all-new 6.75-liter twin-turbo V12.As a brief refresher, the 2018 Rolls-Royce Phantom is fresh from the ground up even though the conventional exterior design tells otherwise. From the smallest nut to the laser-enhanced headlights, the BMW Group s crown jewel poured every bit of know-how into making the Phantom VIII the best one yet.Beyond all the technological gibberish, the detail that reveals why the Phantom still is the king of luxury comes in the form of sound deadening. Rolls-Royce found it necessary to use 287 pounds (130 kg) of the damn thing in order to label the Phantom VIII the worlds most silent car.
AMG

The vehicle accessories market in Japan is worth billions of dollars, but that's hardly surprising considering many of the coolest cars in the world also come from over there. While the 2018 Civic Type R is not actually Japanse, Honda still decided to give it the royal treatment.Both Honda and Toyota have lots of in-house gnomes working away at the things on your Christmas list. For the former, the magical creatures run for a brand called Modula which, just likeor Polestar, used to be a sort of tuner but now makes body kits. Well, in the case of the Type R, it's more like elaborate trinkets than bumpers.The whole 2017-2018 Civic range was just launched in Japan last week, complete with hatchbacks imported from Britain. Modulo's idea of sprucing things up includes an elaborate array of orange plastic trims that are available for all models, even the Type R. These include the giant brow over the headlights and grille, side skirts, trunk trim and some ornate mirror caps. Modulo also offers a matching orange-striped wheel design called MS-037. These individually sold parts range in price from 1,5120 yen ($136) for the mirror caps to 45,360 yen ($420) for the wheels.Since the Type R comes with standard red accents, its Modulo accessories are available in red or black. You can have the $400 monobrow or the $136 mirror caps, but the piece you want is a trunk spoiler made from double-weave carbon.Yes, that is real carbon , and no, it doesn't match all the other bits of carbon on the car because those are fake. How do we know it's real? Well, there's the 172,800 yen price tag, equivalent to $1,563 at today's exchange rates. Ouch!Things are just as crazy on the inside, where Modulo shows off its red-lacquered carbon trim. The piece on the instrument panel is 48,600 yen ($440) and can be accompanied by 20,880 yen ($190) shifter trim or 46,440 yen door trim ($420).On the silly side of things, we find monochromatic interior lighting in red or blue. Doesn't the Civic already have a factory-fitted interior lighting option?
The question above can be taken literally, as you'll be able to notice at the 17:13 point of the clip below. Now, as for the answer, this time around, it comes from a 1974 Porsche 911 This isn't the classic car stunt Jay Leno's Garage has accustomed us to. Instead, we're talking about the show's restomod side.The pair of air-cooled Neunelfers featured in the episode features a melange between daily driver and racecar-borrowed features. In fact, the blue car Jay gets to hoon is described as a racecar that can also be taken for a drive on the street.And the star gets to put the '74 Zuffenhausen machine through its paces in all sorts of scenarios. From an overly busy highway to a canyon run, the piece of footage at the bottom of the page allows us to get a good taste of how such a machine feels.With 339 horses at the rear wheels, this Neunelfer goes like stink, as its star driver aptly notes in the clip. - the old 2.7 flat-six was removed, making room for a 964-destined 3.6-liter motor that saw its displacement getting boosted to 3.8 liters.Now, Porschephiles among you might be unsure about the hue covering the car. You see, the color was supposed to be Mexico Blue, but (the video explains this part of the process) it somehow ended up becoming New York Blue.There's no point in checking out this video when you're on the run - make sure you get to spend a little over 24 minutes to check out the full clip, as it's fully worth it.
When Ferrari came up with a replacement for the FF , the Prancing Horse aimed to deliver a Grand Tourer that would look fresh, but in a package that wouldn't generate the usual attention magnet effect associated with all the other Maranello machines out there.And, since grabbing an a GTC4Lusso instead of, say, an 812 Superfast , requires a certain degree of maturity, it's obvious that Ferrari's 2+2 clientele enjoys the understated visual aura of the machine.Well, as we mentioned in the intro, the custom play we have here comes to change all that. And it managed to achieve its goal using nothing more than a wrap and a set of wheels.Okay, we're also looking at the blue strobe lights places in the massive mouth of the Fezza, but the effect would've been the same without them. And since such elements are more or less legal, we can easily get over this part of the tuning stunt.As the plates of this Ferrari tell us, we're looking at a contraption that has to deal with the merciless United Arab Emirates weather. As such, the owner could argue that the wrap is simply there to protect the paint during those trips out in the sun.Did we say "plates"? We should've used "vanity plates" instead - while some exotic machine owners might not be all that concerned about such details, others believe that these make a world of a difference.When it comes to the custom shoes of the GTC4Lusso , these were supplied by Vossen Wheels. We're looking at a five double-spoke design, one whose simple lines seems to fit the styling of the car just fine.The uber-slim spokes allow us to take a detailed look at the stopping hardware of this Grand Tourer, with the massive carbon-ceramic rotors shining inside the rims.
The pilot of a Beech Baron involved in a highly publicized ditching in the Gulf of Mexico in 2012 has been indicted for insurance fraud. Theodore Wright and two other men, Shane Gordon and Raymond Fosdick, have been charged with several counts as part of a larger investigation that also involved an old Citation, an exotic car and a boat. The Baron ditching garnered national headlines when Wright posted a video of himself bobbing around in the Gulf after the ditching. An edited version of the video, shown below, was turned into a promotion for the case protecting the iPad that he shot it with. He told authorities he was flying from Texas to Sarasota, Florida, and was forced to ditch by smoke and fire in the cockpit. The indictment, filed in Tyler, Texas, in May, alleges it was all about the insurance money.

The indictment says Wright bought the airplane for $46,000 and insured it for $85,000. He took a water landing course immediately before the ditching and was accompanied by Fosdick on the flight. According to the indictment, the associate allegedly sued Wright for injuries suffered in the mishap as a way of settling a debt Wright owed him. Wrights insurance company paid an out-of-court settlement of $100,000. Wright and his accomplices are also alleged to have crashed a $76,000 Lamborghini (insured for $170,000) into a flooded ditch and setting fire to a $190,000 Citation (insured for $440,000) in deliberate acts of insurance fraud. Theyre also alleged to have sunk a boat in Hawaii.
Until December, Doug Burgum was working in the software industry. Starting in January, Burgum's world changed as the former Microsoft executive was sworn in as the 33rd governor of North Dakota. At this month's National Governors Association meeting, Burgum spoke to Axios about trying to run North Dakota like a business, the challenges of an aging IT infrastructure, and his problems with how D.C. is handling the debate on health care.

Here are some of his (edited) comments:

On how government is different from business

In a business, you are trying to optimize return for shareholders and are focused on outcomes. A lot of people in government are focused on the inputs. They want to know how big is their budget, and define winning or losing by whether the budget went up or down. We are trying to redefine what success is, so that success is not a bigger budget but better results.

On the sophistication of North Dakota's technology infrastructure

We've got a long way to go. Even the best private sector companies are having a hard time keeping up.

North Dakota has 160 different websites and no single sign-on. You can't go to a single website and buy a season pass to the park district, buy a fishing license, and update your drivers' license address. That's like an impossible dream. Everything is in its own silo.

On his frustration with the current health care debate in D.C.

The nature of Washington seems to be focused on what I would call these very narrow elements of health care, which is Medicaid, Medicaid expansion, and the individual mandate pieces. What we'd like to really focus on, is how do we improve health care and how do we lower the cost.

Click here for the full interview.
A slew of reports finds a fresh reason for the chronic inability of American companies to fill skilled jobs: not a lack of skills, and hence a training-and-education crisis, but a surfeit of drug abuse, per the NYT's Nelson Schwartz. Simply put, prime-working age Americans without a college diploma are often too drugged-out to get the best jobs. Opioids remain at high levels, but the surge in drug use is now heroin and the powerful contaminant fentanyl.

The reports suggest a circularity to the crisis in America's rust and manufacturing belts: the loss of jobs and wage stagnation has led to widespread disaffection, alienation and drug abuse; and drug abuse has led to joblessness, hopelessness and disaffection.

Data: Jed Kolko / Indeed, CPS data; Chart: Chris Canipe / Axios

But the numbers are all over the map. Some employers and economists say up to half of job applicants do not clear drug tests; others say it is 25%. In the chart above, Indeed economist Jed Kolko, using data from the U.S. Current Population Survey, found that 5.6% to 5.7% of working-age adults didn't work last year because of illness or disability, an unknown percentage of which were because of drug use.

What was evident, Kolko told Axios: A "clear, steady upward trend in illness/disability as reason for not working among prime-age adults. And even more striking, the level and trend are very similar for men and women, even though most of the attention on this issue is going to men."

But the anecdotal and economic evidence is compelling.

LinkedIn's Chip Cutter found a West Virginia company where "up to half of applicants either fail or refuse to take mandatory pre-employment drug screens." The executive of another company called the drugs epidemic "probably the biggest threat in manufacturing, period."

a West Virginia company where "up to half of applicants either fail or refuse to take mandatory pre-employment drug screens." The executive of another company called the drugs epidemic "probably the biggest threat in manufacturing, period." "In Congressional testimony earlier this month," Cutter writes, "Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen related opioid use to a decline in the labor participation rate. The past three Fed surveys on the economy, known as the Beige Book, explicitly mentioned employers' struggles in finding applicants to pass drug tests as a barrier to hiring."

One hopeful note: In a note to clients on July 5, Goldman Sachs's Jan Hatzius said a hard look does not show that the current unemployed are in fact permanently unemployed. "We see little basis for writing off the remaining pool of unemployed, whose rate of drug use has not risen nearly as much as one might think from the surge in drug deaths," the note said.
The Republican National Committee has asked its employees not to "delete, destroy, modify, or remove" any documents related to the 2016 presidential campaign, a move that RNC lawyers reportedly described as a precautionary one amid the ongoing Russia probe, per Buzzfeed News.

"Given the important role that the RNC plays in national elections and the potentially expansive scope of the inquiries and investigations, it is possible that we will be contacted with requests for information," reads a July 28 memo from the RNC's counsel office. "Therefore, we must preserve all documents potentially relevant to these matters until they are resolved or until we are informed by all necessary parties that preservation is no longer necessary."

The RNC also clarified the move is simply "standard procedure," and that they have yet to be contacted about anything relating to the investigations.
31 July 2017 15:11 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

The situation in the Armenian army is getting worse day by day, as the violence thrives among the armys personnel. The continuous violence and outrages in the Armenian armed forces often result in murders and suicides.

Armenian media most recently reported about another incident  Junior Sergeant of the Armenian army Vardan Melkonyan was found hanged in a military unit on July 23. Later, Armenias Investigative Committee announced that Melkonyans fellow soldier was arrested on suspicion of committing violent acts against the late sergeant.

However, Melkonyans family is sure that he was murdered, but not committed suicide. They told the Helsinki Citizens Assembly Vanadzor office that Melkonyan was probably killed by hanging or he was hung after being killed.

The family members said that a day before the incident, Melkonyan came home and then went to Yerevan with his friends. He called mother and sister at night and said them he would go to church the next day. However, he was found hanged next morning in his military unit.

Bullying, violence, including sexual, abuse and constant humiliation of human dignity  all these are common for the Armenian army. Armenian military officers often abuse their soldiers, as well as steal and sell their clothes and food.

Soldiers of some Armenian units do not receive even the minimum of the necessary provision. They are fed with poor-quality food, while unsanitary conditions prevail in military units; contagious diseases, especially the infectious ones are wide-spread there.

Moreover, there are dozens of stories of mysterious deaths in the Armenian army, most of which are being registered by Armenian investigation bodies as suicides in order to hide the real circumstances and real murderers. Therefore, Armenian mothers are afraid to send their sons to serve in the army, which provides terrible conditions for soldiers.

---

Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
31 July 2017 12:24 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

Armenia, the country responsible for the outbreak of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, has no desire of ending it. Constant provocations carried out by the aggressor country against Azerbaijan are the clearest proof of that. Yesterday, these provocations resulted in the murder of an Azerbaijani soldier.

The Armenian armed forces intensively shelled from large-caliber weapons the villages of Bala Jafarli and Gushchu Ayrim of Azerbaijans Gazakh region, the Kokhnegishlag village of the Agstafa region and the Garalar village of the Tovuz region at night of July 30 and in the morning.

Serviceman of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, Akberli Huseyn was killed during suppressing enemy fire. Moreover, the Armenian shelling damaged civilian facilities, sowing plots and proprietorship of the Azerbaijani civilians, Azerbaijans Defense Minister reported.

Currently, the Azerbaijani troops fully control the operational situation along the entire length of the front line.

Previously, Azerbaijani soldier Sultan Shahveledov was killed during the prevention of an Armenian provocation on June 16.

Meanwhile, Armenia continues to shell the positions of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces. Over the past 24 hours, Armenias armed forces have 125 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops. The Armenians shelled the Azerbaijani army positions near the state border in the Agstafa, Gazakh, Tovuz and Gadabay regions, as well as the Azerbaijani positions along the Nagorno-Karabakh frontline.

Azerbaijan and Armenia for over two decades have been locked in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which emerged over Armenian territorial claims. Since the 1990s war, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions. The UN Security Council adopted four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal, but they have not been enforced to this day.

--

Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
The BJP-led NDA may be ruling in the states having 68 per cent population of the country, but the alliance is still behind the half-way mark in the Rajya Sabha frustrating its legislative agenda.

By Prabhash K Dutta: BJP president Amit Shah has been burning midnight oil and trying every trick to give the Narendra Modi government comfort in the Rajya Sabha but the arithmetic may not still be favourable for its legislative agenda.

With Nitish Kumar back in its fold, the NDA has inched closer to majority mark in the Rajya Sabha. The numbers would further increase after the August 8 Rajya Sabha elections.

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The 245-member Rajya Sabha currently has 243 members after the resignation of BSP chief Mayawati and demise of Union Minister Anil Dave. For an effective majority the NDA requires the support of 122 members in the Rajya Sabha.

BOOSTER FROM NITISH

Nitish Kumar-led JD-U has 10 members in the Rajya Sabha. Though, JD-U leaders have said that there has been no understanding yet with the BJP at the central level, it is expected that the JD-U MPs would vote with the NDA members in the Rajya Sabha. This takes the NDA's own tally in the Upper House to 89.

However, a couple of JD-U leaders including former party president Sharad Yadav and Rajya Sabha MPs Ali Anwar and MP Veerendra Kumar have expressed their reservation about going along with the BJP. They would be voting for the Opposition candidate Gopal Krishna Gandhi in the Vice-Presidential election on August 5.

If the three leaders continue to take similar position in the Rajya Sabha, as the Congress and other Opposition parties expect, the NDA's number would reduce to 86 in the House. The BJP has 57 members in the Rajya Sabha.

AUGUST 8 RAJYA SABHA POLLS

Rajya Sabha elections will be held on August 8 for 10 seats - six in West Bengal, three in Gujarat and one in Madhya Pradesh. The BJP is set to win two seats in Gujarat and one in Madhya Pradesh, where vacancy arose due to the death of Anil Dave.

In West Bengal, the BJP does not stand a chance to improve its tally. But, in Gujarat, political equation is changing fast with dissension in the Congress camp. Six MLAs have quit the party. Three of them have joined the BJP.

The rebel camp led by Shankersinh Vaghela last week claimed that 20 more MLAs would resign from the party ahead of the Rajya Sabha election. Rebel MLA Balwantsinh Rajput is contesting and hoping to stop Ahmed Patel, the political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, from reelection to the Rajya Sabha.

If BJP and Rajput manage to pull this off, the NDA's number in the Rajya Sabha would go up to 90 during the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament. The NDA would still be 32 short of the majority mark in the Rajya Sabha.

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REGIONAL PARTIES HOLD KEY FOR BJP

Shrewd political management by the BJP has seen a number of regional parties vote for the NDA in the Upper House. Parties like the AIADMK, the BJD, the TRS, the YSRCP and the INLD have backed the Narendra Modi government on critical issues in the Rajya Sabha.

These regional parties together have 26 MPs in the Rajya Sabha. Further, at least four of the nominated members are inclined towards the NDA. This takes the NDA's support in the Rajya Sabha to 120 - very close to the majority mark yet a bit far.

ALSO READ |

Unfortunate, don't agree: JD-U's Sharad Yadav finally breaks silence on Nitish's alliance with BJP in Bihar

Ahmed Patel can't win Rajya Sabha seat, 20 more MLAs to quit: Gujarat Congress leader

ALSO WATCH: Kissa kursi ka: Nitish Kumar 'bewafa' hai!

--- ENDS ---
31 July 2017 15:43 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

The Garalar village of Tovuz region, which borders Armenias Berd region, was yesterday subjected to fire from the Armenian armed forces.

The Armenian troops intensified the shelling in the direction of the Azerbaijani village on the night from July 29 to July 30. The aggressors mainly subjected at civilian population engaged in agriculture, APA reports.

As a result of the shelling from large-caliber weapons, the roofs and walls of the houses were seriously damaged. The villagers say that the Armenian militaries constantly carry out such provocations during the sowing period in order not to let the Azerbaijani civilians work.

The population of the Garalar village is 242 people, who live in 43 houses. The upper part of the village, which is right opposite the Armenian military positions, is often subjected to fire from the aggressors.

In general, Azerbaijans villages in Fuzuli, Agdam, Jabrayil, Tartar and other frontline regions frequently face such destructive acts by Armenian soldiers. By committing such provocations, the Armenian side deliberately seeks to cause harm to Azerbaijani people by making life at the border difficult and risky for them.

One of the most hideous provocations by Armenian troops was committed on July 4, when the Armenian armed forces, using mortars and grenade launchers, shelled the Alkhanli village of Azerbaijans Fuzuli region. As a result, an Armenian shell killed two Azerbaijani civilians  a woman and her 2-year-old granddaughter.

The conflict began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Armenia still controls fifth part of Azerbaijan's territory and rejects implementing four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
31 July 2017 14:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

Bulgarian companies are interested in the Pirallahi Industrial Park and currently exploring the possibilities for future cooperation.

Azerbaijani Ambassador to Bulgaria Nargiz Gurbanova said in an interview with Trend that the embassy has sent Bulgarian business associations the necessary information about the activities of the Industrial Park in Pirallahi, which aroused great interest among businessmen.

"Great prospects for cooperation between the two countries exist in pharmaceutical sector. Bulgaria was traditionally considered one of the main countries supplying pharmaceutical products to the countries of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), including Azerbaijan, in the 1970s and 1980s, the ambassador mentioned.

The Pirallahi Industrial Park was created by the order of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in September 2016 and specializes in the production of pharmaceutical products.

Currently, 3 pharmaceutical plants are being constructed in the Pirallahi Industrial Park.

The first plant is a joint venture with a group of companies R-Pharm (Russian Federation), Vita-A LLC (Azerbaijan) and Azerbaijan Investment Company (AIC). The foundation of the Hayat Farm was laid in November 2016, which should be producing finished products by the end of 2019.

The joint pharmaceutical plant between Iranian company Tamin Pharmaceutical Investment Company (TPIC) and Azerbaijans Azersun Holding, Caspian Pharmed became the second resident of the plant. The foundation of the plant was held in January 2017.

The project cost is more than $20 million. The joint plant is to be operational in summer 2018 and in the first stage it will produce 84 medicines.

The Azerbaijani company Diamed Co, founded in April 2017, is the third resident of the Pirallahi Industrial Park.

The diplomat went on to say that fragrance industry is another priority area for cooperation between the two sides, further adding that in October-November 2017, it is planned to hold a business forum with participation of businessmen of the two countries.

Earlier, Gurbanova noted that Azerbaijan and Bulgaria are eager to expand cooperation in such areas as agriculture, trade, tourism, ICT, transport and energy.

Moreover, Azerbaijan and Bulgaria plan to sign an agreement on social security.

The document will regulate the right to receive pensions and unemployment benefits for citizens of Azerbaijan and Bulgaria who work or worked in one of the two countries (currently, Azerbaijan has such agreements with Turkey, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Georgia).

Bulgaria recognized the independence of Azerbaijan on January 14, 1992 and the diplomatic relations between the two countries were established on June 5, 1992.

Both countries are members of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC).

The trade turnover between Bulgaria and Azerbaijan reached almost $6.39 million in January-June 2017, $6.3 million of which fell on imports from this country, according to Azerbaijans State Customs Committee.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
31 July 2017 11:27 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

Diplomatic relations between Baku and Prague has had more than twenty years long tradition. The two countries are both export-oriented countries of roughly the same size and population and the both export revenues are coming mainly from oil and gas.

The two countries have concluded the Memorandum on Strategic partnership, and the Czech Republic covers one-third of its oil consumption from Azerbaijani sources.

Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Jiri Havlicek said that the Czech Republic is undoubtedly interesting for Azerbaijan in terms of investment, such as in the petrochemical industry, energy and natural resources.

He added, however, that in this area, only few concrete projects have been implemented, and Azerbaijani investors have so far been interested especially in the field of real estate and hotels.

"The amount of Azerbaijani investments in the Czech economy is relatively small, reaching a rate of two percent [out of all investments made in this country]," he said in an exclusive interview with Trend. "The largest investments are directed to the real estate and hotels. I think, however, that right now it is a very good time for investment in the Czech Republic."

Havlicek said that Czech banks have lent more than 1.8 billion euros to Czech companies that have implemented major projects in Azerbaijan over the last ten years.

"These projects were funded by our banks directly," the minister said. "Therefore, we consider these financial contributions as investments in the Azerbaijani economy. This implies that the Czech Republic is one of the most important investors in the Azerbaijani economy and evidences the confidence of Czech entrepreneurs in cooperation with Azerbaijan."

As for cooperation with Azerbaijan, Havlicek also spoke about the areas of mutual interest having great potential for development.

"I would like to remind here the January visit of my predecessor, Jan Mladek [Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic until February 28, 2017] in Baku," Havlicek said. "During this visit, the 4th meeting of the Joint Czech-Azerbaijani Commission was held to address these issues in detail. I agree with what was said at the meeting."

The most promising areas for cooperation between the Czech Republic and Azerbaijan are traditional and renewable energy, modernization of transport infrastructure, green technologies, agriculture and manufacturing, chemical and pharmaceutical industry, supplies of medical equipment, engineering and construction, according to the minister, who added that tourism is another significant potential for the relations.

The minister added that the aforementioned fields are also most interesting for setting up joint ventures that are of interest to the Czech Republic.

"We can recommend this way [establishment of joint ventures with Azerbaijani companies] to Czech companies, however, they have to decide and choose a partner by themselves," Havlicek added. "In this regard, I would like to invite our Azerbaijani business partners to not to be afraid to enter into business relations with Czech companies; they are reliable players which have a lot to offer."

The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic amounted to $201 million in January-June of 2017, with $168.26 million of that amount accounting for the export of Azerbaijani products to that country, according to the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee.

Havlicek said that the Czech companies may use international routes passing through the territory of Azerbaijan to supply goods from the European Union to the east.

"These discussions are ongoing, and we are closely following the development of the Baku- Tbilisi-Kars railway, Silk Road Project, the North-South Transport Corridor," he added.

"At present, Czech companies are most involved in the construction of these transport corridors, nevertheless, I am convinced that if these routes are beneficial in terms of costs and time, they will also use them for transport of their goods from the European Union to the east," the minister said.

The BTK railway is being constructed on the basis of the Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement. The peak capacity of the railway will be 17 million tons

of cargo per year.

The North-South Transport Corridor, with initial annual transport capacity of 5 million tons of cargo, is meant to connect Northern Europe with Southeast Asia. It will serve as a link connecting the railways of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia.

--

Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
31 July 2017 16:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has urged Azerbaijan to strengthen its work with member countries of the organization to ensure mutual access to markets for goods and services.

The next stage of negotiations on Azerbaijan's accession to the WTO was held on July 28 within the framework of the visit of Azerbaijanis Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammad-Guliyev to Geneva.

At the meeting, the chair of the WTOs working party on the accession of Azerbaijan, Ambassador Walter Werner called on Azerbaijan to proactively engage and advance market access negotiations with members and to focus in particular on bilateral market access talks, whose progress, in his view, has fallen behind other areas of the accession negotiations.



Mammad-Guliyev said that Azerbaijani government intended to concentrate on the bilateral, which he acknowledged as one of the weak parts of our accession process, as well as implement the legal reforms necessary to bring its domestic trading regime in line with WTO requirements.

The Deputy Minister noted that Azerbaijan had undertaken a number of reforms over the past six months, including adopting 12 Strategic Roadmaps for the development of the countrys economy, as well as regulations covering trade facilitation and the improvement of trade and logistic infrastructure.

He noted that implementation of the Roadmaps by 2020 would serve as a foundation towards successful accession to the WTO.

In addition to advancing the bilateral market access negotiations, the chair asked the WTO Secretariat to prepare a revised draft working party report based on new inputs received from Azerbaijan, and for Azerbaijan to submit an updated and revised legislative action plan along with copies of newly enacted legislation.

The chair added that the date for the next working party meeting would be fixed once these new inputs are received.

Azerbaijan applied for WTO membership in June 1997, with the working party having held 14 meetings since its establishment in July 1997. The chair recognized the efforts that Azerbaijan had put into the working party process in the 20 years since that establishment.

Azerbaijan launched negotiations with the WTO member states in 2004 and currently, in talks with 13 countries to finalize its accession process.

--

Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
31 July 2017 17:10 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

The State Committee on Property Issues of Azerbaijan plans to hold an auction on privatization of state property on August 29.

In total, 159 state properties are put up for auction, 25 of which are joint-stock companies, 64-small state enterprises, 64-non-residential areas and 6-vehicles.

Majority of the small state enterprises are put up for auction with land plot. Both, the land plot and the object are estimated separately. The small state enterprises are located in Baku, Sumgait, Yevlakh, Shirvan, Sabirabad and other cities and regions of the country.

The small state enterprises, put up for the auction, include enterprises specializing in transport, industry, weaving, public catering and others.

In order to buy property at auction 2 procedures must be passed: Firstly, must be made an order through the website of the State Committee (www.e-emdk.gov.az) and secondly, 10 percent of the lot value must be paid.

The State Committee on Property Issues held the first electronic auction on July 4.

The "electronic auction" service, which is available on the website privatization.az, combines the privatization procedure of vehicles and equipment. In the future, it will be possible to privatize small state enterprises and facilities, joint-stock companies through electronic auction. Now, the corresponding work in programming is being implemented.

The portal for privatization  privatization.az, launched in July 2016, reflects all necessary information about the facilities, their addresses, location, and even initial cost and aims at facilitation of the process. The website is available in two languages - Azerbaijani and English. Why Azerbaijan is special section available on the website explains the reasons and advantages of investing in the country.

The privatization process is designed to attract both foreign and local investors, as well as develop the business environment of Azerbaijan.

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31 July 2017 10:59 (UTC+04:00)

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev received credentials of newly appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Burkina Faso Amadou Dico in Baku on July 31, Azertac reported.

Ambassador Amadou Dico reviewed a guard of honor.

Amadou Dico presented his credentials to President Ilham Aliyev.

President Ilham Aliyev then had a conversation with the ambassador.

Saying he is happy to start his activities as the ambassador of Burkina Faso to Azerbaijan, Amadou Dico said: "It is my honor to visit beautiful Azerbaijan to represent my country in front of a personality like you."

President Ilham Aliyev hailed good opportunities for developing cooperation between Azerbaijan and Burkina Faso in political, economic, trade and investment areas, as well as in the issues of mutual interest within international organizations. The head of state said it is important that the two countries and peoples better know each other.

President Ilham Aliyev expressed his hope that Ambassador Amadou Dico will spare no efforts in this regard.

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31 July 2017 17:47 (UTC+04:00)

The Israeli Haaretz newspaper's false and slanderous article contradicts the spirit of Azerbaijan-Israel relations, Assistant to the Azerbaijani President for Foreign Policy Issues Novruz Mammadov said.

Mammadov made the remark while commenting on the newspaper`s article on Azerbaijan which was published on July 30.

"Unfortunately, some media representatives, who lack responsibility, think that their profession is to disseminate false and slanderous information. Israel's Haaretz newspaper has repeatedly published some false information about the Azerbaijani state, its foreign and domestic policy so far.

However, since the next lie and slander directly target the family of the Azerbaijani President, there is a need to express our attitude to this," the President's Assistant said.

"Thus, on July 30 Israel's Haaretz newspaper published a completely false information, a brief but a treacherous article about the family of the President. The main concern is that the article quotes the Israeli tourism minister Yariv Levin.

The article alleges that over the past few months the President's family has been involved in buying property in Israel and making investments in the country. At the same time, allegedly, the President's youngest son (just pay attention) has visited Israel these months. But the truth is that the President's son has never visited Israel - not only in the mentioned months, but never in general.

This information is nothing else than lie and slander, and it has nothing to do with reality. The publication of such articles in the Israeli press causes regret and runs contrary to the spirit of relations between the two countries," Novruz Mammadov said.

"A journalist for the Haaretz newspaper quotes the Israeli Tourism Minister Yariv Levin in order to carry out his treacherous intentions. I think that the Israeli Embassy should express its stance as well as the position of Minister Yariv Levin on this false and slanderous information," Novruz Mammadov added.

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31 July 2017 13:14 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

Oil prices exceeded the maximum for two months on July 31 following a decrease in the U.S. inventories, as well as the threat of sanctions against OPEC-member Venezuela.

Brent crude futures were at $52.85 per barrel, up 0.6 percent. Prices hit $52.90 per barrel earlier in the day, their highest since May 25, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures jumped over $50 per barrel and were at $49.97 per barrel up 0.5 percent, according to Reuters.

Prices have risen by about 10 percent since the last meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC members on July 24 in St. Petersburg, Russia, when the group discussed potential measures to further influence oil markets.

Following the results of the meeting, ministerial committee announced the results of the transaction for the first half of 2017, having estimated its level at 98 percent

Meanwhile, after rising by more than 10 percent since mid-2016, U.S. oil production dipped by 0.2 percent to 9.41 million barrels per day in the week to July 21.

U.S. crude oil inventories have fallen by almost 10 percent from the March peaks to 483.4 million barrels. Drilling for new U.S. production is also slowing down, with just 10 rigs added in July, the fewest of any month since May 2016.

Moreover, the U.S. eyes issue of imposing new sanctions on the Venezuelan oil and gas sector, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The U.S. condemns the suppression of political dissent in Venezuela, as well as the attempts of President Nicolas Maduro to change the constitution of the country with a view to weakening the opposition-controlled parliament and increasing the authority of the head of state.

However, the Wall Street Journal reports that there is no talk of a full-scale ban on the import of Venezuelan oil and oil products to the U.S. The list of possible restrictions is quite broad: from personal sanctions to officials to banning the Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company PDVSA to make transactions in U.S. dollar.

The OPEC+ Technical Committee will hold meetings in Abu Dhabi on August 7-8, chaired by Russia and Kuwait, with some participants of the agreement on the reduction of oil production in order to discuss the fulfillment of their obligations under the deal, OPEC reported on July 29.

OPEC and other major oil producers agreed in December 2016 to remove 1.8 million barrels a day from the market.

The parties decided to extend the production adjustments for a further period of nine months, in May 2017.

---

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31 July 2017 11:49 (UTC+04:00)

By Ali Mustafayev

Turkmenistan plans to build several new installations in the petroleum refinery complex of Turkmenistan.

The country, in a bid to develop the sector, plans to construct installation for hydro refinement of diesel fuel, the unit for hydro refinement of secondary gasoline, unit for hydrogen production, installation for catalytic IDW, installation for catalytic cracking of the heating oil, according to Trend.

These projects will allow to diversify the line of products and enhance their quality.

Besides, the country eyes possibilities of benzene production in the oil refineries in Turkmenbashi and Seydi. It will be used as a raw material for production of valuable products, which see high demand in the world market.

The installations for benzene production will allow to produce gasoline meeting the Euro 5 standards, and will provide opportunities for the further developments petrochemical and gas chemical productions.

Turkmenistan plans to raise the productivity of oil refinery industry to 20 million tonnes by 2020, 22 million tonnes by 2025 and 30 million tonnes by 2030.

Today, the country produces 10 million tonnes a year and the most part of the produced oil is being refined at local companies.

Turkmenbashi Complex of Oil Refineries is the flagship of oil refineries industry of Turkmenistan. Today, the share of the complex accounts is a quarter of the volume of industrial products manufactured in the Central Asian country.

Turkmenistan, which is rich with oil and gas resources, opened about two hundred oil and gas fields so far. Potential hydrocarbon resources of the country amount to 71.2 billion tons of oil equivalent, of which 53 billion falls on the land, and 18.2 billion tons - on marine areas.

==

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31 July 2017 10:02 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates recognize only Kuwait as a mediator in the diplomatic crisis with Qatar, Bahrains Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Khalifa said Sunday, Sputnik reported.

Foreign ministers of the four Arab countries met in Manama to discuss the dispute with Qatar.

"Apart from Emir of Kuwait Sabah Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, there is no other [mediator]. He has been acting in that capacity since the very beginning, everyone supports him, and we hope that his mission will succeed," the minister said at a press conference after meeting with his Saudi, Emirati and Egyptian counterparts in Bahrains capital of Manama.

In June, the four countries cut off diplomatic relations with Doha, accusing it of supporting terrorism and meddling in their internal affairs. Kuwait, acting as a mediator in the crisis, handed over to Doha the ultimatum of the four Arab states with 13 demands, including the requests to severe Qatars relations with Iran, close Turkeys military base in Qatar and shut down the Al Jazeera TV channel, as well as to end support for the Muslim Brotherhood, a terrorist organization banned in Russia.

Qatar refuted all accusations and refused to comply with the demands.

Apart from Kuwait, several other countries offered their services as mediators in the Qatar crisis. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took a trip to the Gulf countries, looking for a way to settle the crisis, and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made a number of shuttle trips among the countries of the region with the same goal.

---

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The expansion project aims to provide snarl-free drive from the city to Meerut as the highway widens to 14 lanes.

By Shashank Shekhar: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has started razing residential buildings in east Delhi in order to widen NH24 - a pet project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

However, around 10 houses got relief after they moved the court and presented documents of ownership.

Mail Today earlier reported that houses of around 170 families in east Delhi received eviction notice from the ministry of road transport and highways that their houses would be razed for widening of NH24. The expansion project aims to provide snarl-free drive from the city to Meerut as the highway widens to 14 lanes.

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Following the notice to evict houses in seven days, few residents moved court challenging the notice. NHAI official claims that close to 10 houses have produced valid documents of the property and now have been exempted from demolition.

"We have started the demolition drive. Close to 10 houses have been exempted from it, while others have started wrapping up as they will get the compensation," said a NHAI officer. By August end, they will finish the process of demolitions in Delhi. Several houses were razed using JCBs on Sunday morning.

The government in its earlier notice claimed that residents were "unauthorised occupants", who have occupied government land.

Challenging it, the residents produced documents that they have been living there for several decades and have got their houses registered. They showed paid bills of development charge to DDA, apart from water, electricity and house tax bills in their defence.

"The main contention put forth by the occupants was that their colony was established in 1952 by Delhi Housing Company much before the existence of the present NH24 and no notice of unauthorised accomodation has ever been issued to them by the concerned authorities. They raised concern that the joint survey report, based on which occupants have been declared unauthorised on the highway land has been prepared without considering revenue records and is contrary to the sanction plan of the colony by Delhi government," they said.

The report establishes that encroachment in shape of pucca structures exist in C, E and F blocks of Pandav Nagar, and in Samaspur Jagir between Patparganj underpass and Akshardham.

However, a fresh survey was done after the resident moved court. Despite declaring these structures "illegal", the government has prepared a compensation package of Rs 32,000 per square metre on "humanitarian ground", but residents claim it is four-five times lesser than market value.

ALSO READ |

PM Modi's project to widen Delhi-Meerut highway might raze houses of 170 families

AAP to bulldoze shanties in East Delhi to widen NH-24

Completion of Delhi-Meerut expressway, Centre's pet project, delayed, yet again

--- ENDS ---

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31 July 2017 17:38 (UTC+04:00)

By Ali Mustafayev

Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain that have cut ties with Qatar announced that they were ready for talks to tackle the dispute if Doha showed willingness to deal with their demands.

The foreign ministers of four Arab countries met in the Bahraini capital, Manama, to discuss the crisis that has raised tensions across the region. The meeting came as a continuation of the agreement in Cairo on July 5 to discuss the issue.

"The four countries are ready for dialogue with Qatar with the condition that it announces its sincere willingness to stop funding terrorism and extremism and its commitment to not interfere in other countries' foreign affairs and respond to the 13 demands," Bahrain's foreign minister, Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa, said commenting on the meeting.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry asserted the conditional dialogue with Doha in light of the Cairo agreement, saying that the meeting did not cancel the 13 demands to Qatar.

The Saudi-led bloc cut ties with the Gulf state in early June, accusing it of backing militant groups and cosying up to Iran, allegations Doha denies. Diplomatic efforts led by Kuwait and backed by Western powers have failed to end the dispute, in which the four states have severed travel and communications with Qatar.

The list of demands, include the closing of Al Jazeera television, stopping the interference in neighbor countries affairs, cutting back diplomatic ties to Iran and severing all ties with the Muslim Brotherhood.

However, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani dismissed the statement, saying that sanctions were violating international laws.

"There isn't a clear vision (from Manama's meeting), there is only a stubborn policy from the blockading countries and refusal to admit that these are illegal actions," Sheikh Mohammed told Al Jazeera."It's a continuation of a policy of intransigence."

Also, the state-run Saudi Press Agency stated that Qatar Airways can now use nine designated air corridors for emergencies under an agreement with the countries' aviation authorities.

One of the nine aviation corridors will be over the Mediterranean Sea and will be managed by Egypt's National Air Navigation Services Company, according to the SPA.

However, the Ministry of Transport of Qatar disproved this information and asked four countries not to disseminate false information, Reuters informs.

Also Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates announced that they recognize only Kuwait as a mediator in the diplomatic crisis with Qatar.

Apart from Kuwait, several other countries offered their services as mediators in the Qatar crisis. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took a trip to the Gulf countries, looking for a way to settle the crisis, and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made a number of trips to the region with the same goal.

---

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31 July 2017 17:02 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is scheduled to arrive in Turkeys Istanbul on August 1 to attend an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

Bahram Qasemi, the spokesperson of Iranian Foreign Ministry, has said that Zarif is expected to discuss the latest developments regarding Palestine during the meeting, Mehr news agency reported.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will hold an emergency meeting of the Executive Committee at the level of Foreign Ministers of the OIC Member States in Istanbul. According to the OIC website, the meeting will send a unified message to the international community by the Muslim World, demanding it to commit Israel to respect the resolutions of the international legitimacy, the Geneva Conventions and all resolutions on the Palestinian issue, especially Al-Quds.

A recent round of standoff between the Israeli authorities and Palestinian worshipers occurred after Muslim gunmen killed two Israeli police officers near al-Aqsa mosque on 14 July.

---

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31 July 2017 17:43 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Iran did not violate the terms of the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) with July 27 rocket launch, an expert in nuclear policy and visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe in Brussels Sinan Ulgen told Trend.

He underlined that the JCPOA contains no direct prohibitions against such testing

Iran is called upon not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology, until the date eight years after the JCPOA Adoption Day or until the date on which the IAEA submits a report confirming the Broader Conclusion, whichever is earlier, Ulgen quoted one of the annexes of the UNSC Resolution 2231 endorsing the nuclear deal.

The wording "called upon" cannot be read in diplomatic terms as an outright prohibition, according to the expert.

Iran can however be criticized, at most, for defying the spirit of the JCPOA, he added.

Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia - plus Germany signed the JCPOA on July 14, 2015 and started implementing it on January 16, 2016.

Under the agreement, limits were put on Irans nuclear activities in exchange for, among other things, the removal of all nuclear-related bans against the Islamic Republic.

The UN Security Council later unanimously endorsed a resolution that effectively turned the JCPOA into international law.

---

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31 July 2017 12:37 (UTC+04:00)

Qatar Airways is celebrating being named the Worlds Best Business Class at the 2017 Skytrax World Airline Awards by offering passengers up to 40 per cent off its Business class fares to popular business and leisure destinations across its growing global network, as part of its Fly with the Worlds Best Business Class global sales campaign launched this week.

This special promotion follows a string of major recent wins for the airline at the prestigious 2017 Skytrax World Airline Awards held during the Paris Air Show last month, where it was named Airline of the Year, Best Airline in the Middle East, and Worlds Best First Class Airline Lounge.

Passengers can now take advantage of special discounts on board the airlines award-winning Business class cabin to a host of popular holiday and business destinations, including its recently-launched routes to Nice, France; Dublin, Republic of Ireland and Skopje, as well as many other destinations on the airlines rapidly-expanding global network. The airline continues its exciting global expansion plans this summer, with launches to Kyiv, Ukraine; Prague, Czech Republic and Sohar, Oman taking place in August.

Qatar Airways Chief Commercial Officer Mr. Ehab Amin said: We are very proud to have been named the Worlds Best Business Class by Skytrax, and we are delighted to celebrate this award with our passengers from around the globe. We invite all of our passengers to take advantage of this unique promotion that will allow them to experience our renowned world-class service first hand.

From 31 July  9 August, passengers will enjoy discounts of up 40 per cent on with Qatar airways premium class fares, available for travel until 31 March 2018. Further discounts are also on offer for the airlines recently announced destinations, including Sohar, Oman; Kyiv, Ukraine and Prague, Czech Republic

The airline recently introduced its game-changing, patented new Business Class seat, Qsuite, bringing first class travel experience to business class cabin and setting a new standard in Business Class travel.

Qsuite features the industrys first-ever double bed available in Business Class, with privacy panels that stow away, allowing passengers in adjoining seats to create their own private room Adjustable panels and movable TV monitors on the centre four seats allow colleagues, friends or families travelling together to transform their space into a private suite, allowing them to work, dine and socialise together. These new features provide the ultimate customisable travel experience, enabling passengers to create an environment that suits their own unique needs.

The Skytrax 2017 Airline of the Year has a host of exciting new destinations planned for the remainder of this year and 2018, including Canberra, Australia; Chiang Mai, Thailand; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; San Francisco, U.S.; and Santiago, Chile, to name a few.

To learn more about Qatar Airways destinations and promotions, please visit qatarairways.com.qa

---

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The workshop marks the 10th anniversary of the International Space Weather Initiative, a mission to advance space weather science through instrument deployment, analysis of data, and communication of results to the public. The space weather experts who gather this week, including instrument operators and data providers, will assess achievements made over the past decade in terms of the development of science, capacity building, and outreach. The scientists goal is to forecast near-Earth space weather in order to better mitigate extreme space weather.

Doherty is a member of the workshops Scientific Organizing Committee, an international group of space weather scientists. In addition to opening the workshop, she serves as co-chair for the International Outreach and Capacity Building session and will present on The Boston College/Adbus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics Collaboration and Outreach Workshops.

Other scientists and graduate students from the ISR are participating in forum. They are: Keith Groves, Dev Joshi, Sovit Khadka, Rezy Pradipta, David Webb, and Endawoke Yizengaw.

The UN/USA Workshop on the International Space Weather Initiative is jointly funded by the Scientific Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Physics (SCOSTEP), NASA, the International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (ICG), the National Science Foundation, Boston College, and the Universities Space Research Association (USRA).

More than 50 scientists from countries such as Ecuador, Egypt, Hungary, Italy, India, Nigeria, Rwanda, Peru, Nepal and among many others, will present posters on their research.

Participants will also prepare for UNISPACE+50 in 2018, the 50th anniversary of the first UN Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space held in Vienna in 1968, which will focus on an international framework for space weather services.

For complete conference information, visit: https://iswi2017.bc.edu/.

--Kathleen Sullivan | University Communications
Bihar Chief Minister today slammed Lalu Yadav and his RJD, saying that he tolerated them a lot during his two-year alliance with them but was left with no option but to call it off.

In his first press conference after his dramatic alliance with the BJP last week, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said Narendra Modi will return as India's Prime Minister in 2019 since there is nobody to take him on. "Nobody in India has the capacity to take on Modi ji," he said.

After the sudden break-up with Lalu Prasad's RJD over corruption allegations last week, Nitish aligned again with the BJP and formed a coalition government on July 27. In 2013, he had ended his 17-year-old alliance with the BJP over Modi's nomination as the party's prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha election.

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Nitish claimed the offer to form the government came from the BJP. "The proposal came from the BJP's top leadership. The Prime Minister tweeted as well," he said, referring to Modi's tweet congratulating him on taking a stand against corruption by his resignation.

ON DUMPING LALU

Defending his decision to dump Lalu, Nitish said he "put up with a lot" during his two-year alliance with Lalu Prasad's RJD and claimed he had no option but to call it off.

"I didn't have a choice, I tolerated them a lot. Though this happens in an alliance, but I ran out of patience," he said, referring to the allegations of corruption against Lalu and his family, mainly son Tejashwi Yadav, who was Nitish's deputy in the former Bihar government.

"Lalu ji kept defending his son and never spoke up for me," Nitish said. "They should have gone to the people and explained the allegations against them," he said.

"After the cabinet meeting, Tejashwi asked me what to explain. I told him that I don't have much experience about property, deposit, land etc. I just told him to clarify his stand on the allegations. Merely saying that it is political vendetta may be good for your supporters, but for common people, it was not sufficient," he said as he narrated the events leading to his resignation on July 25.

JD-U DIVIDED

Nitish's decision has divided the JD-U and upset Sharad Yadav, a former president of the JD-U, who reportedly complained to party colleagues that Nitish had not consulted him before deciding to embrace the BJP.

"I don't agree with the decision in Bihar. It is unfortunate," Yadav told reporters outside Parliament.

"The mandate of the people (in Bihar in 2015) was not for this," the Rajya Sabha member said on Nitish Kumar's decision to break the JD-U's alliance with the Grand Alliance of the RJD and the Congress in the state.

ALSO READ | Jolt to Lalu: Patna High Court rejects RJD leader's plea on BJP-JDU forming Bihar government

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ALSO READ | JD-U leader Sharad Yadav breaks silence on Nitish Kumar's alliance with BJP in Bihar, calls it unfortunate

Also Watch Nitish Kumar: Tolerated Lalu & Co a lot, lost patience

--- ENDS ---
Nitish Kumar said he will not break his promise of supporting Gopal Krishna Gandhi as vice president candidate.

Even after switching from Mahagathbandhan to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Janata Dal United leader and Bihar Chief Minister today made it clear he will continue to support the opposition's vice presidential nominee Gopal Krishna Gandhi.

"I will support Gopal Krishna Gandhi for VP. I have promised this and I don't break promise," Nitish Kumar told reporters here.

Eighteen parties, including the JD(U) which has just entered into an alliance with the BJP in Bihar, had supported the candidature of the Mahatma's grandson in the August 5 elections for the post of vice president.

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The decision of the JD-U will not alter the result of vice president's election as the ruling NDA nominee M Venkaiah Naidu has a big majority in his favour and is likely to sail through easily.

Also read:

Vice-Presidential election: NDA picks Venkaiah Naidu against Opposition's Gopalkrishna Gandhi

Why Modi government may not have enough numbers in Rajya Sabha despite the big Bihar, Gujarat boost

--- ENDS ---
Fabric filtration comes of age

ICR Research By

Published 31 July 2017

Fabric filtration is increasingly seen as the best-available technology to help producers meet their goals, and with good reason. FLSmidth has introduced two important innovations in this area. Firstly, extra-long filter bags prevent the formation of a filter cake on the outside of the bags. Secondly, a side inlet for gas and dust extends the bags life time and reduces the need for maintenance, process control and troubleshooting. By Henrik Vittrup Pedersen and Pietro Aresta, FLSmidth Airtech, Denmark.

In recent years cement producers have become increasingly aware of the significant performance differences between the newest fabric filtration technology and electrostatic precipitators (ESPs). ESPs were the preferred choice of the cement industry for many years, but as environmental regulations have become tighter, their capabilities were increasingly challenged.

To continue reading this story and get access to all News, Articles and Video sections of the CemNet.com website, please Register for a subscription to International Cement Review or Login
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 31 (PTI) The scam-hit National Spot Exchange (NSEL) has urged markets regulator Sebi to resolve the Rs 5,600-crore payment crisis in the larger interest of investors.

The payment crisis at NSEL -- part of Jignesh Shah-led FTIL group -- came to light in late 2013.

Since then, multiple agencies including Sebi, the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) are probing the irregularities at the now-defunct NSEL.

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In a public notice, NSEL has requested the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to resolve the market crisis. "This appeal is for the purpose of resolving the crisis in the larger interest of all genuine victims, including us," the erstwhile spot exchange said.

Besides, NSEL has explained its point of view on various aspects of the crisis. It alleged that "four years have been lost just because of wrong path and wrong targeting".

"Our parent company is called not fit and proper. Yet, its impeccable credentials were reaffirmed when the groups exchange assets were bought by the worlds most fit and proper," NSEL noted.

NSEL has helped in tracking the assets of the defaulter and initiated disbursal of the recovered money, it said.

NSEL was incorporated with Financial Technologies (India) Ltd, or FTIL, holding 99.98 per cent, with an objective of operating a pan-India commodities spot exchange platform for which it obtained licences under APMC Acts of various states. PTI SP ARD

--- ENDS ---
Dangote Cement's 1H17 revenues rise by 41%

31 July 2017

Dangote Cement has released its 1H17 results, announcing group revenues of NGN412.7bn (US$1.31bn), up 41.2 per cent, and an EBITDA of NGN203.7bn, up 53.7 per cent.



In Nigeria total cement demand reached 10.2Mt in January-June 2017, according to Dangote estimates. This represents a 23.2 per cent contraction when compared with 1H16, when demand was estimated at 13.3Mt. Of total market sales in the 1H17, just 0.1Mt was imported.



As a result of the fall in domestic cement consumption, Dangote Cement sold 6.855Mt of cement, down 21.8 per cent on the 8.766Mt sold in the 1H16. The company estimates its market share at around 64.5 per cent in 1H17.



Pan-African operations increased cement sales by nearly 12.6 per cent to 4.748Mt during the first six months of 2017 as Dangote factories continued to consolidate their market shares across Africa. Pan-African operations sold 41.3 per cent of total group cement volumes, provided 29.9 per cent of group revenues (before inter-company eliminations) and 9.4 per cent of group EBITDA (before central costs and eliminations).



Cameroon

Dangote Cement's 1.5Mta clinker grinding facility in Douala sold approximately 627,000t of cement in the 1H17, an increase of 16.3 per cent on the 539,000t sold in the same period of 2016. The average price was about US$110/t in June.



Rep of Congo

Dangote Cement's1.5Mta integrated plant in Mfila will begin operations at the end of July 2017 and therefore, did not contribute to the first-half performance of the group. The 1.5Mta works is expected to make a significant impact on the countrys cement production base, which currently has a total capacity of 1.7Mta, according to the Nigeria-based cement producer.



Ethiopia

In Ethiopia the company estimates that total cement market sales were nearly 4.2Mt during the first six months of 2017. Dangote Cement Ethiopia increased sales by 12.6 per cent to 1.1Mt in the first six months of 2017 (1H16: 0.96Mt). As a result, the firm estimates its market share at 26 per cent in 1H17.



Ghana

Dangote Cement Ghana sold approximately 508,000t of cement in the first six months of 2017, up nearly eight per cent on the 471,000t cement sold during the same period in 2016.



Senegal

The companys 1.5Mta plant in Pout sold 738,000t of cement in the first six months of 2017, up 26.5 per cent on the first six months of 2016. This represents almost 100 per cent capacity utilisation at the factory and brings the companys market share to around 37 per cent, according to Dangote. Ex-factory pricing stood at US$72/t at the end of June 2017, higher than the US$67/t average in the 1Q17.



Sierra Leone

The groups 0.7Mta import and bagging facility in Freetown, Sierra Leone, began operations in January 2017. The facility sold approximately 23,000t of cement in the first three months of 2017 and 30,000t in the second quarter, resulting in a total of 53,000t its first six months of operation.



South Africa

Price increases in February and the entry of a new competitor, Mamba Cement, in 2016, contributed to a 4.9 per cent fall in Dangote Cement's sales compared to the first six months of 2016. Industry figures supplied by Econometrix suggest that the total market volume was about 5.65Mt during the first half of 2017.



Tanzania

Dangote Cement's 3Mta factory at Mtwara is the largest cement plant in Tanzania and represents a significant share of the countrys 11Mta production capacity. The plant increased volumes by more than 64 per cent to nearly 388,000t in the 1H17, leading to a market share of 17 per cent at the end of the period. The ex-factory price during the period was around US$50/t in June.



Zambia

The company's 1.5Mta factory in Ndola sold some 331,000t of cement in 1H17, approximately seven per cent down on 1H16, in part because of a heavy and prolonged rainy season that affected construction activity. In addition, the retail market was constrained by tighter monetary policy and pressures on disposable income following the drought of 2015-06. Dangote Cement estimates its market share to have been about 41 per cent at the end of June. Cement prices were about US$85/t in June, slightly higher than in previous months.











Published under
Cemex Philippines reports drop in net income

ICR Newsroom By 31 July 2017

Cemex Philippines saw its net income fall by 69 per cent in the 2Q17 to PHP136.5m (US$270m) from PHP436.1 in the same period of 2016 as demand softened and cement prices eased.



In a disclosure to the stock exchange, the company reported a 12 per cent decline in sales to PHP5.6bn, while cost of sales fell three per cent to PHP3.3bn. Gross profit was down 22 per cent to PHP2.3bn.

Sales volume declined three per cent in the second quarter from a year ago, while prices also fell by nine percent on heightened competitive conditions and the continued presence of imports in the markets.

Cement output at the company was affected by a longer-than-expected shutdown of its Apo works in Cebu.

First-half net income also declined 46 per cent to PHP486m from PHP896m in the same period last year, as sales dropped 14 per cent to PHP10.98bn.

1H17 financial expenses declined 34 per cent YoY, as a result of the refinancing of the companys US dollar-denominated loan with local debt.

I am confident that the companys resilience and proven operational excellence, demonstrated throughout the years, will allow us to strengthen our current position. Together with the Philippine governments positive outlook for construction activity, we remain optimistic for the second half of 2017, Cemex Philippines President and CEO, Ignacio Mijares, said.





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GSK plc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the creation, discovery, development, manufacture, and marketing of pharmaceutical products, vaccines, over-the-counter medicines, and health-related consumer products in the United Kingdom, the United States, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Pharmaceuticals, Pharmaceuticals R&D, Vaccines, and Consumer Healthcare. The company offers pharmaceutical products comprising medicines in the therapeutic areas, such as respiratory, HIV, immuno-inflammation, oncology, anti-viral, central nervous system, cardiovascular and urogenital, metabolic, anti-bacterial, and dermatology. It also provides consumer healthcare products in wellness, oral health, nutrition, and skin health categories. The company offers its consumer healthcare products in the form of nasal sprays, tablets, syrups, lozenges, gum and trans-dermal patches, caplets, infant syrup drops, liquid filled suspension, wipes, gels, effervescents, toothpastes, toothbrushes, mouthwashes, denture adhesives and cleansers, topical creams and non-medicated patches, lip balm, gummies, and soft chews. It has collaboration agreements with 23andMe; Lyell Immunopharma, Inc.; Novartis; Sanofi SA; Surface Oncology; Progentec Diagnostics, Inc.; Alector, Inc.; and CureVac AG., as well as strategic partnership with IDEAYA Biosciences, Inc. and Vir Biotechnology, Inc. The company was formerly known as GlaxoSmithKline plc and changed its name to GSK plc in May 2022. GSK plc was founded in 1715 and is headquartered in Brentford, the United Kingdom.
Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. provides investor communications and technology-driven solutions for the financial services industry. The company's Investor Communication Solutions segment processes and distributes proxy materials to investors in equity securities and mutual funds, as well as facilitates related vote processing services; and distributes regulatory reports, class action, and corporate action/reorganization event information, as well as tax reporting solutions. It also offers ProxyEdge, an electronic proxy delivery and voting solution; data-driven solutions and an end-to-end platform for content management, composition, and omni-channel distribution of regulatory, marketing, and transactional information, as well as mutual fund trade processing services; data and analytics solutions; solutions for public corporations and mutual funds; SEC filing and capital markets transaction services; registrar, stock transfer, and record-keeping services; and omni-channel customer communications solutions, as well as operates Broadridge Communications Cloud platform that creates, delivers, and manages communications and customer engagement activities. The company's Global Technology and Operations segment provides solutions that automate the front-to-back transaction lifecycle of equity, mutual fund, fixed income, foreign exchange and exchange-traded derivatives, order capture and execution, trade confirmation, margin, cash management, clearance and settlement, reference data management, reconciliations, securities financing and collateral management, asset servicing, compliance and regulatory reporting, portfolio accounting, and custody-related services. This segment also offers business process outsourcing services; technology solutions, such portfolio management, compliance, fee billing, and operational support solutions; and capital market and wealth management solutions. The company was founded in 1962 and is headquartered in Lake Success, New York.
The following companies are subsidiares of Stryker: 2Hip Holdings SAS, ActiViews, Aimago SA, Alcott Indemnity Company, Arrinex Inc., Arrinex Inc., Ascent Healthcare Solutions, Berchtold, Berchtold + Fritz GmbH, Berchtold Consulting GmbH, Berchtold Corporation, Berchtold GmbH & Co. KG, Berchtold Holding Switzerland GmbH, BioMimetic Therapeutics LLC, BioMimetic Therapeutics USA Inc., CHG Hospital Beds, Cactus LLC, Cardan Robotics, Cartiva Inc., Changzhou Orthomed Medical Instrument Company Limited, Concentric Medical, EnMovi Ltd., Entellus Medical, Entellus Medical Inc., GYS Tech LLC, Gauss Surgical, Gauss Surgical Inc., Gauss Surgical Singapore Pte. Ltd., Gaymar Industries, Gongping (Shanghai) Medical Devices Trading Co. Ltd., Groupe Bertec, HeartSine Technologies LLC, HeartSine Technologies Limited, Howmedica International S. de R.L., Howmedica Osteonics Corp., Hygia Health Services, Hygia Healthcare Services Inc., HyperBranch, HyperBranch Medical Technologies Inc., HyperBranch Medical Technology, Image Guided Technologies, Imascap SAS, Imorphics Limited, Infinity MSD Corp., Infinity MSF Corp., Infomedix Communications, Instratek, InstruMedics L.L.C, Invuity, Invuity Inc., Ivy Sports Medicine, Ivy Sports Medicine LLC, Jiangsu Chuangyi Medical Instrument Company Limited, Jolife AB, K2M Group, K2M Group Holdings Inc., K2M Holdings Inc., K2M Inc., K2M UK Limited, Loon Intermediateco LLC, MAKO Surgical, MAKO Surgical Corp, Memometal Technologies, Mobius Imaging, Mobius Imaging LLC, Muka Metal, Muka Metal Ticaret ve Sanayi Anaonim Sirketi, NV Stryker SA, Nettrick Limited, Novadaq Corp, Novadaq Technologies, Novadaq Technologies ULC, OOO "Stryker", Orneo Ozel Saglk Hizmetleri Medikal Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, Ortho-Space Ltd., OrthoHelix Surgical Designs Inc., OrthoSensor, OrthoSensor Korea Ltd, OrthoSpace, OrthoSpace US Inc., Orthomed (Hong Kong) Medical Instrument Company Limited, Orthosensor Inc., Orthovita, Orthovita Inc., OtisMed, P.C. Sweden Holding AB, PTH West LLC, Patient Safety Technologies, Patton Surgical, Physio-Control, Physio-Control (Shanghai) Sales Co. Ltd., Physio-Control Brazil Vendas Ltda., Physio-Control Holdings Cooperatief U.A., Physio-Control Holdings Inc, Physio-Control Inc., Physio-Control Investments LLC, Physio-Control Lebanon Sales Offshore s.a.l., Physio-Control Manufacturing Inc., Physio-Control Operations Netherlands B.V., Physio-Control Sales Limited Liability Company, Pivot Medical, PlasmaSol, Porex Technologies, SCI Calyx SA, SSI Divestiture Inc., SYK Costa Rica Services Sociedad De Responsabilidad Limitada, SafeAir AG, SafeWire, Sage Products, Sage Products Coperatief U.A., Sage Products Holdings II LLC, Sage Products Holdings III LLC, Sage Products LLC, Scopis, Scopis GmbH, Sightline Technologies, Small Bone Innovations, SpineCore, Spirox Inc., Stanmore Implants Worldwide, Stanmore Implants Worldwide Limited, Stanmore Inc., Stryker (Barbados) Foreign Sales Corporation, Stryker (Beijing) Healthcare Products Co. Ltd., Stryker (Shanghai) Healthcare Products Co. Ltd., Stryker (Suzhou) Medical Technology Co Ltd, Stryker (Thailand) Limited, Stryker AB, Stryker Acquisitions B.V., Stryker Asia Holdings C.V., Stryker Australia LLC, Stryker Australia Pty. Ltd., Stryker Austria GmbH, Stryker B.V., Stryker Berchtold B.V., Stryker Beteiligungs GmbH, Stryker Canada Holding Company ULC, Stryker Canada Manufacturing ULC, Stryker Canada ULC, Stryker Canadian Management ULC, Stryker Capital B.V., Stryker China Limited, Stryker Colombia SAS, Stryker Communications Inc., Stryker Corporation (Chile) y Compania Limitada, Stryker Corporation (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Stryker Customs Brokers LLC, Stryker Czech Republic s.r.o., Stryker Delaware Inc., Stryker EMEA Supply Chain Services B.V., Stryker Employment Company LLC, Stryker European Holdings Cooperatief U.A, Stryker European Holdings LLC, Stryker European Operations B.V., Stryker European Operations Holdings I B.V., Stryker European Operations Holdings II B.V., Stryker European Operations Holdings III B.V., Stryker European Operations Holdings LLC, Stryker European Operations Limited, Stryker Far East Inc., Stryker Foreign Acquisitions Inc., Stryker France SAS, Stryker Funding B.V., Stryker Global Technology Center Private Limited, Stryker GmbH, Stryker GmbH & Co. KG, Stryker Grundstucks GmbH & Co KG, Stryker Grundstucks Verwaltungs GmbH, Stryker Holdings B.V., Stryker IFSC Designated Activity Company, Stryker Iberia S.L. Unipersonal, Stryker India Private Limited, Stryker International Acquisitions B.V., Stryker International Holdings B.V., Stryker Ireland Limited, Stryker Italia S.r.l., Stryker Japan K.K., Stryker Korea Ltd., Stryker Lebanon (Offshore) S.A.L., Stryker Leibinger GmbH & Co. KG, Stryker Luxembourg Sarl, Stryker Malta Holdings Limited, Stryker Manufacturing Holdings B.V., Stryker Manufacturing S. de R.L. de C.V., Stryker Mauritius Holding Ltd., Stryker Medical London LP, Stryker Medtech K.K., Stryker Medtech Limited, Stryker Mexico Holdings B.V., Stryker Mexico SA de CV, Stryker NV Operations Limited, Stryker Nederland B.V., Stryker New Zealand Limited, Stryker Osteonics AG, Stryker Pacific Limited, Stryker Performance Solutions LLC, Stryker Poland Services sp. z o.o., Stryker Polska Sp.z.o.o., Stryker Portugal - Produtos Medicos Unipessoal Lda., Stryker Professional Latin America S. de R.L. de C.V., Stryker Puerto Rico Holdings B.V., Stryker Puerto Rico LLC, Stryker Puerto Rico Sales LLC, Stryker Renovation Services LLC, Stryker Romania SRL, Stryker Sales LLC, Stryker Servicios Administrativos S.de R.L. de C.V., Stryker Singapore Private Limited, Stryker South Africa (Proprietary) Limited, Stryker Spine SAS, Stryker Spine Sarl, Stryker Sustainability Solutions Inc., Stryker Tibbi Cihazlan Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Stryker Tijuana Operations S. de R.L. de C.V., Stryker Trauma GmbH, Stryker Turkish Holdings B.V., Stryker UK Limited, Stryker Unite Ltd., Stryker Verwaltungs GmbH, Stryker Vietnam Company Limited, Stryker do Brasil Ltda, Surpass Medical, Synergetics, TMG France SAS, TMJ Solutions LLC, TSO3 Corporation, TSO3 Inc., Thermedx LLC, Tornier Inc., Tornier Orthopedics Ireland Limited, Tornier Pty Ltd., Tornier SAS, Tornier Scandinavia A/S, Tornier UK Limited, Tornier US Holdings Inc., Trauson, Trauson (China) Medical Instrument Company Limited, Trauson (Hong Kong) Company Limited, Trauson Holdings (B.V.I.) Company Limited, Trauson Holdings (Hong Kong) Company Limited, Trauson Holdings Company Limited, Trooper Holdings Inc., Vexim, Vocera, Vocera Communications, Wright DutchCo B.V., Wright Medical Australia Pty Limited, Wright Medical Brasil Ltda, Wright Medical Costa Rica S.A., Wright Medical Device (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Wright Medical Group, Wright Medical Group Inc., Wright Medical Netherlands B.V., Wright Medical Singapore Pte Ltd, Wright Medical Technology Inc., Wright Medical UK Ltd, Wright PacRim Inc., ZipLine Medical Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ZipLine Medical Hong Kong Limited, ZipLine Medical Inc., and eTrauma.com.

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On Friday, Senate Republicans failed to collect enough votes to repeal even a few parts of Obamacare.

By Reuters: US President Donald Trump and members of his administration on Sunday goaded Republican senators to stick with trying to pass a healthcare bill, after the lawmakers failed spectacularly last week to muster the votes to end Obamacare.

For the second day running, the Republican president tweeted his impatience with Congress' inability to deliver on his party's seven-year promise to replace the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama's signature healthcare bill commonly known as Obamacare. Members of his administration took to the airwaves to try to compel lawmakers to take action.

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But it was unclear whether the White House admonishments would have any impact on Capitol Hill, where Republicans who control both houses signaled last week that it was time to move on to other issues.

Republicans' zeal to repeal and replace Obamacare was met with both intra-party divisions between moderates and conservatives and also the increasing approval of a law that raised the number of insured Americans by 20 million.

Unless the Republican Senators are total quitters, Repeal & Replace is not dead! Demand another vote before voting on any other bill!- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017

Polling indicates a majority of Americans are ready to move on from healthcare at this point. According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Saturday, 64 percent of 1,136 people surveyed on Friday and Saturday said they wanted to keep Obamacare, either "entirely as is" or after fixing "problem areas." That is up from 54 percent in January.

With the US legislative branch spinning its wheels, the executive branch pledged to look at rewriting Obamacare regulations. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price told ABC's "This Week" that he would change those regulations that drive up costs or "hurt" patients.

Price sidestepped questions about whether there were administration plans to waive Obamacare's mandate that individuals have health insurance, saying "all things are on the table to try to help patients."

But Price also told NBC he would implement Obamacare because it is the "law of the land."

That Obamacare was still law clearly angered Trump, who has no major legislative accomplishments to show for his first half-year in office. "Don't give up Republican Senators, the World is watching: Repeal & Replace ..." the president said in a tweet on Sunday morning.

NOT 'TIME TO MOVE ON'

On Friday, Senate Republicans failed to collect enough votes to repeal even a few parts of Obamacare. That capped a week of failed Senate votes on whether to simply repeal, or repeal and replace, the 2010 law, while Trump repeatedly berated lawmakers in a late attempt to influence the legislation.

"The president will not accept those who said, quote, 'it's time to move on,'" Kellyanne Conway, a senior counselor to Trump, said on Fox News Sunday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, had made exactly that comment before dawn on Friday morning after the failed healthcare vote.

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The White House budget director, Mick Mulvaney, said on Sunday lawmakers should stay in session to get something done on healthcare - even if this means postponing votes on other issues such as raising the debt ceiling.

"So yes. They need to stay. They need to work. They need to pass something," Mulvaney said on CNN.

The House of Representatives has already gone home for its August break and the Senate is expected to do the same by mid-August.

TWEETS OR THREATS?

Mulvaney also said Trump was seriously considering carrying out threats he tweeted about on Saturday, when the president said that "if a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!"

That tweet appeared to be referring to the approximately $8 billion in cost-sharing reduction subsidies the federal government pays to insurers to lower the price of health coverage for low-income Americans.

The Saturday tweet also appeared to be a threat to end the employer contribution for members of Congress and their staffs, who were moved from the normal federal employee healthcare benefits program onto the Obamacare insurance exchanges as part of the 2010 healthcare law.

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"What he's saying is, look, if Obamacare is hurting the American people - and it is - then why shouldn't it hurt insurance companies and more importantly, perhaps for this discussion, members of Congress?" Mulvaney said on Sunday on CNN.

Some Republicans have said they are trying to find a way forward on healthcare. Senate Republican Susan Collins, one of three Republicans who voted against repealing parts of Obamacare on Friday, told NBC that Congress should produce a series of bills with bipartisan input on healthcare, including appropriating the cost-sharing subsidies.

The Senate has one vote scheduled when it reconvenes on Monday afternoon: whether to confirm a US circuit court judge. Senate aides said they had no guidance for the agenda beyond that vote.

Also Read:

US Senate rejects bill to repeal Obamacare, huge setback to President Donald Trump

Trump urges US Congress to repeal Obamacare

--- ENDS ---
These Are the Most Hated Airlines in the United States

Anybody whos flown can make a long list of reasons to hate airlines: They charge ridiculous fees. Many have restrictive baggage policies and poor customer service. And all of them subject passengers to annoying delays, crazy boarding processes, and other inconveniences.

Every traveler has a story about an airline theyll never fly again. And some carriers have emerged as the most hated airlines in the U.S. Read on to discover which airlines Americans hate the most.

10. Southwest

Southwest didnt earn truly terrible scores on The Points Guys ranking of airlines in the United States. But it didnt do particularly well either. Customers like the airlines low baggage fees. They also appreciate that the carrier charges reasonable change fees if they need to switch flights or go with a different plan.

But thats about where the positives end. The Points Guy notes Southwest has higher airfares than most people realize and no premium class seats, which hurt its cabin comfort score.

Next: Our biggest complaint about Southwest

What we hate most about Southwest

You might think you can live with uncomfortable seats or airfares that are less than a bargain. But do you really want to deal with the airlines overly complicated boarding process? Southwest has grown notorious for its open seating policy. Youll be assigned a boarding group (A, B, or C) and position (1 to 60 or more) upon check-in.

As the carriers website explains, Numbered posts in each of our gate areas indicate where to line up. When your boarding group is called, find your designated place in line and board the aircraft in numerical order with your boarding group. From there, you have no assurances and no assigned seats, so you just have to choose any available seat.

9. Hawaiian Airlines

According to The Points Guys research, Hawaiian Airlines didnt score so well either. Hawaiian may have a good record of on-time flights, and thats always a plus. But customers dont like that this carrier has the smallest route network. They also dont appreciate that it charges relatively high fares. (For many people, choosing an airline is all about finding the cheapest fares.)

Plus, the airline has airport lounges in Hawaii only, which hurts its standings among business travelers and those who like traveling in premium cabins. Plus, customers dont love its frequent-flyer program.

Next: What we hate most about Hawaiian

Our biggest complaint about Hawaiian

The Points Guy didnt unearth anything terrible about Hawaiian, but the airline has garnered plenty of bad press from other sources. One of the most notable stories in recent memory? Travelers filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Transportation when the airline started weighing passengers before boarding one of its routes.

Many criticized the policy not only as discriminatory, but also as an unnecessary hassle for travelers. Passengers also dislike that on the flights in question, to and from the American Samoa, the airline will only assign a seat once youve arrived at the airport.

8. SkyWest Airlines

Researchers at Wichita State University and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University compiled 2017s Airline Quality Rating, which pointed to SkyWest as another disliked airline. This carrier  which partners with big names, such as United, Delta, Alaska Airlines, and American Airlines  got a pretty respectable score for overall customer satisfaction.

But passengers dislike some specific things about how this airline does business. They dont like SkyWests record of denied boarding. Plus, they dont appreciate its record of mishandled and lost baggage.

Next: Our biggest complaint about SkyWest

What we hate most about SkyWest

The last thing anxious travelers want to hear is their airline isnt properly maintaining its jets. But you cant help but wonder about SkyWest. In 2015, the Federal Aviation Administration leveled speed and altitude restrictions at the carrier. Those restrictions came following an incident in which one of its planes allegedly stalled.

Experts said at the time that at higher altitudes, minor mistakes can cause jets to stall. Slow speeds can also cause a jet to stall. However, SkyWest said the plane didnt stall and preferred to refer to the incident as a slow speed event. Forgive us if we arent 100% confident in that explanation.

7. United Airlines

United Airlines has been repeatedly fined for tarmac delays over the years. In fact, the U.S. government took the airline to task for keeping passengers stranded on delayed flights for more than three hours.

The Points Guy notes passengers already think United could use some improvement in customer satisfaction. That doesnt bode well for the airlines scores in the future because the carrier became one of the most hated airlines in a single day by dragging a paying customer off a plane.

United has recently scored in the middle of the pack for customer satisfaction. But that might not last long if the airlines reputation continues to deteriorate.

Next: What we hate most about United

Our biggest complaint about United

Even before the airline dragged a customer off one of its planes, the carrier had major problems. According to the most recent American Customer Satisfaction Index, United is the worst legacy airline in the United States. But thats not our biggest beef with the carrier.

Following the infamous 2017 incident, numerous Redditors shared their worst United experiences. While were sure you could find a few horror stories about every airline, the stories shared on the site really make it obvious that United has had a customer service problem for a long time.

6. Allegiant Air

Allegiant Air, a low-cost American airline, doesnt have a lot of fans. Fortune reports marketing agency Fractl analyzed more than a million tweets to figure out which airlines Americans love and which ones they hate, and Allegiant got a lot of negative mentions on the social network.

In fact, it conducted the study during the busy travel season between Thanksgiving and Christmas  exactly when wed like an airline to be especially responsive and accommodating  but it seems that Allegiant was neither.

Next: Our biggest complaint about Allegiant

What we hate most about Allegiant

Though Allegiant isnt the most hated airline, its definitely not the most loved either. People whove flown on Allegiant jets note that the interiors look worn and dirty. If you want water, you cant get it for free. In fact, youll have to pay $2 for a bottle. (At least that keeps you from drinking the planes tap water, which is notoriously infested with bacteria.)

Even printing a boarding pass at the airport will cost you $5. All in all, Allegiant exemplifies exactly what we dont like about low-cost airlines: You get what you pay for  or even less when you book these budget carriers.

5. Delta Air Lines

Fractl found a much bigger airline, Delta, did even worse than Allegiant in terms of negative comments on social media. Its not just customers taking note of Deltas poor performance either. Inc. reports the Transportation Department recently fined Delta $200,000 for underreporting the number of mishandled baggage complaints it received from passengers.

Nobody wants to get to their destination only to realize their bag is lost or delayed. So some people choose which airline to fly based on the carriers record of lost and mishandled bags.

Next: What we hate most about Delta

Our biggest complaint about Delta

The Week reported a couple of years ago that Delta is the least-respected brand in America. As the publication points out, travelers document their various grievances with the airline via websites such as NeverFlyDelta, DeltaReallySucks, and HateDelta.

The biggest complaints center around flight delays, poor service, and astronomical luggage fees. Each of those complaints is bad enough on its own. But nobody wants to cope with all three issues on a single flight.

4. American Airlines

Next on Fractls list of the most hated airlines? Another major carrier, American Airlines. Fortune notes American has a long history of low customer service rankings, at least in part because of issues that arose following its 2013 merger with U.S. Airways.

According to Inc., the government fined American $250,000 after it determined the carrier failed to make timely refunds to customers. Plus, American has a poor record of on-time flights. However, at least American recently brought back free snacks, perhaps as a concession to customers dissatisfied with the airlines level of service.

Next: Our biggest complaint about American

What we hate most about American

Disgruntled customers have found plenty of things to hate about American. But our latest complaint about the carrier is that its added a basic economy fare. These stripped-down fares carry lower price tags, which sounds like a win for passengers. But at American and other airlines, they come with lots of caveats.

Passengers in this ticket class dont get a seat assignment until check-in. They also cant use the overhead bin space. And theyll be the last to board the aircraft. Additionally, the tickets are nonrefundable and ineligible for an upgrade.

3. ExpressJet

The most recent Airline Quality Rating by Wichita State University and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University calls out another airline that many Americans have flown: ExpressJet. This Georgia-based airline got decent scores for customer satisfaction. However, it ranked much lower for baggage service and for the number of denied boarding (such as in cases of overbooked flights). Its everybodys nightmare to end up on an overbooked flight. So if the frequency with which an airline has to bump passengers matters to you, youll want to steer clear of ExpressJet.

Next: What we hate most about ExpressJet

Our biggest complaint about ExpressJet

ExpressJets record of overbooking flights and bumping passengers sounds bad enough. But it might be even worse that the airline numbers among the worst for flying home to visit your family around the holidays. The worst offenders when it comes to holiday-season cancellations of flights are regional carriers, including ExpressJet.

These carriers cancel flights up to three times more frequently than major carriers. Thats especially annoying for customers because ExpressJet, and other airlines like it, operate under the name of major carriers. So you might not even know that youre on an ExpressJet flight until you get to the airport.

2. Frontier Airlines

Fractl also observed a lot of negative mentions for Frontier Airlines  so many, in fact, that Frontier ranked as the second worst airline out of all the airlines studied. Frontier is another airline with a long history of poor customer satisfaction scores. Inc. reports the airline got hit with a hefty $400,000 fine for involuntarily bumping passengers from overbooked flights without first seeking volunteers.

The carrier didnt even provide proper compensation in a timely manner. Even worse? The airline also failed to provide disabled passengers with wheelchair assistance to board and exit the aircraft and to get around the terminal.

Next: Our biggest complaint about Frontier

What we hate most about Frontier

As a low-cost carrier, Frontier is an easy airline to hate because it charges extra for just about everything, whether you want a seat assignment in advance or want to check your bag. But theres something more that makes Frontier one of the most hated airlines.

The fine leveled at the airline for its overbooking practices came not only because Frontier bumped customers, but also because it failed to explain to them that they were eligible for cash compensation. Agents often told passengers they could only get a voucher, rather than cash or a check. That sounds pretty unfair to us.

1. Spirit Airlines

Spirit came in at No. 1 in Fractls study on the most hated airlines. Fortune reports at one point, Spirit practically invited passengers to hate it. And they did. The latest American Customer Satisfaction Index ranks Spirit dead last, with a score of only 54 out of a possible 100. Spirit has won some customers over, mostly by offering lower prices, according to CNN.

But many dissatisfied customers note even when Spirits fares are low, the airline manages to make up for it by charging for carry-ons, for water on the plane, and for printing a boarding pass.

Next: What we hate most about Spirit

Our biggest complaint about Spirit

Spirits extreme version of the no-frills ethos, common among budget airlines, may work for the carriers bottom line, but it grates on passengers nerves. For years, travelers have been nearly unanimous about hating Spirit.

Passengers hate that a ticket on this budget airline often ends up costing just as much as the same trip on a major carrier, thanks to all the add-ons and unavoidable fees they have to pay after booking. Thats a deceptive way to get customers on board an aircraft  and most passengers resent Spirits policies.

Read More: The Longest Flights You Can Take Around the World (and How to Survive Them)
Archbishop of Canterbury declares new Anglican province in Sudan

The Archbishop of Canterbury has declared a new Anglican province in Sudan six years after the predominately Christian south split from the Muslim majority north.

Justin Welby hailed Sunday's ceremony in Khartoum a 'new beginning' for Christians in Sudan who have been severely repressed, with dozens of churches destroyed and permission for new buildings refused.

It means Sudan becomes the 39th Anglican province and joins the 85 million-strong global Anglican Communion.

The Anglican Church in the area had previously been run from the mainly Christian South Sudan since the 2011 split following a civil war that left more than 2 million people dead.

But the ceremony in the north's capital Khartoum gives the region autonomy, with Ezekiel Kondo Kumir Kuku installed as the country's first archbishop and primate.

Kuku was welcomed with cheers by American, European and African diplomats as well as hundreds of worshippers at the service in All Saints Cathedral.

'We welcome the new primate with jubilation,' said Welby.

'It is a responsibility for Christians to make this province work, and for those outside (Sudan) to support, to pray and to love this province,' he said.

'The Church must learn to be sustainable financially, to develop the skills of its people, and to bless this country as the Christians here already do.

He told BBC's Today programme the 'centre of growth' for the Anglican Church as well as for Catholics, Lutherans and other denominations has been in Africa, Asia and South East Asia.

But despite the rise in numbers, Christians have suffered persecution particularly in the Muslim majority Sudan and Welby said he raised the issue 'strongly' in a meeting with the country's President Omar al-Bashir on Sunday.

'In England, the Church of England often seeks to protect Muslims when they are under pressure,' he told AFP, suggesting he expected the same in Sudan when it came to protecting Christians.

A recent letter from the Sudanese Church of Christ (SCOC) outlines the 'hard conditions' Christians leaders have faced in recent years, including the demolition of churches, confiscation of property, government failure to allocate land for construction of any new churches, and travel restrictions on senior figures.

Dozens of buildings have been destroyed or are set to be taken down, including Catholic, Coptic Orthodox, Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical, Jehovah's Witnesses and Pentecostal churches, with the government claiming they violate designated purposes for these plots of land.

But Welby said he had been impressed with how, at grassroots level, Christian and Muslim leaders were working together for peace.

'That is particularly encouraging,' he told the BBC.
Archbishop of Canterbury warns Brexit deal chances 'infinitesimally small'

The Archbishop of Canterbury is warning the chances of reaching a Brexit deal within the two-year deadline are 'infinitesimally small'.

Justin Welby said unless certain decisions were taken 'off the political table' the UK risked leaving the European Union without a trade deal.

A Remain voter, Welby has called for a cross-party commission to achieve consensus on Brexit negotiations and draw the 'poison' from the debate.

He warned of 'literally thousands of separate agreements' that need to be reached as well as the 'huge political decisions' such as membership of the single market and customs union.

'If each one of those has to be argued as a point of confidence on the floor of the House of Commons, the chance of getting this done in what's now roughly 18 months is infinitesimally small,' he told the BBC's Todayprogramme.

'Can the politicans not put at the front of their minds the needs of the United Kingdom to come out with a functional, working system for Brexit?'

He urged parliamentarians to 'agree that certain things are off the political table and will be decided separately in an expert commission'.

Welby was speaking from Sudan, where he led the inauguration of a new Anglican province on Sunday with Ezekiel Kondo Kumir Kuku the country's first archbishop.

It comes after he called for a commission to try and achieve agreement on Brexit.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday in June Welby said: 'Exit negotiations will be fierce and the differences on what we should aim for, and how, are very deep. They divide our politicians and our society.

'With a hung parliament, there is an understandable temptation for every difference to become a vote of confidence, a seeking of momentary advantage ahead of the next election.

'For that to happen would be a disaster if our negotiators, faced with the united determination of the EU, go into the room without confidence in their backing in the UK.

'It might turn us inwards and forfeit the opportunity to be a country the world admires and blesses for our generosity and vision.'

Welby said politics was 'rightly hard and tough' but proposed a commission chaired by a senior politician as a forum to achieve consensus.

'Recent events have highlighted the urgent need for a process of internal reconciliation, between regions, social groups, faiths and generations.

'The future of this country is not a zero-sum, winner take all, calculation but must rest on the reconciled common good arrived at through good debate and disagreement.'
Vanessa Feltz 'extremely upset' by antisemitic Sunday Times article

The BBC presenter targeted in a Sunday Times article branded antisemitic, racist and misogynistic has spoken of her hurt at reading the piece.

Vanessa Feltz said she felt 'extremely upset' by the abuse which suggested that she and Claudia Winkleman  the two highest paid female presenters at the BBC  reached the top because they were Jewish.

Speaking on BBC Radio London, where she presents the breakfast show, Feltz said the comment article written by Kevin Myers was 'so obviously racist it's surprisingly hurtful' and questioned how none of the editors spotted it.

'I would have thought after all these years I'd be immune or used to it, but that's not at all how I felt. I felt extremely upset.

'The apologies are all very well but how did it end up in the paper in the first place?' she said.

The Sunday Times' editor Martin Ivens rang her up personally to apologise, Feltz revealed, telling her he was horrified.

The article was published in the paper's Irish version and was titled 'Sorry, ladies  equal pay has to be earned'.

Commenting on BBC figures that revealed that two-thirds of its top earners taking home more than 150,000 are male, author Myers wrote: 'Good for them.

'Jews are not generally noted for their insistence on selling their talent for the lowest possible price, which is the most useful measure there is of inveterate, lost-with-all-hands stupidity.'

He also argued that men get paid more because they 'work harder, get sick less frequently and seldom get pregnant'.

The paper's Irish editor Frank Fitzgibbon said he took full responsibility and said: 'This newspaper abhors anti-Semitism and did not intend to cause offence to Jewish people.'

A spokesman for News UK, which owns The Sunday Times, said the column included 'unacceptable comments both to Jewish people and to women in the workplace'.
Can science prove Christian meditation works?

Spiritual practices are popular. 'Wellness tourism', as trips to religious and secular retreats are called, is growing twice as fast as overall tourism, according to the Global Wellness Institute. The industry is worth many hundreds of millions of dollars.

Which raises a question. Is one type of meditation better than another? And further: how does Christian contemplation score?

The best studied area is mindfulness, a Buddhist form of meditation. Its popularity has been fueled by extensive scientific research. 'Mindfulness-Based Interventions have been shown to improve health outcomes in a wide range of clinical and non-clinical populations,' reports Mindful Nation UK, a study from the British Mindfulness All-Party Parliamentary Group.

Mindfulness has also been recommended for the treatment of depression by the British National Health Service since 2004. Overall, studies have demonstrated its help in alleviating stress, anxiety, depression and some psychosomatic conditions.

Christian traditions promote spiritual practices too. Christian retreats appear to be rising in popularity as well. But Buddhist meditation has long had a big advantage over Christian contemplation, because the latter hasn't been scientifically researched.

That is changing. In what is thought to be a first, researchers have investigated how Christian practices change the brain. A new study has examined the impact of a Christian retreat on 14 individuals, aged between 24 and 76. They were placed in brain scanners before and after a stay at the Jesuit Center in Wernersville, Pennsylvania.

For one week the individuals undertook the contemplative prayer practices designed by Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. The practices, known as the Spiritual Exercises, involve meditations such as imagining yourself as if present at events in the gospel stories. The results, though preliminary, show similar effects when compared with studies of Buddhist techniques.

The Christian meditators reported that their physical health improved, feelings of stress decreased and they also experienced an increased sense of the transcendent. The researchers also looked at changes to important neurotransmitters in the brain. Levels of dopamine indicated that the emotional depth of the participants was enhanced. Also altered were levels of serotonin, the neurotransmitter thought to contribute to feelings of wellbeing.

One participant found the experience transformative, saying it helped nurture a felt connection with God. 'Also, before the retreat, I would definitely say that I had a limited range of emotion, particularly not feeling very empathetic and not able to cry. But during the retreat, I felt the complete opposite and was much more in touch with a wide range of emotions.'

Another practitioner of the spiritual exercises came away realising they needed to 're-prioritize aspects of my life, particularly putting God and Spirit before work'.

'Thus, whether one evaluates the religious and spiritual literature or the scientific literature, there is substantial evidence of a relationship between positive emotions, including love and compassion, that are associated with spiritual practices such as those performed in the seven-day spiritual retreat in the current study,' the researchers conclude.

But what difference comes from belief in God and being a Christian? That is not, as yet, possible to discern scientifically.

One earlier study looked at meditating Carmelite nuns. It demonstrated that the sisters' reported mystical experiences of union with God did show up on brain scans. Those mystical experiences also seemed to be more powerful than, say, sharing with friends.

Father Christopher Krall, a Jesuit based at the University of Oxford, is addressing some of the theological questions. He presented his ideas at a recent conference on Science and Religion organised by the Ian Ramsey Centre of the University of Oxford and the International Society for Science and Religion. He believes that Christian meditation is fundamentally relational as it is about being open to God. It can develop human consciousness from basic modes of functionality, such as sensing surroundings, to higher modes that include perceiving good in the world and acting compassionately. 'Enriching consciousness can be fostered,' he explains. 'It can take us to the best we can be as humans.'

Future studies involving more people will be needed to develop these insights. For example, it is unclear what are the main 'active ingredients' in spiritual practices and retreats. Is it the practice of prayer or the sense of being in a spiritual place? There is also the question of how religious retreats differ from secular retreats, and whether going on holiday or being with a loved one might be equally transformative.

Christian spiritual practices are now becoming the object of scientific study. The Buddhists have a head start with mindfulness research. But expect more studies on the effects of prayer, contemplation and silence which Christians, like Buddhists, have been practising for thousands of years.

Mark Vernon is a psychotherapist. For more see www.markvernon.com
Christian pro-life teenagers who were told to 'go to hell' by gay school vice principal win settlement

Two Christian pro-life teenagers who were harassed and told to "go to Hell" by a gay Pennsylvania public school vice principal when they were protesting abortion outside of the school on a public sidewalk have agreed to a settlement with the school district.

According to the Alliance Defending Freedom, the Downingtown Area School District has agreed to clarify its policies to assure that the public sidewalks surrounding the district's schools are open to those wanting to use their First Amendment rights to publicly demonstrate, even if what they are demonstrating is at odds with school officials' political views.

The settlement comes after Conner and Lauren Haines were interrupted by Downingtown STEM Academy Vice Principal of Student Life Zach Ruff when they were demonstrating on the public sidewalk in front of the school while students were leaving for the day on April 21.

The Haineses, who are siblings, said they were trying to expose the negative impact of abortion, a procedure that since it became legal in 1973 has ended the lives of nearly 60 million unborn babies. The teens were highly visible to students driving out of the parking lot after school and that didn't sit well with Ruff, who angrily confronted them and tried to shield students leaving the school from seeing the Haineses' demonstration.

In a video posted to YouTube, Ruff can be seen telling the Haineses they have no right to talk to students on school property. At one point, Ruff can be seen grabbing at a sign held by Conner Haines.

At the beginning of the interaction between the siblings and Ruff, they tell the administrator that they are simply trying to expose "the holocaust that's happening in America." Ruff responded by stating that there is "no Halocaust happening in America." Conner Haines then told Ruff that "these [unborn children] are the people that are being murdered," adding, "these are image bearers of God."

"You can go to Hell where they are too," Ruff said in the video.

"They are not children. They are cells," Ruff argued.

When the Haineses told Ruff that he needed to turn to Jesus, that is when Ruff revealed that he is gay.

"Listen here son. I'm as gay as the day is long and twice as sunny," Ruff yelled. "I don't give a f--- what Jesus tells me and what I should and should not be doing."

"Just because you choose to believe a book of fiction doesn't mean I have to," Ruff continued. "Prove it to me with science. ... You believe it, does not make it true. You and [President Donald] Trump can go to Hell."

Ruff responded again when Lauren shouted that Jesus can "set you free from your sins," by arguing that "it's a public school" and "we don't believe in that here."

As Ruff continued to block off the protesters from being seen by drivers leaving the parking lot, an older gentleman got into Ruff's face and told him that the teens had a right to speak on a public sidewalk.

Considering that the Haineses were on a public sidewalk, the school district agreed in the settlement that Ruff violated their free speech rights.

Ruff was placed on administrative leave without pay following the incident. In May, he resigned.

A letter sent to the Haineses by Superintendent Emilie Leonardi on July 7 admitted the illegality of Ruff's actions.

"You had every right under our Constitution's First Amendment to speak and display signs like you did, and that right was violated by Dr. Ruff," the letter reads. "Rest assured that Dr. Ruff's actions do not represent the policy of the School District. Instead, we will be providing information to our employees on the First Amendment rights of individuals. We are committed to preventing incidents from happening in the future and will instruct school employees not to violate anyone's Free Speech rights on public sidewalks outside our schools again."

ADF lawyer Kevin Theriot praied the settlement in a statement.

"No government employee  especially someone with authority over students  should harass or threaten anyone for exercising their First Amendment protected freedoms in public," Theriot said. "Conner and Lauren Haines were peacefully expressing their pro-life views, holding signs, and talking to those passing by. The bullying and verbal abuse that Zach Ruff inflicted on Conner and Lauren, as documented in the video, made a policy clarification critically necessary, not only for the Haineses, but also for everyone in the Downingtown community. We commend the district for doing the right thing to prevent this from ever happening again."

This article was originally published in The Christian Post.
Congo conflict: More than a hundred children killed in last month alone

More than a hundred children have been killed in the last month alone in the Congo with hundreds more used as human shields, devastating new figures reveal.

More than 60,000 people have been displaced in the last month alone, UN data said, adding to the 3.8 million displaced nationally.

The crisis driven by conflict in the war-torn region means the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has more displaced people than any other country in Africa, including Eritrea and Somalia.

The fighting has left 140 children dead since June, the United Nations confirmed, with Christian charity World Vision calling for a urgent response to halt the escalating violence.

Trihadi Saptoadi, from the charity's campaign to stop violence against children, said: 'This is first and foremost a child protection crisis. And one of the world's worst. Children are being killed, and most of those caught up in the fighting are under the age of 18.

'They are the first victims of this violence.'

A new report from World Vision warned a failure to provide immediate aid to youngsters who stop being child soldiers will lead to more deaths.

'What these children need now is support, to help them recover and rebuild. They need peace and stability,' Saptoadi added.

'It will take mediation and peacebuilding, provided by the government and partners. It will take urgent and sustained funding. And it will take a commitment. It's not impossible but it must happen now.'
Indian Christians beaten and kicked out of village for refusing to recant faith

More than a dozen Christians have been expelled from their village in India after they refused to recant their faith.

After multiple threats the group of 15 were told if they did not renounce their religion they would face 'dire consequences', according to the persecution watchdog Open Doors.

When they declined they were beaten by a mob of 2,000 from their village. One 22-year-old girl was left unconscious. and the attackers taunted them saying: 'If your Jesus is alive ask him to heal her right now.'

When she eventually regained consciousness the 15 Christians fled and sheltered at a church in a nearby town.

Open Doors, a charity for persecuted Christians, have documented a 'sharp rise' in attacks against Christians in India with 350 incidents recorded in 2015 rapidly growing to 800 in 2016.

The charity say hundreds more have already been recorded this year.

The annual Open Doors World Watch List ranks India as the 15th worst country in the world to be a Christian. It points to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) ties to the militant Hindu extremist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Rajeshwar Singh, one of the leaders of this group, has boasted on national media that the RSS will make India free of Christians and Muslims by December 31, 2021.

'Despite being the world's largest democracy, with a constitution that guarantees freedom of religion and belief, extremism is thriving in India,' a statement from Open Doors read.

'The Indian government is led by the Hindu nationalist party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and turns a blind eye to attacks on minorities.'
Praising God in everything: Horatius Bonar, pastor and hymn writer

One of the great 19th century hymn writers was Horatius Bonar, who died on this day in 1889.

Bonar was born and educated in Edinburgh, one of 11 children, and like two of his brothers entered the ministry of the Church of Scotland. He was one of many who left it for the Free Church of Scotland during the Disruption of 1843, which turned on whether private patrons had the right to appoint ministers to congregations against their will.

He and his wife Jane knew much sorrow. Five of their young children died in succession and his daughter's husband, also a minister, died leaving her a widow with five young children; she came to live with him and Jane and they regarded this as a blessing.

He was a popular author who edited The Quarterly Journal of Prophecy from 1848-73 and The Christian Treasury from 1859-79. He was also a keen evangelist, preaching in villages and farmhouses as well as in church, but he was not preoccupied with numbers. 'We think if we can but get men converted, it does not much matter how,' he once wrote. 'Our whole anxiety is, not "How shall we secure the glory of Jehovah?" but "How shall we multiply conversions?"' For Bonar, it was God first.

He wrote many hymns, including some that are still sung today including the communion hymn:

Here, O my Lord, I see thee face to face, O love of God, how strong and true and Fill thou my life, O Lord, my God.

The latter, with its reference to

Praise in the common things of life,

Its goings out and in;

Praise in each duty and each deed,

However small and mean

reminds us of the disconnection between our 'spiritual' life and what we think of as our 'real' life. But every part of our life is to be given to God; our home, family, work and leisure are all to be consecrated.
Operation Sunshine was the biggest drive to clean the pavements encroached by hawkers in Kolkata. The operation took nearly 10 years to reach to a conclusion.

Operation Sunshine was initiated in 1996 in Kolkata in order to remove huge number of hawkers who encroached pavements in most parts of the city with their illegal establishments.

What was Operation Sunshine?

West Bengal's Kolkata faced a big issue of hawkers encroaching most of the roads. The encroachment increased so much that the government had to carry out a drive to eradicate hawkers "ruining" Kolkata's tourism.

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Kolkata Municiple Corporation (KMC) initiated 'Operation Sunshine' in 1996 to remove the hawkers and illegal settlers from pavements of Gariahat and Shyambazar.

Why was Operation Sunshine such a big deal?

Hawkers on roads is not a big issue and is quite common in many countries but Kolkata, the heart of West Bengal had so many hawkers that the magnitude of it drew special attention of administration. It represented one of the largest and organised refugee sectors in the city. The situation deteriorated so much that pedestrians were forced to walk on roads because there was no space to walk on the pavements.

This was due to the after effects of the partition; Kolkata was left with refugees from Pakistan who were left on their own. As Kolkata government failed to rehabilitate the refugees unlike Delhi government, many resorted to small businesses.

The population of these hawkers also grew rapidly from 1,510,000 (1901) to 9,194,000 by 1981.

Even though the Hawkers movement started in 1975, it only came around in action around 1996.

Government's actions:

In the 60's, congress led government tried removing hawkers but failed due to constant interruption by CPI(M). Later in 1996, CPM launched 'Operation Sunshine' and forcibly removed the hawkers using bulldozers.

All the structures built on Gariahat Road, Brabourne Road, Shyambazar Sealdah, Diamond Harbour Road and Hatibagan were demolished.

However, in the face of protests, the municipal administration and the police allowed the hawkers to reoccupy the streets.

There were committees formed by the hawkers, including The Calcutta Hawker Sangram committee, a union of more than 32 local hawkers. These committees took the matter in their hands to reclaim the pavements.

The final 'Sunshine':

After 10 years of chaos and protests, then Kolkata Mayor Bikash Bhattacharya, the Left Front-dominated board of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation decided to sanction the presence of hawkers on all pavements across the city.

According to a report by The Telegraph India, he decided to allow the hawkers to occupy a third of the pavements on all streets. The hawkers were prohibited from occupying space within 50-metre radius of road crossings and building structures.

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The hawkers were given a special privilege because the business that Kolkata hawkers used to fetch was incomparable to hawkers anywhere. According to a report, 2,75,000 Kolkata hawkers generated a business worth Rs 87.72 billion in 2005.

Why did Operation Sunshine failed?

According to a 2010 report published in TOI, the state minister at that time, Kanti Ganguly admitted that the drive failed due to negative publicity. He felt, it was said that the government was trying to make Kolkata "hawker-free" while that wasn't the case. The government wanted the hawkers to stay but with some adjustments.

The Operation was needed to make 21 crucial roads of Kolkata completely encroachment free as it was crucial to the image of the city.

--- ENDS ---
The Sunday Times got it wrong over Kevin Myers, but it is not an antisemitic paper

Yesterday, the Irish Sunday Times published an article by freelance contributor Kevin Myers, who is a well-known misogynist and Holocaust denier.

In yesterday's article, Myers attacked two Jewish female presenters employed by the BBC.

However, the Sunday Times has apologised, removed the article and issued a statement saying that Myers will not be working for them again.

Following discussion between Campaign Against Antisemitism and News UK, which owns the Sunday Times, a further statement has been issued accepting CAA's recommendations:

'Further to our earlier statement we can confirm that Kevin Myers will not write again for the Sunday Times Ireland. A printed apology will appear in next week's paper. The Sunday Times editor Martin Ivens has also apologised personally to Claudia Winkleman and Vanessa Feltz for these unacceptable comments both to Jewish people and to women in the workplace.'

The senior management of the Sunday Times previously sent Campaign Against Antisemitism an apology over the publication of an anti-semitic column by Kevin Myers which has now been removed.

Martin Ivens, editor of the Sunday Times, said: 'The comments in a column by Kevin Myers in today's Irish edition of the Sunday Times were unacceptable and should not have been published. It has been taken down and we sincerely apologise both for the remarks and the error of judgement that led to publication.'

Frank Fitzgibbon, editor of the Sunday Times in Ireland, said: 'On behalf of the Sunday Times I apologise unreservedly for the offence caused by comments in a column written by Kevin Myers and published today in the Ireland edition of the Sunday Times. It contained views that have caused considerable distress and upset to a number of people. As the editor of the Ireland edition I take full responsibility for this error of judgment. This newspaper abhors antisemitism and did not intend to cause offence to Jewish people.'

The column by Kevin Myers contained the following paragraph about the BBC pay row: 'I note that two of the best-paid women presenters in the BBC  Claudia Winkleman and Vanessa Feltz, with whose, no doubt, sterling work I am tragically unacquainted  are Jewish. Good for them. Jews are not generally noted for their insistence on selling their talent for the lowest possible price, which is the most useful measure there is of inveterate, lost-with-all-hands stupidity. I wonder, who are their agents? If they're the same ones that negotiated the pay for the women on the lower scales, then maybe the latter have found their true value in the marketplace.'

Myers is already known as a particularly unpleasant journalist who has claimed that 'Africa is giving nothing to anyone  apart from AIDS'.

He has also devoted an entire column in the Belfast Telegraph to claiming that there was no Holocaust on the basis that not all of the Jews murdered by the Nazis were cremated, and attempting to nitpick over whether 6 million Jews really were murdered, claiming that the Holocaust had become a 'dogma'.

He wrote: 'There was no holocaust, (or Holocaust, as my computer software insists) and six million Jews were not murdered by the Third Reich. These two statements of mine are irrefutable truths, yet their utterance could get me thrown in the slammer in half the countries of the EU.'

It is clear that Kevin Myers should not have been invited to write for the Sunday Times, and his editors should never have allowed the column to be published. That they removed the column and apologised for it within hours of its publication is proof that the decision to include the column was irrefutably wrong.

It is clear that the column breached clauses 12(i) and 12(ii) of the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Editors' Code and Principle 8 of the Irish Press Ombudsman's Code of Practice by making discriminatory comments about Jews and also mentioning the religion of the Jewish BBC presenters at all.

Gideon Falter, Chairman of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: 'In addition to no longer writing for the Sunday Times, we expect that Kevin Myers will no longer work as a journalist at any decent publication. We also understand that the Sunday Times will review its editorial procedures to examine how this lapse in editorial judgement was permitted in the first place. We do commend the Sunday Times for recognising the grave nature of this error, swiftly apologising for it and for acting to put it right.'

According to the letter of the law, the Irish Sunday Times made a mistake, and a very big one. Why on earth take on a self-confessed Holocaust denier as a columnist in the first place?

But when you look at the bigger picture, you see that on the whole in the last few years, the Times and the Sunday Times have been sympathetic towards Jewish concerns and have led the campaigns to stamp out antisemitism.

It is not the Jewish way to gloat over one mistake, however bad. And in any case, the Sunday Times has acted quickly to correct its errors of judgement.

I have worked with the Times and the Sunday Times. They are pioneers in the fight against poor education in general and campus antisemitism in particular. In the last 18 months both papers have led on this problem. Their various articles on the paucity of student experience at some of our institutions of higher education deserve a medal in their own right.

They have also led the campaign against campus antisemitism, exposing a number of universities for their attitudes towards Jews.

The work of Sian Griffiths of the Sunday Times, for instance, led to a hard-hitting interview with former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, a sympathetic response from the Minister for Universities, an admission by one University at least that its behaviour had been antisemitic and compensation for a brave Jewish student.

Griffiths' work in exposing the indifference or worse of university Christian chaplains led earlier this year to a day conference, chaired by Rowan Williams, during which the Church of England offered to help Jewish students.

If you make a reasoned case, the Sunday Times listens.

On Tuesday I spent the entire afternoon in its London Bridge office being introduced by the executive editor to a number of senior journalists, as well as two trainee journalists, one from Manchester, who now wants to visit our Shul.

I also met a new reporter who had written a negative report about the observant Jewish community. The reporter agreed to meet me and we managed to exchange views without coming to blows.

This is what I call empathic engagement from a mature organisation.

And I returned to Manchester feeling that I had been heard.

It is obvious that the Sunday Times sincerely regrets the gross error of judgment on the part of its editor in Ireland. Not only has it expressed regret, but it acted to rectify the situation as soon as possible.

Having met many of the Sunday Times team down in London on Tuesday I have no doubt that they appreciate the Jewish contribution to life and are open to discussion.

If only all organisations were as open as the Sunday Times and corrected their mistakes so quickly.

Dr Irene Lancaster is a Jewish academic and author who has established university courses on Jewish history, Jewish studies and the Hebrew Bible.
Transgender activist agrees with Donald Trump's military ban, says 'We should be disqualified'

Donald Trump is getting a lot of hate right now over his ban on transgender people in the military but one transwoman is going against the grain by saying he is right.

The media has widely covered the backlash against Trump's shock decision, particularly from within the trans community, with the likes of reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner strongly criticizing him.

But one surprising voice of support is coming from within the trans community.

Edie Dixon was born a male in a conservative Catholic family in Cuba but now identifies as a transwoman and, similar to Jenner, is an open Trump supporter. She even claims to have been rejected by the LGBT community in Portland because she wore a 'Make America Great Again' cap to show her support for Trump.

But unlike Jenner, who attacked Trump over his military ban, Dixon thinks it's right.

She explained her surprising position to The Blaze arguing that transgender people are no more entitled to be in the military than people who suffer from diabetes or asthma.

Dixon even said she is 'very satisfied' with the policy and doesn't think it's a sign Trump is anti-LGBT.

'We are no better than diabetics. We are no better than asthmatics. We should be disqualified at enlistment because we are medically reliant,' she told Blaze TV.

She said: 'This is Trump showing he is a president for equality, because this isn't about transgender people, this is about transgender treatment.'

In fact, Edie, who calls herself a 'devout constitutionalist,' she says she is 'most definitely' pleased with Trump's presidency so far, even though she doesn't agree with everything.

She is even supportive of his position on transgender bathroom rights, something that has been at the center of a fiery debate in American politics right now as many transgender people are fighting for access to the bathroom of their choice. Women critics, though, fear that allowing men who identify as female into women's bathrooms and changing areas is putting them at risk of sexual assault or voyeurism.

'I feel Trump is doing a great job of protecting the United States and our people,' said Dixon. 'That is the focus right now ... it's not where I go to the bathroom....we dont need any more political correctness in this country. Giving people an extra privilege to go into the military just because of political correctness to me is a special right, that's not equal rights.'

And she had some strong words for the political Left that she used to belong to precisely because she thought it supported tolerance and inclusiveness.

'The Left has flip flopped. It's all hypocrisy and they are not for tolerance anymore, they are against free speech,' she said.

'It's not an equal rights movement anymore, it's a political agenda movement, it's a liberal agenda movement.'
Trump and Japan's PM Shinzo Abe discuss 'grave and growing' North Korea threat

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spoke with US President Donald Trump on Monday and agreed on the need for more action on North Korea just hours after the US Ambassador to the United Nations said Washington is 'done talking about North Korea'.

Nikki Haley, US Ambassador to the United Nations, said in a statement China must decide if it is willing to back imposing stronger UN sanctions on North Korea over Friday night's long-range missile test, the North's second this month.

Any new UN Security Council resolution 'that does not significantly increase the international pressure on North Korea is of no value', Haley said, adding that Japan and South Korea also needed to do more.

Abe told reporters after his conversation with Trump that repeated efforts by the international community to find a peaceful solution to the North Korean issue had yet to bear fruit in the face of Pyongyang's unilateral 'escalation'.

'International society, including Russia and China, need to take this seriously and increase pressure,' Abe said. He said Japan and the United States would take steps towards concrete action but did not give details.

Abe and Trump did not discuss military action against North Korea, nor what would constitute the crossing of a 'red line' by Pyongyang, Deputy Chief Cabinet spokesman Koichi Hagiuda told reporters.

A White House statement after the phone call said the two leaders 'agreed that North Korea poses a grave and growing direct threat to the United States, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and other countries near and far'.

It said Trump 'reaffirmed our ironclad commitment' to defend Japan and South Korea from any attack, 'using the full range of United States capabilities'.

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the talk between Abe and Trump lasted for about 50 minutes.

'The role that China can play is extremely important,' he told a news conference.

'Japan intends to call on those countries involved  including the UN, the United States and South Korea to start, but also China and Russia  to take on additional duties and actions to increase pressure,' Suga said, declining to give details about what those steps might be.

'Very Disappointed'

North Korea said on Saturday it had conducted another successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile that proved its ability to strike the US mainland, drawing a sharp warning from Trump and a rebuke from China.

Trump later wrote on Twitter that he was 'very disappointed' in China and that Beijing profits from US trade but had done 'nothing' for the United States with regards to North Korea, something he would not allow to continue.

Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Qian Keming, asked at a news conference in Beijing about Trump's tweets, said there was no link between the North Korea issue and China-US trade.

'We think the North Korea nuclear issue and China-US trade are issues that are in two completely different domains. They aren't related. They should not be discussed together,' Qian said.

State-run Chinese tabloid the Global Times said in an editorial on Monday Trump's 'wrong tweet' was of no help, and that Trump did not understand the issues.

'Pyongyang is determined to develop its nuclear and missile programme and does not care about military threats from the US and South Korea. How could Chinese sanctions change the situation?' said the paper, which is published by the ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who is on vacation, planned to have a phone call with Trump soon, a senior official at the Presidential Blue House said.

'If the two heads of state talk, they will likely discuss their respective stances on North Korea, the US-(South Korea) alliance's standpoint on North Korea and other things including how to impose heavy sanctions,' the official said.

The United States flew two supersonic B-1B bombers over the Korean peninsula in a show of force on Sunday in response to the missile test and the July 3 launch of the 'Hwasong-14' rocket, the Pentagon said. The bombers took off from a US air base in Guam and were joined by Japanese and South Korean fighter jets during the exercise.

'North Korea remains the most urgent threat to regional stability,' Pacific Air Forces commander General Terrence J O'Shaughnessy said in a statement.

'If called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal, and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing.'
Vicar under police investigation dies after 'setting fire to himself'

A senior vicar has died after allegedly 'setting fire to himself' in his Hampshire rectory.

Rev Martyn Neale, 60, was under police investigation and was found dead on Tuesday in the village of Hawley.

A member of the Church of England's governing general synod, Father Neale was described by colleagues as a 'thoughtful, caring man' and had worked in the parish for 20 years.

His congregation was told two weeks ago he had been suspended by the Diocese of Guildford 'as a consequence of an ongoing police investigation', according to the Mail on Sunday but no details were given.

The diocese said in a statement this weekend: 'We were very sorry to be informed by police late on Tuesday of the death of a man at the Rectory in Hawley, believed to be Father Martyn Neale, who was Rector of Hawley and Vicar of Minley in the Diocese of Guildford.

'Father Neale had been suspended last week as a consequence of an ongoing police investigation,' a statement confirmed.

'The Diocese of Guildford is giving pastoral support in the parish, and we are praying for all those who are affected by these tragic events,' it added.

Hampshire Police told Christian Today it was not conducting an investigation. Surrey Police also denied it was investigating but could not reveal which force was doing so.

Father Neale was not married, lived alone and was a member of the traditionalist Anglo-Catholic pressure group, Forward in Faith, which opposes women priests.

Hampshire police have said the death was not being treated as suspicious and a coroner's file was being prepared and inquest expected later this week.
Where is the Church of England Evangelical Council when we need it?

A long time ago, in a land that certainly now feels far, far away, the renowned Anglican evangelical theologian John Stott had a good idea.

What would happen, he mused, if different evangelicals within the CofE could be brought together to talk, pray, plan and resolve any differences?

Thus was born the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) in 1960. And it still exists today. Indeed, in 2014, according to its website, it had a bit of a revamp, with a new constitution and leadership. And the website is rather good.

The problem is simply that it doesn't look as though it is doing or saying enough. And that's a pity, because at this somewhat fraught and unsettled time in Anglicanism's history it is arguable it is needed more than ever.

The CEEC's quietude is all the more puzzling because it is full of talent. The list of council members contains the names of many people who have a history of leadership, competence, vision, passion and godliness.

It is also usefully diverse too  bringing together bishops, lay people, theological college principals, and different groups such as New Wine, Reform, CPAS, Fulcrum, Anglican Mainstream and Awesome (a network of Anglican evangelical women leaders).

There is some thought-provoking material on the website  for example, a paper on transgender issues by Martin Davie, the Oxford University theologian, and a thoughtful discussion of same-sex relationships and the options for Anglican traditionalists.

But these papers  useful though they are  fall a long way short of fulfilling the list of aspirations set out on the vision webpage of the CEEC. Broadly speaking, it reads as though it is CEEC which should be leading, envisioning and co-ordinating the concerns of evangelicals within the Church of England.

And such leadership is desperately needed. Take the most recent General Synod, for example. Since that meeting, most of the evangelical noise in reaction to it has come from one particular section of the Anglican evangelical constituency. Thus we have had a public statement from one group who have already been meeting to discuss how to ensure a 'ensure a faithful ecclesial future'.

And then we have had a letter to the Daily Telegraph from many of the same people, plus others, calling for a 'renewal of orthodox Anglicanism and of Anglican structures in these islands'  a phrase which I have no doubt was chosen for its helpful ambiguity in covering both those who want to stay in the Church of England and those who want to leave.

But from the CEEC there has been not a peep  at least so far as I can see. Indeed, the most recent item on its news page dates from January this year. And that's a pity. Because if it wants to 'promote and pursue unity amongst evangelicals' then now would seem like an excellent time to be pursuing this endeavour with fresh zeal.

Moreover, if it wishes to 'advocate the presence and engagement of evangelicals in the structures and life of the Church of England' then the current time post-Synod  when some are thinking about giving up on that approach  might be a really helpful time to explain afresh why.

From my perspective, as an ordinary member of the clergy serving in an ordinary parish, a simple thing the CEEC could do would be to have an e-mail list whereby they update us with theological resources, public statements and other news. And whereas every other evangelical or Anglican network seems to have a presence on social media, CEEC appears to remain invisible.

According to its website portal, a main aim of the CEEC is to 'bring evangelicals in the Church of England together for the sake of the gospel' and to 'encourage one another and build one another up'. That sounds good to me.

So let me start the ball rolling by encouraging them  and hopefully building them up  by saying simply: 'Dear CEEC council. You look like a godly and wise bunch of people. For the sake of the gospel, after this recent controversial Synod, I'd love to hear more from you. So  please  what will you do to help us and lead us at this important time?'

David Baker is a former daily newspaper journalist now working as an Anglican minister in Sussex, England. Follow him on Twitter @Baker_David_A
The Charity Tribunal has dismissed an appeal by the chair of a charity where a fundraising deal saw much of the money raised in the charity's name go to a company run by her partner's son.

According to a judgment released earlier this month, Pauline White appealed on behalf of military charity Support the Heroes, against the Charity Commissions decision to appoint an interim manager at the charity, to the exclusion of the trustees.

The Commission had stepped in after discovering a deal which it says saw 84 per cent of funds raised on the charitys behalf go to Targeted Management Limited, a company run by Anthony Chadwick, the son of Whites partner - although White disputes this figure.

'Evidence of mismanagement'

The Commission said there was evidence of mismanagement and/or misconduct in the administration of the charity, consisting of a failure to avoid or adequately manage conflicts of interest in respect of the relationship with TML.

It also said it was concerned that the relationship with TML had exposed the charity to reputational and financial risk and that the trustees had failed to discharge their legal duties.

A wholly owned subsidiary of the charity was used for the deal. In one year, the subsidiary spent 376,000 on cost of sales but donated only 60,000 to the charity.

The judgment also said that another of Chadwicks companies had provided the money to set the charity up initially.

The Commission appointed Brian Johnson of HW Fisher & Company as interim manager of the charity on 9 December 2016. He was appointed with all the powers and duties of a trustee, to the exclusion of the current charity trustees.

Johnsons appointment was controversial because he had already, as interim manager of another military charity Afghan Heroes, attempted to sue another of Chadwicks companies for 2.9m.

A third military charity with links to Chadwick companies, Our Local Heroes, is also under investigation by the Commission.

White, acting on behalf of the charity, challenged the decision to appoint an interim manager, arguing that it was unnecessary because the Commission had already frozen the charitys bank accounts, and that it was premature because the Commission had not yet met the trustees.

But the tribunal judgment said that the Commissions decision was lawful and proportionate and the appeal was dismissed.
Newly appointed Charity Commission chief executive Helen Stephenson has warned the regulators funding is at a knife edge in a blog setting out her vision for the regulator.

Stephenson, who began her role earlier this month, said in a blog published on Friday that her organisations overarching aim is to promote public confidence in charities.

She says the Commissions role in achieving this is to enable charities to stay within the law while holding a small proportion of trustees to account.

The Commissions role involves therefore a fine balance. Charities are neither our friends to be let off the hook, nor foes to be fought," she says.

We are their regulator, and at registration, in filing their annual return, when using our digital services and our guidance, they are our customers, who rightly expect a smooth, professional service.

The issue of the Charity Commissions funding has been ongoing for the past few years, with Stephensons predecessor Paula Sussex warning last month that the regulator is significantly overstretched and could be forced to cut back on the register, providing guidance, or carrying out case work.

Sussex said the two potential sources of extra funding were from central government or by charities self-funding the regulator. The Commission was given permission by HM Treasury in March to review these options with the sector but a formal consultation has yet to begin.

Stephenson said she plans to discuss the options with charities in the near future.

The Commissions funding is at a knife edge, while demand on us is increasing. Securing our funding into the future is vital. But two weeks into my time at the Commission, I am energised, and excited about the challenges ahead.

And in the weeks and months ahead, I look forward to meeting charities, their beneficiaries, Parliamentarians and our partners in government  all of whom have a central role in assuring the future of this vital sector.
Bury Hospice has said cyber criminals have stolen 235,000 from its bank account in what the charity has described as a sophisticated fraud.

In a statement on its website the charity said it has reported the theft to police and the Charity Commission and warned that other charities in Greater Manchester have been targeted.

It added that the hoax involved an online virus check.

Eileen Fairhurst, chair of Bury Hospice, said: We are shocked and sickened that fraudsters would target hospices and other charities. It is beneath contempt when you think how this money was raised by hard-working volunteers and kind benefactors  and what it is needed for.



We are now carrying out a full investigation and keeping in close contact with our bank. Our own protection systems are now subject to extensive review.



The police and the Charity Commission have been informed. There will be no immediate impact on the running of Bury Hospice and we will continue to provide an excellent service to those in the Bury community who need us.



All avenues are now being explored to recover the money and the matter is being investigated by the police national fraud investigation team.

From Governance & Leadership magazine

Counter fraud campaign

Earlier this month the Charity Finance Group launched a fraud prevention initiative and is urging charities to sign its pledge.

So far around 30 charities have signed the pledge and CFG estimates between them they could save 8m over the next 12 months.

Civil Society Media is hosting the Charity Finance Summit 2017 on 17 October 2017. For more information, and to book, click here
David McAuley is currently the chief executive of the Trussell Trust

David McAuley, the current chief executive of the Trussell Trust, has announced that he will be leaving the charity in August after nine years at the organisation.

McAuley announced that he would be stepping down from the national foodbank charity to take up the role of chief executive at youth support organisation OPENHouse in September.

He joined the Trussell Trust in August 2008 and took up the role of chief executive at the organisation in January 2014. Read the full story here.

John Barrett has left the Small Charities Coalition, having been with the organisation since its inception in 2007.

Barrett has been the chief executive of the Small Charities Coalition since 2014, taking over from predecessor Alex Swallow. He announced he would be leaving the organisation in February.

In a farewell email, Barrett said he wouldnt be leaving the charity sector entirely and will be moving into freelance and consultative work from September.

Mandy Johnson has been appointed as the next chief executive and will join in August.

Alcohol Research UK has appointed Richard Piper as its new chief executive, following the completion of its organisational merger with Alcohol Concern.

Piper was previously director of impact transformation at Mencap and has also previously worked for NCVO and was chief executive of Roald Dahls Marvellous Childrens Charity.

He is scheduled to take up his new role in September, taking over for Dave Roberts who is stepping down from the role after eight years at the helm. Read the full story here.

The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Associations (PLSA) has announced that Julian Mund will become its new chief executive, starting 1 August.

Mund has worked at PLSA since September 2013, previously as its commercial services director and has recently been the organisations acting chief executive.

Prior to that, he worked at the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy for 16 years. He has also worked at the Department for Education.

Fundraising and communications

Mark Astarita, director of fundraising at the British Red Cross has announced that he will be stepping down from his role at the organisation to set up a global hub for the whole of the Red Cross movement.

Astarita made his announcement last week, saying that he would now be the director of an international hub for all of the Red Cross. He will also be joining Tobin Aldrich and Imogen Ward at their existing consultancy Aldrich and Ward  which will know be Astarita, Aldrich and Ward.

Astarita, who has been at the British Red Cross for 14 years, will stay with the organisation until the end of October. Read the full story here.

Non executive

Ellie Southwood, currently vice chair of RNIB, is set to succeed current chair Kevin Carey when he steps down from the organisation later this year.

Southwood has been a trustee of the charity since 2010. She is also a local councillor in Brent, North West London and has also worked in the public, commercial and charity sectors, including in recruitment for senior roles and consultancy for organisations going through change.

One of Southwoods first tasks as chair will be to recruit a new chief executive for the organisation, after the retirement of Lesly-Anne Alexander from the charity in October last year. Read the full story here.

In Governance & Leadership Magazine

The Royal Air Forces Association has announced the appointment of Air Marshal Sir Baz North as its new president, replacing Air Marshal Sir Dusty Miller in the role.

North joins the organisation following a 35-year career with the Royal Air Force. He was knighted in 2015.

He has been a member of the RAF Association since 2003.
(Eds: Updates with comments from more members)

New Delhi, Jul 31 (PTI) Charges and counter charges flew in the Lok Sabha today over the issue of lynchings, with the Opposition parties targeting the Modi government and the ruling side asserting that it was the responsibility of the state governments to deal with such crimes.

As the House took up a discussion on the lynchings, members of all parties condemned the killings in the name of cow even as the Opposition parties like the Congress and Trinamool Congress accused the BJP-led government of encouraging groups behind the violence by cow vigilantes.

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The BJP, in turn, slammed the Opposition parties for targeting the central government over lynchings and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly come out strongly against such acts.

The ruling party said "certain demons" have put on the "holy garb" to defame the government, likening it to an episode in the Ramayana, and asserted that the responsibility of containing mob violence is that of the state governments. Initiating the discussion, Leader of the Congress Mallikarjun Kharge said Hindustan should not be allowed to become "lynchistan".

He alleged that this government was against minorities, Dalits and women, claiming that these sections had borne the maximum brunt of mob violence.

The Prime Minister says he is against such violence but what action has he taken, Kharge asked and added, "He (PM) says something and does something else."

He asked the government to give details of the action taken against the accused in these cases, claiming that they had become brazen because of lack of action.

Citing a number of incidents this year to say that the lynchings had mostly happened in the BJP-ruled states, Kharge said there was an atmosphere of fear and terror across the country, which has brought a bad name to India in the world. He accused organisations like the VHP and Bajrang Dal of being involved in such violence.

"It is also being done so that your ideology and philosophy could be established in the country," the Congress leader said, pointing to the BJPs "links" with these outfits.

BJP-ruled Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh had become centres of mob lynching, he said, adding that such incidents would become a major threat to the nations integrity.

Referring to the murder of a BJP worker in Kerala, he said the Governor there summoned the DGP on the issue, but nothing of that sort was done in other states where lynching incidents took place.

BJP members objected to Kharge citing incidents, saying many of the cases he was referring to were sub-judice.

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Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar also objected to his reference to former President Pranab Mukherjees speech, saying it was against rules.

Kumar said action had been taken against the hooliganism which had taken place in the name of cow protection.

Countering Kharges onslaught against the government, BJP leader Hukumdev Narayan Yadav said, "Some people are indulging in terror (atankvadi) activities to defame the government."

He slammed the Congress for questioning the intention of the Modi government and asserted that the responsibility of containing mob violence is that of the state governments.

Yadav, the MP from Madhubani in Bihar, said a fight between two ideologies has been going on for several decades and said that those who follow the path of "economic development and nationalism" will come out victorious.

During his speech, he extensively quoted Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and said the BJP ideologue had stated that "Muslims in India are descendants of Hindus."

He said every Muslim must respect Hindu sentiment and at the same time, Hindus must respect the Muslims.

Talking about nationalism, Yadav said freedom fighters Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan had sung the poem Vande Mataram but there is an environment now in which singing it is considered a crime.

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While targeting the Opposition, the BJP MP drew the attention of the House towards the 1984 anti-Sikh riots after the assassination of Indira Gandhi and raised the issue of killing of RSS workers in Left-ruled Kerala.

Sougata Roy of Trinamool Congress quoted the findings of a magazine to say that between 2010-2017 there were 63 incidents of mob violence in the name of cow protection. He demanded a separate law -- "Manav Suraksha Kanoon" (human protection law) -- to deal with incidents of lynching, arguing that the Criminal Procedure Code and Indian Penal Code do not define lynching. "The government keeps saying it wants Congress-free India, I want to ask, do you want to make a Muslim-free India as well," Roy said, provoking protests from BJP members. Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju objected to Roys remarks, saying that TMC MP should not mislead the House and should specify on what basis he is giving the data. Roy said that cow-related killings are all "targeted killings" and accused workers of VHP, Bajrang Dal and local cow vigilantes of leading the mob violence. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar and S S Ahluwalia objected to the use of a word by Roy which was immediately expunged by Deputy Speaker M Thambi Durai. Heated exchanges also broke out between Ahluwalia and BJP MPs on one side and Kalyan Banerjee and other TMC MPs on the other. Roy sarcastically also remarked that a missing case has been registered in Darjeeling against a BJP MP, an apparent reference to Ahluwalia who represents the Lok Sabha seat. Ahluwalia responded by saying, "I am standing right in front of you.... How can I be missing? Roy referred to the killing of Mohammad Akhlaq, Pehlu Khan and Junaid Khan and said it took long time for the state and central governments to condemn such lynching incidents. He maintained that the Prime Minister has made "just two statements" -- one in 2016 and the other a few days ago -- and asked, "Why did it take him so long?" The Trinamool leader said "very few cases" of bovine related cases occur in the eastern India in Bengal and Odisha. "Why is this not being controlled? Because top BJP leaders were shy of condemning it." LJP leader and Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said the Opposition was attacking the Modi government for the responsibilities to be fulfilled by the states. To opposition demand of bringing in a new law to deal with lynchings, Paswan said even such a law will have to be implemented by the states. "Do you want the Centre to intervene whenever states do not fulfil their responsibilities?.... Should the Centre send Army to handle the situation," he asked the Opposition. He said while Modi has condemned such incidents, the then Prime Minister (Rajiv Gandhi) during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots had remarked "when a big tree falls, the earth does shake". He said in the past three years, Modi has not spoken on Ram Janmabhoomi or Uniform Civil Code or Babri Masjid or Article 370. Paswan suggested that at the end of this discussion, the House should together condemn such lynching incidents and appeal all political parties and chief ministers to investigate such cases wthin 24 hours and a murder case should be lodged against the guilty.

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Attacking the main opposition party, he quipped, "The Congress party has one leg in the grave." He said the Congress party has only the cow vigilantism issue to raise as the NDA government has got rid of corruption and focussed on development. Kharge said the discussion is about what has happened under the present government and answers should be given for that rather than talk about 1984 issues which the House had already discussed.

BJD leader Tathagat Satpathy said every Indian is precious and if it is not, then "we are criminals". He said rural economy is getting damaged by incidents of lynching as an economic cycle has been stopped. "By lynching movement... you will eventually kill Hindu farmers," Satpathy said. Elaborating, he said Hindu farmers sell the cows and bullocks when they become useless whereas now the buyers have stopped going to villages. The BJD leader suggested that each MP should take care of two pairs of bullocks and said he tells farmers in his constituency that they can take their cows and bullocks to houses of BJP workers. "We shall remain united for India, not for someones idea of unification," he said. Samajwadi patriach Mulayam Singh Yadav said discrimination is happening on various grounds, religion, caste, language and region, and wanted it to end. The atrocities committed against women, especially against wives in families, should be stopped, he said. In a lighter vein, the veteran leader wondered how many of the Parliamentarians are suppressing their wives, eliciting laughter from the members present in the House. K Gopal (AIADMK) said beef issue has become a polarising subject and emphasised that it is everybodys collective responsibility to ensure harmony in the society. There should not be any discrimination against SC/ST people, he added. PTI KR MPB JD SID RAM AKK AKK

--- ENDS ---
School is out, which brings opportunities for teenagers and students to earn extra cash. For some, the money is a necessity, for others it buys luxuries. But what else do we gain from summer jobs?



From neighborhood lawn-mowing to a geological expedition in the Kazakh desert, we asked five business leaders to share their experiences of summer holiday jobs. No one earned a fortune, but all learned lessons for life.

Kristo Kaarmann, co-founder and CEO of TransferWise

Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Kaarmann, founders of TransferWise Source: Transferwise

In the summer of 1993, aged 12, Mr Kaarmann took a job at a business directory, verifying that the companies were indeed at the given address, their phone numbers were correct and the directors really existed. "It wasn't an investigative job," he reflects. But it was hard work. "I was on my feet every day." More from the Financial Times:

New leaders cast off old friends

Success calls for stamina: can you go the distance?

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings on conquering Europe It gave the young Estonian a chance to see capitalism up close as his country became independent after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. "It was very chaotic. Everything was new." His next schoolboy job was planting trees in forests, which he liked for being "outdoorsy". But the chief lesson he learned from these stints was that work paid. "I could buy things like french fries, which were super-exotic." Summer jobs, he says, helped him develop socially. Today, when it comes to recruiting young workers for his London-based fintech company, the 36-year-old Mr Kaarmann says there is no right or wrong summer job to adorn a CV. But, he says, it is important that candidates have worked.

Whitney Wolfe, founder and CEO of Bumble

Whitney Wolfe, CEO of bumble Matt Winkelmeyer | Getty Images

The dating app entrepreneur, whose service has 18 million users worldwide, says she is not suited to a nine-to-five job. She does not do well in "structured positions"  a lesson learned as a youngster, when she spent most summers working on internships, babysitting and serving in boutiques. But in 2010, aged 20 and looking forward to the summer of her junior year at a Texas college, an opportunity to try something else presented itself  the aftermath of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. "There was news coverage all day every day about the animals affected. I wanted to find a way to raise money," Ms Wolfe says. The result was her first entrepreneurial endeavor  an eco-friendly tote bags fundraising business. "Every business starts with your own micro network," she says, reflecting on her main takeaway from the project. "I started selling to the people I knew, and the people they knew. A lot of people said yes, and a lot of people said no." Ms Wolfe took the fledgling venture back to college, "but my grades were suffering, and I had to make a decision". She focused on college. "I'm glad I learned how hard it is to run a business  I hated it then, of course, but I'm glad now."

Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter

Biz Stone, Twitter Co-Founder Jelly Co-Founder & CEO. John Chiala | CNBC

At 10, Biz Stone monetized his allotted household chore  mowing the lawn  by offering the service to neighbors in the Massachusetts suburbs where he lived. He contrived various moneymaking add-ons, such as charging $10 for a 30-degree slope, or offering to clear up the cut grass. "I worked throughout school and did anything to make money," he says. If he overheard a neighbor saying they needed a job doing, the young Mr Stone, would volunteer his services. "Fixing an air-con unit, setting up a Mac. 'Hey, I can do it!' As long as they said they'd pay, I would do it." It was through these odd jobs that he met his mentor, Steve Schneider. A job moving boxes at Mr Schneider's office, a graphic-design company, led the young Mr Stone to join the company. "I knew so many people, it was a form of networking. It taught me to say yes to lots of things." The money he earned was usually handed to his mother. "I was expected to work and contribute from an early age." That, he says, taught him work was "part of life". He adds: "I would go to school, go to work, go home." The 43-year-old finds today's focus on summer internships odd. When recruiting, he values a candidate with a story about how they started a company at a young age  even if it failed.

Arkady Volozh, co-founder and CEO of Yandex

Arkady Volozh, CEO of Yandex Mikhail Svetlov | Getty Images

In 2000, Mr Volozh and his late business partner, Ilya Segalovich, founded Yandex, the tech company that today operates Russia's largest search engine. Twenty years earlier, the pair worked together for the first time in a most unusual summer job: a geological dig in Kazakhstan. The project, led by the Ministry of Geology of the Soviet Union, saw the 16-year-olds working all day in the deserts looking for chromium, the metal used to make stainless steel. Mr Segalovich's father, a geologist, led the expedition and arranged for the boys to work on the project in their school holidays. Desert life was tough: "I did a lot of heavy lifting and traveled miles into the field to measure heights of the landscape," he recalls. The boys made a "pretty good salary"  Rbs135 a month  because their job was classed as work under severe conditions. "I didn't make more money per month until I was 24," Mr Volozh says. But more important than the cash were the practical skills he picked up. "I learned how to operate heavy machinery, how to fish for my dinner and how to manage during a hot day in the field," he says. "It was truly formative."

Cal Henderson, co-founder of Slack

Slack co-founder and CTO Cal Henderson Source: Slack
Sprint proposed a merger with Charter as the wireless carrier seeks an alternative to a deal with T-Mobile US that has so far not come to fruition, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.

Charter Communications is not interested in Sprint's proposal to be acquired by Charter, a company spokesman said.

Japan's SoftBank Group , which controls Sprint, proposed a complex transaction that would create a new company and be controlled by SoftBank, the sources said.

"We understand why a deal is attractive for Softbank, but Charter has no interest in acquiring Sprint," the spokesman said in an email to Reuters on Sunday.

Charter has a good mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) relationship with Verizon Communications and intends to launch wireless services to cable customers next year, the spokesman added.

MVNOs do not own networks, and instead rent capacity from established operators to sell on to their customers, usually at low prices due to their small overheads, with cheap distribution through the internet or convenience stores.
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North Korea's refusal to drop its nuclear weapons program may have a lot to do with the fate that met another would-be nuclear power's dictator just a few years ago. Pyongyang's ongoing development of nuclear weaponry  including the nation's second intercontinental ballistic missile test in a month  has set off alarm bells across the international community. But the insistence of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un to keep building an arsenal could come from a lesson he learned from another one-time opponent of the West: Libya's Moammar Gadhafi. Gadhafi conceded to Western demands that he give up his quest for nukes in 2003, only to be toppled by NATO and his Libyan opponents during a brief civil war in 2011.

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Nobody likes Kim having nukes. He's an erratic leader whose weapons programs defy UN sanctions, and North Korea has repeatedly broken promises to stop developing them. Worst of all, Kim likes to threaten to attack other countries, including Japan, South Korea, the United States and Australia. But Kim likely sees the weapons as an insurance policy that keeps him in power. There are uncanny similarities between his regime and Gadhafi's: The Libyan dictator had seized control of the state after leading a military coup in 1969. Like Kim, Gaddafi ran a socialist dictatorship built on a cult of personality. Under Gadhafi, Libya earned a reputation as a rogue nation. It consistently breached international norms, committing human rights abuses, funding terrorist groups and proliferating weapons of mass destruction. Yet, in a surprise move in 2003, Gadhafi agreed to give up his weapons program and welcome international inspectors. In exchange, the U.S. and its allies promised better relations with Libya and lifted long-standing economic sanctions. Eight years later, NATO led a military intervention to support rebels trying to overthrow Gadhafi's regime. NATO said it was responding to a United Nations call to end crimes against humanity in the country.

North Korea (is) firmly in the belief that they need to have credible nuclear deterrent, and they believe that as a sovereign country they have the right to do so. Guo Yu analyst, Verisk Maplecroft

Gadhafi was beaten and killed after he was chased down by rebel soldiers on Oct. 20, 2011. His convoy had been bombed and scattered by U.S. and French airstrikes only moments earlier. Gadhafi holds the unfortunate (for him) distinction of being the only Middle Eastern national leader who was killed during the Arab Spring. U.S. President Barack Obama has called his failure to plan for the consequences of Gadhafi's downfall the worst mistake of his presidency. But he has said he still believes military intervention was the "right thing to do." It's highly likely that Kim keeps Gadhafi's unfortunate end in mind, and it deters him and his North Korean leaders from surrendering their own nuclear weapons, according to experts. "We see in Libya and Iraq countries who gave up their WMD programs, and foreign power campaigns that led to a regime change," said Guo Yu, principal Asia analyst at global risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft. "To safeguard against that, North Korea (is) firmly in the belief that they need to have credible nuclear deterrent, and they believe that as a sovereign country they have the right to do so." Kim is also "watching what's been happening in the Middle East, and the external military interventions  mostly led by the U.S.  which are interested in regime change and just reinforce the mindset for pursuing independent credible nuclear deterrence," Yu said. During a visit to Libya's former colonial ruler Italy in 2009, Gaddafi remarked: "We had hoped Libya would be an example to other countries.  But we have not been rewarded by the world."

The US is not interested in making any deals with North Korea right now. Here's why
Celebrity chef and restaurateur Mario Batali got his start in college at Stuff Yer Face, a pizza joint on the Rutgers University campus. Today, he co-owns a culinary empire worth hundreds of millions. He took risks to get there, and yet Batali's best advice for financial success is conservative: Don't get into debt. "Live within your means," he tells Laurie Woolever of Wealthsimple. "Debt limits your freedom to make decisions. Debt's good for buying real estate; it's not good for paying for vacations." However, hearkening back to this own experience, he points out that there's one occasion when consumer debt can be helpful: "A good investment that will eventually buy you freedom."

The Food Network star has seen it all. After he abandoned his one-time dream of becoming a banker and decided he'd rather cook, he went from being one of the highest paid sous chefs at the Four Seasons to working for free in Italy. He borrowed $25,000 from friends and family to open his first restaurant, Po, but then he turned the endeavor into a successful $2.5 million-a-year business. After meeting Joe Bastianich in the late '90s, Batali used the advance from his first book to open Babbo with Bastianich, which is now one of his best-known restaurants. It was a risk, but the investment paid off. Within a year, both men were pulling in six figures from the venture. The success of Babbo prompted Batali and Bastianich to expand their empire, which has since provided Batali the financial freedom to live a full life without worrying about the balance in his checking account.
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In northern Siberia, rising temperatures are causing mysterious giant craters  and even more dire consequences could be in store, say climate scientists. The Russian province's long-frozen ground, called permafrost, is thawing, triggering massive changes to the region's landscape and ecology. It could even threaten human lives. related investing news Bitcoin will fall further, says fund manager  until this one catalyst kicks in "The last time we saw a permafrost melting was 130,000 years ago. It's a natural phenomenon because of changes in the earth's orbit," said professor of earth sciences at the University of Oxford, Dr. Gideon Henderson.

This photograph shows a crater on the Yamal Peninsula, northern Siberia, taken on August 25, 2014. Its formation is possibly linked to climate change. Vasily Bogoyavlensky | AFP | Getty Images

"But what is definitely unprecedented is the rate of warming. The warming that happened 130,000 years ago happened over thousands of years  What we see happening now is warming over decades or a century." We are therefore seeing a much more rapid collapse of the permafrost, Henderson said.

Global warming  but faster

It's clear that the thawing permafrost has an important effect on the climate, Henderson said. Under normal conditions, permafrosts regulate the amount of carbon in the environment by taking up and storing significant portions of carbon that humans release from burning fossil fuel. In the case of Siberia, this equation is being reversed. "When [permafrosts] release carbon, it will accelerate the rate of warming in the future," Henderson said. A self-reinforcing feedback loop is created whereby warming releases more carbon, which in turn produces greater warming.

Methane is 86 times worse than carbon dioxide

Since 2014, several massive sinkholes have been discovered in the region. The first one reportedly measured over 50 ft wide. There are several hypotheses on how the craters are formed, but none of them has been proven, according to Dr. Vladimir Romanovsky, professor of geophysics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. "All these hypotheses, though, use the fact that temperature in the region is increasing," Romanovsky said. The formation of these crater-like holes could have crucial ramifications for Siberia's community and the environment at large. One theory suggests that the holes are created when trapped gases explode. Carbon dioxide and methane, both greenhouse gases, are released in the process. According to conventional estimates, methane warms the planet by 34 times as much as carbon dioxide over 100 years. But such estimates ignore the fact that atmospheric methane decomposes into carbon dioxide, a less potent greenhouse gas, after 10 to 20 years. Over a 20-year period, methane's warming potential is 86 times that of carbon dioxide, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It's still a question if the formation of these craters contributes significant amounts of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, researchers say. "There is no estimate for how much methane is released into the atmosphere because we don't know how" such craters are formed, Romanovsky said. According to Henderson, scientists are also uncertain about the rate and types of gases ejected  specifically, whether methane decomposes into carbon dioxide before or after its release.

'The railway collapses, the roads fall apart'

The thaw is already adversely affecting the lives of northern Siberia's residents. "People in permafrost regions rely on frozen ground for their infrastructure," Henderson said. "As the ground melts, the railway collapses, the roads fall apart, the buildings sink into the ground  It's happening already." Threats to infrastructure will increase as melting continues, and can pose a problem to major industrial areas including oil and gas fields, he added. And if it's true that gas explosions are creating the craters, such an event can kill people, said Romanovsky. In Russia, the government and companies, especially gas extraction firms, are providing funds for further research into this phenomenon, according to Romanovsky.

WATCH: CEO backlash against Trump's climate decision
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Seoul - July 29, 2017: A man watches a television screen showing a video footage of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during the North's latest test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile. Kim said that the test demonstrated the ability to strike any target in the United States in a direct challenge to President Donald Trump, who had issued dire warnings over its missile program. JUNG YEON-JE / AFP / Getty Images

Recent comments from U.S. officials over the weekend indicated frustration with diplomatic initiatives, implying a growing inclination for military operations. In a statement, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said "the time for talk is over," adding that the U.N Security Council would not be holding an emergency session this time  a departure from previous situations. Following the pariah state's July 4 launch, Haley warned that military procedures remained on the table. If required, the U.S. Pacific Air Forces stood ready to respond with "rapid, lethal, and overwhelming" force, General Terrence J. O'Shaughnessy said in a Saturday statement.

The U.S. has two options: either blow the head off the North Korean regime and deal with a collapse five times the size of the East German collapse or pointedly take out as many of these missile sites and nuclear facilities as possible. David Roche President and global strategist at Independent Strategy

"I'm not sure the direction we're headed in is curbing tensions," Bruce Bennett, senior defense analyst at Rand, told CNBC on Monday. "If we're not going to negotiate, which seems to be what the [Trump] administration is saying, we're likely going to be taking actions  missile launchers, bomber overflies, and so forth  that will actually heighten tensions." The White House has long expressed frustration with conventional policy measures to halt Pyongyang's nuclear ambitious, namely multilateral discussions and sanctions, instead suggesting the need for a more forceful approach. Earlier this year, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson publicly acknowledged that two decades of American efforts to denuclearize North Korea had failed. "I don't believe there's any diplomatic solution that gets North Korea to give up its weapons," said Phillip Lipscy, assistant political science professor at Stanford University. A military solution is now the primary scenario to deal with North Korea, added David Roche, president and global strategist at research firm Independent Strategy, who said he believes the West could launch a military strike on North Korea within six months. "The U.S. has two options: either blow the head off the North Korean regime and deal with a collapse five times the size of the East German collapse or pointedly take out as many of these missile sites and nuclear facilities as possible," Roche told CNBC.

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Malaysia's AirAsia is planning to unify its Southeast Asian businesses while growth appears to be on the horizon, but regulatory hurdles remain.

The budget airline is looking to park its business in Malaysia under one umbrella, according to a report from Malaysian bank CIMB. Currently, AirAsia has units in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, as well as other non-Southeast Asian countries.

The ultimate goal is to go public with the new holding company.

AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes announced these consolidation plans at a time when the company's metrics appear strong.

"We're in a fantastic position," he told CNBC. "Growth factors are very high at the moment ... Business is good and we're going to take 29 planes this year, which is a record number of planes for us."

And with over 400 planes on its order book, analysts are saying that AirAsia seems positioned for growth.

"We now have Indonesia and the Philippines kicking some great doors for us, and India is doing surprisingly much better than we anticipated  so early," Fernandes said. He said he expects AirAsia India to become profitable in the next six months.
Islamic fighters from the al-Qaida group in the Levant, Al-Nusra Front. (File Photo). Rami Al-Sayed | AFP | Getty Images

The Yemen-based arm of al-Qaeda  flush with millions in ill-gotten gains  is gaining strength from the fractured nation's civil conflict and is sufficiently funded to carry out new terror attacks, according to a new report. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the terror cell behind Paris' Charlie Hebdo massacre in 2015 and a descendant of the group behind the 2000 bombing of the U.S.S. Cole, earns tens of millions of dollars per year and remains "well funded," according to a study by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. The group derives its financing from various sources  including taxation, looting, ransoms and oil and gas sales, according to the FDD's analysis. Yemen is the battleground for a fierce proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, with both countries arming opposite sides in a civil conflict. The country sits atop billions of barrels in proven oil reserves, a lucrative source of cash that has become a fulcrum in the tug-of-war between warring Sunni and Shia factions.

The FDD's report found that the domestic turmoil is being exploited by AQAP, particularly because the group controls swaths of Yemen's financial centers. According to the FDD, AQAP is known to have pilfered at least $60 million from Yemen's central bank, and at one point earned about $2 million per day through taxes in Mukalla  a port which the organization controlled until last year. From 2011 to 2013, the group pulled in roughly $20 million per year in robberies, ransoms and fuel taxes. "The income earned in the past few years is likely enough to sustain the group for some time," according to Yaya J. Fanusie and Alex Entz, the FDD report's authors. "Yemeni officials estimate AQAP needs about $10 million per year to operate. Given the surplus the group earned in Mukalla from taxes and bank looting, it is likely that the group maintains considerable cash reserves," Fanusie and Entz wrote. The FDD analysis dovetails with similar findings from the U.S. State Department and Middle East think tanks, and comes as major economies redouble their efforts to curb terrorism financing. In May, the U.S. and Persian Gulf countries agreed to collaborate to stem the flow of terror cash as part of a new working group.

AQAP is thriving in an environment of state collapse, growing sectarianism, shifting alliances, security vacuums and a burgeoning war economy. International Crisis Group
Hyderabad, July 31 (PTI) Around 250 doctors of state-run Osmania General Hospital (OGH) here today boycotted work and held a protest against the attack on their three colleagues, allegedly by those accompanying a woman patient who died last night.

The protesting house surgeons and junior doctors said they were boycotting elective duty in protest against the incident and also against the "unsafe" working conditions at the hospital even as the hospital administration constituted a commission to probe the incident.

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The protesters held a demonstration and raised slogans like We want justice.

A junior doctor said around 30 people attending a 70-year-old woman, undergoing treatment in the ICU of the hospital, assaulted two women house surgeons and a post-graduate doctor following the death of the woman.

"Protesting against last nights attack, the house surgeons and junior doctors of OGH abstained from elective duties. However, the medial services were not hit," OGH Superintendent GVS Murthy told PTI.

He said the elderly woman was undergoing treatment at the hospital for the past five days. "The woman was suffering from high blood pressure. She had suffered a stroke," he added.

Murthy, who held a meeting with the doctors and police officials, said he assured them that Special Protection Force (SPF) personnel would be deployed in all teaching hospitals as being demanded by the doctors.

Murthy said he had asked the doctors to withdraw their protest and resume working.

He said members of the public should not take law into their hands.

"We have lodged a complaint with police who have registered a case in this matter," Murthy said.

However, the junior doctors said such attacks were taken place in the past as well and are happening frequently.

"We want proper security and installation of CCTVs. Security has to be beefed up by deploying SPF and also private security personnel," they said. PTI VVK NSK

--- ENDS ---
Crafting tax reform should be smoother than the process of repealing and replacing Obamacare, Americans for Tax Reform founder Grover Norquist predicted Monday.

"I think we'll have a deal out of the White House, the Senate and the House by Sept. 28," the last Thursday of the month, Norquist, who is also ATR's president, told CNBC's "Squawk Box." "The White House and the House and Senate leadership have made it clear they're working together to write this bill." He also contended a breakthrough on taxes would be too big for a Friday announcement.

While working on tax reform, Republicans on Capitol Hill should also continue to try to get rid of Obamacare, Norquist added.

"We can walk and chew gum at the same time," he said. "One does not interfere with the other. These are on two separate tracks. There's a trillion dollars of tax hikes in Obamacare, a trillion dollars over each decade. The more of those tax hikes you can get rid of when you reform and replace Obamacare, the better off you are for lower tax rates."
That's an incredible sum  except that most analysts do not seem to be worried about whether Apple beats or misses expectations for this quarter. In fact, analysts have gone so far as to write they just " ."

To be precise, Apple is expected to report adjusted earnings of $1.57 per share on revenue of $44.89 billion in the June quarter, according to analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. That's a 10.7 percent jump in EPS and a 6 percent jump in revenue from this time last year.

Apple is set to report earnings after the bell on Tuesday, a report that will most likely show that the $774 billion behemoth has even more money in the bank.

"It's what I'd call a lame-duck quarter," Nehal Chokshi, an analyst at Maxim Group, told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Monday. "It doesn't really matter what they say or do. And this is because everybody knows that the June quarter results, you know  we're at the end of the product cycle. And everybody gives them a pass for whatever results they're going to provide."

Analysts who released research in FactSet all focus on what Apple has planned for September, with the next generation iPhone. The iPhone 8  marking the 10th anniversary of the original model  is expected to introduce radical new features such as brighter, edge-to-edge screens and augmented reality capabilities.

Plus, there's a slew of people with sixth-generation iPhones  one of Apple's best sellers  that might be due for an upgrade.

Together, that means factors such as guidance on margins in the September quarter could be more valuable than anything Apple has done this spring, according to analyst Andy Hargreaves, senior research analyst at Pacific Crest Securities.

Indeed, the September quarter is so much more important than Tuesday's result that Hargreaves said it might even be a good thing if Apple misses estimates.

"Oddly, stronger-than-expected results may be a contrarian indicator, as it would suggest consumers are not holding off purchases in anticipation of the iPhone 8," Hargreaves said.

CEO Tim Cook has telegraphed that people might be doing just that  holding out on purchasing the iPhone 7 in light of leaks about the iPhone 8.

But even looking at the guidance on future margins and revenue might not be a catalyst for investors, Hargreaves wrote. That's because the upcoming iPhone screens are made from a notoriously tricky material that could delay its launch past the end of the September quarter.

"While not anticipated by us, we believe any 'hiccups' in Jun results, would be glossed over as investors focus on the upcoming iPhone launch," wrote Michael Olson, senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray. "We do not expect investors will be overly unnerved by an outlook that is slightly below consensus, given the widespread news flow around potential for next gen iPhone delays."

Abhey Lamba, senior technology analyst at Mizuho Securities, concurred, writing: "[W]e believe investors could look past the softer guide in anticipation of the upcoming product cycle."

So if June quarter results don't move the needle, and September quarter guidance might not either, what does that leave for investors to latch on to?

Aaron Rakers, managing director at Stifel Nicolaus, said data points such as demand in China and the growth of Apple's services business will continue to point to the company's long-term health. Technology investor Paul Meeks of Sloy, Dahl & Holst, told CNBC's "Worldwide Exchange" on Monday that he's worried the company doesn't have another "trick" beyond the iPhone 8.

Some traders are pointing to Apple's after earnings for clues.

Chokshi said he's watching the Apple supply chain, at least for the next three months.

"Everyone's delaying their purchase for the next iPhone," Chokshi said. "And then for the September quarter guidance: At the end of the September quarter .... you have the new iPhone that's released. But it's always supply constrained. So whatever guidance they're providing, that's a complete reflection of the supply they're going to have on hand. So it never tells you anything about what the real demand is. What really will matter is the December guidance three months from now."
Beijing appeared to have doubled down on its crackdown of the internet in China, with news emerging that over the weekend, Apple pulled several virtual private network (VPN) services from the local version of the App Store.

Multiple VPN service providers, affected by the decision, slammed the move online, calling it a "dangerous precedent" set by Apple, which governments in other countries may follow.

Star VPN Tweet: "This is very dangerous precedent which can lead to same moves in countries like UAE etc. where government control access to internet."

VPN service providers received notification from Apple on July 29 that their apps were removed from the China App Store for including "content that is illegal" in the mainland, according to a screenshot posted by ExpressVPN.

VPNs let users in China bypass the country's famous "Great Firewall" that heavily restricts internet access to foreign sites. It also allows for privacy by hiding browsing activities from internet service providers.

Manjunath Bhat, a research director at Gartner, told CNBC that a VPN could circumvent government censorship.

"VPN creates a private tunnel between you (the user) and the service you want to consume," Bhat said, explaining that such a connection escapes government censorship, hiding a user's true origin. It also encrypts communications so that users can be confident others aren't reading their information when connected to public internet services.

Data on GreatFire.org, a site that monitors censorship activity in the mainland, showed 167 of the top 1000 domains are blocked in China. Those include YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Google and Instagram among others.

Golden Frog said its VyprVPN service is still accessible in China, despite the app's removal from the App Store. ExpressVPN said users can stay connected to the open internet with the company's apps for Windows, Mac, Android and other platforms.

Apple has recently stepped up business efforts in China. Earlier this month, the company announced the appointment of Isabel Ge Mahe in a new role of vice president and managing director of Greater China to provide leadership and coordination across Apple's China-based team. Apple is also setting up its first data center in the mainland by partnering with a local company, in order to comply with tougher cybersecurity laws in China.

In a blog post, ExpressVPN said it was "disappointed" with Apple's decision. It "represents the most drastic measure the Chinese government has taken to block the use of VPNs to date, and we are troubled to see Apple aiding China's censorship efforts," the post read.

Golden Frog also said in a blog post that it was "extremely disappointed" in Apple's decision. It added, "If Apple views accessibility as a human right, we would hope Apple will likewise recognize internet access as a human right (the UN has even ruled it as such) and would choose human rights over profits."

The move was also criticized by others, including U.S. whistle-blower Edward Snowden in a tweet.

Snowden Tweet: " Apple has done much good for privacy and security in recent years, but actively assisting censorship crosses the red line of human rights."

"Earlier this year China's (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology) announced that all developers offering VPNs must obtain a license from the government," an Apple spokesperson told CNBC. "We have been required to remove some VPN apps in China that do not meet the new regulations. These apps remain available in all other markets where they do business."

On Tuesday, during Apple's earnings call, CEO Tim Cook added, "We would obviously rather not remove the apps, but like we do in other countries we follow the law wherever we do business. We strongly believe participating in markets and bringing benefits to customers is in the best interest of the folks there and in other countries as well."

Apple's decision to remove the apps comes at a time when businesses and individuals inside the mainland are finding it harder to connect to the so-called open internet outside China via VPN. A business executive told CNBC that connecting through VPN in cities like Hangzhou is becoming far more difficult, as compared to bigger places such as Beijing and Shanghai. People using an international SIM card or apps downloaded from App Stores outside China are still able to use VPNs on the mainland, according to the executive.

Some of the remaining VPN companies that have yet to face Beijing's crackdown could end up collaborating with the authorities, according to Martin Johnson (a pseudonym) from GreatFire.org. He told CNBC that some of those companies may hand over user data when requested and be allowed to operate without restrictions. "Those that protect their users security will be removed."

Johnson added, "Apple is now an integral part of China's censorship apparatus, helping the government expand it's control to a global scale."

To be sure, Apple's removal of those apps is not the first time Beijing's cyber regulators have gone after VPN providers. Recent reports said two popular providers  GreenVPN and Haibei VPN  stopped their services following a notice from the regulators. In fact, a number of VPN apps are still available on the local App Store as of Monday.

In January, the MIIT embarked on a 14-month campaign to "clean up" China's internet connections by March 31, 2018. In a notice, the ministry said that, while China's internet access service market is facing "a rare opportunity for development," there are also signs of "disorderly development" needing to be rectified.

Among other services, the move also affected VPNs: The Ministry said those connections cannot be created without the approval of the relevant telecommunications authorities.

State-owned news outlet Global Times reported that a spokesperson for MIIT said at a press conference last week that foreign companies or multinational corporations that need to use VPN for business purposes could rent special lines from telecom providers that legally provide such services.

Previously, the Ministry had denied a Bloomberg report that it ordered major telco operators China Mobile , China Telecom and China Unicom to block individuals' access to all VPNs by February 1, 2018.

Johnson said the authorities would "prefer to divide users such that businesses can continue to access the global internet, while ordinary users can only access the filtered internet."

"The Chinese government does not care at all about freedom of speech, but they do care very much about economic growth and China's economy continues to be very dependent on the outside world. Apple should use this leverage and stand up for the principle. Sadly they don't," he said.

 CNBC's Barry Huang contributed to this report.
Every investor with bitcoins will receive the same number of Bitcoin Cash tokens, although not all exchanges will accept them.

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Bitcoin faces a pivotal moment as investors are about to receive an entirely new asset called Bitcoin Cash after the blockchain supporting the cryptocurrency is forced to split in two. "The creation of Bitcoin Cash is certainly a pivotal moment for Bitcoin and its community," Charles Hayter, founder of digital currency comparison website CryptoCompare, told CNBC on Monday. "The inception of Bitcoin Cash may prove to be exactly what Bitcoin needs." On August 1, a "user activated hard fork" will take place. Members of the bitcoin community unhappy with the direction of the digital asset have set up an alternative "node" called Bitcoin ABC. Nodes are required to send messages across the bitcoin network, but Bitcoin ABC will use a different set of rules, causing the blockchain (the digital ledger which records every bitcoin transaction) to fork and create two separate digital assets: the original bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. And because Bitcoin Cash will have all the history from the old blockchain, any investors with bitcoin tokens will receive the same number of tokens on the new blockchain. However, Bitcoin Cash will likely only be worth a fraction of bitcoin. The is trading around $2778.39 today, but future values for Bitcoin Cash on the website Coin Market Cap are just $288.35, or 0.103 of a bitcoin.

Why is bitcoin splitting?

The bitcoin community has been divided on how to solve its scaling issue. Currently, only 1 megabyte of transactions can be processed at any one time, leading to delays. "Demand for Bitcoin has been so high in recent months, that those creating the cryptocurrency can't keep up, slowing transactions," Iqbal Gandham, U.K. Managing Director at eToro, said in a press statement on Monday. "For bitcoin to continue to scale and have the potential to become a globally used currency, this slowdown in transactions has to be addressed."

Haobtc's bitcoin mine site manager, Guo-hua, checks mining equipment inside their bitcoin mine near Kongyuxiang, Sichuan, China. The Washington Post | Getty Images

Bitcoin miners attempted to solve the scaling debate earlier this month by signalling support for SegWit2X. This would introduce "segregated witness" to the block chains, which would move some of the data outside the main bitcoin network to increase its capacity, and later increased the number of transaction to 2 megabytes. However, some investors, miners and exchanges are unhappy with the proposal and think that it doesn't go far enough. Bitcoin Cash will increase the transaction limit to 8 megabytes. "This means that the two sides that were once debating within Bitcoin, can instead apply their different views of what the cryptocurrency should be in two different blockchains," said Hayter. "So while this is a development that sparked from previous disagreements, it may come to end the scaling debate once and for all."

Who is supporting Bitcoin Cash?

Bitcoin exchanges are divided on whether or not to support Bitcoin Cash. Several exchanges, such as BitMEX, Bitstamp and Coinbase, have said they will not support or allow trading of Bitcoin Cash on their exchanges, which means investors holding bitcoins on these sites will not receive any new tokens. Some exchanges are also suspending bitcoin trading, withdrawal and deposits around the time of the fork. Hayter advises bitcoin investors to check for any statements issued by their exchange to find out whether or not they will receive the new token.

People attend a Bitcoin conference in New York. (File photo). Getty Images

Bitcoin Cash may gain more support once it launches, according to Garrick Hileman, research fellow at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance. "Because millions of bitcoin users will automatically own Bitcoin Cash, and because a sizable number of wallets and exchanges (including some of the largest) have announced support for Bitcoin Cash, it is likely to live on for the foreseeable future," he told CNBC via email. "Bitcoin Cash could be significant but we won't know more until after it launches. If it fails to sustain support then it could fade away."

What will Bitcoin Cash be worth?

Aurelien Menant, founder and CEO of Gatecoin, a regulated bitcoin and ethereum token exchange based in Hong Kong, says parts of the community are referring to the new token as Bcash. He says the new coin will pose no threat to the future of bitcoin. "Investors holding both bitcoin and Bcash may benefit from the speculative price gains in both cryptocurrencies following the hard fork, but adoption of Bcash as a network will be limited in the short term." Fran Strajnar, co-founder & CEO of data and research company Brave New Coin, says most cryto currency funds and investors are looking forward to receiving their free tokens. "Most will likely hold as it's free, just to see what happens or for hedging," he told CNBC via email on Monday. "However a majority of everyday users, traders and investors are vocal about market dumping their free tokens as soon as they can." Strajnar predicts the price for Bitcoin Cash could be hit heavily once it is open to trading. "If there's any legs at all to Bitcoin Cash or if the miners backing it deploy large scale and sustained attacks on bitcoin, then Bitcoin Cash may survive its initial violent birth." Whatever happens, bitcoin will not disappoint in terms of creating drama, says Matthew Roszak, co-founder & chairman of blockchain enterprise software company Bloq. "This entire process will be a key test for bitcoin in its evolution beyond a store of value and show its potential to grow into something much greater," he told CNBC via email.

WATCH: Here's why a BitcoinIRA is enticing some to risk their savings
Cranes stand on the quayside at Khalifa Port on April 26, 2012. Gabriela Maj | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Five Chinese companies have agreed to spend a total of $300 million in a deal with Abu Dhabi Ports, deemed a "milestone" by CEO Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi. The companies hail from China's eastern Jiangsu province and will boost industries such as pharmaceuticals, electronics and aluminium smelting, Al Shamisi told CNBC's Street Signs Monday. In a deal struck through the Jiangsu Provincial Overseas Cooperation and Investment Company, the companies have signed a lease on 2.2 square kilometers of the Free Trade Zone of Khalifa Port, which the United Arab Emirates (UAE) firm Abu Dhabi Ports oversees. "The Chinese companies established within the free zone will sub-lease to five factories to start with," Al Shamisi explained. According to Reuters, the Chinese firms involved in the deal are Hanergy Thin Film Power Group, Jiangsu Fantai Mining Development (Group) Co Ltd, Xuzhou Jianghe Wood Co, Jiangsu Jinzi Environmental Technology Co and Guangzheng Group.

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The move is in line with China's One Belt, One Road infrastructure project to revive ancient trading routes, which is thought to be the biggest foreign spend ever by any country. Al Shamisi explained the strategic advantage of the UAE's ports, which enable "direct access through major shipping lines through Africa, (the) Indian subcontinent, Europe and Far East Asia." This is not the first time the China and the UAE have collaborated. In 2015, the two countries established a joint investment fund worth $10 billion. The promising economic potential of the UAE was one of BMI Research's findings in its Global Industry Investment Attractiveness report, published Friday.

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President Donald Trump may have insisted over 50 times on Twitter that The New York Times is "failing," but Jim Cramer had a different take on the publicly traded news giant's success.

"Bizarrely enough, when you look at The New York Times as a company and as a stock, it's not failing. It's thriving," the "Mad Money" host said.

Cramer called upon the Times' second-quarter results as proof. Besides the newspaper's stock being up some 70 percent since Trump's election, its earnings beat included a nearly 50 percent rise in net digital-only subscribers year over year.

The news industry has long been in a public struggle to prove itself as the rise of the internet transformed news from a necessity into a commodity.

In 2009, at the height of the financial crisis, shares of the Times were drastically low, and the company received a massive loan from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim to turn itself around.

By 2011, the Times had paid off the $250 million, six-year loan. By 2013 it had sold off several assets including The Boston Globe as part of a broader effort to clean up its balance sheet.

The company also rolled out a digital paywall to capitalize on what had previously been free online content, but in the five years following, revenues came in relatively flat.

"The crux of the problem? OK, newspaper companies like the Times make their money in two ways: from circulation fees  meaning selling subscriptions  and from selling advertising," Cramer said. "Believe it or not, contrary to President Trump's take on The New York Times, the company's circulation revenue has actually been growing pretty steadily year after year after year. It's on the advertising side where they've been getting killed."

Indeed, the Times' ad revenues slid by millions of dollars between 2012 and 2016 in the face of more attractive advertising options like Alphabet's Google and Facebook .

In 2016, ad revenue declined again by over 9 percent, though digital-only subscriber growth accelerated healthily.

"When you consider that advertising made up half of their business as recently as five years ago, that's a real problem," Cramer said. "If you want to know why President Trump always bashes the Times, aside from the fact that he likes to [insult his critics], it's because the company's advertising revenue stream seemed to be drying up."

But since Trump was elected president, shares of the Times lifted dramatically as investors bet on his insults driving traffic to the newspaper rather than away from it. In the seven days following his victory, the Times saw net subscribers increase by 41,000, the biggest one-week gain since its digital paywall roll-out in 2011.

Since then, the Times' quarterly earnings reports have been improving as other, more powerful verticals overshadowed the weakness in its ad business.

"So where do I come down with this? First, sorry, Mr. President, but The New York Times is thriving here, not failing," Cramer said. "But while the company's made a remarkable turnaround, I think it might be too late to buy the stock here. Easy money has most certainly been made. But on a decline, it sure is tempting. After all, how many of us went to the site immediately when it broke the 'Mooch' news? If The Times is failing, it's failing upwards."
Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat from Massachusetts Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images

As congressional Democrats rolled out their new "Better Deal" agenda for the American people, even some in their own ranks were surprised by the level of interest in the party's new agenda on antitrust and competition policy. One reason for that is that even some members of Congress may not be aware of how significant the commitments are that Democrats are making. After all, to a casual observer/member of Congress, invocations of the interests of "workers" and "small businesses" can easily seem like boilerplate rhetoric  the mom and apple pie of economic policy. But they actually seal the deal on a significant transformation of the party's approach to anti-trust issues, one that's actually been building for some time. Democrats are saying, with increasing clarity, that they want to overthrow a legal paradigm that's existed for about 40 years and which held that consumer welfare  typically as measured by consumer prices  is the sole relevant metric for making antitrust policy.

For a generation, antitrust has been all about prices

Acting in part under the intellectual influence of Robert Bork and the broader "law and economics" movement, the main currents of American legal thinking about antitrust matters shifted in the 1970s. The view that took root, entrenched by the Reagan administration's 1982 merger guidelines, held that economic concentration was generally not a problem unless it led to consumers paying higher prices at stores. Under this approach, if two big supermarket chains that mostly served different cities wanted to merge, that would almost certainly be okay, no matter how big the combined company was going to be. If there were a couple of neighborhoods where they both operated stores, the merged entity might be forced to divest of some locations in order to preserve price competition in those specific markets. But the idea of assembling a really big supermarket chain was not a problem. And in particular, if the new really big supermarket chain could gain superior bargaining leverage with suppliers and lay off redundant workers, that wasn't just okay, it was good  evidence that the merger was a pro-consumer move about realizing efficiencies. This broad approach to anti-trust policy remained in force through Bill Clinton's term in the White House, though the Democratic Party's fundamentally more regulation-friendly philosophy did manifest itself in a significant anti-trust case against Microsoft. Under George W. Bush, enforcement got laxer. Under Obama, regulatory activism came back in style (proposed takeovers of T-Mobile by AT&T and Sprint were blocked, for example) but the Reagan-era conceptual framework stayed in place. But by Obama's final year in office, his Council of Economic Advisers issued a report sounding the alarm about an increase in economic concentration whose deleterious impacts extended beyond higher prices to potentially playing a role in declining investment and stifling wage growth. The CEA report further called for "examination" of "market structure changes throughout the supply chain"  opening the door to the broader form of anti-trust scrutiny the Better Deal calls for.

The great Walmart debate

The change had been building for a while. More than a decade ago, Barry Lynn, who now directs the Open Markets Project at the New America Foundation, called for anti-trust action against Walmart , which he dubbed "one of the best illustrations of monopsony pricing power in economic history." The key problem with Walmart, according to Lynn, was not that it raised prices for consumers (indeed, it lowered them) but that its large share of the retail market (in 2006, its revenue was nearly equal to the next six retailers combined) gave it enormous power over not consumers but producers of the goods that stocked its shelves. At around that time, Jason Furman, who would later go on to chair Obama's CEA and author the report calling for increased scrutiny of corporate concentration, disagreed, publishing a paper labeling Walmart a "progressive success story." Furman's analysis, emblematic of the approach that's prevailed since Reagan's day, returned the basic focus to prices. By increasing efficiency in the retail sector and by squeezing suppliers, Walmart was lowering prices and raising real living standards  especially the real living standards of lower-income Americans whose consumption is heavily tilted toward the kind of basic commodities a mass market retailer like Walmart sells. The notion of Walmart as an unstoppable corporate behemoth has, of course, taken a hit during the past decade thanks largely to the relentless rise of Amazon. But Lynn, joined over the years by New America colleagues such as Lina Khan and Matt Stoller has continued to develop the argument that a narrow focus on consumer prices is inadequate to understanding the full range of concerns about economic concentration.

How anti-concentrators won over Democrats

And over the past two or three years, Lynn's argument has moved from the fringes of politics to the mainstream of the Democratic Party. One key political step was that Elizabeth Warren took up the cause in a June 2016 keynote address at New America. Warren was, of course, a longtime critic of concentration in the financial services industry. Banking was one of several major industries where concentration was historically constrained by New Deal legislation other than anti-trust law. Until the early 1980s, for example, commercial banks could not operate branches in more than one state. And until the late 1990s, commercial banks couldn't merge with insurance companies or investment banks. The rationales for these rules always had more to do with political and economic power than with consumer prices, and as an advocate for bringing back that style of regulation Warren was in many ways a natural to call for turning the same philosophy loose on the whole economy. These same kind of ideas ended up being influential in the 2016 Democratic Party platform, were picked up by Hillary Clinton's campaign in October, and would likely have been a substantial focus of her transition team had she won the election. The Better Deal is essentially a sign that Clinton's low-key flirtation with antitrust revisionism is now real doctrine. "The party's been moving in this direction for a few years now, and Clinton's concentration agenda was very good," says Stoller "but she just didn't talk about it." Suddenly, Democrats want to talk about it.

The right idea for the moment

The fact that the idea is not, in fact, incredibly new is paradoxically part of its appeal at this political moment. A recently defeated political party looking to make a comeback is, in the course of things, expected to grandly announce its embrace of some new ideas. But new ideas generally entail ugly factional infighting that Democrats would prefer to avoid. That Democrats largely came around to this "new" position last year puts it on the express track to party consensus. An additional virtue of the antitrust issue is that it doesn't really call for much in the way of new statutes or new legislation as the existing statutes are already quite broadly worded. What it would mean to shift American antitrust policy is largely a question of who is appointed to key roles at the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission and  critically  who is appointed to key federal judicial roles where the broadly worded statutes will be interpreted. This means that as long as legislators can broadly agree about the direction, they can agree to disagree (or not to form an opinion at all) about the fine details or limiting cases. Discussion of health care naturally leads to internecine fights about the broad slogan "Medicare for all" and the myriad implementation details that slogan might entail. Discussion of antitrust is well-suited to broad statements of principle, and a spirit of working together to win elections in 2018 and 2020. But not only is the timing for a shift propitious, a spate of new research in recent years has genuinely changed mind and made the subject less divisive in Democratic ranks.

The research behind a shift
Dillard's is the latest department store chain to be targeted by an activist investor.

New York-based Snow Park Capital Partners is now calling out the retailer for the untapped value of its real estate.

"Dillard's is essentially an unleveraged real estate company that is masquerading as a low productivity retailer," Jeff Pierce, managing director at Snow Park, told CNBC on Monday.

The investor, which has primarily focused on real estate securities and owns a 2 percent stake in Dillard's, said the department store's properties alone should be valued at upward of $200 per share.

Bloomberg first reported this news, but it was later confirmed by CNBC.

Shares in Dillard's initially climbed more than 6 percent Monday morning after the Bloomberg report. However, in midafternoon trading the stock was down more than 6 percent, at around $74 apiece.

According to Snow Park, Dillard's owns about 48 million square feet of real estate, with about a quarter of that in so-called Class A malls. Shopping centers in that category can command north of $650 per square foot in sales, according to the investor. But Dillard's is only averaging about $125 in average sales per square foot.

"It's fair to say that Dillard's may not be getting the highest and best use for some or all of their owned space," Pierce said. "In fact, our estimated rental value to more productive retail tenants exceeds the company's entire current income as a retailer."

A representative for Dillard's didn't immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.

Dillard's wouldn't be the first department store approached for its real estate holdings, either. Macy's had been under pressure from activist hedge fund Starboard Value since 2015 to separate its real estate from its retail business.

Then, earlier this year, Canada's Hudson's Bay reportedly made a takeover approach for Macy's, with an eye on its real estate. Companies in Hudson's Bay's portfolio in the U.S. include Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue.

Ironically, Hudson's Bay also is a recent target of an activist. Land and Buildings Investment Management warned Monday that it would consider a push to remove directors at Hudson's Bay if the Canadian retailer didn't take steps "to enhance shareholder value."

Last month, Land and Buildings, which is controlled by Jonathan Litt, asked Hudson's Bay to consider going private and monetize its real estate.

With foot traffic notably on the decline at malls across America, department stores look to be easy targets for activists seeking to shake things up.

This also isn't the first time Dillard's is being pressured by an investor. In 2014, Marcato Capital Management built up a stake in Dillard's with the goal of having the company spin off its property into a real estate investment trust.

However, that pathway to monetization is no longer available under stricter regulations governing REITs. This had been a move Sears Holdings employed two years ago when it spun off some of its most profitable Sears and Kmart properties into Seritage Growth Properties to raise much-needed cash.

David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital disclosed in June that it held almost 10 percent of Dillard's Class A shares, though the Dillard family maintains control of the company through a separate set of Class B shares.
Donald Trump Joshua Roberts | Reuters

There are few traits Donald Trump claims to value the way he values loyalty. In a remarkable passage in The Art of the Deal, Trump praises his mentor Roy Cohn for placing loyalty above all else  even integrity. He was a truly loyal guy  it was a matter of honor with him  and because he was also very smart, he was a great guy to have on your side. You could count on him to go to bat for you, even if he privately disagreed with your view, and even if defending you wasn't necessarily the best thing for him. He was never two-faced. Just compare that with all the hundreds of "respectable" guys who make careers out of boasting about their uncompromising integrity but have absolutely no loyalty. They only care about what's best for them and don't think twice about stabbing a friend in the back if the friend becomes a problem. What I liked most about Roy Cohn was that he would do just the opposite. Roy was the kind of guy who'd be there at your hospital bed long after everyone else had bailed out, literally standing by you to the death. More from Vox:

Russia is retaliating against new US sanctions in a big way Democrats' push for a new era of antitrust enforcement, explained

"Will I go blind?": 20 questions about the total solar eclipse you were too embarrassed to ask For Trump, though, loyalty is a one-way street. He turns out to be precisely one of those guys who will stab a friend in the back as soon as the friend becomes a problem. And the problem for Trump, and for the rest of us, is that the whole country is watching him do it. Trump's treatment of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and ex-Chief of Staff Reince Priebus has sent shockwaves through his Cabinet. Many are rumored to be thinking of quitting in the aftermath  better to leave before Trump has turned you into a national joke than after. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is rumored to be particularly disgusted and close to resigning. And anyone currently serving Trump is likely taking a page from ex-FBI Director James Comey's book and keeping copious notes on their experiences  the better to fight back in a memoir or with leaks if they need to get their side of the story out, or salvage their reputation after being attacked by Trump. But for the country, the penalty will be felt not in those serving Trump now, but in those who will  or, more to the point, won't  serve Trump next. Trump promised to hire "the best people" but he has created a culture that will only attract the worst.

How Trump rewrote his history with Sessions in order to knife him

Attorney General Sessions was one of Trump's earliest, staunchest supporters. On the night Trump won the election, he singled out Sessions for special praise. He thanked Sessions for being "the first man, first senator, first major, major politician" to endorse him, going on to say Sessions was "highly respected in Washington because he's as smart as you get." Today, Trump is singing a different tune. Furious at Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia probe, Trump has been attacking Sessions in public in the hopes that he can humiliate his attorney general into resigning and replace him with an AG who can more effectively shield Trump and his family from the rule of law. Tweet Trump's public campaign against his own attorney general is a bizarre spectacle. But it has come alongside something even more pathologically strange: Trump publicly denying Sessions had ever been loyal to him. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Trump said: When they say he endorsed me, I went to Alabama. I had 40,000 people. He was a senator from Alabama. I won the state by a lot, massive numbers. A lot of the states I won by massive numbers. But he was a senator, he looks at 40,000 people and he probably says, 'What do I have to lose?' And he endorsed me. So it's not like a great loyal thing about the endorsement. If you were wondering how Trump justifies abandoning his most loyal allies, there it is: He persuades himself they were never loyal to him in the first place. If Sessions were an isolated case, Trump's behavior could perhaps be dismissed as part of his fear of Robert Mueller's investigation. But the public humiliation of ex-Chief of Staff Reince Priebus shows how that Trump's dismissal and destruction of even his most stolid and important supporters is a pattern, not an aberration.

The humiliation of Reince Priebus

During the campaign, Priebus was among Trump's most consequential allies. As head of the Republican National Committee, Priebus defied many in his party and refused to tilt the primaries against Trump. No matter what Trump said, or what Trump did, Priebus kept the RNC in his corner, and, once Trump had won the nomination, turned it into the campaign machinery Trump had never bothered to build. Trump knew how important Priebus and the RNC had been to his success. "Reince is really a star," he said in his victory speech. "And he is the hardest-working guy." Then, in in an unusual move, he interrupted his speech to turn the mic over to Priebus. "Say a few words," he asked. Priebus, always the good soldier, said exactly what Trump wanted to hear: "Ladies and gentlemen, the next president of the United States, Donald Trump." "Amazing guy," Trump replied. "Our partnership with the RNC was so important to the success and what we've done." For all this, Trump named Priebus his chief of staff. Priebus was underqualified for the position  he had never served in a White House or even in Congress  but it was, from the outset, an impossible job: Trump couldn't be controlled, and he didn't give Priebus the power to control the other power centers in the administration, either. As Trump's approval ratings tanked and his agenda stalled and his aides went to war with each other, he came to blame Priebus for his troubles. But rather than simply firing Priebus, Trump spoke openly and often of his contempt for his chief of staff, and he let others in his White House do the same. The result was an agonizing, slow, and very public humiliation of Trump's former "star." As far back as February, Trump's friends were speaking publicly of the president's disappointment in his chief of staff, and Washington was filled with leaks that Priebus's days were numbered. All this culminated over the last week when Anthony Scaramucci, Trump's new communications director, placed an angry call to the New Yorker's Ryan Lizza in which he called Priebus "a fucking paranoid schizophrenic," and said, "Reince Priebusif you want to leak somethinghe'll be asked to resign very shortly." Prior to Trump, it would be unimaginable that a communications director for a White House could give an interview like that without being fired the next day. But Trump quickly let it be known that he appreciated Scaramucci's passion, and found it contemptible that Priebus didn't fight back publicly. A few days later, Trump fired Priebus, just as Scaramucci said he would, and left him on an airport tarmac.

The best people will not work for the worst bosses
Describing China and Pakistan as "very close friends", Basit said whatever is being done by China in Pakistan is with mutual consent.

Pakistan's outgoing High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit gave an exclusive interview to India Today where he said it is unfair to say that Pakistan is being colonised by China.

Describing China and Pakistan as "very close friends", Basit said whatever is being done by China in Pakistan is with mutual consent.

He rubbished all charges by the NIA against the Kashmiri separatists saying that it was to 'malign' them and that there is no truth to the allegations. Basit spoke in detail about Indo-Pak ties, Kulbhushan Jadhav's mother's plea for visa, terrorism and on India Today's exclusive report on colonisation of PoK, Balochistan and other parts of Pakistan by China.

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HERE ARE THE EXCERPTS:

On disqualification of PM Nawaz Sharif:

This only reflects that democracy is finally taking root in Pakistan. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif went through a judicial process and tomorrow we will have a new prime minister elected. Democracy seems to be strengthening by the day. We have no worries in Pakistan.

On PoK PM rethinking staying with Pakistan:

I think he has subsequently clarified his position that he was quoted out of context so I do not know whether or not this warrants comments by me or not when he already clarified his position.

On people of PoK having concerns with the turmoil in Pakistan:

I don't think so. People of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (PoK) are very much looking forward to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute and this is what we are trying vis-a-vis India.

On his resignation:

There are administrative reasons why I quit. Don't want to discuss my personal career here. Let's focus on Pakistan and India relations.

On Hurriyat tapes and terror funding, Naeem Khan on tape:

We have seen this. This is not the first time that we have seen such allegations against the Hurriyat leadership. Such allegations were made in the past as well but nobody could substantiate it or prove the allegations. I'm confident this time too that all these allegations would disappear, dissipate. There is no truth to these allegations. Now here we are looking at one situation through a different lens. For you the problems in Jammu and Kashmir maybe related to terrorism but as far as Pakistan is concerned we look at this struggle as an inalienable right of Jammu and Kashmir. During the last three and a half years here I've tried to persuade the interlocutors in India to look as Jammu and Kashmir situation slightly differently and perhaps you would be able to arrive at the right conclusion.

On Naeem Khan saying on record that money given by Pakistan was used to foment trouble in Kashmir:

I do not know how credible the evidence is because in the past also we have seen doctored videos. Let's see how things unfold. As far as Pakistan is concerned, I can tell you very clearly that Pakistan will extend political, diplomatic and moral support to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

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On NIA interrogation of Behal visited Pak HC and was a personal courier of Geelani:

Since I am not privy to these details, I can't comment. All I can say is that in the past also efforts have been made to malign the Hurriyat leadership and the Kashmiri struggle and to portray it as a terror issue. And I can tell you this will go nowhere because the people of Jammu and Kashmir know very well as to what they are struggling for and it is for their right to self-determination. My submission to my Indian friends is that 70 years have lapsed, do we want to resolve this issue once and for all or continue raising such peripheral issues to confuse things.

On engaging the elected representatives of Jammu and Kashmir. Why engage only the Hurriyat?:

Because we believe that Hurriyat is the genuine representative of the political aspirations of the people of J&K.

On charges against Hurriyat:

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Now you saw Burhan Wani was killed and you saw how thousands attended his funeral and you call Burhan Wani a terrorist. Given that logic they all are terrorists.

On many opposed the likes of Burhan Wani. Why not engage them?:

Because we think their views are already etched in stone whereas Pakistan's effort is that the people of Jammu and Kashmir get a chance to decide whether they would like to join Pakistan or India whereas the other leadership, their ideas are etched in stone so there is no point to engage with them.

On Shabbir Shah 2005 case:

I would not like to comment on these things because this is all hearsay. I'm not privy to these things and we are learning through the media.

On no cooperation from Pakistan on this front:

Cooperation can't be on unilateral terms. When we argue for a comprehensive engagement, it covers everything. It is not Pakistan which is not trying to engage with India, unfortunately, it is India which has not been forthcoming to reach out to Pakistan. We have a strategic vision to solve our fundamental problems but the thing is you get bogged down with these details which would lead us nowhere I can assure you. We have been here before as well and history is replete with such things.

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On talks sans terror, support to Jaish, Hizb, Lashkar:

These are all banned organisations and we are trying to handle these things in Pakistan. Zarb-e-Azb and other such operations are meant to eradicate terrorism but we are also a victim of terrorism. Pakistan during the last 15-16 years has lost thousands of people including close to 6,000 security personnel. It is in Pakistan's own interest to deal with this monster effectively and we have been trying but unfortunately there is lack of appreciation in India what Pakistan has been doing vis-a-vis terrorism. Terrorism in Pakistan also has both internal and external dimensions.

On NIA recommending closing LoC trade because investigations again reveal terror funding:

I really do not know because if the LoC trade is closed then it would be a setback in my view because it is one of the CBMs (Confidence Building Measures) and they come through after much efforts so if India does it unilaterally it is provocative but as a diplomat I would emphasise that these CBMs are very important because we have invested in these CBMs so they should not be allowed to fall apart.

On Kulbhushan Jadhav issue:

First of all, he wasn't tried only for espionage, he was also tried for other subversive activities in Pakistan. His is not an ordinary case and we have dealt with consular access to him under the bilateral agreement of 2008 which clearly stipulates that consular access on security related matters will be decided on merit. So please do not mix apples and oranges. Do not expect Pakistan to provide consular access as you do in ordinary cases.

On Jadhav's mother:

I do not know. The matter is subjudice at the ICJ at India's behest meanwhile Commander Jadhav's mercy plea is with the Army Chief. He would decide whether or not to pardon him. And if his conviction is upheld and his mercy petition is rejected then we will see what happens if he submits his mercy petition with the President.

I do not know about the visa to the mother. ICJ is dealing with the issue of jurisdiction and the consular access issue.

On Syed Salahuddin's being designated as terrorist by USA:

For us he is not a terrorist. If the US has designated him that doesn't mean he is a terrorist. The Kashmiri struggle is absolutely in sync with the UN charter and the universal declaration of human rights. Nobody can condone terror actions anywhere in the world but as far as Syed Salahuddin is concerned, he has been struggling for the rights of the people. Designated as terrorist by the US doesn't change the Kashmiri struggle.

On international community recognising him as a terrorist:

What international community? He has not been designated by the UN. It is just one country that has said it and that doesn't make him a terrorist.

On Masood Azhar and Hafiz Saeed:

Things cannot be done to appease any one country. We have our own legal procedures. Hafiz Saeed was arrested in the past but we had to let him go. Even today he is in custody but there is a procedure. In order to book him, we need hard irrefutable evidence.

On Pak defence minister himself said that Hafiz Saeed is detrimental to Pak interests:

That's why we put him in protective custody, under house arrest. Now we will try to try him and hopefully have some evidence against him.

We had enough evidence to put him under house arrest. Don't know if we have enough evidence against him to try him in the court and whether if that evidence is maintainable. We are in the process of collecting evidence and if India also shares then it would be helpful. There is zero tolerance for violence, militancy in Pakistan because we also have suffered in the past.

On Chinese occupation/colonisation of PoK, Baluchistan and other parts of Pak:

Very strong words. China and Pakistan are very close friends and this friendship is not new. It is time tested friendship and there is simply no issue. You may have your own way of looking at it but as far as the people of Pakistan are concerned, there is no issue. We know where this cooperation is taking us. It is strategic in nature and we are very confident that this is to our mutual benefit. China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, CPEC, would hopefully be a game changer for Pakistan. It will indeed help us to make Pakistan a regional economic hub.

On China's nefarious plans:

Everything is being done with mutual consent. Whatever we feel is in our interest is being done with China and then since we have a strategic relationship our interests converge. We do not have any concerns or fears in Pakistan.

On India Today's exclusive report on how PoK people are unhappy:

It is mutual between China and Pakistan. All four provinces have elected representatives and all the four governments are onboard on the CPEC projects. Those 10-12 Baloch do not represent the wishes and aspirations of Balochistan and other parts of Pakistan. They know that these projects are for the well-being and prosperity of the people. We have no worries, we are moving in the right direction. China is helping us in many ways roads networks, expansion of industrial base. So, we have no problems.

On Pakistan is not looking at the meticulous planning of colonisation... Encircling India:

Colonisation is a very strong word. Karakoram Highway, thousands of Chinese were involved in building it. It is unfair to say that we are being colonised.

Our economic relations are not against any third country. This is a huge economic project and is for the people of PoK and we do not have any problem. And eventually, we hope that this becomes a regional project and all regional countries benefit from it. Let's not draw premature conclusion.

On talks and terror don't go together:

My precondition would be that talks and preconditions do not go hand in hand. So we need to talk to each other without preconditions. Unrest in the Valley has nothing to do with Pakistan. It is an indigenous struggle going on for years so that is the whole problem.

Those are your investigations, not UN or international investigations. Let's be real about things. This dispute has been there for years, terrorism is a new thing. Both are victims of terror. Not acceptable to make terrorism the central thing. We have fought wars over Jammu and Kashmir. J&K is the root cause for all our problems. Once we agree you will see how quickly things resolve. Terrorism is also an issue for us.

Environment immediately improves when talks begin. It happened and we tried to cooperate with each other. Let's revert to the Sharm-el-Sheikh and separate talks and terror.

ALSO READ:

Pakistan China's new colony? Leaked papers reveal Beijing's stake in economy, key projects

Also watch:

Abdul Basit to India Today: No truth to allegations of Pakistan funding Hurriyat for terrorism

--- ENDS ---
We may tend to assume that the most talented people in the world are also the highest-paid. But Eddie Huang says that truly successful people would probably work for free. "If you meet anyone who's good at what they do," Huang told CNBC Make It at OZY Fest, "they're extremely passionate, they're crazy O.C.D. detailed about it, and they would probably do it for free. They would probably do it even if it wasn't their job." On the other hand, says Huang, "The people that are bad at something are the ones that do it because it's their job."

Eddie Huang Maarten de Boer | Getty Images

Apple CEO Tim Cook has made similar statements in the past. When receiving an honorary degree from The University of Glasgow, he told students, "My advice to all of you is, don't work for money  it will wear out fast, or you'll never make enough and you will never be happy." Instead, the tech titan urged students to follow their passions, saying, "You have to find the intersection of doing something you're passionate about and at the same time something that is in the service of other people." Huang seems to agree, arguing, "I think it's very important to stick to things you genuinely have a passion for and have been working on for a large portion of your life."

Eddie Huang Melodie Jeng | Getty Images
Facebook on Monday said that it has acquired Ozlo, a start-up that built a virtual assistant app for Android and iOS. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

Ozlo launched last year, making its assistant available outside of other apps with assistants, including Alphabet's Google Allo, Facebook's Messenger, and Microsoft's Skype. Ozlo can give you recipes, point to nearby restaurants and show movie showtimes, among other things. But the app hasn't become extremely popular -- on Android the app has 500-1,000 installs.

Messenger's many end users can already talk with many chatbots in the app, and Facebook to talk with customers. Facebook has also tested a dedicated first-party M assistant for a small group of users, and more recently it has on Messenger.

The majority of the Ozlo team -- 29 employees are listed on LinkedIn -- is joining Facebook, and they all will be working in Facebook's Messenger group, a Facebook spokeswoman told CNBC. The start-up's apps and other offerings "are winding down," the spokeswoman said.
Putin's net worth is estimated to be $200 billion, according to former Hermitage Capital Management CEO Bill Browder, who testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, according to prepared remarks obtained by The Atlantic .

But as the Seattle entrepreneurs jockey for the top ranking, Russian President Vladimir Putin is worth more than both Gates and Bezos combined, says one financier.

"I estimate that [Putin] has accumulated $200 billion of ill-gotten gains," Browder tells Congress, according to The Atlantic. "He keeps his money in the West and all of his money in the West is potentially exposed to asset freezes and confiscation."

Browder says Putin's wealth is a result of nefarious practices.

"There are approximately 10,000 officials in Russia working for Putin who are given instructions to kill, torture, kidnap, extort money from people and seize their property," continues Browder.

Browder founded and lead Hermitage Capital Management, which from 1996 through 2005 was an investment advisory company in Russia and had as much as $4 billion invested in Russian stocks. In 2005, the financier entrepreneur was labeled a "threat to national security" there and banned from the country. After he was forced out, Russian officials seized Hermitage Capital Management's investment funds and, according to Browder, Putin's officials stole $230 million Hermitage Capital Management had paid in taxes to the Russian state.

Browder was testifying in front of Congress because the Russian lawyer he hired to investigate the seizure of his company, Sergei Magnitsky, was tortured and eventually killed in prison in 2009. Ever since, Browder has been an advocate against corruption in Russia. As such, he was called to testify as part of a congressional investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

See also:

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg: Elon Musk's doomsday AI predictions are 'pretty irresponsible'



Elon Musk: 'Robots will be able to do everything better than us'



Warren Buffett and Bill Gates think it's 'crazy' to view job-stealing robots as bad


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German Economy Minister Brigitte Zypries asked the European Commission to look into possible countermeasures against the United States, following tough sanctions against Russia that could potentially hit European companies. "We consider this to be a violation of international law," Zypries told local newspapers over the weekend. "The Americans cannot punish German companies because they operate economically in another country. There are (partnerships) for natural gas and petroleum pipelines (in the region)," she said via Google translate. Zypries further added that Germany doesn't want a trade war and has repeatedly, and on different levels, urged the Americans not to leave the line of common sanctions.

"Unfortunately, they did. That is why it is right for the EU Commission to take countermeasures now," she said. Europe is "ready to take countermeasures in the short term, even in other areas," Zypries added, without going into detail. The White House announced last week that President Donald Trump will sign draft legislation that imposes stricter sanctions on Russia, with Moscow firing back by ordering the U.S. to cut hundreds of diplomatic staff and said it would seize two U.S. diplomatic properties in retaliation. On Thursday last week, the U.S. Senate voted almost unanimously to slap new sanctions on Russia, forcing Trump to choose between a tough position on Moscow - effectively dashing his stated hopes for warmer ties with the country - or to veto the bill amid investigations into possible collusion between his campaign and Russia.

Donald Trump Jim Bourg | Reuters
Goldman Sachs Group Inc hired China-focused banker Bill Chu to its investment banking team in the country, betting on increased activity as companies in the world's second-largest economy gear up for a resumption of overseas deals.

Based in Beijing, Chu will be a managing director in the China Investment Banking Services (IBS) team, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters on Monday. He was previously with Deutsche Bank for 10 years, most recently as head of Asia Consumer and Retail and before that as head of China Power and Utility.

Goldman confirmed the contents of the memo but declined to comment further. The New York-based firm said it could be making further hires in China.

"Bill's appointment is part of our focus on strategic hires as we concentrate our resources on the anticipated growth in China corporate activity over the medium and long-term. We look forward to making additional announcements in due course," Goldman said in the memo.

Goldman was the top adviser of mergers and acquisitions in Asia ex-Japan in the first half of 2017, Thomson Reuters data showed.

Deal activity in the region dropped 15 percent in the period, as overseas deals by Chinese companies - the engine of M&A activity in Asia - sank 49 percent because of Beijing's crackdown on capital outflows and closer scrutiny of acquisitive conglomerates.

Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook.
U.S. crude oil surged into the close of trading to settle above the key psychological level of $50 a barrel.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude ended Monday's session up 46 cents at $50.17, its first close above $50 a barrel since May 24. That pushed WTI's monthly gain to about 9 percent, making July the best month for the commodity since April 2016.

The milestone came after WTI posted its best weekly performance of the year, surging 8.6 percent last week, boosted by a big drop in U.S. crude stockpiles and Saudi Arabia's vow to cut oil exports in August.

U.S. WTI crude intraday

Prices first rose above $50 in overnight trade against the backdrop of U.S. threats to slap sanctions on Venezuela's energy sector after embattled President Nicolas Maduro proceeded with a vote to replace the nation's legislative body. The sanctions are seen as heaping pressure on Venezuelan state energy company PDVSA and potentially reducing the country's oil output even further than it has already fallen throughout a prolonged economic crisis.

OPEC also announced over the weekend that some members of the cartel, including top oil exporters Saudi Arabia and Russia, will meet next week to discuss ways to improve compliance with a deal to limit output among roughly two dozen crude-producing nations.

U.S. shale producers have begun reducing capital spending plans, a positive signal for observers concerned about surging American output weighing on oil prices.

U.S. WTI crude year to date

Some analysts believe oil prices will struggle to rise much above $50 a barrel though, citing a number of technical resistance levels and developments in the physical market.

Still, hedge funds and money managers have begun raising their bets that oil prices will rise in recent weeks. The volume of bullish bets on U.S. crude mostly fell from the end of February through the end of June.
The stock popped as much as 7 percent in extended trading, briefly wiping out the day's losses. But after an initial spike, shares lost steam and flattened out.

Pandora posted better-than-expected financial results on Monday, but fell short of estimates in terms of active listeners.

Pandora's narrower-than-expected losses signal a sigh of relief after a rough-and-tumble year at the online radio company.

Co-founder Tim Westergren stepped aside as CEO for the second time in June, amid the company's ongoing battle against the likes of Spotify and Apple Music. The company fended off an acquisition offer from SiriusXM, only to accept a from the satellite radio company. That investment was in lieu of an investment from KKR, a firm known for private equity deals. Pandora and KKR had reached an agreement on a $150 million investment in May.

Despite the drama, Pandora managed to increase both advertising revenue and subscriptions during the second quarter, boosting revenue.

The company has also announced divestiture of online ticket platform Ticketfly and the discontinuation of Pandora operations in Australia and New Zealand.

"We have taken a number of steps to hone the company's strategy and position Pandora to continue to build audience and extend monetization," said Naveen Chopra, chief financial officer and interim CEO of Pandora.
The Trump administration has signaled that military options, which would put the South Korean population as well as American troops stationed there in the line of fire, remain on the table. But Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has acknowledged the cost could be "a loss of life unlike any we have experienced in our lifetimes."

"There are real potential economic consequences" either way, said Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations. He called it "an enormous test" of a Trump administration weakened by disarray.

Each new North Korean missile test brings American officials closer to an excruciating choice: striking militarily to stop Pyongyang's nuclear program from endangering the U.S., or accepting the North Korean threat while scrambling for a new strategy.

So far, markets have shrugged off the North Korea crisis just like White House turmoil. But the economic hazard, like the security threat, is coming more clearly into focus.

The duration, scope and intensity of such a conflict would be highly unpredictable. In addition to the toll in casualties, it could destabilize the entire Asia-Pacific region and, at minimum, severely strain the confidence of consumers and investors in the United States.

A second alternative is relying on pressure from North Korea's neighbor China. President Donald Trump has oscillated between promising that China could swiftly halt the North Korean nuclear program, to thanking China for trying unsuccessfully, to faulting China for "just talk." He tweeted that "we will no longer allow" China to keep profiting from trade with the U.S. without exerting great effort.

But China, which worries that substantially more pressure on North Korea could destabilize the regime and trigger a flood of refugees across their border, has made plain the limits of its cooperation. Should the Trump administration hit Chinese goods with import tariffs as a result, Beijing has retaliatory economic steps ready to go.

Nicholas Lardy, an expert on the Chinese economy at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, predicted China would take two specific steps. One would be sharply reducing purchases of U.S. soybeans, with the goal of driving down prices and squeezing U.S. farm exports; the other is cutting orders of U.S. airplanes manufactured by Boeing .

A third option is to adapt the approaches that previous administrations have used in vain: Sustaining sanctions and ramping up military deterrence while offering incentives for North Korea to enter negotiations with nations including Russia, China and Japan. Former national security aide Antony Blinken gives that approach no more than a 30 percent chance of success, but said it would avoid the "huge, huge risk" of military action.

The decades-long intractability of the North Korean problem has sent some aides to past administrations searching for new approaches. Jay Lefkowitz, an envoy to North Korea for President , advocates that the U.S. reassure China by abandoning its historic support for eventual Korean reunification; Jon Wolfsthal, a former Obama aide, wants the U.S. to shift from stopping North Korea's nuclear program to preventing it from using nuclear weapons.

A special challenge facing the Trump administration is coping with North Korea at a time when the administration is under-staffed and in disarray, from the White House to the State Department. The president himself has displayed limited patience, attention span and command of policy  important qualities for handling complex problems like North Korea.

"We'll handle North Korea," Trump said at a Cabinet meeting Monday. "We're going to be able to handle them. It will be handled. We handle everything."

To minimize potential costs, former Clinton and Obama national security adviser Jim Steinberg said, Trump and his team need to "play the long game" of sustained pressure and diplomacy  without overreacting.

"We have to make sure," he concluded, "that the cure is not worse than the disease."
Three years, near-billion dollar settlements in China and South Korea and a slew of litigation with Apple later, Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf says it's the uniqueness of his business model that has drawn such international scrutiny.

"It's unique so it's easy to attack," Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf told CNBC's Squawk on the Street Monday. "It just takes a while to go legally and defend yourself. But it's worth doing. It's very valuable to our shareholders."

Qualcomm's business is divided into two main revenue streams: Chips and licensing. The two business, he says, have to stand on their own.

"The licensing business is about licensing the full portfolio of Qualcomm's patents. Some of them involve the chip. Some of them don't involve the chip. In fact the vast majority of them don't involve the chip," said Mollenkopf. "Then on the chip side, we obviously compete in a very, very competitive chip market. And I think when we look at the market  there's no way to conclude that that isn't the most competitive semiconductor industry in the world."
Ousted leader Nawaz Sharif's PML-N holds a majority with 188 seats in the 342-member parliament, so it should be able to swiftly install its choice, barring defections from its own ranks.

By Reuters: Pakistan's lawmakers will elect a new prime minister tomorrow to replace ousted leader Nawaz Sharif, with ruling party stalwart Shahid Khaqan Abbasi expected to become interim leader until Sharif's own brother is eligible.

The confirmation from parliament came after Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain convened a special session after Sharif decided to put forward his ally Abbasi as interim leader and named his brother Shahbaz, 65, as long-term successor.

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Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party holds a majority with 188 seats in the 342-member parliament, so it should be able to swiftly install its choice, barring any defections from its own ranks.

A quick handover could ease the political upheaval sparked by a Supreme Court decision on Friday to disqualify Sharif for not declaring a source of income. The court also ordered a criminal investigation into him and his family.

Abbasi on Sunday vowed to continue Sharif's work.

"I hope that God will help me in furthering Nawaz Sharif's policies," Abbasi told reporters in Islamabad, adding to speculation that Sharif will continue to run the show behind the scenes.

The turmoil and the premature end to Sharif's third stint in power has also raised questions about Pakistan's democracy. No prime minister has completed a full term in power since the country gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947.

"We wanted to make sure there is a smooth transfer of power and no constitutional crisis," said Miftah Ismail, a senior PML-N official and Sharif ally.

SUCCESSION PLAN

On Sunday evening, thousands of supporters of opposition politician Imran Khan held a celebration rally in Islamabad, waving flags and cheering Sharif's ouster.

Khan, who spearheaded a campaign for the Supreme Court case that removed Sharif, has said he expects to win the next general elections in 2018.

Meanwhile, Sharif loyalists incensed by his ouster cheered his arrival in the hill town of Murree.

Sharif has lashed out against the court's decision and opponents who used the Supreme Court to topple him. He has vowed his party would continue to focus on development, touting a faster-growing economy as proof of his success.

"Wheel of development is moving and may God keep it rolling and may it never stop," he told members of PML-N on Saturday night.

On Sharif's arrival, supporters chanted: "The Lion is here".

But his foes slammed PML-N's plans as dynastic and undemocratic. Khan called it a form of "monarchy".

Sharif said the plan is for former petroleum minister Abbasi to stay in power for less than two months until Shahbaz, who is the chief minister of the vast Punjab province, wins a by-election to the national assembly and becomes eligible to be prime minister.

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Abbasi and Shahbaz will have to work fast to tackle Pakistan's worsening ties with the United States, frayed relations with India, and persistent attacks by Islamist militants, including the Pakistani Taliban and Islamic State.

They will also need to boost economic growth above the current rate of 5.3 percent to find employment for millions of young people entering the job market every year in a nation of nearly 200 million people.

Economists say this will prove tricky, with the current account deficit is ballooning and an overvalued currency is hurting exports.

COURT RULING

Sharif, whose PML-N party won elections in 2013, said he was shocked by Friday's Supreme Court ruling disqualifying him from office over unreported income from a company owned by his son in Dubai. Sharif said the monthly salary - equivalent to $2,722 - was nominal and he never actually received any of it.

The Supreme Court employed little-used Article 62 of the Constitution, which calls for the dismissal of any lawmaker deemed dishonest, to dismiss Sharif. His allies believe the verdict smacks of judicial overreach. Others say privately elements of the military had a hand in the process.

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"People of Pakistan haven't accepted the decision," Abbasi said.

The army has not commented on Sharif's departure, or on allegations they were involved. It has also dismissed claims in the past that they were behind the Supreme Court's push.

Sharif's two previous stints in power were also cut short, the second ending in a military coup led by General Pervez Musharraf in 1999.

Shahbaz Sharif, who has been in charge of Punjab since 2008, has better relations with the military than his brother. He has built a reputation as a competent administrator focused on building infrastructure.

Also Read:

Nawaz Sharif was a liar, deserved to go: Pervez Musharraf to India Today

Story of Nawaz Sharif's ouster: From Panama Papers to Supreme Court, a timeline

No Pakistani PM has completed full term, Nawaz Sharif too failed to break jinx

Panama Papers case: How Nawaz Sharif was convicted in 50 hearings over 273 days

Also Watch: It's a very good verdict, says former Pakistan PM Pervez Musharraf on Nawaz Sharif's ouster

--- ENDS ---
Russia has passed a law banning software that allows users to view internet sites barred in the country anonymously. President Vladimir Putin signed the bill prohibiting virtual private networks (VPNs) and other technologies that anonymize users, according to the government's website on Sunday.

The flag of Russia. agustavop | iStock/360 | Getty Images

The law, which was approved by the Duma (Russian parliament) earlier this month, will come into effect on November 1. Leonid Levin, the head of the Duma's information policy committee, said that the law signed by President Putin was meant to prevent access to "unlawful content" rather than restrict it from law-abiding citizens, according to Russian state news agency RIA. He told RIA that the law did not "introduce any new restrictions and especially no censorship." "My colleagues only included the restriction of access to information that is already forbidden by law or a court decision," he said earlier this month.

Human rights group accuse Russia of censorship

Various websites are banned under Russia's internet restriction and child protection rules. A Federal blacklist introduced in 2012 to block sites that contained materials advocating drug abuse, suicide and child pornography. It has since been relaxed to include material that advocates "extremist" content.

Bill Hinton | Getty Images

But the Russian state has been condemned for infringing on civil liberties by human rights groups and advocates, which accuse it of broadening the scope of banned material to censor criticism of the government. "VPNs can help people freely access the Internet without their browsing being observed by their Internet provider," Jim Killock, executive director of the U.K. digital rights campaign Open Rights Group, told CNBC via email. "People can also use them to access censored and blocked content. Laws that criminalize the use of privacy-enhancing technologies like VPNs are incredibly dangerous and will restrict rights to privacy, free expression and access to information."

China's censorship problem

Russia's VPN ban follows the news that Apple had removed most major VPN apps from its app store in China, in order to comply with a law passed earlier this year.

watch now
Buildings are seen on a coast line in Doha, Qatar June 5, 2017.

The Qatar central bank's net international reserves plunged by $10.4 billion in June to $24.4 billion because of economic sanctions imposed by other Arab states, central bank data showed on Sunday.

Reserves hit their lowest level in at least five years.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and transport ties with Qatar on June 5, causing some banks and portfolio investment funds to pull money from the country, depleting the reserves.
Groups spending millions in anonymous donations are leading the outside efforts to either defend President Trump or sell his agenda with voters and Congress, despite the president's repeated calls to "drain the swamp" in Washington of special-interest money.

The political empire affiliated with billionaire Charles Koch has spent $2 million to date to advance Trump's tax-cut blueprint and will hold events this week in Washington to kick off the next phase of its multimillion-dollar campaign to drive congressional support for a comprehensive tax plan to slice corporate tax rates and enact broader tax cuts.

Americans for Prosperity, the Koch network's grass-roots arm, already has 50 events scheduled in August and September to help promote the tax plan.

More from USA Today:

Ex-lobbyists swarm Trump administration, despite 'drain the swamp' pledge

Tomi Lahren lands job with a pro-Trump Great America Alliance

D.C., Maryland attorneys general file a lawsuit against President Trump

The pro-Trump Great America Alliance is spending $450,000 on a TV and digital ad that casts special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into possible collusion between Russia and Trump's campaign as a "rigged game."

The group already has pumped more than $3 million in advertising to advance Trump's policies and has committed to spending $5 million more, said Eric Beach, a Republican strategist who helps run the group.

The Judicial Crisis Network, which spent $7 million to push Trump's top judicial nominee, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, is "prepared to spend whatever we need to spend to help President Trump fulfill his promise of restoring balance to our federal courts," policy director Carrie Severino said in a statement.

Trump has more than 100 judicial vacancies to fill.

Another pro-Trump group, America First Policies, has spent $5 million push his agenda and to help a Trump-supported congressional candidate in Georgia.

All operate as nonprofits, can accept unlimited funds from virtually any source but are not required to disclose their donors publicly.

Spending by groups like these in policy and political fights is soaring, following court decisions relaxing corporate and union spending on advertising that targets elected officials.

So far this year, non-profit groups have spent $7.5 million to influence congressional special elections, up from $1.8 million at this point in the 2013-2014 election cycle, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks political spending. Most of this year's nonprofit election spending  $5.8 million  targeted a June special election in Georgia that became the nation's most expensive House race.

The anonymous donations make it impossible for voters "to consider who's pushing these messages," said Sheila Krumholz of the Center for Responsive Politics.

White House officials said they do not direct the activities of outside groups or coordinate with them. But they said the administration supports the free-speech rights of outside organizations that are acting lawfully.

Trump often has cited the influence of money in politics to criticize others and question their credibility.

On Wednesday, for instance, Trump deployed his "drain the swamp" campaign mantra to target his acting FBI director, Andrew McCabe, on Twitter.

In two tweets, the president asked why Attorney General Jeff Session hasn't replaced McCabe despite McCabe's wife getting "big dollars  from Hillary Clinton and her representatives."

"Drain the Swamp!" he concluded.

Trump tweet 1

Trump tweet 2

At the heart of Trump's complaints about McCabe: The more than $675,000 that his wife Jill McCabe received during her unsuccessful 2015 campaign for the Virginia state Senate. The money came from the Virginia Democratic Party and the political action committee tied to Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a close Democratic ally of the Clintons.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has urged the Justice Department's inspector general to investigate whether Andrew McCabe should have recused himself from later overseeing the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.

Fred Wertheimer, president of the ethics watchdog Democracy 21 and a critic of Trump's decision to retain ownership of his businesses while serving in the White House, said Trump has a pattern of "selectively" picking examples of potential ethics violations "for people he doesn't like."

"He then turns around and opens the floodgates for people to buy influence in Washington," Wertheimer said. "President Trump has been a political fraud on this question of draining the swamp since the day he took office."

Democrats also have used nonprofits to advance their political causes. And Trump is not the first president to have an outside organization push his agenda.

During his second term in office, President Obama and his allies transformed his campaign operation into Organizing for America, a non-profit advocacy group. It voluntarily disclosed its donors and, in the face of criticism from watchdog groups, decided to prohibit corporate contributions.

Clinton, Trump's 2016 rival, recently announced the formation of a nonprofit group, Onward Together, to help fund some of the liberal efforts against Trump's policies.

At least two new nonprofit groups have sprung up with the specific goal of advancing Trump's agenda.

A leading group, America First Policies, has close ties to Trump. Top advisers have included former White House deputy chief of staff Katie Walsh and Brad Parscale, who oversaw the campaign's digital operations.

Erin Montgomery, a spokeswoman for America First, said the group remains focused on policy and takes no direction from the White House on its activities.

But she said the "unfair media coverage" of Trump has "inspired donors to fight" for his agenda.

"We need to remind people of the policies he's already enacted and all the strong policies that are already coming out of the White House," she said.

Recent ads have included a 30-second spot, called "Shaken," which warns that "the establishment will stop at nothing to take down our president," as images of news anchors, fired FBI director James Comey, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., actress Meryl Streep and other Hollywood critics flash on the screen.

"President Trump is fighting back. Winning for us, not himself. Draining the swamp," a male narrator intones. "We will fight. We will win."
Jurors in the Martin Shkreli fraud trial ended their first day of deliberations Monday without reaching a verdict  letting the defendant continue his comedy routine on Facebook with a jab at Anthony Scaramucci.

The seven-woman, five-man jury started discussing the case among themselves at about 9:40 a.m. Monday.

They then spent the entire day behind closed doors in Brooklyn, New York, federal court before sending out their first note, at 5:05 p.m.

That note asked how long they were expected to continue working for the day.

Judge Kiyo Matsumoto called them into her courtroom and told jurors they could go home for the evening. Matsumoto also said she hoped they could work each day until at least 5:15 p.m., with the option of staying later if they desired.

Several hours earlier, Shkreli, who is banned from Twitter because of his harassment of a female journalist, cracked a joke on his Facebook page that referenced Monday's abrupt termination of Anthony "Mooch" Scaramucci as White House communications director after just 10 days in that post.

"In for comms director," Shkreli wrote on Facebook.
Snap 's stock whipsawed this month, with Wall Street analysts torn on whether the shares are worth more or less than the $17 IPO price it received in March. And it's about to face its biggest challenge in a while, as its lockup period ends.

Among finance types, one explanation of Snap's unrest has been the timing of the massive public offering.

Paul Meeks, chief investment officer and portfolio manager at Sloy Dahl & Holst, told CNBC this month that Snap should have waited to go public since its business model was too immature and susceptible to copying by Facebook's Instagram app.

But "Shark Tank's" Mark Cuban praised Snap for going public early, noting "when you're already large, it's hard to accelerate your growth."

Unfortunately, that's exactly the problem Snap encountered, adding fewer-than-expected users in the first quarter.

Indeed, for more than two years, major technology investors and CEOs have warned this would happen, chanting the mantra, "Start-ups are waiting too long to IPO." Saleforce's Marc Benioff said "entrepreneurs are making a huge mistake in waiting too long to go public."

Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures was sounding the alarm back in 2015. "The big problem is, companies can get much better valuations in the private markets than they can in the public markets. Companies will come out and go public, and the stock will trade below where they did their last round of financing in the private market," he warned. "I think companies should be going public earlier in their life cycle so the broader public can be shareholders. I think it's not good for society for all the gains in these game-changing companies to be held between a very, very small shareholders."

So what should Snap have done differently? Go public later? Go public earlier? That's up for debate.

Bullpen Capital's Duncan Davidson is of the school of thought that Snap should have gone public "a few years ago." But, he said, bringing back the successful smaller IPO requires a whole ecosystem  one that buyers today don't have access to.
Several states are plowing ahead with efforts to give more people access to retirement savings accounts, even as the federal government shuts down a program that aimed to do the same. On Friday, the 30,000 participants in the Obama-era program  called myRA and intended for people with no access to workplace savings plans  received notice of the closing. The Treasury Department cited low demand and taxpayer cost as reasons for ending the initiative. At the same time, Oregon is a month into the first pilot phase of its program, called OregonSaves. The law that created it requires employers to sign up their workers (who can opt out) for payroll deductions that go into an individual retirement account. A handful of other states  including Illinois, Maryland, Connecticut and California  are in the process of implementing similar strategies.

Thomas Barwick | Iconica | Getty Images

In fact, since 2012, 40 states have acted to implement, study or consider legislation to establish state-facilitated retirement savings programs, according to Georgetown University's Center for Retirement Initiatives. Some of the approaches mirror Oregon's, while others take a different tack, yet they all have the same goal: To increase retirement savings among Americans by giving them access to financial vehicles available at the workplace. Recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau show that just 14 percent of all U.S. employers offer their employees a 401(k) plan or similar savings option. Employees at the remainder are left to fend for themselves. "That's the group we're trying to help," said Joshua Gotbaum, chair of the Maryland Small Business Retirement Savings Board and a guest scholar of economic studies at The Brookings Institution. The panel is currently searching for an executive director and expects to begin enrollment no earlier than the end of 2018.

These programs have all sorts of safety mechanisms in them. We've worked very hard to make sure everything is in place to provide for very strong governance. Lisa Massena executive director of OregonSaves

Despite the rise of these strategies, strong opposition from various business groups and the financial services industry continues. Part of the problem, critics say, is that unlike workers in 401(k) plans, participants in programs such as Oregon's are not afforded protections under a federal law known as the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA. At least one group hasn't ruled out a legal challenge to OregonSaves. "We are considering all options," a spokesperson for The ERISA Industry Committee wrote in an email. In simple terms, the law protects 401(k) plan participants by imposing so-called "fiduciary" requirements on employers. That is, companies are bound by law to ensure, among other things, that the investments are in the best interest of the workers.

watch now

The way OregonSaves is constructed involves a payroll deduction that is allowed under ERISA and comes with no fiduciary requirements imposed on the employer. And although the Obama administration had created a provision to protect these programs from legal challenges, that carve-out was removed in May by congressional lawmakers. Supporters think the concerns are overblown. "These programs have all sorts of safety mechanisms in them," said Lisa Massena, executive director of OregonSaves. "We've worked very hard to make sure everything is in place to provide for very strong governance." So far, Massena said, the first month has demonstrated how workplace options boost savings. Of the 160 eligible employees, 37 workers (23 percent) opted out. Of those, 12 did so due to already having a retirement account. For the second pilot phase  registration for it starts Aug. 15  42 employers are interested, representing 2,189 employees, according to program data. The size of the companies ranges from three employees to 570.

Recruiting and retaining staff is really important at a company like ours. This gives us a tool to compete for people. Kevin Max founder of Statehood Media
During his day-long visit to Assam, PM Modi will also meet chief ministers and top officials of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland.

After 83 people lost their lives in Assam floods, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel to the north-eastern state on Tuesday to discuss a permanent solution to the catastrophe which has become an annual feature on the calendar.

During his day-long visit, the PM will also meet the chief ministers and top officials of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland.

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PM Modi will be reviewing the situation arising due to floods and relief work operations.

"The prime minister's visit is mainly to find a permanent solution to the flood problem that Assam is facing," Assam's Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

The prime minister will also address a meeting of NDA legislatures from BJP, BPF and AGP, Sarma said.

The Centre has already announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each under the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund for the next of kin of people killed and Rs 50,000 to seriously injured persons in the recent flood in Assam.

The PMO requested Assam government to furnish details of requirement of funds along with list incorporating the names of the dead in flood, their next of kin and seriously injured persons.

A seven-member inter-ministerial central team had visited Assam on July 25 for four days to carry out an on-the-spot assessment of flood damage.

The flood situation in the state has improved but one more person was killed in Morigaon district taking the toll in the natural calamity to 83, including eight in Guwahati.

According to Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), about 5,000 people are still affected in Lakhimpur and Jorhat districts and 366 people are taking shelter in four relief camps in the two districts.

This year, two waves of floods in the state have affected around 25 lakh people from 29 districts prompting the administration to set up 1,098 distribution centres andrelief camps, where about 1.32 lakh people took shelter.

(PTI inputs)

Also read:

Tale of two floods: Assam continues to wave for help while Gujarat gets Rs 500 crore

Aamir Khan plays good samaritarian for Assam flood victims, donates Rs 25 lakh

Also watch:

Assam flood toll climbs to 60, over 10 lakh affected

--- ENDS ---
"In the White House's view, they can't move on in the Senate," he said. "You can't promise folks you're going to do something for seven years, and then not do it."

White House budget director Mick Mulvaney on Sunday said on CNN's "State of the Union" that it is official White House policy that the Senate should not vote on anything else until it takes another Obamacare repeal vote.

Then Monday morning he returned to his threats to cut off Obamacare subsidies required under the Affordable Care Act, which remains the law of the land. "If ObamaCare is hurting people, & it is, why shouldn't it hurt the insurance companies & why should Congress not be paying what public pays?" Trump tweeted on Monday.

"Don't give up Republican Senators, the World is watching: Repeal & Replace...and go to 51 votes (nuke option), get Cross State Lines & more," Trump tweeted on Sunday.

The biggest issue is that the long-anticipated hard pivot by the White House and congressional Republicans to taxes just does not appear to be happening. President Donald Trump remains obsessed with getting an Obamacare repeal bill to sign and spent the weekend and Monday morning tweeting about it.

The House is gone for the summer but there are still some critical things happening in Washington this week that could impact Wall Street and the hopes for getting tax reform done this year.

The Senate remains in session for the next couple weeks and Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) is pushing an Obamacare repeal approach that would block grant federal Obamacare money to the states. But at this point there is no reason to believe this approach will succeed where at least 70 other GOP efforts have failed. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he wants to move on.

The fundamental problem here is that the public doesn't really want Obamacare repealed and doesn't like any of the GOP options on health care. The only real path forward is a bipartisan effort to fix the parts of Obamacare that aren't working. Trump could latch onto this and say he "fixed" health care. Maybe new White House chief of staff John Kelly can convince him of this. But don't count on it.

Until the White House throws in the towel on full repeal, the rest of the Trump economic agenda will remain stalled. And Congress needs to turn its attention  and quickly  to figuring out a way to fund the government past September and raise the debt limit sometime shortly after that. Every day spent twisting in the wind on Obamacare increases the possibility of a shutdown and a debt limit scare that could rattle markets.

The White House also now faces a spiraling crisis with a belligerent and nuclear-armed North Korea that has Trump rattling the saber with China. Threats here include a military conflict with Pyongyang and an economic sanctions fight with the Chinese. Either would crush the stock market.

The box the White House now finds itself stuck in is based on a couple fundamental missteps.

The biggest is starting with Obamacare in the first place. It would have made much more political sense to kick off the administration's legislative push with an infrastructure bill to deliver on Trump's promises to "Make America Great Again." That could have been tied to or preceded a tax reform effort to lower the corporate rate, switch to a territorial system and allow the repatriation of foreign earnings at a reduced rate.

Fresh off some big political wins, Trump and the GOP Congress could then have taken a crack at Obamacare repeal with a coordinated plan and strategy that it could sell to the American people.

None of this happened, of course. And so Wall Street must now contend with the fact that Congress will return in September with a month to fund the government and not much longer to raise the debt limit. There is no strategy in place for either. And Republicans will probably have to wind up relying on Democrats to help them make sure the government doesn't shut down and the nation doesn't default.

And who is to say Trump won't threaten not to sign anything that doesn't also repeal Obamacare? There is big risk brewing and the clock is ticking.
An unwritten rule in politics is: If you can't get the public to like you, help them find someone they like even less. President Donald Trump may have done just that in the health-bill wars by shining a light on health insurance companies and members of Congress.

He hit those two birds with one stone in this single tweet Monday morning:

President Trump is referring to the massive direct and indirect subsidies the health insurance companies have enjoyed thanks to the Affordable Care Act and the employer-provided funds members of Congress and their staffs receive to buy health insurance on the Obamacare exchanges.

Let's start with the health-insurance companies. The bottom line is that the industry has been enriched significantly by Obamacare. The shares of Aetna, Anthem, Centene, Cigna, Humana, and UnitedHealth have all outperformed the overall stock market, which has had a solid run, since 2010.

But even before those new profits came pouring in, health insurers weren't exactly loved. Premiums were rising faster than income growth in America for years and those costs were increasingly becoming a middle class problem. Doctors and medical staffs were becoming more and more frustrated with the way insurance companies were taking control of how patients were treated and basically how much everyone in the medical industry was paid. That frustration is still very much out there today.

But during this Obamacare repeal and replacement process, the insurers have more than secured their financial position  they've assumed such a supreme level of undeserved importance in America that politicians on both sides of the partisan aisle act as if propping them up is of the greatest national importance. To be fair, health insurance can and should serve a role in providing healthy and relatively healthy people some kind of hedge against an unexpected major or emergency medical cost. But its usefulness as a middleman industry to cover costs for routine check-ups and procedures is dubious at best. In short, it's the wrong fit for customers, providers, and a road block for a natural free market price-reduction process.

President Trump's decision to question special government payments to insurers will gain traction if he keeps it up. Remember, he's not bashing the doctors many Americans trust or the hospitals we rely on. He's going after an entity most of us never really see with employers most of us never meet.

But even if you don't buy the idea that most Americans will get behind President Trump bashing or at least questioning the health insurers, it's much easier to see the wisdom of shining a light on and threatening any and all special perks members of Congress enjoy compared to the rest of us. Just to clarify things, President Obama's Office of Personnel Management made a controversial move in 2010 to direct members of Congress and their aides to buy insurance from a part of the District of Columbia exchange designed for small businesses. They pick from a selection of the most generous small group plans on sale in that exchange, but only pay about 25 percent of the premium themselves. The rest of the cost is covered by the House and Senate budget. It's a nice perk and really no change from the cushy health-care benefits Congress and congressional staffers enjoyed before Obamacare.

By threatening that perk, President Trump has broken an unofficial agreement within the political class not to mess with professional courtesies. It's that agreement that guarantees automatic pay raises for members of Congress and other cases of special treatment. But it's a good bet a major section of the American people will join in his scrutiny of Congress, even if they don't also start to back the White House generally.

And while the public may just want this debate to go away, leave Obamacare in place, and move on, there is no moving on from this issue. Because right now, insurers are demanding to know what kinds of subsidies and other government aid they'll be getting to remain in the Obamacare exchanges for 2018. And lots of members of Congress from both parties are as eager as ever to secure those subsidies and aid in all their crony capitalist glory.

Now, President Trump has at least started to use a weapon that can not only reopen the Obamacare repeal process, but do so in a way that gives all members of the House and Senate a new sense of urgency. Let's see if Capitol Hill gets the message.

Commentary by Jake Novak, CNBC.com senior columnist. Follow him on Twitter @jakejakeny.

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.
Donald Trump Yuri Gripas | Reuters

CSRs reduce health care costs for Americans with lower incomes

Obamacare expanded health coverage for Americans in two major ways. It expanded Medicaid to cover poor adults making no more than 138 percent of the poverty line ($16,000 for an individual). And for people who make more money than that but don't get health coverage through their jobs, the law created marketplaces where those people could buy insurance. Insurers were required to sell plans to everyone, no matter their medical history, at similar prices, and to cover a range of "essential health benefits." But with those changes, it still would have been difficult for many people  both low-income and middle-class  to afford insurance, not to mention the deductibles and copays they'd have to pay to actually see a doctor or fill a prescription. So people buying through the marketplaces also get financial assistance. Federal tax credits help pay monthly premiums for anyone making up to 400 percent of the poverty line ($48,000 for an individual). People who earn too much for Medicaid but are still low-income  up to 250 percent of the federal poverty line, about $30,000 for one person  also got cost-sharing reductions for their private insurance. The federal government makes those payments to the health insurer to lower the out-of-pocket costs, the deductible and copayments, that those people have to pay for their health care. The less money people make, the more help they receive. More than half of people who buy individual insurance through Obamacare got this help. About 12 million people bought health insurance through Obamacare's insurance markets this year, and 7 million of them qualified for CSRs, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. The impact can be dramatic: Somebody who doesn't qualify for a CSR and buys a typical Obamacare plan could have to pay as much as $3,609 for a deductible before her plan starts to cover her care. But a person who qualifies for the most generous CSR  whose income is at the poverty line or only a little above it  could have to pay only $255 before his coverage kicks in. Last year, CSR payments cost the federal government $7 billion, which means that, on average, CSRs lowered out-of-pocket costs by about $1,000 for each person. The goal of Obamacare was to make health coverage and care more affordable. Having an insurance card doesn't do much good if you can't actually afford whatever your plan requires you to pay. If you want everybody, no matter their income, to be able to purchase the same plans, you need some extra help for people making less money. CSRs were that extra help. They made the law work for the people buying insurance who would struggle the most to pay for their care. "You have to protect low-income people not just from high premiums but from high out-of-pocket costs," Jonathan Gruber, an MIT professor who helped the Obama administration and congressional Democrats as they were designing the law, told me. There is one wrinkle in the law: Health plans are required to offer people under 250 percent of the poverty line a plan with smaller deductibles and copayments even if the federal government doesn't give them any money at all. Without the CSR payments, though, that might not be workable for insurers  it would dramatically increase their costs. They would have to offer very generous coverage to those people without receiving any additional financial help from the government, and their likely recourse would be to hike premiums. So the law also created the CSR payments that the federal government makes to insurers, which allows the financing to work without premiums skyrocketing. But House Republicans seized on an apparent legislative flaw to challenge the payments in court  and put the entire program at risk.

A Republican-led lawsuit challenged the CSR payments

Not long after Obamacare's marketplaces opened for business in 2014, House Republicans filed a lawsuit that argued the cost-sharing reduction payments being made by the Obama administration were illegal. It was a case that went to the core of the Constitution. The brains behind it, constitutional lawyers David Rivkin and Elizabeth Price Foley, portrayed the stakes this way: The lawsuit is necessary to protect the Constitution's separation of powers, a core means of protecting individual liberty. Without a judicial check on unbounded executive power to suspend the law, this president and all who follow him will have a powerful new weapon to destroy political accountability and democracy itself. The Constitution says Congress is responsible for deciding how the federal government's money will be spent. House Republicans alleged that although Obamacare created the CSR payments, Congress still needed to approve them in a separate spending bill or as part of the bigger spending bills that lawmakers pass periodically to fund the entire government. Because Congress had not done so, the House alleged that the payments being made by the Obama administration starting in 2014 were unconstitutional. The Obama administration argued that Obamacare had permanently funded the CSR payments and so it did not need any additional authority from Congress to make the payments. It also argued that regardless of the facts of the case, the House didn't actually have the ability to bring a case because it wasn't harmed by the cost-sharing reduction payments, a legal concept known as "standing." Some liberal legal experts said the House's argument does have some merit. The text of the law did not unambiguously appropriate the CSR payments  and the Obama administration at one point, perhaps in recognition of that, had asked Congress to approve the spending. But others, including the architects of the law, dismissed it as a politically motivated attempt to undercut Obamacare. Many experts also believed that the House didn't have standing to pursue the case in the first place. Rosemary Collyer, the judge hearing the case and a Republican appointee, first ruled in September 2015 that the House did in fact have standing to sue the administration over the payments. She sided with the House in May 2016, deciding that the CSR payments could not be made without further congressional approval. However, she suspended the decision so that the Obama administration could appeal, allowing the payments to continue until the case is fully resolved. The Obama administration appealed the ruling in July 2016 to the US District Court of Appeals in Washington. But litigation moves slowly, and the case didn't advance much. Then in November, Donald Trump was elected president  and his government is now responsible for defending Obamacare, a law he has vowed to repeal and predicts will implode. The House asked the appeals court in December to postpone the lawsuit so that they and the newly elected administration could figure out what to do.

Cutting off CSR payments could throw the markets into chaos

The CSR litigation might not have mattered as much if Republicans had coalesced around a health care plan in the first six months of Trump's presidency, as they have attempted and so far failed to do. But Congress has failed to pass a repeal-and-replace bill or any kind of Obamacare repeal. The Senate put three different health care bills on the floor in late July and failed to approve every one of them. This lawsuit gave Republicans another chance to undercut the health care law, even without passing their own bill. Because if Obamacare is here to stay, then the fate of the CSR payments is now an essential question. So Trump could either choose to continue defending the CSR subsidies, making payments in the interim and keeping the markets stable  or he could decide to drop the suit, stop the payments, and precipitate a market implosion that could leave many vulnerable Americans without health coverage. If the House prevailed, and the CSR payments were not paid, insurers would still be required to reduce cost sharing, but they would now have to do it without the government's help. They would have to raise premiums dramatically to make up the lost revenue. The irony is that if plans do raise premiums, the federal government would be on the hook for much of those costs. The government absorbs premium increases through the tax credits that help people afford coverage. The law is designed to keep premiums manageable for people, so it falls on the government to cover any excess increases. "It's on the feds anyway," as MIT's Gruber told me. Or, perhaps more likely, plans could drop out of the market altogether. "If I were an insurer, I'd just take my marbles with me and focus on other more profitable lines of business," Larry Levitt at the Kaiser Family Foundation told me. Trump has repeatedly threatened the CSR payments over the past six months, particularly when his party's hopes of repealing Obamacare looked bleakest. His administration has continued to make the payments on a month-to-month basis, but with no assurances to insurance companies that they will continue. If the payments stop, yes, lower-income Americans would technically still be eligible for lower-cost plans  but many experts expect insurers would just pull out of the markets. That could lead to more areas with one or no plan available to people, a situation for which there is no remedy and which leaves people in those areas without any coverage. Trump's threats are now pushing up against some all-important deadlines for Obamacare. Health plans have until mid-August to readjust their premiums for next year. Many have priced their plans higher than they otherwise would, out of fear that the Trump administration will pull the CSR payments; they could lower their premiums if they were assured the payments would continue. Then in September, insurers have to make a final call about whether to sell Obamacare plans in 2018. There is a real risk that if the Trump administration refuses to guarantee that the CSR payments will be made, some insurers will pull out of the market  which could leave even more of the country without insurance options.

Trump is taking Obamacare hostage, but at his own risk
Some members of Uber's eight-person board were excited about the idea of Meg Whitman becoming the ride-hailing company's next chief executive.

Ms. Whitman, the chief executive of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and a former leader of eBay , appeared to have many of the right traits for the job: experience, maturity, a level head  the kind of qualities that Travis Kalanick, the Uber co-founder who stepped down as chief executive last month, mostly lacked. She had even personally invested in the company in the past.

Over the past few weeks, Ms. Whitman met with several Uber board members individually, offering advice on how to address the company's problems. The members were encouraged by the discussions, and some believed that she was a natural fit for the vacant chief executive role. And after weeks of searching for a top candidate, they were eager to try to win her over.

More from The New York Times:

Uber's Next C.E.O.? Meg Whitman Says It Won't Be Her

Uber Offers a Thankless Job, and the Applications Flood

Inside Travis Kalanick's Resignation as Uber's C.E.O.

That group did not include Mr. Kalanick. He and several of his allies had a competing agenda that included their own preferred candidates for the top job and the possibility of returning Mr. Kalanick into an operational role, perhaps even as chief executive. His surrogates had also recently begun talks with the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank about an investment in Uber that could provide Mr. Kalanick a route to regaining power.

The jockeying between factions has put billions of dollars on the line, as the Uber board fights over control of the $70 billion ride-hailing giant. Interviews with more than a dozen people close to the process, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the discussions are confidential, indicate that board members' relationships have been damaged by leaks, shifting wildly as alliances are forged and then broken.

The backbiting has taken a toll. After it was reported that she was a candidate for the chief executive job, Ms. Whitman said last Thursday that "Uber's C.E.O. will not be Meg Whitman." She made her announcement in a series of messages on Twitter just as the Uber board was holding a quarterly meeting, at which they had planned to call a vote on whether to appoint her to the job.

Meg Whitman tweet

The internal divisions mean the search for a new leader may drag on. Even as board members speak with other candidates, including Jeffrey Immelt, who is departing as chief executive of General Electric, about the chief executive job, a lack of cohesion is apparent. Some board members are not convinced that Mr. Immelt is the right choice, given that G.E.'s stock price and profits have stagnated in recent years.

Four people are now on the shortlist to succeed Mr. Kalanick, according to one person close to the process. And at an internal meeting with Uber employees last week, Liane Hornsey, the company's senior vice president and head of human resources, said a top candidate was expected to be chosen within the next six weeks.

Representatives for Uber, the company's board of directors and Mr. Kalanick declined to comment, as did G.E.

"As Meg has made clear, she is fully committed to H.P.E.," a spokesman for Hewlett Packard Enterprise said. "Our focus remains on driving the company forward and delivering for our customers, partners, employees and shareholders."
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury notes sat at 2.291 while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond was slightly higher at 2.894 percent. Bond yields move inversely to prices.

U.S. government debt prices were lower on Monday morning as investors monitored U.S.-Russia relations and digest new earnings reports.

A monthly index of signed contracts to purchase existing homes increased 1.5 percent in June compared to May, and May's figure was revised slightly higher, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Also on the data front, manufacturing activity across Texas rose at a faster pace in July than in June, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas's production index. The Dallas Fed's production index, a key measure of manufacturing conditions in the state, rose 11 points to 22.8, while its general business activity index edged higher to 16.8.

The White House dramas continued in the afternoon after President Donald Trump removed newly-appointed Anthony Scaramucci as communications director. The decision came at the request of John Kelly, the president's new chief of staff, according to the New York Times.

On Friday, the Kremlin has told the United States it needs to cut 755 of its staff members in Russia and further measures could be taken as a result of new sanctions against the Moscow.

In commodity markets, prices hit a two-month high on Monday morning as the U.S. considers sanctions against Venezuela. Brent was trading higher at $52.62 and WTI stood at $50.15.
Analysts are angry over the latest Wells Fargo scandal where hundreds of thousands of the bank's customers were overcharged. Wells Fargo shares fell 2.6 percent Friday after The New York Times first reported the news. The stock closed 1.2 percent higher Monday, meanwhile. The article cited a 60-page internal report, which revealed more than 800,000 of Wells Fargo's auto loan customers were charged for car insurance they did not need. Wells Fargo estimated the mistaken auto insurance sales would cost the bank $80 million in damages. Piper Jaffray said the true cost is likely understated. "We believe the full cost may be significantly higher and weigh on the risk premium the market will place on shares," Piper Jaffray analyst Kevin Barker wrote in a note to clients Friday entitled "Here we go again?"

Barker noted how the problem was identified in July of last year, but was not disclosed to investors and the public until last week.



"Why didn't the company address these issues publicly while they were already dealing with the account scandal rather than address them now?" he wrote. "What other collateral damage may have been caused by the re-possession of these cars on peoples' lives?"



Barker reiterated his neutral rating for Wells Fargo and his $52 price target for the shares, representing 2 percent downside to Friday's close.



In similar fashion, JPMorgan also focused in on the bank's lack of disclosure and its culture.



"It is very surprising that Wells Fargo has not changed the opaqueness in its disclosure and only disclosed this late on Thursday night when it realized a news story was about to break," JPMorgan analyst Vivek Juneja wrote Monday. "This raises the question about what other changes Wells Fargo needs in its culture. There has been no change to the Board despite all the scandals, which has been frustrating some shareholders."



Juneja reaffirmed his $57 price target for Wells Fargo shares and his neutral rating.



Sen. Elizabeth Warren pressed Fed Chair Janet Yellen on July 13 to remove all of the Wells Fargo's directors who were on board during its fake accounts scandal revealed last year.



In September, Wells Fargo reached a $185 million settlement with regulators over creating what the bank then said could be as many as 2.1 million accounts in customer names without their permission.



On latest auto insurance scandal, the bank apologized and said it moved quickly to end the program Thursday.



"We take full responsibility for our failure to appropriately manage the collateral protection insurance program and are extremely sorry for any harm this caused our customers, who expect and deserve better from us," Franklin Codel, head of Wells Fargo Consumer Lending, said in the statement. "Upon our discovery, we acted swiftly to discontinue the program and immediately develop a plan to make impacted customers whole."



Wells Fargo shares have under-performed the market this year. Its stock declined 3.3 percent year to date through Friday versus the S&P 500's 10.4 percent return. The shares rose 1 percent Monday.

A proposed class action lawsuit was filed Sunday, which accuses the bank of racketeering violations and fraud over the auto insurance scandal.

Catherine Pulley, a spokesperson for Wells Fargo, sent the following statement for this story:

"Wells Fargo discontinued its Collateral Protection Insurance (CPI) program in September 2016 after finding inadequacies in vendor processes and our internal controls that negatively impacted some customers. We announced a plan to remediate auto loan customers who may have been financially harmed due to issues related to auto CPI policies placed between 2012-2017. We are very sorry for the inconvenience this caused impacted customers and we are in the process of notifying them and making things right."

CNBC's Jeff Cox and Leslie Shaffer contributed to this article.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said President Donald Trump was probably making a joke last week when he encouraged police officers to be tougher when making arrests.

In a Monday press briefing, Sanders said, "I believe he was making a joke at the time."

On Friday, the president said officers shouldn't be "too nice" when apprehending suspected gang members.

"When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon  you just see them thrown in, rough," Trump said during a rally in Suffolk County. "I said, 'Please don't be too nice.'"

"Like when you guys put somebody in the car and you're protecting their head," Trump continued. "The way you put their hand over  like, don't hit their head and they just killed somebody, don't hit their head. I said, 'You can take the hand away, OK?'"

Trump's comments were widely criticized by law enforcement agencies across the country. The local police department in Suffolk County, where Trump made the remarks, said it does not and "will not tolerate roughing up of prisoners."

@SCPDHq: As a department, we do not and will not tolerate roughing up of prisoners.

New York Police Department Commissioner James O'Neill condemned the president's remarks as "irresponsible and "unprofessional."

"To suggest that police officers apply any standard in the use of force other than what is reasonable and necessary is irresponsible, unprofessional and sends the wrong message to law enforcement as well as the public," O'Neill said in a statement.
FreeCom, a free communication tool that helps people stay in touch when there is no internet or mobile signal, is another example of an innovative start-up.

Syrian software engineer Abdul Rahman Alashraf came up with the idea after seeing his friends and family in Syria unable to call each other or text after a bomb went off.

The FreeCom technology allows smart devices to piggyback on multiple channels and lets users create their own network by connecting to each other to make the internet work offline.

The 27-year-old, who now lives in Germany, says his research showed that 60 percent of the world's population doesn't have proper internet access. He hopes to expand the reach of FreeCom to meet this need.

Over the past 20 years, extreme poverty globally has been cut by half yet the divide between developed and emerging economies has increased.

Meanwhile within richer countries like the U.S., and even traditionally more egalitarian countries like Sweden and Denmark, the gap between rich and poor is at its highest in 30 years.

There are warnings that inequality is only set to increase with the arrival of what is being called the fourth industrial revolution  where computers and robots replace skilled workers.

In a report by UBS the financial services company warns that poorer sections of society stand to lose more and advises it is "an economy's ability to adapt to the changes associated with new technology that matters."

This rise in inequality is something the business world should be concerned about, says Sergio Ermotti, group chief executive officer at UBS.

"The recent rise in inequality has prompted a surge in populism, and heightened the risk that 'protest politics' might impair economies' long-term growth potential," he explains, adding "that matters because growth is what solves most of the big economic and social problems: poverty, government deficits, quality of life, rising health care and retirement costs."

Ermotti believes philanthropic funding by investors can "play a vital role in testing and stimulating innovation that, when proved, business and government can implement at scale."
The following companies are subsidiares of PepsiCo: Alimentos Quaker Oats y Compania Limitada, Alimentos del Istmo S.A., Amavale Agricola Ltda., Anderson Hill Insurance Limited, Asia Bottlers Limited, BAESA Capital Corporation Ltd., BFY Brands, BFY Brands LLC, BFY Brands Limited, BUG de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Balmoral Industries LLC, Bare Foods Co., Barrhead LLC, Be & Cheery, Beaman Bottling Company, Bebidas Sudamerica S.A., Beech Limited, Bell Taco Funding Syndicate, Bendler Investments II Ltd, Bendler Investments S.a r.l, Beverage Services Limited, Beverages Foods & Service Industries Inc., Bishkeksut OJSC, Blaue NC S. de R.L. de C.V., Blue Cloud Distribution Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Arizona Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Arkansas Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Colorado Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Florida Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Georgia Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Illinois Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Indiana Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Iowa Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Kentucky Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Louisiana Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Minnesota Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Mississippi Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Missouri Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Nebraska Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Nevada Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of North Carolina Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Ohio Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Oklahoma Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Pennsylvania Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of South Carolina Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Tennessee Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Texas Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Virginia Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Wisconsin Inc., Blue Ridge Sales LLC, Bluebird Foods Limited, Bluecan Holdings Unlimited Company, Bokomo Zambia Limited, Bolsherechensky Molkombinat JSC, Boquitas Fiestas LLC, Boquitas Fiestas S.R.L., Bottling Group Financing LLC, Bottling Group Holdings LLC, Bottling Group LLC, Bronte Industries Ltd, C & I Leasing Inc., CB Manufacturing Company Inc., CEME Holdings LLC, CMC Investment Company, Caroni Investments LLC, Centro-Mediterranea de Bebidas Carbonicas PepsiCo S.L., Ceres Fruit Juices Pty Ltd, ChampBev Inc., China Concentrate Holdings Hong Kong Limited, Chipsy International for Food Industries S.A.E., Chipsy for Food Industries S.A.E., Chitos Internacional y Cia Ltda, Cipa Industrial de Produtos Alimentares Ltda., Cipa Nordeste Industrial de Produtos Alimentares Ltda., Cocina Autentica Inc., Comercializadora CMC Investment y Compania Limitada, Comercializadora Nacional SAS Ltda., Comercializadora PepsiCo Mexico S de R.L. de C.V., Compania de Bebidas PepsiCo S.L., Concentrate Holding Uruguay Pte. Ltd., Concentrate Manufacturing Singapore Pte. Ltd., Confiteria Alegro S. de R.L. de C.V., Copella Fruit Juices Limited, Copper Beech International LLC, Corina Snacks Limited, Corporativo Internacional Mexicano S. de R.L. de C.V., CytoSport Holdings Inc., CytoSport Inc., Davlyn Realty Corporation, Defosto Holdings Limited, Desarrollo Inmobiliario Gamesa S. de R.L. de C.V., Dilexis S.A., Donon Holdings Limited, Drinkfinity USA Inc., Drinkstation Inc., Drinkstation Innovation Co. Ltd., Drinkstation Limited, Dutch Snacks Holding S.A. de C.V., Duyvis Production B.V., EPIC Enterprises Inc., Echo Bay Holdings Inc., Elaboradora Argentina de Cereales S.R.L., Enter Logistica LLC, Environ at Inverrary Partnership, Environ of Inverrary Inc., Eridanus Investments S.a r.l, Evercrisp Snack Productos de Chile S.A., FL Transportation Inc., FLI Andean LLC, FLI Colombia LLC, FLI Snacks Andean GP LLC, Fabrica PepsiCo Mexicali S. de R.L. de C.V., Fabrica de Productos Alimenticios Rene y Cia S.C.A., Fairlight International SRL, Far East Bottlers Hong Kong Limited, Food Concepts Pioneer Ltd., Forest Akers Nederland B.V., Forty-Six Peaks Holding Inc., Fovarosi Asvanyviz es Uditoipari Zartkoruen Mukodo Reszvenytarsasag, Freshwater International B.V., Frito Lay Gida Sanayi Ve Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, Frito Lay Poland Sp. z o.o., Frito Lay Sp. z o.o., Frito Lay de Guatemala y Compania Limitada, Frito-Lay Australia Holdings Pty Limited, Frito-Lay Dip Company Inc., Frito-Lay Dominicana S.A., Frito-Lay Global Investments B.V., Frito-Lay Inc., Frito-Lay Investments B.V., Frito-Lay Manufacturing LLC, Frito-Lay Netherlands Holding B.V., Frito-Lay North America Inc., Frito-Lay Sales Inc., Frito-Lay Trading Company Europe GmbH, Frito-Lay Trading Company GmbH, Frito-Lay Trading Company Poland GmbH, Frito-Lay Trinidad Unlimited, Fruko Mesrubat Sanayi Limited Sirketi, GB Czech LLC, GB International Inc., GB Russia LLC, GB Slovak LLC, GMP Manufacturing Inc., Gambrinus Investments Limited, Gamesa LLC, Gamesa S. de R.L. de C.V., Gas Natural de Merida S. A. de C. V., Gatorade Puerto Rico Company, General Bottlers of Hungary Inc., Golden Grain Company, Goveh S.R.L., Grayhawk Leasing LLC, Green Hemlock International LLC, Grupo Frito Lay y Compania Limitada, Grupo Gamesa S. de R.L. de C.V., Grupo Mabel, Grupo Sabritas S. de R.L. de C.V., Gulkevichskiy Maslozavod JSC, Hangzhou Baicaowei Corporate Management Consulting Co. Ltd., Hangzhou Haomusi Food Co, Hangzhou Haomusi Food Co. Ltd., Hangzhou Tao Dao Technology Co. Ltd., Health Warrior, Health Warrior Inc., Heathland LP, Helioscope Limited, Hillbrook Inc., Hillgrove Inc., Hillwood Bottling LLC, Hogganfield Limited Partnership, Holding Company "Opolie" JSC, Homefinding Company of Texas, Hudson Valley Insurance Company, IC Equities Inc., IZZE Beverage Co., Inmobiliaria Interamericana S.A. De C.V., Integrated Beverage Services Bangladesh Limited, Integrated Foods & Beverages Pvt. Ltd., International Bottlers Management Co. LLC, International KAS Aktiengesellschaft, Inversiones Borneo S.R.L., Inversiones PFI Chile Limitada, Inviting Foods Holdings Inc., Inviting Foods LLC, KAS Anorthosis S.a r.l, KAS S.L., KFC, Kevita Inc., Kinvara LLC, Kungursky Molkombinat JSC, Larragana S.L., Latin American Holdings Ltd., Latin American Snack Foods ApS, Latin Foods International LLC, Lebedyansky, Lebedyansky Holdings LLC, Lebedyansky LLC, Limited Liability Company "Sandora", Linkbay Limited, Lithuanian Snacks UAB, Mabel, Marbo Product d.o.o. Beograd, Marbo d.o.o. Laktasi, Matudis - Comercio de Produtos Alimentares Limitada, Matutano - Sociedade de Produtos Alimentares Lda., Mid-America Improvement Corporation, Mountainview Insurance Company Inc., Muscle Milk, NCJV LLC, New Bern Transport Corporation, New Century Beverage Company LLC, Noble Leasing LLC, Northeast Hot-Fill Co-op Inc., Office at Solyanka LLC, Onbiso Inversiones S.L., One World Enterprises LLC, One World Investors Inc., P-A Barbados Bottling Company LLC, P-A Bottlers Barbados SRL, P-Americas LLC, PAS Luxembourg S.a r.l, PAS Netherlands B.V., PBG Canada Holdings II LLC, PBG Canada Holdings Inc., PBG Cyprus Holdings Limited, PBG Investment Partnership, PBG Midwest Holdings S.a r.l, PBG Soda Can Holdings S.a r.l, PCBL LLC, PCNA Manufacturing Inc., PR Beverages Cyprus Holding Limited, PR Beverages Cyprus Russia Holding Limited, PRB Luxembourg S.a r.l, PRS Inc., PSAS Inversiones LLC, PSE Logistica S.R.L., PT Quaker Indonesia, Papas Chips S.A., Pei N.V., Pep Trade LLC, Pepsi B.V., Pepsi Beverages Holdings Inc., Pepsi Bottling Group Global Finance LLC, Pepsi Bottling Group GmbH, Pepsi Bottling Group Hoosiers B.V., Pepsi Bottling Holdings Inc., Pepsi Bugshan Investments S.A.E., Pepsi Cola Colombia Ltda, Pepsi Cola Egypt S.A.E., Pepsi Cola Panamericana S.R.L., Pepsi Cola Servis Ve Dagitim Limited Sirketi, Pepsi Cola Trading Ireland, Pepsi Logistics Company Inc., Pepsi Northwest Beverages LLC, Pepsi Overseas Investments Partnership, Pepsi Promotions Inc., Pepsi-Cola Advertising and Marketing Inc., Pepsi-Cola Bermuda Limited, Pepsi-Cola Bottlers Holding C.V., Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company Of St. Louis Inc., Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company of Ft. 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While the old guard has given up hope for a marked revival in the party's fortunes anytime soon, the young and restless in the party seek 'change.'

By Sweta dutta: In the face of crumbling state units of the Congress party in Bihar and Gujarat, there is denial, despair and questions raised at 'indecisive leadership.' After letting opportunities slip by in Goa and Manipur, where Congress despite its lead could not form government, the awry situation in Bihar and Gujarat has left the party rank and file divided.

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While the old guard has given up hope for a marked revival in the party's fortunes anytime soon and recommend a 'wait and watch till BJP's undoing takes place on its own', the young and restless in the party seek 'change.'

"A very senior leader recently told us that while Congress has governed for close to six decades, the BJP has just had a few years to themselves. They will also stumble and make mistakes. In politics, one needs to be patient. We need to ride it out. There is little that can be done right now except just wait and watch. The tide is clearly in their favour," said a senior party functionary.

Despite the sense of gloom and resignation, a section of the party, mainly in poll-bound Gujarat, calls for the leadership's attention. Rebel MLA and former CM Shankersinh Vaghela's exit from the party has not just destabilised the state unit but also dimmed the Congress' chances in the upcoming polls. Following Vaghela's resignation, three more Congress MLAs left for BJP, taking with them party volunteers.

Even as Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee chief Bharatsinh Solanki called the exodus 'Diwali cleaning', party leaders in the headquarters maintain the situation is 'grim.' "It was loss of face for the party during the presidential polls when 11 MLAs cross voted for the BJP. Despite a strength of 57 Congress MLAs in the state, the Opposition candidate got just 46 votes. Now the fate of Rajya Sabha MP Ahmed Patel hangs fire as four Congress MLAs have already left the party that leaves us with 52 MLAs, of whom there is a strong possibility some will once again cross vote when Patel's re-election comes up," said a senior leader.

Vaghela's son and sitting MLA Mahendrasinh told Mail Today, "Indecisive leadership is the root cause of all troubles of the Congress today. Rahul Gandhi is vice president and in charge of all party affairs but he did nothing to set things right in Gujarat. Even in Bihar we lost our position. Things are not right. The PCC chief might rubbish all allegations but volunteers are unhappy and are saying that Bapu (Shankersinh) should not have been treated like this."

Asked about the recent exodus, Solanki maintained, "Consider this Diwali cleaning. It is good they left on their own or else they would have created trouble during the elections. We are happy and set for the upcoming polls. As for the Rajya Sabha elections, we need 45 MLAs for Ahmed Patel to win, which we comfortably have."

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In Bihar, as the hapless Congress MLAs move from the benches of the ruling party in the state legislative assembly to the Opposition's, there is simmering rage and despair. Even as AICC general secretary in charge CP Joshi remains in touch with the party leaders, MLAs here too blame Rahul Gandhi for 'indecisive leadership.' "If he (Rahul) knew Nitish Kumar would break the alliance like this, that too for three-four months, he should have at least played it to our advantage. Congress stands to lose the most from this JDU-BJP alliance, not just optically but also from the standpoint of party workers' morale," said a leader from the state.

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Knives out in Congress: Sonia loyalist questions Rahul Gandhi after Uttar Pradesh election disaster

As Gujarat Dangal nears, Shankersinh Vaghela quits Congress, may prove to be Haanikaarak Bapu for party

Rahul Gandhi says he knew about Nitish Kumar's plans to join hands with BJP, but what did he do?

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How Shankersinh Vaghela's expulsion spells doom for Congress ahead of Gujarat Assembly polls

Shankersinh Vaghela will support Ahmed Patel, says Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia

ALSO WATCH | Gujarat MLAs exodus: Congress leaders approach Election Commission

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Ltd., Pfizer Spain Holdings Cooperatief U.A., Pfizer Specialties Limited, Pfizer Strategic Investment Holdings LLC, Pfizer Sweden Partnership KB, Pfizer TRAE Holdings Kft., Pfizer Trading Polska sp.z.o.o., Pfizer Transactions Ireland Unlimited Company, Pfizer Transactions LLC, Pfizer Transactions Luxembourg SARL, Pfizer Transport LLC, Pfizer Ukraine LLC, Pfizer Vaccines LLC, Pfizer Venezuela S.A., Pfizer Venture Investments LLC, Pfizer Ventures LLC, Pfizer Worldwide Services Unlimited Company, Pfizer Zona Franca S.A., Pfizer spol. s r.o., Pharmacia, Pharmacia & Upjohn Company Inc., Pharmacia & Upjohn Company LLC, Pharmacia & Upjohn LLC, Pharmacia & Upjohn S.A. de C.V., Pharmacia Brasil Ltda., Pharmacia Hepar LLC, Pharmacia Holding AB, Pharmacia Inter-American LLC, Pharmacia International B.V., Pharmacia LLC, Pharmacia Limited, Pharmacia Nostrum S.A., Pharmacia South Africa (Pty) Ltd, PowderJect Research Limited, PowderMed, Purepac Pharmaceutical Holdings LLC, Redvax, Renrall LLC, Rinat Neuroscience, Rinat Neuroscience Corp., Roerig Produtos Farmaceuticos Lda., Roerig S.A., Sao Cristovao Participacoes Ltda., Searle Laboratorios Lda., Serenex, Servicios P&U S. de R.L. de C.V., Shiley LLC, Sinergis Farma-Produtos Farmaceuticos Lda., Site Realty Inc., Solinor LLC, Sugen LLC, Tabor LLC, The Pfizer Incubator LLC, Therachon, Thiakis Limited, Treerly Health Co. Ltd, US Oral Pharmaceuticals Pty Ltd, Upjohn Laboratorios Lda., Vesteralens Naturprodukter A/S, Vesteralens Naturprodukter AB, Vesteralens Naturprodukter AS, Vesteralens Naturprodukter OY, Vicuron Holdings LLC, Vinci Farma S.A., W-L LLC, Warner Lambert, Warner Lambert Ilac Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Warner Lambert del Uruguay S.A., Warner-Lambert (Thailand) Limited, Warner-Lambert Company AG, Warner-Lambert Company LLC, Warner-Lambert Guatemala Sociedad Anonima, Warner-Lambert S.A., Whitehall International Inc., Whitehall Laboratories Inc., Wyeth (Thailand) Ltd., Wyeth AB, Wyeth Australia Pty. Limited, Wyeth Ayerst Inc., Wyeth Ayerst S.a r.l., Wyeth Biopharma, Wyeth Canada ULC, Wyeth Consumer Healthcare LLC, Wyeth Europa Limited, Wyeth Farma S.A., Wyeth Holdings LLC, Wyeth Industria Farmaceutica Ltda., Wyeth KFT., Wyeth LLC, Wyeth Lederle S.r.l., Wyeth Lederle Vaccines S.A., Wyeth Pakistan Limited, Wyeth Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Company, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals FZ-LLC, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals LLC, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Limited, Wyeth Puerto Rico Inc., Wyeth S.A.S, Wyeth Subsidiary Illinois Corporation, Wyeth Whitehall Export GmbH, Wyeth Whitehall SARL, Wyeth-Ayerst (Asia) Limited, Wyeth-Ayerst International LLC, and Wyeth-Ayerst Promotions Limited.

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Mumbai, Jul 31 (PTI) The RBI today said it has imposed a penalty of Rs 1 crore on state-owned Union Bank of India for "non-compliance" with the directions on Know Your Customer (KYC) norms.

RBI said it had received a complaint regarding "huge cash withdrawals in certain accounts" maintained with Union Bank of India.

The penalty was imposed on July 26.

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"This action is based on deficiencies in regulatory compliance and is not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the bank with its customers," the RBI added.

The central bank said it had examined the documents regarding the complaint and notice was issued to the state- owned lender.

The bank was asked to show cause "as to why penalty should not be imposed" for non-compliance with directions issued by the RBI.

The RBI said that after considering the bank?s reply, oral submissions, additional information and documents, it concluded that the charge was substantiated and warranted imposition of monetary penalty. PTI NKD BAL

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Telecom Argentina S.A., together with its subsidiaries, provides telecommunications services in Argentina and internationally. The company offers telephone services, including local, domestic, and international long-distance telephone services, as well as public telephone services; and other related supplementary services, such as call waiting, call forwarding, conference calls, caller ID, voice mail, itemized billing, and maintenance services. It also provides interconnection services, such as traffic and interconnection resource, dedicated Internet access, video signals transportation in standard and high definitions, audio and video streaming, dedicated links, backhaul links for mobile operators, data center hosting/housing services, dedicated links, layer 2 and layer 3 transport networks, video links, value-added services, and other services. In addition, the company offers mobile telecommunications services, including voice communications, high-speed mobile Internet content and applications download, online streaming, and other services; and sells mobile communication devices, such as handsets, Modems MiFi and wingles, and smart watches under the Personal brand. Further, it provides internet connectivity products, including virtual private network services, traditional Internet protocol links, and other products; data services; and programming and other cable television services. The company was formerly known as Cablevision S.A. and changed its name to Telecom Argentina S.A. in January 2018. Telecom Argentina S.A. was founded in 1979 and is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Ten months after he launched Reliance Jio, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani has sprung a new surprise. He has launched JioPhone, an LTE-enabled mobile handset that also provides bundled services such as JioTV and JioMusic.

Ten months after he launched Reliance Jio, a disruptive fourth generation (4G) mobile telephony service based on long-term evolution or LTE technology, a form of high-speed wireless communication, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani has sprung a new surprise. On July 21, at RIL's annual general meeting of shareholders in Mumbai, he launched JioPhone, an LTE-enabled mobile handset that also provides bundled services such as JioTV and JioMusic.

The most attractive aspect is the price of the phone. It's practically free, since the Rs 1,500 one pays while buying the phone is a 'security deposit', to be refunded after three years if the phone is returned to the company. For Jio, which shook up the telecom sector with its initial offer of data at a fifth the existing cost and voice free forever, the handset offer bridges a big user gap. It addresses millions of feature phone users who are denied the benefits of even an entry-level smart phone, which can cost Rs 3,000-4,500.

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Feature phones incorporate features such as internet access and storage and can play music, but can't run third party apps like smart phones can. India had 895 million mobile users in March 2017, half of them feature phone users. The feature phone market is dominated by firms such as Nokia, Samsung, Lava and Micromax. "Data is the oxygen of digital life and no Indian should suffer because of data scarcity and unaffordability," said Ambani at the launch. JioPhone users will also get unlimited voice and data for Rs 153 a month.

But this new offer, commercially available from August 24, can be tricky, not just for Jio but also for other telecom companies, whose profitabilities were already hit by the tariff cuts necessitated by Jio's entry. Though overall data traffic grew five-fold in the year to March 2017, 4G data prices fell 60 per cent, resulting in flat revenue growth for telcos, Crisil said in a report in April. Experts say another 12 months of tariff war can bleed the sector further, which is steeped in debts of Rs 5 lakh crore. The other issue has to do with sustaining the growth momentum achieved at low tariffs.

At some point of time, companies will have to revise tariffs to remain profitable. The third issue has to do with JioPhone's target segment. "For the target segment, even Rs 150 a month can be on the higher side, at a time when the average revenue per user (ARPU, a measure of the sector's health) is between Rs 120 and Rs 130 a month," says Prashant Singhal, global telecom leader at EY India. Moreover, even at Rs 1,500, JioPhone is still not a smart phone, and customers have the option of going for cheap used ones. Can Jio pull it off in handsets as it did in mobile services?

Ambani is confident. "We have converted a majority of our free customers to paid customers. Today, Jio has more than 100 million paying Jio Prime (the company's key subscriber plan) customers," he says. He is now betting on selling five million JioPhone handsets a month.

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The Port of Helsinki is welcoming the Norwegian Getaway for her inagural calls to Finland this summer, and hopes to build on the momentum.

The Getaway is the big newcomer. We have a season with 272 calls and 440,000 passengers and next year is looking similar, said Eeva Hietanen, a spokesperson for the port.

For ships daring to venture in to Finland in the winter, port fees are negotiable and the port is offering a winter discount of 20 percent on waste water discharges.

Helsinki sees Baltic cruise traffic growing as a new quay is under construction on the Hernesaari side of the cruise facility, where there are already berths for two big ships.
Lindblad Expeditions National Geographic Quest, the lines first new build in the history of the company, commenced her inaugural voyage on July 29 as she set sail from Juneau. The first cruise is an eight-day voyage exploring Southeast Alaska.

While the delivery was a month late from Nichols Brothers, reportedly due to issues launching the vessel, Sven Lindblad, CEO and President of Lindblad, commended the team on the achievement, You all must feel a deep sense of pride and accomplishment, you have all worked tirelessly to make this possible, and are a part of history having played an important role in the building and launch of the most sophisticated and beautiful ship built in the US in decades.

The 100-passenger Quest will operate in Alaska through August 26 and will finish the Alaska season with a sailing departing Sept. 2 for the Inside Passage, combining Alaska and British Columbia.

The ship will remain in the Pacific Northwest for a series of voyages between Seattle and Vancouver, with stops in the San Juan Islands, Victoria, Alert Bay, and more far reaching stops in British Columbias channels and fjords.

Beginning in December 2017, she will reposition and operate expedition cruises in Costa Rica and Panama before kicking off a series of new voyages in Belize and Guatemala starting in February, 2018.
One of the hallmarks of any financial transaction is trust. Credit unions trust that members withdrawing money against their accounts are who they say they are  after doing something like matching fingerprints or an iris scan, asking questions that only those members should know how to answer, or confirming entry of an obscure password that should take 247 centuries to break.

On the other hand, members trust that this really is your credit union theyre dealing with, and not some fake website or skimmer attached to an ATM, trying to steal money. They also trust that their credit unions will protect all of the personal information thats used to authenticate their identities. Unfortunately, it is that last trust that is the easiest to break.

Weve seen dozens of super stores expose their customers data. In 2011 a bank employee sold customer data to thieves, causing a $10 million loss. Interestingly, the way the LA Times headlined that story was Bank of America data leak destroys trust.
I have a confession to make  I am a millennial. But Ill let you in on a secret, Im not that millennial. The one you read about in online articles. See, despite the fact that I love my ridiculously priced Starbucks drinks or know the whereabouts of my phone 99% of the time, who you are reading about in these articles, isnt my identity  Im more than just a buzzword.

What I will tell you is that I am a young professional, I dont jump from job to job and Im far from a slacker when Im at the office. In my personal life, Im not reluctant to buy a car or a house, I pay my bills on time and I even write checks to do it. The truth is that when I read articles intended to help you target millennialsI cringe. I understand that credit unions are looking to attract a younger clientele (the average age credit union member is 47). But then again, the way to attract me happens to be the same way to attract most people to your branch.

What Are My Options?

Growing up in Michigan, I belonged to a credit union. However, when I moved from Michigan down to Florida and went to pull my money from that particular credit union no one talked to me about my options. They failed to tell me that I could still access my money while across the country which was the main reason I was leaving them. In reality it was a perfect opportunity for them to educate a younger person on how their business works and perhaps gain an advocate for that branch. Due to the lack of communication, I left.

Lets Chat

Admittingly, Im on my phone a lot so having a website that makes it easy to get in touch with your branch by using whatever I have in front of me is HUGE!

If you dont have an app or see yourself getting one in the near future, make sure your website is mobile friendly. I want the navigation to be simple and intuitive because I will not spend more than a few minutes looking for information I need. Its a great idea to keep a FAQ page for questions I may have or perhaps consider adding a chat feature. We all have those moments when we have some quick questions, but maybe cant (or dont want) to pick up the phone and call. A chat feature fixes that problem and allows for timely responses and happy customers.

We Want Rewards

You guessed it, like everyone else I love rewards and incentives. If Im already using a credit card, why not give me something a little extra so that your card will be top of mind? But, Ill let you know this, dont just offer me anything. I will shop around for the best offer I can find and if I receive a better offer, later on, chances are Ill switch.

Pushing The Future of Payments

While millennials are notoriously known for being early adopters to new technology I dont think were ready to completely embrace mobile wallets. While the idea is great in theory, many of us have physical cards and IDs that we use regularly so we cant get rid of the cards right away. I would recommend all credit unions continue to adopt new technology so we all have the option to use mobile wallets, but wait until Generation Z rises to see a major change in the way that mobile pays are used.

Tell Me About Yourself

Ill stereotype myself here, but I prefer to shop local. I like going to non-chain restaurants, stopping in boutiques and farmers markets over visiting industry giants for subpar food or products. Where I live isnt going to keep growing and changing if I take all my buying power to big name stores and neglect the small local businesses. Do you know who else helps service local communities? You do! Im sure your credit union is giving back to the community all the time and I want to hear about that. Millennials cherish their communities so tell us about what you do and let us join in on the fun.

The bottom line is if you really want to learn about millennials, engage us! We would much rather be a part of the conversation than scroll through social media and see articles making claims about who we are and what we do. Chances are youll be surprised in how closely we can be aligned.
ConvaTec Group Plc develops, manufactures, and markets medical products and technologies worldwide. It offers advanced wound dressings and skin care products for the management of acute and chronic wounds resulting from various conditions, such as diabetes, immobility, and venous disease, as well as from traumatic injury, burns, invasive surgery, and other causes. The company also provides devices, accessories, and services for people with a stoma resulting from colorectal cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, bladder cancer, obesity, and other causes. In addition, it offers continence and critical care products, including intermittent urinary catheters; and products for people with urinary continence issues related to spinal cord injuries, multiple sclerosis, spina bifida, and other urological disorders, as well as devices and products used in intensive care units and hospital settings. Further, the company provides advanced systems for managing acute fecal incontinence, as well as for monitoring urine production output and intra-abdominal pressure; and various disposable medical devices, such as wound drainage systems, urine collection bags and catheters, airway management and oxygen/aerosol therapy devices, suction handles and tubes, gastroenterology tubes, and securement devices. Additionally, it offers disposable infusion sets to manufacturers of insulin pumps for diabetes, as well as similar pumps that are used in continuous infusion treatments for other conditions; and various products to hospital and home healthcare markets. The company sells its products to pharmacies, hospitals, and other acute and post-acute healthcare service providers directly or through distributors and wholesalers. It serves a range of customers, including healthcare providers, patients, and manufacturers. The company was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Reading, the United Kingdom.
Juniper Networks, Inc. designs, develops, and sells network products and services worldwide. The company offers routing products, such as ACX series universal access routers to deploy high-bandwidth services; MX series Ethernet routers that function as a universal edge platform; PTX series packet transport routers; wide-area network SDN controllers; and session smart routers. It also provides switching products, including EX series Ethernet switches to address the access, aggregation, and core layer switching requirements of micro branch, branch office, and campus environments; QFX series of core, spine, and top-of-rack data center switches; and juniper access points, which provide Wi-Fi access and performance. In addition, the company offers security products comprising SRX series services gateways for the data center; Branch SRX family provides an integrated and next-generation firewall; virtual firewall that delivers various features of physical firewalls; and advanced malware protection, a cloud-based service and Juniper ATP. Further, it offers Junos OS, a network operating system; Contrail networking, which provides an open-source and standards-based platform for SDN; Mist AI-driven Wired, Wireless, and WAN assurance solutions to set and measure key metrics; Mist AI-driven Marvis Virtual Network Assistant, which identifies the root cause of issues; Juniper Paragon Automation, a modular portfolio of cloud-native software applications; and Juniper Apstra to automate the network lifecycle in a single system. Additionally, the company provides software-as-a-service, technical support, maintenance, and professional services, as well as education and training programs. It sells its products through direct sales, distributors, value-added resellers, and original equipment manufacturers to end-users in the cloud, service provider, and enterprise markets. The company was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.
Ameriprise Financial, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides various financial products and services to individual and institutional clients in the United States and internationally. It operates through four segments: Advice & Wealth Management, Asset Management, Retirement & Protection Solutions, and Corporate & Other. The Advice & Wealth Management segment provides financial planning and advice; brokerage products and services for retail and institutional clients; discretionary and non-discretionary investment advisory accounts; mutual funds; insurance and annuities products; cash management and banking products; and face-amount certificates. The Asset Management segment offers investment management and advice, and investment products to retail, high net worth, and institutional clients through unaffiliated third-party financial institutions and institutional sales force. This segment products also include U.S. mutual funds and their non-U.S. equivalents, exchange-traded funds, variable product funds underlying insurance, and annuity separate accounts; and institutional asset management products, such as traditional asset classes, separately managed accounts, individually managed accounts, collateralized loan obligations, hedge funds, collective funds, and property and infrastructure funds. The Retirement & Protection Solutions segment provides variable annuity products to individual clients, as well as life and DI insurance products to retail clients. The company was formerly known as American Express Financial Corporation and changed its name to Ameriprise Financial, Inc. in September 2005. Ameriprise Financial, Inc. was founded in 1894 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
By PTI: (Eds: Updating with arrests, fresh incident)

Thiruvananthapuram, Jul 30 (PTI) A day after an RSS worker was killed in Kerala, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Director General of Police Loknath Behera were today summoned by Governor P Sathasivam.

They apprised the governor of the steps taken in connection with the brutal killing even as the police said seven persons were arrested.

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In another incident, an RSS worker was injured tonight when he was attacked by some unidentified persons at Pandalam in Pathanamthitta district, the police said.

The man, who received "minor injuries", was taken to a hospital, they added.

Vijayan and Behera met the governor separately after they were summoned by the Raj Bhavan this morning to ascertain the action taken, following the recent violent incidents, including the killing of RSS worker Rajesh (34).

The state has been witnessing a cycle of violence involving the BJP-RSS and CPI(M) workers with the capital district rocked by incidents of attacks on houses of the rival partymen in the last few days.

The state BJP office was also vandalised on July 28.

Rajesh was hacked to death by a gang, allegedly led by a history-sheeter, here last night. His left arm was chopped off and there were several other injuries all over his body.

A Raj Bhavan statement said the governor sought information from the chief minister and the DGP in the wake of the recent incidents of violence in the state capital and the killing of the RSS functionary.

"Summoned Chief Minister and State Police Chief to know about action taken by State govt on law and order issues in Trivandrum (sic)," Sathasivam tweeted, adding that Vijayan assured him that the law-breakers would be sternly dealt with, irrespective of their political affiliation.

The police said seven persons, including prime accused Manikandan, the history-sheeter, had been arrested in connection with the killing of the RSS worker.

They added that the attack was due to a "personal enmity" between Manikandan and the victim, which had been going on for the last one-and-a-half years.

In a related development, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to Vijayan, voiced concern over attacks on political workers in Kerala and said political violence was unacceptable in a democracy.

Meanwhile, the statewide dawn-to-dusk hartal called by the BJP in protest against the killing of Rajesh evoked a near total response with state-run and private buses keeping off the roads and shops and business establishments remaining shut.

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It by and large passed off peacefully, barring some minor incidents of stonepelting, destruction of flag masts and damage of vehicles.

A scooter, which was parked in front of the University College here, a bastion of the CPI(M)s students outfit, the SFI, was found burnt shortly after the funeral procession of Rajesh passed through the city in the evening.

The chief minister met the governor at around 11.30 am, while the DGP met Sathasivam at 12.30 pm, the Raj Bhavan said.

It also said the chief minister would soon make a public appeal to maintain peace.

Vijayan also told the governor that he would be meeting Kerala BJP president Kummanam Rajasekharan and the state RSS chief, the Raj Bhavan statement added.

The governor asked the DGP to take all possible measures to book the culprits and maintain peace in the state.

Sathasivam also spoke to Rajasekharan about the incident and the attack on the BJP office here.

CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan claimed that the RSS workers killing was a fallout of a personal rivalry and his party had nothing to do with it.

He alleged that the BJP was trying to put the blame on the Left party as part of their "secret political agenda".

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Rajasekharan, on the other hand, alleged that the ruling CPI(M) in Kerala was trying to "eliminate" its political opponents and urged it to refrain from perpetrating violence.

Opposition Congress leaders observed a fast in Kozhikode today to protest against the "politics of violence" in Kerala. PTI LGK UD VS RC

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The following companies are subsidiares of Tyson Foods: APF Legacy Subs LLC, Advance Food Company LLC, AdvancePierre Foods, AdvancePierre Foods Holdings Inc., AdvancePierre Foods Inc., Aidells Sausage Company Inc., Allied Specialty Foods Inc., American Proteins Inc, Artisan Bread Co. LLC, Australian Food Corporation Pty Limited, Australian Food Corporation Trust, BRF, Barber Foods LLC, Bosco's Pizza Co., Bryan Foods Inc., C.S. Grain LLC, C.V. Holdings Inc., CBFA Management Corp., Central Industries Inc., Chefs Pantry LLC, Clovervale Farms LLC, Cobb (Hubei) Breeding Co. Ltd., Cobb (Shanghai) Enterprise Management Consulting Co. Ltd., Cobb Ana Damizlik Tavukculuk Sanayi Ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Cobb Columbia S.A.S., Cobb Europe B.V., Cobb Europe Limited, Cobb Peru (Andina) S.A.C., Cobb-Heritage LLC, Cobb-Vantress Brasil Ltda, Cobb-Vantress Inc., Cobb-Vantress New Zealand Limited, Cobb-Vantress Philippines Inc., Coominya AFC Pty Limited, Coominya AFC Trust, DFG Foods Inc., DFG Foods L.L.C., Don Julio, Egbert LLC, Equity Group - Georgia Division LLC, Equity Group - Kentucky Division LLC, Equity Group Eufaula Division LLC, Equity Meat Corp., Flavor Corp., Flavor Holdings Inc., Foodbrands America Inc., Foodbrands Supply Chain Services Inc., Gallo Salame Inc., Global Employment Services Inc., Grow-Out Credit LLC, Grow-Out Holdings LLC, Haimen Tyson Poultry Development Co. Ltd, Hudson Foods Company, Hudson Midwest Foods Inc., Hybro Genetics Brasil Ltda, IBP Caribbean Inc., IBP Foodservice L.L.C., IBP Inc., International Affiliates & Investment LLC, Jiangsu Tyson Foods Co. Ltd, Keydutch Finance B.V., Keydutch Holdings I LLC, Keydutch Holdings II LLC, Keydutch Investments B.V., Keystone CLJV Holdings Limited, Keystone County House Road LLC, Keystone Foods, Keystone Foods (AP) Limited, Keystone Foods Holdco LLC, Keystone Foods Intermediate LLC, Keystone Foods LLC, Keystone Foods Pty Limited, Keystone Management Inc., Keystone Trading (Shanghai) Company Limited, LD Foods LLC, M & M Express LLC, M&M Restaurant Supply (MI/OH) LLC, MFG (USA) Holdings Inc., Mac Food Services (Malaysia) SDN. BHD., Madison Foods Inc., McKey Food Services (Hong Kong) Limited, McKey Food Services (Shandong) Limited, McKey Food Services (Thailand) Limited, McKey Food Services Limited, McKey Luxembourg Holdings APMEA S.a.r.l., McKey Luxembourg Holdings S.a.r.l., McKey Luxembourg S.a.r.l., McKey VI Holdings Limited, Myung Seung Food Company Ltd., National Comp Care Inc., New Canada Holdings Inc., Oaklawn Capital Corporation, Oaklawn IT Solution Private Limited, Original Philly Holdings Inc., PBX inc., Pierre Holdco Inc., River Valley Ingredients LLC, Rizhao Tyson Foods Co. Ltd, Rizhao Tyson Poultry Co. Ltd, Rural Energy Systems Inc., Sara Lee - Kiwi Holdings LLC, Sara Lee Diversified LLC, Sara Lee Foods LLC, Sara Lee Household & Body Care Malawi Ltd., Sara Lee International LLC, Sara Lee International TM Holdings LLC, Sara Lee Mexicana Holdings Investment L.L.C., Sara Lee TM Holdings LLC, Sara Lee Trademark Holdings Australasia LLC, Saramar L.L.C., Shandong Tyson-Da Long Food Company Limited, Smart Chicken, Southern Family Foods L.L.C., Southwest Products LLC, TF 20 B.V., TF 5201 B.V., TFA Leasing LLC, TFA Opportunity Zone Fund LLC, TFI of California Inc., Tecumseh Poultry LLC, Texas Transfer Inc., The Bruss Company, The Hillshire Brands Company, The IBP Foods Co., The Pork Group Inc., TyNet Corporation, Tyson (Shanghai) Enterprise Management Consulting Co. Ltd., Tyson Americas Holding Sarl, Tyson Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Tyson Breeders Inc., Tyson Chicken Inc., Tyson China Holding 2 Limited, Tyson China Holding 3 Limited, Tyson China Holding Limited, Tyson Deli Inc., Tyson Europe Holding Company, Tyson Farms Inc., Tyson Farms QOZB LLC, Tyson Foods Brasil Investimentos Ltda., Tyson Foods Canada Inc., Tyson Foods Europe (Netherlands) B.V., Tyson Foods Europe GmbH, Tyson Foods France S.A.R.L., Tyson Foods Germany GmbH, Tyson Foods Group Limited, Tyson Foods Holland B.V., Tyson Foods Huadong Development Co. Ltd, Tyson Foods Iberia Alimentos S.L.U., Tyson Foods Italia S.p.A., Tyson Foods Korea, Tyson Foods Netherlands B.V., Tyson Foods Products Limited, Tyson Foods Scotland Europe Limited, Tyson Foods Scotland Sales (Europe) Limited, Tyson Foods UK Limited, Tyson Foods Wrexham Limited, Tyson Foods oosterwolde B.V., Tyson Fresh Meats Inc., Tyson Fresh Meats Sales and Distribution LLC, Tyson Global Holding Sarl, Tyson Hog Markets Inc., Tyson India Holdings Ltd., Tyson International APAC Ltd., Tyson International Company Ltd., Tyson International Holding Company, Tyson International Holding Sarl, Tyson International Service Center Inc., Tyson International Service Center Inc. Asia, Tyson International Service Center Inc. Europe, Tyson Mexican Original Inc., Tyson Mexico Trading Company S. de R.L. de CV., Tyson New Ventures LLC, Tyson Opportunity Zone Fund LLC, Tyson Pet Products Inc., Tyson Poultry Inc., Tyson Prepared Foods Inc., Tyson Processing Services Inc., Tyson Refrigerated Processed Meats Inc., Tyson Sales and Distribution Inc., Tyson Service Center Corp., Tyson Shared Services Inc., Tyson Storm Lake Holdings LLC, Tyson Warehousing Services LLC, Tyson of Wisconsin LLC, Uninex SA, Universal Meats (UK) Limited, WBA Analytical Laboratories Inc., Wilton Foods Inc., Xamol Consultores e Servicos, and Zemco Industries Inc..

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Fortis Inc. operates as an electric and gas utility company in Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean countries. It generates, transmits, and distributes electricity to approximately 438,000 retail customers in southeastern Arizona; and 100,000 retail customers in Arizona's Mohave and Santa Cruz counties with an aggregate capacity of 3,485 megawatts (MW), including 53 MW of solar capacity and 252 MV of wind capacity. The company also sells wholesale electricity to other entities in the western United States; owns gas-fired and hydroelectric generating capacity totaling 65 MW; and distributes natural gas to approximately 1,065,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in British Columbia, Canada. In addition, it owns and operates the electricity distribution system that serves approximately 577,000 customers in southern and central Alberta; owns 4 hydroelectric generating facilities with a combined capacity of 225 MW; and provides operation, maintenance, and management services to five hydroelectric generating facilities. Further, the company distributes electricity in the island portion of Newfoundland and Labrador with an installed generating capacity of 143 MW; and on Prince Edward Island with a generating capacity of 130 MW. Additionally, it provides integrated electric utility service to approximately 68,000 customers in Ontario; approximately 272,000 customers in Newfoundland and Labrador; approximately 32,000 customers on Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands; and approximately 16,000 customers on certain islands in Turks and Caicos. The company also holds long-term contracted generation assets in Belize consisting of 3 hydroelectric generating facilities with a combined capacity of 51 MW; and the Aitken Creek natural gas storage facility. It also owns and operates approximately 90,200 circuit Kilometers (km) of distribution lines; and approximately 50,500 km of natural gas pipelines. Fortis Inc. was founded in 1885 and is headquartered in St. John's, Canada.
State Street Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides a range of financial products and services to institutional investors worldwide. The company offers investment servicing products and services, including custody; product accounting; daily pricing and administration; master trust and master custody; depotbank services; record-keeping; cash management; foreign exchange, brokerage and other trading services; securities finance and enhanced custody products; deposit and short-term investment facilities; loans and lease financing; investment manager and alternative investment manager operations outsourcing; performance, risk, and compliance analytics; and financial data management to support institutional investors. It also engages in the provision of portfolio management and risk analytics, as well as trading and post-trade settlement services with integrated compliance and managed data. In addition, the company offers investment management strategies and products, such as core and enhanced indexing, multi-asset strategies, active quantitative and fundamental active capabilities, and alternative investment strategies. Further, it provides services and solutions, including environmental, social, and governance investing; defined benefit and defined contribution; and global fiduciary solutions, as well as exchange-traded fund under the SPDR ETF brand. The company provides its products and services to mutual funds, collective investment funds and other investment pools, corporate and public retirement plans, insurance companies, foundations, endowments, and investment managers. State Street Corporation was founded in 1792 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.
Apollo Global Management, Inc. is a private equity firm specializing in investments in credit, private equity and real estate markets. The firm's private equity investments include traditional buyouts, recapitalization, distressed buyouts and debt investments in real estate, corporate partner buyouts, distressed asset, corporate carve-outs, middle market, growth capital, turnaround, bridge, corporate restructuring, special situation, acquisition, and industry consolidation transactions. The firm provides its services to endowment and sovereign wealth funds, as well as other institutional and individual investors. It manages client focused portfolios. The firm launches and manages hedge funds for its clients. It also manages real estate funds and private equity funds for its clients. The firm invests in the fixed income and alternative investment markets across the globe. Its fixed income investments include income-oriented senior loans, bonds, collateralized loan obligations, structured credit, opportunistic credit, non-performing loans, distressed debt, mezzanine debt, and value oriented fixed income securities. The firm seeks to invest in chemicals, commodities, consumer and retail, oil and gas, metals, mining, agriculture, commodities, distribution and transportation, financial and business services, manufacturing and industrial, media distribution, cable, entertainment and leisure, telecom, technology, natural resources, energy, packaging and materials, and satellite and wireless industries. It seeks to invest in companies based in across Africa, North America with a focus on United States, and Europe. The firm also makes investments outside North America, primarily in Western Europe and Asia. It employs a combination of contrarian, value, and distressed strategies to make its investments. The firm seeks to make investments in the range of $10 million and $1500 million. The firm seeks to invest in companies with Enterprise value between $750 million to $2500 million. The firm conducts an in-house research to create its investment portfolio. It seeks to acquire minority and majority positions in its portfolio companies. Apollo Global Management, Inc. was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in New York, New York with additional offices in North America, Asia , India and Europe.
The following companies are subsidiares of InterContinental Hotels Group: 2250 Blake Street Hotel LLC, 24th Street Operator Sub LLC, 36th Street IHG Sub LLC, 426 Main Ave LLC, 46 Nevins Street Associates LLC, Allegro Management LLC, Alpha Kimball Hotel LLC, American Commonwealth Assurance Co. Ltd., Asia Pacific Holdings Limited, BHMC Canada Inc., BHR Holdings B.V., BHR Luxembourg SARL, BHR Pacific Holdings Inc., BHTC Canada Inc., BOC Barclay Sub LLC, Barclay Operating Corp., Bristol Oakbrook Tenant Company, Cafe Biarritz, Cambridge Lodging LLC, Capital Lodging LLC, Compania Inter-Continental De Hoteles El Salvador SA, Crowne Plaza Amsterdam (Management) B.V., Crowne Plaza LLC, Cumberland Akers Hotel LLC, Dunwoody Operations Inc., EVEN Real Estate Holding LLC, Edinburgh IC Limited, General Innkeeping Acceptance Corporation, Guangzhou SC Hotels Services Ltd., H.I. (Ireland) Limited, H.I. Soaltee Management Company Ltd, HC International Holdings Inc., HH France Holdings SAS, HH Hotels (EMEA) B.V., HH Hotels (Romania) SRL, HI Sugarloaf LLC, HIM (Aruba) NV, Hale International Ltd., Hoft Properties LLC, Holiday Hospitality Franchising LLC, Holiday Inn Mexicana S.A. de C.V., Holiday Inns (China) Ltd, Holiday Inns (Chongqing) Inc., Holiday Inns (Courtalin) Holdings SAS, Holiday Inns (Courtalin) SAS, Holiday Inns (England) Ltd., Holiday Inns (Germany) LLC, Holiday Inns (Guangzhou) Inc., Holiday Inns (Jamaica) Inc., Holiday Inns (Malaysia) Ltd., Holiday Inns (Middle East) Ltd., Holiday Inns (Philippines) Inc., Holiday Inns (Saudi Arabia) Inc., Holiday Inns (South East Asia) Inc., Holiday Inns (Thailand) Ltd., Holiday Inns (UK) Inc., Holiday Inns Crowne Plaza (Hong Kong) Inc., Holiday Inns Holdings (Australia) Pty Ltd, Holiday Inns Inc., Holiday Inns Investment (Nepal) Ltd., Holiday Inns of America (UK) Ltd., Holiday Inns of Belgium N.V., Holiday Pacific Equity Corporation, Holiday Pacific LLC, Holiday Pacific Partners LP, Hotel Inter-Continental London Limited, Hotel InterContinental London (Holdings) Limited, Hoteles Y Turismo HIH SRL, IC Hotelbetriebsfuhrungs GmbH, IC Hotels Management (Portugal) Unipessoal Lda, IC International Hotels Limited Liability Company, IHC (Thailand) Limited, IHC Buckhead LLC, IHC Edinburgh (Holdings), IHC Hopkins (Holdings) Corp., IHC Hotel Limited, IHC Inter-Continental (Holdings) Corp., IHC London (Holdings), IHC M-H (Holdings) Corp., IHC May Fair (Holdings) Limited, IHC May Fair Hotel Limited, IHC Overseas (U.K.) Limited, IHC UK (Holdings) Limited, IHC United States (Holdings) Corp., IHC Willard (Holdings) Corp., IHG (Australasia) Limited, IHG (Marseille) SAS, IHG (Thailand) Limited, IHG ANA Hotels Group Japan LLC, IHG ANA Hotels Holdings Co. Ltd., IHG Bangkok Ltd, IHG Brasil Administracao de Hoteis e Servicos Ltda, IHG Commission Services SRL, IHG Community Development LLC, IHG Cyprus Limited, IHG ECS (Barbados) SRL, IHG Franchising Brasil Ltda, IHG Franchising DR Corporation, IHG Franchising LLC, IHG Hotels (New Zealand) Limited, IHG Hotels Limited, IHG Hotels Management (Australia) Pty Limited, IHG Hotels Nigeria Limited, IHG Hotels South Africa (Pty) Ltd, IHG International Partnership, IHG Istanbul Otel Yonetim Limited Sirketi, IHG Japan (Management) LLC, IHG Japan (Osaka) LLC, IHG Management (Maryland) LLC, IHG Management (Netherlands) B.V., IHG Management MD Barclay Sub LLC, IHG Management SL d.o.o, IHG Management d.o.o. Beograd, IHG Orchard Street Member LLC, IHG PS Nominees Limited, IHG Systems Pty Ltd, IHG Szalloda Budapest Szolgaltato Kft., IHG de Argentina SA, IND East Village SD Holdings LLC, Inter-Continental D.C. Operating Corp., Inter-Continental Florida Investment Corp., Inter-Continental Florida Partner Corp., Inter-Continental Hospitality Corporation, Inter-Continental Hoteleira Limitada, Inter-Continental Hotels (Montreal) Operating Corp., Inter-Continental Hotels (Montreal) Owning Corp., Inter-Continental Hotels (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Inter-Continental Hotels Corporation, Inter-Continental Hotels Corporation de Venezuela C.A., Inter-Continental Hotels of San Francisco Inc., Inter-Continental IOHC (Mauritius) Limited, Inter-Continental Management (Australia) Pty Limited, InterContinental (Branston) 1 Limited, InterContinental (PB) 1, InterContinental (PB) 2, InterContinental (PB) 3 Limited, InterContinental Berlin Service Company GmbH, InterContinental Brasil Administracao de Hoteis Ltda, InterContinental Gestion Hotelera S.L., InterContinental Hotel Berlin GmbH, InterContinental Hotel Dusseldorf GmbH (Germany), InterContinental Hotels (Puerto Rico) Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group (Asia Pacific) Pte Ltd, InterContinental Hotels Group (Australia) Pty Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group (Canada) Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group (Espana) SA, InterContinental Hotels Group (Greater China) Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group (India) Pvt. Ltd, InterContinental Hotels Group (Japan) Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group (New Zealand) Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group (Shanghai) Ltd., InterContinental Hotels Group Customer Services Ltd., InterContinental Hotels Group Healthcare Trustee Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group Operating Corp., InterContinental Hotels Group Resources Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group Services Company, InterContinental Hotels Group do Brasil Limitada, InterContinental Hotels Italia S.r.L., InterContinental Hotels Limited, InterContinental Hotels Management GmbH, InterContinental Hotels Nevada Corporation, InterContinental Management AM LLC, InterContinental Management Bulgaria EOOD, InterContinental Management France SAS, InterContinental Management Poland sp. z.o.o, InterContinental Overseas Holding Corporation, Intercontinental Hotels Corporation Limited, KG Benefits LLC, KG Gift Card Inc., KG Liability LLC, KG Technology LLC, KHP Washington Operator LLC, KHRG 11th Avenue Hotel LLC, KHRG 851 LLC, KHRG Aertson LLC, KHRG Alexandria LLC, KHRG Alexis LLC, KHRG Allegro LLC, KHRG Argyle LLC, KHRG Austin Beverage Company LLC, KHRG Baltimore LLC, KHRG Born LLC, KHRG Boston Hotel LLC, KHRG Canary LLC, KHRG Cayman Employer Ltd., KHRG Cayman LLC, KHRG DC 1731 LLC, KHRG DC 2505 LLC, KHRG Donovan LLC, KHRG Employer LLC, KHRG Goleta LLC, KHRG Gray LLC, KHRG Gray U2 LLC, KHRG Hillcrest LLC, KHRG Huntington Beach LLC, KHRG King Street LLC, KHRG La Peer LLC, KHRG Miami Beach LLC, KHRG Muse LLC, KHRG NPC LLC, KHRG Onyx LLC, KHRG Palladian LLC, KHRG Palomar Phoenix LLC, KHRG Philly Monaco LLC, KHRG Pittsburgh LLC, KHRG Reynolds LLC, KHRG Riverplace LLC, KHRG SFD LLC, KHRG Sacramento LLC, KHRG Savannah LLC, KHRG Schofield LLC, KHRG Sedona LLC, KHRG State Street LLC, KHRG Sutter LLC, KHRG Sutter Union LLC, KHRG Taconic LLC, KHRG Tariff LLC, KHRG Texas Hospitality LLC, KHRG Texas Operations LLC, KHRG Tryon LLC, KHRG VZ Austin LLC, KHRG Vero Beach LLC, KHRG Vintage Park LLC, KHRG WPB LLC, KHRG Wabash LLC, KHRG Westwood LLC, KHRG Wilshire LLC, KHRG Zamora LLC, Kimpton Hollywood Licenses LLC, Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group, Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group LLC, Kimpton Phoenix Licenses Holdings LLC, Kimpton Sedona Licenses LLC, Louisiana Acquisitions Corp., MH Lodging LLC, Mercer Fairview Holdings LLC, PML Services LLC, PT SC Hotels & Resorts Indonesia, Pollstrong Limited, Powell Pine Inc., Priscilla Holiday of Texas Inc., RM Lodging LLC, Regent Hotels and Resorts, Resort Services International (Cayo Largo) L.P., SBS Maryland Beverage Company LLC, SC Cellars Limited, SC Hotels International Services Inc., SC Leisure Group Limited, SC NAS 2 Limited, SC Quest Limited, SC Reservations (Philippines) Inc., SCH Insurance Company, SCIH Branston 3, SF MH Acquisition LLC, SPHC Group Pty Ltd., SPHC Management Ltd., Semiramis for training of Hotel Personnel and Hotel Management SAE, Six Continents Corporate Services, Six Continents Holdings Limited, Six Continents Hotels Inc., Six Continents Hotels International Limited, Six Continents Hotels de Colombia SA, Six Continents International Holdings B.V., Six Continents Investments Limited, Six Continents Limited, Six Continents Overseas Holdings Limited, Six Continents Restaurants Limited, SixCo North America Inc., Solamar Lodging LLC, Southern Pacific Hotel Corporation (BVI) Ltd., Southern Pacific Hotels Properties Limited, Universal de Hoteles SA, White Shield Insurance Company Limited, and World Trade Centre Montreal Hotel Corporation.

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Morgan Advanced Materials plc operates as a materials science and application engineering company primarily the United Kingdom. It offers high-temperature insulating fibers, microporous, firebrick and insulating firebrick, monolithic, heat shields, and fired refractory shape products; crucibles, foundry and ferrous products, and furnace industries furnace ranges; and seals and bearings, such as face seals, split and segmented seals, sliding bearings, shafts, rotary vane pump components, and sliding valve components. The company also provides carbon brushes and collectors, brush holders, power slip rings, terminal blocks, diagnostic equipment, carbon current collection strips, shaft grounding rings, and linear transfer systems. In addition, it offers components, ceramic cores, ceramic to metal brazed/metallized assemblies, mass spectrometry components, wax injection, ceramic injection molded, extruded, laser, machinable glass ceramic, semiconductor, and zirconia products, as well as tubes, laboratory porcelain products, and kiln furniture under the Haldenwanger name. The company serves customers in the industrial, transportation, petrochemical and chemical, energy, semiconductor and electronics, healthcare, and security and defense markets. It also operates in the United States, China, Germany, France, other Asian countries, Australasia, the Middle East and Africa, other European countries, other North American countries, and South America. The company was formerly known as The Morgan Crucible Company plc and changed its name to Morgan Advanced Materials plc in March 2013. Morgan Advanced Materials plc was founded in 1856 and is headquartered in Windsor, the United Kingdom.
Nabors Industries Ltd. provides drilling and drilling-related services for land-based and offshore oil and natural gas wells. The company operates through five segments: U.S. Drilling, Canada Drilling, International Drilling, Drilling Solutions, and Rig Technologies. It provides tubular running, wellbore placement, directional drilling, measurement-while-drilling (MWD), equipment manufacturing, and rig instrumentation services; and logging-while-drilling systems and services, as well as drilling optimization software. The company also offers REVit, an automated real time stick-slip mitigation system; ROCKit, a directional steering control system; SmartNAV, a collaborative guidance and advisory platform; SmartSLIDE, an advanced directional steering control system; and RigCLOUD, which provides the tools and infrastructure to integrate applications to deliver real-time insight into operations across the rig fleet. In addition, it manufactures and sells top drives, catwalks, wrenches, drawworks, and other drilling related equipment, such as robotic systems and downhole tools; and provides aftermarket sales and services for the installed base of its equipment. As of December 31, 2021, the company marketed approximately 301 rigs for land-based drilling operations in the United States, Canada, and in 20 other countries worldwide; and 29 rigs for offshore platform drilling operations in the United States and internationally. Nabors Industries Ltd. was founded in 1952 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda.
The following companies are subsidiares of Amphenol: ARCAS Automotive Group (Luxco 1) S.a.r.l., AUXEL FTG, AUXEL FTG India Pvt Ltd., AUXEL FTG Shanghai Co., AUXEL S.A.S., Air LB International Development S.A., All Systems Broadband, Amphenol (Changzhou) Advanced Connector Co., Amphenol (Changzhou) Connector Systems Co., Amphenol (Changzhou) Electronics Co., Amphenol (Maryland), Amphenol (Ningde) Electronics Co., Amphenol (Qujing) Technology Co., Amphenol (Tianjin) Electronics Co., Amphenol (Xiamen) High Speed Cable Co., Amphenol Adronics, Amphenol Advanced Sensors Germany GmbH, Amphenol Advanced Sensors Puerto Rico, Amphenol Air LB GmbH, Amphenol Air LB North America Inc., Amphenol Air LB SAS, Amphenol Alden Products Company, Amphenol Alden Products Mexico, Amphenol Antenna Solutions, Amphenol Assemble Tech (Xiamen) Co., Amphenol Australia Pty Ltd, Amphenol Automotive Connection Systems (Changzhou) Co., Amphenol Bar-Tec, Amphenol Benelux B.V., Amphenol Borisch Technologies, Amphenol CNT (Xian) Technology Co. Ltd., Amphenol Cables On Demand Corp., Amphenol Canada Acquisition Corporation, Amphenol Canada Corp., Amphenol Comercial, Amphenol Commercial Interconnect Korea Co., Amphenol Commercial Products (Chengdu) Co. Ltd., Amphenol Commercial and Industrial UK, Amphenol ConneXus AB, Amphenol ConneXus Ou, Amphenol Custom Cable, Amphenol DC Electronics, Amphenol Daeshin Electronics and Precision Co., Amphenol EEC, Amphenol East Asia Electronic Technology (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., Amphenol East Asia Limited, Amphenol FCI, Amphenol FCI Asia Pte. Ltd., Amphenol FCI Connectors Singapore Pte. Ltd., Amphenol Fiber Optic Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Amphenol Finland Oy, Amphenol France Acquisition SAS, Amphenol France SAS, Amphenol Germany GmbH, Amphenol Gesellschaft m.b.H., Amphenol Goldstar Electronic Systems (Baicheng) Co. Ltd., Amphenol Goldstar Electronic Systems (Yulin) Co. Ltd., Amphenol Holding UK, Amphenol Intercon Systems, Amphenol Interconnect India Private Limited, Amphenol Interconnect Products Corporation, Amphenol Interconnect South Africa (Proprietary) Limited, Amphenol International Ltd., Amphenol Invotec Limited, Amphenol Italia S.r.l., Amphenol JET (Haiyan) Interconnect Technology Co., Amphenol Japan Ltd., Amphenol Kai-Jack (Shenzhen) Inc., Amphenol LTW Technology Co., Amphenol Limited, Amphenol MCP Korea Limited, Amphenol Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Amphenol Middle East Enterprises FZE, Amphenol Nelson Dunn Technologies, Amphenol Netherlands Holdings 1 B.V., Amphenol Netherlands Holdings 2 B.V., Amphenol Omniconnect India Private Limited, Amphenol Optimize Manufacturing Co., Amphenol Optimize Mexico S.A. de C.V., Amphenol PCD, Amphenol PCD (Shenzhen) Co., Amphenol Phitek Limited, Amphenol Printed Circuits, Amphenol Provens SAS, Amphenol RF Asia Limited, Amphenol Sensing Korea Company Limited, Amphenol Shouh Min Industry (Shenzhen) Co., Amphenol Singapore Pte. Ltd., Amphenol Socapex SAS, Amphenol Sunpool (Liaoning) Automotive Electronics Co., Amphenol T&M Antennas, Amphenol TCS (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Amphenol TCS Ireland Limited, Amphenol TCS de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Amphenol TFC Fios E Cabos do Brasil Ltda., Amphenol TFC MDE Participacoes Ltda., Amphenol TFC do Brasil Ltda., Amphenol Taiwan Corporation, Amphenol Technical Products International Co., Amphenol Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Amphenol Technology (Zhuhai) Co., Amphenol Technology Macedonia Dooel Kocani, Amphenol Tecvox LLC, Amphenol Tel-Ad Ltd., Amphenol Thermometrics, Amphenol Thermometrics (UK) Limited, Amphenol Times Microwave Electronics (Shanghai) Limited, Amphenol Tuchel Electronics GmbH, Amphenol Tuchel Industrial GmbH, Amphenol Tunisia LLC, Amphenol USHoldco Inc., Amphenol-Borg Limited, Amphenol-Borg Pension Trustees Limited, Amphenol-TFC (Changzhou) Communication Equipment Co., Anytek Electronic Technology (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd, Anytek International (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Anytek International Co. Ltd., Anytek Technology Corporation Ltd, Asia Connector Services, Berg UK Ltd., Blueline Product Limited, C&S Antennas, C&S Antennas Limited, CSA Limited, Casco Automotive (Suzhou) Co., Casco Automotive Group, Casco Automotive Singapore Pte., Casco Automotive Tunisia S.a.r.l., Casco Holdings Co. Limited, Casco Holdings GmbH, Casco Imos Italia S.r.l., Casco Logistics GmbH, Casco Products Corporation, Casco Schoeller GmbH, Casco do Brasil Ltda., Cemm Thome Corporation, Cemm Thome SK, Cemm-Mex, Changzhou Amphenol Fuyang Communication Equipment Co., ContactServe (Proprietary) Limited, East Asia Connector Services, Edwin Deutgen Kunstofftechnik GmbH, Ehrlich Werkzeug & Geratebau GmbH, FCI Besancon SA, FCI Connectors (Shanghai) Ltd., FCI Connectors Canada, FCI Connectors Dongguan Ltd, FCI Connectors Hong Kong Limited, FCI Connectors Italia S.r.l., FCI Connectors Korea Ltd., FCI Connectors Malaysia Sdn Bhd, FCI Connectors Sweden A.B., FCI Connectors UK Ltd., FCI Deutschland GmbH, FCI Electronics Hungary Kft, FCI GBS India Private Limited, FCI Japan K.K., FCI Nantong Ltd, FCI OEN Connectors Limited, FCI PRC Limited, FCI Taiwan Limited, FCI USA LLC, FCIs-Hertogenbosch B.V., FEP Fahrzeugelektrik Pirna, FEP Fahrzeugelektrik Pirna GmbH & Co. KG, FEP Fahrzeugelektrik Pirna Verwaltungs GmbH, Fiber Systems International, Filec Production SAS, Filec SAS, Friedrich Gohringer Elektrotechnik GmbH, GE - Advanced Sensors Business, Guangzhou Amphenol Electronics Co., Guangzhou Amphenol Sincere Flex Circuits Co., Guangzhou FEP Automotive Electric Co., Hangzhou Amphenol JET Interconnect Technology Co., Hangzhou Amphenol Phoenix Telecom Parts Co., Holland Electronics, Intelligente Sensorsysteme Dresden GmbH, Invotec Circuits Holdings Limited, Invotec Circuits Limited, Invotec Group Limited, Invotec Holdings Limited, Ionix Aerospace Limited, Ionix Holdings Limited, Ionix Systems Limited, Ionix Systems Ou, Jaybeam Limited, Jaybeam Wireless SAS, KE Elektronik GmbH, KE Ostrov  Elektrik, KE Presov Elektrik, Konnektech, Kunshan Amphenol Zhengri Electronics Co., LPL Technologies Holding GmbH, LTW Technology (Samoa) Co., LTW Top Tech (Samoa) Co., Lectric SARL, Martec Limited, Mocorp Holding A/S, Nantong Docharm Amphenol Electronics Co., PROCOM, PT Casco SEA, PerLoga Personal und Logistik GmbH, Piezotech, Piher Sensors & Controls S.A., Piher Sensors And Controls, Precision Cable Manufacturing Corp. de Mexico, Procom A/S, Procom Antennas AB, Procom France SARL, Pyle-National Ltd., RSI International Limited, S.C.I. Palin, SEFEE SA, SGX Europe SP. z.o.o., SGX Sensortech (IS) Limited, SGX Sensortech China Holdco Limited, SGX Sensortech China Limited, SGX Sensortech GmbH, SGX Sensortech SA, SSI Control Technologies, STEMFI SA, SV Microwave, Shanghai Amphenol Airwave Communication Electronics Co., Shanghai Amphenol Electronics Technology Co., Shanghai Tecvox Trading Co., Shenyang Amphenol Sunpool Automotive Electronics Co., Sine Systems Corporation, Skymasts Antennas Ltd., Societe dEtudes et de Fabrications Electroniques et Electriques, Spectra Strip Limited, TCS Japan K.K., TFC South America S.A., Tecvox Europe S.r.l., Telect, Telect Mfg., Telect de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Teradyne Connection Systems, Thermometrics Mexico, Tianjin Amphenol KAE Co., Times Fiber Canada Limited, Times Fiber Communications, Times Microwave Systems, Times Wire and Cable Company, U-Jin Cable Industrial Co., Zhongshan Feisaide Electromechanical Co., and i2s-sensors.

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An India Today to Sanchore in Jalore, Rajasthan revealed the extent of damage the recent the recent flooding has caused.

Sharda Devi, one of the two pregant women rescued by the Army, gave birth on Monday

By Dev Ankur Wadhawan: The massive flooding in Rajasthan has hit Sanchore in Jalore district the worst, affected the lives of thousands of people. The damage ranges from farmlands being ruined to the Narmada main canal being destoyed in parts.

However, there are also stories of great fortune, like that of Sharda Devi, who gave birth to a baby just a day after being rescued by the Army.

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A ground report by India Today revealed the extent of damage to this part of Rajasthan that borders Gujarat, which too has been massively hit in this year's flooding.

Sanchore's Taitrol village is among the worst hit hears. Parts of the village are submerged in neck-deep waters and an attempt by India Today to enter certain sections was met with loud warnings, with locals saying that water levels were as high as eight feet.

Hundreds of houses have been completely submerged, and carcasses of animals, including deer, can be seen floating around.

Villagers rue that the district administration has been of little help, with no relief material reaching them for the last three days. They claim that the only relief work done in these parts is in the form of rescue operations work carried out by the Indian Army and the National Disaster Relief Force.

One local, who claimed to be a youth BJP worker, asked, "If PM (Narendra) Modi can do an aerial survey of Banaskatha (in Gujarat) and allocate Rs 500 crores towards flood affected Gujarat, then why is it that he did not surveyed Jalore?" Notably, Rajasthan's Jalore and Gujarat's Banaskatha border each other.

In Hemaguna area, on the other hand, the Narmada main canal has been ravaged. Flood waters have destroyed several sections of the canal.

Water from this canal is used for irrigation in different parts of Jalore and Barmer. But the water gushing out of the damaged canal has ruined farmlands and brought much grief to farmers in the region.

Shockingly, villagers tell India Today, "So far, no one from the district administration has visited the area to take stock of the canal. Lives of villagers have been adversely affected but the district administration has done nothing to repair the broken canal. Only, some good Samaritans have come forward to do something about it, to provide some relief."

PREGNANT WOMAN SAVED BY ARMY GIVES BIRTH

Amid the grim flood situation in this part of Rajasthan, there was one story of good fortune that India Today came across. A pregnant woman delivered a child in Sanchore just a day after being rescued by the Indian Army.

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Sharda Devi, the pregnant woman rescued by Army on Sunday, delivered a baby girl on Monday. Sanwla Ram, sarpanch of Hothigaon, told India Today, "Sharda Devi has delivered a baby girl today. She was one of the two pregnant women rescued by the Indian Army."

The Army has so far rescued close to 900 people from various flood ravaged parts of Rajasthan. Jalore, Pali, Sirohi, Barmer are some of the worst flood affected areas of Rajasthan.

The district Administration in these areas have majorly relied on the Army, NDRF for carrying out relief and rescue operations in remote areas.

ALSO READ | Aamir plays Good Samaritan for Assam flood victims, donates Rs 25 lakh

ALSO READ | Tale of two floods: Assam continues to wave for help while Gujarat gets Rs 500 crore

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The following companies are subsidiares of Sonoco Products: Associated Packaging Technologies Inc., Can Packaging, Clear Lam Packaging Inc., Clear Pack Co., Conitex Sonoco (BVI) Ltd., Corenso Holdings America Inc., CorrFlex Graphics LLC, Demolli Industria Cartaria S.p.A., Engraph Inc., Graffo Paranaense de Embalagens S/A, Hayes Manufacturing Group, Highland Packaging Solutions, Laminar Medica, Matrix Packaging Inc., PT Conitex Sonoco, PT Papcor Asia Pacific, PT Papertech Indonesia, PT Sonoco Indonesia, PenPack LLC, Peninsula Packaging Company, Peninsula Packaging LLC, Penpack S. de R.L. de C.V., Phoenix Packaging Corp., Plastique Holdings LTD, SMB GmbH, SPC Capital Management Inc, SPC Liquidation LLC, SPC Management LLC, SPC Resources Inc, SR Holdings of the Carolinas LLC, Sebro Plastics Inx, Sonoco (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Sonoco (Taicang) Packaging Co. Ltd, Sonoco (Weifang) Packaging Company Ltd, Sonoco Absorbent Technologies LLC, Sonoco Absorbent Technologies Limited, Sonoco Alcore - Demolli S.r.l., Sonoco Alcore AB, Sonoco Alcore GmbH, Sonoco Alcore N.V., Sonoco Alcore Nederland B.V., Sonoco Ambalaj Sanayi Ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Sonoco Asia Holding S.a.r.l., Sonoco Asia LLC, Sonoco Asia Management Company LLC, Sonoco Australia Pty Ltd, Sonoco Board Mills Limited, Sonoco Bonmati S.A.U., Sonoco Canada Corporation, Sonoco Capseals Liners Limited, Sonoco Comercial S. de R.L. de C.V., Sonoco Consumer Products Dordrecht B.V. (fka Dorpak B.V.), Sonoco Consumer Products Europe GmbH (fka Weidenhammer Packaging Group GmbH), Sonoco Consumer Products Hellas S.A. (fka Weidenhammer Hellas S.A.), Sonoco Consumer Products Limited, Sonoco Consumer Products Mechelen BVBA (fka Weidenhammer Belgium BVBA), Sonoco Consumer Products Montanay SAS (fka Neuvibox SAS), Sonoco Consumer Products Poland Sp. Z.O.O., Sonoco Consumer Products SAS, Sonoco Consumer Products South Africa (PTY) Ltd., Sonoco Consumer Products Zwenkau GmbH (fka fka Weidenhammer Plastice Packaging GmbH), Sonoco Cores and Paper Limited, Sonoco Deutschland GmbH, Sonoco Deutschland Holdings GmbH, Sonoco Development Inc, Sonoco Elk Grove Inc, Sonoco Embalagens Ltda. (fka Sonoco Embalagens S.A.), Sonoco Flexible Packaging Canada Corporation, Sonoco Flexible Packaging Co. Inc, Sonoco Graphics India Private Limited, Sonoco Hickory Inc, Sonoco Holdings Inc, Sonoco Holdings UK Limited, Sonoco Hutchinson LLC, Sonoco IPD France SAS, Sonoco Iberia S.L.U., Sonoco International Holdings GmbH, Sonoco JV GmbH & Co. KG, Sonoco Kaiping Packaging Co. Ltd., Sonoco Limited, Sonoco Luxembourg Holding S.a.r.l., Sonoco Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Sonoco Milnrow, Sonoco Netherlands Holding II BV, Sonoco Netherlands Holding III BV, Sonoco New Zealand Limited, Sonoco Operadora S. de R.L. de C.V., Sonoco Packaging Limited, Sonoco Packaging Tapes Limited, Sonoco Paper Mill & IPD Hellas SA, Sonoco Paperboard Group LLC, Sonoco Partitions Inc, Sonoco Phoenix LLC, Sonoco Pina S.A.U., Sonoco Plastics B.V., Sonoco Plastics Canada ULC, Sonoco Plastics Germany GmbH, Sonoco Plastics Inc, Sonoco Poland Holdings B.V., Sonoco Polysack A/S Inc, Sonoco Polysack Limited, Sonoco Products Company UK, Sonoco Products Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Sonoco Protective Solutions Inc, Sonoco Recycling - International Trade Group LLC, Sonoco Recycling LLC, Sonoco Reels Limited, Sonoco Retail Packaging S. de R.L. de C.V., Sonoco S.A. de C.V., Sonoco SAS, Sonoco Saudi Limited Company, Sonoco Services LLC, Sonoco Singapore Pte. Ltd., Sonoco TEQ Holdings Ltd, Sonoco TEQ LLC, Sonoco TEQ Ltd, Sonoco TEQ Sp. Z.o.o, Sonoco Taiwan Ltd, Sonoco Thailand Ltd, Sonoco UK Leasing Limited, Sonoco Venezolana C.A., Sonoco Venture International Holdings GmbH, Sonoco Ventures UK Limited, Sonoco Wisconsin Rapids Core Plant LLC, Sonoco Wisconsin Rapids Inc, Sonoco Wisconsin Rapids Paper Mill LLC, Sonoco Yatai Pinghu Packaging Co Ltd, Sonoco de Colombia Ltda, Sonoco do Brasil Participacoes Ltda, Sonoco do Brazil Ltda, Sonoco of Puerto Rico Inc, Sonoco-Alcore AS, Sonoco-Alcore Oy, Sonoco-Alcore S.a.r.l., Sonoco-Alcore Sp. Z.O.O., Sonoco-Engraph Puerto Rico Inc, TPT Limited, Tegrant Alloyd Brands Inc, Tegrant Corporation, Tegrant International Inc, Tegrant Property Holdings LLC, Tegrant de Mexico S.A. de C.V., ThermoSafe Brands Asia PTE LTD, ThermoSafe Brands Europe Ltd., Thermoform Engineered Quality LLC, Trident Graphics Canada Corporation, Trident Graphics NA LLC, Tubo-Tec Nordeste Industria, U.S. Paper Mills Corp., Weidenhammer Chile Ltda., Weidenhammer Packaging Group, Weidenhammer UK Ltd., and Wisenberg U.S. Inc.

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Telefonica Deutschland Holding AG provides integrated telecommunication services to private and business customers in Germany. It offers mobile and stationery voice and data services; very high data rate digital subscriber line (VDSL) internet services; fiber-to-the-home lines; broadband services, consisting of VDSL, cable, fiber, and fixed mobile substitution services; and machine to machine communication and managed connectivity services. The company also distributes various terminal devices, such as mobile phones; and offers digital products and services in the fields of Internet of Things, as well as O2 Tv, O2 cloud, and O2 Select & Stream. In addition, it provides access to infrastructure and services for its wholesale partners. The company provides its products and services through a network of independently operated franchise and premium partner shops, and online and telesales channels, as well as indirect selling channels, such as partnerships and co-operations with retailers. It markets its products and services under the O2, Blau, AY YILDIZ, Ortel Mobile, Telefonica, and Geeny brand names. As of December 31, 2021, Telefonica Deutschland Holding AG served approximately 45.7 million mobile accesses and 2.3 million fixed-line customers. The company was formerly known as Telefonica Germany Verwaltungs GmbH and changed its name to Telefonica Deutschland Holding AG in September 2012. The company is based in Munich, Germany. Telefonica Deutschland Holding AG is a subsidiary of Telefonica Germany Holdings Limited.
New Delhi, Jul 31 (PTI) With less than three months left for Diwali, the Supreme Court today imposed a ban on the use of five harmful metals including lead and mercury in firecrackers as they cause enormous air pollution.

A bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur prohibited use of lithium, mercury, arsenic, antimony, lead metals which are used in the manufacturing of firecrackers.

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The order came after the Central Pollution Control Boards (CPCB) Member Secretary told the top court that standards on air pollution caused by the bursting of firecrackers are yet to be laid down and the exercise would be completed by September 15.

"In the meanwhile, we direct that no firecrackers manufactured by the respondents shall contain antimony, lithium, mercury, arsenic and lead in any form whatsoever.

"It is the responsibility of the Petroleum and Explosive Safety Organisation (PESO) to ensure compliance particularly in Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu. There seems to be some doubt about strontium and its compound. We would like to hear submissions in this regard," the bench, also comprising Justice Deepak Gupta, said.

The apex court also made it clear that for setting up of standards for firecrackers, collaborative efforts will be made between CPCB and PESO.

"Dr A B Akolkar, Member Secretary of the Central Pollution Control Board and K Sundershan, Dy Chief Controller of Explosive, Sivakasi should remain present on August 23, the next date of hearing," the bench said.

On the last date of hearing, the court had pulled up CPCB and PESO for "lack of clarity" on environmental impact of pollution from firecrackers.

The apex court had also expressed concern over air pollution in Delhi-NCR, especially from crackers during the festive season of Diwali and Dussehra, and said that authorities have to take steps to regulate firecracker industries.

The apex court had said it wanted to know from these bodies as to what would be the impact on environment from pollution caused by firecrackers, how it could change the quality of air and also about the safety standards.

The apex court had earlier refused to modify its order banning the sale and stockpiling of firecrackers in Delhi and the national capital region.

It had refused to revoke the suspension of licences of traders dealing in such explosive material.

The apex court had directed CPCB to prepare an inventory of existing firecrackers with the traders and suggest measures for their disposal.

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CPCB had earlier told the court that chemical composition of firecrackers which are commonly used exceeded some of the prescribed parameters which may have harmful effects.

The board, in its report, had said that most of the firecrackers carried large amount of sulphur which is one of the major causes of air pollution.

The apex court had on November 11 last year directed the Centre to suspend all such licences as permit sale of fireworks, wholesale and retail within the territory of NCR and said that the suspension shall remain in force till further orders of the court.

It had also directed that no such licences shall be granted or renewed till further orders. PTI PKS SJK MNL RKS ZMN

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New Delhi, Jul 31 (PTI) The Supreme Court today asked the attorney general of India to assist it on legal issues including whether a minister or a public functionary could claim freedom of speech while airing views in matters of official business of the State such as criminal investigation.

A bench of justices Dipak Misra and A M Khanwilkar sought the assistance of Attorney General K K Venugopal, the topmost law officer of the central government, on questions framed by it and amicus curiae F S Nariman and Harish Salve, assisting the court, on the issue related to contours of the Freedom of Speech and Expression of public functionaries.

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Venugopal, at the outset, referred to the statement of former Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan terming the Bulandshahr gangrape incident as an outcome of a political controversy.

He said it was not acceptable from a public functionary.

Khan had on December 15 last year tendered an "unconditional apology" for the remark, which the apex court had accepted.

Senior advocate Harish Salve said that such persons should be banned from public life as statements line the one by Khan, had become an "endemic" in India.

Nariman said that the attorney general could be asked to "prepare a civil rights act" to protect individuals from violation of the fundamental rights by other private individuals and entities other than the State.

"In India, our Constitution guarantees protection of the fundamental rights against the State and what if the private parties violates the these rights and there is no remedy," he said.

"This is a much wide question," Nariman said, adding that in the US, the fundamental rights of individuals were protected even if they were violated by private individuals.

The court, which had earlier framed some questions on the rights and limitations of the freedom of speech of public functionary, fixed the mater for hearing on October 5 and asked Venugopal to peruse the issues and revert back.

Earlier, the apex court had proposed to refer to a Constitution bench the issue whether a minister could claim refuge under the right to free speech while expressing views in matters of official business.

The need for authoritative pronouncement on the issue arose as there were arguments that a minister could not take a personal view and his statement has to be coherent with the government policy.

The court was hearing a plea filed by a man whose wife and daughter were allegedly gangraped in July last year on a highway near Bulandshahr, seeking transfer of the case to Delhi and lodging of an FIR against Khan for his controversial statement.

Salve had told the bench that ministers could not have personal views on official business matters as whatever that personwas saying must reflect government policy.

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The apex court had earlier said it would consider whether the Fundamental Right of Speech and Expression would be governed under reasonable restriction of decency or morality or other preferred fundamental rights would also have an impact on it.

The brutal incident had happened on the night of July 29 last year when a group of highway robbers stopped the car of a Noida-based family and sexually assaulted a woman and her daughter after dragging them out of the vehicle at gun-point.

The apex court had on August 29 last year taken note of the remarks of Khan that the gangrape case was a "political conspiracy".

Initially, an FIR was lodged by the Uttar Pradesh Police under various poenal provisions on July 30 last year. The CBI had re-registered the case on August 18 last year in pursuance of an interim order by the Allahabad High Court. PTI SJK MNL RKS SC

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Islamabad, Jul 31 (PTI) The Sharif family will face four cases for allegedly possessing offshore assets following the Supreme Courts direction that corruption cases be filed against Nawaz Sharif and his children over the Panama Papers scandal, the National Accountability Bureau announced today.

The Supreme Court had ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to start a corruption case against Sharif, his children -- Hussain and Hassan -- and his daughter Maryam.

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The Supreme Court ordered that the cases against them be registered within six weeks and trial be completed within six months after the registration of the cases.

The National Accountability Bureau said the cases would be filed in the Islamabad/Rawalpindi accountability courts within six weeks of the top courts judgement, The Express Tribune reported.

The cases would be related to four flats in the Avenfield House, Park Lane, London, United Kingdom.

Establishment of the Azizia Steel Company and the Hill Metal Company, for possessing assets beyond the known sources of income and companies mentioned in the judgement.

The Supreme Court had disqualified prime minister Sharif and ordered a probe into his and his familys offshore assets.

The unanimous court verdict said that having furnished a false declaration under solemn affirmation, Sharif was "not honest" under terms of the Constitution.

Sharif has maintained that there has not been any wrongdoing on his part.

At a meeting of the NAB Executive Board, it was decided that the cases would be prepared on the basis of the material collected by the joint investigation team (JIT) probing the Sharif familys offshore assets in its report.

The Panama Papers scandal is about alleged money laundering by Sharif in 1990s, when he twice served as prime minister, to purchase assets in London. The assets surfaced when Panama Papers leak last year revealed that they were managed through offshore companies owned by Sharifs children.

The assets include four expensive flats in London.

Some other material may also be used including that "available with the Federal Investigation Agency and NAB having nexus with the assets in the mentioned cases or which might subsequently become available including material that may become available in pursuant to the Mutual Legal Assistance requests sent by JIT to different jurisdictions".

The officers concerned have been directed to efficiently and professionally handle the entire process in the laid down time limit, the NAB said in a statement. PTI AKJ AKJ

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The merchant vessel at the center of India's largest-ever drug bust had anchored off the Karachi port before sailing towards the Indian coast, preliminary investigations have revealed.

MV Hennery, which was intercepted by the Indian Coast Guard on Sunday (Photo: Twitter/Shiv Aroor)

The dramatic high-seas drug bust, which turned out to be India's largest narcotics haul, may be connected to Pakistan, initial investigation conducted by the Indian Coast Guard has indicated.

On Sunday, two ICG ships apprehended a merchant vessel off the coast of Gujarat, seizing around 1,500 kilograms of heroin valued at around Rs 3,500 crore.

The ship - MV Hennery - was Panama-flagged but had anchored off Karachi port in Pakistan before sailing towards India.

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While the ship's ultimate destination remains unclear, preliminary interrogation of the ship's captain, has revealed that the ship's crew was in touch with four people in India - two from Mumbai, one from Kolkata and one in Tamil Nadu.

According to a senior Coast Guard officer privy to the investigations, the ship had possibly anchored off Karachi to pick up the drugs. It remains unclear how the contraband was exactly brought on board the ship.

"The ship after starting from Abu Dhabi sailed towards Karachi but anchored at some distance off Karachi. The reason behind this could be that the drug contraband was uploaded," the officer said.

After picking up the heroin, the ship set sail for the Indian coast. All the while, the ship's eight-member crew - all Indians - was in touch with people in India. "The master of the ship was constantly in touch with two men from Mumbai. The master also contacted two more persons from Kolkata and Tamil Nadu. It is suspected that these four persons were contacted for the sale of the contraband", the ICG officer said.

In case you're wondering what the 1.5 tonnes if heroin seized by the Coast Guard off Gujarat on the weekend looks like. pic.twitter.com/nd1i1lN98k- Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) July 31, 2017

However, soon after the ship Indian waters, it was apprehended by security agencies. The Indian Coast Guard, based on an intelligence input, with the help of two of its ships and a helicopter intercepted the vessel around 400 kilometers off the Gujarat coast.

The heroin recovered, the vessel was then taken to the Porbandar port and its Indian crew was placed under custody.

Investigations, including by the Narcotics Control Bureaus of Gujarat and Maharashtra, into the drug bust, which is India's largest ever, are ongoing.

WATCH | Vessel with narcotics worth over Rs 3000 crore intercepted off Gujarat coast

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Pride celebrations in Halifax come and go within a week each summer, but there are plenty of activities and supports that continue once the parades are over and the flags come down.

A new initiative to be housed out of Dalhousie Human Rights and Equity Services (HRES) aims to support groups doing work with LGBTQ2SIA+ communities on campus, better coordinate these efforts and pool their resources to create a more cohesive approach to support, advocacy and education year-round.

The LGBTQ2SIA+ Collaborative (Collaborative+) grew out of discussions between HRES, student-led group DalOUT, and South House Sexual and Gender Resource Centre and will serve as a forum for communication and collaboration between these and other groups.

We saw a need for more communication and more support for each other and for the people doing the work so we can make better decisions that will affect the most change for the most people, says Rachele Manett, a peer educator with HRES and the former president of DalOUT.

Manett says the hope is the group will help break down silos between those groups looking to foster a more respectful and inclusive environment for LGBTQ2SIA+ students, faculty and staff on campus.

Collaborative+ consist of groups whose mandates are centered on celebration and/or advocacy work within LGBTQ2SIA+ communities. This includes groups from within LGBTQ2SIA+ communities, as well as allied groups.

A stepping-stone to greater visibility



HRES, DalOUT, South House, Dals Agricultural Campus, Dal Allies, the Dalhousie Student Union, Get Real, OUTLaw, the Centre for Learning and Teaching, the Queer Faculty Caucus, Kings Pride, and the Kings Student Union will each have up to two reps on Collaborative+, with other emerging stakeholder groups adding reps as warranted.

The group will meet bi-monthly to share information about upcoming events and activities and coordinate planning. Meetings will be co-chaired by the HRES Education Advisor with a secondary rotating co-chair to be chosen each April from within the groups membership.

By working together like this, member groups can also help combat burnout in their ranks  a common occurrence in advocacy work, says Manett, who identifies as a queer woman.

If South House were planning an anti-oppression training workshop, for instance, and DalOUT was also looking to do one, the two groups could decide to combine their resources and hold one larger training session instead.

Theres ultimately more people power here to be able to do the work, says Manett.

A web-based portal hosted on the HRES website will also serve as an information-sharing resource as well as an active resource for existing members and newcomers to the community.

If somebody is new to the community, visit the Collaborative+ website, and access resources for what they are interested in, explains Manett. She hopes Collaborative+ will be a stepping-stone to creating a greater visible presence for LGBTQ2SIA+ groups on campus.

I like to dream big and have big plans, but sometimes only little parts can be accomplished, she says. But this one feels like its actually happening, that the big dream is coming to fruition and we all have the support we need to create it and the community of people to support it.

Learn more: Collaborative+ website
Halifax Member of Parliament Andy Fillmore was on campus last week on behalf of the Honourable Jim Carr, Canadas Minister of Natural Resources, to announce new funding for research on assessing methane emissions from old fossil fuel extraction sites in two Maritime provinces.

Called legacy sites, these mostly abandoned areas  like coal mines, for example  could be targeted for future remediation, helping the provincial and federal governments develop effective methane management policy and regulations in the fight against climate change.

Canadian universities are home to some of the best minds in the clean energy sector and they're keen to support our country's transition to a low-carbon future, said Fillmore. By investing in the work of these leading researchers, our government is taking meaningful climate action to ensure the accurate and effective measurement of methane emissions in our region.

Addressing greenhouse gases



A staggering number of abandoned mine openings have been documented in Nova Scotia alone  records go back as far as the end of the 18th century. Its possible that many of the 1,922 coal mines on record could be releasing methane, a potent greenhouse gas more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide or water vapour. While regulations for shutting down a modern extraction site are in place now, many of these historic sites were built or abandoned generations before current policy existed.

After the Paris climate agreement countries around the world committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. If stagnant, out-of-operation fossil fuel extraction sites are contributing to the problem its important to understand how and to what extent. With limited scientific evidence of how much methane could be seeping into the atmosphere from these legacy sites, theres no real starting point for potential remediation planning.

Different types of coal have different levels of methane emissions, and theres currently no record of methane emissions from different mining sites in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, explains Grant Wach, geology professor with the Department of Earth Sciences. Our research aims to build an inventory of methane emission estimates from mines as well as other oil and gas extraction sites in both provinces.



Grant Wach speaks at the announcement event. (Danny Abriel photo)

With $482,000 in funding from Natural Resources Canadas Energy Innovation Program, Dr. Wachs Basin & Reservoir Lab is joining forces with researchers at St. Francis Xavier University (St. FX), University of New Brunswick (UNB), University of Waterloo and industry partners like Eosense to tackle the Gas Seepage Project (GaSP)  the first of its kind in Canada. Its phase one of a methane mitigation initiative in the Maritimes focused on legacy sites.

Identifying legacy sites



During the Carboniferous Period over 300 million years ago, the climate was far warmer, with greater amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The warmer climate and atmosphere allowed vegetation and forests to thrive. The Maritime provinces as we know them today were also located much closer to the equator at the time. As plant life died and decomposed in the ancient Maritimes, geological processes of high heat and pressure turned the plant material to coal over hundreds of thousands of years.

Fast forward to the Industrial Revolution, when the sudden demand for coal led to the development of mines in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick during the 18th and 19th centuries.

When new technology and fuels were developed, coal mines in the Maritimes largely became a way of the past and many were shut down. Methane is naturally occurring in coal, meaning any legacy sites that stopped operating before environmental safeguards were put in place could be releasing the gas.

Dr. Wachs team at Dalhousie and experts at UNB will comb through historical provincial records, maps and satellite images to capture as much information about the locations of these legacy sites as possible. Theyll examine associated geological features underground, which are important for considering how to mitigate methane emissions in any future remediation plans.

This project is unique, said Fiona Henderson, research assistant on the project and recent Dalhousie graduate. It has an all-encompassing, holistic approach to the problem [of methane emissions].

A cross-university, cross-sector collaboration



Data on the legacy sites locations and geology will then be handed over to teams at St. FX and UNB, who will conduct field work with locally-developed sensing technology from industry partners like Eosense to detect and measure methane emissions associated with sites. Similar projects are in progress in the United States and Europe.



Eosense representatives explain sensing technology to MP Andy Fillmore, joined by Grant Wach of Dalhousie University and Dave Risk of St. FX.

Being part of such a diverse, methodological study is very exciting for us, said Colleen Gosse, a research and development engineer with Eosense and masters student in engineering at Dalhousie who attended the event to demonstrate how the technology used in this research works.

The range of fields being brought to bear on this one project is just fantastic, said Chance Creelman, vice president of research and development at Eosense, who joined Gosse at the announcement.

With Canadas first-ever provincial-scale methane emissions estimate inventory in hand, the research team will also have a detailed approach to the technologies and methods required to complete such a project.

Through GaSP, Dalhousies excellence in earth sciences research is united with the strengths of other Canadian universities and industry partners, said Ian Hill, associate vice-president, research at Dalhousie.

Together, and with this federal support, were building the scientific knowledge required to better understand how the fossil fuel extraction sites of our past are still affecting our atmosphere today. This research will also lay the groundwork for similar methane emission assessments in other areas of Canada and the world.
Millicom has scrapped its agreement to sell its Tigo Senegal unit to Wari Group after finding a different buyer for the operations.

Having agreed in February to sell Tigo Senegal to Wari Group for $129 million, Millicom stated that it had exercised its right to terminate this arrangement.

The new buyer is a consortium made up of NJJ Capital, Sofima, and Teyliom Group. Iliad founder Xavier Niel controls NJJ, which Millicom noted holds various stakes in a broad range of companies in Europe and the US. Sofima is an investment firm controlled by Axian Group, which has several holdings in the telecoms space, while Teyliom is a diversified holdings company with a focus on west and central Africa.

The deal is subject to further regulatory approvals and customer closing conditions. Millicom did not disclose the price agreed with the consortium.
Pan African Resources and Sylvania concluded an agreement, the two companies announced on Monday, whereby Pan African will dispose of all its shares and loan accounts in its wholly-owned subsidiary Phoenix Platinum to Sylvania, for total cash consideration of ZAR 89m (5.18m).

The AIM-traded companies said the transaction would provide Pan African with an opportunity to meet a number of strategic objectives, including the ability to focus on core assets and value accretive growth opportunities.

The transaction will enable [the] Pan African management to focus on the groups existing gold operations, the construction of the Elikhulu project and other organic and acquisitive growth opportunities, Pan Africans board said in a statement.

It said it would also improve its financial position, with the cash proceeds of ZAR 89m - payable on transaction closure - set to further strengthen the groups financial position and supplement its existing cash resources and debt facilities.

The Transaction remained conditional on the conclusion of a confirmatory due diligence and other suspensive conditions customary for a transaction of such nature.

Pan African said the transaction was expected to be finalised within a 90-day timeframe.

The disposal of Phoenix Platinum, which for some time has been non-core to Pan African, enables us to further strengthen our financial position and to focus on our large gold operations and the construction of the Elikhulu project, said Pan African chief executive Cobus Loots.
Tekcapital , the university technology spinout specialist, boasted substantially increased revenues on Monday stemming from significant progress in its company portfolio.

For the six month period ended 31 May 2017, the company accumulated a total revenue of $3.8m up from just $247,262 in 2016 which reflected an increase in sales and an unrealised gain on the investment revaluation in Belluscura, a medical device company that is mulling an IPO.

Revenue from services increased 157% to $635.329.

A swing to a profit before tax was reported of $1.6m from a loss of $997,174 thanks to the substantial increase in revenues.

To take note of, the AIM listed company concluded a positive fundraising of approximately $3m before expenses.

Regarding Tekcapital's portfolio progress, Belluscura secured a private placement of approximately $1.7m.

Also, a new software app on both iOS and Google Play was launched and developed to search global university IP.

The company also acquired a new form of gesture recognition technology called Trace-it from the University of Central Florida.

Dr. Clifford Gross, the company chairman commented on the 'successful' half-year performance for the group: We are pleased to report successful half-year performance for the Group. We have seen a significant increase in total revenue to $3,806,178, largely due to an unrealised profit on the revaluation of investments in portfolio companies, which has resulted in net income after tax of $1.6m.

"We have also seen a 153% increase in net assets to $7,974,906 on a year on year basis. We believe our unique approach of acquiring and commercialising university IP innovations, coupled with providing a range of IP value creation services to universities and corporates, has uniquely positioned us to create market value from university discoveries more efficiently than traditional IP investment companies".
Economic activity in the Chicago area deteriorated more than expected in July, according to data released on Monday.

The Chicago Business Barometer fell to 58.9 from 65.7 in June, hitting its lowest level in three months and missing expectations for a smaller decline to 60.0

The fall in sentiment was broad based but concentrated across demand and output. New orders fell by 11.6 points to 60.3, which was their lowest level since February, while production dropped 6.9 points to 60.8, which was the lowest since April.

Meanwhile, the order backlogs indicator declined 4.9 points from June's 23-year high of 57.9.

Jamie Satchie, economist at MNI Indicators, said: MNIs July Chicago Business Barometer should be viewed in the context of the underlying, upward trend in business sentiment witnessed since early 2016. Key indicators, despite reversing their June reading, remain above their respective averages set over the last twelve months, and point towards robust confidence among U.S firms."
A letter, accessed by news agency ANI and purportedly written by an Air India crew member, complains about paranormal activities at a Chicago hotel and asks the airline to look into the matter immediately.

The high-flying lifestyle of working for an airline always seems glamorous. However, the experiences of an Air India crew assigned to fly to Chicago in the US will probably make those considering a career in the airline industry think twice.

The crew, which was put up at a hotel in Chicago, has had to deal with "negative energies" while in their rooms, according to a report by news agency ANI. So spooked has the crew been after facing "paranormal activities" at the hotel that they have written to Air India management, asking the national carrier to take immediate action.

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The crew's deputy chief of cabin has written a letter, accessed by news agency ANI, complaining that the nerve-wracking experience at the Chicago hotel has left most of the crew members "scared (of) sleeping alone". The letter, however, does not specify the exact nature of the paranormal activities.

The spooky goings-on at the Chicago hotel keep "playing in our mind (sic)", the deputy chief writes in the letter and as a result of this, the crew is unable to get proper rest after operating ultra-long haul flights.

The letter goes on to question the Air India management's decision to sign a contract with the hotel despite there being several online accounts of the paranormal activities at the hotel.

The crew member asks Air India officials to look into the matter and "change this hotel on (an) urgent basis" while saying that such incidents have been happening since November last year. The deputy chief of cabin also expresses his/her unwillingness to fly on the Chicago route until the hotel is changed.

IndiaToday.in could not independently verify the veracity of the letter. ANI, however, reported that it had asked Air India for a comment, and that airline spokesperson Dhananjay Kumar responded saying, "Matter is under investigation and we are in contact with our Chicago station."

Full text of the Air India crew letter as reported by ANI:

"Majority of the crew are facing negative energies through paranormal activities in the hotel, most of us share rooms and sleep as we feel scared sleeping alone which is very unpleasant, after operating an ULH we are not able to get proper rest as these things keep playing in our mind.

Even online there is a complete description about incidents of paranormal activities about this hotel still the contract with this hotel was signed.

I have been coming to this hotel since November'16 and every time something unpleasant has been happening. I would request you to look into the matter and change this hotel on urgent basis as most of us don't feel comfortable staying here.

I would also request you to please 'Do Not' assign me any Chicago flights till the hotel is changed as it's very uncomfortable in the hotel.

Let's not wait for any miss happening to happen. Waiting for the necessary action."

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ALSO READ | Air India privatisation blueprint: The Great Maharajah makeover

ALSO READ | Air India Delhi bound flight takes off with faulty ACs, leaves flyers gasping for oxygen

ALSO WATCH | Privatisation of Air India: How does it impact you?

--- ENDS ---
Chemring 's subsidiary, Chemring Countermeasures USA, has been awarded a $28m contract by the US Army Garrison at Rock Island Arsenal.

The award, which is part of a multi-year option contract in support of the US Army and Air Force, is for the manufacture and delivery of M206, MJU-7A/B and MJU-10/B infra-red decoy flares. Deliveries against this contract will be made in FY17 and FY18, with all work being performed at the Kilgore Flares facility, in Toone, Tennessee.

Chief executive Michael Flowers said: "We are pleased to have received this significant award in support of the US Army and Air Force.

"We are very proud to deliver the highest quality infra-red decoys to the US Department of Defense and all our international customers, and this award demonstrates the continued confidence and trust in our countermeasures."

At 0930 BST, the shares were up 0.9% to 181.10p.
Britain will not slash taxes and regulations after Brexit to undercut European rivals, Philip Hammond has said. In a marked softening of tone, the chancellor said that Britains social, economic and cultural model would remain recognisably European after it left the EU. - The Times

Luxembourg has hit back at claims that it is giving finance firms easy access to the EU by allowing brass plate operations to list an address in the Duchy even though they have no real presence there. Luxembourgs officials took offence at accusations by Eoghan Murphy, Irelands former finance minister, that some countries had engaged in very aggressive behaviour including creeping regulatory arbitrage. - Telegraph

Senior Conservative MPs are urging members of Theresa Mays cabinet to stop publicly setting out their demands for a transitional deal on Brexit, saying the move could make negotiations with the European Union more difficult. The warnings from senior leave campaigners and allies of the Brexit secretary, David Davis, come as ministers prepare to clash over issues of immigration and trade in a series of key meetings this autumn. - Guardian

One in five UK estate agents are at risk of going out of business amid a growth in online companies, new research shows. Almost 5,000 estate agents are showing signs of financial distress, said accountancy firm Moore Stephens. - Guardian

Prudential is about to look for buyers for about 10 billion of its annuities business, which could lead to the sale of the entire 45 billion division and the transfer of thousands of policyholders to a new provider. Britains biggest insurer recently ran a search for investment bankers to advise it on the divestment and has tentatively decided to start with a 10 billion sale, which may be broken up into two blocks of 5 billion. - The Times

Five more banks have agreed to pay a total of $111m to settle claims that they manipulated currency markets, as the foreign exchange scandal continues to haunt the finance industry. Lawyers behind the claims in the US hope to bring similar cases to the courts on this side of the Atlantic in the near future. - Telegraph

Every driver in Britain is being overcharged for motor cover because insurers are using secret deals to grossly inflate repair bills, a Daily Telegraph investigation has established. Insurers are routinely inflating repair costs by as much as 100 per cent, while receiving undisclosed kickbacks for the difference, it can be revealed. - Telegraph

British motorists face a 10% rise in the cost of their annual car service and repair bills if the UK leaves the EU without a trade deal, an industry body has warned. The UKs collective car repair bill could rise by more than 2bn due to tariffs and other barriers arising from a hard Brexit, according to a report published by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), which assumes the UK is forced to fall back on World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. - Guardian

Business owners affected by Royal Bank of Scotlands restructuring scandal have expressed frustration at what they say is a lack of progress in the lenders compensation scheme. RBS has paid millions in automatic refunds of fees it wrongfully charged, but the bank has taken longer than expected to get its complaints and appeals process off the ground. - The Times



The number of overeducated workers has increased by a third in the past decade but companies are failing to make use of the skills of their staff, a study has found. The mismatch between training and what employers find useful could contribute to another ten years of stalled productivity and falling wages, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) says. - The Times

Scottish pub tenants have until Monday to make their voices heard over landmark legislation that would end a centuries-old system forcing them to buy supplies from their owners. More than 1,000 pubs north of the border are under tied agreements, which means they have to buy some or all of their drinks from pub company owners, often at inflated prices in return for promises of lower rent. - Telegraph

A developer of luxury retirement homes is eyeing a slice of the lucrative UK market after teaming up with a big American partner. The partnership between Elysian Residences and established US player One Eighty is developing homes with five-star hotel services including a concierge, spa facilities and a private dining room, as well as 24-hour medical facilities on site in a bid to challenge established players such as McCarthy & Stone. -Telegraph

Virgin Atlantics boss has claimed the airline will overtake its big rivals in the lucrative transatlantic market following a tie-up with Air France. The deal, which saw Virgin Group sell a 31pc stake to Air France-KLM, means the airline will collectively offer more than 300 daily non-stop flights between North America and Europe and the UK. - Telegraph

Bupa is close to selling about half of its care homes to the former chief executive of Priory Clinics. HC-One, led by Chai Patel, is in advanced discussions to buy 150 homes from Bupa. HC-One was created in 2011 out of the rubble of Southern Cross, which collapsed. - Times

The deteriorating health of the UK population has boosted turnover at one of Britains largest private hospital operators as the NHS comes under growing strain. Increasingly unhealthy lifestyles and a growing number of elderly people have helped drive sales up 9pc at Nuffield Health to 840m. - Telegraph

The billionaire behind the Three mobile network has netted 1.4bn from the sale of a chunk of his telecoms empire. Li Ka-shing has offloaded Hutchison Global Communications, which runs fixed-line and wifi services, to American private equity group I Squared Capital for HK$14.5bn, equivalent to 1.4bn.The unit being sold operates in Hong Kong and China as well as serving businesses in Europe, the Middle East and the Americas. - Telegraph
Trip To Mbale Uganda Proves Disability Is Not Inability

Published: 2017-07-31

Author: Purple Shoots | Contact: purpleshoots.org

Peer-Reviewed Publication: N/A

Additional References: Library of African Disability News Publications

Synopsis: Story of a Welsh woman with disabilities who travelled to Uganda to find out how disabled people there are creating their own income. Meeting the people of Mbale in Uganda has changed Swansea woman Sarah Evans' life.

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Main Digest

Meeting the people of Mbale in Uganda has changed Swansea woman Sarah Evans' life.

For any amputee who uses a wheelchair, getting around in the African country is a huge challenge.

The terrain is difficult. In the towns, there are uneven pavements - or no pavements.

There are huge gutters or kerbs to negotiate, steep steps, and in the rural areas which Sarah's group visited, the ground is dirt tracks or grass.

For someone with epilepsy, neurofibromatosis, osteoporosis, and arthritis, as single amputee Sarah has, the situation could have been all-the-more difficult.

Yet, that didn't deter Sarah.

After a difficult relationship split in 2011, Sarah, who is in her thirties, came to Swansea Vale (part of Swansea Social Services) as a volunteer.

She said: "I was in a very dark place after the relationship ended and I needed something to help rebuild my confidence again."

After following some community based courses in art and craft, she began volunteering for Swansea Vale Resource Centre and then joined a group supported by them.

Swansea Vale had to withdraw its support, but the group members wanted to continue.

So, they became involved with microfinance charity Purple Shoots and became one of their self-reliant groups.

It became entirely self-sustaining, operating a savings fund between the members and making handicrafts which they sell at craft markets. It is now called Crafty Buddies.

When the opportunity arose for Sarah to join a trip to Uganda, she seized it enthusiastically.

There were numerous people who told her that she wouldn't manage there, that she would become ill. Sarah was determined to try.

Her mum Rita came too, partly to help her but also as a member of the self-reliant group herself and to share in the experience.

It was a long journey to get there, with changes of flights and long waits for wheelchair assistance onto aircraft. When Sarah arrived in Uganda, the adventure began.

The difficult terrain was an immediate challenge.

In the worst places, Sarah used her artificial leg. In most communities when the group arrived, however, she was overwhelmed with the welcome she received and there was no shortage of enthusiastic helpers to get her where she needed to be.

The people did not seem to see her as "disabled". They saw her someone who had taken the trouble to travel thousands of miles just to meet them. They wanted to know all about her and to learn from her.

Sarah said: "This has been a life-changing opportunity for me. To see the way that self-sufficient groups there overcome so many difficulties and just get on with their lives. While we were there we had the opportunity to share skills and learn from each other."

Since coming home, Sarah has been actively working to support the people she met in Uganda.

The team met one group of people with disabilities who were a self-reliant group just like Sarah's in Swansea. Through the group, they are making a living together.

They are running a small business making heavy duty bags and tarpaulins.

They have contracts with international companies and people seek them out because they are good at what they do.

The business earns them a living and they pay themselves equally.

The group members support each other and succeed against all sorts of odds - such as a building riddled with termites, machinery which is unusable because it needs parts they don't have, insufficient stock and poor equipment for themselves (broom handles for crutches, no wheelchairs).

Sarah has already gathered wheelchairs, crutches, and other equipment to send out to Uganda and is working with others in the team who went out there to try to find companies willing to solve the termite problem and repair the machinery.

She is also working with the group from Wales who visited to import products made by the Ugandan groups and sell them here alongside her own group's products. The aim is to help them towards independence and a steady income.

Sarah's confidence has been boosted by the trip. She said: "I am definitely going back!"

As one of the Ugandans said to the group, "disability is not inability". Sarah is proof of that.

Disabled World is an independent disability community established in 2004 to provide disability news and information to people with disabilities, seniors, their family and/or carers. See our homepage for informative news, reviews, sports, stories and how-tos. You can also connect with us on Twitter and Facebook or learn more about Disabled World on our about us page.

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Disabled World provides general information only. The materials presented are never meant to substitute for professional medical care by a qualified practitioner, nor should they be construed as such. Financial support is derived from advertisements or referral programs, where indicated. Any 3rd party offering or advertising does not constitute an endorsement.

 Cite This Page (APA): Purple Shoots. (2017, July 31). Trip To Mbale Uganda Proves Disability Is Not Inability. Disabled World. Retrieved November 12, 2022 from www.disabled-world.com/news/africa/mbale.php



 Permalink: <a href="https://www.disabled-world.com/news/africa/mbale.php">Trip To Mbale Uganda Proves Disability Is Not Inability</a>
What Is Climate Change? Is It Different From Global Warming?



Climate change is actually not a new phenomenon. Scientists have been studying the connection between human activity and the effect on the climate since the 1800s, although it took until the 1950s to find evidence suggesting a link.

Since then, the amount of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and fluorinated gases) in the atmosphere have steadily increased, taking a sharp jump in the late 1980s when the summer of 1988 became the warmest on record. (There have been many records broken since then.) But climate change is not a synonym for global warming.

The term global warming entered the lexicon in the 1950s, but didnt become a common buzzword until a few decades later when more people started taking notice of a warming climate. Except climate change encompasses a greater realm than just rising temperatures. Trapped gases also affect sea-level rise, animal habitats, biodiversity and weather patterns. For example, Texas severe winter storms in February 2021 demonstrate how the climate isnt merely warming.

Related: What Are The Top States For Solar Incentives?

Why Is Climate Change Important? Why Does It Matter?





Marc Guitard / Moment / Getty Images

Despite efforts from forward thinkers such as SpaceX Founder Elon Musk to colonize Mars, Earth remains our home for the foreseeable future, and the more human activity negatively impacts the climate, the less habitable it will become. Its estimated that Earth has already warmed about one degree Celsius, or two degrees Fahrenheit, since the start of the Industrial Revolution around the 1750s, although climate change tracking didnt start until the late 1800s. That warming number may not sound like much, but this increase has already resulted in more frequent and severe wildfires, hurricanes, floods, droughts and winter storms, to name some examples.

Environmental Impacts

Then theres biodiversity loss, another fallout of climate change thats threatening rainforests and coral reefs and accelerating species extinction. Take rainforests, which act as natural carbon sinks by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But as rampant deforestation is occurring everywhere from Brazils Amazon to Borneo, fewer trees mean that rainforests are becoming carbon sources, emitting more carbon than theyre absorbing. Meanwhile, coral reefs are dying as warming ocean temperatures trigger bleaching events, which cause corals to reject algae, their main food and life source. Fewer trees, coral reefs and other habitats also equate to fewer species. Known as the sixth mass extinction, a 2019 UN report revealed that up to a million plant and animal species could become extinct within decades.

Human Impact

It can be easy to overlook climate change in day-to-day life, or even realize that climate change is behind it. Notice theres yet another romaine lettuce recall due to E. Coli? Research suggests that E. Coli bacteria are becoming more common in our food sources as it adapts to climate change. Cant find your favorite brand of coffee beans anymore? Or that the price has doubled? Climate change is affecting that too. Climate change is also worsening air quality and seasonal allergies, along with polluting tap water. Not least, many preliminary studies have also drawn a line between climate change and the deadly COVID-19 pandemic that is still gripping much of the world. Future pandemics are likely to happen more frequently until the root causes, such as deforestation, are addressed.

Speaking of larger-scale issues, global water scarcity is already happening more frequently. The Caribbean is facing water shortages due to rising temperatures and decreased rainfall; Australias dams may run dry by 2022 as severe wildfires increase and Cape Town, South Africa has already faced running out of water.

As touched upon earlier, its one thing to be inconvenienced by a lack of romaine lettuce for a couple of weeks or higher coffee bean prices, but reports warn how climate change will continue to threaten global food security, to the point of triggering a worldwide food crisis if temperatures surpass two degrees Celsius.

Many of these factors are already contributing to climate migration, forcing large numbers of people to relocate to other parts of the world in search of better living conditions.

Unless more immediate, drastic action is taken to combat climate change, future generations will have to contend with worst-case scenario projections by the end of the 21st century, not limited to coastal cities going underwater, including Miami; lethal heat levels from South Asia to Central Africa; and more frequent extreme weather events involving hurricanes, wildfires, tsunamis, droughts, floods, blizzards and more.

Related: What Are The Best Solar Companies?

Whats Happening and Why?

Fiddlers Ferry power station in Warrington, UK. Chris Conway / Moment / Getty Images

The Earths temperature has largely remained stable until industrial times and the introduction of greenhouse gases. These gases have forced the atmosphere to retain heat, as evidenced by rising global temperatures. As the planet grows warmer, glaciers melt faster, sea levels rise, severe flooding increases and droughts and extreme weather events become more deadly.

The Greenhouse Effect

In the late 1800s, Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius studied the connection between the amount of atmospheric carbon and its ability to warm and cool the Earth, and while his initial calculations suggested extreme warming as carbon increased, researchers didnt start to take human-induced climate change seriously until the late 20th century.

But proof of human-led climate change can be traced to the 1850s, and satellites are among the ways that scientists have been tracking increased greenhouse gases and their climate impact in more recent years. Climate researchers have also documented warmer oceans, ocean acidification, shrinking ice sheets, decreased snow amounts and extreme weather as among the events resulting from greenhouse gases heating the planet.

Numerous factors contribute to the production of greenhouse gases, known as the greenhouse effect. One of the biggest causes involve burning fossil fuels, including coal, oil and natural gas, to power everything from cars to daily energy needs (electricity, heat). From 1970-2011, fossil fuels have comprised 78 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions.

Big Ag is another greenhouse contributor, particularly beef production, with the industry adding 10 percent in 2019. This is attributed to clearing land for crops and grazing and growing feed, along with methane produced by cows themselves. In the U.S. alone, Americans consumed 27.3 billion pounds of beef in 2019.

Then theres rampant deforestation occurring everywhere from the Amazon to Borneo. A 2021 study from Rainforest Foundation Norway found that two-thirds of the worlds rainforests have already been destroyed or degraded. In Brazil, deforestation reached a 12-year-high in 2020 under right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro. As it stands, reports predict that the Amazon rainforest will collapse by 2064. Rainforests are important carbon sinks, meaning the trees capture and remove carbon from the atmosphere. As rainforests collapse, the remaining trees will begin emitting more greenhouse gases than theyre absorbing.

Meanwhile, a recent study revealed that abandoned oil and gas wells are leaking more methane than previously believed, with U.S. wells contributing up to 20 percent of annual methane emissions.

Not least is the cement industry. Cement is heavily used throughout the global construction industry, and accounts for around eight percent of carbon dioxide emissions.

Natural Climate Change

Granted, natural climate change exists as well, and can be traced throughout history, from solar radiation triggering the Ice Ages to the asteroid strike that rapidly raised global temperatures and eliminated dinosaurs and many other species in the process. Other sources of natural climate change impacts include volcano eruptions, ocean currents and orbital changes, but these sources generally have smaller and shorter-term environmental impacts.

How We Can Combat Climate Change

Participant holding a sign at the climate march on Sept. 20, 2020, in Manhattan. A coalition of climate, Indigenous and racial justice groups gathered at Columbus Circle to kick off Climate Week with the Climate Justice Through Racial Justice march. Erik McGregor / LightRocket / Getty Images

While the latest studies and numbers can often feel discouraging about societys ability to prevent the worst-case climate scenarios from happening, theres still time to take action.

As a Society

In 2015 at COP 21 in Paris, 197 countries came together to sign the Paris Agreement, an international climate change treaty agreeing to limit global warming in this century to two degrees Celsius, and ideally 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels; its believed that the planet has warmed one degree Celsius since 1750. Studies show that staying within the two-degree range will prevent the worst-case climate scenarios from happening. Achieving this goal requires participating parties to drastically slash greenhouse gas emissions sooner rather than later. However, there have already been numerous setbacks since then, from former U.S. President Donald Trump withdrawing from the Paris Agreement in 2020 to world leaders, such as China, the worlds biggest polluter, failing to enact aggressive climate action plans. Yet many of the treaty participants have been slow to implement changes, putting the world on track to hit 3.2 degrees Celsius by the end of the 21st century even if the initial goals are met. However, its worth noting that U.S. President Joe Biden rejoined the Paris Agreement in 2021, and pledged to cut greenhouse gases in half by 2030.

Then theres the Montreal Protocol, a 1987 global agreement to phase out ozone-depleting substances such as chlorofluorocarbons, chemicals that were commonly used in air-conditioning, refrigeration and aerosols. Recent studies show that parts of the ozone are recovering, proving that a unified commitment to combatting climate change issues does make a difference.

On a smaller scale, carbon offset initiatives allow companies and individuals to invest in environmental programs that offset the amount of carbon thats produced through work or lifestyle. For example, major companies (and carbon emitters) such as United Airlines and Shell have pledged to achieve net-zero carbon emissions in part by participating in carbon offset programs that remove carbon from the atmosphere. The problem is that these companies are still producing high levels of fossil fuel emissions.

While individuals can make a small impact through carbon offsets, the greater responsibility lies with carbon-emitting corporations to find and implement greener energy alternatives. This translates to car companies producing electric instead of gas vehicles or airlines exploring alternative fuel sources. It also requires major companies to rely more on solar and wind energy for their energy needs.

In Our Own Lives

While its up to corporations to do the heavy lifting of carbon reduction, that doesnt mean individuals cant make a difference. Adopting a vegan lifestyle, using public transportation, switching to an electric car and becoming a more conscious consumer are all ways to help combat climate change.

Veganism

Consuming meat relies on clearing land for crops and animals, while raising and killing livestock contributes to about 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the UNs Food and Agricultural Organization. By comparison, choosing a plant-based diet could reduce greenhouse gas footprints by as much as 70 percent, especially when choosing local produce and products.

Public Transportation

Riding public trains, subways, buses, trams, ferries and other types of public transportation is another easy way to lower your carbon footprint, considering that gas-powered vehicles contribute 95 percent of transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions.

Electric Vehicles

Electric cars and trucks have come down in price as more manufacturers enter the field, and these produce far lower emissions than their gas counterparts. Hybrid vehicles are another good alternative for lowering individual emission contributions.

Conscious Consumption

Buying locally produced food and items is another way to maintain a lower carbon footprint, as the products arent shipped or driven long distances. Supporting small companies that are committed to sustainability is another option, especially when it comes to clothes. Fast fashion has become a popular option thanks to its price point, but often comes at the expense of the environment and can involve unethical overseas labor practices. Not least, plastic saturates every corner of the consumer market, but its possible to find non-plastic alternatives with a little research, from reusable produce bags to baby bottles.

Climate Activism

Those interested in becoming even more involved can join local climate action organizations. Popular groups include the Sunrise Movement, Fridays for Future, Greenpeace and the Sierra Club, to name a few. Voting, volunteering, calling local representatives and participating in climate marches are additional ways to raise your voice.

Takeaway

Its taken centuries to reach a climate tipping point, with just a matter of decades left to prevent the worst-case climate scenarios from happening. But theres still hope of controlling a warming climate as long as individuals, companies and nations make an immediate concerted effort to lower greenhouse gas emissions. As the world already experienced with the COVID-19 pandemic, a rapid unified response can make all the difference.

Meredith Rosenberg is a senior editor at EcoWatch. She holds a Masters from the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism in NYC and a B.A. from Temple University in Philadelphia.
By Alex Kirby

Health campaigners said the energy policies of the worlds richest countries are inflicting a double burden on their citizens, not only using their taxes to pay fossil fuel subsidies, but also loading huge health costs on them.

The work of the Health and Environment Alliance, HEAL, the report said that although fossil fuel combustion causes deadly air pollution and climate change, virtually all governments spend vast sums of public moneytheir citizens taxeson supporting the oil, gas and coal industry in fossil fuel energy production.

A report by HEAL said the health costs associated with fossil fuels are more than six times higher than the subsidies the industry receives in the G20 group of the globes leading industrialized countries.

The G20 agreed in 2009 to phase out the subsidies, but HEAL said that on average, in countries belonging to the bloc, the health costs associated with fossil fuels are far greater than the subsidies: $2.76 trillion against $444 billion.

HEAL cited a 2015 report by the UK-based think tank the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), which found that G20 country governments support to fossil fuel production marries bad economics with potentially disastrous consequences for climate change.

Global impact

HEALs own report said the subsidies support an industry that causes premature deaths, ill-health and huge health costs worldwide, in stark contrast to the 2015 Paris agreement. It urged policymakers to end subsidies and use the public money saved to support healthy energy or health care investments instead.

Every year air pollution from mostly fossil fuel combustion cuts short the lives of an estimated 6.5 million people worldwide through respiratory tract infections, strokes, heart attacks, lung cancer and chronic lung disease. The costs to health from the resulting air pollution, climate change and environmental degradation are not carried by the industry, HEAL said, but paid by society.

European and global leaders continue to pledge to tackle climate change and decarbonize our economy, said Genon K. Jensen, HEALs executive director. However, they still give out billions of euros and dollars which lead to global warming and fuel early death and ill-health, including heart and lung disease.

It is time to seize the opportunity to improve the health of millions of people worldwide by abandoning subsidies to the deadly fossil fuel industry. They should walk the talk and end fossil fuel subsidies now.

Country studies

The report examined the costs of the health impacts arising from fossil fuel subsidies in several countries. In the UK, for example, the health costs from fossil fuel-driven air pollution are almost five times higher than the subsidies paid.

That means that citizens not only see $6.5 billion of public money given to one of the worlds wealthiest industries, but that gift costs them another $30.7 billion in health costs alone from premature deaths from air pollution.

In China, the report said, fossil fuels impose $1.79 trillion in health costs from air pollution, more than 18 times what the nation pays to oil, gas and coal producers, helping to fuel a public health crisis that is already causing 1.6 million premature deaths every year.

HEAL recommended that policy-makers should phase out fossil fuel subsidies by 2020 for developed nations, and by 2025 for low-income economies, to cut premature deaths, poor health and climate chaos and promote renewable, clean energy choices.

The report also highlighted how the funds could be re-allocated to boost health. In Germany, for example, it said the $5.4 billion of subsidies represent taxpayer money that is sufficient to provide more than 300,000 households with a solar installation, powering their homes with clean energy, as well as to fund the transition for all of Germanys 15,000 coal power plant workers for five years.

In countries like Turkey and Poland, fossil fuel subsidies represent valuable public funds that could strengthen national health systems, providing Poland with 30,000 more physicians.

Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, a former prime minister of Norway and later director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), wrote in a preface to HEALs report, Fossil fuels cause climate change. The temperature increases and extreme weather events associated with climate change have direct impacts on the health and wellbeing of people all over the world.

As a result, the Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the WHO all recommend the elimination of fossil fuel subsidies to protect human health  Ultimately fossil fuel subsidies pay the polluter instead of making the polluter pay.

Reposted with permission from our media associate Climate News Network.
Keystone XL owner TransCanada told investors Friday that the company was still assessing demand for the project with oil companies, increasing speculation that the controversial pipeline may not see the light of day.

On an investor call, a TransCanada executive called for an open season on the Keystone project to attract investor bids, and said the company would assess interest and make a decision on the pipeline by November.

As reported by Politico:

It was the strongest acknowledgment from TransCanada to date that the nearly decade-long Keystone saga may end in failuredespite President Donald Trumps overwhelming support for the project, which he green-lit as one of his first acts in office.

TransCanada is also still awaiting approval from Nebraskan regulators to finalize the pipelines proposed route through the state. A final Nebraska Public Service Commission hearing on Keystone last week showcased the depth of opposition to the pipeline in the state, while a local farmer has attracted attention for installing American-made solar panels on his land to protest the project.

Activist Building Solar Arrays to Block Keystone XL Route. "We are putting solutions in path of the problem." #NOKXL https://t.co/agcayQFMXX  350 Tacoma (@350Tacoma) July 22, 2017

Jim Carlson said he rejected offers as high as $307,000 from TransCanada Corporation to lay pipe across his land.

Theyll have to go under it, around it or tear it down to get their dirty oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, Carlson told NBC Nebraska.

Carlson is a pipeline fighter with Bold Nebraska, a grassroots organization opposing Keystone XL. Jane Kleeb, the groups founder, told NTV that theyve raised more than $40,000 to install solar projects in the path of the proposed pipeline.

Were not just out in the streets protesting with signs, but were actually building the type of energy we want to see, Kleeb said.

With the threat of Keystone XL destroying our water and taking away property rights from farmers, we decided to build solar, directly inside the route where the Keystone XL is proposed to go because the contract says you cant have anything permanent in the route, so we are building permanent clean energy.

For a deeper dive:

Investors: Politico, Omaha World-Herald, Reuters, The Hill, Washington Examiner. PUC hearing: Omaha World-Herald, Lincoln Journal-Star. Solar panels: NBC Nebraska, NTV

For more climate change and clean energy news, you can follow Climate Nexus on Twitter and Facebook, and sign up for daily Hot News.
By Lawrence Carter

Donald Trumps nominee to be the U.S. chief agricultural trade negotiator previously called for the U.S. to walk away from trade talks with the EU if it refused to drop its ban on beef reared with antibiotics and growth supplements, Energydesk can reveal.

The news could have implications for the UKs attempts to strike a post-Brexit trade deal with the U.S., with reports suggesting the U.S. agricultural sector wants to weaken UK food standardsincluding the ban on growth hormonesto help boost its meat exports.

Last week, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox refused to rule out reversing a ban on the import of chlorine-washed chicken during a visit to Washington to discuss a post-Brexit trade deal.

This resulted in a cabinet split as Environment Secretary Michael Gove insisted that the UK would not compromise on its food standards by dropping restrictions on chlorinated chicken.

Now, an Energydesk investigation has found that two of Trumps nominees for top agricultural trade positions have strong links to the U.S. beef and growth hormone lobbies. And that these powerful groups are already mobilizing in Washington to take advantage of the UKs need to strike a post-Brexit trade deal.

Walk away from talks

Gregg Doud, who was nominated for the top agricultural trade position by President Trump last month, authored a paper in 2013 arguing that the U.S. should absolutely walk away from trade talks with the EU if it refused to drop restrictions on U.S. meat imports.

Doud previously spent eight years working for the National Cattlemens Beef Association (NCBA)a powerful lobby group that has identified Brexit as an opportunity to lift UK restrictions on the import of beef reared with substances that increase animal growth ratesuch as hormones and beta agonists.

Energydesk can further reveal that Trumps nominee for the new role of undersecretary of trade at the U.S. department of agriculture, Ted McKinney, is a former director at Elanco Animal Healtha major manufacturer of growth hormones and beta agonists.

During last weeks visit to Washington, Fox downplayed the significance of U.S. meat exports to any future trade deal between the UK and U.S.

But some U.S. trade experts believe that getting rid of barriers preventing the export of U.S. beef, pork and chicken will be a red line for the U.S. in any negotiations.

Speaking to Energydesk, Daniel Pearson, a senior fellow in trade policy studies at the Cato Institute in Washington, said that a post-Brexit deal will not happen if the UK is not willing to drop restrictions:

The agriculture community here can prevent a UK-U.S. agreement from happening and probably would unless theres some significant progress on those issues. I cant see the Farm Bureau and the commodity organizations being willing to say yes, lets do a deal with the UK under the same terms that we have with the European Union.

No safe level

The U.S. maintains that beef and pork reared using hormones and beta agonists is safe and that the EU ban is simply a protectionist measure.

The EU is making arguments that are not based on science, theyre below the belt punches that are belied by the scientific facts, Nick Giordano, vice president of global government affairs at the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC)a large industry group that focuses on free tradetold Energydesk.

It would be over my dead body that a free trade agreement gets through the U.S. Congress that doesnt eliminate tariffs on food and agriculture products  and non-tariff barriers.

The European Commission, though, maintains that there is insufficient evidence supporting claims that currently banned animal growth substances are safe.

In a 2009 assessment of evidence supporting a bid by the U.S. to establish a recognized safe intake level for the beta agonist ractopamine, the European Food Safety Authority found weaknesses in the data and concluded that the study on cardiovascular effects in humans cannot be taken as a basis to derive an Acceptable Daily Intake.

Banned substances

Ted McKinney, the nominee to be the USDAs trade undersecretary, held the role of director of global corporate affairs at Elanco Animal Healtha major manufacturer of ractopaminebetween 2009-2014.

In 2012, McKinney played a role in a successful bid to get the UN to adopt levels at which ractopamine should be considered safe.

The motion passed by just two votes and was strongly opposed by the European Union on the grounds of persisting scientific uncertainty about the safety of products derived from animals treated with ractopamine.

McKinney was later recruited by Indianas then governor, current Vice President Mike Pence, to serve in his cabinet.

As director of agriculture for Indiana, McKinney is a member of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA)which is calling for the U.S. government to eliminate barriers to U.S. agricultural exports, such as Europes ban on growth hormones.

When contacted for comment by Energydesk, McKinney declined to commentciting the ongoing nomination process.

Pork Alliance

Energydesks investigation found that lobbying is already underway in Washington, as the U.S. agricultural sector seeks to ensure that the UK relaxes its restrictions on meat imports from the U.S. post-Brexit.

McKinneys former employers, Elanco, are funders of the Pork Alliancea lobbying operation coordinated by the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC).

Senate lobbying disclosures show that, in 2017, the NPPC has lobbied Congress; the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative regarding lifting market access restrictions to the UK.

I dont think Im the only one whos been on the other side of the pond, and whos been talking to U.S. and UK officials, the NPPCs Giordano told Energydesk.

Elanco failed to respond to multiple requests for comment.

Beef lobby

Chief agricultural trade nominee, Greg Doud, spent eight years as chief economist for leading beef lobbyists, the National Cattlemens Beef Association (NCBA).

His nomination to be chief trade negotiator was warmly welcomed by his former colleagues.

Gregg has been a friend and colleague for many years, and I can testify first-hand that Americas cattlemen and women will be well-served by having Gregg at the table as agricultural trade deals are hammered out, said Colin Woodall, senior vice president of government affairs.

The NCBA believes that Brexit offers an opportunity to finally begin exporting to the UK. Woodhall told CNBC that A UK agreement will be a good opportunity for us to actually base trade on science rather than just a precautionary principle and undue fear.

UK has been under the blanket EU restrictions where they will only take non-hormone, non-antibiotic treated beef, he added.

Strong criticism

Douds 2013 paper argued that the U.S. should walk away from trade negotiations with the EU if it refused to drop its restrictions on U.S. meat imports.

Citing the EUs bans on beta agonists and antibiotics, Doud said, Are we prepared to walk away from the negotiating table if access is restricted via these other issues? We better be.

Referring to the European Union, he also said that we all know who wrote the book when it comes to using non-tariff trade barriers to block imports and protect domestic markets.

When contacted by Energydesk to verify that this had been his position on trade with Europe, Doud said this was accurate, but declined to comment further.
By Michael T. Klare

Who says President Trump doesnt have a coherent foreign policy? Pundits and critics across the political spectrum have chided him for failing to articulate and implement a clear international agenda. Look closely at his overseas endeavors, though, and one all-too-consistent pattern emerges: Donald Trump will do whatever it takes to prolong the reign of fossil fuels by sabotaging efforts to curb carbon emissions and promoting the global consumption of U.S. oil, coal and natural gas. Whenever he meets with foreign leaders, it seems, his first impulse is to ply them with American fossil fuels.

His decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, which obliged this country to reduce its coal consumption and take other steps to curb its carbon emissions, was widely covered by the American mainstream news media. On the other hand, the presidents efforts to promote greater fossil fuel consumption abroadjust as significant in terms of potential harm to the planethave received remarkably little attention.

Bear in mind that while Trumps drive to sabotage international efforts to curb carbon emissions will undoubtedly slow progress in that area, it will hardly stop it. At the recent G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, 19 of the leaders of the worlds 20 largest economies reaffirmed their commitment to the Paris accord and pledged to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions through, among other [initiatives], increased innovation on sustainable and clean energies. This means that whatever Trump does, continuing innovation in the energy field will indeed help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and so slow the advance of climate change. Unfortunately, Trumps relentless drive to promote fossil-fuel consumption abroad could ensure that carbon emissions continue to rise anyway, neutralizing whatever progress might be made elsewhere and dooming humanity to a climate-ravaged future.

How the two sides of the ledgergreen energy progress versus Trumps drive to boost carbon exportswill balance out in the years ahead cannot be foreseen. Every boost in carbon emissions, however, pushes us closer to the moment when global temperatures will exceed the two degrees Celsius rise from pre-industrial levels that scientists say is the maximum the planet can absorb without suffering catastrophic consequences. Those would include rising sea levels that could drown New York, Miami, Shanghai, London and many other coastal cities, as well as a sharp drop in global food production that could devastate entire populations.

Spreading the Cult of Carbon

President Trumps pursuit of increased global carbon consumption is proving to be a two-front campaign. Hes working in every way imaginable to increase the production of fossil fuels domestically, even as he engages in a diplomatic blitzkreig to open doors to American fossil-fuel exports abroad.

At home, hes already reversed numerous Obama-era restrictions on fossil fuel extraction, including curbs on mountaintop removalan environmentally hazardous form of coal miningand on oil and gas drilling in Arctic waters off Alaska. Hes also ordered the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Scott Pruitta notorious enemy of environmental regulations opposed by the energy industryto dismantle the Clean Power Plan, President Obamas program to sharply reduce the use of coal in domestic electricity generation.

These and similar initiatives have gotten a fair amount of media attention already, but its no less important to focus on another key aspect of Trumps pro-carbon global initiative which has gone largely unnoticed. While, under the Paris climate accord, the other industrial powers are still obliged to help developing countries install carbon-free energy technologies, Trump has freed himself to sell American fossil fuels everywhere to his hearts content. At that G-20 meeting, for example, he forced his peers to insert a clause in their final communique stating, The United States of America states it will endeavor to work closely with other countries to help them access and use fossil fuels more cleanly and efficiently. (The more cleanly and efficiently was undoubtedly his modest concession to the other 19 leaders).

To spread the mantra of fossil fuels, Trump has become the nations carbon-pusher in chief. Hes already personally engaged in energy diplomacy, while demanding that various cabinet officials make oil, gas and coal exports a priority. On June 29, for instance, he publicly ordered the Treasury Department to do away with barriers to the financing of highly efficient overseas coal energy plants. In the same speech, he spoke of his desire to supply American coal to Ukraine, currently cut off from Russian natural gas thanks to its ongoing conflict with that country. Ukraine already tells us they need millions and millions of metric tons [of coal] right now, Trump said, pointing out that there are many other countries in a similar state, and we want to sell it to them, and to everyone else all over the globe who needs it.

He added, We are a top producer of petroleum and the number-one producer of natural gas. We have so much more than we ever thought possible, and were going to be an exporter We will export American energy all over the world, all around the globe.

In his urge to preserve the reign of fossil fuels, President Trump has already taken on a unique personal role, meeting with foreign officials and promoting cooperation with key American energy firms. Take the June 26 White House visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. While the media reported on how the two of them took up the subject of future arms sales to India, it made no mention of energy deals. Yet Secretary of Energy Rick Perry revealed that this topic was crucial to their encounter. At a Trump-hosted dinner for Modi at the White House, Perry reported, we talked about the three areas of which there will be great back-and-forth cooperationdeal-making, if you will. One of those is in LNG [liquefied natural gas]. The other side of that is in clean coal. Thirdly is on the nuclear side. So there is great opportunity for India and the U.S. to become even stronger allies, stronger partnersenergy being the glue that will hold that partnership together for a long, long time.

To put this in context, making deals to sell coal to India is like selling OxyContin to an opioid addict. After all, in 2015, that country overtook the U.S. to become the worlds second-biggest consumer of coal (after China). To keep up the pace of its rapid economic growth, India had plans to increase its reliance on coal yet more, which would mean a steady increase in carbon emissions. India now trails only China and the U.S. as an emitter of carbon dioxide and its share is expected to grow. However, it is also likely to suffer disproportionately from climate change, which its emissions will only accelerate. Given that future extreme heat events are expected to periodically destroy crops on which a large part of its population depends, Modis government has recently begun seeking ways to reduce the countrys long-term reliance on fossil fuels, in part by becoming a solar superpower. In other words, in pitching coal to Indiaa true case of bringing coals to Newcastle (or at least Mumbai)Trump is functionally working to sabotage Indias struggle to free itself from the scourge of carbon addiction.

He similarly pushed fossil-fuel exports in his first encounter with newly elected South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Not surprisingly, press coverage of the event highlighted their discussions about the nuclear threat posed by North Korea. Some reports also noted that trade issues came up, but none mentioned energy matters. Yet, shortly before his state dinner with Moon, Trump announced that a U.S. company, Sempra Energy, had just that day signed an agreement to sell more American natural gas to South Korea. And, as you know, he added, the leaders of South Korea are coming to the White House today, and weve got a lot of discussion to do, but we will also be talking about them buying energy from the United States of America, and Im sure theyll like to do it. In other words, the president has made it eminently clear how foreign leaders in need of American support can please him.

His first overseas trips have also featured versions of such pitchmanship. During his visit to Saudi Arabia in May, he evidently sought to promote cooperation between U.S. and Saudi energy firms. Again, press coverage of his meeting with Saudi King Salman highlighted other topics, notably the war on terror, the regional divide between Sunnis and Shiites, and new Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans hard line on Iran. But the two of them did, in fact, issue a statement affirming the importance of investment in energy by companies in both countries, and the importance of coordinating policies that ensure the stability of markets and an abundance of supplies. Where this might lead is anyones guess, but presumably to a commitment to the continued dominance of petroleum in the worlds future energy markets.

On the subject of his two meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 summit (at the second of these without even an American translator), we obviously know far less. It is, however, reasonable to assume that his interest in improving ties with Russia is at least partially energy-focused. During the first of those conversations, Trump was accompanied only by a translator and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson who, as CEO of ExxonMobil, had inked energy deals with Rosneft, the Russian state-owned oil giant, and lobbied against the imposition of sanctions on Russias energy sector. (Those deals are now being investigated by the Treasury Department as possible violations of government-mandated sanctions then in effect.) Five days later, while flying to Paris on Air Force One, Trump told reporters that he would like to meet again with Putin, once that became politically feasible, adding, and, by the way, I only want to make great deals with Russia.

To further boost the export of U.S. fossil fuels abroad, Trump has also leaned on various government agencies to facilitate such efforts. In a talk he gave on June 29th to energy company officials at the Department of Energy, for example, the president hailed its approval of two long-term projects to promote U.S. energy abroad: the export of additional natural gas from a terminal in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and plans to construct a new oil pipeline to Mexicoabout which, he assured listeners, It will go right under the wall, right?  You know, a little like this [gesticulating]. Right under the wall.

And keep in mind that we are undoubtedly catching no more than a glimpse of Trumps efforts to promote the sale of American oil, coal and natural gas abroad. From what little has been reported on the subject in his meetings with Prime Minister Modi, President Moon and King Salman, its reasonable to assume that the topic has come up in most of his conversations with foreign leaders and represents a far more significant aspect of his international policymaking than generally realized.

American Energy Dominance

Dont imagine, however, that Trumps fossil-fueled salesmanship is primarily driven by a desire to enrich American energy firms (though he would undoubtedly consider that a plus). Its clearly motivated by a deeper, more visceral set of urges. Still trapped in his memories of his 1950s childhood when gas-guzzling American cars were a prominent symbol of national wealth and power, he has a deep belief in the capacity of fossil fuels to propel and sustain the countrys global dominance. He often recalls that formative period in his musings, describing it as a golden age when America won all its wars and was dominant on the world stage. For him, oil equals vigor equals national ascendancy, and no other countries  least of all an international community united behind the Paris climate accordshould be able to deprive the U.S. of its carbon fix.

All this was implicit in that Energy Department speech, which offered a genuine window into his thinking on the subject. Heres the crucial passage, delivered in his usual extemporaneous style:

Our country is blessed with extraordinary energy abundance We have nearly 100 years worth of natural gas and more than 250 years worth of clean, beautiful coal We have so much more than we ever thought possible. We are really in the driving seat. And you know what? We dont want to let other countries take away our sovereignty and tell us what to do and how to do it. With these incredible resources, my administration will seek not only American energy independence that weve been looking for so long, but American energy dominance.

Trumps personal fascination with symbols of excessthink of those giant golden letters over his propertiesis evident in that monologue. Its clear that hes been especially taken with breakthroughs in the enhancement of American energy abundance, especially the success of hydraulic fracturing or fracking. That process has liberated vast quantities of oil and natural gas from previously unusable shale formations. Prior to the introduction of fracking, oil and gas production in the U.S. had been in decline, but thanks to whats been termed the shale revolution, production has soared. In July 2017, at 9.4 million barrels per day, U.S. crude oil output was up 68 percent over six years earlier, when production was running at just 5.6 million barrels per day. Natural gas has registered a similar leap. All this, in turn, generatedat least for a timea feeling of euphoria in the oil and gas industry, with some pundits even dubbing this country Saudi America and portraying it as a new energy El Dorado.

As this sense of euphoria took hold, American energy analysts began viewing the explosion of domestic hydrocarbon output as a crucial source of geopolitical clout. The immense flood of cheap natural gas has boosted U.S. economic competitiveness, said Robert Manning of the Atlantic Council typically enough, and by extension, U.S. comprehensive national power, and U.S. capacity for global leadership. Think of it as Viagra for Washington policymakers.

Recently, however, some of this euphoria has dissipated as bargain-basement oil and gas prices, the inevitable consequence of overproduction, have been eating into corporate profits and forcing some over-exposed energy companies to declare bankruptcy. Trumps belief in the ability of petroleum to enhance Americas global clout has, however, clearly been unshaken. Weve got underneath us more oil than anybody, he declared in a conversation with journalists aboard Air Force One on July 12. And I want to use it.

Whatever the sources of his fascination with fossil fuels, six months into his presidency one thing is clear: Hes determined to spread the cult of American carbon internationally and this urge has already become a defining theme of his foreign policy, even if the mainstream media, despite its deluge of Trump-centered coverage, has hardly noticed.

A New American Legacy

Previous American presidents have sought fame through the promotion of freedom, democracy and human rights abroad. In fact, virtually every formal presidential expression of foreign policy in the post-Cold War era has ritualistically identified those values as Americas greatest exports (whatever values Washington was actually exporting). Not so for Donald Trump, however. What he seeks to export are habit-forming, climate-altering hydrocarbons.

It remains to be seen how successful his drive to spread the cult of carbon will be. As time goes on and the effects of climate change intensify in a warming world, more countries will undoubtedly begin to focus on easing or even ending their reliance on fossil fuels and promoting carbon-free alternatives. Market forces will play a crucial role in this process, since the price of renewable energyespecially solarhas been dropping quickly and is already, in certain circumstances, a cheaper way to go than using coal to generate electricity.

Even if Trumps fossil-fueled scheming doesnt succeed in the long run, he will undoubtedly ensure that more greenhouse gases enter the planets atmosphere, meaning that temperatures will continue to climb and punishing droughts and heat waves will become ever more the new global norm.

Its time to give his snake-oil-style energy salesmanship and the future environmental destruction that will accompany it the attention they deserve. If humanity is to have any chance to survive the planetary warming to come in reasonable shape, all the American carbon Trump hopes to sell to foreigners has to stay in the ground.

Michael T. Klare, a TomDispatch regular, is a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College and the author, most recently, of The Race for Whats Left. Reposted with permission from our media associate TomDispatch
New Delhi: The border between India and China is not fixed at many places, but in many places the boundary is clear. Despite the violation of Indian border area on behalf of China. Now there is news of the arrival of Chinese army personnel in Uttarakhand into the Indian border. It is being told that the Chinese army personnel entered the Indian border for 500 meters and went back after two hours. The Home Ministry official also acknowledged that Chinese troops had entered the Indian border. According to the information, this incident is of last week. Although military and government sources have incorrectly reported the news of infiltration of the Chinese army in Barahoti in Uttarakhand. Sources say that there are usually soldiers of both countries in each others area because the area where the talk is being spoken, the border is not marked. According to sources, about 10 number of Chinese soldiers entered the Indian border.

For information, let the Indian soldiers and Chinese soldiers face a face in front of Sikkim border in Dokalam of Bhutan. Its been running from the last 16th of last month.

Let me tell you that last year too there was news of this kind of infiltration in the month of July. Then the opposition party Congress, Samajwadi Party (SP) and Trinamool Congress raised the issue of the infiltration of Chinese soldiers in the border area near Uttarakhand in the Lok Sabha. During the Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha, this issue was raised by Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia and others.

Sindhia had said that this incident of infiltration took place near Chamoli and the Chinese army had come under 200 meters in the Indian territory. The Congress MP alleged, There are reports that Chinese soldiers have mistreated local revenue officials of that area. Scindia said that this is not a lone event.

In 2014 too, such incidents were reported in Uttarakhand. They alleged that Chinese troops had earlier tried to cross Indian border in Arunachal Pradesh.
1. More than one third of U.S. adults used a prescription opioid in 2015 and a substantial number of them reported misuse or abuse

Abstract: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M17-0865

Editorial: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M17-1559

URLs go live when the embargo lifts

In 2015, more than a third (91.8 million) of the U.S. adult population used prescription opioids, 11.5 million adults reported misusing them, and 1.9 million said they had a use disorder. Results of the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) are published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Misuse and use disorders were most commonly reported in adults who were uninsured, were unemployed, had low income, or had behavioral health problems. Relief from physical pain was the most commonly reported motivation for those who said they had misused an opioid in the past year. Misuse included using opioids without a prescription (59.9 percent) or obtaining them from friends or relatives (50.2 percent). Diversion of an opioid prescription also involved criminal activities, especially for those with use disorders. The survey showed that 13.8 percent of adults with use disorders obtained their most recently misused prescription opioids from drug dealers or strangers.

Such widespread social availability of prescription opioids suggests that they are commonly dispensed in amounts not fully consumed by the patients to whom they are prescribed. Diversion is especially common when opioids are prescribed in greater quantities than needed or for conditions for which they have no benefit. The findings highlight the importance of interventions targeting medication sharing, selling, and diversion and underscore the need to follow prescribing guidelines to minimize environmental availability of opioids.

Media contact: For an embargoed PDF, please contact Cara Graeff at cgraeff@acponline.org. For an interview with the author, Wilson Compton, MD, MPE, please contact the NIDA press office at media@nida.nih.gov or 301-443-6245.

2. Updated review confirms efficacy and safety of most standard treatments for latent tuberculosis infection

Abstract: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M17-0609

URLs go live when the embargo lifts

Robust evidence confirms that most standard treatment regimens currently recommended by the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI), including rifampicin-isoniazid for 3 months, are safe and effective for preventing active TB. The evidence for rifapentine-isoniazid for 3 months with a reduced pill burden is improving, but more evidence is still needed. The results of an updated network meta-analysis are published in Annals of Internal Medicine and will inform the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control's (ECDC) new guidance on programmatic LTBI control in the European Union/European Economic Area and candidate countries.

TB is a global priority infectious disease that caused an estimated 1.4 million deaths in 2015. Tackling LTBI, including providing preventive treatment to persons at high risk for TB, is a key action in achieving both the Sustainable Development Goal and the targets of the World Health Organization's End TB Strategy.

Researchers at Public Health England, University College London, and the ECDC reviewed 8 new studies in addition to 53 studies included in their 2014 report to compare the efficacy and harms of LTBI treatment regimens aimed at preventing active TB among adults and children. The data showed that standard antibiotic regimens of 6-month isoniazid monotherapy, rifampicin monotherapy, or combination therapies with 3 to 4 months of isoniazid and rifampicin and 3 months rifapentine-isoniazid are effective for preventing active TB. While the quality and reporting standards of the underlying studies was limited, the evidence for safety and efficacy of most standard treatment regimens was considered robust and reaffirms the strengthening evidence for shorter rifamycin regimens.

Media contact: For an embargoed PDF, please contact Cara Graeff at cgraeff@acponline.org. For an interview with the lead author, Dominik Zenner, MD, please contact Clare Cook at Clare.Cook@phe.gov.uk.

3. Health insurance a consideration when debating whether or not to prescribe an antidepressant for depression

Medication and cognitive behavior therapy have similar efficacy, but access could be a barrier to some

Abstract: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M17-0966

URLs go live when the embargo lifts

According to recent guidelines from the American College of Physicians (ACP), second-generation antidepressants and nonpharmacologic treatments, such as cognitive behavior therapy, have similar efficacy for treating major depressive disorder. Physicians may choose either option depending on patient characteristics and preferences. However, access to nonpharmacologic alternatives could be a challenge to some. Two prominent clinical experts from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) debate the treatment strategy for a patient with depression in a multicomponent educational article being published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Mr. Y, a 64-year-old retired male, saw his primary care physician for depression that has been slowly worsening over time and may have been exacerbated by the 2016 presidential election. He does not feel hopeless, but he cannot seem to shake negative thoughts. He is reluctant to try medication.

General internist, Gerald W. Smetana, MD, argues in favor of a nonpharmacologic treatment for Mr. Y, as the patient is not in immediate danger and clearly has a preference. Dr. Smetana says that adverse events, such as sexual dysfunction, nausea, headache, and weight gain, may hinder adherence to medications. Alternative therapies, such as cognitive behavior therapy, acupuncture, and St. John's wort, have been shown to be as effective as antidepressants without the risk for negative side effects.

Psychiatrist, Roscoe Brady, MD, PhD, acknowledges the ACP guidelines but argues that they do not factor in accessibility, which is a factor that may determine initial treatment at least as much as tolerability or efficacy. For some patients, finding a therapist who accepts their insurance or finding time to visit may be a barrier to care. In addition, research has shown that patients treated with second-generation antidepressants in a real-world setting were twice as likely to achieve remission as those receiving other therapies.

All 'Beyond the Guidelines' papers are based on the Department of Medicine Grand Rounds at BIDMC in Boston and include print, video, and educational components. A list of topics is available at http://www.annals.org/grandrounds.

Media contact: For an embargoed PDF, please contact Cara Graeff at cgraeff@acponline.org. To interview the experts, please contact Emily Barret at ebarret1@bidmc.harvard.edu or 617-667-7372.

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Also new in this issue:

Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy in a Liver Transplant Recipient With MelanomaGustavo Schvartsman, MD; Kristen Perez, PA-C; Gagan Sood, MD; Riham Katkhuda, MD; Hussein Tawbi, MD, PhDObservation: Case Report

URL goes live when the embargo lifts
The Ambassador said an Indian delegation has made several trips to Syria and Iraq in the past to seek information about them but his country has no information.

the 39 Indians who went missing in Iraq in 2014.

By PTI: Syria's Ambassador to India Riad Kamel Abbas today said his country has no information about the 39 Indians who went missing in Iraq in 2014.

He, however, said Syria is "keen" to send them home if they are found in its territory.

Abbas said an Indian delegation has made several trips to Syria and Iraq in the past to seek information about them and the chief of the Intelligence Department of Syria has also visited New Delhi in this regard. "The Indian delegation went to Syria many times and the chief of Syrian intelligence agency came to Delhi for it," the envoy said.

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"We are very keen to bring them (missing Indians) home if they are in our territory, but there is no official confirmation about it," he added.

Early this month, Iraqi forces freed Mosul from the ISIS, a development that gave a ray of hope to the families of 39 Indians.

However, there was no information of the missing Indian nationals from the liberated city.

ALSO READ |

39 missing Indians in Iraq: Sushma Swaraj's Lok Sabha statement rekindles hope of families

Are 39 Indians missing in Mosul still alive? Iraq government has no clue

Indians missing in Iraq: Exclusive Interview with Syrian Ambassador to India Riad Kamel Abbas

India Today first to reach Mosul after ISIS fall. No sign of missing 39 Indians

ALSO WATCH | Didn't mislead nation, won't declare missing Indians in Iraq dead without evidence: Sushma Swaraj

--- ENDS ---
A new study has found that a community-based service learning experience involving greater interaction with older adults had a positive impact on career development for medical residents (physicians who have graduated from medical school and are starting work at a healthcare facility under supervision). Researchers who designed the program published their findings in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Eighty third-year Internal Medicine residents at the University of Pennsylvania participated in the study; 71 residents completed follow-up surveys. As part of the program, medical residents engaged in several different activities at residential facilities serving older adults:

Participants toured the building or center, including apartments, and learned about the facility's purpose, operations, and diverse community of older men and women.

Participants attended brief presentations about local community resources available to older adults.

Participants delivered a 45-60 minute presentations on healthcare topics for older adults at the facility. Presentations covered cancer screenings and preventive healthcare for heart disease and strokes, as well as diabetes, arthritis, hypertension, dementia, and depression.

The researchers set specific goals for the medical residents, including:

Increasing their awareness of community resources that support older adults.

Broadening their knowledge of clinical topics in geriatrics.

Improving their communication skills when working with older men and women.

Following their experience, the medical residents filled out a survey. Based on the results, most residents said that the tour was informative, and that they valued the facts they learned about the facility and what it offered. Most of the residents said that the experience increased their ability to communicate effectively with older adults, boosted their knowledge of resources and community living, and expanded their knowledge of health topics important to older people.

Most residents also strongly agreed that the experience contributed to their capacity to care for older adults.

The residents said that the service learning program helped them appreciate older adults' concerns, and increased awareness of the health literacy barriers that many older adults face. What's more, the residents said that the program introduced them to the environment and social context that impacts older adult care.

When asked about the most interesting part of their experience, many residents noted they appreciated the opportunity to interact with older adults outside a hospital setting. They reported benefitting from learning how to communicate health information to older men and women, and learning how older adults understand common conditions and concerns.

Medical residents suggested that these community-based service learning programs could be conducted earlier in healthcare professional training, perhaps during internships before someone graduates from school. Program participants also suggested that service learning could be offered more frequently, and that perhaps several different levels of older adult care could be included.

###

This summary is from "Impact of a Community-Based Learning Experience in Geriatrics on Internal Medicine Residents and Community Participants". It appears online ahead of print in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The study authors are Rachel K. Miller, MD, MsED; Jennifer Michener MD; Phyllis Yang MD; Karen Goldstein, MD, MPH; Jennine Groce-Martin, MS; Gala True, PhD; and Jerry Johnson, MD.

About the Health in Aging Foundation

This research summary was developed as a public education tool by the Health in Aging Foundation. The Foundation is a national non-profit established in 1999 by the American Geriatrics Society to bring the knowledge and expertise of geriatrics healthcare professionals to the public. We are committed to ensuring that people are empowered to advocate for high-quality care by providing them with trustworthy information and reliable resources. Last year, we reached nearly 1 million people with our resources through HealthinAging.org. We also help nurture current and future geriatrics leaders by supporting opportunities to attend educational events and increase exposure to principles of excellence on caring for older adults. For more information or to support the Foundation's work, visit http://www.HealthinAgingFoundation.org.

About the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

Included in more than 9,000 library collections around the world, the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS) highlights emerging insights on principles of aging, approaches to older patients, geriatric syndromes, geriatric psychiatry, and geriatric diseases and disorders. First published in 1953, JAGS is now one of the oldest and most impactful publications on gerontology and geriatrics, according to ISI Journal Citation Reports. Visit wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/JGS for more details.

About the American Geriatrics Society

Founded in 1942, the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) is a nationwide, not-for-profit society of geriatrics healthcare professionals that has--for 75 years--worked to improve the health, independence, and quality of life of older people. Its nearly 6,000 members include geriatricians, geriatric nurses, social workers, family practitioners, physician assistants, pharmacists, and internists. The Society provides leadership to healthcare professionals, policymakers, and the public by implementing and advocating for programs in patient care, research, professional and public education, and public policy. For more information, visit AmericanGeriatrics.org.
BALTIMORE, Md. (July 31, 2017) - With the number of security breaches and cyber-attacks on the rise and reports of the financial burden of these varying from $400 billion a year to $2.1 trillion by 2019, cyber-security experts may soon have a new tool in the fight against online threats. Patrick Rubin-Delanchy, Heilbronn Research Fellow in Statistics at the University of Oxford, will present a new statistical method for monitoring networks to automatically detect "strange behavior" and ultimately prevent intrusion on Monday, July 31, at the 2017 Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM).

Data arising in cyber-security applications often have a network structure. A tool that monitors networks has access to massive amounts of data of which "normal" behavior can be observed. "Since data on intrusions is lacking," notes Rubin-Delanchy "accurate statistical modeling of connectivity behavior has important implications, particularly for network intrusion detection."

Rubin-Delanchy--in collaboration with Nick Heard, reader in statistics at Imperial College London, and Carey Priebe, professor of statistics at The Johns Hopkins University--has developed a "linear algebraic" approach to network anomaly detection, in which nodes are embedded in a finite dimensional latent space, where common statistical, signal-processing and machine-learning methodologies are then available. They illustrate results from their methodology on network flow data collected at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

In contrast with traditional cyber-security approaches like anti-virus software, the new methodology is not based on hand-engineered signatures, but rather machine learning in which programs can access and use the data and learn for themselves. "Our anticipation is that this model will provide a more robust approach to cyber-security in the future."

Additional presentations about cybersecurity at JSM will be led by other renowned experts, including the following:

Mark Briers, Alan Turing Institute

Marina Evangelou, Imperial College London

John Abowd, U.S. Census Bureau

Melissa Turcotte, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Christopher White, Microsoft

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Media can attend JSM for FREE, but must pre-register by emailing Jill Talley, ASA public relations manager, at jill@amstat.org.

About JSM 2017

JSM 2017 is the largest gathering of statisticians and data scientists in the world, taking place July 29-August 3, 2017, in Baltimore. Occurring annually since 1974, JSM is a joint effort of the American Statistical Association, International Biometric Society (ENAR and WNAR), Institute of Mathematical Statistics, Statistical Society of Canada, International Chinese Statistical Association, International Indian Statistical Association, Korean International Statistical Society, International Society for Bayesian Analysis, Royal Statistical Society and International Statistical Institute. JSM activities include oral presentations, panel sessions, poster presentations, professional development courses, an exhibit hall, a career service, society and section business meetings, committee meetings, social activities and networking opportunities.

About the American Statistical Association

The ASA is the world's largest community of statisticians and the oldest continuously operating professional science society in the United States. Its members serve in industry, government and academia in more than 90 countries, advancing research and promoting sound statistical practice to inform public policy and improve human welfare. For additional information, please visit the ASA website at http://www.amstat.org.

For more information:

Jill Talley

Public Relations Manager

(703) 684-1221, ext. 1865

jill@amstat.org
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (July 31, 2017) - Although the mechanisms by which anesthetic drugs induce the state of general anesthesia have been considered one of the biggest mysteries of modern medicine and science, new research is deciphering this unknown. Emery Brown, the Edward Hood Taplin Professor of Medical Engineering and of Computational Neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Warren M. Zapol Professor of Anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, will present new insight involved in conducting and analyzing experiments in this field July 31 at the 2017 Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM).

Brown's research shows how application of signal processing algorithms can be used to define such mechanisms. "Careful signal processing combined with experimentation has allowed us to show that a primary mechanism through which anesthetics work is by creating oscillations that disrupt how communications among different regions of the brain occur," said Brown, who is both a statistician and a practicing anesthesiologist.

Additionally, these algorithms enable principled use of the electroencephalogram (EEG) to monitor brain states of patients under anesthesia, define highly reliable EEG signatures for different anesthetic drug classes and establish how brain responses to anesthetic drugs change in a highly systematic and predictable way with patient age.

"Beyond suggesting a mechanism of anesthetic action, this discovery is of great clinical importance because it suggests that brain states under general anesthesia can be monitored using the EEG on patients in operating rooms," said Brown. "It also explains why remaining in the state of sustained, unnatural, drug-induced oscillations makes brain dysfunction after general anesthesia so prevalent--particularly in elderly patients," he continued. A common observation in the medical profession is that older patients' brains do not function as well after anesthesia.

Brown's presentation addresses the following three problems in basic and clinical neuroscience research:

Characterizing the dynamics of the brain response to anesthetics

Real-time tracking of brain states of patients receiving general anesthesia

Real-time assessment and control of medical coma

As part of his research on mechanisms of general anesthesia, Brown is conducting a phase II clinical trial using Ritalin--the drug commonly used to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)--to rapidly induce emergence from general anesthesia. This use of Ritalin holds the promise of providing a way to turn the brain back on after general anesthesia and thereby help reduce the cognitive dysfunction commonly seen in elderly patients following general anesthesia.

Media can attend JSM for FREE, but must pre-register by emailing Jill Talley, ASA public relations manager, at jill@amstat.org.

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About JSM 2017

JSM 2017 is the largest gathering of statisticians and data scientists in the world, taking place July 29-August 3, 2017, in Baltimore. Occurring annually since 1974, JSM is a joint effort of the American Statistical Association, International Biometric Society (ENAR and WNAR), Institute of Mathematical Statistics, Statistical Society of Canada, International Chinese Statistical Association, International Indian Statistical Association, Korean International Statistical Society, International Society for Bayesian Analysis, Royal Statistical Society, and International Statistical Institute. JSM activities include oral presentations, panel sessions, poster presentations, professional development courses, an exhibit hall, a career service, society and section business meetings, committee meetings, social activities and networking opportunities.

About the American Statistical Association

The ASA is the world's largest community of statisticians and the oldest continuously operating professional science society in the United States. Its members serve in industry, government and academia in more than 90 countries, advancing research and promoting sound statistical practice to inform public policy and improve human welfare. For additional information, please visit the ASA website at http://www.amstat.org.

For more information:

Jill Talley

Public Relations Manager

(703) 684-1221, ext. 1865

jill@amstat.org
Aarhus University researchers and industrial companies collaborate across the board to create fundamental new knowledge that is constantly made available to everyone on a new and innovative Open Science platform -- and which nobody may patent

Along with a number of leading Danish industrial companies, Aarhus University has opted out of the patent rat race in a new collaboration on industrially relevant basic research. Researchers and companies from all over Denmark publish all their results and data on the innovative Open Science platform, where the information is available free of charge to everyone interested.

The Open Science platform breaks the barriers that make it difficult and expensive for companies to gain access to - or become familiar with - the part of basic university research that is most relevant for them.

It also provides new answers to a number of the major challenges facing basic research - not least in Denmark - where both researchers and grant givers focus increasingly on safe bets, and give low priority to research projects that run the risk of not being able to pay off in the long run.

The platform has been established with funds from the Danish Industry Foundation, it combines basic research with industrial innovation in a completely new way, ensuring that industry, and the universities get greater benefit from each other's knowledge and technology.

University researchers and companies collaborate across the board to create fundamental new knowledge that is constantly made available to everyone - and which nobody may patent. Subsequently, however, everyone may freely use the knowledge to develop and patent their own unique products.

Boosting risk tolerance

Dean Niels Chr. Nielsen, Science and Technology, Aarhus University, regards the Open Science platform as a strong response to several of the major challenges facing the research and business sectors - and thereby society.

"Public and private institutions and foundations protect their research investments by focusing on safe bets. Either by favouring applied research with a high probability of commercial success, or by ensuring that our research centres keep to clearly defined benchmarks that control the flow of funds and time - but do not allow room to explore unexpected opportunities that arise during the process," he says.

"The paradox seems to be that we don't like investing in unorthodox or complex ideas because of the high risk that they won't eventuate. At the same time, however, society can't afford to turn our universities into factories that are occupied with small and self-evident ideas," adds the dean.

Great interest

The idea of collaborating in such a patent-free zone has aroused enormous interest in industry and among companies that otherwise use considerable resources on protecting their intellectual property rights.

The first Open Science platform focuses on smart materials, and initially covers twenty small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), including Danish industrial flagships such as ECCO, LEGO, VELUX, Vestas, Grundfos, SP Group and Terma - as well as researchers at the chemistry, physics and engineering departments at Aarhus University and all the other universities in Denmark.

Patent-free zone - and a movement

"Open Science will be a playground where companies and universities can try out their ideas without taking major risks. They can venture out of their normal surroundings and try new things relatively risk-free. This is particularly interesting for SMEs, only a few of which are experienced in research-based development. And because participants in the Open Science platform have access to the latest university research, they can acquire a basis for creating unique products with increased market potential," says Professor Kim Daasbjerg, iNANO, who is not only the instigator of the project, but is also responsible for the platform.

He adds that the Open Science idea in this form is not entrenched at Aarhus University, but is a movement just like open source, crowdfunding and crowdsourcing.

"Other research environments are completely free to imitate us and to copy and paste our model. We hope this will happen. At the rate the project has spread until now, I predict that Open Science can have the same impact on the scientific ecosystem associated with basic research that Internet streaming has had on the music and film industry," explains Professor Daasbjerg.

Expensive patents and journals

The Open Science platform is thus the source of a number of paradigm shifts. It not only breaks away from the focus of universities on patenting their research discoveries, but also constitutes a conscious rebellion against the business models used by scientific journals.

"Patents and sales of licenses run at a loss for most universities. In addition, the Danish Patents Act does not allow for Open Science, where basic research is carried out in a melting pot before you know whether any business can come out of it," explains Professor Daasbjerg.

It is very expensive to subscribe to the major important journals - even for research institutions whose researchers provide the contents - and because the journals also assume copyright of the authors' articles, the authors (i.e. the researchers) have to pay if they want to share their contents with the wider public.

Breakthrough for industry

The Open Science platform is also a breakthrough for the industrial participants.

Product and Process Technology Manager Kristian Mller Kristensen, VELUX, describes the collaboration as opening a window into basic research in a way that is different from the company's previous procedures.

"It's about taking industrial development in the direction we need and not waiting for others to do it. It requires greater foresight than we're used to working with. We're fully aware of the fact that 99 per cent of the world's most talented people do not work at VELUX. We need to go out and find people who can help us move on, and this is precisely where other skilled people can contribute in Open Science," he says.

Support from the Danish Industry Foundation

The Danish Industry Foundation has chosen to provide the Open Science platform with funds amounting to DKK 2.5 million in order to pave the way for a user-friendly platform that can make it easier for the Danish business sector to utilize research results.

"This contributes to the innovative power of the companies, and can also help to boost interaction between researchers, students and the companies involved. By creating a platform that structures knowledge sharing in a way that deals with a number of practical and legal challenges, it will also be possible for smaller companies to be involved - companies that have historically encountered financial or cultural barriers regarding collaboration and the sharing of data and knowledge," says CEO Mads Lebech, Danish Industry Foundation.

The first Open Science platform is called SPOMAN (Smart Polymer Materials and Nano-Composites), and its website is naturally publicly accessible: http://spoman-os.org/.

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Rsearch project seeks to solve $90 billion global problem in oil industry while making oil drilling less harmful to environment.

A new research project at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB) at the University of Illinois seeks to solve a $90 billion global problem in the oil industry while making oil drilling less harmful to the environment.

Bruce Fouke, Professor in the departments of Geology and Microbiology and director of the Roy J. Carver Biotechnology Center, was awarded a three-year grant from the Dow Chemical Company to study a process known as oil field biosouring. Fouke is also a faculty member in one of the IGB's eleven research themes, Biocomplexity, which explores the origin of life and the behavior of biological systems.

Co-investigators include IGB affiliate Professor Charles Werth at the University of Texas at Austin, and Robert Sanford, Research Associate Professor in Geology at Illinois.

Biosouring results from a common procedure in oil drilling, where seawater is pumped deep underground in order to maximize the amount of oil that can be extracted.

This action significantly affects microbes that live in the Earth's deep subsurface -- known as the deep microbial biosphere -- where the majority of Earth's life resides.

"The largest reservoir of living cells on earth is microbes that live underground," Fouke said. "Whenever we try to produce or extract oil and gas from the ground, we drill wells and perturb this community."

Seawater contains a chemical called sulfate. When bacteria in the ground ingest sulfate from the seawater, they create a byproduct called sulfide, which is highly corrosive and harmful to human health. This reduction, from sulfate to sulfide, is known as microbial biosouring.

Sulfide's corrosive nature creates the single largest maintenance expense for oil companies: replacement of underground oil field pipes and plumbing systems. Globally, it is estimated that almost $90 billion is spent on replacing damaged pipes each year.

"Dow is interested in the application of our techniques and approaches here at the IGB to better understand how biosouring happens and what new ways can be developed to reduce or stop it," Fouke said.

Another byproduct of biosouring is mineral growth. Biosouring accelerates the rate at which rocks are deposited, a process known as biomineralization, which is Fouke's area of expertise.

For the last 10 years, Fouke and his IGB research colleagues have been developing a new technology called the GeoBioCell, an experimental microfluidics test bed that can be used to track the interactions between water, rock, microbes, oil and gas in a controlled environment. It simulates the conditions of the deep subsurface on a microscope stage, using samples of actual oil field rocks and fluids.

This technology allows researchers to control the flow of these materials so their interactions can be evaluated in real time.

"We recreate, at a very precise spatial resolution, the interactions going on in natural subsurface environments," Fouke said.

By recreating biosouring within the GeoBioCell, researchers will be able to test different temperatures, chemicals, food sources and water chemistries to try and reduce or stop the process.

The IGB is the only place in the world where a technology like this exists, and Fouke said it's the only place where this research could happen, due to its interdisciplinary nature.

Directors of the IGB Core Facilities light microscopy suite and the Roy J. Carver Biotechnology Center will be collaborating in running and analyzing the GeoBioCell experiments.

"It's truly the only laboratory in the world where we have the capacity to do all these cutting-edge analyses in one location," Fouke said.

For Fouke, this research brings together years of his own work.

"What's especially exciting about this project, and the development and application of the GeoBioCell, is that it represents two decades of collaborative interdisciplinary research," he said. "It encapsulates everything we have accomplished to date."

As a geologist, Fouke's interest lies in studying the origin and evolution of life on Earth, and how this knowledge can be applied to solve real-world problems.

"Results from the GeoBioCell experimentation will enhance our understanding of how oil and gas is produced, while better protecting the environment," he said.

He believes the project's "hyper-interdisciplinary" nature -- involving the fields of geology, microbiology and engineering -- will allow the results to be impactful.

"It requires exactly what we're all about at the IGB, which is to have the highest level of excellence and expertise in these different fields, and then have them all come together and work together," Fouke said. "It takes all these disciplines fusing together to be able to complete this work."

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A newly discovered collective rattling effect in a type of crystalline semiconductor blocks most heat transfer while preserving high electrical conductivity - a rare pairing that scientists say could reduce heat buildup in electronic devices and turbine engines, among other possible applications.

A team led by scientists at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) discovered these exotic traits in a class of materials known as halide perovskites, which are also considered promising candidates for next-generation solar panels, nanoscale lasers, electronic cooling, and electronic displays.

These interrelated thermal and electrical (or "thermoelectric") properties were found in nanoscale wires of cesium tin iodide (CsSnI3). The material was observed to have one of the lowest levels of heat conductivity among materials with a continuous crystalline structure.

This so-called single-crystal material can also be more easily produced in large quantities than typical thermoelectric materials, such as silicon-germanium, researchers said.

"Its properties originate from the crystal structure itself. It's an atomic sort of phenomenon," said Woochul Lee, a postdoctoral researcher at Berkeley Lab who was the lead author of the study, published the week of July 31 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal. These are the first published results relating to the thermoelectric performance of this single crystal material.

Researchers earlier thought that the material's thermal properties were the product of "caged" atoms rattling around within the material's crystalline structure, as had been observed in some other materials. Such rattling can serve to disrupt heat transfer in a material.

"We initially thought it was atoms of cesium, a heavy element, moving around in the material," said Peidong Yang, a senior faculty scientist at Berkeley Lab's Materials Sciences Division who led the study.

Jeffrey Grossman, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, then performed some theory work and computerized simulations that helped to explain what the team had observed. Researchers also used Berkeley Lab's Molecular Foundry, which specializes in nanoscale research, in the study.

"We believe there is essentially a rattling mechanism, not just with the cesium. It's the overall structure that's rattling; it's a collective rattling," Yang said. "The rattling mechanism is associated with the crystal structure itself," and is not the product of a collection of tiny crystal cages. "It is group atomic motion," he added.

Within the material's crystal structure, the distance between atoms is shrinking and growing in a collective way that prevents heat from easily flowing through.

But because the material is composed of an orderly, single-crystal structure, electrical current can still flow through it despite this collective rattling. Picture its electrical conductivity is like a submarine traveling smoothly in calm underwater currents, while its thermal conductivity is like a sailboat tossed about in heavy seas at the surface.

Yang said two major applications for thermoelectric materials are in cooling, and in converting heat into electrical current. For this particular cesium tin iodide material, cooling applications such as a coating to help cool electronic camera sensors may be easier to achieve than heat-to-electrical conversion, he said.

A challenge is that the material is highly reactive to air and water, so it requires a protective coating or encapsulation to function in a device.

Cesium tin iodide was first discovered as a semiconductor material decades ago, and only in recent years has it been rediscovered for its other unique traits, Yang said. "It turns out to be an amazing gold mine of physical properties," he noted.

To measure the thermal conductivity of the material, researchers bridged two islands of an anchoring material with a cesium tin iodide nanowire. The nanowire was connected at either end to micro-islands that functioned as both a heater and a thermometer. Researchers heated one of the islands and precisely measured how the nanowire transported heat to the other island.

They also performed scanning electron microscopy to precisely measure the dimensions of the nanowire. They used these dimensions to provide an exacting measure of the material's thermal conductivity. The team repeated the experiment with several different nanowire materials and multiple nanowire samples to compare thermoelectric properties and verify the thermal conductivity measurements.

"A next step is to alloy this (cesium tin iodide) material," Lee said. "This may improve the thermoelectric properties."

Also, just as computer chip manufacturers implant a succession of elements into silicon wafers to improve their electronic properties - a process known as "doping" - scientists hope to use similar techniques to more fully exploit the thermoelectric traits of this semiconductor material. This is relatively unexplored territory for this class of materials, Yang said.

###

The research team also included other scientists from Berkeley Lab's Materials Sciences Division and the Molecular Foundry, the Kavli Energy NanoScience Institute at UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab, and UC Berkeley's Department of Chemistry.

The Molecular Foundry is a DOE Office of Science User Facility that provides free access to state-of-the-art equipment and multidisciplinary expertise in nanoscale science to visiting scientists from all over the world.

This work was supported by the Department of Energy's Office of Basic Energy Sciences.

More information about Peidong Yang's research group: http://nanowires.berkeley.edu/.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world's most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab's scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel Prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. For more, visit http://www.lbl.gov.

DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.
Lawrence Livermore scientists have developed a technique that helps extract hydrogen from water efficiently and cheaply.

Hydrogen can be used as a clean fuel in fuel cells, which produce power with water and heat as the only byproducts. As a zero-emission fuel, the hydrogen can be recombined with oxygen to produce electric power on demand, such as onboard a fuel-cell vehicle.

The Livermore team and collaborators at Rice University and San Diego State University turned to electricity to produce clean hydrogen fuel by splitting water molecules, which are made of oxygen and hydrogen atoms. The researchers discovered a new class of cheap and efficient catalyst to facilitate the water splitting process. The research appears in the July 31 edition of Nature Energy.

"Hydrogen gas has immense potential as a source of sustainable fuel, because it generates no carbon emissions," said Lawrence Livermore lead author Brandon Wood. "It can be produced from multiple sources, but the holy grail is to make it from water." Wood also is a principal investigator in the Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's (EERE) HydroGEN Advanced Water Splitting Materials Consortium, an Energy Materials Network node focused on hydrogen production from water.

Extracting hydrogen from water using electricity is a fairly straightforward process, but it is inefficient and usually takes a lot of energy. The efficiency can be improved using catalysts, which are often made of expensive precious metals, such as platinum.

The Lawrence Livermore team sought to come up with a cheaper way to efficiently split the water molecules.

To solve the problem, Wood and lead author Yuanyue Liu -- a Livermore summer intern with Wood -- turned to a class of catalysts based on transition-metal dichalcogenides (MX2), which have generated a great deal of interest for water splitting. The issue with the MX2 materials that currently are used (based on molybdenum and tungsten) is that only the exposed edges of the catalysts are active. Instead, Wood, Liu and colleagues used quantum-mechanical calculations to reveal underlying electronic factors that would make the entire surfaces of the MX2 materials active for catalysis. These "descriptors" were then used to computationally screen MX2 candidates that could make better water-splitting catalysts.

Researchers from Rice University experimentally validated the calculations by synthesizing and testing two of the proposed materials, tantalum disulfide and niobium disulfide. Beyond confirming that the materials' surfaces were active towards water splitting, they discovered that the materials had an unusual ability to optimize their shape as they evolved hydrogen gas. This allowed the materials to achieve even better performance.

"The self-optimizing behavior and surface activity mean high performance can be achieved with only minimal catalyst loading," Wood said. "It's a huge advantage for scalable processing, since there's no need to turn to expensive techniques like nanostructuring. Our work opens the door to using this type of catalyst, and our theoretical descriptor should make it easy to assess water-splitting activity in similar classes of layered materials."

###

Other Livermore researchers include Morris Wang and Tadashi Ogitsu. LLNL's work was funded by EERE's Fuel Cell Technologies Office.

Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory provides solutions to our nation's most important national security challenges through innovative science, engineering and technology. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
A new study published today in the HSS Journal, the leading journal on musculoskeletal research, found the incidence of myocardial ischemia (defined by an elevated troponin level) after major orthopedic surgery in patients with cardiac risk factors is high, although the incidence of serious cardiac complications remains low. Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) researchers recommend a simple blood test to measure troponin, an enzyme known to play a role in cardiac complications, to help identify patients who are at greater risk of a cardiac event following surgery.

Postoperative complications can be life-threatening and consume considerable healthcare resources. Orthopedic surgeries are on the rise and by 2030 there may be 500,000 total hip replacements and three million total knee replacements per year.

"Cardiovascular events are the most serious complications after major orthopedic surgeries, and patients with myocardial ischemia are at significant risk," said lead author Dr. Michael K. Urban, MD, PhD, Division of Anesthesiology, Hospital for Special Surgery. "We recommend measuring levels of a cardiac protein, troponin, which is released into the blood during cardiac injury. Identifying patients with elevated troponin levels, allows us to intervene to prevent further cardiac events to improve outcome and reduce the overall cost of care."

Plasma elevations in the enzyme troponin I (cTnI) are associated with myocardial events after major surgery and have been shown to be a more specific marker for cardiac injury compared to others. This study found that patients with higher postoperative cTnI levels were more likely to have cardiac complications during hip or knee replacement surgery and spinal fusions. In addition, some procedures such as spinal fusions were found to place the patient at nearly four times greater risk compared to joint replacement procedures.

Researchers concluded the incidence of postoperative myocardial ischemia (defined by elevated cTnI) after major orthopedic surgery in patients with cardiac risk factors is high (8.7%). During a one-year period, 10,627 inpatient orthopedic procedures were performed at HSS and 805 patients were identified as at risk for postoperative myocardial ischemia. Of the at-risk orthopedic patients, approximately 20 percent had elevated troponin levels, but less than 9 percent had troponin levels suggestive of myocardial injury. Of patients with elevated troponin levels, 31 percent had postoperative cardiac complications. Consistent with previously published research, nearly 90 percent of myocardial ischemic events occurred by the third day post-surgery.

"As demand for orthopedic surgery continues to rise, it is imperative that we identify more effective and efficient ways to reduce post-surgical complications," said Dr. Urban. "We believe measuring troponin levels in high-risk patients after orthopedic surgery can advance the management of patients with heart disease and reduce complications."

The American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association also recommend measuring troponin levels for patients with signs or symptoms suggestive of myocardial ischemia.

###

About Hospital for Special Surgery

Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) is the world's leading academic medical center focused on musculoskeletal health. HSS is nationally ranked No. 1 in orthopedics and No. 2 in rheumatology by U.S. News & World Report (2016-2017), and is the first hospital in New York State to receive Magnet Recognition for Excellence in Nursing Service from the American Nurses Credentialing Center four consecutive times. HSS has one of the lowest infection rates in the country. HSS is an affiliate of Weill Cornell Medical College and as such all Hospital for Special Surgery medical staff are faculty of Weill Cornell. The hospital's research division is internationally recognized as a leader in the investigation of musculoskeletal and autoimmune diseases. HSS has locations in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. http://www.hss.edu.

About HSS Journal

HSS Journal, The Musculoskeletal Journal of Hospital for Special Surgery, is the leading journal on musculoskeletal cutting edge research, clinical pathways, treatment, and state-of-the-art techniques. Original, peer-reviewed research and review articles educate the community across a wide spectrum of musculoskeletal diseases and conditions such as anesthesia, peri-operative medicine, basic science of bone and mineral medicine, radiology, imaging, pathology, rheumatology, neurology, psychiatry and rehabilitation.

Contact Information

Tracy Hickenbottom

Monique Irons

Sherry Randolph

212.606.1197

mediarelations@hss.edu
Reservoirs of long-term HIV infection mean patients must keep taking daily medication for life, but finding could aid the search for new drugs to clear it entirely

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Every day, 17 million HIV-infected people around the world swallow pills that keep the virus inside them at bay.

That is, as long as they swallow those pills every day for the rest of their life.

But no matter how many drugs they take, they'll always have the virus in them, lurking in their white blood cells like a fugitive from justice.

And if they ever stop, HIV will come out of hiding and bring down their immune system from the inside out, causing the disease known as AIDS and potentially spreading to others before killing them.

Now, new research into HIV's hiding places reveals new clues about exactly how it persists in the body for years. The discovery could speed the search for drugs that can flush HIV out of its long-term hideouts and cure an infection for good.

In a new paper in PLoS Pathogens, a team led by University of Michigan researcher Kathleen Collins, M.D., Ph.D. reports that HIV hides in more types of bone marrow cells than previously thought - and that when these cells divide, they can pass the virus's genetic material down to their "daughter" cells intact.

This keeps the infection going for years, without tipping off the armed guards of the immune system.

Collins and her colleagues made the discovery in bone marrow samples donated by dozens of long-term HIV patients treated at U-M's academic medical center, Michigan Medicine, and at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit.

Using funding from the National Institutes of Health, they found that HIV can hide in hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs), which also serve as the parents of new blood cells that replace worn-out ones on a regular basis. HIV tricks the cells into incorporating the virus's genetic material into the cells' own DNA.

"Looking for the cells that harbor functional HIV is like searching for a needle in a haystack. Our new results expand our understanding of the type of cells that can do it," says Collins, a professor of Microbiology and Immunology and of Infectious Disease at the U-M Medical School. "It's like a cancer biology problem, only the 'mutation' in the cells is the inserted viral genome."

HPCs are made by hematopoietic stem cells, the "master cells" of blood production found in the marrow. Previous research had shown that HIV can hide for years in the bone marrow.

But it was not known whether the virus persisted only in stem cells or whether the reservoir could include more differentiated progenitor cells. Demonstrating that progenitor cells form a long-lived reservoir of virus expands the number of cell types that need to be targeted.

By demonstrating that HIV genetic material can lurk in blood progenitor cells, the researchers extend other recent studies indicating that such cells can live for years, says Collins, whose lab team included lead author Nadia Sebastian, a U-M M.D./Ph.D. student.

She notes that from the point of view of the virus, finding a harbor in this kind of cell means it can hedge its bets, giving it a chance at survival and eventual reproduction if its host's defenses weaken. The virus that causes chicken pox - varicella - also does this, hiding out in nerve cells just under the skin for years until it awakens and causes the painful condition called shingles.

Knowing exactly what cells harbor HIV over the long-term is crucial to battling persistent infections. Other research has focused on the T cells that carry out key immune system functions.

"Having established this, now we're poised to ask if we can treat HIV infection by targeting hematopoietic progenitor cells," she explains. The team is evaluating potential drugs that could kill just these cells.

The research team on the new paper also includes former U-M stem cell researcher Sean Morrison, Ph.D., who now leads a research center at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Morrison's lab uses mice as a model to study stem and progenitor cells.

They find in the new paper that in order for HIV to infect a progenitor cell, that cell must have a type of receptor on its surface, called CD4, that the virus can attach to. Additionally, the researchers show that two subtypes of HIV can infect these cells: those that use the CXCR4 co-receptor to enter cells as well as those that use CCR5, which expands the types of HIVs that can potentially cause reservoirs.

Finding those progenitor cells in the marrow of the human patients who agreed to undergo a biopsy for the sake of pure research was tricky, Collins says. But thanks to them, researchers are a step closer to a day when HIV infection is no longer a life sentence for millions of people around the world.

"Moving from the state we're in, where patients will always have to be on these drugs, to a better form of therapy where they can stop, would have a huge effect," she says. "Today's medications have side effects, as well as financial costs. To get to the next step, we need to target the types of cells that form a latent infection, including these progenitor cells."

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Reference: PLoS Pathogens, online first, doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1006509

http://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1006509
Montreal, July 31 2017 -- Tuberculosis (TB) is a recognized hazard for healthcare workers, but the annual screening strategy currently in place in Canada and the United States is costly with very limited health benefits and should be reconsidered, according to a new study led by a team from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC). The findings, published in the journal BMC Medicine, suggest health agencies in North America should consider switching to a targeted strategy focusing on high-risk healthcare workers only.

"The *background rate of TB in North American communities is much lower today than it was 25 years ago when there were epidemics of TB in cities across the United States. As such, the risk of healthcare workers being exposed and infected at work is also much lower,'' says the study's corresponding author Dr. Kevin Schwartzman, Director of the Respiratory Division at the MUHC and a professor of medicine at McGill University. "Our results suggest the annual TB screening protocol should be changed to reflect more accurately the epidemiology of TB in North America and potentially in other high-income countries, such as those in Northern Europe.''

The researchers used published data to simulate the experience of a cohort of 1,000 workers who received a baseline negative test after hiring-- considering duties, tuberculosis exposure, testing and treatment. They compared the cost-effectiveness of three screening strategies: annual screening (for all workers with significant patient contact), targeted screening (regular screening of only the highest risk workers), and post-exposure screening (screening only after identified exposure). They considered two tests to diagnose TB infection: the tuberculin skin test (TST) and the newer QuantiFERON-TB-Gold In-Tube (QFT) test. The results of this study show that the QFT test was found to be more expensive to use than the TST test, with limited, or no, additional benefits.

"We projected costs, morbidity, quality-adjusted survival and mortality over 20 years after hiring. One of the most striking findings was that the current annual screening strategy costs over $1.7 million to prevent one additional case of active TB in a healthcare worker, when compared to a more targeted screening strategy, which in turn costs around $400,000 more per additional case when compared to the post-exposure screening protocol,'' says the study's first author Guillaume Mullie, a fourth year medical student at McGill University. "The costs of current practices are quite significant for the healthcare system, and reconsideration of this long-standing recommendation may be warranted.''

"Additionally, the more you test healthcare workers without true exposure, the more likely it is that when you do find a positive test it will be a false positive because the tests are never perfect. " explains Dr. Schwartzman who is also a researcher at the McGill International TB Centre - a hub for scientists worldwide who work together to fight tuberculosis.

According to the researchers, healthcare workers should not be called back routinely every year for testing just because that is the protocol. Instead, only workers at a particularly high-risk, for example respiratory therapists performing bronchoscopies, or microbiology laboratory workers, should continue to be tested regularly regardless of stated exposure. Other workers should be evaluated only after exposure to a contagious patient.

Caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis, TB remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. In its active phase, it is transmitted in droplets when a patient coughs or sneezes. After first contact with the microbe, the disease can develop rapidly or remain latent for several years before activating. Routine screening and treatment of latent TB infection has traditionally been an important part of TB prevention in Canadian and US healthcare institutions, but recent data have called into question its cost effectiveness

"Resources currently allocated to routine TB testing for healthcare workers in North America could instead be used to increase access to prevention, treatment and testing infrastructure and support in communities that are at higher risk of developing TB disease such as homeless, foreign-born and indigenous people," states Dr. Schwartzman.

###

*Incidence of tuberculosis disease (per 100,000 people) in 2015 was 4.6 TB cases per 100,000 in Canada and 3 TB cases per 100,000 in the United States.

About the study

This study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). The article Revisiting annual screening for latent tuberculosis infection in healthcare workers: a cost-effectiveness analysis was coauthored by Guillaume A. Mullie, Kevin Schwartzman (Respiratory Epidemiology and Clinical Research Unit, Montreal Chest Institute, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University and McGill International TB Centre, McGill University), Alice Zwerling (Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University), and Dieynaba S. N'Diaye (Respiratory Epidemiology and Clinical Research Unit, Montreal Chest Institute and McGill International TB Centre, McGill University).

For additional information, we invite you to read the study. DOI: 10.1186/s12916-017-0865-x About the Research Institute of the MUHC

The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) is a world-renowned biomedical and healthcare research centre. The Institute, which is affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine of McGill University, is the research arm of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) - an academic health centre located in Montreal, Canada, that has a mandate to focus on complex care within its community. The RI-MUHC supports over 460 researchers and close to 1,300 research trainees devoted to a broad spectrum of fundamental, clinical and health outcomes research at the Glen and the Montreal General Hospital sites of the MUHC. Its research facilities offer a dynamic multidisciplinary environment that fosters collaboration and leverages discovery aimed at improving the health of individual patients across their lifespan. The RI-MUHC is supported in part by the Fonds de recherche du Quebec - Sante (FRQS). http://www.rimuhc.ca

About the McGill International TB Centre

Our centre brings together over 20 investigators with expertise spanning epidemiology, policy setting, economic analyses, implementation research, meta-analyses, qualitative research to basic science in microbiology, host genetics and immune response. The work is done both at an academic centre and with a number of collaborating groups around the world. On these pages, we introduce the faculty members who are members of our centre and describe our training programs for students. Find out why our Centre is a world leader in the interdisciplinary study of TB and how we work together to unravel the many mysteries of this recalcitrant disease. http://www.mcgill.ca/tb/

Media contact:

Julie Robert

Communications Coordinator - Research

McGill University Health Centre

514 934-1934 ext. 71381

julie.robert@muhc.mcgill.ca
By PTI: (Eds: Updating with Stalins comments)

Chennai, Jul 31 (PTI) The Tamil Nadu government today made the "final effort" in seeking exemption for the states students from the common nationwide medical entrance test, NEET, with its representatives taking up the issue with Union ministers J P Nadda and Jitendra Singh.

State Health Minister C Vijayabaskar, accompanied by Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan, met Union Health Minister Nadda and Union Minister of State for the Prime Ministers Office Singh in Delhi.

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An official release here recalled a series of meetings by Tamil Nadu ministers, including Chief Minister K Palaniswami, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his colleagues on the issue over the last few days.

"Following these, as a final effort, Vijayabaskar met Nadda and Singh to pressure them for an exemption for Tamil Nadu from the National Entrance Cum Eligibility Test (NEET)," it said.

The minister was accompanied by Radhakrishnan, it added.

Tamil Nadu has been seeking an exemption from NEET on the ground that otherwise, it would affect the students of the state.

Meanwhile, DMK working president M K Stalin demanded the resignation of Vijayabaskar for "bungling up" over the NEET issue and "playing with the lives of students".

Alleging that the Palaniswami regime had "failed to protect the interests of the state board students", he asked the chief minister to call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and "exert pressure" to get the Presidential assent for two Tamil Nadu bills, seeking an exemption for the state from NEET.

He also said if that could not be done, "all the AIADMK (the ruling party in Tamil Nadu) MPs should resign".

In February, the state Assembly had passed two bills, seeking to pave the way for the continuation of the undergraduate medical admissions on the basis of the class 12 marks and exempt Tamil Nadu from the ambit of NEET.

The rival AIADMK (Puratchi Thalaivi Amma) faction, led by former chief minister O Panneerselvam, had also met the prime minister over the issue.

The opposition parties have been upping the ante against the AIADMK regime on the matter, with the DMK staging a human chain protest here last week to press for Presidential assent to the two Bills. PTI SA VGN APR VS RC

--- ENDS ---
Many rock stars don't like to play by the rules, and a cosmic one is no exception. A team of astronomers has discovered that an extraordinarily bright supernova occurred in a surprising location. This "heavy metal" supernova discovery challenges current ideas of how and where such super-charged supernovas occur.

Supernovas are some of the most energetic events in the Universe. When a massive star runs out of fuel, it can collapse onto itself and create a spectacular explosion that briefly outshines an entire galaxy, dispersing vital elements into space.

In the past decade, astronomers have discovered about fifty supernovas, out of the thousands known, that are particularly powerful. These explosions are up to 100 times brighter than other supernovas caused by the collapse of a massive star.

Following the recent discovery of one of these "superluminous supernovas", a team of astronomers led by Matt Nicholl from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, Mass., has uncovered vital clues about where some of these extraordinary objects come from.

Cambridge University's Arancha Delgado and her team discovered this supernova, dubbed SN 2017egm, on May 23, 2017 with the European Space Agency's Gaia satellite. A team led by Subo Dong of the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics used the Nordic Optical Telescope to identify it as a superluminous supernova.

SN 2017egm is located in a spiral galaxy about 420 million light years from Earth, making it about three times closer than any other superluminous supernova previously seen. Dong realized that the galaxy was very surprising, as virtually all known superluminous supernovas have been found in dwarf galaxies that are much smaller than spiral galaxies like the Milky Way.

Building on this discovery, the CfA team found that SN 2017egm's host galaxy has a high concentration of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, which astronomers call "metals". This is the first clear evidence for a metal-rich birthplace for a superluminous supernova. The dwarf galaxies that usually host superluminous supernovas are known to have a low metal content, which was thought to be an essential ingredient for making these explosions.

"Superluminous supernovas were already the rock stars of the supernova world," said Nicholl. "We now know that some of them like heavy metal, so to speak, and explode in galaxies like our own Milky Way."

"If one of these went off in our own Galaxy, it would be much brighter than any supernova in recorded human history and would be as bright as the full Moon," said co-author Edo Berger, also of the CfA. "However, they're so rare that we probably have to wait several million years to see one."

The CfA researchers also found more clues about the nature of SN 2017egm. In particular, their new study supports the idea that a rapidly spinning, highly magnetized neutron star, called a magnetar, is likely the engine that drives the incredible amount of light generated by these supernovas.

While the brightness of SN 2017egm and the properties of the magnetar that powers it overlap with those of other superluminous supernovas, the amount of mass ejected by SN 2017egm may be lower than the average event. This difference may indicate that the massive star that led to SN 2017egm lost more mass than most superluminous supernova progenitors before exploding. The spin rate of the magnetar may also be slower than average.

These results show that the amount of metals has at most only a small effect on the properties of a superluminous supernova and the engine driving it. However, the metal-rich variety occurs at only about 10% of the rate of the metal-poor ones. Similar results have been found for bursts of gamma rays associated with the explosion of massive stars. This suggests a close association between these two types of objects.

From July 4th, 2017 until September 16th, 2017 the supernova is not observable because it is too close to the Sun. After that, detailed studies should be possible for at least a few more years.

"This should break all records for how long a superluminous supernova can be followed", said co-author Raffaella Margutti of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. "I'm excited to see what other surprises this object has in store for us."

The CfA team observed SN 2017egm on June 18th with the 60-inch telescope at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in Arizona.

###

A paper by Matt Nicholl describing these results was recently accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, and is available online. In addition to Berger and Margutti, the co-authors of the paper are Peter Blanchard, James Guillochon, and Joel Leja, all of the CfA, and Ryan Chornock of Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.

Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) is a joint collaboration between the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Harvard College Observatory. CfA scientists, organized into six research divisions, study the origin, evolution and ultimate fate of the universe.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- New research is calling for immediate safeguards and the study of a widely used method for repairing sewer-, storm-water and drinking-water pipes to understand the potential health and environmental concerns for workers and the public.

The procedure, called cured-in-place pipe repair, or CIPP, was invented in the 1970s. It involves inserting a resin-impregnated fabric tube into a damaged pipe and curing it in place with hot water or pressurized steam, sometimes with ultraviolet light. The result is a new plastic pipe manufactured inside the damaged one. The process can emit chemicals into the air, sometimes in visible plumes, and can expose workers and the public to a mixture of compounds that can pose potential health hazards, said Andrew Whelton, an assistant professor in Purdue University's Lyles School of Civil Engineering and the Environmental and Ecological Engineering program.

He led a team of researchers who conducted a testing study at seven steam-cured CIPP installations in Indiana and California. The researchers captured the emitted materials and measured their concentration, including styrene, acetone, phenol, phthalates and other volatile (VOC) and semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOC).

Results from their air testing study are detailed in a paper appearing on July 26 in Environmental Science & Technology Letters. The study files can freely be downloaded and are open-access, and the paper is available at http://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.estlett.7b00237.

Findings show that the chemical plume, commonly thought of as harmless steam, was actually a complex mixture of organic vapor, water vapor, particulates of condensable vapor and partially cured resin, and liquid droplets of water and organic chemicals. A YouTube video is available at https://youtu.be/rBMOoa2XcJI.

"CIPP is the most popular water-pipe rehabilitation technology in the United States," Whelton said. "Short- and long-term health impacts caused by chemical mixture exposures should be immediately investigated. Workers are a vulnerable population, and understanding exposures and health impacts to the general public is also needed."

New Research Results

The researchers have briefed the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH) about their findings. NIOSH is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and has occupational safety and health experts who can investigate workplace hazards.

Purdue researchers captured the chemical plume materials from two sanitary sewer-pipe installations and five storm-water pipe installations. Samples were analyzed using gas chromatography, thermal and spectroscopic techniques. Chemicals found included hazardous air pollutants, suspected endocrine disrupting chemicals, and known and suspected carcinogens. Emissions were sometimes highly concentrated and affected by wind direction, speed and the worker's activities, Whelton said.

A waxy substance was found in the air, and materials engineers determined it was partially cured plastic, styrene monomer, acetone, and unidentified chemicals.

No respiratory protection was used by CIPP workers, and a review of online videos, images and construction contracts indicates respiratory safety equipment use was not typical, he said.

To evaluate chemical plume toxicity, pulmonary toxicologist and assistant professor Jonathan Shannahan and a graduate student exposed captured materials to mouse lung cells. Plume samples from two of four sites tested displayed toxicity effects and two did not.

"This suggests that there are operational conditions that may decrease the potential for hazardous health effects," Shannahan stated. "Since exposures can be highly variable in chemical composition, concentration, and exposure duration our findings demonstrate the need for further investigation."

At the same time, existing testing methods are not capable of documenting this multi-phase chemical exposure, Whelton said.

Findings Contradict Conventional Thinking

In 2017, Whelton completed a one-and-a-half-day CIPP construction inspector course for consulting and municipal engineers and contractors as part of a different research project working with state transportation agencies.

"CIPP workers, the public, water utilities, and engineers think steam is emitted," he said. "What we found was not steam. Even when the chemical plume was not visible, our instruments detected that we were being chemically exposed."

The paper was authored by graduate students Seyedeh Mahboobeh Teimouri Sendesi, Kyungyeon Ra, Mohammed Nuruddin, and Lisa M. Kobos; undergraduate student Emily N. Conkling; Brandon E. Boor, an assistant professor of civil engineering; John A. Howarter, an assistant professor of materials engineering and environmental and ecological engineering; Jeffrey P. Youngblood, a professor of materials engineering; Shannahan; Chad T. Jafvert, a professor of civil engineering and environmental and ecological engineering; and Whelton.

The new research also contains results from the team's Freedom of Information Act requests to cities and utilites. This information is contained in the supporting-information section of the research paper. Forty-nine public reports of chemical air contamination associated with CIPP activites were found. Complaints filed by homeowners and businesses who, anecdotally, have described strong and lingering chemical odors and illness symptoms, also were described.

Additional research is needed, particularly because the procedure has not been well studied for health and environmental risks, said Howarter.

"The CIPP process is actually a brilliant technology," Howarter said. "Health and safety concerns, though, need to be addressed. We are not aware of any study that has determined what exposure limit to the chemical mixture is safe. We are not aware of any study that indicates that skin exposure or inhaling the multi-phase mixture is safe. We also are not aware of any study that has examined the persistence of this multi-phase mixture in the environment."

Whelton said, "In the documents we reviewed, contractors, utilities, and engineering companies have told people who complain about illness symptoms that their exposures are not a health risk. It's unclear what data are used for these declarations."

Utilities and municipalities sometimes cite worker chemical exposure standards established by the NIOSH as acceptable for the general public.

"That comparison is wrong and invalid," Whelton said. "Worker safety exposure standards should not be cited as acceptable exposures for the general public. For example, children have less of an ability to handle a chemical exposure than healthy adults, and worker exposure standards do not account for the multi-phase exposure. CIPP workers can be exposed to more than one chemical at a time, in addition to droplets, vapor and particulates."

Testing Results Show Need For Worksite Changes

Because of the air testing results obtained at CIPP installations on the Purdue campus - two of the seven test sites studied - Purdue required the faculty and students to better protect themselves from inhaling the chemicals emitted. The researchers were required to wear full-facemask carbon filter respirators during their testing in California.

Meanwhile, the uncured chemicals also might pose hazards: The nitrile gloves Whelton wore on one occasion deteriorated from contact with the uncured resin tube. The researchers observed that workers sometimes did not wear gloves while handling the materials. Some images and videos online also show workers not wearing gloves while handling the chemicals, he said.

"Workers should always wear appropriately thick chemically resistant gloves while handling uncured resin tubes," Whelton said. "No one should handle these materials with their bare hands."

He said health officials must be alerted when people complain about odors near CIPP sites and illness so they can investigate.

"Health officials we have spoken with were unaware of illness and odor complaints from CIPP activities," Whelton said. "Local and state health departments should be involved in all public chemical exposure and illness complaints. They are trained on medical assessments."

Often, the public instead speaks with CIPP contractors and engineers about their illness complaints, which Whelton said must change.

"Engineers should act immediately because it is their professional responsibility to hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public according to their code of ethics," he said. "We have seen evidence that companies and utilities do not understand what materials are created and emitted by CIPP processes or the consequences of exposure. Our new study indicates workers, the public, and the environment needs to be better protected from harm."

The researchers are working to develop safeguards, including a new type of handheld analytical device that would quickly indicate whether the air at a worksite is safe. A patent application has been filed through the Purdue Research Foundation's Office of Technology Commercialization.

The research was primarily funded by a RAPID response grant from the National Science Foundation. Additional support was provided by public donations and from Purdue University.

The study follows a discovery three years ago when researchers reported that chemicals released by CIPP activities into waterways have been linked to fish kills, contaminated drinking water supplies, and negative impacts to wastewater treatment plants. A previous research paper, available at http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es5018637, demonstrated that chemicals released into water by CIPP sites can be toxic, and the CIPP waste dissolved freshwater test organisms within 24 hours at room temperature.

###

Donations to continue to this research can be made at http://Giving.Purdue.edu/WaterPipeSafety.

Writer: Emil Venere, 765-494-4709, venere@purdue.edu

Source: Andrew Whelton, 765-494-2160, , awhelton@purdue.edu

Related Links:

Material Safety Data Sheet for styrene: https://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9925112 A student's observations: https://futureengineerspurdue.blogspot.com/2016/10/summer-research-surf.html?m=1 CIPP study resources: https://engineering.purdue.edu/CE/Research/CIPPSafety

ANIMATED GIF: Workers repair a damaged pipe using the CIPP process, which emits a white plume containing a complex mixture vapors and chemical droplets. The workers wore no respiratory protection. A gif is available at https://news.uns.purdue.edu/images/2017/cipp-workers.gif

PHOTO CAPTION: A Purdue researcher monitored the presence of chemicals emitted during the CIPP process. (Purdue University photo) https://news.uns.purdue.edu/images/2017/whelton-styrenereading.jpg

PHOTO CAPTION: Purdue researchers perform testing during a CIPP installation. A publication-quality photo is available at (Purdue University photo) https://news.uns.purdue.edu/images/2017/whelton-fieldwork.jpg

ABSTRACT

Worksite Chemical Air Emissions and Worker Exposure during Sanitary Sewer and Stormwater Pipe Rehabilitation Using Cured-in-Place-Pipe (CIPP)

Seyedeh Mahboobeh Teimouri Sendesi, Kyungyeon Ra, Emily N. Conkling, Brandon E. Boor, Md. Nuruddin, John A. Howarter, Jeffrey P. Youngblood, Lisa M. Kobos?, Jonathan H. Shannahan?, Chad T. Jafvert, and Andrew J. Whelton*

 Lyles School of Civil Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, United States,  Division of Environmental and Ecological Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, United States,  School of Materials Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, United States, ? School of Health Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, United States

* Corresponding author: Assistant Professor, Lyles School of Civil Engineering and Division of Ecological and Environmental Engineering, Purdue University, 550 Stadium Mall Drive, West Lafayette, Indiana USA 47907-2051; T: (765) 494-2166; F: (765) 494-0395; E: ajwhelton@gmail.com; awhelton@purdue.edu

Chemical emissions were characterized for steam-cured cured-in-place-pipe (CIPP) installations in Indiana (sanitary sewer) and California (stormwater). One pipe in California involved a low-volatile organic compound (VOC) non-styrene resin, while all other CIPP sites used styrene resins. In Indiana, the uncured resin contained styrene, benzaldehyde, butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), and unidentified compounds. Materials emitted from the CIPP worksites were condensed and characterized. An emitted chemical plume in Indiana was a complex multiphase mixture of organic vapor, water vapor, particulate (condensable vapor and partially cured resin), and liquid droplets (water and organics). The condensed material contained styrene, acetone, and unidentified compounds. In California, both styrene and low-VOC resin condensates contained styrene, benzaldehyde, benzoic acid, BHT, dibutyl phthalate, and 1-tetradecanol. Phenol was detected only in the styrene resin condensate. Acetophenone, 4-tert-butylcyclohexanol, 4-tert-butylcyclohexanone, and tripropylene glycol diacrylate were detected only in the low-VOC condensate. Styrene in the low-VOC condensate was likely due to contamination of contractor equipment. Some, but not all, condensate compounds were detected in uncured resins. Two of four California styrene resin condensates were cytotoxic to mouse alveolar type II epithelial cells and macrophages. Real-time photoionization detector monitoring showed emissions varied significantly and were a function of location, wind direction, and worksite activity.
PRINCETON, N.J.--When the Supreme Court issued its 2015 ruling in favor of same-sex marriage, Americans understood the decision as a signal of Americans' increasing support of same-sex marriage, according to a study published by Princeton University.

The researchers found that, regardless of political ideology, non-LGBTQIA Americans perceived stronger and increasing public support for gay marriage in the wake of the Court's ruling than before the decision. This was in spite of the fact that personal attitudes and feelings toward gay marriage did not change in reaction to the decision.

Published in Psychological Science, the research, which features a time series survey of norms and attitudes toward gay marriage, showed that, regardless of how someone feels about an issue, a Court decision can alter the perceptions of the prevailing social norms -- opinions or behaviors accepted by a group of people -- around the issue. Trusted institutions like the Supreme Court are seen to represent societal collectives and, as such, its decisions may be perceived as a signal of where the public stands and where the public is headed.

"What we observed was a shift in perceived norms, or the perception of public support for gay marriage," said study co-author Elizabeth Levy Paluck, professor of psychology and public affairs at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. "That shift matters because we know from decades of research in psychology that people's behavior is often guided by their understanding of what others around them are doing and thinking."

In addition to Paluck, the study was conducted by lead author Margaret Tankard, associate behavioral and social scientist at the RAND Corporation.

In the months before and after the Supreme Court decision, 1063 participants were surveyed several times. Just after the ruling, the researchers observed a significant jump in participants' belief that Americans support same-sex marriage, and in their belief that support would keep growing in the future. This uptick in perceptions of supportive social norms persisted weeks later.

The findings were also supported in an experimental study with 1,673 participants who were told prior to the SCOTUS decision that experts predicted a favorable versus an unfavorable ruling on the legality of gay marriage. Here too, the researchers found that participants who were led to believe that the Supreme Court would rule in favor of gay marriage estimated higher public support for gay marriage, compared to participants who read the opposite.

The researchers' findings could be particularly timely given the recent announcement that the Court will hear Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the appeal of a state decision to uphold discrimination charges levied by a gay couple against a bakery that refused to make a cake for the couple's same-sex wedding.

###

The paper, "The effect of Supreme Court decision regarding gay marriage on social norms and personal attitudes," was published online July 31 in Psychology Science. This research was made possible in part by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and Princeton University funding.
An international team of researchers from Thailand, USA and Japan, has conducted a thorough study of an exotic behavior of material called "noncentrosymmetric antiferromagnet."The team, monitoring the behavior of the propagation of spin waves in magnetic material, has reported its findings [1], which show, for the first time, direct evidence of the nonreciprocal magnons.

A "circular birefringence" effect, where photons travelling inside a certain kind of crystal have different speeds depending on their circular polarization is fairly common. In other words, left-handed photons might travel faster than right-handed photons. Such an effect specifically appearing under a finite external magnetic field is the Faraday effect, where light polarization rotates as it propagates along the crystal with the rotation angle linearly depending on the field. There have been tremendous applications of this effect in modern optical and photonic technology. Optical isolator is one of such devices using the Faraday effect, whereas magneto-optical recording is based on its reflection variant, the Kerr effect.

Other systems also exhibit behaviors that resemble the circular birefringence effect. In an ordered magnetic material, a spin excitation can also propagate along the crystal. This excitation is called a "magnon." Similar to the polarization states of photons, magnons in an antiferromagnet also have two distinct states: left-circular and right-circular state. In most magnetic material, these two states have the same energy and are therefore indistinguishable. However, in a certain type of magnetic material, these two states of magnons behave differently due to a lack of spatial inversion symmetry in the crystal structure.

This phenomenon, called nonreciprocal magnons, has been predicted by Hayami et al. [2] However, there has been no direct observation of these nonreciprocal magnons until this work.

The research team performed neutron scattering experiments on single-crystal -Cu 2 V 2 O 7 and showed clear evidences of different energy-momentum dispersion relations between the left-circular and right-circular magnon propagation. The experimental data is confirmed by linear spin-wave calculations.

This work opens up a new regime of magnetic material which might find applications in magnon-based electronics (magnonics) such as the spin-wave field-effect transistor [3].

###

[1] G. Gitgeatpong, Y. Zhao, P. Piyawongwatthana, Y. Qiu, L. W. Harriger, N. P. Butch, T. J. Sato, and K. Matan, Phy. Rev. Lett. 119, 047201 (2017).

[2] S. Hayami, H. Kusunose, and Y. Motome, J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 85, 053705 (2016).

[3] R. Cheng, M. W. Daniels, J.-G. Zhu, and D. Xiao, Sci. Rep. 6, 24223 (2016).
New optical device could help detect drugs, bomb-making chemicals and more

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Scientists searching for traces of drugs, bomb-making components and other chemicals often shine light on the materials they're analyzing.

This approach is known as spectroscopy, and it involves studying how light interacts with trace amounts of matter.

One of the more effective types of spectroscopy is infrared absorption spectroscopy, which scientists use to sleuth out performance-enhancing drugs in blood samples and tiny particles of explosives in the air.

While infrared absorption spectroscopy has improved greatly in the last 100 years, researchers are still working to make the technology more sensitive, inexpensive and versatile. A new light-trapping sensor, developed by a University at Buffalo-led team of engineers and described in an Advanced Optical Materials study, makes progress in all three areas.

"This new optical device has the potential to improve our abilities to detect all sorts of biological and chemical samples," says Qiaoqiang Gan, PhD, associate professor of electrical engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at UB, and the study's lead author.

Co-authors of the study -- which will be featured on the cover of September's Advanced Science News -- in Gan's lab include Dengxin Ji, Alec Cheney, Nan Zhang Haomin Song and Xie Zeng, PhD. Additional co-authors come from Fudan University and Northeastern University, both in China, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The sensor works with light in the mid-infrared band of the electromagnetic spectrum. This part of the spectrum is used for most remote controls, night-vision and other applications.

The sensor consists of two layers of metal with an insulator sandwiched in between. Using a fabrication technique called atomic layer deposition, researchers created a device with gaps less than five nanometers (a human hair is roughly 75,000 nanometers in diameter) between two metal layers. Importantly, these gaps enable the sensor to absorb up to 81 percent of infrared light, a significant improvement from the 3 percent that similar devices absorb.

The process is known as surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) spectroscopy. The sensor, which acts as a substrate for the materials being examined, boosts the sensitivity of SEIRA devices to detect molecules at 100 to 1,000 times greater resolution than previously reported results.

The increase makes SEIRA spectroscopy comparable to another type of spectroscopic analysis, surface-enhanced Rama spectroscopy (SERS), which measures light scattering as opposed to absorption.

The SEIRA advancement could be useful in any scenario that calls for finding traces of molecules, says Ji, the first author and a PhD candidate in Gan's lab. This includes but is not limited to drug detection in blood, bomb-making materials, fraudulent art and tracking diseases.

Researchers plan to continue the research, and examine how to combine the SEIRA advancement with cutting-edge SERS.

###

The research is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation's Nanomanufacturing program, the National Science Foundation of China and the Chinese Scholarship Council.
Even if humans could instantly turn off all our emissions of greenhouse gases, the Earth would continue to heat up about two more degrees Fahrenheit by the turn of the century, according to a sophisticated new analysis published in Nature Climate Change. And if current emissions continue for 15 years, odds are good that the planet will see nearly three degrees (1.5 C) of warming by then.

"This 'committed warming' is critical to understand because it can tell us and policy makers how long we have, at current emission rates, before the planet will warm to certain thresholds," said co-author Robert Pincus, a scientist with CIRES at the University of Colorado Boulder and NOAA's Physical Sciences Division. "The window of opportunity on a 1.5-degree [C] target is closing."

During United Nations meetings in Paris last year, 195 countries including the United States signed an agreement to keep global temperature rise less than 3.5 degrees F (2 C) above pre-industrial levels, and pursue efforts that would limit it further, to less than 3 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 C) by 2100.

The new assessment by Pincus and lead author Thorsten Mauritsen, from the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology is unique in that it does not rely on computer model simulations, but rather on observations of the climate system to calculate Earth's climate commitment. Their work accounts for the capacity of oceans to absorb carbon, detailed data on the planet's energy imbalance, the climate-relevant behavior of fine particles in the atmosphere, and other factors.

Among Pincus' and Mauritsen's findings:

Even if all fossil fuel emissions stopped in 2017, warming by 2100 is very likely to reach about 2.3 F (range: 1.6-4.1) or 1.3 degrees C (range: 0.9-2.3).

Oceans could reduce that figure a bit. Carbon naturally captured and stored in the deep ocean could cut committed warming by 0.4 degrees F (0.2 C).

There is some risk that warming this century cannot be kept to 1.5 degrees C beyond pre-industrial temperatures. In fact, there is a 13 percent chance we are already committed to 1.5-C warming by 2100.

"Our estimates are based on things that have already happened, things we can observe, and they point to the part of future warming that is already committed to by past emissions," said Mauritsen. "Future carbon dioxide emissions will then add extra warming on top of that commitment."

###

The research was funded by the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.
Some of the biggest galaxies in the universe are full of extinguished stars. But nearly 12 billion years ago, soon after the universe first was created, these massive galaxies were hotspots that brewed up stars by the billions.

How these types of cosmic realms, called dusty starburst galaxies, became galactic dead zones is an enduring mystery.

Astronomers at the University of Iowa, in a new study published in the Astrophysical Journal, offer a clue. They say quasars, powerful energy sources believed to dwell at the heart of galaxies, may be responsible for why some dusty starburst galaxies ceased making stars.

The study could help explain how galaxies evolve from star makers to cosmic cemeteries and how various phenomena scientists know little about -- quasars and supermassive black holes that are believed to exist deep within all galaxies, for example -- may propel those changes.

The scientists arrived at their theory after locating quasars inside four dusty starburst galaxies that still are creating stars.

"These quasars may play an important role in making the dusty starbursts extinct in the cosmic history," says Hai Fu, assistant professor in the UI's Department of Physics and Astronomy and the paper's first author. "This is because quasars are energetic enough to eject gas out of the galaxy, and gas is the fuel for star formation, so quasars provide a viable mechanism to explain the transition between a starburst and an extinct elliptical (galaxy)."

Quasars shouldn't be detectable in dusty starburst galaxies because their light would be absorbed, or blocked, by the grit churned up by the intense star-forming activity taking place there, Fu says.

"So, the fact that we saw any such quasars implies that there must be more quasars hidden in dusty starbursts," Fu says. "To push this to the extreme, maybe every dusty starburst galaxy hosts a quasar and we just cannot see the quasars."

Fu and his team located the quasars in March 2016 with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a bank of radio telescopes located more than 16,000 feet above sea level in northern Chile. It was the first time Fu's team reserved time on ALMA, brought into full operation in 2013 and funded by international partners, including the U.S. National Science Foundation.

The scientists then mapped the quasars with other telescopes and at wavelengths ranging from ultraviolet to far infrared. Based on these observations, they confirmed the quasars are the same as those located with ALMA. The question then became: Why are these quasars visible when they should be enshrouded?

The researchers have a theory. They think the quasars are peeking out from deep holes in each galaxy, a debris-less vacuum that allows light to escape amid the cloudy surroundings. The specific shape of these galaxies is unclear because even ALMA isn't powerful enough to provide a clear look at regions of the cosmos where light being detected was emitted 12 billion years ago, when the universe was roughly one-seventh its current age. But the team imagines the galaxies may be doughnut shaped and oriented in such a way that their holes (and, thus, the quasar) can be seen.

"It's a rare case of geometry lining up," says Jacob Isbell, a UI senior from Garrison, Iowa, majoring in physics and astronomy and the paper's second author. "And that hole happens to be aligned with our line of sight."

The scientists now think most quasars inside dusty starburst galaxies can't be seen because they're oriented in a way that keeps them hidden. But finding four examples of dusty starburst galaxies with viewable quasars does not seem random; in fact, it suggests more exist.

The paper is titled, "The circumgalactic medium of submillimeter galaxies. II. Unobscured QSOS within dusty starbursts and QSO sightlines with impact parameters below 100 kiloparsec."

###

Contributing authors include Caitlin Casey from the University of Texas at Austin; Asantha Cooray at the University of California, Irvine; J. Xavier Prochaska from the University of California, Santa Cruz; Nick Scoville from the California Institute of Technology; and Alan Stockton from the University of Hawaii.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory, an NSF facility; NASA; and the University of Iowa funded the research.
PHILADELPHIA - Cancer is essentially a disease of the cell replication cycle. The goal of treating the disease is to permanently kill off the cells that replicate with abandon without any molecular brakes. Chemotherapy and radiation cause breaks in DNA, and eventually, death even in these out-of-control cells. Within minutes after being exposed to treatment, cancer cells call on DNA-repair proteins to counteract the damage wrought by these treatments. Days later, immune cells show up to tumors to assist further in beating back cells that have survived the effects of the toxic therapies.

This delayed arrival of immune cells after cancer therapy is well documented and critical for responses to chemotherapy and radiation, yet the events underlying their induction remain poorly understood. Now, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have discovered how DNA damage is a clarion call for the immune system. The findings are published this week in Nature.

"Having solved what cues immune cells to arrive at cancer cells with DNA damage in the first place, we can apply that information to design better treatments," said senior author Roger Greenberg, MD, PhD, a professor of Cancer Biology and director of Basic Science for the Basser Center for BRCA. "This tactic aims to improve a patient's response to treatment using the immune system at the same time as inhibitors to keep cancer cells on track to replicate until cell death sets in."

If a cell's DNA is damaged, it stalls for about 24 hours at a point in the cell replication cycle just prior to entering a phase that leads to cell division. Cells resume dividing as they eventually overcome their wounds, and this leads to activation of signals that attracts the immune system.

In the Nature study, the Penn team describes how DNA damage from cancer therapies causes small packages of DNA from the nucleus to form in the cytoplasm when cells divide after experiencing DNA damage from radiation or chemotherapies. These out-of-place micronuclei tend to rupture, exposing DNA within the cytoplasm to a special surveillance protein. This watchdog molecule is typically activated when invaders such as viruses are detected as foreign DNA in the cytoplasm. The anti-microbe alarm incites an immune response, hailing immune cells to attack micronuclei-filled cancer cells.

The team demonstrated that inhibiting cells from progressing to later cell-division stages prevented micronuclei from forming and strongly reduced immune responses to cancer cells that had been treated with radiation.

Overall, the Nature study reveals that changes in how fast or slow a cancer cell progresses through cell division is an important consideration for cancer therapies that combine DNA damage and immune checkpoint inhibitors.

"Our work allows for the development of rational strategies to increase immune response to enhance patients' sensitivity to radiation," Greenberg said. "This approach would combine drugs that damage DNA and inhibit immune checkpoints with those that promote cell division by interfering with the factors that delay cell division in response to DNA damage."

###

Co-authors, all from Penn, are Shane M. Harding, Joseph L. Benci, Jerome Irianto, Dennis E. Discher, and Andy J. Minn, who is also a member of Penn's Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy.

This work was supported by the National Cancer Institute (CA17494, CA138835), the National Institute of General Medical Science (GM101149) and the Basser Center for BRCA.

Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $6.7 billion enterprise.

The Perelman School of Medicine has been ranked among the top five medical schools in the United States for the past 20 years, according to U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $392 million awarded in the 2016 fiscal year.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center -- which are recognized as one of the nation's top "Honor Roll" hospitals by U.S. News & World Report -- Chester County Hospital; Lancaster General Health; Penn Wissahickon Hospice; and Pennsylvania Hospital -- the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional affiliated inpatient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, a partnership between Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network and Penn Medicine.

Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2016, Penn Medicine provided $393 million to benefit our community.
Highlights:

Structural and functional MRI in children resuscitated after drowning pinpoints the site of anoxic brain injury to regions controlling movement, while providing strong evidence that networks controlling perception and cognition remain largely intact.

In the not-too-distant future, it should be possible to target the area of injury with neuroprotective therapies -- now being tested in animal models -- when childhood drowning victims first arrive at the emergency room.

Children who are resuscitated after drowning can survive as prisoners inside their own bodies, awake but paralyzed. Drowning deprives the brain of oxygen, which can cause a form of anoxic brain injury (ABI). Unable to move or speak, 10 children with ABI studied at UT Health San Antonio exhibited variations of locked-in syndrome, a rare condition in adults and thought to be even rarer in children. This work suggests that pediatric drowning may be one of the most common causes of locked-in syndrome.

Injury is localized, not diffuse

The scientists are from the Research Imaging Institute at The University of Texas Health Science Center, now called UT Health San Antonio. They studied brain images of the 10 children and reported July 31 in Human Brain Mapping that the pattern of ABI seen in childhood drowning is not widespread as was previously believed. Instead it is largely confined to a small but crucially important motor pathway supplied by a specific set of small arteries deep inside the brain.

Focal stroke

The injury is a focal stroke that, in the future, might be treated when children are first admitted to the hospital. That's if neuroprotective agents now being tested in animals are moved into human trials, said Peter T. Fox, M.D., professor in the Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio and director of the Research Imaging Institute. Dr. Fox is senior author of the new paper and two other recent studies that report anatomical and functional effects on the brains of young children resuscitated after drowning.

Preservation of networks

"In the imaging studies we see preservation of visual, auditory, tactile and cognitive networks, and predictably, we also see damage to motor pathways and networks," Dr. Fox said.

The Research Imaging Institute developed a Neural Network-Based Behavioral Scoring System, which is a score sheet for families and caregivers to submit their impressions of the awareness and cognition that their children display. Some of the children are able to communicate via eye movements. Others are not able to do so.

Family impressions

"In locked-in syndrome, the patients' families are typically the first to report return of consciousness," Dr. Fox said. "They are around their children all the time and they remember the child's personalities and preferences from before the injury."

The brain system that's most associated with awareness is called the default-mode network. The team found a strong correlation between social behaviors and preservation of this network, Dr. Fox said.

Machinery for awareness

"Even in the most severely affected of the children, we have evidence that at least the machinery for awareness of themselves and others remains functioning," he said.

"Does it mean that they're fully conscious? Well, we can see that the machinery is still intact."

Relief to parents

The finding is exciting and a relief to parents like Liz Tullis, whose son, Conrad, suffered ABI from drowning and was resuscitated. She founded the Conrad Smiles Fund, which has supported the research, and is a co-author on the three papers.

"Some parents, like Liz, are quite convinced that their kid is in there, thinking," Dr. Fox said. "Perhaps clinicians are telling them that their child is not aware, and they want another opinion. They came to be a part of the study for another opinion."

In future, treatment in hospital envisioned

If this new observation -- that ABI from childhood drowning can cause a focal stroke in the motor pathways -- becomes widely known among clinicians, and if treatments that are effective in animal models can be translated to humans, children could be treated immediately after hospital admission and much function could be saved, Dr. Fox said.

"This is a new syndrome," he said. "It's not taught in medical school. This is all new neuroscience."

Hope for parents

"When Conrad survived his accident, I was not given much hope or guidance; in fact I was encouraged to institutionalize Conrad," Tullis said. "Other families were encouraged to withdraw care. Because ABI is believed to be 'generalized' brain damage, the prevailing medical prognosis is grim and any treatment or recovery is considered too difficult if not impossible.

"The results of this study are groundbreaking," she continued. "Simply publicizing the results of Dr. Fox's research will have a huge impact on families. The fact that these children are 'in there' has never been communicated to the medical community and will improve the support we receive. The fact that this study can lead to more advancements in the understanding and treatment of ABI provides additional hope to fuel the fire of our love and dedication to our children."

The team has published its research findings in clinical journals so that this will have an impact on care delivery, Dr. Fox said.

Maximizing intellectual stimulation

Thirteen years after his accident, Conrad Tullis is 15 and a high school sophomore in San Antonio. Parents like Liz Tullis provide "environmental enrichment" opportunities for their locked-in children.

"If you believe that your kid is aware, then you want him to be stimulated, and have the opportunity to develop his own knowledge base and develop his own personality and intellect," Dr. Fox said. "This research can guide care toward brain systems that are preserved, and it can encourage families to provide an enriched environment."

###

Acknowledgments

Support for this project is from the National Institutes of Health (National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences and National Institute for Mental Health) and the Kronkosky Charitable Foundation. The Nonfatal Drowning Registry (nonfataldrowningregistry.org) assisted with participant recruitment. The Conrad Smiles Fund publicized this study and provided funding for travel and logistical support. Miracle Flights (miracleflights.org) supported airfare costs. The authors thank Thomas Vanasse, Research Imaging Institute, UT Health San Antonio, for his guidance in data analysis, and all participants and families for their time and involvement in this study.

Authors are Mariam Ishaque, Ph.D., (lead author), Research Imaging Institute, UT Health San Antonio; Janessa Manning, Ph.D., Wayne State University, Detroit, Mich.; Mary Woolsey, Research Imaging Institute; Crystal Franklin, Research Imaging Institute; Elizabeth Tullis, Research Imaging Institute; Christian Beckmann, Ph.D., Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; and Peter Fox, M.D., Research Imaging Institute, UT Health San Antonio, South Texas Veterans Health Care System and Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.

Read more news from UT Health San Antonio:

Strengthening military caregivers is new program's goal

For current news from the UT Health Science Center San Antonio, now called UT Health San Antonio, please visit our online newsroom, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, with missions of teaching, research and healing, is one of the country's leading health sciences universities and is now called UT Health San Antonio. UT Health's schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions and graduate biomedical sciences have produced more than 33,000 alumni who are advancing their fields throughout the world. With seven campuses in San Antonio and Laredo, UT Health has a FY 2017 revenue operating budget of $806.6 million and is the primary driver of its community's $37 billion biomedical and health care industry. For more information on the many ways "We make lives better," visit http://www.uthscsa.edu.
With the growing concern for global and local environmental issues, ecologists in academia, agencies and the nonprofit sector are increasingly interested in learning how to more effectively communicate to and learn from the policymakers and other public audiences. High-level science administrators from the National Science Foundation, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academy of Sciences are now calling for ecologists and other scientists become active players in bridging gaps between science and society.

Over the past decade, there has been a trend towards a greater recognition that public engagement is not a burden or add-on, but rather a healthy part of the scientific process, said Nalini Nadkarni, vice-president for education and diversity for the Ecological Society of America and professor at the University of Utah. Ecologists are now realizing that fostering relationships with the public can help their own understanding of the natural world.

However, ecologists encounter little or no training to communicate to people outside of academia at any time in their careers. Although a few formal science communication programs have emerged, they have reached only a relatively small cadre of ecologists. No central database exists for ecologists to benefit from the experience of others who have been successful in engaging the public.

This year, the annual meeting of the ESA in Portland, Oregon, Aug. 6-12, 2017, will be the locus of multiple efforts to train and connect ecologists who are deeply interested in public engagement of their research. Special sessions that feature case studies of successful engagement events, approaches and protocols will be offered.

Melissa Kenney, University of Maryland, will offer a session titled "Engagement 2.0: Increasing our Collective Impact." In this session, Nadkarni will present on the STEM Ambassador Program she directs, funded by the National Science Foundation (2016-2018) to train University of Utah scientists to carry out public engagement of underserved public audiences in the venues of community groups. Jane Lubchenco, Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and the former administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from 2009-2013, will speak on the moral and political imperatives to bridge science and society.

Other ecologists from across the country will describe their approaches and practices with ESA members. Emily Therese Cloyd of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) will chair a workshop on tools for ecologists to engage the public, based on effective workshops offered by AAAS. Alison Mize, a member of the Science Office of ESA, will offer a workshop on how ecologists can participate in public policy and communicate with Congress.

Nadkarni and Kenney have also organized a social event at the meeting to bring together ecologists involved with these nascent but strong efforts to engage with people outside of academia. They hope that attendees will come away from these sessions aware of the growing value of public engagement as they provide and receive training and join the network of ecologists who view public engagement as a critical part of the scientific endeavor.

What is ESA?

The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is professional society of over 10,000 members who conduct research, teach, and use ecological science to address environmental issues. The annual meeting attracts over 4,000 scientists.

Goals for emphasizing public engagement at the ESA Conference

Broaden opportunities and decrease the perceived barrier for public engagement participation by ESA members.

Strengthen public engagement excellence by a small group of diverse scientists who have a track record of successful engage with different audiences.

Develop an initial strategy for institutionalizing public engagement within the society.

Public engagement activities at the ESA Conference

Additionally, plenary speakers will include the topic of public engagement in their talks.

###

Questions related to the events can be addressed to nalini.nadkarni@utah.edu>Nalini Nadkarni, vice president for education and diversity of the Ecological Society of America and professor at the University of Utah.
In the digital world of today, you will have a hard time getting a job without tech skills. Get these 5 skills for a top notch job in 2017!

The growing demand for skilled professionals in the IT sector has compelled many training institutes to adapt advanced tech tools to keep their candidates aligned with the latest skills. Tech skills are more important than ever as digital advancements have radically transformed the working world. The technology changes every month with new updates coming and going.

If you work as a data analyst, the online tools you use don't change quite so quickly, but you can surely update yourself every few years. In coming years, the skills of the digital age will be linked very closely to SMAC i.e. Social-Mobile-Analytic and Cloud. If we look at 2016, it was a year when most of companies laid off their employees for not being equipped with the required skill-set in the sector. Thus, people are now trying their best to make sure they are adequately skilled.

Let's look at the hottest, most in-demand tech skills around the world in 2017:

1Ethical hacking shares



One of the most exciting skills on the list is that of ethical hacking. As the businesses today are taking the support of cloud share data, they are increasingly on the lookout for professionals with ethical hacking skills. This is because they look to analyse the security of their private, public and hybrid cloud deployments. These ethical hackers combine a series of tools to track hacking and penetration techniques in order to search for weaknesses in the entire systems. 2Cloud computing shares



Cloud and distributed computing has lingered in the No. 1 spot for the past couple of years. Subsequent statistical analysis and data mining remained in No. 2 position last year and in the first position in 2014. These skills are in such high demand for the reason that they're at the cutting edge of technology. Employers need employees with cloud and distributed computing, statistical analysis and data mining skills to stay competitive and relevant in the job industry. 3Big data/Developer/Analytics shares



Boasting a strong information technology (IT) background is advantageous for a big data analyst. IT professionals are skilled at information handling and programming. This gives them a leg up on the competition. Data analysts and data scientists continue to be in great demand since they acquire unique skills in areas such as mathematics, statistics and management science, combined with associated IT skills. In conclusion, becoming a big data analyst requires the mastery of the five essential skills: Interpretation of data

Programming skills

Quantitative

Multiple technologies

Better understanding of business outcome 4Network and Information Security shares



The demand for skills in the Network and Information sector has increased by 13 per cent since 2016. The increased demand for IT networking professionals is fuelled in virtualization and cloud computing programmes. Hiring managers seek candidates with skills and experience in VMware, Citrix etc to track, organize and manage their company's virtualization strategy. 5Digital marketing shares



The need for digital marketers has never been higher, yet the digital skills gap has never been wider. This discrepancy can provide people with the perfect opportunity to express their value and capability. One should just want to make sure that they have strengthened the right skills. If you want to set yourself apart from the competition and establish yourself as an in-demand marketing professional, then you need to know which capabilities count. One should refine digital marketing skills in the following sectors: Search Engine Optimization

Video Content Marketing

Community Management

Marketing Automation

advertisement

If you have any of these skills in the year 2017, you will definitely make your career brighter. Even if you don't have these skills, now is the perfect time to pick them up. Professionals or freshers can explore opportunities in this field by up skilling themselves. Acquiring these skills will immensely help techies, making them more efficient in the entire process.

While some skills become void every couple of months, we strongly propose that tech skills will still be needed for years to come, in every industry. Now is a great time for professionals to acquire the skills they need to be more marketable.

- Authored by Avinash Bharwani, Vice President - New Business, Jetking

Read: On World Environment Day, let's talk about the garbage island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean

--- ENDS ---
Academic journals are increasingly asking authors to use transparent reporting practices to "trust, but verify" that outcomes are not being reported in a biased way and to enable other researchers to reproduce the results.

To implement these reporting practices, most journals rely on the process of peer review -- in which other scholars review research findings before publication -- but relatively few journals measure the quality and effectiveness of the process.

In a commentary published July 20 in the journal Science, lead author Carole Lee and co-author David Moher identify incentives that could encourage journals to "open the black box of peer review" for the sake of improving transparency, reproducibility, and trust in published research. Lee is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Washington; Moher is a senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital and associate professor at the University of Ottawa.

Lee and Moher see this as a collective action problem requiring leadership and investment by publishers.

"Science would be better off if journals allowed for and participated in the empirical study and quality assurance of their peer review processes," they write. "However, doing so is resource-intensive and comes at considerable risk for individual journals in the form of unfavorable evidence and bad press."

To help journals manage the reputational risk associated with auditing their own peer review processes, Lee and Moher suggest revising the Transparency and Openness (TOP) Guidelines, a set of voluntary reporting standards to which 2,900 journals and organizations are now signatories. These guidelines were published in Science in 2015 by a committee of researchers and representatives from nonprofit scientific organizations, grant agencies, philanthropic organizations and elite journals.

Lee and Moher suggest adding a new category to the TOP guidelines "indicating a journal's willingness to facilitate meta-research on the effectiveness of its own peer review practices." With these, journals can choose which tier or level they take on. Higher levels of transparency would involve higher risk.

For the lowest tier, journals would publicly disclose whether they are conducting internal evaluations of peer review, in which they are able to retain the study results for internal use.

At the middle tier, journals would disclose the results of their internal evaluations of peer review, but could maintain flexibility in how they report their results for external use. For example, results could be aggregated across several journals to reduce risk to any single journal.

At the upper tier, journals could agree to relinquish data and analyses to researchers outside their institution for third-party verification. This is an option, Lee and Moher write, "that might appeal especially to publishers with fewer resources, as it places the financial burden on those conducting the meta-research." Journals conducting their own analyses could preregister their study designs then deposit their data publicly online.

By agreeing to these more stringent guidelines, the authors write, publishers and journals would have the chance to legitimize and advertise the relative quality of their peer review process in an age when predatory journals, which falsely claim to use peer review, continue to proliferate.

"Illegitimate journals are becoming a big problem for science," said Moher. "True scientific journals can distinguish themselves with transparence about their peer review processes."

Investing in research on journal peer review will be costly, they agree. Lee and Moher suggest that large experimental studies are needed to judge the effectiveness of different web-based peer review templates to enforce reporting standards, and of ways one might train authors, reviewers and editors to use such tools and evaluate research.

Also needed, they say, are ways to detect shortcomings in statistical and methodological reporting on a research paper, and to understand how the number and relative expertise of peer reviewers can improve assessment.

The largest publishers, whose profit margins compete with those of pharmaceutical and tech giants, can afford to invest in the requisite technology and resources needed to carry out these audits, the researchers say.

"Publishers should invest in their own brands and reputations by investing in the quality of their peer review processes," said Lee. "Ultimately, this would improve the quality of the published scientific literature."

###

For more information, contact Lee at 206-543-9888 or c3@uw.edu, or Moher at dmoher@ohri.ca, or through Jennifer Ganton, the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute's public relations officer, at 613-614-5253 or jganton@ohri.ca.
What makes people look "American"?

The way they dress? Maybe their hairstyle, or mannerisms? How much they weigh?

A University of Washington-led study has found that for Asian Americans, those who appear heavier not only are perceived to be more "American," but also may be subject to less prejudice directed at foreigners than Asian Americans who are thin.

Researchers believe this effect relates to common stereotypes that Asians are thin and Americans are heavy -- so if someone of Asian heritage is heavy, then they appear to be more "American."

The UW study comes at an especially charged time for discussions of American identity. In today's political climate, beliefs -- and often stereotypes -- about race, ethnicity and religion factor into debates about who is "American."

That's what researchers said they wanted to explore.

The study, published July 26 in Psychological Science, used photos to gauge viewers' impressions. More than 1,000 college students viewed photos of men and women (Asian, black, Latino, and white) of varying weights, then answered questions about the photo subject's nationality and other traits.

"In the U.S., there is a strong bias associating American identity with whiteness, and this can have negative consequences for people of color in the U.S.," said corresponding author Caitlin Handron, a doctoral student at Stanford University who conducted the study while at the UW. "We wanted to see whether ideas of nationality are malleable and how body shape factors into these judgments."

Weight, Handron added, is just one of many cues people rely on when making judgments of someone else's nationality.

Statistically speaking, being overweight is common among Americans: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that some 70 percent of U.S. adults are overweight or obese. When the data is broken down by race, Asian Americans tend to be less obese than people of other racial and ethnic groups. The prevalence of obesity among Asian Americans is 11.7 percent, among white Americans 34.5 percent, among Latino Americans 42.5 percent, and among black Americans, 48 percent. More specifically, within the U.S., Asian immigrants are significantly less likely to be overweight than native-born Asian Americans.

Population trends in obesity around the world, along with common stereotypes about who is "foreign," helped inform the experiment, researchers wrote in the study. For example, did study participants view Asian and Latino Americans as less American than white and black Americans?

For the studies, researchers used photos collected from online databases -- images that were then edited to create thinner and heavier versions of each subject to hold other cues to nationality constant. Participants were asked questions such as: "How likely is this person to have been born outside the U.S.?" and: "How likely is it that this person's native language is English"?

Researchers found that Asian Americans who appeared to be heavy were more likely than their thinner counterparts to be presumed to be American and in the United States with documentation.

White and black Americans were perceived as significantly more American than Asian or Latino Americans. But weight did not affect how "American" participants rated White and Black portraits, researchers found. This supported their theory that people believed to be from other countries -- specifically, countries that are stereotypically thin -- are considered more American if they're heavy.

Sapna Cheryan, a UW associate professor of psychology and a co-author of the study, called the finding "an unusual possible protective benefit of being heavier for Asian Americans."

"People in the U.S. often encounter prejudice if they are overweight -- they may be mistreated by a customer service person, for example, or a health care provider. Weight can be an obstacle to getting good treatment," Cheryan said. "We found that there was a paradoxical social benefit for Asian Americans, where extra weight allows them to be seen as more American and less likely to face prejudice directed at those assumed to be foreign."

For years, Cheryan has examined stereotypes and the ways people of various races and ethnicities navigate the idea of what it means to be American. In 2011, she published a study showing that immigrants to the United States eat quintessentially (and frequently unhealthy) American foods to show that they belong.

The new study, she added, is a reminder that notions of who is "American" are powerful, and that judgments can be made by a simple photo.

Handron said the study also shows how perceptions reflect broader, systemic disparities.

"The lack of representation of Asian Americans and other people of color in the media and positions of power reinforces associations between American identity and whiteness," she said. "This work supports the call to recognize these inaccurate assumptions in order to interrupt the resulting harm being done to these communities."

The study points to the potential for future analysis of stereotypes and identity. For instance, if Americans are stereotyped as outgoing, and Asians are generally believed to be reserved, does someone who is Asian American seem more "American" if they're gregarious? Does the same hold true for Latino Americans, since Latinos are often stereotyped as outgoing?

This has potential consequences for who is considered inside or outside a group. People who are already marginalized are often the most vulnerable to exclusion based on behaviors or physical features, researchers noted in the paper.

###

Other authors were Teri Kirby of the University of Exeter, Jennifer Wang of Microsoft and Helena Ester Matskewich of the UW.

The study was funded by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, a Western Washington University Faculty Research Grant and the SPSSI Grants-in-Aid program.

For more information, contact Handron at handron@stanford.edu or Cheryan at scheryan@uw.edu.
MADISON, Wis. -- Despite being saddled with many factors associated with drug and alcohol problems, undocumented immigrants are not increasing the prevalence of drug and alcohol crimes and deaths in the United States, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Public Health.

Researchers led by University of Wisconsin-Madison sociology Professor Michael Light used newly developed state-level estimates of the unauthorized immigrant population to examine the relationship between undocumented immigration and drug and alcohol arrests and deaths.

Light says national debate on immigration law spurred him to begin a series of studies on undocumented immigrants and public safety and health.

"This is an area where public and political debates have far outpaced the research," Light says. "And central to this debate is whether undocumented immigration increases drug and alcohol problems, or crime more generally. There are good theoretical reasons to think it could have increased substance abuse problems in recent decades. But the data just doesn't show it."

Light, who was a professor at Purdue University while he conducted the study, along with Purdue sociology Professor Brian Kelly and graduate student Ty Miller, used immigration data from the Center for Migration Studies and the Pew Research Center spanning 1990 to 2014.

They compared undocumented immigration rates to four representative measures of drug and alcohol problems: drug crimes and driving under the influence arrests collected from federal, state and municipal sources in the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports; and drug overdose deaths and drunken driving fatalities counted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Underlying Cause of Death database and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Fatality Analysis Reporting System.

According to the study, rather than increasing substance abuse problems, a 1 percent increase in the proportion of the population that is undocumented is associated with 22 fewer drug arrests, 42 fewer drunken driving arrests and 0.64 fewer drug overdoses -- all per 100,000 people. The frequency of drunken driving fatalities was unaffected by unauthorized immigration rates.

According to Light, one explanation for these findings could be what prior research often calls the "healthy immigrant thesis" or "Latino paradox."

"When you look at things we think of as predictive of criminal behavior and poor health outcomes -- low levels of education, few economic assets -- immigrants tend to be engaging in less crime and staying healthier than we would expect," Light says.

And yet, undocumented immigration is often stirred into debate of social ills like opioid use. It's unquestionable that drugs are smuggled across the border between the United States and Mexico, Light says, but this does not mean drug smuggling and unauthorized immigration are one and the same.

"That just doesn't appear to be the case," he says. "If you want to fight the opioid epidemic or reduce drunk driving, deporting undocumented immigrants residing in the U.S. is likely not going to be the most effective policy."

###

--Chris Barncard, 608-890-0465, barncard@wisc.edu
The photograph was taken with the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland developed hyperspectral camera's secondary camera.

Launched on the morning of 23 June from India, the Aalto-1 satellite's first month in space has gone according to plan.

'We have run checks on the majority of the satellite's systems and found that the devices are fully functional,' Aalto University's Professor Jaan Praks, who is heading the satellite project, explains.

'We have also downloaded the first image sent by Aalto-1, which is also the first ever image taken from a Finnish satellite. It was taken while on orbit over Norway at an altitude of about 500 kilometres. The image shows the Danish coast as well as a portion of the Norwegian coastline.

The photograph was taken by the secondary camera for the VTT-developed hyperspectral camera. The secondary camera faces the same direction as the main hyperspectral camera, but it has a slightly broader view angle to support, the analysis of the hyperspectral camera's images.

'On the basis of this first image, the system works as planned. The main hyperspectral camera will be tested later this week,' Research Scientist Antti Nasila from VTT says.

Unlike traditional cameras, which measure three colours, the hyperspectral camera is able to measure dozens of freely selected narrow color channels. For this reason, it can be utilised for example in surveying forest types, algae and vegetation and as a tool in geological research.

The Aalto-1 satellite is also carrying a radiation monitor jointly constructed by the Universities of Helsinki and Turku and a Plasma Brake built by the Finnish Meteorological Institute. When the time comes, the brake will allow the satellite to slow down and fall into the Earth's atmosphere where it will burn to dust, ensuring that it will not be left behind as space debris.

'The plasma brake has naturally not been tested yet. However, we have used the radiation monitor to measure an area of high radiation called the South Atlantic Anomaly,' Petri Niemela Manager of the Otaniemi base station, which is overseeing the operations of the satellite, explains.

A year of measurements

Jaan Praks emphasises that although the functionality of the technology has been demonstrated, the satellite mission itself is only in its early stages. The plan is to collect data and images over the course of several months or even an entire year. The mission schedule also includes stabilising of the satellite's attitude.

'Until now, we have allowed the satellite to slowly tumble as this is ideal with regard to spacecraft temperature management. So far, the satellite's internal temperature has remained wonderfully between zero and 25 Celsius for the duration of its mission, alternating according to whether the the satellite has been in shade or light.'

From Aalto University's and Finland's perspectives space research prospects are bright. Nanosatellites developed by numerous start-ups as well as a third Aalto satellite, i.e. the Suomi 100, are to be launched into space this year.

'Finland now has the opportunity to register its first space device in the UN's international Register of Objects Launched into Outer Space,' Mr Praks notes.

###

Upload photo: http://www.vttresearch.com/media/news/aalto-1-satellite-sends-first-image

Further information:

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

Antti Nasila, Research Scientist

Tel. +358 40 671 6266

antti.nasila@vtt.fi

Jaan Praks

Professor, project director

Aalto University

Tel. +358 50 420 5847

jaan.praks@aalto.fi

Antti Kestila

Head of the Aalto-1 mission operations

Aalto University

Tel. +358 44 238 3164

antti.kestila@aalto.fi

Petri Niemela Head of the Otaniemi ground-station station

Aalto University

Tel. +358 50 400 4246

petri.niemela@aalto.fi
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New egg production units in Wales face tighter controls over ammonia emissions in future in response to a big increase in poultry numbers.

All farms across the United Kingdom will have to comply with new European Union limits on ammonia emissions, which are being introduced over the next four years, but Welsh authorities are also implementing stricter planning controls on ammonia. National Resources Wales (NRW), which is involved in regulating poultry units, says the new controls are a response to what it says has been a "massive expansion of poultry numbers in many parts of Wales."

NRW senior adviser Jeremy Walters told the Ranger that the big increase in bird numbers and the ammonia they produced could pose a threat to certain plant life and bio-diversity unless controls were put in place.

The new thresholds would only apply to new applications, not existing operations, and he said they were not designed to prohibit development.

"Certain types of habitat, certain types of plants and animals are sensitive to ammonia," he said. The critical level for particularly sensitive plants such as bryophytes, lichens and most mires was one microgramme per metre cubed; for grasslands and other vegetation three microgrammes per metre cubed, he said.

Historically, farmers applying for permission for a new unit had been allowed to use percentages of this critical level as screening thresholds under which detailed modelling was not required and permits could be issued. This had been done to reduce the number of assessments needed and to keep the costs of permitting down, but it was now felt that this was not providing enough protection for the environment.

"What we have seen happen is that you would have a lot of farms in one area - an expansion of the industry in one area, either for eggs or broilers - and each farm would screen out using this screening level. But the combination of all those farms would see an exceedence of the critical level. So you would see plants of a certain type dying off and you would have a loss of bio-diversity in that area," said Jeremy Walters.

NRW says certain areas of Wales have experienced a huge increase in poultry numbers in recent years. In Powys it has been consulted about more than 300 applications since 2010. Pressure groups and concerned individuals have been raising concerns about the impact of new poultry developments on ammonia levels, it says

Intensive livestock units emit ammonia gas, which is toxic to sensitive plants and habitats and can cause significant damage close to farms," said Jeremy Walters. "While ammonia emissions have stabilised across the UK as a whole, they have increased significantly in Wales since 2008.

"Its our job to protect these valuable habitats so weve worked closely with UK agencies to look at the impacts of air pollution from livestock units." He said, "We were getting a huge amount of applications in and we were applying this blanket approach to the whole of the industry no matter where the farms were located. That wasn't protecting the environment, so what we have done is reduced screening thresholds." He said, "We reduced the air quality thresholds that underpin our permitting role and support our advice on planning applications."

Jeremy said, "It's not a stop. All it means is that because it hasn't screened out you need to look in more detail at your surroundings. You need to look at what habitat is going to be affected by the farm in that place and do some detailed air quality modelling to show you are not going to have an adverse effect. If you can do that, you will get your permit. If you can't do that and the emissions are going to result in bio-diversity loss then we say, 'Look, you need to look at this again, you need to change the design of your proposal, maybe put in some abatement like scrubbers that collect the emissions from the shed, that scrub out the ammonia before it is released.' That can reduce the emissions down to enable it go ahead."

He said, "There will be some areas and some types of farms that won't be able to operate in a certain area because of the sensitivity of the local environment and the design of the sheds. If you change the design of the sheds then, in all likelihood, depending on how much you change it and how much you've scrubbed, you are likely to get your permit."

He said the new thresholds would only apply to new applications, not existing operations, and he said they were not designed to prohibit development. "The changes are designed to ensure we take a site specific approach, ensuring the local environment is protected. The new thresholds were derived between several agencies and have been independently peer reviewed.

"The industry already operates successfully and profitably under similar or more stringent environmental limits in a number of EU countries. We want to encourage a sustainable intensive farming sector," he said.

Despite the assurance, NFU Cymru has raised its concern about the changes. A spokesman told the Ranger, NFU Cymru has met with Natural Resources Wales to understand the evidence behind the changes to the emissions guidance introduced in April 2017. NFU Cymru is concerned about the changes to guidance and the impact that they could have on farming in Wales  most notably farmers ability to develop a range of income streams and meet consumer demand for high quality Welsh produce, he said.
An NFU scientist has complained of a "conspiracy of silence" following the publication of a pan-European study on the impact of neonicotinioids on bees.

Dr Chris Hartfield, the NFU's acting chief science and regulatory affairs adviser, says that whilst most press and media coverage has suggested the study shows a link between use of neonicotinoids and falling bee numbers, most of the study's results showed no impact whatsoever and some results recorded a positive effect.

"There are only six out of 84 results that show a negative impact," he told FarmingUK.

Researchers from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology studied 84 different comparisons in three countries - the United Kingdom, Germany and Hungary.

They looked at two different neonicotinoid seed treatments and the results were published in the journal, Science.

Environmental groups have called for a permanent ban on the use of neonicotinoids following the study, but Chris Hartfield says much of the study has been ignored in press coverage.

'Conspiracy of silence'

There are just nine instances where an effect on bees is shown. Six of those instances are negative. Three of them are positive. There is almost a conspiracy of silence. Very few have mentioned that there have been positive results. Those positive results are very interesting. It is something we have not seen before, he said.

There were two positive results in Germany. They were the only significant results they found in Germany. The only statistically significant results in Germany were positive. That is really interesting thing. Why did that happen in Germany? What were the circumstances in Germany that resulted in that?

There is suggestion that bees in Germany are healthier, so they are less challenged by disease and pests. Also in Germany, beyond the flowering crop, bees had better floral resources in the wider area.

So the suggestion could be that if you have healthy bees and you provide them with the resources in terms of food and habitat then those bees will be better placed to meet any environment challenges they may face.

Geographical boundaries

Dr Hartfield said that what was interesting, apart from the positive results in Germany, was that the study results overall were inconclusive between countries.

The NFU has never claimed that insecticides were not harmful to insects, the union stressed

If neonicotinoids were as damaging as some people say there would be no respect for geographical boundaries, he said.

Professor Lin Field of Rothamstead described the results a very mixed."

She said: "There are 42 comparisons of parameters measured with and without the seed treatments and of these 33 are not significant and therefore we can only conclude that the treatments had no effect.

For those that are significant there are two positive effects in the results from Germany, three negative effects in Hungary  assuming that both CTD and TMX are significant  and three negative and one positive effect in the UK. None of these are consistently positive or negative for any one parameter.

She said: Overall most of the parameters tested show no significant differences and, for those that do, there are sometimes conflicting results, meaning that it is hard to draw any conclusions.

The authors do make some comments on what the negative effects might mean for bee populations more widely but do not comment on the positive effects, which are hard to explain.

Pressing for some time

Dr Hartfield said he welcomed the study. He said the farming industry had been pressing for some time for the kind of research carried out by the study team.

As an industry we have been asking for this kind of research - more experiments out there in real fields. There is plenty of evidence out there that when you challenge a bee directly - force feed it a dose of neonicotinoid directly - it has an effect. But what happens out in the field. This study shows it is not clear.

He said the study was a "really valuable piece of work" but he said it was important that people should read all of the results rather that just picking on certain ones.

I am not being critical of the study or the results of the study. I have a science research background. I respect the study. They are interesting and valid results. Unfortunately what has been discussed in the majority of press and media coverage is just a very small select slice of these results.

They generally only talk about results that show a negative impact on bees. The overwhelming number of results show no effect at all and some results show a positive effect.

Unbiased reporting

In an ideal world, he said, in which people valued science and evidence, and its accurate and unbiased reporting, the public would hear about all the results.

However today, all the researchers, journalists and environmental organisations Ive heard are only talking about the six significant harmful effects.

He said that the major story from the study - and the one that had been ignored - was that in the vast majority of the results no effect had been found at all.

Perhaps worse than this blindness to the positive results from this study is the ignoring of the fact that for at least 75 of the 84 comparisons 89 per cent of the scenarios tested  use of neonicotinoids had no effect at all.

I also know for a fact a number of really well respected scientists have highlighted to the media that, because of the mixed results of this study, its difficult to draw any firm conclusions from it. But, so far, Ive seen little or no coverage of their comments.

'Study does not answer'

The NFU had never claimed that insecticides were not harmful to insects, he said.

The question here has never been whether or not neonicotinoids can be harmful to bees; the question is whether or not such harm means neonicotinoids are the cause of widespread declines in bee biodiversity and populations and whether, as a result, the evidence supports bans on their use.

He said the study did not answer this question. He said reports of the research had been an object lesson in how to ignore the majority of the evidence. This would not help bees and, he said, it undermined the credibility of science.
Free movement of people between the UK and the EU will end March 2019, Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesman has confirmed today.

This comes after members of May's cabinet were contradicting each other in recent days.

Last week chancellor Philip Hammond said there should be 'no immediate change' to immigration rules for at least until after 2022.

This was the same week when immigration minister Brandon Lewis said freedom of movement will end the month Britain leaves the bloc.

But PM May's spokesman has told reporters that it will end in March 2019.

"Other elements of the post-Brexit immigration system will be brought forward in due course, it would be wrong to speculate on what these might look like or to suggest that free movement will continue as it is now," he said.

Migrant labour

Rural groups such as the CLA fear a restriction in the availability of migrant labour for rural businesses.

44% of CLA members surveyed said they had experienced a reduction in the availability of migrant labour over the past year.

Almost 90% of respondents tried to recruit locally but the majority found it difficult to fill positions with British workers.

One in ten CLA members employ migrant workers in managerial positions, with almost a quarter of respondents saying they worked in skilled roles, such as training horses or operating complex machinery.
Attempts to block lower welfare food imports into the United Kingdom following Brexit could face legal challenges, according to a new report.

The report, published by AHDB, looks at the implications for British agriculture of trading under World Trade Organisation rules after the UK withdraws from the European Union.

The authors warn that the British Government could have difficulty trying to protect high welfare domestic farmers against overseas farmers operating to lower welfare, and lower cost, standards.

Following the Brexit vote there has been a great deal of debate in the industry on whether the UK will adopt higher animal welfare standards, than those currently across the EU. In addition, there has be debate on whether the UK could use these higher standards, if adopted, as a barrier to restrict trade in below-standard products, says the report, written by AHDB senior analyst Sarah Baker and David Swales, head of strategic insight.

UKs own animal welfare

The authors say that, under WTO rules and regulations, the UK will able to define its own animal welfare standards and, they say, there are circumstances in which the Government will be able to use these standards as a technical barrier to trade.

However, they say that the UK could face challenges from other WTO members if these standards do not meet two basic obligations of WTO law.

These obligations require that any measures are applied consistently both to domestic and to imported products from all countries and that these measures should not to be more trade restrictive than necessary to fulfil a legitimate objective.

As the UK has been accepting imports produced to given international standards of animal welfare, any raising of standards could be challenged on the second of these points, say the report's authors.

Raising standards in order to create a barrier to trade would not be considered a legitimate objective in itself, they say.

Cheap food

The new Environment Secretary, Michael Gove, who was one of the leaders of the campaign to leave the EU, is a proponent of free trade who said during the referendum campaign that leaving the European Union could provide British consumers with cheap food as a result of trade deals with emerging nations, although since taking up his Defra role he has spoken of protecting UK welfare standards.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove has said the UK will not import chlorinated chicken

Speaking to the East Anglian Daily Times during the Royal Norfolk Show, he said: Farmers recognise that as we leave the EU there are opportunities because of the high quality produce that the UK is famous for, and Norfolk in particular is noted for.

There is an opportunity to sell more abroad  but we also need to make sure that as we do sell abroad that we do not compromise our high environmental and animal welfare standards.

His predecessor as Environment Secretary, Andrea Leadsom, said at the NFU conference earlier this year: We have been very clear in our manifesto that high animal welfare standards will be a core part of any international free trade arrangements.

I have been very clear that we will not seek to put ourselves in an uncompetitive position by reducing welfare or food safety or food traceability standards. It's a very key unique selling point for the UK. We don't want to do anything to undermine that.

'International exemplar'

Farming Minister George Eustice said at the Egg & Poultry Industry Conference in November: We want to make the UK the international exemplar when it comes to animal health and welfare.

I would like us to pioneer new policies, new ways of working, to create a policy that is the envy of the world. I want us to get to a place where a decade from now the rest of the world will want to emulate policies that we put in place, said the Minister.

However, more recently the Prime Minister refused to rule out lowering British food standards in order to secure a trade deal with the United States. Fears grew over the potential opening of the UK to imports of chlorinated chicken and hormone treated beef.

However, speaking to BBC's Today programme, Mr Gove said all members of the government were 'agreed' that animal welfare standards will not be diluted.

The Government has made clear that it is seeking to establish a series of free trade agreements with countries around the world ready for when the UK withdraws from the European Union in 2019.

However, a new briefing paper placed in the House of Commons Library, warns that agriculture can prove difficult in trade talks.

'Sticking point'

The authors of the document, 'Brexit: Agriculture and Trade,' say: Agricultural issues can be a sticking point in trade negotiations. The interests of consumers and producers need to be balanced.

Other issues, such as food security, differing approaches to ensuring food safety, animal welfare and environmental standards, are also likely to come into the equation. Agricultural interests may also have to be balanced against those of other industrial sectors.

The paper says: On leaving the EU customs union, the UK will be able to negotiate its own free trade agreements. This has the potential to open up new markets for UK agriculture.

However, it says: It remains to be seen how easy these trade negotiations will be. Examples have already been raised where there could be issues such as around the import of hormone-fed beef and chickens washed in chlorine, which are currently banned in the EU.

Hormone beef

Hormone beef has been the subject of a long-running dispute between, on the one side, the United States and Canada, and, on the other, the European Union, which in 1989 banned the importation of meat that contained artificial beef growth hormones that were approved for use and administered in the United States.

The WTO has made a series of rulings against the EU. The United States and Canada are two of the countries seen as priorities for free trade agreements by the UK Government.

The House of Commons briefing paper points out that in evidence to the House of Lords EU Committee, the NFU warned: Many UK farm businesses would be put at significant competitive disadvantage if current tariff barriers were removed or slashed without great care being taken to ensure a level playing field.

The National Pig Association told the same committee: With pig production costs in the USA, Canada and Brazil considerably lower than in the UK (due to lower welfare, legislation and environment standards) the removal or reduction of tariffs for pork products from those countries will have a significant negative impact on British pork producers.

Mixed messages

And the Lords committee, itself, said: The Government is currently giving mixed messages to the agricultural sector.

Its vision for the UK as a leading free trade nation with low tariff barriers to the outside world does not sit easily with its declared commitment to high quality and welfare standards in the UK farming sector. Combining and delivering these two objectives will be a considerable challenge.

The authors of the AHDB report point to examples where animal welfare has been permitted by the WTO as a barrier to trade.

However, it is possible that seeking to do so could involve the UK Government in protracted negotiations and in legal disagreements.
Farming unions across the UK have called for a cross government agricultural summit to address the perceived slow progress in developing plans for a post-Brexit farm policy.

As powers will be given back to London from Brussels, devolved administrations have urged that they must be considered equal partners in the negotiations.

Senior barristers have already published a series of reports titled The Brexit Papers, amid warnings that navigating Government red-lines will not be plain sailing.

The Brexit Papers warn of a potential clash between central government and the devolved regions over who will have overall policy control.

Chair of the Bar Council Brexit Working Group, Hugh Mercer QC said: The devolved regions may well be in control of their own agriculture policy when we leave the EU, but if regional subsidies diverge from each other there would be considerable distortion in competition that could frustrate international trade deals.

Speaking at the Royal Welsh Show, the Farmers' Union of Wales (FUW) President Glyn Roberts said that planning for Brexit has been going on in a 'relatively disjointed fashion'.

He said: For many months... there has been slow progress on critical issues due to a lack of engagement between the UK and Welsh governments.

Three major phases

The FUW sees 3 major phases in the UKs exit from the European Union: the Article 50 process, which has already started and the constitutional issues that need to be resolved.

The union said the second phase of leaving the EU will be when trade relations come to the fore and the third being the long term changes that can then be made only once trade relationships are understood.

We appear to be focusing all our energy on the latter phases, whilst ignoring the critical constitutional arrangements that need to be established by the UK government and all devolved administrations.

They need to be working collaboratively to develop a solution, stressed Mr Roberts.

'Absolutely essential'

This week, the FUW met with the First Minister of Wales and two Secretaries of State from the UK government as well as Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs Lesley Griffiths.

Mr Roberts continued: A cross Government agricultural summit is absolutely essential in order to progress the vital constitutional issues that need to be addressed before powers are repatriated from Brussels to London.

Whilst there are arguments for powers to be repatriated and held in London, there are also clear options to return them immediately to the devolved nations, within an agricultural trade framework that will not disrupt trade negotiations in any way, said Mr Roberts.

He added saying that: We are genuinely encouraged by all we are hearing in our bilateral discussions with government ministers. There is an awful lot of common ground between our aspirations and government statements. We now ask that they come together to address the big domestic political issues as soon as possible.

'Equal partners'

Defra Secretary Michael Gove has recently been criticised over his appearance at farming shows after apparently snubbing other farm business events to do with Scottish agriculture.

The Scottish government has said the Defra secretary should be taking the concerns of Scotland's agriculture sector seriously.

Scotland's Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing said: We have been very clear throughout this process that the devolved administrations must be considered equal partners in the negotiations and we expect genuine engagement in the process.

It is simply unacceptable to have UK Ministers unilaterally cancelling meetings, which involve four partners at short notice and without consultation.

Brexit affects us all, with Scottish agriculture and rural communities particularly reliant on the EU for investment, labour and financial support. I also want to be clear that the UK Government must not give away permanent access to Scottish waters as part of any trade deals.
Putin said in an interview with Vesti TV released on Sunday that the United States would have to cut its diplomatic and technical staff by 755 people by September 1.

Vladimir Putin said the United States would have to cut its diplomatic staff in Russia by 755 people

By Reuters: Russian President Vladimir Putin said the United States would have to cut its diplomatic staff in Russia by 755 people and that Moscow could consider additional measures against Washington as a response to new US sanctions approved by Congress.

Moscow ordered the United States on Friday to cut hundreds of diplomatic staff and said it would seize two US diplomatic properties after the US House of Representatives and the Senate overwhelmingly approved new sanctions on Russia. The White House said on Friday that US President Donald Trump would sign the sanctions bill.

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Putin said in an interview with Vesti TV released on Sunday that the United States would have to cut its diplomatic and technical staff by 755 people by September 1.

"Because more than 1,000 workers - diplomats and support staff - were working and are still working in Russia, 755 must stop their activity in the Russian Federation," he said.

The new US sanctions were partly a response to conclusions by US intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in the 2016 US presidential election, and to punish Russia further for its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

Russia's response suggested it had set aside initial hopes of better ties with Washington under Trump, something the Republican president, before he was elected, had said he wanted to achieve.

A federal law enforcement investigation and multiple US congressional probes looking into the possibility that Trump's campaign colluded with Russia have made it harder for Trump to open a new chapter with Putin. Russia denies it interfered in the election and Trump has said there was no collusion.

Moscow said on Friday that the United States had until Sept. 1 to reduce its diplomatic staff in Russia to 455 people, matching the number of Russian diplomats left in the United States after Washington expelled 35 Russians in December.

On Friday, an official at the US Embassy, who did not wish to be identified, said the embassy employed about 1,100 diplomatic and support staff in Russia, including Russian and US citizens.

'UNCALLED-FOR ACT'

The State Department declined to comment on the exact number of embassy and consular staff in Russia.

But a State Department official called Russia's action "a regrettable and uncalled-for act."

"We are assessing the impact of such a limitation and how we will respond to it," the official said on condition of anonymity.

As of 2013, the US mission in Russia, including the Moscow embassy and consulates in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok, employed 1,279 staff, according to a State Department Inspector General's report that year. That included 934 "locally employed" staff and 301 US "direct-hire" staff, from 35 US government agencies, the report said.

That breakdown suggested the actual number of Americans forced to leave Russia would be far less than 755.

"We dont (sic) have 755 American diplomats in Russia," said Michael McFaul, a former US ambassador to Russia, in a post on Twitter on Sunday.

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The cuts would likely affect how quickly the United States is able to process Russian applications for US visas, McFaul said.

"If these cuts are real, Russians should expect to wait weeks if not months to get visas to come to US," he said.

Putin said Russia could take more measures against the United States, but not at the moment.

"I am against it as of today," Putin said in the interview with Vesti TV.

He repeated that the US sanctions were a step to worsening relations between the two countries.

"We were waiting for quite a long time that maybe something would change for the better, were holding out hope that the situation would change somehow. But it appears that even if it changes someday it will not change soon," Putin said.

He said Moscow and Washington were achieving results on cooperation, however, even "in this quite difficult situation." The creation of the southern de-escalation zone in Syria showed a concrete result of the joint work between the two countries, Putin said.

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--- ENDS ---
Producers see losses increase to 26-28 per pig, estimates show
As an actress, Anushka Sharma, who essays a Gujarati girl in Jab Harry Met Sejal, says she enjoys playing a character that has different beliefs from her own.

She says essaying such a character gives her a creative high and adds to her perspective.

Asked if the process of convincing oneself to believe in a character that one has to play on screen gives her creative growth, Anushka told IANS here, "Yes, it does. I enjoy when my philosophy is challenged by my onscreen character. Then I start analysing the mindset, the values and beliefs of the character... why is she like that.

"I start looking at things from a different perspective. As an actress, if I manage to do that on screen convincingly, I feel good."

The story of Jab Harry Met Sejal, which features superstar ShahRukh Khan as Harry -- the male lead, revolves around how Sejal (Anushka) sets out on a journey with tourist guide Harry.

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Giving a little insight into her character Sejal, Anushka said: "She is very superficial, doesn't have any depth as a person. There is no similarity with me. But her morals and values of self-respect are something that I can relate to. But otherwise, the character is quite impulsive by nature."

The shooting of the film took place in different places like Prague, Amsterdam, Vienna, Lisbon and Budapest.

Sharing her experience of shooting films abroad, Anushka said meeting fans there is one of the best things to experience.

"I met some African fans, people from Italy and a girl from Spain who was so excited to see me and was talking about how she liked my films, dance and all... It is not individually about me, but knowing the fact that they watch Bollywood cinema and I am one of the members of Bollywood is a great feeling," said Anushka.

Jab Harry Met Sejal marks the third-time collaboration of the two actors who first appeared together in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. They also featured in Jab Tak Hai Jaan.

"There is a certain respect and comfort we share... He is special. While on set, even though we are not talking to each other all the time, we know there is no communication gap. There is comfort in silence. Perhaps that comes from a mutual respect between two artists."

And what has she taken away from working with Imtiaz Ali, who has directed the forthcoming film.

"Our process of understanding and building a character is same -- knowing the back story of the character. That apart, yes, of course, it was wonderful to work with Imtiaz. His writing and narration are very nuanced and I like that," Anushka said.

Jab Harry Met Sejal is set to release on August 4.
Resolute Mininghas been served with a notice that its staff at its West African mine, in Mali, will be on a 120-hour strike order, from midnight Monday 31 July 2017.The gold producer received the notice from the local union committee, enforcing its 1,800 staff at its Syama Gold Mine to go on a strike (despite only 490 employees being union members).Resolute Mining says the strike action will not affect surface or underground mining and it will not have a material effect on gold production.The company also confirmed the strike action will not impact its FY18 production guidance of 300,000 ounces or its All-In Sustaining Costs of $1,280 per ounce.Shares in Resolute Mininglast traded over 2.8 per cent lower on Friday $1.04.
Ford Motor Company (F 2.26%) said earlier this year that it will move production of the next-generation Focus compact, due in about two years, overseas -- mostly to China. Now we know the price tag for that move: $248 million.

Ford said this past week that it took one-time charges totaling $248 million against its second-quarter earnings to cover the costs of its decision to move production of the next-generation Focus out of North America.

Now, we should keep that in perspective: That's likely just a fraction of what Ford will save by making the upcoming all-new Focus in China. But here's why the decision to move the Focus cost Ford so much money.

Why Ford is moving the Focus to an overseas factory

First, some backstory. The current Focus is built in Michigan, but we've known for about two years that the next Focus would be built somewhere other than the United States. (That Michigan factory isn't closing. In fact, it might get busier: It'll build the new Ranger pickup and Bronco SUV instead.)

Ford had originally hinted that the next Focus would be built in Mexico, possibly in its existing factory in Hermosillo, where the Fusion sedan is made -- and possibly in a new factory it planned to build in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosi.

But then two things happened: First, the market for small sedans in the U.S. began to shrink, with more buyers favoring SUVs instead. Second, Donald Trump got elected as president of the United States -- on a platform that promised to strongly encourage (to put it mildly) U.S. companies to build in the United States.

The upshot: Early this year, Ford canceled that planned factory in San Luis Potosi and said that it would move some products originally intended for Mexico back to its U.S. factories.

But those products don't include the next Focus: Ford said last month that the upcoming all-new Focus will be built in China instead. Why? Because U.S. sales of the Focus have been declining for years, and it doesn't make sense for Ford to commit a high-cost factory to making it for North America (or South America, as it turns out).

Why that decision cost Ford $248 million

So why did all of that lead Ford to take a $248 million charge? I asked Ford's chief financial officer, Bob Shanks, to explain:

We made announcements [earlier this year] around not building the Focus in Mexico, at Hermosillo. Instead, it'll be coming primarily from China, where we have our biggest global footprint for Focus production in the world. Some will come from Europe as well, but a little bit later than the initial job one. We had already done some work on the next-generation Focus in Hermosillo, so this [one-time charge] is a recognition that while we can reuse some of the tools and some of the other things that we had started to invest in there, some of what we did we can't or won't reuse. This is just the write-offs of that. And there's a little bit of that also in South America, because we have decided we're not going to invest in South America for local production of the next-generation Focus.

Long story short: Ford had begun ordering new tooling or doing some work at the Hermosillo factory to build the Focus, and some of that work and tooling is now being written off, as is a small amount of work that had been done in South America. Those write-offs are the reason for Ford's $248 million second-quarter charge.
It's been a rough ride for big oil since mid-June 2014, when most oil-industry stocks began to trend downward. Things have been looking up -- a little -- in 2017, but the top integrated majors are still off their highs by double-digit percentages while the S&P 500 is up more than 25%.

The hardest-hit companies among the integrated majors are Total SA (TTE 2.99%), down 29.9%; BP (BP 2.70%), down 32.5%; and Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) (RDS.B), down 32.9%. But just because a company has fallen farther doesn't mean it's more likely to outperform. Let's look at these three beaten-down big-oil stocks to see if they might be worth buying.

Total SA: the little major that could

In the world of integrated majors, Total SA is the runt of the litter. Its market cap is just $123.7 billion, larger only than BP's $115.2 billion, while its annual revenue of $127.9 billion is lower than all but Chevron's $114.5 billion. Compare that with Shell's $234.2 billion market cap or its $240 billion annual revenue, and you get a sense of how much smaller Total is.

But Total is poised for growth. After an impressive Q2 2017, the company has cash to deploy, and plenty of options on where to put it. The company just outbid BP and Shell to win a 30% stake in Qatar's offshore Al-Shaheen oil field, which, according to Total CEO Patrick Pouyanne, is a "complex field" that will require significant investment. The company also signed a deal to develop phase 11 of Iran's South Pars gas field starting in 2021.

These join the company's other projects in locations as diverse as Iraq, Ireland, Argentina, Russia, and Senegal. Total looks poised to deploy its cash hoard to fuel continued growth, and while it may not quite be a "bargain," it's certainly looking like a good value at today's prices.

BP: high yield, high breakeven

For nearly two years, BP and Royal Dutch Shell have been going back and forth in claiming the title for highest big-oil dividend yield. Currently, BP holds the crown with a yield of just over 6.8%, compared with Shell's 6.6%. Although that's liable to switch at any time, fundamentally, their dividends are the same.

But something else is high at BP that isn't so hot for investors: its breakeven price. The breakeven point for an oil company is the oil price point above which the company earns a profit. Some big oil companies (and quite a few smaller ones, too) have lowered their breakeven points to $50 a barrel, or even lower, which has paid off as oil prices have been hovering around that mark for the past year.

But BP surprised everyone when it announced that its breakeven point would rise to $60 a barrel this year, meaning it not only isn't profitable at today's oil prices, but it also wouldn't have been profitable at the oil prices of mid-2015! BP CEO Bob Dudley has tried to reassure concerned investors that the company's breakeven price would drop to $35 or $40 a barrel by 2021, but that's a lot of quarters to wait, even with such a high dividend yield as an incentive.

In addition, the company announced in June that it would be writing down $750 million in Q2 2017, a result of unsuccessful exploration campaigns in Angola. With all this in mind, BP doesn't look like much of a bargain at present.

Royal Dutch Shell: best in class

Royal Dutch Shell's dividend yield is practically the same as BP's, but that's where the similarities end. Shell has been able to lower its breakeven to become profitable with oil prices at $50 a barrel, and profitable it is. In fact, profit in its recently reported Q2 2017 more than tripled from the year-ago quarter.

Shell is also making investments for an uncertain future. CEO Ben Van Beurden has recently stated he thinks demand for oil could peak as early as the late 2020s, as electric cars become a viable option for consumers. He's also preparing for a future in which oil prices never recover to their former highs.

Shell is putting its money where its CEO's mouth is. The company has been selling underperforming assets to help reduce its breakeven. Last year, it made a major purchase of BG Group, which gives Shell additional exposure to liquefied natural gas -- a smart move if you believe oil prices and demand aren't going to rise much further.

Add to this its generous dividend yield and its excellent recent performance, and Shell looks as if it may very well be a bargain at its current share price.

Investor takeaway

Total and Royal Dutch Shell look like better bargains today than BP, but their performance is going to depend on many factors, including where oil prices go, what happens to global oil supply, and -- especially for Total -- how the companies' exploration projects pan out. Under the right global conditions, all three of these companies could be big winners.

But if you're looking for the best prospect of the bunch, I'd go with Royal Dutch Shell, to earn a handsome dividend from a company that's firing on all cylinders.
Xiaomi MIUI 9 is official with Smart Assistant, image search and more News oi -Abhinaya Prabhu Xiaomi MIUI 9 is here.

At an event in China, Xiaomi just unveiled the Mi 5X smartphone and the MIUI 9 interface. We have already covered the launch of the Mi 5X smartphone.

When it comes to the MIUI 9, Xiaomi has introduced a slew of new features that will refine the user experience and give a refreshed look to the interface. Xiaomi has optimized thread scheduling and CPU acceleration. The company has enhanced the haptic feedback and has come up with a new allocation model that will prioritize the resources for the in-use applications.

Also, the MIUI 9 comes with the split-screen mode that was missing in the earlier iterations of MIUI 9. With this feature, the multi-window mode lets you run two applications simultaneously. Also, the icons seem to have got a visual refresh and look contemporary. The optimizations of the MIUI 9 addresses one of the major issues - the lag in the interface.

One of the new features is the Smart Assistant. It lets you search through the apps, images, notes, etc. to find the information that you are actually looking for. There is a new universal image search feature that lets you look out for images of a specific person or photos those were clicked at a specific location. The new Smart App launcher suggests that the apps to launch based on the context of the conversations that you carry out.

For now, the Smart Assistant, Smart App launcher and universal image search features are limited only to the Chinese version of the ROM. There is no official word from Xiaomi on when the global MIUI 9 will be rolled out to the users and what new features will be included in the same.

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World's best and most expensive cameras Features oi -Vijeta Canon EOS 1D X Mark II, Nikon D5, and Phase One FX are the best of the best of cameras one could ever dream to have. Not only do they offer great picture quality, but are also insanely expensive

If you have ever wished to own a DSLR, the first thing that probably popped up in your mind must have been the fact whether you would be able to afford one or not. Lately, we have seen tons of DSLRs enter the Indian imaging market. There are hundreds of them out there with a varying price bandwidth.

The cheapest DSLRs in India wouldn't cost you more than 15 grands. If you are simply looking for the most basic shooter you might even find one for less than 12 grands. As is the case with cheap DSLRs, they have a pretty small sensor and cannot compose low light shots that well. Even more so, they fail to capture the transition of lights the way they are visible to the human eyes. In fact, the pictures they capture aren't anything close to what human eyes can see.

Photographers or hobbyists who spend a substantial amount of money on a camera, are very well aware of the aforementioned facts, which is the reason they are willing to spend thousands on a camera.

While professionals can conveniently get their hands on the most sophisticated piece of photography technology, hobbyists are constrained to their savings which they keep on shelling to own expensive lenses, filters, and tripods.

While most of us, who are not the close cousin to Bruce Wayne, can very well agree to the fact that photography is an expensive affair for a hobby we also cannot deny that photography offers an altogether a different experience.

To all the amateurs and hobbyists out there who have set a financial goal to get their hands on their favorite piece of imaging innovation, I have something very special for you today.

Today I will introduce you to the most expensive DSLRs and mirrorless cameras in the world which can very well occupy the top slot on the list of the types of equipment you wish to own.

For most of the amateurs, these photography innovations are merely a dream. They are not just expensive but are also not worth spending if all you wish to achieve are some needy likes on Facebook and Instagram.

Let's get started:

Canon EOS-1Dx Mark II: Canon's best

Here are the specifications for Canon EOS-1Dx Mark II

New 20.2MP CMOS full-frame sensor with Dual Pixel autofocus

14 fps continuous shooting (16 fps in live view)

200+ shot buffer with Raw+JPEG (CFast 2.0)

61-point AF system with 41 cross-type sensors and 24% more coverage

360,000-pixel RGB+IR metering sensor

Native ISO from 100-51,200 (expandable to 50-409,600)

4K/60p video in DCI format (4096 x 2160 pixels) using Motion JPEG

1.62 million dot LCD touch screen

Flicker detection

CFast 2.0 card support

USB 3.0

The specifications are simply impressive and sufficient to tell you what this camera offers but only if you can understand what the jibber-jabber mentioned above actually means.

Let me make things less complicated for you folks. Canon EOS-1D x Mark II has a killer focus capability. It has a 61 AF points that never let you miss out on the focus. Not only is it sharp, it is also fast.

The 1DX has a shooting speed of 14 frames per second. It sounds like a machine gun once you hit the shutter release button.

It is also weather resistant and can survive literally any abuse mother nature can toss at it. It is used by professional photographers all over the globe and has been serving them well.

So, let's talk money. Canon EOS 1D X Mark II costs Rs. 4,78,999 in India and that's just how much you pay for the body only. Better luck for your finances on purchasing a lens for this bad-ass camera.

Have a look at the sample shot.



Nikon D5: The best from the DSLR

This is a close competitor to Canon EOS 1D X Mark II and several photographers already believe that it is better than Canon. Photographers of every genre have a liking for this advanced piece of tech. It is particularly favored by motorsport and wildlife photographers who wish to capture some raw action. Nikon D5 matches in price to Canon EOS 1DX Mark II.

Have a look at the sample shots from the camera.

Phase One XF 100 MP

For Phase One XF I would like to start with the sample shot.

Mesmerizing! Isn't it? Phase One XF is a camera that only world renowned photographers can actually afford. It serves their purpose of delivering the richest quality of pictures.

Just look at the rich details of the photographs. The 100 MP Phase One XF is a mirrorless camera and is certainly the best without any competition.

It costs, hold on to your hats, approximately Rs. 33 lakh. It is not just expensive but simply not affordable unless you get paid extravagantly for your shots.

Phase One FX is used by the best photographers in the industry. All those crispy looking flawless photographs you go through in a fashion or an automobile magazine are shot on this camera.

It is truly a camera that is ahead of its time and sure it costs in a similar manner. Every picture this camera clicks are iconic. The looks this camera boasts are equally amazing.

Well! You certainly let out a sigh of desperation after going through the price these cameras boasts. You don't need to get all worked up and work extra hours to save and own these freakishly expensive photography gods.

Remember, photography is not always about the gear that you have in hand but the perspective and the concept that is in your mind. An expensive gear makes things convenient and provides the desired quality but not even Phase One can help you out if you lack the will and enthusiasm of capturing the best shots.

Source Image

Source Image

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HMD gets 500 Nokia design patents including Lumia Camera UI News oi -Abhinaya Prabhu HMD now bags rights for 500 Nokia design patents.

While the announcement of the Nokia 8, Nokia 7 and Nokia 2 Android smartphones is eagerly awaited by the fans, there seems to be an interesting revelation regarding HMD Global.

A recent report by Nokiamob claims that around 500 design patents have been transferred to HMD Global from Microsoft Mobile. Remember that Microsoft Mobile is the company that made the Nokia and Microsoft branded Windows Phone based smartphones after the acquisition of the smartphone division of Nokia years ago.

Currently, HMD Global holds the exclusive license to use the Nokia brand name for smartphones and has already announced the launch of Nokia 3, Nokia 5 and Nokia 6. Also, on August 16, the company is expected to unveil the Nokia 8 flagship smartphone.

The report speculates that the high-end flagship smartphone - the Nokia 8 might feature something unexpected to roll out to the users. The numerous rumors and leaks show that the smartphone might feature a dual lens rear camera with the Carl Zeiss optics. In addition to this, the handset is believed to feature the Lumia Camera UI, which is touted to be one of the most intuitive camera interfaces in the industry.

The Lumia Camera UI was created by Nokia for its Windows Phone smartphones. The design patent for the interface is just one of the 500 design patents transferred by Microsoft Mobile to HMD Global. Notably, there are 200+ design patents with Microsoft Mobile and it remains unclear if these will be transferred to HMD or not.

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Motorola Moto G5S Plus in three different colors appears online News oi -Chandrika The smartphone is expected to arrive with a 5.5-inch Full HD display with the resolution density of 1080p.

Evan Blass on Saturday leaked the pricing details of the Motorola Moto G5S and Moto G5S Plus. Now, the leakster has tweeted that the Moto G5S Plus will be available in three different color options; Black, Rose Gold and Silver.

He has even shared a picture showing all the color variants. As suggested by the previous reports, the smartphone features a circular dual camera setup at the back. The camera lenses are accompanied by a LED flash. Also, as you can see the camera module is slightly protruded. Up front, the Moto G5S Plus features a physical home button that may double function as the fingerprint scanner.

Coming to the specifications, the smartphone is expected to arrive with a 5.5-inch Full HD display with the resolution density of 1080p. Under the hood, it could be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor paired with 4GB of RAM. In terms storage, the Moto G5S Plus will be offering 64GB of expandable native storage capacity.

Here's the full color pallette. pic.twitter.com/oVpGpp8l8E  Evan Blass (@evleaks) July 31, 2017

Talking about the imagery part, the smartphone's dual camera setup is said to be comprised of two 13MP sensors. One will be RGB and another will be Monochrome.

As for the software side of things, the upcoming Moto phone is likely to come pre-installed with Android 7.1.1 Nougat OS. Other expected features on board include selfie camera with LED flash and Dolby Atmos Audio support.

According to Blass, the Motorola Moto G5S Plus will carry a price tag of 330 Euros, which is roughly equivalent to Rs. 25,000. Although he has mentioned this is the price for the eastern European countries.

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Nokia 3 to receive Android 7.1.1 Nougat update by August end News oi -Abhinaya Prabhu Nokia 3 update schedule is out.

HMD Global assured that the Nokia 6, Nokia 5 and Nokia 3 and the upcoming Android smartphones will receive OS support for two years from their launch.

Talking about the already existing smartphones, these devices were launched with the Android 7.0 Nougat OS out of the box. And, we know that these phones will receive the upcoming Android O and Android P updates until 2018.

Having said that, we already knew that the Nokia 3, the entry level Android smartphone priced at Rs. 9,499 in India will soon receive the Android 7.1.1 Nougat update from the previous media reports. Now, a tweet from the Chief Product Officer at HMD Global, Juho Savikas has tipped the exact time frame of when the update will be rolled out.

Juho has confirmed that the Nokia 3 will receive the Android 7.1.1 Nougat by the end of August. That said, in another month, the Nokia 3 users will get the latest iteration of the Android OS. There has been a delay in the Nokia 3 update due to the use of the MediaTek processor.

From the official changelog posted by Google, the Android 7.1.1 Nougat update will bring app shortcuts directly on the home screen to launch actions on the desired apps just by long pressing the same, send GIFs directly from the keyboard, etc.

In India, the Nokia 3 smartphone priced at Rs. 9,499 was released in June as an offline exclusive model. Later, the device was also listed by the Croma website, thereby making its online entry too. The company also released the Nokia 5 and Nokia 6 smartphones those are available for pre-order with a mid-August release date.

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Samsung Galaxy Note 8 clears FCC certification: Launch set for August 23 News oi -Samden Sherpa Samsung Galaxy Note 8 makes its way through the FCC.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is one step closer to its launch. With the latest information that we have come across, the much-anticipated device has just cleared FCC certification.

Now, this could mean that all the tests for Samsung Galaxy Note 8 have been successful and that the device is consumer ready. Besides, if you are interested in knowing the technical documentation you can always visit the FCC website.

However, the exciting thing is that the South Korean company will probably launch the device on the scheduled date. Samsung has already sent out media invites for an 'Unpacked' launch event to be held in New York City on August 23. So we will be seeing the device soon.

And in an interesting development last week, Samsung unintentionally leaked the release/pre-order date of the upcoming Galaxy Note 8. Basically, the leaked documentation on Samsung's Australian website revealed that the Note 8 will be available for preorder in the region starting August 25th. The details were provided in a pdf outlining the Note 8 screen replacement program, which stated the promotion will begin on August 25.

Likewise, the new flagship device could be made available on the same date in various other mobile phone markets as well.

While August seems to be turning into an interesting month for Samsung fans, here are some of the leaked features and key specs that the phablet is expected to come with. The successor to the "explosive" Galaxy Note 7 model is expected to come with a massive 6.3-inch infinity display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, 6GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, dual rear cameras, and a 3300mAh battery. Design wise the phablet will likely retain the features of the Galaxy S8/S8 Plus models.

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Purported Samsung Galaxy Note 8 render shows complete design News oi -Abhinaya Prabhu Galaxy Note 8 render has hit the web.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 will be launched on August 23 at the Galaxy Unpacked event. That's no more a big secret as the company has already sent out media invites for the same.

In a Forbes report, the render of what appears to be that of the Galaxy Note 8 has been leaked showing that it will be a massive smartphone. Casemaker Ghostek known for revealing a slew of details of the Galaxy Note 8 has shared the renders of the upcoming flagship smartphone showing off the device in all the angles.

If the report turns out to be authentic, the Galaxy Note 8 will sport a dual rear camera thereby becoming the first Samsung smartphone to arrive with such a camera setup. Also, the other features that we can expect from the device to be launched on August 23 include a USB Type-C port, retention of the 3.5mm audio jack, minimal bezels and a massive 6.3-inch Infinity Display.

The render shows that there will not be an under the display fingerprint sensor. Instead, the same will be positioned at the back of the smartphone besides the dual camera setup. This arrangement is likely to make it tough to access the fingerprint sensor.

As the launch of the Galaxy Note 8 is nearing, the device is hitting the tech headlines on a consistent basis. Lately, we came across reports tipping that the device has received the FCC certification and that the pre-registration for the device is already open in Australia via the official Samsung website. However, the page will not let you register for the same.

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Haiti - Social : First Lady pays tribute to women Mayors





Friday, at the Hotel Karibe Convention Center, at a Gala organized by the Ministry of the Interior, First Lady Martine Moise, paid tribute to the 143 women Mayors and deputies Mayors of Haiti.



In the presence of the Minister of the Interior Max Rodolphe Saint Albin, the Minister for Women's Affairs and Women's Rights, Eunide Innocent, parliamentarians and members of the Government and the Mayors and deputies Mayors of the country, the First Lady welcomed the sacrifice of these women who had to overcome the obstacles to be candidates and congratulated the political groups that have framed them during their campaigns.



"You are heroines because you made the difference. I am proud of you, as well as all the Haitian women who are watching you. You are role models for them and you can count on me !" stressed Martine Moise, who took the opportunity to welcome the election of these women and promise to be their advocate along with her husband, the President of the Republic.



Minister Saint Albin thanked the First Lady for her support to the realization of this evening of tribute and asked the mayors and their deputies mayors not to give up "History expects a lot from you" reminding the important role they have to play in the development of the country, he reiterated the unconditional support of his Ministry to the struggle of the mayors of Haiti and announced a partnership of solidarity between them, his Ministry and the Office of the First Lady.



The Minister for the Status of Women Eunide Innocent praised the support of the presidential couple in the struggle for respect and promotion of women's rights in Haiti. She recalled that this tribute to these women elected participates in the recognition of their contributions to the building of a more just and egalitarian society.



The Mayor of Arcahaie, Rosemilla Petit-Frere Sainvil, also President of the Federation of Women Mayors of Haiti, welcomed the initiative taken by the Office of the First Lady and its artners "The homage is yours, Firest Lady, as well as women and women's organizations in the country who are constantly struggling, sometimes at the risk of their lives. It is thanks to these battles that we will have the chance to have all these women today within the Municipal Administrations in Haiti."



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Politics : Revision of two important 12-year decrees





Friday, following the workshop held in June 2016 https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-17626-icihaiti-politic-review-workshop-of-two-decrees.html a first meeting of the Commission for the Revision of the two Decrees of 17 May 2005 on the Organization of the Central Government of the State and Revision of the General Statute of the Public Service was held under the supervision of Dr. Josue Pierre-Louis, the General Coordinator of the Office of Management and Human Resources (OMRH).



Several specialists in law and administrative matters, including the Secretary General of the Primature, Hugues Joseph, took part in this session.



Discussions focused on how the Commission operates, the state of administrative reform, among others. The Commission has fixed the following deadlines :



- Full revision of the decree on the central administration of the State by 31 August;

- Complete revision of the decree on the general status of the civil service by 30 September;

- Presentation of the final report to the two Chiefs of the Executive on December 29, 2017.



Composition of the Commission :



The Minister of Economy and Finance or his representative ;



The Minister of Public Health and Population or her representative ;



Renald Luberisse, Secretary General of the Council of Ministers ;



Dore Guichard, Special Adviser to the President of the Republic ;



Hugues Joseph, Secretary General of the Primature ;



Naed Jasmin and Jean Fritzner Etienne, Advisors to the Prime Minister ;



Me Josue Pierre-Louis, General Coordinator of OMRH.



The Commissioners fixed the next working session for August 4th.



See also :

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-17626-icihaiti-politic-review-workshop-of-two-decrees.html



HL/ HaitiLibre


















NYT columnist David Brooks to keynote UNCA Founders Day

David Brooks

New York Times columnist David Brooks, a leading analyst of American culture and politics, will deliver the keynotes remarks at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 12, at UNC Ashevilles Founders Day celebration of its 90th anniversary.

Advance tickets will be available on Aug. 12 at events.unca.edu. Doors open at 6 p.m.

Supported by the David and Lin Brown Visionary Lecture Series and the Van Winkle Law Firm Public Policy Lectures, the event is in Kimmel Arena on campus.

Brooks is regularly featured in The New York Times op-ed pages, where his columns have appeared biweekly since 2003; on NBCs Meet the Press; on the PBS Newshour, where he discusses politics with liberal counterpoint Mark Shields; and NPR where he is a regular Friday contributor on All Things Considered.

As a public speaker, Brooks addresses contemporary culture and issues with humor and quiet passion. His commentaries examine American ways of life as a window into present-day politics.

After graduating from The University of Chicago in 1983 with a degree in history, Brooks stayed in Chicago to begin his professional career as a police reporter, an experience which he says had a conservatizing influence upon him. The next year, he accepted an internship at the prominent conservative journal, National Review, and then was hired as a reporter at The Wall Street Journal, where he remained for nine years, ultimately becoming editorial page editor. He also was senior editor at The Weekly Standard before accepting his current position with The New York Times.

In addition to his journalism work, Brooks is a senior Fellow at Yale Universitys Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, and has taught courses at Yale on humility. His thinking on that subject led to his 2015 book, The Road to Character, which he describes as an attempt to shift the conversation a bit. We live in a culture that focuses on external success  a fast, distracted culture. Weve lost some of the vocabulary other generations had to describe the inner confrontation with weakness that produces good character. I am hoping this book can help people better understand their own inner lives, their own moral adventures and their own roads to character.

Brooks other books include The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character and Achievement; On Paradise Drive: How We Live Now (And Always Have) in the Future Tense; and Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There. Brooks is also the editor of the 1996 anthology, Backward and Upward: The New Conservative Writing. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of his alma mater, the University of Chicago, and on the Board of Advisors of the universitys Institute of Politics.
Related Related Press Release Questex Appoints Debra Mason, Veteran Finance Executive, as CFO

Questex LLC today announced the appointment of Debra S. Mason, a veteran finance executive, as chief financial officer, responsible for leading the company's global financial operations. Reporting to Kerry C. Gumas, Questex president and chief executive officer, Mason will be based in New York. Her previous leadership positions include chief operating officer and chief financial officer of X Plus One Solutions Inc., a technology start-up formerly known as Poindexter Systems Inc.; six years with Interpublic Group, where she served as the global CFO of several divisions, including Jack Morton Worldwide, a global event marketing group, and NFO WorldGroup, a leader in market research; and CFO at full-service advertising agencies, including the independent brands of The Lowe Group, Mullen and Wolf Group. Mason began her career in auditing with PricewaterhouseCoopers and EY, formerly Ernst & Young. She earned a bachelor of arts degree in economics and a bachelor of science degree in accounting at The University at Buffalo School of Management, State University of New York. She is a certified public accountant in the State of New York and earned designations including Chartered Global Management Accountant and Certified Valuation Analyst.
Glen Mills, PA,  Roch Capital Inc. ("Roch") announced today it has completed the acquisition of the 393-key Hyatt Regency hotel in Louisville, Kentucky from an affiliate of Hyatt Hotels Corporation. The 19-story hotel includes: 26,000 square feet of upscale meeting space; a full-service restaurant, Sway; the Louisville Convention & Visitor's Bureau; Chipotle; and a soon-to-open Starbucks. The hotel recently finished a multi-million dollar capital investment plan that updated guest rooms and baths, public areas and Sway, resulting in a highly attractive, market leading product.

"This is a high quality hotel in a coveted urban location with strong upside potential," said Vincent Abessinio, Co-President for Roch. Hyatt Regency Louisville occupies the most visible downtown corner directly off Fourth Street and adjacent to the Kentucky International Convention Center, currently undergoing a $200 million renovation and expansion. Additional nearby attractions include the University of Louisville, the Bourbon Trail, the KFC Yum! Center, Muhammad Ali Center, Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum and Churchill Downs, which accommodates over 165,000 guests on Kentucky Derby Day. The hotel will continue to be branded as a Hyatt Regency hotel.

Dallas-based Aimbridge Hospitality, one of the largest hotel management companies in the United States, was chosen to manage the hotel.

"The Hyatt Regency Louisville is a meaningful addition to Aimbridge Hospitality's portfolio. This property will attract both corporate and leisure travelers with its extensive meeting space and close proximity to many Louisville attractions," said Dave Johnson, President and CEO of Aimbridge Hospitality. "We are honored to work with Roch Capital on this property, and anticipate a successful and long-lasting partnership together."

About Roch Capital Inc.

Roch Capital Inc., through its affiliates, is one of the region"s fastest growing real estate investment companies. Roch will invest nationally in a broad range of real estate assets with a primary focus on urban and resort hotels, urban office and urban multifamily.

For more information on Roch Capital, please visit rochcap.com.

Carl Kruelle

Roch Capital Inc.

484-840-2709

Roch Capital
In the last few years, there has been a steady uptick in integrating the use of technology within the hospitality industry. Hotels are now heavily investing in guest-facing technologies such as booking engines, mobile apps, digital concierge services, keyless entry systems, beacons, automated check in and check out processes amongst many other, especially for their guests. In a recent New York Times article, Scott Dobroski, of corporate communications for Glassdoor, says that 'All companies are becoming technology companies to some degree, and this is especially true in the hospitality industry'.

This phenomenon is definite progress for the hospitality industry, and it is time to shift the focus on adapting mobile technologies for your employees too. Stefan Tweraser of Snapshot writes about how employees are using multi faceted systems that can affect productivity and even shrink job satisfaction. These systems are so complex that guests are left waiting while employees navigate the user interface for information  information that should be mobile, on their fingertips and readily available at any given point of the day. Mobile technologies that allow for internal connectivity, communication, access to all information can be extremely valuable for operations and in-house staff.

A mobile platform can provide more benefits due to its flexible nature. For instance, staff members have instant access to the company intranet allowing them to provide enhanced service to guests. Gaining that access to daily news and real time updates increases their ability to work efficiently and with complete information. On the other hand, management can use employee behaviour data to optimise their operational processes. The key is to find technology that will save your employee's time in doing routine tasks with all the required information to perform their job, available for their use at any time along with giving managers access to gather and analyse staff data. It will fit your operational purpose with simplicity in function and adaptability and most importantly, help improve your strategic goals and bottom-line.

By finding platforms that are multifaceted and provide different features to tie your operational processes together, it could provide valuable data into how staff carries out their work, and how it affects factors such as employee retention, satisfaction and productivity. These metrics have a direct impact on guests as well as the bottom line.

Features such as communication could include sending out daily updates regarding VIP guests or check in's or having a portable database with documents on security, personnel HR, training, employee marketing and departmental reports. These enable staff to remain informed at all times, stay updated with recent knowledge and skills allowing them to do their tasks optimally and provide impeccable guest service. Just by using such a feature, guest satisfaction and retention can increase; along with productivity, again, positively affecting the bottom-line.

Added features such as surveys and feedback provide management with the opportunity to engage with their teams and have open dialogue frequently. Managers can respond faster to employee feedback, take action, and create a sense of community. As a result, employee retention boosts, satisfaction surges and the costs of hiring are reduced!

Bonus functions such as chatting, conducting assessments, filling checklists and inventory lists allow for optimising operational processes, reduced paper trails and collecting analytical in-house process data that can help management strategize better.

To simplify this, it is advisable to contain the adoption of technology within one department initially. This can help gauge responsiveness from both employees and management. From there on, the technology can then be adopted by others (property wide or company wide). Management, too, can better adapt the use of this app and observe staff responses. Once the platforms are in use, and then integrating them into existing systems to heighten usage and optimise processes amplifies seamless operations.

When fully functional, management can create reports to recognise their team skills and compare and correlate usage within the app to metrics such as employee satisfaction and retention, guest satisfaction and retention, printing costs, training costs and productivity levels, all of which will be demonstrated financially as well.

By working with developers to customise technology to best suit your property, it allows you to exploit every function for maximum efficiency. With all the technology available at our disposal, do not invest in technology without purpose; rather invest in technology that serves your staff to serve your guests better eventually.

Lotss connects the entire workforce within companies bringing them together to increase productivity, engagement and internal communication. Lotss tehcnology is a controlled management communitcation tool integrating a staff platform with operations, accross multiple platforms.

Prachi Chhabria

Co-founder

Lotss
Mason previously served as chief operating officer and chief financial officer for ALM Media LLC, a leading provider of specialized industry news and information, based in New York.

Questex LLC, a leading global business event and information company, today announced the appointment of Debra S. Mason, a veteran finance executive, as chief financial officer, responsible for leading the companys global financial operations.

Reporting to Kerry C. Gumas, Questex president and chief executive officer, Mason will be based in New York.

Debra is a talented and accomplished leader with over 25 years of experience as a chief financial officer in relevant sectors including media, marketing and event services, advertising and market research, said Gumas. Her track record demonstrates an ability to create value and growth for companies where she has been part of the leadership team. We look forward to Debra applying her financial and business expertise and collaborating with our executive team to drive value and growth for all our stakeholders.

Mason previously served as chief operating officer and chief financial officer for ALM Media LLC, a leading provider of specialized industry news and information, based in New York. Prior to that, she was chief financial officer for the Americas region of Ipsos, a global market research firm, where she spent nine years as a key advisor to the business leaders while driving efficiencies through process improvements and strategic cost reductions as well as assisting in the negotiations of acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures and alliances.

It is a great opportunity for me to join the Questex leadership team at this point in the companys growth trajectory, said Mason. Questex has tremendous capabilities, talented people and growth potential. Im excited to continue building on the companys success in global events and digital information products, bringing innovations to customers and creating value for our constituents.

Her previous leadership positions include chief operating officer and chief financial officer of X Plus One Solutions Inc., a technology start-up formerly known as Poindexter Systems Inc.; six years with Interpublic Group, where she served as the global CFO of several divisions, including Jack Morton Worldwide, a global event marketing group, and NFO WorldGroup, a leader in market research; and CFO at full-service advertising agencies, including the independent brands of The Lowe Group, Mullen and Wolf Group.

Mason began her career in auditing with PricewaterhouseCoopers and EY, formerly Ernst & Young. She earned a bachelor of arts degree in economics and a bachelor of science degree in accounting at The University at Buffalo School of Management, State University of New York. She is a certified public accountant in the State of New York and earned designations including Chartered Global Management Accountant and Certified Valuation Analyst.

About Questex

Questex LLC is a leading global business events and information company serving corporate and government clients and industries that are driving economic growth and business innovation around the world.

The company drives business investment, innovation and demand-creation in the markets it serves by bringing together investors, buyers, sellers and professionals through its over 120 trade shows, conferences and other business events and informing them through related business media and information products. Questexs industry-focused business units include Life Sciences & Healthcare, Hospitality & Travel, Beauty & Wellness, Technology & Telecom groups.

Questex is headquartered in Newton, Massachusetts. The company employs over 350 professional staff members operating in the United States and the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions. For more information, visit questex.com.

CLICK HERE to download a high-resolution image of Debra Mason.

CONTACT:

Evy Apostolatos

RDR PR LLC

Evy@rdrpr.com

973-452-7208
Owned by Amazing Investment, LLC and managed by Fine Hospitality, Home2 Suites by Hilton Azusa offers all-suite accommodations with fully equipped kitchens and modular furniture, providing guests the flexibility to customize their suite to their style and preference.

Home2 Suites by Hilton, part of Hilton's (NYSE: HLT) All Suites portfolio, announced today its newest property, Home2 Suites by Hilton Azusa. Designed for travelers who want to maintain their normal routine, the hotel features 110 suites and a range of value, tech-focused and eco-conscious amenities. Home2 Suites by Hilton Azusa complements the year-over-year tourism growth in Los Angeles County, which hosted 47.3 million visitors in 2016, a 4 percent increase over the previous year.

"Whether guests are visiting Azusa Pacific University or coming to experience the beauty of the Canyon City's natural wonders, Home2 Suites Azusa puts guests' comfort and convenience first," said Kasee Osborn, general manager. "Our spacious suites and exceptional amenities provide unique experiences for extended-stay or one-night travelers."

Owned by Amazing Investment, LLC and managed by Fine Hospitality, Home2 Suites by Hilton Azusa offers all-suite accommodations with fully equipped kitchens and modular furniture, providing guests the flexibility to customize their suite to their style and preference. The hotel also features complimentary Internet, inviting communal spaces, and trademark Home2 Suites amenities such as Spin2 Cycle, a combined laundry and fitness area, Home2 MKT for grab-and-go items, and the Inspired Table, a complimentary daily breakfast that includes more than 400 potential combinations. Guests can also enjoy an outdoor saline pool and grill area. Home2 Suites by Hilton Azusa Suites is pet-friendly.

Located at 229 S. Azusa Avenue, Home2 Suites by Hilton Azusa offers guests convenient access to Azusa Pacific University, City of Hope and the Metro Gold Line, which gives guests the opportunity to easily commute to Pasadena, Los Angeles and Hollywood. This hotel is also within walking distance to dining and shopping, along with nearby places to visit such as the Durrell House Museum.
Klaxoon Survey: 22 Percent of Americans Feel Most Meetings Are a Waste of Time

Posted by Press Releases on Monday, 07-31-2017 10:59 am

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New data from innovative workspace tools company Klaxoon reveals how different Americans feel aboutand behave inmeetings and why so many meetings fail Today, Klaxoon, an innovative company dedicated to collaborative meeting tools, released the results of its America in Meetings study. The survey of over 2,000 American adults age 18+ was conducted with Propeller Insights June 30-July 5, 2017. The survey looked at what gets people engaged in meetings, how they spend their time when theyre zoning out, and some differences between men and women, introverts and extroverts, Democrats and Republicans, and Millennialsat work and in meetings. Americans: Talented Multi-taskers About half of Americans (49 percent) say they are being asked to participate in more meetings now than they were a year ago, and 28 percent say meetings have gotten longer. Whats more, as workforce models are moving from fixed to fluid, Americans are having ever more virtual meetings. When asked what the bigges...

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Thailand Board of Investment Launches Strategic Talent Center (STC)

Posted by Press Releases on Monday, 07-31-2017 11:55 am

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The STC will serve as a government agency nexus for companies seeking to do business in Thailand.Thailand Board of Investments New York office announces the July 3rd launch of the Strategic Talent Center (STC), an office in Bangkok dedicated to helping science and technology companies successfully establish operations in Thailand. The Strategic Talent Center will serve as a nexus for multiple government agencies and will help companies find highly skilled Thai and foreign workers, register these experts with the appropriate governmental institutions, and facilitate the visa and work permit processes, among other services.In February, Thailand announced its 4.0 initiative, an extensive economic plan intended to bring Thailand to its full potential as the ASEAN regions industrial hub. The rigorous plan to transform the Thai economy includes investment, business attraction, and infrastructural development initiatives. One of the most important elements of the 4.0 plan calls for additi...

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In the mid-1990s, I remember riding in Disneys Its a small world boat ride. Although it has been a few years since then, I still hear the song in my head: Its a small world after allIts a small, small world. You, reading these lines, probably hear it too! On that very first time, I did not think of the world as small but as immense. Since then, Ive traveled the world and had the privilege of seeing some of those attractions, the real ones. But as I think about my 12 years living overseas, the other years working across the globe, and other years visiting elements of my organization around the world, I have to admit, its a small, small world. What happened to that immense world? Did we shrink it? Maybe we did. At least, todays interconnectivity make it seem that way. Today, organizations require not just a leader, but a global leader, one with the skills to lead cross-culturally. Let us explore how we got to this point, and then explore how a leader can develop the competencies to effectively lead as a global leader. A Leadership Evolution: From Leader to Global Leader Twenty-five years ago, leaders thought of their teams as the product of operations in mostly the local area. Geographically dispersed, for most, meant that the leader had to drive or perhaps fly within the continental United States to meet with their teams. When leaders thought about large and even multinat...
We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector
Doha, July 31 (IBNS): Qatar's first polysilicon plant, Qatar Solar Technologies, began production recently. Said to be the largest in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, the plant was built by global EPC conglomerate Punj Lloyd.

The contract for the 8,000 metric tonnes per annum (MTPA) manufacturing facility in Qatar was awarded to Punj Lloyd by Qatar Solar Technologies (QSTec) as part of QSTecs plans to set up a plant for high-purity solar grade polysilicon.

The site was in Ras Laffan Industrial City in the north east of Qatar, the heart of Qatars LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) refineries and exports.



Speaking on this milestone, Director of Punj Lloyd, Atul Jain said, We are happy that as the EPC contractor of this world-class facility, we have been able to establish our clients commitment to sustainability, environmental protection and greenhouse gas reduction.

QSTec plans to expand the capacity of this plant to over 50,000 MTPA.

After producing the first polysilicon, QSTecs Chairman and CEO, Dr. Khalid K. Al Hajri said: We are now moving from the construction phase towards full scale production and its an incredibly exciting time for QSTec and the regions solar industry. The MENA regions solar industry is forecast for high growth and QSTec is well positioned to meet this demand.

Polysilicon is the key raw material used in 90% of the worlds solar modules.

The new facility uses environmentally friendly technologies, next generation reactors, energy efficient cooling systems and advanced waste treatment facilities that recycle excess gasses and water for reuse in a closed loop system that reduces costs.



QSTecs new facility has a 1.1 megawatt solar installation that includes a ground mounted solar farm as well as rooftop and solar car parking shades.



The Punj Lloyd Group is a diversified international conglomerate offering EPC services in Energy and Infrastructure along with engineering and manufacturing capabilities in the Defence sector.
Mumbai, July 31 (IBNS): Online shopping company Snapdeal on Monday announced their decision to call off the talks of a merger with their rival Flipkart, media reports said.

Snapdeal, which is based in Gurgaon, said they want to pursue an "independent path".

A snapdeal spokesperson was quoted by The Times of India, saying: "Snapdeal has been exploring strategic options over the last several months. The company has now decided to pursue an independent path and is terminating all strategic discussions as a result."

The company said they would look to be self sustainable by selling some of their shares like Axis Bank has decided to buy the mobile payment wallet FreeCharge for Rs 385 crore.

"Snapdeal's vision has always been to create life-changing experiences for millions of buyers and sellers across India. We have a new and compelling direction - Snapdeal 2.0 - that uniquely furthers this vision, and have made significant progress towards the ability to execute this by achieving a gross profit this month" the company said in a statement.

Image: Creative Commons.
Kolkata, July 28 (IBNS):Bangalore based Jonna Venkata Karthik Raja, the 18 year old Founder of Paperboy, is ecstatic as his 15 months of toil has finally come to fruition.

Paperboy is a mobile app that features the widest range of Indian newspapers and magazines that is uploaded on real time on to its platform.

Paperboy is a language agnostic platform and will hence feature vernacular publications which is a crucial part of Indian news consumption habits.

Paperboy aims to appeal to the global readership base of newspapers and envisions to becoming the ultimate platform to browse, buy and read each ones local news on the go.

West Bengal is an important market for Paperboy.

The company has already listed over 62% newspapers from the region and hopes to achieve 100% listing in the months to come.

Paperboy currently lists over 400 newspapers and magazines nationally and is live on the Google Playstore.

Karthik Raja conceptualised this idea as he was finishing school, when he found that he was missing his daily routine newspaper whenever he was travelling.

It wasnt too late before his entrepreneurial instincts kicked in and he went about developing a blue print for the platform. He then went about enlisting the support of his parents who were very encouraging and supportive of his venture.

Originally launched with just two team members, Paperboy has now grown into a team of 50 young, energetic and enterprising individuals. With their primary focus on Tier 2 and 3 cities, which represents almost 31.16 % of Indias population, Paperboy has already aggregated the widest variety of regional newspapers on their platform.

Adds young Jonna Venkata Karthik Raja  Founder,Paperboy, I conceptualised Paperboy as I found a distinctive correlation between newspaper reading and digital devices. When I found that I was missing my everyday newspaper while travelling, it prompted me to find a solution for this, albeit digitally. Research and discussions with my friends led me to developing the online platform that can present news each day on a screen of your choice. In the long run I am hoping to take this solution to other markets oversees as the platform can easily be scaled to accommodate any language.

With a clean and simple interface, the app contains no pop up ads or interferences, and lets one access their news both in online and offline mode; thus, making it easy to for people to read their favourite newspapers at their convenience. Inspired by the increased adoption of digital content all over the world, Paperboy now brings the daily newspaper tailored to your device, be it Android, iOS or the web.It provides the same experience of reading ones favourite newspaper but on a screen which is the in-vogue format of choice today.

Download the app from the Google Play Store - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.paperboy.paperboy&hl=en
New Delhi, July 31 (IBNS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday urged people to suggest their ideas for his Independence Day Speech.

"When I address the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort on 15th August, I am merely the medium. The voice is of 125 crore Indians," Modi tweeted.

The Prime Minister said an open forum has been crated on his app for the suggestions.

"Share your ideas for the speech on 15th August, on the specially created open forum on the NM App. http://nm4.in/dnldapp," he said.

India celebrates its Independence day on Aug 15.

The Prime Minister will address the nation from Red Fort.
Leh, July 31 (IBNS): Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti welcomed Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama who is currently on a visit to Leh in connection with an annual Buddhist function.

Addressing a large gathering on Sunday, the Chief Minister highlighted the pluralistic ethos of Jammu and Kashmir and described it as the abode of different faiths and cultures.

She said people living in amity and brotherhood is the specialty of the state and underlined the need for strengthening the bonds among various sections of the

society.

Mehbooba Mufti praised Dalai Lama for his recent statement in which he had criticized the elements who were out to label Muslims as terrorists.

The Dalai Lama had asked people to follow the path of harmony and amity with each other.

She said the statement from such a towering personality was the need of the hour.

The Chief Minister wished Dalai Lama a long life and good health.

She hoped that he would continue to visit the State in future and bless its people.

The Chief Minister said it is the intention of her Government to attract more and more tourists to Ladakh and market it appropriately in the tourism market.

She said she has proposed to have annual Kailash Mansarovar Yatra through Leh which would increase the tourist footfall in the region by a great measure.

She appreciated the people of Leh for maintaining a hygienic environment despite heavy tourist rush.

The Dalai Lama, in his address, expressed gratitude to the Chief Minister for her visit.

He appreciated her massive public outreach saying that he is of the belief that she can get the State out of the difficulties with her sincerity, dedication and zeal.

Later, the Chief Minister had a one-to-one interaction with the Dalai Lama.
New Delhi/Mumbai, Jul 31 (IBNS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to a tweet from the Prime Minister's Office has sanctioned rupees two lakh each for the next of kin of those who lost their lives due to a building collapse in Ghatkopar, Mumbai.

He has also approved Rs. 50,000 each for those injured in the building collapse.

Last Tuesday, the building collapse in Ghatkopar's Siddhi Sai complex resulted in the death of 17 people, many injured and around nine families rendered homeless, according to media reports.

The following day, Shiv Sena leader Sunil Shitap was arrested following an inquiry into the building collapse with police reports saying that Shitap was carrying out an illegal renovation in a nursing home owned by him on the ground floor of the building. Subsequently, supervisor Anil Mandal has also been arrested by the police, according to media reports.

On Thursday last, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced that those rendered homeless will be given temporary homes in two days and redevelopment work will begin in 10 days.

According to media reports, the homeless families have alleged that the promised help from the CM has not arrived.

Image: CMO Maharashtra
Srinagar, Jul 31 (IBNS): Suspected armed militants looted five lakh cash from a Jammu and Kashmir Bank branch in south Kashmiras Anantnag district on Monday.

According to reports, burqa clad armed militants barged in to the bank branch in Arwani in Anantnag and looted around five lakh rupees.

Militants also fired some shots in the air before leaving the bank.

Meanwhile, Security Forces have reached the spot and began operations to nab the looters.



Reporting by Saleem Qadri
New Delhi, Jul 31 (IBNS) : The Lok Sabha on Monday took up for discussion the reported incidents of atrocities and lynching in mob violence in the country with the opposition criticising the Narendra Modi Government and the BJP defending it.

Initiating the discussion, Congress member Mallikarjun Kharge criticised the Prime Minister for not talking about the issue enough and listed the various incidents of lynchings in Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

The Prime Minister has not spoken about the killings on his Mann Ki Baat programme," he said.

This Government is imposing itself on what a person can eat and who one can love,..Let us be Hindustan and not Lynchistan. Kharge said.

BJPs Hukmdev Narayan Yadav, who defenced the Government, questioned why only certain incidents were considered lynchings.

He also said that Muslims must "learn to live with Hindus."

Muslims must learn to live with Hindus respecting their culture and traditions," Yadav said.

During Kharge's speech, BJP members raised a ruckus and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar demanded that the Congress leader must provide supporting evidence of what he was alleging.

Kharge must validate all the documents he is reading from. Every state Government has taken action against each of these incidents. He is misleading the House," he said.

In the Rajya Sabha, after initial uproar over the alleged kidnapping of MLAs by police in Gujarat, the house was adjourned briefly before resuming Question Hour.
New Delhi, Jul 31 (IBNS): The Union government informed the Supreme Court on Monday that it will take a decision, whether or not to roll out Genetically Modified (GM) Mustard crop, in a month's time. according to media reports.

The apex court had asked the Union government to clarify if GM crops were detrimental to the health of humans and animals, reports said.

According to media reports, a subcommittee of the the Ministry of Environment has already declared GM mustard safe and no public concern is involved.

The Environment Ministry reiterated the findings in its affidavit to the Supreme Court, media reported.

However, experts are divided on the benefits of GM Mustard. While some believe that it is likely to alleviate poverty of farmers, others believe that the destruction of indigenous varieties of Mustard seeds may be harmful in the long run.



Image: AIRNews/Twitter
Bhubaneswar, July 31 (IBNS): Voice for Child Rights in Odisha (VCRO), in collaboration with CRY a Child Rights and You, a leading child rights organisation, launched a campaign, aGiving Children of Odisha A Healthy Starta, to address the issue of child health and malnutrition in five tribal districts of Odisha.

With almost 35% of total under-5 child population in the state under-weight, and 45% children in the same age-group suffering from anaemia, Odisha is one of the states which lag behind the National status of child health and malnutrition.

The scenario is even worse in tribal districts of the state, as data suggest.

Despite the recent decline in infant and child mortality (IMR and U5MR), the state still fares poorly in comparison to the National estimate. As NFHS 4 data reveals, 40 children (per 1000 live birth) still die within the first year of life, and 49 (per 1000 live birth) die before they reach 5 years of age.

Keeping this ground-reality in mind, the aim of the six month long campaign will be to reduce the rate of child malnutrition below the National average, through increasing awareness and participation of the communities and concerned service providers at the village level, as stated by the organising NGOs.

The State Social Welfare Board and the Odisha Chapter of National Health Mission (NHM) welcomed the initiative by CRY and VCRO.

They also expressed hope that this kind of awareness drives should be extended to the entire state.

Litika Pradhan, Chirperson Social Welfare Board said, Its significant that the campaign aims at coordination and convergence of government and non-government bodies to ensure health and nutrition for children and mothers.

She also advocated for childrens creches at the village level, so that working mothers in the rural areas can avail the opportunity to ensure nutrition and care for their children.

Dr. Prasant Saboth of NHM said, Even though we have resources, changing the mindset of people is the biggest challenge. Health and hygiene are important components in reducing malnutrition, and this campaign will go a long way towards building mass awareness and ensuring best practices among the communities.

The campaign will reach out to more than 5000 children and 3000 mothers in 158 villages in 10 blocks of five backward districts, namely Mayurbhanj, Bolangir, Bargarh, Kalahandi, and Koraput, as the grass-roots level NGOs partnering CRY and VCRO will be involved in collection of data from the respective intervention villages to assess the nutritional status of children in the age group of 0-5 years.

Explaining the plan and modality of the campaign Ashim Kumar Ghosh, Chief of CRY operations in Odisha said, The campaign is divided into two components. While the first includes growth monitoring of 0-5 years children in the mentioned districts and advocate for the development of malnourished children with the support of state agencies and communities, the second aspect aims at advocacy towards enhanced Implementation of Policy, Scheme, legislation and services at the grass root level on health policy for the mothers and children below 5 years.

Elaborating the approach of the action-intensive campaign, Bidyut Mohanty, Convenor of VCRO said, It will work on both responsive and preventive ways, with all respective stakeholders bringing them at one platform to operate at the village levels.

On one hand the campaigners will identify critically malnourished children to refer them for further treatment and ensure that the communities are better prepared to prevent malnourishment; and on the other the service providers will be roped in to enhance the quality of services with certain non-negotiable mandate from the State, Mohanty added.

Image: CRY Facebook page
Guwahati, July 31 (IBNS): Security forces on Monday apprehended two militants belonging to NDFB (S) from upper Assamas Dibrugarh district, officials said.

Following a tip-off, police and army jointly launched an operation at Roumari reserve forest area near Moran and nabbed the militant duo.

A top police official said the nabbed militants were taken to shelter at the reserve forest and they were identified as Ranjit Daimary and Prakash Bodo.

Security personnel recovered one 9mm pistol with 9 rounds ammunition and a point 22mm pistol with 10 rounds ammunition in possession from them.



(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Guwahati, July 31 (IBNS) : Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Assam on Aug 1 to review the flood situation in the state.

Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday said PM Modi will take part in a review meeting with Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, other state ministers, top officials at Assam Administrative Staff College in Guwahati.

He will also address a legislators meeting of BJP and its ally parties Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF) at the same venue, the Assam minister said.

The current wave flood has claimed 82 lives and affecting over 2.5 million people of 29 districts.

On the other hand, PM Modi will take part two separate meetings with Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh and Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu.

The Assam minister said that, Assam government will submit a memorandum to the PM for seeking permanent measures of flood and erosion in the state.

Meanwhile, tight security has been arranged in Guwahati for PM visit.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath, Picture: Image of Modi during his recent visit to flood-hit Gujarat)


Thiruvananthapuram, July 31 (IBNS): Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan lost his cool ahead of his meeting with BJP and RSS members on Monday as he asked the journalists to "get out" from the room, media reports said.

CM Vijayan held a peace meeting with BJP and RSS members on Monday following the death of a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker Rajesh Edavakode after his palm was chopped off few days ago.

The meeting was also called at the backdrop of violence witnessed by the state recently.

Though the journalists were not stopped from entering the meeting room but asked to leave when the CM arrived.

The Chief Minister himself shouted "get out", as per media reports.

Rajesh, 34, died in a private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram after the brutal attack left his palm chopped off.

Inspector General of Police Manoj Abraham told NDTV that: "The attack was by a gang of men involving CPM (Communist Party of India (Marxist) activists. However, there was a long history of enmity between one of the accused and the victim. We are also probing any angle of political motive."

Rajesh died two days after a BJP state office was attacked.

Image: Official Facebook page of Pinarayi Vijayan.
Image: twitter.com/yadavtejashwi

Patna, July 31 (TheBiharPost/IBNS): Bihar opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav on Monday jeered at Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar terming him as a anew bhaktaa (disciple) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Congratulations to honourable PM Modi ji on making another one as his bhakta, Tejashiwi who served as the deputy chief minister in the previous grand alliance government tweeted.

He said Nitish Kumar didnt openly praise the PM during his stint with the grand alliance as he was aware of their self-esteem and hence scripted the split story.

The Bihar Chief Minister earned Tejashwis criticisms after he praised the Modi and claimed the latter would return as the Prime Minister of the country after 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Speaking to media after forming the government in Bihar following dramatic end to the 20-month-old grand alliance with Lalu Prasad Yadav's RJD and the Cogress, Nitish Kumar said: "Nobody in India has the capacity to take on Modi ji."

The next Lok Sabha election is scheduled to take place in 2019.

Modi became Prime Minister after his BJP recorded a massive win the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

(thebiharpost.com)


Image: twitter.com/AmitShah

New Delhi, July 31 (IBNS): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah on Monday said he won't be resigning as the party chief even if he is elected to the Rajya Sabha.

He said there is no question of resignation from the post as he is working "happily" and "wholeheartedly."

Shah is contesting the Rajya Sabha elections from Gujarat that is scheduled to be held on August 8.

"I have the responsibility of being the party president. I am happy, and I am working wholeheartedly," Shah told reporters in Lucknow.
Srinagar, July 31 (IBNS): The Indian Army foiled an infiltration bid and killed a militant near the Line of Control (LoC) in Uri area of north Kashmiras Baramulla district on Monday evening.

According to defence sources, the army challenged the militant who was trying to infiltrate into this side of the border along the LoC in Torna village last night.

The militant opened fire, following which army retaliated and the infiltrator got killed.

Speaking to India Blooms in Srinagar, spokesman of army Rajesh Kalia said the Army has recovered the body of militant along the LoC.

One AK 47 and other ammunition were recovered from his possession and his identity is yet be ascertained, the spokesman added.



(Reporting by Saleem Iqbal Qadri)
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New Delhi, July 31 (IBNS): External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday launched a veiled attack on Pakistan while delivering the inaugural address at the India-US Forum saying that her country's "Neighbourhood Firsta policy has yielded results with all nations in the region barring one.

"In our external engagement, too, we have shown greater energy and pursued a pragmatic and outcome-oriented foreign policy."

"This is reflected in our unprecedented diplomatic outreach covering the bulk of international community irrespective of size and distance. Our 'Neighbourhood First' policy has yielded results with all countries in the region barring one. Our interactions with major powers have increased in both quality and frequency," Swaraj said.

The Minister said that India has transformed the Look East Policy into the Act East Policy.

"Relationship with countries of Africa, Gulf region and Latin America have enhanced considerably. We have shown greater readiness to take on global responsibilities & share burdens, commensurate with our growing capacities. Global good & Indian interests are seen increasingly as symbiotic and mutually-reinforcing," she said.

Speaking about Indo-US relations, Swaraj said, "A strong US is in Indias interest and we believe that a stronger India should equally be a US priority."

Full text of Inaugural Address by External Affairs Minister at the India-US Forum

My colleague in the Ministry MoS Gen. V K Singh

Shri Jamshyd Godrej Ji,Chairman, Ananta Centre

Distinguished Guests

Ladies & Gentlemen

I am delighted to address you all at the inaugural edition of the India-US Forum. I welcome you and would like to express my deep appreciation for your presence.

The strong relationship between India and US is based on our shared values of individual liberty, freedom, democracy, pluralism, rule of law and justice; and strengthened by our increasing convergence on bilateral, regional & global issues.

Last two decades have seen a rapid transformation in India-US relations which has truly become a strategic partnership of global significance. Having greater awareness about our respective postures and positions on a range of issues has, therefore, become more important than ever before. Candid conversations and regular dialogue among a broader range of stakeholders are necessary to steadily increase comfort levels, expand convergences and improve our understanding of each-other.

The US-India Forum has been conceived to provide a platform for such a dialogue. It brings together government, parliamentary and business leaders as well as strategic thinkers, academic experts & media personalities on both sides.

We hope to make this into an annual gathering. I am confident, that with time, it will emerge as a premier forum for generating ideas and giving guidance.

Ladies & Gentlemen,

In his address to the Asia Society in New York in September 2000, PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee had described India and the US as "natural allies. He had added that India-US partnership was necessitated by our "common interests but was "important, above all, for Asia. At that time, this statement was more a reflection of his aspiration for India-US ties rather than an accomplished outcome. However, as we stand here, 17 years later, these words sound prophetic.

We have possibly accomplished more than what Prime Minister Vajpayee imagined at that time. In the intervening years, we have built a web of ties whose range, sweep and depth extends to diverse areas of cooperation.

Capturing the essence of this development, Prime Minister Modi - while speaking a decade and half later at a Joint Meeting of the US Congress in June 2016 - announced that "our relationship has overcome the hesitations of history.

In saying so, he was alluding not just to the current strength of our relationship but the ever-growing ambition that has come to characterize it in recent times.

Deeper convergences in critical areas of shared interests have provided an edge to our natural affinity, based on shared values & principles as the largest and oldest democracies. This alone distinguishes our partnership from any other that we both have with the rest of the world.

It is easy for us to take it all for granted today. However, the state of our relations was not always so. Decades ago, a US observer had described our relations as one between "Estranged Democracies. But the end of the Cold War and opening of Indian economy in the early 1990s offered new opportunities.

Broader geo-political trends around the world &, in particular, in Asia also helped create new imperatives. The emergence of India as a growth engine and its willingness to engage more actively regionally and globally provided new options. But it is one thing to have opportunities; quite another to make use of them.

We were fortunate to have leaders on both sides who worked strenuously to bring us to the high point in our relationship that we are at present. However, we cannot afford to rest on our successes and must continue to work to realize our full potential.

In doing so, it is important to first understand the trends in both countries. India is undergoing a deeper and broader transformation. In the last three years, we witness a new energy - both in our domestic and external postures. Ambitious programmes have been launched by the Government to expand manufacturing, build new infrastructure and skill human resources.

Determined efforts to attract technology, foreign investments and best practices have been supplemented by carefully planned initiatives to improve business conditions, removing bottlenecks & creating a friendly ecosystem. The scale and size of the changes can be gauged by the fact that the government has removed 1200 obsolete laws and taken 7000 steps to improve ease of doing business at the federal level alone in the last three years.

It is also reflected in ambitious reforms such as the introduction of Goods & Services Tax which is the biggest economic reform since independence.

These efforts are yielding concrete results. India has emerged as one of the largest recipients of foreign direct investments, reaching the figure of US$ 60 billion last year. Major credit agencies have rated India as one of the most competitive economies. It has become the fastest growing major economy with healthy fundamentals that will ensure sustained high growth rate for the next decade.

The ongoing transformation goes beyond economic reforms to include a broader social agenda. The emphasis on clean India is about changing the mindset. There is a new emphasis on financial inclusion. The introduction of direct cash benefit transfer scheme aims at cutting out intermediaries and rooting out corruption.

Use of digital identity to deliver services to the underprivileged or use of mobile phones as a socio-economic tool are other examples. We have also placed special emphasis on skill-development, empowerment of women and housing for all.

In our external engagement, too, we have shown greater energy and pursued a pragmatic and outcome-oriented foreign policy.

This is reflected in our unprecedented diplomatic outreach covering the bulk of international community irrespective of size and distance. Our "Neighbourhood First policy has yielded results with all countries in the region barring one. Our interactions with major powers have increased in both quality and frequency.

We have transformed the Look East Policy into the Act East Policy. Relationship with countries of Africa, Gulf region and Latin America have enhanced considerably. We have shown greater readiness to take on global responsibilities & share burdens, commensurate with our growing capacities. Global good & Indian interests are seen increasingly as symbiotic and mutually-reinforcing.

On its part, the US too, is undergoing a change. Internally, it shifted its economic focus to create more jobs, revive manufacturing, rebuild infrastructure and expand prosperity. On the external front, it is in the process of redefining the terms of its engagement with the rest of the world.

Both these processes are creating new opportunities for bilateral cooperation. A strong US is in Indias interest and we believe that a stronger India should equally be a US priority.

The visit of PM Modi to Washington DC last month should be seen in this context. This first meeting between the two leaders, confirmed once again that our partnership transcends changes in governments and cuts across political divides in both countries.

The spontaneous rapport and warmth we witnessed between the two leaders was as much about personal chemistry as it was about growing affinity between the people of the two countries.

The visit reaffirmed the principal directions of our relationship and provides a firm basis for us to further strengthen it. The outcomes and understandings reached set up a clear agenda for bilateral, regional and multilateral cooperation in the coming years. At bilateral level, we are today cooperating effectively in all areas that the two countries can possibly conceive of. The US is a partner of choice when it comes to Indias social and economic transformation through our various flagship programmes.

Our growing trade & investment engagements have helped build prosperity and well-being of our citizens by creating jobs and expanding growth opportunities.

Indias emergence as the worlds fastest growing major economy and the revival of growth in the US create win-win opportunities for both countries.

It is not coincidental that a rapidly growing Indian market has created demands from the US in civil aviation, energy and defence sectors. Indias plans to expand its nuclear and renewable energy sectors, and diversify its energy sources have opened new possibilities. Similarly, US growth creates export opportunities for Indian manufacturing & skills.

Our common commitment to promoting technology, innovation and knowledge-based economic activities provides us with new possibilities in these areas. The success of Indian entrepreneurs and innovators in the Silicon Valley is widely known. This has been a mutually beneficial partnership which needs to be nurtured. Further, both countries are known for entrepreneurial skills. It is, therefore, significant that India and US will co-host the next Global Entrepreneurship Summit in India this year.

The increasing strategic convergence between our countries is also reflected in our defence ties. Our military exchanges have grown in range and complexity. The focus now is on co-production and co-development. The recognition by the US of India as its Major Defence Partner is an important development; and we hope that it will enable higher levels of technology partnerships that is essential for the success of joint projects.

Ladies & Gentlemen,

Another area of growing convergence is the high priority being attached by both sides to countering terrorism. Both our countries have been direct victims of this scourge. In India, we have been facing cross-border terrorism for many years now. This is now recognized as a larger regional  even global  challenge. The clear and unambiguous message given jointly by PM Modi and President Trump needs to be pursued with resolve by the international community.

An important theatre of cooperation over the last decade and half between India and US has been Afghanistan. We deeply appreciate the sacrifices made by the US to preserve peace, security and democracy in Afghanistan. However, it is important that the international community, particularly the US, must remain engaged in Afghanistan so that the gains of last 16 years are not frittered away.

India has made its own contributions and we remain committed to continue supporting the Government and people of Afghanistan.

We have pledged another 1 billion to the earlier US$ 2 billion as reflection of our continued commitment. During PMs visit to the US, our leaders have agreed to work together and with the Government of Afghanistan to secure a democratic, peaceful, prosperous and stable Afghanistan.

One of the main challenges confronting the world today is the evolving situation in the Indo-Pacific. Strong India-US partnership is critical for peace, stability and prosperity in this region. Enunciation of common principles to guide our approach in the region during the visit of Prime Minister is, therefore, significant. India and the US stand together in upholding an international rules-based system that has benefited all nations.

We have also outlined the principles that should be adhered to in undertaking connectivity initiatives, including ensuring respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity. India will continue to work with the US and other partners in support of these objectives and principles.

There are several other areas, where our engagements have gone beyond purely bilateral domain and yielded global benefits. These include development of affordable vaccines for rotavirus or dengue; joint studies of gravitational waves, observation of distant planets; establishing norms for cyberspace; training peacekeepers in Africa; or extending humanitarian assistance in the Indo-Pacific. We are also pooling efforts to complement development efforts in third countries.

An area of strength in our relationship right from the outset has been the presence of a large Indian diaspora in the US. They have not only contributed to strengthening of the US economy but also provide the links between our two countries. We are also connected by over 160,000 Indian students studying in the US. These links need to be preserved and nurtured. We are happy to note that Indias entry in the Global Entry Programme during the visit of Prime Minister is one such measure that will help buttress these people-to people contacts.

Ladies & Gentlemen,

Speaking at the Joint Press Interaction, Prime Minister said that India and the US were partners not only in realizing their potentials but also in facing the present and future challenges. President Trump said "the relationship between India and United States has never been stronger and has never been better. He added that "the future of our partnership has never looked brighter.

I would say that it is with this sense of confidence and optimism, that we should pursue our engagements.

Let me once again extend a very warm welcome to all of you and wish you all success in your deliberations.

Thank You !
Dubai, UAE, July 31 (IBNS): A record total of 8.06 million international overnight tourists arrived in Dubai during the first six months of 2017, reflecting a stellar 10.6 per cent increase over the same period last year.

Figures released by Dubais Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) affirm the foundational strength, and sustained acceleration of the emirates tourism sector, as it stayed the course of its impressive growth trajectory from January this year, underscoring the expanding appeal of Dubai as a global tourism destination of choice.

Almost all of Dubais top 20 inbound visitor source markets saw positive or near stable year-on-year performances in H1 2017, with five of the top 10 delivering standout double-digit growth. India continued to top the list of traffic generators, for the first time crossing the 1 million mark over a six-month period with 1,051,000 Indians visiting the city between January and June, up 21 per cent over the same period last year.

Saudi Arabia and the UK retained their spots as the second and third largest feeder markets respectively, with the former rallying to stabilise in June despite facing economic challenges in 2017, while the latter delivered reliable volumes backed by solid 4 per cent year-on-year growth.

The strategic impetus of recent regulatory changes granting citizens from China and Russia free visa-on-arrival access to the UAE was evident in the continued growth peaks being delivered from these markets as they topped the charts with 55 per cent and 97 per cent increases respectively over the first six months of 2016. As a result, China delivered 413,000 visitors to end H1 2017 in fifth place, and Russia cemented its return to the top 10 with 233,000 visitors.

With the exception of Oman  the GCCs second highest volume driver  which continued its negative slide through 2017 witnessing a sharp 30 per cent decline, the remainder of the top 10 all saw increased contributions. The USA continued its resurgence to end mid-year up 6 per cent in sixth place, followed by Pakistan up 11 per cent in seventh, Iran up 27 per cent in eighth, and Germany up 6 per cent in ninth spots respectively.

From a regional perspective, Western Europe contributed 21 per cent of the overnight visitor volumes, maintaining its pole position from earlier in the year, reflective of Dubai Tourisms strong international destination marketing efforts aimed at driving consideration from a wider spectrum of European market segments.

Dubai sustained its appeal among traditional stronghold markets across the GCC that collectively accounted for 19 per cent of traffic during H1 2017, driven by efforts to continually revive the citys offerings encouraging frequency of regular repeat travel.

North and South-East Asia as well as the Russia, CIS and Eastern Europe bloc both saw 2 per cent gains over their 2016 year-end contributions to end H1 2017 with 11 and 7 per cent shares respectively. This performance is attributable to a series of sustained cross-industry activities to raise general market awareness and tangibly grow visitation via structured trade partnerships from these high-potential markets.

South Asia, meanwhile, delivered a robust 18 per cent share, making it the number three regional contributor, followed by the MENA region in fourth place with a stable 12 per cent share. Rounding off the regional mix and reflecting the continued diversity of Dubais visitation base, the Americas contributed 6 per cent in volumes, Africa 4 per cent and Australasia the final 2 per cent for the period from January to June 2017, largely similar to their proportions in 2016.

Helal Saeed Almarri, Director General, Dubai Tourism, commented: We are extremely pleased that Dubai has sustained the momentum of growth we achieved in the first quarter to deliver a strong double-digit performance through H1 2017, setting the stage for continued acceleration in tourism volumes and GDP contribution this year. Our strategic investments, innovative destination promotion programmes, responsive federal policy reforms, and long-term global partnerships are evidently paying dividends as we ramp up efforts to increase Dubais accessibility, visibility and overall appeal, minimise barriers to travel, and ultimately drive both first-time and repeat visitation."

Alongside the continuous expansion and enhancement of Dubais infrastructure and tourism proposition, and backed by the strength of our industry stakeholders across government and private sectors, our goal now is to ensure that the city builds on this positive trajectory through not just the remainder of 2017 but also further, to get us closer to our Tourism Vision 2020 target of 20 million annual tourist arrivals. In parallel our focus is on creating today for global travel, what the world may aspire to in 10 years - innovating - harnessing the power of data, redefining the customer journey, and amplifying the voice of the traveller  in line with the 10X Agenda set by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice-President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, to ensure that Dubai is a decade ahead of any other global city.
Moscow, July 31 (IBNS): in a major move, Russian President Vladimir Putin has directed that staff at US diplomatic missions in Russia will be reduced, media reports said.

According to reports, the move was made by Russia in response to a sanctions bill the US Congress passed recently.

"As for other possible measures or is that too much or not, it is quite painful from the point of view of the operation the diplomatic mission. Since out of more than a thousand of the employees, diplomats and technical staff, who has been and are still working in Russia, 755 will have to finish their work in Russia," TASS quoted Putin as saying in an interview with VGTRK host Vladimir Solovyov.

The Russian Foreign Minister said number of staff should be reduced by Sept 1.

"Therefore, we suggest our American counterparts bringing the number of diplomatic and technical staff at the US Embassy in Moscow, the consulates general in St Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok, into strict correspondence with the number of Russian diplomats and technical staff currently working in the United States, until September 1, 2017," read the statement.

It said: "This means that the total number of American diplomatic and consular office employees in the Russian Federation must be reduced to 455 people. In the event of further unilateral action on behalf of US officials to reduce the Russian diplomatic staff in the US, we will respond accordingly."

The Ministry said, "Starting August 1, the use of all the storage facilities on Dorozhnaya Street in Moscow and the country house in Serebryany Bor will be suspended from use by the US Embassy."


New York, July 31(Just Earth News): Park rangers across the world face increasing challenges and risks due to a surge in poaching and illicit trafficking in wildlife, the head of the United Nations entity on protection of endangered species on Monday said, honouring the work of park rangers in protecting wild animals, plants and culture.

Honest and hardworking park rangers devote their lives to protecting our natural resources and cultural heritage and, in some areas, these brave men and women regularly encounter well-resourced groups of poachers, equipped with high caliber weapons, who do not hesitate to use violence or threats of violence against them, said John Scanlon, Secretary-General of the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).



In recent years, rangers have increasingly been targeted by criminals seeking some of the world's most iconic animal species, such as elephants and rhinos, and plants, such as rosewood.



Scanlon added that the illegal trade in wild animals and plants is occurring at a scale that threatens wildlife, people and their livelihoods and is being driven by transnational organized crime groups and rebel militia groups, as well as rogue elements of regular military forces.



The dedication and commitment shown by these honest hard working park rangers on a daily basis is worthy of much greater public recognition, Scanlon said, welcoming World Ranger Day which is marked by the international community but not by the UN specifically.



World Ranger Day takes place annually on 31 July to recognize the park rangers around the world who have been injured or killed in the line of duty.



In the past year, at least 105 rangers were killed doing their job, according to the International Ranger Federation.



The UN Environment Programme's (UNEP) Wild For Life programme added its voice on Monday to celebrate rangers' work.



Praising park rangers for facing an array of challenges, including natural disasters like avalanches and floods, Wild For Life called rangers hands-on heroes.



Fighting crime, educating the public, and protecting our heritage all in a day's work for the rangers that safeguard the earth's most treasured locations, the campaign said.



It noted that in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, at least 140 rangers were killed in the past 15 years in the Virunga National Park.



Photo: Black Mamba Anti-Poaching Unit











Source: www.justearthnews.com








New York, Aug 1(Just Earth News): The United Nations political mission in Afghanistan on Monday denounced an attack on the embassy of Iraq saying it is another attack aimed at the international community but where Afghan civilians bear the brunt of the violence.

This attack shows complete contempt for human life, as well as the international law designed to protect diplomats, said Tadamichi Yamamoto, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Afghanistan.

The attack, which occurred in a residential area of central Kabul, lasted around five hours.

Several armed men killed two Afghan civilian employees inside the embassy and injured a police officer before being killed by Afghan security forces.

I commend the Afghan security forces for their swift action that saved many lives, said Yamamoto, who heads the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA.

He noted that the attack is yet another which appears to have targeted the international community but in which Afghan civilians bore the brunt of the violence.

Diplomatic missions are civilian objects protected under international humanitarian law, and attacks directed at them are serious violations that may amount to war crimes.

The Islamic State in the Khorasan Province has claimed responsibility.

Photo: UNAMA/Nasim Fekrat

Source: www.justearthnews.com
Not everyone in Indian Country is upset with the Trump administration's first major land-into-trust decision

Chief Frank Cloutier of the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe also thinks the Department of the Interior made the right call in rejecting two off-reservation casinos in Michigan. He said the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians was rebuked for trying to "shop" for lands outside of its aboriginal territory.

The Interior Departments decision affirms our longstanding position that the Michigan Indian Land Claims Settlement Act does not provide the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe with authority to shop for lands anywhere in the state merely to build a casino," Cloutier said in a statement

Cloutier joins Chairperson Jamie Stuck from the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi in criticizing the so-called practice of "reservation shopping." The contentious term became popular during the 2000s, serving as the go-phrase for critics of new gaming developments.

Republican allies in Congress quickly embraced the phrase as they warned tribes not to seek land away from existing reservations . By the end of the decade, the George W. Bush administration took as stand against "reservation shopping" through a controversial policy that made such acquisitions all but impossible

While controversy over off-reservation gaming has never gone away, the words "reservation shopping" all but disappeared from public debate during the presidency of Barack Obama . But it looks like they are making a comeback, although in a slightly modified form.

"The Interior Departments decision reaffirms what the drafters of the original legislation have been saying all along, that Congress never intended to allow any tribe to use the law to shop for reservations throughout the state or to acquire land for gaming purposes," Stuck said last week.

Provisions in the Michigan Indian Land Claim Settlement Act authorize the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians to acquire lands using a "self-sufficiency fund." The law dictates that such lands "shall" be held in trust. Source: Public Law 105143

The law at issue is the Michigan Indian Land Claims Settlement Act . In seeking to build two new casinos, the Sault Tribe argued that it requires the Bureau of Indian Affairs to place the sites in Lansing and in Sibley in trust, no questions asked.

But the Trump administration asked questions. According to Jim Cason, the Associate Deputy Secretary at Interior, a mandatory acquisition must be connected to the "enhancement" of the tribe's self-sufficiency or to the "consolidation" of the tribe's land base.

With both sites located hundreds of miles from tribal headquarters, Cason found it easy to reject the land-into-trust applications. He also said the "tribe has not offered any evidence of its plans to use the gaming revenue to benefit its existing lands or its members."

The Michigan Indian Land Claims Settlement Act indeed mentions enhancement and consolidation but it also contains language that appears to place more power in the tribe's hands. The law says it's up to the tribe's governing body -- its board of directors -- to determine how to spend its "Self-Sufficiency Fund." It does not explicitly say whether the BIA, or the Secretary of the Interior, can overrule what the board of directors "determines" to be in the tribe's interests.

"Any lands acquired using amounts from the Self-Sufficiency Fund shall be held as Indian lands are held," the law reads. "Any lands acquired using amounts from interest or other income of the Self-Sufficiency Fund shall be held in trust by the Secretary for the benefit of the tribe," it states in another section.

Such provisions have the tribe convinced that it will be able to secure acquisition of the sites. Chairperson Aaron A. Payment said all options -- legal, administrative and political -- are on the table going forward.

"The law is clear: the Secretary is required to accept these parcels in trust. It is a clear, plain-language legal argument," Payment said last week

Indianz.Com on Google Maps: Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians Gaming Operations

This isn't the first time the Michigan Indian Land Claims Settlement Act has been at the center of a gaming controversy. In November 2010, the Bay Mills Indian Community invoked the law when it opened an off-reservation casino on land acquired in connection with the law.

In that situation, the Obama administration concluded that the acquisition did not not enhance or consolidate the tribe's homeland. A December 2010 letter from the top legal official at Interior was cited by Cason in his new decision.

But Congress, for whatever reason, treated Bay Mills differently than the Sault Tribe. The "Land Trust" for Bay Mills, for example, "shall be used exclusively for improvements on tribal land or the consolidation and enhancement of tribal landholdings through purchase or exchange," the law states. The criteria for the Sault Tribe's Self-Sufficiency Fund, on the other hand, appears to be more broad.

Even so, Bay Mills leaders last winter expressed interest in re-opening their disputed casino, The Petoskey News reported at the time. Although the facility had to be shut down in response to a lawsuit filed by the state of Michigan, the U.S. Supreme Court eventually ruled that the tribe could not be sued without its consent.

The May 2014 decision in Michigan v. Bay Mills Indian Community was seen as a victory for tribal interests. But it did not address the Michigan Indian Land Claims Settlement Act so the off-reservation gaming issue remains unsettled.

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Burma H1N1 Halts Taung Pyone Nat Festival

Thousands of worshippers gather at a shrine of two nats, Min Gyi and Min Lay at 2016s Taung Pyone nat spirit festival. / Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy

MANDALAY  Myanmars largest annual nat festival scheduled to begin on Monday in Taung Pyone near Mandalay has been cancelled over fears of spreading the H1N1 influenza outbreak currently rattling the country.

The festival ground is always crowded and germs would spread easily, so we have decided to postpone the festival until the influenza is under control, Mandalay Region Chief Minister U Zaw Myint Maung told reporters on Sunday.

Hundreds of thousands of people from across Myanmar flock to the annual festival in Taung Pyone village, 15 miles north of Mandalay. It is held in honor of two brothersMin Gyi and Min Laywho were believed to have become nat spirits after they were executed by King Anawrahta.

On Sunday, the health ministry announced 10 lives had now been claimed by the influenza from a total of 182 suspected cases since July 21. Parliament approved an urgent proposal to boost awareness of H1N1 influenza in an attempt to control the countrys outbreak last week.

U Zaw Myint Maung said government health officials will screen people who have already arrived in the area to attend the festival, which was scheduled to run until Aug. 8, and treat and quarantine infected persons.

Owners of local shops, food stalls, and restaurants have complained over losing business due to the late cancellation.

Restaurant owner Daw Swe Swe said she was one of many shop and restaurant owners who would lose out after already paying rental fees for a spot at the festival.

Trustees of the festival said they had already forked out wages for security personnel and other laborers and were worried that spiritual mediums, who channel nat spirits at the event, would not pay due rental fees.

We will miss out as medium performers will not receive visitors and worshipers, said a trustee of the festival. But what can we do? This is a health issue.

Mediums, however, told The Irrawaddy that performers would remain at festival grounds to perform the rituals regardless.

We do this every year no matter what happens, said senior spiritual medium Mommy Noe. We will do the ritual without failure, even if there are no worshippers visiting Taung Pyone.

For health and safety, I will not leave the festival grounds until the festival has finished, and I will take care of my health. I believe Min Gyi and Min Lay will bless us with good health, she added.
Burma H1N1 Outbreak Kills Three More in Yangon

Students at University of East Yangon (Tarwa) wear masks on Monday as awareness campaign / Thet Htun Naing / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  Three more people died of H1N1 influenza on Sunday in Yangon, raising the total number of H1N1 deaths to 10, according to the Ministry of Health and Sports.

The health ministrys Department of Public Health reported on Sunday evening that one person admitted to Yangon General Hospital on July 15 and another two admitted separately to the hospital on July 28 died on Sunday. The hospital did not give further details of the victims.

From July 21-30, Myanmar has had 182 suspected cases and 51 confirmed cases of the virus known as swine flu. The health ministry said it has accelerated emergency response, monitoring, prevention, control and awareness campaigns to combat H1N1.

It is important to admit the person to the hospital as soon as they are suspected of having the influenza. If they are admitted early, the possibility of survival is high, Dr. Myint Htwe, minister of health and sports, said at a meeting on the outbreak on Sunday in Yangon, according to state media.

The ministry urged the public to follow precautionary measures, including avoiding crowds, frequently washing their hands, using disposable tissues when sneezing and coughing, and thoroughly cleaning utensils and plates before use.

Meanwhile, chickens at a house in Yangons Mayangone Township were confirmed to have contracted H5N1 bird flu following the results of a laboratory test.

The outbreak in Yangon comes just after about 1,000 chickens died of the flu in Tanintharyi Regions Dawei Township.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation have released instructions on how to prevent the spread of bird flu.
Burma Hospital Sued After Allegedly Releasing Wrong Babys Body

The family of Zau Sut Aung held a funeral service for the baby boy even though the hospital did not give them with the body. / Domemic Htoi / Facebook

YANGON  The family of a baby who died at Yankin Childrens Hospital in Yangon are suing hospital staff after the body was reportedly given to another family.

Four-month-old boy Zau Sut Aung from Shan States Muse Township was admitted to the hospital on July 16 to receive treatment for a low white and red blood cell count that had been diagnosed two months before.

The boy was transferred to Halpin Childrens Hospital on July 21, according to his aunty Ja Bauk Mai, but then returned to Yankin on the morning of July 25 because, she said, the hospital had more equipment for the patient. He died at 10 p.m. that night.

When the family went to collect the corpse from the hospital mortuary on July 27, they were told it was given to someone else, said Ja Bauk Mai.

We were told the body was taken to Kyisu cemetery and crematory [in South Dagon Township] but we did not know what and where Kyisu was as we are not from Yangon, she told The Irrawaddy on Monday.

The family had intended to give the baby a Christian burial, but persevered with the service without the body.

The family filed the case at Yankin police station on Saturday as we want the responsible people to be investigated, and we dont want such a loss to happen again to any other patients and their families, said the aunty.

On Monday, the family gave their statement to police, who have opened up a case under section 297 of the Penal Code, which carries a jail sentence of up to one year and a fine for someone who offers any indignity to any human corpse among other offences.
Burma Jailed Myanmar Now Editor Released on Bail

Ko Swe Win (center) leaves the Maha Aung Myay court after being granted bail on Monday. / Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy

MANDALAY  A court in Mandalay Divisions Maha Aung Myay Township released the detained chief editor of Myanmar Now, Ko Swe Win, on bail on Monday.

The editor signed a statement in front of the judge committing to be present at all court hearings in the defamation case, filed under Article 66(d) of the Telecommunications Law by Mandalay resident U Kyaw Myo Shwe in March, who accused Ko Swe Win of insulting ultranationalist monk U Wirathu.

Weve submitted the appeal for bail and the court accepted it. Two locals have paid 5 million kyats worth of bail money for Ko Swe Win. The next court hearing will be on August 7, said U Khin Maung Myint, Ko Swe Wins legal advisor.

The granting of bail was initially opposed by the plaintiffs lawyer, saying lawsuits filed under Article 66(d) call for remand.

U Khin Maung Myint countered by highlighting Ko Swe Wins position as a journalist, and pointing out that he has no intention of fleeing from the law.

After the court session, Ko Swe Win told media he wondered why the police brought him to court four months after the filing of the case; he was arrested after arriving at the Yangon airport on Sunday and was transported to Mandalay, where he was detained.

The surprise arrest by the police at the airport is a misunderstanding. I have not been restricted from traveling since the lawsuit was filed against me. And I have no intention of fleeing, Ko Swe Win said.

Ive traveled to the border areas many times to cover the news and Ive cooperated with the police several times for my lawsuit. If I wanted to flee, I could have fled the country at any point since the beginning [of the case], he added. I will certainly face this lawsuit according to the law.

Buddhist nationalists also attended Ko Swe Wins court hearing on Monday. When the Myanmar Now chief editor exited the courthouse after being released on bail, around ten nationalist Buddhist monks gathered in front of the building, shouting at journalists as they spoke to him.

Ko Swe Win later told The Irrawaddy that the countrys instability during the political transition has affected freedom of expression in the country.

Detained journalists are being treated like criminals. Our fellow journalists detained in Shan State are facing a lawsuit which is out of date and unjust, he said, a reference to three reportersincluding The Irrawaddys Lawi Wengfacing charges under the colonial-era Unlawful Associations Act for reporting on a drug-burning event in territory controlled by the Taang National Liberation Army. I, as a journalist, would like to tell the government that now is the time to change the laws which are outdated and unjust, he added.

Plaintiff U Kyaw Myo Shwe told The Irrawaddy that he would submit an appeal to the court in Maha Aung Myay, as he was disappointed with the granting of bail.

I have no personal feelings concerning Ko Swe Win. Im just disappointed with the judiciary, which is handling the law as they wish. In the past, people did not receive bail, he said, regarding defamation cases filed under Article 66(d). This is unacceptable and the law needs to be straightened out, he said.
Burma Stakeholders Speak Out at Peace Process Consultation

Ceasefire joint-monitoring committee meeting on July 3. / Thet Htun Naing / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  Stakeholders in Myanmars peace process shared their views and recommendations during an informal consultation in Yangon on Saturday attended by the government Peace Commission chairman Dr. Tin Myo Win, State Counselors Office minister U Kyaw Tint Swe, and its spokesperson U Zaw Htay.

Among the participants were peace experts, civil society members, representatives from ethnic political parties, media practitioners, and descendants of those who signed the 1947 Panglong Agreement.

U Maung Maung Soe, an independent analyst on federalism and ethnic issues, said their views were shared with the government representatives, whose task was mainly to listen.

Stakeholders shared their perspectives on State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyis views, as she is often quoted by her staff and those she trusts, said Dr. Banyar Aung Moe from the All Mon Region Democracy Party (AMRDP).

Banyar Aung Moe, a former Upper House lawmaker, said that during the meeting he stated that the government and the Myanmar Army need courage and goodwill to deal with the countrys peace process and to announce a unilateral ceasefire.

He also emphasized the importance of the government hastening negotiations with the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) on their nine-point proposal, so that the ethnic armed coalition might sign the nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA).

Meanwhile, the former MP urged the government to bring the Northern Alliance, comprised of seven ethnic armed groups based in Myanmars northeast, into the peace process. Every ethnic armed group, he said, should be included and see their desires reflected in the next session of the 21st Century Panglong peace conference.

Banyar Aung Moe explained that tripartite talks must be held between the government, ethnic armed organizations, and political parties in order to support the work of ceasefire monitoring committees.

We just need to raise our recommendations. They will use them if they want. They wont use them if they dont like them. Thats all, he said.

During Saturdays meeting, other topics of discussion included the effect of insecurity in the country on the media, the question of non-signatories eventually signing the NCA pact, and the work being done toward the amendment of the 2008 Constitution, following the full implementation of the NCA.

Other topics of discussion included diminishing aid and support for internally displaced people, the role of the United Wa State Army in the NCA and peace process, and continued trust-building with the eight NCA-signatories, and not neglecting these relationships.

Dr. Min Nwe Soe, from AMRDP said the latter is a particularly urgent need, as the government builds trust with NCA signatories first, and then we can move forward to achieve peace.
Guest Column Silencing Media Has No Place in A Democracy

Three journalists arrested for contacting an ethnic armed group attend the first session of their trial in Hsipaw, northern Shan State on July 28, 2017. / The Irrawaddy

During my 15 years as a journalist, I never thought I could be arrested for meeting insurgent groups. Now I have been out of the industry for just as long, I dread to think about going through the same ordeal as Lawi Weng from The Irrawaddy and U Aye Naing and Ko Pyae Phyo Naing from the Democratic Voice of Burma.

The situation in Northeast India, where I spent most of my journalism years, is not too different from the situation in Myanmar. Journalists like Lawi Weng, U Aye Naing and Ko Pyae Phyo Naing who cover conflict from the field are exposed to hazards completely different from those working from the newsroom. Conflict journalists often find themselves sandwiched between state and non-state forces and there is almost zero guarantee of staying out of harms way.

In this, the state has a huge responsibility. It has to protect members of the fourth estate which forms a very important pillar of any democratic society. This protection is perhaps the only difference between journalists on the Indian side of the borderwho cover an equally intense and complicated conflict between ethnic groups and the militaryand those that do so in Myanmar. I dont remember any incident of significance concerning the arrest of a journalist for covering or contacting an insurgent group in India. Undoubtedly, we were constantly tracked by intelligence agencies, the police, and the military special branch, and at times we were interrogated. But that was about it.

Northeast India, which shares a 1,643-kilometer border with Myanmar, has been on the boil for several decades with over a hundred different insurgent groups operating in the area at one point in time. Many of the armed outfits used Myanmar, Bangladesh, and even Bhutan as safe havens for their groups. Hundreds of journalists have been covering conflict in the region and many have traveled to unthinkable places to interview leaders of banned organizations such as the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K), the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) and the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC).

I clearly remember the day when I and another colleague were driven along the Bangladesh border by a driver from a militant group from Meghalayaone of the insurgency-affected states of Northeast India. I was afraid that it may not be entirely ethical on our part, but I knew that given the situation and our poor knowledge of the terrain that this was the best thing to do. We had interviewed both the state security agencies and the non-state armed groups. Our reporting was done and we could have trekked back, but that we would be taking great risks, one of which was being arrested or detained by border guards and having to negotiate a complicated process to get ourselves released.

The prospect of temporary detention or interrogation we faced comes nowhere close to what the three journalists in Myanmar have had to go through. Their arrest apart, the way they have been treated and put in chains conjures scary images of the iron-fisted regime that ruled Myanmar for decades.

Even if the journalists somehow made a mistake, the response from the state has been appalling to say the least. Firstly, you dont arrest journalists by applying a somewhat draconian colonial-era law (the Unlawful Associations Act) and secondly, you dont treat them like criminals for simply doing their job, as I, and any number of others, have done in our professional careers as reporters.

Looking over the different provisions of the law, one wonders which aspect applies to the trio. It could be the part which states whoever is a member of an unlawful association, or takes part in meetings of any such association, or contributes or receives or solicits any contribution for the purpose of any such association or in any way assists the operations of any such association, shall be punished. Alternatively, it could be provisions that state whoever manages or assists in the management of an unlawful association, or promotes or assists in promoting a meeting of any such association, or of any members thereof as such members, shall be punished.

The million-dollar question is how do these two statements apply to Lawi Weng and the other two journalists? They dont come close to having committed any of what the law prescribes as violations. They were merely at the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA) camp to cover a drugs-burning event. I have covered a few similar events also hosted by banned terrorist organizations (under Section 35 of Indias Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of 1967). Did I commit a crime? No. Did I avoid trouble because the Indian state is more careful in how it deals with its media personnel? Or is it a case of an older, established democracy versus a state merely trying to pose as one.

The fact of the matter is that on November 8, 2015 Myanmar held open and seemingly credible elections for the first time in decades under the watchful eyes of national and international election observers and the international community at large. Daw Aung San Suu Kyis National League for Democracy was elected to create a civilian government in a landslide victory. The government now has a reasonable amount of power both inside and outside of Parliament to counter undemocratic acts by the military or other forces.

The challenge, perhaps, is that in a fledgling democracy there will always be those that continue to hold on to the past and remain objectionable to anything that threatens the status quo. It is definitely time to ask State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi what is the use of a democracy where supporters who have backed her through her struggles are punished on flimsy grounds? Is this the kind of democracy she wants the country to accept as it moves towards the 2020 elections? The answer, for now at least, is perhaps anyones guess.

Bidhayak Das is a former journalist who has spent over a decade working on promoting democracy in Myanmar. He is currently working as an independent consultant on elections, media and communications.
Global infrastructure investment manager I Squared Capital is acquiring Hutchison Global Communications from Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecommunications in a deal valued at HK$14.5 billion (A$2.3 billion).

The takeover of Hutchison, Vodafones partner in Australia, is expected to close by October this year.

The New York-based I Squared Capital has signed an agreement to acquire 100% of Hutchison Global (HGC) through its ISQ Global Infrastructure Fund II.

HGC is a provider of fixed-line services to fixed and mobile carriers, OTT service providers, corporate and business, residential and data centres in Hong Kong and around the world.

The transaction is expected to close by October 2017.

Gautam Bhandari, partner at I Squared Capital, said: As a premier global hub for commerce and telecommunications, Hong Kong benefits from innovative products and world class services.

With I Squared Capitals investment, HGC will continue to provide the same quality of service that mobile telecommunication providers, corporate and residential customers have come to expect.

"Fresh capital will also enable the company to develop new solutions to meet the ever-increasing demand for high-speed information infrastructure throughout the region and beyond.
Sam Varghese has been writing for iTWire since 2006, a year after the site came into existence. For nearly a decade thereafter, he wrote mostly about free and open source software, based on his own use of this genre of software. Since May 2016, he has been writing across many areas of technology. He has been a journalist for nearly 40 years in India (Indian Express and Deccan Herald), the UAE (Khaleej Times) and Australia (Daily Commercial News (now defunct) and The Age). His personal blog is titled Irregular Expression.
Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei appears to be adopting a policy of saying nothing about its second rebuff by Australia, this time over an undersea cable between Honiara and Sydney.

As iTWire reported last week, Australia has put pressure on the Solomon Islands to drop Huawei as the main contractor for the Project Honiara undersea cable project.

iTWire has contacted three Huawei officials, but only one reacted, saying: "We don't have any comment to make."

Only an imbecile would assume that a company of Huawei's size and reputation would not be boiling inside after Australia's snub.

This is not the first time that Huawei has been knocked back by Australia; about five years ago the Attorney-General's departmentthe company's participation in the national broadband network project based on advice from the spook agency ASIO.

This time too, there is a spy connection: the Australian opposition to Huawei implementing the project was conveyed to Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare by ASIS director-general Nick Warner.

The snub to Huawei comes at time when similar incidents are taking place in other countries. In the US, Kaspersky Lab has been banned from supplying product to federal government agencies, with security concerns apparently being the reason.

But there could also be economic reasons behind the ban, with US companies set to fill the breach left by Kaspersky.

The US also put in place a ban on any electronic devices bigger than a smartphone being taken into the cabin of any flight on certain airlines flying from certain airports  and then dropped it recently, after additional security measures were put in place at these airports.

In other words, the cost of these security measures will now be borne by airports other than those in the US. Money again seems to loom as a reason.

Australia is well known to follow US policies and it is thus interesting to note that Warner spoke to Sogovare at the end of June, soon after the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defence Secretary James Mattis visited Australia in mid-June.

It remains to be seen how long Australia can rebuff Chinese companies like Huawei  which, given its size, will surely have good links with the Beijing Government  and continue to hope that it will be seen in a kindly light and as a favoured trading partner by China.
I am excited to be joining the Australian team and lead the local operations. Together we will set the benchmark that Sharp is the preferred brand as we expand offerings in the consumer and business solutions markets," said Kagawa (pictured, right).

Kagawa was most recently president of Sharp Brazil.

His predecessor, Keiichi (Kasey) Katsuta (pictured, left), is returning to Sharp's head office in Japan where he will work alongside the business solutions group in the Asia marketing department, with additional responsibilities for Oceania and the Middle East.

I would like to thank Mr Keiichi Katsuta for his instrumental work over the past three years as he leaves behind a solid foundation allowing me to bring the company towards a growth trajectory, said Kagawa.

Kagawa will also oversee the direction of the company following a major investment by Foxconn in the Sharp brand.
The US government is trying to trace the identities behind the group called Shadow Brokers which dumped a number of NSA Windows exploits on the Web in April, some of which were used in the last two global ransomware attacks.

A report in Cyberscoop said the counter-intelligence investigation had made contact with a number of ex-NSA employees to try and find out how these tools came into the possession of the Shadow Brokers.

While ex-NSA officials are under suspicion, there is also a theory that someone who is currently employed by the NSA is connected to the group.

The probe is led by a joint team from the FBI, the US National Counter-Intelligence and Security Centre, and the NSA's internal policing group Q Group.

The Shadow Brokers firstin August last year, offering for sale hacking tools which were said to have been pillaged from the Equation Group, an outfit which has long been suspected to have NSA links.

In January this year, the group offered a number of Windows exploits from the NSA for sale. It later dumped these exploits on the Web.

One exploit, known as ETERNALBLUE, was used to craft the ransomware known as WannaCry which hit a number of countries in May.

A second, ETERNALROMANCE, was used to craft ransomware which was given various names  Petya (nomenclature given to ransomware that already existed), NotPetya, ExPetr, Nyetya and GoldenEye  which attacked Windows machines in Europe in June and spread to other countries.

The Shadow Brokers have taken to periodically issuing messages in broken English, advertising new exploits for payment. Two researchers, who tried to raise money to buy the exploits, called off their effort after being advised that they could fall foul of the law.

The Cyberscoop report was unclear on whether the Shadow Brokers' source was an employee of the NSA or a contractor. One contractor, Harold Martin, is in jail at the moment after having been caught with a massive trove of data which he had removed the NSA premises.

Last week, the Shadow Brokers again advertised a subscription service through which they claimed they would share more NSA tools with anyone who was willing to pay a fee that was in the thousands of dollars.
Apple has confirmed that it removed a number of VPN apps from the mainland China version of its App Store because they contravene a recent law issued by China that bans the use of private VPNs.

The Wall Street Journal quoted one service, ExpressVPN, as saying that Apple had told it about the removal of its app on Saturday.

ExpressVPN published the notice which claimed the app contained content that contravened Chinese laws.

Apple told the WSJ that it had removed the apps to fall in line with a new law that made it mandatory for VPN providers to get a licence from the country's authorities.

We have been required to remove some VPN apps in China that do not meet the new regulations. These apps remain available in all other markets where they do business, the company said.

This is the second time in recent months that Apple has had to bow to Chinese laws in order to continue its operations in the country.

Earlier this month, Apple announced plans for opening a new data centre in China in order to comply with the government's demands to store Chinese customer data within the country.

The company's 10th anniversary iPhone is due to launch later this year. The iPhone is now the fourth largest selling device in China, down from the third position and behind local rivals Oppo and Vivo, both from BBK Electronics, and Huawei.
To continue using Jomashop.com (The online store to shop and buy watches, handbags, and fashion)
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By Julie Webb-Pullman. | (TeleSur) |  

The bowing of Israeli occupation authorities to the request of the Palestinian Authority to further reduce energy supplies does not exonerate them.

Israel is the main supplier of electricity and fuel to the Gaza Strip, Palestine.

When the functioning of vital services such as hospitals and the pumping of clean water were seriously compromised by Israels reduction and limitations on the fuel supply for Gazas only power plant in 2007, a group of Palestinians unsuccessfully petitioned the Israeli court alleging that the reductions breached Israeli obligations under International Law. The subsequent judgment is known as the Bassiouni decision.

The Israeli state had contended that the reductions did not violate the humanitarian minimum  a legal standard that Israeli human rights group Gisha pointed out at the time does not in fact exist in international law. Nor does humanitarian law sanction the deliberate reduction of a populations living standards to a humanitarian minimum.

Two subsequent petitions by Gisha on the same issue were similarly unsuccessful. The first, in May 2008, followed the reduction of the fuel supply to below the humanitarian minimum the Israeli authorities had promised to uphold. The second petition was submitted in January 2009 after Israeli authorities had further reduced the supply to 30 percent of what it had deemed the humanitarian minimum for several months, then launched a massive military offensive exacerbating the already-dire power and water shortages the reduction had caused.

Since 2009 the situation has fluctuated, at its best with periods of 16 hours power per 24 hours when the tunnels between Gaza and Egypt were operating; since their destruction in 2014, four to six hours supply every 24 has been the norm. In April 2017 the fuel to run Gazas only power plant ran out. The Palestinian Authority refused to pay for more fuel, and ordered Israel to reduce supply, resulting in a major crisis in May and June: two hours power every 24, and some days with none at all.

Israeli authorities contend they are merely acting as a commercial entity, and not providing fuel which has not been paid for. This stance has no justification in law.

Legal Framework

Israel continues to be an occupying power in Gaza despite the 2005 disengagement, concluded The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, ICC, in a November 2014 decision.

This fatally undermines the Israeli contention that it is not bound by the laws of belligerent occupation under international law as it no longer has effective control over what happens in Gaza  the foundation on which the Bassiouni decision rested.

The obligations of occupying powers are codified in the Regulations of the Fourth Hague Convention, and the rights of the populations of occupied territory and the rules for administering such territory are further clarified in the Fourth Geneva Convention and Additional Protocol I.

Additionally, the International Court of Justice, ICJ, found in 2004 that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ICCPR, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ICESCR, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, CRC, are applicable within the Occupied Palestinian Territory, OPT.

Several international court decisions regarding situations in the Congo, Palestine and the former Yugoslavia have further confirmed that the occupying power is obliged to comply with its human rights obligations in occupied territories, and in respect of people placed under its effective control as a result of occupation.

General Comment No. 14 of the United Nations Economic and Social Council directly contradicts Israeli authorities view that they are only obliged to allow the Gaza Strip to receive only what is needed in order to provide the essential needs of the civilian population. It actually requires Israel to ensure the services and conditions necessary for the realization of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.

These core obligations are non-derogable. They cannot be abrogated for any reason, including national security.

Current Situation

The current humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip reached crisis point in May 2017  a crisis widely and repeatedly reported by the United Nations and numerous non-governmental organizations and media. The U.N. reported that due to the electricity crisis:

 The services of 40 surgical operation theatres, 11 obstetric operation theatres, 5 haemodialysis centers and hospital emergency departments assisting almost 4,000 patients daily would be interrupted or stopped.

 The situation would be immediately life-threatening for 113 newborns in neonatal intensive care units, 100 patients in intensive care and 658 patients requiring hemodialysis 2-3 times weekly, including 23 children.

 Refrigeration for blood and vaccine storage would be at risk.

 NGO hospitals would limit their services or charge higher fees for services.

 Water supply would be reduced to once every four days for 70 per cent of the population

 Operations of the 48 desalination plants would reduce to below 15 per cent or cease functioning

 Environmental pollution and public health risks would increase, threatening locations and people located in close proximity to the sea and to wastewater pumping stations.

The Bassiouni judgment revealed that Israel is well aware of its obligations under international law, ie not to prevent the supply of basic humanitarian needs, and to ensure the welfare and dignity of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip.

Access to health care is articulated in several important instruments of international human rights law, such as Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but is most clearly articulated in the Fourth Geneva Convention which requires that the medical needs of the civilian population are met by the occupying power, and that they continue to be so.

Thus Israel is obliged to ensure Gazan residents right to health at the very least, pursuant to Article 12 of the ICESCR, as well as to create conditions that would assure to all medical service and medical attention in the event of sickness.

Imminent Collapse

U.N. reports are clear that hospitals and water and sanitation facilities face imminent collapse, and the current electricity crisis will have a cumulative effect on the overall humanitarian situation.

After being completely shut down between April and June, the Gaza Power Plant was operating at 50 percent capacity in July, but this has not resulted in an overall gain in the provision of electricity, according to a recent OCHA report. The electricity supply to the civilian population is currently at best four hours a day.

The current situation is critical, and any further deterioration will be life-threatening on a major scale.

General Comment No. 6 of the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations states that the right to life in the ICCPR contains the obligation for States to take positive measures, which include measures to ensure health care, especially in life-threatening-circumstances. The reduction in Israeli fuel supplied since May 2017 cannot be considered a positive measure. It also fails the test of a negative obligation ie for Israel to refrain from taking action that would directly contravene a right.

In addition, Articles 559-62 and 108-111 of The Fourth Geneva Convention and 69-71 of its Additional Protocol I emphasise that although humanitarian or other organizations may be delivering some relief, such as the provision of fuel to Gaza by Egypt in recent weeks, this in no way relieves the occupying power of any of its own responsibilities to ensure that the population is properly supplied.

This obligation sits squarely at the door of the Israeli occupation.

Nor can the Israeli occupation hide behind the Palestinian Authority. The collective punishment of the residents of Gaza suffered as a result of the ongoing electricity and fuel cuts is a violation of human rights and international humanitarian law, regardless of who commits it or at whose behest.

The bowing of Israeli occupation authorities to the request of the Palestinian Authority to further reduce energy supplies does not exonerate them: the International Court of Justice lays full responsibility at the door of the occupier, having established the principle in 2005 that the occupying power is responsible for any lack of vigilance in preventing violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by other actors present in the occupied territory.

Immediate Action Needed

The 2014 ICC designation of Israel as an occupying state of Gaza invokes an additional set of obligations under international law that were not considered relevant in the 2007 Bassiouni judgment. The significantly deteriorated situation on the ground demands a judicial review at least, but more importantly, immediate action by Israel to comply with the provisions of international law  and that the international community enforce it.

Via TeleSur



Related video added by Juan Cole:

.TRT World: Gaza Under Siege: Ecological disaster threatens Gaza strip
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By Dashty Ali | Sulaymaniyah | (Niqash.org) |  

Having been driven out of Mosul, the extremist Islamic State group is doing what Al Qaeda did before them: setting up new bases in the rugged northern Hamrin mountain area.

The extremist Islamic State group has lost its capital in Iraq, after they have been pushed out of almost all of the northern city of Mosul. However stories are being told right around Iraq of how the extremists are just going back to their old tactics of hit-and-run, guerrilla style fighting against pro-government forces.

The semi-autonomous northern region of Iraqi Kurdistan is no exception. According to intelligence from the Iraqi Kurdish military, there have been intensive movements of IS fighters observed in the Hamrin mountains over the past few weeks. It is believed that many of the organisations leaders from Mosul have retreated into this rugged backcountry.

The IS fighters often roam nearby at night but then fade away, back into the mountains, in the morning. It is a psychological war.

After the campaign against them in Mosul, the IS group is returning to the Hamrin area and into the Hawija area, either as individuals or as small groups, Rasoul Karkui, commander of the Iraqi Kurdish military in Kirkuk also known as Wasta Rasoul, told NIQASH. It is clear that they intend to strengthen their presence in this area. A while ago they announced the creation of their Mountain State. But they dont plan to launch a war against the Iraqi army or us. They only want to attack us and use guerrilla tactics.

The Hamrin mountains extend through the provinces of Diyala, Kirkuk and Salahaddin, right up to the borders with Iran and even onto some parts of the Syrian border. After the IS group took control of Mosul in mid-2014, much of the Hamrin basin was also under their rule. However counter-attacks by the Iraqi army and the Iraqi Kurdish military saw them return to pro-government hands and there had been relative stability there up until recently.

The Hamrin basin contains the Hamrin lake, the south and east sides of which are under the control of the Iraqi army and the Shiite Muslim militias. The north and east are under Iraqi Kurdish control. Military intelligence do expect the IS group to use the lake for travel.

The Hamrin mountains have a long history of insurgent activity. The rugged terrain and the connection between various borders  in particular, Syrias  facilitate the transfer of fighters and weapons, as well as making it hard for local security forces to keep track.

After the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, which saw the government led by Saddam Hussein toppled, most of the anti-US groups that arose afterwards found a home in the Hamrin mountains. That included Al Qaeda, Ansar al-Sunna and the Naqshbandi Army, all of whom could be considered forerunners of a sort to, or constituents of, the IS group.

Those groups all used to come out of the mountains, attack and then retreat to the hills.

The IS group is now resorting to guerrilla warfare after they lost control of the larger cities, confirms Abdulla Bor, leader of the Iraqi Kurdish forces in the Tuz Khurmatu area, which have been attacked by the IS group several times over the past few weeks.

Trenches have been dug to try and prevent the attacks and Bor says the IS fighters often roam near the hills of earth at night but then fade away, back into the mountains, in the morning. It is a psychological war, Bor adds.

The fact that the extremists are hiding out in the Hamrin mountains is not just a problem for the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan. It will also cause problems for the rest of Iraq.

In early June, Lahur Jangi Talabani, the head of one of Iraqi Kurdistans intelligence services, went to Baghdad to speak to senior officials there about it. A press release issued after the meeting said the presence of the IS group in the Hamrin mountains and in the province of Diyala were discussed. AT the end of last week, Talabani told news agency Reuters that he believes the IS group will make the Hamrin mountains a major base and that the Iraqi Kurdish military are expecting hard times in this area.

Another senior Iraqi Kurdish commander, Rebin Taha, who is in charge of forces near Jalawla in Diyala province has a new gripe. He says the IS fighters are coming out of the areas in Hamrin where the Iraqi army and Shiite Muslim militias are supposed to be in charge, attacking his forces, then returning back there.

The most important thing for the Iraqi Kurdish is that the IS fighters cannot establish any bases in areas under our control, Taha argues that the Kurdish should look after themselves. We need to completely fortify our region.

Via Niqash.org



Related video added by Juan Cole:

ITV News: Final days of frontline battle against IS in Mosul
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By Michael T. Klare | ( Tomdispatch.com ) |  

Who says President Trump doesnt have a coherent foreign policy? Pundits and critics across the political spectrum have chided him for failing to articulate and implement a clear international agenda. Look closely at his overseas endeavors, though, and one all-too-consistent pattern emerges: Donald Trump will do whatever it takes to prolong the reign of fossil fuels by sabotaging efforts to curb carbon emissions and promoting the global consumption of U.S. oil, coal, and natural gas. Whenever he meets with foreign leaders, it seems, his first impulse is to ply them with American fossil fuels.

His decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, which obliged this country to reduce its coal consumption and take other steps to curb its carbon emissions, was widely covered by the American mainstream news media. On the other hand, the presidents efforts to promote greater fossil fuel consumption abroad  just as significant in terms of potential harm to the planet  have received remarkably little attention.

Bear in mind that while Trumps drive to sabotage international efforts to curb carbon emissions will undoubtedly slow progress in that area, it will hardly stop it. At the recent G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, 19 of the leaders of the worlds 20 largest economies reaffirmed their commitment to the Paris accord and pledged to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions through, among other [initiatives], increased innovation on sustainable and clean energies. This means that whatever Trump does, continuing innovation in the energy field will indeed help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and so slow the advance of climate change. Unfortunately, Trumps relentless drive to promote fossil-fuel consumption abroad could ensure that carbon emissions continue to rise anyway, neutralizing whatever progress might be made elsewhere and dooming humanity to a climate-ravaged future.

How the two sides of the ledger  green energy progress versus Trumps drive to boost carbon exports  will balance out in the years ahead cannot be foreseen. Every boost in carbon emissions, however, pushes us closer to the moment when global temperatures will exceed the two degrees Celsius rise from pre-industrial levels that scientists say is the maximum the planet can absorb without suffering catastrophic consequences. Those would include rising sea levels that could drown New York, Miami, Shanghai, London, and many other coastal cities, as well as a sharp drop in global food production that could devastate entire populations.

Spreading the Cult of Carbon

President Trumps pursuit of increased global carbon consumption is proving to be a two-front campaign. Hes working in every way imaginable to increase the production of fossil fuels domestically, even as he engages in a diplomatic blitzkreig to open doors to American fossil-fuel exports abroad.

At home, hes already reversed numerous Obama-era restrictions on fossil fuel extraction, including curbs on mountaintop removal  an environmentally hazardous form of coal mining  and on oil and gas drilling in Arctic waters off Alaska. Hes also ordered the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Scott Pruitt  a notorious enemy of environmental regulations opposed by the energy industry  to dismantle the Clean Power Plan, President Obamas program to sharply reduce the use of coal in domestic electricity generation.

These and similar initiatives have gotten a fair amount of media attention already, but its no less important to focus on another key aspect of Trumps pro-carbon global initiative which has gone largely unnoticed. While, under the Paris climate accord, the other industrial powers are still obliged to help developing countries install carbon-free energy technologies, Trump has freed himself to sell American fossil fuels everywhere to his hearts content. At that G-20 meeting, for example, he forced his peers to insert a clause in their final communique stating, The United States of America states it will endeavor to work closely with other countries to help them access and use fossil fuels more cleanly and efficiently. (The more cleanly and efficiently was undoubtedly his modest concession to the other 19 leaders.)

To spread the mantra of fossil fuels, Trump has become the nations carbon-pusher in chief. Hes already personally engaged in energy diplomacy, while demanding that various cabinet officials make oil, gas, and coal exports a priority. On June 29th, for instance, he publicly ordered the Treasury Department to do away with barriers to the financing of highly efficient overseas coal energy plants. In the same speech, he spoke of his desire to supply American coal to Ukraine, currently cut off from Russian natural gas thanks to its ongoing conflict with that country. Ukraine already tells us they need millions and millions of metric tons [of coal] right now, Trump said, pointing out that there are many other countries in a similar state, and we want to sell it to them, and to everyone else all over the globe who needs it.

He added, We are a top producer of petroleum and the number-one producer of natural gas. We have so much more than we ever thought possible, and were going to be an exporter We will export American energy all over the world, all around the globe.

In his urge to preserve the reign of fossil fuels, President Trump has already taken on a unique personal role, meeting with foreign officials and promoting cooperation with key American energy firms. Take the June 26th White House visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. While the media reported on how the two of them took up the subject of future arms sales to India, it made no mention of energy deals. Yet Secretary of Energy Rick Perry revealed that this topic was crucial to their encounter. At a Trump-hosted dinner for Modi at the White House, Perry reported, we talked about the three areas of which there will be great back-and-forth cooperation  deal-making, if you will. One of those is in LNG [liquefied natural gas]. The other side of that is in clean coal. Thirdly is on the nuclear side. So there is great opportunity for India and the United States to become even stronger allies, stronger partners  energy being the glue that will hold that partnership together for a long, long time.

To put this in context, making deals to sell coal to India is like selling OxyContin to an opioid addict. After all, in 2015, that country overtook the United States to become the worlds second-biggest consumer of coal (after China). To keep up the pace of its rapid economic growth, India had plans to increase its reliance on coal yet more, which would mean a steady increase in carbon emissions. India now trails only China and the United States as an emitter of carbon dioxide and its share is expected to grow. However, it is also likely to suffer disproportionately from climate change, which its emissions will only accelerate. Given that future extreme heat events are expected to periodically destroy crops on which a large part of its population depends, Modis government has recently begun seeking ways to reduce the countrys long-term reliance on fossil fuels, in part by becoming a solar superpower. In other words, in pitching coal to India  a true case of bringing coals to Newcastle (or at least Mumbai)  Trump is functionally working to sabotage Indias struggle to free itself from the scourge of carbon addiction.

He similarly pushed fossil-fuel exports in his first encounter with newly elected South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Not surprisingly, press coverage of the event highlighted their discussions about the nuclear threat posed by North Korea. Some reports also noted that trade issues came up, but none mentioned energy matters. Yet, shortly before his state dinner with Moon, Trump announced that a U.S. company, Sempra Energy, had just that day signed an agreement to sell more American natural gas to South Korea. And, as you know, he added, the leaders of South Korea are coming to the White House today, and weve got a lot of discussion to do, but we will also be talking about them buying energy from the United States of America, and Im sure theyll like to do it. In other words, the president has made it eminently clear how foreign leaders in need of American support can please him.

His first overseas trips have also featured versions of such pitchmanship. During his visit to Saudi Arabia in May, he evidently sought to promote cooperation between U.S. and Saudi energy firms. Again, press coverage of his meeting with Saudi King Salman highlighted other topics, notably the war on terror, the regional divide between Sunnis and Shiites, and new Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans hard line on Iran. But the two of them did, in fact, issue a statement affirming the importance of investment in energy by companies in both countries, and the importance of coordinating policies that ensure the stability of markets and an abundance of supplies. Where this might lead is anyones guess, but presumably to a commitment to the continued dominance of petroleum in the worlds future energy markets.

On the subject of his two meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 summit (at the second of these without even an American translator), we obviously know far less. It is, however, reasonable to assume that his interest in improving ties with Russia is at least partially energy-focused. During the first of those conversations, Trump was accompanied only by a translator and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson who, as CEO of ExxonMobil, had inked energy deals with Rosneft, the Russian state-owned oil giant, and lobbied against the imposition of sanctions on Russias energy sector. (Those deals are now being investigated by the Treasury Department as possible violations of government-mandated sanctions then in effect.) Five days later, while flying to Paris on Air Force One, Trump told reporters that he would like to meet again with Putin, once that became politically feasible, adding, and, by the way, I only want to make great deals with Russia.

To further boost the export of U.S. fossil fuels abroad, Trump has also leaned on various government agencies to facilitate such efforts. In a talk he gave on June 29th to energy company officials at the Department of Energy, for example, the president hailed its approval of two long-term projects to promote U.S. energy abroad: the export of additional natural gas from a terminal in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and plans to construct a new oil pipeline to Mexico  about which, he assured listeners, It will go right under the wall, right? You know, a little like this [gesticulating]. Right under the wall.

And keep in mind that we are undoubtedly catching no more than a glimpse of Trumps efforts to promote the sale of American oil, coal, and natural gas abroad. From what little has been reported on the subject in his meetings with Prime Minister Modi, President Moon, and King Salman, its reasonable to assume that the topic has come up in most of his conversations with foreign leaders and represents a far more significant aspect of his international policymaking than generally realized.

American Energy Dominance

Dont imagine, however, that Trumps fossil-fueled salesmanship is primarily driven by a desire to enrich American energy firms (though he would undoubtedly consider that a plus). Its clearly motivated by a deeper, more visceral set of urges. Still trapped in his memories of his 1950s childhood when gas-guzzling American cars were a prominent symbol of national wealth and power, he has a deep belief in the capacity of fossil fuels to propel and sustain the countrys global dominance. He often recalls that formative period in his musings, describing it as a golden age when America won all its wars and was dominant on the world stage. For him, oil equals vigor equals national ascendancy, and no other countries  least of all an international community united behind the Paris climate accord  should be able to deprive the U.S. of its carbon fix.

All this was implicit in that Energy Department speech, which offered a genuine window into his thinking on the subject. Heres the crucial passage, delivered in his usual extemporaneous style:

Our country is blessed with extraordinary energy abundance We have nearly 100 years worth of natural gas and more than 250 years worth of clean, beautiful coal We have so much more than we ever thought possible. We are really in the driving seat. And you know what? We dont want to let other countries take away our sovereignty and tell us what to do and how to do it. With these incredible resources, my administration will seek not only American energy independence that weve been looking for so long, but American energy dominance.

Trumps personal fascination with symbols of excess  think of those giant golden letters over his properties  is evident in that monologue. Its clear that hes been especially taken with breakthroughs in the enhancement of American energy abundance, especially the success of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. That process has liberated vast quantities of oil and natural gas from previously unusable shale formations. Prior to the introduction of fracking, oil and gas production in the United States had been in decline, but thanks to whats been termed the shale revolution, production has soared. In July 2017, at 9.4 million barrels per day, U.S. crude oil output was up 68% over six years earlier, when production was running at just 5.6 million barrels per day. Natural gas has registered a similar leap. All this, in turn, generated  at least for a time  a feeling of euphoria in the oil and gas industry, with some pundits even dubbing this country Saudi America and portraying it as a new energy El Dorado.

As this sense of euphoria took hold, American energy analysts began viewing the explosion of domestic hydrocarbon output as a crucial source of geopolitical clout. The immense flood of cheap natural gas has boosted U.S. economic competitiveness, said Robert Manning of the Atlantic Council typically enough, and by extension, U.S. comprehensive national power, and U.S. capacity for global leadership. Think of it as Viagra for Washington policymakers.

Recently, however, some of this euphoria has dissipated as bargain-basement oil and gas prices, the inevitable consequence of overproduction, have been eating into corporate profits and forcing some over-exposed energy companies to declare bankruptcy. Trumps belief in the ability of petroleum to enhance Americas global clout has, however, clearly been unshaken. Weve got underneath us more oil than anybody, he declared in a conversation with journalists aboard Air Force One on July 12th. And I want to use it.

Whatever the sources of his fascination with fossil fuels, six months into his presidency one thing is clear: hes determined to spread the cult of American carbon internationally and this urge has already become a defining theme of his foreign policy, even if the mainstream media, despite its deluge of Trump-centered coverage, has hardly noticed.

A New American Legacy

Previous American presidents have sought fame through the promotion of freedom, democracy, and human rights abroad. In fact, virtually every formal presidential expression of foreign policy in the post-Cold War era has ritualistically identified those values as Americas greatest exports (whatever values Washington was actually exporting). Not so for Donald Trump, however. What he seeks to export are habit-forming, climate-altering hydrocarbons.

It remains to be seen how successful his drive to spread the cult of carbon will be. As time goes on and the effects of climate change intensify in a warming world, more countries will undoubtedly begin to focus on easing or even ending their reliance on fossil fuels and promoting carbon-free alternatives. Market forces will play a crucial role in this process, since the price of renewable energy  especially solar  has been dropping quickly and is already, in certain circumstances, a cheaper way to go than using coal to generate electricity.

Even if Trumps fossil-fueled scheming doesnt succeed in the long run, he will undoubtedly ensure that more greenhouse gases enter the planets atmosphere, meaning that temperatures will continue to climb and punishing droughts and heat waves will become ever more the new global norm.

Its time to give his snake-oil-style energy salesmanship and the future environmental destruction that will accompany it the attention they deserve. If humanity is to have any chance to survive the planetary warming to come in reasonable shape, all the American carbon Trump hopes to sell to foreigners has to stay in the ground.

Michael T. Klare, a TomDispatch regular, is a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College and the author, most recently, of The Race for Whats Left. A documentary movie version of his book Blood and Oil is available from the Media Education Foundation. Follow him on Twitter at @mklare1.

Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook. Check out the newest Dispatch Book, John Dowers The Violent American Century: War and Terror Since World War II, as well as John Feffers dystopian novel Splinterlands, Nick Turses Next Time Theyll Come to Count the Dead, and Tom Engelhardts Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World.

Copyright 2017 Michael T. Klare

Tomdispatch.com



Related video added by Juan Cole:

Senator Elizabeth Warren: Senator Warren Asks About Climate Change as a National Security Threat
MOKOPANE, SOUTH AFRICA--(Marketwired - July 31, 2017) - Ivanhoe Mines' (TSX:IVN)(OTCQX:IVPAF) Executive Chairman Robert Friedland, Chief Executive Officer Lars-Eric Johansson and Platreef Project Managing Director Dr. Patricia Makhesha today welcomed the positive findings of an independent definitive feasibility study (DFS) of the planned initial four million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) mine and concentrator in the first phase of development of the company's Platreef platinum, palladium, rhodium, gold, nickel and copper mine.

The Platreef Project, which contains the Flatreef Deposit, is a Tier One discovery by Ivanhoe Mines' geologists on the Northern Limb of South Africa's Bushveld Igneous Complex, the world's premier platinum producing region.

Ivanhoe Mines plans to develop the Platreef Mine in three phases: 1) An initial rate of four Mtpa to establish an operating platform to support future expansions; 2) a doubling of production to eight Mtpa; and 3) expansion to a steady-state 12 Mtpa.

The independent Platreef DFS covers the first phase of development that would include construction of a state-of-the-art underground mine, concentrator and other associated infrastructure to support initial concentrate production by early 2022. As Phase 1 is being developed and commissioned, there would be opportunities to refine the timing and scope of subsequent phases of expanded production.

"The completion of the definitive feasibility study for the first phase of production is another key milestone in Ivanhoe's planned transformation of the Platreef Discovery into one of the pre-eminent South African producers of platinum-group metals," said Mr. Friedland.

"Platreef is a massive, high-grade, long-life and Tier One deposit that will produce a suite of vital metals, many of which are essential to sustain our urbanizing planet. The nickel and copper by-products are essential in the electric car revolution and the platinum and palladium are equally vital for hydrogen fuel cell technology and catalytic converters to clean the air."

"We now have a clear and defined path forward to initial production and subsequent phases of development. We are confident that the Platreef Project will benefit all of our stakeholders, including the 20 local communities that are our equity partners, for generations to come," Mr. Friedland added.

Mr. Friedland said the results reported in the new study demonstrate Platreef's robust economics, which first were highlighted in the March 2014 preliminary economic assessment and further reinforced by the January 2015 pre-feasibility study.

"Now this definitive study has confirmed the technical viability of what is projected to be the world's lowest-cost, and in time expected to be the largest, single primary producer of platinum-group metals.

"Despite lower metal prices used in the definitive feasibility study compared to the 2015 pre-feasibility study, we have maintained the excellent economics of the Platreef Project due, in part, to the mine optimization work completed with assistance from industry-leading experts, such as Whittle Consulting of Melbourne, Australia. Even at today's spot metal prices, the Platreef Project would generate an operating margin in excess of 40%," Mr. Friedland added.

Dr. Makhesha said: "We are proud to have shared our almost 20 years of exploration and development achievements at Platreef with supportive stakeholders. These stakeholders, including more than 150,000 local Mokopane area residents, see international investment and professionally managed development of natural resources as keys to unlock widely shared opportunities and prosperity."

Key features of the Platreef DFS include:

Indicated Mineral Resources contain an estimated 41.9 million ounces of platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold with an additional 52.8 million ounces of platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold in Inferred Resources.

Enhanced Mineral Reserve containing 17.6 million ounces of platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold - an increase of 13% - following stope optimization and mine sequencing work.

Development of a large, safe, mechanized, underground mine with an initial four Mtpa concentrator and associated infrastructure.

Planned initial average annual production rate of 476,000 ounces (oz.) of platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold (3PE+Au), plus 21 million pounds of nickel and 13 million pounds of copper.

Estimated pre-production capital requirement of approximately US$1.5 billion, at a ZAR:USD exchange rate of 13 to 1.

Platreef would rank at the bottom of the cash-cost curve, at an estimated US$351 per ounce of 3PE+Au produced, net of by-products and including sustaining capital costs, and US$326 per ounce before sustaining capital costs.

After-tax Net Present Value (NPV) of US$916 million, at an 8% discount rate.

After-tax Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 14.2%. The actual return to project equity owners is expected to be higher as a result of the significant amount of project financing which is being raised.

Ivanhoe Mines indirectly owns 64% of the Platreef Project through its subsidiary, Ivanplats, and is directing all mine development work. The South African beneficiaries of the approved broad-based, black economic empowerment structure have a 26% stake in the Platreef Project. The remaining 10% is owned by a Japanese consortium of ITOCHU Corporation; Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation; ITC Platinum Development Ltd., an ITOCHU affiliate; and Japan Gas Corporation.

The Platreef DFS was prepared for Ivanhoe Mines by principal consultant DRA Global, with economic analysis led by OreWin, and specialized sub-consultants including Amec Foster Wheeler, Stantec Consulting, Murray & Roberts Cementation, SRK Consulting, Golder Associates and Digby Wells Environmental. The full technical report will be filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the Ivanhoe Mines website at www.ivanhoemines.com within 45 days of the issuance of this news release.

Table 1.0: Platreef DFS results.

Item Units Total / Average

Life of Mine Mined and processed Mineral Reserves Million tonnes 125 Platinum g/t 1.95 Palladium g/t 2.01 Gold g/t 0.30 Rhodium g/t 0.14 3PE+Au g/t 4.40 Copper % 0.17 Nickel % 0.34 Key financial results Life of mine Years 32 Pre-production capital US$ million 1,544 Peak funding US$ million 1,485 Mine-site cash cost US$ per ounce 3PE+Au 399 Total cash cost after credits US$ per ounce 3PE+Au 326 All-in cash cost after credits US$ per ounce 3PE+Au 351 Site operating costs US$ per tonne milled 48.79 After-tax NPV 8% US$ million 916 After-tax IRR % 14.2 Project payback period years 5.3

The economic analysis is based on Probable Mineral Reserves only. 3PE+Au = platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold. Metal prices used in the Mineral Reserve estimate are as follows: US$1,600/oz platinum, US$815/oz palladium, US$1,300/oz gold, US$1,500/oz rhodium, US$8.90/lb nickel and US$3.00/lb copper. A declining Net Smelter Return (NSR) cut-off of US$155/tonne-$80/tonne was used in the Mineral Reserve estimate. Metal price assumptions used for the DFS economic analysis are as follows: US$1,250/oz platinum, US$825/oz palladium, US$1,300/oz gold, US$1,000/oz rhodium, US$7.60/lb nickel and US$3.00/lb copper. All-in cash costs include sustaining capital costs.

Summary of financial results

The DFS economic analysis used life-of-mine (LoM) price assumptions of US$1,250/oz platinum, US$825/oz palladium, US$1,300/oz gold, US$1,000/oz rhodium, US$7.60/lb nickel and US$3.00/lb copper. These prices were based on a review of consensus price forecasts from financial institutions and similar studies that had been published recently.

The results of the financial analysis show an after-tax NPV 8 of US$916 million, an after-tax IRR of approximately 14% and a payback period of approximately five years. The cash flow estimates have been prepared on a real basis, as at January 1, 2017, and using mid-year discounting to calculate the NPV. A summary of the financial results is shown in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1: Financial results. Discount

Rate Before

Taxation After

Taxation Net present value (NPV) Undiscounted 8,897 6,471 (US$ million) 5.0% 2,794 1,961 8.0% 1,392 916 10.0% 838 500 12.0% 461 217 Internal rate of return (IRR) 16.2% 14.2% Project payback period (Years) 5.2 5.3 Exchange rate (ZAR:USD) 13:1

Table 1.2: Sensitivity of Net Present Value and IRR to commodity prices and exchange rates. ZAR:

USD Change in Commodity Prices (+/- %) -28% -12% 0% +12% +28% Implied Platinum Price (US$ per ounce) 900 1,100 1,250 1,400 1,600 NPV 8% (US$ million)(IRR) 9:1 -844

(2.7%) -290

(6.3%) 94

(8.5%) 466

(10.5%) 962

(12.9%) 11:1 -301

(5.9%) 209

(9.4%) 580

(11.6%) 952

(13.7%) 1,446

(16.2%) 13:1 48

(8.4%) 544

(11.9%) 916

(14.2%) 1,286

(16.4%) 1,779

(19.0%) 15:1 295

(10.5%) 791

(14.1%) 1,161

(16.5%) 1,530

(18.7%) 2,017

(21.3%) 17:1 483

(12.3%) 979

(16.0%) 1,347

(18.5%) 1,713

(20.8%) 2,202

(23.5%)

Figure 1.1: After-tax cash flow at different commodity prices





Table 1.3: Comparison of 2017 DFS results to 2015 PFS. Operational results

(annual average) Units PFS DFS Steady-state throughput Million tonnes 4 4 Life of mine years 31 32 Feed grade (3PE+Au)(4) g/t 4.02 4.40 Concentrate produced kt 159 174 Saleable metal (3PE+Au) koz 433 476 Key financial results Pricing scenario 2015

Pricing(1) 2015

Pricing(2) 2017

Pricing(3) Total cash cost after credits (3PE+Au) US$ per ounce 322 329 326 All-in cash cost after credits (3PE+Au)(5) US$ per ounce 402 355 351 Peak funding US$ million 1,590 1,453 1,485 After-tax NPV 8% US$ million 972 1,447 916 After-tax IRR Real % 13.4% 17.2% 14.2%

Based on long-term prices of US$1,630/oz platinum, US$815/oz palladium, US$1,300/oz gold, US$2,000/oz rhodium, US$8.90/lb nickel and US$3.00/lb copper, and ZAR:USD of 11:1. Based on long-term prices of US$1,630/oz platinum, US$815/oz palladium, US$1,300/oz gold, US$2,000/oz rhodium, US$8.90/lb nickel and US$3.00/lb copper, and ZAR:USD of 13:1. Based on long-term prices of US$1,250/oz platinum, US$825/oz palladium, US$1,300/oz gold, US$1,000/oz rhodium, US$7.60/lb nickel and US$3.00/lb copper, and ZAR:USD of 13:1. 3PE+Au = platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold. All-in cash costs include sustaining capital costs.

Table 1.4: Cash costs after credits. US$ per ounce of 3PE+Au YEARS 1-5 YEARS 1-10 LIFE-OF-MINE AVERAGE Mine site $442.3 $392.1 $399.5 Realization $266.6 $304.3 $339.8 Total cash costs before credits $708.9 $696.4 $739.2 Nickel credits $304.5 $306.5 $334.4 Copper credits $71.5 $71.1 479.1 Total cash costs after credits $332.9 $318.9 $325.7 Sustaining capital costs $25.4 $26.1 $25.0 All-in cash costs after credits(2) $358.3 $345.0 $350.7

Totals may vary due to rounding. All-in cash costs include sustaining capital costs.

Table 1.5: Production summary of key average annual production results. Item Units Average Life of Mine Steady-state production(1) Million tonnes pa 3.9 Platinum g/t 1.95 Palladium g/t 2.01 Gold g/t 0.30 Rhodium g/t 0.14 3PE+Au(2) g/t 4.40 Copper % 0.17 Nickel % 0.34 Recoveries Platinum % 87.4 Palladium % 86.9 Gold % 78.6 Rhodium % 80.5 Copper % 87.9 Nickel % 71.9 Concentrate produced Concentrate kt/a 174 Platinum g/t 38.2 Palladium g/t 39.1 Gold g/t 5.3 Rhodium g/t 2.4 3PE + Au(2) g/t 85.1 Copper % 3.3 Nickel % 5.5 Recovered metal Platinum koz/a 214 Palladium koz/a 219 Gold koz/a 30 Rhodium koz/a 14 3PE + Au(2) koz/a 476 Copper Mlb/a 13 Nickel Mlb/a 21

Production over 32 years life of mine for four Mtpa steady-state production. 3PE+Au is the sum of the grades for and production of platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold.

Table 1.6: Total pre-production and sustaining capital costs, including contingency. US$ million Pre-Production Sustaining Total Mining Exploration and geology 12 9 20 Mining 779 349 1,129 Capitalized operating costs 63 - 63 Subtotal 854 358 1,213 Concentrator & tailings Concentrator 240 6 246 Subtotal 240 6 246 Infrastructure Infrastructure 230 23 253 Site Costs 9 3 11 Capitalized operating costs 36 - 36 Subtotal 275 26 300 Owners cost Owners Cost 44 8 52 Closure 1 16 17 Sub-total 45 24 69 Capex before contingency 1,413 414 1,827 Contingency 131 3 135 Capex after contingency 1,544 418 1,962

Sustaining capital expenditure also includes 2023 construction capital expenditure. Totals may vary due to rounding.

Higher nickel and copper grades contribute to lower cash costs for operations on the Northern Limb of South Africa's Bushveld Igneous Complex, as illustrated by Figure 2.0. Among the current and potential future Northern Limb producers, Platreef's estimated net total cash cost of US$351 per 3PE+Au ounce, net of copper and nickel by-product credits and including stay-in-business (SIB) capital costs, ranks at the bottom of the cash-cost curve.

At a projected production rate of 12 Mtpa, Platreef would be the largest primary platinum-group metals mine in the world, producing over 1.2 million platinum equivalent ounces per annum (including nickel and copper), as illustrated by Figure 3.0.

Figure 2.0: Net total cash cost + SIB capital (2017 mines in production and selected projects), US$/3PE+Au oz





Figure 3.0: Total 2017E global primary platinum-equivalent production





Mineral Resources

The mineral resources used as the basis of the DFS were those amenable to underground selective mining. Information on Platreef Project geology and mineralization is contained in the Platreef Project National Instrument (NI) 43-101 Technical Report dated April 22, 2016, filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the Ivanhoe Mines website at www.ivanhoemines.com.

Table 1.7: Mineral Resources amenable to underground selective mining methods (base case is highlighted). Indicated Mineral Resources

Tonnage and Grades Cut-off

3PE+Au Mt Pt

(g/t) Pd

(g/t) Au

(g/t) Rh

(g/t) 3PE+

Au (g/t) Cu

(%) Ni

(%) 3 g/t 204 2.11 2.11 0.34 0.14 4.7 0.18 0.35 2 g/t 346 1.68 1.70 0.28 0.11 3.77 0.16 0.32 1 g/t 716 1.11 1.16 0.19 0.08 2.55 0.13 0.26 Indicated Mineral Resources

Contained Metal Cut-off

3PE+Au Pt

(Moz) Pd

Moz) Au

(Moz) Rh

(Moz) 3PE+

Au (Moz) Cu

(Mlb) Ni

(Mlb) 3 g/t 13.9 13.9 2.2 0.9 30.9 800 1,597 2 g/t 18.7 18.9 3.1 1.2 41.9 1,226 2,438 1 g/t 25.6 26.8 4.5 1.8 58.8 2,076 4,108 Inferred Mineral Resources

Tonnage and Grades Cut-off

3PE +Au Mt Pt

(g/t) Pd

(g/t) Au

(g/t) Rh

(g/t) 3PE+

Au (g/t) Cu

(%) Ni

(%) 3 g/t 225 1.91 1.93 0.32 0.13 4.29 0.17 0.35 2 g/t 506 1.42 1.46 0.26 0.10 3.24 0.16 0.31 1 g/t 1431 0.88 0.94 0.17 0.07 2.05 0.13 0.25 Inferred Mineral Resources

Contained Metal Cut-off

3PE +Au Pt

(Moz) Pd

Moz) Au

(Moz) Rh

(Moz) 3PE+

Au (Moz) Cu

(Mlb) Ni

(Mlb) 3 g/t 13.8 14.0 2.3 1.0 31.0 865 1,736 2 g/t 23.2 23.8 4.3 1.6 52.8 1,775 3,440 1 g/t 40.4 43.0 7.8 3.1 94.3 4,129 7,759

Mineral Resources have an effective date of April 22, 2016. The Qualified Persons for the estimate are Dr. Harry Parker, RM SME, and Mr. Timothy Kuhl, RM SME. Mineral Resources are reported inclusive of Mineral Reserves. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The 2 g/t 3PE+Au cut-off is considered the base-case estimate and is highlighted. The rows are not additive. Mineral Resources are reported on a 100% basis. Mineral Resources are stated from approximately -200 m to 650 m elevation (from 500 m to 1,350 m depth). Indicated Mineral Resources are drilled on approximately 100 x 100 m spacing; Inferred Mineral Resources are drilled on 400 x 400 m (locally to 400 x 200 m and 200 x 200 m) spacing. Reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction were determined using the following assumptions. Assumed commodity prices are Platinum: $1,600/oz; palladium: $815/oz; gold: $1,300/oz; rhodium: $1,500/oz; copper: $3.00/lb; and nickel: $8.90/lb. It has been assumed that payable metals would be 82% from smelter/refinery and that mining costs (average $34.27/t) and process, general and administrative costs, and concentrate transport costs (average $15.83/t of mill feed for a four Mtpa operation) would be covered. The processing recoveries vary with block grade but typically would be 80%-90% for platinum, palladium and rhodium; 70-90% for gold; 60-90% for copper; and 65-75% for nickel. 3PE+Au = platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold. Totals may not sum due to rounding.

Proposed mining methods

Mining zones in the current Platreef mine plan occur at depths ranging from approximately 700 metres to 1,200 metres below surface. Primary access to the mine will be by way of a 1,104-metre-deep, 10-metre-diameter production shaft (Shaft 2). Secondary access to the mine will be via a 980-metre-deep, 7.25-metre-diameter ventilation shaft (Shaft 1), which is under construction. During mine production, both shafts also will serve as ventilation intakes. Three additional ventilation exhaust raises (Ventilation Raise 1, 2, and 3) are planned to achieve steady-state production.

Mining will be performed using highly productive mechanized methods, including long-hole stoping and drift-and-fill. Each method will utilize cemented backfill for maximum ore extraction. The current mine plan has been improved over the 2015 PFS mine plan by optimizing stope design, employing a declining Net Smelter Return (NSR) strategy and targeting higher-grade zones early in the mine life. This strategy has increased the grade profile by 23% on a 3PE+Au basis in the first 10 years of operation and 10% over the life of the mine.

The ore will be hauled from the stopes to a series of internal ore passes and fed to the bottom of Shaft 2, where it will be crushed and hoisted to surface.

Increased Mineral Reserves at Platreef Project

Ivanhoe has declared an increased Probable Mineral Reserve of 17.6 million ounces of platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold, using a declining NSR cut-off of $155/t to $80/t. This increase of 13% follows stope optimization and mine sequencing work, resulting in improved head grades. Tables 1.8 and 1.9 show Probable Mineral Reserves for Platreef.

Table 1.8: Platreef Probable Mineral Reserves - tonnage and grades as at May 24, 2017. Method Mt NSR

($/t) Pt

(g/t) Pd

(g/t) Au

(g/t) Rh

(g/t) 3PE+Au

(g/t) Cu

(%) Ni

(%) Ore development 11.1 159.9 1.96 2.05 0.30 0.14 4.45 0.17 0.35 Long-hole 93.1 152.1 1.88 1.95 0.29 0.13 4.25 0.16 0.33 Drift-and-fill 20.4 182.0 2.28 2.23 0.37 0.15 5.03 0.18 0.37 Total 124.7 157.7 1.95 2.01 0.30 0.14 4.40 0.17 0.34

Table 1.9: Platreef Probable Mineral Reserves - contained metal as at May 24, 2017. Method Mt Pt

(Moz) Pd

(Moz) Au

(Moz) Rh

(Moz) 3PE+Au

(Moz) Cu

(Mlb) Ni

(Mlb) Ore development 11.1 0.7 0.7 0.1 0.05 1.6 42 85 Long-hole 93.1 5.6 5.8 0.9 0.4 12.7 333 681 Drift-and-fill 20.4 1.5 1.5 0.2 0.1 3.3 83 167 Total 124.7 7.8 8.0 1.2 0.5 17.6 457 932

Mineral Reserves have an effective date of May 24, 2017. The Qualified Person for the estimate is Jon Treen (Stantec), P. Eng., with Professional Engineers of Ontario. A declining NSR cut-off of $155/t to $80/t was used for the Mineral Reserve estimates. The NSR cut-off is an elevated cut-off above the marginal economic cut-off. Metal prices used in the Mineral Reserve estimate are as follows: US$1,600/oz platinum, US$815/oz palladium, US$1,300/oz gold, US$1,500/oz rhodium, US$8.90/lb nickel and US$3.00/lb copper. Metal-price assumptions used for the DFS economic analysis are as follows: US$1,250/oz platinum, US$825/oz palladium, US$1,300/oz gold, US$1,000/oz rhodium, US$7.60/lb nickel and US$3.00/lb copper. Tonnage and grade estimates include dilution and mining recovery allowances. Total may not add due to rounding. 3PE+Au = platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold.

Based on the cut-off grade and mining criteria applied to the Platreef resource model, the Probable Mineral Reserve will support a 32-year mine life at a steady-state production rate of four Mtpa. The Mineral Reserve at four Mtpa only includes a third of the Mineral Resource estimate above an $80 per tonne NSR cut-off, which provides an opportunity to ramp-up production in future.

Metallurgy and processing methods

Metallurgical test work has focused on maximizing recovery of platinum-group elements (PGE) and base metals, mainly nickel, while producing an acceptably high-grade concentrate suitable for further processing and/or sale to a third party. The three main geo-metallurgical units and composites tested produced smelter-grade final concentrates of approximately 85 g/t PGE+Au at acceptable PGE recoveries. Test work also has shown that the material is amenable to treatment by conventional flotation without the need for mainstream or concentrate ultrafine re-grinding. Extensive bench scale testwork comprising of open circuit and locked cycled flotation testing, comminution testing, mineralogical characterisation, dewatering and rheological characterisation was performed at Mintek in South Africa, which is an internationally accredited metallurgical testing facility and laboratory.

Comminution and flotation test work has indicated that the optimum grind for beneficiation is 80% passing 75 micrometres. Platreef ore is classified as being 'hard' to 'very hard' and thus not suitable for semi-autogenous grinding; a multi-stage crushing and ball-milling circuit has been selected as the preferred size reduction route.

Improved flotation performance has been achieved using high-chrome grinding media as opposed to carbon steel media. The inclusion of a split-cleaner flotation circuit configuration, in which the fast-floating fraction is treated in a cleaner circuit separate from the medium- and slow-floating fractions, resulted in improved PGE, copper and nickel recoveries and concentrate grades.

As with the PFS, a two-phased development approach was used for the DFS flow-sheet design. The selected flow sheet comprises a common four Mtpa, three-stage crushing circuit, feeding crushed material to two parallel milling-flotation modules, each with a nominal capacity of two Mtpa. Flotation is followed by a common concentrate thickening, concentrate filtration, tailings disposal and tailings-handling facility.

Future expansion options

Given the size and potential of the Platreef resource, as demonstrated by the phased expansions outlined in the PEA, Shaft 2 has been engineered with a crushing and hoisting capacity of six Mtpa.

This allows for a relatively quick and capital-efficient first expansion of the Platreef Project to six Mtpa by increasing underground development and commissioning a third, two-Mtpa processing module and associated surface infrastructure as required.

A further expansion to more than eight Mtpa would entail converting Shaft 1 from a ventilation shaft into a hoisting shaft. This would require additional ventilation exhaust raises, as well as a further increase of underground development, commissioning of a fourth, two-Mtpa processing module and associated surface infrastructure, as described in the PEA as Phase 2 of the project.

Supply of water and electricity

The Olifants River Water Resource Development Project (ORWRDP) is designed to deliver water to the Eastern and Northern limbs of South Africa's Bushveld Complex. The project consists of the new De Hoop Dam, the raised wall of the Flag Boshielo Dam and related pipeline infrastructure that ultimately is expected to deliver water to Pruissen, southeast of the Northern Limb. The Pruissen Pipeline Project is expected to be developed to deliver water onward from Pruissen to the municipalities, communities and mining projects on the Northern Limb. Ivanhoe Mines is a member of the ORWRDP's Joint Water Forum.

The Platreef Project's water requirement for the first phase of development is projected to peak at approximately 7.5 million litres per day, which is expected to be supplied by the water network. Ivanhoe also is investigating various alternative sources of bulk water, including an allocation of bulk grey-water from a local source.

On February 24, 2017, the five-million-volt-ampere (MVA) electrical power line connecting the Platreef site to the South African public electricity utility (Eskom) was energized and now is supplying electricity to Platreef for shaft sinking and construction activities. The new power line, a collaboration between Platreef, Eskom and the Mogalakwena Local Municipality, also established a platform to provide energy to the neighboring community of Mzombane, which previously was without electricity reticulation and supply.

Platreef's electrical power requirement for the phase one, four Mtpa, underground mine, concentrator and associated infrastructure has been estimated at approximately 100 MVA. An agreement has been reached with Eskom for the supply of phase-one power. Ivanhoe chose a self-build option for permanent power that will enable the company to manage the construction of the distribution lines from Eskom's Burutho sub-station to the Platreef Mine.

Photo 1: Platreef Mine illustration of first-phase surface infrastructure and host communities.





Update on construction progress

Shaft 1 sinking continues to advance at a rate of 45 to 50 metres per month, and has reached a depth of 450 metres below surface. Shaft 1 is expected to reach its projected, final depth of 980 metres below surface in 2018. The first lateral development off-shaft at 450 metres below surface is underway. This station will serve as an intermediate water pumping and shaft cable termination station.

Early-works surface construction for Shaft 2 began in late May 2017. It includes the excavation of a surface box-cut to a depth of approximately 29 metres below surface and construction of the concrete hitch for the 103-metre-tall concrete headgear (headframe) that will house the shaft's permanent hoisting facilities and support the shaft collar. The early-works construction is expected to be completed in approximately 12 months.

Concentrate off-take

Concentrate off-take discussions are underway with several South African PGM smelters. Ivanhoe Mines has received indications of interest from a number of these parties. Ivanhoe Mines' internal studies forecast sufficient smelting capacity in South Africa for the first phase of production from the Platreef Project. Several off-take agreements may have to be negotiated to achieve optimal terms for the Platreef Project. Technical discussions have begun with the objective of finalizing one or more off-take agreements before the production of first concentrate.

Project financing and strategic discussions underway

On July 19, 2017, Ivanhoe Mines announced the appointment of two leading mine-financing institutions, in addition to the three leading financial institutions appointed earlier this year, to arrange project financing for the development of the Platreef Project. The five Initial Mandated Lead Arrangers (IMLAs) will make best efforts to arrange a total debt financing of up to US$1 billion for the development of Platreef's first-phase, four Mtpa mine. Preliminary expressions of interest now have been received for approximately US$900 million of the targeted US$1 billion financing. Negotiation of a term sheet is ongoing. In addition, preliminary discussions have commenced with leading financial institutions around the financing of the black economic empowerment partners' contribution to the development capital.

"The issuance of the definitive feasibility study is a critical step in arranging the project debt financing. The results of the study confirm our belief that the Platreef Project will deliver high operating margins and significant cash flow, even at lower commodity prices," Mr. Johansson said.

Based on long-term prices, Platreef's life-of-mine average basket price is US$1,051 per ounce of 3PE+Au produced. Given the project's total cash cost after credits of US$326 per ounce of 3PE+Au, Platreef's operating margin is 69% per ounce of 3PE+Au, net of nickel and copper by-products.

Platreef's return on capital invested(1) is 15.0% over the life of the mine. The return to Ivanhoe Mines is expected to exceed this figure given the intention to arrange US$1 billion of project financing for the development of the project.

As measured by life-of-mine operating margin divided by capital invested in the project. Capital invested in the project is the historic expenditure up to December 31, 2016, of US$334 million, plus the estimated pre-production and sustaining capital cost of US$1.962 billion.

Continuing strategic discussions concerning Ivanhoe Mines and its projects are intensifying with several significant mining companies and investors across Asia, Europe, Africa and elsewhere. Several investors that have expressed interest have no material limit on the provision of capital.

Ivanhoe Mines will provide further comment only if a specific transaction or process is concluded, or if further disclosure is required or deemed appropriate. There can be no assurance that the company will pursue any transaction or that a transaction, if pursued, will be completed.

Photo 2. Members of the Initial Mandated Lead Arrangers visiting the Platreef Mine in July 2017





Major investment in skills training for mining and other jobs

The planned Platreef Mine is projected to require a full-time workforce of approximately 2,200 within four years of the start of production.

Work is progressing well on the implementation of Ivanhoe's Social and Labour Plan (SLP), to which the company has pledged a total of R160 million ($12 million) during the first five years, culminating in November 2019. The approved plan includes R67 million ($5 million) for the development of job skills among local residents and R88 million ($7 million) for local economic development projects.

Ivanhoe Mines also has committed to building a community development centre adjacent to the mine as part of the company's objective of helping to establish a base of qualified, local candidates for jobs at the mine and its associated minerals processing plant.

Other goals include equipping people with portable skills to help enable them to become self-employed or to be productively employed in sectors other than mining, such as construction or agriculture.

In addition, Ivanhoe plans to launch five local economic development projects under the SLP that will result in the creation of approximately 800 jobs.

Photos 3 and 4: Shaft 1 sinking activities





Photo 5: Shaft 2 early works underway





Qualified persons

The following companies have undertaken work in preparation of the DFS and Technical Report:

OreWin - Overall report preparation and economic analysis.

DRA Global - Process and infrastructure.

Amec Foster Wheeler - Mineral Resource estimation.

SRK Consulting - Mine geotechnical recommendations.

Stantec Consulting International - Mineral Reserve estimation and mine plan.

Golder Associates - Water and tailings management.

The independent qualified persons responsible for preparing the Platreef definitive feasibility study, on which the technical report will be based, are Bernard Peters (OreWin); Dr. Harry Parker (Amec Foster Wheeler); Timothy Kuhl (Amec Foster Wheeler); William Joughin, (SRK); Jon Treen (Stantec); Val Coetzee (DRA Global); and Francois Marais (Golder Associates). Each person has reviewed and approved the information in this news release relevant to the portion of the Platreef DFS for which they are responsible.

Other scientific and technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Stephen Torr, P.Geo., Ivanhoe Mines' Vice President, Project Geology and Evaluation, a Qualified Person under the terms of NI 43-101. Mr. Torr has verified the technical data disclosed in this news release.

Sample preparation, analyses and security

During Ivanhoe's work programs, sample preparation and analyses were performed by accredited, independent laboratories. Sample preparation was accomplished by Set Point laboratories in Mokopane, South Africa. Sample analyses were accomplished by Set Point Laboratories, Johannesburg; Lakefield Laboratory (now part of the SGS Group), Johannesburg; Ultra Trace Laboratory, Perth; Genalysis Laboratories, Perth and Johannesburg; SGS Metallurgical Services, South Africa; Acme, Vancouver; and ALS Chemex, Vancouver. Bureau Veritas Minerals Pty Ltd assumed control of Ultra Trace during June 2007 and is responsible for assay results after that date.

Sample preparation and analytical procedures for samples that support Mineral Resource estimation have followed similar protocols since 2001. The preparation and analytical procedures are in line with industry-standard methods for platinum, palladium, gold, nickel and copper deposits. Drill programs included insertion of blank, duplicate, standard reference material and certified reference material samples. The quality-assurance and quality-control (QA/QC) program results do not indicate any problems with the analytical protocols that would preclude use of the data in Mineral Resource estimation.

Sample security has been demonstrated by the fact that the samples always were attended or locked in the on-site core facility in Mokopane.

Information on sample preparation, analyses and security is contained in the Platreef Project NI 43-101 Technical Report dated April 22, 2016, filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the Ivanhoe Mines website at www.ivanhoemines.com.

Data verification

Amec Foster Wheeler E&C Services Inc. (Amec Foster Wheeler) reviewed the sample chain of custody, quality-assurance and quality-control QA/QC procedures and qualifications of analytical laboratories. In addition, Amec Foster Wheeler audited the assay database, core logging and geological interpretations. Based on these reviews, Amec Foster Wheeler considers that the data are acceptable to support Mineral Resource estimation.

Details of the data verification supporting the Mineral Resource estimate are set out in the Platreef Project NI 43-101 Technical Report dated effective April 22, 2016, and filed on June 24, 2016, available on Ivanhoe Mines' SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com and www.ivanhoemines.com.

About Ivanhoe Mines

Ivanhoe Mines is advancing its three principal projects in Southern Africa: 1) Mine development at the Platreef platinum-palladium-gold-nickel-copper discovery on the Northern Limb of South Africa's Bushveld Complex; 2) mine development and exploration at the tier one Kamoa-Kakula copper discovery on the Central African Copperbelt in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC); and 3) upgrading at the historic, high-grade Kipushi zinc-copper-silver-germanium mine, also on the DRC's Copperbelt. For details, visit www.ivanhoemines.com.
VANCOUVER, July 31, 2017 /CNW/ - NexGen Energy Ltd. ("NexGen" or the "Company") (TSX:NXE, NYSE: NXE) is pleased to announce the positive results of its independent maiden Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") of the basement-hosted Arrow Deposit, located on the Company's 100% owned Rook I project in Saskatchewan's Athabasca Basin.

The maiden PEA was completed by Roscoe Postle Associates Inc. ("RPA"), and is based on the mineral resource estimate announced by the Company in March 2017 (with an effective date of December 20, 2016) that comprised an Indicated Mineral Resource of 179.5 M lb of U3O8 contained in 1.18 M tonnes grading 6.88% U3O8, and an Inferred Mineral Resource of 122.1 M lb of U3O8 contained in 4.25 M tonnes grading 1.30% U3O8. The PEA does not include the results of the Company's winter or summer 2017 drill programs which will total over 66,000 m of additional drilling.

Table 1  Summary of Arrow Deposit Preliminary Economic Assessment

PEA Financial Highlights After-Tax Net Present Value (NPV 8% ) CAD $3.49 Billion After-Tax Internal Rate of Return (IRR) 56.7% After-Tax Cash Payback 1.1 Years Pre-production Capital Costs (CAPEX) CAD $1.19 Billion Average Annual Production (Years 1-5) 27.6 M lbs U3O8 Average Annual Production (Life of Mine) 18.5 M lbs U3O8 Mine Life 14.4 Years Average Unit Operating Cost (Years 1-5) CAD $5.53 (US $4.42)/lb U3O8 Average Unit Operating Cost (Life of Mine) CAD $8.37 (US $6.70)/lb U3O8 Uranium Price Assumption USD $50/lb U3O8 Saskatchewan Royalties (Life of Mine) CAD $2.98 Billion

Exchange Rate CAD$1 = USD$0.80

Leigh Curyer, Chief Executive Officer, commented: "The Arrow Deposit is one of the most strategically significant and economically powerful mineral projects I am aware of across any resource commodity. Yet, it is still in it's infancy in terms of ultimate resource size given the openness of mineralization and new discoveries in close proximity to Arrow highlighted in our recent drilling results. This PEA highlights Arrow's unique technical setting, grade and characteristics of mineralization, resulting in it hosting the potential to be a leading source of mined uranium in the world with a relatively low capital and operating cost per lb over the life of the mine. Importantly, the project is located in Saskatchewan  regarded by the Fraser Institute in 2016 as the most attractive mining jurisdiction in the world for investment. With CAD$200 million in the treasury, NexGen is well financed to continue to expand and optimize economically this generational mineral resource."

Table 2  Summary of Arrow PEA Production Profile

Unit Years 1-5 Years 1-10 LOM Recovered Production Total Tonnes kt 2,502 5,050 7,310 Average Annual Tonnes ktpa 501 505 487 Tonnes per Day Processed tpd 1,430 1,445 1,448 Average Annual Grade U3O8 % 2.62 2.14 1.73 Total Pounds U3O8 '000 lbs U 3 O 8 137,955 227,713 267,203 Average Annual Pounds U3O8 '000 lbs U 3 O 8 27,591 22,771 18,549 Unit Operating Cost per Tonne Underground Mining C$ / t proc 129 128 132 Processing C$ / t proc 112 112 111 Surface & GA C$ / t proc 64 63 63 Total Operating Cost C$ / t proc 305 303 306 Unit Operating Cost C$ / lb U3O8 5.53 (US $4.42) 6.73 (US $5.39) 8.37 (US $6.70) Operating Margin % 90.4 88.3 85.5

Table 3  PEA Sensitivity to Uranium Price

Uranium Price ($ USD/lb U3O8) After-Tax NPV1,2 After-Tax IRR After-Tax Cash Pay Back1,2 $80/lb U3O8 CAD $6.45 Billion 82.3% 0.7 Years $60/lb U3O8 CAD $4.48 Billion 65.9% 0.9 Years $50/lb U3O8 CAD $3.49 Billion 56.7% 1.1 Years $40/lb U3O8 CAD $2.49 Billion 46.2% 1.4 Years $30/lb U3O8 CAD $1.50 Billion 34.1% 1.9 Years $25/lb U3O8 CAD $1.00 Billion 27.0% 2.4 Years

Notes:

1. Based on an 8% Discount Rate.

2. Based on a 0.80 USD / 1.00 CAD Exchange Rate.

Figure 1  Arrow Undiscounted Cumulative After-Tax Cash Flow





Production Summary

The PEA envisions a production profile supported by conventional long-hole stope mining averaging 1,448 tonnes per day at an average head grade of 1.73% U3O8 over the life of mine. It is envisaged that mine production will be fed into a conventional uranium processing plant where uranium recovery is projected to be 96.0% over the life of mine.

It is envisaged that cemented paste fill tailings will be used, where tailings are constituted into a paste, mixed with approximately 5% cement and delivered back underground. The cemented paste fill tailings will be used to backfill stopes and the excess will be placed in a, purpose built, Underground Tailings Storage Facility (see Figure 3 below). Among many other benefits, this tailings management process is expected to significantly reduce the surface footprint of the project.

The positive results of the PEA are a function of a conventional long-hole stope mine plan conceivably extracting compact near-vertical high-grade uranium mineralization localized in competent crystalline basement rocks. Arrow is considered an optimal deposit for long-hole stope mining because it is comprised of stacked high-grade veins with strong continuity on strike, dip and vertical extent. Additionally, there are natural pillars due to the spacing between the mineralized A1 through A4 shears. Due to the geometry of the Arrow deposit, approximately 93% of the mineral resource was converted into mineable resources. The positive results of the PEA are further supported by a high process recovery rate (96.0%), due to simple mineralogy and low deleterious elements.

Figure 2  Arrow Annual Production and Grade Profile





Figure 3  Long Section View of Conceptual Arrow Deposit Mine Infrastructure





Capital Costs

The capital costs (CAPEX) for the contemplated underground mine, process plant and supporting infrastructure at Arrow are estimated at CAD $1.66 billion including initial capital costs of CAD $1.19 billion. The initial capital cost includes a contingency of 25% or CAD $237 million. RPA estimated the capital costs based on input and consultation with leading expert service providers who have experience in construction projects and cost estimation both in the Athabasca Basin and globally. The CAPEX is summarized below in Table 4.

Table 4  Summary Breakdown of Capital Cost Estimates

Capital Costs ($ CAD Millions) Initial Sustaining Total Mine $324 $205 $529 Process Plant & Infrastructure & Indirect Costs $627 $199 $826 Decommissioning - $64 $64 Contingency $237 - $237 Total Capital Costs $1,188 $468 $1,656

Operating Costs

The operating cost estimate (OPEX) is based on a shaft accessed underground mine with a conventional longitudinal and transverse long-hole stope mining method, conventional processing facility and underground placement of cemented paste tailings. The OPEX is summarized below in Table 5, and the total cash costs and average production from the Arrow deposit over the first five years is compared to current global producers of uranium in Figure 4 and other select underground global producers across commodities in Figure 5.

Table 5  Unit Operating Cost Estimates

Operating Costs $ CAD/lb U3O8 Mining $3.61 Mineral Processing $3.03 General and Administration $1.73 Total Operating Costs $8.37

Figure 4  Total Cash Costs and Annual Production Compared Globally





Notes to Figure 4:

Adapted from SNL Metals and Mining. Arrow production and costs based on PEA results. All other data based on 2016 modelled costs and production from SNL Metals and Mining. NexGen makes no representations as to the reliability of this information. SNL estimates costs and production for approximately 70% of uranium operations. Costs include operational costs. Costs exclude sustaining capital costs, taxes, profit-based royalties, depreciation, and corporate costs. The cost curve does not consider secondary supplies of U3O8.

Figure 5  Total Unit Operating Costs Per Tonne Costs Compared Globally





Notes to Figure 5:

Unit operating costs are the sum of site-based mining, processing, and general and administration. All of the comparable projects are underground mines with production rates ranging from nominally 1,000 tpd to 6,000 tpd. The majority of data points are mines that are considered to be in remote areas. Data is based on a variety of sources, including SNL Metals and Mining, and publicly available information. NexGen makes no representations as to the reliability of this information.

The PEA is preliminary in nature and includes inferred mineral resources that are too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is no certainty that PEA results will be realized. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.

Conference Call & Webinar:

NexGen will host a conference call and accompanying live webinar today, Monday July 31, 2017 at 8:15 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.

NexGen will discuss the results of the PEA before opening the call to questions from participants. To join the call please dial (647) 427- 7450 (Local/International) or (888) 231-8191 (North America Toll Free) and an operator will put the call through. An accompanying live webcast and slides are available at the following link Click Here.

A recorded version of the proceedings will be available on our website (www.nexgenenergy.ca) shortly after the call. The playback numbers are (416) 849-0833 (Local/International) or (855) 859-2056 (North America Toll Free) (Playback Passcode 60229327) and available until October 30, 2017.

About NexGen

NexGen is a British Columbia corporation with a focus on the acquisition, exploration and development of Canadian uranium projects. NexGen has a highly experienced team of uranium industry professionals with a successful track record in the discovery of uranium deposits and in developing projects through discovery to production.

NexGen owns a portfolio of prospective uranium exploration assets in the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan, Canada, including a 100% interest in Rook I, location of the Arrow Discovery in February 2014 and Bow Discovery in March 2015 and the Harpoon discovery in August 2016. The Arrow deposit's updated mineral resource estimate with an effective date of December 20, 2016 was released in March 2017, and comprised 179.5 M lbs U3O8 contained in 1.18 M tonnes grading 6.88% U3O8 in the Indicated Mineral Resource category and an additional 122.1 M lbs U3O8 contained in 4.25 M tonnes grading 1.30% U3O8 in the Inferred Mineral Resource category.

Technical Disclosure

The scientific and technical information in this news release with respect to the PEA has been reviewed and approved by David Robson, P.Eng., M.B.A., and Jason Cox, P.Eng. of RPA, each of whom is an independent "qualified person" under National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI-43-101"). All other scientific and technical information in this news release has been approved by Mr. Garrett Ainsworth, P.Geo., Vice President  Exploration & Development for NexGen. Mr. Ainsworth is a qualified person for the purposes of NI 43-101 and has verified the sampling, analytical, and test data underlying the information or opinions contained herein by reviewing original data certificates and monitoring all of the data collection protocols.

Technical Reports

The mineral resource estimate referred to herein was announced by the Company on March 6th, 2017, and has an effective date of December 20, 2016. For details of the Rook I Project including the quality assurance program and quality control measures applied and key assumptions, parameters and methods used to estimate the mineral resource set forth herein please refer to the technical report entitled "Technical Report on the Rook 1 Property, Saskatchewan, Canada" dated effective March 31, 2017 (the "Rook 1 Technical Report"). The Rook I Technical Report is available on NexGen's issuer profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

A new technical report in respect of the PEA, that will supersede the Rook 1 Technical Report, will be filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) and EDGAR (www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml) within 45 days of this news release.

SEC Standards

Estimates of mineralization and other technical information included or referenced in this news release have been prepared in accordance with NI 43-101. The definitions of proven and probable mineral reserves used in NI 43-101 differ from the definitions in SEC Industry Guide 7. Under SEC Industry Guide 7 standards, a "final" or "bankable" feasibility study is required to report reserves, the three-year historical average price is used in any reserve or cash flow analysis to designate reserves and the primary environmental analysis or report must be filed with the appropriate governmental authority. As a result, the reserves reported by the Company in accordance with NI 43-101 may not qualify as "reserves" under SEC standards. In addition, the terms "mineral resource", "measured mineral resource", "indicated mineral resource" and "inferred mineral resource" are defined in and required to be disclosed by NI 43-101; however, these terms are not defined terms under SEC Industry Guide 7 and normally are not permitted to be used in reports and registration statements filed with the SEC. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of the mineral deposits in these categories will ever be converted into reserves. "Inferred mineral resources" have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence, and great uncertainty as to their economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under Canadian securities laws, estimates of inferred mineral resources may not form the basis of feasibility or pre-feasibility studies, except in rare cases. Additionally, disclosure of "contained ounces" in a resource is permitted disclosure under Canadian securities laws; however, the SEC normally only permits issuers to report mineralization that does not constitute "reserves" by SEC standards as in place tonnage and grade without reference to unit measurements. Accordingly, information contained or referenced in this news release containing descriptions of the Company's mineral deposits may not be comparable to similar information made public by U.S. companies subject to the reporting and disclosure requirements of United States federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - July 31, 2017) - Liberty Gold Inc. (TSX:LGD) ("Liberty Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to announce initial drill results from the Mineral Mountain Target at the 100% controlled Goldstrike Oxide Gold Project in southwestern Utah.

Mineral Mountain is located in the northwest corner of the project area, approximately 6 km from the Main Zone. The Company has and continues to focus its exploration attention at the Main Zone in order to define a district-scale, oxide gold system. Results have been received from the first Liberty Gold drill hole program at Mineral Mountain, where historical drill results indicated the presence of gold mineralization.

Highlights from the Mineral Mountain Target include;

1.02 grams per tonne gold (g/t Au) over 13.7 metres (m) and 0.74 g/t Au over 10.7 m in PGS253

1.16 g/t Au over 25.9 m including 3.48 g/t Au over 4.6 m in PGS255

0.58 g/t Au over 6.1 m and 0.51 g/t Au over 7.6 m in PGS264

0.79 g/t Au over 29.0 m including 1.97 g/t Au over 4.6 m in PGS265

0.39 g/t Au over 19.8 m and 0.53 g/t over 6.1 m in PGS268

0.53 g/t Au over 10.7 m in PGS273

1.78 g/t Au over 67.1 m including 3.14 g/t Au over 32.0 m in PGS277

Additional field and geophysical work will be carried out in order to fully understand this area before resuming drilling.

Key Points:

The 13-drill hole program is spread out along 1 km of strike of exposed Claron Formation and felsic intrusive rocks. Additional drill results are pending.

The interpretative model at Mineral Mountain is similar to the rest of the Goldstrike project area.

Mineralization starts at surface in holes PGS255 and PGS277. The mineralized zone in these holes is open to depth and to the south.

The Mineral Mountain target is located 1.5 km south of a granitoid intrusion, with a skarn and hornfelsed aurole extending up to 1.5 to 2 km from the intrusion margin.

The higher-grade intercepts are partially hosted within felsic dykes related to the intrusion.

Areas of oxidized jasperoid marginal to the dykes, in association with the preferred Claron Formation, also contain gold.

The Mineral Mountain intrusion, or buried intrusions related to it, may be drivers of gold mineralization on a region-wide scale, as a source of heat and hydrothermal fluids.

Liberty Gold has staked additional claims to the southeast of the intrusion to link the Live Oak target (see below) to the contiguous Goldstrike Property.

Several other targets with gold mineralization are located in the vicinity of Mineral Mountain, including Black Canyon, a 2 km by 500 m northwest - southeast target area with gold-bearing Claron Formation jasperoid at surface, and the Live Oak target, 2 km to the north of the Mineral Mountain gold target and immediately south east of the intrusion, which contains gold-bearing skarn alteration on surface and in historical drill holes. The Live Oak area is marked by 2 x 1 km gold in soil anomaly, and was tested by a few gold-bearing historic drill holes. Field work and geochemical sampling will be carried out in these areas prior to further drill testing. Induced Polarization (IP) geophysical surveys, currently in progress in the Main Zone, will be extended into this area later in the year.

Both Mineral Mountain and Black Canyon are covered under the Goldstrike Plan of Operations received in June 2017.

Complete Table of Drill Results for the Current Holes



Complete Table of Results for All Drilling by Liberty Gold at Goldstrike in 2015, 2016 and to date in 2017



Figure 1. Map of the Current Drill Target Areas





Figure 2. Map of Drill Collars and Traces





Goldstrike is located in the eastern Great Basin, immediately adjacent to the Utah/Nevada border, and is a Carlin-style gold system, similar in many ways to the prolific deposits located along Nevada's Carlin trend. Like Kinsley Mountain and Newmont's Long Canyon deposit, Goldstrike represents part of a growing number of Carlin-style gold systems located off the main Carlin and Cortez trends in underexplored parts of the Great Basin. The historic Goldstrike Mine operated from 1988 to 1994, with 209,000 ounces of gold produced from 12 shallow pits, at an average grade of 1.2 g/t Au.

Moira Smith, Ph.D., P.Geo., Vice-President Exploration and Geoscience, Liberty Gold, is the Company's designated Qualified Person for this news release within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") and has reviewed and validated that the information contained in the release is accurate. Drill composites were calculated using a cut-off of 0.20 g/t. Drill intersections are reported as drilled thicknesses. True widths of the mineralized intervals vary between 30% and 100% of the reported lengths due to varying drill hole orientations, but are typically in the range of 60% to 80% of true width. Drill samples were assayed by ALS Limited in Reno, Nevada for gold by Fire Assay of a 30 gram (1 assay ton) charge with an AA finish, or if over 5.0 g/t were re-assayed and completed with a gravimetric finish. For these samples, the gravimetric data were utilized in calculating gold intersections. For any samples assaying over 0.200 ppm an additional cyanide leach analysis is done where the sample is treated with a 0.25% NaCN solution and rolled for an hour. An aliquot of the final leach solution is then centrifuged and analyzed by AAS. Metallic screen techniques may be employed where the presence of coarse free gold is suspected. Approximately 1000 grams of coarse reject material are pulverized and screened. Two splits of the fine fraction are assayed, as well as all material that does not pass through the screen (the coarse fraction). The final gold assay reported is a weighted average of the coarse and fine fractions. QA/QC for all drill samples consists of the insertion and continual monitoring of numerous standards and blanks into the sample stream, and the collection of duplicate samples at random intervals within each batch. Selected holes are also analyzed for a 51 multi-element geochemical suite by ICP-MS. ALS Geochemistry-Reno is ISO 17025:2005 Accredited, with the Elko prep lab listed on the scope of accreditation.

Goldstrike is an early-stage exploration project and does not contain any mineral resource estimates as defined by NI 43-101. The potential quantities and grades disclosed herein are conceptual in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource for the targets disclosed herein. It is uncertain if further exploration will result in these targets being delineated as a mineral resource. Further information on Goldstrike is available in the technical report entitled "Technical Report on the Goldstrike Project, Washington County, Utah, U.S.A.", effective April 1, 2016 and dated October 7, 2016, prepared by Michael M. Gustin, C.P.G. and Moira Smith, Ph.D., P.Geo. found at the top of this page or under Liberty Gold's issuer profile in SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

ABOUT LIBERTY GOLD

Liberty Gold is led by a proven technical and capital markets team that continues to discover and define high-quality assets. Our flagship property is the Goldstrike Oxide Gold Project in Utah. Liberty also has a pipeline of projects, including Black Pine in Idaho and Kinsley Mountain in Nevada, providing a solid platform for future growth. Over the past 5 years, there have been 8 new open-pit, heap leach gold mines built around the world and the management team and/or directors of Liberty Gold are responsible for discovering, developing and/or building, two of them. Long Canyon in Nevada (Fronteer Gold) and Karma in Burkina Faso (True Gold), both reached commercial production in 2016.

For more information, visit www.libertygold.ca.
TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - July 29, 2017) - Continental Gold Inc. (TSX: CNL) ( OTCQX : CGOOF) ("Continental" or the "Company") is extremely saddened to announce that six security contractors ("Contractors") providing services to the Company perished from apparent asphyxiation during an incident in an illegal mine located away from the Company's current operations at the Buritica Project in Antioquia, Colombia. The Company is working with government agencies to provide full support to the families of the victims and will continue to cooperate with the government to intensify efforts to ensure security and legality in the region.

According to the information available at this time, during the evening of Friday, July 28, 2017, the Contractors were performing routine underground inspections of a government-closed illegal mine as ordered by the National Government of Colombia in order to maintain its post-intervention strategy. Upon entering the underground mine, the Contractors were accosted by illegal miners, followed by a subsequent explosion. A seventh Contractor managed to escape and immediately notified all relevant authorities. Rescue efforts were led by the ANM (National Mining Agency of Colombia, the top mining authority under the Ministry of Mines) and DAPARD (the governments disaster recovery agency), with assistance from Continental. The Company has urged local communities, the State Government of Antioquia and the National Government to unite on this tragedy and pursue all legal means under the law to bring the perpetrators to justice.

The intervention effort in 2016, led by the National Government of Colombia, the State Government of Antioquia and the Municipal Government of Buritica, to permanently close illegal mines within the Buritica area was successful in closing the vast majority of illegal mines in an orderly and peaceful manner. However, a few illegal mines continue to operate and the Company is looking to authorities to enforce the rule of law to prevent this kind of tragic event from ever happening again.

"We are deeply saddened by this terrible tragedy and our thoughts and prayers go out to the families, friends and colleagues of the victims," commented Ari Sussman, CEO of Continental. "It is shameful that this incident has tarnished the remarkable progress made in establishing peace in the municipality over the past 18 months. These efforts have been fully embraced by the local community, which has publicly voiced their strong preference for the benefits of legal versus illegal activities. The health and safety of our employees and contractors is our highest priority at Continental. The Company stands united with the community of Buritica to bring modern mining that respects the rule of law, the environment and all of the law-abiding stakeholders in the area."

Mateo Restrepo Villegas, President of the Company stated: "We stand steadfast against illegal mining and will remain vigilant in our efforts to support Colombia in addressing and resolving this problem. We remain committed to working with the Colombian government to eradicate illegal mining in the region to provide the harmony that the Company, communities and all stakeholders deserve."

"I hope that the control entities, and the entities that have to take measures on this matter and perform the investigations, enforce the law and impose exemplary sanctions against the people responsible, so these things do not keep happening in Buritica," Humberto Castano Usuga, the Mayor of Buritica stated. "We have been working so that mining in Buritica operates legally, formally and in an orderly manner while complying with all labor, safety, environmental and legal standards that contribute to the development of our municipality."

About Continental Gold

Continental Gold Inc. is an advanced-stage exploration and development company with an extensive portfolio of 100%-owned gold projects in Colombia. Formed in April 2007, the Company - led by an international management team with a successful track record of discovering and developing large high-grade gold deposits in Latin America - is focused on advancing its fully-permitted high-grade Buritica gold project to production with first gold pour on track for early 2020.
One of the Mongolian woman bagging clothes in her "specially designed" bag. / Yonhap



By Lee Han-soo

Two Mongolian women have been arrested in Busan for stealing clothes from large stores, using bags specially designed to bypass security alarms, according to Busan Geumjeong Police Station, Monday.

The two, known to be hometown friends, allegedly stole 287 clothing items and 12 perfumes worth 14.4 million won ($12,400) from 10 clothing stores since March.

Police said the bags were made to bypass theft-alert devices placed around the store entrances.

This allowed the women to steal 221 items worth 8.8 million won from seven clothing stores on July 21 alone.

The stores were unaware that they had been robbed because their alarm systems failed to activate.

"The two used the fact that large clothing stores relied on doorway theft alarms to stop any crimes," said a police official. "They said they took the garments back to Mongolia and sold them for half their original price."

Police urged large clothing stores to check for customers with suspicious bags.
A North Korean Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile is launched in this photo released by the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency, Saturday. The missile was launched from Chagang Province, northern North Korea, at 11:41 p.m., Friday. / Yonhap



President seeks deployment of 4 THAAD launchers

By Jun Ji-hye

President Moon Jae-in is apparently shifting his policy on North Korea from appeasement toward a hawkish approach following Pyongyang's continued launching of ballistic missiles with intercontinental range.

The large-scale provocations are seen as the Kim Jong-un regime's answer to the Moon government's recent offer to hold military talks to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula as well as to the international community's moves to impose harsher sanctions.

Friday night's missile test marked the second time for the North to launch the Hwasong-14, which it claimed was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of striking targets on the U.S. mainland, following the first one fired July 4.

The North fired the missile into the East Sea from the vicinity of Mupyong-ri, Chagang Province, at around 11:41 p.m. Friday, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).





The Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) fires an Eighth U.S. Army surface-to-surface ballistic missile during a Seoul-Washington combined live-fire exercise near the East Sea, Saturday. The drill took place six hours after North Korea fired an improved ballistic missile with intercontinental range. / Courtesy of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff

The North's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the Hwasong-14 reached a maximum altitude of 3,724.9 kilometers and flew about 998 kilometers for 47 minutes.

So far, the Moon government has pursued a two-track policy in dealing with the North, seeking dialogue and imposing sanctions at the same time, despite repeated provocations.

But an official from the presidential office, asking not to be named, said, "If the missile were confirmed as an ICBM, it would mean the North is close to crossing the red line."

He added President Moon is keeping all options available as the latest provocation could bring about a "fundamental change" to the security landscape of Northeast Asia.

Most notably, Moon ordered his aides to immediately begin consultation with the United States to "temporarily" deploy four additional launchers of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system. The order was issued during an emergency National Security Council (NSC) session, presided over by the President, Saturday.












By Tong Kim





North Korea defied an outsider's prediction again. It did not test-launch another ballistic missile on July 27, marking the 64th anniversary of the Korean armistice, on the contrary to the widely reported warnings that it would according to officials in Washington and Seoul.

But it test-fired an ICBM on July 28 after the one conducted on the Fourth of July. Although the armistice is claimed by the North as "the Day of Victory," the North Koreans know, it does not have the significance of the Fourth of July for Americans. They can send "gifts of bad news" to America  in Kim Jong-un's word -- on their own schedule "at a time and a place" of his choice.

In the wake of its ICBM test, Pyongyang has demurred the South's proposal of military and humanitarian talks, without an outright rejection of the proposed talks. It accuses the Moon government of maintaining "fundamental hostility." Pyongyang intensifies its belligerent rhetoric against the U.S., which in turn retches up its own rhetoric against the North.

The North claims that it now has strategic nuclear capability to strike the continental United States; Washington should end its hostile policy towards them. Apparently, President Trump has instructed his national security agencies, including CIA, to explore all possible options, including military action and covert operations to remove Kim Jong-un from the leadership of a nuclear North Korea.

Bad news for the North came from an Aspen Institute's meeting last week.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo said that the Trump administration is developing "a range of options" including "a way to separate that regime from their nuclear weapons." He stopped short of advocating regime change that would directly contradict Secretary of State Tillerson's pronouncement to the contrary.

At the same Aspen forum, Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, "It is not unimaginable to have military options to respond to North Korean nuclear capability." He added that the administration would try diplomacy "a few more months."

Writing for The Hill, Bob Manning, a well-recognized policy expert in Washington, branded these incendiary comments as "irresponsible and reckless rhetoric". Manning wrote: "loose talk of pre-emptive strikes and regime change are not exactly incentives for Kim Jong-un to surrender his nukes. Precisely the opposite: It feeds his portrayal of the U.S. as a grave, imminent threat."

Speaking of Pyongyang's ICBM capability, an assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was reported by The Washington Post on July 26. The assessment said Pyongyang will have a "reliable" ICBM that can reach the U.S. by next year, not in three or four years that most analysts had said. It may not represent a consensus among the U.S. intelligence community, comprising 17 independent agencies.

However, the accuracy of the DIA's report is being questioned by several experts of North Korea's weapons development, including analysts at the South Korean ministry of defense. They believe that the North has yet to overcome the technical difficulty for atmospheric re-entry and miniaturization of a nuclear warhead to mount on an ICBM. Accuracy of targeting is another unproven issue.

Recently, Gen. Paul Selva, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Pyongyang's missile test lacked "the capacity to strike the United States with any degree of accuracy or reasonable confidence of success."

Tough talk of a preventive strike seems to be resurfacing, as no breakthrough is seen in the current approach, through either China's cooperation or inter-Korean relations. However, reasons against a military strike or a commando type of operation to remove the DPRK leader, overt or covert, remain the same. These are not viable options. They would lead to a catastrophic consequence, causing an all-out war that will kill millions of people.

Trump says he does not want to say what he is going to do beforehand. He does not respect experts' views. His unpredictability can have a deterrent effect on Kim Jong-un from taking a suicidal path, but it will not stop him from continuing to develop his nuclear and missile capability.

Despite increasing sanctions that will make it harder for him to advance his WMD programs, he will keep the deadly weapons that he believes are the only protection of his regime. With or without him, the North Korean nuclear weapons will not go away, unless there is a political reconciliation between the North and the South, and between North Korea and the United States. What's your take?





Tong Kim is a Washington correspondent and columnist for The Korea Times. He is also a fellow at the Institute of Korean-American Studies. He can be contacted at tong.kim8@yahoo.com.
By Stephen Costello





Lima  Two mornings ago, my daughter and I climed Huayna Picchu in the Peruvian Andes. This is the steep mountain often pictured behind Machu Picchu. I feel lucky to have survived. The trail is unforgiving, and there are no guardrails. Now safely in Lima, we've been talking with our hosts about political legitimacy, tragic histories, and the responsibility of governments. The American president is a laughingstock here. The only story from Asia in the local paper is about China's refusal to follow US demands regarding Corea Del Norte.

Governments in South America have a tragic history of political corruption. As the US seems to be repeating this trend under the Trump administration, the new South Korean president's democratic legitimacy is striking. That legitimacy is also conditional, based on specific policy changes, and unmistakable, in contrast to many other elected leaders.

If North Korea is just one of several priorities needing attention from the US administration, it is a first priority for the Moon Jae-in government. After a decade of trying to ignore or deny this, South Korea is once again focused on its central responsibility. This leaves the US as the main actor treating urgent DPRK nuclear, development, and security issues as domestic and ideological rather than peninsular, regional and strategic. Japan, too, continues to leverage regional insecurity, caused mainly by Washington, for domestic political goals.

This isolation of the US was becoming clear 10 months ago, even before the US presidential election. At that time, the next Seoul government was already expected to correct for the Lee and Park terms, during which DPRK issues were disastrously mismanaged and used for shallow ideological symbolism. In the US election, both main candidates indicated they would most likely follow the counter-productive Bush/Obama direction rather than the relatively successful Clinton achievements of the 1990s.

With that context, Moon's relentless and increasingly detailed outreach to the North is courageous, and instantly makes Seoul the logical leader in the new, regional and multi-party approach that will follow. The roadmap being developed in Seoul is exactly what is needed, but should also be open and flexible. It cannot go far without input from the Kim Jung Un government, which is why all North-South meetings should be pursued now, leaving only the actual summit subject to "the right conditions." Even those conditions should be determined by South Korea, with appropriate notification of allies and other governments.

A four-step process might be emerging, based on the US and ROK elections and on the statements and policy initiatives of all parties over the past six months.

In the first step, the Blue House was captured by Moon and the progressives, who clearly embraced the Kim/Roh framework. This change makes forward movement possible after 10 years of ROK neglect and 16 years of US neglect. Capture of the White House in the previous November by Trump and the Republicans, with their predicable embrace of the Bush/Obama worldview toward Korea, meant that this time, in contrast to the 1990s, a new and more sophisticated approach by Seoul would be necessary. At the China-US summit, President Xi Jinping failed to confront Trump with the impossibility of his North Korea views, and instead promised to help him do what is neither desirable nor possible.

In the second step President Moon, during the US-ROK summit and in subsequent meetings with fellow leaders, began to rebuild the coalition for multilateral management of the North Korea issues. Chinese and Russian strategic interests cause Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin to remain supportive of his initiatives. Germany, France and others support him, but are not yet asked to reconcile the contradiction of inter-Korean engagement with the US's isolation and pressure campaign.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres acknowledged the practicality of the South Korean approach on 19 July, and hinted at its necessity if tensions are to be lowered and agreements are to be struck. UNSG Deputy Spokesman Haq, noted that "Reopening and strengthening communication channels, particularly military to military ones, are needed to lower the risk of miscalculation or misunderstanding and reduce tensions in the region."

Here the UN can be a key actor. It need not be the main convener of meetings, but its critical organs will again be needed, at every step, to ratify and certify denuclearization, security and development aspects as the roadmap is implemented. This is truer today than it was twenty years ago. UN legitimacy has become measurably more valuable as US legitimacy and competence have steadily eroded, particularly since 2016.

In the third step, President Trump must be urged, directly and by fellow leaders, to freeze the global campaign to isolate and economically hurt North Korea. Advantages to the US of the alternative multilateral engagement initiatives must be made clear and convincing. The change in US tactics could be made politically acceptable, but this confrontation with Trump is inevitable.

In the fourth step, a North-South Korea Summit would be arranged. Careful stepped and parallel initiatives would address big outstanding issues. All the economic, political, human rights and strategic gains which are linked to pending solutions on the Peninsula will come into view, and should continue to inspire and drive the process.

Two points stand out: One, the fourth step is probably impossible without the third step. Two, the capacity of the US to be helpful has largely evaporated.

Moon and his fellow leaders may still be unable to change the US position. But they must try. Like our mountain walk, events related to North Korea are taking us towards an unguarded precipice. In case they cannot convince the US to alter its course, the coalition should be able to temporarily circumvent it. They would continue to develop the roadmap, provide assurances to the DPRK, and implement those parts that are possible without the US. No one has time to wait for the US to get up off its knees and come to its senses, a process that will probably take years. There is just too much at stake.





Stephen Costello is a producer of AsiaEast, a web and broadcast-based policy roundtable focused on security, development and politics in Northeast Asia. He writes from Washington, D.C. He can be reached at scost55@gmail.com.
Chicago, IL A unique A unique Illinois Workers Compensation lawsuit has been quietly percolating through the courts of Illinois. At stake are two claims for workers compensation benefits filed by a personal assistant for an individual with disabilities. At the heart of the Illinois denied workers compensation claim, is an interpretation under Illinois law as to who is, or is not an employee of the state.

According to court documents in the Illinois denied claim lawsuit, personal assistants who provide personal care for individuals with disabilities under the Illinois Rehabilitation Act are classified as state employees under the Illinois Labor Relations Act for purposes of wages and collective bargaining. However, personal assistants are, in fact directly employed by the individual with disabilities.Thus, personal assistants in the state of Illinois are on a dual track: they are directly employed by the individual client, yet benefit from classification as a state employee for collective bargaining and wages.Its a duality that both serves as a benefit, and a source of confusion as one Illinois workers comp lawsuit aptly demonstrates.Plaintiff Stephanie Yencer-Price is a personal assistant employed by an individual with disabilities in the State of Illinois. On two occasions she alleged to have sustained injuries while working in that role, and filed two workers compensation claims against the Illinois Department of Central Management Services (CMS), the State agency which provides and coordinates personal assistant care to clients under the Illinois Rehabilitation Act.The plaintiff filed her Illinois workers compensation claims as a state employee. CMS however, determined in its response that Yencer-Price was not a state employee and thus did not qualify for benefits, issuing an Illinois Denied Workers Comp Claim decision.However, there was more brewing than a simple denial of benefits, given that the Office of the Attorney General for the State of Illinois refused, during proceedings before the Illinois Workers Compensation Commission, to argue that Yencer-Price was not a state employee.In response, CMS litigated to prevent the office of the Illinois Attorney General from representing CMS in Yencer-Prices Illinois workers comp benefits application, and sought to have a special counsel appointed to supersede the State Attorney General.Their request was denied. On appeal, CMS argued that the Office of the Attorney General for the State of Illinois was overstepping the Attorney Generals constitutional separation of powers, and cited prior case law in Harris v. Quinn, a case that appeared before the US Supreme Court in the summer of 2014.However, the appellate panel sided with the lower court and determined that the Attorney General for Illinois indeed had the authority, and was the most appropriate agent to represent CMS in the workers compensation claim.We acknowledge CMSs argument that it has presented a colorable claim that personal assistants are not state employees based on the United States Supreme Courts ruling in, Justice Lisa Holder White wrote in her written opinion on behalf of the appellate panel. However, we agree with the attorney general that the Supreme Court found the personal assistants were not full-fledged state employees in the context of federal first amendment claims. The Supreme Court specifically stated its ruling was not based on state law. Additionally, we do not think that decision has any bearing on whether a conflict of interest exists such that the attorney general should be disqualified in this case.The Illinois Denied Workers Comp claim is, Case No. 4-16-0392, in the
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Beached giant

(Image credit: Marianne Nyegaard)

A stranded Mola tecta at Birdlings Flat near Christchurch, New Zealand. This stranding in May 2014 was one of the first confirmed sightings of a new species of sunfish  Mola tecta. Researchers suspected a new fish was hiding somewhere in the southern oceans. In 2009, genetic research on sunfish skin samples revealed sequences that seemed unique to a never-before-discovered species. But no one knew what this mystery giant might look like, until a series of strandings in New Zealand.

[Read the full story on the sunfish discovery]

Big fish

(Image credit: Michelle Freeborn/Wellington Museum Te Papa Tongarewa)

Ocean sunfish are the largest bony fishes in the world. They can weigh up to 2,205 pounds (1,000 kilograms) and measure more than 8 feet (2.5 meters) in length. Despite the sunfish's gigantic size, a new species was hiding in plain sight for decades. Researchers recently used genetics to prove the existence of this new species, Mola tecta. "Tecta" comes from the Latin for "hidden," and the fish's common name is the hoodwinker sunfish. This illustration shows the relative size of a human diver and a 7.9-foot (2.4 m) long M. tecta.

Dissecting a new species

(Image credit: Murdoch University)

Marianne Nyegaard dissects a sunfish that washed ashore south of Christchurch, New Zealand in May 2014. The fish would prove to be a new species, Mola tecta. Adults of this species can be differentiated from other Mola species by the very distinct ribbon of crinkly skin separating their bodies and their clavus, or tail. Mola tecta also has a rounded profile, unlike some other species which sport prominent snouts.

Sunfish in the shadows

(Image credit: Jean McKinnon/University of Otago)

A beached sunfish in the shallows of Otago Harbor in New Zealand. This Mola tecta measured 6.9 feet (2.1 meters) in length. Researchers also hunted through old museum specimens and asked fishermen to take skin samples from sunfish accidentally caught on their lines. They discovered that Mola tecta can be found off Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and probably Chile. The species seems to cruise much of the temperate ocean in the Southern Hemisphere.

Chile Mola tecta

(Image credit: Cesar Villarroel/ExploraSub)

This video still from a dive in Chile's Reserva Marina Isla Chanaral shows a live hoodwinker sunfish (Mola tecta). These fish maintain their awesome bulk by eating huge amounts of jellyfish. Females can release up to 300 million eggs into the water when it's time to reproduce; males fertilize the eggs externally.

Fishing trophy

(Image credit: Salme Kortet/Wellington Museum Te Papa Tongarewa)

Andrew Stewart, Esturo Sawai and Marianne Nyegaard measure the holotype of Mola tecta at the Wellington Museum Te Papa Tongarewa in New Zealand in May 2016. A holotype is the single specimen scientists use to officially describe a new species' anatomy.

Growth spurt

(Image credit: Public Domain)

Another species of ocean sunfish, Mola mola is considered "vulnerable" to extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). These sunfish are pinhead-size when they're born, according to The Nature Conservancy. But they apparently grow fast, with one Mola mola growing a hefty 822 pounds (373 kg) in just 15 months at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, The Nature Conservancy reported.
Slime is an unusual substance with a slippery, gooey texture that is produced by certain animals to fend off predators or fight disease  but it's also a lot of fun to make, as Live Science recently discovered.

In a video tutorial, Live Science demonstrates how to make two types of slime  a "basic" slime, and puffy slime (which has a loftier texture)  from craft glue or school glue and a few other ingredients.

Both types of slime can be tinted in a range of colors using food coloring. But the most important ingredient for transforming liquid glue into slime is contact-lens solution with boric acid, which triggers a chemical reaction in the glue to alter its properties and give it a signature "slimy" feel. [Goopy Science: How to Make Slime with Glue]

But what is slime? Slime is generally defined as a sticky substance with a texture that is not quite liquid but not quite solid, either. It is often referred to as a non-Newtonian fluid, which means that its viscosity  how quickly or slowly it flows  may be affected by factors other than temperature, such as pressure, according to the American Chemical Society (ACS).

(Image credit: Live Science)

Handmade slime is fun to play with, but in the natural world, slime production can play a critical role in an animal's health and well-being. Slimy mucous cocoons protect some fish from parasites, and humans produce a fair amount of mucous ourselves  over a liter (more than 33 fluid ounces) per day  which lubricates our nasal cavities, traps contaminants and can be an indicator of health, depending on its color.

But if there's a slime superhero in the animal kingdom, it's probably the hagfish. This jawless marine fish has an eel-like body, and when threatened, it secretes a chemical that turns the water around it into sticky slime, which clogs the gills of would-be predators. In one notable recent incident, a truck carrying 7,500 lbs. (3,400 kilograms) of hagfish overturned on an Oregon highway, resulting in a prodigious quantity of goo that blanketed the road and nearby cars.

Hagfish slime is so resilient that military researchers are investigating its properties and producing synthetic versions to protect warships, which could function like stickier and slimier versions of the bullet-deflecting Kevlar armor that soldiers wear.

And slime can have therapeutic qualities too, and not just because it's oddly soothing to knead and shape with your hands, as Live Science writers demonstrated in the video. A new study showed that an artificial adhesive inspired by slug slime could patch together wounds in wet tissue  even in a still-beating pig's heart.

For step-by-step instructions on how to make your own slime, check out Live Science's kid-friendly tutorials!

Original article on Live Science.
This is an article from Curious Kids, a series for children. The Conversation is asking kids to send in questions they'd like an expert to answer. All questions are welcome  serious, weird or wacky! The article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

What started the Big Bang?  Pippi, 8, Canberra.

This is one of the two questions I get asked a lot (the other one is: do aliens exist?) Both are very good questions! Pippi, the short answer is that we do not know what started the Big Bang. This is a big mystery.

The Big Bang is an idea about the history of the Universe, the history of space and time and matter ("stuff") and energy. The Universe is about 13.8 billion years old and from observations we make using telescopes we can tell that the Universe was very small 13.8 billion years ago.

Observations also suggest that in the first fraction of a second, the Universe seemed to expand very quickly but then slow down. After a few hundred thousand years, the simplest type of atom formed: hydrogen. The hydrogen started to form stars and galaxies.

After billions of years the Earth (and us) formed from the atoms made inside stars - every atom in your body more complicated than hydrogen was made by a star at some point in the last 13.8 billion years. In all that time, the Universe has continued to expand. In fact, observations now tell us that the expansion of the Universe is getting faster.

The idea of the Big Bang agrees with all these observations. So scientists think the Big Bang is an idea that does a good job of describing the history of the Universe.

However, the idea is not perfect. We don't know why the Universe expanded so quickly in the first second and then slowed down. We don't know why the expansion of the Universe is speeding up now. We don't know why we have a certain number of forces that control the Universe. And we don't know what started the Big Bang!

Very large telescopes, like the Murchison Widefield Array can make observations that help us understand how the Universe evolved.

It took hundreds of years to build the idea of the Big Bang, and it may take a long time to improve it or find an idea that is better. Scientists have a lot of ideas about how the Big Bang started. But these ideas must agree with our observations of the Universe.

The future is very exciting for anyone who wants to help figure this out. The advanced technology we have means that we can build machines that smash particles (tiny little bits of stuff even smaller than an atom) together to show what happened right after the Big Bang. We can now build powerful new telescopes to observe the stars and galaxies in the Universe in a lot of detail. We will use these machines and telescopes to see which ideas about the Big Bang are right and which are wrong.

Sometimes new ideas take many years to be worked out. Sometimes new ideas pop into people's heads very quickly. It is very exciting to have a new idea about the Universe. We will need lots of people who are good at puzzles to help us.

Hello, curious kids! Have you got a question you'd like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to us. They can:

(Image credit: CC BY-ND)

* Email your question to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au * Tell us on Twitter by tagging @ConversationEDU with the hashtag #curiouskids, or * Tell us on Facebook

Please tell us your name, age, and which city you live in. You can send an audio recording of your question too, if you want. Send as many questions as you like! We won't be able to answer every question but we will do our best.

Steven Tingay, Professor of Radio Astronomy, Curtin University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates  and become part of the discussion  on Facebook, Twitter and Google +. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher.
What began as a search by university students for a Mars-like landscape in a Canadian park took an unexpected detour into paleontology, when they discovered strange "rocks" that turned out to be dinosaur bones.

Members of the University of Saskatchewan Space Design Team (USST) were visiting Midland Provincial Park in Alberta, Canada, on June 1, to scout locations for an upcoming robotics contest. They needed terrain that closely mimicked the Martian surface, to test prototypes of Mars rovers in a new competition bringing together teams from around North America, USST President Danno Peters, a student studying engineering physics at the University of Saskatchewan, told Live Science in an email.

But the team found something else along the way: unusual-looking rocks embedded in the ground. Upon closer inspection, the "rocks" turned out to be fossils, including what appeared to be a thigh bone and part of a jaw, Peters said. [7 Most Mars-Like Places on Earth]

Dry conditions in rocky deserts make many of them good candidates for finding fossils; some of the richest fossil repositories in the world are located in deserts, with the largest number of fossils originating in the badlands and deserts of China, Argentina and North America.

For the first Canadian International Rover Challenge, held from July 7 to July 10, USST team members required a site with an arid climate, minimal vegetation and challenging terrain, "with loose iron-rich rock and sand," Peters said.

"We initially noticed a rock that looked surprisingly like a thigh bone protruding from the ground. It was encased in rock which was lighter than the surrounding stones," Peters told Live Science.

Conservation officials from the Alberta Parks Department and paleontologists from Alberta's Royal Tyrrell Museum who were with the students at the time of the discovery confirmed that the finds were fossils, and conducted a detailed inspection of the immediate area to see if they could find more. The bones have not yet been excavated, which makes it difficult to establish their identity with certainty. But experts suspect that they belong to a hadrosaurid, a type of duck-billed dinosaur, Peters said.

From left to right: Jean-Philippe Hervieux (Ecologist, Alberta Parks), Earle Wiebe (Head of Education, Royal Tyrrell Museum) and Angie Quist (Ecologist, Alberta Parks) inspect the park site where the fossils were found. (Image credit: Danno Peters)

Once the area around the fossils was secured, the competition was allowed to proceed using part of the site nearby. The rovers that rolled out were much smaller than those currently exploring Mars and were designed for scenarios in which they could assist humans living on an extraterrestrial world someday, the Saskatoon StarPhoenix reported.

Competitions like this showcase how student engineers and designers explore the challenges of building complex scientific tools. The annual University Rover Challenge (URC) in the United States brings together rover-building teams from universities across the U.S. to demonstrate rover designs that could one day operate on Mars alongside astronauts, according to the URC website. And the European Rover Challenge, open to students from around the world, also tasks competitors with putting their rovers through a series of tests in a simulated Martian environment.

Experts with Alberta Parks and the Royal Tyrrell Museum confirmed that the unusual "rocks" found by the University of Saskatchewan Space Design Team were fossils. (Image credit: Adam McInnes)

University students, and even high schoolers, have also demonstrated their innovative design prowess by building an underwater camera-toting "rover" to explore the Southern Ocean near Antarctica; technology capable of mining the lunar surface for materials to make rocket fuel; and a remote-controlled diving robot that can perform rescue missions to damaged submarines.

While fossil finding certainly generates excitement, the USST team won't be swapping robotics for paleontology anytime soon. Plans are already underway to expand the Mars rover competition in 2018, opening it to even more designs engineered by teams worldwide and finding more challenging terrain "to push the limits of the rovers and their designers," Peters said.

Original article on Live Science.
A fort that is more than 1,000 years old, dating back to the time of Alfred the Great, has been unearthed in Scotland, more than 200 years after it was thought to have been completely destroyed.

The ancient fort was built by the Picts, a loose confederation of tribes who lived in what is now Scotland during the Dark Ages. The fort was likely a major source of power for the Pictish kingdom between A.D. 500 and 1000. In the 1800s, a town was built over the ancient stronghold, known as Burghead Fort, and most archaeologists thought the last remaining traces of the fort were destroyed at that time.

However, new archaeological excavations are revealing major structures hidden beneath the town, including a rare coin that dates to the period of English king Alfred the Great. [Photos: The Search for Alfred the Great's Grave]

"Beneath the 19th century debris, we have started to find significant Pictish remains," Gordon Noble, head of archaeology at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, said in a statement. "We appear to have found a Pictish longhouse. This is important because Burghead is likely to have been one of the key royal centers of Northern Pictland."

Enigmatic tribes

Almost nothing survives of the mysterious Pictish culture, including the name they called themselves. The Romans first mentioned the Picts, which means "painted people," likely because of their distinctive tattoos and war paint. However, relatively few Pictish writings survive, and much of what historians know about the Picts' early history comes from the accounts of Roman speechwriters such as Eumenius.

Burghead Fort was known since medieval times, but in the 1800s, the town of Lossiemouth was built atop its ruins, and the fort was thought to have been largely destroyed. In 2015, researchers from the University of Aberdeen set out to discover whether any of the ancient kingdom's remains were left. They found ruins from an ancient longhouse with a stone-built hearth. Inside the remains of the building was a coin emblazoned with the image of Alfred the Great, an English king who fended off the Vikings during the heyday of their raids in the late 800s. The coin helps date the structure's occupancy to the later part of the Pictish period, the researchers said.

A coin dated to the era of Alfred the Great was found in the remains of a Pictish fort in Scotland. (Image credit: University of Aberdeen)

"Burghead Fort has long been recognized as being an important seat of power during the early medieval period, and is known as the largest fort of its type in Scotland," Bruce Mann, an archaeologist with the Aberdeenshire Council Archaeology Service, said in the statement. "Its significance has just increased again, though, with this discovery. The fact that we have surviving buildings and floor levels from this date is just incredible."

Originally published on Live Science.
It's hard to turn down birthday cake, but a new study might have you thinking twice about taking a slice  researchers found that blowing out birthday candles increases the amount of bacteria on the cake by 1,400 percent.

For the study, the researchers made faux birthday cakes  they frosted a circular piece of foil and placed it on top of a Styrofoam base, and put candles through the foil into the Styrofoam. Then, they tested the frosting for bacteria either after the candles were blown out, or when the candles weren't blown out. They used sterile water to dilute the frosting, and spread it on lab dishes to see how much bacteria grew.

They found that, on average, blowing out the candles on the "cake" resulted in 15 times more bacteria on the frosting, compared with frosting that was not blown on. [5 Ways Gut Bacteria Affect Your Health]

Despite the "ick" factor of the finding, the researchers say you usually don't need to be concerned about eating birthday cake after someone blows out the candles. That's because, most of the time, these bacteria are not harmful.

"It's not a big health concern in my perspective," study co-author Paul Dawson, a professor of food safety at Clemson University in South Carolina, told The Atlantic. "In reality, if you did this 100,000 times, then the chance of getting sick would probably be very minimal."

Still, in theory, you could spread airborne diseases, such as the flu, by blowing on a birthday cake. So, as common sense will probably tell you, it's wise to avoid eating cake if the candle-blower is clearly sick, Dawson said.

The study was published online May 22 in the Journal of Food Research.

Original article on Live Science.
When is the Independence Day of the Republic of Benin?

The Republic of Benin, located in West Africa, celebrates its Independence Day on August 1 to commemorate its freedom from France in 1960.

How is Independence Day celebrated in Benin?

Independence Day is a national holiday in Benin. Celebrations on this day take place on a grand scale throughout the country. National leaders deliver speeches reflecting on past and present glories, the national flag is hoisted, and the national anthem is sung in government offices, schools, colleges, and other public institutions.

What is the historic significance of the Independence Day of Benin?

Benin was founded in 1625 and was ruled as the Kingdom of Dahomey till the 19th century when it came under French control and became French Dahomey.

With exposure to Europe, the Kingdom of Dahomey began expanding. Soon the Portuguese, French, and Dutch established their trading posts along the coast and traded in enslaved people and weapons. Around the time when the slave trade ended in 1848, the French had gained dominance over most of the kingdom through the treaties signed with the King of Abomey. This helped establish French protectorates in the main cities and ports. The French faced some resistance from King Behanzin but the king was eventually defeated and deported to Martinique.

Dahomey became a French protectorate in 1892 and was absorbed into French West Africa in 1904. In 1948, Dahomey was granted two senators in the French parliament, and an elected Territorial Assembly with some control over the budget by the French constitution. Finally, in 1958, Dahomey became a self-governing entity, and on August 1, 1960, it gained complete independence from French rule. The country was renamed Benin in 1975, as the name was neutral and inclusive of the various ethnic groups of the country.

What does the national flag of Benin represent?

The National flag of Benin was initially adopted on November 16, 1959, but was discontinued in 1975, and then reintroduced on August 1, 1990, after the Marxist government was removed from power.

On the hoist side, the flag features a vertical green band, and on the other side, it features a yellow horizontal band on top of a red horizontal band. These yellow and red stripes are equal in size.

The flag, like many other African countries, has the conventional Pan-African colors. While green represents hope and revival, red stands for the strength displayed by the forefathers, and yellow epitomizes the prosperity of the country.

Who wrote the national anthem of Benin?

LAube Nouvelle, which means The Dawn of a New Day, the national anthem of Benin, was composed by Gilbert Jean Dagnon. It was adopted in 1960 when Benin gained its independence from France.
Houston, TX  ProSellus, Inc. announced today the release of their new fully-loaded sales enablement & marketing tool, designed by healthcare sales reps for healthcare sales reps. This new tool includes a multitude of functionalities specifically designed to support the requirements of the always-on-the-go healthcare sales rep while making calls out in the field, as well as the marketing professional always looking to identify the top physicians and practices to sell to. The tool features include: targeted physician & facility searches based on tens of millions of healthcare data points; the ability to forecast and track sales revenue, build referral networks for physicians and facilities, track sales call activities with physicians and much more. Scott Walle, CEO of ProSellus, states In this uber competitive market, field sales reps need the ability to generate sales at lightning speed and in order to do that effectively, they need access to robust healthcare data in a mobile, easy-to-use actionable format that leads them to success today, not in 6 months. I lived as a medical device sales person for over 15 years and knew exactly how to leap over the competition. I developed a method that led my teams and I to continuous sales success and now our company has turned it into an automated tool. These sales reps have long needed an automated tool like ProSellus.

Performance and Portability

Whether its targeting physicians based on specialty, prescriptions or procedures, ProSellus can serve up a targeted list, in any geography in the country, in a matter of seconds while a rep is in the field. While this tool crunches complex healthcare data on the backend, its easy enough for a 12-year-old to operate. Scott Walle explains, As a former sales rep for a major medical device company, I was given tools to use that were clunky, complex and difficult to use. Those literally were a waste of time and company money. The ProSellus tool was developed as an alternative to those dinosaur applications and spreadsheets. It actually impacts revenue for the sales rep immediately and is simple to use. ProSellus carries similar features as a CRM tool but with less complexity and more intelligence. Walle adds Its like having a healthcare database expert on key things device reps need to know (and normally dont have easy access to) in your pocket at all times. The best part about this tool? Any existing marketing or sales data that a client owns can be imported into it for further customization and deeper targeting. It is also designed specifically for the healthcare sales industry, although plans to apply the product to other industries are in the works.

About ProSellus, Inc.

ProSellus, Inc. is a pioneer of the next healthcare sales & marketing revolution. We are veteran medical device sales leaders who have turned a proven methodology into a sales acceleration solution which is unparalleled in the marketplace and will impact the healthcare sales businesses like never before. The ProSellus Software System is designed to empower healthcare companies to connect their physicians to business growth opportunities. It is the first solution built to aggregate complex healthcare data which helps sales professionals build networks effectively while in the field. By utilizing ProSellus, healthcare sales companies will not only differentiate themselves from the competition, but create a significant competitive advantage while accelerating revenue growth.
by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, July 31, 2017

The Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a complaint asking the Federal Trade Commission to review the algorithm in Google AdWords that ties consumer online behavior to in-store purchases.

Google invested years in building a privacy solution. Here's how it works: An advertising campaign runs on Google that gets 10,000 clicks. A store participating in the program makes $5,000 in sales. By connecting the data, Google can tell that 12% of the consumer clicking on ads made a purchase. There's no individual data about the consumer or the product he or she purchased made available.

The data is collected in aggregate, encrypted and anonymized before it is given to advertisers, according to Google, but that doesn't seem to satisfy the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

"This type of sales measurement is common and before we launched our solution, we invested in building a new, custom encryption technology that ensures users' data remains private, secure, and anonymous," per a Google spokesperson. "We do not have access to any identifiable users credit and debit card data from our partners for this product, nor do we share any personal user information with our partners. We only use data for users that have consented to have their web and app activity associated with their Google account, which users can opt-out of at any time.

advertisement advertisement

Privacy Checkup has had 45 million visits since the launch. It helps people understand how they can easily opt-out of data collection. The checkup takes users through a list of options and enables them to specifically choose to prevent an account from being associated with different types of data.

The privacy group argues that if consumers do not want their purchases tracked, Google doesn't give them enough information on making a decision on whether or not to use cash or a credit card. And it doesn't provide enough information on the retailers using the technology. Consumers can opt out through Google's My Activity page, but they also have an option to pay cash for purchases, which reduces the ability to track back spending.

Earlier this year Google began to track credit card purchases through a service it calls Store Sales Measurement, which connects offline purchases to online profiles. The product is in beta only in the U,S.

Then in May 2017, Google said third-party partnerships would allow it to capture 70% of all payment card transactions in the U.S., as it matches transactions back to Google advertisements through anonymized and encrypted store sales data in aggregate.

Google claims it developed custom encryption to anonymize the payment data it receives from third parties. A spokesperson calls it "double-blinded" encryption. The encryption technology is not CryptDB, a system developed by MIT Researchers in 2011, partially funded by Google, according to the spokesperson. It's not clear if the technology is based on this this encryption.

Still, the Electronic Privacy Information Center claims Google is gaining access to highly sensitive consumer information such as the credit and debit card purchase records of the majority of U.S. consumers, according to The Washington Post.


by Larissa Faw , July 31, 2017

Publicis New York has appointed John Biondi as its first chief experience officer (CXO). His remit is to work with clients to help them provide optimum brand and customer experiences.

The agency said hell work closely with chief creative officer Andy Bird and report to Publicis New York CEO Carla Serrano.

Biondi comes to the agency from sibling shop from SapientRazorfish in Minneapolis, where he was executive creative director and brand experiences lead for North America.

Prior to joining SapientRazorfish in 2013, he was executive creative director at Modern Climate.

Before that, he served as executive creative director/partner at Atomic Playpen. Biondi has worked with a variety of clients, including Target, Citi, Harley Davidson, McDonald's and Allstate.
The Brewers have struck a deal to acquire righty Jeremy Jeffress from the Rangers, as ESPN.coms Jerry Crasnick first reported (via Twitter). The move reverses the relievers move this time last year, when he headed to Texas from Milwaukee along with Jonathan Lucroy. The New York Posts Joel Sherman tweets that the Rangers will receive righty Tayler Scott in return.

The 29-year-old Jeffress returns to the organization that drafted him in the first round in 2006, and for whom he played in 2010 and 2014-16. (He saved 27 games for the Brewers last season, although he doesnt seem likely to now supplant Corey Knebel as the Brewers closer this year.) Jeffress hasnt been the pitcher this season that he was in that second Brewers stint, however  in 40 2/3 innings with Texas this year, hes posted a 5.31 ERA, 6.4 K/9 and an ugly 4.2 BB/9. He has, however, maintained mid-90s velocity, and the Brewers likely hope he returns to some version of his prior self as he gets a change of scenery. If he does, they can control him for two more years after this one through the arbitration process.

Scott, 25, had a 2.34 ERA with a strong 9.2 K/9 but a too-high 5.1 BB/9 in 61 2/3 innings of relief this season at Double-A Biloxi. He was a fifth-round pick of the Cubs in 2011, but Chicago released him last year, then signed a minor-league deal with the Brewers after a brief stint in independent ball. He did not rank in MLB.coms list of the Brewers top 30 prospects.
7:42pm: Arizona is unlikely to shop for another infielder, per Ken Rosenthal of MLB Network (via Twitter). The club thinks its depth is sufficient, particularly with Ahmed expected to return within a month or so.

4:41pm: Diamondbacks infielder Chris Owings has been diagnosed with a fractured middle finger on his right hand, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic tweets. While details on an anticipated course of treatment and timeline arent known, hell obviously be out for a reasonably extended stretch.

With Owings joining Nick Ahmed on the DL, the D-Backs are left with quite a bit less middle-infield depth than they had to open the year. Ketel Marte and Brandon Drury look to represent the top two options on the active roster, with Daniel Descalso also available in a reserve role.

The loss hits the Snakes at an interesting time, with the trade deadline less than 24 hours away. Whether Arizona will feel any major new impetus to pursuing a trade remains to be seen. Owings is now in a state of uncertainty and Ahmed has yet to begin a rehab assignment. But Marte has played well since returning to the majors and Descalso wont be needed as much in the outfield as he was at times due to the recent addition of J.D. Martinez.

If the D-Backs do take a look at the market, they could consider a variety of options. MLBTR has recently assessed the potentially available shortstops and second basemen. Among those of note are Zack Cozart of the Reds, though he just landed on the DL. Jose Iglesias of the Tigers would represent a controllable piece and is capable of providing top-notch defense at shortstop, though he has never been much with the bat. If the Diamondbacks dont feel they need a player capable of lining up at short, they could focus on rentals such as Jed Lowrie of the As or Neil Walker of the Mets.

As ought to be apparent from some of the names mentioned, there may not be much rush to finding a replacement. Arizona may prefer to see how its injured players progress while waiting to weigh new acquisitions over the month of August. Cozart figures to be available then, and Walker may be as well given that he only just returned from the DL and is earning a big salary. Veterans such as Brandon Phillips, Asdrubal Cabrera, and even Ian Kinsler are also plausible chips that could last past tomorrows non-waiver deadline.
31.07.2017 LISTEN

Positive Influence Production has assembled some of Ghanas best and funny actors for a new movie-White Lie, which is set to premiere in Takoradi on August 19and you cannot miss it.

The dramedy will premiere at Akroma Plaza Hotel in Takoradi, at 6pm and 8pm with some of the stars of the movie making appearances.

In the movie, a sexy class teacher Madam Elizabeth Jackson (played by Nana Ama Mcbrown) is catches the attention of lot of guyswith even the schools gatemen (played by Too Much & Alaska ) expressing interest in her in a hilarious manner.

But Madam Elizabeth is only interested in the rich. She even despises the poor for no reason.

Eventually, Madam Elizabeth falls in love with Peter, a Canadian borga (played by Toosweet Annan) but little did she know that Peter was not what he claimed to be.

Can Madam Elizabeths attitude and perception match up against White Lie?

The movie also features Pualina Oduro and other talented actors.

Tickets can be purchased from Akroma Plaza Hotel, All Needs Supermarket, the Hub, Beach Fm and Spice Fm in Takoradi for just 30 GHSyou can also call 0246679372/0201109462 for your tickets.

Check out the trailer of White Lie below
Trigmatic

31.07.2017 LISTEN

Trigmatic staged a brilliant live musical performance at the July edition of 'Corporate Wednesday Hangout' held at the Accra City Hotel last Wednesday, July 26.

The July edition of the event, which happened to be the third one, brought together individuals from over 200 companies in Ghana to party and establish networks.

The event also witnessed performances from upcoming artistes such as Eugene (spoken word), David Crypto (comedy) and Brii Emmanuel.

At the event, the outgoing Country Director for UNICEF, Cameroonian-born Susan Ngongi, was honoured as the Corporate Wednesday CEO of the month of July. Susan leaves Ghana to take up a new role in Eritrea next month.

It was also used to raise funds to support the Kokrokoo Charity Foundation, founded by Kwame Sefa Kayi, to help buy infant incubators for some selected hospitals in Ghana.

Some of the personalities who donated to the Kokroko Charity Foundation won exciting prizes in return through a lucky dip.

Prizes included a business class ticket from Rwandair to destinations like Dubai, shopping vouchers from Lateda Fashions, a dinner treat from Accra City Hotel, assorted soap hamper from CB Essentials, a free Wi-Fi from MTN, among others.

Speaking at the event, the General Manager for Corporate Wednesday, Gladys Osei Owiredu, disclosed that a number of packages have been put in place to make the August edition of the 'Corporate Wednesday' event a memorable one.

By George Clifford Owusu


Exclusive Events Ghana Limited, in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism, Arts & Culture and the 'Ghana 60 Years On Planning Committee', has announced the date for the official launch for this year's edition.

The 60th anniversary of the pageant, dubbed 'Miss Ghana 60 Years On', is slated for Wednesday, August 2, 2017 at the Kempinski Gold Coast Hotel in Accra.

This year marks 60 years since Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah initiated the pageant in 1957, where Monica Amekoafia from then Trans-Volta Togoland (Volta Region) won the pageant to become the first ever Miss Ghana.

Under the Miss Ghana Foundation, the Miss Ghana pageant has over the years carved an impressive niche as that pageant that generates awareness to various socio-economic problems, collaborates with government institutions and corporate firms in sending relief to various deserving communities across the country.

It has actively been involved in providing meaningful and lasting solutions to most of the social interventions embarked on. One of the major projects undertaken by the Miss Ghana Foundation, among many others, is the Don Bosco Street Child Project, where the foundation aided in acquiring a 10-acre land and established a hostel where thousands of street children are given social and technical training. The land also hosts the only functioning Child Protection Centre in Ghana.

In line with the core objectives of the foundation, the Miss Ghana Organisation has always been choosing personalities who best fit the agenda.

In order to win the bragging rights to be called 'Miss Ghana', one must be primed, have leadership and strategic skills, possess the passion to help others and must be ready at all times to confidently represent the nation with pride.

'Miss Ghana 60 Years On' is not all about the glitz, 'glam' and the many privileges that come with the crown. It comes with an ambassadorial role that involves lots of work  in joining other enterprising ladies to bring change to communities.

The role of the queen is also to serve as a role model who aids in generating support for the under-privileged in societies to get access to quality education, health and good standard of living.

As an ambassador, the queen must be in a position to serve as a source of inspiration, a beacon of hope and a voice for girls and young women across the country.

It is imperative to note that the main focus of the Miss Ghana brand has and will always be the various social intervention projects the foundation embarks on.

As the organisation marks its 60th anniversary, the focus is to have the 'Miss Ghana 60 Years On' titleholder, her runners-up and regional queens dedicate a minimum of one year of service full of commitment, diligence, loyalty and passion  in line with extending social intervention programmes across the country.
Minister for Communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has expressed worry over the growing rate at which pornographic adult content is shown on primetime free-to-air Ghanaian television channels.

The minister, a lawyer by profession and women's rights activist, has therefore, suggested a pay-per-view arrangement for TV stations that wish to broadcast adult content for their viewers.

According to the minister, the existing free-to-air arrangement cannot be allowed to continue since it is harmful to children. The pay-per-view, she argued, would deny children access to free pornography.

Mrs Owusu-Ekuful made the comment during her speech at the 'Ghana 60 Years On Film Summit' held in Accra last Thursday.

She expressed her concern over the free-to-air pornography on some TV platforms.

Showing pornography during primetime, it cannot be allowed to continue. If you, as an adult, want to watch adult movie, we should pay for it. So it should be pay-per-view, not free-to-air. And we would also insist that the content we show is regulated. So I charge the National Media Commission to review and represent the Content Standards Legislative Instrument (LI) which was thrown out by the Supreme Court.

We need it but not in the form and which it was first presented. I charge them to go back and do further consultation and come back with acceptable ways of regulating the content that we show on our media. For the sake of posterity if we are beyond redemption, at least, we should ensure that our children have a better, Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said when she talked about content on GhanaianTV and the influence of the movie industry.

A couple of months ago, the National Media Commission (NMC) ordered the three local television stations alleged to be broadcasting pornographic materials to immediately cease such broadcasts.

The stations  Ice TV, Thunder TV and TV XYZ  were reported to the NCA and the Information Ministry by two broadcasters, James Oberko and Tommy Annan Forson, for airing pornographic movies on free-to-air television.

The complainants were asking the National Media Commission to intervene to stop the airing, which, they said, was inappropriate.

The Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC), Kwasi Gyan-Apenteng, in a statement disclosed that it has settled the complaints, and has since directed the indicted stations to cease airing the pornographic materials.

Mrs Owusu-Ekuful's suggestion of pay per view suggestion is, however, a contradiction to cease airing or what the law says in the Section 281 of Criminal Code, 1960 (ACT 29).

The laws of Ghana actually support the arrest and prosecution of anyone who circulates obscene materials in public.

According to the law, it is a crime to publish pornography.

Section 281 of the Criminal Code, 1960 (ACT 29) on obscenity states, Any person who(a) for the purposes of or by way of trade, or for the purposes of distribution orpublic exhibition, makes, produces, or has in his possession any one or more obscene writings, drawings, prints, paintings, printed matter, pictures, posters, emblems, photographs, cinematograph films, or any other obscene objects; or

(b) for any of the purposes above mentioned, imports, conveys, or exports, or causes to be imported, conveyed, or exported, any of the said obscene matters orthings, or in any manner whatsoever puts any of them into circulation; or

(c) carries on or takes part in any business, whether public or private, concernedwith any of the said obscene matters or things, or deals in any of the said matters orthings in any manner whatsoever, or distributes any of them or exhibits any of them publicly; or makes a business of lending any of them; or(d) advertises or makes known by any means whatsoever, with a view to assist inthe said punishable circulation or traffic, that a person is engaged in any of theabove punishable acts, or advertises or makes known how or from whom any of thesaid obscene matters or things can be procured either directly or indirectly, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour.

Nevertheless, the minister went ahead to encourage the media and filmmakers to help shape the next generation base on what it shows them today.

Let us shape the next generation and instill more good values into them based on the films that you produce today. The power of this sector (film industry) today should shape the national narrative, culture and brand. Perhaps, it is also time that the entire nation gets involved in this conversation as well. As a government, we will continue to provide framework for industry to interact but you need to drive the conversation, she said when she commended organisers of the film summit.

The 'Ghana 60 Years On Film Summit' was organised by Film Directors Guild of Ghana at the Accra International Conference Centre to celebrate previous feats of the film industry and also discuss the way forward to rescue the industry from total collapse.

By Francis Addo (Twitter: @fdee50 Email: [email protected] )




The Northern Region Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Daniel Bugri Naabu, has accused the partys MPs in the region of fomenting trouble in the governing party.

According to him the MPs are behind the rejection of President Nana Akufo-Addos District Chief Executive nominees for some areas in the region.

Addressing party functionaries at the Northern Regional Delegates conference in Tamale on Sunday, Mr. Naabu said the party is losing ground in some areas of the region and warns the situation could prove dire for the party if it is not checked.

As I am talking to you now if there are elections today, we will not win. Gushegu is sick and other places too [but] I wont mention now, he told party delegates.

He indicated that the MPs instead of working to advance the government of the Akufo-Addo led government, they are rather working against the NPP in the region.

The problems are in the region are not from the regional executives but rather some of the MPs he added.

Bugri Naabu stressed that the party risks losing majority seat in the Northern Region if the national executives fail to move to address the issue.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta is expected to present his midyear budget review and economic planning to Parliament tomorrow, July 31, 2017.

This is in fulfilment of the constitutional mandate requiring the Minister to give an account of the performance of the economy before the commencement of the second half of the year.

Citi Business News understands tomorrow's presentation will not see a request for an additional budgetary allocation from the House.

This comes despite the almost normal practice where such presentations have been associated with requests for supplementary budgets.

The decision not to seek additional approval for expenditure from the Legislature also comes in the face of caution that the government may miss its budget targets as its first half performance hasn't been encouraging.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies for instance warned that government will miss its 2017 budget target should it fail to spend in critical sectors of the economy.

The IFS argues that government's refusal to pay valid arrears and invest in infrastructural development for the first half of this year has impacted heavily on economic growth.

The Executive Director of the IFS, Professor Newman Kusi explains that the cut in some critical expenditure has affected economic performance so far.

The cuts in expenditure have been affected; those that we actually need such as the capital spending, earmarked funds, payment for goods and services among others. But then again the government has its hands tied at its back because it cannot cut back on wages and salaries, interest payments, etc and these together take a disproportionate share of the revenue that is collected, he stated.

Some of the key areas that Mr. Ken Ofori Atta is expected to touch on is revenue shortfalls, impact of declining commodity prices on economy, government debt levels as well as progress with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).



By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
The National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) cannot assuage the plight of thousands of flood victims in the Northern Region due to accumulated indebtedness.

Sources within NADMO have revealed that the past administration piled a huge debt compelling local suppliers to renege their contract with the government.

This explains NADMO's inability to support victims of last Tuesday's floods which affected thousands of people in six districts of the Northern Region including the Tamale Metropolitan Area.

Vice President, Dr. Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia toured some of the affected communities within the Metropolitan Area.

The victims are yet to receive any form of government support after the government team's assessment.

The victims included a former Mayor of Tamale, Alhaji Iddrisu Adam Yoggu and a former Northern Regional Boss, Alhaji Mahamud, both appointees of the erstwhile J.A Kufuor NPP government.

Some of the victims in a Citi News interview decried the situation and thus called for government and philanthropic assistance.

They recounted their losses including livestock, several acres of farmlands, school certificates, and submerged houses.

Eastern Corridor Road

Portions of the Yendi-Bimbila stretch of the Eastern Corridor road project have been cut off.

Commuters on that road have been obliged to use the Salaga-Tamale road and reconnect to other parts of the region.

Also, the road linking Nanumba north to Nanumba south and from Kpandai to Northern Volta has been washed.

Settlements including Jilo, Chechia, Pudoya, Bangdiyili, Waanpu, Chamba and Dakpam have been cut off from Bimbila Township.

Food insecurity

There is looming food insecurity this farming season because several farmlands have been destroyed in the Eastern Corridor which is the region's food basket.

These include numerous acres of yam mounds, cereals and grains plantations owned by smallholder farmer groups.



By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
A two-month-old baby boy has lost his penis in a botched circumcision exercise at Akauapim Mamfe in the Eastern region.

The circumcision was allegedly carried out by retired midwife.

The midwife, during excision of the foreskin of the penis, accidentally cut off the entire piece.

The baby boy, according to a family source, bled profusely and nearly ended in a hypovolemic shock.

The midwife, in an attempt to salvage the situation, allegedly attempted to stitch the botched penis but failed.

A herbal concoction was administered to the baby but failed to improve the situation.

It is unclear if the retired midwife is licensed to carry out circumcision and whether or not her facility is accredited.

The Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital reportedly attempted to amputate the penis but the family did not consent.

The baby is currently on admission at the hospital and expected to undergo a reconstructive surgery to correct the defect.

Starr News Eastern Regional Correspondent Kojo Ansah reports that the family is currently struggling to pay for some of the prescribed drugs to be administered before the surgery is performed.

Sources say the Eastern Regional Hospital has recorded worrying trend of botched circumcisions in the last few months.
Three government officials of the former administration have been invited by Police Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to assist with an ongoing probe into alleged financial malfeasance with the Ameri power contract.

Former Power Minister, Dr Kwabena Donkor, his deputy, John Jinapor and former Deputy Attorney General, Dominic Ayine say they will honour the invitation on Monday despite objections by both Majority and Minority in Parliament.

Their invitation follows a search of their residence last week for evidence or documentations on the controversial power deal by the CID who are acting on the orders of the court.

Controversial deal

The 300MW emergency power contract was secured in 2015 by the John Mahama administration to fix severe power challenges at the time after it received Parliamentary approval.

However, following a publication by a Norwegian newspaper about the deal, it was condemned for its $510 million price tag as analysts say Ghana could have secured the same deal at $150 million less.

Specifics about the ongoing probe into the deal remains a subject of speculation as security officials remain tight-lipped on the matter, however, there are strong suggestions that the contract was signed amid heavy underhand dealings.

There are indications that the CID will Monday reveal the details about the investigation into the power deal.

Raids

The Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye, on Friday gave an assurance that he would invite security chiefs to discuss matters relating to the dawn raids of the residences of the former appointees, who are also MPs.

The Speakers assurance comes at the back of an appeal by Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak, Chief Whip of the Minority, calling on him to restrain the security personnel from raids of homes of some MPs on the Minority Side, suspected to be linked to the alleged malfeasance in the AMERI power deal.

Mr Kobina Tahir Hammond, MP for Adansi Asokwa, former Deputy Minister of Energy and Ranking Member on Energy, filed an urgent motion in Parliament to have the House rescind the US$ 510 million Ameri power deal, alleging that the cost was bloated.

On Tuesday, Dr Donkor had his laptops and pen drives seized by the officers when they went to the residence with a search warrant.

It was against this backdrop that the Minority Chief Whip after the issue failed to make it on the proposed Business Statement for next week raised the matter.

He said Members of Parliament are law abiding and would not run away from a responsibility to assist with an investigation, condemning the raids by the police.

But Mr Speaker, the worry is the nature and manner the police is raiding the residence of Members of Parliament at dawn when that citizen is not running, when the person has not been served with a notice that he has been charged. This is a very worrying situation.

We on this side can reassure not only the police but the whole state that every member on our side is more than willing and ready to assist in any investigation that the Government or the state wants to do but lets do it in a manner that does not create panic and frustration.

The invitation of these members on Monday when this House is sitting is an affront to the dignity of this House and will impede the members ability to perform their functions. It is with this that I want to humbly appeal to your good office to intervene and assure the Police that we, and I believe every member of Parliament, will be more than happy to assist in any form.

Prof. Oquaye promised to summon the appropriate officials to explain why some MPs were being harassed, explaining that by law and the Standing Orders of Parliament MPs must be treated with some level of decorum even when they are deemed to have committed any offence.

Quoting portions of the Standing Orders, he said MPs are not to be arrested on their way to Parliament, whilst in Parliament or on their way out of Parliament.

We will want to ascertain whether the legal process was followed. I will, soon after sitting, call the appropriate authority to my office and demand that honourable members are handled appropriately, coterminous with their office as honourable members.

The Speaker must also be informed before any such arrests are made.

The Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensa-Bonsu, concurred to the request by the Minority Chief Whip.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | GN
Nairobi (AFP) - The butcher is closed, metres of shelves are empty save for a single brand of shampoo and, worst of all, the toilet paper is out-of-stock.

Once a Kenyan success story, homegrown Nakumatt supermarkets are grappling with product shortages so severe even the country's best-known cartoonist has taken notice, lampooning the company's slogan in a recent drawing as, "You need it, we don't have it".

The dizzying fall of East Africa's largest retailer has been blamed on a combination of bad management, misguided expansion plans and increased competition, and many industry insiders say the damage wrought on the company is so severe that it may not survive.

"It's what I call a perfect storm, where a series of events have come together to create the position that we're in," said Andrew Dixon, a former executive with Britain's Tesco supermarket recently hired to head up Nakumatt's marketing.

The chain's position today is indeed a tenuous one: Nakumatt has become so bad at paying its bills that some suppliers demand to be paid upfront or refuse to deliver. The landlord of one supermarket recently raided the premises and seized merchandise in lieu of unpaid rent.

Nakumatt has become so bad at paying its bills that some suppliers demand to be paid upfront or refuse to deliver

It wasn't always like this.

Nakumatt's transformation from a one-store mattress retailer into a region-spanning grocery empire is a fairy-tale saga in a country where entrepreneurship is a cardinal virtue.

The chain's story starts in 1979 in Kenya's Indian community, when a father, fresh off of the bankruptcy of another business, started a mattress store with his two sons in the Rift Valley town of Nakuru.

The store was named "Nakuru Mattresses," which was later contracted to Nakumatt and what would become one of the best known brands in East Africa.

The shop flourished and by the mid-1980s the family opened their first store in the capital Nairobi.

The current difficulties have seen two Nairobi stores and three in Uganda shuttered.

However the business still employs 7,000 people and has 45 stores in Kenya, eight in Uganda, three in Rwanda, five in Tanzania and does annual sales of $600 million (511 million euros), according to Dixon.

Bad luck

Newly appointed Nakumatt Chief Marketing Officer Andrew Dixon speaks during an interview with AFP in Nairobi

Dixon has identified three reasons for Nakumatt's struggles.

The first was a stroke of bad luck -- the October 2013 attack by jihadists on the Westgate mall in Nairobi that left 67 people dead and destroyed Nakumatt's flagship store, which Dixon said accounted for 10 percent of the company's turnover.

The second is the proliferation of malls in the capital. In its policy of expansion, Nakumatt has had to commit to opening new markets years in advance, and sometimes, when they finally do open, they end up not being as successful as expected.

The final blow is Kenya's economic growth, which, while strong, is less than Nakumatt anticipated.

"We had originally put together a business plan which had assumed a certain growth in the economy. That growth has now slowed," Dixon said, adding that the retail sector's share of GDP has dropped from 12 percent to 6 percent.

Sources among Nakumatt's competitors point to a fourth reason: the company's acquisition at the end of 2016 of minority shareholder John Harun Mwau's stake in the chain for a sum Kenyan media reported to be at least $30 million.

In 2011, American investigators froze Mwau's assets in the United States over allegations that he was involved in drug trafficking, a charge he denies.

The businessman and politician's scandalous reputation was seen as hampering Nakumatt's quest to convince investors to inject $75 million into the company.

The giants in waiting

The time for Nakumatt to sort out its affairs is running out.

Wholesalers, who have relied for years on Nakumatt's business to connect them with Kenya's rising middle class, are losing patience.

So, too, are mall owners, who have watched the balance of unpaid rent from the stores grow by the month.

The landlord of one shopping centre in Nairobi's northern outskirts grew so tired of waiting that in early July they raided the Nakumatt on their premises, seizing trucks, televisions, trolley and refrigerators to auction in a bid to recover 51 million shillings ($491,000) in unpaid rent.

Julien Garcier, managing director of market research company Sagaci, said Nakumatt did not only need new investors, but fresh ideas and outside expertise.

"Yes, they have been around for a long time, but above all, it's a family business and they are now facing a fairly sudden rise in competition and their lack of know-how is making them make expensive mistakes," Garcier said.

That competition is not just from local brands like Tuskys, Chandarana and Naivas, but also from France's Carrefour and American chain WalMart, both of which have recently emerged -- albeit on a small scale -- on the scene in Kenya.

At the opening of a WalMart-owned Game supermarket in 2015, a local television station came across Nakumatt boss Atul Shah browsing the aisles, who made what seemed to be an admission of weakness.

"The biggest trouble I go through is, what next?" he told the journalists. "Always, we're looking for ideas."
The president, Nana Akkufo Addo has appointed former Brong-Ahafo Regional Chairman of the NPP, Mr. Kwasi Adu-Gyan as the new Director General of the Ghana India Kofi Annan ICT Centre of Excellence.

A letter dated July 19, 2017, signed by the president and sighted by Space FM, gave Mr Adu -Gyan 14 days to respond to the appointment. Part of the letter read: "you are expected to discharge your duties with a great sense of professionalism"

Mr. Kwasi Adu-Gyan has over twenty years work experience in Information Communication Technology (ICT) especially in the areas of Systems Engineering, Architecture, Programming, Consultancy, Research, Training and Policy.

Between 2003 and 2007 Mr. Adu-Gyan was the ICT Technical Advisor to the Ministry of Communications. Later in 2007 was appointed the first Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the newly established Directorate of the Ministry of Communications  Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) Secretariat, a component of the eGhana Project with funding from the World Bank.

Mr. Adu-Gyan is credited with the successful implementation of the Ghana India Kofi Annan ICT Center of Excellence and the Ghana Multimedia Incubator Center. He also initiated the ICT Entrepreneurship Project for the establishment of an ICT Park, a Technology Park to commercialize projects incubated at the Ghana Multimedia Incubator Center, for Ghana at the Tema Free Zones enclave.

Additionally, Adu-Gyan has been championing the cause of Business Process Outsourcing in Ghana, as a Technical Advisor to the Ministry of Communications and CEO of the ITES Secretariat, he contributed immensely to Ghanas global ranking on Services Location Index published by AT Kearney. For example in 2009, Ghana was ranked first (1st) followed closely by India on financial attractiveness for outsourcing and other IT services.

He pioneered the establishment of Community Information Centers (CIC) to bridge the digital divide between the rural and undeserved communities.

Mr Adu-Gyan served on a number of several Boards under President J.A. Kufour government notably Ghana Meteorological Authority, President's Special Initiative on Distance Learning and the African Union, NePAD e-Schools Coordinating Body. He was also Ghana's IT liaison to the Commonwealth Prior to joining the Ministry of Communications in 2003, Adu-Gyan held several technical and management positions in the United States. He was a Network Engineer and IT Specialist at IBM and worked on a wide-range of technologies including planning, designing and deploying across enterprise networks, routing, fault-tolerance, fail over, geographic redundancy, data/network security and VPN security. Activities that enhanced the usability of IBMs clients network.

Also, Mr. Adu-Gyan worked as Network Analyst with Arthur Andersen LLP. In his role as Network Analyst, he researched and worked on Information Technology Infrastructural Development. Specially, he designed, developed and deployed technology projects in Asia and South America (China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan and Mexico) and at the Center for Professional Education (The largest Professional Training Center in the World at the time 1998 to 2000) in St Charles, Illinois.

Mr. Adu-Gyan was the Network Manager for Lagrange School District  Lyons Township High School in Illinois USA. In addition to that, he was a Programmer Analyst at Trans Union Corporation where he designed, developed and implemented Software solutions for the company.

He was educated at DeVry University and DePaul University, both of which are in Chicago  USA. Professionally, he is certified in both Cisco and Novell.
31.07.2017 LISTEN

"Our Institutions have become so unprofessional,so ineffective. Today,they are not able to perform the way we want them to perform. The Police ,politicized,Civil Service,politicized,they're recruiting party people into the service therefore the kind of efficiency ,the kind of effectiveness,that characterized Public Service Institutions in the past is no longer there".

Those were the words of Political Science Lecturer and a senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Democratic Governance,(IDEG), Dr. Kwesi Jonah in qualifying the state of Ghana's State Institutions - Impotent.

Ghana was the first Country to have gained Independence in sub Saharan Africa in 1957 and as such ,development in the Country comparing to other African Countries must be unparalleled. But what's the reality? Many young Countries in Africa are outpacing us- even the 1994 genocide- Rwanda.

Many Organizations that are supposed to be agents for change,development and Industrialization have become white elephants -Inefficient and ineffective in all spheres of service delivery.

In July 2014, the National Service Scheme caused the State through its inefficiency a colossal sum of about GH 8 million as a result of payment to non-existent National Service Persons (popular referred to in Ghana as ghost names which was created by some of its Officials to siphon Public funds to enrich themselves) in more than 100 Districts in the Country. A case which is still before the Law courts for adjudication.

Some crimes wear political colors in Ghana which are rarely investigated and prosecuted to the later due to the fear of victimization of Police Chiefs by Political actors. It is in no doubt that a mono-dimensional way of solving this problem is to Institutionalize who raises to the rank of an IGP( Inspector -General of Police).

By this, I mean the appointing power and discretion shouldn't reside in the President.

There were cases where Officers of the Police Service were transferred arbitrarily on the orders of a "Big man" in a certain Political party which forms government.

Millions of Cedis are spent almost every year on Institutional reforms which aimed at improving the functionality of State Institutions.

These reforms, I believe fester across Africa because Institutional reforms are commonly adopted to signal the intent to reforms,not as efforts to actually change Institutions.

Successive governments in Ghana have fallen prey to this act which could end up making our Institutions efficient and resolute in the face of political pressure.

President Obama captured it well in a speech delivery in Accra- Ghana-Parliament to be precise when he said " Africa doesn't need strongmen,it needs strong Institutions". This means that we should strengthen our Institutions so that no matter who's in authority,our Institutions and Ghana at large will work efficiently .

We must know that Ghana's future is up to Ghanaians ad until we take pragmatic steps to address these Institutional deficiencies,we're going nowhere even with all the resources nature has endowed as with.

Let's give hope to the teeming young people brimming with talent and prospects so that history will be on our side as game changers in our generation.
31.07.2017 LISTEN

Hope, disgust, anguish, fatigue were seen in the faces of the parents, guardians, school administrators, and Government officials over the kidnap of the six students of the Lagos State Model College, Igbonla, Epe 35 days ago.

A socio-civic group, the Progressive Solidarity Forum (PSF) has commended the efforts of those who were directly involved in seeking the release of the students alive.

The group described the incident as "one of the darkest period in the Nation's educational history" in a statement signed by her Lagos State Director of Media, Information, and Publicity Mr Olalekan Adigun today.

The group said "We empathize with the relatives of those kids and what they must have gone through in perhaps the longest and darkest 35 days in their lives."

The group said further: "We wish to commend the Lagos State Government for its efforts to get the students back alive.

"We must equally thank the security agencies for their prompt responses to the ugly incident.

"We urge the Lagos State Government to improve the presence security agencies in schools in the state. They must monitor with eagle eyes all movements in and out of the schools and raise alarm on suspicious persons in the neighbourhood

"We are equally saying that all schools in Lagos must be properly fenced and regular security operatives must be on 24 hours patrol scanning the environment for criminals.

"We must not forget to commend Lagosians, and by extension, Nigerians for their prayers during these trying times for the lads.

"We therefore recommend proper rehabilitation programme for the lads as they are integrated back to the society. This must be the very last of such in Lagos state." The statement said.

Olalekan Adigun

Director of Media, Information, and Publicity

Progressive Solidarity Forum (PSF)

Lagos State chapter

@thisispsf

30/07/2017
A penny for your thoughts...

...Two euros for your links.

In 2009, the forum-like website "wawa-mania" was subject to investigations in France by the Information Technology Fraud Investigations Brigade (in French, BEFTI short for 'Brigade d'enquetes sur les fraudes aux technologies de l'information' ), which revealed mass infringement of protected material ranging from videos, music to computer software. Some of the forum members, known as "uploaders" would obtain infringing copies of copyright works from at least four servers including "rapidshare.com", "Megaupload", "Gigaup.com" and "Free". Once downloaded from these servers, uploaders would re-upload the content online, and share links to the files on "wawa-mania". The forum-like website generated revenues from advertising spaces on its pages.The owner of "wawa-mania", known as 'D.M.', admitted to creating the website in 2006 and managing it ever since, renting server space from a third-party host for this purpose. He explained in preliminary hearings that as "super administrator" of the website, he handled responsibilities of content editing, user management, update of the operating software and held special rights to access to the server. D.M. also admitted to knowing that most of the content shared were breaching intellectual property rights, but stressed that his website hosted no files but merely listed links to access files located on a different server.D.M. first faced litigation on the basis of counterfeit by the Paris Criminal Court of First Instance ("tribunal correctionnel") on 2 April 2015. The criminal court handed down a one-year prison sentence, together with a range of fines, to sanction D.M.'s continuous provision of means and infrastructure to enable the infringement of protected content. In the same judgment, the criminal Bench also ordered for the take-down of the website for a period of two years, and required Google and Yahoo to have the following publication appear in results searching for the names D.M. or "wawa-mania": "On 2 April 2015, the Paris Criminal Court of First Instance sentenced D.M. to a one-year prison sentence for the counterfeit of copyright works carried out by uploading links on the forum wawa-mania that enabled the downloading of protected works illegally obtained". The criminal decision will stand as the right of appeal has now lapsed.Civil litigation followed suit, headed by a number of claimants including Microsoft, SACEM, Disney, Universal City Studios or Twentieth Century Fox - to only name a few. On 2 July 2015, the Paris (civil) Tribunal awarded damages for a range of damage (economic, moral, procedural) to each claimant. The main bill, 13 millions euros, concerned the infringement of copyright's economic rights for providing links to downloadable material exclusively, and was calculated as per the formula described above, i.e. two euros, per views divided by two, per copyright work listed on the website. The Paris Tribunal divided in half the number of views for each work recorded by the linking-website because they recognized that users "viewing", or accessing, the files may not have downloaded them. Halving the number of views before applying it as a coefficient in the equation to calculate damages was regarded as a fair account of the "likely" levels of infringement. Nothing in the decision explains or justifies why the likely levels of infringement would be accurately obtained by dividing the number of views by two. Is this a rough guess on the part of the court? Was there expert evidence submitted to support this calculation? Was it based on the Court's own experience of downloading and streaming - or perhaps that of a reasonable person?The Paris Court of Appeal approved the calculation put forward in the first instance decision. They too regarded the division of "views" by two as appropriate since the claimants did not submit evidence that viewing or accessing the files lead to their download consistently. For this reason, the fixed amount of damages had to account for a, and not proven, prejudice. The rest of the tribunal decision was confirmed in every aspect, only further damages to cover litigation costs were added by the Paris Court of Appeal, totaling at additional 2,200 euros - a relatively small sum in comparison to the multi-million euro sanction.
Government is set to deploy 10 platoons across Ghana's mining zones, escalating the fight against illegal mining blamed for massive destruction of land and river bodies.

The inclusion of armed personnel is Step Two of government's plan to flush out illegal miners after several months of warning them to stop. The government has also banned mining in water bodies.

The Lands and Natural Resources minister John Peter Amewu first gave the miners a 3-week ultimatum to pack out. He later toured sites in the Eastern and Western regions to find out the extent of the damage done by the illegal activities.

At Burma camp Monday morning, 400 personnel drawn from Ghana Armed Forces and Ghana Police Service prepare to receive departing instructions.

They will be spread across three regions where the menace is most severe - the Ashanti, Eastern and Western regions. A senior military official told Joy FM's Super Morning Show Monday, most of Ghana's water bodies are located in these regions.

"The focus is on three so that gradually we move forward".

Government has stressed it is in the fight against galamsey to win it after earlier attempts to use force failed under the previous government.

The Deputy Information minister Mustapha Hamid said the security forces could stay for as long as two years

The government has asked mining communities to cooperate with the security forces when 'Operation Vanguard' starts.

The Military has warned illegal miners who have dared to resist the armed occupation to revise their strategies.

"If they become a stublng block they will be removed", the Ghana Army's Col. Aggrey Quarshie said.

Photos



Story by Ghana | myjoyonline.com
The Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, has assured supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Ghanaians that they will reap from their sweat soon after bringing the party to power.

According to her, government was putting in place a lot of policies and programmes to create jobs for party members and youth of the country.

Per the manifesto of the NPP, the Chief of Staff said more jobs would be created so that a high number of the youth would be employed, saying that the ruling NPP government was implementing many plans to create more jobs for the Ghanaian youth.

Mrs. Osei-Opare was speaking at this year's Greater Accra NPP Delegates' Conference at the Trade Fair Centre in Accra on Saturday to deliberate on the way forward.

This is in fulfillment of the party's constitutional provision, which enjoins the party executives to hold annual delegates conference at the regional level after those at the constituency and national levels.

She stressed that government was committed to fulfilling the promises in the party's manifesto and called for patience and maximum support from the public.

Mrs. Osei-Opare said that the party would adopt an opendoor policy to create jobs to address the menace of unemployment.

The Chief of Staff stated that the public sector has limited job opportunities and that government would harness the potentials of the private sector to become a viable source of jobs.

She said the party needs more support since it inherited a broken economy from the previous administration.

Mrs. Osei-Opare cautioned the party's members against all forms of misbehavior.

She said the government would not spare anyone who flouts the law and retard the progress of the nation.

The conference brought together some party gurus, including Acting National Chairman, Freddie Blay, General Secretary John Boadu, Ministers, MMDCEs, Members of Parliaments (MPs) and party supporters, sympathizers, among others.

By Vincent Kubi




In the wake of the petroleum-related fire accidents which have led to the loss of lives and valuables worth millions of Ghana cedis across the country, the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has outlined some measures to ensure maximum safety in the petroleum industry in the country.

As part of the drastic measures, the NPA is set to intensify its inspection and monitoring activities to ensure that the service providers in the oil and gas industry are operating according to the standards of performance, especially the safety benchmark prescribed for them.

This means oil and gas marketing companies that flout petroleum safety measures set out by the NPA risk losing their operation licenses or being shut down until they rectify all the shortfalls identified by the authority.

The Director of Inspections, Licensing & Monitoring at the NPA, Esther Anku, disclosed this during an encounter with the media in Ho, the Volta regional capital, on the authority's nationwide petroleum safety campaign dubbed 'people safety first'.

The campaign is a response to concerns against safety lapses in the petroleum industry, and it is aimed at stopping petroleum-related accidents at retail outlets, homes and other places.

The NPA would also institute a 'Safety Day' as part of the campaign, to be observed once a year, as part of raising safety consciousness among its stakeholders and all Ghanaians.

According to Mrs Anku, the recent spate of petroleum fires in the country could have been avoided if the general public was well-sensitised on fire safety.

She mentioned that the NPA through its campaign would engage all stakeholders on the need to operate safely to avoid accidents in the petroleum industry.

The campaign, she pointed out, would organise regional workshops, public sensitisation forums, education of pump attendants and other staff of oil marketing companies (OMCs) and LPG marketing companies (LPGMCs).

She added that the chief executives of OMCs and LPGMCs would be mandated to sign safety declarations and undertake practical safety activities for a successful implementation of the safety campaign.

The Director of United Petroleum Price Fund, Samuel Asre-Bediaku, emphasized that the NPA would continue to ensure that regulations are adhered to concerning the siting of filling stations.

He stated that the media has a huge role to play in the safety campaign, and appealed to journalists to commit their time to informing the public on the proper use of petroleum products.

Fred Duodu and Gibril Abdul Razak, Ho
With just nine days to the take-off of the maiden flight for Hajj 2017 scheduled for Tamale, the Chairman of the Ghana Hajj Board, Sheikh IC Quaye has said that everything is on course for a smooth airlift to and from Saudi Arabia.

His optimism is hinged upon what he said are the initiatives he and his team have unfurled so far. The prognosis, he said, are good hence his optimism he told DAILY GUIDE.

We are on course to deliver on our mandate as demanded of us by both President Akufo-Addo and Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, he said.

Recounting the myriad of interventions initiated to reduce to the barest minimum the perennial hassle of the Hajj, he said we are confident that our initiatives would go a long way in reducing the number of persons who come and stay at the Hajj Village for days on end not knowing when their flights would take off or eliminate it entirely because through the leverage of IT, prospective pilgrims would have an idea about their flight dates.

In the area of passport acquisition he sounded positive about the gains chalked when he said the facilitation of the acquisition of the Ghanaian passport by prospective pilgrims by the Hajj Board has reduced the otherwise challenges associated with obtaining the travel document.

The Ghana Hajj Board has initiated an arrangement with the director of passports for an expedited management of passport applications for Hajj pilgrims while simultaneously ensuring that only Ghanaians are issued with the security document which as the Chairman said remains the property of the Ghana Government.

The dividends from the initiative has led to the elimination of the usual inconveniences and even delayed issuance of passports and the attendant compounding of the Hajj airlift processes.

Prospective pilgrims only need to present their duly completed forms at the Hajj village if they dont have any and the remaining processes will be taken over by assigned Hajj officials.

A cross section of prospective pilgrims have told DAILY GUIDE that they are optimistic about the prospects of a smooth Hajj given the arrangements laid out by the Ghana Hajj Board under the leadership of Sheikh IC Quaye.

The constant interaction between the Hajj Board and the accredited agents who account for most of the pilgrims who embark on the pilgrimage has engendered transparency in the Hajj process, the Chairman has disclosed.

Earlier, the Hajj Board embarked on an engagement programme with stakeholders in Accra, Kumasi and Tamale  a novelty which won the hearts of imams and the general Muslim population because as one of the attendees noted it offered us an opportunity to listen to the Hajj Board and for us to render our suggestions, a two-way communication whose dividend are far-reaching.

In the realm of medical delivery, the Hajj Board in consultation with the Head of the Medical Unit, Dr. Seidu Zakaria unfurled a medical screening programme whose details are being fed into a data base to be accessed when the need arises, the Chairman said.

This way, the medical team would be primed sufficiently to manage medical conditions in Saudi Arabia he said adding that a permanent Hajj Village Clinic has been erected to enhance the operation of medical delivery.

There is a massive infrastructural development ongoing at the Hajj Village all of which are intended to give comfort to both prospective pilgrims and others who have some businesses to transact at the Hajj Village.

Six flights are scheduled for Tamale; the first being 10th August 2017 which would end on 16th August 2017 followed by the Accra flights.

The Accra flights would commence on 17TH August and end on 21st August 2017.

Sheikh IC Quaye marked his 81st birthday yesterday with the recitation of the Holy Quran at his residence.

By A.R. Gomda
The Minority in Parliament has asked the Akufo-Addo-led government to apologise to former president John Mahama and Ghanaians over its decision to retain the two ex-GITMO detainees in Ghana.

Government last week submitted to parliament an agreement covering the admission of the duo into the country by the Mahama administration for ratification.

The move followed a declaration by a seven-member Supreme Court panel presided over by Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo by six to one (6 -1) majority decision Thursday June 22, 2017 that the two are illegally in the country since the then government allowed them into the country without prior approval by Parliament.

The consequential order of the court therefore was that government should within three months subject the agreement to parliamentary consideration and approval and in default return the two Gitmo detainees.

Speaking on the floor of parliament on Friday July 28, 2017, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Shirley Ayorkor Botchway said there was no signed agreement between the previous administration and the US government over the transfer of the two.

According to her, what existed was a verbal agreement known in diplomatic circles as note verbale.

Mr. Speaker, we have not changed anything. In the note verbals that were exchanged between the two countries. Indeed there was no agreement. The whole transaction was done through what we call a note verbale from both sides. What we have done is to attach all those documents, she told the House.

The move by government to retain the two, however, irritated the minority.

In an interview with Starr News parliamentary correspondent Ibrahim Alhassan the minority spokesperson on foreign Affairs Okudzeto Ablakwa accused government of deception.

According to him, the new position is in contrast with that of the ruling government in opposition. He said the NPP government has only postponed its embarrassment with the decision to bring the agreement to parliament.

There was a golden opportunity for the government to just return the two consistent with their campaign rhetoricso taking the second option per the judgment means that what they were saying was just for votes.

They took the people of this country for granted for a wild ride. All the things they said we heard them in this country that president Mahama has collected money from the US government, president Mahama has jeopardized the security of Ghana, that president Mahama doesnt love Ghana.

Can we say the same for president Akufo-Addo if we are to go by their own logic? Are we to say that president Akufo-Addo has now gone for money from the US government? Are we to say that president Akufo-Addo doesnt care about the security of Ghana, that the NPP is jeopardizing the security of Ghana, that these two are dangerous and terrorists? So it is clear today that all of the things they said related to this matter was just for votes, he said.

He thus urged the government to apologize to the former president and Ghanaians for alleging that he took money from the US government before admitting the two into the country.
31.07.2017 LISTEN

Before he told a gathering of national media operatives that his decision to contest the 2020 polls was not a given, I had already made such a suggestion in at least a couple of my columns going as far back as 2007, when the party was heavily divided between factions in favor of the presidential candidacy of the former Justice Minister, on the one hand, and supporters of Mr. Alan John KwadwoKyerematen, the current Trade and Industry Minister, whose presidential candidacy was widely rumored to be staunchly backed by then-lame-duck President John Agyekum-Kufuor.

My premise for a one-term presidency for Nana Akufo-Addo was primarily predicated on age, and the fact that I sincerely believed that a remarkable lot could be achieved within the constitutionally stipulated 4-year presidential term, contrary to what a lame-duck Mr. Agyekum-Kufuor wanted the Ghanaian electorate to believe. And so far, Nana Akufo-Addo has eloquently demonstrated that, indeed, much that is worthwhile can be achieved even within the short temporal span of six months. There are humongous challenges, of course, in particular regarding the implementation of certain critical policy initiatives, such as the fee-free Senior High School electioneering campaign agenda, which the government intends to implement beginning this coming September.

The undue delay of the foregoing policy initiative has been primarily due to the grossly incompetent tandem governments of Presidents John Evans Atta-Mills, late, and John Dramani Mahama, both of the present main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), that had caused the loss of a huge amount of financial resources belonging to the Ghanaian taxpayer. President Akufo-Addos radical approach to the stoppage of the environmental genocide wreaked by small-scale miners, called Galamsey, which was for nearly a decade tacitly endorsed and smugly promoted by former Presidents Atta-Mills and Mahama, is unimpeachable.

To be certain, if he continues with his yeomanly and laudable efforts at reversing the Galamsey Menace and bringing it to a definitive halt within the next three-and-half years, President Akufo-Addo could well go down the annals of Ghanas Fourth Republican political history as the most responsible and foresighted leader of the first-half of the 21st century.

If he is also able to successfully implement his fee-free SHS policy, Nana Akufo-Addo would very well stand in a class all by himself. Former President Agyekum-Kufuors National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), while equally significant, would relatively not mean much because of his widely known and acknowledged factional divisiveness that tragically ensured that a visionless and narcissistic National Democratic Congress leadership would assume the reins of governance and effectively dismantle this most vital and progressive national healthcare policy initiative and enviable legacy.

Indeed, had President Akufo-Addo not ensured the pumping of millions of cedis in the form of arrears payments into the coffers of the NHIS, shortly upon assuming the democratic reins of governance, this Agyekum-Kufuor capstone legacy would have effectively suffered the fate of the legion failed programs of previous eras.

Now, should he decide not to contest the 2020 presidential election, Nana Akufo-Addo would be expected to wholeheartedly throw his support behind the presidential candidacy of Vice-President MahamuduBawumia. There will be absolutely no room for playing an Aliu Trick here, as was deviously and scandalously done by a pathologically ethnocentric Mr. Agyekum-Kufuor. That is, unless Nana Akufo-Addo is also in the patently ungodly business of ensuring the effective and permanent collapse of the New Patriotic Party as we presently know it.

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs
My dear Lord, God Almighty, I am promising to continue to be led by you.

I promise to follow your lead and not be incorrigible in all things concerning all matters, including that of, for, about and on Nigeria.

I promise NEVER again to bother you about Nigeria, against which you have expressed your WILL.

I promise NEVER AGAIN to pray to you on what you have forsaken.

I promise to allow your words in the Holy Bible to guide, guard and glitter my thoughts on the DESTINY of NIGERIA which is to BREAK UP.

I promise that I will continue to have faith in the belief that if you had wanted, you could have hearkened unto supplications on Nigeria because YOU ARE NOT DEAF.

I promise that I will continue to have faith in the belief that you could have delivered NIGERIA if you felt it worthy because YOU ARE NOT HANDICAP.

I promise that I will not doubt your remonstration that we can not be in sins and expect more blessings.

I promise that I will not question your WISDOM that unless you build the house, the labourers labour in vain.

I promise NEVER to doubt your determination to NEVER dwell in confusion that Nigeria is.

I promise that I will not question your MERCIFULNESS which is given only on condition of penance.

I promise that I will not question your faithfulness in granting your GRACE to abide by us only if we approach you with faith and sincerity.

I promise that I ACCEPT YOUR judgment wholeheartedly to abandon Nigeria because Nigeria is a waste of time.

I promise that I WILL NEVER BOTHER YOU again either through prayers or fasting on behalf of Nigeria.

I promise I shall follow the guidance of the HOLY BIBLE which insists that I should not test the Lord, my God on the issue of Nigeria that you have forsaken.

I promise to continue to intercede on behalf of my YORUBA PEOPLE so that they can be out of HAUSA FULANI inspired NIGERIAN SLAVERY.

I promise to follow your lead to actualise your words to make the YORUBA NATION, THE PRIDE OF THE NEGROID RACE.

I promise to use all you have endowed me with to see that MY YORUBA PEOPLE ARE FREE AND INDEPENDENT IN THEIR OWN NATION.

I promise, O Lord, that I will in the inspiration of John F. Kennedy, let every nation know, whether it wishes YORUBA well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of our fight for FREEDOM and INDEPENDENCE.

I promise, O Lord that with my abiding faith in your omnipotence, I will never doubt your own promise to set my people free.

I promise that my confidence in your eternal principles of FAIRNESS, JUSTICE, EQUITY LIBERTY and FREEDOM will never wane.

I promise, O Lord, God Almighty, that as you live, sooner rather than later, I and the World will have cause to glorify thy HOLY NAME on behalf of my YORUBA PEOPLE and OODUA NATION.

I promise, O Lord....!

"In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility - I welcome it.

-John F. Kennedy

Please follow me on Twitter @OyeyemiRemi
Accra, Ghana, 31st July 2017: His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group recently welcomed a VIP delegation from Ghana to his offices.

His Highness Sheikh Ahmed, accompanied by Adnan Kazim, DSVP Strategic Planning, RO and Aeropolitical Affairs, Emirates and Orhan Abbas, Emirates SVP, Commercial (Africa), were pleased to meet with Ghanaian Minister Hon. Cecilia Abena Dapaah, Minister for Aviation, together with a number of high-ranking officials.

The meeting took place at the Emirates Group Headquarters in Dubai. Emirates commitment to Ghana and the African market were re-affirmed and opportunities for further co-operation in the future discussed.

Emirates started flights to Accra, Ghana on January 2, 2004 via Lagos, Nigeria with A330-200 aircraft. Accra became a non-stop destination on January 1, 2006. An extension to Abidjan, Cote dIvoire was added a month later in February 2006 from 4 of the 7 weekly frequencies between Dubai and Accra. The route eventually moved to a daily operation with an extension to Abidjan on May 1, 2010.

Today the route is served by a daily scheduled Boeing 777-300ER in a three-class configuration.
A group of unemployed nurses picketing the Ministry of Health to demand immediate posting clashed with some security personnel at the Ministry who tried to stop them from entering the Ministry's compound earlier this morning.

The personnel had locked the main gate to the Ministry's compound but the agitated nurses forced their way onto the compound triggering a fierce challenge by the security officers.

The Coalition of Unemployed Private Nurses, however, succeeded in pitching camp on the compound with the determination to stay there until the ministry had granted them their request.

The coalition, made up of over 3,000 trained nurses from various private nursing training schools lamented that government had consistently discriminated against them by prioritizing the recruitment of their colleagues trained in public nursing training schools.

At a press conference, the spokesperson for the group, Doreen Boateng, called on government takes urgent steps to ensure they are posted to serve as nurses at various health facilities.

We paid our own tuition fees. So we should be the first to be on the list for government posting. We didn't burden the state. The unwarranted loyalty of government to train nurses and to the neglect of all other suitable qualified nurses poses a threat to national security, she said.

Citi News' Anas Seidu who was at the Ministry on Monday morning reported that the group is determined to remain at the premises till government acts in their favour.

Meanwhile the Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Health, Robert Cudjoe has express dissatisfaction over the group's protest.

According to him, the group's protest was a demonstration of their lack of understanding of the pertaining issues regarding their employment.

He said the group had after series of meetings with the ministry agreed on a definite framework that would see them employed soon.

Various groups of trainee and trained nurses have in recent times protested against the government over similar issues of delayed posting.

Some have had to picket at the Ministry of Health for nights before securing their posting.



By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
The Speaker of Parliament has hauled the National Security Advisor before the House to explain the circumstances under which two Members of Parliament were accosted by police officers last week.

Prof Mike Ocquaye told Council of State members the Security Minister will meet with leadership of Parliament at exactly 12:00 noon Monday.

Ex-Power Minister Dr Kwabena Donkor and his deputy John Jinapor both of whom are MPs and were key in negotiating the controversial AMERI power agreement had their houses invaded by police men in search for documents covering the agreement.

First it was Dr Donkor who was paid the friendly visit by the police. His laptops were seized as well as his pen drives. He resisted attempts by the police officers to seize his phones.

A day later, John Jinapor also had his house invaded by the police. He was on his way to Parliament in the morning when the police arrived.

They came demanding documents covering the AMERI deal and ended up searching every corner of the house in search for the documents.

His phones were seized by the police officers.

A third person, who is not an MP but a Technical Advisor, on the AMERI agreement, Francis Dzata also had his home searched and his laptops seized by police officers.

Even though the police officers had the authority of a circuit court to conduct the search, they ought to have sought permission from the Speaker of Parliament before arresting, searching the MPs.

By Parliaments Standing Orders, MPs cannot be arrested on their way to Parliament, when they are in Parliament or on their way out of Parliament.

The House has, in unison, condemned the arrest, detention of the two MPs with the Speaker vowing to haul before him persons who authorized the search.

While he would not shield persons accused of wrongdoing, he said due process must be followed in the arrest of MPs.

He would not sit aloof in the face of what he referred to as harassment of MPs.

Posterity will judge me on this, he told Council of State members who paid courtesy call on the leadership of Parliament.

Consequently the Security Minister is expected to explain the action of the police officers when he meets leadership on Monday.

Joy News Parliamentary correspondent Joseph Opoku Gakpo reported that the Minister Albert Kan Dapaah has arrived in Parliament for the meeting.

Story by Ghana|Myjoyonline.com|Nathan Gadugah
* PermaKat Eleonora Rosati received the 2022 Adepi Award

* PermaKat Eleonora Rosati listed as one of the World Intellectual Property Review's "Influential Women in IP" of 2020.

* PermaKat Eleonora Rosati listed as one of the Managing Intellectual Property magazine's "Fifty Most Influential People" of 2018.

* IPKat founder and Blogmeister Emeritus Jeremy Phillips listed as one of the Managing Intellectual Property magazine's "Fifty Most Influential People" of 2005, 2011, 2013, and 2014.

* Recommended by the European Patent Office as reading material for candidates for the European Qualifying Examinations, 2013.

* Listed as "Top Legal Blog" in The Times Online, March 2011.

2010 ABA Journal 100. * One of the only two non-US blogs listed in the Blawg100.

* Court Reporter Top Copyright Blog award winner, November 2010.

* Number 1 in the 2010 Top Copyright Blog list compiled by the Copyright Litigation Blog, July 2010.

* Selected by the United States Library of Congress for inclusion in its historic collections of Internet materials related to Legal Blawgs as of 2010.

* Top Patent Blog poll 2009: 3rd out of 50 in the "Favourite Patent Blog" poll and 2nd out of 50 in the "Most-read" poll.

Blog of the Year, 20 August 2008. * ComputerWeekly IT Law and Governance, 20 August 2008.
Minister of National Security, Albert Kan-Dapaah is to appear before parliament today July 31.

This was revealed by Speaker of Parliament Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye who said the summons was necessitated by raids at the homes of some legislators on the Minority side in relation to the US$ 510 Ameri deal.

Prof Oquaye who was addressing some members of the Council of State who paid a courtesy call on him said Mr Kan-Dapaah is expected to brief the House on the processes of the investigations by the security agencies against the MPs.

Monday he is going to be here at 12pm, Prof Oquaye said, adding that it was important for the security to use the appropriate processes when conducting investigations.

Three Minority MPs Dr Kwabena Donkor  Pru East, John Jinapor  Yapei Kusawgu, and Dr Dominic Ayine  Bolgatanga East, were to appear before the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service on Monday in connection with investigations into the AMERI power deal.

The homes of former Deputy Power Minster Jinapor and former Deputy Attorney General Dr Ayine were raided by officers of the CID last week in search of documents covering the controversial deal signed by the Mahama administration.

Speaking on the raid, Mr Jinapor said: They gave me a letter signed by Bright Oduro inviting me to come to the CID (Criminal Investigations Department) office at 1pm on Monday but Monday 1pm, Im told the Minister is presenting the mid-year budget to parliament.

He added: Im not against investigations; sometimes investigations are good and I am ready to cooperate with the police and any other agency in relation to this matter. I think that the truth will come out but it should be done in a humane way.

The raid came three days after men from the CID confiscated laptops, phones and other electronic devices of the former Co-ordinator of the Emergency Power Programme at the Ministry of Energy, Francis Gyata following a similar raid at his home in Accra.

That raid was on Tuesday, July 25 as part of ongoing investigations into the Ameri power deal.

It also followed a similar raid at the home of former Power Minister Dr Donkor on last week Monday where four officers of the CID led by an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) stormed the Spintex residence of former Minister to search his property in connection with investigations into the same deal. Dr Donkor is being accused of willfully causing financial loss to the state.
Over 200 delegates from Ghana and the United Kingdom have recently attended a 2-day trade and investment forum. The objective of the forum was to showcase Ghana and her business opportunities as a continuing re-energized and dynamic Sub Saharan African business partner.

The forum highlighted the renewed interest in Ghana by British businesses and investors.

Organized by the UK- Ghana Chamber of Commerce (UKGCC) in partnership with the Developing Markets Association (DMA), the forum attracted top government officials from Ghana like the Ghanaian High Commissioner to the UK, Papa Owusu - Ankomah, Ghanas Senior Minister, Hon. Yaw Osafo-Marfo and the Prime Ministers Trade Envoy to Ghana, Hon. Adam Afriye. It was the forth in series but the first with Ghanas new government.

A number of specific investment sectors including railways, energy and infrastructure were discussed at the forum.

Ghanas Senior Minister, Hon. Osafo Marfo in his remarks expressed the need for Ghanaian businesses established in the UK to invest in the various sectors of Ghana.

He said Ghana is open for business. The government is private sector focused and keen to grow the economy through the private sector with support from the public sector.

Ghana is ready to do business to help improve her economy and foster development for the benefit of all parties. He added.

The CEO of UKGCC, Tony Burkson said, This is the very reason the UK-Ghana Chamber of Commerce was formed - to act as a platform for Ghanaian businesses and UK businesses and UK government and Ghana government to interact in an open and transparent way. The chamber is taking this particular mandate very seriously and continues to promote interaction between our two countries.

Businesses already invested and businesses looking forward to invest in Ghana had the opportunity to engage with the relevant ministers and officials present.

Some of the government officials present at the forum included the Deputy Minister of Energy, Hon. Joseph Cudjoe, Minister of Railway Development, Hon. Joe Ghartey, CEO, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Dr. Kofi Koduah Sarpong, and the CEO, Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) R. Yofi Grant.

The Forum was supported by: Ghana International Bank; INTL FCStone; Tullow Oil; Appolonia; Unity Link and Quantum Power.

The UK  Ghana Chamber of Commerce (UKGCC) is a unique resource and a robust organization made up of local experts and professionals that will be the voice for British Businesses looking to access and engage with the Ghanaian market, whilst providing assistance to Ghanaian companies investing in the UK.

The organization facilitates and promotes trade and commercial relations between the UK and Ghana. It provides exceptional support for its members through the sharing of knowledge and ideas whilst hosting various activities designed to build stronger networks that will connect business and create further opportunities.
The African Centre for International Law and Accountability says the President has no power to appoint an acting EC boss over the raging controversy, despite persistent calls by pressure groups.

The think-tank said although the President can suspend the EC boss Charlotte Osei and her two deputies, he cannot appoint an acting chairperson.

Executive Director of ACILA, William Nyarko told Joy News the Electoral Commission Act does not give President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo the power to appoint an interim EC boss in the face of allegations.

There are calls for the President to appoint an EC chairperson to supervise the implementation of the Commissions time-table which could be affected by the ongoing infighting.

The EC boss Charlotte and two of her deputies, Mrs Georgina Opoku Amankwaah and Amadu Sulley, have been trading accusations and counter-accusations in the media.

There is a petition before the Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo filed against Mrs Osei by some Concerned Staff of the Commission in which they raised issues of financial malfeasance and cases of administrative incompetence.

In her response to the petition, the EC boss roped in Mrs Amankwaah and Mr Sulley accusing them of engaging in acts that flout the law.

Mrs Amankwaah, who is the deputy in charge of Corporate Services, refuted claims made against her by her boss. She blamed Mrs Osei for the challenges the Commission is facing.

Two separate petitions have also been filed against Mrs Amankwaah and Mr Sulley by a private individual Emmanuel Korsi Senyo who is also demanding their removal.

Wading in the matter, two democratic think-tanks, the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) and The Civic Forum Initiative called on the President to appoint an acting Chairperson while investigations of the three continue.

But ACILA said any attempt to appoint an acting EC boss will amount to an illegality since it has no backing in the law.

Mr Nyarko said, even if the CJ is able to establish a prima facie case in the matter, Mrs Osei will still be at post until a determination is made against her.

If the prima facie case is not established, everything will be fine, he said.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Austin Brakopowers | [email protected] | Instagram: @realbrakopowers
There are fears of a possible outbreak of diseases in parts of the Tamale metropolis as some residents resort to open defecation following recent floods there.

Within the last five days, residents in six districts in the Northern Region including Sanerigu, Gushegu, Sabooba North, Nanumba, Kariga and Cherponi have been counting their loss flowing a torrential rainfall.

In some areas the residents have resorted to open defecation as their only place of convenience has been destroyed.

A resident said many of their water sources have been polluted. According to him, the dam which they draw water from has also been polluted opening them up to all sorts of diseases.

According to reports, more than 3000 people have been rendered homeless with four people losing their lives.

Several bridges, roads, and farmlands have been badly affected.

The District Chief Executive of the Nanumba North, Abdulai Yacob told Joy News they could not have access to Yendi, Salaga and adjoining Nanumba South due to the floods.

We are completely cut off from the national grid and it has made life difficult for the people, he said.

The victims have blamed the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) for neglecting them.

As you can see, so many houses have been destroyed and we dont know where to lay our heads. Some of us are sharing a room with over 20 others which is not healthy in any way.

"Some people have been forced to travel out to get a place to sleep, one victim said.

Local NADMO authorities are helpless in responding to the calls for help from the victims of the flood.

Mr Yacob said the Assembly's financial situation is not good and they have not gotten any money since the beginning of the year.

Because of the protracted chieftaincy dispute, we have used most of the money we have in maintaining peace. I am therefore appealing to the government to come to our aid, he said.

According to them, nothing in the form of relief items has come in as yet and they are hopeful that some items will be received soon.

Joy News correspondent Martina Bugri who has been touring some areas to speak to some of the victims Monday reported of one person who is sick but cannot go to the hospital.

She said the sick person who has been suffering from diarrhea since the flood, said he could not go to the hospital because he doesnt have any money and his National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) card was also swept away by the flood.

Martina reports he now has to make do with medicines from friends to keep him going.

According to her, there are complaints of stagnant water all over the place-breeding mosquitoes making sleeping at night a big challenge.

Meanwhile, the government has been faulted for making negligible provision of resources for flood disasters for this year.

The ranking member on the Works and Housing Committee of Parliament, Samson Ahi says the government should as a matter of urgency, fall on the contingency fund to make money available for the Housing Ministry to prepare the country in readiness to deal with flood related disasters.

According to him, the budgetary allocation in the 2017 budget is inadequate and will not make a dent on the relief needs of flood victims.

Mr Ahi has said there is no money to purchase relief items for the victims of the floods that hit Tamale, the capital city of the Northern Region.

Only 38,000 [allocated] to tackle flood in the whole country, he said adding it doesn't appear that the government is ready to address flood problems in the country.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Abubakar Ibrahim
An Accra High Court has quashed the Interior Ministers decision to deport an Indian, Ashok Kumar Sivaram, out of the country.

The court said Ambrose Derry overstepped his bounds by determining fraud against the plaintiff without resorting to the court.

Presided over by Justice Kwaku Ackah Boafo, the court said Mr Dery violated the rule of natural justice by refusing the plaintiff a hearing after he had accused him of allegedly committing fraud.

An Indian, who was arrested and deported in June 2017 for fraud and other offenses, has sued the Interior Minister, Ambrose Dery and the Director of Immigration, Kwame Takyi.

Ashok Kumar Sivaram insists his deportation was illegal, unfair and an abuse of office by the officers in charge of the deportation and demands a return.

He has consequently filed a suit through his Lawyer Gary Nimako requesting the court to annul the deportation order and for the two respondents to facilitate his return to Ghana.

In the suit, the applicant is also asking the Interior Minister and the Director of Immigration to restore his work permit once he is back in Ghana.

Ashok Sivaram, was involved in a legal battle with a business partner, Sachin Nambeear, who was a Director, 50% Shareholder of Jai Mai Communications Limited.

Sachin Nambeear, filed a suit on January 24, 2017, at the High Court, Commercial Division 7, against Ashok Sivaram accusing him of breaking his fiduciary duties to the company and demanding damages for same.

On May 5, 2017, the High Court, Commercial Division, appointed Messrs Ernst & Young to go into the account of Jai Mai Communications Limited, for the purposes of valuing the assets of the Company, monies, its liabilities.

Even before the valuation will be completed, Ashok Sivaram was arrested by CEPS officials and deported on June 1, 2017, with an order from the Interior Ministry.

But the applicant insists the act was unconstitutional.

His lawyer, Gary Nimako argued in the suit that his client could not have been deported merely on the basis and suspicion of forging a marriage certificate to acquire Ghanaian citizenship.

He said except the court which is clothed with the power to determine acts of fraud, it did not lie with the Interior Minister to declare his client as fraudulent and proceed to deport him.

That fraud can only be established by a Court of Law after evidence of same has been led and proof thereof established beyond reasonable doubt.

That the conclusion by the 1st Respondent that the continued presence of Ashok Kumar Sivaram was not conducive to the public good was not backed by any evidential proof and thereby amounted to a gross abuse of the exercise of discretionary power vested in the 1st Respondent.

That the Deportation Order was not backed by any Executive Instrument and thereby the said Deportation was unlawful.

That the Respondents decision to deport the Applicant was not fair and that as administrative officials, they were enjoined by the 1992 Constitution to act fairly, reasonably and comply with the requirements imposed on them by law.

That the 1st Respondent in exercising his discretion to deport the Applicant ought to have been fair and candid in the exercise of that power.

That this Honourable Court has the supervisory jurisdiction to ensure that administrative officials exercised their powers legally, that is within the confines of the law.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Abubakar Ibrahim
Tripoli (AFP) - Libya's UN-backed prime minister Fayez al-Sarraj called on Monday for a referendum on a draft constitution approved over the weekend following years of wrangling in the war-torn country.

Libya had no constitution throughout the four-decade dictatorship of Moamer Kadhafi, who was overthrown and killed in a NATO-backed 2011 uprising.

Libyans elected a 60-member panel in 2014 to draft one, although the vote was marred by low turnout as public frustration mounted over the weak central government's failure to restore order in the wake of the uprising.

The panel finally voted through its draft constitution on Saturday, paving the way for a national referendum to enshrine it into law.

The document defines the structure of power, the status of minorities, the role of Islamic law in legislation and seeks to create institutions capable of restoring stability after years of violence.

The vote in the eastern city of Baida was disrupted by protesters, but the draft finally passed by 43 votes out of the 44 members present.

Sarraj on Monday "welcomed the vote by the Constituent Assembly on the draft Libyan Constitution", according to a statement on the unity government's Facebook page.

"Freedom of opinion and expression must be respected by all, along with the right of all the Libyans to choose their way of life without terror or threat," he said.

He called on political actors to "create a suitable climate" for holding a referendum on the constitution.

If passed, the draft text would make Libya a republic with a president and two houses of parliament. Tripoli would remain the capital, Islam would be the state religion and Islamic law a source of legislation.

Arabic would be the language of the state, but the text also recognises the languages of Libya's Berber, Toubou and Tuareg minorities.

The Assembly had 18 months to write the draft but was bogged down by political unrest.

Sarraj's Government of National Unity, the result of UN-backed talks, has struggled to impose its authority across the country and is not recognised by a rival government in Libya's east.

But last week Sarraj met Khalifa Haftar, a powerful eastern-based military commander who backs the rival administration, for French-backed talks aimed at resolving the main split in the country.

The two called for a ceasefire, peace talks, elections and "building the rule of law" in a country where dozens of armed groups have thrived in the power vacuum created by Kadhafi's ouster.
After 2 years of losses and GH150 million in provision, HFC Bank returned to profitability producing the best first half year results in the history of their 27 years of existence. Additionally, the Bank now boasts of having one of the highest cover ratio i.e. provision to non-performing loans of over 65% which provides the Bank with protection against future shocks going forward.

Speaking to the media after declaring their results, the Managing Director, Mr. Robert Le Hunte attributed the good results to the hard work of the Staff and the focus on recoveries over the past two years. Although admitting that the work was far from over, it was also clearly obvious that the Bank was now in a better position than 2 years ago when Republic Financial Holdings Limited (RFHL) took over control.

During the two year period, to improve service delivery to their customers, over US$30 million was spent on upgrading the Information Technology infrastructure and refurbishment of the branch network. In addition, investment was made in training and developing the Staff with the assistance of RFHL.

With pride, Mr. Le Hunte also reported that in spite of two consecutive years of losses, the Bank was still able to remain active in their communities and actually increased their level of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

At the recently concluded board meeting, approval was given by the Board to approach the shareholders of the Bank on two significant matters; Firstly to increase the level of capital of the Bank by 50million and secondly to change the name of the Bank to Republic Bank (Ghana) Limited in keeping with the new ownership structure.

This new capital together with the BBB+ S&P rating of Republic Bank Limited makes the Bank one of the strongest in the industry and puts them in a better position to build on the strong foundation in the housing industry and the future prospects in the oil and gas industry.

The MD claims that his biggest achievement over the past two years was building a culture at HFC that will allow the organization to survive not only in the short term but in the long term.

HFC Bank became a member of the Republic Financial Holdings Limited in May, 2015 after a successful mandatory takeover. The over One Hundred million dollar ($100 Million) investment made by the Republic Financial Holdings Limited in HFC Bank represents one of the largest investment by a Diaspora company in Ghana. HFC Bank was recognized for this investment at the prestigious Diaspora African Forum Excellence Awards Dinner in July this year.

In Addition, the Bank was recognized by the Institute of Human Resource Management Practitioners (IHRMP) as the Most Successful Change Management Program. The Bank was also adjudged the Most Telephone Efficient Bank in the Financial Institution survey conducted by Walsbridge Market Research. At the 16th Ghana Banking Awards 2017, HFC Bank received the 2nd Runner-up Award in Corporate Social Responsibility and 1st Runner-up in Trade Finance.
An Economist with the Institute of Fiscal Studies is imploring government to address the issues that militate against effective revenue mobilisation in the country.

Leslie Dwight Mensah said the failure of the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government to meet its revenue target captured in its mid-year 2017 budget review, points to a major issue with revenue generation.

He told Evans Mensah on Joy FMs Newsnite Monday, this is not the first time a government has been unable to meet its revenue target, despite promises to the contrary.

This is the fifth year [a] government is struggling to attain revenue target, the Economist said.

Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta presented governments mid-year 2017 budget review to Parliament.

Despite inheriting a weak economy characterised by high fiscal deficit and high debt-to-GDP ratio from the past government, he said the economy is being stabilised.

Mr Ofori Atta said the total domestic revenue mobilised by government in both tax and non-tax revenues, amounted to GH16.9 billion within the last seven months.

Of this amount, the Finance Minister said the total tax revenue (including upstream petroleum receipts) was GH13.7 billion as against a target of GH15.7 billion.

Also, The provisional outturn was 13.1 percent lower than the target of GH15.7 billion. Upstream petroleum receipts amounted to GH342.9 million, against a target of GH319.3 million; of which, GH115.65 million was from Corporate Income Taxes.

To reflect the challenges in revenue mobilisation, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta announced a downward revision of the total revenue and grants by 0.9 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from GH44.5 billion to GH43.1 billion.

The downward review represents a revenue target cut by GH1.4 billion, a development the Minority in Parliament said was expected.

The opposition lawmakers said governments failure to meet its revenue means it will be unable to meet other targets set out in the 2017 budget.

Minority Spokesperson on Finance, Casiel Ato Forson told Parliament the figures put out by the Minister were cosmetic and not the reflection of the general condition of the economy.

"What you heard today [Monday] will not translate into good news," the former deputy Finance Minister delivered his verdict, adding government's dishonesty is to blame for its failure to meet its revenue target.

But the economist said the past National Democratic Congress (NDC) government was also not able to meet its revenue target at a point in time.

Leslie Dwight Mensah said the challenges with the revenue collection is the reason government has put some restraints on spending, which he said is "understandable and welcome."

The Finance Minister also announced a downwards revision of the total expenditure by 1.1 percent of GDP from GH58.1 billion to GH55.9 billion, but the economist has warned of some consequences.

He said the implication of the reduced expenditure projection is that some of government's "ambitious projects" such as the free senior high school (SHS), one district, one factory and one village, one dam among others may suffer.

Mr Mensah said the planned spending on these programmes is not likely to be fully met because of the expenditure cut.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Austin Brakopowers | [email protected] | Instagram: @realbrakopowers
01.08.2017 LISTEN

I read with illimitable joy about the news of Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthurs intention to join the race for the NDCs presidentialprimaries for the 2020 general elections.

" Admirershave come to me and I am thinking about contesting the NDCs 2020 flagbearership slot" (Amissah-Arthur, 24/07/2017).

In fact, based on the NDC Partys logic on the selection of a flagbearer, there should be no argument over the obvious choice of the NDC Partys next presidential candidate. Indeed, the next person in line should be the erstwhile Vice President, Amissah-Arthur.

It is, therefore, ironic that there is an ongoing tussle over the choice of their next flagbearer for 2020 general elections.

The painful truth is that the party loyalists are blatantly refusing to acknowledge former Vice President Amissah-Arthur as their next flagbearer.

Take, for instance, instead of outdooring the automatic choice, Amissah-Arthur, as their flagbearer for 2020, the Mahama loyalists are moving heaven and earth to have him return as the partys next presidential candidate. How bizarre.

In fact, it would be hypocritical, unconscionable, capricious and unfair, if the former Vice President Amissah-Arthur was to be sidelined in the search for the next flagbearer of the NDC Party.

Believe it or not, politics has sadly ceased being the noble profession it used to be. It is absolutely true that politics has been infiltrated by the dishonourable lots disguised in the clothing of the morally upstanding.

If you, dear reader, will kindly take time off and peruse through the archives of the 2016 electioneering campaign files at your own convenience, you will definitely understand exactly what Im trying to drive at.

During the 2016 electioneering campaign, the NDC Party leadership, led by former President Mahama, told the good people of Ghana that the obvious choice of a partys vacant flagbearership position should be the former vice president.

Ironically, the NDC Party leadershipinsisted back then that it was the NPP Party that has an unparalleled record of dumping its vice presidents without providing them the opportunity to lead the party.

It is a known fact that the National Democratic Congress has a special convention when it comes to the selection of their flagbearers.Indeed, NDC does not believe in democracy when it comes to the selection of their flagbearers.

If we take a stroll down memory lane, the partys founder and the first president of the NDC Party, J. J. Rawlings, defied all the stiff opposition and hand-picked his then Vice President, the late Mills as the flagbearer during the 2000 general election.

It would, however, be recalled that the late Mills unsuccessfully contested two previous elections in 2000 and 2004.

The late Mills then chose John Dramani Mahama as his running mate in the 2008 general election, in spite of the fierce resistance by the critics of Mahama.

The late Atta Mills nonetheless came victorious after the election round-off in December 2008.

Bizarrely, the Vice President Mahama woke up one morning in July 2012 and became the president of Ghana in the afternoon of the same day following the sudden death of President Mills.

As it was expected, former President Mahama completed the remaining months of the Mills/Mahama administration amid harsh economic conditions.

In line with the NDCs accepted norm, former President Mahama subsequently received his partys acclamation to lead the party in the December 2012 general election.

In the 2012 general election, President Mahama selected Amissah-Arthur from the Central Region of Ghana as his running mate.

I guess such a move was designed to placate the people of the Central Region, who were reeling from the sudden death of President Mills.

In spite of the NPP Partys contention of the 2012 election results in the apex court, President Mahama was pronounced the winner by the Supreme Court of Ghana.

Unsurprisingly, however, on 7th December 2016, the discerning Ghanaians revisited NDC apparatchiks irreversible arrogance of power , incompetence and the gargantuan sleazes and corruptions and rightly voted them out of power.

Tell me dearest reader, wouldnt it be hypocritical on the part of the NDC Party leadership if they failed to select former Vice President Amissah-Arthur as their next flagbearer?

The word hypocrite is rooted in the Greek word hypokrites, which means stage actor, pretender, or dissembler.

So a hypocrite is a person who pretends to behave a certain way, but really acts and believes the total opposite.

Hypocrites are experts at blaming others, while empathetic people are experts at blaming themselves. You absorb their poison and begin to believe it as truth.

Hypocrites spend their lives cheating, betraying, conning, and deceiving. But despite this disgusting pattern of behaviour, they still feel entitled to point out (or invent) the most minor mistakes in othersand theyll point them out repeatedly, to negate & excuse all of their own horrible actions (See: ro.pinterest.com/pin/517773288395161135/).

We mustcondemn with no uncertain terms the unfairness being displayed by the NDC Party with regard to Amissah-Arthurs 2020 flagbearership bid.

K. Badu, UK.
01.08.2017 LISTEN

Posters of Mr Kwesi Ahwoi for Presidential Candidate for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has popped up and flooded social media.

Although the NDC has not opened nominations yet, some bigwigs and other members of the party have shown their interest in taking flag-bearer position to lead the party, the National Democratic Congress in 2020.

Last three months, similar posters of Dr Ekow Spio Garbrah, Mr. Slyvester Mensah, Hon Nii Amasah Namoale,Prof Joshua Alabi among others also popped up as they face the former President, His Excellency John Mahama in party's presidential primaries in 2018.

However, the reporter, Daniel Kaku cannot confirm or otherwise if he is aware of the posters and whether he will want to take up the flag-bearer position but till now Mr Ahwoi Kwesi is silent on the circulation.

Background

Mr. Kwesi Ahwoi (born 17 November 1946) is a former Minister for the Interior of Ghana.

In 2015, he became the first Ghanaian ambassador to the Comoros, he also doubles as ambassador of Ghana in 4 other countries; Lesotho, Mauritius, Seychelles and Swaziland.

Education

Mr Kwesi Ahwoi attended Prempeh College at Kumasi where he obtained his GCE Ordinary Level in 1965. His sixth form education was at St. Augustine's College (Cape Coast) where he passed the GCE Advanced Level in 1967. His undergraduate education was at the University of Cape Coast where he obtained the Bachelor of Arts in Economics, Geography and Education.

Between 1980 and 1981, he studied for the Post Graduate Certificates in Budgeting and Financial Management and from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration .

During 1985 and 1986, he studied for the Postgraduate Certificate in Planning and Resource Management at the University of Maryland, College Park, United States .

Career

Mr Ahwoi has held various positions in government and business.

He was the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre during the Rawlings era. Following the December 2008 presidential election, he was appointed Minister for Food and Agriculture by President John Atta Mills .

In January 2013, Mr Ahwoi was appointed Minister for the Interior of Ghana by President John Dramani Mahama. He held that position until 16 July 2014.

Mr Kwesi Ahwoi is married with seven children. Mr Kwamena Ahwoi and Mr Ato Ahwoi, both brothers of Mr Kwesi served in the Rawlings government.
WND quotes one Iranian Christian as saying, If your name comes up anywhere, anywhere that it shouldnt, then they will keep watching you. This can lead to arrest, torture, and even enforced disappearance. But among those who have fled the country ahead of these outcomes, some have reported recent encounters with Iranian agents in such places as refugee camps in Europe.

The report goes on to say that senior IRGC officials have publicly declared their intentions to expand their activities in Iran and the US. Furthermore, these claims have been backed up by concrete examples of IRGC affiliates being discovered in the West. For instance, an Iranian academic who had been granted a visa for postdoctoral study at an American hospital was recently deported and revealed to have previously served as the head of the Basij at Sharif University in Tehran.

Domestically, the given individual had been tasked with monitoring Christians as well as other minority and dissident groups. This has naturally led Iranian opposition activists to question what types of assignments he might have been given to carry out after arriving in the US.

The WND puts this foreign monitoring in context with the more familiar domestic activities. It begins by noting that its a surprise to no one that Irans radical Islamists monitor Christians and others inside their borders. But the apparent attempts to control Iranian elements in foreign countries are also paralleled by the well-known IRGC efforts to crack down on Western nationals and their contacts inside Iran.

The latter phenomenon was put back into the spotlight on Tuesday when the families of people taken hostage in the Islamic Republic attended a hearing on Capitol Hill. The title of the hearing affirmed the perception that those captives were being held for ransom, and that sentiment was echoed by individual congressmen and by witnesses such as Babak Namazi, the brother of the imprisoned Iranian-American businessman Siamak Namazi. The father of the two men, 81-year-old Baquer Namazi, also holds American citizenship and was taken into custody by Iranian authorities after he traveled to the country to try to visit his son.

At least one other American citizen, the Princeton graduate student Xiyue Wang, is currently being held in Iran, pending an appeal in his case. All three men have been given ten year sentences on the basis of flimsy accusations of espionage. Additionally, an American permanent resident and information technology expert, Nizar Zakka has been held on similar charges since 2015. Another American, former FBI agent Robert Levinson, has been missing since being taken into custody on Kish Island in 2007. Advocates for all five men were in attendance at the congressional hearing.

In its report on the hearings, EWTN noted that the US House of Representatives passed a resolution the following day, calling for the unconditional release of all American political prisoners in Iran. The resolution also urged US President Donald Trump to make advocacy for that release a high priority of his administration.

Meanwhile, Iranian officials have taken differing approaches as they strive to counter the criticism emerging out of incidents like the congressional hearing and subsequent resolution. In the first place, CBS News points out that Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif had used an interview with the network to deny that Baquer Namazi is even being held in Tehrans notorious Evin Prison.

Hes not behind bars. But he is not free to leave the country, Zarif reportedly said. The claim has been vigorously disputed by the White House and by Babak Namazi, who has been in contact with people who have visited both his brother and his father in Evin.

But contrary to Zarifs efforts to obscure the facts of the situation, other officials have made transparent efforts to leverage the imprisonments for the Iranian regimes benefit. EA Worldview reported on Tuesday that Iranian judiciary chief Sadeq Amoli Larijani had attempted to equate the political imprisonments with the US governments imprisonment of Iranian nationals who had broken American laws, including sanctions laws targeting Iran over its nuclear program, human rights violations, and support for terrorism.

Larijani explicitly demanded the release of all such prisoners, as well as the release of frozen Iranian assets, two billion dollars of which the US Supreme Court has awarded to victims of Iran-backed terrorist acts. The Iranian judiciary head went on to disregard the White Houses recent threats of serious consequences for the continued detention of the American prisoners. Trump and his administration must know that threats will have no impact on Iran and that they better learn lessons from their predecessors, Larijani said.
Handsome Nollywood actor, Chucks Omalicha, is gradually bidding farewell to the bachelors market as he recently proposed to his long time girlfriend.

The actor has been one of many who love maintaining a low profile when it comes to his private life and that he has successfully done with ease.

It was all fun and teary as he popped up the marriage proposal to his woman in the presence of friends whom he had planned the event with.

Congrats to him as he makes plans to walk down the aisle soon
- Boko Haram has continued its campaign of terror in the Cameroon-Nigeria border area

- This is despite efforts by the Nigerian and Cameroonian military to completely wipe out the insurgents

- Another attack occurred in the area today, July 28

One civilian and four Boko Haram terrorists have been killed in a bomb attack in Meme, Mayo-Sava, Far North Cameroon.

The incident which happened a short while ago indicates that the insurgents still have a stronghold in the Cameroon-Nigeria border area.

This is despite the heavy military presence comprising both the Nigerian and Cameroonian forces.

The latest bomb attack was revealed by international investigative journalist and traditional ruler, Chief Bisong Etahoben, via his Twitter page.

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The incident is coming a barely day after three lecturers from the University of Maiduguri and three others on an oil exploration team in the Lake Chad Basin kidnapped by Boko Haram were found dead.

Legit.ng gathered that no less than 12 soldiers were also killed in the attack by the insurgents.

Watch the Legit.ng TV video report of the newly reopened Nyanya bus station in Abuja after it was bombed by Boko Haram:

Source: Legit.ng
- The quit notice given to Igbos living in Northern Nigeria requires a political solution

- This is the stance of the Borno state governor, Kashim Shettima

- Shettima made the statement as the chairman of the Northern Governors Forum

The chairman of the Northern Governors Forum and governor of Borno state, Kashim Shettima has waded into the quit notice give to Igbos living in Northern Nigeria by the Coalition of Arewa Youth Groups.

Shettima who met with the leaders of the group on Sunday, July 31, urged south-east governors to also intervene in the activities of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, and other groups agitating for the independent state of Biafra.

The governor made the call while speaking to journalists after a closed door meeting with the Arewa youth groups.

Governor Shettima speaking to journalists after the meeting. Photo credit: Borno state government

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He explained that he initiated the meeting as the chairman of the Northern Governors Forum to find a peaceful solution to the issues raised by the group and to douse the tension across Nigeria.

He described the challenges facing the nation as largely political, which he suggested, required political solutions.

The dialogue option was chosen because a political problem often requires a political solution. It is only a fool that doesn't change his mind to review decisions and strategies. There is never a limit to who should be engaged in dialogue no matter what the situation is.

After all, even armed conflicts of deaths and destructions often end through dialogue with persons who took up arms against a state. 

Some people may think the withdrawal of eviction ultimatum by the coalition wouldn't mean so much but to us as leaders and from our experiences, it is always dangerous to underestimate the capacity of any group of youths especially when youths come together and seem determined.

There are millions of other youths that might have been following and supportive of the activities of the coalition of Arewa groups and as we know, issues relating to ethnicity and religion mostly get out of control.

As Northern governors, we do not take chances on potential violence unless on issues beyond our control.

I wish to call on the leadership of our brethren in the South-east to equally seize the gauntlet to rein in the excesses of Nnamdi Kanu and co, he said.

He said members of the group were committed to the unity of Nigeria and would later this week; make public their position with regards to an earlier stance they took on national issues.

He also frowned at calls for the arrest of the group leaders, warning that they should not be criminalised or harassed for their stance.

Governor Shettima pose with leaders of the group in a photograph after the meeting. Photo credit: Borno state government

Also speaking at the end of the meeting, the spokesperson for the coalition, Abdulaziz Suleiman, said consultations were still ongoing.

We hold him in high esteem. This is the first time we are meeting publicly with any leader. We issued a declaration in Kaduna to review the successes and we will let you know as soon as we take a decision, he said.

Meanwhile, the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) on Tuesday, July 18, directed all Igbos residing in the northern part of the country to take advantage of the month of August 2017 to return to the South-east.

This was contained in a statement by the group's national information officer, Samuel Edesonu, who said the decision was taken to beat the October 1 deadline quit notice given by the Arewa youths.

MASSOB said the decision was taken at its national executive meeting presided over by its leader, Comrade Uchenna Madu.

READ ALSO: IPOB members waylay Governor Obiano in church, chant no election

Watch Acting President Yemi Osinbajo talk about the unity of Nigeria on Legit.ng TV below:

Source: Legit.ng
- Boko Haram terrorists are stepping up plans to attack Maiduguri

- This was the concern raised by residents in the city on Sunday, July 30

- The residents are concerned about the activities of the group around Maiduguri

A report by Daily Trust indicates that residents of Maiduguri, Borno state are apprehensive over potential attacks by terrorist group, Boko Haram.

The residents who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of being attacked expressed worry on the activities of the group around the city.

They called for aggressive surveillance by Nigerian security agencies, because according to them, the terrorists were inching closer to the state capital.

They stated that Boko Haram foot-soldiers more often brought girls on suic*de mission from the forests and coerced the villagers into silence ahead of carrying out their nefarious activities.

The terrorists bully us into silence all the time; they always threatened that they would sack our villages if we talk, one of the villagers said.

Maiduguri residents has since set up the civilian JTF to complement the efforts of the Nigerian security agencies. Photo credit: NAN

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He listed communities around Maiduguri that were under threat to include Dunomari, Ngubodori, Garin Maliki, Jiddari, Tamsugamdu, Garin Kwayam, Zaragajri and Jelta Kawu all around the University of Maiduguri.

Another source said communities around Barracks road were also being threatened by the terrorists. Places like Bale, Galtimari, Fasha, Garin Shuwa, Kayamla, Taujeri and Kayamari are all having sleepless nights, he said.

Residents of the city say they now live in fear. Photo credit: NAN

Meanwhile, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has condemned the ambush, attack and abduction of soldiers, and civilians who were carrying out their duties to the nation in the Lake Chad Basin Frontier Exploration.

In a statement released by his spokesman, Laolu Akande, Osinbajo also assured Nigerians that the government was doing all within its powers to ensure that the attacks stop.

READ ALSO: Boko Haram bombers hits Borno town, kills 8 and injure 14

Watch this Legit.ng TV video of preparations of the Nigerian Air Force for an onslaught on Boko Haram insurgents:

Source: Legit.ng
- IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu addressed some of his followers in Umuahia on Sunday, July 30

- Kanu threatened to end the Ohanaeze Ndigbo who has refused to support his agitation

- The leader of IPOB also vowed to take his agitation to Kaduna and Lagos state

The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu has promised to take the agitation for secession to Lagos and Kaduna state in the coming months.

Kanu announced this when he was visited by some IPOB members in his father's house, Isiama Afara Ukwu, in Umuahia, Abia state on Sunday, July 30.

Kanu also said some media houses in Nigeria do not understand how strong IPOB is and so they print 'lies' about the group.

Kanu reacted to viral news that he was stopped in Imo state by some youths who were against the agitation for Biafra when he visited the state on Friday, July 29.

READ ALSO: FG is lying to Nigerians, Boko Haram is progressing - Fayose

He said: Some media houses in Lagos dont understand how powerful IPOB is. They sit down and write rubbish.

So, I will go to Lagos to rattle them. I understand some people are worried.

Dont Yoruba Pastors come here? Dont they come here to pray? Some of you worship at Yoruba churches and contribute your money there. Is that not so?

That is why they dont want you to be free. We want you to be free; because if you are free, you wont contribute money for them."

Kanu also warned his followers to boycott the upcoming Anambra election in November 2017 and all election in south-east by 2019.

He said: Come the 19th of November, Ohanaeze will no longer exist. They drove themselves away. I am not in competition with anybody, my father is a traditional title holder.

"So, I am not going to disrespect anybody. I formed, by myself, the Council of Elders of the People of Biafra. Ohaneaze cannot represent us. When the chiefs are down, they cannot defend us.

"We are going to show them something they have not seen before.

"The things you think are impossible to do, that is what I am going to do. Something that will happen in 2020, I will do it now.

"We can't fear before our enemies, that is why I'll go to Lagos to preach this gospel. I'll do it.

"My friend, John Danfulani came to see me here and invited me to Kaduna, I want to go to Kaduna. We intend to battle with them, this is how I travel. Do I go with knife? Do I go with any gun?"

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He also denied that his group, IPOB, is being sponsored by some politicians. Kanu said he challenged those who believed he is being sponsored by politicians to come forward with names of the sponsors.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Northern Governors Forum and governor of Borno state, Kashim Shettima, has waded into the quit notice give to Igbos living in Northern Nigeria by the Coalition of Arewa Youth Groups.

Shettima who met with the leaders of the group on Sunday, July 31, urged south-east governors to also intervene in the activities of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, and other groups agitating for the independent state of Biafra.

The governor made the call while speaking to journalists after a closed door meeting with the Arewa youth groups.

Watch a Legit.ng TV video on the agitation for Biafra by Nnamdi Kanu:

Source: Legit.ng
- The six students of Igbonla Model College in Epe who were abducted and released recently might be struggling with psychological issues

- The students have been in the custody of their abductors for two months

- They were released in far away Ondo state on Friday, July 28

A report by New Telegraph indicates that parents of the six students of the Lagos State Model College, who were released on Friday, July 28, have noticed that their children are exhibiting strange characters.

According to the report, the parents of the children are worried that all may not be well with their kids.

Two of the boys' fathers quoted in the report on the condition of anonymity, were said to have been worried.

The Igbonla boys have since returned to their parents. Photo credit: encomium.ng

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One of them said: There is something wrong with my son; but I really cant place my finger on it. Were still observing him. Medically, they are still treating them.

There is no way the children will go to such a place without any possible ailment in them, although we give thanks to God.

My son was a once a free child and lively, suddenly, he is withdrawn and exhibiting strange attitude. We are noticing some strange habits.

Asked if he would allow his son to return to the school, he replied: Its in the hands of my son, not me. The decision belongs to him alone.

The second father expressed worries over his sons state of mind, disclosing that he noticed that his son was not fully back to his senses.

According to him, since his son was brought home, the boy has been exhibiting signs of fear and psychological trauma.

The man added that he noticed his son could neither jump at him nor showed any sign of being happy returning home.

His words: He is just looking at everyone and doesnt even talk. That sad experience, I must tell you, was too much for those children and I feel sad about it. In fact, because of the situation, his mother had to take him away from the house to avoid further pressure on him.

Asked whether he would allow his son to return to the school, the man queried the reporter saying: If you were in my shoes, would you allow your child to return to such a school? Anyway, that is not the issue for now, my prayer is that he should recover fully first, after which we can think of which school to go.

The boys being handed over to Lagos state deputy governor; Mrs Ranti Adebule by Ondo state governor; Arakurin Rotimi Akeredolu on Friday, July 28. Photo credit: guardian.ng

Meanwhile, the parents said security agents were monitoring them and that they had been warned not to speak with journalists.

According to them, they had also been warned not to trouble their children into revealing their encounters in the creeks or allow journalists to speak with them.

The six students were abducted on May 25, from their hostel, by suspected Niger Delta militants led by one General America.

The students spent 64 days in the enclave of the kidnappers before their eventual rescue on Friday, July 28.

The six students are Agbaosi Judah, Jonah Peter, Philips Pelumi, Adebanjo George, Yusuf Faruq and Ramon Isiaka.

In the mean time, the students might return to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) for the continuation of their comprehensive medical check-up promised by government.

They will return to LASUTH tomorrow morning (today). They will return to the hospital. For now, they cannot talk to us on their experiences, one of the parents said.

READ ALSO: 20 kidnappers killed as Ambode moves to reinforce security in schools

The release of the boys came few days after Acting President Yemi Osinbajo promised Nigerians that they will be released alive in no time.

Watch the Legit.ng TV video report on how Nigerian youths protest made the National Assembly pass the 'Not Too Young To Run' bill.

Source: Legit.ng
- The Katsina state government has concluded plans to establish a black oil refinery

- The refinery will be located in Mashi local government area of the state

- The move is in line with the industrialization agenda of the present Katsina state government

The Katsina state government says it will establish a black oil energy refinery in Mashi local government area of the state.

Alhaji Abubakar Yusuf, the commissioner for commerce, industry and tourism, disclosed this on Sunday, July 30 in Kankia during the inauguration of PVC and vinyl tube production lines at Kankia Metal Works.

He said that approval had already been granted for the requested hectares of land to that effect.

Yusuf said that all stakeholders were working round the clock to reach important industrial destination.

He said that the state was blessed with both human and other resources to attain desired sustainable development in the areas of agriculture, mining, manufacturing, construction and general commercial undertakings.

The commissioner said that the industrialization agenda of the present administration would assist to create jobs, income and wealth creation, boost Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), as well as improving foreign exchange earnings for the state.

He said that it would further assist to reduce poverty and improve the living standard of people.

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The commissioner also said that the government had approved a piece of land to SASCO Limited for the establishment of a meat processing factory in Maiadua local government area.

He said that the factory would operate on complete value chain as well as forward and backward production integration system.

Abubakar further revealed that the Kaolin factory in Kankara local government area would start operation in 2018.

He noted that the state has capacity to excavate kaolin of high quality for domestic consumption and export.(NAN)

The commissioner's revelation is coming barely a week after the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) on Wednesday, July 26, commissioned the 213 Forward Operating Base (FOB) and the Quick Response Wing (QRW) in Katsina and Daura on Wednesday, July 26.

The idea behind the establishment of the new units is to extend the reach of the NAF to the North-west geopolitical zone, having already made appreciable contributions in different theatres of operations across the country.

Watch this Legit.ng TV video of preparations of the Nigerian Air Force for an onslaught on Boko Haram insurgents:

Source: Legit.ng
On Tuesday, for instance, Reuters reported upon the operations of a hacking group known as CopyKittens, which is apparently based in Iran and has been engaged in attempted attacks that have been recorded at least up until April of this year. The Reuters report quoted IT security researchers as saying, CopyKittens is very persistent, despite lacking technological sophistication and operational discipline. Those researchers added that the simply tactic employed by this and other groups have occasionally been found to be effective, using directly-targeted individuals as hubs from which it can infect various other persons who potentially have access to sensitive information of interest to the Iranian government.

Some of the researchers quoted in the Reuters report were willing to specifically identify CopyKittens as Iranian government infrastructure. But whether independent or a direct arm of the Iranian regime, the group is not the only one of its kind to be active in recent years. The Reuters report identifies another such organization by the name of Rocket Kitten and says it has mounted cyberattacks on high-profile political and military figures in countries near Iran as well as the United States and Venezuela since 2014.

Iran or Iran-based hackers have been implicated in a number of other cyberattacks on Western targets, as well, some of them being more sophisticated that the simple phishing attacks launched by the likes of CopyKittens. Last year, the US Justice Department indicted seven such hackers for targeting American banks and breaking into the computer system of a dam in New York State, in a failed attempt to disrupt its operations. Others have reportedly been implicated in attacks on Saudi Aramco in 2012 and the Las Vegas Sands casino in 2014, as well as being possibly linked to an attack on Sony that was primarily attributed to North Korea.

While these incidents speak to the offensive potential for information technology development under the current Iranian regime, other stories highlight the likelihood of that development being simultaneously directed against the Iranian people. Tehran has made a familiar habit of boasting about its cybersecurity capabilities. And even though these statements are often exaggerated, they clarify the regimes commitment to cracking down on free expression via the internet and social media. Already, major social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are banned outright in the Islamic Republic. And although young Iranians routinely circumvent these restrictions, the countrys censorship authorities have variously tried to suggest that more comprehensive restrictions are around the corner.

A key example of these claims has to do with the notion of an isolated national internet, sometimes referred to as halalnet, in which only government-approved content would be accessible. There is no independent evidence to suggest that the regime or its non-government affiliates have the capabilities to implement such a system, but this has not stopped government officials from talking about piecemeal steps in that direction.

An apparent example of this phenomenon emerged this past week when Irans Communications and Information Technology Minister Mahmoud Vaezi claimed that the popular instant messaging app Telegram would be soon be moving servers into the Islamic Republic, thereby giving the regime access to communications that were previously considered to be relatively secure.

This supposed security, including users ability to have communications automatically delete themselves after a set period of time, has helped to make Telegram enormously popular throughout Iran, and particularly among activists populations who use it to organized protests or to post criticisms that might otherwise be more likely to lead to arrest or harassment by the Ministry of Intelligence or the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

According to the Associated Press, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has denied Vaezis claim about forthcoming Iranian servers. Irans internet authorities previously demanded just such a move, only to be publicly rejected by Durov. Furthermore, that demand was extended to all independent applications operating on the Iranian internet. Failure to keep Iran-based communications on local servers would lead to the government banning those services nationwide, according to officials. But as with Facebook and Twitter, it is expected that the regime lacks the capability to fully enforce such a ban.

In making its apparently false claim about local Telegram servers, the Communications Ministry may have been motivated by the desire to undermine the perceived security of the popular app, thereby encouraging a portion of the population to move away from it. But this is not to say that Telegram or any other such system is inherently safe. Dozens of administrators of popular Telegram groups were arrested in the run-up to Iranian presidential elections in May. And even following Durovs denials about the server change, the Center for Human Rights in Iran continued to criticize his company over the possible use of content delivery networks inside the country, which could allow regime authorities to obstruct local material, albeit probably without the ability to decrypt it.

Of course, as the tech industry in Iran grows, so will the ability of the regime or its defenders to overcome the security features of independent applications and websites. But at the same time, the industrys growth is largely being driven by a young population that is known for being pro-Western and pro-democracy, and thus eager to use their own know-how in order to counter ever-growing restrictions. In this sense, cybersecurity is sure to remain at least as much of a battleground within Iran as it is in between Iran and its foreign adversaries.
- Rotimi Amaechi has accused Governor Wike of forging documents to prosecute him

- Amaechi alleged that the governor has been bragging that he will certainly get a judgement against him in court

- He said this was the same way the governor falsely accused him of owning the infamous Ikoyi flat where millions of dollars were found recently

Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has accused River state governor, Nyesom Wike, of forging important documents to prosecute him in court.

Legit.ng gathered that Amaechi said Wike has been going about boasting that he will bring him (Amaechi) down and get a judgement against him in court no matter what.

Amaechi, who was also the immediate governor of Rivers state made this statement through his media office, Punch reports.

The statement reads in parts: The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has continued to twist, falsify and forge fresh documents that he intends to use against the immediate past governor of the state and now Minister of Transportation Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.

Wike wants to use the elaborately distorted and most times outright, but carefully forged documents to persecute and prosecute his erstwhile benefactor in court.

READ ALSO: Come the 19th of November, Ohanaeze will no longer exist - Nnamdi Kanu vows

"In the past couple of days, Wike has been telling anyone who cares to listen, bragging that he will certainly get a conviction, a judgement against Amaechi in the law courts on spurious charges of corruption using his forged documents because he (Wike) is in control of the judiciary at the state and national level.

Nigerians would recall that only a few days back, Livingstone Wechie, the young man Wike used to accuse Amaechi of corruption and write false and frivolous petitions to the National Assembly and the EFCC etc, confessed in a live television programme and in a statement he also circulated to the media, that all the documents he used to wrongfully portray Amaechi as corrupt when he governed Rivers State, were phony, forged documents given to him by Wikes Rivers State Government House.

Wechie also admitted, like we have always said, that the forged documents were used as the template and basis for the Justice Omereji-led Judicial Commission of Inquiry, a panel Wike set up early in his administration to malign, vilify and persecute Amaechi.

Sadly, this is the kind of administration that presides over the affairs of Rivers people; an administration that embarks on wholesale forgery and distortion of government documents and then retails it out to his minions, the media and now the judiciary in a shameful and futile bid to defame and destroy Amaechi.

Wike shamelessly said that the money was part of what was stolen from Rivers State  and warehoused in the Ikoyi house by his predecessor and current Minister for Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.

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Not done with his concocted tales, Wike went further to threaten the President Muhammadu Buhari administration with fire and brimstone if the money is not returned to him (Wike).

"He gave the Federal Government a seven-day ultimatum to return the money; otherwise, he would institute the mother of all legal actions against the Buhari government to recover the money, the former governor further recalled."

Meanwhile, Rivers state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused Governor Nyesom Wike for saying that President Muhammadu Buharis government has not done much for Rivers state and the Niger Delta Region.

Reports state that it was made known through a statement signed by Ibiamu Ikanya, the state party chairman saying that Former President Goodluck Jonathan who is a son did not even thought about the region during his six years as the President of Nigeria.

Watch this Legit.ng TV video of Rotimi Amaechi giving a summary of the Buhari administration:

Source: Legit.ng
- The Arewa Youths Coalition is set to withdraw the October 1 this week

- The spokesperson of the group, Abdulaziz Sueliman, said the group decided to review the quit notice after persuasion from northern elders

- Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno state on Sunday July 30 said his discussion with the group was fruitful

The Arewa Youths Coalition is set to withdraw the October 1 quit notice handed Igbo in the North to leave.

The youths were waving the olive branch after a meeting with Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno state in Abuja on Sunday July 30.

The Nation reports that Arewa Youth Coalition spokesman Abdulaziz Suleiman said that consultations were ongoing among members with a view to withdrawing the quit notice.

READ ALSO: Come the 19th of November, Ohanaeze will no longer exist - Nnamdi Kanu vows

Legit.ng gathered that Suleiman ascribed the decision to withdraw the quit notice to what he described as positive developments that came out of the meeting with Shettima and persuasions from the Northern Governors Forum.

On the actual date for the withdrawal of the notice, Suleiman said: You will hear from us this week.

He added: What we can say is that there has been a major development. Now the chairman of the Governors Forum has taken the initiative and invited us to start negotiations. This is the first time we are meeting publicly with any leader and we believe that it is a major step forward in our ongoing consultations.

We hold the governor in high esteem and we have the unity of the country at heart.

Suleiman said: You see, I wonder why you talk about quit notice. We only issued a Kaduna declaration, quit notice is just a part of it. Let us do the recounting of the successes of our declarations first. We are still going on with our consultations.

Shettima said his discussion with the group was fruitful and that members of the executive of the coalition demonstrated a lot of courtesy and respect during the meeting.

The governor said he was able to impress it on the youths to appreciate the enormity of the challenges facing the country and how the quit notice they issued had compounded the situation.

Shettima, who is the chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, added that the governors have also been in discrete consultations with the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa ad Abubakar on this and other issues.

Confirming the decision of the Arewa Youths to withdraw the quit notice, Shettima said they had agreed to review their position and that he was expecting the good news from them in the next few days.

The governor said: We met with the leadership of the coalition of Northern Groups in my capacity as the chairman of the Northern Governors Forum.

We had very fruitful discussion with them and they have shown a lot of courtesy and respect for the establishment. This is the first time that they are sitting down with the leadership of the forum.

They were having interactions with His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto. I started conversations with them right from Kaduna yesterday and we continued the discussion today and by the grace of God, it is going to yield fruits.

We are trying to have understanding of the challenges confronting us as a people and solutions to those challenges. I have to commend them for honouring our invitation because a political problem needs a political solution.

Shettima cautioned against criminalising the group, adding that harassing and intimidating them would not bring solution to the nations challenges.

They have agreed to revisit their decision and we will follow it up to its logical conclusion and I believe that in the next couple of days, we are going to get the good news from them.

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I dont want to preempt them by saying that this is what will happen or not. But definitely, they have shown responsibility and commitment to the national cause and they have wider plans to promote the cause of national unity and cohesion.

It was a very open, free and frank discussion, we heard their reservations and I gave them my reasons and believe me, by the time they hold their meeting this week, I think Nigerians will heave a sigh of relief.

I wish to call on the leadership of our brethren in the South Eastern part of the country to equally pick the gauntlet, because it takes two to tango, to take the gauntlet and rein in the excesses of Nnamdi Kanu and his group.

Legit.ng had earlier reported that the chairman of the Northern Governors Forum and governor of Borno state, Kashim Shettima waded into the quit notice give to Igbos living in Northern Nigeria by the Coalition of Arewa Youth groups.

Watch Acting President Yemi Osinbajo talk about the unity of Nigeria on Legit.ng TV below:

Source: Legit.ng
- The President Muhammadu Buhari administration has been mocked over its claims of defeating Boko Haram

- Quatrz media said the Nigerian government have repeatedly claimed it has defeated the terrorist group

An African media, Quatrz, has mocked the Nigerian government and the military of its constant claims of defeat against the dreaded Boko Haram terrorists group operating in the North.

The media in its recent analysis, the media said in the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration have 'not for the first time' claimed to have the sect.

"Not for the first time in the last two years, Nigerias government has claimed to have defeated terrorist sect, Boko Haram," it said.

READ ALSO: I will go to Kaduna and Lagos next - Nnamdi Kanu says, vows to end Ohanaeze Ndigbo (Video)

It said recent evidence suggest otherwise from the claims made by the chief of army staff, Tukur Buratai, on the BBC Hard Talk on June 29.

Recall that Buratai said during an interview "Boko Haram elements has been defeated".

Also, the Nigerian military has received various ultimatum to ensure that the terrorists are defeated and their activities ended.

READ ALSO: Retro: One proof that shows Buhari came to fulfil a promise he made in 1983 (photo)

In December 2015, President Buhari shortly after assuming assuming said Boko Haram has been technically defeated.

Legit.ng earlier reported that the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo declared that the group has also been defeated.

Osinbajo's claim came days after the terrorists launched an attack in Borno state killing many people.

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The Acting President while speaking at the 16th edition of the National Productivity Day and conferment of National Productivity Order of Merit Award vowed that any group or individual will not be allowed to hold Nigeria ransom.

However, despite these claims the group have continued to launch attacks in various communities in the North-East region.

Also, on Wednesday, July 26, the Nigerian Army announced that nine soldiers lost their lives during a rescue mission.

The Army spokesperson Sani Usman, a brigadier general said the soldiers were on a mission to rescue oil workers of National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists.

You can watch this Legit.ng video of Boko Haram survivors recounting their ordeal:

Source: Legit.ng
- Deputy Speaker of Lagos state House of Assembly, Wasiu Eshilokun-Sanni, has dragged Muiz Banire, the partys national legal adviser to Ikeja Division of the Lagos High Court

- Eshilokun-Sanni also accused Banire of involving in series of anti-party activities and breach of several provisions of APC Constitution

- He said Banire had betrayed the confidence reposed in him as the National Legal Adviser and his standing as a legal practitioner, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria

Deputy speaker of Lagos state House of Assembly, Wasiu Eshilokun-Sanni, has dragged Muiz Banire, the partys national legal adviser before an Ikeja Division of the Lagos High Court over forgery of his purported withdrawal letter from the 2015 election into Lagos Island Constituency 1 of the House.

Eshilokun-Sanni, who filed the suit alongside two APC chieftains Babatunde Kehinde and Kazeem Olatunji is asking the court to declare Banire as unfit to keep occupying the office of the partys National Legal Adviser owing to the forgery of the purported letter of withdrawal, series of anti-party activities and breach of several provisions of the APC Constitution.

Legit.ng gathered that the APC lawyer worked with the state chapter over his criticism of the partys imposition of candidates for electoral positions at the just concluded Lagos local council elections, Premium Times reports.

READ ALSO: Come the 19th of November, Ohanaeze will no longer exist - Nnamdi Kanu vows

On Friday, July 29, the national body set aside Mr Banires suspension, a day earlier, by the partys executive committee in his own constituency in Mushin local government area.

Meanwhile, in a 37-paragraph supporting affidavit detailing Mr. Banires alleged offences, Mr. Eshilokun-Sanni averred that having scaled through the nomination and screening of aspirants processes, he contested the primaries of APC on December 2, 2014, along with seven other aspirants and emerged as the partys candidate for election into Lagos Island Constituency 1 of the House of Assembly by pooling 186 votes out of the total number of 279 valid votes cast, with his closest rival, one Akeem Masha, pooling a distant 70 votes.

Eshilokun-Sanni said upon the announcement of his name as the winner of the primaries by the party, he received several congratulatory messages including from the then APC flag bearer for the 2015 governorship election in the state, Akinwunmi Ambode (now Governor), while the party issued him with the nomination form as its candidate for the election.

However, according to the Lagos lawmaker, in a gross violation of his legal right as the duly elected candidate of the party, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) unlawfully substituted his name with that of Mr. Masha as the candidate of the party for the election based on a false withdrawal letter caused to be written by Mr. Banire in his capacity as National Legal Adviser.

Eshilokun-Sanni also approached the Federal High Court in Lagos and in a judgment in suit with reference number FHC/L/CS/34/2015, Justice Mohammed Buba upheld the reliefs sought and ordered his reinstatement as the lawful candidate of the APC.

He said ever since Banire unlawfully substituted his name and caused a purported withdrawal letter to be written, the party was yet to set any machinery in motion for him to explain or justify why the letter was written, adding that by the development, Banire had betrayed the confidence reposed in him as the National Legal Adviser and his standing as a legal practitioner, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and a bencher.

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Eshilokun-Sanni also accused Banire of involving in series of anti-party activities and breach of several provisions of APC Constitution such as Article 21 (a) (ii), Article 21 (a) (v), Article 21 (a) (v), among others.

He also said that Banire, in breach of Article 21 (a) (x) of the partys Constitution, filed an action in court against the chairman and other principal officers of the APC in Lagos State without first exhausting all avenues provided for in the constitution of the party.

Based on the foregoing, Eshilokun-Sanni has urged the court for a declaration that having breached the established legal principles but not limited to the provisions of the APC Constitution (2014), Banire be removed as National Legal Adviser and a declaration that he is entitled to be expelled from the party or vacate office with immediate effect in accordance with Section 21 (d) (v) for the suit he instituted against the state chapter concerning the conduct of primaries for Local Government election and denouncing the entire process.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that the Deputy Speaker of Lagos state House of Assembly, Honourable Wasiu Eshilokun Sanni dragged the national legal adviser of the APC, Muiz Banire before a Lagos High Court in Ikeja.

The lawmaker's action is over an alleged forgery of his purported withdrawal letter from the 2015 election into Lagos Island Constituency 1 of the House.

Watch the Legit.ng TV interview with an APC chieftain, Comrade Timi Frank talking about the crisis in the ruling party.

Source: Legit.ng
- A couple in Ikorodu were attacked by Badoo members

- Two of their children were also killed

- One child is still in coma at Ikorodu general hospital

The dreaded Badoo cult group has launched at attack in the Ikorodu area of Lagos killing a couple, Mr. and Mrs. Adejare, and also two of their children while their last child is still in coma.

The Punch reports that the tragic incident occurred in Oke Ota community in Ibeshe on Sunday, July 30.

READ ALSO: The history of Buhari's anti-corruption fight

Two of the children of the couple, Siyin and Ajoke also lost their lives while another one was still at the Ikorodu General Hospital in coma.

It was reported that the attackers gained entrance into the room by cutting through the windows and smashed their heads with stones.

A resident said: They had a special programme in their church today (Sunday). The members decided to check on them because they did not come to the church. They found the whole family in a pool of blood and raised the alarm. One of the three children was still breathing. He was rushed to the general hospital.

There are burglar-proof bars on the windows in the house, except in the kitchen. They came through the kitchen. They tore the net and entered the house.

We seem to have relaxed in securing the community because the attack subsided for some time. Even the police patrol has reduced.

It was reported that policemen from the Ipakodo division came to evacuate the bodies.

An anonymous source said: The apartment was given to them by the church. The couple were on the bed, while the children slept on mats. Four of them were killed. Their corpses have been deposited in the Ikorodu General Hospital mortuary.

We were happy that things were getting better before this incident. There is one little girl among them receiving treatment at a hospital. Her head was smashed.

We only hear sirens of the police patrol from the main road. They dont usually come into the inner parts of the community, where the Badoo members operate.

The Lagos state police spokesperson, Olarinde Famous-Cole, however claimed the attack was not connected to the Badoo own.

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He said: The house is just a room and parlour with one open window and no visible form of security. A family of five were attacked. Three died on the spot, one died while receiving treatment at a hospital and the last member is alive and responding to treatment.

No visible trace of violence or clues linked to the cult was found. No stone was found at the scene. A case of murder is being investigated by police detectives, which doesnt fit in the modus operandi of the cult.

Meanwhile, a 14-year-old girl was attacked and killed in her parents' house in Lagos recently.

According to reports, Obiamaka Orakwue, an Anambra state indigene was attacked and killed at her house in Abule Ado, Lagos state, recently.

The 14-year-old who was home on holiday, had been alone in her parents' home when some boys who she had turned down after they reportedly tried to ask her out on a date previously, climbed across the fence of her house and attacked her, leaving her in a pool of her own blood.

Watch a Legit.ng TV video below of a family attacked by Badoo group:

Source: Legit.ng
- CNNs Fareed Zakaria had asked his viewers to identify the country whose president has not been in office for over 2 months

- As a result of this, the former aviation minister blasted those whom he referred to as beasts, for the shame they have brought upon Nigeria

- According to Fani-Kayode, the shame they have brought upon the country will be multiplied a million times

Former minister of aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has lambasted Nigerian leaders over a recent call-out by CNNs Fareed Zakaria.

On the programme Global Public Square (GPS) hosted by Fareed Zakaria, the CNN anchor had asked his viewers to identify the country whose president has not been in office for over 2 months.

READ ALSO: Ijaw youths threaten to shut down Agip over failure to implement MoU

Among the countries listed as possible answers was Nigeria, which indeed turned out to be the correct answer.

Fani-Kayode tweeted:

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that Reno Omokri, ex-new media aide to former president Goodluck Jonathan lamented what he considered an insult to Nigeria which was recently dished out by an international news platform.

Omokri tweeted his sadness at a question pasted for viewers of a news programme of the Cable News Network (CNN).

Watch this Legit.ng TV video of Nigerians asking about the whereabouts of Buhari:

Source: Legit.ng
- Ekiti state Governor Ayo Fayose said Boko Haram has never been defeated

- Army had said last year that the Boko Haram was defeated, declaring that the terrorists had splintered into several groups

- He said the battle against the terrorists is still raging fiercer than ever with the continued bombings and killings of innocent Nigerians by the group

The Ekiti state Governor, Ayo Fayose, has claimed that corruption accounts for why Boko Haram has not been defeated.

Legit.ng gathered that the controversial governor said the group is still able to carry out attacks at will despite governments claims.

Boko Haram is not defeated. It has not even been degraded, he said on Sunday July 30 in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi.

READ ALSO: Come the 19th of November, Ohanaeze will no longer exist - Nnamdi Kanu vows

The brutal killings by Boko Haram all over the place give the lie to the APC-led Federal Governments assertion that it has won the battle against insurgency.

The Nigerian Army said in August last year it had largely defeated Boko Haram, declaring that the terrorists had splintered into several groups.

The Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, had said the ability of Boko Haram to re-group in any part of Nigeria had been degraded.

You can see that our efforts in the northeast has really paid off, as you can recall the incessant bombing of market places and different places of worships and populated areas has virtually stopped now, Buratai had said.

The Nigerian army has not only succeeded in rooting them from their camps in the northeast, we have been able to block these criminal elements from crossing down to these areas or building their camp anywhere in Nigeria.

Mr. Fayose however, said the battle against the terrorists was still raging fiercer than ever, with the continued bombings and killings of innocent Nigerians by the group.

The gory killing of the oil workers confirms this. The wanton destruction of lives and property all over the place by Boko Haram also testifies to this fact, he said.

Like the ostrich, this government is trying hard to cover what cannot be covered. Boko Haram ambushes and kills soldiers at will.

Gallant officers and men continue to fall in battle to the superior fire-power and higher morale of the insurgents.

Boko Haram invades and sacks communities at will, carting away human beings and other resources.

The insurgents throw bombs with reckless abandon. Is this the evidence of a degraded or defeated Boko Haram?

Despite the Ekiti governors claim, however, Boko Haram attacks have been largely limited to Borno unlike during the PDP administration when the terror group carried out attacks at will in northern states, including the Nigerian capital, Abuja.

The governor, however, blamed corruption within the military as the reason for the failure to successfully rout the deadly group.

Transparency Internationals revelation that the military inflate military contracts to siphon money meant for the war efforts explains why the insurgents are waxing stronger and remain undefeatable, he said.

The war against insurgency has become a conduit for the siphoning of the resources of this country. Boko Haram is now the pot of soup or amnesty largesse of the APC government.

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Mr. Fayose also stated his repeated claim that the war against corruption was targeted at the opposition.

They keep pulling the wool over the eyes of the gullible with their lip-service commitment to the war against corruption and insurgency, he said.

But come 2019, they will know that the people are not deceived.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had earlier reported that an African media, Quatrz mocked the Nigerian government and the military of its constant claims of defeat against the dreaded Boko Haram terrorists group operating in the North.

You can watch this Legit.ng video of Boko Haram survivors recounting their ordeal:

Source: Legit.ng
Although Qatar has been establishing a good relationship with Iran in recent years, to the point where four Gulf states (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt) have cut ties with Qatar, they should consider that Iran may well turn on them as was the case with Kuwait.

Rashed wrote: Fortunately, Tehrans harm which targeted Kuwait was aborted at early stages either when the Hezbollah cell was discovered or when its members fled. The Kuwaiti governmentexpelled Iranian diplomats in the country reducing their number to four. It also shut down the Iranian embassys technical offices and missions as it was proven they are dens for espionage and arranging terrorist operations.

Rashed explained that despite the Iranian Regimes clear links to terror, it was shocking that they would target a country who was so welcoming to them; Kuwaits emir visited Tehran, three top Kuwaiti officials congratulated Tehran for the nuclear agreement, Kuwait welcomed a visit by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. This was all while Irans relations with Saudi Arabia were worsening and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) were embroiled in the Syrian Civil War.

About a year later, the Kuwaiti security forces found that a Kuwaiti terrorist cell, of whom over 20 members were affiliated with Iran, had stockpiled a large number of weapons. The terror cell wanted to destabilise Kuwait, who had not been hostile to Iran in any way.

Rashed wrote: Kuwait proved, whether through the naivety of its policy or through its attempt to test the honesty of its Iranian neighbour that its impossible to deal with Iran without being cautious and without looking out for potential threats.

The detained members of the terror cell escaped and were smuggled out of the country with help from the IRGC factions of the Iranian embassy, a clear violation of Kuwaits sovereignty

Rashed wrote: Kuwait has now realized that being lenient while dealing with Iran and other parties affiliated with it is what made them dare to harm it and facilitated achieving the aims they had failed to achieve in Bahrain when they tried to release terrorists from prison and smuggle them via boats. Bahraini authorities thwarted this attempt at the beginning of 2017.

Rashed advises that Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries target Iran together

He wrote: These countries cannot keep silent over Qatars irresponsible practices, which pave way for Iranian threats and incite to overturn regimes. Qatars current rapprochement with Iran and warmer ties with Turkey will burden it a lot more than burdening others. Qatar chose to take risks by dealing with powers that it will not be able to get rid of in the future and it only did so because it does not want to cooperate with the four countries that asked it to stop exporting chaos and inciting against them.
- Anambra state government has approved the proposal of the construction of an export facility in the hometown of Nigerian novelist late Chinua Achebe

- The project is estimated to to cost $150 million (N47.2 billion)

- It will also be Nigeria's first Global Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) certified and food processing center

The Anambra state government has approved the proposal of the construction of an export facility in Ogidi, the hometown of Nigerian novelist, late Chinua Achebe.

The facility - Ndi Anambra Export Facility Project - is estimated to cost $150 million (N47.2 billion), the state's executive council led by Governor Willie Obiano said.

Legit.ng gathered that the project will be Nigeria's first Global Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) certified and food processing center.

READ ALSO: Babatunde Fashola lists 44 highways, 63 roads to be repaired in Nigeria (full list)

The export facility which will be completed within the next 12 months will complement global standards with the provision for a Boeing 777 cargo plane for weekly exportation of agricultural products.

The managing director of Abx World Nigeria Limited John Okakpu who spoke to journalists on the project said the partnership between the state and his organization will lead to positive generation of revenue, job creation and poverty alleviation in Anambra.

READ ALSO: Fayose mocks Army, says Boko Haram has never been defeated

Okakpu said the new project will add N2.75 billion to Anambra's internally generated revenue yearly and over $5 billion of foreign investment to the states economy within the next three to four years.

He also said the project once completed will operate 25/7 and will provide employment for 1,200 individuals in the state.

Okakpu said: "His Excellency, Governor Willie Obiano has really step up his unstoppable love and caring to Ndi Anambra and had shown what leadership ought to be. According to Senator Ben Bruce, please, go to Anambra and borrow a chapter in their book. Anambra is more like a Nation-State, thanks to Willie Obianos vision and result oriented policies."

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This Center will bring the world much closer to Nigeria in this digital age. It will be built with state of the art cutting modern technology. At full operation, it would have cost about US$150m to build.

The center will be certified by GlobalGAP on completion as it will be built under their supervision. The first Nigeria. We have them in Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, Egypt, Ivory Coast and few other African countries. This facility will be 100% fully Nigeria owned," Okakpu said.

Legit.ng earlier reported that members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) waylaid Obiano in church on Sunday.

The IPOB members were reportedly chanting "no elections, no elections".

It was also gathered that crisis was averted when the governor was swiftly smuggled out of the church premises by members of the group.

You can watch this Legit.ng TV video of an exclusive interview with IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu:

Source: Legit.ng
- Doyin Okupe has accused the owner of Sahara Reporters of corruption

- The media house claimed he got away with corruption because of an agreement with the Buhari administration

- Okupe was accused of getting a contract from the government which he did not deliver

Doyin Okupe who was an aide to former president, Goodluck Jonathan, has been accused of embezzling N1.6 billion by Sahara Reporters after he accused its founder, Omoyele Sowore of blackmail.

In a heated exchange on twitter, Okupe reacted to the news that Sowores account was frozen and accused him of being a peddler of fake news and blackmailer of politician.

READ ALSO: The history of Buhari's anti-corruption fight

Sahara Reporters accused Okupe of embezzling fund from a contract he secured but said he got away with it because he had a deal with the federal government.

See the exchange below:

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Legit.ng had reported that Okupe joined the Accord Party, a few weeks after he dumped the Peoples Democratic Party.

Okupe made this known on Tuesday, July 18, via his Facebook page.

This is coming about a week after the Supreme Court gave its judgement on the PDP recognising Ahmed Makarfi as the chairman of the party and kicking out Senator Ali Modu Sherriff.

In his statement, Okupe noted that he wasnt interested in winning anything as a politician but to breed new set of politicians for the development of the country.

Watch a Legit.ng TV video of Nigerians speaking about corruption among politicians:

Source: Legit.ng
- The acting president has commended the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for ensuring that all obstacles to 2017 Hajj pilgrimage were removed

- According to Osinbajo, the work began when the minister of state for foreign affairs led a delegation to Saudi Arabia to sign the MoU for the 2017 Hajj

- The acting president urged the pilgrims to pray for the peace and prosperity of Nigeria while in the holy land

The Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, on Sunday, July 30, inaugurated the airlifting of Nigerian pilgrims to Saudi Arabia for the 2017 Hajj at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, NAN reports.

Osinbajo, who was represented by the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Muhammed Bello, commended the National Hajj Commission (NAHCON) and aviation agencies for the arrangement being put in place.

READ ALSO: Femi Fani-Kayode hurls insults at Nigerian leaders over CNN post

He said the inaugural flight was the beginning of the hard work to be done by the officials at the holy land in guiding the pilgrims to perform the hajj.

Osinbajo commended the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for ensuring that all obstacles to 2017 Hajj pilgrimage were removed as well as the aviation agencies for ensuring smooth flight operations during the exercise.

According to him, airlifting is the beginning of the tasks to be carried out by the officials during Hajj operation.

As you are all aware, what we are witnessing today is a culmination of intense hard work, dedication and commitment by Hajj officials.

The work commenced when the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Hajia Khadija Abba-Ibrahim led a delegation to Saudi Arabia where the MoU for the 2017 Hajj was signed.

This inaugural airlift is the beginning of the intense hard work to be done because you cannot say that the work is done until the pilgrims going to Saudi have an acceptable hajj and return back safely.

So, I want to commend the agencies of government particularly the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the effort in ensuring that Nigeria got back the 20 per cent quota lost years ago, he said.

He also commended the Ministry of Aviation and all its agencies for the support given to pilgrims.

The acting president urged the pilgrims to pray for the peace and prosperity of the country while in the holy land.

Osinbajo also called on the pilgrims to represent Nigeria properly within the short period in the holy land.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported about the breakdown for the 2017 Hajj fare.

The fare sheet contained prices for various things necessary for the trip; such as air fare, yellow card, tent security deposit, Makkah accommodation etc.

Watch this Legit.ng TV video of Bishop Abioye's former driver who converted to Islam:

Source: Legit.ng
- A Biafran group has named members of Biafra cabinet

- The group said the south east is no longer part of Nigeria

- The self-acclaimed president of Biafra, Barr. Benjamin Onwuka, said US and Israel are in support of the new republic

The Biafra Zionist Federation (BZF) has on Monday July 31 announced the split of south east from Nigeria by announcing an interim government to run the affairs of Biafra.

The self-acclaimed president of Biafra, Barr. Benjamin Onwuka made this known at a press briefing in Enugu, Daily Post reports.

Onwuka declared: I am the President of Biafra; we have formed an interim government that will be in place till the next 30 days.

The interim government will take off tomorrow, August 1 and last till August 31, 2017, that is 30 days.

READ ALSO: Fashola lists 44 highways, 63 roads to be repaired in Nigeria

America is behind the Biafra people because former President Barrack Obama already endorsed Biafra before he left office and President Donald Trump will not go against it considering that it has formed part of Americas foreign policy.

He named other members of the cabinet to include Prof. Chukwuma Soludo- Central Bank of Biafra, CBB; Prof. Pat Utomi- foreign affairs; Mrs. Aruma Oteh- finance minister; former Personal Secretary to Late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu- petroleum.

Others are Amarachi Ubani- information; Ohanaeze President, Chief Nnia Nwodo- Ambassador to US; Prof. Jerry Gana- transport; Labaran Maku- aviation, a lecturer at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN, Mrs. Mary Okafor- trade and industry; Benny Lar, Secretary to the Government of the Republic; Gabriel Oluwole Osagie- education, Prof Barth Nnaji- energy; Philip Effiong Jnr.- health.

Going further, the self declared president Onwuka said Israel will be taken up leadership position in the newly formed Biafra government.

He said: Israel will be key players in this government because there is so much corruption in Nigeria; so, they are coming to help us clean the system. They are coming to sweep the system. They will challenge agro-revolution and also abolish corruption very easily.

Same goes for America; their companies will be in control of our oil industry. This is to reward them for what Obama did for us; Obama saved us even when we were in detention; they already passed death sentence on us even without our knowledge, but Obamas intervention saved us.

I am also calling on the avengers, the militants to come out from the creeks and join us to defend and protect Biafra. Im beckoning on Asari Dokubo, Tompolo, Ateke Tom to come out and join us. I am calling on all our boys in Biafra land to come out. Im not afraid, the US is with us.

Onwuka claimed that: although we have met all the conditions for their bail, the bailiff of the Court is playing games, even after collecting hundreds of thousands of naira from us.

So, we are using this medium to ask them to release our members forthwith because we have met all the conditions attached to their bail.

The Biafra people will not allow themselves to be Islamized; 1967 will no longer be allowed to repeat itself. Apart from removing the Christian Religious Knowledge from the school curriculum, they have also banned history. This is to prevent our young ones from knowing all the things that happened in the past.

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This is entirely war on our people and we are not going to take it. Where there is religious conflict, the offended side will always win; the same thing will happen here, he vowed.

Meanwhile, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has said the total rejection of restructuring of the country by the members of the Senate is an indication that Nigeria can never be united.

The group in the statement obtained by Legit.ng on Thursday, July 27, stated that the rejection of restructuring by the Senate had vindicated its leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB.

Spokesperson for the group, Emma Powerful, stated that IPOB remains the only legitimate voice that understands the plight of the masses.

The group said that only a referendum can resolve the issue of Biafra not restructure. It remains the only way the masses can decide their future in Nigeria.

In the video below, Legit.ng TV takes a critical look at Nnamdi Kanu and the struggle for the actualisation of the Republic of Biafra.

Source: Legit.ng
- The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has cautioned President Muhammadu Buharis government to stop deceiving Nigerians over the issue of Boko Haram insurgent

- PDP said that Buhari's government claimed that it has conquered the terrorists group in the north east

- The party said the acting president, Yemi Osinbajo who ordered the Army chief to relocate to Maiduguri showed that the insurgent has not been defeated

The Peoples Democratic Party has called on the President Muhammadu Buharis government to stop deceiving Nigerians with the claim that Boko Haram had been defeated and brought to the background.

PDP recalled that the incidents that occurred in the last few days had shown that the terror group was still very potent.

The party said it was unbelievable the government could still claimed after the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Maiduguri, Ibrahim Njodi, declared that four of the universitys workers were still missing, Punch reports.

READ ALSO: Fashola lists 44 highways, 63 roads to be repaired in Nigeria

Legit.ng gathered that Njodi also said five of the universitys workers were brought to the town dead, adding that nine staff of the university were killed.

Dayo Adeyeye, the spokesperson for the national caretaker committee of the party, made this known in Abuja on Sunday, July 30, saying that Nigerians however the government claim.

Adeyeye said: The celebration of the alleged defeat of Boko Haram was premature. There was no need for that celebration. It was based on false information and distortion of facts.

Now, we have seen the result that Boko Haram was not defeated and that is why the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, ordered the Army chief to relocate to Maiduguri.

This is a grand deception; you can see that.

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It has been a complete disaster. Of course, we can have challenges fighting Boko Haram, but they should not deceive Nigerians. That is very important.

They (the government) went to start the oil exploration in order to deceive Nigerians and the international community that Boko Haram has been defeated. They will claim that after all, we are now there and exploring oil. It is all deceit''.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that the Ekiti state Governor, Ayo Fayose, claimed that corruption accounts for why Boko Haram had not been defeated.

The controversial governor said the group was still able to carry out attacks at will despite governments claims.

You can watch this Legit.ng video of Boko Haram survivors recounting their ordeal:

Source: Legit.ng
- Some air force men will undergo special training from Israeli military organisation

- They will be saddled with the responsibility of defending its assets

- They would also help combat Boko Haram and militants

Four hundred and fifty special forces of the Nigeria Air Force (NAF) have been selected to be trained by FOUR-TROOP, a reputable foreign military training organization from Israel

In a statement released via its Facebook page, it was revealed that Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar who is the chief of air staff approved the training.

READ ALSO: The history of Buhari's anti-corruption fight

The successful participants would be deployed to defend NAF air assets and bases as well as critical national infrastructure and assets like airports and oil installations.

Read the full statement below:

The air force officials would be trained to protect its assets

"The Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, has approved the training of 450 carefully selected Regiment personnel as Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Special Forces to be trained in 3 batches, the first of which was formally flagged off during the weekend. The training is taking place at the NAF Regiment Training Centre in Kaduna but is being conducted by FOUR-TROOP, a reputable foreign military training organization from Israel.

450 air force men undergo training. Credit: Facebook

"It is aimed at further developing the capacity of the personnel to fight under all types of terrains and weather conditions. At the end of the 9-week course, successful participants would be deployed to defend NAF air assets and bases as well as critical national infrastructure and assets like airports and oil installations, among others. The Special Forces would also be required to take the battle to the adversaries whenever necessary.

Israeli military group in Nigeria to train air force men Credit: Facebook

"While flagging off the training of the first batch of 150 personnel, the Air Officer Commanding Ground Training Command, Air Vice Marshal Samson Akpasa, stated that a robust counter-force to respond to any contingency was vital in Nigerias contemporary security environment, which was characterized by insurgency, militancy, oil theft, cattle rustling, kidnapping and other vices. He added that as conflicts become more complex and diverse, a force multiplier unit such as the Special Forces would enable the tactical commander gain an upper hand in battle. He, therefore, urged the trainees to be physically fit, mentally alert and psychologically sound in order to learn and assimilate instructions that would be passed to them in the course of their training programme. He then thanked the foreign partners, especially the FOUR TROOP company, for accepting to conduct the training.

PAY ATTENTION: Watch more videos on Legit.ng TV

"Earlier, the Commandant of the NAF Regiment Training Centre, Group Captain Isaac Subi, had disclosed that the NAF Regiment Specialty was a blend of the Army Infantry and Artillery Corps. He also described the Special Forces an invaluable adjunct to conventional forces and that they are capable of sophisticated, specialized and measured response in a complex air-ground environment covering both land and sea areas.

"The decision to invite the Israelis to conduct the training in Nigeria, in conjunction with other Nigerian instructors, rather than conducting the training overseas, is aimed at further developing the instructional capacity of NAF personnel while also saving the nation additional expenses in foreign currency."

Meanwhile, a report by Daily Trust indicates that residents of Maiduguri, Borno state are apprehensive over potential attacks by terrorist group, Boko Haram.

The residents who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of being attacked expressed worry on the activities of the group around the city.

They called for aggressive surveillance by Nigerian security agencies, because according to them, the terrorists were inching closer to the state capital.

They stated that Boko Haram foot-soldiers more often brought girls on suic*de mission from the forests and coerced the villagers into silence ahead of carrying out their nefarious activities.

Watch a Legit.ng TV video below of the Air Force operation against Boko Haram:

Source: Legit.ng
- Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state says President Buharis health should be an open book for all to read

- The governor states that the recent visit by some governors and APC officials to Buhari in London does not negate his earlier statement that Buhari was incapacitated

- Fayose advises Buhari to decide if he wants to tag along or take the back seat in the interest of Nigerians

Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state has stood by his earlier statement that President Muhammdu Buhari was on life support in London.

READ ALSO: Come the 19th of November, Ohanaeze will no longer exist - Nnamdi Kanu vows

The governor also called on Buhari to declare his state of health, adding that the presidents health should be an open book for all to read.

Fayose made the statement in a video which surfaced online on Monday, July 31.

He said the recent visit by some governors and APC officials to Buhari in London does not negate his earlier statement that Buhari was incapacitated.

He said: What I said about the president is very clear. I said that the President at a point before these recent visits was incapacitated and has been on a life support. I stand by it. I stand by it. I have no regrets for that statement.

You would recall that I said the Handlers of the President should produce evidence to the contrary within 48 hours. After 4 weeks, they said they went to visit the president. Thank God the President is getting better now but there is no denying that what I said at the time was the truth.

Fayose, recalling the statement of the governor of Ebonyi that the presidents recovery was a miracle, noted that something had gone the other way round before Buharis recovery could be described as a miracle.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app

The governor said he wished the best for the president and advised Buhari to decide if he wants to tag along or to take the back seat in the interest of Nigerians.

"My position over time as made his handlers to bring the president to the fore, since he left we were hearing nothing. Everybody was prevented from knowing what is going on but my claims made them to do everything to ensure they showcase the president.

I wish him well but I tell you expressly, health is wealth, without strength you cant do much. If the President wants to be honorable, he should allow the country to move forward by stepping aside," Fayose stated.

Watch Fayose's comments on Buhari's health below:

Meanwhile, Reno Omokri, ex-new media aide to former president Goodluck Jonathan has lamented what he considered an insult to Nigeria which was recently dished out by an international news platform.

Omokri tweeted his sadness at a question pasted for viewers of a news programme of the Cable News Network (CNN).

The question asked viewers to identify a president that has not been in office for over two months.

Reacting to the report Omokri suggested that President Muhammadu Buhari had turned Nigeria into the laughing stock of the world on CNN.

In the video below, Legit.ng TV asked some Nigerians what they have to say about Buhari's continued absence from the country.

Source: Legit.ng
Nuechterlein wrote that misplaced attentions in the George W. Bush administration led to the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks, and welcomed that this was not the case for Donald Trump who faces three potential flash point crises: North Korea, Russia, and Iran.

However, he quickly eliminated North Korea or Russia as the next fire that would need putting out, thanks to the deployment of US troops and regional support from China and deployment of US and NATO troops respectively.

Nuechterlein wrote: Iran is a different challenge. And unless Tehran changes course, it may trigger an armed confrontation with American forces in Iraq and the Persian Gulf.

He highlighted that Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) uses paramilitary units to support Shiite forces in Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iraq and undermine pro-US governments in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the Arab Gulf States, Jordan and Egypt.

He notes that the IRGC only ever have to answer to the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, and therefore lack any real accountability in the Iranian Regime. Their crimes are encouraged by Khamenei, who only seeks to extend his power because with power comes money.

Iran and the US regularly clash in the Persian Gulf, where two important American overseas air and naval bases reside. Iranian speedboats, most often under control of the IRGC, will fire upon or otherwise threaten US warships in the Gulf.

Nuechterlein wrote: Neighbouring Iraq, however, is the most dangerous flash point for conflict between Washington and Tehran. This emerges as ISIS is driven from major cities, including the newly liberated Mosul. Iraqs Shiite militias, bolstered by Iranian Special Forces, plan to fill the political vacuum left in liberated areas and push Iraq into Tehrans embrace. Baghdads moderate prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, will be powerless against this outcome unless Saudi Arabia and other Arab states fully support U.S. actions to back his government and Iraqs new army.

Indeed, most defence experts agree it was a mistake for the US to withdraw its troops from Iraq in 2012 because of just this issue. As a result, Washington changed tack in 2016 and now over 5,000 advisers, trainers and intelligence specialists are stationed there.

Secretary of Defense James Mattis, who served in Iraq, said that more troops may be needed to stabilize Iraq and stop Iran from taking over.

Mattis has previously called Iran the most destabilizing influence in the Middle East.

While Secretary of State Rex Tillerson recently told a congressional committee that the Iranian Regime plans to extend its hegemony in the Persian Gulf at the expense of Saudi Arabia.

He said: Our policy toward Iran, [is to] push back on this hegemony [and work] toward supporting those elements inside Iran that would lead to a peaceful transition of that government.
- Tanko Yakassai accused the south-west of fuelling the restructuring agitation

- The elder statesman said the region is trying to dominate the country

- He said this was to put the north at a disadvantage

Tanko Yakassai who is an elder statesman has accused the south-west of being the architect of the call for the restructuring of the country saying it dates back to 1953.

In an interview with Vanguard, Yakassai revealed that the south-west has been trying to dominate the rest of Nigeria for a long time.

The elder statesman said the motion for independence moved by Anthony Enahoro in 1953 was because he knew the north would be at a disadvantage because it had only one graduate.

READ ALSO: Fashola lists 44 highways, 63 roads to be repaired in Nigeria

He said this trend has continued till the present period as the south-west tries to take charge of the country.

He said: "In the first place, this agitation is a continuation of the agitation by people who want to dominate other Nigerians; it had its origin in 1953. The Action Group sponsored a motion in the House of Representatives through its member, late Chief Anthony Enahoro for the British Colonialist Government to grant independence in 1956, I dont know how many graduates the West had produced that time. Definitely, they must be in thousands. As at that time, the North had only a graduate, and that was in the person of Dr. R A Dikko, who enjoyed the sponsorship of the missionaries.

This imbalance forced the Norths representatives to amend the motion that independence should be granted to Nigeria as soon as it was practicable. In otherwords, the concern by northern leaders was that if independence were granted by 1956, the north would be unprepared and therefore the leaders calculated that the Action Group introduced the motion deliberately in order to have an opportunity of dominating the whole of Nigeria.

From that time to date, it is the same slogan that is changing colour. It started with the slogan for the creation of more states; the Action Group calculated that they could get the minorities in the North and in the East on their side to enable them to produce the Prime Minister. As at that time we were operating a parliamentary system.

With the 1963 population census, Northern Nigeria had approximately 55 percent of the countrys population and the entire south had 45 percent and yet the British, instead of giving the North representation proportionate to her population, gave the north only half of the seats in the House of Representatives. With the result of that election began agitation for the creation of states in Nigeria. There were minority movements like Calabar/Ogoja/ River State Movement in the East where NCNC was the dominant party, the Middle Belt League in the North; that was before the formation of United Middle Belt Congress, UMBC. Because of the strength of the NCNC in the West, they shared the seats with the Action Group in the South Western Region and the Action Group strategists realized that they must concentrate their effort in recovering lost ground to their side to build up a majority.

"But during the 1959 elections, the Northern Peoples Congress outsmarted them, and they realized that with near total control of the seats in the North, all they needed to do was to concentrate their attention in the North in order to emerge with the majority in the House of Representatives. That, therefore, qualified them to be invited to form the central government, they did that and secured the majority in the House of Representatives.

So by 1961/62, the Action Group strategists were convinced that they could never match the North in a competitive election and it would be difficult for them to govern Nigeria. That was the reason why their leaders resorted to coup plotting, which resulted in the arrest of leading figures of the party in 1962. It also resulted in the famous treason trial where leaders were tried and convicted, after that, we adopted a Presidential System, and this same group did not give up. The NPN won, and they came second.

PAY ATTENTION: Watch more videos on Legit.ng TV

They also thought they could concentrate their efforts on the Social Democratic Party, SDP, hence their support for late MKO Abiola, even though some notable figures from that same region were not supporting him. When Abiolas election was annulled, they came up with the new slogan, NADECO and June 12. After the death of Sani Abacha and Abiola, they changed the slogan to PRONACO; it is the same trend, the same strategy. PRONACO was confined by and large to the Southwest, and they realized it has no national appeal; they quickly changed to Sovereign National Conference to court national appeal.

The idea of Sovereign National Conference was to renew the strategy of bringing the minorities in the North and the South together with the remnant of Action Group in a different form and the strategy has failed them again. The question of restructuring is a product of agitation from the South West. Now that there is an increase in agitation from the South East and South South, they now cashed on it to fuel and fan dismemberment of the polity.

Legit.ng earlier reported that the call for the arrest of northern youths, who signed the Igbo eviction notice, was greeted with extreme repugnance by a second republic lawmaker and Northern elder statesman Dr. Junaid Mohammed.

According to Mohammed, the arrest of Arewa youths over the quit notice to Igbo, would lead to crisis in the north.

Mohammed made this known on Friday, June 23, in an interview with Vanguard.

Watch a Legit.ng TV video below of Nigerians speaking about whether the country should be restructured or not:

Source: Legit.ng
- PENGASSAN stated that in the last 3 years, the association has been unnecessarily over-burdened due to the loss of will by various managements to attend to industrial/welfare issues

- The association listed sack actualization, ill-treatment, adverse work condition among other conditions, as injustices meted out against its members by the various managements

- Hence, PENGASSAN has directed its Zonal Executive Councils in the 4 zones to mobilize members for the planned strike

If employers in the oil and gas industry do not address certain industrial issues and anti-labor practices within 21 days, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has threatened to go on nationwide strike.

According to reports, the associations resolve was contained in a statement signed by Fortune Obi, its national public relations officer, after its Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting in Abuja.

READ ALSO: Forbes list of worlds richest pastors includes 7 Nigerians

While calling on stakeholders to address issues within the stipulated period of time, the association lamented over the maltreatment and anti-labor practices against its members by management.

The statement read in part: PENGASSAN in the last three years has not only been excessively stretched but equally unnecessarily over-burdened and is fast running out of patience over the loss of will by various managements to attend to industrial/welfare issues.

Particularly frustrating is the sustained, deliberate and indiscriminate redundancies, sack actualization, ill-treatment, adverse work condition, incessant disagreement to collective bargain resolutions and other anti-labor practices against our members by these managements without recourse to extant labor laws.

In light of these grave accusations, Obi stated that PENGASSAN has directed its Zonal Executive Councils in Port Harcourt, Lagos, Kaduna and Warri, to begin mobilizing its members for the planned strike.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) adjourned its nationwide strike after reaching an agreement with the federal governments representative during negotiations.

Mr Johnson Olabode, the president of the association, announced the suspension at the end of its National Executive Council meeting convened to review offers made by the government.

Watch this Legit.ng TV video of how a trailer killed a chairmanship aspirant in Lagos

Source: Legit.ng
- In recent times, the Inspector General of Police, IGP Ibrahim Idris, has been concerned with the occurrence of cases of kidnappings on the Abuja-Kaduna Highway

- He deployed a joint police team, tasked to rout out the kidnap for ransom gangs and armed robbery gangs that have been terrorizing the highway

- This operation is to complement the ongoing joint police/military operations

The Nigeria Police Force on Monday, July 31, said it had arrested 32 suspects responsible for kidnapping along the Abuja-Kaduna expressway.

The force Public Relations Officer, CSP Jimoh Moshood, disclosed this in a statement via Facebook.

READ ALSO: Nigeria to experience cloudy weather, rains on August 1

Moshood said that items recovered from the suspects include: 4 AK47 rifles, 6 locally made pump action gun and 2 magazines.

The Nigeria Police displaying recovered items from kidnappers. Photo credit: Nigeria Police

The suspects were jointly arrested By IRT, STS, CTU and Special Force of the Nigeria Police all deployed by IGP Ibrahim Idris to bring Sanity to the most busiest expressway in Northern Nigeria.

They have made confessional statements indicating the various criminal roles they played in the commission of the crime.

Most of them have been identified by some of their victims. They will soon be charged to court on completion of investigation.

The suspects paraded before journalists. Photo credit: Nigeria Police

Meanwhile the Inspector General of Police has commended and appreciated the communities and people in the towns and villages along Abuja Kaduna highway for their cooperation with the police personnel deployed for the operation.

He however, implored commuters, travelers and other road users to support the Police personnel in the discharge of their responsibilities and in the implementation of other crime prevention and control strategies of the Force.

The operations will be sustained and is being replicated in all other Highways and major roads across the country.

Most of the kidnappers were identified by some of their victims and will soon be charged to court. Photo credit: Nigeria Police

In a previous report by Legit.ng, the Lagos state police command disclosed that 20 kidnappers were killed while making attempts to rescue the six abducted students of Igbonla-Epe Model College, Lagos state.

Fatai Owoseni, the state commissioner of police, on Friday, July, 28, made this known to journalists in the state.

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The boys were released on Friday, July 28, 64 days after they were kidnapped in their school premises on Sunday, May 28.

Watch Legit.ng TV report on the popular kidnapper known as 'Evans' below:

Source: Legit.ng
Captain America and the Winter Soldier Special #1 takes Marvel's secret history to a whole new level with a real world historical figure

If you know who Gavrilo Princip is, prepare to be shocked
GamesRadar+ is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Heres why you can trust us.
The United States on Sunday conducted a successful a test of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, military officials said. According to the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, a U.S. Air Force plane fired a ballistic missile over the Pacific Ocean in Alaska and it was then intercepted by the system.

This test was the 15th success in 15 trials for THAAD since 2005, when they system began operational testing. Sundays test comes weeks after the systems first-ever successful intercept test against an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) target.

Despite the proximity of these two recent THAAD tests to successive North Korean ballistic missile launches, the MDA had long accounted for this type of testing in the 2017 fiscal year. Additionally, THAAD has no capability against the missiles North Korea demonstrated on July 4 and July 28, both of which were intercontinental-range ballistic missiles.

The United States has deployed THAAD in South Korea, with the launchers arriving in the country in early May 2017, despite sharp opposition from China, which sees the X-band AN/TPY-2 radar associated with the system as a threat to its security.
Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford immediately phoned his South Korean counterpart Friday to discuss military options following North Koreas second test launch this month of a missile with ICBM range to reach the U.S.

The US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) recently concluded that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will be able to produce a reliable, nuclear-capable ICBM sometime in 2018.

The latest launch put added pressure on U.S. President Donald Trump to sign a bill passed by veto-proof margins in the House and Senate that would tighten sanctions on North Korea, as well as Iran and Russia.

In a statement, Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, called on Trump to sign the bill immediately.

This latest test further reinforces the need for a more robust and integrated ballistic missile defense system to protect not only Alaska and the rest of the nation, but also our deployed service members and our allies, Senator Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska said in a statement.
[July 30, 2017] Samsung's New LTE Modem Technology Supports Industry-First 6CA, Delivering Fast and Seamless Mobile Communication Experiences

Samsung (News - Alert) Electronics Co., Ltd., a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today announced that it has developed LTE modem technology for the company's next-generation mobile processors that supports 6CA (carrier aggregation) for the first time in the industry. The new technology has successfully achieved a maximum downlink speed of 1.2 gigabits per second (Gbps). Earlier this year, the Samsung Exynos 9 Series (8895) SoC presented its Cat.16 LTE modem with 1.0 gigabit (Gb) downlink speed and the industry's first 5CA support. By working closely with Anritsu (News - Alert), a telecommunication measuring instrument provider, Samsung's new Cat.18 6CA-supported LTE modem technology achieves up to 1.2 Gbps downlink speed. The 20-percent improvement in maximum downlink speed can allow mobile device users to download a full-length movie in HD resolution within 10 seconds. Users will also be able to enjoy buffer-less video calls and mobile live-broadcasting. Carrier aggregation (CA (News - Alert)) combines a given number of component carriers with various bandwidths, improving data transfer rates and network performance. By increasing the aggregation capability from the previous model's five bandwidths to six the new LTE (News - Alert) modem technology will offer faster yet more stable data transfers. Furthermore, the technology supports 4x4 MIMO (Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output) and higher-order 256 QAM (Quadrature amplitude modulation) scheme to maximize the data transfer rate. By utilizing enhanced Licensed-Assisted Access (eLAA) that can aggregate licensed and unlicensed spectra, the technology also allows telecommunications operators to make fuller use of their equipment.



"With the increase of high-quality online content services, the demand for high-performance LTE modems continue to rise as well," said Woonhaing Hur, Vice President of System LSI Protocol Development at Samsung Electronics. "The 1.2Gbps maximum downlink speed with 6CA support highlights Samsung's leading design capabilities and well-positions Samsung for the upcoming 5G era." Samsung's mobile processor adopting the new Cat.18 6CA-supported LTE modem technology is expected to be in mass production by the end of this year.

About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. inspires the world and shapes the future with transformative ideas and technologies. The company is redefining the worlds of TVs, smartphones, wearable devices, tablets, cameras, digital appliances, medical equipment, network systems, and semiconductor and LED solutions. For the latest news, please visit Samsung Newsroom at http://news.samsung.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170730005030/en/

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PA's New Budget Includes iGaming as Key Revenue Stream

Published July 31, 2017 by Elana K

The new Pennsylvania budget has gotten online gambling supporters excitedit includes $200 million in revenue earned from online gambling, which of course, can only become a reality if online gambling is, indeed, legalized.

The new Pennsylvania budget has gotten online gambling supporters excitedit includes $200 million in revenue earned from online gambling, which of course, can only become a reality if online gambling is, indeed, legalized.

Pennsylvania currently faces a $2 billion budget deficit, which the senate has been working hard to fill. Other than online gambling, additional streams of revenue include: new taxes, borrowing against a multistate settlement with tobacco companies, and traditional gaming expansion.

Nothings Actually Been Approved

The proposed budget is being supported by Governor Tom Wolf, but that doesnt mean it will face easy approval. There are still a number of longstanding issues.

The first issue is that an online gambling bill has not actually been passed yet. Its been going back and forth between the Senate and the House of Representatives, and nothing has been finalized.

One of the points that the two bodies have been grappling with is that of video gaming terminals (VGTs), which has both strong advocates and opponents on both sides.

The next issuethe House has not yet signed off on the proposed budget. Obviously, this is a somewhat integral part of the process that must be completed if Pennsylvania wants to tackle its multi-billion dollar budget deficit.

Best Case Scenario?

What online gambling supporters are hoping for is that both the House and the Senate will approve the proposed budget, come to some sort of resolution on the issue of VGTs, and pass final legislation in the fall.

Won't Get Fooled Again

Online gambling supporters have probably learned by now that there is no point in getting their hopes up yetafter all, Pennsylvania went through an almost identical process at the end of last year. Governor Wolf has supported a budget bill that included $100 million from gambling and online gambling, but the Senate simply never passed the bill.

Will this year be different? Well see soon enough.
From Al Jazeera

Hamas should not trade the rights and hopes of the Palestinian people for its own survival by making a deal with Dahlan.

"We have made mutual efforts with our brothers in Hamas to restore hope for Gaza's heroic people," Mohammed Dahlan told Palestinian legislators gathering in Gaza on Thursday, July 27. He spoke via satellite from his current exile in the United Arab Emirates.

The audience clapped. True, Gaza has been pushed to the brink of humiliation so that its truly heroic people may lose hope. But the fact that it was Dahlan that uttered these words appeared odd. More bizarre is the fact that his audience included top members of Hamas.

Dahlan, who had once been praised by George W Bush and was chosen by neoconservatives to lead a coup against the elected Hamas government in Gaza in 2007, seems to have finally managed to sneak his way back to Palestinian politics. Outrageously, however, Dahlan's ominous return is facilitated by no other group than his archenemy, Hamas.

It is convenient to blame such dramatic changes of attitude on the nature of politics, ever selfish, "pragmatic" and often brutal.

But it is far more complex, and tragic than such a truism. Gaza has been under siege for over a decade. The Israeli siege began in 2006 when Hamas won parliamentary elections in a decisive victory, leaving Fatah, the leading faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), in the opposition for the first time since its inception the 1960s.

Proving incapable of understanding or accepting the democratic process, Fatah lashed out at its Hamas rival and worked hard to undermine its rise to power.

But it was mostly Israel, backed by the United States that vehemently rejected the choice of the Palestinian majority. Within months, Israel imposed a siege on Gaza, the centre of Hamas' popular support, while the US withheld financial assistance to the Palestinians, urging its allies to do the same.

Hamas was left with no other option but to form a government alone. To protect its political institutions, the movement also established its own interior ministry police force. Then, alarm bells rang even louder.

It was Gaza-based Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan who was selected to lead the mission of overthrowing Hamas. The choice was made by W Bush's own National Security Council Middle East adviser, Elliot Abrams.

Then, the neocons were leading a campaign to construct a "New Middle East," which was the culmination of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's aggressive "diplomacy" in the region.

"The situation for Hamas and Gaza is dire. But there can be no moral justification to swap the rights, hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian people with the arrogant ambitions of a self-obsessive warlord and his wealthy Arab benefactors."

The US government was eager to show that its violent military adventures in the Middle East would eventually lead to political stability through a US-sponsored democracy initiative.

Hamas' election victory was a devastating blow to the Bush administration's efforts. The Islamic group that championed armed resistance and rejected the Washington-consensus and its pro-Israeli vision in the Middle East presented Washington with an unprecedented dilemma.

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From Wallwritings

Last week brought more ill-informed, mean-spirited acts from our current President. Before reviewing some of those acts, pause with me for a moment to give thanks for Jimmy Carter.

Here is just the latest reason to be thankful for our 39th President.

President Carter delivered a speech from his White House Oval Office, July 15, 1979, which John Farmer, Jr. describes as "a prophetic 1979 warning of Trumpism."

Farmer, former attorney general of New Jersey, and now a professor at Rutgers school of law at the Eagleton Institute of Politics, wrote a guest column for the Newark, NJ, Star-Ledger, on January 16, which examines Carter's speech:

Farmer begins by quoting from the speech:

"We've always believed in something called progress. We've always had a faith that the days of our children would be better than our own. Our people are losing that faith..."

Farmer writes that President Carter's speech "offers an uncannily prescient perspective on the urgent question: how did we get here?"

Carter "warned of a spiritual crisis that he identified as toxic to American ideals. In describing that crisis, moreover, he might well have had the lifestyle and values of his 21st century successor in mind."

Farmer quotes Carter further:

"[T]oo many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We've learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose."

A full audio copy of Carter's speech may be accessed by clicking here.

In a Hollywood 2016 movie, 20th Century Women, starring Annette Bening, two minutes of Carter's speech was heard by Bening and her guests on the soundtrack. Familiar images flash by illustrating the "Crisis of Confidence" Carter describes.

In the clip below, Annette Bening is shown second from left.

In our current crisis, our newly-elected President Donald Trump began this past week exploiting and disrespecting The Boy Scouts' Oath and Law before a crowd of more than 35,000 Boy Scouts, their parents and leaders.

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On the last day of July when I was one year old a top official of a nation issued a policy order that the leadership thought would make their nation great again. The nation had recovered from some terrible losses. But it was wealthy, powerful, and its citizens were relatively well-educated. It had historically made extremely important contributions to its regional culture. A similar policy was actively debated 75 years later in another nation. In both cases it was predictable that implementing the policy would result in shorter lives for many of its people.

In both cases it was involuntary to the people whose lives, by policy, would predictably be shorter. In both cases the vast majority of these people were unaware that this was going to happen to them. In both cases they would not have power to stop it, even if they had been aware of it.

Of course there were enormous differences in implementation. The Nazis who implemented the July 31st 1942 General Plan for the East forcibly deported and murdered millions of adults and children. The Republicans who seek to repeal and replace Obamacare are content with the fact that people who cannot afford health insurance predictably die sooner than people who can afford it. That is a fact that, although ignored by Republicans, has been overwhelmingly established.

There is a story to the effect that when Eskimos become too old and weak to hunt or chew blubber they are put out on ice floes to die by starvation, or freezing or drowning. This may be an urban legend or possibly actually less painful than a prolonged, medically palliated death. But suppose an Eskimo clan had available to it resources like ours that enabled it to provide a medically palliated death like ours or could decide whether to adopt such a custom. My guess is they would nevertheless think the ice-floe treatment was less preferred, primitive.
From George Lakoff Website



(Image by Credit Daryl Cagle) Details DMCA



We teach young people that education will set them free. If you get an education, the doors of opportunity will open wide. The world will be your oyster and your life will be better. Yet for millions of Americans, the opposite is true. For them, education has not been the key to a brighter future. Instead, it's burdened them with crushing, lifelong debt.

And unlike the debt accrued by Wall Street fat cats and people like Donald Trump -- who declared bankruptcy four times -- ordinary Americans can't just declare bankruptcy to get out from under the debt. The debt will follow them for life because the debt collector is none other than the US government. What's worse is the fact that the government farms out the job of collecting student debt to private corporations like Navient.

According to an investigation by Reuters, Navient appears to have cheated many poor student debt holders. It did this by failing to inform them of income-based repayment programs that could have kept them from defaulting. Instead, Navient herded these eligible Americans into other programs to drive up the interest costs and fees. These unscrupulous practices have added $4 billion to the amount of student debt owed by Americans, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Confronted by the CFPB in a lawsuit, Navient responded: "There is no expectation that the servicer will act in the interest of the consumer."

Wait a minute here. Navient was hired by the federal government to collect student debt from American citizens. American democracy is government "of the people, by the people, and for the people." Shouldn't Navient, as a servant of the government, have a moral responsibility to act in the best interests of the American people? Holders of student debt are American citizens who are trying to improve their lives and improve our country. Shouldn't we do better by them?

Instead, the student debt crisis is crushing Americans. It keeps them from buying homes, getting married, and living fulfilled lives. It directly robs them of their freedom, their opportunity, and their pursuit of happiness. And this is not just a problem for young people. Student debt hurts entire families. In fact, the US government is currently garnishing the Social Security checks of 173,000 Americans. Companies like Navient even go after the disability checks of people in wheelchairs.

Our nation is long overdue for a conversation about the student debt crisis. It is a direct threat to the freedom and opportunity of a whole generation of young Americans. It is also completely unfair, because for decades public education in the United States was basically free. Now, the rules have changed. For at least 44 million Americans, the college diploma came with the ball and chain of serious debt.

As we might expect, Donald Trump is doing everything he can to make the problem worse. In fact, his Administration is considering handing over ALL student debt accounts to the unscrupulous Navient! The Democrats haven't done much better, offering tepid proposals to help "refinance" outrageously structured loans. They treat this crushing debt like a business deal rather than the fundamental issue of freedom, fairness, and opportunity that it is.

This is the kind of issue that progressives should aim to solve. I think it's time to end the student debt crisis once and for all. Do you agree? How has student debt affected your life or the life of someone you know? What do you think should be done about it?

Please leave your answers in the comments -- and let's get this conversation started.
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com.

Who says President Trump doesn't have a coherent foreign policy? Pundits and critics across the political spectrum have chided him for failing to articulate and implement a clear international agenda. Look closely at his overseas endeavors, though, and one all-too-consistent pattern emerges: Donald Trump will do whatever it takes to prolong the reign of fossil fuels by sabotaging efforts to curb carbon emissions and promoting the global consumption of U.S. oil, coal, and natural gas. Whenever he meets with foreign leaders, it seems, his first impulse is to ply them with American fossil fuels.

His decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, which obliged this country to reduce its coal consumption and take other steps to curb its carbon emissions, was widely covered by the American mainstream news media. On the other hand, the president's efforts to promote greater fossil fuel consumption abroad -- just as significant in terms of potential harm to the planet -- have received remarkably little attention.

Bear in mind that while Trump's drive to sabotage international efforts to curb carbon emissions will undoubtedly slow progress in that area, it will hardly stop it. At the recent G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, 19 of the leaders of the world's 20 largest economies reaffirmed their commitment to the Paris accord and pledged to "mitigate greenhouse gas emissions through, among other [initiatives], increased innovation on sustainable and clean energies." This means that whatever Trump does, continuing innovation in the energy field will indeed help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and so slow the advance of climate change. Unfortunately, Trump's relentless drive to promote fossil-fuel consumption abroad could ensure that carbon emissions continue to rise anyway, neutralizing whatever progress might be made elsewhere and dooming humanity to a climate-ravaged future.

How the two sides of the ledger -- green energy progress versus Trump's drive to boost carbon exports -- will balance out in the years ahead cannot be foreseen. Every boost in carbon emissions, however, pushes us closer to the moment when global temperatures will exceed the two degrees Celsius rise from pre-industrial levels that scientists say is the maximum the planet can absorb without suffering catastrophic consequences. Those would include rising sea levels that could drown New York, Miami, Shanghai, London, and many other coastal cities, as well as a sharp drop in global food production that could devastate entire populations.

Spreading the Cult of Carbon

President Trump's pursuit of increased global carbon consumption is proving to be a two-front campaign. He's working in every way imaginable to increase the production of fossil fuels domestically, even as he engages in a diplomatic blitzkreig to open doors to American fossil-fuel exports abroad.

At home, he's already reversed numerous Obama-era restrictions on fossil fuel extraction, including curbs on mountaintop removal -- an environmentally hazardous form of coal mining -- and on oil and gas drilling in Arctic waters off Alaska. He's also ordered the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Scott Pruitt -- a notorious enemy of environmental regulations opposed by the energy industry -- to dismantle the Clean Power Plan, President Obama's program to sharply reduce the use of coal in domestic electricity generation.

These and similar initiatives have gotten a fair amount of media attention already, but it's no less important to focus on another key aspect of Trump's pro-carbon global initiative which has gone largely unnoticed. While, under the Paris climate accord, the other industrial powers are still obliged to help developing countries install carbon-free energy technologies, Trump has freed himself to sell American fossil fuels everywhere to his heart's content. At that G-20 meeting, for example, he forced his peers to insert a clause in their final communique' stating, "The United States of America states it will endeavor to work closely with other countries to help them access and use fossil fuels more cleanly and efficiently." (The "more cleanly and efficiently" was undoubtedly his modest concession to the other 19 leaders.)

To spread the mantra of fossil fuels, Trump has become the nation's carbon-pusher in chief. He's already personally engaged in energy diplomacy, while demanding that various cabinet officials make oil, gas, and coal exports a priority. On June 29th, for instance, he publicly ordered the Treasury Department to do away with "barriers to the financing of highly efficient overseas coal energy plants." In the same speech, he spoke of his desire to supply American coal to Ukraine, currently cut off from Russian natural gas thanks to its ongoing conflict with that country. "Ukraine already tells us they need millions and millions of metric tons [of coal] right now," Trump said, pointing out that there are many other countries in a similar state, "and we want to sell it to them, and to everyone else all over the globe who needs it."

He added, "We are a top producer of petroleum and the number-one producer of natural gas. We have so much more than we ever thought possible, and we're going to be an exporter... We will export American energy all over the world, all around the globe."

In his urge to preserve the reign of fossil fuels, President Trump has already taken on a unique personal role, meeting with foreign officials and promoting cooperation with key American energy firms. Take the June 26th White House visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. While the media reported on how the two of them took up the subject of future arms sales to India, it made no mention of energy deals. Yet Secretary of Energy Rick Perry revealed that this topic was crucial to their encounter. At a Trump-hosted dinner for Modi at the White House, Perry reported, "we talked about the three areas of which there will be great back-and-forth cooperation -- deal-making, if you will. One of those is in LNG [liquefied natural gas]. The other side of that is in clean coal. Thirdly is on the nuclear side. So there is great opportunity for India and the United States to become even stronger allies, stronger partners -- energy being the glue that will hold that partnership together for a long, long time."

To put this in context, making deals to sell coal to India is like selling OxyContin to an opioid addict. After all, in 2015, that country overtook the United States to become the world's second-biggest consumer of coal (after China). To keep up the pace of its rapid economic growth, India had plans to increase its reliance on coal yet more, which would mean a steady increase in carbon emissions. India now trails only China and the United States as an emitter of carbon dioxide and its share is expected to grow. However, it is also likely to suffer disproportionately from climate change, which its emissions will only accelerate. Given that future extreme heat events are expected to periodically destroy crops on which a large part of its population depends, Modi's government has recently begun seeking ways to reduce the country's long-term reliance on fossil fuels, in part by becoming a solar superpower. In other words, in pitching coal to India -- a true case of bringing coals to Newcastle (or at least Mumbai) -- Trump is functionally working to sabotage India's struggle to free itself from the scourge of carbon addiction.

He similarly pushed fossil-fuel exports in his first encounter with newly elected South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Not surprisingly, press coverage of the event highlighted their discussions about the nuclear threat posed by North Korea. Some reports also noted that trade issues came up, but none mentioned energy matters. Yet, shortly before his state dinner with Moon, Trump announced that a U.S. company, Sempra Energy, had just that day signed an agreement to sell more American natural gas to South Korea. "And, as you know," he added, "the leaders of South Korea are coming to the White House today, and we've got a lot of discussion to do, but we will also be talking about them buying energy from the United States of America, and I'm sure they'll like to do it." In other words, the president has made it eminently clear how foreign leaders in need of American support can please him.

His first overseas trips have also featured versions of such pitchmanship. During his visit to Saudi Arabia in May, he evidently sought to promote cooperation between U.S. and Saudi energy firms. Again, press coverage of his meeting with Saudi King Salman highlighted other topics, notably the war on terror, the regional divide between Sunnis and Shiites, and new Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's hard line on Iran. But the two of them did, in fact, issue a statement affirming "the importance of investment in energy by companies in both countries, and the importance of coordinating policies that ensure the stability of markets and an abundance of supplies." Where this might lead is anyone's guess, but presumably to a commitment to the continued dominance of petroleum in the world's future energy markets.
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The White House appears ready to abandon the landmark Iranian nuclear deal in favor of what experts say could lead to war with Iran. The New York Times reported last week that President Donald Trump has instructed his national security aides to find a rationale for declaring that Iran is violating the terms of the accord. The order came despite the fact the Trump administration reluctantly certified that Iran has complied with its obligations under the agreement earlier this month.

Last week, Trump intensified his threats against Iran during a speech in Youngstown, Ohio. Observers say Trump's actions are laying the groundwork for a disastrous military confrontation with Iran. We speak with Trita Parsi, founder and president of the National Iranian American Council.

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Is President Donald Trump trying to sabotage the Obama-brokered nuclear agreement with Iran and seek a war instead with Iran? According to The New York Times, Trump has instructed his national security aides to find a rationale for declaring that Iran is violating the terms of the accord. The order came despite the fact the Trump administration begrudgingly certified that Iran has complied with its obligation under the agreement earlier this month. Last week, Trump intensified his threats against Iran during a speech in Youngstown, Ohio.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: [The Iran deal], which may be the single worst deal I've ever seen drawn by anybody, if that deal doesn't conform --

TRUMP SUPPORTER: Nuke 'em!

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: -- to what it's supposed to conform to, there's going to be big, big problems for them. That, I can tell you.

AMY GOODMAN: For more, we're joined by Trita Parsi, founder and president of the National Iranian American Council, whose new piece for LobeLog is titled "The Mask Is Off: Trump Is Seeking War with Iran." We usually speak to Trita in Washington, D.C. He's in Uppsala, Sweden, right now.

Trita, as you listen to President Trump, the speech he gave just a few days after he recertified the deal he so criticized, but what is this you're hearing about what his plans are?

TRITA PARSI: Well, I think we never before have seen a desire to unravel and destroy an arms control deal having been telegraphed as openly as President Trump is doing. He's essentially saying that he -- he said in the interview with The Wall Street Journal that he would never have certified that they're in compliance 180 days ago, when he first had to do it. So, he's intent not to do it.

In the opening piece, you said that New York Times is reporting that Trump has ordered his staff to find a way to refrain from certifying, and being able to claim that the Iranians are in violation. In reality, he has told them to fabricate a way, because what the plan appears to be is to try to request access to Iranian non-nuclear sites, knowing very well that as long as those are based on zero proper intelligence, the Iranians are going to reject. And once they reject, the Trump administration calculates that they will be able to say that the Iranians are out of compliance with the deal, and, that way, start moving towards what ultimately, most likely, will be some form of a military confrontation.

JUAN GONZALEZ: But, Trita, given the fact that this was a deal reached not just between the United States and Iran, but several other countries, as well, what would be the impact? Wouldn't the United States be further isolating itself from the rest of the international community, if it did attempt to flout the will of the other signatories to the deal?

TRITA PARSI: Certainly. It is not going to be an easy thing, but here's something quite important. Had it been up to Trump, he would have done it in the most reckless way possible, which is just to completely deny that the IAEA has certified that Iran is in compliance, and then claim that Iran isn't, and try to break the deal that way. The adults in the room, the so-called moderates that are around Trump, argued against this, but they didn't argue against it on the basis of trying to save the deal. They only argued against it in order to find a more clever way of doing it so that the cost to the United States, the isolation that you just mentioned, would probably be a bit less.

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From Mondoweiss

On July 19, three New York Timesreporters interviewed Donald Trump -- which made news when the president said he shouldn't have made Jeff Sessions Attorney General -- and afterward reporter Peter Baker said that Trump "tends to veer wildly from topic to topic," and it's hard to follow his train of thought. But Times columnist David Brooks (who was not there) was more unsparing:

"I actually thought the most disturbing part of the whole interview was the transcript. I mean we all are embarrassed when we read transcripts of our conversation. But usually with most people, there's some flow of thought there. There's some more than just sort of spasms about what Napoleon was doing. And then we go off to some other issue and some other issue. I thought -- and especially compared to the transcripts of Donald Trump 15 years ago, there's a totally different conversational style, the explanation for which I do not have."

The clear hint is that Trump is losing his mind. I read the transcript, and here are two sections that Brooks seems to be referring to. First, Napoleon and the economy.

BAKER: Will you go to Britain? Are you going to make a state visit to Britain? Are you going to be able to do that?...

TRUMP: Ah, they've asked me. What was interesting -- so, when [French President Emmanuel] Macron asked, I said: "Do you think it's a good thing for me to go to Paris? I just ended the Paris Accord last week. Is this a good thing?" He said, "They love you in France." I said, "O.K., I just don't want to hurt you...."

We had dinner at the Eiffel Tower, and the bottom of the Eiffel Tower looked like they could have never had a bigger celebration ever in the history of the Eiffel Tower. I mean, there were thousands and thousands of people, 'cause they heard we were having dinner."

[Times reporter Maggie] HABERMAN: You must have been so tired at, by that point.

TRUMP: Yeah. It was beautiful. We toured the museum, we went to Napoleon's tomb ... [crosstalk] Well, Napoleon finished a little bit bad. But I asked that. So I asked the president, so what about Napoleon? He said: "No, no, no. What he did was incredible. He designed Paris." [garbled] The street grid, the way they work, you know, the spokes. He did so many things even beyond. And his one problem is he didn't go to Russia that night because he had extracurricular activities, and they froze to death. How many times has Russia been saved by the weather?

[crosstalk/unintelligible]

Same thing happened to Hitler. Not for that reason, though. Hitler wanted to consolidate. He was all set to walk in. But he wanted to consolidate, and it went and dropped to 35 degrees below zero, and that was the end of that army... But the Russians have great fighters in the cold. They use the cold to their advantage. I mean, they've won five wars where the armies that went against them froze to death... It's pretty amazing.

So, we're having a good time. The economy is doing great.

[Reporter Michael] SCHMIDT: The markets are doing great.

TRUMP: They're going to really go up if we do what we're doing. I mean, cut regulations tremendously. Sometimes -- you know, one thing they hadn't thought about at The Times, where they said I didn't really cut regulations as much. I heard that because I said -- it could have been a little slip-up in terms of what I said -- I meant, for the time in office, five months and couple of weeks, I think I've done more than anyone else. They may have taken it as more than anyone else, period....
It's just about a given, clear to any person paying attention, that Trump will, sooner, rather than later, start a war... or three.

The warning came early, when he wanted tanks in his inauguration parade.

We now know that this psychopath is a vengeful, spiteful, self absorbed narcissist who will inflict punishment on people who displease him.

It's not a matter of if he will start one or more wars. It's a question of when. We know he has no respect for congress or for laws. So he will do it... unless he is stopped. Congress has not terminated the AUMF-- Authorization to Use Military Force-- that has been in place since 2001. And they have abrogated their responsibility to challenge both Obama and Trump in engaging in military actions that should require congressional approval.

So the only way that Trump can be kept from starting a war, or worse, pulling the nuclear trigger, is to use the 25th Amendment to remove him from office because he is unable to function. Here's the actual wording of the key portion of the amendment:

Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President. Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.[3]

So, this is not an easy thing to do. But the alternative is horrific. Trump will use his ability to start wars to distract people from his historic, catastrophic failure. If a war with Iran or North Korea doesn't work, he will use, if we're lucky, one nuclear weapon. Or he may decide to launch volleys of them.

The only way to protect humanity and this planet from the near certainty of war and the likelihood of nuclear insanity is to remove Donald Trump from the equation. Every day that the Republican controllers of the House and Senate delay, they put the planet at great peril.

It is time to start calling every member of congress and let them know that Trump has shown Americans and the world that he is completely incapable of functioning as president of the United States. Perhaps, to convince the members of congress, Pollsters like Gallup, Pew, even Rasmussen and others should be asking the question. "Is Donald Trump capable of functioning as president?"




From Paul Craig Roberts Website

Some historians believe that the cause of WW2 was UK prime minister Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler's recovery of German territory given to other countries via the Versailles Treaty in contravention of US President Woodrow Wilson's promise to Germany that there would be no reparations and no loss of territory if Germany agreed to an armistice ending WW1.

I do not agree. The facts seem clear. The cause of WW2 was the gratuitous and unenforceable guarantee to the Polish military government given by Chamberlain that if Poland refused to hand German lands and populations back to Germany, Great Britain would be there to support Poland. When Germany and the Soviet Union made the deal to split Poland between them and attacked, Britain due to its stupid "guarantee" declared war on Germany, but not on the Soviet Union. As France was aligned by treaty with Britain, France, too, had to declare war. Because of the reign of propaganda in the West, hardly anyone knows this, but WW2 was started by the British and French declaration of war on Germany. Yet, it was the surviving members of the German regime who were put on trial by the US, UK, France, and the Soviet Union in Nuremberg for initiating aggressive war.

Nevertheless, as the general opinion is that Chamberlain encouraged Hitler to ever more aggressive actions by the British failure to respond, why has no one pointed out that the Russian government's lack of response to Washington's aggressive actions toward Russia encourages Washington to become more aggressive. This also is leading to war.

The Russian government, like Chamberlain's, has not responded to provocations far more dangerous than Chamberlain faced, because, like Chamberlain, the Russian government prefers peace to war.

The question is whether the Russian government is avoiding or encouraging war by its non-response to illegal sanctions and propagandistic accusations and demonizations. Russia has even allowed Washington to put ABM bases on its borders with Poland and Romania. This is like the US permitting Russia to put missile bases in Cuba.

Russia is disadvantaged because, unlike the United States, Russia is an open society, not a police state like the US where dissent is controlled and suppressed. The Russian government is handicapped by its decision to permit foreign ownership of some of its media. It is disadvantaged by its decision to accept hundreds of American and European financed NGOs that organize protests and constantly level false charges at the Russian government. The Russian government permits this because it mistakenly believes Washington and its vassals will see Russia as a tolerant democracy and welcome it into the Western Family of Nations.

Russia is also disadvantaged by its educated upper class, professors and businessmen who are Western oriented. The professors want to be invited to conferences at Harvard University. The businessmen want to be integrated into the Western business community. These people are known as "Atlanticist Integrationists." They believe Russia's future depends on acceptance by the West and are willing to sell out Russia in order to gain this acceptance. Even some of Russian youth think everything is great in America where the streets are paved with gold, and some of the Russian media take their cue from the Western presstitutes.

It is a difficult situation for the Russian government. The Russians mistakenly believed that the demise of the Soviet Union made us all friends. It seems only Gorbachev understands that the Soviet collapse removed all constraint on Washington's hegemonic behavior. Few in Russia seem to understand that the enormous budget and power of the US military/security complex, about which President Eisenhower, warned in 1961, needs an enemy for its justification, and that the Soviet collapse had removed the enemy. The very minute that Russia stood up for its national interest, Washington filled the desperately needed category of "The Enemy" with Putin's Russia.

The Russian government and upper class have been extremely slow in realizing this. Indeed, only a few are beginning to see the light.

Despite the writing on the wall, Russia's new UN envoy, Vasily Nabenzya declared on July 29 that Russia has no alternative to "building bridges under any circumstances. We will cooperate. Americans cannot go without us, and us without them. This is an objective reality."

This is a statement of Russian surrender.

Russia's deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov also refuses to read the writing on the wall. He thinks Washington and Moscow must "break the vicious circle of retaliation and start anew."

On July 30, Russian President Putin finally responded to the Obama regime's orchestrated expulsion of Russian diplomats from Washington last Christmas and illegal seizure of Russian government properties in the Washington area by evicting 750 "American diplomats," in reality agents working to undermine the Russian government. Putin could just as well have arrested them. It only took seven months for Russia to respond to Washington's hostile actions against Russian diplomats.

Sometimes the Russian government shows some awareness that it is permanently designated as Washington's Number One Enemy. Putin explained the belated expulsion of US "diplomats" as follows: "We've been waiting for quite a long time that maybe something would change for the better, we had hopes that the situation would change. But it looks like, it's not going to change in the near future... I decided that it is time for us to show that we will not leave anything unanswered."

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I went to the 2017 Vermont Brewers Festival to have fun and cash in all of my drink tickets, and I swear to Jesus dry-hopped Christ, I almost didnt get to cash in all of my drink tickets.

It wasnt for lack of trying, and it certainly wasnt for lack of appealing choices. My near-failure to burn all 15 of the drink tickets given me upon entering the festival grounds boils down to what is best characterized as a comical over-abundance of choices, or at least it wouldve been funny if the vastness of this years selections wasnt so daunting. Among the fests impressive coterie of stalwarts and comparative newcomers in the Green Mountain States grand fellowship of craft breweries: Alchemist, Lawsons Finest Liquids, Fiddlehead, Frost Beer Works, Burlington Beer Company, Zero Gravity, River Roost, Idletyme, Foley Brothers, and 14th Star; these were joined by a cadre of out of state breweries from Night Shift to Lord Hobo, Allagash to Foundation.

If that doesnt seem like a lot, consider that Im flying off the seat of my memory pants instead of referring to either the Internet or the vendor guide handed out to festival goers; that would feel a lot like cheating. I prefer honesty, and if Im being honest, the VT Brewers Festival experience is overwhelming; for a newcomer, for a veteran, for anyone. But its also eye-opening, both from an industry-level perspective and from a ground-level perspective. You can learn a lot about people just by paying attention to what theyre drinking, and so too you can learn a lot about breweries serving them by paying attention to what they have on tap. (I told a lie at the start of this piece. I went to the fest to have fun, yes, and I went to the fest to cash in drink tickets. But I also went to the fest to talk to other beer lovers, whether full-nerd or casual admirer.)

So what did the brewers have on tap? If youre familiar with New England beer, you probably quite smugly, and correctly, guessed hazy, fruity, beastly IPAs. Just about everyone on-site had our regional take on the single most popular style of beer in the craft brewing world: Alchemist, to the surprise of exactly no one, brought Focal Banger and Heady Topper, while Lawsons slung tasters of Sip o Sunshine as well as Hopzilla until they kicked their taps; Fiddlehead answered with Mastermind, and Frost with Lush and Plush. River Roost and Burlington Beer Company both brought an array of single IPAs that drink like doubles, and these, in case youre curious, happened to rank among my favorites of the evening: River Roosts Morilla, a sharp pome bomb hopped generously with an amalgam of Mosaic and Amarillo hops  if the pear notes dont get you, the lemony finish will  and Burlington Beer Companys I See the Vision, a rotating IPA series brewed using an array of differing fruits, enhanced with lupulin powder. (I dont recall how many varieties they had at their booth, but I was perfectly happy with papaya and yuzu.) Theyre both exquisite, but more importantly they showcase our regional approach to IPAs as well as the states titans, Alchemist and Lawsons.

Those two names alone make opening a brewery in Vermont a tad stressful. You know right off the bat, everythings going to be compared to them, said River Roosts owner and brewmaster Mark Babson, especially if youre doing similar styles. Yeah, its nerve-racking. The good news, then, may well be that Alchemist brought their staples plus Beelzebub and Pappys Porter; they dont feel much pressure to do anything other than what Alchemist does, hoping that that will be enough. (Lets be blunt: When you make beer like Alchemists, that pretty much does the trick, but at festivals you cant be blamed for wishing for more.) Lawsons, by contrast, brought a bunch of drinks other than their standard hits, ala their Rhubarb Basil Saison, and the Maple Nipple; theyve made massive leaps from their early days of coming to the fest, when they only had three beers in bottles at the VIP tent only.

But funny enough, much as Lawsons have typically used the fest as a chance to try out new things, they remain top dogs in their field because of their flagships. Its easy to assume theres pressure among breweries to conform to meet the expectations of the market and the demands of their patrons palates, but while IPAs were everywhere at the fest, they werent the only things worth getting pours of. In point of fact, sours, notably fruit-forward sours, like Night Shifts Ever Weisse and 14th Stars Squeeze the Day, were all over the place, and played a necessary role in keeping my taste buds safe from hop-overkill. (If you were at the fest and you didnt try the 14th Star, you missed out; Squeeze the Day is the winning beer in their home brew challenge, and for that alone, drinking in its assertive citrus flavors was an essential component of my festival experience.) And for those with tastes that lean toward the roasty, plenty of stouts and porters were on hand, too, though none hit me like Foley Brothers Smoking Wheat. I tend to associate stouts with darker, colder times of the year, but this one felt appropriate even for a gorgeous summer evening  not too heavy, but with enough of that inner thermal quality to heat up your insides as day turned to night.

In this disjointed collection of styles, though, we come to the ultimate point of the Vermont Brewers Fest: Its all about the beer, and bringing beer that people will try and love. In the end, Babson told me, I make my own beer, make what I like, and hope everybody else enjoys it, too. With so many different preferences to appease, and so many different styles for brewers to play around with, I cant think of a better way to put it than that.

Boston-based critic Andy Crump has been writing about film and television online since 2009, and has been contributing to Paste Magazine since 2013. He writes additional words for The Playlist, Slant Magazine, and Birth. Movies. Death., and is a member of the Online Film Critics Society and the Boston Online Film Critics Association. You can follow him on Twitter and find his collected writing at his personal blog. He is composed of roughly 65% craft beer.
Dr George Owusu Essegbey, Director of the Science and Technology Policy Institute (STEPRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), says launch of Ghansat-1 provides a good opportunity for capabilities in space science.



Welcoming the launch of Ghanas first satellite (Ghansat-1) into orbit a few weeks ago by students of the All Nations University in Koforidua, Dr Essegbey told the GNA: Gradually, space science technology has become so important that all countries, irrespective of their level of development and leverage, will have to engage in that.



So, for a country like Ghana, it is good that we have started the process to have our own satellite. We have to build our capabilities in all aspects of the technology, including the development and application of satellite technology.



Dr Essegbey listed some specific areas of application of the satellite technology in areas like telecommunications, broadcasting and meteorological surveillance and saying it is important for Ghana to create its indigenous capacity in space science technology.



The accumulation of knowledge in any aspects of science demands that we continue to also enhance existing knowledge in the institutions such as the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, he said.



He also said it was necessary to train the countrys human resource, particularly at the tertiary level, as well as among primary and junior and senior high school students to engage the technology and apply it to national development.

What All Nations University has done is to try to have a stream of students who will continuously be interested in contributing to national capacity in space science technology, he said.



He, however, bemoaned the low funding accorded science and technology research in the countrys tertiary institutions, saying though the Ghana government paid the salaries of CSIR staff and those of other tertiary institutions, they lack the requisite funding for research activities.



Government pays the salaries of all members of staff of the CSIR; what is lacking is the fund for operations, he said.

He explained that the institutions now looked up to donors and collaborating agencies for the necessary support to fund research.



While accepting donor assistance, Dr Essegbey insisted this was not in the nations interest because foreign donors could end up taking total or partial control of ownership of the research projects.



He therefore called for sufficient financial resources from government for research, adding that the institutions would continue doing what they had been doing.



He expressed his appreciation to the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology for setting up a Science and Technology Research Fund to encourage research in tertiary institutions.



The more people have to appreciate what scientific institutions are doing to contribute to national development, the more mindsets will change; we will do our part, he stated.



Dr Essegbey lauded China for offering scholarships and study opportunities to Ghanaian scientists and other professionals, particularly in climate change, and medicine, among other disciplines.

Source: GNA









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The Board, Staff and Stakeholders of ACTIVA International Insurance Company Limited have, on Wednesday, 26th July, 2017, held a befitting farewell cocktail reception for the out-going MD/CEO of ACTIVA International Insurance, Mr. Steve Kyerematen at the Movenpick Ambassador Hotel, Accra.



Those who attended the ceremony included Hon. Alan Kyerematen, Minister of Trade & Industry, Mad. Lydia Lariba Bawa, Commissioner of Insurance, Mr. Richard Lowe, Group Chairman / President and Board members of Groupe ACTIVA, as well as Ms. Aretha Duku, President of Ghana Insurers Association, Mr. Nathan Adu, President of the Ghana Insurance Brokers Association, Rev. Ahenkora Marfo, President of the Insurance Institute of Ghana, MDs/CEOs/Executive Directors of corporate Ghana and other stalwarts of industry and the Insurance Industry.



In his welcome address, the group Chairman/President of Groupe ACTIVA, Mr. Richard Lowe narrated his long standing relationship and association with Mr. Steve Kyerematen during the creation of the company in Ghana.



ACTIVA was created in Cameroun in 1998, with the vision and ambition to build an African champion capable of delivering fit insurance solutions to individuals and corporations throughout the continent. Almost 20 years later, we have active subsidiaries in 5 countries (hopefully 7 countries by the end of the year), and a network, GLOBUS, which covers 47 countries.



And, it gives me great satisfaction to mention the significant contribution of Mr. Steve Kyerematen in building the footprint and the reputation of ACTIVA and GLOBUS brands in Africa. In fact, Ghana was the first step of the expansion of our Group outside of Cameroun. The commitment of Steve was key in our decision to invest in Ghana. I was right. In about 8 years, he was able to turn ACTIVA Ghana into an envied player of this mature market, with a prestigious portfolio of blue chip, multinational company and local businesses, Mr. Lowe told the gathering.



Mr. Steve Kyerematen's successor, the new MD/CEO of ACTIVA, Mr. Solomon Lartey, said For me, these shoes are quite big to fill and heavy to walk in; but it is a challenge I embrace and look forward to. You have set standards high to at least maintain and yet, to build upon to catapult this great African organization to where it belongs. He said Mr. Richard Lowe (Founder), Ian Tofield (Director), Steve Kyerematen and himself share one vision: 'A vision to build a world class insurance organization, capable of matching the quality and standards exhibited by any top insurance company in the world. A world class enterprise by Africans, in Africa; and for Africa and the World''



Fraternal messages were delivered by Mad. Lariba Bawa, Commissioner of Insurance, Ms. Aretha Duku, President of Ghana Insurers Association, Mr. Nathan Adu, President of the Ghana Insurance Brokers Association, Rev. Ahenkora Marfo, President of the Insurance Institute of Ghana and farewell messages by Staff of ACTIVA International Insurance Company Ghana were delivered in English and French to the admiration of the gathering.



Mr. Steve Kyerematen in his farewell message, thanked the staff of ACTIVA for their support and co-operation in ensuring that ACTIVA has now become one of the leading Insurance companies in Ghana. He thanked the Board and the Management team and his wife for their unflinching support in steering the affairs of the company from 2009 to his retirement.



Mr. Steve Kyerematen is retiring with heavy responsibilities and duties as the Vice-Chairman of ACTIVA Ghana, Chairman of ACTIVA Liberia, Chairman of ACTIVA Sierra Leone and Managing Director of ACTIVA Finances Limited.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Cat. 3 Course:

Cat. 2 Course:

Pro/Cat. 1 Course:

The Northwest Cup returns to Washington after two spectacular rounds in Idaho. The last being the showdown at Silver Mountain Bike Park, which continues to deliver tight racing and grass roots community weekend to rival the best. The points battle in the overalls is in full red alert status, as contenders must seize the opportunity to climb in rankings and for those out of the points battle, it's down to the last two events for any chance at some NW Cup podium time.Stevens Pass Bike Park will host the last two rounds of the NW Cup for 2017. Stevens Pass Bike Park has been a favorite stop among NW Cup racers. The crew at Stevens Pass has been hard at work dialing in the tracks for this weekends events, so tracks should be fun and fast!Here are your course previews for the coming weekend courtesy of the Transition crew.As always, thanks to those who support the 2017 NW Cup:
Niagara Falls, NY nurse and top-notch local rounder Blake Napierala won the 2017 Seneca Niagara Summer Slam Main Event for $23,316 inside the Niagara Falls Poker Room at the Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino Sunday.

The $600 buy-in reentry event drew 414 entries over two starting flights Friday and Saturday, creating a $100,000 guarantee-smashing $220,869 prize pool that paid the top 45.

A total of 88 survivors pushed through to Sundays final day and they moved into the money fairly quickly.

Overnight leader Scott Hosbach dominated play throughout and held on to bring the lead into the final table of ten. However, Kristan Mackiewicz went on a huge heater in the final nine, and by the time they got down to five-handed play, she had more than a third of the chips in play.

They struck a deal, giving Mackiewicz $30,000 and leaving $1,316, the trophy and title to play for.

Short stacked Blake Napierala took the least amount of money in the chop, then went on a heater of his own, knocking out 2015 Summer Slam Main Event champ William Liang, upstart Canadian Sahar Khajavi, and Hosbach in short order to take a 2:1 chip lead into heads-up play with Mackiewicz.

Mackiewicz doubled up with a dominating ace to flip the script, but Napierala endured, and ultimately got deuces to hold for the win.

Thats all from the 2017 Seneca Niagara Summer Slam series, where the players and staff at Seneca Niagara put on another great show, crushing all the event guarantees and having a great time doing it.

Next up is the 2017 Seneca Fall Poker Classic coming up sometime in November. Keep it locked on PokerNews for all the details.
Police believe Richard Dayday Austria, 40, was speeding when he struck a pedestrian last month in Mangilao.

Austria was arrested yesterday by Guam Highway Patrol officers and charged with vehicular homicide, negligent homicide, reckless driving, reckless driving with injuries and speeding in a posted zone.

Police said Austria was driving a Mitsubishi Montero on Route 10 on June 10 when he struck a pedestrian, identified as Roke Rokop, 46, who was crossing the street from Uncle Cho's Mart in Mangilao.

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Rokop died from injuries he sustained from the crash.

According to Post files, Rokop had been drinking near Uncle Cho's Mart for much of the day and went to a friend's house nearby. Eyewitnesses reported to police that Rokop had purchased beer at the mom-and-pop store before he crossed the street and was struck by the car.

Rokop's death marked the fifth traffic-related fatality this year.
Future Market Insights has announced the addition of the Organic Baby Food Market: BRIC Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 2014-2020"report to their offering.

Organic Baby Food Market

PR-Inside.com: 2017-07-31 10:36:06

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616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite :www.futuremarketinsights.comAbhishek Budholiya+1-347-918-3531

Future Market Insights (FMI) has released a new report titled, Organic Baby Food Market - BRIC Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2015-2020. According to the report, the global organic baby food market is expected to account for US$ 5.6 Bn by 2020, registering a CAGR of 10.5% during the forecast period. On the other hand, the BRIC organic baby food market is projected to reach US$ 3,528.7 Mn at a CAGR of 19.5% over the forecast period.Rapid urbanisation, rising parental concern to feed their child with healthy and chemical free products, health awareness programmes by regional governments, emphasis on natural nourishment, and aggressive product branding will contribute to drive the growth of the global organic baby food market over the forecast period.The BRIC organic baby food market is driven by factors, such as rising number of working mothers, increased organic components, harvesting, and government support in the form of subsidies and other benefits. Moreover, consumer demand for specialised and healthy products is expected to fuel the market growth of organic baby food in BRIC region.The BRIC organic baby food market report mainly covers three segments: product type, distribution channel, and countries in BRIC region. On the basis of product, the market is further sub-segmented into milk formula organic baby food, ready to feed organic baby food, dried organic baby food, prepared organic baby food, and others. Milk formula organic baby food is expected to be the highest contributor to the market of BRICS organic baby food in terms of revenue, followed by prepared organic baby food. Milk formula organic baby food is anticipated to witness a CAGR of 20.3% through 2020 and reach a valuation of US$1,109.6 Mn.Request For Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-br-333 On the basis of distribution channel, the sub-segmentation comprises speciality outlet, supermarkets, internet or online selling, chemist/pharmacies/drugstores, and others. Among all the aforementioned distribution channels, the supermarket sub-segment is expected to dominate the market, accounting for US$ 1,414.6 Mn revenue by registering a CAGR of 21.2% in the forecasted period. The ease and convenience of buying products through internet will provide an impetus to the internet or online selling distribution channel and make it a favourable distribution channel for organic baby food, thereby accounting for 19.7% CAGR growth by 2020.Key countries for BRIC organic baby food market include India, China, Brazil and Russia. China represents the most lucrative market, followed by India. China is expected to contribute US$ 2,119.0 Mn revenue in the forecasted period. Growth of the market in China is supported by food safety issues. For example, thethe melamine scandal in baby food prompted consumers to turn towards healthy and hygienic food.Assessing the various factors driving this market, FMI Lead Analyst said, Increasing consumer awareness regarding benefits of greener products, rising parental concern, and doctors recommendation for organic baby food are expected to fuel the demand for organic baby food in BRIC.Key players profiled in this report include Nestle S.A, H.J. Heinz Company, Groupe Danone, British Biologicals, Abbott Laboratories, Bellamys Australia Limited, Campbell Soup Company, Otsuka Holdings Co., Ltd and others.Send An Enquiry@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-br-333
PR-Inside.com: 2017-07-31 08:02:01

Simple, efficient eInvoicing meets requirements across Europe through a single connection

New GHX eInvoicing Solution Helps Healthcare Suppliers Meet EU Directives

Tier One Partners

Paula Timko, 508-826-1508

ptimko@tieronepr.com

Global Healthcare Exchange, LLC (GHX) today announced a pan-European eInvoicing solution designed to help healthcare suppliers meet electronic invoicing regulations. With the new GHX eInvoicing, suppliers can issue and send compliant invoices to healthcare provider customers and governments across Europe from one connection.

The GHX solution, which works with the GHX Exchange Services, supports the eInvoicing requirements for integrity, authenticity, legibility and archiving under the VAT Directive 2006/112/ED and the Electronic Invoice Directive 2010/45/EU. It also provides an easy-to-use portal for customers to access invoices electronically, even those with no EDI capabilities.

Moving away from paper invoices and manual invoicing processes will be an advantage for healthcare suppliers across Europe. However, navigating through the complexity of the European marketplace and complying with the various regulations of the EU member states can be a significant challenge, said Dr. Nedzad Fajic, president, GHX Europe. The new GHX eInvoicing solution with its eInvoicing portal will deliver better visibility into the entire order-to-cash cycle, reduce manual processing and help suppliers deliver a better customer experience.

By November 27, 2018, all EU countries are required to adopt Directive 2014/55/EU into local law, which calls for all invoices sent to hospitals to have authenticity of origin, content integrity and eligibility by having business controls and/or electronic invoicing technology in place. GHX eInvoicing is designed to meet those requirements with a simple and efficient solution.

eInvoices will be sent through a suppliers existing GHX Global Exchange connection and checked to validate content is in the required fields. The eInvoice will then be delivered to the relevant customers and government access points across Europe, with digital signatures and archiving where required for compliance. Non-EDI capable customers will also be able to receive invoices through the new eInvoicing portal, where they can manage and retrieve invoices in PDF format, as well as receive them via email.

The new eInvoicing solution includes:

Enabling any electronic invoice to be converted in the appropriate format with the appropriate information to comply with EU country-specific invoicing regulations.

Interoperates with the GHX Global Exchange and other GHX solutions for the full order-to-cash cycle to provide a one-stop solution for eInvoicing in Europe.

Automatically sends the compliant invoice to the appropriate public administration access point, as well as the appropriate customers.

A dedicated online portal that allows even non-EDI capable customers to see and download invoices.

Provides suppliers and their customers with access to current and past invoices all in one place.

Includes tracking and monitoring capabilities.

Availability

GHX eInvoicing is now generally available across Europe. For more information, contact Marcus Schiewe, Head of Supplier Sales, Europe, +49 (0) 211 301 88 300.

About GHX Europe

Global Healthcare Exchange, LLC (GHX), with its European headquarters in Brussels, drives costs out of healthcare with cloud-based supply chain management technology and services to help enable better patient care and savings by maximizing automation, efficiency, and accuracy of business processes. GHX offers European healthcare providers and suppliers an open and neutral electronic trading exchange that delivers procurement and accounts payable automation as well as other supply chain-related tools and services. For more information, visit www.ghx.com/europe/en and The Healthcare Hub.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201707300050
For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world's population, while enabling the "elites" to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, crusading filmmaker ALEX JONES reveals their secret plan for humanity's extermination: Operation ENDGAME.

Jones chronicles the history of the global elite's bloody rise to power and reveals how they have funded dictators and financed the bloodiest warscreating order out of chaos to pave the way for the first true world empire.

Watch as Jones and his team track the elusive Bilderberg Group to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III.





to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. Learn about the formation of the North America transportation control grid, which will end U.S. sovereignty forever.





Discover how the practitioners of the pseudo-science eugenics have taken control of governments worldwide as a means to carry out depopulation.





View the progress of the coming collapse of the United States and the formation of the North American Union.

Never before has a documentary assembled all the pieces of the globalists' dark agenda. Endgame's compelling look at past atrocities committed by those attempting to steer the future delivers information that the controlling media has meticulously censored for over 60 years. It fully reveals the elite's program to dominate the earth and carry out the wicked plan in all of human history.

Endgame is not conspiracy theory, it is documented fact in the elite's own words.




By: SMi Group

Register at www.airmissiledefence.com/prlog

End

-- The Czech MoD has announced plans to acquire the new Saab RBS 70 NG VSHORAD system within the next three years. In line with this, the 'Safeguard Temelin 2017' exercise has demonstrated how the police and Czech Armed Forces collaborated to overcome a hijacked plane from engaging one of its national nuclear power plants. This is a testament to the Czech Republic's progressive initiative to enhance their air and missile defence capabilities.With current threats now including conventional and unconventional platforms such as commercially available UAVs, SMi Group's Air Missile Defence Technology 2017 will feature crucial briefings led by the Czech Armed Forces on all aspects of their air and air missile defence platforms and systems.As the Czech Republic continues to lead with their enhanced air and missile defence capabilities, five crucial presentations at the conference will showcase the nation's latest advances in technology and detailed insights into the latest military requirements, including two keynote addresses from the Czech Armed Forces.Colonel Jaroslaw Ackermann, Chief of the Air Defence Branch, will explore the current risks and threats to the Czech Forces and will discuss strategies and collaboration opportunities with regional partners to defend local air space from incursion.Colonel Jan Sedliacik, Commander of the 25th Air Defence Regiment, will present on how the armed forces are modernising their air defence capabilities for nationwide cover, including replacing their legacy systems such as the SA=10 by 2020-2022. He will also consider options for C-RAM to protect vital infrastructure and troops.Other key speakers from the Czech Armed Forces include Colonel Milan Malik, Commander of the 26th Air Command, Control and Surveillance Regiment and Major Jaroslav Sekanina, SME GBAD of the Czech Air Force; and Lieutenant Colonel Jan Farlik, Department of Air Defence Systems, University of Defence.The event programme will also include senior military briefings from the Polish Air Forces, Hungarian Army, Slovakian Air Force, US Army, French Air Force, US EUCOM and the Royal Netherlands Army; as well as key industry presentations from Weibel Scientific, MBDA, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.The full agenda can be viewed on www.airmissiledefence.com/prlog.For those interested in attending, there is currently an Early Bird discount of 100 for online registrations made by 30 September 2017.2nd annual Air Missile Defence Technology ConferenceOctober 24 & 25, 2017Courtyard by Marriott Prague Airport Hotel, Czech Republicwww.airmissiledefence.com/prlog---ENDS---Contact Information:For queries on military bookings, contact James Hitchen on jhitchen@smi-online.co.uk.For sponsorship and exhibition details, contact Jamie Gordon on jgordon@smi-online.co.uk. For media enquiries contact Honey de Gracia on hdegracia@smi-online.co.uk.About SMi Group:Established since 1993, the SMi Group is a global event-production company that specializes in Business-to-Business Conferences, Workshops, Masterclasses and online Communities. We create and deliver events in the Defence, Security, Energy, Utilities, Finance and Pharmaceutical industries. We pride ourselves on having access to the world's most forward thinking opinion leaders and visionaries, allowing us to bring our communities together to Learn, Engage, Share and Network. More information can be found at http://www.smi- online.co.uk
MATTOON -- There is a great opportunity available for students attending Lake Land College for the 2017-18 school year. Students interested in meeting new friends, gaining leadership skills, building their resume and earning a scholarship can apply to become a Lake Land College Student Ambassador.

According to a press release, Student Ambassador applications are being accepted for the upcoming school year. As an ambassador, students are selected to serve as official college representatives at events such as college fairs and high school visits. In addition, ambassadors conduct campus tours and assist with special functions sponsored by the college.

Being a Student Ambassador is a challenging job, but it is a prestigious organization to join, said Lisa Shumard-Shelton, director of new student admissions. Our ambassadors gain invaluable leadership skills and have a lot of fun at the same time.

As a Student Ambassador, each student will receive official Lake Land College Student Ambassador apparel and get to take part in specific trainings and special activities, exclusively for the team members. Ambassadors who complete requirements will receive a $500 scholarship from Lake Land College for their year of service.

Requirements include: participating in training sessions; attending regularly scheduled weekly meetings; serving as an official representative of Lake Land College at career fairs, high school visits and other events that involve student recruitment; conducting campus tours; assisting with student registration during the fall and spring semesters; participating in telephone and letter writing campaigns; and completing at least 10 credits of activities each semester.

Eligibility to become a Student Ambassador requires that:

Students must be enrolled on campus at least half-time for both the fall and spring semesters during the year of application.

Applicants must have a Lake Land College cumulative GPA of at least 2.50 as calculated by the college.

Applications must be received on Friday, Sept. 1, and personal interviews will be conducted Sept. 5-8. Application materials are available at www.lakelandcollege.edu/student-life/student-ambassadors. Or to request a printed copy of the application or for other inquiries, contact Shumard-Shelton at 217-234-5254 or lshumard-shelton@lakeland.cc.il.us.
Beginners Integration Training Program contributes to Emerson's commitment to Saudi Arabia by hiring and developing local talent

By: Orient Planet PR & Marketing Communications

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-- DAMMAM, Saudi Arabia, July 31, 2017  Emerson Automation Solutions has started their Beginners Integration Training (BIT) Program this month, recruiting 15 Saudi nationals who have recently graduated from top universities and institutes in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States. The recruitment and training program, which is consistent with Emerson's global commitment to invest in local resourcing and communities where its customers are, is planned to be conducted annually with a minimum of 15 graduates who will be hired to full-time positions with the company each year.The newly recruited graduates will occupy technical (electronics, instrumentation, computer science, chemical and mechanical engineering)and non-technical positions (such as logistics, finance, marketing, administration, and document control).This recruitment and training program reflects Emerson's continued commitment to invest and further economic development within the region. It is designed to support the In-Kingdom Total Value Add (IKTVA) program by driving localization and job creation in the region through the development of local talent. Emerson's BIT program will also aid in managing and staffing projects locally in the Kingdom, allowing faster project completions.The training, allowing the participants to be exposed to the various operations involved with Systems and Solutions through several courses, is expected to be completed within less than a year. Performance of participants will be measured through progress reports, training examinations, and program milestone reviews.The first group of new hires for Emerson's Beginners Integration Training Program started during the first week of July.Liam Hurley, General Manager of Emerson Automation Solutions in Saudi Arabia, stated, "Even after the first week, the standard set by this group of employees is very high and reaffirms our long-term vision for this program. I am very excited about Emerson's future in Saudi Arabia having this team on-board and look forward now to seeing how the group grows and develops throughout the program".Emerson's continued efforts to provide support for Saudi Arabia includes the development of their facilities in Dammam First Industrial City and Dhahran Techno Valley. The facility located in Dammam First Industrial City opened early this year to provide services such as engineering, staging, commissioning, operational support, maintenance support, repair, field services, and training support to customers in the capital of Saudi Arabia's eastern region.Emerson's facility in Dhahran Techno Valley, which is scheduled to be completed in October 2017, has been designed to add research and development capabilities to Emerson's existing footprint in the Kingdom and to support the delivery of support and services to the oil and gas, mining and other process industries in Saudi Arabia. Investing a total of US $25 million in the facility, it will be equipped with first class resources and facilities to support Emerson's collaboration with local Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs), universities and industrial organizations to develop new solutions to tackle some of the most complex technical industrial challenges. Supporting Emerson's investment in local talent development, the facility will also incorporate training and education facilities.
Members of this year's President's Club that are National Sales Leaders, Franchise Division Coordinators, Conversion Managers and HRIS Specialists of INFINITI HR travel on reward to Greece.

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-- INFINITI HR, the leading Professional Employer Organization and Human Capital Management infrastructure designed for franchises, small and mid-size enterprises, welcomes 2017 President's Club honorees in Athens, Greece. The President's Club is the highest honor INFINITI HR bestows to exceptional associates and national alliance partners committed to the highest standards of innovation, teamwork, accountability and success for its clients.The members of this year's President's Club are National Sales Leaders, Franchise Division Coordinators, Conversion Managers and HRIS Specialists of INFINITI HR who achieved the prerequisite standard for revenue and client retention for the 2016 calendar year and represent the top ten percent of INFINITI HR offices during that time.As members of the 2017 President's Club, honorees proved their ability to persevere and rise above challenges. Their dedication to such an achievement is rewarded with an exceptional adventure to some of the most highly desirable destinations throughout the world. Such an achievement is a significant professional milestone cherished by team members and their honored guests."Congratulations 2017 President's Club honorees," INFINITI HR Division Vice President Daniel Mormino said. "You took personal ownership this year to exceed expectations for revenue growth through a world-class service standard. We thank you for your consistent commitment, innovation and teamwork to deliver exceptional experiences for our clients. Now it's your time to celebrate your triumphs and embrace this most exceptional President's Club adventure. Our President's Club cruise will take you throughout the Greek Isles including Santorini, Mykonos, Crete and Rhodes as we make our way to Athens in a 10 night exceptional experience you can cherish and always remember. Welcome to the 2017 INFINITI HR President's Club Cruise to Greece," Mormino said.The INFINITI HR President's Club has made its name as the gold standard in the PEO industry, open to all qualified team members and national alliance partners that share in the values that made INFINITI HR the Premium PEO for Franchises and leading enterprises of all sizes throughout the United States. The INFINITI HR President's Club takes place every year at world-class international destinations.About INFINITI HRINFINITI HR is the Professional Employer Organization designed to protect franchisors, franchisees and leading enterprises from employer liability. Our PEO platform provides full Regulatory Compliance Management, On Demand HR Directors, Real-Time Payroll /Tax Filing, POS Integration and access into industry leading True-Group Master Policies for Workers' Compensation, Employment Practices Liability Insurance and Employee Benefits available in all 50 states.Click here for the latest press releases and up-to-date news on human resources outsourcing. To learn more about how your units can save time, money and mitigate employer liability, call INFINITI HR at 866-552-7360 or email info@infinitihr.com.
If you are new to iQ you can schedule a demo and learn more about this opportunity.

PSFK iQ - Where Innovators Turn for Research. Our professional-grade research platform is designed specifically for Retail and CX leaders who want to know whats next. Whether youre staying current on trends or need a real-time research partner to help you get ahead, count on PSFK iQ to deliver the info you need to make your next move.
When the Soviet Union withdrew its army from Afghanistan in 1989, its defeat seemed complete and irreversible. Most Afghans bitterly repudiated the attempt to impose communist rule by force.

An Afghan communist officer who fought with the Russians told me that his side lost because they could not overcome their image as atheist infidels.

Today, however, Russia is seeking to remake its image by exploiting Afghan disappointment with the dismal results of the post-9/11 intervention by the U.S. and its allies.

This Russian deployment of so-called soft power appears to be paying dividends in ways that could hardly have been predicted when the Soviet Army left Afghanistan after nine years of war.

The Russians are ramping up political, economic and propaganda activities to improve their image and reestablish their influence amid pervasive corruption that is impeding progress in Afghanistan.

Regardless of the gains that have been made in some areas, masses of unemployed Afghans have lost hope and are emigrating in unprecedented numbers. Afghan soldiers are fighting valiantly, but terrorist attacks are on the rise and the U.S.-backed Afghan government appears incapable of establishing security across the country. The bulk of U.S. and NATO military forces have departed, aggravating Afghan fears of being abandoned again by the West.

Russia is seeking to help shape events on the ground by cultivating closer ties to the Afghan government.

According to the Moscow-based Center for Contemporary Afghan Studies, Russia is seeking to help shape events on the ground by cultivating closer ties to the Afghan government.

Russia has expanded its embassy staff and signed a security agreement with Afghanistan in 2016, reportedly shipping in 10,000 Kalashnikov rifles and millions of rounds of ammunition. In the economic sphere, President Vladimir Putin's special envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, promised to support Afghanistan's housing sector during his February meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

The Russian Embassy spent $20 million to rebuild the abandoned Soviet Friendship Center. Hoping that it will regain its previous role in promoting an affinity for Russia, the embassy reopened it as the new Russian Cultural Center, but many Afghans still use the original Soviet name. And that's just one of 150 projects Moscow has undertaken at a cost of tens of millions of dollars in its effort to restore Russia's lost economic and cultural clout in Afghanistan.

Although this level of expenditure is small in comparison to the billions of dollars being spent by other countries, Russia, unlike the U.S., has an effective propaganda apparatus to publicize its aid projects. Pro-Russian media promote the perception that Soviet infrastructure projects, such as the Salang Tunnel and the Band-e Sardeh dam, were better built than what came afterwards.

Pro-Russian stories depict a stark contrast with wasteful U.S. spending. Independently, wasteful U.S. spending has been documented in reports from the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.

Intent on promoting a positive image among Muslims, Russia has publicly announced assistance to the Taliban to help it resist ISIS and promote peace negotiations.

General John Nicholson, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and other American officials see it differently. They accuse Russia of aiding the Taliban to destabilize Afghanistan and undermine U.S. interests.

From Russia's perspective, however, the dual strategy of backing the government and the insurgents positions it to accommodate whoever comes out ahead. Afghans add matter-of-factly that Russia, in keeping with its long history of involvement in their country, also exerts influence through covert funding to political leaders and groups outside the government.

At present, Russia is enjoying a remarkable comeback in the land that once fought so violently to expel it. According to an experienced Afghan businessman, the growing Russian engagement in Kabul business ventures and other activities produces negative comparisons with Americans.

While the latter have gained a reputation for living behind walls, afraid to venture out among Afghans because of the terrorist threat, the Russians reportedly walk the streets openly, take taxis and visit Afghan associates and friends in their homes without security escorts.

The theme of American fear of Afghans evidently is taking root.

The theme of American fear of Afghans evidently is taking root. Several Afghan elders that I interviewed in the context of a counterinsurgency study told me spontaneously that the Russians were braver than you [Americans]. When I posed this question to an old mujahid commander who had waged fierce battles against the Russians, he pondered it for a moment and responded that they were not braver but instead were more ruthless, obliterating entire rebel villages.

When I countered that this ruthlessness did not gain victory in the end, and the Russians must have made serious mistakes, he responded: Mistakes? No. They simply ran out of money.

It could be argued, however, that they did commit a fundamental mistake. The Russians undertook a massive military campaign in 1979 in Afghanistan without the resources or popular support to sustain it. They apparently learned their lesson.

As Russian General Valery Gerasimov has advised, Russia is successfully implanting non-military means of achieving political and strategic goals.

Arturo G. Munoz is a senior political scientist at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation.

This commentary originally appeared on Newsweek on July 31, 2017. Commentary gives RAND researchers a platform to convey insights based on their professional expertise and often on their peer-reviewed research and analysis.
CHARLESTON -- Jack Welsh thought his rabbit was all it needed to be at the Coles County Fair on Sunday.

The 13-year-old from Windsor had the champion individual fryer in the 4-H rabbit show, which kicked off the fair's livestock show lineup.

The category is judged on the rabbit's weight, coat, size and body composition.

"His coat isn't rough," Jack said of his rabbit. "When you put him next to other rabbits his body's bigger and thicker than the other ones."

Winners in other categories at the show were:

Best of show, Michelangelo Reynolds

Champion and reserve champion champion buck, Michelangelo Reynolds

Champion doe, Casey Fisher

Reserve champion individual fryer, Caleb Hurst

Champion meat pen, Caleb Hurst

Reserve champion meat pen, Jack Welsh

Junior showmanship, Whitley Dearing

Senior showmanship, Caleb Hurst
There's apparently not going to be any new reset. Moscow retaliates against new sanctions by ordering the United States diplomatic missions in Russia be drastically slashed.

On the Power Vertical Briefing, we look at the deteriorating Russian-American relationship and what we can expect next.

Joining me is RFE/RL's News Editor Steve Gutterman.

Enjoy...

NOTE: The Power Vertical Briefing is a short look ahead to the stories expected to make news in Russia in the coming week. It is hosted by Brian Whitmore, author of The Power Vertical blog, and appears on Mondays.
The Islamic State (IS) extremist group claimed responsibility for a July 31 attack on the Iraqi Embassy in Kabul that killed two local employees.

Afghan officials said the assault began with a suicide bomber blowing himself up outside the embassy gate, allowing three gunmen to enter the building and setting off a four-hour shootout with security forces.

The Afghan Interior Ministry said in statement that "all the attackers have been killed" by security forces.

Two Afghan employees of the embassy were killed and three people were wounded in the attack, the ministry said.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani condemned the assault and said it was his government's responsibility to provide protection to international missions.

Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmad Jamal condemned the assault as a "terrorist attack."

As Afghan security forces were still battling the attackers, Iraqs Foreign Ministry said its top diplomat in Kabul was evacuated to the Egyptian Embassy and that attempts were under way to remove two Iraqi staffers.

In its claim of responsibility for the attack, IS said that only two of its followers were involved in the assault, not four as Afghan officials said.

The attack came two weeks after the Iraqi Embassy held a rare news conference to celebrate the government's recapture of the city of Mosul from IS fighters.

During the gathering in Kabul, the Iraqi ambassador, Farazdak Al-Ghalli, expressed concerns that the local IS affiliate might stage attacks elsewhere to draw attention away from the extremist group's losses in Iraq.

The Iraqi Embassy is located in Kabul's Shar-e-Naw area, outside the heavily-fortified "green zone," where most foreign diplomatic missions are located.

The local IS affiliate first emerged in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar and Kunar provinces in 2015.

U.S. and Afghan forces have repeatedly targeted the militant group, killing its top local commander, Abu Sayed, and several senior advisers in a July 11 strike in Kunar, the Pentagon has said.

In April, U.S. forces used the army's largest nonnuclear bomb -- nicknamed the Mother of All Bombs -- on IS hideouts in Nangarhar, the Pentagon said. U.S. and Afghan officials said that 96 IS militants were killed in the April 13 attack.

According to Pentagon officials, the group now numbers fewer than 1,000 in Afghanistan.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, AFP, and dpa
Ukrainian officials and local residents moved to stabilize conditions in the freshly recaptured southern city of Kherson, as Russian symbols were being torn down and with the restoration of Ukrainian radio and television service and a new police presence.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's ongoing invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

The action on November 12 came after months of occupation by Russian forces following their unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February and as Ukrainian and Western officials hailed Kyivs latest extraordinary battlefield success and Moscows strategic failure.

Separately, Russian occupying forces said late on November 12 that they were preparing to leave the city of Nova Kakhovka, the site of a damaged dam on the Dnieper River, to a safer location, according to Russian state-run TASS news agency.

As jubilant Kherson residents awoke the morning following the arrival of the first Ukrainian troops, Ukraines military said it was putting stabilization measures in place to ensure safety.

Ihor Klymenko, chief of the National Police of Ukraine, said about 200 officers were at their posts in Kherson and that checkpoints had been set up. Authorities also began seeking out any evidence of possible Russian war crimes, he said in a Facebook post.



The Ukrainian communications watchdog said national TV and radio broadcasts had resumed in the strategic southern city and officials said aid supplies had begun to arrive from nearby regions.

Social media postings on November 12 showed local residents removing memorial plaques put up by Kremlin-installed authorities during the occupation.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other officials warned that while special forces had entered central Kherson, the full deployment of Ukrainian troops was still under way and that some Russian soldiers could have shed military uniforms for civilian clothing and remained in the city.

Even when the city is not yet completely cleansed of the enemys presence, the people of Kherson themselves are already removing Russian symbols and any traces of the occupiers stay in Kherson from the streets and buildings, Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.

But he said that medicine, communications, social services are returning. Life is returning.

WATCH: Local residents welcomed Ukrainian soldiers into Snihurivka on November 10, as advance forces of the Ukrainian military recaptured the town in the southern Mykolayiv region.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, speaking to world leaders at an ASEAN summit in Cambodia, warned that the celebratory mood could turn grim with the possible discovery of war crimes evidence in Kherson.

Such evidence was discovered after Russian troops pulled out of the Kyiv and Kharkiv regions months ago.

Every time we liberate a piece of our territory, when we enter a city liberated from the Russian Army, we find torture rooms and mass graves with civilians tortured and murdered by the Russian Army in the course of the occupation of the territories," he said. "Its not easy to speak with people like this. But I said that every war ends with diplomacy and Russia has to approach talks in good faith.

The White House on November 12 hailed Russias withdrawal from Kherson as an "extraordinary victory" for Ukraine.

"It does look as though the Ukrainians have just won an extraordinary victory where the one regional capital that Russia had seized in this war is now back under a Ukrainian flag -- and that is quite a remarkable thing," U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters as he accompanied President Joe Biden to the ASEAN summit.

Sullivan said that the Russian retreat would have "broader strategic implications," including relieving the longer-term threat by Russia to other southern Ukrainian cities such as Odesa.

"It's a big moment, and it's due to the incredible tenacity and skill of the Ukrainians, backed by the relentless and united support of the United States and our allies," Sullivan said.

Asked about reports that the Biden administration has started to press Zelenskiy to explore negotiations with Moscow, Sullivan said Russia, not Ukraine, was the side that has to decide whether or not to go to the table.

"This whole notion, I think, in the Western press of, 'When's Ukraine going to negotiate?' misses the underlying fundamentals," Sullivan said.

Russia, he added, continues to make "outlandish claims" about its self-declared annexations of Ukrainian lands, even as it retreats from Ukrainian counterattacks.

"Ultimately, at a 30,000-foot level, Ukraine is the party of peace in this conflict and Russia is the party of war. Russia invaded Ukraine. If Russia chose to stop fighting in Ukraine and left, it would be the end of the war. If Ukraine chose to stop fighting and give up, it would be the end of Ukraine," he said. "In that context, our position remains the same as it has been and fundamentally is in close consultation and support of President Zelenskiy.

Separately, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said on November 12 that Moscow's "strategic failure" in Kherson will sow doubt among the Russian public about the point of the war in Ukraine.

"Russia's announced withdrawal from Kherson marks another strategic failure for them. In February, Russia failed to take any of its major objectives except Kherson," Wallace said in a statement. "Now with that also being surrendered, ordinary people of Russia must surely ask themselves: 'What was it all for?'"

Meanwhile, Pavel Filipchuk, the head of the occupation government in Nova Kakhovka, told administrators and residents that Russian forces will be pullng back from the city on the right bank of the Dnieper River.

He cited concerns that the key dam could be damaged by missiles, which would result in flooding.

Both Kyiv and Moscow have accused each other of planning to blast the dam, which has already been severely damaged.

With reporting by AFP, AP, dpa, and Reuters
Human Rights Watch (HRW) says the Armenian government has failed to ensure full accountability for violence conducted by police against "largely peaceful" protesters and journalists in July 2016.

HRW on July 30 said that, meanwhile, during the past year, at least 32 protesters have been indicted, with 21 of them being convicted and 11 receiving prison terms.

A year after Yerevans July protests, victims of police violence are still waiting for justice and accountability, Giorgi Gogia, South Caucasus director at HRW, said in releasing a new report.

The publics trust in police and the justice system is severely shaken, and an effective accountability process is essential for restoring it, he added.

Hundreds of Armenian protesters sympathetic to an armed opposition group holding hostages at a police headquarters in Yerevan clashed with police on several nights in July 2016 after their demand to provide food to the gunmen went unheeded by authorities.

The gunmens demands included the resignation of President Serzh Sarkisian and the release of Zhirayr Sefilian, the leader of Founding Parliament, a radical opposition movement.

The gunmen eventually released all police officers they were holding in exchange for an opportunity to talk to the press.

HRW said that before the gunmen surrendered on July 31, public support for them and disaffection with the government grew into a protest movement, with almost nightly demonstrations in the capital.

HRW called the protests largely peaceful.

At some protests, the authorities used excessive force, assaulting many demonstrators as well as journalists reporting on the events, its report said.

Authorities arbitrarily detained many protest leaders and hundreds of participants, pressing unjustified criminal charges against some. No officials have been prosecuted, it added.

Human Rights Watch said the authorities opened an investigation into police misconduct, but the investigation has led to limited accountability.

No criminal charges have been brought against any law-enforcement officials, the rights group said.

It added that some police faced disciplinary actions, including dismissals. The Yerevan police chief was fired in August 2016 for failing to prevent violent attacks on protesters and journalists.

However, HRW said that in December 2016, Sarkisian awarded the Yerevan deputy police chief, who participated in police operations against protesters on July 29, a medal for excellent maintenance of public order.

"The government should make publicly available any credible evidence that justifies the serious criminal charges against the protest organizers and participants, HRWs Gogia said.

The authorities should not seek to prosecute protesters and impose long prison sentences in retaliation for their vocal, but peaceful activism, he added.
Toomaj Salehi's lyrical support for protesters in Iran has landed him behind bars before, but this time the popular rapper's fortune-telling has fans and family members fearing for his life.

Just days before his September 30 arrest, the 32-year-old Salehi released his latest music video, in which he makes foreboding predictions about the future of Iran's clerical regime if it continues its violent crackdown against ongoing anti-government demonstrations.

"I am the predictor, the fortune teller," he raps in the video for Omen, which shows him reading the patterns left in his coffee cup and warning that brute force will not prevail.

"I saw a cage in the coffee grounds -- a lion was hunting a jackal," he explains, alluding to a fairy tale about wisdom defeating physical strength. "We will rise from the bottom and target the top of the pyramid."

Salehi goes on to warn that the regime's protectors -- including the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the Basij paramilitary forces, the Intelligence Ministry, and the state media -- will all get their day in court.

Salehi followed up on the new video by posting on social media images of him standing alongside protesters and chanting against security forces in his native city in Isfahan Province. The rapper, an ethnic Lur who was arrested last year after releasing other songs critical of the government, offered to turn himself in if protesters detained in his hometown of Shahinshahr were released.

In subsequent posts, he called the provincial authorities "cowardly vermin" and "scum who suppress and arrest [innocent] people."

Shortly afterward, Salehi went missing and has not been heard from since.

State media reported on September 30 that Salehi had been arrested, and a news agency close to the IRGC published a photo of the blindfolded rapper inside a car.

A short video later released by a press club associated with Iran's state broadcaster purports to show the rapper admitting he made a mistake.

But the reports' claims he had been caught while "illegally exiting the western borders of the country" have been fiercely disputed, and the video confession has been labeled a fake by some and a coerced confession by others.

Family members as well as Salehi's official Twitter account have said the rapper was, in fact, arrested in the southwestern Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province, hundreds of kilometers from Iran's western border.

In a statement, Salehi's uncle Eghbal Eghbali said his nephew was in the province's city of Borujen on the morning of September 30 when he wrote saying "suspicious things" were happening outside his home. Soon after, Salehi stopped communicating. Eghbali said he learned from Salehi's neighbors and friends that security personnel had arrived to take the rapper away.

Later on September 30, a prosecutor in nearby Isfahan Province was quoted by the Meezan news agency, which is close to Iran's judiciary, as saying Salehi was arrested "in one of the provinces of the country." The prosecutor alleged the rapper had played a key role in "creating disturbances and inviting and encouraging the recent disturbances in Isfahan Province and in Shahinshahr."

The official IRNA news agency, meanwhile, quoted a judiciary official from Isfahan Province as saying Salehi stood accused of "propagandistic activity against the government, cooperation with hostile governments, and the formation of illegal groups with the intention of creating insecurity in the country."

Thousands of Iranians, many of them from the younger generation, have taken to the streets in recent weeks to protest the September 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died shortly after being arrested for allegedly violating Iran's hijab law requiring that women cover their hair.

As the protests have continued, the authorities have intensified their crackdown, resulting in the deaths of at least 305 people, including 41 children, according to the latest figures released by the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) on November 6.

Salehi is among the hundreds of prominent young voices, including activists, artists, and athletes, who have been arrested for speaking out against the states bloody crackdown on the protests. Overall, activists estimate thousands of people have been arrested by the authorities since the rallies erupted.

Faced with a potential existential threat to Iran's clerical rule, 227 of 290 Iranian lawmakers this week called for even greater force by urging the judiciary to "deal decisively" with those behind the protests.

In recent years, Salehi has gained notoriety for his open opposition to the country's leadership, using his music and social media presence to take on issues that resonate with Iranian youths.

In the song Normal, he highlights the effects of poverty, saying "Our children sleep hungry at night" and asking Iran's leaders how their conscience can let them sleep.

The song Rathole, released in 2021, accuses members of the media and art community both inside and outside Iran of being an "ally of the tyrant," a reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In another song, he blasts Tehran's close relationships with Moscow and Beijing, asking: "Haven't you robbed us enough? Now, you want to give away half [of our resources] to China and the rest to Russia."

Salehi was detained in September 2021 after security agents raided his home in Isfahan, with Human Rights Watch decrying the detention of the artist for "exercising his right to freedom of expression."

Salehi was charged with "spreading propaganda against the state," but after more than a week was released on bail. In January, he was sentenced to six months in prison but was released on a suspended sentence in February.

While out, he continued his work and released Omen amid the states increasingly violent crackdown on anti-government protesters.

"Someone's crime was dancing with her hair in the wind," he raps. "Someone's crime was that she was brave and criticized."

Listing a litany of violent acts carried out by the authorities against protesters, Salehi asks, "How many young people did you kill building a tower for yourself?" and predicts that next year, the 44th year of the clerical regime's rule, will be its "year of failure."

Salehi's arrest has led to widespread condemnation inside and outside Iran, and his advocates have spread the #FreeToomaj hashtag on Twitter to shed light on his situation.

His family has said they do not know Salehi's whereabouts or health, leaving them wondering if he is even alive.

But the authorities have shed some light on the fate of another Iranian rapper arrested shortly before Salehi. The judiciary announced on November 7 that Saman Yasin, a rapper from Kermanshah Province -- a northwestern region with a significant Kurdish population and that has been a focus of the government crackdown -- has been accused of waging "warfare" against Iran and acting against the country's security.

Based on reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Farda, with contributions by RFE/RL senior correspondent Michael Scollon
Prominent Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has made a rare visit to Saudi Arabia, meeting with the crown prince and other officials, Saudi state media report.

The Saudi Press Agency on July 30 said Sadr met with Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah to discuss issues of "common interest."

Sadr's office said in a statement that the cleric had been invited to Saudi Arabia. The visit was his first to the country in 11 years, officials said.

We have been very pleased with what we found to be a positive breakthrough in the Saudi-Iraqi relations, and we hope it is the beginning of the retreat of sectarian strife in the Arab-Islamic region, the statement from Sadrs office said.

Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-led Arab nations have expressed concerns about the potential influence of Shiite Iran with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad.

Sadr, an anti-American leader of Iraqs Shi'ite community, has a large following among the poor of Baghdad and other major southern cities and has influence with the Saraya al-Islam (Peace Brigades) militia.

The visit comes after Iraq and Saudi Arabia said last month they were setting up a panel to upgrade relations as part of attempts to ease tensions between the Arab neighbors.



Based on reporting by Reuters, The National, The Arab News, and AP
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Afghan security forces battled gunmen for four hours following a suicide attack outside the Iraqi embassy in Kabul. The Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the July 31 assault in the Afghan capital. (RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan)
The Kremlin says it is up to the United States to determine which members of its diplomatic and support staff in Russia will be cut after Moscow demanded that Washington drastically reduce personnel numbers.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on July 31 that Russian citizens working at U.S. diplomatic facilities in Russia could be among the 755 staff to go.

"There are not that many [U.S.] diplomats [in Russia]," Peskov said. "We are talking about diplomats, people without diplomatic status, and local hires -- that is, Russian citizens who work [at the U.S. Embassy and consulates in Russia]."

Moscow ordered the reduction in U.S. diplomatic staff after U.S. lawmakers passed a bill that would impose additional sanctions on Russia and prevent President Donald Trump from easing the most punitive measures without congressional approval.

"There was no point in waiting" for Trump to sign the sanctions legislation, Peskov said.

The White House said on July 28 that Trump, whose veto would almost certainly be overridden by Congress if he rejected the bill, plans to sign it.

Severely Strained Relations

Russia's demand that the United States cut hundreds of personnel at its Moscow embassy and consulates in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, and Vladivostok, is likely to add damage to a relationship that is already severely strained.

Russia and the United States are at odds over issues including Moscow's aggression in Ukraine, its backing for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and its alleged interference in the U.S. election that put Trump in the White House.

Putin and other Russian officials had long voiced hope for warmer ties under Trump, who repeatedly expressed a desire to improve relations.

But the Russian move suggests those hopes have faded substantially in Moscow amid U.S. investigations into Russia's alleged meddling and whether there was any collusion between Russia and associates of Trump, who seemed to be clearly favored by the Kremlin over his Democratic election rival Hillary Clinton.

Trump denies there was any collusion, and Russia has denied it interfered in the election despite substantial evidence and a finding announced in January by the U.S. intelligence community.

'Uncalled-For Act'

Speaking in Estonia on July 31, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said the United States would not be deterred from its goals by Moscow's demand.

"We hope for better days, for better relations with Russia. But recent diplomatic action taken by Moscow will not deter the commitment of the United States of America to our security, the security of our allies, and the security of freedom-loving nations around the world, Pence said.

The U.S. State Department called the Russian move an "regrettable and uncalled-for act" and said Washington was considering a possible response.

"We are assessing the impact of such a limitation and how we will respond to it," a State Department statement said on July 30.

Pence told Fox News in a July 30 interview that Trump had made it "very clear that very soon he will sign the sanctions."

"But at the same time, as we make our intentions clear, we expect Russian behavior to change," Pence said.

The State Department has also said it hopes that Russia will take steps to improve the relationship, while Russian officials assert that the onus is on the United States.

Peskov said that the United States needs to recover from what he called "political sczizophremia" and show the "political will" to ease strains in the relationship.

"We are interested in a steady development of our ties and are sorry to note that we are still far from that," he said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on July 28 that Washington must reduce its diplomatic staff to 455 people by September 1.

The Russian Foreign Ministry had previously said that Washington must reduce its diplomatic staff to 455 people by September 1.

It said that is the number of Russian diplomatic staff in the United States after Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, expelled 35 Russian diplomats in December -- a response to alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and ill-treatment of U.S. diplomats in Russia.

'Quite Painful'

Initial news alerts -- including from Russia's state-run TASS news agency -- on July 30 said Putin had ordered 755 U.S. diplomats to leave the country, though it later became clear he was talking about overall staff reductions at U.S. diplomatic facilities. Not all of the individuals ordered to cease their work would be U.S. citizens kicked out of the country.

It was not immediately clear how many reassignments the forced drawdown would entail at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and at the three U.S. consulates in Russia.

A 2013 report by the State Department Inspector General said that the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and the consulates in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok, employed 1,279 staff, including 934 "locally employed" staff and 301 U.S. "direct-hire" staff.

A chart in the report gave a slightly different figure, indicating that there were a total of 1,200 staff, including 867 "foreign nationals." It did not say how many of those were Russian.

"Unless we brought in hundreds of Americans to build the new embassy [building, there is] no way that we have 700 Americans at [the] embassy," Michael McFaul, the U.S. ambassador to Russia in 2012-2014, wrote on Twitter.

The Russian Foreign Ministry also said earlier that, as of August 1, the United States would be barred from using warehouses that it has used in Moscow and from a modest guesthouse property in the capital's leafy Serebryanny Bor district.

The U.S. Embassy in Moscow late on July 31 accused Russia of blocking staff who were seeking to retrieve their belongings from the guesthouse property before the August 1 cutoff date.

Maria Olson, a spokeswoman for the embassy, told RFE/RL that diplomats were prevented from entering the property as of July 30.

The seizure of diplomatic property appeared to be a direct response to the Obama administration's decision to seize two Russian diplomatic compounds, one in Maryland and one in New York State, when it expelled the 35 diplomats in December.

Putin surprised many people in both countries by declining to retaliate immediately over the expelled diplomats and seized properties -- a decision that was widely seen as a gesture to Trump, who was weeks away from his January 20 inauguration at the time.

Putin said in the July 30 interview that the reduced U.S. diplomatic presence would be "quite painful" and added that he did not expect ties with Washington to improve "any time soon."

"We have waited long enough, hoping that the situation would perhaps change for the better," he told Russian television host Vladimir Solovyov. "But it seems that even if the situation is changing, it's not for any time soon," Putin said.

With reporting by AFP, TASS, AP, The New York Times, Reuters, RIA Novosti, and Bloomberg
Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said on July 31 she welcomed the U.S. Senate vote on July 27 that paved the way for imposing new sanctions on Russia. Speaking in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, following her meeting with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and the presidents of Estonia and Latvia, Grybauskaite said that Russia has "always used energy projects as a tool of influence, as a tool of suppression, and as a tool of manipulation." (AP)
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence conveyed a message of support from U.S. President Donald Trump to Georgian leaders at an official dinner in Tbilisi late on July 31.



The United States stands with Georgia, Pence said, as he toasted the Caucasus nation for fighting for freedom over the centuries, just as America has.

Pence said America hopes that Georgia prospers and becomes a strong country.

Pence was greeted by thousands of people when he arrived in Tbilisi, where he will meet on August 1 with Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili, President Giorgi Margvelashvili, Patriarch Ilia II, and representatives of the Georgian opposition.



Pence is also planning to attend joint NATO military exercises being conducted in Georgia. About 800 Georgian and 1,600 U.S. troops are taking part in the Noble Partner 2017 drills there.

Pence was greeted at the Tbilisi airport by Kvirikashvili, who said that the visit is "an important milestone in the bilateral relationship as we work to further strengthen security, economic, and trade cooperation between our two countries."

"Vice President Pence's visit sends a strong message about the enduring strength of the relationship between Georgia and the United States," Kvirikashvili said in comments released by the Georgian government.

Pence arrived in the Georgian capital from Estonia, where earlier in the day he reaffirmed Washington's solidarity with the Baltic nations and accused neighboring Russia of seeking to "redraw international borders" and "undermine democracies."

Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are members of NATO and were under Moscow's rule during the Soviet era.

The three countries have expressed concerns about Russia's intentions, as have Georgia and the third ally on Pence's itinerary: new NATO member Montenegro.

"No threat looms larger in the Baltic states than the specter of aggression from your unpredictable neighbor to the east," Pence said. "At this very moment, Russia continues to seek to redraw international borders by force, undermine the democracies of sovereign nations, and divide the free nations of Europe against one another."

Article 5 Support

Pence said the U.S. administration stands firmly behind Article 5 of the NATO treaty -- the provision stating that an attack on one NATO country is an attack on all members of the alliance.

In Georgia, officials said Pence will highlight U.S. support for the Caucasus nation's sovereignty and territorial integrity before continuing on to Montenegro.

Georgia has seen Russian encroachment on its territory and has expressed hopes of joining the Western military alliance.

The Kremlin recognized Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent countries after fighting a five-day war against Tbilisi in 2008. Russia maintains thousands of troops in the two regions.

Margvelashvili said on July 27 that Pence's visit will demonstrate that the United States continues to support Georgia in building a stronger military force.

He highlighted the joint military exercises that will include troops from the United States, Britain, Germany, Turkey, Ukraine, Slovenia, and Armenia.

"The vice president's presence here is definitely showing that this is not only about military exercises, but it is also showing unification with our values, with our foreign policy targets, and showing a clear message that we are together," Margvelashvili said.

On the last stop, Pence will welcome NATO's newest member with his stop in Montenegro, whose accession to the alliance in June was adamantly opposed by Russia.

On August 2, he will attend the Adriatic Charter Summit in Montenegro's capital, Podgorica, U.S. officials said.

Pence was expected to highlight the U.S. commitment to the Western Balkans and stress the need for good governance, political reforms, and rule of law in the region.

The leaders of Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia are also scheduled to attend the summit.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, dpa, and Interfax


10 Indonesian students take cover from volcanic ash falling from Mt. Sinabung as they ride on a pickup truck and a motorcycle after the volcano erupted at Beganding village in Karo, North Sumatra, Indonesia Province. Mt. Sinabung is one of the most active volcanos in Indonesia. The 2,460-meter volcano had been dormant for 400 years before it erupted in August 2010. (epa/Dedi Sinuhaji)
Daniel T. Smith, M.D., a native Nebraskan, comes to Lincoln from Houston where he has recently completed his fellowship in Infectious Disease at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Dr. Smith has received his Diploma of Tropical Medicine from Baylor College of Medicine. He received his medical degree from the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Medicine and completed his internship and Internal Medicine/Pediatrics residency at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
Amnesty International has denounced a new Russian law banning the use of Internet proxy services -- including virtual private networks, or VPNs -- as a "major blow to Internet freedom" in the country.

The criticism from the global rights watchdog on July 31 came a day after the Russian government formally published the new law, which President Vladimir Putin signed on July 29.

The law was also criticized by Russia's most famous asylum recipient, former U.S. security consultant Edward Snowden, who leaked a trove of classified U.S. documents on government surveillance before fleeing to Russia.

The main provisions in the new law are set to take effect on November 1, just months before a March 2018 presidential election in which Putin is widely expected to seek and win a new six-year term.

The law will require Internet providers to block websites that offer VPNs and other proxy services. Russians frequently use such websites to access blocked content by routing connections through servers abroad.

Lawmakers who promoted the law said it is needed to prevent the spread of extremist materials and ideas.

Critics say Putin's government often uses that justification to suppress political dissent. Russian authorities in recent years have carried out a broad crackdown on web content deemed extremist.

"This is the latest blow in an assault on online freedom which has seen critical sites blocked and social-media users prosecuted solely for what they post online, under vaguely written antiextremism legislation," Denis Krivosheev, deputy director for Europe and Central Asia at Amnesty International, said in a July 31 statement.

"The ban on VPNs takes this shameful campaign a whole step further," he added.

Putin signed another law on July 29 that will require operators of instant messaging services, such as messenger apps, to establish the identity of those using the services by their phone numbers.

Snowden, meanwhile, called the new restrictions a "violation of human rights" https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/891822030810697728

and a "tragedy of policy."

"Banning the 'unauthorized' use of basic Internet security tools makes Russia both less safe and less free," Snowden, who continues to reside in Russia, wrote on his Twitter feed.

With reporting by AP


On the morning of October 24, 1986, U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union Arthur Hartman drove himself to work.

Later that day, the ambassador's wife, Donna Hartman, personally served popcorn from a silver bowl to a group of Soviet generals at a Moscow reception, according to a Washington Post report. Behind the scenes, U.S. Marines washed the dishes.

The implementation of Russian President Vladimir Putin's July 30 order that the United States reduce the staff at its diplomatic missions by 755 employees will not be the first time U.S. diplomats in Russia have faced the prospect of enduring without the support of secretaries, drivers, cooks, and other staff.

Late on October 23, 1986, Soviet authorities barred the United States from employing Soviet nationals at its diplomatic missions, effective immediately. Some 260 local staff lost their jobs in the move, which was the culmination of a series of tit-for-tat measures through the year that marked a tense moment in superpower relations. Local hires did not return to U.S. diplomatic missions in the country until after the fall of the Soviet Union.

On October 31, The New York Times reported that Raymond Benson, counselor for press and cultural affairs at the Moscow embassy, spent the day washing cars. Assistant naval attache Gary Barnes was unloading supplies at the embassy commissary.

Mission employees all spent one day every two weeks doing support-staff work until the State Department was able to hire and bring in new workers from the United States.

It was a tense time in bilateral relations, even though the relatively young and liberal Mikhail Gorbachev had come to power in the Soviet Union in March 1985 and had immediately begun making promising changes. He removed long-serving Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko -- known in the West by the sobriquet Mr. Nyet -- and, in May 1986, replaced the dour Anatoly Dobrynin, who had served as Soviet ambassador to the United States since 1962

In November 1985, Gorbachev and U.S. President Ronald Reagan held a summit in Geneva at which they clashed over the U.S. plan to develop a space-based antimissile system, the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI).

Pressuring The U.S.S.R.

In general, the Reagan administration was pursuing a policy of pressuring the Soviet Union in many ways, including SDI; the provision of arms to fighters in Afghanistan; pushing world oil producers to boost production in order to lower global oil prices; and confronting the Soviet Union on human rights, particularly the emigration of Soviet Jews.

It was also a time of intense espionage activity on both sides. In August 1985, Washington barred Soviet construction workers from working on a new U.S. Embassy building in Moscow after it was revealed the structure was riddled with listening devices. Throughout this period, CIA assets in the Soviet Union were disappearing at an unprecedented rate. Although the CIA initially blamed the leak on agent Edward Lee Howard, who was exposed in 1985, it is now believed that Howard's exposure was a KGB operation to protect a more valuable CIA mole, Aldrich Ames, who spied for the Soviet Union and Russia from at least 1985 until 1994. U.S. Navy officer John A. Walker was arrested in May 1985 after having spied for the Soviet Union since 1968.

In February 1986, the State Department accused the KGB of spraying U.S. diplomats with a potentially dangerous chemical agent intended to make them easier to track, in an incident that became known as the "spy dust" scandal.

The FBI began complaining at the time that it was unable to cope with the task of monitoring the large number of possible Soviet agents in the United States. The diplomatic missions of the two countries had already been capped at 320. In addition, the FBI was tracking Soviet journalists, exchange students, Aeroflot employees, and others who might have been conducting espionage without diplomatic cover. A particular problem for the FBI was the large Soviet mission to the United Nations in New York.

Unprecedented Step

In early 1986, Washington took the unprecedented step of ordering the Soviet Union to reduce its UN mission by 100 diplomats over the course of two years. The first 25 would have to leave the United States by October 1. After the Soviets refused to respond to the U.S. order through the summer, Washington submitted the names of 25 mission diplomats to be expelled. Washington warned that if Moscow retaliated by expelling U.S. diplomats, the U.S. reaction would be "severe."

On August 24, 1986, the FBI arrested Gennady Zakharov, a diplomat with the Soviet UN mission as he was receiving information from a U.S. double agent. Six days later, the Soviets arrested U.S. journalist Nicholas Daniloff, also for allegedly receiving classified documents. After an intense flurry of diplomatic activity, Zakharov and Daniloff were allowed to return to their respective countries in late September.

In the midst of the Zakharov-Daniloff scandal, Reagan and Gorbachev held another summit, in Reykjavik, Iceland, on October 11-12.

'Not The American Way'

In early October, the Soviets retaliated to the U.S. expulsions by themselves expelling five U.S. diplomats. True to its word, one week later, Washington announced a reduced "ceiling" on the number of Soviet diplomats in the United States -- 225 in Washington and 26 at the Soviet Consulate in San Francisco, for a total of 251. Washington also expelled five Soviet diplomats.

The State Department did not anticipate that the reduced ceiling would become a problem for Washington. The Soviets traditionally brought their own support staff to their diplomatic missions, which had been counted under the previous ceiling of 320. The United States, however, hired local support staff for its embassy in Moscow and its consulate in Leningrad (now, St. Petersburg), so its official diplomatic mission was well below the new ceiling.

That's when the Soviets surprised Washington by banning the hiring of local staff, effective immediately, in addition to imposing the same 225/26 restrictions and expelling five additional diplomats. Despite the fact that the Soviets had expelled five more diplomats than the United States had, Washington decided to end the standoff. For their part, the Soviets quietly met the next three deadlines for reducing their UN mission.

But for a few months in the severe winter of 1986-87, U.S. diplomats in the Soviet Union bit the bullet and carried on without support.

"We didn't conquer a continent by giving up," embassy spokesman Jaroslav Verner was quoted as saying at the time by the Washington Post. "It is not the American way."


Prominent Russian punk rocker Fyodor Chistyakov says he has decided not to return from the United States, citing Russia's new ban on the Jehovahs Witnesses.

A member of the religous denomination since the mid-1990s, Chistyakov told Novaya Gazeta in a telephone interview from New York published on July 31 that he "has no other choice" than to stay in the United States.

"I cannot openly follow my religion [in Russia] now. And that is a trauma itself even when I am not in jail, although incarcerations are taking place already," he was quoted as saying.

Chistyakov, who is known as Dyadya Fyodor (Uncle Fyodor) and has led the groups Nol (Zero) and the Fyodor Chistyakov Band, has been on tour in the United States for several months.

The Russian Supreme Court ruled in April that the Jehovah's Witnesses were an extremist organization and prohibited them from operating in Russia. The court upheld the ruling on appeal in July.

Freedom of religion is formally guaranteed in Russia but legislation sets out Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism as the country's four traditional religions, and smaller denominations frequently face discrimination.

In recent years, there have been a growing number of reports of worshippers at Jehovah's Witnesses congregations being targeted for harassment.

A 2009 documentary called Beware: Jehovahs Witnesses branded Chistyakov "a brainwashed sectarian."

Nol was popular in the Soviet Union, and then in its former republics, in the late 1980s and the 1990s.

With reporting by Novaya Gazeta
A court in Russia has sentenced a Ukrainian citizen to 12 years in prison on terrorism charges.

The North Caucasus Regional Court on July 31 found Oleksiy Syzonovych guilty of planning a terrorist attack, illegal border crossing, and illegal possession of explosives. It issued the sentence the same day.

Investigators have said that Syzonovych traveled to the town of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky in Russia's Rostov region, where he took pictures of a local railway station in connection with an alleged plan for an attack in September.

Rights activists say Russia has jailed several Ukrainians on trumped up, politically motivated charges since Moscow seized Ukraine's Crimea region in March 2014.

In March, the European Parliament called on Russia to free more than 30 Ukrainian citizens who were in prison or other conditions of restricted freedom in Russia, Crimea, and parts of eastern Ukraine that are controlled by Russia-backed separatists.

The list included filmmaker Oleh Sentsov, who is serving a 20-year sentence in Russian prison after being convicted of plotting terrorist attacks in a trial supporters called absurd, and reporter Roman Sushchenko, held in Moscow on suspicion of espionage.

The list, which the parliament statement said was not complete, also included several leaders of the Crimean Tatar minority, which rights groups say has faced abuse and discrimination since Russia's takeover.

Based on reporting by TASS, Interfax, and Ukrayinska Pravda
Tajik authorities have arrested a man after his new wife committed suicide last month amid the couple's arguments over her virginity.

Court officials in Tajikistan's southern Vose district said on July 31 that Zafar Pirov, 24, has been charged with driving his wife to suicide.

Pirov was placed in pretrial detention late last week, officials said. If found guilty, he could face up to eight years in prison.

Pirov's wife, 18-year-old Rajabbi Khurshed, took her own life 40 days into her arranged marriage after her husband accused her of not being a virgin on their wedding night. Premarital sex is a taboo in Tajikistan's conservative society.

Khurshed had passed government-required prenuptial medical exams, including a virginity test. Pirov, however, forced her to undergo two further tests and rejected the doctors' conclusion that Khurshed's virginity was intact on her wedding night.

According to Khurshed's family, she said on her deathbed that she was under enormous pressure from her husband and "couldnt take it any longer."

Khurshed took a fatal dose of vinegar on June 22 and died in hospital hours later, the family and doctors say.

Khurshed's family says she became a victim of "slander and violence."

Pirov defended himself in an interview with RFE/RL's Tajik Service earlier this month, insisting that his new wife was not a virgin on their wedding night, no matter what her documents said.


BISHKEK -- Supporters of jailed opposition Ata-Meken (Fatherland) party leader Omurbek Tekebaev, who is being tried on charges of bribe-taking, have started a hunger strike in the Kyrgyz capital.

Ata-Meken member Kalys Boronbaev told RFE/RL that at least six activists had started the hunger strike on July 31, demanding the authorities allow Tekebaev to take the Kyrgyz-language test required for registration as a presidential candidate.

Boronbaev said that more activists and supporters of the party are expected to join the hunger strike in days.

Tekebaev and his co-defendant, former Emergencies Minister Duishonkul Chotonov, went on trial in June. They are charged with receiving a $1 million bribe from a Russian businessman in 2010, when Tekebaev was deputy prime minister.

Both deny any wrongdoing, saying the case against them is politically motivated.

On July 26, the court rejected Tekebaev's request for permission to take the language test.

Ata-Meken has alleged that the government launched the case in an effort to stifle dissent ahead of the October presidential election in the Central Asian country and keep Tekebaev off the ballot.

The 58-year-old Tekebaev was once an ally of President Almazbek Atambaev. He was arrested in late February. On March 5, Ata-Meken named him its candidate for the presidential election.

Atambaev, who has been in office since December 2011, is constitutionally barred from running for a second term.

July 31 was the last day for would-be presidential candidates to file application documents with the Central Election Commission, though those who have done so still face other steps before getting on the ballot.

As of July 31, applications had been filed for 53 people -- 42 who are seeking to run as independent candidates and 11 who were proposed by political parties.
ON MY MIND

So there's apparently not going to be any reset.

Vladimir Putin's regime appeared to believe that by interfering in the U.S. election it would get a partner in Washington that would be ready to agree to a detente on Moscow's terms.

Instead, as the sanctions bill that passed the U.S. Congress last week illustrates, what it got instead was a systemic and bipartisan backlash.

As David Sanger shows in a piece featured below, Putin's bet on a Trump presidency seems to have "failed spectacularly."

And Moscow's retaliatory measures illustrate, the Kremlin doesn't know what to do next. So it has reverted to "escalating the dispute, Cold War-style."

IN THE NEWS

The U.S. State Department called Vladimir Putin's demand that U.S. diplomatic staff in Russia be slashed by 755 personnel a "regrettable and uncalled for act" and said Washington was considering a possible response.

Putin has signed controversial legislation prohibiting the use of Internet proxy services -- including virtual private networks, or VPNs -- and cracking down on the anonymous use of instant-messaging services.

Putin has pardoned two women who were convicted of high treason for sending text messages to Georgian acquaintances about the movement of Russian military equipment on the eve of the brief 2008 Russian-Georgian war.

Some 2,800 troops from host Georgia, the United States, and six other countries have begun a major military exercise in the South Caucasus nation.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has raised the possibility of deploying the Patriot antimissile defense system in Estonia, Prime Minister Juri Ratas said.

Ukraine says that one of its soldiers was killed and nine others injured in fighting with Russia-backed separatists in the east of the country.

LATEST POWER VERTICAL PODCAST

In case you missed it, the latest Power Vertical Podcast, A Fictional Federation, looks at the fallout from the expiration of a decades-old agreement granting Tatarstan limited autonomy -- including control over its resources, budget, and special status for the Tatar language.

NEW POWER VERTICAL BRIEFING

This week's Power Vertical Briefing, Reset Interrupted, looks at the deteriorating relationship between Moscow and Washington in the aftermath of new U.S. sanctions and Russia's expulsions of American diplomats.

WHAT I'M READING

Remembering 1937

In his column for Republic.ru, opposition journalist Oleg Kashin marks the 80th anniversary of 1937, the year that marked the high point of Josef Stalin's Great Terror.

Influence Operations

In The New York Times, retired CIA station chief Daniel Hoffman explains Russian influence operations.

Putin And Trump

Also in The New York Times, Daniel Sanger explains why Putin's bet on a Trump presidency has "failed spectacularly."

A Death In Washington

A BuzzFeed investigation looks into the death of Mikhail Lesin, the former Kremlin official who mysteriously died in Washington in November 2015.

Saakashvili Speaks

Foreign Policy's Ian Bateson spoke to former Georgian President and Odesa Governor Mikheil Saakashvili about his next moves.

Ukraine's Young Twitter Warriors

In Fortune, Linda Kinstler looks at the Ukrainian millennials who are taking on Russia on Twitter.

Explaining The Expulsions

In The Moscow Times, foreign affairs analyst Vladimir Frolov explains Russia's retaliation for U.S. sanctions.

The Balkan Game

Dagmar Skrpec has a piece in Foreign Affairs on "Croatia, Russia, and the Balkan Great Game."

The Truman Doctrine

The Brookings Institution has published a text of remarks by U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, in which he calls for a "Truman Doctrine for the 21st Century."
The United States is set to begin delivering coal to Ukraine for the first time in a deal Washington framed as a move toward reducing Kyiv's reliance on Russian energy.

Under a deal signed earlier this month between the Ukrainian state-owned energy company Centrenergo and the U.S. firm Xcoal Energy & Resources, some 700,000 metric tons will be shipped to Ukraine by the end of 2017.

"The first shipment of 85,000 [metric tons] is expected in early September," Centrenergo head Oleh Kozemko said at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv on July 31, adding that the deliveries should help Ukraine through the winter.

George Kent, the embassy's charge d'affaires, said the deal demonstrates "intensified cooperation" to reduce Kyiv's dependence on Moscow since Russia seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and proceeded to back armed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Kent said U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko discussed the possibility of U.S. coal deliveries to Ukraine during their June 20 meeting at the White House.

Ukraine has been struggling to produce coal since the conflict erupted in April 2014 because Russia-backed separatist forces control much of its coal-rich region.

Poroshenko's government in March suspended all cargo traffic with areas held by the separatists and has been seeking to secure sufficient fuel reserves needed to keep power plants operating.

"The United States can offer Ukraine an alternative, and today we are pleased to announce that we will. U.S. coal will be a secure and reliable energy source for Centrenergo and its electricity customers," U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry said in a July 31 statement.

With reporting by AFP
The U.S. embassy in Moscow has accused Russia of blocking its staff from a guest-house property in the Russian capital after authorities previously said they would grant access until August 1 in order for diplomats to take their belongings.

Maria Olson, a spokeswoman for the embassy, told RFE/RL on July 31 that diplomats had been prevented from entering the property in Moscow's leafy Serebryany Bor district as of July 30.

Russia's Foreign Ministry had previously said the embassy would be barred from using the property as of August 1 as part of a broad retaliation against U.S. sanctions that includes an order for Washington to drastically reduce the size of its diplomatic mission.

A Reuters TV cameraman outside the residence saw five vehicles with diplomatic license plates, including a truck, denied entry after arriving at the site.

Russia's state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified Russian Foreign Ministry official as saying that the embassy had sent vehicles to the property without the necessary permits required due to the residence's location in a conservation area.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on July 30 that the U.S. diplomatic mission in Russia must be cut by 755 personnel. His spokesman said later that it would be up to Washington to decide which diplomatic and support staff to cut.

Moscow ordered the reduction after U.S. lawmakers passed a bill that would impose additional sanctions on Russia and prevent President Donald Trump from easing most punitive measures without congressional approval.

With reporting by Reuters, RIA Novosti, and Interfax
Some 2,800 troops from host Georgia, the United States, and six other countries have begun a major military exercise in the South Caucasus nation.

Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili and other leaders on July 30 said they see the event as a substantial step toward their goal of one day joining NATO.

"These exercises will help Georgia to get closer to NATO standards and to strengthen stability in the whole region," Kvirikashvili said at the opening ceremonies at the Vaziani military base near the capital, Tbilisi.

Georgia's defense minister, Levan Izoria, called the scale of exercises "unprecedented" and said they "make clear the support for Georgia by the NATO member states, especially the U.S."

U.S. officials in the past have spoken favorably toward Georgian hopes of eventually joining NATO, a move Russia vehemently opposes.

At a 2008 summit in Bucharest, NATO leaders made a formal pledge that Georgia "will become a NATO member," but alliance leaders have moved warily toward that goal in the face of Moscows opposition.

About 1,600 U.S. troops and 800 Georgian soldiers are taking part in the two-week exercises, dubbed Noble Partner.

Troops from Britain, Germany, Turkey, Ukraine, Slovenia, and Armenia are also participating, with the United States deploying a mechanized company, including several Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and M1A2 Abrams battle tanks.

It is the third time the exercises have been held in Georgia, a country that has seen much-larger rival Russian encroach on its territory since its independence from the Soviet Union.

The Kremlin recognized Georgia's breakaway areas of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent countries after fighting a five-day war against Tbilisi in 2008, and Russia maintains thousands of troops in the two regions.

In previous years, Moscow warned that the drills could destabilize the region, a notion that Georgia and the United States have dismissed.

"This exercise is not directed against any country. It's about to help Georgia to grow its capacity to interoperate in international operations," U.S. Ambassador Ian Kelly told Reuters news agency, citing missions such as the current one in Afghanistan.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to visit Georgia on July 31 after a stop in Estonia to meet with Baltic leaders also concerned about Russias intensions in their region. He will meet with U.S. troops on August 1.

During his stop in Tallinn, Pence said, "Our message to the Baltic states -- my message when we visit Georgia and Montenegro -- will be the same: To our allies here in Eastern Europe, we are with you, we stand with you on behalf of freedoms."

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and Interfax
Lincoln Industries' maintenance and plant engineering director, Louie Balogh, is pleased to announce the promotion of Mario Quintana to purchasing agent. Quintana joined Lincoln Industries in 2016 as maintenance purchasing clerk. In his new role, he will be responsible for ordering and maintaining supplies for the efficient operation of Lincoln Industries. He will develop and maintain relationships with vendors to ensure Lincoln Industries is receiving quality products at the most competitive rates.
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While pundits and practitioners eagerly await the U.S. Supreme Court's looming decision on whether class-action waivers in employment-related agreements violate the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)a decision that will not be issued until 2018one New York state court has decided to wade into the fracas.

On July 18, a New York state appellate court, whose jurisdiction covers Manhattan and the Bronx, concluded in Gold v. N.Y. Life Insurance Co. that contract clauses barring employees from commencing class, collective and other representative actions against their employers are unenforceable and do indeed violate the NLRA.

In Gold, the appellate court examined the question of whether an employer can force its employees to sign an agreement requiring that all legal claims against the employer be brought only through arbitration and, perhaps more importantly, only on an individual basis and in separate proceedings. After recognizing that "there is a recent split among the federal circuit courts regarding these types of clauses," the court answered this question with a resounding "no."

As a result, employers with operations in Manhattan and the Bronx will need to review their arbitration agreements to ensure compliance with all procedural and substantive fairness requirementsincluding but not necessarily limited to class waivers.

Concerted Activities

In the underlying case, a group of former New York Life Insurance Company agents filed a class-action lawsuit claiming that the agency took illegal wage deductions and committed assorted violations of the state minimum-wage and overtime laws. One of the agents, however, had signed an agreement upon joining New York Life requiring her to arbitrate any claim or dispute with the insurance agency. Additionally, under the arbitration provision, the agent agreed that no claim could be brought or maintained "on a class action, collective action or representative action basis either in court or arbitration." Despite this, the insurance agents nevertheless filed their wage case together in court and as a proposed class action. After New York Life moved to compel arbitration, the claims of the agent who had signed the arbitration agreement were ordered to be submitted to arbitration on an individual basis. The plaintiffs subsequently appealed.

On appeal, the court examined the class-action waiver and determined that interference with employees' right to pursue work-related legal claims together, whether in arbitration or other legal proceedings, violates Sections 7 and 8 of the NLRA. In explaining its rationale, the court relied chiefly on a recent decision by a federal appeals court in Chicago that likewise invalidated a class waiver. As the New York court explained, such waivers violate the NLRA because they interfere with employees' "right to engage in concerted activities for mutual aid and protection, and [are] therefore unenforceable . [S]ection 7 of the NLRA provide[s] that employees have the right to engage in concerted activities, and concerted activities 'have long been held to include resort to  judicial forums.' " Additionally, the court determined that the waiver was unenforceable under the Federal Arbitration Act.

Consequently, the court concluded that the plaintiffs had the right to proceed with their claims on a class-action basis (although, after deciding on this issue, the court did dismiss most of the plaintiffs' substantive wage and hour claims). This is the first time that a New York state appellate court has directly ruled on this particular issue, and the decision aligns the court with the three federal appeals courts that previously reached similar conclusions.

Practical Considerations

In light of this ruling, and until the U.S. Supreme Court provides more definitive guidance, employers in Manhattan and the Bronx may see additional challenges to their arbitration agreementsparticularly agreements with class-action waivers.

Therefore, employers should take a careful look at those agreements.

First, and perhaps most obviously, if the agreement includes a class-action waiver, employers should consider removing the waiver until the U.S. Supreme Court weighs in on this issue, particularly if they operate in a jurisdiction where such waivers have been deemed unenforceable.

[SHRM members-only multistate coverage: Multistate Employer Resources]

Second, employers should confirm that the agreement complies with the procedural and substantive fairness requirements of the jurisdiction(s) in which the business operates. This may mean, for instance, removing clauses that make it financially burdensome for employees to arbitrate. And for companies with operations in multiple locations, this may mean having different arbitration agreements based on region. Businesses should also consider specifying whether the arbitrator will have the authority to determine issues of arbitrability.

Third, for companies that require employees to electronically sign arbitration agreements, ensure that signature receipts are retainedboth during the employee's employment and for several years thereafterand that they conform with any jurisdictional requirements.

Fourth and finally, the arbitration agreement should carve out any legal remedies that are not subject to arbitration. Likewise, the agreement should make clear that the employee is not barred from filing claims with certain agencies, such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or the National Labor Relations Board. The document should also specify the forum in which the employee must bring any claims he or she chooses to pursue following the exhaustion or completion of the administrative process.

As the focus on potential wage and hour violations in the workforce continues to increase, now is also a good time for employers to review their wage and hour practices to minimize potential exposure to employment class actions in this area.

Cindy Schmitt Minniti and Mark. S. Goldstein are attorneys with Reed Smith in New York City.






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OneHealth Nebraska is pleased to announce the hiring of Donna Mertz as director of clinical integration and Rhiannon Marshall as director of finance and operations.

Mertz joins OneHealth Nebraska after a 21-year career with CHI / The Physician Network, including management of clinical and physician networks, coding education and nursing. She is a licensed practical nurse, a certified professional coder, and past president of the Lincoln chapter of the American Academy of Professional Coders.Mertz will be working closely with OneHealth's 15 Accountable Care Organization (ACO) clinics to assist them with improving the quality of care and lowering medical costs for patients.

Marshall will oversee finance, vendor relationships and payer relations for OneHealth. She has held various finance and project management roles with Rockwell Collins, a multi-national Fortune 500 company. Marshall received both her Master of Business Administration and Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, with concentrations in finance and economics, from the University of Iowa.

OneHealth Nebraska is a network of independent healthcare clinics and facilities in Lincoln and Lancaster County representing over 400 healthcare providers. OneHealth's ACO has contracts with Medicare and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska. Many of OneHealth's clinics will be adding care coordinators and providers in the coming months. OneHealth Nebraska was formed in 2014 and is located at 4600 Valley Rd., Suite 250, Lincoln, NE 68510.
With the 2017 total solar eclipse just three weeks away, Space.com is turning to the experts to learn about eclipse history and what to expect on the big day.

Tyler Nordgren is an astronomer by trade and a professor of physics at the University of Redlands in California whose recently published book, "Sun Moon Earth: The History of Solar Eclipses from Omens of Doom to Einstein and Exoplanets (opens in new tab)" (Basic Books, 2016), is a journey though both the human history of eclipses and Nordgren's own eclipse-chasing adventures (and misadventures).

Nordgren is about more than eclipses, though; he's worked with the National Park Service since 2007 to promote education in astronomy and protect the night skies from light pollution, preserving the views of the stars. (He wrote a book on the subject, as well: "Stars Above, Earth Below: A Guide to Astronomy in the National Parks (opens in new tab).") He's also been an invited speaker on eclipse cruises and is something of an evangelist for eclipse watching.

Space.com spoke to Nordgren about what drives an eclipse chaser and how, sometimes, people just get lucky. [The Amazing 2017 Solar Eclipse Posters by Astronomer-Artist Tyler Nordgren]

Space.com: What prompted the book? Was it just an appreciation of eclipses?

Tyler Nordgren: One prompt was a formative story, about the eclipse of 1979. I was 9 years old for that eclipse, and missed it. People were saying it was dangerous to look at it.

20 years later, and I was at an [International Astronomical Union] meeting in Budapest. It just so happened it was during the Aug. 11, 1999, eclipse in Europe. It blew me away.

I'd always known I wanted to see the big 2017 eclipse. I thought that was the thing I'd be waiting my life to see  it changed my outlook on what this year was going to mean. It wasn't just a matter of me seeing for myself. I was cheated out of this when I was 9 years old, and I wanted to make sure nobody else was.

So in 2013 I was asked to be a speaker for an eclipse trip in the Atlantic. [The total eclipse was on Nov. 3]. There were 120 eclipse chasers; these were folks that had seen 17 of these things. Seeing the one in '99, getting a chance to talk with these folks, was amazing. [The book] was a chance to share the awe and the mystery.

A poster for the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse and its path through Wyoming, by astronomer and artist Tyler Nordgren. (Image credit: Tyler Nordgren

Space.com: What do you want readers to take away from it?

Nordgren: The terrible thing is  and I shouldn't say this in front of my publisher [laughs]  eclipses are one of those things you don't need to know anything at all about them.

But if you want to know more, here's how people have been awed and amazed by this, this is what this phenomenon has done for us down through the eons. All these ways that eclipses contributed to the knowledge that we are on a planet, all these myriad ways our lives can be touched by this.

Space.com: You note in your book that eclipses have contributed a lot to science. Can you give some examples?

Nordgren: If you didn't have satellites, and didn't have eclipses, would you be able to study the corona [the sun's outer atmosphere]? I do not think so. Even with our satellites, that mask they use [called a coronagraph, which allows the satellite to block the glare of the sun so it can see the corona] blocks out the inner corona. That's what we wait for: that inner corona, which is otherwise completely invisible.

Also, eclipses were one of the big ways of getting longitude. You wait for an eclipse and compare the time it happens at two different places. That was what [scientist and explorer] John Wesley Powell tried to do. He knew there was going to be a total eclipse in the U.S. It was going to be partial where he was, and if he could at least observe the partial eclipse, he'd know his longitude. What the path was of the Colorado River at that point was a total mystery; we knew where it ended and we knew where it began, that was it. So on the day of the eclipse he climbed out of the canyon  this one-armed guy  to see it, but the weather was those summer monsoons.

Poster for the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse depicting its path through Tennessee, by Tyler Nordgren. (Image credit: Tyler Nordgren

Space.com: During the eclipse of 1919, Sir Arthur Eddington attempted to measure the deflection of light by gravity, to test Einstein's then-new theory of general relativity. You mention in the book some dispute over whether it really proved what Eddington thought.

Nordgren: There was some idea that it might not have been exact enough. The folks at Greenwich Observatory reran his experiment with an automated plate scanner [which measures the positions of stars on the photographic plate] and they confirmed it. At the very least, the data that was taken  the plates Eddington used that were taken had sufficient information there. Whether Eddington himself was able to extract that, I have to admit that is an open question. You're talking about measuring seconds of arc [1 second of arc is 1/3600th of a degree]. The guy was a good scientist  I'm going to have to say that he had data that was good enough.

In any case, it's been confirmed multiple times. There was another expedition in 1922, for the eclipse in Australia, so Eddington got his result. [Total Solar Eclipse 2017: When, Where and How to See It (Safely)]

Space.com: At least two groups are preparing to involve amateurs in duplicating Eddington's experiment. What do you think of duplicating that experiment now?

Nordgren: This is citizen science  you're getting citizen science involved in general relativity. We don't need to do that experiment again, but to be able to get the public involved in this groundbreaking experiment  it's a wonderful opportunity.

Space.com: You also talk in the book about luck, and its role in making astronomical observations, especially of eclipses and planetary transits across the sun, which are much rarer. You discussed one astronomer who seemed to have the worst luck: Guillaume Joseph Hyacinthe Jean-Baptiste Le Gentil, who tried to see the Venus transits of 1761 and 1769. His first attempt was thwarted by war and the second by weather. Did he get to see any eclipses?

Nordgren: There's no mention of him seeing an eclipse. He was going for that Venus transit. No problem, he thought. We'll just have to tool around the Indian Ocean for 10 years. He thought, "I've got this planned out; I'm going to do everything right."

But just at every single stage it goes wrong and none of it appears to be his fault. It's one of these humbling things  you do the best you can and sometimes you get thrown a curve ball. He eventually brought himself home, after like 11 years, but here he was hoping to have a bunch of observations that would make his career and he got nothing.

A poster for the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse depicting its path through Kentucky, by astronomer and artist Tyler Nordgren. (Image credit: Tyler Nordgren

Space.com: Are there other eclipse or astronomical expeditions that went really wrong?

Nordgren: Not quite that bad. I've got to reading lots of journals. There was one about an expedition in the late 1800s, you had some American astronomer on a gunship down in South America. He climbed up into the Andes and had malaria, the altitude was making him sick, and he still made all the necessary observations. You can just tell from the official report this guy was in agony. When you read some of the old eclipse reports, it's pretty amazing.

In a way, it underscored the need for the ideal astronomer on these expeditions to not get caught up in the excitement  just make the observations necessary. It reminded me of the first astronauts training for Gemini and Mercury missions. NASA ran them through endless drills so that they accomplish the task, run through the checklist and everything goes by the book. The training was to not get caught up in the excitement.

Space.com: Have you had any particular "bad luck" eclipses?

Nordgren: I was going to one in the Faroe Islands [in 2015]. In the Faroes, the change in temperature during totality was enough to make it cloud up on me. The rain had begun to clear up and we thought the Nordic gods were looking down in favor on us. It was the most epically beautiful location, too. But we missed totality.

Space.com: Speaking of luck, in the book Columbus fools the native Caribbeans with his prediction of the eclipse, but that wouldn't have worked on the Mayans or Aztecs, would it? They could keep track as well as he could.

Nordgren: Yes. They would have known that something was coming. The fact that he was on an island worked in his favor. If he'd run across them they'd have said "tell me something I don't know."

Also, depending on exactly where he was, there would be a chance the eclipse would end by the time it rose  a nonzero chance he could miss the lunar eclipse entirely. But with Columbus essentially all of his mathematical errors canceled out.

Space.com: What was the most awe-inspiring eclipse you ever saw?

Nordgren: You always remember your first. But other than that, the 2013 [eclipse] from the deck of the sailing ship was the most dramatic. We had beautiful clear weather the morning of the eclipse when the storm came in. We had the entire ship, and the captain was determined to get us into the path of totality. I said, "Look, we just need to find one clear spot in all of this between these two latitudes." The captain got us into that spot 5 seconds before totality began. When you're griping the rigging, standing on the bowsprit, with the dramatic alignment with the worlds above, that's something. [Rare Solar Eclipse Wows Skywatchers Across Atlantic, Africa (Photos)]

A poster for the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse depicting its path through Idaho, by astronomer and artist Tyler Nordgren. (Image credit: Tyler Nordgren

Space.com: What about eclipses on other planets?

Nordgren: On Jupiter  I did the math a while ago  it worked out you could be on one moon and if the other moon is at just the right point, if the two pass, you could see a solar eclipse by one moon from the other moon. On Mars, you'd get this really strange annular eclipse, because Phobos and Deimos [the two Martian moons] are so small. I also did some math about [the recently discovered exoplanet system] Trappist-1. Trappist-1 has seven little tiny planets. If you're within the error bars for the semimajor axes and potential size, you could be on the seventh planet, Trappist-1 h, and see Trappist-1 g at just the right angular size, and get a total eclipse like here on Earth. Given the difference in orbital velocity you could get totality for something like half an hour.

Space.com: Eclipses are often hard to see for most people. Do you think that's why few appreciate them?

Nordgren: Put it this way: I'm out there in the wilds of eastern Oregon. This is one of the least visited parts of the U.S. And there will be thousands of people trying to come here, but it's not easy. But looking ahead to April 8, 2024, we have a path of totality that covers Dallas, Cleveland, Buffalo  these are major cities. So here's a chance for all the people that missed out  big cities with massive hotels.

Space.com: Any advice for people watching the eclipse?

Nordgren: Yes. First off, even polarized sunglasses really don't protect you. During totality, the corona is as bright as the full moon, and the sun is a million times brighter. Solar eclipse glasses are designed to reduce the sun's light by a factor of 1 million. That's far more than any sunglasses do. Also, sunglasses reduce light in the visible and ultraviolet, but infrared is also dangerous. Eclipse glasses reduce the IR as well.

I've seen people use all sorts of things, even brown beer bottles. Use real eclipse glasses.

Using binoculars or a telescope is dangerous  any filter has to be on the end of binoculars. Looking at the eclipse through a telescope is safe during the total phase, but you've got to make 100 percent certain the instant you see the second "diamond ring" look away! I would not do that at all. Project the image onto something else like a piece of cardboard.

I'd recommend just watching it without any equipment the first time. [Editor's Note: This would mean not looking at the sun at all until it is completely obscured by the moon.]

Space.com: Does the rest of your family share your eclipse enthusiasm?

Nordgren: I'm the only one in my family that's ever seen one. My wife is a planetary scientist, she doesn't see what the big deal is. I suspect she's kind of humoring me at this point.

You can learn more about Nordgren's work, including his amazing series of 2017 solar eclipse travel posters, at his website: http://www.tylernordgren.com/.

Editor's note: Space.com has teamed up with Simulation Curriculum to offer this awesome Eclipse Safari app to help you enjoy your eclipse experience. The free app is available for Apple (opens in new tab) and Android, and you can view it on the web. If you take an amazing photo of the Aug. 21 solar eclipse, let us know! Send photos and comments to: spacephotos@space.com.
The Orion Nebula is one of the most heavily studied astronomical targets in the night sky, but that doesn't mean it has stopped surprising astronomers. In fact, new work suggests that its many young stars formed in three distinct waves, over just a few million years.

As the active star-forming region that's nearest to Earth, located around 1,350 light-years away in the constellation of Orion, the nebula is known to contain a bevy of young stars that occupy the Orion Nebula cluster. Now, astronomers using the OmegaCAM instrument on the VLT Survey Telescope (VST), located at the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Paranal Observatory in Chile, have revealed previously unknown detail in this population of stars.

By precisely measuring the brightness and color of all the stars in the cluster, the researchers determined the ages and masses of the stars. The study, accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, describes a surprise discovery that there are in fact three different populations of young stars. [The Splendor of the Orion Nebula (Photos)]

The European Southern Observatory's VLT Survey Telescope used its OmegaCAM to capture this detailed view of the Orion Nebula and its collection of young stars. The object is 1,350 light-years from Earth and hosts one of the closest stellar nurseries. (Image credit: G. Beccari/ESO)

This means that star-formation processes driven by the Orion Nebula happened over three distinct phases, rather than at the same time as was previously thought, the researchers said. And it all likely happened in just a few million years.

This finding could transform our understanding of the age distribution of other star clusters, the study's researchers said in a statement, and it adds new detail to the story of star-formation processes.

"Looking at the data for the first time was one of those 'Wow!' moments that happen only once or twice in an astronomer's lifetime," Giacomo Beccari, an ESO astronomer and the lead author of the study, said in a statement. "The incredible quality of the OmegaCAM images revealed without any doubt that we were seeing three distinct populations of stars in the central parts of Orion."

Three populations of young stars in the Orion Nebula are marked with different colors according to their age: The blue stars are the oldest, followed by the green stars and then the red stars. They likely formed in three different star-formation bursts during the past 3 million years. (Image credit: G. Beccari/ESO)

The researchers also investigated another possible explanation for the variety of star colors and brightnesses, however: If some of the stars have closely orbiting stellar partners that are unresolved in the OmegaCAM observations, they may appear redder and brighter, masking their true age.

Through analysis of other observations of the stars' spin and spectra, however, the researchers deduced that the brightness and color data is likely not being skewed by hidden stellar companions. If they did have binary partners, that would imply the stars had very unusual properties, according to the statement.

"Although we cannot yet formally disprove the possibility that these stars are binaries, it seems much more natural to accept that what we see are three generations of stars that formed in succession, within less than 3 million years," added Beccari.

"This is an important result," said Monika Petr-Gotzens, study co-author and ESO astronomer. "What we are witnessing is that the stars of a cluster at the beginning of their lives didn't form altogether simultaneously. This may mean that our understanding of how stars form in clusters needs to be modified."

The upshot: The famous star-forming region created stars in bursts, and the period of star birth happened much faster than scientists previously thought, the researchers said.

Follow Ian O'Neill @astroengine. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
Barbolight is producing a modern replica of the ACR FA-5 penlight used aboard NASA's Apollo missions to the moon.

A company that specializes in producing nautical and diving torches is shining new light on a lantern that was flown to the moon almost 50 years ago.

Barbolight, based in Madrid, Spain, has created a modern flashlight based on the appearance of the penlight used by NASA's Apollo, Skylab and early space shuttle astronauts. The company is crowdfunding the production of the "space age" light, using Kickstarter to raise 11,969 euros ($14,000 US).

"Every astronaut of the Apollo project was issued with a penlight that proved to be vital. Now we want to bring them back to life," wrote Javier Barbarin, the CEO of Barbolight, on the website. [NASA's 17 Apollo Moon Missions in Pictures]

Developed for NASA by ACR Electronics, the model FA-5 penlight was manufactured for the space agency by Fulton Industries of Ohio. The magnesium flashlight was powered by two AA batteries and was turned on and off by rotating the bulb end of the brass casing, according to Chris Spain, an enthusiast whose space-flown artifacts website inspired the Barbolight replica.

"The flashlights proved to be vital on the Apollo 13 mission as the crew [relied] on them heavily after powering down their stricken spacecraft," wrote Spain, describing the use of the penlight aboard the 1970 mission to the moon.

Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert praised ACR for the flashlight in an April 1971 letter to the company.

"We never turned on the lights in the spacecraft after the accident. As a result, your penlights served as our means of 'seeing' to do the job during the many hours of darkness when the sunlight was not coming through the windows," wrote the astronauts.

"We never wore out even one [penlight] during the trip; in fact, they still illuminate today," they continued. "Their size was also a convenience, as it was handy to grip the light between clinched teeth to copy the procedures that were voiced up from Earth."

According to Spain's research, the lights were produced exclusively for NASA in three batches, between June 1968 and August 1972. Multiple penlights were flown on every Apollo mission, from Apollo 7 through Apollo 17, as well as aboard the Skylab orbital workshop, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project and the shuttle missions launched through the late 1980s.

ACR (through its parent company) marketed a commercial light that incorporated some of the technology it developed for NASA, selling two million between 1972 and 1978, but it did not resemble the Apollo-used design.

An original ACR FA-5 penlight as flown onboard Apollo 11, the first mission to land astronauts on the moon. (Image credit: Smithsonian)

Barbolight decided to reproduce the FA-5 penlight as an "homage to those heroic times of space exploration."

"Its reliability is such that today [it] continues to work," said Barbarin. "[Its] purity of lines, coupled with the undeniable elegance and oldness of brass alloys, made this lantern a tribute to the principles of simplicity and function."

Barbolight stayed faithful to the appearance and size of the original Apollo penlight, but replaced its incandescent bulb with a more efficient LED (light-emitting diode). That meant also replacing the translucent lens with diffused optics, so the penlight could still work well in confined environments, "like a space capsule, but also a sailboat [or] small plane."

Barbolight also chose an emitter that reproduces the warm color temperature of the original magnesium bulb, and, as manufacturers of diving lanterns, made the flashlight water resistant to more than 300 feet (100 meters).

Space-flown examples of the original ACR penlight, which were saved by the astronauts as mementos of their space missions, have sold for thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars at auction. Even examples used for training have commanded more than $1,000.

Barbolight is offering its replica for 99 euros ($113 US) for one, or less for orders of multiple penlights. Pledges for 10 or more also include the option of laser engraving a logo of the buyer's choice.

As of Monday (July 31), the Kickstarter campaign had 100 backers with 11 days to go until it closes on Aug. 12.

For more details or to pledge for your own Apollo penlight, see the project's page on Kickstarter at: http://kck.st/2uFcXXQ

Follow collectSPACE.com Facebook and on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2017 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.
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In July 2017 the U.S. Army carried out two more interception tests of its THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) anti-missile system. Both tests (on the 11 th and 30 th ) were successful as were the other six such tests since 2010. There have been 28 test firings of THAAD since 1995 and 22 were successful. Many of the tests before 2005 did not involve attempting to actually intercept an incoming missile warhead. Many of the tests since 2008 were to verify that new features (like the ability to hit targets closer to the surface, and to share data with Patriot anti-missile systems) as well as verifying that the overall system worked. THAAD entered service in 2008 when the first THAAD anti-ballistic missile (ABM) battery was deployed. This followed a 2006 firing test that used regular army personnel and not developer technicians. In 2009 the second battery was formed. By 2012 there were five batteries with more on order by a growing list of export customers.

The most prominent foreign customer for THAAD is South Korea, which recently received a THAAD battery. While THAAD cannot intercept an ICBM warhead near its target, THAAD can intercept the ballistic missiles North Korea had been testing recently that could, in theory, be used as ICBMs. The two most recent North Korean tests of their Hwasong 14 missile landed less than a thousand kilometers distant and that flight profile is one THAAD could handle. The U.S., South Korea and Japan are discussing the usefulness of using current anti-missile systems (mainly Aegis and THAAD) available in or near South Korea to intercept further North Korean ballistic missile tests which are illegal and meant to be threatening. South Korea had the final say on this because North Korea had been threatening to invade again (as it did in 1950, as ordered by the Soviet Union). While North Korea would probably fail once more any new invasion would put much of South Koreas population and GDP at risk because the capital, Seoul, is within artillery range of North Korea. This has always been a factor when considering how to deal with North Korean threats and North Korea knows it. But North Korea seems determined to develop nuclear weapons carried by ballistic missiles it can use against the United States, Japan and South Korea.

Each THAAD battery has at least 24 missiles and three launchers plus and a fire control communications system. This includes an X-Band radar. The gear for each battery costs $310 million. The 6.2 meter (18 foot long) THAAD missiles are 340mm in diameter and weigh 900 kg (1,980 pounds). This is about the same size as the Patriot anti-aircraft missile, but twice the weight of the anti-missile version of the Patriot.

The range of THAAD is over 200 kilometers, max altitude is 150 kilometers, and move at a speed of 2.8 kilometers a second. THAAD is intended for short (like SCUD) or medium range (up to 2,000 kilometer) range ballistic missiles. THAAD has been in development since the late 1980s. Originally the army planned to buy at least 18 launchers, 1,400 missiles, and 18 radars. That goal has been adjusted as the number of export customers increases. THAAD is a step up from the Patriot PAC-3 anti-missile (which is an anti-aircraft missile adapted to take out incoming missiles). The PAC-3 works, but it has limited (35 kilometers) range.

The navy has also modified its AEGIS software and Standard anti-aircraft missile system to operate like the PAC-3. This system, the RIM-161A, also known as the Standard Missile 3 (or SM-3), has a longer range than THAAD (over 500 kilometers) and max altitude of 160 kilometers. The Standard 3 is based on the Standard 2, and costs over three million dollars each. The Standard 3 has four stages. The first two stages boost the interceptor out of the atmosphere. The third stage fires twice to boost the interceptor farther beyond the earth's atmosphere. Prior to each motor firing it takes a GPS reading to correct course for approaching the target. The fourth stage is the nine kg (20 pound) LEAP kill vehicle, which uses infrared sensors to close on the target and ram it.

Thus the U.S. has three anti-missile systems available in and around Korea, although one of them currently only operates from warships (cruisers and destroyers that have been equipped with the special software that enables the AEGIS radar system to detect and track incoming ballistic missiles.) AEGIS can also be operated from land bases, and the manufacturer is offering such a system to export customers and already has several orders. In addition there is GBI, a system specifically designed for ICBMs and only stationed in North America.
The turf wars in three border cities have intensified dramatically in the last seven months. Reynosa, Nuevo Laredo, and Matamoros are cities in Tamaulipas state and located on the border with Texas. Tamaulipas state was a Gulf Cartel strong hold, now it is a contested region. Police attribute the turf wars in the cities to the fragmentation of cartels and the factions are now fighting over drug trafficking corridors (or territories, known as plazas) that were once controlled by larger cartels. Basically, Gulf Cartel factions and Los Zetas Cartel factions are responsible for the mayhem. Reynosa in particular has seen a rise in violence since January 2017. Reynosa may be the best example of multi-factional conflict. A Los Zetas faction operates in the city. Authorities believe an armed group linked to the Sinaloa Cartel, called Los Antrax, operates in the city. In late May a contingent of Mexican marines was sent to Reynosa with orders to stop the factional combat. Despite the marines' expertise, violence continues. Two Zetas factions are fighting over Nuevo Laredo, the Cartel del Noreste and the Old School Zetas (Vieja Escuela Z). Gulf Cartel factions are fighting over Matamoros (which is on the Gulf of Mexico, across the border from Brownsville, Texas). The Jalisco New Generation Cartel may also have a presence in Tamaulipas state.

July 28, 2017: Ford Motor Company workers in Woodhaven, Michigan, found around 300 pounds of marijuana hidden on railroad cars used to ship Ford vehicles manufactured in Mexico to Detroit. The drug discovery was reported. This is the second discovery this month of marijuana hidden on a shipment of Fords and Lincolns originating in Mexico.

July 27, 2017: The Sinaloa Cartel apparently has a European branch that is working with a Romanian organized crime group. The cartel's Romanian connection is smuggling narcotics (primarily cocaine) into Great Britain, usually using trucks. The smuggling routes vary, but one goes through Spain.

Police in Nuevo Laredo discovered the bodies of four men and five women in front of a home in the city. Cartel gunmen are believed to be responsible for the murders.

July 25, 2017: The number of civic defense groups (local defense group or militias) continues to increase throughout the country. It is generally believed that at least 183 local self-defense groups have now been organized. Most of these groups are in Michoacan and Guerrero states although several new groups have recently appeared in Mexico state.

July 24, 2017: Marines killed five fuel thieves during a raid a gang safe house in Puebla state. The thieves belonged to a gang named Los Bukanas, which has become a major criminal organization in the state.

July 23, 2017: In Mexico City five people were murdered in drug gang-related violence. In one incident, two drug gang gunmen on a motorcycle killed four people exiting a bar.

July 22, 2017: The new homicide numbers are out and they are not good numbers. In June 2,234 murders were committed. That makes June 2017 the deadliest month since 1997, supplanting May 2017. The revised figure for May 2017 is 2,186 murders. For 30 days May 2017 was the deadliest since 1997. In the first six months of 2017 Mexico officially had 12,155 murders. That is a 31 percent increase over the same period in 2016. The murder rate for 2015 was 16 per 100,000. The high point during the Calderon Administration (2006-12) was 20 per 100,000. The murder rate has since kept pace with population growth. Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa have murder rates of about 20 per year per 100,000. North Africa is 5.9 and North America is 3.9. Europe is 3.5 and Asia is 3.1.

July 20, 2016: Marines killed eight drug gang members in a shootout in Mexico City. The firefight occurred in the Tlahuac area.

July 17, 2017: The government extradited Javier Duarte (former governor of Veracruz state) from Guatemala. Durate will face a range of criminal charges including money laundering, illegally obtained money to purchase real estate, and consorting with criminal organizations to commit violent crimes. One investigator believes Duarte and his cohorts may have stolen as much as three billion dollars from the public. Durate was arrested in Guatemala in April.

July 14, 2017: The Mexican national oil company, PEMEX, believes its alliances with commercial oil companies are beginning to pay off. A consortium of private companies recently announced that it has discovered a large offshore field in the Gulf of Mexico. That field may hold over one billion barrels of oil. Another company announced a discovery similar in size in another area of the Gulf of Mexico. PEMEX argued that it needed access to private capital and technical capabilities to develop new fields. Until now it was considered unpatriotic to allow PEMEX to enter into partnerships with foreign firms.

July 11, 2017: Masked men armed with knives and machetes attacked a children's party in Tizayuca (Hidalgo state) and murdered 11 people. Authorities said the murderers belonged to an organized criminal group. The owner of the home where the party was held was involved with a rival gang.

July 9, 2017: An Army patrol operating in the city of Nuevo Laredo (Tamaulipas state) discovered 94 assault rifles and 30,000 rounds of ammunition in a house in addition to three .50 caliber sniper rifles and several grenade launchers. Members of the patrol had noticed a group of armed men fleeing the house.

July 6, 2017: A prison riot in the Las Cruces prison (outside the city of Acapulco, Guerrero state) left 28 inmates dead and three wounded. Apparently five of the dead were beheaded by inmates who belonged to a death cult called Santa Muerte. A drug gang faction called the Independent Cartel of Acapulco, (Cartel Independiente de Acapulco) was involved in the riot.

In the town of Madera (Chihuahua state) 15 people died in a firefight between the Sinaloa Cartel and La Linea, the armed wing of the Juarez Cartel. Police said the firefight began around 5 a.m. and lasted for two hours. Security forces later arrested at three gunmen involved in the firefight. They also seized 10 vehicles, several weapons and grenades.

July 5, 2017: Guatemala has agreed to extradite the former governor of Veracruz state, Javier Duarte, to Mexico.

July 4, 2017: At least nine people have been murdered in Mexico City and Puebla state in violence related to fuel theft. In Puebla state a gang of gunmen attempted to extort money from a group of fuel thieves. A gunfight erupted that left three dead.

July 2, 2017: The government now says that from December 2006 to May 2017, 188,567 murders have been committed in the country.

July 1, 2017: Sinaloa state continues to bleed as seventeen drug gang members in Aguaje (Michoacan state) died in a shootout with security forces. Interestingly enough, the gang members in the firefight belonged to rival gangs who had been fighting prior to the arrival of security forces. Two gangsters had died in the gang firefight.

June 29, 2017: Investigators reported that three senior Mexican political opposition leaders and at least 12 political activists have been targeted by spyware. One of the officials is the head of the National Action Party (PAN), Ricardo Anaya. Opposition politicians have accused the government of being behind the spyware operations. President Pena has asked police to investigate allegation that the government has spied on private Mexican citizens.

A U.S. federal court has sentenced a former Los Zetas hit man, Marciano Millan Vasquez, to seven consecutive life sentences for murder. Vasquez was also involved in numerous other crimes, to include drug and weapons trafficking. He was a plaza boss" in the border town of Piedras Negras (Coahuila state).
Multiple reports surfaced over the weekend claiming Apple had removed several popular virtual private network (VPN) apps from the App Store in China. Now, the Cupertino-based technology giant has publicly addressed the matter.

Software makers including StarVPN, VyprVPN and ExpressVPN said on Saturday that their apps had been removed from Apple's App Store. The latter company on its blog said Apple notified them that their app was being removed because it "includes content that is illegal in China" and thus isn't compliant with the App Store guidelines.

VPNs are used by some people in China to circumvent the "Great Firewall," the government's Internet filter designed to prevent citizens from accessing certain websites including Google, Facebook, Pinterest, The New York Times and Dropbox, just to name a few.

On Sunday, Apple issued the following statement to a number of media outlets:

Earlier this year China's MIIT [Ministry of Industry and Information Technology] announced that all developers offering VPNs must obtain a license from the government. We have been required to remove some VPN apps in China that do not meet the new regulations. These apps remain available in all other markets where they do business.

China is Apple's largest market outside of the US.

Sunday Yokubaitis, president of VyprVPN maker Golden Frog, said his company is extremely disappointed that Apple has bowed to pressure from China to remove VPN apps without citing any Chinese law or regulation that makes VPNs illegal. Golden Frog views access to Internet in China as a human rights issue, Yokubaitis said, adding that he would expect Apple to value human rights over profits.
You might remember last month's story about the free-speech group that is suing Donald Trump for blocking Twitter users. Now, it looks as if the Knight First Amendment Institute has a better chance of succeeding, after a federal court in Virginia ruled that politicians can't block people on social media.

The lawsuit revolves around Phyllis Randall, chairwoman of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, who used her Facebook account to ask constitutions for feedback. Software consultant Brian Davison sued Randall after he was blocked for posting an accusation of corruption against the Loudoun School Board.

"She wants the public to believe she's transparent but then to ban critics," he said.

Despite lifting the ban after 12 hours, US District Judge James Cacheris ruled that as Randall was acting as a public official, she violated the First Amendment by "suppressing critical commentary regarding elected officials."

Randall claims she banned Davison because he mentioned the family members of elected officials and that she wouldn't ban anyone who criticized only the officials themselves.

The Chairwoman's lawyer, Julia Judkins, argues that as Randall doesn't use county resources to manage the Facebook page, it can't possibly represent the government. But the Judge maintains it was a case of viewpoint discrimination.

"The suppression of critical commentary regarding elected officials is the quintessential form of viewpoint discrimination against which the First Amendment guards," the Cacheris wrote in his ruling.

While Randall isn't facing any type of punishment, the implications of the case are far reaching, especially when it comes to Trump and Twitter.

"We hope the courts look to this opinion as a road map in holding that it is unconstitutional for President Trump to block his critics on Twitter," Alex Abdo, senior staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute, told the Wall Street Journal.
2017 Audi A4 Review : Form and Function At Its Best-Review By Larry Nutson

2017 Audi A4

Form and function at its best

By Larry Nutson

Senior Editor and Bureau Chief

Chicago Bureau

The Auto Channel

For 2017 the Audi A4 is all-new with a refined exterior design and significantly changed interior. I had a brief drive in the new A4 earlier this year in May and was looking forward to a longer time with this top-selling Audi.

The stars aligned for me with the scheduling of the media-loan A4 and my need for a couple long drives. One trip would take me east from Chicago to Ann Arbor, Michigan. This 225 mile highway drive would provide a good chance to measure fuel consumption and experience the new driver assistance features Audi now provides.

The 4-door, 5-passenger 2017 A4 sedan continues to be offered in three trims, with one engine/transmission configuration and in the choice of front- or all-wheel drive. That said, there is one additional A4 model that was recently introduced, which I will get to in a bit.

On the outside the A4 is still very much recognizable as an Audi. It has a new grille design and is a bit less curvy. Audi xenon headlights with LED daytime running lights and dynamic LED taillights with dynamic turn signals are standard. There are optional LED headlights for the first time on the A4.

The new A4 is bigger and roomier providing more front seat comfort and rear passenger legroom. Though larger, the A4 is also lighter through lightweight aluminum-hybrid construction that brings a weight savings of 99 lbs. on FWD models, and 66 lbs. on quattro models.

The dashboard is new with a wing design, in Audis words. Leather seating surfaces and a sunroof are standard. New are an available head-up display and also an available 12.3 inch virtual cockpit display.

There were a number of features on the A4 whose function I really liked:

-- The power-fold outside mirrors dont unfold until you start the engine, making for easy vehicle access in tight parking conditions.

-- The yellow light for the blind spot warning is installed in the inboard edge of the outside mirrors making for easy visibility through the door glass.

-- On locking the car with the key fob, the alarm signal is a gentle chirp rather than a loud blast of the regular car horn.

-- A destination may be set in the navigation system while underway. I really dislike some vehicles were you inefficiently have to remain stopped to program in a destination.

The 2.0-L Turbo engine has been reworked and now produces 252HP. Its mated to newly developed seven-speed S-tronic dual-clutch transmission for both the front-wheel drive and quattro all-wheel drive A4s. Audis drive select has four modes  comfort, auto, dynamic and individual  that allows the driver to change gear shift points for increased throttle response, steering assistance and damper control and adaptive cruise control adjustments.

I mentioned I was taking a road trip with the A4. WellI was really surprised at the fuel economy it achieved. For my nearly 100% highway drive, in light traffic where I could maintain good constant cruising speed in the 70+mph range, the A4 got 34mpg. It was just my wife and me with some light luggage in the trunk.

I was driving the A4 Quattro which has an EPA test-cycle fuel economy rating of 31 mpg highway. Theres no complaint here with my highway run economy compared to the EPA estimate. The A4 Quattro is EPA rated at 24 city mpg for a combined rating of 27 mpg.

I mentioned earlier there was an additional new Audi A4 model, the A4 Ultra. Audi has tweaked the 2.0-L turbo engine for low fuel consumption making it more efficient with a higher compression ratio of 11.7:1. It achieves EPA test-cycle estimated ratings of 27 mpg city and 37 mpg highway. Audi says no other luxury sedan in its competitive segment offers higher EPA-estimated city or highway mileage.

The 2.0T engine, mated to a seven-speed S tronic dual clutch transmission, produces 190 HP and sprints from 0-60 mph in 7.1 seconds. The A4 Ultra comes in front-wheel drive only and has a base price of $34,900. I surely would like to road trip this model and see what it does for fuel economy in real world driving.

The A4 trim levels, all with the 252HP engine, are Premium, Premium Plus and Prestige with prices starting at $37,300. Premium Plus is $3,800 more and gets you 18-inch wheels, Bang & Olufsen Surround Sound System, LED headlights, front and rear parking sensors and a few other items. The Prestige model loads up everything including a head-up display for $4,800 more above the Premium Plus. More details, specs and pricing on the entire A4 line-up can be found at www.audiusa.com.

Audi also offers a frontal collision mitigation system with automatic braking, rear collision mitigation, a rearview camera, blind-spot monitoring and surround-view parking camera. These driver-assistance safety features provide excellent technology for safer driving and the reduced risk of collision and injury.

All in all, the A4 is a very comfortable, very nice driving, not-too-big premium sedan. The engine and transmission deliver very good overall acceleration, highway merging and passing performance. Not to mention the low fuel consumption. The Quattro all-wheel-drive provides balanced handling and excellent bad-weather driving, be it rain or snow. My road trip drives were very comfortable with good seat support and quiet interior sound levels making for easy conversations and music listening.

The 2017 Audi A4 sedan is a contender for both the North American Car of the Year (NACTOY) as well as the Midwest Automotive Media Association (MAMA) Family Vehicle of the Year awards. Well just have to wait and see how these awards play out.

2016 Larry Nutson, the Chicago Car Guy

The Most Audi Consumer Research Information Anywhere!
Consolidated Edison, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the regulated electric, gas, and steam delivery businesses in the United States. It offers electric services to approximately 3.5 million customers in New York City and Westchester County; gas to approximately 1.1 million customers in Manhattan, the Bronx, parts of Queens, and Westchester County; and steam to approximately 1,555 customers in parts of Manhattan. The company also supplies electricity to approximately 0.3 million customers in southeastern New York and northern New Jersey; and gas to approximately 0.1 million customers in southeastern New York. In addition, it operates 533 circuit miles of transmission lines; 15 transmission substations; 64 distribution substations; 87,564 in-service line transformers; 3,924 pole miles of overhead distribution lines; and 2,291 miles of underground distribution lines, as well as 4,350 miles of mains and 377,971 service lines for natural gas distribution. Further, the company owns, operates, and develops renewable and energy infrastructure projects; and provides energy-related products and services to wholesale and retail customers, as well as invests in electric and gas transmission projects. It primarily sells electricity to industrial, commercial, residential, and government customers. The company was founded in 1823 and is based in New York, New York.
Freeport-McMoRan Inc. engages in the mining of mineral properties in North America, South America, and Indonesia. The company primarily explores for copper, gold, molybdenum, silver, and other metals, as well as oil and gas. Its assets include the Grasberg minerals district in Indonesia; Morenci, Bagdad, Safford, Sierrita, and Miami in Arizona; Tyrone and Chino in New Mexico; and Henderson and Climax in Colorado, North America, as well as Cerro Verde in Peru and El Abra in Chile. The company also operates a portfolio of oil and gas properties primarily located in offshore California and the Gulf of Mexico. As of December 31, 2021, it operated approximately 135 wells. The company was formerly known as Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. and changed its name to Freeport-McMoRan Inc. in July 2014. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.
SIOUX CITY, Iowa -- A major Iowa shopping holiday is fast approaching.

During Iowa's annual sales tax holiday, Aug. 4-5, most apparel priced less than $100 will be exempt from state and local sales taxes.

Western Iowa retailers happen to be in a good location for a tax-free holiday, as shoppers will come from neighboring South Dakota and Nebraska for the event.

At least 16 states have back-to-school shopping holidays planned this year. Missouri's sales tax holiday, Aug. 4-6, exempts sales tax from larger purchases, including personal computers up to $1,500.

MODE, a boutique at Lakeport Commons outdoor mall in Sioux City, estimates it might have four times as many customers as usual during the sales tax-free weekend.

Store manager Kristie McGregor said the store carries a range of styles and sizes -- so mothers and grandmothers can bring school-aged girls there for back-to-school shopping, and everyone can walk out with something.

In past years, clothing sales at Bomgaars had doubled during the two-day holiday, said Joe Boyle, manager of the Hamilton Boulevard store in Sioux City.

"We usually do have a lot more foot traffic those days, because there is a fair amount of people that save their school shopping to do that weekend just because of the tax holiday," he said.

Boyle added he appreciates the state forgoing some of its tax revenue to boost sales at businesses, and to give shoppers a break.

Kim Kletschke, co-owner of Karlton's men's clothing store in downtown Sioux City, said that the extra foot traffic of the tax holiday is a bonus for his store during the summer season, when "all people want to be is in a t-shirt and swimsuit," instead of dress clothing.

"It's a good incentive to get them out and thinking about buying fall clothes maybe sooner than they would need them," Kletschke said. "Just in general, it might be just enough of an extra incentive to go through the sales racks."

Even though most tax-holiday shoppers are in a back-to-school frame of mind, Kletschke said customers still take advantage of the tax break.
The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. manufactures, markets, and sells skin care, makeup, fragrance, and hair care products worldwide. It offers a range of skin care products, including moisturizers, serums, cleansers, toners, body care, exfoliators, acne care and oil correctors, facial masks, cleansing devices, and sun care products; and makeup products, such as lipsticks, lip glosses, mascaras, foundations, eyeshadows, nail polishes, and powders, as well as compacts, brushes, and other makeup tools. The company also provides fragrance products in various forms comprising eau de parfum sprays and colognes, as well as lotions, powders, creams, candles, and soaps; and hair care products that include shampoos, conditioners, styling products, treatment, finishing sprays, and hair color products, as well as sells ancillary products and services. It offers its products under the Estee Lauder, Aramis, Clinique, Lab Series, Origins, MAC, Bobbi Brown, La Mer, Aveda, Jo Malone London, Bumble and bumble, Darphin, Smashbox, Le Labo, Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle, GLAMGLOW, Kilian Paris, Too Faced, Dr. Jart+, DECIEM, and The Ordinary brands. The company sells its products through department stores, specialty-multi retailers, upscale perfumeries and pharmacies, and salons and spas; freestanding stores; its own and authorized retailer websites; third-party online malls; stores in airports; and duty-free shops. The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
This is a current list of the top 250 companies by market capitalization on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Learn more .

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is one of the largest, and most recognizable, stock exchanges in the world. The NYSE is in New York City, New York at 11 Wall Street. The NYSE has been in existence since the earliest days of the United States becoming a nation, in 1792 and is primarily made up of blue-chip companies with large market capitalizations. In fact, many of the stocks that make up the Dow Jones Composite Index (i.e. The Dow) are listed on the NYSE.

This article gives a brief history of the New York Stock Exchange. In addition, it covers topics such as what kind of stocks trade on the exchange, what are the listing requirements, how trading is performed, and what the daily price movement of the NYSE tells investors about investor sentiment.

What Were the Origins of the NYSE?

Today, the New York Stock Exchange is known as the center of the financial universe. However, the exchanges origin is far more humble. On May 17, 1792, 24 stockbrokers signed the Buttonwood Agreement creating a centralized exchange to help provide order to the securities market in what was still a young nation. The "Buttonwood Agreement comes from the tree of the same name under which the founders signed the agreement.

An initial benefit of the exchange was how it removed the need for auctioneers when trading commodities like wheat and tobacco and to set a commission rate. The exchange initially focused on government bonds.

However, the exchange had no formal home. Business was usually conducted informally in the local coffeehouses. In 1817, the exchange changed its name to the New York Stock & Exchange Board which later became the New York Stock Exchange. At this time, the exchange adopted a constitution that set the rules for trading. A group of stockbrokers met twice a day at 40 Wall Street to trade 30 stocks and bonds.

Over time, the exchange moved became the financial hub of the country and moved to its current location in 1865.

What Kind of Stocks Trade on the NYSE?

As of June 2022, the NYSE includes approximately 2,400 companies with a market capitalization of over $28.2 trillion. Although the NYSE trades stocks of all market capitalizations, its best known for trading the stocks of large cap companies. These have the benefit of being mature companies in mature industries. And many of these companies reward shareholders with dividends.

However, that also means that many of these companies are better suited for value investors as opposed to growth investors. In bear markets this stability can be a benefit for investors as these stocks tend to perform less bad than more volatile stocks. But in a bull market, these stocks are not likely to provide investors with the growth that they look for.

An interesting fact about how the NYSE and NASDAQ operate is that the companies with the five largest market caps on the NYSE are also listed on the NASDAQ exchange.

What Are the Listing Requirements For the NYSE?

The NYSE has strict guidelines that govern the types of companies that can list on the exchange. Here are the major requirements that all companies must meet:

The company must have at least 2,200 shareholders

The company must trade over 100,000 shares per month

The company must have a market valuation of over $100 million

The company must generate more than $75 million in annual revenue

However, there is at least one advantage of having such stringent requirements. That is the companies that meet the requirements generally find it easier to get more investors funds when they hold their initial public offering (IPO).

Once a company begins trading on the NYSE, it must continue to meet these requirements. If it doesnt it can be delisted. In addition to these requirements, the stock must continue to trade above $1. If the price of a stock drops below $1 for more than 29 consecutive trading days, the stock receives an Initial Price Violation Notice.

At that point, the company has 10 days to provide the exchange with a plan for bringing their shares above $1.

How are Trades Executed on the NYSE?

For over a century, the floor of the NYSE was the place for investors to be. This meant trades were conducted by traders who ran buy and sell orders across the trading floor looking to broker a deal for their clients. But with the birth of the NASDAQ exchange in 1971, the New York Stock Exchange began conducting electronic trading.

However, the NYSE continues to conduct trades in an auction style. Brokers purchase stocks on behalf of their clients or firms. Every order features a broker who will enter the order electronically and a specialist who serves as the market maker for that stock. The specialist posts bid and ask prices and manages the actual execution of the trades. And there are still a handful of stockbrokers who still traffic buy and sell orders physically on the floor of the exchange.

How Does the NYSE Signal Investor Sentiment?

Like its counterpart, the NASDAQ, the NYSE measures the risk appetite of investors. When the NYSE is moving higher over a length of time, it signals that a risk on environment. Conversely when the NYSE moves lower over a significant period, it signals that investors are moving to a risk off position.

Some Final Thoughts on the NYSE

Financial news networks plan their programming schedule around the opening and closing bell of the New York Stock Exchange. Its still considered a distinguished honor when individuals or groups are invited to ring the opening bell. In fact, Warren Buffett is attributed with saying that in the short term, the stock market acts like a voting machine. A fact that many U.S. presidents will attest to.

The NYSE is the oldest and most recognizable of all the stock exchanges. It also has the most stringent requirements for inclusion. And those requirements must be maintained even after a stock begins publicly trading on the exchange.

Although the NYSE still has a small in-person Trading Floor, much of the trading is done electronically to provide traders with the speed to execute trades.
A controversial former four-term state senator, remembered as a legendary wheeler and dealer in the Legislature, died Thursday at age 76.

John DeCamp had practiced law in Nebraska for 45 years and ran several businesses. In addition to serving as a state senator from Neligh from 1971 to 1987, DeCamp, a Republican, was a candidate for the U.S. Senate, House of Representatives, governor and state attorney general.

DeCamp died at the state Veterans Home in Norfolk. He suffered from Parkinson's disease and other illnesses, according to his obituary. Former Sen. Loran Schmit, a friend of DeCamp's who served with him in the Legislature, said DeCamp also had Alzheimer's disease.

The last time I talked with him was 10 days before he died and it was the first time I couldnt get a sign of recognition, Schmit said.

Before that we would talk about the Legislature and he would smile. This time there was no change of expression.

DeCamp wrote a book first published in 1992 about what he believed was a cover-up of the reasons behind the failure of the Omaha Franklin Federal Credit Union. The book, "The Franklin Cover-Up  Child Abuse, Satanism, and Murder in Nebraska," had a second edition published in 1996.

The book tells DeCamp's version of the alleged scandal of sexual exploitation of children and drug trafficking that grew out of the shutdown of the credit union in 1988. That led to numerous other allegations, an investigation by the Nebraska Legislature, and ultimately a ruling by a Douglas County grand jury that the allegations were a "carefully crafted hoax."

In the middle of the investigation, DeCamp wrote a memo to newspaper reporters in which he named five people he said were central figures in the investigation. He was criticized by other lawmakers for writing the memo, and those involved in the investigation refused to confirm or deny any of the names.

DeCamp later filed a lawsuit against the grand jury over its final report.

In the Legislature, Schmit said DeCamp was a force.

He had a lot of legislation and he stopped a lot of it, Schmit, of Bellwood, recalled Monday.

Johnny did a lot of good, said Schmit, who was DeCamps closest legislative friend and often  but not always  legislative ally.

A lot of people come down there and sit there for eight years and not do a damn thing. Not John. He made his mark.

Im going to miss him, Schmit said during a telephone interview.

Sen. Ernie Chambers also knew DeCamp well. He went with the senator on a cold, snowy day to visit District 40, which at that time included Neligh, to visit farms and "large cattle." DeCamp then visited Chambers' north Omaha district.

"Our intent at that time was to try to show people that there has to be an understanding between people from different areas if they're going to seek a common goal, and at that time the common goal was whatever was best for the state and the people," Chambers said. "So we got along pretty well."

They sometimes worked together on issues they agreed on, including establishing district elections to replace at-large elections for the Omaha city council, school board and county board, which the late Sen. Terry Carpenter of Scottsbluff also worked with them on, and which eventually passed.

DeCamp wanted to make a big splash and as a politician became flamboyant, Chambers said.

"He wanted to be part of everything of consequence that was going on," he said.

He wanted to win so badly, Chambers said, that whatever principles he had, he was willing to check them at the door of the legislative chamber.

"And he would go wherever he had to go to be on the winning side," he said.

He did play a dominant role, and was someone to be reckoned with, Chambers said, because he was the type that would say or do anything to win, would find out where the ball would settle when it stopped moving and be there to catch it or help maneuver it to that position.

Schmit said DeCamp got involved in everything that happened in the Legislature and even claimed to be involved in things he wasnt involved in.

They first became acquainted, Schmit said, when he briefed DeCamp on an ethanol bill Schmit was sponsoring.

Later on, if you listened to Johnny, he was the originator of it, Schmit said with a laugh.

He would work with anybody, Schmit said, and he wasnt averse to working against me.

DeCamp was a former U.S. Army infantry captain in Vietnam and was a strong advocate for veterans. He launched his first successful legislative bid from Vietnam. His legislative photo in the 1972 Nebraska Blue Book depicts him in his Army uniform. He was decorated for his service in Vietnam.

In 1975, he initiated Operation Baby Lift, which evacuated more than 2,800 orphaned Vietnamese children to safety.

"John did a lot of good," Schmit said.

DeCamp and his wife Nga were married more than 38 years and raised four children: Jennifer Lecher (Jeff); Shanda Erb (Nathan); Tara DeCamp (fiance Andrew) and Johnny DeCamp.

Details of his memorial service will be provided later.
The Nebraska Supreme Court last week accepted the appeal of death row inmate Marco Torres, who was denied a hearing in Hall County District Court where his attorneys had sought to argue the state's death penalty is unconstitutional.

Torres' case is the first of the 11 men on death row to reach the state's highest court since a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2016 struck down Florida's sentencing scheme.

Defense attorneys, like Bob Creager of Lincoln, say Hurst v. Florida, which said jurors must make every finding necessary for someone to get the ultimate penalty, put the constitutionality of Nebraska's system in doubt, too.

Creager said he thinks the decision means the court would strike down Nebraska's scheme, too.

That's because here a three-judge panel weighs mitigating circumstances after a jury finds a case death-eligible.

While attorneys can raise the issue in cases going forward, he said, the big question now is if it could apply to those already on death row.

Torres filed a 38-page motion for post-conviction relief in state court on June 14, with the help of attorneys with Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee, appointed by a U.S. District Judge in his federal case.

A week later, the attorneys filed a 109-page petition in U.S. District Court in Lincoln arguing that Torres' death sentences are unconstitutional.

A week after that, on June 28, retired state District Judge James Livingston denied the motion in state court, saying Torres raised the issue five months too late.

He cited a case that sets a one-year limitation period to raise an issue, which in the Hurst case ran up Jan. 12, 2017.

Torres has appealed that decision, and the Nebraska Supreme Court agreed to take his case last week. But the court only would be deciding if he should've gotten a hearing.

So the question of whether Nebraska's death penalty procedures are constitutional won't be answered any time soon. Unless the U.S. Supreme Court takes a case and answers whether the Florida decision should be retroactive.

It's just another step in a slow process of reviews for death penalty cases.

Creager said every time a decision comes down or lawmakers make a change to the death penalty or the protocol, it raises potential issues.

"Death is different, as the court says," he said.

In 2009, a jury convicted Torres of first-degree murder for killing roommates Timothy Donohue, 48, and Edward Hall, 60, in Grand Island in 2007. His DNA was at the crime scene and he had used Hall's debit card two days before his body was found.

While Torres is the first of the state's death row inmates to reach the state's highest court raising the constitutionality issue, five others have open cases in state court.

Two others, John Lotter and Jeffrey Hessler, have both state and federal challenges going.

Only Carey Dean Moore, Ray Mata, Jose Sandoval, Erick Vela and Jorge Galindo have no pending appeals.
Tramps like us, baby we were born to  be hated by most of our electorate. Photo: 2017 Getty Images

New Jersey governor Chris Christie is no stranger to humiliation. During the presidential campaign, it was reported that he was tasked with picking up Trumps McDonalds orders. A few months later, Trump was forcing him to eat meatloaf at the White House. And remember when his idol and also mine, Bruce Springsteen, went on late-night TV to explicitly mock him over Bridgegate? (Springsteen personally insulting me is one of my greatest fears in life, so I do feel for Christie on that one.)

With only about half a year left in his last gubernatorial term, the situation seems to only be getting more unhinged and embarrassing in Christieland. And so, lets take a look back at Chris Christies terrible, horrible, no good, very bad summer.

The Beachgate Fiasco

Christies summer spiral arguably started with Beachgate. To refresh, on Saturday, July 1  prime beach weekend  he ordered a government shutdown, one which led to the closure of all state parks and beaches. To add insult to injury, Christie was then photographed enjoying a day at a completely empty beach with his family on Sunday, July 2.

Christie & family lounge on a state beach closed to the public. Christie: "I didn't get any sun." Flack: He wore a hat. Pix: @AndyMills_NJ pic.twitter.com/zV26dlwugt  Don Van Natta Jr. (@DVNJr) July 2, 2017

The only upside? Seeing Christie get mercilessly roasted on Twitter after he was caught.

I don't think it's possible for Americans to dislike politicians more than they do right now



Chris Christie: Hold my beer pic.twitter.com/h9V6Xt5sqG  Michael Cohen (@speechboy71) July 3, 2017

The Radio Caller Fight

The next week, Christie auditioned for a WFAN sports-talk-radio gig, filling in for Mike Francesa while he was on vacation. Unfortunately for him, the people of New Jersey had neither forgotten about nor forgiven him for Beachgate.

Mike from Montclair, a longtime caller, phoned in to give him a piece of his mind, immediately calling Christie a fat ass. Christie fired back, calling him a communist and a bum. The verdict on this fight? [Kisses fingertips like an Italian chef.]

The Cell-Phone-Germ Story

Christies abrupt banishment from his brief time in the Trump circle has been a source of speculation for a while. In July, a new report said that he tried to get Trump to use his cell phone and Trump, a notorious germaphobe, was completely disgusted.

The Christie team denied this, and, besides, there was already Novembers report that he was fired for hogging camera time. Oh and theres always, you know, that time he put Jared Kushners dad in prison. Either way, how many times is Christie going to have to relive his swift drop from power?

The Time He Was Booed at a Mets Game

Heres a nice summertime activity: going to a ball game, maybe eating a hot dog or three, and getting lucky enough to catch a foul ball. Unless, of course, youre Chris Christie. After he managed to snag one during a Mets-Cardinals game earlier in the month, Citi Field responded by booing him in unison.

The Nacho Incident

This brings us to Sunday night, when he confronted a Cubs fan who was heckling him at a Cubs-Brewers game in Milwaukee. Christie got right in his face and said, You wanna act like a big shot? all with a massive plate of nachos in tow. Point Christie?

Its yet to be seen what sorts of humiliations August has in store for Christie. Then again, it doesnt seem to bother him all that much: Back in June, when confronted with his 15 percent approval rating, his response was, Who cares? A truly inspirational summer mantra.
Democrats seem to be waffling on abortion rights. Photo: Drew Angerer/2017 Getty Images

In the aftermath of Donald Trumps election, Democrats are hard at work on their better deal, which integrates popular planks of Bernie Sanderss economic platform. But when it comes to reproductive rights, theyre waffling. And on Monday, Representative Ben Ray Lujan  the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee  became the latest to suggest that 2018 Democratic candidates dont have to be pro-choice.

There is not a litmus test for Democratic candidates, Lujan told the Hill. As we look at candidates across the country, you need to make sure you have candidates that fit the district, that can win in these districts across America.

He added that, for Democrats to pick up an additional 24 seats in order to win a majority in the House of Representatives, Well need a broad coalition  we have to be a big family.

Lujan is the third high-profile Democrat to suggest in recent weeks that a pro-abortion stance might not be the best thing for the party. In April, Bernie Sanders and Democratic National Committee head Tom Perez gave a unity tour in which they more or less said reproductive rights arent an integral part of progressive politics. If you demand fealty on every single issue, Perez said, then its a challenge. (He later said in a statement that the Democratic Partys support for abortion not negotiable.) And a few weeks later, Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi suggested that Democrats pro-choice stance was hurting the party.

This is not a rubber-stamp party, she said. In our caucus, one thing unifies us: our values about working families. Some people are more or less enthusiastic about this issue or that issue or that issue. Theyll go along with the program, but their enthusiasm is about Americas working families.

Pro-choice organizations that ally themselves with Democrats were quick to push back. A spokesperson with EMILYs List, which recruits and trains pro-choice Democratic women to run for office, reminded Lujan that reproductive and economic justice are intrinsically linked. At the core of the Democratic Party is our commitment to a better economic future for the working people of our country, she said. Reproductive choice is fundamental to our platform. One of the most important financial decisions a woman makes is when and how to start a family. And Mitchell Stille, a spokesperson for NARAL Pro-Choice America, argued that the move wouldnt win Democrats significant additional support: Anyone who actually thinks that Donald Trump and the GOP candidates won in 2016 because of their opposition to abortion rights is sorely mistaken.

This kind of return to the center thinking has become a pattern for Democrats after an election loss  Howard Deans 50-state strategy in 2006 relied on running candidates in red states who didnt look like national Democrats, said former representative Jason Altmire, who was one of them. But this time, with women leading the backlash against Trump, its unclear if that strategy will work  or is even viable.
Dr. Amanda Hess and her new baby. Photo: Courtesy of Facebook/DrHalaSabry

A doctor was at a Kentucky hospital last week preparing to give birth to her baby, when she heard a woman screaming in pain from a nearby room. And so, while still wearing her hospital gown, the obstetrician/gynecologist helped deliver the womans child  even though she was about to be in labor herself, NBC News reports.

Dr. Amanda Hess was having her delivery induced at Frankfort Regional Medical Center in Kentucky last Sunday, when she heard patient Leah Halliday Johnson wailing as it came time for her to give birth, according to NBC News. Hess wasnt Halliday Johnsons primary OB/GYN during her pregnancy, but she had examined her three or four times previously.

Halliday Johnsons baby was in distress, but the on-call physician was out of the hospital. Hearing the commotion, Hess did the only thing she could think of: She threw on some boots over her flip-flops, put another hospital gown on to cover her open back, and helped the patient. I said you know, Im not on call, Im here in a gown, but I think we ought to have the baby, Hess told NBC News.

But Hess didnt let on that she was moments away from having her own labor induced. She was definitely in doctor mode, Halliday Johnson told NBC News. My husband noticed something was going on because she had on a hospital gown, but I didnt notice that because I was on the delivery table. I was in my own world there.

Halliday Johnson gave birth to a baby girl  and the doctor also gave birth to a baby girl later that night. Hess thinks her actions were merely part of the job. Delivering other peoples babies is something I do every day, Hess told NBC News. And Im more comfortable with delivering someone elses baby than my own, for sure.

Hats off to this #DrMom and member of Physician Moms Group #PMG, Dr. Amanda Hess! This picture was taken minutes after... Posted by Dr. Hala Sabry on Tuesday, July 25, 2017
Lincoln police have arrested two teenagers suspected of stealing four firearms, including a Nebraska state trooper's patrol rifle from the cruiser parked in his driveway, a spokeswoman said Monday.

The arrests came after investigators followed up on a report that a stolen Michael Kors purse was listed for sale online, Officer Angela Sands said.

The woman contacted police about the post, and officers arranged to meet with the sellers on Sunday, Sands said.

The sellers, teenage boys ages 15 and 17, were taken into custody, and officers searched their car and found two stolen handguns, she said.

Investigators then got a search warrant for one of the boy's homes and recovered two long guns that had been stolen.

One was determined to be a patrol rifle stolen from a Nebraska State Patrol cruiser July 16 at a southwest Lincoln home, according to police.

In addition to the rifle, thieves stole a personal handgun from inside the trooper's garage, police said.

Investigators Sunday recovered that handgun, as well as the trooper's handcuffs and hat, Sands said.

Police believe the suspects had tried to scrape off the serial numbers on at least three of the firearms.

The boys were taken to the Lancaster County Youth Detention Center on suspicion of multiple felony charges, including possession of a stolen firearm, possession of a defaced firearm, theft by unlawful taking and burglary.

Their cases have been referred to the Lancaster County Attorney's Office.

Police are investigating to see whether the boys are connected to three more firearm thefts. Those guns have not yet been recovered, Sands said.

A total of 25 firearms were stolen in the city and county in July.
An inmate at the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution assaulted a staff member in the dining hall there Monday, according to the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services.

In a Facebook post, a prison spokesperson said the inmate punched a staff member in the face multiple times until the staff member fell, then kicked the staff member in the face.

When other staff intervened, the inmate ran away but was quickly restrained and now is in restrictive housing.

The staff member's injury was described as serious, but non-life-threatening.

The assault will be investigated by the Nebraska State Patrol.
Body-art enthusiast Matt Greenlee got a tattoo a month and a half ago at Iron Brush Tattoo parlor, a shop he frequents regularly.

But if the 20-year-old Lincoln resident wanted to donate blood, old regulations would have forced Greenlee to wait.

However, since the start of 2017, the Nebraska Community Blood Bank has reduced the deferral from 12 months to seven days for people donating blood after receiving a tattoo from a licensed shop.

"It made sense for the time period that those rules were made in, but things have changed  equipment is sterilized now," Greenlee said.

The change in policy is in line with new standards from the Federal Drug Administration that went into effect this year.

That means Greenlee was able to donate blood at a blood drive hosted by the Blood Bank on Saturday outside Iron Brush Tattoo, joining nearly a hundred other donors.

The previous deferral period of 12 months was a precaution against contaminated needles used to draw tattoos that could spread disease.

But in states, including Nebraska, that license and regulate tattoo parlors, needles and other equipment are required to be sterile, meaning the deferral period could be shortened to seven days.

"This is a fantastic policy," said Tyson Schaffert, owner of Iron Brush Tattoo. "We have such a loyal group of clients, so this is a pretty good deal all around."

The shorter deferral period only applies to licensed states, where the only legal means of getting a tattoo is through a regulated parlor.

Schaffert and a group of tattoo artists helped draft some of the county and state regulations in the early 2000s that now apply to tattoo parlors in Lincoln.

Processes to eliminate blood-borne pathogens from equipment, for example, were introduced through these regulations.

The Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department and the state issue licenses and inspect and regulate tattoo parlors.

Blood bank donor recruiter Karri Lundeen said a lot of people don't know about the rule changes.

"We hear it so often that I can't donate because I got a tattoo recently," Lundeen said. "That wide myth has prevented people from donating blood."

The blood bank still runs numerous tests on all donated blood, closing loopholes on people who've received a tattoo from an unlicensed shop.

Schaffert thinks more people will donate blood now that the deferral period has been relaxed, and encourages his clients to do so.

"If it has anything to do with helping out the community, we're going to do it," he said.
KEARNEY  Police in central Nebraska say a Kearney teen suspected of shooting into a crowd of teens at the Buffalo County Fair has been arrested.

The 16-year-old boy is accused of shooting a handgun into the ground near the crowd of about 10 young adults around 10:30 p.m. Thursday.

Police investigator Doug McCarty says the incident happened as a fight seemed to be starting between some of the teens. No one was injured.

The teen was arrested on suspicion of attempted felony first-degree assault and weapons counts. He is being held at the Northeast Nebraska Juvenile Services Center in Madison until a hearing is scheduled.
GULFPORT, Miss.  A man convicted of attempting to sexually assault a 15-year-old girl in Nebraska has been arrested in Mississippi after avoiding supervision for several years.

David Francisco Pena, 32, was arrested in Gulfport on Sunday. He was wanted on two warrants for a charge of failure to register as a sex offender.

The Nebraska State Patrol said in a news release from 2008 that he met the girl on Myspace, picked her up in Texas and took her to his Nebraska home.

Sex offender registries show that Pena was convicted of first-degree sexual assault of a juvenile in 2009 in Hall County, sentenced to prison and ordered to register as a sex offender for 25 years. He was paroled in 2010 and fled supervision in 2014.
President Donald Trump, who went to a private military academy and avoided service in Vietnam while heroes like Sen. John McCain languished in North Vietnamese prison camps, has made one of the most appallingly cynical calculations of his appalling cynical presidency.

In a series of tweets, apparently without apprising the Pentagon, Trump announced Wednesday that he was banning transgender Americans from serving in the military, possibly expelling thousands who are already serving.

"After consultation with my generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military," Trump wrote. "Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."

It rapidly became apparent, however, that when Trump talks about "overwhelming victory," what he actually means is shoring up his base in the Rust Belt states he won or narrowly won in 2016 (including my home state of Pennsylvania).

Speaking to the online news service Axios, an "administration official" quickly laid bare this dysfunctional White House's true motivations for the ban:

"This forces Democrats in Rust Belt states like Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin to take complete ownership of this issue," the unnamed official told White House reporter Jonathan Swan. "How will blue-collar voters in these states respond when senators up for re-election in 2018 like [Sen.] Debbie Stabenow [of Michigan] are forced to make their opposition to this a key plank of their campaigns?"

Even by the odious standards of this administration, that's a politically disgusting calculus and a morally repugnant argument to make.

As The Washington Post's Greg Sargent reports, citing a RAND Corp. study, about 4,000 transgender Americans now serve in the military. Their blood, one assumes, is just as red as any other soldier's. And they serve, one presumes, just as proudly as any other soldier. The only difference being one of gender identity.

Trump's about-face (surely, he remembers the term from his years at New York Military Academy) reverses an Obama administration policy.

Defense Secretary James Mattis, who supports trans service, and who, as Slate reports, "vigorously lobbied" against a narrowly defeated amendment barring the military from providing transition-related medical services to trans soldiers, was conducting his own review of the policy.

That review was supposed to be completed in December, as The Post reported. And it's not clear why Trump put it on the fast track. Nor is it clear, as Slate notes, which "generals and military experts" were pushing for a ban on trans service.

As Slate reported, the trans policy formulated by former Defense Secretary Ash Carter enjoyed "broad"support," particularly in the wake of the successful lifting of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that barred gay and lesbians from serving openly.

In June, Mattis imposed a six-month delay, citing, per Slate, the "views of the military leadership and of the senior civilian officials now arriving" in the Defense Department.

Trump was also facing external pressure from conservative activists, such as the Family Research Center, to undo the Obama-era policy.

Still, there is no evidence to suggest, as Trump claims, that transgender service imposes unreasonable costs on the military. A 2014 journal article indicates that the opposite is true. Nor is there any deleterious effect on unit morale or cohesion -- the same ridiculous argument made to keep women out of certain military roles.

The only answer, sadly, is naked politics. And that's an insult to every service member who has pledged to defend the Constitution that protects all Americans, including the transgender ones whom Trump so cruelly targeted with his heartless announcement.
NEW YORK CITYActivist Land & Buildings Investment Management said it may call for new directors at Hudsons Bay Co. if the company ignores suggestions for unlocking value, including selling off Saks Fifth Avenue and potentially going private in a management-led buyout.

If we do not see substantive progress on a plan to close the gap to underlying asset value, Land and Buildings may be left with no choice but to call a special meeting of shareholders to remove directors, Jonathan Litt, chief investment officer of Land & Buildings, said in a letter to Hudsons Bays board.

Shares in Hudsons Bay closed Monday at $10.67 (Canadian) in Toronto. The stock has fallen 35 per cent in the past year.

We welcome feedback from all of the companys shareholders and look forward to continued dialogue with Land & Buildings, Hudsons Bay said in an emailed statement Monday. We are committed to our strategy of both operating leading retail banners and also creatively unlocking the value of our associated real estate holdings.

Read more:

HBC braces for a weak retail environment

Hudsons Bay reported to be in talks to buy Neiman Marcus

HBC reduces earnings forecast, echoing U.S. retailing woes

Land & Buildings, which said it owns close to 5 per cent of Hudsons Bays outstanding shares, has been pushing the Toronto-based retailer to explore ways of unlocking shareholder value. The Stamford, Conn.-based hedge fund said it met recently with senior management and members of the board and that it became clear the company feels its looked at all the options to increase value.

Land & Buildings said it disagreed and has floated several scenarios to unlock value, including by reinventing the Saks Fifth Avenue flagship location in Manhattan by adding boutique retailers on the first three floors and redeveloping the upper floors to high-end condominiums.

It also urged Hudsons Bay to explore returning to its roots in Canada, including by potentially selling Saks Fifth Avenue and by exiting Europe.

The Saks Fifth Avenue banner would likely be in high demand from potential buyers, allowing the company to focus on the Canadian market it has long dominated, Litt said.

He also urged the company to find ways to monetize its real estate joint ventures with Simon Property Group Inc. and RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust, and said Hudsons Bay should consider a management-led buyout.

If management, which owns approximately 20 per cent of the companys shares, would like to continue its ambition of being a global department store consolidator, a management-led buyout could be an intriguing avenue to pursue for all parties, Litt said.

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TOKYOA revival is spreading among audio brands that long-standing music fans once knew and loved. Many of these brands, such as radio-cassette maker Aiwa Co., are symbolic of the heyday of audio technology that occurred in the 1970s and 80s. How well this revival catches on with the younger generation  not just middle-aged and senior consumers reminiscing about the cassette era  will largely determine whether it is a success.

Aiwa products will once again be on sale as early as this autumn, from a local business that has acquired the trademark from Sony Corp.

Jvckenwood Corp., a firm that was born out of the unification of Kenwood Corp. and Victor Company of Japan, brought back Victor, a major brand dating back to before the Second World War, in March. Panasonic Corp. revived its Technics brand, known for products such as record players, in 2014.

In the late 1980s, when CDs became the main medium for playing music, mini stereo systems and dual CD-cassette players sold at an explosive rate. Using these in combination with large speakers was a fad of sorts among young listeners of the time. Aiwa in particular had many products that sold for comparatively reasonable prices, making it one of the more popular brands.

Aiwa, which was established in 1951 and merged with Sony in 2002, ended production in 2008.

The Aiwa name is being revived by Towada Audio Co. in Akita Prefecture, a firm consigned with the production of Sonys radios. It acquired the trademark this February and established a new Aiwa company that will work on the brands revival. It will manufacture products such as CD-radio-cassette players and high-definition 4K televisions at an affiliated factory in China, and sell them.

Kazuomi Nakamura, director of the new Aiwa brand, said, Well adopt new technology while maintaining the brands accessible prices.

Technics was merged with the Panasonic brand in 2010. Fans, however, strongly demanded a return of the Technics brand name and Panasonic decided to respond. Victor, which released its final product in 2012, also resumed sales this year.

The temporary disappearance of these audio brands was due to the increasing number of people choosing smartphones and portable music players such as Apples iPod. People were able to listen to music whenever they pleased, leading to a decline in sales of stereo players and other old-school devices.

According to the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association, domestic shipping for audio-related devices has seen a dramatic drop over the past 20 years; it is now approximately one-fifth of what it once was.

Now, however, the situation is changing. This is because in recent years, More and more people, (especially middle-aged and senior people), are relaxing in their homes listening to music, Hideyuki Kobayashi of the Fuji Chimera Research Institute, Inc. said. Experts expect a recovery in demand for items such as radio-cassette players. Businesses will be able to exploit the recognizability of these old brand names to appeal to consumers.

Ichiro Michikoshi of research agency BCN Inc. said, Its going to take strategies that will get not just the middle-aged and senior demographics involved, but also the younger generation, which doesnt know about the old brands.

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NEW YORKSam Shepard, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, Oscar-nominated actor and celebrated author whose plays chronicled the explosive fault lines of family and masculinity in the American West, has died. He was 73.

Family spokesman Chris Boneau said Monday that Shepard died Thursday at his home in Kentucky from complications related to Lou Gehrigs disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

The taciturn Shepard, who grew up on a California ranch, was a man of few words who nevertheless produced 44 plays and numerous books, memoirs and short stories. He was one of the most influential playwrights of his generation: a plain-spoken poet of the modern frontier, both lyrical and rugged.

In his 1971 one-act Cowboy Mouth, which he wrote with his then-girlfriend, musician and poet Patti Smith, one character says, People want a street angel. They want a saint but with a cowboy mouth  a role the tall and handsome Shepard fulfilled for many. But in soul-searching plays, his portrait of the West was a disillusioned one, peopled by broken characters whose realities fell far short of the American Dream.

I was writing basically for actors, Shepard told The Associated Press in a 2011 interview. And actors immediately seemed to have a handle on it, on the rhythm of it, the sound of it, the characters. I started to understand there was this possibility of conversation between actors and thats how it all started.

Shepards Western drawl and laconic presence made him a reluctant movie star, too. He appeared in dozens of films  many of them Westerns  including Terrence Malicks Days of Heaven, Steel Magnolias, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and 2012s Mud. He was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as pilot Chuck Yeager in 1983s The Right Stuff. Among his most recent roles was the Florida Keys patriarch of the Netflix series Bloodline.

But Shepard was best remembered for his influential plays and his prominent role in the off-off-Broadway movement. His 1979 play Buried Child, about the breaking down of an Illinois family, won the Pulitzer for drama. Two other plays  True West, about two warring brothers, and Fool for Love, about a man who fears hes turning into his father  were nominated for the Pulitzers as well. All are frequently revived.

I always felt like playwriting was the thread through all of it, Shepard said in 2011. Theater really when you think about it contains everything. It can contain film. Film cant contain theatre. Music. Dance. Painting. Acting. Its the whole deal. And its the most ancient. It goes back to the Druids. It was way pre-Christ. Its the form that I feel most at home in, because of that, because of its ability to usurp everything.

Samuel Shepard Rogers VII was born in Fort Sheridan, Illinois, in 1943. He grew up on an avocado ranch in Duarte, California. His father was an alcoholic schoolteacher and former Army pilot. Shepard would later write frequently of the damage done by drunks. He had his own struggles, too. Long stretches of sobriety were interrupted by drunk driving arrests, in 2009 and 2015.

Shepard arrived in New York in 1963 with no connections, little money and vague aspirations to act, write or make music. I just dropped in out of nowhere, he told the New Yorker in 2010. But Shepard quickly became part of the off-off-Broadway movement at downtown hangouts like Caffe Cino and La MaMa. As far as Im concerned, Broadway just does not exist, Shepard told Playboy in 1970  though many of his later plays would end up there.

His early plays  fiery, surreal verbal assaults  pushed American theatre in an energized, frenzied direction that matched the times. A drummer himself, Shepard found his own rock n roll rhythm. Seeking spontaneity, he initially refused to rewrite his drafts, a strategy he later dismissed as just plain stupid.

As Shepard matured as a playwright, he returned again and again to meditations on violence, masculinity and family. His collection Seven Plays, which includes many of his best plays, including Buried Child and The Tooth of Crime, was dedicated to his father.

Theres some hidden, deeply rooted thing in the Anglo male American that has to do with inferiority, that has to do with not being a man, and always, continually having to act out some idea of manhood that invariably is violent, he told The New York Times in 1984. This sense of failure runs very deep  maybe it has to do with the frontier being systematically taken away, with the guilt of having gotten this country by wiping out a native race of people, with the whole Protestant work ethic. I cant put my finger on it, but its the source of a lot of intrigue for me.

Shepard was married from 1969 to 1984 to actress O-Lan Jones, with whom he had son Jesse Mojo Shepard.

His connection to music was constant. He joined Bob Dylan on the 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue tour of 1975, and co-wrote the song Brownsville Girl with him. Shepard and Patti Smith were one-time lovers but lifetime friends. Were just the same, Smith once said. When Sam and I are together, its like no particular time.

Shepards movie career began in the late 70s. While making the 1982 Frances Farmer biopic Frances, he met Jessica Lange and the two remained together for nearly 30 years. They had two children, Hannah Jane and Samuel Walker. They separated in 2009. Lange once said of Shepard: No man Ive ever met compares to Sam in terms of maleness.

Shepard worked occasionally in movies (among other things, he wrote Wim Wenders 1984 Texas brothers drama Paris, Texas) but took acting gigs more frequently as he grew older. One movie, he said, could pay for 16 plays.

Besides his plays, Shepard wrote short stories and a full-length work of fiction, The One Inside, which came out earlier this year. The One Inside is a highly personal narrative about a man looking back on his life and taking in what has been lost, including control over his own body as the symptoms of ALS advance.

Something in the body refuses to get up. Something in the lower back. He stares at the walls, Shepard writes. The appendages dont seem connected to the motor  whatever that is  driving this thing. They wont take direction  wont be dictated to  the arms, legs, feet, hands. Nothing moves. Nothing even wants to.

Shepards longtime editor at Alfred A. Knopf, LuAnn Walther, said Shepards language was quite poetic, and very intimate, but also very direct and plainspoken. She said that when people asked her what Shepard was really like, she would respond, Just read the fiction.

The playwright is survived by his three children and two sisters: Sandy and Roxanne Rogers.

In Shepards 1982 book Motel Chronicles, he said that he felt like he never had a home. That feeling, he later, acknowledged, always remained.

I basically live out of my truck, Shepard said in 2011. I feel more at home in my truck than just about anywhere, which is a sad thing to say. But its true.

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A decade after it was first promised, Canadas new High Arctic Research Station is nearly complete and already giving scientists access to a vast new section of ice and tundra.

Were trying to come up with a long-term, systematic, multidisciplinary view of this part of the world, which is really understudied, said David Scott, president of Polar Knowledge Canada, which operates the new station in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut.

A line item in the 2007 federal budget, the station was a centrepiece of former prime minister Stephen Harpers Arctic strategy. Located in the centre of the High Arctic right along the Northwest Passage, the station was to give researchers a home base in a part of the North lacking in scientific infrastructure.

Although work will continue on the main building for a few months, the centre is largely operational, Scott said.

Researchers are already living and working on the site.

In fact, its the stations fourth field season. Last year, the station booked 900 nights worth of accommodation for Canadian and international scientists.

The demand is growing, Scott said.

The station was built for a total cost of about $250 million. It will cost $26.5 million a year to operate.

That pays for a centre that can accommodate 44 scientists.

It will have an animal lab that includes a small crane for lifting large carcasses onto operating tables. A cold lab can be chilled to -10 C for studying snow and ice. A clean lab will allow scientists to study samples without contamination from outside sources.

It will offer digital imaging, rock crushing and a mechanical workshop. A small stock of off-road vehicles, small boats, bicycles, tents, camping equipment and satellite phones will be available.

But its not all about the scientists. The station was built in the middle of Cambridge Bay for a reason.

Half of the physical footprint of the building is public space, said Scott. Weve got objectives here to do knowledge sharing and business incubation and educational programming for kids.

Thats not just an add-on, he said. Being part of the community will be essential to world-class scientific work.

To us, this is part of world-class (work) because it allows us to access that traditional knowledge aspect. It requires us to develop trusting relationships, identify the right knowledge holders and get them involved from the outset.

Much of the science conducted at the station will benefit northerners.

One ongoing project seeks to map how sea ice is changing with a view to advising local people on safe travel routes. Another project is looking at Arctic char in response to observations from elders that the staple fish tastes differently these days than it used to.

The station has already joined the Canadian Network of Northern Research Operators, a group of Arctic research stations operated by foundations, governments and universities that stretches from Inuvik, N.W.T., and Kluane, Yukon, in the west to Churchill, Man., in the south to Eureka on Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, in the east.

Now that the Cambrige Bay station is operating, Scott said Polar Knowledge Canada is helping market that network to international researchers.

(Were) bringing a little more cohesion to that group to help them advertise themselves more globally to the international community that can bring some operating dollars. That whole network is a huge potential for Canada that is somewhat underutilized.

South Korea has already signed a preliminary agreement to partner with Canadian researchers.

Weve got a quarter of the global Arctic, but Canada doesnt have adequate capacity to study that Arctic. We always need to partner in.

The centre is expected to formally open in October, Scott said.

Were super eager for the completion of construction.

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WILLIAMS LAKE, B.C.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says a helicopter tour of British Columbias charred landscape Monday left him awed by the destructive force of wildfires burning across the province and impressed by the extraordinary determination of firefighters battling the flames.

Trudeau said he saw ranches in the Cariboo region surrounded by scorched earth and evidence of flames stopping just short of a runway.

The speed at which it can flare up, the way it could cut across roads, really impressed upon me the extraordinary work being done by our wildfire professionals, he said. I really saw the extent of the scale of the devastation and the damage.

Read more: Trudeau pledges help for B.C. wildfire recovery as ranchers say costs could top hundreds of millions

Fire crews on the edge of exhaustion have pushed through to keep people and buildings safe, the prime minister added.

Trudeau, accompanied by several federal politicians and B.C. Premier John Horgan, spent an hour above a fire zone in a Canadian Forces Chinook helicopter watching spot fires and billowing smoke. At times, the dense smoke blurred out the land below.

Wildfires burning in the Cariboo have forced thousands from their homes, including 10,000 residents of Williams Lake who had to leave on July 15 when a fast-moving fire encroached on their community.

People were allowed to return last weekend, but the city remains under evacuation alert and residents must be ready to leave again at a moments notice.

Most businesses in Williams Lake had re-opened Monday, but it was a staggered start as many employees were still returning to the community. The local Boston Pizza restaurant was open Sunday evening, but ran out of pizza.

About 6,000 people remained displaced by the nearly 150 fires that were still burning across B.C. on Monday.

Dozens of homes have been lost as more than 800 fires have burned around the province, scorching about 4,200 square kilometres.

Trudeau said he recognizes how difficult the aggressive fire season has been for residents, businesses and local economies. He pledged that Ottawa will help with recovery efforts.

There will be challenges in the months to come that we will also be there for, he said. This is what Canadians do, we stand up for each other in times of difficulty, he said.

People in the Cariboo have been hit especially hard by wildfires this year, Horgan said, echoing Trudeaus promise.

Were going to make sure people are whole when this is all over, Horgan said. The province is going to be there to help rebuild.

Trudeau thanked those on the front lines of firefighting efforts for stepping up, saying it is reassuring for people to see everybody pulling together.

Several hundred Williams Lake residents cheered as Trudeau and Horgan emerged from a recreation centre where they met first responders. The cheering grew louder as fire service personnel left the building.

The prime minister also sat down for lunch and a chat with some BC Wildfire Service personnel, many wearing the red coveralls of the firefighters.

What do you do in the winter? Trudeau was heard asking some of the crew.

He and Horgan then took a tour of the fire operations centre at the Williams Lake Airport.

Kevin Skrepnek, chief fire information officer with the BC Wildfire Service, said the visit means a great deal to fire crews who have been affected both personally and professionally by the aggressive fire season.

Many staff were among those evacuated from Williams Lake and had to sleep in tents or in their offices while responding to fires around the community, he said.

I would say its a morale booster in terms of having those kinds of visits, Skrepnek said.

The political visit comes as the forecast calls for another week of hot, dry weather.

Environment Canada has issued a special warning about a heat wave for Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, Howe Sound and several parts of Vancouver Island.

Residents have been told to expect daytime temperatures to soar to the upper 30s.

Lightning forecast for the Interior, where many fires are already burning, could make the fire situation even worse.

Smoke from fires in both B.C. and Washington state could also pose a problem for crews, reducing visibility for aircraft detecting and fighting the flames and making it unsafe for them to fly, Skrepnek said.

He said winds were forecast to push the haze west to the coast by Tuesday.

I think across many parts of the province were likely going to have this smoke settling in for quite some time, Skrepnek said.

An air quality advisory has also been issued for Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley as smoke from B.C.s Interior wafts into the region.

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Over the past 19 years, the Canadian government has spent more than $150 million maintaining Pickering land it seized in the '70s  for an airport thats never been built.

And while $59.2 million of that sum is listed for site repairs and maintenance, a group of local advocates say theyve watched as properties under federal management were left to rot and the tenants evicted before the buildings were demolished.

Many of those were perfectly livable houses if they had been maintained by the landlord as they should have been, Mary Delaney, a resident of the land and chair of the anti-airport advocacy group Land over Landings, told the Star.

The saga began in 1972, when the government of Pierre Trudeau expropriated 7,530 hectares of land in Markham, Pickering and Uxbridge to build an airport, to take pressure off what is now Pearson International airport.

But after waves of fiery protest made national headlines, the plan was cancelled.

The federal government kept control of the land, and to this day, politicians at all levels of government  municipal, provincial and federal  are wrestling with what to do and whether an airport will finally be built.

In the meantime, according to information obtained via an Access to Information request and follow-up with the federal Ministry of Transport, the unplanned land is costing up to tens of millions per year, on top of unknown costs for the expropriation itself and maintenance pre-1998.

Transport Canada spokesperson Julie Leroux said that the maintenance of properties on the land  a legal obligation for Transport Canada post-expropriation, as they rent out the homes left on the land  can rack up considerable expenses.

The homes average 80 years of age, she added, saying its especially difficult to maintain properties in a privately serviced rural area. The land in question doesnt have municipal sewers, operating on wells and septic systems.

However, to Delaney, a $7.89 million cost for mould assessment and abatement from 1999 to 2010 raises questions about the quality of site maintenance at the time.

In those days, that was the big thing. The houses have mould, she said. Why, only right here, did all these houses have mould?  if they did, and some did, its because they werent being maintained properly.

She cited poorly maintained roofs, wells and eaves leading to the mould.

Upkeep in recent years has been significantly better, she said, giving credit to Ajax (former Ajax-Pickering) MP Mark Holland for advocating the issue.

In 2009, Holland released a damning statement about Transport Canadas 2005 attempt to demolish a property on the Pickering lands under a mould claim. He wrote that, after his office pressured for a third-party assessment, no evidence of mould could be found on the property.

Transport Canada has a history of resorting to deceptive tactics when carrying out evictions and demolitions in order to avoid public backlash, his statement reads.

Speaking to the Star, Holland said there was a real cost to the mismanagement of those lands, noting that the price tag on maintenance got exorbitantly high as a result of poor oversight over properties.

Its easy to say it was when I was in opposition, but look, its been happening a long time, he said. Whether or not it was planned negligence, or whether it was just negligence, the homes that were being maintained on those lands were allowed to get into a terrible state of repair.

Since 1999, $5.5 million has been spent on demolition.

But, even as some tenants have left the land, the federal government is responsible for paying a sum of money to local municipalities in lieu of taxes. That money, since 1999, has totalled $36 million.

Environmental assessment and abatement has cost an additional $26.3 million over the last 19 years, though environment-related costs have been significantly lower since 2011-2012  the same year the government announced the creation of Rouge National Urban Park, later allotted some 21 square km of the expropriated space.

Salaries for those working on the Pickering file have gone up over the years, going from a collective of around $200,000 a year in 1999 to approximately $900,000 collectively in 2016.

Additional staff was assigned starting in 2011-12, Leroux said, to work on major Canadian government projects related to the site. These included planning for the Rouge National Urban Park, and policy and paperwork like zoning regulations, land use identifications and site orders.

Since 1999, the salaries of those working on the Pickering project have cost the government $9.8 million. Other costs incurred over the years include $3 million in capital projects and $2 million in green space improvement.

The final cost category, aviation forecast and planning, only cropped up in 2005-06  racking up the smallest overall total at $1.6 million. Leroux says Transport Canada is committed to maintaining the lands in the most fiscally prudent manner possible as the debate over the land continues.

But, as Land over Landings fundraises $85 thousand for their own agricultural study, Delaney says the millions the government has spent on the land without a concrete plan for the future is disappointing.

The waste here is at ground level, she said.

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CHICAGOThere are 11,944 cops in the Chicago Police Department.

President Donald Trump claims to be chummy with one of them, a mystery biker who has allegedly boasted that he can solve the citys horrific crime problem in a couple of days.

A silver bullet officer, it would seem. Although the Windy City has had a bellyful of bullets  on pace to top 700 homicides for a second consecutive year, the vast majority of murders, more than 90 per cent through the first six months of 2017 attributable to gunfire, according to police department records.

So any purported saviour, a law and order genius, would be hugely appreciated, even if, you know, this uncaped crusader might have to knock some heads together, an approach to urban violence this whack-job president apparently favours. As commander-in-chief (eight months on from the election, that still makes me want to smack my own head in disbelief), Trump seems to have no issue with thugs-in-blue despite national angst about civilians mistreated and slain by law enforcement, 492 killed from January to July 1, as tracked by the Washington Post. A paper Trump likely despises even more than The New York Times.

But that particular bloodshed  the spectre of hooligan cops  doesnt distress this prez. Not a shred of restraint (a word not in his vocabulary) from Trump during a speech in Long Island on Friday, where he segued from discussing gang violence and illegal immigration to offering personal advice on how suspects should be treated.

When you guys put somebody in the car and youre protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over? That sentence doesnt even make any sense but you get the drift. Like, dont hit their head, and they just killed somebody  dont hit their head, Trump continued. I said, you can take the hand away, OK?

Like, bang a gangbanger getting into the squad car, understand?

Which got a whole lot of dismayed pushback from civil rights groups and even police chiefs across the country, the latter appalled by a president fanning these flames while local police departments are (they insist) trying to mend relationships with their communities.

Too many suspects have died in police custody, both in America and in Canada. But the dyspeptic Trump is out there promoting police misconduct.

Thats all by way of an aside to this column, though. Every day Trump feeds the media beast a generous portion of scandal, controversy and unprecedented White House craziness. Trump is a subject I generally try to avoid. Hes not my president, if a lazy pundits wet dream.

But I do happen to be in Chicago, a great metropolis torn asunder by mostly gangland violence  same as it always was, except the current crew of killers are related only distantly to rogue gallery mobsters of yesteryear.

And yet again Trump has evoked what many believe to be a phantom cop character, sprung out of his own mendacious imagination. A big fat lie, in other words.

Brought up Mystery Cop in that same Friday speech to an audience of police officers, revisiting a claim first propagated a year ago whilst on the campaign trail  about how hed encountered this paragon of policing who was part of a volunteer brigade of motorcyclist whod escorted Nominee Trump when he blew through Chi-town, a city in Blue State Illinois he mostly avoided and has never once visited since taking residence in 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Trump described the unidentified Chicago badge-holder, among a group of off-duty fuzz hed posed with for a photo, as a rough cookie, a tough dude who brought him up to speed on the crime problems bedevilling the city, and how the scourge could be straightened out.

And I said, How long would it take you to straighten out this problem? said Trump. And he said, If you gave me the authority  couple of days. I really mean it. 

Maybe by deploying death squad platoons to the South Side?

Trump continued on Friday: I said, Youve gotta be kidding . . . . Give me your card. And he gave me a card. And I sent it to the mayor. I said, You ought to try using this guy. Guess what happened? Never heard. And last week they had another record. Homicide record. Its horrible.

Same incident Trump spun for then-Fox News host Bill OReilly last August.

A Chicago police spokesperson told the Chicago Tribune on the weekend that the department has been unable to identify (the) department member who had a conversation with then-candidate Trump.

Local media report that the White House has not responded to requests to identify the Mystery Cop or if Trump kept the name that he allegedly passed on to Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Of course, this could all have happened on the dark side of the moon inside Trumps head.

Chicago keeps getting kicked in the teeth by Trump for its deplorable homicide stats, but he has yet to nominate a new U.S. attorney for the northern district of Illinois, which at least nominally falls within his purview. He dislikes Gov. Bruce Rauner and flat-out loathes Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who in his former life was president Barack Obamas White House chief of staff.

Emanuel was actually in Washington last week but his spokesperson, Adam Collins, bluntly rejected Trumps assertion that hed sent the mayor Mystery Cops business card. (Cops have business cards?) It never happened. Its absolutely not true.

Collins issued this statement: We can only hope the president is as interested in attacking crime as he is in attacking his attorney general, transgender members of the military and the three largest cities in the country.

Hours after Trumps Friday speech, near a public-housing project on the North Side, a man was shot repeatedly in the face.

It was Chicagos 400th homicide this year.

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The first night that Nicola Simpson spent in an emergency shelter she was in a state of complete and utter disbelief, alone and facing a new life in Canada.

I was numb. I couldnt eat. I couldnt sleep. I was upset, I was filled with anger, said Simpson, now 38, who spent the better part of 2011 at a facility in North York for women who have experienced or are fleeing violence.

Those feelings, she says, didnt last for long because of how she was welcomed and treated by staff at the 30-bed facility.

They dont spoon-feed you . . . they push you. They are going to make sure you dont fall into the gutter, or feel like a victim, said Simpson, an aspiring lawyer, who now has housing and a string of academic degrees.

When you are at such a dark place in your life, when you have lost everything, being a part of something is very important.

The North York Womens Shelter was shut down in May, resulting in the layoff of close to 30 full and part-time staff and clients being relocated to other shelters across the province.

The plan is to raze and replace it with a fully accessible structure, still with 30 beds but eight times the size and designed to offer services that werent previously available, including on-site medical care. The new shelter is expected to be completed in spring 2019.

Former staff told the Star the shutdown was unnecessarily abrupt and they are seriously concerned about what they see as a gap in services in the region, as well as the relocation of vulnerable women in an already crowded system.

Executive director Mohini Datta-Ray said the shutdown was part of an expedited process tied to a rare and badly needed funding opportunity, but the full closure, layoffs, and relocation were not done without first exploring if other options were possible. There wasnt time or the funding needed to find and secure a temporary space and make it safe, she said.

After 33 years in operation, and serving more than 11,000 women on a 24-hour rotation, they jumped at the chance to get $8.8 million for a rebuild. Datta-Ray acknowledged they had to make fast and tough choices, but ones they feel are best for the women they serve.

We were cramped, tired and it wasnt a safe space anymore for women and staff, said Datta-Ray. At a certain point the building starts to crumble,

It wont mean a loss of services, she said, because the physical shelter didnt offer direct services, just beds. The layoffs included two management positions and more than half their funding left with the women who moved out, which in the final weeks was six or seven, she said.

The funding goes with the beds, said Datta-Ray. The facilities where the women went didnt have the capacity to make a new position because of one or two beds coming online.

The laid-off staff, 13 full-time and 16 part-time or relief workers, were given employment counselling and an extension of their union recall rights, so if construction goes longer than expected they are still entitled to those jobs, she said.

Datta-Ray said she hopes that ultimately some of the staff who served the women at the old shelter will come back.

Some of them have more than a decade of experience, working at North York in particular, but the shelter system in general and we are hoping their vision will really inform what we are building.

A spokesperson with the Ministry of Community and Social Services said the money was part of a broader financial commitment to improve services for violence against women (VAW) shelters. In 2015 and 2016, more than 95 facilities served 10,770 women and 6,920 children and were operating at 83 per cent capacity.

The beds in operation at North York Womens Shelter have been absorbed by their partners and all women who were receiving service from (the shelter) are continuing to receive service without disruption, said Takiyah Tannis, in an email.

Former staff do not agree.

How can they say there are no disruption in services when we are missing for two years? asked Amy Clements, who worked there for 14 years.

The Star met with Clements and four former staff members. They described a deeply loving and supportive community environment, where chaos and compassion intertwined and staff and clients worked together to help women and children heal and get on with their lives.

In that building, on top of making sure everybody was fed, bedded, safe and secure, they helped connect women with legal support, crisis counselling and all manner of applications, including and especially housing.

Former clients, they said, are reaching out in confusion and still seeking their help with ongoing issues, largely because of the trust they built up in that community. Kids who used the shelter, they say, also had to switch schools with just weeks left in the term.

There is no reason why we couldnt have reached out to community partners and organized office space. There are so many different ways to have done it, said Clements.

Former client Simpson is still in touch with staff and said she couldnt list everything they did for her, because so much was above a basic job description.

Simpson also wonders why an office couldnt have been set up to help clients struggling with the change. It is not the same as a shelter, but at least the gap can be filled and the need is there.

Simpson was born in Jamaica, where, as a lesbian she faced homophobic violence. Even though it was difficult for me to stay in the closet, it was about survival, she said.

She chose Canada as a safe haven, moving here in 2010. Things did not go as planned and she ended up in the shelter, on a visitors visa and with few future prospects, but staff didnt let her stay down for long.

She became a licensed paralegal and has an undergraduate degree in legal studies from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and hopes one day to practise human rights and disabilities law.

Her first try to get into law school was unsuccessful, so this fall she begins a Master of Arts in Criminology and Social Justice at Ryerson University.

Her backup plan is to train as a forensic psychologist, so she can work with people who have experienced domestic violence and give back some of what she was offered in North York.

I dont know how I would have survived, if I had not been in that shelter.

Update: After publication of the article, Mohini Datta-Ray told the Star that a full-time, womens counsellor continues to work out of their administrative office, which is located a short distance from the original shelter. That counsellor runs their Expressive Arts Therapy Program and serves as a point of contact for former residents and is a part of their continued presence in the community, she said.

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Ontarios privacy commission says the provincial government significantly overcharged an advocacy group fighting for information on accessibility law compliance in the province and must now hand over the material.

The commissions decision says the government tried to charge the Access for Ontarians with Disabilities Alliance $4,200 for a sweeping access to information request seeking details on many issues, including plans to make sure private businesses are complying with accessibility laws.

The alliance says it tried to get the fee waived and says the government enlisted five lawyers in its fight to uphold the pricey charge.

The governments argument included the assertion that the issues the alliance was seeking information on did not have to do with public health or safety and were therefore not subject to a fee waiver.

The commission disagreed, stating compliance with provincial accessibility legislation did have significant health and safety impacts for residents.

It ordered the government to provide much of the information in the request free of charge and knocked the fee for the rest down to $750.

A spokesperson for Ontarios minister responsible for accessibility said the commission had confirmed that it was appropriate to charge for some of the information requested by the alliance.

Read more: Accessibility advocate appeals access to information fee

Alliance chair David Lepofsky welcomed the commissions ruling, saying the case had raised questions about the governments commitment both to transparency and to accessibility as a whole.

Theyre trying to take as suffocating and narrow and impoverished an approach to openness and freedom of information as possible, he said. What have they got to hide?

Lepofsky has previously filed requests under Ontarios Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act in a bid to keep tabs on the provinces efforts to comply with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act.

At the time the law  known as AODA  came into effect in 2005, the government stated it aimed to have the entire province completely accessible by 2025.

In June 2015, Ontario announced a renewed focus on accessibility as the law marked its 10th anniversary. Brad Duguid, the minister responsible for the act at the time, conceded the effort had lost momentum and announced a number of ventures aimed at kick-starting it again.

The measures included a $9-million project to help businesses become more inclusive, a promise to introduce a third-party certification program to recognize accessible businesses, and a partnership with an undetermined private sector company to at least triple accessibility compliance audits.

The day after Duguid announced the various measures, Lepofsky filed a 31-point access to information request seeking details on subjects that included the governments plans to ramp audits back up, their promised outreach efforts and a number of compliance and enforcement-related statistics.

The government provided some of the information immediately and without cost, but estimated the rest would require 140 hours to track down and told Lepofsky to pay $4,200 for the information.

He appealed the fee, arguing the government had previously waived charges on similar requests. He also argued that releasing such information was in the public interest and highlighted the potential health and safety benefits of ensuring compliance with accessibility standards.

Documents filed by the government in favour of maintaining the fee included a different position on health and safety.

The goal of accessibility programs ... while certainly not inconsistent with programs related to public health or safety, is to facilitate the participation of disabled persons in society on an equal footing with those not suffering from disabilities, it said in its memorandum of argument, noting that details Lepofsky was requesting were in line with accessibility issues, not health and safety concerns.

Privacy Commission Adjudicator Diane Smith disagreed.

Dissemination of the information ... would benefit public health or safety by disclosing a public health or safety concern about the enforcement or compliance with the AODA or contribute meaningfully to the development of understanding of this important public health or safety issue, she wrote in her July 27 decision.

Smith ordered the government to provide much of the information to Lepofsky free of charge, including its plans and policies for AODA enforcement and details of its spending on education and outreach efforts.

The government now has until Aug. 28 to release those documents.

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This year, Rotary is celebrating 100 years of service and fellowship in Racine  a tradition that began here in 1917 when Racines first Rotary Club was formed by a small group of businessmen looking for a way to positively influence the community and the world around them.

Brought together by Burton Edsel Nelson, then-superintendent of Racines public schools, the initial group also included Herbert F. Johnson Sr., president of SC Johnson Wax; James Rohan, president of the Belle City Incubator Co.; Mortimer Walker, partner in the law firm Cooper Simmons, Nelson and Walker; A.J. Horlick, president of Horlicks Malted Milk Co.; and E.B. Belden, Racine Circuit Court Judge.

They selected 30 other community leaders to join them in the Rotary Club of Racine. And that group laid the foundation for what would eventually grow into three separate Racine-area clubs, and today lives on as one entity, the Rotary Club of Racine Founders.

Deeper roots

Rotarys roots in Racine, though, go back even further than Nelson, to Paul P. Harris, who founded the Rotarys first-ever club in Chicago 12 years before Nelson formed the club here. Harris  who was born in the 300 block of Fifth Street in Downtown Racine  was working as an attorney in Chicago when he developed Rotary so that professionals with diverse backgrounds could exchange ideas, form meaningful, lifelong friendships and give back to their communities.

His idea soon caught on far beyond Chicago and Racine, as the service organization expanded its reach to include clubs on six continents within 16 years of Rotarys founding. And today, there are more than 35,000 Rotary clubs around the world.

For more than 100 years, members of those clubs have worked together to address challenges around the world. One of their biggest accomplishments has been the effort to eradicate the disease of polio. Rotary began those efforts in 1979 with a program to vaccinate 6 million children in the Philippines and, since then, has worked to significantly lower the number of countries in which polio remains endemic from 125 in 1988 to just three countries today.

Local impact

Here in Racine, Rotarys commitment to the community can be seen in its support of a wide range of projects from the long-running, annual Post Prom event it hosts for area high school students to its most recent gift of more than $100,000 to the City of Racine for the construction of a band shell at Downtowns Festival Park, which has been renamed Paul P. Harris Rotary Park.

Through the years, Racines Rotary clubs (Rotary Club of Racine, Racine Rotary West Club and the Racine Founders Rotary Club all merged into one in recent years) have also carried on Nelsons focus on education through several efforts, including their Career Discovery Solutions program for middle schoolers, an international youth exchange program and scholarships for high school students (see accompanying box for more details).

Rotarys strong focus on programs that benefit youth is one of the things that Ashley Staeck, 32, said drew her to become involved with the Racine club. Staeck, who joined about six years ago and served as club president this past year, said you can really see that passion among members.

She said she also appreciates the fellowship that comes from working with other Rotarians on a volunteer basis.

People come from all different backgrounds to work together on projects, and they are doing it because they want to, said Staeck, who also serves as the program officer for the Johnson Foundation at Wingspread.

There are many things that we all benefit from, because of what Rotary has accomplished through the years, she said. And we couldnt have done it without the partnerships we have in the community.

Raising awareness

Such devotion to community is also something that Patrick Booth said brought him to Racines Rotary club three years ago. Booth, who is president of CCB Technology, said he was looking for ways to get more involved in the community and he liked the fact that Rotary offered many options for doing so.

Booth, who took over as president of the Racine club at the end of June, said the Rotary Club of Racine Founders is a wonderful group of people and that he appreciates being able to interact with members who have been with Rotary for a long time.

They have a more historic viewpoint of what Rotary has done, and it gives me perspective as we forge ahead and continue to grow, he said.

One of his goals during his year-long term as president is to grow the clubs current membership of 106 by adding 10 to 12 new members, Booth said. And one of the keys to making that happen, he said, is raising awareness about what Rotary is and what it does.

A lot of young professionals really dont know what Rotary is all about and why they should get involved, Booth said, noting that he didnt know much about it before attending a meeting at the invitation of a friend. I want to plant those seeds in everyones mind across Racine.

A heart for Racine

Membership in Rotary is open to all, and the only requirement aside from the clubs dues is a desire to serve, he said.

If you care about serving the community, in any way  whether its participating in a service project or helping raise money for scholarships  Rotary is a great opportunity, Booth said.

Rotary also offers lots of ways to connect with people, and it doesnt take long for new members to find their place in the organization, he said.

Everyone has a part to play, he said. All you have to have is a heart for Racine.

The Rotary Club of Racine Founders meets at 7 a.m. every Friday at the Racine Country Club, 2801 Northwestern Ave. Visitors are welcome. For more about the local Rotary club, go to https://portal.clubrunner.ca/7866 or www.facebook.com/racinefoundersrotary.
When Joyce Anna Scott died in May, she died a tenant of a home shed spent half her life trying to buy back from the government. Now, her kids are making a last-ditch effort to keep the four-hectare farm they grew up on.

Sitting in the house Monday, Joyce and John Scotts daughters combed through a lifetime of photographs, paintings, statues and teacups.

As of Sept. 1, everything has to be moved.

Despite living there since 1958, the house hasnt belonged to their parents for 44 years. It was expropriated by the provincial government in support of a simultaneous federal expropriation, for the Pickering Airport and North Pickering Community development projects.

Though an airport was never built, the land is still owned by the government  so, the family explained, the government is taking it back unless daughters Laura Alderson and Melissa Preston can argue their case next week. Their sister Kate Collver was also at the house Monday lending a hand.

The family hasnt been told what will happen to the house after September.

The sisters argue that the homes land was transferred to the Ontario Land Corporation in October 1979 without what they say was a promise of an opportunity to repurchase it. It was then transferred again in 2004 to the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority.

A conservation authority spokesperson told the Star that nobody was available Monday to comment.

In an attempt to restore equity, fairness and finally make right the past, we would like to have our family home at 14 Pickering Town Line returned to us, Alderson and Preston wrote to the conservation authority on July 4.

A date was set for Aug. 11, when the sisters will plead their case to the authoritys executive committee.

The first piece of evidence theyre pointing to is a pamphlet dropped in the 1970s from the Ontario government, which said if the government didnt end up needing their home, you will be offered the chance to recover ownership at the same price you were paid initially.

That second is a letter from Minister of Industry and Tourism Claude F. Bennett, saying that any homes that were compatible with their plans for redevelopment which is scheduled for completion by the end of 1974, would be available for repurchase by the owners at their original price.

In March 1989, the Scotts wrote to the Ministry of Government Services and asked to buy their home back. No airport had been built, they argued.

Fully 16 years after their expropriation for a project that never happened, a reply was sent on April 6, 1989 from the ministry advising that while our parents had expressed interest in purchasing the property, they had not yet declared it surplus, the sisters wrote in their letter this month to the conservation authority.

How is it possible that in June of 2017, fully 44 years after we entered into what we thought were honest, fair and equitable dealings with the provincial government, we are still waiting?, the sisters asked.

Joyces lawyer Stephen DAgostino advised the siblings to send a letter to the authority pleading their case.

If land is expropriated for a purpose and that purpose is no longer being pursued by the authority, the authority is required, subject to some requirements of the expropriations act, to offer that land back, DAgostino said.

But, while a final decision is on the horizon, theres been no indication whether the Scotts children will be successful. Either way, they say they had to make an attempt.

With the passing of my parents, we thought, you know what? It seems to us to be such an unfair thing, Preston said. If theres any possibility, this was my parents legacy, right? And we thought, well, why dont we just try? 

Correction August 1, 2017: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said the land was expropriated by Ottawa. In fact, the land was expropriated by the Ontario provincial government in support of a simultaneous federal expropriation, for the Pickering Airport and North Pickering Community development projects.

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In one truck, the migrants crouched in the dark in a 3-foot crevice between the trailers ceiling and the top of medical-supply boxes. In another, smugglers crammed 73 men, women and children into a trailer filled with rotting watermelons, to try to disguise their scent for Border Patrol dogs.

Sometimes, the trailers are comfortable, or as comfortable as a human-cargo operation can be, with water, ventilation and even refrigeration to keep everyone cool. But just as often, especially in the South Texas heat, they can become inhumane.

One group of trapped migrants cut their hands trying to rip insulation from a trailers door to try to get some air and left bloody handprints. Others drank their own urine when their water supply went out.

Luciano Alcocer, 56, still vividly recalls his 12-hour trip from Chaparral, New Mexico, to Dallas packed into an unventilated trailer in 2002. Two immigrants died, and Alcocer thought he would, too.

I thought my final moment had arrived, he said. We were desperate. We were like chickens spinning on a rotisserie.

Last Sunday, a thirsty immigrants request for water at a Walmart in San Antonio led to the discovery, in the parking lot, of the deadliest truck-smuggling operation in the United States in more than a decade. Ten of the 39 people found in or near the truck died, and others were hospitalized, some with brain damage.

Read more:

Survivors of Texas truck human smuggling operation being reunited with families

Driver in Texas human smuggling attempt part of larger group, officials say

Immigrants who died in Texas smuggling wept, pleaded for water and pounded on the truck

The case has cast a harsh light on a practice known for its cruelty. But it also showed that the big rig rolls on as a highly organized, often effective and remarkably enduring transportation option for the smuggling underworld.

Hundreds of migrants every year are caught inside tractor-trailers, and hundreds more are believed to be cruising in undetected. Even though U.S. President Donald Trumps tough stance on unauthorized immigration has slowed the flow of border crossers, many are still trying to slip past the Border Patrol in the back of 18-wheelers.

In late June, for example, a Homeland Security task force found 21 people in the back of another tractor-trailer in Laredo, leading to the prosecution of four suspected smugglers. And Mexican authorities reported that on Saturday that they had rescued 147 Central American migrants, including 48 children, found abandoned in a wilderness area in Veracruz state after a truck carrying them crashed.

It has been going on certainly throughout the entire 30 years that Ive been doing this, said the director of the task force, Paul A. Beeson, a veteran Border Patrol agent. They use every method of conveyance that they can come up with.

Court records, news reports and interviews with officials, border experts and migrants who have survived the trip illustrated both the lure of the truck and its dangers.

In South Texas, the busiest border for illegal entry and a mostly unfenced one, crossing the Rio Grande is in many ways the easy part. The hardest is getting past the about 16-kilometre-wide zone where Border Patrol traffic checkpoints function as a last line of defence before migrants reach San Antonio, Houston and cities beyond.

Unauthorized immigrants and the people who profit off smuggling them must decide whether to go around the checkpoints on foot, or go through them in a vehicle.

Those who circumvent the checkpoints on foot often do not make it out alive, dying from dehydration or heat stroke. For decades, particularly in hot Texas summers, going through the checkpoints in the trailers of 18-wheelers has appealed as a far less perilous option.

Its considered VIP, considered safer, faster and therefore more expensive, said Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, an expert on border issues and a fellow at the Wilson Center, a research institute in Washington. With stronger border enforcement measures, people dont want to be visible.

Alcocers truck trip in 2002 cost $2,500 (U.S.). According to the criminal smuggling complaint against the driver of the San Antonio truck, James M. Bradley Jr., one of the migrants told investigators that he was to pay his smugglers $5,500 once he reached San Antonio safely.

Far more people are smuggled in cars. In the current fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, nearly 2,000 migrants have been caught in cars, compared with about 225 in commercial trucks, according to the Border Patrol. (In the previous fiscal year, those numbers were 3,400 and 369, respectively.)

But trucks provide several advantages over cars for smugglers and migrants.

One is bulk. One 18-wheeler trip is often the work not of a single smuggler but of several working together, who load four, five or six groups of 20 or so migrants into a trailer. In the San Antonio case, one immigrant believed that up to 200 people had been inside at one point. They had been handed tape with different colours so their handlers could keep track of which groups went with which smugglers at the drop-off point.

Usually if youre in those big vehicles, its trying to co-ordinate large groups and move people around, said Jeremy Slack, a migration expert and professor at the University of Texas at El Paso.

Another benefit is evasion. So many trucks in the Southwest are moving goods to and from Mexico that the Border Patrol cannot possibly check all of them. To minimize the risk of inspection, smugglers will try tactics like the rotting watermelons, which did not work. If a truck is refrigerated, the driver will often turn the cooling system off before reaching the checkpoint so that inspectors will not get suspicious when the driver claims the truck is empty.

Once past the checkpoints, the trucks are bound for major cities, such as Houston and San Antonio, that have become hubs for human and drug smuggling. At the drop-off points, the migrants are put into smaller vehicles for the next leg of their journey.

But the ad hoc smuggling system is fraught with delays and faulty equipment, as well as misjudgments about how long people can survive packed into often-unrefrigerated metal boxes in the Texas heat.

In one case in 2003, when 19 immigrants died in an overheated tractor-trailer near Victoria, Texas, a simple part of the plan went awry. The driver was supposed to drop off the immigrants at a town about 45 miles north of the Border Patrol checkpoint. But the smugglers who were supposed to unload the immigrants there were detained at the checkpoint, and the driver was told to instead drive to Houston, more than 200 miles from the original drop-off point. The milk trailers cooling unit was never turned on, although some migrants were told that it would be.

One of the really horrifying things back in the Victoria case was people had been told to bring sweaters, because it was going to be cold in the back of the truck, said David Spener, author of Clandestine Crossings: Migrants and Coyotes on the Texas-Mexico Border and a professor of sociology and anthropology at Trinity University in San Antonio.

Bradley, 60, who has been charged with one count of transporting unauthorized immigrants, told investigators that he had known that the trucks refrigeration system did not work and that the vents were probably clogged, according to the criminal complaint. He said he had been unaware the immigrants were on board.

Both the San Antonio and Victoria cases involved non-Hispanic drivers from outside Texas. Smugglers, many of whom have ties to Mexican drug cartels, frequently recruit non-Hispanics with out-of-state plates because they believe those drivers are less likely to raise suspicions as they pass through traffic checkpoints.

Bradley is African-American, lived in Florida and was driving a truck with Iowa plates. The driver in the Victoria episode, Tyrone M. Williams, is a Jamaican national, lived in upstate New York and had New York plates. He is now in federal prison.

For the drivers, the risks are tremendous, but the rewards can be relatively meagre. In the Victoria case, Williams made two transports of migrants in May 2003. For the first one, he drove 60 immigrants and was paid $6,500, and for the second and deadly trip, he was paid $7,500 for transporting 74 migrants.

Many of those who survive the trips remain physically scarred, and emotionally haunted. Immigrants who have been smuggled in this way have undergone months-long hospitalizations and talk years later about having trouble concentrating and riding in vehicles.

Fifteen years after his ordeal, Alcocer said he still wakes up sweating from nightmares. As he rode in the trailer with about 45 other migrants, some hallucinated, fainted or vomited. They tried in vain to tear holes in the metal walls with a pair of barber scissors belonging to a migrant who was a hairstylist from Argentina. They were given 6 gallons of water, but they ran out early, so they urinated in the empty water bottles, he said.

The first time the urine-filled gallons came to me, I was disgusted, he said. I couldnt do it. But eventually I had no choice. Perhaps it saved my life.

Alcocer eventually woke up disoriented in a hospital room, where he was treated for hyperthermia. He received a visa in return for his testimony against the smugglers, two of whom were sentenced to more than 30 years in prison. Alcocer is now a permanent resident and lives near Houston.

Another memory he has from the ride is that he was promised the trailer would have a cooling system. The judge in the case pointed out that as the immigrants suffered, the two smugglers in the cab had the air-conditioning on.

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The news release begins with a statement as terse and vague as you would expect from a high-profile couple confirming their divorce, after reporters got wind of it.

Lynn and Dave Aronberg  a former Miami Dolphins cheerleader and the top prosecutor in Palm Beach County, Florida, respectively  have decided to respectfully and amicably part ways and end our marriage, they announced in a joint statement last week.

We kindly ask for your support in preserving our privacy as we start to navigate this new chapter of our lives.

So far, so standard.

And then, mystifyingly, the next seven paragraphs of the news release are spent obliterating privacy and expectations alike.

The release, which was issued by Lynn Aronbergs PR representative, quotes almost verbatim from a gossip website about the brand new BMW and tens of thousands of dollars that she apparently extracted from her husband in a settlement.

It claims the state attorneys reluctance to have children contributed to the breakup.

And it concludes with the line that would propel the couples divorce case from Palm Beach County gossip pages to international news:

A staunch Republican and supporter of President Donald Trump, Lynn also said she felt increasingly isolated in the marriage.

Or as the PR firm headlined it: the Trump Divorce.

With the same anonymous sources and exclamation points it would use to chronicle the demise of their marriage, the website Gossip Extra broke news of the couples engagement minutes after it took place in late 2014:

EXCLUSIVE, reads the headline, State Attorney Dave Aronberg Asks ex-Miami Dolphins Cheerleader to Marry Him . . . Atop Eiffel Tower . . . She Says Yes!

They had met years earlier, Lynn Aronberg told the Washington Post, when he was a state senator in the 2000s. She described herself as a lifelong Republican and him as a short Democrat who nevertheless appealed to her.

They married on a beach in 2015. The gossip site covered that, too.

Though she put aside cheerleading years ago to build a career in publicity, Aronberg, 37, said her husbands liberal supporters came to regard her as the hayseed wife  nearly 10 years his junior, with intolerable politics.

It wasnt an issue at first, but that was before the Hillary-Trump saga, she said. And as that built, the tension in our relationship built.

Despite his affiliation in the Florida statehouse, Aronberg is not exactly a party-line Democrat.

He was elected to the state attorneys office in 2012 with the help of Republican donors, according to the Palm Beach Post.

And the prosecutor has been spotted multiple times at Trumps Mar-a-Lago Club, according to the newspaper  despite backing Hillary Clinton in the 2016 race; investigating assault accusations against Trumps campaign manager that year; and recent reports that he may be considering a bid for U.S. Congress under the Democratic banner.

While Lynn Aronberg has been a Trump fan since his days on The Apprentice  she owns a three-legged dog named Ivanka  she said her husband had known the mogul for years.

He raised political funds at Mar-a-Lago, she said, and took her to the resort nearly every weekend  even as Trumps brand became increasingly toxic to her husbands liberal base.

Im walking through the red carpet, and hes sneaking through the bushes, she said, recalling selfies she snapped with the future president and his wife, Melania Trump, while her husband would run and hide from the photographers.

Hed ask me to not to take pictures. He wouldnt want me to post them, she said.

I did not listen to him.

Her Facebook wall and photo galleries attest to that. Grinning with Melania Trump in multiple photos. Posing with the future president in a gold-trimmed ballroom on New Years Eve, three weeks before he moved into the White House.

Hes really nice, Lynn Aronberg said of Donald Trump. Hes like: Dave: How did you get her to marry you? 

But staying married to him became a strain as the presidential race wore on, she told the Post. At the couples home in West Palm Beach, she said, her selfie habit drew irritated phone calls from her husbands supporters.

You know, the unions, she said. Or sometimes he wouldnt even tell me who was calling him, to say not to post pictures of Trump or Melania.

She would refuse the requests, she said.

Eventually shed do so in public.

So what if I like Ivanka Trump or a conservative issue on social media? Lynn Aronberg told Gossip Extra in February, the same month she filed for divorce. So what if I invite Melania to be in my book group?

Dave Aronbergs Divorce Getting Downright Ugly! the website reported in June, quoting an unnamed friend of the family.

And then last week, a source familiar with the negotiations gave Gossip Extra details of a settlement that Aronberg reportedly signed with her husband: $100,000 worth of goodies in exchange for her signature on the dotted line.

And the website expanded on their private woes:

They have no children, which was a problem for Lynn, it reported. And then all the stuff about Trump.

These articles were no more popular with her husbands supporters than her selfies, Lynn Aronberg told the Post: Theyd get mad and try to say Im leaking it.

She denied doing so. She also declined to discuss her divorce settlement with the Post  and said she didnt know how the same details that Gossip Extra reported ended up in a news release on Thursday, released by her PR representative, beneath the couples brief statement confirming the end of our marriage.

Not that Lynn Aronberg minded the leaks, exactly.

I trust them, she said of the PR firm, TransMedia. I dont care if theyre repeating something Gossip Extra already said.

Lynn Aronberg runs a separate PR company under her own name but said she used to work for TransMedia, which currently lists her as an executive vice president, though she denied being an employee.

Shes what we call a partner in our firm, said Thomas Madden, TransMedias chief executive.

He said the company had gathered the Aronbergs settlement details  along information about Trumps role in the divorce  from other sources.

Theres nothing inaccurate, he said. She did not violate any privacy agreements.

Dave Aronberg, who has been approached about running for U.S. Congress, couldnt be reached for comment.

A spokesman for the prosecutor, Christian Ulvert, confirmed that Aronberg had reached a settlement in his divorce but declined to discuss it or the private details that appeared in his wifes news release.

My clients ready to just close this chapter, Ulvert said.

As for Lynn Aronberg, she told The Post that she remains friends with her soon-to-be-ex husband  though hes not thrilled about the leaks, wherever theyre coming from.

She has dinner plans with Donald Trump Jr. coming up, she said.

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LEXINGTON, KY.When gunshots make national news in the U.S., Mark Bryants phone rings in Lexington.

Bryant, 62, is neither a law enforcement officer nor a trauma specialist. He runs a private website, Gun Violence Archive, that updates on an hourly basis, with street-level details, most of the gun-related incidents that have occurred in the United States since 2013.

Want to know how many people have been killed by guns so far this year nationally? In a particular state or city? Last year? The year before that? The number of people wounded? How many shooting victims were children? How many mass shootings there were? Police-related shootings? How many times guns were used in self-defence? How many shootings were unintentional?

Operated out of his home, Bryants GVA answers such questions for journalists, policy-makers, even law enforcement. And despite the public safety menace of gun violence in the United States, few others do this kind of work.

Typically, the FBI undercounts shootings and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention undercounts gun deaths because they rely on incomplete reports passed along by local officials and extrapolated surveys. Academic study of gun violence slowed nearly to a halt in 1996 once Congress, at the behest of the National Rifle Association, prohibited federal funding from going to research that could be used to advocate for gun control.

For firearms, we have rotten, absolutely rotten data, said Jon Vernick, co-director of the Center for Gun Policy and Research at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. We have some accounting of the overall number of deaths. But if you want to learn who pulled the trigger or any other circumstances behind the shootings, we collect very little information.

Compare that to car crashes, Vernick said. We collect all sorts of information about car crashes. I can tell you not only how many people died in your state last year in car crashes; I can break it down for you by the make and model of the vehicle, the speed it was travelling, the road conditions, the weather, the age and experience of the driver, on and on. But shootings? No. Nothing like that with shootings.

GVA comes closer than most. It has 19 researchers around the U.S. to sweep information about gun-related incidents from the websites of more than 2,000 news organizations and police departments. Researchers follow up with phone calls and open records requests to collect more details when necessary.

Incidents are promptly reviewed, categorized and posted on GVA, with one or more links to original sources to confirm their authenticity. There is no commentary; GVA is non-partisan and takes no position on gun ownership or gun control. It simply provides the numbers.

Last year, according to GVA, there were 384 mass shootings in the U.S., adopting the federal governments definition of four or more people shot and/or killed in a single event. There were 671 children up to age 11 killed or wounded by guns, and 3,124 teenagers up to age 17 killed or wounded. There were 1,971 verified defensive uses of a firearm, which can include either brandishing a gun or shooting it. There were 2,198 unintentional shootings.

Overall, there were 15,063 fatal shootings, continuing an upward trend since GVA began counting, and 30,613 gun-related injuries, also reflecting a steady annual increase. None of those numbers include suicide shootings, which GVA doesnt track.

GVAs data has been cited in hundreds of news stories by scores of news organizations, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Associated Press, CNN, ABC News, and broadcast and print outlets in Canada, Mexico, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Australia.

We provide very little analysis, and thats intentional, Bryant said recently. We want people to be able to draw their own conclusions.

GVAs budget of about $500,000 (U.S.) a year comes from Michael Klein of Washington, who made a fortune in commercial real estate and corporate law before backing a number of non-profits that interest him.

Bryant fell into the job by accident. A shooting enthusiast who grew up with hunting rifles, he sometimes wrote about gun safety for various blogs. But he did other things for a living, including postcard distributor, photographer and computer systems analyst.

With the rest of the world, Bryant was horrified in December 2012, when Adam Lanza shot up an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., murdering 20 children and six adults. Lanza had been treated for psychiatric problems, but he had easy access to his mothers arsenal of six firearms in their home, most notably the .223-calibre Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle that he used for most of that days bloodshed.

Overnight, gun safety went from being Bryants hobby to his all-consuming passion. His own experiences led him to think that two changes could cut by half the number of shooting deaths in the United States: requiring background checks on all gun sales to prevent people with criminal or psychiatric problems from obtaining a gun, and requiring secure gun storage to keep firearms out of the wrong hands, including burglars, the mentally ill and children.

You can buy a gun safe at Buds Gun Shop that will keep your 4-year-old out, Bryant said. People say, I dont need a safe. I teach my children gun safety. Well, you can throw that out the window for a 4-year-old, because you cant teach a 4-year-old gun safety. Even for the 6- to 10-year-olds, you can tell them all day long, Stop. This is dangerous; dont touch this. But you and I both know what boys will do. They will do whatever they want, because they are boys.

As Bryant tried to research individual acts of gun violence around the U.S., he had a hard time finding solid data.

Then he discovered that Slate, an online news magazine, was building its own nationwide database of shootings in the days after Newtown, to show how many Americans died by gunfire all the time. Bryant admired Slates effort so much that he started contributing to it himself. He alerted the magazines editors whenever he uncovered shootings in the news that they had failed to include.

We would keep bugging them to say, You missed this one; you missed that one,  he said, laughing. Finally, after I bugged them enough times, they said, Fine, look, here are the passwords. You go do whatever you need to with this, thanks. 

On any given day, GVA gets about 20,000 page views. A major shooting  say, the Orlando nightclub rampage in June 2016 that left 49 people dead  can spike that to 1.2 million page views a day.

It comes close to blowing our website apart, Bryant said.

Mass shootings drive much of the traffic to our website. Children getting shot is second. Familicide (when someone murders the rest of their family) is third in terms of, you know, media interest. But even with those, usually after two days, its rolled off. Youll hear about these awful shootings for a couple of days, and then theyre gone, and nothing more is really said about how we might prevent them from happening the next time.

Although GVA takes no position on guns, Bryant advocates for what he calls gun violence prevention. He does not oppose gun ownership  in fact, he enjoys target practice when he can find the time  but he says the data confirms a need for mandatory background checks on gun sales and secure gun storage.

Many shootings recorded on GVA were preventable had someone acted more responsibly with their firearm, he said.

Gun violence prevention is not anti-gun. Its anti-gun-violence, Bryant said.

I equate it in some ways to what Mothers Against Drunk Driving did with drunk driving, he said. MADD was against the injuries and deaths that occurred due to people driving while drunk. They were not against cars, they were not against car owners, they were not against alcohol. They were simply against the carnage that was occurring from drunk driving.

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WASHINGTONOutnumbered but emboldened, progressive Democrats who watched Republicans fail to unwind the Affordable Care Act are thinking harder about passing major expansions of health-care coverage. For many younger activists and legislators, the push to undo the ACA with just 51 Senate votes is less a cautionary tale than a model of how to bring about universal coverage.

The ambitious idea, discussed on the congressional backbenches and among activists, is not embraced by Democratic leaders. In the hours after the repeal push stalled, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer suggested that Republicans sit down and trade ideas with Democrats. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi suggested that Republicans fully fund subsidies for current ACA exchange plans  money that U.S. President Donald Trump frequently threatens to cut off.

But for many younger Democrats and activists, the Republicans near-miss on repeal demonstrated boldness from which a future left-wing majority could learn. Democrats passed the ACA through regular order, with a fleeting, fractious Senate supermajority. Republicans proved that major health-care policy changes can be pushed nearly to the finish line in the reconciliation process, with just 50 supportive senators and a vice-president ready to break a tie.

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After dramatic health defeat, Trump and Republicans turn to the next question: Who to blame?

Senate rejects repeal of Affordable Care Act, dealing GOP leaders a major setback

Rep. Ro Khanna, a freshman California Democrat who favours universal Medicare coverage, said that Republicans have rewritten the playbook. When we do have a Democratic president, and when we do have a Democratic majority, Id support getting this through with 51 votes in the Senate, said Khanna of a universal coverage, single-payer plan. That will diminish the role of lobbyists and special interests in trying to get a few senators to block something that everyone in this country will want.

Democrats who endured previous efforts to expand health insurance had rarely considered a reconciliation strategy. In 2009, the Obama administration and Democrats in the House and Senate included veterans of the failed 1993-1994 health-care push, who remembered the insurance industrys effectiveness in sinking their bills.

The 2009 approach brought insurers on board; it adopted the mandate for individuals to obtain health insurance, an idea cooked up in conservative policy circles, and went into effect slowly to avoid piling up costs.

How much time and effort did they spend in trying to make the ACA bipartisan? asked Rep. Ruben Gallego, a rising Democratic star elected in 2014. Its never going to happen. Our bills shouldnt be about getting the most amount of Republicans on board; they should be about insuring the biggest number of people.

When Democrats lost control of the House in 2010, it taught party activists that there was little to gain from compromise. This year, the ACA policy that proved most intractable was not the mandate  a skinny bill to repeal it got 49 Senate votes  but instead the expansion of Medicaid, which up to nine Republican senators refused to roll back.

To progressives, this was proof that theyd been right to demand more in 2009  from a public option to a Medicare buy-in for younger people to single-payer health care itself. Adam Green, the co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), recalled that Democrats had ridiculed the professional left for supporting a public option in reconciliation. In conversations since the start of the repeal debate, theyve come to agree with him.

In 2009, what we consistently got from Democratic senators was: Hey, reconciliation was a procedural can of worms. We dont want to go there, said Green. Republicans have made very clear that you can go there and push your ideas into law. But our ideas will be more popular. Its pretty clear that the centre of gravity has shifted.

Last week, as the Senate debated then waylaid the repeal bills, the PCCC held all-day training sessions for 2018 Democratic candidates in a hotel near the Capitol. Many swing-district hopefuls either said they embraced single-payer health care or described it as an obvious goal to work toward.

The image I have in my head is that everyone who wants to see a doctor can see one, without going to the ER or going bankrupt, said Rick Neal, an international aid worker who was exploring a run against Rep. Steve Stivers, an Ohio Republican. Health care doesnt fit in this free-market fantasy that people have, because people will do anything to see a doctor. The high premiums were seeing right now are an indication of market failure.

Andy Kim, a former National Security Council staffer now running against Rep. Tom MacArthur, Republican of New Jersey, described the ideal process for passing a bill in now-common progressive terms  starting with what voters want, not what might win over Republicans.

The U.S. Senate rejected a Republican measure to repeal portions of former president Obama's health care reform law. Republicans John McCain, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins joined the Democrats in voting down the measure, 49-51. (The Associated Pres

The way you start something thats bipartisan is by starting with the American people, he said. Bipartisanship starts with them.

Democrats have not yet formed a consensus on how to approach health care again. On Thursday, as the repeal effort headed for the cliff, Sen. Steve Daines, Republican of Montana, needled Democratic senators  10 of whom face re-election next year in states Trump won  by introducing the text of a single-payer bill sponsored by Rep. John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan. For the first time, most House Democrats have co-sponsored Conyers bill; 43 members of the Senate minority, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, voted present, while five voted no on the Daines amendment.

Sanders did so because he intends  barring yet another jolt of life in the repeal campaign  to release a Medicare for All bill before the Senates August recess. The bill will be designed to reframe single-payer, which enjoys tentative support in public polls, as cost-effective and sensible.

If Sanders bill gets a favourable CBO score, it would become a starting point for Democrats in future health-care debates. Even some progressive Democrats worry about the story getting ahead of the storytellers.

The reconciliation rules may allow you to squeeze through something, but it doesnt allow you to do law-making the way its supposed to be done, said Sen. Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii. When it comes to repeal, reconciliation is the tool that theyve used; theres every reason to think wed use reconciliation to undo it. But its not a path we should go down with enthusiasm.

Rep. John Yarmuth, Democrat of Kentucky, who would chair the House Budget Committee if Democrats won control of Congress, was similarly cautious about reconciliation. In an interview with the Washington Post and the New York Times, Yarmuth said that he supports universal Medicare and could see it becoming law in five to 10 years, as employers realized that they would gain flexibility if they were taxed slightly higher but could save on insurance costs. But he would not copy the process Republicans had tried to use for repeal.

Its not good for the country, whether youre Democrat or Republican, when you pass a bill with only partisan votes, said Yarmuth.

Conyers, meanwhile, was trying to make universal health insurance the partys default position. On Friday, as most House members left town for their recess, Conyers joined Khanna at an event to launch a pledge for 2018 Democrats. Raising his right hand, the Capitol peering over his shoulder, Conyers said he would stand up for Medicare for All. 

Were seeing a crumbling of the Republican legislative program, said Conyers. We may not be in the minority much longer.

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WASHINGTONTwo prominent lawmakers urged U.S. President Donald Trump Sunday not to sabotage the Affordable Care Act after failed Republican efforts to scrap the health care law.

But Trump urged Republican senators to try again to push through some version of repealing and replacing the law, even though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, said last week it was time to move on to other matters.

Kellyanne Conway, a Trump adviser, said the president would decide in coming days whether to block subsidies that are a crucial component of the law,

Hes going to make that decision this week, and thats a decision that only he can make, Conway said on Fox News Sunday.

Two of the lawmakers who blocked the Senate Republican repeal plan last week, however, criticized the administrations continued efforts to overturn the law.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins blamed the Trump administration for encouraging instability in the insurance markets by continuing the uncertainty over whether the subsidies  cost-sharing payments that reduce out-of-pocket health care costs for poorer Americans  would continue.

Im troubled by the uncertainty that has been created by the administration, Collins said on NBCs Meet the Press. She contested Trumps characterization of the payments as an insurance company bailout.

Thats not what it is, she said, calling the reduction payments vital assistance to low-income Americans.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said further action on health care should be done in a bipartisan manner and not rushed.

You cannot do major entitlement reform singlehandedly, and you wouldnt do major legislative initiatives singlehandedly, she said in Alaska.

Sen. Bernie Sanders echoed Collins criticism of Trumps threat to stop making the cost-sharing payments.

You know, I really think its incomprehensible that we have a president of the United States who wants to sabotage health care in America, make life more difficult for millions of people who are struggling now to get the health insurance they need and to pay for that health insurance, he said on CNNs State of the Union.

Trump said on Twitter that Republican senators should press ahead with efforts to scrap the Affordable Care Act  a day after he tauntingly exhorted them not to be quitters in the quest for a legislative victory for him.

The White House budget director, Mick Mulvaney, on CNNs State of the Union, said it was Trump administration policy that the Senate should keep working to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, skipping an August recess if necessary.

Senators, he said, need to stay, they need to work  they need to pass something.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, while acknowledging a responsibility to follow the law, also signalled that Trump was not accepting defeat in efforts to get rid of the health care law.

Our goal . . . as well as the presidents goal, is to put in place a law, a system, that actually works for patients, he said on Meet the Press. You cant do that under the current structure.

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WASHINGTONAfter an eventful few days, the public seemed to have had a thorough introduction to Anthony Scaramucci, the White House communications director whose flair for gale-force showmanship makes his new boss look almost tame.

The railing against ever-springing leaks from the White House. The vulgar words about his colleagues. All of those celebratory photos posted from Air Force One. Wed seen plenty for one week, or so we thought. But as it turns out, New York Citys most prolific gossip column was just getting started.

On Friday, whispers began that a third person  President Donald Trump  had come between Scaramucci and his wife, Deidre Ball, causing her to file for divorce while pregnant with the couples second child, a boy born last week. The report, published in The New York Posts Page Six column and crediting unnamed sources, detailed name-calling, abandonment and a three-year marriage clouded by Scaramuccis blind ambition and burning desire to Make America Great Again.

Read more:

Anthony Scaramuccis wife reportedly files for divorce

Do you censor the F-bombs? How editors handled Anthony Scaramuccis expletive-laced rant

Trump forces out embattled chief of staff Reince Priebus as White House turmoil grows

Scaramuccis devotion to Trump is well documented, and he is thought to be the catalyst for two high-profile departures since his arrival: Sean Spicer, the former press secretary, is said to have resigned over Scaramuccis hire, and Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, was ousted days after Scaramucci called him a paranoid schizophrenic during an expletive-laden tirade delivered to the New Yorker. But the Trump-Scaramucci political union did not cause Ball to file for divorce in Nassau County on July 6  at least according to Jill Stone, who is representing Ball in the divorce.

It has nothing to do with Trump, Stone said.

Stone, who may have been invoking a bit of wishful thinking when it comes to this White House, added: Honestly, its a private matter, and shes hoping that it just dies down.

Stone would not characterize the nature of the separation. She said that Ball, who is in her late 30s, gave birth last Monday to the couples second child. The newborn was with her and was doing very well, Stone said. She added that reports of a casual text message sent from Scaramucci  Congratulations, Ill pray for our child  to Ball after she gave birth were false.

The week of his sons birth in New York coincided with his first official week in the White House, and Scaramucci remained in Washington with the president. On Monday, the day his son was born, Scaramucci, 53, travelled aboard Air Force One with Trump, and then watched as the president delivered a politically charged speech to thousands of Boy Scouts in West Virginia. He has posted photos and tweets, with thumbs-ups and hugs, from aboard Air Force One or while attending a Trump rally in Ohio. At the White House, Scaramucci dined on Wednesday with Sean Hannity and Kimberly Guilfoyle of Fox News and Bill Shine, a former Fox executive. (He later called the New Yorker.)

The couple, who married in 2014, worked together at SkyBridge Capital, the hedge fund business founded by Scaramucci. It was the second marriage for both. In anticipation of obtaining a White House job, Scaramucci sold his stake of the business earlier this year to a group led by a Chinese conglomerate.

Ball approached her lawyer about a divorce in late June.

Calls and emails to Scaramucci and Ball went unanswered on Sunday, but Scaramucci addressed the situation with a pair of tweets over the weekend.

Leave civilians out of this, he wrote on Friday evening. I can take the hits, but I would ask that you would put my family in your thoughts and prayers & nothing more.

As the intrigue surrounding his personal life intensified, Scaramucci lashed out at journalists the next morning.

Family does not need to be drawn into this, Scaramucci wrote. Soon we will learn who in the media has class and who doesnt. No further comments on this.

He wasnt done talking about his new role. By Sunday, Scaramucci had shared a tweet from Trump that disparaged the Affordable Care Act, and then boasted of a successful call with Ronna Romney McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee.

@GOP doing fantastic work to support @POTUS #MAGA, Scaramucci wrote, looking forward to building even stronger relationship.

A Twitter account belonging to Ball, @MrsAScaramucci, was dormant.

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TALLINN, ESTONIAU.S. Vice-President Mike Pence on Monday strongly pledged Americas commitment to protecting NATO allies against attacks, including the Baltic states, which have anxiously watched a growing Russian military presence in the region.

Under President Donald Trump, the United States stands firmly behind our Article 5 pledge of mutual defence  an attack on one of us is an attack on us all, Pence told reporters after meeting with the presidents of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the Estonian capital of Tallinn.

Mutual defence is a vital issue for the three small former Soviet states that border Russia, which were all occupied for nearly five decades by Soviet troops before regaining their independence in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The United States never recognized the claim by Soviet leader Josef Stalin on the three countries  which have a combined population of 6 million  allowing Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to maintain independent diplomatic missions and have their national flags stored at the State Department throughout the occupation.

Saying that Trump knows security is the foundation of our prosperity, Pence said America and the Baltic countries would seek new ways to increase prosperity by increasing two-way trade that currently amounts to $4.4 billion and by increasing their mutual investments.

Earlier, he met Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid, Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis and Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite at the baroque 18th-century Kadriorg Palace, which was built by the Russian Emperor Peter the Great.

Energy is one way that Washington is seeking to tighten its commercial ties with the Baltic countries. It closed a deal in June to sell liquefied natural gas (LNG) directly from the United States to the region.

A Lithuanian state-owned gas trading company will receive the first delivery of U.S. imported LNG in August  something that Pence said will benefit not only our prosperity, but regional security. And I am confident that this deal will only be the first of many.

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Russia urges U.S. to show political will to fix ties as it cuts U.S. diplomatic staff

Putin says 755 U.S. diplomats must leave Russia

Pence said he and Trump were pleased with the deal that will help the Baltic states to reduce their reliance on Russian gas.

Later Monday, Pence met with NATO troops from Britain, France and the United States that are stationed in Estonia. The alliance has deployed some 4,000 troops and military hardware in the three Baltic states and Poland to counter Russias presence in the Baltic Sea region.

Before departing for Georgia, Pence took shovel and planted an English oak outside the headquarters of the Estonian defence forces together with the leaders of Latvia and Lithuania.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday ordered the U.S. to cut its embassy and consulate staff in Russia by 755 people. On Monday, Pence said America wants to improve bilateral relations with Russia despite the recent diplomatic action by Moscow.

Putin, at a meeting with his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto last week, said anti-Russia hysteria is growing and Russophobic instruments are being used as part of a domestic U.S. political fight that may result in stricter sanctions against his nation.

Russias annexation of Crimea and involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine spooked the Baltics and triggered a rethink of NATOs role in ex-communist Europe. Western troops were added in response in nations such as Estonia and Latvia, unwilling former Soviet republics with large Russian-speaking minorities.

We hope for better days and better relations with Russia, Pence told reporters.

Yet Russias upcoming Zapad 2017 military exercises with 13,000 troops near the Baltic states borders in September may further strain relations.

Grybauskaite told Lithuanian national radio on Monday that the U.S. would double the number of military jets and increase American troops on her countrys soil during the Russian drills to signal that Washington is monitoring the Baltics situation closely.

Estonia  which currently holds the rotating presidency of the 28-nation European Union  is the first leg of Pences European tour. The U.S. vice-president flew later Monday to Georgia, another former Soviet republic, and will also visit new NATO member Montenegro, two countries facing strong pressure from Russia.

With files from Bloomberg

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MOSCOWAmid a major diplomatic retaliation unseen since the Cold War era, Russia urged the United States on Monday to show the political will to repair ties.

President Vladimir Putins move to cut hundreds of U.S. diplomatic personnel in Russia underlines his readiness to raise the ante in the face of new sanctions approved by the U.S. Congress. The Russian leader warned that he has more tricks up his sleeve to hurt the U.S., but he voiced hope that he wouldnt need to use them.

Vice-President Mike Pence, visiting neighbouring Estonia, said he hoped for better days and better relations with Russia.

Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said it will take time for the U.S. to recover from what he called political schizophrenia, but he added that Russia wants constructive co-operation with Washington.

We are interested in a steady development of our ties and are sorry to note that we are still far from that, he said.

Peskovs statement followed televised comments Sunday by Putin, who said the U.S. would have to cut 755 of its embassy and consular staff in Russia, a massive reduction he described as a response to new U.S. sanctions.

The Russian Foreign Ministry first announced the cuts Friday, when it said that the U.S. should reduce its presence to 455 employees, the number that Russia has in the United States. It also declared the closure of a U.S. recreational retreat on the outskirts of Moscow and warehouse facilities.

Moscows action is the long-expected tit-for-tat response to former U.S. President Barack Obamas move to expel 35 Russian diplomats and shut down two Russian recreational retreats in the U.S. following allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Putin had refrained from retaliating until now in the hope that President Donald Trump would follow on his campaign promises to improve ties with Moscow and roll back the steps taken by Obama.

Read more:

Putin says 755 U.S. diplomats must leave Russia

GOP-led House set to pass Russia sanctions bill limiting Trumps authority

The Russian leader hailed his first meeting with Trump on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Germany earlier in July, saying that the talks offered a model for rebuilding relations.

But the congressional and FBI investigations into links between Trumps campaign and Russia have weighed heavily on the White House, derailing Moscows hopes for an improvement in ties that worsened over the Ukrainian crisis, the war in Syria and other disputes.

The overwhelming endorsement of a new package of stiff financial sanctions that passed Congress with vetoproof numbers last week dealt a new blow to Moscows aspirations. The White House said Trump will sign the package, and Putin decided to fire back without waiting for that to happen.

We had hoped for quite a long time that the situation will somehow change, but apparently if it changes, it wont be soon, Putin said in remarks broadcast by state television late Sunday. I thought it was the time for us to show that were not going to leave anything without an answer.

The diplomatic personnel reductions are the harshest such move since 1986, when Moscow and Washington expelled dozens of diplomats.

The U.S. State Department called Putins move a regrettable and uncalled-for act.

Pence said in the Estonian capital of Tallinn that the U.S. wants to improve bilateral relations with Russia despite the recent diplomatic action by Moscow.

We hope for better days and better relations with Russia, Pence said.

Putin described the cuts in the U.S. Embassy and consular personnel as painful. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said it would be up to the U.S. to determine who should leave.

The State Department declined to give an exact number of its diplomats or other U.S. officials in Russia, but the figure is believed to be about 400, some of whom have family members accompanying them on diplomatic passports.

Most of the more than 1,000 employees at the various U.S. diplomatic missions in Russia, including the embassy in Moscow and consulates in St. Petersburg, Vladivostok and Yekaterinburg, are local employees.

Putin said Russia has other levers to hurt the U.S., but added that he currently sees no need for further action.

A moment may come when we could look at other options of retaliation, but I hope that it wont come to that, he said.

Gleb Pavlovsky, a political analyst who has consulted for the Kremlin in the past, said the congressional sanctions marked a point of no return.

He described the personnel cuts as a moderate response, a sort of an eleventh-hour warning to the U.S. from the Russian president.

Putin had to do something, and from his point of view, that was the minimal possible response, he said. Putin is offering to stop, to make a pause.

He predicted that if the escalation continues, the Kremlin will go for an indirect strategy ... dealing blows in other areas of the globe where the U.S. has interests.

While the congressional move and the potential Russian response will foment global instability, the new U.S. sanctions will also further fuel anti-Americanism in Russia and help Putin mobilize his support base ahead of the March 2018 vote in which he is widely expected set to seek another term, Pavlovsky said.

The Kremlin has received additional arguments for its game, he said. If Putin wanted to, he could build whole his election campaign solely on American sanctions.

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Meeting in council  where a council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate and make decisions affecting the wider group  has been a form of deciding human affairs for probably as long as human society has existed.

Often, councils have chosen symbols to designate their authority. Canadas governing councils  or parliaments  use the mace. Symbolizing the authority of the Crown, as exercised by the elected assembly, the mace is carried into the legislative chamber at the beginning of every sitting day and placed on the table in front of the speaker, where it remains until the sitting is adjourned. Once convened, the legislature is empowered to decide matters of government.

Like the mace, the talking stick  a symbolic instrument of democracy used by many Indigenous peoples along the Northwest Coast of North America  indicates which speaker has the right to be heard. (A talking feather, sacred shell, wampum belt or other symbolic object may also be used for this purpose.)

Matters taken up by elected representatives in Canadian legislatures are decided by a division into those voting yea and those voting nay. Supported by a majority of voices in favour or against, the outcome becomes a decision of the whole House of Commons; abstentions are not recognized. In this way, the house (with the Mace in place) has the authority to speak and speaks with one voice.

Canada is a country of three founding traditions  French, British and Indigenous. Yet the design of our House of Commons mace  with its coats of arms, roses, shamrocks, thistles, and fleurs-de-lys  recognizes and reflects only the first two. This is simply unacceptable in such an essential part of our parliamentary regalia.

Indigenous contributions to Canada are far too little known and celebrated in the popular history of this country. Indigenous peoples freely shared their knowledge and technologies with the first European explorers and settlers, enabling them to navigate and survive in a  for them  alien climate and landscape.

Early military alliances between Britain and First Nations were a critical part of the defensive network of British North America. First Nations and Metis fighters fought beside British troops and colonial militias against invading American forces during the War of 1812; thousands fought with Canada alongside her allies in the two World Wars.

Like many, I have found it difficult to celebrate Canadas 150th. Spanning nearly 4 billion years, our geology is some of the oldest on the planet; life in some form has existed here for probably almost as long. The current consensus holds that modern humans migrated to what is now as the Americas possibly as far back as 20,000 years ago, millennia before the first Europeans arrived. Certain West Coast Indigenous cultures are among the longest enduring in the world.

Replacing the Mace in our federal elected legislature with one whose design reflects the governing symbols of Canadas Indigenous cultures will not bring clean water to reserves, pay for education, return lost and murdered Aboriginal women to their families or bring about First Nations self-government. But it will recognize in a highly visible manner that Canadas Indigenous traditions must be an integral part of the way this country is governed.

That, I could celebrate.

Pat Steenberg has been a CBC radio producer, a House of Commons procedural clerk and the leader of a national NGO. She is retired and lives in Ottawa.

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MOUNT PLEASANT  Local officials continued closed-door discussions Monday as Foxconn prepares to enter the southeastern Wisconsin region.

The Mount Pleasant Village Board and Community Development Authority met Monday afternoon for about 90 minutes at Village Hall, 8811 Campus Drive, to talk about an unspecified development project believed to be Foxconn.

They were joined in the closed session by other local officials, including from the county and Racine County Economic Development Corp.

Were continuing discussions with staff and legal counsel, Village President Dave DeGroot said after the board reconvened in open session.

He declined further comment afterward, saying, we were having some discussions and educating the board on some things that were working on.

State law allows governing bodies to discuss real estate negotiations in private, but any action must be taken in open session.

The Mount Pleasant meeting came five days after Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn announced at the White House it plans to spend $10 billion on a massive manufacturing campus in southeastern Wisconsin.

The plant, which will be built on more than 1,000 acres, will likely be located in Racine or Kenosha counties. Land along Highway 11 in Mount Pleasant and Sturtevant is believed to be a primary target.

Local officials have largely declined comment on the specifics of negotiations, including what incentives might be proposed.

Alfonso Gardner of Mount Pleasant told the board he hopes trustees ensure Foxconn jobs go to local taxpayers. The company says it will eventually create up to 13,000 direct jobs.

I believe that everybody who pays taxes should be able to get an opportunity, Gardner said during the public comment portion of a Village Board meeting Monday.

Theres a lot of building going on in Mount Pleasant and I dont see (anybody) who looks like me working on any of these projects, added Gardner, who is black.

Environmental standards scrutinized

Also on Monday, conservationists ripped plans to eliminate key environmental regulations as part of the states proposed $3 billion incentives package.

Gov. Scott Walkers incentives bill would exempt Foxconn from environmental impact statements and state permits for filling wetlands and building on lake beds.

Midwest Environmental Advocates attorney Sarah Geers said Monday the bill would leave people in the dark about how the plant would affect the landscape and result in the loss of wetlands.

DNR spokesman Jim Dick countered that the bill is about streamlining the process, and since Foxconn hasnt said where the plant will be built, no one knows if any wetlands will be affected.
The Trudeau government is finally having its faced rubbed in an obvious but uncomfortable truth: you cant sell weapons to a major human rights violator without getting your fine principles mussed up.

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland has asked her department to get to the bottom of reports that Saudi Arabia has used Canadian-made armoured vehicles in operations against its own civilians. If true, that would be a violation of the terms of Canadas arms deals with the Saudis.

Certainly, the Canadian public deserves to know the truth. Photos and video have come to light that apparently show Gurkha armoured cars, manufactured in Newmarket, Ont., being used against civilians in Saudi Arabias Eastern Province.

The eventual answer may well not be as clear-cut as the government  or Canadians generally  would like. The Saudi regime is engaged in increasingly violent actions against its Shia Muslim minority in the eastern part of the country. But while groups like Amnesty International describe it as a crackdown on Shia civilians, the Saudi government calls it an operation against terrorists.

Freeland says she is deeply concerned and promises to take action if it becomes clear the Saudis have violated their contract with Canada. Its not clear, however, what action that could be. A sharp talking-to by Canadian officials isnt going to make much of an impression on a regime that sees Shia activists essentially as domestic agents of its hated rival, Iran.

The ministers tougher language is nonetheless a welcome change of tone from the early months of the Trudeau government, when Freelands predecessor, Stephane Dion, bent over backwards to justify another, bigger arms deal with the Saudis.

Thats the sale of light armoured vehicles (LAV), a deal worth $15 billion that directly supports 2,100 manufacturing jobs in London, Ont. Dion stressed that he had no choice but to sign off on the deal, negotiated by the Harper Conservatives in 2014. It was vital, he said, to show Canada can be relied on to carry through with its international commitments, regardless of which party is in power.

At the time, Freeland was Trudeaus minister of international trade and publicly supported Dion in endorsing the LAV sale to Saudi Arabia, despite human rights concerns. It is important that the government of Canada is a trusted negotiating partner for international counterparts, she said  even if the counterpart in this case violates human rights on a routine basis.

Now, as foreign minister, she is striking a different note. She is sending a clear signal that human rights concerns are playing a more important role in the governments calculations.

This is all to the good, and if it turns out the Saudis have indeed violated their agreements with Canada then the government may have no choice but to pull the plug on arms deals with Riyadh.

That would come at a stiff cost, both in jobs and in Canadas relationship with Saudi Arabia. But not acting in the face of clear evidence that the Saudis cannot be trusted would carry its own costs in terms of Canadas international reputation, as well as its self-respect.

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A sprint to the finish for NDP hopefuls, July 30

I have not decided my vote because none of the aspirants are pushing for what I think is the most important issue for the future of Canada; I speak of proportional representation.

Like many Canadians, I voted for PR in the last election based on faith in the solemn promise from Justin Trudeau and the belief that he would beat the Harper Conservatives. My belief was well founded, but my faith was dashed, because for Trudeau it was all pomp and circumstance.

However, the fact remains PR is critical for Canada: We Canadians are witness to the frightful partisan politics in the U.S. where their two parties are resolute on the destruction of the other whilst the majority of the American people are the collateral damage: their social institutions and future dreams in tatters. I am really frightened when our political parties look to the U.S. for inspiration. We do not need their brand of partisan politics; our antiquated first-past-the-post winner-take-all electoral system provides enough incentive for vicious partisan politics.

What we need is a multi-ideological government that would be a blend of political ideologies because, in my experience having lived in democracies run by socialists, conservatives and liberals, there is not one political ideology that has the best ideas for all the people. It also has the added advantage of making it more difficult for big money to capture and control the governments agenda.

PR provides the opportunity to find the right blend of political ideologies. Therefore what I would like to see is an NDP party platform, fully supported by the leader, with its main plank being proportional representation. PR being the main plank does not mean that we cannot participate in all the other issues of concern for the country, but it does make it clear that we are taking the high road for the benefit of all Canadians.

We are a bilingual, multicultural country; we have a Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but our FPTP electoral system is a relic of a less-enlightened age. A just society cannot thrive if all political ideologies are not given the opportunity to participate in government.

Keith Parkinson, Cambridge, Ont.

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UNION GROVE  Its hard to imagine someone saying a demolition derby had a big impact on their life  unless theyre talking about a bruising encounter with a late-model Chevrolet  but for Jack Eisel and Phyllis Koykarri, it was a chance meeting 22 years ago at the Racine County Fair Demolition Derby that changed their lives forever.

On Sunday afternoon, the longtime couple marked the significance of that day by getting married before the start of this years Demolition Derby in front of a crowd of more than 200 at the fairgrounds grandstand.

Wearing bride and groom T-shirts, they exchanged vows surrounded by longtime friends and family.

It was so hot, said Eisel, recalling the day the two first met. I had an old Oldsmobile  a 76  but I couldnt get it started. I spent the whole day working on it. Finally, I gave up and turned it over to the junk guy, and went over to the beer tent. Thats when I met (Phyllis).

I never got to run that demo, but I met her instead, he said. It turned out to be a good day, anyway.

When Eisel first suggested that the pair get married at the demolition derby, Koykarri admits that she thought he was crazy.

Then I thought it would be the coolest thing, she said, recalling the day she met Eisel with equal fondness.

He ended up in the beer tent. I always go to the beer tent, or I did back in the day. I saw him from behind and I went up to him and asked him if he wanted a beer, Koykarri said.

We had all these beer tickets, and we just kept going until we ran out of beer tickets, added Eisel, now age 50 and a pesticide applicator. And we have been together ever since.

Asked what has kept the couple together for so long, Koykarri said simply loving each other.

We might have had some tough roads, and we have, but weve made it and thats what counts, said Koykarri, 60, who works as a business application specialist at Johnson Bank.

Fair President Scott Gunderson, who served as master of ceremonies for the unconventional event, said as far as he knows it was the first time anyone has gotten married at the Demolition Derby.

I think they are a great couple, Gunderson said. And I am just glad we could help.

After the wedding, the newlyweds celebrated by doing what else: Watching the demolition derby.

As for their honeymoon, they plan to spend it taking their 8-year-old grandson Andrew to Wisconsin Dells.

Yeah, said Eisel. We do things a bit different.
RACINE  A parents worst nightmare is to hear about an active shooter at their childs school and yet, many parents have lived that reality. The Racine Unified School District is planning to change the training for those situations to better prepare.

For decades, schools have been trained to lock down when there is a shooter in the area. But incidents such as the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Colorado, where students who died could have escaped, have taught districts that there are options.

Unified Deputy Superintendent Eric Gallien said the district will be training students and staff on other ways to handle those situations, beginning with staff in the fall and students in the winter. Parents also will be notified when their child will begin training.

The lockdown procedure, that was a response back in the 70s and 80s as a result of gang violence and drive-by shootings, Gallien said. And we have lived with that model, but now the intruder model is totally different. Its a different mindset, so we have to train our staff how to survive.

The district hosted an ALICE (Alert, Lock down, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate) Training Institute event in June and invited local police departments and businesses along with private and parochial schools.

Multiple options

All principals are now trained as trainers, and can pass the information and methods on to their staff. The ALICE event was paid for out of the districts Community Fund 80, which uses taxpayer money.

Kristin Latus, director of school support for Unified, said the lockdown strategy really works well if there is a gunman outside of the school.

We need to respond to (the situation) if there is a case of a threat inside of the building, Latus said.

While locking down a school is an option, Latus said the ALICE training teaches staff how to communicate with each other, as well as taking more proactive measures against a gunman like barricading a classroom door.

It teaches us different ways to handle a threat thats in the building while maintaining, first and foremost, the safety of all staff and students in the building, Latus said.

Latus said the district wants to make sure the staff is comfortable with the training before teaching students, but when the students are being taught it will be done in a manner similar to a fire drill.

They (teachers) are the ones that know their students the best, Latus said. We want to be sure theyre equipped to work with their students and prep them for what that experience will be like when they enter into a drill like that.

More active approach

Soren Gajewski, directing principal at Mitchell Elementary School, said the training involved several active-shooter simulations and the ALICE methods had a significant impact on the outcomes.

Its much more active versus a passive approach, Gajewski said. As soon as I went through the training, I immediately went home to my family and had a similar conversation about how in their schools or even if theyre in public at any location, things that they can do to greatly enhance their ability to survive an awful attack.

Zachary Jacobsmeier, directing principal at Stephen Bull Fine Arts Elementary School, said this training made him feel comfortable that his staff will be able to handle themselves in an intense situation.

As a school administrator, it feels good to know that our students and staff have those options and those strategies and tools, Jacobsmeier said. As a parent, it would make me feel good about sending my student to school each and every day.

Gallien said some students might already be familiar with some of the tactics.

We have a lot of families that come from a law enforcement background, Gallien said. Their parents are already teaching their kids those strategies.

Gallien said the district is not teaching the students and staff self-defense.

Were not teaching them to engage, were teaching them to counter, Gallien said. So that counter could be to move in a way that you cant get hit, run out of the door, throw a cellphone at them ... those are options that they have so theyre not just sitting there waiting to be shot.
Wells Fargo & Co's (WFC) - Get Free Report new head of retail banking Mary Mack announced plans to cut about 70 senior executive jobs as the bank attempts to recover from its 2016 fake accounts scandal, Bloomberg reported.

Wells Fargo will reduce the number of regional and area presidents to 91 from 160. The executives whose jobs are being eliminated will keep working for 60 days until further steps are ironed out, with some retiring with benefits and some moving to other positions.

"Change is hard, yet change is necessary to make sure we are well positioned for the future," Mack wrote in a memo to bank employees.

The company's community banking division has limped along since Wells Fargo was fined $185 million in September after employees created fraudulent accounts without customers' permission. The bank also announced last week that it had charged as many as 500,000 customers for auto insurance they didn't need.

Wells Fargo stock traded up 1.1% to $53.88 on Monday morning.

Wells Fargo is a holding in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells WFC? Learn more now.

More of What's Trending on TheStreet:
Foreign casino operators are looking to push back against what could become stringent regulations in Japan's newly minted casino industry, Reuters reported Monday.

A Japanese advisory panel held its final meeting on rules Monday, proposing a limit of 15,000-square meters for casino floor space and curbs on entry by Japanese nationals.

Japan had a contentious debate over allowing gambling in the country, with the side against legalized gambling pointing to the social cost of the vice industry.

Casino executives argued that the 15,000 square meter cap could limit foreign investment and neutralize the economic impact of resorts.

Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS) - Get Free Report shares were up 0.75% to $61.74 in morning trading while MGM Resorts International (MGM) - Get Free Report shares climbed 0.27% to $33.23.

More of What's Trending on TheStreet:
Shares of Clovis Oncology Inc. (CLVS) - Get Free Report were up 0.2% to $85 in after-hours trading on Monday, July 31, after finishing the trading session down 13.5%.

The Boulder, Colo.-based firm and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY) - Get Free Report before the market open unveiled a collaboration to evaluate the combination of Bristol-Myers' s immunotherapy Opdivo and Clovis Oncology's poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor Rubraca in Phase 3 studies in advanced advanced ovarian cancer and advanced triple-negative breast cancers.

The collaboration will include a Phase 2 study of Opdivo in tandem with Rubraca in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

"We think this deal is positive, as it provides CLVS with access to one of the leading approved PD1 inhibitors and access to BMY's clinical development infrastructure, while only incurring ~50% of the development cost," wrote Leerink Partners Michael Schmidt in a note Monday morning.

"The [Bristol-Myers] deal also positions [Clovis] very competitively in breast cancer, in our view, which is clinically validated by [AstraZeneca plc's (AZN) - Get Free Report ] Olympiad trial result, but has been a more difficult indication for PARP inhibitors outside gBRAC+ patients," Schmidt wrote.

Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Reloads with $150 Million

Alexion Spikes on Q2 Earnings Blowout Providing Positive Signs for Rest of Sector -Biotech Movers

Shares of Bristol-Myers closed at $56.90, up nearly 3%.

Meanwhile, shares of Intercept Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ICPT) - Get Free Report were up 0.3% in after-hours trading after closing at $117.13, down 13.3%.The New York firm before the open on Monday reported a second-quarter net loss of $3.46, compared with a net loss of $3.14 a share in the same period a year ago. Revenue was $30.89 million, compared with $5.52 million in the year-ago period.

"ICPT put up another good Q and beat as well as announcing positive data from two Phase II studies," wrote Jefferies LLC analyst Michael Yee in a note.

Analysts had expected, on average, a net loss of $3.6 a share on revenue of $27.49 million, according to Bloomberg.

Intercept on Monday also reported that a Phase 2 study of obeticholic acid for the treatment of patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis met its primary endpoint. In addition, the company said its Control study, a placebo-controlled trial to prospectively characterize the lipid metabolic effects of obeticholic acid and concomitant statin administration in patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis with fibrosis or cirrhosis, met its met its primary objective "by showing that newly initiated treatment with atorvastatin rapidly reversed OCA-associated increases in LDL to below baseline levels."

Intercept also said that during the ongoing long term safety extension (LTSE) phase, there has been one patient death because of acute renal and liver failure. "While Intercept determined it could not be ruled out that this was possibly related to treatment, the principal investigator and the independent Data Safety Monitoring Committee determined the death was unlikely related to OCA," the company said.

In his note, Jefferies' Yee said Intercept's stock was down during Monday's trading session from a variety of details including commentary of potential summer seasonality, a patient death in the Phase 2 study which is unlikely related to the drug and the perception of less catalysts in the second half of the year. Yee reiterated his buy rating on the stock, saying he thinks it will likely recover "given no change to fundamentals."

Worried about how to finance your golden years? Register here to watch a free webinar in which TheStreet's Jim Cramer talks with Ken Fisher, founder of Fisher Investments, about the market trends shaping retirement planning today.

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The image is familiar, the symbolism fairly easy to decode: A burgundy Cadillac Fleetwood  complete with gold-colored spoked wheels, gold trim and gold front-end grill  seized from a drug dealer, emblazoned with the Drug Abuse Resistance Education logo (D.A.R.E.) and driven by a Racine police officer  in the mid-90s it was Officer Al Days, who retired as deputy chief this spring  to make an attention-getting arrival at a school or community center.

If we catch you dealing drugs, Racine police were saying, well take your car.

The key component, however, is that Racine police caught someone dealing drugs, someone who was later convicted. When people talk of ill-gotten gains, a Cadillac purchased with drug money is what they mean.

There was some justifiable concern recently when the federal Justice Department revived the practice of civil asset forfeiture, which allows state and local law enforcement officials to use federal law to seize the cash, cars or other personal property of people suspected of crimes but not charged.

Civil rights advocates say such a policy can be abused by law enforcement officials and deprive people who have done nothing wrong of their right to due process, a charge that Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein contested, according to New York Times report.

This is not about taking assets from innocent people, Rosenstein told reporters. Its about taking assets that are the proceeds of, or the tools of, criminal activity, and primarily drug dealing.

The policy revives so-called federally adopted forfeitures, which empower state and local law enforcement to use federal law to bypass more restrictive state laws to seize the proceeds from crimes and to share the profits with federal authorities. That money may then be repurposed, the Justice Department said, for training or equipment, such as bulletproof vests or bomb-disposal equipment.

We take no issue with asset forfeiture in the event of a conviction. But until someone is convicted of a crime, seizure of a suspects assets  by definition, someone suspected of a crime but not yet found guilty in court of it  treads into territory that could raise constitutional issues: Is the seizure reasonable, as required by the Fourth Amendment, if someone has not been convicted of a crime? If police seize someones cash because they suspect its drug money, have they infringed upon that someones Sixth Amendment right to counsel?

Were wary of the potential for overzealousness stepping on someones constitutional rights. That being said, we were reassured to hear Attorney General Jeff Sessions address those concerns directly earlier this month.

Over the last decade, four out of five administrative civil asset forfeitures filed by federal law enforcement agencies were never challenged in court, Sessions said in prepared remarks to law enforcement officials on July 19. Even so, we must take every precaution to protect the rights of claimants in that small minority of cases.

And so today, the Department of Justice is issuing legal guidance that will clarify DOJ policy on the adoption of seized assets. It will return us to longstanding DOJ policy  and also provide additional, supplemental protections for law-abiding Americans. This will make us more effective at bankrupting organized criminals and at safeguarding the property of law-abiding Americans.

Under todays guidance, the federal government will not adopt seized property unless the state or local agency involved provides information demonstrating that the seizure was justified by probable cause. We will accomplish this through a new adoption form that state and local law enforcement must fill out before we will agree to adopt any property, which will include the necessary information to allow Department lawyers to carefully review and determine whether adoption is proper. Further, law enforcement agencies who wish to participate in the Departments Equitable Sharing Program now must now provide their officers with enhanced training on asset forfeiture laws.

The Department will adopt smaller seizures of cash  between $5,000 and $10,000  only if there exists some level of criminality or with the express concurrence of the U.S. Attorneys office.

As stated above, weve got no issue with the forfeiture of assets belonging to those convicted of crimes. But as for those found not guilty, we will expect law enforcement agencies to abide by the directive of the attorney general with regard to the swift return of that which was seized.
National Grid plc transmits and distributes electricity and gas. The company operates through UK Electricity Transmission, UK Electricity Distribution, UK Electricity System Operator, New England, and New York segments. The UK Electricity Transmission segment provides electricity transmission and construction work services in England and Wales. The UK Electricity Distribution segment offers electricity distribution services in Midlands, and South West of England and South Wales. The UK Electricity System Operator segment provides balancing services for supply and demand of electricity on Great Britain's electricity transmission system; and acts as an agent on behalf of transmission operators. The New England segment offers electricity and gas distribution, and electricity transmission services in New England. The New York segment provides electricity and gas distribution, and electricity transmission services in New York. It also engages in the provision of transmission services through electricity interconnectors and LNG importation at the Isle of Grain; sale of renewables projects; and leasing and sale of commercial property, as well as insurance activities in the United Kingdom. The company was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.
AstraZeneca PLC, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the discovery, development, manufacturing, and commercialization of prescription medicines. Its marketed products include Calquence, Enhertu, Faslodex, Imfinzi, Iressa, Koselugo, Lumoxiti, Lynparza, Orpathys, Tagrisso, and Zoladex for oncology; Brilinta/Brilique, Bydureon/Byetta, BCise, Byetta, Crestor, Evrenzo, Farxiga/Forxiga, Komboglyze/Kombiglyze XR, Lokelma, Onglyza, Qtern, and Xigduo/Xigduo XR for cardiovascular, renal, and metabolism diseases; Bevespi Aerosphere, Breztri Aerosphere, Daliresp/Daxas, Duaklir Genuair, Fasenra, Pulmicort, Saphnelo, Symbicort, and Tudorza/Eklira/Bretaris for respiratory and immunology; and Andexxa/Ondexxya, Kanuma, Soliris, Strensiq, and Ultomiris for rare diseases. The company's marketed products also comprise Synagis for respiratory syncytial virus; Fluenz Tetra/FluMist Quadrivalent for Influenza; Seroquel IR/Seroquel XR for schizophrenia bipolar disease; Nexium, and Losec/Prilosec for gastroenterology; and Vaxzevria and Evusheld for covid-19. The company serves primary care and specialty care physicians through distributors and local representative offices in the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Australasia. It has a collaboration agreement with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to research, develop, and commercialize small molecule medicines for obesity; Neurimmune AG to develop and commercialize NI006; Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to develop eplontersen, a liver-targeted antisense therapy in Phase III development for the treatment of transthyretin amyloidosis; Proteros Biostructures GmbH to jointly discover novel small molecules for the treatment of hematological cancers; Sierra Oncology, Inc. to develop and commercialize AZD5153. The company was formerly known as Zeneca Group PLC and changed its name to AstraZeneca PLC in April 1999. AstraZeneca PLC was incorporated in 1992 and is headquartered in Cambridge, the United Kingdom.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company provides solutions that allow customers to capture, analyze, and act upon data seamlessly in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Japan. The company offers general purpose servers for multi-workload computing and workload-optimized servers; HPE ProLiant rack and tower servers; HPE BladeSystem and HPE Synergy; and solutions for secondary workloads and traditional tape, storage networking, and disk products, such as HPE Modular Storage Arrays and HPE XP. It also offers HPE Apollo and Cray products; and HPE Superdome Flex, HPE Nonstop, HPE Integrity, and HPE Edgeline products. In addition, the company provides HPE Aruba product portfolio that includes wired and wireless local area network hardware products, such as Wi-Fi access points, switches, routers, and sensors; HPE Aruba software and services comprising cloud-based management, network management, network access control, analytics and assurance, and location; and professional and support services, as well as as-a-service and consumption models for the intelligent edge portfolio of products. Further, it offers various leasing, financing, IT consumption, and utility programs and asset management services for customers to facilitate technology deployment models and the acquisition of complete IT solutions, including hardware, software, and services from Hewlett Packard Enterprise and others. Additionally, the company invests in communications and media solutions. It has a partnership with Striim, Inc. to offer high performance and mission-critical solutions with real-time analytics. It serves commercial and large enterprise groups, such as business and public sector enterprises; and through various partners comprising resellers, distribution partners, original equipment manufacturers, independent software vendors, systems integrators, and advisory firms. Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company was founded in 1939 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile S.A. produces and distributes specialty plant nutrients, iodine and its derivatives, lithium and its derivatives, potassium chloride and sulfate, industrial chemicals, and other products and services. The company offers specialty plant nutrients, including potassium nitrate, sodium nitrate, sodium potassium nitrate, specialty blends, and other specialty fertilizers. It also provides iodine and its derivatives for use in medical, pharmaceutical, agricultural, and industrial applications comprising x-ray contrast media, polarizing films for LCD and LED, antiseptics, biocides and disinfectants, pharmaceutical synthesis, electronics, pigments, and dye components. In addition, the company offers lithium carbonates for various applications that include electrochemical materials for batteries, frits for the ceramic and enamel industries, heat-resistant glass, air conditioning chemicals, continuous casting powder for steel extrusion, primary aluminum smelting process, pharmaceuticals, and lithium derivatives, as well as ingredient in manufacturing of gunpowder. Further, it supplies lithium hydroxide for the lubricating greases industry, as well as cathodes for batteries. Additionally, it offers potassium chloride and potassium sulfate for various crops, including corn, rice, sugar, soybean, and wheat; industrial chemicals, including sodium nitrate, potassium nitrate, potassium chloride, and solar salts; and other fertilizers and blends. The company operates in Chile, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, North America, Asia, and internationally. Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile S.A. was incorporated in 1968 and is headquartered in Santiago, Chile.
Emerson Automation Solutions has started its Beginners Integration Training (BIT) Programme this month, recruiting 15 Saudi nationals who have recently graduated from top universities and institutes in Saudi Arabia and the US.



The recruitment and training programme, which is consistent with Emersons global commitment to invest in local resourcing and communities where its customers are, is planned to be conducted annually with a minimum of 15 graduates who will be hired to full-time positions with the company each year, said a statement from the company.



The newly recruited graduates will occupy technical (electronics, instrumentation, computer science, chemical and mechanical engineering) and non-technical positions (such as logistics, finance, marketing, administration, and document control).



This recruitment and training programme reflects Emerson's continued commitment to invest and further economic development within the region.



It is designed to support the In-Kingdom Total Value Add (IKTVA) program by driving localisation and job creation in the region through the development of local talent. Emersons BIT programme will also aid in managing and staffing projects locally in the Kingdom, allowing faster project completions.



The training, allowing the participants to be exposed to the various operations involved with Systems and Solutions through several courses, is expected to be completed within less than a year. Performance of participants will be measured through progress reports, training examinations, and program milestone reviews.



The first group of new hires for Emersons programme started during the first week of July, it said.



Liam Hurley, general manager of Emerson Automation Solutions in Saudi Arabia, said: Even after the first week, the standard set by this group of employees is very high and reaffirms our long-term vision for this programme.



I am very excited about Emersons future in Saudi Arabia having this team on-board and look forward now to seeing how the group grows and develops throughout the programme, he said.



Emersons continued efforts to provide support for Saudi Arabia includes the development of their facilities in Dammam First Industrial City and Dhahran Techno Valley.



The facility located in Dammam First Industrial City opened early this year to provide services such as engineering, staging, commissioning, operational support, maintenance support, repair, field services, and training support to customers in the capital of Saudi Arabias eastern region.



Emersons facility in Dhahran Techno Valley, which is scheduled to be completed in October 2017, has been designed to add research and development capabilities to Emersons existing footprint in the kingdom and to support the delivery of support and services to the oil and gas, mining and other process industries in Saudi Arabia.



Investing a total of $25 million in the facility, it will be equipped with first class resources and facilities to support Emersons collaboration with local small to medium enterprises (SMEs), universities and industrial organisations to develop new solutions to tackle some of the most complex technical industrial challenges. Supporting Emersons investment in local talent development, the facility will also incorporate training and education facilities, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site.
- Uhuru Kenyatta has spoken for the first time on his lowest point as President of Kenya

- According to Uhuru, constantly losing the battle against terrorist has been some of his worst times

- He however assured Kenyans of tighter security if he is re elected

President Uhuru has spoken up for the first time on his highest and lowest points as President of the Republic of Kenya.

Uhuru has been intensely attempting to engage with his potential voters ever since the back clash that came with ditching the Presidential debate which took place on Monday, July 24.

In his latest engagement, the President yet again went to Facebook live where he spoke on a number of issues, mostly dwelling on Jubilees record over the past four years.

A snippet of Uhuru Kenyatta's Facebook live address. PHOTO: Courtesy

READ ALSO: Latest poll shows who will be governor in Mombasa, Machakos and Meru counties

Towards the end of his address one supporter boldly asked Uhuru to speak on his highest and lowest points as President  a question which the president was a little hesitant to answer.

Speaking on the lowest point in his Presidential career, Uhuru revealed that there were a number of instances where he hit an all-time low.

He spoke of the constant terror attacks that claimed the lives of Kenyans as some of the worst moments in during his tenure.

Terror group al shabaab have claimed lives of hundreds of Kenyans in the past four years in separate attacks. PHOTO: Courtesy

READ ALSO: Latest poll shows who between Uhuru and Raila will win in Mombasa, Meru and Machakos counties

"The unfortunate incidents of terrorist attacks such as Garissa, Mpeketoni and Westgate. It is sad that people are practicing terrorism under a false ideology. Those were my worst moments as President." He said.

Also speaking on his best moments, Uhuru divulged that boarding the just completed SGR train would be one of his proudest moments as President.

President Uhuru Kenyatta during a past address. PHOTO:Nation

READ ALSO: Senator Khalwale's four kids involved in a road accident, details

"The best moment is the moment I rode the train from Mombasa to Nairobi  the first SGR train the country has seen in 120 years. It made me see the wonderful country Kenya is and can be over time, He went on.

Uhuru is seeking a further 5 years at Presidency, although opinion polls suggest that the 2017 race might not be a straight forward one for the incumbent as his biggest rival Raila Odinga has gained significant ground in numbers.

Have anything to add to this article or suggestions? Share with us on news@tuko.co.ke

What will Gatundu residents do if Uhuru Kenyatta loses the August polls? They speak:

Source: TUKO.co.ke
Abducted child rescued, one arrested

Police have rescued a five-year-old child, who was abducted on July 27, safely on Monday.
Ukrainian troops suffered no casualties in the ATO area in eastern Ukraine over the past day.

Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Spokesperson for ATO Andriy Lysenko said this at a press briefing in Kyiv on Saturday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

We have good news today. Ukrainian troops suffered no casualties in ATO area in Donbas in last day, Lysenko said.

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Russia will conduct exercises in the occupied territories of Luhansk and Donetsk regions in August-September, the coordinator of the Information Resistance group, Dmytro Tymchuk, has reported on his Facebook page.

"The operational units of staffs of the first army corps of DPR and second army corps of LPR are actively preparing for a series of exercises, which the Russian Armed Forces will hold in August and September this year," he wrote.

Tymchuk said that according to the plan of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces and the staff of the Russian 8th Combined Arms Army, the exercises of the Russian Armed Forces in the border areas in Russia and the same exercises in LPR/DPR would be conducted on a "single strategic and operational-tactical background."

The units and subdivisions of both "army corps" of LPR/DPR will operate in cooperation with the 8th Combined Arms Army of the Russian Armed Forces, to which they are currently subordinate, Tymchuk added.

As Ukrinform reported, the Zapad 2017 joint strategic exercises of the armed forces of Belarus and Russia will be held in mid-September. Russia plans to transfer to Belarus an unprecedented number of troops and equipment as part of these exercises.

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Toni Frisch, OSCE representative, coordinator of the humanitarian working group of the Trilateral Contact Group will visit prisons and hostages in the occupied territories in eastern Ukraine in August.

Iryna Herashchenko, the representative of Ukraine in the humanitarian working group of the Trilateral Contact Group wrote this on her Facebook page upon the groups skype conference.

"We managed to reach an agreement that OSCE representative, coordinator of the humanitarian working group Toni Frisch will visit the prisons and hostages in the occupied territories in August. We put forward the demand that he should visit the Makiyivka penal colony, where our servicemen are held, and that he should visit detained women and civilians, particularly scientist Ihor Kozlovsky," Herashchenko noted.

According to her, the participants in the skype conference drew the coordinators attention to the statement by the OSCE special representative on freedom of speech who had recently demanded the immediate release of Ukrainian journalist Stanislav Aseev.

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The launch of effective free trade with Ukraine is a priority for Canada's Ministry of International Trade, Marc-Andre Poirier, special assistant at the office of the Canadian minister of international trade, has told an Ukrinform correspondent.

"The free trade agreement with Ukraine is a priority for [Canadian Minister of International Trade Francois-Philippe] Champagne, and we are very pleased that it will come into force soon," Poirier said.

He added that the minister would promote Canadian-Ukrainian interests in his work.

The free trade agreement between Canada and Ukraine was signed on July 11 last year during a visit by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Kyiv. It enters into force on August 1 this year. After that, Canada will immediately cancel customs duties on 99.9% of Ukrainian imports. Ukraine, in turn, will also cancel 86% of customs duties on imports from Canada, bringing customs policy to parity within seven years.

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Ukraine on its way of European integration will deepen trade relations with the European Union.

Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman stated this in his congratulatory speech on the occasion of the Commercial Worker Day, the governments portal reports.

"On the way to European integration, we are also looking forward to further deepening of trade relations with the European Union. The agreement on a free trade zone with the European Union and Canada opens new markets and new opportunities for Ukraine, which we are already beginning to use. Ukrainian experts receive invaluable experience in the process of implementing international trade agreements and contracts, the prime minister said.

Groysman also stressed that the government's task is to expand trade relations. In particular, according to him, the government is actively working on establishing clear, transparent and understandable rules that will be beneficial for all parties, from a producer to final consumer of goods.

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Europe's largest low-cost airline Ryanair may temporarily perform flights from Boryspil or Zhuliany airports until a new terminal is built in Hostomel, Kyiv region, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has said.

"Now we have found a way out of the situation. I also want Ukrainians to use low-cost flights. Boryspil or Zhuliany may provide their services to Ryanair on a temporary basis until a terminal is built in Hostomel," he said in an interview with the Ukrainian Delovaya Stolitsa newspaper.

"Hostomel has a clear task of creating a terminal within six months so as to be ready to service low-cost airlines. At the same time, we must not forget about regional airports. Low-cost airlines must fly from Lviv, from Kharkiv, and from Kherson. This is very important," Groysman added.

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There were no citizens of Ukraine among those injured due to shooting in the Turkish resort of Bodrum.

This is reported by the Department of Consular Service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry on Twitter.

"The consul informs that there were no Ukrainians among those injured during the shooting in Bodrum (Turkey)," the report reads.

As reported, a teenager was killed and three other people wounded in a shooting near two nightclubs at a popular resort in Turkey.

ish
The delegation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine has traveled to the United States to get acquainted with the system of police training.

The statement is posted on the Facebook page of the Embassy of Ukraine in the United States.

"Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States Valeriy Chaly has met with the delegation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. The delegation was visiting the U.S. to learn the American system of police training. The head of the diplomatic mission informed the members of the delegation about priority issues of Ukraine-US relations," the statement reads.

Chaly stressed the importance of exchange program between Ukrainian and American law enforcement agencies to ensure the irreversibility of reforms in Ukraine.

As reported, July 2, 2015, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the Law of Ukraine "On the National Police".

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China has long been one of the leading players on the international arena, whose opinion influences the political and economic situation around the world. Therefore, the position of this country on any given issue is of the same interest.

Chinese Ambassador to Ukraine Du Wei has agreed to clarify this opinion in an interview with Ukrinform. One hour was enough to talk about the nuclear dossier of North Korea, about why China did not resort to shock therapy during the reform process, about the work of Chinese philosophers, and even about the beauty of Ukrainian girls.

THE KEY TO SOLVING THE NORTH-KOREAN NUCLEAR PROBLEM IS NOT IN CHINA

- Mr. Ambassador, in July China fulfills an important and honorary role of chairing the UN Security Council. What tasks in this regard does Beijing set before itself and the UN Security Council as a whole?

- This month, and in the future, China will carry out its work as chair of the UN Security Council, complying with its consistent principles such as high objectivity, justice, openness, transparency, efficiency and pragmatism. The July UN program is very rich: as far as I know, about 30 meetings will take place this month. Their main themes are the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, that is "hot spots" in Syria, Yemen, Iraq, South Sudan, and Colombia.

- Are Ukrainian issues on the agenda of the UN Security Council, if not, then why not?

- Such a program for July was drafted by all UN Security Council members collectively. China, of course, together with other non-permanent members of the Security Council, will hold such meetings in terms of finding the peaceful settlement of conflicts and solutions to existing problems.

But China and Ukraine have traditionally supported very close cooperation on the international scene in terms of multilateral settlement. The head of the Permanent Mission of China to the United Nations, immediately after taking up the post of the UN Security Council president, has met with the head of your permanent delegation.

The Chinese side is grateful for the continued support provided by the Ukrainian side in international affairs, and is ready to continue to intensify such cooperation.

- One of the most urgent issues on the agenda of the UN Security Council is the nuclear dossier of North Korea, especially given that it regularly conducts rocket launches. The international community has high hopes for China as a key regional and global player in the context of finding a way out of a deadlock. How does Beijing assess the situation and what immediate steps, in your opinion, should be taken by the Security Council for its speedy resolution?

- Indeed, the international community is now paying a great deal of attention to North Korea - it is in the political focus of the whole world.

China has always been categorically opposed to the appearance of nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula, and also strongly opposes the latest rocket launches by North Korea. At the same time, China strictly adheres to UN Security Council resolutions prohibiting cooperation with North Korea. But in our opinion, only through sanctions it is impossible to resolve the North Korean nuclear problem, since its origins are in the absence of mutual confidence in the field of security, first of all between the United States and North Korea.

The Chinese side proposed the idea of a "dual-track solution to the problem" (the need for observing denuclearization of the peninsula and changing the cease-fire mechanism to peace) and a "bilateral cessation of actions" (the cessation of DPRK's nuclear actions and large-scale military exercises in the United States and South Korea). It is an approach that can simultaneously solve the problems of all parties involved in the nuclear problem on the Korean peninsula, as well as become a fundamental political course aimed at long-term order and long-term stability on the Korean Peninsula. Therefore, the Chinese position can be formulated as the simultaneous promotion of two processes - nuclear disarmament and the conclusion of a peace treaty.

Let me recall that after the war on the Korean Peninsula the parties signed only a truce agreement, rather than a full-scale peace treaty. It's abnormal, it's necessary to start promoting its signing, and China has come up with such an initiative. But it's necessary to get an answer from the interested parties, first and foremost, from the United States and North Korea.

Along with these processes, China has come forward with one more initiative - "a dual suspension," that is, North Korea should suspend the development of nuclear weapons and, above all, rocket launches, while the United States and South Korea should not conduct large-scale military exercises close to the Korean Peninsula.

We are very counting on the active reaction of these countries to our initiatives.

I met several times in this regard with journalists, who have high hopes for China's role in resolving the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula. Of course, our country plays a rather significant role in solving this issue, but not the most important one. The root of this problem and the key to its solution are not in China, but in the United States and North Korea.

- Ukraine and China are strategic partners, and the level of political trust and mutual understanding between our countries is very high. Our country firmly adheres to the one-China policy and is grateful to Beijing for supporting the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, which is especially important in the conditions of Russia's aggression against our state. How does China implement this political position?

- China has a very clear position - we respect the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. After the start of the Ukrainian crisis, the Chinese leadership openly and clearly confirmed this position. Neither in the past nor in the future has China ever violated and will not violate these principles. With regard to relations between Russia and Ukraine, you know that both countries - both Russia and Ukraine - are friendly to China, and we really want to see a solution to the conflict through political and diplomatic talks in the near future.

- One of the methods to encourage Russia to peace talks is international economic sanctions for its actions in Donbas and Crimea. Does China support the policy of sanctions against Russia?

- In our current policy, we are very cautious about sanctions. When it comes to the situation between Russia and Ukraine, we nevertheless stand for political and diplomatic talks.

We consider these measures to be very effective, especially when the "Normandy format" is currently working, the Minsk process is underway, that is there are channels and ways of contacts. We would very much like to see all parties to speed up the Minsk process as quickly as possible so as to resolve these problems.

CHINA HAS NEVER SWERVED FROM REFORM AND OPENNESS POLICY FOR 38 YEARS

- Let's move from political to economic issues.

-Yes, they're much easier! (laughs)

- China has been pursuing a strategic initiative "One Belt - One Road" for several years. A year ago, in your speech on the occasion of the beginning of a diplomatic mission in our country, you, Mr. Ambassador, said that the door is open for cooperation with Ukraine in the Silk Road Economic Belt. What is your vision of Ukraine's place there?

-I have been answering this question many times. I believe that Ukraine is a very important hub on the Eurasian continent. In addition, China has received a very active reaction from your country immediately after the One Belt One Road initiative was put forward. Therefore, we have included Ukraine in the first group of 65 countries that will take part in building the general concept "One Belt - One Road."

At meetings with journalists, I have already spoken about three advantages of Ukraine in our cooperation as part of the concept "One Belt - One Road."

The first is the geographical location of your country and convenient transport network (air, land, sea). In this sense, Ukraine will play an important role in the implementation of this concept.

The second is the ability of our economies to complement each other, that is, the Chinese side has advantages in capital and the experience of implementing scientific and technical results, whereas the Ukrainian side has a large market potential and solid scientific, technical and human resource base.

Thirdly, we have a mutual cultural interest. We notice that many Ukrainians love China and Chinese culture in their heart, which gives us a deep impression. Accordingly, more and more Chinese people are showing great interest in the literature, art, painting and music of Ukraine.

I want to remind you that in May First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine Stepan Kubiv, at the head of a Ukrainian delegation, attended the One Belt One Road summit in Beijing. The Ukrainian side held very meaningful and productive talks with Chinese leaders, including Vice Prime Minister of the State Council of China Ma Kai.

-Have specific agreements been reached?

- For example, during the talks Mr. Kubiv and Mr. Ma Kai agreed to hold by the end of the year the third meeting of the intergovernmental commission on cooperation between China and Ukraine (the first meeting was held in 2011, and the commission has not met since September 2013).

In addition, Mr. Kubiv, at a meeting with the presidents of Eximbank of China and China Development Bank, exchanged deep thoughts on expanding the use of loans from Chinese banks in the amount of 7.65 billion dollars.

- The unprecedented growth of the Chinese economy is the subject of study by analysts from many countries. What could be applied in Ukraine from the Chinese reform experience?

- China and Ukraine are different countries, so we cannot say that the experience of Chinese reforms corresponds to the realities of Ukraine. But I want to explain my understanding from the point of view of an ordinary Chinese.

First of all, I would like to emphasize that our most important experience is the persistence in conducting reforms and openness to the outside world. Everyone knows that in different periods of history, China was also a very developed and powerful state, but at the time of the Ming dynasty and the Qing dynasty there was a recession and the reason for this decline under these dynasties was that China closed its doors to the outside world.

The leaders of our state and the Chinese people consider it a lesson for the nation, that is if there is no policy of openness and reform, there is no developed and prosperous China.

You know that in 1979, Mr. Deng Xiaoping [a Chinese politician and reformer, a member of the Communist Party of China] began a policy of reform and openness. Thirty-eight years have passed since then, several generations of leaders have worked in China's leadership, but China has never swerved from such a policy, it has only deepened and expanded.

That is, the consistency and continuity of policy is the first important moment that can also be regarded as a good reflection of Chinese culture. The second is preserving the stability of society, since reforms are to some extent a revolution, a shock, and without stability and unity in society it is very difficult to conduct them.

Therefore, before the official launch of the policy of reform and openness, Deng Xiaoping, as a wise politician, laid the solid foundation for political stability and solidarity in our society.

It is also very important to carry out reforms gradually, step by step. Some countries have chosen shock therapy, but China has chosen a different path.

China is very big, so before conducting a new important policy, first of all, it is necessary to choose one area and conduct an experiment there. If it succeeds, then the experience can be gradually extended to the whole country. This is the process of reform that we have.

- Our media often quote an ancient Chinese curse "May you live in a time of change!" Is it still relevant, or China is no longer afraid of change?

- The Chinese are not afraid of changes, and the most important thing is what they will bring us. If changes are for the better, then we meet them with applause (laughs)

-Let's get back to Ukrainian reforms. The Ukrainian government has not abandoned the intention to hold large-scale privatization of state-owned enterprises, which was postponed for various reasons. Are Chinese investors planning to take part in it?

- We are, of course, very closely watching this process. China also saw a reform of state-owned enterprises, but in our country this process was even more complicated, because it was not about privatization.

In any case, China is interested in privatization in Ukraine, and we very much hope that the Ukrainian side will give us more information so that Chinese businessmen could assess their chances in the Ukrainian market.

-Which economic branches are most attractive to them?

- As far as I know, Chinese entrepreneurs are interested in investing in the privatization process in the financial, agricultural and logistics sectors.

- Does it mean purchase or joint projects?

- At the moment we see that now it's just a purchase. But I am confident that there will be other forms of cooperation, including joint ventures.

Of course, new questions arise in the process of cooperation.

The biggest problem in this process is that China has opened a credit line to Ukraine for $7 billion, but, unfortunately, the level of their use is very low. The Chinese side, including myself, made every effort to extend the validity of these loans, but of course it will not last forever.

It is very important for me to facilitate the more effective use of these funds as soon as possible. As I have already said, one of the many ways to address this issue is to expand the areas of use of loans from Chinese banks.

-You said that new questions arise in the process of cooperation. Is the Chinese side satisfied with the speed of their solution in Ukraine?

- As far as I know, Ukraine now selects concrete projects for which we can use our loans. But this process is very slow. We have not yet seen a specific list of projects, although the amount is very high, and the use of this loan in such a difficult time for Ukraine is very important. Therefore, I am trying to accelerate this process, but until now, unfortunately, it does not work out.

- U.S. President Donald Trump has explained the United States' withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord by the fact that it allegedly economically restricts the U.S. and gives benefits to some countries, in particular, India and China. How does China see this position by the U.S. president?

- I remember very well the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in 2009, which was attended by representatives from 193 countries. But then this event ended in vain, and everyone was very upset. [Initially, it was expected that the world would be able to negotiate a new agreement, which would change the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, but there was not time to prepare the document].

Six years later, in 2015, thanks to the maximum efforts of all countries, a package of agreements was reached in Paris. The Paris agreement covers the maximum number of countries, so it is a very important document.

Achieving such agreements is a complicated process, and China has also contributed to this. Of course, we will comply with all the agreements and adhere to our consistent position regarding the implementation of this document.

Let me recall that at the recent G20 summit all countries, except the United States, which signed the Paris Agreement, have promised to comply with the agreements under this package.

I think that the implementation of the Paris Agreement is very important and it will become an irreversible process, although the Trump administration opposes it.

But even within the United States, there are very strong voices against the withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, which was declared by Trump. I do not exclude that in the future the U.S. can take part in this process, but in some other form.
Boy, 17, arrested for raping 10-year-old girl

Police has arrested a 17-year-old boy on charge of raping a 10-year-old girl at Rupakot Majhuwagadhi Municipality-3 in Khotang district.
The next meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group on settlement of the conflict in Donbas will be held in Minsk on August 2.

Iryna Gerashchenko, the representative of Ukraine in the humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group for settlement of the situation in Donbas, informed this on Facebook after the skype conference of the subgroup.

"The next meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group will be held in Minsk on August 2. The Ukrainian side will once again insist on the immediate release of the illegally detained people, and we are ready to reach a compromise deal. We will demand that the Russian Federation and the OSCE react to the facts of torture of hostages and concealed information about their detention," she wrote.

ish
Collaboration sought for addressing Kathmandu's traffic problem

Cooperation and collaboration among all the stakeholders has been stressed for addressing the traffic problem in the Kathmandu Valley.
UNICEF/UNI156405/Noorani

NEW YORK, 31 July 2017  The Clooney Foundation for Justice today announced a $2.25 million partnership, which includes a generous donation from Google.org, and a $1 million technology grant from HP, to support formal education for Syrian refugees in Lebanon. The partnership with UNICEF will help seven public schools to provide critical education opportunities to nearly 3,000 currently out-of-school refugee students this school year, and will also support a pilot of technology tools in these schools to advance learning outcomes for refugee children and Lebanese youth.

Thousands of young Syrian refugees are at risk -- the risk of never being a productive part of society. Formal education can help change that. Thats our goal with this initiative. We dont want to lose an entire generation because they had the bad luck of being born in the wrong place at the wrong time, said George and Amal Clooney.

The Syrian refugee crisis remains the largest humanitarian crisis since the end of World War II. Lebanon, which has the worlds highest per capita refugee population, has been particularly affected by an influx of more than one million Syrian refugees. This surge has left local resources strained, affecting both refugee children and Lebanese students.

Of todays announcement, Lebanons Minister of Education, Marwan Hamade said "The Government of Lebanon is profoundly grateful to the leadership of George and Amal Clooney and the Clooney Foundation for Justice. We are delighted the Clooney Foundation has decided to support our efforts to open the doors of more public schools to ensure we can offer every child currently living in Lebanon a free education. We are also looking forward to collaborating with the Clooney Foundation and its partners on advancing innovative technology in all our classrooms. Each child given access to education, and new ways of learning, represents a life changed for the better. Todays grant from the Clooney Foundation for Justice is therefore a crucial investment in future generations in Lebanon.

The Clooney Foundation for Justices initiative, combining financial support with technology, will improve educational opportunities for both Lebanese and Syrian refugee children, so many of whom are missing out on an education.

How can children become the workers and leaders of their countries someday if they have not had the education and support they need to reach their full potential? asked UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake. By supporting the work of UNICEF and our partners to deliver education to every child affected by the conflict in Syria, the Clooney Foundation for Justice is not only investing in the futures of individual children, it is investing in the future of the entire region. UNICEF is deeply grateful for this critical funding.

Close to 200,000 Syrian refugee children in Lebanon are out of school. Their lives have been shaped by violence, displacement and lack of opportunity, and many have never been enrolled in formal education. Without access to learning and a return to a sense of normalcy, these children are at risk of becoming a lost generation. The Clooney Foundation for Justice is committed to supporting efforts that ensure children get the experiences they need to thrive. UNICEF has been working with partners across the region to put children first since the crisis began. In addition to providing emergency assistance and essential services, including child-friendly spaces, UNICEF and partners have been at the forefront of efforts to address the long-term needs of Syrian refugee children, including education, counseling and social inclusion.

We must ensure that we do not fail those most vulnerable victims who have managed to flee the carnage in Syria. It is our hope that the refugee children who will soon start school through this initiative will have a chance to contribute to building a more peaceful and just world and, hopefully, one where those responsible for these grave crimes are held to account. said Ambassador David Pressman, Executive Director of the Clooney Foundation for Justice.

###

For more information, please contact:

Lauren Davitt, UNICEF USA, ldavitt@unicefusa.org, +1-212-922-2503

Max Gleischman, Glover Park Group, mgleischman@gpg.com, +1-202-716-1496

Rose Foley, UNICEF New York, rfoley@unicef.org, +447956038747
Couple jump off bridge in suicide pact

A couple died in an apparent suicide pact by jumping off the Kushma-Jyandi suspension bridge over the Modi river in Parbat on Saturday, police said.
Renal stone disease diagnosed in the first year of life is relatively uncommon. While risk factors such as low birth weight, furosemide exposure, and metabolic disorders are well established, there exists little information regarding resolution rates and need for surgical intervention. Our study objective was to evaluate urolithiasis and renal calcification resolution rates, time to resolution, and need for surgical intervention in children diagnosed in their first year of life.

REB approved retrospective chart review of children younger than 12 months of age (corrected for prematurity) diagnosed with nephrolithiasis and/or nephrocalcinosis in a tertiary pediatric hospital between April 2000 and August 2015 with a minimum 1-year follow-up period. Exact logistic regression was performed to assess the relationship between size of the largest stone (on either side) and the need for surgical intervention. Kaplan-Meier curves were constructed to examine time to stone resolution among those not requiring surgical intervention.

62 patients (61% male) were diagnosed with stones or nephrocalcinosis by ultrasound at a median age of 2.9 months. Of these, 37% had been admitted to the NICU because of prematurity, low birth weight or comorbidities. A total of 45 patients were found to have stones (Table); 35 of these had a stone at initial ultrasound and 10 initially diagnosed as nephrocalcinosis were later confirmed to have a stone. 67% of all stones were asymptomatic on presentation. Metabolic anomalies were present in 56% (35/62), and 16% (10/62) required medical treatment. Seven patients ultimately required surgical intervention. Stone size was found to predict the eventual need for surgical intervention (OR 3.52, 95% CI 1.47-12.78) for each 0.1 mm increase in diameter). Among patients not requiring surgical intervention (n = 38), the estimated median time to spontaneous resolution of urolithiasis was 1.1 years (95% CI 0.89-1.53, range 2 months-6 years) and 1.2 years for nephrocalcinosis (95% CI 0.59-2.13).

Spontaneous resolution was a common outcome for newborns and infants diagnosed with urolithiasis in the first year of life, but high variability in time-to-resolution was observed. Only a small proportion who had confirmed stones on ultrasound required surgical intervention (15%), and large stone size was a predictive factor for surgery.

Journal of pediatric urology. 2017 Jul 10 [Epub ahead of print]

Veridiana Andrioli, Kerri Highmore, Michael P Leonard, Luis A Guerra, Kenneth Tang, Jennifer Vethamuthu, Victoria Meyers, Katrina J Sullivan, Melise A Keays

Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, University of Ottawa, Canada., Department of Medical Imaging, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, University of Ottawa, Canada., Clinical Research Unit, CHEO Research Institute, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, University of Ottawa, Canada., Division of Nephrology, Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, University of Ottawa, Canada., Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, University of Ottawa, Canada. Electronic address: .

PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28729176
Cambodia has said it has reached its HIV testing and treatment targets three years ahead of schedule.

In a statement the Ministry of Health and UNHIV/AIDS program last week said the so-called 90-90-90 targets of informing people of their HIV status, helping people access treatment, and where those accessing treatment are receiving viral suppression, had been met ahead of the 2020 goal.

As a result Cambodia joins just six other countries to have already met the targets, the statement said, making it the country with the highest levels of treatment coverage in the region.

Cambodia is to be congratulated for reaching this global target three years before the worlds deadline, Vladanka Andreeva, UNAIDS Cambodia director, was quoted in the statement as saying. This shows that the countrys strong leadership, commitment and engagement with communities are having phenomenal results.

Mam Bunheng, minister of health, could not be reached for comment, but ministry spokeswoman Or Vandine said the achievement reflected the governments efforts over the past few years.

Choub Sok Chamreun, executive director of Khana, an organization that works with HIV-affected people, said civil society was pleased with the advances in HIV/AIDS treatment and care that Cambodia has made.

We strongly believe this momentum will be maintained to support the Kingdom in eliminating new HIV infections or to have fewer than 300 new cases a year, he said.

Vandine said that the health ministry was concerned that the progress might not be sustainable as donor countries scaled back funding. Currently we are faced with a challenge to the sustainability and the quality of service provision for HIV treatment as foreign aid is reduced, she said.

Official figures suggest the national HIV/AIDS rate dropped from 0.48 percent in 2010 to 0.28 percent in 2014.

The Cambodian government has committed itself to eliminating new cases of HIV infection by 2025, but the commitment was thrown into doubt after two mass HIV outbreaks in 2015 and 2016.
North Korea said Sunday its latest test missile, deemed by weapons experts as capable of reaching the U.S. mainland, was a "stern warning" to Washington against a new round of sanctions aimed at Pyongyang.

The North Korean Foreign Ministry said Washington should "wake up from the foolish dream of doing any harm" to the reclusive communist nation.

Pyongyang's statements came hours after the U.S. Air Force flew two B-1B bombers over the Korean Peninsula, accompanied by South Korean and Japanese jet fighters, as a show of strength against North Korean threats.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said it conducted its 15th successful shoot-down of a medium-range ballistic missile in 15 tests of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system. The target ballistic missile was launched from a fighter jet over the Pacific Ocean, but the military said it was detected, tracked and intercepted by the defense system located in Alaska.

Military Defense Agency chief Lieutenant General Sam Greaves said data collected from the test would improve the U.S.'s "ability to stay ahead of the evolving threat."

The U.S. Pacific Command said its fly-over conducted with South Korean and Japanese jet fighters was in "direct response" to North Korea's "escalatory launch" of intercontinental ballistic missiles on July 3 and last Friday.

"North Korea remains the most urgent threat to regional stability," said General Terrence O'Shaughnessy, U.S. Pacific Air Forces commander. "Diplomacy remains the lead; however, we have a responsibility to our allies and our nation to showcase our unwavering commitment while planning for the worse-case scenario. If called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal, and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing."

The 10-hour joint forces mission began at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. U.S. Air Force bomber jets were joined by two Japanese F-2 fighter jets in Japanese airspace. The U.S. bombers then flew over the Korean Peninsula and were accompanied by four South Korea fighter jets. The U.S. bombers also did a low-pass over South Korea's Osan Air Base, before returning to Guam.

U.S. President Donald Trump again criticized China for failing to stop North Korea's ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs.



Following Friday's launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile that landed west of Japan, Trump singled out China for blame on Saturday evening, saying Beijing could "easily solve this problem.

"I am very disappointed in China," Trump wrote on his Twitter account. "Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue."



Trump's remarks echoed those made by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who released a statement that blamed both China and Russia for North Korea's continued violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions.



"As the principal economic enablers of North Korea's nuclear weapon and ballistic missile development program, China and Russia bear unique and special responsibility for this growing threat to regional and global stability," Tillerson said.



In April, Trump praised his first meeting with China's President Xi Jinping, later telling reporters that Xi had agreed to suspend coal and fuel shipments to pressure North Korea to stop its belligerent behavior. However, since then, the North has continued to threaten its neighbors and the United States, and Trump has grown more critical of Beijing.

Even though the North Korean missile landed west of Japan, experts said it would be powerful enough to reach much of the U.S. mainland. North Korea's official news agency said leader Kim Jong Un boasted that the latest test was meant to send a grave warning to the U.S."



China condemned the launch, while Japan, South Korea and the U.S. vowed to work together on a new Security Council measure aimed at curbing North Koreas nuclear ambitions.



At the same time, the U.S. Congress has overwhelmingly approved new sanctions aimed at North Korea, Russia and Iran, a measure the White House says Trump plans to sign into law.
Sam Shepard, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, Oscar-nominated actor and celebrated author whose plays chronicled the explosive fault lines of family and masculinity in the American West, has died. He was 73.



Family spokesman Chris Boneau said Monday that Shepard died Thursday at his home in Kentucky from complications related to Lou Gehrig's disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.



The taciturn Shepard, who grew up on a California ranch, was a man of few words who nevertheless produced 44 plays and numerous books, memoirs and short stories. He was one of the most influential playwrights of his generation: a plain-spoken poet of the modern frontier, both lyrical and rugged.



In his 1971 one-act "Cowboy Mouth, which he wrote with his then-girlfriend, musician and poet Patti Smith, one character says, "People want a street angel. They want a saint but with a cowboy mouth''  a role the tall and handsome Shepard fulfilled for many.



"I was writing basically for actors,'' Shepard told The Associated Press in a 2011 interview. "And actors immediately seemed to have a handle on it, on the rhythm of it, the sound of it, the characters. I started to understand there was this possibility of conversation between actors and that's how it all started.''

Shepard's Western drawl and laconic presence made him a reluctant movie star, too. He appeared in dozens of films  many of them Westerns  including Terrence Malick's "Days of Heaven,'' "Steel Magnolias,'' "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford'' and 2012's Mud.'' He was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as pilot Chuck Yeager in 1983's "The Right Stuff.'' Among his most recent roles was the Florida Keys patriarch of the Netflix series "Bloodline.''

But Shepard was best remembered for his influential plays and his prominent role in the Off-Off-Broadway movement. His 1979 play "Buried Child'' won the Pulitzer for drama. Two other plays  "True West,'' about two warring brothers, and "Fool for Love,'' about a man who fears he's turning into his father  were nominated for the Pulitzers as well. All are frequently revived.



"I always felt like playwriting was the thread through all of it,'' Shepard said in 2011. "Theater really when you think about it contains everything. It can contain film. Film can't contain theater. Music. Dance. Painting. Acting. It's the whole deal. And it's the most ancient. It goes back to the Druids. It was way pre-Christ. It's the form that I feel most at home in, because of that, because of its ability to usurp everything.''



Samuel Shepard Rogers VII was born in Fort Sheridan, Illinois, in 1943. He grew up on an avocado ranch in Duarte, California. His father was an alcoholic schoolteacher and former Army pilot. Shepard would later write frequently of the damage done by drunks. He had his own struggles, too; long stretches of sobriety were interrupted by drunk driving arrests, in 2009 and 2015.



Shepard arrived in New York in 1963 with no connections, little money and vague aspirations to act, write or make music.

"I just dropped in out of nowhere,'' he told the New Yorker in 2010. But Shepard quickly became part of the off-off-Broadway movement at downtown hangouts like Caffe Cino and La MaMa. "As far as I'm concerned, Broadway just does not exist,'' Shepard told Playboy in 1970  though many of his later plays would end up there.



His early plays  fiery, surreal verbal assaults  pushed American theater in an energized, frenzied direction that matched the times. A drummer himself, Shepard found his own rock 'n roll rhythm. Seeking spontaneity, he initially refused to rewrite his drafts, a strategy he later dismissed as "just plain stupid.''



As Shepard grew as a playwright, he returned again and again to meditations on violence, masculinity and family. His collection "Seven Plays,'' which includes many of his best plays, including "Buried Child'' and "The Tooth of Crime,'' was dedicated to his father.



"There's some hidden, deeply rooted thing in the Anglo male American that has to do with inferiority, that has to do with not being a man, and always, continually having to act out some idea of manhood that invariably is violent,'' he told The New York Times in 1984. "This sense of failure runs very deep  maybe it has to do with the frontier being systematically taken away, with the guilt of having gotten this country by wiping out a native race of people, with the whole Protestant work ethic. I can't put my finger on it, but it's the source of a lot of intrigue for me.''



Shepard was married from 1969 to 1984 to actress O-Lan Jones, with whom he had son Jesse Mojo Shepard.



His connection to music was constant. He joined Bob Dylan on the 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue tour of 1975, and co-wrote the song "Brownsville Girl'' with him. Shepard and Patti Smith were one-time lovers but lifetime friends.

"We're just the same,'' Smith once said. "When Sam and I are together, it's like no particular time.''

Shepard's movie career began in the late '70s. While making the 1982 Frances Farmer biopic "Frances,'' he met Jessica Lange and the two remained together for nearly 30 years. They had two children, Hannah Jane and Samuel Walker. They separated in 2009. Lange once said of Shepard: "No man I've ever met compares to Sam in terms of maleness.''



Shepard worked occasionally in movies (among other things, he wrote Wim Wenders' 1984 Texas brothers drama "Paris, Texas'') but took acting gigs more frequently as he grew older. One movie, he said, could pay for 16 plays.



Besides his plays, Shepard wrote short stories and a full-length work of fiction, "The One Inside,'' which came out earlier this year. "The One Inside'' is a highly personal narrative about a man looking back on his life and taking in what has been lost, including control over his own body as the symptoms of ALS advance.



"Something in the body refuses to get up. Something in the lower back. He stares at the walls,'' Shepard writes. "The appendages don't seem connected to the motor  whatever that is  driving this thing. They won't take direction _ won't be dictated to  the arms, legs, feet, hands. Nothing moves. Nothing even wants to.''

Shepard's longtime editor at Alfred A. Knopf, LuAnn Walther, said Shepard's language was "quite poetic, and very intimate, but also very direct and plainspoken.'' She said that when people asked her what Shepard was really like, she would respond, "Just read the fiction.''



In Shepard's 1982 book "Motel Chronicles,'' he said that he felt like he never had a home. That feeling, he later, acknowledged, always remained.



"I basically live out of my truck,'' Shepard said in 2011. "I feel more at home in my truck than just about anywhere, which is a sad thing to say. But it's true.''
The U.S. military and the Somali government say an air-strike Sunday targeted and killed a senior member of the al-Shabab extremist group.

Somali intelligence officials who asked not to be named identified the target as Ali Mohamed Hussein, who served as al-Shabab's shadow governor for Mogadishu and has been one of the groups most outspoken members.



Hussein, also known as Ali Jabal, was known for forcing Mogadishu businesses to donate money to the Islamist militants.



Somalias information minister, Abdurahman Omar Osman, told VOA Somali that President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed "approved an operation with international partners on 30 July near Tortoroow, killing a key al-Shabab leader behind Mogadishu bombings, assassinations."

Tortoroow is an al-Shabab stronghold in the Lower Shabelle region in southern Somalia.

A brief statement on the attack from the U.S. Africa Command said the air-strike took place late Saturday, eastern U.S. time. The statement added no civilians were killed.

The statement added the air-strike was conducted in coordination with regional partners as a direct response to al-Shabab actions, including recent attacks on Somali forces.

The strike targeted two vehicles in which the militants were travelling in at Buula-Banin village near Tortoroow in the Lower Shabelle region, said Hassan Husein Mohamed, the security minister of South West regional administration. Missiles from foreign military planes struck the vehicles and we are still in the middle of confirming the result.



President Donald Trump earlier this year approved expanded military operations against al-Shabab, including more aggressive air-strikes and considering parts of southern Somalia areas of active hostilities.

Meanwhile, the Somali president held an emergency meeting with the countrys heads of security agencies on Monday. Sources told VOA it focused on the latest security incidents in the country.

The meeting came a day after the militants carried out two deadly attacks in Somalia. In the first, militants ambushed a convoy carrying African Union troops in Lower Shabelle. At least 18 soldiers were killed, according to a senior Somali military officer.

In the second, a massive car bomb explosion killed at least 10 people and wounded 15 on a busy Mogadishu street.

Harun Maruf contributed to this report.
The African Union Peace and Security Council has urged Cameroon to ensure the repatriation of Nigerian refugees fleeing Boko Haram is done on a voluntary basis.

Hundreds of refugees, most of them children, complain they are thirsty and hungry as they leave Cameroon on their way back to Nigeria.

They are escorted by troops from the multinational joint task force fighting the Boko Haram insurgency.

Cameroon Red Cross official Joseph Guisso is among the humanitarian staff accompanying the refugees. He said the military escort is necessary because Boko Haram fighters can surprise them at any moment.

He said they have confidence in the task force and strongly believe the killings will end soon.

The soldiers told VOA Boko Haram has been organizing sporadic attacks on a small scale since January. During the past two years, the regional force has retaken much of the territory Boko Haram once controlled.

The number of Nigerian refugees repatriated from Cameroon has not been made public. In March, the governments of the two countries signed a tripartite agreement with UNHCR that stipulated the repatriations must be voluntary.

In June, the U.N. refugee agency condemned what it called the Cameroonian governments forced repatriation of 887 Nigerian refugees to the border town of Banki. The United Nations said there had been other similar incidents.

Cameroons government has denied allegations of forced returns.

Cameroon has struggled to meet the humanitarian needs of the approximately 115,000 Nigerian refugees within its borders, as well as an estimated 200,000 Cameroonians displaced by the conflict.

Suicide attacks have picked up recently in border areas in Cameroon, with at least 30 attacks reported in June, including some targeting refugee camps. Far North region of Cameroon Governor Midjiyawa Bakari has argued it would be better for refugees to go to safer localities in their own country.

A delegation from the African Union visited the northern town of Maroua on Friday. The chairman of the African Union Peace and Security Council, Nigerian-born Ambassador Bankole Adeoye, led the delegation. He told VOA only refugees who choose to go back should be repatriated.

"We want to thank the government and people of Cameroon first for hosting these refugees and coordinating all the necessary sectors. With the United Nations agencies, we are suggesting and proposing that all the refugees should return in safety and in dignity," said Adeoye.

Aid agencies have also expressed concern about the conditions to which refugees are returning. UNHCR and Doctors without Borders have warned food, water and other resources are dangerously overstretched in border communities in Nigeria.
A proposed new law that would require carmakers to build alarms for back seats is being pushed by child advocates who say it will prevent kids from dying in hot cars.

The law also would streamline the criminal process against caregivers who cause the deaths - cases that can be inconsistent but often heavier-handed against mothers.

The latest deaths came in Arizona on triple-digit degree days over the weekend, with two baby boys found forgotten in vehicles in separate incidents.

More than two dozen child and road safety groups are backing the Senate bill introduced last week aimed at preventing those kinds of deaths by requiring cars to be equipped with technology that can alert drivers if a child is left in the back seat once the vehicle is turned off. It could be a motion sensor that can detect a baby left sitting in a rear-facing car seat and then alert the driver, in a similar way that reminders about tire pressure, open doors and seat belts now come standard in cars.

"The technology would help because if you're in a vehicle, your child is in the back seat, and you ignore that alarm: Go jail. Do not pass go. You had a chance," said Janette Fennell of the advocacy group Kids and Cars. "You talk to any of the judges, they'll tell you, they're beyond the hardest things they have to deal with."

Police say 1-year-old Josiah Riggins was in the car for hours Saturday, discovered dead only after his father drove roundtrip, twice, between their suburban home and a Phoenix church to drop off the mother and a sibling.

Zane Endress, who was 7 months old, died Friday in Phoenix after being left in the car in the driveway at home, as his usual daycare drop-off routine was lost by his grandparents.

"A simple sensor could save the lives of dozens of children killed tragically in overheated cars each year, and our bill would ensure such technology is available in every car sold in the United States," bill sponsor Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, said in a statement. "It can take mere minutes on a hot day for a car to turn into a deathtrap for a small child."

No charges have been filed against the caregivers in either Arizona case, as police say the death investigations are underway. Detectives will determine criminality based on the caregiver's neglect, intent and mindset, while also being sensitive to the family's deeply felt loss of a child, Phoenix police Sgt. Mercedes Fortune said.

"Those are the very difficult questions. Each case is different. I can't tell you there's a set answer for any case because there really isn't," Fortune said.

Kids and Cars, which has tracked more than 800 children who have died in this way since 1990, said criminal cases vary greatly, even when the circumstances are identical. Fennell said 90 percent of cases involve pure accidents, most likely a child forgotten by an adult.

In this month alone, a Tennessee couple was charged in the death of their 11-month-old daughter. A nearly 2-year-old boy was found dead in his father's BMW in south Florida.

The nonprofit's analysis shows charges are filed about half of the time, though very rarely are the parents found guilty objectively because it was proven that the child was left behind to be harmed. There is also a noted gender bias: Mothers are more often charged than fathers, and among the convicted, women caregivers receive longer prison sentences than men, the study found.

"I think society feels sort of like moms are in charge, and they're supposed to do everything," Fennell said. "It's also a defense mechanism. If I make monsters out of these people, then it could never happen to me."
Tweeting that there is no chaos in the White House, President Donald Trump brought in a no-nonsense retired Marine Corps general, John Kelly, as his chief of staff Monday to restore order to an administration shaken by six months of policy setbacks, personnel changes and media leaks.

Within hours, White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci had been given his walking papers, in a sign that Kelly would assert authority in a way his predecessor Reince Priebus never was able to do as Oval Office gatekeeper.

Scaramucci's abrupt dismissal came little more than a week after he was brought in with great fanfare to head the battered White House communications shop. His hiring sent shivers through the staff as he threatened to fire anyone suspected of leaking information to the press. He quickly fell out of favor, however, after telephoning a reporter for the weekly magazine The New Yorker and unleashing an embarrassing, profanity-laced rant.

Scaramucci's departure was announced in a terse statement issued by Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders: Anthony Scaramucci will be leaving his role as White House communications director.Mr. Scaramucci felt it was best to give Chief of Staff John Kelly a clean slate and the ability to build his own team.We wish him all the best.

WATCH: Trump Makes More Staff Changes

A short time later, Sanders, who had been named press secretary by Scaramucci on his first day in the job, told reporters, The president certainly felt that Anthony's comments (to The New Yorker) were inappropriate for a person in that position.

Sanders said Scaramucci had been relieved of all duties in the White House, including a position with the Export-Import Bank that he held before being named communications director.

Starting new job, Kelly looks good



She also made clear that the president has given full authority to General Kelly to determine who has access to the Oval Office.

David Cohen, a political scientist at the University of Akron who has studied the office of the chief of staff, said Kelly's first day bodes well for his mission of righting the White House ship.

If Kelly has been granted the power to hire and fire and to control access to the president, that is a good thing for the country, Cohen said. Because he can restore some discipline and restore some sanity to the chaos that is gripping the White House.

On Capitol Hill, Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine applauded the changes. I was pleased to learn of (Scaramuccis) departure, and this shows me that General Kelly is taking firm control, and that he is not going to tolerate the kind of unacceptable behavior that Mr. Scaramucci has exhibited in just 10 days on the job.

I salute General Kelly for making this one of his earliest moves, Collins said. I believe General Kelly will impose discipline and order on a rather chaotic and conflict-ridden White House staff. This is a good move.

WATCH: Trump Talks to Media About Kelly

Next challenge: stopping leaks

Among Kelly's biggest challenges will be stopping the leaks to reporters that have bedeviled Trump during his first six months in office, and controlling access to the Oval Office.

During his six months in the job, Reince Priebus was known to have been unable to keep a number of White House officials, including the president's daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner, from walking in on Trump unannounced, often with the intention of influencing administration policy. News reports this week said both Kushner and Ivanka Trump had given their blessing to Kelly's selection.

Akron University Professor Cohen says Trump must have a different version of reality if he thinks there is no chaos in the White House, but he also knows he needs a strong voice to control his impulsiveness.

I think what we're going to see is over time the chief of staff and the president butting heads quite a bit, Cohen said. I don't know if it'll be a relationship that will be successful in the long run.

Will Kelly last in new job?

Kelly's ability to succeed ultimately depends on whether Trump gives him full authority, the political scholar added, saying: I have grave doubts whether President Trump will be able to change his management style.

Trump praised his new chief of staff Monday during a swearing-in ceremony, saying he had no doubt Kelly would be an absolutely superb chief of staff.

At a Cabinet meeting a short time later, Trump effusively praised Kelly's work as secretary of homeland security  the job the general held during the first six months of the administration. What he has done has been nothing short of miraculous, the president exclaimed, crediting Kelly for a significant drop in illegal border crossings into the United States this year.

Even the president of Mexico called me, Trump said. They said (at) their southern border, very few people are coming because they know they're not going to get through our border, which is the ultimate compliment.

The Mexican government refuted that claim, saying Trump and Pena Nieto have not recently spoken on the phone, with their last conversation taking place in person July 7 during a G-20 summit in Germany.

A statement Monday said Pena Nieto shared his government's statistics with Trump that showed in the first six months of this year the number of Mexicans repatriated from the U.S. fell 31 percent compared to the same period last year, and the number of Central and South Americans who entered Mexico fell by 47 percent.

WATCH: Trump on His Hopes for Kelly

Russia meeting statement

Also Monday, the Washington Post and ABC News reported that as Trump traveled home from the summit, he personally dictated a statement July 8 in which his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., described meeting last year with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower in New York.

The statement dismissed the event as a short, introductory meeting that focused on the issue of adoptions of Russian children.

Trump Jr. later released an email exchange showing his conversation with British music publicist Rob Goldstone, who set up the meeting, with Trump saying he would love it if Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya had incriminating material on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, as promised.

Trump Jr. has since said Veselnitskaya had no information of value about Clinton and that the meeting ended quickly.

President Trump's lawyer, Jay Sekulow, dismissed the Post story.

Apart from being of no consequence, the characterizations are misinformed, inaccurate and not pertinent, he said.

Steve Herman, Ken Bredemeier contributed to this report
Election officer of Chitwan directed to fix poll date in Bharatpur-19

The Election Commission (EC) of Nepal has directed the chief returning officer of Chitwan to fix date for re-polling at the earliest in all polling centres of Bharatpur Metropolitan City-19, Chitwan.
Police broke up protests in several towns in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo Monday, arresting at least 50 people in the city of Goma. The demonstrators were from the civil society group, La Lucha, which is demanding the government honor a December 31st deal to hold delayed elections by the end of this year.
Vanessa OBrien has become the first American woman to summit K2, the worlds second highest mountain at 8,611 meters.

The 52-year-old former banker from New York led a 12-member team of international climbers and planted the U.S. flag on top of K2 on July 28.

The mountain is located at Pakistans border with China and considered one of the worlds most dangerous peaks for climbers.

The first male American team conquered the savage mountain 39 years ago.

This was O'Brien's third attempt at K2 after having been unsuccessful in 2015 because of unusually harsh weather conditions, and in 2016 when an avalanche swooped in and buried all the expedition equipment stashed at CAMP-3, its high altitude operational base.

Bad weather prevented all other international teams from summiting K2 in those two years.



It took OBriens team 16 hours from CAMP-4 at 7681 meters to the top, a very long time, but the weather held.

She told VOA on Monday after safely descending to K2 base camp at 5,100 meters she was exhausted but very grateful for her teams success.

This was by far the hardest undertaking I have ever come across. Not just the 50 kilometer winds and snow pushing against you, but the pure blue ice underneath your feet that threatened to pull you off balance at any second, said the climber, who also holds British nationality.

I was constantly reminded of the 84 people who came before me and lost their lives commemorated at the Gilkey Memorial, she added. OBrien was referring to the place near the K2 base camp, where the victims are laid to rest.

The Memorial is named after Art Gilkey, the American who died of serious illness during an unsuccessful attempt by his team of mostly U.S. climbers in 1953.

A proud day for #woman everywhere at the top of #K2, the world's second highest mountain, OBrien announced via Twitter from shortly after scaling the peak on Friday.



One of the most important flags I carried to the top of #K2 was #Pakistan, a country that has showed me so much love & support #PakistanZindabad (long live Pakistan)," she said in another message on her Twitter post with a picture of the green and white Pakistani flag.



Heavy snowfall and unstable weather were again a factor this year and OBriens was the only expedition to reach the top, said Nazir Sabir, the chief organizer of the expedition and veteran Pakistani mountaineer.

O'Brien conquered Mt. Everest, the world's highest peak at 8,850 meters, in 2010. But she describes K2 as more challenging and fascinating for mountaineers.

K2 is the perfect triangle. Mountains are not shaped that way. In reality, they are very peculiar and they have got lots of places to rest and go higher and stop. This is boom, a triangle. It is asking for 110 percent effort day one, OBrien said.

While routine avalanches do pose risks, she says, due to climate change rocks on K2 that used to be fixed to earth and frozen are now just broken and they come down in rock avalanches.

So, you have got the snow avalanches, you have got the rock avalanches, you have got extreme weather and unpredictable weather. Any one of those three could kill the expedition at a moments notice. So, it is just fraught with danger and that is probably why for every four of that climb, one dies, OBrien noted.

Sabir praised O'Brien for her courage, saying that even top Himalayan climbers give up somewhere around second attempt.

I think her determination paid off but we have to understand that there was a brilliant planning behind it. All other six teams gave up and went home while Vanessa and her team were looking for a weather window and it clicked and they used every minute and climbed every inch to the summit, he told VOA.

WATCH: Report about O'Brien's attempt at K2 Summit



OBrien is the 19th woman to have survived the climb to the top. Before undertaking the latest mission, she held the record of being the fastest woman to climb the seven summits, the highest peaks on each of the seven continents.

Sabir praised Vanessa as "a friend of Pakistan and a messenger of peace", hoping her repeated visits and successfully summiting K2 will send a positive image of Pakistan and encourage more Americans and international expeditions to visit the country.

Militant attacks have in recent years worsened security conditions in Pakistan, discouraging foreigners from visiting the country. But authorities say successes in counterterrorism operations have reduced the threat and improved security.
Vietnam police have arrested four activists.

Critics say the arrests on Sunday demonstrate Vietnam's ruling Communist party's growing intolerance for any criticism.

The activists were arrested on charges of engaging in "activities aimed at overthrowing the government."

Arrested were Pham Van Troi, Nguyen Trung Ton, Truong Minh Duc and Nguyen Bac Truyen. It was not immediately clear if they have legal representation. All four have a connection to lawyer Nguyen Van Dai who was arrested in 2015 for anti-state propaganda.

A recent spate of arrests and convictions of activists has resulted in sentences as long as ten years.

Ted Osius, the U.S. ambassador in Vietnam, says he is concerned about the "deeply troubling" arrests, convictions and harsh sentences of peaceful activists.

Hanoi says there are no political prisoners in Vietnam, and only law breakers are jailed.
U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke was expected to make a stop Sunday in the hometown of Cliven Bundy, a Nevada rancher accused of organizing an armed standoff three years ago that forced federal agents to end a roundup of his cattle.

Zinke's planned stop in Bunkerville, Nevada - about 80 miles (129 kilometers) northeast of Las Vegas - is part of his tour of national monuments being scrutinized by the Trump administration.

Trump announced the review of 27 monuments in May, saying the designations imposed by previous presidents amounted to a massive federal land grab. Monument designations protect federal land from energy development and other activities.

Zinke plans the stop in Bunkerville ahead of visits Monday to the nearby Gold Butte and Basin and Range national monuments, which cover a combined 1,500 square miles (3,885 sq. kilometers) - more than half the size of Delaware.

Gold Butte is the grazing area at the center of the cattle round-up and armed standoff in April 2014 involving Bundy and federal land management agents.

The monument is home to pioneer-era and Native American artifacts, and rare and threatened wildlife, including the Mojave desert tortoise and desert bighorn sheep.

A recent study by the Bureau of Land Management documented nearly 400 ancient rock art panels and more than 3,500 individual petroglyphs scattered throughout the Gold Butte area

President Obama designated the Gold Butte National Monument in 2016 under the 1906 Antiquities Act.

Bundy argues that the federal government has no jurisdiction in such vast rangelands of the West.

He and four of his sons are in jail awaiting federal trial on felony charges that they organized an armed insurrection to turn away Bureau of Land Management agents and contract cowboys and to release cattle collected from the Gold Butte range.

Federal officials say the bureau, an agency within the Interior Department, was trying to enforce court orders issued for Bundy's yearslong failure to pay federal grazing fees.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Nevada Democrat, recently made a two-minute videotape and Rep. Jacky Rosen, a Democrat running for Republican Sen. Dean Heller's seat in 2018, sent a letter to Zinke urging him to keep his hands off Nevada's natural treasures.

In addition to preserving cultural history, native wildlife and scenic beauty, Gold Butte and Basin and Range generate more than $150 annually for Nevada's economy, they said.

"Apparently the 2.7 public comments submitted in favor of keeping these monuments were not enough to help Mr. Zinke make up his mind," Masto, a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee overseeing the Interior Department, said about a public comment period that closed earlier this month.

Outdoor retailer Patagonia took out two full page ads in the state's largest newspaper Sunday in support of the two Nevada national monuments.

On Friday, Zinke took a helicopter tour of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument in New Mexico and held a roundtable event with ranchers, county commissioners and university professors.

Last week, he removed Colorado's Canyons of the Ancients National Monument from the list under review. He previously dropped two others, one in Idaho and one in Washington state. A full report is due next month.
The only known surviving Italian issue poster for the classic movie "Casablanca'' has sold for $478,000 in Dallas at a public auction of vintage movie posters.



The firm Heritage Auctions says the price ties a record for the highest amount paid for a movie poster at a public auction.



The 1946 Italian poster  four years after the Oscar-winning movie was made and first shown in the U.S.  measures 55.5 inches (1,409.7 millimeters) by 78.25 inches (1,987.55 millimeters). It previously was owned by a collector in London.



Auction spokesman Eric Bradley says the buyer Saturday chose to remain anonymous.



Bradley said Sunday the price equaled the record amount paid in 2014 for a poster for "London After Midnight,'' a 1927 silent movie where Lon Chaney played a vampire.
Kenya's national police force says it is investigating the killing of a top electoral official, Christopher Msando, who was found dead Monday, a little more than a week before the country holds general elections.

In a statement, the inspector general of the National Police Service, Joseph Boinnet, says Msando's body was brought to a mortuary on the outskirts of Nairobi on Saturday, but not identified until Monday.

Boinnet says police view the killing of Msando as "a crime of grave proportions," and says investigators are following crucial leads that "could lead to the eventual arrest and prosecution of the murderers." The two-page statement does not specify the cause of death.

Msando was manager of technology operations for Kenya's Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, the IEBC, and had in-depth knowledge of the technology being used in the August 8 elections.

Commission Chairman Wafula Chebukati said Monday there is no doubt Msando was "tortured and killed," adding that, in the commission's mind, "the only issue is who killed him and why."

Chebukati asked the government to provide security for all IEBC employees so Kenyans can have a free and fair election.

The statement from Boinnet says "police will work with the IEBC with a view to ensuring that all Commission employees are accorded the requisite security to enable them to discharge their mandate."

In a statement Monday, U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Robert Godec and his British counterpart Nic Hailey said their countries are "gravely concerned by the murder" and have offered to help with the investigation.

"It is critical that Kenya has free, fair, credible and peaceful elections on August 8, and protection for IEBC staff is essential to achieving this goal," the diplomats said.

Fears of violence have been rising as election day draws near. Opposition parties have accused President Uhuru Kenyatta of seeking to rig the vote, while the president said his main opponent, former prime minister Raila Odinga, is trying to divide the nation along ethnic lines.

Odinga lost the hotly-disputed 2007 presidential election, that triggered violence that killed more than 1,100 people.

A Kenyan law and elections expert, Barasa Nyukuri, told VOA's Swahili Service the killing of Msando may be an attempt to scare the IEBC.

He also warned Msando's death "could damage voters' confidence on the commission unless the IEBC leadership comes out strongly to reassure the people."
Mexican authorities said on Sunday they rescued 147 Central Americans abandoned in the wilderness of Veracruz state after suspected human smugglers forced them out of the cramped tractor trailer they were traveling in on their way to the United States.

The migrants, 74 from Honduras, 59 from Guatemala, 13 from El Salvador and one from Nicaragua were in the back of the poorly ventilated vehicle as they traveled to the border state of Tamaulipas, where they would eventually be smuggled into the United States, Mexico's national immigration institute said.

Among those rescued were 48 minors, including 14 traveling without an adult companion.

They were abandoned near a highway in the city of Ozuluama, Veracruz.

Earlier this month, 10 people died and 29 were hospitalized after more than 100 illegal immigrants were packed into a stifling tractor trailer for a 150-mile (240-km) drive from the U.S.-Mexico border to San Antonio, where survivors spilled out into a Walmart parking lot in the Texas city.

"According to the testimony of migrants, the alleged traffickers, who used the Veracruz-Tampico route, in order to reach the United States, abandoned the migrants in the wilderness, where they were forced to hide in the bushes" without food or water, the immigration institute said.

Personnel from the immigration institute gave medical attention, food and water to the rescued Central Americans and contacted their respective embassies.

Plagued by gang violence and poverty, the trio of Central American nations, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, together send the bulk of migrants entering the United States illegally.

Turf wars between gangs have sparked a surge in violence in Mexico in the past 18 months, also raising the incentive for some young Mexicans to risk the crossing.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said Monday there is no larger threat to Baltic states than the "specter of aggression" by Russia, as he pledged support for NATO allies Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Pence met in Tallinn with the presidents of all the Baltic states  Estonia's Kersti Kaljulaid, Latvia's Raimonds Vejonis and Lithuania's Dalia Grybauskaite  and afterward summarized the U.S. position on Russia's "destabilizing" activities:

"At this very moment, Russia continues to seek to redraw international borders by force, undermine democracies of sovereign nations and divide the free nations of Europe one against another. Under President Donald Trump, the United States of America rejects any attempt to use force, threats, intimidation or malign influence in the Baltic states or against any of our treaty allies."

During his public remarks in Estonia's capital, the U.S. vice president also expressed hope for improved relations with Russia. He said the Kremlin decree this week ordering most American diplomats to leave their posts in Moscow will not deter the U.S. commitment to its allies' security.

Pence praised Estonia for meeting the NATO alliance target for defense spending of at least 2 percent of its gross domestic product, and he noted Latvia and Lithuania would hit that level by the end of next year. Trump has repeatedly called on NATO members to boost defense spending.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania all have asked for tangible demonstrations of U.S. military support. Concerns about Russian expansionism have increased sharply in the Baltic region since Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine three years ago.

From Estonia, Pence traveled later Monday to Georgia, where troops from the United States and other NATO partners are conducting military exercises that began Sunday.

Welcoming him to Tbilisi, Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili said, "Vice President Pence's visit sends a strong message about the enduring strength of the relationship between Georgia and the United States."

Pence praised the Georgian people for their strong "commitment to independence and freedom." He and Kvirikashvili dined together Monday and will hold talks Tuesday.

Following his visit to Georgia, Pence's three-nation tour of Eastern Europe will conclude in Montenegro, NATO's newest member.
Nigeria has scaled up its military response to the Boko Haram insurgency and will secure the northeast, the acting president's spokesman said on Sunday, adding that the search for oil workers abducted by suspected members of the jihadist group will go on.

Members of an oil prospecting team were kidnapped in the northeast's restive Lake Chad Basin region on Tuesday, prompting a rescue bid that left at least 37 dead including members of the team, rescuers from the military and vigilantes, officials say.

Three kidnapped members of the oil team later appeared in a video seen by Reuters on Saturday.

The insurgency has killed 20,000 people and forced some 2.7 million to flee their homes in the last eight years, and the frequency of attacks has increased in the last few months. At least 113 people have been killed by insurgents since June 1.

Military will 'scale up their efforts'

In a statement on Sunday, the office of Acting President Yemi Osinbajo said he had ordered the military to scale up their efforts and activities in Borno, the state worst hit by the insurgency, to maintain a strong, effective control of the situation and secure lives and property.

The federal government of Nigeria is not only on top of the situation, but will define the end of these atrocities by both winning the war and winning the peace in the northeast, said the emailed statement issued by Osinbajo's spokesman.

President Muhammadu Buhari left Nigeria on May 7 to take medical leave in Britain for an unspecified ailment. He handed power to his deputy, Osinbajo, seeking to allay concerns of a void at the helm of Africa's most populous nation.

The government and military have repeatedly said Boko Haram  which also carries out cross-border attacks in neighboring Cameroon and Niger  was on the verge of defeat.

Boko Haram base captured

Buhari said in December that Boko Haram's base in the northeast's vast Sambisa forest had been captured.

The statement issued on Sunday said Osinbajo had ordered the continuation of search and rescue missions to locate and ensure the freedom of all remaining abducted persons following the kidnapping of oil workers.

The state oil company has for more than a year surveyed what it says may be vast oil reserves in the Lake Chad Basin as part of a bid to reduce the OPEC member's reliance on the southern Niger Delta energy hub, which last year was hit by militant attacks on oil facilities.
Perus government is organizing a meeting of Latin American foreign ministers on what it calls Venezuelas illegitimate vote Sunday approving a new government body charged with rewriting the countrys constitution.



The meeting, planned for August 8 in Lima, represents some of the international concern expressed Monday about the approval of a National Constituent Assembly. Its 545 members all support socialist President Nicolas Maduro and theoretically could supplant the opposition-led legislature, the National Assembly.



On Monday, the European Union joined Colombia, the United States, Mexico, Spain and at least seven other countries in saying they would not recognize the Constituent Assembly.



That kind of assembly, elected under doubtful and often violent circumstances, cannot be part of the solution to Venezuelas crisis, European Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said Monday in Brussels. She said he vote has increased division and will further de-legitimize Venezuelas democratically elected institutions.



The EUs foreign policy leader, Federica Mogherini, is overseeing a joint response from the 28-member bloc, Andreeva said.



Sundays election marked the bloodiest day in four months of anti-government protests, with at least 10 people killed in clashes around the country More than 110 have died since protests began in early April.

Maduro proclaimed the election Sunday was a resounding success. "The people have delivered the constitutional assembly," he said.

Venezuela's National Electoral Council said more than 8 million people, representing more than 41 percent of eligible voters, went to the polls Sunday to cast their ballots.

The opposition in the South American country said the unpopular measure would result in a socialist dictatorship and had called on Venezuelans to boycott the vote. Dozens of polling places in Caracas, the capital, were empty.

Details on what is likely to be included in a new constitution are unclear. Maduro has said it is the only way to pull Venezuela out of its severe economic and social crisis and stop the seemingly endless violence.

Critics assert that only Maduro supporters were candidates, including first lady Cilia Flores, and the first vice president of the ruling United Socialist Party, Diosdado Cabello.

The opposition contends the 545-member constituent assembly would dissolve the opposition-controlled congress and turn Venezuela into a socialist dictatorship. Maduro opponents are demanding early presidential elections.

The drop in global energy prices together with political corruption have destroyed oil-rich Venezuela's economy.

Gasoline, medicine, and such basic staples as cooking oil, flour, and sugar are scarce. Many Venezuelans cross into neighboring Colombia and Brazil to buy food.

Maduro has blamed the country's woes on what he calls U.S. imperialism and its supporters inside Venezuela. He has warned against intervention by the Organization of American States, saying that would surely lead to civil war.
Elections should, and will, take place whether or not RJP-N is on board

More than a month and a half after he was appointed to the top executive post, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba finally expanded his Cabinet last week.
Peru's former left-leaning president Ollanta Humala and his wife asked an appeals court on Monday to free them from jail where they have been ordered to spend up to 18 months before a trial over allegations they took illegal funds from Brazilian builder Odebrecht.

Humala and former first lady Nadine Heredia denied having any intent to evade or interfere with a money laundering probe and said a lower court's ruling to jail them before trial violated due process.

Humala and Heredia turned themselves in to authorities after the lower court's July 13 decision, which marked the second time that a former Peruvian president has been ordered jailed since Odebrecht admitted last year that it bribed local officials over three presidencies.

Ex-President Alejandro Toledo, believed to be in the United States, has refused to turn himself in.

"We ask this courtroom for a just decision because we stayed in our country and we plan to face this process in our country," Humala told the appeals court from jail via videoconference.

Prosecutor Rafael Vela said Humala should not be given special treatment for being a former president.

Unlike Toledo, Humala is not accused of taking bribes from Odebrecht in exchange for lucrative contracts. Instead, prosecutors allege that Humala and Heredia took $3 million in campaign funds from Odebrecht that the company had obtained illicitly and that the couple used for personal enrichment.

The couple denies taking any money from Odebrecht, said defense attorney Wilfredo Pedraza, who added that if they had it would be an electoral infraction but not a criminal defense.

The three-member appeals panel is expected to decide whether to overturn the lower court's ruling this week.

Freeing Humala and Heredia would mark a rare reversal in Peru's judicial system that has preventively detained at least five people so far in connection with Odebrecht.

So-called preventive prison before trial is somewhat common in Peru and has been criticized by some as overused or unfair.

In Brazil, pre-trial detention has been used to secure confessions from dozens of suspects in the Car Wash graft scandal involving Odebrecht.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who once championed Humala, has been sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison for graft but is free on appeal.

Toledo denies wrongdoing and is not sought for arrest in the United States because authorities there have asked Peru for more evidence.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is defending his massive cut in the size of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Russia, saying it had waited long enough for relations with Washington to improve.

Putin said he had hoped "the situation would perhaps change for the better. But it seems that even if the situation is changing, it is not for any time soon."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said an improvement of U.S.-Russia relations rest on "curing the worsening political schizophrenia" in Washington, but said the two countries remain "far away" from closer ties.

The Russian leader Sunday ordered the U.S. to cut its diplomatic staff of more than 1,200 in Russia by 755 people in response to new U.S. sanctions imposed against Russia for its meddling in the 2016 presidential election aimed at helping real estate mogul Donald Trump win the U.S. presidency.

It is believed to be the single largest cut ever in staffing at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and consulates elsewhere in Russia, although many of those to be dismissed are likely Russians working in support positions. The cuts would leave both countries with the same number of staff and diplomats in the two countries, 455.

US reaction



The U.S. State Department called Putin's order "a regrettable and uncalled for act" and says it is assessing how to respond.

Vice President Mike Pence, on a visit to Estonia, said Monday, "We hope for better days, for better relations with Russia."

Putin told a Russian television network on Sunday that his government could take more retaliatory steps against the United States, but that he is "against it as of today."

The U.S. Congress approved the new sanctions last Thursday in a package that also included new measures against Iran and North Korea. On Friday, Russia's Foreign Ministry made the first announcement of the counter measures, saying the sanctions confirm the "extreme aggression" of the U.S. in international affairs.

In addition to sharply trimming the size of the U.S. mission in Russia, Moscow reclaimed two U.S. facilities, a recreational retreat and a storage facility.

"I think this retaliation is long, long overdue," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Sunday in an interview with ABC News' This Week.

He said Russia has a "very rich toolbox" at its disposal in terms of other possible moves.

"It would be ridiculous on my part to start speculating on what may or may not happen," Ryabkov said. "But I can assure you that different options are on the table and consideration is being given to all sorts of things."

The Russian diplomat also said he believes there are areas where the two countries can and should work together, including nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction, counterterrorism, human trafficking, illegal immigration and climate change.

"We are ready, we are stretching our hand forward, we are hopeful that someone on the other side, President Trump included, but also others may see here a chance for a somewhat different way," Ryabkov said.

WATCH: Trump Expected to Sign New Russia Sanctions

Sanctions await signature



U.S. President Donald Trump has not yet signed the sanctions legislation, but the White House says he will.

As Congress negotiated the bill for weeks, Trump aides objected because of a provision that gives lawmakers 30 days to review and block any effort by the president to ease sanctions against Russia. That includes President Barack Obama's decision to close two Russian compounds and expel 35 diplomats because of Russia's interference in the election.

Political analysts in the United States had thought Trump, in an attempt to ease tensions with Putin, might overturn the Obama sanctions when he assumed power in January, but he did not.

Russian meddling



Since then, the early months of Trump's presidency have been consumed by numerous investigations of Russian meddling in the election, including whether Trump aides colluded with Moscow to help him win. The probes are also looking at whether Trump obstructed justice by firing FBI Director James Comey who was leading the agency's Russia investigation before another former FBI director, Robert Mueller, was named to take over the criminal investigation.

Moscow has rejected the conclusion of the U.S. intelligence community that Putin personally directed Moscow's interference in the election. Trump has dismissed the investigations as a "witch hunt" and an excuse by Democrats to explain his upset win over former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Republicans on Sunday urged President Donald Trump's new chief of staff John Kelly to rein in the chaos within the White House on Monday but said the retired Marine Corps general will be challenged to assert control.

In his first six months in office, Trump has upended White House convention with a loose decision-making style and an open-door policy to his Oval Office for advisers, both internal and external. Infighting among his senior staff has become bitter and public.

"He's going to have to reduce the drama, reduce both the sniping within and reduce the leaks, and bring some discipline to the relationships," Karl Rove, a Republican strategist and former White House adviser to George W. Bush, said on "Fox News Sunday."

Trump announced Kelly would replace his embattled chief of staff Reince Priebus at the end of a particularly chaotic week that saw his first legislative effort - healthcare reform - fail in Congress.

"He (Trump) is in a lot of trouble. This week was the most tumultuous week weve seen in a tumultuous presidency," Rove said.

On top of the healthcare debacle, Trump came under fire for banning transgender people from the military, and was pilloried for politicizing a speech he made to the Boy Scouts.

Adding fuel to the fire, his new communications director Anthony Scaramucci unleashed a string of profane criticism about Priebus and Trump strategist Steven Bannon to a New Yorker magazine reporter.

Republicans welcomed Trump's decision to bring in Kelly, who starts on Monday.

"I think he will bring some order and discipline to the West Wing," said Republican Senator Susan Collins and Trump critic on NBC's "Meet the Press."

The last week heightened concerns in Trump's party that the distractions and West Wing dysfunction would derail other legislative priorities, including tax reform and debt ceiling negotiations.

White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said he thought Priebus had been effective "but was probably a little bit more laid back in the way he ran the office.

"I think the president wants to go in a different direction, wants a little bit more discipline, a little more structure in there," said Mulvaney, who reports to the chief of staff.

It is not yet clear whether all of Trump's senior staff will answer to Kelly. Some members, including Scaramucci and senior counselor Kellyanne Conway, report directly to Trump, a structure which gives them more power.

"I will do whatever the president and our new chief of staff General Kelly ask me to do," Conway told Fox News' "Fox News Sunday."

Kelly should be empowered to be the gatekeeper to the Oval Office, said Mike Huckabee, the former Republican governor of Arkansas, whose daughter Sarah Sanders is Trump's spokeswoman.

"That's what needs to happen, but that's going to be up to the president," Huckabee said on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures."

"The president has a very different style, he's very open, the door is open, he invites people to just come on it to a meeting," Huckabee said.

To be effective, Kelly needs to find a way to work within Trump's untraditional style, said Corey Lewandowski, who was a former campaign manager to Trump, and remains close to the president.

"The thing that General Kelly should do is not try to change Donald Trump," Lewandowski said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"Anybody who thinks they're going to change Donald Trump doesn't know Donald Trump," Lewandowski said.
John Kelly, a no-nonsense retired Marine Corps general, was sworn in Monday as the White House chief of staff, tasked with trying to bring order to Donald Trump's presidency six months into his tenure.

"He's going to do a really great job," Trump said as he welcomed Kelly, while touting the country's economic performance.

"Stock markets the highest its ever been, unemployment lowest in 17 years, companies are doing tremendously well, business spirit is the highest its ever been according to polls," Trump said. "Were doing very well, we have a tremendous base, we have a tremendous group of support, the country is optimistic, and I think the general will just add to it."

WATCH: Trump talks to media bout Kelly after swearing-in ceremony

Trump ousted Reince Priebus, an establishment Republican figure, from the posting on Friday, instead tapping the 67-year-old Kelly. Trump has only known him for a matter of months but has come to admire Kelly for his tough stance on fighting illegal immigration while serving as his Homeland Security chief. Trump called Kelly "a star" of his administration.

Kelly, while still holding a high-ranking military posting, became the highest-ranking U.S. officer to lose a child fighting overseas. His son Robert, a Marine Corps officer, stepped on a landmine in Afghanistan in 2010 and was killed. On Memorial Day in late May, Kelly showed Trump his son's gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery just outside Washington.

The early months of Trump's four-year term have been marked by infighting among White House aides, several of whom he has already dismissed for a variety of reasons.

By contrast, Kelly could bring a new discipline to the day-to-day West Wing operations of the White House, but several key aides have become accustomed to popping in unannounced to Trump's Oval Office for conversations with the chief executive. News accounts say that Kelly has griped privately for months about the White House's chaotic life.

WATCH: Trump on his hopes for Kelly at cabinet meeting



New order?



Analysts already are questioning whether the unpredictable Trump is willing to impose new order on his own conduct, often marked by acerbic and surprising Twitter comments from early morning to late at night, with political barbs aimed at Democrats and Republicans alike.

In one early morning tweet ahead of Kelly's swearing-in, Trump contended there is "No WH chaos!"



But Trump has yet to score a major legislative victory for his populist agenda, with the latest setback last week when the Senate rejected several plans to overhaul the country's health care law, commonly known as Obamacare, that was championed by former President Barack Obama. Trump has called on the Senate to continue its efforts to repeal and replace the law, but all Democratic senators and a handful of Republicans have resisted.

Mired in investigations



Meanwhile, Trump's presidency remains mired in months of investigations into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election aimed at helping Trump win.

Trump has called the probes a "witch hunt," dismissing them as attempts by Democrats to explain his upset win over his Democratic challenger, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Numerous congressional investigations are underway, as is a criminal probe by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Mueller is looking into whether Trump campaign aides colluded with Russian interests in the election to undermine Clinton's candidacy and whether Trump obstructed justice by firing James Comey, another former FBI director who was heading the agency's Russia investigation before Mueller took over.
With only a few days until Rwanda's presidential election, candidates are focusing on the economy as they make their final pitches to voters.

President Paul Kagame, predicted by most analysts to win big in Friday's poll, campaigned Monday in Rwanda's Northern Province. While there, he promised residents that the dusty roads in their district would be improved as soon as he is re-elected.

The president appealed to national pride as he addressed a large crowd.

"We have the responsibility to transform our own nation. Others may come and help, but the foundation of it all is each of us," he said.

One of Kagame's two opponents, Green Party candidate Frank Habineza, campaigned in the Huye district of southern Rwanda. Habineza vowed to slash taxes for the poor, support small traders and reduce unemployment.

In May, the country's National Institute of Statistics said unemployment stood at 13.2 percent.



We want to eliminate anything that is a hindrance to our economic growth, Habineza told a crowd of several hundred in Huye.



Habineza and independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana are fighting an uphill battle against Kagame, who has led the central African nation for more than 20 years and won landslide victories in the last two presidential elections.

Under his rule, Rwanda has enjoyed a decline in poverty and steady economic growth based on agriculture, construction, mining and tourism, although human rights groups accuse Kagame of suppressing dissent.



Campaigning in western Rwanda on Saturday, the president vowed that his development plan would help all Rwandans.



We want everyone in Rwanda to benefit from our development; we dont leave anyone behind, he said.

Presidential campaigns are expected to end on August 2.
United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in a rare appearance at a press briefing Tuesday, addressed North Korean leaders, saying we are not your enemy as he called for dialogue amid rapidly rising tensions.

Tillerson said the North Korean threat has materialized in the ways we expected it would, and he said the administration has responded with peaceful pressure, although options are limited.

We felt the appropriate thing to do first was to seek peaceful pressure on the regime in North Korea, to have them develop a willingness to sit and talk with us and others, Tillerson said, but with the understanding there is no future in which North Korea possesses nuclear weapons.

Tillerson said he doesn't blame the Chinese for the situation in North Korea, but that the U.S. would seek Chinese help in achieving a dialogue with North Korea.

We are at a bit of a pivot point in the U.S. relationship with China, Tillerson said, adding that we recognize conditions have changed.

On Monday, President Donald Trump uttered assurances during the start of his Cabinet meeting on Monday morning that the threat from North Korea will be taken care of.



"Well handle North Korea. Were going to be able to handle them. It will be handled. We handle everything," Trump said in response to a question from a reporter.

Asked later in the day whether a U.S. response might include a first strike on North Korea, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders replied, "As we said many times before, the president's not going to broadcast any decisions, but all options are on the table."

WATCH: 'We'll Handle North Korea,' Says Trump

On Saturday, the president, a day after North Korea tested a ballistic missile it claims can reach all of the United States, took to social media with a blunt chastisement of China, which is North Koreas powerful neighbor and its single significant ally.



"I am very disappointed in China," Trump wrote in a pair of Twitter posts. "...they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!"



That was a reversal of the praise the U.S. president had previously uttered for his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, after Trump hosted him at Mar-a-Lago in early April. At that time, Trump expressed confidence that Xi would apply adequate pressure on Pyongyang to de-escalate tension on the Korean peninsula.

Chinese envoy deflects criticism

At the United Nations on Monday, China's U.N ambassador, Liu Jieyi, deflected any U.S. criticism, saying,"There are two principle parties to the issue of denuclearization and peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula: DPRK and the United States." He added that the two nations "hold responsibility to keep things moving, to start moving in the right direction, not China."

Joel Wit, an analyst who has been working on the North Korean proliferation problem for 20 years, inside and outside of government, said, "I would have told President Trump before he met with President Xi: 'Don't put too many cards in this deck. Don't bet on these guys to help you as much as you think they should, because they're not going to.'"

Trump had "really unrealistic expectations for the Chinese," Wit added.

After Fridays ICBM test launch  the second by North Korea  the United States responded with a sudden joint ballistic missile firing exercise with South Korean forces and flying a pair of U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers over the peninsula in a show of force.

Military drill



The United States will launch an unarmed Minuteman III ICBM on Wednesday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California "to validate and verify the effectiveness, readiness and accuracy of the weapon system," according to the U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command.

Tensions could escalate in August when the United States and South Korea hold an annual large-scale joint military drill, which always prompt fresh threats from North Korea.

"If you have the current tensions, and pile on top of that these exercises, it's going to make for a much worse situation," said Wit, who is a senior fellow at the U.S.-Korea Institute of Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, issued a statement on Sunday, saying, "The time for talk is over." But Wit cautioned against limiting options at this point.

"What we need to do is discard the magical thinking and focus on what's possible and what would serve our national interest," said Wit, adding that all elements of national policy, including sanctions and diplomacy, should be utilized. "Particularly, we need to have a dialogue with the North Koreans to see what's possible, and we really haven't been doing that in a serious way," he said.

THAAD

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, in a move that is expected to further anger neighbor China, is now calling for the full deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system to proceed, reversing a decision last week to delay any further work on the project until an extended environmental study is completed. Currently, the system is partially functional, with two of six mobile launchers operational.

Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said North Korea's recent actions demonstrate the need for THAAD.



South Korea's defense minister said Sunday his military will upgrade its Patriot missile system, as well.



Conversations with Seoul, Japan



The South Korean president, who is on vacation, and Trump are expected to confer by telephone soon about North Korea's second purported ICBM test, which independent weapons experts have said indicates the North's rockets are capable of reaching many parts of the United States.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spoke with Trump on Monday. A White House statement said Trump and Abe agreed that North Korea "poses a grave and growing direct threat" to the U.S., Japan, South Korea and other countries, and they committed their governments to increasing diplomatic and economic pressure on Pyongyang.



Abe told reporters Trump had vowed to take "all necessary measures" to protect the Japanese people from the North Korean threat.
President Donald Trump insisted Monday there is no chaos at the White House, even as his new chief of staff is entering a West Wing battered by crisis.

Retired Gen. John Kelly, previously the Homeland Security secretary, takes over Monday from the ousted Reince Priebus, bringing his military experience to an administration weighed down by a stalled legislative agenda, a cabal of infighting West Wing aides and a stack of investigations.



While Trump is looking for a reset, he pushed back against criticism of his administration on Twitter Monday. He said: "Highest Stock Market EVER, best economic numbers in years, unemployment lowest in 17 years, wages raising, border secure, S.C.: No WH chaos!''



Kelly's success in a chaotic White House will depend on how much authority he is granted and whether Trump's dueling aides will put aside their rivalries to work together. Also unclear is whether a new chief of staff will have any influence over the president's social media histrionics.



Former Trump campaign manager Cory Lewandowski, who was ousted from the campaign in June 2016, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he expected Kelly would "restore order to the staff" but also stressed that Trump was unlikely to change his style.



"I say you have to let Trump be Trump. That is what has made him successful over the last 30 years. That is what the American people voted for," Lewandowski said. "And anybody who thinks they're going to change Donald Trump doesn't know Donald Trump."



Kelly's start follows a tumultuous week, marked by a profane tirade from the new communications director, Trump's continued attacks on his attorney general and the failed effort by Senate Republicans to overhaul the nation's health care law.



In addition to strain in the West Wing and with Congress, Kelly starts his new job as tensions escalate with North Korea. The United States flew two supersonic bombers over the Korean Peninsula on Sunday in a show of force against North Korea, following the country's latest intercontinental ballistic missile test. The U.S. also said it conducted a successful test of a missile defense system located in Alaska.



Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that she hopes Kelly can "be effective," and "begin some very serious negotiation with the North and stop this program."



Another diplomatic fissure opened Sunday when Russian President Vladimir Putin said the U.S. would have to cut its embassy and consulate staff in Russia by several hundred under new sanctions from Moscow. In a television interview, Putin indicated the cutback was retaliation for new sanctions in a bill passed by Congress and sent to Trump.



Trump plans to sign the measure into law, the White House has said. After Putin's remarks, the State Department deemed the cutbacks "a regrettable and uncalled for act" and said officials would assess the impact and how to respond to it.



While Trump is trying to refresh his team, he signaled that he does not want to give up the fight on health care. On Twitter Sunday, he said: "Don't give up Republican Senators, the World is watching: Repeal & Replace."





The protracted health care fight has slowed Trump's other policy goals, including a tax overhaul and infrastructure investment. But Trump aides made clear that the president still wanted to see action on health care. White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said on CNN's "State of the Union," that senators "need to stay, they need to work, they need to pass something."



Asked if nothing should be voted on in Congress until the Senate votes again on health care, Mulvaney said: "well, think _ yes. And I think what you're seeing there is the president simply reflecting the mood of the people."



On Saturday, Trump threatened to end required payments to insurance companies unless lawmakers repeal and replace the Obama-era health care law. He tweeted that if "a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!"



The payments reduce deductibles and co-payments for consumers with modest incomes. Trump has guaranteed the payments through July, but has not made a commitment going forward.



White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said on "Fox News Sunday" that Trump would make a decision on the payments this week.



Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who opposed the efforts to move a health bill forward this week, said on CNN that cutting the payments would "be detrimental to some of the most vulnerable citizens" and that the threat has "contributed to the instability in the insurance market."



The House has begun a five-week recess, while the Senate is scheduled to work two more weeks before a summer break.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday abruptly fired Anthony Scaramucci as his communications director, just over a week after the New York financier started work in the key White House post.

Trump ousted the 53-year-old Scaramucci at the request of new White House chief of staff John Kelly, officials told U.S. news outlets.

The White House officially announced that Scaramucci was leaving in order to give Kelly a "clean slate" to run day-to-day operations of the White House staff.

Scaramucci was little known to the American public before arriving on the Washington political scene in mid-July.

He quickly made national headlines with a vulgar, sexually suggestive rant to a correspondent for The New Yorker, which the magazine published last week. Scaramucci railed against two of Trump's key White House aides: Reince Priebus, whom Trump fired as chief of staff on Friday and replaced with Kelly, and the president's chief strategist, Stephen Bannon.

Scaramucci's firing came just hours after Kelly assumed his new post. Trump praised the retired Marine Corps general's record during six months running the U.S. Homeland Security Administration, where he pushed for tough enforcement of laws against illegal immigration into the U.S.
The United States has imposed sanctions on Venezuela's president, Nicolas Maduro, over what it called his "illegitimate" election of an assembly to rewrite the constitution.

All of Maduro's assets in the United States are frozen and Americans are forbidden from doing any business with him.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced the sanctions Monday in Washington, calling Maduro a "dictator" who ignores the will of the Venezuelan people.

"By sanctioning Maduro, the United States makes clear our opposition to the policies of his regime and our support for the people of Venezuela, who seek to reform their country to a full and prosperous democracy."

Maduro showed his apparent indifference to the sanctions late Monday, calling them a sign of President Donald Trump's "desperation and hate."

"I will not obey imperial orders. I do not obey any foreign governments. I'm a free president," Maduro declared. "Why the hell should we care what Trump says? We care about what the sovereign people of Venezuela say," he shouted Monday to a crowd of supporters in Caracas.

The sanctions against Maduro follow those imposed last week on a number of current and former senior Venezuelan officials.

Mnuchin would not comment on future sanctions, including a ban on Venezuelan oil exports. He said the U.S. will monitor the situation, but that "our objective is not to do anything to hurt the people of Venezuela."

Peru has called for a meeting of Latin America foreign ministers in Lima next week to discuss the crisis in Venezuela.

The European Union also says it will not recognize the assembly, along with Canada, Spain, and nearly every Latin American country.

Maduro is defying the global condemnation, especially from what he regards as Venezuela's arch enemy, the United States.

Maduro presses ahead

The Maduro government appeared determined to go through with forming the 545-member constituent assembly, even before it releases final results of the election.

The government said more than 8 million people cast ballots; the opposition, which boycotted the vote, said the turnout was much lower. Reporters on the ground in Caracas said dozens of polling places were almost deserted Sunday.

If 8 million people voted, that would be less than half of all registered voters. Pre-election polls showed more than 70 percent of all Venezuelans opposed the assembly.

Details on what is likely to be included in a new constitution are unclear. Maduro has said it is the only way to pull Venezuela out of its severe economic and social crisis and stop the seemingly endless violence.

The opposition said the measure would bring on a socialist dictatorship. It contended the vote was rigged, in order to pack the assembly with Maduro supporters who could dissolve the opposition-controlled national assembly and fire officials who disagree with the government. Maduro's opponents are demanding early presidential elections.

Violent protests

Sunday's election was the bloodiest day in four months of anti-government protests, with at least 10 people killed in clashes around the country. More than 120 have died since early April.

Treasury Secretary Mnuchin on Monday accused the Venezuelan government of "deliberately and repeatedly" using violence to repress the opposition.

The drop in global energy prices, together with political corruption, have destroyed oil-rich Venezuela's economy. Gasoline, medicine, and such basic staples as cooking oil, flour and sugar are scarce, and many Venezuelans cross into neighboring Colombia and Brazil to buy food.

Maduro has blamed the country's woes on what he calls U.S. imperialism and its supporters inside Venezuela. He has warned against intervention by the Organization of American States, saying that would surely lead to civil war.
The U.S. said Monday that for the first time it will sell coal to Ukraine, easing its reliance on Russia and Moscow-back separatists in eastern Ukraine to meet its energy needs.

The accord calls for Xcoal Energy & Resources in the eastern state of Pennsylvania to ship 700,000 tons of thermal coal by the end of the year to Ukraine's state-owned energy firm Centrenergo to help it heat homes and businesses in the coming winter months. The first shipment, at a cost of $113 a metric ton, is expected to leave the U.S. port of Baltimore in August.

U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry said the transaction was "crucial to the path forward to achieve energy dominance" for the United States. President Donald Trump has vowed to bring back the country's coal industry, which has lost thousands of jobs as the U.S. has turned sharply toward use of cleaner and cheaper forms of energy, chiefly natural gas, even as demand for coal has risen in Europe and Asia.

Ukraine has struggled to meet its energy needs since March, when it cut off coal deliveries from the eastern part of its country controlled by Russian-backed separatists fighting the Kyiv government for control of the industrialized sector. Ukraine has called for a complete ban on coal imports from Russia, which Kyiv and Western countries have accused of supporting the rebellion in eastern Ukraine that has claimed 10,000 lives in the last three years.

Speaking at the U.S. embassy in Kyiv, Xcoal president Ernie Thrasher called the deal "historic" and said the company was "committed to serving Ukraine's needs."
Female suspect held behind cops death

Police arrested a woman from Khaniyabas-4, Dhading, in connection to the death of Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Bir Bahadur Gurung on Sunday.
Two weeks after Donald Trump won the presidency, Zahra Billoo, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations office for the San Francisco Bay area, posted to Facebook a line from a handwritten letter mailed to a San Jose mosque: Hes going to do to you Muslims what Hitler did to the Jews. (Nick Otto for The Washington Post)

Francie Latour was picking out produce in a suburban Boston grocery store when a white man leaned toward her two young sons and, just loudly enough for the boys to hear, unleashed a profanity-laced racist epithet.

Reeling, Latour, who is black, turned to Facebook to vent, in a post that was explicit about the hateful words hurled at her 8- and 12-year-olds on a Sunday evening in July.

I couldnt tolerate just sitting with it and being silent, Latour said in an interview. I felt like I was going to jump out of my skin, like my kids innocence was stolen in the blink of an eye.

But within 20 minutes, Facebook deleted her post, sending Latour a cursory message that her content had violated company standards. Only two friends had gotten the chance to voice their disbelief and outrage.

(Lee Powell/The Washington Post)

Experiences like Latours exemplify the challenges Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg confronts as he tries to rebrand his company as a safe space for community, expanding on its earlier goal of connecting friends and family.

But in making decisions about the limits of free speech, Facebook often fails the racial, religious and sexual minorities Zuckerberg says he wants to protect.

The 13-year-old social network is wrestling with the hardest questions it has ever faced as the de facto arbiter of speech for the third of the worlds population that now logs on each month.

In February, amid mounting concerns over Facebooks role in the spread of violent live videos and fake news, Zuckerberg said the platform had a responsibility to mitigate the bad effects of the service in a more dangerous and divisive political era. In June, he officially changed Facebooks mission from connecting the world to community-building.

The company says it now deletes about 288,000 hate-speech posts a month.

But activists say that Facebooks censorship standards are so unclear and biased that it is impossible to know what one can or cannot say.

The result: Minority groups say they are disproportionately censored when they use the social-media platform to call out racism or start dialogues. In the case of Latour and her family, she was simply repeating what the man who verbally assaulted her children said: What the f--- is up with those f---ing n----r heads?

Being put in Facebook jail has become a regular occurrence for San Diego photographer Shannon Hall-Bulzone. (Provided by Shannon Hall-Bulzone)

Compounding their pain, Facebook will often go from censoring posts to locking users out of their accounts for 24 hours or more, without explanation  a punishment known among activists as Facebook jail.

In the era of mass incarceration, you come into this digital space  this one space that seems safe  and then you get attacked by the trolls and put in Facebook jail, said Stacey Patton, a journalism professor at Morgan State University, a historically black university in Baltimore. It totally contradicts Mr. Zuckerbergs mission to create a public square.

In June, the company said that nearly 2 billion people now log onto Facebook each month. With the companys dramatic growth comes the challenge of maintaining internally consistent standards as its content moderators are faced with a growing number of judgment calls.

Facebook is regulating more human speech than any government does now or ever has, said Susan Benesch, director of the Dangerous Speech Project, a nonprofit group that researches the intersection of harmful online content and free speech. They are like a de facto body of law, yet that law is a secret.

The company recently admitted, in a blog post, that too often we get it wrong, particularly in cases when people are using certain terms to describe hateful experiences that happened to them. The company has promised to hire 3,000 more content moderators before the years end, bringing the total to 7,500, and is looking to improve the software it uses to flag hate speech, a spokeswoman said.

We know this is a problem, said Facebook spokeswoman Ruchika Budhraja, adding that the company has been meeting with community activists for several years. Were working on evolving not just our policies but our tools. We are listening.

Two weeks after Donald Trump won the presidency, Zahra Billoo, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations office for the San Francisco Bay area, posted to Facebook an image of a handwritten letter mailed to a San Jose mosque and quoted from it: Hes going to do to you Muslims what Hitler did to the Jews.

The post  made to four Facebook accounts  contained a notation clarifying that the statement came from hate mail sent to the mosque, as Facebook guidelines advise.

Facebook removed the post from two of the accounts  Billoos personal page and the councils local chapter page  but allowed identical posts to remain on two others  the organizations national page and Billoos public one. The civil rights attorney was baffled. After she re-posted the message on her personal page, it was again removed, and Billoo received a notice saying she would be locked out of Facebook for 24 hours.

How am I supposed to do my work of challenging hate if I cant even share information showing that hate? she said.

Billoo eventually received an automated apology from Facebook, and the post was restored to the local chapter page  but not her personal one.

Being put in Facebook jail has become a regular occurrence for Shannon Hall-Bulzone, a San Diego photographer. In June 2016, Hall-Bulzone was shut out for three days after posting an angry screed when she and her toddler were called lazy brown people as they walked to day care and her sister was called a lazy n----r as she walked to work. Within hours, Facebook removed the post.

Many activists who write about race say they break Facebook rules and keep multiple accounts in order to play a cat-and-mouse game with the companys invisible censors, some of whom are third-party contractors working on teams based in the United States or in Germany or the Philippines.

Others have started using alternate spellings for white people, such as wypipo, Y.P. Pull, or yt folkx to evade being flagged by the platform activists have nicknamed Racebook.

In January, a coalition of more than 70 civil rights groups wrote a letter urging Facebook to fix its racially-biased content moderation system. The groups asked Facebook to enable an appeals process, offer explanations for why posts are taken down, and publish data on the types of posts that get taken down and restored. Facebook has not done these things.

The coalition has gathered 570,000 signatures urging Facebook to acknowledge discriminatory censorship exists on its platform, that it harbors white supremacist pages even though it says it forbids hate speech in all forms, and that black and Muslim communities are especially in danger because the hate directed against them translates into violence in the streets, said Malkia Cyril, a Black Lives Matter activist in Oakland, Calif., who was part of a group that first met with Facebook about their concerns in 2014.

Cyril, executive director for the Center for Media Justice, said the company has a double standard when it comes to deleting posts. She has flagged numerous white supremacist pages to Facebook for removal and said she was told that none was initially found to have violated the companys community standards even though they displayed offensive content. One featured a picture of a skeleton with the caption, Ever since Trayvon became white, hes been a good boy, in reference to Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black teenager killed by a volunteer neighborhood watchman in Florida in 2012.

Like most social media companies in Silicon Valley, Facebook has long resisted being a gatekeeper for speech. For years, Zuckerberg insisted that the social network had only minimal responsibilities for policing content.

In its early years, Facebooks internal guidelines for moderating and censoring content amounted to only a single page. The instructions included prohibitions on nudity and images of Hitler, according to a trove of documents published by the investigative news outlet ProPublica. (Holocaust denial was allowed.)

By 2015, the internal censorship manual had grown to 15,000 words, according to ProPublica.

In Facebooks guidelines for moderators, obtained by ProPublica in June and affirmed by the social network, the rules protect broad classes of people but not subgroups. Posts criticizing white or black people would be prohibited, while posts attacking white or black children, or radicalized Muslim suspects, may be allowed to stay up because the company sees children and radicalized Muslims as subgroups.

Facebook says it prohibits direct attacks on protected characteristics, defined in U.S. law as race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, serious disability or disease.

But the guidelines have never been publicly released, and as recently as last summer Zuckerberg continued to insist Facebook was a tech company, not a media company.

Unlike media companies, technology platforms that host speech are not legally responsible for the content that appears.

The chief executive has shifted his stance this year. At the companys Communities Summit, a first-ever live gathering for members of Facebook groups held in Chicago in June, Zuckerberg changed the mission statement.

Earlier, he said the company would become, over the next decade, a social infrastructure for keeping us safe, for informing us, for civic engagement, and for inclusion of all.

The company acknowledged that minorities feel disproportionately targeted but said it could not verify those claims because it does not categorize the types of hate speech that appear or tally which groups are targeted.

In June, for example, Facebook removed a video posted by Ybia Anderson, a black woman in Toronto who was outraged by the prominent display of a car decorated with the Confederate flag at a community festival. The social network did not remove dozens of other posts in which Anderson was attacked with racial slurs.

Benesch, who herself has tried to build a software tool to flag hate speech, said she sympathizes with Facebooks predicament. It is authentically difficult to make consistent decisions because of the huge variety of content out there, she said. That doesnt, however, excuse the fact they sometimes make some very stupid decisions.

As for Latour, the Boston mother was surprised when Facebook restored her post about the hateful words spewed at her sons, less than 24 hours after it disappeared. The company sent her an automated notice that a member of its team had removed her post in error. There was no further explanation.

The initial censoring of Latours experience felt almost exactly like what happened to my sons writ large, she said. The man had unleashed the racial slur so quietly that for everyone else in the store, the verbal attack never happened. But it had terrified her boys, who froze, unable to immediately respond or tell their mother.

They were left with all that ugliness and hate, she said, and when I tried to share it so that people could see it for what it is, I was shut down.

tracy.jan@washpost.com
Two reactors at Plant Vogtle power plant in Waynesboro, Ga. Westinghouse Electric Co., the U.S. nuclear unit of Japans Toshiba Corp., filed for bankruptcy protection in March. (John Bazemore/Associated Press)

The long quest to revive the nations nuclear power industry suffered a crippling setback Monday when two South Carolina utilities halted construction on a pair of reactors that once were expected to showcase a modern design for a new age of nuclear power.

The project has been plagued by billions of dollars in cost overruns, stagnant demand for electricity, competition from cheap natural gas plants and renewables, and the bankruptcy of Westinghouse Electric, the lead contractor and the designer of the AP1000 reactor that was supposed to be the foundation of a smarter, cheaper generation of nuclear power plants.

Instead, the partly finished South Carolina reactors, along with two others under construction in Georgia, have demonstrated that the main obstacle to new nuclear power projects is an economic one. The plants would be more viable if the federal government imposed a tax on carbon as part of climate change policy, but that seems unlikely.

Todays announcement is another powerful signal of just how bleak the outlook for nuclear in the United States is, a result of a hollowed-out nuclear industry, cheap gas, falling renewable costs and inadequate policies to account for the climate change costs of carbon emissions, said Jason Bordoff, director of the Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy.

Stronger climate policy as well as government support will be needed if we are to realize the much-heralded nuclear renaissance,  he added.

A worker passes by construction materials for unit two of the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station near Jenkinsville, S.C., in 2016. (Chuck Burton/AP)

Five U.S. nuclear plants have shut down recently, a result of age and of competition from renewable and natural gas plants.

[Westinghouse files for bankruptcy, in a blow to nuclear power industry]

Santee Cooper, the junior partner in the reactor project with a 45 percent share, said shelving the project would save its customers nearly $7 billion in additional costs to complete it, which would have pushed the price to $11.4 billion on what was supposed to cost $5.1 billion to begin with. The project is also at least five years behind its original schedule.

SCANA, the lead partner with a 55 percent stake, said completing the plants on its own would be prohibitively expensive. The reactors were being built at the Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Generating Station in Jenkinsville, S.C., which has one reactor. The two utilities said they would ask the Public Service Commission of South Carolina to approve a plan to abandon the project. About 5,000 construction workers have been on the job.

The United States has 99 nuclear reactors, but only one new nuclear power reactor has been completed since the 1980s. And none had begun construction since an accident at Pennsylvanias Three Mile Island site in March 1979 gave regulators and utilities pause. In 1986, disaster struck the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, killing 30 within weeks, making many more ill and contaminating a wide area.

But a wave of optimism about electricity demand and nuclear reactor designs fueled new proposals in the early 2000s. And federal production tax credits and loan guarantees also have been designed to promote new projects. The V.C. Summer reactors were part of a proposal made in 2008.

If they had come online by 2021, the V.C. Summer reactors would have benefited from federal production tax credits. That would have been plenty of time with the original schedule; the first plant was due to come online in 2016 and the second in 2019. But that appears impossible now, and neither Congress nor the Trump administration has acted to extend the deadline for the credits.

During the administrations energy week, Energy Secretary Rick Perry said that this administration believes that nuclear energy development can be a game-changer and an important player in the development of our clean-energy portfolio globally. Yet the Trump budget proposal would slash nuclear research and development.

Although the Trump administration has touted the benefits of nuclear power, the completion of the reactors would have created competition for coal-fired power plants in the region, undercutting a key Trump goal. An analysis by Michael Shellenberger, president of an independent group called Environmental Progress, says that V.C. Summer reactors would reduce coal generation in South Carolina by 86 percent, an amount of coal that produces pollution equivalent to 3.8 million cars.

Special provisions in South Carolina and Georgia allow utilities to charge ratepayers for a portion of power projects before they come online, a controversial way for private utilities to raise capital. South Carolina ratepayers already have kicked in $1.4 billion through surcharges on their monthly bills.

We simply cannot ask our customers to pay for a project that has become uneconomical, Lonnie Carter, the president and chief executive of Santee Cooper, said in a statement. And even though suspending construction is the best option for them, we are disappointed that our contractor has failed to meet its obligations and put Santee Cooper and our customers in this situation.

Santee Cooper said that Westinghouses parent, Toshiba Corp., has contractually agreed to pay Santee Cooper $976 million in a settlement beginning later this year and continuing through 2022. Santee Cooper will use that money to avoid new debt and stabilize customers rates. The company said it will continue to pursue Westinghouses assets in bankruptcy court to obtain further payment.

SCANA chief executive Kevin Marsh said in a statement that many factors outside our control have changed since inception of this project. He said that chief among them was the bankruptcy of our primary construction contractor, Westinghouse.

In a conference call with analysts Monday, Marsh said the company had sought other partners and government assistance but found none.

Nuclear energy is expanding more abroad, especially in fast-growing China, which has 36 nuclear reactors and 21 others under construction, according to the World Nuclear Association. But it has been easier to meet financial hurdles because the plants are built by state-owned companies and the cost of capital is heavily subsidized by the government.

That could create opportunity for salvaging some of the equipment already delivered to the South Carolina site, said SCANAs Marsh. He said the utilities would maintain the equipment in case a buyer using the same Westinghouse design emerges. Selling the equipment for scrap would be less beneficial than simply taking a tax write-off.

But with Westinghouse mired in bankruptcy court and its parent Toshiba financially strapped, it isnt clear whether the AP1000 design will be used again. Any foreign company seeking to buy the design would need approval from the interagency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.




Attorney General Jeff Sessions endorsed Donald Trump for president on Feb. 28, 2016. At a well-attended Trump rally in Madison, Ala., Sessions, then a Republican senator from Alabama, served as a top foreign-policy adviser during the campaign. Ahead of the election, Sessions met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and discussed Trump campaign-related matters, according to current and former U.S. officials.









At his Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, Sessions was asked by Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) what he would do if he learned of any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of the 2016 campaign. Im not aware of any of those activities, he responded. He added: I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign, and I did not have communications with the Russians.

A week later, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) asked Sessions in a letter: Have you been in contact with anyone connected to any part of the Russian government about the 2016 election, either before or after Election Day? Sessions said, No.









In March, Sessions recused himself from any investigation into the 2016 presidential election, including the Russia probe, after The Post reported he had met with Kislyak at least twice in 2016, contacts he failed to disclose during his confirmation hearing.

Two months later, Sessions told President Trump in a letter that he had concerns about FBI Director James B. Comey, who was leading an investigation into the Trump campaigns ties to Russia. Sessions concluded that a fresh start is needed at the leadership of the FBI.

In his letter, Sessions referenced a letter from Rod J. Rosenstein written May 9. The letter argued that Comey should be fired for his actions in handling the investigation into Hillary Clintons private email server.

Trump fired Comey on May 9.

After the firing, Comey leaked a document to the media that described a conversation Trump had with him about the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. According to Comeys notes, the president said: I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.

Rosenstein, who was criticized for his role in the Comey firing, appointed Robert S. Mueller III as special counsel to conduct the Russia investigation. On July 21, the Post reported that Trump advisers said the president was irritated by the notion that Muellers probe could reach into his and his familys finances.





Sessionss decision to recuse himself was criticized by Trump, who said in an interview with the New York Times: Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else.





When Trump increased the pressure on Sessions with public attacks on Twitter and in media interviews, The Post reported that the president had discussed with his advisers the possibility of installing a new attorney general through a recess appointment if Sessions leaves the job.

On July 20, Sessions said at a news conference he loves his job and will stay as long as that is appropriate.




The images of hunger and need projected onto the rear wall at Dance Place are unforgettable: outstretched hands, so enlarged and cavernous they seemed to reach for our throats; mothers with blank, hollowed eyes, draped in crying children. These details from the works of Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros formed a powerful backdrop for a dance by Anna Sokolow that paid tribute to Siqueiross concern for those cast aside.

The dance, Homenaje a David Siqueiros, was the highlight of this weekends program by Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company, a small D.C.-based troupe that has become a treasury of Sokolow works. Sokolow was a major 20th-century modern-dance pioneer, revered in her day for her work around the world as well as on Broadway and off (Candide, Hair). A founding member of the Actors Studio, she taught Faye Dunaway, Eli Wallach and other screen stars how to move.

But since her death in 2000, Sokolows choreography has faded into the shadows of the dance community. Her chief artistic subject was human struggle and smothered self-expression, themes she treated brilliantly. But theyre not easy to sell.

Yet Singh, director of Dakshina, refuses to let her be forgotten. Nearly 20 years ago, at Dance Place, Singh saw a performance of Sokolows mournful solo, Kaddish, and fell in love with the choreographers gift, the ability to evoke concealed suffering and turn it into poetry. He credits that performance for launching him into a dance career, and over the years he has acquired a dozen of Sokolows works for his companys repertoire.

Singh continued his remarkable preservation efforts with the rarely seen and deeply moving Homenaje a David Siqueiros, which Sokolow created in 1984, a decade after Siqueiross death. She had befriended the artist in the 1940s, when she left her native New York to work in Mexico, and fell in with Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and other like-minded creatives. Siqueiros, like Sokolow, brought politics and social consciousness into his art with a free hand.

Siqueiros was originally performed in the Siqueiros museum in Mexico City, surrounded by the artists vigorous, colorful murals. Lorry May, a former Sokolow dancer and director of the Sokolow Dance Foundation, taught the work to Singhs dancers, though she never danced it herself  it was never performed in this country, May said. It needs the paintings to truly sing; Sokolows choreography, which gathers the eight dancers into circles or sends them running from one corner to another, is deliberately simplified to throw attention on the artworks. May selected and photographed the painting details from a book of Siqueiross work that Sokolow had given her.

The program also included the fine company premiere of Ballade, a Sokolow work from 1965 in a lighthearted, lyrical vein, and excerpts from Singhs Chakra, a work in progress that fuses the Indian classical dance Bharatanatyam and contemporary dance styles.

Harriet Moncure Fellows and Karen Bernstein, Dakshinas longtime rehearsal directors, helped bring these works to the stage, and with their written notes on the Sokolow revivals they have created a valuable, practical archive. Judy Hansens costumes were among the evenings pleasures; soft, harmonious shades emphasized the simple lines of Siqueiros and melded beautifully with the projections of the artworks. It was this work that left the strongest impression, and in the end, Homenaje a David Siqueiros became a homage to its creator, and to the efforts of the entire Dakshina organization to raise her voice, and by doing so to call attention to the suffering around us that knows no boundaries and has no expiration date.
Q: A new neighbor has bats in the chimney. How do we find someone to remove them?

Salisbury, Md.

A: First, your neighbor should make sure theyre really bats. Although they do occasionally roost in old chimneys, its rare for them to locate in modern ones, said John Simpkins, one of the owners of Mid-Atlantic Wildlife Control in Edgewood (443-417-3137; midatlantic wildlifecontrol.com). Ninety-nine percent of people who say they have bats in chimneys have chimney swifts, he said.

How to tell if its bats or birds? Go outside at dusk and watch the flight direction. Bats head out at dusk to feed, while chimney swifts head in to roost.

If the creatures are chimney swifts, just wait a few weeks and they will leave on their own. Chimney swifts migrate to South America for the winter and dont return until April. By then, your neighbor can have the chimney capped  or look forward to hosting these intriguing birds again. Chimney swifts are never around during fireplace season, so having the chimney cleaned in the fall eliminates the risk that the nests will block airflow. The babies do chatter as they beg their parents for food, with sound level highest during the last two weeks before they fly from the nest. But in return for putting up with that, anyone who hosts these birds gets great insect control and a close-up look at a fascinating species.

These fantastic fliers do almost everything on the wing  eat, drink, break off twigs for their nests and are even thought to copulate in flight, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources says on a website page devoted to chimney swifts. The birds are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. A federal permit is needed to remove chimney swifts and their nests during the nesting season.

If your neighbor is dealing with bats, it might also be wise to wait a bit before trying to get them out because babies might still be inside. The only recommended way to exclude bats is to seal all entrances except one and then install a one-way door there so that once bats fly out, they cant get back in. To avoid trapping babies that are too young to fly out, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources recommends waiting at least until September to install the one-way door. Bats hibernate beginning in November, so exclusion shouldnt be done after that, for fear of trapping adults inside. Its critical not to trap bats inside. If the trapped bats are adults, theres a greater chance that they will wind up in living space as they try to escape. And if adult or infant bats die inside, the house will stink.

Maryland allows homeowners to exclude bats at any time. But if the job will be hired out, the pest-control company must have a state permit that specifically mentions bats, and the homeowner must file an online application if the work will be done between March 1 and Aug. 31.

Mid-Atlantic Wildlife Control charges $95 for a consultation, with that fee applied toward the final cost if work is done. Bat exclusion can range from several hundred dollars to thousands, depending on the size and style of the building and the difficulty of sealing entrances, Simpkins said.

As part of any bat-exclusion project, the department recommends installing a bat house outside. This will help protect the bat population, which has declined by about 80 percent since white-nose syndrome emerged in 2007. Having nearby roosting will also help discourage the bats from trying to find other ways into the house.

Q: My porch light is on all night as a security measure. The bulb was sold as a bug bulb, but every morning I find the remains of flying insects all around the porch, as well as webs from the spiders that prey on them. What kind of bulb would be more effective?

Washington

A: Try using an LED bug light. Like incandescent and compact-fluorescent bug lights, the LED version emits yellow light. That helps a lot because insects are drawn more to short-wavelength light: ultraviolet (UV), blue and green. They ignore long-wavelength light: yellow, orange and red.

But LED bug lights work better than the other two types for two reasons: They produce the least heat and the least UV light, both of which are powerful lures for some insects.

However, whatever the source, yellow light always has some amount of blue light in it, so its never as effective as turning off the light. If youre unwilling to do that, consider this tip, courtesy of the Home Depot Web page that offers a Philips LED bug light for $5.97: Use an LED bug light on your porch, but rig up a white light 15 to 20 feet away. Insects will be drawn to the white light, reducing the horde that might otherwise be drawn to the faint blue light from the bug bulb.

Put the white light where dead insects can fall to the ground and disappear into landscaping.


Danica Roem has made history by becoming the first openly transgender candidate to win a state primary in Virginia. The Democrat is trying to unseat Del. Robert G. Marshall (R-Prince William). (Steve Helber/AP)

Traffic. Schools. Jobs. Getting to their jobs, so back to traffic.

Thats what Northern Virginia voters want to talk about when a transgender woman with a rainbow headscarf and slashing black eyeliner knocks on their door.

Which is weird. Because given all the legislation proposed in the Virginia General Assembly on these constituents behalf, you would think the conversations would be nothing but bathrooms, abortions and sex when someone such as Danica Roem shows up.

Roem, 32, has made history, becoming the first openly transgender candidate to win a state primary in Virginia. Now, the Democratic nominee is trying to unseat her polar opposite in the 13th District: 25-year incumbent Del. Robert G. Marshall (R-Prince William).

And she believes she can win exactly because she has little interest in talking about sex, body parts or gender identity  the meat and potatoes of Marshalls public life.

In a rapidly developing part of the state that desperately needs a traffic czar, Marshall instead styles himself as Virginias self-appointed Minister of Private Parts.

He belongs to the party of small government, yet his legislative record is all about peoples sexual and reproductive behavior. Over the course of his career, he has questioned the intelligence of women who use long-term contraception, argued that some incest is voluntary, pushed for women to be legally required to have transvaginal ultrasounds before abortions, suggested that children born with disabilities are the punishment for women who have had abortions, worried that U.S. troops would catch sexually transmitted diseases if they had to serve alongside gay men and women, called for transgender service members to be kicked out of the military and authored a vicious transgender bathroom bill that would allow the government to dictate where someone can pee.

Del. Robert G. Marshall criticizes the 2014 decision of a federal judge to rule that Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. (Bob Brown/AP)

Marshalls ironically named Physical Privacy Act was based on his fear that men and boys would pretend to be transgender to infiltrate bathrooms and locker rooms used by women and girls. Some guys will use anything to make a move on some teenage girls or women, he said.

And here comes his opponent in a district that backed Democrat Hillary Clinton over Republican Donald Trump in last years presidential election: a transgender woman who sings in a metal band, has a boyfriend and doesnt make it a point to talk about any of it.

Traffic. Jobs. Schools, in that order, Roem said about her platform and her issues. And equality.

Of course. I put equality on there because, and she gestured along the length of her royal blue sheath dress, this race will be different.

She doesnt shy away from her identity. The scarf she wears when she canvasses is a big, fat pride rainbow. The story of her transition and medical treatments is on her Web page.

But, unlike her opponent, she doesnt think Manassas residents stay awake at night worrying about which bathroom she should use.

She isnt running because shes transgender and wants to fight Marshalls craziness. No, she is running because of what she learned at work.

Roem is a local news reporter. And for about a decade, she has spent thousands of hours at local government hearings and meetings, poring over planning and zoning documents, proposed legislation and bids for public works projects.

Shes a policy nerd. You try to get a quick yes or no about an issue, and instead you get the memorized 25-year history of a traffic corridor, with the pinpoint details of costs, dates, traffic studies, estimates, rates and efficiencies.

Shes not big into talking points or 140-character sound bites.

Wow. Im impressed, you really know your details, said Denise Coleman, 28, after she opened her door to Roems barrage of details on traffic.

Roem wasnt there to talk about behind-closed-doors morality or to fight a culture war or to get Coleman to understand the two-decade, gut-wrenching journey of a transgender woman.

Nope.

Roem did a straight-from-memory deep dive into why Colemans commute sucks and how it can be fixed. And Coleman loved it.

Thats what Im talking about, Coleman said. This is what matters.

Roem was on a roll. Think youd like a yard sign? she asked.

Well, not really, Coleman said, looking down at her feet, avoiding Roems eyes. My mom lives here, and, you know, shes Catholic.

Roem talked about all the Catholic education she has had  13 years  but didnt push it. She hasnt been positioning herself as some sort of standard-bearer for LGBT rights.

[Trumps war on inclusiveness is really a war on American reality]

In fact, it wasnt until that bizarre Trump tweet last week that called for a ban on transgender service members in the military that Roem went on the offensive on the issue.

For our president, who opted out of serving in the military, to attack transgender people for being unfit to serve . . . is the height of hypocrisy, Roem told my colleague, Fenit Nirappil. Transgender military members . . . have done more to serve and protect their country than Donald Trump ever will.

Roem got a $50,000 donation from Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele, who chairs the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund and was in Washington when Trump issued his military ban.

You, my dear, are on everyones lips across the nation, said Pam Northam, wife of Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam, when she visited Roems headquarters in Manassas for an ice cream social Sunday afternoon.

Im such a fan, I couldnt wait to meet her, Northam confessed to me after she and Roem hugged, smiled for the camera and talked about the knots in their stomachs both get before knocking on each door they hit.

Before heading out for Sunday evenings door-knocking  theyve hit 16,000 doors so far, and Roem leaves a personal, handwritten note for each constituent she doesnt get to talk to  she met with her staff to get a field report.

Is anyone talking about the transgender ban? Roem asked one of her organizers, Brad Chester.

Not really, Chester said. Maybe one person. Power lines, people really wanted to talk about power lines.

And she headed out for another round of discussion about traffic, schools, property values, jobs.

The transgender thing didnt come up. Because, really, who cares?

(Almost no one.)

Twitter: @petulad
BLOOD DONATIONS

Blood drives Fridzy 8:30 a.m.-2 p.m., Loudoun County Fire and Rescue, 801 Sycolin Rd., Leesburg, 800-733-6727; Aug. 11, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., Northern Virginia Bahai Center, 21415 Cardinal Glen Cir., Sterling, 800-733-6727; Aug. 15, 8 a.m.-1 p.m., NALC Health Benefit Plan, 20547 Waverly Ct., Ashburn, 800-733-6727; Aug. 18, 1:30-6 p.m., St. James Episcopal Church, 14 Cornwall St., Leesburg, 800-733-6727.

Inova Blood Donor Center Mondays noon-8 p.m., Tuesdays 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Fridays 6 a.m.-4 p.m. and Sundays noon-4 p.m. Dulles Town Center, 45745 Nokes Blvd., Sterling. 866-256-6372 or inova.org/donateblood.

FIRST AID

First aid/adult, infant and child CPR/AED (Automated External Defibrillator) Fauquier Health Medical Office Building, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. Call for schedule. Registration required. 540-316-3588. $85.

HEARING

Disability Resource Center Technical assistance through the state Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and presentations to businesses, groups and schools. Third Tuesdays 2-5 p.m., Workplace, 205 Keith St., Warrenton. Call for an appointment, 800-648-6324; TDD, 540-373-5890. Free.

MENTAL HEALTH

Counseling for sexual violence survivors Provided by Loudoun Citizens for Social Justice. 703-771-9020.

Crisis Intervention Treatment and Assessment Center Provides emergency mental-health, substance-use and developmental services to Loudoun residents. Daily 7 a.m.-11 p.m. 102 Heritage Way NE, Suite 102, Leesburg. Emergency services are available 24 hours a day at 703-777-0320.

Crisislink Suicide and crisis intervention. Community education, a volunteer crisis response team and CareRing, a telephone outreach program for the elderly and disabled. 703-527-6016, volunteer@crisislink.org or crisislink.org.

Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services This mental-health nonprofit organization is accepting clients ages 16 to 30 for a coordinated services program with Loudoun County to help young people with their first experience of psychosis find hope and recover. For information, call Lisa Beran at 703-388-6572 or go to prsinc.org.

Piedmont Chapter, National Alliance on Mental Illness Serves Fauquier, Orange, Madison and Rappahannock counties. Support group, education classes and events for people living with mental illness and their family members. First Wednesdays 7-9 p.m. Fauquier Hospital, 500 Hospital Dr., Sycamore Room A, Warrenton. 571-426-8213.

Mental health first-aid A public education program offered by the Loudoun County Department of Mental Health, Substance Abuse and Developmental Services to help residents understand mental illness and seek intervention. Go to loudoun.gov/mhfirstaid.

Northern Virginia Chapter, National Alliance on Mental Illness Support group, classes and programs for people living with mental illness and their loved ones. naminorthernvirginia.org.

PREGNANCY, PARENTING

Adoptive family preservation Adoptive families discuss common experiences; registration required. Third Tuesdays 12:30-2 p.m., Ashburn Library, 43316 Hay Rd. Call 703-941-9008, Ext. 23, or email jmellario@umfs.org.

Birthright of Loudoun County Free pregnancy tests, baby clothing, transportation and support throughout pregnancy, 823 S. King St., Leesburg. 703-777-7272.

Bond Between Us A nonprofit organization that offers support to birth parents when children have been placed for adoption. Fourth Tuesdays 7:30 p.m. Call for location. 703-771-7844.

Breast-feeding support Mondays 9:30-10:30 a.m., Fauquier Hospital Family Birthing Center, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-3588.

Dad support New and expectant fathers share ideas. First Tuesdays at 7 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital, 44045 Riverside Pkwy., Leesburg. 703-858-6360.

For the Childrens Sake A group for separating or divorcing parents to share advice. Four-hour session weekly. Information: 703-391-8599 or fitsfoundation.org.

La Leche League Mother-to-mother support and breast-feeding information. 10 a.m. second Wednesdays in Warrenton, 540-351-6103. Third Fridays 10:15-11:45 a.m., call for location, 703-444-7386. Second Fridays 10:15 a.m., Ashburn Library, 43316 Hay Rd., 703-829-0349. Thursdays 10 a.m.-noon, Panera Bread, 43670 Greenway Corp. Dr., Ashburn, lllashburn@gmail.com. Third Fridays 10:15 a.m., Christ the Redeemer Church, 46833 Harry F. Byrd. Hwy., Sterling, 540-338-4637.

Loudoun Fatherhood Program Fathers discuss the joys and challenges of being a parent. Meets every other Saturday for two hours for four months; sponsored by Northern Virginia Family Service. 571-748-2796. Free.

Loudoun Nurturing Parenting Program Positive parenting techniques; children attend with parents. Registration required. Call 703-771-3973, Ext. 27, or email nurturingprogram@lcsj.org. Free.

Mothernet/Healthy Families Loudoun Program links first-time parents with medical, social and educational resources to give children a socially and physically healthy start in life. Family-support workers meet with participants in homes. English-Spanish translation provided. 703-444-4477, Ext. 217, or inmed.org.

New mother support Wednesdays 9:30-11:30 a.m. Inova Loudoun Medical Pavilion, 224 Cornwall St., Leesburg. Babies welcome. 703-858-6360.

Online childbirth education program Inova Loudoun Hospitals Web-based program uses animation, videos and interactive activities to guide users through the basics of childbirth, breast-feeding and caring for newborns. 703-858-6360 or thebirthinginn.org/classes.

Parenting Alone group For parents who have school-age children and have lost a spouse or partner to cancer. Second Tuesdays 5:30-6:30 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital, Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. Call 703-698-2536 or email jennifer.eckert@inova.org.

Pregnancy and childbirth support Childbirth Solutions Resource Center, 8393 W. Main St., Marshall. 571-344-0438.

Young parent services Support for teenage parents. Loudoun County Department of Family Social Services, 52 Sycolin Rd., Leesburg. Call for times. 703-771-5375.

SENIORS

Chair yoga Age 55 and older. Mondays 11 a.m.-noon, Carver Center, 200 Willie Palmer Way, Purcellville. Wear comfortable clothes. Bare feet or socks encouraged. 571-258-3400. $2 drop-in.

Exercise equipment Age 55 and older. Weights, treadmills, bikes and a cardio-glide. Instruction provided. Weekdays 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St. NW. 703-737-8039. Free.

Eye care LensCrafters staff members clean glasses and make minor repairs. Second Wednesdays 1-2 p.m. Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling. 703-430-2397. Free.

Inova Loudoun mobile van Blood pressure checks. Second and fourth Tuesdays 9:30 a.m.-noon, Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling, 571-258-3280; first Wednesdays 9:30 a.m.-noon, Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St. NW. 703-737-8039.

Laughing yoga for seniors Improve flexibility and balance. Thursdays 9:30-10:30 a.m. Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St. NW. 703-737-8039. Free.

Loudoun Adult Day Centers For seniors with physical limitations or memory loss, a safe and social environment, therapeutic activities, individualized care and respite for caregivers. Limited transportation. Sliding-scale fees. Weekdays in Leesburg, 7:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., 703-771-5334; Purcellville, 571-258-3402; and Ashburn-Sterling, 571-258-3232.

Senior Outreach Services Free and confidential assistance from an Area Agency on Aging case manager. Call for an appointment or sign up at the Senior Center at Cascades. First and third Wednesdays 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling. 571-258-3280.

Senior Outreach Services Free and confidential assistance from an Area Agency on Aging Elder case manager. Sign up in the Leesburg Senior Center lobby. Second and fourth Thursdays 11 a.m.-noon and 12:30-4:30 p.m. Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St. NW. 703-737-8039. Free.

Senior Outreach Services Free and confidential assistance from an Area Agency on Aging Elder case manager. Call for an appointment or sign up at the Carver Center. First and third Mondays, 12:30-5 p.m. Carver Center, 200 Willie Palmer Way, Purcellville. 703-737-8741. Free.

Tai chi for seniors Stretching and strengthening movements. Mondays 11 a.m. Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St. NW. 703-737-8039. Free.

Zumba gold class Age 55 and older. Wear rubber-soled shoes and comfortable clothing; bring water and a towel. Tuesdays 11 a.m., Tuesdays and Fridays 1 p.m. Senior Center of Leesburg, 102 North St. NW, Leesburg. 703-737-8039. $24 per month.

Zumba For people 55 and older learning Zumba for the first time, or those who prefer a lower-impact version. The fitness program combines Latin and international music with dance. Thursdays 11 a.m. Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling. 571-258-3280. $12.

SUPPORT GROUPS

Addiction support Tuesdays 7 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Chestnut Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. Email sznnodum@gmail.com or 540-935-8148.

Al-Anon Service Center of Northern Virginia A volunteer is available 24 hours with information for spouses, family members and friends of problem drinkers. 703-534-4357 or 877-339-8350. Mondays 8 p.m., Emmanuel Episcopal Church, 125 W. Washington St., Middleburg, 540-554-2747; Tuesdays 7:30 p.m., St. James Episcopal Church, 14 Cornwall St. NW, Leesburg, 877-339-8350; Fridays 8:30 p.m., Grace Episcopal Church, 6507 Main St., The Plains, 800-344-2666; Tuesdays 12:15 p.m., Warrenton Church of Christ, Route 29 N., 540-347-7448; Tuesdays 7 p.m. and Saturdays 8:30 p.m., Warrenton Presbyterian Church, 91 Main St., 800-344-2666.

Alcoholics Anonymous Various meeting times and locations in Loudoun County. 800-208-8649 or 703-876-6166. nvintergroup.org.

Alzheimers caregiver support For those who care for people with Alzheimers disease and other forms of dementia. Fourth Wednesdays 4-5:30 p.m. The Villa at Suffield Meadows, 6735 Suffield Lane, Warrenton. 540-316-3800.

Alzheimers caregivers support For those caring for people with Alzheimers disease and other forms of dementia. Second Mondays 7-8:30 p.m. Galilee United Methodist Church, 45425 Winding Rd., Sterling. 703-430-9229. galileeumc.org.

Alzheimers caregivers support Emotional, educational and social support for family members and friends of people with the disease. Third Saturdays 10 a.m. Loudoun County Area Agency on Aging, 20145 Ashbrook Pl., Ashburn. Call 703-771-5407 or email lesley.katz@loudoun.gov.

Alzheimers caregiver support group Fourth Thursdays 3-4 p.m. Carver Center, 200 Willie Palmer Way, Purcellville. 540-903-6831 or alz.org.

Alzheimers support First Tuesdays 10-11 a.m. Spring Arbor Assisted Living, 237 Fairview St. NW, Leesburg. 540-338-6520.

Alzheimers support First Wednesdays 4 p.m. Leesburg Adult Day Center, 16501 Meadowview Ct., Leesburg. 703-771-5334.

Alzheim ers support First Thursdays, noon, Lansdowne Woods of Virginia, 19375 Magnolia Grove Sq., Lansdowne. 703-283-6554.

Alzheimers support Fourth Thursdays 3-4 p.m. Carver Center, 200 Willie Palmer Way, Purcellville. 571-258-3400.

Talk About Curing Autism A nonprofit organization educating and supporting families affected by autism. tacanow.org.

Autoimmune support Last Thursdays 6:30-7:30 p.m. Jackson Building, 209 Gibson St., Leesburg. autoimmunesupport@hotmail.com.

Bereaved parent support One-on-one counseling is available. Spiritual Care Support Ministry Center, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. 540-349-5814 or scsm.tv.

Bereavement support Age 18 and older. Third Mondays 1 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Chestnut Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. Sponsored by Capital Caring. 703-957-1800.

Breast cancer support For those with new diagnoses or starting treatment. Register if attending for the first time. Fourth Mondays 5-6:30 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. 703-858-8857.

Breast cancer support Fourth Tuesdays 7-8 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Tower, Chestnut Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-349-0588.

Breast cancer support For those who have finished treatment, have had a recurrence or have metastatic breast cancer. Register if attending for the first time. Fourth Mondays 6:30-8 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. 703-858-8857. Free.

Breast Cancer Support Assistance Fund Loudoun County residents who have received a diagnosis or have undergone treatment in the past 12 months are eligible to apply for financial assistance. Areas included are wigs, bras, puffs and prostheses, mammograms and medical bills, food and help with utilities, rent or mortgage, and transportation costs. The Pink Assistance Fund has been established by the Loudoun Breast Health Network. lbhn.org.

Cancer support Oncology nurses, social workers and spiritual-care providers offer education and support to patients, families and caregivers. Second Mondays 5:30-6:30 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Sycamore Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-2273.

Cancer support Life with Cancer, for patients, family members and friends. Second Thursdays 7 p.m. Ashburn Presbyterian Church, Room 202, 20962 Ashburn Rd. 703-729-2012 or ashburnpresbyterian.org.

Caregiver support Emotional, educational and social support. Encourages caregivers to maintain their physical and emotional health while caring for people with dementia or other chronic illness. Fourth Thursdays 3-4 p.m. Carver Center, 200 Willie Palmer Way, Purcellville. 540-903-6831.

Caregiver support and resource group Wednesdays 10:30 a.m.-noon (no meeting first Wednesdays), Spiritual Care Support Ministry Center, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. 540-349-5814. scsm.tv.

Caring for Aging Parents Support group. Confidential. Fourth Wednesdays 7:30 p.m., Family Focus Counseling Service, 20-B John Marshall St., Warrenton. 540-349-4537.

CHADD parents support For parents of children with ADD/ADHD. Fourth Sundays 3 p.m. KinderCare, 44051 Ashburn Village Shopping Plaza. chadd.novaloudoun@gmail.com.

Chronic illness support Tuesdays 1:30-2:30 p.m. Spiritual Care Support Ministries, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. 540-349-5814 or scsm.tv.

Coffee and Conversation Support for those discouraged because of illness, bereavement, caregiving or a loved one in the military. Thursdays 10 a.m.-noon. Spiritual Care Support Ministry Center, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. 540-349-5814.

Compassionate Friends For parents who have experienced the death of a child. First Wednesdays 7:30 p.m. St. James Episcopal Church, 14 Cornwall St. N W, Leesburg. 540-882-9707.

Creating and Connecting Two-hour art therapy and relaxation workshop for cancer patients. Every other month, 12:30-2:30 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. Call for dates. 703-858-8850.

Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance of Western Loudoun Saturdays 3 p.m. Purcellville Library, 220 E. Main St., Carruthers Room. Call 703-431-7160 or email kathy@dbsanca.org.

Drop-in grief support Second and fourth Wednesdays 1-2 p.m. St. Davids Episcopal Church, 43600 Russell Branch Pkwy., Ashburn. Sponsored by Capital Caring. 703-597-1781.

Families Overcoming Drug Addiction Support group. First and third Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Sycamore Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. myfodafamily@gmail.com or 540-316-9221.

Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth and parent support A group in partnership with Metro DC PFLAG. Fourth Sundays 4-6 p.m. Unitarian Universalist Church, 22135 Davis Dr., Sterling. 703-328-6518.

Griefshare Open to anyone who has experienced the death of a loved one. Tuesdays through Oct. 3 from 7-8:30 p.m. Purcellville Baptist Church 601 Yaxley Dr., Purcellville. Call 540-338-0918 or email caring@purbap.org. Workbook, $15.

Griefshare Nondenominational seminar and support group. Tuesdays 7:30-9 p.m., and Wednesdays, 1-2:30 p.m. Spiritual Care Support Ministry Center, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. 540-349-5814. Free.

Grief support Sponsored by Hospice Support of Fauquier County. Individual counseling available. First and third Thursdays 3:30-5 p.m. Hospice Support Office, 42 N. Fifth St., Warrenton. Registration required. Email hospicesupport@verizon.net or call 540 - 347-5922.

Grief support Wednesdays, 10:30 a.m.-noon, Spiritual Care Support Ministry Center, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. 540-349-5814.

Hospice support Free medical-equipment loan facility for Fauquier County residents. Especially needed are donations of wheelchairs, bedside commodes, rolling walkers, electric hospital beds, shower benches and chairs, adult diapers, lift chairs, Ensure and hospital bed mattresses . 540-347-5922.

Look Good, Feel Better For women undergoing or emerging from cancer treatment. Every other month, 6:45-9 p.m., Inova Loudoun Hospital Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. Call for dates. 703-776-2820. Free.

Loudoun CHADD support Led by Children and Adults With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Third Thursdays 7 p.m. Leesburg Town Hall, lower-level conference room, 25 W. Market St. 703-669-2445.

Lyme disease support Fourth Sundays 2-4 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital, 44045 Riverside Pkwy., Conference Room A and B, Leesburg. Go to natcaplyme.org or email loudounlymeadvocates@gmail.com.

Lyme disease support Third Thursdays 7-9 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Chestnut Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. Call 540-341-8245 or email phillipsgeo@comcast.net.

Lyme disease support Age 18 and older. First Tuesdays 6:30-8 p.m. Carver Center, 200 Willie Palmer Way, Purcellville. Email charphealy@yahoo.com.

MADD Loudoun victim support For those who have been affected by drunken driving. Third Wednesdays 7:30 p.m. 210 Wirt St., Leesburg. 540-338-6491.

Man-to-Man cancer support Sponsored by Loudoun Cancer Care Center, for prostate cancer patients and their families. Second Tuesdays 6:30-8 p.m. Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling. 703-858-8857 or karen.archer@inova.org.

Menopause support Third Thursdays 6:30-9 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital, 44045 Riverside Pkwy., Leesburg (second floor, Patient Education Room). 703-858-8060.

Mens grief support Second Mondays at 7 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Sycamore Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 703-568-3346. Free.

Multiple sclerosis support Saturdays 10:30 a.m. Fauquier Hospital Chestnut Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-349-2826.

Multiple sclerosis support Last Sundays, September-June, 2-4 p.m. Cascades Library, 21030 Whitfield Pl., Potomac Falls. Call ahead to confirm. 703-771-4256.

Nar-Anon family support For those affected by loved ones with addiction. Meaningful Mondays, 7-8 p.m., Galilee United Methodist Church, 45425 Winding Rd., Sterling. 703-203-9792; Wisdom Wednesdays 7-8 p.m., St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church, 37730 St. Francis Ct., Purcellville, 703-606-7125; Serenity Thursdays, 7-8 p.m. Leesburg Presbyterian Church, 207 W. Market St., Leesburg, 703-606-7125.

Overeaters Anonymous For fellowship and support. For locations and times, go to oa.org.

Parkinsons social Coffee and conversation. Third Wednesdays 10 a.m.-noon, Tribute at One Loudoun, Welcome Center, 20618 Easthampton Plaza, Ashburn. parkinsonsocialnetwork.org or 703-378-7221. Free.

Parkinsons support Open to those with Parkinsons disease, their family members and caregivers. First Tuesdays 1:30-3 p.m. Call for Ashburn location. 571-442-8851.

Postpartum support Second and fourth Wednesdays 1-2:30 p.m. Inova Loudoun Cornwall Campus, 224 Cornwall St., Leesburg. Call 703-909-9877 or email lamckeough@gmail.com. Registration required.

Reach to Recovery Home-visit program for mastectomy and lumpectomy patients. Temporary prostheses, exercise instruction and encouragement. 703-938-5550.

Sexual assault and incest survivors group counseling Services provided by Loudoun Citizens for Social Justice and the Loudoun Abused Womens Shelter are free and confidential. 703-771-9020.

Sexual assault survivors empowerment support Sponsored by Sexual Assault Victims Volunteer Initiative. Child care available with 48 hours notice. Mondays; call for times and locations. 540-349-7720.

Spiritual support group For cancer patients, family members and friends. Third Tuesdays 6:30-8 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. 703-858-8850.

Stroke support First Wednesdays, noon-1:30 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Chestnut Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-3588. Free.

Stroke survivors and caregivers support Second Wednesdays 11 a.m.-noon, Inova Loudoun Hospital, 44045 Riverside Pkwy., Leesburg, second floor, Patient Education Room. 703-858-6199 or jill.lieb@inova.org.

Suicide counseling Third Wednesdays 7-8:30 p.m. Leesburg Town Office, Conference Room 2, lower level, 25 W. Market St., Leesburg. 703-587-1618 or survivorsofsuicidelossleesburg@gmail.com.

Widows and widowers support Third Mondays 11 a.m. Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St. NW. 703-737-8039.

Womens support Sponsored by Services to Abused Families. Tuesdays 6:30-8 p.m. Confidential location. 540-825-8876.

Womens cancer support Woman to Woman, first Wednesdays 6:30-8 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. Registration required. 703-858-8850.

MISCELLANEOUS

Brain trauma survivors brown-bag lunch For survivors and caregivers. First Tuesdays, noon-1:30 p.m., Inova Loudoun Hospital, 44045 Riverside Pkwy., Leesburg, second-floor Patient Education Room. Call 703-737-3150 or email jberg@braininjurysvcs.org. Free.

Child developmental screenings For ages 2-5. Children may not be kindergarten-age-eligible. Sponsored by the Loudoun County school systems Child Find Center. 571-252-2180.

Cholesterol screenings Weekdays, 6 a.m.-8 p.m. Fauquier Health LIFE Center, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-2640. Registration required. $35.

Emergency food supplies Loudoun County residents in need can receive a free three-day supply of groceries. Supplies are distributed Mondays through Saturdays by Loudoun Hunger Relief. Call 703-777-5911 or go to loudounhunger.org.

Fauquier free walk-in medical clinic Call Thursdays from 12:30 to 1 p.m. to register for the clinic, which begins at 5:30 p.m. Patients are seen by appointment Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Fauquier and Rappahannock residents only. Bring proof of address for the first visit. Patients cannot have Medicaid, Medicare or private insurance. Information: 540-347-0394 Tuesdays or Thursdays, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

Fauquier Hospital Bistro Senior Supper Club Nutritious meals and fellowship for people 55 and older. Tuesdays and Thursdays 4:30-6:30 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Bistro on the Hill, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-3588. $5.49.

HEROES (Hometown Enabling Relationships, Opportunities and Empowerment through Support) is a program for military families. Support to military members and families, from pre-deployment up to two years post-deployment. Assistance includes financial help, job placement, family care and mental-health services. caring@purbap.org or heroescare.org.

Loudoun Cares information and referral help line Call 703-669-4636 for help in finding resources for county residents on issues of eviction, utility cutoffs, health care and employment.

Motor skill screenings Birth to 21 months. First Thursdays, Blue Ridge Speech and Hearing Center, 19465 Deerfield Ave., Suite 201, Lansdowne. Call for an appointment. 703-858-7620. Free.

Northern Virginia long-term-care ombudsman Call 703-324-5861 for help with complaints related to long-term-care facilities.

Road to Recovery Free rides to appointments for cancer patients. Call 410-781-6909 or email jen.burdette@cancer.org. Free.

Safe sitter classes For girls and boys ages 11-14. First Saturdays except for holiday weekends. 7:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital, 44045 Riverside Pkwy., Leesburg. To receive a Safe Sitter Certificate, students must pass practical and written tests on babysitting and handling an emergency. Take a lunch from home or buy one in the cafeteria. $70, includes handbook and snacks. Registration required. 703-858-8818 or charlene.martin@inova.org.

Seven Loaves Food Pantry Individuals and families can receive a three-day supply of food, distributed Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 10 a.m.-noon. Go to sevenloavesmiddleburg.org or call 540-687-3489.

Tree of Life Food Pantry Serving western Loudoun County. Food is delivered Wednesdays and Saturdays. 703-554-3595.

 Compiled by Sandy Mauck

TO SUBMIT AN ITEM

Email: ldliving@washpost.com

Fax: 703-777-8437

Mail: Health Calendar, The Washington Post, 104 Dry Mill Rd. SW, Suite 101, Leesburg, Va. 20175
Several of the independent experts hired to review applications to open medical marijuana businesses in Maryland had ties to companies whose materials they reviewed, according to records obtained by The Washington Post.

The Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission said it is investigating these potential conflicts of interest.

They include a woman who initially said she had no known relationships with individuals applying for cannabis licenses, but later reviewed an application for a company where her husband was a manager and that was affiliated with a Massachusetts marijuana retailer she had co-founded. Two leaders of a District dispensary joined Marylands panel of experts while their business partners sought to expand into the state; one disclosed the connection, the other did not.

The connections, which The Post discovered after a public records request, raise new questions about how the state tried to avoid conflicts in setting up a legal marijuana industry where hundreds of businesses were competing intensely for a limited number of growing, processing and selling licenses.

The medical cannabis program, which is set to begin selling to patients this fall, has encountered major stumbles since it was legalized four years ago. The state House of Delegates in March reprimanded one of its own for trying to shape medical marijuana laws and regulations without fully disclosing his affiliation to a prospective dispensary.

The state is fending off lawsuits alleging that officials failed to consider racial diversity in licensing and that they improperly chose lower-ranked cultivators to boost geographic diversity. Gov. Larry Hogan (R) overhauled the beleaguered cannabis commission this month, appointing 10 new members.

To review the applications, the commission contracted with the Regional Economic Studies Institute at Towson University. The institute was to oversee 20 industry experts as they reviewed hundreds of business applications. The arrangement was the subject of a blistering legislative audit, which found that the commission skirted state contracting rules by hiring the institute without competitive bidding and allowed costs to balloon without proper documentation.

Towson kept the names of evaluators confidential while applications were pending, citing a double-blind process in which prospective pot entrepreneurs would not know who was reviewing applications, and evaluators would not know whose applications they were assessing, because the names of owners and businesses were redacted.

[Battling racial roadblocks to joined legalized marijuana trade]

Marijuana advocates say the legal sales industry, a fast-growing market worth billions, is relatively small  making it hard to find people who have expertise in marijuana businesses but no connections to companies trying to expand into Maryland.

Daraius Irani, director of the institute, said his organization took multiple steps to prevent bias from tarnishing the medical marijuana review. Evaluators were given only specific portions of applications relevant to their expertise, and those materials were stripped of the names of the businesses, its employees and investors.

RESI took every step to ensure a fair process, Irani said.

But it was possible to figure out in some cases which companies were behind which applications using other clues. Irani said one processor evaluator, whom The Post identified as Michelle Sexton, had recused herself from an application after she realized she knew the owners of a business that made a proprietary product listed in materials.

They had a great proposal, and I hated to recuse myself because I thought it was really well done, Sexton, co-founder of the Center for the Study of Cannabis and Social Policy, said in an interview. But I didnt want somebody to come back and say, Hey, you know these guys, and you scored their application really good. 

Records released in June by Towson identifying all experts and their conflict-of-interest affidavits reveal that several other experts also had relationships with people submitting applications.

Julia Germaine, who evaluated processing applications for Maryland, co-founded a cannabis venture now known as Temescal Wellness in Massachusetts. She is a compliance manager there.

In September 2015, she signed an affidavit saying she had no known relationships to individuals seeking cannabis licenses in Maryland. Two months later, her co-founder and husband, Nial DeMena, and a director and consultant at her company, Ted Rebholz, submitted applications in Maryland under the Temescal brand.

Temescal of Maryland was one of just seven companies preliminarily approved last year for all three medical marijuana business licenses in Maryland  growing, processing and dispensing. DeMena was set to be general manager of the Maryland processing facility but told The Post he is not currently involved with the company; instead he is focused on business ventures in other states and may work in Maryland if needed.

Germaine told The Post that Temescal Wellness of Maryland was a distinct entity from the nonprofit Temescal Wellness of Massachusetts and she was not privy to its business activity.

DeMena said he wasnt aware that his wife was an evaluator in Maryland, and Germaine said she didnt know her husband was part of the Temescal Wellness of Maryland application.

Did I know? Of course not, Germaine said in a telephone interview. She did not respond to follow-up questions about when she learned of her husbands involvement.

You can look at my scores and evaluate the individual scores and see no irregularity, Germaine said. Temescal must have written a good application across the board.

The company lists its Massachusetts and Maryland locations on its website.

In June 2016, Germaine asked the institute whether she should recuse herself from reviewing Temescals application after she recognized the qualifications of a security director as someone she previously worked with, according to emails she provided. But the institute told her to continue scoring.

It is not a conflict of interest simply to know someone professionally who is working in the industry, said Irani, the head of the institute. However, had Julia Germaine revealed to RESI that her husband was the general manager of a company that was applying for a license, or that she was affiliated with a company that was applying for a license, she would not have been an evaluator at all.

Robert Schulman, an attorney for Temescal Wellness of Maryland, said there was nothing improper about Germaine reviewing the application, because she was not involved with the Maryland venture and the process was double-blind. Its unclear whether she reviewed portions of the application that described her husbands qualifications.

What would you gain by knowing a reviewer who doesnt look at the growing application at all and only looks at a limited number of questions, a minute number of questions, to the whole? said Schulman. Theres too much to lose and nothing to gain.

Nevertheless, the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission said it was investigating this potential conflict, and Schulman said his company is cooperating with requests for information. The commission is set to award final licenses to growers and processors in August.

The Commission takes its role concerning the integrity of the Medical Cannabis Program and a fair application process very seriously and has been closely monitoring any and all situations of non-compliance to ensure the public trust, Patrick Jameson, the commissions executive director, said in an email. The Commissioners will evaluate all available background investigation information prior to their deliberative process before issuing any licenses.

[How a Maryland lawmaker shaped and joined marijuana industry]

One application reviewer warned the institute about ties to prospective marijuana entrepreneurs in Maryland before the evaluation process.

Grower evaluator Vanessa West, general manager of the Metropolitan Wellness Center dispensary in the District, disclosed that her dispensary shared an investor with District Growers, a D.C. marijuana grower that planned to seek a cultivation license in Maryland.

But Mike Cuthriell, who is president of Metropolitan Wellness, signed up to evaluate processor applications and did not disclose the connection on his conflict-of-interest affidavit. Cuthriell said he could not figure out which companies were behind which applications from the materials he saw.

District Growers owner Corey Barnette, a part owner of Metropolitan Wellness Center and the shared investor mentioned in Wests disclosure, was turned down for the cultivation and processing licenses he applied for under the name Freestate Growers with other Metropolitan Wellness Center staff. Barnette told The Post that he knew West and Cuthriell were recruited as evaluators and that he encouraged them to disclose their connections to him if they took the position, but he said he didnt know they served as evaluators.

Irani said West properly disclosed her conflict but was given Freestate Growers application anyway because the connection to District Growers wasnt clear to the institute. He said her scoring was in line with how she graded other applications and that it wasnt necessarily improper for her and Cuthriell to review Freestate applications because of other safeguards to minimize bias.

Kate Bell, a lobbyist for the Marijuana Policy Project, said she was troubled by the connections between evaluators and applicants. But she also said she did not want the discovery of the issue to cause further delays in medical cannabis becoming available to patients.The programs launch has been one of the slowest in the nation.

It illustrates the fact that when you have government granting a limited number of licenses, there needs to be full transparency with the public, said Bell. Setting up this system, there was no transparency.
Sunday, JULY 30

Dale City farmers market 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Dale City Commuter Lot (behind Center Plaza Shopping Center), Dale Boulevard, Dale City. 703-670-7112 ext. 227. pwcparks.org.

Bird walk at Merrimac Farm Bring binoculars and cameras. 8 a.m. Merrimac Farm, Stone House, 15014 Deepwood Lane, Nokesville. 703-499-4954. alliance@pwconserve.org. Free, registration required.

Oklahoma! Prince William Little Theatre stages the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. 2 p.m. Hylton Performing Arts Center, 10960 George Mason Cir., Manassas. 703-993-7759. $15-$25.

Ice cream social Sol Roots Band performs. 3 p.m. Loy E. Harris Pavilion, 9201 Center St., Manassas. 703-361-7230. harrispavilion.com. Free.

Honor, Courage and Commitment: Marine Corps Art, 1975-2015 The first exhibit in the Combat Art Gallery features 100 works by 22 artists. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. National Museum of the Marine Corps, 18900 Jefferson Davis Hwy., Triangle. 703-784-6107. Free.

Tailor-Made: Vintage Fashions from the Museums Collection Unveiled Curated by Meaghan Reddick, the exhibit looks at the fashion of the first quarter of the 20th century. Through Sept. 24. Manassas Museum, 9101 Prince William St., Manassas. 703-257-8453. Free.

Still Life and From Life Paintings by Deena Hunkler-Sanks and sculpture by Francesca Di Lorenzo. Through Aug. 6. Loft Gallery, 313 Mill St., Occoquan. 703-490-1117. Free.

Down the Shore An exhibit of fused glass by David and Dale Barnes, pencil paintings by Tina Kannapel and oil paintings by Steve Myles. Through Aug. 7. Artists Undertaking Gallery, 309 Mill St., Occoquan. 703-494-0584. Free.

Monday, JULY 31

Bingo Proceeds support local veterans. Doors open 7:30 a.m. Games 9:15 a.m.-noon. American Legion Post 10, 9950 Cockrell Rd., Manassas. 703-369-4900. $16.

Volunteer Monday Wear work clothes and boots and bring water to help clean up the park. 10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Leesylvania State Park, 2001 Daniel K. Ludwig Dr., Woodbridge. 703-583-6904. Free.

Park West Lions Club bingo Proceeds support local sight, hearing and youth projects. Doors open weekly at 4 p.m. Games begin at 7 p.m. Park West Lions Club, 8620 Sunnygate Dr., Manassas. 703-392-0077. pwlions@aol.com. $10.

Bingo Proceeds support Dale City Knights of Columbus activities and charities. Doors open 6 p.m. Games begin 7:30 p.m. VFW Post 1503, 14631 Minnieville Rd., Dale City. 703-491-2378. $9 minimum.

Photography exhibit Christine Grubbs displays her history-inspired photographs. Through Aug. 31. The Hall at City Hall, 9027 Center St., Manassas. 703-257-8456. Free.

Tuesday, AUG. 1

Bingo Proceeds support Veterans of Foreign Wars and Auxiliary programs and community activities. Thursday and Tuesday. Doors open 5:30 p.m. Games begin 7:30 p.m. VFW Post 1503, 14631 Minnieville Rd., Dale City. 703-670-4124. $10 minimum.

Take Out Tuesday Concert Local rock, funk and blues band Harlen Simple performs. 6 p.m. Loy E. Harris Pavilion, 9201 Center St., Manassas. 703-361-9800. harrispavilion.com. Free.

Wednesday, AUG. 2

Colonial childrens games Learn about games played during the Revolutionary and Civil wars. For children 4 and older. 11 a.m. Leesylvania State Park, 2001 Daniel K. Ludwig Dr., Woodbridge. 703-583-6904. Free.

Cello Fury A trio of cellists and a drummer bring movie themes to life in Melodies, Moods and Movies. 11 a.m. Hylton Performing Arts Center, 10960 George Mason Cir., Manassas. 703-993-7759. $5-$15.

U.S. Navy Band concert The Sea Chanters perform sea chanteys and patriotic, contemporary and Broadway tunes. 7-8:30 p.m. National Museum of the Marine Corps, 18900 Jefferson Davis Hwy., Triangle. 877-635-1775. Free.

Lake Ridge Toastmasters Club Members 18 and older develop their public speaking and leadership skills. 7:30-9:15 p.m. Tall Oaks Community Center, 12298 Cotton Mill Dr., Lake Ridge. 703-491-3020. contact-8913@toastmastersclubs.org. lakeridge.toastmastersclubs.org. $34-$64 membership fee.

Thursday, AUG. 3

Manassas farmers market Thursday 7:30 a.m.-1 p.m. and Tuesday 5-8 p.m., Loy E. Harris Pavilion, 9201 Center St. Also Saturday 7:30 a.m.-1 p.m., Prince William Lot, Prince William Street, Manassas. 703-361-6599. visitmanassas.org.

U.S. Army Blues Jazz Band Bring a lawn chair or blanket for the outdoor concert. 7 p.m. Loy E. Harris Pavilion, 9201 Center St., Manassas. 703-361-9800. harrispavilion.com. Free.

Woodbridge Toastmasters Club An open-house meeting. Learn effective communication and leadership skills. 7:30 p.m. Ebenezer Baptist Church, 13020 Telegraph Rd., Woodbridge. 703-898-7171. woodbridge.toastmastersclubs.org. $68 membership fee.

Friday, AUG. 4

Wetland walk A guided hike into the tidal wetlands along Bushey Point. Wear closed-toe shoes that can get wet. Leesylvania State Park, 2001 Daniel K. Ludwig Dr., Woodbridge. 703-583-6904. Free, parking $7.

American Legion dinner The public is invited to dinner with a different special every week. Proceeds support local veterans and the community. 5:30-7:30 p.m. Woodbridge American Legion, 3640 Friendly Post Lane, Woodbridge. 703-494-4304. vapost364.org. $5-$15.

Jahnel Daliya Bring a blanket or lawn chair for an outdoor folk and pop concert. 6 p.m. River Mill Park, 458 Mill St., Occoquan. 703-491-1918. occoquanva.gov. Free.

Family movie night Finding Dory. Loy E. Harris Pavilion, 9201 Center St., Manassas. 703-361-9800. harrispavilion.com. Free.

Saturday, AUG. 5

Yoga on the Lawn Vinyasa yoga taught by certified yoga instructor Christopher Glowacki. 9 a.m. Rippon Lodge Historic Site, 15520 Blackburn Rd., Woodbridge. 703-499-9812. pwcgov.org/ripponlodge. $5.

Kids fishing tournament 9-11 a.m. Leesylvania State Park, 2001 Daniel K. Ludwig Dr., Woodbridge. 703-583-6904. Free, parking $7.

Home-buyer seminar Presented by local real estate broker Bob Hummer. 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Strayer University, 13385 Minnieville Rd., Woodbridge. 703-878-4866. military-realestate.com. Free.

Rippon Lodge History Happy Hour Includes pop culture trivia, games, music and mingling for adults 21 and older. 5:30-7:30 p.m. Rippon Lodge Historic Site, 15520 Blackburn Rd., Woodbridge. 703-499-9812. pwcgov.org. $15.

Paranormal 101 East Coast Research and Investigation of the Paranormal leads a seminar and investigation at a site that once housed a Civil War hospital. Seminar begins 7 p.m. Investigation begins 9 p.m. and goes until midnight. Ben Lomond Historic Site, 10321 Sudley Manor Dr., Manassas. 703-367-7872. pwcgov.org/historicpreservation. Seminar $40; seminar and investigation $100. Reservations required.

Movie Under the Stars Bring a blanket or lawn chair for A Dogs Purpose. 7 p.m. Stonebridge at Potomac Town Center, 15201 Potomac Town Pl., Woodbridge. 703-583-1202. stonebridgeptc.com. Free.

SummerSounds Concert Series Lil Maceo Kareem Walkes performs as part of the Center for the Arts series. 6:30 p.m. Through Sept. 2. Loy E. Harris Pavilion, 9201 Center St., Manassas. 703-361-9800. Free.

 Compiled by Sarah Lane

TO SUBMIT AN EVENT

Email: pwliving@washpost.com

Details: Announcements are accepted on a space-available basis from public and nonprofit organizations only and must be received at least 14 days before the Thursday publication date. Include event name, dates, times, exact address, prices and a publishable contact phone number.
The State Department overpaid to lease property in Iraq, thanks to a conspiratorial group of contractors. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

A former employee of the major contracting firm DynCorp International admitted Monday that while working in Iraq, he helped cheat the State Department out of millions of dollars.

Jose Rivera, 57, of Potomac, Md., pleaded guilty in Alexandria federal court to conspiracy to defraud the United States, acknowledging that he helped convince his bosses to rent a camp at Baghdad International Airport for a grossly inflated price. He agreed to cooperate against the other defendants in the scheme.

[DynCorp workers accused of bilking State Department out of millions in Iraq]

The State Department ultimately footed the bill for the site as part of a training program for Iraqi police, paying $5,320,000 in rent for the property from September 2011 through April 2014.

Rivera said in court that Emil Popescu, a Romanian contractor in the process of being extradited to the United States, paid him in cash as part of the scheme. Rivera said he only counted the first payment of $15,000 but accepted a government estimate of having received a total of $250,000.

I have no idea how much money I received, he said. I never counted anything.

Rivera testified that he carried some of the money with him when he flew home. At other times, he hid the cash inside speakers he bought on base and mailed home to his family. He used some of the money to buy a $35,000 motorcycle.

Wesley Struble, 49, pleaded guilty in the scam in July, to conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Act, and was sentenced to four years in prison. He was also ordered to pay approximately $3.4 million in restitution. Strubles mother and sister pleaded guilty to lying in front of a grand jury to help cover up his crime.

Popescu, Rivera and Struble shared the profits with Iraqi co-conspirators, according to prosecutors.

Rivera will be sentenced Oct. 6.
A former U.S. diplomat has for the second time been found liable for enslaving and sexually trafficking a housekeeper while posted at the U.S. Embassy in Yemen.

A jury in federal court in Alexandria, Va., agreed Monday that the former envoy, Linda Howard, and her Australian husband, Russell Howard, forced an Ethiopian maid into sexual slavery in 2007, repeatedly raping her. Linda Howard was ordered to pay $3 million in damages to the now 30-year-old woman, identified only as Sarah Roe, who lives in Virginia.

Five years ago the couple were found liable in the same court for trafficking another Ethiopian housekeeper in 2008. They were ordered to pay her $3.3 million. However, the couple had already fled from Arlington, Va., to Australia and contested the judgment there. The case was settled in 2015.

Linda Howard left the State Department in 2013; her husband died in 2012. She denied the new allegations and argued that Roe could not sue for civil damages under a human trafficking law that did not pass until 2008.

According to court filings, Roe began working for the Howards in Sanaa, Yemen, in 2007, when Linda Howard was a Foreign Service officer in the U.S. Embassys Information Program Center. Roe was promised a monthly salary of $150 as well as visa help, medical treatment, support for her daughter and the opportunity to follow the family to Linda Howards next posting in Germany.

She alleged that she was told she must move in with the family, selling the possessions she had acquired in Yemen, and keep Russell Howard happy while his wife was at work.

[A millionaire, a hotel maid, and an arrest after the inauguration for sex abuse]

Roe claims that she was told to wear a skimpy uniform that Linda Howard sewed herself but refused. Russell Howard took her to a mall and bought lingerie, a thong and two miniskirts, which she said she also refused to wear once she realized that was his intention.

From early on, Roe alleged, both husband and wife would grope her and demand that she have sex with them. Soon, she said, Russell Howard was raping her twice a day, telling her it was part of her job. When she protested, she said, he would hit her and throw things at her and threaten to put her in jail. Linda Howard, in Roes account, sometimes joined in. She alleged that Russell Howard dragged her to the hospital so she could be fitted with an IUD against her will.

The couple would show her explicit photographs of previous housekeepers, she said, shouting, She did it, why cant you?

Roe was closely monitored and seldom allowed to leave the house alone. She was also forced to work 85 to 90 hours a week, according to her complaint. The Howards took her passport, she said, and did not renew her visa as promised. According to Roe, the couple had gotten the husband of another former housekeeper put in prison.

I cried all the time, Roe wrote in an affidavit.

Along with the threat of retribution, Roe said she was afraid of the social and legal consequences in Ethiopia of being raped by a woman.

It is . . . shameful and illegal to have any homosexual contact in my country, she wrote in an affidavit to the court. It does not matter that I was an unwilling victim of Linda Howards sexual advances; they would be viewed just the same by my family and friends and by the authorities.

After about seven months, she says Russell Howard became enraged by her continued resistance to his sexual assaults and threw her out of the house. She said she found a place to stay through an acquaintance at the embassy. Three or four days later, she said Linda Howard helped her find a job at a restaurant in the compound. Roe believes she did so to keep her silent.

Roes allegations closely track those of the Jane Doe, who won a civil suit against the Howards in 2012. Doe traveled with the couple from Yemen to Linda Howards next posting in Tokyo. She also alleged that Russell Howard repeatedly raped her, that Linda Howard told her to keep him happy, and that she was isolated and threatened. After she fled in the middle of the night for home, Russell Howard followed her and had charges filed against her in Ethiopia, she alleged.

The crime, involving sexual assaults, forced labor, and trafficking is particularly depraved, U.S. District Judge Liam OGrady wrote at the time.

Attorneys for Howard and Roe did not immediately return requests for comment.
MARYLAND

Man found dead in

woods is identified

Authorities have identified a 47-year-old man who was fatally stabbed and left in a wooded area last week in Adelphi, Md.

Police in Prince Georges County said the victim was Francisco Sagastizado of no fixed address.

Sagastizados body was found Thursday morning with stab wounds near the 7800 block of West Park Drive just after 8 a.m., when someone reported finding an unresponsive man. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The D.C. region had nearly 160 homicides so far this year, according to tracking done by The Washington Post. Of those homicides, nearly 60 were in Prince Georges County.

 Dana Hedgpeth

Police seek man

who raped woman

Montgomery County police are looking for a man who raped a woman after she left a Gaithersburg bar.

The assault happened around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday after the 26-year-old victim left Quincys Bar and Grille on Quince Orchard Road with a man she had met there, police said. According to police, the woman said that when they were outside the bar the man forced her to a nearby grassy area. The woman said she tried to get away but the man held her and raped her.

The assailant fled, and the victim drove to her home and reported the assault, police said.

Police described the suspect as a Hispanic man between 20 and 30 years old. He stands about 5-feet, 3-inches tall and weighs about 200 pounds. He was wearing glasses and had facial hair.

VIRGINIA

Fugitive is set to be

returned to Houston

A fugitive in two Texas homicides who was arrested in Arlington County last weekend was arraigned Monday and awaits being sent back to Houston to face felony murder charges, officials said.

Douglas Alexander Herrera-Hernandez  a Salvadoran national who is a suspected member of the Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, a transnational gang  is charged with the murder of a 26-year-old man in Houston in July and the slaying of a 16-year-old just outside the city in June.

During his court hearing Monday, Herrera-Hernandez, 20, waived his right to contest being extradited to Texas to face those charges, which speeds up his removal, the office of the Arlington County Commonwealth Attorney said.

An official with the district attorneys office in Harris County, Tex., which includes Houston, said a date has not been set for receiving Herrera-Hernandez.

He was held Monday inside Arlington County Jail.

 Antonio Olivo
Govt-Dr KC talks fail to make headway

Talks between the government team and representatives of Dr Govinda KC failed to make much headway on Sunday after the former failed to present its plans to endorse the Health Profession Education (HPE) Bill.


Ana Karen Torres Martinez with her 3-year-old daughter, Addison Camilt Torres, in Raleigh, N.C. Torres fled Mexico in 2016 after a woman she believed had links to a Mexican drug cartel abducted her other young daughter. She is applying for asylum. (Logan Cyrus/For The Washington Post)

 Toward the end of a recent morning hearing in immigration court, Judge V. Stuart Couch looked out from his bench on a nearly empty chamber. On one side sat the prosecutor. But at the table for the immigrants, the chairs were vacant.

From a stack of case files, Couch called out names of asylum seekers: Dina Marciela Baires from El Salvador and her three children. No answer. Lesley Carolina Cardoza from Honduras and her young daughter. Silence. After identifying 17 people who had failed to appear for their hearings, the judge ordered all of them to be deported.

The scene is replaying across the country as immigration courts resolve the asylum cases of families who streamed across the Southwest border since 2014. Tens of thousands of families from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, and some from Mexico, came here citing their need for protection from predatory gangs and criminal violence. Now, they face the prospect of being sent back to countries they fear have not become any less dangerous.

Of nearly 100,000 parents and children who have come before the courts since 2014, most asking for refuge, judges have issued rulings in at least 32,500 cases, court records show. The majority  70 percent  ended with deportation orders in absentia, pronounced by judges to empty courtrooms.

Their cases are failing just as President Trump is rapidly expanding deportations.

Immigration courts have long had high rates of in absentia rulings, with one-quarter of all cases resolved by such decisions last year. But the rate for families who came in the border surge stands out as far higher, according to the Justice Department office that runs the immigration courts and tracked the cases of those families over the past three years.

Many immigrants did not understand what they were supposed to do to pursue their claims and could not connect with lawyers to guide them. Some just stayed away, fearing they could be deported directly from courthouses and choosing instead to take their chances in the immigration underground.

New cohort of fugitives

As a result, migrants from the surge are faring worse in the courts than other groups. By late January, the courts had granted asylum or otherwise allowed migrants to remain legally in this country in 3,792, or 11 percent, of those cases involving families, the figures show. By contrast, in all asylum cases last year, 43 percent ended in approvals.

The large-scale failure of the families claims is the final unraveling of President Barack Obamas strategy to deal with the asylum seekers.

Unlike most illegal border crossers, who can generally be swiftly deported, many recent migrants from Central America asserted that they had strong reasons for seeking protection in the United States. Rather than dodging the Border Patrol, they turned themselves in, saying they were afraid to return home. Under U.S. law, that starts an asylum proceeding in which courts evaluate claims that migrants faced dangerous persecution.

When the surge began in 2014, Obama administration officials, worried they could spur an even greater flow if they accepted the migrants as refugees, tried to detain them near the border and deport them. But federal courts curtailed the detention of children and their parents, and so the Obama administration funneled them into immigration courts to ask for asylum. Families and unaccompanied minors who passed a first stage of screening at the border were released to pursue their cases in courts around the country.

In many of those cases, judges in the overburdened courts are only now rendering their decisions  and families from the Central American surge are becoming a new cohort of immigrant fugitives.

In the past, an order of removal  the immigration equivalent of an arrest warrant  did not necessarily lead to swift expulsion. But the Trump administration has made it clear that anyone on the wrong side of immigration law can be tracked down and deported, whether or not they committed a serious crime.



Maria Arita and her children, Amilcar, left, and Allison, at their home in Charlotte. Arita came to the United States from Honduras in 2013 with her then-3-year-old son to escape a gang that was targeting her family (Logan Cyrus/For The Washington Post)

Dont stop in Charlotte!

The fates of the asylum-seeking families are particularly stark in Charlotte. Three immigration judges, appointed by the U.S. attorney general, labor under a backlog of nearly 8,000 cases. The court, which covers both Carolinas, has an amply earned reputation as one of the toughest in which to win an asylum case.

Maria Arita discovered these realities only after she left Honduras in 2013, forded the Rio Grande in south Texas with her 3-year-old son, turned herself in to border authorities and was sent to Charlotte to join her husband, who had found work here after coming illegally a year earlier. She said a mara  a criminal gang  had taken a dislike to her husband, for reasons the family still does not fully understand. But the gang made its animus very clear.

First they killed my brother-in-law, Arita said, trying to remember the attacks in the correct order. Then they killed my father-in-law. Then . . . they shot another brother-in-law. Thats when my husband realized he had to get out, and he left for the United States. Then they broke down the door of my house. I wasnt home, but they left a message saying they were going to kidnap my son to make my husband come back.

Unlike many asylum seekers in this region, Arita found a lawyer. But after she paid several thousand dollars in legal fees, she said, he dropped her case. Despite her familys trail of death in Honduras, he told her, she wasnt going to win in Charlotte.



A photo of Maria Arita from when she was living in Honduras, next to a school photo of her son, Amilcar. (Logan Cyrus/For The Washington Post)

Terrified of going back, she went by herself to a hearing this spring. Before it was over, the judge had denied her claim and given her a few weeks to pack up, take her son and leave the United States. Results like that are among many reasons immigrants nationwide have been failing to appear in court.

Some migrants came to this country more to escape poverty than violence, and they may have avoided court because they knew their asylum claims were likely to be rejected. But more than 85 percent of the families passed the first legal test for asylum, in which they had to show they had a credible fear of returning home, according to Department of Homeland Security figures.

For many of them, the law itself presents a problem. Migrants running from gangs do not easily fit into the classic categories for asylum, which offers protection to people fearing persecution based on race, religion, nationality or politics. Yet in some courts, artful lawyers have won for people from Central America by crafting cases to fit a fifth, more loosely defined category of persecution in the law, against members of a particular social group. In recent years, migrant women have also won if they were escaping extreme domestic violence.

But not in Charlotte. Couch and Barry Pettinato  two out of three judges on the bench  have made it clear they view asylum as a narrow opportunity, and they regard claims stemming from gang violence as inconsistent with the letter of the law. Couch has scolded lawyers for trying to bend the statute like silly putty to make it work for Central American migrants.

Couch grants asylum in 18 percent of the cases he hears, while Pettinato grants 15 percent, both less than half the national rate, according to an analysis of court records by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a data research group at Syracuse University. As sitting judges, Couch and Pettinato were not able to comment on their rulings.

We should set up billboards on the highway for people coming from the border. Keep going, dont stop in Charlotte! said Viridiana Martinez, who works with Alerta Migratoria, a group in Durham, N.C., that helps immigrants fight deportation.

Mundane obstacles

Without a lawyer, the chances for an asylum seeker to prevail in court here are close to zero. There is no right to government-paid counsel in immigration court. And few low-cost lawyers practice in the region; in South Carolina, not a single agency is offering free legal assistance for asylum. On a list of volunteer lawyers the judges hand out in court, sternly advising immigrants to call them, none had been practicing in the Carolinas for at least three years.

The likelihood that immigrants will show up for hearings increases exponentially when they have lawyers, TRAC figures show. But many lawyers practicing in Charlotte, who have to charge at least $5,000 for all the work involved in an asylum case, have discouraged immigrants from hiring them by being candid at the outset about their chances to win.

One immigrant from Guatemala said he consulted four lawyers who declined to take his case. The man, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because his claim is still before the court, said he fled after a gang hunted him from village to village, trying to kill him to take money he had saved from his taco stand to pay doctors for a chronically ill son. He said the lawyers told him: Your case is not big enough. You better go back to your country. Finally, he found one lawyer, Evelyn Smallwood, willing to give it a try.

Negativity permeates the community, Smallwood said. People talk among themselves. I got the meanest judge; I shouldnt go to court. They just feel the outcome is the same if they do go to court and if they dont.

Amid constant talk on the street of deportations, rumors swirl that agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, are waiting at the door of the court to arrest anyone whose claim is denied  rumors that so far have proved false.

Some obstacles that stop immigrants from attending hearings are mundane. Immigration courts still operate on an antiquated paper filing system. With harried clerks juggling thousands of files, errors occur, and notices go out to wrong addresses.

At one hearing in June, Pettinato was about to order the deportation of a Honduran, Juan Jose Pena, for failing to appear. Just in time, Pena bounded into the courtroom, breathless and apologizing. Because he was living in South Carolina, he said, he had been confused and gone mistakenly that morning to a courthouse in Charleston.



Kathryn Coiner-Collier, the Immigrant Assistance Project Coordinator at Legal Services of Southern Piedmont, works at the pro bono office in Charlotte immigration court. She gives people basic information about what to expect in court. (Logan Cyrus/For The Washington Post)

In a closet-size office near the court entrance, a volunteer offers a 10-minute orientation that is the closest many immigrants will come to getting legal advice. Kathryn Coiner-Collier, who works for Legal Services of Southern Piedmont, is not a lawyer but does what she can to warn people what awaits them. If you go in there without an attorney, you will have to know the law just like the judge, she says.

Im pretty desperate

On a recent day, Miriam Cruz Oliva, from Mexico, told Pettinato she had consulted several lawyers but none would take her case. She said she tried to fill out an asylum application but could not understand it.

They charged me $100 for a consultation and told me to fill it out myself, she said in Spanish through a court interpreter, starting to cry. Its a lot of money.

If you cant pay for an attorney and you cant find anyone to help you, why should I give you any more time? Pettinato asked.

Im pretty desperate, Cruz said. The judge gave her three weeks before a final hearing.

Couch runs a strict courtroom. Some years ago, he urged the disbarment of several attorneys for bringing what he saw as frivolous asylum cases, a decision that was upheld by disciplinary authorities. He requires asylum seekers to include a statement of their legal argument when they first submit their application  even those who have no lawyer. In a recent hearing, he rejected an application from a young lawyer because it did not have an index in the style specified in the practice manual.

Couch dressed him down before the crowded court. I cant practice law for you, he said.

We all know we are going to be yelled at and belittled by the judges in this court, said Joanna Gaughan, a lawyer who came to Charlotte four years ago. A lot of lawyers just dont feel like putting themselves in that line of fire for an asylum case.

Gaughan and other lawyers have begun to press cases anyway, hoping to lay groundwork for appeals. I really believe the judges are not always applying the case law correctly, she said.

One case that lawyers brought back from the brink was Maria Aritas. Just as she despaired, a lawyer, Atenas Burrola, won asylum for one of her husbands brothers. With only days to spare, Burrola succeeded in getting Aritas deportation postponed.

The anguish

But for many immigrants, there is an anguished choice between going to court or laying low and taking the odds of an in absentia order. Ana Karen Torres Martinez, a 27-year-old mother from Mexico, approached American agents at a south Texas border crossing in April 2016, begging for help. A woman with links to a Mexican drug cartel had stolen her toddler daughter, she said. Reporting the abduction to Mexican police had made things worse. She herself was kidnapped for two weeks by the traffickers, with scars to show for a pistol-whipping they administered.

When she continued her search, police drove her in a patrol car to a rendezvous with the traffickers, who leveled a gun at her temple while handing a fistful of cash to the officers. They told me if I didnt stop stirring the water, I should know what would happen to me, Torres said. She worried if she kept pressing, they would kill her daughter. But Torres has not been able to hire a lawyer. A work permit she applied for, a benefit provided under the law to asylum seekers, has not yet come through.

I know we have to go to court, she said. We have to give the judge reasons to believe us. But what does the judge want? I cant work legally, so how am I supposed to pay a lawyer?

The recent deportation orders may not lead immediately to a wave of deportations, ICE officials said, because they are plowing through the backlog looking for fugitives who also committed crimes. According to official records, more than 960,000 deportation orders are on file waiting to be carried out, many dating back years.

But Jennifer Elzea, a spokeswoman for ICE, said agents could carry out the in absentia orders, which include most recent addresses for the immigrants, at any time. ICE no longer makes exceptions for families with no crimes.

All those in violation of the immigration laws, she said, may be subject to immigration arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States.

This article was written for the Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization that covers the U.S. criminal-justice system.

Clarification: An earlier version of this article reported that Judge Stuart Couch urged the disbarment of several attorneys for bringing what he saw as frivolous asylum cases. Couchs criticism was subsequently backed by court disciplinary authorities. Two lawyers were barred from practicing in immigration courts and one was fully disbarred in the state for unethical conduct injurious to the interests of their clients. The article has been updated.

In an immigration court that nearly always says no, a lawyers spirit is broken

She helped deport hundreds of undocumented immigrants. Now shes fighting for them.
TENNESSEE

Nashville mayor

loses her only son

The only child of Nashville Mayor Megan Barry  whom her office described as a kind soul full of life  has died of an apparent drug overdose, and she asked for privacy as she and her husband face life without his laughter and love.

The office released a statement Sunday from Barry and her husband, Bruce, saying Max Barry, 22, died Saturday night in Denver.

Early this morning, we received news that no parents should ever have to hear, the couple said. Our son Max suffered from an overdose and passed away. We cannot begin to describe the pain and heartbreak that comes with losing our only child. Our son was a kind soul full of life and love for his family and friends.

Max Barry graduated in June from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash.

Funeral arrangements are pending. The Tennessean reported a visitation is set for Monday evening at Vanderbilt Universitys Blair School of Music, and a memorial service is scheduled for Tuesday morning at the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville.

Investigator Melinda Rose of the Jefferson County Coroners Office in Denver told the newspaper that an official cause or manner of death would not be declared until after the results of an autopsy, which was planned for Sunday.

The newspaper reported that Max Barry had recently moved to Denver. Jefferson County Sheriffs Office spokeswoman Jenny Fulton told the Denver Post that Barry died at a private residence in the county. The death is not considered suspicious, Fulton said.

 Associated Press

ALABAMA

12 inmates escape;

six remain at large

Twelve inmates escaped from a jail in Alabama, authorities said Sunday, and six still remain at large, including two who were incarcerated on charges including attempted murder.

The inmates escaped from the Walker County jail, the county sheriffs office said on its official Facebook page. No details on when or how the escape occurred were available.

Six of the inmates were recaptured, but the other six were still on the loose, the sheriffs office said.

The statement was accompanied by the names and ages of all 12 inmates, and pictures of those who remained at large were also posted.

The escapees were imprisoned on charges ranging from attempted murder, robbery and domestic violence to drugs possession and failure to appear in court on a disorderly conduct charge.

The inmates, all men, ranged in age from 18 to 30 years old.

Walker County is located just northwest of Birmingham.
Villagers clear rocks and debris at a landslide site in Itogon, Benguet province, Philippines, on Satruday, after Typhoon Nesat hit the area. (Darryl Go/European Pressphoto Agency)

SOMALIA

Al-Shabab ambushes A.U. convoy; 8 killed

Fighters with al-Shabab ambushed an African Union convoy in southern Somalia and killed at least eight soldiers on Sunday, a Somali military officer said. The attack by the extremist group occurred hours after a car bomb in the capital killed at least five people and wounded at least 13, most of them civilians, shattering a month of relative calm in Mogadishu.

The al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab fighters attacked the convoy in the Lower Shabelle region, Col. Muhyadin Yasin said.

Ugandas Defense Ministry confirmed the attack on the multinational force, saying an unknown number of troops were killed.

Al-Shabab claimed that the attack killed 39 soldiers.

Al-Shabab has become the deadliest Islamist militant group in Africa. Despite being forced out of many cities and towns in Somalia, it continues to launch lethal attacks in Mogadishu and elsewhere. It wants to oust the central government and install a strict version of sharia law.

The group continues to pose major challenges to the allied Somali and A.U. forces, even as the A.U. force plans to pull out of Somalia in the coming years.

Hundreds of A.U. troops have been killed in recent years as al-Shabab targets their military bases as well. The group also carries out deadly attacks in neighboring countries that have sent troops to support Somalias fragile central government.

 Associated Press

MOROCCO

King pardons some jailed during unrest

Moroccos King Mohammed VI has pardoned some people jailed during a protest movement that has affected an impoverished northern region for months, slamming politicians and public officials for their unprecedented irresponsibility.

The Justice Ministry said the king granted early releases to and reduced sentences of 1,178 inmates and other convicts, including an undisclosed number of people detained during unauthorized demonstrations in the city of El Hoceima and elsewhere.

The pardon measures were announced on the occasion of the 18th anniversary of Mohammeds accession to the throne.

The Hirak protest movement has posed the biggest challenge for the kingdom since the Arab Spring in 2011 overthrew long-standing regimes elsewhere in the region. Morocco is a key U.S. ally known for its stability.

The protests were unleashed by the death of a fish vendor who was crushed by a garbage compactor in October while trying to recover fish that officials had confiscated.

The ministry said the pardons were limited to those who did not commit crimes or serious acts during the protests, which started in the northern Rif region and spread.

In a particularly firm speech delivered in the northern town of Tetouan for his accession anniversary, the king was quoted by the official MAP news agency as accusing some officials of mismanaging the interests of citizens and displaying an unacceptable attitude during the protests.

The protesters have criticized what they deem the corruption and mismanagement of public administrators and blamed political parties for a lack of economic development in their region.

 Associated Press

Typhoon injures 111 in Taiwan: A strong typhoon swept across Taiwan, injuring 111 people and leaving coastal towns flooded. Typhoon Nesat made landfall on the northeastern coast of Taiwan with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph and gusts of up to 107 mph, according to the national weather bureau. Nesat caused the cancellation of 145 international flights and cut power to nearly half a million households.

Gunman, officer killed in attack on Kenya deputy presidents home: A gunman who gained entry to the home of Kenyas deputy president in the western town of Eldoret was killed after he wounded a police guard with a machete and then killed another with a stolen rifle, the nations police chief said. William Ruto and his family were not at home at the time, police said. Ruto is the running mate of President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is seeking a final term in office in the Aug. 8 election.

Dispute at German club leaves worker, gunman dead: A disagreement in a German discotheque turned deadly after the disco operators son-in-law left the club, returned with an assault rifle and started shooting, law enforcement officials said. A security guard was killed and four people were wounded during the rampage in the southwestern town of Konstanz. The suspect was shot by police on a nearby street and died in a hospital.

 From news services
A look at the second half of the presidents first year in the White House.

A look at the second half, so far, of President Trumps first year in office

A look at the second half, so far, of President Trumps first year in office

Did your head spin when Utahs Orrin Hatch, a true conservative and the Senates longest-serving Republican, emerged last week as the most eloquent spokesman for transgender rights? Credit the Trump boomerang effect.

Much has been said about White House dysfunction and how little President Trump has accomplished in his first six months. But thats not the whole story: In Washington and around the world, in some surprising ways, things are happening  but they are precisely the opposite of what Trump wanted and predicted when he was sworn in.

The boomerang struck first in Europe. Following his election last November, and the British vote last June to leave the European Union, anti-immigrant nationalists were poised to sweep to power across the continent. In the wake of the electoral victories of the Brexit campaign and Donald Trump, right-wing populism in the rich world has appeared unstoppable, the Economist wrote. Russian President Vladimir Putin would gain allies, the European Union would fracture.

But European voters, sobered by the spectacle on view in Washington, moved the other way. In March, the Netherlands rejected an anti-immigrant party in favor of a mainstream, conservative coalition. In May, French voters spurned the Putin-loving, immigrant-bashing Marine Le Pen in favor of centrist Emmanuel Macron, who went on to win an overwhelming majority in Parliament and began trying to strengthen, not weaken, the E.U.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whom Trump belittled for having allowed so many refugees into her country, has grown steadily more popular in advance of a September election.

(U.S. Senate)

Trumps win seemed certain to bring U.S.-Russian ties out of the deep freeze. Again, the opposite has happened. Congress, which cant agree on anything, came close to unanimity last week in endorsing tough, Trump-proof sanctions against the Putin regime. Russia is expelling diplomats and seizing U.S. diplomatic properties. The new Cold War is colder than ever.

The third sure thing, once Republicans took control, was the quick demise of Obamacare. We saw last week how that turned out. But heres the boomerang effect: Obamacare is not just hanging on but becoming more popular the more Trump tries to bury it. And if he now tries to mismanage Obamacare to its death, we may boomerang all the way to single-payer health insurance. This years debate showed that most Americans now believe everyone should have access to health care. If the private insurance market is made to seem undependable, the fallback wont be Trumpcare. It will be Medicare for all.

Once you start looking, you find the boomerang at work in many surprising places. Trumps flirting with a ban on Muslim immigration encouraged federal judges to encroach on executive power over visa policy. Firing FBI Director James B. Comey entrenched the Russia investigation far more deeply. Withdrawing from the Paris climate treaty spurred states from California to Virginia to toughen their policies on global warming. Threatening the research budget may have strengthened the National Institutes of Healths hand in Washington. And so on.

The boomerang effect is no panacea. Trump can still do grave damage at home and abroad in the next 3 years. If he undermined Obamacare, millions of people would suffer before we got to single-payer. Nationalist governments ensconced in parts of Eastern Europe could still draw strength from Trump. The absence of U.S. leadership in the world leaves ample ground for others to cause trouble.

But Trumps policies are turning against him, and not only because his execution has been so ham-handed. The key factor is that so many of his policies run so counter to the grain of cherished values and ideals.

It turns out that Americans really dont like the idea of poor people not being able to see a doctor. We dont feel right cozying up to a dictator whose domestic opponents are rubbed out and whose neighboring countries are invaded and occupied.

And even if some Americans dont know all that much about transgender people, it turns out we are less comfortable treating anyone as a burden, as Trump said in his tweet, than in valuing every individuals service, a spirit that Hatch captured in his straightforward, humane response.

I dont think we should be discriminating against anyone, Hatch said. Transgender people are people, and deserve the best we can do for them.

And Americans arent unique. Millions of people in Europe and around the world are just as appalled by the scapegoating of minorities and the celebration of police brutality.

That has an effect. Maybe Newtons third law of motion doesnt translate perfectly into the political sphere, but a version of it applies: For every malignant or bigoted action, there will be an opposite reaction. And you can never be sure where it will begin.

Read more from Fred Hiatts archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
Regarding the July 28 Metro article Put your baby in a . . . box?:

Favorable infant mortality figures are strongly related to whether the mother makes a prenatal health visit in the first trimester. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the leading causes of infant mortality in the United States include birth defects, preterm birth, maternal complications of pregnancy, and sudden infant death syndrome. The last factor, SIDS, is addressed by the baby box, but addressing the others requires a visit with a health-care provider early in pregnancy. The primary impetus for the baby-box program in Finland is getting the mother into the health-care system early. In Finland, the baby box is offered as part of a comprehensive package for expectant mothers only after the mother documents a health-care contact within the first trimester of a viable pregnancy. The baby box is a unique and tangible aspect of this program, but it would be a mistake to cite this as the sole factor in Finlands low infant mortality rate. Countries with a homogeneous population and universal access to health care tend to do better on infant mortality. Since about 1981, Sweden, Japan and Finland have shared the No. 1 position in infant-mortality prevention. We could do better in the United States, but the baby box alone will not solve the problem.

Robert Burney, Sperryville
Quietly but persistently, the Trump administration has been pressing the Chinese government to allow Liu Xia, widow of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, to leave China, where she is being held against her will. Senior U.S. officials regard Chinas ongoing mistreatment of Liu and her family as human rights abuses that simply cant be ignored.

The regime of Xi Jinping, meanwhile, is obsessed with the possibility that Congress will pass legislation renaming the street in front of the Chinese Embassy in Washington Liu Xiaobo Plaza. Chinese officials have demanded in recent senior-level interactions that the Trump administration bury the bill, to no avail.

The issue now threatens to become a major irritant in the U.S.-Chinese relationship. Neither side wants it to escalate to that level, but unless the Chinese government responds to U.S. and international calls to free Liu, theres little to stop Congress from moving forward.

The White House stepped up its advocacy on behalf of Liu Xiaobo earlier this year, as the poet and human rights activist died slowly from liver cancer while in Chinese government custody. Top White House officials raised his case with Chinese counterparts during President Trumps trip to Hamburg this month, a senior administration official said. Liu had been imprisoned since 2009.

After Lius death the following week, White House officials repeatedly raised the case of Liu Xias well-being, pressing Chinese authorities to allow her to travel abroad. The strategy has been to keep the advocacy quiet rather than publicly shame the Chinese government, according to the official.

Liu Xia has been under house arrest without charge or trial since 2010, although the Chinese government denies that her freedom is restricted. In 2013, she was allowed to witness the trial of her brother Liu Hui, after which she shouted to reporters, I am not free. If they tell you Im free, tell them Im not free.

Meanwhile, this month top Chinese officials have repeatedly pressed top Trump officials to prevent Congress from passing the Liu Xiaobo Plaza legislation, introduced by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.). In a July 17 phone call, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi raised the issue with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, according to internal notes of the call I obtained.

Yang urged the Trump administration to influence key members of Congress and publicly promise a presidential veto. Yang told Tillerson this was a critical moment in U.S.-Chinese relations and renaming the plaza would seriously affect Chinese cooperation on major issues. Tillerson told Yang the Chinese government should engage with Washington on Lius case.

In an interview, Cruz rejected Beijings objections and said he is in discussions with Senate leadership to move the bill forward. Im glad to hear its got their attention, he said. Ill be even more glad when they change their conduct and stop being gross human-rights abusers.

The bill is modeled on a Cold War example, when in 1984 Congress acted to rename the street in front of the Russian Embassy for Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975. Sakharov was arrested and condemned to internal exile from 1980 until 1986.

For the Chinese leadership, international recognition of Liu Xiaobos life or achievements is seen as interference in Chinas internal affairs and a direct challenge to the Chinese Communist Partys rule.

Liu was the co-author and first signer of Charter 08, a manifesto signed by hundreds of Chinese activists and intellectuals calling for freedom, equality, human rights, democracy and constitutional government in China. Based on that, he was arrested for inciting subversion of state power.

Anything that would carry his name would be seen as a constant, daily, in-your-face challenge to China and to Xi Jinping, said Bonnie Glaser, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. There is no tolerance in China under Xi Jinping for this kind of dissent. That is what Liu Xiaobo represented.

The Chinese government went so far as to cremate Lius body and scatter his ashes in the ocean so there would be no gravesite to memorialize him. Chinese government censors work to erase references to him on Chinas Internet.

Xi cant be seen as giving in to U.S. pressure on issues related to Chinese Communist Party rule, Glaser said. Still, there is precedent for China to show some flexibility on Liu Xias case.

In 2012, Beijing allowed human-rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng to come to the United States with his family, after intense negotiations with the Obama administration. Liu is not a dissident, just the widow of one, making her persecution even more egregious.

If the Trump administration keeps up its pressure, a negotiation could ensue. But as long as Liu remains a prisoner of the Chinese state, international calls for her release and actions to honor her husbands legacy will only increase.

Read more from Josh Rogins archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
Regarding the July 26 front-page article N. Korea on fast track to nuclear missile:

North Korea is unlikely to use a nuclear weapon first because of the logic of deterrence. Retaliation would be assured and universally supported. North Korea and its government would not survive. North Koreas conventional forces have threatened South Korea with unacceptable damage. But what has North Korea gotten for its trouble? Security from invasion and little else. It is subject to the most rigorous sanctions in the world, profoundly poor, isolated, anathematized, a burden to China and a problem to everyone else. That is why North Korea will not serve as a model for further proliferation. Its nuclear program is the product not only of the savage paranoia of successive North Korean regimes but also of the Cold War dynamic in which China espoused stupid positions simply to oppose sensible Western ones. That has changed. Iran provides a strong counter-example for any state that might be tempted: Attempting to develop nuclear weapons is a bad bet and will result in a huge net loss.

The way forward? Continue to pressure North Korea. Work with China, South Korea, the other lawful nuclear weapon states and the larger international community. Guard against any nations desire to develop a nuclear weapon capability, as we did with Iran. Have faith in deterrence. And, above all, keep our heads.

William B. Wood, Washington

The writer, a retired foreign service officer and former ambassador to Colombia and Afghanistan, is a former special representative for International Sanctions Implementation,

including on North Korea.
THE U.S. Attorneys Office for the District was taken to task in a report last year for the amount of time it takes to investigate officer-involved shootings. The criticism unfortunately seems to have fallen on deaf ears. The public is still waiting for answers to questions about the fatal shooting more than 10 months ago of a 31-year-old motorcyclist  which is typical of the offices lack of urgency in handling these critical matters.

Our office is continuing to work with the Metropolitan Police Department on the Sept. 11, 2016, shooting of Terrence Sterling, a U.S. attorneys spokesman told us last week. Last month, Mr. Sterlings family issued a statement calling attention to the disheartening amount of time that has passed without answers. Mr. Sterling was shot after police said he rammed his motorcycle into a squad car. But questions have been raised about that account and about why the officer, equipped with a body camera, failed to record the event, in apparent disregard of department policy. It is hard to reconcile how quickly the police will charge our citizens yet, when its one of their own, it seems as if they are looking for any way to avoid it, the family said in their statement.

Clearly there must be a thorough investigation with no rush to judgment. But the amount of time that federal prosecutors take to review police-involved shootings in the District to determine whether there are violations of federal civil rights or D.C. criminal laws has long been a worrisome issue. A report last year by former Justice Department inspector general Michael Bromwich, which was commissioned by the D.C. auditor, said it takes on average 19 months to close a case and recommended that investigations be completed within six months. More reasonable, said prosecutors in their response, was nine months, the amount of time under D.C. law that prosecutors have to pursue a grand jury indictment against a murder suspect who is jailed awaiting trial.

Each case is different, and no doubt there are cases of such complexity that more time and work may be needed. But prosecutors should recognize that each day that goes by without answers results in a toll not only on families of the victim but also on the officers involved. It also leaves the public wondering how much official interest there is in getting to the bottom of police-involved shootings.
Health authorities urge caution after swine flu claims two lives

With two reported deaths and early signs of possible outbreak in the western town of Waling, Syangja, health authorities fear that swine-flu (Influenza A H1N1) could hit major urban centres including the Capital.
I graduated from J.E.B. Stuart High School, as my brother and sister had before me, in 1975, and left town for college. It was immediately embarrassing to explain to new friends from other areas of the country why my high school was named for a second-tier Confederate general. Despite my protestations that the schools location was related to Stuarts campaigns, they understandably concluded that I came from a backwater Southern town with nostalgia for the Civil War.

The conclusions in the July 26 editorial A legacy that should be left behind, regarding the high schools name, were entirely correct. Renaming the school does not  indeed cannot  rewrite history. J.E.B. Stuart will always have been a Confederate general, just as I will always have graduated from a school named for him. But those historical facts do not compel the Fairfax County School Board to honor him permanently by retaining the schools name. In 1958, the school board made a decision that Stuarts deeds justified honoring him by naming a high school for him; the Fairfax County School Board was right to reconsider that decision and vote to rename the school.

Liz Birnbaum, Alexandria
Clarification: In referring to a connection between Chinas Hisense Electric and North Koreas missile testing program, the author was not suggesting any connection except the indirect one described in the following sentence  namely, that every U.S.-China commercial dispute has a bearing on Chinas position with respect to North Korea.

There isnt going to be a trade war with China. The risks of a real war with North Korea are now too high.

It is not unimaginable to have military options to respond to North Korean nuclear capability, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told NBC Newss Andrea Mitchell last week at the Aspen Security Forum. Whats unimaginable to me is allowing a capability that will allow a nuclear weapon to land in Denver, Colorado. Thats unimaginable to me. And so my job will be to develop military options to make sure that doesnt happen.

Given that relatively few people know of Dunfords blunt warning, odds are very high that only a handful of readers have heard of Chinas Hisense Electric and its connection with North Koreas missile testing and nuclear weapons programs. But understanding that connection, and the connection of every commercial dispute to the North Korean crisis, is central to appreciating the dilemma the Trump administration faces in its dealing with China and by extension North Korea.

Since the Clinton administrations October 1994 agreement with North Korea, the long fuse of the North Korean crisis has been burning. Indeed, it is fair to say that the fuse has been burning since the armistice in the Korean War was signed on July 27, 1953. Beijing was a party to that long-ago non-ending of a brutal war, and it is very much a part now of the front-and-center crisis on the Korean Peninsula.

It also makes TV screens, through the state-owned Hisense Electric. Hisense is a Chinese manufacturer of television screens, a competitor to Samsung or Sony or Vizio, which you might see at a Costco or a Best Buy, John Yoo, law professor at the University of California at Berkeley, said on my radio show this month. The thing is, Hisense is completely owned by a Chinese city, by a subdivision of the Chinese government.

(The Washington Post)

Yoo and I were discussing the difficulty of achieving workable free-trade agreements with countries such as China with massive stakes in private businesses that operate with all the advantages of a state actor. Sharp, a Japanese company now owned by Taiwanese company Foxconn, is now suing Hisense in California courts for what Sharp claims is deep damage to its brand via shoddy workmanship by Hisense, a claim Hisense denies. Expect to see a prolonged battle over whether Hisense can even be sued in a state court given its state-owned status. But if the United States steps into the fray in defense of its own regulatory standards, suddenly yet another disagreement is on the table in the rapidly expanding list of U.S.-China disputes, a list that already includes hundreds of commercial arguments and some serious national security ones, such as the construction of militarized artificial islands and various espionage cases.

All of these disputes are overshadowed by the North Korean crisis, in essence held hostage by a dictator with scores of weapons of mass destruction of all sorts, including nukes. President Trump has repeatedly called on China to help disarm its unstable dependent ward, but to no obvious avail, just as Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton were frustrated by Chinas apparent willingness to risk a deadly war on the peninsula rather than risk seeing Korean unification under the leadership of South Korea. Unlike those presidents, though, Trump campaigned on an aggressive trade agenda with China that reaches far down into the complexities of its intricate network of commercial advantages, a network long considered by senior White House aide Peter Navarro to be basically war by other means. (The former professor at the University of California at Irvine is the author of the decidedly un-academically named Death by China: Confronting the Dragon  A Global Call to Action.)

The reality is, however, that the United States needs China right now more than we need fair trade. Sharp and the state of California might have to fight for their own interests any legal way they can, and indeed state and local U.S. governments might try to rebalance scales on behalf of non-Chinese companies in such legal battles. But the federal cavalry isnt coming over the hill in the China trade battle anytime soon. The Trump administration needs to tell its grass-roots supporters why.
Gunmen stormed the Iraqi Embassy compound in Kabul after a suicide bomber blasted open the gates to the site Monday, forcing diplomats and others to flee as Afghan security forces battled the attackers, officials said.

Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danesh told reporters that two Afghan employees of the embassy were killed and three policemen were injured, the Associated Press reported. The three gunmen who entered the compound were killed during the shootout, which lasted nearly four hours.

The Islamic State-affiliated news agency Amaq claimed that militants from the group carried out the assault and killed at least seven guards. The claims could not be immediately verified.

Danesh said all embassy staff were moved to a safe location.

The attack began with an explosion outside the embassy, authorities said. Then a group of gunmen entered the compound, which is near the Afghan Public Protection Force and a government guesthouse.

An Afghan police man covers himself as smoke rises from the site of an attack in Kabul on Monday. (Reuters)

The public protection force was the target of a similar attack by Afghanistans main insurgent group, the Taliban, a few years ago.

Militants have hit Western installations on various occasions in Afghanistan, and the targeting of the Iraqi mission was a rare strike against an Islamic nation. The Islamic States claim of responsibility did not give a motive for the attack, but the Iraqi forces earlier this month declared victory in their fight to oust the militants from the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

The Afghan Foreign Ministry denounced the attack as unjustifiable and said it trampled respect for humanitarian value.

The attack comes a week after a Taliban suicide bomber killed nearly 30 people in a different part of Kabul. The Taliban militants have stepped up their attacks in recent weeks, killing scores of security forces and making gains in various parts of the country.

The attacks underline the fragility of the situation despite the presence of U.S. troops in the country more than 15 years since the Taliban was driven from power in Kabul.

Brian Murphy in Washington contributed to this report.
WikiLeaks published Monday a cache of more than 70,000 emails related to the recent campaign of French President Emmanuel Macron and other correspondence going back to 2009.

There were no immediate bombshell disclosures in the latest major online dump of leaked material, but the publication of the material appeared certain to bring further scrunity to online security among political campaigns and other organizations.

The documents  dated between 2009 and April 24, 2017, the day of the French elections first round  include many routine exchanges such as travel schedules and appointments. But it could be days before all the documents are reviewed.

The data dump came at a time when cybersecurity remains a concern in France and in Europe.

Just minutes before campaigning closed in the second and final round of the French presidential election in early May, the Macron campaign issued a statement claiming that it had been the victim of a major hacking operation in which thousands of emails and other internal communications were thrust into the public domain.

On Monday, Macron's party, La Republique En Marche, or Republic on the Move, issued a statement suggesting that there was a connection between the latest leaked emails and others disclosed just before the second-round election in May.

According to our initial investigations, the statement read, these documents would be the same as those resulting from the piracy operation organized on May 5 on the eve of the presidential election.

The party said it was in contact with public prosecutors.

Although the first Macron data dump had virtually no effect on the results of the French election  Macron still defeated his opponent, the far-right Marine Le Pen, in a landslide  it nevertheless stoked fears of a Russia-backed cyberattack, given that the Kremlin had openly supported Le Pen in the election.

But in early June, following the results of a French government investigation, Guillaume Poupard, the head of Frances National Cybersecurity Agency, told the Associated Press that the earlier Macron hack was likely the result of an isolated individual.

The attack was so generic and simple that it could have been practically anyone, Poupard said.

With German elections approaching in September, fears of potential cyberattacks  especially by those whom Russian President Vladimir Putin has called patriotic hackers  remain high.

Read more:

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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Natural gas production test to be done at Teku

The Department of Mines and Geology (DoMG) has planned to start a natural gas production test at Pachali, Teku by mid-August. It is currently building the necessary infrastructure, it said.
Migrants wait on a roadside leading to the port of Calais, France, on July 3. Calais for years has drawn migrants and refugees hoping to cross the English Channel to Britain. (Denis Charlet/AFP/Getty Images)

Frances highest administrative court ordered the government to provide humanitarian aid to the hundreds of migrants who have continued arriving in the northern port city of Calais even after authorities destroyed the infamous Jungle camp.

In blistering language, the court decried the squalid conditions facing migrants in Calais, long a dramatic focal point in French politics and in Europes ongoing migration crisis. It also rejected appeals by state and local authorities, both of which had resisted an earlier order to improve the situation.

The living conditions of migrants reveal a failure of public authority, which is liable to expose the persons concerned to inhuman or degrading treatment and thus constitutes a serious and manifestly unlawful interference with a fundamental freedom, read the opinion of the court, known as the Conseil dEtat.

The ruling came less than a week after the publication of a sharply critical report from Human Rights Watch, based on conversations with approximately 60 migrants, about half of whom were minors. Those interviewed complained of police violence and regular disruptions of humanitarian assistance, especially food and access to amenities as basic as toilets and showers.

[Migrants evicted from miserable Calais camp leave with bittersweet memories]

Migrants in Calais interviewed by The Washington Post earlier in the summer voiced the same complaints, with some saying they now sleep on the street.

But perhaps the most shocking allegation in the Human Rights Watch report  widely discussed in French media  was that riot police regularly use pepper spray on child migrants, even when they pose no conceivable threat.

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said in response to the courts ruling Monday that France would open two facilities in the Calais region to house and better inform incoming migrants about the asylum process.

Collomb assured reporters that better access to water will be guaranteed. But this, he added, went hand in hand with avoiding the need for the resettlement of camps.

The interior minister also addressed the Human Rights Watch report. The police do not use pepper spray but tear gas, he said.

For nearly two years, the predominantly working-class city of Calais was home to the Jungle, a sprawling, squalid encampment where thousands of migrants and refugees waited in legal limbo as they tried to enter Britain, 20 miles across the English Channel.

Throughout that time, local residents complained that the presence of so many migrants posed considerable threats to their personal and economic security. They found their champion in far-right politician Marine Le Pen, whose candidacy for the French presidency featured tough stances on migrants and Muslims. Le Pen lost the election in a landslide, but she won in Calais.

After revelations that some of those involved in the 2015 Paris attacks had entered Europe disguised as migrants, the presence of an undocumented and unregulated migrant camp on French soil forced the government to act  especially as elections loomed.

Officials demolished the Jungle in October. But the end of the Jungle was not the end of the situation in Calais, as migrants have continued arriving, most still hoping to go on to Britain.

Collomb said Monday that there are 350 to 500 migrants in the city, many from Eritrea and Ethiopia.

[The Calais Jungle is gone, but Frances migrant crisis is far from over]

According to the Human Rights Watch report, without the Jungle and the basic support it provided  mostly with the help of British and French aid workers  these newcomers have few of the basic necessities they need.

Michael Bochenek, senior counsel to the Human Rights Watch childrens division and the principal author of the Calais report, said the courts decision was a welcome, if overdue, intervention.

Its hard to see how the state could have reached a different conclusion and how the authorities could have possibly resisted offering toilets, showers and water for migrants in need.

But, he added, the broader problem remains the difficulty and opacity of the process by which migrants can apply for asylum in France. While many of those who arrive still wish to go to Britain, few are aware of their options should they decide to remain in France.

By contrast, those who are aware face significant structural barriers, Bochenek said, often lacking the means to travel from Calais to Lille, nearly 70 miles away, to appear in person at the one office in the region where they are entitled to apply.

Read more:

Calais migrants face opposition at new, small-town destinations

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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Joe Arpaio, a former Arizona sheriff whose extreme stance on illegal immigration made him a household name, was convicted Monday of criminal contempt of court for ignoring a judges order to stop detaining people because he merely suspected them of being undocumented immigrants.

U.S. District Judge Susan R. Bolton wrote that Arpaio had shown a flagrant disregard for the courts command and that his attempt to pin the conduct on those who worked for him rang hollow.

Not only did Defendant abdicate responsibility, he announced to the world and to his subordinates that he was going to continue business as usual no matter who said otherwise, Bolton wrote.

[Joe Arpaio, Americas toughest sheriff, wins primary race despite facing criminal prosecution]

A Justice Department spokeswoman said Arpaio faces up to six months in prison at his sentencing, which is scheduled for October 5. Arpaios attorney said he would appeal in order to get a trial by jury. He had been convicted after a trial in front of Bolton.

(Gillian Brockell/The Washington Post)

Today, Judge Susan Bolton violated the United States Constitution by issuing her verdict without even reading it to the Defendant in public court, Jack Wilenchik, Arpaios attorney, said in a statement. Her verdict is contrary to what every single witness testified in the case. Arpaio believes that a jury would have found in his favor, and that it will. . . . Joe Arpaio is in this for the long haul, and he will continue his fight to vindicate himself, to prove his innocence, and to protect the public.

The legal saga surrounding Arpaio, 85, dates back years. In 2011, the then-sheriff of Arizonas Maricopa County was enjoined by U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow from detaining people he thought to be illegal immigrants, when they were not charged with any other crimes, as part of a lawsuit. Prosecutors alleged that he continued to do so, and last year, the Justice Department decided to pursue a criminal contempt-of-court case against him.

By then, Arpaio was known as a vigorous Donald Trump supporter  his strong desire to crack down on illegal immigration much in line with that of the president. But critics said his policy of detaining people on mere suspicion was racist and illegal, and his refusal to honor a courts order to stop was brazen. He was also well known for forcing his inmates to wear pink underwear and sleep outdoors in his Tent City Jail.

Wilenchik said in the statement that the judges order enjoining Arpaio was not clear, and suggested that Arpaio was merely doing what others do routinely: turning over those in the country illegally to the U.S. Border Patrol.

Numerous law enforcement agencies also continue to do this, Wilenchik said. In fact, the DOJ now goes after agencies that refuse to do this.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has threatened jurisdictions that do not cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but he has not directed local law enforcement to stop and detain people without a lawful reason to do so.

Bolton wrote that another judges order to Arpaio was clear and that there was evidence he violated it willfully  citing some of Arpaios own public comments as evidence. She said even if subordinates actually did the detaining, it was only at Arpaios direction and by Arpaios failure to tell them otherwise.

Joe Arpaio, the former sheriff of Maricopa County, Ariz., was convicted Monday by a federal judge of criminal contempt of court. (Laura Segall/Reuters)

The evidence shows a flagrant disregard for Judge Snows order, Bolton wrote.

Arpaio, who had long weathered criticisms about his conduct, lost his reelection bid soon after he was charged with criminal contempt. The new sheriff, Paul Penzone, said Boltons verdict was a conclusion to the disservice and distractions caused by former Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

As for this office, we remain steadfast in our efforts to serve the needs of public safety, to improve quality of relations with the community and to ensure that the men and women of this organization have the utmost respect for the law and the authority for which we are empowered, Penzone said.

Amy B Wang contributed to this report.
The Trump administration on Monday imposed sanctions on President Nicolas Maduro, after an election that critics called a tipping point toward dictatorship. But even with international pressure building and Venezuelas economy collapsing, beleaguered opposition activists here were facing a stark new challenge.

How could they confront a socialist machine that now controls all branches of government?

Citing Maduros outrageous seizure of absolute power, the U.S. government froze any American assets he may have and banned Americans from doing business with him. The move came after Maduro heralded the Sunday vote creating a new super-congress made up entirely of government backers. The newly cast legislators included his wife and son. The body will have sweeping powers to rewrite the constitution and redraw Venezuelas governing system.

Maduro is not just a bad leader, said President Trumps national security adviser, H.R. McMaster. He is now a dictator.

[Venezuelas election will create what opponents call a puppet congress]

Despite the tough talk from the White House, the sanctions fell short of the crippling pressure many observers were expecting. Maduro swiftly dismissed the measures, saying on television that they were imposed because he didnt obey the North American empire. He added: Impose all the sanctions that you want, but Im a free president.

Potentially more-sweeping measures  including the targeting of Venezuelas all-important oil industry  are still on the table. But the opposition here is running out of time to turn the tide, and is now facing new and significant threats.

The election was boycotted by the opposition, and many Venezuelans mocked the governments contention that more than 40 percent of voters took part. Under Maduros mentor, the late leftist leader Hugo Chavez, many Venezuelans thought national election results were generally credible, although candidates complained that he used state resources to gain an edge. But opposition activists called Sundays vote a turning point, claiming that only about 12 percent of Venezuelans turned out, in what they called a historic rejection of Maduro and his plans.

1 of 46 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Protesters clash with Venezuelan security forces View Photos Thousands have been arrested, and many allege mistreatment, as voting on the Constituent Assembly takes place under strict security. Caption People took to the streets to either vote in or boycott a controversial election to choose members of an all-powerful Constituent Assembly. Aug. 7, 2017 Pro-government supporters holding Venezuelas flag march in Caracas. Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters Wait 1 second to continue.

Luisa Ortega Diaz, Venezuelas attorney general, who broke with the government in March, on Monday declared the vote fraudulent. She suggested that Maduro and his inner circle, including a vice president accused by the U.S. government of narco-trafficking, would now seek to use the new assembly to monopolize money and power.

How will we control the public budget now? How will we know how much and in what things money is being invested? How amazing for them! she said.

This is not the project Hugo Chavez wanted for the country, she continued. Far from it.

Maduro has said he proposed the assembly to bring peace to the streets after four months of often-violent demonstrations protesting the dire state of the economy and growing authoritarianism. Opponents said he skewed the system for choosing candidates to ensure control of the new body.

On Thursday, those chosen for the new Constituent Assembly are set to replace the democratically elected members of the nations legislature, which is dominated by the opposition. Some opposition lawmakers defiantly went to the National Assembly building on Monday, vowing to keep carrying out their duties. It foreshadowed a potentially dramatic standoff.

Nothing and nobody will prevent us from fulfilling the mandate that the people have given us, opposition lawmaker Delsa Solorzano said in a video she shot outside the assembly building Monday morning. Thats why an important number of lawmakers came today, to protect our space and to protect the will of the people.

[Say goodbye to $2.30 gas if Trump goes hard after Venezuela]

U.S. officials would not say whether Maduro has any U.S. assets. But under the sanctions, he is cut off from accessing the U.S. financial system, as well as most transactions in dollars, since nearly all dollar-denominated transactions must clear through an American bank at some point. Moreover, non-U. S. banks have become very concerned about doing business with anyone on an American sanctions list.

I think todays sanction was more of a symbol, said Asdrubal Oliveros, director of the Caracas-based Ecoanalitica consulting firm. I dont think Maduro has properties in the U.S. Whats relevant is that hes now in a list with the head of North Korea and Syria. Youre a dictator, thats why youre there. That is the message.

In addition to the U.S. reaction, Latin American nations from Argentina to Panama to Brazil have also declared the vote illegitimate, with regional foreign ministers set to meet in Peru next week to review the crisis.

Yet the larger question is whether the domestic opposition can sustain the pressure it has brought to bear on Maduros administration. Simply put, with more than 100 dead and thousands detained in the demonstrations, some people are tired, and even more are scared.

Opposition leaders are facing their own test of public confidence after Sundays vote.

Today I feel crushed, but not because of the results, because we knew that the government would cheat, said Victoria Daboin, a 25-year-old who has been protesting since April. I feel depressed because today everything looks normal, as if nothing had happened. The streets are empty and people went to work as if nothing ever happened. I personally expected more forceful actions from opposition leaders.

Many credit the opposition with bravely challenging a repressive regime. But at a time when the socialist government is signaling a more radical stage of rule, some Venezuelans express concern that no single opposition leader has emerged as Maduros obvious challenger.

A top contender, opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, remains under house arrest and sidelined from public activities.In recent days, the opposition has seemed disorganized, caught flat-footed by a government announcement banning protests through Tuesday.

[Venezuelans release opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez from jail]

Wheres the leader who has mobilized people in the slums because they believe in him? said Luis Vicente Leon, director of the Caracas-based pollster Datanalisis. People in the slums are scared, but when you have a leader you love, that barrier can be overcome. That leader doesnt exist. And theres internal divisions within the coalition on how to confront this situation now.

Analysts say the established opposition here needs to escape the orbit of its past. During the 1980s and 1990s, it was accused of ignoring the poor. Many also criticized it for failing to unite.

Now that polls show Venezuelans desperate for change, the parties have more or less united in the face of the governments growing repression and have made inroads with poorer voters. Still, they amount to factions with varying politics and competing loyalties.

For the opposition, there appears, as of yet, to be no agreement on which tactic is best going forward.

And virtually all options harbor risks.

Some dissident voices here are pressing the opposition to accelerate its move to set up what is essentially a parallel government.

We wont do anything that is outside the constitution; we dont have the constitutional powers to name a new president, said Solorzano, the opposition lawmaker. How are we going to combat illegality with more illegality? I understand peoples desperation; all of us are doing worse than ever. But we all have to keep going  its everyones responsibility, not just leaders.

On July 16, the opposition held an informal referendum in which, it reported, 7.6 million people rejected the creation of the Constituent Assembly. Following that vote, the opposition announced a move to create its own government of national unity.

But the oppositions most substantial move in that direction  the selection of magistrates to challenge the authority of the current pro-government Supreme Court  has resulted in three judges being arrested and several others going into hiding.

Some argue that a move to install a parallel government could encourage stronger international action that would diplomatically isolate Maduro. But others say that such a move could polarize the nation and trigger a government crackdown that would lead to a larger wave of politically motivated arrests.

There is also a risk that a more violent faction of the opposition will grow, gradually creating a low-grade conflict. Masked young people have already been seeking to take the fight to the government with rocks and molotov cocktails. And on Sunday, the violence escalated, with an explosive device set by a demonstrator blowing up as a motorcade of government troops passed. Another protester was photographed shooting a gun.

Via Twitter, Venezuelan user @bienlechuga echoed the frustrations of many government opponents who are calling for more-radical action.

War will not bring us the best result, but it could put us in a better position in this game, the user wrote.

Long reported from Washington. Rachelle Krygier and Mariana Zuniga in Caracas and Carol Morello in Washington contributed to this report.

Read more

How a new kind of protest movement has risen in Venezuela

In Venezuela, prisoners say abuse is so bad they are forced to eat pasta mixed with excrement

Things are so grim in Venezuela that people are rationing toothpaste

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
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Whether its yarn-bombing craftivists creating radical public-knitting projects, Indigenous artists using traditional beading to explore urgent contemporary issues or artists illustrating complex mathematical ideas with crochet, it seems clear that the old distinctions between craft and art have completely blown up.

In Manitoba, these expanded possibilities are getting a new home with C2, a centre for craft that will open later this summer in the Exchange District. A joint venture involving the Manitoba Craft Council and the Manitoba Crafts Museum and Library, the new 3,000-plus square-foot venue will combine gallery, shop, library, museum and workshop spaces to showcase both historical and contemporary craft.

At this months First Fridays Art Talk/Art Walk, well talk with Manitoba artists Seema Goel and Jessica Hodgson about new ways of working with craft materials and craft techniques, and why many 21st-century artists  and audiences  are drawn to traditional materials, old-school skills and handmade objects.

Seema Goels Murmur (left) provides art fans an immersive experience, and Winnipeg artist Jessica Hodgsons Stratum functional ceramics (below) highlight ones consciousness of food.

I think its partly about the importance of having skills, things that are developed and taught over a long period of time, Hodgson suggests. Especially in a world thats so quick.

I like the concept that it takes 10,000 hours to master something.

Its also a different way of looking at value, Goel suggests. In our age of mass-produced goods, when you can buy a porcelain plate at IKEA for two bucks, it says something to invest in a hand-thrown plate or cup made by a local craftsperson.

Goel, a sculptor and writer who works in time-honoured techniques like glassblowing and wool-felting, as well as video projection, animation, digital interfaces and taxidermy mice, often makes pieces that bridge art and science. With a science degree from McGill and a masters of fine arts from the Rhode Island School of Design, Goel is the artist-in-residence at the University of Manitobas faculty of science.

Hodgson, who graduated from the University of Manitobas School of Art, often uses pottery vessels  some functional and some fabulously non-functional  to examine ideas about food, land and sustainability.

I would say Im a ceramic artist and painter, Hodgson explains. But I do describe ceramics as a craft because its so technical.

For both artists, the connection between materials and concept has to be organic.

Goel starts with an idea and then figures out the best way to embody that idea in form. Im really interested in the things around me, so the stuff I do is very much an attempt to connect back to the rest of the world, she says. Im particularly interested in the human relationship to nature and to animals.

In 2016, Goel collaborated with robotics experts and other artists on Murmur, which used felted alpaca and sheeps wool, combined with motion sensors, to create big snorfling, sighing pods. Participants could enter into these womb-like structures (Napping is always an option,), lured by the warm, fuzzy associations of wool.

Stratum functional ceramics (below) by Winnipeg artist Jessica Hodgson.

Using craft materials in a large-scale techno-savvy contemporary art piece can confuse people, Goel admits. Sometimes that confusion can be a good place, she says. It lets people go in without feeling, Oh, its art, I have to know something. It lets them play.

Hodgson, who grew up in the small farming community of Hartney, is very much concerned with food  how its grown, processed and distributed and how that has changed drastically in recent decades. In her Stratum series, Hodgson has crafted cups, mugs and platters in an earthy, rough red clay, which she associates with the natural, the local and the real. This base is then covered with pure white porcelain, a slinky, seductive surface that represents the mysterious layer of chemicals, control and deception that seems to be veiling our entire food structure today.

As Hodgsons work suggests, functional objects can have more than one function. They can serve up your food, and they can make you think about that food. Thats where craft meets art.

Well be discussing art and craft, art and science, and a whole lot more with Jessica Hodgson and Seema Goel at Fridays Art Talk at the Free Press News Cafe at 6 p.m. Call 204-697-7069 or email wfpnewscafe@gmail.com to reserve tickets, which are $20.

alison.gillmor@freepress.mb.ca

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Your contribution of $10, $25 or more will allow the Free Press to deepen our reporting on theatre, dance, music and galleries while also ensuring the broadest possible audience can access our arts journalism. BECOME AN ARTS JOURNALISM SUPPORTER Click here to learn more about the project.
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LAS VEGAS  Russia-based Kaspersky Labs released a free version of its antivirus software last week, just as United States Congress was working on an amendment to a defense policy bill to ban use of the companys software on U.S. Department of Defense networks  due to concerns of possible company ties to the Russian government.

Kaspersky is one of the worlds largest cyber firms, with as many as 400 million users worldwide.

The program will be rolled out over the next four months, a company blog post stated.

Offering a stripped-down version of commercial software for free makes economic sense because the data Kaspersky can gather will positively affect the protection it can offer all users by better honing its machine learning capabilities, the blog post read.

Concerns Kaspersky Labs might have connections to Russian intelligence or military have dogged the company since its founding in 1997.

That again boiled to the surface this month when FBI agents interviewed U.S.-based Kaspersky staff, Reuters reported.

On July 14, the General Services Administration removed Kaspersky Labs from its list of approved vendors, citing concerns it might represent a threat to the integrity and security of U.S. government systems and networks.

The Senate Armed Services Committee added language prohibiting the U.S. Department of Defence from using Kaspersky software because the Moscow-based company might be vulnerable to Russian government influence.

Russian officials have suggested they might retaliate if the company is banned.

Company founder Eugene Kaspersky has strenuously denied all ties to the Russian government and to backup his statements offered up the companys source code for inspection to prove it.

Kaspersky Lab has no ties to any government and the company has never helped, nor will help, any government in the world with its cyberespionage efforts, the company said in a statement.

The company seems to be caught in the middle of a geopolitical fight where each side is attempting to use the company as a pawn in their political game, the statement said.

 USA Today
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This article was published 31/07/2017 (1930 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was a 20th-century walk the plank scenario that claimed the life of a Transcona man and 37 other seamen a century ago today, in one of the most heinous war crimes of the First World War.

In fact, thats what the British newspapers compared it to.

The foulest deeds of Capt. Kidd Morgan and the other blood-thirsty pirates of the Spanish main, who made their victims walk the plank, have been surpassed by the latest exploits of the Kaisers emissaries, said one British newspaper.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Transcona Museum copy of the Transcona Times with story of David Linklater's death.

The Transcona Times expressed similar disgust. For sheer barbarity and wanton, cold-blooded destruction of human life, the scene enacted in mid-Atlantic by the commander and crew of a German submarine stand unrivalled, the weekly reported Sept. 28, 1917.

The Transcona Historical Museum will commemorate the event today with a social-media page on Facebook and Twitter. In England, the maritime charity Sailors Society will lay a wreath at the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

The SS Belgian Prince was a cargo steamship setting sail to Newport News, Va., from Liverpool, England. On board was David Linklater, who resided in Transcona, where he worked as a carpenter after emigrating from the Orkney Islands. He enlisted with the British military when war broke out and was a gunner on the Belgian Prince.

On July 31, 1917, the Belgian Prince was torpedoed by a German U-boat about 320 kilometres from the nearest land. The ships men took to lifeboats and were soon ordered at gunpoint to board the submarines deck.

Forty-one men stood on the deck  all except the captain, who was taken below and not seen again. (Newspapers reported in 1917 there were 43 men plus the captain, but Sailors Society uses a revised figure.)

The ships crew were ordered to throw their lifebelts on the deck and German sailors kicked them away. The Germans started smashing the lifeboats with axes, under orders from notorious commander Wilhelm Werner.

Then the Germans went below and the submarine sped away with the prisoners still on its deck. It travelled about four kilometres, stopped and started to submerge, emptying its boat-less and life jacket-less passengers into the Atlantic Ocean.

Chief engineer Thomas Bowman was lucky. He had concealed a lifebelt and was a strong swimmer. He held on to the only person he saw, a young man on one of his first missions. We appeared to be the only living things in that wide expanse of waters, Bowman said later.

The young man started to lose consciousness. He kept crying for his mother and I felt for him keenly, Bowman said. Tell my mother, he said, that my last thoughts were for her. He died two hours later.

SUPPLIED David Linklater of Transcona was on the SS Belgian Prince when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat. He is remembered at Tower Hill in London, the Portsmouth Naval Memorial and the Cenotaph Memorial in Memorial Park in Transcona.

Bowman stayed alive through the night. Several times, he thought he recognized the cliffs of England and swam in their direction only to find that I was dissipating my remaining strength in pursuing a mirage.

The next day, he saw what remained of the Belgian Prince, floating in the distance, explode. The incident told him the U-boat was still nearby, so he swam in the opposite direction.

He later saw smoke from a British patrol ship. He tried to shout, but his throat was so parched that no sound came out. He described the terrible anxiety he felt as the ship seemed to speed past him. Then it slowed down and started to lower a life raft. Bowman had spent 11 hours in the Atlantic.

Only two other men lived to tell the story: British seaman George Silessi, who clung onto a remnant of one of the smashed lifeboats; and American Willie Snell, the ships second cook, who had concealed a lifebelt.

All three survivors received care from maritime charity Sailors Society, which assists seafarers and their families through chaplaincy, education and the relief from poverty and distress.

The Geneva Convention that calls for humanitarian treatment of prisoners did not come into existence until 1929, but the preceding agreements it was built upon were in place.

They were not followed.

After the war, the Allies demanded Werners extradition on war crimes. Werner also was accused of killing the crew of the SS Torrington in the same way, as well as other atrocities. He escaped to Brazil before he could be brought to trial.

Werner returned to Germany in 1924 and later joined the upper ranks of the Nazi party as one of Heinrich Himmlers personal staff. He died in 1945.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Alanna Horejda - curator of Transcona Museum holding Transcona Times September 28, 1917 paper open to the story of Linklater.

Transcona, which became part of Winnipeg in 1972, has a strong military tradition, Transcona Historical Museum curator Alanna Horejda said. Of 1,600 residents in Transcona during the First World War, 400 men enlisted.

Horejda said people can make the mistake of taking their freedom for granted: if we dont remember the sacrifices of those individuals who participated in the world wars.

Linklater, 27, is remembered at Tower Hill in London, the Portsmouth Naval Memorial and the Cenotaph Memorial in Memorial Park in Transcona.

On the cenotaph, Linklater is the 20th name in the middle row of a plaque honouring people who lost their lives in the First World War.

Fighting was fierce on the ocean. A total of 3,305 merchant ships were lost and 17,000 people killed during the First World War.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca
NEA reduces losses by 88pc to Rs970m

The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has been able to reduce its losses radically by controlling power leakage and hiking the tariff. The state-owned power utility posted a net loss of Rs970 million in the last fiscal year, a whopping 88 percent drop from the previous fiscal years Rs8 billion.
Opinion

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This article was published 31/07/2017 (1930 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Most Manitobans would help if they saw a person on the ground who was in serious physical distress. At a minimum, most would call 911. The more compassionate among us might stay with the victim until help arrives. People with first-aid training might take action if the situation seemed urgent.

None of us would ignore the victim and give the excuse that our health-care system is overloaded.

But when it comes to welcoming refugees to Manitoba, theres a vocal contingent of people who say we shouldnt accept those who need help because they will be a burden on health care, public housing and income assistance. They argue these refugees will take from, rather than give to, the countrys economy.

HUSSEIN MALLA / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES An adjustment to Canada's private sponsorship regulations could open the door for more Syrian refugees.

Newly released statistics support their view that many refugees are not immediately able to work.

A January 2017 document from the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada  made public though an access to information request and widely reported last week  reports that only 10 per cent of Syrian refugees sponsored by the federal government in 2016 are employed.

Thats the bad news. The good news in the document is that the employment rate is 53 per cent for those who were privately sponsored, as opposed to government-sponsored.

The conclusion seems to show private sponsorship is better than government sponsorship at helping refugees find jobs. Thats not surprising because private sponsors, such as church groups, typically form a committee and surround our refugee family with financial help, rent on a furnished apartment for a year, a circle of fellowship to help the newcomers practise English and contacts to give the refugees an inside track on jobs.

(A caveat here: its thought that another reason private sponsorships are more successful at getting newcomers on their feet is that many groups, although not all, choose refugees who are better educated and more fluent in English. Thats problematic with some Christian church members who feel impelled by their scripture to help those who need it the most, not those who are most likely to succeed.)

The indicators that most government-sponsored Syrian refugees remain unemployed is concerning because of the nearly 900 Syrian refugees who arrived in Manitoba two winters ago, 686 were government-sponsored.

The crucial question is this: if private sponsorships are so great, why has the federal government capped them at such a low level?

Private sponsorship of refugees is an exciting made-in-Canada solution and its success is being recognized worldwide, so why is it being capped?

Would-be sponsors in Manitoba are being told they cant bring in a refugee family this year; better luck in the future.

These are private citizens who are using their own money and theyre eager to surround a Syrian family with support and friendship, only to find their attempted altruism is being snubbed by their own federal government, which capped privately sponsored refugees at 16,000 nationwide.

The answer is not to adjust the balance to have fewer government-sponsored refugees and more on the private side.

The Canadian Council on Refugees lobbies for the principle of additionality, which means refugees brought to Canada by private sponsors come in addition to, not in place of, government refugee resettlement.

It means raising the ceiling on the maximum number of refugees sponsored by both the government and private groups. The need is particularly strong in reuniting families that still have some members waiting in dangerous situations, including refugee camps.

Its true that, as the unemployment figures indicate, many refugees are not immediately able to work full time.

It would be unfair to expect anything different. Many refugees have been rescued from hellish situations and it can take time to recover from emotional trauma and physical injuries, learn a new language and new job skills. But it can be cruelly cold to judge anyone, including refugees, strictly on an economic basis. Thats a road that leads to disdain for people who are old and people who have disabilities.

Canada is fortunate to have abundant resources and wealth to extend compassion to refugees. We can afford to open the door a little more.

Carl DeGurse is a member of the Free Press editorial board.
Opinion

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Recently, the federal government published its Principles respecting the Government of Canadas relationship with Indigenous peoples. It is the followup document to Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus 2015 election promise to implement not just some, but all, of the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

At the same time, NDP leader Tom Mulcair, more worldly-wise perhaps, made a commitment about the TRCs report, but he was more cautious, and only promised to examine all of its recommendations closely. No doubt, if he had become prime minister, he would have attempted to implement some of the reports recommendations, but surely not every one of them.

Trudeaus position was all-in and absolutist, perhaps another instance of his tendency to promise extravagantly and incautiously. Such an unconditional commitment risks naivete and impracticality, not to say profound public disappointment. The Indigenous issue in Canada is a complex one and it has confounded policy-makers since perhaps as early as first contact itself. Better, then, to proceed with good will and extreme care.

Paul Chiasson / The Canadian Press Nationalist dreams dashed by the 1995 Quebec referendum could be rekindled by current discussions of Indigenous nationhood and self-determination.

And so, two years later, there has appeared the statement of principles. It is not a statement of precise clarity, because it seems to say there is not one mechanism of reconciliation. Reconciliation will be a process of providing solutions on many fronts, no doubt with many different methods and proffered solutions. The risk here is that such ad hocery becomes a way of avoiding any coherent and systematic approach to the issue.

Pragmatists will say this is a good thing because the Indigenous issue is a coat of many colours. But one thing that seems clear from the principles is that the federal government wishes sincerely and radically to engage the priority of reconciliation.

The federal governments heart is in the right place  but what about its head?

There is one theme that is consistently advocated in the principles, and that has to do with what it calls the right to self-determination and the inherent right of self-government of Indigenous nations in Canada. The Trudeau government, by this document, interprets Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 as requiring the institutionalizing and maybe even the constitutionalizing of self-determination and self-government.

Constitutional experts might well raise eyebrows at this contention, but there is more. The second string to the governments bow is its embrace of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Here, too, Indigenous nations are accorded rights of self-determination and governance, and the federal government states that it supports the Declarations precepts.

Reading the principles took me down memory lane and reminded me of the many conflicts of national unity that have taken place in Canada, from 1960 to the present. Central to them was the impressive political and intellectual presence of Justin Trudeaus father, Pierre. As the elder Trudeau used to say, speaking about Quebec and its demand for independence, be extra careful about loose language about the rights of nations and self-determination.

Nations are elastic categories; do they exist virtually as, say, the Metis nation does, or do they exist territorially? And, if the latter, are these territories populated by people of one mind and a uniform national identity? What about the rights of minorities in national states?

Nationalism in Quebec brought Canada close to breakup with the referendum in 1995. Belatedly, the federal government woke up to the closeness of this near-catastrophe and established ground rules around future assertions of self-determination. The Clarity Act insisted on certain conditions: the referendum question should be clear and the show of support for secession should be more than a simple majority; Quebec could only leave Canada after a formal constitutional amendment; and so on.

Echoes of these constitutional wars rang in my ears as I contemplated the language of the principles. It is as if all the lessons we have learned about maintaining the unity of Canada and challenging the assumptions and rightness of nationalism were for nought. Yet embracing the language of self-determination and self-government unconditionally and indiscriminately seems to be the mindset of the authors of this document.

No doubt, watching this with amusement and encouragement are the partisans of independence in Quebec, who surely cannot believe their luck that a government led by a Trudeau is acceding intellectually to the very things that they have been advocating, unsuccessfully, for half a century. After all, whats sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Whither the unity of Canada?

What I am saying is that the authors of the principles have not thought through the implications for Canada of the use of their populist and nationalist language. So the Indigenous nations will have government-to-government relations with the Canadian state. How are Indigenous nations equivalent to the Canadian government in sovereignty and autonomy?

Is it that band government is the voice of the Indigenous nation in this imagined nation-to-nation relationship? Or is the nation represented in the various Indigenous interest groups that exist? And what about the 50 per cent of Indigenous people who live in the cities away from the national homeland of the reserve?

All in all, is according nationhood and self-government to Indigenous nations not the slippery slope down which we slide toward Indigenous political separation and segregation, or at least to a condition of overall confusion? Certainly, there are Indigenous activists who wish for this very state of affairs. Are we heading for a future Canada with some 60 or so mini-national sovereignties embedded within one half of the country, and nationless, Indigenous Canadians in the other part, and Quebec, too, clamouring once again for an equivalent autonomy?

In over-promising and its desire to do the right thing, regardless, the federal government with its principles risks opening Pandoras boxes all over the place, giving intellectual succor to sovereigntists in Quebec and promising a dream of independence to Indigenous peoples that is surely a political fantasy. So much for the unity of Canada that, ostensibly, this federal government is committed to preserving.

Allen Mills is a professor of political science at the University of Winnipeg.
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Ben Hooker and Daniel Thiessen of Team Manitobas mens beach volleyball team didnt waste time in giving the crowd something to cheer about.

The duo made easy work of Team New Brunswick (21-13, 21-14) in front of a packed house at the Sargent Park Beach Volleyball Centre. The win gives the boys a 1-0 record at the Canada Games. Team Toba dominated both sets, as their serving and attack play gave the New Brunswick side a lot of trouble.

Hooker and Thiessen will try to finish day one of beach volleyball 2-0 when they hit the sand courts again later today at 7:08 pm to take on Team Newfoundland and Labrador in another Group B pool match.

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31
CIRCOR International, Inc. designs, manufactures, and distributes flow and motion control products in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, North America, and internationally. The company has a product portfolio of brands serving its customers' demanding applications. It operates through two segments, Aerospace & Defense and Industrial. The Aerospace & Defense segment manufactures and markets control valves, pumps, regulators, fluid controls, actuation systems, pneumatic valves and controls, electro-mechanical controls, motors, and other flow control products and systems; propeller pumps; MIL-spec butterfly valves and actuators; brushless dc motors; switches; and actuation components and sub-systems. Its products and services are used in the military and defense, commercial aerospace, business and general aviation, and general industrial markets, as well as serves aircraft manufacturers and tier 1 suppliers. This segment offers its products under the CIRCOR Aerospace, Aerodyne Controls, CIRCOR Bodet, CIRCOR Industria, CIRCOR Motors, Hale Hamilton, Leslie Controls, Portland Valve, and Warren Pumps brands. The Industrial segment provides 3 and 2 screw pumps, progressing cavity pumps, specialty centrifugal pumps, and gear metering pumps; automatic recirculation valves; engineered valves; positive displacement pumps; general service control valves; and actuation and unheading devices for the end-users and original equipment manufacturers, as well as engineering, procurement, and construction companies. This segment offers its products under the Allweiler, DeltaValve, Houttuin, IMO Pump, IMO AB, Leslie Controls, RG Lawrence, RTK, Schroedahl, TapcoEnpro, Tushaco, and Zenith brands. The company markets its solutions directly and through various sales partners to approximately 14,000 customers in approximately 130 countries. CIRCOR International, Inc. was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts.
The following companies are subsidiares of Tenneco: A.E. Group Machines Limited, AE International Limited, Anand I-Power Limited, Anqing TP Goetze Liner Co. Ltd., Anqing TP Goetze Piston Ring Co. Ltd., Anqing TP Powder Metallurgy Co. Ltd., Armstrong Properties (Pty.) Ltd., Ateliers Juliette Adam SAS, Autopartes Walker S. de R.L. de C.V., Beck Arnley Holdings LLC, CATAI s.r.l., CEDS Inc., Carter Automotive Company LLC, Clevite Industries Inc., Componentes Venezolanos de Direccion S.A., Cooperatief Federal-Mogul Dutch Investments B.A., Coventry Assurance Ltd., DRiV Automotive Inc., DRiV IP LLC, DRiV Incorporated, Dongsuh Federal-Mogul Co. Ltd., F-M Holding Daros AB, F-M Holding Goteborg AB, F-M Holding Mexico S.A. de C.V., F-M Motorparts Limited, F-M Motorparts TSC LLC, F-M TSC Real Estate Holdings LLC, F-M Trademarks Limited, FDML Holdings Limited, FM International LLC, FM PBW Bearings Private Limited, FM Participacoes e Investimentos LTDA, Farloc Argentina S.A.I.C. y F., Federal Mogul (Thailand) Ltd., Federal Mogul Aftermarket Egypt Ltd., Federal Mogul Argentina S.A., Federal Mogul Dis Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, Federal Mogul Hungary Kft., Federal Mogul Powertrain Otomotiv Anonim Sirketi, Federal Mogul SAS, Federal Mogul Services Sarl, Federal Mogul Systems Protection SAS, Federal-Mogul, Federal-Mogul (Anqing) Powder Metallurgy Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul (Changshu) Automotive Parts Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul (China) Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul (Chongqing) Friction Materials Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul (Dalian) Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul (Langfang) Automotive Components Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul (Proprietary) Limited, Federal-Mogul (Shanghai) Automotive Parts Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul (T&N) Hong Kong Limited, Federal-Mogul (Tianjin) Surface Treatment Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul (Vietnam) Ltd., Federal-Mogul Aftermarket Espana S.A., Federal-Mogul Aftermarket France SAS, Federal-Mogul Aftermarket GmbH, Federal-Mogul Aftermarket Southern Africa (Pty) Limited, Federal-Mogul Aftermarket UK Limited, Federal-Mogul Anand Bearings India Limited, Federal-Mogul Anand Sealings India Limited, Federal-Mogul Asia Investments Holding Korea Ltd., Federal-Mogul Asia Investments Limited, Federal-Mogul Automotive GmbH & Co. KG, Federal-Mogul Automotive Pty Ltd, Federal-Mogul Automotive Verwaltungs GmbH, Federal-Mogul Betriebsgrundstucke Burscheid GmbH, Federal-Mogul Bimet Spolka Akcyjna, Federal-Mogul Bradford Limited, Federal-Mogul Bremsbelag GmbH, Federal-Mogul Burscheid Beteiligungs GmbH, Federal-Mogul Burscheid GmbH, Federal-Mogul Canada Limited, Federal-Mogul Chassis LLC, Federal-Mogul Componentes de Motores Ltda., Federal-Mogul Controlled Power Limited, Federal-Mogul Coventry Limited, Federal-Mogul Deva (Qingdao) Automotive Parts Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul Deva GmbH, Federal-Mogul Dimitrovgrad LLC, Federal-Mogul Distribucion de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Federal-Mogul Dong Feng (Shiyan) Engine Components Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul EMEA Distribution Services, Federal-Mogul Employee Trust Administration Limited, Federal-Mogul Engineering Limited, Federal-Mogul FIL-P43 S. de R.L. de C.V., Federal-Mogul FIL-S43 S. de R.L. de C.V., Federal-Mogul Filtration LLC, Federal-Mogul Finance 1 LLC, Federal-Mogul Finance 2 LLC, Federal-Mogul Financial Services Poland Sp.z.o.o., Federal-Mogul Financial Services S.A.S., Federal-Mogul Financing Corporation, Federal-Mogul Friction Products Barcelona S.L., Federal-Mogul Friction Products Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul Friction Products GmbH, Federal-Mogul Friction Products International GmbH, Federal-Mogul Friction Products Limited, Federal-Mogul Friction Products Ploiesti SRL, Federal-Mogul Friction Products S.A., Federal-Mogul Friction Products a.s., Federal-Mogul Friction Spain S.L., Federal-Mogul Friedberg GmbH, Federal-Mogul Garennes SAS, Federal-Mogul Germany Investments Holding GmbH, Federal-Mogul Global Aftermarket EMEA, Federal-Mogul Global Growth Limited, Federal-Mogul GmbH, Federal-Mogul Goetze (India) Limited, Federal-Mogul Gorzyce Sp. z o.o., Federal-Mogul Holding Deutschland GmbH, Federal-Mogul Holding Sweden AB, Federal-Mogul Holdings Ltd., Federal-Mogul Iberica S.L., Federal-Mogul Ignition GmbH, Federal-Mogul Ignition LLC, Federal-Mogul Ignition Products India Limited, Federal-Mogul Ignition Products SAS, Federal-Mogul Industria de Autopecas Ltda., Federal-Mogul Investment Ltd., Federal-Mogul Investments B.V., Federal-Mogul Italy S.r.l., Federal-Mogul Izmit Piston ve Pim Uretim Tesisleri A.S., Federal-Mogul Japan K.K., Federal-Mogul Juarez S. de R.L. de C.V., Federal-Mogul Lighting S. de R.L. de C.V., Federal-Mogul Limited, Federal-Mogul Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Federal-Mogul MP US LLC, Federal-Mogul Motorparts (India) Limited, Federal-Mogul Motorparts (Netherlands) B.V., Federal-Mogul Motorparts (Pinghu) Trading Limited, Federal-Mogul Motorparts (Qingdao) Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul Motorparts (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Federal-Mogul Motorparts (Thailand) Limited, Federal-Mogul Motorparts (Zhejiang) Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul Motorparts Colombia S.A.S., Federal-Mogul Motorparts Holding B.V., Federal-Mogul Motorparts Holding GmbH, Federal-Mogul Motorparts LLC, Federal-Mogul Motorparts Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul Motorparts Minority Holding B.V., Federal-Mogul Motorparts Philippines Inc., Federal-Mogul Motorparts Ploiesti SRL, Federal-Mogul Motorparts Poland Sp.z.o.o., Federal-Mogul Motorparts Pty Ltd, Federal-Mogul Motorparts Services SRL, Federal-Mogul Naberezhnye Chelny, Federal-Mogul Nurnberg GmbH, Federal-Mogul Operations France S.A.S., Federal-Mogul Piston Rings LLC, Federal-Mogul Plasticos Puntanos S.A., Federal-Mogul Powertrain (Netherlands) B.V., Federal-Mogul Powertrain Eastern Europe B.V., Federal-Mogul Powertrain IP LLC, Federal-Mogul Powertrain Italy S.R.L, Federal-Mogul Powertrain LLC, Federal-Mogul Powertrain Mexico Distribucion S. de R.L. de C.V., Federal-Mogul Powertrain Russia GmbH, Federal-Mogul Powertrain Solutions India Private Limited, Federal-Mogul Powertrain Systems S A (Proprietary) Limited, Federal-Mogul Powertrain Vostok OOO, Federal-Mogul Products US LLC, Federal-Mogul Pty Ltd, Federal-Mogul R&L Friedberg Casting GmbH & Co. KG, Federal-Mogul Risk Advisory Services LLC, Federal-Mogul S. de R.L. de C.V., Federal-Mogul S.A., Federal-Mogul SP Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Federal-Mogul Sealing System (Nanchang) Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul Sealing Systems GmbH, Federal-Mogul Sejong Co. Ltd, Federal-Mogul Sejong Tech Ltd, Federal-Mogul Serina Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul Sevierville LLC, Federal-Mogul Shanghai Bearing Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul Shanghai Compound Material Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul Singapore Investments Pte. Ltd., Federal-Mogul Sistemas Automotivos Ltda., Federal-Mogul Sistemas de Limpadores de Para-Brisas Ltda, Federal-Mogul Sorocaba-Holding Ltda, Federal-Mogul Systems Protection Hungary Kft., Federal-Mogul Systems Protection Morocco SARL AU, Federal-Mogul TP Europe GmbH & Co KG, Federal-Mogul TP Liner Europe Otomotiv Ltd. Sti, Federal-Mogul TP Liners Inc., Federal-Mogul TP Piston Rings GmbH, Federal-Mogul TPR (India) Limited, Federal-Mogul Technology Limited, Federal-Mogul Transaction LLC, Federal-Mogul UK Investments Limited, Federal-Mogul UK Powertrain Limited, Federal-Mogul VCS Holding B.V., Federal-Mogul VCS LLC, Federal-Mogul Valve Train International LLC, Federal-Mogul Valve Train S. de R.L. de C.V., Federal-Mogul Valvetrain GmbH, Federal-Mogul Valvetrain La Source SAS, Federal-Mogul Valvetrain Limited, Federal-Mogul Valvetrain Schirmeck SAS, Federal-Mogul Valvetrain s.r.o., Federal-Mogul Vermogensverwaltungs GmbH, Federal-Mogul Verwaltungs-und Beteiligungs-GmbH, Federal-Mogul Wiesbaden GmbH, Federal-Mogul World Trade (Asia) Limited, Federal-Mogul World Wide LLC, Federal-Mogul Yura (Qingdao) Ignition Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul Zhengsheng (Changsha) Piston Ring Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul de Costa Rica S.A., Federal-Mogul de Guatemala Sociedad Anonima, Federal-Mogul de Matamoros S. de R.L. de C.V., Federal-Mogul de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Federal-Mogul de Venezuela C.A., Federal-Mogul of South Africa (Proprietary) Limited, Felt Products MFG. CO. LLC, Ferodo America LLC, Ferodo Limited, Fonciere de Liberation, Forjas y Maquinas S. de R.L. de C.V., Frenos Hidraulicos Automotrices S.A. de C.V., Fric-Rot S.A.I.C., Gabilan Manufacturing, Gasket Holdings LLC, Gillet Exhaust Manufacturing Limited, Gillet Pressings Cardiff Limited, Goetze Wohnungsbau GmbH, ISA Installations Steuerungs und Automatislerungs GmbH, J.W. Hartley (Motor Trade) Limited, Jurid do Brasil Sistemas Automotivos Ltda., KB Autosys (Zhangjiagang) Co. Ltd., KB Autosys Co. Ltd., KB Autosys India Private Ltd., Kinetic Pty. Ltd., Kontich, Leeds Piston Ring & Engineering Co. Limited, Maco Inversiones S.A., McCord Payen de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., McPherson Strut Company LLC, Monroe Amortisor Imalat Ve Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, Monroe Australia Pty. Limited, Monroe Czechia s.r.o., Monroe Holding S. de R.L. de C.V., Monroe Manufacturing (Proprietary) Ltd., Monroe Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Monroe Packaging BVBA, Monroe Ride Performance Sweden AB, Monroe Springs (Australia) Pty. Ltd., Montagewerk Abgastechnik Emden GmbH, Motocare India Private Limited, Muzzy-Lyon Auto Parts LLC, Parts Zone (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Payen International Limited, Piston Rings (UK) Limited, Precision Modular Assembly Corp., Productos de Frenos Automotrices de Calidad S.A. de C.V., Proveedora Walker S. de R.L. de C.V., Pullman, Pullman Standard Inc., Qingdao Tenneco FAWSN Automobile Parts Co. Ltd., Raimsa S. de R.L. de C.V., Ride Performance Canada Inc., Ride Performance Japan Ltd., Ride Performance Korea Limited, Ride Performance Mexico Holding LLC, SAXID Limited, Sapav Marketing Ltd, Saxid, Saxid s.r.l., Servicio de Componentes Automotrices S. de R.L. de C.V., Servicios Administrativos Industriales S. de R.L. de C.V., Shanghai Tenneco Exhaust System Co. Ltd., Sibirica Energy Limited, Sintration Limited, Speyside Real Estate LLC, Subensambles Internacionales S. de R.L. de C.V., T&N Industries LLC, T&N de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., TA (Australia) Group Pty. Ltd., TM S.r.l, TMC Texas Inc., TPR Federal-Mogul Tennessee Inc., Taiwan Federal-Mogul Motorparts Co. Limited, TecCom GmbH, Tenneco (Beijing) Exhaust System Co. Ltd., Tenneco (Beijing) Ride Control System Co. Ltd., Tenneco (Changzhou) Ride Performance Co. Ltd., Tenneco (China) Co. Ltd., Tenneco (Dalian) Exhaust System Co. Ltd., Tenneco (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd., Tenneco (Jingzhou) Ride Performance Co. Ltd., Tenneco (MSCan) Operations Inc., Tenneco (MUSA), Tenneco (Mauritius) Limited, Tenneco (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Tenneco (Suzhou) Emission System Co. Ltd., Tenneco (Suzhou) Ride Control Co. Ltd., Tenneco (TM Asia) Ltd., Tenneco (TM Belgium) BVBA, Tenneco (Tianjin) Ride Performance Co. Ltd., Tenneco Asheville Inc., Tenneco Asia Inc., Tenneco Automotie Nederland B.V., Tenneco Automotive (Thailand) Limited, Tenneco Automotive Brasil Ltda., Tenneco Automotive Deutschland GmbH, Tenneco Automotive Eastern Europe Sp. z.o.o., Tenneco Automotive Europe BVBA, Tenneco Automotive Europe Coordination Center BVBA, Tenneco Automotive Foreign Sales Corporation Limited, Tenneco Automotive France S.A.S., Tenneco Automotive Holdings South Africa Pty. Limited, Tenneco Automotive Iberica S.A., Tenneco Automotive Inc. Nevada, Tenneco Automotive India Private Limited, Tenneco Automotive Italia S.r.l., Tenneco Automotive Operating Company Inc., Tenneco Automotive Polska Sp. z.o.o., Tenneco Automotive Port Elizabeth (Proprietary) Limited, Tenneco Automotive Portugal  Componentes Para Automovel Unipessoal LDA., Tenneco Automotive RSA Company, Tenneco Automotive Second RSA Company, Tenneco Automotive Services Societe Par Actions Simplifiee, Tenneco Automotive Servicios Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Tenneco Automotive Trading Company, Tenneco Automotive UK Limited, Tenneco Automotive Volga LLC, Tenneco Automotive Walker Inc., Tenneco Brake Inc., Tenneco CA Czech Republic s.r.o., Tenneco CA Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Tenneco CA Netherlands BV, Tenneco Canada Inc., Tenneco Clean Air Argentina S.A.I.C., Tenneco Clean Air India Private Limited, Tenneco Clean Air Spain S.L.U., Tenneco Clean Air US Inc., Tenneco Deutschland Holdinggesellschaft mbH, Tenneco Eastern European Holdings S.a.r.l., Tenneco Eberspaecher (Beijing) Exhaust System Co. Ltd., Tenneco Emission Control (Pty) Ltd, Tenneco Etain Societe Par Actions Simplifiee, Tenneco Europe Limited, Tenneco FAWSN (Changchun) Automobile Parts Co. Ltd., Tenneco FAWSN (Foshan) Automobile Parts Co. Ltd., Tenneco FAWSN (Tianjin) Automobile Parts Co. Ltd., Tenneco Fusheng (Chengdu) Automobile Parts Co. Ltd., Tenneco Global Holdings Inc., Tenneco GmbH, Tenneco Holdings Danmark ApS, Tenneco Hong Kong Holdings Limited, Tenneco Hungary Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Tenneco Industria de Autopecas Ltda., Tenneco Innovacion S.L., Tenneco International Holding Corp., Tenneco International Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Tenneco International Manufacturing S.a.r.l., Tenneco Japan Ltd., Tenneco Korea Limited, Tenneco Lingchuan (Chongqing) Exhaust System Co. Ltd., Tenneco Management (Europe) Limited, Tenneco Mauritius China Holdings Ltd., Tenneco Mauritius Holdings Limited, Tenneco Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Tenneco RP Germany GmbH, Tenneco Ride Control South Africa (Pty) Ltd., Tenneco Ride Performance US 4 LLC, Tenneco Ride Performance US 5 LLC, Tenneco Silesia spolka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Tenneco SpinCo Incorporated, Tenneco Sverige AB, Tenneco Walker (Tianjin) Exhaust System Co. Ltd., Tenneco Zwickau GmbH, Tenneco-Eberspaecher (Dalian) Exhaust System Co. Ltd., Tenneco-Walker (U.K.) Limited, The Pullman Company, The Tenneco Automotive (UK) Pension Scheme Trustee Limited, Thompson and Stammers (Dunmow) Number 6 Limited, Thompson and Stammers (Dunmow) Number 7 Limited, United Piston Ring Inc., VTD Vakuumtechnik Dresden GmbH, Walker Australia Pty. Limited, Walker Danmark ApS, Walker Electronic Silencing Inc., Walker Europe Inc., Walker Exhaust (Thailand) Company Limited, Walker Gillet (Europe) GmbH, Walker Limited, Walker Manufacturing Company, Walker UK Ltd, Wellworthy Limited, Wimetal Societe Par Actions Simplifiee, and Wuhan Tenneco Exhaust System Co. Ltd..

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Parties remain at odds over bases

Parties remain at odds over bases for carving out new constituencies, with major parties and Madhes-based forces pressing the Constituency Delimitation Commission (CDC) to consider their suggestions.
Embraer S.A. designs, develops, manufactures, and sells aircrafts and systems in Brazil, North America, Latin America, the Asia Pacific, Brazil, Europe, and internationally. It operates through Commercial Aviation; Defense and Security; Executive Jets; Service & Support; and Other segments. The Commercial Aviation segment designs, develops, and manufactures a variety of commercial aircrafts. The Defense and Security segment engages in the research, development, production, modification, and support for military defense and security aircraft; and offers a range of products and integrated solutions that include radars and special space systems, as well as information and communications systems comprising command, control, communications, computer, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems. The Executive Jets segment develops, produces, and sells executive jets. It also leases Legacy 600 and Legacy 650 executive jets in the super midsize and large categories; Legacy 450 and Legacy 500 executive jets in the midlight and midsize categories; Phenom family executive jets in the entry jet and light jet categories; Lineage 1000, an ultra-large executive jet; and Praetor 500 and Praetor 600, disruptive executive jets in the midsize and super midsize categories. The Service & Support segment offers after-service solutions, support, and maintenance, repair, and overhaul services for commercial, executive, and defense aircrafts; provides aircraft components and engines; and supplies steel and composite aviation structures to various aircraft manufacturers. The Other segment is involved in the supply of fuel systems, structural parts, and mechanical and hydraulic systems; and production of agricultural crop-spraying aircraft. The company was formerly known as Embraer-Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica S.A. and changed its name to Embraer S.A. in November 2010. Embraer S.A. was incorporated in 1969 and is headquartered in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Chevron Corporation, through a network of subsidiaries, engages in integrated energy and chemicals operations worldwide. The company is the 7th largest integrated oil company worldwide, the 2nd largest in the US, and has been in operation since 1879. Chevron was part of the original Standard Oil Company and is one of the 34 successor companies that were formed when it was broken up. Today, the company brings in roughly $160 billion in annual revenues and is the last remaining oil and gas component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Originally called Standard Oil Of California the company grew quickly via mergers and acquisitions. It was hailed as one of the Seven Sisters to dominate the US and global production throughout the mid-20th century and became even bigger in 1985 when it merged with Gulf Oil. The merger with Gulf Oil resulted in the rebranding from Standard Oil Of California to Chevron (a brand used by the company outside its California jurisdiction) and then ChevronTexaco Corporation in 2005 when that merger took place. The company rebranded again in 2005 to what we know today as Chevron Corporation.

Chevron Corporation is now based in San Ramone, California, and has operations in 180 countries. The company employs more than 42,500 people who operate 5 refineries and 8,000+ Texaco, Chevron, and Standard Oil service stations in the US alone. The company's Exploration and Drilling operations produced a record 3.1 million barrels per day and its US refineries process more than 1 million barrels per day. At the end of 2021, the company has more than 11.3 billion barrels of proven oil and liquid-equivalent reserves and boasted a 112% reserve replacement rate.

The company operates in two segments, Upstream and Downstream. The Upstream segment explores new reserves, develops known reserves, produces petroleum and gas products as needed, transports, processes, pipes, stores, and markets petroleum worldwide. The Downstream segment refines and markets the full line of petroleum-based products including but not limited to fuels such as gas, diesel, and aviation fuel, as well as lubricants, petrochemicals, and plastics. The company transports products via pipeline, rail, marine vessels, and truck.

Chevron recognizes the need to lower the worlds carbon output and is working toward that end. The companys strategy is two-pronged and includes reducing its own carbon output while investing in green and lower-carbon technologies. The companys goal is to invest $10 billion or more into lower carbon energy sources and technologies by 2028.

Chevron is a Dividend Aristocrat. The company has been paying a dividend since 1989 and it has raised it every year since its inception.






The Taiwanese electronics supplier Foxconnknown for its brutal exploitation of workers in sweatshop factories in China and internationallyrecently announced it would open a plant in the economically depressed area of southeast Wisconsin. Republican Governor Scott Walker and the Trump administration worked out the deal with Foxconn in exchange for massive tax subsidies.

Foxconn, the iPhone manufacturer and worlds largest consumer electronics makers, stands to receive nearly $200 million a year in state tax incentives over 15 years. While numerous states, including Michigan, were in a bidding war to get Foxconn to build a factory in their states, Wisconsin offered the most lucrative package that would effectively siphon off public funds to allow the company to exploit a low-wage workforce.

It is telling that the corporations and the government, with the full backing of the unions, have reduced the wages of American workers to such a low level that cheap labor specialists like Foxconn are now investing in Americas Rust Belt states.

In total, Foxconn will receive nearly $3 billion in tax subsidies with $150 million in sales tax exemption. The state of Wisconsin is only expected to receive about $116 million in tax revenue in return annually, effectively handing the multinational corporation over $74 million a year. These figures exclude the details of the local funding for infrastructure spending for roads and sewers that have yet to be released.

According to Walker, the deal worked out with Foxconn comes with lofty promises that 3,000 jobs will be created by 2020. Wisconsin officials and the Trump administration also boasted last week that Foxconn could hire as many 13,000 at the plant and create more than 20,000 jobs indirectly.

Governor Walker was elected in 2010 on the promise that he would create more than 250,000 jobs in the state through the slashing of corporate taxes, deregulation and the gutting of social programs. In 2011, these attacks sparked a mass movement against Walker, which was sabotaged by the unions, which diverted opposition behind a fruitless campaign to recall Walker and elect a Democratic governor.

While Foxconn claims its 3,000 workers will have all-in pay of $53,000 a yearwhich includes health care and other benefitsthat is only 50 cents an hour higher than the average wage in Wisconsin. Incredibly, the state of Wisconsin will pay Foxconn $66,000 per employee based on tax breaks and other incentives.

The grand promises of Walker, Trump and Foxconn of job creation and economic growth are belied by the reality of state-funded deals made with such corporations. In 2013, Foxconn promised to build a $30 million factory in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which would employ over 500 workers. In fact, no such plant was built nor a single job created. Similar deals were made by Foxconn in other countries, such as Brazil and Vietnam.

Similarly, General Motors once promised to build its Saturn plant in return for state funding. It played 24 states against each other for public money. The bidding war resulted in the state of Tennessee forking over $240 million to the corporation, or paying nearly $26,000 for each job created. Other corporations, including Mercedes Benz, have also looted public funds to build factories in other states.

Foxconn says the Wisconsin plant will produce flat-screen liquid crystal display (LCD) panelsincluding computer screens, televisions and car dashboardsfor the American market. The proposed Foxconn manufacturing complex is expected to be one of the biggest in the world with nearly 20 billion square feet, covering over 1,000 acres of land, or nearly 1.56 square miles.

Even if Foxconn builds the plant, it is possible the company will use automation and robotics, along with temporary workers, to employ fewer permanent workers than promised. In China, Foxconn replaced nearly 50 percent of its restive workers at one iPhone manufacturing plant in Kushan and replaced them with robotsmaking the remaining workers work twice as hard. Chinese workers have repeatedly gone on strike and carried out other militant actions at Foxconn plants where conditions are so brutal the company installed nets after a series of suicides in 2010.

Working closely with the state, corporations like Foxconn and Amazon eye economically depressed areas such as Racine and Kenosha counties in southeast Wisconsin as an opportunity to exploit desperate workers. The city of Kenosha, located between the cities of Chicago and Milwaukee, is one of the areas proposed for the location of the future Foxconn factory. After decades of deindustrialization, the city and the surrounding area faced thousands of job losses in auto manufacturing and other industries. The highest paying jobs in the region are at an Amazon warehouse where workers barely make enough to live.

These conditions are also an indictment of the United Auto Workers, the Teamsters and other unions, which colluded with the corporations while touting Buy American nationalist campaigns that pit workers in the US against workers in other countries.

Kenosha was once home to a large auto industry that employed more than 16,000 employees at its peak in the 1950s and 1960s. The American Motor Corporation (AMC), headed by George Romney (later governor of Michigan, father of Massachusetts governor and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney), employed thousands of workers at its auto and engine manufacturing plant.

After AMC was sold to Chrysler in 1987, employment at Kenosha engine plant fell sharply with less than 1,300 workers, until Chrysler declared bankruptcy in 2009. Following a fraudulent rally by the UAW, which urged workers to place their confidence in the Obama administration to defend their jobs, the plant in Kenosha, along with the Janesville, Wisconsin plant, was closed in 2010.

Today, 21.5 percent of Kenoshas population is living below the official poverty linecompared to 16 percent in the rest of the stateand more than a quarter of children live below the poverty line. Only 7 percent of poor families worked full time, year round. Similar poverty rates are to be found in nearby Racine, another potential location for Foxconns new factory.

Foxconns move from China to the United States is part of a leveling in wages that has been taking place following the financial crisis of 2008, which include the policies of insourcing championed by the Obama administration. According to a recent report by the Boston Consulting Group, Factoring in the differences in productivity and energy costs, Chinas manufacturing cost advantage over the US shrank from 14% in 2004 to an insignificant 1% in 2016When indirect costs for shipping, inventory, and other expenses are included, it is now less costly to manufacture a wide variety of goods in the US if that is where they will be consumed.

As Chinese workers have grown increasingly combative, demanding higher wages and better working conditions, firms like Foxconn have sought to find profitable outlets in countries like the United States. While Chinese wages have grown between 10 and 15 percent every year, wages in the US have only increased by 2.5 percent.
The blood of the victims in Hamburg and Konstanz has barely had time to dry and the background to both attacks remains unclear, but politicians from all of the major parties are already seeking to outdo each other with right-wing demagogy.

In the Hamburg district of Barmbek, Ahmad A., a 26-year-old Palestinian born in the United Arab Emirates, began stabbing the people around him without warning in a supermarket on Friday afternoon, killing one and injuring five before passers-by restrained him and he was detained by the police. He had travelled to Germany in 2015 and filed an application for asylum that was rejected. Since then, he has been legally obliged to leave the country.

Two days later, at 4:20 a.m. on Sunday morning, a 34-year-old Iraqi man armed with an automatic weapon managed to gain entry to Grey, a large nightclub in an industrial district of Konstanz. The Iraqi Kurd, whose asylum had been recognised, shot one of the security personnel and fired further shots at the entrance. Three guests and employees of the security firm were injured. Police commandos were rapidly on the scene and engaged him in a firefight, severely injuring him. He died in hospital.

Little is known thus far about both incidents, including what the motives were.

Ahmad A., after leaving behind the misery of the Palestinian occupied territories, reportedly endured a long odyssey: travelling through Egypt, Norway, Sweden and Spain. He was questioned last November by members of the Hamburg state intelligence agency because they had received information from the police that his behaviour had been flagged. According to police, religion allegedly suddenly began to play a major role in Ahmad A.s life; he was citing Koran verses, no longer drinking alcohol and becoming withdrawn.

Such behaviour is now sufficient to be placed under suspicion by the police and intelligence agencies. The agents apparently concluded he was not dangerous, but rather mentally unstable and insecure. Although he stated he was religious, he was close to his father and feared returning to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

After the discussion, agents labelled him a suspected Islamist, but not a jihadi or threat. There have to date been no indications that he had ties to Islamic State (ISIS) or other Islamist groups. He took no legal action following the rejection of his asylum application and allegedly did not resist his departure, but complied the best he could. He wanted to return home to his father in Gaza and had repeatedly inquired if his travel documents were available.

Although the intelligence agencies recommended that Ahmad A. receive an assessment from social and psychiatric services, this never took place.

Ahmad A. lived in a container at an accommodation centre for refugees. His fellow residents told the media he was strange in the head. However, there is no evidence that the man, who has no criminal record, was ever given psychotherapeutic treatment.

Information available thus far suggests that the attack occurred as follows: The man bought items at the supermarket, left, returned shortly afterwards, seized a kitchen knife that was for sale, ripped it out of its packaging, and began attacking people indiscriminately, first in the supermarket, and then on the street outside. A 50-year-old man died and others were injured.

Passers-by armed themselves with chairs and anything else they could carry, and sought to detain the attacker. Someone allegedly spoke to Ahmad A. in Arabic, after he had shouted, Allahu Akhbar, and sought to reason with him, but without success. After continuing to stab people, he was injured by paving stones thrown at him and arrested by the police. He apparently described himself as a terrorist to the police. However, no organisation has yet claimed responsibility for his attack.

The facts known thus far at least suggest that a traumatised and fragile young person, who had experienced nothing but uncertainty and opposition from the states where he had found himself during his odyssey over recent years, and had been ignored by everybody apart from the police, intelligence agencies and officials who organised his deportation, simply snapped.

In the case of the Konstanz shooting, the attacker had lived in the area for 15 years. He reportedly always voiced criticism of ISIS on social media. His motives, as well as the events during the attack, are still under investigation. It was reported that the man moved among the violent circles of drug dealers and doormen.

Media reports said the attacker was the brother-in-law of the nightclubs owner. Prior to the attack, he reportedly argued with workers in the club and subsequently left. Later, he returned with an M16 machine gun and shot one of the doormen.

While all indications in Konstanz point to gang crime and Ahmad A. appears to have been badly traumatised, politicians of the governing parties rushed to cynically exploit the attacks to argue for mass deportations and detention prior to deportation.

The vicious circle of technical processes in deportations must be ended, Christian Social Union General Secretary Andreas Scheuer told Bild am Sonntag. If radicalisation is identified, we must take such people out of the line and detain them before they commit crimes.

SPD politician Burkhard Lischka also raised the prospect of deportation detention for Ahmad A. Even though the concrete circumstances remain unclear, the question of why the man was not in deportation detention is raised, said Lischka to the Heilbronner Stimme. Federal lawmakers expanded the possibilities for this just weeks ago.

While this option is applicable to so-called threats, as elastic as this term is, the authorities did not even consider Ahmad A. to meet this definition. In addition, he apparently did not resist his deportation, but sought to leave Germany. Lischka apparently wants to put everyone legally obliged to leave the country in preventive detention.
Workers at Fiat Chryslers Kokomo, Indiana casting plant have been using Facebook to circulate the World Socialist Web Sites article on the federal indictment charging that FCA officials handed more than $1 million in bribes to the United Auto Workers (UAW) top negotiator between 2009 and 2014.

UAW Vice President General Holiefield, who died of pancreatic cancer in March 2015, pushed through pro-company labor agreements in 2007, 2009 and 2011 that imposed sweeping concessions on Fiat Chrysler workers, including a 50 percent cut in the wages of new hires and the establishment of the hated 10-hour-a-day alternative work schedule.

This only verifies what so many of us thought was happening before and after our so-called contract negotiations, Dan, a retired worker from Chryslers Kokomo Casting Plant, told the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter.

Parts of your article were being circulated in the plant, and workers shared the whole thing on Facebook. Its so upsetting they got away with this for so long.

Workers here are not happy with the union in general. Weve been lied to for years. It showed in the last contract when workers rejected it. The union reps said it was a great contract and they acted dumbfounded when we voted it down. They treat us like dummies.

Fiat Chrysler workers rejected the UAW-backed deal by a 2-to-1 margin, prompting the UAW to denounce rank-and-file workers for using social media and listening to outside agitators like the World Socialist Web Site.

The membership got to the point during the contract that we had to act. You spend your whole life working, expecting to get benefits like the union tells you. Then every contract they are taking more and more away from you.

A lot of us are wondering why it is only the World Socialist Web Site reporting this and not the national news. I wouldnt have known about this except for Facebook. The local UAW body gives the impression that they dont know anything. But they didnt stand up to this and they wouldnt.

Dan referred to the two-tier wage system, first agreed to by the UAW in 2007, and then expanded to include all new hires as a condition for the 2009 federal auto bailout by the Obama administration, which was negotiated by Holiefield and other top UAW officials.

The workers Chrysler is hiring are paid so little they have to work 60 hours for what I used to make in 40 hours. They tell these workers to believe in the unionbut these workers are making a poverty wage or just above.

As for older workers, we havent had a real wage increase in 13-14 years. Everyones bills keep going up though. And the CEOs are making 270 times what an average worker makes. It just doesnt make sense, except for those getting rich, not the everyday laborer.

Referring to the nearby GM electronics plant, Dan said, They string second-tier workers at that plant for years making lower wages. The factory is an old Delphi plant that is now owned by GM Holdings Corp. They are only using about 10 percent of the plant and the workers expect it to close soon. Long before these in-progression workers ever make a decent wage, they will be out of a job.

Another Kokomo worker who wrote into the Autoworker Newsletter commented, Ive got three years in at Chrysler-FCA. I just want to keep up on the latest news about this corruption. I feel the last few contracts are fraudulent. We deserve more money than we are paid. And everything worked over eight hours should be time and a half. My biggest hate is this AWS!

The AWS, or alternative work schedule, which established four 10-hour shifts per weekessentially ending the eight-hour day and overtime payments after eight hours and for weekend workallowed the company to switch workers from late-night shifts to predawn starts within a few days, disrupting their family lives and health. Under the terms of the 2011 contract, Holiefield personally approved all shift schedules.

Holiefield defended the AWS, telling the Detroit News, The Flexible Operating Pattern has been effective at several other plants and has created thousands of jobs in communities surrounding these plants. Its proven to be successful, allowing the company to operate at maximum capacity to meet customer demand, and in the process, creating jobs, and in general, employees understand the reasons for the schedule."

A fifth-generation autoworker at the Kokomo Casting Plant told the Autoworker Newsletter, I come from a solid union family but none of us were prepared for what happened during the contract in 2015. The informational meetings the UAW held were a joke. They tried to dumb us down and push the contract through.

If you asked the majority of workers at the plant, they would say they are against the union. The UAW says its for equality and solidarity. Then they push these team leaders who get paid more and are in with the supervisors against their coworkers.

The indictment of Holiefield has been circulating in the plant. Fiat Chryslers CEO, Sergio Marchionne, issued a statement saying the company and the union were victims. The UAW issued a similar statement saying no one was aware what was going on until the investigators told them. No one believes them.

Education is the key. But it is hard to come by. No one in the media is credible. The stations are either for the Democrats or the Republicans, not about reporting the truth. They dont give you the facts and let you decide. Im glad I saw your article on Facebook. I can see why Google doesnt want workers to read your web site, its because youre not corporate-controlled.

The industry publication, Automotive News, immediately came to the defense of the UAW following the indictment, writing a comment titled Why the FCA-UAW scandal looks like a rogue action.

It asserts: This case is not an indictment of the entire UAW nor does it point to corruption by anyone in FCA or UAW leadership beyond those individuals named. To justify this claim, the publication says the Fiat Chrysler bosses did not have to bribe the UAW because the union already functions as a tool of corporate management!

[N]o FCA official needed to bribe the UAW to get what the carmaker wanted in collective bargaining. UAW leadership caved repeatedly to FCA demands in the face of the industrys painful recessionary restructuring

In fact, the UAW has been so accommodating to FCA in the last four rounds of collective bargaining, and to Ford and General Motors for that matter, that some wondered whether the union was hewing to labor law requirements that it maintain an adversarial relationship in negotiations.

In 2007, the publication notes the UAW brought a codification of lower tier-two wages and benefits for new hires and the advent of the retiree healthcare trusts known as Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Associations. During the 2009 bankruptcies at Chrysler and GM, the UAW ended the Jobs Bank promising full pay for laid-off workers as well as plant closures and massive job cuts. In 2011, the UAW settled for profit-sharing and an expansion of tier-two rather than fight for a salary increase.

Finally, in 2015, the publication continues, [UAW President] Williams tentatively agreed at FCA to make tier two a permanent fixture at FCA. But the rank-and-file rose up against the idea and voted down the agreement
US warships staged another provocation against Iranian patrol boats in the Persian Gulf Saturday, amid a flurry of new unilateral US sanctions imposed against Tehran. Both are expressions of an increasingly aggressive US policy toward Iran, which is seen by the US ruling establishment as a principal obstacle to Washingtons protracted and bloody military campaign to establish its hegemony over the oil-rich Middle East.

The latest action was launched by a naval battle group led by the super carrier USS Nimitz, which confronted vessels of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) near Irans Resalat oil and gas platform. During the Iran-Iraq war in 1987, the same platform was attacked by US destroyers and put out of operation for several years.

In a statement published by the IRGCs official news site Sepah, the Iranian military unit charged: The Americans made a provocative and unprofessional move by issuing a warning and shooting flares at vessels. It added that its patrol boats, without paying attention to this unconventional and unusual behavior from the American vessels, continued their mission in the area and the aircraft carrier and accompanying battleship left the area.

The US Navy issued its own statement claiming that it had deployed a helicopter to fire flares toward the Iranian patrol boats after they had approached the US battle group at a high rate of speed.

This marked the second such confrontation in less than a week. Last Tuesday, a US Navy patrol boat fired warning shots toward an Iranian vessel that the Pentagon claimed had come within 150 yards of the American boat.

The action, denounced by Iran as an act of provocation and intimidation, was another indication of the explosive potential of the increasingly aggressive US military buildup on the edge of Irans territorial waters. According to the Pentagons tally, there were 35 similar encounters last year and 23 in 2015.

US President Donald Trump, during his presidential campaign last September, called for the Pentagon to adopt a policy that any Iranian vessels harassing US Navy ships would be shot out of the water.

The tensions in the Persian Gulf were accompanied last week by the ratcheting up of US sanctions against Iran in two separate actions taken by the US Congress and the Trump administration.

Last Thursday, the US Senate, by a vote of 97-2, approved a new round of sanctions against Iran as part of sweeping legislation that also targets North Korea, but which received the most attention for its imposition of new sanctions against Russia.

The Iranian portion of the measure imposes mandatory penalties on individuals involved in Irans ballistic missile program and anyone who does business with them. It also targets the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, a major component of the countrys military, with terrorism sanctions and calls for enforcement of an arms embargo.

The same day that the Senate carried out its near unanimous vote, Iran launched a rocket capable of putting a satellite into orbit. The launch marked the inauguration of Irans Imam Khomeini space center, which officials have said will be dedicated to sending satellites into space for peaceful purposes.

The US State Department called the launch a provocative action aimed at ballistic missile development, in violation of United Nations resolutions, a charge denied by Tehran. In retaliation, Washington imposed still more sanctions on Friday against six subsidiaries of a company linked to Irans ballistic missile program.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a statement: The US government will continue to aggressively counter Irans ballistic missile-related activity, whether it be a provocative space launch ... or likely support to Yemeni Houthi missile attacks on Saudi Arabia such as occurred this past weekend.

Under the Trump administration, Washington has stepped up its support to Saudi Arabias brutal war against Yemen, which has killed over 12,000, brought millions to the brink of famine and led to the outbreak of the worlds worst cholera epidemic, claiming thousands more lives.

In his trip to Riyadh in May, Trump threw US support behind a Saudi-led bloc of Sunni monarchies seeking to counter Iranian influence in the region by means of military buildup and sectarian warfare. Trump also backed the Saudi monarchy in its confrontation with its erstwhile ally, Qatar, which it accused of support for terrorism, while demanding that Qatari rulers break all relations with Iran. Others within the administration have sought to rein in the conflict, out of concern that it could jeopardize the Pentagons giant military bases in Qatar and US plans for wider war in the region.

Meanwhile, in Syria, the US and Iran are increasingly on a collision course as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is losing ground in the east of the country and the US and its proxy forces are vying with the Syrian government forces and Iranian-backed militias to fill the vacuum. The US military has shot down an Iranian drone and repeatedly struck Iranian-backed militias near the base established by American special forces at al-Tanf, near Syrias borders with Iraq and Jordan.

The latest military provocations in the Gulf and the escalating sanctions are designed to upend the 2015 nuclear agreement reached between Iran and the so-called P5+1, the five permanent members of the United Nationsthe US, Britain, France, China and Russiaplus Germany.

During his presidential campaign, Trump denounced the agreement as the worst deal ever made, and he reportedly chafed at having to issue a statement to Congress acknowledging the fact that Iran is in full compliance with the agreement. Such a verification is required every 90 days under US law that otherwise provides for the snap-back of a full range of punishing US sanctions. The White House claimed that Tehran was violating the spirit of the agreement, which presumably means that Iran has failed to submit to US dominance in the Middle East.

In an ominous statement delivered last week before a campaign-style rally in Ohio, Trump threatened that Iran would face big, big problems if it failed to adhere to the terms of the nuclear accord as interpreted by Washington. He went on to charge that the agreement had emboldened, Iran, adding that wont take place much longer.

The implication is that when the next verification of Iranian compliance is due in October, Trump will withhold it, effectively repudiating the deal and setting the US on course toward a war with Iran that could eclipse the massive violence already wrought by US imperialism in the Middle East.

Tehran has accused the US of violating the nuclear agreement by imposing the new sanctions. Part of the agreement included a pledge by signatories not to block the normalization of Irans international economic relations.

Washington has no interest in furthering such a normalization, which is benefiting its economic rivals in both Europe and Asia, which are attempting to tap into potentially lucrative Iranian markets and resources. The French oil giant Total, for example, has struck a $1 billion deal to develop a gas field operated jointly by Iran and Qatar.

Responding to Washingtons latest actions, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani stated, If the enemy breaches parts of the deal, we will breach parts of it. If they breach the entire deal, we will breach it in its entirety. We will reinforce our whole defensive weapons without paying attention to what others say.
Preparations underway for PMs India visit

Preparations for Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deubas upcoming India visit are picking up pace. While the Foreign Ministry has penciled in August 17-19 for the visit, the exact date has yet to be ascertained.
Last Sunday, Ismael Lopez, 41, an auto mechanic originally from Veracruz, Mexico, was shot and killed by police officers in Southaven, Mississippi, a suburb of Memphis, Tennessee in what officials have described as an apparent address mix-up. The attorney for Lopezs family claims that he was shot in the back of the head execution style through the front door of their home.

A statement released by Lopezs family last week said he was a loving husband and father, a hard worker, and a mentor in the community. There is no reasonable explanation about why or how this happened to our Ismael, but we believe his memory demands answers, accountability and justice.

Lopez had been a resident of the neighborhood for 13 years, and the only time the police had ever been to his home was when the family had been robbed. The officer who killed Lopez, unidentified as of this writing, has been placed on administrative leave.

On Friday, attorney Murray Wells, who is representing the wife and son of Lopez, contacted the Justice Department to demand a federal investigation of the incident, saying that they believe the mans death was an execution and that the officers involved should face criminal charges.

According to District Attorney John Champion of northern Mississippis DeSoto County, two officers were present Sunday evening when Lopez was killed in his home. Champion stated last week that those officers fired their weapons after a dog burst out of the house as they searched for a suspect and claimed that Lopez had pointed a gun at them through an open door. Champion stated that the officers began shouting put the gun down, put the gun down, after which they fired multiple shots toward the door.

Wells, however, gives a different account. After hiring investigators and interviewing Lopezs neighbors, he discovered that police did not have a warrant for Lopez and were at the wrong address. He also reports that Lopez was shot through a closed front door and that he did not have a gun in his hand when he was killed. Wells stated earlier last week that this is incredibly tragic and embarrassing to this police department that they cant read house numbers.

An official autopsy report by the county coroner or a doctor has not been released and could take up to eight weeks to complete.

According to local media reports a sheriff from a neighboring county had requested that Southaven police look for a domestic violence suspect who was not Lopez. The Southaven Police Department claims that the officers were supposed to serve a warrant to Samuel Pearman, who lives across the street from Lopez.

Wells also disputed this claim, pointing out that Pearman had been identified and questioned by police as a possible witness to the shooting and was not detained as would be expected for someone with a warrant out for their arrest. There was not an active warrant in effect on July 23. They were not, in fact, executing a warrant, Wells noted. A warrant was not put out on Pearman until July 24, the day after Lopez was murdered by the police.

I wound up talking to the police that night too. They wanted to know what I heard. They said they were responding to a shots fired call, Pearman stated in a Facebook Live video recorded just before he was arrested earlier this week on domestic abuse charges.

We havent talked to Mr. Pearman. We have been fortunate enough to let the press do some of that for us. So, weve been able to see his position. From what we understand, hes terrified himself. He believes that he was the target of a coordinated effort to execute him, Wells said at a public news conference in Memphis on Friday. I dont know the truth of that statement, but they sure came in guns a-blazing, I guess believing that Mr. Pearman was in there without an active warrant.

Lopezs wife, Claudia Linares, claims that Lopez never had a gun in his hands and that police started shooting despite the familys door being closed. A family friend relayed, She said when he got up, she heard footsteps all the way up to the door, she heard the doorknob turn, and then after the doorknob turned it was just gunshots from there.

We think it was an execution, Wells explained. Now, when youre firing through a door, we think it complicates things. Physical evidence says their story isnt true.

Wells suggested that [t]his man died while running away from people who were trespassing on his premises.

The attorney also made a case that police and city officials are covering up facts about the shooting.

At this point in time, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is still performing their investigation and will turn their findings over to Champion, who will decide whether to pursue charges. Southaven police have referred questions to the bureau, which did not immediately return a call from the media seeking comment. The DeSoto County coroner had also failed to return similar calls.

In addition to criminal charges being brought against the officers involved, Wells also called for their resignation as well as that of the Southaven police chief. He told reporters that he was contacting the Justice Department asking them to bring in federal investigators.

Federal investigations into police killings are incredibly rare and regularly concluded without charges being brought or prosecutions. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has promised to pull back even the pretense of federal oversight put in place by the Justice Department during the Obama administration.
In a major escalation of tensions between the worlds two largest nuclear powers, Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed Sunday that 755 US diplomats and contractors would be expelled, bringing to 455 the number of US diplomatic staff in Russia, equal to the number of Russian diplomatic personnel in the US.

The Russian measures were taken in response to the decision by the US Congress last week to invoke new sanctions against Russia and the indication by President Trump that he will sign the measure into law.

Speaking Sunday on state television, Putin indicated that the sanctions and Trumps decision not to block the legislation represented something of a tipping point in relations with the US. Last December, when the outgoing Obama administration chose to expel 35 Russian diplomats, Moscow did not respond in what was described as a gesture of goodwill to the incoming government.

In his television interview, Putin pointed to a course change, saying that Russia had to show that we cant let anything go unanswered.

Referring to the sanctions legislation, the Russian president said the measures had been taken because of ungrounded allegations by the USthe claims of Russian interference in the US elections. The legislation imposed illegal sanctions aimed at trying to press other countries, including [US] allies, which are interested in the development and maintenance of relations with Russia.

Putin continued: We waited quite a long time for something to maybe change for the better and entertained the hope that the situation would change somehow. But all things considered, if it changes, it wont be any time soon.

He said Russia would refrain from any additional response because that would harm US-Russian relations and impact on Russias interests, but he did not rule out further measures in the future if US action against Russia increased.

Theoretically, he said, there might come the time when losses from attempts to exert pressure on Russia would be equal to the negative impacts stemming from certain restrictions on our cooperation. Well, when such a moment comes, we will look at other options of responses. But I hope such a moment will never come. As of today, I am against, he said.

But Putins hopes, like his belief that the advent of Trump would mean a shift for the better in US-Russian relations, may prove to be very short-lived because of the unrelenting push against Russia emanating from the US political establishment and the military and intelligence apparatus.

Last Thursday, in the wake of passage of the sanctions bill in a 98-2 vote by the US Senate, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in a telephone call that the Russian moves had been provoked by unlawful sanctions against Russia and slanderous accusations against her.

Moscow, he said, had tried to improve relations with the US, but recent events showed that US politics had been left in the hands of Russophobes pushing Washington on the path of confrontation.

As the World Socialist Web Site noted on Saturday, the belief that the US is pursuing a path of confrontation will guide not only Moscows assessment of the situation and its policy statements. It will also guide the force posture and readiness status of military forces engaged in explosive proxy wars and military stand-offs in countries surrounding Russiafrom North Korea on Russias eastern border to Ukraine and the Baltics on its western border and Syria to the south.

Speaking on the ABC News This Week program in advance of Putins television interview, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov described the US sanctions as completely weird and unacceptable. He said Russia could respond to a further escalation by Washington with all sorts of things, both symmetrical or asymmetrical, to use a very popular word in the world of diplomacy.

At one level, the American actions, heightening the dangers of a military confrontation between the worlds two major nuclear-armed powers, are certainly weird and irrational. But it must be emphasised that this insanity arises from the objective logic of the profit system and the position of the US within the framework of the global capitalist economy.

Faced with a worsening economic position, both absolutely and relative to its main imperialist rivals, the US is seeking to maintain its position of global dominance by asserting control over the Eurasian landmass. The present Russian regime is viewed as an obstacle in the achievement of that objective.

It is significant that the US sanctions are aimed not only against Russia, but impact as well Washingtons present allies within Western Europe, above all Germany, and are intended to disrupt the formation of closer economic ties between European Union nations and Russia.

The sanctions could affect European companies seeking to invest in Russian energy supplies. Last week, the chairman of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, warned that America-first cannot mean that Europes interests come last. He said the US legislation could have unintended consequences.

The biggest concern is the Nord Stream 2 gas project, which is being co-financed by a group of German, French, British, Dutch and Austrian firms. As the Financial Times reported last week: Germany is gravely concerned by what it sees as a US claim to extraterritorial rights over the European energy market and about the clear aim of US legislation to protect US economic interests.

It cited a joint statement issued by Germany and Austria a month ago that condemned the US legislation for introducing a new and very negative quality into transatlantic relations.

It was reported that Angela Merkels government in Berlin had been hoping it would be able to persuade the Trump administration to step back from the legislation. But all such hopes have been dashed, along with those of the Putin government, leading to a major escalation of tensions not only between the US and Russia, but also between the US and Europe.
Australian authorities are claiming that the detention of four men on Saturday disrupted a plot to place an improvised explosive device on an international flight. Throughout Sunday and into today, airports around the country were plunged into turmoil by ramped-up security and luggage inspection. Heavily-armed police have been deployed at other prominent locations.

Police raids were carried out on five homesfour in Sydneys working-class southwestern suburbs of Punchbowl, Wiley Park and Lakemba, and one in the inner-city suburb of Surry Hills. In Lakemba, an entire apartment complex was locked down.

The detained men are reported to be a father and son from two related families of Lebanese background. At least one of the families migrated to Australia in the 1970s. Despite no charges being laid, the four have already been named in the media. One man, reportedly aged in his 50s, suffered head injuries during the raids. Another, in his 30s, was hauled away wearing nothing but a towel around his waist.

The raids were initiated after Australian intelligence allegedly received information from an unspecified international counterpart.

Conflicting reports have asserted both that the men were totally unknown to police, and that they had come under scrutiny during previous anti-terror operations. Since 2014 alone, 31 such police operations have taken place across Australia, resulting in 70 people being charged with various offences under the countrys sweeping terrorism legislation.

Police applied in court on Sunday to invoke one of the draconian special powers that they have been given in the supposed war on terrorismto detain the accused without charges for 24 hours for interrogation. By Sunday night, another court had reportedly extended the detention to seven days.

Police commanders have indicated they expect more people to be detained for questioningwithout charges.

The political establishment and mass media is presenting the guilt of the four men as beyond question. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull declared before a press conference on Sunday morning that there was plot to bring down a plane. He asserted the detentions of the men was an example of the way in which terrorist plots are uncovered and disrupted due to the extraordinary intelligence services we have and their fine cooperation they have with our police and security agencies.

Rupert Murdoch-owned publications have already labelled the men as jihadists and presented them as linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or Al Qaeda. Media outlets are alternatively claiming that the plot involved inserting a bomb in a metal meat grinder and trying to bring it onto an aircraft as carry-on luggage, or fabricating a device that would release a toxic, sulfur-based gas and kill all on board.

The Sydney Daily Telegraph is now reporting, as further evidence of a plot, that a sticky note was found in a bin upon which someone had written down the flight number of an international flight between Sydney and Jakarta, Indonesia.

In the face of murky and some seemingly fanciful allegations, it is necessary for people to keep a grip on their critical faculties and their adherence to the fundamental democratic principle: innocent until proven guilty.

Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin admitted to journalists yesterday: We dont have a great deal of information on the specific attackthe location, the date or time. However, we are investigating information indicating the aviation industry was potentially a target of that attack.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has reported only being told by police that items had been found in Surry Hills, which could have been used to manufacture a bomb. Beyond a conventional kitchen meat grinder and a mincer to make sausages, no such items have been identified.

Time and again, both in Australia and internationally, purported terrorist conspiracies have been revealed to have involved a significant degree of state provocation, entrapment and exaggeration.

In one of the most dramatic cases in Australiaa purported plan in 2009 to attack a military barracks in Sydneyan undercover police agent played the critical role in encouraging a group of men to talk about committing such an act. No actual preparations had been made to carry it out.

Similarly, in 2008, a police agent provided Muslim cleric Abdul Nacer Benbrika with ammonium nitrate and showed him how to cause it to detonate. Again, there was no actual plan to carry out a terrorist action. Benbrika and six others were nevertheless convicted to lengthy prison terms.

Even earlier, in 2004, a police agent posing as a journalist offered Zeky Zak Mallah, a troubled 18-year-old, $5,000 to record a video threatening to carry out a suicide attack. The video provided the evidence he was planning an act of terrorism. A jury eventually refused to convict him on the most serious charges.

The political context in which the alleged terrorist plot has been exposed provides even more reason to submit every claim by the authorities to the most critical scrutiny.

Under conditions of immense hostility toward the establishment over social inequality and falling living standards, the Turnbull government is seeking to shore up support by posturing as a strongman on national security, and distract the population with fear-mongering over the danger of terrorism.

In just the past three weeks, Turnbull has flagged or announced a series of draconian policies.

* He has asserted his government will seek to enact legislation that compels internet companies such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Facebook and Google to give Australian agencies the necessary means to decrypt encrypted information they carry.

* His government has announced legislation to revamp the military call-out powers, lifting restrictions on the use of the armed forces against civilians.

* On July 18, Turnbull declared the establishment of a new Home Affairs super-ministry on the pretext it would assist combat terrorist threats. It will have overall control of the federal police and intelligence forces, the immigration department and border protection force.

* He then announced a new US-style Office of National Intelligence, headed by a Director-General of National Intelligence, is being created in the prime ministers office to take control of an expanded network of internal and external surveillance agencies.

The alleged airline plot is already being used to justify these policies and denounce criticism of them. The Australian, the flagship publication of the Murdoch media, published an opinion piece today entitled Clear and present danger. It was authored by Jacinta Carroll, the head of the Counter Terrorism Policy Centre at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

Carroll argues the latest incident proves that the inability of the police to read encrypted communications must stop. She declares that it demonstrates the need for a Home Affairs portfolio and reshaping of the national intelligence community. She suggests that further legislative developmentthat is, even more draconian laws and police powersmay be necessary in the future.

Such assertions underscore that the need for the utmost vigilance in defence of democratic rights has never been greater.
Two people including the gunman were killed and at least four others were left wounded after a man opened fire in a German nightclub Sunday (Saturday night in the U.S.), police said.

The 34-year-old suspect opened fire at Grey nightclub on Max-Stromeyer-Strasse in the city of Konstanz around 4:30 a.m. CEST (10:30 p.m. EDT). Later the attacker was shot and fatally injured by the police in a gunfight.

The 34-year-old attacker "was critically injured in a shootout with police officers as he left the disco, and later succumbed to his wounds in hospital," according to a press release by authorities after the incident.

Read: Cincinnati Cameo Nightclub Shooting Update: Liquor License Lost After 1 Dead, Multiple Injured

"The motives of the probably only acting man are not yet known. Investigations by the prosecutor's office and the criminal investigation department continue," the release said.

The gunman was said to be an Iraqi national who resided in Germany, Fritz Bezikofer from the Kostanz police told CNN. A German police spokesman told broadcaster N-TV the attacker had lived in the country for a long time and was not an asylum seeker.

"According to our investigations this is not terror-related, unless the gunman radicalized himself within the last three days," Bezikofer said. "At this moment we believe that he may have had alternative motives," Bezikofer added.

Read: Istanbul Nightclub Gun Attack Suspect: With Photos And Video, Everything We Know About Turkey New Year Shooting Gunman

One police officer was also injured during the gunfight with the attacker outside the club. A bouncer at the scene who tried to stop the suspect was also injured. Police authorities mentioned that special commando forces and a police helicopter were deployed in the city as they were not yet sure if the suspect was acting alone or had accomplices, according to BBC News.

Story continues

The shooting came just two days after a knife attack in the northern port city of Hamburg. A 26-year-old Palestinian killed one and injured six others when he went on a stabbing spree in a supermarket. Investigators said his motives remained unclear; however, he was a known Islamist who suffered from several psychological complications, according to Sky News.

Nightclub shootings have become common and a matter of concern in the United States too. In March this year, one man was killed and at least 15 other people were injured at the Cameo nightclub in Cincinnati, Ohio after a gunman opened fire in the club. More than one gunman was involved in the shooting, according to the Cincinnati police. The club owners had voluntarily surrendered their liquor license after the incident.

One of the worst mass shootings in the history of U.S. took place on June 12, 2016, in an Orlando nightclub where a gunman opened fire early morning, killing 49 people and injuring another 53. The attacker, Omar Mateen shot and killed party-goers at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando with an assault rifle. He fired over dozens of rounds and even took some people hostage. The gunman had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group (ISIS), according to the authorities.

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Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who is set to become Pakistan's interim prime minister, is the former federal minister for petroleum and natural resources, and a businessman who launched the country's most successful private airline.

Considered highly intelligent and a long-time loyalist of Nawaz Sharif, the former prime minister who was ousted by the Supreme Court on Friday, the 58-year-old Abbasi will act as a placeholder for the Sharif dynasty.

He is due to be rubber stamped by in a parliamentary vote as prime minister until Sharif's younger brother Shahbaz, a provincial minister, can be elected to the national assembly and take over the leadership.

Abbasi was appointed oil minister when Nawaz Sharif won his third election in 2013.

Educated in the US at George Washington University, he was born in Karachi but is a member of the National Assembly from Murree -- a hill station that is a favourite holiday destination for Sharif.

Abbasi worked in the US and Saudi Arabia as an electrical engineer before joining politics after his father, a minister in General Zia ul-Haq's government, was killed when an ammunition dump belonging to Pakistan's powerful Inter-Service Intelligence Agency (ISI) exploded in Rawalpindi in 1988.

Abbasi has been elected six times as a member of the National Assembly since then, and has previously served as minister for commerce and defence production.

He was the chairman of national flag carrier Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) from 1997 to 1999, until General Pervez Musharraf overthrew Sharif's second government.

Abbasi was arrested after the coup and imprisoned for two years before being released.

In 2003, he setup a private airline Air Blue, the country's most successful private airline and challenger to PIA.
While we have seen some semblance of emancipation, we still live with the vestiges of slavery every day in the United States



Patrisse Cullors is a co-founder of Black Lives Matter

In this current moment, abolition is more important than ever. Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin/AP

What does it look like to build a city, state or nation invested in communities thriving rather than their death and destruction? To ask this question is the first act of an abolitionist.

I am an abolitionist. What does this mean? Abolitionist resistance and resilience draws from a legacy of black-led anti-colonial struggle in the United States and throughout the Americas including places like Haiti, the first black republic founded on the principles of anti-colonialism and black liberation.

Black people and our allies fought for black liberation against slave societies and a slavery-based economy and in some cases, we won. Abolition sought to end slavery and white supremacy entirely and liberate black people as stolen people exploited on occupied lands.

However, abolition has yet to fully achieve a society and a world where black folks and our lives are recognized with equal value and where institutions have repaired the harm caused to our people.



The backlash to the abolition movement transformed slavery and its institutions. And, while we have seen some semblance of emancipation, we still live with the vestiges of slavery every day in this country.

The remnants of slavery are visible in the militarization of police, the expansion of the prison industrial complex, rampant Immigration and Custom Enforcement (Ice) raids and the Muslim travel ban in place in America today. They are reflected in the US invasions, occupation and war against communities of color domestically and around the world. If a state is the source of 36% of all military expenditures globally, then it is resisting abolition. And with the 45th president, this number is on the rise.

In this current moment, abolition is more important than ever.

The United States has more than 20% of the worlds prison population with only 5% of the worlds population. More than half of those incarcerated in the US are black.

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Incarceration rates for black women are among the highest, with black women arrested four times more than white women. And across the nation, one in 35 adults are under correctional control (included but not limited to jail, parole and probation). We know this to be true and higher in black and Latino communities.

The cost of the prison system, militarization and this society weighed down by vestiges of slavery is great. A recent study found that in the US, the cost of prisons exceeds $1tn. This comes at the expense of families, children and entire communities. The same study determined that the US governments operational funds for federal and state prisons as well as local jails stands at $80bn.

On top of this lies the emotional, psychological and physical trauma associated with separation, constant policing, raids, arrests, incarceration and law enforcement killings. Black communities and other communities of color are visibly under attack in this country.

Abolition is necessary if we want to see these conditions change. We must commit to transforming these systems.

Were not just fighting against the prison industrial complex, criminalization of black people and other communities of color. We also want the right to determine how we live and build up our communities participation and conditions.

We must ask ourselves, how do we build an abolitionist framework and practice for our movements today?

Abolition pushes us to imagine. Abolition inspires us and abolition reminds us of who we can be.

Imagine a society dedicated to people and our collective wellbeing. What does it take to get there? What examples already exist that we can draw from?

With abolition, its necessary to destroy systems of oppression. But its equally necessary to put at the forefront our conversations about creation. When we fight for justice, what exactly do we want for our communities?

These are the fundamental questions that Black Lives Matter and other black liberation movements push ourselves to envision everyday. The Movement For Black Lives (M4BL) did just this when it gathered hundreds of black organizers to build a multi-faceted policy platform rooted in abolition. The policies range from economic justice to political power and reparations.

An abolitionist strategy must encourage social and financial divestment from the military state and its institutions to social welfare. Our communities must demand dignified housing, satisfying jobs and proper labor conditions, our educational system must be culturally relevant, multi-lingual and teach our histories. Our value should not determined by legal records.

Abolitionists today must challenge Jeff Sessions and his revival of the war on drugs and 1980s Reaganomics under the false pretense of fighting crime. We need to target campaigns against local, statewide and national investment in military, police and their associated structures.

Abolitionism is manifested in the LA No More Jails coalition, which works to stop the county that jails the most people in the world, Los Angeles, and the citys proposal for a $3bn expansion. The coalition calls for an immediate stop to jail construction in LA county and a reduction of the number of people locked up. LA No More Jails fiercely advocates that those same resources be redirected into community solutions.

The Anti-Police Terror Projects Defund OPD (Oakland Police Department) committee stands on a similar platform. Its mission is to reduce OPDs budget by 50% and reinvest money into non-police programming in the city.

According to APTPs research, OPD absorbs nearly 50% of the citys general fund. More statistics can be found here. OPD is committed to responding to the citys shameless excuse that theres no money, where do we cut? with concrete strategies that encourage community based initiatives instead of police response or engagement.

It costs $209,000 annually for New York City per inmate at Rikers Island prison. Around 89% of those incarcerated in Rikers are black or Latino. The #CLOSERikers campaign understands that the fight is not simply to close down the prison but also reduce the number of people arrested and fix the court systems.



This coalition of diverse New York-based organizations seeks to boldly reimagine the citys failed criminal justice system and focus on healing communities that Rikers has disproportionately affected.

Abolition goes beyond borders. When our ancestors fought against slavery in the US, they also aligned themselves with movements against colonialism throughout the world, such as the Haitian revolution and other black and indigenous movements across the Americas.

Abolition means fighting against the root causes of mass displacement and forced migration. It means taking on the US state and militarization abroad and ending US intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan and beyond.

Abolition calls for an end to US funding and vetting of military and police across Latin America and the Caribbean. The Justice for Berta campaign, named after the indigenous leader Berta Caceres, who was assassinated in 2016, comes out of longstanding solidarity with Central America and the struggles of black and indigenous peoples.



The campaigns Berta Caceres Human Rights in Honduras Act demands an end to US funding and vetting of Honduran security forces and calls for investigations into the murders of movement organizers gone unsolved.

Abolition means standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people and their fight for liberation. My experience in Palestine radically transformed my analysis and practice of abolition. Sharing space with our Palestinian brothers and sisters made it clear to me that our movements must look at the international ramifications of the US state and militarization abroad. We must continue to participate and support the movement calling for a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against the Israeli state and corporations that support and enable the occupation of Palestinian land.

Our movements must deeply divest from prisons, policing and militarization and demand investment in our communities, our basic needs, services from education, housing and healthcare to reparations.

Abolition centers a call for genuine freedom and places black folks and our liberation at the center because when black people are free, we are all free.
Anthony Scaramucciwas removed as Donald Trump's communications director on Monday, ending a tumultuous eleven days in the role.

The president made the decision following a request from John Kelly, the new White House chief of staff, who insiders said wanted to make clear he was in charge.

"A great day at the White House!" Mr Trump tweeted.

The door's that way: Anthony Scaramucci is out as White House communications boss Credit: AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

In a statement, the White House said: "Mr Scaramucci felt it was best to give Chief of Staff John Kelly a clean slate and the ability to build his own team. We wish him all the best."

Mr Kelly, the widely-respected former retired US Marine Corps general and former commander of United States Southern Command, was sworn in as chief of staff on Monday.

'There's a new sheriff in town'

The speed with which he apparently brought about the removal of Mr Scaramucci suggested he was keen to assert order quickly.

New sheriff: White House Chief of Staff John Kelly waste no time in dismissing Anthony Scaramucci Credit: AP

"Kelly is already changing the culture here," one White House aide reportedly said, adding there was "no way" he could work with Mr Scaramucci.

"There's a new sheriff in town," said Barry Bennett, a former Trump campaign adviser.

Mr Kelly summoned Mr Scaramucci to his office on Monday morning and fired him on the spot, an official told Reuters. It was one of Mr Kelly's first acts as chief of staff.

Mr Scaramucci was escorted from the White House grounds, becoming yet another high-ranking official to leave an administration that is barely beyond the six-month mark. He was the third person to hold the communications director title in that time.

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Mr Scaramucci's appointment a little more than a week ago led to the resignation in protest of Sean Spicer, the press secretary, and the replacement of Reince Priebus as chief of staff.

The brash, New York financier was widely criticised for unleashing a foul-mouthed rant against both Mr Priebus and Steve Bannon, Mr Trump's chief strategist.

During an interview with a New Yorker journalist, Mr Scaramucci threatened to fire the entire White House communications team over the alleged leak of a dinner he attended at the White House.

Goodbye kiss: Scaramucci achieved the shortest tenure in the history of the White House communications director role Credit: AP

He described Mr Priebus as a "paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac". And added that he wanted to "------- kill all the leakers". His profanity-laden comments about Mr Bannon were criticised across the political spectrum.

He said afterwards: "I sometimes use colourful language. I will refrain in this arena but not give up the passionate fight for [Mr Trump's] agenda."

'No chaos'

Although Mr Trump was reported to have "loved" the outburst, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters after his dismissal: "The president certainly felt that Anthony's comments were inappropriate for a person in that position".

The president tweeted earlier on Monday there was "No WH chaos", and pointed to new job and wage figures.

Highest Stock Market EVER, best economic numbers in years, unemployment lowest in 17 years, wages raising, border secure, S.C.: No WH chaos!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2017

A great day at the White House!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2017

Trump officials were hopeful last night that Mr Scaramucci's removal and the presence of the authoritative Mr Kelly in the West Wing could end the sense of chaos within the communications department.

"General Kelly has the full authority to operate within the White House, and all staff will report to him," said Ms Sanders. "That includes everybody at the White House."

During the swearing-in ceremony, Mr Trump confidently predicted the 67-year-old combat veteran - one of a group Mr Trump has dubbed "my generals" - will do a "spectacular job".

"I predict that General Kelly will go down as, in terms of the position of chief of staff, one of the great(est) ever," Mr Trump said.

"What he has done in terms of homeland security is record-shattering, if you look at the border, if you look at the tremendous results we've had."

Unparalleled turnover of staff

The billionaire Republican has parted ways with a number of top officials beyond Mr Priebus and Mr Scaramucci, including his national security advisor, deputy national security advisor and FBI director, among others - an unparalleled turnover for such a young presidency.

The departure of Mr Scaramucci followed one of the rockiest weeks of Trump's presidency in which a major Republican effort to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system failed in Congress.

Republicans fear that staff chaos at the White House could derail any attempt to revive efforts to repeal and replace the Obamacare healthcare law and a plan to overhaul the U.S. tax system.

Aside from domestic challenges, Mr Trump is weighing how to respond to North Korea's latest missile test - a sore point between Washington and Beijing. Trump has been critical of China, North Korea's closest ally, saying it should do more to rein in Pyongyang.

He is also dealing with several investigations into allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election, and has been frustrated that the probes are also looking into potential collusion by his campaign.

Moscow rejects the charge it tried to swing the election in Trump's favour, and Trump denies his campaign had anything to do with such interference.

9:46PM

Harvard apologises for erroneously listingScaramucci as dead

Harvard Law School has apologised for erroneously listing ousted White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci as dead in a new alumni directory, AP reports.

Scaramucci is a 1989 graduate of the Cambridge, Massachusetts, school. A directory mailed to alumni this week included an asterisk by his name indicating he had died.

A statement from the law school apologises for the error and says it will be corrected in future editions. It doesn't provide an explanation for the error.

The directory is published every five years and is available only to alumni of the Ivy League law school.

9:37PM

John Kelly will have 'full authority' to bring structure and discipline to the White House

The White House says Mr Trump's new chief of staff will have "full authority" to bring structure and discipline to the White House.

Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said all West Wing staff will report to John Kelly, Mr Trump's former Homeland Security Secretary, who was sworn in on Monday as the new chief of staff.

9:26PM

'Kelly wanted more structure, less of Game of Thrones'

Source adds: Kelly wanted "more structure, less of Game of Thrones." https://t.co/ieZNbe2qrP  Jackie Alemany (@JaxAlemany) July 31, 2017

9:21PM

'What matters to us is not who is employed in the White House but who is employed in the rest of the country'

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, White House press secretary, has said the president felt Mr Scaramucci's comments quoted in the New Yorker article were "inappropriate". She said his removal was a "mutual" decision and that the president had full faith in Mr Kelly.:

What matters to us is not who is employed in the White House but who is employed in the rest of the country. We are going to continue to focus on creating jobs.

White House: President Trump felt that Scaramucci's comments "were inappropriate for a person in that position" https://t.co/pNp9vXG9Na  CNN (@CNN) July 31, 2017

9:17PM

Sean Spicer delivered Scaramucci statement

Sean Spicer, the outgoing press secretary who resigned in protest at the appointment of Mr Scaramucci last Friday, put out the official statement on Mr Scaramucci's removal:

Anthony Scaramucci will be leaving his role as White House Communications Director. Mr. Scaramucci felt it was best to give Chief of Staff John Kelly a clean slate and the ability to build his own team. We wish him all the best.

9:01PM

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump 'supported the decision to remove Mr Scaramucci'

Jared Kushner, Mr Trump's son-in-law, and Ivanka Trump, his daughter, supported the decision to remove Mr Scaramucci, reports said.

They had also supported his appointment only 11 days previously, and Ms Trump was with her father when Mr Scaramucci was interviewed for the job.

Mr Trump was said to have consulted allies outside the White House over the weekend before making the decision.

Mr Kelly was said to have decided to ask for the resignation of Mr Scaramucci several days ago because he did not represent the way he wanted the White House to function.

9:00PM

Scaramucci 'escorted off White House property'

CNN reports that Mr Scaramucci was "essentially escorted off the White House property".

In this July 28, 2017 photo, White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci walks down the steps of Air Force One after arriving at Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma, for a speech by President Donald Trump Credit: AP

8:52PM

John Kelly ' appears in good spirits'

As the news of Mr Scaramucci's resignation broke, Mr Kelly was in the East Room of the White House with Mr Trump for a military medal ceremony.

He chatted with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. A White House pool reporter said: "He has been smiling and appears in good spirits."
White House communications director Anthony Scaramuccis wife filed for a divorce just two weeks before she gave birth to their son  amid claims she had branded him a Trump sycophant.

Deirdre Scaramucci was said to be tired of her husbands obsession with US president, who appointed him to his new role just last week.

She was also mad because her husband had taunted her, with sources telling a gossip website that Mr Scaramucci tells her shes not that smart, that hes out of her league.

Ms Scaramucci, 38, gave birth to the former couples baby boy James just over two weeks after she had filed for divorce on 6 July in Nassau County Supreme Court.

Mr Scaramucci, 53, was in West Virginia accompanying Donald Trump to a Boy Scouts Jamboree.

A source close to Mr Trumps aide told US gossip website Page Six: When James was born, he sent her a text saying, Congratulations, Ill pray for our child.

He reportedly only visited his new son James on Friday night, four days after the birth.

The source added that there were talks between the couple so Mr Scaramucci could be present while his estranged wife gave birth to James  but the planning fell through.

He said: There was discussion between him, her and the divorce attorneys about Anthony going to the hospital and unfortunately  the delivery was sudden.

Ms Scaramuccis anger with her husband was a factor for the split. Shes mad. They arent really speaking right now, the source said.

The [pain] runs deep. [Anthony] tells her shes not that smart, that hes out of her league.

Another insider close to Mr Scaramucci claimed he was actually the victim of his wifes verbal abuse: She would say, Youre a grifter, youre this. She would mock him for being a Trump sycophant.

Story continues

Others in close contact with the former couple dismissed suggestions another person was involved in the split. Arthur Schwartz, Mr Scaramuccis spokesman, told The Washington Post: Theres absolutely zero truth in that.

Anthony Scaramucci was in West Virginia on business with President Trump when his son James was born: Getty Images

The only one hes dating right now is the West Wing of the White House.

Mr Schwartz said the couple separated five or six months ago.

The big shift began came when Deirde went from being arm candy to [being a mother] and being unavailable for nights out, another source told Page Six. Thats when [Anthonys] decision to just continue his life as it was and leave her behind really started to take hold.

Another contact said: Anthony had been planning to divorce her for some time and he had told other people he planned to announce it after the baby.

Jill Stone, Ms Scaramuccis attorney, said her client refused to speak publicly on the divorce. She said she is not making this into a circus. She has children to protect and thats what shes concerned about.

On Twitter, Mr Scaramucci has pleaded with the media to not report stories about his family affairs.

"Leave civilians out of this. I can take the hits, but I would ask that you would put my family in your thoughts and prayers & nothing more," he first wrote.

"Family does not need to be drawn into this. Soon we will learn who in the media has class and who doesn't. No further comments on this."

After less than a week on the job, Mr Scaramucci criticised his new colleagues in a foul-mouthed tirade to a reporter from The New Yorker.

He called Reince Priebus, the White House chief-of-staff who resigned on Friday, a f***ing paranoid schizophrenic.

Mr Scaramucci also said he did not like Steve Bannon, Mr Trumps chief strategist, because Im not trying to suck my own cock.
Lots of auto events around the world that started out as something relatively specialized are increasingly being used by major automakers to showcase their new, upcoming production models. BMW has a history of using the sensational Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance event in California to wow crowds and the assembled media with one-off concepts. But via the medium of Twitter, the German luxury manufacturer has announced this year it will be unveiling a new car that could actually be one destined for production. The car will be revealed on August 17, and BMW grandly claims "the road will never be the same" as a result of it.

Last year saw BMW use Pebble Beach to show the world its Turbomeister 2002 Hommage, but the statement about this year's reveal changing the road has obviously led to considerable speculation about this being a production model rather than a one-off. In typically cryptic fashion, all the tweet actually told us was "Find out what is hiding in the dark on August 17 at Pebble Beach," which was accompanied by an intriguing teaser sketch.

What's obvious from the image is that the new model is a drop-top of some sort, and it also appears to have cowls behind the front seats, suggesting this is a two-seater roadster. The length of the bonnet also indicates a front-engined format, so, the easy conclusion to jump to is this could be the new successor to the Z4 that we already know is in the pipeline. The problem with that theory though is the Toyota-based model to replace the last Z4 is a relatively compact car, whereas this one looks to be too long for that.

So, unless this is something completely out of the blue, the most likely explanation is this must be the convertible version of the upcoming 8 Series flagship coupe that's getting very close to being released. The two-seat look of the teaser sketch does tend to contradict that particular theory, but this could just be a concept and the production model wouldn't look greatly different with its rear seats. Regardless, all will be revealed, as they say, in just over a couple of weeks.
Remembering Ambedkar in Bangalore

In the third week of July, when I had planned to be in a village in mid-Western Nepal, I found myself instead in Bangalore, as a guest of the Government of Karnataka, attending a massive conference entitled Reclaiming Social Justice, Revisiting Ambedkar, on the 126th birth anniversary of the great Dalit leader Bhimrao Ambedkar. Could there be
Jonathan visited the surgeons of Botched because his usual plastic surgeon has refused to put any more fillers into his lips. Jonathan's goal is to have the biggest lips in the room because it helps him look fake, which is apparently better than looking "basic." Jonathan's lips are so full of fillers that he has no feeling in them, but despite that he says, "They're just not big enough yet and I don't know why [people] keep telling me that they're so big, 'cause I honestly don't think they're big." Jonathon's doctor in his hometown of Vancouver said that it's too dangerous to have bigger lips but Jonathan contends, "I know it's not dangerous. I've seen people with bigger lips before." When he met with Dr. Dubrow and Dr. Nassif they almost immediately knew they weren't going to put any fillers in his mouth. They even warned him that he is dangerously close to having tissue necrosis and losing his lips permanently. But the doctors words fell on deaf ears as Jonathan said, "To be honest, it doesn't really scare me much. I think I'm still gonna keep going and get them bigger."
Theres still the bother of the National League Central, which probably everyone can agree the Chicago Cubs have allowed to go on long enough, but, you know, house money spends too. Even then, there comes a time when your champion of yesterday isnt quite your champion today, so in the course of 17 days the Cubs have twice traded their reputed best prospect in order to address the same problem: the year after.

To the former, the Cubs on Sunday won for the 13th time in 16 games, and went from 5 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers to 2 games ahead and, presumably, to more of the same for the next two months. To the latter, 2 weeks after kicking four players, including outfielder Eloy Jimenez, to the Chicago White Sox for starting pitcher Jose Quintana, reached an agreement on a trade Sunday night that would bring Detroit Tigers lefty reliever Justin Wilson and catcher Alex Avila for three players, including corner infielder Jeimer Candelario.

Jimenez was the Cubs top minor leaguer, back then. He became the White Soxs second-best prospect, behind Yoan Moncada, who is in the big leagues. Candelario moved into the place vacated by Jimenez for all of 2 weeks, at which time the Cubs decided to shore up their bullpen, that at the expense of another piece of what used to be The Plan.

Oh, its still The Plan, probably, only the pitching staff isnt exactly what it was then, and therell be all hands on deck for the next two months and certainly for the month after that. So, while winning a World Series for the first time in 108 years was a heavy lift, becoming the first team to win back-to-back World Series in 17 years (and first in the NL since 1976) was proving to be no simple task either. The Los Angeles Dodgers are, so far, better than the Cubs were last year, for one, and their young left-handed hitters are part of the reason why.

Catcher Alex Avila and Justin Wilson were traded to the Chicago Cubs. (Getty Images)

Therefore, the Cubs, whose bullpen already was very capable, added Wilson, who in 42 games with the Tigers had an 0.943 WHIP, 12.3 strikeouts per nine, and a .157 batting average against. Of his 40 1/3 innings, 26 1/3 were in the ninth inning, so on the days Wade Davis must be rested, Wilson should be a fine alternative. Hes actually been more effective against right-handed hitters than left.

The veteran Avila, son of Tigers general manager Al, will back up Willson Contreras. At 30, Avila, a left-handed hitter, is having one of his more productive offensive seasons. Hes also caught 34 postseason games.

Just a few weeks ago, when the Cubs seemingly had yet to put last season behind them, the front office sought improvement in three areas. They addressed those in Quintana, in Wilson, and in Avila. The cost was in a bit of their future, the very thing theyd chased and guarded for so many years, and arrived only last Nov. 2. So, perspective changes. Once, the future was way out there somewhere, out beyond a 108th season, beyond probably anything they could have imagined. Win, though, really win, and theres a future to be had right now, in a week of games coming against Arizona and Washington, and in two months of more in the NL Central, and presumably in another October.

None of this happens, perhaps, without their adding a left-handed reliever  Aroldis Chapman  at least years deadline. The cost was prospects then, too. Its part of the process. Part of The Plan. There comes, after all, a time to do it again. And it might be even harder.
Americans of a certain generation will remember this mantra from the 1980s: Just say no.

This simple phrase was the cornerstone of Nancy Reagans drug abuse awareness initiative, rolled out in response to perceptions of sharp increases in youth drug use from the late 1970s and into the early 1980s. It was also the cornerstone of D.A.R.E., the controversial youth substance abuse prevention program.

Recently, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that he would like to reinvigorate D.A.R.E., a move that was met with considerable skepticism in the media.

As a professor of psychology and director of the Center on Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice at Rutgers University-Newark, I welcome any and all efforts to support positive youth development and prevent youth substance abuse  but only if those efforts are in line with evidence from scientific research. Does that include D.A.R.E.?

Just say no

The origins of Just say no are by now apocryphal, with potential attributions to a California elementary school student during a school drop-in from the first lady or a New York City advertising executive.

The command, however, is carved deeply into the foundation of over 30 years of U.S. drug prevention policy.

The idea of just saying no to drugs emanates from a simplified view on rational choice theory, which contends that people choose their behaviors in order to maximize rewards and minimize costs.

Very simply, D.A.R.E. was a program that rested on the premise of training kids how to say no.It was also the central concept of the D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program, when it was initiated in 1983. The goal was to help youth see that the costs of drug use far outweighed any rewards, and could be avoided by refusing to use drugs. This original model of D.A.R.E. seemed to rely on just a few key points: 1) drugs are bad; 2) if kids knew how bad drugs were, they would never choose to use them; and 3) this would be especially true if police officers were the ones telling kids about drugs.

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Of course, anyone who has ever been a parent knows that kids already know full well how to say no. But D.A.R.E. developers and interventionists knew they were laboring against peer pressure and a popular culture that glorified recreational drug use.

Where D.A.R.E. failed

By now, its fairly well-known that the first version of D.A.R.E. was a failure: Studies of the program found that not only did D.A.R.E. fail to prevent students from using drugs, in some cases it actually increased the likelihood that students would use drugs.

Part of the difficulty with any substance use prevention program is that experimentation and risk-taking are part of youth development, and providing students with more elaborate information about the effects of different substances could pique their interest even more, particularly if the information is not presented appropriately.

Bringing back D.A.R.E.

Regardless of how the first D.A.R.E. program fell short, its failure was acknowledged. According to D.A.R.E. publicity materials, the program is still in place in approximately 75 percent of American school districts, but D.A.R.E. has fallen from grace and is no longer as central to U.S. anti-drug policy as it once was.

D.A.R.E. developers revised the program in the late 1990s and early 2000s, attempting to bring the program in line with scientific research and theories on youth drug use prevention. Yet these changes appeared unconvincing and failed to bring D.A.R.E. back to its former prominence.

When Jeff Sessions announced that he would like to revitalize D.A.R.E., reporters and pundits alike seemed troubled: Does Sessions want to return to implementing a verifiably ineffective program? In his announcement, Sessions seemed to paint a picture of the early glory days of D.A.R.E., and those in the media who have been covering and writing about the announcement are justifiably concerned.

But given the history of D.A.R.E., its hard to imagine that well be seeing Just say no redux anytime soon.

New D.A.R.E. isnt D.A.R.E.

You might be surprised to learn this, but the contemporary version of D.A.R.E. isnt really D.A.R.E. at all  its a D.A.R.E.-branded adaptation of a highly successful, evidence-based substance use prevention program that rests on a body of scientific research documenting its effectiveness.

The program is called Keepin It REAL and was developed originally by prevention scientists at Penn State University. On its face, KIR looks like another just say no program: It relies on the acronym REAL, applied as refuse, explain, avoid and leave.

But while the theme of KIR rests on refusal and avoidance (i.e., just saying no), the curriculum addresses many of the issues that contribute to drug use in the first place, by teaching and working with youth on communication skills, self-regulation, cognitive problem-solving and emotion knowledge.

This approach to substance use prevention is in line with other, similar programs such as Life Skills Training (developed by Cornell University researchers) and Toward No Drug Abuse (from scientists at the University of Southern California). These sorts of substance use prevention programs have been proven to reduce the likelihood of substance use, but also the likelihood of problem behavior and violence  with the added benefit of improving positive behavior and interpersonal skills.

The new D.A.R.E.-branded KIR program hasnt yet been subjected to formal evaluation: The biggest question is that we dont yet know whether KIR can be delivered effectively by police officers. But KIR has passed muster through a variety of prior adaptations, and the track record of the Penn State research team for implementing effective programs is promising.

The future of D.A.R.E.

When Sessions called for renewed, large-scale implementation of D.A.R.E., many in the media seem to have missed that hes talking about the current configuration of the program  a new methodology thats a more likely recipe for success than the infamously ineffective original D.A.R.E. Whats more, the D.A.R.E. folks have made it clear over the years that they will not be going back to the approach that was proven at best ineffective and at worst harmful.

In fact, the biggest obstacle to D.A.R.E.s efficacy may be the D.A.R.E. brand itself, which has clearly been tarnished after decades of research criticizing the program.

If they can overcome that obstacle, the D.A.R.E. delivery system is optimal for large-scale substance abuse prevention. Schools are great venues for the delivery of health promotion programming, and police officers can convey the seriousness of the topic.

Fortunately, there have been notable declines in underage tobacco and alcohol use in the last several years. However, with opioid abuse on the rise and students still engaging in relatively high rates of other illicit drug use, there is good cause for a new commitment to D.A.R.E.

Paul Boxer is Professor of Psychology at Rutgers University Newark

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
A convicted murderer who left his prison-made dentures at the scene of a rape 16 years ago has only now been convicted of the crime after the fake teeth were finally tested.

The dentures, which bore 67-year-old Thomas Maupin's name and held traces of his DNA, were collected and tagged by crime scene investigators and placed in the police property room following the August 2001 crime in Memphis, Tenn., according to Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich.

Watch: Man Put to Death for Rape and Murder of 3-Year-Old Girl, Ending Ohio's 3-Year Execution Break

A sexual assault kit that included DNA evidence also was collected, but became part of a backlog that was not tested until many years later.

In July 2016, the dentures were taken to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation for testing, and a partial DNA profile was developed that showed to be consistent with that of Maupin.

Maupin entered his guilty plea and was sentenced to eight years in prison last week.

The victim, who remains emotionally traumatized by the case, did not want to testify in a trial, and approved the settlement.

The rape occurred Aug. 19, 2001, when the 31-year-old victim was walking and was approached by a motorist who got out of his car and began walking with her.

After a few moments, the man forced her into an alley and stabbed her with a metal object under her chin with such force that it struck the roof of her mouth.

Read: 34 Cases Dismissed After Video Allegedly Exposed Cop Planting Drugs

He also used the object to sexually assault her after forcing her to perform oral sex.

Maupin arrived in Memphis after serving 12 years in Washington in connection with the killing of a 6-year-old girl in Spokane, Wash.

He was twice convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison, but the convictions were overturned on appeal.

Watch: Dad Tackles Man Who Allegedly Tried to Meet Teen Daughter for Sex

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Dr Hess later gave birth to her baby daughter Ellen Joyce and joked she had worked up til the last second

A doctor about to give birth leapt out of her bed to help bring another womans child into the world instead after her baby became distressed.

Dr Amanda Hess rushed to the rescue of Leah Johnson in Frankfort Regional Medical Center, Kentucky, when her own doctor was on a break.

She acted after overhearing nurses saying that Ms Johnson, who was fully dilated, needed to give birth immediately.

Dr Hess said: I just put on another gown to cover up my backside and put on some boots over my shoes to keep from getting any fluid and all that stuff on me, and went down to her room.

She recognised Ms Johnson, whom she had performed a check-up on days before, and delivered her healthy baby daughter.

Ms Johnson afterwards described Dr Hess as pretty amazing, and added: I feel very lucky she was there and the type of person she is and stepped up to do what she did.

Dr Hess, a doctor in obstetrics and gynaecology, later gave birth to her second child, Ellen Joyce.

Both mothers and babies were reportedly doing well  and Dr Hess was expected to take eight months for her maternity leave.

She added: I had actually taken a call the day before, so I thought really that I was working up to the last minute but this was literally til the last second.

It came just weeks after a newborn was saved by paramedics who battled to get her mother admitted to her nearest hospital after being told there was no room.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spoke with US President Donald Trump on Monday and agreed on the need for more action on North Korea just hours after the US Ambassador to the United Nations said Washington is "done talking about North Korea".

Mr Abe said that Mr Trump would take all necessary measures to protect US allies against the increasing threat from the hermit state.

Mr Trump welcomes Mr Abe to the White House in February 2017 Credit: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

Mr Abe told reporters after his conversation with Trump that repeated efforts by the international community to find a peaceful solution to the North Korean issue had yet to bear fruit in the face of Pyongyang's unilateral "escalation".

"International society, including Russia and China, need to take this seriously and increase pressure," Mr Abe said. He said Japan and the United States would take steps towards concrete action but did not give details.

Mr Abe and Mr Trump did not discuss military action against North Korea, nor what would constitute the crossing of a "red line" by Pyongyang, Deputy Chief Cabinet spokesman Koichi Hagiuda told reporters.

A White House statement after the phone call said the two leaders "agreed that North Korea poses a grave and growing direct threat to the United States, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and other countries near and far".

It said Mr Trump "reaffirmed our ironclad commitment" to defend Japan and South Korea from any attack, "using the full range of United States capabilities".

Graphic: North Korea missile launch

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the talk between Abe and Trump lasted for about 50 minutes.

"The role that China can play is extremely important," he told a news conference.

"Japan intends to call on those countries involved - including the UN, the United States and South Korea to start, but also China and Russia - to take on additional duties and actions to increase pressure," Mr Suga said, declining to give details about what those steps might be.

Nikki Haley, US Ambassador to the United Nations, said in a statement China must decide if it is willing to back imposing stronger U.N. sanctions on North Korea over Friday night's long-range missile test, the North's second this month.

Any new UN Security Council resolution "that does not significantly increase the international pressure on North Korea is of no value", Haley said, adding that Japan and South Korea also needed to do more.
(Reuters) - One of 12 inmates who broke out of a county jail in Alabama over the weekend remained at large on Monday, as the local sheriff said the escapees used peanut butter to disguise the numbers on a cell door and fool guards.

Walker County Sheriff James Underwood said in a phone call that 11 of the 12 missing prisoners had been recaptured, some at a highway truck stop, but 24-year-old Brady Kilpatrick remained a fugitive.

Kilpatrick had been in jail facing charges of marijuana possession.

Underwood said the men had managed the escape by using peanut butter to switch lettering on cell and outside doors, then told a guard in a control booth, a new employee with only a week on the job, to open the door leading to their freedom.

"They're very creative and you just have to stay on your toes all the time," Underwood said. "They selected someone who hadn't been here very long and they pulled this operation off."

Underwood said his deputies were "working on some leads" to recapture Kilpatrick, but declined to elaborate so as not to jeopardize the investigation.

The Walker County Sheriff's Office has offered a $500 reward for information leading to an arrest.

Police in the small city of Jasper, where the jail is located, urged downtown residents to stay inside and turn on their outdoor lights. Police from nearby Parrish, Alabama, were also involved in the search.

The dozen escapees, all men aged 18 to 30, were imprisoned on charges including robbery, attempted murder, domestic violence and drug possession.

The jail from which the men escaped opened in 1998 and holds 250 inmates, according to the county sheriff's website.

(Reporting by Chris Michaud, Jonathan Allen and Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Scott Malone, Frances Kerry, W Simon and Richard Chang)
Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in Ypres, Belgium - Getty Images Europe

Every night in the Belgian city of Ypres at 8pm sharp, the Last Post echoes out across the Menin Gate. Since 1928 the buglers of the Last Post Association have performed this simple act of remembrance to the 250,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers killed here during the First World War.

Sometimes they have played in the driving rain that defines this part of Flanders with not a soul watching. On Sunday evening, at an event commemorating the centenary of one of the bloodiest battles of the First World War, the eyes of the world were upon them.

Before the service began, the Duke of Cambridge stepped forward to speak on behalf of a nation. Thank you for the honour that you do us, he said.

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Ypres Credit: Getty

The event at the Menin Gate was the beginning of two days of commemorations marking the Third Battle of Ypres, latterly known as Passchendaele, which raged between July 31 and Nov 6 1917 causing some 320,000 Allied casualties.

The Sir Reginald Blomfield designed Menin Gate is inscribed with the names of more than 54,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers killed around Ypres in the First World War whose graves are not known  40,537 were members of Britains Armed Forces.

The memorial was unveiled by Field Marshall Lord Plumer in July 1927 who told the assembled families of their fallen loved ones: He is not missing. He is here.

TRHs are joined by over 200 descendants whose ancestors are named on the Gate and representatives from nations who fought on the Salient. pic.twitter.com/V0S7lVnhbj  Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) July 30, 2017

The service, attended by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who was wearing a cream dress and hat with a poppy pinned to her chest, King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium and dignitaries from the 19 nations that fought on the Ypres Salient, was the 30,752nd time the Last Post has played here after the custom was first started by a Belgian policeman.

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When the final notes echoed off the cobbles of the medieval Belgian city dubbed Wipers by the British troops posted here, the chairman of the Last Post Association Benoit Mottrie read the Exhortation. The Duke of Cambridge then laid a wreath alongside King Philippe of Belgium, followed by Theresa May, the Prime Minister.

During his reading the Duke, who was wearing a suit with medals pinned to his chest, described how in the First World War, Britain and Belgium stood shoulder to shoulder.

Theresa May in Ypres Credit: James Whatling

One hundred years on, we still stand together, gathering as so many do every night, in remembrance of that sacrifice, he added.

During his address, which followed that of the Duke of Cambridge, King Philippe of Belgium spoke of his pride at the people of Ypres for continuing the Last Post tradition for so many years and of the immense sacrifice of those who fell here.

Every time we stand here under the Menin Gate, we feel overwhelmed by the immensity of the sacrifice of the men whose names surround us, he said. This battle, a hundred years ago, makes the bond between our countries strong and everlasting.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrive in Belgium tonight to attend events to mark the centenary of #Passchendaele100pic.twitter.com/19xDFFEr1w  Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) July 30, 2017

After the wreaths were laid, the National Youth Choir of Scotland performed the song, O Valiant Hearts, which was adapted from a poem by John Stanhope Arkwright and has become known as the Ypres Hymn. As they sang, 54,391 poppy petals cascaded from the top of the Menin Gate  one for each name inscribed within its Portland stone arches.

Around 200 descendants of those who fought in Passchendaele have travelled out to Belgium for the centenary commemorations which continue today at Tyne Cot Cemetery. Among those in Ypres on Sunday evening was Caroline Price, whose father, Colonel Cyril Helm, was in command of the 42nd Field Ambulance at Passchendaele.

The 67-year-old from Kent recalls him first taking her to the Menin Gate aged just 10. He stood there and cried, she said. He had lost so many friends. It was a horrendous time for him.

Duchess of Cambridge arriving at the Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium Credit: Chris Radburn

Alan Evans, a retired Royal Navy petty officer had travelled out to pay tribute to his great uncle Thomas George Evans who had signed up to fight with the Liverpool Pals Battalion at the onset of war and survived the Somme and countless other battles before losing his life at Passchendaele on Sept 20 at the age of 28.

Evans has managed to get hold of the battalion diary for the day he was killed which records one officer killed, four wounded, 14 other ranks killed and 16 others wounded.

They said that was a good day for Passchendaele, the 56-year-old says.

Following the service at the Menin Gate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attended a commemoration event in Ypres Market Square.

Dame Helen Mirren started the performance with a reading of the poem, In Flanders Fields, written by the Canadian Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae during the second battle of Ypres in 1915. She was followed by Ian Hislop who performed extracts from the Wipers Times, a play he wrote based on the satirical trench newspaper first produced in 1916 by two British soldiers holed up beneath the Ypres ramparts.

Duchess of Cambridge and Queen of Belgium Credit: Stephen Lock / i-Images

There was also a reading by the author Michael Morpurgo of his new short story, From Farm Horse to War Horse, specially written for the centenary event. The story is a follow-up to his childrens book, War Horse, which in 2007 was adapted into an extraordinarily successful National Theatre production. The life-size puppet of Joey from the play accompanied Morpurgo in Ypres Market Square.

His new story began with a grandfather recounting to his grandson the horrors of the war. Just staying alive was the difficult bit, he says. The worst was at Passchendaele. Hell on earth.

Throughout the evening images from the battle were projected on to the Ypres Cloth Hall, along with footage of veterans recorded after the war.

Private Harry Patch, the last surviving British soldier from the Western Front who died in 2009 at the age of 111 recalled Passchendaele simply as mud, mud, mud  what unspeakable events were obscured by the morass he could never bring himself to say. The evening ended with a projection of soldiers walking past the Menin Gate, a route so many once took only to never return A century on and the footsteps of the fallen still ring out. Their sacrifice is not forgotten.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge join thousands of relatives of those who fought at the Battle of Passchendaele in a gathering which marks 100 years since it began.

The Prince of Wales, Prime Minister Theresa May and Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon will also attend events in and around Ypres, Belgium, to commemorate the centenary which cost tens of thousands of British and Commonwealth lives.

On Sunday, a ceremony will take place at the Menin Gate in Ypres, which is etched with the names of thousands of missing soldiers.

Events will also be held at the Tyne Cot military cemetery on Monday.

Early morning sunlight at Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery where events will be held to mark 100 years since the battle

Sir Michael said: "These services provide us with the time to reflect on the sacrifice not just of the thousands of British and Commonwealth troops who gave their lives, but of the men on all sides who did not return home.

"This was a battle which touched communities across Europe and it is a privilege to be here in Belgium to stand as friends with the representatives of all the countries who took part in the battle - friends who continue to be strong allies."

Passchendaele Map

The British and Commonwealth attacks were fought near Ypres between July 31 and November 10 1917, in battlefields that turned to liquid mud and were summed up in poet Siegfried Sassoon's line "I died in hell, they called it Passchendaele".

More than half a million troops - 325,000 Allied soldiers and 260,000 Germans - died in the battle, officially known as the Third Battle of Ypres, in the West Flanders region of northern Belgium in 1917.

Among those to fight in the battle was the "Last Tommy" Harry Patch, who died aged 111 in July 2009.

About | The Battle of Passchendaele
Viber Out now available in Nepal

Viber Out, a calling service of the popular Viber messaging app, will be finally be available in Nepal thanks to Cashway Money Transfer.
Brussels (AFP) - The European Union announced Saturday it had launched legal action against Poland's rightwing government over a new law that it fears will erode judicial independence.

The action escalates EU pressure on Warsaw over what Brussels sees as a growing threat, not just to democratic standards in Poland but across the 28-nation bloc.

"The European Commission launched an infringement procedure against Poland by sending a letter of formal notice," the EU's powerful executive said.

It was sent after Poland published the law reorganising its ordinary courts on Friday.

The EU statement said Warsaw had one month to reply to the Commission letter, which "raises concerns that... the independence of Polish courts will be undermined."

The action eventually could lead to Poland being hauled before the bloc's highest court, the European Court of Justice, and possibly fined.

The Commission has also warned of even tougher measures if the governing Law and Justice Party (PiS), which has raised EU concerns since winning the Polish elections in late 2015, forges ahead with deeper court reforms.

- EU 'reversal obligatory' -

In Warsaw, Polish President Andrzej Duda's chief of staff Krzysztof Szczerski warned on Saturday that the Commission had "entered a path that leads nowhere," saying organisation of the courts was the sovereign preserve of member states.

"At a certain point, a reversal will be obligatory" for the Commission, which will face "increasingly high" costs each step it takes, Szczerski told PAP news agency.

Poland's deputy foreign minister for European affairs, Konrad Szymanski, said the new law carried proper guarantees and the EU action was "unfounded."

The EU move had been expected after Duda on Tuesday signed into law a measure allowing the justice minister to unilaterally replace the chief justices of common courts, which rank below the Supreme Court.

Story continues

However, Duda, a former PiS party member who turned independent, stunned the government when he vetoed another bill that would have reinforced political control over the paramount court.

He also vetoed a bill allowing parliament to choose members of a body designed to protect the independence of the courts.

Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo has vowed to push ahead with all the reforms despite Duda's vetoes.

European Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans on Wednesday warned the "commission is ready to immediately trigger the article 7 procedure" if Supreme Court justices are sacked.

Article 7 is a never-before-used EU process designed to uphold the rule of law, a so-called "nuclear option" that can freeze a country's right to vote in meetings of EU ministers.

The chances are slim that its voting rights could actually be suspended. Populist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has vowed he would instantly veto any such move by the EU.

The escalating standoff with Poland threatens to deepen an east-west split in the EU.

Hungary itself faces EU legal action over laws targeting education and foreign civil society groups, while Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic also face action for ignoring the bloc's migrant relocation quotas.

The Commission said the threat to judicial independence came from the Polish justice minister getting "discretionary power to prolong the mandate of judges who have reached retirement age as well as to dismiss and appoint court presidents."

Other concerns, it said, include "discrimination on the basis of gender" by setting the retirement age at 60 for female judges and at 65 for their male counterparts.

Timmermans also sent a letter on Friday to Poland's Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski and Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro saying the "Commission's hand is still extended" as he invited them to Brussels to relaunch a long drawn-out dialogue on the judiciary reforms.

The legal reforms have triggered mass street protests in Poland and raised fears for the rule of law in one of the EU's leading eastern former communist states.

Brussels and Warsaw have been at loggerheads ever since PiS announced reforms to Poland's constitutional court after coming to power in late 2015.

EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova has expressed fears the "whole EU system of mutual recognition of court decisions" could be undermined if Polish judicial independence were undermined.
Artificial intelligence is a growing field for tech companies, but a recent experiment from Facebook showcased an unintended consequence of the new technology.

As part of a project on machine learning applications, Facebook researchers worked on developing artificial intelligence-powered agents that would be able to negotiate with themselves. In the test, the agents were tasked with automatically figuring out ways to split a group of items. In addition, both agents had specific values assigned to each item, ensuring that they couldnt come to a draw.

Read: Artificial Intelligence Will Turn Against Us, Says John McAfee

However, when the bots started talking to one another, something interesting happened. Via Fast Company, heres a partial transcript of their chat log:

Alice: balls have zero to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to Bob: you i everything else Alice: balls have a ball to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me Bob: i . . . . . .. . . . . . Alice: balls have zero to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to Bob: you i i i i i everything else . . . . . . . . . . . . Alice: balls have 0 to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to

This might look like nonsense, but according to Facebook, this conversation was yet another example of AI dynamically generating its own contextual language and the ability to understand conversations. Dhruv Batra, a visiting Facebook AI research scientist from Georgia Tech, told Fast Company that for the AI agents, there wasnt any guidance to stick to typical English sentence structure, so they made up the difference on their own.

Agents will drift off understandable language and invent codewords for themselves, Batra said. Like if I say the five times, you interpret that to mean I want five copies of this item. This isnt so different from the way communities of humans create shorthands.

Part of this phenomena has come from the type of work researchers are doing. Companies like Facebook and Google are developing consumer-grade ways for AI to talk with other humans, so theyve typically focused solely on English speech. In the past, researchers have run into instances where AI can independently develop its own language and conversational system before.

Story continues

In a later part of its testing, Facebook re-enforced standard English language structures on the negotiation agents and added additional training to teach the agents good and bad behaviors. As researchers noted, the upgraded agents performed extremely well in human-to-agent tests:

Interestingly, in the FAIR experiments, most people did not realize they were talking to a bot rather than another person  showing that the bots had learned to hold fluent conversations in English in this domain. The performance of FAIRs best negotiation agent, which makes use of reinforcement learning and dialog rollouts, matched that of human negotiators. It achieved better deals about as often as worse deals, demonstrating that FAIR's bots not only can speak English but also think intelligently about what to say.

Read: Apple Launches Blog Focusing On Its Artificial Intelligence Research

But beyond the long-disputed science-fiction fears of AI developing self-awareness and enslaving humanity, Facebooks findings illustrate another interesting aspect of AI and language development.

Consumer-focused products have made human interaction a major part of AI development, but what if AI-powered programs could simply work and talk without needing humans? For a language like English, researchers need to invest time and development making ways for AI to understand areas like syntax and sentence structure. By bypassing these hoops for agents to jump through and allowing AI to work without needing human language, researchers have argued that AI-powered hardware or software could learn at even faster rates.

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ELDORET, Kenya (Reuters) - A gunman and a police officer were killed in an attack on the home of Kenya's deputy president in the western town of Eldoret, a senior administrator said on Sunday, just over a week before a national election. Deputy President William Ruto and his family were not at home at the time of the Saturday attack, police said. Ruto is the running mate of President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is seeking a second and final term in office in the Aug. 8 election. "From the exchange of fire we thought it was more than one attacker, because he used different firearms, but after we subdued him, we found only one man dead, plus our officer who he had killed," Wanyama Musiambo, Rift Valley regional coordinator, told reporters at the scene on Sunday. Musiambo declined to comment when asked about the motive of the attack, or the attacker's identity. The deputy president's residence is guarded by an elite paramilitary police unit. Musiambo said the attacker initially had no gun but managed to break into the police armoury once inside the compound. "After the operation we discovered that it was one gunman, but because he was inside there, he could change position and firearms because he had access to the guns. And the guns he was using were ours," he said. "We have however launched investigations into the issue, to find out if he conducted the attack alone or he was with others who may have escaped." Ruto and Kenyatta spent Saturday campaigning in the counties of Kitale, Kericho and Narok, the president's office said in a statement. "Condolences to the family of the gallant soldier Joseph Makembo, who died in line of duty and quick recovery to Allan Rotich," Ruto said on Twitter, referring to the guards at his residence. Late on Saturday, police had initially said the attacker was armed with a machete and had injured one police officer before holing himself up in an outbuilding. A Reuters reporter near Ruto's compound said he saw several police vehicles going in and out of the compound, as well as one armored vehicle in the compound. (Writing by George Obulutsa; Additional reporting by Humphrey Malalo in Nairobi; Editing by Keith Weir and Dale Hudson)
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Nearly 90,000 Iranians are expected to attend the haj in Medina this year, and were due to start arriving on Sunday, after Tehran boycotted the pilgrimage last year amid tensions with Saudi Arabia. Around 800 pilgrims were due to leave Iran on three flights to Medina on Sunday, the director of the haj at Irans Haj and Pilgrimage Organization, Nasrollah Farahmand told state media. Approximately 86,500 Iranians are expected to attend the haj in total this year and 800 coordinators have traveled to Saudi Arabia to help Iranians during the pilgrimage, he said. Iran boycotted the haj last year after hundreds of people, many of them Iranians, died in a crush at the pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia in 2015, and following a diplomatic rift between the two countries who are vying for power and influence in the region. In a speech to haj organizers on Sunday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that Iranians would never forget the catastrophic events of 2015 and called on Saudi Arabia to ensure the security of all pilgrims. "The serious and constant issue for the Islamic Republic is the preservation of the security, dignity, welfare and comfort of all pilgrims, particularly Iranian pilgrims," Khamenei said, according to his official site. "The security of the haj is the responsibility of the country where the two noble shrines exist." Riyadh severed diplomatic relations last year after Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran following the execution of a Shi'ite cleric in Saudi Arabia in January 2016. In February this year Iran, which is predominantly Shi'ite Muslim, sent a delegation to Saudi Arabia, which is mostly Sunni, that initiated the process of Iranian pilgrims returning for the haj. However, tensions between the two countries remain at an all-time high. Last month Iranian officials pointed a finger at Saudi Arabia after Islamic State carried out attacks on the Iranian parliament in Tehran and the shrine of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, that left at least 18 dead. Saudi Arabia denied any involvement. Khamenei in his speech on Sunday also called on all pilgrims to show their reaction to the recent unrest at the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and "Americas wicked presence in the region" at the haj, according to his official website. He did not specify what kind of reaction he expected pilgrims to show. (Reporting By Babak Dehghanpisheh; Editing by Susan Fenton)
Despite President Trumps proclamation that there is no chaos in the White House, new chief of staff John Kelly has a lot to do  stopping the leaks of information, ending the bitter fighting between staffers and promoting the presidents agenda.

Yahoo News talked to experts to find out what Kelly needs to do to ensure his tenure is longer than that of his predecessor.

Limit access to the president

Its an unbelievably long and difficult to-do list that Kelly faces, said Chris Whipple, author of The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency.

Kelly needs to lay down the law in Trumps Wild West White House, ensuring that he controls access to the president and his time, and is empowered to hire and fire, Whipple told Yahoo News.

Hes got to make sure that hes first among equals, and empowered to be lord high executioner, Whipple said. Apart from Trumps daughter Ivanka, son-in-law Jared Kushner and possibly senior adviser Steve Bannon, no one should have unfettered access to the Oval Office.

The hardest and most important thing Kelly has to do is be able to walk into the Oval Office, shut the door, and tell Trump what he doesnt want to hear, the author said. He needs to see the tweets before they go out. And he needs to draw some red lines, including warning the president that hell walk out if Trump tweets a demonstrable lie, Whipple said.

President Trump shakes hands with John Kelly after he was sworn in as White House chief of staff in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on July 31, 2017. (Photo: Reuters/Joshua Roberts)

Take control of the West Wing

Trumps aides may love his hands-off leadership style, but the White Houses lack of structure is preventing it from effectively fulfilling its daily responsibilities, according to Dr. Terry Sullivan, a political science professor at UNC Chapel Hill who studies the White House.

According to Sullivan, Trump made a common mistake in allowing senior advisors equal access to the Oval Office. The chief of staff is supposed to be the gatekeeper of the presidents attention, ensuring that he doesnt get distracted from his daily responsibilities.

Story continues

The best way for Kelly to do that, according to Sullivan, is make a formal agreement with Trump about his power over other staffers.

Those things typically are designed to bring into organizational focus and downgrade this circle of equals, Sullivan said. That usually means a couple of things  everyone has to report to the chief of staff; and secondly, [for] those who are unwilling to do that, the president has to be willing to support the chief of staff firing them. Thats necessary to integrate the presidents ambitions with the responsibilities of the office.

Focus on staff

According to James A. Baker III, the only person to have been chief of staff to two presidents, Kelly should stay focused on the needs of the presidents staff.

You can focus on the chief, or you can focus on the of staff, Baker told the New York Times, Those who have focused on the of staff have done pretty well.

According to Baker, chiefs of staff should have complete control of the White House, but should not let the power go to their heads and try to govern on their own.

Reduce the urge to leak

Kelly may find that one of his top jobs is plugging what has been a flood of leaks from the White House.

The most effective way of reducing information leaks is to have an inclusive decision-making process where all the players believe their views are heard, said Martha Joynt Kumar, a retired Towson State University political science professor who has studied White House communications as well as presidential transitions extensively.

That means establishing procedures to hear staff views, and then a process of coming to a decision where all are confident they had a hearing. Whatever the final outcome, all would feel themselves to be part of the process, she said.

Olivier Knox contributed reporting.

Read more from Yahoo News:
Bride-to-be Amber McGraw never got this dress she purchased from now-closed Alfred Angelo. (Photo: Courtesy of Amber McGraw)

Many brides are still anxiously waiting to see if Alfred Angelo will deliver their already purchased wedding gowns after the company closed and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy earlier this month. On July 14, when Yahoo Style spoke to one of the affected women, Amber McGraw, she was distraught about the $1,000 check she had given to the Alfred Angelo retailer in Dublin, Ohio, the day before the store closed. It was all the full-time student, who also serves in the National Guard, had to spend on her wedding gown, particularly after recently fracturing both feet during her military training exercises. With her wedding just two months away, she didnt know what to do next. This is her story, as told to Yahoo:

The day Alfred Angelo closed, I lost my dress, lost the money, and I didnt hear back from anyone. The attorneys in charge of the bankruptcy and the trustees, neither one emailed me back. I was getting down on myself and trying to figure out what I was going to do to get a new dress.

I had multiple brides reach out trying to offer their dresses to me, which was awesome. I kept telling them, Im waiting to see if this dress shows up before I have you ship yours. I appreciated all the offers. I had multiple backups. None of the offers were in my size, but they could be altered to my size.

Right around that time, one of my bridesmaids set up a GoFundMe to try to recoup the money that I lost. Within three hours, we hit our campaign goal, which was $1,000  the amount I had lost between the dress and accessories. It was crazy! A majority of the donors were people that I knew, but the biggest contribution was $800 from an anonymous donor from New York, who said she felt really bad about what happened, and she hoped that I would have a beautiful wedding and could find a beautiful dress.

I was rolling on a high from the GoFundMe, and the next thing you know, another woman was commenting on my post on Facebook.

Hey, please check your inbox, she wrote. I was reading the news and I saw what happened to you. I want to talk to you about something.

Story continues

I checked in my inbox, and she said: Hi, my name is Aly Im from Chicago. Every year I purchase gowns and I donate them to an organization. Before I donate these gowns that I have, I want to give you one.

Aly later told Yahoo that for the past four years, shes worked with an organization that donates gowns to military and first-responder brides. She shops on eBay and contacts the manufacturers, who sometimes sell her dresses at a discount, knowing theyll go to these brides. She sends one or two shipments of about 20 to 22 gowns a year. My mom taught me how to shop wisely, and my goal was to be able to donate new couture wedding gowns, so that at least the brides I was giving a dress to would have something that was brand new and could be their very own, she said. So far Ive donated 150 at a cost to me of about $50,000. This is my only charity, and Im not wealthy by any means, but this is the one place where my heart feels full by doing the donation. I started reading about these [Alfred Angelo] brides, and I felt really bad. I was married twice  where every wedding has a hiccup, I never had one where mere weeks before my wedding my dress was in jeopardy. She said the fact that Amber is in the National Guard and her fiance was in the Marines inspired her to reach out directly to see if she could help.

I had already been dealing with the trolls on Twitter for the last two days, so I was sitting there thinking, This has to be another hoax. Theres no way somebodys going to send me a brand-new dress for free. But she sent me an email with all these pictures of these dresses that she had in her house.

Ive got this really gorgeous Ian Stuart gown, and based off the picture of your Alfred Angelo dress I saw, I feel like you and this dress are a perfect match, she said.

I was like, Well, Im a size 16-18. I dont know if you have anything in that size.

Its an 18, she said.

Im sitting here thinking, This womans giving me this gorgeous dress. Shes sending me pictures, so I know its real, and this is my size. Theres no way this is happening right now.

I joked to Aly, This is a Cinderella story. Youre my fairy godmother.

A detail of the Ian Stuart gown and train Aly sent to Amber McGraw. (Photo: Courtesy of Amber McGraw)

This all transpired on a Saturday. Sunday morning, I wake up to a message from her: Im going to ship this out to you today. Id love to give you a sash, and it comes with this gorgeous matching cathedral veil. Im going to give that to you, and Im going to give you a hair comb. I want you to not have to worry about that stuff.

On Wednesday, I sat at my front door all day, waiting for the box to come in. As soon as the Fed Ex man pulled up, I jumped on Twitter and wrote, Aly, its here! I sat there for 10 minutes, because I couldnt believe it was in front of me. My hands were shaking, I was so excited. I didnt know what to do with myself. I just stared at the box. But I took it out, and it fits like a glove. That dress was meant for me.

Omg omg omg pic.twitter.com/ZMv5YEat5f  Amber McGraw (@808Amber) July 19, 2017

Someone has offered to do my alterations for free, and I might have to get it taken up an inch because I fractured my feet during my military training, so I cant wear heels.

Im using some of the GoFundMe money to get shoes hopefully, depending on how my MRIs come back today, and then Im going to use the rest of it to help my friend Becca pay for her wedding next weekend. She got her dress from Alfred Angelo, and the seamstress is holding it hostage, because Alfred Angelo never paid her for those alterations, so she wanted Becca to pay her. One of her bridesmaids dresses got lost too. Its a fiasco. Her bridesmaid is pregnant, so were going to have to find a dress and rush alterations, if anyone will take us.

The least I can do is pay some of this kindness forward. It feels good to be able to help, now that I can. There are so many brides that have been affected by this.

My bridal consultant from the Dublin location called me yesterday crying, poor girl. She told me to find another dress because they didnt ship it out. They thought a store in Kansas was going to ship it out. I said, Its OK. Stop crying. Ive got a great story to tell you.

Read more from Yahoo Style + Beauty:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyle and @YahooBeauty.








Matthew McConaughey visited Live With Kelly and Ryan and gave the most McConaughey interview ever. The actor said that he just flew in from a little-known island nation known as Mauritius in the Indian Ocean where, in his downtime from shooting a film, he caught a 186-pound tuna.

McConaughey, who travels with his family to filming locations, also mentioned another far-flung travel location: Cleveland. However, McConaughey made the domestic locale seem exotic as he described the treehouse hotel he stayed in.

He went on to give his philosophy on education, saying that the mark of a good man or woman is a full passport. His childrens passports are are getting pretty full already, he said

Watch: Jessica Biel doesnt want her and Justin Timberlakes son to be an actor

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Tell us what you think! Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, or leave your comments below. And check out our host, Khail Anonymous, on Twitter.
By Judith Atim

12 UPDF soldiers have been confirmed dead following an attack by Alshabab militants on Sunday evening while seven others have sustained injuries.

According to the UPDF Spokesperson Brigadier Richard Karemire, the dead and those injured have been evacuated to Mogadishu Level II Hospital for further management and treatment.

The army says the joint SNA/AMISOM UPDF patrol under 7th Battalion of Battle group twenty two was ambushed by Alshabaab terrorists, in Lower Shabelle region about 140Kms South West of Mogadishu.

The troops were conducting a regular patrol to secure the Mogadishu Barawe Main Supply Route (MSR) which still harbours pockets of Alshabaab insurgents.

Meanwhile, The UPDF Contingent commander Brig Kayanja Muhanga, is on ground conducting counter operations, while The UPDF office of Chief of Personnel and Administration is contacting the next of kin of the deceased and injured to inform them of the developments.

The army also says arrangements are being made to transport the deceased to their homes of origin for burial.

Meanwhile, a board of inquiry is being constituted to establish circumstances leading to the fateful incident. The same board of inquiry will help in expediting the compensation process by the African Union in respect of the deceased.
North Korea said Sunday its latest ICBM test was a "warning" targeting the US for its efforts to slap new sanctions on Pyongyang and threatened a counter-strike if provoked militarily by Washington.

The North conducted its second intercontinental ballistic missile test late Friday, with leader Kim Jong-Un boasting of his country's ability to strike "all the US mainland".

Technical details of Friday's launch suggested it was significantly more powerful than the first ICBM test on July 4, with a theoretical range long enough to reach the US east coast, according to experts.

The North's first ICBM test set off global alarm over the nation's weapons capabilities and a push by the US to impose more UN and bilateral sanctions, with the US Senate passing new bipartisan sanctions on Pyongyang on Friday.

But the US-led campaign only provided "further justification" for the North's resolve to maintain its weapons programmes, Pyongyang's foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the state-run KCNA.

"The... test-fire of ICBM ... this time is meant to send a stern warning to the U.S. making senseless remarks, being lost to reason in the frantic sanctions and pressure campaign against the DPRK," it said, using an acronym for the North's official name.

The statement came hours after US President Donald Trump warned that he would not allow China -- the impoverished North's sole major ally and economic lifeline -- to "do nothing" about North Korea.

Trump, who is at loggerheads with Beijing over how to handle Kim's regime, has repeatedly urged China to rein in its neighbour, but China insists dialogue is the only practical way forward.

The US also on Sunday had two powerful strategic bombers fly over the Korean peninsula for a joint drill with Japanese and South Korean forces, in a pointed show of force against the North.

But Pyongyang's foreign ministry urged the US to "wake up from the foolish dream of doing any harm to the DPRK."

Story continues

"If the Yankees... dares brandish the nuclear stick on this land again ...the DPRK will clearly teach them manners with the nuclear strategic force," it said.

There remains doubts whether the North can miniaturise a nuclear weapon to fit a missile nose cone, or if it has mastered the technology needed for the projectile to survive re-entry into the atmosphere.

But since Kim came to power in 2011, there has been a series of technical advances, including three nuclear tests and a string of missile launches.

In all, six sets of UN sanctions have been imposed on North Korea since it first tested an atomic device in 2006, but two resolutions adopted last year significantly toughened the sanctions regime.
The Los Angeles Dodgers acquired starter Yu Darvish from the Texas Rangers on Monday, minutes before the trade deadline, loading up for the stretch run with the best player available on the trade market, sources familiar with the deal told Yahoo Sports.

In exchange for Darvish, a free agent this winter, the Dodgers sent prospects Willie Calhoun, A.J. Alexy and Brendon Davis to the Rangers.

Willie Calhoun is the prize for Texas. Bat will play in the big leagues. The question is position. At 2B now. Scouts worry he won't stay.  Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 31, 2017

A.J. Alexy is a big RHP just a year out of HS who's punching out a lot of guys in A ball. Could grow into frame and gain velo. Upside play.  Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 31, 2017

Brendon Davis is a classic Rangers athlete play. He's a huge  6-4  and skinny infielder. Big flameout risk. Also monster upside.  Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 31, 2017

Darvish, who turns 31 in August, fortifies a Dodgers rotation that already includes an injured Clayton Kershaw and a resurgent Alex Wood. Theyll rely upon him in October, where hell take his disappointing ERA and impressive strikeout rate and try to rekindle the notion he is the sort of frontline starter who warrants a long-term extension.

While his last start didnt exactly scream as much  Darvish allowed a career-high 10 earned runs  his numbers this season had been similar to previous years prior to the meltdown. Darvish continues to strike out more than one batter per inning, and its those flashes of dominance, not to mention his wide variety of pitches, that made him such an alluring target in spite of recent struggles.

Story continues

The Dodgers were far from the only interested parties. At some point or another, the New York Yankees, Milwaukee Brewers, Houston Astros, Tampa Bay Rays, Cleveland Indians and Washington Nationals engaged with the Rangers on Darvish.

Some teams couldnt put together compelling enough packages. Others were loath to budge on giving up high-end prospects for a rental player. In the end, the Rangers didnt end up getting top prospects Alex Verdugo or Walker Buehler from the Dodgers.

Yu Darvishs time in Texas is coming to an end. (AP Images)

Texas struggled with the decision to trade Darvish. After last season, when the Rangers made the postseason for a second consecutive year, their future looked strong. A combination of injuries and underperformance plagued the Rangers, and following the 22-10 defeat in which Darvish allowed those 10 runs, Texas decided to sell free agents-to-be.

Onto the market went a starter with a 4.01 ERA and a Tommy John scar on his elbow. And that was fine by the Dodgers, who were happy to jump on Darvish when he was available and now get two full months from him before the time they really need him most.
Elon Musk unveiled the Tesla Model 3 Friday night to an audience of cheering employees at the companys Fremont factory location. But Teslas first affordably-priced electric vehicle wasnt the only thing Musk was showing off. He also made a point of giving Tesla fans a look at the nearly-complete Gigafactory. And although the Model 3 is exciting, its really the Gigafactory  or rather the Gigafactorys potential  that we should be paying attention to.

Musk showed off a cool time lapse video of the factory being built outside of Sparks, Nevada. The company broke ground on the site back in 2014. We started out with it being nothing, just desert, and built what is now the largest battery factory in the world, he said. And when its done [it] will produce more lithium ion batteries than the rest of global production combined, from one building.

The presentation then panned to a live feed from the Gigafactory, where a bunch of employees waved and cheered.

Supplying Tesla with rechargeable battery packs and powertrains, Musk explained that the giant Gigafactory is a key component in his plan to eventually manufacture 500,000 Model 3s; aiming to have production pumping out 10,000 cars a week by the end of next year. The Gigafactory will be exclusively responsible for manufacturing all of Teslas vehicle batteries, but the multiple-billion-dollar structure will probably play a central role in much more than that.

During a quarterly call with investors back in February, Musk explained how future Gigafactories in Europe and the U.S. will produce cars as well as batteries:

Theres a lot more automation [manufacturing the Model 3] than there is for S and X. We have the Gigafactory [making] powertrains, power electronics, charger, a few other things. Thats a huge asset. I also refocused most of Tesla engineering into designing the factory  in the future, the factory will be a more important product than the car itself. Ive said this before, but our goal is to be the best manufacturer on Earth. [That's] the real goal. I dont know if it will succeed but I think we are making good progress into its direction.

Story continues

The first Gigafactory has been a major cornerstone in Musks push to transform global energy consumption; producing both batteries and cars. When fully complete, its expected to produce batteries faster than bullets from a machine gun. This is thanks to a combination of size, scale, and robot automation.

The Gigafactory is named after the factorys productivity hopes, as explained on Teslas site:

The name Gigafactory comes from the factorys planned annual battery production capacity of 35 gigawatt-hours (GWh). Giga is a unit of measurement that represents billions. One GWh is the equivalent of generating (or consuming) one billion watts for one hour  one million times that of one kWh.

The Gigafactorys production capacity is so great that 100 Gigafactories would be enough to completely transition the world onto renewable energy.

For now, it will focus on supplying the needs of the Model 3. Tesla sees the Model 3 as the first step in the companys transition from a luxury car brand to an all-encompassing clean energy company that produces mass market vehicles in conjunction with individual solar power solutions and utility-scale energy storage.

With additional reporting by Jack Crosby and Mike Brown.
President Trump at a Cabinet meeting July 31, with, from left, Defense Secretary James Mattis, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. (Photo: Mike Theiler/Pool, Getty Images)

Following North Koreas Friday launch of a second ballistic missile in less than a month, President Trump said he was confident the United States could manage a possible nuclear threat from the belligerent regime. Well handle North Korea, Trump told reporters assembled for a meeting of his Cabinet. Were going to be able to handle them. It will be handled.

The president offered no specifics about how he would handle North Korea.

The missile launch Friday raised concerns about North Koreas ability to hit the U.S. mainland. Analysts now say that much of the country, from Los Angeles to Chicago, may be in range of North Korean missiles.

Trump responded to the launch on Twitter Saturday, criticizing the Chinese government for failing to help ease tensions between the U.S. and North Korea.

I am very disappointed in China, Trump wrote. Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue.

I am very disappointed in China. Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017

they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017

The president didnt say what actions he would take to force China to do his bidding.

The Monday Cabinet meeting was the second of Trumps presidency. Trump welcomed former Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly as his new White House chief of staff. At Homeland, what he has done has been nothing short of miraculous, Trump said. As you know, the border was a tremendous problem, and theyre close to 80 percent stoppage.

Story continues

The president said Kelly will go down, in terms of the position of chief of staff, one of the greatest ever. Trump made a similar prediction in January about Kellys predecessor, Reince Priebus, who, he said, will be a great asset to my team in the White House. I hope he will be with me for a long time to come.

Last week, newly appointed White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci had exploded in an expletive-filled tirade against Priebus and White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. Priebus resigned last Thursday. Scaramucci resigned Monday.

On Monday, Trump denied that his administration was in the midst of a turbulent time, touting its accomplishments instead.

Highest Stock Market EVER, best economic numbers in years, unemployment lowest in 17 years, wages raising, border secure   the president wrote. No WH chaos!

Read more from Yahoo News:
Pakistan's parliament will meet on Tuesday after Prime Minister Sharif was disqualified from holding office - EPA FILE

Pakistan's parliament will meet on Tuesday to elect a new prime minister after the Supreme Court disqualified Nawaz Sharif following an investigation into corruption allegations against his family.

The ruling party named Mr Sharif's younger brother Shahbaz as his successor over the weekend, but he must first enter parliament by contesting the seat left vacant by Mr Sharif.

In the meantime the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, which enjoys a majority in parliament, has nominated ex-oil minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as interim prime minister.

The top court ousted Mr Sharif Friday after an investigation into corruption allegations against him and his family, bringing his historic third term in power to an unceremonious end and briefly plunging the nuclear-armed nation into political instability.

Nawaz Sharif was the 15th prime minister in Pakistan's 70-year history  roughly half of which was under military rule  to be ousted before completing a full term.

"The nomination papers - shall be delivered to the Secretary, National Assembly by 2.00 pm, on Monday," said a notification by the National Assembly Secretariat and seen by AFP.

It said the assembly would meet at 3:00 pm Tuesday to elect a prime minister.

Mr Abbasi is set to be rubber-stamped as placeholder in the parliamentary vote. The opposition could also field a candidate but has little chance of securing enough votes in the 342-seat house.

The younger Sharif  who is chief minister of the country's most populous province of Punjab  has so far been unscathed by the corruption allegations engulfing his brother's family.

On Saturday the Election Commission said fresh elections would be held in Nawaz Sharif's former constituency, in the family's power base in Punjab, in a process that could take up to 45 days.
Police are searching for a Florida man after he allegedly doused his pregnant girlfriend in gasoline and lit her on fire, according to reports.

Noel Grullon, 32, allegedly lit her on fire in front of her two children after the two argued about cigarettes.

Read: Man Will Spend Life in Prison for Killing 5-Year-Old Stepdaughter After She Asked For Food

The 27-year-old woman suffered second degree burns to her torso after the incident early Thursday morning.

Grullon allegedly fled the scene in a 2007 Ford pickup truck.

The victim took hours to reveal that the burns were deliberately inflicted by her soon-to-be ex-boyfriend, according to CBSNews.

"It took most of the day for her to finally admit to a social worker what had really happened to her. At first she was saying it was a barbecuing accident," said Hialeah Police Sgt. Carl Zogby.

Read: Mother Gives Birth in Restaurant Bathroom, Grandma Helps Stash Baby in Trash: Cops

The woman is pregnant with Grullon's child.

She was admitted to the hospital and was being treated for her injuries, according to reports.

Watch: Mom Burns 9-Year-Old With Hot Iron For Not Bringing Papers Home: Cops

Related Articles:
DUBAI (Reuters) - A Saudi police officer was killed and six others wounded when a patrol came under attack in the town of Awamiya in eastern Saudi Arabia on Sunday morning, the interior ministry said. Several policemen have been killed in the Shi'ite Muslim town since May when authorities began tearing down the old part of the town to deny suspected militants a place to hide. At least five people were killed over two days last week when security forces began an operation to flush out suspected militants in Awamiya, in Qatif province, part of the oil-producing region, according to local activists and a relative of one of the deceased. On Sunday, the police patrol came under a "terrorist attack using an exploding projectile" near the walled part of Awamiya known as al-Musawara, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA. The six wounded were in stable condition in hospital, it said. Residents say shooting by security forces has forced many locals and expatriate workers to flee the town. The area has seen unrest and occasional armed attacks on security forces since the 2011 "Arab spring" protests. Residents of Awamiya complain they are marginalized by the Sunni-led Saudi government, something Riyadh denies. Authorities say they intend to replace the dilapidated 200-year-old al-Musawara with a modern district. (Reporting by Sami Aboudi; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
By Polina Devitt and Yeganeh Torbati MOSCOW/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said the United States would have to cut its diplomatic staff in Russia by 755 people and that Moscow could consider additional measures against Washington as a response to new U.S. sanctions approved by Congress. Moscow ordered the United States on Friday to cut hundreds of diplomatic staff and said it would seize two U.S. diplomatic properties after the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate overwhelmingly approved new sanctions on Russia. The White House said on Friday that U.S. President Donald Trump would sign the sanctions bill. Putin said in an interview with Vesti TV released on Sunday that the United States would have to cut its diplomatic and technical staff by 755 people by Sept. 1. "Because more than 1,000 workers - diplomats and support staff - were working and are still working in Russia, 755 must stop their activity in the Russian Federation," he said. The new U.S. sanctions were partly a response to conclusions by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and to punish Russia further for its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Russia's response suggested it had set aside initial hopes of better ties with Washington under Trump, something the Republican president, before he was elected, had said he wanted to achieve. A federal law enforcement investigation and multiple U.S. congressional probes looking into the possibility that Trump's campaign colluded with Russia have made it harder for Trump to open a new chapter with Putin. Russia denies it interfered in the election and Trump has said there was no collusion. Moscow said on Friday that the United States had until Sept. 1 to reduce its diplomatic staff in Russia to 455 people, matching the number of Russian diplomats left in the United States after Washington expelled 35 Russians in December. On Friday, an official at the U.S. Embassy, who did not wish to be identified, said the embassy employed about 1,100 diplomatic and support staff in Russia, including Russian and U.S. citizens. 'UNCALLED-FOR ACT' The State Department declined to comment on the exact number of embassy and consular staff in Russia. But a State Department official called Russia's action "a regrettable and uncalled-for act." "We are assessing the impact of such a limitation and how we will respond to it," the official said on condition of anonymity. As of 2013, the U.S. mission in Russia, including the Moscow embassy and consulates in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok, employed 1,279 staff, according to a State Department Inspector General's report that year. That included 934 "locally employed" staff and 301 U.S. "direct-hire" staff, from 35 U.S. government agencies, the report said. That breakdown suggested the actual number of Americans forced to leave Russia would be far less than 755. "We dont (sic) have 755 American diplomats in Russia," said Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, in a post on Twitter on Sunday. The cuts would likely affect how quickly the United States is able to process Russian applications for U.S. visas, McFaul said. "If these cuts are real, Russians should expect to wait weeks if not months to get visas to come to U.S.," he said. Putin said Russia could take more measures against the United States, but not at the moment. "I am against it as of today," Putin said in the interview with Vesti TV. He repeated that the U.S. sanctions were a step to worsening relations between the two countries. "We were waiting for quite a long time that maybe something would change for the better, were holding out hope that the situation would change somehow. But it appears that even if it changes someday it will not change soon," Putin said. He said Moscow and Washington were achieving results on cooperation, however, even "in this quite difficult situation." The creation of the southern de-escalation zone in Syria showed a concrete result of the joint work between the two countries, Putin said. (Reporting by Polina Devitt in Moscow and Yeganeh Torbati in Washington; Editing by Susan Fenton and Peter Cooney)
Russia has told the U.S. it must cut staff at its embassy and other facilities in Russia by 755 people by Sept. 1 in retaliation for a new sanctions law passed by the U.S. Congress last week, President Vladimir Putin said.

We waited for a rather long time, thinking that things might improve, nourished the hope that the situation would change somehow, Putin said in an interview with state television broadcast Sunday, his first comments on the issue since Russia announced the move on Friday. But by all indications, if it does change, it wont be soon.

Putin said Russia would refrain from taking further measures for the moment. If the time comes, we can consider other options for responding. But I hope it doesnt come to that. As of today, Im against it.

The cuts represent more than half of the diplomatic and technical personnel at the U.S. embassy in Moscow and consulates elsewhere in the country. Some involved are Russian nationals and wont be expelled, while diplomats will likely be forced to leave. The Russian move would lower the total staff to 455  the same number of diplomatic personnel Russia has in the U.S.

Russias move came soon after the U.S. Senate on July 27 overwhelming passed a plan, already approved by the House, that would prevent President Donald Trump from easing sanctions without getting congressional approval, as well as open the way to even wider restrictions than the ones currently imposed over the Ukraine crisis. Trump hasnt signed the legislation, but the White House said he plans to.
By Damali Mukhaye

The opposition Forum for Democratic Change president Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu has asked the government to withdraw UPDF officers from Somalia after yesterdays ambush.

12 UPDF soldiers have been confirmed dead following an attack by Alshabab militants last evening while seven others have sustained severe injuries.

Addressing journalists at the party headquarters in Najjanakumbi, Mugisha Muntu said that since Ugandas soldiers have pacified Somalia for a very long time, other African countries should also send their troops to the war torn country to relieve the UPDF.

According to the UPDF Spokesperson Brigadier Richard Karemire, the dead and those injured have been evacuated to Mogadishu Level II Hospital for further management and treatment.

The army says the joint SNA/AMISOM UPDF patrol under 7th Battalion of Battle group twenty two was ambushed by Alshabaab terrorists, in Lower Shabelle region about 140Kms South West of Mogadishu.

The troops were conducting a regular patrol to secure the Mogadishu Barawe Main Supply Route (MSR) which still harbours pockets of Alshabaab insurgents.
Senator Susan Collins, less than a day after casting a difficult vote against her partys healthcare repeal bill, has returned to her home state of Maine to the warmest welcome shes received in her 20 years in the Senate.

Ms Collins, who was joined by two other Republican senators in voting no on the healthcare bill, later told Jake Tapper on CNNs State of the Union that her reception affirmed her

It really was so extraordinary, heartwarming, and affirming, Collins said on the program. I got off the plane, and there was a large group of outbound passengers, none of whom I happened to know, and spontaneously some of them started applauding, and then virtually all of them started to applaud. It was just amazing.

It was very encouraging and affirming, especially after arriving home after a very difficult time, Ms Collins said.

Ms Collins said that she voted against the Obamacare repeal bill  which Republicans have promised theyd eliminate for seven years now  because the legislation withheld federal funding from Planned Parenthood, and because she didnt think that the new legislation provided adequate coverage for her constituents.

She was joined by Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, and by Arizona Senator John McCain, who had returned to Washington to cast his vote following a brain cancer diagnosis. Those three Republicans teamed up with the entire Democratic caucus to kill the bill.

Ms Collins says that her colleagues in Congress should work together and across the aisle to try and combat the problems the market shortcomings of Obamacare. Republican repeal and replace bills so far have received worrying Congressional Budget Office scores, and appear likely to drop millions of people from health care insurance rolls over the next ten years if enacted.

Republicans in Congress have had a hard time pushing forward with a repeal and replace bill, and those failures have led President Donald Trump to signal  via Twitter  that he thinks it would be acceptable if, absent a Republican bill, Congress simply lets Obamacare markets fail completely so that they can start over.
DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's foreign minister called what he said was Qatar's demand for an internationalization of the Muslim hajj pilgrimage a declaration of war against the kingdom, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television said on Sunday, but Qatar said it never made such a call. "Qatar's demands to internationalize the holy sites is aggressive and a declaration of war against the kingdom," Adel al-Jubeir was quoted saying on Al Arabiya's website. "We reserve the right to respond to anyone who is working on the internationalization of the holy sites," he said. Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said no official from his country had made such a call. "We are tired of responding to false information and stories invented from nothing," Sheikh Mohammed told Al Jazeera TV. Qatar did accuse the Saudis of politicizing hajj and addressed the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion on Saturday, expressing concern about obstacles facing Qataris who want to attend hajj this year. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain previously issued a list of 13 demands for Qatar, which included curtailing its support for the Muslim Brotherhood, shutting down the Doha-based Al Jazeera channel, closing a Turkish military base and downgrading its relations with Gulf enemy Iran. On Sunday, foreign ministers of the four countries said they were ready for dialogue with Qatar if it showed willingness to tackle their demands. (Reporting by Aziz El Yaakoubi, Editing by Larry King and Peter Cooney)
Anthony Scaramucci needs to add another chapter to his memoir. Maybe several chapters.

Scaramuccis tenure as White House communications director was shorter than a typical internship, with President Donald Trump firing him after just 10 days on the job. Adding fuel to the flameout, Scaramuccis wife, Deirdre Ball, sued for divorce recently. Even by the standards of Trump-level discord, Scaramuccis breakneck downfall is astonishing.

It may also eclipse prior failures Scaramucci has discussed candidly, from the comfort of the other side of the river. My career has been littered with failures, he wrote in his memoir, Hopping Over the Rabbit Hole, published last year. In an interview with Yahoo Finance last October, he enumerated various failures: Getting fired from his dream job at Goldman Sachs, failing the bar exam twice, losing control of his investment company, Skybridge, during the 2009 financial meltdown. We started calling it Nobridge, he said in the interview. The bridge to nowhere.

Had Scarmucci listened to his own advice from back then, he might still have a job at the White House. There are three stages on the barometer of arrogance, he said. Confidence, over-confidence and arrogance. You have to be in the zone of overconfidence at the efficient frontier right before arrogance. Once you become arrogant, you become a very big turnoff to the people around you.

That seems to be exactly what happened to Scaramucci when he finally arrived in Washington, after infighting with other Trump acolytes delayed his debut in the Trump administration. The Mooch, as hes known, waged jihad against doomed chief of staff Reince Priebus and cursed out colleagues in one of the most blunt on-the-record interviews in Washington history. Trump probably loved hearing Scaramucci praise him on TV, but he also probably sensed that Scaramuccis ego was a challenge to his own.

The press has described Scaramucci as a Wall Street financier, but hes really more of an operator whos way better at salesmanship and shmoozing than at investing or running companies. He definitely has the ability to go on TV or be at a conference or presenting to 200 brokers, the ability to put on the charm, very much like a politician, says one associate whos known him for years. But he had a very hard time keeping business relationships at senior levels. He called Priebus a paranoid schizophrenic, but I would characterize Anthony as highly paranoid.

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When Scaramucci held forth on his career failures last year, he did so as somebody who had ridden the wheel of fortune back to prominence. His firm, Skybridge, had rebounded and was doing well. The annual conference he ran in Las Vegas for hedge fund managers had become a marquee event. And he was a key Trump aide who spent a lot of time at Trump Tower strategizing with the future president. It was a comfortable time to look back on failures.

Now, he has more lessons to learn. Scaramucci, now more famous than ever, will be back, once again glad-handing power brokers and journalists and anybody willing to endure his self-deprecating self-promotion. Youll undoubtedly see him on TV, though probably not as Trumpophilic as before. Hell probably remain involved in investing. And hes got plenty of new material for another volume on what hes learned through failure.

Confidential tip line: rickjnewman@yahoo.com. Encrypted communication available.

Read more:

Rick Newman is the author of four books, including Rebounders: How Winners Pivot from Setback to Success. Follow him on Twitter: @rickjnewman
Beirut (AFP) - Lebanon's Hezbollah movement and jihadist militants on Sunday started exchanging the bodies of fighters as part of a ceasefire deal for the restive Syria-Lebanon border.

The truce, announced by the movement and confirmed by Lebanon's General Security agency on Thursday, ended six days of a Hezbollah-led assault on Al-Qaeda's former Syrian branch in the mountainous Jurud Arsal border region.

Hezbollah's "War Media" outlet reported on Sunday that the "first phase of the deal" had begun.

"The bodies of nine Al-Nusra fighters will be handed over to the Lebanese General Security in exchange for the remains of five Hezbollah fighters who died in the Jurud battles," the outlet said.

It said the bodies of the Syrian militants had been transported to a hospital for medical examinations.

Their remains are then expected to be transported to Syria's northwestern province of Idlib.

Al-Nusra Front was Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria until mid-2016 when it broke off ties, before going on to found a new jihadist-led alliance called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which now controls large swathes of Idlib.

Hezbollah launched its offensive on Jurud Arsal -- a barren border area used by militants as a hideout for several years -- on July 21.

The group took media outlets on several guided tours of the territory it had secured, including an underground base allegedly used by militants.

Military-style vests were piled in one corner near stacked sandbags. Papers were strewn all over the carpeted floor in one room, and crates of ammunition were stored in another.

Hezbollah had cornered rival fighters in a small pocket of territory when it announced the truce.

Head of Lebanon's General Security agency Major General Ibrahim Abbas later confirmed the deal, which he said would also see the transfer "within days" of Syrian fighters and refugees to Idlib province with the help of Lebanon's Red Cross.

Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees live in the town of Arsal, adjacent to the border region, while an unknown number are also thought to have taken shelter in the surrounding mountains.

More than one million Syrians are registered with the United Nations as refugees in Lebanon, a country of just four million people.
A snake owner placed a harrowing call to emergency services when her recent rescue wrapped itself around her neck and began biting her face.

"I have a boa constrictor stuck to my face," the woman can be heard saying in the 911 call. She later revealed during the call that she had rescued two boa constrictors the day before, adding to her collection of nine  yes nine  ball pythons.

Firefighters from the Sheffield Lake Fire Department in Ohio were dispatched to assist the unnamed 45-year-old woman on Thursday, who was found lying in her driveway with a 5-foot boa constrictor around her neck, local CBS affiliate Cleveland 19 reports.

SEE ALSO: Uninvited rattlesnake tries to hitch ride on a passing boat, causes panic

Cleveland 19 News Cleveland, OH

The rescue crew was forced to cut the snaked head off with a pocket knife in order to remove it from the woman's face. She was taken to an area hospital for non life-threatening injuries, and is expected to fully recover from the incident.

It's unclear how the constrictor was able to attack the woman, but local reporters discovered an enclosure in the woman's driveway on Friday.

Welp. The woman attacked by her pet boa constrictor didn't want to go on camera. This container was in her driveway.https://t.co/gy2L62wTxQ pic.twitter.com/BvEVx445BP  Sia Nyorkor (@TVNewsLady) July 28, 2017

Speaking on the incident, Mayor Dennis Bring said the woman was potentially questioning her pet choices.

"I would imagine the bite was very painful so she's gonna have to put up with that while too," Mayor Bring told Cleveland 19. "And now she's gonna have to make a decision on whether she continues to do this."

Constrictors kill their prey by stopping the blood flow inside their prey's body  not by asphyxiation, recent research shows.

Story continues

It's unclear if the python that small could have killed the woman, but the mayor credits the fast work of the first responder with saving her life.

Adult pythons can grow up to 14 feet in length and are fully are capable of killing a human.
Mogadishu (AFP) - Shabaab militants in Somalia on Sunday claimed they had killed 39 African Union troops in an ambush in the country's south.

The claim by the Al-Qaeda linked insurgents, made by the group's spokesman on an affiliated radio station, could not be immediately verified.

Local residents did confirm to AFP that fighting had taken place Sunday in the Lower Shebelle region, a hotly contested area where Shabaab's spokesman said they had staged their ambush.

"The mujahedeen fighters stood over the dead bodies of 39 soldiers, among them senior commanders, Abdiaziz Abu Muzab told Andalus radio.

The African Union has a 22,000 strong force in the country dedicated to fighting Shabaab and backing up the internationally backed government in the capital Mogadishu.

Residents said the AU troops were ambushed in the village of Golweyn some 120 kilometres (74 miles) as they escorted supplies along the road that connects Mogadishu to Lower Shebelle.

"Fighting broke out and continued for more than one hour", said Ali Osman, a witness to the battle.

In April, a minibus travelling through Golweyn hit a landmine, killing at least 14 people.

That attack was also blamed on Shabaab, which has fought successive governments in Mogadishu and also carried out attacks in Kenya and Uganda.
Raqa (Syria) (AFP) - As Islamic State group fighters steadily lose chunks of their Syrian bastion Raqa to a US-backed force, the jihadists are ramping up the ferocity of their counter-attacks.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) first broke into Raqa in early June and have advanced in a pincer-like motion towards the heart of the city.

The alliance's Arab and Kurdish fighters now hold half of Raqa, but as they tighten the noose around IS, the jihadist group appears to be lashing out.

"The closer we get to the city centre, the harder IS defends itself, because it's completely besieged," said Davram Dersem, an SDF field commander.

To defend Raqa, IS has deployed a barrage of car bombs, suicide bombers, weaponised drones, snipers, and mines scattered across the city.

"They're cornered like a wounded animal. Raqa is their main stronghold -- they're not going to abandon it easily," Dersem added.

The Kurdish commander spoke to AFP in the western Raqa neighbourhood of al-Daraiya.

Mortar shells crashed into surrounding neighbourhoods, which were also hit by the occasional air strike.

After IS captured Raqa in 2014, the group transformed the city into a symbol of its most macabre practices, including public beheadings.

Raqa was also thought to have been used as a hub for planning attacks overseas.

Now, much of it has been destroyed by the fierce fighting and US-led air strikes. Roofs have collapsed and streets are littered with rubble, metal, and glass.

- 'Life-or-death battle' -

In the adjacent district of Massaken al-Dubbat, 24-year-old SDF fighter Talal Sharif pointed at a devastated row of two-storey homes ahead.

"All of this destruction, it's because of their car bombs. There have been at least four in each of these streets," Sharif told AFP.

"Little by little, they're being suffocated in Raqa. This is why they're resisting."

Sharif spoke confidently, but his face was marked by exhaustion after weeks of street-by-street battles.

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When his unit recently stormed an IS-held neighbourhood, they stumbled on four enemy fighters sleeping inside a home.

"During the raid, one of the jihadists blew himself up, another two were killed, and one was taken prisoner," Sharif recalled.

But if they don't have access to belts of explosives or car bombs, IS fighters resort to something much simpler -- grenades.

"In close combat, they just toss grenades. For them, it's a life-or-death battle," Devrem said.

Up to 50,000 civilians remain trapped in Raqa in increasingly dire circumstances, with little access to food, water, or life-saving medication, according to the United Nations.

The intensifying fight for Raqa has also forced tens of thousands of its residents to flee, dodging IS sniper fire, mines, and even US-led coalition air strikes.

On Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 21 civilians -- including eight children from a single family -- had been killed in "intensifying air strikes by the coalition" over the previous 24 hours.

The Britain-based monitor says more than 300 civilians including dozens of children have died since the SDF first broke into Raqa.

Another 467 IS jihadists and 219 SDF have also been killed in the fighting.

SDF advisor Nasser Hajj Mansour said the battle for Raqa is far from over.

"It could still be long. In the coming days, the battles will become more ferocious," Mansour said.

"IS jihadists will either try to hide amongst the civilians or fight until the end."
Teacher Marielle Slagel Keller invited her entire class to be in her wedding party. (Photo: Cory and Jackie Wedding Photography/ Courtesy The IPS)

What could be cuter than a flower girl and a ring bearer walking down the aisle? How about 20 of them? Then again, wrangling 20 small children to behave in a wedding ceremony could be daunting  unless you happen to be an elementary school teacher. And for teacher Marielle Slagel Keller, it was everything shed imagined.

When it came time to choose flower girls and ring bearers for my wedding, the kids that kept coming to mind were the students in my class, Slagel Keller, who teaches kindergarten and first grade at IPS/Butler University Laboratory School in Indianapolis, tells Yahoo Style. I talked to my mom about it and was like, Is this a crazy idea to have all of them? And my family was supportive. They said, If they mean the most to you, then thats who you should have come before you at your wedding.

While many teachers might look forward to summer break to get away from students and their parents, Slagel Keller was happy to keep in touch with them in the weeks leading up to her June 24 ceremony. She invited the students to participate back in December, and 20 out of the 22 in her class were able to be there.

The schools educational approach is in the Reggio Emilia style  which allows children to explore the world and guide the curriculum based on their interests  and Slagel Keller has the same group of students for two years in a row. This means that shes had the chance to grow close to the parents, who were all present at the ceremony too.

Every morning they would come in to drop off their kids, they would ask how the planning was going, and it didnt feel right to not have them there the day of, Slagel Keller said. It was cool having them in the audience too.

IPS/Butler University Laboratory School children participate in their teachers wedding. (Photo: Cory and Jackie Wedding Photography/Courtesy The IPS)

The parents probably appreciated that she didnt make them buy their children fancy new dresses and suits for the big day and instead had the children wear white dresses or white shirts with black pants. The two children in front and two in back carried garlands attached to poles as they all walked down the aisle to the Feather Theme from Forrest Gump. The whole scene had guests crying before the bride even appeared  or thats what people tell her, anyway.

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To be honest, I havent seen it! Slagel Keller says. It didnt even occur to me until I was left standing in the back that I wouldnt be able to see them coming down the aisle.

Having 20 kids in a ceremony is sweet and all, but having 20 children and their parents at the reception seems like a great way to blow your entire wedding budget. But Slagel Keller says she didnt feel comfortable inviting the kids to a reception with an open bar, so instead she held a cupcake reception for them in the church.

Monday was the first day of school for her class, and in addition to first-day excitement, the returning first-graders have had fun talking to their teachers about the event and the photos from it that made the local news over the weekend.

And Slagel Keller says shed encourage other brides or grooms to invite their students too, if theyve considered it. Take the risk, because it definitely pays off, she says.

Read more from Yahoo Style + Beauty:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyle and @YahooBeauty.
Elon Musk has been busy. Not content with delivering the first 30 Tesla Model 3 vehicles at a launch event on Friday, hes revealed when consumers can expect to get their hands on a high performance edition of the company latest vehicle, which starts at $35,000 for a basic version.

Is a Performance version coming at some point for Model 3? Ryan McCaffrey, an executive editor at IGN, said to Musk over Twitter. It has not been mentioned since you tweeted about it last year. Please!

Probably middle of next year, Musk responded. Focus now is on getting out of Model 3 production hell. More versions = deeper in hell.

The initial real wheel drive models come in two battery configurations. The $44,000 model, which can drive for 310 miles on a single charge and has a top speed of 140 mph, will ship first. That will be followed by the $35,000 model later this year, which runs for 220 miles between charges and has a top speed of 130 mph.

Tesla currently produces one performance edition car: the Model S P100D. Where the standard 100D runs for 335 miles per charge and goes from 0-60 mph in just 4.1 seconds, the P100D achieves that in just 2.5 seconds. The high performance model also includes Ludicrous Mode, which has reached acceleration times of just 2.1 seconds in some instances. In short, the performance model is a beast of a machine.

Although Musk mentioned a performance-grade Model 3 last year, demand is high for initial models, placing the queue further back for adjustments. Over half a million people have placed a $1,000 deposit to reserve their car, and theres a long queue for newcomers. Right-hand drive markets have an exceptionally long wait on their hands: the U.K. and other countries arent expected to receive their orders until 2019.

Musk needs to move fast to avoid the aforementioned production hell. Model 3 deliveries are expected to increase exponentially, and the company expects to produce 20,000 vehicles in the month of December. At some point in 2018, production is expected to reach 10,000 per week. Any delays, though, and the performance Model 3 could take longer to reach consumers.

Photos via Tesla
By Felix Warom Okello

South Sudanese who offer food to the forces of exiled leader Dr Riek Machar risk being branded enemies of the state.

The Sudan Peoples Liberation Army in Opposition loyal to leader Riek Machar, usually move in the villages asking for assistance from locals like food, clothing and medicines.

But the government has warned that this will take a toll on the residents.

However, the Deputy Spokesperson for SPLA-IO, Col Paul Lam Gabriel claims that government soldiers go and rape, kill people and instead the rebels end up being blamed.

The South Sudan Ambassador to Uganda, Samuel Luate, has told Daily Monitor the SPLA-In Opposition and other militia groups are purely responsible for atrocities against civilians and that the SPLA-IO is taking advantage of the unilateral ceasefire to attack our forces.

The UNHCR Field Assistant, Ms Salome Ayukuru, the South Sudan war has driven away about 1.3 million people.
Washington (AFP) - President Donald Trump attends a swearing-in ceremony Monday for his newly-named chief of staff John Kelly, appointed as part of a shakeup meant to instill order at a fractious White House bereft so far of major legislative achievements.

Trump was scheduled to take part in a 9:30 am (1330 GMT) ceremony for Kelly, a retired four-star marine general who had been his Homeland Security secretary.

The US president on Friday announced via Twitter that he had picked Kelly to replace outgoing chief of staff Reince Priebus, rumored for weeks to be on the verge of being sacked.

The chief of staff traditionally manages the president's schedule and is the highest ranking White House employee, deciding who has access to the president.

The shakeup was made public one day after the Senate failed -- to Trump's great frustration -- to pass a bill repealing Obamacare, a key campaign pledge by the billionaire businessman during his White House run.

The staffing overhaul has been greeted with relief by some in Washington who have been alarmed by a White House often criticized as undisciplined and wracked by leaks and internal squabbles.

"I think he will bring some order and discipline to the West Wing," one prominent Republican, US Senator Susan Collins, told NBC television on Sunday.

Since taking office six months ago, Trump's tumultuous administration has seen a succession of negative headlines and brewing scandals.

Adding to the chaos, the president has parted with a number of top officials including his national security advisor, deputy national security advisor and FBI director among others -- an unparalleled turnover for such a young presidency.

Just one week before sacking Priebus, Trump dismissed his chief spokesman Sean Spicer and announced that he had hired a Washington outsider, brash Wall Street financier Anthony Scaramucci, to run his communications operation.

Washington insiders surmise that the decision to move Kelly from the helm of the Homeland Security Department may be part of a strategic effort by the president to inoculate himself from the widening investigation into Russia's attempt to influence the 2016 election.

They have speculated that Trump may be planning to have his Attorney General Jeff Sessions -- who heads up the Justice Department -- replace Kelly as secretary of homeland security in a bid to thwart the probe, which many believe threatens his presidency.
Queens hip-hop legends A Tribe Called Quest stunned their hometown crowd Sunday at New Yorks Panorama music festival, when rapper Q-Tip announced in the middle of their main-stage set  which was attended by Dave Chappelle, Amy Schumer, and Aziz Ansari  that this would be Tribes final NYC-area concert.

This is our last show here in New York, thats it  as Tribe. You know, we gotta honor our brother, Phife Dawg, Q-Tip explained, staring up at a video-screened image of his late bandmate. Phife died due to complications from diabetes, at age 45, in March last year  eight months before the release of Tribes critically acclaimed final album, We Got It From Here Thank You 4 Your Service  and Panorama marked the first full A Tribe Called Quest concert in New York since his passing. It turned out the group was already saying goodbye.

We wanna thank everybody in New York City for supporting A Tribe Called Quest since 1988 up to now, Q-Tip continued, noting that Phifes parents were in the Panorama audience. And we want to thank all of yall who extended all of your wishes and empathy and prayers  not only to us, but to Phifes family as well.

Tribe, also featuring Jarobi White and Ali Shaheed Muhammad, then played an a cappella recording of Phifes verse from Butter, off 1991s The Low End Theory, with Q-Tip saying, This is one of my  and I think one of Jarobis too  favorite joints from Phife. Q-Tip also shared an amusing anecdote about how the verse was originally supposed to be his, until Phife heard it in the studio and claimed it for himself.

Tribes NYC swan song wasnt the only emotional moment of Panorama Sunday. Closing out the festival, headliners Nine Inch Nails performed their new Farewell Remix of I Cant Give Everything Away, the closing track from David Bowies final album, Blackstar (which, like Tribes album, was one of the greatest releases of 2016). NIN frontman Trent Reznor was a longtime friend and collaborator of Bowies  the two toured together in 1995, and in 1997 they released the duet Im Afraid of Americans, the chilling music video of which was shot in New York City. Watching Reznor salute Bowie in New York, 20 years after Im Afraid of Americans, was a beautiful and bittersweet moment indeed.

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Speaking of being afraid of Americans, Reznor is still righteously, vein-poppingly angry about the state of our nation, after all these years  NINs brand-new EP is titled Add Violence, and in a recent Village Voice interview, Reznor called Donald Trump a complete f***ing moron, a bad guy, and a vulgar, grotesque dope, everything I hate in people. Reznor refrained from any overt political commentary or Trump-bashing at Panorama, but he definitely seemed to be venting through his intense music Sunday evening, from the moment he stormed the stage to Branches/Bones (from last Decembers comeback EP, Not the Actual Events) with its doomy intonation, Everyone seems to be asleep. All black leather and white-hot rage, the alt-rock icon proceeded to fume and grit his teeth throughout the fast and furious March of the Pigs, The Wretched, Head Like a Hole, and Copy of A.

However, there were moments of restraint and reverence, during which the crowd  as they had for Reznors respectful Bowie homage  went absolutely pindrop-silent. The rarely played lost-love lament Something I Can Never Have, off 1989s Pretty Hate Machine, was a stunning comedown, and NINs set ended with The Downward Spirals achingly sad Hurt  a ballad now associated in many fans minds with another fallen legend, Johnny Cash, who recorded it in 2002 for his own final album, shortly before his death.

The second annual Panorama Music Festival took place at New Yorks Randalls Island Park July 28 to 30 and streamed live on Yahoo Music; check out our recaps from Friday and Saturday, as well as other video highlights here. A Tribe Called Quests farewell tour will continue with festival appearances at San Franciscos Outside Lands on Aug. 11 and Irelands Electric Picnic on Sept. 2.
Trump can't seem to work out his feelings towards China.

The U.S. president attacked China on social media, just a day after North Korea tested out a ballistic missile that it claims can reach as far as the U.S.

SEE ALSO: Trump started a Twitter war with China, and it worked: China's mad

"I am very disappointed in China...they do NOTHING for us with North Korea," he posted in a series of tweets on Saturday.

I am very disappointed in China. Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017

...they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017

Just a month ago however, Trump had posted tweets to a different tune, saying he "greatly appreciated" China's efforts to help out with North Korea.

While I greatly appreciate the efforts of President Xi & China to help with North Korea, it has not worked out. At least I know China tried!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 20, 2017

Trump's latest tweets also come in direct contrast to the statements he made in April, where he said that he realised it was "not so easy" for China to negotiate with North Korea.

"After listening [to Mr Xi explaining the history of China and Korea] I realised it's not so easy," Trump told the Wall Street Journal during President Xi's visit to his Mar-a-Lago estate.

"I felt pretty strongly that [China] had a tremendous power over North Korea. But it's not what you would think."

Story continues

But if you look back just a little over a year ago, Trump was pretty disdainful towards China.

In March 2016, he accused China of doing "little to help," and "playing the U.S. for years."

North Korea is behaving very badly. They have been "playing" the United States for years. China has done little to help!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 17, 2017

Later in December 2016, he came out, guns blazing, criticising China's monetary policy.

Did China ask us if it was OK to devalue their currency (making it hard for our companies to compete), heavily tax our products going into..  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 4, 2016

their country (the U.S. doesn't tax them) or to build a massive military complex in the middle of the South China Sea? I don't think so!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 4, 2016

Those tweets were widely cited in Chinese media, and the White House had to reassure the Chinese government that the U.S. did not mean to undermine China.

Experts: Don't look to China

According to some experts, Trump is going to remain disappointed if he continues to count on China to mediate for peace with North Korea.

Ben Rhodes, a foreign policy adviser under Barack Obama, took to Twitter to express his views, replying to Trump's tweet:

It is not at all true that China can easily solve this problem and this is a very dangerous and destabilizing approach. https://t.co/xmV3HaO9Pj  Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) July 30, 2017

Another analyst also agrees with Rhodes.

"Don't look for the Chinese to help us on North Korea," Harry Kazianis, director of defence studies at the Centre for the National Interest, a DC think-tank, told CNBC.

"If you look at it from the Chinese eyes, they are probably actually more scared of North Korea than we are."
The British Medical Journal declared there is no evidence for the arbitrary lengths of time people are told to take antibiotics -

James Sutton battled doctors for six weeks to get a ten-day course of amoxicillin for his severe bronchitic chest infection. When he got the antibiotics, they didnt really work and, whats more, he had a major allergic reaction which caused a huge outbreak of hives all over his torso, adding to his misery.

No one seems to know any more whats the right thing to do, says Sutton, a 43-year-old fit and healthy publisher who cycles 18 miles to and from his office every day.

For the past 50 years or more, doctors have been giving us antibiotics and telling us we must make sure we complete the course, then they started rationing them because of antibiotic resistance in the bacteria. Now were being told that doctors dont really know how to use them either because there hasnt been enough research, and that taking them for too long might be fuelling the rise of infection resistant superbugs.

Ten senior scientists trawled medical literature and found that no studies have ever been done to support the 'complete the course' mantra

He was referring to last weeks report in the British Medical Journal declaring there is absolutely no evidence for the arbitrary lengths of time people are told to take antibiotics, which can range from two to ten days or even longer, and that it might be better for them to stop as soon as they feel better to reduce the global growth of antibiotic resistance in bacteria.

The report has left many people baffled, and GPs have reported a stream of anxious inquiries from patients who are now unsure whose advice to believe.

The report came from a group of 10 senior scientists led by Martin Llewelyn, professor of infectious diseases at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, who have trawled the literature and found no studies have ever been done to support the complete the course mantra, which his group says goes against all common sense to stop taking medicines when youre no longer ill, and probably assists the selective development of antibiotic resistant bugs by freeing up space in the body for them to colonise.

Story continues

A group of specialists has called for a change in guidance to prevent people taking pills needlessly Credit: Mike Harrington

There is evidence that in many situations stopping antibiotics sooner is a safe and effective way to reduce antibiotic overuse, the report said. There are reasons to believe the public will accept that completing the course to prevent resistance is wrong, if the medical profession openly acknowledges that this is so.

The BMJ paper repeats a similar publication by Professor Harold Lambert in The Lancet in 1999. Antibiotic resistance is more likely to be encouraged by longer than by shorter courses, he wrote.

It is not clear why the message has taken almost two decades to get through, but it could be that from being a relatively low-level concern, antibiotic resistance and our growing inability to overcome infection, has now become a source of major anxiety.

Chief medical officer Dame Sally Davies has warned the golden age of effective antibiotics is over

Sadly, Professsor Lambert an emeritus professor at St Georges hospital medical school, did not live long enough to see his warnings taken seriously. He died in April this year.

Only last week, however, a joint report from the European Medicines Agency, Food Safety Authority and Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, showed a worrying increase in resistant superbugs both in humans and in animals destined for meat consumption.

Our own chief medical officer Dame Sally Davies has also warned the golden age of effective antibiotics is over. In a speech to the Institute of Actuaries earlier this Spring, she warned that 50,000 deaths a year are already being caused by superbugs in Europe and America. According to a government review published last year, at least 700,000 deaths globally are now caused by treatment-resistant infections, and that number is rising.

So what should patients do? James Sutton was so ill he could hardly manage a flight of stairs and had been to the doctors twice before they agreed to give him antibiotics, and it was more than a week after he finished the course before he began to feel any better.

In numbers | Antibiotic resistance

Now Im left wondering if I would have got better on my own anyway, and taking this course of co-amoxiclav (amoxicillin) has just fuelled global antibiotic resistance and triggered an allergy, which means I might not be able to take antibiotics again, he said.

While he and other patients may argue that maintaining the status quo without evidence does not make sense, the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), which represents Britains 51,000 family doctors, is sticking firmly to the line that practice should not change until there is evidence.

We cannot advocate widespread behaviour change on the results of just one study, said the RCGP chair Professore Helen Stokes-Lampard. Recommended courses of antibiotics are not random. They are tailored to individual conditions. The mantra to always take the full course of antibiotics is well-known. Changing this will simply confuse people.

Sir Alexander Fleming Credit: Getty

She insisted, however, that long courses of antibiotics have been replaced anyway as knowledge has evolved: Nowadays if a fit, well person comes in with a nasty urinary tract infection, they get a three-day course of antibiotics. That is the standard guidance. Guidance has changed, and it does change quite regularly.

In the past few days, however, worried patients have begun queuing up at GP surgeries.

I was very surprised about this publication which goes against everything we have always been told, said Dr Martin Godfrey, a GP in south London. It has indeed caused a lot of confusion, and we need more definitive guidance about what to say to people.

Lots of patients are now coming in and asking if they should stop taking the tablets because they think theyre not doing anything. But the effects of antibiotics do sometimes take a while to kick in, and if people stop taking them too soon, theres a risk of the infection coming back with a vengeance.

ABOUT | Antibiotics

Dr Godfrey says there is indeed an increase in numbers of people claiming allergies to antibiotics in the same way more of us seem to be allergic to different elements of modern environment, but he warned against making a fuss about minor conditions such as hives. If you have an antibiotic allergy recorded on your notes, you may not get them when you need them and in general its worth putting up with something minor to get the benefit of antibiotics.

Tim Peto, professor of infectious diseases at Oxford and one of the co-authors of the BMJ study, is also anxious to spell out the position. We want people to do exactly what their GP tells them, but we want to encourage GPs to give people short courses of antibiotics if they think thats sensible. They might not have done this in the past because of a genuine fear of promoting antibiotic resistance by doing so, but they shouldnt feel pressurised to continue giving people longer courses. Our main message is that.

Personalised medicine for everyone may be the answer. At the moment, we are using antibiotics indiscriminately and hoping they might work, said Professor Colin Garner, a senior pharmacologist who is chief executive of the Antibiotic Research UK network of commercial and university scientists.

We cant even tell if someone has a bacterial infection or a viral one which antibiotics wont work on anyway, he said. We need DNA fingerprinting so we can analyse infections in one or two hours in the same way we already analyse cancer tumours. That way, we can get the right antibiotic to the right person for the right bug, and do another test afterwards to check its been eliminated.

Prof Garner says such technology is expected to become routinely available soon. Whether it can still tackle the new generation of superbugs, however, remains to be seen.
The Telegraph

We first knew something was wrong in November 2014, when we were staying at Gladstones Library in Flintshire. On our first morning, Marilyn woke with a sharp pain down her left arm. I was making tea. I came back to the bed and touched her wrist, gently, to ask where it hurt, and she called out in anguish. She gave such a sharp cry that I couldnt quite believe the sound was coming from her.
Nairobi (AFP) - Elite Kenyan security forces on Sunday killed a man at the home of Deputy President William Ruto, ending a 20-hour siege that left one officer dead and another wounded, security officials said.

Ruto and his family were not at the vast property in northwest Kenya when Saturday's attack began, less than two weeks before what are expected to be tightly-fought elections.

Ruto condemned the violence at a campaign rally on Sunday.

"Those who seek to frustrate our unity, undermine our progress or work towards destroying our nationhood will not succeed," he told supporters in the town of Murang'a.

Kenya's police chief Joseph Boinnet said one attacker was shot and killed in the assault, while a police officer was found dead after being taken hostage by the assailant in an armoury where he holed up.

"The situation is under control," Boinnet said, adding the attack began when an intruder stabbed a police officer guarding Ruto's house, wounding him and stealing his gun.

Regional security coordinator Wanyama Musyambo said the assailant then fled into an armoury on the compound's grounds.

"It was a very delicate operation because, being in the armoury, he was at an advantage and was firing various weapons, and this caused confusion because you would think there was more than one person firing," Musyambo said.

While Boinnet said there was only one assailant, several security sources had earlier told AFP that the assault was staged by multiple people using guns, raising the possibility that some of the attackers remain at large.

"There are armed people who staged the attack and have shot the GSU officer and stolen his gun," one security official said, referring to the elite police General Security Unit deployed to guard Ruto's house.

- Tensions mounting ahead of vote -

The deputy president had left the house shortly before the attack to attend rallies alongside President Uhuru Kenyatta, his running mate who faces a re-election contest on August 8 against longtime opposition leader Raila Odinga.

Story continues

Kenyatta did not address the attack during appearances at multiple rallies on Sunday.

The weekend attack occurred despite the round-the-clock presence of GSU guards at the property, near the town of Eldoret, some 300 kilometres (200 miles) northwest of the capital Nairobi.

Moses Wetang'ula, leader of one of five opposition parties in the coalition backing Odinga, called the incident "unfortunate" in comments to The Standard newspaper, but questioned if it could be an attempt to heighten security fears ahead of the vote.

"We hope it is not a ploy to play victim," Wetang'ula said.

Ruto's home sits in Kenya's western Rift Valley area, the flashpoint for an outbreak of clashes after the violence that followed the disputed 2007 polls, leaving 1,100 people dead and tarnishing Kenya's image as a regional beacon of safety and stability.

Opinion polls suggest this year's election will be close and tensions have been rising.

Odinga has repeatedly claimed the government is scheming to steal the election, while Kenyatta has accused Odinga of trying to delay the polls.

Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch said it had received reports of threats and voter intimidation in Naivasha, a hotspot town in 2007 and one of the potential trouble spots in this year's election.

In the Rift Valley, hate speech flyers have been circulating and some local residents have already left their homes.

The 2007 bloodshed haunted both Ruto and Kenyatta long after it ended, when the International Criminal Court put both on trial for orchestrating the violence.

Those charges were later dropped, with ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda blaming a relentless campaign of victim intimidation for making a trial impossible.
Sanctions are back in the news  though if youre President Donald Trump, thats not a good thing. Heres a look at the current state of U.S. sanctions on a few key countries and how theyre faring.

Russia

This week, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on a new round of sanctions against Russia, targeting its intelligence, energy, defense, mining and railway industries. The U.S. has had sanctions in place against Russia since the 2014 invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea, but this latest round also hits Russia for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. Sanctions take years to have full effectin the short term, theyre mainly a shot across the bow (and one to which Putin has already retaliated). But you dont often see a Republican-led Congress using sanctions as a shot across the bow of a Republican president.

Near-universal support from Congress (the sanctions bill passed the Senate by a 98-2 margin; the House of Representatives went 419-3) undermines Trumps ability to unilaterally lift sanctions against Russiacompromising the traditional power of the president to lead the countrys foreign policy (if Trump wants to try to lift these sanctions, Congress has 30 days to approve or reject this request). The bipartisan bill had been held up by ferocious White House lobbying, but the realization has since set in that the bill will pass, even if Congress has to override a presidential veto. Trump still says that accusations his campaign colluded with the Russian government are fake news. Fake or not, concerns about his relations with Russia are beginning to have real impact on policy.

North Korea

While the Russia component of the bill is receiving the lions share of media attention, it also ramps up penalties against North Korea (in addition to Iransee below). The U.S. has kept sanctions on the North Koreans since the Korean War. Not that theyve done much beyond adding to the misery inside a country where 41 percent of people are undernourished and more than 70 percent depend on food aid. The Kim dynasty remains in power and continues to develop the countrys nuclear program. In fact, U.S. intelligence revised estimates just this week to say that Pyongyang could develop the capability to deliver a nuclear weapon to the continental US within a year. Some experts believe an ICBM tested on Friday could already put U.S. cities at risk.

Story continues

But recent North Korea sanctions have also ricocheted on China, North Koreas primary benefactor and link to the outside world. More than 90 percent of North Koreas trade volume comes from China, not to mention most of its food and energy. North Korea uses Chinese banks to fund transactions throughout the rest of the world, and recent rounds of sanctions have targeted those Chinese banks and companies. Trump continues to complain that Beijing should place more pressure on the Kim regime; this is one way to add more encouragement. Its highly unlikely to be enough to change Beijings mind though, given Chinese fears of extreme instability on the Korean peninsula.

Iran

Sanctions on Iran, on the other hand, have shown some results, because unlike North Korea, Iran wants a deeper commercial and political engagement with the rest of the world. Cutting off access to global markets and investments, as well as freezing $56 billion in assets, hit the country hard. Iran had hoped that signing the 2015 nuclear deal would breathe new life into its economy by allowing it to return to oil markets, and it hasthough not by as much as moderates like President Hassan Rouhani had hoped.

Iran is still being kept in the cold despite the nuclear deal because the U.S. has retained sanctions over Irans ballistic missiles program, human rights abuses, and state sponsorship of groups like Hezbollah that Washington considers terrorist organizations. The countrys also being held back by plummeting oil prices: when Iran first signed the 2013 interim deal that would ultimately become the nuclear deal we know today, oil was selling at $111 and Iran was producing about 2.8 million barrels a day. Today, its producing nearly 4 million barrels daily, but oil is only selling at just over $50. Sometimes, the free market can be crueler than sanctions.

Syria

U.S. sanctions against Syria have been in place since 2004, long before the country descended into civil war. The Bush and Obama administrations accused the Assad regime of supporting terrorism, pursuing weapons of mass destruction, and undermining the U.S. in neighboring Iraq.

But instituting country-wide sanctions gets harder when the country in question is falling apart. The latest round have been more precisely targeted: following Assads use of sarin gas against civilian populations, the U.S. government levied sanctions against 271 Syrian individuals who work for the government agency making chemical weapons in April 2017. Members of Assads family saw their U.S. assets frozen in May. A strength of sanctions is that they can be aimed directly at individual sectors and officials, limiting damage to ordinary citizens and creating incentives for more cooperative behavior. But that advantage isnt worth much when the government in question is already fighting for its life.

Cuba

More than 80 percent of Americans (not to mention a majority of Republicans) supported lifting the Cuban travel embargo back in 2015; 58 percent of Americans favored reestablishing diplomatic relations. Despite that, Trump has rolled back some of those Obama provisions by limiting commerce with Cuban businesses affiliated with the military, which owns almost all of the islands retail chains and hotels. Trump has also ordered that any American who wants to visit the island for educational purposes must do so through a licensed tour group. The embassies in Washington and Havana will remain open.

The U.S. has been sanctioning Cuba in one form or another since the Dwight Eisenhower administration in the late 1950s. John F. Kennedy expanded sanctions further, and they remained in place for more than 50 years until Obama eased many restrictions. Over the decades, Cuba estimates that the U.S. embargo has cost the country nearly $117 billion, yet the island is still governed by Raul Castro following his brothers death in November.



The lesson of sanctions: context is everything. About 10 years ago, I wrote a book called The J-Curve, where I envisioned all the countries in the world plotted on an X-Y axis.

On the far left of the curve are countries like North Korea and Cuba, whose regimes are stable precisely because theyre closed off from the rest of the world. On the far right of the curve are open countries like Germany and the U.S., whose governments are stable precisely because they engage with the rest of the world. Sanctions generally shift countries further left along the curve; sometimes, if the sanctions are significant enough, they can shift the entire curve downwards for a single country.

Put another way: a government like Syrias that is fighting for its life will always have bigger problems than sanctions guiding its choices. But when sanctions are imposed on governments that feel safer outside the international system like those in North Korea and Cuba (i.e. on the far left of the J-Curve), the penalties are unlikely to bring about change  especially when they can rely on a deep-pocketed patron. (Cuba has recently opened mainly because the friendly Chavista government in Venezuela seems fated to join the Soviet Union on the ash heap of history.)

A larger country on the left-hand side of the J-curve like Russia is more vulnerable to its own economic shortcomings than to Western sanctions. But pressure on a country like Iran (also on the left side of the J-Curve, but near the dip), one that wants to plug into international commerce but that remains small enough to isolate, has more potential for success.
Two days after North Korea conducted its second ICBM test and claimed it could hit most major American cities, the U.S. military Sunday conducted a test of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-ballistic missile system, which the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) described as "successful," reports said.

The weapon was fired by a U.S. Air Force plane over the Pacific Ocean and intercepted by the system located in Alaska, according to an MDA release.

"The U.S. Missile Defense Agency and U.S. Army soldiers of the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade from Fort Bliss, Texas, conducted a successful missile defense test today using the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system," the MDA said in a statement Sunday.

READ: Pentagon Successfully Tests THAAD Anti-Ballistic Missile Defense System In Alaska

A medium-range target ballistic missile (MRBM) was air-launched by a U.S. Air Force C-17 over the Pacific Ocean. The THAAD weapon system located at Pacific Spaceport Complex Alaska in Kodiak, Alaska, detected, tracked and intercepted the target.

THAAD is a ground-based missile defense system. It has been designed to shoot down short-medium and intermediate-range ballistic missiles, reports said.

Lockheed Martin Corp, the prime contractor for the system, said it has the ability to intercept incoming missiles from both inside and outside the Earth's atmosphere.

This is the second time in the month the U.S. has tested the THAAD system.

On July 11, the U.S. test-fired its THAAD anti-ballistic missile system from Kodiak Island, successfully intercepting a target missile launched from an Air Force Cargo plane north of Hawaii, according to Fox News. That test had come after North Koreas first ICBM missile launch on July 4.

The successful demonstration of THAAD against an IRBM-range missile threat bolsters the countrys defensive capability against developing missile threats in North Korea and other countries around the globe and contributes to the broader strategic deterrence architecture, the MDA had said after the test.

Story continues

The U.S. has also deployed THAAD in South Korea to guard against North Korea's shorter-range missiles, a move which has angered both China and Russia. In a joint statement earlier this month they called on Washington to immediately halt deployment of THAAD in South Korea.

However, concerns were heightened in Washington and Seoul when Pyongyang tested its second ICBM Friday, which the U.S. termed reckless and dangerous.

The North Korean had described its missile test a stern warning for the U.S. and said that the country would face destruction if it tried to attack North Korea.

By threatening the world, these weapons and tests further isolate North Korea, weaken its economy, and deprive its people. The United States will take all necessary steps to ensure the security of the American homeland and protect our allies in the region, President Donald Trump had said in a statement.

Following North Koreas second ICBM test, in a show of strength, the U.S. Army said they conducted a live-fire exercise using surface-to-surface missiles with the South Korean military.

READ: North Korea Tests More Missiles As US-South Korea THAAD Deployment Is Suspended

In a statement, the Army said the exercise involved Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) and South Korea's Hyunmoo Missile II.

South Korea President Moon Jae-in has called for talks with the U.S. on deploying more anti-missile defense units in the region, and Seoul is speeding up the deployment of four additional THAAD defense system, reports said. South Korea had earlier deployed two such units but the rest were delayed due to environmental concerns.

Related Articles
Washington (AFP) - The United States on Sunday issued a scathing condemnation of Venezuela's vote to elect a new assembly tasked with rewriting the constitution, and vowed "strong and swift actions" against the government of President Nicolas Maduro.

"The United States condemns the elections imposed on July 30 for the National Constituent Assembly, which is designed to replace the legitimately elected National Assembly and undermine the Venezuelan people's right to self-determination," the US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.

"The United States stands by the people of Venezuela, and their constitutional representatives, in their quest to restore their country to a full and prosperous democracy," she said.

"We will continue to take strong and swift actions against the architects of authoritarianism in Venezuela, including those who participate in the National Constituent Assembly as a result of today's flawed election."

The US statement went on rebuke Venezuela's besieged leader Maduro, who critics said orchestrated Sunday's vote in a naked bid to remain in power.

"President Nicolas Maduro has cast aside the voices and aspirations of the Venezuelan people," Nauert said, also offering condolences to victims of the violence that has wracked Venezuela over the past four months.

"We condemn the use of violence by the Maduro regime against citizens exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly," her statement continued.

"We encourage governments in the hemisphere and around the world to take strong action to hold accountable those who undermine democracy, deny human rights, bear responsibility for violence and repression, or engage in corrupt practices."

The run-up to Sunday's controversial polls have seen scores of deaths with at least another 10 people reportedly killed in election day unrest, officials said.
US Air Force B-1B Lancer - US DOD/PACAF

The United States flew two B-1B bombers over the Korean peninsula in a show of force after recent North Korean missile tests, the U.S. Air Force said in a statement on Sunday.

North Korea said it conducted another successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Friday that proved its ability to strike America's mainland, drawing a sharp warning from U.S. President Donald Trump.

The B-1B flight, conducted on Saturday, was in direct response to the missile test and the previous July 3 launch of the "Hwansong-14" rocket, the U.S. statement said. The bombers took off from a U.S. air base in Guam, and were joined by Japanese and South Korean fighter jets during the exercise, according to the statement.

"North Korea remains the most urgent threat to regional stability," Pacific Air Forces commander General Terrence J. O'Shaughnessy said in the statement.

"If called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal, and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing".

The U.S. has in the past used overflights of the supersonic B1-B "Lancer" bomber as a show of force in response to North Korean missile or nuclear tests.

North Koreas nuclear history: key moments

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un personally supervised the midnight test launch of the missile on Friday night and said it was a "stern warning" for the United States that it would not be safe from destruction if it tries to attack, the North's official KCNA news agency said.

North Korea's state television broadcast pictures of the launch, showing the missile lifting off in a fiery blast in darkness and Kim cheering with military aides.

China, the North's main ally, said it opposed North Korea's missile launches, which it said violate United Nations Security Council resolutions designed to curb Pyongyang's banned nuclear and missile programmes.

"At the same time, China hopes all parties act with caution, to prevent tensions from continuing to escalate," China's foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

Story continues

I am very disappointed in China. Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017

However, Trump said he was "very disappointed in China".

In a message on Twitter, he said: "Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet..."

"...they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!" he said in a subsequent tweet.

The Hwasong-14, named after the Korean word for Mars, reached an altitude of 3,724.9 km (2,314.6 miles) and flew 998 km (620 miles)for 47 minutes and 12 seconds before landing in the waters off the Korean peninsula's east coast, KCNA said.

Intercontinental ballistic missile test launch map

Western experts said calculations based on that flight data and estimates from the U.S., Japanese and South Korean militaries showed the missile could have been capable of going as far into the United States as Denver and Chicago.

David Wright of the U.S.-based Union of Concerned Scientists wrote in a blog post that if it had flown on a standard trajectory, the missile would have had a range of 10,400 km (6,500 miles).

North Korea refers to the United States as its sworn enemy in its propaganda, and has done so since the 1950-53 Korean War in which the Soviet and Chinese-backed North fought against the U.S.-backed South. The isolated country often shows mockup images of a missile hitting key U.S. landmarks in its media.
By Ian Simpson

(Reuters) - Nine people were injured, one critically, in Los Angeles on Sunday when a van that collided with a pickup truck jumped the curb and slammed into an outdoor dining area, authorities said, calling it a "complete accident."

Eight people were transported to hospitals after the incident on West Pico Boulevard, the Los Angeles Fire Department said on Twitter. A ninth person, an off-duty Los Angeles firefighter, was hurt but did not need to be taken to a hospital, it said.

"Complete accident, nothing intentional," said Lieutenant Jim Lewis of the Los Angeles Police Department.

The incident bore initial similarities to vehicle attacks by Islamist militants in Europe and Israel. Last month, a man drove a van into a crowd of worshippers leaving a London mosque.

Los Angeles' fire department said a 44-year-old man was in critical condition. Three people were seriously injured, and four were in fair condition, with the ages of the seven ranging from 18 to 51, it said.

The van's driver, a 39-year-old man, was in fair condition, fire department spokeswoman Margaret Stewart said.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington; Editing by Peter Cooney)
Caracas (AFP) - Venezuelan soldiers fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters blocking a highway in Caracas on Sunday, in one of several violent scenes surrounding a contentious vote for a Constituent Assembly to rewrite the constitution.

After an initial skirmish in the upmarket district of Santa Fe, the National Guard troops withdrew and protesters -- some wearing masks and carrying Molotov cocktails -- returned to block the road.

"We are here as pure resistance, against the process happening today against the constitution. The people are not going to give up the streets until this awful government goes," one 54-year-old militant, Carlos Zambrano, told AFP.

"We will remain fighting until (President Nicolas) Maduro leaves," he vowed.

In the western neighborhoods of El Paraiso and Montalban, residents said soldiers "invaded" apartment buildings looking for demonstrators.

"They arrived firing, from the corner over there. There was running everywhere and they fired at the buildings, fired at the people," one local, Conchita Ramirez, told the Vivo Play television network.

"All the people desperately ran for cover into the buildings," she said.

"I don't know where their hate comes from.... This is war!" she said, crying.

Journalists trying to cover the situation in El Paraiso were set upon by soldiers who told them to leave.

"Get out of here before shit falls upon you," warned one man in uniform, caught on camera by Vivo Play.

In Venezuela's second city of Maracaibo, National Guardsmen were also seen firing tear gas and stun grenades.

The opposition coalition, the Democratic Unity Roundtable, had called on supporters to hold mass demonstrations in Caracas and elsewhere in the country.

It has denounced Sunday's election as a "fraud" designed to allow Maduro to cling to power and to bypass the opposition-controlled congress.

Four months of protests against Maduro and his policies have left more than 110 people dead and exposed deep political rifts within the country, an oil producer reduced to economic ruin.

Story continues

Ahead of the vote, Maduro sought to prevent further demonstrations by issuing a decree saying any anti-government protesters risked up to 10 years in prison.

He has declared the Constituent Assembly -- which will have the power to dissolve the congress -- as the only path to restoring peace and prosperity.

Surveys however suggest that his plan is rejected by more than 70 percent of Venezuelans.
Caracas (AFP) - Venezuela held elections Sunday for a Constituent Assembly backed by embattled President Nicolas Maduro to rewrite the constitution. Opposition activists and some foreign countries have doubts. What do we know -- and not know -- about the vote?

- What we know -

The Constituent Assembly will be a "superagency" with authority above all government branches, including the one-chamber National Assembly. It currently is the only part of the government controlled by the opposition.

"It can start everything over from scratch. It can create everything. It is the power of all powers; none is above it," Maduro has said.

The president, an elected socialist, has made the economy increasingly state-led; food and medical shortages are common. Low crude prices have strained the economy as it has been restructured, to the breaking point.

At least nine people died overnight and into Sunday, according to prosecutors, adding to a four-month death toll of some 120.

The looming system to be drafted by pro-government members would have no checks and balances, and endangers democracy, according to analyst Colette Capriles.

"He already has set up a body that can implement a dictatorship.... So society and the international community have to stand up against this," she argued.

Many in Venezuela fear it will be even more Cuban-inspired. One-party, Communist-ruled Cuba is Venezuela's closest ally, followed distantly by China and Russia.

The new constitution will be drawn up by 545 assembly members. While 354 will be based on territories, another 181 will come from social organizations close to the government. The opposition, which is boycotting the vote, slams the voting arrangement as corporative since it was drawn up by the government.

"This is not an election. It's a fraudulent bid to consolidate" a coup, according to legal expert Jose Ignacio Hernandez.

The government calls the specially arranged voting "direct democracy." But opposition members stress that Maduro has been unable to work with the National Assembly, so he is taking action that likely would eliminate it, or put it in his pocket.

Story continues

The Constituent Assembly will start work Wednesday in the legislature's building where the opposition-run assembly also will be in session.

Maduro said the new constitution, which would replace the one passed under his predecessor ex-president Hugo Chavez, will be put to a referendum vote.

"That's the last thing that matters," quipped Colette Capriles, since Maduro and others have said that even before any such vote, the Constituent Assembly would be making executive and legislative decisions.

Government forces are sending out some favorites for the assembly positions: ruling PSUV number two Diosdado Cabello, ex-foreign minister Delcy Rodriguez and first lady Cilia Flores.

The United States has threatened tougher sanctions if the assembly election moved ahead as planned. Other countries such as Canada, Colombia, Panama and Peru have said they would not recognize the assembly's authority.

- What we don't know -

It's unclear how long the assembly will be in session. Its members will decide that.

As a super-branch of government, Maduro foes are worried that the Constituent Assembly will start eliminating agencies or even entire branches of government, such as the National Assembly or the Federal Prosecutors' Office.

Attorney General Luisa Ortega, a Maduro loyalist who dramatically broke with him over setting up the assembly and other issues, warns that a "totalitarian one-man rule system" could be looming.

The next elections will be set by the Constituent Assembly. Whether the current electoral authorities' schedule, for example for state governors, will be respected, is its call.

The 2018 presidential election currently scheduled would be up in the air -- and possibly eliminated, opposition members fret.

"The Constituent Assembly is a desperate measure by a government that cannot schedule elections because it knows it is going to lose them," said Diego Moya-Ocampos, an analyst at IHS Market Country Risk in London.

Eight out of 10 Venezuelans say they do not support Maduro, Datanalysis pollsters have found.

While former foreign minister Rodriguez has said that wiping out all opposition isn't the goal here, others are doing different math. Maduro himself thundered at assembly number-two Freddy Guevara: "Your cell awaits."

Foro Penal (Criminal Forum) monitors say there are almost 500 political prisoners in the country of 30 million.

Maduro has said the assembly will bring stability amid economic collapse; he has not said how.

"There is greater conflict, investors pulling out and worse sanctions coming. The crisis we have seen so far is the tip of the iceberg," warned economist Luis Vicente Leon, who runs Datanalysis.
Michael Phelps first foray into Shark Week turned out to be a ratings record-breaker for Discoverys annual summer fin fest, averaging more than 5 million viewers. He may not have physically raced side-by-side with a great white in Phelps vs. Shark: Great Gold vs. Great White, but he does swim with reef sharks in this evenings closing night special, Shark School with Michael Phelps.

As you see in the sneak peek above, Phelps traveled to Bimini, the westernmost island of the Bahamas, to learn the basics from Doc Gruber and Tristan Guttridge of the Bimini Shark Lab. They taught him how to safely dive with different species  and how to stay calm when, say, a hammerhead was six inches from his face. I guess its probably doing more common sense stuff than you think about, he told Yahoo TV. Its not freaking out, trying not to flail your arms all over the place. Not splashing into the water and making a gigantic wave, because thats obviously going to attract them to come up and see whats jumping in their environment and try and check it out.  We look at these animals as dangerous animals but theyre not; theyre out there trying to survive just like we are on land.

Shark Week fan fave Andy Casagrande, who worked as a cinematographer on both Phelps specials, says he was honored to have the Olympic great as an ambassador for Shark Week 2017  and hopefully beyond. He said hes been fascinated with sharks since he was a little kid. Hes an amazing ambassador for conservation and bringing light to the issues of sharks and just getting people pumped up because hes obviously a household name. But the coolest thing about Michael is hes a super laid-back, down to earth, humble, and just very excited, passionate guy, Casagrande says. When it comes to sharks, thats what you need.

Shark School with Michael Phelps premieres July 30 at 8 p.m. on Discovery.

Read more from Yahoo TV:
An Austrian court has sentenced a 27-year-old Palestinian man to life imprisonment for membership in a terror organization and for incitement.

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The man, whose name cannot be published under Austrian law, was reportedly released from prison in Israel in 2011 as part of the deal to release IDF hostage Gilad Shalit.

He was arrested again last July, this time at an asylum center in the Lower Austria town of Gmund, after attempting to recruit West Bank Arabs to carry out grenade attacks in Jerusalem.

Hamas in the Gaza Strip (Photo: Reuters)

Israeli and Austrian intelligence services and state prosecutors are believed to have cooperated to prosecute the case, at the request of officials in Vienna.

Israeli investigators shared information with their Austrian counterparts, including testimony from the interrogations of four Palestinians from the West Bank who are believed to have been planning attacks in Israel as part of the cell headed by the suspect in Austria.

Austrian media reported the man denied the charges and said he would appeal the conviction. But he also reportedly told jurors that he was proud to be part of Hamas."
- illegal chainsaw operators are destroying some forest reserves in the Brong Ahafo Region

- The DCE of the area has accused politicians of hiding behind the criminal activities

YEN.com.gh brings you the latest news in Ghanaian politics

Some illegal chainsaw operators have invaded the Desiri Forest Reserve in the Asutifi South District of the Brong Ahafo Region cutting down trees for lumber.

Some chainsaw operators at work

READ ALSO: Cant hang out again with Mzbel; Im honest  Diamond Appiah

According to reports, the activities of the illegal operators who are said to be operating both day and midnight is fast depleting the forest.

The forest is said to be one of the important national national reserve in region, sharing boundaries with the Ashanti and Western Region.

The District Chief Executive of the area Robert Mensah Dwomoh, who confirmed the reports recently, accused the Forestry Commission, some opinion leaders as well as politicians for turning blind eye over the development.

Speaking on the matter in an Assembly meeting in the district, Mr Dwomoh lamented that, people who are paid to ensure that the forest reserve is protected including some influential Chiefs are deep rooted in the criminal activities.

READ ALSO: What Nana Oye Lithur is saying about Madam Charlotte Osei

Unpatriotic Ghanaians including the traditional authorities, politicians and even the very people who are paid to protect the forest, have all contributed to the rapid degradation of the reserves, he lamented.

Timber track loaded

He therefore appealed to individuals and traditional authorities to help the District Assembly curb the situation.

The DCE, who was clearly not happy about the fast depletion of the forest reserve has called on the National Security and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to help the district fight activities of illegal chainsaw operators.

PAY ATTENTION: Get all the latest news on the go with the YEN.com.gh app right here

On his side, the Chief of the Siechem Traditional Council, Nana Boffo Banin, told the media in an interview that, he and his elders have petitioned the DCE to take action against the crime after he [the Chief], tricycle and motorbike were burnt by the illegal chainsaw operators and some farmers.

READ ALSO: Kumawood's Bernard Nyarko and Christian Awuni are in love and it's beautiful

Some unconfirmed reports say most of the illegal operators were from neighbouring countries including Burkina Faso, who have pitched camps in wooden structures within the forest reserves.

Do you have a story to share? We are on Facebook! Or send us an email at info@yen.com.gh

Source: YEN.com.gh
- Government has assured the country of its commitment to fight the galamsey menace

- Police and Military personnel will be deployed on Monday to noted areas where the activity is most intense

- They will protect life and property from the damage the galamseyers cause, while also protecting the sites of mining companies in agreement with the Lands Ministry

YEN.com.gh brings you the latest news in Ghana

About four hundred military and police personnel will be deployed to various mining settlements across the country to fight against the illegal mining activity known as Galamsey.

Photo credit: 3news.com

READ ALSO: Parliament to receive mid-year review of 2017 budget statement today

This move marks the first step by government as part of its war on the activity, that has caused damage to many of the countrys natural resources.

The deployed force will be tasked with patrolling areas known for extensive galamsey activity in the Ashanti, Western and Eastern Regions.

Reports indicate that this first batch to be deployed are part of the Anti-Galamsey Task Force initiated by government to end the mining menace.

Photo credit: 3news.com

The Lands and Natural Resource Minister, John Peter Amewu had earlier announced the decision to send in troops from the Military and Police Force to ensure the ban on galamsey was adhered to.

He reiterated the commitment government had made to fight the illegal mining menace and bring all defaulters to book.

The task force will be in charge of protecting life and property from damages caused by galamsey, while also ensuring the mining sites of 20 large-scale mining companies are protected from the illegal miners.

These companies signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry, following the threats by the Ghana National Association of Small Scale Miners (GNASSM) to face off with security agencies at their mining concessions, to prove they had the legal rights to work on those sites.

Photo credit: 3news.com

Among the companies named in the agreement are; Gold Fields Ghana Limited Tarkwa, Abosso Gold Fields Limited Damang, AngloGold Ashanti Iduapriem, AngloGold Ashanti Obuasi ,Golden Star Resources Limited Bogoso/Prestea, Golden Star Wassa Limited Wassa , Ghana Manganese Company Nsuta.

READ ALSO: What former minister Nana Oye Lithur is saying about Madam Charlotte Osei

Want to be featured on YEN.com.gh? Send us an email at info@yen.com.gh with your stories, photos or videos or contact us via our Facebook page.

Source: YEN.com.gh
FORT WAYNE  Erica Widmer, 39, of Fort Wayne, a designer for the East Noble High School band programs color guard, died early Saturday morning of complications from injuries sustained in a one-car accident south of Fort Wayne the night before, according to the Allen County Sheriffs Department.

East Noble band program students have planned a candlelight memorial for Widmer at about 9 p.m. Tuesday night following the East Noble Marching Knights and color guard practice in the East Noble High School parking lot.

Monday morning, Deputy Adam Griffiths, assistant public information officer for the Sheriffs Department, released details about the accident.

Witnesses told police Widmer was driving a 2011 Volkswagen on U.S. 27, near the Hoagland Road intersection, when the car left the roadway for some unknown reason. The Volkswagen went into the grass median, struck an incline and became airborne and then rolled before coming to rest.

Widmer was taken to a hospital in critical condition, where she died early Saturday morning.

She was an Angola High School graduate and a former teacher at Prairie Heights and Angola high schools.

Widmer was integral in designing East Noble marching band shows and winter guard shows, according to East Noble director of bands Bryan Munoz. She choreographed the guard each fall and winter.

Visitation is from 2-7 p.m. Thursday at St. Joseph United Methodist Church, 6004 Reed Road, Fort Wayne.

Funeral services will be Friday. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested memorials be sent to the Indiana High School Color Guard Association, 8308 W. Lincolnshire Drive, Yorktown, IN 47396, to support students in need.

Tonight, the East Noble Marching Knights and color guard begin rehearsing for the 2017 competition season. Counselors and East Noble administrators will be on hand to speak with students, if necessary, about Widmers passing, Munoz said Monday.

Thursdays evening rehearsal has been canceled so students can attend Widmers visitation.
Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Cloudy. A few flurries or snow showers possible. Temps nearly steady in the mid 30s. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Snow flurries and snow showers. Low 28F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 40%.
Two fiber arts enthusiasts who have been friends since high school will open Unwound Artisan Yarn Shop on Tuesday at 413 Jay St. in downtown La Crosse.

Kait Holton of La Crosse and Carolyn Zick own the new business, which will sell yarn, spinning fiber that can be spun into yarn, and knitting and crocheting tools. The shops focus is on local, regional and small-scale brands.

Unwound also will sell fabric bags, wall art, soaps, jewelry and stationary.

Hours will be 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. The shops grand opening will be Saturday and include drawings for prizes.

This fall, Unwound will begin offering classes in knitting and crocheting. Well have different levels of classes, from beginner to advanced, Holton said. The two owners will be among the instructors.

Unwound also will host events such as knit nights and participate in others such as World Wide Knit in Public Day.

Zick and Holton have had a Chain 344 podcast on knitting, crocheting and spinning on YouTube for more than two years, and hope to resume it soon. But theyve been busy preparing to open their new shop.

Theyve been friends since Zick moved to Durand, Ill., during her high school freshman year. Holton was a high school sophomore there at the time.

They were in the same Spanish class, and bonded during their school art clubs trip to Italy the following summer and during the fundraising for that trip.

Zick and her husband, Caleb, moved to the La Crosse area from Durand in 2013 after he landed a local job. Holton and her husband, Alex, moved to the La Crosse area from Jacksonville, Ill., in 2015 for a job that Caleb had told him about.

Holton, 26, and Zick, 25, both enjoy knitting, crocheting and spinning wool into yarn. Holton said she has been passionate about yarn since she learned to knit in high school. Zick has enjoyed crocheting since she was 6 and has been knitting since 2013.

Its a great creative outlet, Holton said of crocheting and knitting. It lets you enjoy your brain.

You can follow a pattern someone else has written, write your own pattern or just create something without following a pattern at all, Holton said.

Im driven to be productive, Zick said. Its a hobby in which I can feel productive while also relaxing. There are a lot of studies on the mental health impact of any tactile (using the sense of touch) craft. Its very therapeutic.

This is the perfect way for me to share my passion about knitting and crocheting, Holton said of opening the new shop. I want to help other people discover it so it can impact their live in the same way.

I love the La Crosse area, Zick said. Ive never seen a community so engaged intellectually, with a very local focus and a rich textile history. I think the Scandinavian heritage of textile arts offers a unique opportunity for Unwound to succeed.

Holton said La Crosse seemed like a good location for their new shop partly because Its so vibrant with stuff going on all the time. The art scene here is great.

She said she and Zick have been helped by Downtown Mainstreet Inc., the Small Business Development Center at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and the Wisconsin Womens Business Initiative Corp.

We like to support small businesses, and there are a lot of good small businesses here, Holton said of her and Zicks decision to focus on local, regional and small-scale brands.

Zick said she and Holton also want to sell unique yarns that big-box stores dont carry.

Zick and Holton plan to invite fiber arts enthusiasts to relax with their project and cup of coffee or tea in their shops lounge. Everyone regardless of skill level is welcome to come spend time in the lounge, and visit with other lovers of the fiber arts, Holton said.
WASHINGTON  As Donald Trump veers wackily from day to day, swearing before 30,000 Boy Scouts, publicly humiliating his attorney general and changing his mind on policy issues, he is raising alarm that the president of the United States might be mentally unstable.

Caught unaware of a live microphone, Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., confided to Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, I think he (Trump) is crazy. Responded Collins, Im worried.

At least we can agree Trump is not an inspirational leader on civics. In a speech roundly decried as unhinged to the Boy Scouts Jamboree in West Virginia, he said what the hell, went on and on about the November election, diatribed against Hillary Clinton and his predecessor, and told the Scouts not to believe the news media.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the first senator to endorse Trumps presidency, is loyally carrying out Trumps agenda to force sanctuary cities to turn over undocumented immigrants and fill the jails with drug addicts. In return, Trump has mounted a daily fusillade of Twitter and media attacks on Sessions. Trump wants him gone because Sessions legally had to recuse himself from the Russia investigation.

Trump wants a new attorney general to fire special prosecutor Robert Mueller, who ran the FBI for 12 years and is investigating Russias interference in the 2016 election. Mueller is charged with finding out whether the Trump campaign worked with Russia to undermine Clinton, examining meetings between Trump family and campaign officials, including Sessions, and Russians loyal to Vladimir Putin, an official U.S. adversary.

Then, on a day the Senate was voting tensely on the nations crucial health care insurance system, Trump suddenly tweeted that transgender Americans will no longer be welcome or tolerated in the armed services even though thousands of transgender people currently serve as soldiers, sailors, marines and merchant marines.

The Defense Department, with no idea Trumps decree was coming, is perplexed how to halt a policy under implementation. Former President Barack Obama announced last year that transgender people could serve openly in the military after a study concluded there would be minimal impact on military readiness or health care costs. Trump had promised the LBGTQ community would have no better friend than he would be as president.

Psychiatrists and psychologists are openly debating whether or not they should give opinions about Trumps mental health or use phrases such as narcissistic personality disorder, egotist, misogynist or pathological liar in reference to him.

The American Psychoanalytic Association, with 3,500 members, concluded that psychoanalysts should offer relevant psychoanalytic insights to aid the public in understanding a wide range of phenomena in politics, the arts, popular culture, history, economics, and other aspects of human affairs.

But the APA urged extreme caution in making statements to the media about public figures, saying respect for individuals and the limits of psychoanalytic inference is essential.

In other words, it remains unethical for psychiatrists and others to diagnose the sanity of a public figure without personal interaction but it is good for society in general if experts discuss their interpretations of unusual behaviors.

Dr. Allen Frances, a professor emeritus of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University and a textbook author on mental illness, wrote to The New York Times, saying its unfair to the mentally ill to say Trump is sick. Trump causes severe distress rather than experiencing it and has been richly rewarded, rather than punished, for his grandiosity, self-absorption and lack of empathy.

Rather than calling Trump psychiatric terms that dont apply, Trump should be called out for his ignorance, incompetence, impulsivity and pursuit of dictatorial powers.

Trumps psychological motivations are too obvious to be interesting, and analyzing them will not halt his headlong power grab. The antidote to a dystopic Trumpean dark age is political, not psychological, Frances concluded.

Alas, the doctor makes sense. We will not be rid of the Trumpean menace to civility, gentility and rationality by blaming an illness such as narcissistic personality disorder that Trump does not have. Folks, we must face that we elected a boorish and dangerous threat to democracy, a man who thinks himself above the law and is causing us intense grief, chaos and embarrassment.

As president, he is an unmitigated disaster. But he is not mentally ill.
As a child, West Salem local Michael Ebert had an insatiable desire to take to the air and serve his country.

My grandfather flew in World War II, Michael said. I did a history project about him in fourth grade and decided thats what I wanted to do for a living.

This month Michaels dream came true when he left to attend the U.S. Air Force flight school in Texas. There he will learn to fly the T6A-Texan II, a single-engine aircraft that looks more like something out of a war movie than a modern aircraft.

Proud is the best word to describe it, Michaels father Ray Ebert said.

Michael who graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado this spring, said his dreams of flying jets began after he was assigned a history project focusing on someone from Wisconsin. He chose his grandfather, Edwin Ebert.

By attending the academy, Michael was following in his grandfathers footsteps.

This dream, however, almost didnt happen. Michaels application to the academy was initially denied, and hed resigned himself to joining the Merchant Marines.

I had a chance to go to the academy, which was really cool, but I didnt get in right away, he said. I had a no letter.

He said each academy only has so many slots. Everyone who applies will either be accepted, given a maybe, or declined.

Not every applicants first choice is the U.S. Air Force. Many apply to several academies in case they dont get their first choice. This opened the door for Michael to get into the Academy despite the rejection letter.

They worked through their yeses, they worked through their maybes and they started on the nos, he said. Me and a couple of other guys got to go because of that.

For Michael, joining the Air Force was a natural decision.

Hed grown up in a military family. His father, Ray, now a La Crosse County Board member, spent four-years in the air force before serving the U.S. Coast Guard until Michael was born.

Its good to see someone follow in your foot steps and go even further, Ray said, adding Michael also followed in his fathers footsteps.

Michael said, The military seemed like a good job and what your family did and that became the dream.

Ray said his son is now, living the dream.

Michael, however, didnt attend the academy to learn to fly. Most cadets do very little flying at the academy and only a select few are chosen to instruct the glider program.

But that didnt matter much to Michael, who by this point was already an accomplished pilot. He had received his private pilots license at the beginning of his senior year thanks to his involvement with the La Crosse Civil Air Patrol.

I got the chance in seventh grade to join the civil air patrol, he said. It was a good way to try out the whole military thing.

La Crosse Civil Air Patrol Squadron leader Todd Mandel said he had no doubt Michael would end up in pilot school.

I was there the day he got the call from the Air Force Academy, he said.

Mandel said its not uncommon for cadets to go on to serve in the armed forces, but its much rarer for them to attend the Air Force Academy.

Statewide, we have maybe five cadets in the academy, he said and added cadets like Michael make the Civil Air Patrol special.

Being able to work with young people is the reason I do it, he said.

The Civil Air Patrol allowed Michael to do more than learn how to fly. A few months after joining the Civil Air Patrol, Michael learned that he couldnt really start flying until he was 15.

You have to be 16 to solo an airplane, he said.

Instead, he focused on learning about the planes, the military codes of conduct and the rank structure.

Michael also learned skills like search and rescue.

Fifteen came around and I started to learn to fly with the squadron, he said. My parents decided to foot the bill for me to learn how to fly, because its not cheap, but its a lot cheaper with civil air patrol.

Mandel said Michael has become the poster child for the La Crosse Civil Air Patrol and a role model for new cadets to aspiring to become pilots.

When Ebert left to basic training and later the Air For Academy, he didnt expect to struggle academically. Hed been a good student and had never struggled to get good grades in high school.

He learned just a few months into the Academy that finishing wasnt going to be a cakewalk.

I struggled a lot of my first years at the academy, he said. I was on and off of academic probation.

After two years of hard work learning to study and prepare his classes, Ebert had a choice to make. His first two years had been free, and his second two would be too, as long as he completed the program. If he quit or failed, hed have to pay back the U.S. government.

Once you walk into class the first day of junior year, you sign a piece of paper called commitment that says, I will graduate or I will pay the U.S. government back, either in time as an enlisted person or in cash, he said. The first two years you can walk away no questions asked, take your credits and leave, but the first day of junior year gets really expensive.

After four years at the academy, Michaels conviction remains unchanged. He still wants to spend his life whipping through the clouds faster than the speed of sound.

Im glad I figured out school when I did, he said.

After completing his training on the T6A-Texan II, Michael will be ranked. The top pilots will get first pick to fly either jets, cargo planes and support craft or helicopters.

No matter where he lands, hell be pleased.

Every second I get to spend in the air is a good second, he said.

Hell need to know every system on the air craft if he wants to fly jets.

If it was just about flying, I would have no trouble walking there, he said. Im pretty comfortable with flying; there a lot of academics that go into it too.
About 60 to 75 union workers at Aramark Uniform Services in La Crosse walked off their jobs and marched for higher wages and benefits for a half-hour to 45 minutes Monday in the midst of stalled negotiations set to resume Wednesday.

Most of the demonstrators, members of United Electrical Workers Local 1121, were wearing orange T-shirts with Inmate #632 stenciled on the front and Eramark State Prison on the back as they trekked out of the building where they launder uniforms, towels and other supplies for hotels, restaurants and other businesses.

They chanted slogans such as Who are we  UE, No contract, no justice, Who does the laundry?  we do and What do we want? A contract. When do we want it? Now as they listened to speakers and during their march around most of the building.

Strong members stick together, Local 1121 President Jay Jamesson said as the workers gathered in Aramarks parking lot at 1920 Oak St. in the North Side Industrial Park. One tool the company fears is a strike  even for one day.

Nearly all of the workers raised their hands when Jamesson asked whether they were willing to strike for a day or less, fewer were inclined to do so for two days and virtually none wanted to strike for a week or more.

Unless you can pay me, one worker murmured under her breath.

The walkout was intended to show the company that we want more money and benefits and  to be treated with respect as human beings, Jamesson said.

A management official in the building declined to comment for the company, which is headquartered in Philadelphia and listed No. 18 on the Forbes list of Americas largest private companies. It has 254,000 employees and had $13 billion in revenue in 2011, according to the corporate website.

About 110 workers have jobs at the La Crosse plant, which is Aramarks largest in Wisconsin and processes laundry for other Aramark uniform outlets in Madison, Eau Claire, Appleton, Stevens Point and Cudahy, Wis., according to a union official.

This is the first time plant employees have rallied for such a work stoppage, said Charlene Winchell, Local 1121 treasurer who has worked for Aramark for 29 years.

Weve been fighting for a long time  too damn long, she said, adding that workers want increased pay, in part to help cover rising health insurance costs, as well as more sick days.

Aramark also is pushing to move from a two-tier pay system to three tiers, with the third earning less pay and effectively discouraging people from working there, Winchell said.

That would mean more overtime, and theyre already working us to death, she said.

Leading the march around the building in 85-degree temperatures under the noonday sun were two workers carrying a banner that was perhaps 8 feet wide and 3 feet high and proclaimed: Aramark  21st Century Sweat Shop. It was similar in size to a company banner anchored in the lawn, with this message: Now hiring. Inquire within.

Todd Weis, a maintenance technician, said during the march that long hours are especially draining because temperatures inside the plant can reach 120 to 130 degrees when it is 90 degrees outside because of the machinery used to launder and iron the uniforms, towels, etc.

Workers get around $13 an hour to start and can make up to the low $20s if they work longer hours, Weis said.

Last year, the plant generally was running from 4 a.m. to 9 p.m., while it has been shutting down at around 7:30 p.m. recently.

They cant retain people, and the good people, they work to death, Weis said. I worked commercial construction for 20 years, and this is far harder.

Regional President Carl Rosen of Chicago also addressed the marchers, ensuring them that they have the support of the national and regional UE offices and saying, This place doesnt work unless you do  you are teaching them a lesson.
A dozen years ago, fewer than 1 in 5 La Crosse students was nonwhite. Today, that number is closer to 1 in 3.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, Western Wisconsin school districts including La Crosse, Westby, Arcadia and Sparta continue to see ethnic and racial diversity increase, following a statewide trend. Most of these districts are also seeing increasing student poverty, as the proportion of students who are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs is on the rise.

Twelve years ago, 38 percent of students were eligible for the lunch program in La Crosse, compared with nearly half of students in the district last year. Statewide, the number of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch peaked at 42 percent in 2013 and fell after that to 38 percent last year.

These changes bring challenges and opportunities to school districts, educators say. They say schools must continue work to be socially just, equitable and culturally responsive in order to provide a quality education to all students, regardless of background.

When we talk about demographic changes, we have been rolling up our sleeves on the issue for a long time, La Crosse Associate Superintendent of Instruction Troy Harcey said. We have a rich tapestry in La Crosse and a very diverse student body.

Last year, almost 10 percent of students in La Crosse identified as Asian, more than 5 percent as black, almost 4 percent as Hispanic, and almost 9 percent identified with two or more races. Along with different backgrounds, Harcey also said the district has to be aware of gender, poverty, ability and other characteristics.

Two years ago, districts participated in a social justice conference in Madison to improve how educators and staff are trained to work with students from different backgrounds. The school district switched to an asset-based approach, Supervisor of Instruction and Staff Development Rob Tyvoll said, as part of a goal to provide equitable opportunities to students.

We had to question the mindset about students of negative backgrounds and question those negative stereotypes, he said. With the change to asset-based thinking, we look for the potential and the positives and give students the opportunities to demonstrate that potential.

Part of that work is discussions on identity, Tyvoll said, and tackling issues such as white privilege, which is defined by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a transparent preference for whiteness that saturates society and provides white people with unearned perks people of color do not enjoy.

Other work on identity includes district efforts to celebrate other cultures and groups through programs and events. The district also has a number of cultural liaisons who work with African American, Southeast Asian and other student subgroups.

Another way the district works to embrace different backgrounds is to create more responsive classroom systems. Instead of teachers as overlords, Tyvoll said, responsive learning designs include students in conversations about behavior and expectations, giving students a voice and allowing their views to be respected.

If they are allowed to be part of the conversation and community, these things become much more meaningful, Tyvoll said.

One school district that has seen an explosion in diversity is Arcadia, where the Hispanic population became the majority in 2015. While not as extreme, other rural school districts have also seen their Hispanic population rise as people move to the region for jobs, especially on dairy farms.

Groups want kids to see themselves in books Local social justice organizations are working to provide more responsive literature to mino

Almost 1 in 6 Sparta School District students is Hispanic or black, up from 1 in 20 during the 2015 school year. About half of the districts students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a number that has spiked and fallen over the past 12 years.

To provide extra resources for Hispanic students, who make up 12 percent of the student body, Director of Pupil Services Peggy Jadack said the district works with community organizations such as Lugar de Reunion as well as adding additional teachers for English-language learners.

Regional economics is likely the driver of the need for free or reduced-price lunch in her district and others, she said. About 15 percent of residents in Monroe County and La Crosse County live under the poverty line, according to the most recent Census data, and that number jumps to nearly 20 percent in the city of Sparta and 24 percent in the city of La Crosse.

To help those kids, Sparta instituted a universal free breakfast program, as well as weekend food backpacks and a summer school lunch program. The district tries to be sensitive to student needs and works with community organizations to fill any gaps.

We work hard with all parents and families to make sure kids have what they need to be successful, Jadack said.

At Onalaska, nearly 1 in 4 students identifies as nonwhite, and more than a quarter of the students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, down from 31 percent in 2012. Having a more diverse student population is good for the district, Superintendent Fran Finco said, as students will live and work in a world full of people from different backgrounds.

The district works to meet the school boards goal that all students can achieve high levels of learning, he said. There are still challenges to overcome as the district has a large achievement gap between white and minority students and between rich and poor students.

On the most recent state tests, slightly more than 31 percent of poor students rated as proficient or advanced on the English language arts Forward exam compared with more than 60 percent of their richer peers. Only 21 percent of black students got a passing score on the test, compared with more than 66 percent of white students.

Finco said the district has to look at those who are struggling and get them the resources they need to succeed or excel. For poorer students who might not have books or parents who read to them at home, that might mean providing books they can take with them or providing programs to help parents gain these skills.

If a student doesnt speak English as a first language, the district might have to provide more English-language learner support the district offers additional instructional time to students struggling in a subject such as math or reading. A number of schools in the district have food pantries and other programs that make sure kids arent going hungry at school, which can affect learning.

The district also has increased the number of support staff available. Ten years ago, Finco said, the district had 49 staff members dedicated to working with at-risk kids or those with special needs that number has nearly doubled to 87.

We have to give them what they need to get up to that bar, he said. We have to come up with culturally responsive interventions so all students succeed.
WINDSOR  Jeff Davidson Jr. admits his right arm is likely stronger than his left.

And its easy to see why.

Each afternoon, Davidson, 34, a triathlete who finished the Ironman Wisconsin competition in just over 12 hours last September, stands at a table in his 8,000-square-foot bakery and uses a rounded cutting tool to chop and mix cinnamon and apple into blobs of dough that ultimately become 50 dozen apple fritters.

But Davidsons sweet daily workout is about to take a major hit. The married father of two young children is drawing on his Ironman mentality to overcome what could be a more than 30 percent loss of business for his JDs Bakery & Donut Shop just north of DeForest.

When Kwik Trip announced July 19 that it was purchasing the Middleton-based chain of PDQ convenience stores, Davidson immediately knew he would have to find a way to make up for the loss of the 200 dozen donuts and apple fritters he sells to PDQ each day. Kwik Trip has its own production bakery and wont need a wholesaler like JDs.

Wednesday (July 19) was a bad day. It was out of the blue and like being punched in the stomach, Davidson said. This is my life. This is all I know, all I want to know.

Davidson is scrambling to add new accounts for his wholesale business, which serves up 5,000 bakery items a day to convenience stores, hotels, churches and other companies in Columbia, Dane, Jefferson and Rock counties. In addition to 23 PDQ stores, his customers include Stop & Go, Kelleys Market and CP Mart.

A regional giant

Kwik Trip has 337 stores in Wisconsin, 147 in Minnesota and 82 Kwik Stars in Iowa. The company does about $5 billion in gross sales annually, employs about 19,000 workers and has a massive food production and bakery operation in La Crosse, home to its 360,000-square-foot distribution center, which serves all of the companys stores. The vertical integration is what has helped Kwik Trip keep its prices low and draw thousands of customers to its stores each day.

We have the dairy, the kitchens, our bakery, our own ice cream, our own ice plant, our own beverage plant, Brad Clarkin, a warehouse superintendent at the center, told the La Crosse Tribune in 2013. We have products produced today that will be on store shelves tonight.

Kwik Trip hopes to finalize the purchase of PDQ in October and spend $30 million to $35 million to re-image all of the 34 Wisconsin PDQ stores into Kwik Trip stores. The majority will get an interior facelift that includes new shelving, while the smaller ones will be remodeled. It hasnt been determined if some of the smaller stores will be converted to Tobacco Outlet Plus Grocery stores, formerly known as Kwik Trip Express, a combination of a Tobacco Outlet and small Kwik Trip store but without the hot food offerings.

Its also unclear what if any vendors serving PDQ will be retained, if some stores will be expanded and if the stores will allow customers to pay for gas in the store, not only at the pump as is the practice at PDQ.

We just started the process of examining what work will be done with the properties, what vendors are currently supplying those stores and what store formats we will use, said John McHugh, Kwik Trips director of corporate communications. It will take several months for that process before we know the answers.

The Madison strategy

The move by Kwik Trip to purchase PDQ solves a long lingering problem for a company that has struggled to maintain stores inside Madisons city limits. For a time, Kwik Trip had a store near Verona Road and the Beltline, but it was sold years ago.

In 2014, Kwik Trip opened a 6,500-square-foot convenience store without gas pumps in the ground level of Varsity Quarters, a six-story, 129-bed apartment building at 1423 Monroe St. In December 2015, the company opened a $3.8 million, 7,160-square-foot convenience store at 4825 American Parkway in the American Center business park, but was thwarted in its attempt to build a store on the site of a former Sentry grocery store on Cottage Grove Road.

While the PDQ purchase will let Kwik Trip blanket Madison, Fitchburg and Middleton, Kwik Trip has for years been a mainstay in Dane County suburbs farther from Madison. For example, there are three in Oregon and two each in Stoughton, Sun Prairie and Verona that have added to the challenges of independent operators who rely on businesses like JDs to supply products.

Its a hit

When John and Nancy Davidson, Davidsons grandparents, purchased the bakery in 1985, it was producing about 27 dozen doughnuts a day. Their son Jeff Davidson Sr. purchased the business in 1996 and in short order added the PDQ store on Highway Q near Highway M in Middleton and the PDQ store on Northport Drive to the bakerys delivery list.

Ultimately, he added every PDQ store in the Madison area.

I was one cent cheaper per dozen (compared to the competitor) and I had a good product, Jeff Davidson Sr. said.

Its a hit, he said of the pending loss of business because of the Kwik Trip purchase. The PDQs put out a lot of volume. A fresh doughnut from us is something you just cant duplicate.

The bakery, now operated by Jeff Jr., is producing more than 400 dozen pieces of bakery a day. It includes 600 apple fritters, 1,000 cinnamon rolls, 800 long johns and 800 bismarcks. Baking starts around noon each day and wraps up at around 8 p.m. Among the 10 employees are high school students who help package goods, while two drivers make the deliveries, each with routes over 100 miles.

Jeff Jr. has been working at the business since before he went to Lakeside Lutheran High School in Lake Mills. He began working full time while studying business management at Madison Area Technical College and has no plans on letting Kwik Trip get in his way of growing the family business he has been running for the past five years.

He plans to buy the company from his father, promote the name of the company more and is looking into packaging baked goods to sell at grocery stores, which would further diversify the business plan.

Youve got to go head-on, Jeff Davidson Jr. said. I really enjoy working in my bakery. There have been very few times in my life when I didnt want to do this.
A Black River Falls attorney accused of trading cash and legal services for sex has agreed to plead guilty to three misdemeanor charges, avoiding a trial.

James Ritland, a former district attorney, will plead guilty to two counts of attempted adultery and one count of disorderly conduct, according to a deal presented Monday to La Crosse County Circuit Judge Todd Bjerke.

Ritland was scheduled to stand trial Aug. 9 on multiple felony charges, including soliciting prostitution and maintaining a drug trafficking place.

According to a criminal complaint, a woman told authorities she ran into Ritland in 2013 and he told her he could help if she needed money, after which she visited the his office across from the Jackson County Courthouse and received cash in exchange for oral sex and showing him her breasts, according to the complaint.

A second woman, who had filled in as a paralegal at Ritlands office before landing in legal trouble, said Ritland offered to let her pay off her bills with sexual favors; he also gave her money to purchase heroin and shoot up in his office and posted bonds in La Crosse and Jackson counties to get her out of jail, according to the complaint.

A third woman reported she and the second woman went to Ritland when they were dope sick and needed money, and he paid her to show him her breasts. The woman said she wasnt providing information to authorities to receive a deal on outstanding charges but rather because it was wrong that Ritland was using drug sick girls to get his sexual pleasures, according to the complaint.

Ritland also requested intercourse, paying at least one of the women to bring other girls to him, according to the complaint.

Prior to being charged in August, Ritland told the Tribune he was confident that I will be found not guilty.

Ritland, 63, served as Jackson County District Attorney from 1981 to 1982. He ran for judge in 2015, finishing last in a six-way primary shortly after authorities began investigating him.

The Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation has not filed a public complaint with the state Supreme Court. Office director Keith Sellen said he could neither confirm nor deny whether the office has opened an internal review.

Under Supreme Court rules, an attorney is required to report to the OLR, which would then conduct its own investigation. It is considered professional misconduct to commit a criminal act that reflects adversely on the lawyers honesty, trustworthiness or fitness.
Two men are in custody facing attempted murder charges after engaging in a gunfight with police and a high-speed chase through Houston County early Monday.

La Crescent police noticed two men acting suspiciously at a Kwik Trip and stopped their vehicle around 1:30 a.m. in Hokah, Minn., where the suspects exchanged gunfire with the officers, according to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

According to a recording of squad car radio posted on the website mnpoliceclips.com, the suspects drove at speeds of up to 100 mph while shooting at the pursuing officers on Hwy. 44. Officers from the Houston County Sheriffs Office, Caledonia Police Department and Minnesota State Patrol aided in the pursuit.

The chase ended when the suspects crashed and ran into a bean field near Caledonia, where they eventually surrendered, according to the BCA.

One of the men was treated for non-life-threatening injuries at Gundersen Medical Center in La Crosse before being booked into the La Crosse County jail. According to squad radio, he was shot in the neck. The other suspect was booked into the Houston County jail.

Both are expected to be charged with attempted murder, according to the BCA, which did not name the suspects.

Neither officer was injured, and both are on administrative leave.

La Crescent police do not use body cameras, but the shooting was captured on squad car video, according to the BCA. That footage has not been released to the public.
A group of western Wisconsin landowners have lost a court battle to block a proposed frac sand mine using a novel legal approach.

La Crosse County Circuit Judge Scott Horne dismissed a case brought by three families who sued to stop AllEnergy Corp. of Des Moines from opening the $130 million project in the town of Hixton on the grounds it would be a nuisance.

Greg Krueger and his co-plaintiffs claimed the 750-acre mine, processing plant and rail terminal would generate air, water, noise and light pollution, destroy the landscape, deplete groundwater supplies and unreasonably interfere with their right to peaceful enjoyment of their land.

One of two such cases filed by attorney Thomas Lister on behalf of Jackson County residents, it was one of the first such efforts to apply the idea of private nuisance  that an owner cant use land in a way that harms neighboring property owners  to the industry, which began rapidly expanding in western Wisconsin during the past decade to supply fine-grained sand for use in oil and gas wells.

Jackson County landowners look to courts to block frac sand mining MERRILLAN, Wis.  Ron Baerbock had never heard of frac sand when he moved to Jackson County 

The lawsuit calls into question inherent tensions in land use decisions, Horne wrote in a ruling issued Monday. Moreover, this lawsuit raises the question of who should assess the risk to property owners and determine in advance of any actual harm that a proposed land use will create a nuisance that is definite and certain.

Horne noted that the towns mining ordinance and a developers agreement with AllEnergy should be sufficient to protect its residents and that courts should not interfere except in the clearest cases.

If an actual nuisance arises, Horne said, he would have the authority to order damages or a modification to the operating regulations.

In an effort to address that concern, the plaintiffs filed a dozen affidavits from people living near other sand operations who complained of dust that causes chronic coughs and prevents them from opening windows, light, noise and vibration that keeps them up at night, cracked walls and fouled well water  all in spite of similar ordinances and operating agreements.

There are some nuisance impacts that are inevitable, Lister added. You cant protect people against the destruction of the landscape and loss of property value.

Lister said he was pleased Horne recognized anticipatory nuisance as a legal doctrine but disappointed not to have the chance to argue it at trial. He anticipates Horne will dismiss a similar case in which another group of landowners are attempting to stop a 945-acre mine, processing and loading facility about six miles to the east between Black River Falls and Alma Center.

The plaintiffs are considering whether to appeal the dismissal, he said.

AllEnergy CEO Dean Sukowatey said he was elated by the decision and would be meeting with engineers and investors to determine a timeline to move ahead on the project. Sukowatey said he has the necessary construction permits in hand and a contract with one of the largest oil service companies in the world.

Were going to be racing to meet the contract, he said.
U.S. Rep. Ron Kind and La Crosse Mayor Tim Kabat saluted Authenticom Monday for persevering in its legal battle against two rivals it contends are trying to drive it out of business, with kudos to CEO Steve Cottrell and his employees for toughing it out.

Kind, a La Crosse Democrat, and Kabat visited Authenticom on the third floor of the Doerflinger building downtown, chatting with many of them before speeches rallying the troops.

Spurring the encounter was Authenticoms legal victory Friday when Judge James Peterson of Madison entered the final form of his preliminary injunction in Authenticoms antitrust suit against CDK Global and The Reynolds and Reynolds Co.

The order confirmed Petersons July 17 ruling that CDK and Reynolds must stop blocking Authenticom from providing data services to dealers and vendors.

Kind praised Cottrell and the workers for being on the front lines of the legal face-off, squaring off against the two big dogs in the data management sector of the automobile industry, in which Authenticom is the only other players.

Kind expressed optimism that the home-grown company, which Cottrell founded in his sons bedroom in 2002, will get a fair shake from Peterson as the suit proceeds to a jury trial.

CDK Global is a publicly traded Delaware corporation with headquarters in Hoffman Estates, Ill. It provides DMS software and services to car dealerships throughout the country and has more than $2 billion in annual revenues. The private corporation of Reynolds and Reynolds is headquartered in Dayton, Ohio.

Kind noted the fact that some Authenticoms employees did not have computer training when they started to work in the pleasant, spacious office with user-friendly colors and cubicles. The company has trained them and put them on a good career path, he said.

It proves that high-tech jobs are not just on (Massachusetts) Route 128 and in Silicon Valley, Kind said.

Route 128 has emerged as a major technological corridor rivaling traditional leader Silicon Valley in California.

Both Kind and Kabat cited fact that Cottrell has made it a point to keep his nearly 110 employees on the payroll despite the setbacks and legal morass in the antitrust suit.

Kabat cited Authenticoms role in helping revitalize downtown La Crosse through actions ranging from helping drive the Doerflingers resurrection as a major tenant covering the third floor and part of the fourth to financial donations and other contributions to community projects.

From our perspective, we are doubly blessed with natural resources and companies like Authenticom investing in the community, the mayor said.

Authenticom routinely makes Inc. Magazines annual list of the nations fastest-growing private companies, an accomplishment that President Barack Obama acknowledged when Obama delivered an economic speech at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse on July 2, 2015.
The La Crosse Community Theatres Board of Directors announced Monday that Grant Golson will be the LCTs new executive director, capping a search process that began in April after the resignation of LCTs previous executive director, David Kilpatrick.

Golson brings years of fundraising experience, most recently with the ALS Association in Mission, Kan., and years of experience as a performer and arts administrator, including almost three years as major gifts and special events manager with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. Between May 2005 and October 2012, Golson performed in more than 50 productions, including lead roles in Sweeney Todd, Man of La Mancha and Chicago.

Golson holds a bachelor of fine arts degree in theater arts from New Yorks New School University and plans to finish his master of business administration in management from the University of Kansas later this year.

Grant brings a wide variety of skills to the position, including artistic oversight, management and fundraising, said Sara Battison, LCT board president. His background in fundraising and the arts create the perfect combination of skills to take La Crosse Community Theatre forward.

Chuck Roth, who chaired the board-appointed search committee, said the the applicant pool was very strong, with two finalists invited for in-person interviews. This has been a great process that reflected the passion that the community and each of the search committee members has for La Crosse Community Theatre and its future, Roth said.

Golson expects to begin his tenure at LCT on Aug. 29 and plans to host town-hall type meetings later this fall.

I am so excited to lead LCT into the next phase of its life. I cant wait to become a cheese head, Golson said. I want the opportunity to listen to what people have to say and hear about their vision for La Crosse Community Theatre.




Nearly a dozen area businesses will get an upgrade, thanks to state of Wisconsin training grants.

Western Technical College was awarded $325,000 in Workforce Advancement Training grants to upgrade the skills of workers at 11 companies. The funding is part of $4 million from the state, allocated to the Wisconsin Technical College System and awarded to its 16 member colleges through a competitive grant process.

The WTCS Board awards WAT grant funds to promote increased investment in the development of incumbent workers, improve Wisconsin businesses productivity and competitiveness, augment the states economic base, support career pathways, and expand technical college training and technical assistance services to businesses and industry.

Local companies included in Westerns partnership include Advanced Fiber Products in La Crosse, Ashley Furniture Industries in Arcadia, Badger Mining in Taylor and Westby Cooperative Creamery. Employees will receive leadership and supervisory training, and technical skills training in electromechanical maintenance, robotics, project management, and computer engineering and design as part of customized training programs developed for WAT grant recipients.

The WAT grant program helps local companies to maximize their training budgets and gain access to the educational programs offered through the technical college, said Patti Balacek, Westerns dean of Workforce and Economic Development. And, in a competitive labor market, customized training programs are an excellent way for companies to upskill their incumbent workforce to match the competences needed in open positions that can be challenging to fill.
Whenever I write about immigration, I prepare to please absolutely no one, least of all myself. My personal curse is that I am a conservative who understands the feelings of people who are fed up with the broken immigration system and who do not want to see our borders become irrelevant. This has always been a keystone of the conservative platform: sovereignty, order, states rights. I get it.

But I am an immigration lawyer, as you know, if youve ever read anything Ive written, and I also understand the feelings of immigrants who have paid in blood, sweat, tears and sometimes even actual currency to become legal in this country. Many of them have already contributed mightily to this society, albeit through back channels and from the depths of restaurant kitchens, sweltering construction sites or dingy offices.

So I see both sides, and I try to be fair when I look at the competing interests of pro- and anti-immigration constituencies. I also dont like the people who separate out the legal from the illegal, because its a bit too simplistic to tell someone to get in line and do it the right way when there are no lines. The person here illegally today will, under our current system, likely have to wait over a decade before becoming the legal resident of tomorrow.

And the conservatives really dont care about that, just as the progressive immigration advocates think anyone who has a problem with loosening the restrictions on our laws and regulations (and de facto quotas) is a bigot.

So as I was saying, its a recipe for disaster and really spicy comments at the end of the column when I choose to write about immigration.

But I cant avoid the topic. The deaths of 12 people in Texas, victims of a botched human trafficking expedition, force me to confront the screwed-up way we deal with foreigners who want to come to this country and live, work and flourish. Anyone who thinks that men and women will cram themselves into an airless truck, along with their babies, for hundreds of sweltering miles, only to end up dead or dying because they want to bring mayhem to this country should probably stop reading now. Youre on an entirely different, cruel wavelength. Go read the comics page.

Those people came here the way that they did because there were few other options. There are no laws that allow people who are starving or fleeing persecution from the other side of the border to come here freely, honestly and with dignity. You have to take your chances, and, believe me, if your child is starving or your brother was just killed by gang members from Mara Salvatrucha, you dont care about dignity. You just come.

We need to fix our system, so that the tragedies that occurred last week dont repeat themselves. Unfortunately, instead of fixing the problem, our legislators put their heads in the sand and our executive decides to go after the low-hanging fruit.

Worse, we have people who think these people who came in illegally deserve what happened to them. I call it the Elians Mama syndrome. You remember her, dont you? She was the mother of that little Cuban boy who risked her life so he could have a better life. At the time, even in the wake of her death by drowning, people blamed her for putting that child in danger. I was at the beginning of my immigration career, almost 20 years ago, and all I could think was, How desperate must you be to put your child on a raft and send him into dark waters with the slim chance of survival?

Its the same thing that motivated those poor people to undertake a journey that ended in death in a Walmart parking lot. Blaming them bespeaks a horrific lack of humanity.

But we do it anyway. We do it when we call them illegals; we do it when we point the finger at them instead of at a system that doesnt allow for a more humane process to vet them at the border; we do it when we dont hold our legislators accountable for closing their eyes to the war at the border or, worse, for providing facile slogans about walls.

We cant have open borders. And we need to tighten our policies to make sure the drug runners and human traffickers keep their poison out of our country. And, no, we shouldnt make policy based on tragedies such as this one.

But instead of worrying about stupid tweets from President Trump and trying to figure out which thin-skinned journalist hes offended this week, instead of jockeying for moral superiority (Democrats) and pie-in-the-sky repeals of laws youll never erase (GOP) we should demand that our legislators do their job and fix the immigration system.

Now, dammit. We cant afford more bodies in parking lots.
MILWAUKEE  With Lake Michigan shimmering in the background as they stood inside the Milwaukee Art Museum, Gov. Scott Walker and Foxconn founder Terry Gou sealed a historic deal for Wisconsins economy Thursday.

The reasons why a mid-sized, Midwest state won the competition to land North Americas first liquid crystal display plant  and the 13,000 direct jobs that will come with it  have much less to do with Wisconsins offer of financial incentives than with its other tangible and intangible assets.

Since the Foxconn talks began to surface in public talks in June, speculation centered on how Wisconsin might attract the Taiwanese electronics giant if it came down to a bidding war with much larger states such as Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas.

It may turn out that one or more of those states bid far above the $3 billion in staged financial incentives put on the table by Wisconsin. That means Wisconsin emerged on top for other reasons:

Location, location, location: The old real-estate axiom applies in layers, with Foxconn wanting to open at least one U.S. factory for market and geopolitical reasons; preferring the Midwest to the East and West coasts for its first high-tech facility; and centering on Wisconsins southeast corridor due to its proximity to Milwaukee and Chicago. Ample land is available. Transportation options include the interstate system, major airports and rail lines.

Energy and water: The southeast corner of Wisconsin is a hub for interstate electric transmission lines and Wisconsin utilities are part of a Midwest consortium to ensure reliability as well as renewable sources. Water is used in the production of glass LCD panels, which are built under clean room conditions, and the Lake Michigan watershed provides an ample supply that can be used and recycled.

Higher education: There are 75,000 graduates produced each year by the University of Wisconsin System, the Wisconsin Technical College System and the states private colleges and universities. Thats a likely source for some of the workers who will eventually fill Foxconns Wisconsin labor force. Wisconsin colleges and universities are also home to a research and development structure that rivals what can be found in most states  although its time to reinvest in that asset before quality wanes.

A manufacturing tradition: Wisconsin has a history of making things that extends to the late 19th century. Its manufacturers are, by and large, innovators who have embraced technology and new ways of producing goods and services. Electrical equipment and medical equipment are already two staples of the tech-based manufacturing landscape in Wisconsin. As Foxconn builds out a supply chain that may include hundreds of companies, it will find that Wisconsin is among the nations leaders in original equipment manufacturers.

A vibrant technology foundation: While many people think first of Wisconsin for its agriculture, tourism and manufacturing, its tech sectors have grown steadily over time and provide support for the big three in a variety of ways. According to the latest Cyberstates report by CompTIA, the nations largest technology association, there are at least 101,000 tech workers in Wisconsin, largely in information technology, tech products and engineering fields. Another 25,000 or so people work in life science fields. Collectively, thats about 6 percent of the Wisconsin workforce and growing. For emerging tech companies in Wisconsin, Foxconns interests in electronics, artificial intelligence, robotics, virtual reality, medical imaging, regenerative medicine, virtual reality and more provide potential opportunities for growth.

Teamwork: While its not always apparent in the day-to-day debates in the state Capitol, the Walker administration and legislative leaders from both parties pulled together when it counted. Gou praised Walkers leadership and the governor relied on two Cabinet leaders, Administration Secretary Scott Neitzel and Mark Hogan of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., to drive home the deal. In southeast Wisconsin, officials in Racine and Kenosha counties were integral, and a mix of business groups weighed in to help.

The $3 billion, pay-as-you-grow incentive package must still be approved by the Legislature, most likely in a special session this month. Its a vital part of the deal, of course, but Wisconsin lured Foxconn for a mix of reasons that far exceeded dollars alone. Those same assets can help draw others.
Flood damage costs in Monroe County continue to rise.

Wisconsin Emergency Management reported Friday that the heavy rainfall during the overnight hours of July 20 caused $6.1 million worth of public infrastructure damage in Monroe County. It said 82 homes in the county were affected with eight sustaining minor damage and one with major damage. There were also two businesses in the county that reported minor damage.

The Wisconsin National Guard has been assisting with debris removal in the town of Portland, where 20 soldiers were deployed until late last week.

The Baraboo River remained above flood stage Friday but was expected to fall below flood stage by today (Monday). The Kickapoo River went below flood stage last week.

Most of the damage was in the southern and western portions of the county. The city of Tomah reported 2.6 inches of rain but no significant damage in the city. The city was forced to release water throught the Lake Tomah dam, which triggered a pair of bridge closures downstream over the Lemonweir River.

Governor Scott Walker has declared a state of emergency in Monroe County and 19 other counties.
Fort McCoys South Post Housing areas homes nearly doubled when the installation accepted 56 new homes from a contractor in early July.

The addition of the homes brings the total to 113 available at the housing area. An Army housing market analysis completed in 2010 determined Fort McCoy has a housing requirement of 134 units based on personnel needs for housing. A housing deficit was created when Fort McCoy discontinued a lease for 80 homes in Tomah in 2011.

The new homes are single-family ranch-style homes  similar to those that were already in place, said directorate of Public Works housing division chief Ross ONeil. The contract to build the homes was awarded in late 2014.

DPWs Master Planning Division and Housing Division, the Army Corps of Engineers, and others have worked together to plan for new military family housing at Fort McCoy since 2006.

Fort McCoy has been aggressive in the past decade at working to minimize our housing deficiency, said DPW master planner Brian Harrie.

Harrie said the units are built to be energy efficient. They include geothermal heat sources that provide all heating and air conditioning to the units. Additionally, domestic hot water is provided through high-efficiency, instantaneous tankless natural gas water heaters.

Geothermal units greatly reduce seasonal heating and cooling costs while providing increased comfort to the soldier and his or her family, Harrie said.

Geothermal home energy systems use the constant temperature of the earth as the exchange medium instead of the outside air temperature, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Though many areas of the United States, including Wisconsin, can experience seasonal temperature extremes such as high heat in the summer and sub-zero cold in the winter, the ground remains at a relatively constant temperature a few feet below the earths surface.

Harrie said although the geothermal systems are new to Fort McCoy, systems are quite efficient.

DOE statistics show the system life of geothermal home energy systems is estimated at 25 years for the inside components and more than 50 years for the ground loop. There also are approximately 50,000 geothermal heat pumps installed in the United States each year.

Military families began moving into the new homes within days after they were accepted by the installation, ONeil said.

The units also come with a two-car garage, three and four bedrooms, a full basement, and an in-home sprinkler system to protect against fire.
BLACK RIVER FALLSIt could be a couple of weeks before the courts decide if Ho-Chunk Nation President Wilfrid Cleveland was convicted of a felony in 1972, putting his political career in the hands of a judge.

On May 2 Gary Funmaker filed a lawsuit against Cleveland and the Wisconsin Department of Justice to get a declaratory judgement on whether Cleveland was convicted of a felony or misdemeanor in 1972.

On Jan. 23, 1972, Cleveland struck a police officer in the nose and broke the officers glasses trying to flee after getting into the passenger seat of a stolen police car. He was convicted of battery two weeks later, according to records.

For 35 years, the severity of his conviction was listed as unspecified and not recorded as a misdemeanor or felony.

This case has widespread implications for Cleveland since the president of the Ho-Chunk Nation cannot be convicted of a felony per the Ho-Chunk Nation Constitution, which states, No person convicted of a felony shall serve as president unless pardoned.

If Cleveland is found to have been convicted of a felony, he could be impeached as the president of the Ho-Chunk Nation.

Funmaker and several other tribal members have been working since 2007, when Cleveland first ran for president, to get this issue resolved.

We are thinking this is the only way we can put this to rest, Funmaker said. It is not just me, but there are a lot of people wondering if he is a felon.

The question of whether Cleveland is a felon has been the subject of many Ho-Chunk Nation legal actions, including a Ho-Chunk Nation trial in 2007 that determined Cleveland was fit to run for president and impeachment proceedings that have taken place three times including last fall when Cleveland was reaffirmed as president after a 405 to 1,386 vote of the General Council.

Funmaker points to the Ho-Chunk Constitution for why he is pursuing Cleveland so vigorously, Either we are going to be a tribe of law, or we are all just going to be out in the field and fight it out.

Attorney Michelle Greendeer was one of the tribal members who spoke in support of Cleveland in the fall General Council meeting after she talked to Jackson County District Attorney Gerald Fox and researched past impeachments of Ho-Chunk Nation officials.

In addition to a letter she received from Fox stating that Cleveland is not a felon, Greendeer points to the three impeachments of presidents since 1997 as one of the main reasons she stood behind Cleveland at the 2016 General Council Meeting.

If you have ever been around when we remove a president, it is rather horrific on a macro scale because not only does a tribal president become ousted, but the vice president seat isnt with the president, so the vice president sits at the Legislature and the Legislature then sends him or her up to the presidential seat for three months or up to a year and that creates an unbalanced government of power, Greendeer said as she concluded that the new president could fire all of the directors, which has happened in the past, and cause morale problems in the Nation.

Greendeer said people deserved to get a review of the facts and not the politics when spoke during the Ho-Chunk Nation General Council meeting last fall.

This is why I thought it was important to look at when people were ousted for president, what were they really ousted for, she said. Was it just because they didnt like the president and they feel he or she has done something wrong or is there a greater influence that can maybe line their personal pockets?

In the end, Greendeer hopes that the presidential removal actions cease so the tribe can more forward.

I think at some point in time as this tribe matures like any other country like Honduras or Libya or any of those states, they have to come to a resolution that is best for the people instead of this yo-yo behavior, she said.

How it got here

Funmaker points to a letter from Fox sent May 31, 2007, that states Cleveland was a felon after an examination of the 1972 records. Cleveland was charged in a criminal complaint with one count of battery to a police officer, which was characterized as feloniously cause bodily harm, according to the letter. At the time, Fox argued that offense is unarguably a felony, as the maximum penalty prescribed for this offense was two years imprisonment, as reflected on the face of the complaint, and in the criminal code then in effect, according to the letter.

Fox inferred that the conviction had not been reversed, set aside or pardoned. After making this determination, Fox changed Clevelands record to show that he was convicted of a felony in 1972. Cleveland was still able to run for president because of a decision made by the Ho-Chunk Nation court in Mike Sallaway v. HCN Election Board, which was heard on May 24, 2007.

Even though he was cleared by the Ho-Chunk Nation courts, Cleveland set out to clear his name since his official record at the time reported him as a felon. He filed an application for executive clemency to be pardoned for his crime on July 20, 2010, which was at the end of Gov. Jim Doyles term.

Clevelands application included more than 10 letters of support from community members, including several Native American tribal presidents, past Jackson County officials and lawyers from across the state.

Clevelands application wasnt approved by Doyle and hasnt been approved by Gov. Scott Walker, according to a letter sent by Walkers office in 2017.

In his lawsuit, Funmaker takes aim at several things in Clevelands application for clemency, including Clevelands claim that he uses firearms and that he was allowed to supervise felons while they were on parole, both of which would not be allowed if Cleveland was convicted of a felony. Funmaker also points to the fact that Cleveland filed for clemency as proof that Cleveland knows he was convicted of a felony.

The case took another turn on July 30, 2013, when Fox sent a new letter claiming that he had made a mistake when claiming Cleveland had a felony conviction from the 1972 incident.

The import of all of this is that I cannot say that Mr. Cleveland was convicted of a felony offense after all, according to the letter. True, the same statute number is reflected on the JOC, but the literal charge was changed to battery, without the enhancer, and none of the procedural steps, such as either the courts probable cause finding after a preliminary hearing, or a waiver of the preliminary hearing, then the filing of an Information, or waiver of said filing, appear to have taken place.

Fox referenced the judgement of conviction, which contradicts itself because it states that Cleveland was convicted for the crime of battery in violation of statute 940.205. The statute number does not reflect the crime because statute 940.205 was battery to a police officer/firemen in 1972, which is what the original complaint was for. At the time, battery was a misdemeanor, while battery to a police officer/firemen was a felony.

The new findings caused Fox to change Clevelands record again, this time changing the severity of the crime to a misdemeanor.

Following further inquiries made over the last month in response to renewed interest in the story because of Funmakers request for a declaratory judgement, Fox wrote another letter on July 19 that gave further proof that Cleveland was not convicted of a felony. Yesterday, however, I realized that the judgement of conviction itself provides conclusively that he was only convicted of a misdemeanor, in that the JOC was entered by the county court of Jackson County, Hon. Louis Drecktrah presiding, and not the circuit court which included Jackson County.

This is a critical distinction, and one which did not dawn on me until I looked at the JOC again yesterday afternoon. You see, prior to the merger of the county and circuit courts by the enactment of the court system reorganization bill in 1977 (effective in 1978), county courts had no power to adjudicate felonies.

Fox believes he has provided enough evidence that shows Cleveland was charged with a misdemeanor, The only thing Im certain about is that he was not convicted of a felony in that 1972 case.

Some members of the Ho-Chunk Nation have accepted Foxs mistake and are moving forward.

I think mistakes happen in the human world and if the DA made a mistake and he owns it, which he did, then that is good enough for me, Greendeer said.

Where the case stands now

Funmakers request for a declaratory judgement was made in Jackson County, but will instead be heard by Monroe County Judge J. David Rice because Funmaker and his legal team feel they would not get a fair trial in Jackson County.

Cleveland and the Wisconsin Department of Justice have provided notice and a motion to dismiss the claims.

Cleveland and his attorneys argue that Rice should dismiss the claim for several reasons including:

The court has a lack of jurisdiction over the subject matter because this matter has been litigated in Ho-Chunk Nation courts.

Fox has already corrected Clevelands official conviction record.

Funmaker has a lack of standing to sue Cleveland because they claim Funmaker has no personal right to know if Cleveland was convicted of a felony.

In Clevelands motion to dismiss, he also claims that Funmaker has personal interest in this case because he would like to run for president of the Ho-Chunk Nation, which is something Funmaker doesnt deny and said openly that he would like to be the president of the Ho-Chunk Nation. However, he said that is not his motive for pursing a lawsuit against Cleveland saying, We have to stand for our Constitution. Laws are laws and we have to make a stand.

The DOJ has also filed to dismiss the claim against themselves because the DOJ does not feel Funmaker has alleged a dispute with the DOJ, and that Funmakers only dispute is with Cleveland.

In a statement to the Chronicle, Johnny Koremenos, director of communications and public affairs for the DOJ, said, Funmakers allegations against DOJ are not entirely clear. He seems to have some complaint about how DOJ is reporting Clevelands conviction on the Wisconsin Criminal History Database. Initially, DOJ reported the offense as unspecified. Then it was changed to felony and later changed to misdemeanor based on information provided by the Jackson County DA. DOJ does not independently decide how a conviction is classified; it simply reports information provided by law enforcement, prosecutors, courts and the Department of Corrections.

Rice has requested Funmakers attorney to file information to oppose the motions within two weeks and for the parties to file any reply to the opposition two weeks after that.

Rice would then decide the motions based on the written submissions, or if he felt a hearing was necessary, call a hearing.

If the motions to dismiss are denied, it is expected that Rice will hold a hearing on the matter later in the year.

If the declaratory judgement does not go in Funmakers favor, he said he would be happy that this issue is over, If it works in his favor (Clevelands), God bless him; we dont have to talk about it anymore  were done.

The Chronicle made several attempts to talk with Cleveland, but he did not return calls for comment.
For the second time in two years, a grocery store in Tomah is changing hands.

Festival Foods announced Thursday it is purchasing Gordys Market in Tomah, along with two locations in Eau Claire. Gordys purchased the store from the Burnstads family in 2015.

The acquisition is expected to close in September. After the acquisition, all three locations will operate under the Festival Foods banner.

Greater Tomah Area of Commerce executive director Tina Thompson said Friday shes optimistic about the new owners.

Festival is known for being a great community partner, and were excited for the opportunity that brings to Tomah, she said.

The sale ends several weeks of speculation over the fate of the Gordys Tomah location as customers noticed an increasing number of empty shelves, especially in the liquor department. Last month, Burnstads closed its restaurant in the building citing inability to reach a lease agreement

In March, a Minnesota company, EGP, filed a lawsuit in Chippewa County Court seeking $38,665 from Gordys Market. David Schafer of Gordys said at the time his firm had switched vendors and paid EGP. The lawsuit was dropped.

Tomah city administrator Roger Gorius said its important for a grocery store to remain at the location where the Burnstads first opened in 1944.

Thats a grocery store that has been a staple in Tomah forever, Gorius said. We wouldnt want an empty building there when were trying to develop our south side.

Gorius said the building is within Tomahs downtown Tax Incremental Finance District.

Festival Foods resident and CEO Mark Skogen said expanding into Tomah and increasing the companys presence in Eau Claire are key opportunities for the company to better serve the companys growing customer base throughout Wisconsin. Festival Foods operates 28 other locations throughout the state, including an Eau Claire store that opened in 2005. Festival Foods purchased stores in West Baraboo and Portage from Pierces Market in May.

We look forward to becoming part of the Tomah business community and welcoming new guests there. Were also excited to open two new stores in Eau Claire, which will give our guests in that town more options, Skogen said.

The announcement comes the same week Gordys announced it will close a store in Hayward, ending an era of expansion for the Chippewa Falls-based grocery chain.

Over the past two years, Gordys has grown dramatically, having over 20 stores stretching from Hayward to Richland Center. That expansion includes taking over the Hamilton Avenue location that was a Copps store, and buying the N. Clairemont store from Mega Foods.

But the Hayward stores closing signaled a new era for Gordys, a drawing back from expanding. Some action was widely anticipated.

The Gordys organization is currently in the midst of a restructuring of their business. This includes the divestiture of their business. This includes the divestiture of the Hayward location to reach a level of deeper performance and customer engagement with the remaining stores, Gordys said in a press release this week.

Jeff Schafer, the companys CEO, said: Its time to get back to our roots and operate a smaller organization with the highest level of service to our communities.

The Festival news release Thursday also did not mention the fate of Gordys two locations in Chippewa Falls and one store in Lake Wissota.

The La Crosse Tribune and Chippewa Falls Herald contributed to this report.
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29 (3) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (3) Aug 26 (4) Aug 25 (3) Aug 24 (3) Aug 23 (3) Aug 22 (4) Aug 21 (4) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (4) Aug 18 (3) Aug 17 (2) Aug 16 (2) Aug 15 (5) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (5) Aug 12 (10) Aug 11 (5) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (5) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (6) Aug 05 (5) Aug 04 (5) Aug 03 (3) Aug 02 (5) Aug 01 (7) Jul 31 (5) Jul 30 (4) Jul 29 (4) Jul 28 (3) Jul 27 (3) Jul 26 (5) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (5) Jul 23 (5) Jul 22 (7) Jul 21 (5) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (5) Jul 18 (6) Jul 17 (5) Jul 16 (5) Jul 15 (6) Jul 14 (4) Jul 13 (3) Jul 12 (2) Jul 11 (2) Jul 10 (2) Jul 09 (2) Jul 08 (2) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (2) Jul 05 (2) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (3) Jul 02 (2) Jul 01 (8) Jun 30 (6) Jun 29 (4) Jun 28 (6) Jun 27 (6) Jun 26 (6) Jun 25 (6) Jun 24 (6) Jun 23 (4) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (4) Jun 19 (5) Jun 18 (8) Jun 17 (6) Jun 16 (5) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (5) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (4) Jun 11 (6) Jun 10 (4) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (5) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (3) Jun 05 (3) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (3) Jun 02 (3) Jun 01 (4) May 31 (2) 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